The One-Room Apartment on the Sand - Chapter 2.5

The visitor was the nurse he saw this morning at the Kadosaki Surgical Hospital. He didn’t know her name, but she was apparently the old doctor’s granddaughter. And from what he heard, she had a rather large fanbase among their patients.

Outwardly, she looked to be in her twenties, same as Soji. She wasn’t a jaw-dropping beauty, but exuded a caring and gentle vibe around her. The type of person who makes you feel relaxed by just being in her presence.

“Sorry for the wait, here’s a change of clothes and stuff,” she announced. Standing in the entranceway, she raised the paper bag in her hands slightly.

He recalled hearing her mention something about that. “Thanks. Change of clothes… and stuff?”

“Yes, stuff. Girls have lots of daily necessities, you see. Things like underwear, skincare products, and other girl-specific items, if you get what I’m saying.”

“Ah… My bad, I didn’t think it through at all.”

Now that she mentioned the obvious, he felt ashamed for not having thought about it, and was grateful for her consideration.

“No worries. By the way, here you go.” She abruptly thrusted a tied plastic bag at him. It was filled with clear water, and in it, something red was swimming about.

No matter how I look at it, these…

“…These are?”

“Goldfish.”

Right, they were unmistakably goldfish. There were two of them, each about three to four centimeters long, and of the Japanese wakin variety​.

“May I ask why?”

“My classmates pushed them onto me just now. After checking with Kotaro, he said I could bring them over as a souvenir. Something about it being therapeutic for the mind or whatever.”

“Hm? Huh…?”

Wait. Wait a second. Upon hearing a couple of words which didn’t quite mesh together, Soji was lost for a moment and tried to wrap his head around them. Wondering where to begin, he spoke: “Wait a sec, um, by Kotaro, you mean that Kotaro?”

“Yeah, Kotaro the Chatterbox. Isn’t he your best friend?”

I don’t recall ever calling him that. Still, I’ll let it pass, since it’s now confirmed that she’s not talking about some stranger with the same name.

“…What do you mean your classmates pushed them onto you?”

“We got them at the goldfish scooping stall and they just went ‘We can’t keep them at home so here you go’, and yeah. It’s not like my situation’s any different though, you know?”

He thought for a while.

Then, he blinked a few times and verified that the girl in front of him looked to be around his age.

“Whose classmate was it again?”

“Mine. Kadosaki Io, Class 3-C of Watagase Affiliated Middle School.”

He was slightly bewildered. “Middle school?”

“Yes.”

Now he was confused. “How old are you?”

“Fourteen, going fifteen this autumn.”

Fourteen. One, four.

He was struck with a light dizziness, and shook his head to clear it. “Why… a nurse?”

“Oh, I often get that, but it’s not what you’re thinking. I’m just lending granny a helping hand for some simple stuff here and there. No way have I got a practising license or anything like that.”

Yeah, that goes without saying. There’s not a chance they’d let a fourteen-year-old take the national examination.

“People often tell me I look older than my age.”

Well, yeah, I can see that too. If even I mistook her to be in her twenties, what would the other middle schoolers think?

I see, it all clicks into place now. He wouldn’t put it past that elderly doctor to dress up her mature-looking granddaughter in a nurse uniform and have her act as a poster girl, saying things like, “it’s gonna be a hit with the patients to have a young lass around.”

He wanted to drop her a remark about how she was probably breaking a certain law somewhere, but considering the legality of his dealings, he supposed he was in no position to judge others.

“So, where is she?”

“Ah…” He turned around, casting his glance at the sofa. “Algernon’s right there.”

She was balled up with her arms around her knees as before, sleeping.

“My my.” Io looked in, uttering in surprise. “By Algernon, you’re referring to her, right? So, you’ve named her?”

“I was told it’d be inconvenient otherwise.”

“Yeah, I get it. One of my friends picked up a kitten on the streets and totally can’t make up her mind on whether to name it or not. Thanks to that, my ears are about to fall off hearing her go on and on about it. Hehe.”

She placed a finger to her lips and laughed in a strangely refined manner.

“ ‘But, if I give it a name, it’ll be like we’re really family and I’ll have no choice but to take care of it,’ she says. And I’m like, it’s already too late the moment you brought it home, don’t you think?”

That’s… He couldn’t give an answer when pressed to agree. “Have you heard about her situation?”

“I got the gist of it from granny. That lady over there received a huge injury, then an unknown organism entered and animated her body, am I right? It’s alright, I totally get it. I saw an anime just like this last month.”

“I-Is that so…?”

Is this really something you can accept at the drop of a hat just because you watched a similar story? Or is this something specific to youngsters her age nowadays? Young people scare me.

“I mean, sure, I was a bit scared at first, but she’s a good girl who listens to instructions so it’s totally fine.”

“Really…?”

From his point of view, that was probably due to how her sense of self-identity was barely present.

“Non, huh. Yup, that’s a cute name, like the kind you’d give to a plushy.”

She put on a pair of indoor slippers and entered the apartment, pitter-pattering towards the sofa.

“Al-ger-non, mind waking up a bit for me?” She started shaking the older girl’s body.

“H-Hey?!”

Is it alright to touch her directly? That question was at the top of his mind. He immediately thought to stop Io, but she moved before he could, and now Algernon opened her eyes narrowly.

“Sorry to wake you up when you were sleeping so soundly.”

