The channel changed. At least, that was the feeling I got.
Well, thinking about it normally...having fallen from such a large height, I should have crashed into the earth and turned into a mess similar to pancake dough.
Someone— or something— changed the scene, as if they didn’t care to see something so grotesque, or so boring. That’s the kind of feeling I had. I can’t really explain it well— it’s like how, if you’re having a terrifying nightmare, sometimes you’ll wake up if you think about it hard enough. And someone other than me managed to do that to me . At least, kind of. It’s very hard to describe this feeling.
But if that sort of thing was even possible, what kind of being would be able to do it? A god, maybe? Just who was it that, just like a story’s author, rewrote my unfortunate situation?
I thought about what just happened distantly, as if on autopilot. I’m mysteriously calm about this whole thing. This whole situation is far too unrealistic. This is probably all a dream. Under that assumption, my heart is calm. If it’s a dream, there’s nothing to be done. Even if I panic, I’ll only get tired.
I mean, apparently the protagonist in this mysterious dream isn’t even me... All I can really do is ride it out while holding on to my consciousness, or possibly my life. Basically, that’s how I’ve lived my life up until now; with lightness and absence of mind, I’ve just let everything pass me by.
“Oof.” As expected, changing the entire world in an instant comes with a fairly hefty bit of shock. I wasn’t affected by it too much because of how spaced out I was, though. After coughing and blinking several times, I took a look at my surroundings.
I gulped. With a hard swallow, I once again calm myself down by force. It doesn’t seem that my life is in imminent danger— for the time being, at least. There’s no need to move immediately. I should avoid expending my stamina as much as possible, and live passively.
“I’ve come back down to the ground. No, I was moved...?” I don’t know when it happened, but I’m now somewhere in the amusement park. A minute ago, I had been looking down at it from high up in the sky. It’s Terra Firma. There was an eerie merry-go-round nearby, with a beheaded horse going round and round to cheery music. I sat down on a bench, which had been placed near the merry-go-round’s fence. Right next to the bench was an unusually dirty and dented silver trash can.
In front of me was a crowd of people. For some reason, I couldn’t perceive them well. These people, who seemed to be customers of this amusement park, streamed by endlessly. This scene was exactly that of a fairly popular amusement park on a holiday. And, wearing a high school uniform under an apron with a bandana, I definitely stood out from the crowd, even though I’d rather be blending in.
At the very least clothes suitable for going out... I thought. Well, since that won’t be happening, I can at least make things better by removing my apron and bandana. Grabbing the hem of my apron, I reconsidered my decision and ended up just messing with the edges instead; after all, even if I took them off, I’d just have to carry them around everywhere.
Traveling lightly would be better in this situation, I think. After all, the people around me apparently aren’t even paying attention to me, anyway. It was a waste of time to have worried about my appearance— there wasn’t even anyone to show.
“Now, then. What should I do about this situation?” There wasn’t any particular damage to my body; it was as if I’d been sitting here all along. I’ve got more stamina than I know what to do with at this point, so I could try moving around if I wanted to. But...I have no idea what to do.
It seems that even if I shut up and watch, this nightmare-like situation has no hope of changing. But if it won’t get worse, either, my instinct is to do nothing and let it pass... Well, it’s not like anything is going to happen if I just sit here forever, watching this weird amusement park operate.
If this really is a dream, I’d like to hurry and wake up: I haven’t finished cleaning the store, and tomorrow is a school day, too. I can’t just be stuck in this amusement park until the end of time— there’s no livelihood to be made here.
“Hup.” I got up off my ass. I did some stretches. Actually, it’s creepy how real this all feels; there’s none of that vagueness which is so characteristic of a dream. It seems I can feel pain, too. I can’t really act rashly here, can I? While thinking that, I suddenly realized something.
“Hmm...?” I felt that gaze again. Out of curiosity, I looked around again, but there didn’t seem to be anybody paying attention to me. Was it just my imagination, or excessive self-consciousness? No, I thought, there really is someone watching me— right behind me.
Turning around, I found the merry-go-round. One of the horses— which had, just earlier, been spinning around with no connection to me— suddenly had what seemed to be a girl riding on top of it. The abruptness of her appearance there was unnatural.
And— I met it for the first time.
No. From the start, she (let’s call it a she) was watching me. It’s just that I finally noticed it properly, and, as a result, was finally able to perceive her.
It looked like a girl about my age; our heights were almost the same. And— I don’t know why— for some reason, it was wearing my school’s uniform. The uniform was a gloomy ash gray, like a cloudy sky, and hers was spotless.
Like an odd Buddhist statue, out of her back grew the impossible; there were 2 extra arms on each side. In addition to the arms that would have been there normally, she had a total of 6 arms. I can’t see her back properly, so I can’t really tell, but there are probably 6 proper sleeves back there, too.
That wasn’t the only strange part of her, though; her head looked like a TV. It was an old-fashioned TV, slightly wider than her shoulders, and had a worn out, shabby, bent antenna. The TV had robotic dials, reminiscent of the eyes of an ancient fish.
It seems that she was just wearing a TV mask, but she wore it so naturally that one would think she had been born in it. There was no seam where the TV met her neck. She looked human, but somehow warped.
The screen was black, but it also displayed an abstract face, drawn sideways like an emoticon. It seemed to have a gentlemanly smile (this strange being seems female though, so maybe I should say ladylike?), but it had no humanity to it.
It might be because the face is sideways, but something just doesn’t click. Or rather, it’s supposed to be a smile but it doesn’t look friendly at all... In short, I got the shivers. It was just like seeing a face in a stain on the wall, or in wrinkles on clothes.
It was different. It seemed like a girl, but I just couldn’t think of it as a human being.