Sasaki and Peeps - Volume 6 - Chapter 3.0

<Abduction>

Our destination back in modern Japan was Ms. Futarishizuka’s villa in Karuizawa. Specifically, the twelve-square-meter guest room allotted to Peeps and me.

I checked the wall clock and saw that it was a little after eight in the morning. Peeps immediately flew to the laptop set up on the desk. Standing to the side, I took a look at my personal phone. No notifications.

With our usual routine out of the way, we went to the living room with Lady Elsa. There, we saw the villa’s owner and Miss Hoshizaki sitting around the dining table. Our senior had spent the night here the day before. The two of them were eating breakfast together. White rice, salted salmon, veggies steeped in a dashi-based sauce, and miso soup—a purely Japanese meal. It looked delicious.

“Ah, you’ve returned!” said Ms. Futarishizuka, bowl in hand, when she noticed us emerging from the hallway. But as soon as she saw Lady Elsa, she quickly added, “Wait, I thought you’d returned the girl to her family.”

“Due to various circumstances, we’ve been asked to look after her for a bit longer,” I explained.

“I suppose I have no objections, as long as I’m paid rent.”

“Thank you. I apologize for the inconvenience.”

As we spoke, Lady Elsa went up to her host. “Futarishizuka, I’m sorry for causing so much trouble,” she said. “I don’t know if this has any value in your world, but if you would like, please accept it. After discussing the matter with my father, I prepared it as a thank-you gift.”

She then took something out of an inside pocket and held it out to the kimono-clad girl. It was a small box—it looked like an expensive, decorated jewelry case. Were there rings or necklaces made of precious metals inside?

“Don’t keep me waiting, now,” insisted Ms. Futarishizuka. “What did she say?”

“She said she spoke with her family and has a gift to show her appreciation.”

“Oh my! So young and yet so polite. You needn’t have bothered, dear.”

I hadn’t even noticed she’d brought that. I glanced at the bird on my shoulder and saw him nod slightly. She’d probably discussed it with the Starsage without my knowledge. In that case, I doubted there was anything to fear from her choice of gift. I’ll have to get something for the count the next time we visit.

“You must have been raised by people of great character, indeed,” added our host.

“Um, what did Futarishizuka say…?” Lady Elsa asked me.

“She expresses her deep gratitude for the thoughtfulness you and Count Müller have shown her,” I said. “She also says she can tell from your actions and manners that your father has taught you many excellent things, and it fills her with admiration.”

A happy smile appeared on Lady Elsa’s uneasy face. Seeing that, Ms. Futarishizuka accepted the gift from her outstretched hand.

“You sure use a ton of words, don’t you, Sasaki?” Miss Hoshizaki remarked from her place across the table between sips of miso soup.

“…Do I?” Lady Elsa was a noblewoman, so I doubted I was overdoing it.

“The thank-you part is one thing, but isn’t it weird to rattle off so many other words after that? It’s not like you’re writing an email. You’re speaking face-to-face with someone, doing basically the same thing as interpreting an English conversation.”

“Do you understand the otherworld’s language?” I asked.

“Of course not. But I can clearly tell you’re being really stiff and indirect.”

“I feel this sort of exchange is normal when conducting business.”

“…Really?”

“I believe so.”

“Businessmen are really something else, huh?”

“I don’t think that applies only to businessmen. Everyone participating in society, whether young or old, and regardless of gender, is doing something amazing. Personally, I’m quite envious of the energy you bring on-site.”

“D-do you mean that?” she replied, lifting the bowl she’d just set down back up to her lips to hide her embarrassment. As always, our senior was like an open book.

After that, I took a break in the living room for a little under an hour, waiting for my colleagues to finish their meal before heading off to work. Using Peeps’s teleportation magic, we jumped from the Karuizawa villa to the hotel near my former apartment. There, we collected our bureau-provided phones and climbed into Ms. Futarishizuka’s car. The Starsage and Lady Elsa stayed behind in the villa, as usual.

The travel distance was actually shorter from Karuizawa, but we would be doing actual bureau work today, so we decided to head to our destination via legitimate means. After all, if we made use of Peeps’s teleportation magic while hanging on to our bureau phones, the location data would jump right along with us.

And so we headed straight for Omachi, a city in Nagano prefecture. Our destination was a lake roughly in the center of town.

Our drive through the crisscrossing roads of the capital was quickly over, after which we merged onto the Chuo Expressway and headed northwest for a long while. The GPS said the total distance one-way was 250 kilometers. Even if we didn’t hit any traffic, the drive would take about four hours.

