He really couldn't go on like this. He wasn't going to get through even a single page if his mind stayed stuck in the hallway… or on her.
He couldn't continue like this, he told himself; he needed to clear his mind.
He got up from the chair and looked toward the window.
The rain seemed to be ending; it had become so light. Then it occurred to him to go out and buy something to eat and, in the process, clear his mind a little.
He headed to the door, took an umbrella that was beside it, opened the door, let out a sigh, and stepped out of his room. He looked down the hallway: no one was there; apparently Asami had already gone to her room. He walked down the hall, turned, and went down the stairs and, just like upstairs, there was no sign of life here either—only the television, still on, showing some random program. He crossed the living room and went toward the entrance.
He opened the umbrella and began walking along the sidewalk toward a nearby store. He watched the birds on the tree branches waiting for the rain to stop so they could sing in the sunlight. There were also cars passing by, not as frequently now. He also saw a completely soaked dog playing in the drizzle with the puddles, but suddenly he felt that something was wrong: it was starting to darken around him. He looked up, lifting his umbrella, and realized that above him and all around, the clouds had turned three times darker compared to the rest, as if a heavy downpour were about to fall directly on him.
Suddenly he began to feel light, as though his 81 kg had become 5 kg. Toru remembered the news on television and tried to stay calm, but without a doubt what was happening sounded exactly like what the media had described:
'A sudden great storm forms in which people disappear,' he thought.
When his mind returned to the present, he realized he couldn't move; he was paralyzed. He didn't know if it was fear or if something had simply frozen him in time.
All at once, a thread of light fell from those clouds and with it, a gust of wind aimed directly at him. It didn't come from the south or the east, but from above, and at the same time the thread of light fell, everything around him—the raindrops, the wind, the gust, the cars, the dog jumping in the water… every movement stopped as if time itself had frozen. When the thread of light touched the ground, a line formed, growing outward in opposite directions from where it had struck, and once it stopped expanding, the ground split open along that line.
Like dough, it opened in the shape of an oval.
It didn't seem to have any texture; it was completely black. He couldn't measure its depth and had no idea if it was a hole or something else.
Toru began to feel his body distort, though he felt no pain.
That oval in the ground was trying to swallow him, twisting his body in the process.
When it swallowed him completely,
Toru found himself in a trance; he couldn't move, he could only see fleeting images—thousands of fragments of stories that seemed to be his, possibilities or destinies that had not yet occurred.
He saw himself as President of the United States; also as a dictator in a place he didn't recognize. He also saw his fight with Asami, saw himself as a school principal; he also saw himself in a park, happy and carefree. He saw many other possible versions of himself.
He began to feel watched—something that made no sense, as there was no one there, only those 'memories.' At one point he started to move without his consent: he was being carried by the current of that place. When he looked at where he was heading, there was a blinding light.
As he drew closer, the light began to darken and something became visible behind it.
Black clouds—the same ones he had seen earlier. He realized it was the same thing that had swallowed him: it had the same shape, an oval.
There was only one difference: this time he could see through it; it wasn't black like before.
His body began to deform again when he touched the oval and suddenly reassembled itself on the other side.
He was standing on what seemed to be a street. It was strange: there were houses, but the architecture was odd, old-looking or medieval in style.
'Where the hell am I?' he said to himself.
He began walking and looking around: there were alleys between each house and many stalls.
The craziest part was the people: they looked strange, though he couldn't get a good look because his head began to hurt. He felt something running from his nose and touched it—but it wasn't mucus: it was blood.
His nose was bleeding; he felt dizzy, couldn't see well, and at one point he couldn't take it anymore and collapsed.