Chitaira Kai’s Hotel Diary, Part Two
Of all the long-term guests at the hotel, this person was, without question, the strangest to look at.
Strange enough to make even my own eyes feel unremarkable by comparison, genuinely alien. First, the height, nothing ordinary about it. I hadn’t measured precisely, but it looked well over two metres. Looking up at that eccentric face required an angle steep enough to make my own neck ache. Eyes that shifted colour continuously depending on the light and angle, iridescent, hard on the viewer’s own eyes. The hair seemed made of the same material. Material? And shifted colour in perfect sync with the eyes. Against white walls or a sunlit window it blended in so completely it was almost transparent, easy to miss entirely, and somehow funny for it.
This person, steam still rising faintly off them, was smiling faintly around what looked like an ice cream bought from the gift shop. I’d been seeing them constantly since staying here, and the moment my eyes so much as drifted their way, they always seemed to sense it instantly and look up, so I’d been making a real effort to keep them out of my field of view.
And yet, unluckily, our eyes met dead-on that day, and worse, they came straight toward me. The easy, familiar way they closed the distance, like spotting a friend, was somehow made overwhelming purely by the difference in size between us.
“Morning.”
“…Afternoon.”
It was well past noon by then. And why did every guest at this hotel feel entitled to just talk to me.
“Kanzoku Yashiro.”
Introduced themself without my asking.
“…Kai.”
A name I didn’t feel any confidence I’d remember. I’d file it mentally as Yashiro, something-or-other.
“Want some ice cream, meow?”
“…Sure, since you’re offering.”
They handed over one chocolate-coated bar from the box. Looking inside, the rest were already gone, just the empty wrappers left. And the last one in their own hand, Yashiro-something devoured it in a few easy bites.
“Sooo goood.”
“…………………………………”
Genuinely, thoroughly delighted, cheeks softer even than the ice cream itself.
“You’re tall.”
Torn between commenting on the hair or the eyes, I settled on height instead. That unusual an appearance probably came with something they’d rather not discuss. Though there was nothing remotely guarded about them, open to the point of not seeming to mind at all. Through their hair I caught, impossibly, the background warping faintly, as if seen through glass.
“Made myself hastily and couldn’t fix it after, so this is permanent!”
“Huh…”
Made myself, meaning what, exactly?
“Bump my head constantly, it’s a real inconvenience.”
“Being tall must be tough.”
Made myself. No way I was going to work that one out, so I let it go.
“…What do you actually do?”
It came out sounding like a school field trip question. Even trying to look properly at their face was difficult, the way their appearance and hair seemed to bend the light coming off them, refracting my own gaze away.
“Nothing at aaall.”
“I see.”
“This was the first place I ever landed. So I’ve stayed here ever since.”
“Uh-huh.”
Landed?
“Been here roughly five million years now, alongside this land’s changes. Nothing much to do, so I mostly just watch, quietly. Surprisingly good for passing time, though. Plenty of creatures have made a home of this land over the years, currently the humans have it, but once they’re gone, I’ll simply be alongside whatever comes next. So it goes, so it goes.”
“…That’s quite grand.”
What even was this person? Person, even, was that the right word? Everything about their appearance argued more convincingly than any of their words that they weren’t quite that.
A different kind of departure from human than the people at my own house.
“Sistaaars… no, I have over twenty siblings, myself. Impressive, isn’t it?”
“…Huh.”
On sheer numbers, I’m not exactly behind, myself.
Within that repugnant world where the number just kept climbing, unmanaged by anyone, unclaimed, I’d refused to be counted among them. The same current ran underneath both me and them, but I wore the disguise of an ordinary human regardless.
Because if I didn’t, she’d never accept me.
I’ve been struggling against it, this whole time.
And then.
“Hm, right, you’re Kai too, aren’t you?”
“Whoa—”
Both feet suddenly left the ground and my head spun. Yashiro-something had picked me up effortlessly and held me up high. Only their hands under my arms holding me, and I registered, with real unease, the destabilised sense of my own heart floating somewhere without solid ground beneath it. Suspended in air, staring out at a view I hadn’t wanted, my breath nearly caught entirely.
“Please put me down.”
“Oh?”
The moment I said it, they set me down without argument. Yashiro-something tilted their head.
“Shoko gets a kick out of the view change when I lift her up high, apparently.”
“Who?”
Only after saying it did I realise, slowly, that must be the genius novelist. Well, fine, no need to correct that.
“Oh, you’re covered in sweat.”
“You startled me.”
Being touched so suddenly, on top of everything. Normally I’d have dodged it, but there hadn’t even been time for that. It was as if the whole step of approaching had simply been skipped, they were just, all at once, touching me. It made my skin crawl.
“Then how about a trip to the hot spring together?”
The hot spring. Right, I remembered, there was one a fair walk from the hotel that this person apparently visited constantly. They’d clearly only just come from there, and were apparently going back for more.
I declined that invitation with a smile, thinking, absolutely not.
“I’ll pass.”
Exposing this skin to anyone else, not until I died. …Not even to her, I don’t want her to see it either.
No, especially not her. Truly, that one above all, must never see it.
Something this dirty.
Well, I suppose I’d very much like to see her without anything on, so maybe the scales balanced out, in my own head at least.
“It’s the best. Ice cream, right after a hot bath.”
Yashiro-something took off toward the hotel entrance with a lightness entirely at odds with their size, practically skipping. The trail of shimmering light left behind in the wake of their hair was, surely, not just my imagination.
The genius novelist had said strange people gather at this hotel, and this proved it perfectly.
No wonder that nee-san recommended this particular hotel.
Though, I wondered what would happen if she ever soaked in a bath here herself.
“After a bath… well, maybe I’ll do that too.”
I’d save the ice cream I’d been given, keep it cold until after tonight’s bath.
Sweets had never come easily in that house. There’d never been room for that kind of luxury. Looking at the ice cream, I found myself thinking of the soft serve I’d shared with her.
A sweetness that matched the memory it carried.
A date. That had been a date, whatever anyone else might call it.
…I’d like to do that again, sometime.
And with that, one more hotel friend.