Miyazawa Otherside Picnic: Volume 2

1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7183-6000-6
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 2, 352 Seiten

Reihe: Otherside Picnic

Summer has arrived, and university students Sorawo Kamikoshi and Toriko Nishina's connection deepens as they explore the alternate world known as the Otherside.
There's a rescue operation for the U.S. forces trapped at Kisaragi Station, a night at the Beach of the End on the other side of a resort in Okinawa, a karate-using kouhai who is under attack by ninja cats...
And will the mystery of Toriko's missing friend, Satsuki Uruma, finally unravel?
The unknown and bizarre clash with complex relationships in this popular survival series.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Miyazawa, Iori

Weitere Mitwirkende

Shirakaba

Mccann, Sean

Leseproben

File 5: The Operation to Rescue the U.S. Forces at Kisaragi Station

1

The smell of burning meat hung in a dark room.

Each time the red tongues of flame licked at the fat, the fire grew in intensity. The rising smoke stimulated the nose. This smell would adhere to clothing and hair alike, and it wouldn’t go away for some time...

July. With the rainy season over, Tokyo marched onward into summer.

New heat records were being set by the day, and I was pale with worry about the approaching final exam season. In a surprise twist, regardless of what I might be getting up to in my abnormal life exploring the other world, my university courses and papers continued to exist.

There was a time when I’d had my doubts. In true ghost stories, there were plenty of narrators who had these unbelievably bizarre experiences, yet they forgot them for a long time and went back to their daily lives as though nothing had happened. I’d always wondered if that was really possible, but now that I found myself in the same position, I understood.

No matter how bizarre the experience, it was possible to return to your regular life. If you didn’t think about it, it was fine—your body would move on its own.

That was how great the power of daily routine was. It was a sort of homeostasis, the same as the way the human body maintained a stable internal temperature. One mildly mysterious experience couldn’t break down that routine.

On the other hand, there were those who could never return to normal.

Those whose bodies were broken. Those who’d lost their minds. Those whose relationships with friends and family were messed up by the inability to make anyone believe in their experience.

Even if they didn’t do enough damage to utterly destroy a person’s life, there were times when encounters with the bizarre could penetrate the armor of homeostasis and leave scars. Someone might be left unable to sleep without the lights on, become afraid of the sea, or have memories from a certain stretch of time become vague.

In some, their fear might get reversed, turning into angry outbursts.

...Like with Kozakura, who was in front of Toriko and me right now.

We were seated at a table at a yakiniku restaurant, an oppressive silence hanging between us. Even with salted beef tongue sizzling away on the metal net in front of her, Kozakura’s expression remained harsh.

“Um, Kozakura-san. I think it’s fine now...” I hesitantly said, causing Kozakura to glare at me through the smoke.

“You think this is fine? Don’t expect me to forgive you so easily.”

“Uh, no, I meant the meat. I was thinking it looks like it’s ready to eat.”

Kozakura furrowed her brow, snorting indignantly, then slowly picked up her chopsticks and took some beef tongue from the net. Three whole pieces.

“Ohh, it smells good! Let’s hurry up and dig in, too, Sorawo!” Toriko said in an excited voice, letting her chopsticks hover over the edge of the net without permission.

“...Do you even understand what today is about?” Kozakura took a shot at her before I could. “This is a meeting for review and reflection. One where you two reflect on what you did, and apologize to me.”

“Okay. Sorry. You’re right—it is.” As she gave that meek response, Toriko grabbed a piece of beef tongue and stuck it in her mouth with a thoughtful look on her face.

“Mmm! That’s good!”

I thought as I reached out with my chopsticks.

“What do you want to cook next? Any preferences on order?”

“Anything works, just cook whatever,” Kozakura said, not seeming to care, and took a sip of her beer. The medium-size mug she was using looked awfully big for her little body. It made me feel like I was giving alcohol to a minor. It seemed like she was aware of how it looked, and when we ordered, she produced her driver’s license before the staff said anything.

Toriko laid out some chuck on the net; she was probably better at doing this than I was. This was the first time in my life I’d ever come to a yakiniku place, so I decided to leave it to her.

