１．Ｓａｔｕｒｄａｙ　Ｍａｒｃｈ　２，　２０１９

A sense of a special night was beginning to loom.

I have done a bold thing. Yoshikage Maruta thought back to the events leading up to that point. On the round table is a single mug of cold coffee.
A café in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where anyone can enter for 200 yen(about 1.5 - 2 dollars).
A pair of apparently college girls sounded innocent as they talked about their next snowboarding trip, while a business-looking man glanced at a thin laptop computer and tapped away at the keyboard enthusiastically.

It had been many years since I had invited someone to a coffee shop, someone I had met only once, and he was almost like I had never met before. It is not a trendy actress adorning an ad in a train or a recruiter from a big company with a briefcase in his hand coming to me. The one who is to come is 'semi-popular' so to speak, with about 5,000 social networking followers.
Knowing that it is useless to be overly cautious, Maruta's heart gradually shortened the intervals between rhythms as time rushed by.

Maruta, as many other guests do, took out his own tablet device and decided to look at its screen. A direct message from Yuya Kira was received stating that he would be about 30 minutes late. Kira was quite disciplined in his own way.
"I am very sorry, Mr. Yoshikage Maruta. My dachshund is sick, and I will be about 30 minutes late. I am very sorry."

He goes to the trouble of typing Maruta's full name and then repeats 'I'm sorry' twice more. It was even accompanied by a gentle emoji of a crying face at the end of the text. Reading this, Maruta was slightly relieved that he would be as mild-mannered as he had expected. But it was not as if the vague concerns had been completely removed.

Will Kira really come? Maruta is neither a detective nor a private investigator, but merely a company employee. It is obvious that the other side has the advantage in terms of providing information.

The fear that he might receive another e-mail like the one below still clung persistently to the back of Maruta's brain. "I am sorry, Mr. Maruta, but there is no hospital in Tokyo where I can take my dachshund. I have to look for a hospital far away. So I can't go today. Bye."

It would be an exaggeration to say that this was a 'reviewing' of what had happened so far, but to pass the time until Kira showed up, Maruta opened a video posting site and searched for 'Silva'. Then, after putting the earphones he had brought in his ears, he selected one of the many thumbnails that appeared, titled 'Will passersby let me know if my back is dirty?'

The video begins with 〈Silva〉, the video creator[*1], making a gesture of landing on the street. Bleached blonde hair that emphasizes his distinction from businessmen. Uneven brown skin that tells of tanning salon visits. A thin smile ready to joke around. A Justin Davis-esque silver necklace, earrings, black T-shirt, and the blonde hair.

If the phrase, 'A playboy who wears plain clothes and spends every day as a Sunday', were a catchphrase to describe this man, nothing would be more appropriate. 〈Silva〉, whose upper body is captured on the screen, begins to speak in a very loud voice in a certain downtown area.

"Hey, What's up! This is Silva. Have you ever seen someone walking around with dirty clothes? Eh, no?"

At this point, 〈Silva〉 frowned exaggeratedly, and the screen which went monochrome suddenly shook dramatically. Also, the sound effect of this moment is that grating bass sound that is produced by pressing all the piano keys at once. After these trifling effects by the editing software, 〈Silva〉 continues to speak in the same tone.

"You have seen people walking around with dirty clothes, haven't you? On the train the other day, I saw a woman with dried rice grains all over the sleeves of her jacket. That is something that is hard to notice on our own. She was as beautiful as a model, so I thought it was even more of a waste. For that reason,"

〈Silva〉 leaned forward and took a deep breath. Then, he raised his voice even louder.
"If I walk around town with dirt on my clothes, will someone kindly let me know? I am curious about that. Let's do it."

The scene changes to show 〈Silva〉 walking alone on the sidewalk. As the theme of the video suggests, a whole, half-eaten custard bun is stuck to the back of the T-shirt he wears. Also, white custard, which may be the content of the bread, is sticky from the shoulders to the bottom of the shirt. The bread must have been sewn on with thread, it is fastened snugly to the fabric of it.
〈Silva〉 was walking at deliberately slowed pace, but of those who passed him, none pointed out the 'dirt'. He said to himself, "Something doesn't feel right on my back, or maybe it's just my imagination," but still no one called out to him.

After a while, the video automatically fast-forwarded to the next scene, where 〈Silva〉 was waiting for the signal, and the video returned to normal. Along with the image of 〈Silva〉 turning around with a depressing profile, the message, 'A 26 years old man (unemployed) who is not approached at all' appeared at the bottom of the screen.

"Yuya, you're too close. You need to get further away."
When 〈Silva〉 said this to the person behind the camera, the screen quickly pulled back. Immediately after the cameraman had gained distance, a man appeared from the edge of the screen and abruptly called out to him.

"Excuse me, you have something on your back."
"Oh, what did you just say?"

〈Silva〉's voice rasped, as if he had not expected this. As said this, he hurriedly beckoned for the cameraman to come again.

"It's the bread, isn't it? It's on your back." In fact, this man who answers is Maruta.
"My back," 〈Silva〉 repeated. "You told me it was dirty?"
"Yeah, well."

〈Silva〉 showed a restrained smile and then let out a cry as if he had discovered a new law of nature.
"He taught me! Gather around, everyone! Some kind soul just told me I have dirt on my back!"

At the same time as 〈Silva〉 gave this signal, countless people, who must have been 〈Silva〉's follwers, came out from both sides of the screen, all of whom seemed to have too much time on their hands. And unable to comprehend the situation, Maruta was immediately surrounded by them.

"You are a kind man," 〈Silva〉 said, and those around Maruta gave him sparse applause. Maruta, on the other hand, is still standing there with a puzzled look on his face, although he is smiling slightly.

"Excuse me," 〈Silva〉 asked him. "I'm taking a video. Is it okay if we show your face?"
"Oh, yes. I don't mind."
Looking at them again, Maruta thought to himself as he held his tablet, "Compared to them, my voice is not as clear as theirs."

"Why," said 〈Silva〉. "Did you tell that my back is dirty?"
"If you hadn't noticed, I'd feel sorry for you." Maruta said with fatigue.
"Didn't you think it was a designed thing on the back of my T-shirt?"
Ain't thought so. Maruta muttered this in his mind at the time, but did not say it out loud, as it was his first meeting with them, and instead gave a bland response.
"Because even the bread is attached to your back."


The scene changed again, and 〈Silva〉 appeared on the screen with a very satisfied-looking. Although it seems to be a long way from the first location, this time on a street outside of downtown, too.

"As I was walking, I thought I would have to keep the bread on my back until I die. But I'm so glad to have someone came up to us and that we were able to get some shots. I asked his name and he told me his name was Maruta. Everyone, if you see someone who obviously doesn't notice the stains on their clothes, let them know properly, like Maruta-san![*2] It should feel nice to do something good, and if we keep doing that, maybe there will be no more wars in the world."

〈Silva〉 concluded by nibbling on a piece of the bread in his hand.
"In our next video, I'm going to surprise Yuya in his sleep with an intestinal cleaning. See you later."

The cameraman, Yuya Kira, responded to this. However, the audio was mercilessly cut off in mid-sentence, saying, "It wouldn't make sense to tell me the prank you're going to plant on m-"
And the video ended as it did.


[*1]: In the 2010s, people began to post their own videos on video-sharing sites to earn advertising revenue. In particular, creators who used 'Youtube,' the world's largest video service at the time, were called 'Youtubers'.

[*2]:In Japan, 'san' is often used in place of Mr, Mrs, or Ms. to show respect to a person or party you have just met.