Ch.113113. When That Day Comes.

# 113.

“Haah… That was delicious.”

Nobody in the world enjoys eating the same food repeatedly for no reason, or filling their stomach with garbage that can hardly be called food.

Canned goods and preserved meals I was sick to death of.

Things that included insects and other things a human could hardly bear to put in their mouth.

Things I didn’t want to get used to but had no choice but to.

Even after getting used to them, they were still horrifying to eat—and now I was eating normal food for the first time.

The warehouse overflowed with all kinds of delicacies and ingredients from before the world was submerged in water.

But what I brought back with sparkling eyes was the most ordinary and boring pasta noodles with sauce, salad, and sausage.

When you live a life far from ordinary, the ordinary becomes the ideal.

I thought this would be enough to fulfill my ideal—my desire, and I was right.

It was truly a satisfying meal.

I even caught myself trying to lick the sauce left on the plate.

“…They say when you adopt an abandoned dog or cat, it eats until its stomach is about to burst for a while.”

That’s exactly what I look like. I looked down at my stomach with a self-deprecating smile.

My usually skinny stomach from not eating properly was now fully bloated.

“Shall I clean up for you?”

“No, I’ll do it.”

If you’re not in a situation where food is scarce or the shelf life of your food supply is running short, there’s no need to force yourself to fill your stomach.

I patted my bloated stomach, muttering that I should fix this bad habit, then placed the empty plate on the rail that collected dishes.

*

“My stomach is full and I’m feeling good. Should I look around the other rooms? I think I saw a room full of game consoles earlier. Should I go there?”

Humans who have satisfied their material needs, represented by food, shelter, and clothing, naturally seek entertainment.

Perhaps that’s why, as I walked along the corridor exploring the facility, I found places to “have fun” more often than I had imagined.

“‘Citizen Kane,’ ‘Titanic,’ ‘City Lights,’ ‘The Godfather’… All the old classics are here.”

[Wow. You know those?]

[Those are old movies even to us.]

First, there was a room where you could watch all kinds of classic visual media that had made their mark in history.

From movies from the era when they couldn’t even capture color on film to movies from the age when hundreds of billions of pixels could be captured.

It can’t compare to the seemingly endless library, but the amount stored here is so enormous that I think it would take at least several decades to watch everything here.

“When I had nothing to do, my hobby was looking into old classics. Well, to be honest, rather than watching them directly, I mostly just knew they existed or watched other videos summarizing their content.”

When you find out that a complete stranger has something in common with you, it tends to make you feel closer to them. Is that what this is?

When I showed that I knew something about old movies, everyone started chatting excitedly about films.

They scolded people who didn’t know the movies on the shelves, as if not knowing what they knew was unacceptable.

Those who had favorite series begged me to show them how long their series had continued.

“Should I play one as a test?”

I had planned to just look around lightly today, but seeing their good reactions made me want to do more.

After contemplating in front of the shelf for a moment, I took out the film for “On the Beach” and put it in the player.

Soon, the sound of the film rolling could be heard, the room’s lights dimmed, and the wall began to glow.

The black and white film was the original itself, just like the paintings placed in museums.

Compared to works from eras with advanced filming technology, both the sound quality and resolution were terribly inferior.

Various cultural industries are greatly influenced by the development of their times, so it’s unavoidable.

But true masterpieces don’t use the era they were broadcast in as an excuse for poor quality, but rather make it part of their charm.

The unique sensibility that feels more distinct because it doesn’t contain diverse colors.

The human imagination that can fill in more because the screen isn’t clear.

To very briefly summarize the plot of “On the Beach” here:

Due to a nuclear war that broke out because of an accident and misunderstanding, all humans living in the Northern Hemisphere died, and even the cities remaining in the Southern Hemisphere would eventually all die as radioactive fallout spread over time.

People living in the Southern Hemisphere knew that radioactive fallout was approaching, yet they leisurely maintained their daily lives and made plans for a next year that would never come.

Because all that people who are going to die because of something unrelated to them can do is deny reality with all their might.

And in the end, everyone dies.

All that remains is the lonely scenery of a city where no one is left.

I laughed bitterly as I watched the movie. Somehow it didn’t feel like someone else’s story. Because many of the citizens and the protagonist seemed just like me.

“—Maybe I should make plans for next year too?”

[No, don’t do that]

[Stop!!]

[There will be good days if you keep living]

[No, no]

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who felt that way, because when I said that as the movie ended and the room brightened, the message window went crazy.

If they knew there were already pills and a gun for suicide in my bag, it would really be a big deal. I wonder if they’re coming across time to stop me.

“Okay, okay. I won’t do anything like that.”

While thinking it would be nice if such an impossible thing happened, I put the film back in its original place after enjoying the movie.

“Alright. Now that we’ve watched a movie—shall we go play games that we all love?”

Near the room full of visual media, there was also a room filled with various video games and devices to play them on.

