The Dull-Colored Corroder Episode 5

Episode 5

On my way to the convenience store, what caught my eye was a black SUV that looked like a sledgehammer. I had been just a hair's breadth away from being run over and killed.

And then...

Several figures walking through the streets.

Like sleepwalkers, they were wandering around aimlessly with expressionless, hollow faces. And most of those people had dull-colored skin, with countless black dots squirming all over it.

Furthermore, there were individual differences; the more those black dots moved actively, the closer their skin color was to that of an actual human. Conversely, those with sparse, sluggish movements looked dull as if they were dead, and some were even beyond dull-colored, appearing completely gray.

People waiting at traffic lights, people passing by, people walking behind me—each had these individual differences, and their movements varied significantly. As expected, those with more black dots moved more smoothly, while the others were sluggish. Some even seemed unable to see, repeatedly bumping into walls, falling down, getting back up, and bumping into them again.

Moreover, those with active black dots were darting their eyes back and forth, and I sensed 'danger' in that frequent movement. I suppressed the fear overflowing in my chest and cast my gaze downward. I also deliberately walked with sluggish movements, hurrying to the convenience store with the same demeanor as them.

I felt that if I turned back now, they might sense something, so I slowly entered the convenience store as if nothing were wrong.

“Weeeelcoooome.”

As I entered the store, the staff member's greeting, which usually sounded cheerful, sounded slow, as if the playback speed had been reduced. Avoiding eye contact with the staff and the customers wandering the aisles, I grabbed a rice ball at random from the food section in front of the register, and grabbed a brick-style juice carton from the shelf next to it.

A line of dull-colored people stood at the register. The slowly echoing sound of the scanner persistently stoked my sense of impatience. I desperately held back my trembling legs and back, waiting for my turn.

“Neext oone, pleeease.”

After the hard-to-understand greeting, I slowly placed the rice ball and juice on the counter, trying not to be found out.

“Thaat wiiill bee eiiight huundreed eiiighty yeeen.”

The clerk, whose black dots were squirming elegantly, stated my total while their skin flickered between dull-colored and human-toned. I took out my smartphone and silently presented the barcode payment screen.

As soon as the screen signaled the payment was processed, I took my items and left the store, walking quickly but without being too hurried so as not to arouse suspicion.

Once I stepped out of the convenience store, the traffic of black cars was even heavier than before I went in. Furthermore, the people walking on the street were moving their heads from side to side like antennas, as if they were searching for something.

Could it be dangerous to just push through this flow as it is?

Having judged it so, I followed the movements of those around me and shook my head from side to side as I walked. By doing that, I felt the gazes from those around me, which I had felt slightly, ease up a little.

In any case, the priority was to get through this and escape into my home. Maintaining constant tension, I stepped forward, one step at a time, on the path to my apartment.

Even though it is a distance that takes less than ten minutes to walk normally, it seems like it will take twice as long because I am walking while matching the speed and movements of those around me. I must not hurry, nor can I be too slow. Above all, I must not stand out. I must become the air of this situation and become a part of the flow.

Feeling cold sweat on my armpits and back, I turned my eyes to the crowd of people walking ahead. Without a doubt, they reflected a dull color on their skin, and black dots were constantly wriggling on them. The areas where those dots were excessively concentrated mimicked the color of human skin and possessed a smooth luster and movement. Everyone was colored in that mysterious hue, and I felt like I was about to be crushed by the sense of confinement and pressure.

In that crowd, I discovered one woman with different skin.

"!"

I was about to cry out for a moment, but I swallowed it down on impulse.

Unlike the others, that woman had smooth, carefree human skin. Yes, the same skin color as mine. And above all, I could see that she, too, was ending her movements in a slow manner to match those around her. And she was coming toward me.

She's the same as me!

Amidst the tense fear, I felt a faint hope there. However, if I were to rejoice out loud, everything would come to nothing. Expecting the same feelings in her gaze as she approached, I waited for the moment we would pass each other.

At that instant, a black car that had been speeding slowed down rapidly and began to crawl along my right side, as if it were monitoring me. Could it be that I had been found out?

