After just a few more seconds, swinging my arms as hard as possible and sticking out my legs as far as I could, I would dive. For the first time, I could truly escape, leave my six-mat, one-room apartment and fly higher and higher into the open sky. I would jump and fly.

Ah, just a little longer. I’ll fly soon.

I would jump into the Sea of Japan, as though I were doing a running long jump. I’d jump out…

I’m jumping…

I jumped.

I jumped!

Both my legs left the ground. My body was floating in the air, and after a few moments, my body would fall soon.

I would fall and smash into the Sea of Japan.

The ending was very near—just like in the erotic game that Yamazaki made, I would use my special attack on the N.H.K. To protect the heroine, I would rush forward into the final battle. I had wished for that game scenario, and I was going to die exactly the way I had wanted. It was the greatest happy ending.

Soon, I will be saved…

Then, it happened. Suddenly, something came to mind that concerned me. The ending of that game—no matter how I tried, I couldn’t remember it. Did the hero of the game defeat the evil organization? In fact, was there even an ending at all?

Someone said, “There’s no way to win.”

It might have been a dream. I already might have lost consciousness some time ago. As I danced through nothingness, the pitch-black Sea of Japan and a bright, starry sky stretched out before my eyes.

And then, I saw them. They were mocking me.

My body would start falling soon. I would die. That had to happen.

But they said, “Remember.”

On this bluff, where there had been too many incidents, construction to prevent them had already been completed. The Revolutionary Bomb disappeared without going off.

I screamed, “Is that how you do it?! You cowards!”

No answer came back to me.

Final Chapter.
Welcome to the N.H.K.!

It became spring.

Of course, I was holed up in my room.

Why?! Why am I holed up?! Get hold of yourself! Do some honest work! I tried taking out my anger on myself in this way; of course, it’s never so easy to escape from being a hikikomori.

I still suffered from the neuroses that attacked me, the desire to kill myself that would boil silently to the surface, and all the other sorts of problems I faced (my rent being raised or my favorite convenience store closing). On top of all that, I had my security guard job tomorrow. It was a complete pain in the ass.

I was depressingly worried.

Regardless, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom outside my window. New college students walked past the front of my apartment. I felt as though I had been abandoned by the whole world, as though I were being mocked by the entire human race.