これは久々に東京の山手線上にある動物園がある駅の街に行った話です。日中と夜とでは同じ存在する店舗が違う事があったカオスさでしたが、僕はインベーダーに侵された街だと思いました。まずスイーツ関連の店がほぼ無く潰れていてハニートーストのポスターが神々しく貼られて天上のご馳走扱いされていました。これは異常事態です。しかも飲食店はとても多かったのですが肉料理と飲み屋が殆どでした。動物園は公園の中にあると言うのですが、公園には理屈や伝統すらない塚やら謎の神社仏閣が増えていたのです。
公園は夕方には閉園などの放送が流れ変えるムードでしたが霊は同時にそれとは違う放送を流したのでした。『夜が来た…ケモノだ…ケモノの時間だ！…ケモノが来る…！！』ケモノとは何なのでしょうか？僕は人付き合いもあって逃げられなかったので日が暮れても公園にいました。
公園はかつて住んでいた大量のホームレスは居ませんでしたし、有名な事だったのに誰もホームレスの事なんか知りませんでした。僕はもう既に異世界に囚われていたのかもしれません。何故か僕達は公園の石造の階段を降りると鳥塚と包丁塚と言う池に囲まれかけた工夫もない名称の地に立っていました。もう春なのに池には蓮の種が成り、紅色の桜は散りかけていましたが木のある石の砂の上には花びらは落ちてはいませんでした。ややこしい塚に説明が石に書かれていましたが僕はこう解釈しました。『土地の者が大量の鳥を捌き喰らった事に対する鳥への慰めの塚』確かにその街には大量の肉料理屋はありましたが鶏肉の料理店はほぼ有りませんでした。宇宙人は怖がりました。『っひ！大量の人の骨と鳥の骨が混ざり合って沈んでいる！！』僕は塚を去る事にしましたが何故か階段はあったのですが立派な道で区画ができて区切られた土地になり街の霊障はマシになりました。
僕はふと神社が新たに公園に出来ているのを見ました。○園系列の神社でした。縁を白羽の矢で結ぶ祈願をする様にとあったのです。○園系列の神社は芸術関連に縁があり白羽の矢とは指名される生贄の事でした。堂々と呪い喰らう事を宣誓している神社仏閣でした。つまりは唐突に現れた昔から無い塚やら伝統的でない神社仏閣は呪いの建物なのです。
夜が来ると僕の第六感の感覚では街は海外のナイトクラブの様な空気に包まれ、大量の人が訪れて歓楽街の如し肉料理やお酒をいただくのでした。僕は共感した事があるので知っていました。この人種は肉を食べると麻薬に溺れた様に気が狂って、アルコールで性欲を荒ぶらせるのです。本当に怖い街でした。夜に活気付く街は要注意ですね。多分ですが大量に死んでいると思います。商店街は商店街でかつては潰れかけているとニュース報道されていたのに闇市の様に甘いお菓子屋やフルーツを大量に売り捌いていましたが、実際に僕がフルーツを購入すると店の人は嫌そうに『ッち！』と舌打ちして来たのでした。
僕の住んでいる土地はインベーターにかなり荒らされて来ていましたが、その街はその上をかなり行っていて破滅だと僕は思いました。安全かと思ってコーヒー専門店でカフェオレを頼みましたがカフェオレの材料であったタカナシの牛乳は合成の乳化剤の味がしましたしコーヒー豆を引いた筈なのにかなり薄味で氷はいつまで経っても溶けませんでした。僕は一体何を摂取したのでしょうか？非常に危険を感じました。しかし僕はまだ生きていました。
This is a story about the time I visited, after a long while, a town on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line—the station that has a zoo.
It was a chaotic place where the same shops seemed to exist differently depending on whether it was day or night. I came to believe that the town had been overrun by invaders. First of all, almost all of the dessert and sweets shops had disappeared or gone out of business. Instead, a poster of honey toast was displayed with a kind of divine glow, as if it were a heavenly delicacy. That alone felt like an abnormal situation. There were many restaurants, but most of them served meat dishes or were drinking establishments.
The zoo was said to be inside a park. Yet in that park, strange burial mounds and mysterious shrines and temples—things without logic or tradition—had increased in number.
In the evening, the park broadcast an announcement that it was closing, encouraging people to leave. But at the same time, the spirits broadcast something else entirely.
“Night has come… The beasts… It is the beasts’ time… The beasts are coming…!!”
What were these “beasts”? I couldn’t leave because I was with other people, so I remained in the park even after sunset.
The park once had many homeless people living there, but now they were gone. It had once been well known, yet no one seemed to remember the homeless at all. Perhaps I had already been trapped in another world.
For some reason, when we descended the stone stairs in the park, we found ourselves standing in a place surrounded by ponds called the Bird Mound and the Knife Mound—names with no particular elegance or ingenuity. It was already spring, yet lotus seeds had formed in the pond. The crimson cherry blossoms were nearly finished falling, but strangely, there were no petals scattered on the sandy ground beneath the trees.
There were explanations carved into stone beside the confusing mounds. I interpreted them like this:
“A mound built to comfort the birds, after the people of this land slaughtered and ate great numbers of them.”
There were indeed many restaurants serving meat in that town, but there were almost no chicken restaurants. The alien with me was frightened.
“Eek! The bones of countless people and birds are mixed together and sinking down there!!”
I decided to leave the mound. Though there were stairs, once we moved along a well-built road that divided the area into neat blocks, the spiritual disturbance of the town seemed to lessen.
Then I noticed that a new shrine had appeared in the park. It belonged to the ○-en shrine lineage. The shrine encouraged visitors to pray by tying their wishes with a white arrow. Shrines of the ○-en lineage are associated with the arts, and a “white arrow” traditionally refers to someone chosen as a sacrifice.
It was a shrine boldly declaring a vow to receive a curse. In other words, the mounds and shrines that had suddenly appeared—things that had never existed there in the past—were buildings of curses.
When night came, according to my sixth sense, the town was wrapped in an atmosphere like an overseas nightclub. Huge crowds arrived, and the place became like an entertainment district where people consumed meat dishes and alcohol.
I understood this because I had once felt the same kind of empathy before. When this race eats meat, they become insane as if intoxicated by narcotics, and alcohol drives their sexual desire into frenzy. It was truly a frightening town. Places that become lively at night should be treated with caution. I suspect that many people die there.
The shopping street was another strange case. It had once been reported in the news as a shopping district on the verge of collapse, yet now it looked like a black market, selling enormous amounts of sweet pastries and fruit. But when I actually bought fruit, the shopkeeper clicked their tongue in annoyance and muttered, “Tch!”
The place where I live has already been heavily ravaged by invaders, but that town went far beyond even that. I felt it was heading toward ruin.
Thinking it might be safe, I ordered a café au lait at a coffee specialty shop. However, the Takanashi milk used in it tasted like synthetic emulsifiers. And although they had supposedly ground fresh coffee beans, the flavor was extremely weak. The ice in the drink never seemed to melt.
What exactly had I consumed?
I felt a deep sense of danger.
Yet somehow, I was still alive.