But the next thing I knew, I was inside some kind of strange pod.
“…Huh?”
I was lying on a bed of sorts, and in front of me, I could faintly see my reflection in the glass door. I tried pushing it, but it wouldn’t budge! Am I trapped? I could feel panic creeping in. What the heck was going on?!
One minute I was at home, and my grandpa was dead, and Mom and Grandma were crying…and now I was here. Why? Where was here, anyway?!
I was so confused. I felt the urge to scream for help—but just then, I noticed a figure on the other side of the glass door. It was a girl who looked to be about my age, but I didn’t recognize her. Without thinking further, I pounded on the glass; she flinched at the sound. Uh-oh. I couldn’t afford to scare her away!
“Hey, um, can you hear me? I’d like to get out of this thing, but I can’t open it from the inside,” I explained. I tried my best to sound friendly.
Luckily, she was able to hear me. She started tapping all around the pod, struggling to open it. Then, once I was finally freed, the first thing I did was take a look around. I was in a big white room filled with machines and cables connected to the pod. Looking at it, it was shaped sort of like a cockpit from a mecha anime.
And then there was her.
We gazed at each other in silence. She was a pretty girl with long, straight black hair cascading over her white dress. However, I didn’t recognize her in the slightest. Still, she had to know something about this place, so I decided to be brave and ask her.
“Um… What’s your name? I don’t know where I am, or what I’m doing here… Is my mommy here?”
The instant I spoke, the girl turned on her heel and bolted out of the room.
“Hey, wait!” Reflexively, I gave chase.
She weaved her way effortlessly through the cluttered halls, suggesting she knew the place well. I lagged behind farther and farther, and eventually she ran outside through what appeared to be an employee exit. I dashed through it myself a few seconds later. But by the time I made it into the narrow alley, there was no sign of her.
In the dim light of sunset, this building didn’t look familiar in the slightest. Perplexed, I walked around to the other side, looking for the main road. There, at what I suspected was the main entrance of the building, I saw a sign that read IMAGINARY SCIENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE. I didn’t know what “imaginary science” was supposed to mean, but the rest sounded like the sort of place where my dad worked.
Fortunately, the address was listed right there on the sign. I recognized the street as one that would take about an hour to walk to from my house. How the heck did I get here? And where are my parents? Or Grandma? Fear and loneliness overwhelmed me until I was on the verge of tears.
Just then, I saw a kindly-looking woman walking down the street in my direction. When I ran up to her, she stopped short in alarm.
“Sorry to bother you! Can you tell me where I am?” I asked.
“What?”
“What part of Japan is this? City and street?”
“This is Oita City, capital of Oita Prefecture, and we’re on XYZ Street,” she said.
In that case, it was indeed the same street I thought it was. That much was a relief. Worst-case scenario, I could walk home from here…with a little help, at least.
“Um, do you know where ABC Street is?” I asked.
“Yes, I do.”
“Can you tell me how to get there from here?”
“On foot? That’ll take you an hour! Can’t you ask your mom or dad to pick you up?”
“I don’t have a cell phone.”
“Then you can borrow mine! Here you are.”
And with that, the lady lent me her phone. I was grateful to have bumped into someone as nice as she was. As luck would have it, I had the number to my grandparents’ house memorized, so I decided to take her up on it.
“Takasaki residence.”
“Mommy?” I asked.
“Koyomi, is that you? What’s the matter?” This was not the reaction I’d expected, though she did sound mildly surprised. “Did Daddy buy you a cell phone?”
“No, no! This nice lady is letting me borrow hers,” I said.
“What?”
“Look, I don’t know how to explain it, but…can you just come get me?”
“Of course, sweetie! But…what about Daddy?”
“Uhhh… I dunno. He’s not here.”
“I see. I take it you two had a fight or something?”
“Huh?” For some reason, this conversation felt ever so slightly off to me.
“It’s not important. Now, where am I picking you up?” Mommy asked.
“I’m at the Imaginary Science Research Institute on XYZ Street.”
“So you are with Daddy! I’ll be right there. We can talk about it in the car.”
“Uhhh… Okay…?”
Confused, I hung up and gave the phone back to the kind lady. Then I stood outside the research institute and waited for my mom to come and get me.
Why did she keep asking me about Dad? I hadn’t seen him all day. And why didn’t she sound sad anymore? Didn’t I literally vanish in front of her? No, surely that had to be impossible. Otherwise, she would have been way more worried about me.
In that case…could I have walked all the way here with her full permission and I just…couldn’t remember doing it? That didn’t seem possible either, but surely it was a lot more realistic than teleportation…
As I mulled it over, time flew by, and before I knew it, I heard a car approaching from the end of the sleepy street. It wasn’t my mom’s car, so I got up and moved away from the curb just in case—but then, inexplicably, the car pulled over right in front of me.
“Huh?”
My mom was in the driver’s seat. Weird—normally she drove her brand-new minicar. What was she doing behind the wheel of a crusty old pickup? Upon further inspection, however, I vaguely recognized it from somewhere…
“Oh!”
Now I remembered. This was my grandpa’s pickup truck! As far as I knew, it had been gathering dust in the garage over the past few years, but maybe she had decided to start driving it now that Grandpa passed away. I didn’t even know there was gas in the tank.
When I hopped into the passenger seat, Mom greeted me with a smile. “Wait, where’s Daddy?”
“I told you, he’s not here!”
“Huh. Well, what now? Shall I take you home with me?”
I didn’t need to go shopping or anything. I just wanted to go home and feel safe again. So that’s where I asked her to take me.
“Now tell me, what happened today?” she asked as she drove across town. “Did something bad happen with Daddy?”
Yet again, she brought up my dad. Why?
“No, nothing happened. I haven’t even seen him today.”
“Then what were you doing at the lab?”
“Huh? What does that place have to do with Daddy?”
“Don’t be silly! He works there, remember?”
This came as a shock. I knew my dad was a scientist at some kind of laboratory, but I didn’t know it was that one specifically. “Oh…”
“You actually forgot? Has it been a while since you were last there?”
“What? That was my first visit.”
“Wait, really? Daddy told me he’s taken you to work with him before.”
“Has he…? I’m not sure I remember that…”
“At the very least, this was not your first visit. You might not remember, but we took you there a handful of times when you were younger.”
Huh. I had absolutely no memory of that, so I must have been really little. But…for some reason I couldn’t put my finger on, something about all this felt…off somehow. My stomach was twisting into knots.
As we continued this mildly perplexing conversation, we eventually arrived back at home—but I noticed my mom’s minicar was nowhere to be seen. Where was it?
Once I hopped out and walked to the front door, Mom drove the truck around to the garage behind the house. In the meantime, I was hoping to play with Yuno to calm my nerves, but she wasn’t outside in the yard. Maybe she was asleep in her doghouse—if so, I wouldn’t want to wake her.
Then, the delicious smell of dinnertime instantly reminded me I was hungry, so I walked into the house. “I’m home!”
“Oh? Well, well, well! If it isn’t our Koyomi!” Grandma came out from the kitchen to greet me with a smile. How was she in such a good mood when Grandpa just died? “I’m so glad to see you. Go on, have a seat! Are you hungry? Dinner will be ready soon.”
Had Grandpa’s death driven her off the deep end…? After seeing her break down in tears, this “normal” behavior registered as alarming. Nevertheless, I headed to the living room to have a seat, as requested—
And that was when my brain stopped working entirely.
Sitting on the floor at the coffee table…
“Oho, Koyomi, my boy! Long time no see. Come, sit right here next to me.”
…my dead grandfather was beckoning to me.