After putting on the spare jacket I always leave in the back of my car for her, in case of weather like this, she strutted ahead of me. Looking back at me with a cheeky grin, she urged me to hurry as she took a dive into the snow.

  “You alright?” I asked Eiri, who was floating on the dense snow yers.

  She turned around to face me, wiping snow off her forehead.

  “I’ve never been better.”

  She leaned herself back into the snow, facing the sky.

  “After all these years, finally a bit of peace and quiet. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this.”

  “As you said, years.”“More than half of my entire life, at least.”

  I slowly trudged up to her as the snow clung to my jeans. How she could tolerate that temperature on her bare legs is beyond me.

  “What are you looking at~”

  “Just checking if they’re going to turn blue.”

  “Pfft, worrywart.” She smirked, kicking her legs up. “See? Just fine.”

  Why she was okay showing off her white ced panties under her short skirt, who knows. Out of respect, and the desire not to be faced with her underwear, I turned around to bnkly stare at the trees surrounding us.

  Then, as I heard a soft crunch, it was soon followed up with the sensation of being struck in the back of the head. For a moment, I shuddered.

  Unconsciously reaching to the back of my head, I felt something cold to the touch. Swiftly pulling my hand back only revealed snow on my hand however.

  “Goddamn that hu-”

  As I turned to yell at her another fistful of snow spttered across my face, followed by the shrill hyena ugh of Eiri, who was busy making fun of me.

  I quickly dug my hands into the snow, making a big ball out of it while she was still pelting me with that same shit eating grin on her face.

  She quickly tried to run when she saw the monster of a snowball i was about to hurl at her, but the snow prevented her from being able to move quick enough. With as much force as I could muster, I slung it toward her while she hastily tried to defend herself.

  Upon impact, her whole upper body got an extra yer of snow thrown on top, as she stumbled backwards, falling back into the cushioning snow yer.

  “Wow, scary~”

  Despite her acting, she wasn’t any less amused compared to before. She stood up as quickly as she fell down, and with it, immediately pelted another ball right back at me before I was able to react.

  This back and forth fighting went on with her gaining the upper hand with dodging, as we pyed in the small non-forested patch for a while, until I got tired out to the point I decided to y down for a while as well.

  “I have no idea how you keep being fine ying around in the snow, I can feel the cold through my damn jacket.” I muttered to her, as she stopped rapidly building up her ammo stash to y next to me.

  “Perhaps we should go somewhere warmer then.”

  “You tell me, it’s your choice where we go to.”

  “Then…” she contempted. “We’ll go to a cafe, and you have to buy me hot cocoa.”

  “Sure, not an issue.”

  It’s a surprisingly reasonable request coming from her. I couldn’t compin.

  “I’ll have one myself as well.” I added resolutely.

  Going back to the car took only a minute. The moment I was able to get in I cranked the heating to max and started the engine, before my clothes would become completely wet.

  “Hasami went away...” I heard quietly behind me. A contemptive thought on her end. “Wonder where he’s gone off to today.”“Likely flying off on a vacation to the equator.”

  I’d love a trip to guinea myself if the weather remains like this. It’s been -10 since the start of st week.

  “Yeah, right.” She chuckled. “Hasami never even goes a few days without seeing me once.”‘How are you able to tell it’s that specific crow to begin with?’ Is something I once asked to a simir comment of hers, only to be met by an incredulous stare. As if you’re simply supposed to be able to tell somehow which crow is supposed to be who.

  “Umm, before we go… could I sit in the front this time, please?”

  I’d say no, but there’s not a soul around wherever I look.

  “Hop in.” I say, unlocking the door to my right. As soon as I gave the okay, she crawled toward the front seat, instead of just going out the door and into the other like a normal person.

  I helped drag her along to make the process easier as she knocked her body into the stickshift. Lucky for me, I wasn’t situated on a curved road.

  With my hands holding onto her hips, I noted how unnaturally slim her waist was. Not a gram of fat to be found. Like an olympic athlete’s abs but without any of the muscle.

  With a final tug, she successfully crawled over to the front seat, only fshing her chest at me once. “You know, while we’re at it, let’s find something to eat in whatever spot we find before heading home ter.”

  She could use a bit of extra weight.

  She looked at me in a perhaps confused way, before giving a nod.

  “Then… I want croquettes. A big pte of them.”

  “The shrimp ones?”

  “I’d love that.”

  As I began driving toward the cathedral, figuring there would be more to see there than here, we discussed our pns for food, and alternative choices. As much as I’d love to grant her wishes of shrimp croquettes in a random bar, chances are we’re most likely getting ramen instead.

  If they only have local foods, Eiri decided she wanted to go to a sushi bar. I had no qualms with that proposal.

  “We could also do one of those bbq bars, though you’ll have to keep me from drinking too much.”

  “But that’s wayyy too heavy.”