Naturally, the driver was not happy. “I’m already feeling depressed thinking about taking the same route back…”

“I’m really sorry for always putting you through all this trouble,” I said.

“Are those your real feelings, or just a bunch of lip service?”

“We could go home by train, if you’d like,” I offered.

“Hmm, perhaps… Wait. Our senior in the back seat is asleep. Already.”

“She ate a big breakfast. That probably made her tired.”

Through the rearview mirror, I saw Miss Hoshizaki leaning back against the seat, eyes closed, breathing quiet and steady. I’d been wondering why she’d fallen silent for the last few kilometers. Incidentally, she was in her office-lady getup that day, looking sharp in her suit and makeup.

“What happened to those driving classes you were going to take?” Ms. Futarishizuka asked.

“I haven’t actually booked any yet…”

“You’re not very enthusiastic about it, are you? Why not just bring a car with you to that otherworld? Then you’d have plenty of time to practice. Bring a diesel one, and you could even use the fuel from the warehouse.”

“You’re right.” I did, obviously, have reservations about the idea, but after relying on her for transportation day in and day out, I could only nod and agree.

Seizing on the opportunity, she flashed me a dazzling smile. “Good, good. I’ll have to prepare a nice car for you, then.”

“Something easy to handle, if you would.”

We went on like that, trading idle chatter for the rest of the drive.

It was a little after noon when we arrived at our destination. According to the message Peeps had deciphered, the coordinates pointed to the center of the city’s lake. While we could fly over the water’s surface with magic, we didn’t want anyone to see us doing so. In the end, we decided it would be best to procure some sort of boat for this investigation.

First, we parked in a lot next to a convenience store on the lakefront to discuss our approach. Upon exiting the car, we found the air much colder than in Tokyo. I got the feeling the location’s elevation made for overall lower temperatures.

Snow-dusted mountains towered behind us, while a placid lake stretched out in front. Between the lake and the convenience store, there was a local train line running parallel to the road. Barely any cars were passing by, making for a very tranquil environment. Last night’s view was great, but this one is amazing, too.

“The scenery here is so nice,” said Miss Hoshizaki, spreading her arms and taking a deep breath. “And the air is crisp, too.”

“I agree,” I said, doing some light stretches of my own. She was right—the air was clean and pure.

“I’m sure it feels good to suddenly wake up to this,” Ms. Futarishizuka teased her. “You know, after sleeping the entire trip.”

“I…I couldn’t help it. There was nothing else to do…”

“And on the clock, too! Tsk, tsk. What bad behavior.”

“Urgh…”

Ms. Futarishizuka shot our senior a pointed glare as she got out of the driver’s seat. Our conversation from the day before was coming back on our senior like a boomerang. She’d really been up on her high horse, criticizing us for goofing off during work hours. It had to sting.

She quickly tried to change the subject. “Sasaki, I thought the time mentioned in the message was at night.”

“Yes,” I said. “It will be a while before we need to head there.”

“Then what should we do now?”

“I’ve procured a guesthouse in the neighborhood,” explained Ms. Futarishizuka. “We can while away the hours there.”

“I thought the same thing back in Atami, but you’re really good at making arrangements like this, Ms. Futarishizuka.”

“No, it’s only that you two are bungling fools.”

She must have gotten everything set up during my visit to the otherworld with Peeps. As Miss Hoshizaki said, she was always a great help to us. Come to think of it, it had been a very long time since I last heard the word bungling. Occasionally, her vocabulary would catapult me decades into the past.

“Oh, and there are hot springs here as well,” she continued. “Whatever our plans for the rest of the day, why don’t we take a quick soak? I’m stiff from sitting behind the wheel for so long.”

“…Fine. I guess,” Miss Hoshizaki reluctantly agreed, unable to shake her guilt over sleeping for most of the ride.

The hot springs we sought were located a few minutes away from the convenience store by car. The facilities were large, including both indoor and open-air baths. They even had a pool on the premises. Apparently, the springs were publicly owned; the interior design gave off the same vibe as a community center. While you could feel the age of the place, it was spotlessly clean.

Bathing on company time was amazing. Even better was the fact that our pay came from tax revenue. I could hear the jingling of coins in my ears as, second by second, I felt myself reclaiming all the income taxes and residents’ taxes I’d paid over the course of my life. The sound healed me body and soul. I took advantage of both the indoor and outdoor baths, then paid a visit to the sauna as well.

Once we were all washed up, we rented a boat for the night’s investigation from one of several shops on the lakeside. Fishing was a popular activity year-round, it seemed. Our business would occur outside the usual hours of operation, but taking advantage of our police identification and business cards, we managed to half force our way through the shopkeeper’s opposition.

