Two: The Magazine
A young man sat on a bench in a park. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. On the shirt there was an advertisement of "Aqua Fujiyama", a popular brand of mineral water. His shoes, however, vere old-fashioned japanese sandals. He was reading a magazine about manga comics. On the last pages there were the results of a New Talents' Competition. One page sample caught his eye. It was from the bronze-medal winner, Kyoko S., and it featured a train with two invisible passengers among ordinary ones. One of the invisibles was a child. The introduction read: "...based on a modern ghost-story Kyoko heard from a classmate when she was ten years old."
The man took a "Swiss Army" -type pocket knife (made in Japan, naturally) and cut the page out with the tiny scissor blades. Then he closed the magazine. He stood up, and was about to pick his bag, when he saw the folded paper on the bench. He remembered it had been between the magazine. A poster of some sort. It featured a sexy female character who was wearing practically nothing. The name of the comic told she was suppoced to be a policewoman. He folded the poster and was about to put it in the trash can, when he saw tho backside was full of printed text. He sat back and started reading.
"Reader's corner - questions and answers. Fan Art: Famous Bad Guys (and Girls)." Then a short info on the policewoman character. "Reader advertisements: Manga for sale... Manga wanted... Anime for sale... Anime wanted... Boys looking for pen-pals... Girls looking for pen-pals..." !
"I'm a college student looking for anyone who likes Scuba Diving. I'm only a beginner and none of my friends is interested. I also like reading books and manga, and classical music. I have a cat. Yours, Chihiro."
The pen-pal ads each had a number, and the staff of the magazine would send the letters forward.
Chihiro's number was 77-474.
Anyone could be named Chihiro, but magic numbers were seldom found by chance. It was like the Princess always ending up Empress in Mahjong, before she had met the Prince.
Two sevens meet a threesome of two fours and a seven, making three sevens and two fours... Or twenty-nine, and the distance of two and nine is another seven... Also, four plus three is seven. To him, 77-747 read as "Your luck holds". To Chihiro, it would read as... ..."The circle is full, the time has come."
He took a map from his bag. It was a map of the sky, with a turnable disc to show what stars were above Japan on any particular hour, day or night. Lines showed the paths of the planets, sun and moon. It was the only map he had ever needed to get where he wanted. And he had started needing it only recently.
Scuba Diving. Salt water. Couldn't be helped. He'd better attend a course, to learn the technical terms.
A young man sat on a bench in a park. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. On the shirt there was an advertisement of "Aqua Fujiyama", a popular brand of mineral water. His shoes, however, vere old-fashioned japanese sandals. He was reading a magazine about manga comics. On the last pages there were the results of a New Talents' Competition. One page sample caught his eye. It was from the bronze-medal winner, Kyoko S., and it featured a train with two invisible passengers among ordinary ones. One of the invisibles was a child. The introduction read: "...based on a modern ghost-story Kyoko heard from a classmate when she was ten years old."
The man took a "Swiss Army" -type pocket knife (made in Japan, naturally) and cut the page out with the tiny scissor blades. Then he closed the magazine. He stood up, and was about to pick his bag, when he saw the folded paper on the bench. He remembered it had been between the magazine. A poster of some sort. It featured a sexy female character who was wearing practically nothing. The name of the comic told she was suppoced to be a policewoman. He folded the poster and was about to put it in the trash can, when he saw tho backside was full of printed text. He sat back and started reading.
"Reader's corner - questions and answers. Fan Art: Famous Bad Guys (and Girls)." Then a short info on the policewoman character. "Reader advertisements: Manga for sale... Manga wanted... Anime for sale... Anime wanted... Boys looking for pen-pals... Girls looking for pen-pals..." !
"I'm a college student looking for anyone who likes Scuba Diving. I'm only a beginner and none of my friends is interested. I also like reading books and manga, and classical music. I have a cat. Yours, Chihiro."
The pen-pal ads each had a number, and the staff of the magazine would send the letters forward.
Chihiro's number was 77-474.
Anyone could be named Chihiro, but magic numbers were seldom found by chance. It was like the Princess always ending up Empress in Mahjong, before she had met the Prince.
Two sevens meet a threesome of two fours and a seven, making three sevens and two fours... Or twenty-nine, and the distance of two and nine is another seven... Also, four plus three is seven. To him, 77-747 read as "Your luck holds". To Chihiro, it would read as... ..."The circle is full, the time has come."
He took a map from his bag. It was a map of the sky, with a turnable disc to show what stars were above Japan on any particular hour, day or night. Lines showed the paths of the planets, sun and moon. It was the only map he had ever needed to get where he wanted. And he had started needing it only recently.
Scuba Diving. Salt water. Couldn't be helped. He'd better attend a course, to learn the technical terms.