I made my way back through the residential area as the sun fades away into the valley stretching out behind me. Thinking back to when I parted with Akira, I should have noticed sooner that she might be wrapped up in that sort of situation. Three pieces of bread for lunch and sugar water to wash it down. For a normal girl it might just be dieting. But no normal girl has eyes like hers. Eyes that seem to reflect the world around her without actually absorbing any of it into her mind. Almost as if she is rejecting the world she was born in and the life she lives.

I watched her climb up a flight of rusted metal stairs to the second story of the apartment building. She stopped in front of the third door to the right and turned to look at me briefly before entering.

The world is cruel to those who least deserve it. If my education taught me nothing else, it was that where there are very rich people there will always be very poor people. Such is the way of the economy that that majority of the countries on this planet thrive in. Capitalists, socialists, communists, the free market believers. They each have their strong points but at the end of the day there are always winners and losers. The high school girl, Akira, has already started off on the losing side at such a young point in her life.

It may be idealistic of me… but if I were to grow this city… I would want to grow it in such a way that would benefit the losers and the winners. Ahhh… the law of the world…. I will work to reject it.

With that thought in mind I continued my walk back down the main street. The old granny who sold us taiyaki had already gone home for the night, and her stall was locked up tight from the front with a short, thick chain.

I really did want to try that taiyaki… But it went to the right person in the end.

My stomach apparently did not agree with me. The pain I had become friends with recently was slowly creeping back into my body. A slight headache was coming on and my body grew hotter by the minute.

Ah… I can’t fall asleep again… I need food…

It was getting late, and nobody was out walking around that I could talk to. Or rather, bum a meal off of.

The convenience store is probably still open… the old gramps… I’m sure he would give me something without much prompting…

So continued to walk down the road as it was getting dark. Had I not been deprived of food, and on the brink of collapsing, I might have noticed a shadow lurking behind me. Coming out of the residential district, I made my way back to the dirt path I walked on with Akira earlier today. The street lights that once lighted the way for me were now a thing of the past. It was now dark. The shadows my stumbling figure cast on the ground in front of me from the street lights no behind me slowly stretched endlessly into the abyss.

If I had only eaten that snack instead of giving it to the girl… I would have noticed just the slightest bit of movement from a shadow that at some points of my stride did not overlap mine perfectly. Had I found a place to eat earlier, had I taken some food from the old gramps when I had the chance, had I just turned around to admire the faint electric glow of the residential area fading into the distance behind me. I would have been able to see a strange dark figure slowly making its way closer to me.

If you have ever truly been in nature, you would know that the light pollution from the city really does make a difference at night. Because when I reached the point I had come out of the forest earlier today, all I could see was a black abyss. An abyss to my left. Any abyss to my right. The only thing that told me what was forest and what was field were the sounds of various animals from my right side scampering away into the forest at the sound of my footsteps.

My head grew dizzier, the black night in front of me got darker. My feet stopped listening to my commands.

I was desperately trying to reach the convenience store. I thought I could even see a faint glow in the distance from the lights that were no doubt beckoning me towards them. Suddenly I felt a sharp heat coming from the back of my head and then… total darkness.

……..

Waking up from a hangover is an… enlightening experience. There were many days during my time at university that I went out late at night with friends to celebrate passing a test, or maybe for a friends birthday. The next morning, without a memory of what had transpired the night before, I would wake up to the morning sun streaming through the curtains on my window. With just a flash of heat and a clumsy walk to the bathroom later, I would be off to class again.

Waking up today… today was very different. The sunlight was filtering through a thin layer of cover up above me. My back felt as if it was laying on a cooled mattress. I could hear the sounds of small birds faintly. And above all else, I was hot. Burning. Moving was not an option. Opening my eyes revealed only that I was back in a forest somewhere once again, and that it was painful to look directly into the light.

Ahggg… Everything aches… What happened to me? Where am I? Why am I…

My clothes. My business suit. It was gone. The precious suit I had spent too much money on to get people to hire me. It is gone along with my phone that was in the pocket. Not that it was going to be of use to me for much longer anyways.

All I wore as I lay face up on the forest floor was a plain white shirt that went under everything, and my underwear fashioned like shorts. I tried to move my head to look at my surroundings but the instant throbbing kept me stationary.

This is where I am going to stay I guess… There’s no use in moving with this pain.

I close my eyes again as I listen to the sounds of the forest. Ever so slowly, the pain fades away, and I give in to the dark abyss once again.

…….

As I drift slowly back up to the land of the living, I can tell that the time is around evening. The golden rays of the sun shining into the valley are actually rather pleasant to look at when fading in and out of consciousness. Only somebody as experienced as I am in the matter could tell you this.

The first thing I notice out of the ordinary is a cool, damp feeling resting against my forehead and stretching over my eyes. Slowly I move my hand to my face to peel back a damp towel. Uncovering my eyes and lifting my head a little reveals a girl sitting against a tree. Shoulder length brown hair, dark uniform with white trim, and eyes staring black at me, black as night.

