Obscure Guys

A sense that something unusual was about to happen that night was beginning to dawn.

I have done a bold thing. Yoshikage Maruta thought back to the events leading up to that point. On the round table sat a mug of coffee that had gone cold.

It was a café in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where anyone could get in for just 200 yen (about two dollars).

Two girls who appeared to be college students chatted cheerfully and innocently about their next snowboarding trip, while a business-looking man glanced at a slim laptop computer and enthusiastically tapped away at the keyboard.

It had been years since Maruta had last invited someone to meet him at a coffee shop, someone he had met only once and whom he barely knew. This wasn't some trendy actress gracing a train advertisement or a recruiter from a major company carrying a briefcase who was coming to meet him. The person who was supposed to show up was what you might call "semi-popular," with around 5,000 followers on social media.

Knowing that there was little point in being overly cautious, Maruta's heart began to beat faster as time slipped by.

Like many other people, Maruta took out his tablet and decided to look at the screen. He received a direct message from Yuya Kira saying that he would be about 30 minutes late. Kira was certainly conscientious in his own way.

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Yoshikage Maruta. My dachshund is sick, and I'll be about 30 minutes late. I'm very sorry."

He had gone to the trouble of typing Maruta's full name, then repeated his apology twice more. He had even added a gentle crying-face emoji at the end of the message. Reading it, Maruta felt somewhat reassured, thinking that Kira was probably as mild-mannered as he had expected. But it wasn't as though his vague apprehensions had completely disappeared.

Would Kira really show up? Maruta was neither a detective nor a private investigator, but merely a company employee. Kira clearly had the upper hand when it came to providing information.

The fear that he might receive another message like the one below still lingered stubbornly in the back of Maruta's mind.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Maruta, but there isn't a single hospital in Tokyo where I can take my dachshund. I'll have to look for one farther away, so I can't make it today. Bye."

It would have been an exaggeration to call this a review of everything that had happened so far, but to pass the time until Kira showed up, Maruta opened a video-sharing site and searched for "Silva." Then, after putting on the earphones he had brought with him, he selected one of the many thumbnails that appeared on the screen. Its title was "Will Passersby Tell Me If My Back Is Dirty?"

The video began with 〈Silva〉, the video creator[*1], making a dramatic entrance onto the street. His bleached-blond hair emphasized how different he looked from the average businessman. His even brown tan suggested frequent visits to a tanning salon. A faint grin hinted that he was always ready with a joke. He wore a Justin Davis-esque silver necklace, earrings, and a black T-shirt, which complemented his blond hair.

If the phrase "a casually dressed host who lived as though every day were Sunday" had been a catchphrase describing this man, nothing could have been more appropriate. 〈Silva〉, shown from the waist up on the screen, began speaking in a very loud voice somewhere in the downtown area.

"Hey, what's up! This is Silva. Have you ever seen someone walking around with dirty clothes? Huh? No?"

At this point, 〈Silva〉 exaggeratedly furrowed his brows, and the screen, which had suddenly turned monochrome, shook dramatically. The sound effect accompanying this moment was an unpleasant low-pitched noise, like the sound of every piano key being pressed at once. After these trivial editing effects, 〈Silva〉 continued speaking in the same tone.

"You've seen people walking around with dirty clothes, haven't you? The other day, on the train, I saw a woman with dried rice grains all over the sleeves of her jacket. That's the kind of thing that's hard to notice yourself. She was as beautiful as a model, so I thought it was even more of a shame. And that's why..."

〈Silva〉 leaned back and took a deep breath. Then he raised his voice even louder.

"If I walk around town with something dirty on my clothes, will someone kindly let me know? I'm curious to find out. Let's do it!"

The scene changed to show 〈Silva〉 walking alone along the sidewalk. As the video's title suggested, an entire half-eaten custard bun was stuck to the back of his T-shirt. White custard, presumably from the bun, was smeared from his shoulders all the way down to the bottom of his shirt. It looked as though the bun had been sewn tightly onto the fabric with thread.

〈Silva〉 deliberately walked at a slower pace, but none of the people who overtook him pointed out the "dirt." He muttered to himself, "Something doesn't feel right on my back. Or maybe it's just my imagination," but still, no one called out to him.

After a while, the video automatically sped up to the next scene, where 〈Silva〉 stood still at a red light. The footage then returned to normal speed. As 〈Silva〉 turned around with a dejected expression, a caption appeared at the bottom of the screen:

"A 26-year-old man (unemployed) whom nobody approaches."

"Yuya, you're too close. You need to get farther away."

When 〈Silva〉 said this to the person behind the camera, the camera quickly pulled back. Immediately after the cameraman had moved farther away, a man appeared at the edge of the frame and abruptly called out to him.

"Excuse me, you have something on your back."

"Oh, what did you just say?"

〈Silva〉's voice rose in surprise, as if he hadn't expected this at all. As he spoke, he hurriedly beckoned to the cameraman to come closer again.

"It's the bread, isn't it? It's on your back."

In fact, the man answering him was none other than Maruta.

"My back?" 〈Silva〉 repeated. "You mean, you noticed it was dirty?"

"Yeah, well..."

〈Silva〉 gave a restrained smile, then let out a shout as though he had just discovered a new law of nature.

"He actually told me! Gather around, everyone! Some kind soul just told me I have something dirty on my back!"

At the same time as 〈Silva〉 gave this signal, countless people, who must have been his younger associates, emerged from both sides of the frame. They all seemed to have far too much time on their hands. Unable to comprehend what was happening, Maruta was immediately surrounded by them.

"You're a kind man," 〈Silva〉 said, and the people around Maruta broke into applause. Maruta, on the other hand, stood there looking bewildered, though with a faint smile on his face.

"Excuse me," 〈Silva〉 asked him. "We're filming a video. Would you mind if we showed your face?"

"Oh, sure. I don't mind."

Looking at them again, Maruta thought to himself as he held his tablet, "I really have no energy or presence compared with these people."

"Why," 〈Silva〉 asked, "did you tell me that my back was dirty?"

"If you hadn't noticed, I'd have felt sorry for you," Maruta replied in a barely audible voice.

"Didn't you think it was a print on the back of a T-shirt?"

Ain't thought so, Maruta muttered to himself at the time. But since it was his first meeting with them, he didn't say it out loud and instead gave a rather bland response.

"Because even the bread was stuck to your back."

The scene changed again, and 〈Silva〉 appeared on the screen with an expression of great satisfaction. Although the location seemed to be quite a distance from the first one, it was still a street on the outskirts of the entertainment district.

"As I was walking, I thought I'd have to keep that bread on my back until I died. But I'm so glad someone finally came up to me and that we managed to get some footage. I asked his name, and he told me it was Maruta. Everyone, if you see someone who obviously hasn't noticed a stain on their clothes, make sure you tell them, just like Maruta-san![*2] It should feel good to do something nice for someone. And if we all keep doing that, maybe there won't be any more wars in the world."

〈Silva〉 concluded by nibbling on a piece of the bread in his hand.

"In our next video, I'm going to surprise Yuya while he's sleeping with a colonic irrigation prank. See you later!"

Yuya Kira, who was behind the camera, began to respond. However, his words were mercilessly cut off mid-sentence.

"It wouldn't make sense to tell me the prank you're going to pull on m—"

And with that, the video ended.

[*1]: In the 2010s, people began posting their own videos on video-sharing sites to earn advertising revenue. In particular, creators who used YouTube, the world's largest video-sharing platform at the time, were called "YouTubers."

[*2]: In Japan, "san" is often used as a respectful honorific, roughly equivalent to Mr., Mrs., or Ms., when addressing someone.