Large drops of sweat ran down my forehead. While swaying my head from side to side, I tried to keep walking with an expressionless face. And the woman approached. She, too, shook her head like me, and while pretending to be expressionless, she closed in on me. Our eyes met just a few times, and we recognized each other in silence. Surely she must be in the same situation as me. And in her eyes, 'exhaustion' was seeping out.

Furthermore, her unmade-up skin and unkempt hair made her look even more haggard. It was as if I were looking at my future self. That was how much I felt sympathy for the woman in front of me.

And...

"September 19th..."

The words she whispered as we passed each other. I am driven by the urge to turn around and demand to know what day that is. However, a black car is crawling along right beside me, as if glued to my side.

If I were to stop, I feel like I would either be dragged into the car and kidnapped, or it would mount the sidewalk and run me over. I pretended that nothing was wrong and kept walking at the same pace. Meanwhile, in my head, memories and the past intersected as I wondered what September 19th meant. Yet, I remained calm and cautious, controlling my urge to panic as I trod the path back to my home.

“Haa... what is this? What on earth...”

As soon as I reached my apartment, I collapsed at the entrance. Even though it was only a few hundred meters, I felt as exhausted as if I had finished a full marathon, and sweat poured out of me, its scent enveloping my body. Furthermore, due to the extreme tension, the fear of what I had just seen finally washed over me, and my limbs began to tremble uncontrollably. I became terrified of the dull-colored people walking the streets and the black car that seemed to be stalking me.

What I had just seen was too real. Was that reality? Is this also the work of my strange self?

I suddenly cast my eyes toward that medicine I had left on the table.

The tragedy of yesterday flashed through my mind. My body still remembers that hell. But I want to be normal...

The phrase 'September 19th' also bothered me, but as soon as I returned to my room, I was driven by the urge to deny what I had seen.

I would rather suffer from vomiting and headaches than accept that scene as reality...

I made up my mind and reached for the medicine.

Something is different. Something is wrong.

I thought that it was just me who was different and strange compared to those around me... yes, that's what I thought. However, beneath the surface of that feeling, a sense of discomfort and unease was bubbling up.

Is that really the case? Am I the only one who is wrong? That question is gradually growing stronger, as if it is trying to overturn who I am right now from the very foundation.

Should I succumb to fear and keep closing my eyes to the strange occurrences happening to me? Or should I face the scene that is gradually unfolding before my eyes right now and confront a new truth?

I didn't have confidence in either. If I had to say, I wanted to lean toward the former. But my 'body' wouldn't allow it. Every time, it contradicts my will, firmly demonstrating its refusal through the sanction of feeling unwell.

I couldn't help but think of the series of events that way. It wasn't just stress or fatigue; my body was sending out some kind of danger signal. I have no evidence, but that way of describing it fits my current state of mind better.

Then, what is happening to me now, and what is about to become of me? My 'body' still won't tell me the answer. Do I have to grasp the truth myself?

Suddenly, people with dull-colored skin came to mind. I couldn't shake the impression that their behavior was like they were continuing to play out defined lives and personas according to a set of rules. It looked to me as if they were all moving according to the same program, like mob characters in an old role-playing game.

Before I knew it, I woke up on my bed. It seems I had been sleeping for a long time, perhaps because the medicine worked. Looking around, it was already pitch black.

"What time is it now?"

I reached for my smartphone to check the time.

Ten-thirty at night... had I slept for more than six hours again?

Then, while taking a deep breath, I checked to see if I had any nausea or headaches from the side effects of the medicine.

I'm fine! As if last night's events were a lie, my stomach and head felt clear.

Just as I was about to close my smartphone, I remembered the unread messages that had been sitting there for a while. For some reason, I felt like I should look at them at this moment, so I opened them. Since I had only ever checked messages from Sosuke, my message folder was full of unread items. There were really only useless things lined up there, such as what are commonly called spam emails and advertisements from sites I had registered with.

　However...

　Among those spam emails, there were strange messages from a certain address that had arrived in several parts.

　I opened that series of emails.

“Wake up”

“That is a different place”

“A different future”

“Think back to the past”

　And so on, each email contained only a single, cryptic sentence, and each had a photo attached to it.

