Aochi
It was thanks to my uncle—who worked for a shipping company—that the three of us, nearly stranded for the holidays, managed to get on board.
And the ship we’d be taking just so happened to be the one that retrieves charred human bodies drifting at sea.
Well, there’s one thing to correct about that rumor:What burns and floats in the ocean isn’t an entire body—it’s just a heart.
No one knows where they come from, but these hearts suddenly appear, burning just above the water’s surface. They blacken, get charred, but never sink. They just keep floating there. That’s the truth.
No one knows whose hearts they are, but you can’t just leave a human heart out there like that. That’s why my uncle’s company got pulled into the recovery effort.Apparently, these scorched hearts are being found all over, in growing numbers every day.
They don’t rot, they don’t get picked apart by birds or fish—Even after they’ve burned to a crisp, they continue to drift across the sea, red-black and strangely slick.I’ve never seen one myself. Everything I know is secondhand from my uncle.
After explaining that much, I glanced down at the other two to check their expressions.
I was the only one standing, looking down at them as they sat on a bench facing the harbor.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.A strong gust of wind blew by suddenly, and I pulled my jacket tighter around me.
Oze was the first to speak, his tone not particularly surprised.
“So, we’ll be spending over twenty hours… with a bunch of hearts?”
“That’s disgusting,” Oomi said, his face pale enough to look like he might throw up at any moment.
“If you hate the idea, you don’t have to come.And anyway, I never said there are hearts on the ship right now.”
“I don’t mind,” Oze said.“In fact, I’d take hearts over whole bodies rolling around.So, the ship’s not full of hearts yet? That means we’ll be collecting them as we head north?”
Oomi glanced at him with a look of barely contained fear, flinching like he couldn’t look at him directly. Even his fingers were trembling.
Yeah, sure, Oze is always kind of aloof and a bit creepy, but is he really that bad?He himself looked uncomfortable, rubbing his right wrist with his other hand.
“We’ll be picking them up along the way.But from what I hear, it’s not going well.Even though the hearts are clearly there, you can’t grab them—not with hands, not with nets.…Anyway, what’s up with you two? You hiding something from me?”
I asked, half-joking.
“No,” Oomi said.
“Nope,” Oze added.
A sea breeze passed between their voices and my ears, but I still heard them loud and clear.Don’t give me that. You’re totally hiding something.I shouldn’t have asked.
Frustrated, I turned my back on them.
I’m the one who knows them best.So when did they get this close?I’d been looking after Oomi ever since he joined the company, and I thought I was the only one who ever talked to that weirdo Oze outside of work.
“Which ship is it?” Oze asked, standing up—whether he was trying to change the subject because I was upset, or if he simply didn’t care, I couldn’t tell.
“That one—the one with the white top and dark blue bottom.”
The ship floated out there like something dead, while the sea behind it shimmered in the morning light like it was alive.
“That oddly shaped one?Heh, let’s go take a look.It’s almost time anyway, right?”