The atmosphere shifted around me. The nonstop noise of the school grounds transformed into the calm of the quieter streets. I limped along like a wounded soldier, courtesy of my earlier misfortune. The frantic scramble to zip up my trousers had left my hands slammed hard against my groin. I guessed every guy has experienced that at least once. Or maybe worse, like those poor souls who ended up needing an emergency room visit to undo their unzipping. Lucky me, I supposed. Anyway, the idea of that incident spreading throughout the school made me scoff, far from believing this year could be mine. Darn it. How would I face Rei again? Students who witnessed my embarrassing spectacle probably told her about it by now.

I shook my head. Curses and things that are not nice for the faint-hearted flew out of my mouth. When the pain subsided, my pace quickened, taking longer strides. The ground below me became the object of my annoyance. I pounded on it while walking, occasionally glancing over my shoulder to check if anyone from the school was following me. Besides Mai, Taiga was the only person who knew about my after-school plan. I didn’t want any more of my schoolmates to know what I’d been up to after classes. I’m a guy who would rather be alone when doing my personal business.

Minutes later, I was in an old district. Low-lying shop buildings flanked me. I could almost hear the wind uttering stories of an era gone by. Worn walls held a certain value, each crack and chipped paint telling a tale of history that remained. The traffic droned in the distance, providing this part of the area with a backdrop of sorts and a reminder of the city’s constant presence.

Out of nowhere, a sleek black BMW glided to a stop beside me. Dark-tinted windows seemed to hide secrets within. My inner voice cautioned me to be careful. It might be those men I saw on TV who had been kidnapping rich kids recently. My eyes narrowed, half-expecting the doors to swing open and dudes in dark sunglasses and black suits to leap out and grab me. But the doors remained closed, and no such individuals appeared. I shook off the uneasy feeling and continued walking, though not before casting a few glances back at the car.

Before long, my destination came into sight. An old game shop sat sandwiched between a bakery and a used bookstore. The game shop, a relic of the past, displayed a faded sign reading “Komei’s Games” in peeling gold letters. Its windows, muddied yet inviting, featured vintage consoles and posters from the ’80s and ’90s, beckoning to anyone with a soft spot for gaming’s golden age. Though the colors had faded, the promise of wistfulness still shone.

Inside, an air of cozy mess greeted me. It felt oddly familiar, as though I had entered a collection of childhood fantasies. Games spanning every console generation, from the pixelated charm of Atari cartridges to the sleek covers of the latest PlayStation titles, crammed the shelves. I couldn’t say much about the counter. It was much messier, with repair tools, disassembled controllers, and old consoles waiting to be brought back to life. The smell of solder and aging paper filled the air, which only a true gaming fan like me could appreciate. Others probably stepped out as soon as they entered the store.

Behind the counter sat Komei-san, the shop’s proprietor. He was a stocky man with a graying beard and round spectacles balanced on the tip of his nose. He looked up from the newspaper he had been reading as I stood in front of him.

“Yo, Komei-san,” I gave him a slight bow.

“Hey there, Kira-chan,” he nodded, folding the paper and setting it aside. “Done with classes?”

“Yep,” I replied. “If you need me, I’ll be at my spot.”

“Sure thing,” Komei-san nodded again. But as I turned to head toward the back of the shop, he called out, “So, Kira-chan, is this year going to be your year?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Rei’s frisky voice suddenly blared in my mind, chanting, “Zipper-kun! Zipper-kun! Zipper-kun!” A lump formed in my throat. I hurriedly pressed my palms against my ears, trying to block out the sound. Without another word, I stomped toward the back of the shop, refusing to answer the question.

The rear of the shop had been my crypt since junior high. Amidst jumbled shelves and fluorescent lights stood my hobby, a Time Crisis II arcade cabinet. The dual light guns mounted on the front seemed to call out to me, offering a few hours of distraction from my troubles.

Here’s a fact about me. Besides peaches, I’m also a gun enthusiast.

