Taisho And I

Taisho and I became very close after that.

As an elf, I had a far better ear for languages than Ouri the dwarf. After about half a year, I had become much better at communicating with Taisho than Ouri was.

By then, we could manage ordinary daily conversation without any trouble.

And after talking with him about all sorts of things, I learned something astonishing!

Apparently, Taisho was a “resident of another world”….

When I first ate ramen, I had thought it was like “food from an unknown world,” and that had unexpectedly turned out to be literally true.

According to him, one night, after finishing a day’s work in his original world, he had been pulling his yatai home when he took a wrong turn and wandered into a dark alley.

Then, before he knew it, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar town… here in Fahrenheit.

Panicking, he looked around, ran desperately through the streets, and peered into every dark corner he could find, but he had no idea how to return to his own world!

As he stood helplessly by the roadside, the light from his yatai and the delicious smell of soup drew a group of orphans toward him….

From their painfully thin bodies and longing expressions, he could tell at a glance that they were starving. What caught his attention most was a boy standing there with a little girl beside him.

While the other children kept their distance, that boy alone approached Taisho, bowed deeply, then pointed to the girl whose hand he was holding and shouted something with a serious expression.

They could not understand each other’s language. But Taisho understood what he meant.

He himself did not matter. Just please give this girl something to eat….

Even though the boy himself was nothing but skin and bones. Even though hunger had left his face pale and he looked ready to collapse at any moment.

Taisho had a young son of his own….

When he glanced back at the yatai, he saw that some ingredients were still left. He was frightened at having been thrown alone into an unfamiliar world, but the sight of those children staring at him with drool at their mouths was simply too pitiful to bear, so Taisho cooked ramen for them and let them eat.

The children devoured Taisho’s piping-hot ramen with smiles on their faces.

Watching them, Taisho smiled too.

Eventually, once he ran out of ingredients, Taisho pulled his yatai away and started walking.

He had no idea where he was, nor what lay ahead.

He simply tried to go somewhere—anywhere other than there… and before he knew it, he was standing in an alleyway back in his “original world.”

The next day.

Taisho still did not know whether the events of the previous night had been a dream or reality, but the images that remained in his mind were those starving children.

Would they be hungry again tonight…?

With those painfully thin bodies.

Standing in a corner of that dark alley.

Unable to get them out of his mind, Taisho once again loaded the night’s leftover ingredients onto his yatai and entered the same dark alley as before. Before he realized it, he was standing in the very same alley in Fahrenheit.

He looked over and saw the children standing there.

The starving children were staring at him…. Taisho began making ramen.

The children ate with smiles on their faces.

Night after night, Taisho continued filling the stomachs of orphans from another world in exactly the same way.

There was no desire for praise, no calculation, and no ulterior motive behind it. He simply could not bear the fact that hungry children were standing there before him.

And then, one night, he met Ouri, which eventually led to things as they were now.