At the beginning of April. It was a morning no different from any other, but this day was special.
Onigawara Shouzou, 41 years old, woke up in the morning and quickly groomed and dressed himself, just as he always had. His carefully ironed suit was almost dark enough to be a dress suit. Today, he was taking the day off work, planning instead to attend his daughter’s entrance ceremony at her new middle school. After trimming his beard at the brand new bathroom sink, he put on his glasses and tried to soften his grim face a little.
Regardless of how it played out, his first impressions were always the worst. He was the very personification of the triple combo of “huge body,” “fierce face,” and “rough voice.” The only person who did not cower with fear when meeting him the first time was, so far, his wife alone.
He wouldn’t allow anything to ruin his daughter’s big moment, so after checking his expression one last time, Shouzou made his way to the living room.
“How strange...... why isn’t it showing anything? Ah, good morning, honey.” In the living room, his wife Silvia was standing in front of the TV with the remote control in one hand and her head tilted in bewilderment. She was a silver-haired, blue-eyed drop dead beauty. And in spite of her delicate frame, two large masses protruded from her chest area.
She was six years younger than him, and she was still using honorific speech with him, despite having been married for 13 years and counting. However, she was still as young and beautiful as the day they met.
“What’s the matter?” Shouzou asked, but a single glance was all that was needed to understand the situation. The TV screen was completely black, with the words “No Reception” displayed smack dab in the middle.
“Not a single channel works. We just bought it, is it already broken?”
“Maybe it’s the antenna rather than the TV? Are the satellite channels not working either?”
“They are not. Not a single channel is working.” His wife Silvia looked truly at a loss. But her eyebrows being scrunched up together still did nothing to detract from her beauty.
“How about using magic to fix it, my dear goddess?”
Upon hearing Shouzou speak in a joke-like tone, Silvia blinked, then said, “Oh, my! Honey! How rare it is to hear you crack a joke.” She giggled with a ufufu in delight.
“Ha ha ha. It seems that I’m also in rather high spirits today. Well, the entrance ceremony is only until noon, so let’s call a technician after we get back.” At 41 years old, he had finally attained his dream of owning a brand new house. Yet within not even a week after moving in, a problem had already cropped up. Though it was quite a vexing matter, he did not want to attend his daughter’s big event in a bad mood.
Shouzou made an effort to act cheerful, heading toward the front entrance to pick up the morning newspaper. After passing through the spick and span hallway, he changed into his outdoor slippers at the doorway. Pushing open the door, he leaned out. Upon doing so—
He became dumbstruck at the magnificent view that greeted his eyes.
Several meters in front of him was a gate around chest high that was latched closed.
That was fine.
But what he expected to be there on the other side of that gate—such as a road and their neighbor’s house across the street—was gone without a trace. Their neighbors on either side were gone too.
The bare earth was sloping downward for several hundreds of meters off in the distance, until it spread out into a grassland. Wait no, were those farms or fields? There were tall grasses growing in orderly sections.
Then, far off in the distance, a city was visible.
Surrounded by high walls, it was a city that Shouzou had absolutely no recollection of.
His glance returned to his hand.
Inside the gate, there was the newspaper on the ground. The delivery guy was probably quite flustered too at this sudden unfamiliar sight.
On second thought, if the other side is really like what I’m seeing, then where did the delivery guy come in from? Shouzou pinched his cheek just once. Ouch.
He lumbered over to pick up the newspaper, then turned on his heels. Returning to the living room, he took a seat at the dining table set. His wife was nowhere to be seen. Presumably she had gone off to wake their children. On the table was a cup of fragrant coffee that had been prepared for him.
He pushed up his glasses, then spread open the newspaper. There had been a skirmish at some disputed border. There were the results of some pro sports matches. But at a glance, there wasn’t any particularly inexplicable news.
He took out his smartphone. A quick scan of the article titles of several news sites also did not mention anything that particularly caught his eye.
He took a sip of his coffee, then sighed.
(What was that? What did I just see......)
Just when he was considering going to take a second look, he heard a, “Dad, look!”
