One day in early summer, Masataka took shelter from the torrential rain at the convenience store. While he waited for the rain to stop in the dine-in area, he noticed the girl beside him open a can of miso-flavoured mackerel and started to eat it. He was bewildered as she calmly walked out into the downpour while still eating it. Her eccentricity left a memory, and the next time he came across her, he asked her why she was eating the canned mackerel. In a long-winded response, she explained that it was in preparation for the end of the world. She was one of the ‘preppers’ and this was their story of how they faced the end of the world.