Chapter 2 - Traces of Elsa
By the time I left the shop, it was past six in the evening.
For a restaurant, it's the busiest time, and they should want as many hands as possible.
However, lately my shifts have been blatantly reduced, so I'm often sent home during peak hours.
I'm a useless clerk, after all.
I might get fired from here soon too... I thought, breathing out white mist as I walked down the street.
The January air was cold. Right at the start of the new year, the atmosphere was rejecting me with all its might.
Even the city, look, must be loathing my existence.
Unfamiliar signs. Chain stores I didn't know. Popular songs I'd never heard of playing from storefronts.
Everything that entered my eyes was foreign, and everything that entered my ears felt wrong.
I felt like I didn't belong. No, it wasn't just a feeling. I actually didn't.
While I was in the other world, the world had completely changed.
After all, I was someone who departed from Japan in the year 2000 and returned in 2017.
I felt like Urashima Taro.
Mobile phones have performance comparable to computers, I hear we've been overtaken by China in GDP, pluripotent stem cells, nuclear accidents—had I perhaps returned to a different world line?
That was the extent of it.
It wasn't the hometown I knew.
There was no one who knew of my exploits.
I was alone.
The only saving grace was smartphone games.
The things called social games or apps.
I had completely made them my emotional support, and whenever I had free time, I'd tap away to consume stamina.
From my perspective, it was amazing that content on the level of home console games could now be played on mobile devices.
The fact that the pressure to pay for microtransactions has become quite intense is a point of concern, though.
The game industry must be desperate to survive, too.
Despite being on the edge of a cliff in my own life, I was showing concern for large corporations.
I thought, isn't it fine?
I didn't want to think about anything anymore.
I wanted to shelve all thoughts of my future and spend my time talking about politics on internet forums or paying for smartphone games.
If I looked for a job seriously, I might be able to do various things with my physical abilities.
But it's impossible now. My willpower has withered. I don't have the right to do anything great.
I'm sorry, Elsa.
For not being able to save you.
For killing you.
I'll atone by living a poor life in my hometown like this.
So, please forgive me.
I will continue to punish myself.
When I think of the sins I committed in that world, my vision still blurs even now.
Surely, seeing an old guy suddenly start crying on the street, the people around me must think it's creepy.
This is no good. I have to go somewhere without people.
I hurriedly rushed into a nearby building.
I couldn't see well because I was wiping my eyes, but judging by the noisy electronic sounds, it seemed I had entered an arcade.
It was perfect.
In a place like this, no one would pay attention to an old man playing games alone.
I sat at a fighting game cabinet placed in a corner and took my smartphone out of my pocket.
For a change of pace, I launched my favorite app.
'Idol Maker: Princess Live!'
The title call began with high-pitched anime voices.
It was a rhythm game where you produce beautiful girls to aim for the top idol spot.
This was where my salary went, my destination for tribute.
Right after I bought my smartphone, I saw the so-called sales rankings and met this game.
To tell the truth, I saw many medieval fantasy-style RPGs as well.
In fact, that was the most popular genre.
However, I didn't feel like playing them at all.
After all, until just a little while ago, I was in a world where I was actually slashing and killing.
Ugh, I've had more than enough of that.
Besides, with that way of holding a sword, you wouldn't be able to cut properly.
It had become like that, and I couldn't enjoy them.
I wonder if this is the same feeling an old man with combat experience has when he watches military works.
Compared to that, the world view unrelated to myself and the polygon model idols were very healing.
"...They're cute..."
While making rhythmic tapping sounds, I gazed at the screen entranced.
There, girls with long black hair were dancing energetically.
Moving their slender bodies earnestly, they invited me to pay more.
Lots of black hair.
Slender limbs.
I suddenly snapped out of it.
The idols I organized into units within the game all resembled Elsa in some way.
She also had beautiful black hair and a slender figure.
It seemed that without realizing it, I was seeking the traces of the woman I could never meet again in the game.
It was hopelessly miserable and foolish.
