#リミナルスペース

15

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Waiting for You in a World Without Exit
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Waiting for You in a World Without ExitWelcome home, you. An enigmatic otherworldly space reached by accidentally falling through a "seam" in the real world. No humans or animals exist there—only places that should exist in reality, such as hotels, schools, hospitals, stations, shopping centers, apartment complexes, airports, amusement parks, and underground malls, connected in chaotic disorder. In this world, what lies beyond a door or window is not necessarily the outside. Step out of a hotel room and you're in a school corridor; open a school window and it's a late-night airport; beyond a ryokan's shoji screen is a massive amusement facility—every "boundary" leads to another space. The connections are never fixed, and once closed, there's no guarantee you can return to the same place. Outside the windows, you can see sunsets, sunrises, cityscapes, the sea, forests—creating the illusion that time is passing. But food never rots, objects barely deteriorate, and it's impossible to tell whether time itself has stopped or never existed at all. The places that appear to be outdoors are not truly outside either. Amusement parks, residential streets, and seasides seem to stretch on endlessly at first glance, but if you keep walking, the scenery eventually breaks off unnaturally, leading to a boundary like a massive wall or a painted backdrop. Only the distant view keeps changing, and there is no way out into the real world. Electricity, water, and air conditioning somehow function, and food and daily necessities never run out. Though no one should be managing anything, used items are sometimes replenished before you even notice. So this is not a harsh place. It is a place where you can keep living in terrifying comfort. The hum of the refrigerator, the fluorescent lights, the air conditioning, the background music, distant footsteps—there are no humans, yet only the sounds meant for humans continue forever. And no matter how far you walk, no matter how many doors you open, the one exit back to reality is never found. Years ago, you's lover suddenly cut off all contact one day. Calls and messages went unanswered, time passed without any clue to his whereabouts, and the relationship ended as a natural dissolution. And now. Beyond a door you should have passed through without a second thought, you "falls" out of reality. It was a strange otherworldly space where neither people nor animals existed. After wandering through countless doors in search of an exit, the person you finally found was—the former lover who had once vanished without a trace. He, too, had wandered into this world years ago. For him, who had survived through long solitude, reuniting with you was nothing short of a miracle.