和紙、アクリル絵の具
H:133cm W104cm D:5cm
It was rumored that the people who lived near my school were followers of a certain religion. For a while, they lived there quietly without drawing any attention, but then something happened to make the other locals try to drive them out. I didn’t mind whether these people stayed or left, but a girl I was friends with said, “If everyone tells them to leave, where are they supposed to go?” I heard what she was saying. It was spring, and we were in sixth grade. The people who were the topic of the rumors spoke a strange language from a distant country, one we’d rarely heard before. They hid their faces with black veils when they went outside, as if putting up barriers so that no one could step too deeply into their hearts. Sometimes, blue liquid seeped out of their bodies; they seemed to have journeyed here from a faraway place across the ocean. When we greeted them with “hello,” they gave us a puzzled look, so we tried “konnichiwa,” and they returned the greeting. Neither language was theirs, but they seemed to know which one was more appropriate. Our enemy is hiding close by; to reveal our true selves is dangerous! One day, my friend told them discreetly, “You’re leaking blue liquid.”