“Akira…”

I weakly say her name. It seems in the time I was sleeping my voice has deteriorated quite a bit.

“….Fever.”

“What?”

“….You have a fever.”

Was she the one that put the cold compress on me?

“Ah… I definitely feel that way. How did you find me?”

“Just by chance… Do you normally sleep outside?”

“No… instead of sleeping really, it’s more of just passing out”

“….. “

No answer. I can’t imagine what is going through her head right now. A man she only met yesterday has suddenly for the second day in a row, been found sleeping on the forest floor.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where my clothes are, would you?”

“No. You were like this when I got here.”

“I see. I can’t imagine an animal taking them. It must have been somebody from the town last night. I remember it being very dark and hard to see. They must have followed me back out here.”

“There have been a few recent cases of people being robbed within the residential area… maybe it was by the same person?”

I guess no city comes without its dark corners.

“Maybe… those were my only clothes.”

My stomach cries out in pain as I finish my sentence. The girl looks at me and reaches behind her to pull out the same small box she had yesterday.

“All I have is the sugar water today. Want some?”

She pulls out the sugar water and shows it to me. If I’m not mistaken it’s in the same disposable bottle it was in yesterday.

“Thanks…”

I make a weak gesture with my hand and instead of throwing it to me this time, she gently sets it down into the palm of my right hand.

“Where do you live here? Or is the forest really your home?”

“Ah… You could say I just moved here. I don’t have a place yet. Actually at the moment I don’t really have anything except the clothes I am wearing.”

Akira looks at me while I greedily drink the sugar water she gave me. When I finish the bottle she hold out her hand and I slowly sit up to give her the empty bottle. She puts it back into her cooler and begins to turn around.

“Come with me… I know a place you can stay.”

Just like yesterday, she begins to walk to the dirt path without another word. I struggle to get up and begin to limp down the slope behind her. Whoever put me there must have dragged me a little ways up the slope into the forest. If I remember correctly, I was properly on the path heading back to the convenience store.

Without shoes and socks on the walk down was slightly painful, and the small pieces of worn down gravel on the dirt road were not much of an improvement from the sticks and twigs of the forest.

That reminds me… I need people to recognize this appearance as normal to not attract too much attention. It seems all I have done so far is try to hide from the city.

We walk down the same path from yesterday. Eventually switching from gravel to concrete and then making our way into the residential area once again. As we walk I see that the old granny has her stall open again today. I quickly walk up to it.

“I’m back, granny.”

“Ah! The boy from yesterday! You liked my cooking so much you came back for more!”

“umu! I’ll take 6 orders of the chocolate taiyaki today grandma.”

“Coming right up!”

Akira had stopped a few meters past the taiyaki stand and was sending a message even I could read with her dead eyes.

“I want one…”

Yes, yes, you’ll get one. I haven’t forgotten about you.

“Here you go!”

The granny holds out a bag filled with a bountiful harvest of chocolate taiyaki.

“Thank you for coming!”

 “I’ll be coming again, granny!”

We both said our farewells and I began walking back towards Akira. I wordlessly handed her a taiyaki and reached back into the bag to grab one for me.

The first bite was heaven. If Akira’s bread from yesterday was fine cuisine cooked by a master chef, this taiyaki was a weapon of mass destruction to the taste buds in my mouth. For almost two full days I had eaten nothing with real flavor. Now that I had a full bite of delicious chocolate and making a river in my mouth and flowing down my throat the stimulation was almost too much. I immediately felt energy coming back to me as I walked behind Akira and quickly ate all three taiyaki that I had bought for myself.

By the time I had finished my three, Akira had eaten her one and we were once again in front of the worn down apartment building she called home. I handed the other two in the bag over to her.

“Here. Your share. Thank you for everything you have done for me so far.”

“un… follow me…”

Akira takes the bag and walks up the stairs in front of the apartment building to the second story. She stops at the second door to the right. It is slightly ajar, and the window looking towards the outside is cracked.

“It’s not secure, and its not in the best of shape. But nobody has used this room in years. You can stay here for a small amount of time until you feel better.”

She opens the door with a loud creak and walks me to the back of the apartment. It is slightly bigger than the one I rented in the previous city I was trying to find a job in.

The apartment smelled. There were dead insects and spider webs in the corners. The ceiling had black mold splotched on it as if an artist had come in and done it himself. The tatami were falling to pieces underneath our feet. But it was a place to stay.

I slowly got down on my knees and laid down.

“I am in the next room over. If you need anything just knock on the wall and I will come.”

“Akira… thank you. For everything you have done for me until now, thank you.”

“un… thanks for the taiyaki.”

With those final words Akira left and walked to her own room.  

Even when thanking me her eyes remained cold like ice. Never feeling, always reflecting. Never absorbing, always rejecting. I thought about those emotionless black eyes as I lay there on the ground.

My previous apartment and this one have many things in common. Age, the smell, the run down feeling. I disliked every night I spent in it because it only reminded me of the defeat I was facing in my professional life.

But right now, right now in this little room lent to me by a girl with a pair of eyes that have nothing in them, I feel like I will sleep like a king.