--I've honestly had enough.
Riding the bike down the national highway in the depths of night, the Black Bike's owner--- the headless rider was irritated.
---This job should've been simple. Despite that, the moment I show a little mercy, I get knocked over by a car. I really should've just silenced him from the start.
The headless rider reviewed its own 'work' today while easing back on the bike's speed.
Using hand signals instead of flashing the left lamp, it drove the bike into a narrow side street. As though parking the bike right in front of the garage of the apartment block facing the highway, the rider dismounted while stroking the bike's handle.
Then, after a slight revving of the engine, the bike entered the garage by itself.
After watching the bike park, the headless rider strode towards the condominium entrance.
"Hey, you must be tired."
On entering the highest apartment in the whole block, a young man dressed in white labcoat came out to greet it. Around his mid-twenties, the young man wore a snugly-fitting white labcoat, but there wasn't a single piece of specialised medical equipment to be seen inside the apartment. Standing in an apartment with a full set of luxury furniture and electronics, this young man seemed extremely out-of-place amidst it all.
Seeming out-of-place in the same way, the 'shadow' stalked the apartment irritably.
"My my, you seem somewhat annoyed. This won't do, you need to intake more calcium."
As he spoke, the man in the labcoat pulled out the chair of the computer desk in the corner of the apartment. Just as he seated himself to face the computer screen, the clattering of typing on a keyboard rang out from further inside the apartment.
At the same time, characters appeared on the screen in front of the man in the labcoat. It appeared they used some sort of networking system to connect the two computers.
『Are you asking me to eat egg shells?』
"Ahh, I wonder if that'll do the trick? Then again, I'm, you know, not much of an expert on nutrition, so I haven't a clue about stuff like how much calcium eggshells contain, or if you can absorb sufficient calcium from eggshells. Besides, we still don't know where your brain is located, or how beneficial calcium is to you. Come to think of you, how do you eat?"
The man in the lab coat didn't type out his words on the keyboard, but just spoke directly to the headless rider further inside the house. The headless rider didn't find this the slightest bit strange, and once again clattered away at the keyboard.
『Shut up.』
The man in the lab coat and the rider started free-flow 'conversation', using this means of communication.
"Okay, I'll shut up, but humans' eyes get tired and worn out when they constantly stare at the computer screen, but what's it like for you?"
『Who cares?』
"Hey, Celty. I really wonder what's it like to see the world the way you do, without eyeballs. I've asked many times before, but won't you tell me?"
『I can't tell you what I don't understand myself.』
The shadow, this existence the man called 'Celty', was headless. What this meant was that the shadow did not possess the sensory organs for sight and sound.
However, sights, sounds, and even smells did indeed exist in Celty's world. Celty was able to clearly read the words on the computer screen, and was able to distinguish between the slightest difference in shades of colour. But Celty's field of vision appeared to be only a little broader than that of a human's. If Celty'd been able to see in all directions at once, then things like getting rammed in the back by the hoodlum's car would've never happened.
