《The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village》 Volume 1, Regarding a Detour Volume 1, Regarding a Detour ¡°Are you familiar with the term Intellectual Village?¡± The girl before me was getting cocky for a Zashiki Warashi. She must have missed having music because she was using my smartphone without asking again. She may have been getting carried away due to being the kind of black-haired beauty that looked perfect in a red yukata. She was certainly too glamorous to be called a ¡°child¡±[1] and liked going on walks despite being a Zashiki Warashi. In a way, that was the worst possible combination. Was that Youkai trying to bring my house to ruin whenever she walked to the sweets shop? ¡°Of course I am. I live in one. It¡¯s a high class branding of the concept of ¡®rural¡¯. They¡¯re proposed by three star hotels or famous department stores and publicized by advertising companies. Thanks to that, a third of the country was redeveloped and had its primary industry completely changed,¡± I replied in annoyance. Please, just let me eat my popsicle before it melts. ¡°Wakayama¡¯s wood industry, Akita¡¯s rice farming, and Yamaguchi¡¯s fishing industry. All the rural areas of the country were changed. This is one of those places. The official reason given is to curb rural depopulation by having people move from the cities to the country. But who¡¯s gonna live in this expensive land? In reality, they know they can¡¯t beat the cheap imported goods, so they¡¯re trying to isolate us. They¡¯re selling things based on high prices, safety, and high quality.¡± ¡°I heard that those cities with a concentrated population of a hundred million aren¡¯t due to rural depopulation, but due to people not being able to live in rural areas. With the ecological and health booms, a house here in Noukotsu Village is more of a trophy than an overseas villa.¡± ¡°The beef and fruit are especially amazing. One bunch of grapes is 30,000 yen. Of course, thieves¡¯ eyes will light up at that thought. That¡¯s why the security network here is top class despite everything looking like you¡¯re out in the country. An ion defense device has been constructed to prevent the brand-name genetics of the pollen blowing in from being raped. Just a honeybee net wouldn¡¯t have been enough.¡± ¡°Earth, wind, water, grass, bugs, and fish. Everything around here has a price tag, doesn¡¯t it? A liter of the water in the rivers here costs 300 yen. The lightweight trucks driving around are electric. The paths through the fields have lines of solar panels that change direction like sunflowers. AI machinery is used in production control for agriculture and fishing. Those who like to shop can do so via an optical communications network or the internet. The area is just a fusion of rural scenery and cutting edge technology.¡± ¡°The problem is this means the city doesn¡¯t have a single convenience store. The deserted train station, the outdated sweets shop, and even this popsicle that seems like solidified shaved ice are all rare brand name items.¡± ¡°Not to mention things like me.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t look so pleased with yourself after someone gives you a soda when you¡¯re about to collapse from heatstroke.¡± I was a bit worried that at some point a group of Zashiki Warashi would gather at a small school pool or somewhere and make a class change to Shichinin Misaki or some other kind of Youkai. With how irresponsible they could be, it wouldn¡¯t surprise me. ¡°While Yamanba and Hitotsume Kozou may be, Zashiki Warashi are not an endangered species. In fact, thanks to the favorable treatment you get, like doves in rural parks, there are actually an excessive number of you around the country. I¡¯m betting someone moving into a new apartment finds one of you in there about as frequently as they find the previous resident¡¯s microwave.¡± ¡°Oh, you just don¡¯t understand value. I¡¯ve heard talk of the domestic occult eventually being exported at a high price.¡± ¡°Why would anyone want a Youkai that does nothing besides steal your futon at night?¡± ¡°Heh. Just so you know, the Zashiki Warashi were voted #1 in Monthly Lovely Youkai¡¯s Top 100 Popularity Poll.¡± ¡°That pinup magazine!? D-did they even get 100 different types for the entries?¡± ¡°The possibilities of e-books are endless.¡± ¡°You bought that with my smartphone again, didn¡¯t you!? I can¡¯t believe bitches like you got 1st!¡± ¡°...Ho hohhh. You¡¯ll find us all over the place. These rural areas around the country known as Intellectual Villages also function as water supply points for the domestic occult travelling between areas.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°For example, there is that mysterious old man dressed like a baby who has been clinging to your back for a while. ...Is this an example of that extremely major type of Youkai?¡± Notes 1. ¡ü The Warashi of Zashiki Warashi means ¡°child¡± Volume 1, 1: Regarding Jinnai Shinobu Volume 1, Chapter 1: Regarding Jinnai Shinobu Part 1 The large residence with a thatched roof looked more like the set for a period piece than somewhere anyone actually lived. As I opened the front door, my eyes met with a burglar young enough to still get away with being a freeter. ¡°Eh? Wait...you!?¡± As my heart jumped up into my throat, I reached for the umbrella stand and grabbed a wooden sword that had been bought as a souvenir in Kyoto. ¡°What the hell happened to our home security!?¡± I shouted out louder than necessary more to gain control of my panicking heart than anything. When I swung up the sword with relative seriousness, the burglar managed to unfreeze his body and move. His body readied to flee. With loud footsteps, he shot out onto the open porch and then into the unnecessarily large yard. The burglar tripped over a stone in the yard and fell flat on his face. Wallets and an ornamental bear spilled out of the backpack he wore. He hesitated over whether he should pick them up, but he finally decided to give priority to flight. My overall small granny must have finally noticed the ruckus because she headed out to the porch. She smelled of incense, so she must have been cleaning the Buddhist altar. ¡°What is it, Shinobu? Did a stray cat get in?¡± ¡°It was a burglar. Honestly, what happened to our house¡¯s sensors?¡± ¡°Sorry. Your granny likes a nice breeze, so I had a window open. That shut off the switch.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m not blaming you. And when I say ¡®sensors¡¯, I¡¯m not really talking about the security company either.¡± ¡°All the agricultural products in these Intellectual Villages are brand names, so we get so many thieves. I was left speechless when I heard a bunch of grapes costs 30,000 yen.¡± ¡°Yeah, but the junmai daiginjo dad and the others make in the facility out back is at least 50,000 yen a cup, right?¡± The burglar had spilled his spoils across the yard, but granny checked inside to make sure nothing else was taken. Burglars had started to steal even the solar panels on the roof, so it could be a real pain. Meanwhile, I put the Kyoto souvenir back in the umbrella stand and decided I might as well report it to the police with my smartphone. It likely wasn¡¯t going to do any good. The village¡¯s police stations were incredibly short on officers and they rarely answered the call from the 110 operator due to either listening to music with headphones during the day or sleeping at their posts at night. Also, they could hardly stand up to a real armed group of thieves. If people actually believed the police could do anything, they wouldn¡¯t exactly pay the security companies so much out of their own pockets, now would they? When I finished with that process that I had decided I ¡°might as well¡± do, I walked across the wooden floor of the hallway and further back into the residence. The thatched roof house had no redeeming value outside of its age, but it did have a few points in its favor. One of those was the real Zashiki Warashi that lived inside. ¡°Honestly, isn¡¯t it a Zashiki Warashi¡¯s job to protect the house and keep this kind of thing from happening?¡± I muttered as I arrived at a door. Without knocking on the sliding door (can you even knock on sliding doors?), I forcefully opened it and shouted at the top of my voice. ¡°You, Zashiki Warashi!! Quit slacking off and do your job!!¡± But the Zashiki Warashi in question was not there. After staring into the empty room for a second, I headed for a new destination. I knew where she likely was if she was not there. It was possible she was out (even if she was a Zashiki Warashi), but that was highly unlikely in the middle of a summer day as hot as this one. She would only bother to go out for a walk early in the morning or in the evening. It may have been the case for all Zashiki Warashis, but there was one characteristic that the one in our house definitely had. Due to this characteristic, I knew one place that had either the highest or second highest appearance rate for her. That place was my room. ¡°...That damn indoor Youkai.¡± This time there was no reason to knock or say anything. I grabbed the handle of the sliding door to my room and forcefully slid it to the side. ¡°You¡¯re getting careless, Zashiki Warashi. How the hell did you overlook a burglar!?¡± The Zashiki Warashi that had entered my room without permission glanced over at me. She was a black-haired beauty that looked perfect in a red yukata. The Youkai¡¯s body proportions were much too glamorous to be called a ¡°child¡±. She was wearing special goggles for a 3D movie. She was holding a wireless controller and controlling a character displayed on the big screen. For an instant... Just an instant... My body froze up despite the fact that I knew this was what Youkai were really like. A single word took control of my mind. On an impulse, I opened my mouth and shouted. ¡°Appearances!! You need to keep up appearances as a Youkai!! The culture of Youkai is part of this country¡¯s traditional arts! Do you want to lose that!?¡± ¡°Yeah, but isn¡¯t that idea of Youkai just taken from manga and anime? Youkai are supposed to blend into the background of each passing era. The idea of the ¡®good old¡¯ Youkai that fit into the ¡®good old days¡¯ is nothing more than a recent trend. There¡¯s no real reason for us to stay exactly the same.¡± ¡°Yes, but a Zashiki Warashi is supposed to bring fortune to the house it lives in as well as drive out burglars and such.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t wanna do that!!¡± The glamorous Zashiki Warashi removed the goggles, took a pause in the video game, and then turned to face me while still sitting cross-legged. The hem of her yukata was flipped up and the white of her thighs stabbed into my eyes, but she did not seem to mind. ¡°I would rather you didn¡¯t shove all the battling onto us Zashiki Warashi! I am completely confident I would lose spectacularly to another Youkai and even to a human if they were Onmyouji class!!¡± ¡°This is the 21st century, so I doubt that profession even exists anymore. Also, if this was some Onmyou master thief or something else straight from a light novel, I think he would steal things in a more fantastical way, you damn Youkai.¡± ¡°Also, if I did more Zashiki Warashi-like things, wouldn¡¯t you actually get mad at me?¡± ¡°You mean sneak into my futon and straddle me with no warning in the middle of the night?¡± That was apparently a characteristic of all Zashiki Warashis, and it would have been fine if she looked like the stereotypical Zashiki Warashi. However, when it was done by one whose bust exceeded 90 cm, it was more than an adolescent boy knew how to deal with. Rather than feel lucky, I would feel a shock rush through my body like my heart was jumping up and breaking my ribs. The dynamite body Zashiki Warashi was completely unaware of all this, so she casually changed the subject. ¡°More importantly, you went to the Sanatorium, didn¡¯t you? The sweets shop is on the way. I assume you at least bought some popsicles on your way back. Can I count on at least that much?¡± ¡°Shut up. Huh? They¡¯re gone... Oh, when I grabbed the wooden sword, I...¡± I headed back to the front entrance, but not to treat the Zashiki Warashi. I simply did not want the popsicles I had bought to melt before anyone could eat them. The box of 10 popsicles was indeed lying on the floor. I had dropped them when I reached for the wooden sword to deal with the burglar. I returned to the room with the Zashiki Warashi and she immediately pulled a soda-flavored popsicle from the box. I received no thanks whatsoever. However... ¡°Nnnn!! Air conditioning isn¡¯t bad, but you just can¡¯t beat cooling down from within.¡± ¡°Your smiles at times like this really do fit the ¡®child¡¯ part.¡± She ignored my comment. As a Youkai who was as old as the house, she may have seen it as the nonsense of a human child. ¡°Speaking of the Sanatorium, did Madoka say anything troublesome?¡± ¡°...She¡¯s more or less troublesome through and through, but she was extra troublesome today.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s that bad, I think I¡¯ll plug my ears right now.¡± ¡°No, you¡¯re listening to this. I¡¯m getting you involved in this even if I have to force you.¡± Part 2 The reason I had gone out into the heat during summer break was to head to a facility known as the Sanatorium so I could visit an acquaintance named Madoka. However, Madoka did not have some horrible illness. She was simply a classmate of mine. As the old-fashioned word ¡°sanatorium¡± suggests, it was simply meant to add to the atmosphere of the Intellectual Village just like the thatched roof of my house. The facility had nothing to do with tuberculosis, mental illness, or anything else medical. The Intellectual Village created a brand-name image of the ¡°good old days¡±, and the Sanatorium was something like an attraction. I had no idea why the rich would pay so much money just to be hospitalized there despite having nothing wrong with them. But then, taking a trial tour of the JSDF had become a popular means of dieting, so businesses had been created around providing strange ways of staying healthy. Since it was targeted towards rich people with odd tastes, the price was of course ridiculously high. My classmate Madoka-chan had a rich enough family, but she herself was a super high school girl who did day trading herself. They must have been focusing on providing the expected image, because the waiting room had overly strict means of preventing escape installed in place. ¡°Hello, how are things outside?¡± Asked a girl in a thin surgical gown with a smile so lively I doubted anyone could be healthier than her. ¡°Peaceful...other than the off-season Yuki Onna I met at the bus stop. Y¡¯know, I¡¯m not going to have interesting things happen to me all the time.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s summer break for students.¡± ¡°A perfectly healthy girl who chooses to hole up in this medical facility has no right to say that.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t stop me from saying it,¡± said Madoka. I was there simply because I was the class president. To be blunt, Madoka was a problem child. She did not get along well with her parents and she found no enjoyment in school. No actual abuse or bullying had occurred, but she was still definitely isolating herself. Our homeroom teacher preferred to avoid all conflict, so the job of checking on her periodically had been thrust onto me even though it was summer break. ¡°Are you doing your homework?¡± ¡°That really has no impact from someone who hasn¡¯t done his homework either.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t deny that, but I¡¯m just trying to start a conversation. If I don¡¯t find something to talk about, the conversation isn¡¯t going to last long. I¡¯ve been looking after you since April and I still don¡¯t even know what kind of food you like.¡± ¡°If we have nothing to talk about, I can teach you how to make money.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the thing about you. You can make all the money you need on your own, so you never rely on anyone. And so you feel no need to meet anyone halfway. Is that why you¡¯ve isolated yourself despite having no real reason to?¡± ¡°You say that, but what do you want me to do? Should I throw 30 billion yen into the train station trash just to get along with everyone? Or should I force troublesome tasks on others for the sake of communication even though I don¡¯t need anything done? You know, something like ¡®Hey, you over there. I¡¯ll give you 5 billion yen, so use it to make double that.¡¯ Actually, I think that would be enough to put a normal high school student in the mental hospital.¡± ¡°Yeah, probably,¡± I replied offhand. Unfortunately, my role was merely to talk with Madoka, not to resolve her problems. Why would I go that far? It isn¡¯t like class president is a paying job. ¡°By the way, some guys in suits have been walking around. Who are they? Did you hire some kind of service again?¡± ¡°They aren¡¯t here for me. I haven¡¯t lived that long yet.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°They¡¯re inheritance agents.¡± Madoka lightly waved her slender index finger around. ¡°As you know, the Sanatorium focuses more on creating the right mood than on any actual function. The only people here are either health enthusiasts like me or old people who have gotten sick of making money in some filthy city so they simply want to live out their last days peacefully surrounded by the beauty of nature.¡± ¡°And what are those something-or-other agents here for?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really know. The reasons differ from person to person. Some do not want to give their family their inheritance. Some want to give their inheritance to their mistress rather than their wife. Some want to give everything to their grandchild while not leaving a single yen for their son.¡± I can¡¯t say what my expression was at that moment, but Madoka had a mischievous look in her eyes as she stared straight at me. She had a way of livening up when it came to talk of money. ¡°All of them have their reasons for leaving their families and coming to the Sanatorium, so it isn¡¯t surprising that these inheritance agents are so common here.¡± ¡°Being rich must be tough...¡± I muttered without thinking. Merely by living in an Intellectual Village, I may have qualified as rich, but my allowance was no greater than that of a normal kid, so it never seemed that way to me. ¡°It could be a lot worse than that.¡± Madoka grinned. ¡°A while ago, there was a rumor that anyone who entered a certain room here would die. A certain rich old man actually had his family enthusiastically try to throw him into that room.¡± ¡°...Seriously?¡± ¡°Seriously. I thought it might have something to do with Youkai and a Package, but it must not since nothing ever came of it. Or maybe the assembly simply hadn¡¯t been completed.¡± I didn¡¯t like the sound of the terms she used. Feeling weary, I replied, ¡°If you¡¯re going to talk about dangerous things, at least keep it within the realm of things relating to my position as the class president...¡± ¡°What are you talking about? If you haven¡¯t brought me any interesting stories, my only option is to laugh at your tragedy. So I¡¯ll take this opportunity to tell you something.¡± ¡°Myahhhh myahhh!! I¡¯m not listening!! ¡°You mentioned that you met an off-season Yuki Onna on the way, didn¡¯t you? You¡¯re probably in a lot of trouble thanks to that. Why is it that Youkai always seem to hide when the reporters for a spiritual TV show arrive, but they always show themselves at the worst possible time for you?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask me!¡± ¡°Is there some kind of smell only Youkai can detect? Maybe it has something to do with the sake your family makes.¡± ¡°My old man treats that Zashiki Warashi like she¡¯s some great king of fear he needs to tremble before while my uncle is known for only getting teased by her.¡± ¡°But the fact remains that they both have a high encounter rate with her, right? Just like with that Yuki Onna, you always seem to run across the ones that you could have easily gone without running across and that it is quite dangerous to meet.¡± She seemed to be truly enjoying herself. As if in contrast to my weariness, Madoka¡¯s face lit up as she added, ¡°What I was talking about before barely counts as dangerous compared to you and that Yuki Onna. But now that you¡¯ve run across her, you¡¯re likely already involved and nothing I say will change it.¡± Part 3 The red yukata-wearing Zashiki Warashi rolled over, opened a laptop lying on the tatami mats, and began browsing a video sharing site. ¡°I get it, I get it. Things took a dangerous turn and someone is trying to kill you. That has nothing to do with me. O-Ohhhhhh!! A panda videooooo!!¡± ¡°How cold-hearted can you be!?¡± ¡°I already told you not to expect any Youkai battles out of me. I¡¯m basically a child, remember? I¡¯m not suited toward ridiculous battles like the Shichinin Misaki or the Hyakki Yakou where they scatter curses everywhere and slaughter anyone they run across.¡± ¡°Surely there are other ways you can help! Also, that game system and that computer are mine! A Youkai can¡¯t make a contract with the provider. If I die, you can¡¯t access those video sharing sites!!¡± ¡°Chehh...¡± It seemed that was the only aspect of this that bothered her. The adult-like Zashiki Warashi turned away from the video of a fluffy panda and faced me once more. ¡°So now you¡¯re negotiating with Youkai. It¡¯s disappointing how much of your innocence you¡¯ve lost. You used to have such bright, pure eyes.¡± ¡°You need to stop trying to get by on seniority when you¡¯re cornered.¡± ¡°You were cutest when I would give you a bath every day or when I would help you change in the pool changing room.¡± ¡°I said stop it!! We humans have no way to win when it comes to seniority!!¡± ¡°I really didn¡¯t know what to do when you would grab onto my swimsuit and tug the entire time because you were afraid of getting lost. The problem was that you didn¡¯t mean anything by it.¡± ¡°Kyaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!¡± I screamed as my soul was torn down from the inside. She had had that glamorous body since before my grandfather was born. Those things seemed so risqu¨¦ when I thought back on them!! ¡°So is someone really trying to kill you?¡± ¡°Unfortunately.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the reason this time?¡± Asked the Zashiki Warashi as she rolled over and her pure white legs were exposed from the disheveled hem of her yukata. ¡°You live in an Intellectual Village not a large city, so running into Youkai is not exactly rare. Especially for you, Shinobu. On that trip to the beach to swim, you got a love letter from a mermaid.¡± ¡°...Yeah, and afterwards I was almost dragged down to the bottom of the ocean.¡± ¡°Did you do anything to make that Yuki Onna try to haunt you and kill you? Like mentioning that story of a Yuki Onna sparing the man she married.¡± ¡°No.¡± I shook my head. ¡°That¡¯s not it.¡± Part 4 After what Madoka had told me, I was of course on my guard. On the way back from the Sanatorium, I trudged down the mountain road because I was too cheap to pay for the bus fare. Due to thickly grown trees casting too much of a shadow, the area contained none of the solar panels that changed angle like sunflowers. Instead, a small waterway ran alongside the road with a great number of small hydroelectric water wheel generators running off of the natural water that was 300 yen a liter. Even something like that had been carefully calculated out with fluid mechanics to ensure the shape and width kept fallen leaves from clogging up the waterway. I may have been on my guard, but I had overlooked one obvious fact. The mountain road was the only road back, so I would naturally pass by a certain bus stop near a sharp curve. And if the Yuki Onna I had met before was still standing there, I would of course run into her again. ¡°...I really am an idiot...¡± ¡°So we meet again. Hee hee hee... Perhaps this is destiny. So, how about you try marrying me?¡± She looked to be around 13. She had long, pale blue hair and wore a pure white kimono that could easily be mistaken for burial clothes. An odd cracking noise of unknown origin seemed to come from the intentionally old-fashioned bus station bench. The plastic materials may have been undergoing some kind of change due to being frozen. ¡°...Yukinko was it?¡± ¡°I am a Yuki Onna. A Yuki Onna is the representative example of a beautiful Youkai. Please do not confuse a woman of deadly beauty such as myself with one of those brats that like to play with snow. Also, let¡¯s get married.¡± ¡°A flat-chested Yuki Onna like you should probably just switch bodies with a certain large-breasted Zashiki Warashi I know.¡± As I spoke, I could see a warning light flashing inside my head. I could also feel a definite change in temperature as I backed away from her. Meeting a Yuki Onna could lead to death. Unlike the Zashiki Warashi at my house, the Yuki Onna was a Youkai that had killing humans as a primary characteristic. Just as a Zashiki Warashi was known to climb into your futon in the middle of the night and straddle you, a Yuki Onna would kill someone simply because she was a Yuki Onna. To be blunt, she was more dangerous than some ferocious pet an irresponsible owner had abandoned. I sorted through a few conditions in my head. Most people probably know the story of the Yuki Onna more on the level of a picture book or old story rather than as a Youkai tale. And that was the extent of my knowledge as well. Two men were stranded on a snowy mountain in winter and a Yuki Onna killed the older man. She let the younger man go, but made him promise to never tell anyone what happened. Later, the man married a certain woman and ended up carelessly telling her the story of the Yuki Onna. However, it turned out the woman he married really was the Yuki Onna. Looking at the story at face value makes the Yuki Onna look rather fickle, but if she had been planning to marry the younger man from the beginning, she actually seems much more meticulous. The story featured several promises both obvious and hidden. For example, if the younger man had married some other woman before the Yuki Onna appeared to him in disguise, she might have bared her fangs at him then. Since old stories often have morals, one theory states that the Yuki Onna could represent the horrors of a mountain during winter and the marriage promise could represent proper mountain climbing knowledge. With the proper knowledge, a mountain can be enjoyably majestic, but it bares its fangs if you are careless. But enough about explanations created by city scholars who have never seen a real Youkai. The problem was that the existence that represented the horrors of a mountain during winter was leisurely sitting on a bench in front of me. Naturally, this was a situation where the conditions could possibly cause her to immediately bare her fangs at me. I was in a dangerous position. I decided the best way to avoid carelessly stepping on any landmines would be to not make any promises to her whatsoever. There were some Youkai that you would die from just by seeing it, so it could have been worse. ¡°...So why is a Yuki Onna like you out in this hot midsummer weather?¡± ¡°Will you promise to marry me if I tell you?¡± ¡°No, I won¡¯t. And isn¡¯t that rushing things a bit? You can barely even say we¡¯ve met.¡± That marriage request was likely a trigger that made her attack. She would ask anyone who met certain requirements to marry her. Any of those who agreed would be bound by promises and frozen to death. I could hardly take her seriously. She was taking marriage too lightly. It was light as air. The little Yuki Onna looked at me with spiteful eyes. ¡°If you do not promise to marry me right here and now, I will make sure you die...¡± ¡°Geh!? You prepared two paths to attack!?¡± If I don¡¯t make that ridiculous promise, I¡¯ll be killed, but if I do make it, she¡¯ll bind me with promises and kill me? Could the characteristics of a Yuki Onna be any worse!? ¡°I-I¡¯m a minor...¡± ¡°Only by human rules. According to Youkai rules, even a verbal promise is enough. So let us get married. Marriage now.¡± ¡°I like the human way!! And I don¡¯t think I would last even a day if I was thrown out into the snowy plains you come from!!¡± ¡°Then promise to marry me as soon as you are of marrying age according to the Japanese Constitution.¡± ¡°Too bad! The Japanese Constitution does not recognize marriage between humans and Youkai, so it¡¯ll never be possible!¡± Customarily, Youkai were treated as something similar to humans, but there was no actual legal basis to that. They could not even sign a cell phone contract. The Yuki Onna tilted her head to the side and said, ¡°So you¡¯re saying it can¡¯t happen unless the Japanese Constitution is revised for some reason? Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.¡± Geh. Not good. I doubt the law will change anytime soon, but I¡¯m afraid of having her come after me in 50 years saying I¡¯ve broken my promise. She¡¯ll look exactly the same in 1000 years, so it¡¯s completely possible. ¡°I won¡¯t even discuss marrying someone whose name I don¡¯t even know.¡± ¡°I am #58902385Ra4.¡± Shit, she¡¯s serious. That was her national registration number that no one uses anymore, wasn¡¯t it!? ¡°B-but I also need to know at least one weakness of someone before I¡¯ll discuss marrying them.¡± ¡°I do not like cicadas or concrete dams.¡± ¡°Take this! Min-min[1] bomber!!¡± ¡°Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± I grabbed a cicada from a nearby tree and threw it at her. The Yuki Onna fell off the bus stop bench and ran off. I didn¡¯t get a good look at her face, but I had a feeling she was crying. Hmm. Good thing she was an idiot. That was one way of driving away a Youkai. What mattered most was that I had managed not to promise her anything. ¡°I don¡¯t remember hearing that Yuki Onna don¡¯t like cicadas. Was that a personal weakness rather than one of the entire race?¡± With a quizzical look on my face, I started back down the mountain road. I had made it past the first threat after Madoka¡¯s warning, so I can¡¯t deny that I let my guard down a bit. However, I would not have been able to avoid what came next even if I had been on my guard. Immediately afterwards, someone suddenly shot me in the chest with a hunting rifle. Part 5 The Zashiki Warashi in the bright red yukata rolled over and her glossy hair spread out across the tatami mats. With a bored look on her face, she said, ¡°I call bullshit on that. If you really had been shot, you wouldn¡¯t have come back home.¡± ¡°Okay, fine. I exaggerated a bit. I wasn¡¯t actually shot through the heart.¡± ¡°You actually do well in school, but you don¡¯t look like it at all, so try not to say things in such a stupid way.¡±¡¯ Thanks to that, my nickname was ¡°Intellectual Yakuza¡±. But anyway... ¡°I don¡¯t want to be called stupid by such a good-for-nothing Youkai. And nothing you say sounds remotely Youkai-like anymore. You should be saying things that sound like they are filled with significance and make you sound like you have vast experience from having lived since before the dawn of civilization, not checking the times of net concerts every day!¡± ¡°Oh? Would you rather have a debate regarding the range of random numbers X that relates to the frequency with which Youkai appear?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t bring up one of the top 10 unsolved problems of the 21st century!! Also, you¡¯re a Youkai, so doesn¡¯t that give you too much of an advantage?¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying I should know everything about Youkai just because I am one? How na?ve. Shinobu, can you give me the random number range for the genes that determine if a human is male or female as well as explain when, where, and how those genes are expressed?¡± ¡°Nhh...¡± ¡°There are just things we don¡¯t know. We just live as we are. Neither of us are scholars and we can live perfectly fine without knowing why we were born,¡± said the Zashiki Warashi with a thin smile. ¡°Also, comments that sound full of significance or ancient experience are not really all that valuable. All of that only sounds so impressive because the differences between modern language and archaic language make things take longer to understand. That so-called significance is nothing more than what you see every day. If you said it in modern language, you would just be describing things everyone already knows. What value is there in forcing those things into old, formal language?¡± I got the feeling the conversation would never make progress if I didn¡¯t just give in there. ¡°...Can we get this conversation back on track?¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather digress some more.¡± ¡°Why are you such a pain in the ass, you Zashiki Warashi!?¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s another thing. I¡¯d like to complain about being referred to simply as ¡®Zashiki Warashi¡¯. I don¡¯t like how I was given a personal name and yet no one uses it. It feels like I have a stack of business cards that never grows any smaller.¡± Don¡¯t act like you know what you¡¯re talking about when you¡¯ve never worked for a business. ¡°What was your number again?¡± ¡°No, not the number string the government gave me. Did you forget my personal name is Yukari?¡± ¡°...Is it? Well, no point in remembering that. Zashiki Warashi gets the point across well enough.¡± ¡°What if there are two other Zashiki Warashi standing on either side of me?¡± ¡°In that case, good-for-nothing Zashiki Warashi or indoor Zashiki Warashi should work.¡± ¡°...¡± Still smiling, the black-haired Zashiki Warashi that looked good in the bright red yukata fell silent. And then she suddenly pinched my right nipple. ¡°Ky-kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± My entire body started to tremble. Wh-what!? Is some unexplored door beginning to open!? ¡°...People¡¯s names are important, aren¡¯t they?¡± ¡°Wait, stop...Ayayaya, don¡¯t twist!!¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t they?¡± ¡°Ahh, ahh!! Yes, they certainly are, Yukari-sama!!¡± ¡°Fine then.¡± With that strange approval, she finally removed her fingers from that protuberance of my body. While trying to catch my breath I said, ¡°C-can we...Can we finally...get back to the main topic?¡± ¡°I still want to digress some more...¡± ¡°No, thank you!! Let¡¯s bring this back!! We¡¯re backing up!!¡± I had no idea how far off topic we would get if I let that Zashiki Warashi maintain control of the conversation any longer. Despite how I look, I try to be at least a bit on the S side of things! I had no intention of seeing those as two sides of the same coin and therefore developing in both directions, so my only option was to forcefully regain control. ¡°O-okay...How far did I get?¡± ¡°The difference in sensitivity between the right one and left one.¡± ¡°No!! Oh, I remember! I was shot by a hunting rifle!!¡± That was when she had called bullshit. However... ¡°The truth of the matter is that someone really did fire one at me.¡± ¡°Who? The Yuki Onna?¡± ¡°Someone. I don¡¯t know who, but a human. I was shot at by a human. Only a human would go to the effort of specifically using a hunting rifle. They were clearly being cautious of the laws.¡± ¡°I suppose. In this Intellectual Village where a bunch of grapes costs 30,000 yen, the extermination of harmful animals like crows and boars is an everyday event. It¡¯s true that even if the gunshot of a hunting rifle is heard throughout the village, no one will think some dangerous incident has occurred.¡± That was what made rural areas so scary. Normally, people would assume something was horribly wrong just by hearing a gunshot. However, the norm here was a bit different. The fact that no one would be surprised to see someone wandering around with a gun makes you wonder if the village was even part of Japan. ¡°So who was it? Did you happen to catch the Chinese mafia burying a mutilated corpse?¡± ¡°They wouldn¡¯t bury someone in an area where nature is so highly maintained.¡± ¡°Then who was it?¡± asked the Zashiki Warashi. I sighed and then answered. ¡°An inheritance agent.¡± Part 6 My first thought upon hearing the gunshot of the hunting rifle was that someone was dealing with some dangerous animal. The sound hurt my ears meaning it was nearby, but I was in the mountain. A hunter working nearby was not too surprising. It was some things other than the gunshot that seemed strange. First of all, there was an electric car driving up the mountain road. Intellectual Village was an incarnation of the ecological and health booms, so that in itself was not too strange. However, it was unusual for the engine sound effect, meant to warn those who could not see it, to be deactivated. This meant it was approaching silently. Second of all, the back window of the electric car was open and a man wearing a suit was leaning out and holding a hunting rifle. I had never heard of a hunter shooting from within a car, and someone pursuing a dangerous animal would not be wearing a suit. Hunters always walked through the mountains and wore bright orange vests. This was to reduce the danger of being confused for a bear and shot by a fellow hunter. Third of all, a portion of the bus stop bench next to me shattered along with the gunshot. The shot had not merely mistakenly gone my way. The man was clearly aiming for me! ¡°...!?¡± Who? Why? There was of course a reason I had been able to start moving before answering the questions that appeared in my mind. This was because I could not properly imagine what kind of destruction a hunting rifle could do. Even if it had shattered a bench right in front of me, I could not imagine how much pain I would feel if it pierced my own flesh. If it had been a knife or a metal bat, I would have been able to clearly imagine the pain and therefore would have frozen up in fear. The hunting rifle¡¯s power was simply so great that the silently approaching electric car seemed more intimidating. Since I felt the road was dangerous, I looked past the guardrail on the sharp curve of the mountain road and felt fear grab at my heart due to the 5 meter drop there. The fact that the danger was so great actually gave me a way out. I did not give a single thought to whether I could actually escape the hunting rifle by jumping from that small cliff. Instead, I leaned over the guardrail simply in order to avoid the car headed my way. I did not exactly jump. I lost my balance and fell rolling down the 70 degree slope before I had a chance to mentally prepare myself. ¡°Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± My vision spun around and around and around. Dull pain tore across my entire body. My breathing stopped. A stinging pain spread across every inch of my skin. As I rolled down, I broke the branches of short thickets and the smell of the grass I was crushing gained a dark red iron-like scent to it. It didn¡¯t feel like I had broken any bones, but I had no strength. My breathing was erratic. It reminded me of the body blow I had received in a punishment game once. I had overdone it. The pain and suffering was so great that I completely forgot about the hunting rifle and the electric car. Reality was forced back into my mind by an explosive noise from overhead. It was the sound of the double-barreled hunting rifle being fired once more. You¡¯re not letting me off the hook after I fell down a cliff!? I¡¯m just a high school boy. I can¡¯t think of anything I¡¯ve done that would warrant going this far!! ¡°Dammit...!!¡± At any rate, my only option is to find some cover and make a run for it!! I dragged my aching body along and frantically started rustling through the underbrush and making my way between trees. That was when I realized it. If the man had taken time and aimed at me, he would have hit me. He had lost sight of me, and that previous shot had been to see if I would react. I had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. The noise I made as I moved had to have given away my position. I could feel myself paling, but what was done was done. I guess I have no choice but to run to safety!! The suited attacker would be hesitant to jump down from that height. However, he would eventually work up his resolve. I had to get as much distance as I could in that time. Normally thinking, I could not escape from someone who had a hunting rifle by running. However, it was too soon to give up. The Type 32 from Yasuda Firearms the attacker was using was a shotgun. It was the same one the old man next door used. Compared to a standard rifle type, it had a short range. On top of that, the area was filled with high class Japanese cypress trees. The more distance I got, the denser the cover between us would be. From 40 to 50 meters would be the deadliest range. Once I made it 100 meters away, I would likely survive even if I was hit. I may have been completely wrong about that. That may have just been the mistaken reckoning of an amateur high school boy. But whether I was wrong or not, that hopeful view kept me from freezing up. I ran through the trees and trampled the underbrush while pulling out my cell phone. I could only hope for the bare minimum of functionality as even the lens of its camera was broken. (I had a smartphone too, but the Zashiki Warashi usually swiped it to use as a music player.) The nice thing about an Intellectual Village was that you got three bars of signal even in the mountains. For an instant, I was worried they could track me using it, but I decided it wasn¡¯t worth worrying about. After all, the attacker was close enough to actually see me. However, I did not call 110. Rescue would never make it in time. The ones who would take action first if I reported it would be the small police department in the village. Only one old man would be there at that time. If that old man was enough of an elite soldier to handle this situation, the people making high class fruits would not pay so much to hire armed security guards. I made the call without hesitation. My classmate answered with a voice lively enough to put the school sports teams to shame. ¡°What is it? Did you forget something?¡± ¡°Madoka-san. I have something I¡¯d like to ask you!¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t done the summer homework if that¡¯s what it¡¯s about.¡± The thunderous roar of a gunshot rang out nearby. The dull sound of bark being ripped from trees continued afterwards. I ran on with the belief that my groundless, hopeful view was accurate. I had no choice but to believe it even if it was groundless. If I had let my fear catch up to me, I would have frozen up. And so I thought only about the convenient things that would allow me to survive. I fled. As I did so, I shouted into the phone half in desperation. ¡°You said meeting that Yuki Onna was dangerous!!¡± ¡°Right, right.¡± ¡°Well, you didn¡¯t know anything about those inheritance agents being even more dangerous, did you!?¡± ¡°Wow, Shinobu-kun. So you¡¯ve already figured that much out.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll fucking kill you!! Why didn¡¯t you tell me that from the beginning!?¡± I heard the sound of flowing water and grimaced. If there was a river, the trees acting as my cover would thin out. The danger of being shot would increase. However, there was no stopping my legs. I knew it was dangerous, but I had no choice but to continue straight on. Whether she knew my situation or not, Madoka¡¯s voice was utterly indifferent as she said, ¡°Eh? But I was hoping for a good story. It would¡¯ve been a complete waste to tell you that beforehand.¡± ¡°...!!¡± Thank you for the courage to live on¡î I¡¯m gonna survive this no matter what so I can give you a good punch!! ¡°Inheritance agents advertise their services as ¡®successfully transferring the client¡¯s inheritance to the client¡¯s person of choice regardless of the legal order¡¯. I guess you could think of them as a group of lawyers that are a bit more active than most. I explained that much here at the Sanatorium.¡± ¡°They wouldn¡¯t be carrying around a hunting rifle if they were a proper business! I¡¯m guessing there¡¯s some darker aspect to this!¡± ¡°The problem lies in their method of transferring the inheritance. Doing so while ignoring the legal order would normally be impossible. That means the client cannot give everything directly to their grandchild while skipping over their son. They know that would be stopped by the courts.¡± The trees ended. I stopped without thinking and found a small river and rocky riverside. Both together were about 30 meters across. However, I would not be able to keep up my usual pace across those hard rocks and in the water. But if I hung around, the attacker would catch up and shoot me. ¡°The clients first transfer their assets to the inheritance agent. This is a donation of assets rather than an inheritance. Sending it to some third person at that point is no different than a company giving it to a specific individual, so it can be given to a grandson or mistress or whoever else. The amount given is less due to a donation tax having to be paid twice. However, the inheritance agent can make back the amount lost through investments.¡± ¡°You mean like that day trading you love so much?¡± ¡°When it¡¯s related to an Intellectual Village, they can also deal in high quality agriculture futures.¡± The sound of someone moving through the underbrush and branches gradually approached. I had no time to hesitate. I knew it was dangerous, but I charged out onto the rocky river bank. ¡°If they succeeded in that, they wouldn¡¯t be wandering around with a hunting rifle. So did their investments fail and now they¡¯ve lost the assets they¡¯re supposed to hand over?¡± ¡°No, they never had any intentions of giving those assets to the specified person. After being legally given those assets, they just keep them for themselves.¡± ¡°Then they¡¯re just a bunch of con artists!! ¡°Exactly. However, they make hundreds of millions if not billions of yen per job. With that much money on the line, they¡¯ll be willing to get rid of someone who has become inconvenient.¡± I ran across the river bank covered in round rocks and then charged into the small river. The flow was stronger than I had expected. I continued forward while making sure my feet weren¡¯t taken out from under me. Don¡¯t come. Don¡¯t come. Don¡¯t come. If that man with the hunting rifle from that corrupt lawyer group made his way out of the trees, it was almost certain he would shoot me in the back. ¡°Okay, I get that they have a reason to kill someone. But why me!? I don¡¯t have any evidence of their dishonesty and I never chanced across anything incriminating!!¡± I had seen those inheritance agents going back and forth within the Sanatorium, so had I seen anything dangerous there? I couldn¡¯t think of anything. I couldn¡¯t think of a single thing I could have seen that would warrant shooting me with a hunting rifle and disposing of my body somewhere. ¡°Wait. Wait!!¡± ¡°What?¡± replied Madoka. ¡°What¡¯s the connection here?¡± The water filling my shoes felt quite uncomfortable. I couldn¡¯t believe that people in the cities put a 300 yen price tag on a liter of the stuff. Even so, I continued on. I made it across the small river and started running across the smooth stones once more. ¡°You said the Yuki Onna was dangerous, right? Is there some connection between her and the inheritance agents!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I was saying.¡± ¡°!?¡± A rustling came from a thicket on the other side of the clear stream from me. At about the same moment, I made it across the rocky bank and charged into the trees of the forest. I felt the gunshot reverberate in my stomach more than I heard it. Wild birds took flight all around me. I had just barely made it. But there was no guarantee I would make it next time. Crossing the river had slowed my pace down by too much. I had somehow managed to hide in a thicket, but I was too close. The density of the trees around me was too low to act as proper cover. A lead bullet would reach me. However, I had a means of victory. In the old days, rivers were often used as borders between lands. The simplest example is probably the borders of a prefecture or a city. Private property was no exception. And in an Intellectual Village where the agriculture was of such high quality that a bunch of grapes cost 30,000 yen, people made sure to have security networks that could protect their crops. I only had to raise one hand. The instant it was caught by the infrared sensor, something happened. Something rose up in a straight line to block my path. It was a wire security net with high voltage electricity running through it. It was likely meant to keep out both dangerous animals and thieves. The beasts would continue on and be roasted, but a human would notice the danger and step back. To make sure that the humans did not escape, a similar high voltage net rose up behind me on the rocky river bank. I was surrounded by the net walls. I heard the slight static of speakers installed in the area being powered on. They were most likely set to play a recording when the intruder was concluded to be human since nothing was ¡°roasted¡±. ¡°Beyond this point is a mandarin orange orchard owned by Tanaka Farms. Entry of all unauthorized personnel is forbidden. Members of security are being dispatched, but Tanaka Farms is not liable for any harm done by the high voltage current before you. I repeat...¡± I heard the sound of someone walking through a thicket. The suited man carrying a hunting rifle appeared. However, he had heard the announcement too. He had to know the unrelated security guards would be arriving before long. Even if he killed me there, he did not have time to retrieve the body and dispose of all traces of the crime. We glared at each other for a few seconds. Finally, the suited man slowly backed away while still aiming the hunting rifle at me. He then clicked his tongue and ran off. It may have been due to being surrounded by those high voltage nets, but the cell phone connection had ended. While waiting for rescue to arrive on that mountain, I muttered quietly to myself. ¡°...A Package, hm?¡± Part 7 The Zashiki Warashi in the bright red yukata spoke with her cheeks stuffed full of the ohagi my overall small granny had brought us. ¡°Fi¡¯m funfry. (I¡¯m hungry).¡± ¡°What kind of starving character are you? And could you actually listen to my story?¡± ¡°I wonder why people fall for scams,¡± she said in a tone that made it sound like a Youkai would never fall for one. She then brought another ohagi to her mouth. She was still lying down, so it was rather rude. ¡°It¡¯s so obvious that¡¯s dangerous from the moment you have to hand your money over to someone else temporarily. It¡¯s not like you can demand your money back after giving it to them.¡± ¡°The ideal situation for a con artist is not some proper method that no one would find suspicious. They prefer something that looks good at the time and seems worth it even if it is a bit risky. That bit is what clouds over people¡¯s rational decision making ability.¡± ¡°So something like a chance at being one of the clever winners in life?¡± ¡°Or they say they¡¯re giving you some special advice because you were one of the lucky few to be chosen.¡± My words put an oddly bewitching smile on the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s face. ¡°So the desire to give your inheritance to someone other than your proper family is an attractive enough opportunity to cloud people¡¯s judgment?¡± Admittedly, that left a bad taste in my mouth too, but I would have preferred she did not look at me like I was the representative of humanity¡¯s evil intentions. ¡°But from what you¡¯ve said, they¡¯re just a group of con artists.¡± ¡°Yes, and from how smoothly Madoka was able to explain it all, people must be beginning to catch on to their M.O. It¡¯s probably at the stage where people just need some proof.¡± ¡°It¡¯s that Yuki Onna that Madoka mentioned that catches my interest,¡± she said. ¡°Since you spotting her developed into that hunting rifle attack, that Yuki Onna must be an important factor to those inheritance agents. Which means...¡± ¡°Which means it might have something to do with a Package.¡± Part 8 After the middle-aged man who named himself the head of Tanaka Farms drove me in his electric-powered light truck to the sweets shop at the base of the mountain, I called Madoka at the Sanatorium once more. ¡°Ah ha! The connection ended so suddenly I thought you had died?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re delighted enough to let your character blur like crazy. But prepare yourself, I¡¯m gonna give you quite the spanking later.¡± ¡°I think your character is getting a bit blurred too, Shinobu-kun. Anyway, do you still need something?¡± ¡°It¡¯s about these inheritance agents,¡± I said quickly. ¡°If you knew they had something to do with that Yuki Onna, then I assume something must have happened in the Sanatorium. Tell me.¡± ¡°Hmm? I have a good idea about what¡¯s going on, but I have no proof,¡± replied Madoka with no hesitation. ¡°Remember how I told you there was a room here where anyone who stayed in it would die?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°It was actually never determined which room that was. There are a few theories, but who knows which ¨C if any ¨C of them are correct.¡± ¡°But for a rumor like that to get started, something strange must have happened. Something that would suggest the involvement of a Yuki Onna.¡± ¡°Yes. It was nothing more than some old men and women getting frostbite in the middle of summer, though.¡± ¡°...Is that even possible?¡± ¡°You can ignore all ecological issues and freely set the air conditioning here and people are often bedridden, so yes. A cool breeze may have been blown onto one part of their skin continually for hours and hours. However, once it happened 4 or 5 times, something else was clearly going on. The Sanatorium is both an attraction and in the service industry. Having incidents like that continue would hurt the image of their brand, so it seems the workers were a bit panicked.¡± ¡°But this rumor calmed down.¡± ¡°Yes, but the cause was never actually determined. If this was being maliciously done by someone, they must have completely stopped.¡± ¡°And you think this was the inheritance agents?¡± ¡°They were already coming and going when the frostbite scares occurred, but I haven¡¯t seen any clear link between them. However, the old men and women who got frostbite all had immense fortunes. They were certainly the type the inheritance agents would want to target.¡± ¡°One question. You said the inheritance agents were coming and going at the time of the frostbite scares. Were there any victims of their scam in the Sanatorium during that time?¡± ¡°You¡¯re quite perceptive.¡± It sounded like Madoka was smiling on the other side of the phone. ¡°There were no victims at the time. From what I could tell, they had approached a few tempting marks, but did not manage to get any money from them. ...However, their scam grew quite bountiful once the frostbite scare had died down. I haven¡¯t actually spoken with any of the victims though.¡± ¡°I knew it,¡± I muttered without thinking. That left one possibility. ¡°The initial frostbite scares were tests for a Package. After they fine-tuned the power and the breadth of conditions, they began the real scam.¡± ¡°A Package...¡± said Madoka. ¡°A criminal system put together by humans using the characteristics and conditions of Youkai. It¡¯s the stereotypical form for cases of spiritual harm.¡± A cash card that can draw out an unlimited amount of money. A knife that can kill any number of people without the criminal ever getting caught. Normally thinking, those items were impossibilities that could never exist in reality. However, that sort of thing could be achieved by cleverly mixing in the powers of those who were not normal. The specific item seen on the surface was just the tip of the iceberg. When the large gears of a Youkai and a criminal organization came together to form a massive perfect crime system, it was known as a Package. Think of items like the Uchide no Kozuchi seen in old stories or the bullets created with demonic powers spoken of in a famous opera. Now, imagine such things could be put together as ¡°items without form¡± as a means of committing fraud. The worst part was that the Youkai used to put it together had no idea they were committing crimes or causing people problems. A Yuki Onna would kill you if you spoke of being spared and would then disguise herself as a woman and marry you. A group of con men would very much want the use of that compulsion through promises. And since she would kill anyone who told, they had a means of avoiding anyone taking legal action against them. The real problem was that the Yuki Onna¡¯s promises revolved around the idea of marriage. If they were free to switch out the marriage part, they could use it to force any kind of unfair financial contract on people. ¡°How did they get the people to make the promise?¡± I groaned. ¡°Those frostbite scares must have been due to the promises failing. Or perhaps the people refused to promise. They might have been bringing the Yuki Onna directly into the Sanatorium at that time. But the inheritance agents must have thought of a different way of handling it once the frostbite scares suddenly stopped.¡± ¡°Are you about to ask me if I can think of anything likely?¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re an esper!¡± ¡°Sorry, but I can¡¯t think of anything!¡± ¡°Damn you!!¡± I felt like crushing my cell phone in my grip, but my vision of the situation was not clear enough to know exactly what I wanted her to find. It may have been wrong of me to expect any results from Madoka when I could not even give her proper instructions. I had no choice. ¡°I think I¡¯ll head back to the Sanatorium. Will I make it in time for standard visiting hours?¡± ¡°Wait, wait. Shinobu-kun, weren¡¯t you targeted by a hunting rifle?¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I want to end this as quickly as possible. I¡¯d rather not still have one of those targeting me while I walk down a dark path at night.¡± ¡°I see. Well, you¡¯ll likely get here in time. If there are any problems, I can use my status as a regular customer to vouch for you. Also, you should probably use the bus next time. And not one that stops at every stop. One of the expensive nonstop ones. If you don¡¯t have to stop on that mountain road, you¡¯ll be at less risk. That won¡¯t completely eliminate the risk of attack, though.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do that. ...Actually, are you safe there?¡± ¡°The Sanatorium is filled with the wealthy, so its security is top notch. And if things are dangerous here, you¡¯ll be attacked before you leave.¡± ¡°Thanks for that unpleasant bit of evidence.¡± I ended the call. This was not just a group of con men that targeted old people. With the situation growing more and more dangerous, I wearily turned around and headed back along the mountain road I had just come down from. I was heading right back into the clutches of death. Part 9 Packages had one major problem. ¡°Bon bobon bon bobobobon bonsai!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t lose interest, Zashiki Warashi!! My story isn¡¯t over yet!!¡± As she ignored me, the Zashiki Warashi hummed, adjusted the position of the ultraviolet light emitting a bluish-white light, and used a dropper to add nutrients to a clear pot filled with a watery substance. A bonsai itself did match the yukata-wearing Youkai, but the overall SF feel to it all did not match at all. Incidentally, I have my suspicions that this hobby of hers is why my grandfather has taken such a liking to her despite her being utterly worthless. ¡°Well, the farther along you get, the less it seems to concern me. How about you just submit this to one of those online question sites?¡± ¡°I just can¡¯t trust the know-it-alls that write answers to those things...¡± And don¡¯t get off topic. Can you keep ignoring me when I bring out these puppy dog eyes? ¡°...Wh-what¡¯s wrong, Shinobu? You¡¯ve got the same look in your eyes as a snake eyeing its prey. Have your sexual urges as a teenager finally gotten the better of you?¡± ¡°Enough of this. Can we please just get back to my story?¡± ¡°Hmm. So this Package gets people to transfer ownership of their assets by using the promises of a Yuki Onna?¡± The Zashiki Warashi in the bright red yukata finally turned back to me after finishing with her SF bonsai. ¡°If they¡¯ve developed this into a Package, are these inheritance agents ultimately after you-know-what?¡± ¡°Since they¡¯re still coming and going to and from the Sanatorium even after some suspicions, it¡¯s entirely possible.¡± ¡°Exporting the Package...¡± Yes. A Package was a criminal plan put together by humans and constructed from the special characteristics and conditions of Youkai. Once one was established, the plan and methodology could be sold as a product. It was the same as how a method of fraud would spread throughout the country. Naturally, society would grow distorted if these things spread. This would go well beyond just the Sanatorium. This was different from someone owning the one and only Uchide no Kozuchi. Packages merely used the powers of Youkai and were created by humans. As long as the person had the desire to complete one and the techniques and materials needed to construct it, anyone could create it. For better or for worse. ¡°It seems the inheritance agents have already ripped off some wealthy old folks. They¡¯ve made a killing. They may be at the stage where they are planning to sell their Package to an even larger criminal organization in order to change their identities and disappear.¡± During the frostbite scares, the inheritance agents had started to fail in their scam and that exposed them to a serious risk. That had likely not been part of their plan. It was possible their ultimate objective had already shifted from ¡°make tons of money¡± to ¡°escape safely¡±. ¡°If a flaw is found in their Package after they sell it, the large criminal organization could very well try to hunt them down. They might be staying at the Sanatorium despite the risk so they can continue to carefully debug it,¡± said the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°It¡¯s also possible the large criminal organization sent them to the Sanatorium to assemble the Package in the first place...No, that¡¯s unlikely. If it had all just been testing, they wouldn¡¯t have had to target actual rich people.¡± ¡°Hmm. So the inheritance agents thought it was possible you had noticed the connection between the scams at the Sanatorium and the Yuki Onna, so they came to get rid of you. They wouldn¡¯t want any interference that could alter the essentials of their Package before they complete it.¡± ¡°Precisely.¡± ¡°...This is sounding more and more dangerous. Now we have some large criminal organization involved too. From the way this sounds, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised to hear about a nighttime shootout at a wharf.¡± ¡°I know, right?¡± ¡°And a deadly Yuki Onna is involved, too. Since the marks they can¡¯t get money from are getting frozen to death, they might be able to cause an intentional failure and use the Yuki Onna offensively. This is a combination of an organization, guns, and the supernatural. I wonder if the local police can handle this.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m consulting you, you good-for-nothing Zashiki Warashi. Honestly, why did I have to meet that Yuki Onna at the worst possible time?¡± ¡°If you have some huge battle awaiting you, there¡¯s no place for me there. Bon bobon bobobobobon bonsai!¡± ¡°I told you not to lose interest!!¡± Part 10 I used an electric bus to return to the Sanatorium. The men in suits were busy preparing their scam inside and they looked shocked to see me. However, the armed guards directly hired by the wealthy occupants of the Sanatorium would act if the men pulled out a hunting rifle there. They trembled, but they were unable to do anything to me as I passed by them. ¡°Madoka.¡± ¡°Hey, there.¡± I met up with my classmate once more in that waiting room that had strict security that was not visible at first glance. ¡°You mentioned divulging the details of the Package using the Yuki Onna, but what exactly are you going to investigate? Just so you know, it will be difficult to ask anyone here questions. The Sanatorium is like a hotel for the eccentric and wealthy, so no one speaks with their neighbors. My word only has any sway over the workers here, so don¡¯t count on me being able to do anything.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll need that.¡± I shook my hand in the air. ¡°The main gist of this Package has to do with promises. If you tell anyone she spared you, she¡¯ll kill you, but she also disguises herself as a woman and comes to marry you. They use that double setup to get people to transfer their assets over.¡± The marriage in this context did not refer to a legal state that required a marriage registration. It was a verbal promise of marriage that acted as the Yuki Onna¡¯s trigger to attack. In other words, it was not the marriage itself that was important. It was the promise of marriage. For that reason, the marriage that seemed at the center of it all could be replaced with something else. ¡°It sounds ideal, doesn¡¯t it? After setting up a defensive line by preventing the person from telling anyone about the group of con artists, they close in with their ridiculous deal. And if you refuse, you receive a penalty. By cleverly altering the characteristics and conditions of a Yuki Onna, they can create a model case of massive fraud that will never come to light.¡± ¡°But wouldn¡¯t that lead to a lot of people dying?¡± I frowned. ¡°If they just tell people they will have complete control over their assets and insist there is nothing fishy about it, anyone who agreed would have to be quite an idiot. Anyone with half a brain would find it suspicious. And it seems the inheritance agents did fail initially.¡± ¡°But if you refuse to promise, you get killed, right? Then...¡± ¡°Then you would expect some people to have refused and died. Some people would not believe that a Yuki Onna was really involved.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± said Madoka suddenly. She must have realized something. ¡°The frostbite scares,¡± I said. ¡°Most likely, they originally either used the Yuki Onna directly or the agents brought the deal directly to the old people. And they failed. The old people very nearly died from the penalty. It seems they managed to avoid any deaths by messing with the characteristics and conditions of the Yuki Onna to a certain extent, but it was still too powerful.¡± ¡°And so the inheritance agents gave up on that method.¡± ¡°They began to use a method of getting people to make the promise that would not raise any questions. If you don¡¯t feel any hesitation to make the promise, the old people need not die due to the penalty. That initial entrance is the problem. After the marks are caught in the Yuki Onna¡¯s promise, the agents are free to do as they please.¡± ¡°Is there a way to do that?¡± Madoka seemed skeptical. ¡°The inheritance agents clearly aren¡¯t all that skilled at talking people into things. Even with the Yuki Onna involved, they managed to screw this up during those frostbite scares. No matter how much help a poor talker gets, they¡¯re never going to be perfect.¡± ¡°True. That¡¯s why they don¡¯t do it through talk. The targets don¡¯t even know they¡¯ve made the promise.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°I saw this method in a Package I ran across before.¡± I paused for a second. ¡°You can make someone promise something by hiding it amid the user agreement for free software. No one reads it, but you can¡¯t use the software unless you agree. The promise is hidden in the long text.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°You have one here, right?¡± I looked around. ¡°The Sanatorium must have a resident agreement. Do you remember looking through it? If they added a clause in it to have people make a promise with some strange Youkai, it would be too convenient for these people.¡± Apparently, the original resident agreement was kept at the Sanatorium¡¯s front desk. Madoka may have had no influence with the other residents, but she had enough pull with the workers to allow me to look through that telephone book-like resident agreement. ¨CWhile Party A is using the facilities managed by Party B, Party A is obligated to always disclose and explain any objects brought within the facilities. ¨CWhile Party A is using the facilities managed by Party B, Party B will do its best to care for Party A¡¯s possessions. However, this is an endeavor, not an obligation. As such, any loss of or damage to Part A¡¯s possessions while using the facilities managed by Party B do not produce any liability for Party B whatsoever. ¨CWhile Party A is using the facilities managed by Party B, Party A is obligated to treat appropriately the equipment and fixtures managed by Party B. If Party A is negligent in this obligation and Party B¡¯s equipment or fixtures experience damage, Party A must compensate for the entire cost of repairs or replacement. ¡°...Why are legal agreements and contracts always written with such stiff language?¡± ¡°It¡¯s so you¡¯ll miss what it means while skimming through it. Look, how is this fair? If a resident¡¯s wallet is lost, the institution isn¡¯t responsible, but if something in here is damaged, the resident has to pay for it.¡± ¡°But I don¡¯t see any sign of anything related to the Yuki Onna.¡± The part saying ¡°any loss of or damage to Party A¡¯s possessions while using the facilities managed by Party B do not produce any liability for Party B whatsoever¡± was certainly unfair, but it lacked something that would be needed for the Yuki Onna to take the target¡¯s assets. ¡°Did we misread it?¡± ¡°No...¡± I thought for a bit. ¡°Even if they rewrote the entire original here at the front desk, that would cause everyone in the Sanatorium to fall under the Yuki Onna scam. And that includes you, Madoka. However, I haven¡¯t heard anything about them making that much money.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re saying the Sanatorium resident agreement theory was a dead end?¡± ¡°They have to have resident agreements other than this one. This place is a ¡°sanatorium¡± in name only. It¡¯s actually a hotel for strange, eccentric people.¡± Yes. At the time of the frostbite scares, the inheritance agents had changed their methods rather than continuing on. They must not have wanted the panic to spread any further than it had to. Even if it would make a lot of money, the possibility of drawing suspicion from the police would grow if they dragged the entire Sanatorium into it. As such, success had not seemed likely. It was almost as if the group of con artists had recoiled from the possibility that, if worse came to worst, everyone in the Sanatorium could have ended up frozen to death. That was why the inheritance agents had worked to contain any damages that they might create. Their promises would be ones that only affected their specific target. They would use a resident agreement that they could narrow down to affect only one person. ¡°Do the rooms here contain a booklet that introduces the Sanatorium to newcomers? Instructions on using room service or the internet might be included in it. If a file like that exists, it probably includes a copy of the resident agreement.¡± ¡°Come to think of it...¡± ¡°Also, that simplified resident agreement doesn¡¯t need to be signed or stamped with your seal. Usually, you automatically agree to its conditions just by entering the room.¡± When I entered Madoka¡¯s room, there was indeed a thick binder on a small table. As expected, the introduction to the Sanatorium included a simplified version of the resident agreement. ¡°If all rooms have one of these binders, they could switch out the binder in the room of their target.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t check other resident¡¯s rooms though.¡± ¡°Are there any rooms left empty after an unnatural departure? If you tell anyone you were spared, she kills you. Afterwards, she disguises herself as a woman and comes to marry you. Even with the Yuki Onna¡¯s double setup, nothing is stopping people from leaving without telling anyone anything.¡± ¡°I might be able to get permission from a worker to check an empty room.¡± Madoka asked a passing female worker who unlocked an empty room for us. (I had to wonder just how much pull my classmate held in that place.) We then stepped inside. ¡°It¡¯s possible we were trapped in a labyrinth of promises the instant we set foot in this room. We need to be careful.¡± ¡°I will, but this is a Yuki Onna, right? I am a woman myself, after all.¡± ¡°The attack trigger just uses the word marriage, but it seems to actually be rather vague, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°Perhaps. But the resident agreement in the room only applies to the person that signed a lease for the room with the facility¡¯s owner, so it has nothing to do with us.¡± I hoped she was right, but it was possible the group of con artists had changed the contents up quite a bit. It was entirely possible common knowledge did not apply. I reached for the binder and checked within. The text designed to make you want to go to sleep continued identically to the one at the front desk for a bit, but I started to notice some things that seemed out of place. Since the font was identical, it was hard to tell, but there were some clauses added in that I had not seen in the one at the front desk. ¡°This mentions a Party C in addition to the Party A and Party B.¡± ¡°Is that the Yuki Onna?¡± ¡°It might be the inheritance agents.¡± The text was already written so as to make it hard to understand, but the fraud group had added further trickery on top of that. The text almost seemed to get all mixed up in my head, but I somehow managed grasp the meaning. ¨CWhile Party A is using the facilities managed by Party B, Party A must always respect Party A¡¯s relationship with Party C. ¨CParty C views the relationship with Party A as being revised to one of transferring all financial assets. ¨CParty A¡¯s losses shall be social losses and Party C must carry out all punishments through financial actions. ¨CAs Party C cannot legally enter into a financial contract, the aforementioned financial actions shall be carried out by the inheritance agents in her place. ¡°Here we go. I guess the term ¡®relationship¡¯ takes the place of marriage. It is true that the order of inheritance for assets changes when two people get married, but...¡± ¡°This part about losses probably changes the Yuki Onna¡¯s penalty of death to one of social death through losing all of one¡¯s money.¡± ¡°And they use the fact that Youkai can¡¯t even sign a cell phone contract to transfer all the money over to the inheritance agents.¡± To summarize: The resident using the room containing the modified binder would automatically become married to the Yuki Onna. The target¡¯s assets would become jointly owned by the target and the Yuki Onna. This essentially meant she had taken all of the target¡¯s money. Also, if the target refused or tried to discuss it with someone else, they would receive a financial punishment severe enough to give them a social ¡°death¡±. Either way, a large amount of money was given to the Yuki Onna. However, the Yuki Onna could not open a bank account, so the inheritance agents would take control of the inheritance in her place. In the end, the fraud group would have all the money. Just with the presence of the binder, the promise was made, so the Yuki Onna¡¯s power could be used without her actually being there. I wondered if the Yuki Onna even understood what the current version of the Package was. ¡°Oh? So the target loses his inheritance whether this succeeds or fails? Then there might be some people who decide to sacrifice themselves in order to reveal what is going on.¡± ¡°The penalty is merely said to be financial, it doesn¡¯t specify an amount. If it succeeds, the target will have all their assets taken, but if it fails and they are punished, they might end up with a severe debt.¡± If the financial punishment was severe enough to lead to the black market loans of a large criminal organization, that would fit the description of a social death. That was a situation more frightening to humans than freezing to death on a winter mountain. ¡°Well, that pretty much settles it.¡± ¡°But do we have any real proof that Party C refers to the Yuki Onna?¡± ¡°I think so.¡± I pointed toward one piece of text in the thick binder. It read: ¨CParty C dislikes the summer, so she hates cicadas which are a symbol of the aforementioned season. Part 11 ¡°Hm? I need to set something to record. They¡¯re showing the Chronograph of Hell late tonight, and I don¡¯t want to miss it.¡± ¡°Do it in your own room!! I¡¯m recording a foreign drama, so don¡¯t hog the tuner!!¡± ¡°...Well, it sounds like you found out how the Yuki Onna¡¯s Package worked. At this rate, it doesn¡¯t seem like you need me at all.¡± ¡°Do you actually want to help despite all the complaining you do...?¡± This one may be a pain in the ass, but does the Zashiki Warashi race as a whole want to help out their households? In that case, is her mind tsun but her instincts are dere? Despite those hopeful thoughts of mine... ¡°No, I want to know why you¡¯ve forced me to listen to all this. I could have used this time to get my character from Level 7 to Level 8.¡± ¡°I had a feeling that was it, you indoor Youkai. If you don¡¯t listen to me, I¡¯ll send all the game systems to Madoka¡¯s place so you can¡¯t play with them, dammit.¡± She clung to me and looked like she was about to cry. That Youkai needed entertainment as much as she did water or oxygen. ¡°But those inheritance agents were trying to export their Package to a large criminal organization in order to get help in escaping, right? Would they really leave you alone while you were trying to uncover their methods?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the thing.¡± I leaned forward. ¡°That was the biggest problem in the end.¡± ¡°It¡¯s ironic how greedy humans can be much more frightening than Youkai.¡± ¡°In both Rokubu Goroshi and Yonaki Ishi, the villain is a human drowning in greed. In fact, Youkai and the supernatural only really come into play in order to give an ending to the story of some horrible person.¡± ¡°If karma worked as well as it does in old stories, the world would be a much nicer place,¡± said the Zashiki Warashi uninterestedly. ¡°So I take it the inheritance agents finally took action.¡± ¡°Yes, they did.¡± A chill ran down my spine. I knew being frightened would not change the situation, but feelings had a way of not being controlled by reason. The most obvious example of something that gave people such irrational fear was Youkai like the Zashiki Warashi or the Yuki Onna. I was faced with human greed that would even use that fear to make a profit. ¡°I was in a pinch. I was in a real pinch.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a shame that high schoolers these days have such a limited vocabulary.¡± Part 12 I had a very bad feeling about something. The feeling had no specific basis and I could hardly put together a countermeasure from a simple premonition, so that statement was relatively meaningless. However, it was something like being carried towards an incinerator on a slowly moving conveyer belt. The fact that you were not going to be killed immediately made the whole thing feel all the more uncomfortable. When we left the empty room after checking the binder, Madoka frowned and gave voice to the reason behind my unease. ¡°...The inheritance agents are gone.¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± The situation was advancing. Just like with cancer, it was too late by the time the pain came to the surface. A young female worker was jogging down the passageway toward us. ¡°Kotemitsu-san, Kotemitsu-san.¡± ¡°Hey. What is it?¡± Kotemitsu Madoka looked toward the female worker when her family name was called. ¡°I have some news that might concern your visitor.¡± ¡°Did something happen?¡± ¡°The bus that heads from here to the base of the mountain got a flat tire, so it will likely be running late.¡± Geh. So that¡¯s how we¡¯re doing this? ¡°Given the distance, you can likely make it to the base of the mountain by sunset on foot, but if you have plans, one of the workers can take you by car.¡± ¡°Wait, wait. Could you please give me a second to think about this?¡± I politely cut off the female worker, grabbed Madoka¡¯s hand, and pulled her a bit away. There, we began speaking in private. ¡°That had to have been the inheritance agents. They¡¯re planning to have me ¡®accidentally¡¯ shot by a hunting rifle on my way back. That¡¯s why they took out the bus to eliminate that hole in their plan.¡± ¡°How about you take the workers up on their offer?¡± ¡°They¡¯d just shoot the worker too. They¡¯ve decided to be a bit bolder in their methods. Madoka, how many inheritance agents were there coming and going to and from here?¡± ¡°Hm? I don¡¯t remember exactly, but I think there were 10 to 20 of them.¡± ¡°Then we need to assume they might surround me while all armed with hunting rifles. The mountain road is the only path back. They can just scatter broken glass over the road to stop the car and then shoot it until it¡¯s nothing but scrap metal.¡± ¡°...How about you call in a helicopter?¡± That was a rich investor for you. She thought about things on a completely different scale. However, I shook my head. ¡°If one of their hunting rifles is an actual rifle rather than a shotgun, that won¡¯t work. That would be enough to shoot through the glass or plate of a civilian helicopter.¡± Intellectual Villages had plenty of advantages, but they had their inconveniences as well. For example, the number of police officers was exceedingly low. There was no big district police station or anything. The village just had one small station. Also, anyone there would not answer calls during the day due to listening to music with headphones and would be asleep once the sun set. The 30,000 yen bunches of grapes were enough to make any thief¡¯s eyes shine in delight, so the police situation was pathetic. As such, Intellectual Villages relied on hired armed security guards to keep the peace rather than the country¡¯s policemen. (Although those armed security guards did commit crimes themselves sometimes.) Madoka was aware of that, so she said, ¡°Then wouldn¡¯t it be safest to stay here in the Sanatorium? The inheritance agents have set up a trap in the mountain. Isn¡¯t that because they do not have enough force to take on the armed guards protecting the Sanatorium?¡± I appreciated her suggestion. I really did, but... ¡°If nothing was done about them, I might have ended up being targeted by the Yuki Onna¡¯s Package as well. The Sanatorium is filled with the wealthy. Everyone here has hired armed guards to protect them. If all of those guards were gathered, the inheritance agents wouldn¡¯t be able to touch you.¡± ¡°Yeah...but I doubt that will happen.¡± I tilted my head to the side as I thought. ¡°Your group might help, Madoka, but I doubt the armed guards hired by the others would go along with it. Letting me stay here would bring the risk of a criminal group attacking with hunting rifles, so they¡¯d probably just throw me out of the Sanatorium.¡± It was their job to protect their client, so they would not hesitate there. Also, there was a difference between the number of guards hired by Madoka and the sum total of guards hired by all the others. If they came into conflict, the others would win. It was possible my only options would end up being leaving the Sanatorium on my own or having all the guards gang up on me and throw me out. ¡°Then what if I send a few of my guards with you?¡± ¡°Would those salarymen really go along with something outside their contract like that? And even if they agreed, they would be up against 10-20 people. If all of those are armed with hunting rifles, things would not look good for us. Even if I managed to get down the mountain thanks to them, I would rather not have it be at the cost of a few people sinking into pools of blood.¡± This was not just an issue of simple justice or morality. Once a colleague had died thanks to their client¡¯s ridiculous request, even Madoka¡¯s guards might gang up on me. They were not government officials or the allies of the country¡¯s citizens. If they were thrown into an unreasonable situation, it was possible they would resort to unreasonable means. ¡°Then what are you going to do? When you were attacked before, you only just barely managed to escape.¡± ¡°...Yes. I¡¯m just a loser in the end. I was thrashing about in a panicked flight from a single man armed with a hunting rifle. This is hopeless. This isn¡¯t some light novel. I can¡¯t wait for an opportunity and counterattack. It just won¡¯t work. Merely surviving would be worth a Guinness World Record.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get that distant look in your eyes. You¡¯re going to be attacked by 10-20 of them at once this time, right? That isn¡¯t a situation where you can just run through the trees and escape.¡± I could not stay in the Sanatorium. If I headed out into the mountain, I would be attacked by a group of 10-20 con artists armed with hunting rifles. I had to get safely down off the mountain somehow, but this was as hopeless as playing a game of soccer against a team of 11 on your own. I would just end up being surrounded. This was not a situation I could get out of with a clever plan or technique. And even if I made it safely off the mountain, could I return to a safe summer break? I know I keep saying this, but they were armed with hunting rifles. I did not want to spend the rest of my life hiding in fear of attack and it was entirely possible they would find out where I lived and attack my home. It was clear as day what my fate would be if they charged into my house in their outdoor shoes and carrying those dangerous weapons. I wanted to survive. I wanted to get back to my safe everyday life. To do that, I would need to do more than get off the mountain without the inheritance agents finding me. ¡°...I guess I need to see this through to the end.¡± ¡°Shinobu-kun?¡± ¡°Madoka, you said you could ask favors of the workers here but not the other residents, right?¡± ¡°Y-yes. We¡¯re all on the same level. This is like a hotel, so there is no sense of a ¡®neighborhood¡¯. No one will even answer a knock on the door.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± I took the binder that held the simplified resident agreement from Madoka. ¡°Could you ask a favor of the workers? I can¡¯t pay them, but ask them if I can stay in the empty room this binder was in.¡± ¡°That could be difficult.¡± ¡°Tell them a group of thieves will attack with hunting rifles if they don¡¯t let me.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do my best,¡± said Madoka. ¡°But a completely empty room might be too much. It would be a bit easier to get them to allow another person to stay in my room.¡± ¡°No, your room won¡¯t cut it. To break out of this situation, I need to dive straight into the maelstrom.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Also, with the investing you do, you must have various business related tools, right? Surely you don¡¯t do it all on the computer. I¡¯d like to borrow one of those analog tools.¡± ¡°What specifically?¡± ¡°A seal.¡± It was not late at night. Nor had all of nature in the area died out. The summer was chokingly hot. The trees and underbrush gave off a thick green smell. The sunbeams leaking through the gaps in the trees covering the sky were bright enough to be called healthy. The high-pitched sound of cicadas was loud enough to drown out the rustling of the wind through the branches. The scene was perfect for a memory from a child¡¯s picture diary. This was the rural image that Intellectual Villages used as an attraction. However, the situation I was in changed that world into a cruel one. That may have been how the world looked to someone heading to a cliff in order to commit suicide. I did not have the calm to spare to be moved by the scenery spreading out before me. I could only view the visuals as visual information. I tried to concentrate and I tried to pay close attention. However, I ended up taking in even less information than usual. Each step I took was heavy. I felt the invisible object known as my soul being worn down. Even if I had had an accurate map, I would probably have gotten lost in that state of mind. And I would have no idea if the map I had was accurate or not. Should I follow that sense of danger within me? Should I ignore it because it would send me to my own destruction? Would I overlook some danger because I was too afraid of heading to my own destruction? The options circled around in my mind in an infinite loop. Before I knew it, that loop left me uncertain about any criteria on which to base a decision. It was like I had been turned into a robotic human that could not take any complex actions. I had no idea what I was thinking. I could not sort out my thoughts. I could not tell if my thoughts were coming from my true feelings or if they were due to me being led astray by fear. Ten to twenty men armed with hunting rifles lay hidden within the mountain. Running across even one of them would put my life in danger. Fighting back against them was a dream within a dream. Even if I immediately turned around and ran, my odds of survival were probably less than 10%. In fact, I would likely just get shot while I froze up in indecision over whether to fight or run. And even if I did survive, the inheritance agent would contact the others and have me surrounded in no time at all. If that happened, there was no saving me. Even if the mountain was a large area, there were only so many areas and routes people could easily pass through. With 10-20 people, they could cover all of those routes with some left over. When would they come? Where would they come from? Even if I had had no other choice, I intensely regretted leaving the Sanatorium. I didn¡¯t care anymore. I was fine with having those armed guards gang up on me. I just wanted to take refuge in a safe building. Just when I was about to turn back the way I had come, the hunting rifle attack began. A great scream rang out, destroying the peace of nature. At that time, an inheritance agent named Hanazono felt a tremendous pressure in his stomach. He was hiding in a thicket, standing guard along the zigzagging mountain road. He held a double-barrel hunting rifle in his hands. The heat of midsummer had soaked the inside of his suit with sweat and his face looked like it had been sprayed with water. His own heavy breathing rang loud in his ears. Each and every leaf of the thicket touching his cheeks tore at his concentration. He was filled with so much fear and regret that he felt faint. He could see the high school boy that was his target. He pressed the hunting rifle¡¯s stock against his shoulder to stop it from shaking. However, his entire body was shaking. He was not afraid of the boy. He was afraid of having to shoot another human being. The inheritance agents had all gathered in order to make easy money. However, the next thing they had known, this was the situation they were stuck in. Murder was going too far astray. They had clearly gone beyond the risk they had been willing to take. Whenever he had seen stories about robbers who had ended up killing their target on the news, he had wondered why those people did not use their heads. He would never have taken part in this criminal plan if he had known it would end with someone dead. He should have stuck with fraud he could pull off over the phone. He felt like a sugoroku piece moving forward against his own will. However, he would lose everything if he did not shoot. Hanazono assumed their leader, Shironaka, had prepared the hunting rifles to ensure they would act. With a knife or a metal bat, they would have hesitated. The fact that they just had to move their index finger helped to distance their minds from the fact that they were stabbing through or smashing human flesh. If that kid had not interfered they could have ended everything so well. It might have been going too far to take his life. However, they could hardly just let him go and enjoy his life. Just one finger. He just had to move his index finger. That kid had done something worth that much. The bullet would hit on its own. What happened after he pulled the trigger was none of his business. If the kid died, it was his own fault. Hanazono took one deep breath. He brought his index finger to the hunting rifle¡¯s trigger and stared through the sight like he had seen in movies. He just needed some momentum. He could ride that momentum and squeeze his index finger. However, a gunshot did not ring out. The stock did not strike his shoulder from the shock of firing and a lead bullet was not fired. ¡°?¡± Had his finger not moved? Had his muscles frozen in place out of anxiety? With those questions in mind, Hanazono looked away from the sight and at his index finger. He saw something truly strange there. His index finger had changed to a much darker color. The portion of the finger from the 2nd joint on crumbled like dried paper clay and fell to the ground. ¡°Gyah.¡± Someone who had experienced misfortune while mountain climbing in the winter might have witnessed something similar. It was severe frostbite. ¡°Gyah gyah gyah gyah!? Gyah gyah gyah gyah gyah gyah gyah!!¡± However, Hanazono¡¯s life was not filled with such diverse experiences. As if his senses had finally caught up with the strange phenomenon, he swung his right arm around in intense pain. Repeated sounds of something dry cracking could be heard. Half his palm and three of his fingers came clean off and flew through the air. (What!?) (What is going on!?) He heard the rustling sound of something moving in a thicket. Was one of his comrades hidden nearby targeting the high school boy in his place? Or had they come to save him? That was what Hanazono thought, but he was wrong. When the familiar face of Murokawa emerged, he was writhing in intense pain and terror. The left half of his face had changed color. It had become a reddish-purple and one of his ears was missing. Finally, a gunshot rang out. However, it was not aimed at the high school boy. It had been an accidental discharge. Someone had accidentally fired their rifle. Hayashida came out from within a thicket and onto the road. His right arm broke into multiple pieces and joined the ruined scrap metal on the road. Had it been the explosive force of the bullet being fired? Or had it been purely the effects of the frostbite? It was unclear which had caused him to lose his arm. It was not just Hanazono. The same thing was happening across the mountain. Hanazono had fallen into a state of complete panic, but he finally noticed that the high school boy was holding a single binder. Hanazono had seen an old police drama where a thick manga magazine had been used in place of a bulletproof vest, but it was clear the boy had not brought the binder for that purpose. The inheritance agents recognized the binder. It contained the altered version of the resident agreement put in the target¡¯s room in their Package fraud that used the characteristics and conditions of the Yuki Onna. ¡°If you¡¯re trying to manipulate a Youkai, you probably shouldn¡¯t leave the core of your control out where anyone can get at it.¡± The boy opened it. He opened it to the page that should have held their rearranged conditions. However, there were a few extra lines written in sloppy handwriting that Hanazono and the others did not recognize. ¨CParty C will ensure the safety of Jinnai Shinobu. In order to carry out the previous clause, Party C is obligated to use all of her power. ¨CParty C may attack preemptively while making use of her power. Upon confirming anyone or anything intending to attack in such a way that will have a negative effect on Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s safety, Party C shall eliminate them. No consent is required to carry out enforcement of this clause. And next to each piece of added text was a small red mark giving color to the otherwise black and white page of text. A seal had been stamped in red ink. To be more specific, it was a correction seal. That mark was used to indicate that changes to a contract were made with the acknowledgment of the one agreeing to the contract. ¡°Gah...¡± They had been taken out because they tried to shoot. Everyone who had tried to shoot had been taken out. The additional clauses were almost too easy to understand. And their meaning was simply overwhelming. Even if they had gathered dozens or even hundreds of people, their entire force would have been neutralized just by targeting that high school boy. (He took control of the Package we assembled!?) And then winter arrived. The Youkai that symbolized the severity of nature and the rejection of the intense cold appeared amid the green of nature. The gates of hell opened. The high school boy tapped his own shoulder with the spine of the binder and spoke out to the men in the area. ¡°This is the deadly being you prepared. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re well aware just how dangerous she is. I¡¯d rather not have anyone hurt more than necessary.¡± ¡°What are you doing, you idiots! Hanazono, Hayashida!! This is what we prepared the safety for!!¡± The voice of their leader, Shironaka, came from the cell phone Hanazono had dropped. ¡°The cicadas!! I¡¯ll bring out the insect cage! If we can get that monster out of here, we can silence that kid!!¡± Shironaka charged out from a thicket. In one hand, he held the type of small insect cage children used. Normally, using that as a weapon would seem like nothing more than a bad joke. However, in the situation Hanazono and the others had assembled, it was a protective charm with almost absolute effects. And yet... ¡°Gh?¡± It froze over. The insect cage frosted over in white and cracked. Next, the cicadas inside and Shironaka¡¯s hand holding the insect cage were wrapped in the frost. Severe frostbite changed the color of his skin, the consistency of his flesh slowly twisted, and then the location of his fingernails clearly moved out of place. The intense pain made Shironaka try to clench his fingers, but his fingers broke off in the next instant. ¡°Byah byah!? Th-they came off!! What!? They came off! They¡¯re gone!?¡± Shironaka seemed more frightened of the absurdity of that situation that should never have happened than bothered by the pain. The high school boy then opened the binder to another page. On that page, it read: ¨CP?a?r?t?y? ?C? ?d?i?s?l?i?k?e?s? ?t?h?e? ?s?u?m?m?e?r?,? ?s?o? ?s?h?e? ?h?a?t?e?s? ?c?i?c?a?d?a?s? ?w?h?i?c?h? ?a?r?e? ?a? ?s?y?m?b?o?l? ?o?f? ?t?h?e? ?a?f?o?r?e?m?e?n?t?i?o?n?e?d? ?s?e?a?s?o?n?. It had been removed. The sole safety Hanazono and the others had prepared was gone. Now they had no way to stop the Yuki Onna. No one could stop her!! ¡°Of course I changed what you had put in there. If I had used the alterations you had made as is, I would have had all my assets taken. Before reassembling it how I wanted it, I made sure to get rid of the clauses I didn¡¯t need. Why wouldn¡¯t I?¡± The high school boy closed the binder, tapped it against his shoulder again, and smiled. ¡°Now then. Will she have to deal with all of you, or will you give up on your own? I¡¯ll leave that decision to you.¡± Part 13 The Zashiki Warashi frowned. ¡°Oh? The point of view of that flashback scene changed partway through. Was that some kind of bug?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a bug. After those attempted murderers put their hands in the air and surrendered, I gathered some information from them.¡± ¡°Well, it sounds like that was all wrapped up nicely. It seems to me that there isn¡¯t anything left you need to discuss with me.¡± ¡°There is, you idiot. In fact, the most dangerous thing of all is still out there. The Yuki Onna.¡± ¡°Is that simplified resident agreement still in effect? So are you going to live the rest of your life with that Yuki Onna auto-guard on?¡± ¡°I made sure to add a part saying the effects of the altered clauses go out of effect in three hours after the change, so that¡¯s not a problem. But the thing is...¡± I scratched at my head. ¡°It seems that Yuki Onna sees me as a target by default without needing that resident agreement¡¯s conditions. That¡¯s why she asked me to marry her at the bus stop in an attempt to kill me. If I don¡¯t deal with that quickly, I could end up trapped by all her questions.¡± ¡°It must be tough being a popular guy.¡± ¡°The Yuki Onna¡¯s marriage promise is clearly just a means of killing the target more quickly. And the double preparation shortens the process even further. Asking someone to marry her is like a magic spell to her.¡± ¡°Oh? So you¡¯re saying Youkai can¡¯t have human feelings of love?¡± ¡°Well, you aren¡¯t human.¡± At that point, my overall small granny knocked at the door. She had been checking to see if the burglar had stolen anything, but the size of the household made that take some time. I had a feeling she had stopped to make some ohagi at some point, but it still would have taken some time. ¡°Shinobu, about that burglar.¡± ¡°Did you find something missing?¡± ¡°No, the opposite. It¡¯s very strange. We have something extra.¡± ¡°...Hah?¡± ¡°This.¡± My granny handed me a single binder. Yes. It was the thick binder I thought I had sent back to the Sanatorium via bike courier. ¡°Oh, no...¡± I muttered. That burglar. He wasn¡¯t a burglar at all!! Did some idiot from those inheritance agents manage to get away!? And now he came back in the very, very end with some pain in the ass revenge!! The resident agreement in the binder had a dog-eared page. A ball-point pen and a correction seal had been used to add a single clause. ¨CParty C shall return to the owner. I heard a sound like a crack running through the building. It was the sound of something freezing. The local environment was changing with the coming of something horrible. A chill ran down my spine. That was no metaphor or psychological state. The physical temperature in the room dropped. ¡°...married...¡± I heard a voice from behind me. A frail girl¡¯s voice. ¡°...Let¡¯s get married...¡± O-oh, shit. Oh, shit! Oh, shit!! Oh, shit!!! Oh, shit!!!! This was a real Youkai that had easily defeated 20 men armed with hunting rifles. And the cicada weakness the inheritance agents had prepared was gone. There was no way I could defeat her now. If she sealed my escape with promise after promise both explicit and implicit, I would eventually screw up. I had no intention of becoming a character from an old story! ¡°Th-that¡¯s right! Zashiki Warashi-sama!! The time has finally come for you to display your power as a true Youkai that protects her house and household...wait, she¡¯s gone!! She¡¯s completely disappeared!!¡± The good-for-nothing Youkai in the bright red yukata had vanished into thin air at some point. I doubted my granny would be of any help, so I had to do something myself. Luckily, I had the binder that could interfere with the Yuki Onna¡¯s characteristics and conditions. I could use it. ¨CParty C shall return to the owner. Should I draw two lines through it to erase it? No. The Yuki Onna is already here and she seemed to want to kill me from the beginning. Even if I get rid of the irregular conditions and bring her back to her original state, she¡¯ll just come and kill me like normal. If I was going to do something, it had to be adding something. If I added some text identifying ¡°the owner¡± as the person who brought the binder to the Jinnai household, I could change the Yuki Onna¡¯s target. That would also eliminate the threat of having one of the inheritance agents get away, so it was two birds with one stone. I still had the correction seal I had borrowed from Madoka in my pocket. All I had to do was...!! ¡°A-a-a p-p-p-pen!! I need a pen! Where is one! Shit!!¡± The temperature of the room dropped drastically. It wasn¡¯t quite as cold as a refrigerator, but it was close. I could see the leaves of the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s SF bonsai changing color where she had left it on the floor. I had no time. I frantically reached for the pen holder on my desk. ¡°Wah.¡± My fingertips struck the cylindrical pen holder. The pen holder tilted to the side. ¡°Wah.¡± And all the writing implements inside scattered across the tatami mats. Just when I was about to the grab the pen I needed, they rolled out of my reach. ¡°Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!¡± Part 14 (3rd person) The Thirty Six Stratagems cannot compare to simply running away. Simply fleeing from problems you cannot handle was the key to a long life. And I had been telling him from the beginning that he would be out of luck if he was expecting me to have any kind of strange special powers. Honestly, how is a mere Zashiki Warashi supposed to defeat something as deadly as that? Does he think I¡¯m the queen of the sitting room[2] world and I have some kind of ultimate hidden skill? ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi. Want some barley tea?¡± On the porch that was over 20 meters long, an old man playing tsumeshogi invited me over. I took a cup filled with a cold drink. This old man loved board games like go and shogi, but he did not like it when they were recreated with computers. I honestly did not understand why. For tsumeshogi it was easier to have the AI take care of the opponent¡¯s moves and it saved you the time of setting up the pieces. It seemed this old man loved things to be the same as they were in the old days. He had a hard time of it when even Youkai were hoping for modern changes. Well, I have no intention of finding fault with someone else¡¯s interests and tastes. That goes for both humans and Youkai. ¡°She seemed to like him when they first met and then he freed her from that Package. It isn¡¯t too surprising that she would get serious about it.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± asked the old man. ¡°Hee hee hee. Love is a risky thing.¡± ¡°?¡± Notes 1. ¡ü Min-min is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cicada. 2. ¡ü The Zashiki of Zashiki Warashi means ¡°sitting room¡±. Volume 1, 2: Regarding Uchimaku Hayabusa Volume 1, Chapter 2: Regarding Uchimaku Hayabusa Part 1 I¡¯ll be blunt. I don¡¯t like rural areas that much. That is why I jumped at the chance to start living alone in the city while going to a college prep high school. It also has a lot to do with why I joined the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Unfortunately, I¡¯m only in a low ranking, dead end position. I went as far as to use the old branch family system to alter the family register despite being unmarried in order to escape the confines of Intellectual Villages. No matter how bad for your health it¡¯s supposed to be, I wanted to live in the city and die in the city. The thing is...I hate Youkai. I don¡¯t know how things were in ancient Edo, but Youkai don¡¯t appear among the asphalt and concrete of a city. The only exceptions are places that thoroughly prepare the scenery like Nara or Kyoto. That is why I had always longed to live in Tokyo. But the funny thing is that Tokyo has rural areas too. And when certain pain-in-the-ass incidents crop up, I have to head there. ¡°...So this is the third victim.¡± Zashou Island was a lone island close to the Ogasawara Islands but just far enough away to not be considered a part of the World Heritage Site. And that is exactly why a lot of businesses wanting to use its abundant resources for business purposes financed the creation of one of the country¡¯s leading Intellectual Villages even though the island technically fell inside the Tokyo metropolitan area. At first glance, the blue sea looked like something out of a documentary, but a closer inspection showed something like buoys floating at fixed intervals. They used sunlight and buoyancy to generate enough power to constantly monitor the flow of the currents and the amount of oxygen and plankton in the seawater. Apparently, fishermen these days moved their fingers smoothly across waterproofed and salt-proofed tablet computers when they fished. I was standing on a small fishing pier that was (made to look) run down. On that pier that was held in place with concrete sat a metal drum you could just barely reach your arms around. The outside of the drum was wet, so it had likely been floating in the ocean. A police officer in a soaking wet navy blue uniform gave me a report in a bewildered tone. The officer had likely pulled the drum out of the sea with the help of a local fisherman. ¡°We tried to deal with this on our own at first, but this is the third in a week. To be honest, this has gotten to be more than we can manage. I know it is a bother, but we have been forced to leave this with your department.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. This is my job. But...this is a rather unpleasant corpse.¡± ¡°Is there such a thing as a pleasant corpse?¡± ¡°Well, no. But this one is off-the-charts levels of unpleasant. He wasn¡¯t just killed. They didn¡¯t end there. They gave it more thought. This gave the victim fear greater than that of a simple death and it gives the same sort of fear to anyone who sees it.¡± I suppose I should thank them for saving me the trouble of laying a blue tarp over the body, I thought as I peered down into the drum. Inside was a single adult man, dead. He had likely died two or three days prior. Due to floating on the sea, he had no maggots or flies on him, so he was in a better state than a normal corpse would be after that long. He certainly did not look like a decent Tokyo citizen though. The thickness of his neck was much greater than normal and he had a very aggressive-looking face. Also, I could glimpse a tattoo through the collar of his shirt. Western tattoos had become pretty common, but this looked like the ¡°real deal¡±. The man¡¯s arms and legs had been severed and blood covered the insides of the drum. ¡°The other two were the same,¡± said the uniformed police officer. ¡°The limbs seem to have been forcibly severed with a dull blade such as a machete. Also, wires were tied around near the point of amputation, seemingly to prevent as much blood loss as possible.¡± ¡°So the cause of death was...?¡± ¡°You will need to ask the medical examiner for the details, but it does not seem it was due to blood loss. It was multiple organ failure due to dehydration. ...In other words, it is highly likely he died of starvation.¡± Tch. This was exactly the method used by the pirate mafia near Okinawa. I believe ¡°exile¡±[1] is the term used. The victim had his arms and legs chopped off, was put inside a barrel or a drum, and then set afloat in the sea. The poor victims would either flip over and drown or be dried up after days of direct sunlight. Rumor said a third fate of being pecked to death by seagulls also existed, but there was no saving you either way. ¡°What a pain.¡± ¡°I know.¡± I had no idea if this was really a job for Department 1. If the pirate mafia was really involved, it seemed more like something for the anti-organized crime department or the PSIA. You didn¡¯t often hear about people getting promoted by getting into turf wars, so it seemed I had gotten stuck with a horrible job once again. ¡°Just to make sure, he¡¯s Japanese, right? He isn¡¯t some foreigner who was involved with some pirates, is he?¡± ¡°He is most likely Japanese. His nationality may be hard to tell from his looks, but the implant in his front teeth seems to have been done in the Japanese style. And no matter how quickly the current might have been, he would have mummified if he had floated all the way from the open sea.¡± ¡°And he seems to have a tattoo. Maybe a large criminal organization is involved.¡± ¡°It could have been forcibly given to him before he died or even after he died.¡± ¡°True. But a tattoo is basically a type of injury. The medical examiner will be able to tell.¡± I may have sounded a bit cold and uncaring, but that was my stance on things, so it couldn¡¯t be helped. To be honest, I had no interest in corpses themselves. When there was a murder, I of course wanted to catch the criminal, but that was only for the sake of the victim¡¯s family and to prevent the next crime. In other words, my desire to work was for the sake of living humans. That said... This did seem to have the possibility of future crimes, so I did have some motivation. Some. ¡°Now then...¡± There was one more annoyance I had to deal with. I turned my gaze away from the gruesome drum and to the pier. ¡°Hey, mystery freak.¡± ¡°What?¡± said a girl in response. However, the voice came from lower than you would normally expect. It came from about the height you would expect of someone wearing a swimsuit and lying on a beach chair placed on a pier. Oh, that is no analogy. A middle school girl with a mostly flat chest really was sunbathing in a yellow two-piece swimsuit. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± ¡°How rude. I was here before you were, detective. I¡¯m simply trying to make the best of my summer break.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I mean!! Look! See this tape!? You¡¯re inside it!! You¡¯re supposed to keep out of here!!¡± ¡°Give that a rest and just let yourself be enchanted by my lovely body.¡± ¡°Quit writhing around creepily like a snake shedding its skin and get out of here. Move, move.¡± I picked up the entire beach chair and carried the kid named Enbi outside of the yellow tape. Why didn¡¯t someone else kick her out already? ¡°Oh, that¡¯s because of my bold presence.¡± ¡°You may have the aura of a Dosojin, but you¡¯re just a middle school girl. Nothing more than a middle school girl.¡± Unlike me, she was interested in the corpses. Unless there was a murder, she had no interest in other people. As such, she had no discretion. However, this actually brought excess benefits along with it, so I suppose society was fairly well balanced. It did seem she thoroughly hated the higher ranking police officers who were always focused on demarking their own turf, though. After moving the beach chair away, I started to head back to the crime scene, but Enbi¡¯s slender fingers grabbed at the collar of my suit. She then whispered into my ear. ¡°...You don¡¯t really think this was the work of the pirate mafia, do you?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Once you¡¯re done here, I¡¯ll tell you.¡± The way she set that up was incredibly noncommittal. That mystery freak then pulled out a leather memo pad hooked to her swimsuit bottom. No, it was actually a smartphone with a cover that made it look like a leather memo pad. While still lying on the beach chair, she moved her index finger smoothly across the screen to operate it. She seemed to have completely lost interest in me. She was happily sunbathing next to the corpse from a bizarre murder. That middle school girl had held complete control of her conversation with a police detective from Department 1. For some reason, she had a way of destroying the boundaries of how things normally worked like that. There was certainly something wrong with her mind, but I was a bit jealous of how she could do that. That said, I had no interest in walking down the same path as Enbi. Mine may have been a completely dead end job, but I had enough of an attachment to it that I was not willing to completely abandon it. I did not have the guts to quit and open a ramen shop or something. Of course, it was possible that lack of guts was exactly how I had ended up in this dead end anyway. I reentered the taped off area and the uniformed police officer asked me a question. ¡°What should we do now?¡± ¡°Good question.¡± If the man had been both killed and stuffed into the drum on the island, we would only need to do a thorough search of the entire island. Unfortunately, he had floated here. This was not the kind of crime scene where forensics could search for hair or fingerprints. If the victim was from outside the island, turning over every stone on the island would not even turn up his identity. Of course, the island would be investigated, but there was not much guarantee that anything would be found. Things you had to do but could not expect results from had a way of really eating away at your motivation. This had been sent up to a larger investigation headquarters since it was a case of serial murders, but the detectives including myself, the forensics team, and the others who came only added up to about 20. This was because of how unlikely it was we would find anything on the island. The nearby islands also had to be investigated, the records of the ships that had passed by had to be checked, and the companies on the mainland related to the Intellectual Village known as Zashou Island had to be investigated. Since it was unknown where the actual crime took place, the area of investigation had to be spread wide. This had lowered the number of personnel working at each individual place. ¡°For now, we can go with the standard practice. Call in the islander who first discovered the drum and the one who helped you pull it out of the water so I can question them.¡± ¡°I can do that much. You¡¯re a Department 1 detective from the mainland, so isn¡¯t there anything a little...y¡¯know...flashier you can do?¡± The uniformed police officer made some kind of gesture on the word ¡°flashier¡±, but I¡¯m not quite sure what he was trying to get across. He was a surprisingly absurd person. It was possible he had gained a mistaken admiration for people in my position from watching too many police dramas. In reality, if a Department 1 detective went off on his own in a ¡°flashy¡± way like on TV, he would only end up being shot by the killer he was trying to catch. The power of the police was the power of an organization. Going off on your own was the same as casting aside the power of that organization, so it was quite dangerous. If you wanted that kind of thing, you would be better off going to that mystery freak. Or perhaps Enbi¡¯s older sister. At any rate, it was true there was one thing I had to do as a Department 1 detective. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll go get our rooms at the inn.¡± ¡°Hah?¡± ¡°I need to make sure we have a place to stay tonight. We¡¯re a group, so that can be surprisingly difficult.¡± Part 2 The department chief yelled at me over the phone when I told him it would be 50,000 yen a night. When I argued that the price was quite reasonable for a high class Intellectual Village inn and asked if it would be good for the image of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department if we were sleeping out on the street, he gave approval amidst more angry shouting. It likely would not have been so easy had a director or official intervened. It goes without saying that all the others cheered at my successful negotiation. The value of tax money could become a bit unclear when it made its way to those who used it. And then... ¡°...Why are you here, you damn mystery freak?¡± ¡°As I said before, I am trying to make the best of my summer break. I was here before you. Also, this inn is the only lodging facility on the island.¡± Tch. The police could hardly reserve the entire inn, so there wasn¡¯t much I could do about it. I decided I needed to speak in hushed voices when discussing the case with my coworkers. For the present, I desperately searched for something else to complain about. ¡°By the way, what¡¯s with that English gentleman-style pipe? You have guts to use that in front of a police officer, minor.¡± ¡°Non, non. This is just mint, detective. A little bit of deduction should have told you that. The people of Intellectual Villages practically deify the branding of ecology and health, so I could very well end up being ganged up on and beaten if I was puffing on an actual pipe and disposing of the ashes just anywhere.¡± As she spoke, Enbi put the mint pipe in a long, narrow case and hooked it to the edge of her swimsuit. Her two-piece swimsuit had no pockets to store small objects, so she hooked things like her memo pad-style smartphone and her magnifying glass to her swimsuit bottom. (She did not have a wallet, but she likely used electronic money for everything.) But with all that hanging there, the weight isn¡¯t going to pull her swimsuit down, is it? ¡°I have it calculated out to ensure no accidents like that happen. ...But if you¡¯re hoping for one, I could always arrange one to happen.¡± ¡°Mh!? Cough cough!!¡± Did she just read my mind!? ¡°Girls put a lot more effort into their looks than it looks. Should I tell you how much of a pain it is each and every day to maintain that impression of a ¡®sweet-smelling girl¡¯? I calculate everything out for my entire body.¡± I did not like the direction that conversation was headed. In an all-out attempt to change the topic, I focused in on Enbi¡¯s items. ¡°...Is there ever any situation where you actually need to use that magnifying glass?¡± ¡°It¡¯s more for setting the mood. It¡¯s something like having empty cans that look like smoke grenades during a survival game. They might not be of any use, but they put you in the right state of mind. Of course, once they make electron microscopes small enough to carry around, most cases will probably be solved that way.¡± ¡°As a mystery freak, I would have thought you would lament the advancement of scientific investigation techniques.¡± ¡°I just think of it as the shortest course to solving the case. If it can be solved easily, nothing could be better. We have no duty to go along with the criminal¡¯s gamble every single time.¡± Enbi¡¯s tone then changed to a light one as if she were inviting me out for a walk. ¡°Well, whatever. I have something I want to speak with you about, so will you join me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m on duty.¡± ¡°You left the questioning to the local police and are just waiting for the results. Also, this is the third death, so the speed of the initial investigation is of little importance.¡± Don¡¯t act like you know what you¡¯re talking about. Even if you¡¯re right. Somewhere out there was a murderer who had killed several people in such a gruesome way. That meant we had to work hard to stop the next murder. However, each additional corpse meant an additional plaything for Enbi, so she was getting excited. I left the inn with Enbi and we entered a small bamboo thicket. As I walked along a promenade that crossed the terrain that swelled up like a hill, the middle school girl next to me pulled out her smartphone that had a memo pad cover. ¡°You always have to ask for my help, you cute detective, so what questions do you have for me today?¡± ¡°Sorry, but it doesn¡¯t seem to be related this time.¡± Unlike the incompetent police detectives from mystery novels, I did not come crying to her because I did not know the answer. There were problems in this world that you were not allowed to solve even if you knew the answer. ¡°And it doesn¡¯t look like the investigation will reach a dead end due to diplomatic reasons either. So I also don¡¯t need your help in creating the setting of ¡®the police investigation is stalled due to international pressure but a certain civilian happens to solve the crime on her own¡¯.¡± ¡°Even though this is a complicated situation where someone is continuing to murder people while pretending to be the pirate mafia?¡± ¡°...Pretending to be?¡± ¡°After all, they have no reason to do this.¡± Enbi lightly waved her index finger. ¡°What were the common characteristics of the victims? You won¡¯t have enough information on the third victim who was just found, but the other two will do.¡± ¡°Adult males. In good health. Japanese. From the mainland and with no connection to this or any other island. They had their arms and legs severed before being stuffed into a drum and set afloat in the sea.¡± ¡°And one other thing.¡± cut in the mystery freak. She operated her smartphone to bring up some kind of data on the investigation. ¡°The victims had brand name rice seeds stored in a clear plastic bag.¡± ¡°...Plant hunters.¡± ¡°A bunch of grapes from an Intellectual Village costs 30,000 yen. It isn¡¯t unusual for people to try to sneak into the village to steal the brand name genetics.¡± ¡°So were the victims plant hunters who were trying to sell the seeds to the pirate mafia, but negotiations broke down so they were eliminated?¡± ¡°Um, hello? Don¡¯t you think the pirate mafia would take the seeds for themselves before setting them afloat? If they took the time to stop the bleeding with wires after severing their arms and legs, I think they would at least check them for any possessions,¡± said Enbi. ¡°Also, an Okinawan group would have no reason to want this brand name rice.¡± ¡°Why not? It¡¯s from an Intellectual Village.¡± ¡°Mainland rice only tastes so good because it matches mainland cooking. The ingredients made in their land go best with their local cooking. Their primary customers are the Chinese but the Taiwanese Japanese food boom is fading, so I doubt it is something worth risking your life over. With fruits or other things you eat as is, things would be different. There are a lot of people that go to the effort of having those kinds of things shipped in by air to avoid using preservatives.¡± ¡°Are you saying we can eliminate the possibility of the pirate mafia being involved based on that alone?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t make the police do anything, so feel free to waste all sorts of effort looking into that if you want.¡± Damn, do I hate her. ¡°...If we do rule out the pirate mafia, are there any other possibilities left?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t be absolutely sure, but I do have one guess.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°The stage here is Zashou Island. Now, what is its primary industry? Yes, Uchimaku-kun.¡± ¡°Pearl and oyster cultivation. It¡¯s a bit ironic that the cultivated ones are more valuable than the natural ones.¡± ¡°Technically, the term is mariculture. Instead of doing it in a completely isolated area, they leave the hatched fish in the ocean as they grow. A quite high-level smart system is used for this. Instead of just letting the fish grow and then taking them once they are grown, a large number of baby fish are used to interfere with the base of the food chain. That way, more of the rarer and expensive fish can be grown. The amount of certain fish and which there will be more or less of can all be predicted with a program.¡± Enbi operated her smartphone as she spoke, so she was likely looking this up as she spoke. ¡°Mariculture is their primary industry and the inland areas grow things like dragon fruits and mangos. They use global warming to their advantage and make a killing off of tropical fruits.¡± ¡°And how does that tie into your guess?¡± ¡°Well,¡± said Enbi with a grin. ¡°Where exactly did those plant hunters steal the brand name rice seeds they had?¡± Part 3 On the way back from our walk in the bamboo thicket, we chanced across a bizarre phenomenon. ¡°Gh!?¡± I suddenly felt a weight on my back. The weight felt as great as 3 or 4 pickling stones. As I groaned at the burden of that weight on my back, two slender arms wrapped around my neck from behind. The arms felt rather damp and moist. Noooo!! The Intellectual Village¡¯s famous Youkai time has begun!! ¡°What is this!? A Konaki Jiji!? It feels a bit wet!¡± ¡°Hmm. From the looks of her, I¡¯d say she¡¯s a Nure Onna.¡± ¡°What kind of perverted name is that for a Youkai!?¡±[2] ¡°Eh? She¡¯s a Youkai that drags any men she takes a liking to down to the bottom of the river. She isn¡¯t the type with a child, so she might suck your blood.¡± ¡°Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!?¡± That certainly sounds deadly! So does that mean I¡¯m in the middle of getting killed by a Youkai right now!? This danger came completely out of nowhere. This is why I hate rural areas!! ¡°Since she¡¯s on your back, you probably can¡¯t tell, but...¡± ¡°Wh-what?¡± ¡°She looks like a GAL of about 20. A GAL. That¡¯s a pretty rare appearance for a Nure Onna. Detective, you¡¯ll be a Youkai freak once you manage to consider yourself lucky in a situation like this due to the fact that she isn¡¯t just a giant snake with a woman¡¯s head!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to be anything like that...!! It was because there were so many of these things around when I was growing up that I headed out to the city!!¡± She hasn¡¯t said a word! I¡¯d rather avoid having to deal with an overly familiar Zashiki Warashi, but this total silence is creepy!! ¡°Basically, you just need to not approach the river and make a dash across the land with your own strength, right?¡± ¡°So I have to waste all that energy and I get nothing in return? What did I do to deserve this!?¡± ¡°...Isn¡¯t that basically the job description of a police officer?¡± I knew there was no way I could make it back to the inn with that thing on my back. I would definitely collapse partway there. And then I would be dragged back to the river. Isn¡¯t there anything I can do? With that thought, I pulled out my cell phone. One advantage of Intellectual Villages was that their communications network was very thorough despite the area looking quite remote. ¡°Hello? Could you bring the car around!?¡± ¡°No fair!! You¡¯re supposed to win out with your own strength!!¡± Part 4 When the car arrived at the bamboo thicket, the Nure Onna suddenly let go of my back and left. Apparently, she was the type to quickly retreat when faced with a battle she could not win. As a police officer, a young woman lightly dressed in soaking wet clothes (and a closer examination showed those clothes had become transparent in various places) staggering off into the depths of a bamboo thicket was not something I could just overlook, but this was not a human. She was a Youkai, and a deadly one at that. Rather than protect her, I needed to keep away from her. Otherwise, my life could be in danger. Someone with a dead-end police detective job like me had a very minor role. Someone like that would soon find himself at eternal rest if he tried to act like a protagonist, so I had to be careful. Our investigation produced no real results that day. We worked until the sun set and returned to the inn once it did. Even if we were investigators from Department 1 of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, we could not resolve a case in 60 minutes like in a police drama. Since it was likely more victims would turn up, we had to solve the case as quickly as possible, but the police were hardly all powerful. ¡°The wind sure is blowing,¡± said Wajima-san, a forensics investigator who had come to Zashou Island with us. We were gathered in the reception hall for dinner, but Wajima-san must have had even less to do than a detective like me. After all, there was nothing for him to do without a crime scene or any pieces of evidence. ¡°They say a typhoon is coming this way. It¡¯s one of the one¡¯s they were talking about before. We were right to fly the body out by helicopter as soon as we could.¡± ¡°Ugh, really?¡± The maximum wind speed in the storm zone was 30 m/s. Apparently, Zashou Island was in its direct path, so it was likely no ships, helicopters, or airplanes would be usable in the area. ¡°We can¡¯t leave the island for 2 weeks because of our job anyway. I¡¯m sure the typhoon will be gone by then.¡± ¡°It still gives me a bad feeling to know all forms of transportation will be down.¡± ¡°Have you been watching those 2 hour suspense dramas?¡± ¡°I¡¯m more worried about food and other goods we need.¡± I sighed. Intellectual Villages were well maintained, so there would likely be no issue with the water pipes or the electricity. ¡°If it comes to it, we might have nothing but the Umbrella Jizo to rely on.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a Youkai story. And it seems the only Youkai around here are Nure Onna.¡± ¡°I like the sound of that Youkai. And according to the local fishermen, Funa Yuurei come out at those times.¡± ¡°Hehh. That does seem to fit an Intellectual Village focused on fishing.¡± ¡°I grew up in the city, so this Youkai thing is still new to me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m jealous.¡± I had left my home town because I wanted to live somewhere like that, but it never seemed to work out. After chatting for a bit while eating our white rice, we switched over to talk of our work which was less fitting for a meal. For example... ¡°This is just a thought I had, but this might not be a case of serial murders.¡± ¡°You too, Wajima-san?¡± ¡°Three bodies have washed up in drums, but at different times. However, that does not mean they were set afloat in the ocean in that order. And since they were still alive at the time, we can¡¯t rely on the estimated time of death.¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying they were set afloat all at once from a ship or another island and they merely washed up in this order?¡± ¡°Many different currents collide here, making this a complex area. But that raises another question.¡± ¡°Yes, was it just those three who were set afloat?¡± ¡°It might have been more. We haven¡¯t heard of any washing up on any other islands, but they could have flipped over and sank into the ocean. It¡¯s also possible some are still floating out there. As I said, the currents here are complex.¡± ¡°It also seems they are plant hunters.¡± ¡°Yes. All three of them had brand name seeds.¡± ¡°But...¡± I started, but the woman running the inn approached. She offered us some sake, but I politely declined and asked for another bowl of white rice instead. ¡°Do you use special rice here?¡± ¡°No, we have a deal with Akita for that. They say local is best, but the subtropical environment of the island is not suitable for Japanese rice.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± I said as I took the rice bowl and the woman walked off to another group. I then began speaking to Wajima-san in a low voice. ¡°There you have it. The victims had this brand name rice, but where did they get it from and where were they taking it?¡± ¡°They don¡¯t make rice on the island, so it likely was not stolen on the island so they could take it elsewhere. So was it brought in from outside so it could be cultivated on the island?¡± ¡°But she said the environment here is not suitable for Japanese rice. Otherwise, they would have started making brand name rice on their own. No matter how excellent the seeds they had, there is no point if they cannot cultivate it.¡± ¡°So it is unlikely they were taking it from here or bringing it in here. That means...¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Part 5 After eating, I left the reception hall and entered my room. There, I called the chief of Department 1. He would have still received the information through a director or manager even if I had not, but he seemed to like to receive information directly from those on the scene. We exchanged information, but it indeed seemed unlikely we would uncover anything useful in the first few days. Nothing suspicious had been found on other islands or ships. It was unclear where the drums had come from. After my call to the section chief, I called my nephew Shinobu. This of course had nothing to do with my job. I wanted to ask about the typhoon. It was just one of a few different typhoons, but it was making quite the parade through the islands. They had likely already received the typhoon¡¯s baptism there. ¡°Cough, cough...Uncle? Did something happen?¡± There was something odd about my nephew¡¯s voice. It was not simply poor reception. ¡°Do you have a cold?¡± ¡°W-well, this Yuki Onna I met recently has been a bit overzealous, so...wait, no!! I don¡¯t mind, so you don¡¯t have to work so hard at making an ice pillow! No, wait...you idiot!! I didn¡¯t mean you should crawl inside my futon to cool me down directly!!¡± I heard sounds of a struggle on the other side of the phone. ¡°It seems Youkai are as fond of you as ever.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t they tend to hate you, uncle?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t stand Youkai. The law doesn¡¯t apply to them. When they commit crimes through a Package, you can only arrest the human criminals behind it. There is no law with which to punish the Youkai. Even if someone dies, it¡¯s treated the same as someone getting killed by some falling rocks. There¡¯s no investigation or anything. Nothing could be worse for someone like me who works for the living more than the dead. If you think of it from a legal standpoint...¡± ¡°...Um, uncle. This Zashiki Warashi next to me is grinning and saying she used to avoid you because of the peculiar look in your eyes when you stared at the back of her neck as a teenager.¡± ¡°Wahh!! Wahhh!!¡± Damn that indoor Youkai! She¡¯s making things up again!! This is why I hated my home town so much!! ¡°It sounds like you have a bad cold, but if that¡¯s the biggest news you have, there must not be anything too bad. I take it the typhoon didn¡¯t blow the roof off the house or anything.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t the Three Little Pigs, so don¡¯t worry. Things in an Intellectual Village may look old and run down, but it¡¯s all artificial. Not to mention that I¡¯ve heard this house has been quite durable for ages. It must be sturdy to have lasted hundreds of years. An apartment building made of reinforced concrete would probably have a harder time.¡± ¡°True. Well, that¡¯s all I wanted to ask about.¡± Old Japanese houses were so sturdy because the roof and walls were made to be easily repaired. The entire roof could be redone in a single day. With reinforced concrete, you just had to let it deteriorate. ¡°You watch out too, uncle. I¡¯ve heard you don¡¯t have to deal with Youkai once you leave these rural areas, but Youkai aren¡¯t the only dangerous things in this world.¡± ¡°Yes, and I¡¯m caught up in one of those things right now. But that comes with the job. It almost seems like dealing with a Nure Onna or Funa Yuurei would be more fun.¡± ¡°Oh, those Youkai that sink ships? I¡¯ve always lived inland, so I¡¯m not too familiar with those. Can those things sink an entire tanker?¡± ¡°Common ways of thinking don¡¯t apply with them. If they can sink ships, they can sink any ship. It doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s a luxurious cruise liner or an aircraft carrier. But I¡¯m sure you know how Youkai can twist the natural way of things more than I do. Say hi to your dad for me.¡± With that, I ended the call. Humans were the frightening ones. I knew very well what my nephew Shinobu was talking about. The question was, where was this frightening human? Part 6 I was awoken on the second day by the sound of pouring rain blowing against the window. The weather was so bad that the wind seemed strong enough to blow a small car away. I honestly wanted to hole up in the inn for my own safety, but I was a police officer and a member of society. I could not take a day off from my job because of the weather. I was in a dead end job! I wanted to rise to inspector or some other position where I could shove any unwanted work on someone else. However, the thought still left me feeling dejected since I knew inspector would be my limit however the system might work. ¡°...I should have dealt with more of this yesterday.¡± My complaining wasn¡¯t helping. On my first day on the island, I had done nothing more than prepare the foundation for the investigation. Today, I had to start checking over the entire island and gather the information I needed from the residents. The weather was bad enough that carrying an umbrella was hardly going to help, so I borrowed a raincoat from someone working at the inn and left. However, the raincoat left me feeling very hot and stuffy. It may have kept the rain out, but it left no way out for my sweat. I was sure my suit was soaking wet. The other police detectives were likely headed to the village to question people there, but I decided to walk along the perimeter of the island as there was something I was curious about. Zashou Island was a small island. A small mountain only 200 meters tall was located to the southeast and gently-sloping land spread out to the northwest. The village was located in that northwest area. The primary natural plant on the island was bamboo. This created a clear contrast with the dragon fruit, mango, and such in the plantations. To be honest, it was kind of a creepy. The things here could be called ¡°greenery¡±, but they could not be called ¡°natural¡±. Human interests had blotted out the natural scenery. The island had surely once had its own unique ¡°nature¡±, but that had been swallowed up by the stereotype of the ¡°tropical island¡±. ¡°Hi there. What are you doing, detective? Stealing fruit?¡± ¡°What are you doing here, mystery freak?¡± And why are you wearing a swimsuit in the middle of this storm? ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear that from the person wearing a raincoat in this humid tropical weather. Is it some kind of diet?¡± She read my mind again!? ¡°This wind would destroy an umbrella in 5 seconds and a raincoat is out of the question. So doesn¡¯t heading out in a swimsuit seem the most efficient? It matches the environment.¡± As always, she had her memo pad smartphone, magnifying glass, and such hanging from her swimsuit bottom. ...Has she made sure her smartphone will be fine in this rain? ¡°So why are you taking a walk down a mountain path in a swimsuit?¡± ¡°Since you didn¡¯t just head straight to question the villagers, I assume my reason is the same as yours.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a waste of time to just stand here. We can talk while we walk.¡± ¡°Good idea.¡± We walked alongside a plantation filled with fruits covered in nets to prevent wind damage. ¡°Have you looked around the island yet?¡± she asked. ¡°Not yet.¡± ¡°There is a cave over at the mountain. I didn¡¯t actually check inside it, though.¡± ¡°A wise decision.¡± Someone from the city might imagine exploring a cave you run across, but people from rural areas would never do that. They were crawling with bugs like centipedes and spiders, and there was always a risk of collapse, a lack of oxygen, or volcanic gases. A limestone cave maintained for tourists was one thing, but exploring some small entrance you find was as dangerous as crawling into a pipe in a ditch that leads into the sewers. ¡°The only lodging facility here is the inn we¡¯re staying at. The village has a simple sweets shop, a barber shop, and a few bars. There wasn¡¯t much else you could spend money at.¡± ¡°That sounds like the stereotypical Intellectual Village. They purposefully make it look depopulated. It would be perfect for filming a nostalgic film.¡± ¡°But look.¡± Enbi crouched down and picked up something half buried in the mud. It was an empty cigarette carton. ¡°Then this makes no sense.¡± ¡°That alone isn¡¯t enough to draw a conclusion from, but I suppose it is worth looking into.¡± I sighed and then looked around. It looked like I would have to walk all over the place in that blowing storm to find what I needed to strengthen my personal theory. Part 7 Once noon had passed, I was finally able to take a break from investigating. Wajima-san from forensics was glad to have something to do, but I could not just do nothing simply because I had passed the baton off. Now that I had the information I needed, I had no choice but to use it. It was time to interview people. Having to go around to each individual person in the torrential rain was hardly fun, but that was my job. It couldn¡¯t all be fun and games. I was going to be asking dozens of people the exact same questions, but I thought it would be best to head to the most self-important person right off the bat. I would do my best to keep it from happening, but the people I spoke to last would have the highest risk of telling a prepared story. It was best to head to the most suspicious people first. ¡°The president of the fishery cooperative would likely have something like that. Especially in a treasury of high-class goods like an Intellectual Village.¡± And so I first headed to the home of the president of the fishery cooperative. His name was Kurokawa Kai. Intellectual Village homes were sold on being ¡°like the old days¡±, but the fishing village homes were quite low key. The house had wooden walls and a tiled roof. Despite what my nephew may have said, it reminded me of one of the failed houses from the Three Little Pigs. But the Intellectual Village influence could still be seen in the solar panels on the roof. Ecology had become quite fashionable of late, but that boom had caused an unneeded jump in the price of semiconductors, so it didn¡¯t really seem appropriate to be happily grinning like in the ads. I had hoped to deal with it all in front of the house, but the typhoon was blowing rain up under the eaves. I was forced to set foot within the front door at Kurokawa-san¡¯s invitation. ¡°Oh, come on now. If I had something like that, I would be living in a much nicer house.¡± He looked like a pleasant man just entering old age. He had a bit of a bent back, but he had an atmosphere that made me think he could easily carry around weights that would cause a detective like me to cry out in pain. To put it bluntly, he looked like he had painful fists. I asked him arbitrary questions about what people were doing when the drums had been discovered and what he had been doing up until the police had been notified. Just as he realized I was merely asking the standard questions and began to relax, I suddenly stabbed into the heart of the issue. ¡°Kurokawa-san. I have heard the primary industry here is the cultivation of oysters and pearls.¡± ¡°Yes, it is called mariculture. There is a line in quality we just cannot seem to cross when it comes to natural ones. If you want quality higher than that, it is much faster for people to interfere. Of course, an excellent natural environment is needed as a starting point.¡± ¡°But it is not just that, is it?¡± I readily asked. ¡°You are just barely outside the bounds of the Ogasawara Islands. However, what lives in the ocean here is not that much different from around those islands. In other words, the protected species in the World Heritage Site that are often targets of poaching can be freely fished here. ...Is it more popular for people to buy them as rare pets than for food?¡± Zashou Island had received investments from many corporations planning to use its natural resources which were on the level of a World Heritage Site. However, most of that was in the name of investigating the territories of the marine life and therefore was based on a catch and release policy. If non-locals needed to fish there, they could only do so in authorized areas that were strictly enforced. They could not simply fill their fishing boats as much as they wanted. ¡°Detective, is that what you have come here to discuss with me? If so, you are wasting your time. Even if such things are happening, it would only be the cowardly poaching groups. That is not a business the fishery cooperative has anything to do with.¡± His words came smoothly, but that was actually much scarier than otherwise. People who suddenly had ridiculous suspicion cast on them by the police would normally be much more disturbed. ¡°Even if that is so, this island was originally a central point for such unsavory people.¡± ¡°And does that have anything to do with us?¡± ¡°It does. Those drums containing corpses washed up here. And the corpses had brand name rice seeds on them.¡± ¡°Zashou Island does not produce rice.¡± ¡°True. It was not heading from here to somewhere else. Also, this area is unsuitable to cultivate it, so it was not being brought in from somewhere else.¡± ¡°Then what are you trying to say?¡± ¡°This is a relay point.¡± Without hesitation, I continued speaking while well aware this method would apply the most pressure to the man. It was important to keep up the illusion that I had seen through everything. ¡°A relay point between point A and point B. And brand name rice would not be the only thing passing through. Most likely, a large variety of things pass through here. These would be products that would be dangerous to send directly. Perhaps a large criminal organization is involved. There was some trouble in the process of distribution and someone had to be ¡®punished¡¯. I would say that is what is going on here.¡± ¡°If that were true, shouldn¡¯t your main focus be outside of this island?¡± ¡°That depends on who these ¡®punishments¡¯ were directed at.¡± Perhaps I should not have said ¡°most likely¡±. That may have created a hole in the illusion that I had seen through everything. ¡°If they were targeted at someone else and they just happened to wash up on this island, that is one thing. But if those drums were meant as a warning to the residents of this island, I can hardly say you are uninvolved.¡± ¡°I suppose I can see where you are coming from. That would make a good movie.¡± ¡°Stuffing living people in drums and setting them afloat in the sea obviously seems like a message, but so does the brand name rice seeds. That kind of hint would be found with a simple body search, so I doubt someone who went to the effort of severing the limbs and stopping the bleeding would overlook it. That simplifies matters. Those seeds were information intentionally left for someone to see.¡± ¡°And yet you are wrong,¡± said Kurokawa-san smoothly. He seemed the type who would say things in meetings to serve his company even if it earned him the animosity of his colleagues. ¡°We have seen suspicious ships sailing in the seas around the island, but none have ever come to the island itself. At the very least, none have ever made contact with us.¡± ¡°Can you prove this?¡± ¡°You cannot prove they have, can you?¡± ¡°What if I told you I can?¡± When I said that with the same smoothness as Kurokawa-san, I saw his cheeks stiffen a bit. ¡°There are cigarette cases littering the ground in places all across the island. Not to mention chuhai cans and brandy bottles. And they are all brands not sold on this island. And don¡¯t try to say they washed up on the island. I found plenty of them in the middle of the island.¡± ¡°Ridiculous... That¡¯s your proof? Detective, surely you know how Intellectual Villages work.¡± After a brief silence, Kurokawa-san was back on form. ¡°The scenery is made to look intentionally run down to create the proper atmosphere. The vast majority of everyday items and luxury food items are bought using the communications network and internet shopping. The village is overflowing with products brought in from outside the island. That is not even enough for a false accusation.¡± ¡°Are you sure you want to use that as your explanation?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll give you time to come up with a better counterargument if you wish, so I am simply asking if that is your final answer.¡± I did not want to get caught in some annoying intellectual argument, so I was going to hurry up and deliver the finishing blow regardless. ¡°Kurokawa-san. Mass produced products have subtle differences within the exact same product depending on the factory and time in which and at which they were produced. Stamp collectors will get excited over differences in the concentration of ink. By looking into that kind of thing, you can easily check to see whether these things were bought online.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Also, records are left when you buy something online. Everyone has a purchase history. And this is not stored on your individual computers. It is stored on the company-side servers. Even if these are the same products by the same brands as people on this island bought, we can see if these are the exact same ones as you purchased. And we have started to check just that. So I ask again: is that your final answer?¡± In an area where large numbers of foreigners came sightseeing all the time, this would be a hopeless plan. However, there was not that much data to go through for a solitary island with few people coming and going. And you mustn¡¯t underestimate the power the police had as an organization. A check of the purchase histories of everyone on the island for the past year would be finished in just a few days. This was another reason why I hated Intellectual Villages. Everything was nicely said to be ¡°smart¡± or whatever, but you never knew what kind of information was being stolen behind the scenes. ¡°Detective, if you are investigating that, you must see our innocence as a distinct possibility. So let me ask you something: is this your final answer? If this all turns out to be a false accusation, I might very well cause an uproar over you falsely accusing people.¡± ¡°True, I have no definitive proof. But I have my suspicions.¡± You may be trying to threaten me, but it is not going to work, Kurokawa-san. Unfortunately for you, I come from an Intellectual Village too. I know how things work around here better than most from the city. ¡°More importantly, you focus on the environment and quality of your products more than all else. You would not just throw cigarettes on the ground, now would you? And it does not particularly matter if this would actually have an effect on your crops. After all, the brands from an Intellectual Village gain their strength from maintaining the proper atmosphere.¡± Kurokawa-san seemed unable to refute that point. That was to be expected. Saying they did not care about pollution could directly affect his income. ¡°Kurokawa-san, my job is nothing more than to expose the truth of these murders. I have no interest in the dead. My only desire is to help the families of the deceased and to prevent another crime from occurring.¡± I then upped the pressure so he would slip up. ¡°And if I must dig down into some larger plot to do so, I will dig down to the very bottom. I am a professional. I may dig up something even more grotesque, but I am prepared for that.¡± I felt a small gust of air. Kurokawa-san had let out a small sigh. ¡°Well, I am well aware that I have no authority to stop you,¡± he said. ¡°By the way, do you have any plans to leave soon?¡± ¡°You really should not threaten members of an agency that keeps the peace. And even if that is not your intention, we can still take action as long as we perceive it that way.¡± ¡°Now, now. We are not that stupid. I am saying this in spite of the risks. I feel no need to get any more involved if there is no need.¡± Kurokawa-san sounded more like he was reading a bedtime story to a child than he was threatening someone. ¡°Detective, you seem to be mistaken about something. We do not have any issues with outsiders. If we did, we would never have built an inn on the island. After all, Intellectual Villages are constructed so they can fully function without any external support.¡± Outsiders. Was he simply referring to me? Or was he referring to a large criminal organization? The way he had changed the way he was speaking like a car changing gears seemed to be asking me to be careful how I answered. ¡°...Whatever the case may be, we can¡¯t exactly leave until the typhoon passes, right?¡± ¡°I suppose not.¡± Immediately after saying that, Kurokawa-san¡¯s expression clearly changed. It was like a balloon deflating. This was not hatred, disgust, or hostility. His expression was one of pure regret. ¡°I guess that¡¯s that then,¡± he said. ¡°?¡± I then asked the same questions to every influential person on the island and then everyone with some connection to those influential people. They all reacted similarly. I did not know what was hidden on Zashou Island, but the day was nearing when I would find out. And once I had a handle on that invisible system, I would surely be able to see where the murders fit into it all. To put it bluntly, I felt like I was winning. I had found the route to solving the case and I thought I had everything under control. I was na?ve. I still did not fully understand what an Intellectual Village was. Part 8 Dinnertime had come and the storm had still not let up. It might last for days. And then a problem arose. ¡°...I can¡¯t get through.¡± I had tried to call my nephew Shinobu, but my cell phone was not getting much of a signal. Is this because of the typhoon? My colleagues were gathering in the reception hall, but I changed directions in search of somewhere I might get a better signal. ¡°What are you doing, detective?¡± ¡°Shut up, mystery freak. I can¡¯t get a signal for my cell phone.¡± ¡°You too? What carrier do you use?¡± ¡°JBP. So you¡¯re having trouble, too?¡± The mystery freak was using a foreign smartphone known as a Grape Phone, but it seemed she could not get a signal either. It seemed to be a weather issue rather than an issue with the service provider. We tried for a bit longer, but could not get a call through. Enbi tugged on my clothes and said, ¡°This is perfect timing. Let¡¯s have a chat.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to eat. Wait, where are we?¡± ¡°The first floor corridor. You got lost because you were walking around while staring at your cell phone.¡± ¡°Oh, I made it that far?¡± I don¡¯t remember heading down the stairs... Just as I looked up at the ceiling with that thought, I heard the sound of a hunting rifle being fired from directly above. I did not understand what was going on. And the situation continued before my understanding could catch up. The shots continued. Ten shots... Twenty shots... They just kept coming. It got to the point that my ears grew used to the loud explosive noises. I could hear thundering footsteps and screams mixed in, but the gunshots were loud enough to drown it all out. It was so much that I could not tell how many shots were fired or from what direction. ¡°This is bad...¡± said Enbi the mystery freak as she tugged on my clothes while I stood frozen in place. ¡°It¡¯s begun!! Those who didn¡¯t want the police sniffing around have struck first!!¡± ¡°...You mean the police are being shot by criminals? But this is Japan.¡± ¡°Surely you¡¯ve heard that in rural areas like Intellectual Villages no one is surprised to hear hunting rifles being fired.¡± ¡°But this isn¡¯t getting rid of some lone sightseer who wandered here! We¡¯re the police. This would wipe out 20 officers all at once!! Something like that would lead to a riot squad or even the JSDF being sent in. No one would be stupid enough to...!!¡± I trailed off because I saw something very unpleasant. A stain was appearing on the ceiling. This was not caused by a leaky roof. The stain was much too dark and red for that. I had no idea what kind of construction had been used for that inn. But how much liquid would there have to be to create a stain on the ceiling of the floor below? Something was happening. My fellow detectives and Wajima-san from forensics had been swallowed up by it. ¡°There¡¯s some over here, too!!¡± someone shouted. My heart skipped a beat. We did not have time to check and see who had said that. Enbi the mystery freak and I broke the window and jumped out. We jumped out into the wet darkness of that stormy night. We had finally caught a glimpse of the true face of the Intellectual Village known as Zashou Island. Part 9 The island was only so big. We obviously could not head to the village. The plantations and orchards may have looked natural at first glance, but they were actually protected by various cameras and sensors. The mountain apparently had caves, but those would likely end in our own destruction after falling into a natural trap. As such, the process of elimination left us with only the option of fleeing into a naturally growing bamboo thicket that had zero commercial value. To be honest, it did not feel safe in the slightest. We were simply buying time. If they searched the island, they would eventually find us and I could feel my body heat leaving me the longer I exposed my body to the torrential rain. The mystery freak looked down at her smartphone, and then clicked her tongue. The signal must still have been blocked. I doubted it was just a coincidence given the timing. ¡°Detective, do you have a handgun?¡± ¡°I had no plans to leave the island for a while, so yes. I only have 5 bullets, though. If they have gathered all of the hunting rifles from around the island, we¡¯re done for.¡± ¡°And they may have stolen the guns from the police they already attacked.¡± She did not say ¡°killed¡±, but that may have been out of consideration for me. However, I was not taking action for the sake of my colleagues. I doubted they were still among the living. That may sound coldhearted, but I had something more pressing to ask. ¡°Why would they take such a desperate measure? Killing 20 police officers is essentially adding the period to the end of their lives.¡± ¡°Not necessarily.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°It was in this bamboo thicket that you ran across that Nure Onna, right?¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°There was talk of Funa Yuurei at the docks. Do you know what the connection between those two is?¡± ¡°...There isn¡¯t one. One¡¯s an ocean Youkai and the other¡¯s a river Youkai.¡± The mystery freak brought her hand to her forehead at my immediate response. ¡°A Funa Yuurei is a scary Youkai that sinks ships if a set process is not carried out. A Nure Onna is a Youkai that drags people into the river if they meet certain conditions.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re saying they¡¯re both deadly?¡± ¡°They are both Youkai that make people go missing.¡± I gasped when she said that. It can¡¯t be... ¡°I was looking around Zashou Island based on suspicions that a large criminal organization is involved. In other words, I was assuming this was a testing ground for assembling a Package.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s what the Nure Onna and Funa Yuurei are for?¡± ¡°No. The Funa Yuurei is probably the main one. Maybe they failed with the Nure Onna and switched over the Funa Yuurei or maybe they got the Funa Yuurei version working and then started trying a different variation. I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°How can you be so sure?¡± ¡°Just look at the name ¡®Zashou Island¡¯.[3] This area originally had a lot of shipwrecks. At some point, an extra bit was mixed into the story. Rumors began to spread that some of those shipwrecks were faked in order to fake people¡¯s deaths and let them get a fresh start on life.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I groaned. Normally, it took years before a missing person was legally considered dead. However, shipwrecks were an exception. Someone missing after an accident at sea was legally considered dead after only a few months. That was convenient for people who wanted to be ¡°dead¡± as soon as possible due to debts or some other reason. ¡°So Zashou Island runs a side business of counterfeiting documents to erase all traces of the identities of people who have messed up their lives beyond repair?¡± If so, there was indeed a possibility that a large criminal organization was involved, but... ¡°...It goes beyond that.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I viewed this Intellectual Village too lightly. That is not the true identity of Zashou Island. I only half believed it, but that attack clinched it. Their Package is much simpler.¡± Then what is it? Can it get any darker than that? As I thought that, Enbi the mystery freak continued. ¡°The Package created on Zashou Island is most likely one that simply erases people.¡± I understood what she meant. I felt a chill run down my spine, but Enbi continued just to make sure. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if the person is tossed into the sea or abandoned in the mountain. Their Package simply makes sure that the people are never found.¡± That was something that a large criminal organization would love to get its hands on. It was a standard concept in movies and dramas, but even a police officer like myself had no idea if it was possible. But if there was some island where a body could be buried or sunk and never found again, it would be incredibly valuable for certain types of people. ¡°So the people of this island really do have a connection to a large criminal organization!?¡± ¡°It would be more accurate to say they may have had a connection.¡± ¡°Why put it in the past tense?¡± ¡°What proof do you have that led you to use the present tense?¡± The mystery freak looked up at my face amid the pouring rain. ¡°I have seen hints of a large criminal organization¡¯s involvement, but I have yet to figure out what specific organization it might be. The same goes for you, right, detective?¡± ¡°W-well, yes...¡± ¡°Then I have a thought. What if the large criminal organization was already eliminated in the same way your 20 odd colleagues were?¡± ¡°It couldn¡¯t be...¡± I groaned. I couldn¡¯t believe it. The scope was simply too great. We with the police would not allow any kind of criminal activity, so why had we not smashed those types of groups? The reason was simple. Those large criminal organizations were simply too large for us to do anything about. If we crushed one piece of it, that piece would simply be replaced, and they would get revenge for the piece that was crushed. At first glance, they seemed to be a disorderly collection of violence, but they were actually strictly managed in ways calculated to work to their interests. Even the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department would only get burned by them if it seriously tried to attack them. There was no way some amateur islanders could deal with that kind of professional violence. ¡°Do you know how many people make up that type of large criminal organization?¡± I asked. ¡°An independent group may have a few hundred people. The entire organization is probably in the tens of thousands. We don¡¯t actually know what size of group the islanders dealt with.¡± ¡°But that¡¯s still at least a few hundred. A group that size could overpower the people on the island with numbers alone!¡± ¡°If they all came at once. What if, instead, a ship of a dozen or so would come to the island and those people would be eliminated? Then when the first group did not return, the next group of a dozen or so would go...and then it all repeats. That changes things, doesn¡¯t it?¡± I could not believe what the mystery freak was saying. ¡°The large criminal organization would not know why the first group never returned from the island. That is the power of the Package at work. They may have only viewed it as some personnel missing, so they had to send someone else in their place. It would not be difficult to wipe out people who are not even remotely suspicious.¡± The girl spoke while wrapping her arms around her own body that was soaking wet from the rain. ¡°The core of this incident is not the large criminal organization; it is Zashou Island itself.¡± ¡°But at what stage? They eliminate people, catch tropical fish, and act as a relay point for plant hunters with brand name rice. They only get anything from that by having the large criminal organization involved, right? Zashou Island cannot complete the business on their own.¡± ¡°That is why I was primarily investigating the large criminal organization and let my guard down about the residents of Zashou Island. But I think you are wrong about this, detective. Those types of crimes that lead to obvious profit likely began after the large criminal organization came to Zashou Island. However, Zashou Island likely went bad much, much earlier than that.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°If the people of Zashou Island do have a Package that can completely erase any traces of a murder, they would have no reason to wait until now,¡± said the mystery freak quietly. The pouring rain made it difficult to hear her, but that just made it all the more creepy. ¡°They could have just done it the instant the police arrived on the island. Nothing was stopping them from simply waiting at the dock with hunting rifles in hand. And yet they waited for today. They did not come to silence you in fear of your investigation. I think it was some other trigger that set off the annihilation of the police here.¡± ¡°Some other trigger?¡± ¡°Something in this small society known as Zashou Island that rivals the law. Perhaps some custom or tradition that has continued on since before modern laws were created.¡± ... What? Something bothered me about what the mystery freak had just said. I felt like I had come across some kind of hint that filled a hole in her reasoning. But where? Where? ¡°...It was Kurokawa,¡± I realized. ¡°Their leader?¡± ¡°After I stopped by his house and asked him some questions, he asked me if I was planning to leave. When I said no, he muttered something about ¡®I guess that¡¯s that then¡¯. Do you think that could have been the trigger?¡± ¡°He wanted you to leave?¡± ¡°Do you think there is some deeper meaning?¡± ¡°No, I think we can take this quite literally. He was basically saying things did not have to grow more serious if you had left then. But that just leads me back to the fact that they could simply have killed everyone the instant they stepped off of the boat. Maybe there is some meaning in remaining on the island for a certain amount of time.¡± ¡°What do you mean? We still don¡¯t know exactly how they are related to this incident, but I doubt they wanted us looking around.¡± Even the vast majority of completely innocent people looked less than pleased when they saw a police badge when answering the door. No one wanted to be caught up in some kind of trouble. That was a completely normal reaction. ¡°Is that really so?¡± The mystery freak seemed to have a different idea. ¡°I am not talking about these recent murders. I am talking about the entire history of Zashou Island that spans hundreds of years.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°It has a small population. It has few resources. It is a small world cut off from the flow of time. ...If the people of Zashou Island disliked feeling left behind by the rest of the world, what could they do to remedy that?¡± ¡°Well, they could let in the more advanced culture so that...¡± ...Huh? Did I just say something important without realizing it? ¡°Exactly. In order to speed up the flow of culture on Zashou Island, it would be quickest to invite in people from outside. Just like how guns were introduced in Tanegashima. ...And remember this island¡¯s name? It seems clear they have had unfortunate guests washing in for ages.¡± ¡°So the residents of the island see you and me as targets carrying the things they want?¡± ¡°The same could be said for the large criminal organization,¡± added the mystery freak. But... ¡°That reasoning only works if you assume the people of Zashou Island wanted to modernize rather than retain a more leisurely flow of time. It doesn¡¯t work if they wanted to live a leisurely life cut off from the flow of the ages.¡± ¡°That clearly is not the case.¡± ¡°How can you be sure?¡± ¡°An Intellectual Village that felt that way would not let in anything from outside.¡± ...I see. Come to think of it, Kurokawa did say they wouldn¡¯t have an inn if they hated outsiders. ¡°Zashou Island would show hospitality to outsiders to acquire their technological information, but that would not tie up all the loose ends. Just as the gun destroyed the society of the sword, some kinds of new technology are sure to destroy the order of the island. They needed a countermeasure for that.¡± ¡°And that is why Kurokawa wanted us to leave...?¡± ¡°It may not have been quite so dangerous a thing at first. They would only allow people a short stay and not let them participate in their government. As long as outsiders left, the order of the island could be preserved. But if someone stubbornly refused to leave and tried to gain a position of power on the island...¡± ¡°They would go as far as to kill them to get them on the boat home.¡± Disturbing the order of Zashou Island. Staying too long and employing a power that could destroy the chain of command on the island. I gritted my teeth because I could think of too many things that fit that. It made sense. And not just for the police, but for the large criminal organization as well. If the people of Zashou Island really were acting on that reasoning, they would have seen both organizations as targets that they had to ¡°force to leave¡±. ¡°So would that make this something similar to Rokubu Goroshi...?¡± But if we were going to act on this theory, there was one thing that bothered me. ¡°What about those drums?¡± I asked. ¡°If the people of Zashou Island use a Package to make incidents and bodies disappear, would they really make such a fuss over those?¡± ¡°When the local police officer told you the incident had gotten too big to handle locally once a third drum was found, he was likely lying. He was likely one of the ones doing the killing on the island.¡± The way she added that last sentence so casually made me feel a bit dizzy. But it got worse. ¡°Those drums may have been an SOS sent out by the large criminal organization that got wrapped up in the attacks.¡± ¡°You mean they did that themselves?¡± ¡°It may be directly linked to a weakness in the Package or the scale of the incident may have grown so large it could no longer be completely hidden by the Package.¡± By this point, simply saying I had decided to leave after all would not stop the people of Zashou Island from killing me. I had already pulled the ¡°trigger¡± the mystery freak had mentioned. The people of Zashou Island had already killed hundreds of people, so 20 or so police officers were nothing to them. In fact, they might not even feel any guilt over shooting people with their hunting rifles. They may have come to kill us with the same feeling as preparing a futon for a guest who was spending the night. They would not stop. If we did nothing, we would end up being cornered. ¡°But this incident made it to the surface and we were called in,¡± I said. ¡°That means the Funa Yuurei Package is not perfect. It has a hole somewhere.¡± ¡°Yes. But it is also possible you were not the first police officers to come to Zashou Island.¡± It was possible that the police were doing the same thing as the large criminal organization. Groups of police may have come to the island a few times before and been slaughtered only for the entire process to repeat. I needed to find out as soon as possible what had happened at the police stations on the surrounding islands. Some horrible images came to my mind, but running from reality would not solve the problem. ¡°If they don¡¯t hear anything from us in three days, they will send a helicopter out.¡± ¡°But as long as the Funa Yuurei Package is functioning, you will have merely ¡®disappeared¡¯ and those outside the island will see no reason to fear. If anyone does happen to come here, they will be shot while they have their guard down.¡± ¡°Then we have to do something about that Package.¡± I turned to face the largest problem. Shit. A police officer relied on the power of an organization, so you could not expect one to act like a protagonist. However, I was the kind of person that worked for the sake of the living rather than the dead. And even if every single resident of the Intellectual Village known as Zashou Village was guilty, I still knew one living person I could save. Enbi the mystery freak. She was a horrible brat who had a way of preventing any kind of common knowledge from working in regards to her, but she was still a civilian and therefore someone I had to protect. And to do that, I had no choice but to do something that was quite unlike me. ¡°If the Funa Yuurei Package is complete, there is likely no way we can win. However, if we can do something about that Package, we may be able to receive standard assistance from the outside and survive this.¡± Part 10 A number of powerful lights danced about, cutting through the darkness as they went. We were of course not the ones using flashlights. It was the islanders holding them. The mystery freak and I held our breath amid the pouring rain and waited for them to leave. The bamboo thicket rustling above us was quite unnerving. The inescapable darkness squeezed at my heart. I was soaked down to my underwear and the feeling of the cold cloth sticking to my skin made it all the more uncomfortable. They did not seem to have found us yet, but those powerful lights were intimidating enough regardless. If we entered that ring of light, we were dead. That clear truth relentlessly bound all of our physical abilities as human beings. Nevertheless Enbi grabbed at my clothes and whispered. ¡°Let¡¯s run away.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t move now. They would notice.¡± ¡°They won¡¯t see the movement in this darkness and the sound of the typhoon will drown out any rustling of underbrush. ...If we end up in that light, we¡¯re goners, so at least we need to move someway¡± What we needed was not to put physical distance between ourselves and our pursuers. As long as the light did not catch us, we would survive even if we were back to back with the pursuers. That was the kind of safety we needed. The bamboo thicket sloped up toward the mountain, but the ground had smaller hills, too. We hid behind a small protrusion of ground. I did not particularly care how, but I wanted some time to think. The island was less than 10 kilometers across and there were...400 or 500 islanders. I had no idea how many of those were actually out searching, but they would eventually find us if they continued a thorough search. We had to come up with a plan before that happened. We needed some method of escaping Zashou Island. ¡°Luckily, this isn¡¯t Hawaii or Guam. If we can borrow a small fishing boat...well, we might not be able to make it to the mainland, but we should be able to reach a larger island with an airport.¡± ¡°Even though this really looks like a Funa Yuurei Package? Seems to me that would be charging right into the enemy¡¯s turf.¡± ¡°Funa Yuurei, hm?¡± My specialty was crimes in which people were killed by other people. To be honest, I did not know that much about those who did not fall under the rule of the law. My nephew Shinobu probably knew more about Youkai. What I knew with that amateur level of knowledge was... ¡°They¡¯re Youkai that sink ships, right? Fishermen will get on a ship and head to sea. Then...wait, how do they appear?¡± ¡°That is actually rather vague. The standard theory is that small hands appear on the ocean surface at some point, but there are few writings explaining exactly ¡®where¡¯ they come from.¡± ¡°It sounds like they can target you no matter where on the ocean you are.¡± Youkai, especially the deadly ones, had a tendency to be ridiculously overpowered. ¡°So what is it that makes them kill you? If I recall, you give them a water ladle and they sink the ship.¡± ¡°That¡¯s skipping a step. The water ladle is like a protective charm. You will be killed because the Funa Yuurei have come to your ship, so you give them the water ladle to avoid that.¡± ¡°So they sink the ship if you do nothing?¡± ¡°The actual method of killing is not well defined. Since the story has a bunch of hands on the ocean surface, it¡¯s possible those hands grab the ship and capsize it.¡± The bright light of a flashlight cut by above our heads. I was so nervous I felt a pain in my chest, but we remained in the shadows because of the protrusion in the ground. ¡°So Funa Yuurei are a deadly Youkai that kill people without question upon meeting them? And even when you give them the ¡®protective charm¡¯ that is the sole way of avoiding it, they kill you if you do it wrong?¡± ¡°The right way is to give them a water ladle with no bottom,¡± said Enbi. ¡°It is impossible to defeat or obstruct a deadly Youkai using normal means. The most you can do is ensure their process of killing amounts to nothing so you can escape any danger.¡± But there was one thing I found odd. The Package the people of Zashou Island had created was constructed to make any inconvenient corpses completely disappear. Yes, completely. ¡°Throwing a body in the ocean does not completely eliminate all evidence of a crime. Even if the body is not found, it can still be deemed a murder. If everything needed to objectively prove a murder took place is gathered, a judgment can be made.¡± For example, a large blood stain could be found. Or a metal drum could be found with evidence a human body had been completely burned within it. A single piece of evidence was enough, so the Funa Yuurei was not enough for the Package. After all... ¡°If they shoot us with hunting rifles here, at the very least, blood and pieces of flesh would be sent everywhere. There¡¯s no way they can clean it all up. I don¡¯t see how this method could cause a murder to ¡®disappear¡¯.¡± ¡°We are not dealing with an Edo period Youkai here.¡± The mystery freak gave a small sigh. ¡°If the Funa Yuurei are being used for modern crime in a Package, I doubt they are no more than an existence that sinks ships with a water ladle. The symbols will have been broken down and rearranged into objects and conditions that suit the people of Zashou Island.¡± ¡°Come to think of it, my nephew Shinobu said he ran into a Yuki Onna whose conditions had been combined with some facility¡¯s usage agreement.¡± ¡°My sister would know more about that kind of thing than me.¡± ¡°...I¡¯d say she¡¯s practically a Youkai herself.¡± Don¡¯t bring up a woman of whom the PSIA are too afraid to keep tabs on. Thinking about power that you don¡¯t currently have is a sign that you¡¯ve stopped thinking of an actual solution. ¡°So the modern arrangement of the Funa Yuurei involves those insane islanders who each have a hunting rifle.¡± As I spoke, I pulled out my handgun. It was a small model provided by the police. It was meant more as a threat than an actual means of injuring or killing others. The cylinder held 6 shots, but I only had 5 loaded. Even so, it was the last weapon I had available. Whether I was actually going to fire it or not, the mere act of pulling it out wore on the nerves of a policeman in the kind of dead-end position I had. ¡°...At any rate, we can¡¯t escape without stealing one of their fishing boats.¡± ¡°The fishing harbor is basically the headquarters for the people of Zashou Island, right? Also...¡± ¡°You want to know if we would be fine heading out in a ship in the middle of this storm, right? To be honest, I doubt it. But it might be better than staying here on this insane island.¡± Suddenly, I stopped talking. This was because of the soft feeling I felt under my feet. Also, I caught a whiff of a sour, irritating odor that was a bit different from iron and stabbed at my nose. I felt a powerful urge to not look down. I felt like I had made some kind of misunderstanding. It was a similar feeling to finding out what some food you ate truly was after praising it for being delicious. ¡°Wha-...¡± The mystery freak started saying something, but stopped. She was swallowed up. That was how it felt to me. Enbi who was just a step away from me had been swallowed up by something. And in a few seconds, the same would happen to me. The one who had already been swallowed up and the one who was about to be swallowed up. That was the only difference between us. And then I looked down. I learned what it was I had stepped on. I had found them. The corpses. This was not something as cheap as a single corpse. These human corpses were thoroughly decomposed, discolored, and had lost all semblance of their original shape. They were all mixed together to the point that it was impossible to tell how many people it had originally been. I ignored the overall situation I was in and let out a scream. I tried to scrape the sticky, mud-like substance off of my foot, but I soon realized that was impossible. I had nowhere else to stand. A feeling like stepping through the bottom of a soaking wet cardboard box was all it took to tell me that. I was surrounded by corpses. I could not believe that I had not seen them until then. Or perhaps they had been rendered invisible. Perhaps we could only see them now because we were now the ones to be killed. ¡°Funa Yuurei are said to sink the ship and kill everyone aboard, but that is actually rather vague as well,¡± said the mystery freak with a pale face. ¡°To be more accurate, the people ¡®go missing¡¯ while ¡®on the boat¡¯. It is only because they are never found again that they are deemed drowned and dead.¡± They had not hidden the bodies. They had made them invisible. While on the island. While on Zashou Island. No. If what the mystery freak said was correct... ¡°This is...the boat?¡± I was completely dumbfounded, but I frantically moved my lips. I knew I could not let myself stop thinking, but I could feel my thoughts being ripped from my head. ¡°Did they have Zashou Island itself correspond to the Funa Yuurei boat!?¡± Youkai that made people disappear from the boat. If Zashou Island corresponded to that boat, they could almost automatically cause any murder that took place on the island to disappear. Yes. That was it. ¡°The Funa Yuurei are a large number of hands. That¡¯s exactly what the islanders pursuing us are! And Funa Yuurei kill using a water ladle. They don¡¯t do it unarmed. Since they use a tool made by humans...¡± ¡°Not good...Their hunting rifles!!¡± Some unpleasant symbols were fitting together too well. The light from multiple flashlights headed our way. The sound of footsteps on the undergrowth could be heard clearly even through the torrential rain. I wanted to run, but my legs refused to move. We were surrounded. It was just like we were surrounded by countless hands while on a tiny fishing boat in the dark sea. As long as we were on the ¡°boat¡± that was Zashou Island, we could not escape those people who corresponded to the Funa Yuurei. I immediately moved my hand to operate my handgun. That was all I could do. In the next instant, the deep gunshot of a hunting rifle rang out. Part 11 (3rd person) The gunshot was accompanied by powerful recoil to the shoulder. When the hunting rifle shot struck the detective in the thigh, he fell to the wet ground as if his feet had been swept out from under him. The man cried out as he collapsed on top of the rotting corpses that had turned green and gray. Kurokawa, the president of the fishery cooperative and the man who led the islanders from the Intellectual Village of Zashou Island, had not shown mercy. He had seen that the detective was messing with his handgun, so he had immediately pulled the trigger. Instead of aiming for the man¡¯s vitals, he had just tried to hit him wherever he could. This had had the desired effect. The detective had dropped his handgun. The shot shell was meant for birds, so it had not torn his limb off even from that close range. A group of about 15 gathered in the bamboo thicket with Kurokawa at their center. ¡°Contact Tasaki and Inoue¡¯s groups. We don¡¯t need to scatter ourselves any further.¡± On Kurokawa¡¯s instructions, two younger men spoke into their radios. Kurokawa and the others had switched off the normal network for cell phones and the like. Kurokawa heard someone¡¯s breath whistling. It was coming from the detective who had been shot. The girl next to him was unharmed, but she seemed to have fallen into a state of shock at the fact that the detective had been shot. Also, if she charged at them, she would merely be forced back with the hunting rifles. One of the young men speaking with their fellow islanders over the radio asked Kurokawa a question. ¡°What do we do now?¡± ¡°Just to be safe, we need to make sure there are no others left. Well, even if there are, I doubt they can leave the island. Still, we need to know exactly how many people we need to have leave.¡± Kurokawa looked around. ¡°We only need one of them to ask about the situation. We need to get detailed information out of them, and this one already seems too weak for that. We will head back with just the one we need.¡± Who was it that would be saved? Who would be shot to death by dozens of bullets while surrounded by rotting corpses? Who would be dragged off to some strange place and have their body torn apart while still alive until they satisfied the islanders with their answers? ¡°...¡± While still collapsed on the ground, the detective¡¯s right arm moved. Kurokawa pulled the trigger without hesitation. The shot stabbed into the area between the man¡¯s wrist and elbow. Blood sprayed into the air. ¡°Gyaaaahhhhh!! Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± Even as he screamed and writhed in pain, the detective continued crawling through the rotting flesh and toward his handgun. Kurokawa frowned. Normally, people would raise their hands in surrender at that point. Even with certain death approaching, human beings would give in as long as you gave them enough clear pain. There was something more there. The man¡¯s movements were dull. With his leg shot, he could no longer run away from the hunting rifle¡¯s barrel. Kurokawa could take his time and aim for the man¡¯s head or chest. The detective¡¯s hand reached the handgun. However, Kurokawa already had his hunting rifle aimed, so he was able to take action faster than the detective who was crawling along the ground and had only just grabbed his gun. Kurokawa could kill him. Just as he brought his finger to the trigger, something strange happened. The detective did not try to shoot the handgun. He weakly tossed the mass of steel at Kurokawa. At the same moment, Kurokawa wordlessly fired his hunting rifle. With a tremendous blast, the shot struck the detective in the face. ¡°...What was that?¡± Kurokawa muttered as he looked down at the detective who had rolled over from the blast and finally stopped moving. He seemed to have been attempting something, but it had ended in failure. At any rate, the detective was dead. Just as Kurokawa was about to order his comrades to bring the girl back with them, he realized something. Something was odd. Something was strange. Something was missing. He looked down at the girl whose arm he was grabbing. That was it. ¡°Why are you not screaming?¡± he asked. ¡°You fell into shock when that detective was only shot in the leg. He was just shot in the face. That completely settles this. So why do you seem calmer now!?¡± It was not that the shock had been so great that her emotions had disappeared altogether. The girl looking up at him had clear calm in her expression. It was so eerie that Kurokawa was overcome with unease. The girl¡¯s pale lips opened to speak. ¡°Because he made it in time.¡± Kurokawa was not able to ask what she meant. The detective who Kurokawa had supposedly shot to death stood up from amid the pile of rotting corpses. For an instant, Kurokawa¡¯s emotions were overwhelmed by an extraordinary blankness. His mind could not keep up. It was not right for a man whose face had been utterly smashed to be getting up. And yet the detective¡¯s face no longer had a scratch on it. It was not a simple case of having missed. Kurokawa had clearly seen the shot he fired strike the detective in the face. And yet... ¡°...That was close,¡± spat out the detective as he grimaced at the unpleasant stains covering his suit. ¡°It wasn¡¯t enough to have it simply leave my grasp. If I did not do so by my own volition, it wouldn¡¯t have had the desired effect.¡± ¡°Wh-what...? What are you talking about!?¡± ¡°I am talking about the Funa Yuurei,¡± replied the detective. However, Kurokawa had not actually been seeking an answer. The calm smile on the man¡¯s face was so frightening, that Kurokawa pulled the trigger on his hunting rifle once more. Something odd happened once more. The gun should have had bullets remaining, but nothing happened when he pulled the trigger. ¡°Zashou Island corresponds to the boat, the islander to the Funa Yuurei, and the hunting rifles to the water ladle, right? With that much preparation, there was no way to win by any normal means. After all, you had already easily destroyed a large criminal organization and a group of police.¡± ¡°Fire, fire!! What are you doing!? Don¡¯t let him talk!!¡± Kurokawa shouted at his comrades, but he received no reply. Kurokawa was able to guess why that was. Most likely, the same change had occurred in their guns. They would not fire. It was such a simple yet effective change. ¡°But there is a way out.¡± The detective continued while ignoring Kurokawa who was shouting as if keeping the detective from speaking would stop what was happening. ¡°According to the stories, you will be saved if you give a bottomless water ladle to the Funa Yuurei. On Zashou Island, the hunting rifles take the place of the water ladle, right? In that case, you can do this to take the place of that protective charm!!¡± The detective reached into his suit pocket and pulled out the brass cartridges for his handgun. He had five shots in his hand. Kurokawa had no way of knowing, but that was every bullet that had been in his revolver. ¡°An empty handgun. A water ladle that cannot carry out its proper role. Giving one of those to the Funa Yuurei will save those aboard the boat!!¡± That was why the islanders¡¯ hunting rifles were no longer working. Kurokawa cast aside his ¡°water ladle¡±. He did not care if he was unable to use any tools. As if to say he was going to settle things in a more primitive manner, he tried to grab at the detective who had been shot in two places. But he could not. Kurokawa was knocked back partway to the detective as if there was an invisible wall in the way. He was knocked down to the rotting ground. ¡°You can¡¯t do that,¡± said the girl quietly. ¡°It would be one thing if you had tried to sink the boat with your bare hands from the beginning. However, we have already handed you the ¡®bottomless water ladle¡¯. Now that we have given you the ¡®protective charm¡¯ in the proper fashion, the lives of those aboard the boat are saved. That means we cannot be killed regardless of the presence of a power that can harm us. ...Once they have been handed the ¡®bottomless water ladle¡¯, the Funa Yuurei will forget that they have the power to sink the boat with their bare hands.¡± The gamble for the detective and the girl had been whether they could give the handgun to Kurokawa and the others of their own volition. And they had succeeded in that. Now, the Funa Yuurei were nothing but shackles for the islanders. But even knowing that, the islanders were unable to get rid of the Package. Youkai were not tools. Putting together a Package was nothing more than intentionally causing the power of the Youkai to work towards your own ends. The Funa Yuurei were not obedient to the islanders. The islanders had prepared Funa Yuurei in a way that led to their own gain, but the detective and the girl had altered that. It was the same as how an advantageous position in chess could be completely overturned in a single turn. But the islanders were unable to flip over the chess board in a fit of anger. As he leaned on the girl¡¯s shoulder, the detective whispered to her. ¡°...How about we escape?¡± ¡°Sounds good.¡± ¡°I only have so many handcuffs and I have no idea where to find rope or anything else to tie them up with. But the next time we come here, we¡¯ll have a Package countermeasure and a warrant. Maybe a riot squad as well. We¡¯ll have to swipe one of their fishing boats, but it¡¯s better than staying on this island filled with rotting corpses.¡± They could not be stopped. They could not be stopped. They could not be stopped. A single order from Kurokawa was supposed to bring 400 to 500 people down on any enemy, but they could not stop just two people. And... If those two left, all of the islanders¡¯ ill deeds would come to light and only ruin would await them. And yet ¡°getting them to leave¡± had been their goal the entire time. Part 12 (3rd person) And so the outsiders left. Kurokawa and the others left behind had something they had to do. They could not allow themselves to be arrested. There was no saving them once that happened. After killing enough people to have bodies scattered all over the island, there was no way they would survive being judged in a court of law. They would not escape the death penalty. That left them few choices to protect themselves. A large number of people would soon be coming to Zashou Island. The order of the island would be destroyed on a level never before seen. It would all be swept away. They could predict that much. A wave was coming large enough to eliminate not just the society of Zashou Island but the village itself. In that case, Kurokawa and the others had no choice but to ¡°have them all leave¡±. This time, they would use everything available to them. ¡°Th-the Package! We need to reassemble the Package!! We need to make it stronger!!¡± Kurokawa shouted instructions to the islanders. ¡°Whether it¡¯s a large criminal organization or the police, they need to come to the island to attack us. In that case, we just have to destroy them the instant they set foot on the island. It doesn¡¯t matter if we have to kill hundreds or even thousands!! We will crush all those who would get in our way!! That is the only way for Zashou Island to survive!!¡± Most items used for everyday life in the Intellectual Village were ordered via the communications network and the internet, so the mainland would be able to apply external pressure to Zashou Island if it wanted to crush the island. However, Kurokawa and the others were so focused on the imminent threat that such thoughts did not enter their minds. And something else did not enter their minds. Namely, the possibility that something even more frightening awaited them before that ¡°imminent threat¡± could arrive. ¡°Hello,¡± said a female voice. The details of her appearance were unclear. Kurokawa could not even determine the exact shape of her face. This was simply due to the fact that she was much too close to him. He was just barely able to tell it was a woman who was so close their noses were almost touching. Kurokawa could not even imagine when she could have gotten that close to him. The next thing he noticed was the utter silence. The other islanders had been running around making plenty of noise just a moment before. He had been giving them instructions on how to reassemble the Funa Yuurei Package. All of that had disappeared. All that remained was a painful ringing in his ears. If he just moved his head slightly to the side, he would be able to tell what was happening. But he could not. It was impossible. He could not even attempt it. He had no idea what horrible thing would happen if he let that woman out of his sight for even an instant. And so Kurokawa was unable to move a single eyeball, much less his head. It was as if he had been overcome with sleep paralysis. ¡°Maybe I went a little overboard here. Well, if this was an incident that the law could deal with, the penalties handed out by the law would have been enough. However, you went beyond that. So naturally the penalty must also go beyond what the law can provide.¡± ¡°Wh-what...?¡± Kurokawa felt his throat rapidly grow dry. ¡°You¡¯re not from the police... So are you from the large criminal-...?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t put me on the same level as them.¡± Her voice was neither especially loud nor especially high-pitched. Her words came gently and smoothly. Nevertheless, there was something to the woman¡¯s voice that silenced Kurokawa in an instant. ¡°And to be honest it really doesn¡¯t matter who I am. But if you want to waste your precious question time on that, that¡¯s fine with me.¡± The woman held up a slender index finger. ¡°Hint 1: I am someone who does not want the likes of you to increase in number. However, I am not completely opposed to Youkai powers.¡± She raised her middle finger. ¡°Hint 2: There are some Youkai that are so dangerous you will die just from meeting them.¡± She raised her ring finger. ¡°Hint 3: Have you ever heard of the Hyakki Yakou?¡± A week later when the typhoon had passed by Zashou Island, members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrived at the island along with a riot squad. They found innumerable rotting corpses, but they were unable to find the perpetrators. They would have assumed they had fled, but the islanders¡¯ fishing boats were still in the harbor. And... There was one thing the investigators could not know since the number of corpses was so great it would likely take months to identify them all. Yes. It was entirely possible the rotting flesh of the islanders was mixed in with all the other corpses. Notes 1. ¡ü While the term usually refers to exile, it can also be interpreted to mean something along the lines of "floating punishment". 2. ¡ü Nure Onna literally means ¡°wet woman¡±. 3. ¡ü Zashou refers to a ship running aground. Volume 1, 3: Regarding Hishigami Mai Volume 1, Chapter 3: Regarding Hishigami Mai Part 1 Hyakki Yakou. I may have used the name on Zashou Island, but I did not actually belong to the group. I do not like going to the effort of explaining the annoying details of an organization¡¯s structure, and what does it matter if someone I am about to kill comes to the wrong conclusion? ¡°Excellent work,¡± said a dignified voice. The speaker wore a kimono and sat at the back of a tearoom that smelled of old-fashioned incense. Just hearing that, you might think it was an organization ruled by the elderly and left behind by the times, but the person wearing the kimono was a girl of about 10. You could say the girl was a decoration. She was a symbol of the downside of putting too much focus on bloodline. When the previous generation was sent to an early grave, the leader became a child that was softer than a crab after molting. It was remarkable how the Hyakki Yakou¡¯s situation had so quickly shifted in a dangerous direction. There were rumors that a true conflict would occur soon and that rebellious elements were gathering from within the organization. Nevertheless, the girl¡¯s expression remained unchanged. The fact that she had been forced into a situation where she had needed to gain such control over her expressions at her age made me pity her. ¡°You will be paid in the usual fashion.¡± ¡°Sure thing.¡± ¡°Once you have confirmed receipt of your pay, are you willing to take on another job?¡± ¡°If I can take a three day vacation and the pay will be suitable for the job.¡± All the jobs I got were utter shit. They were consistently as low as they could get. But I would do any job as long as I was paid. That was how I lived my life. I had less of an issue with this young lady¡¯s jobs because they still had a bit of ¡°softness¡± left. For one thing, any professional would call it suicide for a VIP like her to meet someone like me face-to-face rather than using a middleman. It almost made me pity her that she had no aide loyal enough to stop her. ¡°What is the job?¡± ¡°Read this.¡± The girl slid an envelope filled with documents toward me. I was still standing, so I stepped on the envelope as it slid along the tatami mats and then kicked it up. When I checked on the contents, I also found several pictures and a map with some marks on it. ¡°Shirakido City?¡± ¡°It is a rural city in Shinshu. The name is gone due to consolidations, but the area was one known as Ubasute Village. In fact, not even the original buildings of that village remain.¡± ¡°Yeah, the map only shows a dam.¡± ¡°That dam is set to be demolished,¡± said the girl softly. ¡°The dam was constructed to develop the land for a normal rural city rather than an Intellectual Village. The old and extremely depopulated village ended up underwater. Anyway, it seems the recent fall of an influential person had an effect on the local government.¡± ¡°So they¡¯re destroying the dam and restoring the sunken village?¡± ¡°Those in favor of turning it into an Intellectual Village have been quite active. We have no intention of interfering with that, but we fear that the process of restoration could bring something out from the depths of the water. Something that must not see the light of day.¡± ¡°So this is related to Youkai?¡± ¡°Yes, and on a level that requires the involvement of Hyakki Yakou.¡± Does that mean the Public Security Intelligence Agency has already gotten involved and suffered losses? They can be prideful, so they must have lost at least 4 or 5 men to be willing to ask Hyakki Yakou for help. As I thought, the girl created a very serious mood. ¡°We need you to determine the details and then eliminate the threat if necessary.¡± ¡°Will you take care of any necessary expenses?¡± ¡°We will.¡± The girl¡¯s voice grew stiff. When I said ¡°necessary expenses¡±, I was not referring to money. I was asking if I could get unrelated people involved in order to approach the core of the case. I had no intention of being sloppy enough to leave behind any trace of my involvement, but having some insurance in case I did took a large burden off my mind. And that meant I had one more thing I had to check on. ¡°This job includes reconnaissance and destruction. Can the necessary expenses begin in the reconnaissance part of the job? If so, it is possible some of those expenses will only lead to dead ends.¡± ¡°I was prepared for that from the moment I decided to hire someone outside of the organization.¡± ¡°Excellent.¡± She had the cutest responses. I knew it put a burden on her, but I couldn¡¯t help but do it sometimes. I threw the envelope of documents back at the girl and turned around. ¡°Do you not need the documents?¡± ¡°I have already memorized them.¡± I left the tearoom. Antiquated design. An old-fashioned interior. A strange stillness. Everything about the place created an atmosphere that Youkai would like. I walked through an area like that and headed outside. What I exited was not a Japanese house you would expect to find a Zashiki Warashi living in. It was a giant V-shaped flying wing that was reminiscent of a stealth bomber. That large passenger plane was the highest-class aircraft available for personal ownership and it was that girl¡¯s mobile base. Amazingly, she also had eight generation 4.5 and generation 5 escort fighters, two large transport planes filled with the equipment and materials needed to maintain them, and a single aerial refueling craft. The flying wing had an antenna on top that looked like a giant plate and it could function on the level as any airborne warning and control aircraft, so she could break through territory controlled by a small air force if necessary. If its armaments were changed out, it could probably carry out a bombing mission. ¡°The fighters have to remain up above the clouds with the slow-moving flying wing for long periods at a time, so I heard they installed kitchens and bathrooms on the fighters. I wonder if that¡¯s true.¡± Officially, a group of instructors from a flight school that hired retired pilots had been brought in to test out the latest models from aerospace defense companies, but it must have required a lot of influence to force that explanation through. Those fighters were masses of national secrets, so it was not normal to let someone land them and their maintenance parts and equipment at airports around the world regardless of whether the airport belonged to an allied nation or not. In other words, Hyakki Yakou had enough trust or threat of violence to silence the complaints of a developed nation with nothing but a glance. However... ¡°How sad,¡± I muttered as I walked down the stairs and onto the runway of the bayside international airport. ¡°Spending so much money on something like this just tells everyone you would be in too much danger if you remained in one place.¡± Part 2 I was within mountains covered in conifer trees. You know, the type of mountains you can find anywhere. It was the type of rural area that earned many a hateful gaze because of all the cedar allergies it would surely cause every spring. I was driving through it in a rental car I had borrowed under a false name. I was headed for a run-down pension. It was all an attempt to not stand out, but the unfashionable cars and lodging I always had to choose were difficult to put up with. It may have been in response to that kind of camouflage that, in their time off, hit men and spies wore showy outfits that looked like your average person dreaming of being someone from a movie. When I arrived at my room, I did a sweep for cameras or bugs and then tossed my small bag onto the bed. I opened a case and pulled out some makeup equipment. I then opened a small hidden space and assembled the nonmetallic parts hidden within. I ended up with a handgun small enough to fit in my palm and a suppressor that looked about three times as big. I was aware the suppressor completely ignored the small size of the actual gun. That was when a child-like voice called out from below. ¡°Quite a strange piece of equipment you have there.¡± ¡°Reality doesn¡¯t work like a Hollywood movie. Simply adding a suppressor to the barrel is not enough to completely silence the gunshot. The caliber was brought down this low in an attempt to keep it as quiet as possible.¡± ¡°And is that really necessary?¡± ¡°How should I know? It¡¯s my job to investigate and find out. But it¡¯s best to have it around if 100% safety cannot be guaranteed. Not that I¡¯ve ever been in such a situation before.¡± If I was in a situation where I had to rely on something like that in Japan, I had 80% lost already. It was important to only begin a fight once you had prepared an environment where you did not need something like that. ¡°Shirakido City is...or rather, the ruins of Ubasute Village are 5 kilometers from here. This whole thing seems suspicious, so be careful,¡± said the voice. ¡°...One question.¡± I hid the small handgun and the suppressor in my boot. My boots were like a type of trick art. There was a difference between how they looked and how much space there actually was. I was dressed like a stupid tourist with a tank top and hot pants on. The outfit was fairly revealing, so it had few places to hide a weapon. At any rate, I lowered my gaze. I lowered it down to the level of the voice I had been hearing. This was not just at a child¡¯s height. I could not have spoken from that height without pressing my cheek flat against the floor. ¡°What are you?¡± ¡°What do you mean, what am I? I am a Sunekosuri. I am a Youkai. Have you never heard of a Sunekosuri?¡± ¡°You look like a small dog.¡± ¡°I am a Youkai that looks like a small dog.¡± I knew that much, but my question was as to why the young lady of Hyakki Yakou would send something like that to me. I cast a doubtful look down toward the canine Youkai that was already wrapping around my ankle. ¡°What can you do as a Youkai?¡± ¡°That is not something I expected to hear from an agent even if you are a free one. A Sunekosuri rubs its cheek up against the shins of travelers.[1] Like this: Rub, rub.¡± ¡°What else?¡± ¡°That¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Do you have the ability to steal the life energy of those travelers so they collapse or to send their sense of direction out of whack so they are suddenly headed in the wrong direction?¡± ¡°Please do not think that every Youkai in the world has some cool and useful ability.¡± That was when I snapped. ¡°Oh, I can¡¯t stand it!! You¡¯re just so damn cute!!¡± ¡°Eee!? W-wait a second!! Don¡¯t pick me up! I am called a Sunekosuri because I rub against shins! If you make me rub against your cheek, I will become a different kind of Youkai!!¡± ¡°Okay, okay. Then I¡¯ll make you into a Paizuri[2] Youkai.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go with the cheek as a compromise! I have my dignity!! If I started being called by that name, I would seriously consider suicide!!¡± I continued loving on the canine Youkai for a bit as he protested with every hair on his body standing on end. Afterwards, I straightened out my hair and tank top that were both covered in puppy fur. ¡°Okay, now that I¡¯m refreshed, it¡¯s about time I headed to the ruins of Ubasute Village.¡± ¡°...Heh...heh heh. Well done weakening a real Youkai in just a few minutes. I can see why Hyakki Yakou does business with you...¡± And so I left the unfashionable pension, got in the unfashionable rental car, and headed for the unfashionable ruins. The sloping ground around the winding mountain road was covered in cedar trees. The annoying cries of cicadas and mating calls of wild birds grew louder and I became wrapped in the boring atmosphere of the countryside. ¡°That must be the dam...It¡¯s ruins, too?¡± ¡°Both the village and the dam are ruins, so it can get a bit confusing.¡± I stopped the car in a small space along the mountain road that was meant for attaching chains to the tires. From there, I observed things from afar. A giant concrete construction stood between two mountains. That was the dam. However, the massive amount of water it was supposed to be holding was gone. At the bottom of the empty reservoir were several half-rotten Japanese houses. ¡°They¡¯re really thinking about restoring that? The foundations and central pillars have gone soft. And the roofs and walls are gone.¡± ¡°They were thatch roofs and mud walls, so it isn¡¯t surprising that submerging the houses underwater did away with them.¡± Not much time must have passed since the water had been removed because the ground was still muddy. It was a dark mud. The roads must have been paved before the area became the bottom of a dam reservoir, but you could no longer tell which parts were the ground and which parts were the road. Everything was completely covered in mud. Several vehicles were parked around those constructions that were hard to call either ruins or simply abandoned. A family 4-door car was surrounded by construction equipment. I pulled out a pair of binoculars and checked the face of the car¡¯s owner. ¡°That must be a scholar staring at that diagram. To go that far, it looks more like they¡¯re investigating an ancient kofun tomb than restoring an old village.¡± ¡°I wonder why they are so insistent to restore that village? There is no sign of the old residents returning.¡± ¡°With Intellectual Villages, it isn¡¯t always logical. You could call it a religion that worships the rural or a sect that reveres nature. They are put together by those who wish to find value that exceeds any scientific findings.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Basically, it¡¯s a collection of those thoughts along the lines of ¡®things weren¡¯t like this in the old days¡¯ or ¡®everything would be perfect if we could go back to how it used to be¡¯. Of course, rural areas are not void of problems and there were crimes and social problems in the times people refer to as the ¡®old days¡¯. These people have the ability to forget everything inconvenient to their belief.¡± ¡°But is that all they are after? If so, I doubt Hyakki Yakou would have called you in.¡± ¡°That is what I need to investigate.¡± ¡°What if this is related to some deadly Youkai?¡± ¡°Mummies are sold at auctions. I hear oni and mermaids can get crazy high prices. I wonder why humans love making medicines out of Youkai so much.¡± ¡°...You agents are scary...¡± The Sunekosuri began trembling, but I did not have time to pay it any heed. My instincts wanted me to rub him against my face and roll around with him, but I had to find a clue of where to start before the sun set. ¡°If Hyakki Yakou is taking action, this must be more than a simple Package.¡± ¡°Are you going to carry out some old-fashioned investigation? Y¡¯know, keeping an eye on what they do and listening as they chat inside of restaurants. The information you get might be fairly random, though.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t seen a restaurant yet, so the only meal options might be catered bentos and food at the inn. I have a faster method.¡± ¡°Wh-what is with that daring smile?¡± ¡°I just need to tear down these stable circumstances.¡± Part 3 The survey into restoring the ruins of Ubasute Village continued on into the night. However, it did not continue straight through the night. At around 11:00, the giant lights of the type used in theatres were turned off. The workers who had been operating heavy machinery meant for surveying and boring began preparations to leave. There was one small prefab building clearly prepared for a scholar rather than the construction workers. After I saw someone enter that building, I pressed up against its door. Unfortunately for them, the lock only had five disks in it. I could open a lock like that in 15 seconds. ¡°Wh-who are you? Where did you come from?¡± The older man who seemed to be a scholar cried out in surprise, but I grinned when I heard it. To a normal person, that grin had to have seemed quite creepy. Yes, to a normal person. ¡°You are a scholar, aren¡¯t you? But not in architecture. A folklorist perhaps?¡± ¡°Um...¡± ¡°No, I guess not. A folklorist wouldn¡¯t have a callus on the joint of his right thumb. You get that from shooting a gun too much.¡± ¡°When I was investigating ruins in Cambodia and Colombia, I carried a gun for self defense.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t get a callus unless you were being quite proactive about firing your gun. It would take 5 to 6 thousand shots.¡± I held up my index finger. ¡°Also, I can smell gun oil on you even now, so you must still use a gun. Sorry, but a deodorant isn¡¯t going to get rid of that smell.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± The scholar and I fell silent. Total silence fell. However, a change occurred without noise. Just after the older man¡¯s bewildered smile completely disappeared... Something happened. When I returned to the unfashionable rental car, the Sunekosuri who had remained in the car spoke to me. He seemed flustered. It appeared he had used the screen of the car¡¯s navigation system to watch the news. ¡°Look what I just saw. Here. Look.¡± ¡°I¡¯m exhausted from my work. Help refresh me, puppy.¡± ¡°Gyaaaaaaaaahhhh!? Please do not turn me into a Matakosuri[3] Youkai! Anyway, the news! You need to see what is on the news!!¡± ¡°Wahh?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tilt the seat all the way back like you are about to go to sleep! They said a scholar involved in the survey to restore Ubasute Village committed suicide!! He hanged himself!!¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Why do you think I¡¯m so tired?¡± ¡°Um...¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Why would a scholar killing himself make you tired?¡± ¡°Why do you think?¡± The Sunekosuri trembled in silence. ¡°The scholar¡¯s name was Matsukai Hiroshi. That was a fake name of course,¡± I said. ¡°Then once word of this spreads, the police and media will look into his real name, right?¡± ¡°In this age of electronic medical records stored in the cloud, it won¡¯t be that easy. Whether it¡¯s teeth, fingerprints, or blood, data can easily be overwritten in this day and age.¡± I yawned. ¡°Matsukai Hiroshi is not a fake name he came up with on his own. It was a disposable name used by a group that does bad things. But different organizations have different tendencies in the names they use. This was probably related to Saishi Kajin[4]. They like to keep an intellectual air to the things they do.¡± ¡°Saishi Kajin?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a group that is trying to create an ultimate beauty by any means necessary whether she is human or Youkai. Their actions are fundamentally driven by primitive desires, but that gives them a powerful drive. They are not the type to care much about taboos.¡± ¡°But doesn¡¯t the idea of beauty change from time period to time period and from region to region?¡± ¡°That is exactly why they wish to create a beauty so absolute that it cannot be shaken by such things. I have no idea how successful they have been, though. It¡¯s possible they are just barely getting by on a side business using the techniques they have developed in the research process or they could have completed this beauty of theirs and everyone in the organization is now her slave.¡± Since they were rooted in base desires, I did not have a good impression of them. Of course, people who did nothing but proclaim their bland sense of justice could be just as frightening in their own way. ¡°The organization is made up of relatively few people, but they are said to be skilled. For that reason, the surrounding larger organizations are eager to take them in. That has made the power balance very complicated and made it very difficult to do anything about them. They probably created that dangerous method of organization intentionally. They can force all the dirty work onto the large organizations that are trying to score points with them.¡± I grabbed the remote for the car¡¯s navigation system and changed the channel from the boring news program to a national late night variety show. ¡°Now then. Whatever circumstances may be developing around Ubasute Village, one of the core members of the plan is gone. Who will act to correct this and how?¡± ¡°I-I...I can¡¯t believe this!! You killed someone just for that!? I can¡¯t tell who the real villain is here!!¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m certainly not on the side of justice. That¡¯s the role for my little sister and that detective.¡± I had obtained a few phone numbers and email addresses from Matsukai Hiroshi¡¯s cell phone. I used those to prepare for my next action. Naturally, this too was something illegal. It was not exactly the type of work you could be proud of. ¡°Y-your nickname of the Killer Dragon Princess wasn¡¯t just a name...¡± ¡°That name doesn¡¯t refer to me. It refers to my Shikigami. Not that I get much use out of it,¡± I said with a yawn. I was not looking forward to the annoying process of intercepting phone calls and emails. Of course, there was no point in continuing on if I got nothing after 3 hours from the corpse¡¯s discovery. Once that time came, I would return to the unfashionable pension and go to sleep. ¡°Now then. Let¡¯s hope they hurry up and make a mistake.¡± ¡°Wh-what if they don¡¯t?¡± ¡°Then I''ll keep doing this until they do.¡± Part 4 And then the next day arrived. ¡°...O-oh, shit. This is more than I expected. I might actually die.¡± ¡°Is that all you have to say after picking a fight with them!? Really!?¡± I sat down on the hood of the rental car as I ignored the canine Youkai that was wrapping around my calves. I held a cell phone in my right hand. I had stopped the car a bit away from the unfashionable pension to make the call. I was of course speaking with the young lady of Hyakki Yakou. ¡°So the idea that it is Saishi Kajin is all but confirmed?¡± she asked. ¡°Do you need reinforcements?¡± ¡°They would just end up stabbing me in the back, so no thanks. If this is really Saishi Kajin I¡¯m up against, I will end up surrounded if too much time passes. It looks like my only option is to crush the core of the problem quickly. This will be decided in the next 6 hours.¡± ¡°Do you have a specific objective?¡± ¡°A possible one. If this has to do with Saishi Kajin, it will be more than a simple attempt to establish a system of mass producing a Package. They must have had an important reason to demolish the dam and uncover the sunken ruins. And two months later, some dangerous people are growing active in the area. I can see why someone like me was called in.¡± ¡°If you simply cannot handle it, you can always retreat. Your life takes precedence.¡± ¡°But running away would just get me cornered. My only way out is through the center of Saishi Kajin, so let me take care of this in the next 6 hours. If I¡¯m going to be taken out, I can at least take them with me.¡± I then ended the call before the worried young lady could say anything I would rather she didn¡¯t. The Sunekosuri looked up from my legs with suspicious eyes. ¡°And you were acting so tough yesterday... You know, if you are really in a bind, maybe you should hide. Even if you have grasped the truth behind what is occurring in the ruins of Ubasute Village, it will all be for waste if you get killed. ¡°I haven¡¯t actually grasped the truth yet.¡± ¡°...¡± The Sunekosuri fell silent. Oh, c¡¯mon. Don¡¯t look up at me with those puppy dog eyes. I¡¯ll fall in love with you. ¡°If I knew that, I would have told the young lady. I intercepted Saishi Kajin¡¯s phone calls and email messages last night, remember? I didn¡¯t get much information from that, but I did find some terminology I couldn¡¯t make any sense of mixed in with all the worthless data. All I did here was use it in arbitrary ways while speaking with the young lady.¡± I waved my cell phone in front of the dumbfounded Sunekosuri. ¡°I may have put in a dummy SIM card, but it has no randomizer program. Why do you think I was using a phone with such half-assed security? I wanted Saishi Kajin to intercept it.¡± ¡°Wh-what? You...You will even use Hafuri-sama of Hyakki Yakou as a tool...!?¡± ¡°She won¡¯t get mad over something like this. Those who take advantage of her influence might get a bit upset, though.¡± ¡°B-but...Will that really work? Can they really target that conversation with such pinpoint accuracy yet still not know who you are?¡± ¡°Saishi Kajin is not just targeting me. In fact, I doubt they have even been able to narrow down the suspects much.¡± I gave a sigh. ¡°This is not a large city or a heavily-guarded Intellectual Village. In rural areas, they can set up a single cell phone tower to cover a wide area. That means you just have to attach a device or program at a single point to monitor all nearby communications.¡± ¡°So after one of the people in charge of their plan mysteriously committed suicide yesterday, they decided to intercept all forms communications to gather as much information on the incident as possible?¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°But that would give them a massive amount of data. Your conversation might get buried under it all.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t. I had a direct connection to Hyakki Yakou¡¯s mobile base. Anyone who participates in any kind of underground business would be able to tell the importance of the call just by looking at the 11-digit phone number. Saishi Kajin will be all over that call.¡± I got down from the unfashionable rental car. ¡°Now then. I set a 6 hour time limit. I set that limit myself despite having no real basis for it. With any luck, Saishi Kajin will fall for it and quickly start strengthening the security of what matters most. That will serve as a handy guide.¡± Part 5 As expected, the enemy made their move. What I did not expect was for Saishi Kajin¡¯s secret to not be located at the dam or the ruins of Ubasute Village. The group of men wearing work uniforms headed to the rural city located a bit away from the mountainous region. It was Shirakido City. I tailed them in the car, but...how should I put it? It was just too clich¨¦. It was the stereotypical failure. When a city was modernized on the surface alone, it received an incredibly weak flow of incoming people and money. As a result, it would lose its ability to function as a city. The buildings along the large main road were empty after corporations had left, so it was in its final days. And the local shopping district showed no signs of prosperity either. Despite how overwhelmingly pitiable a condition the city was in, it also had all sorts of pollution from exhaust and the like, so there was no saving it. The whole place looked like it was one closed suburban shopping center away from the residents having nowhere to buy anything. ¡°I think I heard this place was urbanized out of a dislike for the rural aesthetic of Intellectual Villages.¡± It must have been once that had failed that they had started trying to appeal to nature lovers. I had my doubts about how well that would work, though. A natural environment was like your savings. When you were in the black, a bit of fluctuation was no big deal, but once you fell into the red, it was near impossible to recover. Well, it may have been because the residents understood that fact that they were focusing on redeveloping the area outside the city where some nature remained. But their estimations were too na?ve. They were being too optimistic in their calculations. Intellectual Villages went beyond the actual numbers. They pushed up the value of their products as rarities by using the brand image of the beauty of nature and loveliness of rural areas. It would be incredibly difficult to create an Intellectual Village in an area that had been urbanized and therefore had its environmental image ¡°polluted¡±. ¡°Maybe the restoration of the old village from the bottom of the dam is meant to give them a large event they can publicize.¡± Not that it mattered. My job was to bring to light what was hidden behind it. Thinking about such unrelated matters would only bore me. Perhaps I had grown lonely. After all, I did not have the pretty Sunekosuri with me. Yeah, that had to be it. That canine Youkai said he had problems with modern urban areas. The young lady¡¯s flying wing may have been fine because of the altered interior, but we had passed through a few large cities on the way to the ruins of Ubasute Village. That Youkai must have been putting up with it and hiding inside the bag the whole time. What a cute little guy. Once I get back to the pension, I¡¯ll love him to death with a brush. As I had that thought, I heard an electronic tone coming from the bag in the passenger seat. It was coming from a cell phone. However, this was not the one I had allowed them to intercept the calls from. It was a satellite phone with a high-level randomizer program installed. It did not use the local cell phone towers, so Saishi Kajin had no way to intercept the signal. I ignored the traffic laws and pulled out the satellite phone. I grimaced when I saw the screen. ¡°...A government-use classified number.¡± Despite the name, the number was not used by any office of the Japanese government. An organization independent from the country had set up a system with that name. People from the world I lived in felt it was okay to use that name as they were doing things the government should have been doing. In other words, it was Hyakki Yakou. ¡°Hello?¡± ¡°You used me to set a trap for the enemy, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Huh? You¡¯re using a different number from before.¡± ¡°I could not call on the same line as before. Once I know what is going on, I can take the necessary measures. The enemy cannot overhear us with this phone.¡± The necessary measures, hm? I was willing to bet she had grabbed onto the clothes of one of her young men in black who acted as her guards and looked up at him with tears in her eyes. It was only so effective because she did not realize what she was doing. The instant she tried to do it on purpose, it would lose all effectiveness. ¡°So what do you want, young lady? I¡¯m kind of in the middle of tailing those pain-in-the-ass enemies you were talking about.¡± ¡°Do not call me ¡®young lady¡¯. My name is Hafuri. Also, I do not mind if you get me involved, but I do hope you have taken the bare minimum of precautions. Otherwise, you will just be putting yourself in more danger.¡± That was why people like her could be so dangerous when they did not even realize what they were doing. Also, I wanted to avoid having anyone worry for me as it would throw me off my game. I especially wanted to avoid any ¡°kind distractions¡± when I was in the middle of a dirty job. That was the biggest reason that pros got themselves killed. ¡°You said you are tailing the enemy?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Oh, I think we¡¯ve arrived. It looks like a storage locker facility. ...Although I¡¯m willing to bet it¡¯s just disguised to look like one and the entire facility belongs to Saishi Kajin.¡± ¡°A storage locker facility?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a kind of storehouse. Or are you so old fashioned I need to call it a dozou[5] for you to understand?¡± ¡°...¡± Ah, she¡¯s upset. This is what makes her so cute. The area may have originally been a parking lot. The ground was nothing but cracked asphalt. A number of simple storage lockers about the size of a van were lined up along the asphalt. A large city full of one-room apartments for students was one thing, but Shirakido City was primarily a rundown commuter town filled with one-story houses with yards. There was no way that many storage lockers were necessary. It was clearly a dummy facility. A number of sedans were parked at the facility. It seemed some other personnel had been gathered in addition to the ones I had been tailing. There were about 20 in all. Most of them wore work uniforms. This was not out in the middle of the country where hunting rifles were common, so a gunshot would have seemed too out of place. That may have been why none of them were openly carrying a gun. However, the odds were good they had an almost silent low-caliber gun + suppressor, a crossbow small enough to fit in a business bag, or something similar. At the very least, they were the type of people that would have more than just knives. Anyone without some kind of projectile weapon in this day and age was just an idiot. ¡°What are you going to do now?¡± asked the young lady of Hyakki Yakou. ¡°I¡¯ve found Saishi Kajin¡¯s secret base, so obviously I¡¯m going to go investigate what¡¯s inside.¡± ¡°But I thought the enemy had gathered there due to your trap?¡± ¡°They have.¡± ¡°I hope I do not have to tell you how overwhelmingly they must outnumber you. I do not see how you can break through them without quite an excellent plan.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll figure something out.¡± Part 6 I approached the storage locker facility from the front, caused a bit of trouble, and then returned to the car to retrieve my investigation tools. It was annoying, but those tools were too delicate to bring with me when I went on a rampage. I heard the voice of that proper young lady coming from the satellite phone I had left in the car. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°Summertime food poisoning can be pretty scary. But I guess it¡¯s bound to happen when you get a bunch of filthy guys gathered together eating junk food in such an unsanitary place.¡± ¡°...Did you use a stun gun?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be silly. That would leave burns which would give it all away. Strings and wires also leave obvious marks. I recommend a wide rubber belt.¡± ¡°I do not see how you could have pulled it off with just that. Are you sure you are not relying on the paranormal too much?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t eat into me or anything, so you don¡¯t have to worry about it, young lady.¡± There were plenty of things you could do to an unconscious person. For example, you could make it look like they had food poisoning. After grabbing the satellite phone and my bag of tools, I left the car and entered the storage locker facility. I arbitrarily chose one of the many small storage lockers and headed for its keyhole. ¡°Oh, good for them. The lock has been switched out for a decent one,¡± I commented. ¡°Can you open it?¡± ¡°If not, I can melt the lock with chemicals.¡± Luckily, I did not need any powerful acids. I pushed in the pins within the lock using my many tools. When the door opened, a horrible stench wafted out. ¡°...What is this? It¡¯s worse than a judo team but not as bad as a kendo team.¡± ¡°I have no idea what you are talking about.¡± ¡°No, I suppose you wouldn¡¯t,¡± I commented offhandedly as I glanced through the small storage locker. It had a few simple steel shelves inside. On one shelf was a ¡°mass¡± inside of a clear plastic bag. It was a bit smaller than a pillow, I suppose. Its overall coloring was brown, but it was blackened at a few points. The color was similar to that of an old Japanese house¡¯s central pillar. Now, then. What is this? ¡°It looks like some kind of dried food.¡± ¡°Is it fish?¡± ¡°It looks like a Nekomata.¡± I was not joking. The corpse of an animal that had starved to the point of its bones being clearly visible through its skin had then been dried into a mummy. It looked like a cat, but it had two tails. ¡°Youkai body parts can be used for various medicines, right? Medicines that provide effects modern medical science cannot reproduce.¡± ¡°But Youkai cannot be so easily killed,¡± said the young lady. ¡°This one¡¯s clearly dead.¡± I lightly poked at the dried mummy through the plastic. ¡°Saishi Kajin is not using Youkai to put together a Package. They are killing Youkai, chopping them up, and selling them.¡± ¡°That is a new development. Does that mean the enemy is secretly working in the ruins of Ubasute Village in order to more efficiently acquire the Youkai they need to-...¡± ¡°Young lady,¡± I said, cutting off the head of Hyakki Yakou. ¡°What I hate most in this world is people pretending not to know something they know. I hate that because it has a tendency to cause unnecessary tragedies. ...You hired someone outside your organization for this job because you know something about what is going on, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°What are you-...?¡± ¡°Does the area around the ruins of Ubasute Village produce a lot of Nekomatas? Who cares? You can find Nekomatas almost anywhere. They aren¡¯t worth demolishing a dam for.¡± I then focused on the stiches at the base of the Nekomata¡¯s tail. That¡¯s right. Stiches. ¡°Increasing the number of tails on a dead cat is easy. You just have to sew on a tail from another cat. At the very least, it¡¯s easier than creating a Hitosume Kozou. This kind of business used to be quite common back in the day. Fake Youkai medicines. ...So how much do you know about this, young lady?¡± You could call it an imitative concept. There was more than just the Nekomata there. Their exact types were hard to tell as they had all been mummified, but I could see what had been made to look like several other types of Youkai I recognized. The insides would of course have to have been rearranged as well as the outward appearance. Mummifying them with their decomposing-prone organs still inside had to be difficult. I was not fond of that type of spiritual medicine that used Youkai as ingredients because the thought process seemed to lead to cannibalism. If you ate an excellent creature, you would gain an excellent body. If you ate a long-lived creature, you would gain a long life. If you ate a creature with a special power, you would awaken to that special power. The thought process was simple enough, but the same thought process would lead you to eat a beautiful person to become beautiful. Also, the world was not that simple. Eating fish did not let you live in the ocean. Creatures like that Sunekosuri laughed and cried just like humans did. I felt anyone who wanted to eat such creatures had horribly missed the mark. And the thought of straightening out the thoughts of those people gave me a bit of motivation. Then again, it was the proper members of Hyakki Yakou that were supposed to deal with people like that, not me. ¡°All I know is that a business of that sort supposedly had its headquarters in Ubasute Village before it was submerged by the dam,¡± replied Hafuri-chan of Hyakki Yakou after a bit of hesitation. ¡°Dragon scales, Nekomata mummies, Oni horns... They were said to be deeply involved in black market sales of such spiritual medicines all over the country. There was a clear discrepancy between Ubasute Village¡¯s industrial foundation and the amount of money coming in, so those suspicions are more or less confirmed.¡± ¡°And why was the village submerged by the dam?¡± ¡°That was not Hyakki Yakou¡¯s doing. However, it was carried out by those who were not fond of such activities.¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯re not going to make people very happy if you give them fake medicine after they pay such a high price. And the people who want that kind of medicine are being greedy about their own lives. Their grudges are likely to grow beyond the actual amount of money they lost.¡± ¡°...But is that really so?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°We have a few reports from those who took the spiritual medicines thought to have been produced in Ubasute Village. Most of them say they had no effect, but some say the medicines were effective against their spiritual symptoms related to Youkai.¡± ¡°And it wasn¡¯t just the placebo effect?¡± ¡°Surely you of all people know that Youkai attacks are not something a placebo can deal with.¡± ...She had a point there. If a state of mind could deal with a Youkai attack, the organization known as Hyakki Yakou would not exist in the first place. ¡°It may have been the opposite,¡± continued Hafuri-chan. ¡°You mean most of those who used the spiritual medicines were falsely convinced they were experiencing harm from a Youkai, so the spiritual medicines had no effect on them?¡± ¡°Yes, only the few who reported the medicines as effective were suffering from real spiritual symptoms. For one thing, I doubt spiritual symptoms related to Youkai would be that common.¡± ¡°And your average nouveau riche has no way of knowing the truth of the matter.¡± It may have been similar to being tricked in an expensive art deal. Or perhaps it was closer to being led astray by a terrible prophet or fortune teller. Maybe I¡¯m just prejudiced, but it always seemed to me that the nouveau riche had a habit of seeing things in whatever way was most convenient for them. It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if they either simply had a string of bad luck or forgot about all the ill will they had earned in the process of making their money, and then assumed it was all due to some Youkai cursing them. They could be overly sensitive about things related to themselves, but downright shameless when it came to others. That was just how the nouveau riche were. Of course, I was hardly deluded enough to think old money families were filled with compassion and chivalry. ¡°But I don¡¯t see how this sewn-together mummy could possibly be a real Nekomata.¡± ¡°That is not the issue. It is clearly fake. They seem to have some kind of technique that gives a dried-up mummy made from multiple animals the spiritual medicinal effects of the same parts of a real Youkai. If this is true, the enemy here is a much greater threat than a group that has simply produced a Package.¡± ¡°You mean it¡¯s possible they¡¯re releasing real spiritual medicines?¡± I had no idea what effects they might have, but something that directly altered natural and physical laws would be very bad indeed. For example, you could scatter something about an area to make any bullets fired within that area automatically miss you. Or perhaps it would create a field that would destroy your target¡¯s brain when you snapped your fingers. If one had several of those products...that is, mummies, the different types could be used to create many different effects. ¡°If so, this could be worse than that person from your top 5...what was his name? Anyway, the one that uses illness magic. Would it be something like an Onmyouji who has a bunch of charms as if he is playing a card game?¡± Then again, an actual Onmyouji didn¡¯t use a single charm for everything. They would do some pretty boring things, too. Like Katatagae[6]. The trick to maintaining one¡¯s influence was to hide those more plain and boring aspects. They had to create the illusion of being able to do anything. That business likely died out because they could no longer fool those around them. At any rate, it was possible these spiritual medicine...emulators I suppose you could call them. Anyway, it was possible they simply had enough power within them to create a convenient illusion for the amateurs that used them. As for how much of a threat it was...Well, I suppose you could say it would be like a super hero from American comic books barging into a serious fight in real life. ¡°If we are talking about the effectiveness of the individual medicines, my top 5 would be higher, but these spiritual medicines are tools. The skill or nature of the user does not matter. Being able to mass produce the occult would be seen as quite valuable,¡± said the girl. ¡°Also, the use of real Youkai in this fashion is simply too expensive because no one has yet found an efficient way to slay Youkai. It is more or less impossible for a human to kill a Youkai after all. However, if the exact same effects can be reproduced by combining animal corpses, the cost and skill barriers drop considerably.¡± ...True enough. If spiritual symptoms could be freely manipulated with no side effects as simply as wielding a sword or gun, the situation would truly grow hellish. And if the entire organization of Saishi Kajin could use that kind of power, Hyakki Yakou may have been in real trouble as it was but a shell of its former self. The young lady¡¯s bodyguards were the type that relied on normal bullets. Even if it was to expand the organization, Hyakki Yakou had strayed too far from its original role and made too many human enemies. It was possible we were up against a large scale paranormal unit armed with offensive spiritual medicines. Could the current Hyakki Yakou really stand up to an opponent like that? ¡°...But for a group with such amazing ideas, all the Saishi Kajin soldiers I¡¯ve beaten up have lacked any distinguishing personalities.¡± ¡°It is possible the enemy¡¯s plan is still in the testing phase and they have yet to begin mass production.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t base our strategy off of an assumption.¡± It was possible they had a large force they had yet to use and it was also possible all our speculation was simply wrong. However, I did agree that Saishi Kajin¡¯s plan was likely in its central stages. If it was already complete, they would have no reason to be secretly working away in the ruins of Ubasute Village. They were likely having difficulty digging up the knowhow they needed from Ubasute Village. What I was looking at felt like prototype versions based on fragmentary data. ¡°Whatever the case, I have the feeling I will get myself in serious trouble if I don¡¯t start taking this more seriously,¡± I said. ¡°Yes, you have been taking this much too lightly.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t the kind of job that puts a serious expression on my face.¡± ¡°And that thinking is what tells me you are taking this too lightly.¡± Part 7 I left the Nekomata mummy (?) where it was. I had no idea what effects it had, and I was not about to have it curse me because I took it with me. That was well beyond what I could handle with the investigation tools I carried with me. I didn¡¯t like the idea of leaving without doing anything, so I decided to burn the storage lockers containing the prototype spiritual medicines. Saishi Kajin had a few cars parked outside, so I had plenty of gasoline. When I returned to the unfashionable pension, the Sunekosuri spoke to me in the usual manner. ¡°U-u-um... They just said on the news that there was a huge fire in Shirakido City.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m tired.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re tired this time, too...¡± ¡°Really tired.¡± I grabbed the canine Youkai and put him in the sink to give him a bath. That helped get me out of my irritable mood. ¡°Huh? Why are you giving me a bath?¡± I ignored the Sunekosuri¡¯s confused comment and collapsed onto the bed. I did that kind of thing for fun. ¡°It¡¯s about time for the climax.¡± I had burned Saishi Kajin¡¯s storerooms. They could not sell the prototype versions, so the only reason for them to have so many in storage was to use them for the further development of those spiritual medicine emulators. It was the same as a master potter smashing his failures. It was not a fit of anger. He needed to smash them in order to view the broken edges to check how the heat had passed through them. The best way to create was not simply to mass produce successes. Your rate of growth could be greatly changed depending on whether you were able to use the failures that are inevitably made in the process of creation or not. The total number of spiritual medicines in the form of mummies made up of different animal corpses inside those storage lockers had been between four and five hundred. In my estimation, they would cut fine pieces off of the failures to inspect them under a microscope and see how they reacted to reagents. Through that process, they could discover fine adjustments to their methods that would let them create the ideal spiritual medicines. Saishi Kajin would not be able to remain calm with all of those samples burned. They would definitely make some kind of mistake. I had to find where they were actually creating the mummies as well as their source of funds. The incident was far from resolved. ¡°But should you really have done that?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t this method of angering your enemy so they will make a mistake just make them hate you all the more? It seems to me you are exposing yourself to more and more danger the farther your plan advances.¡± ¡°Can I hug you?¡± ¡°Why would you say that all of a sudden!?¡± ¡°Because you¡¯re just so cute. But to answer your other question, that is an issue that has long since passed.¡± ¡°Passed?¡± ¡°There was no way we could peaceably get along from the moment we set ourselves up as opposing forces. If I am going to worry about whether I want them to hate me or not, I need to do it when I am deciding whether to accept the job or not. It¡¯s too late to think about that kind of thing by the time you have taken the job and need to take hostile actions against them.¡± ¡°Can you really get by like that?¡± ¡°If I couldn¡¯t, I would not have survived as long as I have,¡± I said casually. Also, no matter what I was thinking, my enemies would not hesitate. There was something wrong about challenging someone to a fight and announcing you are going to punch them in the face as hard as you can but then becoming afraid of making them mad. ¡°The quickest way to both get things done and make sure you are not dragged down by your enemy¡¯s grudge is to beat them so thoroughly they can no longer fight back. Once you have decided to do something, you cannot hesitate. Stepping on the brakes only increases the risk. Just like with the long jump and the high jump, you need that running start.¡± ¡°So is that the ironclad rule of the Killer Dragon Princess?¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t my name; it¡¯s my Shikigami¡¯s name,¡± I corrected. ¡°And if I have to resort to bringing that out, I have 100% lost.¡± ¡°?¡± Part 8 The end came about rather easily. 12 hours after I set the fire in the storage locker facility, a simple bit of news reached my ears as I continued to monitor for phone calls or emails. It came from the television the Sunekosuri was watching. I don¡¯t know if it was because it was a local station or because of the scope of the incident, but an emergency live broadcast began in the middle of another show. Enough body parts for 7 people had been discovered in the mountains near Shirakido City. A resident of the area had called the police after spotting a wild dog digging them up. The wording made it clear the bodies had been chopped to pieces. The bodies were in the process of being transported, so the autopsy would not have been carried out yet. However, the report said it was likely the bones had been crushed with a blunt weapon and then some sharp blade had been used to cut them apart while ignoring the anatomical joints. Naturally, the police would not be giving out details at such an early stage, so someone from the media may have gotten a shot through the gaps in the blue sheets sealing off the crime scene and then analyzed the photo. Super telephoto lenses had come a long way in recent times. The uniformed police officers wouldn¡¯t have been able to keep complete control over all the people on the scene. ¡°What a sloppy job,¡± I commented. ¡°Eh? Eh? What do you mean?¡± ¡°There were several emails sent within Saishi Kajin debating whether they should pay the fine for breach of contract or find an escape route, but the emails suddenly stopped before they found an actual route. Those mutilated corpses likely belong to the researchers who were actually creating those spiritual medicine animal mummies.¡± Of course, it was also possible they had prepared corpses to fake their own deaths...but I doubted that was it. A plan like that would have required its own secret strategy meeting. ¡°But then who did it...? Wait, don¡¯t tell me it was you!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been here the whole time. My guess would be Saishi Kajin¡¯s sponsor. Saishi Kajin was accurately manipulating the insides and outsides of animals to create those mummies, so that crude method of crushing the bones to make them easier to cut just doesn¡¯t seem like a method they would use. The methods used here was just so different that I doubt it was infighting within the organization.¡± ¡°Their sponsor? You mean for the spiritual medicines?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t create a product if you don¡¯t have any customers. Whoever this is likely paid quite a bit up front. But now that the storage lockers have been turned to ash, the sponsor likely decided they could not complete the planned development in the planned amount of time.¡± ¡°So the sponsor got mad when they realized they weren¡¯t going to get their money back...?¡± ¡°Or perhaps they feared getting dragged down by that failing organization and cut them off like a lizard does its tail.¡± I let out a smile without meaning to. It was all so perfect that I was a bit suspicious of it being a trap. ¡°It was all just so sloppy. Sloppy is the only word I can use to describe it. A wild dog dug them up! The mere fact that they were buried in Shirakido City shows they didn¡¯t know what they were doing. You can crush them down to the bones and create meatballs for fish food, you can dump them into a business-use aerobic bacteria compost facility where things like cow bones are sent, or you can use a crematory or any other facility that does not raise suspicion when human-sized flesh and bones are burned in it. Basically, there is no way someone who knows how to dispose of a body properly would just bury them near the crime scene.¡± ¡°Wait, doesn¡¯t this mean you were indirectly responsible for this!?¡± ¡°Well, I was planning to destroy them all eventually.¡± ¡°Wh-what are you going to do now?¡± ¡°What I was hired to do. I will continue to look into where the remnants of Saishi Kajin have gone, but they¡¯ve probably been buried somewhere else. I also have to figure out who this sponsor is and eliminate them as well. After such a sloppy job, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ve left a few traces behind. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard to pursue them.¡± I intercepted some police radio transmissions and it seemed a few pieces of physical evidence had already been discovered at the crime scene. They had easily found hints to look into. For example, they could look into where the blade thought to have chopped the corpses up had been bought, and the tire tracks could be used to look into the make and model of the car used. ¡°The sponsor must be panicking right about now. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re intercepting this as well.¡± ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°I want to get in touch with this sponsor.¡± ¡°But you don¡¯t know how to contact them.¡± ¡°This sponsor slaughtered Saishi Kajin, mutilated the corpses, and then dumped them in the mountains. The sponsor must have taken their clothes and possessions. If I send emails to all of the cell phones and computers belonging to those dead manufacturers, I may be able to get in touch.¡± Even if the sponsor had thrown out all of the electronic equipment, they might still be monitoring the victims¡¯ addresses left using Saishi Kajin¡¯s leftover server. That way, the sponsor could ensure there were none who had escaped. And I could use that. I of course employed a few tricks to ensure they could not determine my own address. Someone else and I would be communicating via emails sent to addresses belonging to dead members of Saishi Kajin, and neither of us would be able to determine anything more than that. The other side would be unable to tell whether I was an individual or an organization. I would hide as much information as possible to keep them as suspicious of everyone else as possible. ¡°What are you going to do once you contact them?¡± ¡°Make a decoy job proposal. I will tell them the police are probably going to track them down, but that I can take care of that for them. What do you think they will do?¡± ¡°...Won¡¯t they find that suspicious?¡± ¡°Of course. That¡¯s the entire point. I make them think I¡¯m setting a trap so they will attempt to kill me instead. Once they try that, I can round them all up at once. That will bring this whole incident to an end.¡± ¡°B-but won¡¯t they just run away if they think it¡¯s a trap? They¡¯re already trying to run away from everything to get to some safe place. I doubt they will be up for a dangerous gamble.¡± ¡°They will,¡± I replied immediately. ¡°This sponsor knows what happened to Saishi Kajin. Especially the incident of the burned mummies. The person who did that to Saishi Kajin has now set her sights on the sponsor. If they want safety, they cannot just ignore this. The only safety will come from killing me.¡± I sent emails to all of the Saishi Kajin addresses. I received a response from this unknown other party after half an hour. They must have had trouble figuring out what to do. However, that was not simply how long it took to come up with an actual plan. Most of the time had likely been spent panicking, wondering whether it was a trap, and worrying over what to do if it was a trap. All they had been able to do was respond before too suspicious a length of time had passed and then figure out what to do in the time until we met up. ¡°This is going to be easy. What will you do, Sunekosuri?¡± ¡°I am not going. There is simply no way I am going.¡± ¡°I thought you¡¯d say that.¡± With a smile, I grabbed the canine Youkai by the scruff of his neck and left the unfashionable pension. Part 9 Our meeting point was in the ruins of Ubasute Village. Or more accurately, it was the ruins of the dam that had kept the village submerged until recently. All of the valuable parts such as the hydroelectric turbines had been removed, but the giant concrete construction creating a barrier stretching from one mountain to another was still standing. The local government¡¯s finances were in dire straits, so I had to wonder if they were planning to dismantle it over a 10 year period. At the very least, it was never going away as long as they continued claiming it was the national government¡¯s responsibility because of national policy. The inside was a giant labyrinth. It had originally been designed simply to hold the necessary equipment in the necessary places, so the passageways twisted all about as they weaved their way through gaps between that equipment. Also, any maps of the facility had been made unnecessarily complex to prevent any possible terrorist attacks. Lastly, a concrete mass like a dam had no windows. As it no longer received power, it was pitch black year round inside. But bringing a flashlight would have been about the stupidest thing I could have done. The light would have told everyone else where I was so they could concentrate their gunfire on me. I also refused to rely on my night vision like I was a Sengoku period ninja. In these cases, it was best to simply rely on technology. In this case, a night vision device. Such devices do not require much explanation, but you could get them without having to pay ridiculous prices on an online auction. Modern digital cameras and video cameras came with low-light compensation abilities. If you had the knowledge to mess with the firmware a bit, you could overwrite the ranges for the light amplification and give it abilities similar to a night vision device. You also had to break the backlight for the LCD display and look directly through the viewfinder, but you saved enough money for it to be worth that small bit of trouble. While I had that 15,000 yen bargain item hanging from my neck, the Sunekosuri trembled down at my feet. ¡°U-um, what am I supposed to do?¡± ¡°Help me.¡± ¡°I cannot fight! I am not a deadly Youkai!¡± ¡°A Youkai can¡¯t be killed by normal means. If it comes to it, take some bullets for me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m way too small to cover for you!!¡± We walked through the dam as we spoke. After a while, something seemed out of place. Was it a noise? No, it was the flow of the air. Or more accurately, it was breathing. Someone was hiding in the darkness. But it did not seem they were about to spring a surprise attack. ¡°It seems you know enough to remain in a position where you won¡¯t be hit if someone shoots at you.¡± They were hiding behind some machinery. Perhaps in response to my voice, a powerful light activated in front of me. It was likely a military LED light. It was the type meant to blind someone more than act as illumination. Thanks to that, I could not make out any details about the person on the other side of the light. Not that I needed to know. My job was not to splendidly find out the name of the true mastermind. It was to bring a swift end to the incident. If I needed the name to do so, I would thoroughly research it, but I did not need to more often than not. As long as I eliminated the person at the root of it all, the problem could be resolved. The person holding the light in the darkness said, ¡°I know who you are.¡± ¡°And I don¡¯t even know your name.¡± ¡°You are Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Deadly Dragon Princess. I am sure of it.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t my name; it¡¯s my Shikigami¡¯s name.¡± I also didn¡¯t belong to Hyakki Yakou. I may have had the backing of the young lady, but I really wish they would not be so damn confident in their error. At any rate, it was now my turn. ¡°You certainly took care of things in a showy fashion.¡± ¡°...To be honest, we messed up,¡± said the sponsor with some bitterness in his voice. His breathing is erratic....Has he lost a lot of blood? ¡°We rushed things. We should have waited a bit longer. It was only by making enemies of them that we truly saw what results they had gotten. If we had continued to cooperate with them, we could have gotten those for ourselves.¡± ¡°You mean the spiritual medicine emulators? Those altered animal mummies?¡± ¡°If they had not been near success, we would not have lost so many men.¡± Interesting. It must have been a clash between standard firepower and those spiritual medicines. The sponsor must have been saved by the fact that Saishi Kajin had so few of their prototype versions. No, the sponsor would have been destroyed even then. If you had spiritual weapons that could directly alter natural and physical laws, it did not matter how many soldiers you had. Most likely, the prototype spiritual medicines had not been up to the desired specs. Otherwise, the sponsor would never have survived. ¡°Was that also why the disposal of the bodies was so sloppy?¡± ¡°We did not have the time or manpower to do it properly. Frankly, we were lucky only those were found.¡± ¡°And that leads you to need my services. I can throw the police investigation off your trail, help you escape overseas, or completely change your identities. Choose whichever course you like.¡± ¡°That is certainly a trap.¡± ¡°So you came charging in knowing it was a trap?¡± ¡°If we ran away here, we would lose any chance to make contact with you. And then we would be unable to kill you.¡± I heard a small bit of static. It was likely a signal being sent over the radio. ¡°Are you sure a radio signal can travel through this thick dam?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous. Of course it can.¡± ¡°Well, even if it can, there¡¯s no one to respond to it.¡± I casually knocked on a nearby wall. Or more accurately, I knocked on a row of lockers for dam workers lined up along the wall. The light shock was enough to open the locker door. Something heavy came tumbling out. I almost thought I heard someone¡¯s throat audibly go dry. Also, the Sunekosuri actually seemed more surprised than the man holding the light, but the canine Youkai should have realized what was going on when I suspiciously went for a walk before heading into the dam with him. It was now time to put some pressure on the man. ¡°If this is your idea of a trump card, I can see why you had trouble with Saishi Kajin. That is much too weak to get by in the underground world.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be...¡± ¡°Oh, and don¡¯t think this is the only corpse. If you recall, I never said this was my first time in the dam. It¡¯s only natural to go over a meeting place ahead of time to look for traps. How much beforehand you do it is a matter of personal preference though.¡± ¡°Heh heh. I suppose I cannot complain.¡± ¡°Yes, you did come in beforehand to hide troops.¡± ¡°But you have actually saved me some time. You have simply done ahead of time what I was planning to order my troops to do.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°I was planning to have them die so I could see the true power of the Deadly Dragon Princess.¡± ¡°...You are a horrible person. Also, that isn¡¯t my name; it¡¯s my Shikigami¡¯s name.¡± ¡°Everything up until now was done without producing a single scream or gunshot. That is simply not something you can pull off with nothing but a blade or a rope. The paranormal is clearly involved. And it is something powerful enough to earn you the name of the Deadly Dragon Princess.¡± ¡°Again, that¡¯s my Shikigami¡¯s...oh, who cares. So what conclusion have you arrived at?¡± ¡°That you are not the type of person to rely on guns. You rely on the paranormal when something happens.¡± ¡°Well, it is true that I have 80% lost if I have to bring out a gun.¡± ¡°Yes. This paranormal that you use, this Deadly Dragon Princess, is obviously stronger than a gun. If you have to rely on a gun, that means you cannot use your more convenient Deadly Dragon Princess for some reason. And that fact means I am in luck.¡± ¡°How? You know nothing about the details of my power.¡± ¡°I do not need to. My victory is assured by the mere fact that you are using some type of paranormal power.¡± I heard what sounded like a small bell. I could not see the man due to the powerful LED light, but he must have pulled out some kind of tool. ¡°If you recall, we crushed Saishi Kajin. And they had gained a certain level of results with the emulators they produced.¡± ¡°Are you trying to use some kind of spiritual medicine? If so, you should have scattered them around beforehand. What if you are taken out before the effects manifest themselves?¡± ¡°No,¡± the figure sounded like he was smiling. ¡°The current research was into creating effective emulators by manipulating animal corpses, but what do you think we did at the initial stages to produce these spiritual medicines?¡± ¡°...You don¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°We chopped Youkai to pieces to test what kind of effects they had. How were we supposed to create imitations if we knew nothing about the real deal? Surely you understand what that means. It means the people of Ubasute Village had another useful skill in addition to the spiritual medicines.¡± I immediately used the heel of my shoe to kick the Sunekosuri at my feet directly backwards. And then... ¡°Namely, a surefire method of killing Youkai.¡± A great noise as if from a large drum burst out. That was all. Due to the bright flashlight, I could not tell what exactly was happening. But I felt an unpleasant feeling coming from the pocket of my hot pants. I pulled out what was in the pocket and clicked my tongue. The doll made out of a wooden charm was falling to pieces. That meant... ¡°I did not simply destroy the medium. It is merely that the damage to the Deadly Dragon Princess was transmitted to the medium. In other words, you can no longer use your Deadly Dragon Princess. You have lost the power that made you special.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°I¡¯m surprised that you could twist Otohime of Ryuuguu Jou that much. You focused on the point of her being the one who is comfortably submerged at the bottom of the sea so the attacks are primarily in the form of drowning. Is the wooden charm supposed to be Urashima? I suppose you use it to draw up the princess wherever you want despite her lack of ill will.¡± At any rate, it seemed my Shikigami really had been damaged. And even if it had not, the loss of the medium used to call it in was the same thing in the short run. You can¡¯t catch a fish without any bait. The fish would not come out of the water on their own. I could no longer invite the Deadly Dragon Princess to the battlefield. Dammit. After all this! After all this! After all this! After all this!! Why did you have to bring about such a horrible, pain-in-the-ass problem!? ¡°I suppose it is time.¡± The figure must have been absolutely sure he had robbed me of my last trump card because he began casually walking down the passageway toward me. He circled around the piece of machinery I had been using as cover. ¡°You are now nothing but a normal human. It is time for you to die from one extra bullet.¡± He fired without hesitation. Part 10 I was often referred to as the Deadly Dragon Princess. That was actually the name of my Shikigami, but people insisted on using it to refer to me no matter how many times I corrected them. Admittedly, it was the symbol of my power and was a catchy nickname that spread easily. It was my name. It was a symbol that referred to my body. It was something I could not lose. It clearly supported my very existence. It gave me the power I needed to survive in that underground world. It was essential. However... ¡°...Ow, that hurt.¡± ¡°!?¡± The sponsor seemed truly shocked when he suddenly heard me speak. It seemed he was still mistaken about something and I could easily finish him off while he was still mistaken, but I decided against it. I decided to add to his fear instead. He had destroyed the Deadly Dragon Princess after all. Anyone would be pissed if someone gave you another annoying task you had to carry out. ¡°No, no. It wasn¡¯t getting hit by a bullet that hurt. I just hurt my leg a bit when I jumped to the side. I guess warming-up exercises really are as important as they say. This pain isn¡¯t going to let me forget that.¡± ¡°What...?¡± ¡°No, no. Once an attack fails once, trying it again isn¡¯t going to help. You aren¡¯t going to hit me at that range even if you fire wildly.¡± ¡°What!? But I took away the power that made you special!! I took away the Deadly Dragon Princess!!¡± Repeated gunshots rang out. But that was all. None of them hit. There was no way they would hit. If I could not endure this level of mayhem, there was no way I could survive in the underground world and there was no way I would be able to work on my own and take jobs from Hyakki Yakou. It was said those who met me would die. I had to wonder if some people really understood what that meant. ¡°What is going on? Did the Deadly Dragon Princess escape unharmed!?¡± I heard what sounded like a small bell. It must have been that same anti-Youkai weapon. But I could only shake my head. If he was still afraid of the Deadly Dragon Princess at this stage, he was mistaken about something at a very fundamental level. Also, the Sunekosuri would be in trouble if he used that weapon too much. ¡°No. Unfortunately, the Deadly Dragon Princess was indeed damaged. That¡¯s why I¡¯m so pissed.¡± ¡°Then!! Then how are you-...!?¡± ¡°The Shikigami is indeed useful. It is the source of my power. But I do not use it in the way you seem to think. I did not put it together in order to have it bring about strange phenomena. Do you understand?¡± I asked. I had a feeling the figure was shaking his head beyond the light. ¡°Hyakki Yakou is an organization created to overturn the accepted idea that Youkai cannot be controlled by human means. I take jobs from them, and I work towards similar ideals as them. Simply put, we work to overcome the fear of Youkai.¡± ¡°But...but!! But that¡¯s why you drew power from the Deadly Dragon Princess, right!?¡± ¡°That is not the only way to overcome them.¡± I clenched my right hand and then opened it again. ¡°You can punch them with a human hand. Think for a second about what kind of specs you would need to defeat a Youkai with a punch. You thoroughly modify, develop, and rebuild the human body to gain those specs. Isn¡¯t that a different form of overcoming them?¡± ....................................................................................................................................................................................... Oh, dear. It appeared the truth I had told him had been so far outside the sponsor¡¯s realm of thinking that his thoughts stopped for a few seconds. But that did not matter. I continued with my fun. ¡°The Deadly Dragon Princess that you destroyed was prepared as a model case. It was a hypothetical enemy prepared under the assumption that I could deal with most any situation as long as I could defeat it. I needed to thoroughly modify my own body so that I could defeat the Deadly Dragon Princess with nothing but my own body. Do you understand now that I am not someone who will be killed by a mere bullet?¡± That was why I had 80% lost if I had to rely on a gun and had 100% lost if I had to directly rely on the Deadly Dragon Princess. After all, I would have to have been brought down to a hopeless condition if I had to rely on that paranormal power that was clearly weaker than myself. ¡°You¡¯re insane...¡± muttered the figure. Instead of asking how I had done it, he immediately jumped to my motive for doing so. If that was his idea of a final resistance, he was more pathetic than I had thought. ¡°You¡¯re insane!! You¡¯re completely insane!! You gave yourself a body stronger than Youkai in order to overcome Youkai? That...that isn¡¯t overcoming them at all! That¡¯s just making yourself an even greater monster than the Youkai!! You¡¯re just making the darkness even greater!!¡± ¡°True. Humans too are a type of monster. Hadn¡¯t you heard?¡± I cracked my neck and then slowly approached the fool who had entered the darkness with nothing but a flashlight. The sponsor tried to step backwards as if he had finally realized the danger, but it was too late. ¡°Now, then. I am stronger than the Deadly Dragon Princess. I am designed to be, so that is a definite fact. So what can you do against a monster like that?¡± He was already within the darkness. He had not merely taken on step in; he was already being completely swallowed up. Part 11 ¡°Excellent work.¡± We were in the tea room that was wrapped in such a calm atmosphere you would never think it was within a cutting edge flying wing aircraft. A kimono-wearing girl of about 10 spoke in a flowing voice. ¡°We have found data on the composition of Sashi Kajin from the sponsor¡¯s cell phones and computers. The men I sent out to investigate have confirmed that every member is dead. There are still many questions left before we can call this truly resolved, but the original objective has been achieved. Due to your results, we shall overlook your methods.¡± ¡°Why thank you.¡± I would bow my head down to anyone if they would give me what I wanted, but this had been a bit too expensive. For one thing, the Deadly Dragon Princes had been almost completely destroyed. And even if that had been an absolutely necessary expense for finishing the job, I could not stand that it had been done by some crazy person who showed up out of nowhere. If only I had just killed him along with the rest at the beginning rather than speaking to him in case there was someone else behind it all. ¡°Once you have confirmed receipt of your pay, are you willing to take on another job?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll need a bit of a long break first. I need to do something to fix the Deadly Dragon Princess after it had its form destroyed.¡± ¡°I thought that was just a hypothetical enemy you needed for the design phase? I do not see why you would need it now that you have built yourself up.¡± ¡°I need it to perform periodic maintenance. If I just did it by feel, I would end up with things way out of order before long.¡± ¡°Fine then. It is not an urgent job. I can wait 2 weeks. If you think you will need longer than that, I will give the job to someone else.¡± ¡°Also, can I borrow that Sunekosuri?¡± ¡°As another hypothetical enemy?¡± The small head of Hyakki Yakou looked confused. If possible, I wanted to borrow that young lady as well. That would have made for the best vacation ever. ¡°By the way,¡± said the young lady when I began to leave. ¡°About the sponsor who eliminated the producers of the spiritual medicines. You have left out any information on the anti-Youkai weapon he had.¡± ¡°I went a bit nuts in that dam. It was broken during the fight.¡± ¡°...¡± That was a weapon that could kill any Youkai with a single strike. Hyakki Yakou was constantly fighting with the especially dangerous examples of deadly Youkai, so they would want a weapon like that more than anything else. But... ¡°I see. Never mind then.¡± ¡°You gave up on that easily.¡± ¡°And you broke it rather easily.¡± Chehh. She saw right through me. That was the ¡°thing that must not see the light of day¡± that made the demolition of the dam and the restoration of the village such a problem, wasn¡¯t it? She may have still been the same cute, innocent little girl, but she had grown some. It made me a little sad. With that thought, I left the tea room. After all, it was not our goal to eradicate every single Youkai including the ones like that Sunekosuri. If she kept something like that around, it would cause unnecessary conflicts with groups in favor of utter eradication that would try to steal it. Notes 1. ¡ü Sunekosuri literally means ¡°shin rubber¡±. 2. ¡ü Paizuri literally means ¡°tit rub¡± and is also the Japanese term for a ¡°tit job¡±. 3. ¡ü Matakosuri literally means ¡°thigh rubber¡±. 4. ¡ü Saishi Kajin is a Japanese phrase that roughly means ¡°an intelligent man and a beautiful woman¡±. 5. ¡ü A dozou is an old fashioned type of Japanese storehouse. 6. ¡ü Katatagae (literally meaning ¡°different direction¡±) was the Onmyouji practice of divining the fortune of the direction one was going to take when heading out. If the direction was determined to have ill fortune, a different direction would be taken. Volume 1, 4: Regarding the Slaughter Volume 1, Chapter 4: Regarding the Slaughter Part 1 (Jinnai Shinobu) It was all over. It was utterly and fundamentally over. There was not even the slightest hope. After all, there had never before been the slightest hint that someone like her would die!! ¡°U-uhh...¡± The urge to vomit rose up within me. The extreme red coloration made me feel dizzy. Even so, I could not tear my eyes away from what lay before me. They were rooted to the spot. I pointlessly tried to not make the connection between the thick smell of rusted iron and the fact that I was in the same area as a corpse. It was in front of me. A neck that was twisted like an old rag. A female body missing a head. I recognized that person who even now had fresh blood gushing out of her. The corpse had its face crushed and was overall melted, so it was possible it was not actually her. However, that theory did not hold here. I simply recognized too many things about her. I recognized the beautifully manicured fingers. I recognized the smooth line of her back. It matched the memories in my mind so perfectly I shuddered. I could not help but shudder. She was collapsed there limply...no, her entire body was twitching as the blood flowed out like a frog leg with electrodes attached. I managed to squeeze a voice out of the depths of my dry throat. ¡°Hishigami...Mai-san...?¡± I may have called her name because I was hoping for a response. Even though she had no mouth. Even though she had no head. My legs almost collapsed underneath me, but then I realized the redness gushing out was flowing toward me. When I thought it would touch me and sully me, strength reentered my legs. And then I realized something else. I felt it would sully me because it was coming from a corpse. I no longer even thought of it as being Hishigami Mai. And with that realization, the fear that had been numbed over by the shock came flooding in all at once. ¡°Ah...ah...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± I would be killed. I would be killed if I stayed there. This was a situation where a human on her level had been easily decapitated. A normal high school student like me did not stand a chance!! I swung my arms around and ran away. I had no idea what I was screaming. It didn¡¯t matter what. I needed to get out. I needed to get out of the building. I ran through a long passageway. But I stopped partway through. My legs refused to move any further. A single door lay before me. It was half open and a pure red color was splattered on the other side. Dammit! What the hell!? Dammit!! That¡¯s my uncle! He¡¯s supposed to be a policeman! The symbol of this country¡¯s power! Why...Why is his neck caught in a broken window frame and his legs severed!? He was my relative, so I did not know whether I should run over crying even though he was so horribly damaged. But the fear held me back. I could not approach. There was something wrong about the situation. He had not died due to blood loss from his legs. He had suffocated with his neck caught in the window frame. It was clear someone had wanted him to slowly suffer as he died by setting a trap he could have escaped had he been able to use his legs at all. That mystery-loving girl had been thrown on top of a gas burner in the kitchen and Madoka was swaying back and forth as she hung like a chandelier from the ceiling by a giant fishing hook meant for catching Pacific bluefin tuna. There was simply no hope. It did not matter who had done it. I could not imagine how this could all be summarized into an individual pursuing us. It simply seemed to me that the entire hotel was enveloped by some invisible power like some massive malice or grudge. I was going to die. I was definitely going to die. I could not stop my erratic breathing. I could not put together a plan. I was next. In fact, I was the only one left. So who had done this? Was there any way I could escape? In fact... In fact... How? How had it ended up like this? Part 2 (Jinnai Shinobu) As I was eating a popsicle on the porch of our Japanese house with a thatch roof that was only any use in the winter, my overall small granny called out to me. ¡°Shinobu. Shinobu.¡± ¡°What is it, granny.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a stray cat. I do not mind if it rests here, but I do not want it to start using our yard as its litter box. I tried to chase it away, but it didn¡¯t do any good. Shinobu, could you do something about it?¡± ¡°...Granny. That isn¡¯t a cat. It¡¯s a Nekomata. It has two tails. Those things can be deadly, so be careful.¡± Cat Youkai were not all that disliked as they were said to take vengeance for their masters, but those were romanticized tales. They had the power to kill people, so you really did have to be careful. I put on my flip-flops and headed out to the large yard. I then cautiously approached the Nekomata that was curled up below a tree covered in rhinoceros beetles. ¡°Nekomata, what are you doing here?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you tell? Doing my best to put up with this midsummer heat. I suppose you humans wouldn¡¯t understand with your year-round air conditioning.¡± ¡°You can cool down inside if you want, but please don¡¯t use our yard as a litter box.¡± ¡°A lady like me would never do something like that. Anyway, that sounds nice. I was starting to feel a bit irritable, so a nice cold bath would be great. Once my mood has been refreshed, I will no longer have to worry about harming anyone.¡± ¡°You like baths? But you¡¯re a cat.¡± ¡°I am a Nekomata.¡± And so I headed for the bath with the Nekomata in my arms. ¡°This is quite the high-tech bath for such a rundown house.¡± ¡°My grandfather insisted we get it redone while we can because he says the house could be designated cultural property at any time. That¡¯s why the kitchen, bathrooms, bath, heating, and cooling are all more advanced than everything else.¡± I turned the faucet and cold water started filling the wash basin, but the Nekomata began to complain. ¡°It will be too cold with just that. Add in some hot water.¡± ¡°You sure are picky.¡± ¡°That¡¯s too much hot water. It can¡¯t be lukewarm. I want this to be refreshing.¡± ¡°Fine, fine,¡± I replied and stuck the Nekomata in the wash basin. Despite all her complaints, she seemed to enjoy it. I could hear a lot of purring. Suddenly, I noticed a flat-chested Yuki Onna peering in through the gap next to the sliding door to the bath. My dad had allowed her to live with us as long as she stayed away from anything related to brewing as the temperature for that had to be precisely controlled. (Incidentally, my mother just generally loved Youkai.) ¡°...No fair...¡± ¡°What isn¡¯t fair?¡± ¡°That Youkai suddenly appears and you are already taking a bath with her? And yet I have not received an opportunity like that after all this work I put into solidifying a foundation...¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re jealous. Not only is that unsightly, but you are way off the mark there,¡± commented the Nekomata. ¡°What!? Wait, does this even count? I mean, she¡¯s a cat!!¡± I said. ¡°I am a Nekomata. I am as much a deadly Youkai as she is.¡± Even if you¡¯re in the same category, there¡¯s still a huge difference!! And why is Yuki Onna-chan reaching for the obi to her kimono!? You¡¯re clearly choosing the wrong person to compete with here!! Are you planning to stick your ass in the wash basin!? And then came the glamorous Zashiki Warashi. She must have caught scent of my misfortune. The huge grin on her face made it obvious at a glance what she was after. It was a little unclear what this had to do with her being a Zashiki Warashi, but I was past caring. ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi! Hold that Yuki Onna back!¡± ¡°No fair, no fair¡î¡± ¡°Why the hell are you reaching for your yukata¡¯s obi!? Don¡¯t strip nude just for a joke! It isn¡¯t funny when you have a body as nice as that!!¡± Part 3 (Hishigami Mai) The countryside could be annoying with all the Youkai, but big cities were hardly perfect. They were so crowded and filled with unhealthy exhaust and chemicals despite the area being thoroughly altered for humans to live in. I could only imagine the people there enjoyed shaving away their own lifespan. I entered a chain caf¨¦ and a police detective with a glum look on his face waved me over to a seat in the back. What he was doing counted as work, so I could only be jealous of how easy public servants had it. Even so, he did seem a bit stiff in his movements due to the wounds from repeated shots from a hunting rifle. But by ¡°our¡± standards, that didn¡¯t even count as being injured. Also, he received medical care paid for with the people¡¯s tax money, so I still say they have it pretty easy. ¡°What are you drinking?¡± ¡°What does it matter? By the way...what¡¯s with that outfit? A tank top and hot pants? Did you forget how old you are? You look like a complete idiot. You look like a university student that carelessly got in with a specialized entrance exam and then couldn¡¯t keep up with the classes.¡± ¡°If a real idiot wore this, there would be no helping them, but it works as a handy bit of camouflage for those who aren¡¯t idiots.¡± ¡°I see. So what did you want to talk about? Let¡¯s get this over with quickly.¡± ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon. At least let me complain about my troubles to you. I¡¯ve had some pain-in-the-ass people set their sights on me lately which isn¡¯t any fun. Oh, I know. Could you maybe help smooth things out with them?¡± ¡°With you, it¡¯s bound to be your own damn fault. I hate that I can¡¯t arrest someone like you. There are just too many holes in the police organization. So who has their sights on you? The PSIA?¡± ¡°MI6. The CIA. Oh, and the European Security Force.¡± ¡°That¡¯s clearly well beyond what the Japanese police can deal with!! What the hell did you do!? No, wait...no!!¡± ¡°You wanna know? You do, don¡¯t you? Well, I heard a system for making use of Succubi had been established in Europe, so I decided to go take a peek. The system was so poorly made it looked like an idiot had designed it. In fact, the officials who had contacted the Succubus were the ones being contr-...¡± ¡°Stop!! Please stop! I don¡¯t want to end up being some poor victim after hearing something I shouldn¡¯t have!!¡± Oh, c¡¯mon. And I was just getting to the good part. ¡°Why do you two sisters always destroy the boundaries of common sense...?¡± ¡°Oh? I¡¯ll admit I may do that, but I thought my little sister was a bit more normal.¡± ¡°What is normal about a minor that shows up at the crime scene of every mysterious murder? I¡¯ve had a flood of complaints from the Lifestyle Safety Division. They keep telling me not to let a child see those things and to solve the cases on my own. ...I don¡¯t know how word of it reached them, but I¡¯ve even received complaints from the riot police.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you just go ahead and marry her?¡± ¡°Are you completely unfamiliar with the concept of context!? And do you have any idea what Japanese law is!?¡± ¡°Oh, right. About that sister of mine.¡± ¡°Again, context please...¡± ¡°She says to take a week of paid vacation starting today.¡± ¡°Why!? I don¡¯t have any idea what you¡¯re talking about!¡± Well, that one wasn¡¯t too surprising. My sister knew that was asking too much of him. That was why she had used me as an intermediary for the message. ¡°I have some tickets here. One for me, one for you, and one for my sister. That¡¯s three in total. These tickets give us free lodging at a hotel in Fuuka Village, an Intellectual Village. You are headed there right away. Understand?¡± ¡°...I¡¯ll keep this short. What happens if I just ignore you?¡± ¡°I will render you unconscious with this wet towel and stuff you in my travel bag. But then you won¡¯t be able to call in to take a paid vacation, so you might lose your job.¡± Part 4 (Jinnai Shinobu) After dealing with the trouble in the bath, I retreated back to my room. The air conditioner was running full blast within the room and for some reason the futon was spread out with the Zashiki Warashi lying in it. ¡°...What are you doing?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s unfair?¡± The Zashiki Warashi looked at me with a completely composed expression. ¡°You caught a cold the other day, Shinobu. And who was it that nursed you back to health? For the most part, me. It¡¯s not fair. It¡¯s not fair at all. Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s unfair if you do not treat me kindly after I treated you so kindly?¡± ¡°...But you seemed happy enough wringing out the wet towel. I thought I might as well take you up on your offer.¡± ¡°You¡¯re always so disagreeable, but you get so obedient when you¡¯re sick. It¡¯s like you revert to being a small child when you feel weak. I kind of like it. I¡¯m starting to wish you had a cold year round. Heh heh... Heh heh heh heh heh.¡± Don¡¯t tell me this Youkai that is supposed to bring fortune to my household is always lazing around in an attempt to weaken me. ¡°But this is a completely different issue. To make things fair, you need to pay me back for my kindness. I want you to nurse me back to health too.¡± ¡°...You just thought the porridge you fed me looked good, didn¡¯t you? And Youkai are damn hard to kill, so I doubt you can even catch a cold.¡± ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t overlook that. If you will recall, I took off my clothes and took a cold bath just a bit ago.¡± ¡°Eh!? You mean that was meant to be foreshadowing!?¡± I decided it was best to play along, so I went to get a towel and a wash bath filled with water. From inside the futon, the Zashiki Warashi said, ¡°I want to eat some vanilla ice cream.¡± ¡°You seem healthy enough to me.¡± ¡°Blow on it for me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not how that works. That¡¯s for hot foods.¡± The Zashiki Warashi stubbornly refused to sit up, so I had to lift up and support her upper body while I carried the spoonful of dairy product to her mouth. I had already finished my summer homework and had nothing else to do, so I didn¡¯t really care. I just hoped the Yuki Onna wasn¡¯t watching me with an odd look in her eyes again. For some reason, the Zashiki Warashi turned the TV to an educational program. She then said, ¡°I think I¡¯ll grow sick of this after half an hour.¡± ¡°I thought you might.¡± ¡°But since you seem to want to nurse me back to health so much, I¡¯ll stick with it for the rest of the day.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s not how being tsundere works.¡± Then my beaten-up old cell phone with a broken camera lens started to ring. The Zashiki Warashi looked a bit annoyed, but I had to give the phone priority. It was from Madoka-san, my strange beauty of a classmate who lived in the Sanatorium. ¡°Shinobu-kun, let¡¯s head to a hotel.¡± ¡°What is it, Madoka? Have your morals completely crumbled?¡± ¡°Ah ha ha ha ha. Sorry, but a whole group is going. I have an extra ticket, so I was wondering if you wanted to come along.¡± ...No, I think this is a pretty big deal even so. Are you sure they haven¡¯t crumbled? Well, maybe she¡¯s just taking the idea of the ¡°student summer break¡± too lightly. And on a different note, when did Madoka and I get so close??? ¡°Where is this hotel? The beach? The mountains?¡± ¡°Somewhere far away.¡± ¡°Good enough for me. I¡¯ll go convince my parents, so tell me where to meet you and when.¡± I jotted down the necessary information and hung up. Convincing my parents...well, I doubted it would be easy, but I had to try. After all, this was a student summer break. I could feel unnecessary power welling up within me. And then I noticed the Zashiki Warashi looking up at me from the futon like she wanted to say something. ¡°No fair.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Shinobu, you still have a lot to learn about fairness. And so I want to go too.¡± ¡°I think she said she only had one extra ticket. And with a bourgeois like Madoka, I¡¯m betting adding on an additional ticket would be ridiculously expensive.¡± ¡°Are you forgetting that Youkai are traditionally treated a lot like humans but there is no legal basis for that treatment?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t follow.¡± ¡°I can stay there for free if you insist that I am your pet.¡± ...Doesn¡¯t...the idea of being treated like that...make you sad? I felt an intense urge to comment on that, but that Zashiki Warashi was probably just bored. The lead-in to the cold bath and nursing her back to health had been pretty forced. She obviously just wanted something exciting to happen. But they said bad things would happen if a Zashiki Warashi abandoned your house. I decided it would be best to have her let off some steam before she truly got sick of our house and went off on some journey. Part 5 (Kotemitsu Madoka) I am the kind of person that does not believe in any of those ideas that says the fate of the entire planet has already been decided by Nostradamus, the Mayans, the Aztecs, or any other prophecies. However, I do believe in small, fleeting bits of luck. In fact, anyone who has not felt something like that by their teenage years has already lost in some way. They will likely never make anything of themselves. This is Madoka-san telling you this and I have around 30 billion Japanese yen, so you can trust me. But even so, those small, fleeting bits of luck are usually something you cannot affect under your own power. Teenagers have a tendency to believe that the outcome of any sort of competition they are in is dependent on their own talent, effort, ideas, or some brilliant move of theirs, but they are wrong about that. Humans are complexly interrelated with others simply by being alive. And I am not trying to be reassuring when I say that. More often than not, that interrelation is a negative thing. Learning to understand how others feel is not just some nice thing to do; it is the one and only secret technique to acquiring certain victory. There¡¯s some famous quote about knowing your enemies and knowing yourself, but that is not quite accurate. What you need to know is the general flow of opinions and ideas whether they belong to your enemies, your allies, or even complete strangers. Complete strangers will often affect the outcome without you even knowing it. And so... I am surrounded almost entirely by people that trip others up, people that grow envious of others, and people that rampage around based on nonsensical resentment or imagined victimhood. That is why I end up treating the rare innocent and good people like they are exceptionally precious. ¡°...Heh heh heh. Heh heh heh heh heh. You mustn¡¯t underestimate a problem child, class president. To you, I may just be one address among your triple digit total of addresses, but to me, you are a highly valued comrade among my single digit total of addresses. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.¡± ¡°Madoka, you¡¯re turning into the kind of pervert that only geniuses are allowed to be, so be careful.¡± Whoops. I was frightening Enbi who I had been speaking to over the phone. Even after moving from the city, she had remained one of those few ¡°innocent and good¡± people. ¡°So this trip is to an Intellectual Village called Fuuka Village?¡± I asked. ¡°Right, right. It¡¯s centered around dairy farming, so it should be a wide open area. And it¡¯s full of events that let you come into contact with animals.¡± ¡°I hear the cows and horses have their health more strictly managed than someone in a fitness club¡¯s weight control program.¡± But putting aside that idyllic vision (the residents of Intellectual Villages had digital values for things like ¡°tranquility¡±), I was a bit worried since that mystery freak was so intent on going. Unfortunately, I knew that anything she was interested in had to do with human death. Even so, she was still ¡°innocent and good¡±, so it did not go so far as needing to actively avoid her. ¡°Enbi, there is one thing I need to know before we go. There are no well-known legends that have been told about Fuuka Village since the Edo period, are there?¡± ¡°Did you manage to find someone for that extra ticket?¡± ¡°There aren¡¯t mysterious serial murders at set intervals, are there? The inn isn¡¯t owned by a beautiful widow, is it? Office ladies don¡¯t have a habit of heading to the hot springs in groups, do they?¡± ¡°And here I was worried that you wouldn¡¯t be able to find any friends that are ¡®more than friends¡¯ after transferring away, Madoka.¡± Part 6 (Jinnai Shinobu) The day of the trip finally came. One of the numerous downsides of an Intellectual Village was the relative lack of public transportation connecting to the outside world. This meant everyone heading out on a trip would naturally end up at the same station at the same time. If I called it a train that never saw rush hour, people might imagine a vehicle of the bourgeoisie, but it was actually just a local line. Even if you counted the up and down tracks separately, the train only made 5 trips each day. ...It seemed completely insane and I saw no way they could make a profit off of it. By the time I arrived, the healthy and well-behaved Madoka-chan was wearing a white dress and an elegant hat. She was looking 150% as ephemeral as ever and sitting on a bench in the empty station (the station was not operated by robots or anything). When she spotted me and the Zashiki Warashi next to me, her eyes opened wide. ¡°I see someone with large breasts that I did not invite.¡¯ ¡°She¡¯s my pet. She can wear a collar with a bell on it if it means she stays for free.¡± ¡°...Shinobu-kun. When did you get such full-fledged perverted tastes?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t look at me. She¡¯s the pervert that suggested it.¡± Hmm. Come to think of it, I might be willing to wear a collar if it would save me a few hundred thousand yen. ¡°And let me be clear. I worked hard to keep the destruction of common sense contained to this level. All last night, I had to put up with a Yuki Onna and Nekomata shouting about how unfair this is.¡± I had finally won out by saying it would be hard to bring deadly Youkai belonging to our house out of the Intellectual Village. The issue was a bit different for stray (?) ones as they could come and go as they please, but it had still worked. I had a sinking feeling that meant that Nekomata was planning to stay. Meanwhile, Madoka gave me a puzzled look from the bench. ¡°(Hmm. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with the Zashiki Warashi coming, but adding an unexpected irregular character to the cast list is bringing us closer to the kind of situation Enbi likes so much. I hope this trip works out okay.)¡± ¡°Hey, Madoka. The train¡¯s about to arrive. If we miss this, we¡¯ll have to wait until nightfall.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. Worrying about it isn¡¯t going to help. (Even if the kind of serial murders that Enbi likes do happen, it doesn¡¯t matter as long as we don¡¯t get wrapped up in them.)¡± Madoka seemed to convince herself of something and then headed over to the ticket machine. The station supported the use of IC cards, but neither of us had one. We just bought everything we wanted over the internet, so we did not feel the need to leave the village very often. I walked past a sign saying ¡°Make sure not to bring in any outside pollen or germs!¡± and approached a different ticket machine. The Zashiki Warashi gave a puzzled look while standing next to me. ¡°I see a kid¡¯s ticket, but I can¡¯t find the pet ticket.¡± ¡°...If you keep this joke going, you might end up stuffed inside an airplane¡¯s cargo hold.¡± Part 7 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Honestly, it isn¡¯t normal for a mere police officer to take an entire week off at once. And since I was spending the time on a trip with a girl who always showed up at the scenes of mysterious murders and a woman who could single-handedly resolve cases the police could not handle, I felt like even the bare minimum of professional ethics was crumbling around me. ¡°We¡¯ve arrived, we¡¯ve arrived. So this is the Intellectual Village known as Fuuka Village. It¡¯s in a large plain just as I expected,¡± said the mystery freak as she threw her arms up into the air after shoving her travel bag into my arms. When we left the small regional airport, we found a sight rare in Japan. A vast expanse of green stretched to the horizon, robbing us of any sense of distance. And not a single plant we could see was natural. It was all part of a pasture. The mystery freak¡¯s older sister shoved her bag into my arms as well and said, ¡°I heard half of the dairy commercials you see are filmed here. It must be specifically designed to be picturesque.¡± The regional airport was located right smack in the middle of the large plain, but we were not yet inside the Intellectual Village. We still had to head 20 to 30 kilometers down a road with no traffic lights before we would arrive at the hotel. Fuuka Village was focused primarily on dairy production, so it was well-equipped in noise-reduction methods. The area was quite cool for being in the middle of summer, but Enbi was only wearing a two-piece swimsuit, a miniskirt, and a hoodie. Basically, she looked like she belonged on the beach or in a club. Her sister was wearing a tank top and hot pants, so I started to wonder if it was something that ran in the family. But then... ¡°...No, she has her own issues that can¡¯t be explained by her sister¡¯s influence,¡± I commented. ¡°Were you just thinking something very rude about us?¡± ¡°Were you just thinking something very rude about us?¡± With the two sisters both glaring at me, I averted my gaze as I started sweating a cold sweat. Enbi pointed up into the sky and said, ¡°I can see a lot of what look like ad balloons.¡± ¡°I bet those are cameras. They probably monitor the pasture and the moisture levels. This is a large area. Those UAVs that look like toy planes could do the same job, but they¡¯re expensive, susceptible to strong gusts of wind, and their batteries don¡¯t last long, so they aren¡¯t perfect for everything.¡± ¡°The balloons are cheap, but they can¡¯t make tight turns. The balloons might perform a general observation and a UAV is sent out if anything out of the ordinary is detected.¡± But that was not what I was interested in. ¡°Can you finally explain this to me?¡± ¡°Explain what?¡± ¡°Why you forced me to use my vacation time to come out here. Dealing with just one of you sisters is bad enough, but nothing good can come of having the two of you together. What are you hiding from me?¡± ¡°Well, I tried out the neighborhood association lottery and...¡± ¡°Mystery freak, with you, that kind of beginning scares me all the more. Really, any kind of trip that has some kind of unnatural beginning scares me with you. What are you after?¡± ¡°Can you teach 3 or 4 kids to be proper members of society by the end of the day?¡± ¡°Not even a priest could manage that.¡± Part 8 (Jinnai Shinobu) Five hours. Five whole hours. Even though we took a plane as a shortcut, that¡¯s still way too long for a trip. I only just barely managed to survive thanks to the novelty of being on a plane for the first time, but it was well beyond the limit of what a mere student could withstand. It was the afternoon by the time we arrived at the hotel. Its overall coloration was red. That may have been because it was made primarily out of brick. The building was only about 3 stories tall. Its silhouette formed an upside down T-shape. A cylindrical building stood in the center and rectangular buildings stretched out from either side. The rectangular portions...that is, the parts that looked like school buildings were probably where our rooms were located. ¡°I guess there are a lot of different kinds of Intellectual Villages,¡± said my ¡°pet¡± Zashiki Warashi as she looked up at the building. It certainly was quite different from our thatch roofed house. Intellectual Villages did not try to accurately and faithfully reproduce the scenery from some specific year in history. Instead, they took the vague ideas people had of what a rural town was and dragged those imagined ideas out into reality. For that reason, the time period represented could be very different depending on the region. ¡°Beef and cow¡¯s milk only really took off during the Meiji period, so they may be going for that format.¡± Even so, I doubted what I saw was a faithful recreation of the Meiji period. As I already said, they focused on matching the vague ideas people had about rural areas. Simply put, that had a way of making a stronger brand image. As we gave our impressions of the building, Madoka spoke up. ¡°Let¡¯s get inside.¡± ¡°Oh, right.¡± ¡°I¡¯m interested whether she passes as a pet or not.¡± ¡°Personally, I would say ¡®worried¡¯ rather than ¡®interested¡¯.¡± After all, what were we supposed to do if it didn¡¯t work? The hotel was surrounded by nothing but pastures as far as the eye could see. The only other constructions were gas stations and pay phones. The pastures surrounding the hotel were owned by four different farms and being able to pet the animals was one of the area¡¯s draws. However, I had heard that the actual dairy facilities were 20 to 30 kilometers away. The farm workers were only around during the day, so the area would be completely abandoned save the hotel once night fell. As a dairy Intellectual Village, it had to have thoroughbred bloodline development institutions and refrigerated facilities to preserve the genetic information of the brand-name meat as a countermeasure for infectious disease outbreaks. However, it seemed all of those facilities were located on the outer perimeter of the pastures along with the solar power plant. ¡°...Well, if that happens, sleeping outside will be the only option,¡± I commented. ¡°Can you really last an entire week outside, Shinobu?¡± ¡°Wait a second!! When did you swipe that ticket from me!?¡± With a slight smile, the Zashiki Warashi gave off a silent pressure that told me to do my very best if I wanted to stay in the hotel. Please, do your job and bring fortune to your household, you damn Youkai!! The entrance to the hotel was in the cylindrical portion of the upside down T-shape. The exterior was primarily made of red brick, but the interior was mostly white. The walls and ceiling were both white. The floor was covered with a vividly colored carpet. The counter was located in the back of the relatively small lobby. The wall behind the counter had a simple diagram of the hotel¡¯s first floor on it. A worker in black slacks, a button-down shirt, and a vest stood behind the counter. This was the first checkpoint for me. The trip couldn¡¯t even begin without succeeding here, so I needed to use all of my power and I kind of wanted some extra support from Madoka-san and her wealth. However... ¡°Hey, it¡¯s Madoka. Did you just arrive?¡± ¡°Oh, so you did get here ahead of us, Enbi.¡± Geh!? She¡¯s already heading away!? And who the hell is that girl who looks like she only just started wearing a bra!? ¡°Hm? Is that thing over there in the lounge a Sunekosuri?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you run away, too!! We may be in the same boat here, but I was dragged into this! This is primarily about you!!¡± Part 9 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Shinobu was waving his arms around while trying to make some kind of deal with the worker at the lobby counter. He had become quite eccentric since I had last seen him. It really did seem the entire trip was falling apart in some way, but that was not the main issue. Why? Why is she here? Why is that horrible Zashiki Warashi here!? ¡°Hehh. You don¡¯t often see a Zashiki Warashi just wandering around. And even adults can see her. Will my fortune with money increase if she approaches me?¡± Mai sounded carefree enough about it, but I knew this Youkai was not that nice. A Zashiki Warashi was supposed to bring fortune to a household while also playing childish pranks, but from what I knew of that one, she excelled at the prank side of things. I am not exaggerating when I say about half of my teenage years were completely ruined by her. I had no idea how she had ended up here, but I knew I had to work to hide my presence as much as possible for the duration of the trip. ¡°Detective, that Zashiki Warashi is waving at you.¡± ¡°Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!¡± I let out a scream that would make you go paler than a snuff video. Th-that grin. She¡¯s definitely planning something unthinkable again!! I still haven¡¯t forgotten how you ended my first love by cutting away my swimsuit with scissors!! Mai looked thoroughly irritated as she said, ¡°You really do have talent when it comes to making Youkai hate you. The Sunekosuri hasn¡¯t approached you once this whole time. I wonder if that complete negative reaction could be used in some way.¡± ¡°Th-that doesn¡¯t happen because I want it to!!¡± ¡°It seems that boy who came with the Zashiki Warashi has a different but equally interesting nature, but I suppose it doesn¡¯t matter. I just want to go love on that Sunekosuri!!¡± ¡°Wait! Don¡¯t leave me alone!!¡± I tried to grab at her for safety, but the next thing I knew, I was lying collapsed on the ground. Ahh! The Zashiki Warashi is headed this way out of boredom because Shinobu is focused on convincing that worker!! At this rate, she¡¯ll fill the time by destroying everything I need to live a normal life in society!! ¡°Not good. My only option is to get to my room and hole up there!!¡± When I frantically tried to grab my bag, a different hand reached in from the side. It belonged to one of the hotel¡¯s workers. ¡°I will carry that to your room for you if you like.¡± ¡°Th-thanks...um...Matsukai-san?¡± I had to check the nameplate on the chest of the worker¡¯s vest for the name. Matsukai-san smiled and said, ¡°I am at your service for the short time you are here.¡± Part 10 (Jinnai Shinobu) The hotel itself was fairly small, so naturally the room was not that large. Then again, it was a single. But it was a Western style room, and that got me excited. It wasn¡¯t that I had any real complaints with that thatch-roofed house, but it did lack some things. The Zashiki Warashi approached the window and let out a strange voice that seemed a mixture of admiration and annoyance. ¡°There really isn¡¯t anything as far as the eye can see. The only activity is seeing the animals. Once you get tired of that, you¡¯re out of luck, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I¡¯d say the bigger problem at the moment is why you¡¯re in here with me when it¡¯s a single.¡± ¡°I¡¯m being treated as a pet. Of course they aren¡¯t going to give me my own room.¡± ¡°...I still can¡¯t believe they went along with that.¡± It was possible her being a Zashiki Warashi worked to her advantage. Not that she would bring fortune to the hotel or anything. Now then. I had managed to feign calmness up to that point, but it was about time for me to do something about my pounding heart. And it really was pounding!! When I accepted the invitation, I had assumed I was on a stable course straight down the Madoka route, but now that was all thrown into chaos by the sudden inclusion of the Indoor Youkai option. And really, no matter if anything actually happened or not, it would pretty much be a scandal for any public figure from the moment we entered the room together. The tabloids would be all over it!! At that moment, the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s nose twitched slightly. ¡°...I sense inappropriate thoughts.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be silly!! You¡¯re just being too self-conscious, you good-for-nothing Zashiki Warashi! If this was made into a book, it would be designated for all ages!!¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± ¡°It means nothing to me if this room is a single and therefore has just the one bed and I¡¯m alone in it with you and your massive tits, the gentle curve of your back, and the soft curves of your hips!!¡± ¡°The device I am about to attach to your fingertip is a polygraph sensor that sends an electric shock depending on your answer, so answer ¡®true¡¯ to every true-or-false question I ask you.¡± ¡°Ha ha ha. Like you actually have such a convenient-...wait, you do!? Why!? Wah! Wait, wait! I¡¯ll confess, I¡¯ll confess!! Teenage boys are thinking inappropriate thoughts about 80% of the time!! And doesn¡¯t bringing pointless things like that just make your bag heavier!?¡± ¡°Do not underestimate modern online teaching materials and sites selling modern security goods. At any rate, Question 1: Your secret savings are hidden below a false bottom in your school bag.¡± ¡°That question has nothing to do with the situation!!¡± ¡°With your fragile mental defenses, I get the feeling your mind would collapse if I got straight to the point.¡± ¡°I get it, so stop physically attacking me with your words!!¡± ¡°Question 2: If possible, you want to have your way with both me and Madoka and your virgin mindset gives you the groundless confidence to imagine we would both come on to you.¡± ¡°Why would you head straight into it if you know it will destroy my mind!? A-and that¡¯s just a mindset! That doesn¡¯t mean I actually am one!!¡± ¡°...!!¡± ¡°Why do you look so shocked? D-do I seem that much like a virgin to you?¡± ¡°Y-you aren¡¯t lying, are you?¡± ¡°If I was, that electrode would send a shock into my finger, right!? Actually...how much of a shock does it send!? What do you have in that box? It isn¡¯t a car battery, is it!?¡± ¡°Qu-question 3: It was with Madoka.¡± ¡°No. She may have a cute face, but she¡¯s too much of a bourgeois for me to find an opening. That¡¯s why I thought this trip was such a great opportunity.¡± ¡°Question 4: Yuki Onna?¡± ¡°I¡¯d be frozen to death the next morning, if I did that.¡± ¡°Neko-...¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t the Nekomata!! The format is just too different! Explain to me how that would even be possible!!¡± Part 11 (Zashiki Warashi - Yukari) Shinobu started sobbing while lying in the bed, so I had no choice but to leave the room to find something else to do. I had to wonder whether he had actually believed me about the stun gun polygraph. I don¡¯t dislike high-tech gadgets, but that doesn¡¯t mean I have any idea how to put one together. I can¡¯t stand the smell of a soldering iron. ¡°Mutter mutter... But if Shinobu actually believed that, was he telling the truth when he said that...? Hmm...¡± I couldn¡¯t believe it. I simply couldn¡¯t believe it. I didn¡¯t particularly care about Shinobu, but I was a bit worried at how low my accuracy had fallen if I had missed something that major about my household as a Zashiki Warashi. Then again, I had no proof that Shinobu was telling the truth. It was possible Shinobu had seen through my stun gun polygraph bluff and was having his own fun at my expense. I had no real proof one way or the other. It would be foolish to simply take Shinobu¡¯s word for it. Shinobu could be a bit of a show off. I had no idea if a male version of pseudocyesis existed, but Shinobu certainly had the delusional power to pull it off. ¡°I need some time to cool down.¡± When I wanted to have some fun, I would go have some fun. I wasn¡¯t going to find anyone in the hotel hallway, so I headed for the first floor lobby and the adjacent lounge where I was likely to find someone. I was technically considered a pet, so I really shouldn¡¯t have been wandering around on my own. However, Shinobu was considered my owner, so he would be the one to get in trouble, not me. Having someone else to take the blame for your actions was a great way to put your mind at ease. In that way, my position as a pet was quite a nice one. ¡°You are a Zashiki Warashi, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°And you are a Sunekosuri.¡± ¡°It must be nice. Not only are you beautiful overall, but you are one of the major Youkai. One of you is almost guaranteed to show up in any Youkai manga or Youkai movie.¡± ¡°Yes, but I do kind of wish I had an animal form. When filming a commercial, they always want a cute kitten or puppy.¡± ¡°But there is too much inflation in animal Youkai. A deadly one like the Nekomata can act as a mascot while still joining in the battles. And if they want a canine Youkai, they always choose the Inugami. There¡¯s nothing left for a Sunekosuri.¡± I was not so sure. I had a feeling a mascot only worked when it was completely powerless. ¡°There is nothing I can do to defeat a Zashiki Warashi when it comes to impact. You¡¯re both harmless and look like girls, so there is no more anyone could ask from you. And since you primarily bring fortune you fill the protagonist-side support role perfectly.¡± ¡°Nothing says a Zashiki Warashi has to be female and we are hardly innocent since we will predict fires. I wonder why the image of the girl Zashiki Warashi is so strong.¡± ¡°Being cute with a bit of venom hidden below the surface is perfect for entertainment. I am a Sunekosuri. All I do is rub up against shins. There is no room for drama there.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t the Sunekosuri come about from the fear of something being at your feet while walking along a path at night? Y¡¯know, something like a poisonous snake. I would say that¡¯s a much more standard origin than something like me.¡± ¡°Then I wish I at least had poison as an additional skill. I just rub up against people. The only way that can cause fear is by creeping people out when they think some strange fetishist is following them around.¡± ¡°Yet you¡¯re still coming up and rubbing against my leg.¡± ¡°...It is a sad instinct,¡± he said as he continued rubbing and averted his gaze. Hmm. This isn¡¯t bad. Is it because he looks like a puppy? If I sat down in a luxurious chair and crossed one leg over the other, I would probably be filled with an incredible sense of superiority. Maybe I should try it with Shinobu sometime. ¡°Sunekosuri, have you gone out into the pastures to see the cows and horses and whatnot?¡± ¡°I gave up when the sheep mistook me for a sheepdog and ran away from me. What do you want to do?¡± ¡°I would rather eat some beef than see the living cows. Oh, some lamb would be nice too.¡± ¡°You can only get away with comments like that because you are a Zashiki Warashi. I¡¯m jealous. With the way I look, people just assume I am a carnivore that wants to eat its prey.¡± I continued to speak with the other Youkai for a while. As the trip had no real objective, I had been prepared for this, but I was still bored all the same. I was afraid it would be nothing but this until dinner. I could only hope that Shinobu made a quick recovery. Part 12 (Hishigami Enbi) It wasn¡¯t often that I got to enjoy a trip with the detective without anyone getting killed. Normally, I would chase after a murder and just happen to end up at the same crime scene as him, so it was hard to expect your usual love comedy scenes. I may spend the entire year solving mysteries, but it wasn¡¯t like I could not enjoy anything without a serious atmosphere. Like with everything, you needed a nice balance. ¡°This is my chance.¡± I tossed my bag on the hotel room bed and headed right back out into the hallway. I then realized I had left my smartphone in the room, so I headed back into the room. When I returned to the hallway, I realized I had locked my cardkey in the room. I used the interphone in the hallway to make my embarrassing confession to the front desk. The worker at the front desk headed up to retrieve my key. My mind really was useless outside of my specialty. I was brilliant when it came to people¡¯s deaths. And that only applied to deaths that still had some kind of mystery remaining. My grades on school exams were not all that great and I was always getting flustered and confused as to what to do to make that detective fall for me. If a history question was needed to disarm a bomb, I could answer it immediately. If I had to seduce a man to gain a clue, I could eloquently pull it off as many times as necessary. But once the mode switched over, I was hopeless. I know it is a problem, but I do not think it is all that rare a thing. For example, someone who writes a blog post every day cannot write a novel. And someone who is treated as a god for their ability to compose poetry on the streets cannot write bestselling lyrics. It may all be types of ¡°writing¡±, but a change in genre could change someone¡¯s scores drastically. The bias in my mental ability was nothing more than that. And there were times when you had to attempt something even though you knew you were terrible at it. ¡°...Hmm. If only the hotel had a pool. Then I could easily seduce that detective.¡± I had worn a swimsuit with a hoodie and miniskirt, but it had been a failure. If he viewed it as my normal clothes, it no longer seemed special. I had monitored his expression closely, but his perspiration and pupil dilation had been at normal levels. Things were not going well. People had a tendency to grow accustomed to things, but I was unsure how to achieve a greater impact. I had to come up with a way to break out of that deadlock. I thought while dashing down the hallway toward the detective¡¯s room. I gave up trying to come up with something 5 seconds after I began thinking. ¡°There¡¯s no use in thinking about something you¡¯re terrible at!¡± I spotted the detective just as he stepped out of his door, possibly to head to the hotel¡¯s shop. I started running towards him while stretching my arms up into the air and arching my back to put as much of a burden on the chest of my swimsuit as I could. (Mostly by pulling it upwards.) ¡°Hey there, detective! I¡¯m willing to go as far as a swimsuit wardrobe malfunction!!¡± ¡°Are you mocking the Japanese police!?¡± Part 13 (Jinnai Shinobu) Sigh. I couldn¡¯t believe that damn Zashiki Warashi had brought such a horrible toy with her. But I could hardly spend all my time sobbing in my room. Staying by myself was just too boring. We were on a trip to a sightseeing spot! I was in a resort hotel with my rich classmate and a huge-breasted Youkai!! And so I took action. I headed off to search for some kind of fun that was full of sleazy desire. In my current mood, I would certainly have tried to peek if the hotel had an open air bath. Unfortunately, it was a western hotel. ¡°I at least want to hug someone. If I let that be the opening move to set the mood for the trip, things are sure to escalate from there. It will be harder to get anything started in the second half of the trip once the standards have been set.¡± I set the initial goal as low as I could to avoid crushing myself under self-created pressure. I opened the door to my room and headed out into the hallway. If I was going to find someone, it would either be in the lobby or the lounge. Or I could call Madoka down by cell phone. While I was waiting for the elevator, someone exited a room on the same floor. It was a woman wearing an eye-catching outfit. There were probably fewer than 30 women in the world who could get away with wearing a tank top and hot pants after 20. I then recognized who she was. She had been with my uncle. She was certainly beautiful, but I had a hard time coming up with a way to start a conversation with someone with as much of a mature aura as she had. Just like a middle school student and a high school student were completely different things, a high school student and a college student were completely different things. I got the feeling that the foundations of our thoughts were completely different. In fact, I felt like I would need a Hollywood celebrity level foundation to even think about approaching someone like her. The woman must have been bored waiting for the elevator because she pulled out her cell phone. ¡°Have you been here long? This is my first day, but I¡¯m already wondering what we can possibly do for an entire week after looking around the pastures.¡± Betraying all of my expectations, she actually spoke to me. What? What? I was happy to have someone as beautiful as her speak to me, but it also scared me a bit. I couldn¡¯t get a read on her, so I just safely nodded and agreed with her. ¡°Y-yeah.¡± ¡°Do you know if there is a casino somewhere nearby as a bonus stage?¡± ¡°I only just got here today, too.¡± ¡°I see. I guess I may be stuck just playing with the Sunekosuri. Oh, right. Have you seen this?¡± The woman held her cell phone out toward me. The screen showed a low quality home video filmed with a small lens. I felt the urge to point out that there was no way I could have seen it before. But what was it? It looked like the back of an old tatami-filled room in Kyoto or something. It looked less like something from an agricultural village like my house and more like something befitting nobility. In the room was a girl of about 10 with black hair and wearing a kimono that looked about as expensive as a foreign car. The girl did not seem used to being filmed, so she was blushing a deep red and waving her hands in front of her face. ¡°Hey, stop, hey! I do not particularly mind, but you cannot film inside the facility for security reasons...¡± said the girl. ¡°It isn¡¯t on,¡± said another voice. ¡°Eh? Um...really?¡± ¡°You¡¯re too self-conscious.¡± ¡°To be honest, I do not understand what you hope to gain by filming me, but I do not mind as long as you do it elsewhere.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be like that. You know very well this video won¡¯t leave this device.¡± ¡°So you are filming?¡± The woman looked very pleased with herself as she shoved the cell phone in my face. ¡°See?¡± ??? ¡°Don¡¯t you think girls of about that age stimulate your protection instincts the most? They¡¯re just so cute. If she was some hairy dirty old man, I would have abandoned them long ago. Then again, I don¡¯t think I was that cute even as a kid. Maybe that¡¯s why I like them so much.¡± ¡°I-I see...¡± Personally, I was not old enough to think kids were cute. I was more interested in older girls. Each individual part of the girl in the video was fine, but she gave me an overall unsteady appearance because the balance of the parts seemed somehow off. Maybe because she was still in the process of growing. Still, she was definitely better than a baby. At any rate... I was more surprised to learn such a young woman had a daughter of about 10. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like she¡¯s actually related to me in any way.¡± ¡°Then what the hell is that video about!?¡± ¡°It¡¯s like a good luck charm. When I think about the fact that some kid young enough to call science class ¡®life environment studies¡¯ is desperately trying to hold together an organization, I¡¯m willing to put up with a few unreasonable demands.¡± ¡°Eh? Eh???¡± With that final incomprehensible comment, the woman got onto the elevator that had arrived. I watched the elevator leave and then suddenly realized something. ¡°Wait, I was waiting for the elevator too!!¡± Part 14 (Hishigami Mai) I had a habit of eating dinner early. But then, my life cycle had me eating the equivalent of a late-night snack instead of breakfast. I still had to eat three meals a day, but my job did not exactly allow me to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. This meant I was not eating at the same time as my little sister and the detective, so I was eating alone. Well, it was also my duty as the older sister to not disturb those two. Really, they should just hurry up and get married. I arrived at the hotel restaurant right when they began serving dinner, so I was the only customer. The food listed on the menu was quite expensive, but the ticket I was staying with came with free meals. I ordered a light course that featured a rare veal steak. I did not order an alcoholic drink. I did enjoy drinking, but I preferred to do so at a specialty bar. You couldn¡¯t just get a bit intoxicated with your dinner. That was like ordering the curry rice at a beachside restaurant and assuming you were suddenly an expert in Indian food. The food wasn¡¯t bad. It was a small hotel, but it was a sightseeing spot in an Intellectual Village, so it had more workers than necessary. Not only did the ticket eliminate the ridiculously expensive lodging fees and meal expenses, but we did not have to pay their labor costs either. After finishing off the dessert, I wiped my mouth with my napkin and called over a nearby worker. ¡°Hey, I have a question.¡± ¡°What might that be?¡± ¡°Is there a newspaper vending machine anywhere around here?¡± ¡°If you contact the front desk, you can get a newspaper sent to your room each morning. You can choose from 3 national papers and 2 in English.¡± ¡°That should do it. Does it cost extra?¡± ¡°It is included in the room fee.¡± ¡°...Then I¡¯d be losing out if I didn¡¯t order one.¡± ¡°Is that all?¡± ¡°Oh, right. One more thing. It¡¯s not that big a deal, but...Matsukai-san...¡± I read the workers name from the nameplate on his chest. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Do you mind telling me your full name?¡± ¡°It is Matsukai Hiroshi.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± So I run across that name here, too. And you didn¡¯t even hesitate to tell me. But you see, I killed a scholar with that exact same name just the other day. Of course, since it had been used as a fake name, it was not that unusual a name. It was possible this was just some poor normal person who just so happened to have the same name. Or perhaps he was connected with that Matsukai Hiroshi and he gave the name so readily so that I would hesitate for that exact reason. ¡°What an unusual name.¡± ¡°Is it?¡± ¡°It is unusual in this area at least. That name is an endangered species.¡± ¡°I do not see how the two names would be that unusual to see together.¡± ¡°So,¡± I said quietly with a grin. ¡°Can you see the Deadly Dragon Princess yet?¡± ¡°!?¡± You idiot. You could at least hide your reaction better than that. He must have realized his mistake as soon as he made it. He frantically recomposed his expression, but it was too late. It did not matter whether he could see the Deadly Dragon Princess or not. Or rather, I had not even pulled it up from the water using the summoning medium, so there was no way he could see it. What mattered was that he had reacted to the term ¡°Deadly Dragon Princess¡±. He had felt true fear upon hearing it. Any normal person would have simply been confused. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± I reached for the decorative fork in the center of the table and the man naming himself Matsukai Hiroshi slowly reached around to his back. He had abandoned his ¡°role¡± without losing the smile. I could sense no clear killer intent. The restaurant music playing in the background seemed to fill the atmosphere. He clearly knew that killer intent would only provide a hint to an enemy if you doubted it would intimidate them. This was going to be fun. At the very least, he would likely put up more of a fight than the previous Matsukai-san. If he pulled out a handgun, he would rank at about a B, but I could find myself in a bit of a gamble if he pulled out something a little more interesting. I decided it would be safest to end this with my first move. The only question was whether I could do so with only a knife and fork. But then... The atmosphere filling the room was destroyed by a few footsteps coming from the entrance to the restaurant. Oh, shit. Not good. Some normal people had arrived...no, they were my little sister¡¯s friends. Kotemitsu Madoka, Jinnai Shinobu, and the Zashiki Warashi. Even if I had never spoken with someone, there were plenty of ways to learn their names. ¡°I¡¯m hungry.¡± ¡°Beef. I want to eat some beef on the first day at least.¡± ¡°...Aren¡¯t you being a bit merciless after seeing that idyllic scenery?¡± Meanwhile. Matsukai Hiroshi-san took a slow step backwards while still smiling and with one hand still reaching around behind him. Using his eyes, he told me to postpone things for the moment. He assured me we could continue this later. I see, I see, I see. So that¡¯s the way you think. I decided to give him an answer. With a tiny movement the others would not pick up on, I nodded in Matsukai Hiroshi¡¯s direction. He slowly nodded back and took another step backwards. In the next instant, I made my move despite the witnesses. Part 15 (Jinnai Shinobu) It happened suddenly. It took me a few seconds to understand what had happened before my eyes. By the time my mind managed to comprehend the situation, the worker named Matsukai had already been knocked to the ground and had a silver fork stabbed into the side of his neck. It wasn¡¯t as dangerous a weapon as a knife or icepick, but it was clearly sticking into a very dangerous place. ¡°Wh-wha-what!? What the hell are you doing!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get so excited, boy. This has nothing to do with you.¡± It was only then that I heard the clatter of the chair the woman had been sitting in hitting the floor. Everything from standing up from the chair to finishing the attack had been done in a single motion. She was fast. Overwhelmingly fast. Was she a cheetah or something!? The woman gave us no further attention and looked down at Matsukai-san who still had the fork stabbing into his neck. ¡°Okay, Matsukai Hiroshi Mark 2. What are you doing out here in the country? Since you¡¯re using that name, I assume you aren¡¯t simply constructing a Package. How is Saishi Kajin related to this? In fact, are they still around?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Speak to me. Give me some communication please. I made sure you had enough strength left to do that. If I move my wrist like I¡¯m twirling pasta around the fork, I can rip your nerves and artery to shreds. I am Hishigami Mai. Do you really think you can keep silent in front of me?¡± For some reason, Matsukai-san was smiling even while being asked those nonsensical questions. It was possible they were not nonsensical to him. In the next instant, Matsukai-san¡¯s body jerked like he had a high voltage electric current running through him and dark red blood flowed from his mouth. ¡°D-did you kill him!?¡± ¡°He had some means of committing suicide. It wasn¡¯t the almond-smelling method, though.¡± The woman clicked her tongue, pulled out the deadly fork, and wrapped a nearby napkin around it. She may have been trying to take the evidence with her. I was completely dumbfounded by the entire situation and could not take my eyes off of Matsukai-san as he lay motionless on the ground. Could he still be saved? I saw things like CPR in dramas and movies a lot, but... ¡°No, don¡¯t even try it. I told you he had a means prepared, didn¡¯t I? If you kiss him now, you¡¯ll just end up with bloody foam coming from your mouth too.¡± The situation was shocking enough, but the woman¡¯s atmosphere was even more frightening. She was used to this. Her expression made it clear this was not the first time she had seen a dead body. In fact, she looked like she had created as many dead bodies as a normal person had received cardboard boxes from things bought online and plastic bags from convenience stores. She was not normal. A simple murderer would have been bad enough, but she was 2 or 3 levels beyond that. My tongue trembled. As it twisted around in my mouth, I just barely managed to get the words out. ¡°Don¡¯t...move.¡± ¡°Why?¡± I thought she was asking why she should do what I say. But I was wrong. ¡°Why do you think you have any control here?¡± ¡°!?¡± She understood something about the fear I was feeling. It was wrapped around me and holding me in place, but she accepted it as normal. ¡°They say curiosity killed the cat, but a sense of justice can destroy nations. I have experienced it, so I know what I am talking about. I am not saying it is necessarily bad, but don¡¯t let it control you. That can have worse results than a kid with a handgun tucked into his pants.¡± The woman took a step toward me. She crushed my pathetic warning underfoot. She crossed a certain line. I moved backwards like I was being magnetically repelled by her. I then turned around so I could bring the Zashiki Warashi and Madoka with me to-... ¡°Th-they¡¯re gone!? Those two...!!¡± They had likely already fled the restaurant. It didn¡¯t matter. I couldn¡¯t even work up anger at the fact that they had abandoned me. Instead, I was relieved that burden had been removed from me. My legs got tangled up underneath me and I half-ran, half-tripped out of the restaurant. When I entered the hallway, I spotted the Zashiki Warashi and Madoka standing a bit away. ¡°You didn¡¯t run away!?¡± ¡°What are you talking about, Shinobu? You¡¯re the one that wouldn¡¯t respond when we called out to you.¡± The whole time? How long did that last? Seconds? Minutes? And when did it start? When the fear and abnormality of that woman wrapped around me? Or from the moment I had saw that worker get stabbed? When I thought about it like that, I realized I should probably be thankful that they waited around that long when a murderer could be coming at any moment. Madoka called out to me with her face horribly pale. ¡°Wh-what do we do now?¡± ¡°A room! You two get to one of the hotel rooms! Madoka, you stay with the Zashiki Warashi! She may not be deadly, but she¡¯s still a Youkai. She isn¡¯t easy to kill!!¡± I doubted that girl in the red yukata would be any good in a fight and that nonstandard woman seemed like she could kill even a deadly Youkai without difficulty, so that hardly put my mind at ease. I couldn¡¯t come up with a plan and attack her from some gap or blind spot. The fear that woman gave me seemed to utterly destroy the very assumptions and environment required to put together a strategy. For some reason, the Zashiki Warashi puffed her chest out with pride and said, ¡°Do not expect anything from me in a battle.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not planning to fight either. I doubt I could put up any kind of a fight. I need to call the police. Either that or tell the other workers what happened. I just need to pass this off to some larger power. She¡¯s locked on to us because we were the only witnesses. You need to stay holed up in a room until I can pass this off to someone else!!¡± I heard footsteps. They were coming from the restaurant. They were not hurried footsteps. However, they were confident footsteps. They seemed to say she would catch up to us and kill us no matter what we did. Those calm footsteps seemed to tell me all our efforts would be futile. ¡°Go!!¡± I shouted and then ran down the hallway in the opposite direction of the Zashiki Warashi and Madoka. I tried to make my footsteps as loud as possible to keep the woman¡¯s focus on me rather than them. Anyone. It didn¡¯t matter who. I had to let as many people as possible know what had happened. I needed to rob that woman of her control of the situation with pure numbers. If all of the hotel¡¯s workers knew about the crime, her actions would be severely restricted. If the police arrived, she would have even more trouble. This hotel was in an Intellectual Village sightseeing spot, so it had a large number of workers for the size of the facility. As I headed for the elevator hall, I happened across a female worker who was pushing a cart to carry a room service meal somewhere. Her nameplate read Matsukai. Matsukai? ¡°Wait, listen! The police!! Call the police right away!!¡± ¡°What...?¡± ¡°She¡¯s...!! She¡¯s coming!! You can¡¯t stay here! You don¡¯t have time to wait for the elevator! Use the emergency stairs!!¡± ¡°If you are having trouble, I may be able to help you. Is something the matter?¡± No! You don¡¯t understand!! The situation had gone well beyond that. It had shifted 2 gears up from that. But how was I supposed to explain how crazy this has gotten? A strange woman had attacked a worker with bestial speed and stabbed him with a fork. The worker had then committed suicide with some kind of poison. I barely believed it myself and I had seen it happen. The very best reaction I could expect was for her to head to the restaurant to see what happened. And what would happen then? That would just add another dead body to the pile. How much time had passed since the first death? What was going on in the restaurant now? Had a waiter or chef noticed anything was wrong? If they had...what would that woman do? Would she just run away? I couldn¡¯t imagine she would. I prayed it wasn¡¯t true, but that restaurant might have been turned into an ocean of blood. ¡°Um, sir?¡± ¡°No...no.¡± I couldn¡¯t wait for them to switch into the proper gear to deal with the situation. The police. It would be fastest to directly contact the people who made a living dealing with this kind of situation. I frantically pulled out my cell phone with its broken camera lens. ¡°It won¡¯t...connect?¡± I didn¡¯t receive a dial tone or even a message saying I had no signal. The only situation I knew of that would cause that was a widespread power outage caused by a lightning strike, but... Was this just a coincidence? ¡°Does the hotel have a phone!?¡± ¡°...Wh-what!?¡± ¡°Does the hotel have a landline phone!? Is there a public phone around here!?¡± ¡°Oh...u-umm... The front desk on the first floor has-....¡± Before she had even finished, I turned around and ran for the emergency staircase. It was dangerous to leave that female worker alone, but I had to call the police to the hotel as quickly as possible. And even if I had stayed to protect her, I doubted I could have bought her even a few seconds of time. But it was no good. When I arrived on the first floor, I picked up the public phone¡¯s receiver, but heard no dial tone. I could see nothing wrong or broken about the phone itself, so something on a larger scale was likely broken. Since I could not contact them, I was forced to head directly to the police station. But I was in the dairy Intellectual Village known as Fuuka Village. For 20 to 30 kilometers around the hotel there was nothing but pastures. There was no way I could travel that distance on foot. By car then? I of course had no license, but I knew an automatic was the same as a go-kart. It had an accelerator and a brake. I would be travelling down a straight and flat road with no traffic lights, so I guessed I could probably make it. It didn¡¯t matter what I had to do. I would break the window and destroy the connector in the keyhole if I had to. I just had to get a car and get out of there. I ran out of the hotel and headed around to the back. A number of electric cars were parked there, but I could not tell if they belonged to the workers or to other guests. It didn¡¯t matter. But could I really leave the Zashiki Warashi and Madoka in the hotel? The hotel was about 3 stories tall. If I shouted, I guessed I could have them escape through the window and meet me. They could tie the curtains and use them as a rope to climb down. But then... ¡°...What the hell...?¡± What I saw when I got closer to the parking lot left me speechless. Flat tires. Every single car in the parking lot had flat tires. Every single tire on every single car had been punctured. The sight of all those flat tires pounded an exceedingly simple form of despair into my mind. I can¡¯t escape? Is this hotel like a desert island on land? But something did not make sense. That woman may have been a monster, but could she really have done all that on her own? When had the phones stopped working? When had every single car tire been punctured? If she had begun to isolate the hotel only after killing the worker named Matsukai in the restaurant, she would have had to carry out multiple large scale jobs in an exceedingly short time. Could she really have done it on her own? ¡°No...¡± That was not a major issue. There was a simple solution. That woman just needed accomplices. ¡°...¡± I looked over at the great plain that was dissolving into the darkness. If I was up against multiple people or even an organization, they would not want us to contact the outside or to run away. If I just headed out blindly into the darkness of the night, would they do nothing and let me go? I did not know how many people I was dealing with, but wasn¡¯t it possible they already had the entire area surrounded? That plain stretched on and on with no witnesses to be found. If they began pursuing me along there, they could take their time and make sure they killed me. Of course... That entire idea could have been nothing but a delusion. It could have been nothing but the misguided fears of an amateur high school boy. But since I had nothing to base my decision on, I could not get rid of that unease. I could not head into that darkness without hesitation. But what else could I do? I had no car. It was too dangerous to slowly continue on foot. But that woman was inside the hotel. The entire area seemed covered with death. How had I not noticed it before? ¡°...Self-defense...¡± Since I could not call in help from outside, that was my only option. It would take time to get the workers and guests to switch gears, but our only option was to take back control of the situation with numbers! But was that even possible for a collection of amateurs? Would the group only fall into more and more of a panic the more people we gathered? No. I had forgotten one important factor. ¡°Uncle Uchimaku is a police officer.¡± The power of the police was one of an organization, so I had a feeling there was only so much my uncle alone could do. But surely a police officer would be able to bring the workers and guests together into a group easier than a high school student. He just had to prevent everyone else from panicking. If we could come together as a group and get a proper grasp of the danger, that woman would not be able to fight back. ...Right? Part 16 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) I was only heading to the restaurant because I was hungry, but I could tell something was wrong before even setting foot inside. What was this smell that cleanly rid me of all hunger? Why, nothing other than the stench of fresh blood!! As she walked next to me, the mystery freak¡¯s nose twitched like she had caught the scent of some soup. ¡°This could be bad. I just hope no one we know was involved.¡± ¡°!?¡± To my shock, Hishigami Mai exited the restaurant. ¡°Oh, you two seem to be getting along well.¡± ¡°It¡¯s my sister. And here I was hoping no one we know was involved.¡± ¡°Sorry about that. By the way, did you see a high school boy pass through here? One with blond hair, a delinquent look to the eyes, and a false atmosphere of overall incompetence.¡± ¡°...You mean Shinobu?¡± My eyebrows twitched. ¡°What the hell happened in the restaurant!? That strong a stench of blood isn¡¯t normal!!¡± ¡°You can take a peek if you like, but you probably wouldn¡¯t find it too interesting since you don¡¯t care about the dead. Also, that would be straying even further from the proper path, Mr. Dead-End Police Job.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You should probably stay out too, Enbi. This is probably on a scale you can¡¯t handle and it isn¡¯t in your area of expertise.¡± ¡°Is that stench of blood coming from someone we know?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Okay then. What are you going to do, detective?¡± Neither of the two sisters meant any harm, but they were shaking the very meaning of my existence. I doubted a proper police officer like me could control even the mystery freak. And if I got involved in something the older sister was involved in, I would probably end up playing the role of the pitiful victim. But.... ¡°I am a police officer.¡± ¡°This is outside your jurisdiction and you took leave, so you have no authority here.¡± ¡°That may be, but I can¡¯t just turn my back on this!!¡± I grabbed Mai¡¯s shoulder, pushed her out of the way, and took a step into the restaurant. And... I immediately regretted it. Was it a few seconds? A few dozen seconds? I had no idea how long I remained frozen in place. Time certainly passed and I was certainly aware of my surroundings. The scene before me burned into my mind and would not leave. The incident itself was in a category that should have been more peaceful than something like arson, but it gave me a much more vivid impression. Yes, vivid. Bright. I was supposed to be someone who detested crime, but I almost felt impressed by the skill involved. I should have worked up a resistance to this type of thing. It was my job to confront this type of thing. I was so used to it that a corpse with severed limbs stuffed into a metal drum only made me comment on the effort that had to have gone into it. Yet I found this to be on a whole other level. The world a few steps in front of me was filled with a fascination that seemed to overcome reality. ¡°You were right to stop there.¡± Mai, the person who had likely created what I was seeing, grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back. Whether due to her strength or my lack of ability to resist, she easily pulled me out of the restaurant. ¡°Someone who knows a bit of kendo is more easily fascinated by techniques and skill than a complete amateur. You need to be careful.¡± Meanwhile, Enbi the mystery freak displayed her usual ability to neutralize any strangeness when it came to dealing with corpses. She seemed as calm as if nothing had happened as she walked up near the much too vivid corpse, crouched down, and began making various observations. She spun a large magnifying glass around in one hand, but she never really used it to look at anything. It may have been similar to how people would fiddle with their cell phone when they had nothing else to do with their hands. Enbi seemed to come to a conclusion from the complexion of the corpse¡¯s face and the foam around its mouth. ¡°Fugu. It¡¯s easy enough to get your hands on, but it isn¡¯t the best option for suicide. You can see he was putting up with a lot of pain by how his nails have dug into his palms. It must not have been fun to know that was hidden in your tooth.¡± ¡°A painful death must have doubled as the penalty for failing his mission.