Her unfocused eyes stared at Io. “You called, Algernon?” she mumbled groggily.

“Yep, I was calling you.”

“Algernon is, me.”

“That’s right.”

“I am, being called?”

“Yeah.”

Algernon raised her body sluggishly.

Soji groaned. “You really are one fearless young lady.”

In response, she turned back and looked up at him. “Is that so?”

“Yes, it is. That’s an absurd organism whose origin we know nothing about, and yet you just touched it like it’s nothing, even though you have no idea what it might do to you.”

“Not knowing what could’ve been done to you is the same when facing any other person, no?”

Well, she’s not wrong about that.

“Especially that old man, Sasaki. His favorite pastime is pranking others.”

I don’t know who you are, old man Sasaki, but I send my best regards to you.

“Anyways, sorry for waking you up like this, Non. I brought some clothes over, so I’ll teach you how to wear them and stuff, okay?”

“I see.” The older girl nodded hazily.

“That’s that, so I’ll be borrowing this room for a while. Don’t you dare peek.”

“Yeah, go ahead. And just in case, shout if anything happens.”

“I hear you loud and clear.” With a wink, she dragged Algernon into the bedroom by the hand.

Soji watched their backs disappear behind the door and looked away.

She’s somewhat pushy, you could say, or maybe she’s just a busybody. Fourteen, huh. That’s around the same age as Sakimi was back then. That reminds me, Sakimi was also probably like that at the time. Do all girls her age behave this way, or is it just a coincidence those two are alike?

“What do you think?” He directed that question at the goldfish, but naturally, they did not reply.

Speaking of which, I need to find a place for these guys to stay too.

After searching around the apartment, he found a round fishbowl. For some reason, it had even come with an underwater filter.

This was supposed to be a safehouse for someone on the run to lie low at. Thus, it was a slight mystery why the apartment came with something like that. I’ll just ask Kotaro about it later.

Soji was bad with pets—no, any living thing in general. And he also heard that the goldfish that commonly came with summer festivals weren’t that robust to begin with. He’d even heard of stories where they dropped dead the moment they were placed in a tank.

First, he prepared the water. After sterilizing it with some bleach powder, he added a small amount of salt and adjusted the water temperature. Checking the instructions on his phone over and over again, he wondered whether he was really doing it correctly.

He released the goldfish into the fishbowl.

For a moment, the two fishes spasmed.

He feared that he had messed up a step somewhere, and that they were dead. Luckily, they soon regained their spirits and swam energetically around their new home, and he relaxed his shoulders in relief.

Phew. Using the back of his hand, he wiped away the beads of sweat that had formed on his forehead. Living creatures really aren’t my thing, he came to think once more.

“Alright, I’ll be going now to see the fireworks with my friends,” said the young woman—No, the girl—before leaving.

She had probably drilled in quite a bit of information as Algernon came out looking weary somehow, despite her expression being completely unchanged.

“Here.” He held out a glass of cold-brewed barley tea to her.

She took it, but looked as if she didn’t know what it was, and just held it blankly. Only when he started to drink did she realize that it was supposed to be a drink. She then copied him and washed it down her throat.

“There’s more over there, so get it yourself if you want more.” He gestured towards the pitcher on the table.

She pondered for a while with the empty glass in her hands before reaching out for it. Despite her awkward motions, she managed to refill her glass with the tea.

…Looks like she’s gradually getting used to the body.

Sakimi’s memories were inside her, and she could read them. The more she reads, the more intimately she knows about the person known as Sakimi, and the closer she becomes to her.

And in this way, her imitation of a human being becomes more perfect.

He could not decide whether or not that was a good thing. Only Heaven knew if it was the prelude to unprecedented destruction, or if it was the silver bullet to breaking out of their current predicament. Since he couldn’t arrive at an answer no matter how much he thought, he concluded it was meaningless to base his further actions on that.

At times like this, the orthodox approach would be to envision a plan with the worst-case scenario in mind.

However, seeing as he was faced with an unknown organism for which any kind of absurdity could not be ruled out, what even was the worst-case scenario?

As such, he chose to maintain as peaceful a lifestyle as possible. If he were to borrow from the analogy of the Cypress king mentioned by the elderly doctor this morning, he would mimic the king and wish for Galatea. After all, it would be unbearable were she unable to even relieve herself without his instruction.

As he was thinking to himself, Algernon finished her second glass of tea, and her eyes turned elsewhere. When he followed her gaze, he found that she was staring at the fishbowl atop the low drawer, which had just received its first residents.

“What, is that?”

How rare. She’s actually showing interest in something, he thought.

“As you can see, they’re goldfish. Don’t eat them, okay?”

“Goldfish…” As always, she spent a few seconds searching through Sakimi’s memories. “They’re small.”

“Well, goldfish usually are.”

“They’re swimming, inside the glass.”

“Well, that’s what they do.”

Her stare was unfaltering.

“They’re not food, okay? I mean it.”

“I know. I won’t, eat them.” She answered, turning to face him.

“I’m, not a cat.”

Is that her way of giving a witty answer? Nah, it could just be that she has this clichéd notion that “something which eats goldfish” equates to “cat” from Sakimi’s memories.

I have no idea which is which.

It didn’t feel like they had established communication at all.

“Don’t stare at them too hard, you hear me? Apparently it stresses them out.”

“Okay.”

Despite her reply, her eyes continued to follow the fishes keenly.