With all preliminary measures taken, we headed to the guesthouse Ms. Futarishizuka had booked for us. We took dinner in our rooms and waited for the time specified in the message.

Our quarters were two Japanese-style rooms each about twelve square meters in size. We all gathered in one around a low, Japanese-style table.

“In all honesty,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, “I wasn’t expecting anything from some lame old guesthouse in the boonies. But this dinner is rather good. The wakasagi tempura especially—isn’t it incredible? Of course, we’ll need to order beer now as well.”

“Hold on a minute,” replied Miss Hoshizaki. “We’re going to do actual work after this. We can’t drink!”

To be honest, I was really craving a beer myself. The wakasagi was freshly fried, and with a little salt and lemon added to it, I could keep eating forever. We’d made sure to grab some of their usual menu, too—basashi and sukiyaki. The vegetables had apparently been collected locally; they were quite thick and plenty crisp. Everything was delicious.

“There’s something I’ve been wondering about,” said Miss Hoshizaki.

“What is it?” I asked.

“The TV over there is awfully deep and thick, isn’t it?” she said, looking at the television set up in one corner. Just like the rest of the building, it radiated history.

“That’s a cathode-ray tube TV,” I told her.

“I’ve seen them on dramas and in historical documents before, but I think this might be my first time seeing one in person.”

The screen was about fourteen inches. These days, LCD screens were completely ingrained in the public consciousness, so this TV seemed rather small. The bezels were thick as well, which contributed to its old-timey feel. And on top of all that, it was packing a lot in the back. It was a fixture with a great deal of presence, you might say.

“Wonder where the remote is,” she said. “I kinda want to see what it’s like.”

“Some of these older TVs didn’t have remote controls. I don’t see an infrared receiver on this one, either,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, putting down her chopsticks and moving across the tatami as if to say “I’ve got this.”

Reaching out, she pulled a lever, and the TV powered on. With a ga-chak, an image appeared on the screen—a local news broadcast.

“Next we have the unidentified flying object recently making news all over the world. A lot of people are already claiming to have seen it for themselves. Today, we’ve invited a few experts on the topic to the studio for a discussion.”

By curious coincidence, they were talking about the very thing we were here to investigate—the UFO that had the whole world in an uproar. Several people lined up in front of the camera: a university professor, a journalist, a politician, and the editor of an occult periodical. Aided by the newscaster’s moderation, they each began to express their particular viewpoint without straying from their respective realms of expertise.

“This can be none other than an alien invasion! These types of spaceships are made for long-distance interstellar travel, and our editing department firmly believes they have come to Earth on a scouting mission!”

“You’re a bit old to be talking about aliens, aren’t you? Isn’t it more likely to be a civilian drone or something of that nature? A few years ago, the internet was full of news about strange floating objects just like this.”

“I must say I have my doubts about an alien invasion, but the large number of eyewitness reports from all over the world is certainly curious. If we are dealing with a single object, it must be moving at a very fast rate of speed and in an irregular orbit.”

“Oh, this picture—I was the one who took it. Yeah, I was just walking down the street when I happened to see the thing.”

Now that we had the TV on, we decided to watch the news as we ate. A Japanese-style room, a low table, and a CRT TV—it really stoked the nostalgia in me, bringing back memories of when I was little. The TV being so old made even the program itself seem like a relic of the past.

“That occult magazine editor is quite the kook,” noted Ms. Futarishizuka.

“He’s the only one there in the entertainment business, and he’s really going for it,” I agreed.

“The journalist seems pretty focused on himself,” pointed out Miss Hoshizaki.

“Probably trying to compensate for his low pay in any way he can,” Ms. Futarishizuka mused.

We traded our impressions of the program as if we were completely uninvolved in the matter. I doubted any of us, myself included, really thought we’d come away from this trip with anything to show for it. At best, maybe we’d meet whoever had sent the Morse code, and they’d verify our findings.

By the time we finished dessert, the news program was over. Sipping our after-dinner tea, we watched the credits roll, and then it was time to head out.

“Should we get going?” Ms. Futarishizuka said.

“Probably a good idea,” I replied.

At her encouragement, we all eased our way up from the floor cushions where we’d been seated.

After exiting the guesthouse, we headed for one of several piers on the lake, referred to as Mizuho Pier by the locals. Just beyond it floated the boat we’d rented earlier that day. What kind of boat, you ask? A swan boat—that’s right, that kind of swan boat.

