Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2021 14:33:02 +0900 From: STONE Subject: Whale in the mirror land - Chapter 2 Flying whale Yoshida came to the central square. It was a large square with a width of nearly 100 meters each. Of course there is no one. It was a nice sunny day. Yoshida was stunned sitting on the bench. "I'm dead, but it's so real." He saw a building around. There were about 20 10-story buildings on the vast site. "They are all vacant and mine, but it has no use." Yoshida looked up at the sky. "Hmm?" Something was floating in the sky. A whale-shaped airship was slowly swimming over the sky. On the body, there was a big picture saying "Advertising wanted". A whale came down while approaching. And in front of Yoshida, It landed in the middle of the square. It quivered, and put his caudal fin on the ground and stopped. Something small popped out from the back of the whale, like blowing the tide. It soared high in the sky, stopped, and fell directly above Yoshida looking up. A little baby fell with a smile. When he noticed, Yoshida became a baby's underlay and stretched out on his back to the ground. "Are you okay?" Someone reached out and rescued Yoshida. A man in a white suit stood in front of Yoshida. Hair is all-back and had half-eyed sharp eyes. The baby was still clinging to Yoshida. Looking closely, Yoshida could see that he has small wings on his back. "Angel?" Yoshida thought. "Bottom!" The man said so, and the baby jumped from Yoshida. And while watching him, the baby grew up and became a normal boy. He wore a bright red shirt, with blonde hair, blue eyes. He smiled at Yoshida. "Who are you?" Asked Yoshida. "I'm Joe, this kid is Bottom. We are androids. As you can see, Bottom has the ability to transform." "So What do you want me to do?" "Is there any place to stay around here? A hotel, etc." "No, but no one lives in all the buildings here. You can stay wherever you like." "Who is the owner?" "I am" "I understand. How much is the rent?" "How much do you have?" Joe took out a big wallet. Then he opened it and shook upside down. Nothing came out. "OK,It's free" Yoshida asked Joe while walking. "What are you guys doing?" "I and Bottom, this kid, are an advertiser. We put ads on the belly of that whale-shaped airship and fly around Gaia." "It looks interesting. By the way, why are you here?" "I haven't had any advertising jobs so far in this recession, and we've been wandering around on the whale. I was wondering if we would settle on land for a while." "So that's it" Yoshida thought they were strange guys. Bottom looked up at Yoshida and smiled. Yoshida left the work room while stretching out. There were Joe and Bottom in the dining room. "What kind of relationship do you guys have?" Yoshida asked over a cup of coffee. "We are partners, we have been with each other for many years." 'Partner?' Yoshida thought that it had various meanings. "Maybe you guys are gay?" Joe blew out coffee. The cheeks on Bottom turned red. "Please imagine as you like" Joe took out the napkin and wiped the suit. "Oh, yeah!" Joe stopped. "What?" "I have to get an advertisement tomorrow." "A customer? What kind of company will advertise on the whale's belly?" Joe looked up at Yoshida. "It's called NNN. New Network Nazis is a so-called virtual world neo-Nazi, a political association." "Oh, it looks like an interesting place." "Would you like to go with us?" At that time, he heard the sound of the earth. The table quivered and then subsided. "What is it now?" Joe turned to where the sound came. Yoshida stood up and opened the window. There was already a bright red sunset on the horizon in the evening. He turned his eyes to where the sound came from, but he couldn't see anything. "Shall I go and see?" Bottom came by the window. "Hmm" Joe was looking far away. Immediately the next sound of the earth came. The coffee cup rang. Yoshida wide opened his eyes. "It's the sound of something collapsing." Joe said. He turned to Bottom. "Look at what is happening" "Roger" Bottom's body suddenly became smaller. It turned into a little naked baby. He wore only white briefs. There were small wings on his back. The wings flapped and soared into the air. And he jumped out into the night sky. "Bottom is a Transform android. It looks like a 2-year-old child. He is free to change his age." "How old is he really? That child" "He's 10 years old" "Do all androids have that ability?" "No, it's a special case. I have another ability." Bottom fluttered and jumped into the room. "The building has collapsed." "What?" Yoshida broke down. There was a sound of the earth again. "It looks like the intervals are narrower than before," Joe said. Yoshida stuck his face out of the window. It