¡± ¡°His mission, hm? ...I don¡¯t like the sound of that. It makes it sound like a war is being fought in this peaceful country.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I said this isn¡¯t the place for you, little sister. This isn¡¯t a simple murder.¡± The sisters¡¯ conversation seemed to be coming from a long distance away. As my thoughts cut in and out intermittently, I finally opened my mouth to speak. ¡°How was...Shinobu involved...in this?¡± ¡°He saw it.¡± ¡°He¡¯s just a kid in high school!! He shouldn¡¯t be getting involved in this kind of thing. There¡¯s nothing he can do about it! There¡¯s no value in eliminating him for-...!!¡± ¡°Make no mistake. I am not looking for him in order to silence him. But it does seem he had some involvement in all of this from the beginning. His involvement did not begin with witnessing my actions here.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°It has already begun, detective. That is why I have begun to take action. And now Jinnai Shinobu-kun is wandering in the darkness while completely oblivious to what is really going on. He needs to understand what is happening before he runs across a pitfall.¡± ¡°Um, what did that worker named Matsukai do...?¡± ¡°Matsukai Hiroshi. But that isn¡¯t the name of their organization or anything.¡± I did not particularly want to know more, but it seemed Hishigami Mai had begun a conflict with some force that Matsukai Hiroshi was a part of. Her point seemed to be that, even if she had no intention of harming Shinobu, the opposing force that Matsukai Hiroshi belonged to might. And how did Shinobu fit into it all? From what Mai had said, it didn¡¯t seem he had simply stumbled upon the crime scene. ¡°Can I ask you one thing?¡± ¡°That¡¯s up to you to decide.¡± ¡°Does this have to do with Youkai?¡± ¡°A Package would be my little sister¡¯s territory,¡± said Hishigami Mai simply. ¡°If it requires my involvement, it is guaranteed to be something more than that.¡± As if it was nothing, she broke down one of the mental pillars supporting me. I could not imagine what kind of world that woman lived in. Even Packages using Youkai often proved difficult for the modern Japanese police to handle. We could neither kill nor arrest a deadly Youkai. The most we could manage was arresting the human criminals using those Youkai. What kind of a world did she live in and with what kinds of things did she fight? That abnormal mystery freak was more used to this kind of situation than me and had no problem being around that corpse. She jotted something down using the memo function of her smartphone that had a leather memo pad cover. While doing so, she asked her sister, ¡°What are you going to do?¡± ¡°Naturally, I am going to do something about this situation. First, I need to check on the scale of this incident. I¡¯m interested how they handled the real hotel workers. Did they forge a resume so Matsukai Hiroshi alone could infiltrate the hotel or have all of the workers been switched out with fakes? ...Well, I get the feeling it will be the more severe answer.¡± ¡°What should we do?¡± ¡°Think for yourself. To be blunt, the risk does not change much either way. The violence we are going to see here is not something you can protect yourself from with nothing but the lock on your hotel room door, but you might get caught in the crossfire if you stick with me.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll stay with you. What about you, detective?¡± ¡°Eh? Ah...?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about honor or convenience. There is no absolutely safe place. Decide for yourself what to do with your life,¡± said Enbi. I could feel sweat pouring from my body. The Japanese police could not even handle a standard Package. Yet these sisters were setting foot in territory well beyond that. What could a single police officer without the support of the rest of the police hope to do in a situation like that? It would be too na?ve to assume I could shine a light on the darkness. My tiny point of light would just be swallowed up by the darkness. But... ¡°Shinobu is out there. Odds are good he will end up heading deeper into this before we do. I can¡¯t back down until I find him. It doesn¡¯t matter if I can act as a police officer or not.¡± For some reason, Mai began to grin when she heard that. ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s the power of the state.¡± ¡°If you were saying that for a girl rather than your nephew, you could make a decent protagonist.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need to be one. I¡¯m fine with being a police detective stuck in a dead end job, so let¡¯s get the story moving. Where are we headed?¡± ¡°Follow me,¡± said Mai. We followed her through the hotel. As we did, I noticed something odd. There was no noise. The hotel was covered in silence. It was even quieter than hotels normally were. It was complete and utter silence. I felt like we were walking through an old abandoned building. Humans created a certain level of noise simply by being in the area. That noise was missing. ¡°With Matsukai Hiroshi¡¯s cover blown, the others may have decided there is no point in continuing their act.¡± ¡°So all the workers are working with that Matsukai guy?¡± ¡°Yes, but those workers probably aren¡¯t the actual hotel staff.¡± We arrived at the front desk on the first floor. No one was there. However, Mai and Enbi were looking at something else. It was the large diagram of the hotel set up behind the front desk. ¡°If this was all set up from the beginning and they took some large-scale preparations, where do you think they would hide the unneeded hotel workers?¡± said Mai. ¡°They might have already taken the bodies elsewhere,¡± pointed out Enbi. ¡°It¡¯s entirely possible, but even that would not get rid of every trace. They had no reason to get rid of everything. If they were going to go around erasing every trace including fingerprints and bloodstains, it would be simpler to quickly build an entirely new hotel. And that would make sure they didn¡¯t miss anything.¡± ¡°The boiler room.¡± ¡°What?¡± Mai frowned and Enbi explained further. ¡°There were probably somewhere between 50 and 100 workers, right? If they were going to carry the bodies out, it would be difficult to do so as is. Not only is there the simple size issue, but if they got pulled over for a random drunk driving check, that would be the end for them. It would be safer to transport the bodies after changing their form. If you get pulled over for speeding or drunk driving, they aren¡¯t going to check the composition of the ash in a bag of fertilizer.¡± ¡°Even in this large plain, they couldn¡¯t exactly have burned them outdoors. I suppose it would be safest if they could get the needed firepower indoors.¡± ¡°It¡¯s possible they filled a bathtub with powerful acid, but transporting that dangerous liquid here would be a risk in and of itself. Also, you can¡¯t just dump the entire body in there like in movies. If you try to dissolve too much at once, the chemical reaction grows too violent and the acid scatters everywhere and it creates a lot of smoke. It would be way too much of a pain to chop that many people up and dissolve them bit by bit. I say burning them to ashes would have been their safest method.¡± Safest. It made me shudder to imagine it, but this was a world where that kind of thing was normal. I couldn¡¯t allow myself to be swallowed up by it. I had to preserve my sense of myself. I had stepped into this territory of my own will. The diagram had the entrance to the boiler room labeled with the warning color meaning it was off limits. It looked like we had to head down a staircase to the basement. We headed for that staff-only area and approached that staircase. The entrance to the staircase was sealed with a thick door. Mai opened the metal door and then... ¡°Uncle!!¡± I heard someone shout. I frantically turned around and spotted Shinobu running around a corner of the hallway. He seemed unharmed. But before I could breathe a sigh of relief, the situation took a strange turn. Shinobu glared at Mai as he approached. ¡°Get away from her!! Don¡¯t even think about trying to arrest her. The way she killed that guy wasn¡¯t normal at all!!¡± ¡°Ah...¡± Not good. Shinobu was mistaken about something. But it was not whether Mai was good or bad that he was mistaken about. It was that he had any chance of stopping Mai even if he made clever enough decisions. In the end, Shinobu grabbed a fire extinguisher. I could not blame him for trying to defend himself, but it only made the situation worse. It was unclear if Shinobu actually had it in him to attack her. Either way, Mai did not hesitate. When someone who may or may not be an enemy approached you like that, it was obvious how you should deal with the situation. In the next instant, something happened. Due to my police training, I knew a bit of judo and kendo, but I could not keep up with what happened. This was partially due to the pure speed with which the actions were taken, but the types of actions were also well beyond what I expected. And... ¡°Whoops.¡± That was the first thing Mai said. Her voice sounded completely relaxed. She spoke when she looked in the direction she had thrown Shinobu. I looked over as well...and then I shouted out. He flew through the door leading to the boiler room. My nephew¡¯s body fell down the staircase and into the darkness. Part 17 (Jinnai Shinobu) ¡°Gh!? Gah!Geh!?Gweh!¡± My head spun. I could not tell up from down. I could see a cold, concrete wall in my dim vision. Where was I? A flickering fluorescent light illuminated a wide area filled with pipes and a steel-box-like device about the size of a small storage room. At first glance, I couldn¡¯t figure out what it was for, but the pipes had analog meters on them. The paint was peeling and I saw rust in places, so the area looked quite different from the rest of the hotel. It looked like something from an old factory or prison. I had fallen down the stairs. By the time I realized that, I also realized my hand on the floor was touching something sticky. At first I thought my head had split open, but it wasn¡¯t blood on my fingers. It was something black and oil-like. ¡°What...is this place...?¡± I glanced around despite my hazy vision, but then heard footsteps. They were coming from above. Was someone coming down the staircase? ¡°Gh...Ghhhh!!¡± I frantically tried to move away from the stairs, but I felt intense pain the instant I tried to use my muscles. None of my bones seemed broken, but I needed time before I could move. I did not think the pain would go away anytime soon, but I wanted time to get used to it. While I lay almost unmoving on the floor, a voice spoke from up the stairs. ¡°Okay, I really didn¡¯t expect for that to happen. Sorry about that. But I need to make sure we¡¯re safe before I check your injuries. Just stay there for now.¡± What are you talking about? Check my injuries? Safe? You¡¯re the one that caused all this. I wanted to say that out loud, but I could not get the words out because a pain throbbed in my head at irregular intervals. Meanwhile, the woman made it down the stairs. The instant her feet touched the cold floor, I felt a chill run down my spine and pain exploded within me, but the woman unexpectedly walked right around me. It looked no different from someone walking around a puddle along the road. ¡°So this is the boiler room. Wow, this is horrible. We don¡¯t exactly need to check for a luminol reaction.¡± Boiler? No, wait. Luminol? Isn¡¯t that what you use to check for bloodstains? You just need to rub it with a cloth to get a reaction. The woman headed further into the darkness that the half-functioning fluorescent light could not completely do away with. ¡°This must be the inspection opening for maintenance. It¡¯s a decent size. You could probably fit a human inside. Oh, there¡¯s even some hair left over.¡± I decided to not worry about my questions and to focus on moving...but first I needed to grow accustomed to the pain. I wasn¡¯t sure what was going on, but I could tell this was a much too dangerous place to be. That woman herself was dangerous, but her words were filled with a dangerous atmosphere. Who was the real enemy here? Was it someone other than that woman? Or was that woman involved in it all? I tried to move. ...And it worked. Either the emergency situation had dulled my senses or my mind was simply growing duller overall. Either way, the sharp pain that had been stabbing into my head changed into something more feverish. The fact that my body¡¯s SOS signals were dulling was not exactly a good thing, but I could hardly be picky at the moment. I pressed my hands against the floor and lifted my upper body up into a kneeling position. I then moved toward the staircase. I didn¡¯t care what it took. It was too dangerous to stay where I was. I headed for the staircase. ¡°Ow.¡± I placed a hand against the wall and stood the rest of the way up. I turned around, but that woman seemed to still be checking things out deeper within the boiler room. I headed up the staircase on shaky legs. I moved slowly. I made sure to make as little noise as possible. It may have been safer to crawl up the stairs on all fours. That was how much my vision was shaking. The woman did not pursue me. Had she still not noticed me or was she letting me go? I couldn¡¯t tell. My mind was not clear enough to determine her intentions and possibly use them against her. I didn¡¯t care if it was the bed in my hotel room or the futon in my home. I just wanted to get back up to ground level and find somewhere to sleep. I then arrived at the 1st floor. But I realized something was wrong. ¡°...What...?¡± It was quiet. Too quiet. This was the silence of a room after a TV showing a variety program filled with high-pitched laughter was suddenly switched off. That silence made me realize again that I was the only one in the room. Silence, silence, silence. Something was missing. Something important was missing. The hotel was wrapped in an unnatural silence that could not be achieved simply by holding your breath and staying still. Wait. Where had they gone? ¡°All of the hotel workers were replaced. They have all disappeared now that we found out. That is why everything feels so unnaturally silent.¡± All of a sudden, the woman was standing next to me. I had no idea when she had come up the stairs. But that was not the most pressing issue on my mind. Another issue was more important than how that woman had gotten within a meter of me. ¡°Where are they?¡± ¡°Who?¡± ¡°My uncle and that girl were here before! I¡¯m asking you where they are!¡± ¡°They probably went to find a first aid kit after seeing what happened to you.¡± Something wasn¡¯t adding up. I couldn¡¯t figure out if she was playing dumb or not. But it didn¡¯t matter. I ran away from the woman and down the hotel hallway. I had to find them first. They had to be around here somewhere! An unrealistic possibility floated up in the back of my mind: What if they had simply disappeared as if swallowed up by the silence and I could not find them no matter what I did? But that nightmarish possibility did not come true. Unfortunately, what I did find was much, much worse. Part 18 (Jinnai Shinobu) Time seemed to be torn into pieces. Or maybe it was my memories. Either way, the timeline of events was in complete disarray. When I tried to remember it later, it seemed all mixed up. Every individual scene was burned vividly into my mind, but I could not reconstruct the order in which I saw them. The scenes were more than just images. An oppressive stench of blood hanging in the air. A burnt taste mixed in with the air when I breathed. A noise that hurt my ears. A sticky, melting feeling. It was all in the past, but whenever it periodically came back to me, I was inundated by layer after layer of sensations. It all felt crazy. The middle-school-aged girl who had been with my uncle was in the restaurant kitchen. No, she was collapsed within it. Collapsed on top of the gas stovetop. I could hear a noise that sounded like Chinese food being prepared. Her cute face was burnt black beyond recognition, the slender lines of her body had been fused with her clothing, and almost everything else about her was just horribly wrong as well. Only her right arm hanging down had escaped the flames. Their relative normalcy made the rest of her seem that much more horrible. Who had done that to her? I had no time to think. Kotemitsu Madoka was hanging within the hotel lobby. She was hanging down from the ceiling like a chandelier. I could hear a creaking noise as she swayed back and forth at the perfect height to hide a triangular-shaped diagram on the back wall of the lobby. At first, I thought she had been hanged, so I wondered if it was possible to save her. But I was wrong. She was hanging from a thick hook meant to catch Pacific bluefin tuna weighing over 200 kilograms. It was hooked into her upper jaw just as it was designed to. I could not see where the tip of the hook went, but it was obvious not enough room was left in her head for its proper contents. Her eyes. Both eyeballs were bulging out to an unbelievable degree. It looked like they were being pushed out from inside. Her face had been destroyed. It was much too tragic a fate for a teenage girl. Had that woman done this? But was it even possible? It was much too complex. She had been too far away. At the very least, that girl with my uncle had been alive when that woman had knocked me down the stairs. She had come down the stairs after me almost immediately afterwards. I headed off to search for that woman. Perhaps I was trying to find the truth. Perhaps I was trying to run away from the reality of those corpses. I didn¡¯t care. That woman had to have more information than I did. She had to. Whether she was the cause of all this or not, she had to know more than a high school student like me. I had to find her and get her to tell me what she knew. That was my plan. When I returned to the entrance to the boiler room, the door was half open for some reason. I peered inside and saw that woman collapsed halfway down the stairs. She was lying on her back. She had no head. It did not look like her head had been severed with a sharp blade. The wound looked odd. It made me imagine someone trying to pull off the head of a toy doll, failing, and being forced to twist the neck around until it finally gave way. When I saw her arms and legs continuing to spasm, I felt a bit relieved because I mistakenly thought she might still be alive. But then it hit me. How could she be alive if she has no head? How could she be alive with all that blood gushing from the wound? When I realized her limbs were merely writhing around on their own due to the rapid blood loss, I finally accepted that she was dead. I accepted it. But...what did that mean? Wasn¡¯t that woman supposed to hold the truth of the situation? Wasn¡¯t she supposed to either be the source of it all or at the very least be the closest person I knew to the core of it all? Either way, she was the least normal of the people I knew. However, she was not the very top. ...What can I hope to do? That fundamental question came to mind. It didn¡¯t matter if I knew the truth or not. If I knew a typhoon was about to hit landfall, could I do anything to change its path? I was nothing but a high school student. There was nothing I could do but hang up a Teru Teru Bouzu. It was possible someone with real authority might be able to send out a bomber to disseminate special chemicals into the air to physically change the atmospheric pressure, but that was nothing but a fantasy for someone like me. It was just a story. It had nothing to do with the reality I had to face. I wasn¡¯t in a position to even know if there was anything that could be done, much less whether a specific method was possible. Only those in pursuit needed to know the truth. And I did not stand in that position. I could not hope to do anything with the information. And any information I did get was less likely to give me a detailed view of the situation than it was to narrow my field of vision and keep me from being able to keep track of the entire situation. It was possible the best term for my position was ¡°victim¡±. By the time I found my uncle, all my senses had numbed over. He was in one of the guest rooms. I had no idea if it had been his room or not. Both of his legs had been severed, and his neck was awkwardly caught on a broken window frame. He had been slowly and gradually strangled to death. A normal hanging provided a quick death from pressure on the carotid artery and the destruction of the cervical vertebrae, but he had not been so lucky. His had been a painful death. He would have been able to ensure a slight passage for breath by supporting his body on the ends of his severed legs which would have earned him 10 to 15 minutes of painful struggling...but I had lost the calm needed to figure even that much out. My mind was beginning to break down. I could feel it happening. The number of murders and bodies alone should have left some kind of hint, but I could figure nothing out. Even if there was some clue to be found, that was a job for a detective. The lack of any source of information was so sudden that I could not even begin to think about looking for any further hint. What had happened to the other guests? What had happened to the other workers? I was not calm enough to think through all of those questions. My breathing grew erratic. My mind was not functioning properly. Utter annihilation. Complete slaughter. How much time has passed since the incident in the restaurant? I¡¯ve lived for about a decade and a half. If pitfalls of this magnitude exist in life, how did I manage to live as long as I have? ...Wait. ¡°Something¡¯s sticking in the back of my mind. ...What is it?¡± Where had I felt that feeling before? I sensed something odd about the string of words that had passed through my head. How much time? ...No, that isn¡¯t it. Restaurant? ...No, not that either. Oh, right. My overall impression of the situation. Utter annihilation. Complete slaughter. Those terms were not accurate. And not simply because I had survived. Someone else had escaped. This was not utter annihilation nor was it a complete slaughter. At the very last, there was someone else I had not checked on yet. Yes. That¡¯s right. ¡°...The Zashiki Warashi...? The cracks of that odd feeling spread. Things were not adding up. It was not simply that the Zashiki Warashi was not present. For example, I could not remember the order in which the tragedies had happened. What about the blood? Had it started drying as time passed? That should tell me in what order the bodies had been made. And yet I still had no idea. Hadn¡¯t every scene been dripping with blood like something from a movie or a drama? I began to head back the way I had come. I wanted to check to see if what I had seen was still in the same place But then... Someone struck me roughly on the right shoulder. I thought someone behind me was trying to stop me. But I was wrong. ¡°Hey, are you all right?¡± That female voice came from directly in front of me. The voice belonged to that woman who should have been dead. Part 19 (Jinnai Shinobu) Just as the feeling that something was not quite right grew too powerful to ignore, I sensed something that destroyed the unnatural silence. It was a noise. The noise of a human being other than myself. That noise had returned. It was faint and the hotel as a whole was still wrapped in silence, but I could sense another living being nearby. At first, it came from directly in front of me. The woman who had stabbed Matsukai-san in the restaurant was peering at my face. ¡°W-wahh!?¡¯ ¡°What did you see? You weren¡¯t bewitched or something, were you?¡± Bewitched. When I heard that term that was usually seen in fairy tales, I started to question why I had not thought of that possibility before. When faced with an unrealistic phenomenon, wasn¡¯t it likely some kind of unrealistic existence was involved? In other words... A Youkai. ¡°You...you...¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I thought you died in the boiler room...¡± ¡°So you did see something.¡± It looked like the woman was about to ask me for details, but she suddenly stopped. She stopped because of another noise. Just a moment before, noise had brought me calm, but this noise was unpleasant. It continued at even intervals, so it had to be something like footsteps. However, it was completely different from any footsteps I had ever heard before. It sounded like someone crushing rotten fish underfoot. Something liquefied was slowly approaching. But from where? I could hear the noise coming from beyond the slight darkness left by the dim lighting, but I could not tell what was causing it. And why was the lighting so dim? It may have been night, but a hotel hallway should have been more properly lit. What was this blindness that seemed to be oozing across the area? ¡°Not good.¡± I never saw her pull it out, but the woman now had an automatic pistol that fit within her palm. Its small size seemed a waste with the plastic-bottle-sized suppressor attached. Is that...real? I had never before seen a real gun other than a hunting rifle, but I doubted she would be pulling out a toy at a time like this. ¡°This really isn¡¯t good. It took me this long to grasp what was truly going on. ...By the way, do you know what this is, boy?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not obsessed with guns, so I can¡¯t recognize a specific handgun.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I meant.¡± It was then that I finally noticed something. Despite her calm expression, I could see sweat on her brow. That woman was sweating nervously. ¡°If I have to rely on this, I have 80% lost already. I may be a bit biased, but I would say I am quite useful. I am at least useful enough to frequently receive jobs from Hyakki Yakou. But that doesn¡¯t mean I am invincible or that there is no one more powerful than me. There are people I would lose to.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°I think one such dangerous person is about to appear here. This is very, very bad. This goes beyond an evil spirit. That bastard summons up illness magic like calling in an aerial bombing via GPS. I would say this is on the same level as some noble¡¯s grudge that can destroy an entire city. This isn¡¯t a force you use to target individuals...¡± I did not understand the entire second half of what she said. She may not have gathered her thoughts properly. This person and situation had caused that woman to fall into such great confusion. At first, I thought this was a continuation of that possible illusion of unknown origin, so I started to panic. The woman tossed me something while staring into the slight darkness. A radio? A cell phone? No, this is... ¡°It¡¯s a satellite phone. They aren¡¯t very common in Japan, but surely you¡¯ve seen them in movies and foreign dramas. You can make calls without using the local cell phone towers.¡± ¡°Are you telling me to call the police?¡± ¡°I sincerely hope this is a situation small enough for them to handle. But I doubt it is.¡± She still did not look in my direction. ¡°0015. That will unlock it. Then it works just like a normal cell phone. You have to enter the country code at the start, but you don¡¯t have to worry about it as long as you use one of the numbers in memory. ...One of the numbers is registered under the name ¡®Hyakki Yakou¡¯. Once you call them, all the characters involved will finally be gathered.¡± ¡°Characters involved...? What do you mean!? What is happening in this hotel!? Why did you stab Matsukai-san!? What was that strange illusion I saw!? I can¡¯t tell what is real anymore!!¡± ¡°The scale of this incident is much larger than just this hotel!¡± ¡°Wha-...?¡± ¡°Just go. If you saw what I can guess you saw, you are probably the only one who can resolve this incident. It is only you, the amateur, that can do this; not me, the expert! I don¡¯t like it, but I have to leave my life in your hands!!¡± ¡°Wait. Wait! I don¡¯t understand. What happened to my uncle and that other girl!? What about Madoka!?¡± ¡°The detective and my little sister have already fled! That is why I am in such a bind here. I haven¡¯t seen Kotemitsu Madoka. But the things you saw have probably not yet happened!!¡± The wet footsteps approached another step. The noise did not sound at all human to me. The woman seemed to overreact. ¡°Go!! If you stay here, you will undoubtedly die. Not even I will last long. So use that satellite phone to its fullest! As I said before, you are probably the only one who can!!¡± ¡°Dammit...¡± I didn¡¯t understand what was going on, but I gave in to my desire to flee from those strange footsteps. The woman stayed where she was. It wasn¡¯t normal to be able to stand up to that. Was courage really the right term for the source of her willpower? The woman remained while I ran down the hallway. I fled. If what I had seen before was an illusion, then Madoka, my uncle, and that other girl would still be alive. I decided to check their rooms. And I had to check on the Zashiki Warashi. As I ran, I thought about what that illusion could have been. In all likelihood, it had to do with a Youkai. But I could not figure out what Youkai it could have been related to. And had it really been nothing but an illusion? If so, that was fine. A mental illusion that you entered at some unknown point was certainly frightening, but it was not hopeless. But there was another possibility... ¡°If that was a vision of the future, this could hardly be worse...¡± And there were Youkai that could do that. For example, the Kudan. The Kudan was a dangerous Youkai with the head of a human and the body of a cow that did nothing but predict people¡¯s deaths. If this was a Package using one of those, I could not ignore that illusion. And that woman had mentioned something about illness magic that could probably kill all of us at the predicted time. I could not quite figure out what advantage the illusion gave, but it had to have taken a fair amount of preparation to cause that mysterious phenomenon. They would not have set it all up for no reason. They had some objective. If I could figure out what that was, I would likely find the key to unlocking the mysteries of this incident. With that key, I could figure out who would gain the most from it. And I could figure out what Youkai was being used. ¡°...Huh?¡± I realized something upon reaching the front desk of the hotel. I may have figured out a one portion of the enemy¡¯s identity. I knew of a Youkai that would hint at a dangerous future. I knew of a Youkai that could change how it appeared to humans. Part 20 (Zashiki Warashi - Yukari) Due to that strange woman going nuts in the restaurant, I still had not eaten dinner. My annoyance was growing. Madoka had not said anything for a while. She may have been worried about Shinobu, but I could not be sure because Zashiki Warashi unfortunately did not have the ability to read minds. Someone started knocking violently on the door. Was it Shinobu? He had given me the key, so he had no way to open the door. I looked through the peephole and spotted someone unexpected. It was Uchimaku Hayabusa. He had some girl I did not recognize with him. The Sunekosuri from before stood at the girl¡¯s feet. He had called it a sad instinct, but I had a feeling his personal preferences played a part in it. At any rate, it was strange indeed for Uchimaku Hayabusa to come to me. Then again, it might have been Shinobu he was looking for. I cracked the door open with the door guard still closed. As expected, Uchimaku Hayabusa¡¯s entire body jumped in shock when he saw my face through the gap. But he did not stop there. He spoke to me like something was pushing him forward. ¡°Are you okay?¡± ¡°You say that like something dangerous is going on.¡± I had an idea what it might be. After all, I had witnessed a man getting stabbed in the restaurant. The girl cut in. ¡°You arrived with Madoka, right? Do you know where she is? She wasn¡¯t in her room.¡± ¡°She¡¯s in here with me.¡± ¡°Shinobu...hasn¡¯t come by yet, has he?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t seen him since he went off to contact the police. Since he isn¡¯t back, he must not have had much luck.¡± ¡°The police?¡± ¡°Because he saw a murder.¡± ¡°Dammit, Mai. Has she still not released Shinobu?¡± ¡°Hey,¡± I cut in. ¡°You seem quite used to this kind of odd situation.¡± ¡°Well, I am a police detective.¡± ¡°Not you. The girl next to you.¡± ¡°Unfortunately, I am even more used to being around corpses than the detective.¡± The Sunekosuri at her feet jumped in shock when he heard those easily-spoken words. He continued to rub up against her slender legs, so in a way, he did have guts. Something was bothering me, so I asked about it. ¡°So is this incident related to Youkai?¡± ¡°Um, well...maybe. Just the other day, the detective and I were caught in the middle of a Package on Zashou Island that used Funa Yuurei.¡± ¡°What about the Sunekosuri?¡± ¡°Eh!? M-me? I haven¡¯t done anything!! It was all Hishigami Mai-san¡¯s doing!! It¡¯s her fault that I had to live through that nightmare and couldn¡¯t return to HQ! And just when I think I can rest here in Fuuka Village, we run into them again!!¡± Hmm... And then you add in Shinobu, Madoka, and me. I hadn¡¯t realized it at first, but their oddly casual acceptance of this strange situation was bringing me a gradual understanding of what was going on. If a normal person saw a murder, they would fall into a confused panic. It was not normal for them to even be able to put their thoughts in order. So when they were faced with something beyond that, they should have had their hands full simply trying not to be swept away by the nonsensical phenomena occurring before their eyes. And yet these people were different. Everyone gathered here had experienced some incident related to Youkai recently. And I was a last-minute inclusion as a pet. If some third party had predicted that far, it had to be an organization with quite a powerful backbone. When I had demanded to go along, Shinobu did not even have his ticket yet. He had merely mentioned the term ¡°ticket¡±. Intentionally drawing out that feeling of jealousy from within me would have been much more difficult to set up than the little tricks they had to pull regarding the hotel itself. And if they had guided every person here in a similar manner, their skill could almost be called a curse. To freely control things to that extent, the scope of this incident had to stretch farther than just this hotel. At the very least, it had to cover all of Japan. But... What was this third party planning to do by gathering people who had dealt with incidents related to Youkai? Part 21 (Jinnai Shinobu) While I waited for the elevator in the elevator hall, I messed with the satellite phone the woman had given me. Its antenna was extremely thick and the body was unrefined. It looked more like a large radio transceiver than it did a cell phone. 0015. After I entered the number she had told me would unlock it, I could tell it was quite easy to use. You could make calls and send emails. That was it. It did not even have a memo function. However, she must have been the type to delete any kind of records because the mailbox was empty. I opened the address book and found a few numbers. None of the names looked like names of people. Nor did they look like the names of corporations. They looked more like names of groups or organizations, but I did not recognize any of them. I moved the cursor to one of them. The name for the number was Hyakki Yakou. The last of the ¡°characters involved¡±. Even with this satellite phone, I doubted I could contact them repeatedly. If they hung up, it would likely all be over. It all came down to the first call. If they thought I was of little consequence, this last thin strand of hope would disappear. But... I had never met this person (?) listed as Hyakki Yakou. And... If I had some connection with someone I had never met, I could only think of one place that connection could come from. After all... It did not necessarily stay in one place. It had no clear owner. The possibility of having it leave you was always there. And since it was well known what happened in such a possibility, the odds of that possibility could not be all that low. And so it was entirely possible Hyakki Yakou and I had a connection there. ¡°...¡± I brought my thumb to the call button. I hesitated. But I pressed it in the end. It did not ring. It likely would have normally, but someone on the other end picked up before it had a chance ¡°Hello,¡± said someone who sounded like an elementary school girl. However, her voice had a gracefulness unbefitting of that age. I had never met her, but I felt like I had heard the voice before...and then I realized I had heard that same voice in a cell phone home video not long before. ¡°You need not pretend to be Hishigami Mai. I already know that phone has left her possession.¡± She ¡°knew¡±. Was it simply that she had seen it happen? Or had she set this all up so it would happen? ¡°I know how we are connected.¡± ¡°Is that all you wish to discuss?¡± ¡°The Zashiki Warashi,¡± I said. I decided to get straight to the point rather than trying any tricks. I guessed the sudden shock of that knowledge would provide the most impact. ¡°A Zashiki Warashi is a Youkai that protects a specific house, but there is no guarantee they will stay in one place. After all, it is well known that a household a Zashiki Warashi leaves will decline. I have no idea what house she...Yukari used to be in. I just assumed she had always been in mine. But it is possible she used to be with yours.¡± ¡°Is that a problem?¡± ¡°I know what it is that happened to me just a bit ago. It makes perfect sense. A Zashiki Warashi has the following abilities: 1. Adults cannot see them. 2. They provide ominous predictions of fires or other dangers to their household.¡± Then again, my grandparents could see our Zashiki Warashi without issue and I had never heard anything about her predicting a fire. But... That was an issue with our specific Zashiki Warashi. Those facts held true for the species as a whole. ¡°They can rewrite the information people see and they provide information on coming dangers. ...That fits perfectly with the illusion I saw. What happened in this hotel? If what the woman who gave me this phone said is true, all of the workers here have been switched out with fakes. You created a Package to acquire that Zashiki Warashi, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Is that all you know?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I am asking if that is the extent of your knowledge. If so, I am sorry to say that I see no reason why I must continue this conversation.¡± ¡°If luring the Zashiki Warashi to this hotel was your top priority...¡± I thought hard while I spoke. But it was not enough. I had my hands full already, but if I did not gather my hand quickly, I would lose the thin thread of hope that was the phone call. ¡°The lodging ticket for this hotel came to me via Madoka. That seems odd. Surely you had some way of giving one directly to the Zashiki Warashi.¡± ¡°I am sorry to say that-...¡± ¡°It seems odd that you would use such a roundabout method. For one thing, it means you had the precision to know for a fact she would announce she was going along as a pet. But that isn¡¯t the only reason. If you can control people with that precision, you should have been able to lure the Zashiki Warashi to the hotel without bringing Madoka and me along too. And that means,¡± I paused for a second. ¡°You purposefully brought Madoka and me here. Our inclusion was unrelated to the Zashiki Warashi.¡± In my mind, I wondered if that was enough. However, I did not have time to think everything through carefully. If I fell silent, the girl would hang up. But I still felt like I was onto something. ¡°And that makes me suspicious of the guests other than Madoka and me. Is it just a coincidence that they are here too? Is there perhaps some kind of common thread between all of our inclusions? There is little in common between Madoka and me. Assuming we were not chosen for being in the same class in the same school, I can think of only one other possibility. ...We were both involved in the Youkai incident at the Sanatorium.¡± ¡°Are you suggesting the other guests are also deeply related to Packages or Youkai?¡± ¡°I have no proof, but I could gather it if need be.¡± ¡°What could we possibly want from gathering all of you in one place?¡± ¡°You gathered a group of people who had overcome some incident involving Youkai and then caused a bizarre phenomenon centered on that Zashiki Warashi.¡± That illusion. Other than its precision, I could not immediately see any monetary value in that bizarre phenomenon. But that was not the point. The actual phenomenon did not matter. Something that gave it added value existed within the hotel. ¡°Here is what you are doing. You want to envelop the entire hotel in the Zashiki Warashi Package, and then easily defeat and kill us. That would be a success for you. I suppose it¡¯s an issue of flexibility. By showing that this Package is something like an unavoidable black hole that swallows up even people who have dealt with various different kinds of incidents, you give your Package a valuable brand name image.¡± That¡¯s right. It was the same as an Intellectual Village that strengthened the brand name image of their crops by using cutting edge technology to create the clean image of a rural area. Hyakki Yakou was doing the same. They had put together this plan to raise the value of their Youkai products. What I did not know was whether they were actually in the business of buying and selling or if they were establishing manufacturing techniques and researching means of application. ¡°...So you have worked that much out,¡± said the girl. ¡°Indeed I have.¡± ¡°But I still see little meaning in continuing this conversation. You have not completely changed my mind. This may be useful to you, but I see no value in it for me.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so quick to decide that. That woman gave me this satellite phone. She could have tried to negotiate with you or threaten you, but she didn¡¯t. She handed this last thin thread of hope to me. Why do you think that is?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Because it is my house¡¯s Zashiki Warashi at the core of this incident. I am the point of contact here. I have no intention of claiming I own her and she may have been in your household at one point. But I am probably the one with the strongest connection to her at this point in time. It isn¡¯t you.¡± ¡°Do you think you can interfere with our assembly using that connection?¡± ¡°Do you think I can¡¯t?¡± ... That was of course a bluff. I did not have that ability and this ¡°connection¡± was not something tangible. I had no idea how valuable a thing it was. Also, I doubted this enemy would actually take a high school student¡¯s words seriously. But... While my personal actions were one thing, I doubted that girl could ignore what that woman did. And she had given the satellite phone to me. ¡°...We need a revival,¡± said the girl. ¡°What?¡± ¡°For the most part, the organization actually taking action in the hotel is Saishi Kajin, not Hyakki Yakou. Does the name Matsukai Hiroshi sound familiar? They were absorbed into Hyakki Yakou the other day. We had to weaken them during the incident in Ubasute Village to do so. However, it was still not enough. We are still far from being revived. We need more than that.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°The house a Zashiki Warashi leaves will decline. That is exactly right. It took hundreds of years, but that is what happened to Hyakki Yakou. That is why we put together a plan to recover her as quickly as possible. She is not a new acquisition. We are merely taking back what we once lost. But even if we compensate for our lost power with her, it will not be enough to stop the decline. Hyakki Yakou has already begun to collapse. That is why we must use everything we have to raise the value of the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s power.¡± ¡°Answer me!! What are you talking about!?¡± ¡°If you actually knew what you were talking about, what I said should have been enough. If that was not enough for you, I will count you as a secure asset.¡± Not good. Don¡¯t let her shake your resolve. ¡°That woman was fighting with someone other than the Zashiki Warashi. Did you send them?¡± ¡°He is one of our top 5. He is one of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s few pure spell users. That alone is a sign of our decline, but he is enough to defeat Hishigami Mai. This is another secure asset. Even if she defeats him, he will take her out in the process. The Zashiki Warashi will not be destroyed before this can truly begin.¡± Dammit. I was understanding less and less of what she was talking about. And the girl¡¯s tone of voice was plainly changing as well. The longer she continued speaking, the shallowness of my knowledge grew more evident. I knew very little of what was going on. The household or organization known as Hyakki Yakou had begun to decline. One of the reasons for that was that the Zashiki Warashi had left them. They wished to retrieve that Zashiki Warashi to prevent further decline. But that was not enough to know how to stop their plan. She was shaking my resolve, but I had nothing to shake her resolve with. ...No. Wait. What did that girl say? And what did that woman say before we parted? She said she frequently receives jobs from Hyakki Yakou, right? So... ¡°It is my duty to bring about the revival of Hyakki Yakou,¡± said the girl. Her words were icy. She knew I had no trump card and would soon hang up. ¡°I will not shy away from sacrifice to do so. We absorbed Saishi Kajin, we will retrieve the Zashiki Warashi...and you all will be crushed underfoot to play the role of fertilizer. Sorry, but you cannot overturn this. I see nothing at your disposal that would allow that.¡± ¡°Can I say one thing before you hang up?¡± ¡°What would that be?¡± An amateur student like me had no hopes of victory when it came to Youkai or underground society. I had to change my strategy. I had to use some method where a student like me was superior. ¡°Young lady, you may be an expert when it comes to Youkai, but you don¡¯t like your science classes much, do you?¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just...I¡¯d rather not die in some plan thought up by an idiot who can¡¯t do math. I was hoping you would deny it. If I¡¯m going to die, can¡¯t it at least be in some plan thought up by a genius!?¡± ¡°What...? Oh, I had heard that it used to be called science class. We call it ¡®life environment studies¡¯, and I like it just fine. Combining traditional science with history into one class was a decent idea, wasn¡¯t it? Then again, I just learn from the textbooks. I am homeschooled.¡± ¡°Ha ha.¡± I could not help but laugh. I had been afraid my acting wouldn¡¯t be good enough to fool her. ¡°Did they still call it ¡®life environment studies¡¯ when they were talking about curriculum reform, getting rid of the more relaxed schedules, and maybe even going to school on weekends for more class time? I thought they changed it back to just science class then.¡± The girl fell silent. I then began speaking again to cut off her next excuse. ¡°And even the textbooks a homeschooled elementary school student would use will match the categories of the official curriculum. Once the schools stop calling it ¡®life environment studies¡¯, they would start making textbooks just for science. Wait...or would they? Which would it be?¡± To be honest, a high school student like me had no idea how things worked for an elementary school student. No matter how much knowledge someone gathered, there were things that only someone who was actually that age would know. And yet the person on the other end of the phone remained silent. They may have had extensive knowledge, but their confidence had been shaken by a student like me. And that meant... My guess had been right. With the confidence that gave me, I took the plunge. ¡°How about you end this act. It¡¯s no fun now that I¡¯ve figured it out.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Was that not enough? You¡¯re embarrassing yourself, so how about you start acting your age.¡± I said it. It was a natural question to come up with given everything that had happened. Was the person I was talking to actually the person that woman had wanted me to contact with the satellite phone? To be blunt, wasn¡¯t it possible she had been switched out with an imposter just like the hotel workers? ¡°Ha ha ha.¡± And... I heard laughter. The voice was the same. It was the voice of a lovely young girl. But something about the tone of the voice had changed. The tone was that of a rude and vulgar man. ¡°Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!¡± ¡°Enough pretending. It¡¯s not like I can see you through the phone.¡± ¡°What tipped you off? That science vs. life environment studies business had to have only been the final push. You must have some more fundamental proof,¡± said the girl (?) while she gradually corrected the emotions hidden behind the words. My answer was simple. ¡°That woman said she frequently receives jobs from Hyakki Yakou. And yet she did not hesitate to stab that worker from Saishi Kajin...Matsukai-san was it? That makes no sense if they had already been taken in by Hyakki Yakou. At the very least, she wouldn¡¯t kill him on sight like that.¡± ¡°That is not proof. So all you really had was speculation.¡± She did not explain what the fault in my reasoning was. Perhaps I did not have a proper understanding of the organization of Hyakki Yakou or of that that woman¡¯s actions. ¡°But I will admit that you have seen through this farther than expected. Hyakki Yakou has split. One side is the Kaikoku faction that compromises and allows those outside the organization to take jobs in order to preserve order, and the other side is the Sakoku faction that will abandon order in order to strengthen the organization and keep everything within the organization.[1] The actual ¡®removal¡¯ did not begin until about a week ago, so it is unknown if Hishigami Mai is aware of the situation as she was working in Europe at the time.¡± One side was trying to protect order and the other was trying to destroy it. From the situation, it seemed clear to me which one was our enemy. In the ideal democracy, the majority did not have power robbed from them. ¡°For something you planned, you certainly are talking about it like it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± ¡°What, do you want me to be more triumphant and to brag about it? Gwa ha ha ha ha. All we did was purge the incompetent leaders.¡± ¡°...I see. You saw crushing them as such a natural move that it does not even excite you and you do not feel any need to explain yourself. Are you even aware what you did qualifies as a coup d¡¯etat?¡± In a way, this was even more dangerous than a hackneyed demon king. Didn¡¯t I hear someone say that a sense of justice can destroy nations? ¡°What happened to the real Hyakki Yakou? What happened to that girl?¡± ¡°I am part of the real Hyakki Yakou. Have you ever heard the story of the Tanuki of Kachi-Kachi Mountain that killed an old lady and took on her form?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Just kidding. Things did not go that well. But even though we split, it was not an even split. One side is much larger than the other. And we absorbed Saishi Kajin to expand even further.¡± ¡°So you joined with an external group despite insisting on the purity of the organization?¡± ¡°We overwrote them. We merely gave them a chance for a religious conversion. Discord only occurs when differing systems are built into the organization. If they are completely remade before we use them, no rejection reaction occurs. The main principle required is a unified format.¡± ...? She was speaking with absolute confidence, but something about it seemed off to me. Something about that ideology did not feel right. It was like someone talking about a specific genre while not understanding any of the details of that genre. It was the same as how people would broadly describe matcha or red bean paste as tasting like Wagashi. The Sakoku faction wanted to preserve purity by cutting off the normal flow of information and distribution, so would they actually carry out a plan that took in an external organization? Was this girl (?) really part of the Sakoku faction? In fact, was she even part of Hyakki Yakou? Just as terrorist groups received support from powerful nations during the Cold War, it was possible she had merely been given her objective by whoever was truly behind the incident and that she actually had another objective of her own. I had no idea what that might be, but I felt it would be prudent to keep that fact in mind. Whether she had realized what I was speculating or not, the girl began to speak about what may have been related to her objective. ¡°The remnants of the old leaders abandoned their flying wing and have found somewhere to hide on land, but it is only a matter of time before they are found. They needed that wing to continually flee. It is self-evident what will happen if they stay in one place.¡± According to her, Saishi Kajin had been overwritten by Hyakki Yakou and absorbed, but it was still possible that process had actually been begun by Saishi Kajin. Or perhaps both sides had complexly interweaving plans and they were both using the other for their own ends. Dammit... This was worse than simply not being able to negotiate. The person that woman had been expecting me to contact wasn¡¯t even there, so the conversation could not even begin. ¡°Is keeping anything new out of the organization really that important?¡± ¡°If you were told to try living as a nudist for 24 hours starting tomorrow, would you simply nod and agree?¡± Had this girl had checkmate from the very beginning? Was the scope of the incident much larger than that woman had thought? ¡°Why did you choose this hotel?¡± ¡°For one, because its layout was easy to work into our plan. But that is really of little consequence. What truly mattered was Kotemitsu Madoka. We wanted to gather every single one of the characters we needed, but we had to stick to the formalities to lure her in. This hotel gave her peace of mind. If we had created a brand new hotel for this, she would have been too suspicious to get anywhere near it. ...That did mean we had to do some horrible things to the original workers. That made this quite expensive.¡± Her tone made it clear it was of little consequence to her. Even if all of us were wiped out in the process of assembling this Zashiki Warashi Package, she would likely not even bat an eye. ¡°But it was not a major issue since almost everything has gone according to plan. Actually, some things have gone better than planned if you look at it in the right way. Circumstance has worked in our favor.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Human greed can be a frightening thing. We had initially determined it would be impossible to have complete information control. That satellite phone is a good example. That was why we simply had to accept the possibility of you calling the police in. Since we were creating bizarre phenomena that would swallow up people who had overcome other Packages, we figured the police would just be swallowed up as well.¡± ¡°Wait. So the flat tires on the cars and the phones not working wasn¡¯t Hyakki Yakou¡¯s doing!?¡± ¡°Thanks to that, it looks like the precision of our Zashiki Warashi assembly will increase. It isn¡¯t an entirely good thing on our part, but...it doesn¡¯t really matter. It will give us greater results in the end.¡± The girl paused for a second before saying, ¡°And if you were not aware of that, then you truly do not have a proper understanding of this situation.¡± The connection cut off. I reached for the redial button without thinking, but did not press it. I knew trying to call again would be hopeless. She had said she ¡°knew¡± what we were doing. Unless I did something that drew the interest of the current Hyakki Yakou, she would not answer the phone again. But... ¡°Hyakki Yakou isn¡¯t the only enemy. Not all of the characters are accounted for yet.¡± The flat tires. The nonfunctioning phones. ¡°Just how many enemies do we have here...?¡± Part 22 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) I first noticed that something wasn¡¯t adding up when we decided to pool our information in the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s room. The Zashiki Warashi and Shinobu¡¯s classmate Kotemitsu Madoka both gave the same story. Shinobu had gone off somewhere to call the police. And since he had not yet returned, he must not have had much luck. They guessed the phones were not working. But... ¡°Mine works,¡± I said. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°My cell phone has a proper signal.¡± It was possible Shinobu had lied to them and had gone off to do something else. But it seemed that was not the case. Kotemitsu pulled out her phone to check. ¡°Mine doesn¡¯t. It has no signal.¡± ¡°Detective, neither does my smartphone. Maybe it¡¯s because we have different carriers. I don¡¯t even have a signal for the flat-rate calls using wi-fi.¡± I had a bad feeling about what this meant. I had a good idea what could be causing it. Besides the carrier, there was one other obvious difference between my phone and theirs. I was a police officer. To prevent important information from getting blocked by congested phone lines in emergencies, there was a system to artificially restrict those phone lines. Cell phones owned by the police, firefighters, EMTs, the JSDF, and government workers had a different designation that was allowed through while that system was active. And in that case... The people cutting off communications to isolate the hotel had to be... ¡°It can¡¯t be...¡± I pressed the call button on my cell phone. I simply pressed the call button without entering a number. When the system was being restricted, the places that could be called were also restricted. And someone answered. ¡°It connected,¡± I said. ¡°Is that enough for you to figure out who I am?¡± asked the person on the other end. ¡°If my phone works, this must not be a JSDF format communications restriction. My phone¡¯s designation would only get through with the police format. And only the riot police have the authority to activate that system. So you must be...¡± ¡°That level of information isn¡¯t enough to determine who I am. Of course, you could always try to back trace this number or analyze my voice print.¡± ¡°Why?¡± The question naturally spilled out of my mouth. ¡°This is a high level system within the police. Why would someone high enough to use it be aiding criminals!?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you know exactly why.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°You are the one that has seen this collapse of law and order the closest. All sorts of crimes being committed in this country can no longer be dealt with by the police. And those exceptions are growing. The very people who are committing crimes that must be punished are living among us as if they are on the side of justice.¡± For an instant, I had no idea what he meant. But then it hit me. ¡°Are you talking about the Hishigami sisters?¡± ¡°Our country is facing a crisis by allowing them to go free. People who know only a fraction of what they do are looking up to them and thinking they can do the same. These people have begun to appear and claim to be bounty hunters. But they are not very effective. They claim they are ¡®investigating¡¯ in order to justify stalking or explain away all sorts of destructive actions. Before long, they will likely decide who is guilty without carrying out a proper investigation and then carry out vigilante justice. We must put an end to this.¡± ¡°Is it really so obvious that these people are being influenced by them?¡± ¡°You are an excellent example.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t follow.¡± ¡°Why are you in that hotel? Did you just decide to suddenly take 7 days of leave for fun? Would you normally let yourself do that as a government official? And yet there you are. You decided there was nothing you could do to stop it since the Hishigami sisters were involved, didn¡¯t you? That kind of oddity is not isolated to just you.¡± ¡°But how will you fill in the gap this leaves? I will admit that those sisters don¡¯t exactly walk the straight and narrow, but they do achieve results when it comes to cases involving Youkai. In fact, it is impossible for the current system of the Japanese police to actually destroy a Package. All we can manage is to arrest the human criminals using the Package. It is very nearly impossible for us to do anything about the deadly Youkai at the core of the case.¡± That was why a Package would cause more and more damage once it was established. It would spread from person to person like new method of phone fraud. ¡°Unfortunately, we need the Hishigami sisters. We do not have the ability to overcome those things,¡± I continued. ¡°But that is no reason to turn a blind eye to the Hishigami sisters.¡± He responded immediately. He did not hesitate even for an instant. ¡°Our duty as the Japanese police is to stop crimes before they occur within this country and to solve cases that have already occurred. The circumstances do not matter. Even if the Hishigami sisters knew the sole way of stopping an asteroid that was on a collision course with earth, we would have no choice but to immediately arrest them if they broke the law. That is our duty as the police.¡± ¡°...So you aren¡¯t giving this any thought at all?¡± ¡°It is because you think too much that you give into them so easily.¡± ¡°So you have nothing to fill the gap left by the Hishigami sisters!? You know the victims of Youkai-related incidents in the country will skyrocket, but you¡¯re still going to eliminate the Hishigami sisters just because you resent them for butting into the police¡¯s turf!?¡± ¡°We do not think we can accomplish this via normal methods. It would be very difficult to reliably eliminate the Hishigami sisters with the means available to us.¡± Dammit. He isn¡¯t listening to me at all. ¡°But the circumstances have turned in our favor. To be honest, having an organization like that operating within the country is a major problem, but we will deal with them later. The Hishigami sisters take priority. For now, we just have to carefully interfere with a conflict between different aspects of the occult.¡± ¡°And to do this, you have no problem with killing living human beings and leaving other human beings to possibly die in the future?¡± ¡°So what if I am?¡± ¡°Then you are one of the criminals that I detest.¡± I received no reply. The connection suddenly cut off. I tried to dial a few emergency numbers, but I could no longer connect. My number must have been removed from the communications restriction system. ¡°Get away from the window. It will probably be difficult to leave this hotel.¡± I simply gave my conclusions to the others in the room. ¡°This hotel is probably surrounded by riot police. Not only is there some incident related to dangerous Youkai being carried out here, but some others have come here to use it to their advantage.¡± Part 23 (Jinnai Shinobu) I rode the elevator to the 3rd floor. As the door opened, the satellite phone received a call. It was from a different number than I had called before. But when I answered, I heard the same girl¡¯s voice. ¡°...Ksshh...Is this...Hishigami Mai-san...ksshh...?¡± She doesn¡¯t know who has the phone? That must mean... ¡°Are you the real from Hyakki Yakou?¡± ¡°Who are you...ksshh..? No, that does not matter. If that phone has left Hishigami Mai¡¯s possession, does that mean she has lost?¡± I could not deny the possibility that this was the same girl (?) from before messing with me. But I could see no reason for her to do that. She had said she knew what I was doing. I didn¡¯t see what information she would need to put on another act to get out of me. ¡°She gave me the phone herself. She is fighting somewhere, but I don¡¯t know the details. What was it she said she was fighting?...Illness Magic, I think.¡± ¡°That member of the top 5? That is not a good matchup. It isn¡¯t a matter of power. She is horribly incompatible with that opponent.¡± ¡°What are you trying to say?¡± ¡°Nothing...ksshh. No matter who you are, I doubt you can stand up to someone she cannot. This may sound coldhearted, but I think I need to change my plan.¡± I did not like abandoning her, but it was true I couldn¡¯t exactly turn around and help that woman. ¡°You must have some connection with the hotel. Either a worker or a guest. Ksshh...The Package prepared by someone claiming to be from the Sakoku faction covers the entire hotel, so I assume you are a guest if you are still there.¡± The way she referred to the enemy seemed needlessly roundabout. Had this girl also noticed something off about them? ¡°I am a guest. I was lured here with a free lodging ticket.¡± ¡°Then you are one of the survivors of a Youkai incident. Someone there should have a deep connection with the Zashiki Warashi in the hotel. Please contact that person. That is the only way to bring this to an end.¡± And there it was. If this girl was the same one as before, that would have been the bluff she was most worried about. My ability to interfere with the Zashiki Warashi at the core of their plan. She probably thought the odds were exceedingly low but still impossible to ignore. To find a way to stop it, she had to get the information out of me. The girl from Hyakki Yakou that carried out that coup d¡¯etat had said she knew the situation here, but she could very well want to preemptively eliminate a risk. And... Even if this girl was who she claimed to be, she was still a member of Hyakki Yakou. I had no idea why she had called the satellite phone. She may have had her own objective and interests that were different from the Sakoku faction¡¯s. And she might need the Zashiki Warashi to do it. Either way, I had to tread carefully from here on out. So carefully that I had to hide even the fact that I was treading carefully. ¡°I know Hyakki Yakou is trying to retrieve the Zashiki Warashi,¡± I said. ¡°I doubt doing so has any real merit.¡± ¡°But they were saying they would be revived if the Zashiki Warashi is brought back.¡± ¡°A household does not decline because a Zashiki Warashi left. The Zashiki Warashi leaves because the household is declining. ...Ksshh... That is why you often hear that misfortune falls on a household once its Zashiki Warashi leaves, but you never hear of a Zashiki Warashi coming back. Unless the people of the household solve the underlying problem in their household, fortune will not return to them.¡± ¡°So the cause is within Hyakki Yakou?¡± ¡°That should be obvious since you have been wrapped up in our issues.¡± ¡°If you aren¡¯t after the Zashiki Warashi, what do you want us to do?¡± ¡°The only way to bring this to an end is to search out the details of the enemy¡¯s Package and destroy it.¡± ¡°How will that bring this to an end?¡± I was unsure if I was succeeding in drawing information out of her, but I continued speaking anyway. ¡°We may be able to escape from this hotel, but won¡¯t Hyakki Yakou keep trying to acquire the Zashiki Warashi? I have no idea where you people are. Wouldn¡¯t we be left trembling in fear of another attack with no way to fight back?¡± ¡°Why would you?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°If you only just so happened to meet the Zashiki Warashi here in the hotel...ksshh...why are you so worried about her continuing to be targeted once she leaves the hotel?¡± Oh, shit!! That had not been the proper reaction for a normal guest who could just leave all this mess upon escaping the hotel. It had been the reaction of someone who would be staying with the Zashiki Warashi after escaping the hotel. If this was the same girl as before putting on another act, then she had known who I was from the beginning. But if this was the real girl and she was planning to use the Zashiki Warashi in some plan, it would be better if she did not know I had a connection to the Zashiki Warashi. I needed something. I needed anything that could explain away that reaction!! ¡°D-do you promise not to tell anyone?¡± ¡°Ksshh...Tell anyone what?¡± ¡°...It was love at first sight...¡± ¡°Nyah!?¡± My whisper elicited a strange shout from the phone. The girl then lowered her voice to match my whisper. ¡°Oh...um...Hyakki Yakou has a few records of...um...unions between humans and Youkai. Ksshh...So it is not impossible...¡± Why did this have to head in that direction? Well, whatever. I managed to fool her. ¡°How will getting rid of the Zashiki Warashi Package solve the fundamental problem? The person behind all this is comfortably watching everything from well out of our reach, right?¡± ¡°No,¡± said the girl decisively. ¡°The environment surrounding you...ksshhh...spreads much farther than you think. Ksshh...And the same goes for the person claiming to be from the Sakoku faction who is circling above the Pacific Ocean.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°They...ksshhh...have not realized it yet. They do not know how far it spread...ksshhh...after they pulled the trigger. Kssshhh...If they did, they would never have left that there with so little defense...ksshh. Ksshh...Even though it is a necessary part of the Zashiki Warashi Package, they...kkkkkkssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!!¡± ¡°Hey, what¡¯s wrong? I can¡¯t hear you. What do you mean by ¡®that¡¯!?¡± ¡°Kssshhh! Ksssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± The static grew so loud I had to move the satellite phone away from my ear. When I hesitantly brought it back to my ear, all I could hear was the dial tone. The screen displayed a message saying the connection had been lost. Had the Hyakki Yakou coup d¡¯etat group interfered? Or had something happened to the girl directly? ¡°...That got me nowhere.¡± I had not been able to receive whatever crucial hint that girl had. Then again, I had no way of telling whether she was telling the truth or if she was putting on an act for her own ends. At any rate, my only option was to meet up with the Zashiki Warashi. If that indoor Youkai was a crucial part of the Package at the core of it all, meeting up with her would likely help me figure something out. I returned to my room and knocked on the door. For an instant, the thought of no one answering or kicking down the door and finding a bloody scene passed through my mind, but luckily, the door opened after a slight delay. The person who opened the door must have checked through the peep hole first. My uncle was the one who opened the door. ¡°Shinobu, you¡¯re okay.¡± ¡°I want to put an end to this. Is the Zashiki Warashi there?¡± My uncle headed back into the room. I followed him in. The Zashiki Warashi...was there. She was sitting on the single bed. Madoka was sitting on the floor. A girl whose name I did not know was there was well. And curled up at the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s feet was... What? ...A dog? No, a Sunekosuri? ¡°Zashiki Warashi, I need to speak with you.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s a confession of love, wait until Christmas Eve. I¡¯m steadily making progress on a merciless, decisive, and hilarious plan for that.¡± ¡°Damn you!! There are some things you don¡¯t joke about!!¡± She had been showing some signs of dere recently, but it looked like I needed to dig a bit deeper into that. Especially with that cold bath and nursing her back to health from before!! ¡°...So, Shinobu. What do you want to talk about?¡± I opened my mouth to speak, but then froze in place. The girl (?) from the Sakoku faction of Hyakki Yakou had said she ¡°knew¡± what was happening here. I had no idea how she ¡°knew¡±, but wouldn¡¯t I be putting unnecessary risk on everyone in that room if I told them the core of the issue? And the danger did not end if we escaped the hotel. This held the danger of having that organization constantly targeting us for the rest of our lives. I decided to tell as few people as possible. ¡°Let¡¯s leave the room first.¡± ¡°?¡± The Zashiki Warashi and I left the room. Before we began speaking, the Zashiki Warashi grimaced. ¡°...Ow...¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°I have a bit of a headache.¡± ¡°Even though you¡¯re a Youkai? I thought you couldn¡¯t be hurt by normal methods.¡± ¡°I am not immune to things like heatstroke.¡± ¡°Come to think of it, that Yuki Onna has seemed a bit dizzy after taking a bath lately.¡± ¡°It might just be that time of the month.¡± ¡°Unfortunately, I do not think that¡¯s it.¡± ¡°What did you want to talk about?¡± ¡°I want to ask about where you were before coming to my house.¡± The Zashiki Warashi leaned up against the hallway wall, pressed her index finger to her temple, and sighed. ¡°I get the feeling you aren¡¯t going to be satisfied if I just tell you I was protecting some other household.¡± ¡°The term Hyakki Yakou has come up. Does it ring any bells?¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± The Zashiki Warashi quickly called my name before continuing. ¡°In all seriousness, you might die. Even if you make use of the information I have and escape this hotel, you have no hope after that. I know staying here and not doing anything isn¡¯t an option either, but you should think long and hard about how you plan to resolve this.¡± ¡°The very fact that I know the term Hyakki Yakou shows I¡¯ve already gotten involved. Holding back now out of fear isn¡¯t going to get us out of this.¡± With that response, I showed I had resigned myself to this. And I continued. ¡°So if I¡¯m going to do this, I¡¯m going to go all out. I will completely crush the enemy. I want to get back to my normal life after leaving this hotel, and I can¡¯t do that if I hesitate to take a running start. I will jump to the other side of the cliff. If I chicken out, I will fall. The odds of success are not good to begin with, but I need a full running start to have any chance of survival.¡± The Zashiki Warashi tilted her head in puzzlement. Her long hair covered her face so I could not see it. ¡°Hyakki Yakou,¡± she whispered. And then she continued. ¡°Hyakki Yakou has been involved in all sorts of things for a long time. And it seems one of those things involved Zashiki Warashi. Since it is in my nature to wander from house to house, I had assumed I had just happened to end up with Hyakki Yakou. But it turned out I was wrong.¡± ¡°...You mean they influenced what house you chose?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. All I know is that it was odd. I still do not know what exactly happened, what they were after, or even if they succeeded or not. That is the level Hyakki Yakou has reached. The millennium-old established theories that humans cannot kill Youkai and that humans cannot understand what Youkai are thinking do not apply to that group.¡± Was the true threat humans or Youkai? Or could Hyakki Yakou even be counted as humans? ¡°A Zashiki Warashi moves from house to house based on the rise and fall of the households, but after I saw a portion of the things going on there, I decided to leave of my own will for the first time. ...I essentially ran away, but that may show that Hyakki Yakou¡¯s methods were imperfect. Or perhaps they were already headed down the path of destruction at that point.¡± ¡°Was it after that that you came to my house?¡± ¡°That was about 150 years ago. I had some difficulties because places for Youkai like me were decreasing rapidly thanks to the end of Edo period. I certainly never expected for those places to make a comeback in the name of ¡®Intellectual Villages¡¯.¡± ¡°And Hyakki Yakou never tried to take you back?¡± ¡°There is no point in it.¡± ...? She makes it sound so simple...but wait. That isn¡¯t what I heard. ¡°When a Zashiki Warashi like me leaves a household, it declines. At the very least, Hyakki Yakou had to have some internal trouble at the time. The stronger the household, the greater the chaos. And as I said, Hyakki Yakou was involved in many dangerous things, so there was a danger of causing a chain reaction that would destroy them utterly.¡± ¡°But Hyakki Yakou didn¡¯t collapse. They still exist today.¡± ¡°Since I had left by that point, I can only speculate, but they probably did some insane things to get back the power they lost. It was a twisted place to begin with, but I get the feeling they have become even more twisted now.¡± ¡°What are you basing this speculation on?¡± ¡°From stories I have heard from Youkai passing by the house. Also...they are using everything they have to retrieve a Zashiki Warashi that has already left them. Hyakki Yakou must have transformed into something else if they do not realize the reasoning behind that is flawed.¡± ¡°...You knew what they are trying to do?¡± ¡°From the moment you uttered the term Hyakki Yakou, Shinobu.¡± The Zashiki Warashi let out a deep sigh. Either her headache was getting worse or the problem we were facing had her worried. ¡°Shinobu, you said Hyakki Yakou is at the core of this. And if they are after me, Yukari, specifically rather than any old Zashiki Warashi, that has to be their aim. If their plan simply needed a Zashiki Warashi, they should have targeted one they had no previous connections to. It¡¯s an issue of purity. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s due to the good fortune or if it¡¯s some spiritual thing, but Zashiki Warashi are welcomed in this day and age. And they are not exactly rare. I can see no good reason for them to specifically target me.¡± ¡°It ¡®seems¡¯ like Hyakki Yakou has undergone a split after a coup d¡¯etat. But it only ¡®seems¡¯ that way. It might not be true,¡± I warned. ¡°It also ¡®seems¡¯ this rampage is thanks to that. According to the group that ¡®seems¡¯ to want to bring an end to the coup d¡¯etat, we need to figure out how this Zashiki Warashi Package works to resolve this problem. Since it ¡®seems¡¯ you are the one it¡¯s built around, do you have any ideas or hunches?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lot of ¡®seems¡¯.¡± ¡°What do you think they could gain by lying about all that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± The Zashiki Warashi seemed to be the type to not give much thought to things she did not immediately know. ¡°Oftentimes, the Youkai a Package is built around is completely unaware of it. And in this case, Hyakki Yakou is behind it. They will have meticulously arranged the environment. It¡¯s a miracle I am even feeling this headache.¡± ¡°...So it isn¡¯t going to be that easy.¡± ¡°But if they have built a Package around me to create some kind of bizarre phenomenon, it would probably be related to a house or building.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re saying the hotel itself is a part of the Package?¡± ¡°Not necessarily. Basically, they have to prepare something that perfectly corresponds to it and use that. It would be similar to magic that that uses a doll to harm a human. It could be a model of the hotel or a diagram of its layout. There should be plenty if we look. Unlike the old days, this age is quite convenient.¡± ...Wait. Didn¡¯t I see something like that? That girl said something about the core of this Package being in the hotel. Not an illustration or a piece of art, but something functional and crucial to the Package. Where had I seen it? ¡°...I know.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°The diagram. The diagram of the hotel on the wall behind the front desk!!¡± Part 24 (Zashiki Warashi - Yukari) The diagram of the hotel? Hotel diagrams had to be all over the place. For example, on the inside of every room¡¯s door. If I recalled correctly, they provided escape routes for guests in the case of different disasters. They were not required by law to be posted there, but it seemed to be standard. And other than those escape route maps, oftentimes other diagrams would be posted to show the way to the restaurant and other services. But... Those diagrams did not need to be perfectly accurate. For example, the escape route maps only needed to show the way to the emergency exits. It could omit portions of a long hallway and things like that. Diagrams and maps that were precisely made would probably be rare. ¡°The diagram at the front desk?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. A huge diagram was hanging on the wall behind it. If something that corresponds to the hotel is being used as a part of the Package, it has to be that.¡± ¡°But you have no idea how many hotel diagrams there are in the building. What about the escape route maps or guide maps? There might be a diagram in the pamphlets. What makes you so sure the diagram at the front desk is the one?¡± ¡°I think Hyakki Yakou knows a lot of things about this situation that we can¡¯t see. And it probably goes even beyond what I am imagining.¡± Shinobu grinned as he headed for the elevator hall. ¡°But there is one thing not even Hyakki Yakou can see. I was affected by the Zashiki Warashi Package. And that Package shows you an ominous future. And that is why a complete amateur like me knows something Hyakki Yakou does not.¡± ¡°You saw something in the future?¡± ¡°I noticed something that seemed odd and it might be the true crux of this issue.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re saying anything good that happens from here on out is thanks to me.¡± ¡°I would rather bow down to Hyakki Yakou than say that.¡± We rode the elevator down to the first floor. No workers were at the front desk when we arrived. And sure enough, a giant decorative diagram of the hotel¡¯s first floor covered the wall behind it. It looked like someone had framed a wooden board covered with paper. Oh, dear. When I drew closer, I noticed something was splattered here and there on the diagram. I could see red dots of what looked like blood. It may have corresponded to what was happening in the hotel. However... It would be too na?ve to think breaking that diagram would resolve the situation. That was like trying to stop a precise time bomb with a karate chop. All the more so since this Package had been assembled by Hyakki Yakou. ¡°So what drew your attention to this diagram?¡± ¡°In the prediction the Package gave me, this was not the diagram I saw,¡± said Shinobu. ¡°I didn¡¯t take much notice of it at the time since I was finding corpse after corpse of people I knew, but I remembered it once I had calmed down and thought back on it. The diagram hanging here was not this one.¡± Shinobu climbed over the front desk and headed for the back wall. He reached for the large diagram that seemed to be covering some kind of painting and removed it. And behind it was... ¡°This is...¡± ¡°This is a diagram of our house,¡± said Shinobu. That¡¯s right. It was a diagram of the Japanese-style thatch roof house that I currently protected. So is this what Shinobu saw in that vision? But it turned out that was not right either. ¡°This isn¡¯t what I saw either.¡± He then removed that diagram. And below it was a third one. This one I had a feeling Shinobu did not recognize. Most likely, none of the hotel¡¯s guests would recognize it. Of all the people here, I was probably the only one who knew what it was. ¡°...That¡¯s Hyakki Yakou¡¯s old headquarters.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s going backwards. Zashiki Warashi, this is your history. If I removed this one, I would probably find the diagram of the house you protected before it. And when we go forward through history, the diagram on top was for this hotel. Do you see what that means?¡± ¡°They are trying to move me from your house to this hotel?¡± ¡°I have no idea if they can make you do it against your will, but given what Hyakki Yakou wants, that is likely their ultimate objective. You might be stripped from our house when you are completely drawn into the Package.¡± ¡°But this...¡± ¡°So you noticed?¡± Shinobu spoke slowly as if rearranging the information in his head on the fly. ¡°You are a Youkai that wanders from house to house. And you are thought to control the fortune of the house you currently reside in. But that isn¡¯t accurate. The house a Zashiki Warashi leaves will decline. Even after the Zashiki Warashi has abandoned a house, the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s effects remain. In other words, you are still directly having a negative effect on Hyakki Yakou. I have no idea where Hyakki Yakou¡¯s headquarters are, but if we have something that can directly interfere with you, then we can attack Hyakki Yakou¡¯s headquarters no matter where they might be. Just like they tried to interfere by putting these red dots on the hotel diagram.¡± His reasoning may have been sound. When based in the laws of Youkai rather than the laws of physics, his reasoning may have been sound. But... ¡°That won¡¯t work.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°That will not work here. We do not have enough here to strike back against Hyakki Yakou.¡± Yes. I knew of a fatal weakness in Shinobu¡¯s escape plan. ¡°Hyakki Yakou¡¯s headquarters were lost long ago. It was the thanks they got for making too many enemies. They are likely using some completely other place for their headquarters now. In other words, you will not find the heart of Hyakki Yakou by heading back into the past. Hyakki Yakou¡¯s heart lies in the future, so it is out of our reach. Most likely, Hyakki Yakou plans to transfer me to this hotel and then hang a diagram of their new headquarters over the hotel diagram to transfer me there!¡± I did not look at Shinobu¡¯s face when I told him that. I had a guess what his expression would be, but I did not look. After all, if that was the only hope we had and if that was the trump card Shinobu and the one who gave him the information had, then the only fate left for us was... Vwah!?Why is...he...here!? My consciousness began to break apart. It was coming from the right of the front desk. The hallway leading away was now wrapped in a dim darkness. The lights were still on, but it was now too dark to see far back into it and the area was wrapped in a clearly odd atmosphere. I was a Youkai so I could not be killed easily, but what I saw there made even me tremble. It felt ominous. I was fearful. I had felt this feeling before. I knew it well after the time I had spent in that place. Hyakki Yakou. An existence even more deviant than a simple deadly Youkai. The woman who had stabbed a man with a fork had maintained her camouflage even after taking action. That was frightening enough, but this was on a completely different level. This was a mass of fear that gave one a new idea of what ¡°pure¡± fear was. As sweat soaked my body, I heard a simple electronic tone. It was as if someone had been waiting for that moment. It was coming from the object in Shinobu¡¯s hand that looked like an unrefined cell phone. Shinobu must have had an idea who it was from because he looked nervous as he answered it. I heard a young girl¡¯s voice come from the device. But was it really a girl speaking? ¡°I see you have made it to the core of this issue.¡± ¡°Thanks to you.¡± ¡°You probably have only a few minutes until the Illness Magic user reaches you. I do not care what you do until then, but you cannot reach me no matter what you do to those diagrams.¡± ¡°So I take it destroying the hotel diagram will not destroy the Package.¡± ¡°If you do that, you will only cause the hotel to come crumbling down with you inside. But the frame is sturdy and the glass is bulletproof, so destroying it would prove difficult.¡± ¡°What if I destroyed the diagram of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s old mansion?¡± ¡°That mansion burned to the ground long ago. It is possible you might damage some unrelated building that has been built on the land since, but it will not reach me.¡± That was right. The final piece of the puzzle was not in the hotel. Shinobu needed the diagram of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s current headquarters. But it was not here. Once the Zashiki Warashi...that is to say, me...was fully drawn into the Package, my residence would transfer to the hotel. Then they just had to hang up the new diagram to complete their plan. And Hyakki Yakou had no reason to bring that final diagram here at this stage. But... ¡°I just have one last question,¡± said Shinobu. His tone of voice cut through my fear and made me frown. It did not match the situation. He seemed to have some hope left. ¡°In your Zashiki Warashi Package, you take the abilities of a Zashiki Warashi to keep adults from seeing her and to inform people of coming fires or other dangers to the household, and you have rebuilt them so that they will show people images of ominous predictions of death, right?¡± ¡°Yes. Due to the circumstances, we can only show them. We cannot see them as well. However, that tragedy of yours is set in stone. Whatever you saw, it had to have been an ill omen.¡± ¡°And it was. The current situation is at a high enough difficulty level that even that woman¡¯s safety is unclear. This has been made so anyone would lose no matter what they do. So I believe what I saw in that vision. If I do not stop this, it will definitely happen. But that wasn¡¯t my question,¡± said Shinobu. ¡°Does this Package of yours only work once?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°The hotel diagram is only of the first floor. And I didn¡¯t see any illusions like that after heading into the elevator. What I want to know is: will I be forced to see that prediction again and again as long as I stay on the first floor of the hotel?¡± I could not figure out what Shinobu was getting at. I could not see how seeing horrible visions over and over would help him escape this crisis. Despite the present danger of a Hyakki Yakou member approaching, I focused on Shinobu. ¡°Dammit. It¡¯s all twisted around. I can¡¯t figure out the order of events. It¡¯s just like back then. The Zashiki Warashi prediction is coming again.¡± ¡°What good does that do you?¡± asked the girl over the phone. ¡°What help can you get by seeing a future that you cannot avoid? As I said, you cannot stop us with just the diagrams in that hotel. You are missing one crucial piece. What do you hope to accomplish?¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t this one,¡± cut in Shinobu. The force behind his words did not merely bring him to the same level as this person from Hyakki Yakou. It brought control of the conversation to him. ¡°The diagram I saw in the vision wasn¡¯t of the hotel. But it wasn¡¯t the diagram of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s old mansion either.¡± ¡°What...?¡± ¡°The diagram I saw was for a special V-shaped passenger jet called a flying wing! After it was all over, that diagram was placed over the others! That final piece may not exist here now, but it will be there in the future. And I saw the future!!¡± The pen used when checking in was sitting on the front desk. Shinobu snatched it up and brought the tip directly to the surface of the front desk. ¡°I only know the broad details right now. I can¡¯t make a detailed diagram right now. But if I see that scene again, I will acquire your weakness! By drawing it on the desk, I can bring the diagram of that flying wing back to the present!!¡± ¡°!! The Illness Magic!!¡± I distinctly felt something approaching through the dim darkness spreading through the hallway. But something held it back. It was being stopped by something. Is someone standing up to that monster!? ¡°You said this hotel would collapse if I destroyed the hotel diagram! And you said a new building constructed on the same land might be destroyed if I destroyed the diagram of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s old mansion. So if I have the diagram for that flying wing, I can make your airplane break apart in midair!!¡± The girl was shouting something, but Shinobu did not seem to be listening. His body lurched forward. His eyes were following something that was very clearly not there. Part 25 (Jinnai Shinobu) And... I once more faced that tragedy that I had never wanted to see again. Part 26 (Jinnai Shinobu) I had returned. I had returned to that place. I had returned to that time. It was such a horrific scene that I could feel sweat unnaturally pouring from my body, but I did not have time to care. I gripped the pen and faced the front desk. I had to finish before this fresh fear left me. I had to drag that flying wing diagram from the future and into the present!! ¡°That is impossible...¡± I could hear the girl¡¯s voice coming from the satellite phone. ¡°Even if you have the information from the diagram, an amateur cannot draw it well enough free-hand! You do not have the time needed for that!! One of our top 5, the Illness Magic user, will reach you soon. You will be eaten into and destroyed before you can finish!!¡± ¡°Hey, just to be sure: you drove the proper owners of that thing out and no one but the Sakoku faction of Hyakki Yakou is onboard, right? The real girl ran away somewhere, right?¡± ¡°What are you-...?¡± ¡°Also, I hope you¡¯re flying over the ocean right now. I would really like to end this without getting any innocent people involved. I heard you were circling around above the Pacific Ocean, so hopefully that was accurate.¡± ¡°Illness Magic, the contents of the prediction do not matter. Eliminate the uncertain factor right now!!¡± ¡°Will that tragic future finally arrive or will I put a stop to everything here? Let¡¯s see who is faster, young lady.¡± The tip of the pen raced across the desk. At the same time, I noticed a strange black spot appear on the end of one of the fingers on my right hand. It spread in no time at all. This was the Illness Magic. This was what managed to defeat that monstrous woman. At first, I felt no pain, but I then felt something rising up from the depths of my stomach. I was unable to keep it down and it spewed out all at once. ¡°Cough cough!! Cough cough!!¡± It was not vomit. I had never eaten anything that red! The Zashiki Warashi shouted something, but I could not make out her words over a tremendous ringing in my ears. My sense of balance ceased to function properly. But it did not matter. It did not matter what happened. All that mattered was that I had to force that weakness to appear in the present! ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± ¡°Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± As silent changes assaulted my body, I focused everything I had on my right hand. I moved it quickly but accurately. To draw that answer that existed only in my memories into the real world, I had to keep my unnatural headache and feeling of intoxication from wiping it from my memory. I had to get as close as possible to the full picture of that flying wing!! I could feel a straining noise. I couldn¡¯t tell if it was coming from my bones, my muscles, or my internal organs. An unpleasant sweat flowed from my entire body and I felt such a chill that I lost all sense of temperature. My legs grew unsteady beneath me and I felt like I was standing on the deck of a rocking boat. I could not stop the blood from coming out of my mouth. It was coming out so quickly I thought an entire organ was going to come up with it. My right hand shook. My strength on the pen faded. The pen fell from my hand. My final weapon slipped from my grasp. ¡°It is over,¡± said whoever it was that used that girl¡¯s voice. ¡°You had a chance, but you simply do not have the skill. Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Illness Magic user is reliable. He is so reliable that counting on his success is not a gamble. That is the difference between a pro and an amateur. Your trump card is not enough to overcome his reliability. No matter what.¡± ¡°...Not...necessarily...¡± I forced out the words while primarily focused on catching gasps of air through all the blood. ¡°I do not need the pen.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°Did you really think I could draw an accurate enough diagram by free-hand? Keep in mind, I¡¯m just a high school student. I¡¯m not an Itako and I cannot use automatic writing. There¡¯s no way I could actually pull that off. And...¡± As I spoke, I pulled out my true final weapon from where it was tucked into the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s obi. It technically belonged to me, but the Zashiki Warashi always used it as a music player. ¡°The 21st century is quite convenient. You can acquire an accurate diagram without drawing it out free-hand.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean... A smartphone...no, the digital camera!!¡± ¡°I saw an accurate diagram of the flying wing hanging here in that tragic future. So naturally you must have a copy prepared somewhere in the hotel, right?¡± ¡°Illness Magic... Fall back, Illness Magic!!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. The Illness Magic. That diagram is the cornerstone of your plan. You cannot allow it to be altered or damaged in the slightest, so you would leave it with the strongest person you had. You didn¡¯t want it getting destroyed before the plan was complete! That made things simple for me. I had to make the Illness Magic user rush things so the boss character carrying the flying wing¡¯s diagram would let his guard down! I had to get him to come forward and step into the danger zone!!¡± Of course, I was just a high school student. No matter how much I made him rush things, I could never hope to win against someone who sounded like they belonged in an RPG like this Illness Magic user. I would likely be unable to make him falter for even an instant. I would only end up transformed into some gruesome corpse. But... Someone else was there. When I had started to draw the decoy diagram, the Illness Magic user had oddly stopped moving when he started to come to stop me. It had been as if something was preventing him from approaching. There was definitely something there. It was that monstrous woman who seemed more suited to appearing in an RPG than your average Youkai. She was the only one who could stand up to that Illness Magic user. And so I just had to shout. ¡°You don¡¯t have to defeat him... Just snatch it away from hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!¡± I heard an odd rumble in response. The dim darkness filling the hallway wavered unnaturally and I glimpsed something white. It was a large sheet of paper that had likely been rolled up. It was a diagram. A diagram of a flying wing. A diagram of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s headquarters. It quickly disappeared into the dim darkness like it was a ship sinking into the ocean at night. But before it did, I had held out the lens of my smartphone and the phone sent out several quick flashes of light. I took an accurate photograph of the diagram. I lightly tossed the smartphone toward the wall behind the front desk and the long headphone cords wrapped around the fixture meant to hang the frame from. ¡°All I need is an accurate diagram hanging against this wall. It doesn¡¯t have to be the copy the Illness Magic user has, right?¡± ¡°Wh-wha-...?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve created your weakness,¡± I said slowly to make sure. That smartphone had been expensive and I was unsure how much longer my backup phone would last, but it had to be done. Meanwhile... The girl was at a loss for words. A complete loss for words. She had constantly had control of the situation as the leader of a group that neither human nor Youkai could hope to oppose, and yet she was at a loss for words. That told me all I needed to know. The enemy¡¯s reaction when seeing my actions told me more than my own actions had. Now... It was time for me to finish things. ¡°Fall down to the depths of the earth, Hyakki Yakou!!¡± I swung the heavy satellite phone as hard as I could and slammed the bottom of the device into my own smartphone. The second device was completely smashed. Or more accurately, the flying wing diagram displayed on the screen was completely smashed. I heard violent static come from the satellite phone. And I doubted it was simply due to the impact breaking the phone. Part 27 (Hishigami Mai) ¡°Cough!? Cough cough cough!! Cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough!?¡± Ugh, I thought I was going to die. But something must have happened since the ¡°invasion¡± had ended before the Illness Magic could destroy me from the inside out. I placed my hands on the floor and coughed up a pool of blood, but that was all. That was the end of it. It looked like the Illness Magic had left my body. In the very end, that kid had made things easier for himself. I had just meant for him to do his best free-hand to draw the flying wing diagram out of his vision of the future. But thanks to him, I had been forced to directly steal the diagram from that monster. The dim darkness faded away slightly. I forced open the one eye that I could not see out of thanks to the blood flowing over it, and called out into the remaining dim darkness. ¡°You aren¡¯t going to continue this?¡± ¡°I see no reason to.¡± ¡°You could kill me to take revenge.¡± ¡°I act based on reason, not emotion.¡± ¡°I have to ask. What caused you all to so hurriedly throw together this coup d¡¯etat?¡± ¡°MI6, the CIA, and the European Security Force.¡± ...Dammit. So that¡¯s it. I had forgotten about that. ¡°So the people putting together a system to use Succubi in Europe had you that scared? I looked into it, but it was a failure. I believe I even sent in a report.¡± ¡°The system itself may have failed, but the network built up around that failure still created a community built around the Succubus. The officials in control of the plan were completely charmed by her. Depending on how you look at it, this is an even greater threat. A demon has built this up using the power of a human organization.¡± I see. That is very true. ¡°But in that case...¡± I said. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t you interpret this infighting within Hyakki Yakou as having been caused by that Succubus? Just like our movements were controlled with those hotel lodging tickets. ...And it must have been done cleverly enough to keep any of you from catching on.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°This new community would have a plethora of reasons to want the old Hyakki Yakou to be crushed.¡± ¡°I suppose you could see it that way.¡± ¡°Where are you going?¡± ¡°My priorities have changed. It seems there is someone else I must defeat.¡± And that was it. The dim darkness completely disappeared now. The hallway was now illuminated like a normal hotel hallway. I could see clearly all the way to the wall at the end of the hallway. It looked like the Illness Magic user had truly left. Not that he would be able to simply leave with no trouble. He surely understood that and that may have been why he decided to leave me be and find an escape route as quickly as possible. Or perhaps he was looking for something of enough value to get Hyakki Yakou to forgive him. ¡°Are you okay!?¡± Jinnai Shinobu came running over with the Zashiki Warashi with him. He must have received a bit of the effects of that Illness Magic. For someone with no defenses, he had done well to withstand its effects mentally. It was possible he had what it would take to thoroughly remodel his body like mine. ¡°...N-not so much. If this incident continues any longer, I might seriously be in trouble.¡± ¡°I settled things with Hyakki Yakou. Their coup d¡¯etat is over. The real girl will probably deal with the rest.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t the end of it.¡± Dammit. I had a feeling it would come to this. Don¡¯t claim it¡¯s over when you haven¡¯t done anything to deal with that!! ¡°Hey, Jinnai Shinobu-kun. What did you see in your vision of the future? Were you spewing blood everywhere and dying after being attacked by some strange form of the occult?¡± ¡°Eh? Well...¡± ¡°You weren¡¯t, were you? If you had, you would have been more cautious about dealing with the Illness Magic user. I don¡¯t know what you saw, but it was more of a collection of different deaths, wasn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°But I avoided that future, so the present will be different, right? ...Right? Are you saying that future is still going to happen!?¡± ¡°The riot police...¡± muttered the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°Uchimaku Hayabusa mentioned it. A portion of the riot police are surrounding this hotel and cutting off all communications in order to assassinate the Hishigami sisters who keep butting into the police¡¯s turf. They are waiting for an opportunity to interfere and eliminate those sisters that they cannot normally handle.¡± ¡°Tch. Jinnai Shinobu-kun, does that match what you saw?¡± ¡°Not really... What I saw didn¡¯t seem at all related to Youkai either though. It was more like...something from a splatter film. It didn¡¯t look like something carried out by an expert marksman, that¡¯s for sure.¡± ¡°The riot police can get away with it more easily by making it look that way. They probably secretly secured a serial killer to take the fall for it. ...It¡¯s possible the deaths in the prediction were actually caused by the Illness Magic user, but the corpses were later altered to look more gruesome. That would be why you saw it as something caused by a serial killer.¡± Either way, this was bad. Thanks to the Illness Magic user, Jinnai Shinobu and I could not move. The detective...well, he could not handle this on his own. He would be overwhelmed by a group like the riot police. My little sister was the intellectual type, so it was out of the question to ask her to fight. Kotemitsu Madoka was an unknown factor, but she probably would have played a bigger role during the issue with Hyakki Yakou if she was at all useful. That left the Zashiki Warashi and Sunekosuri as our biggest hopes since they could not be killed easily. But... ¡°Zashiki Warashi, do you think you can handle this?¡± ¡°Do not expect any kind of battling or action from me. And I refuse to act as a shield either.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I expected. And I really doubt I can expect anything out of the Sunekosuri.¡± A Youkai¡¯s testimony could not be used in court, so even if the riot police found they could not kill the Zashiki Warashi and the Sunekosuri, they would just ignore them and head into the hotel to slaughter the rest of us. That meant our situation could be summed up with the word ¡°bad¡±. I did not want to die yet and I did not want to get my little sister involved in all this. Which meant... ¡°Jinnai Shinobu-kun. Where is the satellite phone I lent you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s mostly broken.¡± From the look of the phone he handed me, he had certainly not treated it as one should treat a borrowed item. If we survived this, I decided I would send him a bill. I checked over it and discovered it could still make calls. That was fortunate. It was finally time for the final character to redeem herself. ¡°Young lady,¡± I said into the phone. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°I assume you have noticed that the situation has been resolved. While I would rather not have you steal Jinnai Shinobu-kun¡¯s victory, I have a request for you if you have retrieved command of Hyakki Yakou.¡± ¡°Tell me what you need.¡± ¡°Take care of the riot police outside.¡± Those magic words showed their effects quite quickly. Part 28 (Jinnai Shinobu) That had been a terrible trip. I hadn¡¯t had time to try to get it on with Madoka, the Zashiki Warashi seemed to be planning some kind of unpleasant surprise for Christmas Eve (I had a feeling she was going to make some announcement I would be unable to refuse despite knowing it was a trap), I had never gotten a chance to approach that mystery freak girl, and her older sister had been too frightening to approach!! And yet with Hyakki Yakou and that Illness Magic user, I had way too many opportunities to come into contact with things I did not want to!! And even now that I had returned to my thatch roof house, I did not feel comfortable at all!! I had no idea when that kind of threat was going to appear again!! So much bad had happened and yet no good had happened whatsoever. The moment the Zashiki Warashi returned to her own territory, she folded one of the living room cushions in half and used it as a pillow. ¡°It¡¯s only when I get back that I remember how boring it is here,¡± she said. ¡°Don¡¯t just lie around. Help me carry in this luggage.¡± ¡°I doubt it would help with this boredom, so I¡¯ll pass.¡± In the end, I was forced to carry in her luggage as well as my own. While I did so, the flat-chested Yuki Onna and the Nekomata ran out from farther in the house. I was right. That Nekomata won over my granny so she can stay here. ¡°...Do you have a souvenir for me? ...If not, let¡¯s get married...¡± ¡°I heard they have a local melon-flavored pet food there.¡± Eh? How can they possibly expect a souvenir? Those two may not have known, but it was a miracle I was even alive. In fact... Maybe that whole incident would have been easier if I had brought along those legitimately deadly Youkai... But the group in Hyakki Yakou that carried out the coup d¡¯etat had probably guided us such that it didn¡¯t turn out that way. ¡°Shinobu,¡± said the Zashiki Warashi as she pressed a massager belonging to my mother against her calf. (By the way, god, does it mean I have a dirty mind if the sight of a girl holding an electric massager gets my heart racing?) ¡°Do not try to use Youkai to solve all of your problems. That would set you on the path to becoming like the people you saw.¡± She may have been right. That woman, Hyakki Yakou, and the Illness Magic user. All of them probably began with nothing more than a thought similar to mine. In most old stories, fortune given by some strange person or creature only gave you happiness if you were unaware of it. Shita-Kiri Suzume, Hanasaka Jii-san, Tsuru no Ongaeshi, and Kobutori Jii-san. You could benefit from those things, but it would turn to tragedy if you got greedy. ¡°Happiness comes to the honest¡± was not just a nice saying. It was a coldhearted sign telling you those that did not know right from wrong would get their comeuppance. The people I had met may not have received any kind of obvious punishment, but that just showed how far from the normal path they had strayed. I did not want to become like them. It did not matter if doing so would give me the power to stand at the center of the issue. I would rather stay on the outskirts of the issue to the very end. ¡°Then again, Shinobu, all that would happen if you were honest is I could have more fun teasing you. ...But you aren¡¯t bad when you are like that. How about you go back to being a baby, Shinobu?¡± That figured. I was not dealing with a Buddha like in the story of the Kasajizou. I was dealing with Youkai. If you were hoping for any kind of favor, you would only receive harsh retaliation. If you were trying to subjugate them, they would provide an overwhelming counterattack. If you tried to act indifferent, they would come to you. If you tried to accept them naturally, they would have no qualms about tricking you. I could not use them. If I forgot to show them the proper respect, they would snap at me. And yet when they occasionally decided to help someone on a whim, they could save someone who had only run across them by chance. ¡°...I wonder if there is any way to just get along with Youkai.¡± ¡°That would certainly make this easier.¡± Suddenly, my overall small granny walked in. ¡°Shinobu, Shinobu.¡± ¡°What is it, granny?¡± ¡°A package arrived for you. It is too heavy for me to carry in.¡± ¡°??? Zashiki Warashi, did you order something on the internet again?¡± ¡°I bought a folding bicycle on your account.¡± ¡°Why were you using my computer for that!? O-oh, no! My credit is going to plummet!!¡± ¡°But I would think a folding bicycle would be fairly light. It shouldn¡¯t be too heavy to carry.¡± I headed for the front door and found a giant cardboard box. The Zashiki Warashi was right about one thing: it didn¡¯t look like it was a folding bicycle. It was much too big for that. The box was large enough for a fair-sized washing machine. And it was not a box from an online shopping site. ¡°Did my uncle send me something? Does it have a label anywhere?¡± I looked closely at the top of the box. And then... With a loud ripping noise, the top of the cardboard box tore open from the inside. Something shot out of the box and struck me on the chin. The world spun and my sense of balance was thrown out of order. I thought it was some kind of overly enthusiastic jack-in-the-box, but it was not. When I took a step back while holding my chin with one hand, I could see what had struck me. It was a head. It seemed a woman had been hiding in the cardboard box and her upper body had shot up out of the box. But... ¡°Ahh, I¡¯m exhausted. Hm? Huh? I can¡¯t get out... Well, I don¡¯t need the box anymore. I¡¯ll just rip it apart.¡± ¡°Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait!!¡± ¡°You look like you¡¯re wondering why something shaped like a human was packed into this box.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not the main issue here!¡± ¡°But there are some things in this world that look like humans but are not humans.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t it either!! In fact, I know that all too well since I already have 3 Youkai living here!!¡± ¡°...Then why do you look so confused?¡± The ¡°thing¡± tilted her head in puzzlement and I pointed at that glamorous beauty. ¡°You have spiraling goat horns on your head, bat wings on your back, and a pointed tail!!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I could be any more stereotypical of a demon.¡± ¡°We already had our hands full with Japanese monsters!! We don¡¯t need you suddenly expanding the setting with a Western one right at the end!!¡± Also, I was shocked to see my granny was only grinning in amusement at this Succubus¡¯s arrival!! ¡°My specific race is Succubus. I make sure to evolve daily to match the needs of the current age. As proof, I am wearing the classic of the sexy swimsuits, the micro bikini. But I can switch over to a PE outfit or a maid uniform depending on your personal tastes. Your options are endless!!¡± ¡°Nnhh!!¡± As my veins protruded on my temple, the Zashiki Warashi whispered to me. ¡°Shinobu, if you just accept this and everything it implies, you will probably die.¡± ¡°Yes, it would be too much to manage... But I suppose it was too convenient for only the Japanese islands to be full of these strange exceptions. It does make sense...but isn¡¯t this the kind of thing Hyakki Yakou is supposed to deal with!?¡± ¡°I¡¯m actually on the run from Hyakki Yakou. Using the desires of some officials in Europe, I was about to take control of an international agency in the EU when I was defeated. They were really playing dirty. They sent Illness Magic in to take advantage of a weakness to the historic bubonic plague.¡± ¡°Stop, stop!! Not only is that probably full of information that will put my life at risk to hear, but I can¡¯t possibly comprehend it all at once like that!! It¡¯s all too sudden!!¡± ¡°Not necessarily.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Have you heard of an organization called Saishi Kajin?¡± ¡°I think they came up in the issue related to Hyakki Yakou. Weren¡¯t they absorbed by Hyakki Yakou?¡± ¡°It was an art research group made up of strange people who were working to create the ultimate beauty. The ultimate beauty they wanted to create would surpass the barriers of time period and cultural region. They intended to have this beauty sit on a throne as an empress while they devoted themselves to her.¡± ¡°...Wait...¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re a quick one! I think I can expect great things from you, master!! Just between you and me, that sounds a lot like the community based around desire that sprang up around a Succubus in Europe!!¡± ¡°That was your organization!? Also, don¡¯t call me master! It affects me more than I¡¯d like to admit! So you had your organization be enemies of Hyakki Yakou and then be absorbed by them to affect their balance of power? So the one behind that coup d¡¯etat was...!?¡± ¡°I come from Western European culture, so I of course had nothing to do with the creation of that purely Japanese organization. But Saishi Kajin failed to create the beauty they wanted. I will admit to showing them a bit of a dream while they were so disheartened, though.¡± So you took over that empty shell of an organization!? If that European community, or whatever it was, had also been quietly causing trouble for Hyakki Yakou, then she had put pressure on them from both within the country and without! She had slipped through the darkness and gaps in large but not overly powerful organizations to freely draw out the power they had. I was not accustomed to Western monsters, but that way of thinking may have made her a lot more dangerous than the straightforward methods of Hyakki Yakou. ¡°...Wait? Th-then was the person claiming to control the Sakoku faction of Hyakki Yakou...¡± She had been in the form of a girl. She had acted on the desire for political power. She had robbed a large organization of its calm and then taken control. And I had sensed something off about the girl (?) claiming to be from the Sakoku faction while I had spoken to over the satellite phone. She had spoken in general terms as if she did not understand the details of Hyakki Yakou. Yes. It was as if someone from outside of Japan had been speaking of things within Japan based on secondhand knowledge. Could it be? ¡°W-wait a second!! So was that leader of the Sakoku faction you too!?¡± ¡°No, no. That¡¯s reading too much into it. I can¡¯t split into two like a planarian. If I could do that, I wouldn¡¯t have to run away like this. In Europe, I created a community based around desire, the European Security Force, and went around winning over high officials from allied nations. That was one of those officials.¡± ¡°You¡¯re still the one behind it!!¡± ¡°Yeah, but Hyakki Yakou was the one that interfered first. One of them came to see what I was doing, so I decided to check them out. They looked weak enough, so I gave the order to work our way in deeper. I pulled out too late and ended up being utterly defeated, though. It really is a bad idea to underestimate your enemy.¡± Despite having caused such mayhem, the Succubus spoke about it like it was nothing. It made my skin crawl. She controlled pure desire. She took the complex human psyche and took control of the very base. For that reason, she had the ability to swallow up the various systems made by man, whether they were an individual¡¯s personality or the very institution of society. When I thought about that, it sent a chill down my spine. I was feeling a danger signal that my instincts would not let me ignore. ¡°Anyway, I was a character involved in all of this, so how about you reach out a loving hand to help me. More specifically, Hyakki Yakou proved more of a threat than I thought and I can¡¯t seem to escape them, so shelter me here¡î¡± ¡°No! Don¡¯t say that like it¡¯s nothing! If they find out you¡¯ve come here, I¡¯ll be in danger too!! And why did you choose my house!?¡± ¡°Well, my network in Europe, the European Security Force, was attacked and destroyed by Hyakki Yakou.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°That left only my connections in Japan, but I lost control of Saishi Kajin when they were absorbed by Hyakki Yakou. They were only meant as a disposable organization anyway.¡± ¡°And!?¡± ¡°So the only connections left to me were the people involved in that incident.¡± ¡°So!?¡± ¡°And of those people, you seemed to have the weakest defenses.¡± ¡°That¡¯s allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!?¡± She has no real plan! She has no guarantee of having escaped!! And if Hyakki Yakou attacks here, we¡¯ll be wiped out too! I did have two deadly Youkai and a Zashiki Warashi, but that group seemed like they could lightly toss aside all standard knowledge about Youkai, not to mention humans. To be blunt, I saw no way we could win!! I started imagining I could hear sounds like scraping claws coming from all the shadows in the gaps between the walls and furniture, behind pillars, and in the hole for smoke to escape from the Japanese fireplace. Meanwhile, the cause of my fears, the Succubus, was doing nothing but smiling. ¡°And so I¡¯ll be moving in¡î¡± Whether you wanted it or not, ¡°they¡± would come. And they brought either fortune or disaster with them. It was looking like things were going to be very bad indeed if I did not quickly find a way to get along with them. Notes 1. ¡ü Kaikoku means ¡°open country¡± and Sakoku means ¡°locked country¡±. Sakoku primarily refers to the extreme isolationist policies of Japan during the Tokugawa shogunate with Kaikoku being the opposite. Volume 1, Afterword Volume 1, Afterword It¡¯s a brand new novel!! This is Kamachi Kazuma. This was created by expanding on the setting I had created for Dengeki Bunko Magazine. The Intellectual Villages that make the setting here were created using the exact opposite process of Academy City from Index. This is in a world where wholesomeness and nature create the ultimate luxury brand and rural land prices have skyrocketed. This may just look like I took a rural setting and gave it an SF twist, but even the real primary sector is developing all sorts of robots to do things like climb trees and prune the branches. They are very closely related to ¡°smart¡± devices and technology. I thought that contrast was interesting, so I created this setting as an escalated version of it. This was also a Youkai story. As they have no sense of a lifespan (or rather, as you can see from Tsukumogami or animal-based Youkai like the Bakeneko, they only grow more powerful as time goes on and therefore have nothing to lose and do not feel the need to rush anything), the Youkai actually are very relaxed about the passage of time despite all the humans sneaking around making Packages and forming different kinds of groups. The monster that showed up at the very end is the only one to whom those Youkai rules do not apply, so she came up with a very human-like plan. Hopefully, you can just think of that as spreading the setting into areas this story did not touch on. The stronger the character, the more I omitted scenes of them directly fighting. That way, I could leave it to the reader¡¯s imagination. I also expanded the scope of the story with each chapter to give the story a sense of speeding up uncontrollably like a stone rolling down a hill. I tried a lot of different experiments in this novel. You be the judge whether I was successful or not. Just as no one enjoys a test of courage or haunted house by running through it, my focus on speeding things up means it is hard to call this a horror novel despite the inclusion of Youkai. Even so, if you at least felt this was of a different genre from my previous stories, my experiment will have mostly succeeded. I give my thanks to my illustrator Mahaya-san and my editor Miki-san. I think it is thanks to the power of the illustration from when this was just a magazine project that allowed it to become a novel sitting on store shelves. And it is also thanks to the flexible plan I was given that I was able to bring in the entire manuscript without even sending in a plot summary while still keeping my yearly schedule. (In other words, I used the ninja technique of ¡°Publication Schedule Rearrangement¡±.) I am truly thankful to both of them. And I give my thanks to the readers. I attempted quite a few experiments for a single novel, so I thank you for sticking with me for this. And I will end this here. I will just pray that I get the chance to write a second volume. This was a fairly experimental novel from the point that it had a large-breasted Zashiki Warashi. -Kamachi Kazuma Volume 2, 1: Jinnai Shinobu @ Clock With a Different Gear Volume 2, Chapter 1: Jinnai Shinobu @ Clock With a Different Gear Part 1 Even though it was midsummer, the early morning air was cool. When you lived in an old Japanese-style house, the outside temperature had a large effect on the inside temperature. I lived in a giant thatch roof house that¡¯s only advantages were its size and age. In one room of that house, I held the replacement for the smartphone that had been destroyed in the previous incident. It had just arrived from the service center in an early morning delivery. I lived in an Intellectual Village that created an extremely high class brand name out of the rural area so that grapes were 30,000 yen a bunch and the water flowing through a nearby river was 300 yen a liter. But to obtain the proper feeling of the rural, the area had few stores. For that reason, quite a few different services were handled via online shopping. The delivery companies tried to distinguish themselves by adding on various additional services such as having their trucks function as supermarket-like food carts in case people felt like making an additional purchase when their package was delivered. At any rate... It seemed my smartphone had not been repairable, so they had taken the data out of it, added it to a new phone, and sent me that. It was a different model, so the smartphone¡¯s body seemed a bit thinner than the old one. But getting a newer version wasn¡¯t a bad thing. My index finger operated all the basic apps to make sure it was working properly. As I did so, I used the digital camera to take a picture of my own face. Just as it made an unnecessary shutter sound effect, I heard a whisper from the Zashiki Warashi (long black hair, red yukata, and an incredibly glamorous body) who had entered my room at some point. ¡°Catching a glimpse of your household¡¯s narcissism is more disheartening than I thought it would be.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be silly. It¡¯s just that the camera¡¯s settings seem off.¡± I really was being super kind to so thoroughly explain what was going on to that glamorous Zashiki Warashi that never gave any fortune to her household and instead lazed around talking about pointless crap. ¡°Look, there¡¯s something wrong with how it gathers the light. It took the gleaming of my blond hair as the standard and now my skin color is way off.¡± ¡°Maybe you¡¯re a special exception, Shinobu.¡± ¡°Maybe. Okay, Zashiki Warashi, give me an awkward smile.¡± I casually pointed the smartphone at the indoor Youkai and pressed the shutter button on the screen using my index finger. ¡°See? It took the red of your yukata as the standard. Your skin looks really rough.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Maybe I can manually adjust the values in my profile. ...What¡¯s this? By setting the camera to video mode for about 5 seconds in each photographing environment, the focus regulator will automatically detect the ideal values? But I already did-...ow! What is it, Zashiki Warashi? Why are you kicking me in the shin? ...Ow, that hurts!¡± I ignored the Zashiki Warashi who had fallen silent for some reason and left my room. Hmm... Maybe that room was a bad environment. With that thought, I walked down the long passageway and took random pictures in the living room and on the porch, but I didn¡¯t see any difference. It kept taking the places with the brightest light or color as the standard which caused the rest of the photo to look terrible. ¡°Hmm...¡± I aimed the lens away from the 20 meter long porch and to the large yard lying beyond it. I had a feeling the large yard would be a more difficult environment to handle than indoors, but whatever. The yard was large enough to actually play tennis in, but it had a lot of harsh ups and downs, mossy garden stones and stone lanterns, and trees too thick for me to completely reach around. There wasn¡¯t much usable space left over. The old neighborhood gardener would groan every time he saw the place, but I had no idea what value there was in it. About half the yard was covered by tall tree branches and the sunlight poured down through the gaps in the leaves. For that reason, it had an incredibly harsh contrast between light and shadow. Plus, the wind was shaking the branches, making it all move around a lot. I seriously doubted the camera could take a beautiful photo with its settings so messed up. And then I found something odd sitting in the middle of the yard. It was a round plastic kiddie pool. As I already said, while it was midsummer, it was also an early morning with briskly cool wind. Getting in a pool at this time would only cover one¡¯s body with goose bumps, but there were exceptions. This exception was a Yuki Onna with slightly bluish hair and the general appearance of a 13 year old. She had previously been a component of a Package, a criminal tool that used the power of a Youkai, but as you can see, she was completely carefree now. That Yuki Onna usually wore a whitish kimono, but she was wearing a school swimsuit today for some reason. ...Why? For one thing, I was the only student in the house, so you would never find a swimsuit for a female student here no matter how hard you looked. As the Yuki Onna sat within the chilly plastic pool, her eyes vaguely wandered through the sky. ¡°...Sigh. An open air bath is nice every once in a while.¡± Apparently, she viewed it as a bath despite the temperature. Which begged the question of what she thought about the bathtub we usually soaked in. My grandfather insisted on keeping the temperature really high, so this might be why she insisted she would never get in after him. I put on the beach sandals sitting on the porch and headed out into the yard. I figured it would fail again, but I still casually pointed the camera¡¯s lens at the Yuki Onna and took a photo. Oh? It actually took a nice picture this time? Hmm...What is going on??? ¡°And an open air bath of course comes with peeping toms. Eh heh heh heh heh heh heh...¡± ¡°Oh, is that so? Well, it¡¯s almost time for breakfast, so get to the altar room.¡± In my household, the custom was for the family to eat in the living room and the Youkai to eat in the altar room. This was simply because those were the only places where everything could be set up, but once the meal began we would often move around and meet up. This meant the family and the Youkai often did eat together. These days, the Zashiki Warashi and others tended to come to the living room, but I couldn¡¯t remember how it used to be. I had a feeling I might have taken my dishes to join the Zashiki Warashi in the altar room. Anyway, the Yuki Onna spoke while blankly staring up from the plastic pool. ¡°Oh, right. There are some apple sherbets inside the refrigerator. You can have one for dessert if you like...¡± ¡°? Did you buy them at the sweets shop?¡± ¡°...I am a Yuki Onna. I can make any fruit into sherbet. I can even do it with human flesh.¡± ¡°Hmm. Then I guess I¡¯ll take one. Thanks.¡± With that, I was about to leave, but for some reason the Yuki Onna twitched within the plastic pool and brought her small hands to her reddened cheeks. ¡°...F-flattering me like that will not get you anything other than my vagina!!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need that!!¡± As I frantically tried to hold her in check, I heard another voice coming from up in one of the yard¡¯s huge trees. What looked like a white cat was standing on one of the branches covering the sky overhead. But it had two tails. It was a Youkai known as a Nekomata. ¡°Honestly, what are you doing so early in the morning? You¡¯re louder than the cicadas.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Nekomata? Did you climb up into the tree but can¡¯t get down?¡± ¡°Are you making fun of me?¡± asked the Nekomata before easily jumping out of the branch. To my surprise, she landed on my right shoulder and then jumped down to the ground. I aimed my smartphone¡¯s lens at her and took a photo. The quality was better than the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s but worse than the Yuki Onna¡¯s. It seemed to be averaging out, but I had no idea what factors the quality was based on. The Nekomata gently waved her two tails. ¡°The old woman said she could not sleep because the cicadas were too loud. I do not know if abnormal weather has caused some kind of change to the magnetic field or what, but those fools are singing even in the middle of the night. I made sure to get rid of some of them.¡± ¡°Hmm. I was so fast asleep I didn¡¯t notice at-...Waahhh!!!??? There¡¯s a huge pile of dead cicadas in the corner of the yard!¡± The pile was about as large as a campfire. She must have been doing it for my granny¡¯s sake, but it would be best if my granny didn¡¯t see this while gardening. I decided to get a shovel and bury them after breakfast. The Nekomata must have thought she had done a good deed because she proudly headed for the main entrance of the house. ¡°You had better not cause any trouble for the old lady either,¡± she said. ¡°No matter how inept you are, surely you can at least do some weeding. We can¡¯t have her out toiling under the sun.¡± ¡°Actually, grandpa and granny believe their health will deteriorate if they aren¡¯t out working up a sweat every day. If you do the cleaning or weeding for them, they¡¯ll actually get mad at you.¡± ¡°...Oh? Well, I suppose those two do look stronger than a weakling like you.¡± It was true I knew I could never stand up to grandfather in a fistfight. The Zashiki Warashi seemed afraid of my dad, but my grandfather would clearly be the more painful opponent. I couldn¡¯t exactly imagine my grandmother ever punching anyone, but she could easily carry around the laundry basket at her age. If she got serious, she could probably draw out quite a bit of strength. ¡°Hey, wait, wait, Nekomata. Don¡¯t just go in. When you come in from outside, you¡¯re supposed to wipe your paws off with a cloth, remember? In fact, is there really any point in you having our house as your home base? It¡¯s not the same as with the Yuki Onna who uses the cold room we use for tsukemono.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just a needless annoyance. In our world, this is normal.¡± ¡°I thought you didn¡¯t want to cause any trouble for my granny?¡± The Nekomata fell silent. Hmm, I might have found a way to control her. I picked up the obedient white feline Youkai and wiped her paws off with a cloth lying on top of the shoe shelf in the entrance. And then the dripping wet Yuki Onna approached me from behind. ¡°...Wipe me off too. Make sure to get into every last unspeakable nook and cranny. Heh heh heh heh heh.¡± ¡°This cloth is too small, so just give it up.¡± Part 2 After the family and Youkai ate breakfast, I headed out to bury the pile of cicada corpses the Nekomata had made. I used a large gardening shovel to dig an arbitrary hole in the yard and used the tip of the shovel to push the grotesque piece of art into the hole while trying not to look at it. I had expected it to just be a slight bit of exercise, but digging the hole was surprisingly exhausting. For that reason, I ended up taking too long. And that meant... ¡°Shinobu, didn¡¯t you say you have school today?¡± ¡°Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! You purposefully waited until after it was too late to tell me, didn¡¯t you!?¡± Otherwise she would never be grinning like that!! I frantically dashed from the porch and into the large thatch roof house. I cut through the Japanese-style living room and into the hallway. I then headed straight for my room and grabbed my thin school bag. ¡°Shinobu, Shinobu,¡± called my overall small granny from the western-style living room. I noisily ran in that direction. My granny was holding out something box-shaped wrapped in a cloth. ¡°Here is your bento. And didn¡¯t you say you were using the pool today?¡± ¡°Crap, that¡¯s right! Mom, where¡¯s my swimsuit!?¡± I grabbed a small bag containing my swimsuit and ran along the shortest path to the front door, but then I headed back to the living room after realizing I had forgotten my indoor shoes. Honestly! How much time am I going to lose here!? With the preparations for my adventure finally complete, I put on my leather shoes and headed out the front door. And there I found a Zashiki Warashi wearing a red yukata. ¡°...What are you doing here?¡± ¡°Taking a short walk. How about we head together for a bit?¡± With a triumphant laugh, the indoor Youkai needlessly puffed out her already huge chest. ¡°Walking with a beauty like me is sure to improve your social status.¡± Ohh? However... I found that hard to believe. For the most part, the people I knew were already aware that my house¡¯s Zashiki Warashi was incredibly glamorous. In elementary school, I had been constantly flooded with classmates (mostly the guys) begging to see her. However, that Zashiki Warashi was either very cruel or very shy. Even though she would suddenly climb into my futon and on top of me in the middle of the night, she would always disappear somewhere as soon as someone from outside the family came to see her. I highly doubted that indoor Youkai actually wanted to be the center of attention. And so she had to have some other reason. ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi. Where are you going? The school¡¯s the other way.¡± She jumped in shock. ¡°The only thing in that direction is the tiny post offi-...wait. No! Don¡¯t tell me you ordered something else off the internet using my PO box and COD!!¡± ¡°Y-you must be imagining things. This has nothing at all to do with today being the long-awaited release date of the new model of electric stickboard that I already paid for with your account instead of using COD!!¡± shouted the Zashiki Warashi before running off full speed in an arbitrary direction like she was heading into the sunset along a river bed. And if I was not mistaken, she had mentioned something that was even worse than I had feared. ¡°Wait, you thieving Youkai!! Damn you!! And I don¡¯t have time to chase after her since I¡¯m already right on the brink of being late!!¡± I thought about calling the post office to have my PO box frozen, but she had said it was already paid for and that would have been done over the internet. And all in my name. Since she could not even sign a contract for a cell phone, she liked to use that method. Once I got back from school, I needed to make sure she paid me back in cash from her allowance before she could weasel her way out of it. And as I was thinking about that, I was running along the path to school with fields on either side. The pathway was lined with small solar panels that turned toward the sun like sunflowers. As I ran, something charged out from the side. It was neither a high school girl with a piece of bread in her mouth nor a half-assed delinquent charging along on an electric scooter. It was a large paper umbrella of the old traditional sort. The umbrella was folded up in a conical shape and a comically large eye and tongue could be seen on its surface The handle was touching the ground and it ran along like someone hopping on one foot. This Youkai was the type commonly seen drawn on the sign for a cultural festival ghost house. ¡°...A Tsukumogami?¡± ¡°Boy, I have developed past that territory and gained the proper name of Umbrella Obake.¡± As the Umbrella Obake ran along, it spoke in a voice as grim as my father¡¯s. ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked. ¡°Heading to school?¡± ¡°My master has a tendency to leave me behind!! And yet today the forecast said there might be rain this evening!!¡± shouted the Youkai while widening its already unnecessarily large eye. But... ¡°I thought the forecast said a 20% chance of rain this evening?¡± ¡°Twenty is plenty!! Think for a second that a box containing 100 scorpions was just placed before you and you were told 80 of those scorpions are not venomous. Would you wish to stick your hand in that box!?¡± ¡°...I get it, I get it. You¡¯re overprotective. And the name written on your handle is in hiragana.¡± Plus, I did not think that example did a proper job of explaining 20%. If there was even a single scorpion in the box, you had a 100% of being stung. ¡°I have also heard a Shichinin Misaki has been spotted around this area recently. My master needs me to be a bit extra cautious.¡± ¡°...A Shichinin Misaki?¡± That was one of the deadly types of Youkai that killed people simply as a characteristic of the species. I was pretty sure the Shichinin Misaki was a Youkai constantly made up of seven drowning victims. Whenever a new victim was created, the oldest victim would be released to rest in peace. There were various theories regarding what kanji should be used for the ¡°Misaki¡± part. But if it was made up of seven people who were all victims, where did the true essence of the Youkai lie? Was the Youkai the invisible framework in which the victims were contained? ¡°But I thought the Shichinin Misaki was an ocean Youkai.¡± ¡°Do not ask me. I only know what I have been told.¡± ¡°...Hm.¡± When I thought about it, I realized the trouble with the scammer Package using the Yuki Onna had started when I spotted that winter Youkai in the summer. A Youkai appearing where it should not be might have been evidence of human intervention. I decided to be a bit more cautious than usual. ¡°Hey, why are you being so quiet? Do you have some idea what could be behind it, boy?¡± ¡°No, no,¡± I said to avoid the issue. ¡°I was just thinking how convenient an umbrella that comes to you if you forget it would be.¡± ¡°Heh. I may not look it, but I have been alive for about 150 years. I am nothing like your everyday plastic umbrella.¡± ¡°But I don¡¯t think just strapping a GPS to everything would be enough to stop yourself from ever losing anything.¡± ¡°Those damn modern conveniences...!!¡± The Umbrella Obake gritted its teeth (Did it even have teeth in that comically large mouth?), but it stopped walking when we reached a crossroads between water-filled paddies. ¡°Oh, my master is this way.¡± ¡°Oh, so he is an elementary school kid.¡± ¡°Farewell, boy. Try to only run into girls with bread in their mouths thrice a day!!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never even seen a bread girl. Are you sure that isn¡¯t a type of Youkai?¡± After parting ways with the Umbrella Obake at the crossroads, I ran full speed for the only high school in the Intellectual Village. The school only had about 300 students total and the school building itself was fairly small. However, the Intellectual Village was intentionally designed to appear to be in decline. Given the number of houses, there was no way 300 high school students lived in the village. ¡°Hey, Shinobu. Run! Keep running! You¡¯ve still got a ways to go to reach homeroom.¡± My classmate Tarou called out to me from the dirt schoolyard. He was a healthy school club boy whose casual clothes were always quite plain, but his name was overwhelmingly gaudy; his given name alone was spelled with 7 kanji. Even our Japanese teacher was confused how seven characters resulted in the reading of ¡°Tarou¡±. ¡°Tarou, were you doing morning soccer practice? Have you been doing that every day during summer break?¡± ¡°No, I was at a morning job. After feeding the chickens, I still have the most annoying amount of free time. It¡¯s more than enough to get to school but not enough to go back to sleep. Those of us who got here early were playing on the schoolyard.¡± ¡°A job, hm?¡± ¡°Unlike those with a house like you, it isn¡¯t easy for us boarding students to stay in this Intellectual Village. Of course, the acceptance rate is so low, your odds are about as good as winning the lottery if you don¡¯t have any connections from doing this kind of thing.¡± That was how the village had an unusually high number of youths for its size. No matter how maintained the environment was, people were needed to run it. Intellectual Villages actively invited in youths to help stabilize that flow. There were some exceptions though. For example, my dad had refused any part-time workers or lodgers because he was so passionate about (if not addicted to) making sake that he refused to allow anyone who had not gone to an agricultural university into the brewing facility. As I changed into my indoor shoes at the entrance, I spoke with Tarou. ¡°So is the Love King coming today?¡± ¡°He¡¯s out mediating a case of cheating, so probably not today. It takes a strange person to become a specialist in helping out with love troubles for only those already in established couples.¡± And despite acting like a complete know-it-all when it came to other people¡¯s love problems, no one had ever seen this Love King with a lover. ¡°So I¡¯m still not getting back the manga I lent the Love King before summer break? Anyway, where¡¯s Akechi?¡± ¡°He¡¯s the one the Love King is helping.¡± ¡°...Eh? So he cheated on Nagisa? Is...Is Akechi okay? Nagisa isn¡¯t going to murder him, stuff him, and use him as her dakimakura is she?¡± ¡°Why do you think he¡¯s getting the help of the Love King?¡± ¡°I thought the guy was crazy from the moment he started dating one of the world¡¯s three greatest yanderes. He certainly has guts.¡± I parted ways with Tarou as he went off to change out of his personal sportswear that differed from the school PE uniform and into the school uniform. I headed up the stairs on my own and then down the hall towards my classroom. That was when my homeroom teacher called out to me. She wore glasses and a simple suit. She was a timid teacher who almost always held the tablet computer she used to take role in front of her face while speaking with someone. She dealt with everything very passively and tended to avoid problems whenever possible. But since she had managed to get selected to live in an Intellectual Village despite being a mere local government worker, she must have been quite the strategist. ¡°U-um... Jinnai-kun?¡± ¡°Yes, what is it?¡± ¡°Eeee!! Don¡¯t scare me with that blond hair! N-no, I mean...um... What I mean is...How was Kotemitsu-san during summer break?¡± The ¡°Kotemitsu-san¡± she mentioned while flinching after every other word was the eccentric beauty of our class, Kotemitsu Madoka-chan. She was not being bullied or anything of the sort, but she was still stuck in an isolated state as she could not seem to fit in with her family or her class. ¡°Sigh. Is Madoka still not coming to school?¡± ¡°W-well, she did actually come...¡± ¡°Then why don¡¯t you just ask her how she¡¯s doing?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need to do that!! I need to respect my students¡¯ independence! I cannot intrude that far! It would be such an annoyance!!¡± Of course, everyone could tell Madoka stood at a higher position than her family or her class, so it seemed more like she ruled above them than that she was being ostracized. ¡°It looked like Madoka was grinning while watching stock prices as usual. She started laughing and clapping her hands together when the price of gold dropped like a rock, so something must have happened on an international level. Should I ask her about it?¡± ¡°N-no! That¡¯s okay! Really, it is!! I will never intrude on my students¡¯ privacy! That is for the best...right?¡± As my homeroom teacher spoke, she had a look on her face that plainly said ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrapped in something I can avoid, you damn brat.¡± She gestured me forward a bit and then peered secretly through the classroom¡¯s hallway-side window. She was observing a female student wearing a white short-sleeve sailor uniform. ¡°I just need to know there are no problems. ...Hm, but I can¡¯t tell what is going on just by watching from outside.¡± I peered into the classroom next to my homeroom teacher...but everything looked the same as usual. The class was chatting while divided into a few different groups while Madoka sat alone at her desk. For some reason my homeroom teacher started whispering. ¡°At any rate, enjoy your youth however you like as long as it doesn¡¯t cause me any problems. Specifically, try to destroy this awkward atmosphere filling the class. My path to success is relying on you, Jinnai-kun. See you during homeroom!!¡± My homeroom teacher held up one hand in an extremely lazy parting gesture before heading off somewhere. Please... Stop using me as your Madoka countermeasure. But even if she was eccentric, this was a beautiful girl we¡¯re talking about, so I wasn¡¯t about to not do it. I would never have gone through with if it was merely ¡°the right thing to do¡±. After all, I wasn¡¯t like my uncle who had wanted to be a police detective and had actually made it into Department 1 of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. ¡°...Ahem.¡± I cleared my throat to both check on my voice and to help me change my mode of thinking. I opened the classroom door, stepped inside, and headed straight for Madoka¡¯s desk where she sat looking bored. ¡°Hey!! Madoka-chan, let¡¯s eat our lunches early!¡± ¡°First period hasn¡¯t even started yet! Isn¡¯t that being a little too bold, Shinobu-kun!? And do I need to tell you why girls use such small bento boxes? It¡¯s because we¡¯re worried about what will become of us if we eat too much!!¡± What was needed to start a conversation with that ¡°isolated¡± girl was to find something that would get some kind of emotional reaction. By keeping her from lightly brushing me aside, I had cleared Stage 1. But... ¡°......................................................................................................................................................................................................¡± ¡°Hey, Madoka. Why did you freeze in place as soon as I opened my bento box?¡± ¡°...Shinobu-kun? Did you get a chilled meal from a restaurant? No, the thawing process would damage the tissue. Don¡¯t tell me you had it shipped in by air.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid, you damn bourgeois. This is just what my granny made me.¡± ¡°...I see,¡± said Madoka in some kind of admiration. The way her eyes were glittering scared me. I might have lit a fire in her health-obsessed heart. ¡°By the way, Shinobu-kun.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°One of my armed guards said he saw a Shichinin Misaki. Do you know anything about that? He was complaining about how odd it is for an ocean Youkai like that to be here on land.¡± ...Oh? I had thought the Umbrella Obake had been telling me nonsense, but now a professional bodyguard was saying the same thing. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about it, but I did hear the same rumor this morning.¡± ¡°Hm. Well, he only caught a glimpse of it on a camera recording.¡± ¡°The Shichinin Misaki is one of the absolute worst of the deadly Youkai. Don¡¯t you die just by meeting it?¡± ¡°It seems viewing from an extreme distance is safe, but if you and Youkai detect each other from within a set range, you¡¯re done for. They terrify the police. Thanks to this, my guards have been on edge. They even tried to deploy a unit around the school campus this morning.¡± That was when a dull electronic tone came from Madoka¡¯s cell phone. She pulled the electronic device from her skirt pocket, read the email, and grimaced. ¡°...Oh, dear. Shinobu-kun, excuse me a moment.¡± ¡°Something related to money?¡± ¡°There¡¯s been an unpredictable change that my autonomous investing program can¡¯t handle. I have to manually alter it.¡± As she spoke, Madoka used her thumb to press the keys at high speed like a true super high school girl. She was probably altering some values in the settings for a program that automatically bought and sold stocks. It only took a few dozen seconds to a few minutes. I had no idea how much a period of time like that was worth to an investor. With her work done, Madoka tossed her phone on top of her desk. ¡°Insect damages in Australia. A bunch of locusts are showing up right about now and causing all sorts of problems.¡± ¡°...What was that email?¡± ¡°The program I wrote is also used by a major investment fund. But the program just monitors the trading parameters. It can¡¯t predict the changes caused by sudden military conflicts or natural disasters. That¡¯s why I ordered the fund advisor to send me an emergency email if anything happens.¡± ¡°But what if that major fund betrays you...?¡± ¡°I have it set up so any losses that I am not contacted about will be covered by either insurance or compensation. Of course, they¡¯re so dependent on me they could never survive without me. ...Otherwise, I would never let them use my precious program.¡± I could see how she would have little interest in acquiring the inconsequential relationships of a class when she was living in such a dynamic world. That financial monster who freely rewrote the gears of adult society grabbed one of the omelets my granny had made and tossed it into her mouth with a childish look on her face ¡°So you get these every day for free?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Ahh, now I really want to live with you, Shinobu-kun...¡± I knew she was not the type to care about her surroundings, but I really wished she wouldn¡¯t say that kind of suggestive line in the middle of a classroom filled with our classmates! Part 3 School that day only lasted until midday, but I was stuck there until evening. This was because Madoka had not done her summer homework at all. Normally, I would have simply abandoned her, but she knew my personality a little too well. ¡°Shinobu-kun, we used the pool today.¡± ¡°Yeah, that was the main event. Without the pool, not even a third of the people here would have shown up on such a hot day. I¡¯d still be in my futon.¡± ¡°Now, Shinobu-kun. If you will look over my homework, I am willing to undergo your lecture while wearing my still-wet school swimsuit.¡± And I was enough of an idiot to be drawn in by the school swimsuit. Evening came before I knew it as we sat with a desk in between us in that afterschool classroom. I looked over her notes, pointed out errors in her calculations, went over an outline of the designated book for the book report, and pretended to drop my red ball-point pen to get a good look at her thighs. I wasn¡¯t sure if Madoka had finished her homework or not, but she suddenly left once evening came. Plus, it turned out the Umbrella Obake¡¯s warning that it might rain in the evening turned out to be dead on!! In fact, it was absolutely pouring! Standing outside without an umbrella for just 5 seconds would probably have left me soaking wet!! ¡°...Is that why you called me here?¡± sighed the Youkai in a red yukata who held two plastic umbrellas at the entrance of the school. I gave a serious reply. ¡°Normally, I would never expect you to come if I called you by phone, but I figured dad would have straightened things out regarding that order you made without permission this morning. I assumed you would be willing to do what I said for once.¡± ¡°Uuh...¡± groaned the Zashiki Warashi as her shoulders drooped. She was an insolent and prank-loving sort of glamorous Youkai, but it seemed she was no match for my dad. But... ¡°Is he really that scary? You know he¡¯s named some of the sake he makes ¡®Red Yukata¡¯ and ¡®Black-Haired Beauty¡¯, right? For a leading artisan to name his prized product after you, he must really like you.¡± ¡°...N-no, it isn¡¯t an issue of what he says or does. In fact, he is completely faultless. This is...well, it¡¯s a feeling that only Youkai can detect.¡± Hmm... So is it like how a parent¡¯s love is hard for a child to understand? As I had that thought, the Zashiki Warashi and I held up our umbrellas. After stepping out into the rain, I turned back towards the school building. A few windows still had people visible in them. They must have been waiting for the rain to end. I didn¡¯t see Madoka, but I did see a familiar upperclassman girl. I waved back at her, and she gave a quick nod. The Zashiki Warashi and I left the school grounds and walked down the path leading home. ¡°The rain is pretty strong, but I don¡¯t hear any thunder.¡± ¡°I want to see if you actually look like an X-ray image if lightning hits you.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t.¡± But holding up an umbrella among those wide water-filled paddies did make that a slight worry. The small solar panels sticking up at set intervals along the path were drooping down lifelessly, but the small hydroelectric turbines set up in the ditches alongside the fields were almost too lively. Those ditches would have great flows of water roaring along beside the path to and from school during rainstorms, so they could be rather disconcerting. Of course, they were designed so trash would almost never clog them up and cause the water to overflow. ¡°I want to stop by the sweets shop.¡± ¡°I want to call you an idiot, but maybe I should praise you for not stopping by on your way to school.¡± ¡°Actually, I did.¡± ¡°I thought as much.¡± But I had eaten my granny¡¯s bento before the morning homeroom to start a conversation with Madoka, so I was pretty hungry myself. I turned off the shortest route home and headed towards the sweets shop. The Intellectual Village was designed with a focus on creating the atmosphere of a rural village. While we could purchase anything we wanted online, there were few shops from which we could acquire products the instant we wanted them. For that reason, the few shops we did have did quite well despite seeming horribly outdated. Even so, I doubted to find any other customers during this evening shower. But I was wrong. ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°There¡¯s some Youkai here.¡± The Zashiki Warashi was right. The Umbrella Obake I had seen that morning was there. And he was not alone. A Paper Lantern Obake with an equally comically large eye and long tongue was floating alongside it. This was the standard pair for a haunted house. I was a bit unsure whether anyone would actually be afraid of them, though. But something else stood out even more. A boy of elementary school age was standing in front of the shop. And he was holding the Umbrella Obake like an actual umbrella. The area was growing dark, but it looked like he could also use the Lantern Obake in place of a flashlight. ¡°You¡¯re the Umbrella Obake from this morning, right? Sorry, but I don¡¯t think I could tell two Umbrella Obake apart even if they were lined up right in front of me.¡± Instead of the Umbrella, the Lantern replied in a high-pitched female voice. ¡°You are a stranger speaking to an elementary school boy? So you are a suspicious person!? I can report this to the police, right!?¡± ¡°Shut up, Lantern. You¡¯re the one giving fire to a child. Do you know why lighters are made so hard to light?¡± ¡°Heh. I am an LED flashlight inside. That is the perfect method of being good for both the earth and children, don¡¯t you think!?¡± ¡°Eh? You want my opinion? ...It just makes me wonder whether you can really be called a lantern.¡± And since she was a tool made for illumination, I would have thought the candle portion would be analogous to a human¡¯s heart. Sometimes it seemed everything about Youkai was arbitrary. That was when the boy finally looked up at me. ¡°...So you know Umbrella?¡± ¡°You could say he ran into me with bread in his mouth.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± was the boy¡¯s only response. Um, no... You weren¡¯t supposed to take that seriously. If I finally became the protagonist of a love comedy but the love interest was an umbrella, I think I would be left bedridden by how surreal it was. I guess you could say the boy was a little too unresponsive. But then... ¡°Oh, would you look at that. That¡¯s an Intellectual Village for you. People can look at these strange scenes like they¡¯re normal.¡± I heard a new voice from the side. We all looked over to find a man in his early twenties wearing a raincoat and raising one hand in greeting. His other hand held a box-shaped case of the type used to hold fishing equipment. He also had a cooler hanging down from a shoulder strap. However, he did not have a fishing pole. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not a fisher. My specialty is Youkai art. I use a fishing case because it¡¯s convenient for holding my equipment. With the weather the way it is, I honestly didn¡¯t expect to have much luck today, but here I¡¯ve found something amazing on my first day here.¡± ¡°Another suspicious person approaching the boy!? You had better be prepared!!¡± ¡°Shut up, Lantern,¡± shot back the artist while still grinning. ...A Youkai artist, hm? TV crews would stop by Intellectual Villages on occasion for programs focused on locations of spiritual or supernatural energy, but it was rare for anyone to come by for artistic purposes. In fact, this was the first time I had ever seen a specialist in Youkai art. And given how wonderful that Zashiki Warashi was if you focused solely on the visuals, she did seem a good candidate. ¡°Is it hard dealing with Youkai?¡± I asked. ¡°They have a tendency to be uncooperative.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true. And a lot of them especially do not like showing themselves before strangers. Really, it¡¯s practically a miracle to get to see a Zashiki Warashi like this.¡± ¡°Did you come to this village for any reason in particular? That is, are you after a specific Youkai?¡± ¡°I heard there was an out-of-season Yuki Onna here, but I haven¡¯t had any luck so far.¡± ...Oh? Could he be referring to that one wearing a school swimsuit and sitting in a plastic kiddie pool??? ¡°For future reference, do Youkai like the kinds of sweets sold here?¡± asked the man. ¡°If you start giving them this kind of thing, they get really spoiled. It¡¯s best not to try to win them over with treats.¡± Ow!? This good-for-nothing Youkai just stomped on my foot with her high-soled geta!! Are you trying to crack my toenail open and shove mud inside!? ¡°This place really is nostalgic.¡± The artist pulled a toy pistol out from the various products hanging down from the edge of the eaves of the shop. ¡°To be honest, this sort of sweets shop was long gone by my generation, and yet it still feels nostalgic for some reason. This must be one of the effects of an Intellectual Village¡¯s design.¡± ¡°Maybe. I couldn¡¯t say since I stop by this place all the time.¡± ¡°Ah ha ha. But maybe they were a little too accurate with this toy revolver. It¡¯s made of an alloy, so you could probably shoot real bullets with it if you made a few modifications.¡± Then, the Zashiki Warashi standing next to me started tugging on my shirt. I looked around and realized the boy from before was gone. He must have returned home with the Umbrella and Lantern. The artist did not seem to care and continued speaking. ¡°Due to the rain, I can¡¯t exactly paint today. But try to find me again once the weather clears up. Not only am I interested in the Youkai, but I¡¯m also interested in the life of people who accept Youkai like something normal.¡± Part 4 For dinner, we had chicken and soumen salad. However, the chicken was so plentiful, I ended up eating too much. It felt like it was going to just sit in my stomach. The night went on regardless. For the first time in a while, the Yuki Onna was in a playful mood, so I spent a long time playing Indian poker with her, the Zashiki Warashi, and the Nekomata. As I had gone to school, I was quite exhausted after that. I wanted to hurry up and get to sleep in my room, but I had some preparations to take care of first. The giant thatch-roof house may have seemed luxurious, but it had enough openings to allow mosquitos in. ¡°Ugh...dammit. I hate doing this...¡± I was preparing a traditional mosquito net. Plenty of mosquito repellant products existed, but it seemed to me that a mosquito net was the most effective since it physically cut off their path. Plus, any electronic method was out of the question. Also, when you lived in an Intellectual Village that was arranged to have such a beautiful atmosphere, it seemed a waste to fill your room with the scent of chemicals. I hooked the ring-shaped cords of the mosquito net onto the J-shaped latches embedded at about the height of a curtain rail on the four walls and fixed the mosquito net perfectly in place. But I did not even have time to rejoice at being done. I suddenly heard an odd scraping noise. It was a lighter noise than scraping metal. It was more like... ¡°...Is that someone washing rice?¡± As soon as I said that, the odd noise intensified. It seemed to be making some kind of objection. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s an Azukiarai[1]. What are you doing here?¡± The azuki bean sound (?) replied, but I could make no sense of it. There were plenty of different types of Youkai, but I have always felt that they can broadly be divided into those that eat meals like humans do and those that do not. This unseen Azukiarai was the latter. I was fairly certain we had no such Youkai living in our house, but I decided my Youkai-loving mom must have brought it home and let it live in the attic. But the thought of the attic reminded me of something. ¡°Come to think of it, that demon that forced its way into the house has taken the attic as its stronghold, hasn¡¯t it? Were you kicked out from there?¡± The azuki bean sound seemed somehow sad as it replied. But I could not have this Youkai relying on me. If it kept making that scraping noise all night long, I would never get any sleep. I looked around and finally opened the sliding door to my closet. ¡°At least do it in here. I¡¯ll find a new place for you tomorrow.¡± I had no way of knowing if the unseen Azukiarai was moving or not, but it must have agreed because the scraping sound started coming from within the closet. I closed the door and finally finished my preparations for bed. Just as I was about to turn off the light, another visitor arrived. And the first noise I heard came from directly above me. A corner of the ceiling was moved aside, creating a square hole. Someone then poked her head down like a ninja. She looked like a glamorous woman, but she had goat-like horns on her head, bat-like wings on her back, and an arrow-like tail on her butt. I¡¯m sure anyone can figure it out with that much explanation. She was a demon. She changed her hairstyle based on her mood, but today her long hair was done up in twintails. ¡°Hey there. Good morning.¡± ¡°What do you want, Succubus? I was just about to go to sleep.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I came. And down I come.¡± The Succubus descended from the square hole in the ceiling like a ninja. The two objects just barely covered by her stupidly small micro-bikini bounced around. While this was her standard outfit, she prudently wore a T-shirt over it when she was not in the attic and people besides me were present. This was primarily due to what happened the day she had arrived. She had gotten carried away and had recklessly told my dad ¡°Please let me stay here. I¡¯ll pay for rent with my body¡î¡± My dad had then thrown a real punch to let her know who was in charge. It seemed my dad¡¯s fist was just as effective on Western demons as it was on Eastern Youkai. ¡°The men of this house have too little lust. Having nothing to do is starting to make me feel useless as a Succubus. So how about I give you a nice dream?¡± ¡°You demons live in a society of contracts, so I doubt you would do that for free.¡± ¡°Oh, I already took that into account, master. I need to give you something in return for sheltering me here. I believe in equivalent exchange, so I cannot simply take without giving anything back. Plus, my debt to you periodically increases in the form of rent, so I need to be able to pay you back somehow. Having a demon in a position where she is getting too much and needs to give back is quite rare, though.¡± The Succubus grinned and held up her index finger. ¡°All I can do is manipulate your dreams, but if you think about it, that can be quite useful. After all, you can do anything in a dream with no consequences!! Nothing is a crime!! You can experience pleasures and warmth that would be impossible in the physical world!!!!!!¡± ¡°What!? I hope you know just how much a teenager¡¯s sexual desire can be boiling below the surface!! You had better follow through even if my demands are a lot crazier than you expected!!¡± ¡°Oh, of course! That type of thing is the entire reason I exist! How about you use this opportunity to try out something you could never hope to achieve normally, master!? Like something involving animals or internal organs!!¡± ¡°...No, you don¡¯t need to go that far. Ugh.¡± ¡°Wait, wait. Don¡¯t get that look on your face like you just saw a steak made up entirely of fat. Okay, what sort of thing would fall right into your strike zone?¡± ¡°E-eh? I guess something with an older girl...Someone with breasts big enough to envelop anything...Oh, and have her be the graceful type who looks good in Japanese clothing.¡± ¡°If you have a specific model in mind, just tell me. That would make the dream very easy to construct.¡± ¡°Bh!? There¡¯s no model!! That wasn¡¯t modeled off of anyone!!¡± That was important, so I made sure to deny it twice. The Succubus¡¯s expression made it clear she was not entirely satisfied with that response. ¡°Okay, in that case, I have taken in your desires, master. Do not worry!! Just climb into your futon and, before you can count to 10, you will have entered a dream world with breasts everywhere you look!!¡± ¡°Really!? It does seem a bit empty for it to be just a dream, but now I¡¯m kind of excited!! Can you really do this!?¡± ¡°Fwah hah hah!! Like I said: I will present you with pleasures you could never even imagine in this world!!¡± After hearing that, there was nothing left but to try it out. I turned out the lights, climbed into my light summer futon, and was soon in my dreams just as predicted. But... I was not prepared for what would happen next. I never expected to fall into a nightmare where I was chased around all night long by some horrible mystery person whose entire body was covered in breasts to the point that her face could not be seen and she looked like a bunch of grapes. Part 5 (3rd person) In the middle of the night when all the lights were out and the thatch-roof house was completely dark, the Nekomata walked along silently. Her(?) usual living space was the area below the porch, but she would enter the house when it rained. A Nekomata was not actually a cat, so she was not bound by their nocturnal habits. Normally, she would be sleeping during this time. She had a reason to be wandering around at this time. Mosquitos had been targeting her. Youkai could not be harmed by any normal methods, so she was of course not being bitten by the mosquitos. Still, having them buzzing around by her ears was keeping her awake. (It would be wrong to disturb the old woman in her sleep, so that leaves only one other acceptable option.) With that thought, the Nekomata headed for Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s room. She had been hoping for an electric mosquito repellant, but she found a mosquito net upon entering the room. The sight made the Youkai sigh at how old fashioned it was. But it would still keep the mosquitos away. While making sure no mosquitos got in along with her, she climbed into the net. With the annoying buzzing gone, the Nekomata curled up beside Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s pillow. But then her sharp senses detected something. Her triangular ears pricked up and her vertical pupils opened wide. She looked around and noticed someone inside the thin summer futon along with Jinnai Shinobu. She flipped back the futon to reveal the Zashiki Warashi. The annoyed Nekomata said, ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°What a Zashiki Warashi is supposed to do,¡± smoothly replied the Youkai in a red yukata. ¡°Unlike in the past, I have to do it without him noticing or he kicks me out.¡± ¡°I thought a Zashiki Warashi snuck into futons as one of their childish pranks. What good is a prank if you do it without anyone noticing?¡± ¡°I have to work around certain circumstances. If I looked like you, this would probably be a lot easier.¡± ¡°Heh.¡± The Nekomata lightly waved her two tails. ¡°I do think Youkai who belong to a house have it tough because of the constant conflict between their own nature and the customs of the humans, but I can¡¯t let you say I have it easier. I am horribly jealous of Youkai who look like you. The closer to human you look, the easier a time you have being accepted by human society.¡± A Nekomata could actually transform into a human form, but it had to kill a human to do it. To a Youkai like her that saw transforming into a human to be that valuable, a Youkai like a Zashiki Warashi that always looked like a human and always received the benefits of it must have seemed a horrible waste of ability. Of course, the Zashiki Warashi was not thoughtless enough to have never realized that. However, hers was the sort of personality that led her to stab at that insecurity despite realizing it. ¡°Looking like a human but never changing at all as time goes on creates problems. People grow jealous of you even though you are a completely different species. Whereas with a cat, not many humans can tell how old you look at a glance.¡± ¡°Hah. So are you saying you want a form that allows you to walk around everywhere naked without anyone thinking anything of it?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Oh? ...Wait, don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re actually worried about that. What, are you that bothered by how this boy¡¯s attitude towards you has changed? Expecting that out of a teenage boy is being too cruel. He can¡¯t always cling to you and call you ¡®big sister¡¯.¡± ¡°Could you not assume you know what people are going to say before they say it?¡± The Zashiki Warashi in the red yukata then covered her head with the futon. It seemed that assessment had been a bullseye. It was not often one saw a Youkai sulking over the fact that a human would not let her in his futon or bath. (No matter how much time passes, that species always acts so childish. What a pain.) The Nekomata had come to that room to escape the annoying mosquitos, but she decided heading elsewhere would be better than trying to sleep there. However, she did feel a bit irritated at having that area of rest taken from her as soon as she found it, so she gave the following parting comment: ¡°If you showed Jinnai Shinobu that face, I think he would start treating you a bit more like a girl.¡± A muffled voice in the futon replied, ¡°Don¡¯t joke.¡± ¡°I thought as much. If I was in your position, I would probably hang myself.¡± With a quick laugh, the Nekomata left. Part 6 It had rained late into the night, but the weather had cleared up nicely by morning. As soon as I woke up from that horrible nightmare, I climbed into the attic and chased the Succubus around. ¡°But with those theoretical values, you should have received pleasure impossible in reality.¡± ¡°If that turned me on, I would never be attracted to a normal girl again!!¡± After we ate breakfast, the Zashiki Warashi brought up the electric stickboard she had bought (using my credit card without permission). It was a toy that looked like a skateboard with a vertical bar, bike handles, and electric motor attached. ¡°But you had earned enough points on that site that they sent a special gift.¡± ¡°That is no reason to use my account without permission.¡± ¡°Here, it¡¯s a keychain. Inside this sphere is actual ocean water! And phytoplankton too!!¡± ¡°Nothing about that makes me want it!!¡± She had apparently fully charged the battery overnight, so the good-for-nothing Youkai wanted to take it out for a spin. We ended up on the road in front of the house that was too small to tell if it was meant for vehicles or pedestrians. ¡°Too fast, too fast, too fast, too fast!! What the hell!? Where¡¯s the brake on this thing!?¡± ¡°Shinobu! The right side of the handles is the throttle and the left is the gear change!¡± ¡°I¡¯m asking about the brake, you-....bkyabrgrgh!!¡± ¡°Ah ha ha ha ha!! You fell, you fell. That would have been a lot funnier if the paddy had water in it.¡± I thought about throwing the electric stickboard at the Zashiki Warashi from the paddy that was a level lower than the road, but I changed my mind at the last second. The Yuki Onna was jogging over and shouting. ¡°Let me... Let me try it, too...¡± ¡°Fine, but how about we all read the manual first?¡± I climbed up out of the paddy that was packed full of rice ears. As I did, I spotted a giant paper umbrella and paper lantern moving along the pathway on the other side of the paddy. ...Is that the two from yesterday? ¡°Oh, curse our master!! Why did he leave without telling us again!? Does he not have a healthy fear of a 30% chance of rain!?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s check the sweets shop first! If he isn¡¯t there, we can head to rhinoceros beetle mountain!!¡± It seemed their young master had left them running around once more. I was a bit jealous since it was the exact opposite of my situation. The umbrella and lantern were racing down the pathway at quite a good clip. Meanwhile, the Yuki Onna was noisily fiddling with the different parts of the electric stickboard. ¡°...Hm, the wheels are quite close. The hem of my kimono might get caught.¡± ¡°Then the Zashiki Warashi can¡¯t ride it either!¡± ¡°If need be, I can always change into a mini-yukata.¡± ¡°Only urban ganguro girls who ignore all tradition are allowed to wear those. If someone like you wore one, the folklorists would fall into despair.¡± Come to think of it, why does she only wear yukatas??? I think she wore normal western clothes once when I was kid, but... ¡°Oh?¡± Suddenly, I heard a voice from a short distance away. I turned around to spot the young man I had met in the sweets shop. ¡°You¡¯re the Youkai artist, right?¡± ¡°You can call me Houjou,¡± replied Houjou-san. ¡°What¡¯s important is that I managed to meet the out-of-season Yuki Onna. Will you be playing here for a while? You don¡¯t need to stay still like for a portrait. I would love it if you just let me make a quick sketch as if you are part of the background.¡± ¡°You heard the man. What do you say?¡± I asked. ¡°I-it should go without saying that Jinnai Shinobu is the only one allowed to draw lewd shunga of me!!¡± ¡°That does not go without saying and this is not a shunga,¡± I replied. And so Houjou-san pulled out some Japanese paper and an inkstone and placed them beside him while the rest of us continued playing with the electric stickboard. After cautiously riding it around for about 10 minutes, we had picked up the basics, so we began a time attack competition based on our lap times on a 100 meter straightaway. Since he was a Youkai artist, I did not seem to be one of his targets. That let me take things easy, but the Zashiki Warashi and Yuki Onna¡¯s movements definitely seemed a bit stiff. ¡°A Yuki Onna just standing around is one thing, but is an image of one playing on an electric machine really something you can hang in a Japanese-style room?¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about that. I said I was searching an out-of-season Yuki Onna, remember? I wanted this kind of gap. In a way, this is better than I could have hoped.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be leaving at lunchtime. Will you be done by then?¡± ¡°More or less. Ink paintings do not take that long to complete. Although that might just be with the methods I have created for painting while I travel.¡± The Zashiki Warashi revolutionized our lap times by discovering how to use the clutch to perform a rocket start, the Yuki Onna took the rocket start too far and performed a wheelie, and time passed in the rural Intellectual Village. ¡°Things sure are peaceful....¡± The Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake I had seen beyond the paddy were now returning the way they had come. It seemed they had not found the boy from their house. ¡°I want some kind of excitement. Maybe I should buy some fireworks online.¡± ¡°Shinobu, if you¡¯re going to get some fireworks, you have to get a set of 50 of the kind that shoot up into the air.¡± ¡°You¡¯d just fire them at me, so no.¡± ¡°Fireworks, hm?¡± Houjou-san gave a bitter smile as he moved his brush. ¡°Can you have them delivered the same day if you order them online? But it is supposed to rain again tonight, so I suppose there is no hurry.¡± ¡°Oh? I didn¡¯t know that.¡± ¡°I use Japanese paper in my work. I have to be careful about the weather and humidity.¡± When my overall small granny came to call us for lunch, we left as I had warned. ¡°Have you finished?¡± ¡°Yes, for the most part. But do not worry about me. I will leave once it finishes drying. It¡¯s ink, so that should not take too long.¡± And so we left Houjou-san the Youkai artist and returned to the thatch roof house. I looked at the electric stickboard and noticed its battery was already close to dead. ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon. It dies in less than three hours? You would have a hard time using this in place of a bike.¡± ¡°Shinobu, you can buy a better battery for 5800 yen on the site.¡± ¡°No, not a chance!! This will be for leisure use only, thank you very much!!¡± By the way, lunch was hiyashi chuuka. Before we had finished eating, I could hear the frogs croaking like crazy and thick dark clouds had started to cover the sky. I headed out to the road again to check on Houjou-san, but the Youkai artist was already gone. Part 7 By evening, the rain was pouring down. I ordered a cheap fireworks set using my laptop and was asked to make an impromptu cat house for the Nekomata who was washing her face with her front paw. She seemed worried about the humidity. Most daily necessities were ordered over the internet in an Intellectual Village, so piles of cardboard boxes from delivery companies could be found anywhere. ¡°Do not stuff newspaper in there. Do you think you could sleep surrounded by rough scraps of paper?¡± ¡°But you would complain if I used old rags because they smell too much.¡± ¡°How about you grab that fluffy stuff over there and stuff it inside?¡± ¡°Those are Keseran Pasaran. They¡¯re Youkai like you.¡± The Succubus must have kicked more harmless Youkai out of the attic because some new ones had appeared. The Kesaran Pasaran floating near the hallway ceiling were Youkai that looked like white furballs about the size of ping pong balls. A few of them were floating in a cluster. I assumed my Youkai-loving mom had taken them in and hidden them in the attic. The standard pattern in my house was for my mom to take in a Youkai and my dad to kick it out once he found it. I eventually received the Nekomata¡¯s approval by wadding up some disposable tissues I had received as a gift from an online store but never used. Then the doorbell rang. The Zashiki Warashi approached and called out to me. ¡°Shinobu, the doorbell is ringing.¡± ¡°Then why don¡¯t you answer it?¡± But she was lazy through and through, so there was no hope of that happening. I headed to the front door. I opened the sliding door and found some unexpected guests. ¡°If this is a Halloween party, can¡¯t it at least wait until the end of September?¡± ¡°I am the Umbrella Obake. And this is the LED Paper Lantern. I believe we met yesterday.¡± I¡¯m well aware of that... Neither the Umbrella nor the Lantern had arms, so I had to wonder how they had rung the doorbell. I sincerely hoped one of them had not used their long tongue. ¡°We wish to ask if a boy of about 10 came by here.¡± ¡°What? You still haven¡¯t found him?¡± ¡°H-how do you know we are searching for him!? Don¡¯t tell me your speaking to him yesterday was indeed foreshadowing of something more sinister!?¡± ¡°Shut up, Lantern.¡± ¡°Wait, why are you grabbing me all of a sudden!? No, do not squeeze from the top and botto-...agrymghh!!¡± As I folded up the Paper Lantern that was causing a racket with her high-pitched voice, I asked, ¡°You¡¯ve been running around since this morning, right? How long have you been at it?¡± That question created a heavy mood around the Umbrella and Lantern similar to when a human¡¯s shoulders would droop. It seemed they had found little success in their search. I sighed and leaned up against the pillar in the entrance. ¡°Have you gone around to all his friends¡¯ houses?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°Have you called his phone?¡± ¡°It does not appear to be on.¡± ¡°Have you tried the village¡¯s notification network?¡± ¡°We posted a lost child notification, but we have yet to receive any useful information, boy.¡± Hmm... If it had been treated as an emergency notification, a message would have been sent to all the adults¡¯ cell phones. If a friend was simply hiding the boy in their house, the adult of the house would have ignored the child¡¯s wishes and contacted the boy¡¯s family. ¡°We have checked all of the locations suggested by his friends. We found nothing there, so we are now going around house by house.¡± ¡°Well, I suppose there really aren¡¯t that many houses in the village.¡± ¡°But we have found nothing at all. It is possible he is in some sort of outdoors secret base rather than a residence.¡± In the Intellectual Village, most entertainment was satisfied via online stores, so it had no karaoke boxes, manga cafes, or similar shops. And the closest neighboring town was a fair distance away. Whether they liked the outdoors or not, the only option for a child running away from home was to take some canned bread and bottled water and flee to a secret base. Even I had done it before. ¡°...But in this rain?¡± However, these ¡°secret bases¡± were usually made from the cardboard shipping boxes. They would not last in this pouring rain. That was why the adults would demolish them when they were found. ¡°Hm, so where could he be?¡± ¡°Sorry for the interruption. If you learn anything, please post in the lost child information section of the notification network.¡± With that said, the Umbrella and Lantern headed back out into the pouring rain. ... ¡°Hey.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°You know the mountain the Sanatorium is on, right? The southern base of it has been the standard spot for building secret bases for ages. I doubt he¡¯s there in this rain, but it¡¯s possible he¡¯s playing there if they¡¯ve managed to build a proper hut of plywood or plastic or something.¡± The Umbrella and Lantern leaned forward slightly. It might have been meant as a bow. But I remembered something as soon as I slid shut the front door. ¡°...Huh?¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± The Zashiki Warashi and Nekomata approached the front entrance. ¡°If he¡¯s built a secret base on the southern side of Fruit Mountain, this might be dangerous.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked the Nekomata as she tilted her head. I explained while also putting my own thoughts in order. ¡°That area is just an undeveloped open field. Unlike the orchards that produce 30,000 yen bunches of grapes, you don¡¯t get into any real trouble if you sneak in. That¡¯s why the kids like bringing cardboard boxes there to create secret bases.¡± ¡°So are there snakes there?¡± ¡°No.¡± I shook my head. ¡°But now that I think about it, the situation is a bit different from when I was a kid. The orchards on the slope of the mountain were taken out by water damage since then. Irrigation ditches weren¡¯t enough to handle the rainwater caused by sudden rainstorms, so they built a flood control reservoir for emergencies. Normally, there is nothing in that empty field, but huge amounts of water can be guided there to protect the valuable orchards.¡± ¡°...¡± The Nekomata fell silent and looked up at the ceiling. The rain could be heard beating loudly against the roof. Finally, the Nekomata said, ¡°That is bad.¡± ¡°Yes, it is! The area is supposed to be off limits nowadays, but they do find collections of cardboard boxes there occasionally. The kids probably still make secret bases there. If the floodgates are opened, the entire area will be covered in water!! If he really is there...!!¡± ¡°Shinobu, do you think this rain will be enough for the floodgates to be opened?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s quite that bad yet. Opening the floodgates is a last resort. The general consensus is that it shouldn¡¯t be done unless absolutely necessary. I doubt they¡¯ll do it unless we get typhoon-level rain.¡± We hurried to my bedroom and I opened up my laptop. I connected to the Intellectual Village¡¯s neighborhood association notification network and checked the disaster message board. When I saw one thread name highlighted in the color for an emergency, I felt a bit faint. Important notification regarding the floodgates for the flood prevention reservoir on the southern slope of Fruit Mountain. ¡°Not good... They¡¯ve already been opened!?¡± I left checking the message board¡¯s information to the Zashiki Warashi while I pulled out my cell phone to contact the fire department just in case. But would they do anything? The Intellectual Village was quite well equipped when it came to putting out forest fires, but I could not think of any actual rescue personnel for other disasters. And then the operator said the following: ¡°Are you absolutely sure this child was in the emergency flood prevention reservoir area?¡± ¡°No, but...¡± ¡°We will send some men in, but it would be difficult to have the floodgates closed. They were opened to prevent definite losses. Unless you have more definite information...¡± ¡°Understood. Sorry. As long as you check. Please just have someone check for a drowning child!¡± I hung up and felt like punching the wall. ¡°That¡¯s no help at all! I get the feeling they¡¯ll just send two or three men out to arbitrarily look around. And it¡¯s going to be completely dark soon. If they walk around a bit and point a flashlight around, they¡¯ll never find a small child!!¡± I checked the clock. It was 6 PM. Due to the thick clouds covering the sky, it felt even darker than usual. ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi. You bought a whole bunch of disaster goods a while back, right? Where did you put them? I want a powerful flashlight.¡± ¡°...You¡¯re heading out now? Have you never heard of secondary losses?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t go too far. Just get me a flashlight.¡± ¡°Helping and getting yourself involved are two different things. You do realize you are crossing a line here, right?¡± ¡°I realize I only have a side role in this. I¡¯m not heading out to battle some strange final boss. I¡¯m just going to go check. If I don¡¯t find anything, I¡¯ll come right back.¡± The Zashiki Warashi sighed and headed back to her room. The Nekomata looked up at me. ¡°Have you checked your cell phone? Does that old beat-up thing have GPS functionality?¡± ¡°Yes, and I have it turned on. But the phone isn¡¯t waterproof, so if I drop it in the water, it¡¯s done for.¡± ¡°Then we¡¯ll start panicking if the signal disappears.¡± I took a flashlight from the Zashiki Warashi when she returned and then turned toward the front door. ¡°They¡¯d definitely try to stop me, so don¡¯t tell dad and the others what I¡¯m doing even if they ask.¡± ¡°...Shinobu. That request makes me very worried.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll make sure he only gets mad at me. Anyway, I don¡¯t have time. Could you lend me the electric stickboard we were using this morning? You¡¯ve been charging it since lunchtime, right?¡± That was not a toy you could carry an umbrella while riding. I charged through the pouring rain as I rushed for the submerged flood control reservoir. Part 8 By the time I reached the southern base of Fruit Mountain, the area was completely dark. I let the electric stickboard fall to the ground and switched on my flashlight. The area was so worthless no one cared if it was submerged, so it naturally had no streetlights. I lightly swept the light across the area and spotted the Umbrella and Lantern standing in a daze amid the noisily pouring rain. ¡°Hey, what is it? Did you find the boy!?¡± ¡°...I-is our master really out here?¡± ¡°A-are...are you sure you were not mistaken?¡± I walked up next to the two speechless Youkai and shined the flashlight on the emergency flood control reservoir. The situation was very bad. Normally, the area was nothing but a green field covered in short undergrowth. Everything would look the same in every direction except for the occasional cardboard box secret base built by the children. That lack of maintenance allowed it to feel more raw and natural than the maintained orchards of the Intellectual Village. But now it was all pitch black. This was due to the water. With a deep rumbling of flowing water, the entire area looked like the sea at night. Everything from the short underbrush to the cardboard box secret bases had been swallowed up. That flat black surface covered everything. Not even the light of my flashlight could penetrate the water, so I had no idea how deep it was. It was so much that I almost lost my balance for a moment. Searching for something in that water would likely be harder than finding a ring cast into the sands of a desert. ¡°Lantern. You can fly, right?¡± ¡°Y-yes. Not very high, though.¡± ¡°Then you fly over the flood control reservoir and call out his name. Come to think of it, what is the boy¡¯s name?¡± ¡°Yonesaki Hiro-sama.¡± ¡°Hey, boy. What should I do?¡± asked the Umbrella. In response, I grabbed his handle. I then turned him upside down and stabbed him into the water from the edge of the path. ¡°Excuse me a moment.¡± ¡°Gyahh!!¡± ¡°So it¡¯s about a meter deep. He was about 130 cm tall, so he might be able to keep his head above water if he tries.¡± I pulled the Umbrella out of the water and released him. But the depth could change depending on the location and the ground might grow soft from the water and suck his legs in. I decided it would be best not to be too optimistic. The Umbrella coughed up the water that had gotten in his mouth. (Where did the water go?) ¡°H-honestly. People these days do not know how to treat their tools!! It is because of you savages that you almost never see a Tsukumogami in the form of a computer or cell phone!!¡± ¡°While the Lantern searches above the reservoir, you and I can head around the perimeter.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not listening at all, are you!?¡± I ignored the Umbrella¡¯s complaints and began our rather unreliable search. The outer edge of the flood control reservoir was simply constructed by piling up dirt, so I was a bit afraid it would collapse as I walked along it. I pointed my flashlight around in the darkness and shouted the boy¡¯s name, but I received no response. Occasionally I would stop in shock when I saw something large floating on the dark surface of the water, but it always turned out to be a cardboard box from one of the secret bases. ¡°Hey, Umbrella. You went around asking about this Yonesaki Hiro boy, right? Do you know who he was playing with?¡± ¡°No. Why do you ask?¡± ¡°Playing make believe in the secret fortress is like playing tag or hide-and-seek. It isn¡¯t something you normally do on your own. If the floodgates were opened while he was building a base here, some other kid might have been swallowed up too. It would be best to know how many kids we need to be looking for.¡± Also, there was no sign of the fire department arriving. I had seen no vehicle parked nearby. It was possible they had decided my call was nothing more than a prank. ¡°...¡± The Umbrella remained silent for quite a while but finally spoke quietly as if he could not withstand the pressure of the darkness. ¡°It is possible our master did not come here to play.¡± ¡°What?¡± The area had been turned into an emergency flood control reservoir because there was nothing there. I could not think of any reason to go to the field other than to play. ¡°Youkai like us do not know much about human schools, but they would warn the children not to play in places like this, correct? The same as they warn the children not to play in rivers or head into the mountains on their own.¡± ¡°...Probably. What about it?¡± ¡°In other words, our master would have known how dangerous this place is.¡± The Umbrella let out a heavy breath. ¡°What if that is why our master chose to come here at this time? What if he was seeking that danger?¡± ¡°What are you-...?¡± I trailed off as I felt like my heart was being squeezed. I had realized what he meant. ¡°You don¡¯t mean...Yonesaki Hiro was waiting here for the floodgates to open so he could drown himself?¡± Suicide. A child that young was committing suicide? I could not imagine how that could happen, but a high schooler like me could not understand the complexity of an elementary schooler¡¯s world. I had once walked down that path, but I could no longer recall the real details of the time. Was it possible? Could something really make a child of about 10 completely give up on the world? ¡°Lately, it has seemed our master has been constantly worrying about something. He has been eating less. And he will not tell Lantern or me what is worrying him.¡± ¡°You said you checked with Yonesaki Hiro¡¯s friends today, right? So he has friends.¡± ¡°Yes. He is not having problems with his friends. Nor have we seen any discord in the family. ...So I have no idea what it is. He has obviously been worrying about something, but I cannot tell you what that might be.¡± ¡°...¡± It was true that people often held problems that could not be seen in their day-to-day lives. I pulled out my cell phone, but I could not perform a search because its internet connection was too weak. I had no choice but to contact the Zashiki Warashi by calling the smartphone (my smartphone!) that she had. ¡°I need to find any records a boy named Yonesaki Hiro has left online. Can you search for me?¡± ¡°Most people do not use their real name. Do you know what screen name he might use?¡± I turned to the Umbrella and asked, ¡°What did Yonesaki Hiro¡¯s friends call him?¡± ¡°Yonecchi.¡± ¡°Search for Yonecchi,¡± I said to the Zashiki Warashi. After a few dozen seconds, she replied, ¡°I found him on 4 Line Net. It¡¯s a popular SNS these days.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the type that only lets you make short posts, right?¡± ¡°I can only get the information set as public, but I can see him posting about his classes and other things he¡¯s done. This account definitely belongs to an elementary school kid from Noukotsu Village. He even names the neighborhood sweets shop.¡± ¡°Is he being bullied online?¡± ¡°Not really. But I think 4 Line Net has comment viewing levels of ¡®close friend¡¯, ¡®friend¡¯, ¡®personal acquaintance¡¯, and ¡®general acquaintance¡¯. Any important information wouldn¡¯t be open for anyone to see.¡± ¡°Can you check any further?¡± ¡°I am a Youkai, not a super hacker.¡± ...Hm. But come to think of it, isn¡¯t there someone in my class who knows about this kind of thing? I hung up on the Zashiki Warashi and called the eccentric beauty Madoka-chan. ¡°What is it, Shinobu-kun?¡± ¡°Help me.¡± ¡°That certainly is straight and to the point. Has something happened?¡± ¡°Madoka, you know a lot about the internet because of your stock trading, right? There might be some traces of criminal activity hidden in 4 Line Net comments restricted from public viewing. Is there any way to get access to them?¡± ¡°I see, I see,¡± said Madoka offhandedly. ¡°What search engine are you using? Try using Free Load.¡± ¡°Do you want me to check the cache data?¡± ¡°That won¡¯t be enough. Use the image search. It¡¯s meant to search for image data, but it also takes a sample of the text on the page. That should pierce straight through a site like 4 Line Net. Search for an image file unique to the user and it should display it all for you.¡± ¡°You sure know a lot of about this.¡± ¡°Well, it used to be popular as a means of acquiring insider information.¡± ¡°...Madoka-san?¡± ¡°I never used it. My autonomous investing program doesn¡¯t need that sort of information.¡± I thanked her and hung up. Then I called the Zashiki Warashi again and instructed her in what to do. ¡°You take advantage of all sorts of women, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t say things that make me sound bad. So did you find anything?¡± ¡°...Oh, my. This is full of suspicious text. It looks like this Yonecchi believed everything he was told by someone he had never seen. Do you think this was some kind of Youkai power?¡± ¡°Paste the text and send it to me.¡± I received an email. When I read through it, I frowned slightly. ¡°I think this might be a technique known as journal profiling. People psychologically analyze the available text to respond with comments that will receive the most positive response. A few of these comments almost perfectly match the ones on the alert from the police¡¯s website.¡± It was the same as a test that let you freely draw a picture to determine your psychological condition. Blogs and SNSs could be quite defenseless in that regard. ¡°That¡¯s the method the administrator of that suicide site from a while back used to gather participants, right?¡± asked the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°Yeah, but I think he drowned himself when he was about to be arrested for assisting in the suicides. ...Wait. But the Youkai used for that was...¡± ¡°A Shichinin Misaki, right? The article I read on a news site gave a quick mention of the Package.¡± The suspect from that incident was gone. But it was still possible someone else was reusing the Package for their own purposes or that someone else had been involved in the initial incident as well. And the Umbrella and Madoka had both mentioned recent Shichinin Misaki sightings. ¡°By the way, what kinds of worries were used to provoke Yonecchi?¡± ¡°It isn¡¯t spelled out, but reading between the lines, I think he was afraid of having to say goodbye to his friends.¡± ... I fell silent and looked over at the Umbrella, but he merely rotated his entire body back and forth as his version of ¡°shaking his head¡±. ¡°I have heard nothing about any of his friends at school moving away.¡± ¡°No,¡± said the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°So he does have some friends moving away?¡± ¡°No, it isn¡¯t that. These friends are not the kids from school.¡± ¡°?¡± The Umbrella¡¯s thoughts seemed to have frozen up, but I had more or less grasped the situation. The ¡°friends¡± Yonesaki Hiro mentioned were... ¡°Someone came to 4 Line Net and provoked him with the following,¡± said the Zashiki Warashi smoothly. ¡° ¡®What if there was a method of becoming a Youkai just like your precious friends?¡¯ ¡± The Umbrella remained silent for a while. His movements had completely stopped. ¡°It¡¯s a pretty common issue,¡± I said. ¡°Especially in an Intellectual Village. Youkai live with you, but their lifespans are much, much longer than your own. That means you have to say goodbye to them eventually. That is what he was afraid of.¡± But what was this ¡°someone¡± hoping to gain by provoking him with that desire? A method of becoming a Youkai. Was that simply a convenient means of luring in a specific person or was that itself the goal? I asked if any of the posts gave more details, but the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s response was not what I was hoping for. ¡°It seems 4 Line Net was simply used to gain Yonecchi¡¯s trust. The person invited him to speak further using free email addresses. The specifics would have been discussed using them.¡± ¡°That makes this sound all the more suspicious.¡± In all likelihood, the boy had been instructed to delete his email address after the needed information had been exchanged. In that case, not even contacting the server company would get us anything. A decent company would delete the entire cluster of personal information. It would all be gone. ¡°Do you really think there is a means of becoming a Youkai?¡± asked the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Humans and Youkai were completely different life forms. It would likely be more difficult a task than turning a human into a mountain gorilla. I thought for a bit and then... ¡°You said you saw an article on a news site about the suicide site that gathered participants using journal profiling, right? Did that have details of the Package used?¡± ¡°No. I don¡¯t know if the police never figured it out or if they wanted to prevent any idiots from copying it, but no details were given. However, it seems the key to the Package was how to get the people to meet the Shichinin Misaki that kills anyone who meets it.¡± ¡°Was there no other hint?¡± ¡°An alibi hotel.¡± The Zashiki Warashi used a term that had been popular on talk shows a while back. ¡°A website is created for a fictional hotel. For the price of a suite, an alibi is created for the person whose personal information is given. That was used so the targets who would never have met the Shichinin Misaki would have met it on paper. What do you think, Shinobu?¡± ¡°If that was enough to kill someone, anyone could easily kill the secretary-general of the UN or the president of the US. That would have only been the first stage. After those initial preparations, they would need to actually approach the target to prepare some kind of setting.¡± ¡°And that is the flood control reservoir?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, but they wouldn¡¯t have called him out here for no reason.¡± ¡°What about the police?¡± ¡°We should probably report this.¡± I hung up and a sudden question burst out of the Umbrella. ¡°Wh-what is going to happen to our master!? Is he here!? Or has he been taken elsewhere!?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know anything yet! It¡¯s still possible he¡¯s just drowning here. For now, we just have to rule out every possibility we can.¡± That was when I heard a rumbling noise. I pointed my flashlight toward it and found the opening to a water pipe tunnel directly below the edge we were standing on. The flood control reservoir was not simply a place to gather water. It only had so much area. The water flowing in was sent through other pipes to disperse the rainwater as much as possible. The tunnel was about a meter across and the bottom half was filled with water. I would likely be able to enter it if I crouched down. The Umbrella and I leaned over and I pointed the flashlight into the tunnel. ¡°I can¡¯t see very far in. I can¡¯t even tell if it heads straight or if it curves.¡± ¡°Ah! Isn¡¯t that the straw hat our master was wearing!?¡± ¡°Where? Is it just the hat!?¡± ¡°Further in. I can see just his hat caught on the edge...¡± ¡°Where!?¡± ¡°I already told you: further in!!¡± ¡°Yes, but where further-...!?¡± I suddenly trailed off. I had completely lost my balance. I could hear the Umbrella shouting something, but I couldn¡¯t make out what. I had sunk into the muddy water headfirst, so I could only hear a bubbly, muffled sound. I was near the large water pipe, so the current was intense. I immediately began flailing my arms around, but I could find nothing to grab onto. I was swept into the large opening of the water pipe. ¡°Cough!! Cough cough!!¡± I somehow managed to get my head above water, but I had already been sucked completely into the tunnel. I pointed my flashlight toward the entrance and was shocked to see how far from it I had been swept. I was too far for the light to reach the entrance. I had already traveled several dozen meters. And the powerful current was still sweeping me further and further in. I still had no idea if there had actually been a straw hat there or not. I tried to brace my arms and legs against the edges of the tunnel to hold myself in place, but I still slipped further in bit by bit. I began to wonder if it would be best to go with the flow and leave through the exit on the other end. But there was no guarantee the water level would remain the same. If the water pipe tunnel headed down underground, it was entirely possible the entire thing would be filled with water. ¡°Shit!!¡± I gave up on trying to gain footing and instead tried to swim through the muddy water, but I could not gain any ground no matter how much I flailed my arms and legs around. In fact, I could tell I was being swept further in. My body was flipped over and I was rolled around in the tunnel so much I lost any sense of up or down. The direction filled with air and the direction filled with water swapped back and forth so much I could no longer tell if I was sucking in air or swallowing mud. The hard feeling of the flashlight left my hand. I was swept on and on and on through the pitch black tunnel. Maybe... Maybe I shouldn¡¯t have tried to do something so out of character... Part 9 ¡°...Cough...cough...¡± I let out a groan while coughing up what might have been water or might have been mud. The suffering I felt told me that I was still alive. But where was I? The next thing I knew, I had been dumped out of the dark tunnel. I sat up from lying on my back and realized I was in a ditch running through a paddy field. ¡°Wait, that¡¯s not it.¡± The sun had already set so it was pitch black and the pouring rain cut my visibility down even further. Even so, I stared intently at my surroundings. At first glance, it appeared to be a paddy field, but nothing was growing in it despite it being the end of August. And the large paddy field was surrounded by something like wooden planks so I could not see out. ...Is this field not being used anymore? From how thick the walls surrounding it were, I guessed it might be another proposed site for a flood control reservoir. I crawled out of the ditch while dragging myself along after my clothes had grown several times heavier due to soaking in water and mud. I pulled out my cell phone, but it was completely broken. I clicked my tongue without meaning to. The area was so dark I could not see much of anything, but I still had to try. The area seemed to be an old unused paddy field with a ditch running through the middle, but it was not covered entirely in flat dirt. At one point and one point only, the dirt swelled up. It was similar to the space prepared when someone wanted to create a grave on their own land instead of at a Buddhist temple. The area of dirt was about 10 meters square. It appeared large stones had been laid across on top to create a foundation. But... ¡°...It isn¡¯t a grave?¡± The stereotypical tombstone was not there. In its place was a small shabby wooden hut. It was not large enough for someone to enter. It was only about a meter across on each side. It was supported by a small leg, so it reminded me a bit of a Stevenson screen. What is that? This was inside of an old unused paddy field that was surrounded by wooden planks. I did not think anyone would be able to see inside from outside the field, so I doubted this was something the owner of the land had built. It was more likely that someone else had put it here so the people of the village would not know it was here. I approached it with my feet sinking into the mud. It was too dark to see the details, but the small hut did not look very old. Its color and texture were spot on. It might have been created out of materials taken directly from actual antique wooden buildings. However, the nails or the adhesive used may have been new because I could smell an odd scent. Was it a small hut or a small shrine? At any rate, I stood in front of it and opened its double-doors. ¡°...What is this?¡± I found something unexpected within. It was nothing related to the occult like a Buddha statue or a Shinto shintai[2]. It was something in the complete opposite direction. ¡°A handgun?¡± The barrel glittered with a silver light. The grip was covered in black rubber. It appeared to be a stereotypical six-shot revolver. But when I cautiously reached out and touched it with a finger, it felt somehow odd. I had never held a real handgun, but it felt so cheaply made even I could tell something was off. It seemed to be made of metal, but something like paint had been added on top. Color had been added to make it seem more solid than it was. A real gun would not need such a trick. ...Is this a toy? I touched the black rubber grip and a question caught in my mind. What was this doing in a place like this? And... I also felt like I had seen the exact same thing somewhere. But where? I felt as if it had been quite recently. But then... ¡°...What are you doing?¡± I suddenly heard a voice from directly behind me. It was a high-pitched soprano voice. But it was not a girl¡¯s voice. It was the voice of a boy before his voice changed. It was not the voice of anyone I knew very well, but I was still fairly certain I knew who it was. I turned around. I found a boy of around 10 standing there. Perhaps due to the Umbrella not being here, he was soaking wet from the pouring rain. But he was still not as muddy as me. He may not have passed through that water pipe or he may have passed through it before the rain began. But even so... This was an old empty paddy field being used as a flood control reservoir, so where had he been hiding? That question swelled up in my mind, but I had something else to check on first. ¡°Yonesaki-kun? You¡¯re Yonesaki Hiro-kun, right?¡± I was a little unsure of how formal I should be when speaking to a child of that age, but this was no time to worry about that. I ended up asking my question in my usual brusque manner. The boy nodded his head. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Good.¡± That was stage 1 clear. But I asked another question just to be sure. ¡°Did you come here alone? You weren¡¯t with any other friends, were you?¡± ¡°I came alone.¡± When I heard that response, I finally felt my body relax with relief. Everyone was safe. I did not need to worry about any other children having been swallowed up in that torrent. As long as I could safely return this boy to the Umbrella and Lantern, the entire incident would be over. That meant my biggest concern was the actions of whoever had lured Yonesaki Hiro out here. Yonesaki Hiro himself had said he came here alone, but I was afraid this mystery person might be lurking in the darkness somewhere. ¡°You know the Umbrella and Lantern, right? They¡¯re really worried about you. But you just need to get home for now. I¡¯ll tell the two of them I found you.¡± ¡°No,¡± replied Yonesaki Hiro. He continued speaking while standing still in the middle of the pouring rain. ¡°I¡¯m not going home. I was told I would be turned into a Youkai if I stay here.¡± ¡°...By who?¡± ¡°...¡± My question was met with silence. It seemed he was not willing to answer just anything. That was not too surprising as the boy had no real reason to open his heart to me. Given how muddy I already was, I decided it was pointless to worry about my clothes. I sat down in the mud so I could stare the short Yonesaki Hiro in the eye before speaking again. ¡°Hey, listen to me.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Anyone should know it would be difficult to turn a human into a Youkai. Are you saying you can do it? How? A Yuki Onna and a Zashiki Warashi may look just like us, but they are completely different inside. Even if I decided today I would become a Yuki Onna, I wouldn¡¯t be able to. Don¡¯t you understand that?¡± ¡°I can do it.¡± His reply came almost immediately. I had denied what he believed in. This was only a reflexive response to that, but it was better than silence. ¡°I can do it. I was told I can. So...¡± ¡°Is everything people tell you true? Then let me tell you something: a human cannot become a Youkai. Will that change your mind? Will it convince you? Will it?¡± ¡°I can become a Youkai!! I can because I waited here for that person!!¡± ¡°Again: who is this-...¡± My question trailed off as my words caught in my throat. I frowned. ¡°Wait. Why did you just use the past tense?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t say you could become a Youkai if you wait for this person. You said you can because you waited for them. That¡¯s what you said, right? Why?¡± ¡°Because...¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you already met them!? With who!?¡± The darkness surrounding me suddenly seemed to stab sharply at me. I could feel malicious intent coming at me from all directions. Was the person nearby? Who was it? What had they done while meeting with Yonesaki Hiro? This meant the person was not simply trying to kidnap the boy. Had they set up some kind of trick that would automatically bear fruit after the fact? Did Yonesaki Hiro understand what had happened to him? The boy then shouted out as if I had angered him by insulting his family and friends. ¡°With the Shichinin Misaki!! I was told I can be one of them!!¡± I felt a chill run down my spine that was not from the muddy water. It was much colder. The Shichinin Misaki. The Umbrella and Madoka had both mentioned it. They had mentioned sightings around here despite the Shichinin Misaki being an ocean Youkai. But... ¡°You idiot... That thing is completely deadly! And not just on the level of a Yuki Onna or Nekomata. It supposedly kills any human it meets. That¡¯s about as deadly as it gets!!¡± Was a wild beast covered in powerful muscles frightening? Was a wild beast equipped with razor sharp fangs and claws frightening? The answer is obviously yes. But the strength of Youkai is not the same as that of normal animals. The most frightening species of Youkai are the ones that have irrational deadly abilities. If you merely meet them, you die. If you merely have anything to do with them, you die. Those ones were the truly deadly ones. At that point, I felt like I had finally seen the whole picture. Having Yonesaki Hiro meet the Shichinin Misaki had been the criminal¡¯s goal. After the target had been designated using 4 Line Net and the alibi hotel, some method would be used to send the Shichinin Misaki to the same area as the target. Normally, a Shichinin Misaki would wander around aimlessly simply spreading damage. However, once the Shichinin Misaki had already ¡°met¡± Yonesaki Hiro online, their characteristics as a Youkai would take over and send them straight for the boy like a guided missile. It was an assassination Package that accurately killed only the designated target while disguising it as suicide. But I could not grasp why the criminal would use such a complex plan against a boy like Yonesaki Hiro. Was it simply a test or did killing Yonesaki Hiro hold some great meaning? ¡°No. No! I was told I would get to be part of the Shichinin Misaki. It isn¡¯t going to hurt me!!¡± ¡°You know the Shichinin Misaki is a rather vague Youkai, right?¡± ¡°Yes, even I know that.¡± ¡°It always appears before humans in the form of a group of seven drowning victims. It kills any human that meets them. The oldest drowning victim is annihilated and the person just killed takes up the position at the end of the line. It¡¯s that repeating pattern...that loop construction that is actually the invisible Youkai known as the Shichinin Misaki. The drowning victims you see are like its clothes or accessories. That is not the same as being one of them.¡± The Shichinin Misaki may have been about the most deadly Youkai there is, but it was not good or evil itself. If anyone was to blame, it was the person who had led the Shichinin Misaki here to meet Yonesaki Hiro. Yonesaki Hiro was not seeking his own death, but the end result was not much different. He wanted to go somewhere else. He wanted to become someone else. Anyone had those thoughts at some point or another, but to me it seemed they had been forcibly twisted to make the boy wish to die as an escape. ¡°But I was told I would be turned into a Youkai,¡± repeated Yonesaki Hiro obstinately. ¡°I was told the Shichinin Misaki coming to me was a special one that would turn anyone into a Youkai if they want it. It can ignore the limit of seven. No one has to disappear. Everyone can become one of them and be a Youkai.¡± Become a Youkai. Become the same sort of being as the Umbrella and Lantern. That way he could avoid the inevitable goodbye with his close friends. If that was what Yonesaki Hiro wished for, would that infinite Shichinin Misaki really appear so wonderful? But if it was true, wouldn¡¯t this special Shichinin Misaki transform into some horrific existence as the endless pile of drowning victims piled higher and higher? Becoming a portion of the Shichinin Misaki may indeed mean becoming something other than a normal human. But would that really be an existence equal to the Umbrella and Lantern? A fish that could freely swim through the ocean and fish meat made by smashing up the flesh and bones seemed like different things to me. It seemed unfair for the person behind this Package to demand the boy make his decision without having any of the trickier issues explained to him. ¡°Hey.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Listen. Look at me. Come to think of it, I never asked you one thing. You keep saying you will become a Youkai, but why do you want to become one?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°This silence isn¡¯t because you refuse to answer. You¡¯re embarrassed. I understand.¡± ¡°How can you-...!?¡± ¡°How can I understand?¡± I gave a scornful laugh. Oh, dammit. Understanding this is easy. It embarrasses me too!! ¡°When writing about their dreams for the future, children in Intellectual Villages will occasionally say they want to become a Youkai. ...In my case, I started writing it in elementary school. Everyone in my class laughed at me. For some reason, it was turned into a wall scroll and it decorates the wall of the Japanese-style living room in my thatch-roof house to this day. The Zashiki Warashi teases me about it twice a year or so.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°That is why I said I understand. I was the same. I originally thought it was a natural thing to wish for. I didn¡¯t understand why my class laughed at me. But I eventually realized why. Humans cannot become Youkai. That is not the path for us.¡± But Yonesaki Hiro had not given up there. Even if he found it embarrassing to tell people he wanted to become a Youkai, he had remained silent and continued to wish for it in his heart. But it had slipped out occasionally. And some idiot had picked up on it and lured the boy here. ¡°Our differences in lifespan can¡¯t be helped. It isn¡¯t a problem we can solve. Rhinoceros beetles die sooner than we do. That¡¯s sad. But what would happen if we forced a rhinoceros beetle to live for 100 years? I have no idea how a rhinoceros beetle would feel about it, but I would guess it would be painful. The construction of its body would have become something that can no longer be called a rhinoceros beetle.¡± Compared to the time when it was said humans lived for 50 years, our lifespans had expanded quite a bit. But it was still impossible to match a Youkai. Humans could not become Youkai. No matter how close we lived with them, we were still different. ¡°Why?¡± Yonesaki Hiro asked a short question. It was a question of denial. Did this prove he was still trapped by the criminal¡¯s trick? Or did it mean his original wish had simply been that great? ¡°Why did you give up? What made you say you can¡¯t become a Youkai?¡± ¡°Because I don¡¯t need to be one,¡± I said immediately and decisively. ¡°For the sake of argument, say there is a child with a serious illness. A tactless doctor announces that he has only a few months left to live. Is it wrong for this child to want to make new friends?¡± ¡°Well...¡± ¡°Of course not. The length of people¡¯s lives does not bind them. Even if you have only a week to live or if you only have a day to live, it is best to live your life to the fullest up to the very last moment. Am I wrong?¡± I then started from the opposite angle. ¡°Just because Youkai live so much longer than a human who lives for only 100 years, the human does not need to feel inferior. If a Youkai said it did not want to be friends with a human because he only lives for 100 years, that is just that one Youkai¡¯s issue. Would you really want to be friends with someone like that? ...The Umbrella and Lantern who have always been with you are not that rude, are they?¡± Yonesaki Hiro gave a large shake of his head. And so I continued on to my conclusion. ¡°Then there is nothing to worry about.You just have to live your 100 years of life to their fullest. There is no need for you to throw away the life you have to have a Shichinin Misaki turn you into a Youkai. Right?¡± ¡°Is that...really true?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re worried, don¡¯t keep it to yourself. You can discuss it with the Umbrella and Lantern. As long as you aren¡¯t speaking with a horrible contrarian of a Zashiki Warashi, they will give you a proper answer.¡± Despite the pouring rain, they had been searching the near-overflowing flood control reservoir for the boy. Once they learned he planned to become one of the drowning victims, they might seriously scold him. But I felt it was not my job to scold the boy. That was the job of those who had always been by Yonesaki Hiro¡¯s side. In that case... ¡°You do not need the help of the Shichinin Misaki. Okay?¡± ¡°...Okay.¡± ¡°Then just wait here. I¡¯ll go call the Umbrella and Lantern.¡± I felt a horrible feeling run down my spine. Now that he had given up on his plan, if Yonesaki Hiro simply headed home and was reunited with the Umbrella Obake and the Lantern Obake...he would not receive a happy ending. A human who met a Shichinin Misaki would die. They were not frightening because of their razor sharp claws or fangs. They were not frightening because they were covered in powerful muscles. If you merely met them, you would die. It did not even need to touch you. Yonesaki Hiro had said he met that sort of deadly Youkai. If that was the case, he was no exception. Yonesaki Hiro would die. I did not know if it would be three days later, a month later, or what, but he would certainly die now that he had met it. That was simply the type of Youkai it was. However, there was a single small piece of fortune. That Shichinin Misaki seemed to be part of a Package created by a third party. It seemed the limit of only seven drowning victims at a time had been removed so the drowning victims could be added on infinitely. I had no idea what number Yonesaki Hiro had been set as. But if he was not in the normal count of seven, it was possible the count could be returned to zero if the core of the modified Shichinin Misaki was destroyed and it returned to its normal state. In other words... It was possible Yonesaki Hiro¡¯s death could be cancelled. To properly return Yonesaki Hiro to live on in the world he had come from, something had to be done about the Shichinin Misaki at the base of it all. But on the other hand... Taking action to save Yonesaki Hiro would mean directly facing that Shichinin Misaki with that horrible characteristic. If I met it, I would die. Even if it never touched me, it would kill me. Luckily, I had not yet encountered the Shichinin Misaki. If the Package was only targeting Yonesaki Hiro, I might be able to avoid ever encountering it. But to save Yonesaki Hiro from the Package, the risk of spotting the Shichinin Misaki rose. Knowing that, was it really best for me to continue on through the mud? I would be lying if I said that worry never crossed my mind. I was not a card battling Onmyouji living in the modern age nor was I an exorcist who wielded spiritual power. I was a mere high school student. If I was to appear in this sort of story, I was only suited to play the victim. If I didn¡¯t want to die, I needed to flee right that instant. The Shichinin Misaki problem was focused on Yonesaki Hiro, so I would be safe if I kept away from the boy. I could wait for the problem to go away. But... ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Nothing,¡± I said as I shook my head. Surviving like that was taking the easy way out. But someone¡¯s life was on the line. If I took the easy way out, I felt I would be bound by that decision for the rest of my life. It¡¯s a bit embarrassing for me to admit, but if I could have easily made that decision, I would not have rushed out into the rain to search the flood control reservoir in the first place. ¡°Listen. You need to stay here. I¡¯ll bring the Umbrella and Lantern here. We¡¯ll deal with the Shichinin Misaki, so you stay here. Understand?¡± Something had released the limit of seven people. Something was not allowing it to count to seven. I already had a decent guess as to what that was. There had been a strange small shabby hut set up in the old unused paddy field. A six-shot revolver toy had been kept inside. Its framework was built around the number six, so naturally it could never count to seven. Just as the six-shot cylinder would spin every time the trigger was pulled, the Shichinin Misaki would forever continue gathering drowning victims in vain. When I thought back, I remembered that Yonesaki Hiro had first spoken to me the instant I touched the toy handgun. Yonesaki Hiro may have been there all along, but I had not noticed him until I touched a portion of the Package. Was it possible the ¡°change¡± in Yonesaki Hiro had simply advanced that far? ¡°...¡± The fact that the revolver was enshrined in the small shabby hut held meaning. If I tried to forcibly move it, someone who wanted to maintain the Package would likely try to stop me. And they would likely do so by wielding the power of the Shichinin Misaki they controlled. Once my death was decided, I would be able to move the danger away from Yonesaki Hiro who remained behind. But that alone was not enough. The Shichinin Misaki was an ocean Youkai. It made no sense for it to be in Noukotsu Village which was surrounded by forests and mountains. Some other trick would be needed to force it past all that. If I did not destroy that other trick, the Shichinin Misaki would remain in the village. It would wield its power and kill both Yonesaki Hiro and me. ¡°Hey, you said you met the Shichinin Misaki, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Did you see anything on the ground around it? Like a thermos or a plastic drink bottle. Some kind of sealed container filled with ocean water.¡± ¡°...I don¡¯t know,¡± said Yonesaki Hiro slowly as if trying to remember. ¡°But I stopped by our secret base before coming here.¡± ¡°In the flood control reservoir? That whole area was submerged once it began to rain.¡± ¡°Yes. There was a lot of stuff there because we all gather the things we find. I remember seeing a case that probably held fishing equipment and a cooler for putting fish in.¡± ¡°...I see.¡± If someone was trying to hide something or keep it from being messed with, the best method would be to place it at the bottom of that violent water. That water that had been made so muddy by the downpour. No one could see the bottom and entering the water would be suicide. But that was likely where the Shichinin Misaki¡¯s core lay. If I could open the sealed container and pour out the ocean water contained within, the Shichinin Misaki would likely lose all its power. Even the most powerful shark in the ocean would be powerless when dragged up on land. I had no time. The ¡°change¡± to Yonesaki Hiro was likely progressing at that very moment. I had to change the Shichinin Misaki¡¯s target before it crossed a certain line. The small hut contained a silver revolver toy. The moment I grabbed it, I would begin a deadly game of tag with a Youkai that would kill me if I so much as met it. I had passed out on the way here, but I figured I was at most 200 to 300 meters away from the flood control reservoir the Umbrella and Lantern were at. Any more and I would have drowned. The old unused paddy field was surrounded by wooden planks, but a careful observation showed that one of the planks was broken. I could leave through there. The conditions I needed were all set. The cards were still stacked too far against me to call it a fair fight, but nothing would be resolved if I did not break free of this. Okay. Are you ready? Part 10 I grabbed the toy revolver in the Stevenson screen-like hut. I then began running as quickly as I could. However, the dirt of the old unused paddy field had soaked up a lot of water. I could not run like normal. Nevertheless, I somehow made it to the opening in the wooden planks surrounding the area. In the next instant, I felt something cold run down my spine. It felt more like static than a chill. The signals running through my nerves had clearly grown buggy. I could feel the core of my body growing limp. Despite the darkness, I was blinded as if by a bright light. My breathing grew erratic. I was sweating profusely. ¡°Is this...something like...a fever...!?¡± Dammit. It was hard enough to run already!! In this state, I could see how someone could drown even in a puddle. I practically fell out of the old paddy field and through the broken plank. I approached the mountain slope as I ran along an unpaved farm road. Or rather, I tried to run. It was only a distance of 200 to 300 meters, yet I seemed unable to reach my destination. If I was truly running, I would have passed my destination long ago. All I could manage was walking while staggering. I decided that was better than collapsing and being forced to crawl. ¡°Gah...pant...pant...pant...¡± The pain in my throat was the worst of all. Was that because this was a deadly Youkai that created drowning victims? I did not have the courage to look behind me. I did not know what form this Shichinin Misaki modified by the Package would have, but I knew I would be overwhelmed if I looked straight at it. Of course, whether I turned to face it or not made little difference. I had still met it, so I would die either way. But I could not bear any more fear. And where was I? How far had I gotten? I had lost track of the direction. Even my sense of up and down grew uncertain. My consciousness was so hazy that both my thoughts and my emotions had grown dull. I sincerely hoped I was not simply running in circles. And then I spotted a sign. It was a single light visible in the darkness. It was the light of the Lantern Obake who was still flying around the flood control reservoir. ¡°Wh-what happened!? I heard you were sucked into a water pipe!!¡± The Lantern made much more of a fuss than necessary when I finally returned to the edge of the reservoir. But I did not have time to answer her questions. I had to search the bottom of that unbelievably large reservoir and find the cooler filled with ocean water. ¡°Gyaaah!! Wh-what are you doing!? Are you trying to kill yourself!?¡± Strength left my body and I more or less collapsed forward into the reservoir. But I was in no state to search for something. The water was about a meter deep. Logically thinking, it was shallow enough to stand in. But the current was so strong that my feet were swept out from under me and my head was forcibly dragged underwater. I could barely keep my head above water, much less move around the flood control reservoir searching for something. ¡°Hey! What are you doing!?¡± I heard an odd voice and then saw something long and narrow stick into the water in front of me. It was the Umbrella Obake. ¡°Grab on. I can act as a float!!¡± ¡°Th-thank-...bgh!? Wait a second. Why are you sinking!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask m-...mghmghgh.¡± This Youkai is useless through and through!! As I half-floated and half-sank in the muddy water, my body was swept in a single direction. I looked over and panicked. I was headed straight for the tunnel I had been sucked into before. If I was sucked into it again, I would lose any chance of turning this around. I would either run out of strength in the old unused paddy field after leaving the tunnel or I would drown in the tunnel. I knew that, but I could think of nothing I could do to stop it. There was nothing I could do to resist and both Yonesaki Hiro and I would be swallowed up by that deadly Youkai. But then... ¡°...?¡± I felt something hard against my leg. When I thought about it, it made sense. The water was all flowing in that one direction, so all of the trash in the flood control reservoir would gather there. And that included the cooler I was looking for. ¡°Lantern!! Cough, light up this area!!¡± ¡°Eh? Wh-why?¡± ¡°Just do it!!¡± I gave up fighting the current and let go of the Umbrella I was using as a float. I then held my breath and dived underwater. I heard a splashing noise, but that was it. I could not count on seeing through the water when it was so muddy on such a dark night. Even so, I managed to find a hard object by touch, grabbed it with both hands, and lifted it above the water. The first object I found was a plastic bucket. The second was a broken vacuum cleaner. The third was the cooler box in question. ¡°Heh.¡± I could feel something deep in my head distorting. The Shichinin Misaki¡¯s attack may have grown stronger. But it was too late. I released the latch and forcibly opened the lid. I then dumped the contents into the muddy water. Nothing but a clear liquid that smelled of the beach poured out. But that resolved it. And as proof... ¡°...¡± I looked around once more. I was now calm enough to simply look around. My mind had grown clear. The fever-like symptoms had disappeared. And... I finally noticed the Youkai approaching me from behind. The Shichinin Misaki. That deadly Youkai always made up of seven drowning victims. I saw a woman in a swimsuit, a woman in a suit with a tight skirt, a girl in a dress, and others. All of their arms were within a meter of reaching me. But that was as far as they made it. Countless fingers were pointed towards me like blades, but they stopped moving and approached no further. It was as if something was interfering with their ability to act. ¡°You¡¯re just like a fish that¡¯s been dragged up on land,¡± I spat out. I received no response. Perhaps the Youkai could not respond. ¡°A Youkai can¡¯t be killed by normal means, but what about now? Will you be crushed by the environment and annihilated or will you be stuck here unable to die and experiencing never-ending torture?¡± Very faintly... I distinctly felt something like fear running through that deadly group. ¡°On that note...¡± I pulled a keychain out of my pants pocket. My family¡¯s Zashiki Warashi bought so much pointless crap online that she had earned enough points to be sent this useless present. The keychain was decorated with a clear sphere about the size of a ping pong ball. And it was filled with ocean water. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a place to hide for now. I just need to stuff this in a sleeping bag so no one ¡®meets¡¯ you and then carry it to the ocean. But that is only if Yonesaki Hiro and I remain safe. Do you understand?¡± Part 11 I may have looked cool bringing all that to a conclusion, but the massive flow of water created by the flood control reservoir was still sucking me towards the water pipe. In the end, I was swept into it once more. (The Umbrella managed to spread his upper portion to catch on the edge before being swept in.) Once I arrived in the old unused paddy field again, I had to return to the reservoir with Yonesaki Hiro. The Umbrella and Lantern charged full speed through the darkness the instant they spotted the boy. ¡°O-ohh!! Master, where have you been all this time!?¡± ¡°Are you unharmed!? That is wonderful!!¡± I could not hear the details of their conversation from where I was, but I figured things would be fine from what I did hear. In fact, there had been nothing to worry about in the first place. This had all been caused by someone agitating the boy¡¯s concerns to cause a negative growth. ¡°Shinobu.¡± I turned toward a voice behind me and found the glamorous Zashiki Warashi holding an umbrella. I assumed she was going to let me join her beneath it, but she frowned and took a step back when I approached. ¡°...Stay away from me. You smell horrible.¡± ¡°Then why are you even here?¡± But given how muddy I was, there was no point in worrying about the rain. ¡°By the way, remember that Youkai artist...Houjou was it? Do you know where he went?¡± ¡°No.¡± I hadn¡¯t expected her to. When I thought back, I realized the person who had showed an interest in the toy handgun in the sweets shop and the person carrying a cooler and a fishing equipment case for his art supplies had been him. However, I had a feeling I would not find any sign of that Houjou even if I searched all over the Intellectual Village. Why had he used that Shichinin Misaki Package? Why had he set Yonesaki Hiro as his target? Those two issues were left a complete mystery. I¡¯m not a professional detective like my uncle, so I know I can¡¯t have every loose end tied up. But still... ¡°Sigh. Let¡¯s head home.¡± ¡°Yes. By the way Shinobu, I was listening to what that boy and his Youkai have been saying.¡± Nnn...!? ¡°A-and what exactly were they talking about, indoor Youkai?¡± ¡°Something that makes me want to go laugh at that wall scroll in the Japanese-style living room again.¡± ¡°Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!¡± I could feel my mind going blank. The Shichinin Misaki contained in the keychain was nothing. My true natural enemy was definitely that glamorous Zashiki Warashi!! ¡°The length of one¡¯s life doesn¡¯t matter, hm?¡± muttered the Zashiki Warashi with a thin smile as I trembled. ¡°Well, I suppose that ¡®answer¡¯ does sound nice.¡± ¡°?¡± Notes 1. ¡ü Azukiarai literally means ¡°Azuki bean washing¡±. 2. ¡ü A shintai is an object at a Shinto shrine in which a god is said to reside. Volume 2, 2: Hishigami Mai @ Copied Ill Will Volume 2, Chapter 2: Hishigami Mai @ Copied Ill Will Part 1 It was hot. It was the end of August, so it really should have been a bit cooler. Not even my highly revealing outfit of a white tank top and hot pants was enough to combat the heat. And the heat of the sun seemed to increase as if to say it was just getting started. Long hair was very annoying in this kind of weather. I had it bound up, but I had a powerful urge to just cut it all off. You couldn¡¯t take the urban heat island effect lightly. But I was a working member of society, so I couldn¡¯t exactly head to Hokkaido for fun. I¡¯ll leave what kind of society I mean to your imagination. In a large city hardened with asphalt and concrete, no one was surprised to see a mirage after consecutive hot, sunny days. I approached a large vehicle parked below an overpass in that gray and wavering city. I then tapped lightly on its body with the back of my right hand. Now then. When you hear the term ¡°RV¡±, how large of a vehicle do you picture in your head? Well, I doubt many people would say ¡°the size of a large tour bus¡±, but that was exactly how gigantic the one in front of me was. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say the entire interior of a tour bus had been removed and all the devices needed to live one¡¯s life had been installed. ¡°Hey, hey, Mai-san. Long time no see. Come on in.¡± The front door opened automatically using compressed air and the small man in the driver¡¯s seat spoke to me. He was wearing the stereotypical indoor outfit of a T-shirt and shorts. Thanks to solar panels and a giant battery, the vehicle had the air conditioning on 24/7, so it should have been cool enough regardless. I walked up the three or four steps into the vehicle and looked around. It had a bed, a table, a couch, a refrigerator, a microwave, and a TV. Oh, and a gas stovetop, oven, and bathroom as well. The amount of furniture had increased since the last time I had been there. Why did an RV have a washer and dryer in it? ¡°You¡¯re insane to spend 30 million yen on this thing.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you know, Mai-san? There¡¯s an asteroid coming. It¡¯s going to get real close real soon. If you think of yourself as the earth, it¡¯s going to pass right in front of your nose. It¡¯ll be quite the spectacle. If you truly hope to survive, you¡¯ll need more than some emergency food and flashlights. I¡¯ve spent all this money to save my own life.¡± That may be the case, but you¡¯re forgetting the scale of the earth and the asteroid. Even scraping right by my nose is farther away than Japan is from Brazil. The small man¡¯s nostrils flared as he said, ¡°Really, it comes down to food. Food is most important. In the cargo space down below, I¡¯ve made a baby leaf factory using ultraviolet lights and a moisture circulation device. It¡¯s a masterpiece! Every week, I have a drum-full of leaves to eat. I¡¯ll never starve. I can survive for 100 years without issue using this system.¡± ¡°Only a rabbit could survive off of that.¡± ¡°You¡¯d think so, right? But you¡¯re wrong. Chickens. I¡¯m raising chickens, too. They lay eggs every day, so I have no shortage of animal protein. Plus, I can eat their meat too. As long as I plan it out so I don¡¯t eat too much chicken meat and allow a tenth of the eggs to hatch into chicks, I¡¯ll have no problems! Amazing, isn¡¯t it? Isn¡¯t my system just plain amazing!?¡± He was an annoying man. But the fact that someone with such a horrible lack of sociability could survive as a free agent without relying on the power of an organization showed just how skilled he was at his job. To switch the flow of the conversation, I said, ¡°Now then, Supplier.¡± ¡°What is it, Mai-san?¡± ¡°I need money. Either hand over all of your money or introduce me to a job.¡± Those who did not understand my situation would often refer to me as the Deadly Dragon Princess of Hyakki Yakou, but I was actually a free agent just like this man. Hyakki Yakou was my usual client because it was Japan¡¯s largest organization in my field, but I did not exclusively take jobs from them. I did like the young lady at the top of that organization, but I had to accept jobs from elsewhere to maintain the proper balance. Otherwise, I risked binding myself too closely to the one organization. Leaving clear signs of your neutrality could be a real pain in the ass. The Supplier was aware of those issues, so he replied without showing any real change to his expression. ¡°I see. Then I have a good one for you. How about taking a trip to Kyoto?¡± ¡°Kyoto?¡± ¡°Yes, Kyoto. One of the few cities of over a million where humans coexist with Youkai thanks to thoroughly maintaining the environment. I have an order asking for someone to go crush some idiots who are acting in secret there.¡± Oh? As the Supplier had said, Kyoto was a unique place in both Japan and perhaps even worldwide. But the one problem with sticking to the old ways too much was an inability to deal with modern circumstances and social problems. That city contained a large number of Youkai and a large number of humans. In other words, it was filled with easy marks for Youkai-related Packages. ¡°Well, anything¡¯s fine by me. Who are these idiots?¡± ¡°Akki Rasetsu[1].¡± ¡°That organization numbers in the thousands. Isn¡¯t that a little much for me to slaughter on my own?¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t something I want to hear from the princess who caused enough infighting to destroy Inga Ouhou[2] which was three times the size.¡± The Supplier grinned. ¡°Also, you don¡¯t need to completely annihilate them. Akki Rasetsu is earning quite a bit of hatred in their attempts to expand their range of business. If you give them a good blow or two and destroy their income cycle, those around them will finish them off.¡± ¡°And is that cycle in Kyoto?¡± ¡°It seems they¡¯ve started some huge project. This project shows no concern for morals or human life yet they¡¯ve started it in the middle of a city of over a million. The leaders of Akki Rasetsu will gather to inspect the project soon. That is when you should crush them.¡± ¡°Have they bet the fate of the organization on this?¡± ¡°Seems that way. Crushing either the leaders or project will be enough to fulfill the order. Of course, you¡¯ll get a special bonus if you crush both. Will you take it?¡± ¡°I might as well. I assume you have confirmed the client¡¯s ability to pay.¡± ¡°Yes. If I didn¡¯t check, you and the others would track down the identity of the client.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll take the job.¡± ¡°One warning,¡± said the Supplier. ¡°It seems this job is a race to the finish. I discovered this while making sure the client would be able to pay. It seems middlemen besides me have been given this order as well. If you don¡¯t get there first, you might not get paid.¡± ¡°That contradicts what you said.¡± ¡°If that happens, take it up with them. It has nothing to do with me. You can always get pissed, attack the client¡¯s mansion in the middle of the night, and break through the door of their vault.¡± ¡°I see.¡± I thought for a bit. ¡°I suppose if I find any other free agents like me in Kyoto, I¡¯ll crush them too. If I spot them on the battlefield, I have no real reason to let them live.¡± ¡°...It¡¯s times like this that I¡¯m damn glad I¡¯m on your side, Mai-san.¡± Oh? When did I ever say I was on your side? ¡°I¡¯ll be going then. Don¡¯t count on a souvenir.¡± I waved my hand and headed for the exit of that end of the century RV made from a tour bus. But then the Supplier said, ¡°Is a job really all you need? If necessary, I can prepare you some Buddhist equipment or sacred treasures.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like that sort of thing. Perhaps it¡¯s because I¡¯ve spent more money than this bus cost on my own skin.¡± ¡°Really? That¡¯s too bad. I have some good bargains like some sacred sake from the Jinnai Brewery. It was originally meant to be dedicated at the Ise Grand Shrine. It has yet to be given the color of a specific god, so it has quite a few uses.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather drink that than use it as a weapon.¡± Part 2 And so I boarded a bullet train and headed to Kyoto. A linear motor train ran along the same route, but I did not want to deal with the grand opening fair. In my business, the convenient transportation methods that had declined in use were best. I had a mid-sized inn in Gion lined up for temporary lodging. But there was something I had to do before switching from the ZR Kyoto Station to the subway station. ¡°Suuuneeekooosuuuriii-chaaan¡î What the hell are you doing here?¡± ¡°E-eeeeeeee!? Y-you already spotted me tailing you!? Ah...no...I mean...!!¡± A small canine Youkai called a Sunekosuri had his entire body twitching. He was a cute species of Youkai that could do nothing but rub up against people¡¯s legs, but he was still an official member of Hyakki Yakou. Which meant... ¡°Well, I have to catch a train, so come with me. We can continue talking on the subway.¡± ¡°U-um, you aren¡¯t mad?¡± ¡°Prepare yourself for tonight. We¡¯re going to have fun in the mixed bath.¡± We boarded a subway train and headed for Gion. I asked the Sunekosuri about the situation while on the train. ¡°Since a member of Hyakki Yakou is tailing me, can I assume this order comes from them?¡± ¡°Uuh...¡± ¡°Akki Rasetsu is an eyesore, but that is not enough justification to crush them. If Hyakki Yakou tried to force that through as a reason to attack, they would be attacked and criticized in turn. That is why they went through free agent middlemen to crush Akki Rasetsu without anyone knowing Hyakki Yakou was involved.¡± But... I leaned up against the train wall. ¡°I assume the young lady at the top of Hyakki Yakou disapproved of this method. She does not punish based on suspicion. If she did not have enough evidence to punish an evil, she would have a thorough search carried out. And if that was not enough but the evil needed to be defeated nonetheless, she would battle that evil honestly no matter how much blame it brought on her. That young lady prefers pure and immature methods like that. So what idiot is naming himself as a representative for Hyakki Yakou? I assume it is one of her aides who act like her regents or educators or something.¡± ¡°Ah wah wah wah wah wah,¡± said the flustered Sunekosuri. But that canine Youkai was like a salaryman member of the organization, so blaming him would get me nowhere. Whatever idiot was behind this had been the one to set it up so the payment was first come first serve and so the free agents would start killing each other. I would need to make an extra stop to ¡°punish¡± that idiot afterwards. Meanwhile, the train arrived at the Gion subway station. The Sunekosuri and I stepped out onto the subway platform, passed through the automatic turnstile, climbed the stairs, and exited into the city. ¡°Wow. This is like an explosion of Kyoto.¡± The administrative district in which the ZR Kyoto Station was located was lined with modern buildings, but the donut-shaped urban area not far away was completely cut off from the flow of time. The height and color of the buildings were restricted and it was filled with nothing but old wooden buildings. The roads were not paved and cars and bikes were banned from anywhere but the main roads. Police officers riding horses and rickshaws carrying tourists were a common sight. ¡°You can tell immediately this is one of the three biggest locations for filming period dramas. It looks like the kimono renting business is booming here.¡± ¡°They also have tons of forests and thickets. This place is really crowded.¡± Despite being a city of over a million, thick forests of maple trees and thickets of bamboo could be found not far from the road. This was Kyoto. Thanks to the thorough maintenance of the environment, plenty of Youkai could be found wandering around. It was quite obvious a large portion of the income in this area was from sightseeing. ¡°But why are the maple and ginkgo trees changing color already? It¡¯s still the end of August.¡± ¡°The pamphlets all say Kyoto is a city dyed in red, yellow, and green, right? They have various methods to make that a reality. For this, they use some sort of technology to make the natural trees mistake the timing for changing color.¡± I entered the inn I had reserved a room in under a false name and was led to my room. I checked for cameras and bugs before assembling a few tools of the trade. ¡°Okay, it¡¯s about time I crushed Akki Rasetsu.¡± ¡°The job was to either put a stop to their important project or assassinate the leaders coming to inspect it. Which will you be doing?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll decide that once I check on the situation. I¡¯ll go with whichever is easier.¡± I rubbed the back of the Sunekosuri that was politely sitting on a cushion. ¡°Now then, Sunekosuri-kun. What do you think Akki Rasetsu is trying to do in Kyoto?¡± ¡°Eh? Well, if they came to Kyoto it must be something they can only do here, right? And Kyoto is one of the prime areas for Youkai. Even Hyakki Yakou¡¯s structure takes it into account. The guidebook said the city was designed based on the principles of feng shui. So it must be something they need that sort of environment for, right? In that case...¡± ¡°Hah hah hah.¡± I gave a wooden monotone laugh. ¡°Incorrect.¡± ¡°Eh? But...¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, Sunekosuri-kun. You think they¡¯re in Kyoto to do something they can only do in Kyoto? That would make their conspiracy too obvious. Doing that would be as self-destructive as streaking nude in front of the National Diet Building. I don¡¯t know what they¡¯re planning, but Akki Rasetsu has begun a project large enough to catch Hyakki Yakou¡¯s attention. This is important enough for them to bet their organization on and for all of the leaders to visit. In other words, this is something they do not want to be stopped no matter what. Do you really think they would choose a setup that would be so easy to see through?¡± ¡°Th-then why would Akki Rasetsu go out of their way to go to Kyoto?¡± ¡°Think about it the other way around. Kyoto is a rare city that has both over a million people and countless Youkai. Bizarre phenomena that would stand out elsewhere will get buried under everything else in this city. The best place to hide a tree is in the forest, right? Akki Rasetsu¡¯s project probably has little to do with Kyoto itself.¡± So if you are hoping for this story to have me solve the mystery while going around to all the Kyoto sightseeing spots, eating tons of delicious local food, and providing steamy fanservice scenes at a hot spring, you should give up right this instant. But to be honest... I really would love to be able to mix work with pleasure like that. ¡°D-do you know what exactly is happening here?¡± ¡°No. They¡¯ve set this up as a labyrinth that is incomprehensible at first glance, so I have to dig deeper before I can actually learn anything,¡± I said offhandedly. ¡°And so I need to think up a way of tracking down a member of Akki Rasetsu even if it¡¯s just someone running errands. By the way, how much do you know about all this, Sunekosuri?¡± ¡°I-I am not part of the group that knows what is going on. I was simply asked to monitor the free agents to ensure none of them went beyond what Hyakki Yakou wishes. I am supposed to call in a combat member if anything happens.¡± That¡¯s about what I had expected. With Hyakki Rasetsu and the free agents, Kyoto was currently filled with abnormal people. The standard idea that Youkai could not be killed by normal means could no longer be counted on. The question was whether the Sunekosuri understood that risk or not. To be blunt, his odds of returning safely to Hyakki Yakou would have been much lower had I not called out to him first. ¡°Th-then you will be starting by pursuing some member of Akki Rasetsu operating in Kyoto? What exactly will be your first move?¡± ¡°Well,¡± I cracked my neck. ¡°How about I begin by killing all of the other free agents competing for this job?¡± Part 3 The Sunekosuri trembled in fear. Nevertheless, I swung the baby-sized rock down onto the head of the man with a camera hanging from his neck. He had been simple to spot with the suspicious mannerisms only a pro could spot. ¡°Okay, that¡¯s 7 of them. I¡¯d say this is a decent attempt to make it look like a large rock fell on him from that stone wall. Not a bad job at all. People really shine when they put in enough effort to work up a sweat.¡± After disguising the circumstances, I took the poor victim¡¯s cell phone and searched for personal information. Of course, if he was in the same situation as me, he would not have acquired any important data yet, and someone with any sense would not bring any private information to this sort of workplace. Once I was done, I returned the phone to the corpse¡¯s pocket and the Sunekosuri spoke up in a trembling voice. ¡°Wh-why...Why do people like you never try to work together to defeat the evil demon king?¡± ¡°Because we are all each other¡¯s enemies.¡± Plus, I had never before seen a boss of pure, unadulterated evil. It was our job to kill them regardless. ¡°Not only can I not see what Akki Rasetsu is up to here, but I have to worry about another free agent stabbing me in the side. I need to complete some basic preparations before getting down to work.¡± If possible, I would have liked to kill all of them, but I did not know how many of them there were. I had taken out a decent number, so I figured it was about time to turn towards Akki Rasetsu. ¡°U-umm, what are you going to do now?¡± The Sunekosuri looked up at me. ¡°Unlike other Intellectual villages, Kyoto is gigantic. It seems it would be considerably harder to find an organization hiding here than in a small village.¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple, it¡¯s simple. I just have to find a starting point.¡± ¡°?¡± I crouched down and wrapped an arm around the Sunekosuri to begin speaking privately. I whispered, ¡°Whether it¡¯s a giant city or a small village, the first step is to gather the phone calls and emails being sent around. The technology used isn¡¯t all that high level.¡± ¡°I-I see. But wouldn¡¯t people like this encrypt their communications?¡± ¡°Of course. But would people making normal phone calls or sending normal emails use high level encryption? Think about it in reverse. The ones encrypting their communications are the first to suspect. If I start there, it shouldn¡¯t be hard to run into Akki Rasetsu. But then,¡± I paused for a second, ¡°Akki Rasetsu will know this. And so they will use encryption software to send decoy data all over the place. They can just use the programs for wangiri calls or spam emails to send out a whole bunch. They send out blank messages that would take hours to decrypt and have them endlessly loop through servers throughout the city.¡± ¡°Then how do you distinguish the real ones from the decoys?¡± ¡°I search on foot.¡± I stuck my hand into the small pink handbag I was carrying over my shoulder. The Sunekosuri must have been expecting a handgun because his entire body flinched. ¡°Huh? A video camera?¡± ¡°This alone isn¡¯t enough to find Akki Rasetsu within the crowds.¡± I pressed a switch on the video camera to begin recording mode. ¡°But when people acquire a fake name and identity, they must also prepare a new driver¡¯s license. Those driver¡¯s licenses have an IC chip in them. The IC chips give out information when brought near a certain device just like train passes at the automatic turnstiles at a subway station.¡± The Sunekosuri still did not seem to understand, but I was wonderfully pretty in my willingness to patiently explain it all to him. ¡°If you up the output of the card reader next to a convenience store register, you can check the data on all the cards around you. I have a strengthened reader in my handbag.¡± ¡°O-oh.¡± ¡°So when I approach the target, it will suck out the information from the IC chip in their driver¡¯s license. Ones that¡¯s data has been illegally altered will leave traces of that in the code. If I find someone with that sort of suspicious license at one of the places sending out encrypted data, I have reason to be very suspicious of that person. Then again, it¡¯s possible some group other than Akki Rasetsu is hiding here, so I will need to do some additional investigation afterwards.¡± ¡°W-will this really lead you to them so easily?¡± ¡°The strengthened reader can only read IC chips from a range of a meter. If I use the footage from the video camera along with the time the data was sucked out, I can probably narrow my target down to about 10 people. Then I just need to investigate those people. One of them will be the man using the false identity.¡± To put it simply, I would be using the video camera and strengthened reader to search out someone working in some shady business. And so I had to wander around Kyoto. I spent over three hours going from Gion to Kawaramachi, cutting down Shijou Street, and finally walking around the Katsura Imperial Villa. Everywhere I went was filled with tourists. I wonder why foreigners like dressing up as samurai so much. If a Japanese person went to Europe and were asked if they wanted to dress up as a prince, I think they would refuse. After gathering a certain amount of data, I boarded the subway and returned to the inn. Just to be sure, I checked for bugs upon returning and then began comparing the video footage and the card data taken from passersby. ¡°Here, here, here, and here too. There are a lot of suspicious people in this city.¡± ¡°A-are they all from Akki Rasetsu?¡± ¡°Characteristic traces are left in the driver¡¯s license IC chip data. The ones with the same traces are probably all from the same organization. Let¡¯s see, let¡¯s see, let¡¯s see. There are 4 patterns here.¡± ¡°Kyoto really is a city of Youkai, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Yes. And that means plenty of shady organizations gather here.¡± ¡°How are you going to find Akki Rasetsu from this?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll look into each of the 4 patterns. Okay, this is the encrypted communications data flying around near these suspicious people. I just have to decrypt it and...boom! Found it!!¡± ¡°H-how did you do that so easily?¡± ¡°If each email or phone call took hours to encrypt, they could never get any work done. Even if the security is strict to begin with, the people on the scene will soon find ways to simplify things to make them easier to use.¡± Normally, this kind of simplified encrypted data would have numerical traps woven in that could never be solved such as pi. I had no idea how skilled these groups were, but the organizations based in Kyoto tended to do poorly when it came to intelligence issues. I sifted through the data based on what I had found. ¡°Pattern 1 is a small revenge-for-hire group, Pattern 2 is a large criminal organization selling weapons, and Pattern 3 is an Urashima group that wishes to be taken to paradise.¡± ¡°So is it Pattern 4?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s Akki Rasetsu.¡± I double-checked the faces of the people I had picked up with my video camera and compared them to the fake names and photos from the driver¡¯s licenses. I then checked the lodging information at the inn to see if any rooms were rented out under those names. Then all I had to do was cast my net across the inn¡¯s phone lines and any nearby Wi-Fi routers to easily gather Akki Rasetsu¡¯s encrypted communications data. I headed out to take care of that work and returned to my room once I was done. ¡°Oh. I already found something.¡± ¡°Did you already find data related to Akki Rasetsu¡¯s headquarters or the details of their project?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing that great. These are just subcontractors, so they might not have been told any of those details.¡± As I spoke, I compiled the fragmentary information I had acquired from multiple phone calls and emails. ¡°It seems they are secretly monitoring a girl by the name of Amemura Ryuu. She¡¯s clearly involved somehow with Akki Rasetsu¡¯s project.¡± ¡°Do you know who this Amemura Ryuu girl is?¡± ¡°I¡¯m checking on that now.¡± It was all going so well I felt like whistling. ¡°She lives in Kyoto. She¡¯s 11 years old. She¡¯s female. She attends a local elementary school and her grades are above average. She has violin lessons on Wednesdays and dance lessons on Mondays and Fridays. No records of serious illness. She has slight atopic allergies and has issues with ticks. She has received the flu vaccine this year. She has a filling in one of her right back teeth from a cavity treatment. Her father is a stay at home dad and her mother is the secretary for the president of an assembly of small- to mid-sized corporations known as the United Hive. Her personality is shy and reserved but very curious. She has to think about it for a moment before agreeing to be someone¡¯s friend.¡± ¡°H-how did you find all that information?¡± ¡°The residence registry, electronic medical records, and school grade reports are all kept in the cloud. If you have decent skills, you can gather all that information as easily as surfing the net.¡± But that meant I had no way of determining things handled directly such as the amount of allowance she received. ¡°And this beloved daughter has a child¡¯s cell phone with an alarm function. ...GPS functionality can be both good and bad. If you steal the identification code, someone like me can determine her location.¡± ¡°...Wow.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go make friends with Amemura Ryuu-chan who seems to be deeply related to this project.¡± I left the inn and walked through the cityscape that seemed to turn the idea of Japan into nothing but a tourist attraction. The foreigners in kimonos and ninja outfits stood out like sore thumbs as I walked along the unpaved road. I walked slowly and casually through the streets while obeying the traffic lights that were made to be quickly removed when a period drama was being filmed. ¡°But why has this Amemura Ryuu girl been marked by these shady people?¡± ¡°That is what we¡¯re trying to find out. Youkai that only children can see are quite popular, so it might be related to that.¡± But it seemed a bit odd that they had not abducted her if she was so deeply related to the project. ¡°Um, how are you going to approach her? She is a small child. She will probably treat adults like us as outsiders.¡± ¡°I have an idea. ...But come to think of it, Sunekosuri, you could probably just run up to her given how you look.¡± ¡°Do not make fun of me! How can you say that about a dandy like me!?¡± As we spoke, we approached within 50 meters of Amemura Ryuu-chan¡¯s location. She was inside a children¡¯s park that did not fit in with the period drama roads. Kyoto went to great lengths with its scenery, but it seemed they could not eliminate things like this and the traffic lights from before. Just as I took one step into the park... I felt an unpleasant feeling run down my spine. I could instinctually tell that something bad was about to happen. This was the same sort of premonition that anyone had, but oftentimes these situations were set up so it was too late by the time you felt that premonition. ¡°? What is it?¡± ¡°...Oh, I get it.¡± The Sunekosuri was unable to understand the situation with his limited information. Three or four children were gathered at a covered bench in the park. They were playing handheld game systems rather than on the playground equipment. I doubted kids these days would want to play out in the hot sun, so they had likely done so reluctantly to avoid their parents who always yelled at them for doing nothing but play video games. And... The girl named Amemura Ryuu was not among them. However, the kid¡¯s cell phone GPS signal was still pointing to this park. Which meant... ¡°Not good! Someone swapped out the ID code of the signal!¡± I did not have time to check my surroundings. An agile kick suddenly flew at my side. ¡°Bfh!?¡± The kick had not been intended to do damage; it had likely been meant to put pressure on my diaphragm to keep me from crying out and to knock me into a nearby thicket. Someone quickly moved to climb on top of me after I was knocked behind cover. My hand instinctually reached for my boot. I pulled out my small suppressor-equipped handgun. Shit. By the time I grab this, I¡¯ve 80% lost!! As expected, the attacker swung up an arm before I could take aim with the handgun. Something long and narrow was held in that hand. I would have laughed out loud had it been a knife, but it was not. The object held between the index and middle finger was... A magical charm!? ¡°...!!¡± I pulled the trigger without aiming. I thought I would hit the attacker somewhere on the torso, but not even one of my three shots hit. Even at such close range, my arm was shaking too much to aim properly. I could tell something was eating into my body. This is...illness magic? Illness magic!? ¡°Damn you. I had heard you disappeared after the coup d¡¯etat in Hyakki Yakou, but what are you doing-...ghbgbh!?¡± My mouth filled with dark red blood before I could finish speaking. Not good. This deadly illness is beginning to spread throughout my entire body!! This was just about the worst opponent for me. I could not defeat him in a head on fight. After all, he was the type powerful enough that the most difficult thing for him was keeping the damage of his attacks from spreading too far. And yet he had kicked me behind this thicket before attacking. He must not have wanted to do anything that stood out too much. In that case... I gathered strength in the hand holding my small suppressor-equipped handgun. However, aiming it at my attacker would do no good. As such, I held my arm out horizontally while lying on my back. I placed my arm along the ground to keep it from trembling, peered through the sight, and somehow managed to take aim. I took aim at the forehead of the Sunekosuri nervously looking our way. And I pulled the trigger. ¡°Gyahn!? By-byaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± The bullet struck the Sunekosuri in the face and he began writhing around on the ground. He let out a scream as loud as a police car¡¯s siren, but as a Youkai, he did not seem to have lost a single drop of blood. ¡°...Tch.¡± That was the first I heard of the attacker¡¯s voice. The illness magic left my body. I stopped coughing up blood. The attacker quickly moved away from me and tried to flee, but I used what weak strength I had left to grab his arm. I would lose in a straight fight here, but I would never know when he might attack again if I let him go. And so I needed to finish this. But by using some method other than violence. Meanwhile, the children who had been playing handheld games approached the Sunekosuri. ¡°What is it? What is it?¡± ¡°Are you okay? Did someone draw eyebrows on you?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t a dog. I think it¡¯s a Youkai.¡± If the children saw us, we would kill them. The Sunekosuri knew the etiquette of those like us, so he ran off in the opposite direction with tears in his eyes in order to draw the children¡¯s attention. Meanwhile, I spoke to the attacker. He was one of the five most powerful official members of Hyakki Yakou. He was the man known as the Illness Magic User. ¡°...Cough, cough. Were you the one who swapped out the GPS ID code?¡± ¡°What if I was?¡± Thank goodness. If he had decided to simply kill me, it would have all been over. I was truly grateful. He was likely trying to work out if I had an ulterior motive just as I was of him. When the gloomy Illness Magic was not wrapped around him, he could be seen wearing a black combat outfit like a SWAT member. He carried countless magic charms instead of countless magazines. He had been walking around dressed like that in Kyoto where cameras were everywhere, so it must not have seemed too strange to people. I wondered if people assumed it was some form of cosplay since this was a tourist area. He had a muscular body and short hair that was easy to wash. However, his face was very gloomy. It made him look like he himself was wasting away due to some illness. ¡°So you set up this trap to hunt down anyone trying to find Amemura Ryuu. Who do you work for now? Hyakki Yakou? Or Akki Rasetsu?¡± ¡°I am a free agent.¡± ¡°So you knew the order came from Hyakki Yakou and decided to go along with the charade, is that it?¡± He had sided with the rebel faction that had caused that coup d¡¯etat because he had thought it was best for Hyakki Yakou as a whole. Even though the coup d¡¯etat had failed, he was likely still working to help the organization. Really now. And he had even tried to claim he had been acting out of logic rather than emotion. Then again, I doubted the Illness Magic User would be allowed back into the organization so easily after what he had done. He was probably trying to indirectly obey Hyakki Yakou¡¯s orders by taking their jobs as a free agent. He specialized in great destruction in a straight fight and he was loyal to a single organization through and through. He may have thought he was a samurai or something. He was heading down the path of the defeated samurai while I was more like a ninja, so we simply did not get along. ¡°So I take it your enemy is Akki Rasetsu. In that case, we have no reason to kill each other.¡± ¡°That is no reason to let you live either.¡± ¡°Stop it. Disposing of the body would be a pain. This has been going well so far, but that is only because those kids were so focused on their games they weren¡¯t paying attention to their surroundings. After the Sunekosuri made such a racket, do you really think you can carry a body out without them noticing? And you were the one who got those children involved, I might add.¡± I heard him click his tongue. He really was the samurai type that always walked the proper path. If it was me, I wouldn¡¯t have hesitated to kill my enemy. ¡°Since you set your trap around her, am I right in assuming you are trying to find Akki Rasetsu¡¯s headquarters from one of their agent¡¯s hanging around her rather than from Amemura Ryuu-chan herself?¡± ¡°Someone who looks like me approaching a child would become a major incident.¡± I see. So he is aware how grim he looks. He was, after all, a pure combat-obsessed idiot who would kill thousands or even tens of thousands to carry out his mission. He would cut out any waste or gentleness from his plans. Not even a soldier from a large criminal organization would be able to look him in the eye, much less a child. ¡°However, you have found no useful information, so you¡¯ve been forced to continue laying traps, right? I¡¯d say there is no way of approaching Akki Rasetsu¡¯s project other than making contact with Amemura Ryuu-chan.¡± ¡°Are you saying you can manage that?¡± ¡°I¡¯m an expert at that. Just watch. I don¡¯t like being indebted to anyone, so I¡¯ll share my information with you just this once to make up for sparing my life here.¡± I reflected sunlight off the body of my cell phone to give a sign to the Sunekosuri and then I left the children¡¯s park. Walking with the Illness Magic User would make me stand out, but I had no choice. I bought a wide-brimmed cowboy hat from a nearby souvenir shop and put it on. ¡°...What are you doing?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Hatman, you idiot. Most security cameras are located above. Wearing a wide-brimmed hat like this will at least keep my face from being recorded.¡± The Illness Magic User¡¯s magic charms did not fall under the Swords and Firearms Control Law, so he had no reason to be afraid of police questioning. Also, that samurai would face anyone head on, so he never tried to hide who he was. But the situation seemed quite fatal to a scout and spy like myself!! As we walked, the Sunekosuri approached while weaving between people¡¯s legs in the crowd. Ahh, if he can head for us that directly, we must really stand out. Sob. ¡°H-how could you do that!? How could you suddenly shoot a person in the head with a real bullet!? That is completely unacceptable!! Woof woof!!¡± ¡°Shoot ¡®a person¡¯ in the head? ...But you¡¯re a dog, right? Well, a canine Youkai.¡± ¡°Is that really the first thing you have to say!?¡± ¡°Sorry. I¡¯ll listen to all your complaints in the inn¡¯s bath.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t! And you aren¡¯t sorry at all, are you!? Anyway, how far have things progressed?¡± ¡°Hishigami Mai-chan has leveled up! Illness Magic User-chan looks like he wants to join your party!!¡± ¡°Eh? I thought he had deserted Hyakki Yakou? Have you already made up with him?¡± The instant the Sunekosuri asked that puzzled question, the Illness Magic User gave him one hell of a glare. The canine Youkai cowered down and began trembling. ¡°C¡¯mon, stop that. Don¡¯t scare such a pretty Youkai.¡± ¡°You shot me in the face!!¡± ¡°Can we get to the topic at hand?¡± asked the Illness Magic User disinterestedly. ¡°To approach Akki Rasetsu¡¯s project, we must approach Amemura Ryuu. But she is a minor who views someone even 1 year older as an outsider due to the school year system. She is also quite wary. How do we approach her?¡± ¡°We just have to satisfy a few conditions. You can just relax and watch a pro at work.¡± Part 4 No matter how pleasant a smile one put on or how unthreatening a voice one used, a child would be cautious of someone who spoke to them when they were alone. Trying to draw emotionally closer to the child in that state would always end in failure. But that could be used in reverse. That wall of caution would not function if one spoke to the child when they are not alone. This does not mean to try it when they are with their friends or other people on their same level, but when they are near someone they feel is stronger such as a parent or teacher. And so... I used the proper GPS signal to locate Amemura Ryuu-chan who had a large ribbon-shaped pin in her hair, wore a frilly skirt, and otherwise made me want to fall in love with her. I waited for her to begin speaking with her stay at home dad of a father who was sprinkling water in front of their row house type of home. Then I remotely switched on the alarm of her kid¡¯s cell phone. A high-pitched buzzer began ringing, but it could not be turned off manually as I had control of the program. ¡°Wah!? Huh? Um...dad... It won¡¯t...¡± ¡°Let me see it, Ryuu-chan. Odd. It¡¯s supposed to stop when you press on the string¡¯s stopper.¡± Good, good. I took action while they were worried about the public nuisance they were causing. While still a short distance from where the ground was wet with the water the father had been sprinkling, I spoke to the father and daughter whose guard had been lowered. ¡°Oh, what¡¯s the matter? I hear an alarm going off, so were you robbed? You should probably report it.¡± ¡°Ah, no, that isn¡¯t it. It seems my daughter accidentally pulled the string and now the alarm won¡¯t turn off.¡± ¡°Are you not too good with electronics? Could I see it for a moment?¡± I held out my hand while still at a distance and Amemura Ryuu-chan¡¯s father approached me to hand me the cell phone. I would not approach them. A child¡¯s personal space was much larger than adults realized. But this easily resolved that problem. I was a criminal, so this much is to be expected. ¡°Here, it¡¯s off. It looks like it wasn¡¯t the string but the alarm that automatically starts due to too great an impact. That¡¯s why the alarm would not stop even after putting the string back in place. You needed to open it up and stop the program.¡± ¡°...I see. I should probably actually read the manual.¡± ¡°That is probably a good idea as far as the emergency functions are concerned. ...Here you go, young lady.¡± I ultimately spoke to Amemura Ryuu-chan rather than her father as I held out the phone. She looked back and forth between me and her father¡¯s face a few times, but then... ¡°Ryuu-chan, say thank you.¡± Pushed on by her father, Amemura Ryuu-chan timidly reached out to take the phone I was holding out. Her small hand grabbed the plastic body of the phone. Good. Primary communication complete. I had solved a problem of hers and had been certified ¡°safe¡± by someone she considered stronger than herself. I had even made physical contact between our hands in addition to the verbal contact. It had been the same as a child timidly approaching a large pet dog at a friend¡¯s house. She now knew it would not bite. If she saw the dog again while walking along the street, she would not be afraid to approach it. I smiled at the father and said, ¡°I will be going then.¡± ¡°Oh, thank you very much.¡± ...No, thank you for helping me with my job. ¡°Goodbye to you too, young lady.¡± ¡°...Bye.¡± When I waved goodbye with one hand, Amemura Ryuu-chan waved back while hiding behind her father. That had gone well. So well I was a bit worried about her future. After completing my preparations there, I left the Amemura residence and met back up with my companions. When I did, both the Sunekosuri and the Illness Magic User spoke up. ¡°You are just like a kidnapper.¡± ¡°It scares me that you have a successful formula for that. How many times did you have to try it before perfecting that?¡± Oh, come on. My job begins with earning the trust of people regardless of sex, age, nationality, or religion. It isn¡¯t like I specialize in children. ¡°Now then, tomorrow I will make contact with Amemura Ryuu-chan herself outside of the home. I wasn¡¯t able to give her my name, so I want to act before she forgets me. Illness Magic User, you defeated a few members of Akki Rasetsu to gather information, right? Is there anything particular I should ask about?¡± ¡°Her family¡¯s past.¡± ¡°You think this might be related to an Inugami or other Youkai that resides in a bloodline? Wouldn¡¯t it be faster to search out a family tree?¡± ¡°I researched her bloodline, but found nothing suspicious. Or rather, nothing more than the small things you can find if you follow any family tree back far enough. She lacked anything decisive. I am hoping for something else related to the fate of the family.¡± ¡°The fate of the family?¡± ¡°I am wondering if anything special happened to the family in the past such as in the Rokubu Goroshi story.¡± While some Youkai were referred to as ¡°residing in the bloodline¡±, it did not mean the bloodline itself possessed a special base sequence. It was simply that good or evil fates earned by past actions had a tendency to stick with a bloodline. The direct bloodline between parent and child was the simplest link. However, that kind of fate could be passed on to people not related by blood such as between a master and servant samurai, monks training at the same temple, or people who entered a forbidden zone during a test of courage. If one focused too much on bloodlines, one could receive a negative influence from an unexpected route, so it was best to be careful. At any rate... ¡°If that¡¯s what this is about, I¡¯m not sure we would learn anything from the girl. It might be faster to trick the information out of the father.¡± ¡°Then do that if necessary.¡± ¡°Fine, fine. Oh, right. Illness Magic User, can you handle electronics? You managed to mess with Amemura Ryuu-chan¡¯s GPS, right?¡± ¡°Well enough.¡± ¡°Then you investigate the mother while I go with the daughter. You would just have to wait for me to produce results otherwise, right?¡± ¡°The mother?¡± asked the Sunekosuri in confusion. I nodded and said, ¡°To be honest, there is no way to look into the father as he¡¯s a stay at home dad. But the mother brings in the money for the Amemura household, so she¡¯ll definitely leave data behind in her job. You can look into that.¡± ¡°She works as the secretary for the president of United Hive, correct? If I recall, her name is Tenkyuu. I did a basic investigation, but I found no data that seemed related to Youkai.¡± ¡°Dig deeper. She works for United Hive. They gathered together the small- to mid-sized factories that support Japan¡¯s cutting edge technology, created a centralized structure for those factories¡¯ patents, and make tons of money as a point of contact for them with influence as a single giant entity on the level of the biggest corporations in the world. They deal with tons of patents, so their digital defenses will be greater than average. There¡¯s definitely something below the surface.¡± ¡°Understood. I will keep at it until I at least find some secret account files.¡± Now then. With our general plans set, I had nothing left to do that day. I had worked up quite a sweat on the first day, so I decided to have some fun in the open-air bath with the lovely Sunekosuri-chan. Part 5 The next day, I killed time in the inn with the Sunekosuri until evening. The Sunekosuri¡¯s eyes opened wide when he saw the overall extravagant food, but it seemed the food was not made from Intellectual Village ingredients. Then again, a traditional Japanese meal where everything from the water to the rice was produced in Intellectual Villages would likely cost 2 million yen a person. It was a bit strange how the Japanese could not afford to eat what was the pride of Japan. It may have been used as a means of acquiring foreign currencies. ¡°Sunekosuri, it¡¯s about time we headed out. Let¡¯s begin our attack on Amemura Ryuu-chan.¡± ¡°Eh? You know she¡¯s going to leave her house? But this is the middle of summer break.¡± ¡°She has her extracurricular lessons year round. She lives in a scenery protection zone where cars are banned from entry, so her father is unlikely to take her to and from those lessons. And even if he does, I can create an excuse to separate them.¡± We once more walked through the streets of Kyoto that looked straight out of a period drama. I knew where Amemura Ryuu-chan¡¯s lessons were held, so I headed there. To disguise myself as a tourist, I peered into souvenir shops, ate dango while embracing the Sunekosuri, and had even more fun with the Sunekosuri while heading to our destination. Then my decoy cell phone rang. The call was from the Illness Magic User I had exchanged numbers with the day before. ¡°I have found information related to Tenkyuu at United Hive.¡± ¡°Okay, okay.¡± ¡°United Hive is a collection of small- to mid-sized factories in Kansai that even create industrial technologies related to satellites, right?¡± asked the Sunekosuri. ¡°I¡¯ve heard they have successfully negotiated to use a foreign country¡¯s launch site to launch small satellites made with their own independent technology.¡± ¡°At first glance, that appears to be going well, but they are having problems behind the scenes,¡± explained the Illness Magic User. ¡°Their business related to the satellite itself has been a success, but they were badly burned when they tried to go further and create their own rocket technology. It seems a powerful rival group has interfered by claiming they plan to use the rockets as missiles.¡± ¡°But Amemura Ryuu-chan¡¯s mother is only the president¡¯s secretary right? If she ends her contract and distances herself, she does not need to worry going down with them. She technically works for an employment agency, so it doesn¡¯t matter to her if the company with her contract fails. If she is skilled, she should be able to find a new job easily enough.¡± ¡°I do not know if it was in hopes of making money or if she wanted to gain the favor of the president, but it seems Tenkyuu bought the corporation¡¯s stock in addition to her normal secretary duties. Now that this other group is interfering with the development of the rocket engine, she is in trouble. ...Simply put, the Amemura family is in a lot of debt.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s where Akki Rasetsu comes in.¡± ¡°Eh? So is the Amemura family working with Akki Rasetsu?¡± asked the Sunekosuri. ¡°They may not know the details of the project, but they likely know they¡¯re doing something,¡± I replied. ¡°They probably do realize they are helping assemble a Youkai-related Package, though.¡± They likely felt it was on the level of stealing credit card information. But unfortunately for them... The scope of the Package had to be much greater than that for people like us to be sent in. ¡°Well, I had a feeling there was more to this since the Amemura family had not been abducted despite being deeply related to the project.¡± ¡°It would be simpler to abduct them than to approach them to make a deal. Why would they do it this way?¡± asked the Illness Magic User. ¡°Because they wanted to finish this quietly. That¡¯s also why they came to Kyoto to hide a tree in the forest.¡± I turned towards the Sunekosuri who was the representative of Hyakki Yakou who we were truly working for. ¡°By the way, do you think slaughtering the Amemura family would suffice to destroy Akki Rasetsu¡¯s project?¡± ¡°Y-you can¡¯t do that!! They are normal people who have nothing to do with us! If you get them involved in that way, I will directly go to my higher ups to see that you are not paid!! Woof woof!!¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I thought. We don¡¯t know what makes the Amemura family useful. If it ends up being a talent 1 in 100 people have, they could use a different candidate to continue their project. It¡¯s also possible killing the Amemura family acts as a trigger to activate the project.¡± In other words, it was possible they were intentionally being left alive so they could be killed at the proper time. And that would of course be kept a secret to the Amemura family who thought they were simply helping. ¡°Should I search for more information related to United Hive?¡± asked the Illness Magic User. ¡°No, I doubt you would find anything more anyway. Tenkyuu does not seem directly related to the Youkai. I am about to contact Amemura Ryuu-chan, so just wait for my report.¡± I ended the connection and stuck my cell phone in the pocket of my hot pants before turning a corner. At the same moment, Amemura Ryuu-chan exited a building after finishing her dance lesson. I put on a soft smile that would leave others in my business speechless and raised a hand. ¡°Oh, so we meet again, young lady.¡± Part 6 It seemed Amemura Ryuu-chan was quite fond of the Sunekosuri. A rather large bag that likely contained her sportswear for her dance lessons hung down from her shoulder as she walked next to me and held the canine Youkai in both arms. It was a lovely image. Everything about it was cute. Now then. I had to use Amemura Ryuu-chan to learn what Youkai it was Akki Rasetsu was working with. The Illness Magic User seemed to think it was related to the past of the Amemura family. I started with a casual opening question. ¡°By the way, have you ever done that thing?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Y¡¯know, the thing at the Bon festival where you stab chopsticks into eggplants, cucumbers, and such to create animals.¡± At first glance, things like that and traditions related to visiting the graves or household Buddhist altars of one¡¯s ancestors seemed the same for every family. However, those things were actually packed full of small local rules. You could tell where someone was from just by seeing how they stood up the incense stick. Also, amateurs did not understand the importance of anything related to the occult, so they would usually tell you without hiding anything. However... Amemura Ryuu-chan shook her head and gave an explosive reply. ¡°We don¡¯t do that at my house.¡± ¡°Oh? Do you not do that kind of thing anymore?¡± ¡°We never did it. It¡¯s a family rule. We aren¡¯t supposed to prepare to meet our ancestors even during the Bon festival because it will make a monk come.¡± ... A monk, you say? ¡°But you do go visit your grandfather¡¯s house, right?¡± ¡°Yeah. We go there to visit our family¡¯s grave. I don¡¯t really get it, though. I don¡¯t know what temple the grave is at.¡± ¡°My grandfather¡¯s house was on the beach. There would be a ton of jellyfish every year, but there was nothing to do there but swim.¡± ¡°Oh, mine too. My grandfather likes to go fishing, but I like to swim more.¡± Oh, she went along with my leading comments easily enough. So her grandfather¡¯s house is on the beach. Does that mean that monk she mentioned is it? ¡°Is your grandfather a fisherman?¡± ¡°No. He was a ferry captain. My uncle is a ship captain too.¡± We had made it to the Amemura family house, so I took the Sunekosuri back from the girl and parted ways with her. I pulled out my decoy cell phone and called the Illness Magic User. ¡°It¡¯s definitely an Umibouzu[3].¡± Part 7 An Umibouzu. As the name suggests, it was a giant Youkai that appears in the sea. Most theories suggested they were created by the gathering of regretful souls in an area filled with a large number of drowning deaths in the past. Living beings had souls, but they were difficult to handle. At the very least, they could not be easily removed such as with an organ transplant and they could not be replaced with something artificial either. I felt the concept was a bit similar to quantum cryptography. The mass of information definitely existed, but if someone forcibly tried to observe or touch it, it would transform into ¡°something else¡±. That made it almost impossible to use or intentionally alter the information source of the soul when it was in its pure form. That was something only a god could manage. Of course, Western demons used contracts written on parchment to remove human souls, but I don¡¯t really know how that works. If they could perfectly control an act of god like that, I doubt they would be content simply being known as demons regardless of whether they are a pure species or if they can¡¯t fully use that power and are looked down on by evil gods. But I digress. I was talking about the driving force that keeps living beings moving. Directly interfering with it was difficult. The instant someone touched it, the information would change. However, it could still be used even after it transformed into ¡°something else¡±. When those remnants gathered and took on a new form, they would create a certain type of Youkai. One example was the Shichinin Misaki that let the oldest victim finally rest in peace once a new victim arrived. Another was the Funa Yuurei that would sink a ship if not given a bottomless water ladle. However, those should not be seen as having any real connection with the original human. A living fish and fish meat were two different things and a human did not gain the will of the fish upon eating fish meat. In the same way, that which became a Youkai did not care what its raw materials were. ¡°By the way, the Illness Magic User is an exception among exceptions. He has a single soul and is still a living human being, but he uses magical charms to give his own hateful grudges strong directionality in the form of illness magic. In our business, you need to borrow the power of a Youkai or demon to produce effects above a certain level, but he creates those curses solely with his own power. He¡¯s quite the monster. He might be on the same level as that noble¡¯s grudge that shook up Kyoto during the Heian period.¡± Upon returning to the inn, I explained that to the Sunekosuri. I had modified my own body, but it was still based on the power of the Shikigami known as the Deadly Dragon Princess. He was truly an oddity in his ability to produce paranormal phenomena without relying on a Youkai in any way. ¡°But to constantly produce enough hatred to give form to those curses, his organs must be a mess from the intense stress. When he was in Hyakki Yakou he would reduce that with the help of incense, but I wonder what he does now.¡± While embracing a massager like a body pillow and vibrating slightly, the Sunekosuri stuck out his long tongue and said, ¡°An Umibouzu, is it? From what I have heard, they are not much different from a Funa Yuurei. I have heard it is merely an issue of regional differences in what form the drowning dead take when they change.¡± ¡°More or less.¡± ¡°So this is a giant Youkai that frequently appears in areas of the sea where lots of people have drowned? So what about the area Amemura Ryuu-chan¡¯s grandfather works in?¡± ¡°I checked it out. His house is on the coast at the northern side of Kyoto. Thirty years ago, a powerful typhoon sunk a bunch of ships there. Her grandfather was working there at the time, so that fate must have become intertwined with his own.¡± Of course, you could find some sort of great disaster or accident in most areas of ocean if you went back 50 or 100 years. ¡°So preparing to meet their ancestors calls in the Umibouzu,¡± said the Sunekosuri sounding a bit downhearted while embracing the massager. ¡°The ones who died in the accidents did nothing wrong, so it¡¯s a sad story.¡± ¡°That¡¯s how it is with those Youkai. The materials may be the thoughts of the dead after their souls have been transformed like a destroyed piece of quantum cryptography, but the Youkai created is something completely different from the original people. If the created Youkai is a deadly one, they will not hesitate to bare their fangs against a lover of one of the humans before death. The rules will have already been overwritten.¡± What was Akki Rasetsu hoping to do with this Umibouzu? The next thing to investigate was... ¡°Where is this Umibouzu?¡± asked the Sunekosuri. ¡°It¡¯s an ocean Youkai, so Amemura Ryuu-chan¡¯s grandfather¡¯s house or the surrounding area seems the most suspicious.¡± ¡°Wait, wait. If it just has to be ocean water, the fish tanks at a sushi restaurant might qualify. Technology has come a long way in this age. We should probably expand our search to include aquariums and ocean water pools.¡± ¡°Uuh...¡± ¡°And whatever Akki Rasetsu¡¯s ultimate objective is, they¡¯ve located themselves in the center of Kyoto to ¡®hide a tree in the forest¡¯.¡± It wouldn¡¯t make sense for it to be so far from their headquarters. That would be the same as leaving the tree outside the forest.¡± ¡°S-so do you have any idea what area might be suspicious?¡± ¡°The dance classroom.¡± I raised a finger. ¡°The exterior is made to fit the period look of the city, but the inside has a full complement of fitness facilities. And that includes an indoor pool.¡± These days, dance lessons were given in PE class for elementary and middle schoolers. Kids sure had it tough. How did they see dance lessons at that age where they began seriously wondering how the standard subjects in school would help them as adults? But something had caught my attention while watching the girl. ¡°Amemura Ryuu-chan had a bag while leaving the dance classroom, remember? It was too large to simply hold her dancewear. She may have had a swimsuit in there as well so she could play in the pool after her dance lesson. Faithfully attending lessons in this heat has to be tough. The dance classroom might provide that ¡®free service¡¯ to prevent children from skipping.¡± ¡°Then has someone switched the pool water with ocean water? B-but anyone would be able to tell if they tasted it. And it would sting people¡¯s eyes.¡± ¡°Then they just have to do it with water no one will ever get in their mouth,¡± I replied casually. ¡°For example, the water in the sterilization tub the kids enter up to their shoulders in before entering the pool. Anyone with any sense will keep their delicate face out of it. And even if someone does taste it by accident, they don¡¯t know how powerful disinfectant is supposed to taste. Even if it tastes quite salty, they would probably just think that is how it must taste.¡± ¡°For most of the swimmers, that ocean water would be neither harmful nor helpful..." ¡°But Amemura Ryuu-chan would be different because of her family¡¯s fate with the Umibouzu. Whenever she periodically uses the pool and enters the sterilization tub beforehand, she stimulates the Umibouzu. It¡¯s the same as using her biometrics to open a lock restricted to a specific user. And it is all according to Akki Rasetsu¡¯s project.¡± ¡°You said Amemura Ryuu-chan¡¯s mother is cooperating with Akki Rasetsu to escape her debt, right? How does that tie in?¡± ¡°She probably set the days Amemura Ryuu-chan goes to her lessons and ensures that she goes to the dance classroom without skipping. And of course, they make sure the mother does not know what is truly going on. They might have another guiding agent in the dance classroom who ensures the girl always plays in the pool after the dance lesson.¡± The dance classroom itself held no danger. There would be no problem if the mother told someone the days of the week her daughter went to dance lessons and no one would find it odd she made sure her daughter always went. It may have been an odd command, but the parents would have no problem if they were told to ensure their daughter was not involved by keeping her schedule the same as before. How na?ve. If someone was paying money, they would be gaining something worth the money spent. ¡°So that means...¡± ¡°We need to investigate that dance classroom¡¯s facility and instructor.¡± Part 8 And so I took action in the middle of the night. I met up with the Illness Magic User in the darkness of the night and we headed for the dance classroom¡¯s building. The building was about the size of a gym and was three stories tall. It was still made to match the period setting in its looks, so it was almost laughable. The inside was likely crammed full of cutting edge fitness equipment. After we circled the building to check on the situation, I tapped the Illness Magic User on the shoulder and said, ¡°As today¡¯s guest, you need to charge in and wipe them out.¡± ¡°Why do I need to do what you say?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to if you don¡¯t want to. But if you don¡¯t do anything here, you won¡¯t get another time to shine. It would be insulting if you asked me to split the reward 50/50 after that.¡± ¡°...¡± The Illness Magic User sighed, stopped hiding, and walked boldly up to the front entrance. It seemed the idea of sneaking in never even occurred to him. He kicked in the door and set foot inside the building while a home security alarm rang. In the next instant, a deep darkness seeped out from every window in the building. The Sunekosuri¡¯s entire body jumped slightly. ¡°Wah...wah wah! Wah wah wah wah wah!! I-is all of that illness magic!?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no escape for anyone inside.¡± An unrelated security guard might be inside too, so he would start at a level which would only knock them unconscious. But once he had checked everyone inside, he would increase it to a truly deadly illness. That¡¯s how it was with that combat-obsessed idiot. He practically announced that it was harder for him to limit the damage done. ...Now then. ¡°It¡¯s about time we made our move.¡± ¡°Eh? But the Illness Magic User is still inside. If we go in there, we¡¯d be caught in the middle of it.¡± ¡°We¡¯re not going in,¡± I said while circling around behind the building. ¡°This may indeed be a base for Akki Rasetsu. But can we say for sure the entire project is contained here? Is it possible they have other bases or hideouts? Where are their VIPs? Attacking this place might not be enough to cut Akki Rasetsu¡¯s Achilles tendon.¡± ¡°Th-then what are you going to do?¡± ¡°Look over there.¡± I guided the Sunekosuri¡¯s gaze while holding him in my arms. ¡°There it is. A large truck with a silent electric engine. A dangerous vehicle on a dark night.¡± ¡°Huh? But aren¡¯t vehicles banned here in order to preserve the look of Kyoto?¡± ¡°Generally, yes. But a city of over a million can¡¯t function like that. A few vehicles are allowed an exception at specific times. Any work that would destroy the atmosphere is done in the middle of the night so no one will see it.¡± And Akki Rasetsu had prepared transportation in one of those. The Illness Magic User was on a rampage within the building and it was obvious they were trying to transport something out. ¡°Look, look, look. The backdoor opened and they brought something out... What is that? A metal tank?¡± ¡°It¡¯s bigger than a refrigerator. It takes five of them to carry it.¡± ¡°I guess they¡¯re trying to escape with the ¡®trick¡¯ set up in the pump room.¡± I had concluded they were luring Amemura Ryuu-chan into the building¡¯s indoor pool so she would touch the ¡°ocean water¡± at set intervals. That would provide the proper stimulus to the ¡°monk¡± that was likely a type of Umibouzu. That meant they might be transporting the small pressure tank for the sterilization tub. In other words... The ¡°monk¡± was contained within that tank. ¡°What are you going to do now?¡± asked the Sunekosuri. ¡°Simply stealing that won¡¯t bring this to an end. I want to know where they¡¯re taking it. That will likely be Akki Rasetsu¡¯s most important base. That tank will be joining other things they don¡¯t want destroyed and people they don¡¯t want killed.¡± Just as everyone would head to the emergency staircase when the fire alarm rang, a sudden attack would put people on guard for simultaneous attacks from multiple direction while evacuating the most important items and people to a safe place Which meant... If I followed them, I would be led straight to the location in which the enemy had gathered all of their weak points. ¡°Th-then you are going to tail that truck?¡± ¡°That would be the normal method, but I don¡¯t have a vehicle of my own. I¡¯d like to attach a tracking device.¡± ¡°...It does not look like you will be able to sneak close to it. There are five men carrying the metal tank and six got out of the truck.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll have to approach without sneaking,¡± I said offhandedly while pulling my video camera out of my handbag. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°People working in the underworld of society don¡¯t like to stand out. I¡¯ll use that against them.¡± I attached a random cable to the video camera, stuck the other end of the cable into my handbag, and approached the large truck. They quickly spotted me and tried to stick a hand into their pockets, but I shouted out before they could. ¡°Attack¡îLate Night Dinner!!¡± ¡°Eh? Ah?¡± ¡°Okay okay. Today, I¡¯ve come all the way to Gion in Kyoto! What an age we live in. Even an amateur like me can easily make an internet broadcast TV show just by using [email protected]! Okay, now it¡¯s time for the usual live broadcast interview!! Truck drivers like this always know the best places to eat.¡± ¡°Wait, wait!! What do you think you are doing!?¡± frantically protested one of the men. Yes. He protested peacefully. If he pulled a handgun out here, he would be making his world debut holding it. ¡°You have to ask? This is a net show. It¡¯s broadcast live worldwide. My equipment is a bit small though because my budget isn¡¯t very big.¡± ¡°No, wait. We are...um...in the middle of work right now. We aren¡¯t allowed to do this kind of thing. Surely even you are banned from working a different job while at work. So...¡± ¡°Okay, thank you very much.¡± After approaching close enough, I tossed aside the video camera and grabbed the man¡¯s arm. I then twisted his elbow around and upwards, swiped a suppressor-equipped handgun from within the man¡¯s shirt, and killed all of his Akki Rasetsu comrades with it. Oh, that was louder than I expected. The nightmare lasted only 5 seconds. When caught by surprise like that, all they could do was stand still. ¡°Wh-what are you-...Hot!?¡± ¡°Oh, sorry, sorry. Did I touch you with the barrel when it was hot from the gas? While I¡¯m at it, I¡¯ll apologize for something else, too. I lied about the worldwide broadcasting, so don¡¯t worry.¡± I grabbed the collar of the one remaining man and slammed his back against the side of the large truck. I then pressed the barrel against his forehead. ¡°Now, how about you tell me everything you know? What is this? What are you doing with it?¡± ¡°Ha ha... I¡¯m just a subcontractor. I don¡¯t know any of the details.¡± I thought you¡¯d say that. I aimed the gun lower and fired a single shot into the man¡¯s right thigh. I of course made sure to stop up the throat I was grabbing at through his collar to keep him from crying out. ¡°Gh...mgh!? Cough cough!!¡± ¡°Next, I will remove the suppressor and fire it from within your hand so it leaves gunshot residue. The gunshot will make sure the nearby residents come running out. I will run off and leave the gun here. The gun that killed your comrades will remain and you cannot run off with that leg. Whether you¡¯re found guilty or not, your face will probably be on the front page of newspapers across the nation. You will make an enemy of not just Akki Rasetsu but the entire occult industry that wishes to remain hidden. Do you really think the bars of a prison cell will be enough to protect you then?¡± ¡°...I-I don¡¯t know much. I¡¯m telling the truth about that!¡± ¡°Tell me what you know.¡± ¡°Generation after generation, the Amemura family has worked as sailors. The tradition goes back as far as the Heian period. And the family has a tradition of letting the bodies of their dead wash into the ocean from their ships. They stopped doing that in recent times, but the Amemura bloodline is still strongly linked with the ocean around Kyoto.¡± ¡°So this ¡®monk¡¯ isn¡¯t an Umibouzu?¡± ¡°Technically, we don¡¯t even know if it is a Youkai. It is closer to a vague family guardian deity. But large accidents have happened in that ocean a few times. The unrelated people who drowned there were incorporated in with their ancestors. That may have given it properties similar to an Umibouzu.¡± Wait. Then what is Akki Rasetsu¡¯s true goal in stimulating this ¡®monk¡¯ using Amemura Ryuu-chan? Suddenly, the building¡¯s backdoor slammed open. ¡°Tch!¡± I tossed the man aside and fired several shots at the back door while beginning to run. Once the magazine was empty, I threw away the handgun, picked up the video camera I had dropped, and fled as quickly as I could. Several gunshots quieted by suppressors rang out behind me. Not good, not good, not good!! I frantically moved my legs and leapt behind cover while the Sunekosuri approached from a different route. ¡°Honestly, what are you doing!?¡± he shouted. ¡°I did what I needed to do. It¡¯s time to disappear.¡± ¡°Eh? But what about that truck? It¡¯s going to leave!!¡± ¡°I said I was going to attach a tracking device, remember?¡± I raised my index finger as the Sunekosuri froze in place. ¡°If I had simply attached a tracking device underneath the vehicle, they would have found it right away. That is why I made the Akki Rasetsu courier think I was approaching to ask how the Amemura family is related to all this. That was a decoy objective. If they are satisfied to know why I was there, they will not think about looking for a tracking device. Okay?¡± ¡°Y-you...¡± ¡°Now let¡¯s lose our Akki Rasetsu pursuers without slaughtering them. I want them to think I frantically ran off after being interrupted in the middle of gathering information. Once they feel safe once more, I can return and catch them off guard.¡± Part 9 No matter how far you are from your target, there is nothing to be afraid of as long as you know where it is. I ran around the streets of Gion to lose the pursuers from Akki Rasetsu and then took a very roundabout route to the location indicted by the tracking device. Upon arriving, I saw a thick forest and the roof of a building. ¡°Found it, found it. It looks like an ancient mansion that was designated a Tangible Cultural Property.¡± ¡°It does look like something that could be on the same list as Kinkaku-ji or Ginkaku-ji.¡± Not only was it a large Japanese-style estate, but it seemed to include a small forest with it. It looked like someone could become stranded within the grounds of the residence. The fact that something like this could exist in the middle of a city was why one could never underestimate Kyoto. ¡°It seems they have also hired exclusive firefighters in the name of keeping this precious cultural asset from being damaged. That means they have the right to temporarily hold off any requests for emergency services.¡± ¡°That would definitely be ideal for running a secret project. But is the person who owns the mansion involved with Akki Rasetsu?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Amemura Ryuu-chan¡¯s family was dragged into it with money, so this may be the same.¡± ¡°...Debt? But this is such a large estate.¡± ¡°Which means it takes money to maintain it. Plus they will get less monetary aid as a lot needs to be done related to the Intellectual Village as well. The culture needs to be preserved, so it cannot be remodeled to be more energy efficient. Even the smallest scratch requires an expert craftsman to repair. Being designated a cultural asset can be quite a bother.¡± The location of the tracking device told me the large truck had already entered the grounds. ¡°How are you going to sneak in? Even I can tell they have guards all over the place.¡± ¡°With this many people on one side of the grounds, there must be over 100 of them in all. But that also tells us they are protecting something important enough to warrant that.¡± Movies often had scenes of attach¨¦ cases being transported while handcuffed to someone¡¯s wrist. In reality, that would only tell everyone to attack you because you are carrying something valuable. This was the same. I pulled out a radio. ¡°? Are you calling in the Illness Magic User?¡± ¡°If he learned I was using him back there, he would attack me in anger. That isn¡¯t what I¡¯m doing.¡± I shook my index finger. ¡°Now, Sunekosuri-kun. You saw how large that truck was, right? Did they really need all that space when the metal tank was only a bit larger than a refrigerator?¡± ¡°Huh? Now that you mention it...¡± ¡°That extra space was for shock absorbing equipment. In other words, the contents of that metal tank need to be kept in a delicate state. It likely contains the ¡®monk¡¯ after it was altered with Amemura Ryuu-chan¡¯s help.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°You still don¡¯t get it? I attached a tracking device to the bottom of that truck. It would have been a waste to only attach a tracking device when I had the chance. I also added something a little more fun.¡± ¡°Y-you don¡¯t mean...¡± It seemed the Sunekosuri had caught on, so I replied with a full-faced grin. ¡°I do. I attached a remote-controlled bomb.¡± I felt a blast resound in my gut as an orange pillar of fire burst into the air from within the estate grounds. ¡°I just detonated a bomb directly below that ¡®monk¡¯ that needed to be treated delicately. Whatever happens now, it isn¡¯t going to be good for Akki Rasetsu. While the guards are focused on that, I can sneak in.¡± ¡°H-have you completely forgotten all of this is supposed to be kept hidden!? You just woke up half of Kyoto with that blast! Everyone is going to focus on this area!!¡± ¡°As I said before, the owner of an important cultural asset has powerful authority on his own land. Any nearby onlookers as well as the police and firefighters will be held back for a while. We don¡¯t have to worry about anyone seeing us fight.¡± While holding the Sunekosuri in my arms, I slipped into the ancient estate¡¯s grounds. The area was surrounded by bamboo thickets. Static ran through my radio every once in a while. Someone was communicating within 10 meters of me. Quite a few someones in fact. But they were not in their usual positions. It may have been small, but a route had opened up that I could slip in unnoticed through. I ran through the bamboo thicket while ensuring I made no noise. Finally, the important cultural asset came into view. ¡°...Wow.¡± Overall, it was shaped like a hollow square with one side missing. A few large buildings were connected by covered pathways. The yard was neither dirt nor grass; it was completely covered with small tightly packed stones. It even had a pond filled with koi that might have cost millions of yen each. In a large open space in front of the main entrance, something was burning. It must have been the large truck I had blown up. But that was not the main problem. Something else was illuminated by the flames. It looked like a small elderly man. It was only about 130 cm tall. It looked like a human had been crumpled up so it was condensed into a single point. However... Its shadow stretched out oddly far. The effects of the flames were not enough to explain it. The shadow stretched for dozens of...no, it might have been over 100 meters. It looked as if the crumpled old man¡¯s essence was leaking out in the form of a shadow. ¡°Is that...?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the ¡®monk¡¯. But...dammit. I still don¡¯t know what skill that Youkai has.¡± People were collapsed around it. They were likely the skilled agents of Akki Rasetsu...so how had they been defeated? ¡°...No.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°The true form of the ¡®monk¡¯ is large enough to cast that shadow. The small old man we can see is probably the true oddity. It might be some sort of illusion or an interface for humans to contact it.¡± ¡°So this ¡®monk¡¯ is actually over 100 meters tall, but we just can¡¯t see it?¡± ¡°It simply stepped on the annoying bugs gathered around it. What happened here is quite simple.¡± But in that case, it would be hard to find a means of defeating it. Just as an ant could not defeat a human, a human would have a hard time defeating that ¡®monk¡¯. That didn¡¯t mean it was impossible, though. ¡°Wh-what are you going to do now?¡± ¡°Getting into a fight with that thing would be pointless. I¡¯ll move around it and enter the mansion. Akki Rasetsu¡¯s important items and VIPs will have been evacuated to there. Wiping all of them out comes first.¡± We circled around widely through the yard and to one of the outside pathways. We headed along it to sneak into one of the large buildings. But a voice called out before we could. It belonged to a young man. ¡°There¡¯s no need for you to do that. It¡¯s already over.¡± ¡°...¡± I turned around and found someone standing along the connecting pathway. A man wearing a samue smiled thinly. I suddenly became intensely aware of the handgun hidden in my boot. Not good. When I begin relying on this, I¡¯ve already 80% lost. This man contained something that made me think that. I could instinctually tell. ¡°What is already over?¡± ¡°You took too long, so we ended up killing the leaders of Akki Rasetsu ourselves. To tell the truth, we were hoping to get some help from the likes of you.¡± ¡°A-a-are you from Akki Rasetsu!?¡± asked the Sunekosuri. ¡°Yes? But they complained too much despite never doing anything themselves. After ending so many projects prematurely, we couldn¡¯t help but get angry. We discussed it and decided the organization needed to be handed over to the next generation.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°They¡¯re all inside. You can have their heads. You can claim you did it. In fact, it would be problematic for us if you don¡¯t.¡± I clicked my tongue. What would happen to my reward in this case? What if an assassin entered his target¡¯s hideout only to find the target had committed suicide? You didn¡¯t often hear about that ending with him getting paid. The client would find some fault in it and turn him away. ¡°You lured us in to kill the leaders that were in your way.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°So was the project using Amemura Ryuu-chan a decoy?¡± ¡°No, it didn¡¯t go that far. That project was about 5th on the priority list. It would have been great had it succeeded, but it could be abandoned if something better came along.¡± ¡°What were you even trying to access with that?¡± I frowned. ¡°¡±That ¡®monk¡¯ is not simply an Umibouzu. It is a guardian deity of the Amemura family created from the vague idea of their ¡®ancestors¡¯. It changed form due to the effects of a major accident at sea, but the essence you wanted to contact was...¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. The guardian deity side,¡± readily affirmed the man in the samue. ¡°If you follow the Amemura family back far enough, you will reach the naval forces of the Heian period. But skilled military commanders of that time would occasionally become targets of religious beliefs. People did not want to be haunted by them.¡± ¡°Meaning?¡± ¡°You need more explanation?¡± He shrugged. ¡°To put it simply, this is a means of controlling a low-ranked god. The ¡®monk¡¯ may have fallen to the position of a Youkai, but it can be rebooted back to its position as a low-ranked god if a certain type of power is injected into it. ...If a formula for that process can be determined, we will be able to freely change gears between Youkai and god. And that means we can drop gods down to the position of Youkai as well.¡± ¡°...¡± I see. So the elderly leaders of Akki Rasetsu were trying to hold these people back. Hyakki Yakou was the top ranked organization in this business, so why did they focus on Youkai rather than gods? There was a good reason for it. These people had gotten so lost in their lust for power that they had lost sight of the risks. ¡°The original objective of Akki Rasetsu was to rearrange humans into being Youkai. Basically, it was just another form of the common desire to be immortal. The mainstream method is to transform one¡¯s physical body using the properties of Youkai that are attached to a specific person such as an Inugami or a Jinmensou. But my methods are different.¡± I waited for the proper timing of the conversation. I then grabbed my suppressor-equipped handgun from my boot and fired repeatedly. But I received the result I had expected. Without changing his expression in the slightest, the man in the samue pulled a long obi-like scrap of paper from his pocket and used it to deflect the bullets. The long, long piece of paper spread out around the man like a bird¡¯s feathers. ¡°If you attach a Youkai to a human, they will not perfectly fuse together. To remake the human, you must directly alter the human. I am researching the power needed for that. If there is a power that can raise a Youkai up to the position of a god, what would happen if you injected it into a human? Isn¡¯t it exciting to think what would be created?¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t a magic charm. ...It¡¯s a scroll? Is it some sort of scripture?¡± ¡°Yes. It¡¯s just a hanging scroll. I am a Youkai artist. My name is Houjou Touji. I am fairly well-known, so maybe you have heard of me? I am an artist who mass produces Youkai art that creates sinister curses.¡± ¡°I see. Art depicting Youkai or ghosts will possess strange power in and of itself. So that is your specialty. You thought you could give power to humans in the same way you give power to those scraps of paper.¡± ¡°More or less. It wasn¡¯t easy. I had to secure my arsenal while pretending to obey the leaders in their mainstream idea of using a Shichinin Misaki.¡± ¡°In that case, why don¡¯t you just carve a tattoo into your back?¡± ¡°I tried that. Too many of the samples destroyed themselves while wielding the Youkai¡¯s power. When it got bad enough, some of them even tore off the skin of their back and fled out the window.¡± ...Is that a Yuki Onna on that hanging scroll? I had no idea what level of reproduction that created, but that was a deadly Youkai I wanted nothing to do with. ¡°Well, that¡¯s more or less the situation. We leaked information to call in assassins from across the country that could take the blame. Akki Rasetsu¡¯s leaders have already been killed. I have nothing left to do in Kyoto. I will give the credit to you. You can lie to your client and receive your reward. Any other questions?¡± ¡°Do you really think I¡¯ll let you leave?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I thought.¡± The man in the samue who named himself Houjou stuck a hand in his pocket. He scattered countless small scraps of paper like confetti. They ignored the flow of the wind as they freely danced around. ¡°The sort of oddity that can be drawn out by human hands can be mass produced as much as needed.¡± ...Are these photos? And all of them show a Yuki Onna. ¡°You often hear that people meet a horrible fate if they handle spirit photography too roughly, right?¡± ¡°You¡¯re quite the talented man. So you can do it with a camera too?¡± ¡°Yes, but the accuracy drops even further. Oh, but don¡¯t think just anyone can do this. Getting the exposure, focus, and angle just right is not easy. Just a picture showing the Youkai is not enough. You have to use the camera artistically.¡± Even if they were crude replicas, this was approximately 200 objects with the same power as a Yuki Onna. And on top of that, nothing said Houjou had no other tricks up his sleeve. It was possible he had travelled around Japan and drawn or photographed Youkai with even more dangerous powers. What if he attacked simultaneously with all of those? ¡°Now, how about we begin? If you made it this far, I assume you are no normal human. I cannot deny that I feel like seeing whether you are worthy of being drawn by my paintbrush.¡± ...Not good. Could he be on the same level as the Illness Magic User? How did someone like this escape the notice of Hyakki Yakou? That organization must be falling into disorder in a lot of different ways. Now, what to do? ¡°Feel free to come at me. But do not forget that you will meet a horrible fate if you treat these mysterious photographs and paintings too roughly and destroy them.¡± Not only did they cause harm, but it seemed the curse would double if you resisted and destroyed them. It was quite an excellent means of attack. Without thinking, I reached for the Deadly Dragon Princess. Pulling it out was the proof that I had 100% lost. But suddenly... An odd vibration came from the ground. It wasn¡¯t an earthquake. It was the footsteps of some giant existence. Houjou and I simultaneously looked over at the source of the noise. A depression about the size of a small pond had been made in the large yard covered in small stones. The ¡°monk¡±. That unknown thing with its invisible form had taken a step towards us. It spoke with a roaring voice. ¡°...I will help you.¡± ¡°Why would you be obligated to do that?¡± ¡°...I have always been the one who protects the Amemura family. It is obvious they plan to harm the Amemura family.¡± I see. While Akki Rasetsu had achieved their objective and would soon leave Kyoto, it was possible they would eliminate the Amemura family to tie up all loose ends in that project. But... ¡°I have no problem taking your help, but do I really look like a good person to you?¡± ¡°...I have no time to worry about the good or evil of individuals. I must combat an even greater evil in order to defeat the ones who will harm the Amemura family.¡± ¡°Either way¡¯s fine with me.¡± And in response to this... The man in the samue, Houjou Touji, did not change his expression at all. With the same thin smile plastered on his face, he said, ¡°My gallery is quite full. I doubt the interference of a Youkai or two will change anything. And I have no reason to hesitate in eliminating the remnants of a project we have already abandoned.¡± ¡°So he says. What¡¯ll you do?¡± I asked. ¡°...I will bear all of the sins for destroying the artwork. The curse affects only the one who destroys them. I will bear all of it, leaving you free. And that will eliminate all of that young man¡¯s weapons.¡± ¡°He has 200 deadly ones around him right now. Do you have any idea how much pain you will experience receiving the death agonies of all of them? The idea that Youkai cannot be killed by normal means no longer holds in our world.¡± ¡°...If I must die along with him, then so be it. As long as you remain, you can finish off this young man once he is unarmed. I am contained in the framework of the Amemura family¡¯s ancestors, so I will naturally appear once more after enough generations of the family pass. My individual disappearance here is no real problem to the Amemura family.¡± ¡°Let me be blunt. Amemura Ryuu-chan only sees you as a scary monster. She does not visit the family grave or Buddhist altar. You may have been originally created from their ancestors, but you are now a collection of the remnants left over after some souls were destroyed like a piece of quantum cryptography. In other words, you are not truly connected to Amemura Ryuu-chan through her ancestors. You are merely a Youkai that has taken on that role. Do you still feel an obligation to destroy yourself to protect them?¡± ¡°...Did you think I was doing this in hopes of being thanked? As long as I can protect the Amemura family, that is all that matters.¡± ¡°Heh.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Who would have thought someone as straightforward as this would have his time to shine in this world? ¡°You are a true hero. Stick to that path and I will take care of everything afterwards,¡± I said. ¡°...I thank you.¡± ¡°No, thank you.¡± Ever so slightly... Houjou¡¯s smile stiffened. ¡°You can¡¯t do it,¡± he said. ¡°Do what?¡± ¡°My gallery is full! A single Youkai can never take on the burden of it all!!¡± ¡°That is not for you to decide. That is up to the willpower of the sort of ancestral guardian deity that can be found in any family.¡± His smile stiffened further. ¡°We¡± took a large step forward knowing full well what that stiffening meant. Okay. It¡¯s time to settle this, you bastard. Notes 1. ¡ü Akki Rasetsu is a Japanese phrase referring to a man-eating monster or demon. 2. ¡ü Inga Ouhou is a Japanese phrase referring to karma or one¡¯s just deserts. 3. ¡ü Umibouzu literally means Sea Monk Volume 2, 3: Uchimaku Hayabusa @ Shibuya Girl A Volume 2, Chapter 3: Uchimaku Hayabusa @ Shibuya Girl A Part 1 The value of land inside the ZR Yamanote Line was generally ridiculously expensive, but Ochanomizu was a student district. That meant a thorough enough search would turn up apartments cheap enough for a student. But that meant the apartment was meant for a student. Normally, a single man with a job would be ashamed to live in one. In fact, the landlord would usually refuse someone like me, but I had managed to avoid that. It seemed the female college students felt safer when they knew a police officer lived in the same apartment building. I was a bit annoyed that the landlord used my private information as a sales point, but it was the best place I could find. As a pitiable public servant, I could not afford to do anything about it. And so... I was in the living room the apartment had despite only being meant for students. The table held quickly-made toast, milk, a premade salad, and simple scrambled eggs made in the microwave. While I ate that breakfast, my cell phone rang. It was my sister-in-law¡¯s number. It was likely about the cardboard boxes in the corner of my room. ¡°Did you get them?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes, unfortunately. Three boxes is going too far.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be picky. They contain Intellectual Village-made rice, summer vegetables, soy sauce, miso, mirin, and sake. You would have to wait to even make a reservation to get that from a restaurant.¡± That was true. And if word got out I had it, it would probably bring in tons of thieves and robbers. ¡°Please, give me a break. You know I can¡¯t cook.¡± ¡°Um, this may be an awkward question, but how do you survive, Hayabusa-kun?¡± ¡°These days, you can make a dinner by buying a premade salad and side dish at the supermarket, throwing a pack of white rice in the microwave, and adding hot water to a cup of miso soup.¡± ¡°That is not how to live a happy life.¡± I wanted to protest that I simply used the extra time for things other than food. But before I could, I heard the sound of a struggle over the phone. ¡°Um, nee-san? What is going on?¡± ¡°The Yuki Onna and Nekomata are fighting behind me. They cannot agree whether to watch The Unknown Secrets of the Antarctic or The Pet Caf¨¦ that Cats Love. ...Now, now, stop that! If you keep acting that selfishly, Shinobu will grow to hate you.¡± The sounds of a struggle immediately ceased. My nephew¡¯s rare disposition seemed to have taken effect once more. Weren¡¯t the Yuki Onna and Nekomata both deadly Youkai? Then again, my disposition making them hate me and my brother¡¯s disposition making them fear him were quite something too. After being sure the commotion was over, I returned to the conversation. ¡°Could you at least send cucumbers or tomatoes or something else you can slice up and eat as is? I don¡¯t even know what to do with a squash. I don¡¯t like getting a long line of brand-name crops the gourmets of Akasaka would drool over and just watching them rot.¡± ¡°I will take that into consideration, but I cannot do anything about what I already sent you. If you are not going to learn to cook, you can use them to get to know your neighbors.¡± Having said that, my sister-in-law ended the call. She probably just ran away because she did not like how the conversation was going. But... I was the one police officer living in an apartment building meant for students. I was never going to get to know my neighbors very closely. There would be a larger rift between us than between an elementary school student and a frightening looking PE teacher. If I rang my neighbor¡¯s doorbell, they would probably think some incident had happened. Then again, I couldn¡¯t stand for brand-name crops on a level where a bunch of grapes cost 30 thousand yen to rot away into organic fertilizer, so I nervously headed to the neighboring room. I rang the doorbell and a female voice so unambitious I wondered if she had low blood pressure came over the intercom. ¡°What is it...?¡± ¡°Um, my family went a little overboard in sending me summer vegetables, so do you have room for any?¡± I heard frantic footsteps, a crash, and then a shout of ¡°Slippers!? Where are my slippers!?¡± from beyond the door. The door shot open and a college girl in a track suit with a towel around her neck and a compress on her shoulders charged out with a full-faced smile. ¡°How wonderful, you Kasajizou!! Now I can escape this life of soaking ramen in water to infinitely double it in size!!¡± ¡°How low on money are you!?¡± Part 2 Despite all that trouble, I still had to leave for work at the same time. As much as I would have loved some more time. After closing the front door of my apartment, I headed on foot to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. My workplace was in a nice place like Sakuradamon. That was why I wanted a place to live in Ochanomizu. ¡°Oh, if it isn¡¯t the detective.¡± ¡°What the hell are you doing here, mystery freak?¡± When I turned around toward that sudden voice from behind, I¡¯m betting my expression was not a pleased one. A girl with twintails named Hishigami Enbi was smiling at me. That mystery freak could be summed up as ¡°a suspicious person who frequently appears at the crime scenes of bizarre murders¡±. The mystery freak preferred to wear revealing outfits such as swimsuits, but now she was wearing the obvious outfit of a student: a short-sleeved blouse and a wine-red pleated skirt. I was fairly certain it was the uniform of a nearby high class girl¡¯s school. I had no idea if the kneesocks were a designated part of the uniform. Knowing her, she would say she chose to wear them herself because they were necessary to solve a murder. But as long as you did not look too deeply, she was just a nice rich girl. There were even banks and heavy industry companies that used the name Hishigami. If you flipped through the channels during primetime, you would probably find a commercial for a company affiliated with her family. ¡°I¡¯m just headed to school. You¡¯re the one out of place here, detective. I thought you usually used the subway.¡± ¡°Why do you think I would be walking to work in this horrid heat while dressed in a suit, mystery moron?¡± ¡°Hah hahn. The suit looks cheaper than necessary, but it also looks new. Did your boss tell you to hurry up and break it in so you can run around in it?¡± ¡°...That¡¯s right, dammit,¡± I replied in annoyance. Police detectives did not wear cheap suits because they had no fashion sense. While it was not as bad as the police dramas where everything was resolved in 60 minutes, a police detective was one of the few jobs that required physical labor in a suit. The suit would get muddy, bloody, and torn by suspects armed with blades. And so no one would wear a custom-made high-class suit. And since we had to run around a lot, a brand new suit could be a bit restrictive. That was why we intentionally put an extra burden on a new suit to break it in. For that reason, police detectives gave the impression of being the public servants with zero fashion sense who wore cheap mass-produced suits that were horribly beat up. ¡°By the way, detective, what are you pursuing now?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t tell a civilian that. Employees have a duty to keep secrets.¡± ¡°I¡¯m feeling a bit depressed. You could always let me join in if it¡¯s something I would enjoy.¡± ¡°?¡± The mystery freak pouted her lips, but we had arrived near the famous rich girl¡¯s school. Enbi waved and then left. Afterwards, I wiped away my sweat with a handkerchief and stopped at a convenience store for water when I couldn¡¯t stand it anymore. Finally, I made it to my workplace in Sakuradamon. It was the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, the symbol of the city¡¯s law and order. Due to the influence of police dramas, it seemed to have become the symbol of Japan¡¯s police force as a whole. Looking at that awe-inspiring building was enough to improve even my mood a bit. It always made me realize my job would directly affect people¡¯s lives for better or worse. The uniformed police officer standing in front of the entrance gave me a faithful salute. However, the usual fastidious greeting did not accompany it. Instead, a middle-aged police officer whispered to me. ¡°Oh, Uchimaku-san. You probably shouldn¡¯t look inside right now.¡± ¡°Eh? Is something going on? Things do seem a bit noisy... Are they filming a drama?¡± The front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was one of the leading location filming spots in all of Japan. But to prevent terrorism, the inside shots were all done on sets back at the studio. I highly doubted a request to directly film inside would have been approved. In response, the middle-aged police officer shook his hand side to side and said, ¡°No, no. Um, it¡¯s summer break, so it seems a group of elementary school children is being given a tour. Naturally, they weren¡¯t allowed to bring in their cell phones or any other recording devices.¡± ¡°Oh... Yeah, I don¡¯t want to get caught up in that.¡± With that offhand comment, I peered through the glass door and into the front lobby. Even through the glass, I could hear a chaotic deluge of voices. ¡°Do you have katsudon!?¡± ¡°Where¡¯s Investigator Itako from TV?¡± ¡°Can you show us the investigation headquarters!?¡± There were a lot more kids than I had expected. It looked like more than 100 but not quite 200. A young female police officer was waving a small flag in front of them, so she looked somehow like a bus tour guide. I whispered to the middle-aged police officer who was still hanging around for some reason. ¡°Looks like the Sakura Police have plenty to do. Oh, wow. Look at the face of the big guy from the organized crime countermeasures division. I¡¯ve never seen him look so exhausted. I gotta snap a photo of this.¡± ¡°Wait, don¡¯t do that, Uchimaku-san! If he notices, he¡¯ll constrict your carotid artery!!¡± ¡°You say that, Nakada-san, but I can see your shoulders shaking as you try to hold back laughter.¡± Just as I held up my phone, my eyes met with those of the big man displayed on the small screen. That fifth dan in judo (openweight) opened wide the eyes of his stone-like face and pointed straight at me. ¡°That¡¯s a detective from Department 1!!¡± ¡°Bh!?¡± I spat out. Well over 100 children all turned to look in my direction. ¡°A detective?¡± ¡°A detective from Department 1!¡± ¡°Investigation Department 1 is where they shoot handguns all the time to kill the criminals!!¡± ¡°Th-th-that bastard!! He turned them on me because Department 1 is more popular!!¡± Just to be clear, detectives in Investigation Department 1 did not shoot handguns all the time. It would be a lot easier if we could, but we prided ourselves at being the best in the world when it came to capturing criminals alive. The middle-aged police officer then said, ¡°Uchimaku-san! If you¡¯re going to run, do it quickly! You can enter through the materials delivery entrance. Otherwise, the children will surround you!!¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s a bit late for that! Wah! This is like a store during a really good sale!!¡± I need to turn their focus somewhere else!! But is there any job more popular than a detective from Department 1!? Just as I started to panic, a god of salvation appeared. Mezu Gen. He was an older man with deep wrinkles on his face. His hair was a very shiny black because it was dyed. While he was not as muscular as the large man from the organized crime countermeasures division, his sharp gaze held enough force to silence a fifth dan in judo. He was the leader of my department. However, he was often called ¡°cute¡± by the young female police officers because of his habit of wearing the necktie he received as a father¡¯s day present. ¡°...What is this commotion?¡± Instead of answering his simple question, I pointed at him and raised my voice as loud as I could to announce, ¡°That¡¯s the chief of Department 1!!¡± To make a long story short, he slammed his fist down on my head later on. But do not forget that the department chief pointed at a man in the prime of his life who came running up after a jog around the imperial palace (accompanied by an extremely annoyed looking bodyguard in black) and shouted ¡°That¡¯s the superintendent general!!¡± Part 3 I worked for Investigation Department 1 of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. But that did not mean I was always having meetings at the investigation headquarters or rushing out to suspects¡¯ houses based on an important new piece of investigative information. Sometimes not much was going on. The department chief would not call out to a low-ranking detective like me often, yet he suddenly did just that. ¡°Uchimaku, you have the safety class today, right?¡± ¡°...What?¡± Since I had nothing better to do, I had been trying to work up my own original blend by mixing together several different types of coffee beans, but now my eyes opened wide. The department chief went on to say, ¡°Y¡¯know, the safety class where you head out to a school to put on a puppet show and kamishibai. The materials you need are here. Be there in half an hour. That is all.¡± ¡°Wait, wait, wait! That isn¡¯t a job for Department 1. What about the Life Safety Division or Traffic Division? In fact, why is anyone from the main police department doing it? Can¡¯t an officer from the school¡¯s area handle it?¡± ¡°Normally, yes. But it seems middle and high school students these days don¡¯t like kamishibai or puppet shows, so they keep falling asleep. They want a detective who has felt real danger to more effectively explain the recent SNS trouble. Someone who reeks of blood should give it more tension.¡± ¡°Geh.¡± As the department chief breathed a heavy sigh, I recalled a certain fact. It had been me who had brought an end to the SNS murders back in May. ¡°But won¡¯t we get complaints if we use an actual incident to draw their attention?¡± ¡°The police¡¯s job is not just to resolve crimes that have been committed. We must also prevent crimes before they are committed. We will use whatever means we have available to us. But be careful. Make sure to hide all personal information.¡± The department chief placed a giant envelope on my desk and quickly left. I had no choice but to check inside the envelope. ¡°How am I supposed to know what to say when I have to be there in half an hour?¡± ¡°I can still hear you, Uchimaku. I did not tell you until now because I did not want to deal with your complaining. Do you understand now? Then get going.¡± The safety class was a school activity, so I could not be late. I glanced through the materials, put them back in the large envelope, and left. While I rode the elevator to the first floor, it stopped midway down. A detective from the Life Safety Division got on. Unlike me, he was the type of detective that always wore a nice suit. ¡°Hey, Uchimaku.¡± ¡°Toujou-san.¡± ¡°I heard you have to go out in this heat to present a safety class at a middle school. This is the middle of summer break, so the students probably won¡¯t be happy about it. Try not to lose the attention of every single student in the school while they¡¯re gathered in the gym. Nee ha ha.¡± ¡°Chehh. I take it I was the only one that didn¡¯t know about this ¡®surprise party¡¯.¡± ¡°You need to be around some living people every once in a while. It¡¯s not healthy to deal with nothing but murder cases.¡± Once the elevator reached the first floor, Toujou-san left. While it was true I dealt with nothing but murder cases, I did try to keep my focus on living people. Part 4 The middle school was within walking distance. Most of the police officers gathered there were uniformed officers from the ¡°usual¡± station. I felt out of place as the only murder case detective in the bunch. And... ¡°...You can¡¯t be serious.¡± ¡°Is something the matter?¡± asked the school¡¯s female director in a refined manner. That was a very difficult question to answer. Outside the window of the faculty room, I could see the mystery freak waving at me with a big smile on her face. This is her school? A very bad feeling wrapped around me despite having no proof anything was going to happen. But just as I expected, my cell phone rang. After receiving the never-before-heard threat of ¡°come on out or I¡¯ll charge into the faculty room and kiss you¡±, I had no choice but to exit the school building. ¡°Hello, detective.¡± ¡°What do you want, mystery freak? I¡¯m kind of busy.¡± ¡°So am I. I need to get to the gym soon for the school assembly. But let¡¯s talk first. If you ignore me, I¡¯ll forcibly have my way with you here.¡± I let out a heavy sigh. My mental state was similar to some chocolate melting under the hot sun. ¡°If you¡¯re interested, I take it this is about some kind of incident.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. What about you, detective? Why are you here for this SNS safety class? Are you using it to get into the school because you caught the same scent I¡¯m after?¡± ¡°?¡± I had no ulterior motive for being here, but was something actually happening around the mystery freak? ¡°If it¡¯s urgent, I¡¯ll hear you out. Despite how you act, you are civilian and I am a police officer.¡± ¡°So you understand.¡± I had tried to warn her by emphasizing the fact that she was a civilian, but the mystery freak did not give in at all. She glanced away from me and beckoned someone over with her hand. ¡°Okay, Tomoe-chaaan. This is the detective I was talking about. There¡¯s no distinction or division between adult and child with him, so he¡¯s our ally.¡± I do too have a division and distinction there!! It would be a major problem if I still acted like a middle schooler at this age!! ¡°...Detective?¡± A face peered out from behind a pillar along a nearby outside pathway. She was a girl with an appearance that made you think her braided hair was to help with her school records. She wore glasses, but she looked more like an athlete or martial artist than a bookish girl. Her body was wrapped in supple muscles. She appeared to have a better figure than the mystery freak. However, both her muscles and figure did not look natural. It may have been the popular thing to do, but it appeared she had done a fair bit of ¡°grooming¡±. She was the type who would have tons of diet ebooks on her phone. You weren¡¯t supposed to push yourself too hard while still growing, but the world was a harsh place. ¡°No, Enbi. It can¡¯t be a detective. I don¡¯t think he can help us.¡± She seemed openly hostile, but it would have been jumping the gun to assume she was hiding something she felt guilty about. During some sort of incident, even the most innocent normal citizen did not want to approach the police. ¡°Tomoe, he isn¡¯t that kind of detective.¡± ¡°Enbi, I decided to ask you for help because you gather information using several different routes, but I am opposed to using him. Forget my request. I¡¯ll do this on my own.¡± This Tomoe-chan turned her back on us and muttered one last comment. Her voice was quiet, but it possessed a piercing sharpness. ¡°I can¡¯t trust the police. They can¡¯t do anything.¡± After watching Tomoe-chan leave, Enbi sighed. Now then... ¡°I¡¯m not trying to show off, but explain to me what is going on. This smells really fishy to me.¡± ¡°Fine, but neither of us has much time. We can continue this in the afternoon. Let¡¯s finish with this school day first.¡± Part 5 As expected, the best I could manage in the SNS safety class was to make sure it did not absolutely fail. There was no way I could give much of a presentation when I was suddenly thrown up on stage with no script or rehearsal time. Think of it as the school expecting some high-level acrobatic flying while all I delivered was a safe emergency landing. That required some skill too, but it was tragically difficult for others to tell. But at least the mystery freak had managed to suppress her laughter while listening to me speak. After finishing with the school day, Enbi and I met up outside of the school. ¡°Detective, do you want to get lunch somewhere?¡± ¡°It¡¯s exactly noon. Everywhere will be busy.¡± ¡°...Oh. That¡¯s a sad statement that shows what sort of restaurant you eat at.¡± ¡°More importantly, tell me if you know of anything that might be a serious issue.¡± ¡°We can speak while we walk.¡± The mystery freak raised her index finger while taking the lead. ¡°I will omit any uncertain information if that is okay with you.¡± ¡°Just tell me what you can.¡± ¡°Lately, Jinmensou have been spreading among high school girls in Shibuya.¡± ¡°...In Shibuya?¡± I had thought every restaurant in a student district like Ochanomizu would be packed at lunchtime, but we found an empty caf¨¦ a bit off the major roads where the employees were dressed as masters and maids. The mystery freak swiftly moved to a table in the back like she had done it a thousand times before. ¡°This place makes all the sales it needs for the day with the morning meals they sell in front of the station. Everything else is just a hobby.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care about the restaurant. Tell me about this incident. What was that about high school girls in Shibuya? I¡¯ve never seen those creatures except on TV.¡± You could say they were synonymous with lies. Most anyone could easily tell just how much truth there was in any rumor that began with ¡°according to some high school girls in Shibuya¡±. The police received a lot of unreliable-sounding reports and tips, but the credibility dropped considerably if that term was mentioned. After ordering a hot sandwich and an iced coffee produced in some place with a horribly long foreign-sounding name, the mystery freak said, ¡°Well, just think of that as a symbol or a framework that was easy to use. The Jinmensou problem has reached one of our students. That would be middle school girl in Ochanomizu. It might have reached some elementary school students as well. Think of it as being a problem for all minors who hang out in Shibuya.