Picture Story 0: The Day Strawberry Girl Jumped Out of the Clock - Episode 0

Back when there was no "color" in this world yet.
Above the "Clock of Beginnings" in the center of the sky,
a single, tiny speck of "red" was floating.

That was Strawberry Girl.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.
Time was just going around and around in the same place.
Strawberry Girl floated along to that rhythm.

"Hey, where does time go?"
Even when she asked the clock, the clock remained silent.
It was just going around and around in the same place.

"Oh, I'm starting to get sleepy."

That was when it happened.
From across the sky, an airplane wrapped in a "blue" she had never seen before came rushing toward Strawberry Girl's clock.

"Ah! Look out!!"

It's going to crash!
The clock is going to break!
When she looked closely, she saw that no one was sitting in the airplane's cockpit.

"There's no one there...! Clock, run away!"
"If it hits, it hits, and that's that."
"What!! No, you can't!"
"That's just how things are, Strawberry Girl."
The clock, which had spent a long time there, spoke slowly to Strawberry Girl.

"No way! I'm going to save the clock. Hiyah!"

Strawberry Girl kicked the clock's face with all her might.

"Oh, ouch. That's rough."
"I'm sorry, Clock. But you see..."

Strawberry Girl jumped toward the oncoming blue airplane.
A big jump.
She hopped into the empty cockpit,
and gripped the large control stick tightly with her small hands.

That was the moment.
The ticking sound vanished.
That sound she heard every single day had stopped.

"Clock?"
"It seems like a screw has come loose."

The clock smiled, lonely and sad.
The clock's hands rotated slowly and looked as if they were about to stop.

"Before I stop, could you... go get the screw? ...Strawberry Girl..."
"Yeah, I got it. Wait for me."

The clock made one last small "click" sound and stopped its hands.
The surroundings suddenly fell into a deep silence.

"Clock...?"

A few tears welled up in Ichigo-chan's eyes as she looked down.
The predictable, comforting, tick-tock days she had known until yesterday.
The realization that it had truly ended pricked at her heart.

“There’s still time!”
The blue airplane gently rocked its body, as if to say it would be alright.
Ichigo-chan wiped away her tears and looked ahead.

“This isn't the time to be crying. I have to find the key and get the clock moving again.”

When Ichigo-chan pulled back on the control stick, the airplane soared high, piercing through the twilight-colored clouds. Below her, the clock was fading into the distance. And right before her eyes, the shimmering lights of a mysterious city began to appear.

Carrying Ichigo-chan, the airplane
pointed its nose toward a 'City of Fantasy' that no one knew yet.

(Meeting the cats is a story for after she lands in this city of light...)

The continuation of the story is
Kamishibai: The Day Ichigo-chan Jumped Out of the Clock | Episode 1 | MeiMei

[MeiMei's Production Notes: Behind the Scenes]

Hello everyone, this is MeiMei.
Today, I brought you the beginning of the story of my precious 'Ichigo-chan'.

Actually, this story began when the AI suddenly introduced an unexpected 'airplane' while I was creating the images. The mishap, which I initially thought was a failure, linked with my own desire to 'jump out of a fixed schedule,' and thus the scene of the bittersweet farewell to the clock was born.

“Before it stops, go get the key.”

Ichigo-chan, who was entrusted with that task, is also me.
Middle-aged. While being grateful for the clock that has stopped (my daily life until now), I have jumped into the cockpit of an AI airplane that no one else is flying, and now I am desperately gripping the control stick.

Will I be able to find this 'key' safely? My 'flight training essay,' full of failures, will be written in a separate magazine, so I would be happy if you could watch over it along with the characters' kamishibai!

👇 Records of the City of Fantasy (note) https://note.com/happy_bibi88/n/n8805db952715