seemed that the number of buildings had decreased a little. One of them suddenly collapsed in front of Yoshida's eyes. "I don't know the cause, but I don't think it's safe here either." Joe said calmly. Yoshida came up with something and jumped into the work room. The face of Crane was visible on the monitor on the wall. His face was somewhat pale. "Mr Yoshida. I was trying to contact you a while ago, but I was rushed because you didn't come. " "The buildings in the housing complex are disappearing one after another. What's going on?" There was a sound of the earth again. "Please evacuate from there as soon as possible. I will tell you the destination address. More on that later." Yoshida wrote the address in his notebook. Then he jumped out of the room. "We are leaving here." "Okay, so where?" Yoshida showed Joe his notebook. "Let's ride a whale." "Are we going by that airship?" "Of course, we can't bring an airship in the transfer box." "What is a transfer box?" Joe stared sideways. "Don't you know the transfer box?" "Anyway, I just came today, to here." "Oh" As soon as they came to the plaza, the building next to them collapsed. The airship's jaw came down and touched the ground. It was like a ramp. When Yoshida looked back, the building that they were collapsed with a noise. Yoshida hurriedly climbed the ramp. The place where he climbed up was the place where the whale's pharynx was. It was a small room, and when he went up the stairs, he came out to the aisle. There was a long passage towards the fuselage. There were many private rooms on both sides. The other side continued to the head. It had a dome shape of several meters square. Except for the floor, it was covered with dome-shaped glass and the outside view could be seen. Joe stood by the window. A small translucent manipulator floated in the space in front of Joe. He was looking at the buildings where Bottom pressed his face against the glass and collapsed one after another. "It was a very old building, here. Did you live for decades?" Bottom said. "I'm just starting to live today," Yoshida replied. "Lie!" Bottom turned around. Joe pulled the lever to take off the airship. And he stopped his hand. Two small figures ran toward the square. They were children. "What is that?" The children waved in front of the airship. "It looks like they were in this complex." Joe looked towards Yoshida. "I didn't know there was anyone else. I saw them for the first time." "Then Illegal immigrants, I understand." The whale ramp has dropped. Children climbed the ramp. Bottom brought two boys. Both were still small children. They were 9 or 10 years old, and their clothes were dirty, and edges were worn out. Their feet were black with mud and faces were dirty. "What are your names?" Joe asked them with a gentle voice. "Ken" The larger one answered. "Danny" was small. "From when have you been here?" "---- From last night" "Did you get permission to stay?" Joe asked with a cat stroke voice. The two shook their heads. Joe nodded with satisfaction. "What are you going to do?" Yoshida asked Joe. "Don't worry, I will 'treat' them. Please rest assured." "Well, ----- what kind of treatment?" "Climb to an altitude of 1000M and push them out. That's all." Yoshida was about to collapse. The children trembled. "Wait a minute. What would you do if they had a parent?" Joe shook his head. "No, this virtual world is full of orphans. We can't stop throwing a child, whom parent doesn't need, into this world, or leaving only the children by failure of suicide with the whole family. To be honest, I haven't seen a non-orphan child yet in this world." "What!" Yoshida exclaimed. "So, Bottom,throw two people into the hangar." "Wait. Let's not do that. I will take care of them." Joe stared at Yoshida. "You say,you are going to make two boys as servants?" "Not servant, I will take care of them as my sons." "OK" Joe turned to the children. "Well, this uncle has hired you. You'll do all the cleaning, washing and cooking." Then he approached the children and secretly said. "If you are asked to work at night in his bed, don't say no." The children looked at each other. "Wait a moment" Yoshida poked Joe's back. Buildings began to collapse one after another. "Let's start" Joe turned to Yoshida. "Do you want BGM?" "I don't mind" Joe turned it on. A big speaker appeared on the back of the whale. And Wagner's "Die Walkure's Riding" began to flow at a loud volume. "Now, let's abandon our old hometown and set out for a new place of hope!" Joe exclaimed. "It's a noisy guy," Yoshida thought, closing his ears. The airship soared slowly. With the collapsing building under his eyes, the whale swam slowly toward the bright red sunset, making annoying noise.