Silence in the Bell

This story is rather dark and oppressive.

Yuyu City is a sinister place. The rain doesn’t fall from the sky. It seeps out of cracks in the ground and along the bases of walls, carrying the stench of rust and rot.

A Chan, an apprentice earning his keep at Old Shun Pawnshop, thinks he’s just as strange as this wretched place. He was born deaf, and the world is as silent to him as a graveyard. Fortunately, his condition came with a little “bonus”: by touching old objects, he can sense the “meaning” clinging to them. Warmth, a fishy stench, or some indescribable emotion: none of it can fool him.

Then, on a rainy evening, a strange figure in a gray cloak, untouched by the rain, showed up at the shop. Without a word, it planted a thought directly in A Chan’s mind: “They… heard it…” Then it casually tossed down a battered copper bell, so badly damaged it was about to fall apart.

The moment the bell hit the ground, A Chan’s silent world erupted. Grief, despair, and mad obsession crashed into his mind like a tidal wave, nearly sweeping him away on the spot. Stranger still, just as his fingers were about to touch the bell, he “heard” a crystal-clear drop of water in his own mind, even though the ruined bell couldn’t possibly ring!