Keiko recognized that this was just a jumble of words in her hand. If she concentrated hard, she could still see the letters as they’d appeared on the page. But the moment she relaxed, those words went back to looking like a candy apple. The bright-red fruit encased in caramel the color of the twilit sky was exactly like she’d imagined when she read the book.
It wasn’t just the way it looked. The rough texture of the stick and the aroma of the candy coating were perfect, too. The smell made her think of long evenings at summer festivals, warmed by the setting sun. And when she gave it a lick, the taste was exactly how she’d imagined it, too. This sweet sensation on her tongue, filling her with a comforting, nostalgic feeling… This was what she’d wished she could experience for herself but thought only existed in a book. It was really real!
“Wow… This is… It’s actually moving…!”
“It’s always a pleasure to hear our customers appreciate what we do here. By the way, each of these markers costs only a hundred yen—”
“I’ll take one!”
From that day on, Keiko began visiting the mysterious Transcription Parlor on a regular basis.
✦ ✦ ✦
During her visits, Keiko transcribed all kinds of words from all kinds of books. They had plenty of oversize versions of her favorite books there. One after another, she used the marker to bring pieces of those stories to life:
A plush toy made from cumulonimbus clouds
The sound of silver sugar cubes melting in a cup of coffee
A hill littered with shards of broken stars and rainbows
Objects, sounds, and scenery all lifted off the page as naturally as could be. Sometimes she’d draw lines through the names of characters as well. They crossed over into the real world, too, moving and speaking like real, living people.
Ahhh, I can’t believe I get to meet all these characters right here in person… It’s like a dream come true!
Normally, interacting with people from fictional stories like this wasn’t possible. But with the Transcription Marker, both objects and people could break free from books and become part of reality instead. How amazing that one little marker could do all that!
It wasn’t long before Keiko got totally hooked on her transcription activities.
✦ ✦ ✦
However, there was one set of words she never brought to life, despite wanting to more than anything. They didn’t appear in any of the books on the parlor’s shelves. The storekeeper had told her he could order any book she wanted, and in any size, but that didn’t help. This book didn’t actually exist yet. It wasn’t a story that had been published and sold in stores, but one that Keiko was writing herself, in a notebook at home.
Now that I can use this Transcription Marker, I want to meet my own characters, too, not just other people’s. But…but…
There was a reason she hadn’t tried it yet. Back when she’d first bought the marker, the storekeeper had given her a warning.
“When there’s something you want to transcribe, always come to this parlor to do it. You’re free to take your marker home with you, but I recommend against using it anywhere else but here. We cannot take responsibility for any problems that arise from using our products outside the premises.”
He had a point. There was more to books than descriptions of things that were fun, or pretty, or tasty. Depending on how you used it, the marker could also bring dangerous things into the world. But even so…
I can’t just take my notebook to the parlor and start chatting with my characters with that guy watching me. No, no, no! That’d be way too embarrassing!
Keiko had never even let another person read her story yet. Of course, it would be nice if people read it someday, when it was finished. But right now, she couldn’t help finding it a little embarrassing.
“Hmm… What should I do?”
She kept going to the Transcription Parlor, still thinking over the problem. Meeting fictional characters in real life was so much fun. Why shouldn’t she do the same with her own? Why did they have to stay shut up in her notebook?
Finally, the day came when she couldn’t hold herself back any longer.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’m sure it’ll be okay! My characters are all nice people, so they won’t cause any trouble. I’ll be extra careful not to accidentally highlight any bad words, too.”
Back at home in her room, Keiko gripped her Transcription Marker tightly and opened her notebook. Her heart beat faster and faster as she brought the tip of the marker closer to the page.
In the story she’d written, none of the characters had real names. They all referred to each other by nicknames instead. Her five main characters were called Storyteller, Glutton, Mage, Hurryup, and Bossman. She flipped through the pages and drew a line through each of their names one by one.
Skree…skree…skree…skree…skree…
Soon, all five were covered by the marker’s bright neon color. The words began to move and lift off the page, and then…
“Wowww!”
Just like that, five people were now standing on top of Keiko’s notebook. Her writing had been pretty small, so her characters came out in miniature as well—each of them was only an inch or two tall. Apart from that, they fit the image she’d had of them in her head perfectly. Granted, they looked a little rough around the edges, like sketchy illustrations, but that was probably because her handwriting was so bad. And they were her characters. Nothing could ruin them for her.
“Startled, I took a look at my surroundings. My gaze wandered to my feet, and I found myself shocked at this strange turn of events. What was going on?”
“Oh? We came out tiny in this world, huh? That means all the food is going to be giant size!”
“Oh-ho, a person from the outside world! You seem to be a powerful magic user, too.”
“Hello there! Um… Who are you? And what is this place?”
“Hello, Author! It’s been about three years since you started writing this story, huh?”
The five characters all started talking at once, filling the top of the notebook with noise and laughter.
Keiko found the sight so touching that she started to tear up. For so long, these characters had only lived inside her head. You couldn’t get much closer to someone than that, but she’d still been unable to actually talk to them. Now they were in the real world. Fictional characters and the author who had created them, together in the same reality. She’d always been able to see them in her imagination, but now they could actually look back at her. It made her feel a little bit bashful and self-conscious…but mostly just thankful.
“Hello! I…I’m so happy to finally meet you all!” Keiko said.
Wiping away her tears, she smiled down at the tiny figures standing on the page in front of her.