0. Tochinoki Apartment (63.5th Time)

 

(0/3)

 

At the sound of knocking on the door, Yuki woke up.

 

(1/3)

 

She jumped out of bed.

 

Intending to both shake off her drowsiness and check her surroundings, Yuki shook her head from side to side.

 

It was a room in an apartment. With only the bare minimum of furniture, a subtle landscape that wasn't exactly tidy yet couldn't be called messy, an atmosphere that somehow evoked a sense of shabbiness, and right down to every single stain on the wall matching Yuki's memory, this was unmistakably her home. Rent: 35,000 yen. Room 107 of Tochinoki-so. This was her dwelling.

 

Looking at her pillowside, she saw a wedding dress folded up. It was a game costume. Her most recent memory—the sixty-third game—came flooding back into Yuki’s mind. That had been a harsh battle. Players fighting each other to snatch away a bridal gown, but...

 

And there, her reflection was interrupted.

 

Bang-bang, bang-bang. The sound of someone knocking on the door rang out again.

 

Like the other facilities, the door to the room wasn't very well made. If someone knocked from the outside, a truly grand noise would flow into the room. The reason they knocked instead of ringing the chime was likely because it produced a louder sound. Just as it had done to Yuki now, the intention was to pound the tenant awake even if they were sleeping.

 

As far as Yuki knew, there was only one person who would do something so rough.

 

"I'm coming, I'm coming! I'll be right there!"

 

Saying that, Yuki headed toward the door.

 

The routine she always performed after a game would have to be postponed.

 

(2/3)

 

When she opened the door, an old woman was there.

 

Yuki didn't know her age. To Yuki, who still lacked life experience, anyone past a certain age was uniformly recognized simply as "elderly." Her face gave the impression of being sullen, but Yuki knew she wasn't actually in a bad mood; this was just her default state.

 

"Good evening, Landlady..."

 

Yuki greeted her first.

 

The old woman—the Landlady—nodded vertically in response.

 

"Did you cut your hair?"

 

The Landlady spoke in a scratchy voice, as if every syllable were heavily accented with gravel.

 

With that, Yuki became conscious of the change from the side of her head to the back.

 

"Yes, well... I decided to chop it off."

 

She answered while touching her hair.

 

"Is that so? Come with me."

 

Saying that, the Landlady began walking down the apartment corridor. Yuki followed that small back exactly as ordered.

 

This person was the Landlady of this apartment—Tochinoki-so. Yuki did not know her real name. It must have been on the lease agreement, but it hadn't remained in her memory. She lived in Tochinoki-so, her own property, and lived alone. Yuki had never seen any relatives visit, so she assumed the woman was all alone in the world, though that wasn't certain.

 

As people age, they tend to branch into two types: the Elderly of the Light or the Elderly of the Darkness. In this person's case, she was clearly the latter. Whether in words or actions, she was rough in every aspect. However, Yuki was used to such people, and since her roughness was not of the insidious kind, Yuki did not dislike this Landlady.

 

After walking for a while, the Landlady stopped.

 

Yuki stopped as well.

 

In a corner of the hallway, three people were lined up.

 

They were the residents of Tochinoki-so. All of them were young women around Yuki's age, standing with their backs against the wall. All three had gloomy expressions. Likely because they knew what was about to happen. Their appearance somehow brought to mind prisoners awaiting execution by firing squad. Yuki took her place at the right end of the line, becoming the fourth prisoner.

 

The Landlady glanced at each of the four, and then,

 

"Hmph."

 

She snorted.

 

"Wearing gloomy faces as usual. Can't you look sharp? Sharp!"

 

It’s none of your business, nobody replied.

 

"Ryoei."

 

The Landlady said. From the tone of her voice, one could tell it was a person's name.

 

"Ryoei Fudo. You know him. Do you girls have TVs in your homes? Or do you know him even without one?"

 

Since her face was turned toward Yuki, she answered.

 

"...He's that soccer player, right?"

 

"Yeah. He's amazing right now, that guy. By the time he was your age, he was already fighting in the world arena and was a billionaire, they say."

 

If we're talking about annual income, I make a decent amount too, Yuki naturally did not say.

 

"Do you know how that guy became a top-class player?"

 

"Ideally, didn't he make a plan when he was a child? Since he was about five years old..."

 

"Yeah. He thought about what specific abilities were needed to play professionally in the world right at the start, and seemingly filled them in one by one. To accomplish big things, see, you need that kind of planning."

 

The Landlady pointed a finger at each of the four, including Yuki, in succession.

 

"You lot, you're just living every day aimlessly, aren't you? I can tell by looking at your faces. Learn from Ryoei, you have to think properly and live your lives."

 

That's uncalled for, nobody said.

 

This strange event took place at a pace of about once a month. She would call them out for no significant reason and unilaterally talk about things that were unclear whether they were sermons or small talk. It wasn't that the Landlady had a clear concept; she probably just wanted someone to talk to. From the residents' perspective, it was a nuisance, but since simply standing there was enough to get it over with, and the frequency was only about once a month, everyone accepted it without much resistance. One might think of it as the tradeoff for the rent being a rank cheaper than neighboring housing.

 

After that, the Landlady's talk continued at length.

 

While letting it go in one ear and out the other, Yuki used her peripheral vision to observe the other three.