His eldest daughter, Yuna, flew into the living room with an excited voice. Clad in her brand new school uniform, she made a quick twirl, which caused her black ponytail to bounce around. She was 12 years old, and from that day onward, she was a first year middle school student.
“It suits you very well.”
“Ehehe~ ♪”
Shouzou’s face slackened slightly at her cute, adorable smile.
“Oh, Yuna, you’ve already gotten changed?”
Silvia came in. From behind her, a little girl with sparkling eyes appeared.
“Yuna-onee-sama, so cool!”
The youngest daughter, five-year-old Hina, was still in her pajamas. It was clear she had just gotten out of bed, as she was affected by a clear case of bedhead. Her hair was the color of glistening silver. Her eyes were also blue like the seas of a southern country, so it was clear to see that, out of the three siblings, she was the one who had inherited the most from Silvia’s genes.
After the two of them, a young girl trailed in, looking sleepy still.
“It’s already morning? I can’t believe this...... Why doesn’t anyone else think it strange that it becomes morning in an instant as soon as you fall asleep......” The middle daughter Kana, 10 years old, a fifth grader at a new elementary school as of today. She, too, was in her pajamas. Her short, brown hair contributed to her overall boyish impression.
The three sisters each had different hair and eye colors, but their faces all bore great resemblance to Silvia and were very lovely.
(I’m so glad they didn’t take after me......) Shouzou gave a quick prayer of thanks to the gods.
The three girls took their place at the table, and conversation blossomed as it always did.
“Is Hina-chan coming to the entrance ceremony too?” asked Yuna.
“Hina-sama is taking the day off preschool~!” Hina energetically threw both arms into the air.
“Aww, lucky you. I want to take the day off too...... Why isn’t it summer break already......” Kana rested her chin in her hands.
“Kana, didn’t your spring break end just the day before yesterday?”
“When humans become accustomed to a lifestyle with plenty of sleep, they find it difficult to revert from that.”
“Just wake up at the same time everyday, then.”
“What kind of person wouldn’t want to sleep in and laze around on their precious days off?”
“Kana-onee-sama is a lazybones-san~”
“Aww, now you’re making me embarrassed~”
“Kana, she was not complimenting you.”
The serious Yuna and free-spirited Kana did get into arguments at times, but Hina always managed to bring them back together harmoniously.
Kana was the only one who couldn’t make it to the entrance ceremony due to having classes of her own, so she was probably feeling a bit lonely due to that. But Yuna being Yuna, she was being considerate toward Kana’s feelings, so she was taking a gentler tone than usual.
All of them were growing up to be such good kids.
Shouzou did not want to destroy this happy lifestyle.
And that was why—
(The situation outside, I really do need to confirm it one more time.) But the moment he renewed his resolve, his smartphone vibrated.
He had received a message on a messaging app.
[Department Head, are you all right?]
That was all it said.
What was that supposed to mean?
The person who had sent him the message was one of Shouzou’s subordinates. She was the new hope of the company’s sales department who, having joined the company three years ago, turned out to have a very forceful personality that belied her demure appearance.
What did she mean by “all right”? Could it be related to the abnormal sight outside? His curiosity piqued, Shouzou decided to call her instead of messaging back.
(......Out of range?) However, when he tried doing so, a message along the general lines of “you cannot reach the number you are dialing because you are out of coverage range” appeared on his screen.
(What does that mean? I’m at home right now, so how can I be out of range......) This hadn’t happened even once since he and his family moved here.
At that moment, his phone began vibrating again.
This time, it was a call. However, it wasn’t a call made through the phone service carrier, but through the messaging app.
But when he fiddled with the app to answer the call, an extremely flustered voice came out of the speaker.
[Is this the Department Head?!]
It was the same subordinate who had sent Shouzou the message.
“What’s the matter?”
[What do you mean “what’s the matter”?! Department Head, where are you right now?!]
“I’m at home. What about it?”
[No way......]
“What do you mean ‘no way’? But anyways, that aside, is there an issue that came up? You sound awfully flustered.”
[But Department Head, your house! It’s completely disappeared!]
“Hah?”
A weird sound came out of Shouzou’s mouth.
His family members turned toward him with questioning looks.
[It’s being reported on the TV right now that a house disappeared in its entirety within a single night.]