“Spice! Can this device connect to somewhere far away?”
Spice’s hands stopped. Kopo was waving from the workshop entrance.
“Far away — where, exactly?”
“Somewhere I’ve never been.”
Spice thought about it for a while. News had come in that day that a new Pokémon game was an unusually huge hit in the city. The momentum of children diving into a world they didn’t yet know seemed to drift in on the airwaves .
“…Let’s try connecting it.”
Spice turned the dial on the device. Through the static , he thought he heard an unfamiliar language, just for a moment.
“It’s saying something!”
“I can’t translate it. But—”
“But?”
“I can tell someone’s out there, far away.”
Kopo’s eyes lit up. As if a long, long tunnel ran somewhere beneath the ground, something, somewhere unseen, might have just connected.
Margin note: The next morning, a note lay beside the device that read: “Map of where it connects to — unfinished.”
【Today’s Drop】
- Seikan Tunnel Opening Anniversary (March 13): On March 13, 1988, the Seikan Tunnel, connecting Honshu and Hokkaido, opened. At about 53.85 kilometers long, it was at the time the world’s longest railway tunnel.
- New Pokémon Game Becomes a Huge Hit: In March 2026, a new Pokémon game from Nintendo became an unusually massive hit, sending the company’s stock price surging .
This is an English translation of “見えないトンネルの向こう”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).