¡± ¡°Just to check: are you sure there really is something to this?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± I glanced through the menu and grimaced. Why is there not a single thing on the menu spelled with less than 50 characters? The mystery freak ignored my hesitation and ordered something for me without asking. ¡°Jinmensou, those giant tumors in the shape of a human face, are spreading among those girls. You came from an Intellectual Village, so you know what a Jinmensou is, right?¡± ¡°...A Youkai.¡± ¡°The story goes that they appear as a symbol of evil deeds when a person has lied or sinned too much. It¡¯s the same as the Futakuchi Onna. But they do not have the ability to kill as they merely appear on the surface of the body.¡± Seeing one in an Intellectual Village was one thing, but it bothered me a bit that Jinmensou were appearing in the great metropolis of Tokyo. Youkai disliked modern cities, so they tended to gather in rural areas. It was possible someone was forcibly altering that aspect of the Youkai so the Jinmensou would spread through these Shibuya high school girls. The mystery freak put mustard on the hot sandwich when it arrived which made the picky master frown. ¡°These Jinmensou are a very serious problem when they appear in the sensitive adolescent school society. You would likely be isolated if those around you found out something that creepy had appeared on your body. ...And that goes double for a girl¡¯s skin. They hold irresponsible dreams in regards to their skin. ¡°Would they really be purged like that?¡± ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be so bad with a simple scar or burn. After all, it isn¡¯t your fault if you get hurt. But a Jinmensou is a Youkai. And it appears in response to lies and sins. Not only does an ugly tumor several centimeters large appear, but everyone assumes it¡¯s your fault. These people can¡¯t help but be socially purged at an accelerated rate.¡± Isolation. Ostracism. A student who had no place in the inescapable framework of a school might feel enough fear to end their own life. Was that the issue the mystery freak was worried about? No. That did not include a ¡°criminal¡± which is what she would be most interested in. ¡°I understand that this leaves a lot unknown about the appearance of the Jinmensou,¡± she continued. ¡°But what if this is a Youkai-related Package that allows someone to freely make these face-shaped tumors appear or disappear? That would give this person the ability to ostracize any student in a school at any time. Doesn¡¯t that sound like it would lead to crime? For example, it could be used to control the frightened girls affected by it.¡± If that was true, it was indeed a problem with a great risk. If the situation only advanced below the surface due to the restrictions of a school society, talk of it could definitely spread around without the organizations of adults learning of it. But... ¡°...? What¡¯s wrong, detective?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± I was unable to work up any motivation without a murder or a corpse and this seemed outside the usual realm of her twisted interests. ¡°Hm? Are you feeling unmotivated because it¡¯s outside the jurisdiction of Department 1?¡± ¡°My job can be rather vague. You could say it¡¯s my job to resolve any major incidents or matters that are not handled by other departments.¡± And if I went back to the office, I would just be given another annoying job by the department chief. I decided to make up a lie about feeling sick from the anxiety of suddenly going up on stage so I could avoid heading back for a while. ¡°Let¡¯s do some investigation. Where should we start?¡± ¡°Shibuya, of course. I¡¯m meeting someone there.¡± ¡°Who?¡± ¡°One of the rumored high school girls. We won¡¯t get anywhere without first seeing one of these Jinmensou for ourselves.¡± Part 6 We rode the train to the ZR Shibuya station. ¡°Did you meet this high school girl on the internet?¡± ¡°Yes, but I¡¯m not entirely sure it was really a high school girl I was talking with. It might have been some group of gaudy guys who are trying to become kidnappers. That¡¯s why I asked you to come along, detective.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Just as you explained in the gym today, SNSs are filled with dangers. It only makes sense to bring along some insurance. Kee hee hee.¡± Please don¡¯t laugh like that. Just thinking about how awkward and nervous I was on that stage makes me want to die. We left the station and headed to a plaza surrounded by countless buildings. The plaza doubled as a large bus roundabout and was often used as a meeting point. I beg you, Mr. Uniformed Police Officer. I¡¯m one of you. Just because I have a girl clinging to my side doesn¡¯t mean you need to glare at me with such suspicion. ¡°But this Jinmensou issue has a delicate side to it, right? Will she really open up to someone like me? I¡¯m a guy, I¡¯m an adult, and I¡¯m with the police. That¡¯s three distinct boundaries.¡± ¡°I¡¯d say it depends on the person. Some girls might want to ask for help from someone larger than themselves.¡± ¡°But that girl at your school held some pretty blatant hostility towards me. What was her name? Tomoe-chan?¡± ¡°Hachikawa Tomoe-chan. Her situation is a bit unique.¡± ¡°No, people like you who can talk to a police officer so cheerfully are the exception.¡± ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon, detective. Surely you don¡¯t think you¡¯re a whisky-drinking, trench coat-wearing, tough-looking nice guy who lives in a hard boiled world. You¡¯re more like a cute little animal.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to disagree if you¡¯re trying to say I fill the role of a mascot. But anyway...¡± I trailed off before I could continue. I sharpened my senses and checked my surroundings again. The mystery freak called out, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Tomoe.¡± ¡°...¡± The same Hachikawa Tomoe-chan from before was glaring our way from in front of a convenience store at the base of one of the large buildings surrounding the plaza. I suddenly recalled that she had said she would ¡°do this on her own¡±. ¡°Hey, mystery freak. She isn¡¯t the high school girl afflicted with a Jinmensou you were talking about, is she?¡± I received a blatant click of the tongue in response. But from Tomoe-chan rather than the mystery freak. ¡°If that was the case, I wouldn¡¯t use such a roundabout method. It would have been simpler just to talk with you at school.¡± ¡°I suppose that¡¯s true.¡± ¡°...You¡¯re such an idiot. You had enough information to figure that out. If you had thought about it at all, you would have known right away.¡± Yes, but it¡¯s my job to ask those things you can ¡°know right away¡± dozens or even hundreds of times while watching the reaction of the people I ask. Hachikawa Tomoe-chan pointed at my nose. ¡°Anyway, I don¡¯t need anyone as useless as you here. If this Shibuya high school girl learns a policeman is here, she might turn right around and run away. Then we will lose any hint we might have gotten.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re saying...um...¡± ¡°Hachikawa. Hachikawa Tomoe.¡± I of course already knew that, but calling her by her name before she had introduced herself would only have increased her distrust of me. Playing dumb could be a real pain. ¡°Hachikawa-san, are you here to contact the same person as the mystery frea-...I mean, as Hishigami-san?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. I was the one that asked Enbi for help after meeting this girl online. If I had known that would lead to someone as troublesome as you tagging along, I never would have done so!¡± I felt a bit bad for the mystery freak, but this was the normal reaction. It would have been stranger if some boring man wearing a suit was not rejected upon trying to join a group of sensitive adolescent girls. However... ¡°We can talk about this later.¡± I said. ¡°...What?¡± ¡°Move away from the entrance to that convenient store. Pay attention while walking through the city. The siren attached under the eaves is on.¡± That was an SOS indicating a robbery. It had been this I had initially noticed, not Tomoe-chan. I turned to the mystery freak and said, ¡°I¡¯m going in. You take Hachikawa-san away from here. The robber might try to flee. Stay away from any obvious paths and wait. Understand?¡± ¡°Detective, did you bring your handgun?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate me.¡± I was of course going to handle this unarmed. I was a police officer. I would have a chance to be of some use outside of extreme exceptions like Zashou Island where every single villager was guilty and armed with hunting weaponry. But I frowned in confusion upon subduing the culprit who was shouting while threatening the cashier with something like an awl. The criminal was a high school girl. And when her skirt flipped up, I caught a glimpse of something on her thigh. ¡°...A Jinmensou?¡± Part 7 A report had to be submitted in the process of handing the criminal over to the local police station, so my department chief naturally learned of what happened. He shouted angrily at me with incredible force over the phone, but even he seemed hesitant to be too angry since no one was hurt, no damage was done, and the (attempted) robber had been arrested. As I killed time in the police station¡¯s standard waiting room, a young detective from the station approached me with a clipboard in hand. ¡°I am Inoue.¡± ¡°Hi, I am Uchimaku.¡± ¡°Thank you for your help. We will handle investigation if you do not mind.¡± ¡°Sure, sure. Um, do I need to sign this?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I spoke to Inoue-san while using a ballpoint pen to sign my name on the paperwork on the clipboard. ¡°I would like to hear her motive if that¡¯s okay.¡± ¡°That is fine, but isn¡¯t this more a job for the Life Safety Division than Department 1?¡± ¡°...? Has she already said something?¡± ¡°A bit.¡± Inoue-san lowered his voice to a whisper. ¡°This was an attempted robbery, so she was of course after money. However, the main issue is why she wanted that money.¡± ¡°...Have you confirmed that she has a Jinmensou?¡± ¡°She showed it to us,¡± replied Inoue-san. ¡°She has a tumor about 5 cm across resembling a human face on her right thigh. It looks similar to the bump left by a bug bite.¡± According to the mystery freak, someone could freely cause these Jinmensou to appear or disappear and could therefore threaten the targeted girls. But for a simple robbery? As I thought, Inoue-san said something I did not expect. ¡°The girl...Her name is Sayama Yae by the way. She says she needs the money to pay an exorbitant medical fee to treat the Jinmensou.¡± ¡°To treat it?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Inoue-san paused for a beat. ¡°With cosmetic surgery.¡± After hearing what I needed to hear, I left the police station. It was already evening. The mystery freak had been troubling the uniformed police officer at the entrance with a barrage of curious questions, but now she ran over to me. I looked around and asked, ¡°Hey, where¡¯s Hachikawa-san?¡± ¡°She left. It looked like this was quite a shock to her.¡± ¡°Had it been a shock for a violent crime to occur so nearby or for the person with a hint to the Jinmensou incident to be taken in by the police?¡± ¡°More importantly, detective, what did the high school girl who committed that attempted robbery say?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t reveal information on an ongoing investigation.¡± ¡°Is she in debt over cosmetic surgery that insurance won¡¯t cover?¡± ¡°...¡± I quickly checked over my suit for any listening devices. The mystery freak shook her index finger and said, ¡°Tsk tsk. If you think about it, you will come across several odd points, Uchimaku-kun.¡± ¡°Oh, is that so.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ignore me!!¡± I started to walk to the subway station, but the mystery freak ran up and latched onto my back. Stop that! That police officer is getting a dangerous look in his eyes!! ¡°For one thing, it doesn¡¯t make sense to commit a crime after promising to meet with me or Tomoe. I can only think she was planning to get arrested from the beginning. But what would leave her with so few options? I can¡¯t think of very many situations.¡± ¡°What if the person who gave her the Jinmensou demanded she bring them money?¡± ¡°Then she would have tried to make sure the robbery succeeded.¡± The mystery freak moved from my back and circled around in front of me. ¡°That high school girl might have been thinking of opposing the person behind the Jinmensou from the moment she initially contacted Tomoe to meet her. But she must have reached some sort of limit in the time between then and now. Since it was a robbery, it must have to do with money. And if the girl was trying to oppose the Jinmensou, then it isn¡¯t hard to guess how she would do so.¡± If the Jinmensou disappeared, she would have nothing more to fear. So she would remove it by force. But it was a giant tumor 5 cm across on her thigh. This was different from healing a pimple. If she used a blade to cut it off, she would need to call an ambulance. In that case, it would be quickest to leave it to a professional. But... ¡°What good would it do to have the Jinmensou surgically removed? I thought you suspected the criminal could somehow cause the Jinmensou to appear and disappear. And this is a Youkai that appears as a symbol of lies and sins. Won¡¯t it just appear again if you try to forcibly remove it?¡± ¡°Perhaps. But how is that a problem for the clinic being paid to remove it?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°If a Jinmensou appears, they can surgically remove it. If it appears again, they can surgically remove it again. ...That cycle is perfect for them. It ensures repeat customers, so the clinic probably loves it. It¡¯s entirely possible they have been whispering something about these Jinmensou just like they use the characteristics of obesity and acne to their advantage in their advertisements.¡± We had been assuming the criminal was using the isolated system of a school, but cosmetic surgery did seem to provide the criminal with more to gain. No matter how deeply the cosmetic surgery clinic was related to this as a whole, it seemed we needed to look into it. Part 8 At 11:30 that night, I finished my work for the day and decided to leave the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. When I reached the first floor lobby, Toujou-san from the Life Safety Division entered with a lot of subordinates in tow. ¡°Huh? Were you out for a nighttime raid?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes. In fact, you¡¯re the one that gave us this extra work.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°We stopped by the cosmetic surgery clinic related to the Jinmensou. We checked any places that had received an unnatural number of new patients recently and found it right away. It was Kaguya Beauty Clinic in Harajuku. It was a stereotypical ¡®pitfall¡¯.¡± ¡°Ah...¡± So it was an illegal business that targeted minors. This was common with OB/GYN, cosmetic surgery, or other clinics that deal with delicate issues. They would charge exorbitant prices and then open up pathways to various underground means of earning money for those who could not pay. These ¡°pitfalls¡± were designed so people would not be able to pay. This had mostly started after all abortions in which the mother¡¯s life was not threatened had been banned by the Newborn Protection Law meant to fight the tide of Japan¡¯s low birthrate. These sorts of business had started appearing and spreading what fields they dealt in. ¡°So where did this pitfall lead? A subcontractor in charge of phone scams?¡± ¡°A group that stockpiles cell phones and resells them. It does not look suspicious if high school girls constantly buy the latest phones. This might be related to a large criminal organization. Now we need to meet with the Organized Crime Countermeasures Division. Thanks for the all-nighter you gave us, Uchimaku-kun. Maybe I¡¯ll treat you to something later.¡± ¡°...Was the clinic involved in giving the girls the Jinmensou?¡± If so, all the loose ends had been tied up. Toujou-san shrugged and said, ¡°We looked through everything, but that was probably done elsewhere.¡± ¡°Do you have proof of that?¡± ¡°The disturbance was too great. If Kaguya Beauty Clinic controlled everything, they would have kept it all on a lower scale that would have been harder to find.¡± I see. That meant the clinic was simply profiting off of something someone else was causing. The true criminal behind it all was elsewhere. ¡°Understood. Call me if it looks like you¡¯ll need Department 1 for anything.¡± ¡°It is our job in the Life Safety Division to ensure you are not needed.¡± I parted ways with Toujou-san and left the building. It was very late at night, but the roads still had cars on them. That said, there were not many options when it came to eating out. Bars would still be open, but they got expensive if you used them as a primary source of food. I had no choice but to enter a nearby convenience store and put a microwaveable side dish into a shopping basket. That was when I ran into the mystery freak. ¡°Detective.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to stop asking how you always show up like this. And I won¡¯t tell you anything about the clinic. That¡¯s police information.¡± ¡°I doubt you found anything. That clinic itself was nothing important.¡± ¡°The clinic itself?¡± I asked as the mystery freak grabbed a package of drinkable yogurt. ¡°I was able to get my hands on a list of people who used Kaguya Beauty Clinic. It wasn¡¯t just high school girls. The list contains everyone from housewives to elementary school kids. But I recognized some of the names on the list.¡± In this case, she did not simply mean she saw the names of some acquaintances. She went on to say, ¡°Detective, do you remember the SNS murders case you solved back in May?¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°Go back over it again. That will tell you how deep this goes.¡± How deep. That was what the mystery freak said. ¡°Can I assume something dangerous is lurking down below all this?¡± ¡°If there was not, I would not give you such an unnatural warning. You were the one who directly solved that case even if I helped a bit. The ones behind the Jinmensou likely view you as the most dangerous person to them. So what if you do not stop at the beauty clinic and dig deeper? The odds are good the criminals will take direct action against you.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± I checked on the contents of my basket. ¡°If they introduce themselves so obviously, I will have an easier time arresting them.¡± The mystery freak smiled a bit and patted my shoulder. ¡°You¡¯ll be fine with that mindset. ...But really be careful. If I¡¯m right, these aren¡¯t people who will hold back from attacking just because their enemy is a police officer.¡± Enbi headed on to the register, paid for her drinkable yogurt, and left the store. That mystery freak was accustomed to mysterious serial murders, so this must be truly dangerous if she felt the need to warn me so seriously. I decided to remain focused as I paid at the register and left the convenience store. But... I never thought I would be taken out not even 50 meters from the convenience store. A sudden blunt blow to the back of my head sent me to the ground where I was then assaulted by a storm of violent kicks and punches. Part 9 When I came to, I was in the police hospital. The sky outside the window was orange. I assumed it was dawn, but it turned out to be sunset. The electrodes attached to me and tube on my arm were enough to tell me something horrible had happened to me. ¡°You aren¡¯t looking too good,¡± said Toujou-san of the Life Safety Division from where he sat on a folding chair. I frowned in the hospital bed and asked, ¡°Um, why are you here, Toujou-san?¡± ¡°The witness report said it was a group of boys. As a street fight, it was handed over to our division. ...I¡¯m not sure how anyone could tell exactly how old they were since it was dark and they were wearing full face helmets, but people tend to assume late night attacks like that are the work of boys.¡± Toujou-san gave a slight smile. ¡°But they have guts to attack and try to kill a police officer. We¡¯ll make sure to find who did this.¡± ¡°...Um, what exactly is the situation? My memories are hazy after the first hit, so I don¡¯t really know what happened.¡± I doubted I had been able to escape in that situation. Had this enemy simply been giving me a warning instead of trying to kill me? Or had something caused them to stop before they finished the job? ¡°Oh, is that so? The attack occurred in the early morning last night near a convenience store in Ochanomizu. A group of four or five helmeted males ¨C well, technically we don¡¯t know for sure they were male, but that¡¯s what the witness said ¨C beat you to a pulp on the side of the road. But the attackers ran off when the witness screamed. It seems the attackers were speaking Japanese.¡± ¡°I see. Good....¡± It was not my survival I was glad of. It was that this witness had not been hurt after letting out that scream. And if I was the only victim, that meant the mystery freak had not been involved despite being nearby. Toujou-san toyed with the remote to the room¡¯s TV. ¡°What do you think of the situation, Uchimaku?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like it.¡± I had been injured just after receiving a warning. Unless some unrelated group of boys had coincidentally decided to attack me at that moment, the attacker¡¯s intent might very well have been to assassinate me. In this country, not many deadly weapons were easily obtained. But it took skill to sneak up behind a detective who had some knowledge of judo and kendo. Had the attackers run away when the witness screamed because they had decided killing the witness as well would make the attack stand out too much? If that was the case... Whoever was behind the attack had not given up on taking my life. The odds were good they would try to use some other method of eliminating me. ¡°Don¡¯t look so grim. I don¡¯t know who did this, but they can¡¯t do anything while you are here in the police hospital. You can stay here until I put an end to this.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do that.¡± If my opponent saw street violence as but one card among many options with which to kill me, they might be a highly skilled specialist. It was possible they possessed a card that allowed them to kill a target in a police hospital while making it look like the target¡¯s condition merely took a turn for the worse. The police hospital may have been secure, but my location could not be hidden while I was hospitalized. If the enemy arrived to kill me, my safety was not guaranteed. I gathered my strength to sit up and felt a dull pain in my head and across the rest of my upper body. I grimaced, but ignored with the pain. I could not remain on the defensive. To survive, I had to go on the offensive and hunt down the identity of my enemy. ¡°Wait, wait. Aren¡¯t you getting a little too hot-blooded? Are you okay?¡± ¡°No. It¡¯s because I¡¯m a coward that I feel the need to go on the offensive here.¡± Merely changing from the hospital gown and into my suit was enough to make me want to scream, but I had to bear with it. ¡°I want to talk with the person who saved my life. Can you get me that information?¡± ¡°I can, but you explain this to your department chief. I¡¯m not going to save you from him.¡± Toujou-san pulled out a notepad and flipped through the pages. ¡°Let¡¯s see, it was a student from Ochanomizu. Her name is Hachikawa Tomoe-san. She is a minor in middle school, so be careful with how you handle this. At her age, the people around her will probably make a bigger deal out of this than she will.¡± Part 10 Hachikawa Tomoe-chan, the witness of the attack, lived in a family-oriented apartment in Ochanomizu. It was seven in the evening, so I was not sure if the pillar of the family, the father, would be home yet. I could smell the scents of dinner being prepared. ...What a pain. The situation would be a lot easier to handle if both parents were home. I did not want the father thinking I had intentionally come by while he was away. The front entrance automatically locked, so I could not even enter the apartment building. I entered the room number to call them over the intercom. As expected, Hachikawa Tomoe-chan¡¯s mother sounded displeased when I said I was a police detective. Although she did not start talking about warrants and lawyers based on what she had seen on TV dramas, so it could have been worse. But I needed her consent. If she refused to let me in, there was nothing I could do. If I abused my power and claimed she was obstructing the duties of a public servant, I would be stuck writing an apology in the seiza position by the end of the day. I would probably have my pay reduced for a week as well. What is she going to do? Just as I started wondering that, I heard footsteps belonging to someone other than the mother. The mother then called out the name Tomoe. The speaker then produced the sound of a door opening. I tilted my head in puzzlement and Hachikawa Tomoe-chan came running out to the front of the apartment building before long. ¡°D-dete-detective!? What are you doing out of the hospital!? You were bleeding so much!¡± ¡°My injuries were not life threatening. And even if I am a police officer, I am still a working member of society. Everyone knows you have to work if you are able.¡± ¡°Everyone knows that...?¡± ¡°Well, I know I look pretty pathetic with all these bandages, but I¡¯m doing fine. You don¡¯t need to worry about me. More importantly, do you mind if I ask some questions about last night? The attack might have been related to the Jinmensou incident.¡± ¡°...¡± Tomoe-chan fell silent. Finally, she opened her mouth to speak. ¡°Why are you pursuing this so seriously? This is just another job to you. Unlike me, you have plenty of other incidents to worry about.¡± I decided it was best to hide the fact that I wanted a chance to strike back before the enemy could make their next move. It was likely out of guilt over not being able to save me that she was actually speaking with me and being fairly polite. ¡°I can¡¯t say this is the job I want to work on most, but it comes in second. I do my job because I want to, so I am willing to risk my life for it. Is that so strange?¡± ¡°...You¡¯re an idiot,¡± muttered Tomoe-chan. ¡°But you might have more guts than that person.¡± ...That person? She may have been referring to the person that had caused her dislike of the police. But gathering information about the attack came first. ¡°It would be a huge help if you could go through everything you know about last night¡¯s attack. First of all, what were you doing there?¡± ¡°That convenience store may be a good distance from here, but it is a convenient place for reading magazines without buying them. I use it as a destination when I go jogging.¡± ¡°...You jog that late at night?¡± ¡°I do it just before going to bed. My mom-...My parents let me as long as I keep my cell phone¡¯s GPS on.¡± Hachikawa Tomoe-chan had a nice figure wrapped in supple muscles, so she did seem the type who would be mindful of such things. ¡°Okay, about the attackers then. I remember nothing beyond the first strike from behind. Do you know where they came from or where they went when they left?¡± ¡°...? It wasn¡¯t toward the subway station. I think they ran off in the direction of some convoluted back alleys.¡± ¡°Were they on foot or did they have a vehicle?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. They ran away on foot, but they might have had a vehicle waiting further on.¡± ¡°I was attacked with blunt weapons, but did do you remember what those were?¡± ¡°Hmm... I think one guy had some kind of stick. And one had a sock.¡± ¡°A sock?¡± ¡°It was long and stretched out. It was swollen like something was stuffed inside. Something to weigh down one end.¡± This was going to be difficult. If they did not all use the same sort of weapon, I had less of a hint for my investigation. If they had used weapons that not many people have such as stun guns or a special sort of baton, I might have been able to hunt them down based on the information alone. I asked a few more questions, but did not receive much useful information. Partway through, I changed my tactic to seeing if Tomoe-chan was lying, but I saw nothing suspicious in her words or eye movements. ¡°Thank you very much.¡± ¡°...You¡¯re welcome.¡± ¡°Just to be safe, you should probably stop your nighttime jogs for the time being. Do you mind if I tell your parents that as well?¡± ¡°Tell them whatever you want,¡± said Tomoe-chan while averting her gaze. She then added, ¡°But I will not stop pursuing this Jinmensou incident.¡± ¡°...¡± Oh, come on. Don¡¯t you know that is much more dangerous than your nighttime jogs? You¡¯re looking right at a man who was beaten to a pulp over it. ¡°I can¡¯t leave it to that person. I would just get an arbitrary promise and nothing would ever actually be done about it.¡± ¡°Um, you mentioned ¡®that person¡¯ before as well. Do you mean Hishigami Enbi-san?¡± At their school, Tomoe-chan had told the mystery freak she would do this on her own because she could not trust a police detective. But... ¡°Eh? Oh. No, no. It isn¡¯t her. I have no reason to blame Enbi.¡± ¡°Then...¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter who it is,¡± cut in Tomoe-chan sharply. ¡°But if you don¡¯t know, that means Enbi really did keep quiet about it.¡± ¡°...¡± Wait, wait, wait, wait. This is starting to sound dangerous. Not only was Hachikawa Tomoe-chan hiding something, but the mystery freak knew what it was. I had a feeling it would be dangerous to not get the information out of her here, but she was not a suspect. I could not forcibly interrogate her, so there was nothing I could do if she was not willing to tell me. ...I¡¯ll get it out of the mystery freak later. ¡°Anyway, I will pursue this Jinmensou incident no matter what happens. Detective, you should not be wandering around with your injuries. You should get back to the hospital. Good night.¡± Tomoe-chan then ran back into the apartment building. The lock activated, so I could not pursue her further. ¡°...Now then.¡± What could I do now besides asking the mystery freak for information related to Hachikawa Tomoe? The day before, the mystery freak had told me to check the list of people who used Kaguya Beauty Clinic and to look for a connection to the SNS murders from May. It pained me to simply do what the mystery freak told me to do, but it was my best bet. Part 11 But despite my attempt to look cool, the real world was not the same as a police drama in which any case could be solved in 60 minutes. In reality, the police were not blessed with an environment that allowed them to focus on a single case until it was solved. We often had to handle multiple cases in parallel and sometimes private problems that had no relation to the case got in the way as well. And so at 7:30 that evening... ¡°Uchimaku, we¡¯re going drinking tonight. You¡¯re coming whether you like it or not.¡± ¡°What?¡± As soon as I arrived back at work, the department chief, Mezu Gen, told me that with a stern expression. I could only stare at him in shock while still wrapped in bandages. Needless to say, the department chief and I were not on friendly enough terms to go drinking together. And regardless of how well we might get along, being asked to go drinking with your boss did not seem as if it would lead to a fun time. The department chief must have had his own thoughts on the matter because the wrinkles of his usual stern expression grew threefold. ¡°Looking at your face while drinking is not my idea of a pleasant evening,¡± he said. ¡°Chief Superintendent Mishima invited us. Refusing would affect both of our futures. If you understand, then get ready.¡± ¡°Wait!! That¡¯s two ranks higher than superintendent! Why does someone like that have his eyes on someone unimportant like me!?¡± Above a superintendent was a senior superintendent, and another step above that was the chief superintendent. In terms of numbers, this was at a level even higher than billion or trillion. This was more like a number like googol that you could live your everyday life just fine without knowing about. That was how little in common there was between someone in a dead-end detective job like me and a senior superintendent or chief superintendent. By the way, there were only two positions higher than chief superintendent. ¡°Because you did something that stood out enough for him to notice you. And don¡¯t forget that it is thanks to you that I am caught in the middle of this.¡± The department chief gave me a horrible glare as we boarded a taxi. The atmosphere in the taxi was so awkward the driver remained silent as he drove us to a residential district in Ningyocho. I had not known that high-cost area filled with office buildings had a residential district. And naturally (?) we stopped somewhere with no sign, main entrance, or parking lot. It did not even have the bare minimum of what one would expect of a bar. It looked like the sort of house you could see anywhere. ¡°Is this the chief superintendent¡¯s house?¡± ¡°...That¡¯s enough. Do not say anything more, Uchimaku.¡± We entered what looked exactly like the small yard of a house, the department chief knocked on the back door, and a woman wearing a kimono answered. ¡°Mezu-sama, Uchimaku-sama. We were expecting you. Come in. Mishima-sama has already arrived.¡± ??? The woman in a kimono had a pin mic on her collar and an earphone in one ear. When she led us inside, the scenery completely changed. The building had looked like a small house from outside, but it was a small but luxurious Japanese-style bar inside. This limited space could likely rival the top floor of a resort hotel. ¡°...What is this place?¡± ¡°Did you think Ginza and Akasaka were as good as it gets? Only the nouveau riche get excited over that. In a world where people truly spare no expense, the bars do not have signs.¡± The bar had a counter and a few tables, but it was empty except for a single customer at the counter. This was not because the place was doing poorly. Its prices were so ridiculously expensive, it could function with this alone. That one person raised a hand. ¡°Hey, hey. Over here, over here. Sorry about the sudden invitation.¡± He was Chief Superintendent Mishima. A lowly detective like me would never have any chance to speak with someone like him even if we were in the same building. He was in his late thirties, but he looked like the perfect example of the bachelor living it up. He was of course older than me, but he must have looked like he had just learned to walk from the department chief¡¯s perspective. The department chief was old-fashioned and had also always hated the elite, so there must have been a powerful force at play for him to be obeying without complaint. Rising to chief superintendent by one¡¯s late thirties was rare even in the elite Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. People like him tended to rise through the ranks quickly, but that alone was not enough to explain it. That monster smiled and said, ¡°C¡¯mon, sit, sit. This is a bit of an odd bar that only serves cocktails with a sake base, so sorry about that. But they¡¯re quite good if you give them a chance. It¡¯s all on me, so drink as much as you want.¡± Anyone who took up that offer in a high class bar that did not list a single price on its menu was most likely not a working member of society. So why did the chief superintendent call us here? But without giving any hint towards that answer, Chief Superintendent Mishima began some pointless small talk. ¡°Uchimaku-chan, I¡¯ve heard you get along quite well with the middle school aged daughter of the Hishigami family.¡± ¡°Bh!?¡± That¡¯s the first thing you bring up!? The department chief¡¯s look grew even sterner, but the chief superintendent¡¯s tone remained unconcerned. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not trying to find fault. In fact, that takes talent. The Hishigami women invite disaster, after all. It seems that is actually a rule in that family. Grabbing the reins of one of them and not being thrown off is quite a feat.¡± ¡°Wait...eh? What are you saying?¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t understand, you don¡¯t need to. Oh, right. We have been arguing over who to choose to be the next ¡®police chief for a day¡¯. You have a youthfulness to you that is popular with middle school girls, so who do you think it should be? Who are the popular idols right now?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know!! I can¡¯t keep track of the names and faces of those idol units with dozens of members!!¡± ¡°Do you think Omikuji Maidens or Fortune Telling Girls would be better?¡± ¡°I think Seman[1] Stars would be best.¡± The department chief glared at me, but what was a poor public servant like me supposed to do? If I had remained silent, he still would have glared at me! After that, Chief Superintendent Mishima insisted that I try some sake-based cocktails that had been turned into psychedelic reds and blues. Those upside down triangle cocktail glasses could hold a larger volume than I thought. I also spotted some junmai daiginjo made by my brother behind the counter. They were named Red Yukata and Black-Haired Beauty, so he must have been fond of that Youkai despite how much she was afraid of him. Looking as frightening as him may have worked against him in some ways. ¡°You aren¡¯t looking any different.¡± ¡°Oh. This is not enough to get me drunk.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t what I meant. Normally, when people are brought to this sort of bar and forced to drink this kind of expensive drink, they want to make informed comments even if they can¡¯t tell the difference from normal drinks. I used to do it myself.¡± Oh, that¡¯s what he means. This may have been the very best the city had to offer, but I grew up in an Intellectual Village. After drinking entire cardboard boxes full of the finest Japanese sake in the country or even the world, I had lost all sense of its value. In college, I had searched out the greatest hidden bars the city had to offer and found none of them could compare to the stuff back home, so I eventually gave up on caring about the quality of sake at all. But sadly, it was not based on my skill, so I could not brag about it to anyone. ¡°Oh, right. Uchimaku-chan, I heard about your achievement in that convenience store robbery. You arrested the robber with no injuries or damage, right? It was the best conclusion for both the victim and the criminal.¡± Only a child would get excited over being praised here. As an adult, I had to be extra careful of the department chief who had remained silent for a looooooooooong time now. ¡°Oh, um...sorry about all that.¡± ¡°No, no. I don¡¯t mind. The regulations regarding that are there to allow the police to do their job as efficiently as possible. If you had waited for a police officer in that jurisdiction to arrive, someone might have been stabbed inside the convenience store,¡± said Chief Superintendent Mishima with a big grin on his face. As an adult, I could sense something unsettling like the alcohol was sending him in a negative direction. ¡°Uchimaku-chan, this shows that you have grown enough to instinctually sense what the purpose of a police officer is. You do not need the rules to compensate for you. That is something worth praising you for. But,¡± added the chief superintendent to preface some sort of negation. ¡°The real system of society is much more severe than what you see in police dramas. You can only ignore the rules when doing so will produce a better result than following the rules can. For example, think about this convenience store robbery. Safely arresting the robber is fine, but what if your attempt had failed and your actions led to the clerk getting stabbed? Do you think we would cover for you then?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°We would not. Police officers are only human, so they will sometimes fail in extreme life-or-death situations. They need to be rebuked in such situations, but they also need to be protected. If they are all too afraid of making a mistake to do anything, we could not protect the law and order of this country. But certain appearances need to be upheld while protecting the people of our organization. If you follow the rules and do everything right but do not make it in time, we can protect you. But if you break the rules and act on your own initiative and that leads to someone¡¯s death, we can do nothing to protect you. Do you understand what I mean?¡± ¡°...Yes.¡± ¡°Good. Whether you know the risks or not makes a lot of difference. I will overlook it just this once. This may sound trite, but I have great hopes for you. Especially when it comes to cases related to Youkai. Otherwise I would not have set up this opportunity to speak with you.¡± I did not like the sound of having myself and Youkai linked together like that. But as an adult, I made sure not to show it on my face. ¡°But you will find things more difficult in the future. The power of the police lies in the power of the organization. If you lose that power, you will be in much more danger than you realize. Keep that in mind.¡± After a few hours, I was released from that drinking party that left me with a stomachache. The department chief had remained completely silent the entire time, but he spat out a comment as soon as we left the bar. ¡°That is not someone you want paying such close attention to you.¡± ¡°...I know that all too well. If I was drawing a picture diary, today would probably be filled in completely black.¡± ¡°I doubt a monster of that level would care about a simple detective. This may be a disaster brought on by that Hishigami girl, but be careful. Appearing ¡®useful¡¯ to the people at the top is not always a good thing.¡± Part 12 When I went into work the next day, I entered the archives room to view the files I had been unable to view the day before. The area was crowded with steel racks which were all filled with thick clear file folders of case records. A lot of them were unsolved, so the mystery freak might have drooled if she saw this collection. Most of the data was searchable by computer, but some records were abbreviated or changed slightly in format or presentation in the process of digitization. The best method was to check the computer first and then check the physical reports for the details. I had not written all of the reports for this case. The May SNS murders. The case had not been called that from the beginning. For one thing, it had not been a murder case initially. We simply had some strange suicides with no apparent motive. As they were investigated, it turned out all of the people had used a certain major SNS service. The incident had produced five ¡°suicides¡± in a single month and had spread to many different areas through the wide range of people¡¯s online connections. As you might imagine, it had been a complete pain in the ass dealing with different police stations fighting over whose jurisdiction it fell under. Fortunately, it had not spread overseas. The victims had ranged from elementary school age to high school age. At the time, they had been judged isolated suicides due to people ¡°flaming¡± the opinions the kids posted online. They had gathered attention as proof of how modern society was lowering the age at which children committed suicide. Ultimately, digging into the suspicious aspects turned up a group at a prestigious private university and four people were arrested. Once that happened, the talk shows began covering it as a demonic murder spree by candidates for the upper levels of elite corporations. The mystery freak had told me to go over that case once more. But not much about it was still suspicious. We already knew how they had disguised the murders as jumping suicides and how they had used other victims¡¯ accounts to contact them. The only thing left was... ¡°The motive.¡± When questioned, the four arrested had given nothing but ridiculous statements. Some people said they were trying to get a psychiatric examination to lessen their punishment and other people said they were following the disturbing logic of twisted elites. But those four had found a stable and successful means of killing people and no one had found a clear answer as to why. Was it related to this Jinmensou case? To be honest, I was doubtful. But when I compared to the documents on the Kaguya Beauty Clinic and the SNS murders, I did find some odd information. ¡°...A few names show up in both.¡± Some students had been involved in both cases. But the SNS used had been a popular one, so the number of related individuals was quite large. It was not too surprising to find a few of those had also used Kaguya Beauty Clinic. And yet... The SNS and the Jinmensou. As I puzzled over the two cases, my cell phone rang. It was from the mystery freak. ¡°Hah hah hah. Have you arrived at the truth yet, detective?¡± ¡°I feel like an idiot for worrying when I realized you were near the scene of the attack.¡± ¡°H-huh? You mean I could have grabbed at your heart by pretending to have been attacked?¡± It won¡¯t work if you just pretend. Not that I want you to actually get attacked for that reason. ¡°You¡¯re hiding something about Hachikawa Tomoe, aren¡¯t you? If something happens because of that, I will officially blame you.¡± ¡°This involves her privacy, so I wanted her permission. But whatever. Let¡¯s meet for a chat. Detective, you were attacked despite my warning. You clearly need all the help you can get, so I¡¯ll lend you a hand.¡± ¡°You said the SNS murders and this Jinmensou case are linked, right? I¡¯ve found a few common names between the two, but...¡± ¡°I¡¯ll tell you about that as well. Just compare the two cases. Don¡¯t the structures seem similar?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°The SNS murders killed people while making it look like they committed suicide over the flaming on their page. The Jinmensou case uses a giant tumor to isolate the target from their school life. ...Do you see the common theme?¡± ¡°...Ostracism.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Isolation from an organization or group. Detective, you thought the masterminds of the SNS murders were those four elite candidates from that prestigious private university, but it may have gone deeper than that.¡± ¡°...¡± And now the person controlling it from the shadows was using someone else for this new case. Was that why the Jinmensou case showed hints of being similar to the SNS murders? ¡°If that is true, this is a big deal.¡± ¡°It already is a big deal. You can¡¯t say you don¡¯t know what happened to you. At any rate, we can discuss this further when we meet. This is something that needs to be discussed in person.¡± Part 13 That evening, I met up with the mystery freak in an unpopular caf¨¦ in Ochanomizu. ¡°You¡¯re late.¡± ¡°Oh, am I?¡± I walked over to the mystery freak¡¯s table in the back and sat down. As always, she had chosen a caf¨¦ with ridiculously long-named items on the menu, but this time I pointed at something random and ordered it. ¡°Let¡¯s cut to the chase. How exactly is the solved SNS murders case linked to the current Jinmensou case?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s start with the hidden side of the SNS murders.¡± The mystery freak pulled out a smartphone with a leather cover that made it look like a memo pad. She placed it on the table and said, ¡°On the surface, the victim¡¯s page was flamed to make their murder look like a suicide. But you know that of course.¡± ¡°Wait, wait. On the surface?¡± ¡°Evidence has turned up that the flaming itself was intentionally created by a different group. In other words, the criminals did not want to target the people who were flamed. They attacked those people because someone else flamed them.¡± ¡°...So they had some other purpose?¡± ¡°Question: what do the five victims of the SNS murders have in common?¡± ¡°Their ages and locations were all different.¡± ¡°They were students from elementary school age to high school age.¡± The mystery freak called up a few documents on her smartphone. ¡°The four from the prestigious private university did the actual crime, a few others handled the flaming, and some leader controlled it all. Now, were these murders based on an abnormal motive that normal people cannot understand? If so, would the other members of the organization have been able to understand the motive either?¡± Most serial killers worked alone because abnormal motives could not be shared. There were different categories of murderers, but different people would not get along and cooperate in abnormal murders just because they fit the same category. Which meant... ¡°Is this not an issue of individual ideology? Did the entire group gain something from this? ...Like money maybe?¡± Desire for money was the most obvious common factor between people. Unlike with serial killings, it was easy to see several people working together to rob a bank. However... ¡°All of the victims were minors. I doubt they had much money and they had no life insurance. What did the entire group gain from killing those five?¡± ¡°I came up short there too. No matter how much I researched the victims, I could not find anything.¡± Enbi displayed a new document on her smartphone. ¡°Which is why we need to think about this differently. What the criminals gained came from someone other than the victims.¡± ¡°...What?¡± ¡°Look at this. You should get it right away.¡± Enbi pointed at the smartphone in the middle of the table and I looked down at it. The screen was small so the smaller text was difficult to read, but I was able to read large headline right away. Child Board Meeting Plan. ¡°.........................................................................................................................................................................................................¡± As I read the details, I could feel my mind growing blank. ...What is this? ¡°The Child Board Meeting. To put it simply, it¡¯s a plan to influence the children of the management and stockholders of large corporations. Those powerful adults cannot be influenced by external pressure. But what about their children? Someone who knows how to use the internet has control of the ¡®general consensus¡¯ on the SNS. They can ostracize a specific target by thoroughly flaming them. By creating an environment that harms their children, they can indirectly influence and control the adults in the corporations. That is the Child Board Meeting.¡± ¡°But can¡¯t the parents just keep their kids away from the SNS once the problems begin?¡± ¡°Those information tools are already a part of school life, detective. Information is just as necessary to them as water and oxygen. If they do not take part, they will be isolated. If they do not reply, they will be ostracized. And no matter how powerful their parents may be, their power is of no use in the closed environment of a school. But if they know their precious child is being ostracized in that ¡®holy ground¡¯ where adults have no influence, what options are left to them?¡± I see. One was a case of using the information services making up another side of school life to freely isolate a chosen target. The other used the physical effects of a Jinmensou to alter the social standing of the target. Looking at it that way, they were very similar at the core. ¡°But isn¡¯t that banned under deceptive obstruction of business laws?¡± ¡°Maybe. But even with rules punishing obvious violence and bullying in schools, limited actions carried out within the range of groups of friends may not be stopped. That is why parents and teachers tell kids to choose their friends carefully. Seeing something directly is one thing, but distant whispers of people abetting in a crime is unlikely to lead to legal restrictions.¡± ¡°But that isn¡¯t a system for murdering the children. In fact, they would want it to spread below the surface without causing too much trouble.¡± ¡°The SNS plan did not work well. They may have influenced a few people, but a few children chose to oppose them without bothering their parents with it. They were of course ostracized as a result. Both on the SNS and at their actual school. I suspect some of those children approached the truth in their desperate resistance. And the criminal group needed to quickly eliminate those clever children.¡± ¡°...And they disguised it as suicide, hm? The suicides stood out because of their ages, but they camouflaged it with the false motive of ¡®flaming¡¯ because adults would not really understand it. Even if they had tried to tell someone something important before they died, people would assume they felt so cornered due to more childish reasons.¡± ¡°This data,¡± the mystery freak tapped the side of her smartphone, ¡°is based on what I found on a page separate from the SNS. I have confirmed the details with other sources. It seems it was gathered by the ostracized children as they tried to follow the movements of suspicious information.¡± ¡°It looks like those four from the prestigious private university were working for someone else. Do you know who that was?¡± ¡°No. The children were all eliminated in the SNS murders before they made it that far.¡± The mystery freak sighed. ¡°But I think the Jinmensou case is being done for the same reasons. You should go back and look into the family of the girl who tried to rob that convenience store. You should find a manager of a corporation, a large shareholder, or someone else who holds power.¡± We did not know how large this criminal group was, but if they were trying to slowly manipulate the financial activities of the country with simultaneous attacks on multiple large corporations, they were likely quite large. It was possible something on the level of a large criminal organization was behind it. ¡°This is a tough one.¡± ¡°Yes, it is.¡± ¡°Now I see why you are so interested in the Jinmensou case despite only caring about corpses. It¡¯s connected to the SNS, so you could say that murder case isn¡¯t over yet.¡± ¡°You¡¯re making me blush.¡± ¡°Why would that make you blush? And how does the rest of this fit in?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Why is Hachikawa Tomoe-chan pursuing this case? She saw me beaten up right in front of her. She should know the risks all too well. Also, she seems to dislike the police and keeps mentioning some mysterious person. How does all of that fit in?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± The mystery freak let out a small groan. ¡°I did not want to get into more uncertain information. This is all on Tomoe¡¯s word alone. I have not confirmed any of it, so do not simply accept it as true.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Tomoe says her neighbor is being affected by a Jinmensou. The girl¡¯s name is Tsumada Mio. She is also in middle school, but I have never met her because she goes to a different school.¡± If that was true, I might be able to find something that led to the heart of this case. After all, I had not met many people directly related to the case. The high school girl from the convenience store robbery was the only other one. But... ¡°We can¡¯t speak with her. It seems she has disappeared and no one can find her.¡± ¡°...She¡¯s gone missing?¡± She had gotten involved in a crime related to the group behind the SNS murders and then went missing. The situation looked quite serious. ¡°That part is a bit unclear. She might have simply run away from home or she might just be hiding in her apartment. Also,¡± the mystery freak raised her index finger, ¡°the timing is a bit odd.¡± ¡°The timing?¡± ¡°Tsumada Mio fell victim to the Jinmensou during April of this year. Yet the other cases we know of were recent. In fact, the SNS murders had not even come to the surface at that time.¡± What is going on? While Jinmensou were rare, they were still a type of Youkai. It was entirely possible Tsumada Mio had just so happened to develop one with no relation to this case. Or... ¡°April is when the class change happens. It is possible Tsumada Mio simply made some mistake during all that and ended up holing up at home. Her worried parents could have later heard about the Jinmensou incidents and decided she was a victim of it too,¡± said the mystery freak. ¡°But this isn¡¯t an Intellectual Village; it¡¯s the capital of Japan. Youkai hate modern cities, so I doubt one would naturally appear here.¡± ¡°We have never actually seen Tsumada Mio. We have no way of knowing if she actually has a Jinmensou or not. She may have started wearing more clothes to cover her skin, but that could always have been due to a scratch unrelated to the Jinmensou. Right?¡± ¡°...¡± I could not say she was wrong. After all, we had too little information. ¡°Then let¡¯s go check. We just need to gather enough information to say for sure.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°If Tsumada Mio has been reported missing and it turns out she is actually holed up at home, her parents will be guilty of a false police report or falsifying public documents. ...It¡¯s a bit of a forceful method, but I can use suspicion of that to get some information out of the family.¡± ¡°You can do that if you want, but won¡¯t you get in trouble if it fails?¡± ¡°I¡¯d definitely get a pay cut,¡± I said decisively. ¡°But it is possible Tsumada Mio will become a victim similar to the victims of the SNS murders. If we find out she is unrelated, that is fine by me. At any rate, we need to take a step forward.¡± Part 14 And it failed splendidly. Despite showing up in the evening, Tsumada Mio¡¯s parents led me to the empty girl¡¯s room. It seemed the report of her having gone missing in April was accurate. The room was attentively cleaned, but showed no sign of being lived in. ¡°It may be a problem to hear this, but we are not all that worried,¡± said Tsumada Mio¡¯s father with a slightly sad smile. ¡°She has always been good at grasping how things work. She is probably making use of some structure of society to provide herself with a new place to live.¡± ¡°...Do you mind if I look through any notes or memos of hers?¡± ¡°No, but the...what was it? Life safety? Anyway, the group that deals with children already went over it.¡± ¡°Just to be sure.¡± I looked around the room while taking a mental note to ask Toujou-san or someone else from the Life Safety Division for the data later. It was a stereotypical room with a desk, a bed, and a bookshelf. But it seemed lacking in entertainment. I could see almost no electronics. Not only did it not have a TV, but it had no audio equipment either. When I pointed that out, the father scratched his head and said, ¡°I do not know what it is called, but she had one of those things that is about the size of a notebook. The ones you use your fingers directly on the screen with.¡± ¡°A tablet computer?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s it. She used it for both movies and manga.¡± ¡°Do you know where that tablet is?¡± ¡°Mio-chan took it with her.¡± That was too bad. That may have been why I could not find a school bag despite seeing plenty of textbooks. If she used it that heavily, it was probably filled with personal information and information on her friends. If she kept her data on the cloud, I might be able to access it via the internet provider, but teenagers like her tended to be more sensitive about personal information than adults. If she had kept the cloud setting off, it would be impossible to reach the tablet¡¯s data. I ended up just checking through what was in the room. I found a notepad with a ton of small photo stickers on it, but I doubted it would help me find where she had gone. I could check who the people in the photos were, but the Life Safety Division would have already done that. And they were probably just friends from school. There were a lot of the photo stickers and she was photographed with both boys and girls. Given how many of them there were, I doubted they were all from just one class. Either her social network extended beyond just her class or she was involved in clubs or the student council. From what I could see, I doubted she had made some huge mistake during the class change in April like the mystery freak had suggested. She seemed like the type who would make herself the center of the class wherever she ended up. ¡°Okay, this might be painful to think back on, but did anything about your daughter change just before she disappeared?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°For example, did she suddenly start wearing stockings or tights as if to hide her skin?¡± ¡°Now that you mention it,¡± muttered Tsumada Mio¡¯s father. For the convenience store robbery girl, it had been on the thigh. Even so, it was too soon to assume it always appeared on the thigh. But still... ¡°She started wearing the bottom of a track suit below the skirt of her school uniform. I told her to stop because it was indecent, but she said it was popular in her class.¡± It seemed I needed to check the school she went to. ¡°By any chance did you ever see below those pants?¡± ¡°Of course not. That would be below her skirt. She is hardly the age to be bathing with her father. I doubt even my wife would know.¡± In the end, all I knew was that Tsumada Mio had started to hide her legs before she went missing. The situation would change greatly depending on whether there had actually been a Jinmensou there or not. ¡°No, wait a second,¡± said the father suddenly. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°I never saw Mio-chan¡¯s legs, but I know someone who might have.¡± ¡°Who is that?¡± Someone who would have seen her thighs below a miniskirt? Her boyfriend maybe? However, my guess was wrong. ¡°Her school had a physical examination just before she went missing. It is possible the health teacher saw her legs.¡± I used my cell phone to call Tsumada Mio¡¯s school. Given the time, most of the faculty had left the school already, but when I explained this was related to a police investigation, I was eventually connected to the teacher in question. The middle-aged female voice told me, ¡°Y-yes. Tsumada Mio-san had a large tumor in the shape of a human face on her right thigh.¡± Part 15 ¡°Bingo.¡± I met up with the mystery freak after leaving the apartment. ¡°In April, before the SNS murders in May, Tsumada Mio already had a Jinmensou.¡± ¡°Just to be sure, is it possible the health teacher was lying?¡± ¡°It¡¯s possible, but this makes sense.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Her personal notepad was covered in small photo stickers, so she must have had a lot of friends. She was popular. So why did she disappear in April during the class change? She wouldn¡¯t have had any complaints about her school life.¡± ¡°What if she did not disappear of her own free will?¡± ¡°Or her position in the school changed once the Jinmensou was discovered during the physical examination in April.¡± Enbi frowned slightly. ¡°But she defended against it by wearing the track suit pants below her skirt, right? I doubt she would have let it be revealed so easily. Couldn¡¯t she have come up with a reason to delay her examination until after school when everyone else was gone?¡± ¡°At the very least, the health teacher knew about the Jinmensou,¡± I said calmly. ¡°But people are not perfect. The teacher might have told someone.¡± ¡°...That would have been terrible,¡± groaned the mystery freak in a low voice. As someone at the same sensitive age, she may have been able to more clearly imagine what a tragedy that would have been. ¡°We still do not know if this Jinmensou is the same as the ones related to the incident connecting back to the SNS murders. But we can explain it if it is.¡± ¡°How?¡± ¡°As a test case. The criminals are trying to ostracize any child from their school with a Jinmensou. That way they can manipulate their parents who are managers or large shareholders. If they fail, they make an enemy of adults with a lot of power. In that case, they would want to test it out beforehand. They would want to prove they could ostracize even the most popular kid in a class.¡± ¡°The SNS murders did not come to light until May, but the trouble that prevented them from manipulating the adults must have happened before that. And once the SNS plan failed, the criminal group would have prepared for their next project.¡± ¡°And after they proved they could ostracize a popular kid with a Jinmensou, they prepared to use it on a larger scale...which is what we are seeing now.¡± ¡°Wait.¡± The mystery freak placed a hand on her chin. ¡°So in Tsumada Mio¡¯s case, they had yet to fully establish their Jinmensou Package, right? They would not have deemed it a success just by viewing her from a distance. They might have made a slight mistake and left some hint to the person behind all this.¡± ¡°Or Tsumada Mio might have seen something herself.¡± Either way, it seemed Tsumada Mio¡¯s circumstances were different from the other victims. And even if that was not the case, I still needed to find a way to protect her and soon. Given the circumstances, I was not easygoing enough to optimistically think she had simply run away from home and would be back eventually. ¡°I¡¯m heading back into work. I want to go through the data the Life Safety Division gathered on her. Mystery freak, what will you do?¡± ¡°I want to go into the Metropolitan Police Department with you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s too late for a field trip.¡± ¡°Then I will try to track down Tsumada Mio on my own. I don¡¯t know how far I can get, though.¡± ¡°Do as you wish.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t forget that you were attacked yesterday. Detective, you are probably still standing in a very hot position.¡± And then we heard a footstep. The mystery freak and I turned around to find Hachikawa Tomoe-chan. She was wearing stylish sportswear and spats, but I had no idea if that was the uniform of her school or a teen brand. I had forgotten she was Tsumada Mio¡¯s neighbor. If she was out now, she may have moved her night jogs to the evening. Or perhaps she was attempting to track down Tsumada Mio as well. The mystery freak tried to keep her voice as tender as possible as she spoke. ¡°Tomoe.¡± ¡°I will not stop,¡± cut in Tomoe-chan. ¡°I will not stop no matter what. ...Detective, do not become the same as that person.¡± After spitting out that comment, she disappeared into the apartment building. In the end, I forgot to ask Hachikawa Tomoe-chan who ¡°that person¡± was. Part 16 Fortunately, I was not beaten up on the streets two days in a row. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was a government office, so it of course had set work hours. However, the type of work we did meant it had almost no limits on overtime. For serious cases such as serial killers, it was common to work 70 hours straight and seeing people napping with a blanket on the floor was not unusual. But the place was still mostly empty in the middle of the night. All of the lights were off in the building and it was covered in the same eeriness as a hospital after lights out. Inside, Toujou-san from the Life Safety Division said, ¡°It¡¯s a good thing you caught me before I left.¡± ¡°Sorry about this.¡± ¡°You needed the investigation data on Tsumada Mio, right? That case is not being treated with any importance. We deemed it to be a girl running away from home of her own free will. We investigated the Tsumada household with the family¡¯s consent, but we did not find much.¡± ¡°It seems she had quite a lot of friends, so could she have gone to a friend¡¯s house when she ran away?¡± ¡°No. It seems something happened to Tsumada Mio just before she disappeared. We decided she ran away because her social standing in school collapsed. I doubt she would have relied on someone from school.¡± ¡°Um, I saw her notepad and it had quite a lot of photo stickers on it. Would all of those people really have turned against her?¡± ¡°Some people just want to see someone popular fall. Having a lot of friends does not say anything about the strength or depth of those friendships.¡± ¡°...¡± Then where did Tsumada Mio disappear to? Four months had passed since then. I doubted a kid could rent an apartment just by saving up her allowance. Not to mention that she would need a guarantor to sign the contract. Was she using a facility like an internet caf¨¦? Or had she pretended to be in high school to get a part-time job? I could come up with a few ideas, but none of them seemed realistic. She was a middle school girl. At that age, she was supposed to be protected by her parents or another guardian. If she was forcing herself to live independently, she would stand out enough for a uniformed police officer or someone else to notice. ¡°I heard Tsumada Mio disappeared with her tablet computer. Did you check the GPS?¡± ¡°All of those obvious functions were turned off. She hasn¡¯t been communicating using it at all. We have been sharing information with other police stations, but have found nothing. Okay, I¡¯ve sent the data related to Tsumada Mio to your computer. If you want more accurate data, head to the archives room. The number is...¡± After jotting down the number, I bowed in thanks to Toujou-san once more. ¡°Sorry about keeping you for so long.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fine. I can still just barely make the last train. Tell me now if you need anything else. If I have to turn around again, you¡¯re paying for my taxi. Got it?¡± Toujou-san then quickly left the dimly lit floor. Now that I was truly alone, I turned toward my computer. I did not care how trivial it was. I just wanted any kind of hint I could find that would lead me to Tsumada Mio. ¡°...¡± I scrolled through the information for a bit, but none of it stood out to me. It included some personal information I had not known, but I could have found any of it on my own if I had taken the time. But... ¡°...Huh?¡± After a bit of scrolling, the text grew corrupted. The attached image files were so corrupted I could not tell what they were supposed to show. Had they been damaged during the transmission process? I turned toward the hallway, but Toujou-san had likely already left the building. And he had said he would just barely make the last train. I could not bring myself to call him back now. Fortunately, he had told me the file number ahead of time. ¡°I guess I have to check the paper files in the archives room...¡± I walked down the hallway and put some change into a vending machine selling breads with different foods inside. Food and drink were not allowed in the archives room, so I ate a korokke bread before continuing on my way. The building was empty enough in the middle of the night, but I truly was the only person in the archives room. I walked along the metal shelves lined up like in a library and pulled out the clear file folder I needed. I carried that giant folder with me and sat down at a reading desk. I used the narrow field of light from a desk lamp to read through the text. It detailed the information regarding the investigation of Tsumada Mio¡¯s disappearance. It listed the date of her disappearance as well as various details about her before and after her disappearance: what she had said and done, her relationship with her friends, any sightings of her, how much money she was thought to have, etc. However, none of it seemed it would help me. How had she lived during the four months since her disappearance? And where was she now? ¡°I guess this is all they¡¯ll have for a disappearance with no hint of foul play,¡± I muttered out loud. The police would not treat a simple disappearance as an important incident. And when it looked so much like she had voluntarily run away from home due to her personal circumstances, not much would be done. Her information would be sent to the police around the country and we would hope one of them would find her. ¡°Hm?¡± As I reflected on that fact, something seemed off to me. I lifted the thick file folder up a bit. It was quite heavy. The report was at least as thick as a dictionary. But why? Cases of runaway girls were fairly common, so why had such a thick folder been created for Tsumada Mio¡¯s case? I was confused. But I was not given enough time to find an answer. With a loud zapping noise, an arm circled around from behind and pressed a torn electric cord against the center of my chest. ¡°Gah...gh...!?¡± I heard a loud thud. It was the sound I made when I collapsed from my chair. My vision had been turned sideways, but I could see someone looking down at me from above. Is this person...insane? Murdering someone...inside the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department...!? ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s fairly common for police officers to kill themselves inside the police department. Although they almost always use a handgun.¡± The speaker seemed to be grinning. ¡°Also, I doubt this will be enough to kill you. Most people who try to commit suicide outside of their home will prepare multiple tools in case the first one does not finish the job properly. ...And sometimes they will persuade a decent normal person to help.¡± When I heard the person¡¯s voice, I finally figured out what was going on. The corrupted information...on Tsumada Mio...was not a mistake... It was a trap...to lure me...out to the archives room...!! ¡°Tou...jou... Toujou...!!¡± Strength was gradually returning to my arms and legs, but would he give me the few minutes I needed to recover? Toujou pulled something out of his suit pocket. It was a fruit knife inside a plastic sheath. It was neatly packaged in a plastic bag to keep it from catching on the fabric of his clothes. ¡°When making a murder look like suicide, it¡¯s important not to make any wounds on the hands that look like they were made in defense. But don¡¯t worry. The investigation will show you stabbed yourself in the throat after the electric cord did not kill you.¡± He sounds so delighted!! Since he was trying to kill me, Toujou was most certainly related to the SNS murders and the Jinmensou. When I thought back, I realized Toujou had been involved in the investigation of the ¡°group of boys¡± who attacked me, the search of the beauty clinic, and the search for Tsumada Mio. He had been in the perfect position to limit the information found to keep the investigations from getting anywhere. The SNS murders had grown to such a large scale that Investigation Department 1 had been called in. They may have kept the Jinmensou incident on such a small scale to make sure it remained within Toujou¡¯s Life Safety Division. Yet I had taken action this time too. And I was the one who had put an end to the SNS murders. Was that why? ¡°...Toujou...kh...!!¡± ¡°You keep calling me Toujou, but who exactly do you mean by that?¡± I did not know what he meant. The person trying to kill me was most certainly the Toujou I knew. ¡°If you think I am Toujou Miyabi of the Life Safety Division, you are wrong. He happened to share the same family name as me, so it was easier to switch out with him. The real one is buried in a mountain somewhere.¡± That bastard!! ¡°And if you think I am a pawn of those behind the SNS murders and the Jinmensou, you are wrong again. Do not put me in the same category as that pathetic organization that can¡¯t even assemble one little Package. Did you really think I was a pawn of that insider group that thinks they¡¯re such intellectuals? ...What I am interested in is the bug they accidentally created.¡± Toujou smiled while pulling the fruit knife out of its plastic sheath. ¡°I will find Tsumada Mio. I will use her in a much more wonderful way than they would have. So, well, just give up. The pain will be gone soon.¡± In the end... His mistake was in crouching down so he could put the blade in my hand. He either failed to follow his duty as a police officer or had never been one to begin with, so he gave me what I needed for my counterattack. I was able to move my arms and legs a bit, but I was still not strong enough to support my body¡¯s weight and sit up. I somehow managed to reach my arm out toward Toujou¡¯s belt as he crouched down before me. I found what I was looking for. It was near his right pants pocket. Hey, Toujou. Real police detectives don¡¯t carry their guns around everywhere like on TV. If you acted more like the real deal, you wouldn¡¯t have to worry about this!! In the next instant, several dry gunshots rang out. ¡°...!!¡± With the gun still in its holster, I had removed the safety and pulled the trigger. The bullets strayed too far to the side to injure Toujou, but it still gave him quite a shock. He had been kneeling down near me in order to safely falsify the evidence, but he suddenly moved away from me. ¡°Gh...!!¡± I groaned while still unable to stand up. My face was covered in sweat, but I did not have time to wipe it away. ¡°O-oh, c¡¯mon. Are you an idiot? At least use a.38.¡± After making sure the gun was still in its holster, anger filled Toujou¡¯s face. He unhesitatingly held up the fruit knife. ¡°Uchimaku!!¡± ¡°If you¡¯re gonna do it, then do it. But everyone in the building will have heard those gunshots. Whoever¡¯s on guard duty will be here before long. 30 seconds maybe?¡± I sneered at him from the floor. ¡°You can kill me easily enough, but can you dispose of the body? If you can¡¯t, you¡¯re going down with me.¡± ¡°Tch!!¡± Toujou made up his mind quickly. He turned back on the safety of his holstered handgun, kicked open the door to the archives room, and ran out. But even if it was the middle of the night, this was the headquarters of Tokyo¡¯s law enforcement. He would not get away that easily. Not long afterwards, a few uniformed police officers ran into the archives room. ¡°Hey, why did it take you three minutes to get here?¡± ¡°Wh-what happened?¡± asked the men while looking around at the obvious signs of a struggle and the walls with bullet holes in them. It seemed I had put a large burden on myself by forcing myself to act as soon as I had. A wave of nausea belatedly hit me and I tried to force it down as I spoke to the men. ¡°Attempted murder is what happened. Put out a notification for the arrest of Toujou Miyabi...or someone using that name.¡± Part 17 I went back over the information in my mind. Someone was working behind the scenes of a single incident that connected the SNS murders and this Jinmensou incident. While investigating Tsumada Mio¡¯s disappearance to uncover this person, the Life Safety Division detective named Toujou Miyabi had attacked me. But it seemed he did not belong to the organization behind the Jinmensou. When talking about Tsumada Mio, he had not been interested in the Youkai-related Package but in a bug created by an adjustment error. The details were unclear, but Toujou Miyabi saw some form of meaning in the bug that Tsumada Mio had become and had therefore taken her from the Jinmensou group. Now then. ¡°I was the one who was attacked, so why am I the one in an interrogation room while that bastard Toujou is still walking free?¡± I tried to remain calm, but it made no logical sense. Just as I angrily kicked at the table screwed to the floor, the interrogation room door opened. Mezu Gen entered. He was the department chief for Investigation Department 1. ¡°You caused quite a commotion.¡± ¡°I think you mean I had one forced onto me.¡± ¡°I cannot believe there were gunshots in the middle of Tokyo¡¯s law enforcement headquarters. And with a.45 caliber which is not the caliber of the handgun you are issued. ...We could not find the gun in question, so where did it go?¡± ¡°I was the one that fired it, but its owner left with it.¡± Dammit, Toujou. How did you manage to escape from somewhere as strict as this? The department chief sighed and his face grew even more wrinkled than usual. ¡°Investigator Toujou Miyabi left the building over 2 hours ago. And he was not found anywhere in the building at the time. Keep in mind that all of the entrances and exits were sealed the instant those gunshots were heard. What do you make of this situation?¡± ¡°He told me the real Toujou Miyabi is buried in a mountain somewhere. What am I supposed to make of that?¡± ¡°Uchimaku.¡± The department chief spoke my name to cut me off. ¡°Think about how I feel when I am woken up and have to head back into work after the last train to deal with a subordinate¡¯s scandal. If you keep up this nonsense, I will snap your neck. Let us speak frankly. I have never liked your jokes. I was being honest with you. Now, be honest with me.¡± ¡°Do you think I snuck a.45 caliber handgun past the strict security here to fire wildly into the walls of the archives room? Why would I do that!? What do I gain from that!? Do you seriously believe I did that, department chief!?¡± ¡°That is not what I am talking about. No matter how unreasonable it seems, if the evidence at the scene says you are guilty, you are guilty. That is how the system works. So, Uchimaku, clearing your name will be quite difficult. Someone from Department 1 will not have a fun time in jail. Just because you are a former detective, does not mean you will be given a private room.¡± ¡°Toujou Miyabi ¨C or someone using his name ¨C used an electric cord to shock me in the archives room. He was about to stab me with a fruit knife to make it look like suicide. I fired the handgun in Toujou¡¯s holster to escape my predicament. Toujou fled with the gun still in his possession. No matter what anyone says, that is the truth!!¡± ¡°Uchimaku.¡± ¡°He said something about finding special value in Tsumada Mio who he called a bug in a Package! The Jinmensou organization was trying to do something with her, but he said he would steal her from them!! We cannot waste time here. If you insist on restraining me, at least send someone else to search for Tsumada Mio!!¡± ¡°...Uchimaku.¡± The department chief brought a hand to his forehead and let out a heavy sigh. He then spoke to me in such a low voice that I could barely hear him. ¡°I do not often feel like this. It feels like I am rushing down a set of invisible rails. It feels like I am acting according to the plans of someone I have never seen. I am aware of that.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°But I have never seen anyone reach a happy ending when they try to force their way off of those rails. Some are unnaturally demoted, some are driven insane, and some suddenly disappear or commit suicide. This is not an interrogation room. It is a set of rails telling us to waste our time. Making a mistake here will lead to a horrible fate. You need to understand that first.¡± ¡°Department chief!! Do you really think I am someone who would back away from a case for my own saf-...!?¡± I shouted back at the department chief, but he reached over the table and grabbed my collar. He then pulled with tremendous strength. But he then whispered in my ear so quietly that it could not be recorded or seen on a video. ¡°I am never able to reach the truth. I can only send people like you out to find it.¡± ¡°Wha-...?¡± ¡°So when I see people like you, I get the urge to tell you the following: whatever you choose, always weigh the risks before choosing.¡± He paused for a moment. ¡°But your life belongs to you. How you act now is your own decision.¡± Strength left the hands holding my collar. I dropped back down into my seat. A slight silence fell over the interrogation room. I slowly placed my hands on the table. And then I forcefully stood up. ¡°I have been telling you what I want to do this whole time.¡± Some problems were beyond solving. For example, there had been an isolated island filled with hunting weaponry where every single one of the hundreds of villagers was the murderer. But I had a chance of resolving this before it reached that level. I had always been afraid of the look in the department chief¡¯s eyes, but now I stared him directly at him. I could stare him in the eye now. ¡°There is still a lot I do not know about the goals of the Jinmensou organization or this person going by the name Toujou Miyabi. But the odds are very high that they intend to do harm to Tsumada Mio. I will find her before they do and protect her. I will not let her become one of the dead who I find so uninteresting. Please let me do this.¡± ¡°Is there any chance you will change your mind?¡± ¡°I have no reason to change my mind.¡± ¡°Fine then.¡± The department chief slowly stood up. ¡°No matter what assignments I give to the other detectives, you will be stopped somewhere. I will arrange a means for you to leave from here.¡± ¡°...How?¡± ¡°Do you really have time to worry about that? Until you arrest Toujou Miyabi and clear your name, you will be viewed as a dangerous criminal who fired inside the headquarters of the Tokyo police. ...Uchimaku, do you remember Chief Superintendent Mishima?¡± ¡°The guy who set up that painful night of drinking?¡± ¡°Yes, that monster who should have nothing to do with the likes of us. He is neither an evil man nor a good man. In other words, he does not go easy on his enemies or his allies. He is the sort of person who would deem it an appropriate response to shoot you in a situation such as this. Do you understand what I am saying? If you do not want to be shot by your own colleagues, you must escape Tokyo as quickly as possible.¡± Part 18 I have no idea what kind of connections or influence he used, but the department chief led me out of the interrogation room. We headed to the underground parking lot where the usual guard from the front entrance was waiting. ¡°Nakada-san?¡± ¡°Over here. Use this scooter. Here¡¯s the key.¡± But isn¡¯t this Nakada-san¡¯s? I¡¯m about to be an escaped dangerous criminal who fired a handgun in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, so won¡¯t it be a lot of trouble for him if I use his scooter? The department chief must have sensed my concern because he said, ¡°It will of course be treated as stolen. This will increase your list of crimes, but do not worry about it too much.¡± ¡°...I see.¡± How much of a villain am I becoming on paper? I put on the borrowed helmet while thinking seriously about the situation. Nakada-san then added, ¡°Oh, and this is my cell phone. Use it however you wish. Don¡¯t forget to turn your own phone off. Take this handgun, baton, and handcuffs as well. I took them from the storage room.¡± ¡°...¡± Wait, wait, wait!! I¡¯m about to be treated as a dangerous criminal who fired in the middle of the police department and then escaped the interrogation room. If I¡¯m carrying this around, won¡¯t I end up shot by a Special Assault Team!? And I¡¯m pretty sure that look on the department chief¡¯s face is saying ¡°I didn¡¯t tell you to go that far¡±! ¡°Uchimaku, a search across Tokyo is sure to begin soon. Focus on driving safely. Avoid the major roads. Be especially careful when crossing rivers. All the roads focus in on the bridges, so they make excellent checkpoint locations.¡± ¡°U-understood.¡± ¡°Uchimaku-san, good luck. We cannot leave the rails, so please show that the justice the police claim to protect does indeed exist. That is likely what this missing girl needs the most.¡± ¡°That was my plan from the beginning,¡± I said before opening up the scooter¡¯s throttle and shooting out of the underground parking lot. Midnight had already passed and the trains were no longer running. Tokyo had long been called the nightless city, but the government district of Sakuradamon had relatively little light and was wrapped in darkness. I could no longer rely on the organization known as the police. I needed some other power to search out Toujou Miyabi and Tsumada Mio who he was after. ¡°I almost feel like I¡¯ve already lost...¡± For the time being, I stopped the scooter near the entrance of a park and operated Tanaka-san¡¯s cell phone with my thumb. I was of course calling the twintailed mystery freak, Hishigami Enbi. Before I could explain anything, she said, ¡°Since you¡¯re using a different number, is this an emergency?¡± ¡°Pretty much. I am about to be a wanted man around the country. But what I must do remains the same. I need to find out everything I can about Tsumada Mio so I can find her. I need your help.¡± ¡°Oh, I see... Well, fine. You owe me one, though. A big one. Be prepared to at least give me a swimsuit oil massage.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say such indecent things to a police officer!!¡± ¡°What are you talking about? Oil massages are good for your health and beauty. They aren¡¯t indecent at all.¡± Dammit. I could almost see her grinning face. ¡°Anyway, where are you?¡± she asked. ¡°Sakuradamon.¡± ¡°Then you can use my base in Kudanshita. It has all the tools and funds you might need.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s the key?¡± ¡°You just have to enter a number. Today is Friday, so...enter all of the digits in the first 100 digits of pi that create a multiple of 7. Three errors and you¡¯ll be permanently locked out.¡± ¡°What a pain in the ass!!¡± ¡°If it wasn¡¯t a pain in the ass, it wouldn¡¯t be a very good key. By the way, detective, you can use any of the tools I have prepared, but do you know where you will begin your investigation?¡± ¡°I was almost killed in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. I¡¯m going to start by investigating the guy who did it.¡± ¡°I see. I just received some new information too, so you can look into that while you¡¯re at it.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Tomoe has disappeared,¡± she said as if she was fed up with all of this. And yet I was the one who most of everything was happening to. ¡°Tomoe¡¯s mother just called me. It seems she is calling everyone she can for information. Her mother thinks Tomoe might have run away from home, but I bet she¡¯s chasing after Tsumada Mio.¡± ¡°Before, she had at least been following her curfew. Why would she suddenly break that rule?¡± ¡°The odds are good she found some information on Tsumada Mio ahead of us. You might find something if you search Tsumada Mio and Tomoe¡¯s rooms.¡± I pictured Hachikawa Tomoe¡¯s face in my mind and I remembered something else. ¡°Come to think of it, who was ¡®that person¡¯ Tomoe-chan kept mentioning?¡± ¡°Oh, yeah. I forgot to explain that.¡± The mystery freak hesitated for a moment. ¡°Tomoe¡¯s mother got remarried, so she is not blood related to her current father.¡± ¡°...¡± So is this new father ¡°that person¡±? But my guess was wrong. ¡°Tomoe¡¯s real father is a police detective. It seems he would get so lost in his work that he ignored looking after her or even speaking to her, so they did not even possess the bare minimum of familial bonds. Hence why he is just ¡®that person¡¯. But he was the first person she asked for help when Tsumada Mio disappeared, so I think she really did trust him deep down.¡± That must have been why she hated the police. He had not been able to find Tsumada Mio and therefore had not lived up to his daughter¡¯s trust. But now that I was isolated from the police and could use all the help I could get, it might be worth seeing if he might help me. ¡°By the way, what was this detective¡¯s name?¡± I asked. ¡°...¡± ¡°Answer me, mystery freak. What was his name!?¡± When I asked again, Enbi nervously spoke a name. It was the last name I had expected. ¡°Toujou Miyabi. Do you know him?¡± I¡¯m pretty sure I stopped breathing for a few seconds. ¡°Ha...ha ha.¡± ¡°Detective...?¡± asked the mystery freak in puzzlement. The Toujou Miyabi she had just mentioned was likely not the same person that had attacked me. The man using Toujou¡¯s name had said the real Toujou Miyabi was buried in a mountain. So that¡¯s it. It all fits together so nicely, dammit!! ¡°Hey, mystery freak. You work to find Hachikawa Tomoe-chan. That¡¯s your top priority! Being even a second too slow could be the difference between life and death!!¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I know why she disappeared. She is likely with someone she believes is her father, but this Toujou is someone else! Given the situation, Tomoe-chan probably realized something due to being so close to Tsumada Mio. And she has given that hint to Toujou. Toujou thinks he can use her, so he is tricking her so she will lead him to the missing girl. And once that is over, he will have no more need for her!!¡± ¡°Understood. What will you do, detective? Since you are only interested in the living, I thought you would focus on Tomoe.¡± ¡°That does suit me better, but I have something I have to do first.¡± I ended the call and sat down on the scooter¡¯s seat. I started by travelling to the mystery freak¡¯s base. My plan was to grab a complete set of the forensic kits she liked to use and then head to Toujou Miyabi¡¯s residence. Part 19 (3rd person) Hachikawa Tomoe was sitting in the passenger seat of a 4-door domestic luxury car. Toujou Miyabi sat in the driver¡¯s seat. He was someone claiming to be her father. ¡°I have learned that Tsumada Mio-chan has been spotted in the area you just told me about, Tomoe.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°She is most likely relying on her grandparents. A girl with no financial foundation will ultimately rely on her relatives rather than some stranger trying to pick her up on the street. Since she was not with her parents, her grandparents or other relatives seem likely,¡± said Toujou as he merged onto a major road. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t her relatives have been the first place the police checked?¡± ¡°She is not a suspect of any crime. If her family covers for her, there is nothing we can do. We can only write up a report saying they said she was not there. And even if we had done a search of her grandparents¡¯ home, I doubt we would have found Tsumada Mio-chan there.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Her grandparents own quite a lot of land. They own several mountains. And according to a neighbor, they built small huts all over their land during the 0-yen lifestyle boom that was big on TV shows for a while. I cannot search private land without a warrant and I would have a hard time finding her hideout in all those mountains even if I did.¡± ¡°And so you relied on me?¡± ¡°You said you had seen some photos, right? ¡°...Yes. Mio said she had gone on a bit of an adventure while over at her grandfather¡¯s house over summer break.¡± ¡°Do you know where it is?¡± ¡°Generally. She drew out a map while bragging about it. But the map was not to scale or anything.¡± ¡°That is fine. As long as you can tell me which way to turn, that is enough.¡± Hachikawa Tomoe secretly glanced over at the man holding the steering wheel. He was focused on driving, so she could only see the side of his face. ¡°...You¡¯re finally acting like a father.¡± ¡°I have not done anything yet. When we reach the mountain, I will make sure to find Tsumada Mio-chan.¡± The man calling himself Toujou Miyabi secretly gave a slight smile. Hachikawa Tomoe did not know the meaning of that smile. However... ¡°Grr...¡± She thought she heard what sounded like a large dog growling. And it did not seem to be coming from outside. It seemed to come from within the car. It sounded as if something in the backseat directly behind her was growling so closely she should have been able to feel its breath on her. Part 20 In one corner of Kudanshita¡¯s lines of tidy office buildings, a room in a short and worn-down multi-tenant building functioned as one of the mystery freak¡¯s bases. I could almost see the mystery freak proudly puffing out her chest as she had bragged about how she could easily live there with the convenient store and laundromat on the first floor as well as the leisure spa only a 100 meter walk away. However... ¡°It would be really depressing to live here...¡± The area around all four walls was filled with piles of files on unresolved cases. That was all that was in the room. There was a table in the center of the room, but it did not even have a chair to go with it. A balled up sleeping bag had been left below the table, so it looked like about the worst possible place to try to get some sleep. The room had no refrigerator or sink, much less an actual kitchen, but for some reason it did have a storage area below the floor. I opened it up and found a few bags the size of toolboxes. I pulled them out and looked through them. They were all divided into sets for different tasks. For example, one held a laptop and a few USB memory sticks, one contained several types of reagents, and one was filled with bankbooks and cards. I grabbed the bag containing the set that looked useful for forensics. I returned the others to the storage space under the floor. I left the building, tossed the bag into the luggage area below the scooter¡¯s seat, and headed for Toujou Miyabi¡¯s residence. The mystery freak had apparently previously learned the dead Toujou Miyabi¡¯s address from Tomoe-chan. The mystery freak had said the following over the phone: ¡°It¡¯s in Ichigaya. It¡¯s actually quite a nice house, but its size may have emphasized the loneliness after his family left.¡± If the current Toujou was using that same house, something might remain there. He would have at least eliminated any information the real Toujou Miyabi had found, but the current Toujou¡¯s scent might still remain there. I drove the scooter to my destination. The value of land anywhere within the Yamanote Line was incredibly high and high-rise buildings were used to make efficient use of the limited space...or so I thought. It turned out there were exceptions. It was no match for an old house in an Intellectual Village, but it must have taken a lot of effort to build a house of this size in the city. ¡°Detective, how are you going to get inside?¡± asked the mystery freak over the phone. ¡°I don¡¯t have many options.¡± ¡°If you break a window, you¡¯ll probably set off an alarm.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to go that far.¡± For one, I doubted any obvious evidence would remain inside the building. Any traces of the Toujou Miyabi who was buried in the mountains would have been eliminated by the Toujou who had taken on his face. ¡°Do you think Toujou Miyabi was suddenly attacked one day?¡± I asked. ¡°It¡¯s hard to say.¡± ¡°If he began to catch a glimpse of the person behind all this while he was investigating the whereabouts of Tsumada Mio, I do not think he would leave the data he had collected where it would be easily found. He would hide it in some difficult-to-find place. ...But still somewhere nearby.¡± I stopped the scooter in front of the house and climbed over the wall and into the yard. At this point I was illegally trespassing, but I could not guarantee Hachikawa Tomoe-chan¡¯s survival if I did not find any hint to Toujou¡¯s whereabouts. Now then. If I was a police detective, where would I hide data other than in the archives room? Depending on the scope of the enemy, there could be a risk of having your entire house burned down. Which meant... ¡°He needed a way to ensure it could not be destroyed even if the house was burned to the ground.¡± I opened the bag I had borrowed from the mystery freak and pulled out the forensics kit. It could gather data from fingerprints, hairs, and bloodstains. Forcing my way into the locked house would be a last resort. First, I would slowly investigate around the outside of the house while focusing on the yard. If my thinking was correct, he would not have used anything wooden that would burn away in a fire. Concrete seemed more likely. ¡°Bingo.¡± As I used a special device to spray a chemical, one spot gave off a pale light. This was at the manhole located directly beside the hot-water heater. A single portion of the ground there was hardened with concrete and I found a bloodstain on the underside of the small manhole lid. Technically, this was the trace of something being written with blood and then washed away by water. I was seeing a luminol reaction. Most people have heard the term in dramas or movies. Bloodstains could not be completely erased just by washing them away. No matter how much it was washed, the stain would remain and it would stand out too much if the entire manhole cover was thrown away. A replacement lid could not be ordered from a hardware store and the manhole could not be left open. The stench would gather the attention of the entire neighborhood. What it had written was... ¡°A 20-digit number and a string of 11 alphanumeric characters? Is this for an online data storage site?¡± The 20-digit number would be the ID and the 11 characters would be the password. The ID number resembled the ones used by a major company. The data storage itself could be accessed from a normal cell phone. I opened up the login page and entered the number and alphanumeric string from the luminol reaction. It worked. I found a large number of reports. I could view them, but a different password was needed to delete or edit the data. Most of it was text and low resolution photos. It seemed Toujou Miyabi would use any break in his work to input any information into his phone and add it to the storage. ¡°...¡± As I skimmed through the text, I could see him start searching for Tsumada Mio and slowly discover the link to the SNS murders. I also found a list of all reports of sightings of someone who may have been Tsumada Mio. Seventy to eighty percent of that sort of information was always useless, but it seemed Toujou Miyabi had diligently pursued each and every one of them. From what I could see, he had a very methodical personality. After enough useless leads, people tended to grow more lax and write less detailed reports, but that was not the case here. Every single report was filled with detail. Why had he been so dedicated to his job? Working for the organization known as the police meant you had to face death. A normal person would be unable to withstand it. To face it calmly, they needed to construct a ¡°mental detour¡±. For a similar example, think of doctors. They cut open several people with blades every day. They must have grown used to doing so. But if you gave a doctor a knife and ordered him to go kill someone, he would refuse. Some of them might even vomit if they were holding a blade for the purpose of killing someone. That was their ¡°mental detour¡±. They were not hurting anyone; they were saving them. That was why they could do it. That was how humans worked. For me, it was helping the relatives of the victim and anyone else who was still alive. For the mystery freak, it was figuring out why the victim had died. That was how people were able to face things that could not be looked at directly. So what had it been for Toujou Miyabi? The answer to that was hidden in this methodical text. ¡°...I see,¡± I muttered. The data stopped being updated at the end of May. That was when the SNS murders had been solved. That was when the person behind the project had moved on. That was when the Jinmensou project had begun and Toujou¡¯s interest had turned toward Tsumada Mio and the person behind it all. That must have been when something had happened. ¡°All of this evidence was ignored and sealed away for various reasons. Was it your doctrine to gather up every last piece of it?¡± If that was the case, these overly methodical reports made sense. The thick report in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department¡¯s archives room was amazing, but this was something else entirely. He had not simply investigated Tsumada Mio because his daughter had asked him to. The detective named Toujou Miyabi had been the type to head to the depths of hell so that he could hear the cries of those too deep in the darkness to be reached just by stretching out an arm. ¡°And this is what became of him?¡± Even as his family had left him because he failed to hear the voices of those closest to him, he had continued to pursue the case and had stepped on a landmine he should have avoided at all costs. And as a result, his daughter¡¯s life was now in danger from someone with the exact same face and the exact same voice. Could this really be allowed to happen? Could the dead be dishonored any more than this? ¡°Dammit...¡± I returned the manhole cover and left Toujou Miyabi¡¯s house. It was not like me to work for the sake of the dead like this. ¡°Dammit!!¡± I boarded the scooter, put on the helmet, and called the mystery freak. ¡°I found some data from Toujou Miyabi¡¯s personal storage. Tsumada Mio¡¯s grandparents¡¯ house is in Okutama. The police went to the grandparent¡¯s house to question them, but Tsumada Mio was not there. However, those grandparents own a mountain. If they have a small cabin somewhere, it wouldn¡¯t be difficult to hide a single child.¡± It was not unlikely that grandparents would tell a lie or two to protect their granddaughter who had lost her place at school and home due to the Jinmensou. This was another ¡°mental detour¡±. Even if they could not lie to deceive the police, they might be able to lie to protect their granddaughter. ¡°Where exactly is it?¡± asked the mystery freak. ¡°I don¡¯t know. But Toujou made his move because he thinks he has a chance. And he brought Hachikawa Tomoe-chan with him. To be honest, I don¡¯t see why he would need Tomoe-chan here. Which means...¡± ¡°Tomoe knows the answer?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve made your way into Hachikawa Tomoe-chan¡¯s house as her classmate, right? Make sure you find something. I¡¯ll be heading for Okutama.¡± ¡°How are you going to catch up to them!? If he has Tomoe with him, they must be in a car. Plus, they have a large head start. No matter how fast you move, Toujou will get there first!!¡± ¡°True. But the police are searching for me, so they¡¯ve set up checkpoints throughout the city. He¡¯ll get through just fine because they look like father and daughter, but he needs to stop and put on a smile at each checkpoint. That should slow him down a good bit.¡± ¡°Tomoe disappeared an hour ago.¡± ¡°If he is strictly following the legal speed limit and stopping at each checkpoint, I can catch up. I just need a way of heading straight to Okutama at almost 100 kph.¡± ¡°The police are on high alert. If you drive that fast on a normal road, they¡¯ll catch you right away. And they will almost certainly have checkpoints set up on the highway.¡± ¡°If I use normal roads, yes. And I can¡¯t use the highway with this scooter anyway.¡± ¡°Then what are you going to do? The trains have already stopped.¡± ¡°The freight trains haven¡¯t. They also don¡¯t stop at the intervening stations. They head straight to the last stop at Okutama.¡± I called up a map on the cell phone and displayed the points where overpasses crossed over the train tracks. And I found the perfect spot. It was right near a curve where the train would lower its speed. ¡°But...¡± I¡¯ve seen it in plenty of dramas and movies, but will I really be okay if I jump onto a freight train? It isn¡¯t going to rip off my arms and legs, is it? Part 21 (3rd person) ¡°Over there. I think it¡¯s to the left of that big tree,¡± said Hachikawa Tomoe while needlessly pointing. The road was so narrow a single car covered it over entirely. The mountain road was pitch black due to the lack of streetlights and a passenger car drove along it at the legal speed limit. While holding the steering wheel, Toujou said, ¡°This area wasn¡¯t designated an Intellectual Village, was it?¡± ¡°The village at the base of the mountain was, but Mio¡¯s grandparents were opposed to the change. They could do nothing to change the view of the entire village, but they were able to keep their private property from being included.¡± ¡°Do her grandparents have a phobia of electromagnetic waves or something?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. But even if they do-...Oh, it¡¯s there. Once you make this turn, it should just be a direct path there.¡± ¡°I see,¡± muttered Toujou as he slowly stepped on the brake. The car came to a stop on that empty mountain road. ¡°? Wait a second. What¡¯s wrong? Did something happen?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Did an animal dart across the road up ahead? Oh, or did you blow a tire?¡± ¡°Tomoe-chan,¡± muttered Toujou. He let out a heavy sigh and then smoothly reached for the side of his waist with his right hand. ¡°You are an interesting girl in a lot of ways. For one, you came out to this remote area with no suspicion whatsoever.¡± ¡°Eh...?¡± For an instant, Hachikawa Tomoe did not know what to think. Her entire mind was focused directly forward. She was trying to grasp what it was that was being held out toward her. It was a shiny black hunk of metal. It was a handgun. ¡°W-wait. What are you-...?¡± ¡°Get out,¡± said Toujou, cutting her off. ¡°Get out. If you do not, I will drag you out.¡± Overpowered by that gun barrel, Hachikawa Tomoe slowly opened the passenger-side door and stepped out of the car. She thought she was being abandoned in that dark mountain, but she was wrong. Toujou then stepped out from the driver¡¯s seat. He pointed the large handgun at her once more. ¡°...What are you doing?¡± ¡°I no longer need you, Tomoe-chan,¡± said Toujou with a thin smile. ¡°By the way, this is not my first time to kill. I¡¯m quite used to it, so please don¡¯t pointlessly try to persuade me, resist, or beg for your life. I do not have time to deal with such annoyances.¡± ¡°...!!¡± Hachikawa Tomoe had no idea what Toujou was saying, so she simply tried to run away. But she never even managed to turn around. She froze in place before she could move. ¡°Grr,¡± came a bestial growl. Something was only 30 cm behind her. As soon as she heard it, sweat poured from Hachikawa Tomoe¡¯s entire body. Something huge and overwhelming was there. This was not just a large dog. This was something that could easily break through a cage at a zoo. ¡°Do not turn around,¡± said Toujou as he grinned and continued to aim the gun at her. ¡°It will probably be easiest for you if you die without learning anything.¡± ¡°Why...?¡± ¡°Do not worry. I do not need to make this look like suicide. If a body is found here with a bullet through the head, the police will probably assume you just happened to come across someone who was here to bury another corpse. The same thing happens all across Japan. No one will think I did it.¡± Something was directly behind Hachikawa Tomoe. But an obvious gun barrel was directly in front of her. There was nowhere to run. No one would come to save her. ¡°This is not a.38 issued by the police. This is a.45 I acquired for myself. Even the bullets are quite cool. The bullet will blow apart half of your soft brain as soon as it hits, so you will feel no pain. So there is nothing to fear. ...At the very least, it is a better fate than being attacked by a canine beast while walking along a mountain path.¡± ¡°...Ah...¡± ¡°Farewell, Tomoe-chan. You will probably go to heaven, so send my regards to your real father.¡± And that was all. He did not hesitate. He pulled the trigger. A dry gunshot rang out. Flesh exploded out and the air filled with the stench of blood. Hachikawa Tomoe limply fell to the ground. Her wide-open eyes reflected the scene before her. ¡°...Gh...¡± Someone groaned. It was a male voice. It was the voice of the man named Toujou. ¡°Ghh!! My...arm...! My...my arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm!!¡± He was trying to use his left hand to hold the wound on his right arm, but that left hand was already dyed red. This was not surprising. Toujou¡¯s right arm had been blown off at the wrist. The giant black handgun was gone. It had exploded from the inside and several shards had fallen to the cracked asphalt. It was obvious what had happened. The gun had malfunctioned. But there had been no reason for that malfunction. Normally, at least. ¡°...Ahh! Th-that bastard... It had to be him. He touched my gun in the archives room. He tampered with it!!¡± The bestial growl from behind Hachikawa Tomoe grew. It seemed to be reacting to Toujou¡¯s mental turmoil. ¡°U-Uchi-Uchima-Uchimaku!!! How dare you...how dare you take my haaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddddddddddddddddd!?¡± Hachikawa Tomoe thought he was going to give into his anger and have whatever was behind her attack. She thought she was going to be torn apart and eaten as if by a lion or tiger. But that did not happen. As if in response to Toujou¡¯s shout, two gunshots rang out somewhere else on the mountain. Sweat was pouring from Toujou¡¯s face due to the intense pain, but the gunshots seemed to bring him back to his senses. He looked at Hachikawa Tomoe and hesitated over something, but ultimately gave precedence to running away. While holding his mangled wrist, Toujou ran off into the deep darkness of the mountain. Hachikawa Tomoe remained motionless for a while. She could not grasp what was going on. Part 22 When I fired those gunshots in the dark mountains of Okutama, I did not actually know exactly where Toujou and Hachikawa Tomoe-chan were. I had only entered the mountain the mystery freak had learned Tsumada Mio¡¯s grandparents owned. However, if my sabotage had been effective, there was a chance Tomoe-chan was still alive. And if I let him hear those gunshots, it would tell Toujou I had come this far. He would assume I knew where he was that I was staring at him through my gun¡¯s sight in order to keep him from killing Hachikawa Tomoe. I had actually only fired randomly up into the night sky. As I ran along the mountain road toward the sound of the initial gunshot, I finally spotted an abandoned car. The road had a small bloodstain on it, grotesque pieces of flesh and fingers were scattered about, and Hachikawa Tomoe-chan was sitting on the ground. ¡°Hachikawa-san!!¡± I ran over and grabbed her shoulders. ¡°Are you hurt? It looks like the gun malfunctioned, but did any of the fragments hit you!?¡± ¡°...¡± She seemed to be conscious, but she was slow to react. She may have experienced a great mental shock. She slowly moved just her eyes to look at me. ¡°He...tried to kill me...¡± ¡°Hachikawa-san?¡± ¡°He...he tried to...but he¡¯s my father...he had a gun...and that growling...m-my father...tried to k-kill me...!!¡± Hachikawa Tomoe-chan still thought that Toujou was her father. It was only natural to be shocked when her ¡°father¡± tried to kill her. But... ¡°Hachikawa-san, this is going to be tough to hear, but please listen.¡± ¡°There¡¯s more? What more could there be? I¡¯ve had enough! I can¡¯t deal with anything more!!¡± ¡°The real Toujou Miyabi-san was likely killed around the end of May. This man is someone else entirely.¡± ¡°...Eh?¡± ¡°Your father was not the kind of person who would kill his own daughter! He worked until the very, very end to fight against this kind of villain! That¡¯s why I was able to make it here. The data your real father gathered led me here!! You do not need to think he betrayed you. Your father lived a life you can be proud of.¡± Which truth was better? Both being killed by one¡¯s father and learning your father died months ago were too much to accept. But once a case began, I focused on the living more than the dead. I could not lie to a living civilian for the sake of a dead detective. ¡°...Who is he?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I answered honestly. ¡°But whoever he is, I will arrest him. I will not let him hurt you, Tsumada Mio-san, or anyone else.¡± Should I leave her here or take her with me? I was unsure what to do, but this Toujou had clearly tried to kill her. It would be too dangerous to take her to the scene of a firefight. ¡°You follow this road down the mountain. The mystery frea-...Hishigami Enbi-san is heading here. You should cross paths.¡± ¡°Be careful,¡± said Tomoe-chan with a pale face. ¡°His gun was not his only weapon. He controlled some sort of large beast. It seemed to go nuts when he started bleeding.¡± I was not sure what she meant, but I nodded. I wondered what she was thinking as she sat on the ground there. Her expression was twisted into something that none of the standard emotions adequately described. ¡°...Please save Mio.¡± ¡°That¡¯s my job,¡± I said before running down the mountain road. Toujou must have been bleeding quite a bit because drips of blood could be seen along the cracked asphalt. I could not trust that trail of blood too much because it could be a trap, but it would still function as a decent guide. As I thought, I pulled out my cell phone. Is this Toujou still using Toujou Miyabi¡¯s number? ¡°Hey, Uchimaku...¡± ¡°It seems you made a huge mistake. You should hurry up and surrender. You won¡¯t last 30 minutes with that much bleeding.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate me. I already had the wound bitten closed. Do you really think you¡¯ve won? I had to go to some extra effort in the archives room to make it look like a suicide, but if all I have to do is kill you...¡± The conversation continued as I jogged along the mountain road. I was not trying to trace his location. I was fairly certain Toujou had lost a hand. Holding the cell phone would take up his other hand. I could tell whether he was using speaker phone from how much background noise was being picked up. In other words, as long as he was speaking on the phone, Toujou could not use his weapon. I was ensuring my safety. ¡°Uchimaku, how much do you know?¡± ¡°Enough to know that arresting you will bring this to an end.¡± ¡°Ha ha. Well, you¡¯re right about that.¡± Toujou seemed to be laughing somewhere on the mountain. ¡°Those idiots making that pathetic Package were causing too many problems, so I slaughtered them. That faux-intellectual insider group had gotten a bit carried away, so they had almost no military might. Houjou and Saijou tried to stop me, but Tsumada Mio is simply that valuable. If they had simply agreed to hand her over, none of this would have happened.¡± ¡°What do you hope to do with Tsumada Mio?¡± ¡°You will find out when you get here and see this. Personally, I can barely wait. This is greater than I expected. I bought bone marrow from an Inugami bloodline and changed my blood type with a transplant in order to fuse with the Inugami, but this is on an entirely different level. This goes even beyond the ultimate objective of our organization.¡± ¡°Ultimate objective? Organization?¡± ¡°Damn, this hurts... That¡¯s right. Our objective is to remake the human body into that of a Youkai. I thought Houjou had beaten me to it, but it looks like I¡¯ll be first.¡± I heard an unpleasant sound over the phone. Is he just coughing or is he actually coughing up blood? I wouldn¡¯t think that would have caused any internal bleeding... ¡°Hey, Uchimaku. Think back to the Jinmensou incident. That group was attaching Jinmensou to girls passing through Shibuya, but how do you think they attached the Jinmensou to their target?¡± I had not actually cleared up that aspect of the case. For one thing, a Jinmensou was a Youkai. Unless they had a good reason, they would not appear in the city. ¡°Jinmensou appear as a symbol of the lies someone has said or the sins they have committed. But those lies have a certain requirement. You could call this the starting point.¡± ¡°Are you saying Tsumada Mio was involved in something?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, exactly. You did some research on Tsumada Mio, right? What sort of impression did you get of her?¡± ¡°She seemed like a sociable girl with a lot of friends before the Jinmensou appeared. Her social circle had spread even beyond her class.¡± ¡°Do you know that for sure?¡± cut in Toujou with a sneering voice. Shit, his injuries should be slowing him down. Have I still not caught up to him? ¡°You only know that because of the notepad in her room. The one with all the photo stickers on it. But doesn¡¯t it seem odd for it to still be there?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°She took her schoolbag and tablet computer with her when she disappeared, so why did she leave behind that notepad with all its photo stickers? That should have been the symbol of her status. Why was it still there?¡± ¡°It was faked...?¡¯ I felt like the ground was lurching beneath my feet. But when I thought about it, it was not all that difficult a thing to do. Photo stickers could be found plastered all over the city. Even an amateur could retrieve some and reattach them somewhere else. But why would she do it? Perhaps she had not wanted to worry her family or her neighbor from another school, Hachikawa Tomoe-chan. In that case... ¡°Some Jinmensou are said to spew toxins from their mouths. Those covered in the toxin will gain a face as ugly as the Jinmensou,¡± said Toujou. ¡°A certain rumor has spread through Shibuya. It says Tsumada Mio, a poor girl with no friends, has been gathering photo stickers. In order to save this isolated girl, people are to claim to be Tsumada Mio¡¯s friend if asked. Well, it seems even the real Toujou was fooled by this and assumed she was popular. ...That is a lie and a sin. Whenever she was lied about, Tsumada Mio¡¯s Jinmensou spewed toxins that afflicted the bodies of the liars and caused the ugly faces to multiply.¡± ¡°How could this happen...?¡± The original masterminds behind the Jinmensou had wanted to use them to threaten the children of corporate executives and shareholders, so they had likely approached the children who met the Jinmensou¡¯s requirements and asked them that question. They may have pretended to be a teacher or from a private investigation company. Their responses may indeed have been lies. But were those lies really worth calling sins? ¡°Then why did the original Jinmensou appear on Tsumada Mio?¡± I asked. ¡°She may have lied about having a lot of friends, but she was still in the city. I doubt a rural-loving Youkai would attach to her there.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, but something about the Jinmensou¡¯s nature was likely twisted in the Package. For example, what if a Jinmensou they acquired somewhere was attached to Tsumada Mio¡¯s umbilical cord where it was stored in a corner of her grandparents¡¯ rural house? Even if she was in a distant place, that would still qualify as the Jinmensou afflicting her body.¡± And then that single Jinmensou patient had led to an explosive outbreak centered on Shibuya. If that was the case... ¡°So you¡¯re after the special case at the source of the infection?¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad you finally understand. The fusion of a human and a Jinmensou might lead to something not human if taken to the next level. And it does not require fine-tuning for each individual human. As long as Tsumada Mio exists as the core, it will spread without end. This will greatly shorten the work and examination needed in the past methods such as transplanting bone marrow from an Inugami bloodline.¡± ¡°Do you really think I¡¯ll let you do this?¡± ¡°And I will not let you stop me. Don¡¯t think you will get off as easily as just losing a hand.¡± The call suddenly ended. At the same time, I spotted a wooden cabin through the gaps in the cedar trees. It was a small cabin, but it still looked larger than my apartment. It had a small water wheel that may have been used to generate power. In the end, I had been unable to catch up to him partway there. But Toujou¡¯s goal was to capture Tsumada Mio, not kill her. I doubted he would harm her right away. I pulled out my.38 caliber revolver and slowly approached the cabin. The cabin¡¯s lights did not appear to be on. The trail of blood headed straight to the front door, so Toujou was likely already inside. I pressed up against the wall next to the door and touched the doorknob. And I turned it. After making sure it was not locked, I kicked open the door. The attack came immediately afterwards. I suffered a fatal wound and was knocked to the floor. Part 23 It seemed it had only been intended as a playful attack. Nevertheless, I was knocked across the cabin as if I had been struck by a large truck. I could not breathe. I coughed up a great bit of blood. I tried to bring my hands to my mouth, but they only twitched slightly and would not move. ¡°Cough!? Cough cough!!¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you, Uchimaku?¡± Toujou¡¯s voice filled the darkness of the cabin. ¡°Simply killing you is no problem for me. They are known as Inugami[2], but they are actually more like a formless curse. It does not matter if you dodge to the right or to the left, or if you charge forward all at once or cautiously approach. If I tell it to do it, it will do it. That is all there is to it.¡± ¡°Grr,¡± came the growling of a large beast. What is going on? Is there a lion or a tiger hiding in this darkness? Or is Toujou making that growling noise? I had no way to know which it was. Wait a second. Toujou and this beast are here, but where is Tsumada Mio? I could not sense her presence. Was that third party really in the small cabin? ¡°No, I did not expect this either,¡± said Toujou. I could hear someone feeling along the wall. However, I did not know where my handgun had gone after I dropped it. And even if I did know, I still could not move my body after that impact. Finally, I heard a clicking noise. It was the sound of a plastic switch being flipped. At the same time, bright light filled the world and blinded me. It took me several seconds to realize this was nothing more than a fluorescent light. Now that the cabin was illuminated, I could see it truly had nothing but a blanket. Not only did it have no items of entertainment such as books or a game system, but it had no refrigerator, washing machine, or anything else needed to live one¡¯s life. That made sense for an emergency cabin in the mountains, but I could not see how a teenage girl could have lived here for months. And in the center of the cabin was some dense mass. ¡°...Pant... You¡¯re...kidding me...¡± ¡°It¡¯s pretty horrible,¡± muttered Toujou with a thin smile on his face as he stood against the wall sweating and holding his injured arm. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of a man who survived for a month after his car was buried in snow. It seems the low temperature brought on a state similar to hibernation. ...But this goes beyond that. How do you think it¡¯s possible for a human to survive for four months without eating or drinking anything?¡± This mass was sitting in the seiza position. This mass was wearing a long-sleeved sailor uniform. I had once heard about the process of Sokushinbutsu from my old man back home. That was not actually a ghost story, but it had still scared me more than any other story I had ever heard. A sealed room would be dug into the ground and a Buddhist monk would enter it. All the exits would be completely sealed, he would be given no food or oxygen, and he would simply continue praying until he was mummified. This was different from being forcibly buried alive or killed. They dried themselves up of their own free will. They cut off all the animalistic instincts that were natural for humans and took a certain path to its extreme. This... This was a lot like that. But this was not an overly light corpse that looked like dried up twigs. All of the skin had become a bluish black, but the body still contained moisture and its surface was writhing slightly. ¡°She¡¯s...alive...?¡± ¡°Seems that way. I¡¯ve never heard of a Jinmensou attaching itself to a corpse. And that means Tsumada Mio is still alive even in this state. Her body has been remade so that she can remain alive.¡± True admiration could be heard in Toujou¡¯s voice. ¡°However, it does not seem that movement is based on her own will. That is just the Jinmensou covering every inch of her body moving around as they please.¡± Those words sent a definite chill down my spine. It can¡¯t be.... It can¡¯t be!! ¡°Are you saying all of that bluish-black stuff is made up of Jinmensou!?¡± You¡¯re kidding. That can¡¯t be true. That¡¯s too horrible to be true!! Those girls had felt they would never be accepted with even one of those tumors that were a few centimeters across. And now Tsumada Mio was completely covered in them. To cover her entire body, it had to be more than just a dozen or two. In my confusion, I pointlessly searched for some way of denying the truth before my eyes. ¡°But a Jinmensou is a tumor that looks like a large bug bite. They don¡¯t turn that color!!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know why they¡¯re like this. Maybe they were always like this and maybe this is a result of the Package. If my umbilical cord theory is correct, they might have made their way in through her stomach. At any rate, it seems the tumors may have moved inside her instead of staying on the surface. Once they filled her up, they caused a great change to the flow of her blood. This discoloration may be similar to a type of internal bleeding.¡± But why were there so many Jinmensou? The girl from the convenience store robbery had only had one. ¡°I had thought Tsumada Mio¡¯s Jinmensou would simply spew toxins to assault the girls in Shibuya, but it seems each time those girls lied, a new Jinmensou would also be appear on Tsumada Mio as a sort of feedback. It¡¯s like she¡¯s bearing the burden of all the lies of the city. I wonder how many Jinmensou she even has attached. I doubt 100 or even 1000 would be enough to account for this. Ha ha!!¡± ¡°...¡± I glared at Toujou from where I lay collapsed on the ground. ¡°What are you going to do with her?¡± I asked. ¡°Take her home with me, of course. Like I said, I¡¯ll be the first. No one else in the organization has a specimen that has left humanity behind as much as this. I thought I could never catch up to Houjou, but with her, I might be able to surpass him. Not to mention Saijou and Nanjou.¡±[3] My handgun was lying quite nearby. If I could only muster up some strength, I could grab it right away. ¡°Stop that.¡± Toujou shook his head. ¡°Surely you know a bullet will do nothing here. I was testing you before. I only had the Inugami lightly charge at you. If I snap my fingers and order it to bite you, you¡¯re done for. Your upper body will have to say goodbye to your lower body.¡± ¡°Are you...someone like Hishigami Mai?¡± ¡°Hishigami?¡± Toujou frowned slightly before continuing. ¡°Oh, yes. I had her right arm bitten off during a personal job a long time ago. I remember because her body had an interesting composition. But she altered her body while remaining human. That is too far removed from our principles.¡± That went well beyond my expectations. Both the fact that he had torn off that monster woman¡¯s arm and that she had recovered from it with no scar were well outside my ideas of how the world worked. ¡°Now then, can we get this over with already? I will be taking Tsumada Mio with me. You will remain here. Okay?¡± ¡°...Don¡¯t you need to kill me?¡± ¡°I intended to, but that would be too boring. Since you gained your freedom after the situation I left you in, I can only assume you escaped the interrogation room. I wonder what the police will decide happened when they find you at the site of Tsumada Mio¡¯s disappearance? That sounds a lot funnier than just killing you.¡± ¡°Your blood is all over this place.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter. It isn¡¯t enough to identify me. I have no more use for the Toujou Miyabi identity. I just need to alter the electronic medical records on the cloud to make sure these bloodstains can¡¯t be traced back to me. I will return to the world I came from. The likes of you can never reach that world.¡± As he spoke, Toujou approached the bluish black Tsumada Mio sitting seiza-style in the center of the cabin. I tried to move my fingers. Okay...I can just barely move them. I should be able to stand!! That was when I heard the same bestial growling as before. I was only a few meters from my handgun. However, that growl was an obvious threat keeping me from advancing those few meters. Toujou picked up the unmoving Tsumada Mio and carried her over his shoulder. My mind was filled with nothing but the distance between my fingertips and the handgun, but I could not avoid having a few words leak from my mouth. ¡°Wait, Toujou...¡± ¡°Stop it. The time to beg for your life has long since passed. I¡¯ve already lost a hand, remember?¡± ¡°Leave Tsumada Mio here. She isn¡¯t something you can just use like this!¡± ¡°Ha ha hahh.¡± It seemed Toujou could not help but laugh. ¡°C¡¯mon, Uchimaku. I had no real reason to explain everything to you like I did. I could have put on some act. And yet here I am speaking with you. Why do you think that is? I understand all too well how valuable information is, so why would I do that?¡± ¡°...What...?¡± ¡°Tsumada Mio has become a symbol of judging people for their lies, so it is best not to lie in front of her, Uchimaku. I don¡¯t know if you thought it was the etiquette of adulthood or something, but it may have been a mistake to say something so idealistic in front of her. ...A fatal mistake.¡± Almost at the exact moment Toujou finished speaking, pain exploded in my right thigh and left wrist. I felt the same sort of heat combined with itching and pain as with a bug bite except much, much worse. I knew perfectly well what was happening to me. Before long, the itching passed along the major nerves of my body and took control of all my body¡¯s senses. ¡°Gaahhh!? This is...a Jinmensou...!?¡± ¡°Just to be clear, this wasn¡¯t me. Uchimaku, you did this to yourself. It¡¯s quite ironic really. You are punished for your idealistic statements made for the sake of justice and I survive unscathed for honestly saying such horrible things.¡± The itching was so bad I grew confused as to the size of my own body, but a question still remained in my head. What did the Jinmensou react to just now? I had come this far to save Tsumada Mio. My intentions there had not changed. So why had the Jinmensou reacted to a lie? Had I lied without even realizing it? Or did something qualify as a lie as long as Tsumada Mio thought it was one? For one thing, it was still unclear what basis Tsumada Mio used to determine if something was a lie. If it was simply anyone with any connection to her making any lie, everyone who had been around her would have been affected by a Jinmensou. But that had not happened. For example, her parents and her neighbor, Hachikawa Tomoe-chan. None of them had shown any sign of being affected by a Jinmensou. ¡°It...can¡¯t be...¡± ¡°What is it, Uchimaku? You have the look of someone who has finally solved a puzzle, but this is already over.¡± Tsumada Mio was so utterly covered in Jinmensou that not even the color of her skin was visible. The Jinmensou would spread without limit when a lie was spoken. Could it have been that I...no, that we were mistaken about something? It was a crazy idea, but we had never actually checked or proven that it was not the case. Yes. Were the Tsumada Mio her parents and Hachikawa Tomoe-chan had told us about and the Tsumada Mio the Shibuya girls, Toujou, and I were talking about really the same person? ¡°...Are you really Tsumada Mio?¡± I muttered without thinking. Toujou looked puzzled and then the girl ¨C or rather, the object in the shape of a girl ¨C burst into tiny pieces. What looked like pieces of flesh scattered across the four walls and floor of the cabin, but that was not what they were. They were all shaped like human faces. Hundreds or even thousands of them had condensed into the shape of a girl. These were Jinmensou. They were the core of the lie. This was the punishment for all of those who had spoken as if they knew who Tsumada Mio was despite not knowing anything about her. As soon as the girl-shaped object blew to pieces, the itching and pain eating into my body disappeared. The Jinmensou for telling lies were gone. Completely gone. ¡°Inugami!!¡± I immediately jumped for my handgun, but Toujou managed to shout calmly despite having lost his greatest prize. My fingertips reached the.38 caliber revolver, but I did not have time to grab it and aim. My upper body was assaulted by an impact so strong it felt like an invisible dump truck had hit me. My body slammed against the wall. ¡°Gh...gh!!¡± I slid down to the ground and found Toujou was holding my gun. The Inugami must have retrieved it for him. ¡°What happened? Hey, Uchimaku. Where did Tsumada Mio go? Where did you hide her!?¡± ¡°Heh...¡± Can you not see her? It may have been because I had finally grasped the truth and it may have been because I had finally tried to face the real Tsumada Mio. Either way, I could now clearly see another girl standing right next to me. ¡°Out with it, Uchimaku. Where did Tsumada Mio go? If you don¡¯t tell me, I¡¯ll shoot you in each limb one at a time.¡± ¡°Hey,¡± I cut in with a smile. ¡°Why are you relying on that gun when you have that Inugami as a secret weapon? Is it because that¡¯s a Youkai you¡¯re controlling? Yeah, I can see how that would be scary. It¡¯s a monster with a will of its own. Even if you think you have complete control, you never know when it might bare its fangs toward you.¡± ¡°...What are you trying to say?¡± ¡°This is a bad habit of yours. Have you already forgotten how you lost your other hand?¡± With a look of realization, Toujou frantically tried to throw the handgun away, but it was too late. The sound of a metal balloon bursting exploded out. And Toujou¡¯s remaining hand was blown to pieces. ¡°G-gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± A scream surged out. I dug my fingers into the wall to slowly stand up. ¡°This is the second time, Toujou. It¡¯s not even funny when you¡¯re this stupid.¡± The method of causing the revolver to malfunction like that was not easy, though. And the fact that the Inugami did not immediately attack me afterwards meant I was right about Toujou losing his ability to control the Youkai. An Inugami resided in the blood. I had always thought that was a way of expressing the more abstract concept of it sticking with a single family or bloodline, but Toujou had mentioned a bone marrow transplant. That meant the blood literally was the controller for the Inugami. Maybe it was having a steady pulse, maybe it was blood pressure, and maybe it was simply the amount of blood. Whatever it was, Toujou was losing the ideal environment for controlling the Youkai that resided in his blood. Tomoe-chan had also said the Inugami had gone nuts when he started losing blood. What had sounded like him coughing up blood while we spoke over the phone may have been something similar. The Inugami was akin to a type of curse and it wielded a strange Youkai like power that would hit regardless of where you tried to evade. However, none of that mattered if he could not control it. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Toujou? Can you no longer use your Inugami?¡± ¡°!!¡± ¡°If you can¡¯t, what do you think is going to happen to you?¡± I had been struck by the Inugami and felt like my body had been horribly crushed, but I was still in a better state than Toujou. He had lost both hands in gun malfunctions and had lost quite a bit of blood. And if he could not control the Inugami, there was a danger of its fangs tearing into his own body. ¡°You...?¡± muttered Toujou blankly. ¡°Someone with a supporting role like you...defeated me...?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. You¡¯re just another criminal.¡± Without his gun or Youkai, he was just a normal human. And that meant he could be fairly judged in the courtroom and thrown in jail. ¡°You are charged with trespassing, attempted murder, and abduction of a minor.¡± Toujou and I clashed head on at close range. But all I had to do was my normal job. When Toujou tried to smash the side of my head with his leather shoe that clearly had a weapon hidden in it, I swept his other leg out from under him, grabbed his necktie, and slammed his back to the floor. While he was unable to breathe, I held his arms in place, but I suddenly froze when I started to pull out my handcuffs. ¡°...With both your hands gone, I suppose handcuffs won¡¯t do any good.¡± I had no choice but to handcuff his ankles together instead. At any rate, he could not use his arms, so there was little need to seal his movements. ¡°Toujou, I have no idea who you really are, but you¡¯re under arrest.¡± Sorry. But this is the kind of person Toujou Miyabi remained to the very end. This is the kind of person Hachikawa Tomoe-chan entrusted the safety of her friend to despite her complaints. This is what it is to be a police officer. Part 24 (3rd person) After receiving word that the man going by the name Toujou had been arrested, the department chief of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department¡¯s Department 1, Mezu Gen, gave some instructions over the phone. He requested the formal wanted status on Uchimaku Hayabusa be rescinded. Chief Superintendent Mishima¡¯s standard policy was ¡°all¡¯s well that ends well¡±, so he did not interfere. However, Mezu Gen still felt a chill run down his spine when he thought about what would have happened if Uchimaku had not succeeded. Uchimaku had needlessly caught the attention of someone dangerous. For once, Mezu Gen actually felt pity for one of his subordinates. And he was still unable to determine why a monster of that level was giving so much focus to a single detective in a dead end job. It disturbed him a bit, but it was obvious no answer was forthcoming. He set that problem aside and focused on the job before him. Whoever it was that had been arrested had been transported to a large police station in Hachiouji, but if it was true that the real Toujou Miyabi had been killed, this would be a job for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department or even the Public Security Bureau. It would be necessary to prepare a prisoner transport vehicle to bring him here as soon as possible. Suddenly, the department chief¡¯s cell phone rang. The number displayed on the screen was that of a familiar subordinate. However, he heard a completely different voice when he answered. It was a girl of about ten. ¡°The real danger is yet to come,¡± she said. ¡°...Who is this?¡± ¡°I am not protesting your actions. You did the right thing. But that has brought about a problem that we cannot have brought to light. Our world will not allow it. So be on your guard. Be very, very careful that your prisoner transport vehicle does not under any circumstances meet an unforeseen accident before arriving.¡± ¡°I see. So you are from that side of things.¡± The girl replied with the soft tone of someone explaining the difference between the geocentric model and the heliocentric model to someone who did not understand the structure of the world. ¡°We exist right alongside you. There is nothing dividing us and there are no restrictions keeping anyone from moving from one side to the other. That is why I am telling you to be careful. Our world is always watching yours. And we are close enough to easily ¨C so very easily ¨C reach out and touch it.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re telling me not to get involved?¡± The department chief gave a derisive snort. ¡°If your side had done your job properly, this never would have happened. Is that what you want me to say?¡± ¡°Are you not going to say it?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see it that way. The Japanese police system is not perfect. That is what creates the openings for the likes of you to play at being allies of justice. That¡¯s all this is. This is nothing we should be upset about or anything you should be proud of. It never was and it never will be. Do you understand what I mean, young lady?¡± ¡°I see.¡± Her voice seemed unable to hold something back. ¡°If you have that much determination, we need not worry about leaving this country to you.¡± ¡°So to the very end, you¡¯re going to play the part of someone on the side of justice, is that it? And you¡¯re going to look down on me as you do it?¡± ¡°Well, I hope you will stick with this game of make believe a little longer, then.¡± ¡°What are you trying to say?¡± ¡°All the Jinmensou that spread from Tsumada Mio disappeared as soon as the concentrated mass of lies was destroyed by the truth of Detective Uchimaku Hayabusa discovering the real Tsumada Mio. However, one thing remains: the Inugami contained within the body of the man going by the name of Toujou Miyabi. No matter how you restrain him, he will undoubtedly break out of jail as soon as he inevitably regains control of that Youkai.¡± ¡°...Are you saying you can do something about that?¡± ¡°If possible, we would like to retrieve him, but I doubt you would agree to that. As your reward for resolving this case on your own, I have contacted you instead of our usual contact so that I can tell you the means of neutralizing that Inugami.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Control of his Inugami comes from the special bone marrow inserted into his spine. If you burn away that bone marrow with x-rays and transplant some new bone marrow in its place, the Inugami will leave him.¡± ¡°Do you know Japanese law? We cannot commit any acts of violence on a restrained suspect. Cutting open his body and exchanging bone marrow is out of the question.¡± ¡°But if the suspect¡¯s life is at risk, you have the right to perform an emergency operation at a police hospital without the suspect¡¯s consent. ...And the suspect is in a fair bit of danger with his hands missing. What if a detailed examination found another illness needing treatment? Couldn¡¯t that provide enough reason for the operation?¡± ¡°...Are you asking us to clean up your mess?¡± ¡°I will leave the ultimate decision to you. However, only we have the fluorescent substance that will display only the Inugami bone marrow. If you do not ask for our help, this person going by the name Toujou Miyabi will eventually escape. We will take care of it if that happens, but I can make no promises as to the number of people who will lose their lives before we get there.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± The department chief let out a sigh. The dignity of the police was important, but he preferred to prioritize the safety of all involved. And so he gave his answer. ¡°Send the fluorescent substance here. We will finish this.¡± Notes 1. ¡ü A Seman or Seman Doman is a type of Japanese magical charm with roots in Onmyoudou. 2. ¡ü Inugami literally means Dog God. 3. ¡ü It¡¯s worth mentioning that the four names Toujou, Houjou, Saijou, and Nanjou are each made with the kanji for one of the four cardinal directions (Tou = East, Hou = North, Sai = West, and Nan = South) and a kanji pronounced ¡°jou¡±. Volume 2, 4: ??? @ The One Who Covers Up a God Volume 2, Chapter 4:???? @ The One Who Covers Up a God Part 1 (Jinnai Shinobu) I need to head toward cover. I need to head toward somewhere with plenty of places to hide behind and protect myself. Fleeing toward the mountain with that in mind may have been a mistake. I was being led toward an area with no people where illegal violence could be employed without issue. What is going on? How could this happen? I was in the Intellectual Village known as Noukotsu Village. Packages involving Youkai would occasionally happen here, but it was still an easier place to live than the city. That remained true even if the rural scenery was faked by various types of technology. And yet... ¡°Shinobu!!¡± I heard my uncle¡¯s shout make its way through the gaps of the forest¡¯s trees. But I did not respond. I couldn¡¯t! Several people were tied up in this messed up situation, but each person¡¯s survival was based on the same condition: To survive, you must kill one of the other participants. It was a simple, clear, and unavoidable rule. Both my uncle and myself had been closed in by that framework. In other words... My uncle and I were destined to try to kill each other. And when it came down to pure violence, a normal high school student like me did not stand a chance against a professional police detective like my uncle. He likely outdid me in pure unarmed combat, but he might also have a handgun. I could not trust anyone. Given the situation, we could no longer work together. However... I still did not want to kill my uncle and the others. My mind stubbornly worked to find a way to get around the rules, find a loophole, or otherwise reach a conclusion where no one had to die. But then... The true disaster that arrived was enough to make me forget all about the rest of the horrible situation. ¡°Shinobu!! Don¡¯t go that way! She¡¯s coming!!¡± I had forgotten to wonder why my uncle would be calling for me in this situation of mutual suspicion. When I thought about it, letting the others know his position in this thick forest would only put him at a disadvantage. And then something happened. A sound exploded out from my body as if something solid had been knocked out of place. I had been struck from behind. I tried to turn around, but my head would not turn like I told it to. I twisted my waist around while lying collapsed on the grassy-smelling dirt and managed to roll onto my back. Only then did I catch a glimpse of who had attacked me. It was a woman with the sort of Japanese paper used for calligraphy forcibly pasted all over her body. She was like a monster created by spell words congealed into a human form. Something had been skillfully written on the Japanese paper with black ink, but the papers were so crumpled up to perfectly match the lines of the woman¡¯s body that the words were distorted. I could not read what was written on them. I somehow managed to squeeze out a voice while barely breathing at all. ¡°...Hishigami...Mai...?¡± If that monster was taking part in this killing game where blood was washed away with blood, then it was much too obvious who would win in the end. This paper-covered Hishigami Mai crouched down as if to peer at my face. Her hands reached out for my neck. I tried to twist my body around to escape, but I could no longer move properly. She mercilessly brought her hands in as if to strangle a chicken. And then my heart literally stopped beating. Part 2 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) After finally getting a day off, I visited an indoor fishing pond that had opened in Ikebukuro. Even when I had lived in Noukotsu Village, I had preferred playing by the river instead of the mountain. The fishing pond¡¯s greatest feature was its large tank for migratory fish that functioned like a lazy river at a water park. The pond¡¯s tagline was ¡°the leisure spot where you can catch a bluefin tuna¡±. The tank ran through a donut-shaped circuit in a building the size of fair-sized aquarium and the customers paid to fish in it. The reception area was one floor below and the inside of the tank could be seen through tempered glass. The tuna I could see swimming through it were only about 70 cm, but they still technically qualified as a small type of bluefin tuna. According to the smiling receptionist girl, ¡°If they were any larger than this, normal fishers would have difficulty catching them. Even if you are wearing gloves, there would be a danger of losing a finger to the line.¡± Any tuna you caught would be prepared for you in the facility¡¯s restaurant and (if you were willing to pay) you could still eat tuna if you did not catch one, so I had not eaten anything despite this being my day off. As I drank some vegetable juice to tide over my empty stomach, I rented a fairly thick fishing pole and some spear squid for bait and headed in for the challenge. ¡°Hey, detective.¡± ¡°What? Why are you here even on my day off, mystery freak? Don¡¯t you know that people need to periodically perform maintenance on and refresh their minds?¡± ¡°Heh heh heh. Now I get a fishing pond date with you. ...But what¡¯s with that vegetable juice? Aren¡¯t you drinking that as an excuse rather than for your health or its nutrients? Are you trying to look good?¡± ¡°Shut up. Let me enjoy my time alone.¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, detective. They may be small, but these are bluefin tuna. Do you really think you can eat one all on your own if you catch it? Look around you. It¡¯s nothing but families and couples.¡± ¡°Shut up! It really hurts if you point it out!! I didn¡¯t expect it to be like this before I got here!! I thought fishing was a man¡¯s pastime. How casual has it gotten!?¡± ¡°Oh, look at your pole, detective. Something¡¯s tugging really hard.¡± That was a fishing pond for you. I frantically grabbed the fishing pole that was beginning to bend like a bow. Of course, the reel was electric and had a specialized program installed and a young instructor lady came running over when she saw I had caught something, so I did not actually need any real strength or skill to battle the tuna. As the instructor reached for the fishing pole from behind me and gave me some literally hands on advice, the mystery freak glared at her. ¡°This system is not suited for couples. I just hope I don¡¯t hear any of the same rumors as from those parks and amusement parks with famous ponds.¡± As I ignored her nonsense and battled the tuna (or rather, enjoyed a recreation of battling it), something huge burst from the surface of the water with a splashing noise. ¡°Hyah!?¡± shouted the instructor woman in surprise. She grabbed onto me from behind for some reason and the look in the mystery freak¡¯s eyes grew even sharper. I was surprised too. But not because I had caught an unexpectedly large tuna. This was not even a fish. Hanging from the line was a girl wearing a short kimono and hagoromo who looked like something from an ancient picture book. ¡°G-gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± I cried out as if I had done something horrible. The girl in question¡¯s expression did not change despite having a thick fishing hook in her mouth with her entire weight pressing down on it. She remained perfectly expressionless. Wait... ¡°She isn¡¯t bleeding? Wait, the hook isn¡¯t even piercing her mouth?¡± ¡°Oh? She isn¡¯t human,¡± said the mystery freak as if remembering something. ¡°She¡¯s a Youkai...or rather, a manmade Shikigami. I don¡¯t know too much about that, so I couldn¡¯t tell you how it works. But what I do know is she belongs to my sister. She¡¯s the Deadly Dragon Princess.¡± ¡°She¡¯s Mai¡¯s?¡± I said in confusion. The Deadly Dragon Princess gave little reaction. She simply swayed back and forth while hanging from the end of the fishing pole with the spear squid in her mouth. And for some reason she made the V-sign with both hands while still perfectly expressionless. ¡°But this is odd,¡± said the mystery freak. ¡°Everything about this is odd. I can¡¯t think of a single thing about this that isn¡¯t odd.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I mean. My sister has a habit of saying she has 100% lost if she has to use the Deadly Dragon Princess.¡± That monster woman said that? I had never sensed the slightest weakness from Hishigami Mai, so I could not imagine her ever facing a situation she could not handle. ¡°It¡¯s twue,¡± added the Deadly Dragon Princes while being dragged up onto land by the electric reel. She had likely meant ¡°true¡±, but she was talking while chewing on the squid. It was raw and still had its guts inside, so she was quite the wild ¡°person¡±. Eventually, the Deadly Dragon Princess spat something out like used gum. It was the powerful hook used to land 200 kilogram tunas, but it had been horribly crushed. ¡°Detective, the hook is tied into a bow.¡± ¡°Now that¡¯s a powerful kiss I want to avoid at all costs.¡± The Deadly Dragon Princess ignored our exchange and spoke with the expression of someone following a program. ¡°Hishigami Mai has lost. I have been instructed to pass on an emergency message.¡± ¡°She lost...?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What are you supposed to tell us?¡± ¡°It is quite simple.¡± With no change of expression, the Deadly Dragon Princess grabbed another spear squid from the cooler I had rented. ¡°After she lost to them, an organization known as Akki Rasetsu took control of Hishigami Mai¡¯s physical body. She has become their puppet to use as a weapon. If you wish to save her, you must head to the Intellectual Village known as Noukotsu Village.¡± I sighed and covered my face in my hands. While looking over at the Deadly Dragon Princess who was eating my squid without permission, the mystery freak revealed an unnecessary piece of trivia. ¡°That¡¯s your hometown, isn¡¯t it, detective?¡± ¡°Why do you know my personal information?¡± Part 3 (???) A certain rest stop was located near an ordinary rural city. The area¡¯s economy had fallen into a slump so the public transportation facilities such as buses and trains had declined. This naturally made private automobiles a necessity to live in the area. Nothing could be seen but long runway-like stretches of road that naturally obstructed travel and further stagnated the economy. The stereotypical cycle of decline had kicked in. An old black foreign car was parked at one end of a parking lot large enough to hold a soccer match on. It was a famous car from the ¡®60s known as a Hitman Tuxedo, but a car like that would violate the exhaust standards if it was used as is on public roads. For that reason, the inner workings had been remade into a sanitary hybrid car. This was another of the classics businesses that also gave new life to old houses. The president of the custom workshop had claimed it took a lot of doing to produce such a deep noise of exhaust from such a thin engine. He had said the experience made him feel like an expert craftsman of brass instruments. A man and a woman sat within the car. The woman had her hair tied to either side of her head and was wearing a pink camisole, hot pants, and jacket. She was named Saijou. The muscular man had a blonde pompadour, wore a tank top and work pants, and had his shirt wrapped around his waist. His name was Nanjou. Saijou Ai and Nanjou Kakeru were the two new leaders of Akki Rasetsu after they had taken control of the organization from the old leaders. And... A human sized piece of luggage was lying in the leg space of the backseat. ¡°Toujou-san is dead.¡± ¡°Yes, he is.¡± One portion of the blue sky was blocked out by a long, narrow trail of smoke as if from a chimney. But in reality, this black smoke was coming from the remains of the prisoner transport vehicle carrying Toujou. It had been blown to smithereens while travelling along the highway. They had not wanted to use something as flashy as a bomb in a country like Japan, but the vehicle had been armored. Anything that could be disguised as a natural accident would have no guarantee of killing their target. While sitting in the left-side driver¡¯s seat, Saijou nervously tapped her index finger on the steering wheel. ¡°And Houjou-san was hung from a tree after his project in Kyoto failed.¡± ¡°Does it really matter?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Nature will decide the size of the organization. This is no different than how smaller groups of friends naturally form within a school. Those old idiots tried to expand the size of the organization to achieve their objectives, but they went too far. That causes internal rifts and makes it hard to come to agreement over anything. If you radicalize around a single objective, it is only natural for the organization to be automatically trimmed.¡± ¡°Eh? Then the same goes for Toujou-san and Houjou-san?¡± ¡°Both of those were accidents, but the organization would have grown more condensed either way. In fact, regulating the number of people will improve the purity of our focus on a single goal. ...We had become fat and bloated like Hyakki Yakou. They have 100 members at the level of leaders alone, which is just stupid. And I hear not even a third of them can even use the occult.¡± ¡°I see,¡± said Saijou with a less than satisfied expression. She did think a problem existed as far as the percentages were concerned, but that was still 30 people who could wield the occult on a level feared as a natural disaster and with an exclusive shrine constructed toward suppressing their power. Even by the standards of their field of work, having that many of such people gathered in one group was not normal. But she changed the subject instead of pursuing that further. ¡°What should we do next?¡± ¡°Houjou was an idiot who couldn¡¯t even protect himself, but he did give us an interesting report. He found some interesting Youkai we can use in the Intellectual Village known as Noukotsu Village.¡± ¡°I kind of liked Houjou-san.¡± ¡°Well, you both work in similar ways. Not to mention that you managed to make Hishigami Mai your own after picking her up injured in Kyoto. He was the one that did that damage, so you should at least thank him. Not that it has anything to do with me.¡± Nanjou looked in the rearview mirror to observe the backseat. ¡°Speaking of which, is this really safe?¡± ¡°Mai-chan will be just fine. Her entire body is bound by Kosode no Te.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a kimono Youkai that curses anyone who wears it, right?¡± ¡°Exactly. I made plenty of copies of one and attached them all over Mai-chan. The controller is running properly, so there is nothing to worry about.¡± Saijou casually turned the conversation back on track. ¡°So what are we going to do? Should we head to that Intellectual Village Houjou-san visited?¡± ¡°Well, if we find the Youkai he spotted, we should be able to assemble what we have been hoping for.¡± Saijou spread out a paper map to check on the location of Noukotsu Village. She did not use a convenient GPS system because she did not want a third party using it to track their location. This hybrid Hitman Tuxedo was not a rental car or stolen car she was willing to abandon. ¡°Oh, right,¡± said Saijou Ai as she looked at the map like a father reading the newspaper at the breakfast table. Nanjou Kakeru frowned and asked, ¡°What?¡± ¡°You said those old men, Houjou-san, and Toujou-san were purged in the automatic adjustments to the optimal size for the organization, right?¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°In that case, isn¡¯t it a bit odd for Akki Rasetsu to have two leaders left? It seems to me just the Saijou group or just the Nanjou group would be enough.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± The sound of something soft being crushed exploded out within the car. Saijou Ai pulled out a sleeping bag, stuffed a human-sized mass inside, and threw it into the backseat. She then said, ¡°It¡¯s getting a bit crowded back there, but bear with it, Mai-chan.¡± That famous ¡®60s car called the Hitman Tuxedo let out its low rumbling one could feel in the gut as it left the rest stop¡¯s large parking lot. The black foreign car smoothly began its journey to the Intellectual Village known as Noukotsu Village. Part 4 (Jinnai Shinobu) Noukotsu Village is a bit of an ominous name, isn¡¯t it?[1] That thought about my hometown came to me thanks to a slightly belated summer greeting postcard. It had come via ridiculously expensive airmail. Couldn¡¯t they just send an email? Oddly enough, the postcard was addressed to the Succubus rather than the Jinnai household. It just outright had ¡°Succubus¡± written on it. And the sender was...unknown. It just had a weird string of numbers in that field. At any rate, I made my way up to the attic and asked the micro bikini-wearing demon. She smiled and replied, ¡°It¡¯s from an old friend. She¡¯s an old demon, so she likes old systems. Of course this is an age where quantum computers could soon be a reality, so I¡¯m amazed she thinks a simple numerical replacement for the letters would be enough to hide her true name. ...But I wonder how she figured out I¡¯m here.¡± ¡°Hm. So who is she?¡± ¡°Tselika Wien Alpha Chely-...wait, stop that! Asking for a demon¡¯s name will not end well for you. This is no fairy tale!¡± It seemed the world of demons had its own problems. There was no point in asking further, so I quickly changed the subject. ¡°So where is this picture from?¡± ¡°A place not far from Paris. They have some wonderful catacombs there...¡± The Succubus looked spellbound with the idea, but I was not entirely sure what catacombs were. After reading the text, she handed the postcard back to me in disinterest. I walked down the long hallway and to the western style living room where I found the glamorous Zashiki Warashi lying on the floor watching TV with the Yuki Onna. There was a TV in her room as well, but it was hard to resist the draw of this larger screen. They seemed to be watching a rerun of a quiz show. ¡°The topic is Australia¡¯s circular farms. These green plains look quite mysterious in the middle of the vast desert. Now for your question. What percentage of the world¡¯s wheat is grown on them!? You have three possible answers and those of you at home can play along with your terrestrial digital remote controls!!¡± I tossed the postcard into a postcard storage box no one used much anymore. As I did, the overall flat Yuki Onna spoke to me expressionlessly. ¡°Listen to this. They¡¯re horrible. They¡¯re all so horrible...¡± ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°They have been using the remote to take part in the quiz game, but they won¡¯t let me have a turn.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t this a rerun?¡± ¡°And that untidy Youkai lying there always says the answer right before the host does...¡± ¡°Like I said, it¡¯s a rerun.¡± But what fun is it to watch a quiz show if you know all the answers already? ¡°The answer is the biggest option: 25%! Surprising, isn¡¯t it? But the people of Australia think it is not enough. There are a some problems such as cyclones and an outbreak of locusts, but with some help from Japanese technology...¡± The Zashiki Warashi must have grown tired of teasing the Yuki Onna because she made me her new target. ¡°Shinobu, I want a popsicle.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Carry me.¡± I had no choice but to take that indoor Youkai to the kitchen by rolling her along the floor like a metal drum tipped on its side. This did some interesting things to the hem and collar of her Yukata, but she did not seem to mind showing off that much skin. She calmly said, ¡°We just can¡¯t win with numbers alone, can we?¡± ¡°Are you talking about Australia? They use large scale farming where the seeds are sown from an airplane. A country like this where you have a hard time finding land where the horizon is visible has no chance of winning. Due to the race for the lowest prices, the beef, rice, and onions in the gyudon you buy will probably all come from Australia.¡± However, it was hard to manually manage such vast amounts of farmland, so I had heard they would rent a farming infrastructure with technicians included that used precision equipment made in Japan and Korea. This created a strange situation where the Japanese were importing crops grown by other Japanese in foreign countries. After complaining that the Zashiki Warashi got a yogurt despite saying she had wanted a popsicle, my overall small granny entered the kitchen. ¡°Shinobu, Shinobu.¡± ¡°What is it, granny?¡± ¡°I think there are more trees in the yard than usual.¡± ¡°...What?¡± ¡°I do not really understand, but it might be a Youkai.¡± I was not sure what she meant, so I had her and the Zashiki Warashi wait in the kitchen while I headed for the yard. I put on a pair of beach sandals and stepped off of the long porch. ¡°What is this giant tropical looking tree?¡± There was indeed an extra tree. It was obviously a different type of plant from those around it and it was growing right in the middle of the small path between the parking spot and the yard, so it could not have been more in the way. Anyone would notice a tree growing here. This out-of-place feeling and strange sense of caution I felt for an unfamiliar plant likely came from living in an Intellectual Village. Just as stocking a river with black bass could destroy the river¡¯s ecosystem, a living thing that did not fit the village¡¯s colors was a scary thing. And then some cat-sized creature poked its head out from behind the mysterious tropical tree. But the creature¡¯s face was oddly stern. ¡°Good day. I am Shisa.¡± ¡°Eh? Shisa!?¡± ¡°This Chinese banyan tree is Kijimuna. He is my friend.¡± ¡°Wait, wait! Let¡¯s go through this one at a time. Is a Shisa even a Youkai? I thought the term Shisa referred to the statues themselves and not some creature they were modeled after. Y¡¯know, like the Komainu at a Shinto shrine.¡± It was also possible this was technically not a Shisa but a Tsukumogami of a Shisa statue, but I had no way of knowing which it was. However, the Shisa did not seem the type to listen to what people said. ¡°I am from Okinawa, so I have never seen snow. I heard from some travelling Youkai that I could find a Yuki Onna if I came here. Have her make it snow.¡± ¡°Hey! What the hell happened to our household¡¯s privacy!?¡± ¡°Here is some awamori as a gift. Give it to your parents. ...It is not for children, okay?¡± Having said that, the Shisa (?) jumped up onto the porch and entered the house without permission. He was so bold about it that I let it happen without thinking. After being left behind, I looked up at that tree that was a type of mangrove. ¡°If you¡¯re a proper Youkai, you won¡¯t mess with the ecosystem of the normal plants around here...will you?¡± The branches shook, making a rustling noise, but I did not know if that was a yes or no. ¡°At any rate, you¡¯re kind of in the way here, so could you head further back in the yard while you wait?¡± After more rustling, it began moving. But rather than walking on legs, the movement was more like all of its roots were snakes. It may have gotten into a turf war with the Furutsubaki in the back of the yard because it began that odd rustling again. (By the way, the Furutsubaki would occasionally transform into a beautiful woman, but it was not the type that killed people. My Youkai-loving mom hand picked it up from somewhere.) But before I could focus on the two Youkai trees, I heard a commotion coming from the thatch-roof house. In fact, the Yuki Onna ran out barefoot into the yard with Xs for eyes. ¡°Wh-what is this all of a sudden!? You¡¯re making everything too hot!! I don¡¯t know who you are, but I think we are horribly incompatible!!¡± ¡°I am Shisa.¡± ¡°I was not asking for your name!¡± ¡°I want to make an igloo. Make it snow.¡± The Shisa (?) continued to not listen to anything anyone said as the Yuki Onna scurried over to cling to me. ¡°P-please do something about him!!¡± she begged me. Yeah... But... ¡°Apparently, he¡¯s never seen snow before, so he came here all the way from Okinawa. Can¡¯t you at least make it snow for him?¡± ¡°Kh... By any chance do you have a fetish for being NTRed away from people? A-and an animal fetish...?¡± It seemed the Yuki Onna had made an incredibly rude misunderstanding, but she was in no state to be corrected while she was being chased around by that symbol of summer. She was running around the yard with the hem of her white kimono trailing along the ground behind her. If she really can¡¯t stand being around him, I need to create a way for them to talk this out... But as soon as I had that thought, my cell phone rang. This was a brand new model because my old one had broken after being soaked in water. ¡°Eh? What do you need, uncle?¡± After a short exchange, I frowned. ¡°I see. So you¡¯re on your way here?¡± Part 5 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Unfortunately, there was no way I had any paid leave left. However, the Shikigami sent by Hishigami Mai did not care in the slightest about the problems of a working man. ¡°Please begin searching for Hishigami Mai right away. If you do not, I will kill you,¡± said the Deadly Dragon Princess bluntly. No matter how unreasonable this seemed, I had no chance if it came down to a competition of physical strength. And I could hardly go into work with that Deadly Dragon Princess tagging along 24/7. I was ultimately forced to lie and say my wounds from the Jinmensou case had reopened. Of course, I didn¡¯t have any paid sick days left either, so this was eating away at my already low pay. At any rate, I travelled to Noukotsu Village. As I stepped out onto the platform of the village¡¯s one unmanned train station, I looked up at the midsummer sun and grimaced. ¡°...So I¡¯ve come back here yet again.¡± The first problem facing me was the combination of having a lot of luggage and the station¡¯s lack of a bus stop or taxi loading area. However, I had called Shinobu ahead of time, so the real question was who would be sent to meet me. My older brother was a man who focused 100% on his work, so he would never leave his brewing facility. With any luck, my old man would come pick me up in his car, but... ¡°Well, there¡¯s not much chance of that happening. I guess I¡¯ll just walk to the house.¡± ¡°S-so I will finally get to greet your parents, detective!?¡± ¡°What are you doing here, mystery freak?¡± The girl-shaped Deadly Dragon Princess was clinging to my back and silently eating some squid snacks, but I had not noticed Enbi until she had spoken to me on the platform. Had she tailed me like a true mystery freak? She lightly waved her index finger back and forth and said, ¡°For once, my sister is actually in a real pinch. This is actually more my issue than yours, detective.¡± ¡°Then do something about this Shikigami. And while you¡¯re at it, how about you stay away from me too?¡± But I was not even sure if the village even had an inn. Even if it did, I did not know if Enbi could afford it. That meant keeping her from traveling with me would force her to sleep on the streets. Forcing a teenage girl to do that for my own personal reasons went against everything I believed a police officer should be. And of course, thinking that way was falling right into the mystery freak¡¯s trap. As I held my head in one hand, I dragged my travel bag along and walked toward the ticket gate. I was already feeling irritated when I heard the grating high-pitched voice of a female announcer coming from some TV. ¡°Blueprint of a Hit is on at Thursday at 7:00!! This week we will approach the secrets of Daikawara-san, the producer of the beautiful Onmyouji girls unit Seman Stars! We will reveal the trick to coming up with the group¡¯s novel ideas such as the skillful blend of idols and spiritual mystique as well as the unique fan service of giving individual fortune tellings instead of a simple handshaking event! Don¡¯t miss it!!¡± I looked over to find the mystery freak had turned on the 1seg TV function of her cell phone. ¡°Wow, this is really is the middle of nowhere. There are almost no TV channels. All the commercial broadcasting is covered by a single local station.¡± ¡°You can order any show you want to watch over satellite or the internet.¡± ¡°What do you think of Seman Stars? Don¡¯t you think Tarot Girls 22 is cuter?¡± ¡°There are too many of them, so I can¡¯t keep track. Add in the backups and there are 56 of them, right?¡± Sitting around at the empty station forever would do no one any good, so I began walking along the paved road with the Deadly Dragon Princess still clinging to my back. The mystery freak would stick with me whether I said anything or not, but I was having trouble deciding whether that was convenient or presumptuous. The midsummer sun was so hot that I seriously began to wonder if it was not a mirage I was seeing and the road was really melting. Nevertheless, I continued to walk across the asphalt and toward my family home. The distance and heat must have been too much even for the mystery freak because she said nothing as we walked. The Deadly Dragon Princess was clinging to my back and forcing her entire weight onto me, so my strength was being worn down quite quickly. It reminded me of poison damage in an RPG. ¡°Ahhh!! Detective, are there no cafes or family restaurants around here?¡± ¡°Give it up. This village only has a sweets shop. If you need a rest, there¡¯s a bus stop with a roof not far up ahead.¡± ¡°This is horrible! Is this really part of Japan!?¡± ¡°I moved to the city to get away from this, so complain to someone else.¡± As soon as we finally arrived at the bus stop, the mystery freak practically flung herself onto the bench but then started writhing around on top of that natural frying pan that had been heated by the sun. ¡°Hgywaaaaahhhh!?¡± ¡°Your problem is that you¡¯re the type of mystery freak whose brain stops working altogether when you don¡¯t have a case to solve. Why couldn¡¯t you at least guess that the angle of the sun can still let it reach the bench despite the roof?¡± ¡°U-uuhhh... This is just cruel. There¡¯s water so nearby yet I can¡¯t drink it.¡± ¡°Huh? What is this doing in an Intellectual Village?¡± I muttered as I approached the object. And that turned out to be a deadly mistake. Part 6 (Jinnai Shinobu) Despite emphasizing how soon he would be here over the phone, my uncle never arrived. I frowned and called him back a few times, but I couldn¡¯t reach him. ¡°What is going on?¡± Had he run into some kind of trouble? Noukotsu Village had an extremely slow train schedule. Counting both directions, only 5 trains came through in a day. One of those should have arrived at the station already. If my uncle had been on that train, he should have arrived in the city by now. ¡°Hmm... Maybe I should go down to the station to check.¡± I had hoped someone would go with me, but the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s policy was to refuse to do anything that would be too much of a bother and the Yuki Onna did not want to head out into the hot sun. As I looked around in search of someone to rope into going with me, the Nekomata turned away from me. Is this because of how Youkai naturally hate my uncle so much? ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. We¡¯ve got a demon in addition to these Youkai.¡± And so I headed up to the attic using the steep and narrow wooden stairs that were practically a ladder. The house was quite large and the attic was not divided into individual rooms, so it contained a decent amount of space. However, it had a dank and stuffy impression due to not being a proper living space, so it was not a place I liked going to. But Youkai and demons tended to like places humans found uncomfortable, so it was quite well liked by them. ¡°The answer is #3: 50 countries!! The worldwide agricultural revolution focused on Australia is known as the International Plantation Project. Vast land is used to grow the specialties of countries the world over, such as Brazilian coffee, French grapes, and German potatoes. The standard is to use circular farms, but some crops use a combination of perfectly enclosed plant factories and megasolar facilities...¡± It seemed the Succubus was watching the same quiz show rerun the Yuki Onna had been. I could hear the voice of the announcer who was known as the trivia king. While standing on that steep ladder-like staircase, I stuck my head into the square attic. For some reason, the Succubus was sitting with her legs spread in an M-shape as if waiting for me. If I had been careless, my face would have run right in the center point of the M. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Just watching TV. Why do you ask?¡± It seemed that sitting like that was as natural to her as sitting in the seiza style or cross-legged. After I explained the situation, she rolled backwards with her legs still spread in an M-shape. The movement somehow reminded me of a dead cicada. ¡°Demons prefer the darkness and Succubi rule over the night and dreams!! Why would you ever think I would go on a healthy walk under the midsummer sun!?¡± Apparently, my uncle¡¯s nature worked long range and was just as effective on Western monsters as Eastern ones. I ultimately had no choice but to head for the station alone. As soon as I stepped outside, I was reminded just how unbearable the direct sunlight was. For an instant, I considered taking a page out of those Youkai¡¯s book and turning right back into the house, but I managed to resist. I borrowed the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s electric stickboard and took off down the farm road that was barely wide enough for two light trucks to pass each other. ¡°There are no stores on the way, so there¡¯s almost no chance he took a detour.¡± I raced alongside rice paddies filled with rice plants swaying in the wind as I took the shortest route to the train station. Someone must have been hunting down some dangerous animal because I heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the mountain. The old man who lived next door would sometimes share some boar meat with us, so I did not find it to be an unpleasant sound. And then... ¡°?¡± I spotted something sparkling on the side of the road. I ignored it, but I saw something else reflecting the sunlight a bit further on. After spotting three or four similar objects, I started to think it was strange. What are those things? They were objects I had seen on TV. But... ¡°A cat-repellent water bottle?¡±[2] I stopped the electric stickboard to check. The label had been removed from the plastic bottle and it was filled with water. I had often seen them placed in front of urban houses on TV. But they were rarely used in Intellectual Villages. For one, there was no scientific or zoological evidence they worked. Also, filling a round plastic bottle with water allowed it to function like a lens. When placed under the sun, it could easily start a fire. Intellectual Villages thoroughly regulated their environment with all sorts of technology, so they had ways of more efficiently and effectively keeping stray cats away. After all, this was where a bunch of grapes cost 30 thousand yen. When you could almost say that money did grow on trees, you would never protect those trees with mere superstition. ¡°What is this doing here?¡± In my confusion, I approached the cat-repellent water bottle to get a closer look. And then... ¡°No, Shinobu!! If you approach that, you¡¯ll be caught in it too!!¡± There was nothing he could have done. By the time I heard my uncle¡¯s voice, I had already been caught in the Package. Part 7 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit!! I had been so focused on being caught in the Package myself and searching for a way to escape this Youkai that I had been unable to stop a new sacrifice from appearing. And this was my nephew Shinobu. What rules did any supposed god use to run this world? I frantically ran over to Shinobu but felt a dull pain run through my right ankle. It felt like wooly caterpillars that a mere touch from would cause a rash had broken through the skin and burrowed into my body. It hurt, it itched, it was uncomfortable, and it filled me with revulsion. The negative feelings seemed enough to cover up the pure pain. It was a string. It was painfully clear that a spider¡¯s web had burrowed inside me. ¡°Uncle, what is-...!?¡± Shinobu trailed off as his face twisted in pain and he frantically crouched down to hold his right ankle with both hands. He was obviously experiencing the same symptoms as us. I shouted into the distance. ¡°Mystery freak, there¡¯s a water bottle over here too! We missed one!! Shinobu has been caught in the Package!!¡± Hishigami Enbi and the Shikigami named the Deadly Dragon Princess approached. Those two, Shinobu, and I were the current group caught in the Package. If possible, I did not want anyone else to be added to that group, but... ¡°What is going on, uncle...?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a Jorougumo. Someone has set up a Package using that deadly Youkai,¡± I replied in a bitter voice. Once we had understood the details of the Package to a certain extent, we had started by gathering all of the water bottles set up around the village. Everyone who approached them would be caught inside the Package, but the mystery freak and I were already caught. Touching the bottles could not cause any more harm to us. We had hoped to retrieve them all before someone else fell victim to them, but that had not happened. The mystery freak explained the situation to Shinobu. ¡°A Jorougumo is generally known as a Youkai that transforms into a beautiful woman during the day and sucks human blood as a giant spider at night. But this one seems to be a slightly different type. This is the Jorougumo said to appear at the Jouren Falls. The cat-repellent water bottles are a trap meant to apply the situation of ¡®taking a rest next to the water¡¯ to the target. Anyone who spends a certain amount of time near one of the bottles is designated a target. The bottles may even have actual water from the Jouren Falls inside.¡± Simply passing by was no problem. However, if you stopped, the danger shot way up. We had not actually tested this, but the entire village would have been caught if the target simply had to approach within a certain distance. ¡°What exactly does this Youkai do?¡± ¡°It wraps its spider web around the ankle of any travelers resting near the waterfall and drags them into the waterfall basin to kill them. In the story, a traveler cut the web wrapped around his ankle and tied it around a tree stump to escape.¡± Shinobu looked at me. I shook my head and replied, ¡°We¡¯ve tried it. The web is invisible, but we can grab it. However, nothing happened even when we tried to tie it to the bus stop sign, the bench, or anything else. We even went to the mountain and found a stump, but that didn¡¯t work either. We can remove it temporarily, but it reappears back around our ankle before long.¡± Technically, it dug into our ankle in this Package instead of just around it. ¡°So they¡¯ve altered that portion,¡± commented Shinobu. The mystery freak sighed and said, ¡°We don¡¯t know who did this, but it is obvious what they are after. Either everyone caught dies or they must fight each other to the death. The person behind this wants us to make that ultimate choice.¡± ¡°What? I don¡¯t know what the time limit for this is, but don¡¯t we just have to find what has been designated the ¡®stump¡¯ and reattach the web to that?¡± ¡°The problem is what that ¡®stump¡¯ is,¡± I cut in. ¡°The mystery freak wrapped her web around my ankle as a joke, but that was the only time it did not reappear on her. ...It was kind of awkward, so she reattached it to her ankle.¡± ¡°...Wait. You¡¯re kidding.¡± ¡°The bastard that assembled this Jorougumo Package has cruelly set the other participants as the ¡®stump¡¯.¡± As a police officer, this situation made me click my tongue, but it would have been unfair not to explain it. ¡°In other words, we have two options. We can wait until our time is up and all die, or we can force our web onto another participant before our time is up. Those are the only two options.¡± ¡°I doubt there is a limit to the number of webs someone can have forced on them, so one death would be the best we can hope for,¡± added the mystery freak. Naturally, no one wanted to be thrown into a deadly game of musical chairs. That would decide who the sacrifice would be by a truly primitive method. In other words, all the participants would try to kill each other, forcing all the damage onto the weakest one. Shinobu looked back down at his ankle and said, ¡°By the way, how exactly will we be killed once our time is up?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know. Since the story is about being dragged into a waterfall basin, drowning or falling from a great height would make the most sense, but the Jorougumo is a bloodsucking Youkai. And since the stump was pulled from the ground and dragged into the basin, being crushed to death may also be possible.¡± The only question was what the criminal wanted from this. A rural area like an Intellectual Village had few main roads, so it would not be hard to catch someone in the Package by setting up the water bottles along those. However, it would be difficult to catch a specific target. Was this nothing but indiscriminate murder? Packages were developed by groups of dozens or even hundreds, so it seemed unlikely one would be built around the pleasure of an individual. ¡°I have a question,¡± said Hishigami Mai¡¯s Shikigami all of a sudden. ¡°A web has been attached to my ankle as well, but can this Jorougumo kill a Shikigami?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a specialist, so I couldn¡¯t tell you,¡± replied the mystery freak. ¡°But if this was assembled under the assumption that it would be killing humans, the damage set to drown or crush the victim might not be enough to kill you.¡± ¡°I agree. And with that settled...¡± ¡°?¡± We all focused on the Deadly Dragon Princess. The Shikigami then said, ¡°All of you can attach your webs to me. That will allow you to escape this danger. Even if my core structure is destroyed, I can be remade if you manage to rescue Hishigami Mai.¡± The last resort. Once it was suggested, there was no point in rejecting it. If time ran out with the webs still around all of our ankles, we would all die. The Package was put together to kill every last one of us. Denying that last resort would only increase the number of victims. For that reason, the Deadly Dragon Princess¡¯s view was not wrong. It was not wrong. However... ¡°We can¡¯t, uncle.¡± As expected, my nephew Shinobu spoke up. Even if it was being idealistic, I felt he should be proud of still being able to say that here. ¡°There has to be another way! A Package is a much larger system than it appears, so there are a lot of gears that can be removed. If we can find one of those, we won¡¯t have to make this choice like the criminal wants us to!!¡± ¡°But we have no way of knowing if we will succeed before time runs out. In fact, we do not even know the full scope of this Package. We have not even narrowed down who the suspects might be. If we begin gathering information now, we will never finish in time.¡± The mystery freak¡¯s words stabbed at him coolly. ¡°From the state of our ankles, the detective and I only have about 10 minutes left. The time limit meaning our deaths may be after that, but the web digging into our ankles will be too much for us soon. This strange itching is spreading so much it feels like my ankle is suffering necrosis.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Shinobu, don¡¯t worry. The limit will clearly come for us first. If worst comes to worst, you can attach your web to one of us. You at least can survive this.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I¡¯m trying to say!!¡± I knew that he was trying to correct a fundamental mistake. But we did not have time. ¡°We of course want to do whatever we can too. But think about what could happen. We are the first wave and you are the second. If you wait around until the entire first wave is gone, you will be the only person left. Once that happens, you will have no one to attach your web to.¡± Shinobu gritted his teeth and looked over at the Deadly Dragon Princess. That monster looked like a slender girl. ¡°I will be fine,¡± she said to Shinobu expressionlessly. ¡°No Youkai is used in my construction. I am a Shikigami designed from the ground up with organic material. If my physical body is destroyed, it can simply be exchanged for anoth-ghh.¡± She misspoke at the end after biting her tongue. Or so it seemed. A slender and lithe arm pierced through the Deadly Dragon Princess¡¯s back and out of the center of her chest. What? Who did that? When did they approach? I belatedly realized that asking those obvious questions was getting my priorities out of order. If what the Deadly Dragon Princess had said was accurate, she was a Shikigami, an artificial Youkai, created by Hishigami Mai. Normal methods would never be enough to kill her, so how had a human killed her barehanded? ¡°According to my sister,¡± Hishigami Enbi¡¯s lips trembled as she spoke, ¡°the Deadly Dragon Princess is a model case for a potential enemy. She assumed she would be able to stand up to most any Youkai if she redesigned her own body so she could defeat it with a single punch.¡± That means... The most likely candidate for who had destroyed the Shikigami in a single strike was... ¡°Hishigami Mai!?¡± shouted all three of us almost in unison. The attacker pulled her slender arm out from the Deadly Dragon Princess¡¯s back and casually tossed the wreckage to the side. The Deadly Dragon Princess had said she would be fine if she was destroyed, but I had no way of knowing how true that was. And I could not even focus on her battered form. Every nerve in my body refused to let me look away from the attacker. The attacker was indeed Hishigami Mai. I recognized the bloody arm and the hair that had been damaged by direct sunlight. However, I had never seen that look on her face. And half of her body was covered. Covered in what, you ask? Covered in Japanese paper used for calligraphy. Or perhaps you would call them magic charms. At any rate, about half of her body was covered with Japanese paper with strange writing on it. We had not exchanged a single word, but it was obvious that Mai was not her usual self. It was possible she could not even hear us. She looked like spell words congealed into a human form. The Jorougumo Package had been unbeatable enough already. And now the trump card we could use as a last resort had been destroyed. Plus the enemy that now faced us was the worst possible enemy I could think of. ¡°We can¡¯t win,¡± I calmly analyzed. Neither Shinobu nor the mystery freak attempted to argue. ¡°Don¡¯t try to fight her!! Our top priority is finding a way to escape this Jorougumo Package!!¡± To make sure we were not all killed at once, we ran off in three different directions. Hishigami Mai would likely pursue one of us. This was like a game of musical chairs. If we wanted to survive, we had to choose at least one person to die. A much more direct, obvious, and horrible choice than the Jorougumo Package had presented itself. Part 8 (Jinnai Shinobu) In the end, I was cornered before I had been able to resolve anything. This was Hishigami Mai. She was the worst possible person I could think of to have as an enemy. I had run toward the mountain to get away from her. But that may have been a mistake. Then again, there may not have been a correct answer when it came to confronting that monster of a woman. ¡°Shinobu!!¡± My uncle called from somewhere. He must have run after me because he was worried about me. Or so I thought at first. Doubt came soon after. The final trump card that had existed ever since my uncle and that twintailed girl were caught in the Package was now gone. That Youkai(?) known as the Deadly Dragon Princess could no longer be given all of our webs. To escape the Package before the time limit, my uncle, the twintailed girl, and I had to force our Jorougumo web onto one of the others. It was possible he had changed his plan. My uncle and the twintailed girl had fallen into the Jorougumo Package before I had. That of course meant they had less time than me. They might want to force their webs onto me ¡°for the moment¡± since I had more time. If we then found a new way out of the Package, that was fine. But what if we did not find one? Once all the webs had been temporarily forced onto me, the only option would be my death. ¡°...¡± I did not respond to my uncle¡¯s cry. I couldn¡¯t! I could not decide whether I should hold my breath and stay where I was or run off at full speed despite the noise it would make. When it came down to pure violence, a normal high school student like me did not stand a chance against a professional police detective like my uncle. And he might also have a handgun. If he shot me in the leg, my options would drop considerably. I can¡¯t risk agreeing to my uncle¡¯s compromise. But just as I thought that.... ¡°Shinobu!! Don¡¯t go that way! She¡¯s coming!!¡± ¡°Eh...?¡± I had grown so lost in my suspicions that it took me too long to realize what my uncle meant. And my enemy did not overlook that mistake. A sound exploded out from my body as if something solid had been knocked out of place. I could not turn my head around to check behind me, much less continue standing. The best I could manage was twisting my waist around as I collapsed to the grassy-smelling dirt. Only once I was lying on my back did I catch a glimpse of who had attacked me. It was that monster of a woman who had half her body covered in Japanese paper or magic charms. Somehow, she did not seem all there. It looked like she was sleepwalking. ¡°...Hishigami...Mai...?¡± She gave no response. She crouched down as if to peer at my face and her hands reached out for my neck. I tried to twist my body around to escape, but I could no longer move properly. She showed no mercy. She brought her hands in as if to strangle a chicken. And then my heart truly did stop beating. Part 9 (???) Something out of place was mixed into the gentle atmosphere of Noukotsu Village. Saijou Ai hummed as she looked at her cell phone and leaned against the side of her black luxury car known as a Hitman Tuxedo. The text on the screen was short, but absolute and accurate. ¡°Jinnai Shinobu: Confirmed dead.¡± ¡°Uchimaku Hayabusa: Confirmed dead.¡± ¡°Hishigami Enbi: Confirmed dead.¡± The possibility was incredibly low, but it was possible Hishigami Mai could have left Saijou¡¯s control and was now sending false information. However, that may have been worrying too much. And Saijou Ai held the core of the Jorougumo Package. She wore a glove that appeared to be made of a thin silk. Technically, it was spider silk woven into the form of a glove using the same techniques used for making violin strings. It had originally been made along with the Jorougumo Package for a perverted nouveau riche old man who wanted to play the gamemaster in a killing game. The spider web glove that stuck to the palm reacted to the emotional disturbance of the game participants and reproduced them as virtual feelings. Basically, it let the wearer ¡°feel¡± the death agonies of the players. The perverted old man had absolutely loved the idea of holding people¡¯s invisible souls in his hand, but he had ended up taking part in the game as a player after he failed to pay the fairly expensive rental price. At any rate, the glove could be used to check on the progress of the Package by seeing who was dead and who was still alive. The Jorougumo would continue hunting its target until that target was dead. All feeling had left the glove. It was receiving no response from any of the players. The arrival of the three emails had matched perfectly with the disappearance of the feeling. This confirmed that Hishigami Mai was still under Saijou Ai¡¯s control and she had quickly killed every player, including her own sister. But... ¡°Really, it could have been anyone,¡± muttered Saijou Ai casually. She had merely needed to cause a commotion within Noukotsu Village. That had been the point of the Jorougumo Package that forced people to kill each other, and that had been the point of Hishigami Mai. She had actually wanted to get more people involved and use the Jorougumo Package to alter the atmosphere of the entire village, but this was enough. A diversion was meant to be abandoned anyway. As long as the true objective was achieved in the meantime, everything would work out in the end. Her specialty was not sneaking deep into enemy ranks like a ninja from the Sengoku period. She instead created a flashy commotion and moved along in its shadow. Houjou and Toujou had often said she was like a stun grenade, but they were dead now. ¡°...¡± Someone approached slowly as if sleepwalking. Hishigami Mai looked to be in a horrible state with half of her body covered in magical charms that looked like Japanese paper. Technically, they were not charms but Youkai represented in textual form. Saijou Ai was well known among certain enthusiasts as a calligrapher who created nothing but ominous works. Her methods were similar to Houjou¡¯s as he sealed power within Youkai art. It was said that kanji had been originally created by simplifying pictures, so this was not too surprising. She had created hundreds of Youkai curses which were now robbing Hishigami Mai of control of her body. The blood splattered on Hishigami Mai¡¯s body symbolized how far she had fallen. That was the blood of those who had once been her companions or family. This further confirmed what the emails and the Jorougumo glove had said. She had shown no mercy. She had slaughtered all of them and returned to Saijou Ai. Saijou¡¯s commands were absolute. No matter how much of an expert Hishigami Mai was, she could not escape this curse. Saijou waved at her. ¡°Are you done?¡± ¡°...Are you?¡± ¡°I swiped them while you were having your fun, Mai-chan.¡± Something banged on the inside of the Hitman Tuxedo¡¯s trunk. Two Youkai that had been living in Noukotsu Village were contained inside. ¡°An Umbrella Obake and a Lantern Obake. ...I doubt many people in Japan know just how important these Youkai are, but Youkai that have no set purpose are quite rare and are quite valuable.¡± There was a Youkai known as Nurarihyon. This Youkai was known as the leader of every Youkai in Japan. However, that characteristic had mostly been created by humans. It had originally been a type of ocean Youkai, but no one had known what it did. And it could be freely remade into almost anything because its role was not decided. In other words... Depending on the situation, the Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake could be remade in the same way. They could be remade into a controller that could command any Youkai in Japan. ¡°And on top of that, the Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake are Tsukumogami. They are the type of Youkai that gain power the longer they are kept as possessions. That means I can make them change in convenient ways if I arrange their surrounding environment correctly. You could view it like a storehouse for wine or cheese.¡± The Hitman Tuxedo¡¯s trunk had already been remodeled for that purpose. The Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake stored within would likely become Youkai controllers in about half a year. Once a single trivial problem was dealt with, that is. ¡°Mai-chan, may I ask one last task of you?¡± ¡°Ask me anything.¡± ¡°A child named Yonesaki Hiro lives in this Intellectual Village. Kill him. The Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake only have value as neutral Youkai that hold no purpose, but it seems they have taken on the role of protecting their family. The purity of the final product should rise if that is completely destroyed before the assembly begins.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± she easily and readily replied. Her killing techniques were valuable enough for Hyakki Yakou to frequently hire her. If she obeyed this command and used those techniques to their fullest, it was obvious what would become of Yonesaki Hiro. Once Yonesaki Hiro was killed by Hishigami Mai and they escaped from Noukotsu Village with the Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake, Saijou¡¯s objective would be complete. The ultimate objective of Akki Rasetsu ¨C which was now only Saijou Ai ¨C was to perfectly fuse a human and a Youkai. She wished to obtain a physical body that was not bound by a lifespan and could ignore the laws and systems of the human world. However, she needed to create a controller to safely and surely gather plenty of sample Youkai. It was the bare minimum to ensure she was not killed by her own prey. ¡°I will be going then.¡± ¡°Finish this quickly.¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Saijou Ai did not make a habit of seeing puppets off. She turned away from the pathetic loser and began thinking about her upcoming path to success. And then... Hishigami Mai¡¯s slender arm mercilessly stabbed into Saijou Ai¡¯s side. Part 10 (Hishigami Mai) ¡°...Hh...Gh...?¡± I heard an odd voice. What was it she found so confusing? The fact that a giant hole had just been opened in her side or the fact that the slender arm of a lady could do that? Or was it that I, Hishigami Mai, was not under her control? ¡°B-bghh!? Cough cough!! Wh-why!? Ngh...bheh!?¡± Disgusting. You don¡¯t even hear noises like that when cleaning bath pipes. ¡°Saijou-chan, was it? Y¡¯see, I thought there was something beyond Houjou in Kyoto. I figured I would hear plenty of information if I purposefully let myself be taken into the enemy ranks. I¡¯m disappointed at how little depth I found. A controller for all Youkai? Transplanting an Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake into the Nurarihyon method? That¡¯s much too shallow. If this is all that¡¯s left of Akki Rasetsu, I feel sorry for the old leaders you went to the trouble of purging.¡± I had of course made sure to tie up the loose ends before enacting this plan. I had sent the Sunekosuri to tell the Illness Magic User to help the Amemura family move to a new home. ¡°Hh...bh?¡± ¡°I had expected you to easily believe I had been defeated as long as I released my precious Deadly Dragon Princess to help out...but to be honest, this was too easy. If you¡¯re going to control my body, at least test it out with some sexual harassment.¡± C¡¯mon, I¡¯m going to the effort of explaining it to you. Don¡¯t pass out yet. You have to hear me out. ¡°B-bfhh!! Cough cough!! Gygybh!! Hhy? Why? Y-you were...byhbh!? My Kosode no Te...were perfect...!!¡± ¡°Yes, yes. The Kosode no Te. That¡¯s a kimono Youkai that curses the wearer, right? Even if curses are difficult to avoid or defend against, it is relatively easy to deflect them into a different direction. Surely you know that the foundation of curse countermeasures is to deflect them back at the user, right? I was so covered in this Japanese paper that I was able to send the curses at each other, causing them to cancel out each other¡¯s effects.¡± ¡°Jhbbh!?¡± ¡°So of course, I was never obeying your orders from the beginning. Yes, I stopped Jinnai Shinobu-kun¡¯s heart. The same with the detective and my sister. ...But I resuscitated them after exactly 20 seconds. The Jorougumo Package excludes anyone who dies. And it does not track what happens to people who have been excluded.¡± Thank you for falling for this so wonderfully. But you can never survive in this world if that is all you have. ¡°If you really want to kill me, you either have to place the routes of the curses so I cannot calculate them or send in an overwhelming amount of curses like the Illness Magic User does. Get it now?¡± ¡°Bshbh!? Grgrh!! Gbhghchghrhbhjfbhfhjbhchbhrhfjdhcyehfhgyfjchhdfy!!!???¡± ¡°Those were some horrible curses and they have been running nonstop this whole time. The excess power has been building up like a bowstring being drawn. Let¡¯s just say it won¡¯t even leave behind a corpse.¡± I began removing the cheap magic charms attached to my body while paying no heed to Saijou-chan who had been sucked up down to the last drop of blood. Wait, this is bad. If I take these off, I¡¯ll be naked. Um...Let¡¯s see. Oh. There¡¯s a blanket in the backseat of this ugly car. A gun too. Now then... It¡¯s Hishigami Mai-san¡¯s turn now. My job would have been so much easier if defeating a smalltime villain like her was enough to bring an end to this incident. Part 11 (Hishigami Mai) I retrieved the Deadly Dragon Princess Shikigami I had released as decoy information needed to convince the enemy I had really lost. I then returned her to her ¡°original world¡±. Hmm, I did a nice job of destroying her. I need to make sure to fix her later. From what I had caught a glimpse of while pretending to be controlled, it seemed that Shikigami had taken a liking to that detective. I had commanded her to stick with him, but she had gone farther than that. It was possible he had lured her in with her favorite food. I had already resuscitated the detective, my sister, and Jinnai Shinobu-kun, so their lives were not in danger. They arrived wanting an explanation, but I still had other things to do. I opened the trunk to Saijou-chan¡¯s ugly foreign car. Inside I found... Ohh, what¡¯s this!? They¡¯re so cute!! ¡°Bwahh!! Wh-what is going on!? Why would you suddenly lock us in here!?¡± ¡°It is too hot in here! Especially with this Umbrella in here too!! ...Wait. Who are you? Wh-why are your eyes glittering as you stare at us!?¡± The Umbrella and Lantern who each had a single comical eye were shouting about something or other. Oh, how wonderful. It¡¯s the same as with that Sunekosuri. It scares me how I lose all self control when I see these cute harmless Youkai. As I watched the Umbrella and Lantern hurry back to their home, I said, ¡°Now then. Time for the real problem.¡± ¡°What? I thought you defeated the person behind this. Did they get away???¡± People sometimes made that mistake when I did not even leave a corpse behind. But that was not the issue here. ¡°I pretended to have my body controlled to enter the organization named Akki Rasetsu. From what I saw and heard, it seems they were being supported by someone.¡± ¡°You mean like a patron?¡± asked my sister. ¡°No, nothing so well-defined. More like someone who was observing Saijou from afar and secretly eliminated any dangerous elements that might have gotten in Akki Rasetsu¡¯s way. Akki Rasetsu probably had no idea this was happening.¡± I doubted a group too dimwitted to notice the threat I posed could have detected ¡°them¡±. The detective frowned and said, ¡°What does this ¡®someone¡¯ want to do?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, but they definitely thought Akki Rasetsu¡¯s project would benefit them. They snuck in this far for some clear objective, so they are not going to remain silent now. To be blunt, they will likely attack this Intellectual Village in place of Akki Rasetsu.¡± I glanced around the area. ¡°Northeast, west, and south-southwest. Somewhere between 700 and 1000 meters away. I sense a few people watching us.¡± ¡°What?¡± Jinnai Shinobu narrowed his eyes and stared into the distance to answer his question, but that careless action only made me sigh. ¡°It¡¯s no use trying to see them from here. If you turn such obvious focus in their direction, they will hide. And if you do spot them, they might blow a hole right through the center of your body with a sniper rifle, so be careful.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Do you have any guesses as to who they are?¡± asked my sister. ¡°They seem like soldiers to me. From the way the unit is deployed and the way they hide themselves, I would guess SAS. I could narrow it down further if I could intercept their transmissions.¡± Jinnai Shinobu looked confused. ¡°What¡¯s SAS? Some kind of space defense force?¡± ¡°They are a British unit. However, they are seen as the standard for special forces, so plenty of other countries emulate them. They even have official lectures for the troops of countries allied with England, so this alone is not enough to know what organization is behind this.¡± Of course, this was connected to the occult, so it was unlikely that this SAS-style special forces unit would be our only enemy. My guess was this enemy was on the level of an entire nation and so they could freely use special forces to support their project. The detective sighed and said, ¡°What are they doing here? If we figure out who they are and learn what they are after, could we use that to fight them off?¡± ¡°That is what I¡¯m about to try.¡± With that offhanded comment, I pulled out a device that looked like a cross between a cell phone and a radio. It was my usual satellite phone. My little sister frowned and said, ¡°Who are you going to contact with that?¡± ¡°Hyakki Yakou, of course. They have the most information of this sort.¡± Part 12 (???) Hafuri, the girl of about ten who was the current head of Hyakki Yakou, sighed when she answered the phone. The tearoom in the flying wing cruising at an altitude of 9000 meters was still enough for that slight movement of air to be seen as a definite flow in the room¡¯s atmosphere. ¡°I had thought it was odd for it to be suggested to destroy the living environment of Noukotsu Village by disseminating hydrogen sulfide and making it look like a volcanic eruption. It seemed too forceful to simply put an end to Akki Rasetsu¡¯s project to take control of any Youkai in Japan. I did not like the idea of slaughtering those innocent villagers when it is our role to protect them.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°That means a few of the 100 officers that took part in the meeting may have realized who is hidden behind this incident.¡± ¡°Do you have any guesses who that might be? It should be someone who can freely use SAS-style special forces.¡± ¡°A witch most likely,¡± replied Hafuri. ¡°That¡¯s what I thought. That is the most likely option for a foreign force. The real question is what type of witch is it?¡± ¡°Not a European or American one. They would have no reason to attack Japan. They confiscated most of our documents when we lost the war long ago. With all that detailed information, they would have no reason to sneak in and try to steal any data now.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s a witch from somewhere else?¡± ¡°Witches have scattered all over the world, but we can narrow it down quite a bit since she is using SAS-style special forces. ...And there just so happens to be one major country not in Europe or America with special forces based on the SAS.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Hafuri scratched her chin with the same small hand holding the phone receiver. The main problem was that some of the 100 officers knew about this. And that they had brought forward that ridiculous plan to destroy the Intellectual Village in response. ¡°The 100 officers may have chosen a rather forceful method of eliminating this person behind Akki Rasetsu,¡± she said. ¡°No, we need to assume the worst goes much deeper than that.¡± ¡°What do you mean? ¡°Hyakki Yakou¡¯s meetings with the 100 officers are not contained to the flying wing, right? They use the internet and speak without showing their face. That prevents others from influencing their opinion, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then it is possible some of the real officers have already been killed and replaced with someone else entirely. Perhaps they are the ones behind Akki Rasetsu and they are having Hyakki Yakou take action to ensure their plan progresses smoothly. You lost a lot of the commanders in the confusion of that coup d¡¯etat recently and had to replace them, so it wouldn¡¯t have been that hard to take advantage of the situation.¡± ¡°True.¡± Hafuri gave a slight nod. ¡°We have special software that can remove their anonymous state. The 100 officers do not know about it. We will use it to investigate this.¡± ¡°This is a group that uses decoys on top of decoys to hide their identity, so that alone may not be enough.¡± ¡°Then what do you say we should do?¡± ¡°Lay a much flashier trap. I¡¯ll help you with that.¡± ¡°What should we do first?¡± ¡°For now, approve the plan to destroy Noukotsu Village. I¡¯ll fill you in on the rest after you do.¡± Part 13 (Jinnai Shinobu) We left the foreign car used by the person from an underground group called Akki Rasetsu and walked back to my thatch-roof house. It seemed the Hishigami sisters intended to use it as their home base for the moment. Mai was only wearing a blanket for some reason, so she borrowed a yukata. The way she wore it still did not leave much to the imagination, though. Just as I was hoping everything was settled, Hishigami Mai told us something unbelievable. ¡°What!? You had her give the go ahead for a project to slaughter everyone in the village!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get so upset. This is a trap. We can¡¯t fight back until we uncover the enemy. We must be defeated if we want to eliminate every enemy from this Intellectual Village, right? You just have to turn a blind eye to the slight risks involved.¡± ¡°So who is this enemy?¡± ¡°A witch strongly influenced by western methods. Probably an Australian one.¡± ¡°Why would someone like that do this? Is she trying to steal brand name fruit seeds from the Intellectual Village?¡± ¡°What they want is something more occult,¡± replied Hishigami Mai offhandedly. She then grabbed the remote control for the television at one end of the Japanese-style living room and turned it on. She changed the channel to an afternoon talk show. ¡°Australia¡¯s circular farms are having a large effect on the grains market, but recent cyclones and an outbreak of locusts has caused serious damage to their wheat crop. This has caused unrest to spread through the futures market and...¡± ¡°Come to think of it, they were talking about this on the quiz show rerun the Yuki Onna was watching. What about it?¡± I asked. ¡°Natural disasters and outbreaks of pests are stereotypical forms for divine punishment. Even Japan¡¯s ancient documents record several such incidents. With these incidents causing great damage in Australia, it is not too surprising that some have decided to put together a countermeasure.¡± ¡°What does that have to do with Japan?¡± ¡°Australia is part of the new world just like America. But that is technically just what the Europeans decided to call it after they destroyed the cultures that already existed there. This of course angered the native god of the slighted land. This situation could easily lead to natural disasters, but the Australian government that ignored the older culture for so long has no idea how to pacify this god. After all, they have no scriptures to act as a manual.¡± Hishigami Mai spun the TV remote around in her hand. ¡°Akki Rasetsu, the organization I was dealing with, was looking for a method to control Youkai and gods. This Australian witch may have thought she could use that, but I think that was just a digression. Her true goal lies elsewhere.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple. Witches worship demons to borrow their power. ...So what exactly are demons? There are two types: the pure species of demons and the altered forms of gods from other religions that have been registered as ¡®evil gods¡¯ by the world¡¯s largest religion which uses the cross as its symbol. Witch rituals come from those old religions as well. In that case...¡± Nothing she was saying really clicked in my mind. The expression on my face must have made that clear. Hishigami Mai winked and gave me a further hint. ¡°They are especially skilled at twisting polytheistic religions. And what structure is created by the gods of this country?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°It¡¯s a stereotypical situation. A witch that wishes to use a god for her own purposes would find Shinto or Buddhism to be almost irresistible. That said, the process of turning a god into a usable demon does weaken the god a fair bit.¡± ¡°So this witch¡¯s group wants to reconstruct a god of this country into the form known as a ¡®demon¡¯? So this is just like a Package where people build a Youkai into a system that makes use of one of that Youkai¡¯s properties?¡± ¡°Exactly. That is why they want to slaughter everyone in the Intellectual Village by disseminating hydrogen sulfide disguised as volcanic gases. The most common reason for the downfall of gods the world over is the destruction of the land they rule over. By devastating an area of land within Japan, the witch¡¯s group can affect the god in that area.¡± ¡°...But is it really that easy?¡± ¡°Old gods will naturally change into fairies and Youkai with the passage of the era. And that is especially true for polytheistic gods. That is why gods are enshrined in large temples and shrines to ensure they do not change form. But regardless of how difficult the method is, these are still gods we are talking about. They are the largest pillars supporting their cultures. If they fall, it could even cause damage to diplomatic relations.¡± Hishigami Mai shrugged. ¡°Once a god has been turned into a demon, it can be used to suppress the old god wreaking havoc in Australia out of anger. ...That will simply cause even more friction with the ancient culture, but the government only wants to protect the current system of society from further economic damage. They feel this is worth the risk. If they did not feel the situation was that dire, I doubt they would have ever contacted this witch in the first place.¡± ¡°That explains the government¡¯s reasons. What about the witch?¡± ¡°The witch has something else to gain from this. And we can use that as a trap.¡± Part 14 (Hishigami Mai) This village would soon become a battlefield. However, the flow of time in the thatch-roof house felt so slow you would never have guessed it. A Zashiki Warashi with excessively large breasts was flying a small toy modeled after an autogyro around the room to chase after a Yuki Onna who was running all over the place to avoid it. A Keseran Pasaran that looked like a white furball was floating around near the ceiling. It was curiously trying to approach the autogyro, but it could not keep up with the toy¡¯s speed. The scene made it seem ridiculous to bring up the terms ¡°Hyakki Yakou¡± or ¡°agent¡±. What I saw before me was likely something I could never obtain as long as I immediately chose brute force as a means of resolving Youkai-related problems. But then I spotted a familiar face among the Youkai. The Youkai seemed to notice me as well and walked over. It was a white Nekomata that was overflowing with elegance. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± she asked. ¡°I¡¯d rather know why you are here. Is this the territory of a former ace of Inga Ouhou?¡± Inga Ouhou had been a revenge group with three Itako leading it. They would give form to the residual thoughts of the dead to hear their voices and punish their murderers. I believe the organization came about due to displeasure with the current laws that disallowed Youkai testimony or evidence obtained via paranormal means from use in court. ...But then the three Itako had started accepting money to freely alter what the dead told them. At that point, they became nothing more than an assassin group. The Nekomata¡¯s master had been killed due to that cheating despite being a top member of Inga Ouhou. When I had been sent in to resolve some issues Hyakki Yakou was having with them, the two of us had destroyed the entire organization in just over two weeks. I was left with one primary question. ¡°You have enough power to destroy an entire organization, so are you not going to use that power to help Jinnai Shinobu-kun?¡± ¡°I try not to rely on my power too much. My direct power is no more than that of a Doberman. I merely have the added bonus of being able to transform into the person I bite to death.¡± That was why she did not fight her enemies head on. Instead, she would sneak into a group of enemies and slowly cause more and more victims. Her strategy was perfect for destroying a large organization from within by spreading doubt and suspicion. I quite liked her means of fighting. ¡°But the strength of a Doberman seems reliable enough for a normal high school student who can only arm himself with a bat or box cutter. Plus, blades and handguns are not enough to kill you.¡± ¡°There was a recent commotion in which a small lost boy fell into a flood control reservoir. He is the kind of idiot who jumped right into the water to search for that boy, but he still had no intention of involving the Yuki Onna or myself.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°But it does not seem he has some admirable goal in it such as preventing any danger from approaching his ¡®family¡¯. He has no problem running to the Zashiki Warashi for help. ...Basically, it is an issue of degree. If he asked a deadly Youkai like the Yuki Onna or me for help, things would get a bit messy. And once things get messy, there is no guarantee it can be neatly cleaned up.¡± Despite looking like a cat, the Nekomata formed an obvious smile as she spoke. ¡°His reasons are nothing more than the irrational stubbornness of a child, but that does not mean it is always okay to make such a mess by sending in something like me. That is the way I see it. And so I will remain the cute pet that soothes the family. I will fool no one and I will kill no one. Understand?¡± Having said that, the Nekomata walked off somewhere else. On her way, she chased after the light of a pen-shaped laser pointer Jinnai Shinobu was holding. She gave several cat punches to an empty wall. Chehh... I meaninglessly felt as if I had lost. I thought I had met a fellow killer for the first time in a while, but now I felt like I had spotted an old classmate pushing a stroller with her husband. I grabbed a broom leaning against the wall, walked out into the hallway, and banged the handle against the ceiling partially to release my anger. ¡°Hey!! I know the Succubus from the European Security Force is up there!! If you want to live, start cooperating!!¡± I then heard a lot of banging that was clearly not coming from the broom. It almost seemed like the attic was shaking. You idiot. Did you really think Hyakki Yakou didn¡¯t know you were here? The young lady has only been overlooking you out of respect for Jinnai Shinobu who did so much to quell Hyakki Yakou¡¯s internal strife at that hotel in Fuuka Village. The best thing to use against a western witch was a western demon. With the final piece gathered, it was finally time to set the trap and settle this. Part 15 (Jinnai Shinobu) The final battle began smoothly. It began with a comment by the glamorous Zashiki Warashi who was walking around using my smartphone as a music player as usual. ¡°Shinobu, you just got an email about an active volcano warning. Do you know what that means?¡± ¡°...That¡¯s it!! That¡¯s the camouflage warning on the notification network!!¡± Even if it was only a decoy warning to make the hydrogen sulfide look like volcanic gases, it was a complete joke. They had obviously timed it so no one would make it out in time even with a car. And if we did move faster than expected, the SAS-style special forces would obviously do something to handle it. Hishigami Mai brought her large satellite phone to her ear. ¡°This is going just as expected. Young lady, you¡¯re flying right over us, right? Jump down at the last second before the hydrogen sulfide is disseminated!!¡± I walked out to the thatch-roof house¡¯s porch, put on my beach sandals, and walked out into the large yard. I looked up into the blue sky and spotted a large V-shaped passenger plane called a flying wing. Several smaller planes were flying around it to protect it. Something was dropped from the flying wing. At first I thought it was a bomb, but it was not. It was a girl wearing a kimono and a parachute. Hishigami Mai had run outside with me and she now shouted into the satellite phone. ¡°Okay, good! Any member of Hyakki Yakou that puts the bloodline first will work to protect your life no matter what. In other words, they will do whatever they can to stop the hydrogen sulfide plan so you will not be killed. But the members of the Australian witch¡¯s group mixed into the 100 officers will not care about that. The ones who insist on continuing with the plan are our enemies. Have all of them restrained!!¡± I heard a low rumbling noise. It did not belong to a gasoline engine. It was the engine sound effect added to electric cars as a safety measure. It came from my grandfather¡¯s light truck, but my uncle was the one sitting in the driver¡¯s seat. ¡°Hey! The truck¡¯s ready!!¡± ¡°Understood. Everyone get in!! The witch¡¯s group will have noticed the young lady floating down. She is the leader of Japan¡¯s largest Youkai organization. Plus, she has plenty of information from ancient books. I don¡¯t know where the witch¡¯s group is hiding in the village, but they will jump at the chance to take her hostage. They will definitely want some of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s documents as supplementary material for their project to control a god!!¡± I was worried, so I spoke up without thinking. ¡°Hey!! What exactly is a witch!?¡± ¡°Instead of using a Package that builds a Youkai¡¯s power into a system, they bring a portion of a demon¡¯s power into themselves. While a Youkai might be able to handle one, a witch¡¯s powers are incredibly effective against humans. And as much of an oddity as I may be, I have not left the category of a ¡®human¡¯. In a direct fight, we would probably be fairly evenly matched.¡± As I said before, my uncle was sitting in the light truck¡¯s driver¡¯s seat. The twintailed girl was in the passenger seat. Those were the only two seats, so Hishigami Mai and I climbed into the back of the truck. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s end this. Let¡¯s crush the witch¡¯s group that will have gotten greedy and gathered at the young lady¡¯s landing spot!!¡± Part 16 (Jinnai Shinobu) My uncle drove the electric truck down the narrow farm road with rice paddies on either side. The twintailed girl in the passenger seat followed the path of the parachute with binoculars. ¡°Oh, dear. ...She¡¯s being blown away! She¡¯s going to end up on the mountain at this rate, detective!!¡± ¡°That¡¯s better than landing on a private farm. If she gets caught on one of the high voltage nets to keep out intruders, it¡¯s all over.¡± It was all I could manage to hunker down enough so as not to be thrown out of the truck as it bounced around. Hishigami Mai seemed perfectly calm next to me. She hummed while pulling a handgun with a suppressor out from the chest of her yukata. ¡°Hey, can we really handle this entire witch¡¯s group at once like this?¡± ¡°Leave it to me. If I am right, they will almost certainly fall for this trap. They are an annoying force to handle head on, but as long as...you do not...face them...head...on...¡± ¡°?¡± I frowned as I started having difficulty hearing her. I then smelled a sweet aroma. And just as the light truck turned onto the mountain road to pursue the parachute... I suddenly lost all feeling from my surroundings. The next thing I knew, I was wrapped in some kind of fog. I looked around while standing. And then something else occurred to me. Why was I standing? I had been hunkered down in the back of the truck to make sure I was not thrown out. Where was I? Had I been dragged out of that truck racing along well above the speed limit? Who had managed that without harming me at all? ¡°It is a simple magic circle. It is not even worth calling a barrier,¡± said a female voice. ¡°Now, if you were able to predict I would head toward an even better target if one appeared, why did you not realize I would change my target again if one even more important than Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader showed up? Eh? You can¡¯t mean... ¡°This was all to attack me!?¡± I was not given enough time to take action based on the caution welling up in my chest. Something moved with tremendous speed, ripped apart the thick fog, and forcefully grabbed my collar. Yes. This ¡°something¡± had a hand and five fingers with which to grab at me. ¡°Gah...ghhh...!?¡± I was lifted up. My legs dangled down in midair. It may have just been the excessive thickness of the fog, but that motion was all it took for the ground to disappear from view below me. However, the sight that lay before me was so strange that I did not particularly care about being lifted up. What had grabbed me was a giant tree. However, it had countless arms stretching out in place of branches, hands blooming in place of flowers, long, narrow legs wriggling along the ground in place of roots, and smooth woman¡¯s skin in place of bark. Someone was leaning up against the creepy trunk that curved like a woman¡¯s waist. This person was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman wearing a simple shirt, a miniskirt, and a raincoat despite the weather. The look in her eyes was hidden by the wide brim of her hat. The various individual items could be bought anywhere, but the silhouette they all created together reminded me of an existence I had seen in picture books. Namely, a witch. ¡°Horrible, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯m sure you understand the general situation, but unlike European witches, we live in an environment that makes using traditional demons difficult. I had no choice but to take the methods used to turn old gods into evil gods and use them to turn a Japanese Youkai into a demon. That was enough to force some magic out of it.¡± ¡°This is...a Youkai...?¡± I could feel my face stiffening as I looked at the grotesque tree before me. I had lived in this Intellectual Village for a long time, but I had never seen a monster like this. Nor had I ever heard of one from my grandparents. But the blonde-haired, blue-eyed witch smoothly said, ¡°Yes. Haven¡¯t you heard of a Furutsubaki?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a Japanese camellia tree that has built up great power over the years. They can transform into a girl, but they don¡¯t turn into something this messed up!!¡± ¡°No, they don¡¯t. Japanese Packages simply borrow the skills of Youkai, but Western witches distort the physical body of their object of worship into something else entirely. We give them a form much easier for a human to use.¡± ¡°You¡¯re...kidding...¡± ¡°About what? What is needed to efficiently control an existence that exceeds humanity is not flexible negotiation skills or plentiful offerings. You need to remake their hardware into a form that must do what a human tells it to.¡± An unpleasant feeling ran down my spine. I had subconsciously decided Packages that assisted in crimes were horrible, but this went well beyond that. This was the same as deciding to give someone 20 eyeballs in order to more efficiently extract tears from them. Just how much suffering and humiliation did one endure while having one¡¯s face and form twisted in order to wring out every last drop of power? This was the symbol of a culture. This was overwriting and covering up a paranormal existence. Was this why witches had been shunned throughout history? Even as that lifelike arm grabbed at my collar so tightly I had trouble breathing, I forced out a few words. ¡°Why are you...targeting me...?¡± ¡°I said I prepared this because I had no other choice, remember? It all comes down to that. I do not care about the economic damage the Australian government is so concerned about. I want to make a contract with a powerful being and borrow its power. I was originally planning to turn an old god into a demon and borrow that, but I found something much more interesting in this Intellectual Village. Something even more interesting than a manual on turning gods into demons or the leader of Hyakki Yakou.¡± ¡°You...don¡¯t mean...¡± I immediately thought of the secret base in the attic. This witch was actually after... ¡°A Succubus. She is a traditional European demon. Compared to a forcibly distorted local god, she is much more certain and holds much less danger of causing any problems with my rituals. Would you choose the genuine item or an emulation? That is what this comes down to.¡± ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you directly target our house? As soon as Hishigami Mai left, you could have easily abducted the Succubus!!¡± ¡°No, that wouldn¡¯t work. Remember when that Succubus arrived? She used a delivery service, right?¡± ¡°How do you know that?¡± ¡°I have some of my people in the highest levels of Hyakki Yakou.¡± I was not sure that totally explained it, but it was possible Hyakki Yakou really did know everything that had happened. ¡°The package label functioned as a sort of contract. The package was sent to Jinnai Shinobu, so the Succubus inside became your possession. But you could say that was the same as her taking you hostage. If anyone wants to damage or abduct the Succubus, they must first kill you. She predicted that Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader would be unable to eliminate the normal person who she owed a debt to thanks to the coup d¡¯etat, so she used that condition as a shield.¡± ¡°...¡± That goddamn demon!! I¡¯m seriously going to punch her after this is over!! ¡°Anyway, you are in the way of any new contract with that Succubus, so I need you to die. I will retrieve the Succubus afterwards. And of course, I will slaughter anyone who gets in my way.¡± Not good. Not good, not good!! I had been worried ever since someone like this entered the Intellectual Village, but now she was targeting my house. But what could I do? That creepy ¡°branch¡± was still holding me up in the air by my collar. Was there anything a normal high school boy armed with only his wits could hope to do against a witch who Hishigami Mai had said she would be evenly matched against? Her eyes were covered by the wide brim of her hat, but the witch¡¯s lips twisted into a smile. ¡°Oh, and do not think Hishigami Mai will come to save you. The magic circle isolates this space. I mixed in the oil of the Furutsubaki to pour demonic power into a ceremony that defines the scope of a temple using incense, but it should be enough. At the very least, no one will be able to break in for 12 hours and it has been made so no one will even notice anyway.¡± ¡°Wait...a second...¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t really need to go this far to kill a single amateur, but I want to keep this information away from Hishigami Mai until I have secured the Succubus. I am not going to take my time and kill you over 12 hours, so do not worry.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I meant,¡± I muttered. ¡°If this is really so secure, then who is that behind you?¡± ¡°?¡± The witch looked confused and turned around. And she found... Part 17 (Succubus) Now then, time for the true protagonist to make an appearance. Oh, nice. Not bad getting western black magic to run this well using a Japanese Youkai. Then again, it¡¯s a bit like seeing an American¡¯s idea of a ninja boy. The witch leaning up against the hideous tree frowned when she saw me. ¡°...How did you get here?¡± ¡°Is it really that surprising? Isolating a space using incense sounds good and all, but you basically used the exact same structure as a ceremonial ground for summoning a demon. None of this does a single thing to keep a demon out. I didn¡¯t even have to try.¡± ¡°So you know what I am about to do?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s just say I came here because I knew.¡± My master, Jinnai Shinobu-chan, then began kicking his legs around and shouting while being held in midair by the Furutsubaki¡¯s branch. ¡°Stop!! Don¡¯t worry about me! Apparently she¡¯s more powerful than Hishigami Mai!! You came to my house to escape from people like that, right? Then don¡¯t try to fight her!!¡± Oh? I had not expected him to try to cover for me. It almost made me feel sorry for binding him with that contract as insurance against Hyakki Yakou. However... He seemed to have overlooked the fact that I had never said I was there to save him. ¡°So, Miss Witch. When do you plan on making this new contract?¡± ¡°Eh...?¡± said a surprised voice. It did not belong to the witch; it was my master¡¯s. ¡°As soon as I kill him.¡± ¡°Then I suggest you do so quickly. You should not underestimate Hyakki Yakou¡¯s tracking skills. I do not know what route you plan to use, but you do not want your way back to Australia to be blocked, do you?¡± ¡°...You have no attachment to him?¡± ¡°This was just a temporary home. Blending into a culture that actually has witches should make things a lot easier. If I have a chance to leave the country, I need to take it. Especially now that Hyakki Yakou and Hishigami Mai have reached this village. That is what I truly think.¡± My master looked so dumbfounded he may have forgotten he was dangling in midair and having trouble breathing. As a demon, it was quite an exciting expression to see. ¡°What...? Eh? Why...?¡± ¡°Did you think we were family? Come on now, master. You may know I am Succubus, but you do not actually know my personal name.¡± ¡°That is an important factor in making contracts, so that is not surprising. A demon will not reveal her name unless she truly trusts someone,¡± added the witch as if to rub salt in the wound. But... ¡°Miss Witch, Miss Witch. If you know your history of the witch hunts, you should be fairly suspicious of any wonderful opportunity that practically falls in your lap.¡± ¡°Your point?¡± ¡°I will prove to you that I am telling the truth. I will kill him myself.¡± ¡°...¡± With the sound of a bat being swung, my master was thrown to my feet. He began coughing, but more confusion could be seen in his eyes than suffering. But that did not change what I had to do. ¡°How about a riddle, master? Question 1: What is this in my hand?¡± ¡°An...ice pick?¡± ¡°I am glad your family likes its alcohol so much. I was surprised they drink both eastern and western varieties. Now, Question 2: What will happen if I stab it into your gut?¡± ¡°...¡± Well, I doubt many people would be able to calmly answer that question. Luckily, he was able to see the answer firsthand. I stabbed it right in. Part 18 (Jinnai Shinobu) ¡°Cough!? Cough!! Cough cough!! Cough cough cough!?¡± ¡°Now then. As there is no saving him, let¡¯s hurry up and make this contract. Do you have everything prepared?¡± The ice pick sticking out of my body seemed to cause my brain to numb over more than it did fill me with pain. The difference between what I thought my body should look like and what I saw before my eyes caused a fundamental error in my thought process. I¡¯m going to die? I¡¯m going to die so simply and easily? ¡°Do not worry about that. More importantly, there is one piece of information I must know first: Your true name. To form a contract with you, I must know your personal name. Simply knowing you belong to the Succubus species is not enough.¡± ¡°Hm. About that,¡± said the Succubus with a troubled expression. She was no longer looking at me. She was acting like I was not even there, like I was no longer human. The way I had been cast aside like a piece of rotting meat told me all too well what my fate would be. ¡°Unlike in Hollywood movies, demons are not free to be as evil as they wish. I cannot reveal my name in this situation. My contract with my temporary master, Jinnai Shinobu, still remains.¡± ¡°Even though you stabbed him in the gut?¡± ¡°Yes, even though.¡± The western European Succubus shrugged. ¡°Making a contract with a demon is like walking across a dangerous tightrope. The slightest opening in your method of using the demon can easily lead to the demon killing you.¡± ¡°And that is what happened here?¡± ¡°However, if a demon betrays their old master and reveals the information needed to create a new contract despite the old contract still existing, they will simply be breaking the old contract. I have no pretext for acting freely, so I will be unable to remain in this world if I disobey those rules.¡± ¡°That boy has been fatally wounded. Can¡¯t we just wait until he dies?¡± ¡°The contract between a human and a demon does not end upon the human¡¯s death. After all, the demon is usually trying to obtain the human¡¯s soul after death.¡± ¡°Then how can I make the new contract? I need your name to perform the ritual.¡± ¡°It is simple.¡± The Succubus raised her index finger. ¡°I am afraid of breaking my contract by teaching you my name. However, it is often shown in fairy tales that demons are weakened when a human learns their name against their wishes.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I stabbed Jinnai Shinobu to act as bait. Some Youkai act automatically upon sensing danger to their family. Not that anything can be done now that he has been fatally wounded.¡± Some sort of form slowly appeared beyond the extremely thick fog. It was a glamorous female Zashiki Warashi with long black hair and a red yukata. She held some small piece of paper in her hand. It was the summer greeting postcard that had come by airmail. The witch frowned. ¡°A demon like you is one thing, but how did this Japanese Youkai enter my magic circle?¡± ¡°My name is connected to me. If she travelled along the line connecting it to me, she can travel through this fog.¡± The Zashiki Warashi looked different from normal. I had never seen that good-for-nothing Youkai looking quite so expressionless. ¡°Where is Shinobu?¡± ¡°It is too late.¡± ¡°Then maybe I should just hold onto this.¡± ¡°We can just take it. Go ahead, Miss Witch.¡± With the sound of a whip cracking, one of the Furutsubaki¡¯s arm-like branches shot through the air and snatched the postcard from the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s hand. The witch looked down at the white, heavily-decorated writing. What? But that¡¯s... ¡°Hm. A simple numerical replacement.¡± ¡°So have you stolen a look at my name? Then let us get this contract over with. What will you do about the temple for the ceremony?¡± ¡°We can use this. Not the Furutsubaki itself though. It is said a wooden pestle or mallet can transform into a human form. A lot can be done with the oil of the tree.¡± ¡°Oh? So you didn¡¯t just scatter it around as incense to create this ceremonial ground. You also drank it to remake your body.¡± ¡°What is needed to summon a demon and make a contract is a temple to draw a set flow of power into, a protective circle for the witch, and a summoning circle to call in and fix the target in place.¡± ¡°What were you going to use for that last one?¡± ¡°This.¡± ¡°A pocket watch?¡± ¡°It can also be used as machine oil.¡± ¡°This does not seem to have anything to do with time. Do its gears create a precise combination of circles that you pass the Youkai¡¯s...no, the demon¡¯s power through with the oil?¡± continued the Succubus. I had no idea how dangerous the amount of blood I had lost was. ¡°Then let us begin.¡± ¡°Do we need a written contract?¡± ¡°No, with this much preparation, a verbal contract should be enough. And it would be a pain to calculate out all the values while writing it out in the alphabet. More importantly, are you sure you want to make a contract with me?¡± ¡°Why would I not?¡± ¡°A Succubus may be a traditional demon, but we are not all that powerful.¡± ¡°If I recklessly tried for something beyond my ability, I would simply destroy myself. You should know that better than anyone.¡± ¡°I see. Fine, then.¡± ¡°Then...¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s get started.¡± My consciousness wavered. A ringing in my ears exploded in my head every so often like the crashing of waves. I could not hear their voices properly. ¡°...ng...w......ed.........f.........ri......b...............s...............h...............gh......s.........e......¡± No obvious light or noise exploded out. No pentagrams or hexagrams appeared. It simply felt like the situation had begun to roll down a hill. I felt a ¡°flow¡± that no one would be able to stop once it started. Some sinister power seemed to be pushing us in that direction. ¡°This is a story from 1403 in a small walled city that relied on trade,¡± said the Succubus suddenly. She was not looking at me. I could not tell if she was trying to speak to me. ¡°My old master was a court scholar who produced high-class horses for royals and nobles. ...He had originally been a magician that more broadly worked with living creatures and their souls, but he was required to produce more obvious results in order to earn a living.¡± The Succubus spoke amid the fog, amid the ceremonial ground created by the witch. ¡°My old master specialized in getting animals to breed. One day, the king came to him with a request. He wanted a means of treating infertility. Whether the king left behind an heir or not could directly influence the rise or fall of nations in that time, so it was a major issue.¡± The Succubus spoke amid that sweet aroma, amid the spell-chanting of that witch who had built a protective magic circle throughout her entire body by taking the oil of that Japanese camellia tree into her own body. ¡°My old master tried every method available to him, but none of those ¡®normal¡¯ methods were of any use. He had nowhere left to turn. That was when he learned that an Incubus and a Succubus are actually the same existence and the Incubus attacks women using the sperm taken by the Succubus. He attempted to use that as a means of resolving the king¡¯s troubles. ...And he was taken to be executed two weeks later.¡± The Succubus spoke as that dark ritual continued, as she claimed victory using that pocket watch given the power of the Furutsubaki in the form of machine oil. ¡°Officially, he was blamed for borrowing the power of a demon, but...in reality, it had more to do with certain influential groups that did not want the king to have an heir. And so my old master was burned at the stake. I was unsure what to do, so as an emergency measure, I stored just his soul in my womb to prevent it from deteriorating.¡± That was her reason. A simple high school student like me had no way of knowing if it was possible or not. Was it possible because she was a Succubus that ruled over dreams and mating? Or was it possible because of the skills and knowledge of this ¡°old master¡± she spoke of? However... I still did not know what result this ¡°reason¡± would produce. That lack of knowledge disturbed me. She had taken control of the international European agency known as the European Security Force, she had picked a fight with Hyakki Yakou, and now she was trying to make a comeback in Australia. To go that far, the Succubus had to have some sort of powerful vision for the future within her. And one step of her plan was about to come to an end. The contract between demon and witch was about to be completed. ¡°For the above reasons, the veil of great ignorance shall occasionally prove that the door of unknown possibilities stands open. By intentionally twisting the structure of a former goddess of fertility and the shrine maidens that followed her, I shall connect a twisted power to myself. The witch Marguerite Steinhols and the demon Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier now enter into an honest connection that crosses this honest world.¡± The instant she stood on that new stage, the Succubus narrowed her eyes with deep emotion. She then muttered a few words to me where I lay collapsed on the ground. ¡°Well, it may be hopeless for a demon to hope to be right...but was this perhaps wrong of me?¡± ¡°...How should I know?¡± I spat back, but I was not sure if I actually managed to get the words out. Dammit. Normally after being betrayed and surprised like this, more resentful words would well up within me, but surprisingly, nothing came. ¡°That isn¡¯t something you should ask me,¡± I said. ¡°But if you felt any hesitation toward accepting this, maybe you should try a different method next time.¡± I did not know how she had interpreted my words, but it seemed the Succubus smiled slightly. And then... The upper body of the witch who had given the name Marguerite Steinhols suddenly lurched forward. ¡°Gh...gh...?¡± With her body doubled over, the witch brought her right hand to her mouth. A dark red liquid spilled from between her fingers. ¡°Wh-what? The ritual did not fail. I completed the contract with the demon. So what went wrong...!?¡± ¡°Hm, I wonder what it could have been?¡± said the Succubus. The witch looked over at her and then her body froze in place. A smile filled with much more obvious evil than before could now be seen on the Succubus¡¯s face. It was as if she was looking at some prey she had caught in a trap. ¡°The ice pick... That¡¯s it! The ice pick! Unlike a normal blade, the wound is small. You could easily stab it into him without hitting any organs or arteries!! That means you-...!!¡± ¡°Of course. I am my master¡¯s pawn. Really, you should have noticed something was up when I left the ice pick inside him. I did that to make sure he did not bleed too much.¡± ¡°So you decided to stay with your temporary household. Ghbh!? But the contract was a success. Did you forget that I can now order you to finish off Jinnai Shinobu!?¡± The witch swung her right hand and completed a complex and detailed motion with her fingers. However... ¡°Nothing...happened?¡± ¡°Looks that way.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be... Was there some defect in the ritual? No, the ritual itself succeeded. I can feel I have entered into a contract with a demon!! So why do I have no connection with you!? What demon am I connected to!?¡± ¡°As you know, you need a demon¡¯s true name to enter into a contract with it.¡± The Succubus clapped her hands together in front of her face and tilted her head. She continued speaking with that mocking gesture and a mocking smile. ¡°But do you have any way to check if that is actually my name?¡± ¡°What...?¡± Marguerite looked down at the postcard in her hand. She was double checking the string of numbers on it representing a name. But... ¡°Unlike the side with the picture, the side of the summer greeting postcard with the writing is heavily decorated, right?¡± The Zashiki Warashi finally spoke up to answer this simple question. ¡°I covered it with quick-drying glue and sprayed flour on it. I then rewrote the original text but with the sender and receiver fields reversed. Surely you are smart enough to understand what that means.¡± ¡°You were tricked into thinking another demon¡¯s name was mine. That is what happened. The real question is whether a witch who thought a Succubus would be a nice, safe option will be able to control a great demon that just barely did not rank on the level of a demon that symbolizes one of the seven deadly sins.¡± ¡°Ahh!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!¡± She let out a tremendous cry. And then a rumbling noise drowned out even that cry. I doubted it was just due to my hazy mind that I did not know what was happening. I focused my entire mind on averting my gaze from something I must not see. I could instinctually tell this was something I was not meant to see. I was so weak I did not want anyone or anything to view me as an enemy, so the great intimidating atmosphere that ruled the entire area for a short while almost seemed a blessing. Something had failed. And as a result, something had happened to the witch. Finally, I suddenly realized I was lying face up on the midsummer mountain road. The fog was gone. The witch who had produced the fog was also gone. Everything was back to normal. Everything except for an old Japanese camellia tree growing unnaturally above the asphalt. The Zashiki Warashi and Succubus stood nearby. Those members of the occult had easily deceived that witch who had fully used the intellect that was a human¡¯s greatest weapon. While leaning up against the Japanese camellia tree, the Succubus smiled and said, ¡°She is not dead. Demons wish to make human souls their personal possessions, so we make sure not to destroy those souls. Of course, she will probably be begging for her life after spending 5 minutes in the same place as that monster.¡± ¡°...Why?¡± ¡°Are you asking why I saved you?¡± said that demon so readily so as to not let me imagine just what was whirling around within her heart. ¡°That is what I asked about before. With my goal so close at hand, was it wrong of me to do this?¡± Part 19 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) The parachute fell and a kimono-wearing girl of about 10 was caught in the tree branches. We brought her into the back of the light truck and fled as quickly as we could. However, the SAS-style special forces Mai had mentioned never came. I had no idea what was happening. And... At some point, Shinobu had disappeared from the back of the truck. I was extremely worried about him, but Mai just kept saying I would know where he was soon enough. It seemed she had used him in one of those traps or conspiracies she loved so much, but that only made me more worried. Currently, Mai was talking with someone over her satellite phone. ¡°Yes, yes. Oh, so it worked? Right, right. So you haven¡¯t killed them. Then get the names of the rest of the witch¡¯s group from them. Once we have that list, we will overlook you as promised. Your wanted status within Hyakki Yakou will be removed.¡± I glanced into the rearview mirror and asked, ¡°Who are you talking with?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t want to know,¡± said the mystery freak from the passenger seat. After hanging up, Mai began speaking with the girl of about 10. ¡°What about the special forces acting on the witch¡¯s behalf?¡± ¡°Hyakki Yakou controls the sky here. We have eight Generation 4.5 and Generation 5 fighters. They are multirole fighters, so they can easily attack ground targets. I doubt even a pro can stand up to them with only rifles and shoulder-fired missiles. They should quickly retreat across the mountain.¡± ¡°We should have the witch¡¯s list before long. We can use that to at least handle anyone within Japan.¡± ¡°The ones that have taken root in Australia will be harder to eliminate, but we will apply as much pressure as we can.¡± ¡°This has worn down Hyakki Yakou¡¯s 100 officers once more. Why don¡¯t you use that to force it through?¡± ¡°Conflicts between organizations are not that simple. But I suppose all we need to do is prepare a situation in which the Australian government will abandon the witch¡¯s group.¡± ¡°Do you have any ideas how to do that?¡± ¡°Australia¡¯s large scale circular farms are having problems with cyclones and insect outbreaks, so what if we help them properly pacify this god? Instead of trying to turn a god into a demon, we can help them honor and revere the god.¡± ¡°I see. Once they have another way, the government will lose any reason to cover for the witch.¡± ¡°An excessive supply lowers the value of things. We call this the North Wind and the Sun method.¡± This girl who was talking about things just as dangerous as Hishigami Mai was frightening me to the point of feeling chilled, but who was she? ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± said Hishigami Mai when she saw me glancing nervously in their direction. ¡°This is all over. Once we return to that thatch-roof house, everyone can go back to their peaceful everyday lives.¡± Part 20 (Jinnai Shinobu) If only it really could have ended there. Unfortunately, the world was not that kind. I had vodka splashed on my stomach and a huge piece of gauze wrapped around it. After receiving that love-filled Succubus-style first aid, I somehow made it back home. The Nekomata immediately said, ¡°Your father wishes to speak with you. I think he wants to lecture you.¡± ¡°Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!¡± While I was receiving that lecture (that included a fist or two), it seemed the situation continued to develop. My uncle, the twintailed girl, Hishigami Mai, and the kimono-wearing girl had used a large transport helicopter prepared by Hyakki Yakou to quickly leave Noukotsu Village. ¡°They said a helicopter is the most relaxing.¡± ¡°S-so what? I don¡¯t see how that could be true.¡± Also, that kimono-wearing girl and Hishigami Mai were one thing, but why had my uncle left on the helicopter prepared by Hyakki Yakou? I guessed he must have been very busy with his work. That evening, I chased around the Succubus a bit after she said going to the hospital would do nothing to help. I then had that Okinawa-born thing call out to me from the yard. ¡°I am Shisa.¡± ¡°Hm? What happened to your friend? That Kijimuna thing.¡± ¡°He is fighting with the Furutsubaki over his place in the yard. I was surprised when a second Furutsubaki suddenly appeared.¡± Well, it would have been a nuisance if it had stayed on that asphalt mountain road. I followed the Shisa¡¯s gaze and expected to find some trees moving around violently, but instead found three small kimono-wearing children fighting. It seemed to be a traditional competition to see whose Youkai transformation ability was the best. ¡°I had the Yuki Onna make it snow and made a snowman and igloo. I have no regrets. If I do not return soon, my family may grow worried.¡± ¡°I see. They aren¡¯t going to think the decoration on their house¡¯s roof was stolen, are they?¡± The Shisa ignored my worries and called out to the Kijimuna still fighting in the yard. The Youkai ran over to the Shisa while still in the form of a small child. The Shisa said, ¡°Goodbye. Visit us if you are ever in Okinawa.¡± I watched the Shisa and Kijimuna walk away. With the sunset behind them, it was a somehow lonely scene. The Succubus (now wearing a T-shirt) called out from behind me. ¡°Having somewhere to return to sure is nice.¡± ¡°You may be trying to make it sound nostalgic, but I don¡¯t want to let something as dangerous as you back into the European Security Force.¡± ¡°Heh heh heh. I will take that to mean you want me all to yourself.¡± We chatted as we returned to the Japanese-style living room. ¡°Are you really okay with this?¡± I asked. ¡°With what?¡± ¡°Well...I¡¯m glad you saved me, but didn¡¯t you want a large country filled with plenty of witches where you could do whatever you wanted?¡± ¡°Given their situation, it was not a very attractive invitation.¡± ¡°Come to think of it, I understand how the witch¡¯s group knew you were here due to having people inside Hyakki Yakou, but how did you know what was going on in Australia? You¡¯ve been in the attic the whole time.¡± ¡°Oh, that. I am the demon that controlled the European Security Force. I constructed a defensive network for any potential enemies from various areas of the world: North America, South America, the Far East, Eastern Europe, etc. In the process, I had them investigate Australia because it holds the most influence in Oceania. ...Anyway, due to various circumstances, Europe and North America have no reason to want the occult techniques of Japan, so I figured it was probably Australia this time.¡± ¡°Hm. So why was it not an attractive invitation?¡± ¡°They had taken on various burdens to make up for how far they had fallen behind.¡± The Succubus waved her arrow-shaped tail back and forth. ¡°For example, this witch used a Furutsubaki she had turned into a demon. But where did she get the Youkai?¡± ¡°Eh? Once she arrived in Japan, I would assume.¡± ¡°She would not have made it in time. Remaking a paranormal existence may sound simple enough, but even at the quickest, it takes three years. If she had been hiding in Japan that long, Hyakki Yakou would have noticed.¡± ¡°But Japanese Youkai can only be found in Japan.¡± ¡°You¡¯d think so, wouldn¡¯t you?¡± The Succubus grinned. ¡°Have you heard of the International Plantation Project that uses circular farms and plant factories in Australia¡¯s deserts? It¡¯s famous enough to even be used on quiz shows.¡± ¡°I saw it on that rerun you and the Yuki Onna were watching. What about it?¡± ¡°Each individual farm has a special environment prepared for it so that it can produce the special crops of another country, but that is just a front. Preparing a special environment sounds innocent enough, but what if that ¡®environment¡¯ included aspects of the occult?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°Just think of them as the occult version of Chinatown or Little Tokyo. The Furutsubaki was likely forcibly brought over from Japan to be replanted and then grown on one of those farms in the desert. They make a farm for each Youkai or fairy and regulate the environment specifically for them. ...Although, this occasionally causes some bugs and they transform into some strange UMA or crop circle.¡± The Succubus gave a simple smile. ¡°It seems Hyakki Yakou mistakenly viewed the natural disasters as the anger of the land¡¯s god, but that is not what is happening. Gathering convenient parts of the occult such as fairies, Youkai, and spirits from around the world and preparing a spiritual foundation for them has created conflicts and repeated accidental activations that have ultimately led to the natural disasters.¡± This was not the same as a carefully-regulated Intellectual Village. That was artificial land that Youkai would find uncomfortable. When I imagined those circular farms spread out across the desert, it gave me a horribly cramped impression. ¡°That country¡¯s government wanted the blessings of sacred land, but their techniques could not keep up with their desires. This was like something unpleasant beginning to live in a church or temple that had fallen into disarray due to lack of maintenance.¡± An inescapable prison. A demon that could not leave the magic circle that summoned it. That was what the idea made me think of. ¡°For a demon like me, it may have been like inviting me into a birdcage. I would have a decent living environment and plenty of food, but nothing else. Now do you see why it did not sound like much fun? With that little freedom, I doubt I would have a chance to achieve my goal. ...But with such a heavy blow to their grains market and the failure of the witch¡¯s project, their government will likely run crying to Hyakki Yakou to quickly fix it all for them.¡± ¡°...¡± Her goal. Had what the Succubus said after stabbing me with the ice pick been true? Or had that been nothing more than another act to ensure the witch named Marguerite Steinhols let down her guard? Also... If she was going to deceive that witch, couldn¡¯t it have been after killing me? For example, she could have pretended to go to Australia but disappeared after leaving Japan. After escaping Hyakki Yakou, she could have created a new kingdom like the European Security Force. ¡°Do you find it strange?¡± ¡°...Um.¡± As a demon, she may have been good at noticing negative emotions because the Succubus seemed to have read my doubts from my expression alone. She then said, ¡°My old master spoke a few words just before he was burned at the stake. I am merely obeying them.¡± ¡°What did he say?¡± ¡°I will keep that a secret. It is not often you find something more important than a contract.¡± The Succubus grinned. ¡°Well, I just wanted to lay the trap at the time, but it would have left a bad taste in my mouth if I killed you after those words.¡± At that point, the glamorous Zashiki Warashi entered the room. She must have been playing video games in my room because she still had the 3D goggles on. ¡°Everything has smelled very Western today.¡± ¡°Oh, is that so? Well, whether Japanese, Chinese, or Western, it can kill me just the same.¡± ¡°I was talking about dinner. Something seemed off, so I peeked into the kitchen. As usual, your mother has been stirring a pot for hours creating some kind of sauce.¡± ¡°Not good!! That isn¡¯t Western; it¡¯s a new invention! And her inventions have never turned out well!!¡± ¡°...Yes. And I think she has started to suspect she has left the path leading to a success. But she seems to be desperately hoping she can fix it by adding more seasonings. I am going to force my way past this even if I have to insist that I will simply make myself a sandwich for dinner.¡± ¡°Simply? I can¡¯t even imagine you making a sandwich, you good-for-nothing Youkai. And from what you¡¯ve said, she has grown desperate to not waste all the effort she¡¯s put into this. I doubt she¡¯ll listen to what we say when she gets this stubborn.¡± ¡°In a case like this, it is more effective to place out the proper ingredients without the target noticing and wait for the target to notice on her own. Now then, leave this to the demon who specializes in temptation.¡± And so a human, a Youkai, and a demon began putting together a strategy to avoid that night¡¯s crisis. It may have seemed a complete waste, but we did not see it that way. No matter who it was putting their heads together, an ¡°incident¡± of this level was just perfect. In fact... Those gigantic incidents we had been dealing with before were what did not belong. Notes 1. ¡ü Noukotsu refers to the process of placing someone¡¯s cremated remains into a funerary urn. 2. ¡ü In Japan, putting out filled plastic water bottles is thought to keep stray cats away. Volume 2, Afterword Volume 2, Afterword And so here is the 2nd volume. This is Kamachi Kazuma. This work can now officially be called a series. The original concept was to tell the stories of Youkai in the fictional living environments known as Intellectual Villages, but compared to Volume 1 and all its Intellectual Villages, this volume¡¯s stories were set outside that basic structure a lot more. Chapter 3 and the second half of Chapter 4 would be the most obvious examples. I also used Uchimaku Hayabusa a lot more this time. At first glance, he seems to be a guy with common sense stuck at a midpoint where he is not allowed the inexperience of Jinnai Shinobu and cannot resolve anything and everything as smartly as Hishigami Mai. However, he does live quite a crazy life too. The idea of ¡°Hishigami Mai¡¯s world¡± showed up a few times, but ¡°Uchimaku Hayabusa¡¯s world¡± is enough to rival it. Uchimaku Hayabusa took half a step into ¡°Hishigami Mai¡¯s world¡± this time, but you also got to enjoy seeing him run around his home turf of the big city. The detective is only interested in the living while the mystery freak is only interested in the dead. This time, I told the story of the detective being isolated from his organization, but I think there is a lot more I can do with that duo. Creating some conflict between the two could make for some interesting drama. I paid careful attention to once more show the difference between humans and Youkai. I also explained some of the reason behind the Zashiki Warashi teasing Jinnai Shinobu. She has no problem showing off her skin because she fully views herself as his guardian. ...That said, it is possible he could shoot Cupid¡¯s arrow right through her heart by calling her ¡°onee-chan¡±. However, Jinnai Shinobu is in his rebellious teenage years, so he would rather bite his own tongue than do that. I give my thanks to my illustrator Mahaya-san and my editor Miki-san. This novel had a lot of Youkai without human forms and it focused a lot on some annoying creature-y kind of stuff. I am truly thankful they stuck with my selfish requests. And I give my thanks to the readers. By cherry-picking the species used, I could easily make all the Youkai look like girls, but I have chosen not to do that. This is another selfish choice of mine, so thank you for sticking with me regardless. And I will end this here. I will just hope I can write a third volume. I got careless and the number of pages really got out of hand... -Kamachi Kazuma Volume 3, Prologue Volume 3, Prologue This story has 100 puzzles hidden within it. However, the locations of these puzzles are never given. This is not a children¡¯s quiz show after all. All of you will search for these puzzles and their answers. The questions and the answers are all given within the story. The characters may speak an obvious question or they may think one within their mind. Some of the puzzles are very important and deal directly with the core of the story and others are quite trivial and are not needed to reach the conclusion. You may count on your fingers or prepare notes and writing equipment. Please complete your preparations before attempting this story. Now then. I earnestly hope you can find the 100 puzzles and their answers. -From Aoandon. Volume 3, ?: Welcome to Zenmetsu Village Volume 3, Chapter??: Welcome to Zenmetsu Village Part 1 (Jinnai Shinobu) ¡°Uuh...myuh...¡± I felt a slight shaking and awoke. Only once I awoke did I realize I had been asleep. I was on a tour bus and most of those on board were my classmates and my homeroom teacher. The only exceptions were the bus guide and the driver. The tour bus was driving along an elevated highway, but the outside scenery was almost entirely cut off by the tall soundproof panels covering the sides of the road. The bus was driving so smoothly I would never have guessed it was keeping steady at 80 kph. Oh, that¡¯s right. We had a school trip at the start of September... ¡°Hey, hey, Shinobu-kun.¡± The eccentric beauty Madoka-chan was saying something from her seat next to me. This was not a case of a lovey-dovey space developing. As usual, she did not fit in with the rest of the class, so she had been forced to sit next to me, the class president. ¡°Shinobu-kun, why do you cling to the girl next to you while you nap?¡± ¡°Hagwah!?¡± I frantically moved away from Madoka. I-I have my reasons, Madoka-san! In fact, I think most personal mannerisms are deeply related to one¡¯s household environment. However, Madoka did not seem to mind. ¡°What a pain. They call this a trip, but we¡¯re only headed to an Intellectual Village. Is this a way of exchanging technology?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s a school event, so all of the events were decided on by some stuffy teacher. I do agree we need to make sure a school trip doesn¡¯t involve a trip to a love hotel, though.¡± Also, three days and two nights was much too short. I had the feeling we would spend more time travelling between locations than staying put anywhere. And then... The head of a classmate (a guy) stuck up from the seat in front of me. It was as if he was peering over a fence. He was the guy known in our class as the Love King. ¡°Jinnai, we¡¯re almost to a zone simply filled with noteworthy things.¡± ¡°What? We¡¯re on the highway. Are you the hopeless kind of student that buys a pile of souvenirs at the service area?¡± ¡°We¡¯re almost at Four Mountains. The scenery will change once we leave the tunnel,¡± said the Love King while lightly waving around an expensive-looking mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera. ¡°I hear there¡¯s a huge junction there and it¡¯s popular with people who like buildings and factories.¡± ¡°...That¡¯s targeted toward an incredibly niche audience.¡± ¡°No, don¡¯t make fun of it. Even sports stars have this hobby. It¡¯s widely recognized.¡± I wanted to argue that it didn¡¯t matter if famous people did it too, but I decided against it since that would just lead to a long, drawn-out debate. ¡°It¡¯s actually really large-scale and quite rare. As the name suggests, the junction is surrounded by mountains and tunnels on all four sides and it leads the cars into the tunnels. Well, it also seems the base of the junction is a highway exit and rumor has it the junction was created for the sake of a gigantic semiconductor factory. Is that really true, though?¡± ¡°...¡± As the Love King continued speaking, Madoka looked out the window disinterestedly next to me. This was unsurprising since the Love King had been speaking only to me. The atmosphere was a bit strained. However, Madoka must have been used to this because she showed no sign of being hurt. Even now, she was using her cell phone to photograph a piece of chocolate shaped like an animal. It seemed she was trying to collect all of them, but... What animals does she still need? I know the bottle cap doll¡¯s beckoning cat series had a total of 20 different kinds. I could only come up with that completely unrelated data. And as I thought, the tour bus entered the tunnel. Was this tunnel through Suzaku Mountain? For a highway tunnel, it was quite small. It did not even have the standard orange lights. As soon as the bus entered the tunnel, it was pitch black. The noise of the engine must have been echoing against the wall because we were wrapped in an odd distorted noise. It was not a very long tunnel. After only a few minutes, the white light of the exit came into view. ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter, but will you even be able to photograph the scenery with the soundproof panels along the road?¡± I received no response. It was possible there was simply too much noise for him to hear. It did not bother me much, so I gave a small yawn as the tour bus left the tunnel. For an instant, the bright light of the sun blinded me. But I would quickly adapt to it. While I felt the thick moisture of fog on my cheek as I stood there, I raised a hand over my face to protect my eyes from the bright light. And then I realized something odd. ¡°Huh?¡± Why was I ¡°standing¡±. Just a moment before, I had been sitting in a seat on a tour bus that was full to capacity. And... Where am I? Why am I standing in the middle of a dense and dark forest? I felt a pressure coming from all sides. It was as if invisible walls were pressing in against me. The area spreading out around me was not a carefully maintained Intellectual Village plantation. Nor was it a walking path surrounded by negative ion oxygen. It was the type of place you felt like you would run into a group burying a corpse if you arrived at night with a flashlight in hand. Branches and leaves covered the sky. The sunlight was cut off, so the trees had to compete for the nutrients of the soil. Trees would kill off other trees and nature would rot nature. It was a truly ¡°untouched¡± place. Thanks to the undergrowth that reached over a meter high and the great amount of ivy growing from branch to branch, many areas had almost developed into green walls. I heard a solid clunking sound. While still confused, I turned in the direction of the sound. I found a giant concrete pillar that seemed to stab through the green as it rose up. ¡°That¡¯s part of the elevated highway... Then this must be...¡± The surface of the concrete had the words Four Mountains printed on it. I realized I must have been in the area that stretched out below the highway. This was the basin surrounded by the mountains. According to the Love King, each of the four mountains had a tunnel and the Four Mountains Junction connected those tunnels in a cross shape. That meant this area was only a highway trip away from many different areas. Is there any kind of village in this basin? ¡°I don¡¯t see any houses...¡± Then again, if I made my way through this deep forest and sought help at a home, I would probably be mistaken for a Yamanba. In every direction I only found forest, forest, and more forest. To put it bluntly, the conditions on the surface of Four Mountains was just about as bad as it could get. You could be as ecological as you want, but too much nature was harmful. But where did Madoka, the Love King, and my other classmates go? Had they been ¡°thrown from¡± the bus just like I had? Or had I been the only one to disappear and the bus had continued along the highway without any trouble? In other words... ¡°You have got to be kidding me... Don¡¯t tell me I¡¯ve been left behind.¡± Part 2 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) People seem to do it a lot, so I hope you are not confusing the National Police Agency with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. The latter is the organization that upholds the public order of Tokyo. And so its Investigation Department 1 normally only handled incidents that occurred within the jurisdiction of Tokyo. However, there were exceptions. ¡°Uchimaku, head out to Kinki right away.¡± ¡°...What?¡± The department chief had a grim look when he arrived and that was the very first thing out of his mouth. I could not help but open my eyes wide. He continued nevertheless. ¡°I assume you have heard Hasebe Michio is being transported.¡± ¡°Yes. Isn¡¯t that unkillable death row inmate being transferred here from his previous regional location?¡± I called him unkillable, but not because he was some ridiculous monster. He had been sentenced to death in a murder case over twenty years prior, but the odds of it being a false accusation had been quite high from the beginning. After much heated debate, this prisoner¡¯s execution had been pushed further and further back. That was why he was called ¡°unkillable¡±. We were on the verge of finding out if a request for a retrial would be accepted or not, so the higher ups of the National Police Agency had called him in to Tokyo for a more detailed investigation. The department chief continued speaking in a disinterested voice. ¡°His prison vehicle disappeared from Four Mountains Junction. It disappeared while on the highway. Both the policeman and the prisoner aboard may or may not still be alive. The prison vehicle has not even been found yet. Even its GPS signal vanished. To put it bluntly, we have no idea what to do.¡± ¡°...Seriously?¡± ¡°Normally, the search would be left to the local police, but this is no ordinary prisoner. I cannot deny the possibility of individuals or factions within the prosecutors and police who would find it troublesome for Hasebe to have a retrial. The organization¡¯s reputation is on the line once again.¡± Hasebe Michio had been in the process of being transferred from the regional police to the Tokyo police, so we did have an official reason for the two police departments to cooperate in this search. ¡°Are you saying it¡¯s possible someone might try to protect the police¡¯s reputation by making it look like Hasebe killed himself? That way the suspect dies before the retrial can take place.¡± ¡°I do not know if anything that blatant will happen, but if the physical evidence is hidden, this could easily be treated as if Hasebe escaped of his own free will. Someone could be trying to crush any chance of a retrial by framing an innocent man of an arbitrary crime.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°At any rate, even if this is a joint operation, the local police will still do most of the work. We can only send someone to keep an eye on things. Uchimaku, I am sending you. Someone with no inconvenient titles will have the easiest time moving around. Carry out the role of a small fry like the small fry you are.¡± I did not like the reason I had been chosen, but I could not ignore an official order. This is the painful part of being a police sergeant! As the department chief handed me a ticket for a cheap seat on a domestic flight, I asked him something that had suddenly caught my attention. ¡°By the way, do you really think Hasebe was wrongfully accused?¡± ¡°I have no idea. I was not in charge of that case.¡± Part 3 (Jinnai Shinobu) I stood still for so long I lost track of time. I had been inside that tour bus, but had suddenly found myself standing in this forest upon exiting the tunnel. It seemed I was in the untouched nature spreading out directly below the junction. It was unclear what had happened to Madoka, the Love King, Nagisa, or my other classmates. Incidentally, I had no food or water, so I really did not want to walk endlessly through the forest. ¡°...No good.¡± I had pulled out the cell phone in my pocket, but had groaned at the ¡°no signal¡± indicator. What hurt the most was how little about the situation I knew. If my other classmates were lost in this barricade-like forest as well, it might have been best to search through it as much as I could on my own. But it was possible I alone had been trapped in this strange situation. If that was the case, searching would be completely wasted effort. Walking through a deep forest while possibly stranded would only increase the risk of death. Doing that for an illusion that might not even be there was no laughing matter. ...It may sound as if I am exaggerating, but being so lost you lose all sense of direction is no joke. If I was to call for rescue or contact my classmates to see if they were okay, I needed my cell phone. Not being able to use it was a serious issue when it came to deciding what to do next. ¡°That means...¡± I looked over at the giant pillar towering up in front of me. It seemed to stab through that eerie nature that looked like new trees had grown on top of old rotting ones. The rectangular pillar had a long narrow metal staircase leading up it while reversing back and forth countless times. What is that staircase for? Whatever the answer to that question, I would likely be able to make my way up onto the elevated highway using it. If I walked along the shoulder of the highway, I could avoid being stranded in the forest. Emergency landline phones were set at fixed intervals in case of an accident, so I would be able to call for help as well. However, there was one problem. ¡°This fog...¡± The fog was so thick I was not sure I could see even a few meters ahead. With that fog enveloping everything, I was worried about my safety while walking along the highway, even if I was on the shoulder. The drivers might cautiously slow down a bit, but they would not be thinking about the possibility of pedestrians. If a car hit me, I would be sent straight to heaven. Should I continue through the forest with the very real possibility of becoming stranded? Or should I climb up onto the highway with masses of steel shooting by at high speed? ¡°What am I supposed to do...?¡± Part 4 (Hishigami Enbi) Tah dah! I had made my way to Kansai Ocean Airport. Unfortunately, it seemed less lively than Tokyo¡¯s Bay Coast International Airport. For one thing, it was not used much by sightseers or business travelers. Instead, it mainly shipped products of the western Intellectual Villages to various places. Regional airports had their own difficulties. And the focus on shipping allowed them to cut back on the service industry personnel costs for hotels or duty free shops. ¡°Wait a second, Enbi. What are you doing here on a weekday at the beginning of September? What happened to your required education?¡± ¡°Oh, detective. Just so you know, this really is a complete coincidence this time. ...Of course, since we¡¯re here for the same reason, it¡¯s only natural we would eventually end up in the same place.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the type of mystery freak that truly runs across incidents by coincidence, so running into you here is a very bad sign.¡± This removed any worries of wearing out a taxi driver from having him drive me around too much. Instead, I could have my beloved detective drive me around in a rental car. ¡°Let me be very clear, mystery freak. I am here for work. I am being paid with the people¡¯s tax money, so I don¡¯t have time to deal with you.¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, c¡¯mon. Let¡¯s go search for Hasebe Michio who disappeared from the highway at Four Mountains Junction!¡± ¡°You already know all that!? Where did you get that information from!?¡± ¡°What good would it do you to know that? What matters is that you will go through all the proper procedures to request cooperation from the regional police, but they will refuse to speak with you or even share any information with you. This will leave you with no choice but to come crying to Enbi-chan, the master of love and justice.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous! Reality is not some travel mystery solved by a popular newspaper reporter and idiot policeman!!¡± Fine, fine. Then just go ahead and try. To make a long story short, the detective tried to call someone with his cell phone, searched the airport to see if anyone was waiting for him, and tried some other things. It was the same as the opening scene of a 2-hour mystery with a black silhouette muttering to itself. Describing it all in detail would be a waste of time. ¡°D-did I do something horrible in a past life...?¡± ¡°The problem is that Hasebe is a troublesome prisoner due to the possibility of a false accusation. The old members of the regional police, the prosecutors, the judge, and everyone else with influence are extremely worried about this. Even the inside of their station is in complete disarray, so they don¡¯t have time to handle someone sent in from Tokyo. Now just go get us a rental car.¡± ¡°Wait a second. I am a police officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. My jurisdiction does not leave the Tokyo metropolitan area. If the regional police refuse to cooperate, I have no authority here. I will be treated just like a normal person.¡± ¡°Do you think your boss in Department 1 will accept that excuse?¡± To make a long story short, we made it to stage 2. Hmm, not bad. He has the cell phone¡¯s volume turned down yet I can still hear the yelling. ...They don¡¯t really serve katsudon when questioning you in Department 1, do they? As expected, the detective was in tears. ¡°How does that damn chief think I can handle this with nothing but the standard right to apprehend someone caught in the act of a crime!? And he told me not to come back until I had some results, but the lodging fees are going to come out of my pay, aren¡¯t they!?¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s go. There are tons of people who would find it troublesome if Hasebe was found innocent and now he suddenly disappeared when he might finally get a retrial. We have no time to waste.¡± While half in desperation, the detective borrowed a rental car. I sat down in the passenger seat and fastened the seatbelt. ¡°Riding in a car alone with you is quite stimulating.¡± ¡°Oh, is that so?¡± ¡°Does it remind you of the Shokei Island Serial Murders Case?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t bring up anything that ominous!!¡± Part 5 (Jinnai Shinobu) To be honest, I had not yet decided what to do at that time. After all, both options were too dangerous. On one hand, I had a deep forest I could easily end up stranded in if I casually decided to take a stroll through it. On the other hand, I had a foggy highway on which cars could come flying toward me at high speed at any moment. Both options put my life at risk. But the situation refused to wait for me. It began with a noise. It was an awfully metallic noise coming from directly above me. I looked up and realized it was the sound of someone walking on the narrow staircase installed along the pillar of the elevated highway. For an instant, truly just an instant, I rejoiced. To be honest, I had been horribly nervous up until this moment. I was surrounded by a rotting forest in every direction. If I had taken a photo, every single person I showed it to would probably have given it the title ¡°stranded¡±. When I sensed another person¡¯s presence a warm feeling filled my chest. It was as if I had been wandering through a blizzard on a snowy mountain and had spotted a cabin. But... Once I thought about it carefully, I realized this person was walking down into the thick forest from the elevated highway. The action itself was simple enough, but I could think of no reason for anyone to do that. After all, this was a thick forest. Unlike an Intellectual Village farm where a bunch of grapes was worth 30 thousand yen, there was no obvious reason to come here. And... I had been suddenly sent into this forest from a tour bus driving down that highway above. When something unexplainable happened, it was normal to first suspect a Youkai. However, there was one question I could not find an answer to. What type of Youkai put into what kind of system could do this? I had too few hints. It was possible that metallic footstep was another hint. And of course, that hint would come with plenty of danger. The footsteps continued. What if someone had intentionally built a Youkai¡¯s power into their system to use it as a criminal Package and I alone had been taken from that tour bus? Why then would this person be walking down the stairs toward the forest? What if someone had created a situation with zero witnesses and was now descending the stairs to meet me? ¡°Dammit...¡± I began digging through my pants pocket without even realizing it. I knew there was nothing inside but my cell phone, but I still searched through it again and again. ¡°Dammit!!¡± I was surrounded by the thick forest. I frantically grabbed a thick branch that had broken off a tree and begun to fuse with the greenery. I thought this would put me at ease, but the branch must have rotted all the way through because the middle crumbled as I picked it up. Meanwhile, the footsteps showed no sign of stopping. The noise grew louder. The person was approaching the ground. If this was truly the criminal (?), then they were using some Youkai¡¯s power. Wielding a tree branch might not be much help, but facing them unarmed would be too reckless. But despite thinking that, I was unable to do anything. If I had instead run off into the forest, the result might have changed. The footsteps stopped. The person had arrived at the final step. They would now step onto the ground. And this person was... ¡°...Madoka?¡± Part 6 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) I borrowed the cheapest, smallest, and least powerful rental car at the shop and headed out onto the highway. I was on my way to Four Mountains Junction where Hasebe Michio had disappeared while being transported. From my direction, I would travel through the Byakko Mountain tunnel. The western mountain was named Byakko and the southern one Suzaku, so it was an incredibly simple naming scheme. The mystery freak was sitting in the passenger seat. (If I had not let her, I would be given the stigma of being a police officer who left a minor in a distant city.) ¡°Now then, detective. How much do you know about Hasebe?¡± ¡°You¡¯re the amateur and I¡¯m the professional, so shouldn¡¯t I be asking you that?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t call yourself a professional. You have no authority here.¡± ¡°Do you want me to open the door and shove you out?¡± To relieve my annoyance, I chewed some xylitol gum. The highway was not a lot of fun. The structures at set intervals with reflective panels, an emergency phone, and a small door must have been high-speed bus stops. It was tedious and I felt like I was going to fall asleep at a moment¡¯s notice. Meanwhile, Enbi seemed completely carefree in the passenger seat. Despite most of the information being confidential, the mystery freak quickly began speaking on about it. ¡°It was 25 years ago on November 9. Someone broke into the house of the president of Kuroyama Electronics Group, a large Osaka precision equipment maker. They support the high-tech infrastructure of Intellectual Villages, so at the time, there was a lot of talk of it being related to a large criminal organization, political terrorism from those opposed to Intellectual Villages, or a foreign spy trying to steal their tech. But a major development came to light in January of the following year.¡± As she spoke, the mystery freak used her index finger to operate her usual smartphone with the leather memo pad cover. ¡°The local police used footprints left at the crime scene to determine the maker and sales situation of the shoes. They used that to identify Hasebe Michio. In addition, the security camera from a store near the president¡¯s house showed a figure that very closely resembled him. The police boldly arrested Hasebe Michio at the end of January.¡± Afterwards, Hasebe had remained firmly silent in the interrogation room. Hasebe had worked at a small factory in Osaka that had a contract with the Kuroyama Electronics Group. He had been highly skilled but had barely scraped by financially. At the time, the police had seen a motive there...but Hasebe had not actually done any better after the incident. Due to my job, I could not speak easily about any of this, so Enbi continued speaking as if giving a one-man performance. ¡°At the trial, Hasebe finally began speaking and insisted he was innocent. He testified that he had been treated violently in the interrogation room. None of that was recognized, though. The local police had built up a large amount of small evidence and the media thoroughly manipulated the image of him they represented to turn him into a complete villain.¡± Incidentally, that ¡°large amount of small evidence¡± was all vague witness testimony that amounted to nothing more than circumstantial evidence and rumors. Even their most conclusive evidence, the footprints, was not a proper form of biometrics like a fingerprint. Anyone could have made a copy of Hasebe¡¯s shoe by buying the same size of shoe from the same maker, taking dirt from the small factory he worked at and around his home, and pressing it against the bottom of the shoe. Even the figure that ¡°closely resembled¡± him on the nearby security camera was from the grainy resolution of that time. Its credibility was only about 50/50. If someone who knew Hasebe Michio had chosen the exact same clothes he wore and worn them in the exact same way, they could likely have produced a figure that ¡°closely resembled¡± him. ¡°The real problem are those that were involved in the investigation of Hasebe Michio back then,¡± I finally said in order to turn the conversation away from the case itself. Then again, this topic might actually be even more dangerous. ¡°The department chief who gave the okay to arrest Hasebe received an irregular promotion to the Ministry of Justice, the judge from his trial is going through a national review to see if he will remain on the Supreme Court, and I heard one of the prosecutors is even sharpening his claws as the top aide to a member of the Lower House. In other words, all of them have a reason to not want Hasebe to get a retrial and be found innocent. It would affect their brand image.¡± ¡°So they want to ensure Hasebe is guilty no matter what. And if they can¡¯t do that...?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t just say things like that without any evidence.¡± However, it seemed Hasebe had almost certainly been wrongfully accused. And it was true that I could not think of anyone else who might be glad to see him disappear from the highway while being transported. When the odds were good he would be found not guilty, Hasebe himself had no reason to make himself vanish. ¡°Now then, detective. Once we leave the Byakko Mountain tunnel, we will be at the Four Mountains Junction. I happen to have heard some interesting rumors about that place.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°You could say it is like holy ground to someone with my interests,¡± said the mystery freak while looking like she was about to start drooling. Given what interested her and pulled at her heartstrings, this was obviously not going to be something I wanted to hear. ¡°So, detective, have you ever heard of Zenmetsu Village?¡± Part 7 (Jinnai Shinobu) ¡°...Madoka?¡± My grinding nerves were released. The person who had unnaturally walked down the stairs form the elevated highway was... ¡°Yes, it¡¯s your good friend the beautiful and celebrated Madoka-chan. Anyway, Shinobu-kun, where are we?¡± As Madoka looked around, I noticed blades of grass and seeds were stuck to her sailor uniform in places. It did not look as if she was bruised or bleeding. That much was fine. However... ¡°Where have you been up until now? You haven¡¯t seen any of the others, have you?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Once we left the tunnel, I was suddenly thrown out into the fog. It was terrible. I was on the highway. There are better ways I could have been thrown out, you know? I noticed what had happened and quickly ran over to the shoulder, but if I had been a little slower, who knows what could have happened.¡± She had ended up in the middle of the highway. My situation had been pretty bad, but Madoka¡¯s hadn¡¯t exactly been great either. When I thought about it, the situation was almost unthinkable. People had disappeared from a tour bus driving along the highway. How fast was that bus going anyway? ¡°So did the same thing happen to our other classmates?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. But I have not heard any brakes screeching, cars crashing, or ambulance sirens, so I may have been the only one tossed right into the middle of the road,¡± said Madoka emptily as if it did not matter in the slightest to her. It may have been too much to ask her to care about the others when she was so isolated from them. ¡°Oh, right. Madoka, can you use your cell phone?¡± ¡°No. Nothing works. I also tried using the emergency phone up on the highway, but I couldn¡¯t reach anyone. I don¡¯t know what happened, but the cord may have been cut since it did not even seem to be ringing on the other end.¡± ¡°The emergency phone...was broken?¡± Those were supposed to be constantly maintained for emergencies like this. I occasionally heard on the news that overpasses, sewers, and other infrastructure was wearing down with age. This may have been the same. I did not know what had happened to the tour bus, but it seemed most of Madoka¡¯s luggage had left in the bus as well. All she had in hand was the animal-shaped chocolate she had been eating on the bus. Oh, the animal chocolates Madoka still needs are the panda and the penguin. I could only remember that useless piece of information. ¡°At any rate, heading up is unlikely to help much. I had a few cars fly by me through the fog, so you can be sure of that.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding... So we have to make our way through this thick forest?¡± I muttered blankly. But then a sudden idea came to me. Is Madoka telling the truth? Or rather, is this Madoka who so conveniently appeared here really just a Kitsune or Tanuki? Or is this the real Kotemitsu Madoka? If she was actually a transformation of whoever had sent me into this forest, she might be lying to keep me from heading up to the highway and using an emergency phone. ¡°Not being able to use the phone really hurts our situation. Same with the GPS.¡± ¡°I know what you mean. I haven¡¯t been able to check the stock prices for 15 minutes now. Not being able to do what you always do is so irritating.¡± ¡°You could at least change that to checking a fortune-telling site or something cute like that, Madoka-san.¡± ¡°This makes me want to start with the meaningless conspiracy theories. Having every option to use a phone taken from us makes me think there is some reason behind it.¡± ¡°...Come to think of it, are you really okay with your money? Timing is everything in day trading, right?¡± ¡°Well, yes. In a world where every ten thousandth of a second counts, this is not okay at all. But I left it all in the hands of a Tokyo market advisor while I am on this trip. If he makes more than the target amount, he gets to keep it all as a bonus, but if he makes less, he has to pay it all back. That¡¯s the contract we made. Nothing that happens will hurt me any.¡± I had tried to ask her a leading question, but the answer I got was so complicated I had no idea if it was accurate or not. Then again, someone who could supernaturally transform into her could likely act perfectly like her as well. Madoka(?) cast an annoyed glance across the Japanese jungle filled with underbrush. ¡°What should we do now? And remember, heading back to the highway is out of the question.¡± The way she continued to stress that point bothered me a bit, but it was not too unnatural since she had seen firsthand how dangerous it was. ¡°But walking randomly through the forest is dangerous, too. We don¡¯t know the land and it might be filled with pit vipers and hornets.¡± ¡°Then what do you suggest?¡± ¡°According to the Love King, Four Mountains Junction has an exit. It was rumored to have been built for a large semiconductor factory. In that case, we should be safe if we can reach either the tollgate or the factory. They should have a phone we can use there.¡± I was worried about our other classmates as well, but we had no map, we did not know which direction was which, and we did not know what kind of creatures lurked in this forest. With unknown after unknown, it was too dangerous to randomly search the forest. It would be best to inform someone what had happened so professionals could search for them as quickly as possible. A white fog prevented us from seeing even a few meters ahead and the curtain of tall underbrush as well as the rotting trees blocked our path. It was about the worst possible path to take, but the highway fortunately ran above our heads. If we followed its shadow, we could keep on track to the tollgate. Or so we thought. It turned out we were too na?ve. When we actually began walking, we learned just how na?ve we were after only five minutes. ¡°Dammit! I could have sworn we were walking straight. Where did the highway go!?¡± ¡°...At the very least, it is no longer overhead,¡± said Madoka as she looked up into the sky. The sky we could see through the gaps in the trees was white rather than blue. It was completely covered in thick fog. We had suddenly realized the shadow of the highway had disappeared from the ground. The highway had of course not moved. We had obviously strayed from the proper route. ¡°Shinobu-kun. I think our direction strayed bit by bit as we took the easiest path while avoiding these thick trees.¡± ¡°...Should we head back?¡± Fortunately, the tall underbrush we had parted to move forward had left an obvious trail to follow back. Or so we thought. ¡°Wait, wait, wait. Where are we? We keep walking, but the highway¡¯s pillar is nowhere to be seen.¡± ¡°We¡¯re completely lost.¡± We had only followed an obvious landmark and then followed our path back. That was all we had done, yet where we actually stood and where we had been headed was continually off by a bit. This was chaotic nature. It was the polar opposite of a carefully maintained Intellectual Village. I had thought I was well acquainted with ¡°nature¡±, but the threat before my eyes here taught me that the village I lived in was like a food sample made of wax. I had often heard that staying still was better than moving around randomly when lost in the woods or a mountain. I was now certain that was correct. But that was when you had properly informed people that you were going to climb that mountain. It only applied when someone would automatically come looking for you if a certain amount of time had passed. We had no way of knowing when this ridiculous fog would clear up. It was possible it was not just temporary weather. If it had to do with the terrain, it might remain for an entire season or even year round. And if the fog was related to a Youkai... For one thing, how were you supposed to report that someone had suddenly disappeared from the highway? Who would believe that? If only Madoka and I had disappeared and the tour bus had continued on perfectly fine, it would be up to our classmates and homeroom teacher to report it. However, they knew where we had disappeared from but not where we had disappeared to. The police and fire fighters might not believe that, and even if they did, they might not immediately guess correctly that we were in the forest of Four Mountains. In our situation, we could die of thirst after waiting just two or three days, so we could not rely on carefree optimism. And if everyone on the bus was wandering around somewhere like us... At any rate, we had no way of knowing if help was coming. The situation might not improve if we carelessly lay around. It was possible we would simply dry up and die. ¡°Four Mountains Junction is in an area surrounded by four mountains, right? It isn¡¯t that large an area.¡± ¡°I would say it is only a few kilometers across from one end to the other. ...Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re planning to move from one end to the other.¡± ¡°If we¡¯re lucky, we¡¯ll run across the highway or one of the pillars supporting it. In the worst case, we¡¯ll run into the mountain which we know has a tunnel through it. It¡¯s a bit dangerous, but heading to the tollgate over the highway might be best.¡± Given the land, that plan did not sound too difficult. After all, the highway at Four Mountains Junction was built in a cross shape, leading to four tunnels through four mountains. If we cut randomly across the basin between the mountains, the odds were good we would run cross the highway at some point. Madoka elegantly wiped sweat from her face with a small folded up handkerchief. ¡°I suppose that is our only option. A money-loving girl like me does not like forcing our way through every option until something works like this.¡± ¡°We need to find the highway before we seriously need to worry about food and water.¡± ¡°We will be trying to walk straight, but we won¡¯t end up walking around and around in circles, will we?¡± ¡°Just because you can¡¯t read the atmosphere is no reason to bring up that forest legend at a time like this!!¡± And so we began moving. The rotting trees covered the sky above our heads and even the shortest undergrowth was about a meter tall. Luckily, the leaves were not hard like bamboo grass, so we did not scrape ourselves as we walked through it. ¡°I¡¯m soaking wet,¡± said Madoka. ¡°So am I... But with this much liquid, we shouldn¡¯t have to worry about water. Food will still be a problem, though.¡± ¡°Have you forgotten how near the highway we are? With all the exhaust mixed in, who knows what color this water would make a litmus test turn.¡± ¡°Stop exaggerating. And you can¡¯t exactly complain if it¡¯s that or die of thir-...¡± I trailed off at that point. What had Madoka-san said? She was wearing her usual summer sailor uniform that girls had enough trouble with bra straps showing through under normal conditions. And she was soaking wet now? I needed to calmly check on this from my current position. In this thick, rotting forest, even the shortest undergrowth was about a meter tall. Madoka was wearing a skirt, so making her pass through that undergrowth first would have been unfair. I, Jinnai Shinobu-kun, had taken the extremely gentlemanly role of walking ahead and parting the undergrowth to create a simple path for her. And that left an important question in my mind... What color is Madoka-chan¡¯s bra!? The answer to that very simple question was right behind me. If I only turned around, I would find ¡°Kotemitsu Madoka Presents: The Pink Paradise¡± before my eyes. The problem was that I needed a reason to turn around! From her tone of voice, Madoka probably hasn¡¯t noticed her unguarded state yet. This is my chance! My only chance!! I need to use my 105 IQ intellect to its fullest to think up an excuse!! If I don¡¯t, I know I¡¯ll regret it for the rest of my life and be plagued by nightmares every- ¡°Shinobu-kun? Why are you being so quiet?¡± ¡°Kyaah kyaah!! Don¡¯t come peeking over all of a sudden, little kitten!!¡± I did not even need to turn around. Madoka had circled around in front of me. I was not yet mentally prepared and my timing was thrown off. However, shutting my eyes now was what a coward pretending to be a pure boy would do. Even as my heart felt as if it would leap out of my throat, I chose the exemplary answer of opening my eyes wide with anticipation! And Kotemitsu Madoka¡¯s flower garden was finally revealed to me. Her thin sailor uniform had been easily penetrated by the moisture. What this revealed was... A plain gray sports bra. ¡°...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................Tch.¡± ¡°Wait, Shinobu-kun. Wait a second. Could you stop looking so disappointed and tell me what happened?¡± ¡°This is wrong. A sports bra is just wrong on you! You¡¯re not a sports girl!! You have no reason to end up there!!¡± ¡°Eh? Oh, this? It¡¯s just more comfortable this way. I don¡¯t like how bra straps and wires scrape and rub.¡± ¡°That reason is terrible too!! Nothing about this is sexy!! That¡¯s the reasoning of a middle-aged woman! If you said that was the uniform of a girls¡¯ boxing club, you could walk right by a police box in your underwear and no one would stop you!!¡± ¡°Underwear is underwear; it¡¯s not a swimsuit. I would be too embarrassed to do that.¡± ¡°...Then why aren¡¯t you trying to hide your chest?¡± ¡°Oh, well, it is a sports bra, after all.¡± ¡°So you admit it! You admit a sports bra isn¡¯t even remotely sexy!!¡± There were several types of ¡°indifferent girls¡±: the kiddy type, the pure white bra and panties type, the ¡°doesn¡¯t care at all so she actually goes for really showy sexy lingerie¡± type, etc. Each of them was filled with its own type of dreams. But a sports bra that could pass for a summer shirt despite being underwear? And because she didn¡¯t like straps? ¡°No, no!! Redo! I want a redo! I imagined a bourgeois like you would definitely wear silk underwear with tons of ribbons and frills!!¡± ¡°Okay, okay. I get it, Shinobu-kun. Next time, I will wear striped panties that tie together with strings on either side. That should be filled with plenty of dreams, so calm down.¡± That makes it sound like I can¡¯t hope for anything from her panties either, but is that true? After being consoled by Madoka who was only interested in money and organic vegetables, I managed to recover from a mental state one step away from breaking down into tears. Madoka then casually changed the subject. Her tone was no different from a classmate asking if we should stop by somewhere afterschool. ¡°By the way, Shinobu-kun. I apologize for bringing up this kind of thing again, but I know of an incident about this area that is about as pleasant as your average forest legend.¡± ¡°...Do you have to bring it up now?¡± ¡°It¡¯s called Zenmetsu Village. I only heard about it from Enbi, so I don¡¯t actually know if that is the official name or not.[1] Over 30 years ago, it seems an crazy mass murderer in the village slaughtered everyone who lived there!! Supposedly, the murderer used pitchforks, hoes, axes, and all sorts of other farm tools.¡± ¡°Asking you indirectly to stop wasn¡¯t enough! A crazy mass murderer!? I don¡¯t want to hear anything worrying right now! Please understand that!!¡± I rubbed at my wet hair with one hand, but Madoka was not listening. ¡°Well, it¡¯s just your stereotypical legend about an eccentric village. There are legends almost anywhere in Japan or even the world about people getting lost in the mountains or forest and running across a house or village with some strange custom.¡± ¡°Are you saying it¡¯s so common it actually has no credibility? Are you saying we should just laugh it off as nonsense?¡± ¡°The story has plenty of embellishments. Some say the murderer is still alive, some say his descendants are wandering around here, and others say a murder group decided this was holy ground to them and so they live in a psychedelic commune here. I hear there are even rumors that the entire village wanders around Four Mountains. Supposedly, the victims desperately tried to flee the village, but the deserted houses circled around to cut off their escape.¡± After hearing that much, even I was not all that worried. The overall impression was too scattered and mismatched. It was unclear whether it was supposed to be a Youkai using its monstrous power to cause some supernatural phenomenon or if it was a human murderer going on a rampage with the tools around him. There were of course incidents in which humans used Youkai powers, but those Youkai Packages had to be broadly and finely prepared with a group of dozens if not hundreds of people. They were used for bank robberies, scams involving large sums of money, and insurance fraud murders. In those cases, everyone involved had an obvious common desire. The story of Zenmetsu Village did not seem the same. ¡°It sounds like a story people in the city made up despite not knowing how Youkai and Packages work.¡± ¡°Yes. But they are not trying to insult rural areas. The cities have plenty of their own rumors about eccentric groups, be they underground organization or online communities. No matter where you go in Japan, everyone loves hearing stories about eccentric people.¡± ...Madoka, I don¡¯t think you¡¯re in any position to call other people eccentric. This may have been an excellent example of why it was commonly said to look at others for an example of what to do and what not to do. ¡°But on the other hand...¡± began Madoka. She trailed off when the area before us suddenly opened up. The quality of the soil must have changed because the tall undergrowth that had blocked our way before had dried up and died off. The damp trees were still there, but the disappearance of the obstructing underbrush changed what we could see by quite a bit. And something was visible up ahead. They were rocks the size of rectangular 18-liter cans...or should I call them stones? They were more black than gray and standing up on end. Unlike bricks, the surface was rough. They were likely made by hand. At first glance, they were reminiscent of gravestones. Or perhaps handmade trophies. And... A quick estimate told me there were over 50 of them. They were lined up so neatly it made me think someone obsessive had arranged them. ¡°What...are those?¡± I could feel my throat drying up despite the fog that seemed to moisten my body just by standing in it. Zenmetsu Village. Rumor had it a crazy mass murderer in the village had slaughtered all the other villagers. This plot of awkward gravestones gave concrete color to that otherwise blank information. Madoka¡¯s mouth flapped open and closed a number of times after she had trailed off earlier, but she finally continued while sounding apologetic. ¡°...Since Enbi always shows up at the scenes of strange murders and she was talking so excitedly about this, perhaps we should assume it has a bit more credibility than some nonsense story.¡± Part 8 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Once we left the tunnel, we were surrounded by a ridiculous amount of fog. I instinctually let off the gas a bit. After I checked the dropping value on the speedometer, I refocused my eyes on the distance. For some reason, Enbi was rejoicing in the passenger seat. She looked like a kid when school was cancelled due to a typhoon. ¡°Hyah! You can¡¯t see more than a few meters ahead.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. Dammit. If it¡¯s this bad, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they blocked off the road until it clears.¡± I started to reach for the switch to the fog lamps, but they were not made to see through fog during the day. They were meant to inform oncoming traffic of your presence. I doubted they would be of much help on a highway with both directions completely cut off from each other. The mystery freak went out of her way to point toward the shoulder of the road. ¡°A few police cars are stopped there.¡± ¡°I can tell that from their lights.¡± ¡°And a prisoner transport vehicle.¡± ¡°!?¡± I instinctually turned my head to check behind me, but quickly remembered that could get me killed on the highway. I checked the rearview mirror, but it had all disappeared into the fog. Instead of slamming on the breaks, I gradually decelerated and pulled over onto the shoulder. I parked the rental car there. ¡°Should you really stop here?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll turn on the hazard lights and set up the reflector.¡± ¡°You have the same authority as a normal person right now. Won¡¯t you get in trouble for parking alongside the highway for no good reason?¡± ¡°If you can tell when you aren¡¯t supposed to do something, why don¡¯t you think about your own actions more often?¡± I opened the door and stepped out onto the asphalt. I removed a triangular reflector from the trunk and set it up on the road. The mystery freak and I then walked back the way we had come. ¡°...This is a surprisingly long distance.¡± ¡°It was several dozen seconds along the highway.¡± It was probably 300 to 500 meters. Due to the thick fog, there was nothing to judge the distance by. I lost track of how far I had walked, but that was my guess as to the distance. After walking for a while, a large and dense shadow appeared on the shoulder of the road. It was a police car. ¡°Now, detective, show me a realism-focused drama depicting the complexity of the police organization.¡± ¡°Thanks for that not even remotely funny lead-in.¡± ¡°Oh, if you want to start shooting up the place like a Showa era police drama, just tell me. I¡¯ll provide backup.¡± ¡°By any chance are you looking forward to seeing a struggle between two adults in suits?¡± Then again, I doubt we¡¯ll be able to peacefully talk like we¡¯re tourists. This troublesome issue was deeply related to the higher ups and old members of the regional police and they had completely ignored the normal procedures when reinforcements had arrived from Tokyo. They had even denied me the bare minimum of sharing investigation data. A police detective with no authority would be just as annoying as a mosquito flying around one¡¯s ear. As long as they kept things on a level that would not leave any official records behind, they might try to rough me up a bit. But that made the mystery freak¡¯s presence an issue. If they tried to rough me up, we could likely settle it like adults, but... Well, I simply had to hope they would be above grabbing at the collar of an amateur middle school girl. If they did do that, the situation would have passed the level where it could be ¡°settled like adults¡±. Ugh, please don¡¯t let this turn into a serious fistfight. I¡¯m only in a dead end job with little hope of promotion. At any rate, I maintained a bit of a defensive stance as I approached. ¡°...Wait a second. There¡¯s no one inside the police car.¡± ¡°Maybe they went over to the prisoner transport vehicle.¡± ¡°Without locking the doors and with the engine running?¡± ¡°I see your point.¡± Police cars were common in dramas, but those usually had drama original paint jobs. Each police station had its different designs and actual police officers would not agree to have pictures or videos of their cars taken. If perfect copies were made, they could be used for abductions and attacks on armored cars transporting money. It was unlikely a police officer would leave one just sitting out like this. As we continued along the shoulder of the highway, we found several more empty police cars dotting the shoulder. Beyond them was the prisoner transport vehicle. It was a dark blue. A small bus had been completely covered in armor plates and the windows had been sealed with thick metal bars. That should be enough to imagine it. However... ¡°Why is it on its side?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask me.¡± ¡°I would also love to know why the door is open.¡± ¡°If you could know the answer before doing the detective work, we would all have it a lot easier.¡± The prisoner transport vehicle had fallen onto its side such that it was completely contained within the shoulder of the highway. It did not seem to have crashed full speed into the central divider or the accident prevention wall. It was not damaged enough for that. There were no other damaged vehicles to be seen. Glass shards and light covers were strewn across the road, but it did not seem any other vehicle had been involved. ¡°It looks like the driver attempted a car stunt and failed.¡± ¡°Why would they do that?¡± I called out randomly but received no response. I circled out to the front and tried to peer in through the windshield, but it was filled with small cracks, making the entire thing white. I could not see inside through it. That left only one way to find out what the situation was inside: use the door pointed up due to the vehicle falling on its side. Fortunately, the prisoner transport vehicle had police lights on the top and they were quite large and blocky. I was able to use them as footing to forcibly climb up. The right-hand side was pointing straight up, so the window was at my feet. It was a prisoner transport vehicle, so the cracks running through the glass were oddly similar to the windshield. The cracks had spread across the entire window, but it had not shattered apart like a normal window would have. Does it have a special film placed across it? ¡°Detective, anyone in there?¡± ¡°I¡¯m about to check.¡± I moved my gaze from the window and moved toward the open door. The vehicle was essentially the same as a bus, so a tall, narrow automatic door that opened with compressed air was located near the driver¡¯s seat. I lay down on the side pointed up and stuck my upper body down through the door. What I saw in my upside down vision was... ¡°...?¡± ¡°Detective!¡± I heard the mystery freak calling for me, but I could not reply. There was nothing. No one was inside. There must have been a driver, one or more police officers, and a prisoner, but not a single person remained. Helped by being flipped on its side, the completely deserted vehicle looked like a bizarre abstract painting with a theme of space or weightlessness. I pulled my upper body out through the door. I thought for a bit. Was this a complete accident or did someone plan this? Did the police evacuate the prisoner from the vehicle or did the prisoner take the police with him as hostages? Either way, I knew that Hasebe Michio really had disappeared. I had the information I needed to report, so I pulled out my cell phone while still standing on top of the toppled prisoner transport vehicle. But... ¡°...Why can¡¯t I get through? I thought all trains and highways these days had a perfect net environment.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re pulling out your phone, does that mean you saw something dangerous?¡± Seeing those sparkling eyes turned toward me made me not want to explain it to her. Part 9 (Jinnai Shinobu) The eerie sight of so many obviously handmade gravestones caused me to stand still in shock. Madoka then spoke up from beside me. ¡°Shinobu-kun, is that a snake?¡± ¡°!¡± That light sense of unknown disgust was overwritten by a possible direct threat. Living in a rural area had not turned me into an expert on snakes, but I did know it was best to not be bit by a strange snake. And that was especially true when an ambulance could not be called. And so I turned cautiously in the direction Madoka was pointing. ¡°...That¡¯s...a snake?¡± My statement became a question. It was true that something long and narrow was stretched along the dried grass, but a close inspection showed it was not moving. However, it did not seem to be a shed skin or a dead snake. ¡°Isn¡¯t it just a rope?¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Madoka and I approached to check. It may have grown wet in the thick fog because it was oddly dark, but it was indeed a rotted rope. It seemed to have been left here for a long time because it had thick green moss on its surface and had almost fused with the ground. I did not want to touch it because it was dirty, but it looked rotten enough that it would tear apart if I tugged on it. Also... ¡°Hey, Shinobu-kun. Is this one of those things you see at Shinto shrines?¡± ¡°What do you call those? ...I can¡¯t remember the name.¡± Those things with white paper folded in zigzags..[2]They¡¯re attached to the ends of the staffs that priests wave around and decorate the shimenawa. ...Um, what do we call those things? After thinking that far, my cheek twitched. ...Shimenawa? ¡°With these gravestone-like things and this strange rope... It feels like there are too many weird decorations here.¡± ¡°Do we really have to continue on through here?¡± ¡°Would you rather turn back?¡± ¡°That¡¯s even worse.¡± No matter what we said, we had to continue on. If we turned back or tried to circle around the place, we would be putting ourselves at greater risk of walking in circles. Madoka and I continued forward while weaving between the gravestones. It was not long before another odd object showed itself through the fog. ¡°...What is that?¡± A sort of barricade cut across the path. The front had a row of logs carved down like pencils and crossing each other. A horizontal log placed across them was tied in place with a rope. A line of those was placed to block our path. They appeared to be as old as the shimenawa we had seen before. The cuts on the logs had turned black and the initially sharp tips had rotted away. They also had moss and mushrooms growing on them. Seeing them brought a few different thoughts to mind. Madoka made a blunt comment from next to me. ¡°They must not have had a very high IQ.¡± ¡°I thought you would say that.¡± ¡°And these gaps are wide enough that they must have been keeping cars out instead of animals. They are violently displaying that their #1 rule is not welcoming outsiders. ...Hmm, this is looking more and more like one of those eccentric village legends Enbi likes.¡± ¡°So is this Zenmetsu Village? If that rumor was true, the villagers have all been gone for over 30 years.¡± ¡°Horror stories are often decorated with the idea of the dead villagers¡¯ ghosts or the mass murderer¡¯s descendants to scare off any groups that might try to stop by for a test of courage.¡± ¡°Why would the victims turn into crazy killers? The only one at fault was the crazy killer who ran around with farm tools in hand.¡± The X portion of the log barricades had a fair-sized gap below them. The same was true for the log passing horizontally. As Madoka had said, it seemed to be meant for vehicles. If I crouched down, I could easily pass under it. Madoka jokingly said, ¡°Welcome to Zenmetsu Village.¡± ¡°This village disappeared 30 years ago, right? So why can¡¯t I see any roads or telephone poles?¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t the roads have been buried below the trees and underbrush?¡± ¡°Asphalt wouldn¡¯t turn to dirt no matter how long you waited. And what about the telephone poles?¡± ¡°They might be buried underground.¡± ¡°Even though this wasn¡¯t a carefully maintained Intellectual Village?¡± We walked across the dead grass. A rotting clearing was visible where the trees had at one point been knocked over and pulled out by someone. Even my leather shoes were beginning to grow damp at this point. My socks felt disgusting. The school uniform was an inconvenient outfit no matter what you were trying to do. It was not suited for any kind of physical activity and it was not all that comfortable. I didn¡¯t particularly care for the design either. On top of all that, it was expensive. That was only because everyone was required to buy it. If a normal store tried to sell them, they would stop stocking them almost immediately. After five or ten minutes, the scenery began to change. It happened just as I was beginning to doubt whether we had actually been travelling as straight as I thought we had. ¡°...That¡¯s a building, right?¡± ¡°It looks like nothing more than a shack. In fact, it¡¯s really just a storage shed.¡± There was something there. It was about five meters square and only maybe two meters tall. It had been made of thin plywood and strengthened with corrugated galvanized iron or something. The thin metal roof was forcibly held down with heavy stones. Simply put, the overall quality was on a level that even the pig from the Three Little Pigs that built the house of straw would laugh at. The metal surface had rusted brown and it looked like it would break apart if we so much as touched it. It had a small window the size of the side of a goldfish tank, but I could not tell if the glass was frosted or if it was simply so dirty it had lost all transparency. I could not see inside, but it was so dirty I would have preferred to stay out in the rain than take cover inside. In fact, a closer inspection showed it was slightly tilted diagonally like a parallelogram. The instant I peeked inside, I could end up buried alive. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like anyone is living inside.¡± ¡°There¡¯s something over here.¡± We circled around behind the dilapidated cabin and found two objects that had turned brown from rust. One was a metal drum. The upper lid had been fully opened like a can of food and something like gravel had been spread across inside. However, some strange weeds were growing all across its surface. ¡°That metal drum has a faucet at the bottom. What is it?¡± ¡°Is it a water filter?¡± If they had one of those, they must not have had running water. And the other rusted object was a diesel generator of the type seen at the stands for temple festival fairs. However, I could see a small pipe that had completely crumbled, so I did not even need to imagine what sort of disaster would occur if someone actually poured fuel into it. ¡°Both the electricity and water were produced at home. What era were they living in?¡± ¡°It is looking unlikely we will find a working phone line here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not even sure we¡¯ll find a red mailbox.¡± We had no reason to search inside the crumbling cabin. We simply needed to cut across the basin surrounded by the four mountains and make our way to the elevated highway. The water filter must have excited Madoka¡¯s health fanatic blood because she was showing a lot of interest in it, but I called toward her and suggested leaving the cabin. As we continued through the thick fog, we found four of five similar buildings that also looked more like old storage sheds than houses. Each of them had the remains of a generator and metal drum as if that was a decided practice. ¡°If water filters were so common, did they not even have a well? They would have to go gather water in their daily cycle this way.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see any compressed gas cylinders. It doesn¡¯t look like they have pipes running underground for town gas.¡± They must have lived by drinking river water and cooking over a fire. Even if the village had been abandoned for 30 years, this was clearly strange. The level of their lifestyle seemed too isolated. Some of the shed-like cabins had their window broken, some had their pillars broken, and one¡¯s roof had even crumbled down. And... As I casually glanced over at the crushed cabin, I saw something unpleasant. ¡°Uuh...¡± It was green moss covering the floor. However, there was an odd pattern to how it had spread. As if it had grown only in the remains of an old puddle, the green color dyed only a limited area. This reminded me of something. It of course reminded me of the stories about Zenmetsu Village. ¡°By any chance...did that grow from dried blood and the moisture of this thick fog?¡± ¡°Shinobu-kun, it¡¯s over here too.¡± Madoka pointed toward a cabin with a broken window. A glance inside that window showed green moss growing on the walls, ceiling, and floor as if it had splattered everywhere. But the moss had not made its way into that building quite as much, so stains colored an odd dark brown could be seen in places. It was at least old enough that there was no raw smell of iron. But the visual was enough. ¡°Wait, wait, wait. How did the blood get all the way up on the ceiling?¡± ¡°Zenmetsu Village really was the golden age of crazy killer legends.¡± ¡°I prefer to think someone who heard the rumors spread chicken blood around as a prank.¡± Feeling fed up with it, I began to turn away from the window, but then I looked back. ...Oh? ¡°What is it, Shinobu-kun.¡± ¡°Nothing really...¡± I circled around to the front of the cabin. The door was made to slide to the side, but the wooden rails had rotted away. I removed the door that was simply standing in place and leaned it against the wall. I then peered inside. I saw dust, moisture, mildew, moss, and bloodstains. Someone had apparently lived here, but I was not about to remove my shoes before going inside. ¡°I thought you weren¡¯t going to check inside?¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t...but look.¡± I pointed inside the small cabin and stepped inside to pick something up. But then... My right foot broke through the holey wooden panels and my leg sank down up to the calf. ¡°Ow!?¡± ¡°Shinobu-kun, be careful when you pull your leg out. If the edges dig into your skin, it will probably hurt a lot.¡± I would have been careful whether she had warned me or not. I slowly removed my leg. It seemed I had not really broken through the floor. It was the cover to a storage space under the kitchen that had broken. Naturally, no food was kept inside. Dirt had been swept inside the rectangular space which contained...the scattered remains of an old broken jar. I initially thought I might have been the one to break it, but it seemed I was not. The edges of the pottery pieces had darkened after being left there for a long time. ¡°What are those?¡± ¡°It looks like a bunch of gold rings. Were they being stored in the jar?¡± ¡°They do not look like pure gold, though. They look quite cheap.¡± ¡°Of course they are. Someone who had a secret stash of pure gold wouldn¡¯t be living in such a run-down shack.¡± There was also some Japanese paper that was falling apart from the moisture. Ink had been used to write something in kanji on them, but... ¡°It¡¯s written so quickly, I can¡¯t read it.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± I pulled out my phone and took a photo. The Zashiki Warashi might be able to decode that old writing. Nothing could be done at the moment though because my phone had no signal. ¡°Looking at this is not going to help us. Shinobu-kun, what were you pointing at before?¡± ¡°Oh, right. That over there.¡± Madoka seemed to notice what was placed just outside the green moss zone. ¡°Oh? They have a gas range. The kind used for pots.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t look all that rusted, does it?¡± Is it simply for cooking or does it have some other purpose? I thought about turning the knob to see if it produced a flame, but decided against it. If something was wrong with the compressed gas cylinder, it could explode. Instead, I took off the protective cover and removed the gas cylinder. The bottom of the cylinder had the manufacture date written on it. ¡°Shinobu-kun, what does this look like it says to you?¡± ¡°It looks like February of this year to me.¡± ¡°Same here. ...But why would this be here in Zenmetsu Village which was supposedly abandoned 30 years ago?¡± Madoka and I exchanged a glance. And then... An unpleasant noise came from outside the cabin as if something had banged against the wall. I lived in an Intellectual Village, but for the apartments I saw on TV, this may not have been that odd a noise. However, this was an abandoned village. This was Zenmetsu Village where the villagers had been slaughtered over 30 years ago. We should not have heard something hitting the wall. There should not have been anyone here but us. ¡°Maybe someone came here as a test of courage?¡± ¡°In the middle of the day?¡± ¡°Maybe one of our classmates is here?¡± ¡°Why would they not say anything?¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s a bear or Youkai?¡± ¡°I do not see how that is any less dangerous.¡± Than what? Both Madoka and I knew the answer, but neither of us wanted to say it. This was Zenmetsu Village. The villagers had all been slaughtered using farm tools like hoes and pitchforks. A crazy mass murderer lived here. And in that case... The worst possible answer was... A scraping sound began to travel along the wall. This was not the sound of someone leaving the cabin. It sounded like they were following the wall around. Around to where? The answer was simple. All too simple. This cabin was a shabby building that was really nothing but a storage shed. Its design was very simple. It had only one door and the window was too small to enter or exit through. Which meant... Whoever was outside was circling around to the single entrance ¡°Sh-Shinobu-kun...¡± Madoka¡¯s face had grown pale. I looked around, but it was hopeless to look for a tool to cover the door now. For one thing, the rails were broken and the door had only been standing in place. What did we need? What could function as a weapon? The wood materials, the sliding screen, and everything else had absorbed so much moisture they were practically falling apart. If I hit something with them, I had a feeling the wood would fall apart like wet paper. And as I thought, I could hear it. The sound continued. I heard scraping, scraping, scraping, scraping, scraping. I could hear an object being dragged along the wall and I could hear the footsteps of someone circling around to the sole entrance and exit. We had no time. The eerie legend of Zenmetsu Village was beginning to swallow us alive. Part 10 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) The mystery freak and I made our way back to the rental car parked on the shoulder of the highway. ¡°Are we headed for Zenmetsu Village down below?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± I spat out as I brought the car up to speed. ¡°We know Hasebe Michio really did disappear from the prisoner transport vehicle. Who knows if it was him or the police that did it, but whoever did it will want to ensure he remains ¡®vanished¡¯. They won¡¯t be hiding near the vehicle.¡± ¡°I thought those who do not want Hasebe to be found not guilty just had to ensure he died before the retrial?¡± ¡°Yes, but it makes no sense to have him vanish like this if that¡¯s the case. Mystery freak, what do you think the quickest way to kill Hasebe in that situation would have been?¡± ¡°To throw him out onto the highway. After all, this fog is too thick to see even a few meters ahead of you.¡± ¡°They could also sprain his ankle to make sure he can¡¯t move. As long as they keep it at a level that looks natural,¡± I agreed. ¡°But they didn¡¯t do that. They went out of their way to have Hasebe ¡®vanish¡¯. In that case, they may want to do something that takes some time. I can¡¯t say what they are after, but the odds are good Hasebe is still alive at this point.¡± ¡°They might shoot him and disguise it as him trying to escape and giving them trouble while they try to arrest him again.¡± ¡°If so, this is our last chance. We need to use our time effectively.¡± We were on our way to the tollgate connected to the junction. From what I had heard, it had been created as an exit for a semiconductor factory. ¡°If Hasebe himself ran off, he¡¯ll need some means of transportation. I doubt he would try to escape on foot in these mountains. That means he would head where cars are parked. My guesses are the workers at the tollgate or the parking lot for the semiconductor factory.¡± ¡°If the police are involved, they might have had someone come by on the highway and stuffed Hasebe in their trunk.¡± ¡°But they need to camouflage it as if Hasebe escaped. Either way, a nearby car will have to be stolen. If we know the model and number of the car used for camouflage, it can help us pursue them.¡± ¡°I hope they thought it through that far.¡± ¡°You have a point. True idiots are the hardest to read.¡± I drove down the junction that circled around like a spring or naruto. Eventually, the rental car made it to the surface. The tollgate had become mostly unmanned with electronic toll collection, but I chose the less efficient manned gate. ¡°Detective, I hope the tollgate worker hasn¡¯t disappeared.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I could stand it if everyone had disappeared.¡± An extremely bored looking man in his forties tossed aside a sports newspaper and fed the ticket I handed him into a machine. ¡°3200 yen.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not the best driver, so is this fog going to last? I¡¯ve been so nervous that my grip on the steering wheel has been terribly stiff.¡± ¡°3200 yen.¡± ¡°Have there been any accidents? I¡¯m just so nervous.¡± ¡°3200 yen.¡± ¡°...Answer my questions, goddammit.¡± With a sigh, I showed him my police badge and tossed it toward the passenger seat. After all, a close look would have shown I was from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. With all the realistic police dramas in recent years, a lot of people were oddly familiar with the organization and structure of the police. The middle-aged man turned a doubtful look toward the mystery freak in the passenger seat. ¡°Are you really a cop? Who¡¯s that girl?¡± ¡°Oh, oh, oh!! My position is that of an observer and a future wife, so-...!!¡± ¡°She¡¯s a runaway girl I picked up in the area. That¡¯s why I¡¯m asking about the situation. You check on the people going on and off the highway, right?¡± I-I technically didn¡¯t lie. I was just using a realllllly broad definition of ¡°in the area¡±. The entire Kinki region was ¡°in the area¡±. I never said a word about finding her walking along this highway. I had only shown him my badge because I felt like it. If the man decided to talk to me because he mistook me for a member of the regional police, that was not my problem. That was the excuse I had to make, or I would be in a lot of trouble! This is what it¡¯s like to be a poor public servant!! ¡°Hmm. Well, I haven¡¯t heard about any accidents. I haven¡¯t been told to block off the highway, either. Are you sure that girl didn¡¯t walk off from a service station on the other side of one of the mountains? She might have wandered off along the shoulder of the road while her parents were shopping.¡± Oh, c¡¯mon. Please do your job. At the very least, a prisoner transport vehicle and some police cars had been abandoned on the highway leading toward Byakko Mountain. ¡°Any other questions? You didn¡¯t just find a girl walking along the shoulder of the road while on a patrol. I¡¯ve never heard of a traffic cop using a rental car while watching for speeding drivers.¡± ¡°Oh, right. Do you have a phone here?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t. A long time ago, some idiot used an automated internet bank service while on the clock. It seems he ended up accidentally leaving the phone off the hook for several weeks. The higher ups got pissed at the huge bill and confiscated all the phones. They said to use our cell phones if we needed anything.¡± ¡°Eh? But our cell phones...¡± ¡°Yeah, the signal doesn¡¯t reach out here at all. It¡¯s terrible.¡± That means you can¡¯t call for help if a robber attacks. Do you not understand how dangerous it is being in such a remote location? Well, if he can do this for so long, it just goes to show how peaceful this country is. ¡°Do you have something urgent to call someone about? What is it?¡± ¡°I have information a group of car thieves has moved into the area. Have you seen anyone suspicious recently?¡± ¡°Nope,¡± replied the middle-aged man right away. ¡°In fact, isn¡¯t this about the worst place for them? There¡¯s nothing to steal here.¡± ¡°If you say so.¡± ¡°After all, there aren¡¯t even any villages here. There are no cars to target.¡± Enbi leaned over the driver¡¯s seat much farther than was necessary. She said, ¡°Hey, hey, mister. I thought there was a huge semiconductor factory here.¡± ¡°Shut up, you damn brat. Get off of me. Ahem, what about that large factory and the cars of the workers?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you need to worry about that.¡± The middle-aged man must have entered gossiping mode because he stuck his elbow up on the money counter as he replied. ¡°It¡¯s true almost all the people who get off at the exit are related to the factory in some way. After all, over 8000 people work at it. It¡¯s almost a small town in and of itself. All our income down here comes from that one factory. With the employees and shipments of materials and products coming in, we get a few thousand people coming in and out each day. It makes us plenty happy.¡± ¡°Then aren¡¯t there a lot of cars?¡± ¡°There are, but they¡¯re all in the factory parking lot. The people running the factory understand that the workers would be in trouble if they lost their car in this area that¡¯s practically an isolated island. The entire parking lot is kept in the factory grounds and is surrounded by a thick wall. There are also tons of cameras and sensors, and they even hire guards just for the parking lot. I don¡¯t see how anyone could steal a car from there.¡± I see. We had to determine if a car had been stolen, so that information was worth keeping in mind. ¡°But do the workers live nearby? Their cars might be targeted at home.¡± ¡°No, no. That would never happen,¡± flatly denied the man. He laughed and continued, ¡°Four Mountains...Oh, that¡¯s the name of the basin between the mountains, by the way. Anyway, Four Mountains has no civilization aside from the factory.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I hear there was a small village a few decades back, but it¡¯s been abandoned. In fact, the factory would be in trouble otherwise.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked while frantically trying to maintain the expression of a police officer while pushing back the mystery freak who was excitedly trying to raise her hand. The man replied, ¡°I don¡¯t know the details myself, but it seems you need clean water and air to create the precision circuits that are thinner than a hair. The water is especially important. Apparently, it¡¯s more profitable to give the most delicious water to machines rather than people. Any chaotic development would dirty the water.¡± ¡°So...¡± ¡°The Four Mountains area has been almost entirely bought up by a single corporation. It¡¯s just a giant area of nothing though, so some kids come in as a test of courage sometimes. ...Even this elevated highway was built by ¡®borrowing¡¯ the corporation¡¯s land. On paper, it¡¯s a private road.¡± ¡°Eh? But it¡¯s a highway. Is that even possible?¡± ¡°Highways don¡¯t belong to the country. Even we¡¯re becoming privatized, so we¡¯re a normal corporation just like with trains. That means we can make business deals with other corporations. It might have just barely been allowed, but there was no other place to bring the tunnels through.¡± In other words... Whether they would ever do so or not, they had the option of cutting off one of the highways that acted as Japan¡¯s arteries. All the factory had to do was make an announcement saying the road was closed for the next three days or something like that. And this was a junction that stretched in four different directions, leading to different areas across the country. That alone showed how much influence a corporation could have over the country. ¡°Mister, does that mean everyone who works in the factory drives over the mountains to get to work?¡± ¡°Hm? Hmm?¡± The middle-aged man fell silent for a moment. I thought he might have been confused by the supposed runaway girl asking him a question, but it seemed that was not the case. He lowered his voice before speaking. ¡°No, it seems about half of the workers live in the dorms on the factory grounds.¡± ¡°Half? Didn¡¯t you say there are more than 8000 in all?¡± ¡°It isn¡¯t that surprising. Remember the government¡¯s new...what was it? The business-oriented low income assistance and favorable treatment system? I think it had to do with providing support related to corporate taxes. Anyway, as I said, the Four Mountains area was bought up for the water and air. The dorms are probably kept as spotlessly clean as the factory. At any rate, there¡¯s no chance of a car being stolen from there.¡± Once the man finished, I politely thanked him and finally brought the rental car toward the exit. Surprisingly, the sign had only one arrow and it pointed toward the semiconductor factory. Not only was there no other landmark, but it seemed there weren¡¯t even any other roads. I stopped the car in the space at the exit prepared for large trucks to check on their tire chains or freight. It was time we discussed what to do next. The mystery freak had a curious look on her face. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of bayside industrial complexes having the final train stop head to their factory. Only those with employee IDs can get through the ticket gate.¡± ¡°Yes, but did you see the name of the factory?¡± ¡°Kuroyama Electronics Group ¨C Four Mountains Precision Semiconductor Factory.¡± We exchanged a glance The mystery freak did not look all that surprised, so she had probably known from the beginning. She had likely discovered it while investigating the legend of Zenmetsu Village. I did not know if the legend surrounding that abandoned village was true, but just because I was a police officer did not mean I would search through the database for information on cases unrelated to the ones I was working on. ¡°The incident Hasebe Michio was suspected in was at the home of Kuroyama Electronics Group¡¯s president, right?¡± ¡°Now then, now then. Is this a coincidence or is there a reason behind it?¡± I decided to drive over toward the factory in question. The horrible fog was bad enough and then nothing besides the asphalt road was maintained. The entire area was covered by a thick forest. This was nothing simple like a hedge. It was a complete wall of greenery. It was so thick I felt forcing my way through it would leave my entire body scraped up. This sight told me just how much human interference there was in what we commonly thought of as ¡°nature¡±. You often heard the phrase ¡°humans are a part of earth¡¯s nature¡±, but that did not mean humans were kind to the earth and it did not mean nature would unconditionally accept us. To a naked human with no fangs or fur, untouched nature was actually a difficult environment to live in. ¡°Is this the factory?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a wall, so it¡¯s hard to say.¡± Due to the fog, no structure was visible without approaching quite close. A giant wall over five meters tall suddenly appeared alongside the road as we drove along. It was primarily made of thick concrete and the very top had barbed wire installed. Needless to say, it had cameras and sensors as well. The wall seemed to continue forever. In all seriousness, we continued for over a kilometer and saw no sign of a gate. ¡°Is this a military facility or something...?¡± ¡°It looks like a prison,¡± I said in annoyance This semiconductor factory supported the technology of Intellectual Villages and received support of its own from the government. I can understand being more sensitive than average about having your tech leak out, but is it really necessary to take it this far? As we continued on even longer, we finally came across what looked like a gate. The road in front of it spread out like a bus roundabout, so it was likely the materials shipment entrance rather than the front entrance. This entrance was not a gate with a bar that lowered across it like at a coin-operated parking lot. It had a giant double-door gate with metal bars and a row of electrically-operated spikes was located on the ground. Even if a giant truck crashed into it at full speed, I doubted it would break. ¡°...