Outside

The elderly gentleman could definitely have performed splendidly in a variety of roles. He could, for instance, have delivered something good to the great, all-knowing master. He could have explained to the secret agent the deeper sense of his mission – or at least let him into one or two secrets about Japanese cooking. But all he did was to sit and stare into the water. Over and over again his gaze returned to the same spot, quite as though he was hunting hard for an entry into the story. But he was unable to find it. Maille waved and hollered from his Episode 10 – but the old man stubbornly carried on doing the same thing, acting like he was caught in a loop.

In his opinion, the little girl was a far less suitable fellow-player – after all, it can get fairly rough in a secret agent story sometimes. Furthermore, with her braids, the girl rather belonged in a Japanese animation film – for sure her name was Haruka, Little Glow-worm. At any rate, Haruka could have been the daughter of a Japanese agent or the foster-child of a former yakuza. The girl was doing her gymnastics on a bench overlooking the sea. It was quite evident that she, too, was seeking an entry into the story, but there was none to be found either behind or under the bench. Maille, from his Episode 10, promised her a big Swiss chocolate. But it was not her motivation that was the problem, it was finding a gap through which she could enter the story that was.

There was nothing that could be done. Maille stayed back allone in his story.

Kap Shirahama