We’d tried to procure a boat with an engine, but they’d refused, saying they were all rented out for use early the next morning. This was probably the local shops’ only method of resistance against government institutions throwing their weight around. If we’d gone through the bureau and pressured them further, we probably could have gotten a motorboat, but considering this was likely a wild goose chase, we meekly chose the swan.

The lake at night was completely quiet, save for the kree-koh-kree-koh of the pedals turning.

“It’s like a boat from a fairy tale,” muttered Miss Hoshizaki. “Aren’t these supposed to be for dates and stuff?”

“We couldn’t get anything else,” I reminded her. “They were all booked.”

“More importantly, why am I the only one pedaling?” complained Ms. Futarishizuka. “Seriously, what’s going on here?”

As she said, she was the only one working the pedals. The boat only had one set, and she’d ended up in the captain’s seat due to her outstanding physical abilities.

While the one who looked like a child did her best to pedal the boat, Miss Hoshizaki and I sat on either side of her, lazily staring out at the lake. This would have been very bad for appearances, but fortunately there were no other boats on the water at this hour.

Miss Hoshizaki had been the one to push our colleague into the driver’s seat, incidentally, insisting physical labor was her forte.

“Ugh… What a cruel world…,” Futarishizuka whined.

“Do you want me to switch with you?” I offered.

“And change places in this tiny boat?”

“Why not?”

“There’s a risk we might flip it, and I couldn’t bear to watch you two drown.”

As it happened, I’d been wary of that possibility for a while now. The floor of the boat was only ten or twenty centimeters above the water’s surface. A strong gust of wind would send chills down my spine.

“How fast do you think this boat would go if you pedaled as hard as you could?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“What did I do to deserve such criticism from my senior colleague, hmm?”

“The pedals would probably break before we got there,” I pointed out. “Please drive safely.”

“I’m well aware,” snapped Ms. Futarishizuka. “You don’t need to tell me.”

She was doing a good job, in fact, keeping the boat at a constant speed. And after a few minutes or so, the swan arrived at the lake’s center. I checked our position on my phone’s map and saw our current location marker right on top of the pin I’d placed beforehand. We’d arrived at the spot indicated in the message Peeps had deciphered for us.

“We should be fine right here,” I said.

“The lake may not be all that big,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, “but coming out here at night is frightening, indeed…”

The swan boat came to a stop on the water. Other than the sparse lights from houses, it was pitch-black all around us. Even the splashes of the tiny waves striking the boat sounded oddly loud. The lake had been so blue, so clear this afternoon, but now the darkness imbued it with the terror of the unknown. I was only calm because I had my flight spell. Without that, I’d have been pretty spooked.

Miss Hoshizaki, on the other hand, for whom water was a good friend, showed no signs of hesitation. In fact, she was leaning out of the boat to get a look around.

“Nothing’s happening,” she pointed out.

“There’s still ten or fifteen minutes to go,” I said.

“While we’re waiting,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, “why don’t we try calling them from here?”

“Calling them? What, are you going to scream into the sky?”

“Of course not, girlie. You, get me that bag in the back.”

“This one?” I asked.

“Yes, yes. I brought it just in case.”

I grabbed a bag from behind the seat and handed it to her.

She proceeded to take out a device that looked like a car stereo. It was about as big as a lunch box. A liquid crystal display was on the front, with a whole host of tiny buttons surrounding it. A wire extended from the back, connecting to a microphone that reminded me of the kind taxi drivers used.

“Wait, is that a radio?” asked Miss Hoshizaki immediately.

“It’s a mobile car radio with a portable power supply,” Ms. Futarishizuka explained.

I glimpsed a box-shaped device in the bag with the radio. The colors and design were familiar to me—it was a storage battery, the main product of a manufacturer that produced and sold high-capacity portable outdoor generators and solar products.

“Come,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “Hold this and point it away from us.”

“Is this an antenna?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“It is, indeed.”

“Looks pretty small compared to the last one. You sure it’ll reach?”

“It may be small, but it can output fifty watts. We’ll be just fine; I guarantee it.”

Even in the boat, an unstable environment, Ms. Futarishizuka got all the equipment set up smoothly and promptly. She looked so cool as she worked. Finally, she adjusted the band to the one we’d previously used to communicate. Thankfully, nobody else was using it, so we began calling right away.

With everything set up on the boat, the girl in the kimono began to broadcast the same message as the day before.

“Hello, CQ. Hello, CQ. This is Juliet, Alpha, one, ##, ##. J, A, one, ##, ##. We have reached the designated position. If you can hear this, we request a response.”

“Is it weird to say hello at night?” asked Miss Hoshizaki, unsure about the proper usage of the English word.

“Our signal reaches outside the country,” replied the girl at the microphone, “so there’s no point worrying about what time it is.”

