ECHO

1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-1-7183-0166-5
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 283 Seiten

Reihe: ECHO

The VOCALOID song 'ECHO' with 8 million views has now been novelized! Written by Akira (from the novelization of 'Yume Nikki' and 'Ensemble Stars') and illustrated by Oguchi (an official illustrator for Kancolle), this song of madness from Crusher-P is weaved into a story in which the TV girl, or 'Primadonna's' identity is finally revealed!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Akira

Weitere Mitwirkende

Oguchi

Chen, Kevin

Leseproben

¦CHANNEL1¦

First was black, then white. They were flickering and mixing together—blackwhite blackwhite, blackwhiteblackwhiteblackwhiteblackwhite—Commonly called “the sandstorm,” it was a phenomenon known only to CRT TVs; a nonsense image that felt like it could make someone go mad if they stared at it too long. Light and Darkness entangled, alternating and melting together.

I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore, so I tried to turn away.

“Oh?” But that would prove to be impossible. I can’t move. I don’t know what I’m trapped in or how, but I’m stuffed into somewhere cramped, and I can’t move. My arms were bent at weird angles and locked in place like I was dancing the Bon-Odori, but for some reason, my legs were properly sitting in seiza.

I looked like a new type of Buddhist statue, or like I was doing some sort of zen meditation from an obscure religion that nobody knows about. My entire body smells like rust. I thought, It hurt, so I braced myself to at least try to move it, but it was useless.

“Urgh... What the hell is this?” I asked no one in particular, and there was no answer. In what was basically complete darkness, the only light being emitted came from the thing that was touching my face, which faintly illuminated the place. Apparently, it was a TV screen, but all I could hear coming from it was meaningless noise.

I’d like to at least change the channel, but there’s nothing even resembling a remote. It’s depressing, but even if I’d like to turn it off, there’s no buttons or switches on this thing that passes for a TV. In the first place, I can’t even move, so I have no way of influencing anything around me.

It might be because of static electricity, but the screen touching my face felt unpleasant, like a dusty blanket. Even so, I’m currently as powerless as a newborn, so there’s nothing I can do about it. I wondered,

“Hrm...?” It’s not like today was supposed to be incredibly fantastic. In fact, I wasn’t expecting anything out of it. And I’m not really sure, but I don’t remember having done anything to warrant being driven into this unreasonable situation, right? God?

¦CHANNEL2¦

Let’s try to remember what happened. It’s not like I’ve got anything else to do.

My name is Denkiya Hitomi, and other than my unfortunate name that I can’t do anything about, I am an incredibly average 2nd year high schooler with neither anything special to brag about, nor to illicit sympathy. My height is average, and my weight is a secret.

Either my ancestors chose this profession as a pun, or they liked managing electronics stores so much that they changed their name.

The town I live in is way out in the sticks, in the mountains, and we’re in the middle of a slowly progressing depopulation problem. Even if the major home electronics companies or electronics stores opened a store here, they’d only be in the red (although they’d surely have some business), so they haven’t come over to our neck of the woods.

Because of that, well...our store is the only one in town that deals with those sorts of things. Even though we’re just a small retail store under private management, we’re still stubbornly hanging on, even into the 21st century. Being established in the community sounds good and all, but that’s just because there are no other stores around.

That’s why, if you referenced an electronics store in town, it would be us, so just saying “Electronics store” works fine (and it’s also convenient). We take repair work for home appliances, too, and management of the store is going fairly well. Also, I’m often made to help out with tending the store and stuff.

Both my name and my family business are in sync, so at school I’m often asked if I can’t get the latest model of smartphone, or to fix any broken machinery...

Anyway. Today, at the request of my parents, I was tending the store on my precious day off.

My parents have a stupidly strong commercial spirit, so they like going to the city to check up on the latest releases in consumer electronics. At least, that’s the excuse. On the occasions they do go they’re probably just cutting loose and having fun. Mom and Dad are still madly in love, after all.

