"How could it be like this──"
Sai Yi regrets what he has done. The invention made by betting on his own life can be said to be the result of the technology he possesses. But after finally finishing it, he was very sad, thinking that maybe he shouldn't make this kind of thing. I don't know what is wrong. But what is certain is that something must be wrong.
Time goes back to when he was very young. Sai Yi is a teenager who likes to make things. Among them, his favorite is toys. At that time, he lived a life of forgetting to eat and sleep in order to invent toys. The adults in the city couldn't understand his behavior, so they regarded him as a weird and alienated him. On the other hand, speaking of children, each of them likes to play with Sai Yi's toys, and even counts the days, looking forward to the day when he will come to the park to distribute the toys. They like Sai Yi and his toys best.
"What new toy are you going to make next?"
The girl put her arm on the somewhat big table and kept wrapping Sai Yi, asking him to tell herself.
"Let me think about it, how about shoes that can slip anywhere?"
"Wow! You can skate anywhere! It must be fun! By the way, if there are colors in the place where you slide, it will be more fun, right?"
With that said, the girl who was jumping happily was named Marta. This girl has curly brown hair, which is very cute. She is the number one fan of Sai Yi's toys and a friend who will advise him. Marta comes to his house almost every day to watch him make toys. Saiy asked her if it made her feel happy in this way. Marta replied:
"Watching Brother Sai Yi happily making toys, I will also be very happy!"
Today is the day to take the made toys to the park and send them to the children. He knew that this would not make any money. Even so, as long as the children are happy, Sai is happy. Sai Yi, holding his hands full of toys, passed between some adults who looked at him with strange eyes.
"Hey──Brother Saiyi!"
A voice calling him from far away. The crowded crowd made him hard to see, but it was definitely Marta's voice. She must also be heading to the park for Sai's toy. Sai Yi walked back a little bit, looking for Marta, and then found that she was struggling in the crowd of adults. Why is the street so crowded today. Said thought so, and after pricking his ears to the crowd, he suddenly heard a shout from a distance:
"Hurry up!"
"Marta, come here!"
He put down the new toys in his arms and reached out to Marta. After noticing this situation, she also stretched out her hand, and it happened at this moment-the horse that was out of control dragged the carriage like that and ran over the crowd in front of Sai.
In the downpour, Sai Yi squatted quietly in front of the tomb.
"Marta, the toy is ready, don't you want to play?"
The tombstone stood coldly, without answering him.
"Can you give me some toy suggestions! Let's talk about some interesting things together!"
Saying said to her, tears kept running down her eyes. However, he did not realize that he was crying.
"Wait for me again. I must make toys that you can also play with."
Two years have passed. After making the toys, he walked towards the cemetery with the full toys in his hands. In these days, he always put toys in front of the children's graves, waiting for them to come and play.
"Marta, how are you doing? The children here recently refused to play even if I gave them toys. Didn't they do a good job? Let me listen to your opinion."
Today, Sai also spoke to Marta's tomb, a tombstone filled with toys. If the toy moved or disappeared, they must have used it to play. He can think so now. However, no matter which child’s grave is placed with toys, or how many toys are placed, no one has ever come to play.
"Oh, I see, it must be made with suitable materials, so you can feel it. I'll study it again."
Said to himself, leaving the toys that no one had played with before leaving.
How long did such days last? With red and swollen eyes, Sai Yi took the toy to the cemetery as usual. "I will definitely play this time?" His expectations kept failing again and again-and one night, he suddenly thought of an idea.
"I see, if you have a transparent entity, won't you be able to play with ordinary toys?"
Why didn't I find it before? Sai Yi was very surprised by himself, and then hurried home to start researching.
Thirty years have passed. Saiyi spent his nights and sleeps, and while wiping his sweat, he kept studying how to give entities to the spirit body. After repeated research, he finally completed a machine that could theoretically transform a spirit body into an entity. He immediately went to the cemetery in order to activate the machine.
After Saiy started the machine with a complicated steel structure, it sent out a unique sound wave. Sound waves spread like ripples, affecting all "entities" from buildings to human bodies. After the air made a crackling sound, the surroundings fell into silence. Said clenched his fists, thinking that he might have succeeded. However, no matter how long he waited, he did not see Marta or the children in the cemetery, nor did he hear their voices.
"How come? Did I fail?"
After the device started, it did seem to have some effect. Said concluded that something must have happened, so he walked to town with a little expectation.
──After arriving in the town, what appeared before his eyes was an unimaginable scene. The streets that were once lively and noisy have now become silent. People lie down on every road. Judging from such scattered scenes of lying down, their bodies seem to be like discarded empty shells.
"What the hell did I do...I obviously just want the soul to have entity--"
Sai is at a loss for the big mistake he made. He managed to move his stiff feet and wandered around the town looking for people who were still alive. However, in this silent town, he is the only one alive. As time passed, Sai Yi finally couldn't bear the terrible mistake he had committed, and knelt down.
"Oh... things shouldn't be like this. I didn't expect it to be like this...!"
Ironically, in this city of the dead, he was the only one who was eager to see the dead than anyone else survived. No one responded to Sai's sigh, his wailing disappeared in this cold town.
