There were so many things that Yoshino wanted out of life. She wanted tasty food and stylish clothes and cute accessories like she saw on TV and in magazines. If she could go shopping and buy stuff like that, she’d have done it in a heartbeat. But she couldn’t.
“Oh man… I wish I lived in a town with more interesting stores. There’s practically nothing here; it’s so boring.”
Learning about stores she wanted to visit or products she wanted to try was one thing, but it was meaningless if she couldn’t actually go to those places or buy that stuff. It left her feeling so empty and frustrated inside. Even then, she couldn’t help herself and would end up gazing longingly at one magazine after another with their cute shops.
“Ooh, this cake sparkles just like a jewel; I’d love to try one… And look at this ham roll made with olives and organic yeast! I wonder how that tastes. Wow, these bags and clothes are all handmade one-of-a-kind items, huh? I’d love to see them in person and pick one out… Oh my gosh, I can just tell that this accessory store has such a nice vibe. It looks like the kind of place that sells magic items from storybooks…”
It truly was the stuff of dreams. Yoshino couldn’t visit a single one of those stores, though. They were all a long, long way from the town where she lived. Even if she chose the closest one, she’d use up all her allowance on the train ticket to get there, leaving her no money left to do any shopping.
“Urrrgh, why does this town have to be so boring? I want to get out there and see the world! I want to live someplace with lovely stores like these!”
Yoshino closed the magazine she’d been reading with a groan. She was only a kid, after all. She didn’t get to decide where she lived or what her town was like. Her desire to live in a town filled with trendy stores would never be anything more than a dream.
Or it would have been, if she hadn’t encountered that one very strange store.
✦ ✦ ✦
It happened one day when Yoshino was walking through town. She noticed a sign she’d never seen before. It was higher up than most of the houses in the area, making it hard to ignore.
Signage Seller
She found her eyes drawn to it and tilted her head in confusion.
“Signage Seller…? As in, a store that sells signs? Is that a thing?”
What would a store like that look like? Yoshino walked toward it, too curious for her own good. Up close, she found it was crammed with rows of signs, so many that they seemed to spill out of the door. It really was a place dedicated to signs and nothing else.
“I don’t remember there being a store like this here. Where did it come from?”
Drawing closer, she looked at the different products the store had on display. Big signs and small signs. Square signs and round signs. Flashy signs and plain signs. Signs made of wood, and metal, and plastic, and stone. Even fabric banners to put outside stores. They had signs of just about any size, shape, and material you could think of.
“You don’t see stores like this very often… But at the end of the day, it’s still just signs.”
Yoshino couldn’t think of a single time in her life when she’d needed to buy a sign. The store may have been rare, but it wasn’t one she’d ever use.
She was just turning to walk away when one particular sign caught her eye.
✦ ✦ ✦
Product Spotlight: Store-Calling Sign
Summon whatever kind of store you want to your neighborhood!
Inquire within for more details.
◀•••
Something about it really piqued Yoshino’s curiosity. What a weird form of advertising. She’d never heard of anything like this before.
✦ ✦ ✦
She decided not to leave and instead followed the arrow on the sign, toward the store’s interior. Going to a place she’d never been before made her feel a little nervous, but she stepped in through the door all the same.
The store was filled with signs, just like outside. It was dimly lit inside, with only the occasional spotlight illuminating the vast rows of signs. Yoshino made her way farther in, stealing glances at the products that seemed to rise up out of the darkness on either side of the store.
Finally, she arrived at the back of the store, where there was a counter with a cash register. Behind the counter sat a man who must have been the shopkeeper. And even though it was so dark inside, he was wearing a hat with a broad brim pulled low over his eyes. He had a big scarf around his neck, too—Yoshino couldn’t see anything but shadows where his face should have been. He looked strange, but in a way, that strangeness suited this store and the way it advertised its products.
Yoshino cleared her throat and stepped up to the counter. “E-excuse me. I wanted to ask about something I saw on a sign out front.”
“Of course. Which sign would you like to know about?”
“Oh, right. Uh… I think it was called a Store-Calling Sign?”
If that sign really existed, it could be fun to check out. It was probably nothing more than a lucky charm, but she might buy one anyway.
“It said you can summon any store you want to your neighborhood. Do you really sell signs like that?” Yoshino asked.
“We do indeed,” the faceless clerk replied confidently. “We are a Signage Seller, after all. We sell any and every kind of sign you can think of. Not just ones for stores to attract customers, but ones for customers to attract stores as well.”
Wow, I didn’t know Signage Sellers took this stuff so seriously, Yoshino thought. Still surprised that it was all true, she looked around the store.
“So which one of these is the Store-Calling Sign?”
The man stood up and began rifling through one of the many piles of signs. Finally, he brought out one about the size of a two-page spread in one of Yoshino’s school notebooks. She couldn’t tell at a glance what it was made of, but it looked pretty cheap. The design was simple, too—just a stick to hold it up, and a white rectangular space with black text.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You simply have to write the kind of store you want to attract and the products you want it to sell in the blank spaces provided. Then you place this sign where you would like the store to appear, and—”
“And that kind of store will actually open up there?!”
“That’s right. Be warned, though—you can’t use the names of actual brands or chain stores.”
“Aw, so if I see somewhere I want to go or something I want to buy on TV or in a magazine, I can’t bring them to this town instead?”
“Unfortunately not. The sign won’t work if you try to do that.”
Yoshino couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.
“But there’s no need to worry,” the man assured her. “A store summoned with this sign will be every bit as good as even the most famous stores in the world!”
That assurance hooked her in again. This was sounding more and more interesting. She wanted to buy one of these signs and try it out.
However, there was no denying that the whole thing seemed incredibly shady. Yoshino asked how much the sign cost—at this point, that would be the deciding factor in whether she got one.
“Just one hundred yen each,” the man told her.
That was a lot cheaper than she’d been expecting. If it was that cheap, there was really no reason not to buy one.
“Thank you for your business. I’ll include a can of our special store-calling paint. Please be aware, you must use this exact paint to fill in the blanks for the sign to work properly.”