The reason we were having our after-party at a yakiniku place was the result of a strong insistence by Kozakura. To be more precise, it was because, as Kozakura had said, this was a review and reflection party.

In our last expedition to the other world, I abandoned Kozakura alone in the dangerous night there to search for Toriko.

Inside a massive glitch that took the form of a town, I used the power of my right eye to turn Kozakura into a plant. With night having fallen, I thought she would be safest like that. Inside that glitch, my perception defined the environment around me. I made my decision based on the belief that, if I perceived Kozakura as a plant, she could escape from the gaze of the other world’s monsters.

Kozakura had told me herself that she was scared to death of the other world, so I thought being left alone would frighten her even more, and she’d get mad at Toriko and me for having dragged her into this. However, when I found Toriko, brought her back, and the three of us were together again, Kozakura was acting weird. She seemed dazed, and only gave non-responses to anything we said to her. Even after we returned to the surface world, she was still not talking much. When we escorted her home, she shut herself inside and locked the door without so much as a good-bye.

I was wondering, Then, before I knew it, a week had passed. I got a sudden call from Kozakura, and when I answered the phone, she told me this with a voice full of rage:

“Screw you! I’ve had enough of this bullshit from both of you!!”

It seemed that, after she’d been through such a frightening experience, her mind had wandered off somewhere else for a while.

“Meat...” Kozakura said as I was apologizing profusely over the phone.

“Feed me meat. My anger won’t subside until I’ve had yakiniku.”

“Erm...”

“Good meat. I want quality. If you take me to some cheap all-you-can-eat place, I’ll press your hands against the burning-hot net until it leaves a stylish checkered pattern.”

“Um, is this supposed to be my treat? I don’t have much money... Toriko’s the rich one...”

I got that far before I was cut off by a torrent of verbal abuse from Kozakura.

This was an adult who lived in a high-class residential area in Shakujii-kouen, and she was making an impoverished university student pay for her. That’s pretty awful.

The situation being what it was, I talked to Toriko, and we agreed we would have an after-party, or rather a review and reflection party, with the three of us together. Toriko chose the place, a short walk from the west exit of Ikebukuro Station, in an area where public order seemed a little dodgy. The cost hurt, but it certainly was tasty... I never knew there were so many kinds of meat. I was smiling despite myself.

“Sorawo-chan, what are you grinning for?”

I realized Kozakura was looking at me like I was weird, so I covered my mouth. “Sorry. The chuck was just so delicious.”

“Well, it’s fine. You’re the ones paying, after all,” she said in an exasperated tone. I snapped back to my senses. That was right! Toriko and I were footing the bill.

“Toriko! Don’t over-order like you always do.”

“Whaa, we’ll eat it all. It’ll be fine.”

“This isn’t about the amount of food! And hold on, I’m the one who always ends up having to finish it, right? Toriko, you always order everything you can, and then slow down towards the end.”

“I love watching you struggle to eat it all.”

While I was still speechless at her unexpected response, the special kalbi spare ribs she had ordered at some point arrived, and I had to move on.

The three of us raced to snatch the meat cooking on the net. Then, as I was savoring the melt-in-your-mouth goodness of the soft fat, Toriko started speaking in an apologetic tone.

“Umm, so, about what happened this time... I think I was in the wrong. I didn’t think Sorawo would be coming with me anymore, and I’d never have expected Kozakura would come searching for me, too. I didn’t mean to get you involved. Sorry.”

Kozakura and I kept chewing, listening to Toriko in silence.

Kozakura swallowed, and then, sounding unamused, she said, “You say that like it was our fault for chasing after you, you know?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Couldn’t you put a little more faith in me?” I said, expressing my dissatisfaction.

“I did have faith in you! It’s just... I’d have felt bad making you go along with any more of my selfishness.”

It sounded like Toriko was making excuses.

I felt like being a bit of a bully, so my tone of voice went cold. “You went there alone because you didn’t think you could rely on me, right? You never even thought I might come save you, did you? This, after all we’ve been through together. Isn’t that a little...