In one corner of Komei’s Games, I could immerse myself in the excitement of gaming, temporarily blocking out the recent embarrassment that threatened to ruin the rest of my school year. Unlike Taiga and my other classmates, who loved RPGs, I preferred arcade games with gun controllers. It was one of the reasons I wanted to become a keisatsukan, aside from chasing and frisking busty deri jō in Nakasu. The thought of taking down criminals who posed a threat to public safety with a handgun invigorated me.

Komei-san watched me retreat, shaking his head. “What’s with this kid?” he muttered to himself, puzzled about my sudden departure. But I shrugged off his remark. There was only one thing on my mind right now, and that was the game in front of me. I picked up the light gun and started the game, selecting VSSE agent Keith Martin as my avatar. I had already completed the game using my dominant right hand, but I’d been trying to complete it with my left hand for the past year, and it proved to be extremely tough.

The game started, and the usual sights and sounds welcomed me. Each shot fired, each enemy defeated, felt like a small victory against the humiliation that had taken over me earlier. Here, in this corner I could be the hero if only for a little while.

Less than two hours later, the sound of game completion filled the air. A whoop of joy escaped me, which I celebrated with a fist pump and an inner shout that I had done it. The hours I spent honing my skill had finally paid off. I was a dual-wielding handgun pro, born of absolute dedication. I could already imagine the look of surprise on my classmates’ faces. Tomorrow, if they dared to mock me about my zipper accident, I would have something far more impressive to showcase.

Still feeling the sense of accomplishment, I waved goodbye to Komei-san. “See you tomorrow.”

“Take care, Kira-chan,” he replied, again shaking his head upon seeing my erratic behavior. Stepping out of the game shop, my body felt lighter. At last, the burden of shame had lifted from my shoulders.

The sun dipped lower in the sky. The area was quiet, save for the sporadic passing cars and the reserved chatter of people enjoying their evening. Lost in thought, I approached a junction when my eyes fell on a mother and her young daughter walking onto the crosswalk. The traffic light signaled green, and the intersection appeared clear. It was a scene that seemed to ensure safety, if not for what was to come.

The sound of screeching tires filled the air as the same sleek black BMW from earlier burst into view. It sped toward the mother and her young daughter like a race car on a runaway track. Its engine roared like a predator on the hunt. Time seemed to slow as my brain recorded the forthcoming danger. The certainty of the situation hit me like a bucket of icy water being poured into my head.

Onward I sprinted, my lips forming a warning in hopes my voice could make them understand the danger. “Watch out!”

When the mother and daughter noticed the car, their bodies froze, but I lunged to push them out of the car’s path. They stumbled to safety, their eyes wide as they looked in my direction. For a brief second, I felt some sort of energy flow through me, making me feel invincible, like a superhero.

But that moment of joy was cut short. In the next heartbeat, the car struck me with bone-crushing force, lifting me off my feet and hurling me through the air. Pain shot through my body, but a strange sense of detachment took over, as if I were observing the scene from a distance. As I soared through the air, I couldn’t help but think that here I was, flying without wings.

In that surreal mid-air moment, I gazed at the sky, which appeared to stretch infinitely above me. The impact with the BMW faded into the background, replaced by an inexplicable, almost dreamlike vision. Enormous flowers began to bloom before my eyes. Their petals unfurled like the sails of a ship caught in a breeze, welcoming me with hypnotic beauty. Each flower’s stigma bore an uncanny resemblance to peaches, their forms evoking a longing within me, a craving for something just out of reach.

But the expected collision with the ground never came. Instead, I found myself seated cross-legged in an expansive room, bereft of windows or doors, as if I had been plucked from one world and dropped into another. The change was so seamless, so sudden, that it left me unsettled. My mind couldn’t catch up with this new reality I had been thrust into.

My brows scrunched as I took in my surroundings. The room was covered in an almost unearthly light. Its vastness stretched out endlessly, making me feel small, yet oddly significant. Then something tickled my mind, and I tried to figure out the disappearance of the beautiful apparition that had captivated my senses earlier. “Where the hell did the peaches go?”