Promptober 2026 Day 25: Dark
In (I guess) a metaphorical sense, MyGO is what ties us all together.
But in a very real, much more literal sense, the Toden Arakawa line ties us together, too. Did you know that it’s the last tram line in Tokyo? They used to be all over the place, but as the trams were replaced by larger commuter trains with their own right-of-ways, they started to shut them down one by one, until the Toden Arakawa line was the only one left.
I don’t know if that’s relevant. That’s the trouble with something like this - I don’t know what’s relevant. I’ve had my nose buried in books for the last straight week, and all it’s done is make me more confused.
Something happened to us on the Toden Arakawa line.
To Tomori and me.
We ride the tram together two, sometimes three times a week. It’s a pretty long walk from the livehouse to the station, but it’s nice to have the time to cool off.
That night…
Well, something was different. In a good way, I mean. Sometimes - when things are really bad, like they have been in the past - talking to her is like trying to call out to someone through a thick fog bank. I can’t see her, I can’t even tell if she can hear me.
But not that night. That night, she was energetic, keyed-up, laughing. It was like she couldn’t stop smiling. She even made a joke - some kind of pun, I don’t remember now. But being around her when she’s like this is like… it’s like feeling the sun on your face after a long winter.
She looks at me, and it’s like– I don’t need anything else.
As we climbed on the tram, I remember thinking - ah, man, this is embarrassing… I was thinking– I hope we never get home. I wish we could just stay like this forever.
I know it’s corny. I know. Give me a break.
So the tram set off, and a couple of people got off at the first stop, and then I looked around and noticed that Tomori and I were alone. And already, I’m thinking… okay, that’s weird. At this time of year (late October), it’s pretty dark when we get out of practice, but there’s almost always a couple of office guys on the tram at least. It’s really unusual that we’d be alone.
The tram rumbled along for a couple of minutes. Tomori was gazing out of the window at the buildings sliding by - old houses, apartment buildings, trees whose hanging branches nearly grazed the windows - and I was looking at my phone.
And then the lights started to flicker and buzz above our heads. We heard a loud pop, followed by a crackling noise that sounded like every speaker in the car overloading with static at once - and then, with a sudden, violent screech of the brakes, the tram slammed to a halt, throwing both of us from our seats and onto the floor.
The lights went out. Not just the ones inside the car, but the lights outside, too - streetlights, ambient lighting from the houses and crosswalks.
I swore as I picked myself up. The grimy floor of the car had torn a hole in the elbow of my uniform and scraped up my elbow pretty bad.
“Tomori? You okay?”
“T…Taki-chan?” She groaned. In the dark, I heard her moving around. “What happened…?”
“Dunno. Are you hurt?”
“...no,” she said after a moment. “I’m okay. It’s so dark–”
“Yeah. Here, look for my hand–” I extended my hand toward her voice, and she pulled herself back up into the seats we had just vacated.
It took a few moments for our eyes to readjust. The tram was silent and pitch-black. The world outside was so dark that, even looking through the window, we could only see maybe ten feet before things faded away into an unsettling, inky nothing.
“W…was it a blackout…?”
“Maybe,” I said. I walked up to the front of the car and tried the handle on the door that separated us from the conductor. It didn’t budge. With a frown, I reached up and knocked on it a couple of times - then, receiving no response, I banged on it with my fist.
There was no response.
“Hey!” I cried, banging harder. “Hey– are you awake in there? The train stopped!”
“Taki-chan…”
“Tch.”
“It’s… it’s okay,” Tomori said. She was doing her best to keep the nerves out of her voice, but with only limited success. “Should we… call 119, or something…?”
“...I dropped my phone,” I said. “When the train stopped. Can you turn your flashlight on?”
“One second,” she said. She was already dialing. Her worried face looked pale and strained in the light of her phone. “...it’s saying… there’s no reception.”
“No reception…?”
“Mhm. Try yours. Here–” She swiped at her screen, and under the light of her flashlight, I found my own phone all the way at the other side of the car.
No bars. I narrowed my eyes and gave it a shot anyway. 1-1-9. After a moment, the phone buzzed in my hand and displayed a message: NO SIGNAL.
“...the hell?” I muttered. “How do we not have signal in the middle of Tokyo?”
“W…well… if there was, um… a blackout, then it’s possible that all of the towers near us… also went down,” Tomori said. “So… maybe… we should just… sit, and wait.”
“...maybe,” I said. “But… we’re pretty close to your apartment by now, right? Maybe we should get out and see what’s going on.”
“But… the traffic - wouldn’t that be dangerous, Taki-chan?”
I peered out of the window, looking up and down the road that ran astride the tram’s rails.
“...I don’t… see any traffic,” I said.
“...mmh?” Tomori shook her head. “That’s not…”
I moved to the door and reached up. There was an emergency catch lever above the door that I pulled, and another one down by my feet. With both of them undone, I could push against the door of the tram, and it slid open.
Outside, the world was silent, still, and dark.
I leaned out, looking one way, then the other. My stomach and my heart leapt in different directions - one diving into my toes, the other leaping into my throat.
“...come here,” I said. My voice came out higher than I intended. “Tomori. Come look.”
In a moment, she was beside me. With both hands on one of the handrails, she leaned out of the open door, and looked.
In either direction, the road - a loud, busy avenue that could be counted to have cars running up and down nearly every hour of the day or night - was completely empty.
For as far as we could see, there were no headlights or taillights, no streetlights, no lights shining through windows or above doors.
The world had gone dark. Completely and utterly dark.
“Taki-chan… what’s… what’s going on?”
I shook my head. I had begun to feel genuinely afraid.
“I don’t know.”