Urashima Ice Chamber
Urashima Ice Chamber
The Urashima Ice Chamber was a place where time solidified slowly.
Whatever you put inside freezes.
But it doesn't just get cold.
A little bit of the 'movement before stopping' remains.
A face about to smile freezes in the middle of smiling.
Words about to be thought are preserved in the middle of being thought.
One night.
The inside of the ice chamber was quiet.
Even though cold air shouldn't have a sound,
for some reason, there was only the 'weight of silence'.
'It is still moving, isn't it?'
a voice said.
It was a turtle.
Standing between the ice shelves.
Frost spreads at its feet.
'What is?'
As if the ice chamber itself had spoken, the air trembled slightly.
'The middle of things.'
The turtle is looking at the shelf.
There,
there is a 'goodbye' that remains half-frozen.
It has not completely solidified.
It is trembling just a little.
'Are you going to the Dragon Palace?'
'What department is it today?'
'The Incomplete Freezing Department.'
At that moment,
the temperature of one shelf changes.
However, it does not melt.
It just softens a little.
When I noticed,
it was a warehouse, and also the bottom of the sea.
A space where time is in the middle of solidifying.
There is a fish there.
On its name tag,
'Incomplete Freezing Department, State Maintenance Section'
is written.
The fish is looking at the ice.
'This is the Urashima Ice Chamber, isn't it?'
'Yes.'
'You solidify things too much.'
The ice chamber is silent.
The fish continues.
'But things that don't solidify will just flow away.'
A quiet pause.
Inside the ice, one word moves.
A memory that hasn't frozen completely yet.
The turtle said.
'Are you going back?'
The ice chamber thought for a moment.
'Can I melt it just a little?'
The turtle nodded.
'That is a good thawing.'
Returning home.
When I open the door,
the air is still a little cold.
But that coldness,
was a little bit gentle.
Perhaps people,
do not freeze things to stop the past.
Perhaps they are gently trapping things along with time,
so that the things still in the middle of moving,
do not break.
Deep inside the ice chamber,
something was slowly pretending to melt.