The Eccentric Boy
Is this a good place to drop you off?
Yeah, here’s good! Thank you so much, uh…
Sorry, I never asked for your name.
Oh, uh… Just take this.
What’s this?
Card for my shop. Stop by when you have the time.
I always have flowers if you want some. You can come in if you have laundry to do too.
Laundry? And flowers…? At the same place…?
See you, I gotta go.
Oh, thank you again!
…HAMA nice trip!
…HAMA nice trip too.
(…He was interesting.)
Okay… I need to keep looking for Kafka!
Hmm… I don’t see him here.
(Where did you go, Kafka…?)
If I can find the next page from that old travel guide…
Hey, you!
Huh… Me?
Yeah! Can you do me a huge favor?
Take this camera and get this shot of me!
Wh… Uh… Huh?!
Alrighty, here we go…
<No, wait!!>
Huh? What is he…
<You can’t go up those stairs yet! Nooooo!!>
Hey, hold it!
<Dammit… The space dimension overjourney device won’t finish charging at this rate…>
What are you talking about…? Get away from the stairs! You’re not allowed up there if you don’t respect the dress code!
<I get it already! We won’t be able to withstand an incomplete overjourney with this equipment…!>
Hey, are you getting this? Get a good shot!
Wh… Is he talking to me…?
<Let me go! I can’t let him leave on his own!>
Wh…! This kid’s stronger than he looks…!
Calm down!!
Woah…?!
(Oh… They let him go…?)
Phew… Guess we’re done here.
Hey! Didja get that?! Didja?!
Uh… Sorry. I was kind of surprised, so I didn’t…
Man, reallyyy! We gotta do one more take then…
No, wait! The security guards are gonna catch you again!
Well, yeah, that’s what I want! This is scene 87, where the main character shakes off the dudes tryna stop him and crosses the multiverse to go help his friend!
Uh, I don’t know what you’re filming here, but I think you should tone it down a little… The guards are already on edge as it is.
Aw, come on! I was this close to getting a super crazy emotional scene from that, you know!
…Huh?
What are you holding?
Oh, this? It’s just a bunch of rolled up paper but… It’s my megaphone! Every director needs one of these bad boys!
No, I mean the actual paper… The one on top. Can I look at it?
Yeah, sure! I just picked it up since it flew down from somewhere upstairs.
The Landmark Tower is the symbol of HAMA! If you go to the Sky Garden, you can see all of HAMA from above.
I saw your hospital from there when I went for a school field trip once. But I couldn’t really tell which room was yours.
This is… Another page from my travel guide…
Woah, you went up there for a field trip? We don’t get to do that these days.
Huh, why not?
Well, like… Just look.
<Located on the 2nd floor of the Landmark Plaza. Burger Emperor’s specialty dish, diamond fries—only 34,000 yen!>
<Cut from premium potatoes imported from Noirmoutier for 40,000 yen per kilogram, these fries are soaked in water straight from a source 450 meters under the Andes for exactly 38.8 seconds before being fried to perfection by a world-class chef!>
(Nishizono Renga… I met him at the airport yesterday! And 30,000 yen for some french fries?! Is this an ad for a 5-star burger restaurant?!)
<Experience the high-ranking service you deserve here at Landmark, where we offer only the most gorgeous urban luxury1 to the elite.>
Y’see? No way they’d let little kids run around a swanky place like this anymore.
No way…!
Footnotes
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In the original, Renga throws in a lot of buzzwords such as “gorgeous,” “urban,” and “high-rank” without thinking about them too much, which makes the sentence sound a bit nonsensical, or as if he doesnt know what hes talking about. ↩