In a Daze

by Jin (Shizen no Teki-P)

  “Whoa. It’s even bigger than I thought. I had no idea this was here…”

  “It’s the largest department store in the neighborhood, apparently! Why don’t you take a look through the clothing section while you’re at it?”

  “What’re you, nuts? I told you, I’m going out today and today only. I’m sick of all this damn heat already.”

  “Yep! Called it! I knew that’s what you’d say! If you’d told me you were going out to buy clothes, it would’ve been time to dial 911!”

  “What am I, a caveman? I can buy clothes, dumbass!”

  “Oh? So go browse a little.”

  “W-well, maybe not today…but…”

  Before I could finish, I heard an ominous “keh-heh-heh” from my phone.

  I could already feel my face turning red as I put it back in my pocket.

  “Agh! Master, I was joking! We can do it next time! Okay?”

  The phone stayed firmly inside my pocket.

  “Yeah,” I whispered to no one in particular. “Next time.”

  I doubt she could have heard my voice.

  Making my way toward the advertising signage, I stumbled into another four-lane intersection.

  The line of buildings on the right came to an end, revealing the full department store across the street.

  …The scope of it could be described only as gigantic.

  The jam-packed parking lot was large enough to make an untold number of tennis courts out of. Cars constantly circulated in and out.

  Beyond the multihued traffic, the department store was made up of two buildings, both around ten floors tall, with arched walkways connecting them every few floors.

  “Wow. What a sight. You can build something like this in two years or so…?”

  “Oh! You there already? Master? Helloooooo?”

  “I just crossed the intersection. Not yet.”

  “Lemme see, too! Come onnnnn, master!”

  “Ugh, all right, all right! Shut up!”

  Having enough of being ranted at on full blast, I nimbly took the phone out of my pocket and pointed the rear camera at the store. An impartial onlooker would probably guess I was taking a souvenir photo.

  “Wowwwww…! That’s amazing! It’s like some kind of castle!”

  “You know, that’s not a bad way of putting it. Especially when it’s done up all like this.”

  “Huh…Oh! Hey, I think there’s an amusement park or something on the roof! Let’s go look!”

  She used the phone’s vibrate function to express her unbridled glee. Just as high intensity as always. More so, in fact.

  “No, how ’bout we not go look?! It’s not like you could try anything up there anyway.”

  “Laaaame.”

  The phone erupted with a couple of short bursts of vibration, followed by the new-text-message jingle.

  I knew it was her doing, of course. It wasn’t like there was anyone who would’ve actually been texting me.

  “Mmm? What?”

  I looked at the screen, only to find her staring back at me, a peeved expression on her face.

  Her aggressive, furrowed gaze was enough to genuinely startle me.

  “You could at least try to be a little more considerate, master! There’s all kinds of places I want to go!”

  “Yeah, that’s great. You know you can’t go on any of the rides, right? What’s so fun about that? It’d be boring.”

  “…Ugh! All right! Forget it! Just go on your dumb little shopping trip! Go ride the merry-go-round by yourself for all I care!”

  “You’re not catching me dead on that, okay?!”

  She flashed a look at me, and with that, the power shut off…Or not. The clock in the background was still on. Energy-save mode, maybe? Either way, the screen was totally black.

  “Huh? Oh, come on. Hello?”

  I pushed some buttons and shook the phone around a bit. Nothing. Slowly, inexorably, the clock continued its advance.

  It was currently just past twelve thirty.

  “What’re you acting like this for? I really don’t get why—Ow!”

  Someone bumped into me. I had it coming, maybe. I was stopped just after the intersection, nearby the entrance to the store grounds.

  “Oh, uh, sorry about—”

  I turned upward, involuntarily looking into those eyes…and for a moment, time froze.

  Even though it was midsummer, he was wearing a long-sleeved, light purple coat. His eyes were only just visible from deep within the drawn hood, but they were cold as ice, the eyes of some dead, inorganic beast.