"...Shit."
What's wrong with that?
Of course I can't forget.
While making excuses to myself, I long-pressed the side of the smartphone.
A shutter sound went "clack," and the idols' finishing poses were saved.
When feeling down, there's nothing better than looking at screenshots.
From the cute ones to the suggestive ones, there's a wide variety to cheer me up.
Let's see how they turned out.
Just as I flicked the screen, I was called from behind by a voice saying, "Hey, old man."
It was a young woman's voice.
However, it was a voice laced with menace.
Is she calling me?
Reflexively, I turned my face toward the direction of the voice.
"...Elsa?"
And then, I doubted my own eyes.
Because there stood a woman who should have been the one I loved and killed with these hands in the other world.
Straight black hair reaching down to her waist.
A sharp, well-featured face with a light application of makeup.
From her slightly disheveled blazer uniform, a modest cleavage peeked out.
Yes, she was in a school uniform.
So this wasn't her. It was a complete stranger who looked just like her.
While I was taken aback, the high school girl who looked like Elsa spoke again.
"You just looked at my panties and took a picture, didn't you? Did you think I wouldn't notice?"
Even so, it was incredible. Even among Japanese people, there were girls with looks this close to people from the other world.
I couldn't help but be captivated.
She was a beautiful girl of an unbelievable level.
Even if she aimed to be an actress or an idol, she could probably make it.
It clicked for me. If I were truly an entertainment producer, I'd be handing her a business card right now.
"Are you listening to me? Creepy old man."
While my thoughts were tripping, the black-haired high school girl raised her voice further.
It's a bad habit from returning from another world.
I've gotten so used to the roars of dragons and ogres that a human's shouting voice feels like the chirping of a bell cricket.
Unless they speak with a considerably loud voice, I end up thinking, 'Eh, are you angry right now?'
"Do you have some business with me?"
"You took a picture under my skirt with your smartphone, didn't you? I can tell that kind of thing immediately."
"There's no way. Look. I was playing a game."
I showed the smartphone screen to the irritated high school girl.
I wondered what she would think seeing a music video where beautiful girl polygons were dancing with their chests swaying.
The girl's reaction was:
"...Gross."
She dismissed it in a single word.
As expected, even in 2018, otaku culture and young girls don't get along well.
I felt strangely happy that this kind of thing hadn't changed.
It's the Japan I know. It's clearly not a situation to be happy about.
Still, finding something that hasn't changed makes me feel a little relieved.
As I was feeling nostalgic for the past, a group of high schoolers came swarming out from the back of the photo booth corner.
Five boys and two girls.
Every single one of them had brown or blonde hair. They had as many piercings as possible in their ears and noses.
All of them wore their uniforms sloppily, exuding an aura of being at the top of the school caste... or rather, having veered off diagonally into the yankee course.
"What's up, Rio-chan?"
"This guy was taking secret photos. Maybe he wasn't, but whatever. He's an otaku old man, so he's probably doing something bad anyway."
"Seriously? He's a dangerous one then."
I see. This high school girl is named Rio-chan.
Even her name is cute.
It suits you well, I nodded to myself.
Of course, even with my optimistic head, I understood what kind of situation this was.
A honey trap or something close to a shakedown was about to begin.
I was nodding along while being prepared for that.
I used to kill Cyclopes with my bare hands and use them as barbecue ingredients back when I was over there.
There was no way I'd be intimidated by Japanese high schoolers.
Perhaps irritated by my attitude, a particularly large boy grabbed my shoulder.
He was a boy with a mean look, with piercings all over his face. He even had them in his eyebrows and lips.
Did he mistake his face for a piercing holder? That's not a place to play around making holes.
"Let's go outside, old man. Yeah. Let's go to the back? ...Come on, hurry up."
The boy covered in piercings urged me with his chin.
It wasn't an atmosphere where things could be settled through discussion.
It can't be helped. Shall I go wild for the first time in a while? I cracked my neck.
But before that, I'll check the power balance.
"...Status Open."