Apparently, this small building that we were in was a gift shop.
I hadn’t known that there was such a normal thing for an amusement park to have here, in this strange dimension, until I had heard so from Kousuke. That being said, there was nothing here that stimulated my greed, and nothing that I would actually give money to own.
The store stocked weirdly shaped sticks; old clothes; cans and bottles of stuff whose seals may or may not have been broken (the labels were so messed up I couldn’t even tell if they were in a foreign language or not); rocks of all sizes; some ceramics that resembled the empty husk of a bug or something, and wrinkled books that must have been hit by rainwater, all crammed tightly within the store.
It was more like a garbage dump, rather than a gift shop. It reminds me of the secret base I made with Kousuke, a long time ago. What we thought of as treasures back then— stuff like sparkling bottle fragments and smooth round stones— no longer held any interest to us today. The junk in this place seemed weirdly organized, for some reason.
There’s nothing approaching a store clerk in this place, and we were something like intruders that had broke in after hours, so it wasn’t very comfortable here. But I couldn’t complain, I couldn’t be selfish. No one would protect me, not in this place. I’m just thankful that I could sit and rest safely.
After the mystery fire at the merry-go-round, I was carried by Kousuke for a while before starting to feel a little embarrassed, so I had him put me down and ran the rest of the way. I ran all the way here, lost in my survival instincts, so I didn’t know where in the amusement park this was.
We ran for our lives, but for all our efforts, we were still close enough to see the merry-go-round burning in the distance. Did the TV girl manage to get away safely? I wondered. For some reason, I was a little worried. I empathized with her, even though I knew she wasn’t me, and that it was just my face reflected on her screen.
“Hah, Haaaahhhh...” Breathing heavily, I dropped onto the floor with my legs splayed out, not caring about any potential embarrassment or the hits to my reputation I might be taking. I was still feeling the aftermath of the fire, and running away was good exercise, too, so I was running very hot at the moment. Both my hair and my uniform were once again covered in soot; my whole body was just a mess, and my shower had totally gone to waste.
I ran like I was really gonna die. Kousuke was probably even more tired than I was— he did carry me halfway here. He moved a bunch of souvenirs that were taking up most of the window to stare outside, being cautious, and not allowing any gaps to show.
Well, if there were to be another fire, that would be awful. Things that happen twice happen thrice, and I’ve already been in two fires since I’ve come to this alternate dimension. There’s probably going to be another.
“Kousuke,” I said. He’s clearly in better shape than I am. Kousuke already had his regular breathing back when I called out to him, but he still didn’t move a muscle in response. Like a wild animal, he wouldn’t waste even a single drop of energy, in order to live.
I had thought I was one of those animals too, though. I had been letting the days pass by aimlessly, but I wasn’t really living. I just wasn’t dead, much like an appliance that only worked when you plugged it in. That’s why I didn’t really want to die.
“Hey, Kousuke,” I said again. He didn’t reply or even respond to me, as if he had become one of the souvenirs lining the walls... Scared, I repeated myself.
“Oh good, you’re alive,” said Kousuke. I thought he was worried about me, and that made me happy. But when I saw that he was playing with the smartbug in his hands, I instantly flipped over to disappointed. “I got you wet,” he said to the bug in his hands, “so for a moment there I thought you were gone.”
Worry about me more than your stupid bug, I wanted to say, but even I thought that sounded spoiled. After all, if Kousuke hadn’t been around, I wouldn’t have been able to get out of the fire, and would have burned to death. Well, if he hadn’t been there I wouldn’t have been invited into the control room in the first place— and I feel like I would have avoided ever being in that terrible situation. Well, whatever I say, it was a problem for later.
I got up, and looked around at the souvenirs in the shop: a broken alarm clock, a bird’s corpse that looked like a dove, and ugly stuffed toys.
“What, do you want something?” he asked. I pouted a bit at that, because it sounded like he was implying the words, ‘Girls sure do love to shop.’
I’m not Utena, I thought, and I’d like it if you considered me to be my own person.
Those were the weird sorts of thoughts that ran through my head. I still haven’t got my calm back, although I’m only just riding on the echoes of my earlier panic.
“Well, my clothes are ruined so I was hoping I could find something to change into,” I answered him. I’m not sure if it’s good luck or bad, but my apron survived with only a slight singeing. Probably because when I was being carried by Kousuke, my entire front, including my apron, was pressed into him. In return, though, my back was probably something awful to look at, and my uniform is in a tragic state. I’ve come out ahead just by being alive, though.
Taking off my bandana, I noted that it wasn’t that dirty; in that case, my hair was probably fine, too. I was just a bit proud of my glossy black hair.
“You’re also incredibly dirty right now,” I pointed out, “so if you find something to change into, you probably should.”
“Sure,” he said. “That’s why we came to this gift shop in the first place. Make sure you pick up anything we might need, although there’s not a lot of hope for that in here.” Kousuke was sitting on the floor again, messing around with the smartbug.
“If we walk a little more, there’s other places similar to the control room from before,” he continued. “We can take another shower there, though I don’t really want to be underground for a while now.”
“Agreed,” I told him. “What the hell was that anyway— that fire?” To think I’d keep getting put into fires, one after the other, when a normal person would probably never even see one. Am I just destined to have anywhere I’m staying at spontaneously light up if I hang around for too long? I started to think that there were such game-like rules in place here.
Thinking meaningless thoughts, I continued to rummage around in the store’s stock. I found what looked like old clothes, so I picked them up. I’d be happy if they were cute ones, I thought. The colorful kind.