I left Kousuke at the gift shop, and trudged along by myself.
The amusement park has shut everything off by now. Earlier, the place was lit up bright enough to be somewhat blinding, but now the park has sunk into almost total darkness.
Looking back towards the merry-go-round, the fire seems to have already gone out, so even the brightness of that fire was gone. The place was so quiet I could hear the ringing in my ears, and there was nothing moving, either. There were no park staff, and of course, no customers around. It was like the end of the world, and people had gone extinct. I looked up at the sky and couldn’t see any stars, either. Rather than saying it was a cloudy night, it was more like the stars just didn’t exist.
It was dark, so all the buildings around me looked like ghosts and monsters: there was a roller coaster track that looked like a giant spine, or even a giant centipede. The Ferris wheel looked like a giant eyeball. The castle in the center of the amusement park, which used to be such an obvious presence, was now so wrapped in darkness that I couldn’t see it.
Once again, I was reminded that I was in a very strange space, and wanting to hurry up and leave, I lengthened my stride a little.
I twisted my path around the kind-of-creepy coffee cups, which had lots of rainwater or something built up in them, as I walked. Just as Kousuke had said, from here I was in somewhat more familiar territory: there were the remains of the parliament building that had burnt down. The bench that Utena fell asleep on should be a little bit away from here. Torii should be there, too.
I feel like I’ve been away for a long time, but in reality it should have been only about an hour. Although that, too, was a fairly long time. Whether or not they were worried about me, they would also probably be suspicious of where I had been, and I started thinking up excuses for why I had taken so long.
I had been entrusted with the locations of the exits along with a message, telling us to go home, from Kousuke. I should tell them that, lightly apologize for disappearing for so long, and take everyone in a group towards an exit. And then, this situation that’s been nothing but a bad dream should end. I have no choice but to hope for that outcome.
Now that I think of it, I haven’t seen Kurashima in a very long time— I’m actually worried. I hope he’s alright, although he’s just a stranger I met today. I’ve been visited by several fires; maybe he’s encountered some terrible disasters, too.
Utena seemed to be devoted to Kurashima. It’ll be trouble if she says something like, ‘I won’t leave unless it’s with Yuudai-kun, let’s go look for him.’
“Hm...?” I was late in realizing because I was thinking of nonsense as I walked, and also because it was hard to see in the dark. Although it wasn’t like we had designated the spot as our meeting place, if they hadn’t moved, Utena and Torii should have been on that bench. Near it, there was something large, which smelled raw.
Shivering, I was unable to move: there was a huge living thing, right next to the bench where Utena had fallen asleep. It was probably twice my height, and vertically very long and thin. Its surface had a bright, slimy sheen. A reptile, no, a fish— or no, it’s probably an even lower life form.
It looked like a giant slug. No, it’s more like a sea slug— I had a feeling that there was something just like this living in the ocean. It was clearly different from a land creature; it had a soft sort of fleshiness to it that seemed like it would be weak to force. It really is dark so that I can’t quite tell, but it’s strange how brightly colored the thing is. It would stand out quite a bit in the daytime.
There were little spots on its surface, and they would sometimes open and close. They were like the eyes of a lamprey— but behind such eerie things weren’t eyes, but some sort of screen. Is it similar to the smartbug, or that TV girl?
A mysterious, living thing fused with a screen. An unidentified monster.
It was crawling slowly and slimily over the ground. The trail it left behind consisted of some sort of strange mucus. It didn’t make any cries or noises like an animal, so I was slow to notice. It was, apparently, heading for the bench.
Straining my eyes to look, I saw Utena and Torii still there; it looked like they were both asleep, without a care in the world. Utena was already asleep when I left, but Torii was asleep right next to her, too. She was hugging Utena close, as if to engulf the girl with her large body. Maybe she got sleepy and dozed off while she was waiting for me to return, because I was so late.
The merry-go-round that had been the scene of the fire was pretty close, and it should have made a large amount of noise— I guess they just didn’t notice. They probably fell into a deep sleep because they were so tired from dealing with the consecutively strange situations we were being put in.
The two were cuddled together like parent and child, or at least like sisters. It was a heartwarming sight in one sense, but now was not the time to go soft like that.
“W-what should I do?” Caught up in the moment, I couldn’t move. My first instinct was to dash over to the gift shop again and call Kousuke over, but the distance between us was fairly long. In the meantime, that slimy thing would probably have to time to get over to Utena and Torii. I’ll just have to do something about it myself.
It was already right in front of me, although it was hard to tell which way was the front for that thing.
Just from sight, that thing was repulsive. It made me wonder if it was going to eat Utena and Torii. If that was the case, I had no time to leisurely call for help.
I considered raising my voice to wake them up, but what if the thing reacts badly to loud noises and goes berserk? I don’t want to provoke it anymore than necessary.
Luckily, that weird thing moved slowly. I ran, trying to make as little noise as possible. I’ll get there before it does, and slap them awake. Then I’ll take their hands and run. That’s what I decided to do. If I was to prioritize my own safety, I should run away right now, but I couldn’t just leave them. They were the same age as me, and we went to the same school.
I was neither good nor bad at athletics, but I ran. Luckily, I got to Utena and Torii before the thing displayed any reaction. I was a little out of breath, but I desperately shook them awake.
“Mmm, nn—” Utena woke up first. She spaced out, blinking several times. She got up, but she was still half asleep. Her long, dull brown hair stuck to her cheek. “What...Utena was having a good dream, too.” Rubbing her eyes like an infant, she looked at me dubiously. She can’t remember the situation she’s in, apparently. She moved as if she was clearly bewildered and uneasy. “H-huh? This place— you, uhh, Hitomi? What’s going— Hmm?”
“D-don’t speak too loudly,” I cautioned her. “We need to get away from here, slowly. I’ll explain later. Torii-san, you wake up too.” Whispering to them, I took the still sleeping Torii by the shoulder and shook her. It was going great up until this point, but right afterwards, my entire plan fell apart.
“Kyah—AAAAAAAAAAHHH?!” Utena noticed the slimy thing that was coming right for us, and screamed.