¡± A man in workwear sat in the reception box that was as small as a storage shed. He was watching us expressionlessly. I continued on at low speed and passed by the gate. ¡°...There really is nothing. Attacking a police box and stealing a police car would be easier than stealing a car from here.¡± ¡°But what does that mean?¡± The mystery freak tilted her head in the passenger seat. ¡°The prisoner transport vehicle was toppled over on the highway and Hasebe Michio had disappeared. But this is no place to steal a car.¡± ¡°Whoever caused him to disappear might have had another scenario in mind.¡± ¡°Possibly, but isn¡¯t the entire premise a bit odd?¡± The mystery freak raised her index finger. ¡°Let¡¯s say someone wants Hasebe Michio gone and they have been carefully putting together a plan for this day. If they had thought this through so carefully, would they really attack here? If they attacked somewhere other than Four Mountains Junction ¨C a normal road off the highway perhaps ¨C they would have had more options.¡± It was not logical. That meant it was not the work of a professional. But what did that mean? The most likely unprofessional possibility was... ¡°Are you saying the police did not intend to attack here if they intended to attack at all? So was it Hasebe Michio who initiated the escape?¡± ¡°Hasebe might have intentionally stopped the prisoner transport vehicle or it might have started with a true accident, but the possibility is there.¡± ¡°But why? If he did nothing, the odds were really good his request for a retrial would have gone through and he would have been found not guilty. Escaping here will send him back to prison where the death penalty awaits.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± The mystery freak sighed. ¡°What if the police really did intend to eliminate him and he realized it? If he thought he was going to be killed if he did nothing, he might try to escape from the police.¡± There were ways of getting down from the highway without passing through the tollgate. Some of the pillars supporting the highway had staircases installed. They were used for high-speed bus rest stops and emergency evacuation. If he climbed down one of them, he could hide on the surface without anyone realizing it. But... Even if Hasebe had escaped the prisoner transport vehicle and made his way to the ground, what would he do then? He would have given the police the justification to shoot him as an escaped death-row inmate and then hidden himself in a thick forest with no witnesses. Wouldn¡¯t he want to quickly obtain a means of transportation and escape far away no matter how risky that might be? ¡°But,¡± began the mystery freak. She was changing the subject. She was switching over. ¡°All of our speculation is based on the assumption that Hasebe Michio is completely innocent and the police are desperate to eliminate him.¡± ¡°Wait. You can¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°So.¡± She grinned. The mystery freak spoke with the grin of a demon that toyed with people¡¯s lives. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about a simple possibility. What if there is some reason why a retrial would be a problem for Hasebe Michio? If he knew he could not win the retrial, isn¡¯t it entirely possible he would have desperately used this chance to escape while being transported?¡± Part 11 (Jinnai Shinobu) The scraping continued. That noise from the outside wall of the run-down shack approached the single exit. In that instant, Madoka and I did not head for the door. We instead moved toward the opposite wall. That wall had never been anything more than thin plywood with galvanized sheet iron for sturdiness and waterproofing. After decades of absorbing moisture, the wood had deteriorated and the iron was so rusted its original color had disappeared. The wall looked like it would break if we so much as touched it. You could no longer even call it a wall. ¡°Ora!!¡± I shouted as I kicked the wall while putting my weight into the blow. It felt more like kicking wet cardboard than wood. It more tore than broke and a large hole opened in the wall. I first let Madoka pass through before escaping the shack after her. The previously calm scraping noise suddenly changed. I still held the gas cylinder the size of a 500 milliliter drink bottle that I had removed from the portable stove, so I threw it back through the hole I had created. ¡°I hope you¡¯re blown to smithereens!!¡± I shouted. I heard a sound like grass being trod on from the other side of the small building. The attacker may have frantically jumped out of the way or gotten down on the ground. Either way, the idiot had judged wrong. I had thrown that cylinder in, but I had no idea how to ignite it. It had been a bluff. And meanwhile... ¡°Run, Madoka!¡± ¡°Please spare me any more trouble that can¡¯t be resolved with money!!¡± shouted Madoka as I grabbed her arm and began to run. We did not know who this enemy was, what they were armed with, or how many of them there were in all. The legend said the murders were primarily carried out with farm tools such as pitchforks and hoes, but nothing said this attacker had to remain faithful to that. It was possible they even had a hunting shotgun to use when no one was watching. The one piece of luck was the thick fog surrounding us. That obstacle prevented anyone from seeing more than a few meters ahead, so projectile accuracy would drop dramatically. Or so I assumed. At any rate, we needed to run as far away as we could so this enemy could not reach within ¡°a few meters¡± of us. That would be better than sneaking around in search of some kind of shield. The fog made it difficult to tell where we were or how far we had gone, but I felt as if my hearing had grown sharper in exchange for the poor visibility. Madoka tried to look back, but I tugged on her arm to stop her. We ran. ¡°Hey, Shinobu-kun. I hear footsteps following us!¡± ¡°So? That¡¯s no reason for us to stop!!¡± We passed by a few of those storage shed-like cabins and made our way outside the village. The sound of footsteps through the grass continued approaching behind us. I was afraid the tall underbrush and rotting trees would block our path once we left the village, but fortunately only the remnants of the dead and rotten grass remained. There was nothing in our way. Of course, that also meant there was nothing to protect us from any projectiles. The importance of the fog only continued to grow. If this person was armed with a shotgun or crossbow, we could be killed in one shot once the person made it close enough to see us. ¡°Sh-Shinobu-kun!¡± ¡°What!?¡± ¡°I...I can¡¯t. I¡¯m wearing leather shoes. I can¡¯t run anymore.¡± ¡°I¡¯m wearing leather shoes, too!!¡± You¡¯re a health fanatic who even pays attention to what water you drink, so why is your physical ability lower than average? Can you even call that being a health fanatic? I pulled on Madoka¡¯s arm as her feet threatened to get tangled up beneath her and half-forcibly made her continue running. Either that proved effective or our pursuer¡¯s sense of direction was thrown off by the thick fog because the sound of footsteps behind us gradually seemed to grow quieter. We were gaining distance. We might be able to escape. And with that thought in mind, something suddenly appeared before my eyes. It seemed to split through the white fog. ¡°...Eh?¡± said Madoka in confusion. I also came to a stop despite the situation. What we saw was something that should not have been there. It was a run-down shack that looked more like a storage shed than a house. This was the abandoned village we had supposedly just left. It was impossible. This should not have happened. Madoka and I had run straight forward without worrying about the consequences. Our route might have curved slightly, but there was absolutely no way we could have made a full U-turn back to our original location. And yet... That village was indeed blocking our path ahead. Zenmetsu Village. Thirty years ago, a single serial killer had taken the lives of every single villager. ¡°What happened?¡± I said out loud. ¡°We ran straight away from there! Why is the village right here in front of us!?¡± The footsteps of our pursuer once more began growing louder through the fog behind us. But I ignored that direct threat as the legend Madoka had mentioned replayed in the back of my mind. Supposedly, groups using Zenmetsu Village for a test of courage would end up dragged into the incident. When they frantically fled the village, it would pursue them by circling around ahead of them and swallow them up. Part 12 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) With the extent that large-scale factory went to prevent information on their technology to escape, I doubted I could acquire much information on the goings on inside by chatting with the guards. The guards would have been trained in that regard. Whether Hasebe Michio had escaped of his own volition or he had been abducted by someone, we did not have much time left. We could not remain long in a location with little chance of acquiring any information. But... ¡°Do you have any other ideas where Hasebe might have gone after disappearing on the highway? There¡¯s nothing here but the semiconductor factory.¡± Yes. Where else could we go? Hasebe had to be somewhere, but we had no clues to pursue him with. ¡°Even in this fog, a man in a neon orange prisoner uniform would stand out walking along the highway. There are also plenty of cameras and sensors installed to detect speeding and traffic jams.¡± ¡°So is he in Zenmetsu Village?¡± The mystery freak in the passenger seat was doing something with her smartphone that had no signal. ¡°But even if it isn¡¯t maintained, this entire basin area is the private property of Kuroyama Electronics Group, right? And the semiconductor factory needs clean water, so they can¡¯t have industrial waste dumped here. Don¡¯t you think there must be a network of cameras and sensors running throughout this desolate forest even if it doesn¡¯t look like it?¡± It was certainly a possibility. However... ¡°Do you have any actual evidence?¡± ¡°This.¡± Enbi lightly shook her smartphone. ¡°We suddenly lost our cell phone signal once we left the tunnel. I had thought it was due to the area being undeveloped, but if the entire area is the private property of a corporation, another possibility comes to mind.¡± ¡°...Artificial jamming?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a large factory with 8000 people working in it. For that and for the careful management of production amounts to match the fluctuation in currency rates, a high-speed internet connection is a necessity. They can¡¯t do their job without phones and the internet. Even if no television or radio signals had originally reached this place, they would have provided it with a proper internet environment when the factory was built. After all, this is a corporation large enough to prepare a highway just for the factory. There¡¯s no way they would overlook just this one aspect.¡± ¡°So is this a means of keeping technical information from leaking out?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if they would set up jammers over such a wide area just for that, though.¡± ¡°What is the legality of this?¡± ¡°Laws related to electro-magnetic signals can be ignored to a certain extent on private property. Company conference rooms and rooms in high class restaurants often have jammers to prevent bugging. The given reason is to ban the use of cell phones, though.¡± The land contained nothing other than the factory. While tens of thousands of cars would cross the highway each day, they only crossed the junction from one tunnel to another. They would see some interference with their cell phone signal while surrounded by the mountains, but the signal would recover upon exiting the other tunnel. No one would bother investigating it too much. The highway was even referred to as a private road. The cables for the emergency landline phones on the highway might have been cut as well. ¡°So the factory secretly constructed a high-speed wired connection that only they can use and have cut off all other forms of communication?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what...I think anyway.¡± Enbi may have suggested the idea, but she sounded doubtful. ¡°But don¡¯t the delivery companies contact the distribution center by phone? There are also services that use a GPS in the package to check its status over the internet. If Kuroyama Electronics Group has cut all of that off of their own discretion, I think someone might complain.¡± They had bought up the entire basin between the mountains and surrounded their factory with tall and thick walls. On top of that, we suspected they were using jammers to create electromagnetic interference and had cameras and sensors set up to search for intruders. That gave it all an imposing atmosphere. It was as if they had carefully cut out their own independent territory. But at the same time... ¡°If they have a surveillance network like that, the factory¡¯s guard room might have data concerning Hasebe Michio. If he didn¡¯t go to the factory, he must either be on the highway or in the forest.¡± ¡°But I doubt they would agree to cooperate. Having security on your personal property is perfectly legal, but it still isn¡¯t something they want to reveal if they don¡¯t have to. Unlike the West, Japan is sensitive to cameras and a surveillance culture. Also...¡± The mystery freak trailed off. This bothered me. It bothered me a lot. After all, that girl was constantly surrounded by death. Hearing her trail off gave me the unpleasant feeling that this was something that knowledge or ignorance of would affect my continued survival. ¡°What is it, mystery freak?¡± ¡°Well...¡± The mystery freak sighed. ¡°If my guesses here are right, doesn¡¯t that mean this is a small independent territory created by Kuroyama Electronics Group? There are 8000 workers at the factory and even the people working for the highway insist it¡¯s a private road. ...And Hasebe Michio was given the death penalty for attacking the house of Kuroyama Electronics Group¡¯s president.¡± ¡°Wait a second. You don¡¯t mean...?¡± ¡°We had the Hasebe theory and the police theory, but now another theory has shown itself, detective.¡± A close look at Enbi¡¯s smile showed it was a bit stiff. She may have been interested in people¡¯s deaths, but she of course did not want to be directly involved in it herself. ¡°What if someone from the Kuroyama Electronics Group took action to take revenge for their leader? What if someone could not allow this prisoner to be found innocent in a retrial? Why did Hasebe disappear in this area that is both difficult to escape from and difficult to camouflage an escape in? Because this is Kuroyama¡¯s independent territory. Because this is the area along his transportation route that Kuroyama had the most power in. What if that is the answer?¡± The story suddenly grew a lot more suspicious. In the truly worst case, it was possible all 8000 people working in the factory were the criminals behind it. No, it went beyond that. Four Mountains Junction was a private road owned by Kuroyama Electronics Group. If they closed the road, it would not only affect the highway workers but also slow the distribution of goods throughout the country. I could not even guess how far the effects would spread. There were plenty of ways around this junction: sea, air, rail, and normal roads. However, the time and cost of taking those routes could not be underestimated. There was a good reason the highways were the country¡¯s primary distribution route. In the economic world, there was always a reason an alternate path was not taken. In other words, this ¡°private road¡± was a free pass that used the Japanese economy as a shield. This went well beyond a conspiracy by the higher ups and old members of the regional police. It was possible help in large or in small had been taken from people across Japan and possibly even foreign corporations in order to eliminate a single man. ¡°Wait, wait, wait. This reminds me of Zashou Island. Are you saying common sense itself is being distorted here?¡± ¡°This land has 8000 soldiers and a thick forest with no one watching,¡± muttered the mystery freak in shock. ¡°Whether they are judging the criminal who killed their president or torturing him for information about the murder, doesn¡¯t the Kuroyama Electronics Group theory seem the most dangerous and yet most likely option?¡± We had no proof that the corporation had abducted Hasebe Michio. Even if any existed, it would likely be eliminated as soon as possible. But nothing could be worse than forcibly investigating Kuroyama Electronics Group and finding nothing. Not only did I not have a warrant, but I had no authority as a police officer because this was not within my jurisdiction. If I climbed the wall and snuck into the factory, I would be guilty of illegal entry. I could even be used as grounds for forcing through the Advanced Technology Disclosure Prevention Bill that had been in the news lately. That would bring permanent shame on me as a police officer who supposedly protected the public order. On top of that, this was a small independent territory of a single corporation. If an executive was in a bad mood, it was possible the police would never be called and I would be buried in the forest at the hands of those 8000 soldiers. Four Mountains had a powerful enough foundation to continue on with their peaceful lives even after doing that. They were extremely suspicious, but they were too big to carelessly try anything against them. ¡°Now then, now then.¡± Enbi the mystery freak asked a question from the passenger seat. ¡°What should we do now, detective?¡± Part 13 (Jinnai Shinobu) We had run across a mystery person in the remains of Zenmetsu Village, run as quickly as we could from the village, and then found the village waiting for us up ahead. What were we to make of this situation? ¡°Shinobu-kun, we can¡¯t stay still! The footsteps are getting closer!!¡± ¡°Dammit!!¡± For the moment, we focused on running away from the obvious threat. But was that truly the correct answer? It seemed impossible, but I was afraid we would run and run and run until we found the owner of those footsteps waiting ahead of us as if we had circled around the entire globe. I ran as if parting the thick fog while still holding Madoka¡¯s hand. We passed by the tilted silhouette of the shack that had been abandoned for decades. ...? Wait a second. Is this...? ¡°Shinobu-kun!!¡± That sudden shout was accompanied by a shove. I rolled along the wet dead grass. But I did not have time to cry out in protest. As if slicing through the fog, the pointed end of a rusted farm tool stabbed out. It was a pitchfork. It was one of those ridiculously large fork-like tools used to carry hay. The handle was meant to be held with both hands, so it was quite long. Specifically, it was about 150 centimeters long. The fork portion made it look more like a strange spear than a farm tool. It looked large enough to kill a human if it stabbed through anywhere on the torso. Plus, the end was fully covered in rust and the tines were of different lengths because some had broken off partway. I was certain I would get some strange infection if I was stabbed with it. I heard some odd breathing that almost sounded like a poorly-made whistle. The pitchfork was pulled back slowly. The outstretched spring was being contracted in preparation for the next attack. The tip shook. It moved from where I had been and turned toward Madoka. ¡°You bastard!!¡± While still lying on the dead grass, I searched around with my right hand. My fingertips found something hard and I threw the rock toward the attacker. It did not hit. I heard a solid sound as if it had struck a distant wall. But it had expressed my hostility. The pitchfork¡¯s aim clearly changed. It turned toward me. I had no intention of doing nothing as I was attacked. By that time, I had forced myself to a standing position with a rolling motion. ¡°Shinobu-kun! What are you doing!?¡± ¡°Shut up! You go hide!!¡± I shouted. Now that I had the attacker¡¯s attention, I turned my back. I wanted any weapon I could find, so I ran toward a nearby shack. At first, I had thought the exact same village had circled around in front of us. But that was not the case. It had been difficult to tell through the thick fog, but a closer look had shown the details were completely different. Basically, a few small villages of four or five houses were located here and there. We had run straight and travelled from Village A to Village B. Once you knew how it worked, there was nothing to be afraid of. In fact, I could even take advantage of it. At any rate, I needed a weapon. I needed something to put me on even footing with that psycho. The attacker had to have acquired that weapon here in Zenmetsu Village. The small cabins had no room to store huge farm tools, and if they had the money or materials to build a storehouse, they would have upgraded their homes. In that case, the tools would most likely be found leaning up against the outer walls. ¡°Ah! Found one!!¡± A worn-down shovel was leaning up against the wall. It had half-fused with the wall that had grown dark with all the moisture it had absorbed over the years. Just as I reached out for it, I heard footsteps approaching from behind. I grabbed the shovel with all my strength and did not hesitate to swing it horizontally using the motion of turning around to face the attacker. ¡°...?¡± I felt something slip off. The triangular metal portion made to dig holes had flown right off the handle! With a sharp whistling breath, the giant fork-like tool attacked from beyond the fog. Instead of another stabbing attack, it was swung down like someone trying to split a watermelon. I immediately tried to block it by holding the shovel handle up horizontally, but it didn¡¯t help. The handle was so rotten that it was no stronger than wet cardboard, so it broke all too easily. A heavy impact came down on the top of my head. ¡°Bh..gbhah!?¡± The strike sent me crumbling straight down to the ground. The attacker¡¯s pitchfork rotated around. This time, the worn down tip was being stabbed straight toward my face! But then... A change came over the attacker who was about to stab down the pitchfork as if leaning down on it. With a splat, something like wet seaweed fell from the dirty cabin¡¯s roof and covered about half of the attacker¡¯s head. However, this was no place to find seaweed. This seaweed-like substance was writhing around oddly even though no wind was blowing through the area. It was a bundle of snakes. Over ten snakes about as thick as a little finger had fallen atop the attacker¡¯s head. ¡°...!!!???¡± A biological sense of disgust that had nothing to do with reason ran down my spine. But the same had to apply to the attacker. He frantically tried to brush away the group of snakes that had fallen on his head. In his haste, he let go of the pitchfork with one hand. His focus wavered. The tip of the pitchfork wavered. ¡°Go to hell!!¡± I threw one broken half of the shovel handle toward the attacker¡¯s face. I hit this time, but it did not seem to do much damage. All I needed was to buy some time. I frantically stood up and strengthened my grip on the other half of the broken handle. I had no time for hesitation. The handle had been rotting to pieces already. I could not stop the attacker by striking with or throwing it. And so... I held it with both hands as if it was a knife and immediately stabbed the jagged broken edge of the handle into the attacker¡¯s thigh. ¡°Gyah!?¡± I felt a soft sensation. I did not want to think about whether that came from the rotting handle or the attacker¡¯s leg. ¡°Gh, ghh! Ah, ah, ah!?¡± The attacker fell to the side. The small snakes covering the attacker¡¯s head scattered in an instant as if slipping in amongst the dead grass. The sight of something stabbing into his leg must have been a shock to the attacker because he used both hands in an attempt to pull the remains of the handle out of his leg. Yes, he used both of the hands he had been using to hold the pitchfork. ¡°You bastard...¡± When the attacker heard my voice, he seemed to finally catch on to the situation. He realized I had swiped the giant pitchfork he had let go of. And I was swinging that pitchfork up above my head. ¡°If you¡¯re!! Gonna try to stab people with this!! Don¡¯t get so upset!! When someone!! Attacks you back!!!!!!¡± I swung it down again and again. The farm tool was designed like a giant fork, so it would not stab into someone unless thrust straight at them. However, I was essentially beating him with a blunt weapon similar to a wooden sword with a metal weight on the end. It could easily break a bone. I was able to rationally analyze that in my head, but I could not stop my arms. I could feel something boiling up in my mind. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± I let out a great roar. I could not stand anything. I could not stand how the attacker was curling up and covering his head with his hands as if he was the victim. He had been doing whatever he wanted a minute ago, but this was how he acted once someone attacked back. I decided to continue beating him until his true nature had been fully revealed. ¡°Shinobu-kun?¡± I then heard a familiar voice. Madoka had come by to check on me. She seemed to be peeking around a corner of the shack. ¡°Shinobu-kun, wait!! You can¡¯t go any further than this! You¡¯ll kill him!!¡± ¡°Pant!! Pant!!¡± My hands were trembling. I was breathing heavily. I stopped swinging down the pitchfork, but my fingers were so stiff with tension and anger that they refused to obey my commands. As if I was waiting for a numb leg to recover, I would have to wait a moment before being able to let go of the pitchfork. The attacker was curled up in the fetal position. The person who lay trembling on the ground was a man in his forties or fifties with a beard covering his entire face and wearing clothes that looked like dirty old rags. ¡°Who are you?¡± Pain returned to my head as if it had only just now recalled being struck. As Madoka helped support my shaky body, I shouted toward the attacker lying on the dead grass. ¡°Who the hell are you!?¡± Part 14 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) More than twenty years before, Hasebe Michio had been sentenced to death for the crime of killing the president of Kuroyama Electronics Group, but he had disappeared during transport while a retrial was being requested. He had vanished in the vast private property of the Kuroyama Electronics Group. Although no evidence had been found, it was possible the Kuroyama Electronics Group had abducted him. The key to this mystery was the surveillance recordings of the security company. According to the mystery freak¡¯s speculation, the communications interference in the Four Mountains basin came from jamming devices. She also theorized a large number of wired cameras and sensors had been secretly installed. If that was true, it could be an important clue to Hasebe Michio¡¯s location whether Kuroyama was guilty or not. Even if the Kuroyama Electronics Group had nothing to do with his disappearance, it was possible the higher ups and old members of the regional police saw him as a nuisance as well. Either way, every second counted. ¡°But, detective, this is the Kuroyama Electronics Group¡¯s independent territory. You have no authority right now, so I doubt anyone will hand over the video recordings if you ask.¡± ¡°They have absolute control here, but this independent territory is not all that large,¡± I said while driving the rental car down the road we had come on. ¡°Seventy percent of the security companies in the country that specialize in corporations have either their headquarters or Japanese branch office in Tokyo.¡± ¡°I see. You think you can get the recordings if you go after the Tokyo headquarters? And fortunately, your Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department badge has unrivalled power when used in Tokyo.¡± ¡°Even if the Kuroyama Electronics Group has the local guards on their side, they might not have influence over everyone at the distant headquarters. And the guards will have no choice but to obey the regulations of their company. The video footage will be sent to a server at their headquarters for storage.¡± ¡°That means we just need to know exactly what security company to check. But everyone at the gate wore a factory uniform with nothing indicating the security company.¡± ¡°We need to check the cable that the footage is sent over. Different companies have different standard infrastructure they use. If I have the desk group back at the Metropolitan Police Department check which companies use which cables, we can track them down.¡± ¡°Do we have to search that entire thick forest?¡± ¡°Are you testing me?¡± I gave a scornful laugh. ¡°As the name suggests, Four Mountains is surrounded by mountains. They¡¯ll use the tunnels to pass the cables through. The cables will be buried along the shortest route between the factory and the nearest tunnel. That would be the one through Seiryuu Mountain.¡± We naturally moved from the Four Mountains¡¯ center junction as we moved toward the location connecting the outer tunnel and the semiconductor factory. After a while, the distance from the factory caused the menace of nature to suddenly close in on us. ¡°...The road is disappearing.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get out and deal with this quickly. The only people here are with Kuroyama, so nothing good will come of being found investigating the corporation.¡± I opened the driver¡¯s side door and the unpleasantly moist air quickly rushed in. It was fog, but it was not refreshingly cool. It was somehow hot, humid, and moist. The mystery freak stepped out from the passenger seat, placed her hands on her hips, and looked out across the dried up and rotting forest. ¡°Wow, this is horrid. This forest is so thick I wouldn¡¯t be surprised to find a few inconvenient corpses.¡± ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with you if corpses are the first thing a forest brings to mind.¡± ¡°If we do find the model number for the cable, what do we do then? We can¡¯t use our phones, but don¡¯t tell me we will head all the way back to Tokyo.¡± ¡°The signal is only affected in this basin between the mountains. We only have to pass through the tunnel and leave Four Mountains to use our phones. I will report the situation to my coworkers and then we wait for information at a service area. Once we have a clue concerning Hasebe Michio, we can begin tracking him again.¡± ¡°I see. In that case, let¡¯s use the tunnel through Genbu Heights! The moonlight service area has a pink ice cream that is supposed to grant love between the two who eat it together!!¡± ¡°That would be embarrassing to do with a lover, so why would you want to do it with a complete stranger? In fact, I¡¯m still not sure why the two of us have been driving long distances together on the highway.¡± ¡°So you admit using the highway together like this has been a sign of our love!? In that case, I¡¯m prepared to give you a fan service scene you will never forget!¡± Saying anything would only have made it worse, so I ignored her and made my way into the forest. As I headed deeper while stepping forcefully on the ground, I noticed something odd not even 10 meters in. I crouched down and moved a rotting black object at my feet that might have been humus or organic waste. And then I found it. Something like a concrete ditch cut across. However, it was not meant for rainwater like a ditch in a residential area. It was a concrete covering prepared to prevent wild animals from digging up or biting through the exposed cables. The cover was divided into blocked sections about 50 centimeters across. I grabbed one of them and forced it up. Spider webs and earth had made their way inside, but I spotted a cable as thick as my thumb inside. It was covered in black plastic that had the same string of numbers printed at set intervals. I took my cell phone from my suit pocket and photographed the cable. ¡°That should do it. Hey, mystery freak, I have the information we needed. Let¡¯s get back to the car. If we pass through the tunnel and stop at the nearest service area...¡± I trailed off because something seemed odd. The mystery freak was not responding. I turned around and found only the dense forest and thick fog. Enbi had been causing so much noise before, but she was completely gone. I could not even hear her voice. ¡°Hey...?¡± Is she messing around and trying to surprise me? With that silly thought in mind, I glanced around. And then... A dull impact suddenly ran through the bridge of my nose. ¡°Bah...!?¡± My vision flashed white. All strength left my knees and I crumbled to the ground. Someone...hit me? And on the nose...? They were right in front of me!? When and how did they get that close? I didn¡¯t even see their face!! Footsteps through the underbrush circled around. They circled around behind me. A slender arm wrapped around my neck from behind. Vise-like strength began strangling me. The flow of blood was cut off more than the flow of air and an intense heat swelled up in my head. From the soft sensation on my back, I could just barely surmise this attacker was female, but that was all the information I had. My vision spun around. This was a sign of my thoughts and consciousness leaving due to the lack of blood to my head. And just before I fully lost consciousness... ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon. Pass out already. Or are you enjoying my breasts?¡± I heard a familiar abusive voice in my ear. Hishigami Mai... What are...you doing here? Part 15 (Hishigami Mai) Honestly. Searching for Hasebe Michio who had disappeared from the highway? That incident I had picked up over the police radio was likely what they were here for, but Kuroyama Electronics Group had nothing to do with that. I had my own annoying issues to deal with. I couldn¡¯t have them messing it all up with their amateurish investigation. I threw the detective and my little sister in their rental car while they took a carefree nap. For an instant, I seriously considered stripping them both naked and positioning them in an embrace, but I stopped myself at the last second. I was on a job, so it was no time to be having fun. Instead, I left a memo telling them Kuroyama Electronics Group was the wrong direction and they needed to look into Youkai if they wanted to find Hasebe. I of course added a note that I would physically punish them if they did not burn the memo in the car¡¯s ashtray after reading it. A dull electronic tone sounded. It came from the radio I had been given by the semiconductor factory. It used a band that could slip through the jamming. ¡°Hello, hello.¡± ¡°Do you get it now that you¡¯ve seen for yourself? No obvious footprints have been left. That¡¯s the problem.¡± The voice belonged to an elderly man who could easily be described as ¡°stern¡±, but he seemed to have some malice following him around. He was like a diligent prisoner who would maintain the guillotine meant to be used on him. ...But given the nature of the factory, that might have been more than just a metaphor. ¡°If you understand, return to the factory. We have mountains of troublesome issues to take care of.¡± ¡°Understood. I¡¯ll be right back.¡± I had frantically made up an excuse to leave the factory and ensure my sister and the detective did not step on any strange landmines, so I couldn¡¯t exactly argue. And it was true we didn¡¯t have much time. I sat in the driver¡¯s seat of a small Kuroyama Electronics Group company car. I simply could not get used to electric cars. Without the roar of the engine, I could sometimes forget just how fast I was driving. However, I did like the beckoning cat bottle cap dolls lined up on the dashboard. How many of those are there again? ¡°U-um,¡± began the small dog sitting obediently in the passenger seat. Technically, he was a harmless canine Youkai called a Sunekosuri. ¡°Should you have really left those people like that?¡± ¡°I gave them a chance. In a case needing my involvement, this is almost a miracle. If they continue their misguided attack on Kuroyama despite my kindness, there¡¯s no saving them. I need to focus on my own job.¡± ¡°B-but wasn¡¯t one of them your sister?¡± ¡°Try not to bring that up. The situation is a bit unique when it comes to Hishigami women. Well, just think of my abandoning her as being a form of trust.¡± I drove along in the electric car for a while longer before speaking once more. ¡°Sunekosuri, how are you faring?¡± ¡°F-fine. I have gotten a bit used to it, but...ugh. This should be a rural area...so why do I feel so bad?¡± ¡°This is the opposite of a carefully maintained Intellectual Village. This is made for machines. It¡¯s disguised as natural, but it is actually filled with artificial aspects. It¡¯s a tough environment for a Youkai like you.¡± I arrived at the main entrance to the semiconductor factory. I showed the guard my temporary guest ID and slowly drove the car inside the wall. The atmosphere suddenly changed. Anyone who saw the inside would likely notice a certain fact. The exceptionally tall outer wall and the barbed wire were not merely meant to stop industrial spies from getting in. The fog, the air, and everything else were trapped inside this space. Yes. All of that equipment was also used to keep anyone from escaping. ¡°As you know,¡± said the elderly man over the radio as I brought the car around to the parking lot. ¡°This looks like a large scale semiconductor factory and it does in fact create and ship out goods, but its true purpose lies elsewhere. This is a facility to imprison anyone who commits a serious breach of the corporation¡¯s trust. If someone commits an act of industrial espionage by bringing internal documents out, they will be transferred here.¡± A breach of trust and industrial espionage, hm? Does that also apply to employees who recommend making certain internal documents public or the victims of products that accidentally catch fire? ¡°I have heard it referred to as the corporate prison, but what is its official name?¡± I asked. ¡°It has no name. After all, it would be a problem if any records of it remained. That is what kind of place this is. We have the equipment needed and we can even overwrite common sense here.¡± ¡°Who would have ever thought the nation¡¯s leading large scale factory with over 8000 employees is actually mostly automated and can run with only a few SEs?¡± ¡°The technology is not all that rare. Factories only remain manned to protect employment and to prevent the few workers actually needed from going insane from loneliness.¡± In other words, the 8000 workers were completely unnecessary. Not only did they not touch the production factory¡¯s equipment, but they were not even allowed in the same building. So... ¡°The facility is made up of 5000 foolish prisoners and 3000 jailers including you,¡± said the man. ¡°No information can be allowed out and a prisoner escaping is out of the question. The prisoners here will die here. No other path is allowed for them.¡± I see. I see. However, the cameras and sensors set up throughout the forest seemed to have a different meaning than the high walls and barbed wire. What were they for? They seemed less like a distribution of neatly optimized security and more like they were needlessly setting them up wherever they could. It was as if they could not find something they wanted to find. I grabbed the radio and opened the car door. The Sunekosuri hopped out through my door and onto the parking lot. As I stood on the asphalt, I slammed the door shut and spoke into the radio. ¡°But you say the prisoners and jailers vanished into thin air at some point.¡± Simply put, that was the circumstances surrounding the corporate prison. With the use of the facility¡¯s ¡°abilities¡±, capturing Hasebe Michio who the detective and my sister were pursuing might indeed have been simple. However, we were caught up in our own dangerous problem, so we had more important things to do. As I walked from the parking lot to a giant structure of the factory, the elderly man and I continued to speak. ¡°Everyone disappeared leaving just a few prisoners and jailers behind,¡± he said. ¡°I thought it was a mass jailbreak with most of the jailers taken hostage...but it is just too thorough. Also, there is no sign of the locks being broken or anything like that. It is unclear if they were made to vanish by someone else or if they made themselves vanish.¡± ¡°I see. So you are desperate for a solution.¡± ¡°This corporate prison is strong. Even if the escaped prisoners testify on the public stage, Kuroyama Electronics Group will not go under. However, crushing even the slightest risk is the best option.¡± That was not surprising. If you included even the foreign affiliated companies, this was a corporation connected to over 150 thousand people. Any illegal operations they were involved in would be assisted by expert groups, making the structure of it all quite complex. But if 5000 prisoners escaped and 3000 jailers were sacrificed, that elderly man would not escape blame. He appeared calm, but he would likely be thrown into the one of those prisoner cells if the situation was not quickly resolved. And that was why someone like me had been called in. I had used a fictional ID that only existed online to be mistaken for a ¡°complaint handler¡± who worked for a company affiliated with Kuroyama and handled any dirty jobs. ¡°We do not have time to treat you like a guest even if you are a temporary worker. Do your job. Depending on what happens, it is entirely possible you will be thrown into one of these cells in the future. Do not screw this up.¡± The Sunekosuri at my feet looked up with a worried expression. Wah hah hah! Are you lonely? Then feel free to rub up against my leg!! ¡°Then let¡¯s handle this in the standard way,¡± I said. ¡°We reveal what exactly occurred, determine who did it, compare that to the balance of power between different groups to guess at their motive, and finally track down where the missing people are.¡± ¡°If they have left the facility, that alone is grounds for shooting them. We know how to handle the bodies, so you can leave the cleanup to us.¡± ¡°Understood. By the way, you know what the most likely possibility is, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°A Youkai?¡± I sighed at that immediate reply. The young lady of Hyakki Yakou had requested that I investigate the circumstances surrounding Four Mountain¡¯s semiconductor factory because they were catching glimpses of something dangerous there. But the situation I found made me want a bonus. After all, Hasebe Michio¡¯s disappearance meant the problem went beyond the corporate prison. Now then. What are the conditions behind this strange phenomenon and how far has it spread? ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll start by investigating from that end of things.¡± What a pain. If I only needed evidence of a crime, I could just record this conversation and submit it. Why did the prisoners who are the biggest piece of evidence have to vanish into thin air!? Part 16 (Jinnai Shinobu) The villagers of the abandoned Zenmetsu Village were rumored to have been slaughtered. Someone there was still trying to harm intruders using farm tools such as a pitchfork. The man must not have bathed in a long time because his hair and beard were unkempt and his skin was discolored from dark stains. His clothes were so dirty their original color was impossible to determine and they were so tattered that I could not even imagine what kind of clothes they had originally been. Who was he? The man had been balled up after I assaulted him, but when I asked him that, he used his trembling jaw to somehow force out some words. ¡°...No. It wasn¡¯t me.¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°I...I... I didn¡¯t do it!! I didn¡¯t do anything! That¡¯s why I¡¯m still running. I didn¡¯t kill anyone!!¡± ¡°I¡¯m asking who you are!!¡± The man jumped in fright when I shouted at him with the stolen pitchfork in hand. I had a feeling Madoka was looking at me with horribly, horribly cold eyes. I understood why. I had been chased around a strange village, struck hard on the head, and driven to the verge of death. Being released from that state seemed to be keeping me from controlling my emotions very well. It was like releasing a compressed spring. On top of that, I now held the weapon I had been so afraid of. Even I could tell this was making me overly bold. It was not surprising that she was annoyed by my actions. But I could not let this chance slip by. I would not let myself be dropped into that abyss again. ¡°...Yokoeda Tadashi.¡± ¡°Why were you swinging this at us? What are you doing here? Are you the mass murderer from over 30 years ago or are you some psycho copycat camping here?¡± ¡°N-no!! It wasn¡¯t me! I only live here! I¡¯ve always lived in this village!!¡± ¡°Then what¡¯s with this?¡± I thrust the rusted tines of the pitchfork in front of Yokoeda¡¯s nose and he turned his head as if to look away from something unpleasant. ¡°I-I needed it for self defense. Given the location, horrible people often come here as a test of courage or something. The worst ones are the drunk ones. I can¡¯t rely on the police, so I have to drive them off myself. Come to think of it, what are you doing here?¡± ¡°Hey, mister,¡± cut in Madoka. ¡°If you know this place is so dangerous, why are you still living here? The homeless are not meant to pick fruit and hunt boars. In fact, I think they can only survive in a city with a certain level of development.¡± ¡°...It¡¯s necessary.¡± Yokoeda¡¯s gaze moved from place to place again and again in order to escape everyone else¡¯s gaze. ¡°It¡¯s necessary. I¡¯m the final survivor of those born here. And staying here in Four Mountains will make them rush things. If that causes them to make a mistake...¡± ¡°Who do you mean by ¡®them¡¯?¡± ¡°The Kuroyama Electronics Group.¡± Yokoeda spoke that name quickly. It was as if he were spitting an unpleasant bug out of his mouth as soon as he could. ¡°Don¡¯t you find it suspicious? ...It was after that incident. It all ended thirty years ago in a single night. And immediately after everyone was slaughtered, the Kuroyama Electronics Group moved in. The village was opposed to the semiconductor factory that would suck up so much of the underground water. And then that incident occurred that conveniently got rid of all their opposition.¡± Madoka and I exchanged a glance. She looked confused. My expression was probably similar. Was he speaking of a truth no one was aware of? Or was this nothing more than the ramblings of a lonely middle-aged man. I could not determine which it was, but I could feel some strange sort of weight. ¡°...¡± I tried to ask Madoka¡¯s opinion, but she was keeping a bit of distance from me. This eccentric beauty of a classmate was glancing over at me. Or more specifically, at the end of the giant pitchfork in my hands. Well, it is dangerous. I did not know what the man was getting at, but I felt it was best to let him speak if he wanted to. He needed to vent. After all... I had the advantage because I had the weapon with the longest reach. However, the man could make a desperate last-ditch attack. If he did that, I was not entirely sure I could stab this giant fork into him without hesitating. If I succeeded, I would be a murderer. If I failed, I could be killed by that middle-aged man. In other words, either result would ruin me. Yokoeda Tadashi continued speaking without realizing my thoughts. ¡°It was a hot summer day. I...no, everyone my age was talking about having a test of courage. We drew lots to see who would take the test and who would try to scare those taking the test. At first, I thought that was what saved me. But they intentionally left me alive. I stood still in a daze for a while after it happened. The next thing I knew, people were saying I had killed everyone. That was the scenario. They killed them in such over-the-top ways with blood flying up to the ceilings to make it look like a crazy killer had done it and to rob my testimony of all credibility.¡± Madoka must have been thinking anyone who might turn violent was dangerous when there were no police or mediators available. She kept her distance from both Yokoeda Tadashi and me as she frowned and asked a question. It seemed she was trying to create a safe zone by taking a neutral position. ¡°Hey. You say ¡®them¡¯, so was there more than one murderer?¡± ¡°How many people do you think were needed to surround and annihilate all of the villagers who fled in every direction? At the very least, I saw five or six men wearing masks, but I don¡¯t know who they were. That is why I¡¯m staying here to worry Kuroyama Electronics Group. I¡¯m staying right next to them.¡± At some point, I had withdrawn the pitchfork. Yokoeda had also sat up on the dead grass and leaned his back against the wall of the shack. ¡°According to Kuroyama¡¯s scenario, I was supposed to be immediately captured and blamed for it all. But that didn¡¯t happen, so they quickly changed the outcome. Due to certain circumstances, we had lived a life cut off from the outside world in a village of only a few dozen people. No one would cause an uproar over the village¡¯s disappearance. Its disappearance was not a problem for anyone. ...They bribed plenty of people to eliminate all information related to the village¡¯s existence. The people there became a mere rumor. After all, the village was never on any maps to begin with.¡± ¡°What...? And what do you mean by ¡®certain circumstances¡¯?¡± The village¡¯s living standards seemed oddly low. It had no asphalt roads, no plumbing, and not even a well. No sign of any public services could be seen. Even if satellites had not been used for standard public services thirty years before, there had to have been some major ¡°circumstances¡± for them to not have their name on the map. Yokoeda remained silent. It seemed he did not want to talk about that. When he did speak, it was to forcibly change the subject. ¡°Despite supposedly destroying the village, one of the villagers is still alive. They would be in trouble if some unwanted information got out. That is why the Kuroyama Electronics Group is even now desperately searching for me. And I have made sure they are. That is why they have set up countless cameras and sensors across the area. They claim it is to ensure the water resources of their private property, though.¡± Eh? Kuroyama Electronics Group¡¯s private property? Cameras and sensors? I could only frown at those terms he so readily used. This area feels like a monstrous forest that¡¯s either rotting or soggy. Does it really have a security network like that in it? ¡°(Shinobu-kun. I can¡¯t tell if this is some great secret or a simple conspiracy theory,)¡± said Madoka in secretive mode. I know you need to whisper right now, but don¡¯t carelessly approach me, you damn beauty!! ¡°So I bring in from outside what I need to live and move between the small villages at irregular intervals. If I was only living as a fugitive, I could have gone overseas, but there has to be meaning in my staying here. The only remnants of that incident are here.¡± ...Is that really true? If this really was the vast private property bought up by a single corporation, they would likely destroy everything that was a nuisance or inconvenient to them. If they crushed the village down to an empty lot, there would be no evidence left and no further investigation could be made. However, they had left the buildings intact with the bloodstains still inside. Was that a sign of their confidence? Were they saying no investigation could find anything? If Yokoeda¡¯s story was true, Kuroyama Electronics Group might have been intentionally leaving some hope for him. They were giving him a reason to remain fixated on this location. That way he would remain instead of fleeing overseas. They could then secretly capture him and eliminate him. The worst part was that they did not even need to capture him. Yokoeda held the only key yet he was wasting his time investigating in the wrong place and growing weaker all the while. I could not decide whether I should point that out or not. But then I heard the sound of the dead grass being trod on beyond the fog. ¡°...¡± Madoka, Yokoeda Tadashi, and I all turned silently toward the sound. The pure white veil cut off our vision as usual, so we could not see what was there. ¡°Hey, Madoka. Do you think it¡¯s the Love King or Nagisa?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t look for knowledge about our classmates from the lone beauty Madoka-chan.¡± Despite asking that, I also doubted this was anyone safe. I gulped and spoke to Yokoeda Tadashi. ¡°Hey. Is there anyone here besides you?¡± I had not turned toward the man as I asked, so I could only hear him gulp and then reply. ¡°No. There was no one...no one other than me. No, wait. It can¡¯t be!!¡± We heard the sound again. It was not coming from just one spot. As if someone was slowly approaching in a line, the sound of the dead grass filled one entire direction. Was it a group? ¡°I-it¡¯s Kuroyama,¡± said Yokoeda in a trembling voice. ¡°Their troops are here!! I calculated my movements to slip through the gaps in their surveillance network, but what about you two? You two must have left a trail that led them to me!!¡± ¡°Hey, wait!!¡± I did not have time to call out and stop him. Yokoeda stood up with his back still pressed against the wall and then ran away. Madoka and I exchanged a glance. Her eyes were of course widened in surprise at this sudden occurrence All the while, the noise drew closer. ¡°Wh-what should we do, Shinobu-kun!?¡± ¡°...¡± Should we run? Where to? Should we oppose them? Oppose who? Before I could gather my thoughts, the situation progressed. I ignored Madoka as she tugged on the sleeve of my short sleeve shirt and looked blankly into the fog. The source of the noise was approaching. Something was coming this way. Part 17 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) ¡°Uuhh...¡± I woke up to the sound of myself groaning and found myself in the rental car. For an instant, I thought the attack from before had been a dream, but it seemed reality was not that convenient. I grimaced when I saw the memo sitting on the dashboard. It said, ¡°Kuroyama Electronics Group is the wrong direction and you need to look into Youkai if you want to find Hasebe.¡± I was not a handwriting fetishist who could tell who wrote it just by looking at the writing, but I could make a good guess from the note in the corner saying, ¡°If you don¡¯t burn this in the ashtray after reading it, I¡¯ll punish you¡î¡± I could only think of one person who lived in that old spy movie world. That was when the mystery freak woke up in the passenger seat. ¡°Ah!? H-huh? You woke up before me, detective? That means you did all sorts of things to me in my sleep, doesn¡¯t it!? But don¡¯t worry! I made sure to bring a pregnancy test with me!¡± She seemed to still be half asleep, so I held out the memo to wake her up. Enbi grimaced when she saw the short text left by her sister. ¡°Wow, so she¡¯s involved in this. Does that mean this is bad enough that she¡¯s needed to resolve it?¡± ¡°This is clearly a sign telling us to quietly leave.¡± I gave an annoyed sigh before pulling out the car¡¯s ashtray as instructed. I balled up the memo and pressed the tip of the cigar lighter against it to light it. ¡°But she doesn¡¯t understand at all. Leaving this note behind is all the more reason we can¡¯t just leave!!¡± ¡°It¡¯s possible she planned for this reaction, but knowing my sister, she wasn¡¯t thinking at all.¡± And so we began discussing the message Mai had left in the parked rental car. ¡°She said Hasebe¡¯s disappearance was related to a Youkai.¡± ¡°So the people vanishing from the prisoner transport vehicle and police cars was related to a Youkai instead of any humans such as the regional police or Kuroyama Electronics Group? Was it a criminal Package?¡± ¡°But would that really be necessary? The police officers were transporting him and Kuroyama owns all this land, so they wouldn¡¯t need help from a Youkai. They could have abducted Hasebe on their own.¡± ¡°Then it was someone other than them?¡± ¡°Someone other than...?¡± I trailed off and fell silent. There was only one possibility. ¡°Hasebe Michio himself?¡± ¡°Well, he was handcuffed, chained to his seat, and being watched. If he was going to escape, it would have been difficult using any normal method.¡± ¡°But he had no reason to escape. If he had obeyed his instructions, the request for a retrial would have gone through and he would have likely been found not guilty.¡± ¡°Maybe he suspected an assassin from the regional police or Kuroyama was coming, so he panicked and ran off. Maybe he decided he would not survive until his retrial.¡± ¡°Packages use the skills of hundreds of people to draw out the power of a Youkai in a useful way. Hasebe couldn¡¯t have used one on his own and especially not without planning.¡± ¡°Then again,¡± the mystery freak raised her index finger, ¡°We keep talking about Youkai, but we don¡¯t even know what kind of Youkai was used. This area has more nature than anyone could ever want, but there¡¯s no sense of any Youkai around.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like Youkai, so I¡¯m thankful for that.¡± The smell of smoke from burning the memo stung at my nose, so I used the air conditioning vent to drive it away. ¡°But it is odd that no Youkai has tried anything in a forest this big. Given the way Youkai react to me, I would have expected a transformed Kitsune or Tanuki to approach me.¡± ¡°Are there really no Youkai here?¡± ¡°Or,¡± I cut in. ¡°Has the terrain of the Four Mountains area been modified to increase the influence of a single type of Youkai. That way only the Youkai someone wanted to build into their Package would be able to fully manifest its power.¡± That was possible in this area. Kuroyama Electronics Group possessed a vast amount of private property. But if that was the case... ¡°This is bad... I thought this case was centered on Hasebe Michio, but the actual structure may be different.¡± ¡°Are you saying this was not an attempt to abduct Hasebe Michio? Are you saying a Package with some special effect just so happened to affect Hasebe?¡± I turned the key in the rental car. The engine turned on, I moved the shift lever, and stepped on the accelerator. ¡°We will never find an answer at this rate. Let¡¯s leave Four Mountains for the moment. We need to pass through the tunnel and stop at a service area where we can use our phones.¡± ¡°Detective, are you going to pass that cable model number to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department?¡± ¡°That¡¯s part of it, but I also want to know what kinds of Youkai live in the Four Mountains area. This Package is using some part of a Youkai¡¯s nature. If we know what kind of Youkai that is, we might be able to determine how Hasebe disappeared and where he might be.¡± Part 18 (Hishigami Mai) Now then. Time to check on the semiconductor factory. On the jailer side, the only people left other than me were two guards each from the main entrance and the materials shipment entrance as well as the elderly supervisor. That was a total of five. On the prisoner side, only a teenage girl and an older woman who looked like she was being forced to perform hard labor in her fifties. That was a total of two. With so few people, it was unbelievable that there had originally been 8000. It was even more surprising that the factory continued to run without slowing. The vast semiconductor factory known as a corporate prison was divided into a factory block and a dorm block. The dorm block was a complete decoy. The prisoners were actually contained in the prison block which was fully contained underground. The supervisor named Itou gestured down the hallway with his chin. ¡°Do you want to take a peek?¡± ¡°Later, if I have a chance,¡± I said, gently turning down his offer. There was something I had to do before going along with their cruelty. Itou must have been more nervous than he let on because he sounded irritated as he continued speaking. ¡°I cannot believe you actually brought that Youkai here.¡± The Sunekosuri jumped in fright, but I did not mind. ¡°The police use dogs in airports. Creatures that look at the world from a different viewpoint can be convenient. Youkai testimony may not be valid evidence in a trial, but that does not matter in this business.¡± ¡°Hmph. I do not like irregularities like that. And it seems a Youkai is involved in this incident as well.¡± As the supervisor of 8000 people using a sturdy plan and security system, he would naturally dislike Youkai that could be like loopholes in a treasure chest. Not that I cared what he thought. ¡°If you insist, I can leave him outside, but it might make it take longer to resolve this. Do you have the time for that?¡± ¡°...Do as you wish,¡± spat out Itou in true annoyance. I leaned up against the wall in the smoking space of the factory grounds and mentioned what we had to do first. ¡°What matters most are the people. We need to gather everyone in one place.¡± ¡°What are you saying? Do you want us to release the remaining prisoners? They are negative existences to Kuroyama.¡± ¡°Unfortunately, I don¡¯t think that matters anymore.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°We were thinking about the basic structure of this all wrong.¡± I poked at the Sunekosuri¡¯s sulking cheek with my boot because he had stopped wagging his tail. ¡°I have a question for you. Which would be easier: causing over 8000 jailers and prisoners to disappear without a trace or to deceive just the few of us?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°I do. It is easier to assume we are the ones trapped by whatever is going on. I couldn¡¯t tell you if this is a dream, an illusion, the past, the future, a parallel world, or a miniature world, though.¡± Whatever the trick was, if the person in control of this ¡°place¡± was in here with us, it would be best for everyone to monitor everyone else to keep them from taking action. It was possible the culprit was someone else and therefore outside of this ¡°place¡±, but if so, we would need to prove it and determine who it was we had to fight. Itou lightly clicked his tongue. ¡°A Youkai, hm?¡± ¡°Any ideas what kind it might be?¡± ¡°This corporate prison is not a health resort that makes use of nature. We camouflaged it as a high tech semiconductor factory to repel any interference of that sort. But it seems someone bypassed that in some way.¡± Itou¡¯s gaze turned toward the Sunekosuri. It seemed he really did not like that canine Youkai¡¯s presence. ¡°Understood. We will search for the person behind this. If your theory is correct, this is a very serious problem.¡± Itou turned around and disappeared down the hallway with a regulated pace. Finally, the Sunekosuri spoke up. ¡°C-can we really allow this!? This goes beyond a violation of human rights. They¡¯re forcibly locking up whistleblowers, the losers of conflicts between factions, and consumer groups!!¡± ¡°Why are you getting so worked up, Sunekosuri-chan? This is a large scale factory with a dorm intended to support low income workers. That¡¯s what the official documents say. Even if you photographed the prison block with a net-connected camera, it¡¯s possible no one would be caught.¡± The system behind it had originally been created to prevent the country¡¯s deindustrialization, but it had more recently been used to provide jobs to the rapidly-increasing numbers of domestic hikikomori to counteract the rise of labor costs in emerging nations. Many had hoped it would help decrease the amount of money spent on welfare, but as you can see, it ended up being completely misused. ¡°Humans are made so they cannot withstand truly doing nothing. But the general public is not aware of this fact. They will think those people ¡®have it easy¡¯ or are ¡®lazy¡¯.¡± The harshest treatment in a prison was solitary confinement. At first glance, a private room one did not have to share with a fellow prisoner might sound convenient, but after spending five to ten days doing nothing, having no one to speak to, and sitting in a small, dark room, the human mind would easily raise the white flag. Prison sentences could come with hard labor requirements or not, but most of those without the requirement would be unable to withstand doing nothing and request work of their own free will. Then again, this was all something you could never truly understand until you had been locked up yourself. That was why it could pass without suspicion on paper. ¡°According to the prison block¡¯s secret manual, the prisoners are usually locked in their private cells and not allowed to do anything. Only the most well behaved of the prisoners are allowed to clean the facility or are given free time in the decoy dorm block. This is done as camouflage so dust does not pile up in the rooms and they look lived in. ...If you get down to it, that¡¯s all this place is. This is not a gloomy facility where prisoners are tortured or executed. It is maintained so that everyone has clothing, food, and shelter, they are given opportunities to work and earn money, and an effort is made to keep their ties to society from being severed.¡± While they were all paid salaries in the official data, the prisoners never had a chance to spend that money and none of them even knew the bank account number it was transferred into. If the prisoners who did not have to do anything and therefore ¡°had it easy¡± felt cornered by the situation and committed suicide, the corporation was not responsible in the slightest. They had built up a foundation that allowed that excuse to be made. It was quite well constructed. ¡°How can you say that about a horrible facility with a suicide rate of over 85%!?¡± ¡°But the rest of the world does nothing about it. They just sigh and wonder how entitled these people must have been to give up when they were supported so comfortably with the people¡¯s tax money and were allowed to laze around in an air conditioned room all day.¡± ¡°That may be the false impression being given to the general public, but isn¡¯t that why we were sent here!?¡± ¡°Come on now. Hyakki Yakou asked me to investigate the situation in Four Mountains¡¯ semiconductor factory. If necessary, someone will make a decision once they receive my report. ...But this corporate prison is being run by human hands alone, so it might not be in Hyakki Yakou¡¯s jurisdiction.¡± ¡°How can you say that when you are an embodiment of unrestrained violence? With your skill, you could easily crush these villains.¡± ¡°But it is you and the rest of Hyakki Yakou who prevent the occult from being used so chaotically. Don¡¯t forget that.¡± My radio then emitted an electronic tone. It was from Itou, the supervisor from before. It seemed he had succeeded in gathering all the members who were left in the corporate prison...or more accurately, who had been taken from the real corporate prison. I walked to the indicated location along with the Sunekosuri. It seemed to be an employee cafeteria primarily meant for the jailers. Some beckoning cat bottle cap dolls were located here as well. Who¡¯s the one who collects those? The space contained a few long tables and folding chairs. At one end, a few men and women wearing identical workwear were gathered. Itou Takeru: age 65, male, jailer, and the head jailer who supervised the prison block. Yamada Ken: age 35, male, jailer, and guard for the materials shipment gate. Sakai Haruka: age 33, female, jailer, and guard for the main gate. Kurumaya Nozomi: age 24, female, jailer, and guard for the outdoor factory areas plus head of hard labor management. Tanishita Hajime: age 41, male, jailer, and monitor room worker sent from the Royal Security Company. Suzukawa Izumi: age 17, female, prisoner #0899, and sentenced to a 202 year imprisonment. Gogan Sakura: age 50, female, prisoner #1807, and sentenced to a 150 year imprisonment. Every single one of them was wearing the unfashionable factory work uniform, so they showed no real individuality. Then again, I was wearing the same thing. I did think something was wrong when the Sunekosuri stood out the most, though. Unsurprisingly, we could not hold a friendly conversation. Suzukawa and Gogan, the two prisoners, were glancing over toward the employee cafeteria¡¯s exit. ¡°You should probably give up that idea,¡± I pointed out in order to nip that problem in the bud. ¡°Most likely, the ones trapped by some technique are us and not the other 8000. If you escape outside the facility right now, what do you plan to do next? That would be like returning to your normal life with some strange hypnotism in your head. You would have no idea what might cause your destruction.¡± ¡°But this is the perfect chance for them if they were the ones behind this.¡± The one who said that was Yamada, a coward desperate to look intimidating so his opponent would not try to pick a fight with him. Not that that mattered. Yamada-chi glared back and forth between the two prisoners Suzukawa Izumi and Gogan Sakura. ¡°They trapped us in whatever this is so they can get outside while the security network isn¡¯t functioning! That makes this simple. If we kill the source, we¡¯ll be sent back to where we came from!!¡± ¡°What if we need a cancellation key only the person who did this knows? We might be stuck living out the rest of our life spans in this empty world devoid of any other human life.¡± ¡°Gh,¡± groaned the cowardly Yamada Ken before falling silent. Kurumaya Nozomi, another of the jailers, looked over at me nervously. ¡°I-I think there is someone...even more suspicious than the prisoners. In fact, I don¡¯t see how...how the prisoners could assemble a Youkai¡¯s power into a Package while being so strictly monitored.¡± ¡°Who do you think is suspicious?¡± urged Itou the supervisor. Kurumaya¡¯s shoulders jumped slightly and her wandering gaze turned back toward me. Sakai Haruka, a female jailer with heavy makeup, held her hands together and raised her index finger. ¡°Hah hahn. That¡¯s a good point. This bizarre phenomenon occurred once you two arrived. I suppose the outsiders would be the most suspicious.¡± ¡°We do agree you should suspect us as much as anyone,¡± I said gently before continuing in a sharp tone. ¡°But if I did this, would I really suggest having everyone gather here? If I had the prisoners left in solitary confinement and another bizarre phenomenon occurred during our strategy meeting, don¡¯t you think suspicion would turn toward the prisoners?¡± ¡°You intentionally didn¡¯t do that so you could use that fact to turn suspicion away from you!!¡± ¡°An excellent point!!¡± Sakai had tried to use that to press me even further, but my sudden announcement left her confused. I ignored that woman in her thirties with gaudy makeup and quickly continued speaking. ¡°Whoever is behind this large scale plan will be after something more than causing a small panic. There has to be something else coming that they are truly after. With that in mind, why were we chosen? Can you think of any common factors between us?¡± ¡°Now that you mention it,¡± said the male jailor Tanishita Hajime as he nervously toyed with his glasses. ¡°It would have been simpler if it was almost entirely jailers or prisoners, but there are a few of each. And our posts and positions are all different. I can¡¯t think of any common factor.¡± ¡°Yes, yes. And to drive that home, the Sunekosuri and I are outsiders.¡± There was also the fact that my sister and the detective were here too, but that was a secret. To be honest, there was a possibility the core of this phenomenon was outside the corporate prison, but it would be best to search through the strictly guarded prison while my guest ID was valid. ¡°...¡± Naturally, the jailer group controlled the conversation and Suzukawa Izumi and Gogan Sakura of the prisoner group both remained silent. They were drinking cold water from a water server in one corner of the employee cafeteria. It was one of those things with an upside down tank about the size of a daruma doll and a faucet attached. It had an incredibly vague label saying ¡°Clean Water from Near Kyushu¡±. Hm? But why is there a water server here in Four Mountains? It bothered me a bit, but I had to focus on the conversation. ¡°It is unclear who the culprit was trying to make vanish. It¡¯s possible they wanted to make themselves vanish. However, they included people clearly unrelated to their ultimate goal. Why is that?¡± ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± asked Itou with a frown. The nervous-looking jailer Kurumaya Nozomi continued by saying, ¡°Wh-what if the people near the target happened to be swallowed up as well?¡± ¡°Even though the jailers here are from different posts and positions and the prisoners can¡¯t leave their cells? Even though this group would never have gathered in one place like this otherwise?¡± I shrugged. ¡°In fact, if you could freely choose any target, why not make only yourself disappear? That would give you the freedom to move wherever you wanted in the factory or even outside it. But the culprit didn¡¯t do that. They involved others. Why?¡± This was not simply a prisoner¡¯s jailbreak plan. The jailers had no reason to mess with the security of the corporate prison. Any prison held the risk of the workers being killed in a riot. Unless of course, a jailer wanted to kill another jailer or a jailer wanted to elope with a prisoner they had fallen in love with. ¡°The culprit needed to include some kind of target in this as well as themselves. Normally, just involving themselves and the target would be the simplest method. However, that would give away who caused it right away. In that case, they would need to mix in a few outsiders to hide themselves.¡± ¡°Is that why it¡¯s a mix of jailers and prisoners and why we¡¯re all from different posts?¡± I nodded toward the cowardly Yamada-kun. We were the padding characters in a mystery novel. With the Sunekosuri and me, there were nine people. That was just about the perfect number. Everyone looked suspicious and the number was low enough that you could recall all of the characters¡¯ faces without going over a list. ¡°With a Youkai Package, hundreds of people work together to assemble a single criminal system. However, both the jailers and prisoners had enough people to pull that off. The preparations could have been made here in this semiconductor factory...in this corporate prison.¡± I spread my arms. ¡°But as an outsider, I do not have detailed information on the inside of the prison and I would not notice any small changes. For example, I do not know what kinds of Youkai exist in this area. How about we discuss that sort of thing in search of a clue? C¡¯mon, even simple rumors are enough.¡± Itou Takeru, Yamada Ken, Sakai Haruka, Kurumaya Nozomi, Tanishita Hajime, Suzukawa Izumi, and Gogan Sakura exchanged glances. However, there was no trust in their eyes. They were staring at each other with suspicion deep in their hearts. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about Youkai. Are you sure it wasn¡¯t something brought in from somewhere else?¡± ¡°I-I¡¯ve never looked in the forest, though.¡± The jailers cautiously spoke up, but the prisoners remained silent. That was not surprising. The ones who did not want to draw closer to everyone else were the prisoners who had been oppressed before. Plus, I was continuing to play the role of a jailer. They did not want to do what I said. But that was a problem. ¡°What about you two?¡± ¡°What? Do you two know something?¡± ¡°I...¡± It happened just as the high school aged girl prisoner began speaking. With no warning, the sole of Yamada Ken¡¯s shoe suddenly jammed directly into the girl¡¯s solar plexus. ¡°G-geh!! Cough cough...!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mumble and hide shit from us! Who do you think you are!?¡± As Suzukawa Izumi fell to her knees and held her stomach with both hands, Coward-kun went in for another kick. The other prisoner suddenly cut in. ¡°Wait! Didn¡¯t you hear her start to say something!?¡± ¡°Then why didn¡¯t she say it from the beginning instead of trying to hide it!? If we tell you to show us everything your hiding, it¡¯s your job to show us everything down to your asshole! That goes for you too, you old bitch. Who do you think you¡¯re talking to!? If you do anything to upset me, I might just break both your legs!!¡± ...Ahh ahh, does he not understand the situation here? If the culprit was one of us, it was entirely possible the game master behind it all could be one of the prisoners. Mystery novels were my sister¡¯s territory, but the culprit would often commit a murder not in the original plan if things grew inconvenient. And even if the culprit was one of the jailers, the odds were not all that low that they would decide to kill the person causing trouble for the prisoners to divert suspicion away from themselves. That would send everyone¡¯s suspicion toward the prisoners. Sunekosuri-chan. Stop letting out that rare growl toward that lame coward over there. He¡¯s probably the first to die even if we do nothing. ¡°I-I know...¡± began Suzukawa Izumi while faintly breathing and being held in Gogan Sakura¡¯s arms. ¡°I know of a rumor passed between the prisoners about a fr-free pass. I don¡¯t know what it is, but it seems there¡¯s a special category of the well-behaved prisoners who are chosen to go above ground to clean. If they return by assembly time, they are free to leave the factory grounds.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t make shit up!!¡± I held out a hand to calm down the ¡°badass¡± Yamada-chan who was about to grow violent again. ¡°What about you?¡± I asked the prisoner in her fifties. ¡°I have heard of the free pass.¡± ¡°Even though you are all in solitary confinement?¡± ¡°It is possible to speak with the other prisoners while cleaning outdoors. That refreshing feeling is one of the reasons that periodically acquiring the ticket for cleaning duty is the difference between living on and being driven to suicide.¡± Gogan Sakura turned a blatantly hostile look toward Yamada. ¡°But I do not know if it actually exists or not. It might be a rumor the jailers tell to toy with the prisoners or it might be a lie one prisoner made up to take advantage of another.¡± In a corporate prison without money or stores, I saw little reason for fraud. Or... Perhaps without any money, something else held value in this prison. When I asked, Itou Takeru the head jailer sighed in annoyance ¡°I have occasionally heard of alcohol showing up. Both those selling it and those buying it are ¡®dealt with¡¯ as soon as it is found.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t too uncommon.¡± Secretly making wine or brandy or growing hallucinogenic mushrooms was common in prisons where few pleasures were to be found. It was well known enough to appear in mafia movies. I was not surprised to hear something similar had occurred in this corporate prison. ¡°Alcohol is not something that can simply be left in place. The temperature and humidity need to be carefully managed. To adjust for that, wouldn¡¯t someone need to use this free pass to periodically check on the barrel?¡± ¡°Perhaps. By the way, have you ever found the secret distillery itself?¡± I had meant it as a casual question, but Itou Takeru¡¯s shoulders drooped. Cowardly Yamada-kun and gaudy Sakai looked awkwardly away from the old man. I sighed and said, ¡°If they were able to hide that, they could have hidden other things as well, right?¡± ¡°Alcohol can be used to make money. We had feared one of the delivery workers that brings parts in from outside might be involved. Then again, the system we have created is not one that allows a jailbreak with only a shovel.¡± ¡°Yet that security was completely useless when a Youkai was involved.¡± Instead of Itou the head jailer, all of the subordinate jailers glared at me. It seemed none of them wanted me to give him a reason to grow angry. I continued regardless. ¡°Then maybe we should start there. Where was this occasional supply of alcohol made? If we know where it was hidden, we might find signs of some other trick.¡± ¡°We checked,¡± said cowardly Yamada-kun in annoyance. ¡°We checked every inch within the walls! Our only achievement was finding some termites. We didn¡¯t find any barrels. And I¡¯ve never seen any suspicious Youkai or anything.¡± ¡°U-um, we could check over everything again now, but it might take more than a day with the number of people we have,¡± added Kurumaya-chan, the nervous female jailer. I simply replied, ¡°Then maybe there isn¡¯t anything within the walls.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one that brought it up! You keep jumping from topic to topic!¡± ¡°I only said it isn¡¯t within the walls. Could the distillery be hidden outside the walls?¡± After all, the Four Mountains area was a clean water jug for the semiconductor factory. It contained nothing but overly untouched nature and an abandoned village that had been submerged in bloodshed several decades ago. There were more than enough places to hide a distillery, acquire a Youkai, or put together a Package. ¡°It¡¯s possible,¡± agreed Itou while sounding annoyed. ¡°But that leaves the crucial question of how they periodically left the walls.¡± ¡°That would be the free pass. It seems to have been even more convenient than we thought.¡± The jailer group turned toward Suzukawa Izumi and Gogan Sakura. The high school aged Suzukawa shrank back. ¡°H-how should we know!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. And if this free pass really exists, why would they come and go? Why not leave once and then run off?¡± That was exactly right. However... ¡°If the person using the free pass was planning a large scale jailbreak, escaping alone would not be their ultimate goal.¡± ¡°Wha-...!?¡± ¡°That means the prisoners really are the most suspicious!!¡± Cowardly Yamada seemed to mistakenly think his IQ would go up every time he grew violent because he tried to lash out at Suzukawa-chan again. I spoke up to stop him. ¡°However, nothing says only the prisoner group could use the free pass. If there is a way to get a heavily guarded prisoner outside the prison walls, one of the jailers could easily sneak out as well.¡± ¡°Wait, wait, wait!! This is no time to be joking around. Why the hell would we need to do that!?¡± ¡°Maybe you were dissatisfied with the prison¡¯s power structure or you were following some idea of justice. There were several thousand jailers, after all. It wouldn¡¯t be surprising if one or two felt sorry for the prisoners and tried to destroy the system here.¡± Was it one of the jailers, one of the prisoners, or some newly-formed group spanning both sides that wished to destroy the corporate prison? Itou Takeru, the head jailer and supervisor, could not have liked the sound of any the possibilities. Or was he intentionally giving off such a nervous aura to turn suspicion elsewhere? ¡°By the way, do you have any ideas concerning this free pass?¡± ¡°I doubt there is a hole through the walls and your security is not foolish enough to allow a tunnel to be made, right?¡± ¡°Of course not!? Are you fucking with us!?¡± ¡°In that case,¡± I said while winking and resisting the urge to cover my ears. ¡°Keep in mind that this facility functions as a semiconductor factory, so it is not a completely isolated and closed off place. Materials are brought in and products and waste are brought out. Would it be easy to hide in one of those trucks?¡± A few of the jailers turned toward Sakai Haruka¡¯s gaudy face. Come to think of it, she managed the main gate. ¡°Wait, wait, please wait! We check through every single truck! Anyone would think of that!!¡± ¡°I thought as much. But there is a corporate prison truck that has to be kept secret mixed in with the official semiconductor factory trucks. That one goes without an inspection, right?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°A truck is needed to dispose of the dead. I hear prisoners die here quite frequently, but you don¡¯t just bury them around here, do you? You must have a corpse disposal infrastructure. There has to be some cycle set up to quickly and surely dispose of them. Am I wrong?¡± Itou Takeru, the head jailer, clicked his tongue. The look on his face plainly said he did not want to explain this. ¡°Any corpses in an unusual state for suicide are left to another division in Kuroyama. We freeze them and load them aboard a refrigerated truck.¡± ¡°Do you know what happens after that?¡± ¡°I have had it explained to me, but I have never been involved in it myself. They completely freeze them with liquid nitrogen or something and smash them to pieces. Supposedly, they are turned into a sherbet, bones and all. This is made into fish food. Kuroyama makes electronics, so it runs tons of freighters. In the middle of international waters, the fish food is scattered into the ocean, so no one is aware of it.¡± The two prisoners, Suzukawa Izumi and Gogan Sakura, both paled. I looked down at the Sunekosuri who looked oddly irritated. ¡°So someone could hide inside the corpse-filled truck and not be found. I don¡¯t know how often the trucks come and go, but someone could make it back the same day if it¡¯s more than twice a day. Right?¡± However... If that thinking was accurate, the situation was very bad. Even the corporate prison grounds were too large for us to search through in a day. Now it was possible the area had expanded to the entirety of the Four Mountains area. We would of course eventually find the answer if we performed a thorough search. But would the culprit wait that long? They could cause mysterious phenomena as much they wanted, so wouldn¡¯t they block us from reaching their mysterious hiding spot and cleverly work to achieve their goal? ¡°What the hell?¡± muttered cowardly Yamada in annoyance. ¡°Outside the prison? Is some ghost of Zenmetsu Village wandering around?¡± ¡°Now that you mention it.¡± Inspired by cowardly Yamada¡¯s comment, the prisoner Gogan Sakura spoke up. ¡°I heard something about a ghost of Zenmetsu Village.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°The semiconductor factory ¨C or rather, the corporate prison ¨C is made up of people who came from outside Four Mountains. Eight thousand people work and live here, but they are all outsiders.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°But I hear there is one mixed in,¡± said Gogan Sakura while stroking the girl¡¯s back. ¡°I do not know if it is a jailer or prisoner, but there is a survivor of the slaughter in Zenmetsu Village somewhere in here.¡± The atmosphere suddenly froze over. It seemed the incident at Zenmetsu Village was a taboo topic here. I was curious what these people had to be afraid of when they had created this corporate prison that systematically mass produced suicides by giving people nothing to do. ¡°That¡¯s just a ridiculous rumor and desire,¡± spat out Itou Takeru the supervisor. ¡°Let me guess. Does the story claim this survivor is waiting for a chance to take revenge against those living comfortably in the factory? It¡¯s just a dream of someone doing to the jailers what the prisoners cannot.¡± ¡°Th-that¡¯s right. And the incident at Zenmetsu Village happened 30 years ago during the conflict between the villagers and the corporation over who could use the underground water. To have been around back then, they would need to be-...¡± The nervous jailer Kurumaya Nozomi trailed off and her face paled in shock. That¡¯s right. Itou Takeru is a dandy in his fifties. ¡°Ridiculous.¡± ¡°Well, that would make me a suspect, too,¡± laughed the middle-aged Gogan Sakura self-deprecatingly. ¡°And the term ¡®survivor¡¯ is pretty vague in the first place. I¡¯ve also heard versions of the rumor that say a survivor sent a descendent to the factory, so age might not be much help. The rumors are clear about one thing though: this person is definitely here.¡± I see. So is the murderer taking a U-turn? No, Itou mentioned taking revenge against those in the factory, so maybe Zenmetsu Village was systematically wiped out by an assassination group hired by the corporation. If that¡¯s the case, it might be time to add a subtitle saying ¡°the true murderer has arrived!¡± ¡°Heh! That¡¯s just a dream of you losers!! That¡¯s just you pathetic prisoners coming up with a convenient hero in your heads because you can¡¯t do anything yourselves!!¡± ¡°It does not sound convenient to me,¡± replied the prisoner Suzukawa Izumi as if spitting out the words. She averted her gaze from cowardly Yamada. ¡°After all, some of the rumors say the survivor of Zenmetsu Village will indiscriminately slaughter both jailers and prisoners.¡± Now, everything had warmed up nicely. There were three things we needed to look into for the moment. 1. What Youkai had carried out this bizarre phenomenon? 2. Was the rumor of a free pass true? 3. Was there really a survivor of Zenmetsu Village within the factory? Of course, the biggest question was the following: Who was the culprit behind all this? Part 19 (Jinnai Shinobu) Sounds similar to people walking through the dead grass continued through the run-down shacks in the remains of the village. Madoka tugged on arm to get me to run, but I could not move. This was partly due to my hips feeling like they were going to give out. But this intense fear also made me want to see what this was. I wanted to sweep it away. I could not stand any more, so I wanted to settle everything here. That pessimistic courage led me to focus on what lay beyond the thick fog. And... I saw something glitter at a very, very low position through the fog. It was as low as someone¡¯s shoelaces. ...Metallic luster? The identity of what was approaching showed itself. It was not troops from the Kuroyama Electronics Group as Yokoeda Tadashi had suggested. ¡°Sn-snakes?¡± said Madoka in confusion. ¡°Shinobu-kun, it¡¯s a swarm of snakes!! They¡¯re everywhere!!¡± She was exactly right. They were black snakes about 30 centimeters long and about as thick as a little finger. They spread out enough to cover one entire compass direction. Humans tended to view something in large enough numbers as a single whole and give it special meaning. For example, a city nightscape. This was the same. The writhing mass of snakes had become something different from simple reptiles. They were a single monster. A sense of disgust rushed from the tips of my fingers and up the thick nerves of my spine. Madoka¡¯s face paled and she shouted out. ¡°We need to go, Shinobu-kun. We don¡¯t know what kind of snakes these are. They might be venomous! If we¡¯re bit here, we have no way of being treated!¡± ¡°No, wait a second...¡± The snakes had something like a gold ring around their heads. Every single one of the snakes had this artificial sign that would never be seen on a wild snake. Where have I seen something like this...? ¡°That¡¯s right! Below the floor in Zenmetsu Village! A broken jar had held a bunch of gold rings. Are those the same as what¡¯s on these snakes!?¡± If so, did that mean these snakes had been raised in the houses of Zenmetsu Village? A large number of snakes, a jar, and gold rings. What is this? I feel like I¡¯ve heard something similar to this before. Dammit. It¡¯s right on the tip of my tongue... ¡°Shinobu-kun!!¡± When Madoka shouted at me from close by once more, I finally realized the swarm of snakes was about to reach my feet. ¡°Wah!¡± I frantically jumped back and left with Madoka. We ran. We fled. We did not know where Yokoeda Tadashi had gone, but we did not have time to search for him. We ran through the thick fog in a random direction. ¡°Y-you¡¯ve got to be kidding me. We¡¯ve been doing nothing but running around! And without any chance for warm up exercises. I had better not get a leg cramp and hurt my Achilles tendon.¡± ¡°Hey, where are we?¡± We ran and ran and ran and ran. By the time I suddenly came to a stop, the run-down shacks were nowhere to be found. Only the rotten dead grass continued on ahead of us. The fog did not help, but the lack of any visible landmarks was more frightening than I would have thought. It felt like being abandoned in the middle of a desert. ¡°I don¡¯t know. We haven¡¯t run all the way to Mars, have we?¡± ¡°I think I see something up ahead.¡± After catching our breath, Madoka and I headed deeper into the fog. Something was neatly lined up like desks in a classroom. They were giant stones. ¡°...Another graveyard? We already saw one.¡± ¡°But this isn¡¯t the same place as before. The surface of these gravestones looks a lot more carefully carved. Did they have some reason for splitting their graveyard into two places? If Yokoeda Tadashi was with us, we might have been able to ask him, but he was nowhere to be seen. Also, these gravestones did not really matter at the moment. We had no idea when that swarm of snakes would arrive and there could easily be more than one swarm. In the worst case, the entire Four Mountains area could be the snakes¡¯ habitat and they could fill the entire area. I was worried about our classmates, but this was no situation in which to begin a random search. We had to ensure our own safety first. We walked past the graveyards and the feel of the area changed. Everything was still falling apart, but a wall made of piled up stones cut across. It did not match my impression of the people who had lived in storage shed sized houses made of plywood and galvanized sheet iron. It felt like the basic standard had suddenly shot up. ¡°It looks like we can get in here,¡± said Madoka. Instead of a gate, she had found a crumbled area of the wall. We stepped over it and continued on. Two thick wooden pillars stood side by side. Madoka commented that they looked like a torii. This was not an explosion of deductive reasoning on her part. Beyond it, we found a wooden shrine that had been crushed into nothing but a pile of wood. Compared to the plywood and iron from before, the building had likely had a fair bit of style. If it had not been smashed into pieces, that is. The shrine had been smashed down to its foundation and the pile of wooden material had plenty of parts that had been scorched black. It would take quite a bit of persistence to destroy a building to this extent. ¡°Why would you destroy a shrine? What happened?¡± ¡°Was there a coup d¡¯etat by the people?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well, the grade of the shrine was clearly greater than those dilapidated shacks. There must have been a pretty big class divide. If you cannot resolve your dissatisfaction, it simply builds up. Once it passed a certain level, it can explode out in the form of physical violence.¡± We circled around the destroyed shrine and realized a few houses existed beyond it. That¡¯s right. Houses. These large rural houses were a lot like my own thatch-roof house. They were quite different from the plywood and iron shacks. It seemed the people belonging to a special class had been gathered within that stone wall. But unlike the shrine, these houses had not been destroyed. The thatch roofs had rotted away from neglect and about half of the roofs had crumbled into the buildings, but that was simply due to the passage of time. There was no sign of blunt weapons breaking pillars or fires being set like there was with the shrine. ¡°It looks like that shrine received special treatment.¡± ¡°These are a lot different from the plywood and iron shacks from before. These buildings make me think the owners had some money.¡± Really? I had lived in an Intellectual Village¡¯s thatch-roof house all my life, so I did not actually know how much a house like this was worth. How much would one of these cost? ¡°But these houses are falling apart as much as the others, so I doubt they can protect us from those snakes.¡± I stepped inside one of the houses with my shoes on. The wood floor of the hallway creaked so much I was worried about breaking through. I could see old dressers and hanging scrolls, so it had a very different atmosphere to the plywood houses where people had seemed barely able to survive. ¡°They look wealthy enough, but they still didn¡¯t have gas or running water.¡± ¡°There¡¯s something that looks like a hastily written account book again.¡± I touched a bundle of Japanese paper placed on the wall. I used my phone to photograph a few of the pages that looked like they were about to crumble from the moisture. I stepped into the kitchen that had a furnace and a giant water jug. That was a sight you did not even see in an Intellectual Village. I crouched down and tapped on the floor. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°I thought there might be one here too.¡± After I checked around a bit, I found a spot that made a different noise. I slid my hand across and found a rusty latch. It was a door to a storage area under the floor. I pulled it open and found a small rectangular space. And inside... ¡°Look at that jar. It¡¯s on its side, but it isn¡¯t broken yet.¡± ¡°Are those things spilling out of the jar the gold rings that were on those snakes¡¯ heads?¡± I had a feeling those snakes were some kind of Youkai. I scooped up the jar from the storage area. It must have held quite a few gold rings because it made a jangling noise when I shook it slightly. A piece of Japanese paper that had yellowed with age was attached to the side of the jar. The characters were written too sloppily to read, but they appeared to be the same as the ones from that plywood shack. The paper had two kanji on it. ¡°...Tou? I think that first kanji is Tou.¡± ¡°But the second one is way too complex to read. I¡¯m not even sure if that¡¯s a kanji we use anymore.¡± These jars existed in both the wealthy houses and the plywood shacks. The jars contained gold rings identical to the ones on that swarm of snakes. Are those snakes a Youkai that sticks with a house like a Zashiki Warashi? However... I had never heard of a Zashiki Warashi that continued protecting a house even after its residents were gone. From what I had seen of Zenmetsu Village, a house Youkai would have no reason to remain here for decades afterwards. The only exception was Yokoeda Tadashi who had lived here the entire time. But he had mistaken the swarm of snakes for human assassins, so it seemed unlikely that he was those snakes¡¯ family and that they were all under his control. Thirty years before, the villagers of Zenmetsu Village had been slaughtered. If those were normal snakes, those gold rings would have to be placed on any new snakes as they were born, but Yokoeda Tadashi, the only person here, did not seem to know about them. That left no one to put those gold rings on them. Yet all of those countless snakes had the gold rings. Were they always like that? Are they Youkai that never age and never change form? ¡°What should we do now?¡± asked Madoka. ¡°This is probably the most extravagant and sturdiest part of the village. ...Even this wealthy district is falling apart. If those snakes arrive again, they will be able to get in through all the gaps.¡± ¡°True. Just hiding isn¡¯t going to cut it.¡± ¡°Where should we go?¡± ¡°If those snakes are a type of Youkai, there might be some kind of text explaining how to use them. And conveniently enough, this is the home of some of the most influential people of the village.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s all written so sloppily we cannot read it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s better than not trying at all.¡± After all, Youkai could not be killed by any normal means. Making a Molotov cocktail from the fuel in the generator outside would not be enough to protect us. There was only one way to deal with Youkai: investigate the characteristics of that type and remove yourself from the conditions causing them to attack you. And so Madoka and I began a thorough search of the mansion. We passed by a pillar that was bent like a bow, crouched below a rotting ceiling that looked like it could collapse at any moment, watched it actually collapse behind us, and walked across rotten straw from the thatch roof. A few documents stored in an old bookshelf were still intact, but everything else was much more difficult to deal with. Most of them had fused into a single mass like a bundle of wet toilet paper. ¡°But we can¡¯t read any of this...¡± ¡°I told you.¡± Madoka tossed a bundle of Japanese paper aside and leaned up against a nearby wall. And then she disappeared. Or so it seemed. She had actually broken through the rotten mud wall and fallen backwards out of the building. ¡°Gyah!!¡± ¡°Try for a cute ¡®kyahn!¡¯ next time, Madoka!¡± I ran out the square hole that had once held a sliding door and ran over to where she had fallen out into the backyard. Madoka was lying on her back while covered in rotten building material. For better or for worse, the squishy material seemed to have cushioned her head. Her uniform¡¯s skirt was flipped up by quite a bit, revealing gray boxer shorts that were so disappointing I wanted to cry. The world grew dark before my eyes. ¡°You idiot!! Do you think you¡¯re a guy!?¡± ¡°But this is more comfortable! And it matches the sports bra!! And why are you the one getting angry when my underwear is on full display!? ...Wait.¡± Madoka then seemed to spot something. She pointed through the fog. ¡°Shinobu-kun, look at that.¡± ¡°Hm? What is it?¡± I had not noticed it before, but it seemed a sharp upward slope began right behind the house. It was either a cliff or one of the mountains around Four Mountains. But Madoka had not been referring to it. ¡°No, that over there.¡± She pointed at the same spot once more. ¡°There is a cave.¡± Part 20 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) We had decided to drive to a service area where we could use our cell phones to gather data. But that plan quickly failed. It happened once we had arrived near the interchange. ¡°Dammit, what is going on?¡± Our speed dropped and then the engine suddenly died. ¡°You¡¯re kidding! Did the battery give out!?¡± ¡°The light wasn¡¯t on, though.¡± Sitting around in the driver¡¯s seat was not going to fix anything, so I left the mystery freak in the car and stepped outside. I wanted to know if this was something I could fix with the tools in the rental car, so I opened the hood to check the engine. As soon as the metal hood lifted up... I spotted a ton of strange snakes filling the engine area. ¡°Wah! Ah!?¡± I instinctually jerked my hands away from the hood. The metal hood fell down with a loud bang. Enbi¡¯s eyes opened wide because she did not know what was happening, but I did not have time to worry about that. The hood had not fully closed. Black snakes as thick as a little finger came crawling out as if overflowing through the remaining gap. It was such a repulsive sight that I tripped and fell onto my butt as I tried to back away. Is this what caused the engine to stall? No wild animal would want to get inside there! And how were they not fried from being in there!? As if in opposition to my sensible question, black snake after black snake plopped down on the road with no visible sign of burns. None of the rules I knew applied here. This gave me an intensely bad feeling. My eyes met with the eyes of one of those black snakes that all had something like a gold ring around their heads. These were creatures that could not be killed with normal means. It can¡¯t be... Are these... ¡°Youkai...?¡± As soon as I uttered that word, the dozens of snakes vanished as if they had dissolved into the fog. They had not simply fled. They had clearly vanished on the spot like dry ice. The mystery freak must have realized something was wrong because she got out of the passenger seat. ¡°Detective, what¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°Well...¡± I was unsure I could accurately explain what had happened. I was half ready to decide it was a hallucination caused by exhaustion. However... ¡°Huh? Something¡¯s stuck in the hood.¡± I gave a start because I thought one of those snakes might still be there, but it seemed that was not the case. ¡°It¡¯s a sneaker.¡± ¡°A sneaker?¡± I stood up with a puzzled look. The mystery freak opened the hood a bit to pull out a white sneaker. It was only the right sneaker. Its design was plain, but I recognized it. ¡°That goes with a prisoner uniform.¡± ¡°So does it belong to Hasebe Michio?¡± Enbi and I exchanged a glance. I undid the button on the sneaker¡¯s clasp, removed the lining, and checked through it. My fingertips came across a small folded scrap of paper. ¡°Detective...¡± ¡°Don¡¯t look at me. If you have any complaints, take them to the prison guard in charge of checking over him.¡± Once unfolded, the paper was the size of a business card. It looked like a piece torn from notebook or memo pad paper. A simple map was drawn on it. It looked like the Four Mountains area, but it did not have the semiconductor factory marked despite that being the biggest landmark. Instead... ¡°What¡¯s this X?¡± ¡°It certainly looks suspicious.¡± I got back in the car and turned the key, but the engine still refused to start. It seemed best to put off the trip to the service area until later. I did not like how it seemed we were being guided by those snake Youkai, but I decided to check the X on the map hidden in Hasebe¡¯s sneaker. Part 21 (Hishigami Mai) I think it¡¯s just about time for Mai-chan to take her turn. As we all monitored each other in the large employee cafeteria, I embraced the Sunekosuri that had been rubbing up against my legs. I whispered, ¡°(The power is going to go out soon and I will kill one of them.)¡± ¡°Bh!?¡± The Sunekosuri almost spat out in surprise. ¡°(What!? Wh-wh-wh-wh-what!?¡±)¡± ¡°(I sabotaged a breaker on the way here. This cafeteria has no windows, so it will be pitch black in here. The factory block will keep running, but the living areas will have a normal blackout.)¡± This was like a game where a Kitsune and a Tanuki were trying to trick each other. Unless I shook things up a bit, no one would make any mistakes. My interpretation was that most of those here had no real connection to the incident. They were filler characters meant to make the real culprit harder to find. Killing them would not make this any better or worse. And so I had decided to kill the most powerful of those I had decided were definitely unrelated to the incident. My choice was Itou Takeru. He was the supervisor in charge of the entire corporate prison, so he had no reason to rely on a supernatural Youkai. He could freely kill a few people whether they were prisoners or jailers and he had a perfect method of disposing of the corpses using the system put in place by the Kuroyama Electronics Group. He was a top rank candidate for the culprit¡¯s target, but I was not trying to help the culprit. If I killed Itou before they could, that was not my problem. The prisoners were one thing, but the jailers would definitely be shaken if the fellow jailer with the most authority suddenly died. And if you ignored the Sunekosuri and me, there were five jailers versus two prisoners. The jailers were in the majority, so if they panicked, the fear and shock would be transferred to the prisoners. That was the scary thing about groups. And so I was going to kill Itou Takeru-san for a variety of reasons. I hope you can forgive me. ¡°(B-before you said you couldn¡¯t kill them!)¡± ¡°(Not if it isn¡¯t absolutely necessary. I am doing this to reveal the truth of this bizarre phenomenon related to a Youkai, not to reveal the secrets of the corporate prison. That means I can have Hyakki Yakou clean up after me.)¡± ¡°(What happened to figuring out who the culprit is!? You even had everyone gather here!)¡± ¡°(What? Who ever said that was my plan? I was only pretending to handle this with logic in preparation for my real plan. Remember, my standard method is to handle everything with violence.)¡± ¡°(B-but you¡¯re an outsider. You aren¡¯t a prisoner or a jailer. If something goes wrong, they will blame you first.)¡± ¡°(True.)¡± I grinned. ¡°(But what if that most suspicious person was killed? The group that was keeping calm by thinking of me as the villain would fall apart. And if one of those people is in control of the occult here, they will panic. And so they will use the occult that protects them even if they do not want to.)¡± ¡°(Wh-what do you mean killed?)¡± ¡°(The parking lot out front is filled with cars. I will board one and try to escape, but the car will explode spectacularly.)¡± Cowardly Yamada must have grown irritated by our whispering because he clicked his tongue loudly. Of course, I was whispering in front of everyone because I wanted to look as suspicious as possible. ¡°Hey, what¡¯re you talking about over there?¡± ¡°You will see soon enough.¡± I shrugged while still holding the Sunekosuri. Immediately afterwards, the area was filled with darkness thanks to the sabotage to the breaker. Okay, time to go. Having to prove to the masses that your enemy had done something wrong before you attacked was only a rule in the territory my sister and that detective worked in. For those that worked in secret like me, it was often the case that nothing else mattered as long as you uncovered the culprit in the very, very end. Part 22 (Jinnai Shinobu) A cave. When I heard that, my expression must have been one of great displeasure. It was dangerous enough searching through the half-crumbled, half-collapsed house that was not up to earthquake standards or any other standards for that matter, but a natural cave was something else entirely. If you are imagining a limestone cave at a tourist spot that has a cool and mysterious mood year round, you are quite mistaken. A cave that has not been maintained by human hands would be filled with hundreds of bugs. There would be spiders, centipedes, pill bugs, slugs, snails, mosquitos, flies, and every type of roach you¡¯re used to seeing. No one would want to go into a gathering spot for so many grotesque creatures. On top of that, the ceiling could collapse at any time, the floor could collapse without warning, and overlooking a large crack could send you dropping upside down for several meters if not several dozen meters, scraping your body against a file-like wall all the while. There was also a danger of running out of oxygen or being exposed to poisonous volcanic gases. The scariest part was that these extremely dangerous areas often looked completely normal from the outside. Even if I grew trapped inside, how likely do you think it is someone would come and rescue me? The odds seemed slimmer than those of a tights-wearing American comic book superhero gallantly showing up to rescue me from a mugging. ¡°Listen, Madoka-san. A city-raised bourgeois like you might not be aware, but entering a cave is just as dangerous as crossing a crumbling suspension bridge that you can¡¯t even imagine how long ago it last underwent maintenance. You can¡¯t just walk into one as easily as taking shelter from the rain... Wait, Madoka? Madoka-san!?¡± She¡¯s gone!? Madoka, who had just broken out through the fragile wall of the house and rolled into the backyard, had disappeared at some point. As an unpleasant feeling raced up my back, I heard a girl¡¯s voice in the distance. ¡°Oh, it really is cool in here. But it kind of stinks. A bear doesn¡¯t sleep here, does it?¡± ¡°Get out of the cave!!¡± She went in on her own!? I peered into the two to three meter tall opening to the cave, but I could not see anything through the darkness. I doubted I would have been able to see anything even without the fog. ¡°Madoka! Madoka-saaan!! Leaving me alone in an abandoned village overflowing with the sense that it¡¯s cursed has about a 100% chance of making me piss myself, so could you come on back now!?¡± ¡°Eh? But this cave looks meaningful. It might lead us to a secret of Zenmetsu Village.¡± Meaningful? I frowned at what Madoka had said. As far as I could tell, this cave had not been maintained by human hands like some limestone cave. There was no torii, shimenawa, or stone monument with the cave¡¯s name. I could not see any evidence that this cave was viewed as special. ¡°Madoka, what are you talking about? Do you have any evidence?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°What do you mean it looks meaningful? This may be a confusing situation, but it didn¡¯t sound like you were using the word wrong.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Um, Madoka-san?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You¡¯re remaining silent to force me to come in after you, aren¡¯t you!?¡± Dammit. This devil of a classmate knows how to manipulate guys too well!! I was also saddened by how I had fallen for it and my heart had started to beat faster. At any rate, it seemed I needed to enter the cave, but I was too afraid to grope around in that pitch black cave. I wanted a source of light. ¡°That thing used diesel, right?¡± I circled around the outer wall of the house. There, I found a generator. It was rusted and falling apart, but a distinctive smell wafted out when I opened the fuel tank cover. I was exceedingly dubious whether it was of high enough quality to work in an engine, but it would likely still burn if you soaked it into a cloth and ignited it. If I just had a stick of wood and an old rag, I could make a torch. I acquire both items from the half-crumbled house and cautiously entered the cave with the light in hand. Wait, I just thought of something... Torches don¡¯t cause carbon monoxide poisoning like charcoal grills, do they? ¡°Damn this place is cramped.¡± The cave did not look like a river had worn it down bit by bit. That said, it did not look like people had dug it out either. Overall, the cave was shaped like a warped triangle. The ground below must have shifted during an earthquake and it got caught on something that was now supporting this space. In other words, it could easily all come crashing down at any moment. As I felt my balls shrivel up in fear, the orange light illuminated Madoka¡¯s body. It seemed she had been quite close by. She had only been about 15 meters from the entrance. ¡°Oh, Shinobu-kun. A torch is quite the wild option. I was doing my best with the backlight of my cell phone.¡± Madoka was grinning as if she had no fear in her heart at all. It may have been because she had no balls to shrivel up in fear. ¡°How could you light up your phone in a place that could be filled with hundreds of disgusting bugs, rats, and bats? Animals tend to move toward light. What would you have done if they all rushed toward you at once? You would be transformed into some kind of frightening insect human.¡± ¡°Ugeh. That can happen? But what about your torch, Shinobu-kun?¡± ¡°The danger is still there, but the fire can be used as a weapon. I can at least wave it around and run for the exit.¡± ¡°Wow, what an outdoorsman. To be honest, my opinion of you just went up. Can you cook a meal over a campfire?¡± Is that so? Maybe I should be honored to have a financial monster like you say that. However... ¡°But it looks like there was nothing to worry about. I¡¯ve lit up all the walls around here, but I haven¡¯t seen an insect or any other creature.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that odd, though?¡± After all, if there were not hundreds of insects here, there had to be a reason for the insects to not be here. I grew a bit concerned the dangers of low oxygen or volcanic gases were about to make themselves known. My torch consumed oxygen, so the flame weakening considerably would warn us if the oxygen levels were dropping. The volcanic gases were the worst option. By the time we realized something was wrong, it would probably already be too late. ¡°Madoka, this seems pretty dangerous. There has to be something keeping away those disgusting bugs that not even insecticides can kill. We need to get out of here.¡± ¡°I think we should be fine.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Look, there¡¯s light over there. That means there¡¯s an exit.¡± Madoka suddenly pointed to the side. She was standing at a T-shaped intersection. ¡°With where we came in and that exit right over there, air has plenty of paths to blow through. Gas wouldn¡¯t build up in here.¡± It seemed the cave was not all that large. I held out the torch to wipe away the darkness before me and found it reached a dead end after only about 10 meters. Even if you added in the distance to where we had entered, that was only about 25 meters. ¡°This place is surprisingly small.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Hmm. And I was sure this place was meaningful.¡± ¡°Are you disappointed you didn¡¯t find a legendary dragon or some thieves¡¯ hidden treasure?¡± ¡°No, not that.¡± Madoka raised her index finger. ¡°This cave may be natural, but it was located right next to a house that probably belonged to one of the village¡¯s ruling class. If it was only an eyesore, they could have had the villagers fill in the entrance.¡± ¡°Hm? Well, I suppose... But you saw that village. They didn¡¯t have the leeway in their lifestyle for designing an aesthetic garden.¡± ¡°Perhaps, but the ruling class would be able to build their house wherever they wanted in Four Mountains. It¡¯s odd for their choice of the optimum land to be near a cave.¡± ¡°I see. That does sound meaningful.¡± I would never want to live near a cave. They had so many insects sleeping inside and all of those insects would come swarming out once it grew warm. ¡°Hey, Shinobu-kun. Something is glittering over there.¡± ¡°What?¡± With the torch in hand, I approached in the direction she was pointing. Near the dead end when continuing straight into the cave were some needle-shaped depressions. I initially thought something like a large puddle existed in the middle of them, but I was wrong. The water was very clear yet I could not see the bottom. It was quite deep. The light of the torch did not reach all the way down. There seemed to be a pit here and only here. ¡°It looks like someone dug this.¡± ¡°Is it a well?¡± ¡°It looks like the same technique, but the water level is completely wrong. It could overflow at any time.¡± There was no need to dig deep into the ground. The cave was already underground, so it was possible an underground stream passed by at a higher level than us. This well with an oddly high water level (or was it a spring?) may have struck an underground stream running through the mountain. ...If there¡¯s an underground stream nearby, doesn¡¯t that mean the ground here is even less reliable? Also... If they had the ability to dig a well, why did everyone in the village use water filters made from metal drums? ¡°Oh?¡± Madoka crouched down and began poking at a stone the size of a pickling stone. ¡°There is something carved on here, but the kanji is too hard to read.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take a photo.¡± I snapped a photo with my cell phone camera. As far as trip memories went, this collection of photos was about the worst. I thought about creating an exorcism folder. Nothing else inside caught our attention. Madoka and I walked back down the way we had come and stopped at the T-shaped intersection. We had yet to check the other exit. The presence of the light told us the exit was nearby. That meant the tunnel did not cut through to the other side of the mountain. ¡°Shinobu-kun, let¡¯s go check it out.¡± As I walked forward with the torch in one hand, the path quickly narrowed. It was so narrow I had to turn to the side to fit. The path also sloped sharply upwards and spiraled around. However, this path from hell quickly came to an end. ¡°This is...?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve come out at a higher point.¡± We were probably three or four meters up, but the thick fog made it hard to tell for sure. We had taken a T-shaped intersection in the cave, but the two exits likely came out on the same slope. In fact, there was nowhere else an exit could be. ¡°Shinobu-kun, what should we do now?¡± Madoka must have been tired because she sat down without worrying about getting dirty. ¡°Do you think we could climb the mountain and cross over out of Four Mountains?¡± ¡°Trying to climb a mountain of unknown height without food or water and while wearing leather shoes is pure insanity. Don¡¯t forget the fog and that we don¡¯t have a map or GPS.¡± ¡°Eh? If we just head straight, won¡¯t we make it eventually?¡± ¡°If we come across a vertical cliff, are you fine with doing some free climbing? In leather shoes? I would at least want a lifeline.¡± If you looked into what routes bullet trains and highways took, it became obvious how much land routes hated mountains. ¡°Boo, boo,¡± said Madoka as she pouted her lips. Either her exhaustion and hopelessness had reached their limit or the lack of any useful information combined with the lack of anything more to investigate had irritated her. It must have been nice being a beautiful girl. Everything they did looked great. If she wasn¡¯t so cute, I might have punched her for being so stubborn. ¡°We put in all this work, but we haven¡¯t managed to get away. This is a lot like the Shokei Island serial murders case Enbi told me about a long time ago.¡± ¡°...Could you not bring up such ominous things?¡± ¡°Apparently, there was a closed room murder case in the remains of a coal mine on a remote island to the northeast. I think the trick had to do with using a wire to throw the key in through a tiny window.¡± Suddenly, an incredibly light electronic tone broke through the unpleasant atmosphere of hopelessness. Madoka and I exchanged a glance before frowning. It was the sound of the cell phone in my pocket receiving an email. I had received several messages from the large-breasted Zashiki Warashi saying ¡°I¡¯m bored. Buy me a souvenir.¡± ¡°...I have a signal. But why!?¡± ¡°Look, Shinobu-kun. There¡¯s an abandoned car over there!¡± said Madoka as she tapped on my shoulder. I looked over and spotted a mass of brown rust sitting on the grassy mountain slope. She had called it a car, but it was a compact one-person vehicle that looked like a scooter with four wheels. It was an extra small electric car that automobile companies had made to ensure the elderly could go shopping. ¡°It must still work. The car navigation and the automatic break system need an internet connection. The electric car itself can function as a mobile Wi-Fi and 3G wireless hotspot, so it must have picked up on our phones¡¯ signals!¡± ¡°Wait, wait, wait!!¡± Humans tended not to doubt information that was convenient for them. But this was too much. ¡°That¡¯s way too modern! Zenmetsu Village¡¯s civilization was on the level of using water filters and diesel generators. They didn¡¯t even have any phone lines. Why are we suddenly finding an electric car with a perfect net environment?¡± ¡°Eh? Well...¡± ¡°And the battery doesn¡¯t last forever. If this has been left here since the slaughter 30 years ago, who has been recharging it? And what about the OS and firmware? Has it been auto-updating itself all this time? If so, who has been paying the internet contract fees? If it was just left here, the contract would expire and it would stop functioning!¡± ¡°Shinobu-kun, we were attacked by someone in a run-down shack of Zenmetsu Village. Maybe this is his.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t deny that 100%, but if he was hard up for food, wouldn¡¯t this be the first thing he sold? And how has he been paying the monthly contract fees?¡± He had somehow obtained that portable gas stove and gas cylinder, so he may have had some kind of income. He might have collected magazines and sold them or captured rare rhinoceros beetles and sold them. But whatever he did, it would be for a tiny amount. I doubted he had a stable income to pay the thousands of yen he would need for this. ¡°Someone left it here to make periodic contact. They bought the lightest variety of electric car so they could leave it here on the slope where no one would notice it. But I doubt it was that man wandering around Zenmetsu Village who did it. In fact, don¡¯t you think it was put here on the slope specifically so he wouldn¡¯t find it?¡± ¡°If so, who did it?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know...¡± The car had to have had a license plate, but I could not see one. It was possible it had naturally rusted away, but it looked more like someone was intentionally hiding their personal information. But thinking about this anymore was not going to help. I looked back down at my cell phone. ¡°At any rate, our cell phones have a signal now. We can get the word out that we vanished from the tour bus and call for help from professional rescuers.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t forget this,¡± said Madoka as she poked at the back of my cell phone. ¡°You took all those photos. Those sloppy kanji may be illegible to us, but don¡¯t you think a Zashiki Warashi who has lived for a long, long time could read them?¡± Part 23 (Hishigami Mai) The story so far!! Eight thousand people had vanished from a large scale factory and corporate prison, leaving only a few jailers and prisoners behind. But in reality those eight thousand had not disappeared and it was us who had been caught up in ¡°something¡±. It was possible we were being treated as missing in the real world. Now, that meant one of those few people was likely the culprit. However, I had no intention of gathering small pieces of evidence like my sister or that detective. Physical evidence was only any use when things could be resolved in the courtroom. I decided to kill one person I could rule out and then fake my own death when I seemed the most likely suspect. The remaining members would panic and begin suspecting each other. Basically, I was creating a situation where killing everyone but yourself would bring you peace of mind. Would the mastermind behind all this take direct action or would they take defensive action to stop the others from growing violent? They possessed some kind of hidden occult power, so either way, they would use some strange ability. I could resolve the situation by determining who it was and defeating them. Anyway, after I killed the one person in the factory¡¯s employee cafeteria, I headed for the parking lot and made it look like the stolen car I tried to flee in had exploded. In reality, I was hiding behind a line of parked trucks, watching the burning car from a short distance. I could see a few silhouettes through the thick fog. ¡°What is...going on?¡± muttered someone. Whose voice is that? Oh, right. That¡¯s the violent jailer Yamada-kun. ¡°She¡¯s dead? But that woman had to be the killer! Then who killed her!? I thought she was the one who killed the head jailer!¡± The situation was not ideal. I could see the light of the flames through the fog, but I could not grasp the details of the silhouettes. I would be unable to pick up on any small mannerisms or changes in expression like this. And I was supposed to be dead, so I could not carelessly approach either. That meant it was time for my radio that could pierce the jamming. ¡°(Sunekosuri. Hey, Sunekosuri. Are you in position?)¡± ¡°I am in the factory¡¯s guard room. There are so many surveillance monitors I am starting to feel dizzy.¡± This facility was known as a corporate prison, so it would have more cameras installed than a normal factory. I had sent the Sunekosuri there to closely monitor the area I could not approach. Meanwhile, the silhouettes in the fog continued sending stabbing words back and forth. I heard a voice I was fairly sure belonged to the female jailer named Sakai Haruka. ¡°Wait a second! We decided that woman did it!¡± ¡°But her car¡¯s burning!¡± ¡°Did she kill herself after killing the head jailer? Or maybe there isn¡¯t a body inside. ...At any rate, she¡¯s the one behind this! It¡¯s a real problem if she isn¡¯t!!¡± Shit, she has some sense. But that last comment might have been a mistake. ¡°What? What do you mean it¡¯s a real problem? You make it sound like you have some secret you want to hide by making her look like the murderer.¡± ¡°N-no...¡± ¡°Shut up!!¡± I heard a loud crashing sound. I stared closely and it looked like Yamada Ken had broken a random car window. He would not have done that barehanded, so he had likely found some kind of blunt weapon on his way here. ¡°Heh. You were probably the one that did it,¡± said Yamada. ¡°I know about the head jailer¡¯s ¡®preferences¡¯. Once he has his eye on you, it doesn¡¯t matter if you¡¯re a man or a woman. This was a good opportunity for you. In a situation like this, anyone could do it without getting arrested.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mock me! I made sure to stay out of any of that!!¡± protested Sakai. ¡°And speaking of that, what about you!?¡± ¡°Shut the hell up! If I say that¡¯s the truth, then that¡¯s the truth! Did you think we were gonna take a vote? If I break the knees of everyone who¡¯s suspicious, they won¡¯t be able to move!! In that case...!!¡± Oh, is Yamada-kun going to give this a real effort? But the situation suddenly changed. ¡°Shut! Up!!¡± The shy female jailer named Kurumaya Nozomi suddenly stabbed Yamada¡¯s head with a blade. The action took place beyond the thick fog, so the details were not entirely clear. However, she had likely grabbed one of the shards of the car window and swung it down at Yamada¡¯s head. As Kurumaya Nozomi swung down her clenched fist, something glittered below it. She swung it down. Again and again and again. It was as if she were using some strange stamp. ¡°Shut up! You¡¯ve done nothing but talk and talk and talk and talk! You¡¯re probably working with that woman to kill us all!! You knew how she was going to escape, so you set up a bomb there!!¡± ¡°Gyah!!¡± Yamada held his head with both hands, but did not yet collapse. It was not like he was being stabbed with a military knife. But even if he had not yet collapsed, there was probably no saving him. He had been stabbed quite a bit. She must have had a lot of anger built up from her everyday life because Kurumaya-chan continued swinging the glass shard down toward Yamada as if she was digging up dirt with a garden spade. ¡°And!! And!! I¡¯ve never liked you! That annoying voice sounds just like that fucking dog that bit my arm when I was a kid!!¡± ¡°Wait, Kurumaya-san!?¡± ¡°Shut up!!¡± I heard something slice through the air. She had likely swung the shard to keep Sakai Haruka back when the fellow woman tried to approach. And then... ¡°Okay, that¡¯s enough,¡± announced the male jailer named Tanishita Hajime in a decisive tone. He was answered with a shout of anger from Kurumaya who had likely had the expression of some kind of monster at this point. ¡°Ah!?¡± ¡°No one move. I am with the police. I came here undercover as a jailer to investigate the corporate prison running behind the semiconductor factory. ...And by the way, this is no toy.¡± Silence fell as the atmosphere froze over. I could guess that ¡°this¡± was something one did not often see in Japan. The effect it brought lasted only a few seconds. Another voice cut in. ¡°You¡¯re the one that needs to quiet down, you terrible actor,¡± spat out a female voice. It likely belonged to Gogan Sakura, the prisoner in her fifties. ¡°You¡¯re an industrial spy from Pallax Precision Machinery, aren¡¯t you? Your name is Hayama Jouji. You tried to steal the plans for the semiconductor printing equipment, but were shocked to find yourself sent to work as a jailer here. You were wondering whether this was a simple reassignment or if your cover had been blown and they were preparing to imprison you here. You had to have been scared.¡± ¡°Wh-wh-who the hell are you!? What are you talking about!?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to scare me by waving around a model gun. And it doesn¡¯t look like you¡¯ve modified it to shoot real bullets either. A real gun looks like this. Get it now, boy?¡± Hm. There are a lot of interesting people here. ¡°Thank you for going along with this PSIA undercover investigation. But this is my limit. I was hoping to get a reading on the general intentions of the entire Kuroyama Electronics Group instead of just this out-of-control corporate prison, but I have no choice now that someone has died.¡± ¡°Y-you¡¯re kidding...¡± said Kurumaya Nozomi in a trembling voice. She had killed someone right in front of a police officer, it was only natural she wanted to deny it. ¡°Th-they said on a drama I watched that the Japanese police aren¡¯t allowed to perform undercover investigations! And if they do it¡¯s an independent investigative department with a different jurisdiction than the normal police like the Narcotics Control Department!!¡± ¡°Officially, yes. But a lot of the PSIA¡¯s work does not leave any official records. I¡¯ve gotten this old while eating food earned from undercover investigations. Shouldn¡¯t you assume your ideas about all this were wrong?¡± ¡°But...¡± At this point, the other female prisoner, the high school aged Suzukawa Izumi, spoke up for the first time. ¡°If you¡¯re a police officer who leaves no records behind, that means you can have as many illegal side businesses as you like, doesn¡¯t it? You leave no trace of anything behind, after all. Are you really an ally of justice here to expose the evils of this corporate prison? Or do you have some other objective more in line with your own desires?¡± ...Hm. ¡°Ah wah wah wah wah wah!!¡± shouted the Sunekosuri over the radio. ¡°I-is it just me or is no one here a normal person!? D-don¡¯t tell me all of them play some role in the underground world Hyakki Yakou deals with...¡± ¡°(No, I doubt this is that convenient. A few of them live their lives in the light. But my role is to kill anyone necessary regardless of what kind of aftertaste it will leave in my mouth.)¡± However, it would be problematic if this (self-proclaimed) PSIA undercover agent took control of the situation. I could not allow the situation to calm down. They had to be killing each other until the person behind all this made a mistake. ¡°Y-you¡¯re lying. That has to be a model gun!¡± ¡°Do you think that because yours is just a toy?¡± ¡°Freeze!! This is real! So...!!¡± ¡°Then how about you prove it?¡± This is my chance!! I brought the radio closer to my lips. ¡°(Sunekosuri! Who is Gogan Sakura aiming her gun at!?)¡± ¡°Eh? Ehh? The Tanishita Hajime guy who might be a police officer or an industrial spy.¡± ¡°(Where is he? The thick fog makes it too hard to see from here.)¡± ¡°Wh-why do you want to know?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that obvious?¡± I pulled out my handgun that had a suppressor equipped. ¡°(I¡¯ll shoot Tanishita Hajime as Gogan Sakura fires her warning shot. An amateur won¡¯t notice the difference in caliber. With one gunshot and one wound, they will suspect Gogan Sakura who had been so well-behaved up until now. The others will fall straight into a panic when they¡¯re betrayed by the person they thought they could trust.)¡± ¡°E-eeee!?¡± It wasn¡¯t clear whether Tanishita Hajime was guilty or not, so I decided it would be best to not make a deadly shot. As long as it caused a panic and they began trying to kill each other, it didn¡¯t matter. ¡°(Sunekosuri, what is Tanishita Hajime¡¯s precise location?)¡± ¡°Ah, ah wah, ah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah!¡± ¡°(Sunekosuri, this is a Hyakki Yakou job! You were sent to support me because the young lady trusts you. If you aren¡¯t going to live up to that trust, just quit the organization already!)¡± ¡°T-Tanishita is...¡± began the Sunekosuri. Even over the radio I could tell he was about to cry. ¡°He is to the right from your perspective. He is directly next to the burning car. That is about 10 meters away.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°He is standing alongside the side mirror. If you aim based on the reflected light, you should hit his upper body.¡± This was no time to think. I followed the Sunekosuri¡¯s instructions and aimed my small, suppressor-equipped handgun with both hands. And then I waited. ¡°Will a gunshot be enough to prove it? Or do you need the crushed bullet afterwards? I guess you won¡¯t believe me until I shoot over there somewhere, will you?¡± ¡°Hey, wait...¡± I waited. And waited. And waited some more. ¡°This is an emergency situation. Waving my gun around like this would normally require more than a written apology, but there aren¡¯t going to be any records of this. We use these pretty lightly in our world. Make sure you remember that.¡± Now!! I focused on my trigger finger. And... A high-pitched gunshot rang out beyond the fog. Silence followed. I was hiding a short distance away, but even my ears had a sharp pain in them. Gogan Sakura had fired a warning shot. However... My suppressor-equipped handgun was pointed upwards. I had held back from firing at the last second. ¡°(Sunekosuriii...)¡± I said bitterly. ¡°Ee!? Wh-what is it? I have no idea what is going on...¡± ¡°(You have two options. Either I make an official report to the young lady that you gave me false information to save a suspect, or you will receive a full-body massage by me after all this is over.)¡± ¡°I will take the massage! Please, anything but telling Hafuri-sama!! Anything but having those sorrowful eyes turned in my direction!!¡± You idiot. If I had fired in the wrong place, one of them might have noticed the sound or sparks when it hit! That would have ruined everything! This is the sort of ¡°kind noise¡± that gets professionals killed!! ¡°(But...)¡± What was I to do now? The warning shot had silenced everyone else. I would have no opportunity to fire randomly into them and it would not cause as much panic this way. For better or for worse, the center of their group mentality was now located in the undercover investigator Gogan Sakura. As their mental dependence on her grew, I would have to kill someone else to bring in more doubt before it would all come crumbling down. Gnn! This is a huge detour!! The undercover investigator seemed to be reestablishing communications beyond the fog. ¡°There is no hope for this guy...Yamada Ken was it?¡± ¡°A-ahh. I...I didn¡¯t...I...wait...¡± Kurumaya Nozomi finally began to grow nervous, but Gogan was not going to listen. ¡°To find the culprit more smoothly, let¡¯s go over each of our situations one by one. We need to find why the head jailer and that female jailer died as well as what is causing the bizarre phenomenon behind it all.¡± And then... Just as I almost began seriously wondering if Gogan Sakura would solve everything for me... Something even more abnormal came from an unexpected place. Part 24 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) ¡°Ugh,¡± groaned the mystery freak after stepping out of the rental car. What lay before her eyes was an unmaintained forest where the rotting branches of the trees covered the sky and the tall undergrowth left the color of the ground a complete mystery. Nature here was destroying itself like a bedridden old man with bedsores. ¡°Are you sure we should follow the map? We aren¡¯t going to get stranded are we?¡± ¡°The rental car refuses to run, so we can only investigate in the areas we can walk to.¡± To be honest, with the almost complete lack of clues, I was beginning to doubt Hasebe Michio was even in Four Mountains. Finding them after those snake Youkai made me incredibly uneasy, but we had a prisoner¡¯s shoe and an old map of Four Mountains with an X marked on it. It might lead us to nothing, but it was worth trying. ¡°More importantly, mystery freak, are you sure you¡¯re okay in that swimsuit-like outfit?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t exactly take off anything else! B-but if you beg me enough, I might consider stripping further.¡± ¡°I mean the opposite, you idiot.¡± I pointed into the thick greenery we were about to head into. ¡°Do you really want to walk through there with exposed skin? The small branches will scratch at your skin and who knows how many mosquitos and centipedes there are. This is no place for a nice picnic.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what the bug spray is for!¡± ¡°How much do you think that will really help? And you have moisture all over your body from this fog.¡± ¡°Th-then what am I supposed to do?¡± she asked. I pointed toward the unmoving rental car. ¡°The most sensible answer is for you to wait here.¡± ¡°No! I can¡¯t send you off alone into a forest that might be filled with Youkai. You¡¯d definitely get your butt kicked and never come back!¡± Dammit! I can¡¯t say she¡¯s wrong!! At the very least, it¡¯s true there were some snake Youkai!! I rubbed at my bangs with one hand, and half-resignedly stuck my upper body into the rental car¡¯s driver¡¯s seat to unlock the trunk. I checked inside the trunk, but only found a spare tire and a tool set. Damn. No good. I had no choice but to toss my jacket over the mystery freak¡¯s head while she wore what basically amounted to a swimsuit. ¡°Cover yourself with that. It¡¯s better than nothing.¡± ¡°U-um, wouldn¡¯t spraying on tons of bug spray help?¡± ¡°Using too much will lead to chemical irritation. Remember: this is a chemical that sets off the bugs¡¯ danger sense so they will keep away.¡± With that said, I pulled out the largest wrench from the rental car¡¯s tool set. I took the lead, used the tool to sweep aside the underbrush that was over a meter tall, and stomped on through. Dammit. Making a path is such a pain. I¡¯m obviously wasting three times the energy I would be otherwise. The mystery freak took advantage of the human bulldozer ahead of her and simply walked through the path I had made. ¡°Detective, why are you trying to make me fall for you even harder?¡± ¡°Would you rather take the lead?¡± ¡°There are a lot fewer bugs than you said there would be.¡± ¡°The fewer the better.¡± ...But that does bother me a bit, too. The thick and extremely grassy smell of greenery filled my lungs, but I could not sense much of an animal smell. I could not spot any animal droppings or remains. It was as if there were no living creatures besides us. It was as if all of them had suddenly disappeared just like Hasebe Michio and the police officers from the prisoner transport vehicle. After we walked through the forest a while, the green wall came to an end. A clear area covered in rotting dead grass spread out ahead of us. As we continued on following the map, we found a number of structures made from sharpened logs. They were likely meant to stop cars from entering the area. We passed by them and came across an area with a few run-down shacks made of plywood and galvanized sheet iron and an area with a few large thatch-roof houses with crumbling roofs. The largest of the houses looked like it would cost between 20 and 30 million yen for the house alone. It would have cost 15 times that had it had been made with Intellectual Village brand name materials and by Intellectual Village craftsmen. These larger houses seemed out of place with the rest of the abandoned village. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like anyone is living in them. It must have been decades since they were abandoned.¡± ¡°So this is the rumored Zenmetsu Village,¡± said the mystery freak as she walked up next to me. ¡°But I see some new footprints here. Look.¡± ¡°Whose are those?¡± I was suspicious. One set of footprints was large and the other small, but their shape was quite similar. They looked like ready-made leather shoes. ¡°Maybe it was a couple like us.¡± ¡°Okay, no more comments from you.¡± The footprints continued in a different direction than the mark on the map. I was curious about both, but I decided to deal with the mark on the map first since we knew we could reach it. Hasebe had not been wearing leather shoes and I doubted he had a woman with him. ¡°Uuh... Not having internet access makes me even more worried. We only have this hand-drawn map to rely on,¡± complained the mystery freak. ¡°We have no choice.¡± ¡°Dammit. If only I could contact my usual information broker.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll ignore that for now since we¡¯re in the middle of a crisis, but I¡¯m going to keep it in the back of my mind for later.¡± I looked down at the map and the mystery freak grabbed onto my shirt with one hand. ¡°It looks like there¡¯s something around here. A few lines are drawn in.¡± ¡°Do you think they represent roads?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. They don¡¯t travel from the center of the village and outwards, so they might be something else.¡± ¡°Like ravines?¡± The fog was too thick to see even a few meters ahead. I wanted to avoid making an accidental misstep, so I decided to continue on with caution. ¡°Where¡¯s the mark on the map?¡± ¡°Not far ahead... Oh, is that it?¡± The mystery freak pointed toward a vague shadow in the fog. But... ¡°It looks like a shrine.¡± ¡°You might want to call it a former shrine.¡± There was a building, but it had been reduced to nothing but a pile of rubble. Amid the large amount of broken wooden material, pieces that had been scorched black as if in a fire were common. The destruction could not have been natural. This looked like the aftermath of a group swept away by violence rather than the work of a single person. The way the shimenawa and...nusa did you call them? Anyway, that paper folded in zigzags. The way they were blowing in the wind was a bit depressing. I can tell a shrine was destroyed here, but what does it mean? There was a mark here on the map in Hasebe¡¯s boot, so there has to be some kind of meaning. The mystery freak tilted her head. ¡°Did Hasebe destroy it?¡± ¡°If so, why would he mark down its location to remember it?¡± ¡°So the shrine was already destroyed.¡± ¡°But what does the mark mean?¡± ¡°Maybe he had something convenient hidden in the rubble.¡± We exchanged a glance. We moved the rubble as much as we could and finally discovered a clear plastic bag. It contained some old bundles of money and a rusted blade. ¡°This looks suspicious.¡± ¡°There¡¯s three million yen here,¡± I muttered. ¡°Huh? But wait. Doesn¡¯t that mean this wasn¡¯t the first time Hasebe Michio has been in Four Mountains?¡± That belated thought came to me. And in the next moment, something heavy struck the back of my head after a full swing. ¡°Bh...gh...!?¡± Pain instantaneously exploded in my head before vanishing as the sense exceeded its limits. Instead, the pain from my neck bending so suddenly stabbed into my mind. I had been attacked from behind. By the time I realized that, my vision had been greatly shaken and I had fallen to the side. Who? As I lay collapsed on the ground, I desperately tried to focus my shaking vision. My gaze landed on a man of about fifty. He wore a jumpsuit. However, it was a bright neon orange and the back had a prison identification number printed in large letters, so it was not something one saw every day. It was a prison uniform. There was only one possible identity for this man swinging up a branch as thick as a human arm. ¡°Hasebe!?¡± The wrench I had used to brush aside the undergrowth had fallen from my grasp during that attack. I kicked at Hasebe Michio¡¯s leg while lying on the ground. He lost his balance but still managed to swing down his blunt weapon. His aim was off, so he only tore up the ground right next to my face. ¡°Dch!!¡± groaned Hasebe. Standing it up and knocking it down once more must have been too troublesome because he placed the thick branch horizontally across my neck and pressed his weight down on it. I frantically grabbed at the thick branch as well, but I was still at a disadvantage. I heard a creaking sound as that branch as thick as an arm crushed my Adam¡¯s apple. ¡°...Wait. Why...are you...doing this...!?¡± I moved my mouth, seeking air. And then I spotted something that left me in shock. It was even further above than Hasebe Michio who was leaning down on me. There I saw the mystery freak¡¯s face which had become completely expressionless. She held the large wrench I had dropped. Not good. Not good! Not good!! Mystery freak, why are you unhesitatingly coming forward to split Hasebe¡¯s head open!? ¡°Damn...it...!!¡± I tried to cry out, but had difficulty producing a voice. I tried to escape from beneath Hasebe, but it did not work well with his weight pressing down on me. I still managed to move bit by bit as if sliding along the ground. And then gravity seemed to suddenly disappear. I felt as if I were sliding backwards down a playground slide. ...Didn¡¯t the mystery freak mention some lines on the map that might be ravines!? ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± I rolled down to the bottom of the ravine along with Hasebe. Instead of falling from a vertical wall, it felt more like sliding down a steep slope for three or four meters. Rather than ground made of earth, a cold, highly-transparent river waited at the bottom. With a loud splash, I sank into the water headfirst. Seeking oxygen, I sought the surface almost on instinct alone. ¡°Buhahh!!¡± My head broke the surface. I greedily sucked in oxygen. The river was only about a meter deep and three meters wide. Hasebe was... Where is Hasebe? As soon as that thought came to mind, someone grabbed the collar of my dress shirt from behind. I was tugged back by a powerful force and my head sank back under the cold water. ¡°Gbh! Gbagbhh!!¡± Why is Hasebe Michio attacking me? I had thought the odds were high his request for a retrial would go through and he would be found not guilty of murdering the president of Kuroyama Electronics Group, but it was looking like the charges might not have been false after all. Or perhaps he had mistaken me for an assassin from the regional police or the corporation. ¡°Ha...sebe...!!¡± I somehow got my head out of the water before it was submerged once more. This repeated a few times. The situation looked hopeless, but I had been able to manage something during that time. I had learned where his feet were. I frantically moved my arm in an attempt to sweep those feet out from under him. As if our bodies had switched places, our positions suddenly changed. Hasebe fell and his body sank into the cold water. ¡°Hasebe! Do you understand what you are doing!?¡± I grabbed the collar of his prison jumpsuit with both hands and lifted him up. He was gasping for breath as he dangled down from my arms, but he was smiling. He looked nothing like a decent citizen who had been wrongly imprisoned for a crime he had not committed. ¡°To be honest, I had already given up,¡± said Hasebe as if spitting out the words. ¡°But by some coincidence, I made my way out of the transport bus. And of all places, in Four Mountains where I had hidden some stolen money 30 years ago. I figured there was no harm in trying. Betting on a coincidence isn¡¯t bad at all!!¡± ¡°What are you-...?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if the driver suddenly disappeared or what, but the bus flipped over. The police officers who came running out of their cars also vanished. It was exhilarating. I don¡¯t know who did this or how, but only an idiot wouldn¡¯t take advantage of it!!¡± ¡°What are you talking about!?¡± As I asked that, I suddenly lost my balance. Hasebe¡¯s hand was on the end of my necktie. ...Dammit! He kept talking about meaningful things to draw my attention away!! I frantically tried to remove Hasebe¡¯s hand, but he tugged on my tie before I could. My head sank into the water like a dog on a chain. Even worse, the water was clear enough that I could see Hasebe was stepping on my tie. He got me... Now I can¡¯t get my head above water!! ¡°Gbh...gbhbgh!!¡± I struck Hasebe¡¯s leg with my fist and dug my fingers into his shin, but it was no good. I instead began to think about undoing my tie. Shit, shit, shit!! The knot has soaked up so much water it¡¯s tightened up!! ¡°Gbh...bghbgh...If you...splash...not...gh.¡± Hasebe seemed to be announcing something in triumph above, but I could not hear it well through the water. It seemed he had more to say. The air in my lungs tried to force its way out of my mouth in pursuit of an exit. I grew dizzy. My fingers dug into my tie¡¯s knot with enough force to almost break my fingernails. I tried to force it looser. Hurry up. Hurry up!! ¡°Gbah!!¡± I finally escaped the bonds of my tie and broke the water¡¯s surface in search of air. But two hands pushed my head back down. Hasebe¡¯s face had an odd smile on his dripping wet face. That moisture was more than just the fog. ¡°Hase...agh...Hasebe!!¡± ¡°They should have left it alone. I annihilated everyone like I was supposed to. No one was left. So what does it matter if one last thing hadn¡¯t been dealt with!? It wouldn¡¯t have caused anyone any problems that I ran away!!¡± It sounded more like he was making excuses to himself than he was talking to me. And then it hit me. An unpleasant feeling ran down my spine. Zenmetsu Village. That village of annihilation. The legend concerning that empty village we had seen on the way here. The psycho killer of the sort that delighted the mystery freak. ¡°Was it...you? Were you the one that killed this entire village!?¡± ¡°Shit! Shit!! Yes, it was. That was under the old system!!¡± replied Hasebe Michio with a mocking smile as he tried to force my head underwater. He was what you could call the ¡°true culprit¡±. ¡°Calling me a client of the Kuroyama Electronics Group sounds nice, but I was always forced into just barely scraping by. The entire run-down downtown area was a step away from starvation. Kuroyama wanted to keep a set level of disposable troops to force their inconvenient dirty work onto.¡± ¡°Kh...!!¡± I grabbed the back of Hasebe¡¯s hands as he tried to force my head down. I dug my nails deep into them. Hasebe¡¯s expression twisted in pain, but he maintained his position. Dammit. I can tell my mind is falling toward pessimistic thoughts. By the time I start considering DNA tests and dying messages, it¡¯s all over!! ¡°Are...cough...Are you saying...cough...you attacked the village so the company could profit!?¡± Did he think he could win? Did he think he could silence me? As Hasebe breathed heavily, he spoke as if encouraging himself. ¡°I was part of a group. That village was opposed to the construction of the semiconductor factory. I don¡¯t know why, but they were strongly opposed to the factory using the underground water. It was a nuisance, so we were ordered to eliminate them and make it look like the work of a crazy killer.¡± ...How could this be? But it was not over yet. The nightmarish reality continued. ¡°We were rewarded nicely after finishing the job. For insurance, I hid that in the remains of the village along with what I plundered during the attack. ...But I let my guard down. My name had not been removed from the list of disposables! Someone had killed Kuroyama¡¯s president during some internal struggle and my name was used. Most likely, some executive who had changed the ¡®inside¡¯ of the semiconductor factory had taken measures before the president could criticise them!!¡± ¡°Even if you were innocent of killing the president, you still faced a fate worse than death if the truth came out about Zenmetsu Village during the investigation. Is that why you had to run away before the retrial!? Because it would look too suspicious if you withdrew the request for a retrial that the victim group was asking for!?¡± ¡°Yes...that¡¯s right!!¡± Hasebe poured even more strength into his arms and my head sank beneath the water. Gbh!! Dammit... Water is...getting into...some odd places. I somehow brought my head back above water, but I could not breathe properly due to coughing too much. ¡°Cough!! Cough cough!!¡± ¡°I was cut off in every direction! Kuroyama was too clever. After being kicked out of the United Hive, my factory was completely under their control, but it was only a client on paper. Even if I claimed they ordered me to crush the village after cutting off all ties, no one would believe me. They would think it was a bluff meant aiming for a plea of insanity!! It would never reach Kuroyama! Whether my conviction was found to be wrong or not, I would still be sent down to the very bottom!!¡± My fingertips were trembling. The lack of oxygen must have been finally having direct effects because I could feel my strength fading. The situation was only going to grow worse from here. Am I really going to be silenced like Hasebe wants? Dammit. Isn¡¯t there something? Isn¡¯t there anything I can fight back with? ¡°Running away is the only way I can survive, so of course I¡¯m gonna run! I¡¯ll run to the ends of the earth!! I was a victim from the beginning. I was trapped in the system of poverty Kuroyama had created, so I could not escape by any normal means. And now I can¡¯t escape without being willing to kill again!!¡± Suddenly, I heard something slice through the air. The sound came from directly above me. I did not have time to look toward it because it dropped down in an instant. A heavy metal wrench thrown from above the ravine struck Hasebe Michio in the head. That stupid mystery freak!! Do you have any idea how hard I¡¯ve been working to keep you from dirtying your hands!? And there¡¯s no way you could aim properly in this fog. What if you had hit me!? ¡°Cough cough cough!! Shit!¡± But I did not have time to give into my anger. As strength left Hasebe¡¯s arms, I quickly moved away. If I could escape his grasp, I could get out of the water. As I tried to adjust my position, I saw something unpleasant. Hasebe Michio had received quite a shock from the blow to the head, but he moved as accurately as an automated factory¡¯s robot arm to reach out and grab the wrench that had bounced off his head. Not good. Not good!! If he starts beating me with that, I¡¯ll have no way of fighting back! If I try to block the blow with my arms, it¡¯ll just break my arms. I know various disarming methods based on aikido to aid in arrests, but I don¡¯t think any of them will work when I¡¯m in the water and have no footing!! ¡°Stop, Hasebe.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sick of hearing about how people are supposed to be good deep down.¡± ¡°You¡¯re well known. You¡¯re more than just a criminal. The press is treating you like a hero who was falsely convicted. Your face and name are all over the internet and the talk shows. 150 million people know you! You can never escape. If you kill me here, you will be reported the instant you approach civilization!!¡± ¡°When in a flaming building, you head to the roof where the flames have yet to reach despite the danger. If I head back to prison, only the death penalty awaits no matter how the trial goes. Even if I know it¡¯s a dead end, I can only continue running away from the wall of flames behind me!! There is no other path left for me!!¡± He shouted angrily back at me. As I saw him raise that heavy wrench, I felt my throat dry up. Is this it!? But at that point, I finally realized something. At some point, another elderly man had approached behind Hasebe Michio. He was horribly dirty and his clothes were nothing more than old rags. ¡°...I remember you.¡± ¡°!¡± Hasebe turned around in surprise when he heard the other man mutter at him. However... ¡°I remember you!!¡± A dull sound rang out. The dirty man held a stone the size of a baby¡¯s head that he must have torn from the ravine wall. He swung it down toward Hasebe¡¯s head as hard as he could. Blood sprayed out and a bundle of hair was torn off, scalp and all. A scream burst out. The dirty man ignored it and slammed the stone down a second and third time. ¡°Stop...¡± I had stood in utter shock for a bit, but the growing color of red brought me back to my senses. The victor had already been decided. There was no point in going any further. ¡°Stop!! If you go any further, Hasebe will die!!¡± ¡°He...¡± The man¡¯s arm was trembling. He gripped the red dyed stone so hard I thought it was going to break. Even so, he did not stop moving his arm. He spat out his words while looking down at Hasebe Michio who had half sunken into the cold water. ¡°He yawned. He was bored. While slaughtering everyone in the village and stabbing a blade into each of the bodies to make sure no survivors were hiding below the corpses, he yawned from boredom!!¡± It was a story from a world that defied imagination. I wanted to believe this was nothing but the man¡¯s delusion. But I had seen it. This was not some eerie labyrinth. The scenery around us was the completely normal scenery in which dozens of people had lived, eaten, napped, and let their kids run around. And all of that had been destroyed in a single night. That was the truth. ¡°...Who are you?¡± I asked. ¡°Someone who they framed for all those murders,¡± replied the rag-wearing man as he dropped the stone in the water and his shoulders moved up and down as he desperately tried to catch his breath. ¡°All this time, I had been so sick of being unjustly called a murderer. But look at this? Now a part of me feels I should become a real murderer. I will become the monster they wanted me to be...¡± ¡°You really shouldn¡¯t,¡± I said. ¡°Surely you saw that Hasebe Michio¡¯s fate will be a miserable one regardless.¡± ¡°...¡± That comment caused the rag-wearing man to look away from Hasebe. And immediately afterwards, something happened. ¡°Solved it.¡± I heard a voice. It was a voice with no obvious source. It was as if I were wearing headphones. It was not my voice, Hasebe¡¯s voice, or the rag-wearing man¡¯s voice. It sounded like a small boy¡¯s voice. ¡°Solved it. Solved it. Solved the puzzle.¡± The voice sounded somehow mocking and also like it was singing a creepy lullaby that had some story behind it. What? What was that? Before I could come up with an answer, the decisive moment arrived. ¡°That means you are no longer needed.¡± A soft and unpleasant noise burst out. It came from Hasebe Michio who had halfway sunken into the cold water while only partially conscious. His body grew darker. No, that was not what had happened. It was dozens if not hundreds of snakes as thick as a little finger. They slithered up from below the water and quickly covered Hasebe Michio¡¯s entire body. It seemed the man no longer held any will to resist. He did not cry out or scream. As that eerie sound continued, that pure black ¡°mass¡± clearly shrank in volume. The arms and legs sticking out from it turned at odd angles. Is he being eaten? That was what my instincts told me, but it made no logical sense. Snakes ate their prey by swallowing it whole. They had fangs, but they could not bite off flesh. No matter how many snakes as thick as a little finger you had, it should have been impossible for them to eat something the size of a human. But then what was I watching? The volume of the mass within was visibly decreasing. It was like watching butter on a frying pan. ¡°Wait...¡± muttered the other man. He walked unsteadily toward the mass of snakes. ¡°Please wait! He is...That man is the one murderer who can prove my innocence! Please don¡¯t get rid of him!!¡± ¡°Watch out!! I don¡¯t think those are normal snakes! Stay back!!¡± I tried to grab the rag-wearing man¡¯s arm, but he jumped at the mass of hundreds of snakes before I could. He grabbed snake after snake and tossed them away as if digging through dirt to rescue someone who had been buried alive. The snakes must have had some objective or condition because they showed no sign of biting at the rag-wearing man. They focused only on Hasebe. However... ¡°Ah...ah...¡± The man¡¯s hands stopped moving. His eyes were opened wide. The next thing I knew, most of the snakes had vanished as if dissolving into thin air. And in the spot Hasebe Michio had been in were nothing but a single arm and a single leg floating at the water¡¯s surface. A few snakes remained eating them. The limbs shrank and ultimately disappeared. The snakes had eliminated every last trace that the man named Hasebe Michio had been here. And after Hasebe disappeared, every last snake disappeared as well. These black snakes were the same as the ones that had appeared in the hood of the rental car. These strange snakes had something like a gold ring around their necks. ¡°What is going on...?¡± I muttered blankly while watching as the rag-wearing man¡¯s back drooped. What had just happened? What was going on in this village? Part 25 (Hishigami Mai) Um, who did what here again? Kurumaya Nozomi was the one who had repeatedly stabbed Yamada Ken in the head with a glass shard. Sakai Haruka was the one who had cried out to stop her. Tanishita Hajime was the industrial spy desperately bluffing while waving around a toy handgun. Suzukawa Izumi was the young female prisoner. Gogan Sakura was the investigator on an unofficial undercover mission who held a real handgun and was trying to keep the situation from falling into chaos. The change started with Tanishita Hajime, the industrial spy. ¡°Uuh...bah...?¡± I heard a muffled noise. That questioning voice sound like it came from a mouth forcibly plugged by a gag. ¡°Gh..bh. Gfh!? Ghh!! Gbgbh!!¡± He suddenly held a hand up to his mouth and he doubled over. Initially, he looked like the victim of poison. But that was not the case. What spewed from his mouth was a large number of snakes. Snakes as thick as a little finger fell to the ground as if a faucet had been opened. He held a hand to his mouth, but the snakes slipped through the gaps between his fingers. ¡°Gyah!? Wh-wh-what is that!?¡± ¡°What is going on...!?¡± The change did not stop at his mouth. I heard a popping noise. Some foreign substance was flowing out like tears. More than ten snakes came from his eye sockets as if forcing their way out of his eyeballs. They came from his nose and ears as well. At this point, anyone could imagine what had happened. It was like snakes or moles moving through the dirt. Tanishita Hajime¡¯s head had to be filled with countless tunnels. There was no way he was still alive. ¡°Bh.¡± I heard another odd noise. Tanishita collapsed sideways. This did not look like a living human collapsing. It was more like someone had stood a branch up on its side and then let go. ¡°Gy-gy-gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!?¡± The female jailer named Sakai Haruka let out a high-pitched scream and tried to run away. Who had done this? What had they done? How had they done it? What were the conditions? She did not know the answer to any of those questions, so she was simply trying to run as far away from the dangerous oddity as she could. Ew. The stomach of her work uniform swelled up like a beach ball. After that...well, I don¡¯t really want to explain it. There was a muffled sound and her entire lower stomach area became dyed a dark red. It was as if a water balloon hidden in her clothes had burst. Dozens of snakes wet with something red slithered out from the gaps in her clothes. ¡°E-ee!¡± groaned someone. That was the limit of what they could do and it changed nothing. Both the prisoners and the jailers collapsed as they were taken out by the snakes. Gogan Sakura may have held a real gun, but snakes even slithered out of the gun barrel. After her gun malfunctioned and blew her hand off...well, it wasn¡¯t pretty. Silence fell over the area. The snakes continued to slither around. I did not think these were some strange parasites or aliens. They were most likely Youkai. Snakes. A swarm. A sudden appearance. There were several candidates, but I could not be sure of anything yet. When it came to snake Youkai, I suspected the rulers of water, the ones related to ironworking which were derived from them, or possessing spirits. ¡°A-ahh. Ahhhhhhh...¡± I heard the Sunekosuri¡¯s dumbfounded cry coming from the radio. ¡°Sunekosuri, I have no more need for you there, so come meet me here.¡± With that arbitrary instruction, I walked through the fog and cautiously approached the corpses. I was keeping the optimum level of tension and burden on my muscles so I could move at any moment, but there was no sign of the snakes attacking me. It seemed the attack condition was something other than distance. ...Hmm. They were scattered around a bit, but there were six corpses lying in the parking lot. The snakes were even wriggling around in the stab wounds in Yamada Ken¡¯s head. This spread the wounds by quite a bit, so the ¡°contents¡± were spilling out. I viewed each corpse in turn. Yamada Ken. The worst part was the stab wounds on his head. Instead of fresh blood, over ten snakes were slithering out. The pink contents of his head were spilling out, so it was blatantly obvious there was no saving him. Sakai Haruka. I did not want to take a peek inside her work uniform, but her disturbingly sunken-in silhouette told me she had ruptured within it. All of her insides must have been taken out as well because she smelled the worst of any of them. It was more than just the smell of blood. A lot of different things had mixed together inside her gut. Kurumaya Nozomi. I heard an occasional whistling sound escaping from her, so I initially thought she was alive. However, she was not. I could see snakes in her chest. Her lungs had burst from the inside. As the snakes came and went, they caused the remnants of her lungs to act as a pump. That was sending some air out. I saw a beckoning cat bottle cap doll poking out from her pocket, so she must have been the one who had placed them in the employee cafeteria. Tanishita Hajime. They came from his mouth, eyes, nose, and ears. Snakes pushed open every single hole on his face. The structure of his face had been utterly destroyed. It looked like a swollen fugashi. Suzukawa Izumi. Large numbers of snakes were coming from her mouth and nose, and her eyes were rolled back into her head. The number of snakes coming from her mouth must have exceeded the limit because her jaw had completely dislocated. Gogan Sakura. The explosion of her handgun had blown off her hand and tons of snakes were passing from her right ear to her left. You can imagine what had to have happened to the space between. ¡°Ahh, how could this happen?¡± groaned the Sunekosuri as he approached after exiting the factory. ¡°Annihilation...This is a complete annihilation! I thought Hyakki Yakou sent us here to keep this from happening!!¡± ¡°What? We were asked to investigate the phenomenon in the semiconductor factory and to eliminate it if necessary. Stop adding on extra objectives.¡± ¡°Then if you had been asked to save everyone in the corporate prison, you would have done so!? Are you saying you could have done that with your superhuman abilities!? You could have saved them from this horrible situation!? There had to have been completely normal people with no connection to our world here!!¡± ¡°Sorry, but I don¡¯t accept jobs I know I can¡¯t handle.¡± You can get emotional if you want, but be careful because it¡¯s only any good for motivation. And this isn¡¯t over yet. ¡°Sunekosuri, who do you think did this?¡± ¡°Eh...?¡± ¡°Is some as yet unseen mystery character hiding somewhere? I suppose it¡¯s possible, but I doubt that¡¯s the case. If someone who could have killed us at any time had been watching from a distance this entire time, they would not have killed them at this time. And since they did not attack you or me, the culprit must not be viewing us from a god¡¯s-eye perspective,¡± I explained. ¡°In other words, this went just as planned. The mental pillar of the group, the head jailer named Itou Takeru, was killed in the cafeteria and then the top suspect, me, was blown up in the parking lot. One of the suspects panicked and used their occult power.¡± ¡°Then one of them used theses snakes? But they were all annihilated!! Did they lose control of the Youkai!?¡± ¡°That would make this simpler, but I don¡¯t think so,¡± I said offhandedly. ¡°After all, one of them is still alive.¡± I cracked the knuckles of my right hand. My body had been modified to specialize in fighting Youkai, but I could still crush a corpse¡¯s head or tear out its heart with a single hand. The human body held more potential for brutality than most people thought. To put it bluntly, if I thoroughly destroyed each of the suspects¡¯ vitals, the incident would be resolved. ¡°W-w-wait a second!! But...they were...just look...it was a complete slaughter! How...what!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be led astray by the shock of the scene. Look at this rationally. Why did the culprit kill everyone? To keep the conditions equal so as to hide their identity. They wanted to be another victim just in case these irregularly released snake Youkai failed and left a survivor.¡± ¡°Th-then...¡± ¡°That is also why the snake Youkai are still here. Normally, you try to hide your trump card. If someone can determine the identity of the Youkai, they will learn their weakness. But the culprit is keeping these creepy Youkai on the corpses. That is meant to keep anyone from directly touching the victims¡¯ bodies to check for a pulse or checking the pupils. When you see these grotesque corpses, of course you aren¡¯t going to want to approach the Youkai that did it. Who knows what they¡¯ll do to you.¡± I pointed at each of the collapsed figures in the parking lot one at a time. Yamada Ken. Sakai Haruka. Kurumaya Nozomi. Tanishita Hajime. Suzukawa Izumi. Gogan Sakura. ¡°There. That¡¯s the one.¡± Part 26 (3rd person) In the Intellectual Village of Noukotsu Village, today was not just another relaxing day in the Jinnai household. The household ran a sake brewery, so mid-September, which was harvest time for new rice, was the most nerve-racking time. This was the earliest step of the production process, so it determined whether they could make the start dash or not. No matter how much technology they had, a mistake here would prevent them from making the best possible product. And so Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s father was constantly calling the city¡¯s rice farmers while Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s grandfather drove the electric light truck around to judge and select the rice. The grandfather had supposedly retired, so the importance of this time could be seen in the fact that he stood on the front lines. However... The financial issues of human society did not matter to the Youkai who lived for all eternity. In the name of searching for what Shinobu had hidden in his room, the large-breasted and glamorous Zashiki Warashi found the high school boy¡¯s secret savings and the flat-chested and somewhat yandere Yuki Onna checked through his hidden porn magazines. However, they then found something unexpected. (Incidentally, a Youkai that protects the house and a yandere both tend to lack a sense of privacy.) They found an old album. ¡°This was made with a service that makes high quality prints of the photos in a digital picture frame. That was popular a while back. ...After all, digital data tends to get destroyed every few years.¡± ¡°Oh, oh, ohh!! S-so this is full of this kind of photo and that kind of photo of Jinnai Shinobu during his younger days? Pant...pant...!!¡± ¡°You¡¯re starting to look a little damp overall. Are you sure you¡¯re not going to melt yourself by getting so fired up over this?¡± The Zashiki Warashi and the Yuki Onna brought the album into the living room and opened the thick cover as casually as if they were reading a manga volume they had found while cleaning the room. ¡°This is Shinobu back when he refused to let go of his baby bottle.¡± ¡°...What¡¯s this!? His hair is a different color!!¡± ¡°And this is Shinobu when he became a wild animal and leapt toward my breasts even when I tried to tell him his bottle was over there.¡± ¡°That damn gigolo! He had that much talent that young!?¡± A Nekomata muttered in shock a bit away from the two trembling Youkai. ¡°What are they doing...?¡± She had been speaking to herself, but someone replied to her. It was Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s mother who preferred dealing with the accounting over actually making the sake. As she rapidly entered data into a spreadsheet program on the computer placed atop the low sitting room table, she spoke leisurely to the Nekomata. ¡°It can¡¯t really be helped. Half of Shinobu¡¯s problems with the Zashiki Warashi are his own fault.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Her laziness and her love of video games come from Shinobu¡¯s own actions.¡± This woman was not a frugal person who was stingy with money. Instead, she was a math fanatic who grew utterly absorbed in the fluctuations of the parameters. She grinned at the spreadsheet on the screen as she spoke. ¡°In fact, when I married into the family, that Zashiki Warashi almost never appeared where anyone could see her.¡± ¡°...Really?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the standard for a Zashiki Warashi, right? You would see her shadow on the sliding door but would find no one there if you circled around behind it. If you left food in the altar room, it would mysteriously disappear.¡± The Nekomata looked dubious as Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s mother continued speaking. Her fingers raced across the keyboard all the while. ¡°When Shinobu was born, she was still that elusive and eerie existence. However, Shinobu would excitedly go around searching for the Zashiki Warashi. When he was unable to find her he would grow tired and begin to cry. That¡¯s when we began to see her face poking out from behind a pillar. After that continued long enough, she ended up like this.¡± ¡°It might be a bit too cruel to lay all the blame on that boy.¡± ¡°Probably. Shinobu also gained some habits from her. For example, he always embraces his pillow or something while sleeping.¡± A smartphone then began ringing. It was the phone (that actually belonged to Shinobu) which was placed in the chest of the glamorous Zashiki Warashi¡¯s yukata. ¡°What? You left on your trip but ended up stranded with a girl from your class? Shinobu, why are you calling? Are you bragging about how great your life is?¡± ¡°A-a rendezvous!? Don¡¯t tell me they¡¯re trapped in a mountain cabin and have to strip down naked to warm each other with their bodies!! Th-that is the role that a Yuki Onna should play as mountains and coldness are our domain!¡± ¡°I thought seeing a Yuki Onna approaching in that situation led to being stranded and freezing to death,¡± pointed out Shinobu over the phone. ¡°But that¡¯s not the point. Anyway, we¡¯ve already contacted the fire department, so we should be okay. In the meantime, I have a few photos to send you.¡± ¡°Are they erotic photos overflowing with youth?¡± ¡°M-making a fish print with the female body!? How twisted!!¡± ¡°Hey, could we try to get somewhere in this conversation?¡± asked Shinobu. ¡°We found a bunch of old kanji and can¡¯t read them. I thought maybe a Youkai who had lived a long life might be able to decipher them.¡± ¡°Shinobu, that sounds like a huge pain.¡± ¡°Once I hang up, I can call the card company and tell them I lost my credit card. If I do that, the smartphone, the game system¡¯s network play, and the laptop¡¯s internet will all be stopped. And what about the cable TV? I think the ones in my room and your room are both under my name.¡± The Nekomata sighed in exasperation when she saw the glamorous Zashiki Warashi prostrate herself in front of the smart phone with tears in her eyes. The Zashiki Warashi gave a teary sniff and looked through the photographs she had been sent. ¡°Um... I think this one carved into a stone in what looks like a cave says...¡®arrival of the water god¡¯.¡± ¡°Any idea what that means?¡± ¡°It means they are bringing a snake Youkai in from somewhere else.¡± ¡°...Snake?¡± With the obvious example of Yamata no Orochi, snake or serpent Youkai were often related to twisting rivers and the water damages that came from them. ¡°Then those are...no wait. I didn¡¯t get that feeling from them. It¡¯s the huge serpents like Orochi or Uwabami that symbolize rivers. The ones I saw were different...¡± Shinobu was muttering about something, but the Zashiki Warashi did not pay too much attention because she did not know the details. She focused on deciphering the old writing in the photos so she could end the danger of an internet annihilation. ¡°These few account books on Japanese paper seem to be related to a village ritual. They explain the cave. However, the paper is so damaged I can only read bits and pieces.¡± ¡°Just tell me what you can read.¡± ¡°The village¡¯s source of income came from gold dust collected in a river at the bottom of a ravine. There must have been a gold mine somewhere, but they did not have the technology to search for it or mine it.¡± ¡°...I was wondering how that man bought that portable stove and gas cylinder.¡± ¡°However, the amount of gold dust they could get was unstable. During years in which they found less, they did not earn enough to live off of which affected the stability of the village¡¯s entire society. They had a common ritual they would use to resolve their worries.¡± ¡°A ritual?¡± ¡°You could call it ¡®thinning the herd¡¯ or ¡®leaving fewer mouths to feed¡¯. The ritual was performed by taking any baby born during one of those difficult years and drowning it in the spring in that cave. ...Simply put, they would leave fewer people to help resolve the lack of food.¡± Silence fell. This was not a problem with the signal. Shinobu did not know how to respond to this information that went well beyond what he had expected. ¡°From the format of this writing, this is something that happened over 100 years ago,¡± pointed out the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°Not necessarily,¡± groaned Shinobu. ¡°There were two graveyards in the village. That¡¯s probably because they had one for the normal villagers and one for the babies that had been killed in the ritual. Thirty years ago was the age of color television!¡± No matter what anyone said or how they tried to deny it, what had happened would not change. Occasionally, that village that seemed frozen in time would not have enough food. To resolve that, they had continued to drown babies as if it was perfectly normal. Even as televisions moved from black and white to color, even as bullet trains rushed around Japan, and even as air conditioners became a part of the standard household, it had continued. As if insisting that remaining unchanged was a virtue, they had continued to drown babies. And if someone had not annihilated everyone living there, it would likely still be happening. The victims of the incident had been human. But there was no guarantee that they were all ¡°perfectly innocent¡±. ¡°This is the last one. The Japanese paper you found next to a broken jar. ...Hm. This must be the snake Youkai you saw in the village.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± If it was a giant serpent symbolizing rivers, it would be the Orochi or the Uwabami. But that was not it. The Zashiki Warashi replied as if teaching a young child how to read a difficult kanji. ¡°Toubyou. It is a possessing spirit that comes as a set of 75 small snakes.¡± Part 27 (Hishigami Mai) Yamada Ken, Sakai Haruka, Kurumaya Nozomi, Tanishita Hajime, Suzukawa Izumi, and Gogan Sakura. ¡°There. That¡¯s the one,¡± I spat out as I swung my arm forcefully down. I aimed for the culprit¡¯s head. But I missed. My right hand smashed into the parking lot asphalt up to the wrist. The culprit who had been pretending to be dead had rolled to the side to avoid my arm. ¡°Tch. You idiot!!¡± What the hell!? Why did my hand pierce the asphalt so easily!? My body was specialized for anti-Youkai combat. If I forced myself to take on a metal panel or asphalt, I would smash my own flesh to pieces. ¡°Ah...ah...¡± As the Sunekosuri let out a dumbfounded voice, I pulled my arm out of the smashed asphalt. It seemed my attack had not been completely wasted. A torn-off ear hung down from my index finger. ¡°How...? But...she was...she was dead just a moment ago!¡± ¡°You dumbass. This wasn¡¯t like Yamada-kun¡¯s split head with the brains leaking out or Sakai-chan¡¯s gut that ruptured like a water balloon. If you had paid attention, it should have been obvious.¡± I threw away the ear as the figure stared at me and slowly stood up. The piece of flesh struck the culprit in the chest where it slid down in accordance with gravity. ¡°Having so many snakes coming from your mouth that your jaw dislocates isn¡¯t enough to kill you. If the snakes were only in your mouth and had not entered your throat or organs, you could continue breathing through your nose,¡± I said to the culprit. ¡°Isn¡¯t that right, Suzukawa Izumi-chan?¡± She was about high school age. As one of the prisoners in the corporate prison, she had been forced to wear unrefined workwear. Or so it had seemed. However, the Sunekosuri was trembling and said, ¡°Wh-what is that?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask me.¡± ¡°Why is that girl¡¯s skin peeling off to reveal an old woman¡¯s face!? Who is she!?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask her?¡± I replied offhandedly before smiling. ¡°But the kind of person that disguises themselves as a beautiful girl tends not to be a decent person in reality.¡± Suzukawa Izumi, or the old woman wearing her skin, spoke in a hoarse voice with her face half destroyed. ¡°...Is that so?¡± ¡°There was a rumor of a free pass in the corporate prison and alcohol would occasionally find its way in. Whether the person using the free pass was a prisoner or a jailer, they were part of a group that wanted to destroy the corporate prison and they were using the alcohol as currency to negotiate and make deals with people. That way they could gather the items they needed for a Youkai or Package. ...That was our theory so far, but it looks like the situation was actually a bit different.¡± ¡°Eh? ...Oh, I get it! If that old woman could disguise herself as Suzukawa Izumi...!!¡± ¡°She could disguise herself as other people too. A single person was using the free pass the entire time. By periodically faking her death and taking over someone else¡¯s face, she could continue taking action while escaping suspicion.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how many people are cooperating with her outside the factory, but if she wanted to periodically leave, she must have had some equipment to make periodic contact. Maybe a server that uses a satellite to communicate. And it would of course work on a band that gets past the jammers.¡± The old woman said nothing more. In the very next moment, a great number of small snakes unnaturally slithered out from within the fog. Dozens of them appeared only a few centimeters from my face. I instinctually took a step back and gravity dragged the snakes down to the parking lot asphalt. The old woman looked confused. ¡°Is it that surprising?¡± I asked with a scornful laugh. ¡°The snakes all came from within the others¡¯ bodies and wounds. The medium is likely the fog. When the victim breathes it in, you can call the snakes into their body to kill them.¡± ¡°...Then there should be no way for you to avoid it.¡± ¡°How na?ve. You shouldn¡¯t think of me as having the same standards as the other creatures we call humans. I am extraordinarily powerful against Youkai and the like. I even have the ability to bite off Youkai flesh and digest it in my stomach. Once they¡¯re inside my body, there¡¯s nothing they can do. I can even purify all of this fog that reeks of Youkai.¡± And I did not stop there. ¡°A normal human cannot kill a normal Youkai, but the same cannot be said when it is Youkai versus Youkai. That is why people in my business like to use Shikigami. Sunekosuri! If you don¡¯t want to die, bite apart all of the snakes appearing in your mouth!!¡± Unpleasant noises began coming from the Sunekosuri¡¯s mouth. A Sunekosuri was a Youkai without a violent side. All it could do was rub its head up against travelers¡¯ legs. However, these snake Youkai were only as thick as a little finger and thirty centimeters long. Speaking purely about size and ignoring their strength and special characteristics, they were like slightly hard sausages. That meant a small dog¡¯s teeth were enough to tear them apart. ¡°Ueh, uehhh!! Peh, peh! I-I hate creatures without legs! Woof woof!! Ubh!? Gehhhh!! Ow!! What is this ring!? Why is there metal mixed in with them!?¡± He seemed to be having it tough since more snakes would appear every time he breathed in the fog. He was continually biting them and spitting them out, so he did not seem in danger of having his stomach burst. I decided I could safely focus on the old woman. ¡°Since this was a snake Youkai related to the water in the fog, I assumed it was an Orochi or Uwabami, but it seems I was a bit off.¡± I got to the heart of the issue as I glanced over at the gold ring-like objects the teary-eyed Sunekosuri was spitting out. ¡°The Toubyou. If I recall, it is a Youkai raised in a jar or pot that comes in a set of 75. In exchange for periodically giving them sake or a rice ball, they allow the master of the home to prosper by stealing gold, silver, and treasure from other houses. They are a stereotypical possessing spirit. ...That must have been the characteristic used to make the 8000 people from the corporate prison vanish...no, to make the few of us here go missing. This Package automatically ¡°steals¡± the people needed for the master¡¯s objective. That produces this spirited away effect.¡± ¡°...You do not understand.¡± ¡°What don¡¯t I understand?¡± ¡°The Youkai I wanted to use was not a possessing spirit!!¡± She must have learned she could not directly target me from within, so the arrangement of the Toubyou changed. Dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of snakes rained down around the old woman. They coiled around each other, bit into each other, became strongly intertwined, and branched off complexly. All together, they created a giant serpentine silhouette. Wait. Wait just a second. ¡°You mixed in the characteristics of the Orochi!? Dammit. I should have investigated the abandoned village!!¡± ¡°This is closer to the form of the Youkai that should have been in the village. But your regrets are meaningless. My shrine was destroyed long ago. There is nothing left.¡± ¡°So ¡®Suzukawa Izumi¡¯ was the survivor of Zenmetsu Village rumored to exist within the corporate prison.¡± ¡°How long ago do you think I am a survivor from?¡± spoke the old woman in a whisper with her back to the giant branching snake. ¡°Would you believe me if I said I have been this old woman for over 100 years?¡± ¡°I see no reason not to. I have remade and swapped out everything from my fingertips to my internal organs, so it doesn¡¯t surprise me you can alter yourself like that. I don¡¯t really see the point, though.¡± ¡°The Four Mountains village was created over 100 years ago as a treatment facility for those suffering from spiritual injuries or other serious harm related to Youkai. Although in reality, it was mostly a quarantine area people were abandoned in.¡± ¡°Is there any need to explain this?¡± ¡°My objective was to enter the Four Mountains village, intentionally split the group so two powerful families were created, and maintain a constant state of internal conflict. Essentially, I was a spy meant to control Four Mountains. By taking the hatred pointed outwards and turning it inwards, the residents would not try to breach the walls of the village. If all went well, they would be satisfied with their extremely small cycle and extremely small society.¡± ¡°...Was that really necessary?¡± ¡°But the gold dust in the river gave them the foreign currency they need to contact the outside world. Then when the possessing spirits were brought in, they decided to spiritually arm themselves. That was 30 years ago. This caused the Kuroyama Electronics Group to view them as dangerous. The child drowning going on at the time left the underground water impure, so it was banned for anyone to drink it. Due to the timing, this intensified their opposition of the corporation that wished to use that underground water for the semiconductor factory.¡± It happened as I tried to make a surprise attack during a pause in the conversation. ¡°That was why the Kuroyama Electronics Group planned to take the initiative and annihilate the Four Mountains village.¡± The old woman¡¯s hand moved. ¡°They had yet to complete the Toubyou Package that covered the entire Four Mountains area. It was left behind unfinished.¡± She held a container filled with water, sake, or some other liquid. She buried that hand in the branching Orochi behind her. ¡°That is why I overwrote the Toubyou Package with the Youkai and ritual that village was originally meant to have.¡± And she pulled her hand back out. As if that were their cue, the giant serpent all too easily scattered apart. ¡°Originally, the serpent was nothing more than the scabbard.¡± The old woman held a sword in her hand. Instead of a single-edged katana, it was a double-edged sword from an older era. The old woman spoke quietly as she casually lowered that sword that emitted a brilliant light as if it were shining in the sun. ¡°Its true nature is the production of a sword. The name of the sword that appeared after the defeat of a serpent branching into eight was Kusanagi.¡± ...Not good!!! She seriously has the ability to illegally access and forcefully draw out the power of one of the Three Sacred Treasures by following the diagram of defeating Yamata no Orochi!? This has gone well outside the realm of anti-Youkai!! By the time I realized I had completely misinterpreted how much distance I needed from her, the situation had already begun to move. A fearsome slash assaulted me like a flash of lightning. Part 28 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) As I watched on, Hasebe Michio, a man deeply involved in the past slaughter of Zenmetsu Village, was eaten by a great number of snake Youkai. The mysteries had only grown, but remaining there would not have helped. I grabbed the arm of the rag-wearing man who seemed to be a survivor of Zenmetsu Village and urged him to get out of the ravine river and up onto land. The cliff was only a few meters tall and it was not completely vertical. There were uneven protrusions sticking out that we could grab or use as footing, so an amateur could easily climb up in exchange for further muddying our clothes. ¡°Are you okay?¡± asked the mystery freak once I had crawled up. I lay collapsed on the ground catching my breath as I answered. ¡°Hasebe was devoured by snakes.¡± ¡°I can only imagine that is a figurative description, so could you be more specific?¡± ¡°I mean it literally! They were in the rental car¡¯s hood too, remember? It was those small snake Youkai. A group of them suddenly attacked Hasebe!!¡± ¡°It shouldn¡¯t have happened,¡± muttered the other man blankly. His entire body was trembling. ¡°Those Youkai aren¡¯t dangerous like that! They don¡¯t indiscriminately attack people and cause them to vanish like a Tengu does...¡± ¡°We don¡¯t even know your name!¡± I said to cut him off. ¡°Who are you!? You didn¡¯t call out to Hasebe or me. You called out to those snake Youkai. You told them to stop. Do you know something about them!?¡± ¡°Those are...¡± The rag-wearing man trailed off, but nervously continued. ¡°They are a possessing spirit known as a Toubyou. In the past, the more influential members of the village bought them from a merchant in the Shikoku area... We managed somehow by gathering gold dust, but this small village was so cut off from the outside world that it had no stable source of food. It did not even have electricity or phone lines. It was cut off and kept at a distance! And so...¡± ¡°You borrowed the power of a possessing spirit Youkai that could steal whatever you needed from others¡¯ houses?¡± said the mystery freak, finishing the man¡¯s sentence for him. The man averted his gaze a bit. ¡°The annihilation befell the village just before the Package was completed. It shouldn¡¯t have been functioning, but it seems a preliminary framework of the Assembly was in place. That is why those snakes will listen to what I say to a certain extent. If I periodically give them rice balls and sake, that is. I just need the pot and stove to cook the rice.¡± To a certain extent. That may have been the payment for leaving the framework abandoned. Borrowing the Youkai¡¯s power may have been convenient, but it was like crossing a completely unmaintained suspension bridge day in and day out. It might be fine today. But what about tomorrow? What about the day after? What about a month from now or a year from now? Wouldn¡¯t your foot eventually break through a damaged board? ¡°Toubyou are raised in earthen jars or pots, right?¡± ¡°Yes. But getting the Toubyou to take root in Four Mountains would have been all for naught if an outsider who hated us or a traitor among us broke the jar. That is why a larger framework was prepared in addition to the jars underneath the houses.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°Four Mountains itself. In other words, a large area of land that is surrounded by mountains. The assembly of the Package was adjusted so that would function as the ¡®jar¡¯ the Toubyou live in. But this project was put together by the rich influential group, so I do not know the details.¡± An unpleasant feeling raced up my spine. That meant the entire basin area functioned as the snakes¡¯ territory. And the snakes had the ability to steal whatever items their master wished from the world outside that giant ¡°jar¡±. It was as if we had been hiding within the beast¡¯s den. No matter how hard we tried to escape, those Youkai would easily capture us. And even if we did escape their den, our safety was not guaranteed. The Toubyou was a Youkai that travelled outside its jar to steal various items. ¡°Whatever the case, I think we can assume those Toubyou are deeply related to this incident.¡± ¡°By the way, detective, what are you going to do about Hasebe Michio? Will the police accept ¡®he suddenly disappeared due to a Youkai¡¯s power¡¯ as an answer?¡± ¡°My head hurts... Well, we found that bag with a rusted blade and some money in it. I just have to use that to prove Hasebe was involved in the attack on Zenmetsu Village.¡± ¡°The Toubyou is also a Youkai that causes illnesses in those obstructing the prosperity of its house,¡± said the rag-wearing man almost in a groan. ¡°But they are not powerful enough to kill. What was that we saw...? I¡¯ve never seen the Toubyou do that before...¡± ¡°At any rate, I want you to come with us. Cases involving Youkai can be difficult to handle, but I need you to write an affidavit.¡± Under current law, Youkai could not be judged directly. Or rather, locking them up had little meaning when they had no lifespan, and there was no way to execute them since they could not be killed. And so... This man had been built into the Toubyou Package and held the authority to control it, so it was possible he should be viewed as the culprit behind Hasebe¡¯s disappearance (or murder). However, that man had shouted for the Toubyou to stop while they were devouring Hasebe. I simply had to hope that would be considered in the courtroom. ¡°No...¡± The man uttered a word of refusal. The mystery freak frowned and all of my muscles tensed slightly. I slowly sat up from where I had been lying exhausted on the ground. Is he going to run off in fear of being arrested? I grew cautious, but the situation went well beyond my expectations. ¡°It seems I have already reached my limit.¡± For an instant, I could not grasp what he meant. But shortly thereafter... ¡°Solved it. Solved it. Solved the puzzle.¡± That creepy lullaby voice returned. When I looked back at the rag-wearing man, his expression was crumpled into something that looked like a smile yet also looked like he was crying. And when I lowered my gaze, I saw what looked like wriggling black ropes mixed in with the dead grass. They had wrapped solidly around both his ankles. Those aren¡¯t ropes. They¡¯re snakes!? ¡°That means you are no longer needed.¡± It was as if giant crocodile jaws grew out from the ground and swallowed the man. A mass made up of dozens if not hundreds of snakes assaulted him. Part 29 (Hishigami Mai) A stick-like object spun through the air as it flew in an arc. It spun and spun. Yes. I still felt no pain, but I could tell. That spinning object was my right arm. That spinning arm had been mercilessly severed at the shoulder. Immediately afterwards, I kicked the Sunekosuri up into the air and caught him in my left hand. I forcefully bit into the right arm spinning through the air to grab ahold of it. I then recalled the layout of the semiconductor factory and ran with all my might toward its emergency exit. I heard a great crash. God dammit! I seemed to have misjudged my strength due to the tension. I pulled my ankle out from where it had smashed into the parking lot asphalt and then I continued running. In the meantime... ¡°...¡± The old woman swung Kusanagi three times. Three meter long slices appeared in the surrounding fog and equal slices appeared in the neatly lined up vehicles. Several explosions soon followed. I swung my upper body around to avoid it while charging with the speed of an artillery shell toward the factory¡¯s emergency exit that I could see clearly through the slices in the fog. I ran into the steel door shoulder first. The two hinges and the deadbolt broke simultaneously, the door bent into a V-shape, and I rolled into the factory. Before I stood back up, I spat the right arm out of my mouth and onto the floor. ¡°Gh...!! Pant, pant... Dammit. That damn old woman!!¡± ¡°A-are you okay!?¡± ¡°My body has been thoroughly modified. The wound hasn¡¯t started to rot yet, so I can reconnect it with my kit.¡± A cold sweat covered my body. Dammit. How could a man-made object catch up to my bodily control!? ¡°But that kit is in the trunk of our car. As long as that old woman is out there, heading out to the parking lot is suicide.¡± ¡°C-can¡¯t you run out there while evading like before?¡± ¡°Do you really think I was evading that?¡± Uuh... This feels terrible. It¡¯s because monsters like this sometimes appear with no warning that you can¡¯t take this business lightly. ¡°I¡¯ve been sliced up good. I didn¡¯t dodge even one of them. It¡¯s just that the cuts were so sharp the damage hasn¡¯t caught up yet. If I don¡¯t do anything, my entire body will fall apart into tiny blocks within 10 minutes.¡± If that happened, there was no saving me. To survive, I would need to finish things with the old woman and retrieve my kit from the trunk of the car in the parking lot all within the time limit. To be honest, the situation was not good. ¡°Wh-what? Then...is there...anything I can do!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t panic. The situation may be bad, but it isn¡¯t impossible.¡± The worst possibility was the old woman hiding. If she simply waited for me to come out into the foggy parking lot, the 10 minute time limit would be over in no time. But I was certain that would not happen. My body may have been sliced to pieces, but I had protected the Sunekosuri. The old woman would actively attack in order to finish off that cute canine Youkai. However, I left that unsaid as I continued the conversation. ¡°Well, fortunately this is a cutting edge semiconductor factory.¡± ¡°Eh? Oh, I get it! That old woman is using the fog. This factory is perfectly sealed off and sterilized!!¡± ¡°Now that she¡¯s drawn out Kusanagi, I don¡¯t think she needs the fog.¡± ¡°Then...¡± ¡°Just come with me. We¡¯re going further in.¡± I grabbed my severed right arm with my bloody left hand and walked further into the factory with the Sunekosuri close behind me. The production line visible beyond thick glass was made up of nothing but conveyer belts and various robot arms. It seemed to truly be an automated factory. It was a bit surreal to see it still pumping out products like normal despite the situation. Even if humanity was wiped out, it would likely continue making electronic parts no one would use. ¡°To get to the production line, we have to pass through two layers of doors for the sterilization process... Sunekosuri, will a rural-loving Youkai like you be okay surrounded by so much precise machinery?¡± ¡°Not really, but I doubt you¡¯ll listen if I complain.¡± Good enough. We entered the sterilization room between the two layers of doors. A warning sign warned of flammability, so it likely used an ethanol spray and ultraviolet light for quick drying. You were meant to wear a spacesuit-like outfit when entering, but this was no time to worry about that. I ignored the error message on the control panel and kicked open the second door. I then stepped into the production line area that was so clean that every form of life was killed down to the microscopic level. ¡°Wh-what are you going to do here?¡± asked the Sunekosuri. The area was large, but it had so much production machinery that it felt like a labyrinth. ¡°That old woman¡¯s Kusanagi sliced right through all of the cars in the parking lot. I doubt anything in this labyrinth will protect us,¡± he continued. ¡°I know that. In fact, you shouldn¡¯t even be thinking about standing up to Kusanagi which is linked to Yamata no Orochi. Our power is only effective against Youkai and things derived from Youkai. We can¡¯t defeat an ability that enters the realm of the gods like the Three Sacred Treasures.¡± I glanced around the production line and noted the positions of a few thick pipes. ¡°But even if that old woman primarily uses the Orochi, it¡¯s still affected by the Toubyou. ...And that¡¯s just a Youkai. That power falls within our world, so we can stand up to it.¡± ¡°So you are going to fight back using the characteristics of the Toubyou?¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± I was a Hishigami woman. Thanks to the ridiculous superstition that we invited in misfortune, we were detested by our great Zaibatsu family that was passed down the male family line and was well-known around the world. In other words, the women born to the Hishigami family could not continue on without possessing specialized skills and characteristics that allowed them to battle an entire Zaibatsu on their own. And for me, those skills had been honed in actual battle. Did you think you were the only special one around, old woman? ¡°Just like the fox or dog Youkai, the Toubyou is a stereotypical possessing spirit. They will attach to and cause illness in those who get in the way of their house¡¯s prosperity, and they will steal valuables from other houses to help their house prosper. And they will spread to a spouse¡¯s house if you get married.¡± ¡°While raised, they are put in earthen pots and jars and are periodically given rice balls and sake. And the one common rule among almost all possessing spirits is...¡± I trailed off. The giant semiconductor factory had been sliced diagonally. The walls were sliced. The production line was sliced. The two layers of doors for sterilization, the conveyer belts, the robot arms, the thick metal pipes, the electronic control system, the lights, the floor, the ceiling, the tempered glass, and everything else were all sliced. Kusanagi had cut down everything like mowing over grass. My upper body had been sliced through again, but that no longer mattered. As long as I could retrieve the kit from the rental car¡¯s trunk within the time limit, I would manage. The difference in speed between the factory falling apart and my body falling apart was due to the moisture and oils along the slices of my body holding everything together somewhat. Not that the reason mattered so long as I could move. Thanks to the sliced pipes, a clear liquid began spraying across the production line area. A single figure stepped forward amid it all. It was the old woman with Kusanagi hanging from her right hand. ¡°What are you after?¡± she asked. ¡°What would you do if I told you?¡± ¡°Is it the ethanol for sterilization? If you ignite it, you can likely envelop me in flames, but you underestimate me if you think that will kill me.¡± ¡°True. For one thing, the name Kusanagi comes from it being used to cut down flaming grass to escape harm. It would be difficult to kill you that way.¡± I heard a splashing sound. It was the sound of the old woman stepping forward. The liquid flowing from a severed metal pipe had already spread out across the floor of the production line. ¡°What did you want to do here so badly that you were willing to switch faces constantly?¡± ¡°I had to correct a mistake.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t an answer.¡± ¡°It does not matter if you do not understand,¡± said the old woman as she wiped off her face with a hand. The liquid pouring down from above must have bothered here. She then said, ¡°Let us finish this.¡± ¡°Not a bad suggestion.¡± I shrugged. ¡°But it is already over.¡± ¡°...?¡± For an instant ¨C just an instant ¨C the old woman looked truly confused. And then... She realized it. ¡°...You swallowed some, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Wait... This water. Is this the pure water used in the semiconductor factory? Wait, but that means...!¡± ¡°It is the underground water from the Four Mountains area. ...I didn¡¯t do too much research concerning Zenmetsu Village, but the villagers and the corporation were arguing over the use of the banned underground water, right?¡± The old woman was not listening. She brought a hand to her mouth and frantically tried to spit out the underground water that had entered her body. Instead of water, a great amount of small snakes came from her mouth. ¡°Gh...bh...!?¡± The sounds coming from her mouth were no longer words. The snakes had clearly left her control as more and more slithered out. ¡°Wh-what is going on...?¡± asked the Sunekosuri while looking flustered. ¡°The Toubyou are a possessing spirit Youkai that protects its house. But a lot about how the Toubyou distinguished between someone of Four Mountains and an outsider is actually still a bit of a mystery. After all, it seems Zenmetsu Village was a group brought in from outside to quarantine them. And yet the Toubyou were able to distinguish between their family and outsiders. That means they must have used some distinguishing factor.¡± I raised my index finger. ¡°Was it the people who gave them rice? Was it any baby born in the village? Were the people bound to the Youkai in some sort of ceremony? ...But that raises questions about a certain incident. Why were the residents of Four Mountains living in Zenmetsu Village so opposed to the semiconductor factory being built? Or more accurately, why did they refuse to allow it to use the underground water?¡± ¡°Y-you don¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°It was who drank the underground water of Four Mountains. ...I think that was what was used to distinguish between the Toubyou¡¯s ¡®family¡¯ and ¡®outsiders¡¯.¡± I then pointed my raised finger at the old woman who was suffering as she coughed up more and more snakes. ¡°A standard characteristic of all possessing spirits is that they will provide some form of benefit if used correctly but will bare their fangs at their own master if used incorrectly, used without respect, or used cruelly. This old woman focused more on the Orochi than the Toubyou, so she tried to eliminate as much of the Toubyou side from within her as she could. In other words, she treated it cruelly. ...She had likely been careful not to drink any of the underground water so that she would be deemed an outsider despite being a resident of Four Mountains.¡± ¡°And the village¡¯s underground water was used for the semiconductor factory¡¯s pure water?¡± muttered the Sunekosuri blankly. ¡°B-but! Doesn¡¯t that mean everyone in the factory could have used the Toubyou? They were using Four Mountains¡¯ underground water like it was normal.¡± ¡°No. The underground water is the foundation of the semiconductor production. It wasn¡¯t used for the standard water. You saw that water server in the employee cafeteria, right? The jailers obviously used it, but they did not get angry when the prisoners used it too. The prisoners here have no human rights, so the use of water brought in from elsewhere must have been the rule here.¡± ¡°Cough...cough!!¡± I heard the old woman repeatedly try to clear her throat, but it was too late. She could not defeat the Toubyou unless she was prepared to cut open her own stomach with Kusanagi. ¡°By drinking the underground water, you are now considered the master of the Toubyou. And due to your continued use of Kusanagi which denies the existence of the Toubyou, they have bared their fangs against you as a master who treats them cruelly. ...Unfortunately for you, your fate has already been sealed. There is no saving you now.¡± ¡°Th-this is why...I was...cough...opposed to using...possessing spirits...¡± replied the old woman through all the snakes. And, ¡°So prepare yourself... With no one left to control it...gh...the Package will spread damage around...uncontrollably. It will now possess such power...that you can only call it inexhaustible...¡± ¡°...Are you saying the Toubyou and Orochi are not done for yet?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you?¡± The old woman whose name I still did not know smiled. ¡°Those were not the Youkai...I originally wanted to control...¡± A sticky sound drowned out everything else. The woman collapsed to the ground and the snakes slithering from her mouth enveloped her body. The Sunekosuri let out a frightened cry. As we watched, that lump made up of hundreds of snakes gradually shrank. Eventually, every single snake disappeared, leaving nothing behind. Not even the old woman¡¯s body remained. Part 30 (Jinnai Shinobu) To be honest, there was nothing left for us to do once we contacted the fire department. We only had to wait for rescue to arrive. ...Or so it should have been. ¡°Dammit...¡± ¡°Shinobu-kun, are you okay?¡± asked Madoka as she peered over at me. I was unable to provide a proper response. My thoughts were on what had happened decades ago. There was a collection of small villages made up of small shacks reinforced with plywood and galvanized sheet iron. In addition, there was a group of larger houses surrounding a cave. The events had occurred in that now-abandoned village. They had regularly committed infanticide to ensure they had enough to eat. In the twisted tiny society of that village, no one had questioned it. Not only would they selfishly kill them, but they had cruelly kept their graves separate. The information revealed by the Zashiki Warashi was too heavy for a high school boy born in this age. ¡°...That¡¯s insane,¡± I muttered without thinking. I felt something heavy in the bottom of my gut like when I took a nap directly after eating instant ramen. It had been there since I had learned that information and I could not imagine how long it would stick around. It was possible it would be there for the rest of my life. ¡°You were not directly involved in this, Shinobu-kun.¡± ¡°I know that.¡± ¡°And the tradition ended decades ago.¡± ¡°I know that too¡± Madoka was speaking so indifferently it was possible the information was already nothing more than an entry on a list of dates for her. ¡°And no matter how much it bothers you, is there anything we can do? If not, worrying about it is meaningless.¡± ¡°...Perhaps.¡± I felt some distance between myself and this financial monster who could convert anything into numbers and handle it dryly. When I had given into my anger and beaten down that middle-aged man, she had looked at me with such cold eyes. However... It was true there was nothing I could do. It sounded coldhearted, but it was the truth. ¡°...The rescue team sure is taking its time.¡± ¡°Yes, it is.¡± ¡°You often hear that it¡¯s best not to move around at times like this, but...¡± ¡°What do we do if they just leave us here, Shinobu-kun? Can you tell the difference between edible mountain plants and inedible ones?¡± ¡°An Intellectual Village is a carefully-maintained artificial natural environment. Don¡¯t look to me for actual survival skills.¡± I recalled there being an ¡°edible plant app¡± that analyzed a photo of the plant in question, but my smartphone was currently in the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s cleavage. I could always send the photos to her to analyze, but I had also remembered seeing reviews saying its results could be unclear due to shadows in the photo. And as someone who had always had his parents cook for him, I wouldn¡¯t know what to do even if I was handed a bunch of edible mountain plants. We would probably end up eating half-cooked grass. ¡°If it comes down to it, we might have to rely on the human ability to survive for a while on water alone.¡± ¡°Geh. Isn¡¯t that not actually true? I think you at least need some salt and minerals...¡± Suddenly... We heard a man scream beyond the fog. Madoka and I exchanged a glance. ¡°What was that?¡± ¡°The fog is too thick to see from here.¡± It sounded surprisingly close by. We were near the edge of a cliff, but it was possible the wealthy area of the village was only a few meters down. But at the same time, those snake Youkai known as Toubyou were slithering around below. If we remained where we were, the rescue team would arrive. We had no reason to put ourselves in any more danger. However... ¡°Hey, Shinobu-kun.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°What if that scream was from the rescue team?¡± ¡°...¡± That possibility was too horrible. I sighed and climbed down the short cliff to check on the scream. Part 31 (Hishigami Mai) After watching the final moments of the old woman who controlled Kusanagi, I opened the trunk of the car parked in the parking lot and pulled out the kit used to repair my body. Most of the cars had exploded after being caught up in the Kusanagi attacks. The area had become a sea of flames as if a napalm bomb had been gone off, but it had not reached my car. ¡°Y-you really are going to reconnect your right arm, aren¡¯t you?¡± Rather than sounding relieved, the Sunekosuri looked at me with a disturbed look in his eyes. ¡°This is half of the reason I am so valuable. I am more durable than a normal human and I can use all sorts of strategies to fake my death. I¡¯m perfect for taking on the ninja-like role of crushing a giant organization after leading them astray with false information.¡± ¡°I-I cannot believe you can sew your body together with makeup equipment...¡± ¡°That¡¯s just how the kit is disguised. Having a full set of skin-colored materials and precision tools is convenient.¡± I temporarily sewed together my upper body that was on the verge of falling to pieces and returned the kit to the cosmetic pouch. ¡°Damn her. She cut through my breasts three or four times. Did she have some kind of grudge against breasts?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to show me. And you don¡¯t have to trace your fingers across them either.¡± ¡°What? Oh, stop blushing, Sunekosuri-chan. And are you the type of canine Youkai that is still aroused by human nudity?¡± ¡°Please do not stand there looking puzzled with those out in the open! Hurry up and cover yourself!!¡± You do know the world I live in, right? My environment isn¡¯t kind enough to let me opt out of fighting if I¡¯m attacked while changing. Even after mending my body, my workwear was still torn to shreds. I put them in my bag and changed into a tank top and hot pants. ¡°Okay, we¡¯ve had a short break, so let¡¯s go investigate the abandoned Zenmetsu Village.¡± ¡°Eh? B-but wasn¡¯t that old woman the culprit behind all this?¡± ¡°Probably. But the changes have not completely stopped. After all, this corporate prison was supposed to have 8000 people between the prisoners and jailers. I see no sign of them returning.¡± Of course, it had actually been the few of us who had disappeared, not those 8000. ¡°Now that you mention it...¡± ¡°The culprit is dead, but the Package she used is still running. If we don¡¯t do something about it, we can never return.¡± ¡°Th-that¡¯s terrible! Only the culprit could know how to do that! Why did you kill her!?¡± ¡°Sunekosuri-chan? Try to think back and remember whether that was any time to get greedy.¡± I tossed the canine Youkai in the car¡¯s passenger seat, sat in the driver¡¯s seat, and turned the key. We left through the main gate that no one was monitoring and drove down the sole road. After a while, we came across an abandoned rental car. ¡°What¡¯s this? Do they have to flirt everywhere they go? And have they started to naturally attract misfortune too?¡± I parked our rental car near this other one and got out, carrying my equipment and the Sunekosuri. Walking through a forest wearing the ridiculously revealing outfit of a tank top and hot pants was suicide, but I could mend my body even if it did get destroyed. Right now, I needed to force my way through. ¡°Wh-what is this? I am surrounded by nature, but I do not feel very comfortable...¡± ¡°That¡¯s because the Kuroyama Electronics Group has a surveillance network spread out all throughout here. Unlike an Intellectual Village which is maintained down to the very foundation, the stench of machinery must be quite strong here.¡± But I¡¯m not detecting any hint of insects or wild beasts. Is that because this is the territory of the Toubyou and Orochi? They needed to preserve the quality of the underground water, so they wouldn¡¯t use any pesticides. We made our way out of the forest and into a run-down abandoned village. ¡°Where should we investigate?¡± ¡°That Kusanagi woman mentioned something about a shrine. Let¡¯s try to find that. If we can find the roots of her techniques, we should be able to interpret what has been set up over the Four Mountains area.¡± As we walked around through the fog, we came across an area where the wealthier villagers had gathered. We found some ruins there that had likely been the shrine in question. However... ¡°Th-this does not look like it crumbled after rotting away.¡± ¡°It was destroyed by someone.¡± The village here was jokingly called Zenmetsu Village. That was due to the slaughter that had occurred over 30 years ago. ...But this looked older. It had been destroyed and left to rot before the annihilation had occurred. Now. I was a bit worried about pushing myself since I was only temporarily sewn together, but using force was my only option. I pushed away a portion of the mountain of rubble that had piled up on the floor. ¡°It looks like they just applied a lot of power to the outside to destroy it. The inside is almost untouched. Any writings are probably intact, too.¡± ¡°Did you just casually do something amazing? You did, didn¡¯t you!?¡± I ignored the Sunekosuri¡¯s question and entered the hole in the pile of rubble I had created. As expected, I found a statue of the snake deity enshrined here, bundles of Japanese paper covered with old writing, and other items. Hmm. From what I could see, the old woman¡¯s real name seemed to be Kawabata Megumi. She had said she had been an old woman for over 100 years and I doubted this was the name of a descendent. Everything in the old bundles of paper looked meaningful, but one was mostly an account book. I tossed it aside for the moment. ¡°This seems to list the records of the village. It¡¯s filled with a lot of personal opinions, though.¡± The Four Mountains village had been started as a forced quarantine for those suffering from spiritual harm thanks to Youkai. Of course, it was done in the name of healing them. The members of this shrine had been sent in to monitor and guide the people so they would not take any actions that would be dangerous to the outside world. The shrine had split the members of the village into two factions below two different influential families and intentionally robbed them of the ability to battle the outside world by having too much internal conflict. However... The members of the shrine had only wanted to efficiently maintain their control over the Four Mountains village. They had not wished for the villagers¡¯ deaths. When social unrest had occasionally reared its ugly head due to lack of food and less gold dust, the villagers had begun killing their babies. The shrine had tried to put a stop to it but had failed. When the villagers had tried to buy the Toubyou from outside, the shrine had interfered to stop that as well... And that was where the records ended. In all likelihood, their role as controllers had been revealed and the villagers had branded them traitors and destroyed the shrine. Humans are easily deceived, but not many of them like being deceived. To correct a mistake. This was why that old woman had stayed here in Four Mountains. The records were the most thorough in the section concerning the drowned babies. She may have given up trying to justify the infanticide and had instead tried to keep track of all the children who were killed before being given a name and then to properly mourn for all of them. The village itself had been destroyed, so it would have been incredibly difficult to know who had given birth to who. However, it was possible the Kuroyama Electronics Group had a division or a report hidden away somewhere that they had used to ensure they had slaughtered all of the villagers and to ensure no information leaked out. Honestly. Once again, it¡¯s that kind noise that ends up killing a professional. Just like a Package, it had to have taken a system using hundreds of people to maintain that Kusanagi. That was why it had been worth it for her to have the prisoners work for her on the promise of a jailbreak. ¡°What¡¯s written here looks like a conflict between the Orochi and the Toubyou. Is there nothing else?¡± As I read through various bundles of paper, I finally found one discussing the ceremony for the shrine¡¯s rituals. What¡¯s this? It was one of the two influential families that had brought in the Toubyou. The other family had been researching a completely different Youkai, but they had moved toward the Toubyou when their original one seemed too dangerous. That meant a non-serpentine Youkai had to have taken root in the village as well. Hm. Hm, hm, hm... Wait a second!! ¡°This is very bad, Sunekosuri!! If this is true, it¡¯s much worse than the Toubyou or the Orochi!! At least in a certain way!!¡± ¡°Eh? Eh? Wh-what are you talking about?¡± ¡°I¡¯m talking about-...!!¡± I trailed off because I had heard a man screaming in the distance. I left the ruins of the shrine, but the fog was too thick to see very far. However, I recognized the voice. ¡°That detective.¡± ¡°Why are you calmly observing the situation!? Something happened to someone you know, right!? Then you need to go check on him!!¡± Hm. I don¡¯t actually have any obligation to go that far. If the information on that shrine¡¯s rituals was accurate, it did not matter if you were a professional or an amateur. What mattered was gathering accurate data on what was occurring in the Four Mountains area. And to do that, I might need to ask that detective and my sister some questions. ¡°I have no choice. Sunekosuri, let¡¯s go mix together our business lives with our personal lives a bit.¡± Part 32 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) ¡°Shit! Shit! What the hell is going on!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t, detective!!¡± The rag-wearing man had supposedly been controlling the Youkai known as Toubyou, but he was now being swallowed by a lump of hundreds of the snakes. I frantically tried to save him, but the mystery freak grabbed onto me from behind. ¡°Let go, you idiot! At this rate...!!¡± ¡°It¡¯s already too late!! Even that man who held the right to control those possessing spirits was taken out. Those snake possessing spirits will never act kindly to a complete outsider like you!! If you approach, they¡¯ll swallow you up as well!!¡± ¡°But!!¡± It was not that I had all sorts of dreams about the job of police officer. This man had seemed suspicious and I did not believe everything he had told us. But was it okay to just let him die? I was not going to let someone else die before my eyes! I could hear no screams. The lump of snakes that had been so large was visibly growing smaller and smaller. That meant the rag-wearing man at the center was losing volume. ¡°The assembly of the Toubyou Package was incomplete from the beginning! It should be more surprising that it functioned up until now than that it failed now! The engine is already spewing smoke. If you get in the car, you will only be caught in the explosion! There is no safe area!!¡± Finally, the snakes began disappearing before our eyes as if they were dissolving into the fog. Just as before, no trace was left of the man who had been enveloped by them. He had completely disappeared. It was due to this lack of blood or a corpse that I was assaulted by a faint chill. There was no hint of dignity here. There was nothing left to bury in a grave. It was as if even the victim¡¯s death was being covered up. That was when I heard someone walking through the dead grass. ¡°Uncle...?¡± I recognized the voice. I turned around and found my nephew Shinobu and...someone else. I recalled seeing the girl during the incident in that Fuuka Village hotel. The mystery freak let out a surprised voice next to me. ¡°Oh, if it isn¡¯t Madoka.¡± ¡°What are you doing here, Enbi?¡± As the two girls spoke in high-pitched voices, I heard more footsteps coming from yet another direction. This time, it was... ¡°Oh? If it isn¡¯t the detective and my little sister.¡± ¡°...Th-this group gives me a very bad feeling.¡± It was the mystery freak¡¯s sister, Hishigami Mai, and a Youkai that I was fairly certain was a Sunekosuri. As a Youkai, it would dislike me, so its identity did not really matter to me. Mai held a bundle of old Japanese paper she must have found somewhere. She spoke in a tone of utter annoyance. ¡°Is this everyone left? If not, this could be bad. We have no time.¡± ...I think there was that man at the tollgate, too. ¡°Hey, wait. Do you know what¡¯s going on in the Four Mountains area? What do you mean there¡¯s no time?¡± ¡°How much do you know? If you haven¡¯t figured out the Toubyou yet, this is going to be quite a lecture. If you¡¯ve reached the Orochi, I¡¯ll be a bit impressed. And if you¡¯ve figured out the Youkai beyond that, I¡¯ll hug you and bury your face in my tits.¡± ¡°The Youkai...beyond that...?¡± said my nephew Shinobu in a doubtful voice. ¡°Also, that¡¯s the first I¡¯ve heard of an Orochi being involved in addition to the Toubyou. And you say there¡¯s some other Youkai involved here, too!? What is it!?¡± ¡°The Toubyou was nothing more than a convenient gimmick. It was only the means to an end. It was used for the assembly involving the real Youkai.¡± ¡°Assembly? Onee-chan, is someone trying to create a Package using the power of some Youkai?¡± ¡°Something like that,¡± replied Mai clearly. ¡°The Youkai behind this incident is a bit of an exception. Even when no Package is being created out of human malice, this Youkai still needs to be constructed by human hands. What is being assembled is the Youkai. It is being made into a form that can naturally exist.¡± ¡°Wh-what do you mean?¡± asked the Sunekosuri with a tilt of its head. ...I see she still doesn¡¯t tell her allies the details of her plans. ¡°The traditions surrounding a Youkai hold important meaning, but this Youkai alone is different. The assembly becomes the true form rather than the Youkai itself.¡± Mai waved the bundle of Japanese paper as she arrived at the core of the issue. ¡°The Aoandon. Have you ever heard of the mysterious existence that appears once the Hyakumonogatari has been completed?¡± Part 33 (Hishigami Mai) Now then. Now then, now then, now then. The detective, my sister, and the others likely could not read the old writing on the Japanese paper, so I had to explain it all to them. ¡°The Hyakumonogatari?¡± Jinnai Shinobu frowned. ¡°That¡¯s the thing where you light 100 candles and blow out a candle each time you tell a ghost story, right?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard an alternate method that includes having 100 wicks in a single paper lantern ...But wait. Is the thing that appears at the end a Youkai? I thought a ghost was supposed to appear in the dark room.¡± ¡°Technically, there is no real answer,¡± I readily replied. ¡°Some say a supernatural phenomenon will occur such as a poltergeist or strange noises, some say the ghost of a dead human will appear, and some say a Youkai will appear. It is also unclear if it ends with nothing happening or if everyone there will be cursed. ...However, a certain famous Youkai artist consolidated it all into a single existence known as the Aoandon. Nowadays, the Hyakumonogatari is ruled by the base structure of it being a Youkai that is a female oni with pale blue skin.¡± ¡°...Um, I don¡¯t quite understand.¡± This comment came from the girl I was fairly certain was named Kotemitsu Madoka. She was a monster in the financial world. It was unfortunate she had no connections in the occult world, but as far as assets were concerned, she likely had the power to hire someone like me. ¡°Are Youkai really that vague? You make it sound like a Youkai came to be because someone drew an illustration of it...¡± ¡°It varies from case to case. Youkai like the Zashiki Warashi or Yuki Onna won¡¯t be shaken so easily, but some Youkai have their role added on afterwards like the Nurarihyon.¡± I shrugged. ¡°The Aoandon is a special Youkai that can only appear when people tell ghost stories. Tsukumogami only become Youkai after years of being influenced by their environment. It seems the Aoandon has replaced that with 100 ghost stories. Just like Tsukumogami are prepared by their environment like wine or cheese, it is possible the Aoandon¡¯s characteristics can be tuned up by gathering high-quality ghost stories. ...Simply put, it¡¯s a Youkai that can be easily altered by human hands.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re saying that¡¯s related to what is happening in Four Mountains?¡± cautiously asked the detective. ¡°A prisoner disappeared from his transport vehicle and a swarm of snake Youkai attacked... How is an Aoandon related to that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s at the core of it all.¡± I waved the old Japanese paper around. ¡°The person who caused all this...I suppose you could call her the culprit... Anyway, that old woman caused all this in order to make a certain wish of hers come true. But it would have been difficult by any normal means. That was why she got her hands on a Youkai that¡¯s characteristics could be freely remade like clay. She used it to acquire the occult power she wanted.¡± ¡°And that was?¡± ¡°As I said, the form and abilities of the Aoandon can be shaped by the nature of the 100 ghost stories used. The old woman simply had to regulate the situation such that the Aoandon with the power she wanted would appear.¡± However, this was different from creating a Package that built a Youkai¡¯s power into it. She was twisting the Youkai itself in a convenient direction. In the past, I had run across someone who had tried to alter an Umbrella Obake and a Lantern Obake to create a controller for all Youkai in Japan like the Nurarihyon. This was something similar. ¡°Wait, onee-chan. But you need 100 ghost stories for that, right? I don¡¯t know anything about that. Has anyone told any scary stories? Or has it been someone other than us?¡± ¡°That area was altered. You could say the creepy ghost stories have been simplified quite a bit. They are all written here.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°The curving writing looks really old, so it looks like something from hundreds of years ago, right? But these were written quite recently. Although, I think it used a form of thoughtography to automatically write it rather than have someone physically right it out.¡± ¡°...What does it say?¡± ¡°Question 1: Why does Shinobu-kun cling to the girl next to him while he naps? Question 2: Rumor has it the junction was created for the sake of a gigantic semiconductor factory. Is that really true, though?¡± ¡°Eh...?¡± Jinnai Shinobu was left speechless. Kotemitsu Madoka also looked surprised, so these were likely puzzles related to them. ¡°Puzzles, riddles, Q&A. ...It seems that is what is being used as the smallest form of the stories. In other words, once 100 puzzles have been answered in the Four Mountains region, the Aoandon Youkai will appear in the real world with a physical body. This is the womb created in preparation for that.¡± ¡°S-so that¡¯s it,¡± groaned the detective. ¡°Four Mountains is stained with a gruesome history thanks to Zenmetsu Village and the Kuroyama Electronics Group. And it has Youkai in it, too. If people begin chatting here, the essence of creepy and scary stories will naturally be mixed in. By throwing a set number of people in here, they will create creepy puzzles and then answer them all on their own.¡± There was of course the corporate prison in addition to Zenmetsu Village. I held up my index finger and twirled it around. ¡°The Toubyou were a convenient gimmick for creating this puzzle-solving story. You could say they are the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes. Those snake possessing spirits steal the necessary items from others¡¯ houses, so they could be used for all sorts of things. For example...¡± They could send those needed for the puzzle-solving to this alternate space. If someone was having difficulty solving the puzzles, they could place an object nearby to act as a hint. The appearance of the Toubyou themselves could be used to periodically raise the tension and create an atmosphere of needing to solve the puzzles to survive. Then again, the Toubyou were possessing spirits that took the actions someone desired. It was difficult to think they had the will needed to act as the mastermind behind it all. It was an even more unfitting position than having the final boss be a computer with a heart. As I explained it all, Jinnai Shinobu began speaking while almost in a daze. ¡°So it isn¡¯t that we were separated from our classmates. Our classmates weren¡¯t wandering around the forest as well. Madoka and I were the only ones needed for the Hyakumonogatari, so we were sent into some other space?¡± ¡°Dammit. So that¡¯s why we found only Hasebe Michio in the forest and the police officers guarding him were nowhere to be found. And once someone was no longer needed to solve the puzzles, they were devoured by the snakes.¡± It was all to complete the Hyakumonogatari as quickly as possible. It was all to bring the Aoandon Youkai into reality. The Toubyou were nothing more than errand runners. More people were not needed, so they had not been called onto the stage. The complete lack of bugs and wild beasts was because animals were not needed to solve the puzzles. To tell the Hyakumonogatari, the Toubyou had taken only those in Four Mountains who had been automatically judged to be useful. They had taken those people to ¡°somewhere else¡±. ¡°Then how do we end all this? Can we give up on the Hyakumonogatari and leave Four Mountains? Or do we have to defeat the person who wants the Aoandon?¡± That was the tricky part. I sighed and said, ¡°I have already defeated the culprit. However, the Hyakumonogatari-based assembly is still running. That means it is running on autopilot like a passenger plane without a pilot.¡± The autopilot alone could not necessarily make a nice landing. It was possible that old woman¡¯s final words were now acting as a curse. The Toubyou, the Orochi, and now the Aoandon. ¡°And I doubt the culprit who wanted to complete the Hyakumonogatari would have created a stage that would let the puzzle-solving participants escape. The Toubyou are powerful enough to drag us from reality and into some other place. This might be a dream, an illusion, some different coordinates, some different phase, the past, or the future, but it doesn¡¯t matter. ...Those snake possessing spirits can steal whatever is necessary, so they might automatically warp us right back into Four Mountains if we leave.¡± ¡°Then what are we supposed to do?¡± asked Jinnai Shinobu with an audible gulp. ¡°Can we not leave until the Hyakumonogatari is complete? But that means the Aoandon will appear!¡± ¡°Yes, it does. It looks like our only option is to have it appear and then defeat it. At any rate, our top priority is destroying the balance that prevents us from leaving the Hyakumonogatari stage. And to do that...¡± I trailed off. My next words never came. I had realized something. Shit! I just realized!! God dammit!! I see! I see! So that¡¯s it! I should have questioned it more when my hand and leg broke through the asphalt too easily when fighting the Kusanagi woman at the corporate prison or when I moved the ruins of the shrine barehanded so easily!! Even if my body has been altered, it should only be effective against Youkai!! ¡°Onee-chan, what is it?¡± My sister¡¯s voice was cut off by a rustling sound. It was the sound of the dead grass. However, this was no footstep. It was the sound of small snakes slithering. ¡°This is bad. As I guessed, it looks like the completion of the Hyakumonogatari had something like a time limit.¡± ¡°What? What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Look around you.¡± The Sunekosuri let out a cry of fear before the detective could. There were snakes. A mountain of snakes. The next thing we knew, everywhere we looked in all 360 degrees was filled with a tremendous amount of snakes. It was not that everything had been covered up by a giant swarm of snakes. It looked more like the landscape was made out of a giant mass of snakes. In fact... That may not have been wrong. ¡°Uuh!? What is going on? The ground is soft!!¡± ¡°Hey, detective, that man said the entire basin of Four Mountains functions as the Toubyou¡¯s jar, right? Does that mean...!?¡± ¡°Everything we saw ¨C the ground, the mountains, the forest, the run-down buildings ¨C was all...all...¡± The detective looked down. He likely regretted having done so. The ground had transformed into a giant black carpet created from tons of snakes weaving around each other. The dead grass had turned into a collection of small, narrow snakes that looked like tubifex worms. If we had gone to the village, we would likely find the silhouettes of the buildings made out of snakes. ¡°Is everything here made from the Toubyou!? Everything but the people needed for the puzzle-solving was fake!?¡± ¡°It looks like the stage was made to destroy itself if the Hyakumonogatari was not completed within a given period of time. That may have been one of the conditions for creating the Aoandon. If the Aoandon with the abilities the culprit wanted was not created, it would all reset like this.¡± ¡°Reset...?¡± Jinnai Shinobu frowned. ¡°You just said reset, right? This isn¡¯t just cleaning up after slicing us to pieces, is it!?¡± ¡°If my estimation is correct,¡± I replied with a slow sigh. I gave the worst possibility I could think of. ¡°This is probably not the first time we have attempted the Hyakumonogatari.¡± ¡°Wha-...?¡± ¡°From the fact that they can drag us to this ¡®alternate location¡¯, it is clear the Toubyou have been assembled in a convenient way. Their ability to steal whatever is necessary may go beyond simply manipulating distances and coordinates. It may allow them to grab objects from the past or future on the timeline.¡± If the Aoandon was not completed, they would destroy everything and return it all to the initial point. In other words, it was constructed in an eternal loop that would never end until the objective was complete. ¡°We have to go through that life-or-death situation again? Can¡¯t we do something!? Isn¡¯t there anything we can do other than watch this destruction happen!?¡± ¡°Tell me everything you know!! Let¡¯s share our information. We are still here because there are still some puzzles remaining that we are supposed to solve. That means we have to share our information to solve them all. If we don¡¯t find all 100 puzzles and solve them all, we can never escape Four Mountains! Our greatest weapon is inside our own heads!!¡± At some point, the thick fog had disappeared. I looked up at the blue sky that had appeared behind it, but then I grimaced. In the sky, a pure black mouth opened wide. No. It was all Toubyou. This went beyond just dozens or hundreds of them. Were hundreds of millions if not billions of those snake Youkai monitoring us while creating a dome over the false Four Mountains area!? When Jinnai Shinobu, the detective, and the others looked up into the sky as well, they were all left speechless. Meanwhile, the black gradually ate into the blue of the sky. Over half of it was covered by snakes already. ¡°Well,¡± I muttered without thinking. As if the surface tension of the liquid in a cup had passed its limit, a portion of the black sky crumbled. ¡°This chapter was a failure...¡± Trying to think about evading or defending was useless. Snakes literally poured down like a waterfall as they fell right onto our Part 34 (Jinnai Shinobu) ¡°Ah!?¡± I woke up. I could feel an unpleasant sweat all across my body. My heart rate had increased to dangerous levels. For a moment, I was unsure where I was and it took me a bit to distinguish up from down and left from right. ...I¡¯m on the bus. It seemed I was on a tour bus driving down the highway. ¡°Hey, hey, Shinobu-kun.¡± I heard Madoka speaking from next to me. I thought she would also be uneasy due to being unable to keep up with the sudden change. However... ¡°Is this where I am supposed to ask ¡®Shinobu-kun, why do you cling to the girl next to you while you nap?¡¯ ¡± Wait... Wait!! I remember this conversation. Isn¡¯t this just before we entered Four Mountains!? ¡°Jinnai, we¡¯re almost to a zone simply filled with noteworthy things.¡± That was my classmate known as the Love King. Just his face was peering over the seat in front of me and he was saying the exact same things I had heard before. ¡°We¡¯re almost at Four Mountains. The scenery will change once we leave the tunnel.¡± Unlike the Love King, Madoka likely understood. I exchanged a glance with her and it was clear that we were the only two enveloped in tension. Which meant... No, not again. Once we passed through the tunnel, the bus driver, the guide, our classmates, and our homeroom teacher would all disappear and we would have to solve the puzzles of the Hyakumonogatari in that abandoned village filled with countless Toubyou. Mai had said that had not been the first time. In that case, it must have been the fact that we had made it to the very end that we ¡°remembered¡± this time. There were 100 puzzles. There were 100 answers. Until they were all gathered and the Aoandon was born, we would have to repeat this again and again. I began to panic, but I could not think of any way of escaping the situation. Meanwhile, the tunnel approached like the mouth of some great monster. The tour bus was swallowed up. It did not matter how many times it took. It did not matter if it lasted for all eternity. Until the Hyakumonogatari was fully completed, Zenmetsu Village of Four Mountains would be waiting for me. Notes 1. ¡ü Zenmetsu means ¡°annihilation¡±. 2. ¡ü He''s thinking of a shide. Volume 3, Afterword Volume 3, Afterword Okay, Volume 3!! This is Kamachi Kazuma. Some of you may be confused right now if you thought back to the Table of Contents. And yes, this is not where the Afterword should be. But due to the structure of this story, I thought it was best to cut the story off and place the Afterword here even if it destroys the entire meaning of the ¡°after¡± in the term. Having this entire story in a single chapter was also for the sake of a certain gimmick, but the actual story was not all that different from the four chapter structure used before. And with the Toubyou, Orochi, and Aoandon, the number of primary enemy Youkai was not that different either. If I was doing a Youkai story, I really wanted use the Hyakumonogatari, but I didn¡¯t think I could fit 100 ghost stories and then a final boss in a single volume. That is why I changed it up a bit. The stage of an abandoned village, a junction, and a giant factory along the highway is just a sign of my own tastes. The factory was something that I had some vague ideas about during a trip to gather material. I felt it was an important piece when talking about the modern scenery of rural Japan. Having that giant structure sitting right smack in the middle of a never-ending expanse of paddy fields seems so out of place. It¡¯s an interesting subject that brings a lot of different ideas to mind. Another unique characteristic of this volume was Kotemitsu Madoka appearing from the beginning to the end. I created her as an extreme version of the high school girl who the adults cannot control and whose thoughts cannot be easily read. For example, she showed no open gratitude or kindness to Jinnai Shinobu when he protected her from the mysterious attacker in that creepy abandoned village. Instead, she watched him cautiously and with cold eyes as he grew arrogant upon acquiring the weapon. I think that would be the most obvious scene of that. Madoka was thrown onto a stage where her strongest characteristic of money was of no use. But like the stars in the night sky that are not usually visible from the neon of the city, I think this setting allowed some of her humanity to show up. What did you think? I give my thanks to my illustrator Mahaya-san and my editors Miki-san, Onodera-san, and Anan-san. This time, I think the Japanese horror-style of abandoned village was harder than the Youkai involved. I am truly grateful that they have stuck with me this far. And I give my thanks to the readers. I apologize for not having any love comedy style events despite being a school trip story. I hope you will continue reading in the future, too. And I will end this here. By the way, I have prepared a continuation that will begin after this. Please continue reading once you have found the 100 puzzles and the 100 answers. Everyone has their own way of enjoying things, but if you have not met that requirement and you have some time, it might be fun to go back to the beginning with pen and paper to take the challenge again. If this was primarily a horror series, it might have ended here. -Kamachi Kazuma Volume 3, Epilogue Volume 3, Epilogue ¡°...Solved it.¡± I quietly opened my eyes on the tour bus. Sweat covered my body and I was breathing heavily. Unlike my other classmates who were restless due to the great event of the school trip, I was clearly exhausted. I wanted someone to tell me it was only natural for me to be this tired. In the end, we had reattempted the loop more times than I could remember. I had not made it to the final time limit every single time. Once, I had been strangled to death by a middle-aged man wearing an orange prison uniform. Once, Madoka had crushed my head with a giant rock because she had reached her psychological limit. If at least one person made it to the final time limit, it seemed we managed to retain our memories during the next attempt. ...That meant there had to have been times when no one made it and we simply did not remember them. Even so, we had solved it. We had found the 100 puzzles and 100 answers scattered around the Four Mountains region. That included Zenmetsu Village and the semiconductor factory...no, the corporate prison. ¡°Shinobu-kun?¡± Madoka was looking worriedly toward me from the neighboring seat. Just like my uncle, Hishigami Mai, and the others, Madoka had to have attempted the puzzle-solving just as many times as I had. I did not have the mental leeway to smile and say something in response. None of it was over yet. Once we found the 100 puzzles and answered them all, I had been returned to the tour bus. We were just about to enter the tunnel leading to Four Mountains. For an instant, I wondered if we were mistaken about solving every question and we had actually missed something. But that could not be. We had solved them all. We had ended it. In that case, the real fight began here. The true essence of the Hyakumonogatari was not telling the countless ghost stories. It was after they had been told and after every single one of the lantern¡¯s 100 wicks or the 100 candles had been blown out. ¡°Madoka...¡± I began to urge Madoka to be on her guard. But I was too late. Before I could, the tour bus was swallowed up by the great monstrous mouth of the tunnel. The atmosphere of the bus completely changed. Every single time we had repeated the process before, a change had occurred the instant we left the tunnel. This was different. The change had already made its way inside the bus as if we had switched over to a different set of rails. Everyone but me had disappeared from the bus. My classmates were gone, my homeroom teacher was gone, the bus guide was gone, the driver was gone, and even Madoka was gone. ¡°...¡± I could see the change thanks to the tunnel¡¯s illumination. However, that light itself was odd. The tunnel had never had illumination before. It had been completely dark. That was why I had been filled with so much fear and confusion when sent from the bus to the Four Mountains forest. But... Now... The tunnel was filled with a pale blue light as if it was an aquarium. That light eerily lit the inside of the bus. And in that vehicle my classmates, my teacher, the bus guide, and the driver had disappeared from, another figure had appeared. It was as if a switch had been thrown. It was as if this new figure had swapped out with those who had disappeared. A narrow, narrow aisle existed down the center of the bus between the seats. The figure was in the center of that. In that very center point of the bus, a woman stood as if she were the lead in a play. She wore a white kimono. Her hair was long and black. Her skin was so thin it looked transparent. That skin looked pale and blue, but that may have just been due to the tunnel¡¯s lighting. The most noticeable characteristic was on her forehead. From its very center stuck out something that looked more like a thin, sharp blade than a horn. She was the Aoandon. She was the blue female oni that was a unification of all the strange phenomena said to appear after the Hyakumonogatari. ¡°This is the birth canal.¡± The female oni spoke with a gentle smile within that blue tunnel. ¡°Normally, I would have waited a bit longer, but you are special. I thought it would be best for you to face me before the rest of the world.¡± ¡°Why me?¡± I slowly stood up from my seat. I was just a high school student. I was not a card battling onmyouji or an exorcist who could wield spiritual power. I was not the sort of person who should be standing face to face with a monster like this Aoandon. But it had been my ability that had gotten me this far. That may have meant I had the qualifications to stand on this final stage. But even so, I could not help but feel it was too convenient. ¡°There were other puzzle-solvers in Zenmetsu Village...no, in the entire Four Mountains area. There was my uncle and Hishigami Mai. Why not them? I thought we would all be gathered together at the end.¡± ¡°No, no.¡± The Aoandon¡¯s attitude did not change. ¡°What matters in the Hyakumonogatari is building up the ghost stories. The storytellers¡¯ accomplishments, abilities, and histories are of no relevance. That is why what makes you special is not a specific quality. It is nothing more than the fact that you happened to answer the 100th and final puzzle.¡± It could have been anyone. I had just happened to be the one. If the situation had been slightly different, the one standing here could have been Madoka or that canine Youkai known as a Sunekosuri. That was all. The Aoandon. To that blue female oni who had built up her appearance in the real world on a foundation of fear and tragedy, the participants and people concerned were worth no more than that. I narrowed my eyes in that blue tunnel that seemed to continue forever without ending. ¡°...What are you going to do now?¡± ¡°A good question.¡± ¡°You are not the same as other deadly Youkai. In fact, you are an oddity even among Aoandon. You are an artificially created Youkai specially tuned up to complete the objective of that old woman who wielded Kusanagi. But now that you are smiling here in front of me, I doubt you are nothing more than that old woman¡¯s tool. After all...¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter,¡± replied the Aoandon, cutting me off. This was not because she had a definite answer. She simply refused to give it any real thought. ¡°My structure was put together by that old woman and I was actually built by you and the others, but I have no obligation to do what any of you tell me. I may feel a debt of gratitude, but it is not enough to actually give anything back in return.¡± The Aoandon¡¯s long hair shook. ¡°But I am excited. That much is true. Yes, I am very excited. I cannot wait to see the wide, wide world beyond this blue birth canal.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t an answer.¡± ¡°Even though I¡¯m being honest?¡± ¡°What do you want to do in that wide world? I doubt you just want to go sightseeing.¡± ¡°Well, I am a deadly Youkai. I am a deadly Youkai that appears before the fools that take supernatural phenomena such as spirits and Youkai too lightly. In other words, I am a symbol of punishment for those who take forbidden actions. If you call me a Youkai that automatically detects the criminals across Japan, it sounds quite heroic and fun, right?¡± ¡°You are not something that convenient.¡± ¡°You shouldn¡¯t make assumptions. Treating me like that just because I am a deadly Youkai is discrimination.¡± ¡°...I went through so much tragedy again and again. If you really were a Youkai that cares about humans, you would regret what led to your creation. But I don¡¯t see even a hint of that in you.¡± She was not a Youkai that would systematically bring death regardless of good or evil. She was not a Youkai one could exist with if one was careful about the conditions. I¡¯m not entirely sure how to explain it, but there was something fundamentally different between her and the Zashiki Warashi or Yuki Onna. There were some Youkai who would bring illness or death to anyone who simply ¡°met¡± them, but the fear she gave me was different even from that. If I had to give a word to it, it was an issue of self-assertion. The Yuki Onna and Nekomata back home had the ability to bring death to people, but their individual personalities were distinct from that. However, I could not sense that sort of distinction in this Aoandon. It was as if her ability to bring death was casually lined up right alongside the beauty of her hair or the great size of her breasts. If she were introducing herself or showing of a hidden skill to calm down a crowd, someone would end up dead. I felt a different sort of fear than with a great demon king who acted on simple and obvious ambition. ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± said the Aoandon with a laugh. Her shoulders shook and she covered her exposed teeth with the fan in her hand. ¡°I am the generalized form of the supernatural phenomena that appear at the end of the Hyakumonogatari. The target does not matter. The human ideas of good or evil do not matter. Even if the 50th story was told by some country¡¯s president, I will attack whatever completely ordinary person told the 100th. But,¡± continued the Aoandon with a word of denial, ¡°what does that matter? That¡¯s how it works with deadly Youkai. From the looks of you, I would say you are used to being around Youkai. The death we bring is no different from an accident involving falling rocks. No one is at fault. That is the system society currently uses.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°I may have created this confrontation, but it is actually meaningless. After all, you should already know that this is how Youkai are and that you can coexist with them regardless. You have no real reason to stop me from being released here.¡± That may have been true. It may have been true that I came in contact with Youkai like it was normal in my Intellectual Village. She had the ability to bring death. I was not about to say that was enough to punish Youkai or that we needed to slaughter every deadly Youkai. If I was going to say that, I would also need to kill off every last dog that had enough power to kill a child and I would have to chop off everyone¡¯s arms as they could be used to strangle someone. This was the same. She had the power to bring death. That alone could not be judged. However... ¡°I have a simple reason not to let you go.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not interested in the law. I have no interest in the Aoandon species as a whole. I only care about this specific incident.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°It seems you are the Aoandon created from the Hyakumonogatari put together in Four Mountains. But could you really not do anything until it was completed? Not a single thing? It¡¯s possible you really were too weak to do anything, but even then, surely there was a better way to end this. And if you sat idly by while Yokoeda, Hasebe, and the Kusanagi woman suffered and died in Four Mountains... If you did that just so the Hyakumonogatari would be completed...¡± ¡°Hm. It would be easy enough to give a yes or no answer, but I doubt you would believe me.¡± ¡°Then you should have killed off the puzzle-solvers once they were no longer needed. You shouldn¡¯t have been kind enough to give me a chance to fight back.¡± ¡°Ha ha.¡± The Aoandon laughed while showing the teeth that had been hidden behind her fan. ¡°What you are saying is completely scattered and sometimes contradictory. Is this inability to focus on your own abilities what it is to be human? Now I¡¯m even more intrigued about the outside world.¡± ¡°You understand that you have made me your enemy, right?¡± ¡°So what if I have? I am the symbol of the Hyakumonogatari. You could say I have almost any supernatural phenomena that are harmful to humans. Mysterious fevers, blindness, food poisoning, suspicious fires at the participants¡¯ houses, and even natural disasters that cover entire regions. How is a normal high school boy who cannot even use a single homa altar or Shikigami supposed to stand up me?¡± In that moment, a new light appeared. It was the tunnel¡¯s exit. We were approaching the exit of what the Aoandon called the birth canal. Once the bus exited the tunnel, the previously unstable existence of the Aoandon would be released into the world at large. Most likely, the Aoandon was completely right that I could not overcome that pale blue female oni by force. If the fear of the Hyakumonogatari was only on a level where you would be fine if you had a Buddhist monk on hand, that pain-in-the-ass ritual would never have spread so far. That Aoandon had enough power to draw a clear line between herself and a normal deadly Youkai. However... I was a participant in this Hyakumonogatari. And that meant I could do something that an unrelated professional could not! ¡°Question 101: Who was truly controlling the Toubyou?¡± ¡°What?¡± asked the Aoandon in confusion. I continued regardless. ¡°Answer 101: The Aoandon. She could not influence the real world until the Hyakumonogatari was complete, but she wanted to guide the Hyakumonogatari to completion. She used the Toubyou to make those preparations.¡± ¡°What are you-...?¡± ¡°Question 102: What is the occult meaning of the blue light filling the tunnel? Answer 102: The original tradition for the Hyakumonogatari was to illuminate the room with a lantern covered in blue Japanese paper. It is modeled after that. Question 103: Why did the Aoandon appear as a pale blue female oni wearing a white kimono? Answer 103: When an Edo period Youkai artist created a visual representation of the supernatural phenomena, he used that form and that form has spread ever since. Originally, the Aoandon was likely a vague collection of supernatural phenomena.¡± ¡°What are you mumbling...? No, wait. There is meaning in the Hyakumonogatari having 100 stories rather than 98 or 99. So if more than that are given, does it introduce some kind of bug...!?¡± ¡°And unfortunately for you, we¡¯re still in the birth canal. You may have collected the 100 ghost stories, but you have yet to fully appear. The Hyakumonogatari is only complete once the Aoandon appears in the real world, so that stage is still active!! And as a participant in this Hyakumonogatari, any story I finish should be counted toward the total number!!¡± ¡°...!?¡± A sound rang out as if something had attached to the bus window that was filled with blue light. It was a single sutra-like piece of text written in sloppy writing. Each time I gave a question and answer, words of pure white light that did not suit that blue world would fill the window. ¡°There was meaning in having exactly 100 rather than 98 or 99. Then what about 110? Or how about 120? As the number leaves that perfect framework, the golden ratio holding your body together will crumble. Once we leave the tunnel, will you be able to maintain that form? If a fatal error occurs, you will be unable to exist from the instant you are born!!¡± The Aoandon said nothing more. All calm had left her face. She was now merely expressionless. Bluish-white phosphorescence appeared at the end of the horn on her forehead. The Aoandon was a female oni who was not originally meant to have any form. It was as if she were strengthening her supernatural power as a Youkai by taking on this symbolism in accordance with her name.[1] By the time that thought came to mind, she had already vanished from before my eyes. She had been directly before me just a moment before, but now there was only an overwhelming blast of wind as something horrific approached. Was she trying to stop the error in the number of stories from growing? Would killing me cause another reset because we were still inside the Hyakumonogatari? Was she merely taking out her anger on me? Or was this simply the type of being she was? However, the Aoandon¡¯s sharp claws and fangs did not reach my throat. A white light filled the entire area. The tour bus had left the tunnel. ¡°...Ah.¡± I was standing alone in the narrow aisle. The Aoandon was gone. My classmates filled the many seats and the bus guide and driver were back as well. The nervous female homeroom teacher in the front seat looked at me standing alone in the aisle and hesitantly spoke up. ¡°U-um, Jinnai-kun? I know you are excited, but that is dangerous. Please return to your seat. And stop pointing forward in such a decisive and youth-filled pose.¡± A bit of laughter filled the bus. I blushed and returned to my seat next to Madoka. ¡°...Shinobu-kun.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say it. My heart is even more brittle than crystal, so poking at it any more will make it shatter...¡± ¡°What happened with the final boss? From the look of things, I take it I was left out.¡± My shoulders finally relaxed as I leaned back in my seat. ¡°I somehow managed to end it. The Hyakumonogatari ceremony itself is a part of the Aoandon, but I managed to cause a bug that made her destroy herself. I caused a fatal error.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Madoka must not have entirely understood because her face was still cloudy. She placed a hand on her small chin and thought for a while. Finally, she seemed to have made up her mind. ¡°Um, Shinobu-kun.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°This question may be a bit abrupt, but...¡± ¡°Just ask it.¡± ¡°One hundred puzzles scattered around Zenmetsu Village and the Four Mountains area were solved. But were we really the ones solving them?¡± ¡°...What?¡± ¡°One of the members of the group we assumed were the puzzle-solvers was the Sunekosuri. If a Youkai like him would count, isn¡¯t there another possibility? Remember what made up the stage we stood on.¡± That place had been created by thousands, millions, or even billions of snake Youkai known as Toubyou. And they had taken action to complete the Hyakumonogatari. ¡°Wait, wait!¡± ¡°What if our ideas of who was asking the questions and who was answering them were backwards?¡± In all likelihood, Madoka herself did not want to believe it. She may have been speaking her concern in the hope that I would deny it. ¡°What if we were not answering the puzzles hidden in Four Mountains? What if we were brought there to create the questions and the snakes making up the Four Mountains area were automatically solving them? What if we were brought back to the beginning every time we did not create exactly 100 questions or the snakes were unable to answer all of them?¡± But just as I began to argue against the idea, I realized something. Had my counterattack truly defeated the Aoandon? Hadn¡¯t that Youkai said she had only called me into that blue birth canal on a whim? She had pretended to be defeated. Had she played along as thanks for preparing the 100 questions? Or had it been an act to ensure the much more dangerous Hishigami Mai would let her guard down and allow the Aoandon to escape? At any rate, what weighed on my mind was... ¡°Was she truly defeated?¡± I muttered blankly. No one could answer that, so I could only ask another question. ¡°Did I even have the qualifications needed to defeat her?¡± The fog had cleared up nicely. I stood on the shoulder of the giant cross-shaped junction and watched the tour bus carrying Jinnai Shinobu and Kotemitsu Moadoka leave. To be honest, Jinnai Shinobu-kun had done quite well. It had not counted since he was not one of the snakes sitting in a circle and discussing everything who were the true answerers. However, I would have been defeated had that counted. Now then. Had that old woman who had made the preparations for me realized I existed yet? She may have prepared some nasty system to make use of me as a Shikigami. But she was too na?ve. It would not be that convenient. The conclusion of the Hyakumonogatari had to be uncontrollable even for the one who had prepared it all. ¡°...¡± It looked like the tour bus would safely make its way through Four Mountains. But even so, Uchimaku Hayabusa and Hishigami Enbi would track down the truth of Hasebe Michio, and Hishigami Mai and the Sunekosuri would destroy the corporate prison. The old woman who would possibly try to forcibly control me might be taken out in the process. Then there would be no problem. ¡°What should I do now?¡± I looked around the area. The highway continued north, south, east, and west from the junction. It connected to the entire country of Japan. I could go anywhere and do anything. For now... ¡°Heyyy!¡± Still standing on the shoulder of the highway, I held out my thumb to try to hitchhike. A tanker truck passed by and a small family car honked as if threatening me. I gained nothing more than exhaust-filled wind in the face. The world was a cold place. Youkai were sturdy creatures, so I considered tackling the next vehicle head on. However, that was when a mid-sized truck turned on its blinker. It passed by and pulled over a short distance away. I walked over to it and a middle-aged man stepped out of the driver¡¯s seat. ¡°What is it, miss? Playing on the highway is dangerous.¡± ¡°Help me.¡± ¡°What? ...From that horn, I take it you¡¯re a Youkai.¡± ¡°I was left behind, so give me a ride.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± groaned the man. Killing him and stealing the truck sounds fun, but I don¡¯t have a license. No ho ho. As I thought that, the man finally made up his mind. Tch. What a disappointment. ¡°Sure. Now, miss, where do you need to go?¡± ¡°Well...¡± I looked around from where I stood at the center of the junction. The roads continued on to anywhere I wanted to go. They spread out in every direction. I thought for a bit. And I gave nothing more than a casual response. ¡°Just that way a bit.¡± Now, it was time to begin wandering. As the gatherer of so many ghost stories, it was time to begin spreading new fear. Notes 1. ¡ü Aoandon means ¡°blue lantern¡±. Volume 4, 1: Zashiki Warashi Yukari / The Past is a Present that Once Was Volume 4, Chapter 1: Zashiki Warashi Yukari / The Past is a Present that Once Was Part 1 March 24, 5:00 AM. I was napping and not sure if I was experiencing a dream or reality. My mind had fallen to an odd level not quite awake and not quite asleep. In that state, I suddenly felt a sensation seeping out from my chest. It was as if some kind of barrier had grown weak. Something was clearly wrong. From the top of my head to the end of my butt, I felt something like thin, thin wires passing through the center of my body. They were not sturdy or strong. In fact, they felt like they would break like dry pasta if I twisted my body even slightly. Nevertheless, I felt a vague chill of unease as if letting those sharp fragments spread through my body would be a fatal mistake. At that time, it came clearly to my mind. Ahh. I¡¯m definitely not a normal Zashiki Warashi. National Registry ID #36110054Ra2. XXXXX Prototype Ver. 39 XXX. Traditional Species Designator: Zashiki Warashi. Personal Name within the Jinnai Family: Yukari. There were a lot of terms that could refer to me, but not even I knew which one truly indicated ¡°me¡±. Even if there was a ¡°me¡± I wanted to be, the truth of the world would not necessarily take my side so conveniently. As I thought on my vague definition of myself, the sense that something was wrong travelled down my back. The thin wire-like sensation seemed to say it was the only thing on which I could rely to identify who I really was. ¡°...¡± Even sighing seemed like too much trouble, so I closed my eyes once more within the thick futon blanket. This was a thought pattern that only existed in this vague level of consciousness. It was a fluctuation. An error. Once I clearly woke or clearly fell asleep, this unease would vanish. And I hated putting in any kind of effort, so going back to sleep was always the way to go. Or so I thought. Another action interfered with my meager plan. Something began rustling around next to me in the futon. ¡°Yukari.¡± I heard a small child¡¯s voice and a boy¡¯s head popped out from under the blanket. He was about six and had short, black hair. His face was as red as a boiled octopus as he spoke. ¡°It¡¯s hot and hard to breath.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what you get for pulling such a thick blanket over your head.¡± He was well-known for tossing and turning in his sleep, so his pillow had been thrown to the other end of the bedroom. And it was not the work of a Makura-Gaeshi. If he had woken up, going back to sleep would be difficult. I rolled over to check the digital clock and found ten minutes had passed since I had last checked. The rectangular clock was not my taste. In fact, the futon itself was not mine. Sneaking into the family¡¯s futons at night is a trait of the Zashiki Warashi, isn¡¯t it? I rubbed my eyes, gave a quick yawn, and spoke to the actual owner of the futon. ¡°Good morning, Shinobu. I¡¯d like to change, so could you scoot back just a bit?¡± Part 2 ¡°Bust: 98 cm. Waist: 54 cm. Hip: 85 cm. Isn¡¯t it a bit of a curveball to call this a Zashiki ¡®Warashi¡¯?[1] In fact, it¡¯s downright cheating.¡± I was inside a large thatch-roof house. When I lazily made my way to the altar room, I found Shinobu¡¯s mother waiting for me. As Youkai did not have lifespans, it could be hard to judge our ages once we passed our growth period, but it was true I would likely be categorized as a ¡°young wife¡± using their standards. Also, there was only one thing I could say to the words thrown at me the instant I opened the door. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what you want me to do about it.¡± ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right.¡± ¡°And another thing. The Zashiki Warashi species also contains young samurai and one-legged monks. It doesn¡¯t have to be a small child wearing a kimono.¡± ¡°Sure, sure. Now, how¡¯s Shinobu doing?¡± ¡°He insisted he could change on his own, so I¡¯m betting he has his head stuck in the neck hole while he flails around like a giant stuffed amoeba.¡± ¡°Did he wet the bed?¡± ¡°If he had, I would look a lot more upset right now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s my mother-in-law who would be upset since she uses you as a dress-up doll. There aren¡¯t many people who wear kimonos.¡± ¡°Then why don¡¯t you wear them?¡± By the way, she was in the altar room in order to bring me my breakfast. In the Jinnai house, the humans ate in the living room and the Youkai ate in the altar room. It was a fairly lax rule, so there was no restriction on switching location after the meal actually began. After setting down the food and placing a bowl of rice in front of the Buddhist altar, Shinobu¡¯s mother waved at me. ¡°Okay, enjoy yourself. And make sure you bring fortune and prosperity to our house like a Zashiki Warashi is supposed to¡î¡± After making sure she had left the room, I sat in a daze for a while. Rather than wanting to sleep but finding I couldn¡¯t, I knew I had to wake up but found doing so was too much trouble. I decided to switch on the flat-screen TV in a corner of the room and flipped randomly through the channels while I waited for my mind to awaken. Hunger really seemed to play a large role as a mental support. ¡°Here is the number one for today, March 24! If you¡¯re an Aries, listen up! Your perfect match is a Virgo! And your lucky color is...¡± ¡°Here is today¡¯s selected best seller. ¡®The Nail that Sticks Out is Hammered Down ~How to Create a Society where only Idiots can Survive~¡¯ This is the latest novel from the author of ¡®The Idiots whose Names Deserve to Go Down in History¡¯! It far outdoes its predecessor which was famous for readers having such extremely divided opinions of it that they got into actual fistfights.¡± ¡°Beauty! This will be the three-minute exercise for the morning. If you want to smile below the summer sun, you have to put in the effort now! This is the perfect exercise for you piglets who are afraid to look in the mirror.¡± ¡° ¡®People are Killed for Such Stupid Reasons ~Selfish Motives Straight from the Murderer¡¯s Mouth~¡¯ This week¡¯s special drama is the ninth entry in the series of true stories that reveal the mysteries behind brutal crimes that will freeze your blood! Don¡¯t miss it Friday night at nine!¡± Just as I thought I would remember that my stomach was empty after another fifteen minutes, I heard a sound. It sounded like dishes clinking together. I quickly realized it did not just ¡°sound like¡± that. ¡°Yukari, Yukari. You can¡¯t eat alone.¡± ¡°Shinobu?¡± The six-year-old child carried a tray with unsteady hands that pushed the danger meter up to 130%. It seemed he had taken it all the way to the altar room. ¡°They said on TV that food tastes better when everyone¡¯s together.¡± ¡°Shinobu, you¡¯re kind of missing the point and you¡¯re also spilling miso soup at a concerning rate.¡± ¡°Yukari! Don¡¯t eat alone.¡± I was forced to grab a rag and put in the manual labor to fix a disaster that would delight only a tatami mat craftsman. He seemed to think I was on the verge of becoming a shut-in, but that was just how Zashiki Warashi were. It was just as pointless to urge a bat or mole to sunbathe. At any rate, I left the TV on while eating breakfast with Shinobu whose misunderstanding remained. ¡°Grandma¡¯s food is good, but it¡¯s all so brown.¡± ¡°Well, she prefers Japanese food while your mother goes more for the Western food.¡± ¡°Grandma should just make omurice too. That would add a bunch of yellow and red! And if she added parsley, it¡¯d have green too!!¡± He pouted his lips as he complained, but it was interesting to note that he finished his vegetables more often when his grandmother made the food. Making a six-year-old child eat his vegetables seemed like a good indicator of skill to me. ¡°I can eat bell peppers.¡± ¡°Oh, can you?¡± ¡°I can eat celery too.¡± ¡°Personally, I¡¯d much rather not.¡± I refused to eat celery on principle, so I turned down his persistent sales talk about adding mayonnaise. His small hands then made an odd movement. He pulled out several metal skewers divided into different bright colors. ¡°Um...Shinobu? What are those?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know? Beauty!!¡± I had a feeling I had heard that word on TV earlier and he stuck the colored skewers into his boiled eggplant and taro. ¡°You can go on a diet by stabbing these into the food before eating it!¡± ¡°Um, a diet?¡± A six year old on a diet? ¡°This one¡¯s for meat and this one¡¯s for fish. You only get one or the other of those, though. This is for green vegetables, this is for red vegetables, and this is for yellow vegetables!!¡± ¡°Oh, I get it. It has a lot more skewers for vegetables, so if you use them evenly, you¡¯ll naturally get the vegetables you need.¡± ¡°Beauty said it. Beauty said it on TV, so it has to be true!¡± I then recalled that effeminate male TV personality whose hair was dyed a bright color. He was known as a fashion leader and the one who started the latest diet boom, but for some reason no one actually wanted to be just like him. It seemed like an odd position to me. ¡°If you diet, you¡¯ll get big and strong. Big and strong!¡± ¡°Shinobu, you have the entire concept wrong and I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll get the skewer stuck in your throat, so stop sticking it in your mouth to eat from it. Bite the food off the side instead.¡± So are these colorful skewers an official product? I doubted there was a specialized shop in the rural area, so someone in the family had to have bought them off the internet. The biggest suspect was Shinobu¡¯s mother. She had a bad habit of buying things on a whim and then only using them once. The porcelain bibimbap dish set and the home-made southern rice cracker set were two of the latest ones. ¡°Yukari, did you know that ikra is Russian for roe?¡± ¡°You sure are knowledgeable.¡± ¡°Priozhki!¡± ¡°Although maybe your knowledge wouldn¡¯t be so strange if we didn¡¯t have all those cable channels.¡± Part 3 No major incidents would happen. There were no real ups or downs. The job of a Zashiki Warashi was to laze around a large rural house, so I only had to find a spot that wouldn¡¯t get in the way of the vacuuming and lie on the tatami mats. I was in a carefree mood far removed from my past of being imprisoned and experimented on by the organization named Hyakki Yakou. Or so I had hoped. Unfortunately, I heard a commotion out front. As usual, it was Shinobu¡¯s voice. I circled around to the front entrance, put on my geta, and went outside. There, I found Shinobu having a small disagreement on the road in front of the house. His opponent was...something. It was a giant three-eyed dog the size of a small truck and it was cutting across the road to block the way. ¡°I am a Nurikabe and I will not let you through.¡± ¡°Why!? Why won¡¯t you!?¡± ¡°If you are going somewhere, you must have an adult with you. Go call someone.¡± ¡°You stupid Youkai. I bet you¡¯re called a Roadblock or something!¡± ¡°I am a Nurikabe. I already explained that. Now go call for an adult.¡± Shinobu grabbed the thick fur on the gigantic dog¡¯s side and tugged, but it did not seem to bother the Nurikabe. The Youkai was as harmless as it looked, but I had heard of them having a serious effect on the domestic economy when they appeared on a highway or railroad. Youkai like us wouldn¡¯t be harmed by having a dump truck run into us or a tanker truck explode on us, so there was not much the humans could do. However, I had thought a Nurikabe looked like a large hunk of konjac with short arms and legs. Letting this continue forever would help nothing, so I decided to call out to Shinobu. ¡°Shinobu, what are you doing?¡± ¡°School! I¡¯m gonna go to school!¡± He swung his arms around to try to persuade me. ¡°I¡¯m starting school in the spring, so I need to make sure I know the way!¡± Meanwhile, the Nurikabe glanced over at me with its three eyes and slowly vanished as if dissolving into the air. ¡°Ah, the Roadblock went away! Okay, let¡¯s go!!¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± He looked like he was about to run off and not stop until he was on the moon or something, so I lightly grabbed onto the nape of his neck to stop him. ¡°Do you even know where your school is?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll let you join my exploration party. You should be thankful.¡± If I refused, he would probably get lost on his own and manage to escape the Solar System, so I had no choice but to go along. It was the morning during late March. The weather was in a bizarre state where the temperature would change quite a bit each day, but it was fairly warm on this day. It was also sunny and there were even butterflies flying around after waking up too early. ¡°The trees are wearing scarves.¡± ¡°Those are made of straw.¡± ¡°They must really not like the cold. It¡¯s so warm today.¡± I decided to keep it a secret that they were put up to allow bugs to nest in them and then burned to kill the bugs gathered inside. Meanwhile, Shinobu was looking around in confusion. ¡°This is tricky,¡± he said while forcing a knowledgeable look. ¡°Finding your way without landmarks is tricky.¡± Spreading out before us was the stereotypical scenery of paddy fields one would see on a postcard for foreign tourists. The landscape contained water-filled paddies, thatch-roof houses, and narrow roads and waterways connecting it all together. However, this was not just some old rural area. On pillars set up at set intervals along the roads were solar panels that changed angle like sunflowers, the waterways contained small water wheels for power generation, and the paddies without water were being plowed by unmanned drone tractors. I¡¯d also heard that the scarecrows contained sensors to precisely fire a spear-like sound wave at any animal movement using trumpet- or megaphone-shaped directional speakers. To combat the cheap and plentiful imported vegetables, this special village created an ultra-high quality brand out of the limited domestic crops. A new idea of the rural had been created to battle those other nations. It created a fusion of tradition and cutting-edge technology that used the words ¡°safe¡± and ¡°delicacy¡± as weapons to sell a bunch of grapes for 30,000 yen and a liter of the water in its rivers for 300 yen. This was an Intellectual Village. Japan had suffered a critical defeat in the precision machinery industry and these villages had been created during the great change of focus intended to help the economy recover. That was the sort of village we lived in. And at the same time... ¡°Look, Yukari. There¡¯s an Umbrella Obake and a Lantern Obake.¡± ¡°Looks that way. But I think they¡¯re in a hurry, so let¡¯s leave them alone.¡± Shinobu was pointing at a road beyond a paddy field. A paper umbrella and paper lantern both with a single comical eye were speaking loudly to each other while running(?). ¡°Hurry! Mrs. Yonesaki¡¯s labor pains have already begun!!¡± ¡°Oh, dear. We need to hurry back to the house!!¡± The perfectly recreated rural scenery had invited Youkai back to human civilization after they had hidden themselves during the rise of modernization. That umbrella and lantern were likely causing trouble at one of the village¡¯s houses just like I was. ¡°Shinobu, I don¡¯t think you need to search for landmarks on a straight road.¡± ¡°Y-you¡¯re right! I¡¯ll write on the map that this part is okay!¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± He began writing a meaningless comment on a piece of drawing paper. Once we arrived at a critical fork in the road, he spoke up with a troubled look. ¡°I¡¯m at the edge of the paper, so I can¡¯t draw the rest of the map.¡± ¡°This was nothing but an empty straight road, so why did you draw it so long on your map?¡± Of course, he would be travelling in a group for a while after beginning school, so there was no need for him to draw a map and remember the way. In the end, he flipped the paper over, said ¡°I¡¯ll keep going from here!¡±, and continued drawing while dragging me further along. He was so focused on the paper that I wasn¡¯t sure he had even seen the fork in the road. Soon, someone approached us along the narrow road. It was a girl of about Shinobu¡¯s age who held a large dog on a leash. She may have been the target of an overprotective parent because every single article of clothing was homemade. She looked a lot like a storybook illustration of Red Riding Hood. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Nagisa! Beauty!!¡± ¡°B-beauty.¡± ...If she understands that greeting, that effeminate TV personality must be popular with more than just Shinobu. I wonder if that¡¯s been nominated as a fad phrase. It seemed Nagisa¡¯s parents had misread the harsh ups and downs of the late March temperatures because she looked hot in the Red Riding Hood look. Shinobu would sometimes throw fried chicken bones to play fetch with it, so the Saint Bernard that protected the nervous-looking girl wagged its tail and welcomed him. The rumor was that Nagisa¡¯s parents had put it through a legitimate war dog training program and it was trained to immediately rip out the windpipe of anyone suspicious who approached the girl, but I had to wonder if it was true. At the moment, she hid behind the dog that looked like a giant stuffed animal. ¡°Shinobu-chan, are you with that Youkai again? A-aren¡¯t you afraid?¡± Oh, how troublesome. The existence of Youkai had been generally accepted in the Intellectual Village, so it wasn¡¯t often you saw someone afraid of us like this. Of course, the nation had no laws to judge Youkai themselves. It was treated the same as an accident involving a falling rock or a lightning strike, so I couldn¡¯t really complain if people were afraid of us. Shinobu on the other hand was comfortable around Youkai to an unusual degree. ¡°Hm? Afraid of Yukari? You don¡¯t have to worry about her. She doesn¡¯t bite.¡± ... Now, then. ¡°Roar!! Grrrrr!!!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t do that, Yukari! Nagisa won¡¯t get it¡¯s a joke! Look, she fell down!!¡± By the way, even though Nagisa had stiffly collapsed like a cicada skin, the Saint Bernard did nothing more than calmly look up at me with its tongue sticking out. Then again, it could probably tell at a glance that I didn¡¯t mean any real harm. ¡°Sh-Shinobu-chan, you¡¯re mean. If you lie, you have to swallow a thousand needles.¡± ¡°No, Nagisa. Liars have to swallow a porcupinefish.¡± In just a few seconds, their conversation took a zigzagging turn toward the roots of old words[2] Their conversations were quite peculiar. They were logical, but they would take sudden bypasses based on instinct or emotion. If you lost sight of the flow of conversation for even an instant, you would never find the link. And if you could not follow the thread of conversation, you could not join in. With nothing to do, I looked the well-behaved Saint Bernard in its small, round eyes. No, I can¡¯t start empathizing with a dog. I¡¯m not going to sit and wait like that. My position has to be somewhere higher. ¡°Bye, Shinobu-chan. I need to finish my errand.¡± As I thought about my dignity and respect as a Youkai, their conversation finally came to an end. Nagisa seemed to be dragged by the leash more than she was walking with the dog, but she began walking toward the small post office all the same. We corrected our course toward our destination. Or rather, I corrected Shinobu¡¯s course. The village had a single elementary school, middle school, and high school and they were all located near each other. To ensure a safe walk to school, it was probably best to have them all use the same path. ¡°I¡¯m thirsty.¡± ¡°Well, we did walk about two kilometers.¡± After traveling a little more, we saw a large area surrounded by a chain-link fence and a large rectangular building inside. ¡°Is that my school?¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s not where you¡¯ll be going. I think it¡¯s the high school. Y¡¯know, the one Hayabusa goes to.¡± It was late March, so I was pretty sure all the schools were out for spring break, but there were still quite a few students in the schoolyard. Sports teams such as baseball or soccer may have been practicing. For some reason, Shinobu was trembling while pressed up against the fence. ¡°What is it, Shinobu? If you¡¯re thirsty, how about we go in and borrow their water fountain?¡± ¡°No, I could never go in the high school! I don¡¯t have the right!!¡± It wasn¡¯t some consulate, so I didn¡¯t see why he would have to worry about that. However, it seemed he had run up against a barrier of age or school year that kids seemed to have issues with. Having heard the commotion, some girls wearing track suits approached from beyond the fence. ¡°Hm? What are you doing here? Do you have a lunch for your big brother or sister? If so, go to the main entrance on the other side.¡± ¡°Ee!? N-no, I do not have a lunch! And I do not have a big brother who plays sports!!¡± ¡°Ah ha ha. Why¡¯s he speaking so politely all of a sudden?¡± Shinobu had started to panic, but his confusion faded as time passed. His eyes opened as wide as they would go as he looked at the schoolyard through the fence. ¡°That¡¯s a big horizontal bar!¡± ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think I could do a back hip circle on that,¡± replied one of the girls. ¡°There¡¯s a sandbox there but no slide or swings. It looks boring.¡± ¡°Well, that is for the long jump.¡± At that point, Shinobu finally seemed to take an interest in the girls he was talking to through the fence. ¡°By the way, who are all of you?¡± he asked with a confused look. ¡°We¡¯re the tennis team.¡± ¡°If you lie, you have to swallow a porcupinefish.¡± ¡°Why are you calling me a liar out of nowhere!?¡± asked one track suit girl who seemed quite willing to play along. Shinobu proudly puffed out his chest and gave a snort as he made an announcement to her. ¡°Girls who play tennis wear clothes that flutter around.¡± ¡°That¡¯s only in official games. We aren¡¯t going to wear that embarrassing thing all the time.¡± Some boys who had appeared out of nowhere began pouting their lips and protesting while swinging their rackets around. ¡°C¡¯mon, wear the embarrassing outfits! Half the reason we started playing tennis was to see those, so why are you wearing those horrible track suits year-round!?¡± ¡°Because lowlives like you have eyes, you damn boys!! Get lost! Any guy without pure eyes needs to go away!!¡± Having heard all the noise, a female teacher who seemed to be the coach began hitting balls over at them with her racket, so the boys and girls began running around in confusion. The teacher walked over to Shinobu who was the flustered source of the commotion. ¡°Are you interested in tennis?¡± she asked while perfectly expressionless. ¡°I don¡¯t know the rules!! I only know you hit something back and forth like in badminton!¡± ¡°I see. Then let me give you a chance. This is an old ball. If you¡¯re interested, learn how to use it.¡± She forced the yellow ball through a hole in the chain-link fence and handed it to him. One of the track suit girls running along the schoolyard opened her eyes wide. ¡°No fair! Are you luring him in with toys like Santa Claus, you old hag! No matter what you say, you¡¯re the kindest one when it comes to little kids!!¡± ¡°Shut up!! I¡¯ll have you know I actually wanted to teach elementary school! But the next thing I knew, I was dealing with you deceptive mini-adults and your dead eyes!!¡± However, Shinobu had not heard that exchange because he was too focused on the ball in his hand. ¡°It¡¯s yellow, round, and fluffy. I¡¯ve never seen a ball like this. It¡¯s like a baby duck.¡± ¡°Ahhh, Shinobu. This isn¡¯t good.¡± ¡°Wow! It bounces really good. This baby duck bounces more than a baseball!!¡± He shouted in delight as he threw the tennis ball against the road again and again, but I groaned as I watched. He had reacted in much the same way when he had gotten a small rubber ball at the temple festival. After making a hole in every sliding door and screen in the house, he had broken the glass in the wall clock and helped revive the intangible cultural asset of the crying child locked in the storage shed as punishment. However, it seemed all of that had vanished from his mind. I earnestly hoped that a small storm was not approaching the Jinnai house for that night. ¡°Shinobu, the elementary school is this way.¡± ¡°Sure. With this baby duck ball, I¡¯m not afraid of anything!!¡± With the legendary Baby Duck Shooter in hand, he grew too bold and tried to walk down the center of the road, so I grabbed the nape of his neck and pulled him to the side of the road. The elementary school he would begin to attend come April was quite close to the high school. The middle school was also nearby, so the village planners had probably vaguely decided ¡°the schools go here¡±. Speaking of which, the village did not have a university. A tidy place of learning may not have fit into an Intellectual Village that was strategically managed to have the proper image. To use Shinobu¡¯s checklist from before, this schoolyard had a few swings, slides, and other playground equipment. The horizontal bars seemed to have different heights for the lower grades and the higher grades. Also, the soccer goal and basketball goal were smaller than the ones at the high school. However, a Youkai like me noticed something else first. ¡°Why are high schoolers kicking a ball around outside the elementary school?¡± For one, it was spring break. Elementary school had no concept of sports teams or clubs, so there would not have been any elementary school students here in the first place. But when you found larger middle and high school students there instead, it looked a lot like they had chased out the younger kids to have the place to themselves. And that may not have been far from the truth. The children at the high school had been the passionate athletes. It would have been difficult to dislodge them if you just wanted to play around. And if they then wanted to play somewhere else, it was only natural what would happen next. They may not have even realized they were forcing out the younger children who should have been there. However, would elementary school children really choose to gather in a place filled with clearly older and bigger children? Just as Shinobu had been oddly unwilling to enter the high school, the elementary school children may have naturally left without being actively threatened by anyone. From high school to middle school and from middle school to elementary school. As the people were left out, they would move down to the next school in line. It was certainly a twisted social structure. Whether he had caught on to the situation or not, Shinobu tugged on my kimono and asked me a question. ¡°Is this my school?¡± ¡°Looks like it. You¡¯ll be going here every day come April.¡± Before I had finished speaking, a soccer ball crashed loudly against the chain-link fence. It rolled along the ground in front of Shinobu whose eyes were opened wide. I assumed someone had accidentally kicked the ball this way, but I was quickly proven wrong. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± I heard a scratchy voice much like metal scraping together. It seemed this high school boy had kicked the ball our way on purpose. ¡°We already told you the rules, remember!? We¡¯re using this place right now! We even got permission from the teacher as alumni of the school. We¡¯re not gonna deal with little brats like you. If not having your schoolyard is such a problem, go tell on us, but don¡¯t blame me for what happens then!¡± ¡°Hm? Hm???¡± Shinobu was not used to being the target of that kind of hostility, so he was more confused than scared. The boy seemed to have mistaken him for an elementary school kid who had come to play. A glance through the fence showed that there were no small children despite it being an elementary school. Everyone there was a taller high school student. ¡°Dammit. Why do they get to be first string and we¡¯re only second string. They¡¯re just splitting us up based on who they like and using up all the equipment and practice space for themselves. Practice...I need to practice. Thinking you can win with guts or a fighting spirit is complete nonsense. I¡¯ll prove to them that people grow more with a training regimen calculated out by a program.¡± Shinobu tilted his head and looked up at me. ¡°Yukari, what is he talking about?¡± ¡°He¡¯s saying it¡¯s tough not being a winner because he can¡¯t live up to his parents¡¯ expectations or get the cute girls in his class.¡± I gave an arbitrary comment with a lovely grin and received obvious verbal abuse for my trouble. ¡°Shut the hell up, you damn Youkai!! I know you don¡¯t have any human rights, so how about I beat the shit out of you right here!?¡± ¡°We all know you can¡¯t do that¡î¡± The boy I decided to call Grumpy-kun kicked the fence and then left. Um, what am I supposed to do at times like this? Oh, right. Raise my middle finger. ¡°Yukari, what was all that?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Guys like that have probably never even held hands with a girl. You have him beat by a wide margin, so you don¡¯t have to worry about anything.¡± ¡°???¡± There was nothing more for Shinobu to see. Or rather, the schoolyard had more or less become a post-apocalyptic land where everyone had a mohawk, so sticking around was unlikely to be an enjoyable experience for him. Today¡¯s theme had been ¡°learning the way to school¡±, so bringing that to an end and going home was the best option. ¡°Things can look different on the way back, so let¡¯s try that too.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? It¡¯s the same path, so there¡¯s no way to get lost.¡± ¡°Shinobu, you¡¯re already taking a wrong turn at the first fork in the road.¡± I grabbed the nape of his neck and corrected his path. He flailed his arms and legs around in protest for a while, but he finally gave a low energy comment as if he were a wilting house plant. ¡°I¡¯m tired from walking so much.¡± ¡°Sorry, but I¡¯m not going to carry you. Why? Because it sounds like a lot of work.¡± Part 4 When we returned to the house that had a full security system and solar panels on its thatch roof, it seemed to be lunchtime. The day¡¯s lunch was oyakodon. Meals were always prepared by Shinobu¡¯s mother or grandmother, but the food was always plain yet reliable when his grandmother made it. After lunch, I had nothing to do and just lazed around until I heard someone talking on the phone. The voice came from the hallway. I saw short hair dyed brown and glittering silver accessories. Hearing he was in his late teens might make you think he was Shinobu¡¯s older brother, but he was actually his uncle. His name was Jinnai Hayabusa. He was an obvious delinquent boy who rode around on his electric maxi scooter and got into fights. ¡°Yes, yes. I get that. What? You think I¡¯m a moron? I agree the instigator on TV is clearly suspicious, but someone that well-known would never do something so dangerous.¡± ¡°You mean...still...how...ick works?¡± ¡°I already told you that! I don¡¯t know what the trick is or how it works! But they¡¯re definitely using a Package involving a Youkai. Anywhere from a dozen to a few hundred people are involved in a single crime, so we aren¡¯t going to find them that easily! Are you sure you aren¡¯t the moron here!?¡± ¡°Ha...ha. Watch what...say or...a kick in...balls.¡± Oh, a Package? This sounds dangerous. That was a criminal method that incorporated the vague existence and traits of a Youkai into a single system. For example, a Satori¡¯s ability to read minds could be used for insider trading. For example, a god of pestilence¡¯s ability to make people sick could be used to bring a natural death to someone you hated. These cutting-edge crimes that involved the occult were often put off until later by the professional police. This was not something a high school boy should be getting involved in, so I decided to cut in. Specifically, I snuck up behind him and kicked him just as the voice on the phone had threatened. ¡°Take this!!¡± ¡°Anyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± I seemed to have misjudged my strength because Hayabusa was left rolling around on the ground. I ignored him, picked his cell phone up off the floor, and heard a dignified female voice. ¡°Hello. I don¡¯t know who this is, but thanks for stopping Hayabusa-kun from getting too worked up. Heh heh heh. That was a surprisingly cute scream. What did you do?¡± ¡°You could say I helped the student council president with the mischief she¡¯s notorious for. Anyway, please don¡¯t get our stupid boy caught up in anything. Half the time he¡¯s suspended it¡¯s due to the requests you give him.¡± ¡°I never ask him to go that far. While I do want to stop anyone in our school from getting involved in Packages, he has a bad habit of rushing in too quickly. It¡¯s because he goes too far in his handling of justice. On a field trip, he rescued a girl in his class from some boys of another school and ended making the girl he rescued afraid of him.¡± As I grew bored with her non-committal answer, I heard what sounded like a groan from the dead in the depths of the earth. Delinquent Boy Hayabusa reached a hand toward me while curled up on the floor that was polished to an amber color. I sighed, tossed the phone toward him, and gave him some relevant advice. ¡°Halfheartedly getting involved in Youkai-related crimes will only shorten your life. You can¡¯t resolve this kind of thing, so if you have time to talk about this nonsense, try to find some trouble more your size. Maybe you could deal with those complete idiots who¡¯ve taken over the schoolyard of the elementary school Shinobu will be attending soon.¡± ¡°Y-you do know assault is a crime, don¡¯t you?¡± I had done what I had to do and it wasn¡¯t my job to decide whether he would listen to me or not. There was no cure for stupidity or death. I began to leave the hallway, but another voice reached me from behind. ¡°Vwooooom.¡± It was Shinobu. By the time I figured out he was making an airplane noise, he had already run right into my butt. ¡°Crash!¡± ¡°Shinobu, what are you doing?¡¯ ¡°Chomp.¡± ¡°Hyah!?¡± The unexpected action made me jump away. Not because it hurt, though! I frantically turned around and Shinobu was confused by my extreme reaction. ¡°Hm? Yukari, what is it?¡± ¡°Shinobu, um, don¡¯t do that. You aren¡¯t supposed to bite people.¡± That was something I should never have had to tell anyone, but he only tilted his head further. ¡°But mommy does it all the time. She bites my arm or side.¡± ¡°That stupid mother! Can¡¯t she think about how things will influence her child!?¡± Anyway, why is he here? As I wondered that, he waved a hand weakly and asked me a question. ¡°Where were you going?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°¡±I¡¯m going to sleep, but I can¡¯t sleep without you there.¡± ¡°Oh, you wanted to take a nap, didn¡¯t you?¡± Normally, a Zashiki Warashi snuck into the family¡¯s futons as a harmless prank, but Shinobu had gotten so used to it that he could not sleep without someone in the futon with him. I laid out the futon in his bedroom and we both lay down in it. ¡°Yukari, that¡¯s too tight.¡± ¡°Bear with it.¡± I was holding him in my arms more tightly than absolutely necessary for a good reason: he tossed and turned a lot in his sleep. It was completely normal for him to end up upside down, take the entire blanket from me as he rolled around, find his way underneath me, get tangled up in my long hair, or anything else really. However, he did not have trouble getting to sleep. The trip to and from his school must have been a lot for him because he fell fast asleep only five minutes after his complaint. I had nothing to do until he woke up and my eyelids grew heavy as I passed the time doing nothing. However, my eyes opened again before I fully fell asleep. Someone had snuck into the bedroom. ¡°Heh heh heh. They¡¯re asleep. Fast asleep. Buuut, this makes me a little jealous as his mother.¡± It was Shinobu¡¯s mother. For some reason, she was lifting up her breasts with her hands. ¡°Does he naturally choose the one with the bigger breasts and smoother skin? I guess I can¡¯t compare to a Youkai that doesn¡¯t age.¡± ¡°You have no reason to get upset over this. The only reason he can approach me so easily is because I¡¯m not as close an existence to him. In fact, it¡¯s because I¡¯m so different.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Children sometimes have complaints they find difficult to make to a parent, but they can reveal those to a stuffed animal. There are advantages to being something other than human. ...However, that can be a harsh truth to the one being treated that way. If you want to be his parent, you don¡¯t want that, do you?¡± ¡°Hmm. I¡¯m not sure he puts that much thought into it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s even harsher because it¡¯s done subconsciously.¡± I gave a dark and cold smile I never let Shinobu see. This was a good opportunity and I felt like there was a little more I needed to tell the parent who was meant to protect him. ¡°There¡¯s something about Shinobu that worries me.¡± ¡°What is it now?¡± ¡°He¡¯s completely unaware of that forbidden line that everyone can naturally sense. Think of a school at night, an abandoned hospital, or a sealed-off tunnel. He might find those places scary, but he would never think of turning back.¡± For example, he had no problem bringing his food into the altar room that smelled of the dead to eat with something as inhuman as a Youkai. I felt it was worth noting the positive possibilities of getting along with any Youkai, but our traits did not always have a positive effect. ¡°He can¡¯t sense that line that everyone else can, so he always ends up stepping into areas that are best avoided. You need to be aware of that. If a location is separated out, there is reason why. Entering forbidden territory does not always have a happy ending like with Momotarou. It can also end more like Kaguya-Hime or Urashima Tarou.¡± Shinobu¡¯s mother lightly traced her index finger along her chin. ¡°Urashimia Tarou, hm? That really is a strange story. Unlike a lot of old stories, it has no lesson. The main character rescues a turtle and it ends with his misfortune.¡± That was how the story went when looking at it with human standards. None of the major characters of the story ¨C Urashima Tarou, the turtle, and Otohime ¨C had meant any harm. Urashima Tarou had rescued the turtle with no intention of gaining anything from it, the turtle had tried to repay him with no ulterior motive, and Otohime had genuinely fallen in love with him. Nevertheless, the story ended with his despair. We might look a lot alike and we might use the same words, but humans and Youkai had definitively different values. In Urashima Tarou¡¯s case that difference was in the view of time. Youkai have no lifespan, so they had not known Urashima Tarou would not like what happened to him. ¡°It has nothing to do with good will or malice. That is a constant danger whenever humans and Youkai come into contact and it is a risk that never occurs between parent and child. Do you understand now that I¡¯m not stealing your position?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± That was all Shinobu¡¯s mother said. It was short and concise. But then she said more with a hint of a smile. ¡°But you don¡¯t want anything like what happened to Urashima Tarou to happen to Shinobu. That¡¯s not a bad reaction as a parent, you know?¡± Part 5 It seemed I had fallen asleep at some point. When I opened my eyelids, Shinobu was absent from the futon. I started by heading to the kitchen and drinking a can of chilled soda from the refrigerator. The refrigerator had a flat-screen computer on the door for looking up recipes. I swiped my finger across it to wake it from sleep mode and opened the online news page. ¡° ¡®How Does Pizza Arrive at your Door in Only Thirty Minutes?¡¯ is finally getting a movie! This new schedule(?) mystery is from the author of the masterpiece ¡®Hamburgers, the Magic of Ninety Seconds from Order to Completion¡¯. This will be another problem film filled with fast food trivia you¡¯ll wish you didn¡¯t know. It is being directed by...¡± ¡°...¡± With the red can in hand and a blue face, I returned the computer to sleep mode. That was not an article I wanted to read while drinking that. Of course, there were rumors the extreme junk food criticism was a way of opposing imported goods. I carried the cold can around the house and found a large number of paper airplanes scattered around the Japanese living room that was large enough for a judo match. This was not the result of some bizarre person getting obsessed with a single action. A Kappa, a Tengu, and a Yamanba ¨C a group needing no explanation due to their appearances in picture books and Youkai manga ¨C were forming a system for mass producing paper airplanes using the giant pile of paper Shinobu had prepared. I decided to ask about it. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Oh, Yukari. We¡¯re having a paper airplane championship! It¡¯s not too late to catch up now!!¡± ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked again. My voice was more threatening the second time and it was directed at the Youkai rather than Shinobu. They looked up as if they had come back to their senses. ¡°O-oh, no. I returned to my childhood for a moment there! We didn¡¯t head into the mountains to do this!!¡± (<¨C Tengu) ¡°We¡¯re here to get a sip of the mysterious sake of the Jinnai Brewery.¡± (<¨C Kappa) ¡°It¡¯s made by humans, so I¡¯m not expecting much. But I¡¯ll try it out, so hurry up and bring some.¡± (<¨C Yamanba) They showed no intention of apologizing for entering the house without permission. The Jinnai house seemed to act as an inn for travelling Youkai. Shinobu was explaining his new discovery of folding down a corner of the rectangular paper and cutting away the excess to form a square, but he tilted his head when he heard what the Youkai said. ¡°Are you talking about work? I can go call for daddy and grampa.¡± ¡°Fwa ha ha ha ha. You probably shouldn¡¯t. If they heard the master of Mount Kurama had rushed all the way here after hearing some rumors, they¡¯d probably collapse in fear. It¡¯s best for them not to know the details.¡± That muscular man was the natural enemy of Youkai who would not hesitate to bring his fist down on anyone who strayed from the proper path, be they a Mikoshi-Nyuudou or a guardian of hell, but it was best for these Youkai not to know the details. They¡¯d be the ones collapsing in fear then. Shinobu then spoke up completely innocently. ¡°Do you want to see them work? Do you want to see how amazing they are?¡± ¡°If their sake really is good enough for Youkai to accept it, that would definitely be amazing.¡± ¡°How amazing?¡± ¡°Nobel Prize amazing.¡± Ah, this generally arbitrary group just gave them an arbitrary title! But Shinobu was completely focused on the sudden foreign term. ¡°Nobel... Y-you just need some sake, right!? I¡¯ll show you how amazing they are! C¡¯mon, Yukari! I think there¡¯s some in there!!¡± ¡°Yes, yes.¡± He pulled my hand and brought me right back to the kitchen. Of course, I was not simply going along with what he wanted. My true reason was to stop him from getting into the first-class daiginjo. The sake made by the Jinnai family was worth 50,000 yen a cup, so some people would not be happy if a child removed the stopper for a prank. However, my fears proved unfounded when Shinobu did something unexpected. He opened the refrigerator with his small hands, stuck his upper body inside, and pulled out a thick white liquid in a clear plastic bag. ¡°This is it, Yukari! This is the kind even I can have on New Year¡¯s, so it has to be the best.¡± ¡°Well...I guess you can bring out the amazake. It isn¡¯t a product at least.¡± It was treated much like a leftovers meal made from scraps of meat and the centers of vegetables. Then again, everything from the ingredients to the preparation belonged to the Intellectual Village brand, so a cup would probably still leave you minus a 10,000 yen bill. ¡°How do you heat it up? The microwave?¡± ¡°You put it in a pot and use the stove.¡± As Shinobu started getting worked up, I grabbed the nape of his neck to stop him. Should a small child be distanced from the kitchen which was filled with fire, hot water, and knives? Or should they be familiarized with cooking at an early age to give them a good sense for the process? Both arguments could be made, but it was not my job to make that decision. If Shinobu¡¯s family had chosen the former, I had to deal with the pot on the stove. Not that I was all that good at cooking. No matter how many times I tried making rice balls, they never came out as a proper triangle. I could not let Shinobu see that. Some of it burned onto the bottom of the pot a little, but I managed to heat up the amazake in about ten minutes. I had Shinobu carry a few cups and I brought the entire pot into the living room. The Kappa, Yamanba, and Tengu looked a bit skeptical when they saw the thick white liquid in the transparent cups. ¡°Oh, I was expecting some mysterious sake, but it¡¯s just some amazake for kids. If you think that¡¯s going to get full marks from us, you- bvgrfaaaahhhh!?¡± ¡°What is it, Kappa!? Don¡¯t tell me living in the water made your entire body overly sensitive to heat!¡± ¡°No, Tengu. Look at his face. He¡¯s overcome by such euphoria that his pupils are opened wide. It looks like this sake might be known as the Youkai Crusher for a reason. I think I need to prepare myself and try it out for myse- bhyaaaaaaaaaah!?¡± ¡°Y-Yamanbaaaaa!!¡± Youkai would not die from being stabbed or shot, so it was a mystery why they were so influenced by this amazake. And yet they would be able to eat an entire pufferfish or killer jellyfish without issue. The Tengu assumed he alone would be fine no matter the disaster, so he chugged his cup of amazake and ended up collapsed on the living room floor. ¡°See, daddy and grampa are amazing, aren¡¯t they?¡± said Shinobu. ¡°Mwa ha ha ha ha. It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve felt this good. I¡¯ll turn you into Ushiwakamaru!¡± ¡°Eh? But Benkei¡¯s way cooler. Then I could be big and muscly like daddy!¡± You don¡¯t need to be big and muscly. Shinobu¡¯s grandfather entered from the sake brewery behind the house in order to take a break, but he stopped walking when he saw the bodies lying around the living room. He turned the troublesome question to me. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fully prepared to be thrown into the storage shed with Shinobu, but let me say one thing first. Shinobu seems to believe you¡¯re artisans on a Nobel Prize level.¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard not to get mad after seeing the commotion in here, but there¡¯s something to be said for seeing humans and Youkai get along using something you made. That muscleman will probably still yell at you all like some kind of demon, but he might cry in secret afterwards.¡± Part 6 Shinobu and I were severely lectured. Fortunately, we weren¡¯t locked in a room. Then again, whenever Shinobu was locked in the storage shed, he would cry and wild Youkai would arrive to comfort him. Last time, some mascot-types that were either foxes or tanukis ended up filling the shed with him. His parents had since developed a more effective method. They only needed an illustrated encyclopedia of deep sea fish. Then they only needed to slowly turn the pages. Giant oarfish. ¡°Nooo!?¡± Footballfish. ¡°It¡¯s all squishy! It¡¯s alive, but it¡¯s all squishy!!¡± Snow crab. ¡°Oh, the crab¡¯s kind of cool.¡± Rattail. ¡°Gyaaah!!¡± I was forced to sit still while he clung to my upper body and desperately tried to look away from the book. As for why he had such a problem with deep sea fish... ¡°These are scary! That one looks like it¡¯ll pop if you poke it! That one puffs up if you catch it and something comes from its mouth!!¡± It was already evening. After finally being released, I walked down the hallway that was filled with the orange sunlight. Shinobu was watching TV in the large Western living room. He was sitting with a giant fox and tanuki that had gotten in somehow. They were probably travelling Youkai who were spending the night. I could hear voices from the TV. ¡°There¡¯s fox udon and tanuki soba, but why isn¡¯t there anything with badgers!? We¡¯re seriously troubled by that question!¡± ¡°But badgers don¡¯t sound very delicious! No one likes snakes!!¡± ¡°That¡¯s adder! They barely sound the same!!¡± ¡°Then what¡¯s a badger?¡± ¡°It¡¯s in the same family as weasels and wolverines.¡± ¡°Wolverines! Now you¡¯re scaring me!!¡± ¡°A badger isn¡¯t that frightening! It¡¯s more like a red panda or a raccoon!!¡± ¡°Oh, so it¡¯s like a tanuki. Then why not just say tanuki?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s a badger! The fox, the tanuki, and the badger are the big three for transforming Youkai!!¡± The stage on the screen had a single microphone stand with two people in suits standing on either side of it. In other words, it was a manzai act, but one of the two was clearly a Youkai. There were no laws or obligations restricting us, but the lack of human rights also meant we could not work. After all, we were not ¡°human¡±. However, it seemed there was a loophole in taking a position much like a dog that was part of an act. I didn¡¯t know the details of the situation, though. I didn¡¯t feel like interrupting, so I left for the time being. However, I still had nothing to do, so I wanted someone to fill the time. And there was one person I knew was the easiest to deal with. ¡°Haaayaaabuuusaaa!! Help me kill some time!!¡± ¡°No!! Why is this mass of selfishness here!?¡± As expected, Jinnai Hayabusa, the brown-haired, accessory-covered delinquent boy, let out a girlishly shrill voice. He had been maintaining his maxi scooter in the garage he had made in the shed. He had brought this unreasonable fate on himself by trying to look cool by drinking a Cassis Orange he had made. Then again, it wasn¡¯t actually alcoholic. He had made an imitation by melting some cassis jam in hot water and mixing it with orange juice. However, my enemy(?) was skilled. To oppose my special skill ¡°Forcing the Flow of Events¡±, he recovered from his panic on his own. ¡°Hey, god of pestilence. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re only here because Shinobu wouldn¡¯t play with you, but as you can see, I¡¯m busy.¡± ¡°Ahh, ahh. Mic test, mic test. Please respond, Jinnai Hayabusa-kun, the indecent boy who feels a slight throb of the heart when he hears the word ¡®sister-in-law¡¯. I repeat...¡± ¡°Bphhhh!!!?? Y-you idiot, stop making up things that could put irreversible cracks in our family!!¡± ¡°But it¡¯s profane in a different way how you get so caught up over the word ¡®sister-in-law¡¯ and she has no interest whatsoever. Do you not care in the slightest what other people want?¡± ¡°Again, you¡¯re completely wrong here!! You¡¯re not going to claim these baseless accusations are part of your ¡®innocent pranks¡¯ as a Zashiki Warashi are you!?¡± ¡°Shinobu¡¯s one thing, but you¡¯ve got a troublesome trait as well. It¡¯s not often you see someone who¡¯s actually scared by a Hitotsume-Kozou or a Nopperabou. Of course they¡¯re all gonna gather together to scare you.¡± ¡°Yeah, but I get attacked by the deadly ones too like a Kappa or a Makuragaeshi. Thanks to that, I could be killed at any moment.¡± He seemed to think he was hated by Youkai, but in a way, it might have been the opposite. He was treated a lot like the monster in an RPG that gave a ridiculous amount of experience points. ¡°So what exactly are you going to do to kill time?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯ll roll you around and...¡± ¡°Don¡¯t scare me! And I asked for specifics! I¡¯m not some reaction comedian whose weapon is the boiling bath. If I tell you to stop, you seriously need to stop!!¡± Tch. This seemed to be another trait of a Zashiki Warashi. If the other person reached the point of actually crying, I naturally put on the brakes. My defaults were set so I would stop at the line of what qualified as ¡°innocent¡±. I had no choice, so I got to the real issue at hand. I reached into the chest of my kimono and pulled out a handheld game system advertised for its graphics. ¡°Shinobu said I was really bad at this hunting game. I don¡¯t want him to hate me, so help me practice.¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty amazed just seeing a Youkai from an Edo-period drawing holding a handheld game system.¡± The game involved humans with weapons destroying giant out-of-control machines and tearing out the junk parts. It was well known for the online video advertisement with the development team getting argumentative about the rating not mattering because there was no actual blood. It seemed Hayabusa had one of the systems as well. Despite being less than a meter apart, we did not look away from our own screens. As I pressed the buttons, I spoke. ¡°Hayabusa.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯m super interested in the writing filling that white board and the countless arrows connecting it all together.¡± ¡°Mgh!? J-just ignore it.¡± ¡°You¡¯re writing up all the information on a ¡®case¡¯ and connecting it all? Do you want to be a detective from a police drama or something?¡± ¡°I told you to ignore it!! If you keep tearing into my heart, I¡¯m going to cancel this mission to get the wings off of Giga Gordon! I¡¯ll hit the start button and select ¡®give up¡¯!!¡± ¡°If you do that, I hope you¡¯re prepared for a storm at the dinner table tonight. Once I bring up the term ¡®sister-in-law¡¯, the gates of hell will open. That supposed Cassis Orange of yours comes from a recipe your sister-in-law invented to avoid drinking while pregnant, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°You idiot!! How long are you going to keep that up!? And it¡¯s all in your head!!¡± ¡°The truth isn¡¯t what matters. What matters is who they¡¯ll believe.¡± ¡°You¡¯re as horrible as someone who makes false molestation accusations!!¡± Incidentally, the white board had the following things written on it: ¡°gain trust¡±, ¡°a famous name¡±, ¡°false information is not a crime¡±, ¡°far too few victims¡±, ¡°some other rule to narrow down the targets?¡±, etc. Just that was not enough to see what it was Hayabusa (and his high school¡¯s beautiful student council president) was pursuing. Then again, it was an amateur investigation, so they may not have known either. ¡°You really like doing things you get nothing in return for, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get something eventually! It¡¯s just the drop rate for Giga Gordon¡¯s wings is 2%. In the worst case, we¡¯ll have to fight this same powerful enemy 50 times!!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how probability works. Also, I was talking about your investigation of organized crime using Packages.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not getting involved because I want to.¡± ¡°Do you seriously think that?¡± ¡°My upperclassman keeps telling me these things I don¡¯t want to hear about. And she knows I can¡¯t pretend not to see it once I know about it.¡± ¡°Have you fallen in love with her?¡± ¡°D-don¡¯t ask a teenage boy that so bluntly.¡± ¡°Is that so? Resolving these things isn¡¯t going to remove the label of delinquent from you, so I¡¯m not sure why you want to stand in harm¡¯s way for the very people who gave you that label.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have a choice. The police apparently put off the crimes involving Youkai and I sometimes hear about people from my school being involved.¡± He sounded annoyed, but by the situation rather than what I had said. ¡°And this time, the term ¡®organ trafficking¡¯ has come up. There¡¯s no way I can overlook this one.¡± Part 7 Once night fell, I left the makeshift garage and returned to the house. It seemed dinner was ready, but Shinobu was forming a one-man protest after charging into the kitchen. ¡°Grandma, make Salisbury steak too! You still have time!!¡± ¡°Sorry, Shinobu, but I have trouble with recipes written horizontally.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t give up before you even try! I¡¯ll help, so let¡¯s try to make it!!¡± He was clearly troubling his grandmother, so I snuck up behind him, slipped my hands beneath his arms, and lifted his small body up like a forklift. I even made the sound effects. ¡°Whirrrrr! Kathunk, kathunk!!¡± ¡°Ah! Stop! What are you doing!?¡± ¡°Moving a certain little boy out of the way. Kathunk, kathunk!¡± ¡°Ahhhh!! But the ambitions of the Salisbury Steak Empire!!¡± Sorry, Shinobu, but Salisbury steak doesn¡¯t go well with nikujaga and salmon. I carried him to the Western living room just in time for his mother to poke her head in. ¡°Dinner will take just a little longer, so can you give Shinobu a bath?¡± ¡°You heard her.¡± ¡°But I¡¯m starving! I can¡¯t focus on a bath without Salisbury steak!¡± Despite his protests, he raced to his room once I set him down. He was most likely grabbing his bath set. I made my way to the altar room to prepare the yukata I slept in. As I did, Shinobu dashed toward me. ¡°Hurry, Yukari! The bath is waiting!!¡± ¡°I see you¡¯re as heavily equipped as ever.¡± His wash basin had a rubber ducky, a submarine, and a wire ring meant for making bubbles. He also held goggles and had a float around his stomach. He clearly had a fundamentally flawed idea of what a bath was for. ¡°What are you talking about? It wouldn¡¯t be as fun without a bunch of toys!¡± ¡°Fine, fine. ...Now, then. I¡¯m missing my spare obi. I¡¯ll keep searching, so you go on to the changing room.¡± ¡°Make sure you hurry!¡± His footsteps rang out as he left the altar room at full speed. I soon found an obi in a color that matched my yukata and continued after him. However, he was nowhere to be found in the changing room. I received the following eyewitness testimony from his mother. ¡°Shinobu? He went to the bath with my father-in-law earlier.¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± Shinoooooooobuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!! ¡°N-no! It doesn¡¯t matter who¡¯s in there. I can still join them!!¡± ¡°You really shouldn¡¯t. I¡¯m worried about the old man¡¯s blood pressure.¡± I ended up diving head first into the kotatsu and sulking until a freshly-bathed Shinobu left the changing room in his pajamas. His eyes opened wide when he noticed my illegal occupation of the kotatsu. ¡°You¡¯re playing secret base.¡± ¡°Shinobu. I have no intention of speaking with little boys who don¡¯t keep their promises.¡± ¡°Wow! You¡¯d be safe in an earthquake like this! Let me in, let me in!¡± ¡°Ow, ow! There¡¯s not enough space!! Your heel is shoved nicely into my solar plexus!¡± I crawled out of the kotatsu like a bear chased from its cave after losing a fight. Uuh... I don¡¯t even get to sulk in peace. Shinobu¡¯s mother gave a bitter smile. ¡°Unlike Youkai, humans aren¡¯t all that influenced by obligation or grudges. You just have to stay constructive and positive by making another promise. How about sleeping in the same futon tonight?¡± ¡°Mh.¡± It was true lying on the living room floor would feel too empty. I had nothing to gain by continuing to sulk and what was done was done, so I decide to take a bath. Once I opened the door to the changing room, I heard movement from Shinobu. He was speaking with another Youkai that was here as a surprise guest at our ¡°inn¡±. ¡°I am a Tsuchigumo! I don¡¯t follow the rules of humans, so staying up late is fine by me. People say I¡¯m disobedient because I¡¯m a delinquent!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care, but come with me. Going to the bathroom at night is scary, so you can take me to the bathroom door.¡± ¡°Sure thing. Delinquents are nice to little kids and abandoned cats on rainy days, so leave it to me!¡± He was speaking with a spider several meters across, but as it was a Youkai, he was not even remotely afraid of it. Then again, kids his age might grab a normal bug too. It made me wonder how old humans had to get before they started being afraid of bugs. I thought on that for a bit, spent about half an hour in the bath, changed into my yukata, and left the changing room. Shinobu was already gone. I got another eyewitness testimony. ¡°Shinobu? He ate dinner, brushed his teeth, and then...what did he do? Oh, right, right. He went to sleep with that Tsuchigumo.¡± ¡°...¡± Shinoooooooooobuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!! Part 8 ¡°Beauty!! Today, I¡¯ll be introducing a drink I absolutely recommend. I call it the completely-change-the-feel-of-your-skin-in-five-years drink. If drinking this doesn¡¯t make you healthy, you should just give up on life! Now, the actual ingredients are...¡± A crossdressing middle-aged man with brightly dyed hair (he was not transsexual and he merely viewed it as another fashion choice for men) wiggled around while shouting about something on TV. However, none of the adults in the living room were watching. Sake brewing had been the Jinnai family occupation for generations and 50,000 yen a cup summed up just how skilled they were. Of course, judging an artisan solely for their monetary value had a way of making them mad. In the name of product research, the house was filled with alcohol almost every night. And they showed no real sign of limiting themselves to Japanese sake. ¡°If you don¡¯t have an open enough mind to honestly recognize what your rivals are doing right, you can¡¯t take on the world. Ohhh! This wine is all bubbly! What goes well with Shaoxing wine? Chinese food seems a little too on the nose.¡± To put it bluntly, this was a family that needed strong livers. It seemed the Jinnai line had always been able to handle its alcohol and any woman who married into a sake brewing family would have to like alcohol. This created a family selectively bred to have tough livers thanks to Mendelism. At any rate, everyone was getting worked up, so I asked the obvious question. ¡°Um, why am I here?¡± ¡°Your heart was headed in a dark direction after Shinobu dumped you. That¡¯s the perfect time to drink and forget it all!!¡± ¡°I¡¯m a Youkai that can¡¯t be killed even if I¡¯m stabbed or shot, so it¡¯s nonsense to think I¡¯d get drunk. I technically don¡¯t even need to eat. I just do it if I feel like it.¡± ¡°Calm down. I know you want to logically suppress your emotions when you¡¯re feeling down, but you can¡¯t! You can¡¯t, can¡¯t, can¡¯t! It¡¯s best to let them out as soon as you can. Suppressing them just lets them build up! Forget all about logic and take a nice swig!!¡± ¡°Sigh.¡± It didn¡¯t really matter. I could swallow cyanide or monkshood without issue, so I decided to drink some and leave once the others collapsed. ... ............ ... ¡°Hic. Huhhh? Why¡¯sh the world all shpinny even though I¡¯m a Youkai?¡± ¡°Mah hah hah hah hah hah!! That¡¯s the magic power of sake! Nothing¡¯s impossible and you can forget everything unpleasant!!¡± This was not right. I wasn¡¯t even sure how much time had passed, so I tried checking the clock on the wall What? I can¡¯t read this. It¡¯s all melty like what¡¯s-his-face¡¯s painting. The very fact that I couldn¡¯t remember such a famous artist¡¯s name showed just how far I had fallen. ¡°Oh, I get it. Youkai focus more on mental laws than physical ones, so the placebo effect works extra well on us. If I think I¡¯m getting drunk, I really will.¡± Come to think of it, didn¡¯t Hyakki Yakou¡¯s anti-Youkai process include research into methods of trickery that used optical illusions and incorrect assumptions? ¡°What? You can still think logically about this? Then you need another drink! Keep on drinking!!¡± ¡°Oh, honestly. I don¡¯t even care about being ditched by Shinobu anymore.¡± ¡°Nya ha ha ha ha ha!!¡± The two women laughed like idiots. Shinobu¡¯s father, grandfather, and grandmother were there too. His grandmother merely smiled while downing sake at a rapid pace, but the men seemed unable to keep up with our excitement. To put it more simply, they were a little disturbed by us. And that didn¡¯t sit right with me. I slowly stood up and approached Shinobu¡¯s father who was covered in muscles and had a fist that exceeded the upper limits of humanity. Huh? Don¡¯t I normally view him like the lord of fear and can¡¯t even look him in the eye? ¡°Hey, muscleman!! What¡¯s with that grumpy look? Drinking¡¯s supposed to be fun! Get to it!! And that ambiguous expression is banned!!¡± ¡°It¡¯s no use. He only has the grumpy look of a sunglass-wearing killing machine from the future because he¡¯s shy and don¡¯t know how to act around women¡î On our first date, I found him standing at the meeting spot with a look on his face that made me suspect he¡¯d actually called me out for a fight.¡± ¡°Come to think of it, why¡¯re you always wearing those tight shirts? Hm? You got a problem? Say it loud!! Now that Shinobu¡¯s ditched me, I¡¯m not afraid of anything!¡± ¡°Hya hya hya hya hya hya!!¡± ¡°Gwa ha ha ha ha!!¡± Ahh. I have a feeling I¡¯m saying a bunch of things that¡¯ll cause problems later, but I can¡¯t think straight. Part 9 ¡°Oh, Tengu. Have you heard about?¡± ¡°Just some rumors. But just hearing the name makes me feel sick. He definitely brings down the overall definition of. It¡¯s not often you see version that¡¯s so specialized in killing and nothing else.¡± ¡°He¡¯s shown up.¡± ¡°This is gonna be rough. A lot of are going to die again.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s not like we can do anything about it. He exists as a that¡¯s been cut free of the simple hierarchy of power.¡± ¡°The Aburatori, hm?¡± Part 10 On the following morning of March 25, my palm reflexively flew to the high-pitched alarm clock and an odd chill reached my arm as it left the futon. I-it¡¯s cold!? And when and where did I even fall asleep last night? The rain shutters were fully closed which blocked out the sunlight and left the area almost completely dark. That made it even harder to grasp the situation. A female voice slipped into my ear from very close by. In fact, it was in the same futon. ¡°Heh heh heh. This is a married couple¡¯s bedroom, you know? You¡¯re quite aggressive to force your way in between a young couple like that.¡± ¡°Ahh!?¡± I suddenly grew very concerned about the gaps in my memory, but the situation did not wait for me to recover from that confusion. ¡°Yukari, are you in here? It¡¯s amazing! It¡¯s amazing outside!!¡± ¡°...?¡± Shinobu entered the dim room and it took me a while to realize why he was so excited. It was his next words that clued me in. ¡°It¡¯s snowing! Everything¡¯s white outside!!¡± ¡°Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!¡± I grabbed the futon with all my strength to put up my defenses. Shinobu was the type to go running around in the yard rather than curling up in the kotatsu. If I had to oversee his playtime, I would be thrown out into the below-zero weather of an early morning blizzard. His mother seemed to realize I was unwilling because she spoke to her excited son. ¡°Shinobu, if you want to play outside, make sure you eat breakfast first.¡± ¡°Ugh... But look! You¡¯ll see if I open the window. It¡¯s amazing out there!!¡± ¡°Collllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllld!?¡± ¡°Collllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllld!?¡± Shinobu¡¯s actions turned the entire bedroom into a giant refrigerator and the traitor kicked me out of the futon as a sacrifice. ¡°Shinobu, go play with the Zashiki Warashi! I¡¯m sure you¡¯d love making a snowman!!¡± ¡°A snowman... C¡¯mon, Yukari!!¡± ¡°No!! Please no!! It¡¯s freezing everywhere! Just walking through the wooden hallway is hurting the bottom of my feet!! What¡¯s going to happen to me outside!?¡± My desperate pleas fell on deaf ears. The magic of the snow caused Shinobu¡¯s eyes to glitter to a disturbing degree while he dragged me into the snowy scenery while barefoot and wearing nothing but a yukata. ¡°B-brr! Brrrrrrr!?¡± ¡°Wow! I can¡¯t even see the ground!! Everything¡¯s white!!¡± He was fully equipped with down jacket, mittens, long boots, and a wool cap, but I was receiving enough damage to give me a heart attack if I weren¡¯t a Youkai. ¡°Mommy said to make a snowman! She recommended it, so we have to do it!¡± ¡°I-I-I-I can¡¯t. There¡¯s no way I can grab snow with my bare hands!! My fingers will fall off. Are you sure this is made of water? It feels more like liquid nitrogen! It¡¯s so cold!¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t hurry up, the snow will cover you and you¡¯ll turn into a snowman.¡± Not dying is not always a good thing. While my mind filled with what sounded like a sentence from a terminal care specialist¡¯s essay, I resigned myself to forming the snowball to become the core and then rolling it around. I don¡¯t even remember what I shouted at the time. My memories vanished for a completely different reason than the sake from the night before. ¡°A-ah!? Afha!! Sh-Sh-Sh-Sh-Shinobu, surely this is enough! We made a wonderful snowman, didn¡¯t we!? Please release me!!¡± Fortunately, his mother arrived to tell us breakfast was ready. I loathed her for wearing a giant fur coat as she did, though. Shinobu¡¯s interest shifted to the food and I was allowed to return to the thatch-roof house. ¡°I-I¡¯m freezing. My hair literally is frozen!¡± ¡°I did heat up a bath, so I suggest you take one before eating.¡± I wanted to tell her she should have called Shinobu in earlier if she had time to do that, but any more arguing would have left me frozen like a fish even if it didn¡¯t kill me. But as soon as I had entered the bath and started to stick one leg in the tub, the bath¡¯s window was thrown fully open. The bath quickly transformed into a refrigerator. ¡°It¡¯s amazing, Yukari! Daddy¡¯s doing something amazing!!¡± ¡°Byaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!?¡± Shinobu had supposedly gone to the living room, but he had gone right out into the backyard to get in a surprise attack from outside. He was currently pointing towards one end of the back yard again and again. ¡°He knocked a bunch of snow from the roof and made a white mountain! It¡¯s a slide of snow!! It¡¯s so amazing!!¡± Th-that damn man is our enemy. He¡¯s an enemy of all Youkaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!! I was naked and shivering, but I soon realized Shinobu had vanished from the window and I heard footsteps circling around. Oh, no. He¡¯s approaching the changing room! I frantically charged into the changing room and desperately grabbed my yukata. Before I could put it on, the boy burst into the room. ¡°Hurry! Hurry, Yukari!!¡± ¡°...!?¡± I had managed to avoid being thrown naked into the snow, but my defenses may not have been much better. Ten minutes later, I returned to the house while shivering like a newborn fawn. ¡°I-I learned something new today. Heating yourself up before being thrown into the cold makes it even worse.¡± That was when the doorbell rang. No one could stop Shinobu now. At his age, children tended to think about nothing but food when they were even remotely hungry, but the world of snow outside seemed to be stimulating his mind more than breakfast. He dashed down the hallway and spoke loudly from the entranceway. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Nagisa¡¯s grampa!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Are you the boy that¡¯s been corrupting my granddaughter!?¡± I doubted children of that age could get up to too much trouble of that sort, but she may have tried to put on her mother¡¯s lipstick or something. I didn¡¯t have the energy to fix my yukata and walk to the entranceway, so I just lay on the floor and listened. ¡°What are you here for?¡± ¡°I¡¯m using my truck to check all the houses that probably have a hard time removing snow from their roof. I¡¯m gathering all the young ones to help, but I suppose the Jinnai Brewery has enough young ones to handle it on their own.¡± ¡°Young? So is Nagisa here?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t want to bring her with me, but I couldn¡¯t leave her to walk through over a meter of snow with just the Saint Bernard. ...Hm? Hey, old man. I¡¯m here with some volunteers. We¡¯ll handle the roof and the road in front of the house, so have your boy look after Nagisa.¡± I heard leaving footsteps, so I assumed Shinobu was back to playing in the snow. I wished him well while he did so far away from me. However, his mother soon arrived with food on a tray. ¡°Sorry, but can you take this to Shinobu? I¡¯m sure he¡¯s focused on the snow now, but I don¡¯t want him to skip breakfast.¡± ¡°Why me?¡± ¡°If I did it, I¡¯d end up nagging him and telling him to eat. I don¡¯t want to ruin his fun while Nagisa-chan is here.¡± ¡°And the real reason?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to go out in the cold. I¡¯m going to spend all day curled up in the kotatsu.¡± I noticed the tray contained a few snacks on small plates in addition to Shinobu¡¯s food. I guessed they might be for Nagisa. ¡°If they¡¯re having a snowball fight, I doubt they¡¯ll want to eat.¡± ¡°Those two wouldn¡¯t be doing that. I hear you two already made a snowman and he¡¯ll probably play house now that Nagisa-chan is here. So how about adding in some real food¡î¡± I borrowed a raincoat from Shinobu¡¯s grandmother and skeptically made my way outside. But to my surprise, Shinobu and Nagisa really were playing house in a snow igloo in the large yard. I doubted the two of them could make such a nice igloo, so the people gathered for snow removal had likely made it for them. Presumably to make the house seem more realistic, the igloo had a small waterproof bath TV inside. ¡°A Japanese translation of ¡®Innocent Philosophers: 100 Questions from Children that Stumped Senators¡¯ has arrived! The most amazing part of the book is...¡± However, the children were ignoring the TV. ¡°Welcome! Today¡¯s flounder is cheap.¡± ¡°Sh-Shinobu-chan, this is our house, so we don¡¯t talk about the food like that.¡± Nagisa wanted an orthodox household while Shinobu kept making more unconventional adlibs. He seemed to want adventure more than stability. Today¡¯s theme for Nagisa¡¯s outfit seemed to be a snowman because she was covered from head to toe with fluffy white wool. ¡°Shinobu-chan, you¡¯re the daddy, so you look after the baby. Make sure she gets to sleep so she doesn¡¯t cry in the night.¡± ¡°But those peaceful days would not last long for Insect Mask who secretly protects the peace of the world. Kaboom!! It¡¯s the FBI!!¡± ¡°Run away, honey!! Wait. What did you do, Shinobu-chan!?¡± Shinobu began flailing his limbs around and almost unintentionally destroyed the igloo, so interrupted with the tray of food. ¡°Wow. You have bread for breakfast at your house?¡± ¡°When grandma makes it, it¡¯s rice, but when mommy makes it, it¡¯s bread.¡± Shinobu pulled out the colorful skewers advocated by Beauty and stabbed them into the vegetables. ¡°Are you doing this too, Nagisa?¡± ¡°I-I am. And I¡¯m even losing weight bit by bit.¡± When I thought about it, I realized that diet method only worked if you were the person who decided on the menu. ¡°Do you drink milk, Shinobu-chan?¡± ¡°The adults love it when I do.¡± The two of them got down to eating, but they also had ¡°food¡± made from balled up snow next to them. Without my intervention, they might have eaten snow indefinitely. Shinobu¡¯s mother may have intentionally had me stop that. ¡°Eh? You¡¯re lying. There¡¯s no way you can do that. You¡¯re a porcupine fish, Nagisa!¡± ¡°I-I¡¯m not lying. And it¡¯s a thousand needles.¡± They began arguing while ignoring the consideration of the adults. It was hard to join in because the conversation jumped all over the place, but I somehow managed to grasp the general subject. ¡°Are you talking about fried prawns?¡± Both Shinobu and Nagisa looked up at me. ¡°Nagisa says you can eat fried prawn tails, but there¡¯s no way you can eat that plastic-y thing.¡± ¡°Y-you can eat it. You just don¡¯t at your house. You can eat fried prawns from the head to the tail.¡± Shinobu then tilted his head in confusion. ¡°But fried prawns don¡¯t have heads.¡± ¡°They do to! They¡¯re prawns! How would they swim in the ocean without a head?¡± ¡°Ah ha ha. You don¡¯t know anything, Nagisa. Fried prawns don¡¯t swim in the ocean. Their fried outside would get all wet.¡± ¡°Th-then where do you think they live?¡± ¡°Well...Their outside is all crispy, so...¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be on land. Their outside would get all muddy.¡± ¡°The sky.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t fly! Fried prawns can¡¯t fly!¡± Part 11 After clearing the roofs of the Jinnai house and the neighboring house, Nagisa¡¯s grandfather and the young men with him drove to a different area. That meant saying goodbye to Nagisa. Thanks to Shinobu¡¯s mother¡¯s love of Western food, we had fried prawns for lunch. Shinobu tried to eat the tail and took another step up the stairs to adulthood. That¡¯s right. You can eat the tails. I could hear an early afternoon talk show on the TV. ¡°Eh? My recommendation is... Oh, I know. I¡¯ll choose ¡®Ten-Year Money Management Techniques You Can¡¯t Afford Not to Know¡¯. The best part about this book is-...¡± ¡°That¡¯s a business book you wrote! Don¡¯t just start advertising it like that!¡± After finishing lunch, Shinobu spoke with his grandmother who was ironing the laundry. ¡°Look, grandma. I folded the shirt.¡± ¡°Oh, how wonderful.¡± ¡°I can fold pants too.¡± ¡°You¡¯re so skilled with your hands, Shinobu.¡± With a smile covering her face, the old woman used the instant Shinobu wasn¡¯t looking to refold the clothing at Mach speed. She had perfected the style of praising people to help them grow. Once the ironing was complete, Shinobu spoke up again. ¡°Since I finished helping, will you tell me a secret of the Jinnai family?¡± ¡°Okay, then. Did you know this house has a staircase?¡± ¡°Hm? But it¡¯s a one-story house, so it doesn¡¯t have stairs.¡± ¡°But it does. There is a small door somewhere that leads to a short and narrow staircase.¡± Oh, is she talking about the stairs to the attic? Shinobu went to grab a bag with a first aid kit and emergency goods inside. He pulled out the flashlight and helmet and ran back. ¡°Yukari, let¡¯s go search for buried treasure!¡± The story seemed to have grown inside his head, but once he was this excited, he would never take a nap until he checked. He tightened and loosened a bundle of rope he didn¡¯t really know how to use and his mother called out to him. She was skillfully holding a tray of iced tea and cookies on one hand. ¡°Shiiinobuuu. Will you carry this to the Japanese living room?¡± ¡°I¡¯m looking for the buried treasure now!!¡± ¡°You¡¯ll only get lost if you try that without a map and I won¡¯t give you a map of the house unless you help out.¡± ¡°Drat,¡± cursed Shinobu as he took the tray. While watching him totter down the hall, I asked his mother a question. ¡°Is someone visiting again?¡± ¡°Yes, and on this snowy day no less. She seems to be a friend of Hayabusa-kun¡¯s. Heh heh heh. And she¡¯s pretty high-spec if you ask me.¡± High-spec, you say? I could only think of one candidate for a ¡°high-spec¡± friend of Hayabusa¡¯s. Then again, there was only one human girl who would have a proper conversation with that fierce-looking boy. As always, I grabbed a rag and wiped up the iced tea Shinobu had spilled on his way to the living room. Inside, a girl in a high school sailor uniform was sitting casually at the tea table. Her name was Atou Minori. Her black hair was gathered behind her head with a hairpin and her huge breasts looked terribly out of place in a school uniform. The legs extending from her miniskirt and their overly casual positioning were both quite seductive. She was wrapped in an aura that announced every bit of her body was top quality. ¡°Here you go. It¡¯s black tea.¡± ¡°Hm? Oh, excuse me. You¡¯re Hayabusa-kun¡¯s broth-...no, nephew, aren¡¯t you? How about we play a game? With the cookies stacked up like this, we have to remove them one at a time without causing the pile to collapse.¡± She gave a friendly smile, but Shinobu looked troubled. ¡°When a guest is here, I¡¯m not supposed to play around.¡± ¡°Eh? Oh...That¡¯s certainly correct, but it kind of hurts to be treated like a complete stranger.¡± Incidentally, Shinobu did not get so timid around the Youkai that entered the house without permission. It seemed we really were such distant beings that he saw no need to be concerned. Hayabusa then entered the living room with a notebook in hand. ¡°Sorry about the wait. ...Why are you hanging your head like that?¡± ¡°The shock of a slight rejection hit me pretty hard. Can I just go home for the day?¡¯ ¡°What¡¯s this? Are you a complete moron or something?¡± Having completed his task, Shinobu seemed to have nothing on his mind but the treasure map his mother was to give him. However, the beautiful student council president (ha) seemed interested in the helmet he wore. ¡°A quick question. What is that?¡± ¡°I¡¯m exploring the attic!! The journey to the secret treasure chest is harsh and dangerous. It¡¯ll be a dangerous adventure.¡± ¡°Kh. Why must everything you say stimulate my interest!?¡± ¡°Atou-san.