Short Story "Long Swipe: Mirage of Drizzle" (Part 1)

"A long swipe is a wide swipe from outside the screen—."
Or, a mirage that exists in your reality."

Saturday afternoon. Drizzle. A residential area in Shimo-Akatsuka.
Amidst the passing umbrellas, Hideyuki Sakuma stood still with a tragic expression.
There is work tonight that I cannot escape—.

Same day, same time. A back alley in Shimo-Akatsuka. Inside CAFE POST.

Neo sat in her usual corner seat, typing on her PC.
Secretly watching the master at the counter through the display was Neo's hidden pleasure.

She kept telling herself, "I'm not a stalker."
But at a frequency of three days a week, it wouldn't be strange to be called a full-fledged stalker.

Neo Kazuki, 21 years old.
She doesn't go to university much, but she is technically a third-year student.
She scrapes by as a web writer to supplement her living expenses.

That is why she has been writing here since the shop opened at 11 o'clock today.

The master knocked on the counter, pointed outside, and signaled to Neo.
"Neo-chan, he's here to pick you up."

"Ah! I forgot!"

Outside the window, a tall man with long hair was standing blankly.
…He’s not “him,” though.

Suppressing the urge to correct him, Neo said with an awkward smile,
"It was delicious today. Um… I'll come again."

She hurriedly closed her PC, quickly took out her wallet, and paid the bill.
"Yeah, come again."

The master, who was in his 30s and handsome enough to make people turn their heads, had an exceptional smile.
It was enough to make other customers whisper in admiration.

As she was leaving, she made eye contact with Nene, the shop's cat.
Her spot was on a fluffy cushion in the corner of the counter.

She gave Neo a cold, sidelong glance at her bashful appearance.
No matter how often she came, this cat never warmed up to Neo at all.

The doorbell chimed as Neo stepped out of the cafe.

"Neo!"

Ryuji, who had been standing under the eaves, brightened up and approached her.
"I came to pick you up."

Ryuji handed Neo a red umbrella and smiled happily.

Gray hair reaching his waist.
A white linen shirt, earth-toned wide pants, and sandals on bare feet—.
His attire stood out all the more in the drizzly residential street.

Neo looked like an ordinary girl of her age, but
she believed she possessed the trifecta of "unremarkable, humorless, and plain."

Today, she was dressed in a black hoodie and flared long denim, which was already a bit drab, and
to top it off, there was this drizzling rain.

Neo absolutely hated her naturally curly hair that would frizz up.
Naturally, Ryuji's carefree attitude made her feel a little irritated.

The fact that Ryuji's smile was "refreshing like a young boy's" was something Neo disliked even more.
So, she glanced at Ryuji out of the corner of her eye and silently accepted the umbrella.

She immediately started walking at a brisk pace toward her home, five steps ahead of him.
Neo was in a hurry because she couldn't afford to be late for the 2:00 PM webinar.

Ryuji followed behind her.
"Hey, wait a second, Neo!"

Thud!

The red umbrella flew up into the air.
Suddenly, Neo collided violently with a man who was rushing past.

For a split second, the man's face caught Neo's eye.
Ryuji was startled and picked up the red umbrella.

The man looked back at Neo with an expression of shock, lost his balance, and ran off while letting out a shout.
"What? That was..."

At the same time, the smartphone in Neo's pocket buzzed with a warning.

"Are you okay, Neo?"

Ryuji caught up with her, holding the umbrella.
"Don't you think you should go after him?"

Ryuji asked this to Neo, who was preoccupied with her smartphone's reaction.

"I have a webinar coming up... it's raining, my hair is frizzing, just leave it alone!"

Despite saying that, Neo did not take her eyes off the direction the man had gone.
"But... you're curious, aren't you?" Ryuji pressed her again.

"…Oh, fine. …Let's go!"

With that, Neo took her smartphone out of her pocket.

Even though it should have been on the lock screen, the glowing letters 'LS' were floating right above the phone.
A chain of light was flashing around the letters. It was a 'Shadow-Attached' (Kagetsuki) reaction.

LS (Abbreviation for Long Swipe)
A Long Swipe is a sign of access to a Mirage.

Without touching the smartphone screen, Neo performs a long swipe toward the glowing LS characters.
"Long Swipe, activate!"

As if reacting to those words,
"Activating Long Swipe," a mechanical voice replied from the smartphone.

Sakuma was panicking.
The smartphone kept sending him reminders.
If he didn't do it here tonight, there would be no turning back.

Even though he thought that, he couldn't stop trembling.
A survival knife was tucked into the front pocket of his hoodie.
He had bought it for this purpose, but fear made his legs freeze.

—It was his first robbery.

He had only come to scout the location.
He could still back out now... but...

He had bumped into someone earlier. They had seen his face.
How did it come to this!

It's over. He couldn't escape anymore. He had to do it.

Staggering, Sakuma began to walk toward the mansion he had been directed to.

"Shiro-chan, can you tell me where the node ring is?"

Neo said this while waiting for the map app to appear on the smartphone screen.

"Understood," the mechanical voice continued.
"The closest one is located halfway up the stairs of Akatsuka Hachiman Shrine."

"Thanks, Shiro-chan!"

After saying that, Neo checked the map.
The glowing letters NR were floating at the destination on the map app.

Right above the smartphone—.

"Neo, over here!" Ryuji started running ahead.
"Got it!" Neo followed after Ryuji.

The drizzle had become thick, like white smoke.
The traffic jam in front of the station and the people passing by were completely indifferent to the pair.
It was just the same repetitive weekend scenery as always.

Neo and Ryuji arrived at the bottom of the stairs of Akatsuka Hachiman Shrine.
Since it was a drizzly Saturday afternoon, there was no one around.

Because they had run with their umbrellas folded, water was dripping softly from their hair.
The tips of Neo's natural curls were coiled up.

"We're here, Shiro-chan," Neo said to the smartphone.
"Understood. Opening the node ring," the smartphone replied.

Immediately after that voice echoed, a ring of light chains appeared halfway up the stairs of the shrine standing on the burial mound.
It's a nodering.

The gate of light spun like a coin before coming to a stop.

"Let's go, Ryuji!"
"OK!"

Neo and Ryuji leaped into the gate.

And as soon as they entered, the gate vanished as if a thread had been snapped,
returning to a space of pure silence.

Long Swipe: Mirage of Drizzle (Part 2) continues

Thank you very much for reading until the end.
If you could leave a like, comment, follow, or feedback, Azuki Wakana would be overjoyed. I look forward to your continued support (*^_^*)

The pinned page for "The Magic of 'N': The Book of the Abyss and the Dawn of the Heart" is here → Welcome! Would you like some tea? Or perhaps a story?

The Azuki House that opens on Sundays is here → Azuki House (Hehehe! Sharing a bit of tomorrow's energy)