Gathering momentum from the swing, she leapt off lightly. The display of energy seemed intentional. It might have been my imagination, though. After she landed, she came over to where I sat on the bench and looked straight at me. Crouching, her hands resting on her knees, she said, “You want to know how to escape, right? I’ll teach you.”

Once again, the same unnecessarily cute smile that I’d seen before floated across her face. I was unable to think of her as a successor to the ASIMO model any longer. Looking away, I whispered, “I’m not a hikikomori.”

“Liar. How can you say that even though you completely gave it away when Auntie tried talking to you the other day? Even though you ran away when you realized it was me at the manga cafe? Normal people don’t do stuff like that.”

“Hey!” I sputtered.

“You’re scared, right? Of other people?”

As I lifted my head, our eyes met. She had big eyes, with large pupils. Gazing into those eyes, I was at a loss for words.

In the end, without saying anything, I looked away again.

Suddenly, I realized that somewhere along the way, the wind had started blowing harder. Over our heads, the branches of the trees were stirring. It was a chilly night.

I decided to go back to my apartment. Standing, I turned my back on her. From behind me, she tried to stop me. “Wait!” she called, “You’ll regret this.”

“What are you talking about? For starters, who are you, anyway?”

“I’m a kind girl who helps worthless hikikomori.”

“And what’s this ‘project’ that you mentioned in your letter?”

“At the current juncture, details of the project are top secret. However, you can rest assured that I won’t do anything bad.”

I started feeling sick, so I decided to tell a suitable lie and just get away from that place. “I’m not just any regular hikikomori, you know. It’s true that I shut myself away, but it’s for my job. I have to.”

“What’s your job?”

“S-SOHO…”

“What’s that?”

“It’s short for ‘someone who works from home’. I work from my apartment… or rather, my home office. I’m not a deadbeat. Although I’m definitely a shut in, it’s part of my job description, and I can’t do anything about that! Trying to get a part-time job was just a momentary miscalculation on my part…”

“Huh. Really? What kind of work do you do?”

“D-don’t be surprised when you hear this. I’m a creator!” That’s right, I thought, marvel at my job title! “Because I do creative work, I may act a bit psychologically unusual, but that only proves my incredible talent! I’m not just some good-for-nothing, jobless guy!”

Misaki grinned and casually asked, “What are you creating?”