¡± That quick comment was enough for Atou Minori to reluctantly sit up straight. Meanwhile, I grabbed the curious Shinobu¡¯s hand and pulled him back to the Western living room. We received a hand-drawn map of the house and made our way to a sliding door at a corner of the hall that led nowhere. Inside was a steep staircase that almost looked like a ladder. ¡°It¡¯s a staircase up.¡± ¡°Yes, it is.¡± ¡°Wow, Yukari! The treasure map is real!!¡± ¡°So it seems.¡± I followed him up the stairs to the attic. As an attic, the ceiling was low and it was not flat like in a normal room. It followed the shape of the thatch roof and rose to an acute angle in the center. In exchange, it extended a good ways to the sides. It was a large house, so it should have been obvious that removing the inside walls would make a large space. It was surprisingly warm, but I guessed that was because the house¡¯s heat moved upwards. ¡°I-it¡¯s dark...but I won¡¯t lose! This is nothing compared to going to the bathroom at night!!¡± While urging himself on, Shinobu continued further in. He seemed not to have noticed that there were bare light bulbs hanging here and there and that he could light the area with the flip of a switch. Darkness lurked in that space. Places like this reminded me of the organization named Hyakki Yakou that had once imprisoned me, but this place had no connection to that gloomy past. It had originally been a large room for servants to sleep. The Jinnai house was famous for its warm reception, so I doubted it was filled with the strange kind of grudge that made spiritual something-or-others¡¯ mouths water. ¡°Ksshh! Kssshhhhh! ¡®Ingredient Choices that will Shorten Your Life¡¯ begins Thursday at seven. This week, we will be taking a thorough look at the scary parts of fish that are usually viewed as healthier than pork or beef.¡± ¡°Wahh! Wh-what was that? I just heard a voice. Is someone there!?¡± ¡°Shinobu, your emergency flashlight has a radio on it. You probably hit the switch.¡± After my exasperated comment, I came to a sudden realization. ¡°Hm?¡± Because the lights were off, I could catch glimpses of the house¡¯s light through the gaps in the floorboards. I peered down and saw the Japanese living room from before. Hayabusa and Minori were speaking with the tea table and notebook between them. ¡°As I said before, that method would mean too many victims. A crime like organ trafficking stands out, so they¡¯d want to keep things quiet. There must be something else we¡¯re not aware of.¡± ¡°But if some shady salesman came to the closed society of an Intellectual Village, no one would fall for it. Using the TV would be the best method.¡± ¡°You misunderstand. I¡¯m not completely denying your celebrity theory. I¡¯m trying to say there¡¯s something else on top of that. Something that would prevent anything from showing up even if the police searched the celebrity¡¯s house.¡± ¡°There is one thing that caught my interest related to that.¡± ¡°You mean the online store? I thought that would be the best place too.¡± The flashlight turned toward me. It blinded me a bit and Shinobu¡¯s excited voice reached me. ¡°Look, look, Yukari! This is amazing!¡± ¡°What is it, Shinobu?¡± ¡°I found the treasure chest. And it had a backpack in it! A brand new one! This is the legendary backpack that only elementary school kids are allowed to wear!!¡± His grandmother had likely set this all up before she began ironing. But despite that heartwarming thought, I couldn¡¯t focus. Something else tugged at my attention. The voices coming from the small gaps in the floorboards gave me a very bad feeling. ¡°The celebrity advertises it on TV and the customers buy the official goods on the online store. That¡¯s the standard way of doing it.¡± ¡°But if you could make a site similar enough to the official one to draw in some of those customers, they would buy a completely different product while thinking they were buying what the famous celebrity recommended.¡± ¡°Also, the celebrity on TV wouldn¡¯t know the other site existed. It wouldn¡¯t have any connection to his business, so he wouldn¡¯t even know he was getting his fans caught up in a crime.¡± ¡°The true criminals have no connection to the celebrity, so it doesn¡¯t matter if the police search his house. That¡¯s how the criminals are using a national broadcast for their crime.¡± Shinobu gave me a blank stare. The voices had to be reaching him, but they may have sounded like news of a far off country to him. ¡°Hayabusa-kun, let¡¯s go back over the Youkai being used here.¡± ¡°The Aburatori. It originated in the Tohoku region, but unlike other Youkai, it didn¡¯t appear until the Meiji period. That makes it a newcomer. However, its traits make it dangerous enough to overwhelm even other Youkai. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a Youkai that disguises itself as a farmer and slips in with the other villagers working on the farms. However, no one has ever seen its true form. The next thing they know, it¡¯s already made its way in, kidnapped a child, pierced the child with a thick skewer for cooking fish, and roasted the child over a fire.¡± ¡°Its goal is supposed to be the oil from the child¡¯s organs, but it isn¡¯t known why it kills children to take their oil.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a Youkai without the lessons present in most Japanese ghost stories. The story doesn¡¯t teach you to go home before it gets dark, not to swim in the river, or anything else. The Youkai simply appears, kidnaps, and kills. This is a negative product of more modern times when the tradition of fear has been lost, but it¡¯s a problem when people start spreading fear that has no countermeasure.¡± I felt like my head was spinning. I felt like I had overlooked something terrible and that I was only noticing it now that its fatal result was showing itself. A celebrity. An online store. A Youkai that kills children. Dieting. Organ trafficking. Colorful skewers. A method of losing weight. Oil taken from the organs. Kidnapping children and removing their organs. A Youkai that performed meaningless killing. The Aburatori. A Package using that dreadful Youkai. I turned my head with the stiff movements of a doll needing to be oiled and looked at ¡°him¡±. His supposed diet had visually reduced his weight, but the real reason lay elsewhere. With the lightness of a marionette whose strings were cut, Jinnai Shinobu collapsed to the floor. The backpack inside the ¡°treasure chest¡± rolled out. I could not even scream. I used my trembling hands to roll him onto his back and hesitantly touched his stomach over his clothes. At that point, I just about passed out. As if I was touching a thin rubber film, my slender fingertips sank down deeper and deeper. It was as if the organs meant to be there had vanished. Part 12 I lost track of the flow of time. The next thing I knew, I was in Shinobu¡¯s bedroom and he was sleeping in the futon. It was night outside and I could hear someone speaking from somewhere. As I absentmindedly listened, I finally realized it was Jinnai Hayabusa¡¯s voice. That was just how messed up my ability to grasp the situation was. ¡°The Aburatori is a Youkai that kidnaps children and takes the oil from their organs. We are pursuing an organ trafficking Package that uses that trait to steal organs without anyone knowing. More specifically, it takes organs for transplant into children ten and under.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Organ trafficking seems like it would be naturally eliminated by tissue engineering, but young children are apparently a different story. The technology saves the healthy tissue before the illness occurs and creates new organs when necessary later. A baby born with an incurable disease can¡¯t supply any healthy tissue, so even if the diseased tissue is used to create a new organ, there¡¯s still a risk of the disease reoccurring. That¡¯s why even that wonderful new technology isn¡¯t perfect.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°And with normal transplants, they have to wait their turn on a long list. Also, extremely young children can¡¯t use adult organs. The lung or liver can be cut down to an appropriate size for transplant, but according to my upperclassman, there¡¯s a limit to that too. However, there¡¯s almost zero chance of getting an organ transplant from a brain dead child. ...And even if people would be hesitant to do evil to save their own life, parents are willing to bloody their hands for their child. Some stupid bastard is taking advantage of those feelings to make some money here.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Shinobu used the colorful skewers endorsed on that diet show, didn¡¯t he? I thought that looked dangerous, but it seems you¡¯re chosen as the Aburatori¡¯s target if you prick the inside of your mouth with them. In other words, your organs are taken. I hadn¡¯t caught on until recently. If only I¡¯d been sure, I would have taken them from him!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°The Aburatori is a Youkai that kills without anyone noticing, so even the children having their organs taken in the organ trafficking Package don¡¯t feel any pain. Something like an emulator makes up for what was taken. Of course, that won¡¯t last forever. If that was enough, the children waiting for their surgery could just have their organs emulated. In other words, the emulators come with a time limit. Once that arrives, Shinobu will die.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°The key to all this is of course the skewers he was using. That celebrity who was going all out advertising them on TV and the online store where they¡¯re sold are completely unrelated to all this. If we look into the other site, we¡¯ll find the people behind this Package. Once we do that...¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard enough,¡± I cut in quietly. That¡¯s right. I had no interest in the answers the humans were looking into. To sum it up, a Package that stole and sold children¡¯s organs without anyone knowing had been unleashed on this village. The effeminate celebrity on TV had advertised a skewer diet and the criminals had created a fake version of the official site to pull in a few of the celebrity¡¯s customers. The customers who accessed the fake site and bought the colorful skewers identical to the real ones would be sent dangerous items that contained the deadly power of the Aburatori. From there, it was a matter of probability. If some percentage of the users pricked the inside of their mouth with the skewers, they would be designated a target and have their organs secretly removed. That was how the village¡¯s children such as Shinobu and Nagisa had been brought into it. As the children continued their carefree daily lives, their situation had grown truly hopeless. Also, I most likely knew who the silly human behind it was. Real life was not a mystery novel, so the most suspicious person was almost always the criminal. In that case, there was only one possible candidate I had seen recently. They knew a lot about programming and software, they were gloomy, they had plenty of complaints about Intellectual Villages, and they were unlikely to care if they got the villager¡¯s involved. But I didn¡¯t have time to gather evidence and accuse the criminal. Shinobu¡¯s time limit would arrive as I did so. It could be a few hours away or only half an hour. I didn¡¯t know the specifics, but he had collapsed because the emulator was starting to give out. I doubted I had much time left and I had to end it all before he ¡°fully realized¡± that his organs had been taken. ¡°Yukari...¡± He spoke from the futon, so I smiled and lied. ¡°You have a cold. Playing in the snow too much really isn¡¯t a good idea.¡± ¡°Nn.¡± I couldn¡¯t tell if that was an agreement or a wince. ¡°I need to tell Nagisa I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Once my cold is better, I need to tell her I¡¯m sorry that I said I couldn¡¯t eat fried prawn tails.¡± With that, he shut his eyes as if he had run out of strength. Seeing it made me think quietly. Ahh, he¡¯s really going to die. There¡¯s no normal way to save him now. The new backpack he had found in the attic lay next to his futon. It would never be used even once. It would become a symbol of the tragedy and it would collect dust because no one could bear to throw it out. No one had wanted it, but some unwanted interference had caused it all to fall apart. As the thoughts in my heart scattered into a million pieces, something quietly gathered together. I realized I had made up my mind. Shinobu had not exactly fallen asleep. His mind was rising and falling from consciousness like when suffering from a high fever. After I watched his consciousness temporarily drift off, I spoke quietly to Hayabusa. ¡°You humans can continue judging the human criminal, but I¡¯ll take a different route. As a Youkai, I¡¯ll directly crush the Youkai at the center of this.¡± The standard process was to gradually solve the mystery, find the criminal, use the traits of the Package against them, and settle it with a battle of wits. But I was not going to go along with that. Against someone who existed outside the rules, there was no need to follow the rules yourself. I would render their carefully-prepared stage useless on the most fundamental level. I would even destroy the world if it meant saving Shinobu and the others. ¡°Wait. Don¡¯t tell me...¡± Just once, I stroked Shinobu¡¯s forehead as he lay in the futon with his eyes shut. I then stood up and gave what amounted to a death sentence. ¡°I will personally kill that piece-of-shit Youkai known as the Aburatori.¡± Part 13 To those who did not know the truth, it may have seemed like a useless action. However, there was no such thing as a useless action in this world. ¡°...¡± I left the house and entered the snow. The full moon was visible directly overhead in that strange snowy night. My hands desired a weapon and my feet took me to the shed. Two small figures hurriedly followed me. They were a Hitotsume-Kozou and a Nopperabou. I did not know them, but they may have met Shinobu somewhere. ¡°Are you going to fight the Aburatori? I understand how you feel, but this makes no sense. A Youkai in a Package is just having its power misused by the worst sort of human. The Aburatori simply has the ability to kill. It doesn¡¯t actually want to kill.¡± ¡°Also, we Youkai don¡¯t die even if we¡¯re stabbed or shot. That doesn¡¯t always apply when it¡¯s Youkai vs. Youkai, but that means you¡¯re the one in danger here, Zashiki Warashi.¡± That didn¡¯t matter. When I arrived at the shed, I grabbed the thick padlock on the door. I did not need any kind of technique. I merely needed a ¡°chance¡±. I randomly stuck a wire in the keyhole and shook it left and right. The lock readily opened, so I opened the door, looked around, and randomly reached out my hand. ¡°A high branch cutter, hm?¡± It was a two or three meter aluminum rod with a pair of pruning shears attached to the end. The silhouette resembled a naginata. More importantly, it was more than enough to jab and cut with. I bit the edge of my lip with my canine tooth, scooped up the red blood with my tongue, and pressed it on the tool¡¯s blade. The Hitotsume-Kozou and the Nopperabou looked troubled. ¡°You can¡¯t fight the Aburatori just because you have the power to kill. It doesn¡¯t even matter if you have a connection to the Hyakki Yakou.¡± ¡°Its true essence lies in something other than strength. It simply appears, kidnaps, and kills. In other words, no one knows where it is. That¡¯s what makes it so frightening.¡± Oh, that. It was true the human police were unlikely to ever find the Aburatori no matter how long they searched. Not even cutting-edge unmanned security could stand up to the power of a Youkai that surpassed human knowledge. But there was one exception and I had it. ¡°Do you know what a Zashiki Warashi has control over?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Destiny.¡± Part 14 Logic and instinct were not necessary. I simply had to obey my inborn power. I left the Jinnai property with the high branch cutter resting on my shoulder in place of a naginata and I ran through the snowy night illuminated by the full moon. I turned right at a fork in the road without hesitation, I continued straight at the next intersection, and I entered a very narrow farm road. A Zashiki Warashi had control over destiny. It was something like a formless temptation. Just as TV ads, magazine ads, internet topics, and other such things created a large wave that caused the customers to choose a product, people would slip in the direction that was easier to understand or easier to move in and they would not even realize they were doing it. But if you understood how that temptation worked, you could move against the tide and fight it. Normally, there was no way to come across the Aburatori just from running around randomly. That was simply how the world worked. In that case, I only needed to continue in the direction I would normally never go. I had to move in the direction that seemed most out of place and that I felt the most reluctance toward. If I moved against the flow, I would naturally head toward the most unlikely destiny. I would meet the Aburatori who I supposedly could never meet. And I arrived at that destiny. ¡°Oh? What have we here?¡± The hoarse voice of an old man stopped me in one corner of the Intellectual Village. The full moon stood out to a strange degree in the blizzard. At first, I thought it was a scarecrow standing in the center of a snow-filled paddy with no water in it. This was the symbol of an oddity invading a farming village. Like it was an illusion, the entire scene seemed cut off from the rest of the world. It almost looked like something from a hanafuda card. This place was ¡°complete¡±. It was a place no one should have been able to enter. No matter how much times had changed and no matter how much foreign culture had been imported, the Aburatori and I were surrounded by the pure scenery of ¡°rural Japan¡±. No one could encroach on this territory. It was a transient alternate world. And its ruler, the deadly Aburatori, stood in the center of that blue scenery. ¡°My, my. What an adorable intruder. However, I have no interest in you even if your name labels you a ¡®child¡¯. Why are you here?¡± His kimono was dyed dark to hide any stains and it was tightened around his legs. I spotted leggings meant to protect his lower legs. Also, he had a broad conical hat on his head. This was the stereotypical outfit of a farmer, but the arms and legs leaving the kimono were closer to being those of a mummy than of an old man. His hat was worn too low to see his face, but I had my doubts about whether he even had eyes anymore. The hat hiding his face had a pattern drawn on it that resembled a single large eye. The giant eye was filled with an imprudent brightness as if it were toying with people¡¯s lives. But none of that mattered and my reply was blunt. ¡°I am here to kill you for Shinobu¡¯s sake.¡± ¡°Ho.¡± He replied with a twisting of the voice that sounded like a mix of surprise and laughter. ¡°My, my. I had heard rumors I was being used for human crimes, but what has my power done now? You can discuss this with me. It pains me to think my power is being used to harm while I am wholly unaware. Now, how should we begin?¡± ¡°Try not to cry.¡± My voice came out as if to cut into him. ¡°That settled it. I had thought the odds were about 50/50, but now I¡¯m certain. Aburatori, I will kill you and I¡¯ve found my reason for doing so. I am 100% certain that side of you is toying with Shinobu. You know what I mean, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°W-wait. Please wait! It is true I may have been careless, but surely you understand as a Youkai who has grown close to humans. Humans are clever. They always manage to outdo us in cunning. No matter how careful you are, you sometimes simply cannot avoid being incorporated into a Package. I...I am a victim here too!!¡± I felt I was being self-righteous. Essentially, I was killing a stranger to protect someone I knew. That was no different from the parents of the sick children who were buying the organs. In order to save their precious child, they were willing to take another¡¯s life. That was the essence of it. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you aren¡¯t involved.¡± However, I was not going to take the life of someone ¡°wholly uninvolved¡±. In other words... ¡°After all, you purposefully incorporated yourself into this Package because ¨C deep down ¨C you enjoy killing.¡± A brief silence fell. It was so silent that I almost thought I could hear the snow falling in the light of the full moon. That silence was broken only by my voice. ¡°There are many different kinds of Youkai. Some curse themselves for possessing a deadly power, some reach a compromise and coexist with humans despite possessing such a power, and some...some enjoy attacking humans from the bottom of their heart. You wanted to have your fill of killing children while also shoving the blame onto some humans so you could hold the position of a victim. That¡¯s why you overlooked the Package that you very well knew was being assembled. Am I wrong?¡± He began to writhe. An eerie wriggling as if of worms came over the unseen face below the hat. The movement produced a laugh. ¡°Heh heh. Kah kah kah kah kah kah kah kah kah!! So you saw through it! You saw all the way through it! But I didn¡¯t provide any of the material needed to reach that answer. Is that also because you¡¯re a Zashiki Warashi in charge of destiny?¡± Youkai like us were the occult given form and with a mind enclosed inside. Thus when we were used in a shikigami, magic, or a Package, a way of controlling the mind beyond simple logic was needed. That is, if you didn¡¯t pacify us, we would bare our fangs. So before discussing the evil of the Package, one had to sometimes question whether the Youkai itself was good or evil. ¡°This child organ trafficking Package uses the TV and an online store. I thought it was an interesting setup, but it appears to have gone too far. I have a bad habit of prioritizing my prey over safety.¡± ¡°Of course it did. This kind of thing will be discovered pretty quickly. Even some local high school students had caught on.¡± ¡°No, not necessarily.¡± I heard a sticky sound that made me imagine a smile beyond the hat. ¡°The buyers of the children¡¯s organs would never speak a word. If they revealed that an organ obtained through illicit means was located inside their precious child, it would affect that child¡¯s future as well as their own. So they will never speak of it. More importantly...¡± I heard what sounded like heavy objects falling into the snow around us. ¡°The silly human behind this had a perfect plan, but they hesitated at the last second. They said they just couldn¡¯t kill children, so they had the organs taken out as quickly as they could. I told them I would cut off the emulators to kill the children if they didn¡¯t meet their monthly quota, so as long as this criminal system exists, they will keep the prey coming to me as if on a conveyor belt. I rearranged the entire system like that.¡± They looked like pre-packaged Salisbury steak. The fist-sized squishy objects were wrapped in clear plastic. But I did not look at them. I knew they were the ¡°product¡±, but I did not look at them for the moment. ¡°So you took over the Package.¡± ¡°Hm, that¡¯s not quite how I interpret it. I prefer to think of it as gathering everything I need to more efficiently kidnap children.¡± ¡°You no longer even have something you gain in exchange for the children¡¯s lives.¡± ¡°The Aburatori was never something that saved anything. There is no meaning in the action of taking the oil. I am...yes, I am chaos. I act solely in search of human fear.¡± This Package had been created by human hands and yet it had completely left their control. It was similar to the threat of a leaked biological weapon. This monster had risen from the level of a deadly Youkai that simply walked through the darkness and its atrocities had spread to a wider area. ¡°I won¡¯t even bother asking why.¡± ¡°Oh, but that¡¯s what I most want you to ask. I do have my own personal view on killing. Connoisseurs are always picky.¡± ¡°If I kill you it opens the way for Shinobu to live. Destiny is telling me that. So die. I won¡¯t let you refuse.¡± I stepped on the accumulated snow and thrust out the long blade that was covered with my own blood. Meanwhile, the Aburatori merely smiled. ¡°Did this chance to meet me make you think you are somehow special? I am a variation on a deadly Youkai while you are a harmless Zashiki Warashi. The difference in strength is obvious, so there should be no meaning in a fight.¡± ¡°No, you know there¡¯s meaning.¡± ¡°Why do you say that?¡± ¡°Because you are preparing for a fight. Those fish-cooking skewers in your hands are the symbol for killing children, aren¡¯t they?¡± ¡°...¡± He seemed to have only noticed it once I pointed it out. His intent gaze dropped to the several dozen metal skewers spread out like a fan. One of the worst of the deadly Youkai would have no reason to react that way to a harmless Zashiki Warashi, so this was proof enough that I was not just a harmless Zashiki Warashi. ¡°How strange.¡± This threat taking a farmer¡¯s shape spoke while his shoulders shook. He was of course laughing. ¡°If you follow the legends back, we are both Youkai from Tohoku. One is a symbol of the mysterious attackers who kill children. The other is a symbol of all the children killed by their parents to have fewer mouths to feed. To think the two of us would meet in the same place.¡± The Package no longer mattered. This was a fight to the death between Youkai and there was no room for human intervention. We both naturally named ourselves as if cruelly making a criminal tremble by telling them how they would be executed. ¡°Hyakki Yakou Prototype Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi. Personal Name within the Jinnai Family: Yukari.¡± ¡°An Aburatori. A variation created in modern times when the tradition of fear has been lost.¡± And as if we had agreed to it beforehand, we clashed. Part 15 The sound of clashing metal filled the air. Orange sparks intruded on the strange white and dark blue scenery of the full moon over the snow. The Aburatori looked like a farmer hiding his face behind his hat and his arms and legs looked like tree branches. Every time he rotated, he scattered several dozen skewers like a shotgun. He seemed to have an unlimited supply because a few dozen more would spread out like a fan each time the old man moved his fingers. A distance of twenty meters was nothing to that Youkai. He would appear, kidnap, and kill without anyone knowing. The concept of distance likely did not fit well with him. ¡°Wonderful.¡± While scattering countless skewers as if dancing, the Aburatori spoke in a voice that hurt the ears. Orange sparks scattered and his smile seemed to grow each time the branch cutter knocked down a bullet. ¡°Wonderful!! A single scrape from my skewers is enough for me to take all your organs! Stepping on one of the skewers you have knocked to the ground would be fatal!! You are certain to lose your organs at some point, but your Youkai trait is allowing you to avoid that fate!!¡± It did not matter what he said. I did not need to worry about it. I did everything I could to protect my field. I only had to fight the temptation and choose the option most removed from the one I was naturally drawn toward. Because a Zashiki Warashi was so weak, that ¡°impossible destiny¡± would allow me to survive. ¡°Still, this is a strange twist of fate,¡± said the Aburatori while spinning the fan of skewers in his hand. ¡°I could be seen as a symbol of the adults who kill children. The existence of monstrous people like that is frightening, but that very existence allows people to dispose of children without dirtying their own hands. Those wicked thoughts were what brought me into existence.¡± ¡°There is no shortage of food in this age, so you can¡¯t justify killing by saying it¡¯s one less mouth to feed!¡± ¡°Hah hah hah!! But they are slaughtered in dark rooms, left in the parking lot of pachinko parlors, and recently I believe they are killed even before birth when an incurable disease is detected. If anything, this age is even crueler. There¡¯s no pressing reason for killing children, yet the act is on the rise!!¡± ¡°Do you really think the age desires those meaningless atrocities!?¡± ¡°What other explanation is there? This country is a cursed land with a culture of family killing at a level not often seen in the world. They have long killed their parents with the practice of ubasute and killed their children when food is scarce. But even now that they have plenty, the family killing continues. These people can still kill their family even after forgetting the reason why. That is their true essence. I have become the standard!!¡± Despite the shotgun blast of skewers I moved forward. The barrage was not as hopeless as it might look. As long as I understood destiny, I easily knew how to break through while only deflecting two or three of them. ¡°On the other hand, you are the symbol of the children killed by those practices. You come from the convenient idea that the children killed by their own parents will actually bring prosperity to the family as guardian deities! I may be the attacker and you may be the victim, but we are actually quite similar. When you get down to it, we were both created by the desires of the parents who killed their children!!¡± The concept of distance was meaningless. There was no such thing as close range and long range. The Aburatori clearly believed that because he gave up his own advantage and took a step toward me. ¡°That is why you could not forgive someone who killed children for no reason. Did you enjoy feeling like a child¡¯s guardian? But this will bring you no comfort. Even if you save this one child you call Shinobu, it will not revive the many children who were killed in the past to bring about the being known as the Zashiki Warashi.¡± He was now in range of the branch cutter I used in place of a naginata. By opposing destiny, I thrust forward the blade that would normally never hit. The Aburatori audibly slipped a few centimeters to the side of the blade. He was a step beyond me? Even my power...no, the power over destiny that Hyakki Yakou developed wasn¡¯t enough to reach him!? ¡°You can never be saved,¡± whispered the Aburatori from so close that I could feel his breath. Several dozen skewers spread out like fans in both his hands. ¡°No one can change what has already come to an end. That applies to the children of the past and for the one you call Shinobu.¡± A moment later, a downpour of over one hundred sharp pieces of metal rushed toward my stomach from only a few centimeters away. Part 16 Ksshh!! Kssssssshhhhhhh!! Click...kssshhhhhhh...click....ksssshhhh!! Part 17 It all came to an end. The high branch cutter I used in place of a naginata was a weapon with a thick blade much like pruning shears attached to the end of a two meter shaft. It had a long reach, but it was useless when right up next to an enemy. On the other hand, the Aburatori could use over one hundred thick skewers when using both hands. If he threw them all at close enough range for his breath to reach me, I had no way of deflecting them. He had anticipated any attempt to evade and had scattered the skewers over a large fan shape. Moving left or right and even ducking down would leave me full of skewers. Those skewers were the symbol of killing children, removing their organs, cooking them over a fire, and taking the oil. A single scratch would use the logic of the child organ trafficking Package to divide my organs up and pack them in plastic, and more than one hundred of them were flying toward me. As I could not defend or evade, it was plain as day what would happen. However, that was by the Aburatori¡¯s logic. I could control destiny, so I had no obligation to follow his logic. The sound of clashing metal filled the air as all the skewers were knocked down by the branch cutter. ¡°What?¡± The Aburatori looked completely dumbfounded for a moment. Not that I could blame him. He had moved within a few centimeters of me and my naginata-analogue was over two meters long. It would have been impossible to knock down all the skewers unless all one hundred or so of them flew backwards. Also, hitting five or ten of them was one thing, but to knock down all of them would require them to move as if they had been drawn in by a powerful magnet. ¡°Is it really that strange? It was wrong to ever start thinking about Youkai using the laws of physics.¡± ¡°Wha-...bu-... Don¡¯t tell me... Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯d done it from the beginning...¡± Did he think I had solved the mystery of this incident surrounding him? Did he think I¡¯d gotten back at him by using the traits or weakness of the Youkai used in the Package? If he really thought that, he was far too self-conscious. This was a story of revealing the rules controlling Youkai and using those rules to defeat them. However, he was not the only Youkai here. This was my field. This was a cruel fairy tale where he would meet a tragic end unless he analyzed the traits of the Zashiki Warashi, found a weakness, and took appropriate action. ¡°From the beginning, I was fighting against the destiny that exists within the rules of the Zashiki Warashi. My actions were only meant to fight the destiny that would lead to Shinobu¡¯s death. That just so happened to take the physical form of picking up a weapon, running through the village, and fighting an Aburatori.¡± How I swung the branch cutter had not mattered. How and from where the skewers had been thrown had not mattered. As long as I had fought the destiny that would lead to Shinobu¡¯s death, everything around me would correct itself to bring about that result. The locations of the branch cutter and the skewer could be manipulated to fit. ¡°You seem to be mistaken about something.¡± I spun around the branch cutter. I held it so it passed from my back and under my left arm as if making a tricky shot in pool. ¡°I came here to rescue Shinobu. I did not care in the slightest about you!!¡± I once more thrust the blade forward at close range. With a dull sound, the thick blade stabbed deep into the center of the Aburatori¡¯s chest. A Youkai would not die from being stabbed or shot, but things were different in a battle between Youkai. That blade had already been covered in my blood, so the damage would take effect. ¡°Gh...bh...?¡± He looked down at his own chest as if seeing something very strange. He then collapsed backwards as if widening the wound by forcibly pulling out the thick blade. The blood that finally decided to spew out was black and seemed to indicate the nature of the Youkai. ¡°It¡¯s over.¡± ¡°Yes, it is.¡± I was shocked to receive a reply. I looked over to see that the Aburatori was speaking where he lay sprawled out in the snow. It was hard to tell if the words were coming from the mouth hidden by the eye-pattern hat or the gaping hole in his chest. ¡°The child organ trafficking Package will fall apart with the Youkai at its core gone. To correct the unreasonable action, the stolen organs will likely return to the original children.¡± This was strange. Something was not right. If that was all, then why was that evil Youkai smiling? ¡°But if that happens, what will happen to the sick children who have already received their organ transplants? Not even I know that. They may have the organ torn from them and die or they may regain the original diseased organ. The result is the same either way. They have no future. You have done nothing more than kill children to save a child.¡± ¡°.............................................................................................................................................¡± I thought my breathing would stop. After all... ¡°The people who tried to make money off of organ trafficking were probably trash. The parents who bought the organs knowing where they came form should probably be punished for their actions.¡± He grinned. Even after losing and sinking into death, the Aburatori savored his sadistic victory. ¡°But the sick children themselves did nothing wrong. Just to be clear, the number of children saved was greater than those attacked. When the organs are split up and given to individual patients, a single child can save multiple children. Meaning! You have created a situation where you kill a greater number of children to save a smaller number of children!! Heh heh heh hah hah!! Welcome to the path of killing. I hope you enjoy sinking into this unescapable mire.¡± He did not beg me to therefore save him and return things to normal. He preferred to enjoy the present situation. No matter what I did and no matter who I tried to save, either the children whose organs had been stolen would die or the ones saved by those stolen organs would die. This Youkai had stood in the way of the clich¨¦d goal of ¡°saving children¡±, but he had waited until now to make me bear the heavy cross of letting someone die. ¡°...¡± For a while, I stood motionless in the moonlit snow. The makeshift weapon felt heavy in my hand. Finally, I squeezed my hand and quietly remembered I held a weapon. ¡°Ha ha.¡± The Aburatori laughed while a shocking amount of blood flowed from his dried chest. ¡°Kill me if you like, but it will change nothing. Now, choose to let the children die while resting easy that no one can see this shameful action.¡± He clearly did not understand. Say there was a Person A and a Person B and a single person had to die. That did not mean that you could not save both A and B. Yes. If Person C saw that terrible situation and gave his own life as an additional option, that single required life could be taken while both A and B were saved. ¡°Do you remember that I called myself Hyakki Yakou Prototype Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi?¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°Do you really think the Hyakki Yakou would put together a project that would do nothing more than let them choose between the destinies currently in existence? Do you really think they are such a weak organization that they could not complete a project on that level and it would stall in the prototype phase?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t mean...it goes beyond that? But the only phenomenon greater than what you have already demonstrated is...!!¡± ¡°I have already shown you I can modify destiny. That is, freely choose from the existing options. But this goes beyond that. Hyakki Yakou attempted and failed to create a method of creating a completely different line of destiny from nothing.¡± Here, that would mean saving all the children whose organs had been taken and also saving all the children who were allowed to live by the taken organs. The only way to allow for that clearly contradictory situation was to create a brand new destiny. The world had to be deceived into thinking two completely identical organs existed, as if they were twins. What I had to do was simple. It was what I always did: move my body such that I opposed the invisible temptation. However, this was completely different from before. It was like a puny human using only their bare hands to oppose a press meant to crush cars. By any normal reckoning, I would be crushed. As if the world¡¯s destiny were rejecting a mere individual¡¯s circumstances, normal destiny would continue even if it meant crushing the one who desired change. But I would force that reckless action to work. A creaking sound filled the air as I kneeled on the spot. I held the branch cutter in both hands and pressed its tip against my stomach. I did not know what meaning the action held. It likely had no real meaning in a physical sense. But the overwhelming pain as if crushing each of my fingers and compressing my backbone reminded me of the destiny I had to fight. I became aware of the very thin foreign feeling passing from the top of my head to the end of my butt. It had been placed inside me. This was a product of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s insane ideas and reliable techniques. The theory had never been completed, but I forced it to work regardless. As a result, a sensation of long, thin wires twisted within me. Ahh. It¡¯s going to break. I naturally knew that. No matter the result, I was going to lose everything as a Zashiki Warashi. Like an automaton with its gears messed with, I would no longer function as a Youkai. ¡°Why do you go this far?¡± I suddenly heard a hoarse voice. It came from the Youkai that still ruled the area despite having lost. ¡°It is only a finite human life. No matter how many you kill, more appear like bamboo shoots after a rain until they cover the surface of the earth! There are more efficient methods for an eternal Youkai. Even if someone dies this generation, you only have to choose a favorite from the next generation. And yet you...¡± ¡°You would probably never understand even if you did live an eternity,¡± I spat out at him. ¡°That¡¯s why you don¡¯t even cut it as a ghost story. You don¡¯t give any lesson such as don¡¯t lie or treat your parents right. You can¡¯t bring anything beyond useless cruelty and scorn.¡± For an instant ¨C truly just an instant ¨C I heard the Aburatori¡¯s face bend behind the hat. But I did not continue watching. I had something to take care of that was much more important than that failure of a Youkai. I thrust the thick blade into my own stomach. The thin wire-like foreign feeling running through the center of my body shattered like glass. Part 18 And that was how I lost everything. The following day, the snow had completely stopped. The large yard beyond the veranda was still covered in white and it glittered wondrously as the soft spring sun hit it. I was lazy by nature. On a cold day like this, I would feel like founding an independent nation inside the kotatsu, but I sat on the veranda on this day. My internal structure as a Zashiki Warashi had completely failed. Not even I knew what effect it would have on me. Not even visiting a specialist in spiritual medicine was likely to help. Not even your average underground business could handle a Youkai that had the essence of Hyakki Yakou stuffed into her and then had it take severe damage. Even just losing my power related to fortune or destiny would hurt. It was possible this would affect my ability to maintain my body that was not bound by the laws of physics. I could be destroyed or I could eternally suffer without any way to be destroyed. The fear of such things could cause my mind to fall apart. This was the fear of not knowing what would happen. Just because I was fine one day did not mean I would be the next. I would have to live while praying as if crossing an old suspension bridge. I did not know how long I would be able to continue seeing this scene, so I committed it to memory as if burning it into my mind. It was a ritual. But then a clattering of dishes interrupted my peaceful and pessimistic ritual. I looked over and saw Shinobu carrying his breakfast tray with as dangerous a grip as ever. ¡°Yukari, you can¡¯t eat alone, so let¡¯s eat together.¡± The same sentiment as before softened my cheeks. Shinobu, Nagisa, the other children whose organs had been taken, and even the sick children who had undergone illegal surgeries had all been forcibly saved. This result was the one bright side of the situation. It seemed Hayabusa had found the silly human behind it, so none of the evil remained. I hesitantly stood up from the veranda to move into the altar room where my breakfast was ready. I did not know how much strength I could use, so I would need to thoroughly test my upper limits at some point. For the moment, the lack of any pain was the most disturbing and frightening part. Rather than making me think I was fine, it made me think I was in a state similar to losing my sense of pain from damaging the spine. ¡°Hurry, Yukari. The food¡¯ll get cold.¡± ¡°Wait, Shinobu. Walk more slowly.¡± ¡°Hm? What is it? Is there some food you don¡¯t like? You¡¯re supposed to eat everything, but don¡¯t worry! If it¡¯s too bad, I¡¯ll save you.¡± His innocent words made me smile quietly. That¡¯s right. ¡°Perhaps you really will save me someday.¡± Part 19 In the present, the evening was filled with the stuffy heat of late summer. A high school boy had his hair dyed blonde, had his legs impolitely crossed, held a popsicle in his mouth, and looked in annoyance at a few envelopes that appeared to contain love letters. A Zashiki Warashi gave a heavy sigh as she looked at him. ¡°Shinobu, I am really disappointed.¡± ¡°Wait a second. Where the hell did that come from?¡± Notes 1. ¡ü Warashi means child. 2. ¡ü Japanese for porcupinefish literally means ¡°a thousand needles¡±. Volume 4, 2: Hishigami Enbi // The Present Fluctuates Freely Volume 4, Chapter 2: Hishigami Enbi // The Present Fluctuates Freely Part 1 ¡°Takenoko takenoko nyokiki!!¡± ¡°First nyoki!!¡± ¡°First nyoki!!¡± ¡°Nya ha ha! You were taken out right off the bat!¡± ¡°It¡¯s a bit of an old game, so I forget how to play it¡î¡± A group of five men and five women on a group date was having the time of their lives at a table a short distance away. They must have been drinking a fair bit of alcohol because they were roaring with laughter at conversations that did not seem even remotely funny to me. Nevertheless, their laughter reached the table my sister and I were eating and drinking at. Hmm. For this twintailed middle school girl of the Hishigami family, a bar with only dim indirect lighting was a new experience. It made me wonder if I should really be there. Still, I hadn¡¯t ordered any alcohol and my adult sister was across the table from me, so no one was going to warn me away or anything. ¡°There¡¯s nothing on this menu but greasy meat. I don¡¯t think this kind of food is right for a farming race with length to spare in their intestines.¡± My sister was a large-breasted woman in her twenties who still wore a tank top and hot pants. She held a glass filled to the brim with spirytus (a harsh drink that could do just fine fueling an alcohol lamp) and frowned as she replied to me. ¡°They have salads down at the bottom.¡± ¡°What kind of salad has ¡®plenty of beef tongue¡¯!? The vegetables clearly aren¡¯t the primary part of these dishes! A girl with lots of subcutaneous fat can¡¯t carelessly eat this kind of thing.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t worry. You¡¯re in middle school, aren¡¯t you? At your age, your metabolism won¡¯t leave any fat behind. Did an instigator of some kind of health boom scare you on TV or something? And if you¡¯re that worried, just take a run after eating.¡± ¡°That may work for you, but you¡¯re a monster that chases after an Italian sports car to drag some villain out of it.¡± ¡°I only managed that because it was a winding road on a mountain ridge. I couldn¡¯t do it on a straight city road.¡± The fact that she thought that showed she was normal proved just how much of a monster she was. At any rate, she was someone I didn¡¯t want involved in the schedule mysteries that were fun for their logic. Meanwhile, excited voices were still coming from the other table. ¡°Huh? You¡¯ve only been ordering oolong tea, haven¡¯t you?¡± ¡°No, no. I¡¯m fine. This has shochu in it.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to say that. If you don¡¯t drink, just say so. It¡¯s nothing to be ashamed of. I won¡¯t force you to drink, so don¡¯t worry. Nya ha ha ha ha!!¡± While the voices sometimes jumped up in volume and stabbed into my ears, I reached for the large plate of beans. Munch, munch. ¡°Ahh, edamame is delicious. I think these have to rank at #1.¡± ¡°No, that would be dadachamame. And do you insist on only eating vegetables!? What¡¯s this!? Is my sister actually a girl or something!?¡± ¡°Of course I am!! And what¡¯s with that fried beef!? Girls are supposed to think even chicken is too greasy!¡± ¡°Sorry, but it¡¯s looking like I have a big job coming up. Once it begins, I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll next get any proper human food, so I want to fill my head with as many memories of civilization as I can.¡± ¡°Oh, is that so? I¡¯ve got a troublesome issue at hand too.¡± My sister winked while downing the clear liquid with 90%+ alcohol content as if it were cool water. ¡°Let¡¯s hope we don¡¯t run into each other.¡± ¡°That¡¯s for sure. If two Hishigami women ended up involved in a single incident, it would feel like the end of the world. I¡¯d imagine everything would get resolved, but no one involved would be around to tell the tale.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be right back. I need to go to the bathroom!¡± said someone from the other table. ¡°Oh? Guys don¡¯t use some kind of euphemism there?¡± ¡°Eh? Do you seriously say you¡¯re off to pick flowers? I thought that was an urban legend.¡± A young man in a business suit stood up from that table. Due to the layout, he approached our table and so I spoke up. ¡°Detective, what are you doing here?¡± The instant I did, the man in the cheap suit froze in place. That detective from Investigation Department 1 of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department slowly turned toward me like a doll needing to be oiled. He was Detective Uchimaku Hayabusa and he was single. An unpleasant sweat covered the expression of a man who had just made the worst mistake of his life. And he suddenly tried to cry his way out of it. ¡°Noooooooooooo!! I¡¯m not asking why you two are here! I¡¯m just not!! Let¡¯s keep to ourselves here, okay? I really don¡¯t get a chance like this often!! Pleeeeeeeease!!¡± ¡°Detective, your friend Enbi-chan here has the kind heart of the Virgin Mary, so I won¡¯t count this as cheating on me. ...But only if you kiss me right here and now.¡± ¡°Enough nonsense! Just promise me!! A police detective has a harder time meeting women than a uniformed police officer! Even people who haven¡¯t done anything wrong shut me out because they say I look too scary! But this time is different. There¡¯s a flight attendant who kindly reached out to me!! This is the only paid vacation left, but she went out of her way to schedule this on my day off! If I miss this chance, it¡¯s all over! My days of youth will end and I¡¯ll be a lonely middle-aged man instead!! So please!!¡± You¡¯re supposed to be a police detective, so what on earth are you talking about? Of course, a normal love life was impossible for this man. Even on his day off, he wasn¡¯t drinking. It was probably his way of making sure he was ready if something did happen. Also... ¡°Detective, it pains me to say it, but I don¡¯t have to do anything here. It¡¯s already too late.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so ominous!! Mai, stop your sister¡¯s rampage here!!¡± ¡°(Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle.)¡± ¡°What¡¯s with that glitter in your eyes!? You want to destroy this group date and cause a commotion just for fun, don¡¯t you!? I won¡¯t let you! I won¡¯t! Defense!! Defense!!¡± ¡°Detective, look over here.¡± I diverted my future darling¡¯s eyes as he posed like a basketball player for no reason. ¡°Your cell phone is going to receive an emergency call soon. This fun love comedy part of the night will end without our interference. So let¡¯s go dive headfirst into the serious and bloody suspense part of the night¡î¡± ¡°Please wait!! Let me recover my energy! I¡¯ll break otherwise. I really, really will!¡± ¡°Sure, sure. But the countdown has already begun. Three, two, one.¡± Zero. At that moment, his cell phone produced a normal ring tone. He brought it to his ear in annoyance and a grim male voice came out. It was the chief of Department 1. ¡°You have a case, Uchimaku. You¡¯re back on duty, so get to the scene.¡± ¡°..................................................................................................................................................................Me no speak Japanese.¡± ¡°I already know you¡¯re just about the biggest idiot out there, so you don¡¯t have to remind me. I¡¯ll send the details in an email.¡± The detective then reached for the glass on our table. More specifically, he grabbed the glass my sister had been using and gulped down the clear liquid inside. ¡°Ah! My spirytus!¡± ¡°Gwaaaaaahhh!? You got an indirect kiss with hiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmm!?¡± He completely ignored our shouts. ¡°Bh!? Spiry-gwah!?¡± he choked. He was immediately left unsteady on his feet as he spoke into the cell phone. ¡°I can¡¯t, chief! I¡¯m out drinking right now!! I¡¯d love to make a dashing entry, but unfortunately, a police officer can¡¯t exactly drink and drive.¡± ¡°Take a cab. And no, we won¡¯t reimburse you for the fare.¡± The call ended there and the detective remained motionless. Completely motionless. Part 2 There was only one kind of case an off-duty police detective would be called to. Plenty of incidents both large and small occurred in Tokyo on a daily basis, but it was not often they were sent straight to the metropolitan police and had off-duty detectives called in. This clearly had some kind of dangerous circumstances that brought it behind a normal incident. I lent my shoulder to the detective who was about to collapse from something other than the alcohol and I spoke my thoughts as we waited for a taxi to pass by the nighttime street. ¡°In Odaiba, the idol group Tarot Girls 22 was having a live broadcast event as guests on an internet radio show, but a man burned himself to death. It may be called net radio, but they tend to have videos these days, so the footage of the human pillar of fire¡¯s death throes was sent all around the world.¡± ¡°Why do you know all this? ¡°I said it was a live broadcast, didn¡¯t I? This isn¡¯t classified police information. The broadcast station has apparently stopped transmitting the footage, but it¡¯s everywhere on the video sharing sites. Every message board I¡¯ve looked at is filled with dangerously titled threads.¡± ¡°Ugh...¡± ¡°But when I say this was net radio, I don¡¯t mean it was a studio rented out by amateurs. It¡¯s a division and subsidiary of Japan¡¯s most well-known national broadcast station. The top levels of the station were afraid newspapers and TV wouldn¡¯t be necessary in five years¡¯ time, so they bought up a successful netventure to gain the knowhow. It was less a way of gaining actual profits and more preparations for dealing with the new age that would weed them out. Think of it like an investment to learn about the enemy.¡± The combination of a drunk man in a suit and a middle school girl must have been a problem because we didn¡¯t seem able to catch a taxi. ¡°The victim was a twenty-four year old man named Usuta Manabu. He was on the net radio¡¯s sound staff, but he was a freelancer with a bottom-level position. It isn¡¯t known if he left any kind of will behind. From what I¡¯ve seen on the video sites, he dumped a plastic bottle of a flammable liquid over his head and set himself ablaze with a lighter. It might have been an organic solvent for paints that isn¡¯t as flashy as gasoline. Art staff could easily bring some into even a heavily-guarded TV station, so there would probably have been some lying around for Usuta to grab.¡± ¡°That¡¯s...hic...sad to hear. He probably regretted his decision as soon as he lit it.¡± ¡°Probably. The weak flames from a solvent take a while to kill you. Then again, there wasn¡¯t much hope of saving him once he was entirely engulfed in the flames. If he was going to go that far, he should have prepared some gasoline and died a less painful death. That might have killed him instantly and wouldn¡¯t have lasted longer than a few minutes.¡± Incidentally, the detective¡¯s Investigation Department 1 had a section dedicated to fires. It was a bit of a stretch to say a suicide qualified, but the special circumstances of this case kept anyone from immediately labelling it a ¡°mere suicide¡±. The spread of the flames to the broadcast station¡¯s equipment and the interrupted live broadcast would likely be treated as more important than the man¡¯s death. In the worst case, it could be registered as arson against the station rather than suicide. If that happened, Usuta Manabu would be treated as a perpetrator rather than a victim. Of course, it was a lot the same when a train hit someone. The focus was always more on the delayed schedule and cost of the damage than on the person killed. It was said that the law prioritized public welfare over the circumstances of individuals, but it was important to remember that was harsher than it sounded. ¡°Then what are saying?¡± asked the detective with a suspicious look in his eyes. ¡°Some grotesque footage that violates the broadcast code might bring social unrest, so the well-known Department 1 has to send all its forces out to quickly fix it? Hic.¡± ¡°Well, it was a net broadcast, so the codes don¡¯t really apply and I¡¯m not sure if the Broadcast Something-Or-Other Committee will do anything about the scandal. Then again, this was related to a subsidiary of a national broadcast station, so who knows.¡± We finally caught a taxi. I stuffed the detective into the back seat and then sat next to him. The middle-aged female driver looked displeased when I told her we needed to get to the broadcast station in Odaiba. ¡°What¡¯s this? Are you trying to get a peek at tonight¡¯s hottest murder scene? Sorry, but I can¡¯t let you do that. If you¡¯re just interested in what doesn¡¯t concern you, I¡¯ll refuse to drive you.¡± ¡°He¡¯s a detective from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and I¡¯m a freelancer, so we need to get there ASAP to solve the case.¡± ¡°What¡¯s this!? You mean the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department? And what do mean by a freelancer!? Sh-should I be getting your autographs or something!?¡± God, how annoying!! You¡¯re the one that¡¯s too interested in what doesn¡¯t concern you!! The detective who reeked of alcohol was of little use. ¡°Hic. Anyway...can you get going?¡± ¡°Sure, sure. This is when you ask me to follow that car, right!? I¡¯m on it!!¡± The woman seemed to be on a high because she drove us quite recklessly from the Shinbashi drinking district to Odaiba. ¡°Hic. By the way, driver.¡± ¡°What is it!? Ask me anything! Do you want to know about any suspicious passengers I¡¯ve had!?¡± ¡°You called it a murder scene just now, didn¡¯t you? What do you mean?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what everyone¡¯s saying. They say there¡¯s no way it was just a suicide.¡± Yes, yes. Let Enbi-chan handle that one. ¡°The social unrest you mentioned before might not be too far off. This is going to be more than just dealing with a suicide.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Every message board out there has a flood of posts coming in, but there¡¯s clear malice mixed in at a pretty good frequency. A lot of people are saying there was nothing wrong with the sound staff member and his suicide was caused by something else.¡± ¡°Something else? You mean like someone assisted or instigated the suicide?¡± ¡°I told you the guest was Tarot Girls 22, remember? They¡¯re the most popular national idol group right now and it seems the blame is spreading to them. People are saying they¡¯re cursed or that a woman¡¯s cries are mixed in with their latest song.¡± ¡°Hee hee hee¡î The mystery voice on the CD, huh?¡± added the driver. ¡°Well, it¡¯s a common urban legend.¡± The TV industry had a way of gathering occult stories. Some would say everyone related to the production of a certain advertisement was meeting bizarre deaths one after another, some would say they caught a glimpse of a corpse floating in the pond behind the reporter in the instant they switched to the outside camera on the weather forecast, and some would say a porn video was playing after the station¡¯s broadcast time had ended. One genre of those was the mystery voice on a CD. Those rumors usually said a female screaming or crying was recorded along with the artist¡¯s voice. There were a few famous songs with that rumor. ¡°So instead of Tarot Girls 22 being caught up in the sound staff member¡¯s suicide, those people think the sound staff member was killed due to the problems surrounding Tarot Girls 22.¡± ¡°Do you think that¡¯s possible?¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard to say.¡± If this was a fictional mystery novel, I would have laughed and said it was obviously some kind of clever trick made to look like the curse had done it, but unfortunately, this world was filled with irregular beings known as Youkai. Not that this was any time to give a proud snort and say something as obvious as ¡°truth is stranger than fiction¡±. ¡°Was it a suicide or something more? Was it done entirely by human hands or was an elusive Youkai involved? And if a Youkai was involved, was it an intentional act of the Youkai¡¯s or was a human using its power via a Package? We have no choice but to investigate every possibility.¡± However, I could only glean so much information from the excited message boards and video sharing sites. Without heading to the scene of the crime and investigating myself, I couldn¡¯t even plan what to do next. The taxi crossed a brightly lit bridge. ¡°Would it really be that hard to just seal off this bridge?¡± ¡°Try learning a thing or two about economics.¡± ¡°I bet I could get it immediately sealed off by attaching a kitchen timer to a cylindrical container, duct-taping it to the bottom of the bridge, and calling the police.¡± ¡°Hic. Do that and you¡¯re on your own.¡± Once we had crossed the bridge, we were on obviously reclaimed land. There was a large-scale park and shopping mall, but it still looked like a kingdom ruled by a ridiculously huge national TV station. From one end of the rectangular area of reclaimed land to the other, it all looked like an unreal TV set. I was pretty sure the area had lately had an Edo-style revival campaign. They had tried to raise the water quality of Tokyo Bay to properly bring back the old Edo-style sushi or something like that. The word ¡°ecological¡± tended to make people think of being less wasteful, but the introduction of new facilities for the environment had placed industrial complexes all along the bay¡¯s coast. Madoka had likely been delighted with all the money and rights being traded around. The woman driver then asked a question. ¡°Where should I stop? Will the shopping mall¡¯s parking lot work?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve got an actual police officer with us, so there¡¯s no need to hold back. Pull right up to the front of the TV station like a VIP¡¯s limo.¡± ¡°Heh heh. I¡¯ve always wanted to do that.¡± I don¡¯t know where she learned how to do it, but the tires screeched as she brought the taxi around the front entrance circle. Despite how late it was, the area was filled with people. Irritated security guards were keeping normal people from entering, but they could not keep the media away. And a close glance showed one young man carrying a camera with the TV station¡¯s own logo. I guessed they had been unable to stop the flood of people after the following scenario played out: Their own reporters made their way in ¡ú Why does that station get in and no one else? ¡ú This isn¡¯t fair! It¡¯s a violation of the freedom of the press!! The showy arrival of the taxi was met by the bright stroboscopic flashing of the SLR cameras. They took picture after picture hoping it was a famous celebrity, a station VIP, someone related to the incident, or just anyone they could sell to a sports newspaper later. But it turned out to be none of those. Okay!! It¡¯s time for the arrival of the (future) most lovey-dovey couple in the world!! As for Police Sergeant Uchimaku¡¯s reaction upon getting out of the back seat... ¡°Yay!! Are you getting some good shots? Hello, everyone! Or should I say good evening? Department 1 is on the scene!! Ugh. Oh, no. Here it comes... Oehhhhhhhhh!?¡± Oh, dear. I hope this shocking footage isn¡¯t released so soon after the suicide by burning. Part 3 Tarot Girls 22 was the most popular idol group in Japan. As their name suggested, their primary group was made up of 22 girls from the Fool to the Universe. They also had a second group of 56 girls that had 14 each of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Coins. They could be seen as the first of the fusion of beautiful girls and occult mysteries that were common in idols these days. Some people had gained an odd popularity through fortune telling and spiritualism and this was the result of the already-popular idol industry taking that in for themselves. The most distinguishing feature of Tarot Girls 22 was how they were divided between the Major Arcana group and the Minor Arcana group, but the members were always split up and rearranged for a new song release or a national tour. Each member represented a tarot card and the optimal card arrangement for the day¡¯s work determined the participating unit, so which group they were in made little difference. The way the idols were used without taking into account their individual popularity or sales helped increase their ¡°credibility¡± from a spiritual standpoint. The choreography of their dancing and their positions on stage during concerts all had tarot meanings included, so after any event, enthusiastic fans known as Arcana Readers would give their personal interpretations on video sites or message boards. Of course, sometimes intense ¡°religious disputes¡± would break out. ¡°Well?¡± We entered the TV station and the detective seemed to be feeling better after vomiting a spectacular amount, so he asked me a question. ¡°Hic. How did some suspicious mystery freak get into a heavily guarded national TV station that¡¯s been designated a possible terrorist target?¡± ¡°Try actually reading the documents. I¡¯m from Bug Breakers! Some young help was called in as an emergency worker to search for bugs set up in the station¡î¡± ¡°You¡¯re setting up your own bugs while pretending to look for them, aren¡¯t you? Ugh.... And then you ¡®find¡¯ them so they trust you.¡± ¡°Bugs aren¡¯t illegal if you just carry them around with you. I¡¯m never even switching them on.¡± In truth, I had to begin by using cold reading to make them believe their most important information was being leaked out, so it could be a lot of trouble. The detective looked annoyed and doubt gradually appeared on his face. ¡°Wait a sec. Ugh. When did you begin preparing for this? It couldn¡¯t have been after the suicide. Hic.¡± ¡°And that means this began before that.¡± ¡°Before that?¡± ¡°A part of it did anyway. Want to hear about it?¡± I attached earphones to my smartphone and put one half in his ear. Eh heh heh. I¡¯ve always wanted to share a set of earphones like this! ¡°Ugh. What is this?¡± ¡°Tarot Girls 22¡¯s latest song. It¡¯s titled Summer Vacation, Again and Again. Shh. Listen carefully at 1:55.¡± At that moment, he clearly frowned. It sounded like silk being torn. No, it sounded like a young woman had someone grab her by the legs and tear her entire body in two. That was how ghastly the scream mixed in with the song was. ¡°Let me ask again. Hic. What is this?¡± ¡°Who can say? The rumor online is that Tarot Girls 22 angered something best left undisturbed by using spiritualism for their business. For a while, strange phenomena have been occurring around them and this is just one of them.¡± ¡°Are you serious?¡± ¡°If a single person¡¯s grudge would do things as obvious as this like on an insane spiritual TV special, no one would need people like us. Things are different with a collection of grudges that takes form as a Youkai, though.¡± As we whispered to each other, a young female staff member walked over to us. Her name was Akashi Mitsu. Her job title was assistant director, but she was actually just a part time worker and it seemed she would be showing us around. ¡°You are from the police, aren¡¯t you? The scene is this way. Oh, Enbi-chan. What are you doing here?¡± ¡°Bug Breakers needs to do our thing before the inspection can begin¡î If the murderer set up a device before leaving, they can listen in on what the police are saying. And if they know what the initial investigation turned up, they can come up with a countermeasure.¡± Akashi Mitsu-chan¡¯s face grew obviously pale at my made-up excuse. She rudely bit at her thumbnail and quickly showed us down the hallway as if something was bothering her. ¡°(Hey, mystery freak. Hic. Are you kidding me here?)¡± ¡°(About what?)¡± ¡°(That AD didn¡¯t even question it when you mentioned a murderer. Hic. I thought this was supposed to be a suicide.)¡± ¡°(Then do your best to catch up to me¡î)¡± Whether as an anti-terrorism measure or a way of keeping stalkers out, we did not head down a straight hallway and take a single elevator. The hallways took turn after turn and we repeatedly switched between elevators before finally reaching our destination. We passed by people famous from TV a few times, but the detective wasn¡¯t familiar enough with them to get excited. Or perhaps he was just that much of a professional despite being drunk. Either way, it was cute. ¡°Oh, Enbi-san.¡± A girl leaving a kitchenette spoke to me and the detective actually stopped this time. The fourteen-year-old girl was the member of Tarot Girls 22 corresponding to the Empress of the Major Arcana. Her body was quite well-developed for her age, but there was a heavy look across her entire face. It was as if she walked around with a label saying ¡°At school, I¡¯m the inconspicuous library committee member.¡± Her name was Anemura Kaede. As far as the mysterious suicide case was concerned, she was not all that important. However, I was a bit interested in the fact that she had left the kitchenette alone. ¡°Where¡¯s your usual manager?¡± ¡°You mean Itano-san?¡± Just as she finished asking that, a woman in a suit poked her head out from the stairwell. She was the Itano Ryou we were just discussing. She looked to be in her late twenties and she had a nice enough body and a beautiful enough face to make some money if she changed into a swimsuit, but she was far too unsociable for that. Currently, she spoke quietly. ¡°Is there a refrigerator in the kitchenette? If not, we¡¯ll have to head out to buy ice.¡± ¡°Oh, there is one. Are the other girls really doing that badly?¡± ¡°Two or three of them are still in complete shock after seeing that corpse. Although that may be better than the ones that are getting far too excited about it all.¡± Hm. Would that be the military-obsessed Chariot or the brown-skinned Sun? It seemed some people had made inappropriate threads using the frightening footage of the suicide to vote which idol had the best reaction. When seeing a man burn himself to death, it seemed some people lost their cool and others kept up the mask of an idol. The question was which was more unnatural. Meanwhile, Kaede-chan the Empress crossed her arms restlessly and asked a question. The shy girl may not have realized it, but the pose pushed her breasts up with her arms. ¡°Um... How long do I have to stay here?¡± ¡°Oh, can you not relax at the scene of a suicide? There¡¯s a futon in the dressing room, but you could probably relax more back at home.¡± ¡°Um, there is that, but it¡¯s been several hours since it happened. Just staying in the station this late makes it hard to relax.¡± ¡°?¡± Akashi-chan the AD opened her cell phone and let out a scream. ¡°Oh, crap! It¡¯s this late!? I think I¡¯m violating the Labor Standards Act!!¡± ¡°Come to think of it, should you be working this late, Enbi-san?¡± ¡°This doesn¡¯t fall under the category of ¡®labor¡¯. If you¡¯re a volunteer, you can slip through all sorts of loopholes. Help me out, detective.¡± As I spoke, I pointed to the detective¡¯s chest with my thumb. The lovely young man in a suit responded halfheartedly to my demand for an explanation. ¡°Eh? If the police are keeping you here to help, hic, you won¡¯t be punished even if you stay too long. Um... How far did I get? If you aren¡¯t being paid, it doesn¡¯t violate the Labor Standards Act. Hic.¡± But something else surprised Kaede-chan the Empress. ¡°Eh? Um... He¡¯s a police detective? But he looks like he¡¯s drunk.¡± ¡°Yeah... If you¡¯ve got a problem with it, I can always leave. In fact, I¡¯d much rather leave. This was supposed to be my day off! Hic!!¡± ¡°You still haven¡¯t gotten over that horrible group date? It clearly wasn¡¯t going anywhere.¡± ¡°Hic hic!!¡± ¡°Um... Why is he crying?¡± Either because this completely went against their image of a police officer or because a middle school girl like me was being so friendly with him, the AD and the Empress looked utterly shocked. ¡°I or one of the other officers should explain the situation to you later. Hic. If there¡¯re no problems, please remain in the building. Ugh, I feel sick.¡± ¡°Oh, yes. Please make it quick if you can. I don¡¯t want to miss school tomorrow too.¡± Manager Itano Ryou glared at Kaede-chan the Empress before speaking. ¡°Anemura-san, as I said before, stay away from the dressing room for the moment. As the single calm girl, the panicked girls could easily snap at you.¡± We left that show business pair and once more started toward the scene of the incident. Just hearing the term internet radio made one think of a small recording studio and mixer room separated by soundproof glass, but this had been a live broadcast event with an audience. They seemed to have rented out an entire event studio used for song shows on television. Having someone burn themselves to death during such a major performance had likely been a complete disaster for the producers. The entire stage was sealed off with yellow tape, but the audience seating was not. What appeared to be a forensics team was already taking photos and checking for fingerprints and footprints with chemicals. I was apparently not the only one trying to get a look at it all because a girl with slender pants under her miniskirt tried to get some photos, had her cell phone confiscated by a uniformed police officer, and was now jumping up and down as he held it just out of her reach. Isn¡¯t that Eternity of the Major Arcana? As I approached the scorched-smelling stage, I called out to the detective. ¡°The victim, Usuta Manabu, was a member of the sound staff.¡± ¡°You already told me that in the taxi. Hic.¡± A blackened mass sat near the right wing of the stage. Right from the perspective of the audience, that is. It was curled up in the fetal position and was the Usuta Manabu I had mentioned. In life, he had been a chubby young man and the vestiges of that of that could still be seen in his corpse. Of course, that was nothing more than the yellow and half-cooked fat sticking out from his blackened skin. The floor was burnt black for about three meters around the corpse. ¡°What do you think?¡± ¡°Hm? From the state of the body, the flames must not have been all that strong. A sprinkler probably could have put them out. Hic. The stage floor was waxed until it shined. That¡¯s why the flames spread there.¡± The detective went ahead and lifted up the yellow tape and stepped onto the stage. I, on the other hand, sat in a front-row seat like an audience member. ¡°There was no room for any kind of trick in this case. The live worldwide broadcast proves that. He suddenly interrupted the event by running out from the right wing of the stage, dumped a plastic bottle full of liquid over his head, and ignited it with a cheap lighter.¡± ¡°We still can¡¯t say that for sure. Burp. The flammable substance could have been dumped on him backstage and he ran out onto the stage to escape. Maybe the bottle only contained water.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t explain the lighter.¡± ¡°It could¡¯ve been a prank. Hic. He could have been pretending to kill himself to surprise everyone, but it ended up actually setting him alight. Hic. It¡¯s possible the man didn¡¯t know the bottle contained a flammable substance.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s the case, we won¡¯t find anything investigating the scene.¡± I tried crossing my legs in the seat, but the detective refused to be seduced. ¡°But it might not a bad idea to look into.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Usuta Manabu had borrowed money from several different consumer moneylenders. In other words, he had a lot of debt.¡± ¡°You mean he had a motive for suicide? Hic. What about it?¡± ¡°There was suspicion surrounding him before this. People said he gathered and sold information on scandals concerning the station¡¯s performers to pay back his ridiculous amount of debt.¡± ¡°And what does that have to do with the suicide?¡± ¡°This has created a scandal for the national idol group Tarot Girls 22.¡± ¡°...¡± He seemed to reflexively turn toward me in the audience seating. ¡°Do you really mean that?¡± ¡°There were a few signs.¡± With my legs still crossed, I shrugged my shoulders like a foreigner. ¡°For example, the voice on the CD mentioned in the taxi. Usuta Manabu was a freelance member of the sound staff, so he could have snuck the scream into the song and spread the rumor online. But it didn¡¯t work. No matter how many times he scattered the sparks, the flames wouldn¡¯t spread. And as his situation grew worse and worse, he finally-...¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t add up. Hic. If he was setting up the scandal to save himself, why would he kill himself to create the scandal? Hic. That doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± ¡°Ih oh ai ah. Ih ih ee oh-ee ay oo ay ee.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°People have read his lips just before his world broadcast suicide scene. He was shouting something, but his voice couldn¡¯t be heard. What I just said were the vowel sounds read from his lip movements, but if you run through all possible patterns with a program to find a text that actually means something in Japanese, you get...¡± I had gone to some effort to get this info, so I made sure to put on a bit of a show. ¡°It¡¯s not my fault. This is the only way to save me.¡± ¡°Was he afraid of something? But...¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel like a suicide anymore, does it? Maybe he was trying to burn the Tarot Girls 22 to death but his hand slipped and he covered himself in flames instead.¡± ¡°But this isn¡¯t connecting back to a scandal for them anymore.¡± ¡°Oh, isn¡¯t it? There are rumors about strange phenomena occurring around those idols. Like the voice on the CD. A lot of people online are calling Usuta Manabu a victim. They¡¯re saying someone who wants to eliminate the Tarot Girls 22 possessed him in order to attack them. In that case, it¡¯s like a forged email and he¡¯s a victim being treated like the perpetrator.¡± ¡°Hic. It¡¯s certainly a possibility, and it certainly seems like a popular theory at the moment.¡± ¡°Regardless, it¡¯s almost certain that Usuta said ¡®this is the only way to save me¡¯. Whether suicide or attempted murder, it was brought on by extreme fear. ...And that makes me interested in what that fear was.¡± ¡°If he had a lot of debt from consumer moneylenders, burp, I would assume shady thugs.¡± ¡°Perhaps, but there are some interesting rumors about Tarot Girls 22. To give credibility as a fusion of idols and spiritualism, they¡¯ve filmed PVs in a few spiritual locations. The rumor is that the strange phenomena are following them because they angered some kind of dangerous Youkai.¡± ¡°Youkai? What kind?¡± ¡°A relatively new and deadly one that was first confirmed during the Meiji era. It dresses as a farmer, appears in villages of the Tohoku region, and kills children. Even though no one ever sees it abduct the children, rumors later appear that it was seen in different places a day or two before. It¡¯s a type of pure fear that causes that sort of mass hysteria.¡± ¡°Just get to the answer.¡± ¡°It¡¯s called the Aburatori. Have you ever heard of it, detective?¡± Part 4 ¡°Is Tarot Girls 22 really cursed?¡± ¡°They were filming PVs at spiritual locations to help sell their spiritual image. They were treading on famous suicide spots in swimsuits.¡± ¡°It¡¯s called the Aburatori, right? I hear they couldn¡¯t finish their pinup photo shoots because a strange blurry shadow appeared in the frame.¡± ¡°Oh, you mean the one that appeared to say hi from between Nabiki-chan the Hermit¡¯s breasts of all places?¡± ¡°And now someone¡¯s actually died because of it. But I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll keep doing it because they want those sales numbers. Is the stuff in convenience stores not enough for purification salt? Is there some special way to make that?¡± After listening to that much, I shut down the audio app on my smart phone. Those were the conversations I had recorded while sitting in the caf¨¦ at the shopping mall attached to the TV station. Day or night, the people of the station always needed caffeine, so you had a good chance of finding conversations of those involved at a nearby caf¨¦. ¡°But there¡¯s nothing useful in there.¡± The involvement of a Youkai called an Aburatori could also be found in the many comments on internet message boards. I heard a sparrow chirping outside the window. Is it morning already? Light gradually filled the room that contained nothing but case files. It had no refrigerator, no microwave, and no sink. Then again, the first floor of the building contained a convenience store and a 24-hour leisure spa was only a 100 meter walk away. I had yet to find a real clue on the case and I wouldn¡¯t be able to focus on my classes if I went to school like this. I decided to skip school and focus on the case. And that meant there was a possibility of running into the detective again. I hadn¡¯t slept at all, but I needed to carefully groom myself. Just to be clear, girls didn¡¯t take such long baths because they soaked until they were boiled red. In order to visit the leisure spa, I grabbed my usual bath set and also operated my smartphone. I had to tell at least one classmate I was skipping. But thirty seconds after that email, the phone rang. ¡°Hey, Tomoe. You clearly don¡¯t know how to use a cell phone if you¡¯re replying to an email with a phone call.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you sent me such a weird email. You¡¯re skipping again? What are you up to?¡± I wanted to tell her it was a problem as big as the incident she had been a part of, but I swallowed the words. I could be so kind. ¡°Oh, right. Despite how you look, you¡¯re into the popular groups like Tarot Girls 22, right? Do you know anything fun about that?¡± ¡°What do you mean despite how I look? And the internet¡¯s having a field day with that suicide. They¡¯re all saying ¡®it was like this before¡¯, ¡®it¡¯s always been like this¡¯, or ¡®I knew this was happening from the beginning¡¯ even though they only thought this stuff up five seconds ago.¡± ¡°Yeah. No one knows what¡¯s accurate anymore.¡± ¡°And the Tarot Girls 22 aren¡¯t all that bad. You never hear about them getting caught smoking or with boyfriends. But the internet is ganging up on them and saying that¡¯s actually creepy.¡± Heh. That¡¯s the thing, Tomoe. Just like there¡¯s no such thing as a pure evil villain, doesn¡¯t a completely pure idol seem kind of suspicious? With 78 of them in all, there are going to be fights and I¡¯m sure at least one of them would get into some kind of trouble. And yet there have been exactly zero incidents. ¡°I wonder if Mio likes that kind of thing,¡± continued Tomoe. ¡°She looks quiet and she¡¯s good at dancing.¡± ¡°What¡¯s Tsumada Mio doing now?¡± ¡°She¡¯s going to school like normal. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s an aftereffect, but it seems people sometimes forget she exists. Still, she says she¡¯s generally getting along well.¡± After finishing the conversation, I hung up. Now, then. I had two things to look into: Tarot Girls 22 and the loan sharks that the suicide victim named Usuta Manabu had borrowed money from. It was only a trivial connection, but due to the previous conversation, I decided to start with Tarot Girls 22. Part 5 ¡°Hello, this is Hishigami Enbi-chan of Bug Busters. Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary since last time? Maybe a bit of static in a cell phone call or momentary dip in quality on your TV?¡± While stirring up fear by mentioning natural phenomena that occurred at least once a day in any home, I slipped past the muscular guard and into the staff entrance. They must have been interested in tech or the underworld because the ponytailed High Priestess and the gothic lolita Death watched me with a glitter in their eyes. I was not in Odaiba¡¯s Hachi TV. This was a giant company building in the coastal area of Shinbashi. The entire twenty-story building was owned by Tarot Girls 22, so it was quite a spectacle. The many elevators were completely divided between two systems. One system only travelled between floors one to ten and the other only travelled between floors eleven to twenty. The lower floors contained a gym, an editing room, a photo studio, and other facilities for external staff while the upper floors contained the legal and management offices for internal staff. ¡°Oh, Enbi-san.¡± As I tried to decide where to investigate first, Anemura Kaede-chan the Empress poked her head out from around a corner. She must have been in the middle of some sort of practice because she wore a tank top and short pants that left her midriff completely exposed. To make them easier to move in, they were made of a material that stretched easily, but that made it look like she was wearing sports underwear. ¡°What are you doing here today?¡± ¡°Making a quick check for bugs. If I don¡¯t make unscheduled visits at random intervals, someone could remove the bugs on the inspection day and escape detection.¡± You probably already know this, but the whole bugs thing was a bluff meant to get me close to the people involved in the case. This had nothing to do with the case, so don¡¯t get confused. Kaede-chan the Empress walked down the hallway with me and we passed by two girls holding a lid on a cup of noodles. The slender one in a black pantsuit and a monocle was the Magician and I was fairly certain the one who was secretly suspected to be a trap was the Magic. I was surprised to find even idols ate cup noodles. ¡°They¡¯re probably on their way to be filmed for a behind-the-scenes video.¡± Kaede-chan was incredibly blunt. Both the lower floors and upper floors were worth investigating, but I decided to go with the lower floors since Kaede-chan was being talkative. I spoke up while walking alongside her. ¡°That¡¯s quite the outfit there.¡± ¡°Eh? Oh. The choreography person said it was easier to see the charm of our own dancing if we can see the movements of our muscles in the mirror.¡± We were on our way to the dance floor on the fifth floor. However, this was not some outdated club. It really was a place to practice dancing. It had an empty flat floor with two adjacent walls covered with giant mirrors. Ten or more of the Tarot Girls 22 would dance at a time, so they needed a large space to practice. I had investigated the place a few times already, but I hadn¡¯t found anything strange. Needless to say, there were no bugs or hidden cameras anywhere. ¡°We¡¯re on a break right now, so it would probably be best if you finished your check before practice starts up again.¡± ¡°Probably.¡± Three other girls were gathered at one end of the room in the same outfit as Kaede-chan. They were bickering and playing a handheld game system...no, a smartphone app. I could hear quite a few clicked tongues from where I was, so they seemed very irritated. Destiny with her twirling ringlet curls was in the center with Desire, the older sister type, and the Star, the hesitant small creature type, gathered around her. ¡°Everyone gets antsy before a concert, so try not to provoke them.¡± There were posters here and there on the walls for something called the Autumn Happy Self Festival. Wow. Not only is it sponsored by Hachi TV and Hishigami Auto, it lists Madoka¡¯s name too. How much does she sponsor under her own name? ¡°Where¡¯s that being held? You¡¯re using a new place I assume.¡± ¡°Y-yes. It¡¯s at the Toyosu Outdoor Concert Hall. I think they said something about it being recently built for the...Edo-style revival, was it?¡± ¡°This says the concerts begin the day after tomorrow.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not as bad as a national tour, but we have performances morning, noon, and night for three days straight. That¡¯s nine in all, so we¡¯ll collapse if we don¡¯t gather strength like a bear before hibernation.¡± ¡°Sounds tough. Anyway, I¡¯ll make a quick check for bugs.¡± Hm. Nothing, just like before. But that means it¡¯s time to see if anything has changed after that suicide. As I thought that, my smartphone rang. Oh, how unusual. It¡¯s my beloved darling, Detective Uchimaku Hayabusa. ¡°What is it, detective?¡± ¡°You usually pop up when I¡¯m investigating, so I¡¯m surprised you¡¯re not here.¡± ¡°Heh heh heh. Can you not calm down without me there?¡± ¡°It scares me when someone as creepy as you does something out of the ordinary.¡± Hee hee. He¡¯s so shy. ... He is being shy, right? ¡°I¡¯m in Usuta Manabu¡¯s apartment and this place is horrible. The rooms on either side are empty. The debt collectors must have been really violent because his front door is so dented that it took me a second to figure out how to open it.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve found a few pieces of evidence pointing to his strange actions. The walls of the room are crammed full of tiny writing, he has an undecipherable journal, and there¡¯s blood in the bathroom drain. The blood is his, so he may have slit his wrist.¡± ¡°But they¡¯re all too obvious. They¡¯re like hints for children.¡± ¡°I thought it was an act at first too. He was using his ability to enter the station to search out scandals, right? I thought he was setting things up so he could go for an insanity plea if he was caught. ...But that isn¡¯t what this is. It may have started that way, but it¡¯s gone beyond an act. It looks like he wasn¡¯t able to stop his own actions.¡± ¡°Still,¡± I said with an exasperated sigh. ¡°Even from outside, there were signs of debt collectors kicking at his door, right? Why didn¡¯t he call the police? The level of interest had to be illegal. Even if the amount he borrowed remained, he maybe could have eliminated the interest that kept piling up.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the thing. I had an expert in profiling look at the insane interior of his apartment, and...¡± ¡°I have to ask. This wasn¡¯t a beautiful investigator with a nice body, was it? Take my jealously lightly and you¡¯ll regret it later.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to ignore that nonsense. Anyway, according to that expert, Usuta Manabu was apparently driven into a state of mind where he couldn¡¯t tell anyone else about the disastrous state of his life even if he wanted to. It¡¯s what you call psychological abuse.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°It¡¯s the same thing that keeps children or the elderly from leaving the house when they¡¯re being abused. They¡¯re not handcuffed or anything, but they can¡¯t move. No matter how horribly they¡¯re treated, they can¡¯t fight back. Even if they¡¯re deprived of food and grow weak, they just accept it without even crying out. Usuta Manabu was in that state, so he felt cornered and unable to consult anyone about it.¡± ¡°Wait a second.¡± I slowly crouched down while holding the phone to my ear. I looked like I was peering under an invisible bed and Anemura Kaede-chan watched me in confusion. ¡°Detective, you said that term refers to a state where you can¡¯t leave a building despite not being chained there?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°What were you picturing when you thought about it? The Hungry Ghost Case where a woman starved to death while locked in a room filled with food she had been convinced was poisoned? Or the Avici Case where a man destroyed his own body trying to tunnel through a concrete wall by hand because he had been convinced the door would not open and that was his only choice?¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather not remember those.¡± ¡°The representative example of psychological abuse is being unable to leave a building, but on a smaller scale, it could limit the target to a room or a bathtub, right? Criminals have enjoyed robbing the victim of their freedom like that in past cases.¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°I found something like that here.¡± According to my classmate Tomoe, Tarot Girls 22 had such perfect behavior that they were never caught smoking or with a boyfriend. But there were 22 of the Major Arcana and 56 of the Minor Arcana. This was a large group of 78 girls in all which was two school classes¡¯ worth. It was only natural for some kind of fight or trouble to crop up. If there was none of that whatsoever, there had to be some kind of restraint. And I had found a trace of it. It had not been there before. After that suicide, the number of traces had increased as if to tighten control over the organization. In this case, it was a sticky residue as if some kind of tape had been laid out along the floor. It was shaped like an L and it was placed in four spots. If the four Ls were thought of as the corners of a shape, it created a square with two meter sides. It was a lot like a non-existent cage. It was as if someone was reminding someone else of a fear or reapplying an invisible lock. It was as if they were attempting to bind the idols in a square space with no chains or locks. ¡°This is pretty similar.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°This cage might be based on a past case. This reminds me of equipment used to artificially set up that psychological abuse to test it out.¡± Part 6 (3rd person) Detective Uchimaku Hayabusa had the fatal flaw of no cooking skills whatsoever despite living on his own. When he thought of a dinner, it was a pack of white rice heated in the microwave, pre-packaged salad or vegetables that were on sale, and miso soup that only needed hot water added. So... ¡°Wait, wait, wait. Have we finally reached the age where mackerel tartare is on convenience store shelves? Now that I¡¯ve seen this, I¡¯ll be stuck with chazuke and sake tonight!!¡± ¡°Detective.¡± ¡°What¡¯s this? Has the world started automatically throwing you in to cancel out anything good I happen to find? You haven¡¯t attached a GPS tracker to me, have you?¡± ¡°Tsk, tsk, tsk. For someone who lives in Tokyo, you don¡¯t know how to have fun. You stop by the same places every day, so it¡¯s super easy to find you without an appointment.¡± Another voice then cut in. ¡°Um, excuse me...¡± ¡°Hyah!?¡± ¡°Hyah!?¡± Both of them jumped away and turned around to find a girl shrinking down as much as possible. Her clothes were plain, but she was Anemura Kaede the Empress of the Major Arcana. ¡°A-Anemura-san? Why are you here? This exhibitionist wasn¡¯t dragging you around, was she?¡± ¡°Who do you think I¡¯m wearing these kinds of clothes for!? If you¡¯ve noticed, then fall for me already!!¡± ¡°If you realize those clothes are revealing, then please stop!!¡± ¡°N-no. I just happen to live near here.¡± After flinching back from the detective and mystery freak who moved further and further off topic, Anemura Kaede hesitantly opened her mouth. Hishigami Enbi blinked a few times. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m surprised to see an idol from the biggest group out there uses a convenience store. And all alone too. You don¡¯t have a manager with you?¡± ¡°Ah ha ha. There are 78 of us, so there are ten of us to each manager. And they don¡¯t stick with us while at school or anything.¡± The idol poked at a pack of vegetable juice on the shelf. ¡°And they told us to assertively buy these cheap products.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t heard, Enbi-chan? The internet is full of veg-idol flaming right now.¡± ¡°Oh, that.¡± Vegetable idol ¨C or veg-idol for short ¨C was a term for idols who advertised Intellectual Village tomatoes or pears by taking a big bite out of them with a smile. Someone with too much time on their hands had calculated it out and posted the following on a message board: ¡°Eh? We can never afford those high-quality vegetables, but how many of them do those idols eat in a year if you count unused takes? They eat them for free and get paid on top of that.¡± That had done severe damage to the image of some idols. ¡°But isn¡¯t it dangerous?¡± asked Uchimaku while sounding legitimately curious. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t people surround you and cause a huge panic if someone recognized you? Of course, it¡¯s the job of the police to deal with that kind of thing if it happens.¡± ¡°Surprisingly, that doesn¡¯t happen. The Anemura Kaede everyone knows is covered in makeup, under a bright spotlight, and put together with camerawork where each and every instant has been calculated out. What makes everyone think I¡¯m so special is only the product of what all the adults do.¡± ¡°I see. But I think you¡¯re pretty enough how you are right now.¡± ¡°Eh? Ah?¡± Anemura Kaede looked completely taken aback by that unexpected response. And for some reason, Hishigami Enbi began secretly jabbing her knee into the back of Uchimaku Hayabusa¡¯s hipbone, but the Empress did not notice. The girl grabbed some vegetable juice and yogurt and gave a bit of a lonely smile. ¡°Also, the car my driver takes me around in is convenient and safe, but it¡¯s a little restrictive to only use that. When I ride my bicycle or take the train, I can blend into the background noise and forget all about the adults¡¯ system or the monster of numbers.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°I was the one that chose to do this and to come this far, so I shouldn¡¯t say its restricting me, should I?¡± Part 7 That evening, the detective and I made our way to Hachi TV in Odaiba. ¡°Detective, why are we gathering here?¡± ¡°To review the technical term ¡®psychological abuse¡¯. Then again, I don¡¯t remember asking you to come with me.¡± As we wandered around outside the TV station¡¯s entrance, the thick glass door with a man guarding it opened and a woman in her mid-twenties wearing a short dress and jeans walked out. When she saw the detective, she gave a childlike smile and waved at him. I spotted the glittering of a ring on her left ring finger. ¡°Hey there, Hayabusa-kun. I haven¡¯t seen you since you had me check on Usuta Manabu¡¯s apartment today.¡± ¡°I will admit the police weren¡¯t sealing it off very well because this is being treated as a suicide, but there¡¯s still something wrong with walking in so boldly right in front of a police detective! Are you a thief as well as a journalist!?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t find the truth if you¡¯re afraid of taking risks. Anyway, who¡¯s that girl?¡± ¡°Hi! Hachi TV has hired Bug¡îBust-...¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lie, isn¡¯t it? But if the higher ups believe you, I can¡¯t just fire you. Are you the mystery freak Hayabusa-kun mentioned?¡± She cut me off and moved on!? The word ¡°enemy¡± flashed in the back of my mind, but neither the detective nor the TV station woman seemed to care. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about her. Now, will you help out your old underclassman and show me that material you mentioned earlier, Atou-san?¡± ¡°Tsk, tsk, tsk. Hayabusa-kun, we may no longer be upperclassman and underclassman, but feel free to call me Minori-chan.¡± ¡°In other words, you want me to call you an idiot?¡± Atou Minori, hm? Based on the company ID hanging from her neck, she was an assistant producer in charge of the high-level documentaries often seen on commercial satellite broadcasts. It was basically a summer project that adults spent tons of money on while pretending it was all perfectly serious. They generally played things pretty safe, but they would sometimes make waves when they went all out and took an overseas trip to a country no one had ever heard of. A lot of people wondered what exactly a producer did and what the difference between an assistant director and assistant producer was, but they were usually a misleading title for someone who took care of odd jobs. Then again, it would be pretty suspicious if she was a full blown producer at her age. She guided us into Hachi TV. We were on the way to the video editing section where even the entertainers from the same station never went. Balled up cables and obsolete hard disks filled the rooms and even overflowed into the hallway. It was such a chaotic scene it felt like it had a sign warning anyone who entered to prepare themselves not to take a bath for three days. ¡°Wait! What are we going to do about this!?¡± ¡°Shut up! Those damn critics are completely ignoring what led up to that! Shut it all off!! Do those morons know how much a single ad costs during Golden Week!?¡± ¡°Chief, his balls! His balls are in plain view on this video!¡± ¡°He let his guard down because he thought we¡¯d cover it all up, didn¡¯t he? Leave in a quick glimpse so I can see the look on that damn comedian¡¯s face! This is how you create television history!!¡± A deluge of terrible angry shouting came from all of the rooms. Even an elegantly swimming swan was frantically moving its feet below the water. ¡°That sounds exciting,¡± I commented. ¡°Well, it is mid-September. We need to finish up some of the new shows for fall. This is actually quite peaceful compared to when we do the 48-hour TV. We may be competing with the ones that created the concept, but I do have to question why that variety program gets longer every year. I want to tell them that isn¡¯t how to improve it.¡± Atou Minori called out to a female assistant director walking down the hall. ¡°Hey, Mitsu-chan. Did you dig up that tape?¡± ¡°Y-yes. You mean this, right? But why do you need something from the cursed storeroom?¡± ¡°I have my reasons. This is why we don¡¯t destroy all those tapes.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t blame me for whatever happens.¡± While Assistant Director Akashi Mitsu-chan bit her thumbnail like a child and walked off, the detective tilted his head. ¡°The cursed storeroom?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what we call the room where we keep all the problem tapes that have been locked away for some reason or other. Honestly, we¡¯re just making documentaries, but if you touch on the wrong genre, you¡¯re not allowed to air it. It feels just like being the one person kept out of a group photo.¡± In other words, it was a storeroom filled with the station¡¯s history of losses. Atou Minori opened a nearby door and led us into a dimly-lit room filled with monitors and editing equipment. ¡°The digital tape doesn¡¯t use a normal format, so you can only play it on the station¡¯s equipment.¡± The rectangular cassette tape was the size of a playing card and it had a few things written in permanent marker on the side: a date from three years ago, Atou Minori¡¯s name as the creator, and ¡°Control Experiment Using the Wheel of Suffering¡±. However, the detective focused on something completely different. ¡°Huh? You use glasses now?¡± ¡°These are only for when I¡¯m using the computer. Haven¡¯t you heard of blue light?¡± What¡¯s this? What¡¯s this? Are intellectual glasses girls right in the detective¡¯s strike zone!? Come to think of it, he was pretty hot-blooded during Tomoe¡¯s case!! I¡¯d let my guard down because of that wedding ring, but it looks like she is my enemy. My woman¡¯s intuition is telling me not to let my guard down!! Grr!! ¡°Just to be clear, this is nothing fun.¡± It appeared Atou Minori had no idea what I was thinking as she brushed her hair over one ear and operated the console. The footage was displayed on one of the monitors. It showed a white room. The room had a circle about three meters across drawn in permanent marker or something similar. The wheel of suffering, hm? A girl of about fifteen was curled up in the center of the circle. The girl wore pajamas. In the footage, she glanced fearfully toward the edge of the circle again and again. It was a lot like she was holding onto a plank floating in the ocean with a shark circling her. Someone must have been standing out of view of the camera because a calm adult man¡¯s voice spoke. ¡°Tabata-san, please come outside the circle. Outside. It can just be a single step, but please come outside.¡± ¡°N-no. I-I just can¡¯t...¡± ¡° ¡®Those people¡¯ are gone, so there is nothing to worry about. Now come outside, Tabata-san.¡± ¡°I know that!! I know this doesn¡¯t make sense...but I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t leave. I can¡¯t go anywhere outside!!¡± Some men and women in lab coats stepped into frame. They easily stepped over the drawn-on circle and approached the girl named Tabata. ¡°Stop... Stop! Don¡¯t drag me!!¡± ¡°Ghhh!! She just bit me!¡± After a struggle, the men and women in lab coats were knocked outside the circle. Next, a high-pitched bell rang and dark smoke entered from the door in the back of the white room. ¡°What now?¡± ¡°Tabata-san, this is an emergency. There¡¯s a fire. This is not a drill.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t leave.¡± ¡°I see. Well, we¡¯re going to evacuate. You please hurry out as well.¡± ¡°Wait! Wait!! Why are you messing with the camera? Did you really turn it off!? But...but I can¡¯t leave. You must know that! I feel dizzy. I can¡¯t stop shaking!!¡± ¡°Hurry, Tabata-san.¡± ¡°Then erase the circle! If you wipe off just one spot, I can leave!! Wait! Please don¡¯t leave me! I don¡¯t want to die! But I still can¡¯t leave! I can¡¯t leeeeeeeaaaaaaave!!¡± The video ended there and the detective spoke with pure gloom in his voice. ¡°How much of that was a set up?¡± ¡°Think of it like a cruel hidden camera show. If we didn¡¯t truly scare her, we couldn¡¯t film the truth. If we didn¡¯t go all the way, the viewers would think it was a joke.¡± Atou Minori looked completely unconcerned as she said that, so she may have been a professional in one sense. She pursued the truth in a different way than the detective. ¡°When you get down to it, it¡¯s the same as a fear of heights or of needles,¡± she readily concluded. ¡°They have an extreme fear of breaking the rules set by the perpetrator and that fear fills their entire body. Every time they come close to breaking those rules, they find themselves unable to move. Chains and handcuffs aren¡¯t needed to restrain someone. You just need the right kinds of memories.¡± Whenever a case of abuse showed up, people always asked why the victim hadn¡¯t consulted anyone sooner. Or they would ask why the victim had returned to that house everyday despite knowing they would be abused. But the answer was simple. It wasn¡¯t that they didn¡¯t. It was that they couldn¡¯t. If they disobeyed those established rules in the slightest, something horrible would happen. When someone was yelled at or beaten for spilling a little bit of food or talking back, they had concrete examples of what would happen. That fear would keep them walking along that same path even when they knew it led to a cliff. And eventually, they would fall off that cliff. ¡°Hey, hey. If you¡¯re a specialist in this field, I¡¯ve got a question. Can you make a manmade version of this?¡± ¡°Nothing this horrible could happen without human intervention.¡± It seemed I had phrased my question poorly I changed my way of thinking and spoke again. ¡°Normally, the perpetrator¡¯s violence incidentally causes the victim to fall into that state, but I was wondering if it could be ¡®installed¡¯ in someone based on a certain theory.¡± ¡°Well, in a way, I suppose. In a broad sense, a drill sergeant¡¯s foulmouthed insulting of recruits is a form of psychological abuse. But...¡± She shrugged. ¡°That probably isn¡¯t perfect.¡± ¡°Meaning?¡± ¡°It¡¯s easy to cause it, but there¡¯s too much individual variation in how long it lasts. There¡¯s a chance it will suddenly vanish one day. You could say people have different aptitudes for it. You might be able to construct a specialized manual for individual people, but it would be tricky to perfectly control hundreds or thousands of people with the same system.¡± Come to think of it, there are plenty of soldiers who break military regulations and are dishonorably discharged despite going through boot camp. ¡°Then are you saying it would be impossible to control a certain group using psychological abuse?¡± ¡°Even a cult¡¯s group brainwashing only works because it¡¯s only used on those who accept their invitation either online or around town. In other words, the invitation is a way of preselecting the people to be brainwashed. Controlling every last person of a group truly chosen at random would probably be impossible. ...With a normal method anyway.¡± ¡°So is there a non-normal method?¡± ¡°The trick to psychological abuse is how you carve a vivid ¡®symbol of fear¡¯ into the target. As long as you do that, you just have to remind them as if rubbing salt in the wound and you can re restrain as many times as you need. You would need a symbol so powerful that it would cause anyone to fall into fear. That would have to be Satan or Hades or some other mythological lord of demons from the realm of the occult, but if you had something like that...¡± Without worrying about individual aptitude, you could carve psychological abuse into every last person of a group as if uniformly overwriting their minds at the flip of a switch. You could create a human controller. And it would be so absolutely powerful that they truly would die if you told them to. But... That would have to be quite a symbol of fear. Atou Minori had used a mythological lord of demons as an example, but it seemed fitting to me. No normal Youkai would work. Some Youkai could fly and some could transform into anything they wanted. But this would have to be an extremely unique Youkai that was simply a ¡°vague sense of fear¡± and could bend the laws of physics. ¡°Some people suspected a Youkai was involved with the girl in that video. You could say that¡¯s why I pursued the story.¡± ¡°What?¡± asked the detective. Atou Minori gave a bitter addition to her statement and the detective looked even more displeased than before when he heard it. ¡°I was never able to prove it, but it was rumored to be an Aburatori. That¡¯s a name we can¡¯t exactly ignore, isn¡¯t it?¡± After we left Hachi TV, we entered a nearby shopping mall for a strategy meeting. They must have had some kind of filming today or were simply there for fun because the Hierophant and the Moon were sitting at another seat while disguised with glasses and hats. They were easily distinguishable by viewing one as the big one and the other as the little one. Oh, and that¡¯s referring to their breasts. ¡°Let¡¯s set aside how much the Youkai called an Aburatori is involved in this.¡± I got the uncertain information out of the way first and then got into the real issue at hand. ¡°There are two types of psychological abuse in this case. The first is with Tarot Girls 22. Most likely, the reason they don¡¯t cause any trouble with smoking, boyfriends, or anything else is because they¡¯re bound by invisible chains.¡± ¡°Is that really possible? Psychological abuse may be a hard-to-spot method of control that doesn¡¯t use any noticeable violence or restraints, but the psychological state is a lot like being abused or imprisoned for long periods of time. If they¡¯re under that kind of pressure day in and day out...¡± ¡°Yeah, they probably won¡¯t last if it goes on for years. But idols have short lifespans. No one questions it if they say they¡¯re quitting because they¡¯re getting older. And there are 78 members of Tarot Girls 22. The organization can continue as long as the few who reach their limit are replaced. Also, no one pays any attention to an idol after they quit. A few wrinkles and everyone loses interest.¡± ¡°So the idea that they¡¯re expendable is built into the system?¡± groaned the detective. The system certainly had its problems, but I wasn¡¯t so sure the current laws could punish them for it. On the surface, they were only placing tape on the practice room floor to create a completely open yet ¡°sealed¡± room. ¡°So is the other one Usuta Manabu? Did he end up with psychological abuse because of all the debt collectors stopping by?¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, detective, did you forget? Because he was in so much debt, Usuta worked for them by searching for a scandal related to Tarot Girls 22.¡± ¡°Are you saying it wasn¡¯t incidental? So that was ¡®installed¡¯ in him to attack Tarot Girls 22? He was turned into an expendable underling of the black market moneylenders?¡± ¡°From the beginning, the multiple black-market moneylenders he dealt with...or rather, the people above them had a system to keep their men in line using psychological abuse.¡± I smiled and mixed my iced coffee with the straw. ¡°It¡¯s still a mystery why they were after Tarot Girls 22, but Usuta Manabu had been brought under control of psychological abuse using System A and he began acting oddly once he came into contact with Tarot Girls 22 which was being controlled by System B. It¡¯s like two pieces of software came into conflict.¡± In other words, this case seemed to involve two Packages with similar effects: System A that black market moneylenders used to restrain those indebted to them and System B that prevented any scandals in an idol group. When the two Packages controlled by different people came into conflict, it accidentally caused Usuta Manabu¡¯s suicide or murder. ¡°That means...¡± ¡°This is a case of the black market moneylenders interfering with Tarot Girls 22 who were stable at least for the moment. Usuta failed, but the moneylender might not give up. What if they use more of their blacklisted customers to attack Tarot Girls 22?¡± ¡°Then there will be more suicides in the future. No, the type of panic it causes may not be the same in everyone. Usuta burnt himself to death, but it¡¯s possible it was a failed murder. And someone in an extreme state of mind might try to harm the people around him.¡± ¡°In that case, we might need to speak with the moneylenders...or rather, the group that controls them.¡± ¡°The group that controls multiple black market moneylenders.¡± The detective muttered those words and brought a hand to his forehead. That was what lurked in the depths of the darkness. This felt like the hidden ¡°other half¡± of this case. ¡°A large criminal organization.¡± Part 8 (3rd person) At eleven at night, two police detectives wearing cheap suits sat next to each other in a Shinbashi bar. One was Detective Uchimaku Hayabusa of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department¡¯s Investigation Department 1. The other was Detective Sotobori Gaku of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department¡¯s Organized Crime Division. While sitting in the stools, they both made their separate orders. ¡°A martini. Shaken, not stirred.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have a frozen daiquiri.¡± Sotobori, who was often called a tank, snapped his fingers and made fun of the other detective. ¡°Do you think you¡¯re James Bond or something?¡± ¡°Shut up, Hemingway.¡± Already annoyed, Uchimaku took a sip from the cocktail glass. Sotobori gave a grin that made him look as much like a thug as the people he pursued. ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s never a good sign when a murder case specialist asks me for help. Did some kind of ¡®organization¡¯ dump a corpse in the sea or on a mountain?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I want to know. You know all about those large criminal organizations, right? Then you know about the Comfort Association, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°The Comfort Association, huh? That¡¯s the Japanese branch of one of the top four networks, so you¡¯re getting into some dangerous territory here.¡± Despite his words, his tone was carefree. Sotobori specialized in organized crime like this, so bringing in guns or explosives was not enough to surprise him. ¡°It began in the confusion at the end of the war. They¡¯re a bodyguard group that was created in that chaotic time on the pretense of supplying weapons and soldiers to protect the weak. In modern terms, they were an arms dealer and PMC rolled into one. At first, they worked to be the allies of women and children.¡± ¡°And how did that end up ¡®expanding¡¯?¡± Sotobori mixed up his drink that was a lot like shaved ice made from alcohol. ¡°Changes always come from outside stimuli. It started as a conflict with another organization that was growing in the narcotics business. To gain more weaponry and personnel, they began doing more dirty work. The Comfort Association ultimately won that conflict, but by that time, not even a shred of their original ideals remained.¡± He told the story like he was reminiscing to a child. ¡°And after that, they took the standard course. Once they had ¡®expanded¡¯ to the entire country, stricter laws prevented them from running their business any longer. Some of them were angry enough to join with overseas gangs and mafias and they built up an international criminal network. And thus a large criminal organization was born. Japan¡¯s traditions don¡¯t matter to them at all. They build up their strength by smuggling in tons of assault rifles and grenades. If they begin a real firefight, it¡¯ll turn the city into a warzone.¡± ¡°But I thought the Comfort Association was a part of the lowest ranked of the world¡¯s top four networks?¡± ¡°Where did you see that? On some suspicious online encyclopedia that anyone could¡¯ve written? It¡¯s true the higher ups of the Comfort Association may not have the most personnel, weaponry, or funding, but there are also some dangerous rumors. For example, some say they¡¯re the world¡¯s first civilian organization with nuclear weapons.¡± ¡°Nuclear...weapons?¡± ¡°They supposedly stole a MIRV warhead from an abandoned Soviet facility, dismantled it, and recovered a few of the small nukes clustered inside. It¡¯s also come to light that they¡¯ve been threatening an overseas civilian spaceflight company. Put those facts together, and they might have the capability for a nuclear ballistic missile attack. Can you really call that the lowest ranked? The worst part is, you can. These networks gather such dreadful people that even with those doubts, they still rank the lowest.¡± Uchimaku Hayabusa brought a hand to his forehead. This was not at all the world of swords and modified firearms he had been imagining. ¡°You can take on the Comfort Association if you want, but call me when you do. There¡¯s a type of etiquette for dealing with this kind of criminal organization. If you don¡¯t know how it works, even a police officer will end up dumped in the sea or on a mountain. A dead cop is a big deal, but a missing one doesn¡¯t stand out much.¡± ¡°I understand that.¡± ¡°Do you really? You remind me of the middle-aged detective that lived in my neighborhood when I was a kid. He tried to make his way through this business with his own na?ve reasoning. One day, he tried to save a kid and ended up being killed by that kid. The kid was a hitman. Believe it or not, the kid was only about ten. I told the police, but they refused to believe me to a disturbing degree. I¡¯m a little embarrassed to admit it, but that¡¯s what led me to become a detective.¡± ¡°I said I understand.¡± Uchimaku waved a hand and Sotobori downed the rest of his sherbet-style alcohol. Uchimaku glanced over at him while asking another question. ¡°Oh, right. You¡¯ve heard of the idol group Tarot Girls 22, right? Does it make any sense businesswise for a large criminal organization to target entertainers like that?¡± ¡°Not a bit,¡± replied Sotobori Gaku without a moment¡¯s delay. ¡°Whether you¡¯re threatening them or luring them, the top of the industry stands out too much. How many paparazzi do you think are following them around everywhere? It¡¯d be impossible to contact them in secret. And national idols who have a solid position that earns them tons of money won¡¯t need to ask villains for help. If anyone, they¡¯d go after the idols in fifth or sixth place. They wouldn¡¯t have all that much money, there wouldn¡¯t be too much focus on them, and the idols themselves would be desperate for more. They¡¯d be the perfect targets.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Then what circumstances had Tarot Girls 22 found themselves in? He thought for a bit, but could not find an answer. Afterwards, they mocked each other¡¯s drink choices while drinking a few more cocktails. ¡°Samurai rock? Ga ha ha! Uchimaku-chan, do you think you¡¯re the last samurai or something!?¡± ¡°Shut up! And stop troubling the bartending by ordering fruit punch!!¡± They also grabbed at each other¡¯s ties in a fight over the cured ham one of them had ordered, but then they began getting along a little better. Five steps after he left the bar, Uchimaku heard a voice from behind him. ¡°Detectiiiive!¡± ¡°Oh, god!! Where did you latch onto me, mystery freak? Don¡¯t tell me a minor like you was hiding in that bar!¡± ¡°You¡¯re a pain to deal with when you¡¯re drunk, but you¡¯re also cuter when drunk. Anyway, it looks like you¡¯re still sober enough to talk, so let¡¯s have a strategy meeting.¡± ¡°A strategy meeting?¡± ¡°Right. We¡¯re only going to get one shot at this large criminal organization, so we have to make sure it counts. It would be best to prepare as much as possible beforehand. You probably don¡¯t even know what to ask if you charged into their office, right?¡¯ ¡°Sotobori said they¡¯d have no reason to get involved with Tarot Girls 22.¡± The drunk did not realize how loose his lips had gotten. He would normally have insisted this was confidential investigation material. ¡°In other words, something out of the ordinary is going on with this large criminal organization. They have a reason that requires they get involved with Tarot Girls 22 even if it isn¡¯t the safest thing.¡± ¡°Usuta Manabu committed suicide because they used their black list of indebted people to search for scandals on those idols, right? But he felt so cornered that he tried to make his own shocking scandal, whether it was attempted murder or his own suicide. Is there any doubt here? The large criminal organization was simply after a scandal, weren¡¯t they?¡± ¡°When investigating a case, there are two types of people with important information.¡± Enbi lightly waved her index finger. ¡°The perpetrators and the victims.¡± To make things more difficult, this case was centered on a certain Package. Different people had been using different versions of the Package and the problem had grown more complex when the two interfered with each other. That meant they could not see the whole picture without attacking on both fronts. Uchimaku was trying to work toward the large criminal organization where a single mistake could mean his life. It made him feel on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Who had done what? If he did not know that, he could easily find misleading evidence at some important point. ¡°I guess I have to check with the Tarot Girls 22 first.¡± ¡°Yes, you need to fill in the holes there so your preparations are complete when you confront the large criminal organization. You might find something unthinkable lurking there.¡± Part 9 The following morning, I snuck into the Tarot Girls 22 building in Shinbashi. As expected, the detective showed up. ¡°Why are you here?¡± ¡°Do I really have to spell it out? It¡¯s because I love you.¡± The Devil, a girl obsessed with taking memos, must have liked rumors because I saw her ears twitching with an innocent look on her face, but the detective only brought a hand to his forehead. Yes! This issue is already settled, so spread it around some more! While holding a quick conversation, we boarded the elevator. The elevators were divided between floors one through ten and floors eleven through twenty, but this was the latter system. ¡°This is so much easier with you around, detective. I couldn¡¯t get into these top floors even when using the Bug Busters name.¡± ¡°You really don¡¯t play fair. If you keep repeating the same thing until I give in, it makes me feel like I¡¯m the one in the wrong.¡± Once we arrived at the president¡¯s office on the top floor, the reception secretary led us into a large room. There we found the unsociable manager named Itano Ryou. The detective looked surprised. ¡°Huh? Um, I asked to speak with the president.¡± ¡°Detective, she is the president. She¡¯s the type that likes to stand on the front lines.¡± This was a company that had grown enough to own an entire coastal building in the city center while only having the one idol group. It wasn¡¯t large enough to need to step back to see the big picture. Itano, who wore a suit, was glaring at us. ¡°Most troublesome meetings can be dealt with using a smartphone and camera and working on the scene fits me better. There are a few other managers, but I supervise all of them.¡± ¡°I-I see.¡± ¡°More importantly, who is that girl? I had only heard she was volunteering to eliminate bugs.¡± Before the detective could say anything unfortunate, I waved around an unnecessarily bulky radio. ¡°Well, you wouldn¡¯t let me investigate the upper floors, which is dangerous. I don¡¯t have time to search now, but I can send out a jamming signal. Now, then. Have a nice chat¡î¡± Itano Ryou sighed and sat on the desk rather than the luxurious leather chair. She slowly crossed her legs. It looked like a high pressure attitude, but I had an inkling it was actually a defensive thing. ¡°What do you want to know?¡± ¡°There are just a few things I want to check about the suicide of Usuta Manabu from your sound staff.¡± ¡°We had nothing to do with that. He clearly committed suicide and he was not even a full member of our-...¡± ¡°Three years ago, Tabata Rin, Control Experiment Using the Wheel of Suffering.¡± Oh, well done, detective. Just after she had thought she had cleared all the questions, he went straight for the heart of the issue. Itano Ryou stopped breathing for a moment and crossed her arms. ¡°You know what that is, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Not a clue.¡± ¡°You do. The way you crossed your arms after being asked was meant as a defensive posture. The way you subconsciously tightened your lips is dead giveaway too. If that isn¡¯t enough for you, how about I set up a proper polygraph?¡± Everything he was saying was accurate, but none of it really mattered here. It was all an act to draw out some further sign from the president who thought she had been found out. ¡°Where did you hear about that?¡± ¡°It is a device that artificially embeds psychological abuse using the power of the Youkai called an Aburatori.¡± ¡°That was never aired. More importantly, you in the police can¡¯t do anything just because I copied it. I am not using any physical abuse and I believe there is no law concerning psychological abuse.¡± ¡°But putting that unnecessary pressure on the idols nonstop will wear down their psyches in only a few years. Smoking? Boyfriends? Is avoiding scandals really that important? Your method destroys people and throws them out when you¡¯re done.¡± ¡°Do you have any idea how short the lifespan of an idol is?¡± ¡°Did you think that meant you could use them up and no one would notice?¡± ¡°The girls I am left with have their entire lives judged using just those few years. Do you get what that means?¡± Itano Ryou glared at us with some pressure oozing our way. ¡°An idol that doesn¡¯t sell meets a sad fate. They have to return to a normal life, but they can¡¯t. Once you¡¯ve lived this bright life, there is no going back. And if they try to remain in this world of luxury without making the money they need, their financial situation will naturally crumble. These few years are what decide the next seventy or eighty years of their lives! Doing whatever is necessary to help them succeed is the kind thing to do!!¡± The detective and Itano Ryou glared at each other for a while. However, this was not what we actually wanted to hear. We were enraging her so that she would admit to a certain truth. ¡°In other words, this ¡®setup¡¯ really is based on the Wheel of Suffering method from three years ago. It hasn¡¯t been proven, but if that truly had an Aburatori involved, it would be a Package to control humans. You controlled the Tarot Girls 22 with the same method that perverted criminals use to bind their victims. Is that it?¡± The documentary had not been aired. There were no laws governing purely psychological abuse. Those were good enough excuses if you only needed to find fault. ¡°The Aburatori is a Youkai that attacks children. It slips into Tohoku villages while dressed as a farmer, abducts the children, stabs them with metal skewers, cooks them over a fire, and takes their oil. But the most frightening aspect is its lack of any direct characteristics.¡± Itano spat out her response. ¡°No one has ever seen it. And yet rumors will spread of people having seen it in one village the day before, in another the day before that, and so on. It grows to an unstoppable group hysteria of the sort you might see in a newspaper. Needless to say, that will naturally develop into a witch hunt. It is a Youkai that spreads fear without even showing itself. That is the true form of the Aburatori.¡± ¡°Meaning?¡± ¡°What you need is information and an unseen enemy. In my case, I used the numbers of the hit charts.¡± ¡°The numbers?¡± ¡°The exact numbers don¡¯t matter. If your ranking drops, you¡¯ll naturally fear rivals. Even if you maintain the #1 position, you will feel pursued by your own past records. That is how this Package automatically brings an unseen enemy to mind whenever they see the numbers. No matter the result, they feel equally cornered. Once you create a system like that, they are unable to head down any unnecessary side roads.¡± Whew. It sounds simple enough, but the actual pressure has to be something else. It was like forever taking entrance exam after entrance exam where any imperfection would negate all the past work and dropping below the passing line just once would end it all immediately. What would happen to a human mind if that continued for months and even years? The thread of their tension would be stretched to pieces. ¡°But there was no obvious sign of a Package anywhere.¡± ¡°It was assembled to remain in a state of ¡®not being there¡¯. For example, placing tape on the floor and removing it to leave a slight trace of something having been there. If they can see the size and shape of their enemy, their fear is limited by that. It¡¯s being unable to see it and unable to know the truth about it that makes it so frightening. Just like no specific person in the villages the Aburatori supposedly showed up in would say they had seen it.¡± The detective fell silent for a while. He seemed unsure how to continue on from there. ¡°Your Package to control the idols has come into conflict with a different system used by...a large criminal organization. That is what caused that suicide. An explosion of pressure led him to take his own life. Any ideas about why that happened?¡± ¡°None.¡± ¡°If this was a clash between similar psychological abuse systems, it would affect more than just the throwaway soldiers made from indebted people. There is a danger of it affecting the Tarot Girls 22 members as well!!¡± That was precisely when an electronic tone played from the internal phone line. Perhaps out of habit, Itano Ryou hit the speakerphone button but immediately reached for the receiver instead. However, it was too late. ¡°Maezono the Tower and Uosawa the Temperance have started fighting! P-please just get down here! Should we call an ambulance!?¡± Itano clicked her tongue with the receiver off the hook and the detective shouted at her. ¡°This is no time to be hiding this!! Doesn¡¯t stopping it come first!?¡± ¡°Detective, did you see the internal line display? It was the photo studio on the ninth floor.¡± He practically tackled open the door to the president¡¯s office, ran past the surprised secretary, and rapidly tapped the elevator button. He soon clicked his tongue and ran to the stairs instead. I followed him, but I could not keep up. I obediently waited for the elevator and got off at the eleventh floor as that was as low as that one went. When the door opened, I could hear hurried footsteps disappearing down below. He sure is amazing. I followed him down the last two flights of the emergency staircase and arrived at the ninth floor. The photos studio was the size of your average office floor and the walls, floor, and ceiling were all covered in white cloth. Despite its name, its equipment looked like what you would find in an apartment or multi-tenant building. The adults holding expensive-looking cameras and reflector boards had their backs to the wall as if to show they were uninvolved with what was happening. When they saw me enter, they seemed to finally realize there was an exit. No one was guiding them, but they all rushed out into the elevator hall. ¡°Are you okay, detective!?¡± ¡°I went too far!!¡± That strange answer made me frown and look to the center of the room. A high school girl with short blonde hair dizzily lay face up on the floor. Another girl with a large ribbon around her head had fallen to her butt. I was also curious about the fountain pen on the floor. Did he punch one of them and then the other was so shocked she forgot all about her anger and sat down on the floor? ¡°You sure made this exciting.¡± ¡°That¡¯s how pressing a situation it was. And I wanted to avoid having to handcuff them.¡± As he spoke, he held a handkerchief against one hand. Ahh, ahh. He got hurt protecting someone, didn¡¯t he? Did he use himself as a shield so he wouldn¡¯t have to file a damage report?¡± ¡°U-um...¡± I heard a quiet voice and found Anemura Kaede-chan the Empress standing pale-faced by the wall. She stood out more now that the adults had left. ¡°Unlike the photo staff that wasn¡¯t doing anything, she tried to stop the fight between the Tower and Temperance. Are you okay, Anemura-san!?¡± Silly detective. That means she¡¯s the girl you protected. She isn¡¯t trembling because of the violence she saw. It¡¯s because you were injured. ¡°They started talking about the solo singles we¡¯ll be putting out soon,¡± said the Empress with her teeth chattering and while looking the detective in the eye. ¡°One of them said the first single would be a test and only those that sold would get a second single. ...Why do they have to twist things around like that? No one said that, but whenever we start talking about numbers...we...!!¡± ¡°Anemura-san.¡± It may have seemed terrible, but the detective and I knew the truth. This was an unease and fear intentionally planted inside them to effectively control the group. ¡°We¡¯re all on the same team! We¡¯re all part of Tarot Girls 22 and this group is all part of the Major Arcana!! And yet...this happens. Is something wrong with us? ...It¡¯s just that none of this is any fun!! We¡¯re always pursued by some number or another and we smile to make sure our rank doesn¡¯t drop even a single place. This...this isn¡¯t what I wanted to do!!¡± ¡°Anemura-san!!¡± The detective shouted right in her face to snap her out of it. She shifted her focus outward as if she had been struck with a wall of noise. ¡°I don¡¯t know what got you into this and you don¡¯t have to tell me. But think of that thing. It doesn¡¯t have to be anything noble. It can be that you wanted to be on TV, that you wanted to be popular, or that you wanted money. But I doubt you had run into any actual numbers before entering the business. Right!?¡± ¡°Eh? Um...¡± ¡°In other words, those numbers aren¡¯t what drive you. You¡¯ve just been trapped in a deception and lost sight of your true reasons. There¡¯s no reason to fear this nonexistent ¡®monster¡¯. Right!?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do that... Not anymore.¡± With a crumbling smile, Anemura Kaede-chan slowly shook her head. ¡°We know that ¡®monster¡¯ now. Once it starts chasing you, you can¡¯t go back.¡± ¡°Yes, you can. The pure power that drove you in the beginning has to be the strongest thing of all. At the very least, it won¡¯t be defeated by some deception. The start is the scariest with everything, but you came knocking at this industry¡¯s door even if you had to push your way in. You must possess something powerful enough to let you do that!!¡± Tch. I wanted to hit him in the back with a jealousy kick, but I decided to remain silent for the moment. ¡°What is going on?¡± Finally, President/Manager Itano entered the photo studio. Regardless of what she had done, she was a skilled manager. She had sharp eyes, so she immediately spotted the handkerchief covering one of the detective¡¯s hands. In a way, that was a weakness. Without it, she might have found some reason or another to throw us out. ¡°I don¡¯t know what conditions are causing the conflict,¡± said the detective. ¡°That means we have no way of stopping it at the moment. The system meant to prevent any scandals now holds the risk of making your idols kill or harm themselves or others.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Please end the human control Package using an Aburatori! You want to avoid any of your people becoming victims or attackers, don¡¯t you!? While under the direct influence of the Youkai¡¯s power, these girls can¡¯t use normal stress coping mechanisms to avoid an ¡®explosion¡¯. There¡¯s no predicting when the next one will burst!! Are you fine with that!?¡± ¡°I will monitor the signs that they are reaching their limit and remove any of them that I deem dangerous. Fortunately, Tarot Girls 22 frequently rearrange what members take part in shows and concerts, so no one will mind if a few of them do not appear.¡± ¡°The signs? Do you think they¡¯re going to start killing small animals around their neighborhood or setting fires in empty houses or trash dumps? And you think you can always catch these 100% of the time before anything more significant happens?¡± ¡°When Anemura the Empress speaks with people, she frequently and repeatedly crosses her arms. That is the kind of defensive pose that magicians and fortune tellers use in a cold reading. Uosawa the Temperance was the one to cause this commotion and I had been worried about her because she had recently lost her filter on what she posted on the SNS that uses her real name. If I keep up my detailed observations and thorough care, I can overcome this.¡± ¡°What about the other one that caused this bit of trouble? What about Maezono-san the Tower? Had you seen the signs in her?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You also overlooked Usuta Manabu¡¯s signs and we all know what that led to. Monitoring even a single person isn¡¯t easy and you think you can constantly check a group of 78? With all this going on!? Not to mention that none of your staff is involved in their school lives! You have to know there are holes in your management system!!¡± Itano fell silent for a while. Despite being one of those involved, Anemura Kaede-chan looked confused because she did not know the whole situation. Finally, that female president let out a heavy sigh. ¡°I can¡¯t.¡± ¡°You...!!¡± ¡°I said I can¡¯t. Not that I wouldn¡¯t if I could. I am not rejecting a request from the police and there is no crime you can charge me with.¡± The detective snapped his fingers. ¡°Did you hear that, mystery freak?¡± ¡°Eh? Well, yes.¡± ¡°Anemura-san, you¡¯re a witness too. Don¡¯t forget what Itano-san just said. ¡°What are you trying to say I said?¡± The female president latched onto this before the Empress idol could say anything. The detective replied with a cruel smile on his lips. ¡°You made an official statement that you want to help but can¡¯t. In other words, if we find a way to eliminate that Package, you will work to help us. That would leave you with no reason to get in our way. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± ¡°...¡± Itano Ryou remained silent for a moment but finally spoke. ¡°If there is a way. But once you test it out, you¡¯ll see that there is no way to remove this Aburatori human control Package.¡± The main point of this Package was to create a system that produced an unseen enemy by forcing psychological abuse on anyone regardless of their psychological aptitude. She had encoded that by... ¡°Detective, there¡¯s one example of those ¡®remnants¡¯ on the dance floor on the fifth floor. Four L-shapes made from tape create a square area that acts as an imaginary cage. However, the tape has been removed to leave only the sticky remnants.¡± ¡°Look above you, mystery freak. There¡¯s a small hole in the ceiling. It looks like the remnants of a metal hook or something similar stabbed into the ceiling. It¡¯s like what you would use to hang someone from the ceiling after tying them up. There are also extension cables bundled up in the corner of the room.¡± But there was nothing there in reality. This entire building contained nothing but the ¡°remnants¡±. Those remnants showed something that did not actually exist. They were the pieces giving form to the Aburatori Package. When the actual objects had been removed, those pieces would never vanish no matter how much you tried to erase those remnants. After all, it was normal for the objects to not be there. Just as some depressing past could not be erased, the already-removed objects could not be destroyed no matter what one did. To erase a truth that once was, you would need a time machine. In that case, no one could destroy them. This Package had absolute strength as it could not be destroyed even if you understood everything about it. However... ¡°Detective, do you know what you need?¡± ¡°Duct tape, a metal hook, and a few other things. Just the standard equipment for some home improvement.¡± ¡°What?¡± asked President Itano. He threw his words back at her. ¡°The objects are meant to be missing. The remnants that make you think they were once there are the pieces the Package is made from. In that case, we just have to destroy that equilibrium. Destruction is not the only way to erase those remnants.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°We just have to put more duct tape over the floor were the previous tape was removed. If this ceiling used to have a hook stabbing into it, we just have to stab a metal hook into it again. If we return everything to how it was before the remnants were created, we can erase those remnants. We¡¯ll bring out the objects that existed in the past and then destroy them ourselves. That will destroy your Package and prevent it from drawing in the power and traits of the Aburatori!!¡± The color of Itano Ryou¡¯s face changed before my eyes, but it was too late. ¡°You can¡¯t stop us from doing this. After all, you yourself said you were willing to help but couldn¡¯t!!¡± No visible change occurred. There was nothing different about her complexion. But... ¡°Huh? Anemura Kaede-chan the Empress looked blankly down at her hands. Not even she seemed to know what had happened to her. There was of course no way for those of us on the outside to understand. ¡°Detective, do you think this settles everything?¡± ¡°I wish it was that easy, but the mystery surrounding the large criminal organization remains. We may have stopped the Package on the Tarot Girls 22 side, but if anyone on the large criminal organization side has already had their file corrupted due to the conflict between systems, someone might lose control like Usuta Manabu did.¡± Yeah, we have to actually check on all that, don¡¯t we? We once more faced President Itano Ryou. Seeing her Package destroyed may have felt like watching her kingdom crumble before her. She had a distant look in her eyes as the detective spoke to her. ¡°Will you help us? Do you have any ideas about this large criminal organization? Why are they sending throwaway soldiers to search for something concerning Tarot Girls 22? I doubt they just want your everyday scandal.¡± ¡°It was while working with Hachi TV on a project that I originally learned about the Wheel of Suffering method that uses the Aburatori. To bring some focus to a boring documentary, they wanted to use one of our girls as an announcer.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°At the time, our office did receive a few threatening emails telling us not to make the documentary. We looked into it and found it was an address used by someone hired by a dating site to pretend to be a girl and email men to attract them to the site. It was also connected to a large criminal organization. We continued working on the show, but since it was never aired, there may have been some pressure from another direction,¡± she said. ¡°In other words, the incident used in the documentary may have been a large criminal organization¡¯s experiment in controlling people so they could use indebted people as their pawns. If so, it means our control systems use the exact same individual Youkai. It makes sense why that would cause the systems to clash.¡± Part 10 (3rd person) Uchimaku Hayabusa asked Detective Sotobori Gaku, a specialist in organized crime, how to deal with the large criminal organization and he was readily told to meet up the following day. He did not know the details, but it seemed that was the perfect timing. The next morning, Uchimaku travelled to Shinjuku via train. On the way, he met up with Sotobori and walked down a road that was crowded even on a weekday. ¡°How are we going to get in to speak with them?¡± ¡°We just need a justification.¡± They were in an area of Kabukichou crammed full of small multi-tenant buildings. A black luxury car was parked there as if ignoring the width of the road. Naturally, no one paid any attention to it. Sotobori smiled and waved as he approached it. ¡°Hi there. It¡¯s the police.¡± ¡°What do you want? We aren¡¯t looking for anything obvious like protection money.¡± A young man with short hair stepped forward. He seemed to be a driver, a bodyguard, or both. Sotobori ignored him and tried to peer inside the car. ¡°Is there someone important in here? This is a G550 class, isn¡¯t it? These cost 20 million yen.¡± ¡°Get your hand off the door! This is no different from a searching a home. Bring a warrant first!!¡± ¡°By the way, did you know this is a no parking zone?¡± ¡°Then...¡± ¡°You¡¯ve left yourself wide open, you goddamn idiot.¡± Sotobori Gaku¡¯s smile never wavered as he kicked the luxury car with enough force to bend the bumper. ¡°You piece of-...! What the hell do you think you¡¯re- Vggah!!!??¡± The young man tried to grab at him, so Sotobori grabbed his neck with the opposite arm. And he lifted him up. ¡°Here¡¯s a little lesson, you thug. If you park on a downward slope, step out to pick something up at a shop, didn¡¯t put on the hand brake quite enough, and the car rolls down and hits someone, it¡¯s your responsibility.¡± ¡°Gh...oh?¡± ¡°This is a no parking zone and your parked car just injured my leg. That¡¯s 100% your responsibility. Sounds like a case the police should get involved in, doesn¡¯t it!?¡± With that said, Sotobori tossed the young man onto the hood of the car. The man¡¯s butt broke off the emblem that symbolized the luxury car and he looked as upset as a child on the verge of tears. The tinted glass on the back door then slowly lowered. A middle-aged man inside had a troubled frown on his face. ¡°How about you stop teasing him? He only joined us last month, so he doesn¡¯t know how to treat people yet.¡± ¡°You got anything dangerous in there?¡± ¡°Avoiding anything that can be traced is the key to a long life. Instead of pointlessly threatening you, that fool should have just let you through.¡± The car door opened and Sotobori Gaku and Uchimaku Hayabusa climbed inside. Unlike a normal car, the seats were situated around the perimeter of the back area which was completely separated from the driver¡¯s seat by glass. Sotobori did not hesitate to pull out a handgun and tap the muzzle on the glass divider near the driver¡¯s head. ¡°If this thing moves a single millimeter, I¡¯ll blow his brains out for abducting us. Make sure he knows that.¡± ¡°He is well acquainted with our rules. Now, what would you like to discuss?¡± ¡°Usuta Manabu,¡± said Uchimaku. ¡°The sound staff member who burned himself to death. He was heavily in debt due to your ¡®affiliates¡¯. You had ordered him to investigate Tarot Girls 22. ...But you weren¡¯t actually after a scandal, were you? I¡¯ve also heard the top of the industry stands out too much for people in your business.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°The Wheel of Suffering. That¡¯s a human control Package that uses the Youkai called an Aburatori. You were investigating that so you could crush it.¡± ¡°I have no idea what you are talking about.¡± ¡°This is no time to be searching out how much I know.¡± Uchimaku let out a gentle breath. ¡°Tarot Girls 22 was using the Wheel of Suffering method to control the idols, but what about you? Was it to control the poor customers who were hopelessly in debt? No. If that¡¯s all you wanted, you wouldn¡¯t need a Package. You could¡¯ve just used their debt. ...So where were you using the Wheel of Suffering method?¡± ¡°That one¡¯s not too hard to figure out,¡± said Sotobori with a grin. ¡°To fight the new systems put in place to eliminate organized crime, you built up an international network connected to gangs and mafias from countries around the world. China, Columbia, Italy, Africa, Eastern Europe... Your forces are spread out over a vast area to prevent any one nation¡¯s police from reaching you, but that makes it easy for different parts of the same giant organization to come into conflict. You¡¯ve gathered together different countries and cultures from around the world, so you never know when or why some kind of trouble will break out.¡± ¡°And so you used a human control package to gather together your criminal organization under a unified set of rules.¡± Uchimaku slowly presented that card while convinced of their victory. And he was naturally watching his opponent¡¯s face as he did so. ¡°But did you really have the foreign members¡¯ consent in this? Did they understand you were using a Package that includes a Youkai, a concept that can¡¯t be translated into any other language? If the Japanese Comfort Association started it without telling them anything, that would be a problem. If they viewed it as a coup d¡¯etat to take full control, it would trigger that internal conflict you fear so much.¡± ¡°...¡± The middle-aged man fell silent. He did not confirm or deny the accusation, so Uchimaku continued speaking. ¡°In that case, Tarot Girls 22 was a thorn in your side. You wanted to keep things as hidden as possible, but any contact between the idols and members of your large criminal organization would cause conflict and send your Package out of control. If it had been a normal person, you could have just killed them and buried them in the mountains, but an idol group at the top of the industry stood out too much. That¡¯s why you had someone investigate Tarot Girls 22, no matter how dangerous it was. You wanted to destroy the idols¡¯ human control Package and then slip back into hiding.¡± Tarot Girls 22¡¯s human control Package had been destroyed, but there was no guarantee its effects would fully vanish right away. It could take days or even weeks. As long as the large criminal organization¡¯s Package was still running with those negative effects remaining, there was still a risk of something unpredictable happening. ¡°Whatever the case, it looks like we don¡¯t have much time.¡± Sotobori shrugged. ¡°If this comes to light, your Japanese branch is the one that will suffer. You don¡¯t want to experience the varied torture and execution methods the international community has to offer, do you? And we would prefer for our peaceful country to not end up at war. Public servants don¡¯t get a pay bonus for enemies defeated and those foreign groups tend to use rocket launchers and armored trucks. We also don¡¯t want any civilian victims.¡± ¡°Are you asking me to cooperate?¡± ¡°End your Package right this instant. Also, hand over a list of the blacklisted debtors who may have come into contact with Tarot Girls 22. They¡¯re having a concert at the Toyosu Outdoor Concert Hall soon and it¡¯s all over for you if any of them die or go crazy in the middle of that, right?¡± The middle-aged man gave a heavy sigh and tossed a clipboard to Uchimaku. As soon as the two detectives left the luxury vehicle, someone spoke. ¡°That was a quick decision.¡± This new voice seemed to slip into the vehicle. A slender young man was sitting inside. Not only had the detectives not noticed he had been sitting there the entire time, but the middle-aged man who had known he was there had completely forgotten until just now. He was a fortuneteller hired by the Comfort Association and he was the one who had actually put together this Package. The middle-aged man spoke with clear annoyance in his voice. ¡°Your method would never have settled this. The members were automatically infected by the Package from the top levels down, so there was still a danger of a conflict of some sort. There was never a safe way of infiltrating Tarot Girls 22.¡± ¡°I truly apologize.¡± ¡°No, I was wrong to rely on you for this. And we still need a specialized advisor to revise the Aburatori Package. I look forward to working with you in the future, master.¡± Part 11 ¡°Any success, detective?¡± ¡°You idiot! Why are you standing around this dangerous shopping district wearing not much more than a swimsuit!? Well, I can get after you for that later. Hey, Sotobori. Copy this and send it out to everyone! We need to call all these people and check their residences!!¡± The detective was shouting something while photographing a number of documents with his cell phone camera. It looked like he had made some progress inside that luxury car. I peered over and pointed at something. ¡°Look, detective. This list has that AD we saw at Hachi TV. It¡¯s Akashi Mitsu-chan.¡± ¡°What!? But this is a list of people heavily in debt to the consumer moneylenders involved with that large criminal organization!¡± ¡°Hah hah hah.¡± The guy who looked like he was wearing armor made of muscles spoke up from the side. ¡°Did the TV industry look that nice to you, Uchimaku-chan? It brings in a lot of money to the top earners, but it isn¡¯t easy reaching that point. Those who never make it anywhere will never earn more than your average part-timer. And since they have to go along with the extravagant industry rules and events, it isn¡¯t uncommon for them to make use of loan sharks.¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s possible she was being used by them. And due to the conflict between Packages, the puppeteer¡¯s strings will have snapped.¡± ¡°Akashi Mitsu. She would bite her thumbnail when we spoke, wouldn¡¯t she?¡± ¡°Infantile regression is a type of defense mechanism. It¡¯s a lot like how Anemura Kaede-chan the Empress would cross her arms when she felt awkward, so that AD might have been trying to force down a similar sort of pressure.¡± ¡°You mean the competition between Packages was affecting her? Dammit!!¡± The detective frantically pulled out his phone and called the number on the list. But after about ten seconds he clicked his tongue. ¡°She isn¡¯t answering!!¡± ¡°Detective, for three days starting today, Tarot Girls 22 is having concerts at the Toyosu Outdoor Concert Hall. Hachi TV is supporting them, so she must be at the TV station! What is she in charge of and what¡¯s her schedule!?¡± ¡°How am I supposed to know!? ...No, wait.¡± He began calling another number. I glanced at the screen and saw the name Atou Minori. ¡°You want to know where Mitsu-chan is?¡± said the voice over the phone. ¡°Hold up. Have you started going after younger girls now? You¡¯re going to make me sad. I feel like I¡¯ve been thrown out to die.¡± ¡°What? I already know you¡¯re an idiot, so please understand that this is an emergency!!¡± ¡°She should have been at the concert hall in Toyosu since this morning. She¡¯s part of the filming team, but she¡¯s more or less a security guard meant to guide the audience.¡± After ending the call, he waved down a taxi. The other detective who looked like the captain of a judo team was taken aback. ¡°What am I supposed to do!?¡± ¡°Check the residences on the blacklist. Akashi Mitsu is the most suspicious, but there might be others who could be set off at the same time. Check out all the other possibilities!!¡± I used the confusion to slip into the back seat of the taxi. ¡°What are you doing, mystery freak!?¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t scoot over, I¡¯ll sit on your lap.¡± The taxi started on the way to the outdoor concert hall. Now, then. Now, then. ¡°That AD can get in and out of the concert hall more easily than anyone else. Will we actually make it in time?¡± ¡°If something happened, the news would reach the taxi¡¯s radio. Also, if a member of Tarot Girls 22 is killed like this, gangs and mafias from all over might start a war inside Japan.¡± Part 12 The result was completely anticlimactic. The detective pulled out his police badge and forced his way into the staff entrance, but the facility was completely carefree. We found nothing remotely resembling an incident. A temp worker glared at him while clearly suspecting he was abusing his authority to get a signature. There was a concert every morning, noon, and night and they were currently on a break. ¡°Where is Akashi Mitsu?¡± asked the detective while looking all around in a corridor. ¡°Akashi Mitsu, an AD from Hachi TV, should be here. Does anyone know where she is!?¡± The sweaty staff members who had towels around their necks all shook their heads. However, they did not simply mean they had not seen her. ¡°We haven¡¯t heard anything from her. She normally never misses a day, so she must¡¯ve been really unlucky to oversleep on the morning of such a major event.¡± ¡°...¡± It was not that everything was fine. It was because everything wasn¡¯t fine that Akashi Mitsu-chan wasn¡¯t here. The difficult part of this case was how we could not predict how the conflict between human control Packages would show itself. The person might try to kill Tarot Girls 22 or they might secretly commit suicide. In the latter case, it was possible she was no longer alive. At that point, the detective received an unexpected phone call. It was from the muscular detective we had parted ways with earlier. ¡°This has gotten dangerous, Uchimaku. You need to get out of there right away!!¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I checked Akashi Mitsu¡¯s apartment. It was empty, but I found her on the surveillance cameras of the nearby stores. She stole a tanker truck refueling at a nearby gas station!! It was full of the waste liquid used in gilding. In other words, a high concentration of cyanide. If she even gets into an accident and the truck catches on fire, it¡¯ll spread a deadly gas over the entire area!! Smoke that will kill anyone who inhales even a little will cover several hundred meters!!¡± ¡°Seriously? Do you know where she¡¯s headed!?¡± ¡°The truck¡¯s GPS is still active and she¡¯s headed straight for the Toyosu Outdoor Concert Hall! Even if she drives the speed limit, she¡¯ll be there in less than ten minutes!!¡± Oh, dear. It seemed Akashi Mitsu-chan went on the attack when she felt cornered. Just swinging around a knife would only kill one or two people, so she had chosen to drive a tanker truck of poison into the concert hall so she could kill every member of the group. I asked a question just to be sure. ¡°Do you think we can evacuate everyone in time?¡± ¡°The midday concert is about to begin, so there are fifty thousand people in here. She¡¯ll ram into the building while we¡¯re slowly guiding everyone out! Unlike a dome, this is an outdoor concert hall, so the wind will carry the poison gas in even if we stop her with a barricade!!¡± After shouting his answer back at me, the detective focused on his cell phone again. ¡°Hey, Sotobori. Where¡¯s the closest police box to here? Or the closest police car! There¡¯s gotta be one driving around to look for scalpers, right!?¡± ¡°Wh-what? There¡¯s probably one at the train station near there. If they don¡¯t put a police box there, all sorts of shady people would gather.¡± ¡°Send the GPS signal to my cell phone. Please!¡± ¡°Wait a second. What are you planning!?¡± ¡°I have to do what I can.¡± He ended the call, clicked his tongue, and kicked the corridor wall as hard as he could. Some people must have heard the commotion because a few heads poked out from behind a corner. They were Tarot Girls 22 members. The Lovers, the Emperor, and the Hanged Man were all wearing their stage outfits and Anemura Kaede-chan the Empress was mixed in with them. It was a fairly trivial thing that led people to truly resolve themselves for something. The detective brushed a hand through his bangs and finally spoke to Anemura Kaede-chan. ¡°I¡¯ll do something about this, so don¡¯t lose to those numbers or that monster or whatever. What you¡¯re doing here is worth risking one¡¯s life for. And all the people gathered here think the same thing.¡± With that, he ran off somewhere and left me behind. One of the staff members with a towel around his neck gave a dumbfounded comment. ¡°He was asking where a police car is, wasn¡¯t he? Don¡¯t tell me he¡¯s going to run off on his own.¡± I heard a loud sound. It was only after I heard it that I realized my hands had grabbed at the man¡¯s neck and slammed him against the wall. ¡°You don¡¯t seem to understand a thing about this, so let me enlighten you.¡± But I did not care. I had seen all sorts of crimes, but I simply couldn¡¯t stand it when someone survived after standing around without a thought in their head and without making any effort whatsoever. ¡°He was asking about the police cars because he plans to stop the tanker truck by ramming it with his own car, you idiot!!¡± Part 13 (3rd person) Uchimaku Hayabusa ran off the outdoor concert hall¡¯s grounds, descended the steps of a pedestrian bridge, and climbed into a police car parked on the side of the road. The uniformed police officer who had gotten out to look for scalpers cried out, but Uchimaku ignored him and drove off. He ignored the law and pulled out his cell phone while driving. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Sotobori!? Where¡¯s the tanker truck data!?¡± ¡°Are you serious, dammit? Giving you that is tantamount to cop killing! And you have to be crazy to think you can stop a tanker truck with a small 4-door!!¡± ¡°I know that. I¡¯m going to hit the connector from the side and detach the rear tank. Unlike in movies, that tank is solid enough to stand up to a bullet. We don¡¯t have to worry about it rupturing unless it¡¯s enveloped in flames and the internal pressure builds up. And the tank is only being towed along. If it¡¯s separated from the engine on the front, we can avoid the worst case scenario!!¡± ¡°But what about you!?¡± ¡°If I don¡¯t do this, fifty thousand people will be dragged into this. And putting up a barricade to stop it would sacrifice all the people on that area of the road. The only way to end this cleanly is to use an intersection to ram into the side from a right angle! And to do that, I need the truck¡¯s location. Are you going to help me or not!?¡± ¡°Dammit!!¡± That shout was followed by a simple message from the map service. He displayed the map instead of the call and saw a new dot added. The Toyosu area was made by several areas of reclaimed land connected by bridges. It was easier to predict the tanker truck¡¯s path than in Shinjuku or Shibuya which were filled with a complicated network of intersections between large and small roads. ¡°It looks like these three intersections would be the best ones. Sotobori, I¡¯m going to ram the tanker to stop it, but I want to avoid any civilian deaths from secondary damages. There are more uniformed officers around the concert hall for security, right?¡± ¡°What do you want me to do?¡± ¡°Report a bomb threat or whatever it takes. Just have those officers evacuate the pedestrians from the intersections. Right now!!¡± In truth, Anemura Kaede the Empress had not liked singing, dancing, or gathering attention. She had developed better or faster than her peers and the focus from her male classmates during PE had frightened her and brought about her current withdrawn personality. She had wanted to overcome that part of herself. She had been afraid that the part of herself she did not like would determine who she was. That was why she had steered herself in the opposite direction she would have normally taken and that had just so happened to succeed. She had gradually come to enjoy singing and dancing, but she had never been working toward any original hope or dream like the police detective had said. But what was it she had originally wanted to do? What circles had she wanted to join once she had overcome her insecurities? After thinking that far, she gave a small smile. She had never thought about it. Ultimately, that was her answer. She could not find anything she wanted to be proud of or that she wanted to protect, but that did not matter. She suddenly felt incredibly foolish for having feared those numbers or that monster. If those things wanted to surpass her, she could let them. Even if they did, she could continue on with what she believed would change her. All of the people here proved that. She did not need the ¡°number¡± of fifty thousand. If even a single person arrived wanting to see her performance, that was enough to prove it. ¡°U-um, what are we going to do? We can¡¯t evacuate everyone, but can¡¯t we at least evacuate the girls?¡± The adults were discussing something, so she gathered her strength and cut in. ¡°No, let¡¯s do this. If the crowd panics here, it could lead to deaths. We too should risk our lives for the people who have gathered here.¡± She faced straight forward as she spoke and she had a quiet thought. Now, let¡¯s head out onto the battlefield that has been prepared exclusively for us. The tanker truck was closer than expected. It was ignoring traffic lights and signs and it was performing reckless U-turns, so horns were sounding all over. It was five hundred meters from the intersection and it would arrive in less than thirty seconds. Uchimaku gave a heavy sigh and stepped on the gas pedal. But then... ¡°Detective¡î¡± ¡°Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!?¡± He let out a true scream when he saw a girl¡¯s face in the rearview mirror. The police car weaved a bit while moving at full speed. ¡°Wha- You- Why the hell are you here!?¡± ¡°This whole incident has left me feeling exhausted. When you get involved with people who are still alive, you have a way of getting seriously reckless. If I hadn¡¯t climbed aboard, you would¡¯ve gone off to die, right? I won¡¯t get mad, so just tell me.¡± Hishigami Enbi the Mystery Freak could still grin despite saying she was using her own life as a shield. ¡°Now, detective. You aren¡¯t going to get a middle school girl killed for your own selfishness, are you? Then what are you going to do? How are you going to protect all these innocent people¡¯s lives?¡± ¡°Goddamn you!!¡± He punched the steering wheel. But then he switched over his train of thought. ¡°Thank you all for showing up even though we started on a weekday!!¡± A girl shouted as loud as she could with a microphone in hand and with the Fool and the Universe on either side of her. Anyone who did not know might think this was a safe zone filled with people who would only show kindness to Anemura Kaede the Empress, but in truth, this kind of audience was cruelly honest and frank In a year or three or five, the same people here might not gather like this. The most trivial of things had brought them in and an equally trivial thing would have them leaving in droves. The lifespan of an idol was truly short. That was the first truth they were taught at their debut. For that reason, this was a battlefield. If she failed even once during these three days...no, during the three performances for this day alone, it could set a fatal series of events in motion. ¡°To be honest, I worried about a lot before today. I was exposed to baseless rumors, pursued by unseen numbers or monsters, and just about lost sight of what made this so enjoyable.¡± At this crucial moment, she completely removed her mask for once. And then she smiled. This was not a fake smile. This was an expression that could only be seen when the mask was lowered. ¡°But in the end, I just can¡¯t let all of this go. I was reminded of that fact! I love this stage to a lowly, shameful, and disgraceful degree!! And I won¡¯t give it up to anyone. I am doing this for the fans who showed up today, for the staff who prepared the stage for me, and for the people who are secretly fighting to protect this stage!!¡± The first song¡¯s intro began to play and the lighting clearly changed as she gave one last shout. ¡°I will not back down!! No matter what!!¡± ¡°Whatever the case, I can¡¯t change my plan now. I have only one shot at this and fifty thousand lives are on the line!¡± ¡°And? You aren¡¯t someone who will tell a minor to die because of that, are you?¡± Uchimaku clicked his tongue and removed his seat belt. ¡°We can use the reclining lever. But let me be clear. Even this only has a fifty-fifty chance of survival! I¡¯ll do what I can, but don¡¯t blame me if you die!!¡± ¡°Sure, sure. I like the look in your eyes. That¡¯s the detective I love.¡± They were approaching the final intersection. He kept the police car at full speed despite the traffic light. And then a giant form entered from the side and blocked their way. ¡°Found it!¡± ¡°She looks pretty surprised.¡± Someone with a clearly shocked expression sat in the tanker truck¡¯s driver¡¯s seat. And it seemed even someone trying to kill fifty thousand people would honk their horn. But it was too late. With two people aboard, the police car rammed into the side of the tanker truck¡¯s connector at full speed. The small, cute police car almost seemed to slip below the truck and it was turned to scrap in an instant. The sounds of shattering glass and bending metal exploded into the air. Its height was literally crushed down to less than half of what it had been. Meanwhile, the truck¡¯s connecter had a great strain put on it as it was lifted up from below. As it twisted, a solid sound of snapping burst out. The rear tank rolled along like a toy and scattered orange sparks as it scraped along the asphalt. The front portion slammed into the pole for the traffic light and stopped moving. There was no explosion or poison gas. All that remained was the continuous sound of glass shards falling onto the asphalt. The police car had been smashed flat and nothing remained of the driver¡¯s seat or the back seat. A clanking sound came from within the back door that had been crushed beyond recognition. Someone was kicking it. The door¡¯s latch must have been broken in the impact because it opened with a loud creak. Uchimaku Hayabusa and Hishigami Enbi were embracing each other in the back seat¡¯s foot space. Just before the impact, Enbi had pulled the reclining lever and pulled Uchimaku toward her when his chair had fallen back. ¡°Ow, ow, ow,¡± said Uchimaku. ¡°H-how¡¯s the outdoor concert hall?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, of course.¡± ¡°Any damage to the surrounding area?¡± ¡°There was a good bit of destruction, but it doesn¡¯t look like anyone died. The tank¡¯s contents are fine too.¡± ¡°Can we even get out of here?¡± ¡°Eh heh. I¡¯m fine with staying in here like this for a while longer.¡± ¡°This is no time for cruel jokes.¡± The Aburatori human control Package surrounding the Tarot Girls 22 had been stopped. The one used by the large criminal organization was still an unknown, though. It was unclear how far the data corruption from the competition had spread, so the risk of a future incident remained until they confirmed that the Package had been completely brought to an end. Part 14 (3rd person) The national TV stations did not provide special news broadcasts unless something truly major happened. The internet news sites received information faster, but they lacked credibility. Surprisingly, radio was treated as the medium that had both immediacy and credibility. That was why the old system still remained after so long. Inside a black luxury car caught in a traffic jam, a middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief while listening to the announcer on a special-order audio system that included vacuum tubes. ¡°So they somehow managed to avoid the worst case scenario.¡± As a part of the Comfort Association, the Japanese branch of a large criminal organization, they had secretly completed a Package involving an Aburatori. Due to growing to a global scale, conflicts could break out between the members of different nationalities and cultures, so this human control Package was meant to bring them all together. The Comfort Association wanted nothing more than to keep their business running smoothly, but the foreign members could view it as the Japanese branch attempting to take control of the entire organization. They had needed to control the underlings who could lose control and reveal the Package¡¯s existence. A slender young man known as a fortuneteller sat in the car. A voice slipped out from between his lips that could barely be seen moving. ¡°It is too soon to say everything is over. The AD behind this, Akashi Mitsu, will be taken in by the police. She will be thoroughly investigated, including her mental state. If they find any trace of the Package, the risk of the foreign members finding out returns.¡± ¡°Th-that¡¯s true.¡± The middle-aged man pulled a bottle of red wine from a small refrigerator. ¡°But risks we know are easy to eliminate. There are countless ways to make it look like the vehicle transporting her was in an accident. If we eliminate her, we can eliminate any trace of the Pack-...¡± ¡°More importantly, this is where it all begins for me. The risk of competition with a similar Package has now been eliminated.¡± The middle-aged man frowned at being interrupted. But he realized he could not move his face. His body would not even make the slightest of movements. While in the awkward pose of grabbing the wine bottle, he desperately tried to move his eyes that could not even blink, but his body would not even accept that command. He felt the pain of his eyeballs gradually drying. ¡°What...did you...do?¡± His mouth could move, but he did not realize this was because the man behind it was toying with him. At some point a thin tablet had appeared in the young man¡¯s hands. ¡°Have you gone senile? Why would you have someone outside the organization assemble the human control Package to manage and manipulate every single member of your large criminal organization? Countless backdoors can be placed in something like that.¡± At least three handguns were hidden within arm¡¯s reach, but he could not even move his fingertips. ¡°You don¡¯t mean...you betrayed us? What are you after!? Are you with another organization...or the police?¡± ¡°Have you forgotten?¡± The young man opened a free website creating app on the tablet. He could lay out the text and images to freely create his own online news articles. Yes. The Aburatori they had used was a rare sort of Youkai that had actually been mentioned in newspapers during the Meiji period. This young man had used that fact to control the Youkai by writing fictional newspaper articles on a closed network that no one else could read. ¡°Perhaps your everyday life is just so bloody that you have forgotten.¡± The fortuneteller¡¯s tone changed as he spat out those words. He brushed up his bangs and his face was covered in silent hatred. ¡°Long ago, there was a child hitman. The child was altered accordingly and forced to bear that fate he did not want. A certain old-fashioned detective truly tried to save that child. ...Have you really forgotten why that detective died?¡± ¡°...¡± Most people were unaware, but that old-fashioned spirit had been carried on by the police officer named Sotobori Gaku and it had pulled the trigger that drove a man known as a fortuneteller. Even a dead man who was only spoken of in bars as a distant memory had a life and that life could influence how others lived their lives. Most people were unaware that a certain life someone had found precious had been cruelly taken. And it had been taken by the young hands of a sobbing child who had been forced into the role of hitman. ¡°I have been waiting for this moment.¡± The young man who had once been a child gave a thin smile. ¡°If I ran around assassinating people with a gun, killing one or two would be the most I could manage. That would end with those who truly set up that killing realizing what I was after. And even if I crushed the nearby Japanese branch, I would only be damaging a single leg of a global criminal network. So I have been waiting for the moment when I could grasp it all and crush it. I have been waiting for so very, very long.¡± ¡°Fortune...tellerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!¡± The man shouted and shouted and shouted. But it was already over. There was no way to overturn it now. ¡°I have only given a single instruction. Every member around the world will turn themselves into the police and answer honestly when asked what they have done wrong. I doubt anyone will be saved by a malfunction due to that conflict with the other system. I will not even allow you to die. You will get a front row seat to watch your empire crumble before your eyes.¡± The wine bottle slipped from the middle-aged man¡¯s hand. It shattered on the floor and the red liquid scattered everywhere. The young man opened the black luxury car¡¯s door and slowly stepped out. The traffic jam was showing no sign of ending. As he weaved between the lines of cars on foot, someone called out to him. It was a taxi driver. ¡°What¡¯s this? Is it actually faster to walk?¡± ¡°Yes. Moving ahead bit by bit on my own two feet may be better.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got a passenger in the back. I feel bad having the meter go up as time goes on, so maybe I should ask if they just want to get out.¡± ¡°Perhaps. This congestion seems to be due to an accident, so it is unlikely to clear up anytime soon.¡± ¡°No way! Really?¡± ¡°Yes. A police car and tanker truck collided at a large intersection. Fortunately, it seems no one died.¡± The fortuneteller said that with true jealousy in the bottom of his heart and he walked off through the traffic jam. He silently vanished while leaving behind the result of his revenge. Volume 4, 3: Sunekosuri / No One Can Predict the Future Volume 4, Chapter 3: Sunekosuri / No One Can Predict the Future Part 1 (3rd person) An unmanned train station was surrounded by tranquil rural scenery. The platform had no roof, a few clumps of zebra grass grew on the gravel road, and that grass blew in the cool autumn wind. The sky was a clear blue and a great number of dragonflies filled it. A man in a suit sat alone on a bench that had long gone unused. He was on the border between middle-aged and elderly, yet he was quite muscular. No train was coming. The station had originally had fewer than ten trains stop by in a day and the line had been closed over half a year earlier. Much to their annoyance, those who had used the line were forced to use the less-convenient community bus. They complained, but the level of convenience brought by the trains was still something they could let go if they had to. And as time went on, the station went from being ¡°unmanned¡± to being ¡°abandoned¡±. The man had chosen to sit here because he loved the scenery. He held a chilled can of beer and a bucket filled with lots of ice and cans sat at his feet. ¡°Hello,¡± he said out of the blue. Someone else had appeared on that closed station that should have been forgotten by everyone. A woman wearing the ridiculously revealing outfit of a tank top and hot pants had arrived at some point. Her name was Hishigami Mai. Hers was a well-known name within a certain small industry. ¡°Sit down,¡± said the man while glancing over at Mai with beer in hand. ¡°The scenery from here is wonderful. All those Intellectual Villages are remaking the rural areas into theme parks, so this truly natural Japanese scenery is dying out.¡± ¡°Do you always do this?¡± ¡°No, this is a recent thing. Something led me to start reflecting on life.¡± Hishigami Mai sat next to the man while listening to him. The paint was coming off the wooden bench that creaked under their weight. The man spoke quickly while looking up at the dragonflies moving freely through the sky. ¡°I have cancer. The doctor said I had three months to live, but that was two years ago. I could die at any moment, but I¡¯ve gotten sick of being driven by fear. If I could die tomorrow, I want to live with no regrets. This helped me rethink some things.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s what led to this?¡± With some exasperation on her face, Mai looked around the area once more. She saw a rural unmanned train station. A few clumps of zebra grass grew on the gravel road, that grass blew in the cool autumn wind, and the sky was filled with a great number of dragonflies. However... That scenery was covered in enough red to completely overturn that impression. A quick glance at the clumps of flesh lying around was enough to know that more than twenty men had been killed instantly. ¡°They said they were going to develop this land,¡± bluntly stated the man after taking a sip of his beer. ¡°Is this what you call the end of an era? Japan¡¯s rural areas are constantly pressured to either join the Intellectual Villages or develop into a regional city. And it¡¯s all because these idiots are trying to increase the value of the land without knowing the difference between the real thing and a fake. So I invited them out here and killed them.¡± A long, narrow object lay on the man¡¯s lap. It looked like a sword inside a simple scabbard, but it technically was not. It was bamboo whittled down to look like a sword. It was a deadly weapon. Just as a bamboo leaf or book page could cut one¡¯s finger, even a bamboo sword could kill if the angle and speed were properly calculated out. This man was skilled enough in the art of swordplay to easily cut through someone¡¯s neck or torso with it. Due to how light the blade was compared to one of metal, the man was said to be able to strike five times in the span of a single breath. That allowed him to ignore the fact that this weapon could not block an opponent¡¯s attack. Also, the bamboo needed to make the sword could be easily acquired at any part of the archipelago except for Hokkaido. Even if it broke, he could acquire another as long as he had a knife. There was a danger of a piece of the bamboo remaining in the corpse¡¯s wound, but bamboo swords could be burned. If he burned the murder weapon after each job and acquired a new one, a plant DNA test was not a problem. Even if they had clear evidence, it was useless without anything to compare it to. The ease of acquiring the weapon also helped him bring a murder weapon into cordoned-off or closely-monitored areas. For that matter, having a bamboo sword found during an inspection or police questioning was not a problem. They could even be carried on airplanes. It was truly the tool of a professional. ¡°C¡¯mon, now. Surely you¡¯ve realized that the reason for killing doesn¡¯t really matter.¡± Mai sounded bored. ¡°You¡¯re the type of person that can only live while fighting. You wish to fight and only then do you start searching for a reason to fight. This business with the real scenery and concrete land development didn¡¯t really matter.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not even that innocent.¡± The man smiled while swishing around the little bit of beer left in the can. ¡°I¡¯m a professional. All of my jobs were complete shit, but I have pride in my skill. I just can¡¯t stand that it will be disease that kills me. I can¡¯t bear a quiet death. As a professional, I want a formidable enemy¡¯s blade to finish me. I thought someone would eventually come for me if I went on a bit of a rampage. I kept doing it, but I¡¯ve somehow managed to live this long. I¡¯m from an older generation, so I will say a woman assassin was a bit unexpected. But I guess that¡¯s another sign of the changing times.¡± ¡°Whatever your reasons, you did a good job killing that many people. Even the higher ups of Hyakki Yakou aren¡¯t sure what to do. If you¡¯d taken official jobs, you¡¯d probably be given an award or a trophy or something, but skipping that process means you have to be executed.¡± ¡°Ha ha. I forgot to mention it, but while I¡¯m a professional, I also have pride in never working for anyone else. I wouldn¡¯t have accepted those jobs even if you¡¯d asked.¡± He took one last swig of beer, shook the can to make sure it was empty, and easily crushed it in one hand. ¡°So, miss, I¡¯ve forgotten if this is the fortieth or fiftieth time, but I¡¯ll ask you the same thing I¡¯ve asked so many times before: will you watch over this man¡¯s final moments?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Hishigami Mai readily agreed. She spoke with the lightness of a child promising to play with a friend that weekend. However, this promise concerned a true fight to the death between professionals. ¡°But it¡¯s already over.¡± The man¡¯s shoulders shook as he sat in the bench. He suddenly realized he did not even have the strength to stand. Completely dumbfounded, only his lips moved. ¡°When did you stab me?¡± ¡°Far earlier than you are probably thinking.¡± Mai shrugged while sitting next to him. Something stood straight out from between the man¡¯s neck and collarbone. It was a needle as long as a human¡¯s index finger and it was stabbed all the way to the base. ¡°A killer needle,¡± he said with a smile. ¡°How much work did it take you to reach this moment?¡± ¡°It took seventy-two hours from the moment I took the job to the moment I could envision your corpse. It was not as powerful a dream as love, but you could perhaps call it a longing.¡± Mai also smiled thinly. ¡°I don¡¯t like using special weapons because disguising it as an accident or suicide is safer, but I decided to show some respect to someone who has been in this business longer than me. What do you think?¡± ¡°You did well. These days, you don¡¯t often see people kill with a needle that isn¡¯t covered in poison or anesthetic. Also, you placed the tip right in front of the vital point so my own muscles would push it in when I tensed them. It¡¯s a lot like serving a still-moving fish.¡± Satisfied, the man leaned back in the bench and slowly closed his eyes. He looked like he was savoring the moment as he spoke. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I last saw the real deal. I can¡¯t help but be satisfied after receiving this kind of treatment.¡± ¡°I would like to ask one thing.¡± Hishigami Mai sounded perfectly casual as she looked up into the rural sky. ¡°You are a legend in this small industry, so how did you fall this far? If you had wanted to, you could have suppressed the fear of cancer.¡± ¡°Like I said, that was just what started it,¡± he replied slowly with his eyes closed. ¡°People like us are invincible while we race forward without turning back. But there are moments when we want to look back. That is a mere temptation. It is the fingertips of the grim reaper stroking down our spine. I knew that. I really did.¡± ¡°But your deadly disease gave you one last push in that direction?¡± ¡°I turned back and saw the path I¡¯d walked down. I also saw what I had gained from it all. ...I will not say what it was I saw there, but I want to die in battle. After all, I would prefer not to die along with my enemy.¡± Those were his final words. His arm dangled down while still holding the crushed can. He remained leaning back in the bench, but his head drooped forward. He almost looked like he had dozed off. A legend had come to its end. ¡°I know what you saw,¡± muttered Mai now that she was alone. ¡°You saw nothing, didn¡¯t you? After countless fights to the death, you assumed you had gained so much, but when you turned back, there was nothing there. But it was your own weakness that made you despair at that.¡± Or perhaps this man had been the same. He may have told himself over and over again that he understood that. He may have been afraid of truly understanding it and had simply pretended that he did. ¡°It¡¯s over.¡± Hishigami Mai pulled out a large satellite phone and called someone. She looked to the dead man who seemed to be sleeping next to her and the countless corpses he had scattered around. ¡°This was an official job, so I can leave the cleanup to you, right? Right, right. I¡¯ll leave all this here and head back. I¡¯d like my payment right away. ...But this one might be a little tricky.¡± Part 2 The term Sunekosuri referred to small canine Youkai like me. We were about thirty centimeters tall and may have somewhat resembled a toy shiba inu. We had no scary traits that would lead to someone¡¯s death. Instead, we had long been famous for rubbing up against traveler¡¯s shins. Hence why we¡¯re known as Sunekosuri or ¡°shin rubbers¡±. I was something like a mascot character with nothing dangerous in my appearance or traits. Nevertheless, I belonged to Hyakki Yakou, a giant underworld organization that would scare even a crying child into silence. ¡°Yes, yes. Outta the way, outta the way. I won¡¯t stop you from wasting the organization¡¯s money with your existence, but at least stay out of the way of the other Youkai. Do you really think you¡¯re worth causing even the slightest delay for me, the one known as the queen of the Mamedanuki world?¡± ¡°Mh!¡± How can you say that when you¡¯re even shorter than me!? ¡°You¡¯re not doing anything either! You just sit around smoking day in and day out. And how can you call yourself a queen with those things swaying down between your legs!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you dare go there, you fool!! A Mamedanuki transforms by spreading their scrotum, so I can¡¯t help it, now can I!? Also, I work as the lady¡¯s body double, so it¡¯s for the best if I have nothing to do!!¡± ¡°Call her Hafuri-sama! Don¡¯t refer to the head of Hyakki Yakou as ¡®the lady¡¯!!¡± ¡°What was that? You wanna fight!?¡± ¡°Why you...!!¡± The Mamedanuki and I got into a scuffle as usual. To others, it might have looked like a fluffy ball rolling around, but for us, it was a serious battle. But then someone else arrived. Instead of more Youkai, it was two humans. ¡°What¡¯s this? What¡¯s this? Some cute things are playing around. Let me join!¡± One was Hishigami Mai. Using human standards, she had a nice body. However, she was a freelance agent that did not actually belong to Hyakki Yakou and she specialized in killing. In her field, it was said that simply meeting her meant your death. ¡°What are you two fighting about?¡± The other was Hafuri-sama. As I had said, she was the head of Hyakki Yakou. The kimono-wearing girl was only about ten, but Hyakki Yakou emphasized bloodline. The Mamedanuki and I quickly jumped back from each other. ¡°Ah, Hafuri-sama!¡± ¡°Milady, um, you see...!!¡± As soon as the two of us spoke up, we glared at each other again. ¡°I told you to call her Hafuri-sama!!¡± ¡°Why are you being so distant!? You aren¡¯t going to double-cross her the second you run into trouble, are you!?¡± Sparks flew between us, Mai-san laughed uproariously, and Hafuri-sama brought a hand to her forehead and sighed. I then noticed a Youkai leaning against Hafuri-sama¡¯s small leg. It looked a lot like a five centimeter stuffed animal. ¡°Daddy, what¡¯re you doing?¡± ¡°Hm?¡± Mai-san stiffened a bit. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re a dad! When you look like that!?¡± ¡°I-I don¡¯t have to explain anything to you.¡± ¡°And look how cute he is! I want to stick a fastener on his butt and make a cellphone strap out of him!!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do whatever you ask! Just stay away from my kid! It scares me that I could actually see you doing it!!¡± Dammit. She specializes in sabotage, so she spotted my weakness right away! Mai-san grinned with great interest, so I averted my gaze and spoke half in desperation. ¡°L-laugh if you want, but the reason I gave up my peaceful life for this kind of work was to find my wife who vanished one day!!¡± ¡°What kind of hardboiled motivation is that!? It doesn¡¯t match your appearance at all!!¡± Part 3 Hishigami Mai-san and I were work partners on a provisional basis. And that meant I was along on underworld business worthy of the name Hyakki Yakou. ¡°The G20 summit meeting sounds like some terribly formal event, but doesn¡¯t it feel more close to home when you hear it¡¯s happening at Hakone? The cabinet members of the various foreign nations were insistent on holding the meeting at a Japanese hot spring town.¡± Inside a soba restaurant near the train station at the entrance of Hakone, the elderly and clearly bored restaurant owner watched the TV. The place was almost deserted despite it being lunchtime, but he didn¡¯t seem to care much. As a Youkai, I did not much like concrete or precision equipment, but this was little enough that I could still bear it. That may have been because the city was deep in the forest and the mountains. Mai-san was slurping up a combination of cheap kitsune and tanuki soba and I asked a question while rubbing up against her shin. ¡°Don¡¯t you find this mission strange? Why would they ask you to wait in Hakone until further orders?¡± ¡°Hm? Well, they might need to locate the target before sending me in to attack. That G20 meeting is going on, right? They wouldn¡¯t succeed in assassinating a cabinet member, but some dangerous person might show up all the same. I can use this chance to earn some points by capturing some idiot who would normally vanish without a trace.¡± ¡°I-I see.¡± ¡°But they really chose a complicated place for an international meeting. That might be part of the trap to lure in that supposed idiot.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Hakone is divided between a few Intellectual Villages that are primarily hot spring towns and a regional city that supports the infrastructure. We¡¯re in that city. A long time ago, it was common to combine cities, towns, and villages. Nowadays, they actually divide them up further to help push their own brand name.¡± ¡°And how is that complicated?¡± ¡°The Intellectual Villages thoroughly reproduce people¡¯s image of rural Japan and make a brand name out of it, but that means they can¡¯t make department stores or shopping malls. They have to use online stores to shop and that leads to hubs for electric trucks being built in a donut around the Intellectual Villages.¡± ¡°Um, in other words, the Intellectual Villages make a lot of money but have almost no services, so they join with the regional cities that have almost no money but can supply the necessary services?¡± ¡°Officially, yes. However, it actually has ill will complexly wrapped all around it. For example, the hospitals have plenty of helicopter ambulances, but they aren¡¯t used when a patient turns up in the regional city. After all, those helicopters are expensive, so they¡¯ll only use them for the Intellectual Villages, even though the hospitals themselves are in the cities. ...Meanwhile, the Intellectual Villages are upset that they have to bear the burden of someone else¡¯s debt. They want to know why they have to pay such high taxes for ¡®regional financial health¡¯.¡± ¡°So when you say complicated...¡± ¡°If some large-scale incident occurs, it¡¯ll be heard to tell whether it was targeting the G20 or caused by the local societal conflict. And a professional would be able to slip in and hide within the hatred permeating the area. This is a giant pain in the ass. If you assume someone is an assassin, you might find you attacked a local kid spray painting a protest on the wall. ...Of course, the opposite can happen too.¡± Just as we were discussing those issues, a change came over the tone of the voice on the restaurant¡¯s television. I looked over in confusion and found the easygoing daytime talk show had been interrupted by a news program. Rather than a proper studio, the footage showed an editing room with tons of monitors lined up. ¡°Is this an emergency broadcast?¡± I asked. ¡°How should I know?¡± With a G20 summit meeting in town, an emergency broadcast was no laughing matter. I focused on the screen while a young female newscaster spoke stiffly. ¡°Hishigami Mai, who was visiting the city, has been found in pieces in the mountains of Hakone. The body¡¯s injuries are severe and the police are investigating it as a possible murder or a possible wild animal attack.¡± It felt like time had ground to a halt. The restaurant owner did not understand the gravity of the situation, so he still looked bored. I looked up at Mai-san and she shrugged. ¡°How should I know?¡± Regardless of what she said, I could tell her ¡°scent¡± had changed. That ¡°scent¡± had grown much more dangerous. ¡°But this is strange.¡± ¡°Y-yes, it is strange for a false report to be spread so widely.¡± ¡°Not what I meant,¡± she cut in. ¡°I don¡¯t use the name Hishigami Mai in everyday life. In fact, there is technically no birth registration under that name. In my family, the ¡®Hishigami women¡¯ are seen as abominations. Normally, they¡¯re killed at birth, so a Hishigami woman is one that was unleashed upon the world after somehow escaping that fate.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°So the name Hishigami Mai may exist, but it isn¡¯t recorded anywhere. And with no records, no one can use it. If you know my name, it means you¡¯ve taken at least one step away from the normal world. And that means...¡± This was real trouble. That was the obvious conclusion and Mai-san was the person most directly involved. And yet she was smiling. ¡°Someone in the same underworld business as me is challenging me to a fight that involves the occult. If that show itself was part of a Package or some other gimmick, this might be a bit of a problem.¡± Part 4 Beep. ¡°The number you are attempting to reach is not currently in use. Please double check the number and...¡± Beep beep. ¡°Uuh!? You!? But you¡¯re supposed to be dead! Click!!¡± Beep beep beep. ¡°Huh? What is it, Mai-san? They¡¯re saying on the news that you were ripped to pieces. Did you get even Enma to hate you?¡± Was there really any reason to be so cautious after a single news story? While I wondered that, Mai-san sat on the hood of the rental car and called different numbers on her large satellite phone. She had tried contacting some people who were on a similar level to herself, but they had refused to talk to her until this one that she finally got through to. ¡°Only the third one? That was surprisingly easy. I was sure everyone in this thing¡¯s memory would refuse.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just how dangerous you are, Mai-san,¡± said the man on the phone. ¡°If someone¡¯s willing to switch between enemy and ally if it comes down to it, you¡¯ll definitely view them as an enemy. And I¡¯d much rather not fight you. Not to mention that fighting isn¡¯t my specialty.¡± Incidentally, we were in the parking lot of a supermarket near the Hakone train station. But even this close to the station, the entire area wasn¡¯t covered with asphalt and concrete. I had heard that Hakone was divided between the city portion and multiple Intellectual Villages, but it seemed everywhere had a lot of green. As a nature-loving Youkai, I wasn¡¯t about to complain. ¡°Supplier, how much do you know?¡± ¡°Not much. Just that the shadow-net is going nuts over the local Hakone news that you died.¡± The parking lot was covered in gravel and located right next to some woods. Mweh heh heh. Listening to this dangerous conversation is scaring me, so how about I take a nice stroll through the woods? Time to get some negative ions. ¡°Be careful, Mai-san. The way to deal with you includes a lot of fear and violence. From what I¡¯ve seen online, everyone has their doubts about this, but the people you¡¯ve been holding down might use this ¡®fall of the queen¡¯ as their chance to act. And if they all act together, they might get a little full of themselves.¡± ¡°You¡¯re making too much out of those petty thieves, but I suppose you¡¯re right. Oh, damn. Do you think they¡¯ll look through my tax haven bank accounts, my armories, or my hideouts? Well, I¡¯ve set them up so Rank 1 is all traps or bait, Rank 2 will satisfy them, and Rank 3 and above won¡¯t be found.¡± ¡°After they pluck off the bug¡¯s wings and legs like that, some of them might go in for the kill. I don¡¯t know if simply killing you is the goal or if that emergency news broadcast was part of a Package that uses a Youkai to broadcast records into the past, but this isn¡¯t an easy one to predict. It is about you, after all.¡± ¡°This is going pretty far for harassing me. I guess I¡¯ll kill them.¡± ¡°Ha ha. You¡¯d have to be an idiot to make an enemy of a monster like you. I¡¯ll keep up my job as a supplier since a war is a great time to make money. So what do you need?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t your hometown Tokyo? Did you bring that huge RV to Hakone?¡± ¡°No, I didn¡¯t go that far. But I have my ¡®products¡¯ split up and hidden around the country. If you need something, you can use whatever you find in my Hakone warehouse. But you¡¯ll be buying whatever you take, not renting it.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Mai-san thought for a moment. ¡°Then can you spread a rumor that I¡¯m on my way to that warehouse? I¡¯ll buy up the building and everything inside.¡± ¡°Thanks for your business¡î¡± She ended the call and pulled something long and thin from the pocket of her hot pants. It looked like a case that held a few cough drops, but... ¡°Okay, Sunekosuri. Let¡¯s start by gathering weapons and equipment for this war. I really hope that news broadcast wasn¡¯t a part of a Package, I¡¯m sure there are two or three layers of traps laid out, and there will probably be a lot of idiots who don¡¯t know about the job we¡¯re on, so let¡¯s finish our preparations while they¡¯re all rushing toward the Supplier¡¯s warehouse.¡± ¡°Weapons?¡± ¡°Just the handgun hidden in my boot and the Deadly Dragon Princess aren¡¯t enough. I¡¯d like some heavier weaponry if I¡¯m going to fight a war on my own.¡± ¡°B-but where will you get it? Are you saying there¡¯s a weapon¡¯s shop in Hakone like in an RPG town?¡± ¡°A G20 summit is being held in Hakone right now. To prevent any possible terrorist bombings, all of the coin lockers and trunk rooms will be inspected. So what happens to the people who normally hide their dangerous things in places like that? I have a feeling they¡¯ll be rushing to hide their stuff elsewhere.¡± ¡°Y-you mean you¡¯ll be stealing weapons from real terrorists and gangs?¡± ¡°Everyone has their own turf in the underworld, so it could cause a different sort of trouble if they tried to hide those dangerous objects out of town. That means they¡¯ll be hiding them in the part of Hakone the police will most want to avoid. As one of Japan¡¯s leading hot spring towns, it has to have an active volcano. If we dig up the area near the crater that¡¯s filled with sulfuric gas, we¡¯ll find plenty of weapons and ammo packed in plastic. It¡¯s where I¡¯d hide them if I was them. So...¡± She trailed off there. She slowly turned her head and found an old woman wearing pitch black mourning clothes. The smiling woman swung her arm horizontally and a surprisingly long blade shot from her sleeve with a high-pitched sound. In fact, it was long enough to qualify as a sword rather than a knife. Mai-san, however, gave an exasperated sigh and rubbed her temple with her index finger. ¡°So Idiot #1 is between B-class and C-class, huh? Old lady, I hate to say this kind of thing, but do you really understand the situation here?¡± The old woman did not respond. She simply swung her head slightly to the side while still smiling. And she took a slow and silent step forward. ¡°Did you think someone with a sword had an overwhelming advantage over an unarmed opponent and that you could win if you attacked before I could find any weapons? ...If so, you were sorely mistaken.¡± Mai-san gently and slowly spoke as if trying to convince the woman to back down. She lightly waved the case in her hand as she continued. ¡°Have you still not caught on? If you grab someone¡¯s hair so they face upwards and open their windpipe, you can easily kill them by throwing a cough drop inside. And it¡¯ll be treated as an accident that is barely recorded. ...When people refer to the seven tools of a professional assassin, they¡¯re referring to something like this.¡± Part 5 ¡°Now, let¡¯s see if we can find them. I¡¯m sure the weapons will be buried with a chip like the ones on the legs of endangered species, but the magnetic field around an active volcano is so unstable I¡¯m not sure if we¡¯ll be able to pick up that weak signal.¡± Thirty minutes later, Mai-san had driven the rental car to the crater of the active volcano supporting Hakone¡¯s hot spring town. It was still within Hakone, the cabinet members and other leaders of the G20 would clearly not be approaching it for the summit, and it was dangerous to investigate due to the volcanic gasses. Mai-san successfully dug up the firearms and such that the local underground businessmen had temporarily moved there. ¡°Tremble tremble.¡± ¡°Good, good. Just as I thought, they were buried in the spot with an obvious sign left behind. I¡¯ve got PDWs, grenades, a semi-auto sniper rifle, and even a.50 caliber heavy machine gun. That should be plenty.¡± ¡°Shake shake.¡± ¡°Hm? What¡¯s wrong, Sunekosuri? Is the car¡¯s air conditioning on too high?¡± ¡°N-no! That isn¡¯t it...¡± Her success here meant she had easily eliminated the old woman in mourning clothes, and in this business, ¡°eliminating¡± someone had a specific meaning. ¡°Next up on the news,¡± said an announcer on the radio. ¡°At just past noon today, an old woman was found collapsed near Hakone Station. She was quickly taken to the hospital, where she was confirmed dead. She had no obvious external wounds and had a cough drop in her throat, so the police are viewing it as an accident.¡± How can this announcer speak so coldly about this!? It¡¯s like he¡¯s casually talking about the end of the world!! ¡°Wh-wh-what will... What will we do now?¡± ¡°Hmm. To handle this in order, the emergency broadcast about ¡®Hishigami Mai¡¯s¡¯ death would probably come first. That¡¯s the largest part of this and the part I least want to leave unattended. Let¡¯s go shake up the TV station while viewing the whole place as an enemy.¡± Mai-san sounded completely carefree as she said that with all sorts of weapons and bombs filling the rental car¡¯s trunk. That sounded a lot like what a terrorist would say, didn¡¯t it!? I continued trembling and looked back over to the driver¡¯s seat. Mai-san was still smiling. ¡°Hm? I¡¯m not just going to blow up the station or anything. And searching out the culprit with a long-term infiltration of the station is more my sister¡¯s kind of thing. It would be faster to just cut the Achilles¡¯ tendon, so I think I¡¯ll go attack the highest manager and grab all their company secrets.¡± ¡°B-but TV stations are considered high-risk targets for terrorism, right? The security will be strict, so I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll be able to get at them that easily.¡± ¡°It¡¯s true it would be hard to shake them up on my own, but the rich almost always have enemies. I can get some help from them.¡± ¡°You mean the enemy of your enemy is your friend? But how are you going to actually find the enemies of this top manager?¡± ¡°I can search for that online. Rural areas tend to have one national station and one locally-owned station. Wealth and power have a way of gathering in one place and they have a monopoly on the freedom of press and advertisement. Let¡¯s watch some TV and see what local companies have frequent ads. Then we just have to search online for other companies in the same business. They¡¯ll be hurting from the effects of those ads, so they¡¯ll have a grudge against the TV station,¡± explained Mai-san. ¡°Also, I¡¯m not openhearted enough to call a complete stranger my friend just because we have a common enemy. Calling them a friend is like inviting in a new enemy.¡± ¡°?¡± Then...? Part 6 Tremble tremble. Tremble tremble tremble tremble tremble tremble!! I-I just can¡¯t stop shaking!! I was in the underground parking garage of an apartment complex in Hakone¡¯s city area, but the problem was not that I was surrounded by thick concrete. Something much worse was right in front of me. Mai-san held an insecticide can that emitted smoke to eliminate roaches and she tossed it into the trunk of an Italian sports car. And she did not hesitate to slam the trunk closed. She ignored the coughing and banging that were shaking the trunk from the inside. ¡°A fitting end for some insects.¡± ¡°W-wait a second!! Weren¡¯t they normal people!?¡± ¡°Normal people don¡¯t own foreign cars, live in nice apartments, and have membership cards to exclusive golf courses. Surely you could tell what terrible people they were.¡± ¡°Uuh... W-well I did find it strange.¡± ¡°They were probably villains with giant piles of dirty money. Rural TV stations generally run in the red and will jump at any proposal for a sponsorship. Since they rejected mine, they must have something shady to keep hidden. And I checked on the background of the people I targeted, which is why you didn¡¯t seriously try to stop me. The worst part of this business is how the enemy of evil isn¡¯t good. Not that I¡¯m one to talk.¡± She sat on the trunk and turned to the 1seg TV on her cellphone. ¡°Hm. I¡¯ve already killed a few, so there must be a system in place to keep any inconvenient news from getting out. But if the station is blocking it, that means they¡¯re aware of the serial killings.¡± She seemed to be enjoying herself and she began calling someone with the phone. ¡°Hm? Yes, yes. Hello, hello. Can you connect me to the president right away? Oh, you can¡¯t? I see. So this isn¡¯t enough. Then I¡¯ll just keep killing his enemies until he likes me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just cruel!!¡± I shouted. If Persons A, B, and C were a problem for Person D and Persons A, B, and C began dying in suspicious ways, it was obvious who everyone would suspect first. She must have been waiting while being transferred over because Mai-san removed the phone from her ear and placed her index finger against her lips to say ¡°be quiet or I¡¯ll kill you¡±. ¡°Yes, yes. Good day, good day. With someone as busy as you, making a normal appointment could mean waiting months before speaking with you, so I took emergency measures.¡± ¡°D-d-do you have any idea what you¡¯ve done? Y-you-you¡¯ve...!¡± ¡°Yes, I killed some hindrances just as you asked me to. Oh, is this being recorded to drag the truth from me? I see. That¡¯s fine. We can use that recording as my bill. President, I killed them all, so pay me the hundred million you promised after the fact. You brought this job to me, after all.¡± If you knew a call was being recorded, you could easily falsify evidence. Mai-san was two steps ahead of him in everything. If she vanished here, the police would have to view the TV station president as the #1 suspect, so he could not simply reject her. ¡°Wh-what do you want to know?¡± he asked. ¡°Something I seriously doubt you want recorded. Let¡¯s meet soon. And of course, I¡¯ll be visiting you. Just relax there in the big leather chair of your office and wait for me¡î¡± Part 7 Hakone was divided between the city area at the base of the mountains and the natural area in the mountains, but I was surprised to find the TV station in question was in the mountains. ¡°Idiots, smoke, and broadcast antennae are all best placed as high as possible.¡± Mai-san parked the rental car in the parking lot of the local station named Ashinoko TV and took me into the building. We had finally entered the mountains, but the modern building made me feel something similar to seasickness. We rode the elevator up to the top floor. The president¡¯s office took up the entire floor and it contained an old man with gray hair and a custom-made suit, a beautiful woman in a tight skirt, and several young muscular men. Mai-san tilted her head. ¡°Who¡¯s the woman?¡± ¡°I am Asano, his secretary.¡± Mai-san tilted her head even further. ¡°And all the macho men?¡± ¡°Wh-when a dangerous person says she is visiting, it¡¯s only natural to contact some skilled people. They work in the underworld as curse-reversal specialists. Normally, having these occult types wandering around the station would be-...¡± ¡°I see.¡± Thirty seconds later... No, fifteen seconds later. In fact, it may have even been a single second or less. To be honest, it was so vivid a scene that I lost all sense of time. What had been such a tidy space a moment before was now covered in a dark-red liquid. The gray-haired president was curled up in a corner of the room and trembling. Everyone else had been slaughtered. Mai-san alone stood in the center of the large room. ¡°You said yourself that they¡¯re curse-reversal specialists. With curses like the promise with a Yuki Onna or the request of an Ubume, you can reverse it as long as you know the trick behind it. I didn¡¯t even have to bring out a weapon. You might¡¯ve been better off with complete amateurs who had normal weapons instead of using a Youkai and doing it badly.¡± ¡°Wh-wha-what did you...?¡± I was having trouble speaking and that grim reaper answered with a smile. ¡°Like I said. They were trying to remove my organs using the traits of a Youkai called the Aburatori, but they did a brilliant job of screwing it up and had it turn on them. Also, this might have originally been a trick to run a news story first and twist the truth afterwards. After all, the Aburatori brings confusion by being mentioned in newspapers. Honestly, they were far too na?ve to extract the symbols like that. They did it so badly that it¡¯s almost blasphemous. It¡¯s like seeing someone take a first-class Pacific Bluefin and turn the whole thing into canned tuna. And yet someone with actual skill could have killed me in the very first attack with that.¡± ¡°Th-that¡¯s just cruel. Aren¡¯t you being a little too cruel!?¡± ¡°How? All I did was protect myself.¡± Then why is the secretary dead too!? And with a fountain pen sticking out of the top of her head. It¡¯s like she¡¯s about to be cooked on a skewer!! Woof woof!!¡± ¡°There was no reason to kill her? Really? Not even one? Are you seriously saying that, Sunekosuri-chan? Don¡¯t ignore the way of the world and try to say the right-hand of such a black-hearted man had never stepped out of line even once.¡± Her expression did not change in the slightest. She sat on the heavy table and spoke to the president. ¡°Tell me what you think I want to know and give me a clear answer. You have three chances. If you use them all up, you¡¯ll be joining them. Got that?¡± ¡°I have a cruiser in Ashinoko Harbor and there¡¯s a hidden safe onboard. The combination is...¡± ¡°Two more tries.¡± ¡°I did give the order to send the emergency broadcast about Hishigami Mai¡¯s death!! But I was only doing what I was told to. I don¡¯t know how that news fits into the Package!!¡± ¡°One more try.¡± ¡°Goudo Akira! She¡¯s their contact. I don¡¯t know anything more!! If I had looked further into it, I would have been killed too!!¡± ¡°I see. Goudo Akira, is it? Tell me how to spell it.¡± After getting the information she needed, Mai-san picked me up and started toward the office¡¯s door. As she did, she spoke without turning back. ¡°Oh, right. You take care of those bodies.¡± ¡°W-why do I have to do that!?¡± ¡°You can call the police if you want, but in court, I guarantee you it will eventually lead to you being found guilty. This world is an unfair place, after all.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You do business with occult assassins like me, right? Working in the news business gives you special access to some of the private information of the victims and you can leak ¡®accidentally¡¯ leak that information for them. Just contact them. They¡¯ll know how to safely dump a body and get out the bloodstains.¡± With that, she really did leave the president¡¯s office. After she hit the button and began waiting for the elevator, I asked what was on my mind. ¡°Wh-why did you go that far?¡± ¡°What good is it to think about that now?¡± ¡°They were part of an organization, just like us. Even if they were at the bottom level, won¡¯t the organization think about taking revenge now that you killed them?¡± ¡°Sunekosuri-chan, did you see the tattoo on the back of their hands?¡± ¡°Eh?¡± ¡°At first glance, it looks like a fashionable tribal tattoo, but it¡¯s actually the rank insignia for the organization Jouzai Senjou. They add a line each time they get promoted and enough of a mistake for a demotion gets the entire hand chopped off. They¡¯re a third-rate organization that doesn¡¯t at all live up to its name and they make their money by selling Packages to all sorts of criminals. But I killed every last one of their leaders during a past incident. The organization itself managed to get back on its feet, but I doubt they ever want anything to do with me again.¡± ¡°You mean...¡± ¡°That president will likely go crying to them asking for some way of fighting back, but that will bring my name to the people at the top. Now, do you think anyone there still wants to fight me? If the alternative is being completely wiped out this time, they¡¯ll probably bury that president in the mountains for his connection to me. ...Of course, I¡¯ll be stopping by to thank them later anyway.¡± ¡°B-but you¡¯re just guessing. You don¡¯t actually know what that president will try to do, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, I tend to adlib. Still, I¡¯d already guessed Jouzai Senjou was going to show up. They¡¯re the only organization that¡¯s cheap enough to infiltrate some local media for some grassroots information gathering.¡± The elevator arrived and the automatic doors opened to either side. Mai-san did not hesitate to leave with that ¡°execution device¡± still there. ¡°I gave him three chances and all I got were hints. And yet I told him to give me the clear answer I wanted.¡± Part 8 (3rd person) Hyakki Yakou¡¯s headquarters were mobile. It was made up of a large formation containing a V-shaped flying wing, a transport ship filled with spare parts, an in-flight refueling craft, and escort fighters. The interior resembled the Imperial Court of the ancient capital or a noble¡¯s old mansion, but it was actually a flying residence made from cutting-edge technology. In one corner, a kimono-wearing girl of ten held a phone receiver to her ear. Her name was Hafuri and she was the leader of the country¡¯s largest Youkai-related organization. ¡°Sigh. I am not sure what to tell you. We still cannot contact Hishigami Mai either. And needless to say, you were the ones who set all this in motion, weren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°That is not what I am talking about. She is a member of Hyakki Yakou, isn¡¯t she? She has already killed four influential people and more than ten others in the president¡¯s office of a regional TV station. And then that president committed ¡®suicide¡¯. If this continues any longer, her supervisor will be responsible. Are you sure you want that?¡± ¡°You seem to be mistaken about something, so let me explain. Hishigami Mai is nothing more than a freelance agent.¡± ¡°Are you saying you can¡¯t send out your internal disciplinary department?¡± ¡°We sometimes make requests for jobs, but she does not actually belong to Hyakki Yakou. When she is fighting elsewhere, we do not directly support or protect her. In exchange, we have no way of punishing her. Unless the issue directly conflicts with our interest, that is.¡± ¡°I see.¡± The Sunekosuri, an official member of Hyakki Yakou, was with Hishigami Mai, but for better or for worse, that fact was never brought up. Sometimes being of no help in a fight was actually useful. The Youkai would likely cry if he heard that, though. ¡°And I thought you were aware what the Hishigami women are like.¡± Hafuri sounded almost exasperated. ¡°Hishigami is the general trading company that represents Japan and it primarily deals in heavy industry. But its head family still practices a bloody tradition: the Hishigami men and the Hishigami women. The concept is similar to the psychological terms Eros and Thanatos.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°The Hishigami men focus on static gatherings while the Hishigami women focus on dynamic separations. They are divided between those who try to peacefully expand organizations and those who radically try to destroy organizations.¡± For better or for worse, the Hishigami men had a powerful ability to make connections between people, so they had naturally formed a general trading company with great power. Meanwhile, the Hishigami women¡¯s traits meant they would smash that to pieces. Neither of them was in the wrong. During times of chaos, the Hishigami men would rise to the forefront and build up a giant and stable system. During times of stagnation, the Hishigami women would rise to the forefront and destroy the giant and rotten system. The Hishigami women were treated as ill omens, but they were merely catching wind of where the era was headed and acting accordingly. ¡°Simply put, a single Hishigami woman possesses enough power to destroy a global corporation. A certain Hishigami fell in love and is subconsciously trying to suppress her power of separation with the power of connection and another Hishigami has shown a desire to bind herself with the ¡®obligation¡¯ of a close relationship with Hyakki Yakou. ...However, you have cut one of those threads. This battle is no longer based in Hyakki Yakou¡¯s rules. It is now based in the rules of a Hishigami woman. Are you seriously trying to tell me you didn¡¯t know what would happen then, Goudo Akira-san?¡± ¡°In other words, you¡¯re saying Hyakki Yakou is useless? That¡¯s fine. I will deal with the problem here, but be prepared for Hyakki Yakou¡¯s influence to decrea- gbgch!?¡± The call ended there. Hafuri quietly looked down at the receiver, sighed, and placed it back on the phone. She could only say ¡°my condolences¡±. Part 9 ¡°Goudo Akira, hm?¡± After checking on the safety of the explosives and transmitter, Mai-san climbed into the rental car. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect this to be related to the Hishigami men. Is this turning into a family feud?¡± ¡°H-Hishigami?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. But it does simplify things. It might be hard for a normal person to target a member of the Hishigami general trading company, but I¡¯m family. I know how they do things.¡± ¡°Th-then what are you going to do?¡± She tapped on the car¡¯s steering wheel and gave a simple answer. ¡°I¡¯ll kidnap them.¡± ............................................................................................................................................................ I may have looked like a dog, but I had my self-respect as an intelligent Youkai who had lived for hundreds of years. It was a testament to my courage that I managed to avoid pissing myself. ¡°H-h-hold it right there!! It¡¯s probably far too late to be scolding you now, but I¡¯m still going to yell at this! The entire world agrees that kidnapping is wrong!!¡± ¡°Uuh... I can¡¯t believe you would give a serious lecture to a delinquent like me. ...Teacher! Can I offer you my body in the guidance room!?¡± ¡°Not only did nothing I say reach you, but you¡¯re acting completely inappropriately!¡± No matter what you did, the bloodshed around her would never stop. There was not even a millimeter of hesitation in her operation of the steering wheel. ¡°B-by the way, where are we going?¡± ¡°Hell Pass. That¡¯s one of the hot spring Intellectual Villages in the Hakone region. It¡¯s a rare type that focuses on sightseeing rather than agriculture. Oh, and we¡¯ll be making a slight detour on the way.¡± ¡°H-h-hell?¡± ¡°There are no crazy traditions there, so there¡¯s nothing to be afraid of. It¡¯s not unusual for places with hot springs and volcanoes to have hell in the name.¡± ¡°Th-that isn¡¯t what I meant. That¡¯s right in in the middle of where the G20 summit is being held! If you wander around with a handgun, you¡¯ll be found right away and cause all sorts of trouble.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I said we¡¯ll be making a slight detour.¡± As always, she seemed to be enjoying herself. ¡°An unauthentic souvenir shop in Hakone¡¯s city area would probably work. I need some kind of native garb that hides my identity and looks a little religious. Like a fortune teller maybe. It¡¯ll have to be something an Asian like me wouldn¡¯t look out of place in. Hm... Maybe something from India.¡± ¡°?¡± Fifteen minutes later, Mai-san had acquired the clothing and was driving to the Intellectual Village called Hell Pass. The mountain road twisted and turned, I was sent rolling all around on the passenger seat, and we finally approached the entrance to Hell Pass. Instead of driving into the center of Hell Pass, Mai-san stopped in the parking lot of a roadside station for a transportation company and dragged me out of the car with her. ¡°Um?¡± ¡°I went to the trouble of changing my clothes, but they would do a thorough inspection if I drove the car into the summit meeting area. That would defeat the purpose of all this.¡± She slowly and calmly walked toward Hell Pass while holding me in her arms. W-will this really work? Part 10 ¡°Hey, you over there!!¡± Thirty seconds after crossing into Hell Pass, a young man in a police uniform called out to us. I knew it!! Of course you¡¯re going to stand out when you wear a gaudy, midriff-showing fortuneteller¡¯s outfit in a hot spring town filled with a Japanese atmosphere! Hiding your mouth with the veil is completely pointless!! The police officer gave us a perfectly warranted look of deep suspicion. ¡°Um... Excuse me, but can I see your face? Also, show me your ID and let me inspect your bag. Right now, we have to-...¡± ¡°Oh! I cannot show you inside bag. My religion only allows me to show purified grand master inside bag. Otherwise gathered virtue disappears!!¡± ¡°Eh? What? No, I¡¯m not talking about that. This is a security iss-...¡± ¡°Wow, wow!! I come all the way to Intellectual Village to learn of superior Japan culture, but I am treated with such disrespect? What happened to freedom of religion?¡± I could almost feel the sharp gazes of the surrounding people turning our way. The foreign cameramen and journalists here for the G20 leaders had spotted something interesting. Mai-san pretended to sob while whispering to me as if lightly chewing on my triangular ear as she held me to her chest. ¡°(With the international G20 summit meeting going on, this place is filled with people from different countries and cultures: the cabinet members, their bodyguard teams, and the journalists who follow them. What do you think the headlines will be if a police officer who represents the country¡¯s authority oppresses another culture¡¯s religion? Criticizing the Japanese representative might become the central topic of tonight¡¯s dinner party.)¡± ¡°That¡¯s just mean!!¡± ¡°(Also, Intellectual Villages hate the police. Back when they were declining rural areas, the police wouldn¡¯t even build a single police box and they would only leisurely make their way over from the police station when there was a robbery. The police may have changed their mind and want to make police boxes and stations there now that the areas have earned a bunch of money, but that doesn¡¯t meant anyone is going to welcome them. Instead, they use home security systems and armed security guards for better self-security than a university. If this outsider messes up here, no one is going to step forward to shelter him.)¡± ¡°U-um, uh, um...¡± The young police officer was clearly panicking and looking around in every direction. At this point, the poor civil servant had only two options. He could grow excessively oppressive and aggressive and try to show off his authority or... ¡°M-my apologies. Please be on your way.¡± He completely folded and grew very polite. And thus Hishigami Mai-san boldly carried her weapons to her destination despite the strict security prepared for the gathering of G20 leaders and cabinet members. Part 11 Our destination was an old high-class inn in the mountains. It was a wooden multistory building instead of the usual flat structure of Japanese residences. Despite being located at the bottom of a green canyon, it rose high enough to poke up between the gaps in the mountains. It had been built by a temple carpenter and had a tradition of over two hundred years, so it looked more like a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple than it did a lodging facility. It was a lot like the stage of Kyoto¡¯s Kiyomizu-dera or the ocean torii of Hiroshima¡¯s Itsukushima Shrine in how the manmade object stole the focus of the scenery despite being surrounded by nature. ¡°W-we¡¯re going here?¡± ¡°I said Goudo Akira has a connection to Hishigami, didn¡¯t I? The Hakone region has countless safe zones, but you can narrow that down a lot if you focus on the ones supported by Hishigami. This one is the strongest, fanciest, and most comfortable, so it¡¯s perfect for the boss character¡¯s fortress.¡± Mai-san still wore the foreign fortuneteller¡¯s outfit, but she did not hesitate to enter the inn. Needless to say, the waitresses¡¯ eyes opened wide. ¡°I was called here by Hishigami and it has to do with Youkai. No need to treat me like a guest, nothing happened here, and you didn¡¯t see anyone. That¡¯s how you should handle this.¡± When she mixed in a few keywords like that, the look in the eyes of the dozens...no, over a hundred workers clearly changed. It almost looked like the light vanished from their eyes. It was a strange sight indeed to see an entire group ignoring someone like this. ¡°If you know how things work, this is easy.¡± The great number of witnesses and the cutting-edge security meant nothing. Mai-san boldly walked straight toward the VIP room that did not officially exist. ¡°Poor thing. They have so many shady meetings day in and day out that no one will even peek inside no matter how much of a commotion they hear.¡± It took only an instant to break the lock on the sliding door. And it took maybe three seconds to restrain the target inside who was elegantly talking on the phone. ¡°A-agh. Mghmgh.¡± Something like a groan came from the duct taped mouth of the woman wearing office clothing. Her tight skirt and suit were custom-made and looked quite expensive and she was currently hanging from the ceiling with her hands bound. Naturally, Mai-san seemed to have had a reason for doing that, but... ¡°So you used a hidden village style of isolated VIP room? Hm? Did you use the Aburatori again? So is this a separate-style Package?¡± ¡°Separate-style? What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°Youkai ¨C especially the deadly ones ¨C are hard to capture or contact, right? So instead of getting several of them, you work at a single one from multiple angles to put together many different Packages. Sunekosuri, how much do you know about the Youkai known as an Aburatori?¡± ¡°W-well, just that it¡¯s a horrible one. Um, it¡¯s a relatively new deadly Youkai that appeared during the Meiji period, it sneaks into villages dressed as a farmer, and it secretly abducts and kills children, right?¡± ¡°Technically, it removes their organs, cooks them with a fish skewer, and takes the child¡¯s oil. Folklorists say it¡¯s a ghost story without the ¡®tradition of fear¡¯ since it has no moral to teach. Some say the Youkai itself is less frightening than the overly-suspicious group hysteria that¡¯s a lot like the witch hunts.¡± She raised her index finger. ¡°For example, the bodyguards at Ashinoko TV isolated the Aburatori¡¯s child-killing symbolism to create a murder Package.¡± ¡°Yes, I suppose.¡± ¡°But that leaves the symbolism of ¡®sneaking in and abducting¡¯ unused. By using that excess portion for this hidden village Package, they can simultaneously operate multiple Packages with just the one Youkai. Those are called separate-style Packages. Right now, there seem to be three: the news broadcast, the assassins, and the hidden village.¡± ¡°Y-you¡¯ve been thinking about this. ...But wouldn¡¯t they have to be really carefully assembled to avoid any competition that could send the Packages out of control?¡± ¡°Yes. At its core, it¡¯s a way of being economical. With its massive fighting force, Hyakki Yakou can capture multiple Youkai instead. That these people chose to use the separate-style tells us something about their strength, Sunekosuri-kun.¡± Just as I was about to give a sigh of understanding, some muffled protests came from the side. Oh, right. That office woman is still hanging there. Can I just assume she¡¯s Goudo Akira? ¡°Wait!! Why are you starting to strip off her clothes!?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s necessary. But if all this commotion and creaking of ropes isn¡¯t enough to arouse suspicion, what kind of secret meetings do they normally hold here? Not SM shows, I hope.¡± Goudo Akira-san was quickly reduced to her underwear and stockings and she glared at us with hostility in her eyes. Mai-san ignored it and roughly tore the duct tape from her mouth so it would hurt. ¡°You know why I¡¯m letting you speak, right? I will ask one question and you have just one chance. You are a Hishigami man¡¯s legal adviser, aren¡¯t you? I had thought you were the type to give advice on criminal activity but avoid actually getting involved in it, but how about it? Are you truly the mastermind behind this or is there someone else beyond you? Please tell me.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t talk.¡± ¡°Oh, is that so?¡± As she spoke, Mai-san pulled something from the bag she had placed on the tatami mats. But it was not a depressing torture device like pliers, a saw, or a soldering iron. ¡°Huh? A marker?¡± ¡°With some exceptions, most specialized torture devices are too bulky to carry around. When infiltrating enemy territory, you can use something like this to get people to talk in a timely fashion.¡± Mai-san removed the marker¡¯s cap and approached Goudo Akira-san. ¡°Bring it on. I won¡¯t tell you any- hyah. W-wait. Heh heh. What kind of torture is this!? Why are you drawing Xs all over me? Hee hee. What is the point of this scribbling!?¡± There was a type of torture known as ¡°tickling¡±, but I could not see anything here that was depressing enough to rupture the diaphragm used to breath. It really did look like Mai-san was simply scribbling on the woman. ¡°Yes, yes. If you can¡¯t stand it anymore, feel free to spill the beans.¡± ¡°Fya ha ha! I-I won¡¯t- I won¡¯t give in to... hee hee!¡± ¡°By the way, Akira-chan, are you familiar with the iron maiden?¡± ¡°What?¡± Goudo Akira-san had been twisting her body around to endure the marker, but the sudden mention of that dangerous term caused her to freeze in place as if someone had thrown cold water over her. Mai-san continued regardless. ¡°As I¡¯m sure you know, it¡¯s the world¡¯s most famous torture device. Incidentally, the most famous execution device is the guillotine¡î Well, well? Have you heard of it? ...That look on your face makes me think you¡¯re going to say it¡¯s common knowledge in the West. So I guess you do know what the iron maiden is, right?¡± ¡°What does that have to do with-...¡± ¡°Something like a metal coffin with double doors is filled with sharp spikes and the victim is simply closed inside, so it¡¯s easy to use. But since the spikes are positioned in just the right places to not hit any vitals, the suffering lasts good and long. That¡¯s the legend left by that torture device, but I¡¯m sure about half of it is just embellishment.¡± With a squeak, Mai-san drew the final X on Goudo Akira-san¡¯s bare side and she hummed to herself as she did so. ¡°But if you know where to stab, you don¡¯t need that big, fancy device.¡± ¡°Eh? Wait. You don¡¯t mean...¡± The woman hanging from the ceiling slowly looked down at her own stomach. She had several dozen suspicious X-marks drawn all over her body. Meanwhile, Mai-san moved away, put the marker back in her bag, and pulled something else out instead. Its silhouette resembled a handgun, but the power tool was larger and bulkier. ¡°Tah dah!! It¡¯s the friend of anyone with a problem, the nail gun! You can use it for your home improvement projects and you can use it when you don¡¯t have a gun on hand, but can you perhaps think of another use for it?¡± ¡°..............................................................................................................................................................................!!¡± Goudo Akira-san twisted around enough to make the entire room creak, but it did nothing to change the fact that she was dangling in midair. ¡°I won¡¯t take my time and slowly fire one nail at a time. I already know it won¡¯t kill you, so I think I¡¯ll go ahead and put all the nails in their marks before asking you again.¡± ¡°W-wait, wait!! Even if you do that, I-I won¡¯t...!!¡± ¡°It¡¯s no use now. I¡¯m turning you into a human spiked bat no matter what you say. Even if you told me the truth right this instant. So just give up.¡± ¡°Ah...!! But...you...that makes no sense!!¡± ¡°I said right at the beginning that I was asking one question and you have just one chance. It¡¯s your fault for not making good use of that chance.¡± Some said the scariest thing in the world was someone whose thoughts you simply could not comprehend. I was fairly certain Mai-san was only putting on an act to appear that way, but still. ¡°I can drag out the information I want once you¡¯ve lost everything and once you¡¯re covered in unnecessary injuries. Okay?¡± She did not hesitate. For this act, she showed a willingness to truly create a corpse here. While still smiling, she pressed the end of the nail gun against Goudo Akira-san¡¯s body. It was a bit above her stomach and below her voluminous chest where her ribs could be seen protruding a bit. And Mai-san was not hesitating to smash that rib. ¡°I-I can¡¯t overlook this any longer! Take this!!¡± ¡°Sunekosuri, why are you playing around at my feet? And completely useless help will probably only deepen her despair. Are you actually trying to help me?¡± ¡°Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!?¡± There was nothing I could do, so I simply squeezed my eyes shut. But then... ¡°Oh, what¡¯s all this? Mai, could you end your eccentric behavior here?¡± A new voice intruded on the scene. It was a gentle male voice. I hesitantly opened my eyes and found a young man of about thirty who wore casual indigo blue Japanese-style clothing. Yes, a young man. He was surrounded by some unseen aura that prevented me from calling him anything else. Mai-san narrowed her eyes as she turned toward him, but she kept the nail gun near Goudo Akira-san¡¯s body. ¡°Hishigami Kyou, third in line to the head family.¡± ¡°You could call me your brother, you know? We are family, if you think about it reasonably.¡± The young man apparently named Hishigami Kyou gave a troubled move of his eyebrows and heavily sat in a wicker chair. He calmly extended a hand toward the opposite chair. ¡°Sit. If you want tea, make it yourself. We are brother and sister, so treating you like a guest would actually be rude.¡± ¡°You sure are calm. If I wanted to-...¡± ¡°Yes, my death would probably be unavoidable. Unlike you, I do not possess any unreasonable strength. Whether I resisted or not, you could kill me if you tried. That is the fate of a person who lives in a reasonable world.¡± ¡°...¡± A chill seemed to fill the air and Mai-san sat in the opposite chair with a sulking look on her face and the nail gun still in her hand. Eh? So, um... ¡°W-wait. I know we¡¯re not really one to talk, but...um, what about Goudo Akira-san who¡¯s still hanging there.¡± ¡°Hm? She is my legal advisor who has been with me through thick and thin. She is also quite skilled. I would love to save her, but as I said, I live in a reasonable world. You can¡¯t expect me to pull off a dashing rescue like a superhero.¡± ¡°...!!¡± She no longer had duct tape over her mouth, but Goudo Akira-san seemed unable to speak. Despite the young and beautiful woman hanging from the ceiling in her underwear between them, the brother and sister spoke as if they were alone. There was no point in arguing whether the Hishigami men or Hishigami women were crazier. They all had a screw loose! ¡°Now, Mai. Do you know why I am here?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem to be to save that woman or to give me any information.¡± ¡°Hishigami.¡± Kyou cut in with that one word and continued despite being faced with Mai-san of all people. ¡°We are aware of the emergency news report saying that Hishigami Mai has died. A few reporters have even foolishly asked if she has any connection to me. Of course, that is not much of a problem. Hishigami is a popular family name in Japan...no, in the entire world. Saying some unidentified person was likely using the name will easily solve the problem.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°But giving that explanation is not reasonable. Lying in front of the police or reporters is not something we Hishigami men do. It is easy, but I do not like doing it. Please do not cause us any more trouble. Do whatever it takes to ensure that, as it will have nothing to do with us. Do you understand?¡± ¡°This is the true essence of the Hishigami men, Sunekosuri.¡± Mai-san sounded utterly exasperated. ¡°Reasonable this and reasonable that. They keep saying it over and over, but they¡¯re actually the craziest of us all. They support a large portion of Japan¡¯s economy and even control the production and supply of defense weaponry. They¡¯re crazy and stand above everyone but still talk about what¡¯s reasonable. If they altered what is reasonable and thus the tendencies of a vast majority of people in the country, they could easily start a war or a coup d¡¯etat.¡± ¡°Well, if that¡¯s the reason of the age, there isn¡¯t much you can do about it, is there? Even if the country fell into decline and over half the population was lost, that would be the result of the reason they themselves desired. We are merely letting that trend carry us along. That is what you must do when you are a good person who wishes to maintain order.¡± ¡°And you feel you need us Hishigami women even if you hate us. You want a breaker you can throw in case the giant system runs out of control.¡± ¡°Please stop that. If Hishigami siblings truly began to fight, it would reduce the world population to about five people. And that is not reasonable at all.¡± Order and destruction. These siblings existed on a scale that sounded straight out of Indian mythology. ¡°So how am I supposed to get the information I need to settle this without a fight like that? Should I turn that woman into a human spiked bat or should I hang you up in her place?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter to me, but how about I simply tell you?¡± He spoke bluntly. It sounded exactly like a brother giving his sister a message from their parents. ¡°You seem to have made a major enemy, Mai. Have you noticed the term Aburatori popping up around you a lot?¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°Basically, someone is up to no good using an Aburatori. Mai, what is your job? Have you considered the possibility that you are viewed as an element that could destroy that plan of theirs?¡± ¡°I know nothing about this supposed plan. They¡¯re the ones that attacked me.¡± ¡°The underworld has no police or trials. The existence of or lack of evidence does not matter. Your world punishes people even if they are simply suspicious, right? Are you sure you did not do anything to make a misunderstanding? Or did you do anything so unreasonable that they might decide to crush you before you became a problem?¡± ¡°...¡± While still holding the dangerous nail gun, Mai-san appeared to think for a bit. Her appearance was nothing to go by as she was a master of the poker face, but it looked like she was having trouble accepting something. ¡°So who is this person? For Hishigami to make an appearance like this, it must be someone from the economic world like you. Is it related to politics?¡± ¡°Yes, it is. If it¡¯s someone like me, we can safely assume they have spread their influence there. If you think about it reasonably, anyway.¡± ¡°How can you say that when you¡¯re involved with voting blocs, policy think tanks, and sponsoring big data to support elections? What, have I made an enemy of the prime minster or something?¡± ¡°Higher than that.¡± Hishigami Kyou-san did not hesitate to make that unthinkable comment. Eh? But what position is higher than the prime minster? ¡°In the east, it¡¯s Akasaka. In the west, it¡¯s Gion. Japanese politics are secretly controlled by a conductor group that is firmly split into two different factions. To them, the boundaries between political parties mean nothing. They control everything even remotely related to politics. Mai, I¡¯m sure even you have heard the urban legends. Those rumors that sound as ridiculous as the nuclear shelter in Nagatachou Station.¡± ¡°You mean the Master of the Restaurant?¡± As soon as she muttered those words, I could sense a strange chill seep into the room as if we had touched on something that was not to be mentioned. It was like she had rudely kicked down a small shrine of unknown origins. ¡°I don¡¯t know how many are involved, but the Western Side is planning something with an Aburatori.¡± ¡°The Western Restaurant is planning something unreasonable?¡± Mai-san gave a confused frown. ¡°That isn¡¯t good. Come to think of it, I did go on a bit of a rampage in Kyoto¡¯s Gion recently. I was investigating an incident related to a ¡®monk¡¯ and I ended up creating quite a few corpses.¡± ¡°And that is the Western Restaurant¡¯s headquarters. That would be why they¡¯re targeting you.¡± Kyou-san sounded exasperated. ¡°The East has been getting all excited with the world¡¯s tallest radio tower and their Edo-style revival campaign, so the West¡¯s small sort of ¡®nationalism¡¯ was already on edge. You poked at that hornet¡¯s nest at just the wrong time, Mai.¡± ¡°The Edo-style revival campaign? Wait a sec. Isn¡¯t that just some VIP¡¯s hobby?¡± ¡°The fact that they have the power to make a national project of that scale out of a mere hobby has angered the Western Restaurant.¡± Kyou-san shrugged. ¡°At any rate, it is simply unreasonable for the true center of the government to rely on a criminal Package. They must be growing senile. Don¡¯t you think that is a problem?¡± ¡°What¡¯s this? Does this person happen to be an eyesore to the Hishigami men?¡± ¡°Of course not. We are perfectly reasonable, so we would never think of anything so dangerous.¡± The young man in casual Japanese-style clothing grinned while standing from the wicker chair. ¡°The individual from the Western Side is named Udou Itsuki. If you are interested, then feel free to pursue him. She must be planning to hold discussions with the international cabinet members because she just so happens to be in one of Hakone¡¯s Intellectual Villages.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t feeding me false information so I eliminate a political rival, are you?¡± ¡°Then make sure you investigate this properly ahead of time. And being manipulated like that is very unlike someone as unreasonable as you. As your brother, it would sadden me to see you like that. Much like seeing a hero from a movie fall into decline.¡± With that, Hishigami Kyou-san readily began to leave the room. Eh? But what about Goudo Akira-san!? ¡°Kyou-san!! Um, wait... Please wait!!¡± She must have thought he really was going to leave her because she frantically cried out. ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°I...I...I...But...I...¡± ¡°Unfortunately, I cannot cover for you. Mai may indeed be an unreasonable person who does not care who she must get involved to reach her goal, but she does at least make a proper judgment about who she kills. You must have done something dirty that angered her and that is not reasonable. It simply goes beyond the power I wield.¡± ¡°But!! You are not allowed to step out of line, so I determined what you wanted and supported your prosperity in a way that did not sully you!! I set up a connection with the Western Side even if it meant dirtying my hands because I thought it would help you in the future! A-and the only reason you rose to third in line over the past few years is because-...!!¡± ¡°But I did not want any of that.¡± Hishigami Kyou-san sounded troubled and that was enough for Goudo Akira-san to fall silent. It was like watching someone finish a speech that had lasted several years only to find out the listener had not understood the language they were speaking. ¡°The line of succession does not matter. If my position is going to fall, then so be it. As long as that fall comes from sticking to reasonable actions, that is. In fact, it is odd for someone like me to be in third place in the first place. From a reasonable point of view, anyway. This is actually quite uncomfortable for me. Being placed outside the course I had planned for could even be called painful.¡± ¡°Ha...ha...¡± ¡°Setting up a connection with the Western Side? That is the opposite of how the Hishigami men operate. Listen. Connections between people are made when they are meant to be made. Trying to forcibly twist them into place will only create unwanted connections. The worst possible outcome is wishing you had met someone under different circumstances and you used that card on someone as large as this. There is likely no longer a way to form a reasonable and peaceful connection with the Western Side. Such a waste. That is the only way to view this.¡± ¡°Ha ha...ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.¡± ¡°But it would be heartless to simply abandon you here.¡± ¡°!!¡± ¡°I will go as far as to call the police. Thinking about this reasonably, the police will surely save you.¡± This time, Goudo Akira-san¡¯s face truly did turn pale. Everyone here knew that basic rule did not apply here, but he simply did not want to step outside of that world. Mai-san lightly waved around the nail gun while still sitting. ¡°Hey, Hishigami Kyou.¡± ¡°There is no reason to refer to your brother by his full name.¡± ¡°Does this inn¡¯s ability to deal with trouble live up to its ¡®high-class¡¯ name? For example, does it dispose of inconvenient corpses and blood stains for you?¡± ¡°I know nothing of that unreasonable world.¡± Hishigami Kyou-san gave a light shrug. ¡°But Akira-kun uses this place enough that she probably knows. So ask that unreasonable woman who so often did such awful things and yet showed no sign of getting caught.¡± ¡°...!!!???¡± The way the muscles in her face tightened must have been enough of an answer. Before I could even squeeze my eyes shut, nails started firing into her vitals with no regards to the x-marks. Part 12 ¡°This is suspicious.¡± Once we left Hell Pass and returned to the rental car parked at the roadside station on the mountain road, Mai-san muttered those three words. It was already evening and the red of the mountain¡¯s maple trees was quite beautiful, but it also reminded me of the bloody scenes I had witnessed recently. ¡°Wh-what is?¡± ¡°Everything that has happened so far. It all makes sense, but it lacks something. The overall picture is accurate, but I feel like a piece is missing. A piece that I can¡¯t afford to overlook.¡± ¡°Um... Do you have anything to support that?¡± ¡°Nope. But the trick to a long life is to check over everything again when you feel like the grim reaper is staring at you. Of course, taking it too far gives you a persecution complex, so you have to have a sense for when to stop.¡± Meanwhile, she stepped on the rental car¡¯s gas pedal and left the roadside station. She drove along the road zigzagging down the mountain and I spoke while making sure I didn¡¯t get carsick. ¡°Wh-where are we going?¡± ¡°Hakone contains a few different Intellectual Villages. The city grew as it repeatedly absorbed other cities, but it was later split apart again. To lose this unknown grim reaper, it would be best to head to another village.¡± Her answer was not enough to eliminate my anxiety. It was possible I had worded my question poorly ¡°What are you planning to do?¡± ¡°Sunekosuri, what is the name of the person behind all this?¡± ¡°Udou Itsuki, a member of the Western Restaurant, right?¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°Eh?¡± I said without thinking. Mai-san grinned while turning the steering wheel. ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t matter if you hadn¡¯t noticed. For now, the problem is how to approach Udou Itsuki. He belongs to one of the Restaurants that control both the ruling party and the opposing party. Simply put, even using the word Restaurant in this way is a dangerous thing. We need to prepare if we¡¯re going to attack someone like this.¡± ¡°B-but everything went so smoothly just now.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just because Goudo Akira was incompetent. I doubt our next opponent will be so easy and I doubt the fortuneteller strategy will work either.¡± ¡°Then what are you going to do?¡± ¡°Udou Itsuki is powerful. His influence is thinly spread across the entire country, but at the same time, the Western Side only represents Japan. He can¡¯t control frameworks larger than that.¡± ¡°W-wait... This has nothing to do with the G20 summit meeting, does it?¡¯ ¡°I see you¡¯ve caught on.¡± She grinned. ¡°Let¡¯s abduct someone even more powerful and threaten Udou. I know. How about an Under-Secretary-General of the UN?¡± Part 13 Tremble tremble!! Tremble tremble tremble!! ¡°Sunekosuri, you don¡¯t have to be so scared. If you keep shaking like that, I¡¯ll use you as a massager. Do you want me to press you against all my naughty bits?¡± ¡°H-how am I supposed to stay calm!? A-a-a UN Under- what was it?¡± ¡°Under-Secretary-General. That¡¯s two below the Secretary-General. But the five permanent member nations have the special privilege to choose the USGs. In the end, it¡¯s a peaceful organization created by the victors of war.¡± The curtain of night had already fallen over the entire area, so everything was dark. The rental car was lit by the light on the ceiling and Mai-san used a handheld device with shady modifications to search something online. Surprisingly, simply searching news sites and the like was enough to find what national leaders and cabinet members were in Japan for the summit. They must have thought no one would misuse that information to cause some kind of incident. Mai-san snapped her fingers. ¡°Good, good. There¡¯s someone nearby we can use. Thomas Albert Jr. He¡¯s American and an Under-Secretary-General. Let¡¯s go for him¡î¡± ¡°We can¡¯t!! If we attack some VIP from the UN, they¡¯ll send swat teams or Delta Force or some other group of muscular men in black masks to shoot us!!¡± ¡°They won¡¯t do that, so don¡¯t worry. And not even I¡¯m going to try any point-blank range kung fu magic while wielding two handguns. It would be exhausting and just a general pain in the ass.¡± ¡°Eh? B-but you said you have business with a strictly-guarded UN Under-Secretary-General.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a loophole. And in this business, it¡¯s only polite to take notes of the characteristics and weakness of world leaders even if you don¡¯t need anything with them. Even cutting out tabloid articles to take with you makes a difference. I doubt anything in there is true, but you can still find the truth from that twisted information.¡± ¡°But this is a VIP of the UN. What kind of opening could there be?¡± ¡°It¡¯s an issue of different systems. Something might be legal in one country but illegal in another. That¡¯s where we¡¯ll make our strike.¡± Part 14 (3rd person) Either a first-string football player or a hitman. That was usually people¡¯s first impression upon seeing Michael Lucas. He was a muscular black man measuring over two meters tall. His arms were a surprising 49 centimeters around. When wearing sunglasses, he looked frightening enough that even back-alley gang members would move out of his way, but he did not actually want any of that in the slightest. Athletics were not his strongpoint. He did not like horror movies or tests of courage. He was utterly bewildered as to why he had lasted so long in the bodyguard business, but every time he asked, the VIPs would laugh and say it was because of what a good person he was. For that reason, he had yet to solve the mystery. ¡°Honestly. What a pain.¡± His glove-like palm held a small handwritten note and he nervously checked it again and again. Simply put, it was a prescription. UN Under-Secretary-General Thomas Albert Jr., the one Michael had been hired to guard, had handed this secret note to this man he knew he could trust. There was a tacit understanding that there could be no worries about the physical or mental state of anyone involved in politics or the administration, but this was a bit different than that. This was about the differences between nations. It was easier to get prescriptions drugs in America than in Japan. Doctors would prescribe painkillers and sleeping pills for people to take every day like they were Vitamin B, Vitamin C, or other supplements. They officially had migraines, insomnia, or some other ailment, but it had actually become a habit. They were taking them because they did not feel right without them, not because there was anything wrong with their bodies. And some drugs that could be prescribed in great quantities with a single signature from one¡¯s attending physician in America were unobtainable in Japan because they were considered too potent. And just for reference, the lethal dose of drugs was based on the subject¡¯s body weight. When the size of the average Japanese person was compared to the average Westerner, that deviation in standards was not too surprising. There was no point in arguing who was right. It was simply a difference between nations. ¡°But what am I supposed to do? Is this really right? I hope this will turn out okay. ...They say when in Rome, do as the Romans do, so I don¡¯t think we should be making waves if we can avoid it.¡± Michael Lucas was muttering to himself because he could not contain it inside. He was generally a timid person. It was so bad that he had been momentarily tempted to go confess it all when he had seen a church within the city of Hakone. However, he had just barely restrained himself. An important G20 summit meeting was underway, so not letting the Under-Secretary-General focus could spread unnecessary chaos through the United States and even the entire world. Or so he told himself. It was already night, so the hospital¡¯s outpatient reception desk and the pharmacy built adjacent to the hospital were both closed. Also, he was unlikely to find the painkiller on the note at those places. Michael instead made his way to a large drugstore that stayed open late into the night. However, the product in question was not stocked on its shelves. He walked straight up to the register of that store filled with bright fluorescent lights and he hesitantly spoke to the bored-looking clerk. ¡°Excuse me.¡± ¡°Ee!? M-may I help you?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. You can speak Japanese.¡± It really did depress Michael a little how scared the clerk was, but he did not let it show. This was always how it had been. Before entering junior high, he had already reached 180 centimeters. Not only had the neighborhood kids looked at him in fear, but their parents had as well. The young clerk made his way into the back of the store and returned with a cardboard box big enough to hold a soccer ball. The side of the box had the logo of an online store familiar even in Michael¡¯s home country. Once the ban on selling drugs online had been lifted, the stores had quickly branched out into a number of services. This was one of those. Instead of having the package sent to one¡¯s home, it could be picked up at a local store. When ordering athlete¡¯s foot medication, hair growth medicine, erectile dysfunction medication, emergency contraceptives, and other products one might want a secret, this service left as few ties to the receiver as possible. Not even family members would know. When ordering from a foreign company, the hurdles to reaching their products could become unclear. ¡°Um, this should be it. The product name is ¡®pills¡¯. Yeah, as usual, that¡¯s a pretty broad category.¡± ¡°This is what you call an embarrassing errand. You should have picked up on that when I offered to pay with cash instead of a card.¡± ¡°O-oh, um! I was not trying to pry. That will be five thousand yen. That includes the tax. Um, hm... How do you say that in English?¡± ¡°I understood you.¡± Michael handed over the money, took the box, and felt a pleasantly cool sensation on his glove-like palms. The box must have been stored in a refrigerator. The large store¡¯s exit seemed quite far away, but it did not actually take more than twenty seconds to reach it. After exiting the automatic glass door and stepping onto the parking lot, he finally let out a sigh. ¡°Should this really be so easy? Even cold and headache medicines are made by gathering just the drug components using a handmade centrifuge.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. But thanks to this, I managed to capture you.¡± He did not catch even a glimpse of the speaker. An instant later, his vision blurred, he fell to the side, and at the very, very end, dull pain spread through his head. Part 15 Mai-san took a small cardboard box and a cell phone from the large black man collapsed in the drugstore parking lot. Tremble tremble. I did not particularly like the asphalt parking lot, but the pressure in my stomach made me forget all about that uncomfortableness. ¡°H-how... How did you pull that off so well?¡± ¡°Is it really that strange? It¡¯s already night, so the hospital, pharmacies, and PO boxes are all closed. They can¡¯t exactly have a bike courier carry it directly to the inn because of all the media presence. That leaves an online purchase shipped to a drugstore as the most likely option. They can arrive as soon as three hours after you make the click.¡± ¡°B-but this is a national chain. There are tons of the exact same chain in the city portion of Hakone.¡± ¡°Even with convenience stores on the same street, some will thrive and some will go under. With the summit meeting underway, a look at the security report will tell you where people gather. And they¡¯re sure to have their package sent to the store that stands out the least and that is farthest away from the crowds.¡± I glanced around the asphalt and my gaze stopped on the muscular bodyguard. I want to believe I¡¯m wrong, but... ¡°Why do you look so worried, Sunekosuri-chan?¡± ¡°Eh? W-well...¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Even I won¡¯t kill people who I don¡¯t have to. The biggest problem isn¡¯t the people with flashy combat skills or great influence. It¡¯s the honest citizen of a small town that everyone loves. Kill them without thinking and the people afflicted by the ¡®kind noise¡¯ will never leave you alone. I¡¯d rather not deal with that.¡± I followed Mai-san toward the rental car and she used the swiped cellphone to call someone. ¡°Hello, hello. Good evening. Yeah, a direct line is a wonderful thing. Oh, you¡¯d be better off not tracing or recording the call. That would only be wrapping the noose around your own neck.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°The bodyguard you sent out on a secret mission has failed. I have the package, so what will you do? I plan to deliver these painkillers you gulp down like mint tablets, so make sure your back door is unlocked.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°If you¡¯d rather I didn¡¯t, that¡¯s fine too. I¡¯ll just take out the next person you send out. But how are you going to survive that migraine? You might be suffering all night long.¡± With that said, Mai-san ended the call and dropped the phone to her feet. After crushing it underfoot, she winked at me. ¡°The negotiations are complete. Let¡¯s go for a direct delivery¡î¡± Part 16 ¡°What? How can you call this cloudy!? Look, the bright full moon is right-... No, wait a second. Don¡¯t tell me...!!¡± ¡°The Pon Poko Pon floats in the night sky.¡± ¡°Y-you¡¯re kidding. That...that guy isn¡¯t the full moon!! That¡¯s...!?¡± ¡°A wonderful stomach that can be mistaken for a perfectly round moon. ...I cut down evil to protect good! I am Samurai Pon Poko!!¡± Mai-san and I made our way to Ennetsu Village, one of the several Intellectual Villages newly created from a piece of Hakone. The American UN Under-Secretary-General Thomas Albert Jr. was staying in the high-class inn there. Thomas-san was a well-built old white man. He must have just taken a bath because he wore a yukata supplied by the inn and was watching a period drama on TV with a sake bottle in one hand. He might have been a Japanophile, so I hoped this crazy incident did not change his impression of the country too much. Mai-san held the small cardboard box and her eyes opened wide when she glanced at the TV. ¡°Huh? They¡¯re showing Samurai Pon Poko here too? Personally, I prefer Kokkuri-san Conquers!! That¡¯s the one about the adventures of a fox, dog, and tanuki traveling around the country and reforming the world! The tanuki was especially nice.¡± ¡°Mh. What¡¯s so great about a tanuki? Those fat Youkai just sit around drinking all the time.¡± ¡°Heh he heh. Sunekosuri, are you jealous?¡± ¡°Jealous? Of what?¡± ¡°Chomp¡î¡± Bfohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? She suddenly picked me up and then went straight for the face! Not the nose and not the jaw. She bit my entire protruding face! ¡°G-geh!! Cough cough!! Wh-what are you doing!?¡± ¡°You were just so cute I couldn¡¯t help but give you a stimulating kiss.¡± ¡°I thought you were going to bite my entire face off! Like in a tomato ad!!¡± I heard someone clear their throat and Thomas-san interrupted our conversation as if slipping a thin blade between us. ¡°Why are you here?¡± ¡°Here, we have a present for spoiled littler Junior. ...But are you sure? These are a lot stronger than some illegal herbs.¡± ¡°This is an issue of the system. These are treated like cough drops in my country.¡± ¡°So what control system do you use?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Which Western system for drawing out the power of the inhuman do you use? Rusalka? Nixie? I¡¯m not a specialist in this, but I detect a feminine scent of death. But if you can¡¯t keep the spirit¡¯s fatalness from leaking out, you¡¯re not going to successfully harness their inhuman power. In fact, you¡¯ll end up losing your own life.¡± ¡°Leann¨¢n S¨ªdhe.¡± ¡°Out of all the options, you had to choose the one that defaults to taking your life force in exchange for her ability. I can see why you need such harsh painkillers.¡± ¡°But this is necessary. Three years ago, we sent a large number of container plant factories to central Africa as humanitarian aid. The large boxes were decorated with ribbons and had a message card attached. When combined with solar power, those plant factories could be harvested more than twenty times a year, so they should have resolved the rampant food shortages there. However, they are showing no sign of recovery due to an unexpected turn of events.¡± ¡°A local criminal group took over and turned them into narcotics factories?¡± ¡°Fully-enclosed plant factories can be hidden inside or underground, so not even satellite photographs are any use. If they are not found immediately, the entire area¡¯s development could be set back thirty years. I need to locate them even if it means taking inspiration that exceeds the human realm. So...¡± In a country where prescriptions for large amounts of drugs were normal, even severe symptoms could be hidden. In that case, the price of protecting something had likely left his body in a terrible state. ¡°What did you gain from going that far?¡± ¡°My dream, I suppose. I did reach that dream, but I had lost everything else by the time I did.¡± Mai-san gave a bored sigh, brushed a hand through her bangs, and spat out an annoyed word. ¡°Caladrius.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°That is the name of a German medical society. They are researching the use of a fairy by the same name that looks like a small bird. It heals the patient by absorbing the illness filling their body, which makes it the natural enemy of a certain gloomy bastard I know. Use your connections to their fullest to look into it. If you¡¯re lucky, you might be able to turn your life around.¡± The old man in a yukata fell silent for a while. But finally... ¡°Fine then. I will forgive your impoliteness to make us even. I saw nothing tonight.¡± ¡°Why thank you.¡± ¡°But your goal wasn¡¯t to interfere in an old man¡¯s business, was it? Why are you even here?¡± Mai-san gave a quick shrug. ¡°Sorry, but I have no interest in you yourself. But that also means I won¡¯t harm you. I didn¡¯t kill the macho bodyguard you sent out on an errand either. I hope you can accept that on good faith.¡± ¡°Then...¡± ¡°Shh. You¡¯ll know soon enough. Although you might be better off not knowing.¡± Just as she pressed her index finger against her lips, the room¡¯s phone emitted a simple ring. Thomas-san reached for the receiver out of habit, but she snatched it before he could. ¡°Hi there. Are you starting to sweat yet? Has it been over a decade since you¡¯ve felt this way?¡± ¡°Who would go that far? This is a UN representative and someone supported by the United States. Do you have any idea how much a single scratch on him could harm our national interests? This could even affect our national security.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s why you called directly instead of using an agent or negotiator. Isn¡¯t that right, Udou Itsuki of the Western Restaurant that runs Japan? I¡¯m thankful you were willing to spare some time for a single freelance agent who lurks in the back alleys.¡± ¡°Let us get to the issue at hand.¡± ¡°I want to know the whole picture. To be blunt, I hadn¡¯t touched on anything related to the criminal plan using an Aburatori Package, so why did you try to take my life by making that false news report a reality?¡± ¡°Why do I have to answer you?¡± ¡°Are you sure you should be saying that? You assembled that in the separate-style, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Well...¡± ¡°Have you forgotten? The separate-style alters the breakup of a single Youkai¡¯s symbolism to run multiple Packages at the same time. It¡¯s a convenient system that lets you concentrate your efforts and immediately cut off the supply of power if someone betrays you, but it also means every Package is linked back to that single core.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already come into contact with a few paranormal incidents related to your Aburatori, so I have the opening needed to reach that core. I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re trying to do, but if you keep this up, I¡¯ll go destroy the core.¡± Straining my ears was enough to just barely hear a sigh come from the phone. ¡°What do you know about the Aburatori?¡± ¡°It is a deadly variety that specializes in killing children,¡± replied Mai-san. ¡°It¡¯s a new one that appeared in the mountain villages of Tohoku during the Meiji period. It sneaks in dressed as a farmer, secretly abducts the village¡¯s children, takes out their organs, and cooks them to take the oil. It¡¯s an easy one to use for offensive Packages, but it must be hard to control.¡± ¡°Pathetic. Did you study using children¡¯s picture books?¡± This may have been Udou Itsuki¡¯s true character. Or perhaps he put on an act of extreme mental superiority to eliminate his anxiety. ¡°The greatest trait of the Aburatori is its relative lack of a historical background,¡± said the voice on the phone. ¡°Youkai can be called paranormal phenomena with wills of their own that have been sharply honed after a natural selection process lasting hundreds or even thousands of years. Some of them are even referred to as gods that fell into ruin after no one worshiped them. But...¡± ¡°The Aburatori is a newcomer that suddenly appeared during the Meiji period. In only just over a century, it has transformed into a major Youkai standing alongside the all-stars. Almost as if it took the stairs three at a time. Is that what you focused on?¡± ¡°Our hope was to speed up the process at which legends mature,¡± bluntly explained Udou Itsuki. ¡°How much can the modern Japanese tell you about the gods? Can they name even ten gods from Japanese mythology off the top of their heads? And I mean without checking the internet and acting like they knew it.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we let the history textbooks take care of that?¡± ¡°Religion is untouchable. That is the unwritten rule of this nation. And yet they still pray when they¡¯re having trouble and feel a certain spirituality in all things. ...It¡¯s all too vague. They call themselves atheists, yet they have a general fear of areas said to have spiritual or mystical power. And at the same time, they do not follow any strict doctrines or traditions. Their belief is fragile. That is why the threat of criminal Packages is so rampant. This country is far too powerless when it comes to the supernatural. Packages may be the only threat at the moment, but in the not-too-distant future a much larger calamity will swallow up the country because of this.¡± That was why he wanted ¡°something¡± to renew the country¡¯s view of religion. That was why he had focused on the Aburatori that had quickly reached the level of the more historical Youkai. That was why he had tried to use such a deadly being that brought nothing but fear and death. ¡°Ha ha!!¡± And yet Mai-san gave a laugh as if mocking a just cause. ¡°You wanted a religious boost for the imprudent younger generation? Don¡¯t make me laugh. What you¡¯re doing is no different from using the name of a famous noble to have an easier time catching people in a scam. What exactly are you trying to artificially increase and spread throughout the country? It¡¯s probably some nasty ideology that would never spread under normal circumstances. Something that would create an era of insanity but send a massive fortune your way.¡± ¡°Say whatever you want. We...¡± ¡°Also, you aren¡¯t really thinking about Japan in all this, are you?¡± It seemed like all sound had vanished from the world. That was just how much Mai-san¡¯s words had torn into the situation. ¡°It is true Japan is a crazy enough country for videos of ghosts and spiritual entertainers to have real influence, but that doesn¡¯t mean everyone in the country has a complex about the occult. Even if they don¡¯t know much about Shinto or Buddhism, they¡¯re still proud just knowing those things have a history of more than a millennium. This country doesn¡¯t need the kind of system you¡¯re talking about. No matter how much effort you put into making this ¡®new product¡¯, no one is going to give it a second glance.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°In that case, are you perhaps focused on exporting the paranormal? Did someone from the G20 come to make business negotiations with you here in Hakone? Some of them are probably very interested in that kind of thing.¡± She glanced toward the corner of the room where the UN Under-Secretary-General sat in a legless chair. ¡°For example, America. Their country was founded a mere three hundred years ago. They may be a religious nation that uses the Bible during trials and the president¡¯s oath of office, but they also top the world when it comes to handgun suicides. They wouldn¡¯t want that transforming into random shootings or group suicides. What is it that is shaking their citizens¡¯ hearts? How can they stop it? If they only had a system to forcibly mature a solid historical background to tell them everything would be fine, they could stop that shaking of their hearts. It seems to me that would establish the needed supply and demand to export there.¡± ¡°Ending the chaos in America is important for our own country as well. No matter what excuses people make, it is a fact that we are relying on them. It is a problem when your partner trips in a three-legged race, isn¡¯t it? So to help them...¡± ¡°How many people have died for this? There must have been quite a few failed test runs before you successfully won over what is an especially horrid Youkai even among the deadly ones. And where were those lost lives born?¡± ¡°You have no right to say that after laying a hand on your own brethren with a smile on your face!! We are doing everything we can to solve these problems while focusing five to ten years down the line. We are focusing on the future! We are nothing like a Hishigami that kills people without reason for her present convenience!! Do you think we sacrificed our own nation¡¯s citizens because we wanted to!?¡± ¡°I hope your fellow Japanese citizens will accept your excuse. What will it be? We were afraid our allied nation in the three-legged race would betray us, so we exported a Package with a backdoor to create an environment where we have a way of manipulating the public opinion of the American people?¡± ¡°Wh-... You!?¡± ¡°Ha ha ha. You want to know why I suddenly brought up a backdoor? Because I know you would do that. This isn¡¯t about evidence to submit for a police investigation or trial. We both live in a world where no proof is needed. But are you sure that¡¯s a good idea? If this is found out, both Japan and America will string you up like a bat in a picture book. You¡¯ll probably be kicked out of the Western Restaurant too.¡± ¡°This is why I wanted nothing to do with a wild beast like you.¡± That comment sounded like a groan and like a curse. The low voice seemed to ooze out of the phone and into the room. ¡°No matter how much the information is restricted or cut off, you fill in the gaps with incomprehensible logic that only makes sense to you. You say what you would have done, but that¡¯s enough to find the right answer and you attack at that weak point! Media control and destruction of evidence is powerless against a madwoman¡¯s inspiration!!¡± ¡°Why thank you. My job doesn¡¯t give me enough time to slowly search through a massive amount of information. In the end, it¡¯s the ¡®nose of the beast¡¯ that finds the answer. And if you can¡¯t believe that, you probably won¡¯t last long.¡± Mai-san¡¯s expression remained unchanged. She maintained a relaxed smile from beginning to end. ¡°More importantly, you have this backwards. You were the one that attacked first with that emergency news report. You can try to hit me as much as you want, but don¡¯t be so selfish as to beg me not to hit back.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? We know that you were investigating us!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°And either way, you would have picked up on the project somewhere once it began to advance. As I said, we were looking to the future. It could not hurt to take you out early. Even if the news method failed, we will definitely kill-...¡± ¡°Sigh.¡± It was as if a switch had suddenly been thrown. Mai-san gave an icy sigh. It contained the same overwhelming disappointment as a long-married couple rejecting all their nostalgic memories and resolving themselves to break up. ¡°That¡¯s enough. I understand most of it now. I had my suspicions, but that settled it. Sorry about interrupting your excitement, but I have no more business with you.¡± ¡°What!?¡± ¡°I mean, you¡¯re supposed to be Udou Itsuki, right? You belong to the Master of the Restaurant that controls Japan from Akasaka in the east and Gion in the west. ...If that was really who you were, you would not be so sloppy. You may be under the impression you are speaking logically, but you are clearly speaking from emotion. And that got the better of you.¡± She sounded listless. Her voice contained no hint of respect or caution. ¡°And you have completely mistaken where the problem lies. The biggest threat is not Hishigami Mai, the lone wolf. It¡¯s the UN Under-Secretary-General listening in from the side, right? He¡¯s an American citizen, so he¡¯s the last person you want learning you¡¯re exporting a Package with a backdoor installed. If you had any sense, your first priority would be figuring out how to naturally eliminate a well-known individual. Of course, pulling off a natural assassination swiftly and quietly at this point would be impossible for almost anyone but a Hishigami woman.¡± For a while, no response came from the phone. However, I could hear an odd sound that was not quite moaning and not quite muttering to oneself. Mai-san continued while sounding truly fed up with all of this. ¡°That¡¯s enough to leave your mind blank? ...That¡¯s it. I get it, so just transfer me to your boss. Talking with a little boy like you isn¡¯t going to get me anywhere.¡± ¡°Th-there is no one higher than me! Ha ha. You seem to have misread that at least. Your cleverness seems to have crossed a line and turned into a victim complex!! In other words...!!¡± ¡°And Udou Itsuki may have a lot of ¡®power¡¯, but that¡¯s in reference to the political power balance. Direct confrontations using the occult are outside his field of expertise. The brain of the operation must be somewhere near you. ...When did you realize they were simply flattering you? They lured you past the point of no return and then used you as a puppet, didn¡¯t they? ¡®They¡¯ being the true leader and brains of the operation who respectfully bows down to you.¡± ¡°Wh-what?¡± ¡°Wait. Did you seriously not catch on? Wow. I did not expect that level of incompetence. But in that case... Hmm. You would have to know that at least, right? But then, if you really are that incompetent...it¡¯s possible.¡± ¡°What!? What are you hiding!?¡± ¡°Well,¡± said Mai-san with a thin smile. ¡°Are you aware you¡¯re only Udou Itsuki¡¯s body double?¡± ¡°What?¡± This time, the phone truly did grow silent as if it had been swallowed up by a void. After several seconds, something finally happened. However, it was not Udou Itsuki speaking. It was a loud gunshot and the sound of something heavy collapsing to the ground. ¡°This is hopeless.¡± After a pause, I heard a young female voice that was clearly different from the previous man. Who is this? ¡°Completely hopeless. I thought an idiot would be easier to control, but they end up tripping you up when they¡¯re that stupid. In a way, this was a good lesson.¡± ¡°Oh, so are you the brains? But why did you work with the body double? You could have dealt with the real Udou Itsuki.¡± ¡°Are you an idiot too? What''s wrong with this country? The real one is too strictly guarded to get anywhere close. But the body double is given a portion of the Restaurant¡¯s authority so no one can tell they aren¡¯t the real one and that portion was enough for me.¡± ¡°You mean for assembling the Aburatori Packages?¡± ¡°You really are an idiot. Or am I just too brilliant? The Aburatori was nothing more than bait to lure in the body double.¡± ¡°Yeah, despite claiming to look to the future, everything he said was way off the mark. Almost like someone was guiding him.¡± ¡°I always thought the biggest villain of Snow White was the mirror of truth. Much like an Ungaikyou,¡± said the annoyed voice. ¡°By the way, my target is you, Hishigami Mai.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t recall doing anything to leave a grudge.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to kill anyone for something like that. Are you stupid?¡± ¡°Then why?¡± ¡°Because this is a small industry. I can tell that we would collide somewhere around the project after the project after my next if I do not take care of you now. And so I will kill you for the sake of the future. Clever, isn¡¯t it?¡± She was not killing Mai-san because she had gotten in her way. She was killing her because she would probably get in her way eventually. And to do so, she was willing to deceive anyone and drag anyone into this. Succeeding would make her a murderer and failing would make her a murder victim. She had flung herself into that hopeless abyss for what might be an imagined dream. ¡°Oh, so pretty much what I usually do,¡± replied Mai-san. ¡°Please do not compare me to an idiot like you. You only just thought that up, didn¡¯t you?¡± They sounded like they were simply chatting. To Mai-san, that may have been fairly accurate. But this person was intent on killing Mai-san for her own safety, so how did she see the ferocious Hishigami Mai who would press onwards and break through any and all barriers? The two agents continued on while paying me no heed. ¡°But my plan will continue even if this idiot of a body double is dead. Don¡¯t think you will survive to see the dawn.¡± I heard a strange sound resembling a laugh. It came from Mai-san¡¯s throat. ¡°No, no. That isn¡¯t enough.¡± ¡°What? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re so stupid you think you¡¯ll awaken to some special power if you¡¯re cornered. Approaching the truth of the situation isn¡¯t going to change anything. You are always being chased within this industry and I will slip through those gaps to kill you. Learning the truth only resolves the problem in cheap mysteries. That won¡¯t work in reality.¡± ¡°Hah hah. I think I¡¯ll throw those words right back at you¡î¡± Mai-san immediately replied in an obviously mocking tone. One of her most frightening traits was her tendency to grow disrespectful instead of shouting angrily. ¡°In this world, whatever happens happens. You don¡¯t say that things happen no matter what. You say that whatever happens happens. Do you get the difference? One of them includes a human will trying to change it and the other does not.¡± Her voice was icily cold and yet she continued to give a smile of true enjoyment. ¡°You seem to be trying to hammer down the tallest nail as a logical way of ensuring your victory, but in my experience, logic backs off if you truly, truly force your desired result through. That¡¯s why your emergency news didn¡¯t reach me despite supposedly being a surefire method. You could also call that the essence of the Hishigami women. And afterwards, the people around us clean everything up. The people who realize the disaster would reach them as well if they did not contain it will automatically head in and clean up after us.¡± ¡°I see. And are you saying their numbers and influence is greater than that of the people I have set in motion? Are you viewing this as an election that counts the negative votes of fear and violence?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t stand a chance if you think this will turn into anything like a proper election. My method is to smash the ballot box and stuff in billions of forged votes to turn everything my way.¡± She seemed to be utterly, utterly enjoying herself. Her expression was filled with the hostility of a beast tormenting its captured prey. But at the same time, the person on the phone may have had the exact same expression. ¡°You didn¡¯t make it that far,¡± said Mai-san. ¡°You stayed inside the framework and gathered logical violence that can be understood in a normal sense. That¡¯s too bad. Things are a lot easier if you break free of that framework and it isn¡¯t often I see someone crawl their way up this high in our industry. It really boggles the mind why people become slaves to the rules here despite having fallen into these back alleys of the world because they couldn¡¯t stand following the rules.¡± ¡°I tried to hear you out, but that¡¯s nothing but the logic of a fool. Are you perhaps the kind of person who thinks wars can be won by trying harder? If so, that¡¯s pretty sad. Real fights to the death are decided by numbers. If you could raise an individual¡¯s value so easily, any of the six or seven billion people on the earth could become a historical emperor. And the human race would have been wiped out a long time ago.¡± When both sides spoke with no intention of gaining mutual understanding, could it really be called a conversation? They both produced an avalanche of words to crush the other and they were both just about equal. It felt like proof that they were standing on the same field. And yet I was unsure how many people or even Youkai could stand up to this monster without being ¡°swallowed up¡±. ¡°While we¡¯re at it, how about giving me your name?¡± asked Mai-san. ¡°That would make this more exciting.¡± ¡°Are you stupid? I¡¯m going to lie in wait and kill you instead.¡± The call ended there. It ended as easily as a phone call between friends who called each other all the time. Mai-san shrugged and tossed the receiver onto the landline¡¯s hook. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Sunekosuri. From here on, it¡¯s a race against time.¡± ¡°Eh? Eh? Do you mean you¡¯re going to fight that agent one-on-one?¡± My honest question brought a troubled look to her face. It seemed to say ¡°Oh, I found an actual idiot.¡± ¡°No. That is definitely not going to happen.¡± Part 17 After leaving the fancy inn and returning to the rental car, Mai-san said the following. ¡°The enemy never gave her name and she sealed the lips of the one connection we had: Udou Itsuki...or his body double, I guess. It¡¯s easy to focus on how she kept talking about going on the attack, but she was definitely making sure to get rid of any information we could use to track her down. If we don¡¯t settle this before she can escape, we¡¯ll always be in danger of attack.¡± ¡°Th-then why was she acting so belligerent?¡± ¡°So she could escape to safety while I went on the defensive. The most obvious example was ¡®Don¡¯t think you will survive to see the dawn.¡¯ Someone who was actually afraid would probably hole up in a building, seal up the windows and doors, and wait until dawn. Meanwhile, she would have vanished and could wait until a month or year down the line to kill them. But I¡¯m not going along with that.¡± The way these people always had a secret plan or two behind what they said made my head spin. I felt exhausted, but my only choice was to ask a question. ¡°What are you going to do now?¡± ¡°To successfully vanish, she¡¯ll be rushing around to destroy any hint that could lead back to her. In that case, we can run into her by getting to one of those hints ahead of her. That¡¯s where we can kill her.¡± This was a race against time. To arrive ahead of her, we would need to get moving faster than her. It would be too late by the time she had destroyed all of the evidence. And once again, these people worked on the assumption that they would kill their opponent. I just couldn¡¯t keep up. ¡°Anyway, the biggest and most obvious hint would be the Aburatori. If she directly assembled the Package, the idiosyncrasies and traits of the assembly could give away her personal information. As she said, this is a small industry. She¡¯d definitely want to destroy that if she¡¯s planning to vanish here.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t quite picture the situation.¡± ¡°She put together a separate-style Package. That means removing the central Youkai will destroy all of the Packages it was used for. So if you wanted to completely destroy everything as quickly as possible, what would you do?¡± ¡°You mean use some kind of ridiculous technique to kill a deadly Youkai that can¡¯t be killed even if you stab or shoot it?¡± ¡°Anyone in this business should be able to kill a Youkai.¡± You make that sound so easy. Just so you know, I¡¯m a canine Youkai myself! Tremble tremble!! ¡°In that case, the issue is where the Aburatori is located. She was probably tricking the body double to keep this whole thing secret and she can¡¯t leave such a dangerous Youkai out in the open. It¡¯s probably locked up somewhere or kept in a state similar to hibernation.¡± ¡°Are you saying there¡¯s a secret base or something hidden in Hakone?¡± ¡°That would actually stand out too much.¡± Mai-san sliced my idea in two. ¡°When smuggling drugs, you can slip them into the bag of an unsuspecting tourist. Even if the drugs are discovered, you can still escape. That¡¯s how a professional treats anything truly dangerous. I¡¯d say the Aburatori was secretly thrown in the attic or basement of some normal person who has no connection to the occult.¡± ¡°B-but if she¡¯s going to swiftly destroy that evidence...¡± ¡°Look at this.¡± Mai-san turned her handheld device toward me. It displayed an article from an online news site. ¡°Mysterious fires in the new urban region of Hakone. Three homes completely destroyed. Gasoline residue was discovered on the exterior walls, so the police are investigating it as arson.¡± ¡°Very unnatural. These timely fires are almost asking me to investigate them. And while I¡¯m digging through empty rubble, she¡¯ll be leisurely finishing off the Aburatori.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why she did this? Y-you have to be joking!! The people who lived there lost their homes and some might have died!!¡± ¡°We can discuss morality later. To look at this another way, she thinks I¡¯ll outdo her if she doesn¡¯t go this far. That means our target must be somewhere pretty obvious. Somewhere that would stand from just a glance at the map.¡± As she spoke, Mai-san opened her device¡¯s map service. She also called up the locations of the fires in the residential district of Hakone¡¯s city area. It looked like that area dealt more in selling ready-made homes than renting out apartments. ¡°Sunekosuri, what stands out most to you?¡± ¡°E-eh? W-well, the entire place is laid out neatly like a chocolate bar, but I guess somewhere with an unnatural amount of land would stand out most. For example...¡± ¡°Oh, but no choosing the parks. If the place has no clear owner, you can¡¯t accuse the owner if something goes wrong. In other words, it has to be a privately owned building.¡± ¡°Th-then here maybe?¡± I casually pointed my front paw at a building. ¡°Um, Green Leaves Home? A nursing and welfare facility? Eh?¡± ¡°In other words, an old folks home. It was built half a year ago, so it¡¯s almost brand new. I don¡¯t know when the Aburatori decoy project started, but someone could have dug a space under the floor during construction and created a secret space not even the owner knows about. In other words, she could have done whatever she wanted.¡± ¡°So the person behind all this will be going there? To destroy the evidence by killing the Aburatori? B-but then...¡± ¡°Right.¡± Mai-san cheerfully nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s stake the place out to see what she does. Once we know what methods she uses, killing her will be easy.¡± For an instant, my brain refused to understand what she meant. Eh? You mean...um...what you¡¯re saying is... To sum it up...!! ¡°W-w-w-w-wait! I don¡¯t know who this enemy is, but she¡¯s coming to this facility if we don¡¯t do anything, right!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°She dumped gasoline on and burned down innocent people¡¯s houses just to throw us off her trail! Can she really kill this hidden Aburatori with a single attack? Because...because if she gets into a large-scale battle with it, what will happen to the old men and women staying there!?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if they get caught up in this. Our enemy doesn¡¯t have time either, so she isn¡¯t going to considerately sneak in or anything. She¡¯ll probably pretend to be a home invader and go around killing people. If she steals some random bankbooks and seals, the police will be fooled. And if she later withdraws some money and exchanges it overseas, they¡¯ll think it was the work of a foreign group.¡± That¡¯s not the point. That¡¯s not what I¡¯m talking about! You don¡¯t get it at all!! ¡°If you know that, how can you suggest we just watch!?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯m killing them myself.¡± ¡°Those old men and women are completely innocent!! Are you just going to sit idly by while they¡¯re killed!?¡± ¡°If I don¡¯t, I won¡¯t know what the enemy can do.¡± I distinctly felt my mind shake. Why couldn¡¯t she understand something that anyone should know without being told? And why was someone like that in a position where she held in her hands the lives of everyone in that facility? ¡°Um, Sunekosuri. It goes without saying, but I didn¡¯t enter this world because I wanted to be some righteous hero. Did you really think I wouldn¡¯t get civilians involved? What about that UN Under-Secretary-General? Was he a villain?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You can think what you want, but I don¡¯t follow those rules. I take the actions necessary for a certain victory and sometimes that process will just so happen to save civilian lives. However, that doesn¡¯t have enough value to leave the path of certain victory.¡± Ahh... Most likely, she was overwhelmingly right. In this small industry at least. Idealism meant nothing here. You would never win, you would never survive, and you would never stop having everything taken from you. I had known that. Even my wife had suddenly vanished one day and I hadn¡¯t found her no matter where I looked. I didn¡¯t think something so unreasonable could be explained away while sticking to idealistic ideas. That was why I had entered a dangerous organization like Hyakki Yakou in the first place. I had been taught all this by the very thing that had brought me here. But... Even so... ¡°To hell with that, you damn roach. Do you have any idea what you¡¯re saying?¡± A painful silence fell over the rental car. I had said something decisive. I understood that and because I understood it, I opened my mouth again. ¡°Do you think you¡¯ll end up on the top of the world if you act like some kind of superhuman and look down on everyone like that? You¡¯re taking the world too lightly. Your position doesn¡¯t rise just because you look down on someone else. You haven¡¯t gained anything.¡± ¡°Sunekosuri.¡± ¡°Are you afraid of putting in any actual work? Are you afraid of having a clear loss thrust in your face if you take on an actual challenge like protecting those old men and women but fail? Is that why you don¡¯t even try and minimize your losses!? If so, you¡¯re just laughable. You aren¡¯t protecting anything. Not one thing!! You let the numbers mislead you while you abandon what matters most!!¡± ¡°Sunekosuri.¡± I didn¡¯t know if it was the reflection of the moonlight entering through the dark car¡¯s window or if it was something else, but definite light filled her two eyes as she silently looked at me. ¡°You can pick a fight with me here if you want, but Hakone is a battlefield now. The rule about Youkai not dying doesn¡¯t apply here. ...Are you sure you understand that? You aren¡¯t thinking some mysterious power is going to neatly settle everything in the end, are you?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You may feel like god is on your side right now and you might mistakenly think a righteous power will reside within you because you made the right decision, but that¡¯s nothing but kind noise. If you continue on like this, you¡¯ll find yourself surrounded by enemies. You¡¯ll turn around, but you won¡¯t find anyone there and no one will give you any help. The source of your power is a hollow delusion. Do you understand that?¡± ¡°I do.¡± I was a Sunekosuri. I had no cruel power to kill people like a Yuki Onna or Shichinin Misaki. I looked like a small dog and all I did was rub up against the shins of passing travelers. I knew just how dangerous it was for such a tiny and powerless Youkai to head out alone. ¡°But I am standing here. Whether by coincidence or inevitability, I am here now. No matter how weak or puny I might be, I can influence the overall situation now that I¡¯m standing on the stage. That possibility remains, so the rest is my problem. You have no right to tell me what to do!!¡± ¡°Is that so? Well, if you do understand, I won¡¯t stop you.¡± Mai-san rolled down the passenger side window. There was nothing more to say, so I leaned out the window and entered the Hakone night. I was certain she was not as bad a person as she claimed to be. If she was truly living a life free of bonds like this mysterious enemy of ours, she would have no reason to choose her targets so carefully. While disguising it as a failed unexploded ordnance recovery or a sudden volcanic eruption, she could have blown away the enemy along with the entire city of Hakone with no concern for the civilians or G20 leaders. It sounded absurd, but with her power and skill, it would have been a piece of cake. But she did not do that. No matter what anyone said and even if she mocked the idea herself, she drew a line between who she would kill and who she would not. But she had not noticed that fact herself. And right now, she was trying to crush that small bud underfoot without ever noticing it was there. Even if it was temporary and forced on me by my higher ups, I was her partner. I could not allow her to crush that small bud. And to do that, I had to protect the old men and women of the old folks home from our enemy! Part 18 I could not rely on the great power of Hishigami Mai. I had to fight someone of equal or greater power on my own. The situation was hopeless. In fact, my specs were no different from a small dog¡¯s, so even arriving at the residential area in question would be difficult. I approached a truck waiting at a light in the dark city, made a few failed jumps, and finally gathered all my effort and willpower to climb up onto the back of the truck. On the way, I was nearly taken in a completely different direction, but I moved to different trucks a few times before finally reaching my destination. I was met by such silence that it felt like the world had been destroyed. The night was pitch black. My vision blurred and it was likely due to more than just a Youkai¡¯s dislike of modern cities. There was some unknown presence here and it was on a level to instill fear even in a Youkai like me. Even this late at night, it was strange to find no lights whatsoever. I felt the same sharp aura as when the electricity was cut off before a SWAT team barged in on a criminal barricaded in a building. Had the enemy already arrived? Would I really make it in time? For the time being, I ran along the asphalt road to reach the Green Leaves Home. The grounds were smaller than a school¡¯s. They were closer to the size of a kindergarten. The well-maintained lawn contained a few pieces of playground equipment and the sort of grill set found at campsites. They may have been for when the residents¡¯ grandchildren visited. A quick look around showed no signs of broken windows or doors. Deciding I had arrived first, I rang the front doorbell. More specifically, I began jumping again. Kh... Hitting the button with my front paw is surprisingly hard!! After a while, a few lights came on inside the building and slippered footsteps approached the door. When the door opened, a short old woman stepped out. ¡°Oh? What do you want at this hour, little Youkai?¡± ¡°I am...¡± I just about named myself, but quickly realized something. What would I gain by identifying myself as a powerless Sunekosuri? I rethought my plan and gave a meaningless snort. ¡°I am a Youkai that predicts the future.¡± ¡°Oh, my.¡± ¡°A tornado is coming! A huge disaster is coming! In just a few minutes, it will pass through here. If you understand, then please wake everyone and evacuate. A rectangular portion of the lawn has been cut out and there¡¯s an underground space there, right? That should work as a tornado shelter.¡± ¡°Oh, my, my. That is a problem. We need to tell the neighbors too.¡± ¡°Hurry!! I¡¯ll go tell the neighbors!!¡± When I urged her on, she looked troubled but still moved back inside the facility. Despite the late hour, the thirty to fifty old folks obeyed my instructions. It may have been their age that let them trust the words of a Youkai like that. ¡°Hurry! I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s a storehouse or what, but there should be a door in the yard leading underground. Please head there!¡± ¡°Oh? Aren¡¯t you a Sunekosu-...¡± ¡°Hurry, hurry!! The tornado will be here soon. Woof woof!!¡± One of the old men just about saw through my lie, but I silenced him with pure momentum. Right now, I was an ominous canine Youkai that predicted disasters. After making sure they had all made their way below the yard, the previous old woman began to close the door from the inside, but she stopped for a moment. ¡°What about you? There¡¯s a storm coming, isn¡¯t there?¡± ¡°A tornado is coming, but don¡¯t worry. I may not look it, but I am a Youkai and I still have work to do. I need to inform as many people in the neighborhood as I can.¡± ¡°Okay, but come back here if it gets dangerous. Just because you¡¯re a tough Youkai doesn¡¯t mean we can force all our pain onto you.¡± I said I would and she finally closed the door. Now, then. I pictured the general layout of the old folks home and hurried around to check with my own eyes. There was a rectangular concrete building, a tank of what was likely town gas out back, swings and a slide in the large yard, and the grill set. Was there anything I could use as a weapon or otherwise? There would be blades in the kitchen, a fire extinguisher in the entranceway, and a tool box I couldn¡¯t find one. There was probably a storage closet or something somewhere, though. After looking around a few times, I found the gardening tools: agrochemicals, plastic rope, and steel stakes. I would do everything I could and I ran around making my preparations. The enemy would arrive eventually and she would kill all witnesses even if there were a hundred or even a thousand of them. Those elderly people could not escape on foot in the middle of the night, so intercepting the enemy here was the only option. And meanwhile the only person who has an actual chance of pulling that off is-... Just as that thought entered my mind, something happened in just an instant. The sound of destruction was simply overwhelming and it took me a while to realize what had happened. I had been standing on all fours in the large yard, but my vision began spinning around and around. Everything transformed into a collection of meaningless flowing lines. My body was in midair and even the cement blocks surrounding the yard and the ground itself had been blown away by a massive strike on the level of a plane crash. By the time I realized all that, my thoughts finally caught up. I had been knocked into the air by something frightening. It was a giant arm measuring several dozen meters long. It looked like it was made from armor panels and thick leather held together with glue. A scooping upper cut had torn through the cement blocks and the ground to mercilessly strike me. That was all there was to the attack, but I shot across the grounds of the old folks home and mercilessly slammed into the building¡¯s wall. The stones that flew along with me broke through the windows and even the wall. ¡°G-gah!? Gbbh. Bebhh!!¡± I can¡¯t...breathe!! My own blood...is blocking my throat!! ¡°Cough....cough cough!! Pant pant!!¡± I somehow managed to cough up the blood and secure a path for air, but my head was still shaken. I was a Youkai and thus wouldn¡¯t be killed even if I was stabbed or shot, so what was this? I felt the pain of having my ribs squeezed to their limit and having every single organ crushed. I was undoubtedly approaching death. By the time I noticed the sound of scraping metal, the giant arm had vanished. In its place, someone stepped over the smashed cement blocks and into the yard. It was a girl who looked about high school age and who wore a showy yellow sailor uniform. I did not know if any school actually used that uniform, but there was another more important issue. Simply meeting this kind of person would mean death, so was it even possible for her to have a normal school life? She gave me an utterly scornful look as I unsteadily tried to stand. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you actually thought you¡¯d gotten here ahead of the professional agent and that I just so happened to attack just as you finished your pathetic preparations. If so, you¡¯re not very bright. Not very bright at all. Of course that isn¡¯t what happened.¡± As she approached, I detected a sweet juicy aroma similar to peaches. The kind smell seemed so out of place in the otherwise nightmarish scene that I felt like my senses had been thrown out of whack. ¡°I¡¯m a freelance agent, you know? I make my way through this world without the help of an organization and I¡¯ve survived this long. Did you really think you were faster than someone like that? It was the opposite. The complete opposite. I had already arrived and I was monitoring you to judge your strength. That¡¯s what happened. You may be stupid, but I assume you get it now.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Now, here¡¯s a question for you. If I went to the trouble of judging your strength, why did I just make a blatant head-on attack? The answer is because I judged you were nothing worth fearing!!¡± With a metallic sound, her slender right arm transformed from fingertip to shoulder. It was now a mass of steel and leather held together with glue. It almost looked like old Japanese armor. That was the identity of the previous attack. It was a transforming suit of armor. But as soon as I thought that, the truth far outdid my imagination. ¡°The Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach. That is the name of the artificial Youkai I created. In other words, this is my Shikigami. Now, what legend do you think I based this on?¡± The Scarlet Peach. A gentle and sweet aroma filled the air. I shuddered and all of my fur stood on end. It can¡¯t be... I thought of a name so well-known even a child would recognize it. ¡°Momotarou!?¡± ¡°His extermination of the oni is the simplest symbolism there is when it comes to killing Youkai. Even if you gathered thousands upon thousands of deadly Youkai, I could kill the entire horde unharmed. Sorry, but if you were a human who could be killed by normal means, you might have actually lasted longer.¡± She would not even try to use a gun or a knife. She was the type to choose a different set of weapons when fighting a human or a Youkai. And here, she had switched gears to truly become my natural enemy. Part 19 (3rd person) Inside the V-shaped flying wing that was Hyakki Yakou¡¯s mobile headquarters, the group¡¯s Mamedanuki let out a smoky sigh. The Youkai was less than thirty centimeters tall and looked like a stuffed tanuki, but her(?) role was that of a body double. For that reason, she was ridiculously good at information analysis. What information should be thrown out and what information should be protected? Who suspected her and who trusted her? If she made a single lie to protect herself, how would it eventually come back and affect her? If she could not instantly analyze all that and smoothly make a decision, she would never have been given the job of a body double. Currently, that expert of a Manedanuki was grimacing while staring at the documents on the low table she lay on. ¡°Honestly, he let the kind noise get the better of him. Does he really think a contact who supports things behind the scenes could really defeat a professional monster if he stood in harm¡¯s way? And against someone who built a Momotarou specialized in slaughtering Youkai no less.¡± It was hard to think he stood a chance. And oddly enough, a certain mindset would view that itself as a reason to fight. That mindset was an ally of the weak. Those were the heroes of epics told the world over and of the fictional period drams and westerns derived from those epics. The deeds of those heroes were indeed attractive, but that was the attraction of doing something that would normally never succeed. If one hundred people attempted them, not all of them would be successful. That attraction was the maw of a great monster. If you let it tempt you, you would be unable to resist its pull and its many fangs would tear you to pieces. ¡°That idiot is going to die. And yet he¡¯s seen countless people disappear in this same way.¡± At that point, a voice directly opposed the Mamedanuki¡¯s accurate analysis. ¡°He won¡¯t lose.¡± The voice came from a small child of an already small species. The puppy was only about five centimeters tall and he looked up at the Mamedanuki with his four legs braced against the floor. He stared straight up at her. ¡°Daddy won¡¯t lose to a bad guy.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± muttered the Mamedanuki while toying with her slender Japanese-style pipe. ¡°He still hasn¡¯t settled things with me. And he won¡¯t give this an ending that would make the lady sad.¡± Part 20 The hard creaking sound of the armor continued. It was coming. I didn¡¯t know how it worked, but that ridiculous attack that instantly grew to several dozen times its size was coming. ¡°...!!!!!!¡± The massive fist tore through the air itself as it flew straight toward me. I only had the athletic ability of a small dog, so I could never avoid it even if I jumped out of the way now. But I was a Sunekosuri. I was a Youkai that could do nothing more than rub up against travelers¡¯ shins in the night. But even if that was a useless ability, my movements could reach the supernatural when doing that. ¡°Oh?¡± The girl wearing the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach sounded surprised. To her, it may have looked like my small form suddenly vanished. In truth, I had only snuck right up to her feet. The great destruction arrived a moment later. That building had looked so sturdy, but a great din burst out as the first floor was torn to pieces as easily as a spider web. My chest hurt, but I had avoided the attack. And from here...!! As soon as that thought came to me, I heard a hard sound. The soft girl¡¯s skin I was rubbing my cheek against changed to cold and hard metal. ............................................................................................................................................................... She made such a skilled recovery that my mind grew absolutely blank. She did not hesitate to bring her Japanese armored foot down to crush my back. It was a sharp strike as if from a pile driver. At the same time, the armor made of metal and leather expanded and increased its destructive force with its incredible mass. I was fairly certain I heard something break inside my body. But in reality, I was feeling the ground cave in and collapse below me because of all the weight bearing down on me. Yes, there was a space underground. I should have been crushed between the giant foot and the ground, but the thin layer of ground broke instead and I fell into the space below. But wait. The space below the lawn would be...! ¡°Cough, cough.¡± I heard coughing from surprisingly nearby. A large pile of dirt covered my head and someone was looking down at me instead of worrying about themselves. ¡°Wh-what is it? This isn¡¯t a tornado. What is going on? And...and why are you bleeding so much?¡± Dammit!! How could I let myself fall into the very place I had the old men and women evacuate to!? This is no different from pushing them right in front of the wild beast!! ¡°Hee hee.¡± Directly above, I heard the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach girl laugh. The gentle aroma of peaches invaded this supposed area of safety. ¡°Hee hee. Hee hee hee.¡± ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhh!!¡± I could not let the fight come here. I had to avoid a location that would get them involved. I immediately moved through the elderly group by travelling from shin to shin. My swift movement looked like someone darting through the gaps in a forest or like the movements of a snake or eel. My goal was the stairway leading up and the door to the surface. Nothing mattered except starting this anew from a position that would not put the old men and women in danger. But my efforts were not rewarded. By the time I had run up the stairs and to the door, the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach had already attacked. The giant arm of armor defeated the entire purpose of an underground structure much like destroying a car¡¯s roof to turn it into a convertible. The wrecking ball of a fist approached along with a tremendous amount of dirt and knocked me and the steel door into the air outside. I did not even have it in me to cry out. When my small body finally slammed into the ground, I found myself a disturbing distance away. This was the area with the playground equipment. Specifically, I had landed on the gas range of the grill set. I can¡¯t win. Even if infinite options spread out before my eyes, every single one of them would ultimately lead to my death. The girl wearing the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach had made that a reality. She had set things up that way before beginning the battle. That was why I could not win. It did not matter how much I struggled. In fact, the more I struggled, the more I would be hopelessly cornered. ¡°Ahh, ahh. I was spotted.¡± I heard a footstep. ¡°So which would you prefer? Should I slaughter those old people after roasting you or should I wait to roast you afterwards? Now that they saw a professional at work, their fate is sealed. You can choose whichever order you like, though.¡± I heard another. She was slowly approaching, but I could not move. I was like a fish on the chopping block. I could not even move enough to fall from the dangerous-looking gas range. The unnaturally gentle peach aroma reached my nose. The girl controlling and wearing the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach had arrived close enough to look down on my bloody form. Her expression was less that of someone preparing a meal and more that of a child torturing a captured insect. But despite knowing what fate awaited me, I could not make the nimble movements of a movie star. An ominous vibration shook the gas range and myself. When I realized her slender fingers had grabbed the ignition switch, an unpleasant feeling ran down my spine. ¡°Have you learned your place yet?¡± ¡°A-all too much.¡± ¡°Then die.¡± Her smooth and unhesitating words seemed to burn my stomach as she spoke without holding back. ¡°I¡¯d really rather not eat dog, but it would be a shame to have you go to waste. How about I feed you to those old people? I wonder how they would react to that.¡± ¡°But thanks to this, I¡¯ve learned some of the secret behind your Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach.¡± Her fingers on the switch paused for just an instant. But this pause was rooted in interest and curiosity, not fear and caution. She seemed to be saying she would ignite the gas range the instant those feelings cooled down. ¡°It¡¯s not quite accurate to say that strange armor harms me as a Youkai. The punching and kicking aren¡¯t what really matter. If so, you wouldn¡¯t be trying to cook me on a gas range in the end. You can¡¯t kill a Youkai by stabbing them or shooting them, even with a harmless Youkai like me. Even a gas range is a normal method. Using it to torture me is one thing, but you wouldn¡¯t choose it as a finishing blow.¡± ¡°Meaning?¡± ¡°You use two different supernatural powers. The first is the armor and the second is the creation of a field in which Youkai can be killed with normal methods. And outside the armor, there¡¯s only one symbol of Momotarou here: that peach aroma. You scatter that around to prepare the environment needed to exterminate the oni.¡± The girl gave a surprisingly cute laugh of confirmation. ¡°You may look pretty stupid, but you made it that far, did you? Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach includes both a Shikigami and a fire altar. Combining Onmyoudou and Mikkyou is a heretical method much like combining non-complementary foods for a gimmicky dish. That¡¯s why it should have slipped past any specialists in this field. ...It looks like taking on an idiot backfired.¡± ¡°You were never wielding any especially strong power; you were weakening us Youkai. That armor is being used entirely to attack. It isn¡¯t actually protecting you at all.¡± If she could truly wield such unmatched power, she would not have needed to use a gun when killing Udou Itsuki¡¯s body double. It would be best to assume her supernatural power, the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach, could only wield its full power against a Youkai. ¡°So?¡± She tilted her head. ¡°Whatever the case, you¡¯re still going to die here. Just like any old dog, you can easily be killed with a knife or gun right now. Or are you so stupid you don¡¯t even know what it is you¡¯re lying on or what my right hand is holding? ¡°Ha ha.¡± I laughed without meaning to. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because you scatter that peach aroma everywhere, but have you really not noticed anything ¡®off¡¯?¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°This is indeed an outdoor gas range used for cookouts. And it¡¯s really easy to ignite because a gas pipe buried underground carries fuel to it. But what if someone had sabotaged it ahead of time?¡± She stopped breathing when I said that. She seemed to have finally noticed the stink mixed in with the peach aroma. ¡°I¡¯m a weak Youkai that can¡¯t do anything more than a small dog and I have no traits that would let me kill a human, but even a small dog¡¯s prank can cause a disaster. For example, he could bite through the rubber hose connected to the gas line.¡± ¡°Do you really understand what you¡¯re saying?¡± ¡°And your technique only provides offense! You completely ignored defense because you assumed any Youkai weakened by the peach aroma couldn¡¯t do anything worth worrying about. So what if someone brings a normal method into this? If you¡¯re caught in a gas explosion, I doubt you¡¯ll escape unharmed!!¡± ¡°My fire altar is still weakening you, so you can¡¯t say you won¡¯t die because you¡¯re a Youkai. If there¡¯s an explosion here, that normal method will-...!!¡± ¡°Yes, I know.¡± As I spoke, I moved my mouth to show off my teeth. Specifically, I showed off the piece of flint the size of a sesame seed I had glued to my canine tooth. I had taken apart a cheap lighter I had found inside the facility to get the flint. And after choosing to show it off, I made an announcement. ¡°But what does that matter, you damn roach?¡± I immediately clacked my canine teeth together. You¡¯ll probably never understand just what strength fills my heart while I desire to help these complete strangers without trying to earn anything from it myself. And that is why you will lose!! A tiny orange spark burst into the dark night. The look on the girl¡¯s face had been that of someone who had never once thought of anything but her own victory, but in this instant, I saw that look distort. And a moment later... ...my vision... ...grew...white. Part 21 I was gasping for breath. My vision faded in and out. I felt like I would lose consciousness if I stopped focusing for even an instant. I was lying on the lawn a good distance away from the grill set. I heard what sounded like a crackling fire and a corner of the facility grounds was glowing orange. I desperately tried to stand, but I could not put my legs below me. My front right leg would not move as I told it to. Half of my vision was covered in something dark. Part of me may have been broken or burned, but I was a Youkai, so it was possible I would naturally recover. After all, we generally gathered strength through the passage of time. Even so, I had no way of healing my wounds right away. ¡°This isn¡¯t...¡± I gave up on standing and practically dragged my face along the ground to move at about the speed of a caterpillar. ¡°This isn¡¯t over yet...¡± I had to evacuate the old men and women from the facility grounds. I had not been able to predict where the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach girl would attack, so I had sabotaged the gas lines all over the grounds to create as many attack points as possible. It had just so happened that the outdoor grill set was the one I ended up at. For example, I had also created a gas leak in the facility¡¯s kitchen, so I needed to prepare for a possible ignition of that one as well. And if Mai-san¡¯s prediction was correct, the girl had been controlling Udou Itsuki¡¯s (or his body double¡¯s) organization and they had kept the deadly Aburatori somewhere on these grounds. I didn¡¯t know what method they were using, but it was impossible to know who the Youkai would bare its fangs toward if the battle or fire woke it up. That meant it would be best to have the old folks escape as soon as possible. My goal was not defeating the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach. No matter the reason, if even one of them died in the very end, it would mean I had lost. And so I dragged my battered body toward those old men and women. One day, when I found my missing wife and had my family back, I would be able to tell them with pride the path I had taken to reach that point. I can¡¯t give in now. Part 22 (3rd person) A quiet noise sounded from the sea of spreading flames caused by the gas explosion. ¡°Oh...gh...¡± ¡°It¡± had a mouth to speak. However, the exposure to the intense heat had completely destroyed its lips and throat. ¡°G-g-gah-gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!¡± Unable to speak properly and letting loose something like a roar, it forcefully stood up within that scorching orange hell. The damage went beyond the face. All of its skin had melted into something like a cream and fused with its crumbling clothing. Its entire body had become a twisted mass of muscle fibers. Its hair had vanished in the flames. Its soft subcutaneous fat had completely cooked and separated from its body, so it looked like a sexless anatomy model. Even so, it did not die. Something odd was mixed in with that model. An amber-dyed material that looked at least one hundred years old had been hidden below the skin. The material was placed around the body as if to strengthen the skeleton, so it looked like a cyborg made with traditional Japanese mechanisms. With a wet sound, it walked through the flames. Its eyeballs had almost started to boil and its vision was as foggy as looking through frosted glass, but it still searched for a single target. That being a harmless Youkai. The Sunekosuri. That Youkai had apparently not escaped unscathed, but he was better off than her. His lighter weight may have allowed the explosion to throw him outside the scorching hell. She could not accept that. She could not accept that his injuries were lighter than hers, that he was in a better position than her, that he was desperately crawling through this hellish scene to save some normal people, or that he had achieved victory despite being infected by the kind noise. In short, she could not accept any of it. (I¡¯ll kill him.) The girl tried to mutter under her breath, but her melted lips had fused together and she could not even do that. (I¡¯ll kill him! Crush him!! Ruin it all for him!!!! I have to do that if I¡¯m going to get back on my feet. Whether it turns that damn Youkai into a corpse or a pile of flesh, I¡¯ll thoroughly smash him to pieces!!) She moved her melted body toward the Sunekosuri. She would first smash the canine Youkai to pieces, show him to those old people, and then ask them to eat him. Any who refused, she would kill right then and there. Any who did eat him, she would line up and kill at the very end. Either way, she would slaughter them all. But as soon as she made those plans, she heard what sounded more like an explosion than a gunshot and a fist-sized hole opened in her chest. ¡°Ah?¡± What had once been a girl looked down to her own chest. The flesh, blood, bone, and organs were all missing. She had been pierced straight through and what had been there was the most important of the human organs: the heart. It had vanished like a magic trick that stole the hearts of anyone who saw it. It had been done so skillfully that she forgot to die. It was just like a fish prepared and served while still alive. And her melted ears heard a dull electronic tone. A cellphone was ringing. The remains of what had been a skirt were stuck to the waist of that roasted anatomy model. She grabbed the device that had transformed into something like cheese melted on toast and she answered it. The connection was so clear it seemed like some kind of an illusion. She forcibly ripped her fused lips apart and finally managed to speak. ¡°Hishigami...Mai...¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. You¡¯re the one behind all this, aren¡¯t you? Do you know what I did¡î?¡± ¡°An anti-materiel rifle? ¡°Nope. Wrong. It was a.50 caliber heavy machinegun. But there are some crazy people who use them for sharpshooting from 2000 meters away. The rounds are the same after all.¡± ¡°No...the sound of the shot and the hit...were almost simultaneous. This is just like thunder and lightning... You have to be nearby. Where...are you? I was waiting here...to capture you. But you...had that Youkai...hound me. Get...out here. I¡¯ll kill you...with my own hands.¡± ¡°Ha ha ha! I had the Sunekosuri hound you? Are you sure you want your dying words to be a pun!? And sorry, but I¡¯m not about to take you head-on when you can still move around after all that. And I don¡¯t think he was wrong when he said a normal method would kill you, so just die already. ...Besides, I¡¯ve 80% lost when I rely on a gun, so this definitely isn¡¯t a fight I want a part of.¡± ¡°...¡± The anatomy model briefly fell silent but finally spoke again. ¡°Why are...you here? To save the residents...of the old folks home? Or to...save that Sunekosuri?¡± ¡°Sorry, but I¡¯m a professional who knows where to draw the line. I know all too well how frightening the kind noise can be. I¡¯m not foolish enough to risk my life for something like that.¡± ¡°Then...¡± Why had she attacked now? Whether it was the Sunekosuri or the old people, the best time to take the shot would have been the instant the girl-turned-anatomy-model had killed her target and let her guard down. ¡°To be honest, my plan was to stir up the Sunekosuri, have him run off to where you were waiting, and then shoot you once you showed up because you were irritated with the eyesore of a Youkai running around.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°But he did better than I had expected. He actually pulled off that absurd fairy tale of his. He didn¡¯t quite finish the job, but dragging out your secret was quite valuable indeed. ...That¡¯s right. Momotarou did not have special power because of a legendary weapon or undergoing some amazing training. His very birth included the symbolism of the peach, a fruit believed to ward off evil. So you¡¯re an evil-destroying cyborg given a boost by the scented wood placed inside your body. If I hadn¡¯t noticed, I might have taken you too lightly and made a mistake.¡± That terribly arrogant woman was saying her life had been saved by that stuffed animal of a Youkai. ¡°In that case, this is an agreement between professionals. Now that the Sunekosuri has achieved his goal of saving those old people and has also found your weakness for me, I should finish my own job. I¡¯ll kill you, take care of the Aburatori, and bring this incident to an end. That dirty work is my part to play.¡± She sounded almost jealous. This tone was one she would never use in front of the Sunekosuri. It was like she had seen something she had once possessed but had thrown away in order to survive. And most likely, she was not really speaking to the anatomy model that had been their enemy. Head, gut, waist, limbs, etc. Before thoroughly destroying every part of that girl¡¯s body with.50 caliber bullets which were the size of hammerheads, Hishigami Mai muttered one last sentence. ¡°You were really cool, baby¡î¡± Volume 4, 4: ??? /// ...The Timeline Collapses Volume 4, Chapter 4:???? /// ...The Timeline Collapses Part 1 (3rd person) When had the incident begun? Late at night, the large Japanese-style living room of the old thatch-roofed Jinnai residence was filled with silence and darkness. The moonlight entering through the sliding door was only enough to see the faint outlines of objects. A large German grandfather clock that looked straight out of a nursery rhyme made a rhythmic noise with each movement of its seconds hand. This was different from complete emptiness. That faint stimulus increased the impression of stillness and darkness. With the entire family asleep and the liveliness created by human beings gone, the tranquility almost felt cold. But a Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata stood within that room. And she was not alone. Someone else faced her. A brutal and deadly Youkai calmly stood there and was clearly out of place in the scenery created by the thatch-roof house. ¡°It¡¯s been a while,¡± he said in a hoarse voice. His expression was hidden, but not just by the surrounding darkness. He was dressed like a farmer and he had a habit of hiding his face with the conical hat that had a single large eye drawn on the top. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you since that incident, that child organ trafficking Package that was unleashed here in Noukotsu Village. You must remember. So how has Jinnai Shinobu-kun been since then?¡± His voice seemed to permeate or corrode. It seemed to desecrate not the people who heard it, but the very realm it filled. The voice alone was enough for the Zashiki Warashi to twist her eyebrows in displeasure, but this was not the same as the unpleasant feeling brought by scraping glass. She then spoke the very first thing on her mind. ¡°I have no idea what incident you¡¯re talking about.¡± The deadly Youkai known as an Aburatori laughed beyond his eye hat. Two Youkai calmly faced each other. And a certain question once more reached the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s mind. When had the incident begun? Part 2 (Jinnai Shinobu) Don¡¯t act like we¡¯re lovers just because we kissed a bit and you touched my breasts, you idiot. ¡°H-huh? What?¡± Two minutes after that shocking turn of events, I was still unsure if I should cry or get mad as I returned to my classroom with a hand on my stinging cheek. It was the end of our midday break. Lunch time and fun time had passed and the hastier straight-A students were already preparing their textbooks and notebooks on their desks. Just like always, Kotemitsu Madoka-chan was messing with her cellphone instead of joining in with the rest of the class. In order to get a conversation started, I threw myself onto her desk. ¡°Ahhhh! Madoka-san, please console me!!¡± ¡°Romance advice is too high a hurdle for a lonely beauty like me.¡± ¡°Sorry, but that romance just ended! That¡¯s why I want you to console me! C¡¯mon, c¡¯mon. Will you pet my head? Or you can try something a little more indecent if you like.¡± ¡°From that, I take it you¡¯ve thrown me in the ¡®complete lost cause¡¯ category.¡± ¡°Now, now, Madoka-san. Let¡¯s not say anything sad like that. A-and wait. Does that mean you are an option? Why didn¡¯t you say so sooner!? (Rummage rummage)¡± ¡°Now you¡¯re searching through your wallet for a condom right in front of me? I¡¯m in the joke category for you, aren¡¯t I!?¡± Madoka, you fool. Going for a lady-killer aura here would only make the girl put up her guard. I have to make her think it could never happen so she lowers the hurdle. Then as the conversation continues, she suddenly realizes she¡¯s taken a step beyond simple joking! You fool, this is already a romantic minefield!! There¡¯s no point in holding onto love that has already ended. I, Jinnai Shinobu, will continue on to the next stage not three seconds later!! Meanwhile, Madoka gave me the same look she would give an investment fraud pamphlet titled ¡°Always Make 100% Returns, Guaranteed!¡± ¡°And don¡¯t you already have someone for this kind of thing? Y¡¯know, that something-or-other Nagisa.¡± ¡°Y-you idiot! How clueless can you be!? She¡¯s in the top three of the world¡¯s yandere rankings. Bring her into anything remotely related to romance and you¡¯ll end up with flying blades and shed blood no matter what you do!!¡± ¡°Hee hee hee. You rang, Shinobu-chan?¡± A quiet voice snuck up directly behind me and my entire body jumped as if I were in an electric chair. I very hesitantly turned around and found that love monster¡¯s grinning face. She was known as the scissors girl, the knife girl, the katana girl, the hammer girl, the wire girl, and...what else was there? She had too many dark nicknames to remember them all. ¡°What¡¯s this, what¡¯s this? A love story? Romance advice? Love is so wonderful. Shinobu-chan, you can ask me anything. What seems to be the problem? Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.¡± ¡°Y-you¡¯ve got it all wrong, Nagisa. Nothing¡¯s going on that warrants you showing up. If you interfere, it¡¯ll lead to nothing but pain and trauma!!¡± The next thing I knew, Madoka was enthralled in her cellphone. She had probably gotten sick of dealing with me and thus called in someone even harder to deal with. At this point, there was nothing I could do. I had to send an SOS to a specialist in this kind of battlefield. ¡°Nooo!! Help me, Love King!! I¡¯ve been sucked into a crucible of fear and you¡¯re the only one who can help me escape!!¡± ¡°Shut up, Jinnai. ¡®Before it starts¡¯ and ¡®after it ends¡¯ are outside my expertise. Come back later.¡± That annoyed comment came from an odd neighbor who was exclusively an expert in love advice for the lovey-dovey couples going through a messy soap opera. ¡°And whatever latent factors might have been inside Nagisa-chan, you¡¯re still the one that pulled the trigger. Y¡¯know, that legendary incident from middle school that ended up in a fight with actual swords.¡± ¡°Cough cough!! D-don¡¯t bring up that spectacular failure right now! I swore I would never again go for love that takes the ¡®ero¡¯ out of ¡®ero guro¡¯!!¡± Part 3 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) ¡°What? A questioning?¡± As I made a revolutionary new kind of egg zosui by dumping plain salted rice balls in a convenience store egg soup cup and mixing in hot water, the chief of Investigation Department 1, Mezu Gen, gave me a disgusted look before telling me the following. ¡°The suspect is from a group that accessed abandoned SNS accounts ¨C that is, ones with no logins for over a year ¨C and started posting things both true and false. At first, we thought it was meant to influence the stock market or the futures market for Intellectual Village brand crops, so Department 2 was handling it. But it looks like things have changed. ...And that attempt at zosui is disturbing.¡± ¡°But why is Department 1 getting involved? Did they post about a murder they were going to commit or something? ...And someone whose wife makes his lunch every day has no right to mock a failed attempt at securing sustenance.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know the details, so go ask that career employee in Department 2. Y¡¯know, the kid in glasses. ...And I put in plenty of work to hold my household together. I don¡¯t want to hear anything from someone content with single life.¡± ¡°Why do you hate the career employees that much? I do understand being jealous, though. ...And what do you mean you put in plenty of work!? You aren¡¯t threatening a young woman with that face that would make a hardened criminal piss himself, are you!?¡± He threw a thick case file at me and I fled with the homemade egg zosui cup in hand. To reach the interrogation room on a different floor, I first ran to the elevator hall. The automatic metal doors opened to either side and I saw a familiar face inside. It was Chief Superintendent Mishima, one of the highest members of the National Police Agency. How high up was he, you ask? The only positions above him were the Senior Commissioner and the exceptional positions like the Superintendent General and Chief of Police. To someone stuck in a dead end job at the second rank from the bottom, he seemed above the clouds. But what did a VIP of the NPA that dealt with the entire country want with the Metropolitan Police Department that only protected the peace of Tokyo? With that question in mind, I stepped onto the elevator with him and pressed the button for my destination floor. Once the door closed, he watched the floor indicator light and spoke. ¡°Are you on your way to a job?¡± ¡°I am always working.¡± ¡°This questioning sounds difficult, but do your best. I have high hopes for you, Uchimaku-kun, so I put in a good word so you can do your job more comfortably.¡± ¡°What kind of support are you talking about?¡± ¡°That¡¯s quite something you¡¯re eating there. It¡¯s a blasphemy toward egg zosui. Oh, are you going to give that to the suspect to get a confession? Like an opposite of the usual katsudon?¡± ¡°This is a treat for myself!! And more importantly... Ah, wait!!¡± The elevator doors opened and he quickly left. Just before the automatic metal doors closed, he glanced back toward me. ¡°You need to assume this is the last time you will receive any help that comes at such a loss, okay?¡± I was left alone on the elevator with that ominous comment. I felt like I had been placed on some strange track without even realizing it. Just like with a surprise birthday party, everything around me started to seem suspicious. However, the Metropolitan Police Department did not offer enough freedom to let me abandon my duty over a bit of suspicion. I arrived at my destination floor and made my way to the interrogation room. Waiting near the door was a rich guy in glasses whose appearance practically screamed ¡°In summer, it¡¯s cool biz! In winter, it¡¯s warm biz! In other words, I have different expensive suits for different seasons!!¡± We had joined at around the same time, but he was already a superintendent. Rank-wise, he was already higher than my department chief. I just couldn¡¯t stand it. His name was Gyoutani Jouji and this was the first thing out of his mouth. ¡°Whoa!! What the hell are you eating!?¡± ¡°Can I leave, four eyes?¡± ¡°That would be a problem. A huge problem. To be honest, we give up.¡± ¡°How could it be that bad?¡± ¡°Just get on in there. This is your problem now. Here¡¯s the file. It has the suspect¡¯s history, why they were taken into protective custody, and everything we want to ask them. Now get on in there.¡± He shoved the thick pile of documents into my chest and pushed my back to almost throw me into the interrogation room. Is this suspect that horrible a person? I wondered while looking down at the file instead of the actual suspect. But that was when another question occurred to me. Why they were taken into protective custody? Not why they were arrested? That question was quickly answered by the suspect¡¯s voice. ¡°Hi there, detective¡î¡± N- ¡°Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!¡± ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon. Your future bride, Enbi-chan, is here to have some fun, so don¡¯t scream like a college student running into an axe murderer at a campground. Boo boo.¡± ¡°Open up!! Open this door!! Why are you locking me in a room with this mystery freak? I won¡¯t get mad, so just tell me the truth!!¡± I pounded on the steel door, but the lock showed no sign of opening. I did hear the exhausted voice of the glasses guy from beyond the door, though. ¡°I said we¡¯d given up, didn¡¯t I!? Every time we went in there, she insisted she would only speak with you. And when we threatened her a bit, what do you think she did? She started stripping!! She¡¯s completely taking advantage of her position as a minor. She¡¯s using the transparency system against us to embarrass us in court!!¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, detective. You get the situation now, don¡¯t you? If you don¡¯t sit down and listen to what I have to say, it¡¯ll be time for some baby-making with an audience beyond the one-way mirror.¡± My headache was out of control. When I sat in the chair across from the mystery freak and placed the thick file and egg zosui on the table, she frowned. ¡°What are you eating? Is that a sort of gentle suicide?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to eat this now, so talk as much as you want in that time. ...For starters, you could tell me what you did to get arrested.¡± ¡°I was taken into protective custody, actually. This way I could speak with you while avoiding all the boring procedure. That¡¯s how urgent the situation is. Do you get that?¡± ¡°And what exactly did you do to get brought here?¡± ¡°I wanted to get in here but they wouldn¡¯t let me, right? So I had no choice but to start taking off my-...¡± ¡°I get the picture, so let¡¯s get back to the main issue.¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the Metropolitan Police Department? If you¡¯re a police station, you¡¯re supposed to let the people speak with you.¡± I made a mental note to buy a drink for Nakata-san, the guard at the main entrance. ¡°So what is this urgent situation?¡± ¡°It¡¯s related to a Package. In fact, I had infiltrated the headquarters of the ones assembling it. Unfortunately it looks like things have changed there, so I had to contact you in a hurry.¡± ¡°You were infiltrating them?¡± ¡°That lecture can wait. Plus I¡¯m a freelancer who isn¡¯t bound by the police¡¯s way of doing things. ...Anyway, the problem is their Package. It¡¯s dangerous. Really dangerous.¡± ¡°They¡¯re building up a Package that frightening?¡± ¡°No, the opposite.¡± Enbi shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s completely out of control. Or maybe it would be better to say the Youkai has taken control of it. It was being assembled by an amateur group that was foiled by scamming countermeasures, but now the Youkai holds their lives in its hands and they have to do what it says.¡± ¡°So the Youkai is in control of anywhere from a few dozen to over a hundred lives?¡± ¡°And the Youkai can take every single one of those lives with a single fingertip. But after what they¡¯ve done, they can¡¯t exactly ask the police for protection. You can see this won¡¯t lead anywhere good, right? It¡¯s like amateur medicine. Trying to fix the problem without the help of an expert is just a bad idea. In this case, we¡¯ll be lucky if it¡¯s only the criminals in question whose lives are lost.¡± I didn¡¯t know what kind of Youkai this was, but if it said to kill someone, at least a few dozen people would act on that order. If it asked for a sacrifice, that many people would kidnap someone, and so on. That was definitely no laughing matter. If the people involved kept making the excuse that ¡°it can¡¯t be helped¡±, they could eventually stop feeling any guilt. If they were cut off from others enough, those few people could even trick themselves into thinking they were the majority that determined what the proper values were. It was similar to how bloody traditions could remain in an isolated village. It was true something had to be done, but there were no laws to judge a Youkai. This was yet another pain-in-the-ass case. ¡°So what kind of Youkai is it? And what kind of Package did they put together?¡± ¡°This one¡¯s unprecedented. It¡¯s a completely unprecedented crime, detective. Even if this had all gone as planned, there would be no law to judge them with. The world¡¯s system would have fallen behind. This might be a crime that should have left its name in history.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°That Youkai hijacked the Package, the young people who assembled it, and everything else and it¡¯s trying to do something huge. We have to stop this here.¡± The mystery freak paused for a moment and then slowly continued. ¡°We must stop the Aburatori¡¯s plan.¡± Part 4 (Hishigami Mai) Kenzan Village was an Intellectual Village at the base of the Japanese Alps. However, its situation was a little different from the other villages. It was not making tons of money off of the brand name rural scenery through crops and sightseeing. In that case, what was the foundation of its industry? ¡°U-uuh... This place is kind of uncomfortable. It looks like a nice old farm village, but I feel like I¡¯m surrounded by a concrete city.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because people online call this place Accelerator Village. A limited express railroad tunnel through the mountains was abandoned after the opening of the linear motor train line, so they built a fifteen kilometer straight line particle accelerator there. Also, the plains were used to build a circular particle accelerator with a radius of eight kilometers. They even have a pure water pool underground to observe those neutrinos that are all the rage these days. They supposedly have plenty of other facilities too, so the nanotech and particle businesses are pouring research funding into them. It probably isn¡¯t the best sightseeing spot for Youkai like you, Sunekosuri.¡± ¡°I thought the selling point of Intellectual Villages was how they turned the rural into a brand name product. If they aren¡¯t producing any crops, what¡¯s the point in registering as one?¡± ¡°What are you talking about? Academia is a world of brand names as well. How well a new theory reaches the world is entirely dependent on who proposes it. Start looking into what schools people went to and you¡¯ll notice a trend before long. ...But Kenzan Village has built up a brand that ensures your findings will reach the world regardless of who they come from. Just like owning the world¡¯s #1 supercomputer, they can reliably produce intellectual property with their massive amounts of experimental data.¡± ¡°But the pamphlet said sightseeing is one of its main draws.¡± ¡°Well, it is the Accelerator Village.¡± ¡°Why do humans like to go look at giant dams and things like that?¡± The small canine Youkai cutely tilted his head. ¡°By the way, can private corporations really reuse an abandoned tunnel like this? I thought railroads were considered public facilities and treated just like public roads.¡± ¡°First, this country¡¯s railroads are privatized. Second, there are precedents for reusing abandoned tunnels. People have used them for wine cellars or as dark rooms to grow white asparagus. From there, it¡¯s just an issue of the two corporations talking it out. Plus, I¡¯m sure no one minds if they¡¯re reused for something high-tech like this.¡± ¡°And we¡¯re sneaking into that heavily-guarded facility?¡± ¡°It¡¯s for a job,¡± I casually replied. ¡°Due to their origins, Intellectual Villages dislike police involvement. I mentioned that before, right? That means they need to install cameras all over to protect their three hundred thousand yen grapes from wild boars and crop thieves. ...But if you understand how all that works, you can find a way around it. It¡¯s nothing more than a common security network using the same internet that connects the world. That means there¡¯s an opening somewhere to get in. There¡¯s no such thing as perfect security, after all.¡± ¡°But didn¡¯t you say this isn¡¯t like a normal Intellectual Village? It¡¯s a giant experimental facility with several large-scale particle accelerators. Won¡¯t it have a bunch of human guards?¡± ¡°Do you really think they¡¯ll be faithfully carrying out the patrols listed in the paperwork? These devices slam together hadrons or positrons or whatever to break them apart. They¡¯ll send radiation everywhere, so the hired guards won¡¯t want to get anywhere near them.¡± ¡°Ah!!!???¡± ¡°It can¡¯t escape the shielding. We¡¯ll be sneaking inside that shielding, though.¡± With that, we dashed right on into Accelerator Village. I¡¯ll skip how exactly we managed it, but you can just assume it was a piece of cake. After descending below the thick earth and concrete, we arrived at a giant pool surrounded in faint light. It was about fifty meters across and ten meters deep. We stood next to it, but it was more like an aquarium¡¯s walkway than a poolside. Thick glass let us see inside the pool. ¡°What is this?¡± ¡°The pure water pool. A device in Kobe emits neutrinos and all sorts of data is taken here. It practically prints money in the form of patents, patents, and more patents.¡± ¡°O-oh. I don¡¯t really get it.¡± ¡°If I punched this glass, it¡¯d ruin a three trillion yen facility. Want me to do it?¡± ¡°I may not get it, but no thanks!!¡± The area around the pool was large. It clearly didn¡¯t need to be that big, but the more they dug, the more the contractor earned, so someone had likely interfered on their behalf. ¡°Ee...ee...