Dead Hours — The Fly, Page 10
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
Four panels. First, a young woman jogger with a high ponytail, in a zip-up running hoodie and holding a water bottle, mimes a clap above her own head at the counter. JOGGER: Clap above it. They jump up when they take off. Second, Kaito nods and raises both hands overhead, ready to clap. KAITO: Above. They go up. Third, Rin speaks flatly to her phone. RIN: Fourth method tonight. All different. All from strangers. Fourth, the jogger is already jogging out into the night, not looking back.
Image description
A jogger mimes clapping above her head; Kaito raises both hands to try it while Rin notes it's the fourth stranger's method tonight.
About this chapter
3 A.M. and the Dead Hours store is spotless — until Kaito spots a single housefly. He decides on the spot that it must be gone by morning, alive: no death on the record on his shift. Rin starts filming "Man vs Fly." The night's regulars each hand him a different, confidently useless folk method — trap it under a cup and a card, approach from behind because flies supposedly can't fly backwards, just wait because it'll die within a day anyway, clap above it because they jump upward to take off, or open a window — and none of them agree. Three times Kaito freezes mid-air, whispers "There," and swipes at nothing. Rin, in a rare unguarded moment, quietly slides the door open a hand's width to let it out, then denies doing it. At last Kaito clamps a cup over the fly in triumph — and lifts it to find nothing underneath; the fly was sitting on the outside of the cup the whole time. At dawn the delivery doors open and the fly drifts out on its own, entirely indifferent to six hours of war — and a second fly drifts in as it goes. Kaito gets his answer and nothing else; Rin got her whole video. The final panel mirrors page one from the same angle, in grey dawn light, the new fly circling under the ceiling speaker.