Dead Hours — The Fly, Page 12
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
Six panels. First, the tracksuit regular is back at the counter with his bag of cans, shrugging. REGULAR: Still going? Just open a window. Second, a frazzled Kaito counts off on his fingers. KAITO: Cup. Behind. Wait. Clap. Window. Third, an extreme close-up of Kaito's face, one eye twitching. KAITO: None of them agree. Fourth, the tracksuit regular gestures back at the sealed glass doors. REGULAR: These doors don't open for people on time. Fifth, Rin speaks to her phone, the most amused she ever gets, a faint smirk. RIN: Five experts. Zero facts. One fly. Sixth, the fly lands calmly on the counter right in front of Kaito, who stares down at it, exhausted. KAITO: ...
Image description
The tracksuit regular returns suggesting a window; Kaito lists five contradictory methods, none agree, and the fly lands calmly in front of him.
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.