Ch.5555. Rain. Clear.
by fnovelpia
55.
—Swoooosh.
“It’s unusual to have rain here.”
“Indeed.”
Even in this place, rain falls occasionally.
When it rains, the sounds of the world—difficult to hear during snowfall—reverberate intensely as they hit the snow-covered ground, fallen gears, and various structures.
Leaning against the window of a building I entered to escape the rain, listening to those sounds, it sometimes feels like everything has stopped, yet the world’s voice seems to cry out that at least “I” am still alive.
“But it’s interesting that it rains even here, despite having that ceiling or floor or whatever you’d call it… that structure up there.”
I looked up at the sky. The land of humans, which once thought to rule everything in the world, was looking down at me.
The “upper layer,” as it’s called, covers about half of the layer I’m on, making it seem like it would block the rain like an umbrella, but surprisingly, it doesn’t.
“Snow falls just fine, so why would rain be any different?”
“True, good point.”
Yesterday it snowed, today it rains. What weather will tomorrow bring?
Hoping for clear skies, I sit down leaning against the wall with the window.
“So we’re resting here today, right?”
“With this much rain, we have no choice. It’s hard to see ahead… and catching a cold from getting soaked would be troublesome.”
“Then I’ll look around to see what facilities are nearby.”
“Okay. Be careful.”
“No need to worry!”
Having a body that doesn’t catch colds is certainly nice.
Watching the Robot venture out through the window into the heavy rain, I mutter absently.
“The Robot has gone to do what only a Robot can do, so I should do what I can do.”
Rather than wasting time spacing out, I decide to do something productive. I take out a portable stove and a map from my bag and spread them on the floor.
—Scratch, scratch.
The small sound of paper and pencil meeting the hard floor spreads through the space.
I reinforce the map that I had hastily sketched while riding Alexander, making my journey and memories clearer.
With an excellent mode of transportation, I’ve been covering much more distance each day, so the map has become more condensed than when I was walking on foot.
Since I can’t mark every building and road anymore, only places with strong memories make it onto the map.
Drawing shapes on the map and writing about what happened there, thinking “ah, that happened too”—I suppose all these events have become precious memories to me.
“That should do it.”
After completing the map by tracing my memories, I put it back in my bag, stretch out, and lie down on the floor.
“It seems like it’s been quite a while, but the rain shows no sign of stopping.”
Despite drawing the map for so long that my pencil-holding hand aches, the rain hasn’t stopped.
Usually, the world would have fallen silent the moment I lifted the pencil from the paper, but it remains noisy.
The various sounds and echoes reaching my ears resonate with sounds from deep in my memory, bringing them to the surface.
The sound of cars traveling on roads.
People’s voices grumbling about weather forecasts still being inaccurate.
The flapping of drone wings delivering packages through heavy rain.
A world where only the sounds I make and the sounds of things breaking down, unable to withstand the passage of time, exist.
Like a single droplet creating multiple ripples on a calm lake’s surface, the falling rain evoked many memories I thought I had forgotten.
“…When the rain stops, these sounds will disappear without a trace, and the world will return to silence again.”
The world I had grown accustomed to and numb to suddenly felt unfamiliar. I thought that if the rain stopped now and the world returned to silence, I might cry from the vivid old memories and sensations.
“It’s strange. They say humans can live happily today because they forget painful experiences, yet here I am, suffering because of happy memories.”
Still, I don’t want to forget those happy memories—what an irony, I think as I look at the Controller.
“Does everyone live with such contradictory emotions like me?”
Having had limited relationships and abilities since childhood, I actually don’t know much about myself or others.
Since I couldn’t go outside much, I often looked up how other people lived through various media—but knowledge acquired without direct experience isn’t the same as truly knowing, especially when it comes to subjective subjects like humans or nature.
[A new message has arrived.]
“Oh, I wonder what message this is.”
[Got caught in the rain without an umbrella, completely soaked]
[I once lost my precious hat to the wind and rain, so I get depressed whenever it rains]
“Well, look at that, we all have similar experiences.”
Reading the messages on the Controller, at least one thing became clear.
I’m not the only one who dislikes rain.
Whether it’s raining in Paradise too, or just a coincidence, I don’t know.
Seeing messages about rain and various rain-related stories, I couldn’t help but smile.
*
“Yaaawn…”
It seems I had fallen asleep while chatting with my friends, with my back to the rainy sky.
I don’t clearly remember the process of falling asleep, but given the pleasant feeling that persisted even after a night’s sleep, I must have been having quite an enjoyable conversation right up until I dozed off.
“Oh no, I forgot to turn off the power.”
After stretching my stiff body from sleeping on the hard floor, rubbing my eyes out of habit, and pressing down my messy hair, I noticed a drone floating at my eye level even though I hadn’t touched it.
The weather has been bad lately so I haven’t been able to charge properly—surely the battery hasn’t run out?
Startled, I hurriedly checked the battery levels of the drone and Controller.
“Huh?”
Contrary to my worries, both the drone and Controller batteries were full.
Puzzled, I looked out the window just in case, and realized:
—As I had wished yesterday, the sky had cleared up.
“The ground is slipperier than I thought, I’ll have to be careful…”
After confirming the unusually clear weather, I immediately gathered my belongings and went down to the first floor.
The world after the rain was as quiet as ever, but if you listened carefully, you could hear water flowing somewhere—and above all, the clear sky made me feel completely happy.
“Ah. I’ve missed this light terribly.”
Though not as much as plants that can’t get nutrients without sunlight, humans certainly need sunlight too.
After seeing nothing but gloomy skies every day, seeing a clear sky immediately improves my mood and makes the world feel peaceful.
If I could, I’d love to lie down somewhere with a nice view and bask in the sunlight to my heart’s content.
—Splash, splash.
With rain falling on the knee-deep snow, the city had turned into a vast lake.
Seeing tall buildings, floating clouds, the sun, and myself all equally reflected on the water’s surface gives an indescribable sense of nature’s grandeur.
“Woof!”
As I create ripples in the city with each step, giggling to the drone to look at this—
The Puppy, apparently just as delighted by this wonderful scenery, ran forward.
Wagging its tail, jumping on the clouds, and playing in the water—the sight brought a warm smile to my face.
“Good. Alexander is fine too. We can definitely move if we need to.”
While the Puppy was spinning in circles looking at its reflection in the water, I checked on Alexander, which I had parked next to the building yesterday.
I had worried it might have been washed away by the heavy rain or damaged by water seeping in—but the gift people had left me was sturdier than I imagined.
The cargo compartment, which I had covered with thick cloth, looked exactly the same when I removed the cover.
“What should I do… Rationally thinking, I should travel as much as possible while the weather is this good.”
Alexander, always stable even on high snow and slippery ice, would surely move well even on these flooded roads.
I turned my head to look at the Tower that leads to the upper layer. The Tower that seemed so distant when I first arrived here has gotten much closer.
Near the Tower, there are many buildings that look like people used to live in them, and every evening, unusually bright light emanates from there, making me want to visit.
“But…”
It seemed a bit of a shame to spend such a rare clear and warm day as usual, riding on Alexander.
While riding Alexander is certainly important, there are things I could only do today.
Like doing laundry, taking a walk, or sitting in a chair enjoying the warm sunshine and relieving fatigue.
“Would it be okay to be a little lazy, just for one day?”
“Woof!”
After much deliberation, I finally decided to leave it to a majority vote.
The voting members: just the two of us.
The result—was unanimously in favor, of course.
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