The current spring season resembled a yellow arch demon, sprinkling pollen in high spirit. Takahashi, a young man who just exited the JR Akihabara district gate was gazing at the sky.
"Fuaakchoo!!"
Damn it. This is the worst season of the year. Absolute worst. Nothing good comes up in spring. Only pollen flying in the air; too many cats and alarming increases in drunk driving, and besides…
There was one more thing that was upsetting Takahashi.
"… I need to get accepted into Tokyo University next year."
Failing in the entrance exams for the first time could be forgivable. However, when a person fails for the second time, their parents will obviously get disappointed. Takahashi was now about to experience his second spring as 19 years old after failing the entrance exam two times in a row.
He was kicked off from his parents’ house in Chiba and now has to start living alone in Tokyo. Currently, he is on his way to his new rented apartment. There was a reason behind the fact that he got to live in an apartment, which is too much to afford for a jobless person like him, that is because his uncle suggested to pay for the rent and electricity bills. However, as it would be too convenient for Takahashi that way, he also added one condition to establish the agreement; which is to complete a certain « Duty ». Today, Takahashi was going to his new apartment in order to get into that duty.
"It looks like a type of a tower you'd find in an RPG."
Whoa.
While lifting his head to look at the building in front of him, he inadvertently muttered. Takahashi was standing before a radio tower that was enormously tall, clearly measuring a kilometer in length. It felt as if it came from a distant world despite it being the result of modern technology.
Its official name was « New Tokyo Multipurpose Radio Tower », but it's often called as « Akihabara Radio Tower » by the general public which also felt kind of wrong nowadays as the tower itself is no longer functioning. This goes back to the time when it was discovered that it had a negative effect on health.
Ten years ago, this tower was planned to be a new type of the radio towers that surpasses the famous « Tokyo Tower » in terms of performance as it was built with the concept of it encompassing both the roles of a radio tower and a skyscraper. It had apartments, shops, and even offices inside of it. Unfortunately, it didn’t take too long for the plan to backfire due to the increasing worries that the tower might be impacting the health of those who stay inside it for too long. As a result of the clamor of objections, the radio wave that was transmitting for a year and a half was suspended and the radio tower was turned into a purposeless tall tower.
Takahashi's apartment was in the highest floor created for living in that tower. There were several attempts to drive people to rent in it by passing it off as « The Highest Place to Live in Japan », though most of them failed as everyone was fearing the risk of negatively impacting their health. Thus, the number of renters had drastically decreased for a period of time. Now that time had passed since the tower halted its functioning, it started to draw people's attention once again, both the good and bad citizens.
The reason Takahashi got the chance to live in such a place was due to his mischievous uncle’s plot.
I'm happy that he lets me live here for free, but he will most likely murder me if I don't complete that « Duty ».
While feeling as if something were burning his back, Takahashi faced the tower before his eyes.
"Alright! Let's do this! I will achieve my mission and get admitted for sure! Next year?"
All of a sudden, a strange premonition halted his steps before he lifted his head up. The lance, that is the grand tower in this case, was piercing him with the sunlight on its head. Within that scorching light, he noticed a black dot falling from the sky.
"What is that?"
A UFO?!?!
As he started wondering, the black dot grew evidently larger as it fell in his direction.
"Ueerra!?"
The moment he lifted his hands over his head and squatted down leaning back, the black object struck the place where his head was at. An explosive sound as if someone struck a giant pickaxe on the ground leaped from behind his back.
"……"
Slowly, he turned around while still squatting. The object gleaming in black like a shell was silently lying down on the footpath near him.
"What! Could it be a terrorist!?"
His loud voice made all the passengers around him stop walking. All the sounds and motion in that place halted for a second, forming a still picture before everyone gradually tore the frame by resuming what they were doing. Before long, the area returned to its previous state.
"N-Nothing less from Tokyo… Apathetic to an impressive level…"
Takahashi stood up and warily approached the black object lying on the ground. He soon realized that it wasn't actually a shell but a long boot. It had a strap belt in the area of the ankle to adjust it to the foot.
"… An engineer boot?"
It was the type of safe boot worn by those who work in rails or construction sites, because of the iron core installed in the fingers area, it is often used by bike riders and also popular with the youth.
"Why did something like this fell from the sky…?"
He crouched and picked the boot with one hand. It was heavy. Rather, extremely heavy. It probably weighed around a kilogram. Despite falling from such a high place, it didn't seem to be damaged anywhere. Only a few scratches on the bottom as expected from a safety boot.
I can imagine my head splitting like a watermelon if I were to be hit with this thing…
Getting a cold chill this late from the incident, he raised his head to look at the tower once again. The sun was too bright and blocked his sight.
"Hm?"
When he fixed his eyes on the sky, this time he noticed a thin white object floating.
"… Is that a paper now?"
Not only one, several white papers of large size were sliding in the air similar to feathers. Takahashi followed one of those papers and grabbed it with his hand. It was totally white, on one side. The other side was apparently a manga panel. The drawing was skillful and done using only a pencil.
"A lot of stuff are falling from the sky today, huh… Pollen, boots, and now this."
To top it off, a seagull followed those papers and sat on the ground as well. Quite the unusual sight. It went to one of the scattered papers and started ticking it as if to wake it up. Everyone around ignored that scenery and continuing walking while seeming unconcerned. Takahashi went on to collect the rest of the papers. They were around 7 of them in which all were manga panels drawn with a pencil. Judging from the art style, it was probably a fantasy manga. A young boy wearing an armor and helmet was pointing at a distant tower on the horizon while declaring that Demon Lord is waiting for him there.
Takahashi felt freshly elated from reading that page. He was in the middle of the story and didn't know the details, however, for some reason he felt a strange sense of realism that made him find himself hooked to it before realizing it. Taking an erratic pose from holding a manga panel in one hand and a black boot in the other, he looked up at the tower for the third time. Since he was close to getting struck by that boot and end up ascending to higher place than the tower itself, he didn't feel obligated to look for its owner and return it, before he recalled that creating a good relationship with people related to this tower may possibly help him achieve the « Duty » he received from his uncle.
Guess I will go ask someone here if they have a clue…
The next moment after making that decision, the yellow ochre demon attacked again.
"Fuee… Achoo~~~~~"