Chapter 2

As the mochi drawn on the paper turned into real mochi, I ate it while drinking the barley tea that came with it.

The barley tea was in a black cup, and it was just ordinary barley tea, except for being too strong. It was barley tea. The mochi was just mochi, and the barley tea was just barley tea.

Probably, the reason this barley tea was too strong was because I remembered and drew the one served at Mr. Sensei's house. The barley tea there was usually left in the pot for too long, making it unbearably strong.

This barley tea is darker than soy sauce. It looks even blacker in the black cup. It's pitch black. And to be honest, it doesn't taste good.

Well... but anyway, it was just ordinary mochi and barley tea. It was food.

So, I ate it... but after eating, I started to wonder if it was really okay to eat.

The copy paper I had been drawing on was now completely blank, as if nothing had happened. In other words, if we ignore science and common sense... it means that "what I drew on the paper materialized." Or perhaps it was all just my hallucination. No, I don't really want to believe that.

"... Another serving."

Since I had the chance, I drew mochi again. Mochi on a gray plate. In the black cup, the overly strong barley tea.

Since it appeared, I had no choice but to eat it again. Well, it was just the taste of mochi and barley tea.

"Another serving."

I wanted to verify it a bit more, so I drew again. And once again, it was mochi and barley tea.

... What is this, exactly?

I only know about things materializing from drawings in fiction.

Because it doesn't make sense. I think there are many materials missing for mochi drawn with a pencil on paper to become real mochi. Mochi can't be made of paper and pencil lead.

So, I can only have doubts about the mochi that just appeared. Well, it's a bit late to have doubts after eating it.

Well... even if the mochi and barley tea were really made of copy paper and pencil lead, I think it would be fine. Paper and pencils aren't things that will kill you if you eat them. Rather, if I could eat them deliciously, that would be good. Even if they turned back into paper and pencil in my stomach, it would be fine. Thank you for the meal.

Well, I was thinking... and I got sleepy because my stomach was full from the mochi. Maybe humans are simple creatures after all. Or maybe it's just me.

I'll think about it tomorrow since I'm sleepy. I don't want to think about anything now, and I'm too tired from the shock. I'll sleep leaning against a tree. It felt a bit cold, but I thought I could sleep if I curled up.

Good morning.

When I woke up, the sky was bright. And it was still a forest.

I had hoped that things would be back to normal after sleeping, but it seems that wasn't the case. I had no choice but to stand up.

I lightly brushed off the dirt on my pants and... sat down again.

To think about what to do today.

The mochi I drew on the paper turned into real mochi. It was such an incredibly shocking thing... so, I think I'll spend today verifying it.

Because it's too intriguing. Clues to return to the original world or anything else don't matter now. I don't care about civilization either. No exploration today. I just want to investigate the phenomenon of the mochi I drew on the paper turning into real mochi.

... Well, it's fine. It's fine to be like this.

I think I've taken in enough energy with the mochi and barley tea for now... so, I think it's fine to spend the whole day drawing.

"Will anything else come out besides mochi?"

Well, let's start the experiment. Let's draw various things.

First. Cherry tomatoes.

... I was getting tired of just eating mochi. No deep meaning.

But the cherry tomatoes didn't materialize.

I thought, "Hmm," and drew mochi, and it materialized. Why is mochi okay but cherry tomatoes are not?

Next. Pencil.

I drew what I had in my hand because I couldn't think of anything else to draw. A common pencil with a deep green wooden barrel and a graphite core.

... This didn't materialize either. Why?

Next. Bicycle.

Because I thought I would get tired if I kept walking.

But I gave up halfway. I didn't remember the structure of a bicycle well enough to draw it.

Next. Knife.

It would be useful for exploring the forest, and I wanted to sharpen my pencil soon. Also, I wanted to draw metal.

I had practiced drawing the metallic luster. It's fun to express glass and metal with just the black of the pencil and the white of the paper.

