About

‘How much time has passed here?’ It was a day where the hot midsummer sun beat down relentlessly. But somehow, as if possessed, the deeper I stepped into the forest, the more the sound of the cicadas strangely faded away, one by one. In its place, only a chilling sensation brushing against my skin remained. I quickened my pace, driven by an inexplicable sense of unease that I had to escape this forest. But— At some point, I stopped. The scenery unfolding before my eyes was bizarre. The exact same tree I had passed just a moment ago. Branches split in the exact same shape. Fallen leaves in the exact same spot. Even though I had clearly been walking forward, I was standing in the same place again. As if a video were playing on a loop. I walked again. And the same scenery once more. Again. And again. . . . Now, I was tired of even walking. It felt as if the seasons had stopped. No, perhaps— Perhaps time itself had frozen in this place. The muggy sunlight was still streaming through the leaves. The leaves swayed whenever a cool breeze blew. That wasn't the only strange thing. Despite walking endlessly in such hot weather, I wasn't thirsty. I didn't feel like I was about to collapse from the heat. My body was fine. But my heart had grown weary long ago. It had been a long time since I lost my sense of time. I couldn't even tell how long I had been walking. A few hours. A few days. A few years. ……Perhaps decades. I vaguely thought that much time must have passed. Yet the sun did not set. The forest did not change. The leaves did not fall, the seasons did not turn, and the end never came. ‘What exactly is this place?’ It was at that moment. The wind died down. The swaying leaves all stopped at once. And in the middle of the empty forest— I heard someone's voice. 『Forever.』 Only then did I realize. That in this place, such a thing as an 'end' does not exist.