“Oh, right. You said it could even reach the international space station. I forgot.”

I took a look around from our vantage point on the boat. Surrounded by water, we were several hundred meters from the closest shore. In the darkness, I couldn’t sense anyone else around us. If the one who had called us was here, where would they be watching from?

“Hello, CQ. Hello, CQ. This is Juliet, Alpha, one, ##, ##. J, A, one, ##, ##. We have reached the designated position. If you can hear this, we request a response.”

Ms. Futarishizuka’s calls rang monotonously across the quiet lake.

After a few minutes of broadcasting into the void, the specified time arrived. I glanced at my smartphone’s clock widget and called out to my coworker. “It’s time.”

“But nothing’s happening,” complained Miss Hoshizaki.

“Of course not,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “It’s gotten a bit chilly, too. Shall we head back after a few more calls?”

“My arms are tired from holding the antenna,” complained our senior. “Can I take a break?”

“I could take over for you, Miss Hoshizaki—,” I began.

“No, I just need to rest my arms. It’s no big deal.”

“Oh, don’t worry about her,” Ms. Futarishizuka assured me. “We all know she only wants to prolong her overtime.”

“Urk…”

As expected, our senior was always thinking up crafty schemes. Still, I respected how serious she was about putting in overtime only for hours she had actually worked. And now that I knew it was all for her younger sister, my perspective on Miss Hoshizaki had changed.

“Once we get back to the guesthouse, we can put in some more overtime preparing our report for the section chief,” I suggested.

“G-good plan! I like that!” Her face lit up in a cheery grin.

But right in the midst of our lively discussion, the boat rocked.

“Whoa?!” cried Ms. Futarishizuka. The radio equipment resting on her lap fell to the floor with a clatter.

Judging by her reaction, this wasn’t one of her pranks. Thinking instead that a high wave had struck us, I grabbed hold of the boat’s frame and prepared for impact. But then I remembered this wasn’t the ocean and grew even more puzzled by the boat’s unexpected movement.

Soon, the cause became clear.

“Uh, guys?!” Miss Hoshizaki exclaimed. “The boat is floating!”

She was right. The boat had begun to ascend up and away from the lake. While the surface of the water had been right at our feet before, it was now quickly growing distant.

“A bit much for a lighthearted prank, hmm?” Ms. Futarishizuka remarked, eyeing me.

“Wait, no. This isn’t me!” I insisted.

“Then what’s going on?”

It would be easy to make the boat float like this with otherworld magic; that was probably why she suspected me.

“Sasaki, Futarishizuka, look up! Be quiet and look up!”

At her exclamation, the two of us leaned over the side of the boat and peered toward the sky.

There, right above us, was a strange, gigantic flying object.

Its shape was almost a perfect circle, and it appeared very large—several dozen meters across if I had to guess. It was obstructing the moonlight, causing the underside to look like a pitch-black shadow. By some mechanism, it was stopped dead in the air. I couldn’t detect even the faintest rocking motion.

“Wha…?” I muttered in spite of myself.

A moment later, a glaring light shone down from the center of the object, bathing us. It was as if we were under a spotlight. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the nighttime darkness, it was almost blinding. The swan boat we were riding began to slowly move upward toward the source of the light.

Ms. Futarishizuka frantically resumed pedaling, but the propeller had no water to push off and spun fruitlessly in circles. The spray coming off the boat made loud splashes amid the quiet of the night.

“Perhaps this is what a speck of dust feels like as it’s sucked into a vacuum cleaner,” she mused.

“Or a prize in a crane game,” I suggested.

“Ah yes. That might be a better analogy.”

“H-hey! How are you two so calm?!” demanded Miss Hoshizaki as she looked up, down, and all around in a complete panic.

Right next to her, Ms. Futarishizuka and I continued to discuss things for as long as we could.

“Should we jump out?” I asked.

“I can’t help feeling that would be a waste,” she replied. “I’m hopeless, aren’t I?”

“I suppose I understand how you feel, but…”

“We might need to rely on you from here on out. Do you think you can handle things?”

“I’ll manage somehow, as long as we stay inside Earth’s gravity well.”

At any rate, I put up a barrier spell big enough to cover everyone present. I’d confirmed with Peeps the day before that you could alter the spell to conserve oxygen and air pressure. Still, there was only so much oxygen you could take with you, so we’d have to make it back down while we were still able to breathe.

“It’s…it’s sucking us in!” Miss Hoshizaki’s scream resounded over the nighttime lake.

Then a shining light, so bright I couldn’t keep my eyes open, engulfed the boat.