　I opened them with trepidation.

“...”

　I gasped at the photos.

　They showed me chatting with people who had dull-colored skin, captured across several shots.

　Furthermore, there were photos of a wagon abandoned along the coast, and of some inn.

　For some reason, I felt a sense of déjà vu with every one of those photos. However, they were all still shrouded in mist, and I felt frustrated that I couldn't recall memories that were right on the tip of my tongue.

“Who on earth could have sent these?”

　I tapped the address they were sent from. The mailbox opened, and it looked like I could reply.

"Who are you?"

I typed that, then hesitated. Should I really send a reply...?

My fingers hovered over the smartphone, lost. However, judging by the content of this message, the sender definitely knows who I am. And they are trying to tell me something. If I reply, will the current situation improve, or will it get even worse? I have no idea.

Either way, the unsettling situation remains unchanged. Furthermore, I am likely already at a point of no return. If I can grab onto something, I'll grab onto even a straw.

With a feeling of 'to hell with it!', I tapped the send button.

After that, I got up from the bed and tried to quietly open the bedroom door. At that moment, as if I had just remembered it, a sense of fear welled up in my chest. Perhaps that dull-colored someone I saw in the evening had snuck into the room.

I opened the door just a crack, trying not to make a sound, and peeked into the living room.

The lights in the living room were still off, but I could see a faint, flickering light at the far end of the room. I opened the door a little wider and let my eyes scan to the back of the living room.

The light seemed to be coming from the television, and a faint metallic sound could also be heard from the same direction. There was a sofa in front of the television, and Sosuke was sitting there.

I suppressed the urge to run over to him and observed the situation for a while.

The television screen was displaying a test pattern with eight-colored bars, the kind you see when a broadcast ends. The arrangement of each color changed every few seconds, and each time it did, it repeated an intense flickering.

Furthermore, the metallic sound gradually grew louder, transforming into that noise.

I held my breath and stared at it.

And Sosuke's back, which didn't move an inch. I quietly slipped out of the bedroom and cautiously crept up behind Sosuke. He didn't seem to notice me; he didn't twitch at all. Illuminated by that flickering light, he looked as if he were receiving some kind of revelation. However, there was not a shred of divinity in that flickering; to my eyes, it looked overflowing with intimidation and ominousness.

Then I peered at Sosuke.

"!"

Once again, I was left speechless.

Yes, Sosuke's face and arms were, as I had seen before, half skin-colored and half clouded in a dull color, with countless black dots swimming around inside them.

I desperately held back a scream that threatened to burst out, calmly backed away without making a sound, and returned to the bedroom.

"It's all over..."

I despaired in my heart. The only person I loved had revealed the form I least wanted to see, not once, but three times. Whether this was reality or an illusion, the fact that I was seeing something I shouldn't meant that I was finished...

Sosuke was no longer the Sosuke I knew. Yet, somewhere in my heart, there was a part of me that wished this was just a dream.

I quietly closed the door and leaned my back against it. Then, I just sat down right there.

"What should I do now?"

Given this situation, I had absolutely no idea what the answer was.

That was when it happened.

The smartphone I had left on the bed vibrated, signaling a received message.

I hurriedly opened the inbox, and there was a reply to the email I had sent earlier.

"Please come to this location at 2:00 AM tonight."

The message contained only that, along with an attached address.

"Misaki Hotel, Room 203"

It was a hotel just a few minutes' walk from here. It didn't have a very good reputation, and honestly, it was a place that made me feel uneasy as a woman. If I had received this message under normal circumstances, I would never have trusted it. But I decided to believe in that message.

Now that I had lost Sosuke, my emotional anchor, I had no choice but to accept everything that came my way and cling to any hand offered to me.

I had to wait for that time to arrive without making a sound. The situation was so confusing and tense that I felt like I was going insane. I had no basis for it, but before I knew it, that was how I perceived things.

I decided not to sleep so that I wouldn't oversleep. Lately, I had often found myself falling asleep without realizing it, and I couldn't even rule out the possibility that someone had been making me sleep.

Having firmly made up my mind, I gripped my smartphone tightly.

To be continued