Aochi
The window outside was faintly glowing.
It wasn’t the light from the other ship. It felt more like the brightness was coming from the sky itself.
I hadn’t yet made sense of all that talk about God, so I kept my eyes turned toward the darkness outside.
Was it already morning? That thought gave me a sudden chill—but no, that couldn’t be. It was only around eight at night at most.
“Hey, what’s that out there?”
Something had glimmered, I thought, and I spoke without addressing anyone in particular.
“Ulurururururururu!”
…That startled me. Surprisingly, the first one to react was Ululu.
He rushed to the window, letting out her signature sound, then quickly returned to me and tugged on my arm, urging me to stand.
“What is it?”
As I let myself be pulled up by Ululu, the Harvester spoke.
“I’ll go take a look outside. You guys—stay away from the window. No matter what you hear, don’t peek out.”
Oomi, watching the Harvester’s back as he left, looked up at me with anxious eyes.
“Do you think it’s another new bird?”
“Maybe… Silent-chan, come here too. Let’s all wait for the Harvester together.”
Silent-chan nodded once. She really never talks. I still couldn’t believe she was the one who’d told Oomi that story.
In moments like this, when tension hangs heavy in the air, Ululu is our saving grace. I didn’t feel like talking about gods or cracking jokes, but I couldn’t sit still either. I reached out and gave Ululu a playful tickle.
“Uryuuryuuryuryu!”
He flailed wildly, letting out a new kind of sound. Hilarious.
“What are you doing, Aochi-san?”
Oomi said that, but with a grin that made it clear he was enjoying the show. He joined in, tickling Ululu as well.
And then—Silent-chan smiled. Just a little.I didn’t say a word. If I pointed it out, that fragile smile might vanish.
“Hey… do you hear something?”
“A sound? Ululu, quiet for a second.”
I ordered him around like it was nothing, even though I’d just been pestering him, and strained my ears.
Something like… a conch shell? A faint droning sound echoed from afar.
“Is that from outside?”
I instinctively moved toward the window—then caught myself.The Harvester told us not to.
Holding my breath, I focused my senses on the noise. Within it, I noticed a subtle metallic clang.
“Hey, wait a sec.”
Oomi began tapping his foot to the rhythm. It wasn’t bad, but… it felt too lighthearted. Like he might start saying, “Nice tune, huh?”
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“Huh? Could it be thunder again?”
That deep, belly-shaking rumble started to blend in, out of sync with the rest. Even Silent-chan was now tapping her toes.
“…Sounds like a taiko drum. Hey, you—”
Ululu stood and began moving strangely.
“You’re pretty good at dancing, Ululu.”
Oomi squinted at him warmly. Wait—this is dancing?“Ulurururun!”
Ululu seemed proud.
Lately, I felt like he was adding more syllables to his vocabulary.
“Maybe the Harvester’s out there dancing too.”
“Him? …Wouldn’t put it past him.”
Unlike Ululu, he seemed like he could pull off something artistic. With his athleticism, maybe he really was out there dancing some sacred offering to a god.
The whiteness outside became less hazy, more defined.
It was artificial—like the glare of fluorescent light.
Along with it, the music—or what I now fully recognized as music—grew louder. Its seemingly chaotic sounds were meticulously structured, and I felt like I could reach out and touch them.
Then it appeared.
Outside the window, several meters away, something materialized.
A transparent floating cube, no bigger than a palm. Something was inside it.
I squinted, trying to make it out—and when I realized what it was, the blood drained from my face.
Inside… was me.
A tiny, translucent version of me, sitting curled up with my knees hugged to my chest. Like a fetus—but wearing the exact suit I had on now, eyes closed, still.
“…Is that…”
Oomi whispered beside me.
“There’s me in there.”
“Huh? You’re seeing yourself too?”
I burned with frustration at not being able to confirm it up close.Following the Harvester’s instructions suddenly felt idiotic. Before anyone could stop me, I dashed to the window.
Pressing my face against the glass, I stared directly into the cube floating at eye level.
No doubt about it—myself was inside.Sensing something, the others gathered behind me, each staring out the window.
“…Hey. Are you guys seeing yourselves inside those things too?”
All three nodded. Just like Silent-chan, silent as ever.
“Aochi-san, look!”
“Ululu!!”
They both cried out in unison, and Silent-chan’s eyes widened.
I looked again—What I thought was one cube had multiplied. The entire window was now filled with them.
“I can’t take it anymore. Let’s go outside.”
♢♢
What spread before us was a scene so surreal, I forgot all about the cold.
The sky was filled with floating crystal cubes.
What we’d seen from the dining room window had only been a fraction.
Every so often, one of the cubes drifted too close to the sea, like it had made a mistake, nearly touched the waves—and then, slowly, floated back up to the sky.
The Harvester, standing at the bow, turned to face us with a sigh.
“You guys just can’t help yourselves, can you? Every damn time.”
“I mean, what the hell is that?”
“One hundred thousand crystals.”
More nonsense.
Despite the flowing music all around us, the crystals moved overhead at a steady, unchanging pace.
“Then… explain it.”
The Harvester approached us, his movements fluid and powerful—just like when he went to shoot the birds.
“You saw yourselves inside them, right? Those crystals are your emotions.
They talk about joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure like it’s simple, but you’re not that shallow. That much should be obvious.
There are a hundred thousand of them—containers for your emotions.
It’s the first time they’ve ever appeared in front of their owners.”
The crystals drifted slowly, emitting a white light softer than daylight, yet brighter than the stars.
The sea below, bathed in their glow, reflected one hundred thousand shifting expressions—never the same from one moment to the next.
“A hundred thousand, huh. Oze must be seeing this too...”
“I’m sure he is,” Oomi said firmly. “Let’s get Oze-san back from Rhone.”
Just then, one of the crystals gliding low over the water flared red.
“See that? The color of a heart.
Right now, some of your emotions are still glowing among those crystals.
But with this many, even I’d have a hard time finding them.To recognize one by sight alone—it’s a rare accident.”
I wonder whose emotion that was.
“…It’s kind of soothing.”
“Aochi-san, you said the same thing about the birds. But this... this scares me. I hope Oze-san doesn’t try to catch one.”
The Harvester laughed, exhaling breath as pale and cold as the crystals themselves.
“You’ve got good instincts, glasses. Rhone and Oze did something that pissed off the god.
That’s why the god set this trap—trying to lure you in to grab one.”
Ululu, who had been swaying softly to the music, froze.
“Uluu…”
That voice—so heartbreakingly sad.He must have emotions too. All one hundred thousand of them.
“What happens if I grab one of the crystals?”
I couldn’t reach the nearest one even if I wanted to, but I asked anyway.
“You die.
Clinging to a single emotion—there’s nothing more dangerous than that.
But don’t worry. I’ve wrapped this ship in a wall of hearts, mine and Rhone’s.
You’ll be safe, as long as you don’t get absorbed.
Just be careful not to stare at one crystal too long.”
“Kind of something you should’ve said first.”
If holding on to one emotion is that deadly, then being consumed by it must be just as bad.
Even though those crystals are completely transparent, and nothing but beautiful to look at.
I stood there, silently watching the strange swarm of cubes that carried me—watching as they drifted farther away from the ship.
“This is just the introduction,” the Harvester said, eyes lifted to the sky.