  I was seized in fright, as if looking at some forbidden bauble, and I felt the sweat jetting out of every pore in my body.

  “Uh…umm…So, uh, I’m sorry for—”

  I bowed my head down, making my self-diagnosed social anxiety disorder plain to the world with my stilted apology. This is it. He’s going to kill me. Thanks for everything, Mom. Wish I could’ve gotten a girlfriend, at least.

  “…Oh, no biggie. Sorry about that.”

  “Huh…?”

  The moment I looked back up, not a trace of him could be found.

  The front entrance was crowded, but not crowded enough for someone to disappear in a flash like that. There was nothing immediately nearby that he could have concealed himself behind. Not that quickly.

  I braced my arms against my knees, my body ready to collapse on the spot. My heart pulsed loudly in my ears, and the sweat oozed out on cue. This wasn’t just because it was the first time I interacted with another human being in ages. Those were absolutely the coldest eyes I had ever encountered in my entire life.

  And not because he was angry I bumped into him, either. They were deeper than that. They emitted a sense of intense calmness, a calm beyond anything I could imagine.

  “…right?”

  “…Huh?”

  “I said, are you all right?”

  Taking out my phone, I looked at the screen to find her perched in the center, apparently back in business but just as pouty as before.

  “Oh…You’re still there? I had hoped you finally left me alone to…uh.”

  Somewhere around the moment I was about to finish the sentence, her face began to glow bright red. Was this bad? Yeah, this was bad. I had never seen her truly in a rage before, but either way, this definitely wasn’t her cheerful side.

  “No! Uh, sorry! I’m just joking! I’m sorry, okay? Hey, let’s go to the roof later! Up to that amusement park! Okay?”

  In an instant, the red that had stormed across her face disappeared, and her eyes shined so brightly that I could almost hear the sparkly sound effects.

  Great. I was scrambling for words, I know, but that was one button I absolutely should not have pushed.

  “The amusement park?! Really? You just said we’re going?!”

  The phone practically vibrated itself out of my grip. The sparklies I heard in my mind were starting to get out of hand.

  “Uh…? Um…S-sure, yeah! Great! It’ll be a nice change of pace!”

  “That’s a promise, right?! Ummm…Oh! Hey, let’s go on that thing that goes up and down and stuff! And after that…ooh, after that…!”

  Part of me felt a twinge of regret at the reaction I was getting, but I figured it was harmless enough.

  I had already begun to file away my earlier encounter as nothing to concern myself about.

  This was more interesting anyway. The outside world was just as much a wondrous surprise for her as it was for me.

  She can’t smell the city or feel the heat steaming out from it, and maybe it’s made her far more enraptured with this world than I am, or ever will be.

  I went through the entryway, nodding in vague agreement to all her giggling requests for tour stops as I proceeded in.

  The design on the paved stone path leading in from the entrance must have cost a staggering amount of cash. It was hopelessly, thoroughly ornate, a mesh of rectangular stones in a dazzling variety of colors.

  No doubt
it was meant to symbolize some grand, murky spiritual something-or-other mere plebeians like me could never hope to understand.

  Tromping across this inscrutable creation of a no doubt lofty-minded artistic genius, I reached the building that loomed on the left side of the path.

  From directly underneath, it seemed impossibly high, giving the illusion of extending all the way into the cosmos.

  An information map, again done up in gilded, ornate fashion, stood in front of the enormous glass door.

  It was encased in an exquisite frame, one that would be right at home surrounding some great cultural masterpiece.

  “Electronics, electronics…Oh, seventh floor.”

  “Once we’re done on that up-’n’-down thing, I want to go on the roller coaster, okay? We can save the Ferris wheel for later, so…”

  “All right! I hear you! We’re going!”

  She kept repeating her itinerary like some magical incantation, to the point where I could imagine “up-’n’-down thing” and “roller coaster” leapfrogging each other in my mind, one springing along after the other for eternity.

  “Great! So let’s get the shopping over with! Mouse! Keyboard!”