I drew the knife I borrowed from Mr. Sensei's house. I knew it well because I had used it for a long time. The body was dark and smoky, with a smooth, polished blade that had a metallic luster. The handle was made of soft black wood, and its luster was beautiful. I was surprised the first time I borrowed it, thinking, "Can I really borrow such a beautiful thing?"

... And it appeared.

Yeah. It appeared.

Just like the mochi I drew on the paper turned into real mochi, the knife I drew on the paper turned into a real knife.

"... Mochi, barley tea, and knife...?"

Why? Cherry tomatoes didn't work, pencils didn't work, and bicycles... well, I gave up. But the knife was okay.

... What is the rule here?

One possible explanation is drawing skill.

Regarding the mochi and barley tea... actually, I had drawn them several times. Since I was still in junior high school, just with pencils and paper. ... Since the summer of my second year in junior high, I could only use paper and pencils, so for a year and a half, I did pencil sketches every day.

Among them, I drew various things from Mr. Sensei's house... and among those, mochi and barley tea appeared frequently, so I drew them quite a bit.

... Mochi is surprisingly difficult to draw. It just becomes a white lump. So, I always tried to make it look like mochi.

Because of that, even though I'm in an unknown place now, I can still draw mochi and barley tea.

The knife might be the same. There was a pencil sketch of a glass bottle and a metal tumbler in an art reference book. It made me want to draw metal, so I drew spoons, faucets, knives, and various metals.

... So, I think it's probably just that the mochi, barley tea, and knife I drew now were well-drawn. Yeah. I think that's probably it.

But, if that's the case, the cherry tomatoes should have materialized.

I drew cherry tomatoes quite a bit. Every year, from summer to autumn, I drew about one cherry tomato a day. Thanks to that, a whole 500-sheet pack of A4 copy paper disappeared during the summer. About one-tenth of that was all tomatoes. If I add up all the summers, I probably drew about 100 tomatoes in total.

... So, I think the cherry tomatoes should have materialized. I think so, but... the cherry tomatoes didn't appear.

Then, the pencil. This also doesn't make sense.

I drew pencils quite a bit. Why? Because I could draw them in my room.

... When I drew in my room, the number of things I could use as motifs was limited, so pencils appeared frequently. It also helped me study composition, so I owe a lot to pencils.

So, I still think the pencil should have materialized. But... the pencil didn't appear either.

By the time I realized it, it was already evening. Time flies...

I thought I should eat again, so I drew and ate more mochi.

... I want to eat something else, but I'll hold back. I don't know if I can draw anything else besides mochi.

But, if I have to endure with just mochi, I want a place to sleep. A bed or futon. At least a blanket.

So, at least, I want to find some pattern in this "things I draw on paper materialize" phenomenon...

That's when it happened.

Something fell beside me with a "clunk."

It was a fruit. A red one. Like the ones that grow on cherry trees in summer. But it was a brighter, more yellowish red.

... Seeing the red color, which was like a cherry tomato, made me feel like I hadn't seen color in a long time.

And that was true. Because I had been looking at only paper and pencils all day. I had been in a black and white world...

... Black and white.

I see. What I had been drawing was a black and white world.

I looked for where the fruit had fallen from. I thought it had fallen from a tree, so I looked up, but it was different. The tree I had leaned against to sleep didn't have any fruit.

Maybe the one next to it, I thought, and looked up at the next tree, but it was different too. ... Besides, if there were any fruit-bearing trees around here, I would have noticed them by yesterday.

So, maybe a bird dropped it. In that case, there's only one fruit... but that's fine.

I crushed the fruit with a stone I found nearby.

The juice that overflowed from the crushed fruit was, as expected, red.

I picked up the red juice with my finger.

And... I applied it to the cherry tomato sketch I drew in the morning.

"... As expected."

And I saw the cherry tomato I drew on the paper turn into a real cherry tomato.