I was just about at the point of truly losing the courage to go on. A line from a poem popped into my head: The end of the rainy season, refreshing, suicide.

I shook my head. For now, I decided to sleep. Changing into my pajamas, I tried lying down in bed. As I did, the scrap of paper on top of the TV caught my eye. It was the contract I had received from Misaki.

One evening, I had been reading manga in the convenience store’s magazine corner when, all of a sudden, Misaki was standing behind me. “By the next time we meet, make sure to sign and stamp this, okay?” she said, extracting a piece of paper from her bag. She passed it to me; by the look of it, she’d been walking around with it for a while.

That scrap of paper…

I’d already read it several times, but I picked it up and read again. It was, of course, an unendingly incomprehensible document, so utterly ridiculous that it made my head ache. However, with my emotions at their lowest, it also appealed to me in some strange way. So, I finally signed and stamped the contract.

Shoving it into my pocket, I headed toward the neighborhood park. It was night, and the moon was out. Somewhere, a dog howled. Seated on the bench next to the swings, I looked dreamily up at the night sky.

Unexpectedly, Misaki showed up, again wearing normal clothing rather than her religious garb. She joined me on the park bench and began making excuses for something I hadn’t even mentioned. “This doesn’t mean I watch the park entrance from my window every night.”

I laughed. After my laugh had evaporated, the distant baying of the dog had ceased, and the only sound left was an ambulance’s far-off siren, Misaki asked, “Did you finish making your game?”

“Ah, yeah, the erotic game got canceled in the end. How did you know about it, though?”

“When Yamazaki came to the manga cafe a few days ago, I happened to overhear him talking about it. By the way, what’s an erotic game?”

“It’s a code for EROA and GARIOA.[24] EROA stands for Economic Rehabilitation in Occupied Areas, and GARIOA is Government Appropriation for Relief in Occupied Areas. They were developed by the American government to prevent social problems, such as disease and famine, in the areas occupied by the U.S. after World War II.”

“That’s a huge lie, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“You being a creator was a lie, too, right?”

“Yeah.”

“In reality, you’re an unemployed hikikomori, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

I held out the contract. Quickly snatching it from my hands, Misaki jumped up. “You finally felt like signing it! You’ll be all right now, Satou. You can travel off into the wide world after just a little training.”

“Misaki, who are you, really?”