  “I need something to drink first…”

  The door automatically opened as I stood in front of it. In an instant, frigid air greeted me with its blessed presence.

  “Hnnaahhhhh…”

  The pleasant rush was enough to make me audibly moan.

  “You make it sound so dirty, master!”

  “That’s the first thing you have to say to your master after he’s come so far?”

  Oh, crap.

  I had yelled out loud at her. A family of customers browsing around a display of summer gear stared right at me. The youngest boy pointed toward me, laughing innocently.

  “Um…uh. Yeah. Ha-ha-ha.”

  I was sure they saw me as some kind of demented invalid. Putting on a less-than-believable smile, I let the boy watch me as I hurried myself toward the elevators and out of sight.

  Don’t end up like me, kid.

  The elevators were in a room detached a small distance from the shopping space, one that featured a bench and some vending machines lined up on the wall. An elderly man was sitting there, next to a woman with a baby in her arms.

  “Oooooh, vending machines…!”

  It had finally come. The moment when I would get the beverage I had thus far denied myself for some reason, waiting until I’d arrived at this exact place.

  My throat was so dry, I was afraid my esophageal walls would glue themselves together with every breath I took.

  I took a thousand-yen bill out of my wallet—I’m a high roller, I know—and fed it to the drinks machine.

  That carbonated beverage was all mine.

  The thought of the liquefied sugar osmosing into every cell of my body filled my heart with childlike excitement.

  The moment the button lit up, I jammed my thumb into it. There was just 0.3 seconds’ worth of difference. I’ve got supernatural reflexes when I need ’em.

  The sound of the thudding soda can filled my ears with its blunt melody. That thud was surely one of the joys of the vending-machine experience. I was almost moved to tears by the clunk sound I’d gone so long without hearing.

  The can I eventually plucked out was blistering cold to the touch, like something from another world. It was sheer bliss, and my only regret was that this wondrous delight could only be savored by the palm of my hand. I was seized by the impulse to run this can across every inch of my drenched body, but that really would make me a pervert.

  Enough of that. The time had finally come. I pulled the tab and opened the can. The psshh sound serenaded my ears anew, the aroma of the carbonated beverage ruthlessly, thoroughly caressing my nostrils. Without a moment’s hesitation, I brought it to my lips and poured it down my throat. Then I let it soak in…No. That hardly begins to explain the feeling. I let it fill me, in every way possible.

  “You should stop panting like that, master. It’s gross.”

  “Gnnhh. Ahhh…”

  “Now it’s beyond gross.”

  “Shut up! If you could drink this, you’d do the exact same thing!”

  “I would not. By the way, master, the elevator’s waiting!”

  Out of the four elevators that lined the wall, the one on the far left was open, people quickly streaming out of it. Once emptied, it briskly began to fill with impatient customers.

  “Huh? Oh. Yeah, I’ll take the next one. Once I’m done drinking this.”

  With that, I slurped down the soda, enjoying the fragrant carbonation as its sugary payload infiltrated every cell of my—

  “Ahhhh! It’s closing! Hurry up and drink it!”

  “We’ll go on the next one, for chrissake! I’m busy!”

  “Come onnnn…Hurry! What if it’s closed when we get up there?!”

  “They’re not gonna close the damn amusement park in the middle of the day! That elevator’s full anyway.”

  The remainder of the elevator line had already opted against joining the pack of sardines inside the car.

  “Just hang tight for a sec. I’ll get us on the next one.”

  Ignoring her as she put the phone on a low rumble, I examined the elevator a bit more closely.

  The up and down buttons were the kind that lit up with just a light touch, the arrows done in a fancy font that revealed the interior designer’s thoroughness. A short introduction to the store was written on a plaque next to the left-hand elevator.

  “Huh…‘The building’s state-of-the-art, computer-controlled disaster-prevention technology provides the maximum level of safety possible in every corner of the store.’ Neat.”

  “State-of-the-art, huh? They better erase the ‘state-of-the-art’ bit next year.”

