News of the World

Shingo would commonly stay at home and catch up on sleep during his days off work. Knowing that he often didn't get much private time. Usually, he slept decently well, but with the new information Haruki had shared at the meeting a few days prior, Shingo, instead, laid in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. He gave up on sleeping, sat up and pulled open his blackout curtain revealing the bright sun of the afternoon. He shuddered against the bright light shining in his face, and closed the curtain.

"Ugh" he muttered as he sat up and reached for his phone. One new message from Asuka.

"I'm spending the day with Konomi, I'll message you later." was splayed across the screen.

Shingo sat his phone back down before stretching and letting out a roaring yawn. He stood and looked down at his matress.

"Ehh, I'll leave you there for now and try to get some more sleep again in a bit." Shingo spoke to his matress.

Stumbling, half asleep, he moved to the next room and sat down at his kotatsu. He reached over and pulled a small plastic container over to him. The sleepy man popped open the lid and pulled out some seaweed strips and began munching on them before pulling his laptop over and turning it on. Shingo continued to crunch away at the seaweed as he slowly browsed through the internet. He spent some time surfing through social media before finally settling on a video sharing site.

Browsing videos, a news video caught his eye with the title "Global scientists investigate irregular occurrences of Transcendental Syndrome."

From his time, he knew that the rest of the world didn't believe as much what they had been through so transcendental syndrome was their way of describing the survivors and statues. Opening the video, Shingo found a news report describing the state of the rest of the world.

A news anchor chimed in with, "Scientists are investigating the sudden cease in TS cases in most of South America. It's been two weeks and zero new cases have been reported from Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Bolivia. Further, compared to the average in East Asia, the remainder of South America have seen a significant dip in cases during the same time. What was once a world-wide phenomenon, can now be considered erratic due to these events. No explanation has, collaboratively, been agreed upon for the cause of the phenomenon so pinpointing why the reduction may be happening has proved an arduous task for scientists and doctors. Next, we have a video of a press conference from Japanese Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare speaking on the topic."

The video cut from the studio to the Minister who said, "There is no viable evidence that there is any significant threat to our citizens. Also, it is our belief that discrepancies between countries can be explained by reporting procedures and difficulties in tracking the occurrences that all countries have encountered. Even in Japan, it has become difficult to track and support those that have endured that situation. I would also like to take this opportunity to restate what I have said time and again regarding this. Our citizens who have had this happen to them are victims of an unknown ailment but they are not to be feared or persecuted because they could not help what has happened to themselves. Just as you might get the flu, they have had this happen to them."

The scene of the video switched back to the studio where the news anchor continued, "Reports show that there has been a steady increase in incidents in the country over the last month with no known causes as of yet."

With that, the video ended and Shingo immediately kicked into action trying to find any more information that he could about occurrences in South America. He searched through several sites and he found more and more information confirming what the reports had said. There had been a drastic reduction of occurrences in South America with no explanation. With that, Shingo was wide awake and spent the day searching for everything he could find.

Hours passed and day turned into night. Shingo's stomach growled as he continued to ignore it. Without warning, the doorbell of Shingo's apartment rang. It too was mostly ignored and as Shingo continued to search across the internet. It rang again and again, but the buzz of the doorbell grew quieter in his mind. As he tried to open yet another tab, his computer seemed to take on a mind of its own. A blank text document opened in front of him and 'Open the door. -Asuka' was typed into it.

Snapping back to reality, the young man looked around, and realized how long he had sat there. The document had more words added to it when he looked back. 'It's cold out here.' Shingo climbed up from his seat and almost fell over from weakness and his legs falling asleep from sitting there for so long. He hobbled to the door and opened it.

"It really is going to be a harsh winter isn't it?" Konomi said to Asuka as the pair walked straight past Shingo.

Konomi turned on the overhead lights before saying, "It's too dark in here."

Shingo winced at the brightness and bristled, "Ahhh, could you give me some warning next time?"

"I would say for a normal person, sitting in the dark is unhealthy." Asuka said rather flatly. "For you though, I understand. Sorry Shingo."

"I thought you said you'd message me." Shingo said before being realizing what must have happened. "Oh no." he uttered as he walked over and picked up his phone.

Thirteen new messages popped up on the screen.

"I did message you but there was no response so we came over to check on you." Asuka said.

"Ah, sorry both of you." Shingo rubbed his head, embarrassed that he zoned into his search so hard that he forgot the world around him.

Shingo's stomach growled again which led to Asuka and Konomi to look at each other.

"I told you that he'd probably be hungry." Asuka said content in how well she knew Shingo.

"You were right, I shouldn't have even questioned it." Konomi conceded as she lifted up a takeout bag.

Shingo looked at the pair and at the bag. Asuka smiled larger than Konomi had ever seen before. After letting out a small sigh, Shingo walked over and pat Asuka on the head before saying "You always take such good care of me. I don't know how I can thank you."

"Let's get some food in you and then we'll talk about why you weren't answering my messages." Asuka said with a cute grumpy face.

Konomi chuckled slightly before sitting at the kotatsu and placing the food on the table.

"If nothing else, it's good that you're here." Shingo said through intense eyes looking at Asuka. "I'll eat, while you read through what's on my laptop."

Asuka had seen the face before. Any actual feelings she had of being upset with Shingo faded away completely as she knew whatever he wanted to show her would explain everything. With a slight nod, she slowly walked to the computer. Shingo followed her to the kotatsu where he opened the bag of food revealing a bento box of overly deep fried, if not slightly burnt, food. Shingo smiled wide.

"I have absolutely no idea how you eat burnt food." Konomi quipped at Shingo's enjoyment. "Luckily they don't put up much of an argument when we request it that way. Once they saw Asuka, they knew it was for you. Most other places would scoff at the idea of burning the food on purpose."

"I've just had enough raw food for several lifetimes." Shingo lamented thinking back to the rats he had to eat in his world. "Can't stand the taste of anything raw anymore."

The food crunched loud disturbing Asuka slightly as she continued searching through the information Shingo had found..

"Beyond that, we had a pretty good day together!" Konomi cheerfully informed Shingo of the pair's day out. "We only had two or three bad occurrences! Beyond that, we got to go shopping but, even though I tried, Asuka wouldn't let me buy her a new outfit. I got a couple outfits though!"

"Good!" Shingo mumbled with a mouthful of food.

"How did you find this?" Asuka asked without looking away from the screen.

"I saw a thirty second blurb from a news report." Shingo continued to eat and mumble. "From there, I just started looking for anything I could find."

"Give me ten minutes." Asuka said as she pulled out her phone and began typing away. "If this is right or if there's anything else to this, I'll find out."

"But," Shingo responded, pausing only to swallow. "If it is right, then we have another piece of the puzzle."

"If what is right?" Konomi questioned, oblivious to it all. "What puzzle? Why do I feel like I'm being left out."

Shingo spent the next few minutes explaining that, while Japan's occurrences were raising substantially, occurrences in places further away were slowing down drastically. Something was happening and it seemed to be centered around Japan. Shortly following that, Asuka finished what she was doing, looked up at the pair, and confirmed everything Shingo had found.