He just hopes that everyone can laugh and play with toys as before. For Sai, this is a very natural desire. However, this reckless wish violated the laws of nature, and human beings have no way of reality. Today, this device is so disgusting. Sai Yi held the device and was immersed in the sin of massacring the entire city. The only thing he could do was despair.
"Which place went wrong? What should you do so that you will forgive me? Who will...who will answer me..."
At this time, although it was very slight, he felt that something touched his shoulder. Maybe it was just an illusion caused by his wishing to see others too much. Even so, Sai Yi still looked forward to his shoulder.
"What... It's just an illusion. Hahaha..."
Without the hand of someone he was expecting, not even the fallen leaves flying in the wind. Realizing his stupidity, Sai unconsciously let out a dry laugh.
"You finally laughed. But you don't seem to be very happy, Brother Sai."
Suddenly, there was a girl's voice, and it sounded a little bit awkward. He couldn't forget-it was the voice of his best friend Marta.
"Is it Marta!? If you are there, show up quickly!"
Whether it was a hallucination or anything, he didn't want to admit that he had become lonely. Sai looked around the deserted town, trying to grasp this glimmer of hope. But still no figure appeared. Even so, he could still feel that her voice he had been longing for was nearby.
"Brother Saiyi is so true, why don't you cry so much? I have been thinking about when will you smile."
"I didn't cry. It's not that I will never see you again. Anyway, there will be a chance to meet in the future, there is no need to be sad."
Said that, Sai Yi touched the corner of his eye and found that the overflowing tears were streaming down his wet cheeks. He tried to remember when he started to cry, but found that his tears didn't seem to stop before.
"Ah...I get it-actually I knew it from the beginning. I know I can't laugh with you anymore."
Muttering to himself like this, he finally understood why he had to devote himself to research day and night without sleep, and he also understood why he deliberately deceived himself for more than 30 years.
"It used to be very happy to make toys. As long as everyone is willing to smile, I will be very happy. But, all of this is because of you. I am very happy to have my best friend by my side laughing together. So, I I don’t want to admit that you are no longer there. I always want to convince myself that you are still there. But—you’re already dead, right? Marta."
Sai Yi was facing the empty sky, expressing his feelings that he had never discovered before. After speaking, the sun suddenly became dazzling like never before, so Sai closed his eyes. For him, who has been immersed in research for a long time, whether it is day or night, he has never had the mind to pay attention to the weather. After getting used to the warmth of the sun, he opened his eyes-and Marta was standing in front of him, about the same height as he was kneeling.
"Well. Although I am also very sad, I can no longer laugh with you. But if you are willing to live actively, I will be by your side at any time."
After she said that, she poked her head and looked at Sai, who had stopped crying, smiling as before.
"If I don't live actively, will you not stay with me?-No wonder I was so lonely before."
Seeing Marta's smile, Sai also naturally smiled.
"Well──isn't this device-like thing a toy? Brother Sai, you can do nothing but make toys, so it's better not to force yourself."
"Yes, I really can't do anything except toys..."
Talking aimlessly like this, the two were very happy to see each other's smiles, and they talked and laughed for a while.
The warm time like a daydream passed slowly. In this icy town, the voices of only two of them are still warm. When the conversation stopped for a while, I suddenly felt a dead silence in the city, and Said seemed to wake up from a dream.
"...While it's still too late, I have to change everyone back. Marta has asked the goddess of the sky. I said that brother Saiyi didn't want to do bad things, I hope she can forgive you. In the end, she said, if you can do well Say goodbye to me and she will forgive you."
Maybe it was because of feeling Saiyi's anxiety, after Marta finished speaking firmly, she took a step back from him, showing a little lonely smile.
"So...bye, brother Saiyi. I want to see you happy."
Sai stood up, looked at Marta sincerely, and said to her:
"Thank you, Marta. It's nice to see you again. I will try my best to live and make you willing to cheer for me on the sidelines. So please watch."
Sai found that the tears had already wetted his face. The miracle that I spent a long time seeking is coming to an end after my own words. Even though he was crying in his heart not to let go of this moment, the consciousness of deciding to live in the present prompted him to speak:
"Then───bye bye, Marta."
Sai Yi smiled desperately. After saying this, the air in the city swiftly shuttled and staggered. As the breath of life grew stronger, the smiling Marta waved her hand, and her silhouette gradually melted into the sunlight and faded away.
When he came back to his senses, Sai Yi was already standing in the hustle and bustle of traffic. People live their lives as usual, as if nothing happened. After watching for a while, he picked up his invention and set off on his way home.
As a result, when passing near the park, the voices of the children stopped Sai. They seemed to think that the device he was holding was strange, so they asked, "What is that?" "How do you use it?" They asked him innocently. Saiyi sat down on the spot and disassembled the device he had spent thirty years to make and made it into a simple toy.
"Look, this is a butterfly with a guiding device. It can fly anywhere with the wind."
"Awesome!" "Come and see who can fly the farthest!"
The children said yes in unison, and took away the toys Saiyi made one by one. Looking at the guiding butterflies flying in the blue sky, Sai and the children laughed together.
