"Who wakes first from the great dream?
All my life, I've known the answer—
The mountain man rises from bed!"
Kobayashi Tetsu opened his eyes, utterly unwilling to move. His entire body was wrapped in a lazy, sluggish heaviness.
A thin slit had opened in the curtains, and sharp sunlight poured in, stinging his eyes. Squinting, Tetsu stared at the curtains and made a dragging gesture with his hand.
Unfortunately, he did not possess the superpower to close curtains with his mind.
He lay there a little longer before finally climbing out of bed.
This was probably the most comfortable sleep he'd had in days.
He checked the time. It wasn't the exaggerated "slept for days and nights" scenario—just a bit over ten hours. By the clock, it was early morning.
He shook his head. Strangely clear-headed. His brain felt completely rested.
"Anyway, I don't need to worry about games for now. For the next few months, I'll just focus on Sonic. But Atlus's momentum also needs to be maintained… I'll have to think of something."
Pressing his fingers to his brow, Tetsu shook his head with a self-mocking smile.
Why am I thinking about work every day like some kind of exploited laborer?
Even I need a vacation once in a while!
With a clean kip-up, Tetsu sprang to his feet, showing off the excellent core strength of youth—something he'd probably need later in life.
He had assumed no one else was home, but to his surprise, the moment he stepped out of his room, he saw several people gathered in the living room downstairs. Sounds of cooking came from the kitchen.
He leaned over to take a look and immediately spotted Nene Anezaki wearing an apron, busy preparing food. Kobayakawa was helping at her side, nodding from time to time as if she were learning quite a lot.
Even the original three-member Atlus team was here.
"Quite the turnout," Tetsu said.
Dragging his slippers down the stairs, he greeted them. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Tetsu-kun, did you sleep well?"
"Waking up this late—Tetsu-kun is such a lazybones!"
"President, you're awake. Actually, the world has already ended. Only Atlus remains."
Tetsu looked at Yuji Naka.
His fist clenched.
"You might as well say I woke up to find the world's game development standards dropped by a hundredfold, while I alone remained unchanged."
Naka spread his hands. "The president was already a hundred times better than everyone else."
Tetsu felt satisfied.
It was winter break now, so Kobayakawa and the others didn't need to go to school. They could all gather here—and even prepare breakfast together.
Breakfast was split across two tables. Masuko Tsukasa tried to squeeze over, only to be jointly dragged away by Kitagawa Takeshi and Yuji Naka toward the garage.
Tetsu sat alone at his table, occasionally glancing up at the two people across from him. Kobayakawa kept her head down, focused on eating. Nene Anezaki, meanwhile, rested her chin on her hand, watching him openly. When their eyes met, she didn't look away, instead naturally changing the topic.
"By the way, Tetsu-kun," Nene said, "I saw your father this morning. He said that after you wake up, it'd be best to go to the hospital for a simple checkup and get some medicine to help with recovery."
Tetsu responded with a long, drawn-out hum.
Health supplements were all scams, as far as he was concerned. Vitamins were more than enough.
Just as he was about to refuse, he suddenly asked, "Am I going alone?"
"Well, actually, I—" Nene began.
Kobayakawa suddenly looked up, hesitating.
Tetsu pressed his fingers to his brow.
It's already this troublesome with just two. If there are more in the future, I'm dead.
Takamine Internal Medicine Clinic
In Japan, community hospitals like this weren't rare. They were larger than typical neighborhood clinics, but nowhere near the scale of major hospitals. Most were run by doctors who had left large institutions to practice independently.
When there were many patients needing injections or prescriptions, waiting in line was unavoidable.
Tetsu had no intention of going to a big hospital. He was just buying vitamins, after all. A nearby community clinic was far more convenient.
He'd even checked beforehand—unfortunately, there was no Takemi Clinic in Shibuya. Otherwise, he would have gone there without hesitation.
After all, what was life if not lived for Tae Takemi?
There were quite a few people ahead of them in line. After waiting for a while, Tetsu grew restless.
—
—
"Let's play a little game," he said.
Tetsu turned toward the seats beside him.
Since he didn't know whom to invite individually, both Nene Anezaki and Kobayakawa Rinko had come along.
Meeting their curious gazes, Tetsu said, "This is a game popular overseas. It's called 'Albatross Soup.' Basically, through dialogue and simple reasoning, you deduce the truth behind a story. Have you heard of it?"
Both shook their heads.
Of course they hadn't.
In later years, there would be a popular party game known as "Sea Turtle Soup." The original version was called "Albatross Soup," originating from British naval schools in the 1980s.
"Here's the story," Tetsu began. "A man walks into a restaurant. On the menu, there's a dish called 'Albatross Soup.' The man is delighted and says, 'When I fought in a war overseas, albatross soup once saved my life. I must have a bowl.' When the soup is served, he takes one sip, suddenly screams, runs out of the restaurant in agony—and eventually kills himself. Why?"
Not only Kobayakawa and Nene, but even some other patients in line turned to look.
Nene thought for a moment. "Because the soup tasted bad?"
Tetsu shrugged. "Bad taste alone wouldn't make someone die."
Kobayakawa said, "Because there was something that shouldn't have been in the soup?"
Tetsu nodded. "Very close."
She guessed rapidly. "A bug? A cockroach? Dust? Poison?"
The back-and-forth continued for more than ten questions, but they still couldn't reach the answer.
Then Tetsu's name was called over the loudspeaker. He stood up.
"Keep thinking. It's actually pretty simple."
With that encouragement, he walked into the examination room.
Neither Kobayakawa nor Nene could figure it out.
That was the nature of Albatross Soup—or Sea Turtle Soup. It hid information, defied common sense, and forced wild reasoning.
Some early puzzles like this one could be solved with enough life experience. Others were just nonsense stews, impossible to deduce.
As the two racked their brains, another girl's voice suddenly spoke.
She wore her hair in a single ponytail, tied with a white cloth headband. She gave them a small, polite bow.
"Excuse me for intruding," she said. "But I was thinking—if the answer can be deduced from the riddle, then perhaps the problem lies with the albatross soup the man drank in the past. After tasting real albatross soup at the restaurant, he realized that what he had eaten before wasn't normal. So he chose suicide. In that case, perhaps the 'albatross soup' he once drank contained something that violated basic moral and ethical norms."
Tetsu, who had just exited the examination room, was genuinely surprised when he heard this.
That answer was extremely close.
He spoke up. "That's about right. The truth is this: when the man served in the navy, he participated in an isolated overseas campaign. He thought he had been eating albatross back then—but it was actually his comrades."
Nene froze.
Kobayakawa instantly recoiled.
"Disgusting! That's gross! Tetsu-kun, don't tell stories like that!" she shouted.
That was even worse than saying the soup had poop in it!
Tetsu spread his hands helplessly.
He couldn't help it—the original story was like this.
The girl with the headband nodded thoughtfully instead.
Meeting Tetsu's questioning look, she quickly bent her knees and bowed again.
"I'm Takamine Aika. My parents run this clinic. You can pay the consultation fee to me. If you need medicine, please follow me."
Tetsu answered, reaching into his pocket.
Four hundred yen.
Four coins.
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