Not to brag, but as someone who spent most of my childhood playing games, it was a place that interested me in many ways, so I was about to go straight there to enjoy games, but—

“Wait a moment. It’s good to have fun, but let’s go to the infirmary first.”

“…Does it have to be now? Can’t we go a little later?”

“You haven’t received treatment for your leg today yet. Get examined, get treatment, and then go have fun.”

—There was an obstacle.

The Robot started pushing my wheelchair on its own, saying that while it understood my desire to play, I needed to do what needed to be done.

Surely among robots and humans, humans should have higher authority, so why am I being dragged around by a robot?

I closed my eyes tightly as I watched the game consoles I had been longing for pass by before my eyes.

If I insisted, they would probably listen to me in the end, but I couldn’t say no when they were asking me to visit the infirmary first for my health, of all reasons.

“You said you were injured not long ago. Fortunately, your progress is good.”

“Ah. That’s really fortunate.”

Just as there was a Chef Robot in the dining hall, there was a Doctor Robot in the infirmary.

When I lay down on the bed as instructed by the rectangular doctor and showed my leg after removing the bandages and splint, I was told that fortunately, the bone was healing well.

“So it was this bad. My leg was clean before, but now it’s a mess.”

“Oh my, don’t even mention it. It was really smashed to pieces, I tell you.”

“…No matter what, isn’t that expression a bit too much?”

“It really was smashed to pieces.”

When I was trapped under debris and lost consciousness, the treatment was already finished by the time I woke up. So this was the first time I had seen my leg.

It wasn’t just an exaggeration to say it was “smashed to pieces”—my leg was covered with scars everywhere. The condition of my ankle was especially serious.

—If it’s this bad even though they said they minimized incisions during treatment, how serious was it at first?

I was curious, but knowing that imagining it would only bring painful scenes and pain, I shook my head vigorously to clear my thoughts.

“If you want scar treatment, I can provide it after your current treatment is finished.”

“Treatment… Well, I’m not particularly interested.”

This time I got an especially large scar, but my body was already covered with small scars.

No matter how much my feet hurt in cold weather, I couldn’t stop walking. I lived by entering collapsed buildings without hesitation for food.

I lived like a hungry hyena or rat, so it would be strange if my skin were clean.

There were times when I felt a bit depressed seeing scars accumulate one by one on what was once a clean body.

But I never felt ashamed of the scars on my body.

It’s not like I got these scars from doing something stupid or wrong; they’re just the result of struggling hard to survive, right?

Long ago, Nordic warriors considered scars from battle as proof of being a warrior and a medal.

Like them, I considered my scars as proof of life and medals showing that I was still alive despite everything I’d been through, so there was no reason to be ashamed.

…Well, even I have to admit that the scar I got this time is a bit severe, but my feet were already full of scars.

If I think of it as becoming an even more impressive medal, it’s not so bad.

“Really, Mori, you’re sometimes surprisingly nonchalant about certain things.”

“Am I? Maybe it’s because I don’t pay much attention to external appearances?”

If the scar had crossed my face, I would have asked to have it removed.

I’m not so indifferent to my appearance that I would just accept facial scars.

It is my face, but Mori’s face is quite good-looking.

Although I’m in no position to have someone I want to look good for, or someone to show myself to, there’s no need to leave a scar on a decent face, right?

Anyway, while other parts of me might be tattered, my face at least was clean.

It was because I had always protected it as a top priority whenever there was danger, since injuring my eyes or something similar would be a big problem.

So when I said I had no immediate plans to treat the scars, the doctor nodded and said they understood.

I’m glad it’s a robot that communicates well.

“This goes without saying, but move as little as possible, eat your meals on time, and take your medicine regularly. Don’t forget to activate the treatment function built into the splint twice a day.”

“I got it, I got it.”

“Also, it still aches when you sleep, right? I’ll prescribe painkillers for you, so take one pill when the pain is severe. This is also obvious, but relying too much on medication or machines isn’t good…”

“I know that much, you know? Thanks for the painkillers.”

Even though it was made of metal and circuits, a doctor is still a doctor, and I stuck out my tongue at the sight of all the precautions being poured out.

I might not know about other things, but when it comes to medications like painkillers, I’m something of an expert myself.

…Though I was on the receiving end rather than the administering end. Anyway.

“Ah. Come to think of it, I couldn’t read the messages during the examination… But why is everyone in this state?”

Even though it was a Doctor Robot, I was a bit scared to expose my injured leg defenseless to someone else. Throughout the examination, my attention was focused solely on the robot.

Only when it was time to fix my leg with the splint again and wrap the bandages did I relax enough to read the messages—

[Arghhhhhh]

[I had forgotten about it I had forgotten]

[I was planning to eat pasta after a long time, but I’ve lost my appetite…]

[That must be really painful. Poor thing.]

…For some reason, they all seemed to be suffering mentally.

I was the one in pain, so why are they like this?