Dead Hours — The Fly, Page 6
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
Four panels. First, an old man in a brown cardigan and flat cap, leaning on a wooden cane, holds up one finger at the counter delivering folk wisdom while Kaito leans in. OLD MAN: Flies can't fly backwards. Come at it from behind. Second, a close-up of Kaito absorbing this like scripture, eyes wide. KAITO: ...Can't fly backwards. Third, Rin speaks flatly to her phone, one eyebrow raised. RIN: That's not even true. He believes it. Fourth, the old man is already shuffling out the doors, cane tapping, not waiting to see the result.
Image description
An old man in a cardigan and flat cap tells Kaito flies can't fly backwards; Kaito believes it, Rin says it isn't true, and the old man leaves.
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.