Miyazawa Otherside Picnic: Volume 3

1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7183-6002-0
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 3, 320 Seiten

Reihe: Otherside Picnic

Autumn has arrived. Having narrowly avoided the curse of the Kotoribako, Sorawo and Toriko are back to exploring the other world. With boxed lunches in tow, the two take their agricultural vehicle for a leisurely drive across grassy terrain, deal with the problems caused by Sorawo's kouhai at university, and hang out at cognitive scientist Kozakura's house. Naturally, bizarre entities and Satsuki Uruma's shadow are watching their every move.

And just what is Urumiluna, the greatest threat they've ever encountered?

Don't miss the third volume of the girls' tale of survival, where feelings they can't show each other collide!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Miyazawa, Iori

Weitere Mitwirkende

Shirakaba

Mccann, Sean

Leseproben

I stared at Toriko, who was beside me and continuously throwing bolts.

“Hm? What?” she asked.

“No... I was just thinking. I’m glad I was able to meet you.”

“Whaa? Why so suddenly?” Toriko asked with a grin.

I’d gradually started to figure her out—she acted like this when she felt shy. I tried my best not to look away, not wanting to lose to those golden lashes and the beautiful indigo irises they framed, and... okay, she started acting weird.

“Sorawo, don’t stare so much. This is embarrassing.” She looked away, her ears red.

Though she seemed aloof, if you complimented her directly, she was more bashful about it than you might expect. I’d realized that the time we changed into swimsuits at the beach we’d wandered into in Okinawa.

I turned to look behind us; with a gulp, I opened my mouth.

“Th-The two of us, all alone like this, exploring an unfamiliar world. It makes me happy. I’m really grateful that you chose me.” I managed to get into a groove as I spoke, and the words flowed out of my mouth smoothly. “That time, you called it the closest relationship in the world. Honestly, at first, I didn’t know what you were talking about, but—”

“Wh-Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. What?”

Unable to take anymore, Toriko’s eyes widened and she turned back to look at me.

“What’s up, Sorawo? Don’t you think you’re acting funny today?”

“Y-You think? Aren’t I always like this?”

“No way. Not a chance. I mean, are you all right? Did you see something that messed you up?”

Now it was Toriko’s turn to stare at me, concern on her face. Taking advantage of an opening when I faltered, she pinched my cheeks. Then, as she squeezed them, Toriko said: “What should I do if you’ve gone crazy? Will hitting you or slapping you fix it? Hey—”

“Don’t rub my face!”

I shook her off, but the motion nearly made me fall out of my seat.

“Whoa, there.” Toriko reached out in time to grab my arm and pull me back. “See, that’s what happens when you get rough.”

“It was your fault, Toriko!”

My response made Toriko cackle. “Oh, good, you’re back to the usual Sorawo.”

“Why do you always rub my face? Is seeing funny faces on people that much fun?”

“Hmm, when I see you making a scary face, I get the urge to bring you back to normal, and it just happens.”

“Did I have that scary a look on my face?”

“You were looking kinda stern just now.”

Though I felt slightly irritated by that, I glanced behind us. The track—which was mostly straight, with the exception of the places we had avoided glitches—swerved around like the driver was drunk where we had been during that last exchange. While I drove on ahead, the marsh to our right grew more and more shallow, then eventually ended. The ground sloped gently upward, and I could see scattered groves of trees ahead of us.

“Just a little farther, then we turn. After that, if we head due east, we should come to the gate to Jinbouchou.”

Toriko raised her hand. “Commander, when is it lunch box time?”

“Can’t it wait until we reach the gate?”

“Whaaa. The mood won’t be right if we do it after we reach our goal. Let’s stop for a break somewhere along the way.”

The AP-1 slowly and steadily climbed the hill. For whatever faults it had, using a vehicle really did make this trip a lot less exhausting. The woods up ahead looked like the ground would be fairly level, so we’d be able to pass between the trees.

“The mood, huh? Okay, let’s stop somewhere around here and—huh?” Noticing something on the other side of the grove, I squinted. “Toriko, isn’t that a building? There.”

“Oh... Hey, you’re right.”

“And this sound...” When I listened closely, I could hear a constant low sound, like the grinding of some heavy object.