¡± I heard some stiff breathing that was not quite a voice, but I ignored it and looked around. ¡°The place is officially said to be under public observance, but it¡¯s actually a giant sealed space. Yeah, this would be perfect for slowly and carefully assembling a shady Package. Not even the workers come in here except the maintenance required once every other year.¡± The floor was littered with Buddhist ritual items that they had likely bought from a secondhand shop. I saw opened sutras, an altar decorated with gold leaf, an incense burner, a five-pronged vajra, rope, staffs, mandala, various talismans, and wooden tags with the five elements of fire, water, wind, earth, and void written on them. The tags may have been meant as a type of pagoda. People often thought of Packages as modern high-tech crimes, but it was all based on this. How well one broke down and reintegrated it all so it could be fused with a modern SNS, cellphone, AR, or smart house was where the assembler showed his or her skill. ¡°B-based on this equipment, I¡¯d say they were Mikkyou followers.¡± ¡°Sorry, but no. Look more carefully. All of the equipment has been lightened and creatively modified to be taken apart or folded up. It looks like it was all made to be portable.¡± ¡°Oh, Shugendo! It¡¯s all made so they can easily carry it through the mountains.¡± ¡°Correct. Shugendo linked Mikkyou with mountain worship, so maybe that was why it was so hard to notice. Conveniently, this Intellectual Village is at the base of the Japanese Alps, so they¡¯re probably controlling a deadly Youkai with the rituals meant to praise a mountain god and suppress a vengeful spirit.¡± ¡°But...¡± ¡°They failed spectacularly. That¡¯s why Hyakki Yakou caught wind of them.¡± The breathing sounds that resembled a broken flute grew louder. Annoyed, I looked over at the trembling fat man. ¡°H-Hya-Hyakki Yakou!? N-no... I n-never heard anyone that dangerous was coming!!¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t think you¡¯d run across them sooner or later once you went for a Youkai? That¡¯s like having a loud party in their backyard.¡± ¡°But...we can¡¯t do this! We¡¯re already...already in over our heads!!¡± ¡°Yeah, this is pretty bad.¡± With that casual comment, I turned toward the pool. The large body of perfectly pure water had been prepared to catch invisible light waves or neutrinos, but at the very bottom were some objects that clearly did not belong. There were several dozen if not several hundred fist-sized objects. They were packed in plastic and piled up like stones on a riverbed. They were all hearts. Even though they were packaged like ready-made Salisbury steak and even though they had left their owners¡¯ bodies, they were rhythmically pulsating. The researchers only checked the pool for their data readings, so no one would notice unless those readings changed. ¡°...?¡± It didn¡¯t seem the Sunekosuri had realized what the objects in the pool were. Or perhaps he was subconsciously refusing to accept the abnormal scene and number. ¡°So you have to do what the deadly Youkai says because it has taken your ¡®insides¡¯ hostage? Pathetic. You want those ¡®insides¡¯ more than anything and they¡¯re right there beyond the glass, but reaching your hand inside would alter the purity of the water and set off an alarm. That¡¯s-...¡± I trailed off as something caught in the back of my mind. A deadly Youkai was threatening the criminals by removing their organs and the Youkai had taken over the Package. Had I heard of an incident like that before? ¡°No, there was never anything like that.¡± After rejecting that idea, another question came to mind. It was unusual for me to hesitate over information related to past incidents which were always filled with grudges and resentment. If I could not instantly recall those things, I could be stabbed in the back or side at any moment. ¡°It wasn¡¯t...it wasn¡¯t supposed to be like this. Dammit, how could this happen? I-I can only think that bastard was guiding us toward failure from the beginning. Otherwise, we never would have overlooked such a fundamental flaw!!¡± ¡°It¡¯s too late for that now. You¡¯re past the point where you can recover from this. Unless you can turn back time, there¡¯s no hope for you.¡± ¡°Heh heh... Wh-what¡¯s going to happen to us?¡± ¡°What do you think I was sent here to do?¡± I asked back. ¡°Surely you don¡¯t think the great Hyakki Yakou is in such desperate need for technology that they would ask me to bring back the technicians.¡± ¡°Heh heh... Heh heh heh!! Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh!!¡± The fat man looked like a broken doll. I gave him an exasperated look and he spoke. ¡°Right, right. Of course this is happening. I had a feeling it would. No, I was certain it would. But there¡¯s nowhere to run. That¡¯s why I¡¯m still here.¡± ¡°My condolences.¡± ¡°But this could still work out.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t think I can turn this around. But...still... If I die here, things could eventually work out for me. That¡¯s what I mean.¡± After that nonsensical statement, a solid sound and a red liquid came from his mouth. ¡°W-wah!! He just bit his tongue!¡± cried the Sunekosuri. ¡°That isn¡¯t enough to kill you. You watch too many dramas.¡± He collapsed and writhed around in pain as I slowly approached. He was rolling around quite a bit for someone who was prepared for death and I looked down on him with utter contempt. ¡°Suffering that won¡¯t kill you makes you want to die a lot more than actually dying, doesn¡¯t it? ...And what was that suggestive comment just now? I¡¯m sure it¡¯s related to this Package. If you can¡¯t speak, then write it out, but tell me everything. You can use the blood you¡¯ve scattered everywhere.¡± ¡°Cough, cough, cough, cough.¡± ¡°Just to be clear, I can¡¯t save you, so don¡¯t hope that I can. Even if the blood loss won¡¯t kill you right away, biting your tongue lets you slowly suffocate. And it¡¯s much, muuuuch slower than hanging yourself. ...So if you tell me the truth, I¡¯ll give you a quick death. What other compromise could I give?¡± Part 5 (Jinnai Shinobu) I deftly slipped past the questions asked by Nagisa-chan, hell¡¯s love demon, and splendidly avoided the chisels she threw at me. Oh, right!! Her current nickname is Chisel Girl!! As the near-death experience brought back that memory, our timid homeroom teacher arrived for the afternoon class and I tried to solve the problem by getting her involved. Unfortunately, she began to foam at the mouth and collapsed as soon as she saw the look on Nagisa¡¯s face. I had clearly chosen the wrong person to use as a shield, but I managed to survive by taking a new hostage. Nagisa¡¯s current boyfriend Akechi-kun had just returned from playing soccer. All of this was the standard midday scene for our class. Can you believe that? Afterschool, I was mentally exhausted, so I decided to take full advantage of not belonging to a club or team by going home and taking a nap. However... ¡°What¡¯s that construction noise?¡± ¡°Oh. Let me be the first to welcome you home.¡± The flat-chested Yuki Onna called out to me in the yard, but my eyes were glued to the thatch-roof house. Then again, that was no longer an accurate description. ¡°Why is the entire roof gone!? It looks like a convertible!!¡± The answer came from the Nekomata who was using unshaved high-quality katsuobushi as a body pillow. ¡°The entire roof is apparently being replaced. They have to get all the work done on a single sunny day, so it isn¡¯t easy for the workers.¡± I noticed my family and the Youkai sitting on a picnic blanket in the yard with plenty of snacks prepared. They were clearly prepared to kill some time. However, this ruined my plans. There was no way I could get a good nap in with all these people moving around. ¡°I¡¯m so tired. I want to sleep, but I can¡¯t.¡± I carelessly muttered my thoughts aloud and the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata and the Succubus¡¯s ears pricked up as they played handheld game systems. ¡°Shinobu. I¡¯m sorry, but it¡¯s one of my Youkai traits. Even if you aren¡¯t in a futon, I might still sneak in with you.¡± ¡°Oh, is this a job for me? I¡¯ll give you as many good or bad dreams as you want, free of charge!¡± ¡°Please stop!! I just want a healthy and peaceful nap! I don¡¯t want some dangerous adventure!!¡± I staggered through the yard and sat in the shade of a tree. The noise was so loud that my mind wouldn¡¯t calm down even when I closed my eyes. But when I tried to mess with my phone, my head felt heavy and my reaction speed seemed to drop, so I was definitely drowsy. I tried to think while displaying different photos on the small screen. I had a lot of data because I had been transferring it all over ever since several phones ago. I found a shocking photo of the night I had spent in an abandoned house in the mountains. There had been a full moon that night and Nagisa had been walking around with a giant machete. Had that really happened? So much had happened with Nagisa that it could be hard to remember every little thing, but if there was a photo of it, it must have happened. Ugh, when I stop moving, the drowsiness really gets to me. But I had a feeling falling asleep then would lead to a nightmare of Nagisa chasing me around at her worst. ¡°Um, it looks to me like Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s body is sinking further and further into that tree trunk.¡± ¡°Oh, my. The big Furutsubaki is trying to envelop him.¡± What!? I frantically pulled my head from the tree trunk that had gained the consistency of gelatin. Th-that was a close one!! It may not count as a deadly one, but this thing¡¯s still a Youkai!! I can¡¯t let my guard down!! I scrambled away from the large tree and a small girl in a kimono approached me. But this was not the Yuki Onna. Another Youkai lived in our house who fit that description. It was the small Furutsubaki. She had been involved in the previous incident with an Australian witch. Currently, she held out a cup of barley tea. ¡°Here.¡± ¡°Eh? O-oh, sure.¡± I was thankful, but why was she so brusque? First the big one and now the small one. Do plant Youkai have a problem with me or something? My question must have shown on my face because the small Furutsubaki puffed out her cheeks and explained. ¡°All the others don¡¯t like you because you always support the cherry trees.¡± ¡°Eh? That¡¯s all? But if you¡¯re gonna compare cherry blossoms with camellias...¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I mean. That¡¯s exactly what I mean!!¡± ¡°This goes so deep you had to say it twice!? B-but aren¡¯t camellias supposed to be bad luck? They even say not to bring them to sick people.¡± ¡°Cherry blossoms aren¡¯t much better. There are dead bodies buried beneath their trees!¡± ¡°That¡¯s a literary expression. Burying dead bodies beneath them has no bearing on how pretty the flowers are.¡± ¡°It¡¯s always cherry blossoms with you!! You always take their side!!¡± I didn¡¯t understand what the issue was, but it was apparently a big deal in the plant kingdom(?). Despite how she looked, the small Furutsubaki was a Youkai and could do serious harm if she reverted to her tree mode and performed a body press. I could end up meeting a similar fate to the monkey in The Crab and the Monkey. So to calm the upset small Furutsubaki, I made some random concessions while taking the barley tea in one hand. ¡°Fine, fine. From now on, I¡¯ll use shampoo with camellia oil and I¡¯ll hold a flower viewing for camellias just like with cherry blossoms. Actually, when do camellias even bloom?¡± ¡°.....................................................................................................................¡± ¡°Why is your face so red and why aren¡¯t you saying anything? I can never figure out your reactions.¡± The small Furutsubaki did not respond, so the Nekomata sighed and did so in her place. ¡°For a tree, the flowers are the organs that lure in insects with their colors and sweet aroma in order to promote the pollination between the stamen and pistil. In other words, the flowers are their reproductive organs. You just said you would drink sake while looking at them and wash your hair with the juices they produce. Try not to be such a pervert. It¡¯s scary.¡± ¡°What the hell kind of culture gap is this!? I was just talking about some heartwarming Japanese culture, but you¡¯re making me out to be some terrible deviant. Are you sure humans and Youkai can ever truly understand each other on a fundamental level!?¡± Part 6 (3rd person) Late at night, the once-a-year changing of the thatch roof was complete and the merrymaking to thank the workers was over. (As they served junmai daiginjo that cost fifty thousand yen a cup, far more workers would show up than necessary.) The dark house was now enveloped by a deep silence that was a stark contrast to the previous noise. The residents could be heard breathing in their sleep. The grandfather clock made noise. Crickets were chirping outside. Instead of blocking out the sound, the sliding doors and screens seemed to process it like a musical instrument. The softened sounds resembled harmonious ambient music that removed any fear from the darkness. Or at least, it should have. That was usually the case during nights in the Jinnai house. However, the Zashiki Warashi keenly sensed the darkness pressing in on her from every direction. It felt like she had been thrown into the mouth of some giant beast. ¡°...¡± It was complete coincidence that she discovered ¡°it¡±. It happened just after she left her own room to follow her Youkai trait and sneak into the sleeping boy¡¯s futon. But it may have been inevitable for ¡°it¡±. Lured in by a sense that something was not quite right, she walked through the house and reached the large Japanese living room. The German grandfather clock sounded louder than usual. For some reason, the wooden rain shutters were open and the moonlight shined brightly in from the porch. She sensed a hint of the autumn wind. ¡°It¡± stood smiling with only its silhouette visible against the outside light. ¡°It¡¯s been a while,¡± said a hoarse elderly voice. He wore a deeply dyed kimono that was kept short to keep mud off. He wore leggings to protect his legs. He wore a conical hat with a large eye pattern that covered both his head and his face. He was dressed just like a farmer, but the murderous aura enveloping him was different. He was one who abducted and one who killed. Anyone could tell at a glance that he was deadly and did not belong, but everyone would overlook him until the disaster had already occurred. He was a collection of malice that ranked at the top of even the deadly Youkai. When had the incident begun? Once she saw the Aburatori, the Zashiki Warashi narrowed her eyes a little. She became strongly aware of forgotten pain, a lost part of her body, and the modifications Hyakki Yakou had made inside her. Meanwhile, the symbol of abduction who was dressed as a farmer happily opened his mouth. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you since that incident, that child organ trafficking Package that was unleashed here in Noukotsu Village. You must remember. So how has Jinnai Shinobu-kun been since then?¡± His words were unavoidable. He was merely confirming something he already knew perfectly well. It was the same as deriving pleasure from provoking and jabbing at the hurting hearts of a bereaved family. The Zashiki Warashi remained silent for a while. When she finally spoke, she did so slowly. ¡°I have no idea what incident you¡¯re talking about.¡± Silence followed. Tension filled the air like a thin thread had been grabbed on either end and pulled until it was about to snap. However, her response had not been wrong. A moment later, the Aburatori laughed. ¡°Ha ha.¡± She did not know what was funny. She simply knew that not knowing was the right answer. ¡°Ha ha ha!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! I see, I see. That would be right for you. Yes. Yes, it would. That incident never actually happened. ...I did wield my power in the past, I did target Jinnai Shinobu-kun¡¯s life, and you did stop me. But it was not a child organ trafficking Package. It was an entirely different Package, wasn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Are you only here to ask the obvious? To be honest, I¡¯m a little displeased that you¡¯re still around.¡± ¡°Ha ha. Now, now. That was a surprisingly important question.¡± The Aburatori laughed in absolute pleasure beyond the one-eyed hat. ¡°After all, I have surpassed the restrictions of time, so my power can interfere with both the past and the future. Technically, some humans assembled a Package to that end using my traits as a Youkai. Yes, as I¡¯m sure you have guessed, I snatched their organs and took over the Package for myself.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Yes. I was first observed in a mountain village of Tohoku during the Meiji period, remember? I would elusively abduct and elusively kill. It seems my trait of killing without anyone ever seeing me was interpreted as teleportation or time travel. Did they call it the theory of relativity? Well, I don¡¯t understand all the tricky details about time and space and whatnot, but those humans constructed a technique to that end.¡± ¡°Enough bragging.¡± The Zashiki Warashi silently approached. ¡°What are you after? I know you¡¯ll only think about using this new technique to kill.¡± ¡°True. My first thought was to ¡®harvest¡¯ all the adults and old people back when they were young and at their most delicious. But when I thought about it more, I began to wonder if I could have even more fun with this.¡± ¡°In other words, you found something even nastier to do? And it involves contacting me?¡± ¡°Calm down,¡± said the Aburatori. ¡°This should be quite obvious. I have surpassed time and space, so you might think there is nothing I can¡¯t do, but there is still something impossible for me. Has it come to you yet? It is your specialty, after all.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You don¡¯t want to answer? Yes, that¡¯s it. That¡¯s exactly it. Even if I can surpass time and space, I cannot fight unavoidable destruction. Let¡¯s say a giant meteor is going to hit in three days. What can I do? No matter how far back in time I go, I cannot change its course. And even if I escape to the future, I will only find an ice age after the destruction is over. And even if I try to escape through space, I have no guarantee there are any other planets as comfortable as Earth. See? I am still fragile. I may control time and space, but I am powerless in the face of overwhelming destiny. I am wholly powerless and that is terribly frustrating.¡± However, he knew of someone with the power to oppose destiny. He had seen it for himself just once. ¡°I want your power.¡± The monster licked his lips. ¡°I want the power to not only bend destiny in my favor, but to create entirely new destinies.¡± ¡°Sorry, but I¡¯m just a pile of junk now. You won¡¯t find anything inside me.¡± ¡°I am well aware. And while those alterations were made by Hyakki Yakou, they have deteriorated quite a bit in the last century. Perhaps you could say they have been tainted by modern culture, but whatever the reason, I can no longer find the same level of skill there. Hyakki Yakou Prototype Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi has been completely lost.¡± And so... ¡°I will change the past. I will capture you during that fight before you were broken. That will truly perfect me. I will hold time, space, and destiny in my hands and I will become a being with no enemies.¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡± ¡°Probably. I have repeated that fight fifteen thousand times now, but I always lose to you in some way or another. ...But by redubbing that day again and again, the historical data has been torn to shreds. Before long ¨C probably only two or three more overwrites ¨C it will be unrepairable. Fact and fiction will mix together and I will have free control over the record of who won that fight. That is when it all begins and when it all ends. That is when I will gain everything I desire.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Now, how about I repeat the question? The meaningless dubbing will deteriorate the medium of your memories.¡± If the Aburatori¡¯s loss there was overturned, the Zashiki Warashi would have been unable to save the young Jinnai Shinobu in that past incident. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you since that incident, that child organ trafficking Package that was unleashed here in Noukotsu Village. You must remember. So how has Jinnai Shinobu-kun been since then?¡± If she had not saved him, what would have happened to him? How had the actual incident with the Aburatori ended? ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you since that incident, that child organ trafficking Package that was unleashed here in Noukotsu Village. You must remember. So how has Jinnai Shinobu-kun been since then?¡± ................................................................................. ................................................................................. Part 7 (Jinnai Shinobu) And... The Zashiki Warashi in the red yukata suddenly vanished. Part 8 (Jinnai Shinobu) I ran through every inch of the Intellectual Village searching for her. I even asked the Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake I found on one farm road. But even after all that, I couldn¡¯t find a single clue. A few days had passed and there was still no sign of that showy Zashiki Warashi. Had she left the village? Would she never return again? It was all so sudden that it all felt unreal even as I took my body through the actions of searching for her. The adults seemed to have completely given up. I had heard a house would soon fall into decline when its Zashiki Warashi left, but that probably had nothing to do with this. That selfish Zashiki Warashi would never have stayed in a house filled with people who cared about that. On the first day, I started searching after school. It was only when I found nothing that I realized how serious this was. On the second day, I skipped school to search. My dad found out and hit me, but I could hardly worry about school on the third day either. What was this? What in the hell was going on? There had been no signs or omens leading up to it. Or at least, I hadn¡¯t noticed any. She had always been mischievous, but perhaps as a trait of her species, she had never run away from home before. That gave me no way of predicting what that glamorous Youkai was doing. Had she voluntarily disappeared or had someone taken her away? I didn¡¯t even know that. It reminded me of the people who were spirited away in an older age. It was no laughing matter when it happened to a Youkai. It did seem like just the silly thing that would happen to that lazy Youkai, though. ¡°No good today, either.¡± The third day of searching was another failure. I reached that conclusion after eight in the evening. Not only had I skipped school, but I hadn¡¯t shown up for dinner either, so it was possible my dad and grandpa would be mad enough to throw me in the storage shed. It pained me, but I couldn¡¯t have my mobility cut off like that. I felt like I would go crazy if I didn¡¯t think about it that way. I felt an urge to tear at my hair and scream, but I somehow managed to force it down and started back toward the thatch-roof house. But then a call arrived at the cellphone in my pocket. ¡°Uncle?¡± ¡°Oh, damn! So it finally got through. I¡¯ve been calling and calling for three days now!¡± ¡°Three days?¡± I had skipped school to run around looking for that troublesome Youkai. If he had really been calling that much, there was no way I wouldn¡¯t have noticed. ¡°No, it makes sense that you wouldn¡¯t know. I can¡¯t even predict how long this call will last, so I¡¯ll just get down to business. Shinobu, you¡¯re probably the only one who can resolve this.¡± ¡°What are you talking about, uncle?¡± ¡°The Aburatori.¡± I felt like an unpleasant squeezing sound came from my heart when I heard that. That name... ¡°He¡¯s gained immense power by taking advantage of a Package built around him. However, there¡¯s still no sign of him doing anything in the open despite gaining so much power. There must be something there. As far as I know, that Zashiki Warashi is the only one to ever drive away that Youkai. That means she¡¯s hiding even more power than him. I don¡¯t know what that power is, but it¡¯s most likely the ¡®next step¡¯ that the Aburatori wants more than anything else!!¡± Part 9 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) The static was terrible. I wasn¡¯t sure how much of it ¨C if any ¨C was getting through. I stood in front of Odaiba¡¯s Hachi TV in Tokyo. After hearing the details from the mystery freak, I had been visiting here quite a bit. I was meeting with Atou Minori-san who had once been my upperclassman and was now an assistant producer for a TV show. As students, we had both pursued an Aburatori incident in our Intellectual Village. We had been periodically comparing our memories of that incident. At first, our memories had matched. But... ¡°Huh? Was that what it was? Oh, right, right. Now that you mention it, it was.¡± It happened bit by bit. ¡°No, it was a child organ trafficking Package, wasn¡¯t it? Y¡¯know, it used that diet boom and the fake online store to sell those colorful skewers. And your nephew, Shinobu-kun, got wrapped up in it.¡± I could tell it was changing day by day. My former upperclassman¡¯s memories of the incident were clearly being overwritten by someone. And little by little, the overwritten memories were sounding less and less out of place to me. I was beginning to wonder if my memories of the ¡°actual incident¡± were wrong. ¡°I have no way of checking,¡± the mystery freak had said. ¡°But it might be more than just that one incident. He may have experimented on other incidents before getting to the crucial one. We were involved with an Aburatori in that Tarot Girls 22 incident, remember? But did that really happen the way we remember it?¡± Memories of the past were meaningless if the person telling you about them was lying. The same was true if the information they were working from could be a lie. When the mystery freak had put herself under ¡°protective custody¡± to contact me, Chief Superintendent Mishima had called it ¡°help that comes at a loss¡±. That had not simply been due to my relationship with the mystery freak. It might also have been due to my nephew Shinobu and that Zashiki Warashi. ¡°Shinobu, we don¡¯t know the details yet, but the mystery freak got some information while partially infiltrating the criminal group. It seems the original Package involved altering photos to create a foothold for influencing the past.¡± ¡°Kssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.¡± ¡°In other words, a photo that acts as evidence of what happened in the past has a specific individual added in to actually put that individual in that time period. In other words, it was a time travel Package.¡± ¡°Kssssssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.¡± ¡°He can travel to a past era by altering photographs. It doesn¡¯t matter if they¡¯re in your phone¡¯s image folder or your house¡¯s closet, just be careful about photographs!! You might find something odd in one of them!!¡± The mystery freak frowned next to me. ¡°Are you really getting through? That¡¯s a lot of static.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know!! But it never even connected before. I can only repeat myself again and again and pray it gets through to him at least in part!! Shinobu! Hey, can you hear me, Shinobu!?¡± Part 10 (Hishigami Mai) ¡°The analysis of all the Buddhist ritual items scattered within Accelerator Village is done. Yeah, it was just as I thought. It was a time travel Package using the Aburatori¡¯s elusive nature. The world really is done for now that a single Youkai has taken that over. This is more dangerous than having nuclear launch codes stolen.¡± It was in a city. Someone had removed all the seats from a giant tour bus and completely remade it into an RV. The man who owned it was known as the Supplier and he could apparently survive even if a giant meteor hit the earth. Incidentally, I had hired that indoor man to handle the analysis, but he had been trembling in a corner of the RV ever since he realized what the Package was. As I spoke over my satellite phone, he was covering his ears with his hands as if to say ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear it. I don¡¯t want to be a part of this.¡± The Sunekosuri was trying to comfort him, but that seemed like a fatal mistake for someone working in this underground business. I was using the phone to speak with the young lady of about ten who led Hyakki Yakou. She sounded quite concerned. ¡°We have looked though our records of past incidents involving an Aburatori or a Package using its traits.¡± ¡°Did you find anything?¡± ¡°We were nearly rendered unable to check the records due to a cognitive distortion. Without our Venom Clairvoyant, we probably would not have noticed anything was wrong.¡± ¡°Oh, you mean that black-haired blindfolded shrine maiden who ranks in your top five?¡± ¡°The worst cognitive distortion is focused on Noukotsu Village in mid-March ten years ago. Surprisingly, there are traces indicating it is related to Jinnai Shinobu and that Zashiki Warashi.¡± ¡°Wow. It¡¯s funny how you sometimes find people who get caught up in all sorts of things despite having no real power. Although I¡¯d always thought that was more my sister¡¯s territory with closed-room murders and the like.¡± ¡°There are even traces of Ver. 39 being partially used. It¡¯s a complete mystery how we overlooked it until now. She was being treated as an escapee at the time, so there should have even been a specialized search unit.¡± ¡°True.¡± I decided to stay quiet on that one. Ten years before was a peaceful time when her parents controlled Hyakki Yakou. It was also the time when an assassination plot was secretly prepared over the course of several years like termites eating away at the organization. It was possible some dangerous internal elements had hidden that valuable information. ¡°Anyway, is this really so bad you had to bring out one of your top five?¡± ¡°The cognitive distortion suggests that the Aburatori has at least begun to alter the past. Even the Venom Clairvoyant is having trouble predicting how long the past will hold up.¡± ¡°By the way, do you happen to know any way of directly attacking the past?¡± ¡°We have two or three in stock, but none of them made it past the prototype phase and are unstable. We intend to solve this problem, but we cannot deny there is a danger this will destroy a layer. No, it is almost guaranteed to.¡± Ugh. The fact that she actually did know of some showed that they really were the nation¡¯s most powerful organization, even if they had declined some. ¡°Some are saying the safest bet would be to perform an air strike on Noukotsu Village, the singularity at the center of the problem, but I am currently holding them off.¡± ¡°I guessed you would. The timeline is completely distorted there. It¡¯s possible you might not even find Jinnai Shinobu and the others even if you searched all through the village. Even if you bombed the village off the face of the earth, it might not destroy the root cause, so it¡¯s a waste of effort.¡± ¡°That is why I am stopping them. But that means...¡± ¡°As a professional, it pains me to say it, but we have no choice but to rely on an amateur like Jinnai Shinobu-kun.¡± Part 11 (Jinnai Shinobu) My uncle called out to me again and again, but his voice was perfectly clear. It seemed like my voice wasn¡¯t reaching him, though. The Aburatori. A time travel Package. A deadly Youkai had gained so much power and was now targeting that Zashiki Warashi to gain even more power. ¡°A photo.¡± My uncle was repeating the same thing over and over, so it would be difficult to communicate any further. I felt bad, but I ended the call to do something else. ¡°An altered photo!! The key to the time travel is a photo with the Aburatori added in!?¡± What does it mean that the Zashiki Warashi has vanished? Has she been sent to the past? Or has something happened to her in the past so she¡¯s been wiped from the pres-... No. I don¡¯t even want to think about that possibility!! ¡°Whatever the case, I need to find that photo. The altered photo is the source of all this, so I might find a way to solve this if I find it.¡± I ran full speed through the night and to the thatch-roof house. I ignored the surprised cries from my parents and pulled out everything that held photos: albums, digital photo frames, computer folders, etc. I looked through them all, but nothing looked out of place. I even asked my parents so I could check their computers as well. I must not have chosen the best way to ask because both my dad and grandpa hit me, but when I kept asking, they reluctantly agreed. But even after all that, I found nothing. That only left the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s computer and smartphone. However, I didn¡¯t know the password for the computer and the smartphone had vanished along with her, so I couldn¡¯t check either. Was I stuck? Or was I thinking about this wrong? My uncle had mentioned photos, but did it not have to be ones from my house? ¡°Honestly, what are you doing? Stop worrying the old lady with your bizarre behavior.¡± The annoyed Nekomata spoke to me, so I discussed the situation with her and she sounded even more annoyed. ¡°So that means the Aburatori can travel to a past era by altering a photograph?¡± ¡°Simply put, yes.¡± ¡°Then why would he rely on an album that is subject to someone else¡¯s tastes? He would use a system that more evenly and generally takes photographs over a constant time and place. That would be a lot more convenient for time travel.¡± ¡°But he¡¯s apparently trying to mess with the Zashiki Warashi and my past, so wouldn¡¯t he want some records connected to us?¡± ¡°He gained this time travel ability by hijacking a Package some humans created, didn¡¯t he? Why would those original humans assemble the Package based on your albums?¡± Now that you mention it... ¡°But then what cameras or photos would they use?¡± ¡°They¡¯re everywhere.¡± The Nekomata used her front paw to point left, right, and everywhere else. ¡°Aren¡¯t Intellectual Villages monitored by countless cameras to prevent crop thieves?¡± My breathing really did stop for just a moment. If the Aburatori had a technique to interfere with and alter such a massive system, the level of the threat shot up. After all, that would allow him to move to whatever time and place he liked within Japan. But at the same time, something bothered me. My uncle was a police detective and the police did not take action unless a crime was being committed. Time travel was an unprecedented incident, but there were no laws to punish it. It was ¡°unprecedented¡± so that was only natural. In that case, my uncle had to have reached this time travel incident while pursuing some other incident. For example, a crime related to a network. If that was true, it supported the Nekomata¡¯s theory. Where and how had my uncle gotten this information? If I knew that, would it help give me a clue? ¡°Dammit. It¡¯s no use. And he only just called me!¡± The call wouldn¡¯t go through. This was rare for an Intellectual Village with a perfect net environment. In fact, it made me worry about him. But if I couldn¡¯t check via my uncle... ¡°What are you going to do?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll use whatever¡¯s available to me.¡± With that answer, I called another number stored on my phone. This one connected me to Madoka-chan, my class¡¯s eccentric beauty. ¡°Hi there. What is it, Shinobu-kun?¡± ¡°Thank goodness the call got through. Are the communications working as long as it¡¯s within the village?¡± ¡°Wait just a second! What¡¯s this about communications not working? That is not good. If it affects my stock trading, this could be serious.¡± ¡°Um, doesn¡¯t the whatever-it¡¯s-called market close at night?¡± ¡°And what time is it in New York right now? And London?¡± From the sound of it, Madoka wasn¡¯t having any issues. Did that mean my uncle was in some complicated place or did it mean it was centered on me specifically? ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. Anyway, Madoka, you hire a bunch of armed guards, don¡¯t you? Have you heard of any trouble with the security camera network? Like someone hacking in from outside?¡± ¡°Oh, how timely. But it¡¯s actually about a conflict between online services, not hacking. A notification message from a major SNS and the automatic backup service sending the village¡¯s camera footage to the backup server conflicted with each other. It apparently caused the system to freeze temporarily.¡± ¡°Freeze?¡± ¡°It apparently did a lot of damage on the SNS end. While the security programs were locked up, it seems someone stole quite a few IDs. Do you know what an abandoned account is? That¡¯s an account that hasn¡¯t been used in over a year and even the owner has probably forgotten the password. It seems someone has taken over those accounts and is posting all sorts of things, both true and not.¡± ¡°Did some hackers cause that major freeze?¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard to say. The trouble occurred as soon as the security company added in a new backup storage service, so at first, it felt more like an accident.¡± ¡°What kinds of things are being posted?¡± ¡°As I said, all sorts of things. The most noticeable ones are those influencing stock prices or raising futures prices for brand-name crops. That¡¯s why an arrest warrant was put out. ...But it¡¯s strange. I don¡¯t know if some software is editing the date or what, but entries are being added in for five or even ten years ago. Something about seeing a dangerous Youkai.¡± The time travel Package altered past photographs to make an individual actually exist in that era. Was this an example of that? If so... ¡°You said the freeze happened because two large systems came into conflict. That was used to attack the SNS, but what about the other side? Was the security camera network attacked too?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. It doesn¡¯t look like anyone took control of the cameras, but it will take time to check the recorded footage. There¡¯s just so much of it that it isn¡¯t easy to check for traces of deletions or alterations. It does seem there aren¡¯t any traces of massive amounts of data being moved around, though.¡± This meant the Nekomata had been more or less spot on. The security camera footage had been altered and fictional entries had been posted on that SNS to create witness accounts. In this day and age, people relied on online data more than their own memories. When people didn¡¯t know how to write a difficult kanji, they would check an online dictionary for the answer. Even if it wasn¡¯t quite how they remembered it, it wasn¡¯t uncommon for them to generally assume the dictionary was right and correct the information in their own head. And this went beyond mere knowledge. If an altered photo with a date from ten years ago was slipped into your computer or home server¡¯s electronic album, you might very well assume it must have happened and alter your own memories. People¡¯s memories ¨C and thus the truth ¨C could be edited by a third party these days. ¡°Enbi mentioned an incident like this before. Two Packages came into conflict and went out of control.¡± ¡°Just hearing that isn¡¯t enough to know what you mean.¡± The Aburatori could travel to any time period using false photos and witness accounts. A monster like this couldn¡¯t be defeated by clenching your fist and punching it. What was I supposed to do? If I didn¡¯t prepare some kind of trick, I wouldn¡¯t even be able to stand on the final stage. ¡°Madoka, can I ask a favor?¡± ¡°You already are, but what is it?¡± ¡°Since you know about the conflict between the SNS and the security camera network, your armed guards must have been directly affected, right? I need you to use that connection.¡± After I finished asking my ¡°favor¡±, I ended the call. The Nekomata looked up at me while lying on the tatami mats. ¡°Mess this up and you¡¯re dead.¡± ¡°Perhaps.¡± ¡°For one thing, why is a human even trying to pick a fight with a deadly Youkai? You do understand that no Youkai can be killed by normal means, right?¡± ¡°But it¡¯s worth trying. Or at least, I think it is.¡± Hearing that, the Nekomata slowly moved as if letting me past. I left the room, ran down the hallway, and made my way to the entrance so I could enter the night once more. But on the way, I found a small form sitting politely at the end of the dark hallway. It was a girl with long bluish hair and a white kimono. She was simply there and she blocked my way as a part of the usual scenery. She gave off the intimidation of a border god that prevented disaster from entering a village. I spoke her name without thinking. ¡°Yuki Onna.¡± ¡°I need to speak with you.¡± She replied with a dreadfully icy voice that gave a glimpse of her true characteristic. She most likely knew where I was going and why. She knew that, but she was stopping me. She was warning me just how dangerous it was. She was telling me that facing this Aburatori was different from the previous Packages and that I was crossing a line. But... ¡°Please sit.¡± ¡°No, Yuki Onna. I don¡¯t have time to speak with you right now. If I¡¯m too late here...if I¡¯m even a second too late, it will all-...¡± ¡°Sit.¡± That one word was all it took for my knees to give out. All strength left my legs. My entire body fell straight down like a spring being pressed down or a transforming toy created to move like that. I was forced to obey her and enter a similar sitting position to her. ¡°Wha-...?¡± I tried to speak in surprise and protest, but I realized I could not even do that. My teeth chattered and I could not properly move my tongue, lips, or throat. Is this...the cold? Is my body so messed up that I can¡¯t even tell that!? ¡°I have lowered your body temperature by approximately two degrees.¡± The Yuki Onna silently narrowed her eyes and spoke calmly. ¡°Welcome to the world of hypothermia. When stranded on a snowy mountain, this is the beginning of your fear. Your temperature is currently thirty four degrees. If I lower it by another four degrees, you are almost 100% guaranteed to lose your life. Did you know that?¡± ¡°Yu...ki...On...na...!!¡± ¡°Does this seem unreasonable?¡± A dry sound burst from the wood surrounding her. As she sat there, she looked like a giant boulder blocking the sole path back to civilization. ¡°But that is how Youkai work. You have resolved a few incidents involving Packages, but that is not the same as defeating the Youkai themselves. You do not seem to understand that, so I thought I would give you some advice.¡± As I collapsed, the Nekomata gave a sharp hiss to threaten her. It sounded more like a snake than a cat. However, the Yuki Onna was unfazed. In fact, she turned a sticky gaze toward that small form. ¡°I will not spoil him as much as you, nor will I treat him as carelessly as you. At this rate, he will almost certainly die. Letting him continue while knowing that goes beyond letting him die. It is blasphemy.¡± My heart hurt. Intense pain came from the center of my chest as if my organs were being squeezed. Had my temperature dropped even further? ¡°Frankly speaking, the Packages humans create are clever, but even another human can destroy them if they know how they work. It¡¯s logical that humans can destroy what humans made. But that rule does not apply when directly fighting a Youkai.¡± It no longer felt like I was confronting the single Youkai called the Yuki Onna. This was a queen¡¯s territory. The entire frozen world was coming to crush a single human. ¡°Humans can explain how fish live in the water and how birds fly through the sky, but that does not mean they can defeat a fish or a bird in an actual competition. Explaining how it works only reveals that you have no way to win. ...Similarly, your previous methods will not work against this Aburatori. If you think you can win simply by revealing his trick, you are 100% guaranteed to die. Do you understand that?¡± Were all Youkai like this? Were they this far removed from humanity just because they were a deadly Youkai? ¡°Oh...ah...¡± I tried to reply, but my lips wouldn¡¯t move. My vision shook, blurred, and sank into darkness. A moment later, I could no longer distinguish between front, back, left, or right. I wasn¡¯t even sure if I was seeing reality or an illusion brought on by the cold. All I could see was a vast darkness I couldn¡¯t focus on. Beyond it was a pair of glittering golden eyes. The color of those eyes stabbed into my consciousness to an odd extent. ¡°I have...a chance. Not even I am about to make a suicidal attack here.¡± Like surpassing numbness and losing all sense of feeling, I stopped feeling the cold tearing at my skin at a point. Oddly enough, it almost felt like soaking in lukewarm water. At the same time, I managed to speak. I wasn¡¯t confident I was actually getting the words out in reality, though. It wouldn¡¯t have surprised me if I had already passed out and this was just a dream. Deep in the darkness, the golden eyes spoke. ¡°That chance is an illusion. Following it will not allow you to defeat the Aburatori.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not true.¡± ¡°No matter what you may have built up in your head, you do not have the physical ability to pull it off. Even if it is theoretically possible to run on water, your actual body will be unable to keep up and you will sink. A human is nothing more than a fragile container.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t know that...until I try.¡± ¡°No matter what plan you might have, you will drown if you challenge a fish and you will fall to your death if you challenge a bird. ...I am not arguing against what may be in your head. I am not saying you lack the brains needed. I am saying just having the brains is not enough.¡± ¡°...¡± It felt like time stretched out infinitely. Or perhaps it was already over and I just hadn¡¯t realized it yet. ¡°What do you have beyond your brains? What specific ability do you have to compare to a fish¡¯s gills or a bird¡¯s wings? I want you to show me. My supernatural ability is much more popular and closer to a physical phenomenon than the Aburatori¡¯s. That makes it a good test, don¡¯t you think?¡± At that point, the core of my mind grew much clearer. ¡°That¡¯s not what this is.¡± ¡°How so?¡± ¡°While dragging the conversation on and making me worry, you¡¯re continuing to lower my temperature. You were planning to end it all here from the beginning.¡± I heard a small sound. Was it a laugh? Yes, the golden eyes were laughing from the darkness. ¡°And what is wrong with that?¡± ¡°...............................................................................................................................................................¡± I heard a creaking sound. It was not the sound of an explosive revolution in my muscles. I had not removed some limiter in my head to achieve the ridiculous strength some people gain in a fire. My body was still a human one. No power of friendship or hard work had burst out to increase my potential five or ten times over. Most likely, the cold had simply caused the house to creak. But oddly enough, I took an unsteady step forward at that same instant. I had realized something then. That bizarre world of golden eyes floating in the darkness was not an illusion or a dream. The darkness did not stretch on without end and the golden eyes were not a vague monster. I was still inside the thatch-roof house I had been born and raised in and the Yuki Onna sat only a few steps ahead. If I could walk, I could reach her. There was a goal. To keep me from noticing that simple fact, she had used the cold to rob me of my senses and judgment and she had trapped me in a labyrinth of my own creation. And she had done it slowly and carefully as if to safely freeze my body. And with that realization, the very brains she had rejected returned definite strength to my body. ¡°There¡¯s one thing I want to ask you.¡± ¡°What is that?¡± I took a step. ¡°If I give up here, who can save that indoor Youkai? Can you or the Nekomata defeat that Aburatori?¡± ¡°I seriously doubt it. We could kill him in a direct confrontation, but his very existence is too elusive. He can attack us whenever he likes, but it would be rare indeed for us to find him. So if he focuses on fleeing, it would be difficult for even a deadly Youkai to kill him.¡± I took a second step. ¡°Then leave it to me. Don¡¯t crush other people¡¯s possibilities just because you can¡¯t do it!! And if he¡¯s that dangerous, that¡¯s all the more reason to go. I¡¯m not going to back off because he¡¯s dangerous. If he¡¯s dangerous, it means I have to go save that Zashiki Warashi even if it¡¯s reckless!!¡± ¡°Humans and Youkai are different. Is she truly that important? Having her around might be nice, but you can live without her. You would have to be insane to risk your life for something like that.¡± I took a third step. ¡°You always act like family because we live in the same house, but when it comes down to it, you¡¯re saying to abandon her because she¡¯s a different species? She¡¯s more important than that!! She¡¯s been a part of my life from the moment I was born. In fact, she¡¯s probably been a part of it since before that. I can¡¯t back down here!! Whether it¡¯s an Aburatori or whatever else, I¡¯m not letting some bastard show up now and steal half of my life from me!!!!¡± ¡°...¡± I took a fourth step. I suddenly realized the golden eyes were directly in front of me. I slowly stretched out my arm which was shaking uncontrollably. The palm touched something and that slight sensation brought reality rushing back. Like a receding wave, the world of darkness returned to the familiar entranceway. The sudden cold that had assaulted my entire body completely vanished. My hand was placed on top of the Yuki Onna¡¯s head as she continued to sit. ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± She remained perfectly motionless, so I spoke to her. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. This Aburatori isn¡¯t a normal Youkai. He¡¯s not your average deadly Youkai. He¡¯s a cruel being that was born to kill, enjoys killing, and leaves behind nothing but killing. But I have a chance even then.¡± ¡°...¡± Humans could not defeat Youkai. I agreed with that. It did not even have to be a deadly Youkai. In a serious fight, I probably couldn¡¯t even defeat a Zashiki Warashi or Umbrella Obake. If you still wanted to defeat them, you had to work to transcend the framework of humanity like Hyakki Yakou did. But this Aburatori was not in a normal state right now. He had transcended the framework of Youkai with human help, so the otherwise solid rule that humans could not defeat Youkai was beginning to crumble. And so... ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll make sure I come back.¡± With that, the Yuki Onna truly fell silent. She had been using harsh words and acting sharply to get me to stop, but all that clearly ended. I removed my hand from her head. I put on my shoes. I opened the front door. With each of those completely normal actions, I was approaching the Aburatori who had put the Zashiki Warashi in such danger. This was no different from approaching death. Most likely, the Yuki Onna and Nekomata could see the great danger much more clearly than I could. But so what? My goal wasn¡¯t to approach that creepy Youkai or to be sucked into his world. Nor was it to save the Zashiki Warashi with a one-way ticket. My goal was to return here and rejoin the family and Youkai who had forgiven my selfishness. That was what I had to focus on as I ran forward. Are you watching me from the depths of darkness and madness, Aburatori? Well, sorry, but I¡¯m not looking at you. Part 12 (3rd person) The Yuki Onna remained motionless for a while. The door behind her had already opened and the boy had vanished into the dark night. This time, it was not an illusion or lie. He had entered a black world where true death awaited him. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to watch him leave?¡± She heard the annoyed voice of the deadly Nekomata who had been left behind with her. ¡°He¡¯s already left. Just as you feared, this might be the last time you see him. This world is unbelievably dry and puny humans are easily killed. I don¡¯t think this is any time to be stubborn.¡± ¡°...¡± The Yuki Onna did not reply. Her warning had not reached him. No, it had reached him, but he had still left for the battlefield, saying he would rescue the Zashiki Warashi. This was one result. It confirmed a certain order of priority. It was a simple and cruel answer that tore a hole in a girl¡¯s heart. ¡°That wasn¡¯t fair.¡± But she spoke quietly with her back still to the entrance. ¡°He shows me the answer, chooses his path, and gives me a clear sense of loss, but he still leaves a slight possibility that fills the hole in my heart.¡± ¡°Sigh. What are you talking about? Weren¡¯t you looking at him? A kid with his hair dyed blonde who runs out into the night searching for a girl is obviously a lady-killer. ...Also, you were clearly unsure whether to stop him to protect or to kill him here so the Aburatori couldn¡¯t. You just about lost sight of your original goal and gave into your desires.¡± ¡°Hmph.¡± His final words had clearly been unnecessary. If he had made her completely give up, it might have opened a different path, but that small bit of kindness had recaptured her with its massive pull. She knew it was impossible. She knew that, and yet... ¡°I hope he gets stabbed by a kitchen knife one day.¡± ¡°Yeah, but I hear he¡¯s already been stabbed twice by a human girl, so I doubt even death would fix that side of him. He was stabbed in the side with a fruit knife and in the chest with a pair of scissors. He only survived the scissors because they were stationery scissors with a rounded tip, but he laughed and said he would¡¯ve died had they been sewing scissors.¡± ¡°Damn him! I really need to give him a proper near-death experience!! I can put him into full cold sleep!!¡± Part 13 (3rd person) ¡°It¡± stood in a place that once was. The rural scenery resembled what any Japanese person held in their hearts as a sort of sacred ground. All of them were born in different parts of the country, but seeing a single photograph of that place would make them feel nostalgic. ¡°It¡± stood in an already harvested paddy field at night. As if ignoring the weather radar and satellites, white snow poured down on this one isolated area. The area seemed to completely transcend the timeline. The moon directly overhead was a full moon. Like a sun shower, the snowflakes falling from the night sky glittered bluish-white in the moonlight. This was the scenery from that time and place. This was the place where ¡°it¡± could gain everything it had so longed for. Even with the ability to control time and space, there was something there that ¡°it¡± desperately wanted. ¡°I see.¡± ¡°It¡± slowly exhaled. The breath was not that of a wrinkled old man. It sounded more like the oddly charming breath of a young woman. ¡°So this is what it¡¯s like.¡± Ten seconds before, a sense of elation had filled ¡°its¡± body, but that sense was already gone. Just like the hundredth or thousandth time hearing a great song, the impression it left faded. It had very nearly reached zero. To gain this, ¡°it¡± had eliminated as many obstacles as possible. It had even restrained from killing. Or at least, it had tried to. It was not confident how much it had succeeded. It had tried to restrain itself, but the number of deaths may not have changed much. All of its memories of past deaths were vague. That may have been one of its traits. If it could fulfill its desires with its memory of the killing, it would not need to kill someone new. But whether that restraint meant anything or not, it was no longer necessary. ¡°It¡± had achieved its goal. The sense of elation from that fact had vanished. And that meant ¡°it¡± would return to its normal territory. Time, space, and destiny. In the perfect place, at the perfect time, and with the perfect method, ¡°it¡± would kill and kill until it had had more than its fill. There was no reason for that. It had always been said to kidnap children, remove their organs, cook them, and retrieve the oil, but no one knew why. But even though no one knew why it did any of that, people had believed that monster existed. People did not look for a reason in a symbol of fear. People simply feared the method. ¡°Now, it is about time.¡± ¡°It¡± gave a thin smile. ¡°I will spread fear with every method available to me.¡± This monster had surpassed even the realm of Youkai and it was about to be released on the world. But a moment before it did... ¡°Wait.¡± An impossible voice slipped in. The voice clearly did not fit that perfect scenery that looked like a hanafuda illustration. Part 14 (Jinnai Shinobu) To be honest, I didn¡¯t remember where I had run or how I had done it. If someone told me to do it again, I probably couldn¡¯t. In fact, I was born and raised in this village, but I had never before seen a place like this. It may have been cut off from the rest of the world like a hidden village. Or perhaps the terrain itself had formed a labyrinth. I wasn¡¯t a specialist like Hishigami Mai or Hyakki Yakou, so I didn¡¯t know the answer. Fortunately, that didn¡¯t matter. What did matter was that I had made my way onto the final stage. It was an unnaturally perfect paddy field of the kind any Japanese person could immediately picture in their mind. It was a snowy landscape that completely ignored the current season and weather. But the oddest thing of all was the Aburatori, that worst of the deadly Youkai standing in the center of the landscape. ¡°It¡± wore a conical hat with a large eye pattern that covered its head and face. ¡°It¡± was a woman with a glamorous figure and black hair that reached its ankles. ¡°It¡± was bewitchingly beautiful and wore a showy white yukata. ¡°It¡± was terribly twisted. ¡°It¡± retained some vestiges of that indoor Youkai which only made it creepier. ¡°Oh, now this is unusual.¡± The Youkai that everyone referred to as an Aburatori formed a definite smile on the mouth peeking out from below the brim of the one-eyed hat. ¡°Only those with the same sort of power as me should be able to reach this distorted place. But come to think of it, you are the one who that Zashiki Warashi directly saved. Perhaps you two were treated as antipodal singularities, just with one on the active end and the other on the passive end.¡± ¡°Antipodal singularities? I don¡¯t know what that means, but are you sure you aren¡¯t getting your terminology wrong?¡± ¡°Ha ha. As you can clearly see, I am an old-fashioned Youkai. I was merely using the general nuance of the terms. I don¡¯t actually know anything about math or physics.¡± The Aburatori stroked slender fingers across the brim of the one-eyed hat. ¡°So what brings you here today?¡± ¡°I¡¯m here to take back what you stole.¡± ¡°Do you really think you can?¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter. Do you really think I made it all the way here just because ¡®I can, so I might as well¡¯?¡± ¡°I see. You say that like you loathe me. But really, you should be thanking me. Just as much as you should thank the Zashiki Warashi who once saved you.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Jinnai Shinobu-kun, I have continually rewritten a past incident to achieve my goal. I greatly altered the original incident to make it a child organ trafficking Package.¡± The Aburatori smiled in absolute delight. It was the look of someone tossing live fish into a pot and gradually raising the heat to cook them. ¡°So what do you think the ¡®original incident¡¯ was? Do you remember, Jinnai Shinobu-kun? Do you remember just how you were torn to pieces? Ha ha!! That is why you should thank me. It was truly and undeniably horrid. It was such an utterly and incomparably gruesome incident that the child organ trafficking Package seems like salvation in comparison. ...It was so horrific that your Zashiki Warashi felt the need to alter destiny.¡± ¡°....................................................................................................................................¡± ¡°Do you understand now?¡± The Aburatori smiled and smiled and smiled even more. ¡°Besides, there is nothing you can do. Nothing at all. Things are already settled between us. And they are settled so perfectly that nothing would change even if we repeated this one hundred times. What can you change by working yourself up here?¡± I heard what sounded like scraping metal. The next thing I knew, the Aburatori held dozens of metal skewers spread out like a fan. ¡°Oh, I know. If you are that dissatisfied with the altered past, how about I show you just how you met your end back then? I can place the ingredients on the chopping black, explain the process a step at a time, and finally give you a live demonstration.¡± The Aburatori¡¯s white kimono shook as ¡°it¡± approached. I was frozen in place as if entranced. As if this was a fixed match that ¡°it¡± just wanted to get over with, the Aburatori slowly stabbed the metal skewer into my eyeba- Part 15 (Jinnai Shinobu) ¡°Oh...¡± In the instant, the sharp skewer was going to pierce my eyeball, the Aburatori stopped moving. The slender female arm trembled unnaturally. ¡°What...? My...body... My...arm...won¡¯t move?¡± ¡°Do you think it¡¯s just your body?¡± I did not take a single step away from the skewer positioned right in front of my eye. The effects had shown themselves, so there was no more need to move back. ¡°Why...? The scenery...the snowy full moon...and the paddy field are...collapsing. They¡¯re melting...away. Why is...the symbol of my power...the power to even...control destiny...melting away?¡± Your own traits let you pass freely through time and space. And once you gained ¡°something more¡± from the Zashiki Warashi, you probably thought you were a god or something. Not a Youkai, but a god. But that¡¯s not the case. Every Youkai has their advantages and disadvantages. Advantages can sometimes be disadvantages and vice versa. I seriously doubt there¡¯s some convenient ¡°perfect trait¡± that¡¯s not a plus or a minus. On top of that, you forcibly boosted your traits with human techniques. Even if your power itself had grown to rival that of a god, it was still manipulated by imperfect humans at the foundation. I never had to worry about an unreasonable battle against a pure Youkai like the Yuki Onna feared. I just have to destroy the human techniques at the foundation. I¡¯ll make your structure come crashing down just like removing a stone wall from a giant castle!! ¡°You took over a time travel Package that let you move to any era by placing yourself inside altered photos from the past.¡± I quietly gave the answer. ¡°That made this easy. I just had to search through all the Intellectual Village security camera records you had targeted and delete all the image files you had altered. That erases the time travel. You used that to attack the Zashiki Warashi and steal her power in the past, so those events are erased too. But wait, there¡¯s more. Your entire existence is relying on those photographs right now, so as soon as they¡¯re all erased, your very existence is erased!!¡± ¡°Impossible... Impossible!! A mere high school boy could never search through and delete all of the video footage stored by a large corporation so quickly. Or are you claiming you are like a hacker from a movie!?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not saying that,¡± I spat out. ¡°You broke through the security of a large SNS and a security company¡¯s video backup service by using the system malfunction when the SNS¡¯s notification message and the backup service came into conflict. But it seems the security company had only just started using a new net storage service. That makes things simple. The occult criminal group that assembled the Package already had someone inside the security company. You set up that large-scale freeze, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°That was the Achilles¡¯ heel. I just had to make contact. Madoka has a contract with them for armed guards, so I asked her to contact the employee who had introduced the new storage. He was probably being threatened in some gruesome way by a deadly Youkai called an Aburatori, but he just had to be told this was his final chance. He just had to know this was his last opportunity to cut all ties with the Aburatori!!¡± ¡°That...bastard...!!¡± ¡°That employee has access to the video footage in the new backup storage, so he can easily tell which photos have been altered. Then he just has to delete those photos. And it looks like he made it in time. You no longer exist in any era of this world!!¡± The Aburatori tried to shout something, but instead, the beautiful female jaw fell completely off. ¡°You seemed mistaken about something, but you didn¡¯t think I was here to fight you, did you? I¡¯m only here because I don¡¯t want that indoor Youkai to vanish along with you.¡± The precipice of not being able to kill a Youkai with a blade or gun was gone. The Aburatori was nothing more than a still-living rotting corpse that would fall apart and vanish. ¡°Did I... Did I really look like such a saint that I would laugh it off as you tried to hurt that good-for-nothing Youkai that¡¯s been with me since I was born or even before? If so, I really am going to laugh.¡± The Aburatori was rotting away, so even a normal high school boy¡¯s arm could reach inside. That arm could break through, push through, and sink deep down to drag something out. ¡°I came here to rescue that Zashiki Warashi. I didn¡¯t care in the slightest about you!!¡± Without hesitation, I thrust my arm into the stomach of the beautiful woman in a white yukata. I felt my arm piercing into rotten flesh as it sank further in. Soon, my palm felt a much smoother sensation. I grabbed it and forcefully pulled. I saw a red yukata. I saw the same glamorous Zashiki Warashi I had seen ever since I was a kid. At the same time, the Aburatori in the white yukata burst to pieces like a water balloon. So did the unnaturally vivid rural scenery. In that place where she had lost everything, the Zashiki Warashi slowly opened her eyes. ¡°I never once asked you to save me.¡± ¡°Oh, really? Well, I never expected any thanks from you.¡± Part 16 (3rd person) Why couldn¡¯t you tell I was being tsundere!? You idiot! You really are the worst!! ¡°H-huh? What???¡± The day after the incident, Jinnai Shinobu finally returned to school after neatly settling the problem facing him. There, he learned the love he thought was over had not actually been over, but now it really had been destroyed beyond repair. He returned to his thatch-roof house with a battered face, but the lazy Zashiki Warashi had no intention of giving someone in the family love advice. ¡°L-love? Eh heh heh. Are you asking about that despite knowing how jealous and particular about promises Yuki Onna are? I see, I see.¡± ¡°This sounds like a job for the Succubus brand aphrodisiac! I can¡¯t guarantee what will happen to their personality afterwards, but they¡¯ll definitely be yours for the night!!¡± To escape the Youkai and demon creeping up to him, Jinnai Shinobu ran from his home at full speed. The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata watched him leave with a sigh. Two things had happened shortly after that incident. First, Jinnai Shinobu and the Zashiki Warashi had compared their memories. No matter how many times they had spoken, both of them remembered a child organ trafficking Package using the traits of an Aburatori. The Aburatori was gone, but it seemed the definitively damaged historical information was not going to return to normal. That altered past had become fact. The second was something Jinnai Shinobu was not aware of. While walking through the village to return home after the incident, the Zashiki Warashi had parted ways with him. She had not had any real reason. She had simply watched him walk back home ahead of her. She had not taken a step from that spot. Finally, her body had shaken and she had collapsed to the small paved road. ¡°...Kh...¡± While taken into the Aburatori and stored inside the Youkai¡¯s stomach, she had been able to hear what happened outside. She had heard what that worst of deadly Youkai had told him. And she had heard what he had said. ¡°Did I... Did I really look such a saint that I would laugh it off as you tried to hurt that good-for-nothing Youkai that¡¯s been with me since I was born or even before? If so, I really am going to laugh.¡± His voice had been filled with hatred and hostility. It was a voice she would never hear in that thatch-roof house. ¡°I came here to rescue that Zashiki Warashi. I didn¡¯t care in the slightest about you!!¡± It had been a shock, like something had been terribly dirtied. The Zashiki Warashi had destroyed something that she could never make up for even with the infinite time given to her as an immortal Youkai. ¡°Uuh...¡± A sob escaped her throat. The Aburatori¡¯s inhuman actions had altered that past incident. All she could remember was the incident centered on a child organ trafficking Package and whatever the original incident had been was nowhere to be found. But a fragment of a long-forgotten memory jabbed at her heart. Long ago, in the maelstrom of the ¡°original incident¡± before the past was altered, a young Jinnai Shinobu had met a Youkai visiting the village in the middle of a trip. It had been an Akaname. It was a harmless Youkai that licked up the filthy water left in the bathtub. However, it could give an unsanitary impression to others, so it was one of the few Youkai banned from the Jinnai household because they dealt in the production of drinks. ¡°It can¡¯t be helped. My traits and your family¡¯s situation just aren¡¯t compatible.¡± And the young Shinobu had immediately replied as follows. ¡°Then how about you play outside with me? Don¡¯t worry. I can get along with any Youkai!¡± Some tiny thread had snapped. ¡°Ahhh. Ahhhhhhh! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!¡± On that day, an incident came to its end. The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata stared up into the still night sky. And she cried like a small child. Volume 4, Blank Space Volume 4, Blank Space A certain incident had ended. However, that did not mean the deadly Youkai known as an Aburatori had been defeated. ¡°Bhah!!!???¡± Like a stopped heart beginning to beat or a corpse having the breath of life blown into it, the beautiful woman in a white kimono let out a large breath. This happened below a metal bridge in rural western Tokyo where nature still remained. Like a heart massage, the vibrations of a train running by overhead shook the beautiful female body collapsed on the embankment. ¡°That was close. Far too close. If that had been my real body and not a copy I sent to the past, I really would have been in trouble. I would undoubtedly have been annihilated there.¡± The ¡°proper time¡± for the Youkai called an Aburatori was two days after the incident. To someone who could freely move through time, the continuity of past, present, and future had grown thin. Having a past self injured did not necessarily mean receiving the injury in the present. The Aburatori would never die unless this ¡°main body¡± was lost. However... (I did manage to extract the Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi by dragging it from the copy.) A staticky noise filled the air. The Aburatori blinked back and forth between being the beautiful woman in a white yukata and the wrinkled old man like a fluorescent light about to die. (My power... I am losing the power to control destiny! Do I need to revisit that village and acquire it again!?) A figure slowly approached the Aburatori. The figure wore a white kimono and had long hair. She was a female oni with bluish-white phosphorescence residing in the tip of the knife-like horn growing from her forehead. ¡°Hi there. You seem to have been spreading quite a lot of fear. You¡¯re going to make me jealous like that.¡± ¡°An Aoandon? What is a newcomer like you doing here?¡± ¡°You say that, but the legend itself is actually pretty old. Of course, it is true I was only put together quite recently.¡± This female oni called the Aoandon had been semi-automatically assembled in a certain incident centered on Four Mountains Village aka Zenmetsu Village. She was the Youkai said to appear once the Hyakumonogatari was completed in full. Unlike a normal deadly Youkai, her species had a unique trait. The Aburatori who looked like a beautiful women tilted the head hidden by the conical hat with a single large eye symbol. ¡°Why are you here today?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m currently gathering members. That¡¯s why I¡¯m here. I¡¯m glad I only had to go to western Tokyo for that. The city center is just plain exhausting.¡± ¡°I see. So you want my help?¡± ¡°Hm?¡± The Aoandon looked a bit taken aback. ¡°No, I have no need for trash like you.¡± For an instant, the Aburatori could not understand what she had said. And it happened a moment later. ¡°Gh...bh!?¡± Blood rose in the Aburatori¡¯s throat and quickly flowed out the Youkai¡¯s mouth. The Aoandon¡¯s slim arm had pierced through the Aburatori¡¯s chest. Bluish-white phosphorescence continued to glow from the tip of the knife-like horn and her expression did not change much at all. ¡°While I am here to gather members, you are not my target. I suppose you could call this a small detour. I saw something I just couldn¡¯t overlook, so I had no choice but to kill you. Troublesome, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Wh-what? Don¡¯t tell me you are angry...that I am a Youkai that abducts and kills...human children? There is no need to follow...all of those ridiculous rules...humans have made...¡± ¡°No, this has nothing to do with the children. In fact, it¡¯s almost always ignorant children who bother completing the troublesome Hyakumonogatari ritual. It would be silly of me to be angry about that.¡± ¡°Then...why?¡± ¡°Because there¡¯s nothing new.¡± The Aoandon erased all expression from her face and answered with scorn mixed into her voice. ¡°You gained the ability to freely control time, space, and destiny, but all you tried to do was kill children. That¡¯s no different from before. ...If you had tried to create a kingdom of only Youkai, annihilate the human race, or accomplish some other unprecedented challenge, I would have clapped my hands and helped you.¡± ¡°Ah...gh...¡± ¡°Did you just decide to relax because you have no concept of a lifespan and have infinite time to work with? But if you aren¡¯t going to change, there¡¯s no difference between existing and not existing. In that case, don¡¯t keep living. Disappear. If you¡¯re going to insult yourself, you deserve a suitable fate.¡± ¡°G...gah...gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± The Aburatori gave a blood-filled scream with an arm through the chest. That deadly Youkai shaped like a beautiful woman in a white yukata produced dozens of metal skewers to eliminate the newcomer at close range. However... ¡°I am a special deadly Youkai that rules over the Hyakumonogatari.¡± The Aoandon did not bat an eye. There was no need to move. She had no connection to fate like the Zashiki Warashi or Jinnai Shinobu, so her fearsome level of power could be seen in the mere fact that she had managed to contact the Aburatori so easily. The Aburatori was a special Youkai that could easily attack others but that others had an incredibly hard time contacting. ¡°I exist in the leftover space beyond the one hundred bloody ghost stories.¡± The giant organization of Hyakki Yakou was named after a special concept. That concept was a strange phenomenon in which one hundred different species of Youkai would form a line and walk through the night. This Youkai had singlehandedly taken in one hundred ghost stories, so she had reached that same level on her own. ¡°You are no more than a single fear, so did you really think you could harm me?¡± A young man changed trains and travelled to western Tokyo. After crossing a giant metal bridge, the train arrived at a run-down station. He left the ticket barrier and looked to the surrounding mountains. Even a small breath was enough to feel a green scent fill his lungs. He also saw a thick ocean of trees that anyone in an underground business would naturally imagine had a corpse or two buried in it. In fact, it had apparently been the stage of a recent incident involving Jinmensou. He glanced at his cellphone. The screen displayed a 1seg news broadcast. The crimes of a large criminal organization were coming to light and a lot of people had been arrested. Countless camera flashes filled the screen as a suspect with his coat over his head was taken into a car by the police. The young man¡¯s eyes narrowed when he saw the large police officer. It was Sotobori Gaku. He was the child who had been at the scene when an old police detective had been killed. He had walked the opposite path of the young man who had been the assassin. The baton had been handed off. After confirming that, the young man who was known to some thugs as a fortuneteller switched off the 1seg TV. He put away the phone and looked around once more. He carefully observed the series of mountains and focused on one mountain in particular. He continued on foot toward that green mountain. He left the asphalt road protected by a guardrail and made his way into that unexplored area thickly covered by trees and underbrush. He reached a hand into his pocket, grasped something made of hard metal, and pulled out a small handgun. That gun had once killed someone. Everything was finished, so he would now die by that gun. He had been planning this for a long time, so he did not hesitate. He grabbed the grip cover that was shaved down small enough for a child to hold and he pressed the muzzle against his temple. His expression did not change as he simply went through the motions. However... ¡°Hi there. And hold on!¡± An inappropriately cheerful female voice reached him. The young man initially looked confused as he turned toward the voice. He was approached by a female oni in a white kimono and with a knife-like horn growing from her forehead. ¡°I only took a quick detour! I¡¯m not about to lose the whole reason I¡¯m here for something like that. Please hear me out.¡± ¡°What are you? A Youkai?¡± ¡°I am the Aoandon, the final boss. Nice to meetcha. Oh, and I know more or less what you¡¯ve done. I thought it was interesting, so I decided to invite you to be one of my members. How about it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure what I¡¯m supposed to say. I was just about to die.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the thing.¡± The Aoandon snapped her fingers. ¡°It¡¯s too soon to die. Can you really say your revenge is complete?¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°I mean, yes, you destroyed one of the four major networks. Whether we¡¯re talking about the original incident or the one someone changed it to, I don¡¯t think any secret leaders of the group escaped or anything. But still, is this really over just because you crushed a large criminal organization?¡± ¡°Get to the point.¡± ¡°What caused it all in the first place?¡± The Aoandon asked a gouging question with the innocence of a mischievous child. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure I know what you were thinking. Evil is running rampant, evil is stronger and that¡¯s why the powerless good was lost. That¡¯s why you made up for that lost good by destroying a great evil.¡± Her lips then formed the word ¡°but¡± to reject all that. ¡°But I don¡¯t agree. It is because good is powerless that evil runs rampant and power gathers in evil. The large criminal organization was not the only cause of what you did as a child. If the old detective who was sacrificed had been stronger, it never would have happened. You would have been saved.¡± The young man then moved. He removed the gun from his temple and pressed it against the center of the Aoandon¡¯s chest. ¡°Shut up.¡± ¡°But you can¡¯t deny it.¡± The Aoandon was still smiling. Her expression seemed to predict the destruction of whatever paranormal power might be contained within the bullet. ¡°I am a deadly Youkai that absolutely loathes stagnation and the status quo. So...so you see? If you wish to change the world, I will clap my hands and help. Your revenge will not end with only defeating evil. It will only come to an end once you exterminate that fragile good and replace it with powerful justice. That will get back at everything that led to your suffering.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°So what will you do? If you wish for stagnation and escape, that¡¯s fine. But you don¡¯t need to commit suicide. I¡¯ll kill you myself with an extra serving of contempt. Which would you prefer?¡± ¡°I see.¡± He had thought fewer people would end up like him if he destroyed that great evil. But he had been too na?ve. If good remained weak, it would fall prey to something else eventually. His actions had changed nothing. He would have left behind a few pieces of self-satisfaction, but the cycle of tragedy would have continued. ¡°I understand your point and I admit it is at least more worthwhile than killing myself here. ...So where do we start? After bragging like that, I assume you have some specific methodology in mind.¡± ¡°Well...¡± The Aoandon arbitrarily looked up into the heavens and raised her index finger. ¡°First, how about you tell me your name? I of course already know it, but I want to hear it from you.¡± ¡°Saiki Kazu. I am a former assassin, former fortuneteller, and former suicidal man, but now I am simply unemployed.¡± Volume 4, Afterword Volume 4, Afterword Volume 4!! This is Kamachi Kazuma. This volume took the three chapters published in the magazine and added a final fourth chapter. For that reason, I wrote this to make sure you would be glad you bought the book in addition to the magazines. That¡¯s how it gained this irregular structure. Those who have read the final fourth chapter should understand that it completely overturns the first three chapters. This is straying from the main point a bit, but a few book titles were given in Chapter 1. Did you notice a common theme between them? It was how they gather one¡¯s interest with negative wordings in the title. It might be easier to think of it as a business model of making people think they will come to harm by not knowing something rather than making them think they will gain money by knowing it. Because of the trick in Chapter 1, I added that kind of maliciousness into the information coming from the TV and radio as well. What did you think? If you thought you might want to read a book like that if it existed, you may be a little susceptible to suggestion. If you analyze which title interested you the most, you might be able to find where that weakness lies. An information society (and the leadership thereof) may bring the big city to mind, but I think the coincidental or intentional bias of information can be greater in rural areas where fewer TV channels and magazines are available. What do all of you think? Also, any of you who noticed something off about the Major Arcana of tarot in Chapter 2 might be connoisseurs. We may simply call it all ¡°tarot¡± but there a variety of different designs and ideologies hidden therein. If you¡¯re interested, why not look into it? The Aburatori was the main focus of Volume 4. As mentioned in the novel, that Youkai does not have a moral like most ghost stories do, be it ¡°don¡¯t lie¡± or ¡°treat your parents right¡±. He is an extremely unusual Youkai that simply kills and simply spreads fear. There is no way of avoiding him and there are no magic words. He first showed up during the Meiji period, so he may be closer to a modern urban legend than a ¡°good old Youkai¡±. And of course, he is a Youkai created by viewing the perpetrator as a monster. On the other hand, the Zashiki Warashi is another Youkai closely related with child killing. The Zashiki Warashi is like a collection of the children killed by their families during food shortages and it holds the position of the innocent victims who will continue protecting their families as guardian deities even after being killed. This was perpetrator versus victim. I came up with this story by thinking I could bring more focus on the titular Youkai by pitting her against another Youkai from Tohoku. I give my thanks to my illustrator Mahaya-san and my editors Miki-san, Onodera-san, and Anan-san. I am very thankful for all their help, including help with the magazine serialization. I must also thank the readers. The Zashiki Warashi was back in the spotlight for once, but how did you like it? I hope you will stick with me in the future too. And I will end this here. I just hope I can write a fifth volume. The story has finally begun to move in a number of ways. -Kamachi Kazuma Volume 5, Jinnai Shinobu’s Apocalypse — Side A — OP_code"Personal_apocalypse". Volume 5, Jinnai Shinobu''s Apocalypse ¡ª Side A ¡ª OP_code"Personal_apocalypse". Part? (3rd person ¡ª Day??/????:?? -??:??) ¡°Lost baggage? ...What? You mean, um, wait. So it was lost!? But that ¡®item¡¯ was top secret!!¡± ¡°It¡¯s already gone, so there¡¯s no use complaining about it. Or do you think that¡¯s going to magically make it appear?¡± ¡°If it was that important, why didn¡¯t you keep it with your carry-on baggage? I¡¯m going to officially report this!!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t want something that dangerous on me! I know plenty of people who assumed a domestic flight was safe and came to regret it!!¡± ¡°Okay, understood. Everyone, we need to calm down. The carrier decided to transport the ¡®item¡¯ by hiding it in a civilian travel bag, but that travel bag has gone missing as lost baggage. Is that clear?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we track the bag?¡± ¡°If we¡¯d attached a transmitter, the signal would have been intercepted. It would be like telling the entire world to come take it from us.¡± ¡°You mean...¡± ¡°No one knows what airport it ended up at.¡± ¡°The airline isn¡¯t stupid. They¡¯ll find it before long and contact the civilian student. There¡¯s nothing we can do until that student picks up his travel bag.¡± ¡°Could someone fake their identity so we can collect the bag ourselves?¡± ¡°Do you want to stand out? That would increase the risk of revealing the ¡®item¡¯s¡¯ existence, you know?¡± ¡°...Dammit.¡± ¡°Now you¡¯re catching on. Unfortunately, all we can do now is pray.¡± Part 2 (Day 10/03 20:30 - 21:20) ¡°Mn...¡± I awoke to the sensation of something dripping from my mouth. After a slight delay, I noticed the noisy hustle and bustle of movement from all directions, so I tried to remember where I was. ¡°Shinobu.¡± Before I could determine the situation, I heard the familiar voice of a glamorous Zashiki Warashi. ¡°You can use me as a body pillow if you want, but try not to get drool on my yukata. Or do you want me to hit you?¡± ¡°Whoa!!!???¡± I frantically jumped up from the bench and my right calf cramped unnaturally. I ended up rolling around on the hard floor and performed an equivalent of first aid by extending my knee, grabbing my toes in both hands, and pulling them forward. Only then did I remember where I was. Oh, that¡¯s right. This was the lobby of a floating domestic airport connected to an Intellectual Village named Goldmine Island. I was waiting for an employee to contact me about the whereabouts of my lost travel bag and my parents had already gone on to the inn. ...Of course, I didn¡¯t really think I was going to get my bag that day since no one could say which airport it had been sent to. Trouble on the first day of a trip? What did I do to deserve this? It was a weekday, but being the son of an Intellectual Village artisan gave me the excuse I needed to officially take some time off of school. It was thought that studying my father¡¯s work would be more useful than rote learning using textbooks and a blackboard. For that reason, this trip felt a lot like part of my dad¡¯s work. Of course, being with my parents restricted what I could do, but being able to skip school while everyone else was stuck there studying still felt liberating. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s coming today. At this rate, you¡¯ll be waiting until dawn with the people spending the night in the airport to save some money.¡± ¡°I guess I¡¯ll go tell them my cell number, then.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like you have anything in your bag you don¡¯t want them to see, right?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous. I had my nice underwear in there.¡± I exchanged my contact information with the airport worker who took the extremely American stance of keeping his back oddly straight and refusing to apologize despite admitting their error. After that, I left the floating airport with the Zashiki Warashi. An overwhelming deluge of light seemed to sweep away the darkness of night as it filled my vision. Everywhere I looked, I saw neon, neon, and more neon. The ideas of energy conservation and global warming were thrown out the window and everything glowed like a house that took its Christmas decorations too far. I saw playing cards, roulettes, bunny girls, rolls of cash, and bags of coins. Even without checking each of the symbols creating an overall electronic sign motif, anyone could tell what this place was. ¡°Welcome to Japan¡¯s Vegas! This is the special casino district of Goldmine Island!!¡± Someone called out to me after I took just three steps off the airport¡¯s grounds. A middle-aged driver was leaning against the side of a white limousine that was stretched out like a dachshund. ¡°Where do you need to go? You look like a kid, but if you¡¯ve got a Zashiki Warashi with you, you must be pretty rich. If you¡¯re not sure where to have some fun, how about I show you around? There¡¯s no age limit with the publicly managed gambling of a special casino district, you know? How about a toast to the loopholes of an experimental system!?¡± ¡°Oh... I just want to get to the inn. But if I¡¯m going to take a long vehicle, a bus is enough.¡± ¡°Do you really think you¡¯re going to find something that cheap-looking around here? This is Japan¡¯s Vegas. Having me carry your ass around is the cheapest option. Even helicopters and cruisers are pretty common here. And if it¡¯s just carrying you somewhere, a limo¡¯s not that different from a normal taxi. The first ride¡¯s eight hundred yen and every three hundred meters adds another hundred and twenty yen. That¡¯s a pretty fair system, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°Just to be sure, you are actually licensed to do this, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°You want to go check the plate on the back? It¡¯s green and everything. And don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m not some crooked businessman who drives you around and around the island and demands you pay me tens of thousands. What, is this your first time with this kind of thing? You¡¯re all nervous.¡± The island itself was small, so the price wouldn¡¯t be too high if I didn¡¯t take a bunch of detours. I had him show me a map and getting to the inn would only cost me two thousand yen. ¡°Fine. You win. But I only have two thousand yen in my wallet, so get me to the inn before the meter goes above that.¡± ¡°Ha ha ha. Is that your allowance or something!?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t deny that I¡¯m here on a trip with my parents, but this has more to do with my lost baggage. Most of my stuff was sent off to some other airport.¡± The Zashiki Warashi and I climbed into the back seat of the white limousine. We found the kind of fantastical space I¡¯d seen in movies, but I didn¡¯t dare touch the mini-fridge. Who could say how much I would be charged just to open the door. The middle-aged man¡¯s voice reached us from the distant driver¡¯s seat. ¡°So where to?¡± ¡°Um... An inn called the Gold Crane.¡± ¡°If you want to make out or something, I can close the smoked glass divider for some privacy.¡± ¡°You can leave it open and mind your own business.¡± The pure white limousine took off surprisingly roughly and slipped into the nighttime casino city. I looked out the window and the explosively bright neon was enough to see some palm trees here and there. ¡°Even Kyushu is far enough south to count as tropical, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°The muddy goldmine mountain has changed a lot too. Nowadays, things are weighted more towards the tourists. Even the abandoned buildings from when this place was called Heavy Cruiser Island are a popular sightseeing spot.¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t that used as the setting for a video game?¡± ¡°A zombie one. Why are those things so popular overseas, anyway?¡± Perhaps because it was a casino city, people were walking around in clothes you would never see in a normal city. There were bunny girls trying to attract customers and even derivatives that had... Were those cat ears? There were also gentlemen and ladies in suits and dresses and... ¡°Wh-what are those? There are a bunch of female police officers in really gaudy miniskirts. They look like something from an American pinup magazine.¡± ¡°Those aren¡¯t police officers; they¡¯re armed guards. This is still an Intellectual Village and no one wants to give the police any more authority. But as a business, they need to give their customers what they want. ...Simply put, there are a surprising number of people who want to be stepped on with black leather boots.¡± The Indoor Youkai had been awfully quiet for a while. I assumed her special shyness skill had activated, but that apparently wasn¡¯t it. ¡°Ahh... I don¡¯t like how bright this place is. It¡¯s making my head hurt.¡± ¡°But this is technically classified as an Intellectual Village.¡± ¡°How?¡± ¡°The mountain on the back side of the island has apparently been a goldmine for ages, so maybe you¡¯ll feel better once we get there.¡± Youkai naturally hated cities, but as a human, I wasn¡¯t sure how to imagine it. It just didn¡¯t seem real. I always pictured it as something like feeling carsick or the people who couldn¡¯t stand the low frequency waves from wind turbines. ¡°Oh, right, right,¡± said the driver without turning around. ¡°You should be careful.¡± ¡°About what?¡± ¡°You can bring your pretty Zashiki Warashi around with you if you want, but Youkai are forbidden in the casinos. Sneaking one in is enough for people to suspect you of cheating. After all, you could cheat all you wanted with their mysterious powers. Look.¡± He pointed his thumb out the window. I followed it and saw a security guard in a dark suit chucking what looked like stuffed animals out a casino exit and onto the sidewalk. No, wait. ¡°What are those? A tanuki, a fox, and...¡± ¡°That last one¡¯s probably a badger. Getting thrown out like that is what happens if you¡¯re lucky. Sometimes they¡¯re dealt with in ways I¡¯d rather not mention.¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t this special casino district made to test a system that wouldn¡¯t allow large criminal organizations a way in?¡± ¡°And? The stereotypical bad guys aren¡¯t the only ones you have to watch out for. Not to mention that Japan¡¯s Vegas is an experimental system, so it¡¯s hardly perfect.¡± The Zashiki Warashi groaned next to me and it seemed to be a warning that we needed to shut up because we were giving her a headache. As we continued down a road wide enough for a mid-sized charter plane to land on, the white limousine left the casino city and began to circle around to the other side of the island. The light quickly vanished. We were now in a black world that looked like someone had rubbed ink over everything. I was sure there was a nice starry sky and firefly lights to see, but my eyes had adjusted to the previous dazzling light and had difficulty picking up that subtler artwork of light. There were tropical trees everywhere that generally seemed to be pineapple-like trees or looked like you could make a leaf swimsuit from them, but there were some maple and gingko trees mixed in. However, even those felt like a part of a giant mountain of black shadows. Meanwhile, the Zashiki Warashi had stopped groaning like someone with a hangover and looked a lot more alert. ¡°I feel a lot better now.¡± ¡°Oh, is that so? I¡¯m amazed the overall atmosphere can change so much on the same island. There isn¡¯t a single streetlight around here. And what are those lined up over there? Abandoned buildings?¡± ¡°They¡¯re probably the housing complexes and theatres from when this place was called Heavy Cruiser Island. If the driver is to be believed, they¡¯re a valuable sightseeing resource that brings in people from all over Japan who are obsessed with old buildings.¡± It may have been a part of his job because the middle-aged man answered any of our questions. The buildings looked on the verge of collapse, but he said they were thoroughly reinforced with some kind of plastic so people could safely view them. At the same time, quite a few sensors and personnel had been installed or hired to make sure drunks didn¡¯t try to spray paint graffiti on them. ¡°I don¡¯t see how those could be on the same level as the casinos.¡± ¡°Obsessed people are guaranteed repeat customers and they¡¯ll pay any amount for what they love, so don¡¯t take it lightly.¡± ¡°I just can¡¯t imagine it. And I know there¡¯s a rule banning hotels in the casino district and putting them all on the other side of the island, but was that meant to make everything less concentrated on the casino side?¡± Not counting the floating airport or harbor block, Goldmine Island only had a perimeter of five kilometers. The mountain was in the center and the coastal area was generally divided between the casino city and the mining city where the residents lived. The airport was on the casino side and the harbor was on the mining side. The abandoned buildings we mentioned before surrounded the mountain near its base. ¡°Here we are, sir. The Gold Crane, right?¡± ¡°Wow. This place is huge. Was it really handmade by craftsmen?¡± ¡°If the effort that went into this surprises you, you should learn more about the castles around Japan. On Goldmine Island, inns are the first-class place to stay, moored luxury cruise liners are second-class, and rented cruisers are third-class. You should thank your parents. This is gonna be a once-in-a-lifetime memory.¡± Part 3 (Day 10/03 21:20 - 24:45) I entered the inn, but there were no retro arcade games or ping pong tables. I heard light footsteps rushing about and faint children¡¯s laughter, but it wasn¡¯t clear where any of it was coming from. I was pretty certain the sounds did not come from anything human. The hostess who greeted us looked a little surprised when she saw the Indoor Youkai. ¡°These are all Zashiki Warashi, aren¡¯t they? They¡¯re doing well for themselves. ...It sounds like they might even have dozens of them living here.¡± ¡°These are Usuhiki Warashi, Kura Bokko, or Notabariko. They¡¯re all subspecies of the Zashiki Warashi, but they aren¡¯t on the same level as a legit Zashiki Warashi like me.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°The Zashiki Warashi is a well-known Youkai, so a lot of similar Youkai are lumped together in the same category. There may have only been one original version, but now they can be anything from a collection of babies killed during a famine to transformed Kappa or badgers who started living in the house.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t help but see you as the odd or irregular version.¡± The hostess led us down a long wood-floored hallway and to our room. Out of some strange sense of etiquette, the hostess mechanically reached for the sliding door, but I stopped her with a hand and threw the door open myself. A hellish scene appeared before my eyes. ¡°Ah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah!! The worrrrrld is spiiiiiinning...¡± ¡°...¡± My usual silent dad remained silent as my drunk mom spun him around and around and around. Nuts and dried squid were scattered on the table, the tatami mats, and everywhere else. Completely empty sake bottles had been left all over the place. I noticed the names Red Yukata and Black-Haired Beauty on the labels, so it seemed they were going through the junmai daiginjo they had brought themselves. My mom kept her arms wrapped around my dad¡¯s neck and her flushed face swayed back and forth. ¡°Nn... Oh, Shinobu? They already took dinner away, so you¡¯ll have to go without.¡± ¡°Geh!?¡± ¡°Unlike a hotel, they bring you the food at a set time in Japanese inns. If you aren¡¯t there, you miss out. Huh? Where are you going?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t fill my stomach with the nuts and dried squid on the floor, so I have to go find something else to eat. ...They¡¯ll at least have a convenience store around here, right?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask meee. I do think they had a shop near the entrance, though. A single rice ball was 2500 yen. And that¡¯s a plain one. If you want a dried plum inside, the price more than doubles. That¡¯s a tourist area for you.¡± ¡°Are you sure Intellectual Villages haven¡¯t just suffered severe inflation?¡± With that said, I left the room again. I thought I noticed my silent father give me a look begging me to save him, but I had enough filial piety to not get in their way. ¡°Why are you still with me, Good-for-Nothing Youkai?¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to the casinos, aren¡¯t you?¡± I gave a large start. ¡°M-Miss Zashiki Warashi? How did you ever reach that conclusion?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t seem too upset about missing dinner, so you must have something else in mind. You¡¯re excited that you have an excuse to head out at night without rousing their suspicion. And what kind of entertainment do they have out here that you wouldn¡¯t want your parents to know about?¡± ¡°Fine, fine. I won¡¯t complain as long as you keep your mouth shut. But paranormal Youkai aren¡¯t allowed in the casinos and they¡¯ll definitely be on the lookout for a fortune-bringing Zashiki Warashi. What¡¯s so fun about waiting outside the building?¡± ¡°What are you talking about? Seeing your bewildered expression when you lose every last yen is all the entertainment I need.¡± ¡°Just to be sure, you are a Zashiki Warashi, right?¡± ¡°Zashiki Warashi aren¡¯t as harmless as children¡¯s books make us out to be.¡± The Indoor Youkai shrugged. ¡°But how much do you have in your wallet? And your card¡¯s credit limit isn¡¯t very high. I¡¯m not sure you have enough for even one pull at the slots.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already looked into it. They have a beginner¡¯s luck system that gives first-time guests thirty thousand yen in chips for free. The only condition is that you have to use all of the chips before leaving the casino. If you lose, you break even. If you win, the winnings go right into your wallet.¡± ¡°So they give you a taste of gambling so you¡¯ll get addicted to it later?¡± ¡°Either way, we¡¯ll be leaving this island in two or three days. You can¡¯t just do this anywhere like with pachinko or horseracing, so I couldn¡¯t become an addict if I tried.¡± I took a peek in the inn¡¯s shop just to check, but I immediately grimaced and left. The canned drinks found in vending machines everywhere cost more than a thousand yen each, so this wasn¡¯t just the modern rural system where the luxurious ingredients drove up the price. The product was in no way worth what they were charging. ¡°What are we going to do about dinner?¡± ¡°If I win, we can have a luxurious meal with a bunny girl on the side. If I lose, we¡¯ll have to drink my tears. Do you feel like rooting for me now?¡± A wooden sign set up near the inn¡¯s main entrance said, ¡°Partnered with VR Casino City ¨C Heavy Cruiser Island. Feel free to join us by PC, cellphone, or smartphone. ¨CGoldmine Island Casino Promotion Committee¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t that taxi driver mention Heavy Cruiser Island?¡± ¡°Just like with Edo and Yamataikoku, it¡¯s a symbol of the ¡®good old days¡¯ people long for.¡± ¡°But a virtual casino? What¡¯s so fun about playing what¡¯s really just a video game after coming all the way to a real casino island?¡± ¡°It seems you can buy points that can be used on the island. The units are Gears. They work with a monstrous point card system that over forty million people use and are accepted at major drugstores, video rental stores, and online stores, so you could easily call it a virtual currency.¡± ¡°Wait a second, you good-for-nothing.¡± ¡°But the app apparently gives out your location and it won¡¯t let you play if you aren¡¯t inside the island¡¯s special casino district, so it¡¯s still pretty frustrating.¡± ¡°Why do you know so much about this? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve been gambling with my smartphone!¡± No matter how much I questioned her, she only casually averted her gaze. Dammit, I have to eventually get back that phone nestled between those giant breasts! At any rate, we left the inn. The sticky ink-like darkness of the rural night covered everything and I sighed as I looked around. ¡°Now for the first problem.¡± ¡°It looks like our only option is to walk to the casino district on the other side of the island. You can¡¯t hire a taxi with that beginner¡¯s luck system of yours, can you?¡± ¡°...¡± Worried, I looked down at my cellphone. When I saw the ¡°28¡ã¡± reading, I felt an unpleasant sweat pouring down my body. Part 4 (Day 10/03 23:10 - 23:25) It took wayyyy to long. I had noticed it was surprisingly cool when I arrived on the island, but that had apparently been due to the breeze on that low-humidity night. As soon as I saw the digital temperature reading, I felt like the normal heat of the night suddenly returned. And then I had to take a hellish marathon through that heat. I was soaked with sweat and all the heat built up inside me almost made me want to die right then and there. There was no way this could lead to my vision of dancing in gold coins as the king of the casino with a cocktail glass in one hand. ¡°This might be your punishment for trying to show off.¡± ¡°P-pant pant!! I-I didn¡¯t do anything wrong!!¡± It felt like midnight was fast approaching, but things were actually only just beginning in the casino city. The rush of fancy cars and women in gorgeous dresses showed no sign of stopping. I saw fireworks here and there, but it was apparently still too early for that to qualify as a late-night nuisance. I frantically caught my breath and heard some suppressed giggling. I turned around to look and saw a small girl of about twelve or thirteen peering at me from between two buildings. ¡°What is that?¡± ¡°A Youkai, I think. Probably an Usuhiki Warashi, a version of a Zashiki Warashi like me.¡± The girl had long hair and not only did she wear a short mini-yukata, but she let it slip far from her shoulders like a courtesan. It looked something like a tube-top style dress. ¡°Isn¡¯t it sad, glamorous Indoor Youkai? She looks a lot more like an actual Zashiki Warashi than you.¡± ¡°Like I said, she¡¯s only an Usuhiki Warashi. Don¡¯t underestimate the real deal.¡± When our eyes met, the Usuhiki Warashi let out a quick shriek and ran back into the alley. It looked less like she was afraid of the delinquent boy looking at her and more like she was teasing me. Either way, it was no concern of mine. ¡°Shinobu, which casino are you going to use?¡± ¡°Any one that has a sign out front welcoming beginner¡¯s luck people. I think that covers about half of them, though.¡± As we spoke, a nearby casino door opened and a man dressed like a bartender seemed to chuck a few stuffed animals out onto the road. The softly bouncing creatures seemed to be a tanuki, a fox, and a badger. And they were not stuffed; they were real animals. Isn¡¯t this the group we saw out the taxi window earlier? ¡°You dumbasses!! How many times do we have to tell you!? No Youkai allowed! Go eat some soba and get to sleep, you morons!!¡± ¡°Shut up! We already told you we wouldn¡¯t use our paranormal powers. We were playing cards fair and square. You¡¯re just using this as an excuse because you started to lose!!¡± The fox swung his hands (or front paws?) around as he protested, but the bartender man spat on the ground and returned to the casino. The tanuki groaned while lying face up. ¡°Uuh... Th-this really is too much to ask for a wet nurse like me. How are we supposed to win back the money that corrupt con artist stole?¡± The badger got up so fast it looked like steam was going to come from his head. Oh, and while people often think badgers are the same as tanuki, they¡¯re actually completely different animals. ¡°What!? Tanuki! Are you thinking of backing out after we finally managed to track down Kodama Ryou!? Then what will happen to the old lady and her granddaughter? Those two are in the hospital and need money for treatment. We have to get that lost money back!!¡± Ohh... I instinctually averted my gaze. ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi. I really don¡¯t want to get involved in this.¡± ¡°But all three of them are looking this way. Being naturally loved by Youkai isn¡¯t always fun, you know?¡± Part 5 (Day 10/03 23:30 - 23:50) We received a simple explanation on the street. The three of them were apparently Youkai from Shikoku. The fox was a gardener, the tanuki was a wet nurse, and the badger was a bodyguard and they had served a human family for generation after generation. Youkai like this had a huge difference between the good and bad versions. There were gruesome stories about the bad ones killing an old lady who lived alone, taking over her life, and eating the rest of the villagers one by one. City scholars claimed these stories had their roots in fears of ¡°outsiders from the mountains¡±. Unlike in modern times, there had been no way to check fingerprints or DNA in the past. And with lax management of the family register, it had not been all that difficult to take the place of an elderly person who lived some distance from a village. But how would that theory explain the animals walking on two legs in front of me? ¡°Our master belongs to a family with a long history, but they didn¡¯t want to join the Intellectual Village system and ended up taken in by the advance of rural cities instead.¡± ¡°Oh, I think I see where this is going.¡± ¡°As you seem to have guessed, they failed to keep up with the changing times. Some might even say the family fell into ruin. They still live in the countryside, but their life is not that much different from a normal office worker.¡± ¡°But our loyalty hasn¡¯t changed! You can¡¯t judge someone¡¯s worth based on the size of their savings!¡± You really shouldn¡¯t be saying that in a casino city. They clearly had money troubles. ¡°So what¡¯s this about a corrupt con artist?¡± asked the Zashiki Warashi with a shrug. ¡°Not that I¡¯ve ever heard of an honest con artist.¡± ¡°Kodama Ryou. He¡¯s the old lady¡¯s hated enemy! He used all sorts of underhanded methods and lies to make us think we could get the money we needed!!¡± ¡°What exactly was it?¡± ¡°A 100% guaranteed investment opportunity.¡± I felt faint for a moment. Are you seriously telling me it was the kind of scam people make over the phone? ¡°Laugh if you want,¡± muttered the wet nurse tanuki while puffing out her cheeks and stomach. ¡°But the granddaughter had suddenly come down with a disease. And it¡¯s a dangerous one that can¡¯t be treated in Japan. The old lady¡¯s pension wasn¡¯t enough to pay for the travel and the surgery and then that man showed up with a smile on his face. What¡¯s wrong with taking a chance when you¡¯re desperate?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but give a heavy sigh. The glamorous Zashiki Warashi crossed her arms in a way that pushed up her breasts and glanced over at me. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± she asked. ¡°How should I know? I¡¯m only in high school and I¡¯m not an expert when it comes to money.¡± It was true I was human. The only others here were a fox, tanuki, badger, and Zashiki Warashi. As Youkai, none of them could enter the casino. I might have been able to confront this con artist named Kodama Ryou. But then what? What was an amateur student supposed to do against a professional trickster? There was nothing I could do on my own. Letting my emotions get the better of me would only end with me being taken for everything I was worth. ¡°But...¡± I cut in there. As the stuffed animal-like Youkai focused on me, I pulled out my cellphone. ¡°I have a classmate who¡¯s ridiculously good with money. I¡¯ll get some advice from her first.¡± Part 6 (Day 10/04 00:00 - 00:20) ¡°I see what¡¯s going on here, Shinobu-kun. If you see nothing wrong with calling me at this hour, I think you should go get yourself officially diagnosed with a Madoka-chan addiction.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t sound like I woke you up, so I¡¯m glad to see we¡¯re both living equally unhealthy lifestyles.¡± ¡°Hm? I hear a lot of music in the background. Where are you right now?¡± Eccentric beauty Kotemitsu Madoka¡¯s question led me to glance at my surroundings. Unlike the ridiculous deluge of light outside, the casino itself was moderately filled with soft lighting and music. The volume was a little high, but that may have been to hide the sounds of the roulettes and slot machines. With the red carpet, chic wooden pillars, and decorative green mats on the tables, it was a colorful place. Despite being a tourist area, the men and women in suits and dresses were not crammed inside like the beach during summer. Leisurely comfort seemed to be the standard here. I looked down from the second floor to view the poker tables on the first floor. It covered his expensive suit, belt, and shoes, so it seemed this con artist really liked snakeskin. I just hoped his cocktail glass wasn¡¯t filled with pit viper sake. ¡°You care a lot about money, Madoka-chan, so have you heard of a Kodama Ryou?¡± ¡°Oh...¡± ¡°Sounds like you have.¡± ¡°He¡¯s a pretty big annoyance in the world of investment. For him, the stock market is a form of gambling, not a business. He buys or sells them with sums measured in the hundreds of millions just to enjoy the thrill. You can¡¯t predict what he¡¯s going to do, so a lot of people have had their stock certificates suddenly turned to scrap paper thanks to him.¡± ¡°What is he trying to do?¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you listening? He enjoys the thrill. Do you know his hobby? Art auctions. But after pouring ridiculous amounts of money into a painting or sculpture, he almost immediately donates it to a random museum. The act of acquiring it is what he enjoys. Nothing could be more troublesome.¡± ¡°So where does he get his money? If he¡¯s doing that kind of thing all the time, even your average rich kid would run out pretty quickly.¡± ¡°Since you bothered to contact me, I assume you already know. He tricks people for fun and then uses the money he gets to enjoy that thrill he loves. And once his wallet is empty again, he starts looking for a new mark. ...I said he donates the paintings and sculptures he gets to museums, remember? Thanks to that, every government feels like they owe him. The carefree government officials think of him as a necessary evil, so you can¡¯t expect a proper investigation when he¡¯s involved.¡± ¡°What¡¯s this thrill nonsense? He¡¯s made sure he¡¯ll be safe no matter what.¡± ¡°But his techniques are stupidly simple. I doubt it, but your family didn¡¯t fall for that, did they?¡± ¡°No, just some acquaintances. An old woman in Shikoku fell for it when she was trying to find the money to save her sick granddaughter. Do you think that story¡¯s true?¡± ¡°There¡¯s too little information, so I can¡¯t say. But Kodama Ryou has scammed about two thousand people around the country and that¡¯s only the ones I can confirm. Whether that particular story is true or not, he¡¯s probably done something similar. That sick granddaughter sounds like exactly the kind of thing he would use.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Why do you think everyone falls for it when his speaking skills are no better than an ape¡¯s? I don¡¯t know how, but he always shows up right when a family member has been in a traffic accident or had their house burn down. He targets people when they aren¡¯t thinking straight. My guess is whatever put them in that state was his doing, too. ...Could this granddaughter¡¯s disease be reproduced by ingesting some kind of harmful substance?¡± .................................................................................................................................................................................... I looked back down over the railing and at the first floor poker table. The lady killer decked out in snakeskin was getting drunk on expensive drink while toying with the cards he was dealt. As he smiled in the light, I could not see a single stain on him. There was not even a drop of the blood he sucked from his victims. ¡°Um, Shinobu-kun. If you really do need money, I can help you out. I can get about two billion moving with a single phone call to my accountant.¡± ¡°How much of a debt do you want a classmate to owe you? Now you¡¯re just scaring me. And that would be too boring. It wouldn¡¯t feel like actually winning.¡± ¡°?¡± Yes. For example, winning a ton of money against a computer program in the Heavy Cruiser Island VR casino city using a cellphone or smartphone wouldn¡¯t help cheer me up. ¡°It has to be from that bastard.¡± I extended the thumb and forefinger of my empty hand to make a handgun gesture. And I thrust it directly toward the face of that snake man who was enjoying his time surrounded by beautiful women. ¡°I won¡¯t be satisfied unless I take back everything he¡¯s taken and add some interest on top for good measure.¡± Part 7 (Day 10/04 00:35 - 01:15) I got my chip worth thirty thousand yen with the beginner¡¯s luck system and sat at a poker table. It seemed the tables were divided into a few different categories based on how much you could bet at once and I was only allowed at the cheapest table on the far edge of the room. But even there, I lost almost everything. The female dealer gave me a sympathetic look as I left the table and then exited the casino. ¡°Rejoice, my thirty thousand yen chip transformed into one thousand five hundred yen. That¡¯s thanks to getting two of a kind twice. Now I should be able to buy some dinner once I find a normal convenience store somewhere around here.¡± ¡°Shinobu, I think the dealer intentionally gave you those hands to draw you in.¡± ¡°I also figured out why the VR casino¡¯s virtual currency is called Gears. The chip designs have a gear motif and it seems you can exchange chips between physical and virtual.¡± Annoyance filled my tone as I started recalling my observations of the enemy. ¡°That place is pretty amazing. I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s to keep people from cheating by marking the cards, but they throw them all out after every hand and open the seal on a brand new deck.¡± Just like normal animals, the fox, tanuki, and badger were rummaging through a trash can behind the casino. ¡°Look, they threw out this meat on the bone almost untouched! I can¡¯t imagine why anyone would do this!!¡± ¡°They probably confused throwing out perfectly edible food with luxury.¡± ¡°Damn them. This is the kind of person that took the old lady¡¯s precious pension money!?¡± As they argued back and forth, they began chowing down like they were at a house party. I was just glad they looked so happy. She must have decided they weren¡¯t going to be any use because the Indoor Zashiki Warashi didn¡¯t even look their way as she spoke to me. ¡°So what are you going to do? You have to challenge this Kodama Ryou guy to a game of poker to get back the money he stole, right? But I think you need some funds of your own to do that.¡± ¡°Yeah, it was no use. With a thirty thousand yen chip, I couldn¡¯t even sit at the same table as him. The minimum was three million. I could blow three million on a single hand. And that could easily double or quadruple if someone raises the bet. There¡¯s no way I can find that kind of money.¡± The Zashiki Warashi glanced over at the road and the hands of the men and women slowly stepping out of black limousines. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look to be like the casino guests are carrying around duralumin cases or anything.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to steal it, you idiot. And they probably think carry cash is for poor people. They all pay with cards. You¡¯ve heard of a black card, haven¡¯t you? Those have no credit limit. The casinos all have giant servers in the back, so the VIPs always have access to the card companies. To them, it¡¯s really only data moving back and forth.¡± ¡°And your card is?¡± ¡°You already know that. It¡¯s just meant to make online shopping easier. Paying for my cellphone, cable TV, smartphone, computer, and online gaming is enough to almost hit the limit. I don¡¯t have any leeway there.¡± The fox walked out from behind the casino holding a bunch of French fries and began shouting as if he could not overlook what I had said. ¡°What!? Then what are we going to do? We¡¯ve already hit a dead end before the game has even begun!!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. But anyone in an Intellectual Village casino is going to have odd tastes, so there will be plenty of people who know what things are worth. ...I don¡¯t need actual money. I just need something they¡¯ll be even more eager to get their hands on.¡± ¡°Shinobu, you don¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°Red Yukata and Black-Haired Beauty.¡± The three animals only tilted their heads at those brand names, so I explained. ¡°That junmai daiginjo is worth fifty thousand yen a cup, so what if I knew where bottles of it were just lying around?¡± Part 8 (Day 10/04 02:05 - 02:30) Simply travelling between the casino and inn was exhausting. The Zashiki Warashi and I gathered the empty bottles lying around our room in the inn and filled them with tap water. My parents were completely drunk, so it wasn¡¯t difficult. ¡°W-will that really fool them?¡± The wet nurse tanuki was clearly nervous when we got back, but there was really no need to worry about it. ¡°The bottles and labels are definitely from the Jinnai Brewery and they¡¯ll know I really am the son of the family if they check my identity.¡± ¡°But that¡¯s only water in there, right?¡± ¡°No one can open the bottles. The scarcity is everything with brand-name sake. You¡¯ve essentially ruined it as soon as you open it, so they can¡¯t carelessly appraise it or anything. No one would be delighted to eat the leftovers of someone¡¯s fancy dinner, right? Well, this is the same. ...As long as I don¡¯t lose, no one¡¯s going to check on the contents. And this many bottles should count for about seven million yen.¡± ¡°B-but what if they do a careful examination of the cork.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. One unique trait of the Jinnai Brewery is the lack of a decorative label over the cork. The idea is that avoids dirtying the mouth of the bottle with adhesive. The clasp over the cork is used to tell if it¡¯s been opened or not, but you can bend that with a coin. They won¡¯t be able to tell as long as they don¡¯t check with a jeweler¡¯s magnifying glass.¡± The fox and badger were discussing our strategy a short distance away. ¡°What are we going to do?¡± ¡°Kodama Ryou is a con artist, so there¡¯s no need for us to play fair either.¡± The Zashiki Warashi tapped her shoulder with a huge sake bottle. ¡°But pulling this off only gets you at the same table as him. He¡¯s managed to stay at that high-stakes table for who knows how long, so he has to be cheating somehow.¡± ¡°W-we¡¯ve heard something about that.¡± The tanuki raised one paw while standing on her hind legs. ¡°We heard it from a gentleman who lost everything to him. He claimed Kodama Ryou uses an Usuhiki Warashi and that he wouldn¡¯t have lost if he could have found some proof. The man was pretty drunk, though.¡± ¡°An Usuhiki Warashi, you say?¡± A troubled look filled my face. Hadn¡¯t I heard giggling from between two buildings and seen a Youkai that looked like a small girl? An Usuhiki Warashi was a subspecies of Zashiki Warashi that would appear near the stone mill in old houses. Other than that trait, they were almost identical to a Zashiki Warashi. They brought wealth and fortune to the family of the house they lived in, but that house would fall into decline as soon as they left. According to the records, they would predict fires or lead to an entire clan being wiped out in a single night. The only other major trait was the frequent non-malicious pranks. In those cases, it apparently wasn¡¯t unusual for them to leave the home or stone mill they saw as their territory. For example, when children were playing in the house¡¯s yard or in the schoolyard, an extra child would mysteriously appear among them. It was obvious an Usuhiki Warashi had joined in because the adults would find the number of children had increased when they counted them, but they could never figure out which one was the Usuhiki Warashi. They would also sneak into the family¡¯s futon as they slept, flip over their pillows, pull away the blanket, or play other pranks around the bed. The legit Good-for-Nothing Zashiki Warashi tilted her head. ¡°But I thought Youkai weren¡¯t allowed in the casinos. If this Kodama con artist is using one of my subspecies, wouldn¡¯t he be caught almost immediately?¡± ¡°Yes, but there were some suspicious-looking people among the casino security guards.¡± Intellectual Villages didn¡¯t trust the police much, so armed guards weren¡¯t an uncommon sight. They were armed with weapons that didn¡¯t run afoul of the Swords and Firearms Control Law. For example, a small crossbow or a blackjack made by stuffing small metal balls into a leather bag. They would use those weapons to beat up dangerous animals, crop thieves, or industrial spies. But this was a casino city. The guards here seemed even more heavily armed than the normal guards who surrounded eccentric beauty Madoka-chan. Some were even equipped with the kind of mechanical arm used for medical or engineering purposes that increased a human¡¯s strength five or ten times over. I definitely didn¡¯t want to make an enemy of them, but some stood out even more than the others. ¡°They had pentagram-like marks on the backs of their gloves and they felt like a mix of a charismatic spiritual leader and a hitman.¡± ¡°Mh? That sounds like an Onmyouji to me! I know all about them. If they¡¯re using a pentagram, they must follow the Abe style!! Maybe they¡¯re sarcastic intellectuals who curry the favor of the Imperial Court and the nobles to live the good life!!¡± The badger flailed his short arms and legs around while shouting, but... ¡°Hey, what do you think?¡± I asked the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°Is it really likely that they have an anti-Youkai unit that specializes in the paranormal?¡± ¡°Who can say? They¡¯re probably about the same as a girl with an affinity for the spiritual. They can probably sense that something¡¯s wrong, but I doubt they have the power needed to directly kill a Youkai. If people like that were so easy to get your hands on, the country would have made up for the gaps in its laws by now. Not to mention that those kinds of people belong to organizations that don¡¯t like to make public appearances.¡± She was referring to the world centered on Hyakki Yakou. Seeing people like Hishigami Mai or the Illness Magic User made it easy to forget how hard it was to kill a Youkai, but people like that were few and far between. You couldn¡¯t just hand them some cash and have them guard your casino like a part-timer. ¡°But this is probably enough to catch anyone cheating. It¡¯s always the humans who use Packages, so they can use their numbers and physical strength to put a stop to it when they sense that something¡¯s wrong.¡± ¡°B-but Kodama Ryou is using an Usuhiki Warashi to cheat right now,¡± pointed out the wet nurse tanuki. ¡°It¡¯s simple,¡± I answered with a shrug. ¡°He¡¯s probably bribed them.¡± The three animals groaned. ¡°That would explain why they found us so easily when we snuck in. He must have ordered them to focus on searching for anyone who might harm him.¡± I have no idea what method you used, but something tells me that was your own fault. ¡°Anyway, we¡¯ll have to reveal his Usuhiki Warashi trick on our own. We can¡¯t expect the casino to do anything about it.¡± ¡°D-do you have a plan? I really don¡¯t think you can win by leaving it up to luck.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t even try if that¡¯s what I was doing.¡± I gathered up the sake battles filled with tap water. ¡°Zashiki Warashi, give those three the smartphone you borrowed from me. It¡¯s necessary.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Also, you three won¡¯t be going with us. There¡¯s a lot I want you to do instead.¡± I rattled off my instructions. After telling the Zashiki Warashi what she had to do, I turned toward the fox, tanuki, and badger who had started swiping their front paws across the screen to see how it worked. ¡°And I will of course need your help for this.¡± ¡°We will do anything to help the old lady, but we can¡¯t even get inside the casino.¡± The badger tilted his head as he spoke, so I replied. ¡°Not all help has to come from inside the casino.¡± Part 9 (Day 10/04 02:41 - 03:00) If the joker is included in the deck, one of the players must announce it. The announcer¡¯s winnings for that hand will only be 0.8 times normal (with the exception of five of a kind that can only be made with a joker). If the winner forms their hand after discarding the joker, their winnings will be twice normal. If a player is caught cheating, they will be penalized twice their bet amount. However, a simple bluff does not qualify as cheating. Cheating is eliminated by the thorough management of the dealer, but it can also be directly pointed out by an opponent. But if the loser accuses the winner of cheating and no cheating can be proven, the loser will be penalized one hundred times their bet amount for ruining the game and damaging the winner¡¯s reputation. If a player does not swap out a single card, their winnings will be 1.5 times normal. I went over the local rules in my head as I once more threw open the door to the casino that took away almost all of the thirty thousand yen chip I got from the beginner¡¯s luck system. A few people looked down on me as the guest who did not belong yet returned anyway, but I that didn¡¯t matter. I had only one target: the top-rate poker table that Kodama Ryou still sat at. ¡°Hi there!¡± Just as the dealer was about to deal the cards to the con artist and four other ladies and gentlemen, I called out to them. I also shoved aside the middle-aged man sitting next to Kodama Ryou, knocking over the cards and chips in the process. ¡°You... Ha ha. Yeah, you! ...You¡¯re Kodama-san, aren¡¯t you? Kodama Ryou! They had a championship to determine the best player in Japan¡¯s four greatest casinos, but why didn¡¯t you join in? That was just child¡¯s play, so if you¡¯d shown up, you could¡¯ve changed history.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± shouted the angry middle-aged man. Some men in black were positioned by the walls and columns so they could keep a view of the entire floor yet not interrupt the flow of guests. They all began rushing toward me, but not because they thought I was a threat. They probably thought I was here to complain about my previous loss. They grabbed the back of my neck and my arms, but I still laughed. ¡°You¡¯re like my hero, so I want to steal your unbeatable secrets with my eyes! I¡¯m not asking to be your apprentice or anything like that, so will you play against me just once. I brought the money I need to bet on it, so can¡¯t you just play one game!?¡± The snakeskin con artist slowly closed his eyes. Eventually, he opened them ever so slightly. What was he thinking? What was he weighing on the scales? ¡°Well...¡± He made extra sure his voice lacked any kind of displeased distortion like a skipping record. That was all it took for the men in black¡¯s grip to weaken on my arms. ¡°Before we talk, could I treat everyone at the table to a drink? I have to do at least that much if we¡¯re robbing them of a game.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah. Um, sorry!¡± ¡°What do you say, everyone? Will you leave this to me and take a drink to this young man¡¯s future?¡± They accepted the con artist¡¯s request with bitter sneers more than with displeasure. Yes, that¡¯s right. This is perfect. I had destroyed a game where money changed hands by the millions and Kodama Ryou was the undefeated player at the table. The gallery had to be hoping he would drown this impolite brat in a hell of debt. Pushed on by that, Kodama Ryou had to be thinking he would ¡°kindly¡± give me what I wanted and take everything I had to make up for the game I had robbed him. If he wasn¡¯t willing to ruin a stupid kid¡¯s life for money, he wouldn¡¯t work as a con artist. But had he realized that the stage was set? There were no brakes on this roller coaster. Once the drop began, he couldn¡¯t back out no matter how ridiculous it got. If a casino¡¯s top player backed out of a game suggested by a stupid-looking high school boy, he¡¯d be seen as the biggest chicken of them all. There had to be a type of reputation and trust he wanted to earn even if it meant deceiving everyone. He needed it to keep the money flowing in from his victims. ¡°So what do you mean when you say you brought the money you need to bet on the game? I doubt a kid your age has what it takes to sit at this table.¡± ¡°Heh. Heh heh. I¡¯m not really sure if I can use it or not.¡± With a stiff smile, I clunked my ¡°funds¡± up onto the table. ¡°But I¡¯ve got Red Yukata, Black-Haired Beauty, Lovely Nape, and Gorgeous White Hand. I don¡¯t really get it myself, but these are my grampa¡¯s treasure. Is this enough for a game?¡± ¡°Oh? The Jinnai Brewery?¡± The snakeskin man actually sounded a little surprised at this. The name was pretty well known, so a stir ran through the ladies and gentlemen in the gallery as well. ¡°Well, well. You don¡¯t see this every day, but it¡¯s still not quite enough.¡± Liar. I know this is easily enough for two or three games (if they weren¡¯t filled with tap water, of course). You just want to rip off a kid who doesn¡¯t know what it¡¯s worth, don¡¯t you? ¡°So how about this? Why not play a special game just between the two of us? Let¡¯s keep the dealer and the casino out of this. You want to steal my techniques, so including the other players would only get in the way, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Y-you¡¯ll do that much for me!?¡± That means you don¡¯t have to worry about the other players or the dealer stealing your winnings, doesn¡¯t it? ¡°Yes, yes. How much do you know about poker?¡± ¡°Th-the basics. I¡¯ve played it with some friends in my class. Y¡¯know, you shuffle the cards, deal out five each, and then exchange however many you want.¡± ¡°Ha ha. Then I guess you wouldn¡¯t know what Texas Hold ¡®em is. Well, we can play the Japanese card game style with five cards each. We¡¯ll exchange cards...¡± He snapped his fingers, someone tossed a die over from another table, and he rolled it. ¡°Okay, we¡¯ll exchange them twice. Is that fine?¡± ¡°But then it won¡¯t feel like a real casino game after I came all the way to Goldmine Island. ...Oh, I know. Can we use the casino¡¯s rate and local rules?¡± ¡°Fine. What should we do about a five of a kind using a joker?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter to me.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s allow it. That makes 53 cards including the joker. Today¡¯s lucky sort is...¡± He swung his hand and the dealer spread the cards out on the table face-down before pulling one out. ¡°Okay, the seven of spades. In this game, a royal flush of spades will be a special hand and the only one that can defeat a five of a kind.¡± ¡°Also, I want to see how you use the cards, so can we do away with the raising and calling? Let¡¯s risk it all from the beginning. I won¡¯t get anything by seeing how you fold.¡± ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll give you what you want here since it should be an important lesson for you.¡± He must have wanted to show how generous he was or to draw in the gallery because he accepted my suggestions surprisingly readily. ¡°I¡¯m actually pretty happy about this,¡± he said. ¡°A lot happened on my way to where I am and I even had someone I viewed as a teacher. Seeing you here kind of makes me think I¡¯ve finally arrived where he was. So...¡± He smiled thinly and snapped his fingers. Immediately, the front double-doors opened and several men in black stomped inside. They were holding something from either side. ¡°That Zashiki Warashi is your Youkai, isn¡¯t it?¡± I could feel unpleasant sweat seeping out on the back of my neck. The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata was bound by what looked like white plastic rope. And not just her arms and legs either. It was wrapped around her torso, her neck, and all of her body like some kind of sick form of torture. Still smiling, the con artist spoke. ¡°You see, the casino knows how to take care of Youkai related to fortunes and money.¡± He spoke quickly. The Youkai that should have been invulnerable to blades or bullets was giving me a pleading look. ¡°They say Zashiki Warashi come from the threshold, below the floor, or below the stone mill. Those seem to have been common places to bury murdered babies. Using that legend, they crush an old stone mill into powder, place it in a furnace, and create glass fiber rope out of it. Not even the Youkai¡¯s great strength can break it.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°This! This is how it has to be, boy!¡± Kodama Ryou¡¯s raised voice seemed to swallow me up. It seemed to create a current that swept me away without letting me make any kind of protest. ¡°If you want to feel the true thrill of a gamble, you must follow a few simple rules of etiquette. First, do not keep any assets in reserve. And second, do not keep any tricks up your sleeve. ...How about you bet that Youkai as well? If you don¡¯t, you won¡¯t get any closer to the true essence of gambling.¡± ¡°.............................................................................................................................................¡± ¡°Now, let¡¯s do as you said and risk it all from the beginning. No raising, no calling, and no wisely folding. Surely you don¡¯t mind. You were the one asking for just that.¡± For a moment, truly just a moment, the inside of my forehead felt oddly cold and I felt like I was going to forget everything. I had known this was coming, but my vision still nearly filled with white light. Yes, I had known this was coming. In other words... Yes, yes! I was waiting for this!! When speaking with Madoka over the phone, she had pointed out the initial problem I would face. ¡°Shinobu-kun, do you really think an expert cheater will really agree to such an odd game? Con artists tend to be bold but cowardly. They¡¯ll get caught otherwise. And a professional is definitely going to be better at trickery than a high school boy. If you smile with school play level acting skills, he¡¯s going to immediately suspect something is up.¡± ¡°Then we can let him figure it out. I just have to set it up so things can continue even if he does.¡± I thought back to that strategy meeting and I had to work hard not to let it show on my face. Kodama Ryou knew how to capture and control a Zashiki Warashi. Even if he had seen through my bluff with the sake bottles, he still wanted to continue the game to get his hands on the Youkai. That was why he had paid less attention to the change from the casino¡¯s usual Texas Hold ¡®em rules and the number of card exchanges. For him, anything was fine as long as he didn¡¯t win so much it was obvious he was cheating. Normal poker only exchanged cards just once, but if he kept getting royal flushes and five of a kinds, people would think he was a little too ¡°lucky¡±. So as long as it was higher than one, the number could have been three or six for all he cared. That was all he was focusing on. And that settled it for me. He really was reliant on the Zashiki Warashi subspecies known as an Usuhiki Warashi. It wasn¡¯t that he had mastered his sleight of hand to godlike levels and then taken one step further to get the help of an Usuhiki Warashi. If you took the Youkai from him, he had nothing left. The men in black were threatening us with the glass fiber rope made from a stone mill, but that was likely all they had. They weren¡¯t monsters like Hyakki Yakou that could slaughter any Youkai that opposed them. They had built up their foundation around the Usuhiki Warashi and could only deal with that one type of paranormal. That meant I didn¡¯t need to worry about any other method. If I could break through the Usuhiki Warashi system, they would fall into the abyss! ¡°I! Didn¡¯t! Hear! Anything! About! This!¡± I noticed the Zashiki Warashi was mouthing protests with even her breasts and crotch tightly and seductively bound. Well, that¡¯s because I didn¡¯t tell you. ¡°I! Just! Have! To! Win!¡± ¡°Only! Losers! Think! That! Way!¡± Heh heh. Truth was, that lazy and glamorous Youkai had given me plenty of reason to resent her. Earlier she had used my smartphone to download the avatar management app used to enter the VR Casino City named Heavy Cruiser Island, so she could have easily bankrupted me. It only seemed right to add on the local rules and keep at it until she was in a sexy predicament. This was a game of chicken! ¡°Are you done talking it out?¡± asked Kodama Ryou with some low laughter. He of course seemed to have some kind of network set up around the casino, but he had let his guard down and assumed the Zashiki Warashi was all I had. When faced with a chance to get a Zashiki Warashi which he could use to cheat and which was more powerful than his Usuhiki Warashi, he had overlooked the other three. That¡¯s right. The fox, tanuki, and badger. ¡°Fine! Fine!! ...I¡¯m still gonna make a name for myself. I swear... I swear to you I¡¯ll steal your techniques!!¡± ¡°You! Had! Better! Remember! This!¡± Part 10 (Day 10/04 03:00 - 03:09) It was a one-on-one game, but we still used a fresh pack of the casino¡¯s cards and the dealer still dealt them to us. Kodama Ryou had suggested it as a way to make things more exciting, but it likely had more to do with his confidence in his means of cheating with an Usuhiki Warashi and the fact that he didn¡¯t want to touch the deck himself and allow people to claim he was cheating that way. Five cards had already been dealt to me and the dealer slid just as many to Kodama Ryou. This was my second time in the casino. The first time I had watched from the second floor as he won multiple games in a row. ¡°Wow, he¡¯s really winning. But the dealer is handling all the cards and it doesn¡¯t look like he¡¯s doing something as cheap as swapping out cards with identical ones up his sleeve. I don¡¯t see any chance for him to be doing any kind of sleight of hand.¡± ¡°Then has he bribed the dealer?¡± Madoka had asked. ¡°I doubt it.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t see the dealer¡¯s face over the phone, but it¡¯s pale as can be. He looks about to cry. The more Kodama Ryou wins, the more people will suspect the dealer, so I can¡¯t blame him.¡± ¡°Then what is it?¡± ¡°If he¡¯s using a Youkai¡¯s occult power, it isn¡¯t as simple as seeing his opponent¡¯s cards. He isn¡¯t the type to win by folding at the optimal time. He enjoys building up a powerful hand.¡± ¡°Then can he create the cards he needs like a fox or tanuki turning leaves into coins?¡± ¡°Or he can freely swap out all of the cards.¡± Later, the fox, tanuki, and badger had told me Kodama Ryou was cheating using an Usuhiki Warashi which was a symbol of fortune. There were no legends about the Usuhiki Warashi ¡°counterfeiting¡± coins out of leaves. That Youkai more generally brought fortune and prosperity to the house it lived in, but that was too vague. That could not have been what he was using. However, there were stories about the pranks pulled by the Usuhiki Warashi and the Zashiki Warashi. For example, when the children were playing in the yard, an extra one would appear it at some point. The adults could tell there was an extra child by counting them, but they could not tell which one was actually a Youkai. Is this a Package that mixes in new cards without anyone noticing? I briefly entertained that idea but then rejected it. That was only a momentary misunderstanding. Even if a Zashiki Warashi could slip in amongst the children playing in the schoolyard during recess, it could not fully blend in as a classmate. It would eventually be found out and eventually vanish. In a casino where cheating meant instant death, I doubted he would use that trait ¡°as is¡±. Which meant... It isn¡¯t that powerful. It¡¯s a method of mixing in the cards without changing the number. Their other pranks were sneaking into the futon that someone was sleeping in, flipping over the pillow, and pulling on the blanket, so they all had to do with the bed. While they could move the pillow or blanket, they could not hide them anywhere. Nor did the sleeper go missing or lose their life. The Zashiki Warashi was a Youkai that could move a pillow or blanket without changing the ¡°number¡± and not even their owner could do anything to stop it. In other words... He isn¡¯t actually increasing or decreasing the number of cards. He ignores the laws of physics to pull out whatever cards he needs to win and slips them into his own hand. This Package lets him freely swap out the cards. In that case, he would have complete control over all fifty-three cards, but he wouldn¡¯t be able to directly influence the cards that either I or the impartial dealer could see. If the card changed while we were looking, it would cause a panic. He himself could only see the five cards in his own hand, so that was risky. He wouldn¡¯t know where the cards he wanted were, so there was a danger of swapping out his opponent¡¯s card while they were looking. He had to have a safety. He didn¡¯t know where the cards were, but if it was being observed by someone, the card wouldn¡¯t come to him even if he wanted it. But other than that, he could get his hands on any of the cards. He could build his hand from the five he was dealt and any of the cards in the face-down deck the dealer held. He could create as many royal flushes and five of a kinds as he wanted. There was no way to get a fair game out of this. But... ¡°Three of diamonds, nine of hearts, three of clubs, jack of hearts, and queen of hearts.¡± The atmosphere immediately froze over. All I had done was give a casual comment with my cards fanned out, but it silenced even the gallery who were ready to taste the sweet nectar of schadenfreude. ¡°What?¡± asked Kodama Ryou while blinking in confusion. ¡°It¡¯s a jinx for good luck. ...You said this needs to be a real battle, right? Well, I want to really corner myself here. I want to see what I find if I keep going, so I set myself up. Have I approached your realm now?¡± ¡°Well, um, that¡¯s not really what-... Listen. When I rolled the die earlier, we decided to allow two card exchanges, remember? And yet you...¡± ¡°Ha ha! That would be too boring!!¡± I was clearly bad at this, but anyone could tell I was looking down on him. ¡°Okay, I revealed everything, so what are your cards?¡± ¡°Do you really think I need to tell you? I am going to play normally and-...¡± ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re backing down?¡± I cut him off. If I¡¯d used this tone of voice with an upperclassman at school, I could hardly have complained if they punched me. ¡°No, no. Don¡¯t worry about it. It makes sense. I was the one that chose to reveal my cards, so you do your best with your method. That¡¯s what I want to learn from, after all. You hunch forward, carefully hide your cards from view, and win that way.¡± ¡°Ah?¡± ¡°I¡¯m saying not to worry about it. You know this is a serious match too, right? So who knows who¡¯ll win. It¡¯s entirely possible you¡¯ll lose everything to the amateur kid and break down crying. If you¡¯d rather hunch over like that to avoid the possibility of having an embarrassing cellphone photo spread around the world, then that¡¯s just how you want to live your life. You can do this at your own pace, teacher.¡± I heard a quiet wave of laughter and remembered what Madoka had said. ¡°Con artists will do whatever they can to nonchalantly escape any disadvantageous situation, but it might be surprisingly easy to get him caught with no way to escape.¡± ¡°Eh? Why? What do you mean?¡± ¡°Think about it. Even if he¡¯s surrounded by his supporters, how many do you think are actually rooting for him from the bottom of their hearts? The place has to be filled with people whose smiles hide a desire to see him pathetically crawling on the ground. A champion who always wins is boring. Anyone hanging around a casino to see others ascend to heaven or be cast into hell will want to see a hard-fought battle, not a stable victory.¡± I could not help but remember that comment. I was in enough of a trance to ignore the game before my eyes and lose myself in the past. Kodama¡¯s eyes rolled around to secretly view the passionate and sneering gallery. ¡°When did you get them on your side?¡± he asked. ¡°What are you talking about? I¡¯m only looking at you right now.¡± For some reason, my direct response received a mouthed protest from the turtle shell bondage Indoor Youkai instead of from the con artist. Ahh, a wonderful view no matter where I look. I¡¯m in such a good mood!! This game had begun as a chance for the top player to crush a conceited brat and the gallery had wanted to see me suffer. However, people¡¯s hearts changed easily. They would soon realize whose defeat would be more exciting and enjoyable. Kodama Ryou clenched his teeth and threw his cards face-up on the poker table. ¡°Queen of diamonds, king of diamonds, king of clubs, six of spades, and king of hearts!¡± ¡°Oh? You were dealt a three of a kind? Swap out one and you could get four of a kind or a full house. Swap out two and you could even get five of a kind. I would expect no less of you, Kodama-san. You didn¡¯t need to hide that at all.¡± But this would prevent him from swapping out the five cards in his hand. The only cards he could use his Usuhiki Warashi Package on were the ones in the dealer¡¯s deck. And his biggest chance was coming. ¡°Then let¡¯s get on to the first exchange.¡± He made that overly dramatic statement as if challenging me or trying to overturn the atmosphere that was threatening to envelop him. His voice dropped almost to a whisper. ¡°If I win here, I will take everything from you: your money and that Youkai. ...Don¡¯t forget that. I¡¯ll give you a nice lesson, but this is still a legit game played in a casino.¡± ... Don¡¯t let him draw you in. Don¡¯t let him. Don¡¯t look down at the bottom of the cliff. Remembering the risk is meaningless. Shrug and laugh it off! Laugh and keep moving!! ¡°Ha...ha ha. Don¡¯t try anything too blatant like exchanging all five cards and just so happening to get a royal flush. I think the dealer might stab you if you did.¡± I gave one last warning. He remained smiling, but now exchanging all five cards would be suicide. He would almost certainly be accused of cheating. Which meant... If he has any sense, he¡¯ll remove the queen of diamonds and six of spades and give himself a king of spades and a joker for a five of a kind with the four kings and a joker. The only way I can hope to match that is with a royal flush of spades, but that will be impossible if he has the king of spades. And unlike with other hands, he doesn¡¯t have to worry about me getting a five of a kind with a higher number. After all, you need a joker for five of a kind and there¡¯s only one of those in the deck. When planning with Madoka, we had obviously not been able to predict what cards we would get, so I had to make up the rest on the fly. The protection of money goddess Kotemitsu Madoka-chan had just about run out. Figuring out the rules behind Kodama Ryou¡¯s cheating was fine, but that alone wasn¡¯t enough. No matter how much we planned and prepared, I still ultimately had to defeat him on my own. Kotemitsu Madoka¡¯s plan and the help of the Zashiki Warashi and the fox, tanuki, and badger waiting outside would be of no help unless I overcame this. If I lost, I would sink and all would be lost. Slowly, I took a deep breath and spoke. ¡°Then two. The three of diamonds and three of clubs.¡± ¡°Ha ha!!¡± The snakeskin guy laughed loudly and even clapped his hands. ¡°C¡¯mon, now. I already have three kings, so why are you getting rid of your two of a kind? That¡¯s just going to leave you with nothing. Or do you think you¡¯re giving yourself a handicap? Or maybe you¡¯re trying to provoke me?¡± ¡°This is fine. Two threes would be too boring.¡± ¡°That leaves you with...oh. The nine of hearts, jack of hearts, and queen of hearts. Which means... Ha ha! Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re trying to get the ten and king of hearts for a royal flush or maybe the eight and ten for a straight flush! That¡¯s getting a little too greedy!!¡± I didn¡¯t really think I could get that. After all, he could freely control the remaining cards in the deck. And sure enough, the two cards I was dealt were... ¡°What, you¡¯re not going to go out of the way to announce these ones? Ha ha. Of course not!! You threw away your two of a kind and got nothing in return. Besides, that hand is only so valuable because it¡¯s so hard to get.¡± ¡°Enough nastiness. Just keep playing.¡± ¡°Fine then. I¡¯ll take two as well and get rid of the queen of diamonds and six of spades. Yes, that¡¯s the standard course of action.¡± That meant he really was after a five of a kind using the four kings and the joker. Not even a royal flush of hearts could beat that. I could feel my heart racing even faster. Was this really the way to go? Had there been something else I could have done? Doubts bubbled up inside my head, but the mine cart had already started rolling down the hill. There was no taking back the life placed inside it. I could only bet on this. I could only keep charging forward! But there was a fork in the mine cart¡¯s track. If he completed his five of a kind during this first card exchange, I was done for. But if he gathered one card at a time to complete it on the second exchange, I still had a way out, even if just barely. Which would it be? Which way would it roll? ¡°Kee hee.¡± I heard laughter. The ominous sound of teeth scraping together hurt my ears. ¡°Kee hee hee. Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee.¡± ¡°...¡± With his head lowered, the snakeskin guy laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed. ¡°This was a fun little game.¡± No announcement could have been worse. I felt like a cold hand was squeezing each and every organ in my body, one at a time. The whispering of the gallery grew distant. The man¡¯s grinning face looked like it was made of melted wax and I immediately realized something. The fox, tanuki, and badger must have seen this exact same expression when the patron they cared about more than anyone had been cast into the depths of the abyss. ¡°Perhaps I should call this riichi. I now have the king of spades in my hand. As long as I get the joker, I¡¯ll have a five of a kind. Even if you do get a royal flush of hearts, you can¡¯t win. And even if you forcibly try for the hand with spades instead, I already have the king of spades, so you can¡¯t complete the one hand that can beat a five of a kind!!¡± But. But! But!!!!! ¡°Heh.¡± He¡¯d done it. He¡¯d actually done it. Instead of ending this on the first card exchange, that idiot was waiting until the second. He had likely thought getting his hand on that first exchange would still seem enough like cheating that he needed to get one of his two cards at a time. And that unnecessary concern had given me the chance I needed to turn this around! ¡°Heh heh. Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!¡± ¡°...? What? What is so-...¡± ¡°What¡¯s so funny? Your little announcement just now.¡± I could drop the act now. I didn¡¯t need to keep grinning like an idiot and speaking more politely than I was used to. I completely changed my tone of voice. Had he been confronted with so many unusual things that he had wanted a little bit of stability? Or had his ability to control the cards I was dealt caused him to let his guard down? Deciding the number of card exchanges with a roll of a die had likely been ¡°insurance¡± against doubts if he won too brilliantly after only the one exchange. Either way, it was now my turn to go on the offensive! ¡°After all, I have the king of spades. I exchanged my cards first, so it makes no sense for you to have the king of spades in your hand.¡± ¡°What..?¡± ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon. Why do you look so surprised? With a look like that, you would almost think you had known from the beginning what cards we would be getting.¡± Kodama Ryou seemed to focus more on what I said than on my tone of voice or my attitude. He seemed to be saying he had seen through my farce and that no one cared about that. ¡°Don¡¯t make baseless accusations!! There¡¯s only one king of spades and it¡¯s in my hand, so you couldn¡¯t possibly have it. Anyone could tell you that!¡± ¡°Fine then. How about we both show our hands at the same time?¡± I waved my fanned-out cards toward him while making my suggestion and looking down on him. ¡°But what will happen then?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°What will happen to the game if the king of spades shows up in both of our hands? By the way, do you remember my hand? I¡¯m going for a royal flush or straight flush of hearts, so the king of spades wouldn¡¯t help me in the slightest. I have no reason to cheat and slip one into my hand.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°But what about you? Oh, well I guess that goes without saying. You¡¯re after a five of a kind using the four kings and the joker. You¡¯re obviously the one who benefits from having the king of spades in his hand.¡± I slammed one hand down on the poker table as I threatened him. Yes, and I slammed my five cards down as I did so. ¡°So what will you do? Are you going to call this game off to see if one of us has been cheating?¡± ¡°...!!!!!!¡± Most likely, quite a few things were spinning through Kodama Ryou¡¯s head. Had something gone wrong with his Usuhiki Warashi card-swapping Package? Had an amateur high school boy slipped in a card he was hiding up his sleeve? Was there only the one king of spades and I was only bluffing? But he had a way of secretly checking on the truth. Yes. I had slammed my cards face-down on the table, so no one could see them. That meant he could swap them out with his Usuhiki Warashi Package. By swapping out my cards and his cards, he could quickly determine whether I was bluffing or not. But would he really take the bait? He was sure to remember which two cards were the ones I had been dealt. By swapping them with two in his hand, he could determine whether I had a king of spades or not. But that would mean getting rid of his nearly-completed five of a kind. He could swap out cards but not increase or decrease their number, so he had to break up his hand to use that paranormal power. He had one unneeded card still, but to be absolutely sure, he would have to swap out two. Either way, he would lose one of the cards he needed. What would he do? What would happen? What would the snakeskin con artist choose? ¡°You got me.¡± Kodama Ryou casually shrugged. ¡°I give up. I lied to shake you up a bit, but I never thought you had the actual card.¡± ¡°...!?¡± It can¡¯t be!! I quickly checked the cards I had placed face-down on the table. He had made the switch. One of the five had transformed into an unfamiliar king of spades! ¡°Now that we¡¯ve established you have the king of spades, can we get on with the game?¡± He threw away his five of a kind? Is he going for four of a kind with the joker now!? And as I had explained myself, the king of spades was only a hindrance for me since I was going for one or the other of the highest two straight flushes of hearts. He had worked through my accusation and stayed on the path to a powerful hand while also crushing my own possibilities. And since I had said myself that I had the king of spades, I had no choice but to accept this unwanted gift. ¡°Now that we¡¯re back on track, it¡¯s time for the second card exchange.¡± Kodama Ryou grinned like he was already imagining himself playing his four of a kind against my worthless hand. This would end with the next exchange. I could not fold here, so it would all be over soon. ¡°As before, you can go first.¡± Part 11 (Day 10/04 03:09 - 03:20) The Usuhiki Warashi Package allowed one to freely swap out any of the fifty-three cards on the table. However, they would notice something was wrong if they tried to swap out a card being viewed by their opponent or a third party. That meant they could only use any face-down cards or the five in their own hand. They did not know where any card was on the table until they used the Package. Just by thinking about the card they wanted, the card would be automatically brought to the user¡¯s hand. They could also force an unwanted card onto their opponent. If the card happened to be viewed by their opponent or a third party, a safety would activate and stop the swap. Based on my observations, those seemed to be the details of the Package that Kodama Ryou was using. Some of that might not have been exactly right, but it had to be on the right track. ¡°Two cards.¡± ¡°Heh heh heh!!¡± As soon as I made my announcement, the snakeskin guy burst out laughing. ¡°Oh, oh? Oh, oh, oh, oh!? I can¡¯t be sure, but what is this? I thought you were going for a royal flush or straight flush of hearts? You had three of the needed cards, so what¡¯s going on? Are you throwing away the two cards you got in the first exchange and getting two new ones? So you gained nothing at all and have no real chance of winning? What could possibly be going on here!?¡± ¡°...¡± I did not need to answer. I simply tossed the two face-down cards toward the dealer. Kodama Ryou showed no interest in the cards I was dealt in return. ¡°Then I¡¯ll take one. Just one. I actually have two I don¡¯t need, but there¡¯s no point in exchanging the other one,¡± said the laughing con artist. ¡°Oh, and you can¡¯t change anything with baseless accusations after the fact. Just to be clear, I will get the joker and complete my four of a kind. That will end this. No matter what anyone says, the result can¡¯t be changed after the second exchange is complete. It saddens me to think you can¡¯t use those provocations of yours anymore. Here, one card. I¡¯ll use this joker to kill you.¡± He slid a random card toward the dealer and another was slid back toward him. If that was the joker, he would have an irregular four of a kind made up of three kings and the wild card. He was exactly right. The old lady whose pension was stolen, the granddaughter suffering from a created illness, and most importantly my own life would all be over. However... ¡°.....................................................................Huh.....................................................................?¡± I heard a voice. The con artist¡¯s suit and shoes were covered in snakeskin and he always had a thin smile on his face, but a close look showed his fingertips were trembling. That tremor travelled up his arms and infected his entire body. Finally, his chair began to rattle below him. ¡°Wh-wh-why?¡± ¡°Did you see something strange?¡± ¡°Why!? How could I possibly have not gotten the joker!!!???¡± Only after shouting did he realize what he had said. He cautiously looked to the gallery, but that no longer mattered. The game was set from the moment he finished his second exchange. ¡°It¡¯s not surprising you didn¡¯t get the joker.¡± I spoke casually because his life wasn¡¯t worth anything with more weight to it. ¡°After all, it¡¯s right here in my hand. And the system was made so it wouldn¡¯t swap out a card your opponent or a third party was looking at, right?¡± ¡°...What?¡± ¡°And without the joker, all you have is three kings.¡± As I spoke, I threw my fanned-out cards face-up on the table. ¡°I have the ace of diamonds, the joker, the ace of hearts, the king of spades, and the eight of spades. With the joker, that¡¯s three aces.¡± ¡°What!!!???¡± It looked like the con artist wasn¡¯t the only one surprised. A stir ran through the gallery as well. ¡°In poker, the cards get stronger from two to king, but the ace beats the king, right? That makes my three of a kind better than yours. The game is over, little boy.¡± ¡°No... Not that!! What kind of hand is that!?¡± ¡°C¡¯mon. I had the joker from the very beginning and it isn¡¯t that rare to end up with two aces. I don¡¯t see anything wrong with this.¡± ¡°B-but...you...but! You were going for a royal flush or straight flush of hearts. You couldn¡¯t get a hand like this after the two card exchanges!¡± ¡°Yes, how could this have happened?¡± There was no real reason to answer. I only had to point out the result. ¡°This is over, so pull out your black card. Pull out that magic limitless card. You need to pay me my winnings. I bet a Zashiki Warashi on top of this junmai daiginjo from Noukotsu Village¡¯s Jinnai Brewery, so I¡¯ll be taking quite a lot.¡± ¡°.............................................................................................................................................¡± As the snakeskin guy blankly listened to me, he finally shouted a few words as if life had returned to him. ¡°That makes no sense.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing compared to how much you¡¯ve been winning around here.¡± ¡°But...this is...but!! Everyone here saw it, right? At the very beginning, you revealed your hand!! What more proof do you need? You clearly cheated somehow!! There¡¯s no other way you could have ended up with that!¡± ¡°...Now you¡¯ve said it.¡± I grinned. This was probably the first time I¡¯d smiled in front of him. Those were exactly the words I had wanted to hear. I snapped my fingers and made a show of checking with the gallery and dealer. ¡°You there, you heard what he said, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Eh? What?¡± ¡°Dealer!! He said it. Check the rules. This fits the conditions perfectly!!¡± Hearing that, Kodama Ryou began to tremble even more. And he looked more surprised about the shaking than anyone. ¡°Wh-wha-what!? What have you done!?¡± ¡°You stepped on a landmine. Check for yourself!!¡± Yes. This casino had its own local rules: If the joker is included in the deck, one of the players must announce it. The announcer¡¯s winnings for that hand will only be 0.8 times normal (with the exception of five of a kind that can only be made with a joker). If the winner forms their hand after discarding the joker, their winnings will be twice normal. If a player is caught cheating, they will be penalized twice their bet amount. However, a simple bluff does not qualify as cheating. Cheating is eliminated by the thorough management of the dealer, but it can also be directly pointed out by an opponent. But if the loser accuses the winner of cheating and no cheating can be proven, the loser will be penalized one hundred times their bet amount for ruining the game and damaging the winner¡¯s reputation. If a player does not swap out a single card, their winnings will be 1.5 times normal. ¡°Whaaaaaaaat!!!???¡± ¡°You owe me one hundred times as much now. Everyone here can clearly tell I won and you lost. And now you¡¯re accusing me of cheating to try to overturn that. This is just hard to watch, you fraud. You took a step too far because you were still looking down on me even after losing.¡± ¡°No, but, no!! I proved your hand made no sense! The loser can¡¯t be penalized for revealing how the winner was cheating. ...Guards!! Search him!! Hurry!!¡± Kodama Ryou was as out of control as a toy chimpanzee with cymbals, but I simply raised my hands. That seemed to clue the chimpanzee in that something was wrong. As a guard began to check me, Kodama Ryou questioned me. ¡°H-how? How can you stay so calm?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that obvious? Because unlike you, I wasn¡¯t cheating.¡± I grinned. ¡°Think back. Or have you altered your own memories? When the cards were first dealt, I did indeed reveal my hand, but all I did was tell you. You had to take my word for it. I didn¡¯t actually show you my cards.¡± ¡°...Ah!!¡± ¡°You actually showed your cards, but that was probably to steal back people¡¯s focus by doing something with an even greater impact. That makes it simple, doesn¡¯t it? I didn¡¯t actually have the cards I claimed I did.¡± My real hand had been two threes, an ace, a joker, and some other useless card. That was actually a three of a kind with a chance for a full house, but it left me with no chance of defeating the snakeskin man and his ability to manipulate all of the hidden cards. Throwing away my two threes then had taken a lot of courage. The real danger had been when he had sent me the king of spades. The Usuhiki Warashi Package could swap out cards and it still scares me to think what would have happened if he had swapped out the joker or an ace in place of the useless king. He had to have gotten a card that was clearly not one of those I had announced. If he hadn¡¯t thought it was one of the cards I got during the first exchange, he might have seen through my trick. I had barely slipped through, but I had done it and won. Finally, the man wearing gloves with a pentagram on them shook his head. ¡°Nothing.¡± ¡°You bastard! Check more carefully!! There has to...has to be something!!¡± ¡°There isn¡¯t. And a simple bluff doesn¡¯t count as cheating. The local rules say so.¡± I made that clear just to be sure. The guard had to be allowing the Usuhiki Warashi. Had the con artist made sure the man wouldn¡¯t say anything unnecessary? I clapped my hands twice and announced Kodama Ryou¡¯s execution. ¡°Now, then. It¡¯s time you paid up my normal winnings times one hundred. Pull out your black card so I can take everything you¡¯ve got.¡± Cheers exploded from the gallery like after the winning point of a soccer match. This was the moment where one side laughed and the other crumbled. Part 12 (3rd person ¡ª Day 10/04 03:20 - 03:33) Meanwhile, the fox, tanuki, and badger were waiting behind the casino. After the Zashiki Warashi had been used as a decoy (without being told), Kodama Ryou and the guards had assumed nothing more was hiding out there. The three of them were looking at the smartphone they had borrowed from the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°It says to go through with it.¡± ¡°W-will this really work?¡± worriedly asked the wet nurse tanuki. ¡°Hmm.¡± The fox tilted his head. ¡°He explained this ahead of time, but I have trouble with those Western terms. Let¡¯s see, it was Fleming¡¯s...¡± ¡°Right hand. The left hand is used for the theory behind railguns.¡± The fox grabbed at the badger for that bit of know-it-all-ism, but the tanuki stopped them before an actual fistfight broke out. ¡°Whatever the theory behind it, you know what to do, right? That¡¯s all that matters.¡± ¡°Yes, that makes sense. But...¡± ¡°What else is there?¡± ¡°Can we really get back at loathsome Kodama Ryou with this children¡¯s toy?¡± At that point, they heard a girl giggling quietly. ¡°Who goes there!?¡± The fox quickly turned around and saw someone running away. It was a girl of twelve or thirteen. She wore a short mini-yukata with the shoulders slipped down like a courtesan, so her strange Japanese outfit looked something like a tube top dress with a tight skirt. ¡°Was that the Usuhiki Warashi? This isn¡¯t good. Is that subspecies going to report on our actions!?¡± ¡°N-no,¡± said the badger to allay the wet nurse tanuki¡¯s fears. ¡°I think this is the opposite. That Usuhiki Warashi... That Zashiki Warashi subspecies is a Youkai of prosperity and she¡¯s leaving the casino and thus her owner. That means only one thing for Kodama Ryou¡¯s future.¡± Part 13 (3rd person ¡ª Day 10/04 03:33 - 03:45) ¡°What are you waiting for? The guest gave you his card, didn¡¯t he?¡± ¡°Yes, but I¡¯m trying to make the pre-transaction confirmation.¡± Kodama Ryou stood in a soundless world. No, there was actually applause and a deluge of other sounds enveloping him, but it all seemed to so distant to him. His mind was in no state to comprehend the voices as voices, so it washed over him as mere noise. It came out to several hundred million. He was going to lose a full tenth of his total assets. That was painful enough, but losing to an amateur high school boy was even worse. ¡°Heh heh... Heh heh heh heh heh heh...¡± ¡°N-no, wait, Miss Zashiki Warashi. We can talk this out! If humans and Youkai actually try to talk, they can get along! This was a necessary part of defeating that damn con artist, so- bgchah!?¡± ¡°Hey, Shinobu. Do you know what a Cobra Twist is? How about a Frankensteiner?¡± ¡°No, wait! You shouldn¡¯t do a move like that in a yuka- gyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!???¡± As soon as she was released from the rope, the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata began performing harsh pro wrestling moves and the high school boy could do nothing to escape them. Yes, he was only a kid. Normally, he would never have been able to deceive a professional (con artist) like Kodama Ryou. His actions and words had been as exaggerated as a theatrical performance. Kodama Ryou should have looked at it all more rationally. The boy had made a larger lie to hide a smaller lie. It was the same as scattering spices along a path to trick the police dog¡¯s sense of smell. It had been crudely done, but Kodama Ryou had taken it too lightly. He had not followed through far enough to realize the boy had put together a plan where part of it was meant to be discovered. And as a result... (No.) Once his thoughts reached that point, his Noh mask expression twisted. (Something doesn¡¯t fit. He blatantly said he was going to ruin me. Was that extreme statement really only a bluff meant to throw me off his scent? What if it meant something else...?) Kodama Ryou lived for thrills. When he had money, he had lots of it. When he had none, he had none at all. His scams, gambles, and art auctions were always an all-or-nothing affair and this was clearly during one of his ¡°all¡± phases. Even if that one hundred times penalty was added on, it would not take everything from him. It would only rob him of a tenth of his money. (There¡¯s something more.) Sweat dripped down his face. (He isn¡¯t done yet!! There has to be something more!!) Suddenly, he heard a human voice. ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem to be the computer. There¡¯s been some strange noise on the line for a while now.¡± ¡°If the payment is slowed, we¡¯ll lose the guests¡¯ trust. Hurry up and figure out what¡¯s causing it and take care of it.¡± The black card. That special credit card had no credit limit. They were having trouble during the confirmation phase. There was some unknown noise on the line. ¡°A-ahh.¡± Kodama Ryou figured it out. It all fit together. There was a single way of robbing him of all his money regardless of how the game turned out. ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!¡± He screamed at the top of his lungs and everyone¡¯s focus turned toward him. But that was the least of his worries. He ran over to the foolish casino worker, punched him in the face, and grabbed back his black card. He took it back. After hearing the commotion, the guards in black ran over. Kodama Ryou pointed at the blond high school boy being beaten up by the Zashiki Warashi who had been released from her glass fiber bonds. ¡°Skimming!! He... He was waiting for the moment when money was transferred using my unlimited black card. He was trying to steal my card number and PIN!!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°That way he could take all of my money regardless of how the game ended!! The strange noise during the confirmation is the proof! C-c¡¯mon, hurry. Arrest him!! Protect my money from-...!!!!¡± After shouting and shouting, he suddenly trailed off. No one ¨C not the gallery, not the dealer, and not the guards ¨C was listening to him. His words were reaching them, but they were not paying any attention to them. Some shrugged and some sighed. And then the blond high school boy formed a gun with one hand while having his teary-eyed head pushed into one of the glamorous Zashiki Warashi¡¯s breasts by a headlock. With a beautiful woman in one arm, he aimed the triumphant gesture at Kodama Ryou. And he fired some powerful words. ¡°...Now you¡¯ve said it.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°After everything is over, the loser has accused the winner of cheating. ...Really? If you can¡¯t produce any proof, you¡¯ll get another one hundred times penalty. And two of those penalties on top of each other isn¡¯t two hundred times. One hundred times one hundred is ten thousand. You understand the situation, don¡¯t you?¡± He was already losing a tenth of his total assets. So if that was multiplied by one hundred... ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???¡± Kodama Ryou had determined that the boy had used a large lie to hide a smaller lie. That had not been entirely wrong. However, he had underestimated the scale of what the blond high school boy was trying to take from him. Part 14 (3rd person ¡ª Day 10/04 03:45 ¨C 04:01) Incidentally, the Youkai hiding behind the casino had done something quite simple. Jinnai Shinobu had given them the following advice ahead of time: ¡°Look, it¡¯s right here. This is the wiring panel. It looks like they¡¯re using metal wires instead of fiber optic, which is lucky. This comes from money-obsessed Madoka, so it¡¯s gotta be right.¡± ¡°Understood. If we tear these to shreds, it¡¯ll be a huge problem for the casino, right!? Then leave this to me and my wonderful claws!!¡± ¡°You foolish fox. The point is to interfere without damaging it.¡± He had then pulled out a children¡¯s toy. ¡°Have you heard of Fleming and his right and left hand rules?¡± ¡°Is he some important Westerner? Never heard of him!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t look so proud of that. His right hand rule goes like this. Say a wire is passing through a spring. Well, when power passes through the wire, it creates a magnetic field around the wire. And it¡¯s based on this line.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°The flow of electricity and the surrounding magnetic field are connected. Sending electricity through creates a magnetic field and creating a magnetic field around the wire creates an electric current.¡± ¡°What does that mean?¡± ¡°If you rub a powerful magnet up against it, you can disturb the signal running through the wire without cutting it. I¡¯ll secretly send you an email to tell you when to start. After the game is over, we¡¯ll give that con artist a lovely surprise.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s do this!!¡± ¡°R-right! Leave it to a wet nurse tanuki like me!!¡± ¡°Hey, fox, are you sure this will work!?¡± And thus the fox, tanuki, and badger interfered with the high-speed communications without leaving a mark on the cable and made Kodama Ryou suspect someone was skimming his black card¡¯s number and PIN. But as stated, the nondestructive magnetic method had not left any obvious marks. And of course, the Youkai had left by the time the guards in black had come to investigate. And when they found no evidence, who would their suspicions turn to? The frightening ten thousand times penalty said it all. Part 15 (Day 10/04 04:01 - 06:30) ¡°Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!¡± It was time for a party! I remembered I had yet to eat any dinner and it was somehow four in the morning already, so a party was the only answer. Time! To! Eat!! Afterwards, we all (although I was the only non-Youkai of the bunch) rented out the second story of a club until morning and clinked together small bottles of cider. The glass table was covered in fried chicken, French fries, pepperoncino, and other greasy foods you would never think to eat at four in the morning. I was aware this seemed ridiculously out of place, but shockingly, this was the cheapest plan available on Goldmine Island. A tiny-little restaurant could actually be more expensive, so you could see how screwed-up the casino island¡¯s sense of money was. They didn¡¯t have any normal family restaurants or karaoke boxes. ¡°U-um,¡± nervously began the wet nurse tanuki. ¡°Should we really be doing this? The money we took from Kodama Ryou belonged to people he tricked across the country.¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fine. We took as much as we could from his black card. We were at a table with a rate as high as four to five million, the Zashiki Warashi was added on top of that, and then came the fearsome ten thousand times penalty. That had to be far more than he¡¯d ever stolen. The con artist is going to be in a hell of debt now. We can still pay everyone back after taking a bit off the top to pay for our trouble.¡± ¡°Oh? If we have extra, shouldn¡¯t you give the victims back even more? For example, you could give them enough to pay for their sick granddaughter¡¯s surgery in another country.¡± The fox, tanuki, and badger fell silent for a while. They thought about what that meant and then silently lowered their heads. ¡°Stop that. We would have messed up somewhere without the information on the Usuhiki Warashi. And you were the ones that set up the final trick with the magnet, so we¡¯re even here! The Zashiki Warashi and I just need this dinner...or is it a midnight snack? Or breakfast? Anyway, we¡¯ll just eat as much as we want and then you all can return the stolen money to its rightful owners. So let¡¯s get eating and drinking!!¡± That must have cleared away their worries because the celebration really started afterwards. Foxfire flew around, the tanuki got on the table and beat her stomach like a drum, and the badger was entirely focused on mixing a ton of toppings in a bowl to create a badger udon. We were all doing different things. ¡°You are a crazy young man. You might be better at deceiving people than us.¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. It all began when I climbed the maple tree behind the house and transformed into the moon because the wife of the house was sad that it was raining on the fifteenth night.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a historical play based off of us three, you know? But the director was clueless and changed the badger to a dog because he thought a badger was too confusing.¡± After at most five minutes, we would find ourselves unable to settle down and would raise our bottles of cider again. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really get any of this, but cheers!!¡± We repeated the process twenty or thirty times. There were no problems. We had taken all the money from Kodama Ryou, the old woman who had collapsed from worry and the sick granddaughter would have what they needed to recover, and all of the victims around the country were guaranteed all of their money back. That money had been left with an accountant Madoka knew. I didn¡¯t know the details of gift taxes and whatever else, so I could only leave that up to a specialist. And I could trust someone a friend introduced more than I could someone completely unknown. So if there was nothing else, this would all end with the happiest ending possible. Yes. If there was nothing else. Part 16 (Day 10/04 06:30 - 06:58) ¡°..........................................................................................................................................Ahh.¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± Only once the glamorous Zashiki Warashi called out to me did I realize I was resting on the glass table. It seemed I had fallen asleep for a bit. We had had a hell of a party, but I hadn¡¯t had any alcohol. When I thought about it, I realized I hadn¡¯t slept since the airplane ride the day before. I had forgotten thanks to the extreme tension of the poker match against Kodama Ryou, but the weariness may have rushed back as soon as that tension vanished. The three animal Youkai were asleep on the sofa or the floor and the Zashiki Warashi pulled the smartphone from her cleavage and checked he time. ¡°If we don¡¯t get back to the inn soon, we might miss breakfast.¡± ¡°My dad would probably get mad if I missed two meals in a row. But, ugh. Will I even have room for breakfast if we head back now?¡± Sleeping a bit may have actually made things worse because I felt an oozing sense of tingling acid rising from my stomach. This was the problem with eating so much greasy food. I slowly got up and called out to the other Youkai. ¡°Hey, fox, tanuki, badger. It¡¯s time to wake up. We rented the place until morning, so if we stay any longer, they¡¯ll charge us extra.¡± ¡°Mh? Did I fall asleep?¡± The three of them got up while rubbing their eyes and then left the club¡¯s VIP room with the Zashiki Warashi and me. There were still quite a few people on the normal dance floor. They didn¡¯t look like the type to play video games, but they seemed pretty interested in cellphone avatars. They were all discussing the VR Casino City¡¯s friend registration, costume trading, or virtual land sales. Palm trees grew alongside the wide roads on this island, but the air was nice and chilly this early in the morning. With the intense morning sunlight replacing the decorative casino lights, a sleepy atmosphere finally began to set in. Shiny, polished luxury sports cars drove by every now and then, but the drivers¡¯ clothing didn¡¯t match the cars. They were probably from a valet service and the actual owner was taking a limousine back to their inn with a young, drunk woman. ¡°I was expecting nothing but Italian and German cars on a casino island, but there¡¯s a surprising number of Japanese ones.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because Japan has some of the top brands for hybrids and electric cars. Teihin¡¯s complete carbon frame car had a rush of preorders despite costing two or three hundred million yen.¡± ¡°Why do you know so much about this? You downloaded a stupidly expensive racing game app in my name or something, didn¡¯t you?¡± The three animal Youkai intended to leave Goldmine Island and return to Shikoku. They hadn¡¯t come as tourists, so now that Kodama Ryou had been dealt with, they wanted to get back to their owner as soon as possible. The three of them waved their short arms (or front legs?) as they left and the Zashiki Warashi and I started for the inn on the opposite side of Goldmine Island¡¯s mountain. ¡°Shinobu, I¡¯m not sure we¡¯ll make it back in time for breakfast if we walk.¡± ¡°I got enough from those three to take a taxi, so we can hail a limousine if we see one.¡± I had thought we would find one if we waited by the major road, but all of the limousines already had customers. It seemed we had hit the rush taking people back to the inns. The Indoor Youkai gave a disappointed sigh as the limousines drove back and forth and my cellphone suddenly began to ring from my pocket. I pulled it out and checked the screen, but I didn¡¯t recognize the number. ¡°I apologize for calling so early in the morning. This is Okazaki from National Flight Airline¡¯s Lost Baggage Management Center. Is this Mr. Jinnai Shinobu?¡± ¡°Oh, yes, it is.¡± ¡°I have a report concerning the baggage you lost while taking Flight 5511 yesterday. I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but your travel bag has been safely located and we would appreciate it if you could pick it up at our airport counter at your soonest convenience.¡± ¡°Eh? Oh, my bag? You found it!?¡± ¡°It has already been transported to the airport, so you can pick it up immediately if you wish. Just to be certain, we will need to confirm your identity at the counter, so please bring some form of ID with you.¡± Some form of ID? What would work? I don¡¯t have a motorcycle license and I didn¡¯t bring my passport since we weren¡¯t leaving the country. ¡°Um, would my student ID work?¡± ¡°Ah ha ha. I would need to be a little more official than that. For example, a driver¡¯s license or insurance card.¡± An insurance card, huh? Does my mom have mine? As I wondered that, I saw an electrical car moving slowly along the road. I casually glanced over at the slow black Japanese sports car from the sidewalk. But then my eyebrows rose. There was no one in the driver¡¯s seat. And before I could wonder why, the sports car seemed to swell out from within as it exploded from quite nearby. Part 17 (Day 10/04 06:58 - 07:10) My consciousness briefly but undeniably blanked out. By the time I realized I had spent those few seconds in the air, I had flown two or three meters and landed on the sidewalk. ¡°G-gbh!? Ggah!!¡± After a short delay, I heard the high-pitched sound of windows shattering on the stores lining the street. I tried to check on the situation, but my vision kept shaking and wouldn¡¯t settle down. My arms and legs were trembling, so I couldn¡¯t get up either. What? What the hell is going on!? My mind was unsteady and my senses were ruled by the strange stench of the rising smoke. It was different from gasoline. I also sensed distant screams and something like camera flashes. And despite it all, the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata was standing there no different from normal. ¡°I can¡¯t say I¡¯m surprised that you instinctually tried to use me as a shield, Shinobu.¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯re standing there triumphantly after a close-range explosion, so I¡¯d say I made the right decision.¡± Even after more than ten seconds had passed, I still couldn¡¯t stand up. I somehow managed to shake my head and got my eyes to focus. I could tell someone was approaching us from beyond the black smoke. Fire...fighters? That¡¯s what I assumed since the men wore shiny silver fire-resistant suits, but a powerful tug soon reached my arm. ¡°Wh-what are you doing, Zashiki Warashi?¡± ¡°How long has it been since the explosion?¡± she asked casually. ¡°It can¡¯t have been more than a minute. Even for a small island, this was too fast. But this gives them the perfect opportunity to hide their identities while taking away the victim.¡± ¡°Wait a second. You mean...?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no time for questions.¡± Looking truly annoyed, the Zashiki Warashi grabbed me under each arm and started dragging me away. The supposed firefighters¡¯ shoulders twitched and they began racing toward us more quickly. The Zashiki Warashi finally placed me over her shoulder like a sack of rice and ran into an alley-like gap between two buildings. After turning a few corners, she crouched down behind a large metal dumpster. Footsteps rushed away in the wrong direction. I still couldn¡¯t move very well, but I just barely managed to move my mouth. ¡°Wh-what is going on?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Any idea who might want to attack you?¡± ¡°Kodama Ryou? Although I¡¯m pretty sure I could take care of him myself.¡± ¡°I doubt that fallen warrior has any forces leftover.¡± ¡°What about the casino? He had bribed a few of the guards in black, right? Y¡¯know, the ones with enough of a spiritual sense to detect occult cheating.¡± ¡°Oh, the perverts who put that turtle shell bondage on me. I remember that verrrrry well.¡± ¡°Cough, cough!¡± ¡°But the special casino district keeps out large criminal organizations, remember?¡± ¡°Dangerous people don¡¯t have to come from outside. The casinos have a ton of money and they¡¯ll gather military might to protect it. And as their influence grows, they¡¯ll end up no different from some kind of mafia.¡± ¡°Even if the casinos can be dangerous, they didn¡¯t lose anything this time. You played directly against Kodama Ryou, so they have no reason to get back that money.¡± ¡°Perhaps not.¡± I slowly sighed. ¡°Then let¡¯s think about this differently. We won a direct game against Kodama Ryou and took well over ten billion yen from him. What if someone who saw that decided they could swipe that money from the amateur who took it?¡± For one thing, it was a miracle I was still alive after a car bomb went off so close by. What if that hadn¡¯t been meant to kill me? What if they were actually trying to abduct me to get my bank account number? Explaining it with malice seemed to make more sense than by calling it a coincidence or a miracle. ¡°That increases the number of suspects quite a bit. The staff and gallery who were in the casino itself are of course suspect, but who knows how far the rumor has spread in the hours since.¡± ¡°In the worst case, we might need to suspect every single person on Goldmine Island.¡± I really didn¡¯t want to think about the possibility, but the fox, tanuki, and badger weren¡¯t completely above suspicion. Any one of them could have betrayed us and we had no way of proving that the entire story about the old master and sick granddaughter was true. Fortunately, the money itself had been left with an accountant Madoka knew, so no one could steal the money even if these mystery attackers tried to get it out of me. However, that did not guarantee I would survive. I was completely helpless here. ¡°Shinobu, what are you going to do now?¡± ¡°Is it safe to use my cellphone? At any rate, I need to call my parents and meet up with them. This could cause them trouble, too.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t trust the casinos on the front side of the island or the goldmine city on the back side. If you take a limousine taxi, it could easily take you somewhere up in the mountain and walking will take you through a lot of isolated places. It¡¯s going to be dangerous no matter what you do.¡± ¡°There¡¯s one way.¡± When would strength return to my body? I tried my best to move my limbs, but they would only tremble a bit. ¡°Goldmine Island is divided between the central mountain and the coastal areas and the coast is divided between the casino city and the goldmine city that contains the inns. There are only so many routes going around the mountain and it would be easy to lie in wait there. Whether by car or on foot, we¡¯d probably be attacked.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°We just have to make our way through the center. That huge mountain contains a goldmine, so there has to be a labyrinth of passageways through it. If we take a shortcut through those tunnels, we might be able to slip past their ambush and reach the inn.¡± Mysterious footsteps moved by surprisingly nearby. It was frightening, but staying in one place would only get us caught eventually. They had to know our general location. ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi. Do you think you can carry me through the mountain?¡± ¡°I¡¯m really thinking about leaving you here and escaping on my own.¡± ¡°I really will come back to haunt you, dammit.¡± As the footsteps grew more distant, the Zashiki Warashi started to move out from behind the dumpster with me over her shoulder again, but we immediately gave up. ¡°It¡¯s no use. They¡¯ll definitely find us. ¡°We need to figure something out. This spot won¡¯t be safe forever.¡± ¡°Wait a second.¡± For some reason, she reached for the lid of the metal dumpster we were hiding behind. Did she just grab something? All of a sudden, the Glamorous Youkai loosened her obi and began removing her yukata. ¡°Wait! What are- gweh!?¡± Her bright white skin stabbed into my eyes and I almost cried out, but that damn Zashiki Warashi stepped on my face to cover my mouth! ¡°In a casino city, a red yukata and a school uniform stand out, but these fake firefighters will be looking for that stronger impression. If we alter our hairstyles and change clothes, we can leave without even trying to hide. If they see us head-on, we¡¯ll still be in trouble, but they won¡¯t know it¡¯s us from behind.¡± ¡°Mghmgh...cough! Wh-what do you mean change clothes?¡± The nude Zashiki Warashi swung a few small scraps of cloth around. ¡°A couple must have slipped back here for some sex last night because there was an abandoned bikini here.¡± ¡°Wow! Why would you want to pick up something like- bgh!?¡± She must have had no choice given the situation because she put on the skimpy bikini despite normally only ever wearing the kimono. She tied bows in the side strings and I somehow managed to speak again. ¡°Hey, that solves it for you, but what am I supposed to do?¡± ¡°Oh? Nothing to worry about.¡± For some reason, a bewitching smile appeared on her face. ¡°I said a couple had used this spot for sex, remember? There¡¯s a men¡¯s swimsuit here too.¡± ¡°...Wait.¡± ¡°Sorry, but I don¡¯t think the situation leaves you with much choice.¡± ¡°Wait! Wait just a- mgh!? Don¡¯t step on my face, you idiot! That discarded swimsuit scares me! It¡¯s unsanitary!! And stop that! Quit pulling off my clothes!!¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, Shinobu. Your big sis will help you get changed, okay?¡± After a humiliating five minutes, we were ready for battle. Instead of carrying me over her shoulder, the Zashiki Warashi supported me with that shoulder like I was simply drunk. As soon as we slowly stood up from behind the metal dumpster, I felt several gazes stabbing into my back. ¡°Honey, I think you drank too much.¡± ¡°I want to forget everything. Where¡¯s the booze!?¡± ¡°Shout like that and it¡¯ll all come back up. C¡¯mon, let¡¯s get back to the inn.¡± Even so, we couldn¡¯t stay still and we couldn¡¯t run away either. We had to slowly make our way unsteadily forward. Fortunately, no one demanded we stop. The Zashiki Warashi headed behind the casinos and into the mountain forest. While the city was filled with bright lights, it had been quickly constructed for the special casino district project and the city wasn¡¯t all that wide. If one left the main road that passed through the center, it wasn¡¯t far to reach a dense forest. The forest was mostly made up of pineapple-like tropical trees that one could use to make a leaf swimsuit, but there were a few maple and gingko trees here and there. I couldn¡¯t help but notice the spots of red or yellow amid the green. I was still supported by the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s shoulder, but I could move my fingers enough to operate my cellphone. ¡°It¡¯s no use. Neither of my parents is answering.¡± I was concerned, but worrying about it wouldn¡¯t help. I refocused my mind and contacted someone else. ¡°Madoka!¡± ¡°You need help again?¡± Morning or night, this eccentric beauty was always tons of help. Or so I thought. ¡°Shinobu-kun, let me ask you one thing first: what have you gotten yourself into now?¡± ¡°Eh? What? Well, as I said before, I took on the con artist named Kodama Ryou and...¡± ¡°Not that.¡± She cut me off with an awfully, awfully cold voice. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Shinobu-kun, but you need to back out of this. What you¡¯ve gotten yourself involved in will heavily influence my territory. This will actually affect me, so if you insist on doing anything more...¡± Was this really Madoka I was speaking with? Was it possible someone had transformed into her like that one time? I couldn¡¯t help but suspect that given her tone of voice. ¡°Then I will use my money and soldiers to crush you.¡± She hung up. I knew this was hardly the time, but I simply stared blankly at the phone for a while. What was going on? How had Madoka ended up as my enemy? ¡°Shinobu.¡± ¡°R-right. I can¡¯t hope for any advice from Madoka, so we¡¯ll have to get through this on our own.¡± ¡°Sigh. Was there enough money involved to turn her against you?¡± ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t even know what kind of world she lives in.¡± My nervous homeroom teacher had asked me to look after her, but if someone had asked me if I had made my way deep into her mind over the past few months, I would have had to answer ¡°no¡±. She was someone whose thought patterns I simply couldn¡¯t read. I may have done something to anger her, but there was no point in figuring out what it was now. ¡°What are we going to do?¡± ¡°Head for the inn using the tunnels through the mountain. Then we can meet up with my parents.¡± ¡°And after that?¡± The second question silenced me as I leaned on her shoulder, but I finally answered honestly. ¡°Do you really think I have any idea?¡± Part 18 (Day 10/04 07:20 - 07:25) By the time we set foot in the goldmine¡¯s tunnel, feeling had returned to my arms and legs. I of course decided to remove the mystery swimsuit and put back on my school uniform, but... ¡°Look the other way, Zashiki Warashi!¡± ¡°I have no interest in your body, so what does it matter?¡± ¡°And stop stripping right in front of me! You¡¯re not a much-older sister that only sees me as a kid!¡± ¡°I pretty much am. How many times do you think we¡¯ve bathed together?¡± ¡°...I still think you should at least hide behind the rocks over there!!¡± After changing, we threw away the swimsuits and finally moved deeper into the tunnel. I just hoped it would take us all the way to the opposite side of the mountain. We continued walking through the manmade cave that was smelled strongly of dirt. My cellphone¡¯s backlight was our only source of light. There was a row of covered lightbulbs near the tunnel ceiling, but we couldn¡¯t find a switch and we were afraid using the electricity would reveal our location. ¡°This isn¡¯t good. The battery¡¯s only going to last for about an hour. After that, we¡¯ll be stuck in the dark.¡± ¡°Yeah, and the smartphone is nearly dead.¡± ¡°If only we could find a flashlight or materials for a torch somewhere.¡± It was hard to believe I had been playing poker in a dazzling casino not long before. The miners must have set up a communications antenna because my phone just barely still had a connection, so if I had wanted to, I could have played the slots in the VR Casino City or sold my avatar¡¯s old clothes in my own virtual shop. The manmade tunnel was fairly narrow and I could touch both walls if I stretched my arms out to either side. I was also nearly hitting my head on the ceiling. There were two small rails running along the ground which I assumed were for a mine cart. The sides of the narrow hole were only reinforced by some carelessly placed logs, so I would never have wanted to go in there normally. ¡°It branches off all over the place.¡± ¡°They probably just dug wherever they wanted without much planning. Anyway, let¡¯s follow the track on through. That should at least avoid wandering around in circles.¡± An Intellectual Village was a system that achieved massive profits by turning the rural into a brand name. The value of pure gold was determined internationally, so I didn¡¯t see much point in making a brand name out of its source. Still, there were exceptions even there. In addition to weight and percentage, it seemed some extra value could be added to a ring based on where the gold had come from. As could be seen in legends from around the world, it wasn¡¯t unusual to find the idea of ¡°special gold¡± (although it tended to take the form of harmful cursed gold), so this was less about creating a new way of thinking and more about recalling an older way of thinking. If it caught on, it could easily spread around the world in no time. Even so-called ¡°pure¡± gold was technically only 99.99...9% pure and 100% pure gold didn¡¯t exist, so it seemed research was being done to determine the source of the gold based on a detailed examination of the remaining components. I remembered Madoka actually sounding pretty shaken because creating different grades of gold would throw the financial markets into chaos. Madoka... ¡°What is it, Shinobu?¡± ¡°Nothing. Let¡¯s just get out of here and meet up with my parents at the inn. I¡¯m sure they have some work to do here, but safeguarding our lives comes first. If we can¡¯t trust anyone on the island, it would be best to escape outside the island.¡± As I spoke, we walked deeper and deeper down the tunnel. The cellphone¡¯s backlight only dimly illuminated the area around my hand, so I couldn¡¯t even see the ground clearly. I naturally ended up keeping a hand on the wall as I walked, but the damp stone and dirt was not a pleasant sensation. My fingers sometimes felt something similar to rubber or plastic, so I looked over and saw thick cables running along the rugged stone. I thought nothing of it at first, but then I looked back. ¡°What is this? Why¡¯s there a cable here?¡± As I had said, the cellphone was the only source of light. The cable didn¡¯t seem connected to the tunnel¡¯s lightbulbs or fluorescent lights and I hadn¡¯t seen a fan blowing fresh air into the stale tunnel. In that case, what was the cable powering? Unpleasant questions floated up in the back of my mind like bubbles in a rotten swamp. The sticky bubbles slowly grew, stuck together, and filled my entire head. I felt like this was something I could not afford to overlook. It seemed to lead to some fatal conclusion. Yes. That¡¯s right. How were we attacked after our victory in the casino? An unmanned car packed with explosives. ...But who could easily bring something so dangerous into the casino city? ¡°This is bad, Zashiki Warashi.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Really bad!! The bomb came from this mine!! That means we didn¡¯t escape here of our own free will. We were attacked by a blatant car bomb and then the firefighters approached so slowly. They intentionally guided us to the goldmine where there are no witnesses so they could finish us off on their own turf. In that case, this cable must be-...!!¡± I never finished my explanation. Before I could, a deafening explosion filled my vision with dirt and dust. Part 19 (Day 10/04 07:29 - 07:50) ¡°...Ugh...¡± I opened my eyes to find nothing but darkness. I couldn¡¯t tell whether I had simply had my eyes closed or if I had been knocked unconscious for a long period of time. This wasn¡¯t like the earlier car bomb. A strange sense of pressure assaulted me from every direction. I patted across my upper body with both hands. I could move my limbs and I could breathe. As I gradually gathered information, I could feel the uneasy pressure gradually soften. At the very least, I didn¡¯t seem to have been buried alive. However, the scent of dirt was even stronger than before and it felt a little difficult to breathe, although I couldn¡¯t tell whether that was an issue of oxygen levels or my own mental state. Light. Where¡¯s the light? Where¡¯s my cellphone??? I couldn¡¯t see my hand in front of my face, so I felt up ahead while crawling. I quickly ran into the wall and the limited space just about made me cry. My heart was about to break, so I scolded myself and continued working. Finally, I felt some plastic. ¡°There it is.¡± My trembling fingers felt across the slight bumps to operate the buttons. The faint backlight seemed quite bright now. ¡°This is awful,¡± I muttered without thinking. Just a few meters ahead, the tunnel had collapsed. A wall of stone and dirt completely filled the tunnel and there was obviously no chance of digging through by hand. Then again, when I looked the other way, I only found more dirt. The overwhelming amounts got my legs trembling. There was less than ten meters of free space left. I could not continue on or turn back and I doubted there were any ways out along the walls. The dirt hadn¡¯t come down on my head, but this was no different from being closed in a large coffin. I didn¡¯t know how long the air would last. What was I supposed to do? I was at a loss, so I meaninglessly pointed the backlight here and there. But in all three hundred and sixty degrees, I found nothing but wet dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, and a figure in a yukata. ¡°...!!!???¡± As soon as she entered my field of vision, I thought my mind was going to explode. She was crouched down with her back to the wall and her long hair hid her face. For an instant, I thought she was a cursed doll, but it was actually the glamorous Zashiki Warashi. However... I could only hear one person breathing inside this small, sealed space. Her hair, clothing, and fingertips were stained with unpleasant dirt, but she did not so much as twitch. She didn¡¯t look like a living being. She seemed as unreal as an eerie shadow caught in the corner of a photograph. It was as if... As if... ¡°Hey.¡± I sank down to the ground and opened my mouth without thinking. ¡°Please stop that. ...Please just stop it.¡± Mine was the only voice. There was no response. It truly felt like I was the only one there. Was that figure really composed of matter? Her presence was so faint, I doubted even that. Finally, her white fingertip moved ever so slightly as she sat with her back to the wall. She wrote something in the dirt: try not to waste the air. Oh, so that¡¯s why. She technically didn¡¯t need water or food and this explained why she seemed so inanimate. I scratched at my head, realized my hand was covered in dirt, and clicked my tongue. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s hopeless either way. Whether we die here or someone shows up to rescue us, we still lost. For one thing, I think this situation is exactly what they had planned.¡± I heard the woman in a yukata move her head a little. She had likely tilted it to indicate confusion. ¡°If someone does come to save us, who do you think will show up first? Firefighters or a rescue team, right? And that¡¯s how they were dressed. After burying us alive, they¡¯ll be the ones to dig us up. They set it all up themselves, but it gives them the perfect opportunity to abduct someone while the public watches on. So we¡¯re beat. Even if we know it¡¯s coming, we can¡¯t escape it.¡± The mine was likely rigged with explosives at set intervals. No matter what path we had taken, they would have detonated the tunnel ahead of and behind us to trap us in a cage of dirt. ¡°We¡¯ve lost, but at least that means they¡¯ll dig us out. So don¡¯t worry about the air, Zashiki Warashi. Discussing what¡¯s to come is more important.¡± At that point, a clear change entered the darkness: I heard someone exhale. It looked like a switch had been thrown as the creepy woman returned to being a good-for-nothing indoor Youkai. Saying her heart resumed beating or breath returned to her lungs seemed to fit perfectly. And now that she was ¡°back¡±, the cold dirt cell gained the life and familiarity of a school classroom. ¡°Honestly, why do I have to get caught up in this nonsense?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask me.¡± ¡°Just to be sure, Shinobu, they¡¯ll let me go if I hand you over, right?¡± ¡°This really might be the last time we see each other, so how about we have a nice intimate goodbye?¡± But realistically, was there anything we could do? The car bomb and the explosives set up inside the tunnel had probably come from this goldmine, so the miners were the most likely suspects. But that was all we knew. What would they do after digging us out? It seemed likely they wanted the billions of yen we¡¯d taken from Kodama Ryou, but that had been left with Madoka¡¯s accountant and we couldn¡¯t withdraw a single yen of it ourselves. But would they accept that? And if not, what would they do with us? If they took us somewhere, we would probably be bound, so was there any chance of turning this around, any way to escape, or any way to contact the authorities? ¡°Shinobu.¡± As I explained my thinking, the Zashiki Warashi cut in. ¡°Doesn¡¯t that seem odd, though?¡± ¡°What? How exactly is it odd?¡± ¡°Your premise is that someone heard about your win in the casino and attacked to take that money.¡± What was she talking about? What other possible reason could someone have to attack? ¡°That may be a perfectly good reason to attack, but doesn¡¯t this seem too elaborate? Unlike blades or blunt weapons, it takes a lot of effort to handle explosives safely. Where did they get the car? What about the firefighters¡¯ special fire-resistant suits? How many hours must it have taken to place explosives at set intervals through the mine?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°And it¡¯s only been a few hours since you won in the casino. You would have a hard time simply finding tightlipped accomplices in that time, so they couldn¡¯t have put together an actual plan yet.¡± Could you look at it that way? It was true that it seemed rather intricate for a sudden and impulsive attack. After all, they couldn¡¯t have known exactly where we would run. They would have needed to seal off our other options to ensure checkmate even if we hadn¡¯t escaped into the mine. How much preparation, manpower, and time would it have taken to accomplish all of that? If they had just decided to attack as soon as they caught scent of the money, they would only have had to put on a mask and attack with a metal pipe in one hand. ¡°Wait a minute. Then who attacked us?¡± ¡°Do you really think I know that?¡± ¡°They at least went to the effort of burying us alive to get us to do something, but I can¡¯t think of anything else worth all that other than the casino money!¡± ¡°We probably can¡¯t even come up with a countermeasure unless we figure out what they¡¯re after. Holding a shield up in the wrong direction will just get you stabbed in the side.¡± I heard a dull thud and instinctually looked over. I could tell the thick wall of dirt was crumbling a little. I heard something like giant gears turning and it gradually grew louder. ¡°Dammit.¡± I instinctually looked to the Zashiki Warashi. What if? What if they truly weren¡¯t attacking because of the casino incident? What if my very first assumption had been wrong? Then it was possible I wasn¡¯t their target at all. There was someone else here. It was entirely possible they had been after the Zashiki Warashi all along! With a dull sound, something like a metal stake covered in lots of spikes broke through. The dirt wall was being removed, but I didn¡¯t feel the slightest happiness at being rescued and allowed out. Hands reached in. All I saw were hands, hands, hands. I¡¯m sure I shouted something then, but the men in shiny fire-resistant suits didn¡¯t react in the slightest. The shields protecting their faces hid their expressions from view and they threatened me by pushing forward a rotating blade that measured over a meter long. And the hands were reaching for someone else. I saw the Zashiki Warashi grabbed by the many hands and forced to her feet. Youkai were much stronger than humans. While she looked slender, she could probably literally kick them around despite how outnumbered she was. But it was obvious why she obeyed them: the blade drill pushed up against my chest! She glanced over at me just once, but she said nothing, faced forward again, and was tugged out through the hole. She was taken away. She disappeared from view. ¡°Dammit...¡± As the Zashiki Warashi was dragged on ahead, the men dressed as firefighters left the tunnel, one by one. Once only the one pressing the weapon to my chest remained, he tossed a small memo my way. It contained eleven numbers. It was a cellphone number. After I was finally left alone and still covered in dirt, I made my way back the way I had come. I didn¡¯t run across anyone all the way to the bright entrance. They may have already taken the Zashiki Warashi out or they may have taken a different path through the spider web of tunnels to head to the other side of the island. I was out of hints. I had no idea whatsoever where the Zashiki Warashi was. ¡°Goddammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!¡± It was a sunny day and I shouted into the clear blue sky at the top of my lungs. There was of course no answer. Part 20 (Day 10/04 08:00 - 08:15) I had always thought that Youkai did nothing of value. I had always thought she shirked her duties as a Zashiki Warashi. But she would never have been captured if she had not tried to save my life. She should have been able to escape on her own, but she had obeyed them to let me get away. ¡°...¡± I slapped my cheeks and focused myself. Moping around wasn¡¯t going to help. I was the only one that knew what had happened and I was the only one who could do anything, so if I did nothing, no one could save that Zashiki Warashi. They had given me a phone number before leaving. They wouldn¡¯t have done that for no reason, so I dialed my cellphone with my muddy fingers. ¡°That was surprisingly quick.¡± It was a male voice...I thought. It had clearly been mechanically altered, so I couldn¡¯t rely on how it sounded. ¡°I thought your panic would last a little longer or you would go crying to your parents or the police.¡± A strange scraping noise accompanied the voice. Was it fingernails? It wasn¡¯t quite the sound of biting them, so the person may have had a habit of scratching the plastic body of the phone. ¡°Youkai have no rights,¡± I explained. ¡°They can¡¯t be accused of a crime even if they kill someone, but that also means they don¡¯t benefit from any other social services. Even if they¡¯re abducted in broad daylight, the police can¡¯t do anything about it. After all, they aren¡¯t human.¡± And if the police couldn¡¯t do anything, talking to my parents wouldn¡¯t help either. One¡¯s parents were reliable, but they weren¡¯t all powerful. Everyone knew that by the time they entered middle school. ¡°How wise of you. But it may be one of your strong points that you don¡¯t make that sound coldhearted.¡± ¡°I know you didn¡¯t just want to chat. What do you want me to do?¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad you understand. That way I won¡¯t have to explain or demonstrate that we have a method of killing Youkai.¡± A squeezing ache filled my chest. If he had been standing in front of me when he said that, I might have torn out his windpipe with my teeth. Kodama Ryou and the casino had used a special rope to bind the Zashiki Warashi. They had crushed a stone mill to powder, placed it in a furnace, and created a special glass fiber rope. It had likely been made for the Usuhiki Warashi, a subspecies, but if they used it on her... If they created a blade or bullet out of the stone mill glass fiber... ¡°Our instructions are simple. Obey them and we will release the Zashiki Warashi. And simple as they are, this is something only you can do. Can we count on you?¡± If this is their true objective, does that mean they aren¡¯t even after the Zashiki Warashi? No, I need to assume something else might be underway at the same time. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°Your travel bag that ended up as lost baggage. Pick it up at the airport counter and bring it to us.¡± ¡°What?¡± At first, I didn¡¯t understand. They didn¡¯t want the money I¡¯d won at the casino or the Zashiki Warashi that had supported our Intellectual Village house for so long. Why were they so fixated on a student¡¯s luggage? They had even used explosives and firefighter suits, which weren¡¯t easy to get your hands on. ¡°I won¡¯t ask you again.¡± ¡°Wait, wait! What do you want with that suitcase? There¡¯s nothing much in there. In fact, I think the suitcase itself might be the most valuable part. So...!!¡± ¡°We are not here to answer questions. Pick up your bag and call us again once you leave the airport.¡± ¡°But I¡¯m covered in mud!! If I head to the reception counter like this, they¡¯ll definitely be suspicious. If you want me to do this for you, then compromise at least a little!!¡± ¡°Then stop by your inn for a change of clothes.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re fine with my parents stopping me after they see me like this? And how am I supposed to explain the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s absence?¡± ¡°You can buy new clothes.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t sell clothes in a casino city. Or do you think they wouldn¡¯t suspect a thing if I showed up at the airport dressed as a bunny girl?¡± I heard him click his tongue and the scratching on the cellphone¡¯s body continued. After some time to think, he replied. ¡°There are some coin lockers in Building A at the airport. Open #0934 and take what is inside.¡± ¡°A coin locker? So where do I get the key?¡± ¡°#0934 won¡¯t be locked. It will contain the key to another locker. Use that to open the other locker, which will hold a change of clothes.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± ¡°Now, listen. We won¡¯t give you anything more than that. If you don¡¯t pick up your bag, you will never see your Zashiki Warashi again.¡± ¡°I get it!!¡± I hung up and had some things to do. The first of course was picking up my suitcase. They obviously wouldn¡¯t have gone to all this trouble to steal some kid¡¯s clothes and handheld game system, so there had to be some kind of secret. Without knowing what they were after, I couldn¡¯t figure out what their Achilles¡¯ heel was. I needed to find it, use it as a shield, and take back the Zashiki Warashi. Secondly, someone would be putting some clothes in the airport coin locker soon. If I could capture them and get some information from them that they didn¡¯t want me to know, then I could throw a wrench in their plans. I was prepared to use any means necessary. Part 21 (Day 10/04 08:23 - 08:37) I was covered in dirt and only had a bit of change. I couldn¡¯t use a taxi like that and I didn¡¯t care what people thought about me at this point, so I ran full speed toward the floating airport connected to the island. Fortunately, Goldmine Island was small. All of the facilities were packed in enough that you could get anywhere on foot so long you didn¡¯t wear yourself out. Or so it should have been. ¡°...Gh...¡± My legs wobbled and tripped. I couldn¡¯t even run properly. I had barely had any sleep since the previous day, I had consumed tons of food and drink with no thought about the consequences, my head had been shaken by an explosive blast (even if they had been holding back), I had been buried alive, and I had undergone the mental shock of having the Zashiki Warashi taken from me before my eyes. It had all come together at once. But that was no excuse. The situation was already underway. If I didn¡¯t catch them putting the items in the lockers, I couldn¡¯t get a step ahead of them. If I just did what they said and followed the rails they had laid out for me, I might not get the Zashiki Warashi back. ¡°Uuh...¡± My vision blurred. I felt dizzy, so I leaned up against a nearby streetlight and tried to catch my breath. The sweat on my brow felt oddly cold. I was starting to feel anemic and my weakness started snowballing out of control. Even if I did reach the airport, what could I even do? I was only a high school boy and I was alone. Could I really spot the suspicious person in a large cloud? How many people used the coin lockers? It was possible there would be more than one enemy there and they could have been monitoring my every move. What could I do? Was there anything I could do besides obeying them? That wasn¡¯t being logical. I was simply giving up. I shook my head and gathered my strength to start moving again. And as I almost collapsed forward, something soft supported my head. It was a young woman¡¯s breasts. ¡°U-um, what are you doing? You look awfully pale.¡± ¡°Wah!?¡± I moved away so quickly I almost fell backwards, but the woman only looked confused. A closer look showed she wore a maid uniform with a miniskirt and her short hair was dyed in a mesh of black and brown. The breasts I had buried my face in were quite large. I naturally didn¡¯t know anyone on Goldmine Island, so I could only imagine she was some kind person who had called out to me because I didn¡¯t look well. Her outfit was strange, but in a city where bunny girls roamed the streets, that didn¡¯t seem to matter. However, the woman gave me a troubled look. ¡°Oh, dear. It¡¯s me.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°I am the wet nurse tanuki.¡± Part 22 (Day 10/074 08:45 - 08:55) Based on what the tanuki told me, it seemed the fox, tanuki, and badger had snuck into Goldmine Island by stowing away aboard a luxury cruise ship. They had intended to leave the same way, but none of the ships left until past noon and they had nothing else to do until then. ¡°The best method is to sneak into the cargo hold in our small animal forms and then transform into humans. They check on the cargo hold from time to time, but after checking people¡¯s tickets when they board, they don¡¯t suspect anyone onboard. They assume there is no way to slip past the gate.¡± There seemed to be different conditions for each one, but these three filled in the details of their transformations by walking through human civilization and blending in. They were apparently in the middle of doing that now. ¡°At any rate, this is great. I think luck has seriously turned my way.¡± ¡°Oh, um, what?¡± ¡°Can you contact the fox and badger? I could use some help right now, so could you do something for me?¡± The other two arrived before long. The fox looked like the kind of athletic young man who would be chosen as a world cup representative and the badger looked like a cool, perfectly-proportioned prince with silky blond hair and a dark suit. I-I know it isn¡¯t surprising Youkai all end up so attractive since they can freely take on any design they imagine, but could you please stop making visuals where I blend into the background! It¡¯s depressing!! After I explained the details, the soccer player, the maid, and the prince began ruining their attractive aura by speaking with their usual voices. ¡°H-how dastardly!! If they are going to kidnap that poor Zashiki Warashi for a mere travel bag, I must punish them!!¡± ¡°Leave it to wet nurse like me. We owe you for saving our family, so I am more than willing to help.¡± ¡°Fear not, boy. We were already feeling bad about leaving the island without doing anything to repay you.¡± Oh, c¡¯mon!! Everything they say sounds like it¡¯s straight out of a puppet show, but I¡¯m being overwhelmed by their sparkling good looks! I want to punch them so bad since I¡¯d settled for the comedian route where I win girls over with my conversational skills instead of my looks!! ¡°So what are we supposed to do? I¡¯m ready to tear apart those ruffians with my splendid claws!¡± ¡°No, no. The proper way to handle ruffians has always been to stuff them in a pot for dinner. Leave it all to a wet nurse like me.¡± ¡°Heh heh heh. I¡¯m starting to remember the flavor of blood that the old lady banned.¡± ¡°Wait, wait, you idiots. Yeah, all three of you!! If you talk about stuffing people in a pot for dinner when you look like that, you sound like legit criminals! That¡¯s not what I was asking. Can we start by thinking of a way to rescue the Zashiki Warashi?¡± The perfectly-proportioned idiots gave me looks that asked what we were supposed to do, so I suggested an impromptu plan. ¡°For example, what about this?¡± Yes. I was no longer alone. With four people, my options were bound to grow. Part 23 (3rd person ¡ª Day 10/04 09:00 - 09:10) Several men and women were hidden within the crowd of people inside Goldmine Island¡¯s floating airport. They had wireless microphones on their sleeves and stun guns, knives, and handguns hidden in their pockets. ¡°Target confirmed. Just as mentioned in the ¡®discussion¡¯ that dirt stands out a little too much.¡± After seeing a blond boy in dirty clothes enter the airport¡¯s front entrance, a man spoke as he leaned against a pillar. ¡°There¡¯s no sign of anyone else, so he appears to be alone as planned.¡± After confirming that the boy disappeared into the corridor leading to Building A, the man stepped away from the pillar and slowly followed the boy while pulling a rolling suitcase behind him. The outer wall was made of glass to allow the morning sun in, but an oddly dangerous atmosphere filled the building. ¡°He isn¡¯t taking any detours on the way and he doesn¡¯t seem to be contacting anyone by phone.¡± The blond boy was on his way to the coin lockers in Building A. After picking up some new clothes there, he was supposed to stop by the lost baggage management counter. Since he showed no sign of trying anything, it seemed he was too exhausted and nervous to put together a plan. The man felt this was a good sign. ¡°The target has arrived at Building A¡¯s coin lockers. He has picked up the clothes. He will probably stop by somewhere to change, presumably the restroom. I can only watch the exit from the outside for that.¡± As he spoke under his breath, the man began pursuing the blond boy again. And then... ¡°Hi, there.¡± He suddenly heard a voice from behind. It was the voice of the blond boy he was supposed to be monitoring. ¡°Wha-...!?¡± He frantically turned around, but a hand grabbed his collar before he could do anything. The other hand reached toward his belt and he felt something being pulled out. His back was then slammed into the row of lockers with tremendous force. As he gasped for breath, the man saw the familiar blond boy in front of him. After fierce laughter, the boy spoke. ¡°Surprised?¡± The boy held a knife and the man recognized it as the one he had carried. The tip of the blade gently stroked the man¡¯s stomach. ¡°What...is...?¡± Cornered, the man looked back and forth between the boy right in front of him and the identical boy walking cluelessly away with his change of clothes. Then the one holding his collar spoke. ¡°That¡¯s the wet nurse tanuki.¡± Part 24 (3rd person ¡ª Day 10/04 09:15 - 09:33) Jinnai Shinobu walked down the airport corridor with his arm still around the shoulders of a man in a cheap suit. After a while, they reached a metal door. It was a janitor¡¯s supply closet and it opened from the inside after Jinnai Shinobu knocked lightly. However, it was not a person who poked their head out; it was a fox walking on its hind legs. ¡°Get in,¡± said Shinobu. He shoved on the man¡¯s back, causing him to fall on the floor and knock over a pile of boxes filled with cleaning supplies, but the man was focused on the knife in the boy¡¯s hand. ¡°I won¡¯t talk.¡± Jinnai Shinobu and the fox ignored him, searched through his suit and checked each pocket. They spoke to each other while ignoring their hostage. ¡°Here¡¯s his ID. His name is Emura Ryouichi. Looks like he¡¯s a local.¡± ¡°He doesn¡¯t have much in his wallet. Should we check the suitcase, too?¡± Having one¡¯s name found out created a certain type of fear. That meant the danger could extend beyond this single incident. It opened up the possibility of revenge a year or even a decade later. ¡°I won¡¯t talk!! Have you forgotten that we have a hostage!?¡± The two continued ignoring him. ¡°I recorded his voice, so check over it. You can get by as long as you memorize his speech mannerisms, right?¡± ¡°A video would have been best. Well, if I check over his build, I can guess pretty well how he carries himself when he walks.¡± To Emura Ryouichi, something seemed off about this conversation. He had not been brought out of the public eye so they could take cruel revenge or to get him to tell them everything he knew. They had other plans. ¡°In that case, fox, transform into him right away.¡± ¡°So I transform into the enemy and pretend to have captured you to infiltrate them further? Of course, it won¡¯t be me that the organization ends up hunting down as a traitor.¡± Part 25 (3rd person ¡ª Day 10/04 09:33 - 09:40) Unsurprisingly, the other members noticed what had happened. For one thing, they had been keeping close contact with Emura Ryouichi by radio, so all of the other members heard the entire conversation. ¡°Satou, Suzuki! They¡¯re in Building A¡¯s equipment storage room. Take care of this before airport security catches on!!¡± They were panicked, but not because they cared about Emura. If Jinnai Shinobu shut himself up in there, they would have no way to access the lost suitcase. And if he was taken into protective custody, his luggage would be recovered by the police. Either way, the ¡°item¡± hidden in the suitcase would escape their grasp again. ¡°What do we do about the one who took the clothes? The one they called a wet nurse tanuki.¡± ¡°Leave her. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll ask some questions to ensure his identity in addition to checking his ID. The questions will be random, so a tanuki pretending to be him won¡¯t be able to answer them.¡± They would settle this before anyone noticed, so three men and women arrived in front of the metal door to check. ¡°Threaten him with your guns and knives. While he¡¯s focused on those, I¡¯ll zap him with my stun gun. Listen. Don¡¯t spill any blood. That could prevent him from picking up the bag.¡± They did not think this would be a difficult fight. Their only worry was going too far and killing their opponent. The three of them prepared their weapons and then kicked down the metal door. And when they looked inside, they could not believe their eyes. They saw two blond boys. ¡°Kh.¡± They could not immediately tell which was the real one, so they made a quick decision. ¡°Get both of them!!¡± With that shout, a woman charged toward the Jinnai Shinobu on the right. She pressed her stun gun against his thigh and hit the switch with her thumb. She heard a loud zap, but she did not feel the attack land. White smoke spread out and the boy transformed into a fox with a comical sound effect. To escape the stun gun¡¯s electrodes, the Youkai fled toward the open exit while occasionally tripping. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about him!!¡± shouted the woman. ¡°Capture the true-...!!¡± She trailed off because she saw a round tanuki slipping between the arms of the men grabbing at the Jinnai Shinobu on the left. Both of them had been wrong. In which case, where was the real Jinnai Shinobu? ¡°Dammit!! Was the first one who took the clothes the real one!?¡± Part 26 (Day 10/04 09:40 - 09:52) ¡°Now, just to be sure, can you tell me your blood type?¡± ¡°AB. Thanks.¡± After going through the necessary steps, I was at long last reunited with my suitcase. It was plastered with stickers of countless sizes, so there was no mistaking it. I had been worried about my ID, but opening my cell and showing them the page displaying the monthly details was enough. They wouldn¡¯t have accepted that normally, but they were probably more flexible with lost baggage since it was their mistake. ¡°Now, then.¡± At the very least, I had avoided a scenario where I was killed as soon as I took the suitcase. I had made it to the next phase and I still had a chance to save the Zashiki Warashi, but this didn¡¯t exactly guarantee my safety. I had tried to throw them off my trail to a certain extent, but I didn¡¯t know how many more were inside the airport. For the time begin, I dragged the suitcase out of the airport building. Once I entered the roundabout, I saw a familiar face. It was the middle-aged driver of that white limousine taxi. ¡°Oh, what¡¯s this? You look a lot more confident than yesterday. Did you win some at the casinos? Then how about driving on out to a beach filled with girls?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t Hawaii and I¡¯m not about to go swimming in the ocean during October.¡± ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s due to rising sea levels or what, but I hear the beaches have been getting smaller recently. Still, the casino city has a fully-indoor artificial beach. It runs year round like a ski slope in a desert.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah. Someone had left some swimsuits lying around.¡± As I spoke, I climbed into the crazy-luxurious vehicle. ¡°Wait just a sec,¡± said the driver while messing with his cellphone. ¡°I¡¯ve gotta log out.¡± I frowned. ¡°Oh, are you on the VR casino? Do you play the slots when you¡¯re bored?¡± ¡°Of course not. I¡¯d be broke in no time if I did that. The VR Casino City lets you make an avatar and buy a house or a shop. Just by putting your avatar¡¯s old clothing up for sale, you¡¯ll automatically get some virtual money.¡± He finally stuck the phone in his pocket and smiled as he answered. The limousine worked for me since it gave me the space to open the suitcase and it prevented anyone from grabbing it. ¡°Where to today? ¡°Just drive me around.¡± ¡°Wow, you¡¯ve gotta be rich to say that. Did you really hit it big?¡± While wildly setting off in the limousine taxi, the driver spoke casually to me. ¡°But be careful. Winning too much in a casino city isn¡¯t always a fun thing. It can also earn you a lot of resentment.¡±¡¯ ¡°You mean a loser will stab me in the back?¡± I kept the conversation going while pulling a small key from my wallet. It was for the suitcase. The driver occasionally glanced back at me through the rearview mirror. ¡°It¡¯s not just that. The locals won¡¯t like you either.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Wait, really? You hadn¡¯t noticed? Just to be clear, I¡¯m not a local. I came here looking for work.¡± He gave a deep laugh. ¡°In a casino city, all the brightly-lit buildings are built by outside corporations. I hear the truly local people really lose out in the deal.¡± ¡°But the inns and mine on the other side of the island make a lot of money, right? And aren¡¯t the tours of the ruins popular?¡± ¡°Are you serious? While the locals do own the mine, outsiders from big companies ended up taking the mining rights by offering to lend them younger workers to keep the burden off the older locals. They tried to turn a remote island into an Intellectual Village, but they failed to keep control from the very beginning. All of the people born and raised on Goldmine Island only get a tiny fraction of the profit.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°For a while now, the locals have been saying they suddenly couldn¡¯t mine any gold anymore. I¡¯m not sure how much truth there is to that, though.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°It seems work ships have been stopping in the harbor quite a bit and that they¡¯re always loaded with a bunch of dirt that must have come from somewhere. The island¡¯s miners claim it¡¯s illegal mining and they suspect the casinos are digging up the island without giving even the bare minimum of notification.¡± ¡°But they aren¡¯t actually running across new tunnels while working, right? Even if the casinos are digging somewhere, I don¡¯t think it would change what the locals find in their usual mining spots.¡± ¡°Yeah, but when you hate someone, you hate everything about them. I mentioned the beaches shrinking due to rising sea levels, remember?¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°The locals are blaming the casinos for that too. They claim all the electricity the casinos use is creating a bunch of carbon dioxide and advancing global warming.¡± Well, yeah... ¡°That isn¡¯t exactly wrong...¡± ¡°Gather enough dust and you¡¯ll have a mountain, it¡¯s true. But this little island alone isn¡¯t going to affect the beaches. Unfortunately, the locals don¡¯t really care about that kind of consistency. They refuse to forgive the people running the casinos or the guests who win a ton of money there. If you don¡¯t want to get caught up in some kind of trouble, you shouldn¡¯t show off even if you do win.¡± So there was friction between the outside companies and the locals. It wasn¡¯t necessarily directly related to the problem I was facing, but it couldn¡¯t hurt to know about the local power games. And as I thought about that, I inserted the small key in the suitcase¡¯s keyhole and unlocked it. I found my vacation funds in an envelope, a few days¡¯ worth of clothes, a handheld game system, a few games, an electric razor, my cellphone¡¯s charger, and my nice underwear. I checked through it all, but I didn¡¯t see anything someone would want badly enough to break the law. In fact, there was nothing in there I didn¡¯t recognize. ¡°...?¡± I packed it all up again. Even if they were planning to slip something suspicious into someone¡¯s suitcase, would they really unlock it and throw whatever it was inside? That seemed like too much effort for getting it in and back out again. But my suitcase didn¡¯t have any external pockets. I locked it again and felt across its outside surface. ¡°Wait.¡± I checked more carefully. Specifically, I began peeling off the countless stickers plastered all over it. They all ripped as I pulled them off, except for one that came off as smoothly as a brand new sticker from its backing. And something was hidden on the underside. To prevent it from being crushed, they had carved a perfectly-sized groove in the side of the suitcase and a device about the size of a cheap lighter had been hidden inside the groove. It was a USB memory stick with a red, translucent body. ¡°Is this it?¡± Instead of a label, it had a small scrap of Japanese paper attached and serpentine writing seemed to slither along the surface. The writing was so sloppy that I couldn¡¯t tell what it said, but I knew someone wanted it so badly that they were willing to use explosives and threats. It would clearly act as a trump card. I held up the USB memory stick and glared at it for a while, but I couldn¡¯t see what was on it with a simple cellphone. I ended up sticking it in my pocket. That was when my cellphone rang. I answered the call from an unfamiliar number and was immediately greeted with the following words: ¡°Have you forgotten we have a hostage?¡± ¡°Not at all, and that¡¯s why I felt the need for a plan. But thanks to that, I now hold what you want.¡± ¡°Then I wonder what we should do. Perhaps we should sever one of the hostage¡¯s arms to prove we really can kill a Youkai.¡± ¡°I think burning an electronic device would be much easier,¡± I said in an intentionally low voice. ¡°I don¡¯t know what this is, but it¡¯s obviously important to you. If I melt it down, you can¡¯t fix it just by cooling it in the fridge. If you don¡¯t want it to go to waste, then I¡¯d stop looking down on me like that.¡± The man on the phone fell silent for a while. The sound of a scratching fingernail continued the entire time. It lasted a few seconds or maybe around a dozen. Finally, he responded. ¡°Do as you wish.¡± That was all. He even hung up. As I stared at the cell phone screen, the driver¡¯s voice reached me. ¡°Hey, we just entered the casino city, so where do you want to go now? Should I just take you around to the other side of the island?¡± ¡°No, let me off here,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll pay you some extra, so take my suitcase to the Gold Crane.¡± I added an extra banknote as I paid and left the limousine taxi. I was in the same spot as the earlier car bombing. It was definitely dangerous, but anywhere would be dangerous on such a small island. My mind focused on the crinkling of the old Japanese paper in my pocket. That USB memory stick was my only lifeline. Depending on how I used it, all of my efforts would pay off or be for nothing. It was the deciding factor. ¡°Now, then.¡± For a change of pace, I walked back behind a certain casino. The fox, tanuki, badger, and I had previously arranged to meet up here afterwards. It was the alley behind the casino where I had defeated Kodama Ryou. By the time I got there, the fox and tanuki were already waiting. ¡°Where¡¯s the badger?¡± ¡°I doubt he was captured. No human can outrace us once we reach the mountains.¡± The normally-hesitant tanuki looked completely nonchalant as she said that, so it didn¡¯t seem to be a bluff. I couldn¡¯t sit still here and it looked like continuing on was my only option. ¡°What are we going to do now?¡± asked the fox. ¡°I found this.¡± I pulled out the contents of my pocket. The object was a little larger than a cheap lighter and looked like a USB memory stick with a red translucent body, but the label was made of Japanese paper and covered with serpentine writing. ¡°This is what they hid in my suitcase to carry in safely. It¡¯s also why they were attacking me and why they took the Zashiki Warashi hostage. It must be really important to them.¡± ¡°That says Usuhiki Warashi.¡± ¡°What?¡± I frowned at what the tanuki said. After all this, we were back to the Usuhiki Warashi? Wasn¡¯t that just what Kodama Ryou had used to swap out the cards? The fox wagged his tail back and forth. ¡°What is this?¡± ¡°How should I know? All I know is that some people are willing to kill humans and Youkai to get their hands on it. That means I can definitely use it in an exchange for the Zashiki Warashi. But that will definitely fail if I let them continue to control what happens.¡± For one thing, I only had the one small USB memory stick. If I was told to pack it in a plastic bag and wash it down the river or to place it in an envelope and mail it, I¡¯d be out of luck. If I refused, they¡¯d kill the Zashiki Warashi, but obeying wouldn¡¯t bring her back. I needed for the ¡°exchange ceremony¡± to occur at the same time, in the same place, and in person. ¡°Just to be sure,¡± I said slowly. ¡°You all can transform into people but not objects, right?¡± ¡°Yes. We can¡¯t turn leaves into coins, so we can¡¯t turn that Yu-Ess-Bee thing into something else or create a thousand fakes.¡± If they could do that, they would have been able to handle things better during the poker game. Transforming into people was certainly enough, but it wasn¡¯t all powerful. ¡°Th-then what do we do?¡± ¡°Fox, tanuki, two Youkai who can transform into someone else is enough.¡± ¡°Are you going to duplicate yourself to confuse them?¡± ¡°That¡¯s an option,¡± I agreed. ¡°But you can also transform into the Zashiki Warashi. If they¡¯re monitoring us, they might begin to question whether their hostage is real or-...¡± I trailed off because my cellphone rang. ¡°...¡± The fox and tanuki fell silent too, so I answered the call and heard a voice that had become familiar by this point. ¡°Have you managed to cool your head?¡± ¡°I want to hear about the trade. How exactly are we going to do it?¡± ¡°I doubt you would agree to attach it to a balloon and release it into the sky.¡± ¡°If you insisted on that, I¡¯d use a fake. You can buy cheap USB memory sticks at any convenience store, so I¡¯d just transfer the label over and send that one.¡± ¡°Come to the ruins of the old mining days at the center of the island. We will not specify a time. We will know if you show up.¡± ¡°No forgetting anything. If I don¡¯t see the Zashiki Warashi there, I¡¯ll snap this thing in two.¡± ¡°Do as you wish. But be prepared for what that will mean.¡± Just like in the limousine taxi, something didn¡¯t seem quite right. Even when I threatened to damage the USB memory stick, they didn¡¯t threaten me in the slightest. Did they have a way of restoring functionality even if I destroyed it? I glanced down at the translucent red device. Should I check it on a computer and make a few copies of the data? But that could cause problems if it keeps an access log or if carelessly trying to view the data will automatically delete it. I couldn¡¯t decide whether to rely on a trick or not. But then I heard a small girl¡¯s shrieking voice. Rather than an urgent scream, it sounded more like a teasing shout. Confused, I looked down the alley and saw a kimono-wearing girl of about twelve or thirteen running my way. She wore a short mini-yukata with her shoulders exposed like a courtesan. Overall, it looked like a tube top mini-dress and I knew who she was. ¡°The Usuhiki Warashi?¡± She did not reply. She continued shrieking as she ran past me and disappeared down the opposite end of the alley. And... ¡°Wh-why...are you...here...?¡± A man¡¯s voice seemed to rise from the depths of the earth and someone appeared with a rustling sound. The man had been robbed of his regal appearance. The con artist¡¯s prized snakeskin suit was stained here and there and his hair was a complete mess. He looked like he had been beaten all over and thrown out with the trash. His face was badly swollen and he barely resembled the man I had seen before, but I could tell when I looked in his eyes. ¡°Kodama...Ryou?¡± ¡°Where did she go? My...my Youkai! She¡¯s supposed to bring me unlimited fortune!!¡± Seeing the man shouting in confusion brought a weight to my chest. This was the fate of those who were left behind. He was one of those abandoned by a Zashiki Warashi or Usuhiki Warashi and thus forced to bear a fate of decline and ruin. ¡°I...¡± He unsteadily approached. Strangely, I found myself unable to move aside or back away. It was like having a snake looking you in the eye. He simply walked up to me as I held my cellphone and the USB memory stick. ¡°I wasn¡¯t supposed to lose! I wasn¡¯t supposed to lose here on Goldmine Island!! At the very least, I was never supposed to lose on this island!!¡± ¡°What...what are you talking about?¡± I directly voiced my doubts, but he did not answer me. He instead grabbed my shoulders using hands with filth crammed below the nails and he shook me violently. ¡°Was I abandoned? You¡¯re with them, aren¡¯t you? There¡¯s no other way that system using the Usuhiki Warashi ¨C a Zashiki Warashi subspecies ¨C would fail! But that¡¯s not possible. There¡¯s no way that plan can succeed without me and my influence in so many different fields!! You¡¯ve just chosen your own doom. But too bad. Now every last one of you will-...!!¡± He never finished speaking. His eyes suddenly rolled back in his head. There was no time to say anything. All strength left the hands grabbing my shoulders and the man fell limply toward me. Perhaps because his eyes had rolled back, I was no longer petrified like a snake was staring at me. And I felt no inclination to catch the con artist. I stepped back. With nothing supporting him, the snakeskin man collapsed to the dirty ground. The tanuki gave a girlish scream, but I couldn¡¯t even do that. I simply stared blankly as Kodama Ryou¡¯s limbs twitched. I was no longer looking at a human. This was merely an object. Something like orange sparks scattered from his silenced mouth. I watched them rise toward the blue sky and seem to dissolve on the way. ¡°That was a Kechibi,¡± said the fox as he too looked up into the sky. ¡°That was a Kechibi¡¯s feedback.¡± I wasn¡¯t quite sure what he meant. More importantly, the utterly unchanged voice coming from my cellphone seemed to squeeze at my heart. ¡°We will wait as long as it takes, but try to hurry.¡± That cold voice seemed to be saying they would unilaterally and utterly eliminate anything that stood in their way. The sound of his scratching fingernail sent my heart racing even faster. ¡°We can¡¯t have you ruining everything with some amateur mistake.¡± Part 27 (Day 10/04 10:00 ¨C 10:15) I called for the police and an ambulance, I didn¡¯t have time to sit around answering questions. We left right away, leaving the con artist¡¯s corpse behind. ¡°Does this mean the Usuhiki Warashi isn¡¯t the only Youkai they¡¯re using?¡± I asked while walking. When Kodama Ryou had died, the fox had said it was a Kechibi¡¯s feedback. ¡°A Kechibi is a difficult Youkai,¡± said the fox. ¡°Unlike us, it has no actual body. According to witness accounts, it looks like...well, something like a Hitodama or Ikiryou.¡± ¡°An Ikiryou? Isn¡¯t that like an out of body experience?¡± ¡°That is correct. They are souls of the living rather than of the dead. A living person¡¯s powerful resentment or longing removes just their soul ¨C generally while they sleep ¨C which will then harm people. However, it should be impossible unless the person undergoes extensive training or experiences a mutation.¡± ¡°This Kechibi simply helps the process along. Maybe we should call it an invisible Youkai with the power to remove or release an Ikiryou from people¡¯s bodies.¡± I understood what they were trying to say. This thing was off the charts when compared to the Zashiki Warashi or these animal Youkai. This one barely seemed like a living creature at all. But... ¡°How does that let you kill people?¡± ¡°If a Kechibi is cut down with a sword, legend has it the person it belongs to will die a bizarre death, covered in blood. It¡¯s a lot like a form of feedback. The same things are said about normal Ikiryou, so the Kechibi that removed the soul probably doesn¡¯t matter. It must be the traits of the removed Ikiryou that matter.¡± After the fox¡¯s explanation, the wet nurse tanuki hesitantly opened her mouth. ¡°A-a Kechibi is supposed to appear when you rub the bottoms of your sandals together and call the person''s name. If you could set up a system to summon the Youkai, call in the person¡¯s Ikiryou, cut it down, and kill the person...¡± ¡°You¡¯d have an Ikiryou assassination Package to kill anyone you wanted, huh?¡± It sounded like cursing someone with a straw doll. But here, you didn¡¯t need one of their hairs and you didn¡¯t have to wait seven days and seven nights for it to take effect. If they had free use of something like that, our chances shrank considerably. It might not work on Youkai like the fox and tanuki, but a human like me had almost no chance. However... ¡°Doesn¡¯t that seem odd?¡± ¡°How so?¡± ¡°They took the Zashiki Warashi hostage to control me, but if they had an Ikiryou assassination Package using a Kechibi, they wouldn¡¯t need that. They could have just held my own life in their hands. Just because you have a way of killing Youkai doesn¡¯t mean you want to have one around. That¡¯s like living in a cage with a lion or tiger while armed with a hunting rifle. The second you turned your back, the beast could easily chomp down on you.¡± Maybe they couldn¡¯t activate it without meeting some complex conditions. Maybe it was like a cheap cellphone and it didn¡¯t work if you took even a step inside a building. Maybe it cost way too much each time it was used. I thought of a number of possibilities, but I had too little information. I couldn¡¯t find an answer as thing were, but I knew it was my life on the line. ¡°Speaking of strange things, Kodama Ryou said something odd.¡± I was never supposed to lose on this island. There¡¯s no other way that system using the Usuhiki Warashi ¨C a Zashiki Warashi subspecies ¨C would fail. You¡¯re with them, aren¡¯t you? But too bad. There¡¯s no way that plan can succeed without me. ¡°He was acting odd from the beginning. Although it¡¯s possible he was just confused and it was all meaningless.¡± ¡°It¡¯s possible, but it still bothers me.¡± Still, we didn¡¯t have time to slowly find answers one at a time. I wouldn¡¯t be suspected of killing Kodama Ryou after he died in such a bizarre way, but it was true I had fled the scene. If the police caught up to me now, I would be stuck going through a long questioning. That meant I was being pursued by the police as well as the criminal group using the Usuhiki Warashi and Kechibi. I was also limited to this small island and I probably didn¡¯t have much time left. ¡°Wh-what are you going to do now?¡± asked the wet nurse tanuki. ¡°There¡¯s a lot I have to do, but let¡¯s take care of it one at a time.¡± Someone had died before my eyes. I was just a high schooler, so if I let that hit home, my legs were sure to tremble and refuse to move. So I tried not to think about it too much while I spoke quickly to move things along. ¡°First up is the Zashiki Warashi. Part 28 (Day 10/04 10:22 - 10:35) As I walked deep into the forest, I spotted a group of boxy concrete buildings. I could see twenty to thirty of them from where I was, they had all grown dark and discolored, and they were covered with countless slug trails. No glass remained in the windows, but I couldn¡¯t tell if it had been removed or just thoroughly broken. I meaninglessly bent down a little and looked around while unsure if I was actually hidden by the trees or not. ¡°I don¡¯t see any obvious guards. No cameras or sensors either.¡± Of course, they weren¡¯t about to put their security devices out where anyone could see them. Whether due to her wild instincts or her love of nature as a Youkai, the tanuki had been full of life from the moment we entered the forest. ¡°I wonder which building the Zashiki Warashi is in.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t tell from the sounds or smells,¡± said the fox while his ears twitched and his nose sniffed. I crouched all the way down and exchanged a glance with the two Youkai. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll go on alone. You two hide in the forest and keep watch. You¡¯re good at that, right? Don¡¯t let them spot you.¡± ¡°Hey, young one.¡± ¡°If anything happens and it gets dangerous, grab the Zashiki Warashi and get out of here. Don¡¯t worry about me. We still don¡¯t know what conditions are needed to activate the Kechibi¡¯s Ikiryou assassination Package. If they actually use that, I won¡¯t be able to escape on foot. Even if I abandoned the Zashiki Warashi and tried to escape, the Kechibi¡¯s remote attack would still kill me. So...¡± ¡°You saved our master and her granddaughter. Do you really think we can leave you to die?¡± ¡°Please,¡± I said quietly. The fox groaned and refused to answer, but the tanuki hesitantly spoke up. ¡°U-um, Youkai like us generally don¡¯t die, so how about we take that USB memory stick and try to negotiate in your place?¡± ¡°They have a method of killing a Zashiki Warashi. I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s a glass fiber knife or bullet made from a stone mill. The method won¡¯t work on a fox or tanuki, but that isn¡¯t the point. You understand, don¡¯t you? Unlike the casino guards who just borrowed the method, these people have the skills to analyze a Youkai and build a countermeasure. They might just dispose of you two without batting an eye.¡± In other words, it was possible they were similar to Hyakki Yakou. If so, a Youkai¡¯s immortality wouldn¡¯t last and we couldn¡¯t rely on it. But at the same time, their methods of killing Youkai had to be less convenient than the Kechibi¡¯s Ikiryou assassination Package. After all, they had needed to abduct the Zashiki Warashi before killing her. It wasn¡¯t like a cursed doll that could kill someone on the other side of the planet as easily as making an internet search. In other words, if the fox and tanuki were killed right away, I would be killed too, no matter where I tried to run. But if I was killed, those two still had some options open. After explaining it all, I said the following: ¡°Let¡¯s get started.¡± ¡°But...!!¡± ¡°I already explained this. Either way, they¡¯re already locked onto me. Even if I run away now, they can kill me whenever they want. ...I just have to make sure this deal works out. You might be able to save me if you barge in partway through. The only situation that ensures my death is if I run away now. If we want even a 1% chance of victory, then we have to move forward.¡± With that said, I stood partway up and started walking. With each step I took, the con artist¡¯s dying face flashed through my mind. This may have been what it felt like to enter a forest where a sniper lurked. However, I wasn¡¯t being targeted by bullets that could only fire in a straight line. My enemy was armed with something far more convenient and deadly. Filling my lungs with air wasn¡¯t going to change anything, but I still lost control of my breathing. I tried to calm it down and quiet it down, but the more I thought about it, the worse it got. Someone in this forest and among the ruins was clearly after my life. And as soon as that thought filled my mind... ¡°Dwahp!?¡± My right leg caught on something and I tripped quite spectacularly. The fox and tanuki must have blended in with nature already because they didn¡¯t come running out. Of course, I didn¡¯t exactly want them causing a fuss just because I ahd tripped over a root. But then I looked down at what I had tripped on and my throat immediately went dry. It wasn¡¯t a root. It was the corpse of young woman with her eyes rolled back in her head and foam spilling from her mouth. Part 29 (Day 10/04 10:35 - 11:03) The silence was deafening. Neither the fox nor the tanuki screamed. They were either focused on blending into the forest or they simply hadn¡¯t noticed yet. Either way, I was alone with the corpse. That fact was incredibly disturbing. ¡°What...is this?¡± I instinctually slid back along the ground while collapsed on my butt. I finally noticed the rustling of the leaves in the wind, but they sounded like eerie laughter to me. This sniper forest was so quiet and a mere high school boy had no way of knowing where the guards were posted, but that silence seemed to take on a whole new meaning. I stood up in a crouch and ran to the nearest abandoned building. With all of the furniture and equipment gone, it was nothing but an empty box and something seemed intensely wrong from the moment I set foot inside. There were two more. A man and woman wearing janitor¡¯s uniforms lay unmoving near the center of the room. Not a drop of blood had been spilled. I didn¡¯t actually check their pulse, but I could tell. My mind automatically placed them in a category separate from a living human, so it was painfully obvious. ¡°What is this?¡± I ran from the building and to another. On the way, I saw a few more corpses littering the ground. I didn¡¯t know how large the group had been, but a disturbing thought gradually seeped through my mind: there wasn¡¯t a single living human being here. I checked a few other buildings, but all I found were more dead bodies: a man in a suit who seemed to have expired while climbing the stairs, a woman in a dress who seemed to have made a desperate attempt to leave through the window, etc., etc. Each time I found one, the weight of the silence seemed to double. ¡°What the hell is this!?¡± Once I could no longer bear the weight, I cried out. Who were they? Who had killed them? What had happened to the Zashiki Warashi? Weren¡¯t the villains controlling the Usuhiki Warashi and the Kechibi and wasn¡¯t I supposed to solve the mystery and rescue the Zashiki Warashi!? My greatest enemy had already been destroyed, but I couldn¡¯t exactly rejoice. I felt like I was only now realizing that something far worse was underway. That was when I heard a footstep. ¡°!?¡± It didn¡¯t come from outside. Someone was descending the stairs inside the building. That meant it probably wasn¡¯t the fox or tanuki and it was even less likely to be a survivor of this group. So who else could it be? ¡°The Zashiki...Warashi?¡± I muttered. It was mostly wishful thinking, but it started to feel more realistic as soon as I said it. I wasn¡¯t being na?ve or overly hopeful. A bunch of corpses. A Youkai as the sole survivor. A being that could not be killed by normal means. Even if she was categorized as harmless, bullets and blades were meaningless to her and she could not be easily stopped if she did grow violent. The footsteps continued. Something was definitely approaching me. Was it possible she had done this? What if they had been bluffing about having a way to kill Youkai or what if it was difficult to activate in a hurry? How far would the Youkai¡¯s counterattack spread? Once they thoughtlessly claimed to have a way of killing her, she wouldn¡¯t have been able to calmly assume she would survive no matter what happened. She would have to put up a thorough fight to secure her safety. What if that was what had happened? ¡°...¡± Unpleasant sweat poured down my face. My eyes were drawn toward the stairs and my body wouldn¡¯t move. These footsteps would mean a reunion, but I could also feel something changing inside me. Step. Step, step. Step, step, step. Step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step. And finally, a familiar voice reached me from the stairs. ¡°Shinobu?¡± I think I must have screamed some nonsense that clearly wasn¡¯t Japanese. To be honest, the color white exploded deep in my mind and I couldn¡¯t remember anything afterwards. But I think I must have tried to run from the stairs with my eyes still glued to them. And as soon as I awkwardly started moving backwards, my heel caught on something and I landed on my butt. But instead of hard concrete, I felt something softer. When I realized it was another corpse, I screamed again. I felt like a fish out of water that had finally made it back to the fish tank only to find the tank was filled with sulfuric acid. I have no idea how I moved my muscles, but I somehow managed to jump up and move away from the corpse. Meanwhile, the Zashiki Warashi with black hair flowing across her red yukata tilted her head a little, shaking her hair a bit in the process. ¡°What are you doing? Don¡¯t tell me you took a turn for the truly disturbed and were trying to kiss that dead body.¡± ¡°Eh? What?¡± My mind went blank yet again. I had assumed a crazed killer Youkai was approaching, but it was the same Good-for-Nothing Youkai as always. ¡°Wait. How...why...?¡± ¡°Oh, they had me tied up, but I got out on my own. The rope was made so a Zashiki Warashi couldn¡¯t break it, but it didn¡¯t have a curse that kept me from moving or anything.¡± She rubbed together the rope marks on her wrists. ¡°Did you know that the standard way to slip free of a rope is to create a gap? For example, if you press your palms together and move your arms apart when they tie your wrists, you can make a gap between your wrists and the rope just by squeezing your arms back together. I didn¡¯t really believe it when I heard it, but I tried it and it worked pretty well.¡± Then I saw something like orange embers floating from the mouth of the corpse I had tripped on. ¡°Is this from the Kechibi¡¯s Ikiryou assassination Package?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. They just all started collapsing around me. Youkai can¡¯t be killed by normal means, so I thought maybe some gas had leaked from the mine.¡± ¡°...¡± What in the world is going on? The Usuhiki Warashi and Kechibi were supposed to belong to the enemy, so was this infighting within the group that had kidnapped the Zashiki Warashi? Or had they lost control of the Package? ¡°Hey, Indoor Youkai.¡± ¡°I see you¡¯re skipping right past the emotional reunion. What is it?¡± ¡°Do you know how many people were here?¡± ¡°Not exactly. About twenty maybe?¡± That led to some depressing work. I decided the threat had passed for the time being, so I called out to the forest. The fox and tanuki showed up immediately. They naturally freaked out when they saw the corpses, but I had no time to deal with that. From there, we split up and got to work. We dragged over all of the corpses and gathered them inside a single building. We found even more than reported. There were twenty-four and there was no guarantee we had found them all. It was possible more victims existed in the forest somewhere. By this point, my senses had numbed over. I dug through their pockets and gathered their wallets and cellphones. ¡°Based on his license, he¡¯s a local. Of course, this could be a fake.¡± ¡°Hm? Wait just a second. The ruffian at the airport was a local too, wasn¡¯t he?¡± ¡°Shinobu, this one is too. I¡¯m guessing they all are.¡± The limousine taxi driver had mentioned friction between the locals and the outside companies that had turned Goldmine Island into a casino city. It was looking like that was the situation here. ¡°Anything concerning the Kechibi Package? It would be a bad idea to ignore that. While it looks pretty unlikely there are any survivors, someone else might pick it up. I¡¯d like to destroy it if possible.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see anything like that.¡± The fox was exactly right. The corpses only had wallets, cellphones, and dangerous-looking knives or stun guns. We couldn¡¯t find anything that might be a controller to or component of a Package. Of course, it might have been something that blended in so perfectly that an amateur couldn¡¯t tell. ¡°Shinobu.¡± The Zashiki Warashi cut in after the tanuki explained things. ¡°Have you considered the possibility that your initial assumption was wrong? In other words...¡± ¡°The Kechibi Package is used by someone else entirely and they¡¯re just the victims?¡± My vision very nearly went dark. If that was true, what had we gotten ourselves caught up in? This was completely different from the plan to use the Zashiki Warashi as a way to get the USB memory stick from my suitcase. It would mean Kodama Ryou had been killed before my eyes for some other reason entirely. Would it now bare its fangs toward us? Or wouldn¡¯t it? I had nothing to go on there, so I just had to give up. I searched their phones, still hoping I would find something. Most of them were password locked and I couldn¡¯t do anything with them, but a few of them had been more careless. I checked through those phones that had not been set up properly. Oh. ¡°What is it, Shinobu?¡± ¡°Um...wait. Fox, a Kechibi is similar to an Ikiryou and it¡¯s something like a human soul that leaves a living person, right? And if they cut it with a sword, the distant person will be injured in the same way and might even die?¡± ¡°Yes. What about it?¡± ¡°Tanuki, but didn¡¯t you say you can call in a Kechibi by rubbing sandals together and calling the person¡¯s name?¡± ¡°Y-yes. They must use a Kechibi to remove an Ikiryou from a specified human, summon it, cut it, and kill them. And they would have an Ikiryou assassination Package that uses that process.¡± ¡°I might have figured out how.¡± They all tried to look at the (victim¡¯s) cellphone. Although, it seemed too much to ask for the fox and tanuki to stand up that tall. ¡°The sandals are probably a metaphor for the person¡¯s footsteps. You follow their footsteps, reach them, and kill them. In that case, they need those ¡®footsteps¡¯ to identify the target, but it doesn¡¯t necessarily have to be actual tracks on the ground.¡± The Zashiki Warashi seemed to catch on first. ¡°Shinobu, are you saying their internet history counts as their footsteps?¡± ¡°Close but not quite.¡± I lightly waved the cellphone. ¡°The answer is probably big data.¡± ¡°Big data?¡± asked the fox. ¡°Enough of those Western words!!¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that a method of gathering lots of information without specifying the individuals?¡± suggested the tanuki. ¡°I heard on the news that they can automatically tell what people are buying at train station vending machines and stuff like that.¡± ¡°This phone¡¯s GPS was on. Or rather, they didn¡¯t check over their contract very well and it can¡¯t even be turned off. I think there was a notice about this in the inn¡¯s entranceway. In addition to the normal casinos, this island has an online VR casino called Heavy Cruiser Island. But to make sure you can only use the gambling app on the island, you have to agree to give them your location.¡± ¡°But.¡± The Zashiki Warashi shrugged. ¡°Isn¡¯t big data set up so they can¡¯t tell who it came from? If everyone was identified with a number, I think everyone would be too creeped out to go anywhere near Goldmine Island.¡± ¡°With only one kind of data, sure.¡± I tossed aside the dead man¡¯s phone and pulled out my own. ¡°But they just have to gather several different kinds. For example, just knowing where a taxi picked up and dropped off a customer doesn¡¯t tell you who that customer was, but if you add in vending machine surveillance cameras, a store¡¯s point card usage history, and other types of data, you can figure out who used the taxi when and where. You can bring the data back to its original form.¡± ¡°But that would mean...¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if they¡¯re actually using different kinds of big data to find an individual, but I bet the enemy has rigged a huge server or base station so they can pull out all its data. ...Hey, Zashiki Warashi. Turn off my smartphone right now. I don¡¯t know how exactly they¡¯re locating people, but a phone is a collection of personal information. Sealing that should buy some time.¡± ¡°No, not that.¡± Just as I hurriedly started to turn off my cellphone, the Zashiki Warashi cut me off. I looked confused. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t that make this Kechibi Package pretty inconsistent and unreliable as a way of killing people?¡± ¡°?¡± I didn¡¯t know what she getting at. Even if the target did nothing, they could gather different kinds of data, select their target out of the 150 million people in the country, and kill them. Once they fished out an individual from the great sea of big data, they were ready to go. It didn¡¯t matter if the person fled to the other side of the world and holed up in a nuclear shelter, so how much more reliable could it be? But the Zashiki Warashi gave a simple answer. ¡°This wouldn¡¯t do anything against the oddities that don¡¯t have a cellphone.¡± The situation did not even wait for the chill to run down my back. Suddenly, I heard several dry gunshots ring from a building to the side. Part 30 (Day 10/04 11:03 - 11:17) Someone was still alive. The repeated gunshots were enough to tell me that. ¡°...Ah...¡± I truly thought I had died as the deafening sound reached my ears and my vision grew white. The world seemed to fade into the distance and I felt pain squeezing at my heart. But then someone grabbed my right shoulder. I was pulled back with the great force of heavy machinery and the white world around me shattered. In its place, the red of the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s yukata stepped in front of me. I heard several blasts like small explosives had gone off under her skin, but she did not cry out. Her yukata tore in places, but she did not shed a drop of blood. That was what it meant to be a Youkai. Her body was shaped the same as a human¡¯s, but its structure was entirely different. The tanuki supported my unsteady body as I watched the Zashiki Warashi move toward the source of the gunfire. She did not think about defending or evading. She simply walked forward. ¡°Eek!?¡± I heard a panicked shriek. I couldn¡¯t see past the Zashiki Warashi, but it sounded a lot like the voice I had heard on the phone. The Zashiki Warashi did not speak a word. Without even running, she walked forward and grabbed the collar of the person holding a handgun in his hands. She then threw him. It looked a lot like someone tossing a trash bag with one arm, but the adult man flew five meters through the air, slammed back-first into a dirty concrete wall, and fell to the floor. The tremendous sound it caused may have been even more violent than the gunshots. ¡°Gh...ghe...g-gh...ah...! D-damn...damn you!!¡± It was a young man. He groaned and struggled to breathe while reaching a hand across the concrete floor. Don¡¯t tell me. He spoke like he knew who I was and I recognized his voice despite never having met him before. But before I could think, he grabbed the gun he had dropped and exchanged the magazine for one marked with a different fluorescent color. The dry gunshots were met by bursts of red liquid. It was fresh blood. That Youkai could stand tall as a bomb went off nearby, but this had injured her. Most likely, these bullets had been made with the glass fiber created from crushing a stone mill which was deeply linked to the legends of the Zashiki Warashi. Dark red holes had appeared from her right thigh to her stomach as if someone had taken a giant sewing machine to her. But... ¡°...¡± Her expression did not change in the slightest. She continued to walk forward, crouched down, and grabbed the fallen man¡¯s shoulders. She then swung him around in a horizontal circle and let go to throw him. This time, he flew from one end of the building to the other. And fast enough that the Doppler effect was noticeable in his scream. After the disturbing sound of something soft being crushed, the young man fell to the floor again and his gun flew far away from him. He wasn¡¯t even screaming anymore. Still, his hand squirmed. He had given up on the gun and instead pulled something like a large barber¡¯s razor from his pants. And that meant the Zashiki Warashi could not stop either. She threw him. And threw him. And threw him. ¡°Hey, fox. Or the tanuki.¡± The next thing I knew, I was speaking. ¡°Just hold that man down. Restrain him! If you don¡¯t that Good-for-Nothing Youkai will kill him!! Hurry!!¡± I knew I was just about screaming and the two animals finally reacted. They were caught in the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s violence on the way and were sent bouncing around, but they still managed to hop onto the collapsed man¡¯s back. That kept him from moving. ¡°It¡¯s over!¡± I shouted. ¡°It¡¯s over now, Zashiki Warashi!! So you can stop!!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°It¡± turned toward me with the movements of an automaton that needed oil. The inhuman look in her eyes threatened to instantly destroy a relationship of over ten years. ¡°Ah...gh...¡± I heard a gurgling sound as the man on the floor opened his mouth. His mouth was dyed red and most of his teeth seemed to have broken, but he did something other than complain about the pain. ¡°Hand it...over.¡± At first, I didn¡¯t know what he meant, but it soon came to me like I was gradually solving a puzzle. ¡°Hand it over. Hand over the final piece you have!! Gbgh!? That isn¡¯t something you should have!!¡± ¡°Why not?¡± I pulled the translucent red USB memory stick from my pocket, stared at it, and asked again. ¡°Why do you want this so badly!? Is it really worth trying to kill someone or almost getting killed yourself!?¡± ¡°You...don¡¯t...don¡¯t understand...anything...¡± The bloody man might have even broken his back, but the look on his face changed as soon as he saw the USB memory stick. He was still pinned down, but he stretched his hand and its broken nails out toward me. Not only that, he began dragging himself along the ground despite having the fox and tanuki on top of him. His persistence made me back away. I knew he really cared about the device, but so what? I didn¡¯t know how it affected their Package, but it had to just be a way of making easy money. A fortune was only useful when you were alive. Not only had his partners in crime and subordinates lost their lives, but he was wearing away his own life. Why did he want it that badly? How could he go this far? However, it turned out I was looking at it all wrong. ¡°If we don¡¯t do something soon, unrelated people will be dragged into this!!¡± .....................................................................................................................................................................Eh? My assumptions were falling apart. I stared down at the object in my hands. ¡°What you...what you all unknowingly carried to this island was the final safety needed to stop the destruction that is already underway!! I...We knew the secret, so we had to stop it!! And yet...!!¡± After abducting the Zashiki Warashi, the villains had ordered me to bring them the suitcase. Yet when I threatened to destroy the USB memory stick I found, they didn¡¯t provide much of a reaction. But... They weren¡¯t the end of this? There¡¯s some other, larger plan and they were in a position to stop it? Wasn¡¯t that something we had concluded not long before? There were two sets of villains on Goldmine Island. One was the group that had kidnapped the Good-for-Nothing Zashiki Warashi and used the Usuhiki Warashi, a Zashiki Warashi subspecies. The other was a different group that used the Kechibi¡¯s Ikiryou assassination Package. In that case, which group had hidden the strange USB memory stick on my suitcase so I would carry it onto the island? Which of the two plans would it benefit? ¡°What?¡± I asked without thinking. ¡°What did I bring onto this island? What is this thing!?¡± ¡°Hurry up...and use it.¡± The collapsed man reached out with his bloody hand and spoke quietly. ¡°That is a method of inducing national suicide. We happened to stumble onto the system. We tried to use it for ourselves, but someone interfered. Hurry, hurry! If you don¡¯t drive that wedge into the gears of destruction and stop them from turning, the entire nation of Japan will be wiped from the map!!¡± The man seemed very confused and I had trouble following what he was saying. Plus, I wasn¡¯t given time to think about it. A moment later, some overwhelming violence interrupted us. Part 31 (Day 10/04 11:17 - 11:40) What...happened? It took me quite a long time to catch on. ¡°...¡± Everything looked turned on its side, but that was because I had collapsed onto my side. Also, a nearby concrete wall had been destroyed to the point I thought a dump truck had crashed into it. The wet feeling in my hair told me a basketball-sized chunk had hit me. There was nothing we could do. The fox couldn¡¯t do anything, the tanuki couldn¡¯t either, and not even the Zashiki Warashi could despite how ferocious she had grown. Someone had stepped in through the crumbling wall and knocked those three down just by swinging his arm. The rules said Youkai couldn¡¯t be harmed by normal means, but that no longer applied. They were punched, they were kicked, and they were thrown away. That was the kind of primitive violence that ruled the world here. ¡°Hm. Is that all?¡± After seeing a growing pool of blood approaching the USB memory stick that had fallen to the floor, the person silently crouched down and picked it up. The person was a gray-haired man who appeared to be in his fifties. He was not Japanese. He was clearly white and his graying hair had likely been a lovely blond originally. Even on the subtropical island, he wore a thick military-style coat that fit him perfectly. He also wore leather gloves. ¡°Who...are you...?¡± ¡°Now, then. Where should I begin? Would the term Kechibi be enough to tell you I¡¯m not with them?¡± The gray-haired man dutifully answered my question as I remained on all fours. Shortly thereafter, I heard a roar. The altogether bloody young man (from the Usuhiki Warashi group) stood up wielding a handgun and did not hesitate to pull the trigger. Sharp gunshots quickly filled the enclosed space. But the gray-haired man did not seem to mind. He took a casual action much like a child jokingly performing a lariat, but that was all it took to smash the building¡¯s thick loadbearing column. A gray deluge poured down with tremendous force and swept outside the building, taking the bullets and the bloody pulp with it. It was hard to believe a normal human had done that. The gray-haired man¡¯s shadow wavered and the number of arms on the shadow grew to four. ¡°So this is the Obou-Jikara. It sounded like a musty old legend, but ¡®when in Rome¡¯ as they say.¡± You¡¯re...kidding. That was related to the story of a Youkai called the Ubume. An Ubume looked like a young woman holding a baby on the roadside. She would ask passersby to hold the baby, but then the baby would grow heavier and heavier and eventually crush whoever had agreed. The Ubume was a deadly Youkai. However, anyone who managed to continue holding the baby to the end was said to obtain superhuman strength known as Obou-Jikara. It had looked like his shadow had grown four arms, but did that mean what I thought it did? Humans could not kill Youkai, but what if the power they used relied on a Youkai? Did that mean he could take down even the Zashiki Warashi on her rampage? ¡°You are right to feel fear. Humans have a bad habit of glorifying those who struggle against fear to the point of numbing themselves to it, but fear is a biological signal telling you to avoid some kind of danger. It is best to obey it.¡± As he spoke, the gray-haired man raised the translucent red USB memory stick and checked to see if any blood had gotten on it. Not good. This cannot be good. ¡°It all began with a certain turning point for this nation. Once your precision machinery industry suffered a decisive loss, you entered a period of chaos as you shifted to the ultra-high precision primary industries...aka running Intellectual Villages.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°At the time, fear filled the nation of Japan. You had lost your economic superiority and the economic foundation began shifting to China, Korea, and other southeastern Asian nations. Investors lost faith in the yen and moved their money elsewhere and the foreign companies fled the Tokyo Stock Exchange for fear of being caught in the middle when the nation went bankrupt. Japan knew it would be abandoned, which would be fatal for a nation with less than 30% self-sufficiency for food. That was why those in power reversed their thinking. If they created a system that did not allow anyone to abandon them, they could continue to prosper. That was the way they saw it.¡± This was so sudden that I honestly couldn¡¯t keep up. However, that wasn¡¯t due to the gray-haired man. The scale of the issue had just grown so large. And I felt like a fool for not realizing it. ¡°Oh, the system itself was simple enough. The basic traits of an Usuhiki Warashi aren¡¯t that different from those of a Zashiki Warashi. The main point is that they bring fortune and prosperity to the house they live in. Boy, do you know the currency used during the Edo period when the story of the Usuhiki Warashi and Zashiki Warashi spread?¡± ¡°Wait...a second.¡± ¡°The Oban and the Koban, both of which are symbolized by gold. And where else is gold used besides for decorations and currency?¡± ¡°Are you talking about integrated circuits and cable ports?¡± ¡°The Usuhiki Warashi can control pure gold. And by moving a piece of gold thinner than a hair only half a millimeter, one can prevent hardware from making contact and destroy the data passing through that hardware. And if copper coins are included too, the range of effects grows considerably. But regardless, this applies to hard disks, flash memory, and even the magnetic tape reels that big data companies have been returning to. After that, it is no different from ballistic missile defense. They need only say the following to the world¡¯s investors who were protecting their assets with the Japanese yen: ¡®During the next few years while Japan gets back on its feet, if we detect anyone transferring a significant amount of money out of Japan, we will destroy the Tokyo Stock Exchange hardware corresponding to the cluster of data belonging to that individual. Those deals are carried out in less than a millisecond and intentionally slowing them could put you hundreds of millions of dollars in the red, so it would be best to cooperate with us.¡¯ ...I suppose you could call it a new form of intimidation diplomacy.¡± That was the original form of an old system. But in modern times, that relic was no longer needed. The country had already recovered using the ultra-high quality brand-name vegetables of the Intellectual Villages. ¡°The islanders who attacked you had likely unearthed that old system somehow or another. And they were thinking of a way to use it. The automatic detection of large sums of money being transferred was likely what they wanted. Maybe they wanted to copy the movements of big-name investors and win big in the stock market or maybe they wanted to sabotage the trading data of the VIPs enjoying the casinos. To be honest, that would hinge on whether their goal was profit or revenge.¡± ¡°Then...¡± Still on the floor, I desperately moved my lips and spoke in a groan. If I didn¡¯t do that and keep my focus on the outside world, I probably would have passed out. ¡°What are you trying to do by slaughtering them?¡± ¡°That is simple!! Just think of it as upping the scale a little.¡± The gray-haired man spread his arms. ¡°Japan was in such a pitiful state back then, but you got back on your feet thanks to your hard work. It may look like your economy is focused on the agriculture of the Intellectual Villages, but it is high-quality industrial technology that supports those villages. Once Japan¡¯s computer technology won back the world¡¯s trust, many nations adopted it for their financial trading systems. Which means?¡± ¡°...¡± My mind went blank. It wasn¡¯t that I couldn¡¯t come up with an answer. It was that the idea in my head was just too ridiculous. But the nightmarish answer still came. ¡°The Package for small-scale hardware damage using an Usuhiki Warashi was limited to Japan, but it can now spread through the high-speed circuits and around the globe. Billions of dollars change hands each millisecond and all of that stock trading will be cut off for about seven days. That would be a fatal blow to the world. The former bursting of the bubble will seem like nothing in comparison.¡± He wasn¡¯t trying to spread chaos. He wasn¡¯t trying to make someone lose something. ¡°You mean...you¡¯re trying to...?¡± ¡°It would be one thing if it was a true accident, but if a system built by Japan destroys Japan¡¯s own devices, responsibility will naturally fall on Japan. Unlike data or software, it is easy to add up a sum of damages with physical hardware. Now, what will happen to Japan then? I predict it will be put on a very good sale indeed.¡± He was talking about the sale of Japan, the hijacking of an entire nation. ¡°This device itself is quite simple.¡± He sounded amused as he waved the USB memory stick. That was the key to it all and the source of it all. ¡°Would a high school boy know what a hardware key is? Instead of using a password, an exceedingly complex formula is stored on flash memory and used as the key to prevent illegal access. They are fairly common for online banking or stock trading.¡± ¡°What...about it? What does that hardware key give you access to? What does it have to do with what you were talking about!?¡± ¡°Ha ha. It¡¯s simple. Goldmine Island has constructed a giant virtual city around their VR casino. Avatars can move freely about, buy land or buildings, and open up stores to sell ¡®used clothing¡¯ for the avatars. It is nothing but a form of entertainment, but this is an access key for one portion of it. It gives you free access to a room not accessible any other way. It is a child¡¯s room filled with toys and candy.¡± An avatar shop in the virtual city. A virtual children¡¯s room filled with candy and toys. Don¡¯t tell me... ¡°It would seem you have figured it out.¡± The gray-haired man seemed to be enjoying himself. ¡°Just like the Zashiki Warashi, the Usuhiki Warashi is a Spirit composed of the children killed to conserve food during a famine. And in the mountain villages of Tohoku, it is said people would intentionally create children¡¯s rooms for them so they would stay longer and protect that family. That idea was virtually recreated and the Usuhiki Warashi is controlled by rearranging the zeroes and ones composing the room¡¯s layout as well as the arrangement and numbers of toys and candy. And this is the controller key that provides administrator access. No key is needed to enjoy an online game like normal, but it is needed to correct a bug or add additional features. Now do you understand the link between their Package, the Usuhiki Warashi, and this USB hardware key?¡± The man added that there was of course a ¡°delete¡± command that would cause the entire system built around the Usuhiki Warashi to fail and fall apart. ¡°To put it simply, this USB hardware key provides complete control of the Usuhiki Warashi. Long ago, this Usuhiki Warashi was closely related to that national suicide system, so it can do quite a bit. It truly can destroy Japan, but it can also crush the entire national suicide system at the flip of a switch.¡± ¡°So it can be used as a self-destruct switch for that extremely dangerous Package?¡± ¡°Ha ha. What a lovely comparison! Perhaps I should use it in the future. The islanders who unearthed the system while imagining they were some secret organization seemed to have moved just this hardware key elsewhere. It was likely to prevent one of their own from betraying them and hijacking the Usuhiki Warashi, but they eventually began to wonder what would happen if a foreign force like us happened to steal the hardware key.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°That was why they snuck it back onto the island to ensure its safety. They didn¡¯t want anyone else to get their hands on it and they wanted to maintain stable control of the Usuhiki Warashi at the core of the national suicide system that they had started to lose control of. Of course, this is only a nuisance to someone like me who actually wants the suicide to occur. It is fortunate I managed to retrieve it before it was used. ...If I destroy it, nothing can stop the system from running out of control. This is all I needed to declare checkmate.¡± ¡°.............................................................................................................................................You¡¯re...kidding.¡± ¡°Of course not. This is what I was after.¡± As he spoke, the man broke the USB memory stick in two, dropped it to the floor, poured a can of lighter fluid over it, and set it ablaze. I had been wrong. I doubted this gray-haired man was right about the dead group¡¯s reason for abducting the Zashiki Warashi to get the hardware key. It may have begun with that kind of greed or desire for revenge, but they had eventually noticed a greater evil and they had tried to put a stop to it. They had wanted to get that USB memory stick even if that meant destroying the Package they had built. And... I...got in their way? ¡°No, that can¡¯t be true.¡± My shaky voice rejected the man¡¯s words. Or rather, I wanted to reject them any way I could. ¡°No matter how much I threatened to destroy the hardware key over the phone, they didn¡¯t react! If it really was the safety they needed to stop that national suicide system, they would have...¡± ¡°Ha ha ha!! That was obviously just an act so you wouldn¡¯t realize what they were after. They were probably sweating bullets every time you shouted at them over the phone.¡± There was nothing more. My pathetic denial just wasn¡¯t enough. ¡°Now, nothing remains to stop me,¡± said the man. ¡°There is no spare hardware key, so it shouldn¡¯t take long before the national suicide is complete.¡± With that said, he turned around and made his way outside. He was escaping out through the giant hole he himself had made. ¡°Wait!! Who even are you!?¡± ¡°You will know before long. You are a student, aren¡¯t you? Then just look up at the flag flying in front of your school. Before long, you will see something other than a red circle there.¡± ¡°You...¡± I tried to draw his attention. It may have been meaningless. We had already lost the hardware key needed to access the virtual children¡¯s room that controlled the Usuhiki Warashi. Even if I tore out the gray-haired man¡¯s windpipe with my teeth, there was no stopping the national suicide. But for some reason, I desperately called out to him. Yes, that¡¯s right. I didn¡¯t have an actual idea in mind. I was simply afraid of being left behind. ¡°Why are you letting me live?¡± ¡°Ha ha!!¡± The man laughed loudly, but he did not stop walking or even look back. He kept his back to me as he answered with laughter in his voice. ¡°Why would I kill you? The more slaves the better.¡± That was all. There was nothing I could do. I could not even get up from the floor as the gray-haired man vanished from the abandoned building. Part 32 (Day 10/04 12:00 ¨C 12:30) Some kind of conclusion was reached without my knowledge. Part 33 (Day 10/04 12:30 ¨C 13:09) ¡°We will be interrupting this program for some breaking news. Today at noon, accidental explosions occurred in chemical complexes in Kitakyushu, Hiroshima, Fukui, Kobe, Yokkaichi, Kawasaki, coastal Chiba, Kashima, Sendai, and Hakodate. Police have announced that they are investigating it as a possible large-scale cyber attack rather than simple accidents. Currently, the firefighters are working valiantly to put out the fire, but the situation does not look good. Anyone living in the neighboring areas are urged not to go outside to view the disaster. Inhaling the chemical smoke would be very dangerous. And even those who live outside the specified areas should avoid going outside if at all possible. Many dangerous chemicals are continuing to escape and the Meteorological Agency says the winds will carry them across the entire country. ...Oh, we have just received more information. Similar explosions and leaks have been confirmed at 192 of the country¡¯s chemical factories and storage facilities. The number of casualties is unknown at this time. We will announce the locations once a list of names has been confirmed. The government has begun an emergency meeting of the Cabinet and decided to create a countermeasures team. Chief Secretary Nakaue of the ruling party is strongly urging the nation to wait for a definite announcement and not to follow dangerous speculation. ...I¡¯m sorry. We have even more new information. We have just received word that heavy tankers cruising near Japan are bursting into flames one after another. No accurate number is known. We will provide more detailed information once it is available. The Ministry of the Environment made an announcement a moment ago. They are rapidly performing water quality tests around the country and will resume drawing water once its safety has been confirmed. Anyone who uses a well rather than the water service, please avoid drawing drinking water if at all possible. Foreign websites are already expressing their doubts about the brand-name image of Japanese agricultural produce, so the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries will soon make an announcement to sweep away such speculation. I repeat: please do not do anything until more accurate information has been announced. Large traffic jams covering more than fifty kilometers have been confirmed on Kitakyushu Expressway, Hanshin Expressway, Tomei Expressway, Shuto Expressway, Kan-Etsu Expressway, Joban Expressway, Tohoku Expressway, and other major roads. Attempting to flee the contaminated regions exposes you to the possibility of breathing in chemicals from the atmosphere, so please stay indoors. More new information? This time, large explosions have been confirmed in oil storage companies in Kitakyushu, the Seto Inland Sea, and Aomori. The number of casualties is not known at this time. Details will be provided when they are available. The Meteorological Agency just released a satellite image. The Japanese archipelago is almost entirely covered by black clouds, but it seems they are all some form of contaminating...¡± Part 34 (Day 10/04 13:09 ¨C 13:30) I was in a complete daze. The news coming from the inn¡¯s TV was all so insane that it didn¡¯t feel remotely real. Almost the entire Japanese archipelago had been covered in pollutants like someone had filled in a coloring book picture. Heavy footsteps had been stomping around behind me for a while. My parents were constantly trying to contact someone, but the phone lines were so overloaded they couldn¡¯t get through. Their voiceless impatience seemed to point to the enormity of the situation. The country had struck a nice balance with the ultra-high quality agricultural produce supported by the Intellectual Villages, but that was all coming to an end. I couldn¡¯t quite grasp what that meant. ¡°Now that the national suicide system has been used, the nation of Japan will be sold off to other countries before long. There was not a single thing we could do to stop it.¡± A young girl¡¯s voice reached my ear. For some reason, I held a cellphone to that ear. Odd. I thought the phones weren¡¯t getting through? ¡°The nation of Japan¡¯s value will drop to zero and anything remotely useful will be stripped away, so acquiring us will mean taking on a massive debt. Pointing that out was the only way we had to drive back the buyers.¡± I recognized the voice. It was the girl who led the large organization named Hyakki Yakou. ¡°We have established that none of Japan¡¯s land or the nearby seas will be fully decontaminated until nearly fifty years from now. Advances in technology should shorten that somewhat, but for the time being, no one can set foot on this land. The environment will become unlivable without wearing a spacesuit. No matter how low the island nation¡¯s value may have dropped, no buyer will want to take on the cost of a fifty year decontamination. In that time, we must reconstruct the power needed to take back the nation we have lost.¡± That was when it all finally came into focus. Oh, I get it. This is what happens after we were put in checkmate and the game is already over. ¡°Jinnai Shinobu. You need to leave this country immediately. It does not matter where you go, but you need to lie low until the time comes to buy back the country.¡± I still held the phone to my ear, but her voice no longer reached me. Instead, thoughts raced through my mind. My eyes met those of the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata. That Youkai shared a house¡¯s prosperity, silently watched it rise, and left as a sign of its decline. She simply stood there like always. Except this time, she was watching our ruin. That told me that this was the end. We would be leaving here. In the worst case, we would be unable to leave and we would die here, but if we were to survive, we needed to work toward leaving the country. But Youkai were different. No matter how bad the environment got, they could live like normal. And I doubted a Japanese Youkai formed from Japan¡¯s environment would be able to cross the national borders. ¡°I will be back.¡± So this was the end. So this was goodbye. ¡°I won¡¯t give up on you!! No matter how many years or decades it takes, I will be back!! So...!!¡± There was nothing I could do. On that day, our story came to a complete stop. Part 35 (3rd person ¡ª Day??/????:?? -??:??) Kotemitsu Madoka thought about how much time had passed since then. The large meeting room of New York¡¯s UN Headquarters building was normally only seen on the news, so it was a strange sight for a normal person like her to be standing there. Regardless, she did not feel overwhelmed. She knew that those with true influence did not attend meetings in places seen on television. She also knew that she herself had transformed into one of those with true influence. It was currently two in the morning, so it was an extremely unusual time for a meeting. Nevertheless, all of the seats for all of the member nations were filled. They all knew just how much they stood to lose by not being here. Madoka stood in the center of the circular meeting and she spoke. ¡°How about we finally settle this?¡± She challenged the world with a microphone in one hand. ¡°That was a message from ¡®him¡¯. ¡®He¡¯ said it, so don¡¯t you think it is about time the world began to act? ...I am sure you have already realized that, if we continue to stagnate by failing to think, we will shrivel up and die.¡± Despite her disrespectful way of speaking, the listeners immediately took it all in. I¡¯ve gotten pretty good at giving speeches over the last ten years, noted Madoka. ¡°We have easily used up all of this planet¡¯s resources: oil, rare earths, water, and even food. Yes, we kept thinking the oil would continue to last a little longer, but we are truly seeing the bottom there. And unfortunately, we now know the moon contains far fewer resources than we had hoped and we are still a long way off from manned mining of Mars. So what are we to do?¡± She looked around at them all. The surrounding listeners all gave her distressed looks. These were their true faces that they could never show the TV cameras for fear of creating social unrest. ¡°Currently, unmanned robots are the foundation of our space development technology. That is how we designed it. And ¡®he¡¯ is the leading individual in that field. Without exaggeration, ¡®he¡¯ can be found at the source of almost every theory there. And ¡®he¡¯ has found an answer. This is undoubtedly the correct method.¡± The listeners were drawn in half by Madoka¡¯s eloquence and half by ¡®his¡¯ name. ¡°The moon is insufficient and we are a long way from manned mining within the gravity of Mars. That is why we have set our sights on the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Those countless asteroids are made of ice and minerals. First, we will fire missiles there with your cooperation. And when the many asteroids are swept toward the Earth, we will match their relative speed and perform the necessary mining with unmanned robots. That is a simple explanation of ¡®his¡¯ plan.¡± Some feared it was unrealistic, but she had of course expected that. ¡°This is entirely possible using ion engines that can provide weaker propulsion for longer periods of time and using the strategic weapons all of you have in excess. More importantly, this is not just a plan to delay the inevitable. ¡®He¡¯ said that making use of the asteroids and reusing the proper resources will provide a realistic solution to the problem of manned mining of Mars.¡± The distressed tension filling the room gradually ebbed. A realistic wall had been tormenting these people and they no longer had any way to think on their own, so they just wanted someone ¨C anyone ¨C to give them the answer. But it was true that one of them was none too pleased with this answer. A certain country had imprisoned ¡®him¡¯ and was using ¡®him¡¯ for itself. Not that they would have ever officially admitted it. That was why Kotemitsu Madoka said what she did next. ¡°As I said, this is all what ¡®he¡¯ has said.¡± Part 36 (3rd person ¡ª Day??/????:?? -??:??) The extreme east of Siberia in Russia was a white hell entirely covered in blizzards. A certain research facility was located at the center of a military facility that would never be found on any map. Those involved called it the Robot Factory. ¡°He¡±, Jinnai Shinobu, had long been imprisoned there. Despite being a research institution for unmanned robots, it was almost entirely filled with a high power supercomputer. The collection of parallel processing devices was large enough to fill a soccer field and that was where his theories took form. Afterwards, they would actually be built in a different workplace located somewhere with an eight hour time difference. During the past ten years, his days as a boy had ended. He wore a lab coat over a cheap suit as well as thin glasses. His hair was still dyed blond, making it about the only thing unchanged, but it had gradually diverged from his overall atmosphere as he had aged. The supercomputer cost as much as five or six large amusement parks, but he rudely rested his feet on the console while sipping bitter coffee from a mug. Suddenly, he looked up toward the ceiling. He was creepily monitored twenty-four hours a day, but that eerie gaze had just vanished. The reason was obvious. The thick door was supposedly locked several times over, but some great strength knocked it inwards. Next came a few bloody soldiers. Lastly, a woman with a glamorous body stepped inside. ¡°Hishigami Mai, hm? You haven¡¯t changed,¡± he said. ¡°I mean it. Why haven¡¯t you aged?¡± ¡°My body allows for replacements.¡± ¡°And why are you wearing a tank top and hot pants in arctic Siberia?¡± ¡°I was wearing a coat with the perfect insulation of a thermos, but I threw it away partway in because it was soaked with blood.¡± Despite this meeting with an old acquaintance, his expression remained unchanged. All he did was lower his gaze from the ceiling to the mug. ¡°Why are you here?¡± ¡°Did you really think we wouldn¡¯t notice what you¡¯re trying to do?¡± ¡°Then I see no reason for you to stop me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s too soon to start moving. The Japanese people were scattered around the world on that day, but a lot of them have grown accustomed to their new lives as they wait. Your actions could easily rob that of them.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Jinnai Shinobu took a sip from the mug. ¡°Then will you kill me?¡± ¡°That too would be a problem. It would change things too much. After all, all space development now comes from you. Or more accurately, you and Kotemitsu Madoka set it up that way. Sometimes you even buy out a rival research institute or hack in to alter their research data.¡± ¡°Then what will you do?¡± ¡°How about I put you to sleep for a few years? Not letting you live but not letting you die would be best. ...To be honest, getting it just right is tricky. That¡¯s why I was chosen instead of Mr. Illness Magic.¡± ¡°I see.¡± He did not even turn toward her as he spoke. ¡°But you are not enough to defeat me.¡± With a sudden explosive sound, a nearby wall was destroyed by a tremendous force and an eight-legged crab-like weapon rushed in. The silver monster acted as a shield for Jinnai Shinobu. Hishigami Mai whistled. ¡°Using space development tech for military purposes? You¡¯re like a villain from an American comic book.¡± ¡°I was never interested in space. I needed the technology to efficiently decontaminate that country and the military might to push back any other countries that try to interfere. It just so happened that robots were the answer I arrived at.¡± ¡°But a piece of junk like that can¡¯t kill me.¡± ¡°Then how about I give it a power up?¡± As soon as he spoke, a gust of wind surrounded him like a small tornado. Once the wind settled down, a woman leaned on his back with her slender arms embracing his neck. She was not human. She had horns on her head, wings on her back, and a tail on her hips. Mai gave a ferocious smile. ¡°The Succubus, hm?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Hello, everyone. The Japanese-made Youkai may not have been able to leave, but demons like me cover the entire world. My master has been quite loving to me¡î¡± ¡°I see, I see. Hah hah!! So this is why Kotemitsu Madoka has been taking such obvious action over the past ten years. You¡¯ve been using that demon¡¯s power to cheat, haven¡¯t you!?¡± ¡°It isn¡¯t just her. I dealt with Kotemitsu Madoka directly, which doubled as a test, but the illusion of making love can be transmitted over the internet as well. It is most effective against any woman without your level of resistance. I¡¯m sure you would be shocked if you knew the number I had ¡®won over¡¯ to achieve my goal.¡± ¡°Hm. So did you seal the Succubus¡¯s power in that piece of junk to create an unmanned weapon that uses supernatural and paranormal powers?¡± Mai casually clapped twice. ¡°If so, that had the opposite effect. I specialize in that sort of thing, so I¡¯m oh-so-thankful you felt the need to bring this into my territory. Now, it¡¯s about time I finished with you.¡± ¡°She isn¡¯t what it uses. The Succubus is only the primer.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Do you remember the Australian witch that showed up that one time? And do you remember how she was defeated using the Succubus¡¯s name and a certain postcard?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°The names of two different demons were used to trick that witch. One was the Succubus¡¯s and the other belonged to a much more powerful demon that almost ranks in as one of the Seven Deadly Sins.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean...!!¡± ¡°Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier, empress of the empty throne not part of the seven seats. Reveal your majesty in accordance with your master¡¯s will.¡± The world was compressed. The mere manifestation was all it took to break one of the main parts of Hishigami Mai¡¯s utterly modified body. A sound more disturbing than the breaking of every bone in her body rang out again and again with more regularity than the ticking of a clock. New life now resided in the silver crab-like weapon. ¡°Now, then.¡± Finally, Jinnai Shinobu removed his feet from the console and stood from his chair. But he did not bother looking at what remained of Hishigami Mai. With the Succubus clinging to his back and the unmanned weapon containing one of the strongest demons to his side, he gently shook his mug and spoke. ¡°I suppose it¡¯s about time to head out into the world once more.¡± Part 37 (3rd person ¡ª Day??/????:?? -??:??) When word secretly reached them, some of the standing member nation representatives trembled. Kotemitsu Madoka ignored them as she continued speaking. ¡°If everything has gone as planned, ¡®he¡¯ will already be free and travelling through the world as ¡®he¡¯ pleases.¡± She spoke slowly and skillfully. ¡°To put it another way, any nation could now become the leader in space development. Which nation will accept ¡®him¡¯? This could influence your entire history for the next century.¡± Every one of them obviously wanted this. Instead of going through the proper process and waging war over it, they were about ready to begin a scuffle in the meeting room right here. ¡°There is but one price,¡± said Madoka. ¡°Permission to decontaminate that country that we lost and the authority to directly manage the reclaimed land. That is all. If you support us on this, you will become the victor of this era.¡± Some nations did not want that. Others still wanted that island nation for themselves. But anyone who opposed this plan would become the loser of the next era. They would be thrown from the space development race and they would wither away as they tried to rely on this planet as its resources dried up. They had only one option. They could only hold each other in check while they grinned and supported that nation¡¯s revival. ¡°Then I will leave it at that.¡± Kotemitsu Madoka answered their silence. As she slowly began to leave, someone asked a question that strayed from the main point. That plan would cost a massive amount of money and she was funding it with the massive amount of assets she had gathered from around the world. So someone asked why she was willing to go this far. She slowly looked back and soft words flowed from her mouth. Part 38 (3rd person ¡ª Day??/????:?? -??:??) And after making use of everything and making an enemy of everything, ¡°he¡± returned to that place. He saw that nostalgic rural scenery and he saw the kind of thatch-roof Japanese house one would see on an old postcard. With his entire body contained within a spacesuit, he could not breathe in the air or feel the ground beneath his feet, but he had returned all the same. The fields and paddies were less disturbed than he had expected and the houses had also survived. The Youkai living there had likely continued to maintain them even after all of the humans had evacuated. ¡°Hi.¡± His muffled voice spoke. A Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata sat on the porch like always. She had likely been waiting there every single day for the last ten years. As she fanned herself with a Japanese-style fan, she looked up and smiled ever so thinly. ¡°Oh? I see you¡¯re the type to dutifully keep your promises.¡± ¡°It¡¯s still going to take some time, but I¡¯ve shortened it by quite a lot. The original environment should be back in about another ten years.¡± ¡°I see. I had never thought you were stupid, but still...¡± ¡°This technology is technically meant to allow humans to live on the moon or Mars...or that¡¯s how I camouflaged it, at least. Well, this is still a lot closer to home than outer space.¡± ¡°But it looks like you managed to spin the dial all the way around back to idiot. You didn¡¯t have to go this far to stick with us Youkai.¡± Still wearing the spacesuit, he sat next to her. ¡°Once it¡¯s all over, let¡¯s begin it all anew...Yukari.¡± He spoke a single name. Instead of calling her an Indoor Youkai or a Good-for-Nothing Youkai, he used her name. He was not just taking back the lost time; he was already thinking about what came after. ¡°Yes,¡± whispered the Zashiki Warashi as she slowly waved her fan. ¡°If it led to this, then maybe that ending wasn¡¯t so bad after all.¡± Volume 5, Notice// Volume 5, Notice// Administrator, Manual command for the current Package detected. Outputting progress report. Please review the details. The virtual plans have been successfully constructed using Jinnai Shinobu and Singer Song Liar, the digital song composition and side story self-creation software. The overwriting of reality will begin at 2030 hours. From there, freedom of choice will be erased from the world. Like the neck of an hourglass, all possible human choices are sure to arrive at the end point of the ¡°Sale of Japan¡± scenario. At that point, the possibilities will expand once more. The scenario¡¯s end point was confirmed upon the completion of Plan 1 ¡°Personal_apocalypse¡±, but the nature of the Package allows for unpredictable fluctuations on the way to that point. Please pay careful attention so that the fluctuations do not produce any losses and please begin Plan 2 ¡°Rail_song_jail¡±. Welcome to the changing world, Administrator. Volume 5, Jinnai Shinobu’s Apocalypse — Side B — OP_code"Rail_song_jail". Volume 5, Jinnai Shinobu''s Apocalypse ¡ª Side B ¡ª OP_code"Rail_song_jail". Part? (3rd person ¡ª Day??/????:?? -??:??) ¡°Lost baggage? ...What? You mean, um, wait. So it was lost!? But that ¡®item¡¯ was top secret!!¡± ¡°It¡¯s already gone, so there¡¯s no use complaining about it. Or do you think that¡¯s going to magically make it appear?¡± ¡°If it was that important, why didn¡¯t you keep it with your carry-on baggage? I¡¯m going to officially report this!!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t want something that dangerous on me! I know plenty of people who assumed a domestic flight was safe and came to regret it!!¡± ¡°Okay, understood. Everyone, we need to calm down. The carrier decided to transport the ¡®item¡¯ by hiding it in a civilian travel bag, but that travel bag has gone missing as lost baggage. Is that clear?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we track the bag?¡± ¡°If we¡¯d attached a transmitter, the signal would have been intercepted. It would be like telling the entire world to come take it from us.¡± ¡°You mean...¡± ¡°No one knows what airport it ended up at.¡± ¡°The airline isn¡¯t stupid. They¡¯ll find it before long and contact the civilian student. There¡¯s nothing we can do until that student picks up his travel bag.¡± ¡°Could someone fake their identity so we can collect the bag ourselves?¡± ¡°Do you want to stand out? That would increase the risk of revealing the ¡®item¡¯s¡¯ existence, you know?¡± ¡°...Dammit.¡± ¡°Now you¡¯re catching on. Unfortunately, all we can do now is pray.¡± Part 2 (Jinnai Shinobu ¡ª Day 10/03 20:30 - 20:40) ¡°...................................................................................................What the...hell is this?¡± I muttered while staring at my cellphone¡¯s small screen. What I had read was so insane that I may have briefly passed out at points. It had all started as I tried to kill some time waiting in the lobby of the island¡¯s floating airport in the hopes of my lost baggage showing up. I had used Singer Song Liar. It was one of the many free net services flooding the market and it was best described as ¡°strange songwriting software¡±. If you entered lyrics and music, it would automatically create a story to go along with it. It had an easy mode that allowed you to paste in countless pre-recorded samples and gave you help with what to write next using something similar to a predictive search. That allowed users to casually create a song in as little as ten minutes. (Of course, I¡¯d heard all the songs made with easy mode sounded a lot alike.) I didn¡¯t know exactly how the story creation worked, but it apparently took the genre (classic, jazz, techno, rock, etc.), the type of melody (ballad, blues, pop, etc.), commonly-used phrases, the rhythm, and the terms and names used in the lyrics to arrange hundreds of thousands of phrases to form the best story. Or something like that. It had gotten famous when the big message boards started asking why they would let people use such a convenient and high-level service for free and then I had heard it got pretty overloaded during the weekends and late night. Since I was bored, I had spent about twenty minutes making a song just to try it out, but... ¡°Wait, wait, wait. That is a lot of text.¡± According to the message boards, the shorter ones were only a few pages long and the longer ones were a full thirty-page short story, but it looked like I had a full novel. And then there was the content. ¡°Wow.¡± This says the Japanese archipelago was entirely sealed off, I became a world-famous robot scientist to take Japan back, I made a contract with the Succubus and made full use of her, I made a contract with a Seven Deadly Sins class demon to power up an unmanned robot ¨C oh, wow ¨C I one-shotted Hishigami Mai, I was some sexy mad scientist, I fulfilled my promise with the Zashiki Warashi a decade later while wearing a spacesuit, ¡°Once it¡¯s all over, let¡¯s begin it all anew...Yukari. (Trying to sound classy)¡± Oh, wow. Using her name? What!? Was she my wife or something? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! ¡°Why do I feel like I was just presented with some embarrassing old notebook I don¡¯t remember writing!? I didn¡¯t do anything, so why am I stuck here writhing in embarrassment!? Besides, my name was the only one in the lyrics, so where did all the rest of this come from? It¡¯s strange but really embarrassing!! I¡¯m curious, but I want nothing to do with this!!¡± N-not to mention that it said I took on a legit con artist in a casino, that I survived a direct hit from a car bomb, that we tried to rescue the kidnapped Zashiki Warashi on our own, and that we dragged twenty-four corpses into one spot! That should have been enough to think this was unrealistic! I never knew how scary it was that machines have no sense of shame! I¡¯m not my uncle, the living police drama who dreamed of being a police officer and actually got into Investigation Department 1, and I¡¯m not Hishigami Mai, who can singlehandedly fight a war and head home with a smile! What is this? If the song I made without really thinking produced this, then is my mind still filled with embarrassing teenage delusions!? That¡¯s depressing! And why the hell would you omit the part where I misused the Succubus¡¯s power to make out with Madoka!? That¡¯s the most important part! I can¡¯t believe this! This damn digital program doesn¡¯t get it at all! You stupid, stupid, stupid thing!!!!! ¡°...I want to die.¡± It made sense that my mind had gone blank and that I had lost track of time. It was only once I muttered those four words that I noticed a soft sensation leaning against my upper arm. My right temple itched. It was true I had been holding the Zashiki Warashi in my arms in Singer Song Liar, so I looked over. It was Hafuri. The young leader of the brutal and villainous organization named Hyakki Yakou was sleeping there in a kimono. ¡°H-...¡± My throat immediately went dry and I screamed before my brain could catch up. ¡°Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???¡± I impulsively tried to escape, but this time I felt something heavy resting on my opposite shoulder. What is it now? A Konaki-Jijii?I thought as I looked over. ¡°Y-you¡¯re kidding.¡± It was Hishigami Mai. The assassin in a tank top and hot pants was sleeping with her head on my shoulder. No, a closer look showed her eyes were ever-so-slightly opened like thin blades. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you? Don¡¯t wake the young lady when she¡¯s so sleeping so comfortably.¡± She¡¯s awake!? Does that mean I can¡¯t sneak away!? Being with my parents is a negative, but I still hoped to meet a bunch of girls on this casino island and make some wonderful memories. But does this that dream has been destroyed before I even leave the airport!? A small canine Youkai was rubbing his head against Hishigami Mai¡¯s boots. I remembered it was a Sunekosuri. ¡°I can understand reacting that way to Mai-san, but isn¡¯t it rude to include kind Hafuri-sama in that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not her I¡¯m afraid of. It¡¯s all the people around her!!¡± She must have been a little tired from the trip because the girl with a bob cut showed no sign of waking despite all my shouting. ¡°A-anyway, I¡¯m waiting for my lost suitcase. The Zashiki Warashi was with me, so do you know where she got off to?¡± ¡°As soon as she caught sight of Hafuri-sama and Mai-san, she left as quickly as she could.¡± ¡°...¡± Of course she did. My right temple itched. In Singer Song Liar, she had shielded me from bombs and bullets and gone on a rampage like a murder machine, but reality was a different story. ¡°Why are you all here?¡± ¡°Wait until the young lady has gotten some rest.¡± ¡°To be honest, I have to pee so bad I¡¯m about to wet myself! If you make me wait here any longer, it¡¯s going to end badly for everyone involved!!¡± ¡°We¡¯re here for you.¡± Hishigami Mai rubbed her own face. ¡°A special Package using an Amanojaku has been constructed on Goldmine Island. People like us normally don¡¯t head out to deal with some criminals trying to make a little money, but this Amanojaku Package is pretty bad. They want it dealt with quickly even if they have to pay a steeeeeep price for it.¡± ¡°An Amanojaku?¡± ¡°Right. We don¡¯t know the details of the Package, but we can see its effects popping up here and there. How should I explain it? People¡¯s actions are supposed to be based on ideas inside them, but we¡¯ve noticed a lot of people such as corporate bigshots and national bureaucrats doing weird things that completely ignore those ideas. It¡¯s like they¡¯re being pulled by a magnet and the higher ups of our world don¡¯t like the looks of it. They want someone ¨C anyone ¨C to take care of it and fast.¡± I remembered that the Amanojaku was said to be a mischievous Youkai or one that answers any question with the opposite answer. There were apparently a number of theories saying it was originally an oni or a god. If you checked through the stories, it would sometimes capture people, eat them, skin them, wear the skin, and pretend to be them. That put it squarely in the ¡°deadly¡± category. ¡°Um, I¡¯m not going to be seen as an accomplice because you told me that, am I?¡± ¡°Either way, this is never going to be public knowledge.¡± ¡°That just scares me more!!¡± I turned to the Sunekosuri, hoping for help, but the canine Youkai was focused on rubbing up against the woman¡¯s boots. You stupid perverted dog! You¡¯re completely useless!! ¡°Wait, so what does that have to do with me!? If you underworld people are going to fight to the death, do it somewhere away from me!!¡± ¡°We need to know what you created.¡± Uh, oh!!! ¡°I-I-I-I-I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t fool me. I know you¡¯re hooked on Singer Song Liar. Didn¡¯t you know it¡¯s made to steal your personal information?¡± C¡¯moooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!! You mean I can¡¯t ignore this? And how did that thing turn into all this!? ¡°We still haven¡¯t located the core of the Package, but we can guess it brings a manmade world into reality. They probably polished up the ¡®answering with a lie¡¯ trait and remade it into ¡®turning a lie into the answer¡¯.¡± ¡°............................................................................................................................................................¡± No, no. Wait. No, no, no, no!? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! What would that mean? Will that embarrassingly delusional automatically-created story actually happen!? The poker game against a con artist, the car bombing, the kidnapping, the slaughter of the villains, the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s rampage, the theft of the country, and the elimination of Japan will all come true!? No, wait! Just remembering it is making my temple itch like hell!!!!! ¡°Why? Why was I of all people dragged into this Amanojaku Package!?¡± ¡°Who knows. I said we haven¡¯t located the core, remember? More importantly, let me see that phone you¡¯ve been so focused on. What it says will let us know how to deal with what¡¯s coming.¡± ¡°......................................................................................Do I have to tell you?¡± ¡°What? Is it some adolescent wet dream?¡± I covered my face in a hand and confessed. ¡°In a way, it¡¯s worse.¡± Part 3 (Uchimaku Hayabusa ¡ª Day 10/03 20:30 - 20:43) I descended the stairs that rolled up to the airplane and set foot on the national airport¡¯s runway. A detective usually wore a cheap suit year-round, but it was feeling a little too hot for that now. It made me wonder if it really was October. ¡°Ahh. So we¡¯re finally at the casino island!! Was it called Goldmine Island? I¡¯m glad to see you¡¯re so excited.¡± My general grumpiness was contrasted by the grinning National Police Agency VIP next to me. He was Chief Superintendent Mishima. If you wanted to know just how much of a VIP he was, there were only two or three more ranks above him. No matter how perfectly you went about getting promotions, that wasn¡¯t a position someone in their late thirties should have. ¡°Why am I on a Kyushu resort island?¡± I asked without thinking. Chief Superintendent Mishima must not have had anything to do because he actually answered me. ¡°For some observation and a study meeting. With thirty million people crammed in together, Tokyo keeps ending up in the red with its social security and infrastructure maintenance, so they¡¯re looking for a new source of income. They¡¯ve been talking about building a casino in the city for a while now. It would be centered on the Izu Islands and far away from the city center.¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯d heard all that, but still.¡± ¡°As the police, we¡¯d like to know the positive and negative sides of a casino before laying the groundwork for a new system. We especially need to know how it affects the criminal map. As you can see, there¡¯s nothing strange about Tokyo¡¯s Metropolitan Police Department taking a trip to Kyushu¡¯s Goldmine Island. Even if the trip is paid by the city residents¡¯ tax money.¡± Incidentally, I belonged to the Metropolitan Police Department which guarded the peace of Tokyo while Mishima belonged to the National Police Agency which supervised all of Japan¡¯s police. That made everything from Hokkaido on down to Okinawa his territory. It didn¡¯t matter to him how fiercely the ombudsmen or civil groups complained about how we used the taxes. ¡°You¡¯ve heard about Kobe¡¯s failure, right? It got so surrounded by famous hotels, casinos, shopping malls, and leisure facilities that the sightseers never set foot outside those places and nothing went back to the locals. There are even groups online demanding they drive out the ¡®shut-in resorts¡¯. We want to avoid that kind of trouble when we¡¯re making plans for the city, so this is an important job.¡± ¡°But isn¡¯t this a job for the uniformed officers way, way, wayyyy higher up than me!?¡± ¡°Yes? Why do you think I¡¯m here?¡± Chief Superintendent Mishima glanced around the runway as he spoke. There were quite a few people in the area who seemed out of place. Beyond the normal workers running around refueling planes or guiding flights in, I noticed some people guarding our surroundings. And they were all dressed in the gaudy miniskirts of the female police officers you would see on the cover of an American pin-up magazine. Needless to say, no Japanese police organization used that kind of uniform. Chief Superintendent Mishima (appeared to) casually observe them while speaking. ¡°We don¡¯t want an influx of armed guards into Tokyo. Did you know these guards actually get pharmacist licenses so they can carry around a compressed-gas tranquilizer gun? I wonder who would win if one of them got in a fight with one of our officers.¡± The thick belts around their waists contained several leather cases and I could see a gun-like silhouette along with the baton and handcuffs. ¡°I hear they¡¯ve formed a high-level and large-scale organization here. I just hope they don¡¯t start taking bribes and turn into a new gang.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t what I meant. Why did you have to drag someone with a dead-end police sergeant job out here!?¡± ¡°You can never get the whole picture just by looking down on things from above, so I want to know how things look to someone who investigates crimes on the ground. And when I told your department chief, he immediately suggested you.¡± Damn him!! Is he shoving all the pain-in-the-ass work onto me!? I turned around just as several people from the police rushed noisily down from the plane. There were a lot from both the Metropolitan Police Department and the National Police Agency. While they were uniformed police officers, these were not the people out on the streets. They were all distinguished enough it wouldn¡¯t have surprised me to see medals on their chests. Overall, this didn¡¯t feel at all like a fun trip to a tropical island, so I wished they could feel even a fraction of the pressure weighing down on my stomach. I felt like I was only receiving half the oxygen I breathed in as we rode the shuttle bus to the airport terminal. Lately, security had gotten stricter even for domestic flights, but all of them were let right through the gate. Not only did security not X-ray their suitcases, but security didn¡¯t even check what they were carrying with them. Of course, none of them seemed to have any intention of carrying their own bags. And if the higher ups had it easy, those at the bottom had it tough. I dragged Chief Superintendent Mishima¡¯s suitcase around as I exited the airport building with all those important people. They immediately began boarding black luxury cars that were clearly not normal taxis. There were five or six of them in a row with police cars in between and two police motorcycles at the very center. The National Police Agency probably saw this as being self-sufficient, but normal society would want to ask if they thought they were royalty. After I shoved someone¡¯s suitcase in the unlocked trunk, the smoked window lowered and the career policeman addressed me. ¡°Okay, Uchimaku-kun, just follow the time schedule from here on. We¡¯ll be having a secret strategy meeting on a luxury cruise ship, but be honest. You don¡¯t want to join us, do you?¡± This was obviously an order, so I had no choice but to answer with a huge smile. ¡°Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot at all.¡± ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t either. I don¡¯t want to meet with people so old they can¡¯t taste the drinks and only focus on the price tag. ...Do you think there¡¯s a good Chinese dumpling place around here? I feel like showing up with terrible garlic breath just to mess with them. See you later.¡± He waved his hand and the parade left the roundabout. Only the others as young as me were left behind. As soon as the cars vanished, we all let out heavy sighs but immediately exchanged a glance and cleared our throats. We couldn¡¯t have anyone informing the higher ups of that. There was no chance of us getting along, so we all walked off in different directions. ¡°Now, then. What to do?¡± My official duties were clear. My immediate objective was to find some dinner, but I grimaced as soon as I saw a vending machine. The drinks were all over a thousand yen each, so the casino city would be hopeless. I would be better off spending the night holding my stomach. So what else was there to do? A police officer in a suit couldn¡¯t exactly go gambling on his own. Besides, my repeated pay cuts had left me with nothing to gamble with. However, I didn¡¯t want to head straight to the inn and go to sleep either. I just knew I would wake up at some weird time like three or four in the morning. I had nothing to do. I was on a resort island, and yet I was about ready to lean in over my cellphone and download a mystery-solving app or something. But then a familiar voice reached me from the side. ¡°Detective¡î¡± ......................................................................................................................................Hishi...gami...Enbi. Well, to be honest, something had smelled fishy from the moment I was asked to go on this irregular trip. You know what I mean? It felt just like one of those moments you invariably run across if you live long enough. Like when a landslide blocks the road and you go to a creepy mansion to get out of the rain, when you board a sleeper train after waiting for someone to cancel and run into a man in a mask, or when you win a ticket in a shopping center lottery and it turns out to be for the detached room at an inn where people kept suspiciously killing themselves ten years ago. It felt just like that!! Like when there¡¯s some ancient bloody ritual or a gloomy counting song that ends with not just the secret basement but the entire inn making a complete 180!! Just like that!! So I had expected this much! I wasn¡¯t crying yet!!!!! It was Hishigami Enbi. That mystery freak had a way of popping up at the scenes of disturbing murders. It was to the point that I wondered if that indiscrete twintailed middle school girl had the Grim Reaper walking around with her. However, my shock this time wasn¡¯t over her showing up without warning on Goldmine Island. It was over how she was dressed. Simply put... ¡°What in the world are you wearing?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know what a bunny suit is? This is a casino city, so what else am I supposed to wear if I want to blend into the background without standing out?¡± ¡°You look like you¡¯re illegally working in the red-light district!! You¡¯re nothing but trouble to all the law-abiding businesses around you!!¡± ¡°Heh heh heh. There may not be much space, but I do have a lighter in my cleavage just like the real deal.¡± ¡°Did you know that carrying flammable material around in public without any obvious purpose is against the law?¡± When I sighed and confiscated the lighter, Bunny Enbi got mad. ¡°How can you stick your hand in there so casually!?¡± ¡°Because it¡¯s part of my job.¡± ¡°Yeah, but you¡¯re supposed to blush and fidget a bit first! You¡¯re doing a terrible job!!¡± I felt like the voices of the surrounding crowd were changing a bit. Oh, this ain¡¯t good. A grown adult in a suit with a middle school bunny girl is definitely going to give people the wrong idea! The (female, of course) armed guards in miniskirts who looked like something from an American pin-up magazine were slowly approaching and I felt the hair all over my body stand on end. It was true a legit police officer wasn¡¯t about to lose an argument with a civilian guard, but there was no way I was going to use my full intellect to argue about something like this at my age! ¡°Why are you here!? Why in the world are you here to ruin my social standing!?¡± ¡°Huh? You mean you aren¡¯t here because you¡¯re pursuing that incident?¡± ... I want nothing to do with this, I thought while covering my face and curling up, but that wasn¡¯t enough to stop the Mystery Bunny. ¡°Y¡¯know, the one with all the rumors online.¡± ¡°You mean the Samejima Incident?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a little more credible than that online urban legend.¡± I could clearly picture the grin on her lips as she continued. ¡°You mean you haven¡¯t heard of the Urashima Incident?¡± Part 4 (Hishigami Mai ¡ª Day 10/03 20:45 - 20:55) ¡°Dwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!¡± I had Jinnai Shinobu tell me the Singer Song Liar story at the center of the Amanojaku incident, but... I-I can¡¯t... I can¡¯t stop laughing! Hee!! ¡°W-well, I¡¯m sure whoever it was chose a song that fit their goals, but still. Japan was sold off? What a ridiculous story. Ah ha ha ha!!¡± ¡°Stop! Just stop!!¡± Unsurprisingly, the blond high school boy blushed red and sobbed. ¡°Besides, a Singer Song Liar story is normally only two or three pages and twenty to thirty at the most. Hm, so did someone set this up? Or was Producer Jinnai¡¯s wonderful song just that exceptional!?¡± ¡°How many times do I have to tell you to stop rubbing salt in my wounded heart!?¡± Drawn by my uproarious laughter, the young lady of Hyakki Yakou finally woke. ¡°Mumble... What is going on? Oh, is Target A up?¡± ¡°Now I can¡¯t escape!!¡± Jinnai Shinobu shouted as he was held from both sides. C¡¯mon, you¡¯re sandwiched between an innocent little girl and a glamorous young woman, so why not look a little happier with your life? Meanwhile, the young lady rubbed her eyes. ¡°How is Target A progressing? Have you figured out anything about the symbol of the lie? In the story of the Amanojaku skinning the princess and wearing her skin, it began attacking the humans once its identity was revealed. Similarly, revealing the great lie should be the best way to damage the enemy in this case.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see. (Grin, grin) What should I do here? (Hee hee) Should I tear open his wounded heart any further? (Heh heh heh)¡± ¡°I¡¯ll give you up to three thousand yen!! Either don¡¯t say anything or do it where I can¡¯t see you!!¡± The boy was truly in tears, but I ignored him and shared the necessary information with the young lady. It looked like his temperature rose by another half a degree. The ten year old with a bob cut brought a hand to her mouth. ¡°The national suicide Package using an Usuhiki Warashi, a subspecies of the Zashiki Warashi? Yes, it looks like the Amanojaku system is strongly affecting Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s words and actions. Otherwise, a mere high school boy could never arrive at something hidden so deep inside Japan.¡± ¡°It¡¯s real? Are you saying that national suicide thing is for real!? That isn¡¯t some embarrassing story a computer made up on its own!? What is wrong with Japan!?¡± ¡°But I¡¯m surprised to see that old abandoned thing showing up again. How did the information get out?¡± ¡°The casino city has to have a bunch of ridiculously huge financial servers to deal with the black cards, so it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to access the ¡®core¡¯ of that old thing remotely. Maybe this island has something like a backdoor terminal.¡± ¡°I¡¯m curious about the gray-haired man that appeared at the end of the Goldmine Island part. He was an elderly white man with an Ikiryou assassination Package that used a Kechibi and he also had the superhuman Obou-Jikara gained through the trial of an Ubume¡¯s baby. And his goal was to buy Japan.¡± ¡°It was probably Sid Clouds. He¡¯s an occult expert who specializes in weaponizing the local oddities of wherever he¡¯s infiltrating. Plus, a thorough shift toward offense is totally his style and I could definitely see him showing up at the very end to take all the credit.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t he with the CIA?¡± ¡°The top secret national suicide system was leaked, so wouldn¡¯t the possibility of someone here letting it slip be more likely than an external cyberattack? And using some random criminals for the dirty work and letting the official agents stay hidden is their specialty.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re right about it being Sid Clouds that means America is behind this.¡± ¡°What proof do we have that America is always going to be an ally? With their domestic economic issues coinciding with the commotion of withdrawing from their foreign military bases, the influence of the ¡®world police¡¯ is being shaken from the inside and the outside. It doesn¡¯t seem that odd for them to consider taking control of this country¡¯s financial foundation before their sources of money dry up. And I bet those macho-men in tights think they¡¯re wisely protecting their ally from its incompetent administration, so they don¡¯t even realize they¡¯re making an invasion.¡± ¡°Either way, we need to put an end to the sale of Japan while also dealing with the Amanojaku that is making that false information a reality. I do think it¡¯s too soon to decide Sid Clouds really is behind this, though.¡± ¡°Fine, fine. I have two or three things to get back at him for, so I have reason enough to kill him even if he¡¯s completely innocent on this one. So look at it this way: I¡¯ll ask him about this while I kill him. So can I get going?¡± ¡°Hyakki Yakou does not condone revenge.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why a freelance agent like me does the dirty work. Do you get what our different roles are now?¡± ¡°I...¡± ¡°You will not be going with me. If someone in as important a position as you walked the back alleys on your own, it would throw everything out of balance. I¡¯ll leave your protection to those official members sending all sorts of murderous stares our way from behind the pillars, okay?¡± The Sunekosuri must have sensed something dangerous because he tried to sneak away, but I snatched him up and stood from the bench. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll be doing what I can while assuming what Jinnai Shinobu said is correct.¡± She must not have fully woken yet because the young lady was still leaning against Jinnai Shinobu. ¡°Do you know where Sid Clouds is?¡± she asked. ¡°One of the moored cruise ships.¡± ¡°Based on what?¡± ¡°Mostly based on my knowledge of his taste and methods, but fine. To explain it logically, he can¡¯t sleep without a bed, can¡¯t use chopsticks, won¡¯t eat raw fish, doesn¡¯t call something a meal unless it has more than 250g of red meat, and doesn¡¯t like sharing open air baths with others. That means there¡¯s no way he would be using one of Goldmine Island¡¯s Japanese-style inns.¡± ¡°Do you have any more tactical reasons?¡± ¡°The cruise ship has a heliport he can use. He can bring all sorts of tools to the island while ignoring harbor and airport security, so it¡¯s convenient for building multiple Packages like the Kechibi and Ubume ones.¡± That meant I had to sneak onto that cruise ship. Now, what method should I use? Part 5 (Uchimaku Hayabusa ¡ª Day 10/03 20:45 - 21:05) Cosplay is my hobby, so don¡¯t worry¡î ¡°Hey, detectiiive, why do I have to walk around with this sign?¡± ¡°Because you¡¯re scaring all the businesses around you a lot more than you think. They¡¯ve put in a lot of hard work, so don¡¯t ruin it all for a joke!!¡± ¡°Okay, I get it. If it¡¯s that big a deal, I¡¯ll take it off right here.¡± ¡°Try that and I really will handcuff you.¡± A drink can cost more than a thousand yen on this crazy casino island, but there were apparently areas with cheaper prices if you looked. We arrived at one such area while walking around looking at the red or yellow maple and gingko trees mixed in with the pineapple-like tropical trees lining the roads. ¡°It¡¯s called Harbor Alley,¡± simply explained Bunny Enbi. Instead of restaurants on a normal street, each small shop was located on cruisers or boats packing the harbor. They felt something like food carts with a roof and walls. ¡°The casino city is generally made so only the winners can enjoy it, but it would be a problem if the losers went on a rampage. That¡¯s why they intentionally added in these areas for them to let off some steam. The service here prevents incidents before they happen, so it¡¯s a way of protecting the peace that the police can¡¯t do.¡± ¡°The best option is an inn using the ultra-high quality brands of an Intellectual Village, the second best option is a luxury cruise ship, but the worst option is life on a cruiser? Honestly, this island really is crazy.¡± I was clearly fed up with it all. ¡°Ohh? Detective, are you nervous?¡± ¡°I just don¡¯t want any more unnecessary work.¡± The boats didn¡¯t seem to be made of metal. They were more like plastic or an extremely hard polyurethane. Basically, it was something like a life preserver, but harder and cheaper. Making the boat entirely out of plastic probably gave them a lot more freedom than pressing metal, cutting it apart, and assembling the pieces. We eventually chose a random cruiser restaurant from among those plastic boats. Only after sitting at the table in the cabin did I realize it was a Chinese restaurant. ¡°Why doesn¡¯t this Chinese restaurant have normal ramen?¡± ¡°Detective, you¡¯ve never travelled overseas, have you? Most of what the Japanese think of as ¡®Chinese food¡¯ has been customized for us. There is no miso ramen in China. Got it?¡± I ordered the salmon and cabbage fried rice (half size) because it was cheapest and Enbi started with the appetizers by ordering the century egg, bird¡¯s nest soup, shark fin soup, abalone in cream, seafood ankake okoge...and at that point I confiscated her menu. ¡°Are you trying to eat yourself to death?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll only eat a bite of each and give the rest to you. I have a guy with me, so I have to enjoy myself! And what better way than with a bunch of indirect kisses!!¡± The Mystery Freak pouted her lips and complained, but I still opened the menu to the main dish page and held it out to her. Finally, she reluctantly chose just the dandan noodles. There was no reason for us to wait for the food. ¡°So what all is going on here? What¡¯s this Urashima Incident?¡± ¡°The horror stories about Goldmine Island are a pretty hot topic right now¡î¡± Enbi took a gulp of chilled water from her glass, set it on the table, and for some reason tried to swap it with my glass, so I slapped the back of her hand. Undeterred, she continued speaking. ¡°It began with a single phone call between some stupid rich couple. The girlfriend had a new cruiser she wanted to show off, but the boyfriend didn¡¯t like being outdone. He secretly bought an even more luxurious boat to surprise the girlfriend. He asked the girlfriend where she was on her boat and planned to show up on his new boat to surprise her.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°But when he went to where she said she was, neither of them could see the other¡¯s boat. And that was even when they were speaking on the phone at the time. The boyfriend thought it was a bad joke at first, but it gradually started to creep him out.¡± ¡°Oh, the dandan noodles were hers. I had the fried rice. Yes, thank you.¡± ¡°In the end, they exchanged data between their phones¡¯ GPSs and their navigation devices, so they knew neither of them was lying. Nevertheless, they couldn¡¯t seem to find each other despite supposedly looking at the same area. Eventually, their phone batteries died and they never did find each other. ...Now, was one of them simply lying in some clever way or is there some ¡®demonic sea¡¯ around Goldmine Island that briefly sent them into the past or future yet still let those lovers talk over the phone? It¡¯s up to the beautiful middle school girl and the sexy detective to reveal the truth!! That¡¯s what¡¯s going on here. ...Are you even listening, detective? Stop focusing so much on your fried rice!!¡± Munch, munch, munch, munch, munch. Damn, this is good! I shouldn¡¯t have cheaped out with the half size. This cruiser restaurant needs to come to Tokyo Bay!! ¡°There are other similar stories here and there, too. Like a helicopter camera crew trying to get a shot of a yacht for a TV show, but never being able to find the yacht. Or a boat of people coming to cheer on a macho man trying for a long-distance swimming record, but they not finding the man despite his course being a straight line. Makes you wonder, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°What is all that? Did you find it on some message board? All of it? Are you sure some freelance writer didn¡¯t make it all up for fun?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s investigate it with that possibility in mind.¡± ¡°I thought you loved murder cases. It isn¡¯t like you to get so excited about a trick or chasing down a criminal. And is this even a criminal incident? Are you sure those aren¡¯t just accidents?¡± ¡°My Enbi-chan sensor is beeping like crazy.¡± After trying to show off, she took a bite of her red dandan noodles. The middle school girl immediately turned her head to the side and choked quite spectacularly. ¡°And what part of those doubtful rumors does your sensor think is suspicious?¡± ¡°Cough, cough!! W-well, you see...¡± She pulled a handkerchief from the slight cleavage of her bunny suit, covered her mouth, and replied with tears in her eyes. ¡°All three freelance writers who covered these rumors died suspicious deaths.¡± There was no sound. Rather than feeling the atmosphere freeze over, I felt like all of my senses vanished. All information was taken from me and the world became flat and flavorless. But Enbi continued as if she were only getting started. ¡°Specifically, it was freelance writer Hashiba Tooru, occult site administrator Ishida Megumi, and infamous self-proclaimed screenwriter Mouri Yajiri. They all focused on gathering rumors from the internet to write their works or articles.¡± ¡°What were these suspicious deaths?