“You’re awful~...” I complained with a playful grimace. “Ahh, Kousuke, so you’ve become a rebel, have you?”
“I’ve got stress, you know?” he excused himself. “It piles up. You know Kagamimori, she’s so selfish— nicotine’s my only friend. You stopped playing with me, after all.”
“No no, you’re the one who stopped coming over to the store,” I protested.
“It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get more cigs while we’re here, huh?” he observed. “I guess I’ll just have to use these wisely. Aahh, there’s only 10 left already. The gift store doesn’t carry any of this stuff.”
While we were talking, Kousuke started to hold his cigarette in a way that screamed, “I am cool, look at me.” He was definitely trying to show off.
The fire at the tip of the cigarette in his mouth burned slowly. My dad was a smoker too, so I was used to this. Mom didn’t smoke, though, so whenever dad would try to smoke she’d get mad enough that her face looked like a demon’s... I actually kind of felt sorry for him. I kind of felt like what he was doing wasn’t that bad.
The rules enforcement at our school is lax, so sometimes you see students sitting around smoking while still wearing their uniforms. You’d often see butts lying around on the roof and in the restrooms.
Even so, to think Kousuke smoked... Somehow, I’m actually a little surprised that I’m so shocked. Sighing, I tried my hardest to put on a face that said, ‘This isn’t really all that unpleasant’ before attempting to shift the topic: “We ended up leaving Torii and Utena all alone back there. And they probably want a shower too, so can I go call them over? Actually, why did you bring only me here?”
“Because you’re my friend,” he explained. “I thought I’d let you into my secret base, this control room, as a special treat. Besides, I wanted to brag about it to someone. It’s great, isn’t it?”
“That part of you never changes, does it Kousuke? Friends... It’s been years since we’ve even spoken to each other,” I observed. “At this point, wouldn’t it be closer to say that Kagamimori-san and the others are your friends?”
“But they wouldn’t have any interest in a secret base, would they? And Kagamimori would only get mad if I went off and did things on my own... And for some reason, Hitomi, you happened to be there at just the right time, so I thought I’d show it off to you.”
“That’s it?” I asked incredulously. “I was wondering what it would be, but you’re just posing to look cool.”
“‘That’s it?’...” he complained. “Show some emotions, man. What a bore.”
“So basically, uh, this is where we were going?” I asked awkwardly. “I thought we were just stopping by because I said I wanted a shower.”
“Yeah, what I wanted to show you was this control room,” he huffed. “I thought you’d be more like, ‘This is awesome!’ and get all excited, you know? Like old times.”
“You know we’re not children anymore?” I asked. While we were making meaningless conversation, Kousuke beckoned me over. Walking to him, I looked at what he was pointing to: Torii and Utena were being shown on one of the countless monitors in the control room. Utena was still hunched over, sleeping on the bench as she’d been when I left her. And beside her, Torii, who was standing like a possessing ghost. It seemed like Torii might be worried that I hadn’t come back yet, because she would occasionally stare off into the distance.
“What’s this,” I asked curiously, “a security camera?”
“Something like that, I think,” he told me. “Control rooms like this one are actually under a fair number of these attractions: we can use this to keep watch over the entire park without having to walk around. Although, I’m not sure how much we can trust these feeds.” Now that I think about it, Kousuke hadn’t been back once since he split off, saying he’d go look around outside— so, it was because he’d found these control rooms.
Kousuke opened up what looked to be a handmade map, and started writing something down. “This park— it changes appearances at the drop of a hat, so a map is basically meaningless,” Kousuke said, while sitting cross-legged on the floor and pointing to stuff on his map.
“I’ve found several points here that look like exits...” he continued. “I think you’d call them admission gates, you know, like a reception desk? But I haven’t made sure yet that if you leave through them you’d actually get ‘outside’ of this alternate dimension, so I don’t know if we can escape yet. But still, if we can leave, then wouldn’t you like to try?”
“Well, yeah...” I said. “I really do want to hurry up and get home.” I was happy, thinking that we’d rather unexpectedly be able to escape this alternate dimension without any trouble. Well, even if we leave through what looks like the exit of this amusement park, there might just be an even more bizarre space on the other side.
Feeling a little more at ease, I sat down on the floor. I was crouching so that I could run away at any time, but my legs had gotten tired. It seemed like Kousuke was still, at his roots, the childhood friend I knew, after all— although I was still trying to be at least a little cautious. But as of the moment, I don’t feel like I’m in any danger.
“Let’s go together, Kousuke,” I suggested. “Along with Torii-san and Kagamimori-san... Oh, there was one more guy, wasn’t there? You know him, don’t you? Kurashima-san. Let’s all leave together.”
“I still have a little something to do here,” he told me abruptly. “If you guys want to escape, you should go ahead of me.”
“Whaaaat~, you should come with us... What is it that you have to do?” Feeling lonely, I pull on the sleeve of Kousuke’s uniform.
“You—you’re not a kid anymore, you know?...” he asked, clearly annoyed by my cutesy attitude. “If possible, I’d want you to hurry up and get out of here, though.” Grinding the finished cigarette butt into the floor to put it out, Kousuke’s mouth bent into a lopsided frown.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to experience a weird place like this again, so I really want to enjoy this place as much as possible. I just didn’t want to drag you along with me.” Making a face like a scolded child, Kousuke muttered that to himself.