Watcher #16

On the way home from work, at the nearest subway station.

At the station convenience store, I only bought smoked quail eggs.

They are a snack for my evening drink.

I declined a plastic bag, and they put tape over the barcode.

I threw that into my bag along with my wallet.

Dinner is pasta.

I heat up a retort pouch sauce in the water I used to boil the pasta.

Then, I have just one alcoholic drink after the meal.

Sometimes I have one and a half, at most two, but I usually stop at one.

I make my own shochu mixed with oolong tea.

Sometimes I buy a canned highball at the convenience store.

I don't drink beer.

Or cocktails.

I don't like alcohol that is bitter or sweet.

I don't drink wine or sake because I get too drunk.

I like the feeling of being tipsy.

My go-to snacks are the smoked quail eggs I just bought, or smoked cheese.


I was on my way from the station to the apartment building where I live.

Buying the quail eggs triggered a stream of self-introductory thoughts in my head.

In reality, even if I were to introduce myself, I wouldn't give an introduction so focused on alcohol...

While thinking about that, I had left the station and had been in the residential area for a while.

Then, I reached a section where expensive-looking houses were gathered.

The houses in this section have raised foundations.

The slope is gentle, so it doesn't look like it, but I heard this is the bottom of a hollow.

Apparently, there used to be a lot of flood damage.

But I heard that sewer construction was done properly and drainage improved.

Certainly, I have never seen a situation where this area was submerged just because it rained heavily.

Originally, the subway didn't run through this area.

After it was decided that the subway line would be extended and pass through here, land prices skyrocketed.

The elderly in this region often say,

"In the old days, this area was all rice paddies."

Even if land prices have gone up, I wonder if it's still cheap as land since it's at the bottom of a hollow.

The houses themselves are magnificent.

Did the owners of the rice paddies sell the land and build expensive houses?

There is a house with a sunken garage in the raised foundation.

When I walk in front of it, a sensor reacts and a security light turns on.

A luxury car was lit up through the lattice shutter.

The height of the foundation varies from house to house.

I walk past a house that isn't raised that high.

The base of the hedge is exactly at eye level.

I saw a light between the trunks.

I thought it was a garden light, but I couldn't help but be curious.

I checked that there was no one around.

I opened the house's simple stainless steel gate without permission and climbed the stairs.

The stairs, like the foundation, are made of exposed concrete.

I couldn't resist the urge to know the source of the light.

At that time, for some reason, I thought it was natural to check.

Short stairs are installed along the property.

When I climbed up and turned toward the center of the property, there was the entrance.

I turned left, walked past the entrance, and proceeded to the back of the property.

Toward where the light was.

It was there.

This must be a ventilation opening for the space under the house.

A piece of glass was fitted perfectly into it.

The inside was filled with liquid, and there was something in it.

That was the first "thing" I saw.

Its appearance resembles a fetus.

But at this size, it should definitely have a more newborn-like appearance.

Besides, its face is accordion-shaped, like a pump.

It expands and contracts, spitting out bubbles.

I have no idea why it is like that.

Even seeing such a thing, I didn't doubt for a second that it was a fake.

Even though I didn't doubt it, I was surprisingly calm.

I feel a presence from further back in the property.

It's the garden.

Is the homeowner minimalist?

The garden is just a spread of lawn, with nothing like a laundry rack.

If it weren't for "that"...

There was a bird in the center of the garden.

I know that calling it a bird is not correct.

But I had no other words to describe it.

It has no beak or feathers.

But it has thin, bird-like legs that look like they would break, like a crane or a flamingo.

Above such a lower body, there are human breasts.

A chest like a plastic fake.

Above that is a huge head.

Should I call this a head?

It's as if meat was poured into a pound cake mold instead of batter.

That meat had a texture that could hardly be called healthy.

Besides the bird, there were two lights.

One was shaped like a human head.

But it was only the outside.

There was no content.

Instead of content, a white light was shining.

But the profile looked like it was alive.

The other one was stuck to the wall.

It was like a torso cut in half front-to-back, with the front side stuck on...

The inside of the body was glowing, like indirect lighting.

How stylish.

And then... a thick lower body.

A sturdy lower body with muscular legs.

There was no upper body, and the cross-section was gouged out and hollow.

Inside were only the heads of various flowers.

Above that, it was covered with an arch-shaped, short ladder-like lid.

There was another one in the back.

It was floating.

In a tuck-sitting position.

Even calling it tuck-sitting, it wasn't the type where you hug your knees from above, but the type where you hug the back of your thighs from below.

That thing was wearing something like a full-body suit made of red rubber.

Even in the darkness of the night, you could tell the surface was slimy and shiny.

Furthermore, the right hand and left hand were connected by a rod.

It was a rod like the handle of a door at a luxury hotel that a doorman would open.

Its legs were together, but the shin parts were planters.

Growing there were not poor-looking leaves like weeds, but plants with thick leaves like houseplants.

Furthermore, there was another one outside the property.

That thing was leaning forward while keeping its chest out and arms straight along its sides, in a so-called attention posture.

A white light was hanging from the chest part.

It was going around and around in the same place.

It wouldn't fall over even while leaning forward, and its head didn't move up and down when it moved.

I couldn't see its feet, but it was probably floating too.

Even in such an impossible situation, I remained calm the whole time.

I watched that garden for a while.