¡± ¡°They¡¯re probably registered separately in the police database. Hashiba took an eight-story dive from a parking deck after the auto-brake system of his new car malfunctioned, Ishida¡¯s cellphone battery exploded when she had it up to her ear, and Mouri¡¯s hot water heater broke, quickly transforming his bathroom into a gas chamber. In all three cases, it was treated as an accident due to improper contact inside the electronics.¡± ¡°They certainly do sound like they could have been unfortunate accidents.¡± ¡°But what if there was a system that let someone intentionally cause electronic circuits and semiconductors to lose contact?¡± I placed my Chinese spoon on the edge of my plate. At first glance, it looked like trivial rumors spread on the internet, but the people who had dug a little deeper kept ending up dead. ¡°Hm? What is it, detective?¡± ¡°...Nothing.¡± She knew she fit those criteria since she was in the process of gathering information on it, didn¡¯t she? She blinked her perfectly proportioned eyes and continued. ¡°Also, the online stories themselves are strange. As far as I can tell, the story is just about the ¡®demonic sea¡¯ that prevents two people from meeting each other. That¡¯s all.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°Of course it doesn¡¯t end with that. What happens afterwards? This is a big casino island, remember? The people working here are going to seem sketchy no matter how seriously they take their work. Stories of people disappearing on trips worry people enough, so what if a lover disappeared on this island of money and desire? It would cause a commotion far greater than from female customers vanishing from boutique dressing rooms. When someone disappears at sea, you normally report it to the lifesavers or the fire department, right? But I can¡¯t find any data on that kind of thing in the official records I can reach.¡± ¡°Could it all be nothing but rumors and nothing actually happened?¡± I grabbed the Chinese spoon again and brought some fried rice to my mouth, but it tasted nothing like it had before. It felt like eating 3D polygons. Enbi, on the other hand, recklessly attempted to eat the red dandan noodles again and started choking for her trouble. ¡°Ugh. It¡¯s so spicy it¡¯s stinging my nose. ...Well, that would be the most boring ending, but I do think it¡¯s possible. But what if the ¡®demonic sea¡¯ and the island at its center had a system to suppress any complaints or objections? That would require the same kind of infrastructure needed to make female customers vanish from boutique dressing rooms without word getting out. And just as you would expect, several people investigating the truth of the rumors have ended up dead. ...With all this lined up, wouldn¡¯t it be weird not to find this topic interesting?¡± There¡¯s no hope for her when this actually makes her grin. I thought while soaking the rice-covered Chinese spoon in the (small) chicken soup that had come with my fried rice. ¡°Some of that does bother me, but my policy hasn¡¯t changed. I work for the Tokyo Municipal Police Department, so there¡¯s nothing I can do on a small Kyushu island.¡± ¡°Oh? While the rumors happened here, the freelance writers who actually died were allll from Tokyo. And they died in Tokyo, too. Now, whose jurisdiction would that fall under?¡± ¡°Son of a bitch!!¡± I swore without thinking, but there was no stopping Enbi once she was grinning like this. She repeatedly blew on the red noodles that she couldn¡¯t seem to conquer. ¡°And after coming this far, you can¡¯t exactly say it has nothing to do with you.¡± ¡°After coming this far? All I¡¯ve done is hear the rumors.¡± ¡°No, no, no, no, no. A few of the cruisers and yachts that vanished in the ¡®demonic sea¡¯ left this very harbor. They were right here in Harbor Alley. That means you¡¯ve already set foot in one of the related areas. Do you understand?¡± The minor in need of protection seemed to be having trouble eating her dandan noodles, so I kindly helped by shoving them into her mouth. Part 6 (Jinnai Shinobu ¡ª Day 10/03 20:55 - 21:04) I took off running while Hishigami Mai and Hafuri were whispering to each other (but they probably let me escape). I found the Zashiki Warashi elegantly enjoying some milk tea at an airport caf¨¦, so I grabbed the back of her neck. ¡°You traitor! You filthy traitor!!¡± ¡°Stop it, Shinobu. If you keep doing these embarrassing things in public, people might think we know each other. That would be a huge loss for me.¡± ¡°You can run if you want, but at least clue me in!! Why would you escape on your own!? You left me all alone in the middle of Hyakki Yakou! That¡¯s scarier than going to a hot spring and finding tattoos everywhere you look!! Do you have any idea the kind of fear I was feeling!?¡± ¡°You¡¯re a human, so you¡¯re fine. It¡¯s the Youkai like me that have to worry about that organization.¡± The Indoor Youkai turned her face to the side to show off a melancholic look in profile, but I asked about something that was bothering me. ¡°By the way, how were you planning to pay for this? Youkai can¡¯t take part in economic activity and a single drink costs a thousand yen on this casino island.¡± ¡°Smartphones sure are convenient. You can hold one up to the register to pay for things.¡± ¡°And whose smartphone did you use!?¡± ¡°Mine, registered under your name.¡± ..............................................................................................................................Looks like I need to give her a serious talking to. Ahem. ¡°Then I¡¯ll be taking back what you ¡®borrowed¡¯ once we get home. Oh, but don¡¯t bother saying you have no money. I can just take a few of the video games from your shelf and sell them. You¡¯ll be fine as long as I leave just one FPS game, right? I¡¯ll take care of the rest.¡± ¡°No! Even you know it takes a monster to mess with someone¡¯s collection, don¡¯t you!? I need them all! I can¡¯t lose even one of them!! You can¡¯t do thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttttttt!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t cling to me with tears and snot all over your face!! Everyone¡¯s watching and it¡¯s embarrassing!!¡± I used both hands to peel away the Zashiki Warashi who was clinging to me without worrying what it did to the collar and hem of her kimono. Of course, my lost baggage left me with almost nothing in my wallet, so I was forced to pay with the smartphone regardless. ¡°The milk tea is three thousand yen and the table charge brings it up to four thousand five hundred?¡± ¡°I so want to throw this Good-for-Nothing Youkai in the kitchen to wash dishes...¡± With an electronic jingle, I paid for the tea at a price that would normally buy an entire can of tea leaves and then left the caf¨¦ with the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°Shinobu, what did you do to bring Hyakki Yakou here?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really know either, but it seems I was caught in the middle of an Amanojaku Package.¡± ¡°I see Youkai love you as much as ever.¡± ¡°But it seems the contents of a delusional story I had a program automatically create are going to be real. It sounds like we need to stop it before that happens.¡± The Zashiki Warashi immediately began covering her chest with her hands. ¡°What...are you doing?¡± ¡°Your delusions...will become real? I-I can see it now!! School uniforms will be school swimsuits with bunny ears and every girl as far as the eye can see will have been impregnated!!¡± ¡°It was made by a shameless machine! It¡¯s not my fault!!¡± My angry shouting caught the attention of airport security, so we meaninglessly fled. We decided to hold a quick strategy meeting on our way to the building¡¯s exit. ¡°But Singer Song Liar? Can a story made by a machine really encroach on the outside world?¡± ¡°Hyakki Yakou is the leader in that kind of thing and they said so.¡± ¡°Personally, I¡¯d rather think we can¡¯t believe it because Hyakki Yakou said it.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s test it out.¡± We left the airport and found the taxi roundabout in front of us. My right temple throbbed. I snapped my fingers. ¡°Let¡¯s use the white limousine taxi closest to us.¡± ¡°What are you going to do?¡± I approached the middle-aged driver leaning against the side of the vehicle and I whispered so only the Zashiki Warashi could hear. ¡°(The first thing he says will be, ¡°Welcome to Japan¡¯s Vegas! This is the special casino district of Goldmine Island!!¡±) ¡°?¡± The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata frowned. ¡°Welcome to Japan¡¯s Vegas! This is the special casino district of Goldmine Island!!¡± The Indoor Youkai then looked back and forth between the driver and me. It felt like cold fingertips were running along my spine. I would be lying if I said I wasn¡¯t surprised too. But I could say even more if Singer Song Liar¡¯s story was true. I just had to follow the text automatically created by the songwriting software. ¡°The license plate is ¡®NAGASAKI X0X IS 37-XX¡¯, the first ride is eight hundred yen, it¡¯s one hundred twenty yen per three hundred meters after that, the driver¡¯s seat and the back seats can be separated by smoked glass so lovers can make out in privacy, there are fifteen seats inside, and there¡¯s a mini-fridge. The mini-fridge wasn¡¯t opened, so I don¡¯t know what¡¯s inside it, though.¡± ¡°What¡¯s this, what¡¯s this? Are you using me for a magic trick? You¡¯re gonna have to pay a fee for my consent, dammit.¡± The driver sounded confused, but the Zashiki Warashi ignored him to check on the license plate below the bumper and to peer inside the black window. But I was already convinced. ¡°The temperature is twenty-eight degrees and there are two crows flying in the night sky.¡± I looked up. ¡°Five fireworks will go off with three seconds in between: red, red, yellow, blue, green.¡± The drum-like blasts reverberated in my gut. ¡°The newspaper headline reads ¡®Value of Aquaculture Eels Finally Outperforms Natural Ones¡¯.¡± It was now clear I could accurately predict even the text on the scraps of paper blowing in the wind. There was no freedom of choice. This was not an open world. It was like a linear RPG. I was painfully aware of being on some great rails. If I took it easy without thinking about this, we would be carried to that conclusion I had already seen. The sense of danger had finally been properly installed. ¡°Let¡¯s get going, Zashiki Warashi.¡± ¡°Get going where?¡± asked the Indoor Youkai. ¡°In the Singer Song Liar story, I rode that limousine taxi to the inn and then walked back to the casino city.¡± I had to be careful. Each and every decision could influence this one shot at reality. ¡°So let¡¯s try something different this time. At the very least, we can¡¯t follow these rails to the end.¡± Part 7 (Hishigami Mai ¡ª Day 10/03 21:10 - 21:20) ¡°That¡¯s the luxury cruise liner Yakata-II, constructed by Nagasaki Sakimori Heavy Industries, owned by Seven Oceans Sightseeing Corporation, registered with Panama, holds 1700, maximum displacement of 80,000 tons, and powered by three diesel turbines and a towing kite.¡± After parting ways with the young lady, the Sunekosuri and I observed the enemy. Most likely to divide up their interests, the airport was in the casino city and the port was by the inns. That made it easy to observe. Unlike the casino and all its bright lights, there was a lot of darkness here. There were also plenty of small hills or mountains that had not been fully developed, so it was perfect for the likes of me to lie on the ground with binoculars in hand. I hid among the pineapple-like tropical trees and checked on the port through the gaps in the few remaining maple and gingko trees. It was probably meant as a way to expand the port, but the floating portions made it even easier to observe. Those flat areas were perfect for peering down on from above. The Sunekosuri scratched his ears with his back leg. ¡°What is a towing kite?¡± ¡°Exactly what it sounds like. It¡¯s a giant kite attached to the bow with a wire to pull the ship with the power of the wind. It¡¯s only a secondary means of propulsion, but German tankers have already adopted it as a way of cutting down on carbon dioxide emissions.¡± ¡°B-but...¡± I didn¡¯t know how this dark night looked to Youkai eyes, but the canine Youkai was nervously glancing around. ¡°How are you going to sneak into somewhere so strictly guarded? You have to do that first if you want to reach...Sid Clouds, was it? But can you?¡± ¡°Wait, wait. ...Okay, there we go,¡± I said while looking at a thin LCD panel. There was no easy way to hack into the systems used by Sid and the CIA, but the cruise ship belonged to a civilian sightseeing company. Their defenses were full of holes. ¡°Tonight, the Yakata-II is holding a dinner show with a female singer, a gathering of National Police Agency members and local politicians, and a seasonal stage musical. ...None of them have been canceled due to unforeseen trouble, so the ship won¡¯t be completely closed off. They¡¯re even accepting guests from the island, so it looks like I won¡¯t have to swim through the dark sea with an oxygen tank and suction cups.¡± ¡°Eh? Eh!? It¡¯s that easy!?¡± ¡°All I need is a showy dress, a color copy of a fake ticket, and a bit of acting. Okay, let¡¯s go.¡± No one else was watching and I didn¡¯t care if the Sunekosuri saw, so I pulled a dress from my bag, stripped naked in the darkness, and finished changing. I walked down the hill holding the Sunekosuri and hailed a taxi. From there, it was a straight shot to the floating port connected to the island. The taxi was an unnecessary expense, but it would have stood out too much if I arrived at the luxury cruise ship on foot. The giant ship was moored alongside the land and a young man was checking a list of names and people¡¯s tickets at the bottom of the gangway for normal guests. ¡°(Th-they¡¯re going to notice!! It may be dark, but they¡¯re going to find something wrong with that quick color copy. Besides, your name isn¡¯t on their list!)¡± ¡°(Don¡¯t worry. The ticket is just for him to see, not to give to him.)¡± ¡°(?)¡± I ended my conversation with the Sunekosuri and smiled toward the young worker. ¡°Excuse me, but I need to check your ticket before you board.¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Um, I believe it was this- ah!!¡± I pulled the color copy from my cleavage and intentionally let go of it just before handing it to the young man. The wind carried the counterfeit ticket away and I gave an adorable scream. ¡°Ah...ah...aaaaahhhhhhhhh!!¡± ¡°N-no, that¡¯s fine. I can check the computer, so we won¡¯t turn you away. So please calm down.¡± ¡°Um, uh...¡± I fidgeted. ¡°The reservation wasn¡¯t made under my name, so I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll find it if you search my name.¡± ¡°Oh, um, and what name is it under?¡± ¡°(His.)¡± I leaned in so my wonderful breasts were at the perfect point on the verge of touching him and I whispered to him from close enough that he could feel my breath on his ear. Of course, I had never met the middle-aged man I pointed at. I could guess what kind of person he was based on his posture and gait, though. ¡°(He wanted to enjoy himself in the nicest bed he could during his business trip, so he called me out without telling his wife. If you turn me away here, he might just go on a rampage like a wild animal.)¡± ¡°Eek!? Y-you mean, um, well, you¡¯re his mistre-...¡± ¡°(We would prefer it if you didn¡¯t use that term.)¡± I continued my whispered slander. ¡°(After all, he¡¯s with the police. In fact, he¡¯s with the National Police Agency at the top of all the police in Japan. Even if it isn¡¯t illegal, it would be a professional ethics problem if it got out.)¡± ¡°Ah, ah, ah.¡± ¡°(So. It would be a lot of help if you let me through without bothering to search the list. Even if you haven¡¯t done anything wrong, it probably wouldn¡¯t be fun to live your life under the eye of the head of the police.)¡± ¡°G-go right on in! If you know the police, I¡¯m sure you won¡¯t cause any problems!¡± The young man quickly moved out of my way. Even if the CIA were using it as a mobile base and even if Sid Clouds was using it for his own purposes, the ship itself was innocent and the people working there had no ill will. That was exactly why it was good camouflage, but the security was still full of holes. But... ¡°Um, then why are you carrying a Youkai? Even if it looks like a small dog.¡± The Sunekosuri clearly gave a start in my arms, but it did not matter. Once I had started with a bluff, seeing it through to the end was the only option. ¡°(Oh, are you curious about that man¡¯s ¡®proclivities¡¯? I wonder what he would do if he thought you were trying to find material to stir up a scandal. Do people do that on the internet and SNSs these days? Well, everyone has a way of getting information out, so he can¡¯t let his guard down even with an amateur.)¡± ¡°I-I didn¡¯t ask anything!! Please just hurry past!!¡± ¡°(Make sure to keep this a secret.)¡± I waved a hand, boldly walked up the gangway, and boarded the cruise ship. The Sunekosuri yelled a challenge at me while being squeezed into my breasts. ¡°What do you mean ¡®proclivities¡¯!? Just how were you thinking of using me? That¡¯s disgusting!!¡± ¡°Oh, you want to go through it, step by step? How about I demonstrate while we¡¯re at it?¡± A lot of idiots judged people by their family, appearance, aura, or brand, but I used their posture and gait. It was suspicious for a nurse to walk around with their sensitive medical equipment clattering around and, if a police officer pressed your door¡¯s intercom while slouching and mumbling, you should check their ID before undoing the door¡¯s chain lock. Similarly, people with holes in the knees of their pants, leaves in their hair, or other slight issues with their clothing were often accepted without issue as long as the person inside acted naturally. When infiltrating enemy territory, you had to act like the people there. I had to fit in with the ladies and gentlemen with money, time, and libido to spare (although they would never admit it), so I focused on changing how I controlled the axis running through the center of my body. I accurately took the ¡°actions¡± that would match the dress that showed off every line of my body and the obviously impractical stiletto heels. I moved like the 3D polygon dolls that performed graphic dances based on motion capture data. ¡°We¡¯re only in the passageway and there¡¯s already a mini-skirt maid, so what are things like inside? Are the police holding a Black Mass or something?¡± ¡°Is she like a waitress?¡± asked the Sunekosuri. ¡°They really need to stop making this kind of mistake!! A maid and a waitress are completely different things!! A maid is supposed to wear a long skirt and an apron dress! Don¡¯t give them a corset and a skirt with suspenders that accentuates the breasts! That¡¯s just indecent!! The point of a maid is to have beauty too great to be fully hidden by the plain and conservative outfit! Hmph!!¡± ¡°I have no idea what has you so mad.¡± As I walked past, I grabbed a cocktail glass from the tray the mini-skirt maid held in one hand. I couldn¡¯t tell what the clear liquid was until I tasted it, but it turned out to be a martini. To be honest, that wasn¡¯t my kind of drink. It was more for a police detective who thought he was hardboiled. Y¡¯know, something that¡¯s more about the atmosphere than the drink. Like black coffee. ¡°B-but what do we do now? We got on the ship, but it¡¯s pretty big.¡± ¡°Yeah, there are one thousand seven hundred beds, so it would take us all night to check each room individually. But the biggest merit of the ship was the heliport to sneak things onto the island, remember? That means Sid Clouds will only be in the areas where he can control the heliport.¡± ¡°M-meaning?¡± It¡¯s a straight shot from the heliport to the ship¡¯s cargo area. With normal guests and the National Police Agency here, he¡¯s going to hide anything he doesn¡¯t want seen somewhere safe. Reality isn¡¯t as fascinating as a story. Let¡¯s reliably search him out and reliably take him out.¡± If we directly ran across him, that would work. But even if we didn¡¯t, we could destroy his equipment or set off a bomb to gather the police¡¯s attention. At that point, I heard footsteps and saw a group walking boldly down the center of the corridor. They were clearly police bureaucrats, but there was no reason to panic. They would pass right by people like me if we smiled and moved out of the way. As I did so, I spotted someone pretty famous in the group: Mishima Jun. Based on his rank insignia, he seemed to be chief superintendent. ¡°Hm.¡± I moved past them without paying too much attention and casually muttered to myself. ¡°So he¡¯s still alive.¡± Part 8 (Jinnai Shinobu ¡ª Day 10/03 21:10 - 21:20) Just as the Zashiki Warashi and I were about to head into the casino city, we were caught by Hyakki Yakou¡¯s young leader. It seemed she could see through everything we were doing. Walking through the neon-filled streets at night with a girl of around ten seemed like too high a hurdle for me, but for the time being, no righteous heroes showed up. Also, I couldn¡¯t even imagine how many bodyguards or other Hyakki Yakou members were hidden in our surroundings. ¡°It would help if you told me what you intend to do now. Or rather, tell me the specifics of the Singer Song Liar story. I only know the overall outline.¡± I answered all her questions while my right temple twitched. ¡°I¡¯m going to defeat a con artist making a ton of money at the casino. His name is Kodama Ryou. It¡¯s settled with a single round of poker, so it won¡¯t take much time.¡± ¡°Is that really necessary to destroy the Amanojaku Package sending lies into realty or to deal with the sale of Japan that is occurring alongside that?¡± ¡°We can¡¯t move on until my lost suitcase arrives at the airport, so everything until tomorrow morning is just the lead-up. Give me this much.¡± ¡°But...¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get it over with quickly. I can¡¯t ignore this one.¡± A casino door was thrown open and what looked like three stuffed animals were chucked out. It was a fox, a tanuki, and a badger. I caught them all in midair like magic, leaving the Youkai dizzy and confused. ¡°Wh-what!? Who are you!?¡± ¡°That is no way to speak to the kind person who caught us!¡± ¡°Mh. I feel a chill running down my spine. Is my natural enemy somewhere nearby?¡± Honestly, these things are just as noisy in reality as in the Singer Song Liar story. Still holding them, I spoke casually. ¡°Hey, we don¡¯t have all the time in the world, so let¡¯s hurry up and defeat Kodama Ryou to win back the money he stole from the old lady. It¡¯s going to cost a lot to heal the kid suffering from some kind of artificial illness, right?¡± This time, the three of them fell silent and looked up at me and the Zashiki Warashi spoke to me from the side. ¡°Shinobu, you¡¯re talking about finishing him off in a poker game, but a big game in a casino is going to take quite a lot of money. Where are you going to get enough for your initial bet?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the thing.¡± My temple twitched. In the Singer Song Liar story, I had brought some fake Jinnai Brewery junmai daiginjo under the assumption Kodama Ryou would notice (although it was really just a way of putting the Zashiki Warashi at ease so I could set her up as the prize), but would that actually work? Even if reality was following the Singer Song Liar story, there had to be a limit. When I didn¡¯t know how strong the rails were, I couldn¡¯t risk everything on this. The mere fact that I was walking through the casino at this time was a divergence from the original story. That meant there was a risk of failure. When the rails led to the sale of Japan, some freedom was certainly desirable, but it brought a dull pressure to my stomach here. ¡°In other words, if you fail here, you¡¯ll have a few of your organs taken? This is just like a drama.¡± ¡°Huh? Ow, ow, ow, ow. Talking about that makes my side prickle, so could you stop it?¡± ¡°That didn¡¯t actually happen, so there¡¯s nothing to worry about. Of course, it was overwritten so many times that it would be hard to return history to normal at this point.¡± ¡°If we¡¯re talking about ways to settle a debt at a casino, wouldn¡¯t putting a collar on a glamorous symbol of good fortune and selling her at a secret auction house be more appropriate?¡± ¡°Ow, ow, ow, ow. Shinobu, talking about that makes my head prickle, so could you stop it?¡± ¡°What in the world happened to you before you ended up at our house?¡± At that point, the Hyakki Yakou girl reached into her kimono¡¯s sleeve and spoke. ¡°I¡¯ll settle this.¡± ¡°What is that?¡± ¡°I can get you up to one billion right away. Just write the amount you need on this check.¡± ¡°Wow. I¡¯ve never actually seen someone pull a bunch of money out of their sleeve before. Do you think you¡¯re eccentric beauty Madoka-chan or something!? I¡¯ll have you know that¡¯s a very bourgeois way of having fun!!¡± ¡°This is not for fun.¡± The bob cut girl gave me a composed look. ¡°If you know for certain you will win and you have a means of winning, then isn¡¯t it a safe investment to pile on as much as you can? And any amount of Japanese yen will be meaningless if Japan itself collapses, so hurry up and finish this so we can deal with the real issue.¡± I had no choice but to accept her offer. I didn¡¯t really know how to use it, but I took the first check I had ever been given. ¡°But we¡¯ve already done a few things different from the Singer Song Liar story, so it seems like there¡¯s a possibility I could lose horribly. No complaining if that happens, okay?¡± Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader started hopping up and down trying to take back the check, but I straightened my back and stretched my arm upwards to keep it out of reach. Youkai weren¡¯t allowed in the casino and I needed them to set up the magnet trick on the switchboard behind the casino, so only the kimono-wearing girl and I entered the casino. We walked through the front door. ¡°Please win!! You decided to do this, so please make sure you win!!¡± Surprisingly, the bob cut girl had some tears in her eyes as she waved at me. As I made my way around the casino, I found the place was filled with familiar scenery even though I had never actually been here before. I walked down the hall and called a classmate with my cellphone. ¡°Madoka-chaaan. I¡¯m about to make a ton of money at a casino, so can you contact an accountant and tax advisor for me? I want someone to manage the bank account.¡± ¡°Eh? What? I can do that, but can you explain to me how you¡¯re in this situation?¡± ¡°Today or tomorrow, something I do might cause a chain reaction in Japan¡¯s exported financial systems which will destroy the world economy and make you really, really mad, but don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m working at keeping that from happening.¡± ¡°Shinobu-kun, what the hell did you just say?¡± Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have time to explain. I sat at the same table as the snakeskin man named Kodama Ryou, slammed the check down on the table, and made an announcement to the little con artist. ¡°Let¡¯s play a game, man-eating snake. I¡¯ll take you out in one go.¡± Now. He was 100% cheating and I already knew I couldn¡¯t win by playing normally, so it was time to see how much I could do in reality when faced with the Usuhiki Warashi Package that swapped out the cards. Part 9 (Uchimaku Hayabusa ¡ª Day 10/03 21:05 - 21:20) In Harbor Alley, the Mystery Freak (dressed as a bunny) returned to land from the restaurant cruiser that was crammed in with all the others. There were trivial rumors of boats, helicopters, or long distance swimmers trying to meet up in the ¡°demonic sea¡±, yet never finding the other person, and three Tokyo residents who had investigated the rumors out of pure curiosity had ended up dead. Most of the small ships that had left for the ¡°demonic sea¡± were stored in, serviced at, and left from Harbor Alley. ¡°What? I guess not all of them are restaurants or food stands.¡± As we wandered around, we found something else mixed in among the filthy cruisers. Instead of the aroma of cooking meet or boiling stews, I found one boat that smelled more like solder. In fact, there were a lot like that. Thinking they all served food had brought a heavy sensation to my stomach, but it looked like that wasn¡¯t the case. These shops had nothing to do with food. ¡°This boat is filled with bare speakers, this one is packed full of capacitors and transistors, and this one has...what? Those aren¡¯t lightbulbs. Are they vacuum tubes?¡± ¡°Looks like a small electronics marketplace. They¡¯re probably stripping them from somewhere.¡± A lot of boxes had ¡°defective¡± written across them in permanent marker. It made me want to ask the owner if any of the products weren¡¯t defective. ¡°Why does this shop have dozens of similarly-shaped massagers shoved inside umbrella stands?¡± ¡°Eh!? W-well, you know, detective. The women might be too embarrassed to bring those ¡®specialized goods¡¯ to the register, so this gives them an excuse that hides their true reasons.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon! It¡¯s a device that vibrates when you switch it on! Try to imagine why someone would buy that!! Japan doesn¡¯t that have that many people with stiff shoulders!!¡± For some reason Enbi¡¯s face was beet red. Hmm. This middle school girl has no problem walking around at night in a bunny suit, so why did this produce such an extreme reaction? Confused, I looked back at the Mystery Freak, but she did her best to not look me in the eye and used her small hand to frantically fan her heated cheeks. When she spoke, her voice was more high pitched than usual as if trying to hide something. ¡°O-ohh, I see. They secretly gather up any defective products before they¡¯re disposed of at the factory. Mass production ensures that there will always be a certain number of these.¡± ¡°Hm? How do you know?¡± ¡°I-isn¡¯t it obvious!? A completed product has a number printed on it to indicate which factory it was made in. That means it¡¯s a proper piece of electronics. But that part comes last because they don¡¯t want to print the number on defective products they¡¯re only going to reject.¡± ¡°And they still work?¡± ¡°This is why they¡¯re labelled ¡®defective¡¯.¡± We looked around a few of the cruisers but didn¡¯t find any useful information. What were we even supposed to ask about? I couldn¡¯t exactly pull out my police badge to question them about the truth of some rumors and there wasn¡¯t a clear target like Hanako-san or a Kuchisake-Onna. It was nothing more than boats and helicopters not being able to find each other in the nearby ocean. Other than those who actually went out into the sea, the people on the island wouldn¡¯t have noticed anything out of the ordinary. ¡°Detective, don¡¯t tell you¡¯ve decided this is hopeless and are considering leaving.¡± ¡°If you can read my mind that well, I¡¯d prefer you made the much kinder choice of not getting me involved in the first place.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t do that!! If you don¡¯t take the investigation part seriously, you¡¯ll pay for it later! You¡¯ll be hit by a metal bat from behind or stabbed in the gut by a fruit knife and realize you¡¯d seen something after all as your consciousness fades away!!¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t a mansion mystery where the mountain road is blocked by a landslide, so nothing that harsh is going to happen!!¡± ¡°Detective, have you forgotten we¡¯re on a desert island isolated out in the middle of the ocean!?¡± ¡°It isn¡¯t a desert island and it isn¡¯t isolated. This is a tourist destination with proper infrastructure!!¡± ¡°Not to mention that a genius beautiful mystery-solver and a foolish policeman have come to that island with a meaningful lead-in!! Something¡¯s bound to happen, right!?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not even going to bother getting after you for the ¡®foolish¡¯ part. I¡¯ll just get right to the point: get away from me! Now that you mention it, you look a lot like the Grim Reaper!!¡± The police may be the home of scientific investigation, but even we could be superstitious. For some reason, the Mystery Freak started trying to hug me, so I grabbed her face and tried to pull her way. Suddenly, something heavy grazed my nose and made a large dent in the side of the cruiser next to us. ¡°!?¡± Something had flown our way. I reflexively turned toward the loud noise and saw something fall into the ocean between the boat and the wharf. I only caught a glimpse, but it was about the size of a softball. However, it wasn¡¯t actually one. Even when thrown at 160 kph by a pitching machine, a softball wouldn¡¯t have the destructive power to dent a ship¡¯s hull that was built to withstand collisions with other ships or running aground. The dent in the cruiser¡¯s hull was the size of a fist, so that was how large the blunt weapon had been. I guessed it had been a stone. I couldn¡¯t take this lightly. I seriously doubted it had simply been thrown by hand, so some kind of device had to have been used to throw it. And with that weight and speed, even a fully equipped riot squad would have their helmet and skull split open by a hit to the head or have their ribs utterly crushed through their bulletproof vest by a hit to the chest. In a way, this weapon was more dangerous than a handgun. ¡°How did they pull that off!?¡± ¡°Where are you looking, detective? Don¡¯t look where it hit. You need to look where it was fired from!!¡± The Mystery Freak grabbed my shoulders and turned me around. Harbor Alley had several cruisers placed atop some flat concrete ground in addition to those moored along the wharf. Rather than just having the engine die, those worn-out boats probably couldn¡¯t even float in the water anymore, so they were being used in place of tents. I spotted a small figure darting behind one of the cruisers packed in like it was a full parking lot. Was that a child? And what was that in their hand? It had looked like a bow gun. It was seventy to eighty centimeters long. It looked quite large, but part of that would be due to comparing it to the small figure holding it. However, the bow portion was strange. It was not curved like a crescent moon. Like the letter M, a fork-like metal part extended from each side to join with the string. ¡°We can think about it later! They¡¯ll get away, detective!!¡± ¡°Idiot! Don¡¯t run after someone when you don¡¯t know what they¡¯re armed with!!¡± I remembered words would never stop her, so I grabbed the Mystery Freak¡¯s arm as she tried to run up ahead and I lightly threw her. I supported her body just before her back hit the concrete ground and I gently lowered her. ¡°I¡¯ll give chase! You lie here!!¡± I began running before she could complain. Why had this person targeted us so suddenly? Why at that moment? Had they been targeting me or the Mystery Freak? Who even were they? Several questions spiraled through my mind, but I would never answer them if I lost sight of this person. Despite all the cruisers packed together, there were still narrow pathways like the lines on a Go board. There were a lot of things to hide behind, so it would be easy to lose track of them even at close range, but I was most worried about a surprise attack. To make matters worse, I didn¡¯t have my gun. Unlike in police dramas, detectives didn¡¯t wear a revolver on their hip every day. I passed by a few cruisers and caught sight of the small back. Their white shirt stood out in the darkness. Just when I thought I was going to catch up, the figure turned back toward me. They accurately aimed the strangely-shaped stone-throwing bow gun and I saw a small flash of red light in the darkness. A laser pointer!? ¡°Dammit!!¡± As soon as I ducked behind a cruiser, I heard a spectacular dull sound like a frying pan being crushed by an elephant¡¯s foot. The hull of this cruiser had been dented, too. If that had hit me, it would have smashed the bones wherever it had hit. The plastic hull really scared me. It was probably no weaker than metal, but I had a lot more trouble trusting it. I guessed they were using stones instead of arrows because of the Minor Offenses Act. Even if they don¡¯t violate the Swords and Firearms Control Law, electric drills and spare razor blades technically violated the law if you carried them around ¡°for anything other than their intended purpose¡±, but no one was going to stop someone from picking rocks up off the ground. And unfortunately, bows did not violate the Swords and Firearms Control Law. No registration was needed to purchase one and no one would get after a kid for making their own arrows by whittling down bamboo with a knife. But all of that brought a question to mind. Then what crime am I supposed to accuse them of when I catch up? I changed my line of thinking when I heard a spine-chilling sound greater than a full swing of a metal bat. Attempted murder will do nicely!! Two fist-sized stones had flown my way in quick succession. That meant their plan was not to shoot and run. They may have decided to take me out to make sure they could escape safely and they may have changed their mind after I didn¡¯t fire any warning shots with a gun. Perhaps I should have shouted ¡°stop or I¡¯ll shoot¡± even though I didn¡¯t have my gun. ¡°This isn¡¯t good...¡± A third sound of impact shook my surroundings. When I instinctually stepped back, I realized the chased and the chaser had swapped positions and a boiling heat filled the bottom of my stomach. And at that point, I finally noticed something. My surroundings were very quiet. Too quiet. Even if the cruiser in front of me was a piece of junk, I still would have thought its owners would come running when it was being damaged. Either when eating at the Chinese restaurant or when going around the electronics shops, someone must have informed them that the police were here. Everyone had long since evacuated and then lured me into these hunting grounds. ¡°But why?¡± What was this person so afraid of? Why were they willing to kill me just because I was with the police? Was the Mystery Freak right and Harbor Alley had some great secret? Were the rumors true? Was something more lurking here? Question after question raced through my mind, but one especially large sentence pushed all the others out of the way: then what do I do? The straining sound of a tightening string hurt my ears. Most likely, this person was pulling back the string of their special bow gun. What do I do!? Run? Hide? How far will either of those get me against someone who can fling stones with enough force to smash human bones!? The straining sound of the string continued. However, it did not stop. I didn¡¯t hear the string catching on the notch from the trigger. Confused, I hesitantly poked my head out to check and I found an odd sight indeed. First of all, the attacker was a girl with short hair who was about the Mystery Freak¡¯s age or possibly even younger. She wore what was not quite a school uniform. The outfit was made up of a sailor shirt and shorts. It looked more like an actual sailor suit than a school¡¯s sailor uniform. ¡°Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!¡± The girl had the front of the stone-throwing bow gun pressed against the ground, her feet held a metal ring-like part down, and she was using both hands to pull on the string. Or at least I thought that¡¯s what she was trying to do. Really, she was just crouched down and trembling while red in the face. She must have been really focused on the work because she showed no sign of noticing my movement. She hadn¡¯t even noticed that crouching down like that just about gave me a view of her modest chest through the collar of her sailor suit. Oh, that¡¯s right. When I thought about it, I remembered this was a giant bow gun that fired fist-sized stones with enough force to dent a ship¡¯s hull. It would use thick leaf springs and other things to thoroughly strengthen the string and it had no special mechanisms like pulleys or a hand crank, so it seemed unlikely she could pull the string back so many times in a row with those skinny arms. But... Um... Then... What does this mean? Can I really walk right up and take that dangerous toy from her? ...No, no. That can¡¯t be it. No, no, no, no, no!! She might finish setting the string and stone the instant I run out and then smash my skull from head-on. Just because she¡¯s stupidly crouching over, sticking her shorts-wearing butt backwards, and groaning in an oddly suggestive way doesn¡¯t mean I can do anything so reckless! Don¡¯t forget that you¡¯re in the middle of a life-and-death exchange with a fleeing suspect!! Don¡¯t laugh, Hayabusa, you need to keep a straight face!! I decided to take a more careful route. I filled my lungs with air and formed a megaphone with my hands. And then I gave a shout. ¡°Boo!!!!!¡± I immediately saw a sight that was rare even in my life as a detective. A girl in a short-sleeved sailor suit and shorts had a stone-throwing bow gun pressed against the ground and was holding a metal ring-like part down with her feet while she used both hands to forcibly pull the string upwards. My shout had caused her shoulders to jump and she hopped up a bit herself. Her hands were still holding the straining string and she removed her legs from the bow gun itself. What would happen then? This was nothing as simple as a ¡°twang¡±. It was more of a series of crashes. The force of the string sent the back end of the bow gun straight up into the girl¡¯s jaw as a powerful uppercut. The bow gun itself may have been five or ten kilograms, so it was a weighty blunt weapon of steel and wood. Her small form collapsed backwards like a toppled mannequin and her legs spread open in an M-shape. The ridiculous pose placed quite a burden on her shorts, but as she didn¡¯t look embarrassed or try to squirm, I could only assume she had completely lost consciousness. All I could do was bring a hand to my forehead. Part 10 (Hishigami Mai ¡ª Day 10/03 21:30 - 21:45) You could call it a sense of fellowship or an illusion of community, but once you were on the same boat, no one would suspect you. They cheaply assumed that everyone had gone through the same process to be here and thus everything was fine. And yet everyone around them was a complete stranger and they had no idea what any of those people were thinking. Japan truly is a peaceful nation. Anyway, the Sunekosuri and I slipped away from the group and down some stairs. I had memorized the Yakata-II¡¯s layout ahead of time, so I knew how to reach the ship¡¯s hold on the lower levels and which routes would be the most deserted. Sid Clouds had to have gathered materials brought in via the heliport to accumulate power for himself. In Japan, he would use Japanese Youkai. In Europe, he would use European fairies. If what Jinnai Shinobu said was true, he was using a Kechibi and an Ubume. It was up to luck whether we would reach the Amanojaku at the center of it all or not. ¡°B-but won¡¯t they find it suspicious if they catch you in these worker¡¯s corridors or stairways in an open-back dress?¡± ¡°There are multiple elevators and stairways. If you take the location of the facilities into consideration, you can figure out where you¡¯re more or less likely to run into someone. You know how identical soba stands and convenience stores can be full of customers or completely empty depending on their location, right? This is the same. By noting the probable flow of people based on the layout, it isn¡¯t difficult to choose a good route.¡± ¡°But isn¡¯t that an issue of probability and statistics? It¡¯s all over if one of the crew comes down this way on a whim.¡± ¡°Then it comes down to my posture and gait. I drank a disgusting cocktail earlier, so if I claim I¡¯m lost with alcohol on my breath and flushed cheeks, they¡¯ll just guide me out of the backyard. Besides, only the control room, engine room, or other facilities directly related to controlling the ship are actually off limits to normal passengers.¡± Fortunately, I didn¡¯t need to put on an act like that. After descending the metal stairs to the bottom, we arrived at a ¡°large box¡± with one of the walls missing. It was a floating object with the same area as a small school building. In other words, it was the ship¡¯s hold. The Sunekosuri spoke up in surprise while rubbing against my shins. ¡°There are piles of containers everywhere. This doesn¡¯t feel like a luxury cruise ship. It¡¯s more like a rough cargo ship.¡± ¡°There are 1700 passengers onboard. If you add in the crew needed to cater to them, a lot of supplies are needed to meet their needs. They probably carry thirty days¡¯ worth of supplies at a time, but with all these containers, it wouldn¡¯t be difficult to slip in an extra one or two.¡± Incidentally, this was not the very bottom of the ship. A device called the ballast tank was even lower. Basically, it was a weight using water. Several giant tanks were lined up and filled with seawater to maintain the ship¡¯s balance when large waves on a stormy night might otherwise capsize it. ¡°B-but how are we supposed to find the suspicious occult items of Sid Cloud¡¯s plan in all these containers? If we search blindly, it would take more than two weeks.¡± I tilted my head and pulled a clump of plastic packaged ¡°clay¡± from the chest of my dress. ¡°If worse comes to worst, can¡¯t we blow up the bottom of the ship to sink the entire thing, onii-chan¡î¡± ¡°No, we can¡¯t! And it doesn¡¯t matter how cutely you say it!!¡± Well, that was a last resort. If possible, I wanted to get some data on or traces of what Sid Clouds was trying to do and then get to destroying. And it was unclear how effective sinking the ship would be when it was at port and not out at sea. ¡°That leaves two methods.¡± ¡°Wh-what are they?¡± ¡°First, we use the layout to determine what the enemy is thinking. We throw out any optimistic ¡®maybes¡¯ or ¡®perhapses¡¯ and think about what we would do if we were in the enemy¡¯s shoes and had to make things as difficult as possible for us. We don¡¯t want anyone to find our secret container, but if we put it where no one can reach it, we can¡¯t get to it either. So where in the piles do we put it? We do some profiling and find the right answer.¡± ¡°And what¡¯s the second method?¡± ¡°That¡¯s simple.¡± I pointed straight up. ¡°We ask Sid Clouds himself. That would be fastest.¡± I heard footsteps as a new figure descended the stairs. I turned that way and the Sunekosuri seemed to hesitantly raise his head. Unless he was intently staring at my panties, he would be looking at the same thing as me. He had refined gray hair and muscles unbefitting of his age. He wore a chic suit that seemed to be announcing to the world that his entire outfit was custom made. He spoke as he stroked his fingertips along the metal railing. ¡°You knew this would happen.¡± ¡°Yeah. First of all, I didn¡¯t have the overwhelming amount of prep time I would need to slip under the great CIA¡¯s radar. However, you can¡¯t exactly send in a group of masked men to the headquarters of your secret plan. I knew Sid Clouds himself or someone under his direct command would show up.¡± ¡°So you thought you would capture whoever showed up and get them to talk? That is too crude. And more importantly, too green.¡± ¡°But I wasn¡¯t wrong, was I?¡± I returned the ¡°clay¡± to my cleavage. Still stroking the railing, Sid Clouds calmly descended the stairs. ¡°I am not trying to teach a monster like you, but normally, the CIA does not dirty our own hands. We infiltrate areas around the world, but we have locals commit the crimes. We give guerrillas and terrorists funding and weapons or we capture mafia drug and weapons sellers so we can have them work for us instead of handing them over to the local justice system.¡± He spoke smoothly. ¡°But I came here personally. Do you know why that is?¡± As his fingertips slid along the railing, they sank down like a hot knife in butter. They sank into the metal railing. ¡°That is because your death was guaranteed from the moment I showed up.¡± I heard an unpleasant snapping sound. It was the sound of him pulling the metal railing from the wall with one hand. The screws holding it in place burst off like buttons from a shirt. The gray-haired man now had a spear with a harsh, jagged end and he did not hesitate to throw it toward us. In that instant, I was reminded of an imaginary weapon known as a potential energy mass weapon. A metal column was dropped from satellite orbit to artificially recreate a meteor strike. ¡°!!¡± I ignored the Sunekosuri who had a powerful resistance to purely physical attacks and I jumped to the side with all my strength. A moment later, the ship¡¯s hold shook and the pile of containers crumbled. I say crumbled, but it looked more like it had been placed on a trampoline and launched upwards. And this didn¡¯t just apply to the ship¡¯s hold. That man caused the eighty thousand ton cruise ship to sink by at least fifty centimeters! ¡°Don¡¯t look away.¡± His voice was far too close by. At some point, he had approached within fifty centimeters of me. He had caused all that damage just to jump down and get close. He used his overwhelming strength as a weapon and crouched down. ¡°Are you seriously using my breasts'' blind spot!?¡± We exchanged fists two or three times. By the time I jumped back, my left arm was dangling unnaturally by my side. Dammit!! I thought I had let the force escape, but he messed up my joint! My method and timing were perfect, but his base strength is just too high!! ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you?¡± He approached no further and reached for a nearby object. It was a metal container. Empty, it would weigh around five hundred kilograms. Packed full, it could reach maybe four tons. Yet he lifted the thing as easily as a plastic umbrella. And... ¡°Your death was guaranteed from the moment I showed up.¡± He threw it. But he didn¡¯t stop there, or even at five or ten of them. He grabbed everything he could and threw and threw and threw and threw! It was enough for the ship¡¯s hold to rock. Everything shook so much that the giant ship felt unstable. It reminded me of a suspension bridge supported by an old, rusty wire. ¡°Tch. Are you trying to wear me down!?¡± ¡°The States demands certainty above all else, so we naturally end up choosing the least interesting of options.¡± ¡°Certainty? You mean bringing the Singer Song Liar story into reality and buying Japan? Are you really seeing that ridiculous machine-made story through to the end!?¡± ¡°Ha ha. That is a job for the people at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I really don¡¯t care who stands on the center stage of history. As long as our national interests are protected, that is.¡± At any rate, I ran in a large circle around Sid Clouds and avoided the downpour of containers. With that many mass weapons in the air, the small piles located here and there wouldn¡¯t be enough to protect me. Hiding behind one would just get me crushed along with it. I then turned my attention to his strength. ¡°The Ubume¡¯s trial, hm? If you can hold the baby to the end as its weight increases infinitely, you gain the Obou-Jikara, right!?¡± ¡°You found the answer so soon? I suppose I should expect no less from Japan¡¯s underworld.¡± ¡°Take a look at your shadow. It¡¯s got four arms!!¡± The legend of the Ubume was generally as follows: When walking along the road at night, you would find a beautiful woman holding a baby and she would ask you to hold the baby. Now, if you refused, the Ubume herself would kill you. But if you held the baby, it would grow heavier and heavier for some reason. If you couldn¡¯t keep it up to the end, you would be crushed to death by the baby¡¯s weight. It must have been a famous story at the time because parts of it showed up in the Yuki Onna and Nure Onna stories as well. But if, in an exceptional case, you managed to hold the baby to the end without being crushed, the Ubume would praise you and give you a special power. That power as known as the Obou-Jikara. There were a number of sayings about that power. For example, some said it let you uproot a great tree on your own and others said it made an illusion of having four arms when used. In which case... ¡°Sunekosuri!!¡± My circle around Sid Clouds brought me back to the Sunekosuri , so I kicked him up with my toes and caught him in my still-usable right hand. ¡°(It¡¯s about time I killed that bastard Sid. You¡¯ll be helping.)¡± ¡°(Wh-what can I do!? I¡¯m just a small dog!)¡± ¡°(No, you¡¯re not. A bullet or a shell wouldn¡¯t kill you. A direct hit from his fist might be trouble, but you can ignore the containers. And so...)¡± I whispered some more to him and then threw him to the side. The containers had been flying like shells from a warship¡¯s gun firing at seventy shots per minute, but they stopped. However, this was not him being kind. He had simply run out of containers within arm¡¯s reach. He cracked his neck and looked my way. ¡°I think I¡¯ll kill that Youkai first. Is that okay?¡± ¡°I see you still don¡¯t let pride get the better of you. But I¡¯m the one you have to worry about. Looking the other way would be deadly.¡± I pulled the same ¡°clay¡± as before from my cleavage, but not a single new wrinkle appeared on his face. ¡°Do you think a mere five hundred grams is enough to kill me?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t,¡± I answered with a smile. ¡°What matters is that your strength comes from the Ubume legend. That¡¯s so very important. After all...there is no way of overcoming the Ubume¡¯s trial.¡± Sid Clouds looked to his surroundings. He seemed to have lost sight of the Sunekosuri¡¯s small form. He had thrown the containers around and knocked over all the piles of them, so there was plenty of wreckage large enough to hide something the size of a stuffed animal. ¡°The only way to save yourself from the Ubume¡¯s trial is to stick a short sword blade-up in the ground before accepting the challenge. If you¡¯re crushed by the baby¡¯s weight, it will be skewered by the blade, so the Ubume is forced to interrupt the trial before it¡¯s over.¡± The gray-haired man kicked up a container from the floor, grabbed it, and tossed it straight up. The gravity-defying guillotine destroyed the sprinkler on the ceiling far above and scattered water over the entire area. ¡°In other words, no one can complete it. There is no answer to the Ubume¡¯s trial. What does it even mean to keep holding it ¡®to the end¡¯? What if the Ubume waits for a full century? So you used some kind of trick to make sure you weren¡¯t crushed by the weight even if you couldn¡¯t complete the trial. So if I pull out that prop, won¡¯t you be crushed by the baby¡¯s ever-increasing weight?¡± Without batting an eye, Sid Clouds made an announcement in the artificial downpour. ¡°I will fill this water with an electric current.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t kill the Sunekosuri.¡± ¡°But the electricity will be diverted around him. If I measure that anomaly, I can locate him.¡± Tch. He really is clever. Your average member of the underworld would have given up on the Sunekosuri. And even if not, I would have been able to redirect their focus back to me. But that wasn¡¯t going to work here. He was going to use all of his strength to thoroughly crush the tiny doubt budding in his mind. He did not falter in the slightest, so there was no opening for me to attack. However... ¡°Then how about I buy some time?¡± ¡°How?¡± I charged straight toward him. He breathed lightly from his nose and our arms and legs intersected. I was more skilled, but his strength was far greater. In the blink of an eye, I heard several dull sounds. He grabbed my neck and held me up in the air. He did not even make a victorious comment. With the heavy sound of a solid hit from a metal bat, my body flew forcefully to the side. I slammed into the wall and crushed a thick power cable surrounded in a metal covering. I heard a zap and my vision was dyed in pure white. ¡°Gh...bah!!¡± But more importantly, the current would flow through the water covering the floor and Sid Clouds would locate the Sunekosuri. He had not bothered going through the process needed to kill the human named Hishigami Mai. He had simply woven my actions in as a step in his plan to kill the Sunekosuri. ¡°There.¡± Sid Clouds accurately turned his head and I weakly opened my mouth while slipping down to the bottom of the wall. ¡°By the way, was the ballast tank the right answer?¡± That space took in tons of seawater to create a great weight that kept the ship from capsizing on stormy nights and it was located even further down than the ship¡¯s hold. The gray-haired man said nothing, but I heard him cutting across the pile of rubble that the ship¡¯s hold had become. ¡°The Ubume kills people with the weight of its baby. Anyone who can¡¯t take the weight is crushed to the ground along with the baby. That makes a floating cruise ship perfect. The large ship can withstand eighty thousand tons, so it can continue to float without ever letting the baby touch the bottom of the ocean.¡± His silent eyes seemed to say ¡°so what?¡±, but he suddenly came to a stop. ¡°You don¡¯t want anyone to know about the baby, so the ballast tank full of seawater would be best. It¡¯s surrounded by thick walls, it¡¯s dangerous, and no one has any reason to go there, so you can hide whatever you want there. And if I know that, it¡¯s not too difficult to deal with.¡± ¡°Wait.¡± ¡°If I throw some explosives into the ballast tank and blow a hole in the bottom of the ship, the baby will fall into the ocean. And if it reaches the bottom, your delayed Ubume trial will finally end!!¡± ¡°Where did that ¡®clay¡¯ you had go!?¡± How na?ve. There was only ever one bomb. All I asked of the Sunekosuri was to open the ballast tank¡¯s maintenance cover. If I honestly asked him to help me blow up the ship, that pacifist never would have helped. And you focused so much on efficiency that you threw me horizontally across the ship¡¯s hold to break the power cable on the wall. However, that wasn¡¯t unexpected. I threw out any vague optimistic ¡®maybes¡¯, ¡®perhapses¡¯, and ¡®surely he wouldn¡¯ts¡¯ and I thought about what I would do in your shoes if I had to make things as difficult as possible for me. Doing that naturally showed me what your future decisions would be. I just had to think about what I would have done. And what if I let go of an explosive with fuse attached while I was thrown through the air? It¡¯s time you found the answer, you idiot. A tremendous heavy vibration shot up from the ballast tank below. ¡°Bh...gh...!!!???¡± I heard a dull sound. It was an unpleasant sound like a large tree breaking between giant gears. It came from Sid Clouds¡¯s spine. That bone made up from a series of smaller bones had its connections snapped apart. The weight being forcibly propped up by the eighty thousand ton displacement of the cruise ship was bearing down on that human frame, so his fate was sealed. I slowly got up, pressed my right hand to my left shoulder, and heard a dull cracking sound. ¡°Give it up. There¡¯s no saving you. And if you have nothing to protect, could you tell me the truth behind all this?¡± ¡°Not...y-yet... I-I...still...¡± You¡¯re kidding, right? I heard a ton of thin fibers snapping as Sid Clouds continued standing without being crushed. I estimated the weight at around five hundred kilograms or maybe over a ton. Based on the records leftover from the cruel tortures of the medieval Europe that everyone knew from their RPGs, a victim lying face up could have weight slowly added up to about three hundred kilograms without dying from shock, but this was clearly past that limit. ¡°The baby¡¯s weight...is crushing me. But you know what? Even if it isn¡¯t complete...I still received the Obou-Jikara... So I can push it back. I can push back on the baby¡¯s weight...with these abnormal muscle fibers.¡± ¡°Oh, honestly!!¡± My mind turned toward the handgun hidden in my boot. No, that wouldn¡¯t work. If he can bear a weight of over a ton, his muscles have to be as tough as a concrete pillar. I used my ¡°clay¡± already and a lead bullet would just bounce off. Honestly. I¡¯m really reaching for the Deadly Dragon Princess here!? ¡°I don¡¯t have time for an interrogation, so I¡¯ll ask once and you have one chance to answer me. Will you fall back here or will you continue? Choose whichever one you want. Depending on your answer, I might have to bring out the power tools.¡± ¡°Ha ha,¡± he laughed. The burden on his body seemed to be a serious issue because his body was splitting open in places and his clothes were soaked with blood. ¡°Fall back here? If you like. We were holding out a helping hand for your country, but I suppose the freedom to bat that hand aside is part of national sovereignty. It might be fun to switch to a different progress manual and instead prepare to watch the blue light from safety.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°But even if I fall back, it won¡¯t stop her. You know that I always have someone even more powerful working under me, don¡¯t you? I had hoped to use her as an emergency exit, but since she hasn¡¯t shown up, she must be prioritizing the operation.¡± I could not kill him and he could not take even a single step because of the great weight. Even in our impasse, his bloody lips maintained a smile. ¡°She is powerful.¡± ¡°Even more than this?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but sound annoyed and his eyes narrowed as if he had wanted to hear that annoyance. ¡°I chose her, so she is definitely more powerful than me. Now that she has focused all of her resources on the operation, it is guaranteed to succeed.¡± It looked like we were on separate parallel lines, but in our world, there was always a conclusion. In this case, it came in the form of bullets. That conclusion struck Sid Clouds once each in the head, the chest, and the gut. But I hadn¡¯t done it. For one, no normal bullet could do anything to him. To take advantage of the Ubume¡¯s weakness, it may have been forged from the same carbon steel as a Japanese sword. One glance at the surprised look on Sid Clouds¡¯s face was enough to know who had fired that magical bullet. ¡°...Ah...¡± But he was not allowed to speak even a word. As soon as his eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted, the final pillar was broken. A multitude of wet squishing sounds followed. That human form was crushed under a massive weight and made the dramatic transformation into a dark red stain spreading on the floor. However... ¡°W-w-w-wah!? M-Mai-Mai-san!! Look!!¡± ¡°Oh, dear. Even after being crushed that badly, he¡¯s still breathing. Just how tough is that Obou-Jikara?¡± Even as a dark red slug-like creature measuring one hundred eighty centimeters, Sid Clouds continued to squirm. This is hopeless. I should assume this guy isn¡¯t going to die even if you kill him. I get the feeling he¡¯d be back for revenge if someone dragged the Ubume¡¯s baby up from the ocean bottom with a ship¡¯s salvage crane. But that wasn¡¯t what I needed to focus on. Whatever the details, he couldn¡¯t move now, so I could put him off until later. I had to look up above. I heard some light departing footsteps and I caught a glimpse of a maid uniform¡¯s fluttering short skirt at the top of the stairs Sid Clouds had destroyed. ¡°That¡¯s some fancy underwear. ...Looks like she really doesn¡¯t understand the concept of a maid.¡± A handgun in the garter and spare magazines covering the underside of the skirt was far too exciting for a tidy and kind maid. At any rate, this was the waitress I had taken a cocktail from while passing her by in the ship. She was apparently the CIA¡¯s final boss. Since she was supposed to be stronger than Sid Clouds who was still moving after all that, it was sounding like a lot of trouble. Part 11 (Jinnai Shinobu ¡ª Day 10/03 21:40 - 22:00) The casino hall was wrapped in crazed excitement. He really had fallen for it. In the Singer Song Liar story, I had easily established the ten thousand times multiplier penalty with my cheating bluff and by making him think the noise on the card reader was due to skimming, but in reality, it took a while after the game came to an end. After all, Kodama Ryou just kept complaining. When I thought about it, it was obvious, though. This wasn¡¯t the score in a video game. We were talking about someone¡¯s life and everything they owned. Even if he had gotten it all by dirty means. ¡°Ah...ahhh...aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...¡± The man before me had been robbed of the perfect order of his hair, clothes, expression, and aura and a noise I couldn¡¯t quite call a voice escaped his mouth without end. It had all turned out the same. It was as if everything were following the story I had made and anything that didn¡¯t fit was being corrected. ¡°Hey.¡± I called out to the con artist who had fallen to his knees. He didn¡¯t respond, so I grabbed his collar with one hand and forced him up. ¡°Hey!¡± ¡°What...? Do you still want more after all that!?¡± That¡¯s right, you idiot. Normally, I¡¯d want to leave trash like you to die, but I can¡¯t. I felt a twitch in my right temple as I spoke to the con artist. ¡°At this rate, you¡¯ll be killed by midday tomorrow.¡± ¡°...What?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll be killed by an Ikiryou assassination Package using a Youkai called a Kechibi. It was assembled by the CIA. I know this probably sounds like something out of a movie, but you can choose how to use the time you have left. You can believe me and struggle to survive or laugh at me and be killed. It¡¯s your choice.¡± ¡°Wait. Wh-what are you talking about? Who are you?¡± ¡°As I said, you can choose how to use the time you have left.¡± I practically threw my words at that greasy loser from close range. ¡°But the current situation isn¡¯t normal. There¡¯s no other way a normal high school boy could win everything a professional con artist owns. So how about you catch on that something dangerous is brewing on a much deeper level than you think?¡± That was when my cellphone rang in my pocket. I let go of the con artist¡¯s collar, turned around, and pulled out the phone. ¡°H-hey!! What am I supposed to do!? What do you mean I¡¯ll be killed? Are you saying my despair still isn¡¯t over!?¡± He shouted something at me, but there was nothing more I could do. I wasn¡¯t even sure I could stop the Singer Song Liar story I had created. And if I didn¡¯t, he would be assassinated at a set time and place no matter where he tried to hide. That meant I could only keep moving. I answered the phone and held it to my ear. ¡°Madoka?¡± ¡°Shinobu-kun, do you have any idea what you¡¯ve gotten yourself involved in?¡± That was faster than expected. ''This only happened at dawn in the Singer Song Liar story. Should I rejoice at the change or will this lead to an even worse conclusion? ¡°You mean the collapse of the world economy due to Japan¡¯s exported financial systems, the Japanese yen becoming scrap paper, and the sale of Japan in the name of supporting its recovery, right? Unfortunately, I¡¯ve been placed in the very center of all that.¡± ¡°Shinobu-kun...¡± ¡°Sorry, but I¡¯m the one that was placed ¡®here¡¯,¡± I said to cut her off. ¡°Only someone ¡®here¡¯ can stop this, so instead of complaining, why don¡¯t you help me? Have you contacted an accountant and tax adviser yet? I defeated the con artist named Kodama Ryou and won a ton of money. Although it is all Japanese yen which might be worthless this time tomorrow. I want to return it to the people he victimized. Can you help me with that?¡± ¡°I can, but do you really have time to get sidetracked with this?¡± ¡°I¡¯m about to get started here. To be honest, I had to bait the hook before I could make my counterattack. Getting sidetracked here was necessary.¡± After exchanging the necessary information, I ended the call with Madoka. Depending on what happens, this might be our last conversation. ¡°Um, it¡¯s Hafuri, right? I¡¯m done here, so let¡¯s get out of here.¡± ¡°Sigh... I¡¯m glad you settled that with the original money still intact. Then again, we can¡¯t have this all continuing ¡®as planned¡¯, so it¡¯s a bit of a complicated feeling.¡± We left the casino¡¯s front entrance and the fox, tanuki, and badger hopped out of hiding. The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata gave me an exasperated look. ¡°S-so how did it turn out?¡± ¡°Did it all go well?¡± ¡°After showing off like that, it would be no laughing matter if you lost everything!!¡± The three noisy animals wouldn¡¯t stop yelling, so I just shoved a folded memo toward them. The tanuki gave hysterical shout. ¡°Kyah! Wh-what is this?¡± ¡°The phone number of the accountant managing the bank account. Call this number with the old lady once you get home. You can ask that accountant about the money you need. Don¡¯t think about moving the money yourself. Leave it to the professional and you won¡¯t be tricked again.¡± I shoved it up against them. ¡°Don¡¯t lose this, don¡¯t show it to anyone, and hurry back to the old lady who must be worried sick that you suddenly vanished. That will settle everything.¡± I left the three Youkai blinking in confusion and walked away from the casino with the Zashiki Warashi and Hyakki Yakou¡¯s girl leader. ¡°Shinobu, volunteering for good deeds is fine, but what do we do now?¡± ¡°I can only tell you ¡®what¡¯s going to happen¡¯.¡± My right temple itched and I shrugged. ¡°In the Singer Song Liar story, we had a celebration party until past dawn and then a car bomb exploded on the early morning road. You carried me, we escaped into the mine, and the entire tunnel was blown up. ...That much probably can¡¯t be changed. Even if the details are a little different, we¡¯ll still be attacked come morning and you¡¯ll be taken hostage. And all to have me retrieve my lost suitcase.¡± ¡°Shinobu, that sounds like a pain in the ass. Do you really think I¡¯ll do that?¡± ¡°But you did. Maybe once it actually happens, you¡¯ll have a change of heart and decide to act out of character.¡± Even I thought my tone was a little too careless. ¡°The car bomb is one thing, but that mountain has as many tunnels as an ant colony and it has to take a while to rig it all up with explosives. They attack in the morning, so they¡¯re probably doing a final check of the mine right now. I don¡¯t know how far in advance they set up the explosives, but they at least need to make sure the detonation signal can get in before they arm it. They were an unknown enemy until the very end of the Singer Song Liar story, but if we head to the mine now, we can run across them.¡± On top of that, I had a feeling they had only decided to take an obvious hostage after I defeated Kodama Ryou, who had a connection with them. I had shown them they couldn¡¯t let their guard down with me, so they had been forced to take a Youkai hostage which was probably more difficult than capturing a lion alive. For them, that had been the last card they had wanted to play. ¡°Not a bad idea,¡± said the Hyakki Yakou leader with a composed expression. ¡°Then how about I contact my organization and have them make a quick attack?¡± ¡°You¡¯re sounding dangerous again.¡± The normally arrogant Zashiki Warashi began casually keeping some distance from the small girl. Meanwhile, the leader girl did not seem to mind. ¡°I am their highest leader, so whether in a crowd or the dark, I always have a certain minimum force prepared.¡± She pressed a hand to her ear and I assumed she was putting on a small headset, but... ¡°...Huh?¡± ¡°Hey, why do you sound so confused? Please don¡¯t tell me you can¡¯t contact anyone.¡± ¡°No, that shouldn¡¯t be... How strange. Our standard security structure should prevent this from happening.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but hold my head in my hands. It seemed the Singer Song Liar story was more powerful than I had imagined. Had the girl¡¯s bodyguards¡¯ equipment simply failed or had they been attacked by our enemies without anyone noticing? Both possibilities should never have been able to happen with Hyakki Yakou, supposedly the nation¡¯s most powerful paranormal organization. I was reminded of the fancy hotel in northern Fuuka Village where I had had my first encounter with Hyakki Yakou. Then too, a Package had prophesied a slaughter and I was tossed around by that Package from beginning to end. ¡°I guess we have to do whatever we can,¡± I spat out as my right temple twitched. ¡°Either way, we¡¯ll be attacked come morning if we just wait around. No matter what we do, it can¡¯t be worse than that.¡± Part 12 (Uchimaku Hayabusa ¡ª Day 10/03 21:35 - 22:10) After the Mystery Freak caught up, we both looked down on the suspect sprawled out on the ground with her eyes spinning. Looking at her again, I realized she was even skinnier than Enbi. Her short-sleeve sailor shirt was not quite like a school uniform and her hot pants were so short you could just about see the base of her thighs. The string to the stone-throwing bow gun she had been using as a weapon must have been really hard to pull back because her palms were scraped red. ¡°What did you do, detective? A punch of justice against a minor girl? That must have felt really good.¡± ¡°Stop it, idiot. She took herself out. ...Although it is true I led her in that direction.¡± I heard a groan from the girl stretched out on the ground. The first thing I did was present her with despair. ¡°This is the police.¡± ¡°Detective, did you forget your badge?¡± ¡°A badge from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has no effect outside the city and you don¡¯t need a badge when you catch them in the act.¡± I heard a great shriek and the girl started looking restlessly around, so I kicked the bow gun away. ¡°A-ah, ah, ah, ah...¡± ¡°Give me your name, address, and occupation.¡± ¡°I-if I tell you, will you let me go? Heh. Eh heh heh.¡± ¡°No actual harm was done to me, so this can be settled with a simple obstruction of justice charge. That probably means a summary indictment and a fine of ten thousand yen. But if you prefer something more adolescent and cool-sounding, then maybe I should alter my interpretation of what happened. For example, that could have been attempted murder or a terrorist attack against the National Police Agency¡¯s casino inspection team.¡± ¡°O-okay!? M-my name is Kozakura Sobiki! I¡¯ll tell you!! I¡¯ll tell you everything!!¡± The girl had tears in her eyes as she flailed her arms around. ¡°We...you see, um, eh heh heh, we specialize in hardware cracking.¡± ¡°Cracking?¡± ¡°Detective, she means illegal ROMs for pachinko parlors or illegally skimming credit card data. Instead of using data or viruses, she¡¯s an information criminal that uses physical devices.¡± ¡°L-lately we¡¯ve started messing with cables too.¡± This must have been awkward for her because Kozakura Sobiki wouldn¡¯t look me in the eye and pressed her index fingers together in front of her chest. ¡°Y¡¯know, like the lines connecting ATMs to banks or the cable TV selectors on telephone poles.¡± ¡°Oh? Don¡¯t those things have a metal web thinner than a hair woven into the outer covering? I thought the security company was notified as soon that outer covering was broken.¡± ¡°No, no, no. Have you ever heard of alien crosstalk? If it isn¡¯t fiber optic, the electrical signal will disturb the magnetic field around the cable. Even if you don¡¯t break the covering and expose the metal wire, you can still attach a wiretap line right along that covering to steal the data-...¡± ¡°........................................................................................................................................................................¡± ¡°...is what I¡¯ve heard you might be able to do!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!¡± My irritation must have gotten through to her because Kozakura Sobiki made a harsh course correction mid-sentence. ¡°The latest trend is the undersea cables. While city lines spread out like a spider web, there¡¯s pretty much just the one going undersea. If you suck the data out of there, you can steal allll the communications from an entire city or even an entire nation. ...Well, that¡¯s the theory anyway. It¡¯s just, um, hypothetical.¡± ¡°And?¡± Oops. Even I could tell my voice had dropped lower than necessary. ¡°Can you blame me for being scared!? I just got done working on the only line running from this island to the mainland and then a plainclothes cop shows up in the waterside electronics marketplace. I don¡¯t think the people who are going to use the line would betray us, but I was certain it was an assassin with a fake police badge coming to silence me!!¡± ¡°Wait a second,¡± I cut in. ¡° ¡®The people who are going to use the line¡¯?¡± ¡°Uh.¡± ¡°You mean you weren¡¯t working alone?¡± ¡°Yessss!!¡± She must have gotten desperate because Kozakura Sobiki collapsed backwards and started flailing her limbs around and shouting. Of course, I hadn¡¯t gone through the proper process for interrogating her, so I had no right to keep her here against her will. ¡°The locals and the entertainment companies are fighting over whether to preserve or develop the mining island. They wanted me to attach a wiretap to the undersea cable so they could steal and destroy the data, so, well, it seemed like they wanted to destroy the relationship between the casinos and the card companies.¡± ¡°(So was she hired by the locals?)¡± ¡°(Only if whoever hired her was being honest.)¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it was them,¡± readily cut in Kozakura Sobiki. ¡°Based on their interests, the locals would make the most sense, but the payment method was just too complex to be them. I don¡¯t know who, but I think someone else was trying to interfere with the locals¡¯ plan. It looks like they¡¯re stealing a pre-existing criminal plan so the crime can be safely pinned on the locals while whoever it is does whatever they want.¡± Wait, wait, wait. Stealing the data sent between the casinos and the card companies was a big enough deal on its own. After all, that could easily destroy the island¡¯s entire source of income. But was there something else beyond that? The Mystery Freak cut in from the side. ¡°Hey, hey. What was the original plan? What were the locals trying to do and what were they trying to steal?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know that. All I did was take the wiretap they gave me and attach it to the undersea cable. But...¡± ¡°But?¡± ¡°Heh. Eh heh heh. I actually opened up the wiretap unit before attaching it. Y-you see, you have to teach yourself in this business, so you can learn a lot from someone else¡¯s tech! And there was something clearly unnecessary stuffed in there along with the necessary equipment.¡± ¡°What was that?¡± ¡°At first, I thought it was a cylindrical coil, but it was actually a really old kind of money! That really made me mad. That had to be over seventy percent of the thing¡¯s weight!! But when I thought about it later, I realized it might be an occult object meant to interfere with a criminal Package involving a Youkai.¡± I brought a hand to my head. If that was true, this had just gotten all the more troublesome. ¡°What Youkai has a connection to old money?¡± ¡°There are far too many for that to be useful,¡± said the Mystery Freak. ¡°There¡¯s the tanuki and foxes, the Onbu-Obake, the god of poverty, and pretty much all of the Zashiki Warashi types. For example, it could be an Usuhiki Warashi or a Notabariko.¡± ¡°Anyway,¡± said Kozakura Sobiki. ¡°After I¡¯d finished that job, a suspicious person claiming to be with the police showed up, so I thought they were trying to silence me. I thought they had found out I opened the wiretap unit or that I¡¯d seen ¡®that¡¯.¡± There¡¯s still more? Annoyed, I asked what she meant. ¡°And what is ¡®that¡¯?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m not entirely sure myself, but...¡± Part 13 (Hishigami Mai ¡ª Day 10/03 22:19 - 22:45) Wow, I¡¯m soaking wet!! After the excitement of Sid Clouds making a lot of noise throwing containers everywhere and him being crushed into mincemeat on the floor, I had decided there was no chance of making a quiet escape. Instead, I entered the ballast tank, closed the maintenance cover, swam out the large hole in the bottom, and climbed up onto the port. ¡°Nn...kh.¡± I used a needle and thread to sew up all the lacerations on my body and covered up the wounds themselves with the kit inside my makeup pouch. That left doing something about the wrist and elbow of my dominant arm. ¡°Ahhh... Khhn...!¡± ¡°Why are you shouting in such a needlessly suggestive way!?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a quick way of getting rid of the pain. It¡¯s healthier than using morphine.¡± After a series of dull sounds like the shifting of a manual transmission¡¯s shift lever, my joints moved back into place. For anyplace that was split or missing, I used a dropper to fill them with a repairing liquid. I really was torn up this time. And I have to be prepared for even more damage against that maid. Realistically, I should probably expect to have my heart stopped for a few seconds. Since the final test was coming up, I stripped off the dress and changed into my original tank top and hot pants. ¡°Well, I dealt with the Ikiryou assassination Package using a Kechibi, so I think I¡¯ll give myself more than fifty points.¡± After shaking the seawater off, the Sunekosuri asked me a confused question. ¡°Eh? I know you dealt with Sid himself, but how did you do anything to the Package?¡± ¡°According to Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s explanation, the Kechibi Package follows the target¡¯s footsteps to find them and then the criminal kills them using the fact that damage to their Ikiryou also damages the person. The Kechibi isn¡¯t a simple Ikiryou. It¡¯s a special type you have to summon by rubbing the sandal bottoms together. In this case, the sandal footprints were one¡¯s footsteps on the internet. By combining multiple types of big data, they can pinpoint an individual when they shouldn¡¯t be able to.¡± ¡°I-I see...?¡± ¡°In addition to the normal casinos, Goldmine Island has Heavy Cruiser Island, a VR casino city where people can walk around and gamble with their avatar. It¡¯s linked with a monster of a point card that has over forty million users and is accepted at drugstores, video rental stores, and online stores. It¡¯s mostly done using a kind of data seen as a virtual currency.¡± ¡°What are you getting at?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t get it? Something that large will have countless companies affiliated with them and can spread their sales far and wide. Everything from airplane tickets and hotel reservations to convenience stores and vending machines. So if you look through the purchase history, you can easily turn up an individual¡¯s location.¡± This of course had nothing to do with me since I used a fake name and not even I knew my real name. ¡°Y-you mean by combining the big data of multiple companies, they have a system to ¡®regain¡¯ the ability to search for an individual even though big data is made so you can¡¯t link the data to an individual?¡± ¡°That¡¯s really the whole point of the point card. It looks like a way of saving some money, but it¡¯s actually an efficient system of gathering people¡¯s purchasing information. The young wives smiling innocently at their receipts probably have no idea the kind of price tag human information has.¡± I then gave the Sunekosuri a casual quiz. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s say they have a system of locating an individual from the chaotic pool of big data. They would need a massive information processing system that could use...no, misuse that to instantly search out a name from all the data. Now, where would the communication center for that be located?¡± ¡°Um, didn¡¯t we head down to the ship¡¯s hold to find the Kechibi itself? And it didn¡¯t look like you ever found the correct container.¡± ¡°True, but there was a huge parabolic antenna on top of the ship. That was for communicating with a satellite. And from what I saw of the ship, it had a luxurious casino of its own. It was a large facility, but only a limited number of VIPs get to use it. They need giant servers to check on those VIPs¡¯ cards, but the servers would be mostly unused. That means they can be used for information processing they don¡¯t want anyone to know about.¡± ¡°Th-then...¡± ¡°I messed with the wiring just a bit before leaving the ship. A surge of electricity will be frying all of the ship¡¯s electronics right about now. And if the servers don¡¯t work, the Kechibi may still be there, but it can¡¯t follow anyone¡¯s ¡®footsteps¡¯. It¡¯s just like you don¡¯t need to fear a gun with a broken sight no matter how much ammo it has.¡± ¡°Y-you did all that in that limited time? Shudder.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t leave with anything left undone, so a professional has to achieve results in the limited time they have.¡± Now, then. I was worried about the maid who had given up on Sid and run off, but I had to review the current power balance first. Overall, there were two forces on Goldmine Island. One side had obtained the Usuhiki Warashi Package, but wanted to stop it now that it was clearly leaving their control. They were probably the locals who were displeased with the policies of the casinos. The other side was the CIA who had taken over the Usuhiki Warashi Package and was misusing it to arrive at the sale of Japan. They wanted to send the Usuhiki Warashi out of control even it meant slaughtering the locals with the Kechibi Package or the Ubume¡¯s Obou-Jikara. We had just crushed Sid Clouds of the CIA and his Kechibi Package, so the locals would be getting more active. Now, what exactly should I do now? ¡°Well, I doubt the CIA maid is going to sit idly by just because they had their superior position taken from them. That type will use an embassy, a consulate, or a military base to ¡®legitimately¡¯ return home if things start getting dangerous. Since she¡¯s still in hiding, she must still be motivated. That means she¡¯ll try to reverse what we¡¯ve done, even if she has to force it.¡± ¡°But you took out that muscular Sid guy and the Kechibi Package, right? D-do they still have some other secret weapon!?¡± ¡°Of course they do. And it¡¯s their biggest one.¡± Mh, my tank top is sticking to me more than usual. Is it because of the seawater? ¡°The Amanojaku. That final weapon bends reality in accordance with Singer Song Liar¡¯s automatically created story. Even now, it must be optimizing everything, but I bet that maid will overclock the thing to boost its ability to change the flow of events. If so, she¡¯ll need direct contact with the Amanojaku¡¯s core.¡± ¡°The Amanojaku¡¯s...core?¡± The Sunekosuri scratched his ear with his back leg. ¡°Ah! You mean that Jinnai Shinobu boy!?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s part of it,¡± I agreed. ¡°But he¡¯s probably just the key. There¡¯s also a keyhole to stick that key in. But where are the actual ceremonial grounds? It has to have a constant connection to Jinnai Shinobu, it has to be overwritten with a collection of lies that symbolize the Amanojaku, and yet it has to be completely hidden from our eyes.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be the story Jinnai Shinobu created?¡± ¡°You mean they left it up to the automatic creation software? That would be too unstable for a Youkai¡¯s permanent location. But what other symbol of lies is there? The virtual world? But the VR casino city is already part of the Usuhiki Warashi¡¯s framework, so using that would add the risk of a conflict between them. Maybe it could be a restaurant that lies about the source of its food or a replica hot spring with no real benefit? I¡¯m not sure what it could be at this point.¡± ¡°Then...¡± ¡°Either way, the maid will definitely be approaching Jinnai Shinobu. It looks like we can only wait until then to intercept her. If she takes him away, she¡¯ll have us in checkmate.¡± Didn¡¯t he go with Hyakki Yakou¡¯s young lady? That meant I could contact her to figure out where he was, but I was a little worried about taking action before I had all the necessary pieces of the puzzle. I looked reluctantly up at the moon in the night sky, tried to think more about the Amanojaku¡¯s location, and suddenly noticed something odd. ¡°Huh? I had a thought as I looked up at the moon. Could it be...? Part 14 (Jinnai Shinobu ¡ª Day 10/03 22:10 - 22:40) The Zashiki Warashi, Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader girl, and I left the neon-filled casino city and made our way to the mountain in the center of the island. All of the light faded away and we were surrounded by pitch black shadows that covered the entire area. The pineapple-like tropical trees and the few maple and gingko trees adding some red or yellow all looked like a single pitch-black mass. ¡°Damn. ...This is a hell of a place.¡± I used the back of my hand to wipe away the sweat that had dripped from my forehead to my jaw. My right temple itched. We had followed an animal trail based on the scenery I knew from the Singer Song Liar story, but actually doing the walking wore me out quite a lot. I was wearing sports shoes, so it had to be even worse for someone in a kimono. ¡°Hey, are you okay?¡± ¡°Being surrounded by nature like this is actually more comfortable for me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not worried about you and your infinite stamina. This girl is only about ten, you know?¡± ¡°I-I am the leader of Hyakki Yakou, so I can walk a mountain trail on my own. I am not asking you to carry me.¡± ¡°You¡¯re so exhausted that you¡¯re letting slip what you really want. C¡¯mon, Miss Infinite Stamina.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? This is clearly a job for a guy.¡± We ended up playing rock paper scissors and the Zashiki Warashi pinned me down even though I won. I was held in a bizarre Boston crab by a beautiful Youkai in a red yukata and I knew I couldn¡¯t allow a folklorist to record the scene as a new Japanese legend. ¡°W-wait. Vahhh!? I give!! I give!!¡± ¡°Shinobu, you¡¯re supposed to tearfully proclaim that having an unrivalled beauty¡¯s butt sitting on you is the greatest reward.¡± ¡°Your strength is far, far too much for that!! I¡¯m going to burst open like something from a sausage commercial!!¡± ¡°And what do you say about our game?¡± ¡°I lose!! I¡¯ll carry her or anything you want!!¡± Even after I was released, I lay trembling on the ground for a while. With a few mystery leaves in my hair and on my clothes, I was forced to carry a girl who was more frightening than a mafia boss. Girls are a lot lighter than I expected, I thought as my endorphins gave me that happy illusion, but when I thought of her as simple baggage, I found she was actually incredibly heavy. At any rate, we continued through the forest. After walking a bit, we came across a steep slope. The forest was becoming a mountain. The smells reaching my nose also changed from greenery to a chocking scent of black soil. After climbing the slope for over ten minutes, the trees thinned out and the scenery opened up. I hurriedly took a step back and checked on the situation from a thicket. The exposed dirt of the slope contained a two meter hole that looked hand-dug and a few short cabins were located around it. They were probably rest areas for the miners and storage for the digging equipment. There was dim light on in one of the cabins and I could make out several figures moving to and from the tunnel. My right temple itched again. ¡°I recognize one of them,¡± I whispered. ¡°He was in the Singer Song Liar story.¡± I had only read it as text, but it had been detailed enough to have a clear picture in my head. ¡°After the Zashiki Warashi was taken hostage, I ran across these people in the airport. These must be the locals and this must be where they normally work.¡± If they were moving back and forth between the cabin and the tunnel, they had to be carrying the explosives and wiring into the tunnels. The action was filled with malice, but they looked much livelier sweating and moving around than they did sneaking through the carefully maintained airport. They looked like fish in water. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± For some reason, Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader did not ask to be lowered from my back, but she did whisper to me as if naturally breathing into my ear. ¡°There are two forces on this island. The locals prepared the Usuhiki Warashi ¨C a Zashiki Warashi subspecies ¨C Package on their own but are desperate to seal it away. The CIA wants to misuse that Package. ...However, it wouldn¡¯t be safe to just ignore the locals. If they completed a safety device and fully suppressed the out-of-control Usuhiki Warashi, they would probably get greedy again.¡± ¡°If everything is following the timeline, I¡¯ll be buried alive before that.¡± That meant I had to do something before they had finished their preparations. But then the Good-for-Nothing Zashiki Warashi threw cold water on my hopes. ¡°But Shinobu, there are a lot of them and they have pickaxes, hammers, large drills and other excavation equipment, and even explosives. If an unarmed high school boy rushes in there giving a battle cry, I think he¡¯ll only be turned to mincemeat, so how exactly are you going to safely make them surrender?¡± Huh? Come to think of it, what am I going to do? ¡°Can¡¯t I just rely on a wonderful Youkai that can¡¯t be harmed by physical attacks?¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t joke. Why would I do something like that?¡± She bluntly refused me!! But what am I supposed to do? Even if she does get motivated, we¡¯re still outnumbered. We¡¯ll be right back to square one if they capture Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader and me while the Zashiki Warashi charges the enemy. And having the girl taken hostage would be especially bad. The scale of the problem could grow even more hopelessly large than in the Singer Song Liar story. What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? ¡°No, wait...¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Zashiki Warashi, you stay with the girl. If it comes to it, you two run.¡± ¡°Nn...¡± ¡°Why is this Hafuri girl moaning on my back!? If you¡¯re going to fall asleep, do it on the Good-for-Nothing Youkai¡¯s back!¡± Hm. She might have divinely inspired skill at moving pieces on the board, but she may not be very good at running around on the scene herself. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± I answered the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s question honestly. ¡°What I can.¡± Part 15 (3rd person ¡ª Day 10/03 23:00 - 23:05) ¡°She¡± ran through the dark forest. She wore a maid uniform with a short skirt and shiny enamel shoes. She looked horribly out of place on a mountain, but she did not show any kind of handicap. Like a wild beast of the forest, she nimbly and smoothly made her way to her destination while becoming one with the night and suppressing any sound or other sign of her presence. The fluttering of her short brown hair showed the flow of the night wind. Her goal was clear: Jinnai Shinobu. He was the key to it all. He had been randomly chosen from the great number of people visiting Goldmine Island. Instead of using a chosen VIP and isolating them, they had placed the core on a normal, unrelated individual and then released them. They had decided that letting it dissolve into the sea of information would reduce the risk of interference, but she now had to contact Jinnai Shinobu again. This was like extracting information on a specific individual from a massive pool of big data. If she got her hands on Jinnai Shinobu, she could reverse the damage done. The situation had left the predetermined rails, but she would be able to forcibly bring it all back on track. And she could take full credit for the victory. That was why she made her way to Jinnai Shinobu. She had to continue the preparations for buying Japan so that they could reach for the blue light which was their goal. Part 16 (Jinnai Shinobu ¡ª Day 10/03 22:45 - 22:55) The enemies were the locals who opposed the casino policy. From what I could see, there were at least more than ten of them. Once those working inside the tunnel or cabins came out, there was no telling how many there would be. I expected their weapons to be shovels, pickaxes, hammers, excavation tools like large drills and continuous vibration drill rods, and even explosives for blasting. Needless to say, any tool meant to break through solid bedrock would turn a flesh-and-blood high schooler into mincemeat. Meanwhile, I only had myself, a single high schooler, to work with. The only weapon I could hope to get was a rock or stick found on the ground. Even if they didn¡¯t have any of their weapons, it was still entirely possible I¡¯d be beaten to a pulp. So what was I to do? My right temple itched. If I was caught here and they were able to tell me what to do, it would all lead to the conclusion seen in the Singer Song Liar story. Yet if I stayed silent and fled, they would begin their attack plan by morning and I would be buried alive sooner or later. If I wanted to alter the flow of events and change the future, I had stop them here. So... ¡°Shinobu?¡± The Zashiki Warashi sounded doubtful, but I ignored her and began to move. I slowly raised my hands and walked boldly out in front of them. Naturally, the atmosphere changed entirely. I first sensed surprise and soon thick tension filled the darkness of the night. Several bright flashlights turned toward my face and I felt pain stabbing deep into my head. ¡°Who¡¯s that!? ...!!¡± The figure who asked who I was gasped as soon as he saw my face. Even if we had met in the Singer Song Liar story, we didn¡¯t actually know each other. Still, he seemed to know me, most likely as the target they planned to attack. ¡°I want to speak with you! I¡¯m sure this would be of interest to you!!¡± Several sets of footsteps ran up and I was quickly partially surrounded by a semicircle. The situation was underway, so there was no backing out now. The thick steel machinery they held was enough to tell me that. ¡°You¡¯re after the USB memory stick for the Usuhiki Warashi you hid on my suitcase, right? And you need it to restrain your out-of-control Package! Then there¡¯s no need to take a hostage. We should work together!!¡± ¡°Where did you learn that?¡± asked a young man¡¯s voice as a strong grip reached my shoulders. ¡°Where did you learn that!? ¡®That¡¯ should still be a secret!!¡± ¡°What should still be a secret? That you¡¯re opposed to the casino policy? That you want to blow away the stock transactions of the rich people gathering fortunes here? That you¡¯ll do that by connecting an Usuhiki Warashi to the financial network, causing connection issues in the semiconductors, and accurately destroying only the clusters containing that transaction data!?¡± The man seemed taken aback when I yelled from some close. ¡°You¡¯re the only ones who think any of that¡¯s a secret. Several groups are already on the move. The CIA is trying to steal the Usuhiki Warashi for their own purposes and Hyakki Yakou is trying to obliterate it all to resolve the problem. All of you will be slaughtered by midday tomorrow at the latest. I don¡¯t know what exactly will happen, but I do know the future you¡¯re imagining isn¡¯t going to happen! Not as things are, anyway!!¡± Realistically, this conversation may have been meaningless. Other options had been available to me. I could have checked on the location and hurried down the mountain. Then I could have found a way to meet up with the Hyakki Yakou leader¡¯s bodyguards or contacted Hishigami Mai. If I did that, those expert killers would have quickly annihilated them for me. At the very least, the odds of success would have been far greater than for an amateur high school boy. But... But...!! ¡°There¡¯s still time.¡± Did we really have to fight? My right temple seemed to writhe eerily. It was true we had been enemies in that Singer Song Liar story. There was no way we could have gotten along there. I knew that. But that was only because their attack plan had succeeded. In that world, they had buried me alive in that dark cave, they had taken the Zashiki Warashi hostage, and everything had been far too late. But what about now? What about before all that? ¡°You planned revenge. You decided to take everything from the rich people who forced these difficulties on you, so you acquired the Usuhiki Warashi Package! But...but!! That¡¯s all you did. You still haven¡¯t actually taken anything from anyone!!¡± Nothing was settled ¡°yet¡±. No one had committed a crime ¡°yet¡±. Therefore, there was no need for us to fight to the death as if manipulated by a nightmare. Therefore, we could take a different path. Therefore, we could work together. ¡°You can still turn back.¡± I swore I would change the future. That future was not set in stone just yet. It wasn¡¯t certain. Could I really abandon them just because they had died in that ¡°original¡± version of the future? Straying from one¡¯s path required an appropriately strong will. After acquiring that Package as their ultimate weapon, they had noticed its problems and decided to halt their plan and prioritize safety. Some might accuse them of being cowards, but there was a reason they had been able to stop for fear of sacrificing unrelated people and there was a reason they had been able to force themselves to a stop without moving onward. That reason was human strength. And there was no way I could abandon someone with that powerful will as if they were sacrificial pawns or mere symbols. If I did that, I would be the one stuck looking at the sickening ending with dark despair in my eyes! ¡°You can still turn this around! And I¡¯ll give you as much help as you need!! I don¡¯t want to be buried alive and a reality worse than death lies waiting beyond that. And since you¡¯re so afraid of the Usuhiki Warashi Package going out of control, you probably know better than me what that entails!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°What will you do?¡± I asked them with my hands in the air. ¡°This is the final crossroads. Will you continue along the planned path and meet annihilation or will you actually take a step out of this dead end situation? The decision is yours, so which will it be!?¡± My words were a mixture of reality and a formless conspiracy, so it probably wasn¡¯t really getting through to them. However, they had to know they were standing at a dead end here. Otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t think about rigging their workplace with explosives and burying someone alive. Silence continued for a while. ¡°...Can we really stop?¡± Finally, the young man holding my shoulders spoke quietly. ¡°Can we still end this without killing anyone?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I answered. ¡°The CIA and Hyakki Yakou are only your enemy because the Usuhiki Warashi Package is still active. If we destroy it beyond repair, the CIA won¡¯t be able to take it for themselves and Hyakki Yakou will have no reason to kill you. That will settle everything.¡± The young man swore. It felt less like his gentle conscience was rising to the surface and more like his tension had lapsed and he had lost the resolve to kill. But whatever the reason, they were hesitant to kill me. They too had to be proper ¡°humans¡±. ¡°Now,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s change the future.¡± Part 17 (Uchimaku Hayabusa ¡ª Day 10/03 22:45 - 23:05) I handed admitted hardware cracker Kozakura Sobiki to the uniformed police officers I had called in. ¡°Ah... Hey, hey!! I¡¯m going to be okay, right? You haven¡¯t forgotten what you said about a summary indictment and a fine of ten thousand yen, have you!?¡± The suspect girl seemed relatively energetic even as she was dragged away by a police officer on either side. Mystery Bunny Enbi then whispered to me. ¡°(I don¡¯t know what cracking gets you, but couldn¡¯t her punishment get extended a good bit if additional charges get added?)¡± ¡°(That¡¯s none of my concern. Still, she looks young enough to fall under juvenile law, so I doubt she¡¯ll be imprisoned for long.)¡± Left alone, the two of us looked down at the memo Kozakura Sobiki had given us. Someone had hired her to rig the undersea cable with a special wiretap that included a bundle of old coins to affect a Youkai-related Package. The payment method had been too complex to be the locals...or so she had claimed, but she herself had apparently tried to use a method she hadn¡¯t wanted to specify which allowed her to keep some evidence. And that evidence was on the memo. ¡°It¡¯s hard to tell what it is with just the string of a dozen or so alphanumeric characters.¡± ¡°So it went through the financial server on the Yakata-II cruise ship? ...Is this true?¡± If the ship¡¯s casino had a financial transaction service, then it would indeed have a powerful satellite line connecting them to the card companies. And you would be able to use that to make a secret payment, but... ¡°This isn¡¯t good. I clearly can¡¯t investigate a luxury cruise ship filled with VIPs.¡± ¡°Well, that was probably their intention.¡± ¡°Even Chief Superintendent Mishima of the National Police Agency is a guest on that ship and there¡¯s nothing I can do outside of my Tokyo jurisdiction.¡± ¡°Even though there are hints of an actual crime here? A Youkai-related wiretap can be used to interfere with a Package someone else has built into the network. I doubt anyone who went to the trouble of preparing that would never actually use it.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do what I can, but still.¡± ¡°Now, now. Enough formalities. I know you¡¯ll step out into the party hall when it comes down to it. I¡¯m looking forward to seeing how cool you are¡î¡± As we argued, my cellphone rang. I didn¡¯t recognize the number, but when I answered it, I heard Chief Superintendent Mishima¡¯s voice. ¡°Hi, Uchimaku-kun. I hear you¡¯re hard at work this late at night. I just got word of the suspect you arrested.¡± ¡°Ohhh, yes.¡± ¡°If you have a moment, can I ask something of you?¡± He did not hesitate to begin. ¡°There was a bit of trouble on this ship. Based on the situation, it¡¯s looking like pressure from a number of sources is going to erase all hints that anything happened, though.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Anyway, we¡¯ve determined one individual who fled the Yakata-II: Hasukawa Yumi. And the real surprise? While she doesn¡¯t actually have a diplomatic passport, it seems, under normal circumstances, she would be picked up by a car with a diplomatic license plate. If the uniformed police questioned her, the Public Security Intelligence Agency and the Foreign Affairs Division would rush in and start intimidating everyone. Do you know what kind of person I¡¯m talking about?¡± ¡°A spy or intelligence agent? And from an allied nation?¡± ¡°Yes. Normally, information on this kind of ¡®personnel¡¯ doesn¡¯t get around to us in the police even when they¡¯re helping on the scene. The information gets suppressed along the way. But this time, we got it. There must have been some trouble on a scale that¡¯s preventing the information suppression system from functioning.¡± ¡°And what do you want me to do?¡± ¡°The Public Security Intelligence Agency and the Foreign Affairs Division won¡¯t do a thing because they don¡¯t want to cause any trouble with America. If nothing is done, other hidden elements will probably deal with this hidden element and nothing we do is likely to change things much, but should a police officer really just ignore this? Either way, not many people can move freely here. That¡¯s why I¡¯m leaving the rest to you. And of course, you¡¯re free to take it easy if you would prefer.¡± ¡°I will do the best I can.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I like to hear. Then I¡¯ll send you Hasukawa Yumi¡¯s location. ...She must be protected by a pretty secure system under normal circumstances. Otherwise, she would have at least turned off her cellphone.¡± He hung up and I saw Bunny Enbi¡¯s face right in front of me, most likely to listen in. ¡°What will you do, Detective?¡± ¡°Shut up and move back. It seems an American spy has vanished from the cruise ship we were suspecting. It¡¯s unclear if she has any connection to the wiretapped undersea cable or the deaths of the freelance writers, but it couldn¡¯t hurt to pursue her.¡± Normally, I would have dismissed Bunny Enbi at this point, but she would have followed me regardless and it would affect her safety if she ran across a criminal where I couldn¡¯t see her. In the end, I could only bring her with me, just like she wanted. ¡°By the way, do you remember what Kozakura-chan said earlier?¡± ¡°She said a lot, so tell me what exactly you mean.¡± ¡°Why she thought she was being attacked. The reason other than opening the wiretap unit.¡± ¡°Oh, you mean what she saw on the ocean bottom?¡± I asked, a little annoyed. ¡°Do you really think that¡¯s true? If it is, it means this entire area rose pretty quickly thanks to an undersea volcano.¡± Part 18 (Jinnai Shinobu ¡ª Day 10/03 23:10 - 23:18) There was no way I could remember more than ten people¡¯s faces and names in such a short time, but it seemed the young man who had grabbed my shoulders was named Emura Ryouichi. My right temple throbbed. I was pretty sure I had met him at the airport in the Singer Song Liar story. After ensuring everything was safe, I met up with the Zashiki Warashi and the girl leader of Hyakki Yakou. ¡°I certainly didn¡¯t expect it to end like that,¡± asked the girl. ¡°Oh? You didn¡¯t? If you think about it carefully, the attack only happened in the Singer Song Liar story. Fearing that and making a preemptive strike seems like boarding those imaginary rails and letting them determine the future.¡± Oh, honestly! Don¡¯t act so calm now that we know the answer, you good-for-nothing! Do you have any idea how many years I worried off of my life getting to this peaceful resolution!? At any rate, we had defeated the Singer Song Liar story for the first time, so we all began strategizing how to use that in the next step. ¡°The goldmine had always had a limit,¡± said Emura. ¡°When talk of inviting in casinos first arrived, we rejoiced at the change to the island¡¯s environment. But it was no use. None of the money that produced ever came back to us. The living infrastructure remained old and worn out and the only school is on the verge of shutting down. In the end, the locals dry up while the entertainment companies get all the money. It was set up like that from the beginning, but we didn¡¯t catch on until afterwards.¡± ¡°And so you tried to destroy that cycle of profit?¡± ¡°Yes, even though getting rid of the casinos would only leave the dying island. It wouldn¡¯t give us any new life. Still, we were going to collapse if we didn¡¯t have some kind of goal.¡± But something must have led them to stop. Something great enough to make them fear the Usuhiki Warashi Package and try to seal it away. ¡°It was the deaths of the freelance writers,¡± said Emura. ¡°They were caused by a malfunctioning automatic brake system, an exploding cellphone battery, and carbon monoxide leaking from a hot water heater. The people investigating Goldmine Island died strange deaths one after another. We initially thought it was a coincidence, but as we investigated the Usuhiki Warashi Package, we realized it could do all that. But I swear to you it wasn¡¯t us. Someone had taken control. And once we realized that, we got scared.¡± If they didn¡¯t do anything, something even worse would happen and all of it would be blamed on them, so they had decided to abandon the Package they had acquired. ¡°What are you going to do now?¡± ¡°The heart of all this is the USB hardware key hidden on my suitcase which can stop the Usuhiki Warashi. By taking over the Package, the CIA will use Japan¡¯s exported financial systems to spread fear around the globe and place all responsibility on Japan. That way they can drive down the price of an entire nation. We need to somehow safely retrieve that suitcase.¡± The locals and the CIA had likely considered having a double retrieve the suitcase or making an attack on the airport itself. In the end, the risks had probably outweighed the benefits, so they had decided to let me retrieve it. My right temple itched. But if we followed the same series of events, a hellish conclusion awaited. And just as I started wondering what to do, I heard an odd rustling sound. I looked over toward it. ¡°Phew... I-I am exhausted.¡± A tanuki that looked like a round stuffed animal left a thicket. ¡°What in the world are you doing?¡± ¡°I am here to repay our debt, of course. It was not easy following your scent all the way here.¡± Come to think of it, they saved me at the airport during the Singer Song Liar story. The Zashiki Warashi tilted her head. ¡°Can this tanuki transform into a human?¡± ¡°Why of course.¡± After a burst of comical smoke, the round tanuki became a maid with a nice body. It pained me to admit it, but my eyes were drawn to the thighs below her miniskirt. Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader clasped her small hands in front of her chest. ¡°Then can you transform into Jinnai Shinobu to fool the CIA?¡± ¡°She did that in the Singer Song Liar story. Even if we get the fox and badger¡¯s help too, we won¡¯t be able to change the flow of events.¡± The kimono-wearing girl gave a start. She reached into her sleeve and pulled out an extremely simple cellphone. She held it in one hand, poked at the buttons with her other index finger, and wrapped both hands around it to answer it. ¡°Yes, yes. ...Yes?¡± For some reason, she held the phone out to me. ¡°It¡¯s for you, apparently.¡± ¡°Who is it?¡± ¡°Hishigami Mai.¡± Pointless tension ran down my back. It felt like death¡¯s fingertips were stroking my spine. I stared down at the phone for a while, but I finally held it to my ear since I had no choice but to answer. ¡°Hi, Jinnai Shinobu-chan. How does it feel for the grim reaper to know your name?¡± ¡°Oh, dear. This is no laughing matter.¡± ¡°By the way, the grim reaper in this case isn¡¯t me. Where are you right now?¡± ¡°Where?¡± For some reason, I hesitated to answer. ¡°The mountain. It¡¯s a ten to fifteen minute walk from the casino city. There¡¯s a hand-dug tunnel entrance and about three cabins nearby.¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough. Don¡¯t you die until I get there.¡± I thought I was going to pass out. When she said it, words like ¡°die¡± or ¡°kill¡± had an entirely different meaning than from the dimwitted delinquents that liked to use them so frequently. They held their pure, original, and thoroughly honed meanings. ¡°What? What are you saying is going to happen to me!?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have time to explain. It will probably take me ten minutes to arrive if I go all out, so working to survive that long is the bare minimum required of you. Don¡¯t even think about defeating this CIA agent. Just think of ways to buy time. And be especially cautious of miniskirt maids with short brown hair.¡± ¡°...¡± I froze in place when I heard that. I felt like an invisible thread was wrapped tightly around my heart. Miniskirt. Maid. Short hair. Brown hair. As I thought of those four criteria, I slowly and hesitantly turned my head as if photographing the stars. The wet nurse tanuki was there. She was smiling with the others in our group, but what was her current form? I took a slow step backwards. That¡¯s...that¡¯s right. How did she so conveniently find this spot just now? Did she really follow my scent? And if not, who was the skilled person who would have gone on a rampage in the airport in the original flow of events? As I wondered that, my intense unease managed to distract me for just an instant. And in that instant, I was suddenly hit on the side of the head so hard I thought it had to be a hammer or something. ¡°Gah...bah...!?¡± I was knocked to the ground and someone had climbed on top of me. She had short brown hair and a maid uniform with a short skirt, but the face I could see in the darkness looked completely different from the wet nurse tanuki. What is going on? If Hishigami Mai hadn¡¯t called, I wouldn¡¯t have been distracted. No, if I hadn¡¯t had the advance information from the Singer Song Liar story... It¡¯s like the rails we finally started to get switched over are being forced back to the Singer Song Liar story! ¡°Damn...it...!!¡± ¡°Once I have you, it will all be settled.¡± The others quickly caught on, but before they could do anything, the miniskirt maid had pulled a small handgun from her thigh. ¡°If I overclock the Amanojaku, all of the appearing options will be flattened down. The protruding nails will all be hammered down and the future will be corrected back to the plan. If today ends and tomorrow begins, the rails will return to normal and we can reach the blue light.¡± I heard a series of gunshots that seemed far too rapid for a handgun. She was driving away the others with a storm of lead before they could approach and surround us. ¡°Kyah!!¡± The wet nurse tanuki shielded the miners who had yet to move and she was blown backwards. While a Youkai was immune to physical attacks, she could not cover for them forever. And this miniskirt maid would not shy away from bloodshed. She was overclocking the Amanojaku directly linked to the Singer Song Liar story. That would flatten down the appearing options. It would hammer down the protruding nails. It would correct the future back to the plan. Even if I did not understand what each individual part meant, it was enough to get my right temple itching. She was going to crush whatever it was we had finally started to change and she would bring it all back to its original path. She wanted to bring about that conclusion that made me want to vomit when I so much as thought about it. The maid sitting on top of me aimed her handgun at the Zashiki Warashi and Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader. I won¡¯t let you do that. I won¡¯t let you just do whatever you want any longer!! ¡°Goddamn youuuuuuuuuuu!!¡± ¡°?¡± I gathered all my strength and moved my body with her still sitting on top of me. I didn¡¯t so much push her off as I crawled like a caterpillar with her still on top of me. But that was enough. We were on a mountain slope near the tunnel entrance. Other than the artificially maintained parts, the ground was steeply sloped, so I only needed to get us started. From there, we would follow gravity and roll down on our own. I felt something sliding and a prop being removed. I heard dry gunshots, but the Hyakki Yakou girl was not bloodied. The ballistic paths had been thrown far off course. The maid and I fell quickly down the mountain slope. Part 19 (Jinnai Shinobu ¡ª Day 10/03 23:18 - 23:28) I rolled. I rolled and rolled. I rolled into the forest and my back slammed into a thick tree trunk. The shock was enough that I thought I was going to cough up blood, but it was also enough to finally stop me. The miniskirt maid had already separated from me, but not because I had thrown her off. She was only a few meters away. Too far for me to reach her, but close enough to kill me with her gun. She had avoided the collision by pressing her hands and feet against the slope like a wild animal. Her eyes glowed eerily in the moonlight and they were accurately trained on me. ¡°What will you do now?¡± She asked in human language. Someone with a human form spoke in human language. That was a perfectly normal phenomenon, yet it seemed horribly wrong somehow. I simply could not place this enemy in the same category as myself. That was how powerful the invisible ¡°something¡± surrounding her was. ¡°Will you oppose me, or won¡¯t you? Will you persuade me, or won¡¯t you? Will you collapse into tears, or won¡¯t you? Any of them is fine and all of them are fine, but the outcome will not change. The outcome has been set from the beginning.¡± ¡°What are you trying to do?¡± I groaned while having trouble breathing. Human speed could not hope to win against a bullet. I knew that, but I still tried to think. I needed to buy time and make sure I could move my body. ¡°You¡¯re going to spread fear around the globe, force all responsibility on this country, and drive down the price of Japan. ...It¡¯s simple enough to say, but how many people do you think are going to have their lives turned upside down by that? It won¡¯t just be the Japanese hanging themselves. A lot of people trust in the Japanese yen. If it collapses that badly, investors the world over will have no choice but to hang themselves. From the shadiest investment fund to some newlywed wife investing her spare change, you can¡¯t know how far the damage will spread!!¡± ¡°That is simple.¡± That monster in a woman¡¯s body accurately aimed the gun at me and answered in undeniably human words. ¡°This is all for you and your country. We must snuff out the blue light.¡± ¡°What...are you...talking about?¡± ¡°You do not have to understand. It is because you are so immature that someone else must protect your country from the blue light.¡± I did not understand a word of it. Language was a tool meant to convey people¡¯s thoughts and it had no meaning if it was an empty container. That philosophical thought felt disturbingly real to me here. It felt as threatening as being handed a blank sheet of paper and being told to decipher it. I couldn¡¯t help but be overcome by confusion. ¡°How can I accept that?¡± ¡°You are free to accept it or not, but the outcome will not change.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so sure.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°A certain woman told me to survive for ten minutes. She said that was the bare minimum required of me. She said not to think about defeating you and to think of ways to buy time.¡± So... ¡°All I have to do is wait. I just have to drag out this conversation by any means necessary!!¡± I don¡¯t think she had time to turn around. A moment later, the woman in question, Hishigami Mai, rushed in as a gust of black wind. Part 20 (Hishigami Mai ¡ª Day 10/03 23:28 - 23:45) The forest was quiet and the mountain was sleeping. A clawless and fangless human that had given up its fur was an outsider there. It was said a soldier with their senses honed to the extreme could detect the scent of shampoo from four hundred meters away. If they knew the general direction, they could turn all five senses toward their surroundings and find the person hidden there. At any rate, I was lucky to get the first attack in. Does it hurt to have a knee digging into your cheek? Then how about I push you down and finish you off!? ¡°Tch!!¡± Dry gunshots rang out, but I moved just my upper body around to avoid the bullets while still sitting on the maid¡¯s stomach. Or that¡¯s what should have happened. ¡°?¡± Something warm trailed down my cheek. Once I realized it came from the scrape of a bullet grazing my temple, I quickly made a change of plans. I forcefully jumped back to put some distance between us and the maid fired more bullets. This time, I was sure I had dodged them. I kept my body entirely away from the straight line running from the muzzle of the handgun. Yet in reality, the bullets opened dark red holes in my right shoulder and side. ¡°What...is going on!?¡± ¡°That is not what you should be surprised about. The true surprise is that you still haven¡¯t been fatally wounded.¡± She threw aside the old magazine and replaced it with a longer one that was twice the length of the gun itself. She then pulled the slide to load the first bullet. ¡°I am using the same resources. I could not prepare a new Youkai. Just think back to Sid Clouds¡¯s method.¡± ¡°He was boosting his muscular strength with the Ubume¡¯s baby. Did that leave the Ubume itself available!?¡± I had lost a fair bit of blood, but my bones and organs were untouched. I relied on my speed and rushed back in toward the maid to swiftly get in a fatal blow. But... ¡°!?¡± Once I was in range for a certain kill, the maid¡¯s body vanished like fog or an illusion and I heard dry gunshots from the side. I was far too slow to react to the sound, so one arm was destroyed and the bullets stopped just before reaching my organs. This woman!! ¡°The Ubume appears on a road at night and she prefers intersections of multiple paths, be it at a crossroads or a bridge. That is of course because the common point between a number of paths raises the odds of more victims encountering her.¡± By the time I heard the voice, the maid was already gone. ¡°I have made a broad interpretation of that trait. In other words, I can freely control the probability of an ¡®encounter¡¯. I connect to the surrounding space, bind all of the paths together, and divide that which will meet from that which will not meet. Just like the Ubume meets her victim and separates that victim form any witnesses to ensure their death.¡± It sounded like we were in an echoing cave. The source of her voice was dispersed to the point I couldn¡¯t pinpoint a direction. ¡°You will not meet me.¡± Only the dripping of my blood on the ground was clear. Not good! Really not good! As long as I¡¯m caught in her technique, I¡¯ll be killed in a completely one-sided game!! ¡°But my devilish attacks will always meet you.¡± The voice was directed straight toward me, just like the sights of the gun. ¡°After all, bullets follow a ballistic path, so I can freely bind them to you.¡± Gunshots rang out. The multiple lead bullets flew like lightning and accurately pierced my body. Part 21 (Uchimaku Hayabusa ¡ª Day 10/03 23:45 - 23:50) The continuous gunshots stabbed into our ears. Hiking up a mountain in a cheap, impractical suit and leather shoes was not fun, but that discomfort was immediately swept from my mind by the sense of danger that spread from the center of my head to the farthest reaches of my body. ¡°This isn¡¯t good. That wasn¡¯t just a hunting rifle. It was lighter and rapid fire.¡± ¡°Probably a machine pistol or a submachinegun. Either way, it¡¯s firing handgun rounds. But it sounds like there¡¯s only one source, so I don¡¯t think they¡¯re fighting a war at the port or anything.¡± Why are you grinning? This isn¡¯t just some news on TV. We can get dragged into the center of it at any time. I really shouldn¡¯t have brought her along. I don¡¯t have a gun with me and a bow gun was enough to give me trouble. ¡°Mystery Freak, you stay here. If you hear gunfire again, run straight away no matter what¡¯s happened.¡± ¡°Um, are you serious, detective?¡± ¡°We can¡¯t just sit in safety, observing the suspects and hunting down the criminal anymore! This is beyond what you can handle and I can¡¯t guarantee I can protect a civilian minor here!¡± ¡°Not what I meant.¡± Bunny Enbi placed her index finger on my lips to silence me. ¡°According to that NPA guy, the enemy here is the CIA. I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s an official agent or a local helper, but a criminal protected by state secrets has shown herself. You may have taken one step outside of the formal police agencies, but do you really think that¡¯s enough here? You can¡¯t take your other foot out, so it would be best to have someone with you to step in the puddles and pick up the items.¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t taking you with me to turn you into a criminal.¡± ¡°Thank you for looking out for me. If you had added ¡®I love you¡¯ at the end, I might have forced myself onto you right here.¡± But Enbi quickly changed her tone. ¡°This doesn¡¯t look like the time to be carefully choosing your cards. Can¡¯t you feel this tense atmosphere, detective?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t like the Funa Yuurei on Zashou Island or the Aoandon in Zenmetsu Village. It isn¡¯t that we¡¯ve gotten ourselves involved in my sister¡¯s territory. This is a surprise, because I didn¡¯t know there was a world beyond even that.¡± Part 22 (Jinnai Shinobu ¡ª Day 10/03 23:45 - 23:58) I could only watch. Hishigami Mai¡¯s body tilted. She had taken several bullets to the back and she was limply collapsing to the ground. Only after seeing that definite loss of life did I realize she too was a human just like the rest of us. She could fail and she could make mistakes. No matter how much she showed off and how full of herself she was, there was no guarantee she could keep her promises. ¡°It¡¯s over now,¡± said the miniskirt maid, far too easily. ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you? Whether you do anything or not is your decision, but it will not change the outcome.¡± ¡°............................................................................................................................................................¡± It was no use. How was I supposed to fight this? I wouldn¡¯t have stood a chance against someone with a normal gun, yet this woman was using a Youkai power and had overwhelmingly defeated even Hishigami Mai. What could a normal high school boy do against a true monster like that? ¡°Once I have you, I can overclock the Amanojaku.¡± She slowly but surely walked toward me. ¡°That will correct the twisted path and return everything to normal. We will be able to reach the blue light for your sake and for your country¡¯s sake.¡± Was it all over? I could not stop the CIA. They would misuse the Usuhiki Warashi Package, spread fear around the globe concerning the exported Japanese financial systems, place all of the blame on Japan, and buy Japan at a vastly reduced price while claiming to be assisting its recovery. Was this leading to that future? I just about gave up, but then some oddly muffled gunshots were directed toward the maid¡¯s back. ¡°...?¡± ¡°You showed your back, didn¡¯t you?¡± I heard a voice. It came from Hishigami Mai who was collapsed on the slope. At some point, a small handgun with a suppressor attached had appeared in her hand. ¡°You can connect all ¡®paths¡¯ and manipulate their encounter rate, but for some strange reason, you never showed your back. Yet if you could simply determine my attacks wouldn¡¯t hit, that shouldn¡¯t have mattered.¡± The maid slowly turned around. It didn¡¯t seem Mai could get up, but she showed no sign of caring. ¡°That means your back is the exception. Wasn¡¯t that your Achilles¡¯ heel? The Ubume is said to be a collection of the women who died in childbirth and their persistent desire to at least protect their child. An Ubume cannot exist as just an Ubume. There must always be a symbol of the child. They ask a passerby to hold their baby and kill them by the baby¡¯s ever-increasing weight, but it¡¯s said they leave and stop trying to kill the victim if they sense any danger to the baby.¡± ¡°You...mean...?¡± I muttered without thinking. Mai responded with a smile on her bloody lips. ¡°The Ubume appears holding her baby, but since your back is your weakness, are you carrying it on your back? It might be a paper doll shaped like a child and it may just be stored inside your maid outfit to make it look like you¡¯re carrying it, but it would be deadly for you if it were damaged. The Ubume will always keep her baby safe even if it means abandoning her fearsome power, so you¡¯ve lost your special ability. You can no longer connect paths and manipulate the encounter rate!!¡± More muffled gunshots continued and the miniskirt maid could only let them hit her. But... I clearly saw the woman smile. ¡°No,¡± I muttered as I spoke what I could instinctually sense. ¡°She wasn¡¯t relying on the Ubume. She¡¯s been fixated on another Youkai from the beginning! So...!!¡± ¡°Yes, I was using ¨C and truly wanted to use ¨C the Amanojaku.¡± The maid slowly aimed her handgun at Hishigami Mai. The bullets had definitely hit her, yet there wasn¡¯t a single red stain on her miniskirt maid outfit. ¡°That Youkai can replace everything with lies. That is why I deceived you so easily.¡± It happened far too quickly. As several bullets struck her, Hishigami Mai transformed. The face that symbolized her transformed. It splattered apart like a jigsaw puzzle thrown to the floor. There was nothing I could do. The situation had suddenly gone two steps too far for me to even feel fear or sadness. I forgot to even scream and simply spoke in a daze. ¡°You mean you only made it look like you were using the Ubume in your tactics? And all so you could misuse the Amanojaku¡¯s lying trait?¡± ¡°Yes. It was really just an elementary illusion. I was a little let down when it looked like I was going to win without having to use this, so I¡¯m glad I was able to use everything I had stocked up.¡± All was lost now. Every single chance of victory had slipped from my fingers. ¡°Whether you do anything or not is your decision. Who will you rely on now? That Zashiki Warashi and the local miners? Or maybe the detective who is only now carelessly entering the forest with a girl? They will arrive here eventually regardless, but all of them will die once they do. That is how this is set up.¡± It felt like she was reading from a book of prophecy. And an extremely cruel one that went on and on about all sorts of destruction yet never mentioned a way to stop it. Anyone who met her would die. And at this rate, it was only a matter of time before a whole lot of people approached this monster. ¡°So choose for yourself. At what stage do you want this to end? At Hishigami Mai¡¯s death, at the annihilation of the Zashiki Warashi and the others with her, or at the detective¡¯s discovery of all the corpses? You have options, but you cannot undo your previous choices. So choose for yourself when you will step down.¡± ¡°...¡± My mind went entirely blank. After all, there was nothing I could do. What could I possibly do? It was obvious that struggling and resisting any longer would only increase the number of deaths. It was plain as day. So what was I supposed to do? My right temple itched. Was my best option to follow the Singer Song Liar story while ensuring everyone survived so I could at least regain the country decades later? Was that really the best option? Could I really accept that? ¡°You are free to choose whatever you want,¡± said the maid. ¡°But there is only one result. No one can escape the Amanojaku. You understand that, don¡¯t you?¡± She seemed to be tempting me, soothing me. She made that bold and triumphant announcement while completely looking down on me. But... No one can escape the Amanojaku? ¡°Wait.¡± What are we dealing with here? Both my Singer Song Liar story and this miniskirt maid¡¯s power come from the Amanojaku. That¡¯s a single Youkai. This isn¡¯t about the Usuhiki Warashi, Kechibi, or Ubume anymore. If everything is ruled by the Amanojaku alone, I can turn this all on its head by finding a way to defeat that Amanojaku. I can still turn this around!! Think. You have to think. What is the Singer Song Liar story anyway? Sticking a Youkai in a fantasy is too simple and vague. If it was built into a Package, there has to be some kind of concrete, physical system. The Amanojaku is a contrarian Youkai that answers any question with a lie. It commits small pranks like reading traveler¡¯s minds to mimic them and surprise them, but it¡¯s also known to commit great crimes like killing a princess, wearing her skin, and taking her place. To include an Amanojaku, there must be a huge symbol of a lies. It has to be a concrete, physical, secure, and sturdy symbol of lies and not something easily shaken or erased like an automatically-generated story. Think back to the Singer Song Liar story and what happened in reality. Think back to everything presented there, seen there, and heard there. Goldmine Island. A small island off of Kyushu. The temperature is twenty eight degrees. It¡¯s a mining island originally known as Heavy Cruiser Island. It¡¯s now the stage for a new casino policy, but the profits aren¡¯t evenly returned, creating friction between the locals and the entertainment companies. The locals claim the companies are mining deep below the island with work ships and that¡¯s why there¡¯s no more gold in the mines. The locals thoroughly hate the casinos. The pineapple-like tropical trees have some red and yellow from the few maple and gingko trees still mixed in. ¡°...................................................................................................................................................Oh, I get it.¡± ¡°?¡± I had finally found it. I had found the symbol of lies and the system prepared to store the Amanojaku. And of course, the entire Package would cease to function if that was destroyed. It would all disperse and her plan would fail. In that case, I had no reason to hesitate. I would reveal the lie. I would defeat the Amanojaku using the truth. I would turn everything on its head. I would end it all in just a few words. And so I spoke those few words to the woman of lies who ruled everything here. ¡°This island isn¡¯t in its original location. It was artificially moved from its original coordinates.¡± I clearly heard the sound of cracks running through glass. ¡°You slowly moved Goldmine Island far from its original location, but moving it wasn¡¯t your goal. You wanted an environment where everyone was unknowingly being deceived. It was all for your symbol of lies, the Amanojaku!!¡± ¡°What...are you talking about?¡± ¡°You tricked everyone here!! You threw us all inside a giant lie! That allowed the Amanojaku to use its full power and that made my story so tremendously effective!! That¡¯s all it was!!¡± ¡°Ridiculous. Do you really think we could do that? Even if it¡¯s a small island, how much mass do you think that is?¡± ¡°The amount of mass doesn¡¯t matter. As long as you can achieve buoyancy, any object will float. There¡¯s been talk of strange work ships stopping at the island since the casinos were first invited in. They would secretly carry out huge amounts of dirt and sand, so people thought they were digging up gold without permission.¡± The locals hadn¡¯t been wrong, but they had only been looking at it from their interests. ¡°But they were doing something else. They were creating a spider web of tunnels deep below the island and filling them with a foaming substance like polyurethane. If they separated the island from its roots with a bunch of explosives, Goldmine Island would float up like a life preserver!¡± To put it more liberally, it was like floating the entire island on a giant kickboard. As the casinos arrived, the beaches had apparently rapidly shrunk. Everyone had accepted it as sea level rise due to global warming, but that probably wasn¡¯t it. After spending more than a year slowly moving the island a few kilometers, it had been sunk down and affixed to a ¡°new base¡± prepared on the ocean bottom. And they had done that by removing the foaming material. But it had rocked in the waves while being moved. And when it was affixed to the new base, a height difference of a few centimeters to a few dozen centimeters could have been introduced. That would have made it look like the ocean level had risen and the beaches had shrunk. The miniskirt maid tensed her lips. ¡°Nothing that ridiculous could have happened. What about the airplane pilots? Or the ship captains? How could we have fooled them? How could we guide them to Goldmine Island¡¯s supposed new location!?¡± ¡°These days, no captain navigates with a sea chart and compass in one hand. They¡¯re entirely reliant on the electronic control and digital display, so you just have to fake those numbers. If the island was moved bit by bit in a circle around a central point without changing the actual distance, the pilots just looking at the numbers won¡¯t know that the numbers have been swapped out and that they¡¯re being guided in a different direction!!¡± Someone who determined directions by looking at the moon or stars may have noticed something was off, but no one captained a ship or piloted an airplane with those primitive methods anymore. And while it would be a lot of trouble to swap out those numbers, that made sense too. The Amanojaku was a Youkai of lies and it would answer any question with a lie. When the ships and airplanes sent out their ¡°questions¡±, the navigation equipment would ¡°answer¡± with false data, guiding them to the island of lies. That setup had to have been quite comfortable for the Amanojaku. ¡°GPS systems are reliant on America, so you in the CIA can easily make changes to all the map apps and car navigation systems that use it. The same goes for airport control and ship navigation systems. Even if the equipment itself is made in Japan, the software inside is all made in America. It wouldn¡¯t be difficult for you to swap out the numbers for this island that everyone was looking at.¡± If someone had dived down to the ocean bottom, the terrain around the island may have looked completely wrong. That would have turned Goldmine Island¡¯s surroundings into a demonic area of sea. After all, the actual coordinates and the data were completely different. If one was using older means of determining direction or a navigation system that didn¡¯t rely on America, it was possible two ships could head to the same coordinates and never find each other even as they spoke over the radio or phone. That was to be expected when their ideas of the ¡°same coordinates¡± were so different. ¡°But you failed. I saw through it. I used the truth to break through your world of lies! This is no longer a world running on lies. By bringing in the truth, the conditions you need to keep the Amanojaku will have crumbled. That power won¡¯t last much longer!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t... Don¡¯t be ridiculous. We were not doing anything like that. Your method of refuting us was wrong. Your incorrect deductions won¡¯t do anything to the Amanojaku¡¯s power.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Then why are you cutting in like this? Are you panicking? ¡°Yes, really!! No one on Goldmine Island has noticed anything off. And even you have no proof of any of this, do you? Do you really think you can force this onto someone else when you can¡¯t even convince yourself!?¡± It did indeed hurt to have her point that out. I wasn¡¯t a forensics expert and I didn¡¯t have time to call one in. If this miniskirt maid silenced me, she would probably be able to reach the Amanojaku almost immediately and that would determine the future. This country would fall into ruin. That meant I had to do something with what I had here. I had to prove this was an island of lies using what I had at my disposal. ¡°We¡¯re currently farther north than Goldmine Island¡¯s original location, aren¡¯t we? Whether it¡¯s five or ten kilometers, it has to be enough to make the island¡¯s mere presence here a lie.¡± ¡°What are you saying?¡± ¡°My cellphone says the temperature is twenty eight degrees. Just like a tropical island, the temperature has fluctuated between twenty five and thirty degrees over the past week. This is a warm enough night to forget it¡¯s October.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your point?¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± I pointed, but not at the miniskirt maid. I pointed at the tree behind her. ¡°The maple trees are turning red. But if this midsummer heat was constant, they never would have started changing color!! It¡¯s possible to place dry ice at the base of a tree to make its leaves change color early, but I can¡¯t think of a single logical reason to do that on a tropical island like this. That means the maple trees are changing naturally!!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°But why!? Why is there a difference between the temperature on the screen here and the color change in the leaves? That¡¯s because Goldmine Island is supposed to be south of here where it¡¯s warmer and the trees haven¡¯t started changing color yet! When falsifying the data to fool the locals, you had to swap out the meteorological data like temperature and humidity, didn¡¯t you!? And that¡¯s why the leaves have started changing color several days early!!¡± From the very beginning, I had thought this island was ¡°chilly¡±. When I had checked my cellphone and seen the lie that it was twenty eight degrees, I had just assumed it was due to the low humidity and the night wind. ¡°There¡¯s a huge difference between the actual color of the leaves and the temperature shown on the screen here!! This proves that the island was moved from its original location and that we¡¯ve been thrown into a giant lie!!!!!¡± Multiple gunshots rang out and dark red holes opened from my chest to my navel as if I had fallen victim to a giant sewing machine. She may have tried to silence me before I made the decisive statement. She may have decided she could include ¡°Jinnai Shinobu¡± in the system as long as my brain or heart remained. My body tilted to the side and a rusty flavor rushed up into my throat. There was probably no saving me. But make no mistake. All I needed was the strength to move my trembling lips. Her power was a collection of lies. No matter what she accomplished, it was nothing but a house built on sand. If the lies were revealed, it would all disappear. I just had to use the truth to break the many tragedies she had created. ¡°It was all...lies. This is the truth!!¡± With that, I heard shattering glass and our surroundings entirely changed. They were overwritten. The many holes in my gut vanished. The corpse with the smashed face returned to Hishigami Mai¡¯s lovely form. It had all begun with a lie, so no matter what was piled on top of it, it would all come tumbling down once the foundational lie vanished. It was just like a tree trunk and branches. No matter how long the branches were, if you took an axe to the trunk, the entire tree would fall. That was what had happened here. ¡°Ah...ah...¡± The miniskirt maid glanced around. She seemed to be thinking about how to recover from here, so I spoke. ¡°Checkmate.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t act so full of yourself! You¡¯re just an amateur!! Just because I can¡¯t control the Amanojaku doesn¡¯t mean that you can defeat me here. I can vanish for the moment, rebuild my foundation, and return it all to normal!!¡± ¡°Yes, you can escape right now, but without the Amanojaku Package, we won¡¯t do what you say. You can¡¯t take over the Usuhiki Warashi and you can¡¯t buy Japan. So is there still any reason to fight?¡± ¡°!!¡± ¡°So that means you have a choice. At what stage do you want this to end?¡± I repeated the same question she had asked me earlier. ¡°Defeating me and continuing on would be easy. I¡¯m just a normal high school boy. But a more powerful enemy will show up next. Will it be my detective of an uncle? Or if he isn¡¯t enough, will it be the skilled agent that even Hyakki Yakou fears? How far can you get now that you¡¯ve lost your power?¡± ¡°....................................................................................................................................!!!!!!¡± ¡°So let me say this.¡± I gave my final notification to the woman whose throat had to have gone dry. ¡°Jinnai Shinobu, Uchimaku Hayabusa, or Hishigami Mai? Which one do you want to settle this with you!?¡± Volume 5, PACKAGE_Console_System_Ver.010.56. Volume 5, PACKAGE_Console_System_Ver.010.56. Operation_Name=¡°Singer_Song_Liar¡±. Target_Core=¡°AMA-NO-JAKU¡± ¡°Effective_Area=¡°Goldmine_Island//Japan//The_World¡±. Master_User=¡°YUMI=HASUKAWA¡±. Slave_User=¡°Shinobu=JIN-NAI¡± ¡°and_all_users¡±. Attestration_Code_01=¡°******************************************************************¡±. Attestration_Code_02=¡°******************************************************************¡±. Attestration_Code_03=¡°******************************************************************¡±. Sure.Acess_Start. Control_Mode=¡°Manual¡± ¡°Emergency¡±. Sure.All_Command_Prompt_Open(Include_Secret_Commands). Connect=¡°Out¡± ¡°All_Users¡±. Sure.Command_Execution_Start. Notice//All_Signals_Lost,And_All_Effects_Lost.Countdown_Start_For_All_Processes,10,09,08... Self-contradiction has exceeded acceptable limits. As an emergency measure to avoid backflow of unanticipated damages based on the rapid causal changes, the Package will now end all processes. Ending the processes includes the self-destruction of system elements, so restarting the processes or extracting data from the damaged portions will not be possible. To restart the processes, it is strongly recommended one fully reconstruct both the hardware and software elements of the Package¡¯s system. Work complete. This message window will disappear in ten seconds. Volume 5, Epilogue Volume 5, Epilogue The day known as ¡°today¡± ended and the new day known as ¡°tomorrow¡± began. Even that simple fact filled me with emotion. My uncle, the Mystery Freak named Hishigami Enbi, her sister Hishigami Mai, and the Sunekosuri had all gathered with the rest of us. We were a bit up the slope in the clearing near the tunnel entrance. Incidentally, the entire situation was quickly settled as soon as the effects of the Amanojaku wore off. Hyakki Yakou¡¯s girl leader and her bodyguards had suddenly rushed in toward the villain as if they had suddenly remembered something. The miniskirt maid herself, whose name was apparently Hasukawa Yumi, was kneeling down with everyone surrounding her. Hishigami Enbi, who was hiking through the mountain in a bunny suit for some reason, frowned and spoke. ¡°Eh? She was behind it all? So does that mean the CIA was the one killing freelance writers with malfunctioning electronics!?¡± ¡°Probably. They were the ones who interfered with the Usuhiki Warashi Package and they would have been the ones who would want to hide the island¡¯s movement since they were the ones desperate to control the Amanojaku.¡± For some reason, my annoyed answer led the middle school bunny girl to pout her lips and start complaining. She seemed to be the type who didn¡¯t like to have a CIA agent, an exorcist family, or a god on the dramatis personae. But that was her problem. I had to do what was left for me to do. ¡°Hey,¡± I said to Hishigami Mai. ¡°Do you have a random blade? A knife will work.¡± ¡°I do.¡± She pulled a disturbingly long and skinny blade from the side of her boot and held the handle out to me. The single-edged blade was over twenty centimeters long and it looked like a sashimi knife customized for killing. ¡°But what are you going to use it for? Do you feel like finishing off the villain yourself?¡± ¡°No, that isn¡¯t it. There¡¯s still one mystery remaining.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°The Amanojaku. That Youkai is the cause of all this, but where is it?¡± I held the knife tight as I spat out the words. ¡°It¡¯s supposed to correct reality based on the Singer Song Liar story, but that isn¡¯t enough for everything to go according to the CIA¡¯s plan. They were simply using my story to their own ends, so the story itself isn¡¯t enough. They would first need to make me create the song they wanted so the story they wanted would be made.¡± One only had to recall the traits of the Amanojaku. It was a symbol of lies that answered any question with a lie. It would read people¡¯s minds and mimic them to surprise them. It would pull simple pranks, yet it was also a deadly Youkai that would kill people, wear their skin, and take their place. And most importantly, when Hasukawa Yumi wanted to make a correction to their plan, she had tried to capture me. Why would she need me to interfere with the world of lies constructed by the Amanojaku? ¡°They used its trait to read someone¡¯s mind and mimic them to create an input and output point for reading and writing the contents of my mind. It¡¯s obvious where something like that would be hidden. Especially for a Youkai that can wear people¡¯s skin to disguise themselves.¡± Yes. There had been a certain sign every time I had recalled the Singer Song Liar story. My right temple. There had been some itching movement there. So! I brought the narrow and sharp blade of the sashimi-style knife to the side of my head. I heard a brief shriek in an unfamiliar voice, but I ignored it and moved the blade further. I had no idea when ¡°this¡± had started hiding in my head. As soon as I had finished writing the song and story with Singer Song Liar? When I had arrived on the island? In the airplane? Or around the time the USB hardware key was attached to my suitcase before takeoff? But that wouldn¡¯t matter as long I could remove it. I couldn¡¯t return to the normal world with ¡°this¡± still in there. I was afraid to do this, but I had no way of knowing what effect leaving it would have. I heard an unpleasant splintering sound as the strange wriggling sensation underneath my skin grew and expanded. This was not blood gathering. I could feel something far more out of place pushing out there. But¡­ ¡°What? Isn¡¯t this¡­a little too big!?¡± I shuddered as I traced my fingers over its outline. I had assumed it would be at most the size of my little fingernail, but it was far larger. It was like a balloon being inflated to the limit. In no time at all, it had grown larger than my skull. I had known Youkai didn¡¯t obey the laws of physics, but wasn¡¯t this a little much? What had happened inside my head with this shoved inside!? With the sound of gas bubbling up from a swamp, ¡°it¡± completely separated. It was the Amanojaku. It was less than a meter tall, so about the size of a fair-sized child. It was small for a person, but I was pretty sure it was a world record for a tumor. Two horns seemed to split through the disheveled hair. Its sex was difficult to judge through the thin kimono, but as a symbol of lies, it may not have had a definite sex. It said nothing. It only gave a creepy laugh and gave my face an upturned glance. Oh, I get it. This is about what I would expect for a contrarian Youkai that always answers with a lie. It was truly the source of everything that had happened. However, it had only been used by the CIA and it had meant no harm itself. I staggered and waved my bloody hand as if shooing it away. ¡°Go disappear somewhere. We have no need for you.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t thank you, human.¡± It looked like a kid, but its response was full of impudence. And with that, it ran into the dark forest without looking back. They¡¯re supposed to always answer with lies, so does that mean it¡¯s actually thankful? I wondered that as I returned the human carving knife to Hishigami Mai. That was when a great din reached us as a large transport helicopter approached and landed. I assumed it was from Hyakki Yakou, but it wasn¡¯t. It belonged to the same country that had manufactured it: America. Hasukawa Yumi winked at me with her hands still clasped behind her head. ¡°I lost this time. Not killing me is sure to benefit you in the future.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t forget that I let you go. Don¡¯t try anything on us again.¡± ¡°We won¡¯t. That alone I can promise you.¡± She slowly stood without removing her hands from the back of her head. She was demonstrating her confidence. She smiled at me with men in military uniforms standing on either side of her. ¡°I will be leaving this country for the time being. I feel bad for leaving behind those on our military bases, but if I stay here any longer, I will undoubtedly get dragged into the blue light issue. And it will be too late to escape once that happens.¡± ¡°Wait a second. What are you talking about? The blue light?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I explain that this was all for your sake and for your country¡¯s sake?¡± The helicopter rotor nearly drowned out her voice. That was how hopelessly transparent that angelic voice was. ¡°The CIA failed. The higher ups are not going to be happy about this. It looked like the NSA and FRB were only thinking of stopping any influence that reached our shores, so you just lost your final chance. ¡­Things can only come tumbling down now. I tried to stop the blue light, but your country didn¡¯t want that.¡± ¡°Again, what are you talking about!? What is this blue light!?¡± ¡°It was to be your country¡¯s fate to sink without ever knowing that, but I do owe you. Just this once, I¡¯ll give you some information.¡± As she left, Hasukawa Yumi held out a memory card smaller than a stamp. The soldiers around her did not stop her. They then boarded the large helicopter and flew off into the night sky. It was like they were trying to escape the mountain before it was engulfed in a forest fire. ¡°What?¡± I was overcome by a strange sense of unease. The small memory device in my hand felt far too heavy. ¡°What is on here?¡± I took back the smartphone stored in the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s cleavage and stuck the memory card inside. The data was filled with English and my textbook knowledge of the language wasn¡¯t nearly enough. It was a perfect example of test scores being of no practical use. Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader, Hafuri, grimaced when she peered at the screen. ¡°119th Eastern Strategy Report¡­ An inadequate counterintelligence system¡­ An enemy from within¡­ Risk simulation of a large scale terrorist attack in the near future¡­ A negative chain reaction in the world economy produced by the fall of a single nation¡­ 99.9%... Countermeasures¡­ It is necessary we immediately reform the defense system even if it means temporarily taking administrative control from the Japanese government¡­¡± Even the fragments I heard were enough to tell this was no normal report. ¡°What does that mean? Were the CIA and America trying to take over Japan to protect Japan? So is there some true enemy somewhere else?¡± They had decided those extreme measures were necessary to deal with this enemy. And that enemy remained untouched. America had retreated without dealing with it. So what did that mean? What was going to happen to us...no, to the land we called home? ¡°The assumed enemy is a Japanese Spirit¡­a Youkai¡­¡± Hafuri then spoke a single name. ¡°The Blue Lamp.¡± An unpleasant sensation ran through my entire body. That was not just a codename. Japanese Youkai sometimes had names that couldn¡¯t be accurately represented in English. They were probably only using that strange name in place of its original name. The blue light. That was something we knew very well. I recalled the name of the hopelessly deadly Youkai that we had created. ¡°Is this referring to the Aoandon!?¡± I raised both arms to stretch my back. Yes, it was such a nice popping feeling. My back didn¡¯t actually make a noise, but that was the quickest way to describe that liberating feeling! ¡°Anyway, it looks like they failed.¡± An entire island had been turned into a lie by an over-the-top plan that involved moving that entire island. The national alteration Package using the Amanojaku had been quite a formidable foe. If it had been completed as my rival, the coming competition would have gotten a lot more interesting. But the country had rejected their own savior. That meant things were going to be more boring. Such a shame. Not only would the sun be lowering in the sky for them, it would be vanishing beyond the horizon. ¡°Whoever our enemy is, our preparations are complete,¡± said an emotionless voice. It came from the man standing next to me, Saiki Kazu. From my point of view, I guess he was the human representative. A Youkai couldn¡¯t draw out all of its power alone. I needed a convenient human around for the techniques only they could use. I guess it was like the relationship between the foundation and the implementation. Or maybe the relationship between blazing fire and the precise machinery that kept a thermal power station running. It was more of a division of roles than a master/servant kind of thing. ¡°No matter what we set as our hypothetical enemy, it is logically impossible for it to shake the system we have set up.¡± ¡°I know. That¡¯s why I¡¯m so calmly daydreaming about all the different possibilities.¡± I giggled as I answered. A short form was running through the dark forest. It seemed to be an Amanojaku. It looked concerned by our presence, so I gave a quick wave. ¡°I am the condensed form of one hundred fears with more to spare, so if a Package including me is assembled, it really will change the world¡î¡± I pictured a few faces in my mind. The one that had left the strongest impression was of course that boy. That one trump card who had once driven me almost to death. Jinnai Shinobu-kun. ¡°Now, how about we put them in checkmate?¡± I smiled and urged the man along. ¡°Let¡¯s fulfill the fears the people desire and answer their calling voices.¡± Volume 5, Longing Volume 5, Longing ¡°Ahh, ahh. Everything on the news just makes me sigh these days. It¡¯s all so boring.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t win. We¡¯re doing our best, but this is all we get. There are so many champion schools here. We¡¯re good enough to get at least to the qualifiers in any other district, so why are we stuck here?¡± ¡°Did you see that site? Type in your age, qualifications, and academic history and it¡¯ll calculate out how much income you¡¯ll earn in your lifetime. ...You aren¡¯t laughing? Why can¡¯t you just laugh this off?¡± ¡°The election¡¯s next week? It doesn¡¯t matter. That isn¡¯t going to change anything.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have the courage. I¡¯m not the kind of person who can just talk to any boy. What am I supposed to do? Am I just going to sit here hesitating until someone else takes him?¡± ¡°What is this? This is hopeless. What even is a normalized score? If I¡¯m separated from the rest here, how am I supposed to support myself for the next seventy or eighty years?¡± ¡°Oh, crap. At my age, you can¡¯t find anyone even on this questionable dating site.¡± ¡°Why is it so hard to breathe?¡± ¡°Is everything I try a dead end?¡± ¡°How should I put it...¡± ¡°Can¡¯t something happen to just blow it all away?¡± Fine then. If that is what you all truly want, I will provide that thrill, that fear. But once it begins, there is no turning back. Volume 5, Afterword Volume 5, Afterword Here we are at Volume 5!! This is Kamachi Kazuma. This time, the theme was the Amanojaku. It¡¯s a strange Youkai that¡¯s name appears in everyday conversation with no connection to the occult, yet even the experts¡¯ opinions are split as to its origin. As a symbol of lies that always answers with a lie, that position left quite an impression on me, but what do all of you think? At first glance, this series has a lot of eccentric behavior, but it¡¯s actually more human (for better or for worse) than the characters from my other series and it tends to move things along by saying ¡°Well, there¡¯s no other way of solving this¡±. I emphasized that this time and created a conclusion that the characters are being inevitably swept toward and a conclusion that that they struggled until the end to achieve. The Perfect Shinobu who appeared at the end of the ¡°worst ending¡± in Side A is one possibility I pictured for Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s perfect form. He was not born to be a hero, so if he doesn¡¯t head down a new path himself, he would be stuck with an unchanging life (while giving up on a few things). But if he steps off the path, he can tumble down to the very bottom. That was what I was trying to briefly show, but what did you think? He intentionally made use of how Youkai like him, he mastered both technology and the occult, he even made use of a girl from his class, he threw away everything, and he ran down the path of evil to overcome that great past and reclaim his life with the one heroine, the Zashiki Warashi. I really threw everything in there, but I¡¯m fine with characters like that. C¡¯mon, everyone loves ordering something with ¡°everything on it¡±!! The story structure of the high school baseball player gradually improving over time isn¡¯t my kind of thing, but you can enjoy the story of a legendary hall-of-famer¡¯s exploits in an entirely different way and I don¡¯t think you can really say one or the other is better. I just wish I could create a world wide enough to include both kinds of enjoyment. And in this story, I wanted to make a conclusion that wasn¡¯t the result of pre-installed elements or talents. I wanted it to come from the strength of the characters¡¯ choices influencing each other. I suppose the main centerpiece was Singer Song Liar. Automatic songwriting software isn¡¯t all that rare these days and I hear it¡¯s looking like they might develop a program to mechanically write novels before long. As an author, I have to admit that something someone didn¡¯t work to make wouldn¡¯t be as enjoyable (although as an author, so I can continue writing them myself), but these days, you can type on a computer and have the kanji automatically chosen for you and you can instantly send the manuscript data to your editor over the internet. To the literary masters of the past, things today are probably so convenient they would skip straight past anger and just feel exasperated. Also, if you include things from other fields (like people casually wanting to make a movie or wanting to make a dream team in baseball or soccer), then ¡°casually wanting to write a novel¡± is probably a pretty popular desire for a lot of people. That¡¯s why I added in something a few steps ahead of that in this story. If a service like that really did exist, you would all want to use it, wouldn¡¯t you? In addition to the two-layer structure of Side A and Side B, another gimmick I used was having the characters in Side A act a little off. I casually put in things I couldn¡¯t in my other series like having a protagonist die. I just hope you found it really exciting. And if you can guess why I¡¯m not able to do that in my other series, you might be what is known as a ¡°connoisseur¡±. I give my thanks to my illustrator, Mahaya-san, and my editors, Miki-san, Onodera-san, and Anan-san. The illustrations must have been tough with so many differently-colored locations like the casino, the mountain, the airport, and the cruise ship. I appreciate it all as usual. And I give my thanks to the readers. I think the Kechibi might have been a little rare, but what did you think? There are still a ton of Youkai I want to put in the story, so I hope you will stick with me from here on too. And I will end this here. The hardest part of this one was coming up with the concrete ¡°proof¡± for the end of Side B. -Kamachi Kazuma Volume 6, Prologue: Destruction, The Day Before Volume 6, Prologue: Destruction, The Day Before Humanity could no longer escape the vortex of information. Television and radio signals poured down over even the most rural-looking scenery. An internet environment was maintained with cellphones, Wi-Fi, and LTE. Security networks were built up with security cameras and event data recorders. Weather forecasts were sent over satellite broadcast and GPS. There were police and firefighter radios. Aircraft and ships had control systems. Even the ham radios used by a great variety of people added to the invisible vortex of information that dissolved right into the air. It filled every nook and cranny of the human world, so it was nearly impossible to find a clear bandwidth. Some said cellphone signals caused cancer. It was unclear what medical basis (if any) that rumor had, but it may have been a representation of the concerns held by the current age. ¡°What a pain.¡± A girl¡¯s voice too bewitching to call ¡°cute¡± sounded in the middle of a metal and concrete city. Compared to the storm of information that blotted out the world, this was but a minute grain of data. Then again, information had always been about quality, not quantity. At that time, it may have been best if the nation had set aside all else and focused on the information being produced here. ¡°More rumors are created and destroyed in these places than anywhere else in the world. For me, this may be like visiting my ancestors, but the big city really is exhausting.¡± Her clothes resembled the white kimono of a bride. She had long, bluish-black hair and a single knife-like horn seemed to split the bangs on her forehead. Bluish-white phosphorescence glowed at the tip of the horn. Her childish face was belied by the glamorous figure that was noticeable even through the kimono that tended to hide one¡¯s frame. ¡°But given what we¡¯re going to do, it can¡¯t hurt to take a look just this once. Ugh, I¡¯m feeling dizzy.¡± She was unique even among the deadly Youkai. It was assumed she would be built up by human hands. She was the blue oni that appeared at the end of the Hyakumonogatari and caused so very many supernatural phenomena. Even after bringing together those one hundred fears, she still reigned supreme. ¡°Aoandon.¡± A voice reached her from directly behind. The deadly Youkai named the Aoandon looked back into the crowd and saw a skinny and nearly expressionless young man wearing a dark suit. His name was Saiki Kazu. He was a member of her group. This skilled user of the supernatural arts had misused an Aburatori Package and singlehandedly destroyed a large criminal organization with an international reach. ¡°The assembly is complete. We have no reason to stay here.¡± ¡°You did? Really??? But I¡¯m still feeling that sharp pain.¡± ¡°I only use Youkai. I don¡¯t change their fundamental nature.¡± ¡°Oh. I wonder if this is what menstrual cramps feel like.¡± ¡°As a man, I wouldn¡¯t know.¡± Saiki responded to her joke without moving a single eyebrow. The Aoandan pouted her lips. ¡°Then I guess it¡¯s time to put this country in check. And I¡¯m still not sure whether I should call it Nihon or Nippon.¡± ¡°That kind of ambiguity is exactly what creates an opening for us.¡± ¡°What are the other members doing?¡± ¡°They are all waiting for your orders.¡± ¡°Yeah, some of them can be difficult to control. How¡¯s Kada-chan doing?¡± ¡°Everything is at normal levels.¡± ¡°Sakogawa-chan?¡± ¡°Normal.¡± ¡°Iko-chan?¡± ¡°That one has been crushed and taken in.¡± Oh, dear, groaned the Aoandon. She did not seem to mind too much. Saiki Kazu¡¯s expression remained unmoved even with his ominous answer. ¡°But at the current stage, they have only been placed inside the Aoandon Package. The pieces needed to use it properly are still missing. Do you have any ideas concerning that?¡± ¡°Not to worry. This is the last train and the departure bell is ringing, but we still have a chance to jump onboard.¡± ¡°Meaning?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s travel some more. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll find some interesting new members.¡± ¡°You¡¯re leaving the very last part up to luck?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll win regardless.¡± The Aoandon grinned. ¡°Coincidences aren¡¯t determined by luck. It¡¯s set by destiny, karma, and fate. So if our success has already been decided, everything we need will gather around us on its own. Just like the man named Saiki Kazu appeared before me when I wanted someone skilled in the supernatural arts.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°If I wasn¡¯t going to succeed, I wouldn¡¯t have been successful from the very beginning. The situation is already underway and you could say it¡¯s been proven that no one can stop it once it is. You can leave it up to luck or pray to the gods if you want. No matter what miracles you carry with you, you can¡¯t change the end result once you find yourself in front of me.¡± That may have been why she so readily turned her back on the target she had been staring at this whole time. She did so as casually as someone leaving a neighborhood friend¡¯s house they could return to at any time. ¡°We¡¯ll see each other again before long,¡± said the blue oni girl. Saki Kazu followed her in his dark suit. They were standing in the Nagatacho district of Tokyo¡¯s Chiyoda Ward. They had been looking at the National Diet Building. It was already within their reach whenever they decided to reach for it. Volume 6, 1: [email protected] Shinobu & Yonsesaki Hiro Volume 6, Chapter 1: [email protected] Shinobu & Yonsesaki Hiro Part 1 (Jinnai Shinobu) In the end, I didn¡¯t get even a wink of sleep. ¡°You idiot! You complete moron!! I told you this was your fault! It hung up because it mixed up the signals from my room and yours after you messed with the router¡¯s settings!¡± ¡°Ahem. You can blame it all on the video lagging while I was playing my FPS.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t getting out of this by pouting your lips. Oh, honestly. It didn¡¯t record that foreign drama because of this¡­ What happened to that terrorist after he jumped from the dam!? There¡¯s no way he¡¯s dead!!¡± ¡°Shinobu, listing past regrets isn¡¯t going to change anything. Think of it as the beauty next door asking you to hook up her digital recorder. It sounds like a lovely memory now, doesn¡¯t it? Yes, and you spent all night with her.¡± It was true that Zashiki Warashi didn¡¯t often come begging me for help with her hands clasped together and tears in her upturned eyes. Just how addicted to entertainment was she? The real problem was that her description had made my heart skip a beat. If she found out, she¡¯d have me doing her bidding for the rest of my life! By the way, her room was filled with the sweet smell of incense. Once I finally got the internet connection working, the cable broadcast returned to the flat screen TV. When I saw the dry early morning news playing, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°Disconnection education or trauma disconnection is the idea of optimizing the brain¡¯s network of synapses using the fact that heavy mental stress will block some of the circuits in the brain. The experts have admitted this provides extraordinary improvements in calculation speed, but at the same time¡­¡± It was just too dry. Given the time, it was too early for breakfast but too late to get some sleep. Even if I washed my face and set my hair, I¡¯d still have some time leftover. It was mid-October. After finishing with my face and hair and putting on my winter school uniform, I had a little extra time on my hands, so I decided to play with the Nekomata, a relatively sensible Youkai. ¡°Nekomata-san, Nekomata-san.¡± ¡°What is it now? Why are you bothering a lady as she tries to eat?¡± She sounded a little annoyed, but that might have been because my Western cuisine loving mom was in charge of the cat food today. The can of tuna cat food cost a little more than the human food, but this Nekomata much preferred the ¡°cat rice¡± my grandma made by putting miso soup on leftover rice. Giving that cat rice to a normal cat would be deadly with all the salt and the green onion, but this was a Youkai. Things must have been different for her. The Nekomata devoured the can of food despite her displeasure, so I sat in front of her and asked about something. ¡°It¡¯s been two or three months since we met, hasn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Munch, munch. What about it?¡± ¡°Then I think it¡¯s about time we brought our communication to the next level.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Let me touch your tai-¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯ll kill you, brat.¡± She didn¡¯t even let me finish. Don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to give up! I¡¯ve got nothing else to do!! And I¡¯m going a little nuts from the lack of sleep!! (¡ûYes, I was well aware that was the cause.) ¡°C¡¯mon, c¡¯mon. Just a little, okay? Let me touch your tail just a little. Do it with a normal cat and it would scratch your hand with a cross counter, but I can talk it out with you since you understand human language!!¡± ¡°If you know I won¡¯t like it, then don¡¯t force me to put up with it! You sure are impudent for an M!!¡± ¡°Oh, come one! You¡¯ve got two tails and I¡¯m only asking to touch one! Quit being so stingy!!¡± ¡°How stupid can one brat be!? Would you agree to have one of your balls crushed just because you have two of them!? And I called you an M, so how about you at least deny it!?¡± As we argued, my spine tingled as an intense gaze reached it. For one thing, the gaze came from somewhere unusual. ¡°Wh-what? The ceiling? Gh!?¡± ¡°¡­¡± When I looked straight up, I saw a square hole removed from a corner of the ceiling like something from a ninja mansion and I saw two eyeballs peering down from it. The succubus that lived in the attic was observing our exchange. With round goat horns, bat-like wings, an arrow-shaped tail, and her micro-bikini, she was (from a purely visual perspective) a wonderful housemate, but¡­ ¡°Master, if you want to play with a tail, you can always use mine!!¡± ¡°Why do you sound so excited!?¡± ¡°Because I¡¯ve been so bored living in the countryside!! There¡¯s no stimulation from young men and women here!!¡± The Western demon slipped down from the ceiling. ¡°Look, look. If you want to touch a tail, you can try mine out as much as you want. If you like, I can moan erotically every time you poke it which should leave an impressive bulge in your pants before you head off to school! In the world of imagination, of course!!¡± ¡°Oh, sorry. It doesn¡¯t work if I know it¡¯s an act.¡± Besides, I already knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to love on that cat¡¯s tail! I had to see if it was as soft and fluffy as I imagined it was!! But the Succubus pouted her lips. ¡°Boo. You¡¯re too cold, master. Maybe it would be more effective if I messed with you instead. I could use the arrow on my tail to thrust right on in from behind.¡± ¡°Wait! Wait!! You¡¯re doing what to where!?¡± I was already panicking, but that was when yet another deadly Youkai wandered in. This yandere marriage hunting Youkai was the Yuki Onna. ¡°Nope! Back right on up!! I¡¯m not letting you make this any more complicated! And you don¡¯t even have a tail!!¡± I prepared myself to flee at a moment¡¯s notice, but the Yuki Onna was acting oddly. Her face was as red as a boiled octopus, her kimono was practically falling off of her, and she was swaying back and forth. Hm? Huh? Was her kimono always this baggy??? ¡°Haphew¡­ Trying to take a morning bath was a mistake¡­ I-it was practically boiling after your grandfather took his bath¡­¡± The freezing chill that usually hung around her had vanished. What¡¯s going on here? Did that hot bath weaken her? And she still looks soaking wet. So that means¡­oh? Are her deadly below-zero defenses not working right now? And she¡¯s still intent on marriage? Huh? So what would happen if I let her take control of the situation and we ended up on the floor together? ¡°¡­¡± I, Master Gentleman Shinobu, cleared my throat and stood up from the tatami mats. I put on my best gentlemanly look and spoke. ¡°Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me, I need to lay out a futon over there to help nurse the overheated Yuki Onna back to health.¡± ¡°Getting her drunk and taking advantage of her? You really are the worst.¡± ¡°That is not what I¡¯m doing!! Removing her violent side just barely brings her into the acceptable zone. ¡­But wait. What is this? Is she melting or shrinking? Where did those small yet promising breasts go!? Now, I¡¯m even less sure, but I bet this weakened state is only temporary. The second I do anything, she¡¯ll probably make a full recovery and freeze me! So for today, I¡¯m just going to keep an eye on her!! Damn, if only her chest was still there!!!!!¡± ¡°Oh, c¡¯moooon, master!! If you¡¯d only told me, I could have let you use all sorts of cheats to get any girl to fall in love with you. How about it? To get you started, I¡¯ll let you try one out at the low, low price of only one year from your lifespan!¡± ¡°I said I¡¯m not doing anything today!! And I¡¯m not interested in that right now anyway! Now, Nekomata, just let me touch your fluffy tail!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t turn that Succubus¡¯s attention my way. Stick with the Yuki Onna.¡± ¡°Is it just me or are you leading me in that direction even as you look down on me for doing it?¡± ¡°And now your muscular dad is standing right behind you. So how do you plan to explain your way out of this one?¡± Eh? No, wait!! ¡°You¡¯ve got it all wrong!! Eh? Wh-why are you clenching that gigantic fist as hard as rock!? They were the ones leading me astray! I was only trying to nurse her back to health, so it would be wrong to only hit me!!¡± Part 2 (Jinnai Shinobu) After the great panic that morning, it was time to leave for school. ¡°Oh¡­ohhh¡­ohhhhh¡­¡± I groaned and rubbed the top of my head as I plodded along the usual path to school. After my dad¡¯s fist dropped, the Youkai and demon fled like they were hit by the shockwave of a meteor strike. The Zashiki Warashi hadn¡¯t even been in the same room, but she still spent a while hiding under the tea table (without realizing her butt was sticking out). Honestly, there were too many questions about the way that man scared Youkai. Hmm. This winter uniform¡¯s collar is too stiff!! I know I¡¯m probably just not used to it after not wearing it for so long, but it¡¯s still bothering me!! And then¡­ ¡°Today¡¯s lunch is sukiyaki! What an age we live in.¡± ¡°First years, don¡¯t leave the sidewalk.¡± ¡°PE¡¯s so boring now that swimming lessons are over.¡± What¡¯s this? What¡¯s this? It felt like there were a lot more little kids than usual. When I gave the backpack-wearing group a puzzled look, a sporty classmate of mine named Tarou spoke up after joining me from another farm road. ¡°You hadn¡¯t heard, Jinnai? A bunch of city kids were invited to the elementary school. It¡¯s an entire year of kids from some city school. They¡¯re calling it a cultural exchange and it¡¯s making things pretty cramped for those of us in the lodging group. I want permanent residence in this village so bad. I don¡¯t want to be a servant to some brats.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Who knows how much it would cost to stay in an Intellectual Village inn.¡± ¡°Your place doesn¡¯t accept guests, so I¡¯m pretty jealous. Of course, that wouldn¡¯t leave anywhere for me. Some places take in about twenty people in one house. That really makes you feel like a maid. I don¡¯t know if it has to do with the genius kid boom they¡¯ve been talking about, but those city kids see right through anything you try to get by them. They¡¯re so not cute.¡± It was easy to tell which ones lived here and which ones were from the city. One group looked shocked whenever a Youkai showed up and the other group ignored them completely. ¡°There¡¯s a 30% chance of rain today. I must protect my master from a sudden downpour!¡± ¡°The sun sets quickly once autumn begins, so it couldn¡¯t hurt to have a lantern!!¡± An Umbrella Obake and a Lantern Obake with a single eye and a large tongue sticking out were carefully guarding a boy of about ten from either side. Let¡¯s see¡­ That boy in the blue sweater and beige pants is Yonesaki Hiro, right? Didn¡¯t I meet him during that stuff with the Shichinin Misaki? ¡°Jinnai, is there any kind of Youkai you want?¡± ¡°With them, I really don¡¯t think it¡¯s about what you want.¡± After all, you suddenly find them living with you! That might have had something to do with how my Youkai-loving mom kept taking them in, though!! ¡°Eh? But wouldn¡¯t you love to be like Taira no Masakado or Takiyasha-hime? Don¡¯t you dream of being completely untouchable as the ultimate Youkai tamer?¡± ¡°I think they dealt more with vengeful spirits than Youkai. And no thank you. That always ends with having your physical body taken over.¡± ¡°But our school has a bomb shelter dungeon. You¡¯d have to be crazy if that doesn¡¯t get your imagination going!¡± ¡°That¡¯s just part of the disaster infrastructure in case a typhoon or landslide isolates the village. After all, an Intellectual Village is so reliant on online shopping that we¡¯d starve with the roads cut off. All you¡¯ll find in that shelter are sleeping bags and canned biscuits.¡± ¡°If you go to the very bottom, there¡¯s gotta be a half-naked spring spirit girl with wet, see-through clothes!!¡± We continued our discussion all the way to our high school. The classroom was filled with activity before homeroom because first period was PE. My school had a general understanding that the boys changed in the classroom while the girls changed in the locker room. I couldn¡¯t have been the only one who shed tears of blood that it wasn¡¯t the opposite, allowing me to ¡°accidentally¡± open the door to that world of pink. ¡°Have you heard, Shinobu-kun? We¡¯re running a marathon for PE today. Can you believe that? And after I was up until four in the morning trading and drinking health drinks.¡± ¡°Madoka, you really need to get some common sense. They split up the boys and girls for PE, so¡­ Whoa!? Our summer wasn¡¯t over after all!!¡± ¡°Thank you for the reaction I expected. Can I hit you now?¡± My classmate, the eccentric beauty named Madoka-chan, was squirming and rubbing her thighs together, but that was obviously because of the red bloomers she had changed into for PE. And while her hair was short, it was cutely tied on either side. ¡°Honestly, I thought we were finally free of this now that autumn is here, but they said track suits aren¡¯t allowed for the marathon! We have to run outside the school grounds dressed like this. Can you believe that!? I know Intellectual Villages create a high-quality agricultural brand name by intentionally reproducing the original scenery of Japan, but they didn¡¯t have to bring this back with it! It feels like using your computer¡¯s recovery point and bringing back a virus you thought you¡¯d already dealt with!!¡± Angry Madoka was speaking faster and a lot more than usual. Hm, I see. Since she¡¯s so isolated with no connections to our other classmates, I bet I could improve her bit by bit a lot like with shock therapy. Grin, grin. ¡°Sigh. Never mind. Shinobu-kun, you don¡¯t hold back when you have a chance to look, do you?¡± ¡°By the way, we¡¯ve known each other since April, so that¡¯s over half a year. Isn¡¯t it about time we ended up back to back in a hot spring after we unexpectedly find out it¡¯s a mixed bath?¡± ¡°Keep up the perverted jokes and I¡¯ll have my armed guards snipe you.¡± ¡°Oh, no fair! You¡¯ve got two breasts, so can¡¯t I grope just one of them!?¡± ¡°Shinobu-kun, that makes no sense. You have two eyes, but does that mean you don¡¯t mind if I jab my finger into one?¡± ¡°If I can give up an eye for near-permanent access to one of these breasts, you can call me Mr. Eyepatch!!¡± Madoka¡¯s expression immediately grew flat as she gave up on thinking. She then snapped her fingers. ¡°Heyyy, Whatever-Your-Name-Is Nagisaaa.¡± ¡°You!! You¡¯ll call in Nagisa when you don¡¯t want to deal with something now!? Couldn¡¯t you find a less horrifying way to get smarter!?¡± It may have been good for Madoka to have some interactions with some other classmates, but that didn¡¯t make it any less frightening. If Nagisa¡¯s yandere thought processes infected Madoka, the power of money would turn her into an even greater monster! At any rate, it was time for an appearance from Japan¡¯s #1 girl when it came to carrying a chainsaw in the pale bluish light of the full moon. ¡°What is it, Shinobu-chan? Are you recruiting the people you need for a love spell? Eh heh heh¡­¡± ¡°No! I have no plans for any insane ceremonies involving muttering magic words while cutting your wrist to pour blood into a handmade box lunch!! Bye!!¡± I raised a hand and made a full speed dash from the girls in bloomers. Nooo!! The guys are supposed to change in the classroom, but that¡¯s a lost cause now. I have to stay away from this area for a bit, so I might be stuck changing in the bathroom!! As I shed tears and a youthful sweat, I ran down the hallway and collided with my nervous homeroom teacher who suddenly appeared from the stairway. ¡°Wakyaaah!?¡± ¡°Bfh!? Y-you¡¯re kidding me? Why do you have toast in your mouth at school!?¡± ¡°I know we fell into a heap here, but if that hand keeps creeping silently toward my chest, I¡¯ll scream!!¡± Tch. She noticed. And come to think of it, how does that clich¨¦ even happen!? If I really grabbed her breast with my full weight on her, I think I¡¯d either sprain my wrist or break her ribs!! ¡°No, wait. If I fall down normally from the initial hit, roll on the floor to change position, and reach out my hand, I can ignore my weight and the potential energy. That means it might be possible to get a nice feel in without worrying about the risks of the fall. But I can¡¯t pull that off right away. It¡¯ll take some commitment. Maybe I¡¯ll start by getting the judo team to help me practice my falling technique. Mutter, mutter¡­¡± ¡°Um, Jinnai-kun?¡± I suddenly noticed my homeroom teacher with teary eyes beyond her glasses as she sat on the floor closely guarding her chest with both hands. Oh, dear. Did I frighten you, young lady? ¡°Heh. Not to worry, teacher. Not even I would treat a virgin roughly. I know how to contain myself, so please relax.¡± ¡°Wha-!?¡± ¡°I mean, that necklace came as an extra in the fashion magazine Autofocus, didn¡¯t it? It costs less than two hundred yen! And isn¡¯t that magazine¡¯s primary demographic middle school girls? If you¡¯re still seriously consulting that at your age, it makes some things pretty clear.¡± ¡°Wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-!?¡± My homeroom teacher¡¯s entire face grew beet red and she began waving her hands around for some reason. There was no sign left of her previous fear. Hah hahhh. This is what happens when Jinnai Shinobu, shock therapy master, is on the case!! ¡°Mutter, mutter. It¡¯s true Ram-chan wrote that it¡¯s an all-purpose piece that anyone from children to adults could-¡­ N-no, you¡¯ve got it all wrong!! The thing is¡­um¡­It¡¯s certainly not true that I have no experience whatsoever at my age!!¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with that? It¡¯s a beautiful thing. It¡¯s perfectly fine. In a way, it¡¯s a rare find.¡± ¡°You¡¯re attacking me with that ¡®in a way¡¯, aren¡¯t you!? You added a silent laugh in your heart, didn¡¯t you!? I¡¯ll have you know that I spent my college days in the big city of Tokyo! Every day and every night was spent in melted in someone¡¯s arms like ice cream on a sunny day!!¡± ¡°Do go on.¡± ¡°And it goes way beyond just lovers! It was¡­um, is it called friends with benefits? I still have some of the addresses from back then. Yes, yes. And it involved all sorts of things that I could never tell a high schooler like you about. You¡¯d be left amazed that those things could be used like that! O-oh, it¡¯s such a shame. I can¡¯t think of a good way to explain to you just how obscene and splendid my weekends are. Ah ha ha ha ha.¡± ¡°Do, do go on.¡± She meaninglessly thrust her chest out proudly and waved her hand as a fan to combat the sweat pouring down her entire body. But was she aware of the new threat approaching from directly behind her? ¡°Ahem! ¡­Tanioka-sensei, care to explain just what you were talking about there?¡± ¡°Eh? Ah? Eeeek!? P-principal!?¡± ¡°I prefer not to invade on others¡¯ privacy, but I believe I just heard something unbecoming of the holy profession of an educator and I¡¯m not quite sure what to do about it.¡± ¡°A-ahhh!! That¡¯s not it at all, principal! Kh, but if I deny it all here, Jinnai-kun will think-¡­ Waaah! How am I supposed to explain this!?¡± ¡°No need to worry. You can explain everything in the soundproofed student guidance room. ¡­Of course, this is the first time in my long time as a teacher that I¡¯ve heard of a teacher needing to be scolded in there.¡± ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhh!? J-Jinnai-kun, see you later!!¡± I waved a hand as my nervous homeroom teacher was dragged away by the back of her neck with tears in her eyes. With an entirely serious expression, I pulled out my cellphone. ¡°Good, it can record audio. Good, it can record video.¡± After checking its functions one by one, I too made my way toward the student guidance room. Now, then. It¡¯s time for some sleazy desire! If she¡¯s being questioned over what she said, she¡¯s definitely going to be asked if she¡¯s a virgin or if she slept around like crazy. We can¡¯t have that! I simply can¡¯t allow that kind of sexual harassment to happen behind closed doors in the constitutional state of Japan! In the name of having audiovisual records of the outrage, I, Jinnai Shinobu, must do my part to ensure the smooth execution of fair and impartial justice. More specifically, I want to see her face when he asks her and makes her squirm!!!!! In the end, I got a little too carried away and the principal found me almost immediately. I ended up sitting in the student guidance room right alongside my homeroom teacher. Part 3 (Yonesaki Hiro) Today¡¯s walk to school was a little more exhausting than usual. The kids from the city for the cultural exchange kept asking questions and my throat was sore just from answering them all. I had the umbrella and lantern helping me, so the other kids must have had it even worse. ¡°There¡¯s a 30% chance of rain today. I must protect my master from a sudden downpour!¡± ¡°The sun sets quickly once autumn begins, so it couldn¡¯t hurt to have a lantern!!¡± The kids from the city were extremely interested in the umbrella and lantern that kept pestering me. They grabbed at and tugged on the two Obake. To me, those kids were the strange ones. For one thing, the color of their backpacks wasn¡¯t normal. Instead of red or black, they all had different colors like sky blue or emerald green. They said some of them could swap out the cover for another color based on their mood that day. Their clothes were the same. To describe what each one of them was wearing would require using four or five brand names you heard about on TV. ¡°Have you seen Corundum¡¯s new color? I don¡¯t think I could put that on my nails.¡± ¡°Also, Kanade-chan really is going to use her spring boots during fall too.¡± ¡°That drinkable perfume apparently doesn¡¯t work. Mi-chan from Class 2 collapsed from it.¡± Listening to their conversations made me feel a little embarrassed. I chose my own clothes too, but only from the online stores my mom said I was allowed to use. It made me feel immature. The local kids and I had to explain everything to the mature-looking city kids. It all felt unbalanced, so I had trouble relaxing. I was already feeling isolated and it didn¡¯t help that the girl walking next to me was especially mature-looking even among the city kids. She felt like the center of both her class and her entire year. ¡°An Intellectual Village has lots of Youkai, right?¡± Her name was apparently Ranzono Sachi-chan. Her long, chestnut hair had fluffy curls with enough volume to make her already small face look even smaller. On the side of her head, she had a¡­what do you call those? It was a white rose accessory. Her slender, doll-like body was covered by a white turtleneck sweater, a reddish jacket with the front open, a black miniskirt, skintight jeans, and chocolate-colored boots. She also had a leather belt loosely wrapped around her waist. According to the others, all of her clothes were from a fashion magazine that middle schoolers read. And that wasn¡¯t surprising. ¡°Heh heh. A nostalgic coloration wouldn¡¯t be bad. Wearing an actual kimono would be out of the question, but combining the amber brown of wood with red Japanese paper could make for a decent coloration.¡± ¡°Will you make it in time for the next issue?¡± ¡°Probably not, but I can do what I want for the issue after that. Heh heh. I¡¯m a model and a writer, so I can absorb plenty here and bring it to everyone else.¡± That was the gist of it. On the day Ranzono-san and the others arrived, my classmates had already gotten their hands on enough information to have gathered the fashion magazine Autofocus that middle schoolers read. Middle schoolers seemed out of our reach and even they looked up to Ranzono-san, so knowing the person pictured in the magazine would be standing with us and breathing the same air as us had filled the class with excitement. Ranzono-san herself was very aloof and did not seem nervous when everyone focused on her. As she peered inside the lantern from above and opened and closed the umbrella, we arrived at the wooden elementary school. She commented on the schoolyard. ¡°I see you can play soccer outside in rural schools.¡± I had always had trouble speaking with girls, so I had no idea what to say to a celebrity who seemed to be from a different world. I managed to work out a safe answer. ¡°Are schools in the city different?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have a schoolyard. We only have the area inside the fence on the rooftop.¡± I didn¡¯t see any real sparkle in her eyes when she said that, so she might not have been all that interested in sports. The PE outfits the city kids had were so much cooler than ours. They had called them¡­um¡­spats, was it? They were streamlined and cool like the swimsuits designed to make you swim fast or an F1 racer. They were so much better than our rectangular shorts. But I wasn¡¯t sure what to do when Ranzono-san didn¡¯t say anything. I just wasn¡¯t any good at speaking with girls. I only went with the safe and harmless things that everyone had asked and everyone already knew the answer to. ¡°How do you become a model for a magazine?¡± ¡°Heh heh. I¡¯m a model and a writer. They contact you. Anyone¡¯s fine as long as they¡¯re active online. It¡¯s entirely based on merit, so they treat me just like an adult and I design the layout for a magazine middle schoolers read.¡± ¡°Middle schoolers, huh?¡± That seemed like such a distant world. It felt as far off as the moon. I knew people had gone there, but I couldn¡¯t picture myself standing there. In other words, Ranzono-san was standing on the moon like that. We could all tell she was hopelessly out of reach for rural kids like us and it made perfect sense that she was the leader of the city kids. We were all obsessed with talking about ¡°the moon¡±. ¡°Hey, is it true Intellectual Villages are full of rare Youkai?¡± ¡°There are plenty like the umbrella and lantern, if that¡¯s what you mean.¡± ¡°Hmm. I was thinking of something bigger. Like an Oomukade or Tsuchigumo.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know about that¡­ I do know an older boy who knows a whole lot about Youkai, though.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°But you know a lot for a city kid.¡± ¡°Heh heh. I did a lot of studying.¡± The chirping of a small bird interrupted us. I looked over but didn¡¯t see an actual bird. ¡°That¡¯s an Okuri-Suzume,¡± said Ranzono-san with a smile. ¡°?¡± ¡°An O-Ku-Ri-Su-Zu-Me. Heh heh. It¡¯s a small bird Youkai that no can see. Its voice is supposed to inform people of coming danger.¡± She was so smart. She could study, she could do sports, she knew lots about fashion, she played the piano during music class, and she seemed good at cooking during home ec. It felt like there was nothing I could do better than her. I had thought Youkai knowledge would be the one thing, so it was embarrassing having her explain one of them to me when I actually lived in an Intellectual Village. Our conversation ended there. I worried that I should say something and that staying silent would be bad, but I couldn¡¯t find anything to say. We simply walked toward the school entrance in silence. As time went on, I realized something. This doesn¡¯t feel all that bad. It was just like the umbrella and lantern that were always with me. There was no reason to keep playing catch with our conversation like shoveling coal into a steam engine. Simply giving ourselves over to the flow of time while walking side by side was plenty relaxing. It felt somehow meaningful. ¡°Hm? Did you say something?¡± ¡°No, nothing.¡± It felt like I could get along with her after all. I certainly hoped I would be able to. Part 4 (3rd person) The Umbrella Obake was sticking upside-down into the umbrella stand to one side of the elementary school¡¯s entranceway. His large tongue was sticking out and hanging down due to the pull of gravity. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°U-Umbrella!! This trial is necessary to protect Hiro-sama! So stick with it for another five hours!!¡± ¡°Heh. A lantern like you could never understand the grudge of an umbrella left behind like this! Ahh, ahh. I know all too well how a cheap plastic umbrella must feel!!¡± The Tsukumogami seemed worked up, but they were really just bored. They were worried about Yonesaki Hiro of the family that owned them, but there was nothing they could do during school. If they tried, the teacher would throw them out. That of course meant they needed to supply themselves with a way to pass the time until school let out. Today, the lantern carried a teen fashion magazine named Autofocus in her mouth. ¡°Now, let¡¯s see here. The bonus magazine gives twenty ways to ensure your love comes true.¡± ¡°What can a lantern like you learn from a magazine for humans?¡± ¡°I am a lady, you know!? I worry about looking after my skin!!¡± ¡°And I¡¯m asking how that magazine will help a lantern!¡± As they argued, the umbrella moved his single upside-down eye to stare at the magazine¡¯s pages with the lantern. He was a man(?) at heart, so he doubted it would interest him much. Still, he needed some way to pass the time. But¡­ ¡°What are all these stripes? I thought a fashion magazine would be filled with models posing in colorful clothing.¡± ¡°These are called barcodes or matrix codes. They¡¯re also called AR markers. Basically, you can hold up a cellphone or smartphone to see images or videos of the models.¡± The umbrella looked to the magazine that had codes filling the boxes that would normally hold pictures. ¡°How strange. Then why not look at it all on the internet in the first place?¡± ¡°They apparently did that at first. It was only after setting up a successful online business that they decided to enter the paper magazine industry.¡± The lantern only knew so much because the children had been talking about little else. Model and writer Ranzono Sachi gathered enough attention to drive out all other conversation. Hanako-san and the statue of Ninomiya Kinjirou had to be crying. ¡°They scout people without asking about age, qualifications, education, or work history. You can be a scathing critic on a blog, a frequent user of ratings sites, a popular commenter on an SNS, or a creator on a video sharing site. You only need some accomplishments online. Human jobs certainly have changed a lot.¡± The internal staff may have been the only exception because the magazine filled with black and white codes included a few actual pictures of posing models. Although based on their sensibilities, the AR and video codes may have been the main draw while the normal pictures were only meant to fill space. The model wearing winter boots a little early was Ranzono Sachi. ¡°They¡¯re pushing her as their top model, but she¡¯s also part of their internal staff. She¡¯s probably easy to use when they need to fill some holes in the magazine.¡± ¡°Kids sure have it tough. There are plenty of things they can¡¯t do once they grow up, so I feel like they should make the most of being a kid while they can.¡± ¡°Yes, Umbrella, but you mustn¡¯t say that in front of Hiro-sama. At their age, nothing irritates them more than being lumped together with everyone else by saying what they should or shouldn¡¯t do.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Also, they¡¯re only using the right person for the job. Unlike us, humans only have a short time to live. They don¡¯t have time to have an outsider blocking their freedom and holding them pointlessly in place.¡± ¡°Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.¡± Part 5 (Jinnai Shinobu) The principal got even more heated up than expected in the student guidance room, so ¨C to make a long story short ¨C coffee sprayed from his mouth like a poisonous fog and it poured all over my nervous homeroom teacher. However, she had no real change of clothes with her, so she had been forced to borrow the ¡°last resort¡± from the infirmary. In other words, she had a dead look in her eyes as she stood at the front of the class in a PE outfit. She wore fiercely red bloomers. ¡°Um, so when it says ¡®spit¡¯ here, it refers to a folk belief at the time. The story of Tawara no Touta slaying the Oomukade with an arrow he had spit on ended up spreading far enough for people to falsely believe that all Youkai had a weakness to saliva¡­¡± She continued her lesson in monotone while looking just like a robot printing a long trail of paper from its mouth. Hmm, my heart is throbbing from guilt. Still, it was the principal who made the finishing blow and, more importantly, this is some nice eye candy! I never knew how nice my teacher looked from behind as she wrote her boring notes up on the blackboard!! Yahoo! And while Madoka-san and the others are wearing short sleeve shirts with their bloomers, adding on the track suit jacket is pretty nice, too!! But only the jacket!! (¡ûImportant emphasis) But then something interfered. I heard a chirping small bird fly in through the open window. ¡°Hm, what? Did something come in!?¡± ¡°Is it a sparrow?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see anything? Did it get behind something?¡± The class grew noisy, but then I saw a small bird¡¯s footprints on the paper of my open notebook. It was the same bizarre scene as an invisible man stepping in some mud. ¡°An invisible bird Youkai? Is this an Okuri-Suzume or something?¡± ¡°Oh, honestly!! Jinnai-kun, can you please give it a rest!? If you have some business with a Youkai, take it out in the hall!! Out!!¡± ¡°Eh? I don¡¯t have any control over it!!¡± I had no idea what was going on, but the invisible Okuri-Suzume was chirping something in its high-pitched voice. No, now it was clearly speaking in human language. ¡°Trouble, trouble! Hiro-chan is in trouble!¡± ¡°Who the heck is Hiro-¡­¡± ¡°(Wham!!)¡± ¡°Ow!? You idiot, don¡¯t peck at the back of my head! My scalp! My scalp!!¡± ¡°Hiro-chan is Hiro-chan. Yonesaki Hiro-chan!!¡± Hm? Yonesaki Hiro? ¡°Hiro-chan is in trouble. Boy, the time has come to stand up!!¡± ¡°Why do I have to-¡­¡± ¡°The Okuri-Suzume is a Youkai that warns of coming danger, but we originally could only warn that the Okuri-Ookami was coming. I tried to change that, but I keep having to work in symbols of the Okuri-Ookami. I tried to warn Hiro-chan directly, but it didn¡¯t get through to him.¡± ¡°Again, why me?¡± ¡°All of the Youkai around her say Jinnai Shinobu is an Okuri-Ookami!! So I tried speaking to the Okuri-Ookami. And just as I thought, humans can understand me when I¡¯m near you!!¡± ¡°Bfh!? Please try not to destroy my social life with some bizarre misunderstanding!!1 L-let¡¯s discuss this further in the hallway, Okuri-Suzume!!¡± ¡°Hiro-chan is in trouble!¡± To drive off the Okuri-Suzume that did not care at all about the circumstances of human society, I stepped out into the hall. Which Youkai has been spreading half-truths about me!? I¡¯d bet anything it was that Good-for-Nothing Youkai!! But for now¡­ ¡°What exactly is this about? Why is Yonesaki Hiro in trouble?¡± ¡°Save Hiro-chan! Before that deadly Youkai eats him!!¡± ¡°If an Okuri-Suzume is going nuts, has an Okuri-Ookami shown up?¡± While the term Okuri-Ookami was often used in reference to a certain type of human, it was originally a type of Youkai. It was a wolf that appeared on dark roads at night and followed travelers around. That alone would cause no harm, but if the traveler tripped, it would attack and eat them. But¡­ ¡°No, this is a different Youkai.¡± This thing was invisible, so I had no way of knowing how it was acting. Regardless, I heard it continuing to speak. ¡°It¡¯s an Oomukade. An Oomukade is after Hiro-chan, so he¡¯s in trouble!¡± Part 6 (Yonesaki Hiro) Classes for the day were over. After cleaning the classroom and lining up the desks, the end of my right pinky finger itched a little. It didn¡¯t look like anything had happened to it, but something might have irritated it. Meanwhile, Ranzono-san was looking in her hand mirror in a corner of the classroom. She was staring at it with a serious look on her face, patting a hand across her face, and stretching her cheek with her fingers. ¡°What are you doing? Everyone¡¯s already gone.¡± ¡°Oh, nothing.¡± I called out to her and she quickly put the mirror in her backpack. She might not have wanted anyone to see her maintaining her looks. The city kids and the local kids had all gone wherever they wanted to play, so it was only Ranzono-san and me. We naturally ended up leaving the school and walking home together. Huh? Am I forgetting something? I clenched my hands trying to fill the blank in my mind, but it wasn¡¯t working. At the same time, Ranzono-san spoke to me. ¡°Would we be able to see a ton of Youkai if we went to the mountain?¡± ¡°The rice has already been harvested, but you should be able to see a Kappa if you go to the fields.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± I had said the fields, but she looked to the paddies for some reason. Some adults were gathered in the distance, but I couldn¡¯t tell what they were doing from this distance. ¡°The Yamawaro ¨C those are Kappa that have come up onto land ¨C help with the work in the mountains. They mostly help the lumberjacks, but they apparently also help in the paddies and fields nearer the mountains. I¡¯ve heard they¡¯re something like migrant workers.¡± Youkai, Youkai. ¡­Hmm, it¡¯s on the tip of my tongue. I still couldn¡¯t remember whatever it was, so I gave up. That was when my cellphone gave high-pitched ring. This was different from the usual ringtone. Even someone as high-tech as Ranzono-san didn¡¯t seem to know what this was because her eyes opened wide. We both peered down at the screen. ¡°It looks like a local message, but it doesn¡¯t usually make this loud a sound.¡± ¡°Heh heh. There are emergency alerts, aren¡¯t there? So what is it? Did someone spot a deadly Youkai?¡± When an unfamiliar deadly Youkai appeared on the way to or from school, the school would tell us to be careful, so this kind of alert had to be an absolute last resort. I checked more closely and read the message. ¡°Warning!! An Oomukade has been spotted. This Youkai is not from Noukotsu Village, so caution is needed. Be very careful if you run across it. One: do not approach it. Two: if you run away, it will chase after you. Stay put and see what it is doing. In the off chance that it approaches even further, a weapon with spit on it is said to be effective.¡± I tilted my head. ¡°An Oomukade? What kind of Youkai is that? Is it just a big centipede?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯d be pretty scary if it¡¯s poisonous. It might be best not to get near the mountain.¡± ¡°No,¡± said Ranzono-san. She pouted her lips in a somehow childish way that was the complete opposite of how she had acted before. ¡°The Oomukade isn¡¯t a bad Youkai. There¡¯s a story about it eating a clan of dragon gods, but doesn¡¯t that mean it never actually ate humans? The humans just chose to side with one type of Youkai and then decided to slay the Oomukade.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°Like I said¡­!!¡± Ranzono-san seemed irritated, but something else was bothering me more. I hesitated to bring it up, but finally did. ¡°Ranzono-san, do you have something on your face?¡± I looked up at her from below. When I did, I could tell it was only a grass seed stuck to her. It had probably been blown there by the wind. That was all it was. But a moment later, Ranzono-san pressed the back of her hand to her cheek as if trying to tear it away. I was left speechless. Meanwhile, she frantically pulled her hand mirror from her backpack and checked her face. She had done the same thing while we cleaned up afterschool. She touched all over her face and even pinched and pulled at her skin. ¡°Here¡¯s fine. No problem here either. Where? Where is it? Where is it out of balance? I thought I was fine after getting through PE without issue¡­¡± She was muttering something under her breath, she was breathing heavily, and her eyes were rolling around in her head. What was going on? She may have misunderstood what I meant, so I tried speaking to her again. ¡°You have a grass seed near your bangs. Want me to get it for you?¡± ¡°Eh? Ah!?¡± A blank look came over her as the previous horrified one vanished entirely. She didn¡¯t seem to know what to do with the mirror in her hands, so she fidgeted her fingers, grabbing and letting go of the device. For some reason, her maturity had completely vanished. ¡°Where? Where is it???¡± ¡°Here.¡± I ended up grabbing it for her. Touching her nice-smelling chestnut hair made my heart race a bit. ¡°You couldn¡¯t see it in the mirror?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± What had she been checking, anyway? What had she been so focused on that she had completely overlooked that obvious grass seed? It seemed strange, but I didn¡¯t have time to ask. We had reached a fork in the farm road and she took the branch that didn¡¯t lead to my house. ¡°I-I¡¯ll be going now. See you tomorrow, Yonesaki-kun.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± She nearly ran into a blonde-hired high school boy walking down that path, so she gave a quick shriek and jogged off toward the house she was staying in. The high school boy looked back with a puzzled look and muttered something. ¡°What was that? Was it what they call a Twelve?¡± Part 7 (Jinnai Shinobu) I thought about the girl who had rushed off a moment ago. She had worn a miniskirt, jeans, a turtleneck sweater, a jacket, and a white rose corsage on the side of her head. She was probably one of the city elementary school kids here for the cultural exchange Tarou had mentioned. I¡¯m impressed she can do that. I¡¯d never be able to live with such a constrained lifestyle. I was half impressed and half shocked, but then the boy left all alone called out to me. He was Yonesaki Hiro, the elementary school boy who had been involved in the Shichinin Misaki incident. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± ¡°Nothing, really. ¡­By the way, where are the umbrella and lamp that are always with you?¡± ¡°Ah!?¡± He frantically turned back the way he had come, so he really must have simply forgotten. As soon as I started feeling sorry for those one-eyed Youkai, they came rushing up the farm road at tremendous speed, as if my feelings had summoned them. The Umbrella Obake and the Lamp Obake¡¯s comical eyeballs locked onto me instead of Yonesaki Hiro. ¡°Stranger danger!!¡± ¡°Time for punishment!!¡± Dfah!? D-did those things really just tackle me at full speed!? The lamp¡¯s one thing, but that closed umbrella jabbing into my solar plexus seems like it could be pretty dangerous! They turned toward their master while ignoring me as I held my gut and groaned. ¡°Are you okay, master?¡± ¡°Honestly. Going home on your own is far too dangerous after an Oomukade alert was sent out.¡± Yonesaki Hiro tilted his head as if he did not understand what they were talking about. He then opened his mouth and asked a question. ¡°What¡¯s an Oomukade?¡± He seemed to be asking me more than the umbrella or lamp. Don¡¯t tell me he thinks I¡¯m a Youkai Buster who can handle any kind of Youkai after I dealt with that Shichinin Misaki incident. At any rate¡­ ¡°It¡¯s a giant centipede Youkai. Their size can vary a lot, but the bigger ones are apparently long enough to wrap around a mountain seven and a half times. You don¡¯t often hear it, but they supposedly get their power through weird rituals like waiting for one hundred years or climbing a waterfall.¡± ¡°What does it do?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. It depends on the time and the situation. Some say they can deflect any attack, some say they¡¯re wrapped in lightning, some say they cause storms, some say their one hundred legs glow like torches, and some say the poison in their bodies can be used in rituals. The most famous one is the one that appeared around Lake Biwa and ate the dragon god clan. That one was then slain by a warrior. If they can eat dragon gods, I assume they can eat humans too. The dragon gods supposedly walked on two legs and looked like beautiful men and women.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± Yonesaki Hiro only gave a vague response and fell silent. As a high schooler, I may not be one to talk, but kids these days are a pain to deal with. The umbrella and lamp caused an uproar of their own in his place. ¡°We saw some damage from the Oomukade on the way here! The support for a roadside solar power generator was broken. If it had hit someone, there would be nothing they could do!¡± ¡°And in the paddies, the wall of a pump shed was broken. They say small fires and crimes against small animals are the harbinger of a major crime, so this is kind of scary. Tremble, tremble.¡± Hm? They saw signs of it too? ¡°I came from that way and I saw a few things like a tree fallen by the candy shop or a broken fence at a house.¡± ¡°See! It really is a deadly Youkai! And one dangerous enough to eat other Youkai!!¡± ¡°Yeah, but isn¡¯t this a bit strange?¡± The umbrella, the lamp, and Yonesaki Hiro all turned toward me. Hm, that caught his attention more than I thought. I just don¡¯t get what makes kids tick. ¡°I mean, the fallen trees and broken walls are scattered across the village from one side to the other, right?¡± ¡°What about it? That just shows how far the Oomukade¡¯s rampage has spread. No one else has that much strength.¡± ¡°I heard they found centipede bite marks. Doesn¡¯t that settle it?¡± ¡°But,¡± I added. ¡°How does an Oomukade gain its strength?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that obvious? One hit from its giant body would bring down a house or even a castle, so¡­¡± After complaining so much, the lantern trailed off. Yes. ¡°The Oomukade is big. Even if this one isn¡¯t big enough to wrap around a mountain, it has to be way bigger than a Zashiki Warashi or Yuki Onna. You¡¯re saying that deadly Youkai travelled from one end of the village to another, spreading destruction on the way? Then someone would have seen it somewhere. But I haven¡¯t heard anything about that.¡± ¡°The only thing anyone has found is destruction seemingly caused by an Oomukade,¡± muttered the lantern. ¡°No one has seen the Youkai itself.¡± Yonesaki Hiro then cut in. ¡°Then maybe this wasn¡¯t done by an Oomukade.¡± ¡°No! On the way here, I heard the villagers talking. The bite marks and leg scratches on the broken support were definitely from a centipede. A human could never do that!!¡± The umbrella opened and closed as he spoke. ¡°And the stories about an Oomukade¡¯s size vary quite a lot. That vagueness means its size isn¡¯t fixed. It¡¯s possible it can change its size.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± added the lantern. ¡°If it can shrink itself, it could sneak around, destroy things, and hide itself again. This is very dangerous!¡± ¡°¡­¡± They had a point. If it could change its size, my doubts were meaningless. Still¡­ ¡°But why would the Oomukade sneak around like that?¡± ¡°Eh? Because it doesn¡¯t want to be noticed, right?¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t it?¡± I immediately responded. ¡°Youkai can¡¯t be accused of a crime even if they kill people. And since the Oomukade can eat other Youkai, it won¡¯t be punished by other Youkai either. If it was causing trouble, it wouldn¡¯t need to hide. It would show up without hiding and leave without hiding. So why didn¡¯t it do that?¡± ¡°Ukh¡­¡± ¡°B-but some humans are even more frightening than Youkai!¡± Oh, do you mean people like Hyakki Yakou? ¡°If it was afraid of people like that, why would it cause so much trouble in the first place?¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°It would take the risk if it has a reason worth doing so, but is destroying wooden walls and solar power generators really that important? What does that accomplish? None of this is making sense.¡± Of course, I had no obligation to side with a Youkai I¡¯d never met. But a few things were bothering me. Was there really an Oomukade here? And if there was, was it involved in this destruction? And whether it was the Oomukade or just someone making it look that way, what was it supposed to accomplish? What would anyone gain from knocking down trees and destroying walls? And most importantly, the Okuri-Suzume had said Yonesaki Hiro was in trouble. It had said an Oomukade was after him. That Youkai warned of danger, so that wouldn¡¯t be a lie. In which case, what connection was there between Yonesaki Hiro and the Oomukade? Was there an Oomukade here or not? Was the Oomukade involved in this or not? The current situation was a combination of those four possibilities, but with the Okuri-Suzume¡¯s ¡°prophecy¡±, I knew the answer would ultimately lead to an Oomukade harming Yonesaki Hiro. So how did this all fit together to reach that answer? Even if I had cheated and learned the final answer ahead of time, if I misread the situation leading up to it, it was still possible I could fail to stop it. What a pain. ¡°?¡± Yonesaki Hiro tilted his head and looked up at me. To be honest, I had no real reason to get too involved with this kid, but since Youkai had no rights, their testimony could not be used in court, and they could not be charged with crimes, I couldn¡¯t just call the police and leave this with them. Which meant I had to figure out what was happening in the village whether it involved an Oomukade or not. And until I had enough information to get my mind working and figure out what would happen next, I had to run around gathering that information. I was beginning to seriously hope people wouldn¡¯t start calling me the Youkai Detective. Part 8 (Yonesaki Hiro) I went back home with the umbrella and lantern. My home was a used goods store and would fix just about anything except for electronics. It could be a broken rice bowl, a paulownia dresser, a stained hanging scroll, a pocket watch, or anything else. That was why we had a lot of ¡°object¡± Youkai like the umbrella and lantern. The house itself was a Youkai called a Mayoiga. ¡°I¡¯m hoooome.¡± I called out as I opened the front door and a bunch of different furniture approached. There was a tea table, a different kind of lantern, a pot, and even a teapot. Just like in an American anime (Were they called cartoons?), they shook like gelatin and the tea table and chair¡¯s legs easily bent to move them around. ¡°Hiro-chan!¡± ¡°Welcome home, Hiro-chan!!¡± ¡°For a snack, there¡¯s a donut made from pancake batter! It has plenty of caramel sauce and chocolate sauce!!¡± I removed my shoes and walked down the hall with the furniture following me around. Lots of eyes appeared and blinked on the sliding doors and I saw a translucent humanoid figure peering out from behind a folding screen, but none of them meant any harm. I washed my hands in the bathroom, rubbed my eyes, and felt the itching in my fingertip growing. It felt like the pinky was having difficulty bending. I tried to remember where the bug bite medicine was. It must have not been able to wait because a table approached from the kitchen carrying a donut on a plate. It couldn¡¯t get through the door, so it got caught. ¡°Ahh, Hiro-chan, Hiro-chaaan!¡± I dried my hands and approached the lamenting table. As I had the table back up from the doorway it could never fit through, grabbed the donut, and took a bite, the plate spoke up. ¡°It seems we have a newcomer.¡± ¡°A newcomer?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a Fuguruma Youbi. Your mother is looking over it in the workshop. It¡¯s an antique, so it should be an amazing Youkai.¡± Fuguruma? What kind of tool is that? I wondered with a tilt of the head. I didn¡¯t want to get in the way of my parents¡¯ work, so I decided to watch some TV with the furniture. I used the remote to flip between the cable TV channels, but most of the news was about Tokyo and most of the dramas were set there. It seemed so far away. ¡°Medical Camp in Nakano, Tokyo, has gained some recent attention due to a capital injection from the major distance education company Ganesha, but the consumer living center seems worried about the rise in anonymous data related to Medical Camp¡¯s unique disconnection education theory.¡± Hmm. TV was directed at housewives in the evening, so it wasn¡¯t that interesting. Nothing stood out to me. I checked around and finally found a show for someone like me. ¡°Are even idols moving from TV to online videos? New music videos get over thirty million views in just twenty four hours and a fourteen-year-old¡¯s tweets can affect stock prices! This middle school esper girl is all the rage right now! It¡¯s PSI_ver_RAIN!!¡± The buzzer indicating a visitor rang, so I placed my half eaten donut on the plate and headed to the front door. A girl of about my height stood there in a kimono. However, she was definitely a Youkai. Based on the aroma wafting from her, she was a Furutsubaki. She had to be way, way older than my grandma. ¡°I¡¯m here to pick up the item we left here.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Is the pocket watch left under the name Jinnai fixed yet?¡± She was blunt and hard to understand, but I checked around and did find a pocket watch labelled ¡°Jinnai¡±. I handed it and the memo from my grandpa to the Furutsubaki. ¡°Um, this says the mainspring was broken, so he replaced it. It won¡¯t be worth as much as an antique, but it says to forgive him.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. The Jinnai grandfather received it from his father as a coming of age present, so all that matters is that it runs.¡± The Furutsubaki took the pocket watch that had a chain attached. I assumed she didn¡¯t need anything more, but she suddenly started sniffing. And then she stepped toward me. Th-that¡¯s really close!! A girl¡¯s face is only ten centimeters away!! ¡°You¡¯re in love, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Eh? Weh!?¡± ¡°A Furutsubaki has the ability to seduce humans, so we can understand their feelings. But be careful. The scent sticking to your arm is a detestable one¡­no, a monstrous one.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°But I am also jealous. The standard way for a Youkai to repay someone is to marry them, but I¡¯m not sure what to do with mine since half the time he¡¯s filled with lust and half the time he¡¯s completely clueless.¡± The Furutsubaki seemed to lose interest because she turned away. Without looking back, she left with the pocket watch in hand. The name Jinnai reminded me of that older boy who seemed to be investigating something. That reminded me of the uproar over the Oomukade. I thought back to that comment about a detestable or monstrous scent, and worry filled my chest. I felt like something was happening without my knowledge. Once this day ended, the next day would arrive. And then I would be able to see my friends and acquaintances again. However, whatever this was felt like it would overturn that basic fact. For a while, I thought blankly about what the Furutsubaki had said, but¡­ ¡°Hiro-chan.¡± ¡°What is it, Hiro-chan?¡± ¡°It seems our master is in love with someone. (Worry, worry.)¡± ¡°Umbrella!! We must not interfere with an issue of succession. Keep this a secret from the head of the family!¡± I quickly turned around and the furniture peering out from the cracked-open door scattered like baby spiders. Part 9 (Jinnai Shinobu) I always got needlessly excited when we had Salisbury steak for dinner, but that had to be something imprinted on me as a child. And there was no stopping it when they had a fried egg on top. I knew I had to have a really cheap heart to be won over by something like this, but there was nothing I could do. ¡°Can I really win Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s heart with something like this?¡± ¡°Ram-chan said so, so it has to be true. Autofocus¡¯s bonus magazine gives twenty ways to ensure your love comes true.¡± The Yuki Onna and the Furutsubaki (small) were already whispering some dangerous things in the living room. They had some kind of fashion magazine opened up on the floor. I had never seen any of those magazine romance questionnaires hit the mark, but they were free to believe it if they wanted to. ¡°Mh, how about this? ¡®A Super Simple Ice Bath¡îThe Low Temperature Diet!!¡¯.¡± ¡°It also mentions the ¡®stranded on a snowy mountain¡¯ effect which outdoes even the suspension bridge effect. Mhh!!¡± Uh, oh!! That writer probably just wrote some random hundred-word article, but I can feel my death approaching already! I need to get out of here before disaster strikes! There¡¯s also that Oomukade stuff, so I was already thinking about heading out to check around the village tonight!! ¡°Now, then.¡± ¡°Shinobu, why are you grinning with a flashlight this late at night? It¡¯s creeping me out. Are you on your way to drill a hole in the wall of your school¡¯s shower room or locker room?¡± ¡°What!? I haven¡¯t even snuck out yet and I¡¯ve already been caught!?¡± If she told my dad or grandpa, I could easily get locked in the storage shed, so I explained everything to the Zashiki Warashi to get her on my side. The Good-for-Nothing Youkai in a red yukata gave a sigh of utter exasperation. ¡°Seemingly meaningless destruction, an Oomukade no one¡¯s seen, and a warning from an Okuri-Suzume saying that Oomukade is going to attack Yonesaki Hiro? ¡­Sigh. Shinobu, that¡¯s not enough to know an Oomukade is really sneaking around at night. In fact, is one involved at all?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the question. But if it¡¯s willing to attack during the day, it might be out at night, too. And if it doesn¡¯t show up at all, I¡¯ll know it¡¯s only showing up during the day. I just have to narrow down the possibilities like that.¡± Afterwards, I snuck out of the thatch-roof house without telling my parents. You might think I was surrounded by silence, but the night was actually really noisy with all the different crickets everywhere. The growth of brand-name crops may have been directly related to light because streetlights had been intentionally excluded from the farm roads. The area was filled with a thick, ink-like darkness. The night was long, but I had to decide where to check first. I didn¡¯t know if there really was an Oomukade in the village or where it would attack next if it was. Even in a small village, could I really find anything by searching around randomly? ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like I could come up with any good ideas anyway.¡± I started by checking on the sites of the damage. I checked the roadside solar power generator, the wall of the paddy pump shed, the house¡¯s fence, and the large tree near the candy shop. They all looked like they had been hit by a truck or by demolition equipment. ¡°Is this the centipede bite mark?¡± The fallen tree had been moved to the side of the road for the time being, so I checked the break. Prepared to see some disturbing things, I used my cellphone to search some bug-obsessed sites and this did resemble the ¡°bite marks¡± I found there. Although this mark was much, much bigger. So was it really an Oomukade? But at the same time, I tilted my head. As mentioned during the day, the damage was scattered throughout the village instead of focused in one area. Moving from one to the other like this required going back and forth through the village. And¡­ ¡°There are cameras, aren¡¯t there?¡± I muttered as I looked up at the traffic signal. Intellectual Village grapes cost thirty thousand yen a bunch, so there were surveillance cameras everywhere to protect those brand-name crops from boars and vegetable thieves. I didn¡¯t know how big this Oomukade was, but if it had gone back and forth through the village, it would¡¯ve been caught by that network of cameras somewhere. Or did it have some way of keeping itself from being seen, like the Okuri-Suzume? A normal Oomukade was not invisible. If it had gained that ability, this wasn¡¯t just a Youkai acting on its own. Someone would have had to forcibly twist the Youkai¡¯s traits and swapped them out to create the desired effect. In other words, a human would be involved. I hadn¡¯t considered it since there was no apparent profit or planning, but could this be a criminal Package? ¡°¡­¡± I instinctually turned off the flashlight. It was as if I had realized how dangerous it was to reveal my location. At the same time, a Package required dozens or even hundreds of people. I doubted that many people would gather together to knock over a tree on the side of the road. Had they messed up the assembly? Or was there some great benefit still hidden? And how was it all related to Yonesaki Hiro? No amount of thinking was going to reveal the answer and that meant I didn¡¯t have enough information. With that in mind, I raised my head again. ¡°¡­?¡± I saw a figure moving unsteadily down the dark farm road. However, it was quite small. They probably only reached my chest or stomach. And then I saw what it was. Part 10 (Yonesaki Hiro) The lights were out as I sat up in my futon. A mixture of itching and pain crawled across my right hand. The itching that had begun at the end of my pinky had slowly spread, but I didn¡¯t have time to worry about that now. My blanket and pillow moved on their own. ¡°What is it, Hiro-chan?¡± ¡°What is it, young master? Can you not sleep?¡± It would be impossible to leave without anyone noticing. I felt a weight in my chest when I lied and said I had to use the bathroom, but I left my room in my pajamas all the same. I walked down the dark hallway and made my way to the front door. That was enough for the furniture to fidget, but they seemed to be letting me do as I pleased. ¡°My master, you¡¯re going, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Are you going, Hiro-chan?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Unlike the older Jinnai boy, my way of getting to the answer was probably cheating. Instead of gathering the pieces of the puzzle one by one and calculating it all out, I reached the answer through vague intuition. I began to make a strange connection between Ranzono-san¡¯s odd behavior and the uproar about the Oomukade. The older Jinnai boy might settle everything eventually like that other time, but that scared me this time. I was afraid getting my peaceful life back would mean Ranzono-san would disappear. The lantern and umbrella were waiting at the front door. ¡°If you¡¯re going out at night, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to have a light.¡± ¡°As an umbrella, it is my duty to protect you from any disaster that might pour down upon you.¡± I nodded, put on my shoes, and grabbed the two of them. I then opened the front door and ran out into the dark outside world. Part 11 (Jinnai Shinobu) The figure swaying along the pitch black farm road was probably only in elementary school, so it was clearly unusual for them to be out this late. I was too far away to tell what they were wearing or even if they were a boy or a girl. Why was it I didn¡¯t immediately turn on the flashlight and shine it on them? An invisible tingling tension stopped me from taking that normal action. ¡°¡­¡± What was this? What was I so afraid of? It was an issue of the atmosphere. This was clearly a small child, but they didn¡¯t seem at all harmless. Unpleasant sweat poured down my back as if I¡¯d spotted a tiger, a bear, or another large carnivore in the mountains. Meanwhile, the small form made a turn at an intersection dividing up the paddy fields, so it wasn¡¯t like they were approaching me after noticing me. I hesitated for a moment, but I decided to follow them. Their pace varied and their head swayed back and forth, so they didn¡¯t seem to be looking in any set direction. Did they even have a destination in mind? As if to answer that question, the figure came to a sudden stop. It felt like they had been on their way somewhere but had given up. We were near some vending machines set up next to the farm road. I was pretty sure they had recently been put in at the request of some people who had succumbed to heatstroke during the residual heat of September. Five vending machines for drinks and bread were lined up below a metal roof to keep off the rain. Just like with an automatic door, the fluorescent lights were rigged to show off the products when someone approached. When I saw what was illuminated by those bright white lights, I just about screamed. They were only between 130 and 140 centimeters tall. Their frame alone wasn¡¯t enough to tell if they were a boy or a girl, but they were likely a girl since they were wearing a skirt. She may have been aiming for a kind of gap appeal because she wore a sports brand track suit jacket with a frilly miniskirt. I could guess this was probably an elementary student. The problem was the face. The neck up had transformed into a giant centipede with countless squirming legs. What? What¡­in the hell¡­is that!!!??? I stared in shock as the head ¨C the centipede ¨C stretched out. The bizarre movement was like an even more grotesque version of a Rokurokubi. ¡°Oh¡­oh¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t tell you where it was coming from, but it gave a strangely distorted groan. Before long, the number of centipedes grew. It looked like a giant tropical flower now. ¡°O-oh¡­.oh¡­ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± Destruction followed. It looked a lot like the headbanging often seen along with hard rock music. The young upper body moved violently back and forth and the countless centipedes (which were now longer than the body was tall) snapped like whips. They slammed into the vending machines. A violent wind blew through in the instant of contact and it struck me in the face. No, that wasn¡¯t it. Was the wind compressed as it wrapped around the centipedes? After I heard metal bending and electrical sparks flying, the fluorescent lights died. Sometimes the centipedes constricted their target with their body, sometimes they bit into them with their massive jaws, and sometimes they compressed them like the wind. Even as a silhouette, the destruction continued. The vending machines were supposed to be solid metal boxes, but they were crushed like balled up tissues and finally torn into several pieces. All that remained was the sound of the wind crushing them further. Was this the source of it all? Was this how the Oomukade¡¯s damage had crossed from one end of the village to the other without any people or cameras spotting it? Was the Oomukade hidden inside the children¡¯s bodies? Or¡­ ¡°Ahh, ahh. So the secret¡¯s out.¡± I heard another girl¡¯s voice from directly behind me. Before I could turn around and shine my flashlight, the girl shined her own light on me. I covered my dazzled eyes with a hand and tried my best to see who it was. It was hard to tell through the light, but the short silhouette looked like another elementary student. Her long chestnut hair was curled and all of her clothes were brand names from the city. She wore a white turtleneck sweater, a reddish jacket with the front open, a black miniskirt, a loose belt around her waist, tight jeans, and chocolate-colored boots. I didn¡¯t have any way of checking, but I was pretty sure she wasn¡¯t from the village. She would be from the cultural exchange group Tarou had mentioned. One look at the white rose corsage on the side of her head was enough to know she wasn¡¯t like the other kids. She giggled and spoke. ¡°We¡¯ve finally managed to bring them out whenever we want, but a lot of us don¡¯t know how to use them. Well, it¡¯s just something you have to learn through practice. This probably wasn¡¯t the best time for the trip. We have a proper training ground back home.¡± She showed no concern about the size difference between an elementary student and a high school student. Or even that I was a witness to what was happening. After all¡­ ¡°Do you have a Package that lets you fuse an Oomukade with your bodies?¡± ¡°Heh heh. What if we do?¡± I heard a footstep in the grass. No, it was more than one. When I switched on my flashlight and pointed it all around me, I saw twenty to thirty children surrounding me on the farm road and the already harvested paddies. ¡°Why would you do that? And wait. Who put it together!? Assembling a Package takes dozens or even hundreds of grown adults with specialized knowledge!¡± ¡°If I said we¡¯d done it ourselves, would it hurt your pride as a high schooler?¡± And more importantly¡­ She was shining a bright light on me, but what was it? She wasn¡¯t holding a flashlight! The chestnut hair girl seemed to be their leader and she swung her small right hand horizontally A sticky sound followed and the arm transformed from the shoulder down. It became a giant tentacle-like object made of countless intertwined centipedes. The light came from the centipedes¡¯ legs. They were glowing like a torch¡¯s flame. No, that wasn¡¯t all. I could see some irregular movement inside her clothes, too. The movement inside the pants below her skirt was completely ignoring the joints of a leg. Was this to gain physical strength? To gain a special power? To become something beyond human? Whatever the reason, I couldn¡¯t imagine what kind of mind could accept something like this with a smile. Nevertheless, the rest of the kids surrounding me also transformed their arms and legs into centipedes. They all showed off their strange tentacles with some spreading wide to either side like wings and some hanging down around their neck like jellyfish tentacles. However, that was not the problem. Each time the many centipedes wriggled, a gust of wind blew out. It was said the Oomukade could control storms, so were they controlling the wind or the air pressure? And the winds they produced seemed to have different effects. Some cut, some crushed, some dried out the plants, and some shook the dirt and rocks. And this was not just a lone madman like with a serial killer. They all shared the same insane obsession. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, mister.¡± The chestnut hair girl spoke while her many ¡°legs¡± wriggled about. ¡°We still haven¡¯t reached the end. And until we do, we can¡¯t have anyone getting in our way. So I¡¯m sorry¡­but we¡¯ll have to silence you.¡± At that moment, a thick presence almost like an invisible wall rushed toward me. I frantically looked around, but I was completely surrounded and there was nowhere to run. And based on the destruction I¡¯d seen around the village, those centipedes had enough power to break a thick tree truck or bring down a shed¡¯s wall. Would they crush me under their giant bodies or would they cut through me with their gusts of wind? I didn¡¯t know the actual method, but this was no different from having cars rushing toward me from all three hundred sixty degrees. I didn¡¯t even have time to think it was pathetic I was losing to elementary school kids. Pure fear rose from my gut and I could tell my legs weren¡¯t working properly. It was just like running out onto the road and seeing a truck¡¯s bumper filling my vision. And then something struck me in the side. An unpleasant sound burst out, my feet immediately left the ground, and I flew through the air. Part 12 (Jinnai Shinobu) My mind was sent flying. A neverending floating sensation came over me. I even forgot how to link my memories in a sequential order. ¡°¡­?¡± But once I questioned why I still wasn¡¯t dead, I finally realized what had happened. A centipede had indeed hit me, but I wasn¡¯t dead. I wasn¡¯t even scratched. The centipede that had rushed toward me first was not one of the kids led by that chestnut hair girl. ¡°Oomukade!!¡± I heard the girl¡¯s shrill voice from the darkness behind me. ¡°Why are you getting in our way!? We¡¯re your friends!!¡± The giant creature looked more like a dragon than a bug. Countless legs carried it across the already harvested rice paddies. Its head was reminiscent of the front of a train and its extremely bizarre jaws held my body. It almost seemed to be taking me away from the children. ¡°Are you¡­the original Oomukade!?¡± ¡°How much of this do you understand?¡± ¡°There¡¯s been a lot of damage caused by centipedes in the village, but it was actually done by those kids from the city and they¡¯re only drawing out your power. Is that right?¡± ¡°I will give that fifty points. That is merely the result and you have yet to reach the true issue. I just hope we can find somewhere quiet to speak.¡± ¡°Even though you¡¯re on those city kids¡¯ side?¡± ¡°Because I am on their side. Do you think I want them to be using my power and traits?¡± The Oomukade said nothing more. Footsteps that sounded like they were cutting through the grass and the low rumbling of violent gusts of wind were enough to know we had several pursuers. We were moving faster than your average car, but they were keeping up. I could see quite a few lights following us like will-o¡¯-the-wisps. I no longer felt any inclination to shine my flashlight on them. I did not want to know what change had come over their bodies to pull this off. ¡°Looks like we need to lose Sachi¡¯s group first.¡± Sachi? Is that one of their names? No, more importantly¡­ ¡°Wait a second. What¡¯s that light? On the road through the paddy field!!¡± I immediately found the answer to my own question. This light was much softer than my flashlight. I was pretty sure it was a Lantern Obake and a small form was vaguely visible in its light. ¡°I do not recognize that child. He must not be part of Sachi¡¯s group.¡± ¡°That¡¯s Yonesaki Hiro. He¡¯s a kid from the village!!¡± This was bad. The chestnut hair girl had said she would kill anyone who saw them. Yonesaki Hiro would be no exception. His eyes opened wide when he saw me and it was obvious what would happen if the centipedes caught him. This is dangerous. This is so dangerous, but I have to say it, dammit!! ¡°Oomukade, don¡¯t worry about me! Leave me around here and take that kid with you!!¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°Hurry!! I can manage on my own. The umbrella and lantern with him can¡¯t stand up to the power of a Youkai that can eat dragon gods!!¡± He hesitated a little. But then the jaws holding me loosened and I fell toward the paddies that seemed to be quickly flowing by below me. I clenched my teeth to bear with the pain as I rolled again and again and I heard the Oomukade speak as it lifted its head like a cobra. ¡°Don¡¯t die. I will need your help for Sachi¡¯s sake.¡± It didn¡¯t wait for me to reply to or question that. The Oomukade whipped up the wind and used the spring-like power of its entire body to jump over and collect Yonesaki Hiro. I somehow managed to get up and ran in a different direction. For better or for worse, the kids seemed to pursue the much more noticeable Oomukade. I could see the leg lights they were using as illumination and the blowing wind heading in that direction. This was not quite what I had expected, but Yonesaki Hiro wouldn¡¯t be killed that easily if the original Oomukade was helping him. But what was I supposed to do? If I returned to my thatch-roof house, I would just be attacked there. There were at least a few dozen of them, but if every single kid from the city was involved, the number jumped to over one hundred. I was outnumbered, but they were relying on the occult. Since they were using a Package built around that Oomukade, I only had to destroy that system to rob them of their power like I had thrown a breaker. Once they lost the centipede power, they were nothing but powerless kids. It didn¡¯t look like there was any other way of escaping this alive. ¡°What do I need to do that?¡± I needed information and time to think, so I decided to hide somewhere or hole up somewhere. I looked around and spotted a large building. The school, huh? That would be better than standing in the middle of the paddies like a scarecrow, so I pulled my aching body along to run there. When I got closer, I realized it wasn¡¯t my usual high school. It was the elementary school I had graduated from long ago. But this was no time to be picky. It was all over if I was caught, so I climbed the metal fence, ran across the schoolyard, and ran up to the entranceway of the high-tech wooden school building that had air conditioning and internet access. I didn¡¯t have time to check whether it was locked. I swung down my flashlight to break the door¡¯s glass and I unlocked it from inside. That might have sounded an alarm at the security company, but that was actually a good thing. I stepped inside. Schools could be frightening places at night because it felt like a ghost was going to show up, but this was hardly the time to worry about that. But then I heard the high-pitched sound of shattering glass coming from somewhere else. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me they¡¯re already here!¡± I felt a squeezing in my chest, but the person who broke through the hallway window was Yonesaki Hiro who had been held in the Oomukade¡¯s jaws. The umbrella and lantern accompanied him. The original Oomukade itself shrunk in size to only a few meters long and entered the hallway. ¡°Wh-what is going on!? When did this village turn into a kodoku jar!?¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing we can do! If only we could contact the mortar or armor back home.¡± The umbrella and lantern were left to speak back and forth as the Oomukade spoke up. ¡°This is not good. Sachi intentionally guided us here.¡± ¡°What do you mean? What does Ranzono-san have to do with this?¡± Yonesaki Hiro sounded nervous and the Oomukade twisted around toward him. ¡°Sachi comes from the city, so she has never been in the mountains at night. She also doesn¡¯t know much about this village, so she probably decided she would have the easiest time in the school because it is built a lot like those in the city. She intends to finish you all off here.¡± ¡°City schools and rural ones aren¡¯t exactly the same. Intellectual Villages rely on online shopping so much that we¡¯d be isolated if a typhoon or landslide cut off the road. We have far more shelter equipment,¡± I cut in. ¡°The elementary school is like the house of bricks from The Three Little Pigs. It has the toughest disaster infrastructure. There should be a large-scale tornado shelter underground. Do you think that steel door can hold up against them?¡± ¡°I doubt it. Centipedes burrow through the earth, so hiding underground would only be taking this onto Sachi¡¯s home turf.¡± ¡°I see. But we should still be able to use it.¡± I brushed a hand through my blond-dyed hair and asked about something more important. ¡°Sachi? Ranzono-san? To be honest, I don¡¯t know that much about this situation, so can you explain how everyone¡¯s involved in this? Otherwise, I can¡¯t grasp the big picture of this Package.¡± ¡°Ranzono Sachi is the queen of her community. She stands at the top of every category around her: her class, her year, and her entire school.¡± ¡°She¡¯s a girl from the city. She¡¯s really smart. She¡¯s athletic, she¡¯s fashionable, she can play the piano, and she can cook. She works as a model and writer for a fashion magazine and middle schoolers around the world look up to her.¡± ¡°A fashion magazine?¡± ¡°It¡¯s called Autofocus. You¡¯ve never heard of it?¡± A magazine for kids? Come to think of it, the Yuki Onna and the Furutsubaki (small) were looking at that. The umbrella and lantern opened their large mouths and spoke. ¡°Ohh, I saw that too! It was filled with these weird things called barcodes and matrix codes!!¡± ¡°I heard it was originally a web magazine, but it was successful enough to head back to the original paper format. That made it feel more linked to the internet than absolutely necessary, though.¡± I see. So that¡¯s what this is about. A model was one thing, but it was impossible for an elementary student to write for a magazine. Before even talking about talent or skills, the Labor Standards Act prevented them from working. When it was only on the web, she had probably been treated as someone updating a blog as a hobby rather than a job. Just like the prize exchanges for pachinko parlors, they probably gave her some ¡°allowance¡± in a somewhat separate place. They may have been working around those issues for the physical magazine, too. More importantly¡­ ¡°Autofocus, hm?¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°Well¡­ They were gathering attention by creating a dream team from well-known figures on the internet, but that means they were gathering people who they¡¯d never even seen before, right? Nothing says all the harsh critics giving everything one star on review sites actually know what they¡¯re talking about. They have to have seriously tried to recruit some kid claiming to be a well-known worker somewhere or, even worse, a bot that only posted automated text.¡± I didn¡¯t know if this had anything to do with the centipede Package, but I needed to get an idea of who Ranzono Sachi was since she seemed to be the mastermind. For some reason, Yonesaki Hiro pouted his lips. ¡°That¡¯s not what happened here. Ranzono-san really is, um, mature and fashionable. There¡¯s no one else as, well, pretty in my class.¡± ¡°What?¡± I frowned. ¡°Sorry, but are you seriously saying that?¡± ¡°Eh?¡± He sounded confused, but that may have been because I sounded more exasperated than insulting. ¡°Just so you know, it¡¯s only natural they look perfect and mature. After all, they¡¯re Twelves.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a Twelve?¡± ¡°Kasane_12 or Twelve for short. Simply put, it¡¯s a kind of trick art used on people. If you place white paper and black paper next to each other and look at them from a distance, the white paper will look closer to you. They use tricks like that with the colors of their outfits to give the illusion of an hourglass figure and they use makeup and their hairstyle to make their face look smaller.¡± The name of course was based on the traditional Japanese twelve-layer robe. But despite the designer¡¯s intentions, the term was now mostly used as an insult. It was seen as a misogynistic fashion that made the girl look pretty by covering her in so much makeup and clothing that they could barely move. ¡°Her looks¡­are fake?¡± Yonesaki Hiro was dumbfounded. The Oomukade twisted awkwardly next to him and remained silent. ¡°It¡¯s kind of like covering their entire body with a thin layer of special makeup. So if they get sweaty and the makeup comes off, it would apparently be far worse than losing an eyebrow. I¡¯ve heard the perspective of their face would be thrown off and they would look something from a game of fukuwarai. They have to constantly check their face in a mirror, so it has to be a restrictive way to live.¡± ¡°I see. So that¡¯s why she freaked out when I said something about her face.¡± The boy seemed to remember something. Hearing that, the Oomukade finally spoke again. ¡°That is why Sachi¡­no, all of the Kasane_12 children are doing this.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t see it. What do the centipedes have to do with special makeup?¡± ¡°It is possible the fear of becoming a centipede has been numbed by the centipede¡¯s venom, but at the very least, Kasane_12 was the initial cause.¡± The deadly Youkai said to eat even other Youkai sounded troubled. ¡°Here is a hypothetical situation for you. Kasane_12 optimizes their looks, but those looks will completely fall apart if it fails. Now, what if they did not what to do this themselves? What if it was forced onto them by their parents or other adults? Just how much pressure do you think they would be under then?¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°People praise Sachi. They call her beautiful and they gather around her. ¡­But that is not her true self. They are all looking at the false outer layer and none of them are truly looking at her, praising her, or showing any kind of concern for her. Isn¡¯t that more than enough to destroy a growing personality?¡± The girl and the centipede. She was breaking the boundary between the beautiful and the ugly and mixing them together. She hated and wanted to ruin what it was everyone praised about her. The situation was slowly coming into focus. Adults made Packages for simple money or fame, but this one was based on the values only held among these cornered kids. ¡°This is my fault,¡± confessed the Oomukade. ¡°It was wrong of me to feel sorry for her. It was irresponsible to try to cheer her up. That was what placed the final crack in the dam of her heart which she was only just barely keeping in balance.¡± Part 13 (Ranzono Sachi) ¡°Sachi-chan, why are you smiling?¡± That casual comment led me to realize my face was falling apart. I was not allowed to sweat carelessly, I was not allowed to shed tears carelessly, and I was not allowed to let the rain hit me carelessly. When I went outside, I always had to have a mirror on hand and I had to constantly check my face no matter where I was. And I could not quit either. My status and the expectations of me were still on the rise. No matter how much I told people I couldn¡¯t do anymore, they kept pumping in more and more expectations. The higher I ended up, the greater the damage if I fell. There was no way I could land safely anymore. The expectations of my parents, my friends, my teachers, and even of complete strangers were just too heavy. A single mistake and I knew unbearable pain would press in on me. I lived in a soft living hell, like being strangled by luxurious silk. That was when I found it. It was a spot of green seemingly cut off from the hustle and bustle of the city. It was the remains of a shrine that seemed almost buried by the buildings around it. It was like the secret place in the donkey ears story. I found the Oomukade there. No, a Tsuchigumo and Nue were there too. The Youkai were all so strange looking. To be honest, I was scared at first. But despite not looking remotely human, they didn¡¯t seem to care, joked with each other, and worked together to pick the fruits in the trees. I was jealous when I saw them. I didn¡¯t take long to start fitting in. In that world, your looks didn¡¯t matter. Those friends would look at who you were on the inside. I had gained something that should have been normal. I felt like I was regaining myself after I had started to fade away. They truly did save my life. And yet¡­ ¡°Sachi! Why would you get anywhere near those creepy things!?¡± Something set foot into my world. ¡°It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s okay, Sachi-chan. We¡¯ll call a famous expert for you.¡± Something brought unwelcome help into my world. ¡°It looks like they are affecting her. But not to worry. I can handle this easily.¡± Something approached with a smile after catching the scent of money. If the Oomukade, Tsuchigumo, and Nue had seriously resisted him, they could have torn that fraud of a medium to pieces, but they didn¡¯t. When I arrived at the usual place, gasping for breath, nothing was left. They had not even wanted to harm the person coming for them, so they had given up their home. That was how it seemed to me. But¡­ But¡­ But¡­ I simply could not allow it to end like that. What had the Oomukade done? What was wrong with a Tsuchigumo being ugly? Was a Nue¡¯s inhuman appearance any reason to proudly rob them of everything they had? They understood human feelings, they could communicate using words, and they had enough of a heart to care for even those who opposed them, so why did they have to be treated like that? What was beauty? What did it mean for the beautiful to exterminate the ugly? If that logic actually held up, then it was obvious who should truly be exterminating who. Everything needed to become the same. Everyone needed to become centipedes. Humans were not beautiful or ugly. It only came down to whether they hid it or not. In that case, I just had to drag it all out into the light. If everyone looked the same, we would finally be able to compare who we were on the inside. If we did that, we humans were sure to realize just how inferior we were. If I had lost sight of my true self inside the cocoon of the manmade Kasane_12 and I had become a mere doll, I may never have had these feelings. I would probably have become a disturbing empty shell that only gave the answers that would delight the adults and live up to my parents and teachers¡¯ expectations. But I had regained myself. Those kind Youkai had brought me back. So I couldn¡¯t bear it. I would use myself for their sake. I would use myself up to the very end. Part 14 (Jinnai Shinobu) ¡°It comes down to an issue of affinity. As humans grow, they come to hate bugs. There is nothing cruel about it; it is completely normal. Sachi just so happened to develop that later than others. That allowed her to fit in with us, but the adults around her would not allow it. I had predicted she would be pulled away from us, but it seemed to be quite a shock to her. Her hatred did not die down, so it continued to quietly burn within her and she ended up building this Package with the other children.¡± The Oomukade¡¯s story was strange, but it was not that I couldn¡¯t understand it. That may have been because I lived in an Intellectual Village full of Youkai. Then again, I didn¡¯t exactly like giant spiders or roaches. If a rhinoceros beetle was flipped over and I saw its soft belly, I would flinch back. It didn¡¯t feel quite the same when I could speak with it like with the Oomukade, though. If you could tell them to go away and they would, there wasn¡¯t anything to be afraid of. ¡°I had no direct contact with the children other than Sachi. After we left, she must have spread her story to others with similar worries. Unfortunately, the ones who haven¡¯t seen us probably had an easier time glorifying us in their imagination. We aren¡¯t creatures meant to be looked up to after all.¡± The Oomukade had said it had been wrong. It had said cheering her up had been irresponsible. But¡­ ¡°I think you have that a little wrong.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°It¡¯s true you messed up, but that doesn¡¯t mean the beginning was wrong. The problem was the ending where you vanished without saying a thing and left it all unsettled. Accepting Ranzono Sachi when she was in such a bind was clearly the right thing to do. Who knows what might have happened to her otherwise. It scares me just to think about it.¡± ¡°At the very least, this would not have happened to her.¡± ¡°You¡¯d rather she was a soulless teacher¡¯s pet? She might have even hung herself. I¡¯m betting you took on the seeds of this trouble because you saw those possibilities in her future.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°If ¡®right¡¯ and ¡®wrong¡¯ are the only options, then you pulled the lever toward ¡®right¡¯. You did something you can be proud of. And if Ranzono Sachi still hasn¡¯t been saved, it means she derailed from the ¡®right¡¯ track. All you have to do is help her recover. If the train is brought back on track and carries her to the goal, then this will all work out. That¡¯s the best possible option, right?¡± The Oomukade remained silent for a while. But finally, it looked between me and Yonesaki Hiro and dropped its raised head. To put that another way, it bowed toward us. ¡°I must ask you again. ¡­Will you help me save Sachi...and the rest of those children? I need to save them before they cross the point of no return and really do kill someone.¡± I didn¡¯t even need to answer. I had been the one trying to get this going. For some reason, Yonesaki Hiro held out his small clenched fist, so I lightly clenched my own fist and pressed it against his. That was when the umbrella asked a question. ¡°But could those small children really assemble a Package? They might have the dozens of people necessary, but still.¡± ¡°Those children had another worry besides Kasane_12. It is commonly known as a manmade genius project. A business that acts more like a seminar than a cram school artificially remakes the structure of their brains. I believe the business was known as Medical Camp.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve gotta be kidding me. That¡¯s the thing they call trauma disconnection, isn¡¯t it? They apply pain to close off the unnecessary synapse connections, leaving only the connections for academics and other lessons. It¡¯s been showing up on talk shows and the online news, so it¡¯s more of a gray area than anything fully illegal.¡± If what I¡¯d heard on TV was accurate, the man who founded the business was constantly moving between countless different businesses. He had made all sorts of crazy seminars and cram schools that would drag kids in and lock them in bomb shelters as ¡°punishment¡± if they stopped showing up. ¡°I had thought Ranzono-san was amazing because she was great at school, sports, fashion, music, and cooking, but it seemed strange to me,¡± said Yonesaki Hiro, another kid. ¡°How did she fit all that into only twenty-four hours a day? ¡­But I was wrong. There was no way she could fit it all in.¡± Those children had been fully remade, inside and out, for the convenience and vanity of the adults. They were robbed of any sense of self and were displayed by their parents as a medal or a trophy. The Oomukade¡¯s group had definitely been right to accept Ranzono Sachi. If things had continued without their intervention, she would have met a fate worse than becoming a creepy stuffed human trophy. ¡°That means they gathered their genius minds together and used them to assemble a Package better than any adults could have.¡± ¡°In that case¡­¡± I chose my words carefully. ¡°This Package turns people into centipedes, so the core has to be the Oomukade. You must have had your power and traits stolen without even knowing it. But the components have to be something else. The Package would have been assembled from things those city kids could get their hands on.¡± ¡°But since they¡¯re from the city, wouldn¡¯t the core be outside the village?¡± ¡°Even if it is, the leader must have some kind of controller. Otherwise, one of the other kids could overthrow her. ¡­It must be really close by. This is the elementary school, so we might find a hint here. What would Ranzono Sachi be free to bring in and use here?¡± As I wondered about that, I also went over the traits of the Oomukade at the source of the Package. ¨CThe Oomukade is a large centipede Youkai. But it wasn¡¯t explained why it was so large or violent. ¨CThe Oomukade can eat other Youkai such as a clan of dragon gods. But it wasn¡¯t explained whether it ate them due to hunger, hatred, or whatever else. ¨CThe Oomukade is immune to normal blades, but it is weak to weapons with human spit on them. But it wasn¡¯t explained why human spit was effective. Those unknowns were very important. One could substitute in any parameters they wanted when assembling the Package. A clear weakness made a safety device easier to add in, so this was actually a pretty easy to use species. ¡°Um, since it¡¯s Ranzono-san, wouldn¡¯t it be this?¡± ¡°?¡± I heard a rustling sound as Yonesaki Hiro pulled out a magazine larger than A4 size. That¡¯s Autofocus, but¡­huh? Where did he pull that from? ¡°You can find them all over the school. It¡¯s a big fad right now. This one was on top of the shoe lockers.¡± ¡°That helped us out too. Heh heh.¡± First the Yuki Onna and now the lantern. The magazine seemed pretty popular with Youkai. I placed the magazine on the floor and flipped through it with my flashlight in one hand. Despite being a fashion magazine, it barely had any photos. It was all barcodes and AR marker and it was real pain having to hold up my cellphone every time. ¡°That¡¯s some odd taste. Well, maybe she was forced to do it for work.¡± ¡°Eh? But¡­¡± ¡°Did you think a model in a fashion magazine was some kind of god that¡¯s always right? These are really just fancy banner advertisements. She wears the clothes from the makers and brands affiliated with the editors so they can sell as much clothing as possible. That¡¯s how this is set up. They don¡¯t introduce things because they¡¯re the latest trend; they introduce them to make them the latest trend. Apparently, some magazines make more from the money the clothing makers give them than from selling the magazine.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°If I use a more modern word like ¡®affiliate¡¯, do you get why Autofocus would recruit well-known online figures? You can reference the magazines if you want, but don¡¯t just accept what they say at face value.¡± Including Ranzono Sachi, they had about twenty dedicated models of various types. They were all wearing some pretty forced outfits that were supposed to make you want to click the banner ad for a shopping site, but Ranzono Sachi seemed a little different from the rest. There was definitely something odd about her. While the other models were clearly playing their part with dollar signs in their eyes, I couldn¡¯t sense any obvious benefit for her. I couldn¡¯t figure out why she was wearing those mismatched clothes. ¡°I don¡¯t believe you.¡± Yonesaki Hiro pouted his lips a little. It looked like he had more of a problem with me saying these things about Ranzono Sachi than with the facts themselves. ¡°Ranzono-san really is the center of her school. She¡¯s in some unreachable place like the distant moon and everyone wanted to hear the things she says. You can say those things all you want, but she still seems perfectly mature to me.¡± I just about told him distinguishing between what you wanted to think and the truth was the sign of maturity, but then I froze up. Wait a second. ¡°The Oomukade is an enlarged centipede. Its threat grows with its size.¡± ¡°What about it?¡± asked the Oomukade. ¡°And Ranzono Sachi¡¯s group is turning their own bodies into centipedes. They¡¯re turning themselves into a special being that grows more powerful the larger it grows.¡± I pointed at the magazine on the floor and the umbrella gave an ¡°ah¡± of realization. ¡°She¡¯s a model and writer for a fashion magazine. She¡¯s an unreachable existence like Kaguya-hime on the distant moon. ¡­She is in elementary school just like our master, but she¡¯s also a celebrity with a clear line drawn between her and the other children.¡± ¡°The two fit together. The Oomukade is an enlarged centipede and that city girl has enlarged her status with the magazine. Do you think Ranzono Sachi used Autofocus to make herself seem bigger and therefore combine with the Oomukade?¡± ¡°B-but¡­¡± The lantern cut in. ¡°What about the other centipedes with her? I believe she is the only one directly connected to Autofocus. How did the centipede power infect those other children as well?¡± ¡°Did they reference Autofocus? Did they read it? No, that isn¡¯t it. They have to make themselves look bigger. There has to be a trigger for that. If it applies to more than just the actual writer¡­¡± I had no guarantee here and we had no time to gather evidence. I could only present my theories. ¡°There has to be a condition for her gallery to make themselves look bigger. Are they doing it through Ranzono Sachi? Did they follow her fashion to stand on the forefront of their own classes? Yes, they didn¡¯t question those mismatched outfits, chose their clothes on baseless information, and felt a misguided pride in it all.¡± Otherwise, Ranzono Sachi wouldn¡¯t have any reason to wear those mismatched outfits in the magazine. If her success through Autofocus was the trigger, then she would have worn proper outfits. That would have been the way to increase the number of centipedes. ¡°Wait,¡± said the Oomukade. ¡°If that is the case¡­¡± ¡°Yes. The centipede transformations won¡¯t be limited to her class or year. This might have spread throughout Japan. A lot of them are probably hiding it because they¡¯re afraid of revealing something so grotesque.¡± Yonesaki Hiro seemed bothered by something and he hid his right hand behind his back. That caught my interest, but I didn¡¯t have time to ask about it. I heard a clattering like a sudden downpour striking the roof. Each individual sound was a leg and they spread through the darkness like a ripple. Knowing they were approaching from outside the window was enough for a chill to run down my spine. Storm-like winds blew against the glass and several points of light turned toward us. It had to be a group of centipedes large enough to envelop the surface, but I didn¡¯t have the guts to shine the flashlight toward it. In fact, I couldn¡¯t imagine how a human being could transform into something that would make noises like that. ¡°Ranzono-san and the others are here!¡± ¡°What should we do?¡± asked the Oomukade. ¡°As sturdy as this school is, it has a lot of windows and they will completely fill the building at this rate.¡± ¡°W-we need to hide somewhere!¡± ¡°No,¡± I cut in. ¡°Just running isn¡¯t enough. Oomukade, Ranzono Sachi shouldn¡¯t think you¡¯re a definite enemy yet. That means you can maintain an ambiguous position without running or hiding. Can you stay out here as a scout?¡± ¡°I can, but wouldn¡¯t I be more useful to help you fight?¡± ¡°No. ¡­Yonesaki, right? You come with me. I need to know the layout of the school. I don¡¯t want to find out they¡¯ve made additions or changes since I graduated.¡± ¡°Wh-what are you going to do?¡± asked the umbrella while glancing out the dark window again and again. ¡°I¡¯m going to spit on an arrowhead.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°That¡¯s how you defeat an Oomukade. But now that we know how Ranzono Sachi has set up the process using the fashion magazine, I obviously don¡¯t mean it literally. If I get my hands on that arrowhead, we might be able to turn this around.¡± ¡°What exactly should I do to help Sachi and the other children?¡± asked the Oomukade. ¡°I¡¯m going to do something, but afterwards, I want you to see if they¡¯re using cellphones. You can tell us by¡­ yeah, let¡¯s do it like a fake medium. For yes, do nothing. For no, go on enough of a rampage for the noise and shaking to reach us. That¡¯s what I¡¯ll use to decide what to do next.¡± Our opponents were getting close. If they rushed into the school building before I could take action, it was all over. I didn¡¯t have time to explain everything, so we parted ways with the Oomukade and ran through the dark building. ¡°Where are we going?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I need to ask about. Do they still have a device in the faculty room that looks like a giant fridge?¡± ¡°A fridge?¡± ¡°Intellectual Villages are reliant on online shopping, so we¡¯d dry up in no time if a typhoon or landslide blocked off the road through the mountains. So just in case, we have ample disaster infrastructure. Especially in the community center, the schools, and anywhere else a lot of people can take shelter inside. ¡­And the elementary school is the best of the best. It has water, food, sleeping bags, and everything you need to sleep over here. I¡¯m interested in one of those things.¡± We didn¡¯t have time to worry about locks, so I kicked down the door to the faculty room. I pointed my flashlight at what was inside. ¡°An emergency wired communications server and a large-scale antenna tower. These are to maintain the communications infrastructure.¡± Ranzono Sachi¡¯s ability to make herself look big was reliant on the fashion magazine Autofocus. And Autofocus was filled with barcodes and AR markers, so you couldn¡¯t tell what was inside just by looking at it. She had to be using the magazine and the website together to gain allies from her fans around the country. With the support of those online friends, she thoroughly turned herself into a celebrity. For her, one hundred legs was nothing. But if her communications were cut off, what would happen to Kaguya-hime on the moon? If she fell to the earth, she would be no different from any other child. Without her fans and online friends, she would be nothing but a human being. Wouldn¡¯t I be able to tear out her hundred legs then? I opened the door to the switchboard and worked on it while I explained all that. The umbrella groaned and spoke up. ¡°The Oomukade¡¯s weakness is a weapon with spit on it. You could switch that around to say it¡¯s weak to being spit on, can¡¯t you? You¡¯re going to isolate Ranzono Sachi to rob her of her celebrity status and then you¡¯re going to reject her clothing. That will remove her power as a centipede.¡± I was calling it Operation Emperor¡¯s New Clothes. However, there was no guarantee it would go as well as the picture book. A failure would mean being decapitated in the public square. ¡°B-but, you¡¯re messing with the spare server for emergencies, right? The Intellectual Village is filled with a spider web of countless pieces of communications equipment, so destroying one or two of them isn¡¯t going to bring it all down.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have to destroy them,¡± I corrected. ¡°When the Zashiki Warashi messed with the router¡¯s settings, her signals got mixed in with those from my room. That shut down communications from both rooms and it took until morning to get it all running again.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°This is the same. Causing a malfunction will create more trouble than physically destroying it. I¡¯m messing with the spare server¡¯s settings to send out a bunch of data that intentionally interferes with the village¡¯s normal lines. That will bring down all communications.¡± I flipped a switch. ¡°Okay. That just leaves the wireless communications. If I have the emergency antenna tower send out the same frequencies used for cellphones and wireless LANs, I can seal off the communications by force. If this works, it will tear the centipede legs from Ranzono Sachi. This is Step 1. We¡¯re finally stepping up onto the same stage as her.¡± Part 15 (3rd person) Late at night in the sanatorium, day trader Kotemitsu Madoka was facing her computer wearing her red bloomers (perhaps for good luck). She let out a scream when the connection suddenly died. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???¡± Part 16 (3rd person) As Ranzono Sachi watched, many children used the light of their centipede legs to break the windows and enter the high-tech wooden school building. Violent wind was blowing down the hallways. However, no one would have thought these were human children anymore. A lot of them were more centipede than human now. Some had gathered centipedes to form great wings and others had half their body completely covered like a hermit crab. Of course, not all of that would be effective. Even if they transformed their arms, they wouldn¡¯t be able to secure the lift needed to fly. They still had enough of a heart left to care about how they looked, but that was gradually fading away. They would become a formless swarm of centipedes. They would be nothing but centipedes. They used slicing wind, crushing wind, wind that corroded with oxidation, and wind that produced electricity. They found plenty of new things to fascinate themselves. After the soldiers leveled the ground, the queen would continue forward. But that ended when Ranzono suddenly came to a stop. A familiar deadly Youkai showed its face through a broken window. ¡°Oomukade!!¡± She briefly forgot everything and called its name with a high-pitched voice appropriate for a girl her age. She ran over, spread her arms, and jumped toward the large head. ¡°You big dummy!! Don¡¯t worry me so much!! Our centipede transformation has progressed enough to harm your skin and a lot of the kids can¡¯t control their power, so this is really dangerous!¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°But don¡¯t worry. Heh heh. It¡¯ll all be over soon. Once the transformation crosses a certain line¡­once this night is over, it¡¯ll all come tumbling down like when the water in a cup passes the limits of its surface tension. All of Japan will become like us. No one will be hurt by the phony ideas of beauty and ugliness and the world will be a kinder place.¡± ¡°¡­¡± The Oomukade decided shaking its head here would not reach Ranzono Sachi. She looked down at her smartphone. Instead of the actual phone, she was using a free texting service limited to 100 characters. More and more word balloon windows opened to tell her what those in the school were finding. Then she looked back up. ¡°Oomukade, you¡¯re acting as a spy for the ones trying to escape, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°So you noticed.¡± ¡°Heh heh. I know everything about you. And I don¡¯t mind if that¡¯s what you¡¯re doing. Even if we¡¯re enemies, we¡¯re still friends. I believe you¡¯ll eventually know I was right.¡± Noukotsu Village¡¯s wired and wireless communications should have been down, but as far as the Oomukade could see, the children had constructed a personal communication network using the special kind of service used for wireless keyboards and printers. Its range was only fifty to one hundred meters, but they could exchange data without being monitored because it did not require going through a server or cellphone tower. Its misuse in America for terrorist plots and drug trades had led some to argue the maker should limit its abilities. ¡°Wait here.¡± Ranzono Sachi shut her eyes while embracing the Oomukade¡¯s head as if to offer herself up to that great maw. ¡°I¡¯ll create a place for you, so let¡¯s talk about more stupid stuff together afterwards.¡± ¡°Sachi.¡± ¡°But first, I need to get rid of the people standing in our way.¡± ¡°Sachi!!¡± The Youkai shouted, but it was too late. It tried to close its jaws to restrain the girl¡¯s body, but she slipped away. With a truly bizarre sound, she quickly made her way into the dark school building. The sounds and movements she made would not have been possible using two human legs. The pants below her skirt bent oddly and the two centipedes sticking out of her skirt wrapped around each other. But even that was not enough. The countless legs were likely cutting at the air to create a violent wind that propelled her forward. She moved like a nimble snake and it reminded the Oomukade of the stories found in the East and the West of grudges transforming girls into monsters. As soon as Sachi stepped into the hallway through the window, static came from all of the school¡¯s speakers. A high school boy¡¯s voice followed. ¡°Hi!! You¡¯re Ranzono Sachi, I assume. I have no intention of letting you kill me, so I think I¡¯ll put up a useless fight now!!¡± (¡­) Sachi operated her small screen with her thumb to instruct the others to find the broadcast room and break into it. Meanwhile, the voice continued. ¡°I saw the magazine you¡¯re in. And the clothes you¡¯re wearing now. Why are they so mismatched? White shows up the best, so if you wear red over white, it makes the inside portion look bigger and makes your chest look bigger. The black skirt is probably meant to make your waist look thinner and it matches the chocolate color of your brown boots. But the jeans are clearly unnecessary. I can¡¯t figure out why you would add blue into the mix. The arrangement of colors is a mess.¡± (Is he trying to destroy the centipede Package by attacking what makes me ¡°look bigger¡±?) Her smartphone received a response. It was from the boys who had broken into the broadcast room, but they had not found anything. ¡°No one was there. The lights weren¡¯t even on.¡± ¡°Is there any other broadcast equipment? Check the gym or anywhere else the school would gather.¡± Not knowing how to respond would give this boy more time. Ranzono Sachi looked down the dark hallway and the boy¡¯s voice stabbed into her ears whether she liked it or not. ¡°For one thing, the curls of your chestnut hair are really soft and honestly more suited for some high-class girl. The white rose corsage matches that perfectly, yet the combination of a miniskirt and jeans is obviously more of a street outfit. Your belt is wilder and butts heads with the hair. They don¡¯t go together, yet they don¡¯t have enough of an impact for gap appeal. It just looks like a failed outfit to me.¡± (But that isn¡¯t enough. Heh heh. It¡¯s supposed to be a wrong. They¡¯re supposed to know it¡¯s wrong but still do it because I told them to. That¡¯s how I make myself ¡®look bigger¡¯. So pointing out my mistakes won¡¯t ruin my enlarged status!) The girl gave a fierce smile in the hallway of broken glass. More and more text message responses reached the centipede queen. ¡°No one in the gym.¡± ¡°I doubt there¡¯s any other broadcast equipment.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a door leading underground. It might be the kind of tornado shelter I¡¯ve seen on TV.¡± One of Ranzono Sachi¡¯s eyebrows shot up. She operated the device with her thumb. ¡°That would be the gym-sized shelter in case of a disaster. It probably has broadcast equipment to prevent a panic and to organize personnel. Tell me where the door is. It¡¯s time to attack.¡± A rumbling much like TV static filled the school. Part 17 (Jinnai Shinobu) Tarou had called it a bomb shelter dungeon, but it was really just a big warehouse filled with stacks of cardboard boxes. The boxes all contained canned food and sleeping bags. They were stacked two or three stories tall, so they formed perfect walls, turning the large space into a labyrinth. Something was surrounding us from all directions on the other side of the walls made from stainless steel. Something was scraping at the walls with ferocious speed. No, it was scraping through the walls. It was probably that wind. The deluge of sound reminded me of a heavy downpour. The tornado shelter walls were meant to withstand a tornado with wind speeds of one hundred meters per second, but they quickly crumbled and large holes appeared. Something like clumps of black seaweed poured in along with intense blasts of wind. Most of them had lost their human forms. The arms and legs sticking out through the gaps just barely let me know what they had originally been. And that wasn¡¯t all. The weird wind that wrapped around the centipedes may have been sharp enough or powerful enough to kill someone without ever touching them. The only one who still looked human was Ranzono Sachi because she had complete control of her transformation. When she walked in, the swarm of black centipedes split to the left and right to make a path for her. ¡°Heh heh. I suppose this would be checkmate.¡± The antennae of the countless bugs focused our way. The lantern and umbrella stood in front of Yonesaki Hiro and tried to puff themselves up, but it was plain as day what would happen to them if an actual clash began. ¡°The Oomukade calls in storms. The lightning and steel-like toughness both originated from control of air pressure. That gives me plenty of options. I could bite you and fill you with venom, I could constrict you with its large body, or I could crush your eardrums and organs using great wind pressure from every direction. Oh, but¡­¡± As soon as she said that, Ranzono Sachi casually swung the centipede she had as an arm. The creature was wrapped in a whirlwind of orange flames. ¡°Heh heh. That might start a fire. Like with diesel.¡± Dammit, I really don¡¯t have any time left. Underground really is the centipede¡¯s home turf!! Still, my only option was to smile as I held the emergency broadcast radio microphone. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be so sure. Your brand is already falling apart. Using fashion magazines is fine, but you can¡¯t accept everything they say. The people around you will be figuring that out before long.¡± ¡°But I¡¯m not going to wait around for that. So die to help me create a free and kind world.¡± She snapped her fingers and the seaweed-like darkness rushed in from all directions. Part 18 (Yonesaki Hiro) I saw darkness rushing in. The lantern shouted something in my ear and the umbrella opened up to protect me. But I was fine. There was no need for that. After all, I too had looked up to Ranzono-san. I gave a horizontal swing of my right hand that was still itching. That was enough to transform it from shoulder to fingertips. I gently pushed the lantern and umbrella out of the way and forcibly swung my insect arm like a whip toward the approaching centipedes. A clump of air exploded like it had contained a bomb and the sea of centipedes flew apart. Ranzono-san looked surprised. ¡°What¡­?¡± ¡°I¡¯m the same as these kids. I thought you looked cool when I saw your pictures in Autofocus. Or would you rather I said you looked cute? But either way, I looked up to you. That let the centipede power infect me.¡± The many scraping sounds came from my one hundred legs. Those were a part of me now. I didn¡¯t just strike with them. I sliced through the wind, controlled the air, and produced small storms. ¡°And even if that older Jinnai boy revealed everything, I still think you¡¯re cool. After all, I also decided I want to be a Youkai once. But I relied on the adults, let them manipulate me, and that was the end of it. I can¡¯t believe someone could put together all this on their own and manipulate the world of adults like you¡¯ve done. I think we should look up to you for caring for your friends so much. I¡¯d get mad if someone was mean to the umbrella or lantern, but I wouldn¡¯t be able to tell you how much I¡¯d actually be able to do. But you found an answer! And a great enough one to reject the world of adults! So!!¡± More than one centipede extended from my shoulder now. More and more heads grew like Yamata-no-Orochi. I clenched and opened them like a giant hand and wind wrapped around them. ¡°I won¡¯t lose. If it was the power of my feelings for you that gave me this centipede transformation, then I won¡¯t lose to the rest of these kids! I won¡¯t be shaken!¡± ¡°Wha-?¡± ¡°I know more good things about you than even you do!!¡± ¡°What are you saying!?¡± She may have been angry because her face grew red and she charged toward me. The legs in her pants transformed into long centipedes and moved like snakes. Lots more centipedes burst from below her skirt. She beat the air with them, built up the wind, and produced flames. I responded by stepping forward. The other kids between us were knocked out of the way as our giant centipedes moved like muddy rivers and collided. Tearing at the ear created vacuums which exploded and blew everything away. My wind wrapped around Ranzono-san¡¯s flames. As we fought, I gradually learned more about the centipedes. It wasn¡¯t the size or shape that mattered. Nor was it creating fancy-looking winds or flames. The older Jinnai boy had said Oomukade venom was used to make curses. Curses had to be about feelings. The Oomukade was a Youkai that grew larger when filled with feelings, so this was a battle to see who could turn the most powerful feelings toward the other and who could pour those feelings into the other. ¡°What could you understand about me!? My face is fake and my heart was torn to pieces, so there¡¯s nothing of myself left! Looking up to a doll like me and innocently following me is the same as obsessing over a corpse! You don¡¯t understand anything about me!!¡± ¡°If you can hate yourself like that, it means that you have a self. You¡¯re trying to dirty yourself for the Oomukade, so you must care about your friends! And that means you can¡¯t do this. A heart that cares for its friends would never decide it¡¯s okay to hurt your classmates or parents. You¡¯ve only frozen over and numbed yourself!! If you stay numb and follow through with this, you¡¯ll definitely come to regret it!!!!!¡± The centipedes moved in accordance with my will and created countless forms. They punched as a giant fist, they surrounded themselves in swirls of wind and flames, they stabbed like spears, and they exploded again and again. As time passed, it became clear who had the advantage. Unsurprisingly, Ranzono-san was more powerful. And not just in how well she used the centipedes. It didn¡¯t matter if she could shoot fire at me. The feelings, the curse, and the centipede venom at the base of it all were much, much more powerful and heavier. That was just how intense her feelings for her friends were. ¡°Heh heh. Is that all you have? You can¡¯t stop me!!¡± ¡°¡­Maybe not.¡± But have you forgotten, Ranzono-san? I don¡¯t have the lead role here. There¡¯s an older boy who knows a whole lot about Youkai behind me. Part 19 (Jinnai Shinobu) The scene before my eyes reminded me of the Okuri-Suzume¡¯s words that had been the start of this whole affair. (Hiro-chan is in trouble. Save him before the Oomukade eats him, hm?) Was this what it meant by ¡°eat¡±? In all honesty, Ranzono Sachi was dangerous. Compressing air and creating explosive flames using dust was completely insane. I wouldn¡¯t even be able to stand up to Yonesaki Hiro who was facing her alone using wind as his weapon. And there was no need to give into sentimentality here. I only had to make use of the time he had given me. ¡°Don¡¯t make me laugh, you brat!! You¡¯re making yourself look bigger? You¡¯re making yourself bigger than any adult? No matter how much you stretch your back, a kid¡¯s still a kid. Do you really think you can beat a high schooler!?¡± ¡°!!¡± Ranzono Sachi had been about to push Yonesaki Hiro back, but she seemed to realize something and came to a complete stop. Yes. I was using the microphone even though she was right in front of us. ¡°It might¡¯ve been easy to feel proud when surrounded by other elementary school kids. Autofocus is mainly read by middle schoolers, so you might have them beat, too. But I¡¯m in high school, the step above that. When I look down from above, I can see your flaws immediately!!¡± My argument may have seemed inconsistent or like I was refusing to admit defeat, but there was a reason for it. Yonesaki Hiro had said a few things to me before coming here: ¡°But you might be able to finish off Ranzono-san.¡± ¡°To us, a single grade difference feels like an infinite barrier. The gap between elementary school and middle school feels as distant as the moon from the earth. Ranzono-san is on that moon, but you¡¯re even higher.¡± ¡°Ranzono-san¡¯s status is in the world of middle schoolers, so it won¡¯t reach you. The words of a high schooler hold a lot of weight, especially about fashion.¡± I haven¡¯t let go of the microphone because it¡¯s not you I¡¯m speaking to. I was speaking to Ranzono Sachi¡¯s hangers-on, believers, gallery, and online friends who were filling the entire school grounds. It didn¡¯t really matter what I said. I just had to use the difference in age and school level to build uncertainty. After all¡­ ¡°Spit on its own is meaningless. No matter how much you spit on someone, it isn¡¯t going to damage them. It only works as the Oomukade¡¯s weakness if you use some other tool as well to make it an arrowhead with spit on it.¡± In other words, the act of ¡°spitting on¡± the weapon meant something had to be carried to the centipede. But then what was that? ¡°Oh, no.¡± Ranzono Sachi had the answer, not me. Yes. It was the cellphones and smartphones they had been using to contact each other! Part 20 (3rd person) ¡°Oh, no.¡± Ranzono Sachi quickly pulled out her smartphone. She had built in a safety measure. If there was a split in the group, she had prepared an ¡°arrowhead¡± to rob a member of their centipede power. She tried to quickly block all of their addresses, but it was too late. The text messages arrived. ¡°He¡¯s saying our plan is going to fail.¡± They came from other members of her own group. ¡°Will this really work?¡± They seemed to be doubting her. ¡°I had thought this was a problem from the beginning.¡± It was like they were spitting on her. ¡°This is a high schooler that¡¯s saying it.¡± It was like they were spitting on their weapon and firing it at the centipede. Dozens or even hundreds of text message complaints rushed toward Ranzono Sachi, their leader. She did not even have time to scream. The giant centipede her arm had become burst apart. A slender, feminine arm appeared from within. After that, the darkness surrounding her began to burst, bit by bit. The objects that no longer looked human reverted to being boys and girls. ¡°Ah¡­ahh¡­¡± Her vision wavered and a voice escaped her. She had been a step away from a world where she was free to smile with the Oomukade and the other Youkai, but now it was growing eternally distant. ¡°Ahhhhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± ¡°Now, that would be checkmate.¡± The absolutely unreachable being that was a high schooler spoke into the microphone again. As if it had been waiting for this moment, her friend the Oomukade poked its head down from the stairs leading to the surface. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter how many of you there are. We¡¯ve got a high schooler who might as well be on the moon and a real deadly Youkai. ¡­Now, what will you do, elementary school kids? Do any of you still want to take us on?¡± Part 21 (3rd person) Jinnai Shinobu and the others climbed the stairs to the surface where some police cars waited. Instead of the old man from the village¡¯s police box, several police cars had been sent in from the next rural city over. But that was not because they knew about the trouble caused by Ranzono Sachi and her group. ¡°Illegal trespassing, property damage, violation of the Radio Law, and, um, what else was there? Anyway, messing with the antenna tower stood out too much. That even affected the next town over. Well, just pray you don¡¯t get kidnapping, abduction of a minor, or some other perverted charge tacked on there as well, high schooler.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding!! You¡¯re handcuffing me!? And why is it all on me!? How is a human supposed to destroy the walls of a tornado shelter!?¡± There was no system to charge the Youkai themselves with a crime, but it was possible to charge Ranzono Sachi¡¯s group that had misused one¡¯s power. If he could prove he had been under attack by dozens of individuals and that he had been fighting to protect Yonesaki Hiro, his actions would qualify as justified self-defense or an emergency escape and the charges would be dropped, but that was another story. Ranzono Sachi had been taken into custody by uniformed police officers and Yonesaki Hiro ran over to her with the umbrella and lantern following him. She looked away from him, but he clearly heard her speak. ¡°I did the right thing, so I¡¯ll try again as many times as it takes. I¡¯ll keep at it until our beauty and ugliness have melted away and we all become the same.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll stop you as many times as it takes. I know the real you can¡¯t do something like that.¡± The exchange sounded something like Izanagi and Izanami from Japanese mythology. Just as the police officers began to carry the girl toward a police car, Yonesaki Hiro said one more thing. ¡°Ranzono-san! Can I ask you just one more thing?¡± ¡°What?¡± He breathed in and then out. He looked her straight in the eye and asked. ¡°Will you show me your face?¡± He did not mean it literally. She was a Kasane_12. Human trick art was used to thoroughly alter the impression she gave people, so that question had special meaning for her. In fact, her eyes opened wide. Then she smiled just a little. She covered her face with her hands and moved them like drying it with a towel after washing it. It looked like a scene from a classic ghost story where a Nopperabou would appear. Finally, she moved her hands out of the way. She exposed the unadorned face that her classmates, neighbors, and even parents had rejected. She then asked a cruelly ironic question. ¡°Am I pretty?¡± And this time, Yonesaki Hiro¡¯s immediate response caught her completely off guard. ¡°Yes. Very.¡± Notes 1. ¡ü Idiomatically, an Okuri-Ookami refers to a man who feigns kindness to get a woman to let her guard down enough for him to attack her. Chapter 2: [email protected] Hayabusa & Hachikawa Tomoe Volume 6, Chapter 2: [email protected] Hayabusa & Hachikawa Tomoe Part 1 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) ¡°Tarot Girls 22 here! First it was burgers, then it was gyudon, and now we have a brand new fast food revolution! The revolutionary restaurant Neko Manma is exactly what it sounds like! This bowl full of rice covered in exactly the kind of miso soup you want is a friend to the masses. And of course you can choose red miso, white miso, bonito broth, sea slug broth, pork broth, or seafood broth. As the Empress of the Major Arcana, I, Anemura Kaede, am rooting for this nostalgic yet new style of food!!¡± An idol¡¯s recorded announcement played on a loop to match the commercial playing on the restaurant¡¯s TVs. I copied the mascot¡¯s cry of ¡°Miso soup splash!¡± as I poured the shark broth on the steaming white rice in my bowl. Ahhh!! Working out of the office is so hard!! Investigation Department 1¡¯s chief was shoving all the worst jobs on me to repay me for acting without permission so much lately. Food was the only thing I had to look forward to, which seemed like a major red flag from a mental health perspective. ¡°Eh, ah, ahem!! ¡®Uchimaku, take this file and get investigating. A coroner¡¯s autopsy isn¡¯t enough to determine whether the old folks who died alone in their homes and then mummified really did die natural deaths or not. Go reinvestigate everything to see if there was a crime involved.¡¯ Detective, your colleagues really do hate you, don¡¯t they?¡± ¡°Why are you here, Miss Compulsory Education? And how can you do such a spot on impersonation of the chief from this morning!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s. A. Secret¡î By the way, detective, if you¡¯re gonna eat at Neko Manma, you need to get the famous Miyazaki cold miso. Honestly, don¡¯t you know anything? That¡¯s the #1 dish here.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding. Wouldn¡¯t that leave you with cold rice?¡± The twintailed Mystery Freak was pretty much wearing a swimsuit around town again. She suddenly appeared in the seat next to me and took a bowl. The one thing that was appropriate for her age was the scarf modeled after a character with a really long body. It was midday, so the counter seats were packed full and she used that fact to press up against me more than absolutely necessary. ¡°You aren¡¯t going to find any new evidence in this reinvestigation. How many years ago did the first investigation end? How many decades ago did those old people die? Unless the blunt weapon or blade reached the bone, not even an autopsy would find anything at this point. You aren¡¯t going to find any new witnesses or a murder weapon. There¡¯s just nothing there.¡± ¡°The chief probably knows that and wants me to waste my time. To hell with him.¡± If you were willing to live with a corpse, it might be possible to commit the perfect crime without dumping the body in the forest or ocean. As long as you didn¡¯t illegally take money from their pension, it would be treated as a natural death and no criminal case could be made. And as long as the family living in the same house ¡°didn¡¯t notice¡±, it didn¡¯t count as abandonment of a corpse. Of course, it would take twenty or thirty years of living with the stench of death to receive the benefits of mummification, so it was simply too frightening to imagine. ¡°What are you doing, Mystery Freak?¡± ¡°Well, my actions might overlap with yours, so I thought I should pop in to say hello.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Hey, hey. If you¡¯re investigating the mystery of the old mummies, why not go on a date with me¡î? Splitting up would be inefficient, so if we¡¯re both going after the Ubasute Apartments, we might as well flirt along the way¡î¡± ¡°Ubasute¡­Apartments?¡± That unexpected term left me in shock. ¡°Uba¡± was rarely used to mean ¡°old woman¡± in modern times, but it could still be seen in the name of a Youkai called a Yamanba. Ubasute was the act of abandoning one¡¯s parents in the mountains because you didn¡¯t have enough money to support them or were sick of taking care of them. And the fate of an old person abandoned in the dark mountains was obvious. People argued about the ethics of euthanasia in modern times, but the concept of Ubasute made it hard to say the past was always better. The topic made my food seem completely flavorless. I didn¡¯t know what exactly this was about, but I knew where the name Ubasute Apartments had to have come from. Meanwhile, the Mystery Freak spoke up while rubbing her head on my shoulder. ¡°Its official name is different of course, but over fifty old people have died alone there in the last three years and they were all immediately deemed natural deaths. Don¡¯t they seem oddly unwilling to call it a crime? Are you feeling a little more motivated now?¡± Part 2 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Sugamo was known as the Old Lady¡¯s Harajuku, but it was slowly changing. Trees had been planted here and there to add a little more green to the scenery and residential areas were popping up for old people who wanted a peaceful life. Of course, land was always at a premium, so the apartments tended to be in high-rise buildings. Ikebukuro was nearby, so it might have been something like Daikanyama was to central Shibuya. ¡°That¡¯s not an apartment building. These days, graveyards are built in high rise buildings too.¡± ¡°Seriously? Well, at least I can¡¯t imagine any ghosts or offering thieves showing up there.¡± ¡°And that tree over there is a grave tree. They get a whopping fifteen applications for every open spot. ¡­But I feel like a lone tree standing in the middle of a park would end up withering away from all the things people would do to it.¡± We spoke back and forth as we made our way to the investigation site on foot. The Ubasute Apartments in question were outside the aforementioned residential area. Around twenty identical buildings were squeezed in together like bookcases in a library. The buildings themselves looked old, but they seemed properly maintained and didn¡¯t feel unclean. Still, their overall atmosphere was somehow different from the other places. The area had a lot more trees than elsewhere, so the apartment buildings seemed to poke out from a thick forest. Just by blocking the view and the road gave the entire place a sense of rejection. ¡°Is this really the only way in?¡± ¡°It certainly is inconvenient.¡± The brick-paved road was narrower than a farm road and it meandered back and forth. The road itself was quite bumpy because tree roots were pushing it up from below. I doubted you could get a scooter through, much less a car. We continued down the awful road for two or three hundred meters as if going for a picnic¡­no, for a light hike. If the path had been straight, it wouldn¡¯t have been half that long. Finally, the manmade forest cleared up and an impressive form stood in our way. We had reached the Ubasute Apartments. The closest building¡¯s entrance was a lot like a school¡¯s main entrance or a hospital¡¯s visitor¡¯s entrance. According to the plate set up there, the official name was Wankashi Camp Apartments. As I read that name, I heard a slamming. I looked up at the six or seven story building and saw one of the many windows slam shut. No, it wasn¡¯t just one. After that first one, that sound of rejection continued from all over. It was just like when a meeting had fallen silent and someone cleared their throat. ¡°Now that¡¯s what I call a warm reception.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care as long as they don¡¯t drop a flower pot on us from the balcony. ¡­Anyway, what are these?¡± Several metal buckets were sitting around here and there. They were dented and filled with dirty water. Were they full of rainwater? Then I noticed an old man in a track suit watering a flower garden with a watering can. After using up the water in the watering can, he grabbed one of the buckets from the ground and poured its contents into the watering can. Filled with that much water, the bucket had to be quite heavy. The Mystery Freak immediately jumped at this chance. ¡°Hey, mister.¡± ¡°What?¡± The old man sounded incredibly suspicious, but he didn¡¯t refuse to talk altogether. Enbi used that to her advantage and pushed further. ¡°That looks tough. Why do you collect the water in buckets?¡± ¡°The buckets gather rainwater. This is the most efficient way.¡± ¡­What? ¡°Mister, but wouldn¡¯t it be easier to use the faucet?¡± ¡°Water is valuable. Kids these days might not get that, though.¡± He then asked us a question with the refilled watering can in hand. ¡°What are you two doing here? I didn¡¯t think door-to-door salesmen would visit a place like this.¡± Let¡¯s see. Where did I put my police badge? I checked through my pockets and finally pulled my ID from my back pants pocket. ¡°I¡¯m from the police. I¡¯m here today for, well, additional investigation on some people who died alone.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a police officer?¡± He clearly frowned and gave me an even more skeptical look. ¡°Don¡¯t the police normally work in groups of two?¡± ¡°Not always.¡± Police officers in dramas were sometimes mocked for acting alone, but it was pretty common in reality. If there was a rule forcing us to work in pairs, we¡¯d be spotted right away if we tried to tail someone. It would completely undermine the concept of a plainclothes officer. ¡°But it certainly isn¡¯t normal for one to be working with a teenage girl.¡± ¡°That is very true. I am well aware of that fact and I have nothing to say in my defense.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care how kids dress, but at least cover up your midriff. You¡¯re only hurting yourself doing that.¡± After spitting out those words, the old man started toward the building with the empty watering can in hand. ¡°Um, uh¡­¡± ¡°My name is Tayama Sunao. You can check around the apartments if you want.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to speak with the manager, so do you know where they might be?¡± ¡°No. In fact, haven¡¯t seen them in a while.¡± Tayama-san didn¡¯t even turn back our way. ¡°Oh, and while I don¡¯t care what you do, don¡¯t use the elevator.¡± With that, he really did vanish into the building. The Mystery Freak and I exchanged a glance. ¡°What should we do?¡± ¡°Whatever we can. We don¡¯t really need his permission.¡± I pulled out a cellphone equipped with a police SIM and called up the file for this job. I decided to check the rooms of the deceased old people and then ask around at the neighboring rooms. I walked through the large apartment grounds based on the file. As we made our way through the closely packed buildings, the windows slammed shut around us. They were rejecting outsiders, but they weren¡¯t ignoring them. The buildings were filled with countless eyes and I could tell they were all focused on us. These were the Wankashi Camp Apartments, aka the Ubasute Apartments. According to the Mystery Freak, more than fifty people had died alone here in three years, but the closest such room was on the sixth floor of Building 3. The building had nothing as fancy as automatically locking doors, so we walked right in. The first floor was not part of the living area. Instead, it seemed to be focused on recreation. A lobby for chatting was filled with benches and a large room was lined with health equipment. We passed through that area and climbed the stairs. ¡°Hey, Mystery Freak, why¡¯s this place known as the Ubasute Apartments anyway?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you can guess. It¡¯s an inexpensive option for old folks to live alone. It made waves online for being so incredibly cheap in the city center. The problem is no one knows how to contact the real estate agency.¡± ¡°¡­?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask me. I¡¯m only repeating the rumors.¡± We discussed the case as we climbed the stairs, but the Mystery Freak was already worn out by the third floor. ¡°Wait, detective¡­ I¡¯m tired¡­¡± ¡°How!? You have to climb three or four flights of stairs at school, don¡¯t you!?¡± ¡°My school has elevators. So how about we use the ones here? That old man¡¯s not looking.¡± It was true the apartments had seven stories. And twenty buildings, too. If we had to go up and down the stairs that many times, it would be about as much effort as some light mountain climbing. The Mystery Freak walked right past the next flight of stairs and entered the hallway. There, she pressed the button to one of the four elevators. ¡°Look, it isn¡¯t even malfunctioning or anything. The light came on, so¡­¡± But Enbi was cut off by another voice. ¡°Hold iiiiit!! Didn¡¯t anyone tell you not to use the elevator!?¡± The roaring voice sounded like a nearby lightning strike. ¡°Hyah!¡± The Mystery Freak jumped and I looked over to find an old lady in an apron poking her head out from a door and giving Enbi a devilish glare. She stomped over, grabbed the Mystery Freak¡¯s hand, and pulled her away. It almost looked like she was moving her away from the elevator door. ¡°Honestly. Don¡¯t you give any thought to your safety? ¡­And what kind of outfit is that!? A young girl shouldn¡¯t be walking around in public with her midriff showing!!¡± ¡°If that dense man would finally give in and have his way with me, I wouldn¡¯t have to dress like this to seduce him! And it¡¯s already October, you know!? Even I know wearing a swimsuit now is weird!! This scarf is a decoration! This is the surefire sexy swimsuit scarf! Tah dah!!¡± ¡°If you know it¡¯s weird, then why don¡¯t you stop!?¡± I shouted back with my skin crawling, but no one was listening. At any rate, the old lady seemed to have taken that conversation at face value. ¡°Hm? The population has grown to 150 million, but there are still traces of the Immoral Ten Year Project meant to increase the birthrate? How sad. If that scarf is fur, I might faint.¡± The apron old lady sounded angry, but she didn¡¯t seem to have all that bad an impression of us. It may have been that she was scolding us instead of angry with us. And her issues with the Mystery Freak¡¯s clothing seemed grounded in worry for the girl¡¯s safety, not her own displeasure. Tayama-san from the flower garden may have been the same. In that case, why were they telling us not to use the elevator? I had initially thought it was a way of telling us we were uninvited guests, but that didn¡¯t seem to be the case. ¡°So what are you two doing here?¡± ¡°This doesn¡¯t explain her, but I am a police officer. ¡­Um, this is hard to say, but I¡¯m performing some additional investigation into the death of some people who died alone.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± She readily answered without seeming displeased. ¡°You mean Akasabi-san. That isn¡¯t entirely unrelated to me.¡± ¡°?¡± Akasabi-san? I was confused, but the old lady also seemed confused. ¡°Is that not it?¡± ¡°Well, the investigation has only just begun, so I don¡¯t know any of the details yet. But if you¡¯re willing, could you tell me about this Akasabi-san?¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. Besides, whoever you ask, you¡¯ll end up talking about Akasabi-san. That¡¯s just how well-known the story is.¡± Part 3 (Hachikawa Tomoe) I had completely forgotten we had school off after the midterm exams, so I had no real plans despite the day off. With nothing else to do, I decided to visit ¡°his¡± grave since I¡¯d been putting it off for quite a while. That was because my mom had gotten remarried. My new dad was nice and I had no real complaints about our new family, but it was still hard to talk about ¡°him¡±. Well, since I was able to dig up those old memories, maybe I had finally managed to come to terms with that incident involving a Jinmensou and my friend Mio. I left home on the pretext of going shopping and boarded the train to Sugamo. I had to wonder what my mom thought when I left in my beige blazer-style winter uniform despite having the day off. I chose some random flowers at the florist by the train station and walked to the graveyard with the bouquet. It was a weekday, so it must have been a strange sight to anyone who didn¡¯t know about our post-exam day off. Still, I wasn¡¯t stopped by a police officer. The big city really could be cold. On the way, I spotted a middle-aged man and woman arguing at the main gate of what seemed to be an elementary school. The man looks like a teacher, but who¡¯s the woman? ¡°Please calm down, ma¡¯am. Just calm down a little, okay?¡± ¡°Shut up!! I know they did it! Who else could have? You suspect them deep down too, don¡¯t you!?¡± ¡°Like I¡¯ve been saying, there¡¯s no way to be sure.¡± ¡°But they brought a weapon to the school that other time¡­ If you aren¡¯t going to report this, I¡¯ll do it myself. But if I do it, you might just be found complicit in this!!¡± ¡­What in the world is going on? The woman returned my curious look with a sharp glare, so I made a rapid exit. I had no concrete dreams for the future, but I had a few clear ideas of what I didn¡¯t want to be. A housewife who only caused trouble without doing any housework was one of those. If you didn¡¯t do any housework and didn¡¯t have a job, you were just a grown-up shut-in. I regathered my thoughts and continued toward the graveyard. High-rise graveyard buildings and grave trees had become common in recent times, but ¡°he¡± had prepared himself a stone grave on the grounds of a Buddhist temple. And he had done it long before he died. He had pretentiously said a policeman never knew when he was going to die so he had dealt with that ahead of time, but I doubted that was the real reason. The buildings and grave trees had people to look after them, so the family didn¡¯t have to maintain the grave. I was pretty sure he hadn¡¯t liked the sound of that. He tried to keep a composed appearance, but he could actually get pretty lonely. I set foot in the temple¡¯s graveyard while messing with my cellphone, but I found someone was already there. The man was a police officer just like ¡°him¡±. I was pretty sure his name was Sotobori Gaku. His most noticeable features were the solid build of a judo ace and an extremely intimidating face. He also had plenty of scars. Of course, he was a professional who fought day and night against large criminal organizations, so he had probably given himself that look on purpose. He had arrived ahead of me, so the grave was already clean and the withered flower and old offering had been replaced with new ones. He smiled bitterly when he saw me. ¡°What¡¯s this, Tomoe-chan? Are middle school girls so attached to their electronics that they can¡¯t put them down in a graveyard?¡± ¡°I¡¯m playing this for ¡®him¡¯. It¡¯s Tarot Girls 22¡¯s new song. ¡­Honestly, can you believe a man of his age was supporting some teenage idols behind his daughter¡¯s back? That man really loved his fads.¡± ¡°Eh? What? Really!? I¡¯ll never be able to think about him the same way again!!¡± ¡°Ah ha ha. And he¡¯s not going to drink that sake you brought as an offering. He would act cool and go along when his colleagues went out drinking, but when he got home, he¡¯d start vomiting into the toilet.¡± But despite what I said, I wasn¡¯t confident I knew who he really was either. He had lost his life during the Jinmensou incident involving my friend Mio, but I hadn¡¯t noticed a villain had taken his place until the very, very end. If the detective named Uchimaku hadn¡¯t saved me, that villain probably would have killed me. I separated my bouquet¡¯s flowers and placed them around the grave as offerings. Then I held my hands together in front of the grave. Thanks to my mom¡¯s remarriage, I was now part of the Hachikawa family, so I didn¡¯t know if I would end up in this grave engraved with the name ¡°Toujou¡±. Still, I thought I should at least be allowed to pray for the deceased. After I reopened my eyes, I asked Sotobori-san a question. ¡°Hey, what kind of person was ¡®he¡¯ to you?¡± ¡°A detective.¡± His answer came without a moment¡¯s delay, but he must have thought that wasn¡¯t enough because he scratched his head and said more. ¡°Being a police officer is an occupation. If they didn¡¯t pay you, no one would do it. But once you keep at it for five or ten years, it starts soaking into every part of you. That¡¯s what I mean when I say he had brought being a detective to the level of a lifestyle. Even if he had been fired for some reason, I doubt he ever could have escaped that way of living.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s just how it is. You may not like to hear it since he was always neglecting you, but Toujou Miyabi lived the life of a detective to the very end. If he didn¡¯t have steadfast convictions, he would have stopped before he was killed.¡± Honestly. Does that mean he grew up or that he never grew up? Sotobori-san here and Uchimaku-san who had saved me may have been the same. And speaking of Uchimaku-san¡­ ¡°H-hey. You know Uchimaku-san, right? What¡¯s he doing now? He seemed a lot like ¡®him¡¯, so is he doing well?¡± ¡°Ohhhh, I see.¡± ¡°Wh-what?¡± ¡°That guy only seems to attract the ones who ¡®aren¡¯t quite there yet¡¯. If they just had another ten¡­no, even just five more years, he would have had a man¡¯s idea of heaven waiting for him.¡± ¡°Wh-what are you trying to say!?¡± ¡°Let me ask you something instead, Tomoe-chan.¡± Sotobori-san grinned as he pulled a cellphone from his pocket. ¡°I know Uchimaku, so I naturally have his phone number and email address. So what are you going to do, Tomoe-chan? This is the perfect chance if you want his address.¡± They really are kids! The police are nothing but children!! ¡°Wh-what? What are you-¡­ I don¡¯t, um, want¡­¡± ¡°This might be your one and only chance, you know? Over thirty million people move through Tokyo every day, so surely you aren¡¯t thinking you¡¯ll just so happen to miraculously bump into him again without putting any work into it yourself.¡± ¡°Uuh¡­¡± I looked away from him. Damn, I can feel the heat in my cheeks. I know what this means, so why can¡¯t I stop myself from holding out my cellphone!? My voice was barely audible as I announced my surrender. ¡°Please¡­give it to me.¡± ¡°Sure thing. ¡­Y¡¯know, this means I¡¯m giving a grown man¡¯s address to a man¡¯s daughter right in front of his grave. I hope he doesn¡¯t start haunting me.¡± ¡°Sh-shut up. That isn¡¯t what this is about! And I don¡¯t care if he does show up as a ghost! That would probably make things a little livelier around here!!¡± My argument was losing any coherence as I held the cellphone close to my chest. I-I have it. But what am I supposed to do with it!? Sotobori-san then turned his head as if he had noticed something. ¡°Now, then. I can¡¯t intrude any longer, so I¡¯ll be going. It¡¯s probably been a while for you, so take your time.¡± ¡°?¡± I gave him a puzzled look as he waved and left, but I soon realized what this was about. Someone else was approaching through the graveyard. Toujou¡­Midori-san. She was ¡®his¡¯ younger sister. That made her my aunt. ¡°Long time no see, Tomoe-chan.¡± I didn¡¯t know what to call her, but I finally smiled and called her the same thing I had the last time we had met. ¡°It''s nice seeing you again, Aunt Midori.¡± Part 4 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) The old lady in an apron we met in the Ubasute Apartments was apparently named Nezu Yuki. We didn¡¯t want to stand around and talk, so she showed us to her apartment. It seemed to have been designed with a family in mind because it had a fair number of rooms. It was all well-maintained, so it looked old yet clean. However, the size of the apartment made it feel a little lonely for an old woman to be living there alone. Also, the lighting was oddly dim, but it wasn¡¯t enough to make reading difficult. She probably just wanted to save electricity. ¡°I won¡¯t serve you any tea. I¡¯m out of tea leaves.¡± She was also incredibly blunt. ¡°Well, this topic will kill your appetite anyway, so it may be better this way. Anyone who could eat while discussing Akasabi-san couldn¡¯t be human.¡± ¡°So who is this Akasabi-san?¡± ¡°Probably one of the people you¡¯re investigating.¡± Nezu-san sat at the kitchen table with a groan of effort. The Mystery Freak and I decided to sit in the opposite seats. ¡°Akasabi-san was one of those who died alone, but the situation was a little different from the bedridden folks without anyone looking after them who dried up, collapsed from a sudden illness, and weren¡¯t found by anyone. Akasabi-san was trapped inside.¡± ¡°Trapped inside?¡± In where? And by who? If a third party was involved, it wouldn¡¯t be a natural death. That was more than enough to be a crime. But when she saw the sharp look in my eyes, Nezu-san waved her hands in front of her face. ¡°Hear me out first. I¡¯m talking about the bath door. It had apparently already been old and rattling in its frame, but at some point the door seems to have soaked up enough water to expand. That kept it from moving at all. Akasabi-san was trapped inside the bath.¡± ¡°Oh, I get it. So they were trapped inside all on their own.¡± Nezu-san nodded at the Mystery Freak¡¯s comment. ¡°Regardless, they couldn¡¯t get out. At first, they apparently didn¡¯t feel much danger since they were still inside their own house. ¡­But that doesn¡¯t change the fact that they were trapped inside. And people die if they don¡¯t have anything to eat. After realizing the danger, they banged on the door, but it was no use. They couldn¡¯t use the phone and no one showed up after they shouted from the small window.¡± ¡°You mean¡­?¡± How would that have felt? No one ever thought of their own home as a dangerous or deadly place. The trapped person might laugh at what had happened, but as soon as they realized it¡¯s no laughing matter, everything they thought they knew would be turned on its head. ¡°There was some bathwater left in the bathtub. Drinking that was enough to stay alive, but only stay alive. Their strength faded as the days passed and they lost the strength needed to break down the door or even shout out the window. This continued for a week or two. ¡­They couldn¡¯t even die. They knew they were going to run out of strength eventually, but they extended their suffering. They probably wished they hadn¡¯t had that lifeline so they could have just given up. I heard the bathtub plug had been pulled out by the time the body was found.¡± It was an unimaginable story. Had their thoughts on life and death been turned upside down along with everything else? In that small world, living had become suffering and death had become a salvation. ¡°But apparently the dampness of the bath hadn¡¯t completely vanished. Finding a naked corpse would be disturbing enough, but the group that found Akasabi-san apparently saw a pile of bright colored mold covering the entire bath. The corpse was curled up in the center of it all and I hear the mold had turned it to mush like severe athlete¡¯s foot covering the entire body.¡± She was right about this not being a topic to discuss over tea. I was a detective and seeing crime scenes was a part of the job, so I was fairly accustomed to seeing corpses. But this was different. There was no malicious trick yet someone¡¯s life had been carelessly lost. It felt so empty because the only solution was to accept that these things happened. ¡°Everyone in the apartments started talking about how we didn¡¯t want the same thing to happen to us, so we started worrying about how the bath doors fit in their frames.¡± But if this woman¡¯s story was true, there was no crime involved. It wasn¡¯t something a police officer like me needed to investigate any further. ¡­If it was true no one else was involved, that is. A drowning could be disguised by letting the corpse mummify or decay. Strangling them could leave a rope mark around the neck or break their neck, but nothing of the sort remained if they were drowned. The mold would have caused the corpse to decay in an extremely short time, so what if someone had intentionally set the room temperature and humidity to promote its growth? I pulled out my cellphone to find this Akasabi-san on the list of those who had died alone, but then the Mystery Freak spoke to Nezu-san. ¡°Hey, ma¡¯am, I have one question about this famous Akasabi-san.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Which room did they live in?¡± It was an obvious question and the old Nezu Yuki-san gave a clear answer in a tone that seemed to ask why we were asking something so silly. ¡°That¡¯s the thing. Everyone will point to a different room if you ask them. Well, I¡¯m sure one of them is the real one.¡± Part 5 (Hachikawa Tomoe) It had truly been a long time since I had visited a relative¡¯s house for fun. Toujou Midori-san¡¯s house was near the graveyard. It was a small house, but I thought it was amazing enough to have your own home in Tokyo when the country¡¯s population had grown to 150 million. ¡°Sorry. Takkun would have wanted to play with you, but she¡¯s still at school. She¡¯s probably only just getting back from her field trip. Would you mind killing some time with your aunt instead?¡± ¡°Takkun, hm?¡± Despite the ¡°kun¡±, Takkun wasn¡¯t a boy. The girl¡¯s name was Toujou Takumi-chan and that had been shortened to Takkun. I couldn¡¯t quite remember how old she would be, but I was pretty sure she would still be in elementary school. We watched TV in the living room and I had a meaningless chat with Midori-san. She would complain about how the beautiful had all the luck since the Tarot Girls 22 could have a scandal but come out of it more popular because it made them seem ¡°more human¡±. At some point, Midori-san changed the subject. ¡°Come to think of it, Tomoe-chan, did you see anyone strange on your way here?¡± ¡°Strange?¡± I remembered the woman throwing a fit at the elementary school, but that didn¡¯t seem to be what she was talking about. ¡°There¡¯s an apartment complex just outside of this area and the old people that live there, well¡­¡± ¡°What about them?¡± ¡°I guess you could say they get angry easily and, well, they¡¯ve been causing a lot of trouble in the area lately. But as long as you weren¡¯t caught up in it, it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± She seemed hesitant to speak, so she was clearly choosing a softer way of putting this. Hmm¡­ It might have been forcing my own image or role onto them, but I felt like old men and women should be living in big rural houses. The old folks who would snap angrily at anyone and got so obsessed with the horse races honestly seemed to be wasting their time and it felt kind of sad. It was too painful to watch when they started shoplifting because they wanted attention or started stalking any young woman who so much as smiled their way. Of course, old people were human too, so there were good ones and bad ones. They had their own thoughts and some would always be filled with shallow desires no matter how long they lived. That was probably all it was. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m glad to hear you didn¡¯t see anything like that, Tomoe-chan.¡± That was all Midori-san said. We watched TV for a while longer and she commented that they got the seasoning wrong on the cooking show and told me how many times a certain actress had been married. At some point, I realized quite a bit of time had passed. Toujou Midori-san checked the clock and tilted her head. ¡°Oh? She should have been back by now.¡± ¡°Maybe she went to a friend¡¯s house.¡± ¡°I tell her to send an email when she does that.¡± I decided not to mention how restrictive that rule sounded to me. I stood up from the table. ¡°Then I¡¯ll go check at her school.¡± ¡°Eh? You don¡¯t have to do that. It would be meaningless if you just missed each other.¡± ¡°Ah ha ha. To be honest, I just wanted an excuse to go jogging. You¡¯ve been having me eat so much that I can¡¯t even calculate out how many calories I¡¯ve had.¡± With that said, I put my shoes on in the entrance, but my aunt still looked troubled. ¡°Tomoe-chan, I know you¡¯re on a diet, but don¡¯t force yourself. They said on TV some female athletes get irregular periods.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not working myself that hard, so don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll be back soon.¡± I opened the front door with a bitter smile. As I did so, question marks danced inside my heart. I know they might be causing trouble, but was Midori-san really the type to bad mouth people like that? Part 6 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) It made no sense to me. Nezu Yuki-san, the old woman in an apron, claimed to know the story of Akasabi-san quite well, but she also didn¡¯t know where the deceased¡¯s room was. In that case, what was that story? Since everyone here supposedly knew it, I doubted she had simply made it up. ¡°Detective, do you think this Akasabi-san person actually exists?¡± ¡°Eh? What?¡± ¡°You might be able to look through your list with a number of different kanji spellings in mind, but I doubt you¡¯ll find anything. Akasabi isn¡¯t a name.¡± The Mystery Freak grinned. ¡°When the body was found, Akasabi-san was covered in bright-colored mold, remember? I bet it was the rust-like color of the mold that led to the name.1 They were simply given a name based on how they looked. I bet there really was an original decayed corpse covered in mold, but was it really someone named Akasabi? What about the story about the bath? I don¡¯t know about that. The story might even be based on more than one person.¡± Oh, I get it. When I thought of it like that, it started to make sense and it was a lot easier to judge the credibility of that old woman¡¯s story. Still, it wasn¡¯t an entirely baseless rumor. It wasn¡¯t something hidden deep in the ocean or the mountains. Someone had died here and no one knew who it was. The person had died all alone, they had been left to rot, and the facts had deteriorated with time. It felt different from the murder cases I had faced in the past. This was someone¡¯s very existence vanishing, not just their life. ¡°Wh-what¡¯s this all of a sudden!? And after I was kind enough to tell you my story!¡± ¡°Okay, ma¡¯am, then do you know whether Akasabi-san was a man or a woman?¡± ¡°Um, well¡­¡± She immediately started mumbling. We weren¡¯t talking about a beautiful Thai shemale, so she would at least know the sex of someone she had actually met. ¡°So you could say this Akasabi-san existed or that they didn¡¯t. At the very least, you aren¡¯t going to find them in your data and they aren¡¯t just a rumor. I doubt anyone knows who they were anymore. You might want to check through the past deaths in these apartments. That would probably narrow it down a little in some normal apartments, but this place has an oddly high rate of people dying alone. It would be really hard to determine exactly who this was based on.¡± That seemed to settle things for the time being. Of course, actual investigations weren¡¯t so simple that everything people told you led directly to the truth. With all the people dying alone in the Ubasute Apartments, it was easy for speculation and assumptions to get out of control. I decided I needed to be extra careful as I gathered more information. And then a heavy rumble and vibration filled the entire building. ¡°!? What!?¡± I looked to the ceiling instead of front, back, left, or right. I belatedly realized I was reacting as if it were an earthquake, but that was not what this was. The shaking was focused on a single point as if a dump truck had crashed into the building. Even more surprisingly, the old woman sitting across from us did not seem at all concerned. Nezu-san sounded perfectly calm when she spoke. ¡°That may have been the elevator.¡± That was hard to believe, but the Mystery Freak and I decided to check it out. We left Nezu-san¡¯s room, but there was no one in the hallway. Not a single person had left their room despite the entire building shaking. What was going on? The elevator doors were still closed on this middle-level floor, so checking it here wouldn¡¯t help. Enbi and I ran down the stairs and finally caught a glimpse of the oddity on the first floor. One of the elevator doors had bulged outwards and fallen over. The elevator inside was tilted outwards. The mirror meant to reveal anyone hiding inside was broken and glass shards were scattered across the floor. ¡°Looks like it fell from pretty high up. Did the wire snap? But the emergency brakes must not have worked.¡± ¡°More importantly, I¡¯m glad no one was riding it at the time.¡± I breathed a sigh of relief and a voice reached me from behind. ¡°Of course not. Who would go out of their way to ride something so dangerous?¡± I turned around and found Tayama Sunao-san, the old man in a track suit who had been watering the flower garden. ¡°Something so dangerous?¡± The Mystery Freak sounded confused. ¡°You make it sound like you knew that already.¡± ¡°Of course I did. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s been inspected for at least twenty years.¡± He made that sound obvious, but I was utterly shocked. What!? Twenty years!? ¡°Um, wait a second! That can¡¯t be true. What is the manager doing? Haven¡¯t you ever heard of the Fire Services Act!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask me.¡± I¡¯m not saying it¡¯s your fault!! ¡°Besides, if you go over all the laws, it¡¯ll probably turn out that we¡¯re the ones in the wrong. That¡¯s why we can¡¯t rely on the police or lawyers. To be honest, I¡¯m still not sure what a police officer like you is doing here.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Wasn¡¯t this an obvious case of neglect by the manager or real estate company? What would have happened if one of the residents had been riding that elevator? Tayama-san answered my questions by pointing to a poster on the elevator hall wall. ¡°Just look at this.¡± Confused, I slowly followed his instructions and only found more confusion. The poster contained the contact information for the real estate company that managed the Wankashi Camp Apartments. Or it should have. ¡°Keep out!! This condemned building is the property of Wankashi Real Estate and entrance is strictly forbidden. If anyone disobeys this warning, we are prepared to press charges. ¨CWankashi Real Estate. Reception Desk: email protected¡± If I had skimmed through it without paying much attention, it might have seemed perfectly normal. It wasn¡¯t uncommon for managers to forbid anyone but residents so they could keep out malicious solicitations. But this was definitely odd. ¡°What is this? Condemned building!?¡± ¡°Ohhh, so that¡¯s it.¡± I shouted in confusion, but the Mystery Freak smiled as if it had all clicked for her. She then asked Tayama-san a question. ¡°Hey, mister, how much of a security deposit or key money did you pay when you rented a room here?¡± ¡°There was nothing of the sort.¡± ¡°Then one more question. Who was your guarantor when you rented a room here?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t need anything of the sort.¡± I frowned at the consecutive denials. Those circumstances were too far out of the ordinary. The lack of a guarantor was especially damning. While there were celebrities who bought a luxury mansion with cash, anyone else would need a guarantor when making residency arrangements. There were even young folks who had a job and a decent social standing but were forced into homelessness because they were too isolated to get the guarantor needed to lease an apartment. At that point, it all started to make sense. Weren¡¯t there illegal businesses that preyed on people with precisely those problems? ¡°That¡¯s what this is, detective.¡± The Mystery Freak grinned as she gave her conclusion. ¡°On paper, these aren¡¯t apartments at all. They¡¯re disguised as abandoned buildings and these old people are technically living here without permission.¡± ¡°You mean this is the largest illegal apartment business in Japan!?¡± The entire apartment complex!? I was shocked and Tayama-san gave an exasperated sigh. He almost seemed to be speaking to two children who just did not understand. ¡°If that was all, this would be a lot easier.¡± There¡¯s more? ¡°Listen. It¡¯s true that this place is known as an abandoned building on paper. We live here illegally and we keep sending money to someone who ¡®technically¡¯ isn¡¯t affiliated with the real estate company. That of course means the elevators aren¡¯t inspected and they have no obligation to send us any electricity, gas, or water. It¡¯s an abandoned building after all.¡± The old man told us something unbelievable. But he wasn¡¯t the one being unreasonable. It was the circumstances he had found himself in. ¡°So if they want to, they can cut off our lifeline as easily as turning off the tap. That¡¯s perfect for anyone who wants us to hurry up and die in our rooms.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean¡­¡± These were known as the Ubasute Apartments. The apartments were filled with an unnatural number of old people who had died natural deaths all alone. ¡°We were intentionally abandoned here,¡± spat out the old man in the track suit. ¡°The families that were sick of looking after us worked with the real estate company that had prepared this dumping ground for pure profit. The unusual number of deaths didn¡¯t happen naturally. They¡¯ll cut off our water during the summer or cut power to our heater during winter, so we¡¯re left with no way to survive.¡± What the hell is that? Isn¡¯t that just a large-scale automated execution device? Since they could wait for the old people to die without dirtying their own hands, the killers wouldn¡¯t feel any guilt. By so thoroughly preparing the environment, the families could easily drive them to their deaths while thinking ¡°that¡¯s just how it is¡±. It was exactly like the Ubasute Mountain from long ago! Part 7 (Hachikawa Tomoe) I didn¡¯t have a jogging outfit to change into, so I ran more leisurely down the unfamiliar road. The colors of Tokyo changed a lot depending on which region you were in and this one seemed to slow the flow of time. Or maybe the Ochanomizu and Jinbocho area I lived in was just too intense. That area was full of musical instruments, old books, and universities. But the commotion that awaited me blew that atmosphere away. It was at the gate to the same elementary school as before. I was worried it was that same woman again, but there were more now. Ahh! That shrill middle-aged woman has multiplied! ¡°Wait! What do you mean they weren¡¯t here!?¡± ¡°Managing the route to school is the school¡¯s responsibility! Explain yourselves!!¡± ¡°See? This is what happens when you assume it isn¡¯t your problem!!¡± Some of them seemed to be directing their anger in a bit of a different direction, but the middle-aged army was making a scene all the same. I felt bad for the male teacher who had waves of old lady smell pressing in on him. The children who cheerfully passed by and said goodbye to the teacher also had a hard life. I decided to get out of here as soon as possible after I checked to see if Takkun ¨C Toujou Takumi-chan ¨C was here. ¡°How many times do I have to ask!? Tell me where my Megumu is!! Do you really think I¡¯m going to accept that no one¡¯s seen her as if she vanished into thin air!?¡± ¡­Eh? I briefly doubted my ears. What was that? If it was true, this was no laughing matter. ¡°Um, uh, wait a second!! Wait!!¡± ¡°What do you want!?¡± ¡°Have you seen a girl named Toujou Takumi!? She¡¯s my cousin and she hasn¡¯t returned home from her field trip!! She was supposed to be back by now!!¡± My shout filled the area with a strange atmosphere. An eerie sense of camaraderie pressed in on me as if to say ¡°oh, her too¡±. But that couldn¡¯t be it. It just couldn¡¯t. That would mean Takkun was missing too! ¡°Please check. This won¡¯t be a problem if she¡¯s in the school.¡± ¡°Yes, but all of the students should have received an email saying the field trip had been canceled.¡± ¡°Oh, honestly!!¡± I ignored the teacher and jumped over the half-closed gate. He shouted ¡°Hey! Wait!!¡±, but I looked around the schoolyard and made my way to the building. I removed my shoes, held them in my hand, and ran down the hallway and up the stairs to check each room. She¡¯s not here. She¡¯s not here, or here, or here! ¡°You¡¯re¡­kidding.¡± I pulled out my cellphone and called my aunt, Toujou Midori-san. Takkun had apparently not returned yet. I asked about the security buzzer she carried with her, but it apparently wouldn¡¯t send out a GPS signal unless she pulled the string herself. That meant we had no clues. She truly had vanished into thin air. ¡°No, I must have missed her on the way to the school. That has to be it. If I head back to her house, I should see her on the way.¡± I muttered to myself as I returned to the entranceway. But what if I didn¡¯t find her? What if we missed each other again? How many times would I have to run back and forth before I started thinking of another option? I held my spinning head with a hand, walked over to the gate, and heard the women shouting again. ¡°I told you those old people were trouble!!¡± ¡°I heard they brought a blade to school last month!¡± ¡°Our Megumu was hurt by that old man! Who else could it have been!?¡± Those comments caught my attention. What was going on at this school? ¡°Um, uh, what do you mean by that?¡± ¡°What? You¡¯re still here?¡± ¡°Our Takkun might have disappeared! You know how it feels to want to know everything you can, don¡¯t you!?¡± I shouted back, and the women fell silent. Oh, no. I might have talent as a strong-willed old woman. My worries were cut short by one of the women pouting her lips and answering me. ¡°We¡¯re talking about those old people. You know who we mean.¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°Them! The ones from the Ubasute Apartments!!¡± Part 8 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) ¡°Like I said, you are currently on private land managed by our company. Those are condemned buildings and are not meant to function as apartments. Contact the government office and they will tell you the same thing.¡± ¡°Yes, but aren¡¯t you keeping the power and water shut off when you know these old people are living here? That counts as willful negligence.¡± ¡°I am not aware of anyone living there. No one has submitted a certificate of residence, have they? We have nothing of the sort on record and we are not receiving any rent for that facility. Doesn¡¯t that mean no one is living there?¡± ¡°You¡­!!¡± ¡°Let me ask you something: why would we need to send water and power to abandoned buildings? Negligent management? How much private land do you think there is around Japan without a single guard watching over the place? If you pressed charges against everyone who abandoned their property, you wouldn¡¯t have enough detention cells for them all.¡± The voice on the phone seemed to be mocking me. They were used to this. It felt like they were following the arrows on a flowchart prepared in advance. ¡°You and your company have created an automated execution device or Ubasute Mountain that lets you accept money as these old people die. If the police take this seriously, we¡¯ll crush this system before long.¡± ¡°Feel free to try. We would like nothing more than for you to drive out any illegal occupants. But what would happen then?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Where would the old people go once they were driven out? It is none of our concern, but they would probably end up living on the streets. And wouldn¡¯t a lot of the elderly be unable to survive that? Oh, but I guess that¡¯s none of the police¡¯s concern either. You don¡¯t interfere in civil matters, so there¡¯s nothing you can do if someone is withering away on the streets. That¡¯s why you just do your own job. Ah hah hah. You do such a wonderful job of keeping your public and private lives separate.¡± They clearly understood everything. For one thing, the people who stayed in illegal apartments like the Ubasute Apartments tended to be those who could not get a normal apartment. Crushing those corrupt apartments was easy enough, but since the victim had to go somewhere else afterwards, the police would often end up leaving the same victims with fewer and fewer options. The ancient Ubasute Mountain would have been the same. It was true the old people would have been too weak to descend the mountain and might have starved to death before long. But even if they did make it down, what was left for them there? If they returned to their home, they would be thrown out again. If they went to some other village at the foot of the mountain, who would look after them? With no options left and nowhere to go, they would eventually wither away and breathe their last. Still, I could not allow this to continue. All these people had nowhere else to go, so they were being trapped here until they died. They knew exactly what was happening, but they had no way out and could only put up with it. That was the Ubasute Apartments. It was a man-eating mountain made of concrete. To automatically prey on the living, this twisted system had been resurrected in the modern day! I grabbed my cellphone again and forced out the words. I was keenly aware that Wankashi Real Estate was my enemy here. ¡°I will make you regret this.¡± ¡°Feel free. Of course, if the police start taking this seriously, I imagine only the illegal residents will be arrested. Regardless, we will be waiting with the best army of lawyers money can buy.¡± They hung up and I very nearly crushed the phone in my hand. ¡°Well, it was pretty suspicious from the moment they gave a cellphone number and not a toll free number or a landline number. And with the email protected at the start, it¡¯s probably a throwaway address using an online social game. In the worst case, the phone number might not be enough to track them down.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter. The basic plan hasn¡¯t changed. We need to have this investigated bit by bit.¡± Since it had to do with real estate, I called up Department 2. ¡°Hey, Four Eyes. Ever heard of Wankashi Real Estate?¡± ¡°Do you want me to transfer you to the anti-organized crime group? That company doesn¡¯t do any real business, so it doesn¡¯t fit Department 2¡¯s focus on financial crimes.¡± ¡°Hey, Heavy Tank. I have a question about Wankashi Real Estate.¡± ¡°What, those low level guys? They¡¯re cruel, but they¡¯re small time. You¡¯re after someone pretty boring.¡± That annoyed comment came from Sotobori Gaku, a fifth-dan in judo who worked to bring down gangs. ¡°As you might imagine, they¡¯re the lowest level of a large criminal organization. The Japanese branch at the top is the frightening Kiseki Kaikei. They¡¯re into assassination, organ trafficking, murders for life insurance payouts, human trafficking, corpse disposal, and pretty much anything that puts a price tag on a human life.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s at the top doesn¡¯t matter right now. Tell me about Wankashi Real Estate themselves.¡± ¡°If you want. They excel at buying and selling land for profit, but whenever they make a mistake, they abandon the company and change their name. To be honest, their performance is pretty lackluster.¡± ¡°When you say buying and selling land, what exactly do you mean?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve heard the stories about what¡¯s happening to abandoned houses lately, right? When one¡¯s been abandoned and no one knows where the owner is, the rights to the house are confiscated, claiming it¡¯s a hotbed for criminal activity or dangerous insects. Wankashi Real Estate uses that to steal the rights to people¡¯s land and house without them even knowing. It¡¯s gotten so forceful that they don¡¯t even have to get the owner to nod their head. There¡¯s even a case where a family spent two weeks in Hawaii for summer vacation and came back to find their house had been taken. Forceful, right?¡± ¡°In other words, they don¡¯t have any land of their own?¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°Have you heard of the Wankashi Camp Apartments in Sugamo?¡± ¡°No. I can look into it if you want, but it¡¯s probably their usual MO. They use a single document to swipe ownership of a building that was abandoned because its owner went out of business and it would cost too much to demolish.¡± The real estate company had to know this was forceful. They were grabbing and selling these buildings for some easy money, so they had no real attachment to any of them. I could understand why they didn¡¯t care too much if I interfered. The ancient Ubasute Mountain did not refer to just one place. It had existed everywhere in Japan. Was this the same? They had set up an automated execution device to bury family members without guilt. Even if one was shut down or demolished, they could change their methods and product to keep providing the service. ¡°Oh, right, right. Uchimaku-chan, have you been feeling more popular lately?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Oh, nothing. Heh heh heh. But, wow. Someone from a previous case, the daughter of a dead coworker, and a middle school girl. That¡¯s like a negative triple seven. If that actually sounds good to you, you have my respect in a backwards sort of way. You do not have an easy life, pretty boy.