Chapter 8: Remotely Close【Part 2】
【言語に関するご注意 / Language Notice】本作はすべて、英語と英語の表現で書かれています。翻訳作品ではなく、オリジナルの英語ライトノベルです。あらかじめご了承の上、作品をお楽しみください。
See chapter one for the main author's note.
Daiki
I weave past the edge of the huddling crowd to get a better look. No kidding—they actually print physical newspapers here.
The display showcases a stacked column of newsprint, its front page dominated by grand typography and dense walls of text.
Curiosity wins. I press my student ID card against the console’s emblem.
A faint vibration rattles the chassis, and a rolled newspaper drops into the retrieval slot.
Unfurling the paper, I scan the headers for something interesting.
‘Freshmen Arrive!’, ‘For Fox Sake: Triads Escalate’, ‘Wood On: Secured Funding’, ‘Pres. Approval Trend Continues.’
Nothing clicks. I flip through the remaining pages for something lighter—the entire issue is barren of photographs.
My eyes track down the sidebars of text while my feet keep up a steady pace.
Rounding the next corner, the street opens up to reveal a towering blue monolith cutting into the sky. The RemoteLines Center.
It is a slim, sky-facing structure capped with a horizontal band of white. I wonder if all of their facilities look like this.
Beneath it, the crowd thickens into a stagnant swamp. Loiterers mingle with people streaming through the grand glass doors, clogging the entryway.
Apparently, the urge to call home is a universal affliction; there is something mildly pathetic about everyone being so eager to check in with families back on the mainland after just a day on the island.
Guess that makes me a pathetic hypocrite.
Beyond the threshold, the central atrium soars upwards. The building forms a vertical honeycomb, ringed by continuous circular tiers.
Small, semi-private communication alcoves pack every floor. Floor-to-ceiling glass floods the entire room with light, though the acoustic padding at each booth barely holds back the collective din of hundreds of simultaneous conversations.
The noisy chatter and constant movement leave the lower levels out of the question.
The climb leads away from the noise, continuing towards the upper decks until the crowd thins out. Near the top, a secluded stall appears, facing the coast.
The partition dampens the ambient roar of the atrium the moment I sit down. The setup is minimal, exactly as expected.
Right beside the terminal, a blue scanner light pulses in a slow heartbeat above a set of pasted desk instructions.
I type in the number and scan my card. The system blinks green, the small display flashing
‘7h 00m’
I pick up the handset.
Nothing.
Just hollow silence, a layer of static, and the steady drone of the ringback tone. I stare out the window toward the distant sea, waiting.
The ringing stops.
Quiet blips pulse through the line, until the line falls silent again.
“Hello,” a voice starts. “is this ‘a student from Kyousei Academy’ calling?” a rigid, flat voice prompts on the line.
“Um, hello?”
A sharp burst of laughter shatters the silence.
“Hey there, little brother!” The tone snaps back into a familiar, high-energy bounce. “You were right, that intro reel is annoyingly long! Glad I could share your suffering, huh?”
“Hey, Sis... how are you?”
“The ride on the ferry was just as long as I remembered it,” she huffs, faking a dramatic sigh. “Just sea and nothing else to do. How did you manage your ride?”
“I just napped through half of it. It wasn’t that bad.” “A total waste of a scenic cruise, as expected.” Her voice bounces of the receiver energetically, the curious tone increasing. “So tell me! Have you already made new friends? How is Sora? Checked out the lake? Come on, tell me everything!”
“No... not yet. I just finished breakfast.”
I lean back against the plastic partition of the booth. Just missed Mom and Dad before their shift…
“But how are you doing?” I return. “How was the first night of sleep in your own room again?”
The line goes quiet for a moment. Only the low hiss of the static remains between us.
Another three years…
“Oh, you know me, it was fine. But you will never want anything else once you’re used to the dormitories’ luxurious beds!” The cheer returns to her voice, a little too fast. “Trust me, it took me only a few days to adjust, but after that it was—”
I stare at the timer on the display in front of me. The digits have barely even budged.
‘6h 58m’
“Sis,” I mutter, cutting right through her sentence. “I hate it here.”
The line goes silent.
The audio smudges as a rustle of fabric bleeds through the receiver, followed by a pause, before the line clears up again.
“I... I know...” she whispers.
Jiro
“...Thanks. You too, Mom.” My voice trails off.
As I return the handset to its holster, the timer stops its countdown.
‘6h 51m’
On second thought, seven hours a week is actually a lot of call time at this rate. Still, the menacing countdown does little to quiet the uneasy thought of a limit.
As I move down the spiral staircase, the noise gradually increases again.
Near the exit, a group stares intensely through the glass. I follow their gaze outside. A boy with a white bandage wrapped tight around his forehead is just clearing the threshold.
Renji.
“Renji!” I call, rushing through the doors.
He glances up, then continues on his path without stopping, his shoulders hunched tight.
I throw myself into the busy streets and move next to him to match his sluggish pace.
“Oh. Hi, Jiro…” he answers quietly.
Hearing the muted tone from a guy who practically shouted every sentence yesterday makes me a bit uneasy, as if I caught the wrong person.
“I’ve been looking for you. I tried calling, like, several times. I—” The words jam in my throat. They taste wrong. “...Um. How are you?”
“Fine.”
“...Good to hear…”
cuts off eye contact, accelerating to a normal walk to weave deeper into the crowd.
I increase my pace too, stepping around a passerby to walk next to him again. “I-uh, heard you got sent straight to the hospital yesterday. How… did it go?”
“Nothing special. Mostly examinations.” He winces slightly as an incoming skater tries to pass us.
I drop my hands into my pockets, sorting through options on what to bring up next.
“I stayed the night at the hospital,” he says, his face tightening slightly. “The tests dragged on until midnight. Besides, I didn’t feel like dealing with a new roommate after all that. Came straight here”
After how the meeting with my own roommate went, I can’t blame him for wanting to avoid it.
He glances sideways. “How are you?”
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Discover what happens next in: Chapter 8: Remotely Close【Part 3】
Written by Limited_Infinity. Extras, official publishing platforms and updates are publicly available only on the Patreon page “_Limited_Infinity_”
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