This story is my friend’s – well, someone my friend knows that I’ve never met, this is a story that my friend heard from them. Just in time for this assignment.
“Moshi Moshi”1 appears on trains. When someone meets Moshi Moshi, they’re greeted with “moshi moshi,” which is how it got its name. Other than that, there are no distinguishing characteristics. No one remembers what they look like, and even their gender is unknown.
That day, my friend’s acquaintance slid into one of the few seats on an increasingly crowded train and sat down. As he was wiping off the waterfall of sweat with his handkerchief, a voice from the seat next to him spoke.
“Moshi moshi.”
It pulled out a long, thin silver ruler when it said that. It was a weird ruler with a scale but no numbers, with “private” written on one end and “public” on the other. Then it points at him and asks him.
“Private or public?”
The acquaintance looked around, bewildered. But no one noticed. Fearful, he replied,
“P-public.”
At that, Moshi Moshi squealed “Oh!” loudly and quickly scribbled a line somewhere on the scale. What he was afraid of was that he didn’t understand anything at all. He shifted his eyes, shaking with a shudder, and met those of a little girl standing there. It seemed like she didn’t notice Moshi Moshi either. The person sitting next to him had changed at some point.
This might be a bad idea, but I’m writing this on the train. My PC froze.
“…Moshi moshi.”
1.Phrase used to answer the phone in Japanese.