Buntoku High School Literature Club Oogiri Research Society—The Time-Traveling Empty Boat

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※This work is a revised version of "The Trash Can, Mom, and Koharu."
By Tsumugi Shirai

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They say the trash can at the nearby station
is going to disappear.



I've been throwing away things I don't need.
Canned coffee I drank.
Scraps of paper with unfunny jokes.



Were they really
things I didn't need?



That coffee,
I might have been able to drink one more sip.



Those unfunny jokes,
I might have been able to use them for a punishment game.



Then, why not
take them home?



Mom says,

"Alright, give me a one-liner about that canned coffee!"



Having lost my escape route, I
hand over my joke notebook.



Mom
flips through a page
and snorts.



"This isn't even worth throwing away."



Wait,
is it landing?



"It's not funny, though."



Saying that,
instead of the trash can,
she stuck it on the fridge.



Huh?

This,
it's become my own punishment game.



As I thought,
I'll just throw it in the trash can
on my way home.





They say the trash can at the nearby station
is going to disappear.



Until now,
I've thrown away
lots of canned coffee and
failed jokes.



And then,
my conversations with Mom
decreased.



The distance between me and Mom,
I lost track of it.



Should I take home
the boat from the takoyaki I ate?



Would Mom be happy?

"Give me a one-liner while holding a sauce-covered boat!"



I
suddenly stop
in front of the station.



An empty takoyaki boat,
carried around in the open
by a high school girl...



To the neighbor lady,
Hello!
I greet her cheerfully

...in my hand,
an empty takoyaki boat.



To the old man across the street,
Hello!

...my hand is
covered in sauce.



Everyone's gaze
goes to the boat.



But,
they won't make a joke about it.



I go home.



Mom
shouts happily.

"Give me a one-liner while holding a sauce-covered boat!"



As expected,
Mom is different.



But, lately,
at school too,
there's someone a bit different.



When I brought the boat,
she replied like this:



"Where are you going
with that boat
carrying the octopus?"



...What is that reply?

What are you
questioning?



My hands are sticky.

I'm not rowing a boat.



Koharu
takes me to a world
different from Mom's.



I shouldn't just decide things are trash.

Maybe I should
properly take them home...





Beside me, Koharu is
singing
pleasantly.



🎵Row that boat,
row it with your own hands.

Why is your voice so beautiful?

It's just trash, you know.



"TOKIO Racing 'Sora-fune'"

End