End of the World Broadcast

Several days have passed since the video appeared of the woman who introduced herself as ‘Mori’.
Mori’s video, which can be seen whenever and wherever you open a video site on your phone.
People quickly become accustomed to things that take up a corner of their daily lives, but this time was different.
The world was still abuzz with many discussions about Mori’s video.
Numerous experts set out to find her whereabouts in response to the unbelievable story of the complete end of modern civilization.
But as it was revealed that no institution could find her location, the world fell into confusion instead.
A video with too many scenes that cannot be explained as a simple concept video.
In this confused world, Mori lives a today that is exactly the same as yesterday, simply sharing stories of what she has experienced and seen.
But each of Mori’s calm words and scenes shown through the drone caused great confusion to billions of people living in the 21st century.
There were people who were convinced that Mori’s video was being transmitted from the future.
And there were still people who believed all of this was marketing to attract people’s attention.
Some who believed that the world where Mori exists is their future began to call out God’s name loudly in the streets.
Some people recorded Mori’s video and watched it over and over again, seriously contemplating why things became like that.
How they could escape that future.
If the scenery in the video is truly the future of humanity, has humanity really met its end?
Or is it just the city where Mori is located that has become like that due to war or climate anomalies?
And.
If it’s true that the timeline where Mori exists is connected to this current world.
If we, who are on the ‘front’ side of the timeline that stretches in a straight line,
Can convey ‘history’ to her who is walking ‘ahead’ of us.
Couldn’t we immediately change our future heading towards the end and Mori’s life shown through the broadcast?
The sight of a ruined world certainly brought despair to people living this moment diligently.
It forcibly made humans, who fear death and falling, aware of reality, and the effects appeared immediately.
But, aren’t all lives just long stories from birth to death anyway?
It’s just that the process and end change depending on what choices you make and what actions you take while alive.
When approached from that perspective, Mori’s video was both ‘despair’ and ‘hope’.
About the necessity of scientific technology and world that is so elaborate and delicate it’s currently unimaginable becoming like that.
If we could learn through Mori’s video, we could escape the predetermined future.
To the steps and questions of her who walks alone in a place where no humans remain, who is more human than anyone.
Gradually revealing the blueprint of human civilization.
And thereby being able to save themselves.
Everyone began to focus on her every word and action, praying for this.

Residential Area.

[You recovered quickly for moving that much.]
[It seems the massage with the ball was effective.]
“Of course. What do you think I endured that pain and loosened my muscles for?”
My legs, which had stiffened like stone, returned to normal exactly three days later.
I thought I’d suffer for a week, but my legs recovered so quickly. They say old sayings aren’t wrong, and it seems that’s true.

“…But you know. I told you not to talk about the massage. I even begged on my knees, but you do this? What’s so fun about watching a grown adult roll a ball on their thigh and cry?”
Naturally, there was no magical occurrence where all tense muscles were loosened with just one massage.
I had to press my legs with the ball several times a day to soothe muscles that seemed to tense up as if they still didn’t want to move when a lot of time passed or when I woke up.
And all that process and my writhing in pain was transmitted to people through the drone.

“Ugh… If I had known this would happen, I should have just turned off the drone until I was better. There will be messages like this tomorrow too.”
Although I thought about turning off the drone for a day or so until people forgot about my shameful behavior, thinking I had shown such an embarrassing side of myself.
Already addicted to the messages sent by living people and the reassurance that comes from them, I had no choice but to operate the drone, even knowing I would suffer.
Still, they’re kind people who worry about my physical condition that even I didn’t know about, and they’ve surely had similar experiences in their lives.
I vaguely hoped they would naturally change the topic…

[This is the first time I’ve seen someone suffer this much from muscle pain.]
[This is also the first time I’ve seen such trivial pain transmitted so vividly… LMAO]
Contrary to my expectations, all the messages that came from the moment I turned on the drone until I fell asleep were all about my shameful behavior.
And not just for one day, but continuously from the day after I started staying in the building until now when I’ve left the building!

“Haah……”
How many people have seen my shameful behavior?
Due to the one-day gap, at least until tomorrow… and if it’s severe, this topic might come up occasionally even after that…
…They wouldn’t bring this up first when we actually meet, would they? Just thinking about it makes my face burn.

“…I kind of hate you guys.”
There were smart and kind people who sometimes told me about helpful postures or ways to press less painfully.
Nevertheless, the proportion of people teasing me was too high.

“Ah. It seems I’ve arrived at a residential area. I can feel that I’m gradually reaching the edge of the city.”
After coming down from the building where I had stayed for a few days with my healed legs, I moved my legs diligently to leave the commercial area full of buildings like skyscrapers and supermarkets, and stepped into the residential area.

“To those of you who might ask how I can be sure this is a residential area… Usually, the shape or color of buildings differs according to the city. But residential areas are similar no matter which city you go to. The appearance of buildings and the structure of how buildings are gathered.”
There are no signs saying ‘This is a residential area’ or ‘This is a commercial area’.
Nevertheless, I can think of cities as largely divided into commercial areas and residential areas because the structure of cities I’ve passed through so far has been quite similar, and there are distinct characteristics shared by each area.

“The buildings in residential areas are all crude, tall, and thin like the ones here. In other words… they’re extremely practical.”
It’s different from the commercial area where splendid buildings that evoke exclamations just by looking at their appearance were lined up.
As if they wouldn’t allow even the slightest waste, these massive buildings here did not permit even a little decoration on the building.
There are just grayish-white cuboids arranged with a suffocating regularity.

“You might think this: ‘Mori, weren’t there houses in what you call the commercial area too?’ Yes. It’s true that there were many homes for people there too. But in any world, ‘well-off homes’ and ‘less well-off homes’ are separated.”

Everyone is the same person and a precious life, but bitterly…

“To be honest, this place has no value to me. Do you know what’s inside those tall buildings? Tiny one-room apartments as small as hamster cages and corpses that hung themselves like the ones that surprised you. Contraceptives rolling on the floor and empty canned food. If you’re unlucky, you might even see the corpse of a newborn baby.”
The sight of grayish-white buildings tall enough to touch the clouds stretching out could be called a spectacle in its own right.
But knowing the reality of the buildings as mentioned earlier, all I could think of was wanting to get out of this place as quickly as possible.
That would be because of an instinctual aversion to a space that is clearly meant to just barely satisfy physiological needs that humans cannot help but have—a space that is both merciful and crueler than anywhere else.

“Practicality is important, of course. But whether it should be pursued to the extent of eliminating humanity, taking away the basic things people should enjoy to live as proper humans… I don’t know.”

Through the closed window, I can see the silhouette of a person dangling.

Compared to the numerous deaths I’ve seen so far, this is a relatively peaceful death.
Strangely, seeing things like this leaves a bitter taste in my mouth more than corpses scattered on the street.

“Well… Everything has a reason, so there must have been a reason why they could only build like this, and why people could only live here… But whether that reason was more important than the people who are alive and breathing now, I don’t know.”
Was this city, which feels only vast to me, too cramped for the people of the past?
So they had to build up these dwellings that could be called cages and make people live in them…

“How many people lived in this city, I wonder.”
…And where did all those people go?
How many people chose death themselves in a painful reality that went against the instinct to live?

“I don’t have the luxury to think about those reasons when I’m busy just trying to survive… But nonetheless, the fact that the most practical place is the most useless to me is, a bit funny and bitter at the same time.”

I muttered this while avoiding stepping on someone’s choice who fell with a baby carriage, so as not to insult it.