Had the sun just set? Or was it about to rise? More than half the sky was covered in clouds. He couldn’t see the sun anywhere. There was a bit of light on the horizon to his right, but he couldn’t tell if the sun was lowering behind it or if it was about to peek out.
We’re on top of a hill.
Manato turned around. There was a building. It was a tall structure, more of a tower than a high-rise building. The top of it was broken and covered in ivy.
“Huh? Where is this place?”
There were ruins a short distance from the hill. Manato was used to seeing ruins. But these ruins looked older than any he’d ever seen before. The ruins he was used to seeing were once high-rises or train stations. Even if the structures still had roofs, you never knew when they might crumble, so normal people didn’t try to live in those places. Oh, and there were underground towns too. It was a little dangerous, but some people were willing to risk sleeping down in them. Manato and his comrades had taken up temporary residence in high-rise buildings with broken stairs and damp, smelly subways before too. There were all sorts of dangerous creatures in the forest, and proper houses made for easy targets.
“A different world from the place you came from,” Haru said, descending down the hill a little before stopping in front of a large white stone. There were a lot of others like it on the hill. “It’s called Grimgar.”
“Another world... Grim...gar...”
Manato tried repeating the word for himself. He had no idea what it meant. Grimgar. Another world.
“What the... Huh? How... I don’t remember coming here. What do you mean, ‘another world’? This world...isn’t Japan?”
“Japan is...a country. I used to live there. I don’t remember anything about it, though. But I’ve heard about Japan, so it’s not like I know nothing.”
“Are you...from Japan too, then, Haru?”
“Apparently. I came to Grimgar from Japan.”
“Again with that... Uh, how?”
“I don’t even know. I wouldn’t say there were a ton of people who came to Grimgar like you, but there were a fair number. They all said that they didn’t know. Even if they had memories from before coming, they never knew what they’d done—or what they’d done wrong—to end up here. That was true for every last one of them.”
“Hold on.” Manato crouched down and scratched his head. “Then, are there others...like you? Other people from Japan?”
“It might be better to say there were.”
“So...not anymore?”
“It’s been a long time.”
“A long time? Since what?”
“When someone crosses from Japan into Grimgar, they’re transported to that room in the Ark. There’s a system in there that makes that happen. Or a machine, it might be better to say. Back when my group arrived, a number of people would arrive together every few years on average. Sometimes more than ten at once. But it became less and less frequent over time, and the numbers dwindled.”
“If you’re saying it’s been a while, then...no one’s come recently?”
“That’s right.”
“For about how long?”
“More than forty years.” Haru sighed after saying that. “I guess it’s been close to five decades now, huh?”
“Fifty years? That’s...a long time, isn’t it? People don’t usually live that long. When mom and dad died, they weren’t even thirty. Don’t you think you’ve lived way too long, Haru?”
“It sounds like your folks died young, but as for me...yeah, you’ve got it right, Manato. I’ve definitely lived for too long.”
“Fifty years... So...back then, the last time a Japanese person came to Grimgar, were you still a kid?”
“Nah.”
“Then...how long have you lived, Haru? I mean...in Japan, if you make it thirty years, that’s already a pretty long life, you know? We’re all gonna die anyway, so nobody’s all that serious about keeping track of what age they are.”
“I’ve stopped counting too, Manato. Though for a different reason from your people. It sounds like the situation’s changed a lot. In just the last four decades...something must’ve happened to Japan. Has it really only been four decades? It feels like longer...”
Haru turned his masked face downward. He seemed to be mumbling to himself.
What did the face behind that mask look like? Before they’d died, Manato’s parents had been emaciated, toothless, and wrinkled. He’d heard that the mayor of Tsunomiya was over thirty-five. He’d never seen him.
The distant horizon was brighter now. It wasn’t after sunset. The sun was about to rise.
Manato spotted a round white moon. The moon he remembered from Japan had been more broken. But when was the last time he’d looked up at it?
How were Juntza, Amu, and Neika doing? Were they at the house in Kariza? Were they safe?
How had this happened?
Manato stood up and took a deep breath. He started stretching and flexing his body to both sides. His hair was getting awfully long. Come to think of it, he hadn’t cut it in a while. He smiled as he remembered Neika saying “Isn’t it about time you cut your hair?” It was getting in his eyes, so maybe he ought to.
“What’re you doing?” Haru asked.
“What do you mean, ‘what’?”
Manato spread his legs wide. Then he leaned all the way back, and all the way forward again several times.
“I’m moving my body. As long as you can move well, you won’t die in the near future.”
“Huh... Is that how it works?”
“For all your years, you’re still pretty spry, Haru. Isn’t that why you were able to live so long?”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Hey, got anything to eat? I see there’s a forest. Oh! And mountains too! They’re so tall!”
Manato pointed to the mountain ridge that was like a high wall.
“Those are the Tenryu Mountains,” Haru told him. “Dragons live there. Not even the servants of the gods can enter those mountains.”
“What’re dragons? Wild beasts? Can you eat them?”
“It wouldn’t be easy... You’d get yourself eaten instead.”
“Huh. Is that a fact? But there’s animals in the forest, right?”
“Yeah. Well...”
“If they’re not that dangerous, then we just gotta kill ’em and boil or roast ’em. Then we’ll have food. Oh, and there’ll also be mushrooms and berries and other stuff we can forage for. I mean, I figure a forest’s a forest, and a mountain’s a mountain, but maybe it’s different here than in Japan.”
“If you’re hungry, I can provide you with enough to eat for a while.”
“For real? Nice. Okay, guess things’ll work out, then.”
“You’re...not depressed at all?”
“Depressed?” Manato smiled. “Why would I be? I’m alive, aren’t I?”
Manato flexed his knees and swiveled his neck. He jumped a short distance, then went for a much bigger leap after that. He was fine. His body didn’t hurt anywhere, and nothing was wrong with it.
“I’m worried about my comrades, but they’re probably alive. And as long as I keep living too, maybe we’ll meet again. Maybe not, though. But if I really want to see them, then I have to go to them. Do you think I can? Or is that impossible?”
Haru shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t know. But as far as I’m aware, no one’s ever returned to Japan.”
“Oh, I see,” Manato said. Then he took a deep breath in and let it out. “Well, maybe this...Grimgar, was it? Will surprise me. I might actually be more comfortable here. Though, if I had my comrades too, it’d be even better. But I don’t even know how I got here, so there’s nothing I can do about that.”
“You’re certainly positive.” There was a faint laugh from under Haru’s mask. “Can I ask you something, Manato?”
“Sure.”
“What year was it in Japan? A.D., I mean. If you don’t know what that means, then you don’t need to answer.”
“A.D.”
Manato pressed his fingers to his temples. What year A.D. was it? Back when he’d lived with his parents in the microapartment in Tsunomiya, he felt like he’d heard someone say something like that, or maybe he’d seen it.
“Twenty-one hundred...A.D.? It’s kind of foggy, but I remember mom saying something like that. Maybe it was in the papers. But that was a long time ago.”
“Twenty-one hundred...” Haru brought his hand up to where the mask covered his mouth. “All right then. In all likelihood, time flows at the same rate in Grimgar and Japan. Although, it sounds like Japan has changed a whole lot in the last four decades or so.”