Well, even I’m not stupid enough to get in their way. And besides, just going to the city by train takes about half a day, so I couldn’t be bothered to go with them.

That being the case, I’m holding down the fort.

Besides light bulbs and batteries, we don’t stock anything like necessities that one would have to buy daily. So on slow days, the store is basically empty. The store was so empty, and I had so much time on my hands, that time felt as if it had slowed to a trickle.

I don’t have any particular hobbies, and tending the store is more or less a job, so I can’t just call my friends over to hang out... Committed to being alone, I passed the time by solving crossword puzzles, skimming thick books, and staring at the TV with my mouth open like an idiot.

I can’t actually remember what I was watching, but it should have been a boring afternoon spent slugging around aimlessly.

¦CHANNEL3¦

Well, I tried quickly looking back on today’s events: my current predicament hasn’t changed one bit, of course. I’m still stuck, and surrounded by TVs. There’s been no solution or progress.

This is bad...because I’ve been tending the store since I was little, I’d gotten used to boredom. It’s like nothing happening isn’t a pain anymore, or like I’m more readily accepting of it.

Let’s reflect. It seems like I really can’t move a finger, and accepting this situation will only lead to my going senile. No, wait, or would I starve to death first? I should be putting effort into being able to move again, and then raising my voice to call for help. Yes, let’s go, my instincts for self-preservation!

“SOMEONGFHFHF?!” The moment I raised my voice, although that probably wasn’t the cause of it, my entire body was rocked by a violent impact. That was dangerous; I almost bit my tongue.

I wondered. My surroundings were, as always, basically black, so I couldn’t see very well. I can’t really tell what’s what, but it looks like not just me, but my entire immediate area is shaking, like an earthquake. My posture shifted weirdly, and I was shoved into even closer contact with the TV screen.

Something’s been flipped upside down, somehow. It’s a weird feeling. Apparently my face is pointing downwards, or at least that’s the way gravity is going. I’m under a lot of pressure, and if I’m not careful, it feels like my neck will break.

“Hiii...!?” Obviously this was very painful, and I struggled to change my situation while letting out a weird voice. Having my neck broken under my own weight would be way too uncool of a death for me! And also, I’d rather not die.

This unnatural condition didn’t continue for long, though, as I suddenly felt weightless: I was thrown into space. Being freed from gravity, my arms and legs were similarly freed, and my vision was wrapped in light.

It was a sudden change from before, when I could only see static, and my world was smeared in color. My eyes couldn’t get used to the light, so I couldn’t stop blinking, either.

The static filled TV screen that I was smooshed against just before looked sort of like the side profile of a lonesome person, for a moment. It was probably just an illusion, including the minor feeling of regret that I felt at having parted with the TV screen’s slight warmth.

¦CHANNEL4¦

It’s not like I’m an idiot or anything, so even I have come up with a few theories about this strange situation I’ve been suddenly hit with. There are several possibilities:

?: It’s all a dream. This is the best, most proper explanation. Unable to withstand the boredom of tending the store, I was hounded by drowsiness and dozed off. And therefore, I am experiencing some sort of weird dream.

?: I’ve been caught up in some incident (this is just conjecture based off of my situation). We run an electronics store, so of course we also stock old model CRT TVs. We’re a rural town, so there are old timers who wouldn’t understand anything about plasma TV’s or digital broadcasting. So, for those sorts of customers, we also stock a wide variety of previous generation electronics, too. Actually, they sell fairly well.

And so, while I was in such a store, there was a fairly strong earthquake and I was caught up in its collapse. I was, therefore, buried in the avalanche of stuff, and became unable to move while being stuck in a weird position.

This was also a very plausible theory, or so I thought. I mean, it was a fact that I couldn’t move, and that my face was pushed up against what seemed like a TV screen... If this was true, then actually, I’m lucky that I wasn’t crushed to death instantly under all the electronics and stuff.

?: I’ve been caught up in some sort of sudden disaster that I can’t even guess at. A situation like: I’ve been thrown into another dimension,...