We looked at one another, then nodded. Toriko grabbed her AK, checked the chamber, then rested the barrel on the AP-1’s luggage rack and remained alert. I checked my M4’s bullets, too. When I began to move the AP-1 forward again, it wasn’t long before what had been hidden by the branches came fully into view.

It was a tall building made of concrete. The outside was falling apart and covered in moss and plants. On the very top of the building was a thick dish that was easily the size of a whole floor, and its circumference was made entirely of glass.

The disk was spinning slowly. The low grinding I had been hearing apparently came from it.

Stopping the AP-1, the two of us looked up at the building.

“What do you think it is, Sorawo?”

“Isn’t it an observation deck?” I answered easily. Toriko’s eyes widened.

“How can you tell?”

“There’s a place called Mt. Kanpuu in Akita, and I went there for a field trip when I was in elementary school, or something like that. I just remembered there being a revolving lookout like this there.”

“Revolving... Yeah, it is spinning around, huh? Think it’s dangerous?”

“I don’t see anything that looks like a glitch from here.”

As I looked, I moved the AP-1 closer to the building. Taking a quick glance around the area, I found an open entrance, then went down from the vehicle and took a peek inside. It was empty inside, with a railed staircase wrapped around the central support pillar going upwards.

I turned off the engine, and we waited a while to see what would happen. There was no sign of motion, aside from the observation platform revolving above our heads.

“Seems safe enough,” Toriko said, lowering her AK. “Want to go up? The observation platform’ll give us a good view of the surrounding area, and besides—”

“It’s the perfect place for lunch?”

“Bingo!”

Toriko laughed gleefully when I finished her sentence for her. It seemed she was dead set on having lunch.

4

Was this the first building we’d been inside in the other world since the one where we’d encountered Hasshaku-sama? It looked the same on the outside, but the inside was bare, and it was hard to imagine it having ever been in use. Kisaragi Station, the Time-space Man’s ghost town, and the beach house in Okinawa had all looked like they were brought in from the surface world, but this observation deck seemed to be somewhat lacking in detail.

Almost like it was some sort of a “pseudo-building.”

Even so, the stairs were made of sturdy concrete, and they didn’t give way under our feet, though the paint on the metal railing was faded and beginning to flake. It peeled away easily when I touched it with gloves, revealing the rusted metal beneath.

In the event that something were to happen, it might’ve been better for Toriko, who was used to using firearms, to be the one leading the way. But without my right eye it was possible she wouldn’t even notice what that “something” was. That being the case, we stood shoulder to shoulder on the narrow staircase and climbed together. I used the sling to put my rifle on my back, and held the Makarov ready as we slowly poked our heads up onto the upper floor.

“Yeah, no sign of any glitches.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

We stepped from the staircase into the observation room.

The entire wall was made of windows, so the room was pretty bright. There was gravel and shattered glass scattered across the bare concrete floor, and a line of metal benches near the windows.

That was as much as I had seen when, beside me, Toriko shouted.

“Who’s there?!”

I turned in surprise and spotted a human figure slumped against the support pillar in the center of the observation room. I jumped and turned my gun towards them. The figure didn’t move. Their whole body was covered in baggy clothes. Their head was hidden behind a helmet with a visor, so I couldn’t see their face. No matter how I looked at it, they were...

“...An astronaut?” Toriko asked dubiously.

“A-Are they alive?”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

Toriko adjusted her grip on her AK, bringing the barrel of the rifle closer to the figure. There was no response. She hooked the barrel under the visor, and lifted it up.

The suit was empty.

“It’s empty.”

Having half expected to come face to face with a corpse, I let out an unintentional sigh of relief. When Toriko retracted the barrel of her rifle, the visor lowered to its original position.

“Think they wandered in from the surface world, too?”

“From space, you mean?”

“I dunno.”

I looked up, but there was no hole in the ceiling. Just a socket for a fluorescent light. Toriko crouched down and began inspecting the spacesuit.

“There’s something written here, but... of course we can’t read it on this side.”

Now that she mentioned it, I could see corrupted text here and there.

“Hmm. I dunno what the original language was.”

“I’m not exactly an expert on the subject, but I’m pretty sure...