  “Yeah. Nice attention to detail there. You never know; maybe they’ll put some new state-of-the-art stuff in next year. Besides, they’re just bragging, is all. All they’re saying here is ‘We got all this fancy junk on the outside, but the inside’s full of high-tech crap, too,’ you know?”

  “Huh…Sounds like a pain to keep running.”

  “I’ll bet. Oh, here it is.”

  The “1” light on the nearest elevator flashed, and just as before, the riders flowed through the open doors. Once everyone was spat out, the elevator was once again inundated with a steady stream of waiting shoppers.

  From where I was located, I would have no difficulty getting on this time. Tossing the empty can into a nearby garbage bin, I followed the flow into the elevator.

  The “7” button for electronics was already lit up in orange; some previous passenger must have pressed it. I appreciated the gesture, given that the crush of people was making the button panel difficult to reach. Once the elevator approached its maximum weight load, the doors silently slid shut and we began to go upward. The air-conditioning was on, but all these riders in a cramped space still made things sticky and uncomfortable. I wanted to get off as soon as possible, but we stopped at nearly every floor before the seventh, my body getting squeezed and kneaded at every stop before I finally reached my destination.

  Finally, the door opened, and I filed out with a few other customers.

  Compared to the summerwear, swimsuits, and food that spread across the first floor, it was a completely different world.

  The entire space was surrounded by large panes of glass, filling the floor with bright sunlight.

  The sense of fresh, inviting openness that filled it seemed strange for an electronics department. It exuded high-class stateliness, like an elite office building.

  The first thing that caught my eye was the kitchen-goods department. It was lined with enormous refrigerators, all but daring customers to hang an entire pig’s carcass from its roof, something I would never fit into my place in a million years. I noticed a line of metallic, weapon-like rice cookers, all of which seemed far too complex for simply cooking rice. Colorful signs shouted NEW INVENTORY! and HOT
PRODUCT! in huge lettering. For someone like me with no interest whatsoever in this stuff, it all seemed totally alien.

  A large aisle—it had to be fortyish meters in length—slashed its way across the entire floor. On the far end, I could see fancy-looking audio systems and the latest flat-screen TVs displayed on the wall.

  “Whoa! This is huge! I bet this floor alone is bigger than most specialty electronics shops, huh?”

  Not wishing to get screamed at any more than I had already, I pointed my phone’s camera straight ahead as I hit the aisles. There was nothing but large appliances at the forefront, and judging by the length of the aisles and the size of the building, you could probably find almost anything electrical you wanted in here. There must have been ten or so employees milling around, all wearing vests with catchy sales slogans sewn on.

  “Master! What’s that? It looks like a bomb!”

  “That…? What is that? Some kind of water heater? It looks like a huge hand grenade.”

  With its rough, rugged design and uniform dark-teal color, it must have been deliberately designed to resemble a weapon. If it weren’t for the meter on the side showing the current water level, someone would have called the bomb squad by now.

  “That is soooo cool! Hey, master, you mentioned you wanted some hot water earlier, didn’t you?!”

  “Yeah, but I just didn’t feel like going downstairs to make some instant ramen, okay? I don’t need that piece of junk in my room. That, and I’d still need to go downstairs to fill it up.”

  “Aww, why not? It’d make a great conversation piece when you get a visitor or—uh. I’m sorry. Said too much.”

  A pall descended between us. Her expression was solemn, as if she had accidentally brought up a friend’s horrible incontinence problem at a dinner party.

  “Let’s just drop it.”

  “I apologize! I just wasn’t thinking, so…I’ll be more careful next time.”

  “Just drop it! Okay?!…But oh, hey, check this thing out! That design is nuts!”

  I frantically tried changing the topic to the microwave ovens lined up next to us along the aisle. Not only were they perfectly normal, but they were also from a brand I’d never heard of. A sign reading INVENTORY CLEARANCE! was tacked to the wall, and they had all been discounted two-thirds off their list price.