 

Standing to her left was a petite girl. She always had a gloomy face. Her name was Yashiro Endori. The first character of her surname was "En" (Edge/Connection), not "Midori" (Green), but she seemed to be conscious of the green association regardless, often wrapping herself in green clothing. Today was no exception; she was green from head to toe. Her appearance was such that if one were to cast magic on a small green bird, like a bush warbler or a white-eye, and transform it into a human, it would look exactly like this. No, perhaps it wasn't an "if"—maybe she really was one. Yuki did not know the details of her background.

 

Standing further next to Endori was a blonde exchange student. Her name was Ramona Squire. She was a college student lodging here. Among the five people here, she was exceptionally tall and had a great figure. She was probably a stunning beauty in reality, but perhaps because she had been sleeping until just a moment ago, her eyes were bleary, and because she was wrapped in tacky clothes that must have been bought on sale at the local shopping district, she didn't give the impression of being pretty or beautiful at all. Aside from being a lodging student, her detailed background was also unknown. In Tochinoki-so, a rule existed—though unwritten—not to pry into each other's backgrounds.

 

Next to Ramona stood a girl with a nasty look in her eyes. Her name was Akane Tsuwabuki. She was dressed in red and black. Her possession, a motorbike, was parked in front of the apartment, and since she was often seen straddling it late at night and heading out into the town while making loud noises, Yuki had arbitrarily assumed she was a member of a local delinquent group, but as usual, her detailed background was unknown.

 

That made three people.

 

Adding Yuki and the Landlady to this, these five were all the residents of Tochinoki-so.

 

This was far fewer than the number of rooms in Tochinoki-so. The apartment was perpetually under-occupied. There were multiple reasons for this. The fact that this apartment with its various dilapidated facilities wasn't attractive was one, the fact that the area where Tochinoki-so was located wasn't good in terms of public safety was another, and due to the Landlady's policy, residents were limited to women, plus all rooms were studios, forcing single occupancy. The people who overcame these conditions and finally moved in were further winnowed down by this strange ongoing event, and the ones who remained in the end were the four people here.

 

Yuki returned her gaze to the Landlady. The Landlady must have been tired of talking, as the raspiness in her voice was even worse than usual, but just as she tried to open her mouth again—

 

The sound of motorcycles driving could be heard from outside.

 

It was a roaring noise. Sound that hadn't passed through a silencer. Moreover, it appeared to be the sound of a group driving, and if that was the case, there was only one possibility. It was the "Red Bears," a delinquent group active in the region.

 

At that sound, Yuki and the other four reacted to a greater or lesser degree. The ones who reacted particularly strongly were Endori and the Landlady.

 

"...Hmph."

 

Likely to keep up appearances, the Landlady snorted and then said,

 

"I'll leave it at this for today. Brush your teeth and go to sleep."

 

Walking heavily down the corridor, the Landlady left. The moment she entered her own room, Room 101, and closed the door, the four left behind exhaled at almost the exact same time.

 

"...It's over, huh..."

 

Yuki said while looking at the other three.

 

"...It is..." "Yeah..." "That was long."

 

After a moment, replies came back from Endori, Ramona, and Akane in that order.

 

These three and Yuki were only acquaintances. As is the case in most apartment complexes, the solidarity between residents at Tochinoki-so wasn't very strong. It was a relationship where they would exchange a little conversation when they happened to run into each other—for example, right after the Landlady had returned home satisfied.

 

"Did you... cut your hair?"

 

One of the three asked Yuki.

 

It was the lodging college student, Ramona Squire. Being an exchange student, she understood Japanese, though she was somewhat unaccustomed to it.

 

"Yes, well."

 

So, Yuki answered normally in Japanese.

 

"Why?"

 

Faced with Ramona's follow-up question, Yuki was stuck for an answer.

 

For the time being, she couldn't exactly convey the facts as they were. Actually, I work as a player in a murder game, and recently I killed my apprentice and got depressed, so I had a duel with my other self, and this is an honorable injury lost in that battle—there was no way she could say that, and even if she did, there was no way they would believe her.

 

How should she explain it? Yuki searched for the appropriate words for a moment and then—

 

"...For kejime."

 

She voiced it.

 

"I wanted to make kejime (draw a line/make amends), so I cut it. Recently, I had some things on my mind... Ramona-san, do you understand kejime?"

 

Ramona shook her head loosely.

 

So, she tried to attempt an explanation, but even Yuki didn't quite understand the precise meaning. She took out her smartphone and looked it up in a Japanese-English dictionary, trying to convey the nuance somehow.

 

But in the middle of that, she realized that the concept of cutting hair for penance was originally something unique to Japan. She tried to explain that as well, but since Ramona's listening skills weren't perfect in addition to her speaking, it didn't come across well. Yuki gradually became annoyed and shouted, "Um... that! Harakiri! You know Harakiri, right? It's like a mini version of that!" By the time she managed to get a look of understanding on Ramona's face, the other two had already disappeared.

 

Regardless, it was kejime.

 

Expressing it that way was likely the most appropriate. Everything else was not a critical reason. Being a player, fighting a phantom, having it burned off by gunfire—none of these struck at the essence of the reason. Kejime. That was the objective. For that sake, I cut my hair.

 

And—having made my kejime, I was much stronger than before.

 

(3/3)

Previous Chapter | List Chapter | Next Chapter

Donate: Ko-Fi