  “Don’t worry about it. If you leave your food I won’t mind paying extra for the cleanup.”“Well, in that case…. Hmm.”

  As the traffic light ahead of us turned orange, I slowed down the car towards a full stop.

  “Are you doing that because you have to? There’s literally nobody here.”

  She quickly admonished me for my choice.

  “Cameras Eiri, can never be too sure whether you’re being recorded.”

  I wasn’t sure if there actually was one, not being able to look up in time, but in cases like these it’s better to be safe.

  There certainly seemed to be at least a bit of life to this pce, even if the only people I’m seeing are 2 old men pying shogi in front of a parlor. At least it’s a sign I didn’t just end up in a deserted hellscape.

  Perhaps I really am slowly losing my mind with this life. The stress has been killing me tely. There were a few times these st months I almost got fired simply because someone had a petty grudge against me or because the higher ups misread my work.

  By the way, why isn’t the light turning green?

  “...”

  I slowly looked over toward Eiri, who was grinning to herself.

  “You always miss the obvious clues, can’t even tell when a traffic light wants you to go.”

  “Oddly philosophical there. What can I say? It’s red.”

  “It’s not ever turning green.”

  “How would you know?” I ask, getting irritated, “Since when did you turn into an electrician exactly?”

  “You’re looking right at the issue, yet you don’t see it.”

  “I’m not in the mood to get my driver’s license revoked, that’s all there is to it.”

  But then, as I took a closer look, I realized that not only the traffic lights for me were red, but for all the pedestrians around us as well. Some sort of selective power short circuit, maybe?

  Before I could think it through, A hand was pced over my mouth, with it holding some sort of wet tissue.

  My eyes jumped back toward Eiri, whose grin had only widened.

  “See, always looking right at it.”

  My sight blurred, as the edges of my periphery bckened. I lost my grip on the steering wheel. I tried kicking and screaming, but only a faint drawling murmur came out as my leg pathetically sputtered back and forth.

  Before I could realize what was happening, my mind had already bcked out.

  ……

  …..e…ou…fi…..eah?

  A faint echo surrounded me, yet I was unable to make out what was being said. Everything remained a blur as I opened my eyes. After a few blinks, I looked at the ragged man sitting before me. Brown eyes, with brown frizzled hair, simir to his beard. We sat opposite one another at a wooden table. Surrounded by red walls with carpet-like fiber sticking out.

  “Ah… he’s get… up?”“Where the hell am I?” I asked, holding my palm up to my forehead. A throbbing headache spread across during the process of waking up.

  “You look like a sardine fresh out of the sea my friend.” The man spoke as I lifted my head.

  “Where’s my daughter?”

  “Upstairs, booked a room for the two of you after she had to carry you here. Shouldn’t be drinking that much in the morning, it’s bad for the liver you know?”

  “Drinking…?”

  “With how long you’ve been knocked out you must’ve been roughhousing your liquor. You going through a bad divorce or something?”

  “Nevermind all of that. Who are you?”

  “No one you should mind, just a tourist from Dublin. Your little ss asked me to keep a lookout for you before heading upstairs, she seemed to be pretty worked up about something.”

  He stretched out his hand, pcing a gss in front of my face.

  “Got you a drink, thought you may need something to wake you up.” he said, tapping the cognac gss with his finger.

  “It’s been a different kind of mess.” I said, taking a sip from the top. The liquid soon burned down my throat, forcing a cough. “Can barely keep up with what’s going on.”“I sure know that feeling. All is fine one day, then bam, the whole world flips on its head.” He wildly swung his arms for emphasis. “The whole reason I am here is for a bit of self discovery. I feel like I’ve been missing out on my best years.”

  “Didn’t mean in a midlife crisis way.” I replied, downing the gss in one fell swoop.

  “It doesn’t matter in what way you mean, the end result is all the same.” He held up his gss, doing a toast gesture, “The mind winds, wanders and wonders. Whatever you need to figure out, as long as you keep looking, you will get those answers you need.”

  “I appreciate the gesture.” I said, holding out a couple 1000 yen bills. “Here, for the trouble.”“No need to worry d, keep that for your kid. She’s waiting for ya up there, you know?” He said, pointing at room 106 up the first flight of stairs.

  Either way, I’d need to confront her about what had happened, and how the hell we ended up here. Dawdling around won’t help.

  “...Thank you.” I swallowed my thoughts down, getting up from my chair. Luckily, there weren’t any eyes on me, as many of the customers seemed more concerned with their own conversations.

  I beelined my way toward the room, proceeding to loudly sm the side of my fist on the door. Seemingly having waited for me, it took her a literal second to open the door a tiny bit the moment I made noise. Peeking through, recognizing it was me, she threw the door open with glee.

  “Oh, come in, come in.”

  With innocent, upturned eyes she happily greeted me.