The two threads, in the order they happen.
Slice of life
The diary
A notebook written at street level: the tiny apartment, the fifty thousand yen a month, the train rides, the grey working days paid for in hours of life.
Magical realism
The other side
What happens in the same city when nobody is looking: a thousand-year forest opening under the rain, an immense owl in the mist, a library hidden among cedars.
- 現Ch. 01現The diary· Slice of life
Chapter 1
There I was, at that moment of existence and of life, alone in one of those so-called micro-apartments of Tokyo. The day had a greyish atmosphere…
5 minread → - 現Ch. 02現The diary· Slice of life
Chapter 2
Yumiko, that was her name. I met her by chance in a bar. I had to call her Hayashi, by her surname, and add the polite suffix «san»…
3 minIn preparation - 幻Ch. 03幻The other side· Magical realism
Chapter 3
I walk, I walk; I have been walking for days. The first hundreds of hours were glorious. I did not walk to arrive; I walked for the act of walking itself.
3 minIn preparation - 現Ch. 04現The diary· Slice of life
Chapter 4
Before dawn, an orange cat doll falls onto the bar. Yumiko and I discover that we have both spent years hiding the broken part no one wants to see, hoping to find someone unafraid to truly look at us.
3 minIn preparation - 幻Ch. 05幻The other side· Magical realism
Chapter 5
“You have slept for two whole years,” the owl tells me. I turn and face my fifteen-year-old self: a frightened child laden with medals, his fingers hurt by relentless self-demand. It was time to lift the weight and embrace him.
2 minIn preparation - 現Ch. 06現The diary· Slice of life
Chapter 6
With only 210 yen and seventeen job rejections in a row, Tokyo seems like an impassable wall. When cold and hunger offer no respite, a bowl of hot ramen and an unexpected call restore my desire to stay awake.
2 minIn preparation - 幻Ch. 07幻The other side· Magical realism
Chapter 7
Tired of shouting into the air without an answer, I wake an immense creature from the mud, one that lives without haste. While the city demands that I run, the forest teaches me that entering its great library first requires learning to be still.
5 minIn preparation - 幻Ch. 08幻The other side· Magical realism
Chapter 8
Opening the Black Book, I enter Tom’s body and crawl through a narrow cave in search of food for my people. A slip throws him into a dense black lake that finally casts him onto a solitary beach before a leaden sea.
2 minIn preparation - 幻Ch. 09幻The other side· Magical realism
Chapter 9
Masked giants dance in a circle around the fire. Unable to bear the tension, I throw a stone and force them to remove their masks: their black eyes stare back, reminding me that the only executioner in my mind has always been me.
9 minIn preparation - 現Ch. 10現The diary· Slice of life
Chapter 10
I iron my shirt with a pot of boiling water to conceal poverty on my first day at work. After an exhausting morning at the shop register, a girl in a yellow coat on the bus makes me feel the world still holds moments of peace.
11 minIn preparation - …11—40