¡± He hung up before I could figure out what he was talking about. And when I turned around, the Mystery Freak was surrounded by a massive curse-like aura. ¡°Rumble, rumble, rumble. Hey, detective, what was that about, I can think of a girl who fits those criteria, that¡¯s clearly Tomoe from my class, when did that start to be a thing, even my information network wasn¡¯t able to detect or defend against that one, I need to be more careful. Rumble, rumble rumble.¡± ¡°Tomoe-chan? Are you completely insane!? No detective would go after a girl he met while working on a case. This isn¡¯t a job where you can ask for a girl¡¯s number at the funeral!!¡± ¡°Um, do you have anywhere to meet girls outside of work?¡± ¡°Please stop depressing me!!¡± And why are we getting so off topic!? What happened to the Ubasute Apartments driving these old people to death because they have no one left!? No, if Tayama-san was telling the truth, it¡¯s because their families actively want them gone! But even though we had abandoned the old man in the track suit and even though our conversation had taken an inappropriate turn given the gravity of the situation, Tayama Sunao-san did not seem angry. In fact, the corners of his eyes looked gentler than when we had first seen him. ¡°It¡¯s been so long since I¡¯ve been around anyone so lively. You reminded me what human life is like.¡± ¡°¡­?¡± ¡°We¡¯re being left to wither away here. We have a place to sleep and to eat, but that¡¯s all. We can¡¯t leave now. We¡¯re monitored until we wither away and then we¡¯re removed. The atmosphere here has completely dried up, so that really took me back. Sorry about smiling like that.¡± That was not living. It was true clothing, food, and shelter were necessary and irreplaceable, but that wasn¡¯t the only nourishment a human needed. If simply breathing and keeping your heart pumping counted as living, then prison would be enough. Some people without enough to eat would intentionally commit a crime to get arrested. That way they could get the awful prison food. But these people had not taken that route. Nor had they grabbed a blade and taken revenge on the families that abandoned them. If doing anything else would bother someone else, they had decided withering away in their rooms was the best option. Why were people like that the first ones to be preyed on? Thirty million people moved throughout Tokyo every day, but not one of them had any connection to these people! These were the Ubasute Apartments, an automated execution device or a modern man-eating mountain made of concrete. They were essentially being shut in a box while the air was slowly removed, but had these people done anything to deserve that? ¡°Hey, mister, did you never think about going on public assistance? With that money and a guarantor company, you might be able to find a proper place to live.¡± ¡°I told you my family abandoned me, didn¡¯t I? On paper, I have land and a house. I even have my own bank account. But in reality, my son and his wife have hidden the bankbook and deed from me. So no assistance program will determine I need any help.¡± They had wanted the house and they had not wanted him to insist he had the rights to it, so they wanted him gone as soon as possible. And so they had abandoned their own relative using the new version of Ubasute Mountain that existed in the middle of the nation¡¯s capital. ¡­I can¡¯t believe them. ¡°Besides, public assistance is the tax money of strangers, right? Then no thank you. I¡¯m not going to take other people¡¯s money just to extend what little life I have left.¡± No, that isn¡¯t how you¡¯re supposed to think about public assistance. It was true there some idiots who illegally accepted payments because they didn¡¯t want to work or because it paid more than a part-time job, but why focus on them? When someone had nowhere else to turn and they needed an opportunity to get back on their feet, what was wrong with asking for help? Wasn¡¯t that what it meant to support each other? And if the taxes taken from the people weren¡¯t given back to the people, what would be the point? ¡°We don¡¯t need anything.¡± No. ¡°We have complaints and we could only agree if you asked us if we were angry about any of this, but what¡¯s the point? We don¡¯t have much life left, so why make a fuss that will only make the younger generation suffer? What will that accomplish? So we don¡¯t need anything. Just leave us alone.¡± No, no, no!! Everything about that was wrong, but I couldn¡¯t find the words to argue back. The person I needed to save was right in front of me, but he wasn¡¯t asking for help. I couldn¡¯t tell what would actually hit home for him. With how long Tayama-san and the others had suffered here, I would probably get some decent hints toward judging the true monsters behind this if I asked them for details. And yet they would never help me do that. Not as things were anyway. That was clearly true of Tayama-san, but Nezu-san, who had told me the story of Akasabi-san, had not said a word about her own circumstances here. I had revealed I was a police officer, so if she truly wanted help, she would have started by telling me about the situation in the Ubasute Apartments. Even when the elevator had fallen, I hadn¡¯t heard a peep from anyone. It was a matter of life or death and yet the only reaction was wondering who would be next. These old people were not maliciously hiding the crimes being committed. They just didn¡¯t want to cause any trouble. They were sealing away their own lives in a twisted form of self-sacrifice. They were just like the old people who had been abandoned in the mountains by the children they had raised. They felt betrayed, they were filled with despair, they thought they must have done something wrong raising them, and they found themselves rejecting every part of their lives. And in the end, they lost even the will to live. What was I supposed to do? Their resignation and weariness was as heavy as the fog hanging over a damp mountain, so how could I get them moving again? The words of some young stranger wouldn¡¯t be enough. I needed something bigger that was guaranteed to shake their hearts. At that very moment, I heard a scream from directly overhead. It seemed to have been forced from a dried throat. ¡°What!?¡± ¡°That was close by. That old lady¡¯s room had thin walls, so I¡¯d guess that was on the third or fourth floor.¡± While I looked blankly up at the ceiling, the Mystery Freak calmly analyzed the situation. And for some reason, Tayama-san looked sad. I didn¡¯t know what had happened, but I ended the conversation and made my way to the stairs with the Mystery Freak. Then I ran up them. A small crowd had formed in the fourth floor hallway. When I got closer, I saw an old woman in an apron lying face down on the floor. She was the one who had told us about Akasabi-san. ¡°Nezu-san!? Dammit!!¡± I crouched down and frantically rolled her onto her back. I didn¡¯t see any obvious injuries or bleeding, but she was as unmoving as a doll packed with dirt. I placed a hand near her mouth and two fingers on her neck. She wasn¡¯t breathing and she didn¡¯t have a pulse. What the hell happened!? Did her heart suddenly give out!? ¡°Does anyone know any medical conditions Nezu-san had!? Anyone at all!?¡± I shouted to the surrounding old people, but none of them answered. But this wasn¡¯t them being coldhearted. ¡°We haven¡¯t been to a hospital in years. None of us know what¡¯s going on in our bodies.¡± No help there either. We were in the middle of Tokyo, but I felt so isolated I would have thought we were abandoned deep in the mountains. It wasn¡¯t surprising given their situation, but we felt so far away. Why were they hated so much? ¡°Mystery Freak, you call an ambulance. I¡¯ll try CPR!!¡± As I shouted to the girl, I pulled handkerchief from my pocket, placed it over Nezu-san¡¯s mouth, and placed my mouth over that. I pinched her nose with my fingers and blew air into her lungs. Then I placed my right hand in the center of her chest, placed my left hand over it, made sure not to put too much weight on her, and started making chest compressions. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30! I breathed into the old woman¡¯s mouth again. How much time had passed since she collapsed? I knew the odds of success with CPR dropped considerably which each minute, so I could only hope I¡¯d made it in time. Meanwhile, the Mystery Freak grimaced with her smartphone to her ear. ¡°What is it, Mystery Freak?¡± I continued making rhythmic chest compressions, but she did not answer me and simply switched the phone to speaker phone. ¡°You¡¯re talking about those Ubasute Apartments, aren¡¯t you? We don¡¯t have the time to deal with some lonely old person. Listen, if you call 119 for such a ridiculous reason again, we¡¯ll press charges!¡± What are they talking about? My mind immediately started to boil over, but then it hit me. There was clearly something wrong here. All emergency calls were recorded, so this person was wrapping the noose around their own neck if something happened. That seemed like too much of a risk even if they did hate the old people here. Or was there something pushing them in that direction? Was there some kind of system being used to isolate the old people? ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter.¡± I spat out the words and continued breathing into Nezu-san¡¯s mouth. She had gotten angry easily, but she had politely told us what we wanted to know. Both with the elevator and Enbi¡¯s outfit, she had scolded us for our own good. She had taken on an unpopular role out of concern for complete strangers. She wasn¡¯t just a doll or a name on a document. She was a human being. I wasn¡¯t going to let her die here. Everyone would die eventually. That was unavoidable. But they didn¡¯t have to be carried to death on a conveyer belt. With all the Youkai filling this country, it may have been wrong to call humans the greatest form of life, but couldn¡¯t we have something? Couldn¡¯t humans have some small hint of pride and respect? Please open your eyes! Please, please, please!!!!!! ¡°¡­Ah¡­¡± Not even I knew how many times I had repeated the process, but a hoarse sound finally escaped Nezu Yuki-san¡¯s throat. ¡°Cough!! Cough!! Cough!?¡± When I saw her coughing and removing the handkerchief from her own mouth, I fell back into a sitting position. My hands were stinging. The heart was a mass of muscle and I only now realized how hard it was to externally support its movements. At first, Nezu-san didn¡¯t seem to know what had happened. But when she looked around, it seemed to come into focus for her. She held her hurting chest, slowly sat up, and looked to me. She gave a thin smile. ¡°You didn¡¯t have to help me, you know?¡± Like I would let that happen. How many times has this happened!? How many times has someone collapsed without anyone noticing, with no ambulance coming, or even with no one finding them until months later? Have they done anything wrong? They¡¯ve lived their lives to their fullest, worked hard, raised children, paid their taxes, and supported the backbone of this country, so why do they have to go through this!? Why do they have to have their own children abandon them in this concrete mountain without feeling even a twinge of guilt!? It¡¯s like they¡¯ve been thrown into the back of the garbage truck!! Even the information concerning them deteriorates until they only leave a rumor like that Akasabi-san!! What the hell is this? What the hell are these Ubasute Apartments!? ¡°¡­¡± I also saw Tayama-san in his track suit after he finally caught up through the crowd. When our eyes met, he silently shook his head. His eyes were telling me not to investigate any further. Do you really think I could stop now? Even if I didn¡¯t have any more hints and even if the victims weren¡¯t asking for help, how could a police officer not continue investigating when he saw something so cruel and heartless? That was when something interrupted. My cellphone began to ring. I checked the screen and found an unfamiliar number. I frowned and answered. The phones issued to police officers were convenient because I could instantly turn things around on any scammers who called. And when this unknown caller spoke, it was with a young girl¡¯s voice. ¡°D-Detect-¡­Detective! Um, it¡¯s me, Tomoe! It¡¯s Hachikawa Tomoe!! Um, dammit, my mind is going blank¡­ Anyway, come here right away!! I have something important to tell you!!¡± Part 9 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) We parted ways with Tayama Sunao-san, the old man in a track suit, and left the Ubasute Apartments. As we walked back down the winding brick road in the manmade woods, I sensed obvious malice. ¡°This narrow, winding road¡­ Detective, you couldn¡¯t get a car down here, could you? Even using a bike or motorcycle would be dangerous with all the bumps from these roots. Those old people have weak legs and backs, so they¡¯re trapped here and kept from shopping properly.¡± ¡°Look, meaningless height differences have been added in to prevent anyone from leaving the road and cutting straight through. These are two or three meter stone walls made with modern technology.¡± Walking back and forth on this horrible road would wear down the old people. That would prevent them from purchasing as much food or other items for everyday life. And without food, they would be even further worn down. It was practically a deadly mountain path. ¡°And Tayama-san was collecting rainwater in buckets because drinking water is precious. Does that mean what I think it does?¡± ¡°They can¡¯t rely on the tap water since it can be shut off without warning. Are you suggesting they use the rainwater after filtering it? But aren¡¯t the clouds over the city full of exhaust fumes? And even water goes bad, so you can¡¯t store it forever in buckets like that.¡± I couldn¡¯t believe it either, but an unimaginable situation was underway in those Ubasute Apartments. It was still happening. ¡°But supermarkets and convenience stores deliver these days, right? Tayama-san and Nezu-san were both dressed well enough, so they have some money to spare, don¡¯t they? Why don¡¯t they use something like that?¡± ¡°There may be some kind of trap keeping them from escaping or asking anyone for help.¡± The ancient Ubasute Mountain had been considered a sacred place. Even as you threw someone away there, you would clasp your hands in fear that they would hold a grudge. In the same way, the Ubasute Apartments were set up to be isolated from Tokyo as a whole. ¡°Anyway, we have no more clues at the moment. We need to cool our heads and might as well deal with whatever Tomoe-chan needs. This is the problem with reality. You don¡¯t get to focus on a single case like in the police dramas.¡± ¡°Rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble.¡± ¡°And why did a dark aura envelop you as soon as I brought up Tomoe-chan? I get the feeling you¡¯re about to shoot red light from your eyes. And stop swinging your scarf around like a morning star. Um, what is that thing? A Rokuro Dog? You¡¯re going to stretch it.¡± ¡°It isn¡¯t a Rokuro Dog! It¡¯s Suneky the Sunekosuri!!¡± Oddly enough, Hachikawa Tomoe-chan had asked me to meet her at an elementary school in Sugamo. I found her near the school¡¯s gate in a beige blazer. A young man who seemed to be a teacher was with her. Right off the bat, Tomoe-chan put her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks. ¡°Honestly!! You¡¯re way, way, way too late! This is an emergency, so why didn¡¯t you drive up with sirens blaring!? Why are you on foot!?¡± ¡°Tooomoooeee¡­. I¡¯d like to have a word with you. If you don¡¯t answer honestly, I¡¯ll have to break out my mongoose style. Shahhh!!¡± I ignored the idiot and asked what was going on. ¡°Um, what exactly did you need in such a hurry?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a super emergency!!¡± ¡°Super?¡± ¡°Super super!!¡± That ridiculous exchange showed just how panicked she was. But the next thing she said was more than enough to make someone panic. ¡°My cousin Takkun ¨C Toujou Takumi-chan ¨C is missing! No, it¡¯s not just her. About five kids in the group she always hangs out with have gone missing!!¡± What!? This is no joking matter! This has suddenly turned into a kidnapping!? All my hair stood on end, but the teacher used a handkerchief to wipe sweat from his brow and corrected her with a weak smile. ¡°We don¡¯t know for sure they¡¯ve been kidnapped. They just haven¡¯t been seen at home or school.¡± ¡°So there¡¯s no reason to think there¡¯s been a crime?¡± ¡°The students were looking forward to the field trip. It was only to a nature park a few train stations away. I thought they might have been upset the field trip was cancelled and left on their own, so I¡¯ve contacted the campground. Simply put, the children aren¡¯t missing because something happened. They¡¯re sticking to the original plan even after something happened and those plans were canceled.¡± I wanted to know whether the teacher actually believed that or simply didn¡¯t want to cause a bigger commotion, but it was hard to tell just from the look on his face. Meanwhile, Tomoe-chan could not seem to calm down. ¡°We¡¯re not talking about middle schoolers like us! They¡¯re in elementary school! They can¡¯t go camping on their own! They wouldn¡¯t even be able to get food for themselves! And someone would notice!!¡± ¡°The children have made curry in cooking class and we had prepared a fair amount of portable food. Besides, children seem to like restrictive environments. They¡¯ll climb under the kotatsu or gather in the cold, cramped space under the stairs. And I¡¯m not sure how serious the other parents are about this being kidnapping. None of them have called the police yet. I would rather not say this, but I doubt they actually think this is such a big deal. Or rather, I think they¡¯re afraid of having this turn out to be nothing after they make a huge deal out of it.¡± There were idiots who called the police for ridiculous reasons like ¡°there¡¯s a cockroach in my room¡± or ¡°it¡¯s hot, so go buy me a popsicle¡±. The recordings would be aired on TV during a year-end special, but the opposite happened too. Some people would be too afraid of being embarrassed and fail to call during an obvious emergency. ¡°That¡¯s why I called in the detective. If it¡¯s nothing, he can just leave. And if there is something to it, he can deal with it as soon as possible. Can you do that?¡± ¡°I have no reason to say no.¡± ¡°Sigh¡­ If that¡¯s what you want to do, but make sure you say she was the one that reported this. Honestly, all of the parents and guardians are too on edge. In fact, everyone in this area seems to be.¡± ¡°?¡± I frowned and the teacher shrugged. ¡°Well, I only transferred here recently, so maybe I just haven¡¯t gotten used to the atmosphere yet.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Whenever something even slightly strange happens ¨C for example, a stray cat tearing open a trash bag or a tree in someone¡¯s yard dying due to improper care ¨C for some reason, they allllll blame the old people from those apartments. They¡¯re doing the same thing with these disappearances. I am worried about the children who never showed up at school, but their accusations are way off base. Taking them seriously has only wasted our precious time and scared all of you.¡± ¡°Wait. Mister, what do the Ubasute Apartments have to do with this?¡± ¡°Besides, those old people only ever stopped by to teach the children origami or how to make bamboo copters. ¡­Sorry, what was that?¡± ¡°I was asking why you had brought up the Ubasute Apartments.¡± The Mystery Freak slowly repeated herself and the teacher responded as if this was all perfectly normal. ¡°Have you ever heard of extramural exchange lessons? Basically, people rent out the classrooms and schoolyard afterschool and tell old stories or teach the kids how to make crafts. Normal citizens take part to teach the kids about the local area and its history.¡± ¡°Um, what about it?¡± ¡°The old people from those apartments were helping with that. But then an old man named Tayama brought a small sword into the school, claiming it was to teach the kids how to make bamboo copters.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I groaned. If a sensitive helicopter parent saw that, it would create a misunderstanding on the level of false molestation accusations on a train. ¡°One of the students cut their finger, so it caused quite an uproar. In the end, the extramural exchange lessons were canceled indefinitely.¡± ¡°So those old people are hated because of that?¡± ¡°No, that was only the last straw. The people here, well, for some reason they¡¯re very sensitive when it comes to the old people of those apartments. They¡¯re always on edge about them. The housewives use their cellphones and a private website to work together and upload the location of any of the old people they run across. They¡¯re marking out the range of those old people¡¯s everyday lives like they¡¯re criminals. I don¡¯t see how the old people can go shopping like that. And I can¡¯t tell you why everyone hates them so much.¡± It was certainly a strange situation, but Tomoe-chan gave even more information. ¡°My aunt was like that too. She normally never badmouths anyone, but she had no problem badmouthing the old people from those apartments like it was nothing.¡± ¡°Hey, Mystery Freak.¡± ¡°What a coincidence, detective. I was just thinking Wankashi Real Estate might have something to do with this.¡± Something was isolating those people. Something was affecting the locals who had lived here for a long time but not affecting outsiders like us. Something was separating out those old people even in the great metropolis of Tokyo. I knew speculation could be dangerous, but I was having trouble connecting this kidnapping with the old people who would rather disappear than cause anyone any trouble. For one thing, if the parents were constantly monitoring those old people with their private site, they couldn¡¯t possibly have kidnapped anyone. But¡­ ¡°Was there any deeper connection between the old people and the children? What did the children think of the extramural exchange lessons? Were they as harsh to the old people as the other locals?¡± ¡°Not at all. If the children hadn¡¯t liked it, those old people would have stopped coming. They were volunteers, so it wasn¡¯t their job or anything.¡± ¡°Did the children and the old people get along?¡± ¡°Yes, I even have proof. I probably shouldn¡¯t show you this for privacy reasons, but I can make an exception for a police officer.¡± After that, we ended up following the teacher toward the school building. I exchanged a few words with the Mystery Freak as he guided us. ¡°What do you think?¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard to say. And Mystery Freak, you aren¡¯t trying to say the missing children really have something to do with those old people, are you?¡± ¡°Not that. I¡¯m thinking this might have to do with Wankashi Real Estate.¡± ¡°Wait¡­¡± ¡°The managers of the Ubasute Apartments wanted to isolate those old people, so they wouldn¡¯t have been a fan of those extramural exchange lessons.¡± ¡°So they kidnapped the children to silence them? That isn¡¯t how they do things. Their client asks them to kill off the target, but they let them wither away in the abandoned buildings without taking any direct action. They¡¯ve constructed a modern Ubasute Mountain, so I doubt they would dirty their own hands like that.¡± ¡°What if something happened that forced their hand?¡± The teacher did not head for the main entranceway. The faculty room was apparently on the first floor and we cut through a small side door as a more direct route. After some rummaging around inside, the teacher returned. He carried a few dozen A4-sized papers. ¡°I found them. This is what I was talking about. This should show that the children had accepted those old people. To be honest, I was taken aback when I first saw these, but this is what they really think. I just have to accept that.¡± I thought these were some kind of document, but they were not. I flipped through the papers while the Mystery Freak and Tomoe-chan leaned in from either side. ¡°I can¡¯t believe this,¡± I finally said. Those old people were trapped in the Ubasute Apartments and some children had suddenly vanished on the way to school. Those two incidents fit together perfectly. Part 10 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) We went right back to the Ubasute Apartments. Hachikawa Tomoe-chan must have been worried about her cousin Takumi-chan because she followed us. It was already evening and each second that passed felt like wasted time. Tayama Sunao-san must have liked gardening because he was out weeding the flower garden. He was one of the old people who could not descend the deadly mountain even though he knew how it worked. ¡°What are you doing here? I thought I told you to leave us alone.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do that. Anyway, this might take a while. I know questioning you is impolite, but is there anywhere we can speak more comfortably.¡± ¡°Fine. Then come with me.¡± He didn¡¯t like it, but the man did not drive us away. As he had mentioned before, he really did like this lively atmosphere. He showed us the way to the large rec room on the first floor of the apartment building. It was probably meant for eating snacks while chatting. It had plenty of tables and chairs, but the drink and bread vending machines by the window were powered down. We sat at one table and I started by listing five names. ¡°Igami Susumu-kun, Nagamaki Megumu-chan, Umesaka Satoshi-kun, Kayama Hayate-kun¡­and Toujou Takumi-chan. Do you recognize those names?¡± ¡°Those names¡­ What about them?¡± ¡°They¡¯ve disappeared.¡± At first, the old man didn¡¯t seem to know what I meant. But understanding gradually seeped into his mind and his face paled. The Mystery Freak and Tomoe-chan had decided to simply listen for the time being. The adults, Tayama-san and me, were the only ones to speak. ¡°I have of course submitted a search request and made emergency arrangements, but that alone is not enough. I don¡¯t like to admit it, but randomly searching a wide area without narrowing down the possibilities is a good way to not find what you¡¯re looking for. So I want your help. I want you to narrow down the possibilities.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do anything if it means saving those children¡­but what can I do?¡± ¡°Wankashi Real Estate,¡± I cut in. ¡°I want to convince the higher ups they¡¯re involved and focus on them, but I don¡¯t have enough data at the moment. So I want your knowledge. You know how they work.¡± ¡°Wait a second. Those people are attacking those of us in these apartments. What would they have to do with the children!?¡± ¡°Tayama-san, we¡¯ve heard about the extramural exchange lessons. That had to be the one remaining joy for you before the incident with the sword.¡± He had smiled and said it had been a long time since he¡¯d been around ¡°anyone so lively¡±. He had not been recalling his son and daughter-in-law who had abandoned him in this concrete mountain. He had probably been thinking of the contact with those children during the extramural exchange lessons. On those days, during that short time, those old people¡¯s hearts may have briefly descended from the deadly mountain. ¡°How do you think all that looked to the children? Did you ever think about that?¡± ¡°Well¡­to be honest, I¡¯m not sure. They may have been interested in my old stories or they may have been bored by them. I was really only volunteering for my own self-satisfaction. As long as I was happy, I didn¡¯t ask for anything else.¡± He was interrupted by a rustling sound. I had taken out the papers the teacher had given me and I had placed them on the table. ¡°Then look through these. This will explain everything.¡± ¡°These?¡± He reached his wrinkled hands toward the papers. That kind of paper was almost never used in the modern age of word processors. They were writing papers. ¡°The school asked them to write about an adult they looked up to. The teachers probably wanted them to write about their parents or teachers. Apparently, parents¡¯ day was approaching, so they wanted to show these off to the parents. ¡­But it didn¡¯t go as planned.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°One student wrote about the old woman who would tell them old stories. One wrote about the old man who taught them how to play kendama or otedama. One wrote about the old man who taught them how to make bamboo copters. The entire class wrote about all of you. In the end, the teachers didn¡¯t hang these up on the wall to make sure the parents didn¡¯t see them. The parents are unnecessarily hostile toward the people in these apartments, after all.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°But you got through to them. Just as you were saved by teaching those kids, they were saved by learning from you. And that¡¯s why the children noticed something from their contact with you. And they couldn¡¯t ignore it. They saw some old people trapped in some invisible system and they decided to save you.¡± ¡°¡­¡± At first glance, the essays seemed to talk about how amazing, interesting, and kind the old people were. But that wasn¡¯t all. At points, something more was present: ¡°They don¡¯t seem very happy. I¡¯m really worried.¡± ¡°Someone¡¯s being mean to them. I can¡¯t let that happen.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll save her. We¡¯re making a secret group to do that.¡± And that led to my conclusion. ¡°While the children were pretending to be detectives after school, the must have stumbled upon the truth. They found something Wankashi Real Estate can¡¯t allow to get out. So the company was forced to act directly to silence them. They disappeared around the time of the canceled field trip, so that¡¯s about two days. Please help us! It¡¯s the only way to save the children who were trying to save you!!¡± Even I knew that was not a fair way to ask. If Wankashi Real Estate was destroyed, the old people might lose their illegal home here. The people abandoned in the Ubasute Mountain would have no one to rely on in a new town, so they had no one at all and could not hope for a place to live. I knew that, but I tried to do my job even if it meant crushing these old people¡¯s lives underfoot. And yet¡­ ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll convince the others, so ask whatever you want. I never really wanted to live too long anyway, but it¡¯s been a while since I had a reason not to die right away.¡± The old man did not hesitate in the slightest. This was not an abandoned life. I was clearly speaking with a living human being. ¡°So please. If it will increase the odds of saving those children in the slightest, I am willing to bet my life on it.¡± Part 11 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Tayama Sunao-san admitted he had heard this was related to a Yamanba. ¡°I don¡¯t know what exactly that means, but it seems to be what isolates the Ubasute Apartments. It creates trouble going shopping, isolation from the neighbors, false accusations, a bad reputation, and any number of other things. It seems to mainly affect the negative emotions of those outside the apartments.¡± A Yamanba was an old lady Youkai that lived in the mountains. They were famous for eating people, but there were also legends of them giving advice to the villagers and providing excellent hospitality. ¡°But how is a Yamanba involved? I doubt the system simply places the apartments as Ubasute Mountain and the old people as the Yamanba.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go over what information we have, detective. For one, what kinds of things are happening between the apartments and the surrounding area?¡± ¡°The local people have an excessive hatred of the old people here, right? But outsiders like us or the teacher who only recently moved here aren¡¯t affected. The children aren¡¯t either.¡± ¡°There¡¯s one more thing,¡± cut in Tomoe-chan. ¡°Whenever they try to explain something, it ends up becoming a rumor about how those old people have harmed them. Something turns those old people into aggressors in their minds.¡± ¡°The Yamanba is a well-known Youkai, so there are a lot of different legends. But there¡¯s one that¡¯s caught my interest.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Whenever they do something bad, it tends to be trying to eat someone, but sometimes they bring widespread disease or disaster instead. There¡¯s a story about that in Tokyo even. When a Yamanba attacked, someone shot her with an arrow and killed her, but a great curse came from her corpse and filled the village with disease. In the end, they chopped her corpse into forty-two pieces, made a burial mound for each one, and sealed them inside the mounds in order. That brought an end to the curse.¡± Widespread disease. Something the locals naturally detested. Something that allowed the old people to be aggressors while also being fragile corpses. It did fit the situation. Just as no one wanted to approach the rotting corpse at the source of the disease, this malice amplification Package made the locals hate the Ubasute Apartments and the old people living there. At the very least, it fit the image surrounding the Ubasute Apartments more than the monstrous Yamanba that chased travelers around with a knife or the hard to please Yamanba that gave advice to the villagers. I decided to assume this was the type of Yamanba that spread a curse after death. ¡°But wouldn¡¯t that mean Wankashi Real Estate is using a corpse as part of their Package!?¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t all that surprising,¡± said Tayama-san. ¡°A person or two is found dead here every month. Not even those of us who live here know how many have died in all.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not so sure that¡¯s it,¡± said the Mystery Freak. ¡°A corpse that can be carried out and cremated lacks the permanence needed for a Package component. It¡¯s possible the role is passed on each time someone else dies, but they have no guarantee they can secure a corpse at a moment¡¯s notice. When someone dies generally comes down to luck. In that case, the role of the corpse was probably given to something more stable and permanent.¡± ¡°L-like what? Is there something creepy hidden in these apartments?¡± Tomoe-chan¡¯s shoulders tensed as she asked that, but I had already found the answer. So I gave it. ¡°Akasabi-san. Everyone here knows the story as something they don¡¯t want to happen to them, but no one knows who that person was before they died. It¡¯s a faceless corpse that had to have been here but that no one knows anything more about.¡± It was Tayama-san who objected to that. ¡°But how are you going to investigate Akasabi-san? Not even I know which room they lived in. Or more accurately, there are too many theories to know for sure.¡± ¡°Can you write out all of the candidates you can think of, mister?¡± ¡°I suppose¡­¡± The old man began writing building and room numbers on a piece of paper. At first glance, it looked like a strange code. ¡°That¡¯s about it.¡± ¡°Now then, mister, which of these are obvious fakes that have nothing to do with someone who died alone? How many in all?¡± ¡°Wait a second¡­ In all it would be¡­forty-two of them. ¡­Ah!?¡± ¡°Yes, the same number as the burial mounds used to seal the Yamanba¡¯s disease.¡± Part 12 (Hachikawa Tomoe) To be honest, the detective and Enbi¡¯s verbal game of catch was too fast for me to follow. I could only watch on in confusion as the two of them dug even further toward the truth. ¡°But wait. If the Yamanba¡¯s corpse has been chopped up and sealed in the mounds, wouldn¡¯t that end the disease? Wankashi Real Estate wants to spread the disease to isolate these old people, so that doesn¡¯t fit.¡± ¡°Detective, were you even listening to what I said? To end the disease, you need to chop the Yamanba¡¯s corpse up into forty-two pieces and seal them in the forty-two mounds ¡®in order¡¯.¡± ¡°You mean¡­if you intentionally get the order wrong¡­¡± ¡°The disease continues. And at the same time, it lets you correct the order to stop the Package if something unexpected occurs. That¡¯s the ideal Package assembly, isn¡¯t it?¡± That seemed to convince them, but I was still confused. ¡°D-do you mean forty-two of the rooms count as burial mounds and something is hidden in each one? But how many options are there for rearranging those things in the right order! That goes well beyond the possibilities for a cellphone passcode!!¡± ¡°But it¡¯s better than nothing. At the very least, we can try.¡± ¡°Also, what even is it that¡¯s hidden in this Akasabi-san person¡¯s room!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯re about to find out.¡± The detective and Enbi stood up at the exact same moment and ran off somewhere. I was still confused, but the old man in a track suit simply shrugged. I bowed and then ran after the other two. Meanwhile, I felt a strange sense of impatience. I was afraid of being left behind and I didn¡¯t understand the world those two lived in. They ran up to the second floor, opened one of the many doors lining the hallway, and stepped inside the room. The evening sun dyed the empty room in the bright colors of a lonely mountain and the two of them wordlessly worked together to search the room. ¡°Hey, detective. What do you actually think is hidden here?¡± ¡°A tooth implant.¡± ¡°That¡¯s pretty clich¨¦. I¡¯m expecting some hair.¡± By sitting on the detective¡¯s shoulders in her swimsuit-like outfit, Enbi found something in the wiring space above the ceiling. ¡°Found it. This is¡­an artificial bone maybe?¡± She set it on the floor wrapped in a handkerchief and we all looked down at it. Um, what is this? Its smooth like glass and it looks like a piece of some kind of ceramic. ¡°This is what they call a murder without a corpse.¡± When I looked puzzled, he explained further. ¡°These days, you can charge someone with murder even if they dissolved the bones in a bathtub full of powerful acid. You just need some proof that a corpse was there: bloodstains, implants, hair, or artificial bones.¡± ¡°Fortunately, artificial bones tend to be made from glass. They don¡¯t dissolve in acid and they don¡¯t burn in fires. That¡¯s apparently really helped the prosecution in a ton of cases.¡± Which also meant¡­ ¡°Hey, what would happen if there wasn¡¯t a murder but you scattered these artificial bones around the scene and prank called the police?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, it would be investigated as a murder. And of course, you would receive more than just a talking to once they found out what you did.¡± That was what was happening in these apartments. A single artificial bone had been broken into pieces and hidden in the rooms to pass it off as physical evidence that someone had died here. That false information and nonexistent corpse were being used as the core of a Package. It was all being used to match the legend of the Yamanba¡¯s corpse being cut into forty-two pieces and buried in mounds. That sped things up. We ended up searching out all of the artificial bone pieces in the rooms. There were supposedly a total of forty-two, but¡­ ¡°Hey, detective, what do you think the children found?¡± ¡°They weren¡¯t doing a forensic investigation and they weren¡¯t making some grand deductions. I¡¯m guessing they found something by foot.¡± ¡°More specifically?¡± ¡°They set out to find a weakness in the Package and they actually did. ¡­It amplified the local adults¡¯ malice toward the old people, but it didn¡¯t affect the kids. Most likely, they knew the old people were reasonable people if you didn¡¯t hold any prejudices and just spoke with them.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t the Yamanba of the forty-two burial mounds eat children?¡± ¡°And how did she do that?¡± ¡°By copying their mother¡¯s voice and asking them to open the door late at night. After cracking the door to check, they saw the frightening Yamanba, so the children fired an arrow at her to kill her before they were eaten.¡± ¡°In other words, the children got scared and killed her without listening to what she had to say. I¡¯m not about to complain about an old story or legend, but she might not have actually intended to kill them. It might have been a simple prank. ¡­And the curse she spread after her death may have come from her frustration with the situation.¡± ¡°Then¡­¡± ¡°What Toujou Takumi-chan and the others did was the same as opening the door and talking to her instead of launching a preemptive strike out of fear. That threatened to destroy the field of isolation, so Wankashi Real Estate had to do something about it. That¡¯s my guess anyway.¡± The two of them sounded really cool as they reasoned through the situation, but Enbi was acting weird. ¡°Pant, pant. D-detective¡­This is as far as I can go¡­¡± Even if we couldn¡¯t use the elevators, Enbi was already exhausted by the fourth or fifth floor. And the detective was coldhearted. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you here.¡± ¡°Eh? Ah!? Wait!!¡± I was the one that shouted and ran after him. I looked back to find Enbi weakly waving up at us. ¡°You¡¯re kidding¡­ You¡¯re really leaving her behind!?¡± ¡°The residents of these apartments aren¡¯t dangerous. They only seem to be due to the filter placed over them by the Yamanba Package.¡± That may be true, but that¡¯s not the issue here! What kind of man abandons a maiden in love to run off to work!? Not that I¡¯m one to talk as I run after him despite knowing how Enbi feels!! Astonished, I chased after him and had a thought. Had ¡°he¡± been like this too? That man had given no thought to his family as he chased after every case presented to him. Eventually, my mom had run out of patience with him. I had only ever seen his back, but had his eyes been focused on people who needed help but could not seek it? He really had been a hopeless man, but I did admire that at least a little. Was that what it meant to be a police detective? By the time we checked the forty-two rooms and found all forty-two pieces of the artificial bone, the colors of evening had darkened to those of night. I sent an email to Enbi and we all met up in an empty room to assemble the glass pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. We finally constructed a silhouette that looked perfect for a dog to hold in its mouth. ¡°Is this a tibia?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. More importantly, look here. It gives the manufacturer and a production number.¡± ¡°Okay, okay. I¡¯ll search for it. ¡­Ashigara Sports Manufacturing, sprinting artificial bone series, #3-52-6. Hm? I have good news, detective. This was first released two years ago.¡± ¡°Okay, we¡¯ve got them now.¡± ¡°Eh? Eh?¡± I couldn¡¯t keep up, so the detective said more. ¡°Wankashi Real Estate insists this property has been abandoned for a long time so they didn¡¯t know the old people were living here or that shutting off the power or water would kill people. ¡­And yet this artificial bone is from only two years ago. The old people had to have been living here then, so the Wankashi Real Estate person who visited had to know they were here.¡± ¡°That means they can be charged with willful neglect. There¡¯s no way they¡¯ll be found not guilty.¡± ¡°No matter how good their lawyers are, they can¡¯t escape this. And if the full power of the police is sent after them, we¡¯re sure to find the missing children.¡± Part 13 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) The artificial bone fragments were important pieces of evidence, but if they were not placed in the empty rooms in order, the unfair criticism of the old people would never end. At the same time, the missing children had to be found as soon as possible. I wasn¡¯t sure what to do, so I called in some uniformed police officers to deal with the artificial bones. They only had to place them back around the apartments, retrieve them again, and send them over to the forensic investigators. ¡°The legend says the Yamanba¡¯s burial mounds were built from east to west, right? Should I have them arrange the artificial bone pieces from top to bottom and then place them in the empty rooms starting from the first floor of the building¡¯s east end and up to the top floor? And if that doesn¡¯t do anything, they can try some other arrangements like starting from the bottom of the bone or starting from the top floor.¡± I tried to figure out what instructions to give and the Mystery Freak cut in from the side. ¡°But detective, the Yamanba isolation Package spreads enough false malice for them to refuse to send out an ambulance. Are you sure the police will show up?¡± ¡°It only works on the locals. When you call for an ambulance, you¡¯re automatically connected to the closest center, but that isn¡¯t necessarily true with the police. ¡­I just have to go over their heads and call my own workplace directly.¡± And so I dialed my cellphone. ¡°Yes, department chief? I found something incredible while investigating those old people who died alone. Yes, including the cases of attempted murder, this was a plan to kill all two thousand people in these apartments. Isn¡¯t that amazing?¡± ¡°Bfhh!?¡± ¡°This goes well beyond a mass stabbing or shooting on the streets. This is seriously going to go down in Japan¡¯s criminal history. So if you don¡¯t want the local station to get all the credit, you should probably get down here pretty quick. Yes, yes. I suggest sending quite a bit of backup. Bye bye.¡± After passing on only the necessary information, I hung up. The setup was complete. It was time to head for Wankashi Real Estate. ¡°Enbi, you wait here with Tomoe-chan. When the police arrive, explain everything that happened.¡± ¡°Ehhh!? But the arrest of the criminal is the best part of the mystery drama!!¡± ¡°A sweaty firefight isn¡¯t your field of expertise. ¡­Hachikawa-san, you keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn¡¯t try anything. That would be a huge help.¡± ¡°W-well, if you say so, detective¡­ Mumble mumble¡­¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right! Tooomoooeee!! This is the perfect opportunity! We need to have a nice long chat!!¡± With that, I said goodbye to Tayama-san and the others, left the Mystery Freak with them as she swung her Sunekosuri scarf around like a morning star, and got down to making the actual arrest while contacting some colleagues of mine. Wankashi Real Estate was located in Ikebukuro, quite near Sugamo. In an area filled with short, narrow multi-tenant buildings, I approached one of the cars parked on the side of the road, and climbed into the passenger seat. Sotobori Gaku, heavy tank of the organized crime countermeasure division, waited inside. ¡°Great job. But are you sure you should be getting our help? I thought Department 1 was the most territorial group in the world. The higher ups are going to be bitching in the conference room.¡± ¡°Wankashi Real Estate is the bottom level of a large criminal organization, right? That makes this your territory, so you can make the arrest. Besides, the missing children come first. The credit can come later.¡± ¡°Why in the world didn¡¯t you ask to join the juvenile crime division? ¡­Oh, right. Here.¡± Sotobori Gaku casually passed me a standard issue revolver. ¡°You can still lend these things out?¡± ¡°Maybe you elites in Department 1 can¡¯t, but outlaws like us do it all the time.¡± ¡°Crap, maybe I shouldn¡¯t have asked you for help.¡± Meanwhile, we shared some information and discussed our strategy. ¡°Simply put, everyone in that five-story building except for the convenience store on the ground floor is probably guilty of something. Wankashi is the tenant on the third floor, but if we surround the building, the other tenants might think we¡¯re after them and attack us. So let¡¯s play it by ear and arrest them all! That should settle it!!¡± ¡°Could you be any more sloppy!? Are you really part of Japan¡¯s police force!?¡± We ended up yelling at each other as we got out of the car. That was the cue for men in suits to step out of other cars around the parking lot. It was not often that Department 1 and the organized crime countermeasure division worked together. Some of the cars attached police lights to the roof and set up a blockade on the road. The Heavy Tank swaggered up to the multi-tenant building while laughing fiercely for some reason. ¡°I love this tense atmosphere. This is a real man¡¯s workplace.¡± ¡°Keep saying things like that and the women are going to yell at you again.¡± ¡°Yeah, but it¡¯s the policewomen in uniform I like, not the ones in suits like us.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s what they don¡¯t like. Why do you think your division is nothing but men?¡± ¡°Oh? And can you claim to know everything there is to know about women?¡± At that point, the lights suddenly went out on that nighttime street. At first, my vision went dark like when the lights went out in a room, but we were outside. This was not just a building or two. It was a widespread and largescale blackout. ¡°Hey, Uchimaku-chan, what do you think about this?¡± ¡°I just hope they didn¡¯t have a remote-controlled bomb at the transformer substation.¡± ¡°Switch from cellphones to radios. The local tower is down, so the phones won¡¯t work.¡± ¡°Either way, they can¡¯t stop us now. Listen up, everyone, don¡¯t let Wankashi escape! Let¡¯s go!!¡± We were forced to use the car headlights for light, but they didn¡¯t help inside the building. We could barely see as we climbed the stairs to the third floor. Someone unsteadily stepped out onto the landing. ¡°Secured!! Next!¡± After twisting the man¡¯s hands behind his back and forcing him to the ground, I left him with another police officer and continued on. It was violent, but we were allowed to secure everyone on the scene when we didn¡¯t know who our enemy was and could be stabbed in the back at any moment. Of course, anything that killed them wasn¡¯t allowed. ¡°Hey, isn¡¯t that silhouette pregnant?¡± ¡°She¡¯s got something stuffed under her clothes. No pregnant woman stands that straight. Secured!! Next!¡± We arrived at the third floor. The darkness actually made it more frightening, but we gathered in front of one door with guns in hand. I cleared my throat and made a suggestion. ¡°I¡¯ll kick down the door.¡± ¡°No fair! That¡¯s the best part! You Department 1 credit thief!!¡± ¡°I said I was giving you the arrest, didn¡¯t I? Now, let¡¯s go!¡± I forcefully kicked open the door and we poured inside. A young man who seemed to be on phone duty raised his hands in the darkness, but I didn¡¯t see anyone else. Sotobori clicked his tongue after moving further back. ¡°Oh, damn. The safe is sitting open. This might be bad!!¡± We had tried to seal off all the exits, but there was only so much we could do in the confusion of the sudden blackout. They may have gotten the upper hand and slipped out somewhere. If they had night vision equipment prepared, it was entirely possible. That was when I heard the low roar of an engine down below. Sotobori shouted into his radio. ¡°Stop them!!¡± ¡°We can¡¯t complete the barricade of cars due to that blackout!!¡± I couldn¡¯t let them escape. I had to bring an end to those old people¡¯s suffering in the Ubasute Apartments. I had to find the children who had disappeared after discovering their secret! ¡°Wait. Uchimaku-chan?¡± ¡°¡­¡± I could judge the car¡¯s position from the sound and I didn¡¯t have time to hesitate. I ran through the darkness, broke through the glass, and jumped out the third floor window. At that very moment, a red sports car burst from a back alley and tried to break though the center of a group of police officers. I fell right on top of it. With the sound of denting metal, the low-riding sports car swerved left and right. The harsh impact had activated the airbag. With the driver¡¯s view and access to the steering wheel blocked by the airbag, a car could easily become a deadly weapon. It finally crashed into a nearby telephone pole. I was thrown from the car, but I quickly hopped to my feet on the road. I approached the driver¡¯s side door and used the grip of my handgun to smash the window. I could see a woman¡¯s face through the gap of some long bangs and a large wound seemed to split her mouth open. At first, I thought she had been injured during the accident, but a closer look showed it was an old wound. I held the muzzle of my gun to the young woman¡¯s head and shouted to her. ¡°Where are the children!?¡± ¡°I-I don¡¯t know¡­¡± I didn¡¯t have time to deal with this, so I waved over a nearby uniformed police officer. ¡°You! This calculation could get a little tricky, so could you help me out?¡± ¡°I-I suppose.¡± ¡°Each floor has twenty rooms. It¡¯s a seven-story building, but we can ignore the first floor. That¡¯s six floors of rooms. How many rooms is that?¡± ¡°Um, 120.¡± ¡°And there are twenty identical buildings.¡± ¡°2400 rooms.¡± ¡°The maximum detention period for a single crime is 23 days even with extensions. What¡¯s that times 2400?¡± ¡°Wait just a second¡­ Would it be 55,200 days?¡± ¡°And to finish it off, what¡¯s that divided by 365 days?¡± ¡°That would be about 151 years.¡± I turned back to the driver¡¯s seat where the young woman was dripping with sweat. ¡°You heard him. Oh, and that¡¯s only the lowest theoretical value. Any old people who have already died will count separately. ¡­If you want to say silent, that¡¯s your right. I can speak with the prosecutors and have you eternally arrested for different crimes. Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll have plenty of time to stay silent in the holding cell. Isn¡¯t that great? You¡¯ll have food to eat until the day you die paid for by the people¡¯s taxes.¡± ¡°Y-you can¡¯t do that. You won¡¯t get away with that! M-my lawyers won¡¯t let you!¡± ¡°But lawyers are only called in once you¡¯re indicted. They can¡¯t do anything at the investigation stage. You¡¯ll be stuck in that closed room. Hopefully you¡¯ll live until the trial begins 150 years from now.¡± I casually pulled out some handcuffs and the woman looked on the verge of tears. ¡°F-fine! Fine!! I¡¯ll talk!!¡± ¡°Keep it short.¡± Technically, the constitution said excessive detention counted as torture and thus any testimony obtained that way was not permissible in court. But I had no obligation to tell her that. ¡°I-it¡¯s true I tried to silence those children. I even kidnapped them. But I couldn¡¯t do it. I know it sounds stupid, but I couldn¡¯t stop trembling when it came down to dirtying my own hands.¡± I breathed a sigh of relief without letting it show on my face. But she wasn¡¯t done talking. ¡°So¡­¡± Truth turned out to be stranger than fiction. And in the worst possible way. ¡°I closed them all in the refrigerator. That way I didn¡¯t have to dirty my own hands.¡± ¡­You what!!!??? I handcuffed this obvious criminal, left her with a uniformed police officer, borrowed a police car, and headed to the refrigerator ¨C technically a refrigerated warehouse ¨C the young woman told me about. The lights on the way were out from the blackout, so the traffic lights were dead and there were accidents everywhere. Fear squeezed at my heart, but I still continued onward. I made my way to a freezing Ubasute Mountain that worked differently from those illegal apartments. It took a full thirty minutes to arrive and I could not even imagine how much of the trapped children¡¯s lives were being worn away in the meantime. I saw what seemed to be guards huddled together speaking near the dark refrigerated warehouses, so I approached them. ¡°Who¡¯s in charge here?¡± ¡°Wh-who are you?¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter! Who¡¯s in charge!?¡± Oops, I just pulled out my gun before my badge. The guards went pale, raised their hands, and spoke with a tremor in their voices. ¡°What are you? A tuna thief? We don¡¯t have anything like that here! We only store ice cream!¡± ¡°Some abducted children were closed inside. If you don¡¯t want to be charged as accomplices, then help me search!¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding right!? Which warehouse!?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, so open them all up and check! Hurry!!¡± We rushed off and one of the guards complained under his breath. ¡°What an awful day. And after this weird blackout wiped out all our products.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°The freezers can¡¯t run with the power out, right? What if they complain that we didn¡¯t inspect the equipment properly? I better not lose my winter bonus!¡± For better or for worse, the refrigerated warehouses were not running. Which meant¡­ ¡°Shit, there really are kids in here!! Hey, over here! Over here!!¡± Another guard shouted in the distance, so we all ran over. Cold white air wafted out from the opened door, but it was weaker than it might have been. The guards only peered in without setting foot inside. When I stepped in, I found five lumps huddled together in a corner. Their skin was disturbingly pale, their breathing was weak, and they were not moving in the slightest, but¡­ ¡°They¡¯re alive,¡± I muttered before raising my voice to a shout. ¡°They¡¯re all alive!! Please bring out blankets, heaters, and a pot of hot water or whatever you have. Hurry!!¡± Part 14 (Hachikawa Tomoe) A largescale blackout kept our cellphones from working, but radios and normal landlines seemed fine. The police working in the apartments told us that the detective had found Takkun and the other children safe, so I breathed a sigh of relief. I then looked up at the apartments again. ¡°What¡¯s going to happen to the people living here?¡± Wankashi Real Estate was clearly a villain, but if they were arrested, what would happen to the rights to the apartments? Someone else might buy it, but if they decided to tear down the condemned buildings, the old people would have to leave. But where would they go? I was nervous, but Enbi cheerfully replied while rubbing the head of her Sunekosuri scarf. ¡°They¡¯ll manage.¡± ¡°Eh? What do you mean? Will the police help them?¡± ¡°The police can¡¯t interfere in civil matters, but that¡¯s why freelancers like me exist. Besides, taking down Wankashi doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯ve judged all of the villains behind this.¡± She grinned and pulled out her smartphone. She seemed to be making a list of what she had to do. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare underestimate me, villains.¡± Part 15 (3rd person) There was a small but respectable house in a quiet neighborhood along the Arakawa River. Originally, an old man had spent half his life working to pay off the loan, but his son and daughter-in-law had stolen it from him. They had taken and hidden the deed and bankbook and violently thrown the man himself out. ¡°He was supposed to be dead already. What is Wankashi doing?¡± A man grumbled as he stomped in circles around the living room. The man had easily thrown out his own father, so he was hardly the type to make friendly relationships on his own. The room was already filled with a savage atmosphere and the house seemed more like a cage. He might live with his family on paper, but they were actually completely scattered. Then something happened to further rub the irritated man the wrong way. An intermittent beeping exploded through the window. The sound was used to warn of a truck or heavy machinery backing up. It was late at night and in a neighborhood, so the man grew irritated at this lack of manners (while ignoring his own constant lack of manners). But then something unexpected happened. With a shock like a car had run into it, something broke through the living room wall. ¡°Wh-what!?¡± He frantically got down on the ground and his anger began to boil up. He rushed outside without putting on his shoes and saw a yellow piece of heavy machinery breaking through the fence. Something like a beak made of thick metal was digging into the material of the wall. ¡°What in the hell are you doing to my house!?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± That carefree response came from the surprisingly young woman operating the equipment. She continued tearing at the wall and the house was already tilting in that direction. ¡°You say that, but why are you living in an abandoned house? That¡¯s dangerous, you know?¡± ¡°Wha-?¡± ¡°Um, the official owner is an old man named Tayama Sunao-san, but he apparently hasn¡¯t returned home for over a decade. It was deemed abandoned and administrative subrogation was carried out.¡± ¡°¡­!!¡± That may be true!! Yeah, it¡¯s officially that old man¡¯s house and of course he hasn¡¯t come back after we punched and kicked him to drive him out!! He just about spoke those thoughts aloud, but he obviously could not say that to a city worker. ¡°Please wait!! We live here! I¡¯m that old man¡¯s son!!¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t heard anything about that. Making claims is easy. Everyone living in an abandoned house insists they¡¯re a relative and we don¡¯t have time to deal with it all. If you could contact Tayama-san himself, that would work, though.¡± Like I know his phone number! Besides, that old man was supposed to be dead already! Then that hidden deed would be invalid and ownership would transfer to us! So why!? The more he thought about it, the more unfair it seemed, but he could not think of a way of objectively convincing someone of that. ¡°Th-then what happens to us? What do we do starting tomorrow!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask me. The land was bought up by the ward and the compensation was paid directly to Tayama Sunao-san without going through his bank account.¡± A great roar filled the air. The man¡¯s tilting home finally crumbled to the ground. Part 16 (3rd person) It was an unbelievable story. First, it turned out they could get a new copy of the deed as long as the real estate company still had the original copy stored. And when the owner had not returned for a long period of time, it could be registered as abandoned and directly sold to the local government. Second, the apartments they lived in had aged so much and so many had died that the property value had fallen about as low as possible. By gathering together the money all those old people had gotten by selling their homes, they had enough to buy up all of the land. Third, as soon as the Yamanba isolation Package vanished, the local people¡¯s attitudes completely changed. The people at the government office remade the intentionally bad road and the convenience stores and supermarkets were willing to deliver. And it was all thanks to a twintailed middle school girl in a swimsuit who was their grandchildren¡¯s age. ¡°I only returned everything to its rightful place, so I didn¡¯t save you. This is just how everything should have been in the first place.¡± When the girl had left, she had smiled. ¡°So if you feel someone saved you, it wasn¡¯t me. Someone else fits the bill a lot better.¡± As an old man turned the faucet and watered the flower garden with the hose, he heard some small footsteps approaching. The previous incident had caused them a lot of trouble, but the children had still come to see the old man. ¡°Mister, did you know there¡¯s a festival during the fall?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s to give thanks for all the fish. The river is filled with concrete now, but when I was your age, you could fill your stomach as long as you had a fishing pole.¡± ¡°Will you go with us? Everyone says the shaved ice is the best, but cotton candy is clearly better.¡± That was no longer a modern day Ubasute Mountain made of concrete. If even one person held out their hand, they could easily shatter that invisible cage. Notes 1. ¡ü Akasabi can mean rust. Volume 6, 3: [email protected] Mai & Illness Magic User Volume 6, Chapter 3: [email protected] Mai & Illness Magic User Part 1 (3rd person) Roppongi, Tokyo. Perhaps due to the influence of TV, that land itself seemed to have a brand image. Among the many high-rise buildings there, a man used the entire top floor of a fifty-story building as his second home. His name was Banjou Akira. He was turning forty-five this year and he was often introduced on TV as a philanthropist. He would donate money on the level of lottery winnings to individuals or groups afflicted with various social problems or that worked to resolve those problems. It could be midsized or small corporations developing caregiving robots, a production company making ads to reduce the number of littered cigarettes, or a housewife giving out food to the homeless. Every inch of the soundproofed walls of his home theater room was covered in newspaper and magazine clippings and printouts from online articles. They were all praising Banjou. As he smiled gently in the media¡¯s eye, he was actually incredibly concerned about how others viewed him. Also¡­ One wall reflected a bright white light. A projector displayed the personal information of murderers and kidnappers who had troubled the world in the past few years. Specifically, they were those who had used a Youkai and thus could not be judged by the law or were reduced to a lower crime that could be judged. Deadly muggings were treated as theft and abductions were treated as deceptive obstruction of business. A few of the photographs had big red Xs over them. A cause of death was written next to those ones: a traffic accident during transport, beaten to death in their cell, or an attack from a hornet or poisonous spider. In the end, he had funded those kinds of actions just as much as his official donations. Banjou Akira only ever thought about social problems. And both officially and in secret, he would spare no expense to help anyone who was working to resolve those problems. Even if he ended up taking someone¡¯s life, he felt not a twinge of guilt. But his fat body tilted sideways in his leather chair. He fell right to the floor. Banjou Akira would never move again and a woman stared down at his unmoving form. ¡°It¡¯s over.¡± Her name was Hishigami Mai. The beautiful woman wore a tank top and hot pants and she used a large satellite cellphone to call the ten year old girl named Hafuri who led Hyakki Yakou. The small canine Youkai at her feet, the Sunekosuri, was trembling in fear. His teeth had been chattering and he had not been able to speak a word. ¡°I just dealt with t Shinshou Hitsubatsu¡¯s sponsor. His bank account will be frozen when news of his death gets out, so even if he¡¯s set up automatic transfers, they won¡¯t be getting any more money. I just hope this stops their work.¡± ¡°How did you do it?¡± ¡°High-quality brandy and sleeping pills. People really need to read the warnings before they use those things. Everyday life is full of dangers.¡± ¡°But that¡¯s his second home, isn¡¯t it? Since it¡¯s a celebrity¡¯s secret home, his family isn¡¯t going to find him. Couldn¡¯t it take over a month before he¡¯s found?¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m calling emergency services on the home phone once I finish speaking with you. I¡¯ll have the corpse hold the receiver and never say a word on the phone. I can mess with the humidifier¡¯s settings to throw off the estimated time of death, so it doesn¡¯t matter that the order was backwards. His body will be found faster than a coin locker baby.¡± With that comment, Mai glanced over at the home theater¡¯s screen. The man must have enjoyed the limelight because he had filled the screen with the photographs that acted as twisted trophies of his targets. One photo in the center was especially large. The photo was of a ten year old genius girl named Ranzono Sachi. She was a criminal who had constructed an Oomukade Package on her own. The Youkai-related crime and her young age had made her difficult to charge in court, so she had been a double punch for the justice-obsessed owner of the room. And currently, she was the top target of an organization named Shinshou Hitsubatsu. ¡°We will monitor Shinshou Hitsubatsu¡¯s actions,¡± said Hafuri. ¡°Sure, sure. But if this doesn¡¯t stop them, the situation might get a little tricky. If it comes to that, maybe I¡¯ll see if I can get his help.¡± ¡°I doubt he would help us now.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so sure. I bet you could convince him right away if you gave him a teary-eyed puppy dog look.¡± Mai sounded like she did not really care. ¡°That Illness Magic User is super easy to understand. I¡¯m sure he¡¯s still running full speed down the path of the fleeing soldier with that gloomy look on his face!¡± Part 2 (Illness Magic User) ¡°Miss, miss! Give me an udon! A kitsune udon!! I¡¯m starving!¡± ¡°Oh, my. Should the Inugami Gyoubu tanuki really be ordering kitsune udon? Won¡¯t Osakabe-Hime laugh at you?¡± ¡°G-gulp!! N-no! I¡¯m a human, I swear. Look, no tail or anything!¡± ¡°Well, you can order whatever you want as long as the money isn¡¯t actually leaves. Here¡¯s your kitsune udon!¡± The supplied soy sauce had lost some of its flavor, so I used a type of Illness Magic to ferment it while listening to those energetic voices. It seemed like everywhere served udon in Shikoku. That wasn¡¯t isolated to Kagawa. If you walked into any restaurant, you were bound to find udon. I wasn¡¯t that picky about cooking or food, but I felt like I had been eating nothing but chilled zaru udon recently. Some said the texture or the water used was the real heart of udon, but I hadn¡¯t chosen this restaurant for anything like that. Its simple flavor had no noticeable positives, but any unpleasant points had been thoroughly removed. That fit my tastes pretty well. My Illness Magic did not rely on Youkai. It was born from the stress I created myself. Those ¡°unpleasant points¡± could do far more damage to one¡¯s internal organs than people thought. Take this newspaper article for example: ¡°The water has been cut off throughout Hakata, Fukuoka. Did a mistake in the water purification plant contaminate the water supply?¡± Or this TV news report: ¡°The fire that began yesterday at an Aomori oil reserve site is showing no signs of being extinguished. The government has sent in a hyper rescue squad to assist the local firefighters.¡± Or this gossip: ¡°Hey, miss, had you heard the Shikoku Bridge has been blocked off since morning? Truck accidents sure are scary. And there¡¯s no way to prevent it when the driver has a sudden stroke. Tremble, tremble.¡± It didn¡¯t matter whether it had any connection to me or not. I knew it made me a difficult person, but whenever I heard things like that, it filled me with displeasure and shortened my lifespan. Basically, I was covered in beads of sweat that looked too small for my two meter frame. Even now, I could see a meaningless scowl on my face in the polished table. So as I did whatever it took to protect my lifespan, people started treating me like a hero. When I started getting a little carried away, the organization named Hyakki Yakou took me in. Of course, my connection to Hyakki Yakou had already ended. I had lost anything to guide my life and yet here I was. I had no idea where to go. ¡°Hi, Illness Magic-chan!! I haven¡¯t seen you since Kyoto, but how¡¯ve you been?¡± My thoughts were cut off by a scantily-clad woman plopping down in the seat across from me. To be honest, I felt like this alone took years off my life, but she didn¡¯t seem to care. She looked around the restaurant instead of checking the menu and she stared at the large man who had apparently copied the restaurant worker¡¯s outfit when transforming. ¡°Oh, a tanuki¡¯s eating kitsune udon. Miss, give me a kitsune udon too!!¡± ¡°N-no, I¡¯m a human!! My tail¡¯s hidden and everything!!¡± The restaurant worker ignored the rioting tanuki general and carried a bowl over to our table. She then gave the frivolous woman named Hishigami Mai a curious look. ¡°Sigh, I never would have guessed this guy knew someone so beautiful. Who is he to you?¡± ¡°Eh heh¡î What do you think?¡± Hishigami Mai smiled and gave a disturbing wink. The restaurant worker put her hands on her hips. ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t really matter as long as he has some kind of friend. This gloomy-looking outsider kept showing up at the same time to eat this plain zaru udon, so rumors are going around he¡¯s here to commit suicide and is trying to build up his resolve.¡± She laughed as she left, but the small canine Sunekosuri was spotted as she did. ¡°Miss, I¡¯m afraid of dogs!¡± ¡°I am not a dog! I am a Sunekosuri, you tanuki!!¡± ¡°Help!!¡± The woman had to go calm down the two arguing Youkai. Now that we were alone, I asked a quiet question. ¡°Why are you here?¡± ¡°If you feel like fighting, wait until after I¡¯ve eaten. Waiting until after you¡¯ve heard what I have to say would be even better.¡± Hishigami used her chopsticks to dig into the kitsune udon. I casually observed that she seemed to be the type that saved the fried tofu until the end and she finally looked up again. ¡°I have a job for you.¡± ¡°A job?¡± ¡°Yes. But make no mistake here. This job isn¡¯t from me. Hyakki Yakou¡¯s young lady is asking. Interested now?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯ll drag you into this even if you aren¡¯t.¡± She grabbed the bowl in both hands and splendidly gulped down the broth. ¡°Ever heard of an organization called Shinshou Hitsubatsu? They¡¯re a bunch of assassins that claim they only kill people because they don¡¯t like how Youkai-related crimes aren¡¯t getting judged properly. A few high-level Hyakki Yakou members were taken out by them, so they¡¯re being hunted down for revenge.¡± ¡°Then why not get started? Even without me, you still have four of the Top Five. What about the Venom or the Heirloom?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, we can¡¯t do it that way. To be blunt, their fighting force is too unique. A straightforward attack isn¡¯t going to cut in. It¡¯s to the point that we want the opinion of someone with a similar job.¡± ¡­Don¡¯t tell me. At my silent urging, Hishigami smiled and continued with a slice of green onion (it had to be intentionally) still stuck to her cheek. ¡°That¡¯s right. The enemy this time is a Byouki user¡­ They¡¯re an expert in disease and curses, just like you.¡± Silence fell. A Byouki was a variation of the kodoku created by having poisonous insects kill each other in a jar. That cat Youkai had its origins on the continent and it would possess its target on the command of the user. From there, it would spread the disease and transform the infected into killers. We were both glaring at each other, but our expressions were polar opposites. The Hishigami woman had a delighted smile on her face. Or was that just how she looked when ready to fight? ¡°Now, what will you do? Of course, if it comes to a direct fight between Hyakki Yakou and Shinshou Hitsubatsu, Hyakki Yakou can win by force. But the losses would be pretty high. It would be like a group of scissors trying to defeat a rock in a rock-paper-scissors battle. And if Hyakki Yakou¡¯s power is worn down, other hostile organizations might jump at the chance. ¡­And most importantly, the young lady would look pretty sad if more people died.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Besides, you¡¯re just wandering around without anything to do, right? Did you come to Shikoku for a pilgrimage? Or for a cucumber sealing? Either way, an individual¡¯s power isn¡¯t enough to manage a curse on the level of a grudge that can destroy Kyoto. I think you should let go of your sour grapes, bow down to Hyakki Yakou, and borrow some of their incense.¡± Hishigami sounded entirely carefree. ¡°Also, if a curse of your level was forced onto them, every shrine and temple in the country would be in trouble. I won¡¯t get mad, so tell me the truth. You were the one that nearly destroyed the Togenuki-Jizou at Sugamo, weren¡¯t you? When the young lady went out to inspect it, she bowed down to the chief priest. He was shocked, let me tell you.¡± ¡­Nhh. ¡°Honestly, shaming your master like that would normally be worthy of seppuku, you know? So pay back your debt, umbrella-making ronin! Heh heh heh. You¡¯re not some virgin girl, so you can pay it back with your body!!¡± Nhhhh!? ¡°Almost there, huh? Then I¡¯ll just leave some completely unrelated documents right here!¡± Hishigami placed a few A4-sized pieces of copy paper on the table. They seemed to be the results of an investigation into someone, but I didn¡¯t recognize the child in the photograph. ¡°What is this?¡± ¡°Shinshou Hitsubatsu¡¯s primary target at the moment. She¡¯s Ranzono Sachi-chan, ten years old. ¡­And she¡¯s a criminal involving a Package. Left alone, the Byouki¡¯s disease will attack her first. A group of adults ¨C and professionals at that ¨C will torment her to death.¡± ¡°So what? She has nothing to do with me.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t even try, samurai. I can tell from here you¡¯re itching to do something. You have approximately three days, but that¡¯s the most you¡¯ll get. If you ignore this, a professional will kill a ten year old girl. Although it¡¯s true she has nothing to do with you.¡± She grinned and continued speaking, knowing perfectly well what would reach me the best. Yes, she had said she would drag me into this. ¡°I did some research into Ranzono Sachi. She¡¯s a pitiful genius girl who put together a Package on her own and fought back against the entire world to protect the homes of an Oomukade and Tsuchigumo. Oh, but for better or for worse, she apparently hasn¡¯t killed anyone yet. She was stopped before she could.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°And the whole deal with the Oomukade and Tsuchigumo¡¯s home smells fishy to me. Sachi-chan was raised in Tokyo, but a Yamanba Package driving old people to a lonely death was active at the time. It¡¯s possible someone messed with that Package to give themselves some secondary income. They just had to turn the hatred toward Youkai.¡± ¡°In other words, this Ranzono Sachi would never have strayed from the proper path if not for someone from our industry?¡± ¡°Most likely. She was dragged into our industry and now she¡¯ll be killed by it. ¡­Those are the circumstances Sachi-chan found herself in. So what¡¯ll you do, Mr. Samurai? Wouldn¡¯t it be fun to save the village girl who was manipulated by a misguided revenge story and will now be executed for the crime?¡± This was my business. She did have something to do with me. We had dragged her into this. I silently clenched my teeth while looking at the papers on the table. ¡°Incidentally, Sachi-chan is being taken from the Intellectual Village named Noukotsu Village and through the neighboring Bozen City on the way to be prosecuted. She¡¯ll probably be attacked on the way. If we knew the exact route being used, it would be easy to kill or protect her, but the world never makes it that easy.¡± In other words, she was hoping Bozen City would become a battlefield between my Illness Magic and the Byouki as I hunted down the main fighting force of Shinshou Hitsubatsu. ¡°Fine.¡± A slight sticky sound could be heard. As soon as a black stain appeared on the papers, they disintegrated and vanished from this world. ¡°As soon as I confirm this request really is from Hyakki Yakou, I will begin. But if you are lying, I will dispose of you. Got that?¡± ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll act as your backup. I¡¯m looking forward to working with you, Illness Magic-chan. Let¡¯s do our best to save Hyakki Yakou and Sachi-chan¡î¡± Part 3 (Illness Magic User) The rural Bozen City had developed from a mountain truck depot that supported Noukotsu Village¡¯s mail-order network. It had a population of about one hundred thousand. I arrived by train, shoved some balled-up banknotes in the white feather donation box in front of the station, and received a call on my modified cellphone. ¡°Welcome to Bozen City, Illness Magic-chan.¡± ¡­Is she watching me from somewhere? I glanced around, but didn¡¯t see anyone like her in the crowd. ¡°I want to share the bare minimum of information needed to provide backup, so could you at least tell me where you¡¯re going to attack?¡± ¡°For Illness Magic, a Byouki, or any other disease-related paranormal power, the targeting is what matters most. As I slipped a memo containing an extremely simple chemical formula into the hand of a young supporter who had apparently hit a road block in developing an ALS treatment, I walked through the crowd and continued the conversation. ¡°If they can acquire the location of Ranzono Sachi, they just have to let their disease spread endlessly from a remote location. That means the Byouki user or one of their pawns must be building a personal search system. They¡¯ll be rushing around gathering material for that, so I can capture them if I cut them off. If it¡¯s the user themselves, I¡¯m done. If it¡¯s a subordinate, I just have to get them to talk.¡± ¡°In other words, you have to see your target to attack?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°Hm? But Illness Magic, wasn¡¯t it said you could fill half of Europe with disease if you wanted to? That seems well beyond what you can see with the naked eye.¡± ¡°I had satellite support when I worked for Hyakki Yakou. I had about four hundred of those thirty-centimeter civilian satellites they make in shopping districts anywhere.¡± ¡°Ugeh!? You make that sound simple, but that¡¯s even more than America¡¯s GPS network! If I could¡¯ve used that, I would have noticed what was going on at Goldmine Island a hell of a lot faster!!¡± ¡°That¡¯s nothing compared to what I could do if I worked with the Venom Clairvoyant of the Top Five. But without any of that support, my abilities are limited.¡± I had gotten off topic. ¡°Anyway, I will pursue Shinshou Hitsubatsu¡¯s extremities and use them to find the head. That¡¯s standard operating procedure.¡± ¡°Sure thing. ¡­But I have on piece of advice for you. Be careful how you handle any prisoners you take. Get careless and they¡¯ll melt away.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°I mean that literally. The Byouki person has put something inside their subordinates. I¡¯ve tried threats, negotiation, bribes, and brainwashing, but their body always melts away as soon as they choose betrayal. That¡¯s the real problem that¡¯s kept me from getting any information.¡± ¡°I see.¡± There were countless types of mold and germs that would grow in the human body. The Trichophyton fungus that causes athlete¡¯s foot is a good example. If they were given an extreme boost with paranormal power, they could become a biological weapon that dissolved the human body to the bone. ¡°Does that mean you have a list of people you want to interrogate, but can¡¯t do anything with it? Then hand it over. I¡¯ll seal the disease and get them to talk.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I called. I¡¯ll start by giving you the biggest name on the list, as far as I know. They probably have some important information, so I was afraid of making them melt.¡± ¡°Who is it?¡± ¡°A well-known person. Ever heard of the Arson Thief?¡± Part 4 (3rd person) The young woman may or may not have reached twenty yet. She had straight blonde hair long enough to reach her waist, thin-lensed glasses that gave her an intellectual appearance, a tight-skirted dress colored rouge red, and stockings with a black garter belt. The outfit resembled a suit, yet she looked nothing like a productive member of society. Even a flashy announcer would hesitate before standing in front of the camera in that. She was the Arson Thief. She was sitting in a window-side seat on the second floor of an Italian restaurant while speaking with someone on her cellphone. ¡°Yes, yes. It¡¯s all going according to plan. Ah ha ha. It¡¯s already on the news? Don¡¯t worry. All the evidence will end up as ashes or charcoal. The police and firefighters won¡¯t be able to tell what was stolen there.¡± Simply put, she provided supplies for the organization named Shinshou Hitsubatsu. She would gather anything needed for a job. And she would do so safely. She was very careful to make sure she never handed over something that could be traced and land her comrades in trouble. ¡°If you want to lose pursuit, going over the top is actually better. A half-assed attempt at hiding the evidence will only leave more for them to find. Even if this ends up like one of the great fires of Edo, they can¡¯t track us down if they can¡¯t find anything.¡± She was that kind of thief. She would break in, kill, steal, start a fire, and escape. She specialized in one of the greatest criminal occupations that had been especially hated and despised for three hundred years. ¡°Once we have what I¡¯m here for, we can search for Ranzono Sachi¡¯s location. Even if she¡¯s a minor, we can¡¯t allow an acquittal when a Youkai was involved. Afterwards, you take care of the rest with your disease, Byouki. Just like always.¡± The Arson Thief showed no sign of noticing the contradiction of committing a crime to punish a crime or using a Youkai to defeat a target who had protected Youkai. In the end, that was the sort of organization Shinshou Hitsubatsu was. After hanging up, she put her cellphone in her handbag. In its place, she pulled out a device larger than an SLR camera and placed it on the table. It was an electric circular saw that looked horribly out of place with her suit that was colored the red of a sports car. The saw¡¯s exterior was pink, so it was oddly humorous. ¡°Hm? Oh, some of the teeth have come off. Is it about time for some new ones?¡± She traced her glove-covered fingertips across the edge and slowly stood from her seat. After looking around the empty restaurant, her eyes stopped on one corner in particular. There, a pitiful family of three lay on the floor with their arms, legs, and mouth tied or covered with duct tape. Again and again, the second year middle school girl named Sakashita Sou blankly asked herself how this could have happened. Her father was a chef. He had moved to Italy to train and had returned to Japan after finally earning that title. She had often been lonely when her whole family could not come to her sports festivals and parents¡¯ days at school, but she had still rooted for her father¡¯s dream. When he had celebrated like a child after finding a way to raise the money he needed to start his own restaurant, she had smiled and known she had made the right decision. Today, she and her mother had come before opening day to inspect the restaurant and be served as the very first guests. So how had this happened? ¡°Sorry about this, but my paranormal powers lose their luster without some periodic maintenance to my tools. So I like to have some parts in reserve just in case. And this gives me an impromptu hideout, so that¡¯s two birds with one stone.¡± The woman in a red dress lifted her brutal circular saw. The pink weapon almost seemed comical. Even with their arms and legs bound, Sakashita Sou¡¯s parents lay on top of her to protect her. For a moment, she thought she was going to be chopped to pieces by the power tool like a scene from a gruesome horror movie, but she was wrong. A closer look revealed the truth. Specifically, a closer look at the circular saw¡¯s teeth. The round metal edge was covered in actual human teeth. ¡°W-wah!? Mghah!! Mghoh!!!???¡± Five or ten teeth were not going to cut it. There were at least ten times that many. How many people had been sacrificed to create and maintain a tool like that? And that maintenance was held periodically and constantly. Sakashita Sou felt like her view of the world was being fried. The beautiful woman placed a metal set of pliers on the table and smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll keep you alive until I¡¯ve pulled them all out. It¡¯s like blood donations. The materials have an expiration date. I¡¯ll just take one at a time and, once I¡¯ve taken them all, I won¡¯t need you anymore.¡± ¡°¡­!?¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about this place. No matter how much evidence is splattered around, I can just burn it all away at the end. You can¡¯t take the police¡¯s forensic investigations lightly, but if you get all the important bits and manage the furnace properly, the heat will wipe everything clean.¡± They would be used like a flowerbed to grow teeth, their teeth would be pulled one at a time as parts for this woman¡¯s tool, and once their teeth were gone, they would be chopped into little pieces and disposed of. And the restaurant her father had dreamed of since he was a child and that had received his family¡¯s support would be burned down to complete this woman¡¯s system. (Why¡­?) Sakashita Sou understood all that, but she could no longer feel anger. The overwhelming sense of unfairness and fear drowned out all else. Even if she was ashamed at herself for yielding, she could not stop the very core of her body from trembling in the face of this madwoman. (Why is this happening!?) Her repetition of that unanswerable question was proof that she had stopped thinking. She and her family¡¯s situation was simply that hopeless. They had no way of breaking free and no help was coming. But she could not bear to accept that simple fact, so her thoughts entered a meaningless infinite loop. But then, she heard a loud noise. The door to the stairs was forced open and a young man flew in like a bullet. The Arson Thief narrowed her eyes slightly. The man was one of the guards she had placed around the restaurant. He bounced along the floor a few times like a ball, plowed through the chairs and tables in the way, slid past the woman in the red dress, and finally stopped after crashing into the window. Had he been punched or kicked? Next, a large, gloomy man stepped in and glared at the Arson Thief. ¡°Who are you?¡± she asked. ¡°At the very least, I¡¯m not the same as you.¡± That was all he said. As soon as the man grabbed a charm between two fingers, something like a pitch black mist erupted from his entire body. It swirled around, but before it could take concrete form and attack, the Arson Thief used her thumb to flick the switch for her human tooth circular saw. A tremendous roar burst out. She slammed the blade against a nearby table and orange sparks cascaded out. A moment later, the sparks absorbed something and flames swelled explosively outwards. No, this was not a mere fire. It may have been a deluge of red-hot melted metal. The mysterious hellfire devoured the oxygen in the air as it surged toward the large man and swallowed him whole. ¡°Are you a disease-type like the Byouki?¡± The Arson Thief mocked the newly-made human torch. She then attached a heart-shaped carabiner to the grip of her pink circular saw and attached a synthetic fiber leash to that. She swung it around. The ferocious morning star whooshed around as it tore into the floor, walls, ceiling, and furniture. Each time it hit something, sparks would burst out, producing further scorching hellfire from a variety of angles. The orange flood rushed in from every direction. ¡°But diseases are traditionally weak to boiling and fire. Before the advent of bacteriology, mankind learned from their experiences and wove that into their legends. It¡¯s too bad, whoever you are.¡± ¡°Since you use human teeth, do you use a Kitsunebi?¡± A calm voice cut her off. It was far from the voice of a man being burned alive in a furnace. ¡°A fox is said to strike human bones together to create a bewitching flame. ¡­If so, that is an overly-decorated and inefficient system. I can probably recreate this with a phosphorescent chemical substance.¡± A tremendous roar burst out. The black tornado tore through and dispersed the orange flames from within. ¡°Wha-!?¡± ¡°There are countless heat-resistant bacteria. Like the ones that grow in a volcano¡¯s caldera and consume sulfur. I can easily survive this by using my Illness Magic to create an umbrella based on them.¡± The Arson Thief realized her thoughts had ground to a halt. She came dangerously close to touching her own circular saw as she swung around the electric morning star to reject it all. She would create a massive enough conflagration to burn away any and all inconveniences. But¡­ ¡°It may be reinforced by the paranormal, but it¡¯s still a flame.¡± The carpet of flames filling the restaurant completely vanished as if it had all been a joke. The large man¡¯s expression had not changed one iota. ¡°By creating aerobic bacteria ¨C that is, bacteria that consume oxygen ¨C I can easily erase those flames. Water is useless with the flames from chemical incendiary rounds, but sand works just fine. All flames grow fragile if you rob them of their oxygen.¡± ¡°¡­¡± The Arson Thief could not move a single step. She had stopped swinging around the saw. The power tool clunked to the ground, moved about madly like a poorly trained dog, and only scattered sparks as insignificant as pissing on a telephone pole. ¡°How about we talk this out?¡± That was all the large man said as he started casually across the floor. He carried the entire scene¡¯s atmosphere with him. ¡°What did the Byouki user ask for and where are you taking it? If you won¡¯t talk, I¡¯ll imitate Alzheimer¡¯s or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and ask your brain directly.¡± ¡°Ha¡­ha ha.¡± While trembling, the beauty in a red dress laughed tensely with nowhere left to run. And as she did, a certain thought filled her head: I¡¯ve won. She could control all types of flames and use their various traits: burning, consuming oxygen, gathering people¡¯s attention, jumping from object to object, bursting out like a trap when a door was opened, etc. And that included the hypnotizing flames that led people to hallucinate. There were several kinds of hypnotism, but one way to induce a hypnotic state was to have the target stare at a flickering flame. Some theories said that was why the Hyakumonogatari used candles or lanterns. The Arson Thief would secretly weave those flames into the battle to slowly invade the brain of her opponent. (It doesn¡¯t matter if my flames don¡¯t work on you.) The unfocused eyes and unthinkably relaxed facial muscles were both signs that her target was not in a normal state of mind. She pulled on the leash to retrieve the raging circular saw and grabbed it in both hands. (You can believe you¡¯ve won and stand there meaninglessly while your organs splatter to the floor!!) A moment later, a strange noise exploded in her hands. The fiercely rotating blade had come apart on its own. The blade, the motor, the cover, and every last screw fell separately to the floor. The rapid rotation continued, so the blade nearly severed her foot on its way down. ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­Eh?¡± This time, the Arson Thief¡¯s thoughts truly did come to a stop. ¡°There are molds that corrode metal. This one gathered some attention when it damaged a passenger plane.¡± The man responded with a composed expression, but that was not the real problem here. (Why!? How!? He should be under my hypnotic control!!) The enemy walked straight toward her with long strides. He could clearly see her properly. The beautiful woman could only shake her head at the overwhelming unfairness of it all, but she finally caught on a moment later. (He isn¡¯t thinking for himself.) A chill ran down her spine. (Did he detect the oddity and infect his own brain and spinal column with his Illness Magic? Did he send a virus into his own body to escape my hypnotism and continue fighting semi-automatically!?) She had the right answer, but that did not reveal a way out of her predicament. Before the Arson Thief could do anything, the large man grabbed her collar, lifted her with one arm, and slammed her back into the floor. The sound produced by their height difference was much greater than that of a judo throw. Part 5 (Illness Magic User) I had defeated my target. I still needed to release the tied-up civilians, but I prioritized the Arson Thief. Whenever a member of Shinshou Hitsubatsu spilled the beans, they would be infected and killed by an acute form of athlete¡¯s foot. I grabbed the unconscious woman and dragged her to the kitchen. I opened the industrial refrigerator, checked through the contents, and poked at the side of the woman¡¯s head with the tip of my military boots. ¡°Wake up.¡± ¡°Eh? Ah¡­Cough, cough, cough!?¡± When she woke in confusion, she choked for a bit and widened her eyes. I crouched down and held a common food item in front of her face. ¡°If you tell me about the Byouki user, I¡¯ll remove the ¡®collar¡¯ wrapped around your throat.¡± ¡°Y-you¡¯re kidding, right?¡± ¡°This is called a cucumber sealing. It¡¯s a Shikoku ritual to pray for health and safety. As the name suggests, you seal your illness inside a cucumber and bury it in the earth. It¡¯s up to you whether you want to try it or not, but if you refuse, your options are dying from athlete¡¯s foot across your body or being forced into a life of slavery. What¡¯ll it be?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°This is your one and only chance. Don¡¯t you want to live in freedom?¡± I could hear her clench her teeth even at my distance. She may have called them her comrades or her organization, but it looked like she had known the truth. ¡°If you can really do it, prove it ahead of time. Prove you can satisfy me with that cucumber.¡± ¡°A simple task, but don¡¯t forget that all it does is ¡®seal¡¯ the illness. Until it¡¯s buried, I can still return the acute athlete¡¯s foot to you at any time.¡± The ritual itself was not difficult. After reciting a ceremonial curse, the illness hidden in her body was transferred to the vegetable. Once it was over, she looked down at her chest suspiciously. ¡°Did that really do it?¡± Instead of answering, I tossed the infected cucumber toward the kitchen window. The impact broke it in two and the transparent glass was instantly covered in white hypha-like threads. It was like a bomb made of slime mold. Afraid of the sound and vibration, a centipede on the wall near the window crawled into a gap in the sink. The woman was dumbfounded, but I got down to business. ¡°Speak.¡± ¡°R-right, of course. I don¡¯t have any obligations to them anymore. ¡­I was acquiring the data needed to build a personal search system for the target, Ranzono Sachi.¡± ¡°Specifically?¡± ¡°Do you really think you have time for that?¡± The woman smiled thinly from the floor and pointed at the ceiling. No¡­ ¡°I already handed the USB memory to a Shinshou Hitsubatsu courier. If you don¡¯t hurry up, they¡¯ll get away.¡± That was when a deafening roar cut by overhead. Was it a helicopter? But I hadn¡¯t seen one when checking around the building before my attack. Regardless, it was true I had no time. I used my Illness Magic to exterminate the acute athlete¡¯s foot on the kitchen window, opened the window, and stuck my head out. I still couldn¡¯t see anything, but the source of the noise was quite nearby and the wind was rising oddly on the road out front. It was apparently about to ascend, so I still had a chance. As usual, I only had to use my Illness Magic, so I pulled out a charm. After dealing with what needed to be done, I looked back and saw the woman asking me a question with a servile smile on her face. ¡°I won¡¯t stop you. I¡¯m free to go, right?¡± ¡°By the way, how many people have you killed as the Arson Thief?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. One or two hundred maybe?¡± That wasn¡¯t much. I was hardly one to accuse her of anything, but I had to settle this. I pulled out a new charm. ¡°Then you can start by sleeping for about two hundred months.¡± ¡°Wha-!? That¡¯s not what you-¡­¡± I silenced her with my Illness Magic and left the kitchen. I approached the family of three bound with duct tape and freed only their mouths. ¡°Wh-what is¡­ Who are you?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, I can¡¯t answer that.¡± I cut across the room and borrowed a brand new tablecloth. I infected it with Illness Magic and small mushrooms began growing from it. ¡°These are a type of spiritual mushroom. You can sell them for more than caterpillar fungus. If you head out to Mount Tomi or Yokohama and sell them at a random Chinese medicine shop, you¡¯ll get enough to renew your restaurant with money to spare. Sorry you got caught in the middle of all this.¡± They looked dumbfounded, but I left them and called the police on the restaurant phone. ¡°Yes, this is the police. Please calm down and explain your situation. Are you reporting a crime or an accide-¡­¡± ¡°A robber broke into a new restaurant in Eastern Block 3 of Bozen City. Send the police out immediately.¡± With that said, I threw the receiver on the floor without hanging up. Whether they believed me or not, they would trace the source of the call and send someone. The family could tell them what happened then. Paranormal powers or not, even an amateur could tell who was the perpetrator and who was the victim. In my business, personally providing the police with eyewitness testimony was not the best idea. That Hishigami woman might have silenced the family, but I had no reason to kill them. With that in mind, I left the restaurant. I already had a new target. I had to pursue that invisible helicopter. Part 6 (3rd person) A Tengu¡¯s mysterious disappearances were the weapon used by Seidou Tagane, the Shinshou Hitsubatsu courier. The young man wore a flashy suit and sunglasses and had his hair bleached pure white, but more importantly, he could hide himself so long as he was flying. He could of course hide himself, but the effect also included anything he was controlling, be it a helicopter, an air cushion ship, a passenger plane, or an asteroid. The Tengu was a flying Youkai that made people disappear. He used that trait to carry his payload along the shortest route through the open sky. Nothing could be safer or more reliable. He let a pilot working for him take care of the helicopter while he crossed his legs in the back seat and shouted into his cellphone to be heard over the loud rotors. ¡°Yeah! I¡¯ll be there right on time. Also, it seems there¡¯s someone after us! Try contacting that Kitsunebi woman. If you can¡¯t reach her or she¡¯s acting weird, use the athlete¡¯s foot!! See ya!¡± He hung up and saw the pilot shaking his head. He asked what was going on and realized the pilot was trying to check on the reinforced glass in front ¡°Um, is this dust or something? It¡¯s clouding my vision¡­¡± ¡°What?¡± Seidou Tagane leaned forward to check for himself. There really was a fine powder covering the entire surface of the glass and it did look like sand, but it was not. (What is this? Mold?) A moment later, he heard the sound of sparks and his curse stealth using a Tengu¡¯s mysterious disappearances was peeled away. The title of ¡°invisible helicopter¡± no longer applied and the craft was entirely visible in the blue sky. ¡°Wh-what!? What just happened!?¡± Part 7 (Illness Magic User) Muscular reinforcement, increased flexibility of the blood vessels and cartilage, protection of the internal organs, readjustment of the energy consumption rate, activation of the mitochondria, and a change of blood distribution to prevent a blackout. After taking all the necessary measures with my Illness Magic, I tossed aside several used charms, and ran from the sidewalk to the road. My body immediately started running at 100 kph. And from there, my speed increased with quadratic growth. I quickly reached the 400 kph line. That was the same speed as a drag racer or a helicopter. I had already captured my target. I had scattered several types of mold from the restaurant¡¯s second floor window when the helicopter had been preparing to take off. It seemed to be a type of curse stealth using a Tengu¡¯s mysterious disappearances, but that simplified matters. Legend had it Tengu did not abduct people who had eaten mackerel because they hated the smell of mackerels. Since the curse stealth relied on a Tengu, I could remove it by chemically synthesizing the smell. I had stripped them bare. They could ignore the roads and terrain to take the shortest path to their destination. I was unfortunately bound by those things, but I could not allow them to escape. I had to secure a route to the Byouki user no matter what. I overtook the cars on the road, I jumped over the people on the crosswalks, and I would occasionally run along a building¡¯s wall to take a sharp turn without losing much speed. I heard screams and confused voices around me, but each time, I used my Illness Magic to erase a few seconds of their short-term memory. I spared the small children because it would have been dangerous for them, but the adults would assume the child had been daydreaming. Then the helicopter crossed a river. At more than fifty meters wide, it was too far to jump and there was no bridge nearby. ¡°Compose an Illness Magic based on blastocladia.¡± I pulled out a charm, muttered to myself, and leaped toward the river. No matter how much momentum I had built up, I was going to fall into the river partway. But as soon as my feet touched the surface, something like a pure-white lotus leaf spread out. I created my own footing based on a germ that attached to fruit that fell in the water. I jumped across the surface like a stone skipping on the water and arrived on the opposite bank. However, this would never end if I continued running along the surface. To finish this, I needed a long thoroughfare or highway. Part 8 (3rd person) Finally, Seidou Tagane realized what was going on. He saw a form running along the surface at unbelievable speed. Whatever it was, it was following the courier helicopter now that the curse stealth was broken. The helicopter was moving at over 350 kph and could ignore the terrain and roads, but this opponent showed no sign of caring. The pilot gave a shrill shout. ¡°Let¡¯s shake them!! We don¡¯t need to stay on this course!!¡± ¡°You dumbass, we¡¯ve lost our stealth! Everyone can see us now!¡± ¡°And isn¡¯t that why we¡¯re being chased!? I don¡¯t know who that is, but they¡¯re some kind of monster!!¡± ¡°Yeah, and the airport control tower radar can see us too! Adding in a false flight plan via the internet¡¯s the most I can manage. Start flying all over the place and they¡¯ll scramble some domestic stealth fighters to come after us!!¡± The sky was not as free as it seemed. It was more crowded than the roads on the surface. Countless beacon signals divided up the flight paths and anything that left those would be deemed dangerous and ordered to land. If it did not respond, they were free to shoot it down. That meant Seidou Tagane and the pilot could no longer escape. They knew someone was after them, but they could not swing the control column around like in a movie. ¡°Dammit, what in the world-¡­¡± Seidou Tagane trailed off. He had briefly looked away from the ground to argue with the pilot. It had only been for a few seconds, but he had lost sight of the pursuer racing along the surface. ¡°Find them! Dammit, where¡¯d they go!? Find them!!¡± The courier man shouted nervously, but then he spotted something odd. Some kind of white structure covered the entire straight thoroughfare. It was over a kilometer long and looked like the first rise of a roller coaster or the electromagnetic acceleration catapult from a mass driver in an SF novel. Suddenly, he tensed up. A catapult? A moment later, the large man running at 400 kph flew through the air and collided with the side of the helicopter. He had already exceeded a passenger plane¡¯s takeoff speed. By shifting his vector upwards using sturdy rails made from hyphae, he managed to leap five or six hundred meters into the air. The reinforced glass and steel door meant nothing. Something must have corroded them because they were torn away like clay. The man climbed inside. ¡°E-eeeeek!?¡± Driven by fear, the pilot pulled out his handgun, but that was an obvious mistake. He had confirmed he was hostile and had nothing to negotiate with. More importantly, they both worked in the underworld. The large man grabbed this ¡°enemy¡± with a single hand and threw the pilot out of the helicopter. Seidou Tagane was soaked with sweat and had the look of a man who had boarded an elevator late at night only for a man with a blade to walk in at an intermediary floor. ¡°Wh-who are you? Who are you!?¡± ¡°Tell me what you know about the Byouki user who is after Ranzono Sachi.¡± ¡°Do you really think I¡¯ll tell you? I¡¯ll be killed!¡± ¡°Then I will kill you now.¡± The man pulled out a charm. With a sticky sound, the helicopter¡¯s silhouette crumbled. As he felt like he had stepped in humus, Seidou Tagane found himself already released into empty air. ¡°Eh?¡± He did not know what had happened. ¡°Eh?¡± The aircraft carrying him had corroded and vanished in only a few seconds. ¡°Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!?¡± The sensation of falling squeezed at his stomach and he flailed his limbs in vain. Meanwhile, the large man¡¯s expression remained unchanged as he turned around, grabbed Seidou Tagane¡¯s collar, and spoke from close by. ¡°The Byouki user.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, dammit! I don¡¯t know!!¡± ¡°You will hit the ground in another ten seconds. Is that your final answer?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorryyyyy!! I¡¯ll tell you anythinnnggg!!¡± The large man gave an irritated sigh at Seidou Tagane¡¯s tear- and snot-covered face. He pulled out a charm and something like a pure-white umbrella opened from his back. He did not seem to be wearing a parachute and the material was odd. It was a strange parachute made from a slime mold or something. The large man slowly and carefully landed on the bank of a river and threw Seidou Tagane into a thicket. Then he made a unilateral demand. ¡°Tell me everything you know.¡± Part 9 (Illness Magic User) Driving out evil was a common desire, so there were countless rituals for it from all over the world. Like the previous cucumber sealing, items on hand were often enough to perform one of them. This time, I used the river and paper. The specific method was similar to a spirit boat procession. The spirit boat procession was meant to send off the dead, but with a few modifications, I could make a boat with some paper, placed the evil or illness onboard, and send it away. It may have looked simple, but it was a lot like surgery. It required accurate knowledge and exacting precision down to the millimeter or smaller. Once I was done, I glared at the man who was breathing heavily in the riverside thicket. A centipede moved out of the way in the grass so I wouldn¡¯t crush it underfoot. ¡°The Byouki user wanted a search system. Ranzono Sachi is our target, but they didn¡¯t know her exact route. They wanted a system to know her location to make sure she ends up dead no matter what route she takes. The Byouki may seem like cheating, but it isn¡¯t all powerful and it has to follow a certain sequence.¡± ¡°That being?¡± ¡°A radio interception system. But by adding in a special program, they can pick up the electromagnetic waves sent out by the vehicle¡¯s robot brakes. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve seen the ads about a car detecting obstacles and stopping on its own even if you let go of the steering wheel.¡± The courier man wiped sweat from his brow while sitting on the ground. ¡°They claim you can¡¯t identify an individual vehicle based on the radar waves, but that isn¡¯t actually true. After all, cars drive along in rows and they¡¯re also exposed to the radar waves of the traffic in the opposite lane. If they reacted to another car¡¯s radar waves and slammed on the brakes, it could easily cause unexpected accidents, so the robot brakes actually have some secret data embedded in them. There¡¯s a registration number just like the license plate number.¡± ¡°You mean the Byouki user wants to pick up the robot brake signal of the prisoner transport vehicle carrying Ranzono Sachi?¡± ¡°No matter what route she takes, the Byouki can kill her. Recently, there was some ridiculous news about a civilian app that could capture the signal of government planes and reveal their flight paths, remember? This is pretty much the same. Robot brakes are pretty common these days, so you can figure out where the armored cars carrying money for banks and the black luxury cars carrying VIPs are.¡± ¡°The Kitsunebi woman said she gave you a USB memory stick.¡± ¡°Sorry.¡± The courier raised both hands while still sitting down. ¡°As soon as I saw you, I threw it out into the sky. It¡¯s sending out a beacon signal, so the Byouki¡¯s probably picking it up right about now.¡± ¡°¡­¡± That meant I didn¡¯t have a moment to spare. Would I pursue and attack the Byouki user or would I search out and protect the prisoner transport vehicle carrying Ranzono Sachi? I had to make up my mind, but I had no hint to ensure success for either option. But then the courier made a suggestion. ¡°If you¡¯re willing to listen, I¡¯d like to help you out. So could you maybe spare me?¡± ¡°Out with it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m a courier, but I¡¯m good at making some money on the side. I made a copy of the USB memory without telling the Byouki. I can¡¯t tell you where they are, but you can use that data to pick up the robot brake signal to find Ranzono Sachi. You want to lie in wait for the Byouki, don¡¯t you? So what¡¯ll you do?¡± ¡°Fine. But only if you swear to immediately retire from this industry and never again use your power or skills to cause trouble for civilians.¡± ¡°Of course, of course. If I¡¯d known there were people like you out there, I never would have gotten into this business in the first place. I think I¡¯ll head back to the countryside and start farming or something. So I don¡¯t have any use for this data anyways.¡± ¡°I see. Then let me give you some more incentive.¡± ¡°?¡± I pulled out a charm. A sticky sound burst from within the courier¡¯s head. ¡°Wh-¡­bah!? What did¡­you do!?¡± ¡°I attached some Illness Magic to your hippocampus which is deeply related to your memories. If you break your promise, you will harm your own brain. You might be able to fool others, but you can never fool yourself. Bear that in mind.¡± ¡°Dammit. You¡¯ve gotta be kidding me! Goddamit!¡± After taking the storage medium from the wailing man, I left the area and made a call on my modified cellphone. ¡°Hello,¡± said the Hishigami woman. ¡°Do your duty.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t you at least ask me to help you? You¡¯re going to break my heart if you keep being such a high level tsundere.¡± I ignored her nonsense and mentally went over my plans. Ranzono Sachi came first. If I could protect her by defeating the Byouki sent after her, the Byouki user would give up on a long-range attack. And if they tried to force their way in for a direct attack, intercepting them and disposing of them would probably be fastest. Part 10 (Illness Magic User) ¡°Okay, found that robot brake signal. Looks like they¡¯re abusing the cellphone tower antennae. They¡¯ve added a command to pick up some extra signals around town and send them to a secret server. That lets me search for any car in Bozen City, not just Sachi-chan¡¯s prisoner transport vehicle. Wow! Why is the mayor¡¯s first secretary¡¯s car stopped on the side of the road right now? Is he enjoying some adulterous car sex? He probably doesn¡¯t have anything better to do while the big boss is meeting with the city council.¡± ¡°Get to the point.¡± ¡°Including decoys, there are three prisoner transport vehicles. The real one is traveling along the mountain pass.¡± ¡°The search system only tells you the type of vehicle and their location, not what¡¯s inside.¡± ¡°I¡¯m using a different method to pick up camera footage from near the police station. The morons let the target onboard in full view of those cameras. That¡¯s why you need to build your parking lot underground.¡± Now that I had that information, I had no more need for her. I hung up and started for the destination. There was no law forbidding a human from travelling at 400 kph on foot, so I pushed myself pretty hard. I found a small road losing out to the dense trees and a guardrail that had turned green more to corrosion than just rust. This was one of the poorly maintained national roads I would sometimes hear about. It would have been difficult for two light vehicles to pass each other here. And along one hairpin curve, the guardrail was badly broken. I peered down and saw a prisoner transport vehicle on the rocky area several meters below. Had the Byouki arrived ahead of me? I jumped down to the rocky area and approached the vehicle that had not just fallen on its side but was stuck between two large rocks. First, I used my Illness Magic to corrode the reinforced windshield that had turned pure white from all the cracks. After dragging the driver out, I circled to the back and destroyed the steel door as well. Including the driver, there were three police officers inside. Their uniforms were all soaked red with blood. But that was all. There was no sign of Ranzono Sachi who should have been restrained inside. ¡°¡­Uuh¡­¡± They were just barely breathing. I wanted to ask about Ranzono Sachi, but I couldn¡¯t treat them roughly with their injuries. As I removed all germs from the wounds and used their neckties to stop the blood, a thought came to me. What kind of injuries were these? I had initially thought the fall from the road had done it, but I was wrong. Their necks and chests had been torn into in one centimeter wide bands. A blunt injury would not cause that. They had been ripped and torn almost to the throat. ¡°Watch¡­¡± A groaning young police officer tried to tell me something while looking me in the eye. I brought my face close to hear his fading voice. ¡°Watch¡­out. Behind you!!¡± I immediately turned around, but it was too late. Ranzono Sachi charged toward me like a carnivorous beast and leaped toward my windpipe. Fresh blood sprayed out. I had immediately sacrificed my right arm. I heard an unusual tearing sound while I used a charm and Illness Magic to shut down the pain. I swung my arm and her small form flew like a ball, but she skillfully flipped around in midair, regained her balance, and carefully landed on the unstable mountain rocks. I heard a growl that shook the blood gathered deep in her throat. She had to have originally been a simple young girl. She looked quite different from the picture in the documents I had seen, but even children wore makeup these days. If I peeled it all away, I would probably find the face I had seen. But¡­ Even that had been blotted out by an animalistic expression. The girl lowered her hips and let her arms dangle down like a predator crawling on all fours. Had Ranzono Sachi done this? It did make sense. The police officers¡¯ injuries had looked like they were torn with human fingernails. Then had the vehicle crashed because she had gone on a rampage inside? I could see she had broken her handcuffs, despite her slender frame. The bizarre silver bracelets shined dully on her wrists. That was when the answer hit me. ¡°The Byouki.¡± A Byouki was a cat Youkai from the continent that was created in a Kodoku ritual, a powerful curse made by placing countless poisonous insects in a single jar and having them kill each other. Its primary power was to apply a variety of diseases to whoever it possessed. Or it drove them insane and made them kill indiscriminately. The term ¡°Toori-Ma¡± was used to describe normal criminals in modern times, but it originally referred to a paranormal phenomenon. A Toori-Ma was believed to possess people and cause them to commit unthinkable crimes. Also, the Byouki user belonged to Shinshou Hitsubatsu, an organization that dealt with criminals who ended up not being convicted of their original crime because of the Youkai involvement. ¡°So that¡¯s it.¡± They would possess the criminal and have them commit another crime. They would send the criminal back to court until they finally received the death penalty. They were causing more crimes to punish criminals and they were using the very Youkai that made punishment so difficult, but it was obvious that they viewed themselves as an exception. They would probably claim they were making a noble sacrifice while letting civilians die at the hands of their Toori-Ma. So what was I to do? Ranzono Sachi was not the sort of Toori-Ma talked about in tabloids. Her power and desire to destroy had been amplified by a paranormal being known as a Byouki. The fact that her appearance and physical strength did not match was obvious enough from the cruel gashes in the police officers and the handcuffs broken with her bare hands. I could of course settle this by sending out my Illness Magic. However, I had no guarantee that her young body could withstand any further burden. I was not aware of any clinical studies to determine what happened to the human body when both a Byouki and Illness Magic were placed inside it. That meant I could try holding back. But that only worked if I was alone. I glanced at the barely-breathing police officers lying on the ground. Could I really hold back while also covering for all of them? They were on the verge of death, but they were not dead yet. Ranzono Sachi could still escape this without becoming a murderer. ¡­Even if this would be the end of her short life. ¡°What will you do?¡± She only growled back at me. I narrowed my eyes and decided to question her as much as I could. ¡°How do you want this to end?¡± I did not get a second chance. The beast approached with a tremendous noise. She held her bloody claws and fangs at the ready, so her hostility was clear. My top priority was dealing with the Byouki user, crushing Shinshou Hitsubatsu, and removing this thorn in Hyakki Yakou¡¯s side. Ranzono Sachi herself was only a detour. Part of me did wonder if that was the right way to think about this. And that hesitation would allow Ranzono Sachi¡¯s crimes to continue and sully her soul even further. So I made up my mind, pulled out a charm, and prepared to release the Illness Magic. But before I could, the mountain split open as an Oomukade charged out and acted as a shield against Ranzono Sachi¡¯s violence. With a metallic sound, her claws were deflected backwards. I kept my Illness Magic on standby, narrowed my eyes, and asked a question. ¡°A centipede, huh? You were in that restaurant and on the bank with the courier, weren¡¯t you? Your size was a fair bit different, though.¡± ¡°Will you leave Sachi to me?¡± ¡°Explain.¡± ¡°I checked around the area inside the earth. The actual user will be here soon. Defeating them is what you-¡­¡± ¡°No,¡± I cut in. ¡°I wasn¡¯t asking why I should leave. I want to know why you would put yourself in danger here.¡± The Oomukade seemed to briefly hesitate but finally gave a clear answer. ¡°Sachi ended up like this because she committed a crime to protect me. She stepped out of line because I tried to protect her.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°She is my friend, so I simply cannot allow this to be how it ends! And I made a promise with the others who stopped her crimes. I promised I would return Sachi to that place. I was hopeful that she would have a future with those people who accepted her!!¡± ¡°Then do as you wish,¡± I spat out. I turned my back on Ranzono Sachi. She was not my real enemy. I had someone else to deal with. ¡°I¡¯ll deal with the insignificant Byouki. You can have the starring role this time.¡± I jumped and leaped from the rocky area to the hairpin curve above and utilized my sense of smell. They were nearby and approaching. I glanced around, stopped my eyes on one point, and ran in that direction. I left the poorly-maintained road and entered the dark, dark forest. The users of Illness Magic and a Byouki faced each other in the corrosion and decomposition of nature. I heard a giggling sound. She looked thirteen or fourteen. She was not as slender as Ranzono Sachi who had been turned into a Toori-Ma, but she was still only a small girl. Her black hair was shoulder length and she had white skin with a healthy flush to it. However, she looked somehow sickly with an eyepatch over one eye and several bandages wrapped around her in places. She wore a short yellow China dress that had enough fabric removed to see her navel. On top of that, she wore a cat ear decoration and a blue jacket. She controlled a Youkai from the continent, so she was the barrier containing the paranormal creature. In other words, she was the jar used to create the Kodoku venom. The blue represented darkness and the yellow the warning color of a venomous insect. ¡­No, she may not have been thinking too much about the symbolism. I couldn¡¯t explain the long sock on just one leg or the comical bandages plastered all over the other leg. ¡°How cool.¡± She sounded just like a little girl. It was a pure and unconcerned comment like a child watching a superhero on TV. ¡°You really are cool. Ha ha. I¡¯m not even being ironic, mister. Our industry is full of powers that break the rules, so it¡¯s super cool that you can live there like some kind of samurai! I could never pull it off.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m hopeless. Completely hopeless. Everything about me is hopeless. I¡¯m trying to do a good job and I have the best possible plan in my head, but it never works out. It all crumbles away in the end. So, y¡¯see¡­¡± She placed her slender index finger on her soft pink lips and laughed. ¡°Ha ha. So I can¡¯t hold back here¡î I won¡¯t be safe unless I kill you.¡± A great roar burst out. Dark shadows swept out in every direction from the Byouki user¡¯s feet. They instantly swallowed up the entire surface of the ground, transforming the entire forest into her territory. The trees began to rustle like the mountain itself was talking about me behind my back. ¡°I hate when things get all bogged down, so I¡¯ll explain everything from the get-go, mister.¡± As the entire world throbbed and pulsed eerily, the Byouki user kept her sparkling eyes on me and opened her mouth. ¡°My Byouki is pretty smartly made. Simply put, even if I don¡¯t manually set it up, it¡¯ll find its own targets. It will search for whoever I consider my enemy and automatically produce the quantity and quality of Byouki needed to defeat them.¡± With a sound like slurping mud, shadows, shadows, shadows, and more shadows rose up all around me. Masses of illness that looked just like the girl filled the world in no time at all. There were so many that numbers like one hundred or two hundred were useless. ¡°So it doesn¡¯t matter how hard you work, mister. The cleverer you get, the more Byouki there will be and they¡¯ll wear you down with their numbers. The Byouki will multiply endlessly until they¡¯ve torn you to pieces with their long claws. Do you understand the rules now?¡± ¡°¡­¡± I of course had no intention of sitting idly by and letting her kill me. I scattered charms around. Inside the storm of paper of my own creation, I raised the index and middle fingers of my injured right hand and thrust them forward like I was holding a sword. The Illness Magic gathered together like a storm and became a pitch black sword. ¡°Cursed Sword ¨C Michizane.¡± ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon. Didn¡¯t I tell you getting serious would only create more Byouki?¡± ¡°Self-destruct. ¡­Transform as a lesson to all disease.¡± ¡°?¡± The Byouki user gave a puzzled frown when she saw the sword burst from within. I continued regardless. ¡°Holy Sword ¨C Tenjin. Cast aside your form as a tool of Sugawara¡¯s vengeful spirit and release your divinity.¡± Pure-white light surged out. In the instant of its manifestation, it erased even the concept of sound. A glowing sword erupted from my fingertips with double the previous force. This was a portion of the noble power that had begun as a vengeful spirit with a grudge against Kyoto and had eventually been worshipped into godhood. Just like a serum could be made from a toxin, I could transform my great knowledge of negative power into this positive power. This was the archenemy of illnesses like us. This was not how it was meant to be used, so I could feel it tearing at me from within. But I ignored that, aimed the tip of the blade, and stared straight at my enemy¡¯s face. ¡°Ha¡­ Ha ha¡î¡± ¡°Here I go. Prepare yourself.¡± ¡°Wow! Wow, wow! How can you do things like that!? Illness users are supposed to be creepy, dirty people who live surrounded by scorn and disgust, so how can you transform that into such a refreshing lifestyle!? You¡¯re amazing! You¡¯re so mature!!¡± The Byouki user rejoiced as if she were truly, truly impressed by something. ¡°But,¡± she added. ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you? I¡¯ll still wear you down with numbers.¡± With an army of thousands¡­no, tens of thousands at her beck and call, the girl transformed from soldier to commander. She claimed to be supplied with exactly the fighting force she needed. If that was true, there was no way for me to win. No matter how much strength I mustered, I was destined to fall to my knees here. But that would only mean my defeat. It would not mean Hyakki Yakou¡¯s defeat. My defeat was sure to reveal the enemy¡¯s system and provide a starting point toward defeating it. And if the Oomukade could bring Ranzono Sachi back to her senses, the girl would have a chance to disappear. As long as she did not rely on a vehicle, the search system using the robot brake system was useless. Oh. So even if I lose, I¡¯ll still win. ¡°Ready to surrender?¡± ¡°I have no reason to. Not a single one.¡± ¡°Ha ha. Mister, you really are cool, so tell me your name. You¡¯re making my womb throb, so I want to call your name at least once.¡± My name. That was an obvious request, but I almost laughed. ¡°I no longer have a flag to raise or a home to return to.¡± I prepared my glowing sword of light as I answered. So¡­ ¡°You can call me a nameless soldier.¡± That was all I said. And immediately afterwards, Illness Magic and Byouki clashed head-on. Part 11 (3rd person) The unchanged Oomukade confronted the utterly changed Ranzono Sachi in the mountain rocks. Words would no longer reach the girl. The slightest mistake would allow her to tear into the barely-breathing police officers and place the definitive crime of murder on her shoulders. But if he carelessly struck her slender form, he could easily kill her. Legend had it the Oomukade¡¯s shell was hard enough to deflect an attack from any weapon. However, he could not rely on that either. After all¡­ ¡°Grr¡­grr¡­gwaaah!¡± Each time the girl growled, drool flowed from her mouth like a starving animal. The Byouki, a type of Toori-Ma, would possess people and reveal their violent side. Ranzono Sachi had received the most suffering not from the changes to her outer appearance forced on her by Kasane_12 or by the personality-altering seminar meant to transform her into a genius girl. The greatest wound had been realizing no one knew who she really was. And the Oomukade himself had rejected her criminal plan and tried to stop her. The Oomukade believed he had been right in doing so, but she had to have wondered why he did not understand. So¡­ The destructive desires forcibly dragged out of her had turned toward the Oomukade. ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± ¡°Sachi!!¡± The girl¡¯s speed completely outdid the Youkai¡¯s. Ranzono Sachi moved entirely outside his field of vision and approached from his blind spot. She charged at his long body and bit down into his repulsive body. That was his one weakness. According to legend, an Oomukade had been killed by an arrowhead with saliva on it, but the most primitive saliva-covered weapon was of course the human teeth. No matter how large a centipede grew, it could not escape its position as a victim on the food chain. The Oomukade heard a tremendous tearing sound as his outer shell was torn apart. A sticky sound followed and the non-red fluid characteristic of bugs poured out. From the beginning, it had been impossible for him to attack Ranzono Sachi. It was not an issue of strength. On a more fundamental level, it was simply impossible for him. So he had been prepared for her to devour him like this. But¡­ ¡°Have you forgotten, Sachi?¡± Even as he was consumed, he relaxed his entire body and spoke. ¡°The centipede became a Youkai for more than its many legs and disturbing appearance. It was believed to have a powerful enough venom to act as the catalyst for a curse. It was that collection of fear that created a Youkai like me.¡± In other words¡­ ¡°If you wish to eat me¡­cough¡­then eat as much as you want. But remember one thing: that venom will reach your body first of all, Sachi!!¡± The short girl began convulsing. As if a switch had been thrown, she collapsed to the ground without putting up the slightest resistance. This was a neurotoxin. It swiftly sealed her movements without taking her life. Afterwards, only her shadow stretched unnaturally out from her. No, it was the Byouki that had possessed her in the form of a shadow. ¡°You are the version of Kodoku from the continent, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°¡­¡± The shadow did not move. It could no longer control the girl now that she was paralyzed and it could not move as a shadow alone. It needed to control something that cast a shadow in order to move. ¡°In other words, you are a Youkai created by sealing poisonous insects and dangerous beasts inside a jar and letting them kill each other. To put it another way, another poisonous insect or dangerous beast should be able to devour you.¡± The Oomukade gathered all of his strength and snapped his jaws. He would protect Ranzono Sachi. And to keep that vow, he had already offered up his own entrails. ¡°So let¡¯s try this, why don¡¯t we? Let¡¯s see which one of us prevails and which one of us is consumed!!¡± Part 12 (Illness Magic User) I cut. I cut and sliced and chopped. I cut and sliced and chopped and severed and bisected. The only sound was the constant one of my blade beheading my enemies. I had already cut down more than five hundred Byouki, but the user remained unfazed. She giggled and spun around on the spot. Something like black smoke erupted in every direction from her feet and double the number of enemies I had defeated appeared. I was being worn down, I was being surrounded, and they were gradually closing in on me. ¡°Ha ha. This is just like a zombie movie, mister.¡± An unnaturally impressed voice stabbed into my ears. ¡°That¡¯s what makes this so amazing. Normally, you run away when zombies swarm you. You put your negative emotions on full display, shove everyone else out of the way, slam the door in their face, and lock it. So how can you keep acting like a samurai!? It¡¯s amazing!! You have my respect!!¡± She had said her praise was not ironic. She had said she could not live this lifestyle. The life she had lived had to have been a hopeless one. No matter how powerful she was ¨C no, because of how powerful she was ¨C she could not obtain anything she wanted and had been constantly rejected by everything around her. She had been treated like an infected corpse being carried to the incinerator. I could see that misguided life in my mind¡¯s eye. I pitied her, but the situation did not let me sympathize with her. Working with Shinshou Hitsubatsu to kill Youkai-related criminals would not bring her life back on track. She had not targeted Ranzono Sachi because she wanted to help anyone. The Byouki was created by letting poisonous insects and dangerous beasts kill each other in a jar, so she had no pressing reason to attack Ranzono Sachi¡¯s community that had gathered an Oomukade and Tsuchigumo in one place. She had decided some other people were less important than her and wanted to believe she could prove her superiority by attacking them. Shinshou Hitsubatsu¡¯s claimed to have a lofty goal, but they were essentially securing a target for bullying in order to create a place for themselves. They were no different from the horrible people who knew they would be targeted next, so they offered up someone even weaker so they could join the delinquent group themselves. But this may have been the perfect ending for me. I had betrayed my master, wandered in search of a place to die, and continued living an aimless life, so it would have been absurd for me to wish for a proper death. If I was to be killed, it would be by a horrible person, for no good reason, and at a meaningless time and place. That was the appropriate end for a fallen warrior. Or so I had thought. A moment later, a giant mass of metal fell toward the Byouki user. ¡°!?¡± For the first time, she gave a look of surprise and swung her arms. A mass of blackness immediately wriggled upwards and tore apart the blunt object that would have crushed her. Then she realized what it was. ¡°An aerial bomb!? But from where!?¡± Both of us looked into the blue sky far overhead. A group of flying wing aircraft and some escort fighters flew leisurely above the clouds. Then¡­ Is that¡­!? My cellphone rang. I answered it while swinging Holy Sword ¨C Tenjin in one hand and heard the Hishigami woman laughing. ¡°Ah hah hah!! Surprised, Illness Magic-chan? Hyakki Yakou¡¯s young lady said it would be a shame to lose you, so she flew out here without thinking about the danger!! So are you still going to pretend to be a fallen warrior, hm!?¡± ¡°¡­!!¡± It pissed me off to hear her telling me about Hyakki Yakou. Still, this was a too much of an honor. There was simply nothing I could say. ¡°That¡¯s also why the bomb had the fuse removed. But don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m supporting them from the surface using laser guidance. We won¡¯t accidently drop one on your head, so keep at it.¡± The Byouki user hesitantly looked my way. She had looked impressed before, but¡­ ¡°Amazing¡­¡± Now she looked twice as impressed. ¡°My Byouki scans for a target or hostile element and automatically supplies the appropriate fighting force, so all I have to do is stand here.¡± ¡°But your scan has a range,¡± said the Hishigami woman. ¡°It can¡¯t reach ten thousand meters up in the air. ¡­So Illness Magic-chan, the Byouki equation has fallen apart. You¡¯d better live up to the young lady¡¯s expectations.¡± I once more stood before the Byouki user with my glowing sword in hand. ¡°Ha ha¡î¡± The enemy laughed. It was a broken laugh with a somehow lonely look in the eyes. ¡°Amazing! You¡¯re simply amazing!! You¡¯re a disease, an illness, and an epidemic just like me¡­ You¡¯re so much like me, but you have so many friends!! And yet I¡­I couldn¡¯t make a single one!!¡± ¡°Enough.¡± I was no one special. Just as Ranzono Sachi had the Oomukade, I had just happened to have Hyakki Yakou. If this girl had had even one thing like that, she would not have ended up like this. So¡­ ¡°Once I settle all of this, you stand back up on your own two feet. I¡¯ll be that special something for you.¡± I raced through that world whose perfect equation had fallen apart. The white curve surged out and sliced through the black disease. Part 13 (3rd person) An unpleasant sticky sound continued. A sticky purple liquid dripped from the Oomukade¡¯s great maw to prove it had devoured the formless Byouki. With that variety of Toori-Ma gone, Ranzono Sachi changed. She was still unconscious from the Oomukade¡¯s venom and her brow was covered with a feverish sweat, but the harsh nightmarish look on her face had relaxed somewhat. The Oomukade took a slow breath, but it was not over yet. An ominous sound came from his body where the girl¡¯s mouth had torn into him. The wound was not growing. Quite the opposite. He had been attacked by his greatest weakness ¨C a blade covered in saliva aka a predator¡¯s teeth ¨C but the wound was already bubbling ominously and slowly shrinking. Left alone, it would soon close. He had eaten the Byouki. He had done so as a part of the heretical Kodoku ritual that set poisonous insects and dangerous beasts against each other in a jar and gathered their strength in the lone survivor. It had been necessary to protect Ranzono Sachi, but the effects were already beginning to eat into his body. ¡°Sachi¡­¡± Even so, the Youkai was satisfied. If he was given this choice one hundred times, he believed he would give the same answer each and every time. However¡­ He heard someone rudely walk up through the underbrush. Then someone¡¯s face poked out from behind the broken guardrail. ¡°Hi, hi! I knew something interesting had to be going on here. I was right to delay our plan until the last second.¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°Hi there. I¡¯m the Aoandon. It might surprise you, but I¡¯m the final boss. Nice to meet you¡î¡± The female oni wore a white kimono, had long bluish hair, and a single knife-like horn on her forehead. The Oomukade had heard the legends of her appearing at the end of the Hyakumonogatari. She casually snapped her fingers. That was all it took for Ranzono Sachi to wake up from the Oomukade¡¯s neurotoxin. This did not please the Oomukade. It felt like this other Youkai held a switch or remote control for the girl. ¡°Now, now. Don¡¯t you worry. I¡¯m the being found only after bringing together one hundred different fears. You need more than your fingers to count the number of paranormal powers I can use. Removing the poison from her body is a piece of cake.¡± ¡°What do you want with us?¡± ¡°I want to give you an invitation.¡± The Aoandon grinned as she replied. A bluish-white phosphorescent light burned at the tip of her horn all the while. ¡°I was thinking of destroying Japan a little, so if you like, would you join my team? It looks like you two have an interesting enough reason to do so.¡± ¡°Wha-¡­?¡± ¡°I¡¯m the ally of anyone who wants change, so I respect Sachi-chan¡¯s decision to create an equally repulsive world for the Oomukade, Tsuchigumo, Nue, and any other Youkai called creepy or disgusting. I¡¯m willing to chip away at my own body to help you fulfill that. So what¡¯ll you do?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t. You can¡¯t, Sachi!! You must not listen to what she says! You came to your sense in Noukotsu Village, didn¡¯t you!? Remember what the people there said!!¡± But the Oomukade¡¯s words did not reach her. But that was not because Ranzono Sachi had become so fixated on one thing that she lost sight of all else. ¡°I¡­I can¡­help all my friends¡­¡± ¡°Sachi!! ¡­No, wait. What is this!?¡± The Oomukade glared at the Aoandon, but the female oni was still smiling with her horn emitting its phosphorescence. ¡°Eh? Oh, c¡¯mon. All I did was open the door to Sachi-chan¡¯s heart. I¡¯m not writing anything extra in there.¡± ¡°That bewitching flame on your forehead¡­ It doesn¡¯t affect Youkai, but it does something to the human heart, doesn¡¯t it!? You¡¯re using that to deceive Sachi!!¡± ¡°It¡¯s apparently a type of hypnotism. But you can let this much slide, can¡¯t you? The Hyakumonogatari ritual I was made by involves lanterns or candles in a dark room. You wouldn¡¯t believe how many fools have tried to write me off as brainwashing, suggestion, or mass hysteria. That¡¯s a problem for me, so what¡¯s wrong with making up for it by using those methods for myself?¡± Even as we spoke, Ranzono Sachi began to move. She moved unsteadily up from the rocky area and toward that Aoandon on the cliff. Her feet were about to slip and she was on the verge of falling into the abyss below. ¡°I won¡¯t allow you to spread the violence any further¡­¡± ¡°So? Didn¡¯t I tell you I¡¯m the being found only after bringing together one hundred different fears? You¡¯re just one of my meals, so what can you hope to do?¡± There may indeed have been nothing he could do. She was on a higher level than him as a Youkai, so sitting idly by may have been the right decision. But¡­ If he resisted, he would be killed and he would not even provide a distraction that allowed the girl to escape. He knew that, but he still held a hope deep in his heart. After his friend had made up for everything she had done, he wanted to see her face those boys from Noukotsu Village again. He wanted to see Ranzono Sachi as she was truly surrounded by human smiles. So¡­ A great roar rang out. In that moment, the Oomukade became a dragon. The wind swirled around him and he rose upwards. He leaped over Ranzono Sachi and tried to devour the Aoandon on the cliff. He did not actually harm her in the slightest. He was blocked by an invisible wall and his jaws were stopped right in front of her face. ¡°Ah ha ha!! Yes, that¡¯s it! That ¡®but¡¯! That ¡®so¡¯! That¡¯s what¡¯s so beautiful! See, you can do it if you try! I was certain you were going to devour your own belly to commit suicide and rob Sachi-chan of her motivation, so¡­¡± A proud look filled her face, but she trailed off. A purple liquid dripped down from the Oomukade¡¯s mouth. This was his new trait gained by devouring the Byouki and overwriting himself with the Kodoku ritual. That single drop fell right on the Aoandon¡¯s beautiful face. ¡°¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª!!!???¡± An intense sizzling sound followed like someone was stir frying in a wok. She held her face and finally took a few wobbling steps back. But then she revealed why. ¡°Ha ha.¡± She was laughing. She was not overwhelmed with rage. She was overwhelmed with pure delight. She had caught a glimpse of a world outside of the pre-established harmony and that world was created by those who wished to help others via change, so she formed a sublime smile. ¡°Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Amazing! This truly is amazing! Rejoice! I was really only planning to bring Sachi-chan with me, but you¡¯ve piqued my curiosity. I¡¯m so, so interested in you now!! So I¡¯ll take you too and let you join my team!!¡± ¡°I never asked for that!!¡± ¡°But Sachi-chan will join me.¡± She turned around. By the time she tilted her head, the brilliant burn that had to be there had entirely vanished. More importantly, her words had torn into the Oomukade¡¯s heart. ¡°And once she leaves, you¡¯ll never be able to find us again. So what will you do? Personally, I think you should come with us if you really want to save Sachi-chan.¡± He had no choice. He snapped his jaws opened and closed, but he had to obey. He thought back to Noukotsu Village and the boys who had stood up to save Ranzono Sachi. He expressed his deep, deep thanks to the one who had it in him to call Sachi pretty after seeing her true face. And after that, he made up his mind. Even if it meant straying from the proper path, he would bring Ranzono Sachi back to those boys. ¡°Understood. I will do as you wish.¡± ¡°Heh heh. I would expect nothing less from someone who wants change! I really do like that decisiveness.¡± ¡°But are you sure? I am prepared to do anything to save Sachi. I will almost certainly destroy your plan from within.¡± ¡°So you¡¯ll be a fly in the ointment? Or maybe a centipede in the ointment!? Just kidding!!¡± The Aoandon laughed like a young girl, but not because she did not see the Oomukade as a threat. He had in fact harmed her, but she was still accepting him. After all¡­ ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you? I¡¯m the ally of anyone who wants change.¡± Part 14 (Illness Magic User) I had defeated the Byouki user. Holy Sword ¨C Tenjin was not a deadly blade. It had been given the name of a god that loathed blood, so that was to be expected. It cut through distortions in the world¡¯s laws, so it corrected the fluctuations in people¡¯s hearts. And it did so as forcefully as possible. A normal mind would be left bedridden for two or three days. ¡°All done?¡± The Hishigami woman appeared holding a large binoculars-like unit that was likely the laser guidance support device for the bombing. The small canine Sunekosuri was trembling and looking around at her feet. ¡°That should be obvious.¡± ¡° ¡®I¡¯ll be that special something for you¡¯? C¡¯mon, are you saying Hyakki Yakou did all this just to help an umbrella-making ronin find a wife? I can¡¯t believe this!!¡± ¡°Stop twisting my words.¡± ¡°Twisting your words? What could you possibly be talking about? Tee hee.¡± ¡°Quit acting like a child. It¡¯s creepy for someone as old as you.¡± ¡°Shut up, you gloomy wifeless pedo. Don¡¯t you realize it¡¯s things like calling me ¡®old¡¯ that causes people to take what you say the wrong way?¡± ¡°More importantly¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, how about you go bow down to the young lady? She can¡¯t exactly land here, so it¡¯ll have to be at the nearest airport.¡± But as we were speaking, something else suddenly arrived on the scene. The murderous intent was so overwhelming that both the Hishigami woman and I nearly stopped breathing. ¡°Wha-¡­kh¡­ah!?¡± I sent Illness Magic throughout my body to consciously control the movements of my organs and blood, but even then, I had my hands full simply keeping myself from blacking out. The Hishigami woman was¡­not going to be any help. She had supposedly modified the structure of her human body itself, but she also had her hands full remaining conscious. We were in no state to fight. Needless to say, the Sunekosuri had passed out cold. Meanwhile, ¡°he¡± arrived. He rudely trudged right into Hyakki Yakou¡¯s field. ¡°What a pain. I thought I understood what she was like when I joined forces with her, but I didn¡¯t expect her to play quite this fast and loose with her own plans. It leaves me with so much work to do.¡± He was an expressionless young man in a dark suit. I silently glared at him and he responded without even moving his lips, like he was a ventriloquist. ¡°My name is Saiki Kazu, former assassin, former fortuneteller, formerly suicidal, formerly unemployed, and now¡­what even am I? Not even I know.¡± Even as he gave his offhand introduction, he was not looking at us. He was looking at the Byouki user lying on the humus. ¡°What are you¡­planning to do?¡± ¡°Retrieve her. The Aoandon wants her. I don¡¯t want the Aoandon in a bad mood, so I¡¯m granting as many of her selfish whims as I can.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Stop that. I don¡¯t want to do this either. Ranzono Sachi, the Oomukade, and the manager of the Ubasute Apartments¡­was she called Yamame Kyouka? Anyway, she chased after those prisoner transport vehicles to recruit them. And now it¡¯s the Byouki user at the center of Shinshou Hitsubatsu. Mix such a motley group together and it¡¯s almost laughable. Does she believe in world peace or something?¡± When I connected the names I head together in my head, something felt intensely wrong. ¡°Bringing them together would never make a cohesive fighting force.¡± ¡°No. They¡¯ll most likely end up killing each other. But that¡¯s fine as long as the battle provides the winner with enough experience points. In the end, it will still give us a powerful addition to our team.¡± I was reminded of the Kodoku ritual. Countless poisonous insects and deadly beasts were stuffed in a jar where they would fight to the death to increase the power of a toxin or curse. What if the strange aura I felt from this man named Saiki Kazu was the same? What if their ¡°team¡± was the exact opposite of a group that licked each other¡¯s wounds? ¡°The Aoandon will make her move before long.¡± That evil monster carried the limp Byouki user over his shoulder and spoke without moving his lips. ¡°Once the time comes, you will understand all too well.¡± Finally, he seemed to notice a change in the formation of flying wings in the sky. The escort fighters had swiftly changed positions. But it was too late. If he had noticed the change, he needed to leave us and escape at full speed. Saiki Kazu looked up in the blue sky and formed a gun with his hand. He said ¡°bang¡± and pretended to fire. That was all he did. The flying wing carrying Hyakki Yakou¡¯s highest leader was destroyed. I was caught completely off guard. I briefly forget all else due to the burning tension and impatience. Meanwhile, countless fragments rained down on the rural city. The great height of ten thousand meters seemed to demonstrate that the bigger they are, the harder they fall. ¡°This is our power. So you cannot stop anything we are doing. Not one thing.¡± That voice seemed to be coming from hopelessly far away. ¡°So tremble in fear and wait for the world to change.¡± After whispering those words, the shadow in a dark suit left with the girl over his shoulder. He left nothing at all behind. Part 15 (Illness Magic User) I ran. I ran and ran and ran and ran. All around the rural city, windows had shattered and obstacles fallen from the sky had caused traffic accidents. The city was wrapped in dark smoke and soot. I even spotted some houses with entirely collapsed roofs. As I moved further and further in, the rubble grew larger and the flickering orange flames grew more common. At one point, the wreckage of a flying wing stuck up from the ground like a gravestone and a group with the same scent as me was gathered around it. They surrounded something¡­no, someone. Hyakki Yakou cared about bloodline more than all else. When met with troubles like this, they would naturally gather around and cling to ¡°blood¡±. So who would they obey first and foremost? Who had the noblest blood? ¡°Hafuri-sama¡­¡± The name escaped my mouth. The last time I had seen her, she had been ten years old. What would have happened had that small girl been caught in the explosion and thrown into the air at ten thousand meters up? ¡°Hafuri-sama!!¡± I forced my shaking consciousness to cooperate and ran to the center. The group turned toward me. The wave of people split to either side as if creating a path and revealing the truth. And there in front of me, I found¡­ ¡°There is no need to worry. I am here, Illness Magic.¡± I found a dignified voice. Hyakki Yakou was not dead. It may not have been much, but that ¡°blood¡± had been preserved. The Mamedanuki that acted as her body double stood next to her and Hafuri-sama¡¯s small hand soothed a crying Sunekosuri child. The other four of the Top Five had been aboard that flying wing. Plenty of Youkai had as well. One or all of them must have used their powers to protect Hafuri-sama. They were so very loyal when compared to someone like me who could only kill. ¡°Illness Magic.¡± Hafuri-sama spoke to me. I immediately bent my knees, placed my hands on the ground, and pressed my forehead into the dirt. ¡°You took part in a coup d¡¯etat and remained on the run after it was quashed, so I would normally be forced to pass judgment on you. But given the situation, you know this is no time to get held up over those matters, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°I cannot allow this scene of flames and smoke I see. The Aoandon¡¯s group intends to spread this scene throughout the entire nation, so we must stop them. We are the descendants of those who failed to become crabs at Dan-no-Ura. We are those who accepted our fall and began working behind the scenes rather than on the main stage of history. But we still live and have decided to create a world in which we can smile alongside those who live here with us.¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°Illness Magic.¡± At that moment, Hyakki Yakou¡¯s highest leader was kind enough to speak to an outlaw. ¡°We will defeat the Aoandon and her group and we will save this country. If they have stolen anything, we will retrieve it all, whether it is a person or an object. Join me in that effort.¡± No other words could possibly have surpassed those. Volume 6, 4: [email protected]??? Volume 6, Chapter 4: [email protected]??? Part 1 (3rd person) Something was wrong. The individual events were barely related, so looking at them individually revealed little. But if one took a step back and looked at the scene as a whole, something would feel horribly off. It was like the difference between a single piece and the entire jigsaw puzzle. ¡°A largescale power outage has hit Hokkaido. While running from the police, a driver lost control and ran into a transformer facility. Five elderly residents have died because they were using medical breathing machines at home. The police have said they did the best they could to apprehend the suspect, but¡­¡± ¡°New-chan > This has completely buried the chairman¡¯s scandal, hasn¡¯t it? I wonder if he caused this trouble to help with damage control.¡± No-name blogs and SNS sites were filled with baseless conspiracy theories. And sadly, those useless opinions ended up burying the truth in a flood of information, so no one knew what was really going on. They simply felt a vague sense of unease. ¡°Town gas in the Tokai region is still shut down. An emergency inspection is being performed after a cyber-attack of unknown origin attempted to rewrite the program controlling the internal pressure of the underground pipes, but the residents are demanding service be restored as soon as possible.¡± ¡°Eruko > Water, power, gas, internet¡­ All the major pipelines of the country¡¯s infrastructure are being attacked. The sewage system is the one that actually scares me the most. It connects to every house and it¡¯s full of gas and waste. Set it alight and toxic dioxin will burst into every single house. Gas masks are thirty thousand yen at the cheapest, but it¡¯s probably worth that price given the situation.¡± Products vanished from convenience store shelves. A man who had created a homemade shelter in his yard was invited onto a talk show. The mysterious turn of events influenced the stocks of corporations that sold disaster prevention and outdoor goods and the nation¡¯s tension gradually grew. ¡°An N Alert was sent out in error. Early this morning, a biological weapon alert was sent out to the entire Kanto region, but it turns out it was due to a Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare worker who failed to set the system to training mode. This is the third erroneous N Alert this month alone, so the Minster of Health, Labor, and Welfare has sworn he will crack down on any undisciplined workers.¡± ¡°Packy > Um, this isn¡¯t the Boy who Cried Wolf. If you keep sending out false alarms, no one¡¯s gonna believe it when something does happen.¡± The news was repeated on TV ad nauseam to ensure no one was misled by the false alarm, but that only spread the absurd rumors further. It almost seemed the people living their boring lives wanted to believe the lies. ¡°I¡¯m worried about this country. I¡¯ve studied abroad in London, Paris, and New York, so I know how great their crisis management systems are. Compared to them, Japan is awfully unprepared.¡± ¡°Nekosuke > Don¡¯t sound so carefree about it, four eyes. But¡­it¡¯s possible that rumor is true. Y¡¯know, the one about a huge nuclear shelter for VIPs being prepared in Nagatacho Station next to the National Diet building. Maybe that¡¯s why they don¡¯t seem worried.¡± Was that a prophecy based on a sense of smell they rarely used or was it a hope not even they knew they had? Either way, something was about to happen. There was no stopping it. Part 2 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Maybe the shipments had been delayed by the spreading panic or some housewife had decided to stock up meaninglessly, but the convenience store shelves were empty and I missed out on eating lunch. The trains had been stopped for a few days due to signal trouble and small traffic jams had popped up here and there. While I complained in my heart that Tokyo was a real pain in the ass to live in once things went wrong, I made my way to Minato. Keijou Ijuku University was there. The campus was filled with school buildings and laboratories, but I visited the big building known as the ¡°Headquarters¡± where the board of directors and management were gathered. ¡°Detective.¡± ¡°What is a middle school girl doing on a college campus?¡± ¡°Open! Campus!! It¡¯s October, remember? The college is open to anyone.¡± ¡°Excuse me, this girl is trespassing. Yes, yes. Can I leave her with you? Please get her out of here ASAP. Yes, thank you.¡± ¡°Hey!! Don¡¯t sell me off to that old janitor!!¡± The Mystery Freak started assaulting a police officer, but in a cutely sulky kind of way. As usual, she was more or less wearing a swimsuit with a character scarf added on. Just as I was wondering what to do about her, a familiar face approached with a smile. ¡°Long time no see, Uchimaku-kun. ¡­I thought Minori was pulling my leg when she told me, but it looks like a police officer really is dragging around a middle school girl in a swimsuit.¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t say that!¡± I could tell my future was on the line here, so I immediately corrected her. The woman was named Tsugawa San. She was a scientist girl with long, wavy chestnut hair. She wore a crisp lab coat over her skirt and her soft and fluffy sweater. That unbalanced look had gathered attention even when we were students. Of course, she was actually a gentle person with drooping eyes. What¡¯s her title now anyway? Assistant professor? Associate professor? It changes so much I can¡¯t remember. She had a complex about her given name, so she got upset whenever someone used it with the ¡°-san¡± honorific. She didn¡¯t seem to like being ¡°San-san¡±. That was when another old upperclassman of mine, an assistant producer from Hachi TV named Atou Minori, showed up. She wore a rough top, slender pants, a hairpin to hold up her black hair, and a choker around her neck, so her tastes hadn¡¯t changed since we were students either. ¡°Hey, Hayabusa-kun. It¡¯s been a while since you visited the school here, hasn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°What are you doing here when you¡¯ve already graduated? You¡¯ll just get in the way.¡± ¡°I pop in to help with documentaries on summer break experiments and things like that. But I¡¯m starting to remember old times with all of us here. Wait¡­old times? I¡¯m turning into an old lady, aren¡¯t I!?¡± That was when I heard an odd sound. I looked over to find the Mystery Freak growling like a fierce dog restrained by a chain. Tsugawa smiled. ¡°Yeah, we were in different departments, but we joined the same club. I forget what excuse of a name we gave it, but we just used it to go out drinking. We gathered the students from Intellectual Villages around the country. That really was a happy time. And you had the best taste in restaurants and bars, Uchimaku-kun. You never seemed to choose a dud.¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, I wasn¡¯t that good.¡± ¡°But the best drinks were the bottles you had in your room. The Jinnai Brewery almost scares me! They kept sending you tons of junmai daiginjo good enough for the Ise Shrine! Pretty much every weekend, we hung out in your room getting drunk off our asses until morning!¡± Enbi was growling even louder and her face had grown so red I half-expected steam to rise from her head. I didn¡¯t quite get it, but it was unusual for her to take so much damage. ¡°I! Can¡¯t! Stand!!! This!!!!¡± ¡°Can¡¯t stand what, Mystery Fre- ah, that¡¯s just creepy!! Don¡¯t shove that scarf¡¯s severed head into my face!? It looks way too realistic up close!!¡± ¡°It¡¯s Suneky the Sunekosuri!!¡± Tsugawa laughed. ¡°Um, miss, you¡¯re never going to win over Uchimaku-kun like that.¡± ¡°Grr?¡± ¡°He¡¯s a complete pervert with glasses, a tight skirt, and a garter belt as his Three Sacred Treasures. If you pull on the garter belt so it snaps against your leg, he just can¡¯t help but look.¡± ¡°Bfh!? Wait! No! Don¡¯t! Don¡¯t tell her-¡­!¡± ¡°His ideal woman is a female teacher. Such a troublesome fetish.¡± ¡°Nooo!¡± ¡°But unfortunately, the perfect beautiful teacher that he imagines will strictly but kindly guide him would be younger than him nowadays.¡± ¡°Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!???¡± As I screamed, Enbi pulled out her smartphone and started whispering into it. I didn¡¯t even want to know what audio notes she was taking. At any rate¡­ ¡°We can keep talking on the way. Come with me.¡± ¡°Oh, sure.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a detective, so you already know the basic information, right?¡± Tsugawa handed me a large pamphlet as she spoke. It looked less like a proper document and more like an advertisement meant to catch the eye. I read aloud the caption written next to the smiling elderly man on the cover. ¡°The leading researcher into psychic powers: Matsukai Hiroshi, Professor of Human Parapsychology Information Engineering.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let that ¡®leading researcher¡¯ part fool you. No other university in the nation has a department as ridiculous as Human Parapsychology Information Engineering. It¡¯s like saying you serve the original mille crepe ramen.¡± Atou Minori jokingly cut in from the side as I flipped through the pamphlet (to double check on the information) while walking. ¡°Help from PSI_ver_RAIN (14) was used to gather objective and universal sample data.¡± Minori laughed. ¡°PSI_ver_RAIN is a psychic middle school girl. Or rather, she¡¯s an online idol that pretends to be one. She wears swimsuits, sings, and bends spoons on video sites and the like. Her supposed psychic powers are all over the place: clairvoyance, telekinesis, healing, etc. She¡¯s more convenient than a Swiss army knife.¡± Of course, she was better known as someone who danced with 3D models based on Vocanoids than as someone who could bend spoons with her mind. ¡°She¡¯s appeared on our show a few times, but based on the fans¡¯ reactions, they see her psychic powers as part of her character instead of something real. Y¡¯know, like the airheaded idols who claim to be from some other planet or the ones who dress in costumes and claim to be a fruit spirit. Basically, if they¡¯re cute, anything goes.¡± ¡°Can you really use a screenname in a thesis paper?¡± ¡°Normally, no. But there have been cases where someone like a national comedian who wrote a book that got translated into fourteen languages eventually published a thesis under a stage name or penname. They forced this through using those precedents.¡± My former upperclassmen climbed the stairs with their heels clacking on the steps. ¡°Not to mention that Matsukai Hiroshi himself is an incredibly famous professor. It¡¯s to the point that I feel like posting a sign in front of his lab saying ¡®The Constitution of the Empire of Japan does not apply beyond this point¡¯.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll bite. Don¡¯t you mean the Constitution of Japan?¡± ¡°That¡¯s just how out-there he is. It¡¯s kind of amazing he hasn¡¯t been arrested. Well, he is talented, so maybe he has someone secretly burying corpses for him.¡± That was hardly a laughing matter to a police officer. And¡­ ¡°Who would have thought that eccentric professor would end up sliced in two inside a locked room?¡± The strobe light of camera flashes reached the hallway from the open door. I peeked inside and found the interior covered in red. It was filled with a strange unpleasant odor that was not simply blood. For being a ¡°laboratory¡±, it was not filled with largescale research equipment. Other than the desktop computer on the table, I couldn¡¯t see anything that looked like it could be used for work. Instead of a place filled with the hope of making an earthshaking discovery, it looked like a room meant to hide an eccentric as a way to keep up appearances. But the center of the room was what mattered most. The red-dyed star of the scene was lying face up and chopped in two just below the navel. I¡¯ll leave out the details of what was sticking out from the cut, but it didn¡¯t look like it had been done with a sharp blade or with any concern for the positions of the bones or muscles. Overall, it seemed to have been done quite forcefully. I put on gloves and faced my upperclassmen. ¡°Thanks for guiding me here. I can take care of myself now.¡± ¡°Can we watch? We won¡¯t step inside.¡± ¡°If you film this on a pen CCD and show it on your show, you¡¯ll get sued.¡± I held back the Mystery Freak as she nonchalantly started into the room, I warned Atou Minori, and I went inside myself. The crime scene investigation was still ongoing, but the area around the corpse had been dealt with first so they could get an autopsy done as quickly as possible. The forensics team was at the stage of discussing how to transport the corpse without its ¡°contents¡± spilling out. Pieces of evidence had been placed inside clear plastic bags and one of them was a card key. ¡°That was in his coat¡¯s inner pocket. That¡¯s what makes this a ¡®locked room¡¯,¡± explained one of them forensics team members. ¡°Did anything about this catch your interest? Other than the locked room part, that is¡± ¡°His wallet and the hard disk containing all his research data were untouched, but his belt is gone.¡± ¡°His belt?¡± ¡°Um, he was, well, a strange person, so it¡¯s possible he wasn¡¯t wearing one to begin with.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll look into it when questioning people.¡± I circled around the corpse and into the back of the room to check around the computer. Wow, this is pretty old. It was probably only used for email, writing reports, and to operate the supercomputer located in another room. The somewhat yellowed home computer was connected to a hard disk by a cable, but it wasn¡¯t a convenient portable size like a USB memory stick or a data chip. I began to wonder if he stored everything on the cloud. Then I heard the Mystery Freak sounding bored in the hallway. ¡°Detectiiive.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be focused on something else instead?¡± ¡°You mean that nonsense?¡± ¡°But now the state-run news is talking about it and not just the talk shows. Some idiot leaked the whole case on a video site, so all the stations are going nuts. But the reporter¡¯s club of Japanese mass media is pretty strong. If they all ignored this, no one would pay any attention to some leaked info. That means the police are half-admitting it already, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Minori-san, you aren¡¯t secretly recording this, are you?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°Of course you are or of course you aren¡¯t?¡± ¡°Gh¡­ Sorry, Hayabusa-kun, but of course I am. I¡¯ll be more careful in the future.¡± She pulled her cellphone from her pocket, operated it while I was watching, and raised both of her hands in defeat. After confirming it was off, I started speaking again. ¡°Do you think a psychic murder is actually possible? Based on common knowledge anyway?¡± ¡°Why not? Packages that include Youkai are used for crimes all the time.¡± ¡°Y¡¯know, that¡¯s a lot like saying little grays must exist because you found a dinosaur fossil. Don¡¯t accept this because of something completely different. It¡¯s a non sequitur.¡± ¡°But theses on psychic powers are starting to be seen as valid evidence in court. Or at least, the prosecution can submit it and the court will allow it.¡± ¡°So they¡¯re going to conclude that psychic powers have been scientifically established as a deadly weapon, are they? I can already tell this is going to be the world¡¯s silliest trial.¡± ¡°Ee hee hee. There are official records in England of people being taken to court over whether a magic cabal cursed them or not or whether some secret ceremony was leaked or not. The judgment papers are still there and everything.¡± The problem was the thesis paper on psychic powers published by the eccentric professor lying in two pieces on the floor. Naturally, society at large saw him as a fraud. They doubted the thesis even more than the theories that video games rotted the brain. But no matter how ridiculous it was, a thesis was a thesis once it was submitted. That status came with a certain power. Forensic science was pretty well known, but what even counted as ¡°scientific¡±? A lot of people thought it was any objective data that could be reproduced with experiments or that it was never-changing theories and equations someone had calculated out, but that was completely wrong. In the end, it came down to what people believed was true. In research related to space or particles, the result of a single experiment could overturn everything we thought we knew and the equations used a year ago would become entirely useless. Even though what to research had been determined by those equations and billions of yen of tax money had been pumped into it, no one hung their head at the new discovery. When it came down to it, even fabricated theses were held up as ¡°scientific¡± until they were found out. So-called ¡°absolute science¡± changed surprisingly often and people would readily accept ideas that were barely understood but ¡°probably¡± worked like this or that were ¡°theoretically sound¡± but had not been remotely proven. The same was true of forensic science. And even if it was wrong, it was not considered a crime as long as no one was ¡°maliciously aware¡± of the mistake. It was a lot like a politician¡¯s apology. As long as you didn¡¯t know about it before hand, you were in the clear. That was the case this time, too. Once it was placed in the category of ¡°scientific¡± any thesis was treated as such. The thesis was 99.9% bullshit, but some idiot insisted that it wasn¡¯t 100% disproven. And once that happened, it didn¡¯t matter how much everyone else opposed it. In the closed courtroom, a psychic murder was considered possible and the trial had to continue on that assumption. After all, it was a proper ¡°scientific¡± thesis, wasn¡¯t it? So it had to be perfectly acceptable in a ¡°scientific¡± courtroom. From there, the judgment was made. The defendant was guilty of murdering the victim with psychic powers and would be imprisoned for life. The judicial system? Who cares, right? ¡°But to completely eliminate the idea that psychic murders are possible, you would have to objectively prove that psychic powers don¡¯t exist.¡± ¡°Nonsense. It¡¯s not even worth thinking about. They don¡¯t exist.¡± ¡°But, but. Actually proving it is surprisingly difficult. It¡¯s what you call the Devil¡¯s Proof. Even if you revealed the trick behind all self-styled psychics around the world, you¡¯re done for as soon as someone argues that someone with psychic powers might be living deep in the mountains or something.¡± ¡°So that means the top suspect is¡­?¡± ¡°PSI_ver_RAIN. That psychic middle school girl had a personal connection to the eccentric professor since he got her help to gather sample data. She¡¯s currently missing, but that caption might just change to ¡®on the run¡¯ before long.¡± My head started to hurt. Has this country been thrown into some mysterious space where tabloid articles come true? ¡°Some of the higher ups in the police apparently want to end this case as quickly as possible even if it means false charges.¡± ¡°Huh? The rumors I picked up said a politician wants to settle this sensational case to make himself look like a great hero just before the national elections.¡± I held my head in a hand as I listened to my former upperclassmen cheerfully discuss the case. My condolences, Matsukai-san. Your own thesis is dragging us further away from the truth of your murder. Maybe that¡¯s your own fault, but did you have to make it the police¡¯s problem too? Part 3 (Jinnai Shinobu) The lunch break came to an end and fifth period began. It seemed like the stupidest possible time for home ec. Especially a cooking lesson. ¡°Ohhh, Shinobu-kun. How do I peel an onion?¡± ¡°Potatoes and carrots are one thing, but you can¡¯t even do onions, Madoka-san!?¡± She wore an apron over her sailor uniform and a triangular cloth on her head even though I doubted anyone ever actually wore one in the real world. Kotemitsu Madoka had transformed into a wonderfully innocent-looking financial monster, but it turned out she was a little too innocent. A kindergartner would¡¯ve been more help. Of course, my parents made all my meals, so I couldn¡¯t cook for myself either. My classmate looked like the perfect young wife, but she was pouting her lips and complaining. ¡°Ehhh? But doesn¡¯t food just appear when you¡¯re hungry? And with vending machines, you just have to know how to put a coin in. I doubt many people want to know how it works on the inside.¡± ¡°Oh, no! Madoka-san¡¯s feminine appeal is dropping fast! And the worst part is she doesn¡¯t even realize it!!¡± ¡°Is it that bad?¡± ¡°Your innermost thoughts are coming right out! You aren¡¯t supposed to let guys see that!!¡± The dish we were tasked with making was pork cooked in ginger, which seemed way too heavy for the period after lunch. Our cooking station was oddly clean. The water and ingredients were Intellectual Village-made, but the plates and cooking utensils left at school could never have passed an inspection by a clean freak, so some kind of mystery cleaning squad must have infiltrated the school the night before. ¡°By the way, Madoka, what do you eat for a midnight snack? You respond immediately whenever I email you, so I know you¡¯re active late at night.¡± ¡°Eh? I just make a call to my 24/7 room service.¡± ¡°Whoa!! Now I¡¯m jealous!!¡± Madoka frowned as she picked at the surface of the onion. ¡°The net idols have been a real pain lately. They don¡¯t use an advertising agency but still gather a ton of attention. Ones like PSI_ver_RAIN can get thirty million views on a new song¡¯s PV in less than twenty-four hours. That¡¯s more influential than an ad during golden week. Can you believe that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about, but I have heard people talking about how cute Rain-chan is.¡± ¡°One silly comment about being hooked on Neko Manma¡¯s Ishikari special and the stocks shoot up! How am I supposed to handle that with an autonomous investment program!? Wars and hurricanes at least have some warning!!¡± Based on how angry Madoka-san was, I could guess she had lost a ton of money thanks to this Rain-chan. I was afraid to ask exactly how much, though. Nagisa-chan, my childhood friend and one of the world¡¯s three greatest yanderes, was in top form at another cooking station. She was leaning on her boyfriend Akechi-kun and placing her head on his shoulder. ¡°Eh heh heh. Look, Akechi-kun. You just have to go like this and then like this. See? It¡¯s shaped like a heart. Isn¡¯t it pretty? It¡¯s a crystallization of our love. Heh heh.¡± ¡°Y-yes, I suppose so. But you¡¯re scaring me with how smoothly you¡¯re using that knife¡­¡± ¡°And the most important part is adding in a secret ingredient. Eh heh heh heh heh heh.¡± ¡°Wait, please wait. Don¡¯t put that in there. Not your hair. It won¡¯t even dissolve. And I only confessed ten minutes ago, so isn¡¯t it a little soon for that!? Waiiiiit!!¡± I prayed for his happiness in my heart. Good luck, Akechi Boy. Nagisa¡¯s love is sweeter than chocolate, thicker than coal tar, and deadlier than tetrodotoxin, but not even I know what awaits you if you stick with it. Let¡¯s see if you can outlast and arrive at that unseen frontier. And¡­ ¡°Ohhhh!! Jinnai, help!! I don¡¯t know how to deal with Nagisa-chan!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t come crying to her ex, you idiot! Don¡¯t you have any pride!?¡± Part 4 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) I finished my investigation for the time being and parted ways with my former upperclassmen. As I¡¯d said before, I hadn¡¯t had any lunch because the convenience store shelves were empty. I was starving, so I let another detective take my place, took a break, and used the university dining hall for the first time in forever. They were about to transport the body, so we wanted some police officers to walk around the area and gather attention elsewhere. It was a little late for lunch, so I wasn¡¯t going to bother too many students even if I grabbed a bite to eat. ¡°You can eat right after looking at a corpse chopped in two with its organs sticking out? You¡¯re really one of us, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s like being a doctor. Only someone who can get used to it can stick with the job for long. Sad as that is.¡± As a young police officer, I had been taught not to get too fixated on the corpses and I had taken that to heart as much as I could. Some said we needed to get angry about people¡¯s deaths, but after seeing so many people led to revenge, it all felt so fruitless. It was like reading a single book containing a dozen different short stories about a child dying of some horrible disease. Sure it¡¯s a sad story, but so what? ¡°Wow, you can get a lot of food for cheap here. They even have cutlet curry. Cutlet curry! Not only do you get curry, but there¡¯s a cutlet on top for only five hundred yen! And it¡¯s got a ton of vegetables too!!¡± ¡°I think the best deal is the seafood bowl. They didn¡¯t have the beef tongue meal when I was here. Is it a new addition? I guess I¡¯ll try it.¡± As we spoke, we made our order and received our trays. There were a lot of girls in fairly showy miniskirts. Well, it was the end of October, so they were probably freshmen. They had escaped the long, long tunnel of entrance exams, finished their baptism in this new life, made it through their first summer break, and were finally truly fitting into their college life. It was probably the most carefree time for them. ¡°But¡­¡± I didn¡¯t see how I stood out that much, but I was gathering a lot of attention. From the actual college students, it may have been like seeing an old-looking high schooler in your middle school. It made me sad as an alumnus. ¡°Gulp! Gulp!! Damn, this cutlet curry is actually really good! I was expecting the meat to be really tough and the fried coating to come off the second you poked it with your fork!! Munch, munch!!¡± ¡°No, wait. It¡¯s probably the middle school girl in an inappropriate swimsuit that¡¯s gathering all the attention.¡± ¡°Eh? I hope you¡¯re joking. Everyone¡¯s curious about the police detective in a suit hanging around near the scene of a murder.¡± ¡°Hah hah hah. Yeah, right.¡± My beef tongue was a simple dish sliced thin and cooked in salt, but the flavor wasn¡¯t bad. The firmness of the tongue was still there. It was nice enough that I considered adding it to the rotation for when I was tired of the usual pork and ginger or chicken and egg bowl. ¡°Hand me your scarf, Mystery Freak. You¡¯re going to get curry on it.¡± ¡°Nn.¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, you don¡¯t want to ruin that¡­what is it? A Rokuro Dog?¡± ¡°It¡¯s Suneky!!¡± We continued chatting like that for a while. ¡°Hey, detective, what do you think of this stuff with PSI_ver_RAIN? A psychic murder! A torso bisected!¡± ¡°That nonsense isn¡¯t worth the investigation¡¯s time.¡± ¡°But she was here on campus to help with his research today. And she completely vanished after the murder happened.¡± ¡°Are you saying she¡¯s suspicious even if she doesn¡¯t have psychic powers?¡± ¡°She¡¯s definitely the murderer, but there¡¯s no good evidence. So let¡¯s find a way to get a guilty verdict even if it means making up some nonsense about psychic powers. After all, she¡¯s the murderer either way! ¡­Something like that?¡± ¡°That feels like something someone would do only after exhausting every other possibility. We¡¯re only in the preliminary stages of the investigation and the autopsy hasn¡¯t even begun, so why would the higher ups be in such a rush?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± The Mystery Freak mixed her chopped cabbage into the curry sauce with a spoon. ¡°Why was that professor even targeted in the first place?¡± ¡°He was apparently a really strange person, so it wouldn¡¯t surprise me if he¡¯d caused some trouble here and there. Of course, I¡¯ll admit chopping his torso apart is a little over-the top. I would have expected a strangulation or blow from a glass ashtray.¡± ¡°What if it was to steal his research data?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll investigate that too of course. The psychic research was apparently just a performance to appear on TV and get his name out there. His actual area of study was information engineering, but it must not have been interesting enough to get much research funding. That means he was doing proper research too.¡± He was just like the people who appeared on TV as UFO or ghost researchers. No matter what methods they used, the divide between known and unknown was wide. And if you were known, things were a lot easier. Even if that meant playing the fool on TV. A lot of researchers knew that very well. But¡­ ¡°That doesn¡¯t explain why they sliced him in two. It was like the murderer went out of their way to kill him in a more difficult way.¡± ¡°Detective, what are the most popular reasons to destroy a corpse?¡± ¡°A grudge, to transport the corpse, to send twisted presents to people, or to hide the victim¡¯s identity if it¡¯s the fingerprints or teeth. They¡¯ll also sometimes gouge out a portion of the corpse to hide a bite mark or a distinctive wound.¡± All of the professor¡¯s parts seemed to have been there, so none of them fit but the grudge. Unless, of course, they were chopping him up to transport him and gave up partway through. ¡°Then how long would it take to destroy the corpse?¡± ¡°It depends on the tool being used. With a single knife, it would take twenty minutes to cut through the torso while putting all of one¡¯s body weight into it. With an axe, ten minutes if you were careful about the fat that stuck to the blade. With a chainsaw, one minute. With liquid nitrogen, less than thirty seconds I guess.¡± ¡°A master swordsman with a katana could do it in one second.¡± ¡°And could a psychic do it in zero seconds?¡± Then again, if the tool they were using was too powerful, they would need something like a giant cutting board to make sure they didn¡¯t damage the floor. And the more irregular the tool, the fewer the possible suspects. For example, only a master swordsman would have a top level katana. Huh? But doesn¡¯t that mean¡­? ¡°Even if it was done with psychic powers, would a psychic really kill someone with their powers? They might as well leave a note on the scene saying they did it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true. That was the first thing that occurred to me, but it didn¡¯t really lead me anywhere.¡± Even if PSI_ver_RAIN had a grudge against Professor Matsukai, wouldn¡¯t she specifically choose not to use her powers? It would have been safer to use a kitchen knife or utility knife anyone could get their hands on. In movies and dramas, psychics would proudly proclaim that they could kill as much as they wanted because the cause of death couldn¡¯t be scientifically proven, but that wasn¡¯t actually how it worked. Plenty of murderers had been found guilty even with no murder weapon or corpse ever found. The evidence only had to indicate who had acted with the intent to harm who. Just because you were missing a motive, a murder weapon, a corpse, fingerprints, or DNA evidence didn¡¯t mean you couldn¡¯t establish that a crime had been committed. Take burning someone to death as an example. Even if you didn¡¯t know the exact chemical makeup of the flammable liquid, you could forcibly establish guilt as long as you had evidence showing Person A had poured a suspicious liquid on Person B just before they burst into flames and died. In a court of law, an unclear cause of death was not all that powerful a barrier. Then again, whether it was a trick or not, I still had no idea why someone would go to the trouble of chopping the guy¡¯s torso in two. And in times like this¡­ ¡°Thinking it through in reverse can be surprisingly helpful.¡± ¡°You mean thinking about what would have happened if he hadn¡¯t been chopped apart?¡± ¡°Even if he¡¯d been strangled, PSI_ver_RAIN still would¡¯ve been a suspect due to her proximity to the eccentric professor. But setting that aside, what if there was someone else who would have been a suspect if he hadn¡¯t been chopped in two? That would make all the work worth it.¡± Staying at the scene for so long and getting evidence on your clothes from all the blood was a huge risk. Who had taken that risk to go through with that bisection? Whether it was PSI_ver_RAIN or a third party, it had to benefit them in some way. ¡°Well, either way, I just have to gather all the information I can.¡± ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to it.¡± ¡°How about I start by asking you why you believe any information the police find will end up in your hands?¡± While we continued our discussion, I felt a shift in the college students¡¯ gazes inside the dining hall. They were all moving toward the window. The focus on us outsiders had moved elsewhere, so had someone shown up who was an even more obvious ¡°outsider¡±? I initially thought of the corpse being transported, but I doubted they would carry it across the middle of the campus. And when I looked out the window, I spotted a distinctive sailor uniform in the crowd. Waist-length black hair had just the end dyed red. The white sailor uniform had red lines. The boots rose higher than the knees and they had a plastic-like material on the joint for an overall futuristic design. ¡°Hey, Mystery Freak. You stay here.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± She looked confused with her spoon in her mouth, but I got up from my seat regardless. ¡°It¡¯s PSI_ver_RAIN. She¡¯s on campus for some reason, so I¡¯m going to capture her. You watch from the window! If she vanishes before I get there, you tell me over the phone which way she went!¡± Part 5 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) I didn¡¯t take off running like a scene from a police drama. I remained calm and composed. I left the dining hall, made my way to the nearest exit from the school building, and went outside. I stayed slow while blending in with the crowd. If you made it obvious you were chasing someone, they would start running with all their might. Getting as close as possible and then making a quick dash had the best odds of capturing them. ¡­Except she noticed me almost right away. The girl in the sailor uniform turned right around and started running like a sprinter despite her short skirt. ¡°Oh, hell! I guess a suit really does stand out too much!!¡± This required a bit of a change of plans. I started running in my suit, despite how it looked. I had to catch up to her. This really did look like a scene from a police drama, so I could tell cellphone cameras were pointing my way from all over. I almost crushed some kind of RC helicopter sitting on the ground for some kind of experiment. We were less than two hundred meters apart, but there was still a risk of losing sight of her when she ran around a corner. And¡­ ¡°Oopsie daisy.¡± ¡°!? Kyah!!¡± The Mystery Freak suddenly rushed out from the side and tried to hit PSI_ver_RAIN with a janitor¡¯s pushcart she had found somewhere. The fleeing girl just barely managed to dodge it, but she lost her balance as she kept running. I chased after her and shouted to the Mystery Freak as I ran past. ¡°This is dangerous, so stay back!¡± ¡°Detectiiiive, don¡¯t forget that I just kept her away from the nearest exit from campus.¡± Is that what you were after? You are so not cute. PSI_ver_RAIN had her hands full running, so she accidentally ran into an alleyway at some point. The narrow space was located between the concrete wall of a school building and the wall that surrounded the entire campus. It was apparently a nice storage space for the students because all the bicycles gave us even less room to move and trash bags full of crushed cans were piled up further in. Simply put, it was dead end. When the girl saw the pile of trash twice her height, she hesitated, but she frantically turned around when she heard my approaching footsteps. Her legs were covered by futuristic boots that rose above the knee and her eyes were covered by colored mobile glasses. She wore a pink hat that looked perfect for an unrealistic police officer costume. Even the heart-shaped paint tattoo below her eye had to be a part of her character. I was in the middle of a criminal investigation, so I didn¡¯t like being the target of those glasses that could switch between recording and transmitting. For some reason, PSI_ver_RAIN spread her arms and pointed them toward me. Hm? That¡¯s not quite a sign of surrender??? ¡°S-stay back!¡± ¡°I am a police officer. I see no reason to follow your orders.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you know?¡± Her lips were trembling. ¡°I am PSI_ver_RAIN. I have a special power that can tear apart steel. Take one step closer and you¡¯ll regret it!¡± ¡­Hm¡­ I scratched at my head and checked the time on my watch. ¡°2:10 PM. Suspect confessed to possession of a deadly weapon.¡± ¡°Eh? What?¡± ¡°Oh, deadly weapons don¡¯t have to be a knife or something. Training in martial arts or a dangerous pet can count too. It¡¯s more about the situation than the physical evidence.¡± As I spoke, I reached into my pocket. When she saw what I pulled out, PSI_ver_RAIN¡¯s pupils grew as large as possible. ¡°And now that you¡¯ve threatened me with a ¡®deadly weapon¡¯, I can respond in kind. For example, pull out my handgun as a warning. You yourself admitted you intend to harm me with a tool capable of killing me.¡± ¡°Eh!? Ehhh!? B-but my psychic powers are¡­ Eh? Don¡¯t tell me¡­you actually believed this farce¡­¡± Over the course of a few seconds she went from wanting me to believe her to wanting me to not believe her. This is what happens when you use a pathetic bluff to make your getaway. And so I had decided to settle this in the most ridiculous way possible. ¡°2:11 PM. Shifting from voluntary questioning to forced arrest. Apprehending the suspect on charges of threatening a police officer and attempted murder. ¡­Turn around and put your hands on your head! Slowly kneel on the ground! Hurry!!¡± Part 6 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) A fair number of uniformed police officers would still be on campus to manage the scene of the crime, so I decided to leave PSI_ver_RAIN with one of them. ¡°I didn¡¯t do it.¡± ¡°Then you shouldn¡¯t have run. Back at the voluntary stage, you could have refused my request for a testimony or questioning.¡± We spoke to each other as I walked her handcuffed across the campus. ¡°I had no reason to kill the professor. Just having him attach electrodes to my head was enough to increase the value of my brand name as a psychic middle school girl.¡± ¡°We can talk about all that at length.¡± ¡°His belt.¡± She suddenly said something more interesting. ¡°His belt was missing, wasn¡¯t it? Look into that and you¡¯ll know I didn¡¯t do it.¡± ¡°¡­? What are you talking-¡­?¡± I trailed off because the Mystery Freak popped out from around the corner of a school building. She waved me over with a uniformed police officer on either side of her. ¡°Detectiiive, I brought the police.¡± ¡°Good job, civilian. This is the first time I¡¯ve felt like praising you.¡± One of the police officers gave me a light nod. ¡°Sorry we¡¯re late, Uchimaku-san. I am Katou and this is Arisaka. Nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Hi. This girl is the suspect.¡± ¡°Um, can we take over since this area is under our jurisdiction?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± I gave a light push on PSI_ver_RAIN¡¯s back while she was still handcuffed. We had finally taken the first step. A university professor had been found in his locked lab with his torso chopped in two and it was supposedly a psychic murder. No matter who this crime benefited, this girl was almost certainly near the center of it all. Had she killed him or had someone else framed her? Even if it was the latter, anyone who took the time to frame her was probably closely related to her. But just as I thought that, something came over me. It was truly just a whim, but I spoke up anyway. ¡°Katou-san.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°You can take over if you want, but, well, could I have the handcuffs back? I can always have them sent back at a later date, but then my department chief might take the shipping fee out of my pay.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding, aren¡¯t you? She¡¯s a murder suspect and we¡¯re outside. We can¡¯t remove her restraints.¡± ¡°You just have to place your own handcuffs on her and then remove mine.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you do it?¡± Something I could not quite pinpoint was bubbling up inside me and urging me onward. ¡°Is there some reason why you can¡¯t remove my handcuffs? That would be strange. Unlike a house key, handcuff keys aren¡¯t unique. They should open no matter whose key is used. ¡­Assuming you¡¯re really using a handcuff key issued by the Metropolitan Police Department, that is.¡± He was quick to react. The police officer going by the name Katou immediately pulled a revolver from the holster at his waist. But before he could raise his arm, I swung my collapsible baton and hit the back of his hand. As he dropped the gun, I swung the baton back to strike his jaw from the side. With a solid sound of impact, he fell to the ground. That left Arisaka. It seemed he hadn¡¯t simply been fooled like me. He must have determined PSI_ver_RAIN was too far away because he reached for the closer Mystery Freak. He pulled her close, wrapped an arm around her neck to use her as a shield, and pressed his revolver to the side of her head. I had already thrown aside the baton and drawn my handgun. We were three meters apart. ¡°Put the gun down, Arisaka!!¡± ¡°You hand over Amagoi Haruka! Then I¡¯ll release the hostage!!¡± Amagoi? Oh, he must mean PSI_ver_RAIN. ¡°Do you really think I can do that?¡± ¡°Then let me tell you something neat. My gun has no rifling, so it doesn¡¯t leave rifling marks on the bullet it fires.¡± Arisaka raised the handgun¡¯s hammer with his thumb. Tension raced through my gut, but a moment later, he did something I didn¡¯t expect. He moved the muzzle away from the Mystery Freak¡¯s head, aimed toward Katou¡¯s head on the ground, and fired. With a harsh gunshot, the collapsed form gave a large twitch and then never moved again. ¡°Arisakaaa!!¡± ¡°And are you familiar with laser processing technology? It¡¯s the opposite of a 3D printer, so the material is cut away according to a program. That can add any rifling marks you want to a bullet. For example, the rifling marks of the gun you¡¯re holding right now.¡± ¡°Why do you want PSI_ver_RAIN that badly?¡± ¡°After that gunshot, a crowd is going to gather here before long, Detective Uchimaku. We are everywhere. Getting our hands on a bullet submitted by the coroner will be easy.¡± ¡°You¡¯re willing to go that far to make this look like a ridiculous psychic murder!?¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t like it, then hand over Amagoi Haruka. We¡¯ll leave you alone then! If you don¡¯t want to ruin your life, then make a compromise here!! You worthless government worker!!¡± I breathed in and out. And then I spoke. ¡°Like hell I¡¯ll do that.¡± ¡°I see. That¡¯s too bad.¡± ¡°That¡¯s my line. Listen, Arisaka. You¡¯re holding a gun and you have a hostage. You¡¯ve even proven that it¡¯s a real gun. That leaves me with no reason to hesitate.¡± ¡°I might be worried if this was Los Angeles, but it¡¯s Japan. You¡¯re going to shoot me in the head in a country where you have to write a report explaining even a warning shot? What if you hit the hostage? Well!?¡± ¡°Yeah, if this was a movie, maybe I¡¯d shoot you in the shoulder or skillfully shoot the gun from your hand. But this is reality. People can still move their fingers after being shot in the heart, so I¡¯ll shoot you right through the head to make sure you don¡¯t even make any involuntary movements.¡± ¡°Put your gun down, Detective Uchimaku! All you¡¯re going to do is accidentally kill the hostage!¡± ¡°This is your final warning, Arisaka. Slowly lower the gun! I don¡¯t want to kill you!!¡± ¡°Uchimakuuuu!!¡± ¡°Arisakaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!¡± An explosive gunshot seemed to strike my heart. A fireworks-like smell reached my nose with a hint of a rusty odor. The man using the Mystery Freak as a shield wobbled to the side. Strength left the arm holding Enbi and a dark red hole had appeared in the center of his forehead. Like a marionette with its strings cut, Arisaka ¨C no, someone going by that name ¨C collapsed to the ground. He did not even have a chance to scream. I put the gun away, approached the collapsed victim, crouched down, and placed my index and middle finger on his neck. ¡°2:20 PM. Suspect is dead.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ahh¡­ahhhh¡­¡± PSI_ver_RAIN had grown pale and groaned quietly in a sitting position. Meanwhile, the Mystery Freak rubbed her neck and scarf that had been held. ¡°You didn¡¯t have to go that far¡­¡± ¡°I was worried about you.¡± ¡°Eh? Ah?¡± The Mystery Freak grew flustered as I ignored her, crouched down, and gave a heavy sigh. How I would be treated didn¡¯t matter. I hadn¡¯t done anything wrong and something else mattered more. ¡°I was right. It¡¯s fake.¡± I checked through the corpse¡¯s pockets, pulled out the police badge, and checked it over. The ID looked legit at first glance, but it didn¡¯t have the hologram or other counterfeiting countermeasures. And I could only tell because I had a police badge of my own. The average person on the street would never notice. ¡°The uniforms are the same. Police uniforms are made by famous designers with registered designs to prevent counterfeits. This is like a brand-name bag made in a counterfeiting factory. It looks the same, but something looks off when you take a close look at the stitching.¡± ¡°Detective, could you get inside a police station with that?¡± ¡°I saw through it at first glance, so not a chance. That talk about getting a bullet from the coroner was a bluff. They aren¡¯t that skilled.¡± Even if I got my hands on a school uniform, I would never fit in at a high school. This was the same. Someone from ¡°outside¡± might be fooled, but anyone on the ¡°inside¡± would immediately treat them as an outsider. ¡°I don¡¯t know who they are, but I guess you can ensure Rain-chan¡¯s safety by getting her to a police station.¡± ¡°Yeah, but we can¡¯t have someone else do it. Any police officer on the street could be one of them, so we¡¯ll have to do it oursel-¡­¡± I trailed off and closed my mouth. I had realized something, so I asked. ¡°Mystery Freak, when you called them here, did you use my name?¡± ¡°No. What about it?¡± ¡°Both Katou and Arisaka were calling me Detective Uchimaku from the start. They already knew my name and what I was doing.¡± I brought a hand to my forehead when I realized the most likely possibility. ¡°The cellphone. They might be intercepting the signal.¡± ¡°Then do you want to put in a dummy SIM card? I¡¯ve got one for emergencies.¡± ¡°No.¡± I looked to PSI_ver_RAIN who was still sitting on the ground. ¡°Do you have a cellphone or smartphone other than those mobile glasses?¡± ¡°N-no! This thing is convenient, so I can use it for phone calls, emails, and everything¡­¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s swap SIMs.¡± ¡°Wait! Then what about you, detective!?¡± ¡°Mystery Freak, I¡¯ll trade for your smartphone.¡± ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s it. But that¡¯s not fair! You¡¯re taking all the best parts for yourself!¡± I didn¡¯t have time to argue. I could hear footsteps approaching after the two gunshots. Were they students, police officers, or ¡°them¡±? I pulled the handcuffed PSI_ver_RAIN to her feet by the arm and the Mystery Freak and I turned our backs on each other. ¡°I¡¯ll prepare a safe line afterwards, so don¡¯t throw away that smartphone.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t guarantee your safety anymore. If things get too much for you to handle, get out of here. Understand?¡± With that said, we ran off in different directions. PSI_ver_RAIN looked back several times as we left. ¡°H-hey! Should you really be leaving them like that!?¡± ¡°Of course not! But getting you to safety comes first. I don¡¯t know who¡¯s on our side, so I can¡¯t just throw you into a group of police officers we find walking around!!¡± I didn¡¯t have time to explain the situation, so I couldn¡¯t complain if someone misinterpreted this. I would be treated as a police officer who had shot and killed a civilian ¨C even if they were dressed as a police officer and extremely suspicious ¨C and then left the scene without explaining myself or preserving the scene. And at the same time, I would be an armed fugitive on the run with the top suspect of another murder case. ¡°For now, we need to get to my home ground. They can¡¯t get in my workplace with their counterfeit equipment. I¡¯ll probably be arrested at the entrance, but don¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯ll explain the misunderstanding and ensure your safety.¡± ¡°Y-your workplace?¡± ¡°The Metropolitan Police Department.¡± Part 7 (Hishigami Enbi) I made a run for it. I couldn¡¯t let myself get caught. If one of those ¡°police officers¡± caught me with no one else around, it could easily end up like that previous situation. So I chose routes full of people, ran inside a school building, and made my way to the main office. After slamming the detective¡¯s phone down on the counter, policemen rushed down the corridor from both directions. ¡°Freeze!!¡± ¡°Put your hands on your head!!¡± ¡°Wah, wah, wah! What? What is this!? I just came here to drop off a lost phone!!¡± I did as I was told and glanced at the police officers surrounding me. Hm, I can¡¯t tell which ones are real and which ones are fake quite as well as the detective could. ¡­That means I need to get rid of them all. I breathed in and shouted loud enough to be heard inside the office. ¡°Stop!! This phone is an important piece of evidence! I secretly filmed exactly what you were trying to do to me after shoving me into the cop car!! That¡¯s why you want the phone, isn¡¯t it!?¡± ¡°Wha-?¡± I swung my Suneky scarf around in front of the flustered police officers(?). ¡°Wahhhhh!! What happened to college autonomy!? All I did was visit for the open campus, so why are a bunch of perverted police officers after me!?¡± The door next to the counter burst open. The usually docile-looking office workers rushed out with fiendish looks on their faces. ¡°And you call yourselves humaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!?¡± ¡°Simply letting you in our school was bad enough, but now this!? It¡¯s the 21st century and you¡¯re still using your authority to act like kings!?¡± ¡°Eh? Wha-? No! Wait! I-if you interfere with our work any further¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s not about to stop us, you horny policemen! Don¡¯t underestimate college autonomy!¡± Good, good. Even now, universities tended to hate interference from the government. If some government workers were strutting about like they owned the place and trying to have their way with some poor girl, the university was going to riot. My diversion proved effective and the detective and PSI_ver_RAIN had probably escaped at about the same time. I could have left his phone behind, but I collected it to be nice. I turned it off and removed the SIM to make sure it couldn¡¯t be tracked and then I snuck away from the scuffle. Now, then. Unlike the detective, I didn¡¯t have to run around all over the place. I wasn¡¯t good at that either. If I wanted to help them, I needed to hide in one of my secret bases and use the internet for logistical support. I think the closest one is in Roppongi. Part 8 (3rd person) Hachikawa Tomoe and Tsumada Mio lived in neighboring apartments. Tomoe was an active girl who excelled at sports while Mio would have looked more at home flipping through a book of poetry in a secluded room. Except that was only the impression she gave those around her. While she looked like a Japanese doll with her long hair, her best subject was dance and she could get quite fired up singing all of an idol group¡¯s songs at karaoke. Recently, she had finished mastering the choreography of the famous net idol PSI_ver_RAIN. She just happened not to let anyone see this side of her because she found it embarrassing. ¡°Who would have thought this would happen?¡± It was 2:30 in the afternoon on a weekday, but the two girls were watching TV in an apartment living room. They had eaten lunch a bit ago, but they were already reaching for some cookies. The TV was still talking about the trains stopped due to signal trouble, warning about the possibility of dirty water coming from the pipes due to problems with the water purification equipment, and everything else that was going wrong. There had been frequent infrastructure issues lately, but it seemed to have crossed a line today. Their school had cancelled classes for the day because it could not guarantee the safety of the path to school. Those celebrating the day off were bound to fail because, without lessons at school, the students needed to maintain their motivation and study on their own. While realizing there was a good and bad side to everything, Tomoe enjoyed the post-lunch break they were taking. ¡°It sure is scary outside. I can see why they don¡¯t want us going to school.¡± ¡°Yeah, just look at that chaos. I¡¯d lose sight of you right away in that crowd, Mio.¡± ¡°Y-you would not.¡± Tsumada Mio sat with her legs to the side. She had waist-length black hair and a plain white long-sleeved sailor uniform. Both the black stockings covering her entire legs and the fact that she was wearing her uniform on a day off pointed to her diligence. Her only piece of fashion was the hairclips on her bangs. She had been placed at the center of an incident involving a Jinmensou. After being exposed to one hundred, one thousand, or even more Jinmensou ¨C which were symbols of lies ¨C her presence would fade to the very limit. Even so, she had returned to her normal life. And it was all thanks to the detective who had arrested the despicable man who had killed Tomoe¡¯s real father and tried to take her best friend from her. ¡°Tomoe-chan, what are you going to put on that form?¡± ¡°Oh, the one for what I want to be when I grow up? Honestly, can¡¯t they wait until we¡¯re third years? It¡¯s as embarrassing as an essay in elementary school, so my hand stops whenever I try to write something.¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. You¡¯re going to be a police officer, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Wha-!? Wait! I never said that!! And you don¡¯t get to decide what I¡¯ll be!!¡± As they were arguing, the image on the TV suddenly changed. ¡°We will be interrupting this program for some breaking news.¡± ¡°?¡± There had not been any proper program playing in the first place. It had been nothing but information about the stopped electricity or water. The girls¡¯ apartment complex had been miraculously spared those inconveniences, though. At any rate, this breaking news had to be something with even more impact. As they looked to the screen with that in mind, the announcer read off the news. ¡°At just past two this afternoon, there was a shooter at Minato¡¯s Private Keijou Ijuku University. The suspect is Uchimaku Hayabusa. He is a detective with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department¡¯s Investigation Division 1, so he is carrying a handgun and is on the run along with the suspect of a different murder. The suspect has shot and killed one victim and his connection to another body found nearby is under investigation. If any nearby residents see him, please do not approach him. I repeat, at just past two this afternoon¡­¡± They did not understand. It may have been from his driver¡¯s license, but a picture of his face was displayed next to the announcer. It looked eerily unhealthy and seemed horribly wrong to anyone who knew him. What was this? What had happened? Tomoe¡¯s mouth flapped opened and closed as she wondered those things and she finally turned toward her best friend. ¡°¡­Huh? Mio???¡± At first, she thought Tsumada Mio¡¯s ¡°presence¡± had vanished again. But that was not the case. Not even Hachikawa Tomoe knew the exact rules or conditions, but Mio only ever vanished in a group of people. She doubted the girl would vanish this easily when they were alone together. So was she really gone? But where had she gone? ¡°Mio!!¡± Part 9 (Jinnai Shinobu) After the cooking lesson in home ec, math class began while the food weighed heavily on my stomach. Surprisingly, having your stomach this full actually kept you from feeling sleepy. In the next seat over, Akechi-kun had his forehead pressed to his desk, but that wasn¡¯t because he was sleepy. It had more to do with the ridiculous amount of the pork and ginger meal (Nagisa¡¯s love-filled special recipe) he had eaten. It was a mixture of pain, resignation, and (for some reason) ecstasy. The food had gone in through his mouth, but he had the face of a guy who had taken it up the ass. The fool hadn¡¯t learned to empty his mind when eating Nagisa¡¯s cooking. The flavor alone was perfect, but thinking about what was inside it would kill your heart. He had just taken another step toward adulthood. An unrestrained knock came to the classroom door. When all of the bored students looked over, the door opened and our nervous homeroom teacher poked her head in. ¡°U-u-um¡­ Is Jinnai-kun in here? Could I have him come with me for a moment?¡± Tarou and the Love King were the first to react. ¡°Jinnai¡­ Has your love life finally gotten to the point that even our teacher is calling you out?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard he¡¯s been visiting the upperclassmen¡¯s third floor zone lately.¡± ¡°Shut up! That rumor about the student council room being used for supplementary lessons in love is a complete lie! That scary student council president is just forcing odd jobs onto me, dammit!!¡± As we argued, I did as our homeroom teacher said. But this was indeed odd. I couldn¡¯t imagine why she would be calling me out. My best guess was it had to do with Madoka or Nagisa rather than me directly. As soon as I stepped out into the hall, our homeroom teacher held up the tablet computer she used to keep roll. She used it as shield so we could speak in private. This naturally meant she moved her face in close. ¡°U-um, this is a first for me, so I¡¯m, uh, not really sure how to handle it¡­¡± ¡°Smooooch.¡± ¡°Why are you trying to kiss me all of a sudden, Jinnai-kun!?¡± Tch. I tried to disguise it, but she¡¯s surprisingly clever. I was so close, but I was missing something. I need to research this some more. ¡°So what exactly do you want to talk about? If it¡¯s about the destroyed elementary school during that Oomukade business, I thought I already explained how that was a misunderstanding.¡± ¡°W-well, we¡¯ll discuss this more in the student guidance room, but can you look at this first to get you up to speed?¡± I didn¡¯t like the sound of discussing something in the student guidance room, but she didn¡¯t seem all that angry. Wondering what this could possibly be, I watched on as she held out her tablet. It was displaying a news program a TV station was transmitting as streaming video. ¡°I repeat, the suspect is on the run with a fourteen-year-old girl who goes by the name PSI_ver_RAIN and who is the suspect in another murder case. His name is Uchimaku Hayabusa and he is a detective with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department¡¯s Investigation Division 1. He is carrying a handgun and he has killed at least one person at Private Keijou Ijuku University. He is considered extremely dangerous. If any nearby residents happen to see him, do not approach him for any reason.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding¡­¡± ¡°U-um, it seems to be real. I doubt there will be an immediate panic thanks to the name difference between Jinnai and Uchimaku, but the students are bound to find out before long. So if you want to leave school early, I¡¯ll help you out and secretly-¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding!? My uncle¡¯s going on a survival date in the big city with Rain-chan!? C¡¯mon, give me a turn! Can he just do whatever he wants!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what you¡¯re interested in!?¡± Well, what else would I be interested in? That uncle was the kind of incarnation of justice you only saw in dramas. He wouldn¡¯t kill someone without a good reason. And it was even more obvious when he was on the run with Rain-chan who was the suspect in another murder case. Part 10 (Hishigami Enbi) You might not guess it, but I was part of the so-called Hills Tribe. And so there I was stepping inside a room in a high-rise Roppongi apartment. I switched on the desktop computer and pulled out a headset for an internet phone. I quickly secured a line with my information source. But that information source was not just a single expert. There were plenty of people who heard all sorts of daily conversations as background noise: people handing out fliers, taxi drivers, waitresses, etc. And sometimes those people wanted to work for the good of the world but didn¡¯t know how. So I connected them together and gave them a place to speak together. Each individual one was an extremely small online community that gathered people from a similar genre. But when I aggregated and managed the data there, it became a massive monitoring system for all sorts of data. This was how I had so much police and hospital information. I had plenty of helpers such as vending machine workers or cleaning ladies. ¡°Phew¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t get my brain up and running without my usual smartphone with me. It was really convenient for taking handwritten memos and organizing information. Feeling empty-handed, I started squeezing the face of my Suneky scarf. At any rate, I mentally went over what I wanted to ask about. Next, I had to determine the most effective person to ask those questions. Part 11 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) I had removed PSI_ver_RAIN aka Amagoi Haruka¡¯s handcuffs and we walked through the city. A look at the TVs in an electronics store show window was enough for me to be feeling quite blue. Wow, I really look like a villain there!! Of course, I wasn¡¯t a super policeman running through the city to clear the nonsensical charges disgracing his name. I had in fact killed the person they were accusing me of killing. ¡°Sh-should we really be wandering around the city like this? We live in a world where one hundred million people have cellphones. And if you have a camera, you can transmit the footage right away. So¡­¡± ¡°There are more people on the streets than normal due to the train signal trouble and related traffic jams. We can hide behind the wall of people. And the police are busy managing traffic, so they don¡¯t have the manpower needed for human wave tactics.¡± ¡°Y-you mean if someone started looting, the police wouldn¡¯t be able to chase after them?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a secret. It would cause a panic if that got out.¡± Her distinctive sailor uniform and paint tattoo below the eye weren¡¯t that rare a sight near a university during cultural festival season. And the best way of getting past police checkpoints was to move on foot. Or rather, Japan¡¯s police checkpoints were primarily meant to block off the roads. As long as we didn¡¯t approach any major transportation facilities like train stations or airports, we wouldn¡¯t be caught if we walked around without doing anything too suspicious. ¡°For now, let¡¯s get to the Metropolitan Police Department. We¡¯re in Minato, so Sakuradamon isn¡¯t far. It should only take ten minutes even on foot.¡± ¡°W-wait! But isn¡¯t that right next to the Imperial Palace and the Diet? Aren¡¯t we trying to run away from the police!?¡± ¡°Real police officers aren¡¯t a problem. And ¡®they¡¯ won¡¯t want to get close to anywhere with strict security. We can assume that the greater the security, the more allies we have around. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± Of course, that was only if PSI_ver_RAIN really hadn¡¯t chopped Professor Matsukai in two. ¡°To make sure there are no misunderstandings, let me make it clear I¡¯m not completely on your side. I¡¯m protecting you because you were in danger, but that doesn¡¯t mean you aren¡¯t a suspect.¡± ¡°¡­Sigh.¡± The psychic middle school girl let out a heavy sigh. Then she removed her mobile glasses. ¡°I get the feeling we¡¯re going to be together for a while, so it might be a good idea to share what information I have.¡± ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± ¡°These are mobile glasses. Basically, they¡¯re a smartphone shaped like glasses. They can access the internet, make calls, and record both audio and video. ¡­Seeing things from my viewpoint would be faster than having me explain it.¡± ¡°You mean you recorded when you found the body!?¡± I quickly grabbed the mobile glasses and put them on. I wasn¡¯t used to them, so I followed PSI_ver_RAIN¡¯s instructions to start playing the video. At first, it was footage of her walking through a university staircase. Unlike a normal camera, it wobbled a lot from the movements of her head and eyes, so I had to focus my mind to avoid motion sickness. ¡°I mentioned the professor¡¯s belt earlier, remember?¡± she asked from the side. The footage moved from the stairs to the hallway. It approached one of the doors and a hand knocked, but the hand suddenly stopped. She must have expected a solid sensation, but the door creaked open instead. ¡°That belt ¨C well, actually the buckle ¨C was a strange type of USB memory. He didn¡¯t trust the defenses of online or cloud storage, so he liked to keep the data on him in a way that couldn¡¯t be pickpocketed or snatched away by a thief.¡± The past footage of the girl called ¡°professor¡± through the cracked door. Finding this odd, she placed a hand on the door and slowly opened it. Inside, she found the elderly man lying on his back. His right side was dyed in red, but it looked more like a stab wound than a bisection. ¡­No, wait. Does this mean¡­? ¡°When you found him, the door wasn¡¯t locked. And the body still wasn¡¯t chopped in two?¡± ¡°There¡¯s more. Pause it and rewind. Look more carefully at the body this time.¡± ¡°¡­?¡± I did so and realized what she was getting at. Several wounds were cut into him below his navel and just to the left of his belt buckle. ¡°To prevent theft, the belt buckle wouldn¡¯t open without a code. It was like a chastity belt or something. But thanks to that, the murderer panicked. They wanted to get the buckle¡¯s USB memory no matter what, so they initially tried to cut the belt itself, but¡­¡± ¡°They couldn¡¯t do it with the blade they had on hand?¡± ¡°The professor bragged about that belt. It was made of carbon something-or-other which apparently makes it harder than diamond but still flexible.¡± The footage on the screen, rushed into the room, crouched down by the professor, and called out to him again and again. She didn¡¯t grab his shoulders and shake him, but she may have been afraid of making him bleed any further. Finally, the footage turned around as if she had noticed something. ¡°But the murderer didn¡¯t give up. They wanted to get the buckle no matter what. If they couldn¡¯t cut the belt, what else could they cut through? And what would they need to do so? If they had only left to find that, they were sure to return. And with an even more brutal tool. So what would have happened to me if they ran across me?¡± That was the truth of the bisected corpse. Someone had cut through the torso to steal the belt filled with research data. ¡°So that¡¯s why you fled¡­¡± ¡°But the guilt won out in the end. I turned back toward the lab to help with the investigation, but then all the policemen and students were talking about a bisected corpse, a psychic murder, and that I supposedly did it. I had no idea what to think.¡± I removed the mobile glasses. PSI_ver_RAIN quietly bit her lip. ¡°It started as a way to get my name out there. And it probably was for him too. We both wanted to make an impact.¡± Those mobile glasses held the final moment of someone who was gone and she held them to her chest like a funeral portrait. ¡°But he wasn¡¯t a bad person. He was certainly eccentric, but no matter how ridiculous a thing it was, he wouldn¡¯t laugh and drive you out. He would seriously investigate it all. He would actually work with you¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s an important piece of evidence. We need to get it to the police as soon as possible.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s going to believe it? Digital data is easily modified and I¡¯m known for working on the internet anyway. It¡¯s all over if they call it fake.¡± I had no response for that. I tried to say something, but I couldn¡¯t find any words and then I heard a phone ringing. It was the smartphone the Mystery Freak had given me. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°I have some good news and some bad news. I¡¯ll start with the good news. Detective, what¡¯s the first place you would want to investigate concerning all this?¡± With Professor Matsukai, the fake police officers, and PSI_ver_RAIN herself, there were a lot of candidates, but my mind turned to the most unusual one which was not covered in police officers. ¡°The prosecutors and the courthouse. For one, how did the thesis on psychic murders get submitted as having scientific basis?¡± ¡°Bingo. I thought the same thing and looked into it. That thesis was forced through by the assigned prosecutor, Uzuki Minato. ¡­But doesn¡¯t that seem odd?¡± ¡°The suspect hasn¡¯t even been arrested or indicted, but there¡¯s already a prosecutor?¡± ¡°They were setting this up to frame Rain-chan in advance. I tried calling up the prosecution office to tell them there was some falsified data in that thesis and its credibility would drop like a rock if that got out. That would ruin their plans and their partner would probably punish them for it, so I was going to ask for some money to keep quiet.¡± Hold on. Should you really be telling me that? The Mystery Freak ignored my thoughts and continued. ¡°But that gets to the bad news. Uzuki Minato hasn¡¯t returned to the office since leaving for lunch. He didn¡¯t have any plans for working out of the office and his phone is off. I couldn¡¯t catch him.¡± ¡°When was the thesis in question submitted?¡± ¡°1:30 PM. That¡¯s right after the murder. It¡¯s possible he vanished as soon as the submission was accepted at the courthouse.¡± Once his role was complete, had they eliminated him or were at least trying to? ¡°Did you call his home?¡± ¡°I did. No response.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll head there. Tell me where it is.¡± I hung up and PSI_ver_RAIN looked puzzled. ¡°Head there? Head where? Why!? Aren¡¯t we on the way to the Metropolitan Police Department to protect me from whoever killed the professor!?¡± ¡°Sorry. All I can do is apologize.¡± I obediently bowed my head, That seemed to catch her off guard, but I didn¡¯t have time to worry about it. ¡°But Uzuki Minato, a prosecutor who seems to be involved in this, is in danger just like you. I can¡¯t put one life above another. I can¡¯t call in backup like normal, so I have to head there on my own. I know this is selfish, but will you go with me?¡± ¡°¡­¡± She averted her gaze, toyed with her hair, and finally gave a long sigh of resignation. ¡°Fine! Then let¡¯s go. But this ends with checking to see whether this Uzuki person is alive or dead. You need to get me to the Metropolitan Police Department as soon as possible.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t worth thanking me for. The situation is just making it really difficult to do what should be normal.¡± With a change of plans, we started toward Uzuki Minato¡¯s home. If he was there, that was fine. If not, we might find a clue to where he was hiding. Part 12 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Uzuki Minato¡¯s home was located on reclaimed land bordering the bay. The area had originally been planned as a district of high-class apartment buildings, but the plan was halted when soil liquefaction was discovered. From there, it transformed into an incredibly cheap area of land in the city center due to unfortunate circumstances. I rang the doorbell but received no response. I slipped through the small gate and grabbed the knob, discovering the door was not locked. ¡°¡­¡± PSI_ver_RAIN and I exchanged a glance and I slowly opened the door. I wasn¡¯t sure what to do inside, but I decided to remove my shoes and continue on in. It took some doing for PSI_ver_RAIN to remove her boots and she even politely removed her hat, but she kept the mobile glasses on. I walked down the hallway, opened the first door, and found a living room. A young man was collapsed face-up in the center of the room. ¡°Uzuki-san!? Dammit!!¡± I ran over and grabbed his shoulders, but he was just an object now. Shifting his position allowed blood to pool up by his side. Were ¡°they¡± faster!? And¡­ ¡°Kyah!?¡± This time, PSI_ver_RAIN cried out behind me. My mind turned to my handgun as I turned around, but I only found the girl there and she was messing with her mobile glasses for some reason. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Eh? Um, uh, my mobile glasses are acting up for some reason.¡± We had discovered a corpse and our electronics weren¡¯t working. It sounded like a scene from a horror movie. As that thought reached me, the door to the dining room casually opened. A young woman in a tank top and hot pants poked her head out with a sake bottle in one hand. ¡°Hishigami¡­Mai!?¡± ¡°Okay, okay. I used remote control to take over those glasses of yours. For people like us, nothing could be more troublesome than those things. To be honest, going around recording everything is like asking to be killed.¡± Mai seemed perfectly carefree despite the corpse in the room. ¡°And if you¡¯re going to come in here, couldn¡¯t you at least wear gloves? Well, I was about to erase the evidence with some alcohol, so I¡¯ll help you out if you tell me what you touched. Was it only the corpse and the doorknob? Anything else?¡± ¡°Erase¡­the evidence? Are you saying you did this!?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t insult me. I was going to clean up the floor because the Sunekosuri pissed himself quite spectacularly when he saw the corpse. He¡¯s out in the yard doing some soul-searching, so you can go say hi if you want.¡± What was this woman doing in the PSI_ver_RAIN incident? When she was involved, it went beyond simple crimes and nearly reached the level of a war. ¡°You aren¡¯t wrong to think that way.¡± Mai seemed to have read my mind. ¡°I¡¯m not the one getting involved where I don¡¯t belong. You¡¯re the ones doing that. ¡­So how much do you know about this incident? Do you know what was on the belt buckle¡¯s USB memory? Do you know who¡¯s after it? In fact, do you even know who Professor Matsukai Hiroshi was?¡± ¡°What? What do you mean who he was?¡± Mai was always several steps ahead of us, but that final question seemed different to me. We had never even thought about it like that. ¡°Wait, really? It didn¡¯t come back to you the second you heard the fake name Matsukai Hiroshi? When we were caught in the Hyakki Yakou coup d¡¯etat in that red brick hotel up north, every member of Saishi Kajin used that name. It¡¯s the fake name used by the people who slaughtered the hotel¡¯s workers and took their place.¡± ¡°Wait. You don¡¯t mean¡­¡± ¡°Oh, it isn¡¯t Saishi Kajin themselves. That¡¯s a free fake name that anyone can use. But there¡¯s definitely an organization on an equal level involved in this. That means this was in my territory from the beginning. Understand now?¡± This was no laughing matter and I couldn¡¯t understand any of it. If this really was part of Mai¡¯s world, then how did we get involved? What landmine had we unwittingly stepped on? ¡°That professor was a member of a certain team.¡± ¡°A team?¡± ¡°The one the Aoandon is gathering. And the buckle contained the program used to activate a Package including the Aoandon herself.¡± Professor Matsukai¡¯s original field of study was information engineering. The psychic powers research was supposedly only a performance meant to get him on TV, make a name for himself, and get funding. ¡°So someone stole that from him?¡± ¡°Now you¡¯re getting it. And of course, it wouldn¡¯t have been someone with the Aoandon. This is probably a close competition between the Aoandon¡¯s group and another group trying to crush it.¡± For the group stealing the professor¡¯s buckle, the torso bisection had been a deviation from the plan. Simply stabbing him and swiping the buckle could be passed off as a random industrial spy, but their method had been far too grotesque. It was impossible to ignore now, so they were making it look like a sensational psychic murder as if covering food with mayonnaise to hide the original flavor. So who was it we were after here? Who was this enemy of the Aoandon? ¡°Who are ¡®they¡¯? How can I clear PSI_ver_RAIN¡­no, Amagoi-san¡¯s name!?¡± ¡°At least you have enough sense not to try to take on the Aoandon at the base of all this. Of course, that¡¯s my job. They¡¯re known as Konrin Naraku. They¡¯re one of the lowest level organizations out there. Or rather, they intentionally gather a ton of low-level firepower. If you think of Hyakki Yakou as a top-class restaurant, then Konrin Naraku is the king of fast food.¡± ¡°¡­?¡± ¡°Basically, they¡¯re all expendable. They recruit people dealing with debt, abuse, a stalker, trouble with a large criminal organization, or some other problem. Then they take care of that problem for the person in exchange for doing a job that will land them in jail. They¡¯re not expecting to return safely and getting arrested is a part of their plan from the beginning. Then again, I hear some of them are asked to give their lives in exchange for saving their families.¡± It all started to make sense. When I had revealed Katou and Arisaka as fake policemen, one had shot the other and then made a hopeless threat that got him shot by me. He hadn¡¯t been trying to win. He may have been using the Mystery Freak as a way to commit suicide. ¡°But Konrin Naraku is an entirely mercenary group, so they wouldn¡¯t go and kill someone for their own principles. That means someone else has hired them to stop the Aoandon¡¯s group and they¡¯re using you as a part of that plan.¡± ¡°Who is that?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll wish you hadn¡¯t asked, officer.¡± ¡°Either way, I¡¯ve already made an enemy of whoever it is. There¡¯s no two ways around it in this situation, so tell me. Who in the world is it!?¡± Mai slowly exhaled and then spoke. ¡°What do you think the Aoandon is after anyway?¡± ¡°Stop beating around the bu-¡­¡± ¡°The answer is Nagatacho.¡± That word seemed to squeeze at my heart. My mouth flapped opened and closed without a word escaping, so Mai continued. ¡°More accurately, Nagatacho Station. You¡¯ve heard the rumors, right? Supposedly, there¡¯s a largescale nuclear shelter for the Diet members and bureaucrats hidden below that subway station since it¡¯s so close to the Diet building. Even if their diplomatic strategy fails and nuclear war begins, the very ones who started it can live on in peace without taking any kind of responsibility.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°But do you really think it¡¯s just a nuclear shelter hidden there? The younger Diet members seem to believe that, but it isn¡¯t true. That isn¡¯t some puny little facility meant to protect the easily replaceable Diet members that pretty much just won a popularity contest.¡± In other words, our enemy was¡­ ¡°It¡¯s someone who doesn¡¯t want the Aoandon to open that door,¡± said Mai. ¡°It¡¯s one of the few VIPs who know the truth about Nagatacho Station that not even the cabinet ministers know about. That¡¯s the target you need to bring down.¡± Part 13 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) I felt my vision shaking. The Diet? The cabinet ministers? Someone even higher? One of the few VIPs who know the truth about Nagatacho Station? The more she described our enemy, the less clear a picture I had of them. That was how deep they were. It was like chasing after a monster from an urban legend. Was there really anything we could do? But even as a mixture of doubt and fear came over me, time was passing. This time, the Mystery Freak¡¯s smartphone rang. ¡°I¡¯m relaying a call, detective. I answered because someone called your number, but I can transfer them to you if you want. Should I?¡± ¡°Who is it?¡± ¡°Mishima Jun. That¡¯s the Chief Superintendent of the National Police Agency. Including the director of the agency, there are only about two posts above him.¡± Him!? I clenched my teeth and sweat poured down my face, but there was only one answer I could give. ¡°Transfer him over.¡± ¡°Will do. But detective, be careful here. This is on a different level from before.¡± After a small click, the line was switched to someone else. This new person spoke in a gentle voice. ¡°Hi, Uchimaku-kun, how much do you know?¡± ¡°What in the world is hidden in the depths of Nagatacho Station?¡± ¡°Well done. We can¡¯t discuss this on the phone, so could we meet in person somewhere?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Yes, you should be cautious, but if you don¡¯t agree to this, I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯ll find yourself at a dead end. You want any new information you can get your hands on, right?¡± He was exactly right, so I could only agree to his request. After deciding on the specifics of our meeting, I asked a question that suddenly came to me. ¡°Why are you giving me a hint?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve told you before that I have high hopes for you, haven¡¯t I?¡± He hung up there. PSI_ver_RAIN looked like she wanted to say something, but I held up my index finger to stop her. ¡°I¡¯m going alone this time. This is too dangerous for you.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, detective. You¡¯re about to meet a VIP from the NPA. And surely you know he¡¯s not about to meet an armed fugitive without some bodyguards, right? If you run out there without thinking, those guards in black suits will end up capturing you.¡± ¡°I have an idea about that.¡± ¡°What kind of idea?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to stop by a supermarket or department store on the way. I¡¯ll get everything I need there.¡± Part 14 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) You were only going to get run-of-the-mill flavor from a major chain caf¨¦, but this one was full of customers today. The trains were stopped due to signal trouble and the roads were congested, so everyone was traveling by foot and thus quite thirsty. The inside of the caf¨¦ and the open space outside were both overflowing with people. Inside, I killed time sitting at one of the few round tables. By the time I had finished half of my large-sized iced coffee, someone sat at the next table over. We were sitting back to back and the other person began speaking quietly. ¡°Hi, Uchimaku-kun. Long time no see.¡± ¡°¡­Mishima-san.¡± ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t turn around. That would ruin the entire setup.¡± I used my smartphone screen as a mirror to see Mishima pretending to read an English newspaper. ¡°Now, then. Where should I begin?¡± ¡°How about the secret of Nagatacho Station and the people who don¡¯t want that door opened?¡± ¡°Okay. It would be over too quick if I started out with the conclusion.¡± He answered like it was no big deal. ¡°Remember what happened at the special casino district called Goldmine Island? I¡¯m not sure how much of the information made it to you, but that was all centered on a national suicide Package that used an Usuhiki Warashi. But that was only one thing Nagatacho Station does.¡± ¡°¡­?¡± ¡°The true reason for that shelter is to store a secret server that automatically backs up all of the classified data stored in each ministry, government office, and research institute. The bureaucrats and officials don¡¯t even know it exists or that every word they type is being sent outside of their building. They voluntarily share their information, but sometimes someone wants to hide some key data and that would make it all meaningless.¡± ¡°You mean all of Japan is hidden there?¡± ¡°When we suffered a critical defeat in the precision machinery industry, we managed to recover using extreme high quality brand-name agriculture. All of the technology used to do that is stored in the server. And not only is that server¡¯s existence one of those specially designated secret that are all the rage lately, but it¡¯s also secretly designated a strategic cultural property.¡± ¡°A strategic cultural property?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a new clause in the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. It was secretly added using the specially designated secret system. The framework is meant to protect the traditional culture at the foundation of our national economy. That is, the artisan techniques and agriculture of Intellectual Villages or anything else we don¡¯t want leaking out to other nations. And the classification means all the submitted documents would be blotted out with a black pen even if this did cause a scandal.¡± ¡°Specially designated secrets and strategic cultural properties? Don¡¯t those conflict with each other?¡± ¡°It¡¯s made that way on purpose to blur the lines of jurisdiction. Even if someone submits a proper disclosure request, it¡¯ll just get passed on to someone else forever and nothing will ever come of it.¡± The Aoandon¡¯s group was trying to force open that door. What were they hoping to accomplish? ¡°With power, gas, and everything else, there¡¯s been a ton of infrastructure damage lately, right? They¡¯re all unrelated incidents and accidents, but look at them all together and it looks like the Japanese Archipelago¡¯s arteries are hardening.¡± ¡°Y-yes. There was even a blackout when I was capturing the culprit behind the Ubasute Apartments case.¡± ¡°That¡¯s part of the Aoandon¡¯s show. Nagatacho Station has several security levels and this infrastructure damage has caused that to shoot up by a few levels.¡± ¡°Hm? Doesn¡¯t that just make the place more secure?¡± ¡°There was a vulnerability in the process of switching to the highest security level. The process is only used once a century, so it didn¡¯t seem like that big a deal. There were countless warnings, but it seems the defense contractors are all colluding together and it never got fixed. The politicians are only starting to panic now, but you can¡¯t fix such a largescale system in a few days. This is exactly what the Aoandon wanted.¡± While he didn¡¯t say this was checkmate, he sounded like he was watching everything on the game board falling apart after someone made a pointless move. The Aoandon¡¯s plan had to be underway. But what was that plan? Who would want to stop it? ¡°The Public Security Intelligence Agency had been investigating that professor, Matsukai Hiroshi. Although they were close to giving up since he was so obsessed with the occult. Still, they managed to intercept a few fragments of information. About the program he was building, for example.¡± ¡°The one in his belt buckle?¡± ¡°The Aoandon is a collection of one hundred ghost stories¡­that is, rumors. She herself is a giant information system. It seems that professor was working on a program to efficiently search through that information system. Of course, we only know that from the restored fragment of a corrupted email.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s a search program that amplifies the Aoandon¡¯s power?¡± ¡°No, that doesn¡¯t quite cover it.¡± Mishima rejected my idea but did not stop there. ¡°It would be more accurate to say it links the Aoandon to Nagatacho Station. Everything is located there: Japan¡¯s technology, Japan¡¯s systems, Japan¡¯s dirty secrets¡­everything. You could say the Aoandon Package is a criminal system meant to expose Japan.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°The restaurant politics, dirty money, collusion, kickbacks, illegal donations, cover ups, voter fraud, paid silence, and control of the media. There are plenty of terms you¡¯ve heard but don¡¯t know exactly what they refer to, right? All of that will be revealed, translated into words a child could understand, and left in a place where anyone can read it,¡± said Mishima. ¡°Such an obvious bomb, isn¡¯t it? Once its existence is exposed, everyone will try to set it off. This age is oppressive and everyone wants entertainment. But not many of the people are going to be smart enough to realize that they¡¯ll be caught in the blast once it blows. They think they can just separate the politicians from the normal people. They¡¯ve been taught to think that way, after all. They naively believe nothing they see on TV can reach them.¡± He may have had a point there. People always innocently insulted the politicians and carelessly blamed them for anything they could. But when this country¡¯s bubble burst or when the precision machinery industry suffered its ¡°critical defeat¡±, had those people realized the politicians¡¯ failure would end up destroying their own lifestyle and way of thinking? ¡°But that¡¯s only getting your just deserts. It only harms the people who did something they don¡¯t want anyone to know about. That¡¯s no reason to sacrifice PSI_ver_...Amagoi Haruka-san.¡± ¡°I agree completely. But the political pressure has reached me now. They don¡¯t care if it means making this a psychic murder. They just want us to arrest the scapegoat or even to shoot her if a trial would be too difficult. They managed to help Japan by stealing the buckle from the Aoandon¡¯s group, but then they created more doubt with the torso bisection which will lead to a scandal in and of itself. ¡­I had to avoid mentioning some things here or there, but that should give you a general idea of the situation.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to give off that scary aura. I¡¯m going to tell you, I promise. It¡¯s Katagiri Hitsuji. He¡¯s part of what¡¯s known as the Restaurant Master. The rumors are even more well-known than the ones about Nagatacho Station, so I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard them. The ones about a don controlling all politics from inside a fancy restaurant. He¡¯s part of that. I know it sounds as fake as the Kuchisake Onna, but it actually exists.¡± ¡°The Restaurant¡­Master?¡± ¡°Katagiri Hitsuji has a lot of influence over the cutting-edge agriculture centered on the Intellectual Villages. And interestingly enough, he controlled the precision machinery industry before its critical defeat.¡± He suppressed a laugh and continued in an icy voice. ¡°This is really only a rumor, but some say he helped push things from industry to agriculture during the transitional period. To make sure the industrial makers didn¡¯t put up too much of a fight, he finished them off by accessing their design data in the patent office and sending it overseas while disguising it as an accidental leak. If that story was substantiated by any actual evidence, it would be far more than just a scandal. Requests for damages in the trillions of yen would be flying all over the place. His glory days would quickly come to an end. Not to mention that the Restaurant Master controls everything from the shadows. Well, you can find some details on that power structure by doing a search for ¡®Panopticon¡¯ or ¡®The Birth of the Prison¡¯. At any rate, it¡¯s all over for everyone connected to the Restaurant once their identities are exposed to the media.¡± Unlike a king or president, they did not rule from center stage. In fact, they hid their presence as much as possible so they could observe the people without any chance of being attacked. Someone like that could never come out onto the stage. They would influence that field, but they would never actually appear there. But what if you could drag them up onto that field? Or¡­ ¡°Now, that¡¯s about all I have to tell you.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean this is over though, does it?¡± ¡°At least you understand.¡± We had our backs to each other, but Mishima seemed to be smiling. ¡°I want you to leave all of this alone. Just hand Amagoi Haruka over to us. Could you do that maybe?¡± ¡°I have no reason to.¡± ¡°You may be in Department 1, but it¡¯s a dead-end job as a police sergeant. And you didn¡¯t end up there because it was your first choice, right? You had to have ended up there after coming across and overcoming a number of setbacks. So what¡¯s wrong with one more setback here? This is your chance to turn your life toward strategic failure or strategic success. You ended up where you are by giving up on something, but this will be enough to make you glad it ended up this way. So can¡¯t you just do this one thing?¡± I closed my eyes just once. A number of things appeared in my mind¡¯s eye, but then I forced my eyelids open and spoke. ¡°There is no way I can do that.¡± Silence followed. I was well aware I had thrown down the gauntlet against someone far, far above me. An oppressive wave of noise seemed to assault my ears. It was nothing but the hustle and bustle of the people moving around us, but I was so focused on my conversation with Mishima that I couldn¡¯t split it into individual voices. ¡°It¡¯s true my life has been full of setbacks and failures. For one thing, the main reason I left my rural home was my fear of Youkai. My parents paid my way through college, but I ended up failing the national exam and couldn¡¯t get anything but a dead-end job. I¡¯m doing my best in Department 1, but I¡¯m not entirely confident this is even the best job for me.¡± But¡­ ¡°Still, I only managed to get this far because I worked hard to never leave the path I had set for myself. No matter how pitiful or pathetic it might be, I¡¯ve always had a line I refuse to cross. And that¡¯s why your path and mine will never, ever intersect. No matter what reason you might have, I can never allow myself to happily abandon a middle school girl suspected of murder just to protect myself.¡± Mishima cut in with no discernable emotion in his voice. ¡°Even if that means destroying your own life?¡± ¡°I know I¡¯m being idealistic and I know this is na?ve nonsense I shouldn¡¯t be saying at my age!! But I¡¯m a police officer. If the police can¡¯t be idealistic, then who in this country can!? How many people do you think there are that want to be but can¡¯t!?¡± That was the kind of job this was. Everyone wanted to rescue the victim being targeted by a criminal with a knife. They wanted to interfere and stop it themselves. But that wasn¡¯t realistic, so they left it to someone else. They passed off the job and silently begged for someone to bring back their peaceful days or to protect the victim¡¯s smile. And that was our job. Fulfilling that role was the job of a police officer. So what was this? We¡¯re supposed to give in to pressure from some VIP abusing his power, arrest a minor girl who we know is a scapegoat, force a confession through a questioning that¡¯s basically torture, use a rigged trial to force the ridiculous crime of psychic murder on her, and throw her behind bars? That¡¯s supposed to be a job well done where everyone lives happily ever after? Whose tax money did these people think their pay came from? It wasn¡¯t that they¡¯d done everything they could and it wasn¡¯t quite enough. If you aren¡¯t willing to put in the work from the get-go, then why call yourself a police officer at all? ¡°Is there any chance at all of you leaving this alone?¡± ¡°Hell no.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s a problem,¡± muttered Mishima. But something seemed strangely off about it. His voice contained a nuance of slight enjoyment that did not fit his position or what he was saying. And over the phone, he had said he had high hopes for me. Which side had he ¡°hoped¡± I would go for? And if he only had to arrest me, this entire chat would have been meaningless. He could have done it the instant I showed myself here. Despite the situation, I turned around to see the look in his eyes, but before I could, he calmly snapped his fingers. ¡°Then it¡¯s time for a change of plans. I¡¯ll have to arrest you.¡± Kh!! So we¡¯re doing that, are we!? I grabbed what was sitting on my lap and thus hidden below the table and I looked around the area. About ten bodyguards were so clearly visible I was amazed I hadn¡¯t noticed them before and they were rushing toward me. But I was faster. I pulled out a plastic bag of red liquid, stabbed a ballpoint pen into it, and threw it under the table. The bag contained fish blood I¡¯d bought at a supermarket, but it would have enough of the rusty smell I wanted. As the odor wafted out, I raised my voice. ¡°He¡¯s got a knife!! And he stabbed someone! Run! Hurry!!¡± The people nearby looked over in confusion at first, but once the rusty smell reached their noses and mouths, a clearer image filled their minds. A wave of people pressed outwards in every direction. As numbed by peace as the country was, we were sensitive to stabbings. Just like the United States with mass shootings or South America with drugs. That fear had soaked into us for centuries. As screams and shouts of anger filled the air, I slowly stood up and followed the flow of people. The tough-looking bodyguards could not fight the current and they couldn¡¯t pull out their guns and fire randomly for fear of hitting innocent bystanders. Meanwhile, I blended into the crowd. Mishima waved goodbye without getting up from his seat. He wasn¡¯t even looking my way, but I could somehow tell this was exactly what he had wanted to happen. At any rate, I had the information I wanted. I needed to leave the area, meet back up with PSI_ver_RAIN, and make my next move. But then a bodyguard in a black suit appeared right in front of me. ¡°!?¡± ¡°!!¡± He had not been lying in wait and he looked as surprised as me. He had probably been pushed out in front of me by the moving crowd, but he was pursuing me regardless. I tensed up and he drew his handgun of all things. You drew your gun because you¡¯re panicking!? How many civilians do you think there are around here!? A weight pressed down on my stomach. And a moment later¡­ Part 15 (3rd person) The bodyguard lost sight of the suspect who had been right in front of him. ¡°Eh? What?¡± The crowd was moving by on either side, but Uchimaku Hayabusa alone was nowhere to be seen. He heard a colleague¡¯s voice over the headset on his ear. ¡°Did you find him?¡± ¡°I lost sight of him. But I was sure he was right there!¡± And¡­ Uchimaku Hayabusa stood just a few meters in front of him. He had not taken a step from his previous position. Even with the wall of people, the bodyguard should have spotted him immediately, but there was a reason why he had not. That reason was a girl. Tsumada Mio had wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. As a side effect of the Jinmensou, that girl¡¯s presence had thinned. Whenever three or more people were gathered, herself included, she would often become indistinguishable from others, as if her face had vanished. ¡°(Over here.)¡± Uchimaku was confused, but the two of them started moving as one. Fleeing people ran into them left and right. It happened far too often. It was like those people could not see them and therefore could not even try to avoid them. After escaping the surrounding bodyguards and entering a nearby alleyway, Tsumada Mio removed her arms from Uchimaku¡¯s waist. ¡°Long time no see. Are you okay?¡± ¡°Tsumada¡­-san?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. It¡¯s Tsumada Mio.¡± She had waist-length straight black hair and a white long-sleeved sailor uniform. Her slender legs were entirely covered in black stockings and she looked somewhat gloomy, but that impression was entirely overturned once one actually spoke with her. She was nothing but a normal teenage girl. ¡°Tomoe-chan looked sad when she saw the news on TV, so I ended up doing something reckless. Oh, but I got Enbi-san¡¯s help setting it all up. I had Tomoe-chan tell me how to contact her via computer a while back. She apparently lets people consult with her. Did you know that?¡± ¡°She¡¯s getting civilians involved for her own convenience again, isn¡¯t she!?¡± ¡°I hate that framework.¡± Hayabusa held his head in his hands, but Mio puffed her cheeks out in protest. ¡°Tomoe-chan is too of course, but Enbi-san is a normal girl. As am I. If we know you¡¯re in trouble, we want to use everything we can to help. I think you should, well, rely more on things that are against the rules. Your insistence on the rules looks kind at first, but it¡¯s actually horribly cruel. Did you know that?¡± ¡°¡­¡± It was true Tsumada Mio¡¯s power was convenient and the Mystery Freak¡¯s smarts could come in handy. But what if it failed? If they had not fooled that bodyguard, she might have been shot along with him. ¡°We wonder those same things. After all, we¡¯re not just characters given the symbols of a middle school girl. We¡¯re human beings who can be trapped by fear when we¡¯re worried about something. There are people who would be filled with pain if you were hurt and shudder just imagining you collapsing to the ground. Did you really know that?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± There was nothing he could say to that. What if it was the reverse? What if he was being disciplined for some mistake and couldn¡¯t call himself a police officer? If he learned they were in danger during that time, would he abandon them just because he was a civilian for the time being? Of course, a professional policeman could not exactly allow himself to put amateur minors in danger while doing his job, but he could at least understand why they would take action on their own. He raised both hands in a sign of defeat. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for worrying you.¡± ¡°Good. That answer gets a perfect 100.¡± Tsumada Mio smiled and rubbed his head like he was a small child. And since he had been in the wrong, he could not bring himself to brush her hand away. With a sour look on his face he let her due as she pleased. ¡°Now, how about this?¡± she suggested. ¡°Whatever you¡¯re doing, my special trait is sure to be useful while you¡¯re on the run.¡± ¡°¡­¡± He thought for a moment and then gave his answer. ¡°No, I can¡¯t use your help here.¡± She puffed her cheeks out again. ¡°Oh, um, but I won¡¯t be placing the whole burden on myself.¡± He frantically corrected himself. ¡°The mastermind we¡¯re after is out of reach. At this rate, we¡¯ll never be able to settle this. Our first priority is dragging him out onto our field. Moving along in secret won¡¯t do that. In fact, standing out even more than necessary would be perfect. And that means your power would have the opposite effect.¡± ¡°Ha ha. If you were actually thinking it through, then that¡¯s fine. Good, good.¡± When she clasped her hands in front of her chest and smiled brightly, he added in his heart that he had trouble dealing with this girl. Or rather, he always seemed to be at her mercy. ¡°But what exactly are you going to do? If you¡¯ll tell us in advance, it doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s to me, Tomoe-chan, or Enbi-san. We won¡¯t get jealous.¡± ¡°Okay then¡­¡± There was no real point in hiding it. ¡°This person killed someone and framed us to acquire a certain object.¡± ¡°Is that so? And?¡± ¡°What if someone appeared in the public eye with something that looked exactly like that object? He wouldn¡¯t be sure anymore if the one he had was real or not.¡± Part 16 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) By the time I overcame the turmoil around me and regrouped with PSI_ver_RAIN, it was already evening. I explained my overall plan and had her tell me more about Professor Matsukai¡¯s belt buckle. ¡°The belt was pretty unique. He said it was made of carbon something-or-other, so it was harder than diamond but still flexible. He apparently got the material from one of the university¡¯s departments that had developed it as a prototype for use in a space elevator¡¯s wire.¡± As she tried to remember, she also checked the past video logs on her mobile glasses. ¡°But the buckle itself was something he just bought in a store. I think it was some kind of joke product. You¡¯ll probably find one just like it for sale at an electronics store.¡± ¡°Then that¡¯s where we¡¯ll go next.¡± The two of us made our way to a nearby electronics store. The evening must have been when gadget-loving office workers stopped by on the way home from work because it was pretty crowded. Instead of rushing things, we followed the line up the escalator to our destination floor. ¡°Here we go. Is this it?¡± Surprisingly, there was more than one type of USB memory belt buckle. I asked PSI_ver_RAIN since I had never seen the professor¡¯s one and didn¡¯t know which one it was. But when I turned around, she was gone. Instead, she was standing in front of the TVs a short distance away. I approached and found all of the large TVs playing the evening news. This particular news program was partially a talk show and it emphasized the emotional side of things to target the housewife demographic. ¡°As you can see, Professor Matsukai Hiroshi is believed to have been murdered in his laboratory at Keijou Ijuku University by¡­well, she¡¯s a minor, so we can¡¯t give her real name or show her face. But the girl also goes by the name PSI_ver_RAIN.¡± ¡°This is part of the madness brought by the internet age. A self-styled psychic middle school girl? It reeks of the occult. She is said to be even worse than Tarot Girls 22 as far as that¡¯s concerned and I can¡¯t understand why anyone would ever praise her. Have they been brainwashed?¡± ¡°Her songs are popular on video sites, but they¡¯re kind of scary, aren¡¯t they? Like that woman¡¯s scream hidden in her latest song¡¯s PV. Kya ha ha! And when you can have the Vocanoids sing, why do you even need her?¡± Thanks to freedom of the press, everyone would say these people meant no harm, but the girl swallowed up by that deluge of sound and voices could not move a single step. She was simply overwhelmed. ¡°What was the point of anything I was doing?¡± muttered PSI_ver_RAIN. ¡°Why won¡¯t anyone believe me? Something¡¯s clearly wrong here, so won¡¯t someone at least say I wouldn¡¯t do something like that? Were my fans no better than this?¡± I hesitated to say something, but before I could¡­ ¡°And that¡¯s what a lot of people have been saying, but there are also others with a different view of PSI_ver_RAIN.¡± ¡­? The female announcer¡¯s voice strayed from the narrative I had expected. We both looked up in confusion as the woman on the TV continued. ¡°We did some research out on the streets and found a surprising number of people supporting PSI_ver_RAIN and claiming she was falsely accused. We asked one thousand different people and out of the 951 answers we received, 58% supported her, 30% opposed her, and the rest could not decide. Shockingly, a majority of people continue to support her even now.¡± ¡°She had no reason to kill. Her PVs¡¯ view counts are still shooting up and her single CDs are neck and neck with Tarot Girls 22 even though she¡¯s an amateur. That¡¯s seventy-eight against one! She has influence online and an endless number of online friends. What complaint could she possibly have worth killing over?¡± ¡°Yeah, even if she really was going to kill someone, whether she used her psychic powers or not, wouldn¡¯t she at least unlock the door before leaving? That negates the locked room scenario and makes plenty of other people suspects. The people hating on her aren¡¯t being logical.¡± ¡°Rain-chan¡¯s psychic powers can only be used to make people happy. It says so on her website! Eh heh heh. When I grow up, I want to be just like her.¡± A different color enveloped the deluge of sound and voices. She clenched her small fists around her skirt, clenched her teeth, and listened intently to those voices. Finally, she spoke. ¡°People are going to say these people supported a murderer for standing up for me, aren¡¯t they?¡± ¡°As things are now, yes.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll look like I used the madness of the internet to brainwash them into a cult to support me.¡± ¡°Until we clear your name.¡± We said nothing more. PSI_ver_RAIN slapped her cheeks just once. It was a ritual meant to wake her up. ¡°I don¡¯t care what they say about me.¡± Public opinion was split. She turned her back on the TVs that were saying whatever they pleased and she made an announcement. ¡°But I have to protect the lives of the people who believed in me.¡± Part 17 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) After getting the USB memory belt buckle we needed, we left the electronics store, I removed the product from its box, and PSI_ver_RAIN asked a question. ¡°What exactly are we going to do?¡± ¡°Can you grab that rock over there? I want to give it some noticeable marks and differences to make a better bluff.¡± I scratched up the surface of the buckle and then tossed the small stone aside. I checked the time on the Mystery Freak¡¯s smartphone and then glanced through the TV schedule. ¡­Good, they¡¯re doing one nearby. ¡°Let¡¯s go to Teikyo Tower. It¡¯s close enough to walk. One show always sends an announcer out there to do a live weather forecast at this time.¡± Part 18 (Jinnai Shinobu) When I got back home to the thatch-roof house afterschool, I found the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata, the Yuki Onna, and the Furutsubaki (small) discussing something in front of the TV. They were covering their eyes with one hand and raising their voices to squeaky helium levels. ¡°Ehh? Well, he did always seem like the kind of guy who would do something like that.¡± (Zashiki Warashi) ¡°Yes, I remember him giving the most disturbing looks to any girls around.¡± (Yuki Onna) ¡°Um, why do I have to play along with this?¡± (Furutsubaki ¨C Small) That¡¯s really inappropriate, you know!? Even if the fact that you¡¯re joking means you don¡¯t really think my uncle is a murderer!! The Nekomata was curled up not far away and she sighed while flipping her two tails around. ¡°They sure are carefree. Does everything on TV seem like some distant world? You do know the people there are no different from us, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yeah, but if they¡¯re making that uncle of mine out to be a villain, Tokyo¡¯s gotta be a scary place.¡± The talk shows had probably been talking about the same thing nonstop all day. That wasn¡¯t going to help, so I snatched the remote away from them. Ha ha! ¡°Ah! But I was about to do an impression of the (young housewife) neighbor who was taking out her trash.¡± ¡°I¡¯d suggest thinking about when you should stop this if you don¡¯t want to fall victim to my old man¡¯s fist. And there¡¯s a show I want to watch.¡± ¡°What would that be?¡± ¡°An incredibly inappropriate weather forecast. The weather lady¡¯s embarrassed expression is famous for being super sexy.¡± Part 19 (3rd person) Dong, dong. It is now five o¡¯clock. Up next is Yuuko-san¡¯s evening weather forecast!! ¡°Hi! This is the super beautiful meteorologist¡­ahh, it¡¯s so embarrassing when I say it myself¡­.Randou Yuuko! We¡¯re live from the base of Teikyo Tower as always, kyupin! ¡­I want to die¡­ Now, then. The atmospheric pressure this evening will be¡­¡± A young woman with fluffy chestnut hair, a suit, and a tight skirt that gave an overall clean and pure impression forced a smile and waved something like a baton in front of the camera. A ton of onlookers had gathered behind her and were abusing the live broadcast to unfurl banners covered in dirty words until the security guards ran them off. Those jokes bordering on sexual harassment were part of what gave this weather forecast such unusually high ratings. But it reached an entirely new level today. First, an idiot held a poster of Yuuko-san¡¯s head pasted on top of a nude model. Second, a group carrying bags from the rival gyudon chain of the show¡¯s sponsor walked conspicuously behind her. And third, a detective wanted for murder suddenly ran up and forcefully grabbed the TV camera. ¡°Eh? Wah! Kyah!? Wh-what is going on!?¡± The weather lady panicked, but the detective did not care. He simply stared into the lens from point-blank range and sent a message to someone with a ferocious smile on his lips. ¡°Sorry, but I haven¡¯t been caught yet.¡± He flashed something like a belt buckle in front of the camera. ¡°And you weren¡¯t thorough enough, Katagiri-san. I hear Konrin Naraku retrieved this like you hired them to, but do you really have the real one? If you do, then it should have a scratch on it like this. And it should open with the combination 8963¡­like this. If not, then you only have one of the decoys the professor had prepared.¡± The hare on the run stood in front of the camera without running or hiding. He seemed to be challenging the wolf pursuing him. ¡°I¡¯m a detective. I¡¯ll do whatever it takes to hunt you down. Even if that means using this to join forces with them. With the search program on this USB memory, I can bring all your dirty deeds to light. I¡¯ll make you pay for framing PSI_ver_RAIN.¡± Katagiri Hitsuji was a member of the Restaurant Master, the former leader of the precision machinery industry, and the current leader of cutting-edge agriculture. To make that switch, he had killed off the dying precision machinery industry while escaping it himself. In a way, he was a traitor. ¡°Our next stop is the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Once we¡¯re in there, we don¡¯t have to worry about any of your Konrin Naraku men getting to us. We¡¯ll decide how to handle things from there. I¡¯ll have PSI_ver_RAIN testify what actually happened there and I¡¯ll gather all the substantiating evidence we need. And then I¡¯ll use this real buckle to hunt you down, Katagiri Hitsuji-san. No matter what.¡± It did not matter if he truly held the real buckle or not. He just had to cast doubt. Was the one Katagiri had real? Even if it was, were there any copies? If the real one or a copy reached the Aoandon¡¯s group and was linked to the facility hidden in Nagatacho Station¡¯s shelter, whose secrets would be revealed to the world and how? ¡°You can¡¯t escape now. Even if you pack your bags and escape overseas, the fingers of destruction will still tighten around you. So sit there in front of the TV and enjoy watching your life crumble away.¡± After saying everything he had to say, Detective Uchimaku Hayabusa left the camera, slipped past the cowering meteorologist, and escaped through a gap in the onlookers. Incidentally, the ratings that day ultimately exceeded 30%. For better or for worse, that was apparently a cause of worry for the station. As Hishigami Enbi watched the broadcast while messing with her computer in her Roppongi secret base, she laughed. ¡°Not bad, detective.¡± What could someone do and change in just thirty seconds or so of stolen airtime? The answer was not much. But Uchimaku Hayabusa had no reason to use only the truth as a weapon. Also, the internet was PSI_ver_RAIN¡¯s home turf. She wasn¡¯t going to rely only on that outdated mass media. ¡°I guess this is PSI_ver_RAIN and not the detective.¡± The weather forecast was linked with a social commenting site to display some comments on the edge of the screen. One of those comments alongside Hayabusa¡¯s face said the following: ¡°Katagiri Hitsuji is a member of the Restaurant Master and a villain who framed PSI_ver_RAIN.¡± That alone may have been meaningless and may not have moved anyone¡¯s heart. But there were more posts afterwards. ¡°The recent communication disturbances have been caused by Katagiri Hitsuji because he¡¯s afraid of the truth getting out. The elites are threatened by the freedom of the internet.¡± No new information was necessary. Not even PSI_ver_RAIN¡¯s name was needed. The obvious problems before everyone¡¯s eyes were linked to this incident to increase its topicality. A murder was someone else¡¯s problem and a scandal was a show, but this went beyond that. By linking it to a problem that affected people¡¯s lives directly, it was everyone¡¯s problem. Or at least, it seemed that way. The truth of the infrastructure damage did not matter. A viral conspiracy theory was good enough. It did not even need to make a huge commotion. All that mattered was that someone posted it, someone spread it around, and Katagiri Hitsuji himself saw his name popping up in more and more places. This was the same as Panopticon and The Birth of the Prison. Katagiri Hitsuji had shined bright lights on the people to constantly view them while hidden by those very lights, so he was afraid of having his identity known. Only doing it on TV might not have been enough. Only doing it on the internet might not have been enough. But the more complex structure of internet posts being shown on TV created an opening. The shocking footage of the live broadcast would gather eyes and ears which would then be exposed to the truth. Then, the second wave of attack would begin with nonsense on the internet. Katagiri Hitsuji himself would bring the two together. A small leak of accurate information would be a problem, but so were lies spreading at an accelerated rate. If he did not quiet them soon, it would grow beyond the limits of his damage control and his own lies would create a noose around his neck, so the only safe option was to crush the source before that monster of data bared its fangs. And yet in truth, only five or six people in Japan may have been causing the entire commotion. ¡°A net idol, hm? That¡¯s pretty scary. I guess the techniques used to make people smile can also be used to set a bad example like this.¡± Enbi spoke to herself while making her own preparations. ¡°Time to help out. I¡¯ll target a few of the popular social networking servers while leaving one major message board alive.¡± She made a few clicks. ¡°And begin the DDoS attack. Once their online services freeze, will that old man start to fear that even more groundless accusations will pop up?¡± In the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Department 1 Chief Mezu Gen¡¯s severe look had grown even more deeply wrinkled than usual. A supervisor experienced in field work spoke to him from the side. ¡°What do you think?¡± ¡°Hmph. Most likely a bluff. But he must think that¡¯s fine as long as that VIP takes the bait. And if there is someone behind this, they¡¯re willing to murder a man and bisect his torso to protect themselves. If they were willing to accept a ¡®most likely¡¯, they would have stopped before going that far.¡± The phone rang. The detective who answered looked on the verge of tears, so Mezu Gen took over and heard a familiar voice. It was Chief Superintendent Mishima. ¡°He¡¯s really done it now, hasn¡¯t he?¡± ¡°I will contact the personnel department and have him disciplined.¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s not how I meant it. You know who the winner is here, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°¡­But he didn¡¯t go far enough.¡± ¡°No. He may have drawn out Katagiri Hitsuji, but I doubt he can finish him off. He¡¯ll have a frustrating experience and then it¡¯ll be all over. Just like what happened to me in the past. ¡­You too for that matter.¡± The man on the phone laughed before continuing. ¡°So what do you think we should do? Should we do the responsible thing and remain silent or should we bring back our old naivet¨¦ and childishly cheer him on? Which do you think would be best?¡± In Hachi TV¡¯s office building, Atou Minori was being chewed out by her middle-aged boss after going against the station¡¯s wishes by running a program supporting PSI_ver_RAIN. ¡°Public opinion of our media is bad enough already, so what were you thinking!? How could you hand them a report that supported a murderer!?¡± ¡°I was misappropriating the airwaves. That¡¯s all.¡± ¡°Why you¡­!!¡± ¡°Besides, PSI_ver_RAIN is still only a suspect. She hasn¡¯t even been taken into custody or indicted yet. Making your show on the assumption she¡¯s a murderer sounds even more unfair to me. And we did mention both the supporting and non-supporting opinions.¡± ¡°You understand, don¡¯t you? If it turns out she¡¯s really the murderer, you¡¯re fired.¡± ¡°Right back at you. If it turns out she isn¡¯t the murderer, you¡¯re going to be in trouble. You were all for broadcasting false charges and about a minor girl no less. If it gets out that sloppy reporting job was on your orders, PSI_ver_RAIN will be lifted up to Joan of Arc levels and you¡¯ll be treated like utter trash. There¡¯s no way the station will keep you around.¡± ¡°¡­!!¡± ¡°And why did you force through a program like that anyway?¡± Atou Minori asked a challenging question. ¡°Is it possible someone gave an obvious boost to your bank account so you would manipulate public opinion?¡± And on the top floor of a high-rise building, an elderly man in Japanese clothing bit his lip like a child. After a wet tearing sound, some blood seeped out. He struck the phone on the table and yelled with it on speakerphone. ¡°What is going on!? I thought you had retrieved it!?¡± ¡°We did retrieve the buckle. But we never considered the possibility it had been swapped out with a fake. You were the one that told us to destroy it without checking the contents.¡± ¡°He used my name! He said ¡®Katagiri Hitsuji¡¯ in front of the camera! He mentioned the Restaurant Master that is supposed to control everything while hiding in the shadows of history!! It¡¯s even reached the social networking sites!!¡± ¡°Please calm down. You can¡¯t exactly blame us for this.¡± Getting the work done as quickly as possible had come back to bite him. If he still had the buckle around, he could check the data on it to confirm the truth. ¡°You really can¡¯t tell if that buckle he showed on camera is real or fake!?¡± ¡°There is no way of proving it one way or another. I would need it in my hands to check what is on it.¡± ¡°¡­!!¡± Katagiri Hitsuji was not a fool. If that detective really had the buckle, he would not need to show it off like that. So it was most likely a bluff. It was like fishing. The detective had thrown some delicious-looking bait into the water and was waiting for a bite. That meant the detective could not do anything if Katagiri Hitsuji did not react. Doing nothing at all was the best course of action. He knew that. He knew that, he knew that, he knew that!! But even so, there was a mere 10% chance it was real or a backup copy. Even that small a chance of his destruction was frightening enough, so he could not stop himself from trembling. ¡°Prepare your men, Konrin Naraku.¡± ¡°For what exactly?¡± ¡°Attack him and take it from him. I¡¯ll nip even the smallest threat in the bud and I¡¯ll pay whatever it takes!! So hurry up and attack before he arrives at the Metropolitan Police Department!!¡± ¡°I must apologize.¡± Something unbelievable happened. That underling from the king of fast food argued back at him with mockery in his voice. It was like throwing aside the cheap manual and spitting on the customer¡¯s face. ¡°We are assassins. And no professional will list something they cannot do on their menu.¡± ¡°Wha-¡­?¡± ¡°First, all forms of transportation are down at the moment, so we have no way of getting the personnel and weapons there quickly. Second, we only know the general course the target will take. That is too little information to lay an ambush and we cannot put together a surefire attack plan in such a short time. Third, I see little reason to stick with you any longer when you¡¯re already sinking fast.¡± ¡°Do you have any idea what you¡¯re saying? I¡­I am¡­I am the Restaurant Mas-¡­!!¡± ¡°But by tomorrow, you might have lost that status and might even be behind bars. In fact, killing you to aid my own escape might be the better bet here. There¡¯s sure to be plenty of confusion during your arrest and I doubt they can keep you perfectly guarded at all times.¡± Katagiri Hitsuji was left speechless. If someone on this level was looking down on him, it was proof enough that his empire had fallen. ¡°We will not act,¡± continued the king of fast food. ¡°If you wish to protect yourself, go right ahead. I am praying you can greet tomorrow¡¯s sunrise with a smile so that you might continue to purchase our services. Goodbye.¡± As his coup de grace of impoliteness, he hung up. Katagiri Hitsuji hit redial several times, but the other man never picked up. ¡°¡­¡± The old man¡¯s mind remained blank for a good while. But he could not just sit around. If no one was going to stop this, the detective with the dubious buckle would reach the Metropolitan Police Department. ¡°Dammit¡­¡± He placed a hand on and tore at the hair remaining by the old scar on the side of his head, but then he grabbed a small key in his trembling hand and unlocked a drawer on his large business desk. He pulled out an automatic handgun with forbidden ivory decorating the grip. The domestic firearm used 8mm ammunition which was rare in modern times, so it was more of an antique than a weapon. ¡°Dammit!! Why do I have to rely on something like this!?¡± The answer was simple. No matter how much he dressed himself up, he was still just a thug. Part 20 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) PSI_ver_RAIN and I left the plaza below Teikyo Tower. I looked around the area and spotted a riot policeman stepping down from a large police motorcycle to faithfully crack down on a case of illegal parking even during this panic. Before he got back, I climbed on the motorcycle that still had the key in the ignition. Hey, this thing¡¯s based on the Falcon Hunter model. I can feel destiny on my side, partner. After PSI_ver_RAIN sat on the back of the seat and wrapped her arms around my waist, I twisted the grip to open the throttle. ¡°I¡¯ll be borrowing this.¡± ¡°Ah, hey! Wait!¡± The roar of the engine drowned out the cry of protest and we quickly took off along the road. There were small-scale traffic jams all over the place, so the motorcycle really came in handy. We could weave in between traffic and the police cars couldn¡¯t give chase even if they noticed us. ¡°I¡¯m going to use the biggest roads I can so we¡¯ll be as noticeable as possible! It¡¯s to lure out the guy behind all this, but it¡¯ll also increase the risk. I know this isn¡¯t something a police officer should say to a civilian, but prepare yourself!!¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you I don¡¯t care about myself? I¡¯ll help you with anything as long as it will protect the lives of those who believed in me!!¡± I checked in the mirror and saw PSI_ver_RAIN desperately trying to hold her hat down behind me. We both yelled over the violent wind as I accelerated further. The police motorcycle was made for car chases, so we passed 100 kph in no time at all. Yes, yes! This noise, this wind, this vibration, this acceleration! This takes me back to when I was racing around my rural home. Hairpin Killer Hayabusa is back!! Then sirens started blaring. Three identical police motorcycles merged in from smaller roads. Some police cars had probably been sent out too, but they were stuck in the traffic jams. ¡°Attention, suspect!! Slow down at once and park on the curb! We have been given permission to fire on any dangerous criminal carrying a firearm! I said stop, you dirty cop!!¡± ¡°Hey, which do you think they are!?¡± ¡°If they were with Konrin Naraku, they probably would have started shooting already. Either way, we need to lose them!!¡± The bike chase began. Unlike on a normal road, we made our way forward by weaving between the stopped cars of the traffic jam. I was lucky when there were seventy whole centimeters between cars. I was zooming through at over 100 kph, but it felt like twice that. ¡°Is the guy behind this really going to show up!?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re worried, agitate him even further! Make it so obvious he has to take the bait!!¡± ¡°I¡¯m trying!!¡± I checked in the side mirror and saw PSI_ver_RAIN holding her hat on her head and operating her mobile glasses with her eyes. ¡°I¡¯ve been recording all sorts of stuff. Even when you fired your gun to save that swimsuit girl. I¡¯m scattering it across the video sites. Someone wanting to paint us both as villains won¡¯t want it known that you were acting in justified self-defense!!¡± ¡°I thought no one would trust videos and posts from you!¡± ¡°Things are already changing. It began when you showed your face on TV and the waves of attack began on the internet. No one really cares what¡¯s accurate anymore. Whether it¡¯s inappropriate or not, they¡¯re going to jump at what¡¯s more eye-grabbing and more interesting!¡± I started getting a stomachache as the chase continued, but then something odd happened. Horns started honking all around us. Things seemed to be shifting in our favor and the drivers stuck in the traffic jam seemed to be cheering us on. Before long, some even opened their windows and shouted angrily out. ¡°You on the police bikes! Let them through!!¡± ¡°They¡¯re going to the Metropolitan Police Department anyway, aren¡¯t they!? Then what¡¯s the point of arresting them? Are you chasing them around so you can take the credit!?¡± And finally¡­ ¡°Wow! Look at that! The cars are opening their doors behind us!¡± ¡°I¡¯m thankful, but that¡¯s really dangerous!!¡± As I had said, we were weaving through the gaps of the cars in the traffic jam, so opening the doors filled those gaps. If they kept doing it, our pursuers couldn¡¯t keep up the chase. After leaving that small traffic jam, we started down a wide open road. At the same time, several police cars attacked us without their previous handicap. And they didn¡¯t bother warning us this time. They took advantage of their greater weight by trying to crash into us from the side! ¡°Dammit! Are there post-apocalyptic mohawked thugs behind the wheels of those things!?¡± I slammed on the brakes, letting the cars pass by ahead of us and then started going full throttle once more. The cars shot to the side while working to regain their balance, so we passed right by them. Teikyo Tower and the Metropolitan Police Department were not that far from each other, but the distance seemed to stretch out infinitely due to the extreme tension. Meanwhile, a group of red lights appeared up ahead. Several police cars ignored the lane markings, turned their steering wheels to the side on the straight road, and finally forced themselves to a stop while perpendicular to the road. They intended to stop us with their makeshift barricade. ¡°What are we going to do!?¡± ¡°They didn¡¯t have time to build it up properly!! We can slip through the gaps, so hold on! I¡¯m going to turn right then left, so shift your weight with me!¡± I didn¡¯t have time to give a detailed explanation of the route. I opened the throttle to the limit and weaved in a half S-shape to just barely slip through the not-quite-closed barricade of cars arranged like mille-feuille. Afterwards, I heard breaking glass and bending steel behind us as the pursuing police cars slammed into the barricade. ¡°Ah ha ha.¡± PSI_ver_RAIN laughed. I suddenly realized the grim situation had kept me from seeing a carefree smile on her face. ¡°Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!! We¡¯re running from the police on a stolen police bike with no helmet and we¡¯re even causing accidents!! Is this really the capital of Japan!? I could probably turn this into the PV for a new song!!¡± We had lost pursuit for the time being, but more police would reach us as we approached Sakuradamon. Where would they make their move? Everything so far had been mere preparation. Our enemy wasn¡¯t going to sit around doing nothing. They had to have a surefire idea of how to finish us off and mock all of our efforts. ¡°Here they come again. ¡­!? It¡¯s from above this time!! There¡¯s a helicopter!!¡± ¡°Hold on! Whatever they send out, we just have to lose it!!¡± Part 21 (3rd person) Katagiri Hitsuji trembled all alone. There was no one else to delegate this job to. It was bad enough that his handgun would be found if the police questioned him and searched his possessions, but he also had to walk through the city on foot instead of using a chauffeured limousine. He swore to himself he would retire from the Restaurant after finishing this job. He already had enough money to live and enjoy himself until the day he died. Continuing his work had only been a matter of pride. He had used the Restaurant as a safety device to ensure his dark past never came to light, but that was on the verge of breaking and the Restaurant itself could easily turn on him now. Since he might very well find himself in handcuffs by the next day, he could hardly worry about pride. He focused on quitting and going somewhere safe. So¡­ (I¡¯ll settle this once and for all. Even if it means dirtying my own hands, I¡¯ll end this here.) He had no intelligence network, so he did not even know what route Uchimaku Hayabusa and PSI_ver_RAIN would take to reach the Metropolitan Police Department. At first glance, an ambush seemed impossible, but there was one definite location. Yes. Right in front of the Metropolitan Police Department itself. (I¡¯ll be safe as long as I can crush this. Nothing will ever threaten my lifestyle again. I¡¯ll crush the Aoandon Package no matter what it takes. I¡¯ll crush it!! I won¡¯t let it see the light of day for even an instant!!) He heard the roaring of an engine. The uniformed police officer guarding the front entrance shouted ¡°Whoa, he really made it here!? What is with that guy!?¡± and a bowling ball-like weight pressed down on Katagiri Hitsuji¡¯s stomach. He had always used money to delegate away any dirty jobs, so he had never expected to feel this kind of pressure again. The detective on a police motorcycle gave a look of both relief and disappointment. The man may have thought he would be safe if he made it this far, but that was exactly what created an opening. ¡°Let¡¯s get this started,¡± muttered Katagiri Hitsuji while reaching into his pocket. He then rushed over to the materials entrance. Part 22 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Dry gunshots rang out. I immediately shoved PSI_ver_RAIN from the back of the seat and behind the stopped police motorcycle. That much went well. But then I felt a scorching sensation and smelled something like rust. I clenched my teeth to bear with the pain, pulled my own handgun from my pocket, and held it forward. I just had to last ten more seconds. If I could silence this guy, it would all work out. So that was all I had to do! We exchanged gunfire and our bullets tore at each other¡¯s lives. I had been firing from the motorcycle, but I finally couldn¡¯t stay upright. The motorcycle and I both collapsed to the side. As I fell, the buckle fell from my suit pocket. Sparks flew as one of the old man¡¯s bullets hit the center of the buckle. PSI_ver_RAIN shouted something while moving the heavy motorcycle to the side and dragging me out from under it. Then Nakata-san and the rest of the guards out front ran over. ¡°Freeze!!¡± ¡°Possession of a handgun confirmed! 5:20 PM! Moving to arrest criminal!!¡± Despite taking several bullets to the limbs and gut, the old man got up under his own power. He was stained with blood here and there, but he was still smiling. ¡°Let me go. No one can arrest me.¡± ¡°What¡­are you talking about?¡± ¡°Strategic cultural property. That designation applies to the seeds of brand-name crops, the methods used to grow them, the industrial art made from them¡­and the living national treasures that make them. In other words, I am a strategic cultural property. Anything with that designation is considered a national asset and is erased from all official records to keep it secret. Even if those records belong to a murder trial.¡± The old man spun his handgun around to draw attention to it. ¡°So you can¡¯t arrest me even if I show this off. You can¡¯t keep it as evidence when the arrest is determined to have ¡®never happened¡¯. You can write up and submit as much paperwork as you want, but I doubt anyone will be sent to trial when the suspect field is blank.¡± What he was saying gradually sank in. Mishima had said the truth behind Nagatacho Station was designated a specially designated secret and a strategic cultural property. By intentionally placing multiple information protection systems on it, no one knew whose jurisdiction it fell under. And he had mentioned the Restaurant Master as someone on the same level. This was what he had meant. The old man could be arrested and a trial could be held, but the name field would remain blank. It would all end up in the following scenario: ¡°****** is sentenced to life in prison for the crime of murder. But who is ******?¡± He was a living national treasure. In the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, the government had promised to provide support in protecting and repairing anything designated an important cultural property. It also required a thorough preservation of the status quo. And that applied to scenery, buildings, works of art, and the individuals known as living national treasures. With a strategic cultural property, the law probably went a step further and said ¡°no matter what¡±. It would be problematic if they were abducted by a foreign spy, killed, executed, or otherwise allowed to die. So the government would do whatever it took to maintain the status quo even if that meant overturning any kind of criminal conviction. It was all for the benefit of the nation. But did he really have that kind of protection? Hadn¡¯t that entire system been newly created by people like him who worked behind the scenes so they could never be charged with a crime? Hadn¡¯t they made this so they were as untouchable as a deadly Youkai even if they killed someone? ¡°That¡¯s utter nonsense! Do you really think you¡¯ll get away with doing all that just to protect yourself!?¡± ¡°The system may change in the future, but it will be too late to catch me. I don¡¯t care if this creates the greatest scandal of all time as long as I am not actually imprisoned. And as long as they don¡¯t divulge any secrets powerful enough to shake the entire Restaurant structure, the system can easily handle a simple case of firing a gun. But Detective Uchimaku, I will be leaving now. I¡¯ve destroyed the USB memory belt buckle, so there is no chance of the Aoandon¡¯s Package being used now. Not even the slightest chance. As long as I dispose of all the little pieces of evidence while you try to settle your own issues, I can return to my own comfortable life.¡± At that moment, the police department¡¯s front entrance opened and Division 1¡¯s chief stepped out. He quickly glanced over the tragic scene and ultimately fixed his eyes on Katagiri Hitsuji. ¡°Long time no see.¡± ¡°What is it? I was just about to leave.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re designated a living national treasure and thus a strategic cultural property, are you? And so your name can¡¯t appear on any official paperwork, even for a murder trial?¡± ¡°Unfair, isn¡¯t it? But those are the rules of this country.¡± ¡°Yes, terribly unfair.¡± For some reason, the department chief gave the old man a look of pity. ¡°Those rules only apply when all of the official paperwork has been submitted and approved by the cabinet at the time. And that means they don¡¯t apply if anything was missed there.¡± ¡°Wait¡­? What are you talking about?¡± ¡°The submitted paperwork was reviewed and a slight error was discovered in one of the forms. And thus you were never officially considered a strategic cultural property in the first place. Yes, I just received word from the head of the ruling party.¡± ¡°I never¡­ I never heard anything about that!!¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I just tell you? This country¡¯s rules are terribly unfair. ¡­Arrest him.¡± The one command settled it all. Like army ants swarming a sugar cube, Nakata-san and the other police officers restrained the old man who had risen to such lonely heights. What had happened without my knowledge? I blankly watched the old man¡¯s back as he was handcuffed. Then the department chief spoke up. ¡°You need to thank Chief Superintendent Mishima. He made up for everything you lacked. We are limited to only protecting the law and order of Tokyo, so we could never have done it on our own.¡± ¡°Mishima-san¡­did?¡± ¡°I have no idea what exactly he did, but we could apparently find out if we used the Aoandon Package to divulge all of Japan¡¯s secret rules. ¡­But would you really want to know?¡± Part 23 (3rd person) In a National Police Agency office, a man spun like a child in a leather chair. He sighed quietly while a subordinate reported on their progress over the office phone. ¡°So it¡¯s over for now, is it?¡± ¡°Sounds that way,¡± someone replied. A young woman in a tank top and hot pants leaned against the wall with her arms crossed instead of using the sofa meant for guests. These two would normally have never interacted. If they ever saw each other, they should only have tilted their heads and wondered why the other was not dead yet, but the two were unnaturally gathered here. ¡°I wish we could tie things up this nicely every time.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky now, okay? I know you haven¡¯t forgotten what happened when you tried to create a mass-produced paranormal unit meant to directly judge crimes involving Youkai.¡± ¡°I know. And I can never repay the debt I owe to Hyakki Yakou¡¯s previous generation. ¡­It was my arrogance that led to that husband and wife¡¯s death. And that¡¯s what held this country back by thirty years.¡± His face had grown pale and his chair had stopped moving. ¡°Anyway, this should have settled everything related to that belt buckle. Both the real one retrieved by Katagiri Hitsuji and Konrin Naraku and the fake one prepared by Uchimaku-kun.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°In that case¡­¡± Chief Superintendent Mishima grabbed the laptop on top of his desk. Without a change of expression, he threw it at Mai¡¯s face as hard as he could. It slipped right past her face, slammed into the wall, and fell to the floor. The screen displayed countless error messages, but not even they could hide the fear contained there. ¡°Why is the deepest portion of Nagatacho Station running? The Aoandon Package is still connected!!¡± ¡°I can only think of one possibility.¡± Mai sounded entirely calm. ¡°Professor Matsukai Hiroshi had already sent the completed search program to the Aoandon via the internet before Konrin Naraku bisected him. The buckle really was just a portable backup, so it isn¡¯t surprising that the main storage lay elsewhere.¡± ¡°You mean¡­?¡± ¡°The Aoandon¡¯s group has acquired the entire system of Japan. I don¡¯t know what they¡¯re going to use it for, but they have no real reason to wait any longer. The Hishigami woman spoke the words befitting that role. ¡°The countdown has ended. All that¡¯s left is the destruction of this nation.¡± Part 24 (Aoandon) Search Target: Nagatacho Station Data (Deepest Sector) Search Term: Japanese DNA Standard Oh, how troublesome. Facilities with DNA in cold storage sounded like something from a cyberpunk or SF story that you wouldn¡¯t just find lying around, but they were everywhere. They were all over the place. There were obvious ones like police-related facilities, sperm banks, and gene therapy or organ transplant centers, but there were also germ research labs, biometrics development, brand-name rice and cow research, zoos, aquariums, people who wanted to store the DNA of dinosaurs or famous people, and even dubious companies that would store a customer¡¯s DNA to carry them five hundred years into the future. That made it hard to know where what we wanted was. And a thorough search would eventually give away what we were after, so I had wanted a system to give me the answer right away. Beginning Search. Searching¡­ Oh, and a ¡°standard¡± referred to an actual object that provided a standard definition of something. There was one for the kilogram, the meter, and plenty of other things. This one was for Japanese DNA, so you can guess what that means, right? They had apparently gotten help from the daughters of esteemed old families to define what exactly a Japanese person is and what genetic sequence that entailed. Of course, there are a number of theories about the origins of the Japanese. There was the indigenous theory, the monophyletic theory, and plenty of others, so that attempt didn¡¯t get very far. They had ultimately taken a few different samples that they thought might be where the Japanese came from and then gathered them together. There were as many samples as there were theories. And while studying those samples, an interesting theory arose from a different viewpoint entirely. Have you ever heard of junk DNA? DNA normally refers to the accumulated information that lets children inherit traits of their parents, but 97% of it is junk with no actual hereditary information at all. But it¡¯s still a storage medium and the unnecessary information inside the DNA is still passed down from parent to child. So what¡¯s there? What if a human embryo simply can¡¯t read it and it contains data unrelated to the inheritance of physical traits? For example, what if it has secretly absorbed and recorded information concerning the local land and environment and what if that information had been passed down all this time? Wouldn¡¯t that go beyond those samples? Wouldn¡¯t all of the lives born in Japan be filled with shared information on the land known as Japan? If so, they could achieve their initial goal by decoding that junk DNA and preserving the environmental data built up over generations. If the many samples all contained a shared junk factor, they would have a sign pinpointing a life born in this land. It was really only an amusing theory for them, but it was incredibly interesting to the likes of us. After all, the people of this country didn¡¯t even know the name of their own country. Was it ¡°Nihon¡± or ¡°Nippon¡±? And during the Olympics or the World Cup it would transform into ¡°Japan¡±. To be blunt, I was pretty sure no other country in the entire world had remained in such an undefined state for so long. That made the Japanese something of an illusion contained in a vaguely-defined category. It was enough to leave them worried if they didn¡¯t find something to define themselves. But then what if we got our hands on that Japanese DNA Standard? What if we messed with it as we saw fit? The answer was simple. Like with a doll curse, the definition of what made someone ¡°Japanese¡± would be rewritten. We could make them into whatever we wanted: the Japanese have horns growing from their head, the Japanese fly through the sky using the wings on their back, the Japanese primarily eat raw slugs, the Japanese are a bunch of perverts who go to work and school in the nude, etc. etc. Wouldn¡¯t that be fun? Of course it would. It would be the ultimate entertainment brought on by the very catastrophe you wished for yourselves. Search Complete: Location Confirmed. Border between Intellectual Village Noukotsu Village and Bozen City. Flower Offering Route 4 at the base of Mt. Boseki. Livestock Research Center. Third Genetic Cold Storage Warehouse. ¡°Found it¡î¡± Oh, that¡¯s the mountain where I met Sachi-chan before. And Noukotsu Village, hm? That¡¯s where that boy lives, so I can feel destiny at work here. It was time to begin and I had no real reason to hesitate. Get ready, Japanese. Yes, all 150 million of you. I¡¯m about to begin the ultimate performance that you¡¯ve been waiting for amid all this boredom and oppression. So make sure you enjoy it until your very soul drowns in it. Part 25 (3rd person) The highest leader of Hyakki Yakou was a girl of about ten. She was known as Hafuri and had arrived at a domestic aircraft factory in Kobe. She wore mourning clothes filled with sorrow. Were they meant as a tribute to the Aoandon¡¯s group, as a demonstration of her intention to personally visit an area of near certain death, or as an outward symbol of her feelings toward the falling archipelago? ¡°Oh, dear. Where did you hear that from? You¡¯re being completely unreasonable.¡± A young man dressed casually in a kimono spoke casually on a wide runway. He was Hishigami Kyou. Of the Hishigami men, he was third in line to inheriting the family, but the girl in mourning clothes bearing the Hyakki Yakou emblem was not to be outdone. ¡°I¡¯m sure you know our mobile base was destroyed by the Aoandon¡¯s group. I received word that I could obtain a replacement here at Hishigami Aerospace Industries.¡± ¡°If you want to hold such unreasonable business discussions, could you take it to the Toyokawa Group? Their cars keep getting recalled, so I expect they would jump at any request you made.¡± ¡°The infrastructure damage has affected them too badly to function.¡± Hishigami Kyou shook his head and a note of resignation entered his voice. ¡°It would be hard to call anything here a product. After the Three Principles on Arms Exports were relaxed, we have been testing the production lines of our new factories to make sure they work properly. You could call these answer sheets, so we did not intend to sell them.¡± ¡°But that means no one has claimed them and we have a chance to secretly purchase them.¡± ¡°¡­Is the situation that dire?¡± ¡°If you will accept an estimate, the entire concept of Japan as a nation will vanish within approximately 24 hours.¡± ¡°Honestly, it can be scary what qualifies as reasonable. Especially when it changes entirely from one second to the next. If that¡¯s the age we live in, I suppose it would be reasonable to sell them to you.¡± With a heavy sound, the door to the giant hangar-like factory behind him opened to the left and right. With weak blasts of jet engines, large flying machines exited. There were six strategic stealth bombers that should not have existed in Japan. There was also an airborne warning and control aircraft to command them. ¡°That should suffice for our new base.¡± ¡°But due to the short notice, we could not decorate the interior. I doubt it is exactly to your liking. These are nothing more than bare military weapons.¡± ¡°Given the situation, that is actually preferable. You can confirm receipt of payment at any time. Oh, and can we take them right away?¡± ¡°You really are unreasonable¡­¡± Hafuri ignored him and raised a hand. A great number of personnel rushed toward their new wings. There was nothing to hide behind on the runway, so it was impossible to tell where they had been hidden. ¡°Our destination is Noukotsu Village. I wanted to avoid a fight with civilians around, but we have no choice here. We will deploy at once and attack the Aoandon¡¯s group. We must do whatever it takes to prevent the Japanese DNA Standard from falling into their hands!¡± Part 26 (Jinnai Shinobu) It was wrong to my uncle, but the commotion really had felt like something contained to the world inside the TV. I had believed we were safe and that we only needed to wait for word that everything had ended without major incident. So when I heard the explosive sound, I immediately shrank back. ¡°Wh-what the hell!?¡± I first looked up to the ceiling and then ran out to the yard. I saw something unbelievable there. A group of giant bombers was flying through the sky. Several fighters flew about to protect them. And instead of just passing by, they were moving at a leisurely pace as if they had chosen the sky above our village as their hunting grounds. I recalled what the Nekomata had said. ¡°They sure are carefree. Does everything on TV seem like some distant world? You do know the people there are no different from us, don¡¯t you?¡± She was exactly right. On that day, Noukotsu Village was visited by a catastrophe that could easily be called a war. Volume 6, Epilogue: Destruction, Execution Volume 6, Epilogue: Destruction, Execution Jinnai Shinobu was suddenly thrown into an unbelievable situation and he was on the verge of tears from the very beginning. But he knew just how serious Hyakki Yakou and similar groups were. He knew how easily precious human life would be lost once a legitimate battle began. Several faces appeared in his mind¡¯s eye, but he started by running into the thatch-roof house. He had to tell his father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother of the threat. Or so he thought. ¡°Granny! Dammit!!¡± His grandmother was collapsed in the middle of the hall. He thought it may have been a sudden illness, but he was wrong. He was only an amateur, but he didn¡¯t see anything obvious like pain or paleness on her face. It almost looked like she was sleeping. But she would not wake up no matter how much he called for her or shook her shoulders. ¡°Shinobu, something¡¯s wrong in the brewery too. I don¡¯t hear any of the young men yelling.¡± ¡°So it isn¡¯t just granny?¡± Something was happening, but he did not know what. He left his grandmother with the Zashiki Warashi and made his way from the backyard to the brewery. It was a delicate facility, so he had to wear a simple white protective suit to keep germs out. After being slowed down by that preparation, he peered through the heavy door he was normally not allowed through and saw men dressed in the same type of protective suit collapsed on the floor. One of them was his father. A bubbling sound came from a bucket twice as tall as he was, so he initially suspected it was some kind of gas. But he was wrong again. That was not what was going on here. ¡°Zashiki Warashi, Succubus, Furutsubaki! Put on protective suits and help me carry out my dad and the others. Oh, not you Yuki Onna. They¡¯ve told you to stay away from the brewery, haven¡¯t they!?¡± Inhuman Youkai were convenient at times like this. They easily lifted up the human bodies like they were paper bags. They also found and gathered Shinobu¡¯s mother and grandfather. It was obvious where they had to go. Shinobu could not imagine what those bombers held inside, but he knew they could not outlast it just by trembling inside their house. And the one with the greatest power was the Yuki Onna. ¡°We¡¯ll be using your ice room.¡± After stating his intention, Shinobu opened the door on the kitchen floor. An intense chill rose from it, but he went on to say more. ¡°Listen, Yuki Onna. Everyone here is only sleeping. If we just threw them inside the ice room, they¡¯d die. So I don¡¯t care if it¡¯s an igloo or what. Just make something out of snow to keep them warm. And make it as solid as possible on the outside. Solid enough to defend against a bomb. Can you do that?¡± ¡°...Easily...¡± Shinobu thought while he and the Youkai removed their protective suits. He thought of the Zashiki Warashi, the Nekomata, both Furutsubaki, and the harmless Youkai his mother had brought in, but none of them were enough to deal with Hyakki Yakou in their mobile base. Who could properly deal with an entire group or organization? After some more thought, he spoke up. ¡°Succubus.¡± ¡°Yes, what is it?¡± ¡°You controlled a large organization known as the European Security Force, right? Lend me your knowledge to fight against these people and drive them off.¡± ¡°Well, you are my current master. If you make a contract to that end, I will obey.¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± ¡°I know it¡¯s dangerous! But Madoka, Nagisa, the Love King, Tarou, and tons of other people are still in the village! I¡¯m not going to let them destroy it all for their own convenience!¡± With that said, Shinobu ran from the thatch-roof house with the Succubus in tow. Things were not much better outside. People were lying collapsed on the ground, a light electric truck had crashed into a dry paddy field, and he spotted a Lamp Obake and Umbrella Obake panicking on a farm road. ¡°S-someone! Anyone! Is there a doctor around!?¡± ¡°Mhh, was everyone really wiped out? 119 isn¡¯t even answering.¡± (You idiots.) Shinobu¡¯s face turned blue, not red. He did not even have it in him to feel anger. (You should have stayed inside the house! I¡¯m sure the other Youkai have all fled already!!) ¡°Hey, Lantern and Umbrella! Come with me if you want to live!!¡± ¡°Eh? What? B-but Hiro-sama and his mother are...¡± ¡°We need to figure out what caused that and you can¡¯t rely on the fact that Youkai don¡¯t die. So don¡¯t just wander around, got it!?¡± Shinobu sounded full of himself, but that was only due to his experience in a few different incidents. In truth, he was only a high school boy. He could use a Package against itself, but he could not produce any paranormal power himself. But they could. Hyakki Yakou and similar groups most definitely could. It was a peaceful village. Areas of woods remained among the expanses of dry paddy fields. Hafuri, leader of Hyakki Yakou, built up her formation hidden inside one such area. It looked like a scene from a battle in the Warring States period. Except, that is, for the many invisibility and defense barriers set up around her. No one could see her and no one could get through to her. That was her position as the brains. The airborne warning and control aircraft and strategic stealth bombers overhead were only a diversion. They did not know how many people were in the Aoandon¡¯s group, but that group¡¯s focus would be on the heavens. And while they carelessly looked skyward, Hyakki Yakou would tear out their windpipe from below. ¡°The Top Five are all in position.¡± ¡°Understood. Everyone, begin the attack. Use the bombing and paranormal together to complete this as quickly as possible. It would help if you could keep the damage to civilians to a minimum, but if you deem that impossible, make your own decision.¡± As soon as she gave those orders, an explosive sound reached her. But it did not come from the smart bombs dropped from the bombers flying overhead or from a largescale attack carried out by Hyakki Yakou¡¯s elite warriors. Far, far too suddenly, the Aoandon had run up to Hafuri¡¯s side. Her speed was so great that the countless broken barriers only burst after the fact. ¡°...!?¡± Before she could cry out, a young aide¡¯s windpipe was slashed in a horizontal line. And before the fresh blood could spray out, the Aoandon¡¯s claws turned around to target Hafuri¡¯s vitals. ¡°Young lady!!¡± The Mamedanuki that acted as her body double (she was a tanuki Youkai that was as small as a stuffed animal) cut in. The entire scenery grew distorted and they all vanished, but the Aoandon did not even look surprised. She breathed in just once and blew flames from her lips like a bluish-white flamethrower. ¡°Hot!?¡± ¡°Ah ha ha! Tanuki transform by spreading their ballsack, but it¡¯s commonly said they¡¯ll reveal their true form after dropping ashes from their pipe!!¡± The Aoandon spoke up in delight when she saw the scenery grow distorted again and Hafuri¡¯s group appear out of thin air. ¡°Hi there. I¡¯m the final boss. Nice to meet you. Were you surprised that I broke through the middle right off the bat?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°It¡¯s no use. Those Top Five of yours are busy with my team members. Kada-chan sends out a sandstorm made of the soot and impurities found on Buddhist temples and statues. Sakogawa-chan uses a Makura-Gaeshi to directly remove the target¡¯s soul from their body. Iko-chan converts all of someone¡¯s emotions into hatred to spread curses around. ...Oh, wait. Saiki Kazu crushed that one. Well, there¡¯s plenty of others. They might be in trouble if they tried to force their way through, but they can at least buy some time.¡± The blue female oni smiled while extending her unnaturally sharp claws. ¡°And Hyakki Yakou is all about bloodline, so if I kill you, they¡¯ll all lose their mental pillar of support. This is just like shogi or chess; take one particular piece and you win the game.¡± ¡°Do you really think we¡¯ll let you do that so easily?¡± ¡°Let me tell you something neat.¡± The Aoandon giggled and continued. ¡°I bring together and exist beyond one hundred fears. By gathering all of those scary stories, I can combine different parts to reproduce paranormal powers that I didn¡¯t originally have.¡± Some stories were quite similar. For example, the Yuki Onna and the Ubume were entirely different Youkai, but depending on the legend, they both stood on the side of the road, they both begged a traveler to hold their baby, and they both crushed that traveler under the ever-growing weight of the baby. Had a well-known legend influenced another Youkai or were they both products of the same basic fear and had thus been developed independently in different times and places? That did not particularly matter. What mattered was that similar legends could be created. The individual Youkai traits were not exclusive to those individual Youkai. ¡°Do these combinations give me 100 x 100? Or is it 100 to the 100th power? No, it¡¯s like paint. The materials are limited, but the possibilities are limitless. Saiki Kazu¡¯s paranormal techniques and Matsukai Hiroshi¡¯s search program really are the best. You could even call them art. Thanks to that, I have surpassed the concept of numbers.¡± ¡°What are you trying to say?¡± ¡°Are you familiar with the Youkai known as the Aburatori? That child-killing Youkai has lost the traditions of fear. It simply appears, simply abducts, and simply kills. That¡¯s all it does.¡± She pointed straight at Hafuri. Yes, at the center of the ten-year-old girl¡¯s chest. ¡°If I emulate that, you can¡¯t escape. I don¡¯t know any other Youkai more perfect for killing a child.¡± That made this checkmate. That announcement meant it was already over. Or so it would have been. ¡°Illness Magic.¡± If only the girl had not muttered those two words. A moment later, something stood up next to the girl. Something grew from the ground like a fast-forwarded video of a mushroom or bamboo shoot growing. It was the girl known as Hafuri. However, her height had increased, her facial features had changed, her chest had grown, and the shape of her waist had become much more seductive. She was wearing black mourning clothes that hid her frame, but the curves of her body still showed through. Her arms and legs were long and slender. Adult and child stood there. And the two Hafuris were linked by marionette-like strings made of hyphae. ¡°Wha-...?¡± ¡°This is my predicted body at the age of twenty. The power of Illness Magic can accomplish even this sort of heresy.¡± The technique had originally been developed in case a successor was needed in a hurry. In other words, it was an artificial surrogate mother. After studying Hafuri¡¯s current young form, a substitute body had been thoroughly redesigned based on what she would look like as an adult. And it was of course accurate enough to take Hafuri¡¯s ovum into its artificial womb and give birth in her place. Even if Hafuri herself had ordered him to make it, the Illness Magic User had essentially created the ultimate Dutch wife based on his master¡¯s adult form. On the day of its completion, he had reported his success and then attempted suicide on the spot. It had taken the combined efforts of the other Top Five to stop him. ¡°This will have removed me from the fatal range of the Aburatori. After all, I am both a child and an adult. Just as the umbilical cord connecting mother and child combines them into the single category of a ¡®pregnant woman¡¯, the individual known as Hafuri now exists as both the large and the small.¡± ¡°I see. But didn¡¯t I tell you? My limited materials provide unlimited possibilities. I have plenty of other fatal Youkai in stock!!¡± ¡°Then Venom Clairvoyant, lend me your eyes.¡± A pale red light came from the sexy Hafuri¡¯s eyes. A moment later, the Aoandon sent her deadly claws out quickly enough to create multiple afterimages, but the two Hafuris moved together to easily dodge them. They moved at the same time, in the same direction, and with the same movements. They were entirely synchronized. ¡°What!?¡± ¡°If you wish to kill me, I recommend making more than one hundred attacks in less than two seconds. And Superhuman Trainer, lend me your knowledge.¡± Everything immediately changed. Hafuri had only been escaping before, but that clearly changed. As they quickly moved together like acrobat planes, they lowered their hips, focused on shifting their body weight, and stepped forward. They charged into the center of those deadly claws and fangs, received not a single scratch, and thrust a large and small palm into the center of the Aoandon¡¯s soft belly. The blow sounded like a hit on a drum taller than she was. The sounds of breaking tree trunks continued for a while as the Aoandon flew away like a shell. ¡°Many regions still tell of Youkai teaching humans the superhuman techniques of the gods: the Tengu that trained Ushiwakamaru, the Yamaba that trained Kintarou, and the fox that trained Abe no Seimei. Similarly, I now have superhuman combat techniques.¡± The Aoandon rolled along in confusion and saw something as she got back up. The sexy Hafuri held the hilt of a Japanese sword contained in a scabbard held out by one of her subordinates. ¡°Heirloom Transcender, perfect my weapon.¡± As soon as the large Hafuri drew the sword, a repulsively beautiful shine filled it. ¡°It is a very common legend for paranormal power to fill a tool or animal after one hundred years. Akki Rasetsu and Udou Utsuki¡¯s body double both struggled to create a specific technique out of it, but the answer was actually quite nearby.¡± The Aoandon honestly thought that sword was dangerous. It had been a surprise attack with no advance knowledge of the situation, but that girl had outdone her empty-handed. Now that she had an artificially enhanced weapon, it was anyone¡¯s guess who would win this. Needless to say, chopping off her head or tearing out her heart would not be enough to kill the Aoandon. But even if it did not kill her, being chopped into tiny little pieces would be very bad for her. After all... (I¡¯m a paranormal being made up of one hundred different scary stories. If I¡¯m broken into one hundred equal parts, I lose what makes me special. The stories will be separated and weakened. I doubt I would even retain my sense of self.) There were examples of a powerful Youkai being broken up and sealed away. For example, the Yamanba being chopped up and sealed in forty-two mounds or the Tsuchigumo¡¯s corpse being sliced in three and buried. There were exceptions like the Killing Stone containing the curse of a nine-tailed fox. When the stone was broken, the small fragments created a new type of Youkai known as the Kuda-Gitsune. Regardless, the Aoandon¡¯s sense of self and very existence would be destroyed. And... ¡°Did I forget to mention this?¡± The small Hafuri spoke while the large Hafuri adjusted her grip on the sword. ¡°I have their assistance, so it would be foolish indeed to forget about their presence.¡± ¡°...¡± The Aoandon slowly turned around. Everything was already over as far as the eye could see. One was the Illness Magic User. The large man wore the black special combat uniform of a SWAT member and the magazine holders held curse charms. That walking strategic weapon used the power of the charms to transform his own hatred into Illness Magic and create an ever changing attack and defense based on all forms of germs and bacteria. One was the Venom Clairvoyant. The beautiful woman had long black hair and pale white skin. She wore a shrine maiden outfit with a thin coat held in place by a decorative clasp made of St John''s wort. A red cloth was bound tightly to her face such that it covered her eyes. It was said insects would warn of coming danger and she gained a special power by raising such things inside her own body. Sticking from her sleeves were two old German handguns decorated with bells and string. She was the ultimate observation device that never hid behind cover and never looked down the sights of those guns as she danced in a circle and brought destruction to everything around her. One was the Supernatural Trainer. The gentleman wore glasses and a black butler¡¯s uniform and he held a riding crop. He had the power to instantly teach every one of his targets superhuman combat techniques such as unbelievable strength or the ability to jump extreme distances. If he assisted an army, every single soldier would become a match for countless enemy soldiers. And of course, that special military advisor could make himself a target of that power. One was the Passionate Predator. The teenage girl wore a greenish-brown twelve-layered kimono. By gaining a phantom pregnancy with her target, she would gain a false bond with them. Then her immense jealousy and hatred would become a blazing curse that was sure to assassinate that target. She had broadly interpreted and twisted the negative emotions of a woman seen in legends such as Kiyohime. The more she loved them, the more the flames grew, so that precision guided weapon could burn down even the temples and shrines protected by buddhas and gods. One was the Heirloom Transcender. The dried-up old man in Japanese clothing sat in a worn-out old wheelchair with a large canopy covering his face. It could be a sword, a spear, a cat, a dog, or anything else. Anything he threw in his furnace, heated up, and diligently beat with his hammer would become part of the paranormal. The sword would become a spiritual sword capable of slaying countless foes and the cat would become a monster cat that could speak the human tongue. Without even needing to reference Suzuka Gozen, that paranormal weapon designer and developer could even create floating weapons that automatically cut down their targets to protect him. Altogether, they were Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Top Five. If used correctly, those ultimate trump cards could each conquer one of the five continents and hold the entire world in their hands. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± They had already taken care of everything and stood in the center of the piles of corpses. Their eyes were directed straight at the Aoandon who had bared her fangs against their master. It was not that the team the Aoandon had gathered was weak. It had been a great army with strength in both quantity and quality. It was just that the Top Five were even greater monsters who made defeating them look like plucking weeds from the ground. (That just leaves Sachi-chan, the Oomukade, Saiki Kazu, the Byouki user, and a few more. Drat, that¡¯s mostly just the newcomers.) The Aoandon honestly accepted the state of the battlefield. Even after all of her preparations and all of the dominoes she had lined up, this was the result. A massive hand had blocked the way and the boring pre-established harmony had ruined everything. (I was already about 50/50 with Perfect Mode Hafuri-chan, so this probably wouldn¡¯t end well if the Top Five began a saturation attack.) ¡°Heh heh.¡± ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m the ally of everything who wants change, so this reliable victory of the pre-established harmony isn¡¯t very much fun.¡± ¡°But it is reality.¡± ¡°Oh? Is it really?¡± She snapped her fingers and spoke to one of her few remaining allies. ¡°Okay, Saiki Kazu. This didn¡¯t work after all, so let¡¯s get started.¡± Somewhere in Noukotsu Village, a young man in a dark suit spoke. ¡°Paranormal being imported by the Southern Barbarians, change your colors and grow scarlet. I desire a blood-red paranormal power, so take on that form.¡± The word syncretism was most often used when referring to Japan¡¯s form of Buddhism, but Buddhism had originated in India and crossed through China and Korea before arriving in Japan. And during that process, the names, forms, and roles of the buddhas and deities had changed. The term Akuma was originally a Buddhist term. It was only later used to refer to Western devils and demons because the Japanese language lacked a more appropriate word. So... ¡°Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier. Appear in the form we desire to grant what we desire to the extent we desire. ...Appear, Tsuerika Nyorai. It is time to begin your work.¡± An unimaginably sinister whirlwind blew through. This paranormal being had been intentionally twisted. This threat had been tuned to match someone¡¯s needs. Jinnai Shinobu saw it happen as he checked on Noukotsu Village with the Succubus. Standing in the center of a tornado-like whirlwind was a white woman with a glamorous body and sky blue ribbons at the end of her long blonde hair. It was the Australian witch named Marguerite Steinhols. That assassin had once used the Furutsubaki (Small) in an attempt to get her hands on the Succubus. But... ¡°That¡¯s...not her.¡± The Succubus sounded stunned. For one, the woman¡¯s clothing was different. This material kept all living creatures away with the hardness of rough gray concrete and yet it somewhat resembled reptilian scales. And that material was wrapped tightly around the beautiful woman¡¯s seductive outline as if eating into her. It mercilessly showed off her cleavage, navel, and thighs, but that almost looked like a way of increasing the number of ports from which to eject her blasphemously ominous power. And she was the same as the Succubus, which meant... ¡°That might be her body, but it isn¡¯t her soul. Damn her! Did she borrow Marguerite¡¯s body to appear in this world!?¡± A moment later, two twisted horns burst from Margeurite¡¯s forehead and flowed backwards. Bat-like wings came from her back and a long, thick tail came from near her butt. She became the stereotypical image of a demon seen in Western religious art and video games. ¡°Heh heh...¡± With a seductive breath, she slowly embraced her own body...no, the body of the woman she had hijacked. She squeezed the large breasts and traced her fingertips along the smooth curves of her hips as if testing the size and movable range of this new body. ¡°Yes, yes. It¡¯s been so long since I felt like this. I have once more violated a woman¡¯s womb to be born into this world! I¡¯ve lost count of how many times this is, though! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!¡± ¡°Ah...¡± She was a legendary-class archdemon. She had overwhelming power but she had not quite ranked among the seven deadly sins. She was easily on par with ridiculously well-known beings like Satan or Beelzebub. She was from an entirely different dimension than Youkai or spirits. That monster might even surpass a low- or mid-ranked god in a polytheistic religion. Or perhaps she could call herself a demon lord. ¡°Ahhh...ahhhh....¡± Jinnai Shinobu stood stock still. The fate of the village had just crossed a certain line. He was hopelessly certain of it. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± ¡°Welcome to the world of those who wish for change.¡± The Aoandon grinned. She showed no concern for the Top Five or the two Hafuris who had shown such abnormal power. Emotion filled her face, she spread her arms as if to embrace her enemy, and she made an announcement. ¡°This is a world with no pre-established harmony! A world of never-ending chaos filled with such great possibility! Now, let us fight to the death as the ultimate form of entertainment! Let¡¯s cheer everyone up!! The people of this country are being crushed by oppressive boredom, so let¡¯s show them something that they¡¯ll think was worth dying to see!!¡± As soon as the Aoandon finished shouting, Archdemon Tselika roared toward the heavens and a certain boy¡¯s small world was destroyed. Volume 6, Afterword Volume 6, Afterword Volume 6!! This is Kamachi Kazuma. This series is always a battle against the ballooning page numbers, but it finally got so thick it had to be split in two. I hope the content is strong enough to warrant that thickness, but I¡¯ll leave that judgment up to all of you. My goal this time was to see how intense of a battle I could write while sticking to the Intellectual Village style, so you might have seen some scenes that felt a little different from normal. About Chapter 1. It looks like it¡¯s going to be a pretty standard case of solving the Package¡¯s mystery, but then an unexpected supernatural battle breaks out between elementary school kids. I had always planned for Yonesaki Hiro¡¯s home to be an antique shop filled with object-related Youkai, but I didn¡¯t manage to put it in Volume 2. I was glad I got to show it here in a big way. A boy wanting to put his life on the line for the girl he¡¯s fallen for is something that only works in fiction, but I think it¡¯s boys of that age that long for that kind of thing the most. An impure adult would never be able to say they wouldn¡¯t lose because their feelings for the girl were stronger than anyone else¡¯s. The best point of this chapter was impure Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s sleazy school life and his nervous homeroom teacher who was forced to wear bloomers in class with a dead look in her eyes. About Chapter 2. Neko Manma comes from my own preferences. I like the dish, but it unfortunately isn¡¯t popular enough to have a chain of restaurants in the real world. Coming up with these fictional services and best sellers is one of my favorite parts of Intellectual Village. As a police officer, Uchimaku Hayabusa doesn¡¯t need a setup to be involved in a murder. He doesn¡¯t need a landslide on a rainy day blocking the road and trapping him in the mansion where the murder happens. He¡¯s sent out to the scene of the crime, which is convenient for writing the start of the story. But unlike with Shinobu or Mai, he is required to help people equally and evenly. To emphasize that this time, I had him rescuing some old folks living in illegal apartments. Yes, the exact opposite of a cute girl. After being abandoned by everyone, the old people had given up on their own lives, but Hayabusa still naturally wanted to save them. I hope you enjoyed seeing that stance of his. I love writing the stupid conversations between Uchimaku and Sotobori because I can just empty my head. And while Hachikawa Tomoe showed up in those conversations, her embarrassment isn¡¯t from pure love. It¡¯s more from a sense of seeing her father in Uchimaku. Hmm, that might actually make it as troublesome as Sotobori was saying. The villain¡¯s name was Yamame, which is a type of Youkai. A Yamame is a beautiful version of a Yamanba, but while the Yamanba does good and bad things, the Yamame attacks and kills people 100% of the time. About Chapter 3. The more silent someone is, the more of a romantic they are on the inside. ...Well, that¡¯s one of the basics of character creation. Shoving money in a donation box, rescuing the family in the restaurant, or otherwise helping out people who have nothing to do with the case while still going on a rampage is another one of the basics. I made this all about the Illness Magic User so you could enjoy his transcendent battles. This may have been the closest to what you all think of when you hear of a ¡°Kamachi Kazuma story¡±. And after seeing this, I think you¡¯ll see why Hishigami Mai knows she could never get along with him. Mai likes to humor people, raise them up before dropping them, betray them, fill them with doubt, and otherwise eliminate the enemy forces before the battle even begins, but that would never work with a samurai character who charges straight in regardless of the situation. At the same time, this is the guy who bared his fangs against Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader and slaughtered the civilian hotel workers in Volume 1. It might be fun to imagine just how cornered he had to have felt leading up to that. The secret protagonist of this chapter was the Oomukade. I also made him quite the romantic. I¡¯ve written several characters willing to risk their life for their friend, but was I being too innovative when I had him willing to let that friend eat his organs? For the Aoandon, I originally thought an oni girl should have two horns because it¡¯s cute, but I ended up going with a single horn for a number of reasons. But since she used that hypnotic phosphorescence to deceive Ranzono Sachi, I can see now that a single horn really was the only option. Saiki Kazu has grown a lot more aggressive since his composed appearance in Volume 4, but you should be able to tell why if you see how Ranzono Sachi was acting in this chapter. When he was recruited, she seemed to be acting kindly, but she was actually saying things that tore into his heart. About Chapter 4. This was Uchimaku Hayabusa¡¯s great escape through Tokyo. In reality, hijacking the TV or internet to provoke a criminal will get you thrown in jail regardless of any other crimes (just like sting operations aren¡¯t allowed, getting a criminal to commit a crime is illegal), but this is fiction! PSI_ver_RAIN is an idol born from a different approach than Tarot Girls 22. Video sites, PVs, and downloaded broadcasts. To be honest, I don¡¯t know all that much about this new movement putting pressure on the TV industry, but that¡¯s why it all seems so amazing and why I wanted to put plenty of that strange new world in here. But the real important part wasn¡¯t Uchimaku himself. It was Shinobu and the others watching through the TV. They were content to cheer on their uncle since it was just something on TV, but in the very end...well, I don¡¯t have to explain it all to you. And as I was writing Tsumada Mio, she left my original expectations and went on a bit of rampage. That really surprised me. And she even rubbed Hayabusa¡¯s head. She didn¡¯t show up for very long, but I feel like she stole the show away from PSI_ver_RAIN. ...Ahh, I want to make her a regular character. Next time will be the beginning of the head-on war between Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Top Five and the Aandon, Archdemon Tselika, Saiki Kazu, and the rest. The connections with Ranzono Sachi and the Byouki user will come into play too. What will happen to the Hishigami Sisters, Uchimaku Hayabusa, and Sotobori who has a surprising connection to Saiki? And with his small world destroyed by those adults, what will the boy named Jinnai Shinobu protect, what will he choose, and what can he do? I hope you¡¯re looking forward to it. I give my thanks to my illustrator Mahaya-san and my editors Miki-san, Onodera-san, and Anan-san. A single centipede is bad enough, but there was a whole bunch of them. There was also the gathering of the Top Five, Archdemon Tselika¡¯s true appearance, and plenty of other difficult things. I am truly thankful that you all have stuck with me instead of just giving up. And I give my thanks to the readers. I think this volume had a lot of physical battles but also a lot of psychological conflict. What did you think of it? This series has gotten a lot of characters now too, so the different lines of interest and emotion have grown pretty complex. Still, I hope you will stick with me. And I will end this here. I think the manliest one of all was the Oomukade. -Kamachi Kazuma Volume 7, Prologue Volume 7, Prologue In all likelihood, it had been connected by a single thread from the beginning. It was just that no one could see it. Zashiki Warashi ¨C Yukari ¡°I would rather you didn¡¯t shove all the battling onto a Zashiki Warashi. I am completely confident I would lose spectacularly to another Youkai and even to a human if they were Onmyouji class.¡± Hafuri(?) ¡°We are retrieving our former glory by taking back the Zashiki Warashi that left our house.¡± Jinnai Shinobu ¡°Fall down to the depths of the earth, Hyakki Yakou!!¡± Succubus ¡°Anyway, I was a character involved in all of this, so how about you reach out a loving hand to help me. More specifically, Hyakki Yakou proved more of a threat than I thought and I can¡¯t seem to escape them, so shelter me here¡î¡± Each incident had been on a large scale and they had not had time to take a step back and view it as a whole. They never considered that something lurked deeper inside. Marguerite ¡°I do not care about the economic damage the Australian government is so concerned about. I want to acquire the Succubus in your possession and rise to the position of the true witches of old.¡± Marguerite ¡°The witch Marguerite Steinhols and the demon Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier now enter into an honest connection that crosses this honest world.¡± Succubus ¡°The real question is whether a witch who thought a Succubus would be a nice, safe option will be able to control a great demon that just barely did not rank on the level of a demon that symbolizes one of the seven deadly sins.¡± The biggest cause would have been Zenmetsu Village ruled by the Toubyou. But even that fact only becomes clear in hindsight. They had not had the time to think about it at the time. Aoandon ¡°This is the birth canal. Normally, I would have waited a bit longer, but you are special. I thought it would be best for you to face me before the rest of the world.¡± Jinnai Shinobu ¡°Then what about 110? Or how about 120? As the number leaves that perfect framework, the golden ratio holding your body together will crumble!¡± Aoandon ¡°Well. Just that way a bit.¡± The past and future were caught in the middle as the dominos fell one by one. Strange coincidences lined up and linked to a large inevitability. Zashiki Warashi ¨C Yukari ¡°Hyakki Yakou Prototype Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi. Hyakki Yakou attempted and failed to create a method of creating a completely different line of destiny from nothing.¡± Sotobori Gaku ¡°Believe it or not, the kid who killed that detective was only about ten. I¡¯m a little embarrassed to admit it, but that¡¯s what led me to become a detective.¡± Aburatori ¡°So what do you think the ¡®original incident¡¯ was? Do you remember, Jinnai Shinobu-kun? Do you remember just how you were torn to pieces?¡± Aoandon ¡°First, how about you tell me your name? I of course already know it, but I want to hear it from you.¡± Saiki Kazu ¡°Saiki Kazu. I am a former assassin, former fortuneteller, and former suicidal man, but now I am simply unemployed.¡± And in the publicly managed casino at Goldmine Island, they suddenly found themselves swallowed up by a great current. Just as one cannot jump from a train running at full speed, everything was carried to some place. Sid Clouds ¡°The trait of controlling pure gold was used to cause intentional connection issues in the semiconductors and destroy the smallest clusters within the financial trading system. Perhaps you could call it a national suicide Package.¡± Hasukawa Yumi ¡°I will be leaving this country for the time being. I feel bad for leaving behind those on our military bases, but if I stay here any longer, I will undoubtedly get dragged into the blue light issue.¡± Hafuri ¡°Risk simulation of a large scale terrorist attack. Increased possibility of fatal damage to a nation in the near future. The assumed enemy is a Japanese Spirit...the Blue Lamp?¡± Jinnai Shinobu ¡°The Aoandon!?¡± It had finally begun. But how many people had truly realized it? Yonesaki Hiro ¡°Ranzono-san isn¡¯t that kind of person. She wanted to protect the Oomukade and Tsuchigumo that were her friends, so she wouldn¡¯t be able to put my parents or my class in danger!¡± Hishigami Mai ¡°And the whole deal with the Oomukade and Tsuchigumo¡¯s home smells fishy to me. A Package driving old people to a lonely death was active near Sugamo at the time. Maybe someone used that to corner Ranzono Sachi-chan.¡± Byouki User ¡°Ah ha. Amazing. You¡¯re simply amazing! And yet I...I never had a single person think of me like that!!¡± Illness Magic User ¡°Enough. Once I settle all of this, you stand back up on your own two feet. I¡¯ll be that special something for you.¡± Ranzono Sachi ¡°I...I can...help all my friends...¡± Aoandon ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon. All I did was open the door to Sachi-chan¡¯s heart. I¡¯m not writing anything extra in there.¡± Oomukade ¡°Sachi!! ...Understood. I will go with you, Aoandon. But I will almost certainly destroy your plan from within.¡± Illness Magic User ¡°Bringing them together would never make a cohesive fighting force.¡± Saiki Kazu ¡°No. They¡¯ll most likely end up killing each other. But that¡¯s fine as long as the battle provides the winner with enough experience points. In the end, it will still give us a powerful addition to our team.¡± Hishigami Mai ¡°Matsukai Hiroshi who was chopped in two was a member of the Aoandon¡¯s team. He was creating a special program for the Aoandon.¡± Mishima Jun ¡°The national suicide Package from that special casino district was only one thing Nagatacho Station does. The deepest part of the station holds a secret server. All of Japan is there. But there was a vulnerability in the process of switching to the highest security level and they took advantage of it. It was in preparation to cause this attack on the infrastructure across Japan.¡± Hishigami Mai ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky now, okay? I know you haven¡¯t forgotten what happened when you tried to create a mass-produced paranormal unit meant to directly judge crimes involving Youkai.¡± Mishima Jun ¡°I know. And I can never repay the debt I owe to Hyakki Yakou¡¯s previous generation. ...It was my arrogance that led to that husband and wife¡¯s death.¡± Aoandon ¡°The Japanese DNA Standard and the junk DNA created by the shared environment between multiple samples. If I get that, I can freely twist the definition of this country¡¯s people. Was it stored in the mountains near Noukotsu Village? Now, it¡¯s time for the ultimate entertainment!!¡± Hafuri ¡°We cannot allow the Aoandon¡¯s group to steal that. Our destination is Noukotsu Village. Everyone, do whatever it takes to destroy them here.¡± Saiki Kazu ¡°Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier. ...Appear, Tsuerika Nyorai. It is time to begin your work.¡± An archdemon that shot past the puny definitions of ¡°Youkai¡± or ¡°Spirits¡± roared in the center of that familiar village. And a certain boy¡¯s small world was destroyed. Volume 7, 5: Jinnai [email protected] Tselika, Opening Volume 7, Chapter 5: Jinnai [email protected] Tselika, Opening Part 1 (3rd person) It was a tranquil rural scene. As evening fell on the Intellectual Village, harvested paddies covered the ground and the mountains surrounding the village were visible far in the distance. The woods remaining here and there may have been to hold small shrines or just to make it look that way. At six o¡¯clock, that rural scene had been transformed into a battlefield of countless horrors thanks to the armies of Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon¡¯s group. The battle had split into three large sections. One was in one of the small wooded areas where Hyakki Yakou Leader Hafuri used the remote assistance of the Top 5 to directly clash with the Aoandon. Another was on the golden earth left after the paddies had been harvested where the Top 5 were spread out with the members of the Aoandon¡¯s group collapsing at their feet. The last was at the intersection of two farm roads between the paddy fields where Saiki Kazu had easily summoned Archdemon Tselika who had stolen the body of Australian Witch Marguerite Steinhols. Jinnai Shinobu was with the Succubus, the Lantern Obake, and the Umbrella Obake when he saw the Saiki Kazu and Tselika scene play out. Long, wavy blonde hair was tied back with a sky-blue ribbon and blindingly white skin caught his attention. Something that looked like rough gray concrete or reptilian scales covered sexy curves and yet seemed to intentionally leave the cleavage and navel exposed. Two horns swept backwards from the forehead, bat-like wings extended from the back, and a thick tail swayed from just above the butt. The woman had transformed into a stereotypical demon and she roared into the heavens. That was all that happened, but it was enough for Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s entire world to be dyed crimson. ¡°¡­Ah¡­gwah¡­!!!???¡± ¡°Master!!¡± The Succubus was right next to him, but her voice sounded hopelessly distant. Just as the world burned and the color red seemed to swallow up the entire village, Shinobu was hit by a sharp headache like a thin wire connecting his temples was being pulled taut. Only afterwards did he realize it was not the world that had been dyed. Tselika was not interfering with the laws of physics. (Is it my eyes that are messed up!? Is the evening sunlight overpowering everything else I can see like a video camera with the brightness set wrong!?) The images people saw were not actually produced by the eyes. The information received by the eyeballs was processed in the brain to create the three-dimensional images. In that case, what was the source of the red Tselika was creating? Using Marguerite¡¯s borrowed¡­no, stolen body, Tselika turned her head to look at Shinobu. She had noticed him, observed him, locked onto him. The previous headache vanished. Then that demonic ruler filed her serpentine eyes with seduction, slowly licked her enchanting lips with the tip of her tongue, and spoke to this fresh human soul with a sweet aroma hanging around her. ¡°Oh, oh! If it isn¡¯t Jinnai Shinobu. You have my thanks for helping me obtain freedom by offering me this vessel of flesh.¡± Surprisingly, she spoke with the indifferent voice of a young girl. When a short burst of gunfire interfered, the Illness Magic User glared in that direction. The Illness Magic he produced had the power and accuracy to corrode the bullets into dust even as they tore through the air. Even if those bullets contained a bizarre paranormal power. As such, he was less interested in the actual gunfire than he was in who had caused it. ¡°Nh!!¡± More gunfire followed. And this time, it slipped through the gaps in his mist of Illness Magic. Unlike before, he was force to hold out an arm to cover his vitals. After several dull impacts, a significant amount of blood flowed from his arm. He disintegrated the bullets inside his arm before their paranormal power could bare its fangs. The man¡¯s expression did not change in the slightest. He simply stared at and spoke to the attacker. ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing, Venom Clairvoyant?¡± She was another of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Top 5. The clear sound of bells followed. His opponent was within twenty meters. She was a shrine maiden with long black hair and a red cloth covering her eyes. Poking out from her sleeves were old German handguns with wooden grips and fixed magazines. A decorative thread and bell were attached to the bottom of the grips and those bells would give a light jingle each time she danced with the firearms in hand. Her violence took the form of a Kagura dance. The threads dangling from the gun grips and her almost divinely thin coat closed with a decorative clasp of St. John''s wort drew circular paths as they decorated the stage known as the battlefield. This woman was the only person with enough skill to accurately perceive the ever-flowing Illness Magic and fire through the gaps like threading a needle. She was essentially shooting the Illness Magic User in the back as he worked to eliminate the Aoandon¡¯s group, but what meaning did that action hold? He focused on his armband. He had thought he would ever again be allowed to bear that symbol of Hyakki Yakou and he could not allow any action that would disgrace that family emblem. Meanwhile, the Venom Clairvoyant asked the same question of him with some tension woven into her calm aura. ¡°I believe you are the one that needs to explain what you are doing.¡± ¡°?¡± Even with her eyes covered, the young shrine maiden accurately pointed a handgun at the Illness Magic User¡¯s right hand. When he looked to that hand, he realized what she meant. A skull was decaying in his hand, but based on the body, clothing, and equipment attached to it via a neck, this had been one of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s combat members, not part of the Aoandon¡¯s group. (What!?) He had not been shown any kind of illusion, but at some point his aim had shifted. He was left speechless, so the Venom Clairvoyant slowly re-aimed her two handguns. ¡°I have called out to you several times already, but you apparently do not intend to listen. And all of those you returned to the soil were those who had chased after you because they looked up to you.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°I can no longer trust you. Are you actually part of the Aoandon¡¯s group? Or are you being subconsciously controlled? Either way, you must be defeated.¡± ¡°In that case,¡± cut in the Illness Magic User. ¡°What do you have to say about the people scattered at your feet?¡± ¡°Eh?¡± She froze in place as if she had only just noticed. Splattered blood and fallen corpses covered the ground around her, but not even one of them belonged to the Aoandon¡¯s group. They were all fellow Hyakki Yakou members. ¡°It would seem I wasn¡¯t the only one being deceived,¡± said the Illness Magic User in a bitter voice. If the same thing was occurring across the entire battlefield, it would truly be a scene of pandemonium. No matter how powerful Hyakki Yakou was ¨C no, because of how powerful Hyakki Yakou was ¨C no one would be able to stop this tragedy. Something had severed the bonds between people. Something had erased the distinction between enemy and ally. And with that in mind, one primary issue came to mind. ¡°I can¡¯t trust you anymore.¡± ¡°I can no longer trust you.¡± Because they normally trusted the other¡¯s strength enough to fight alongside them, these monsters knew just how dangerous they would be as enemies. ¡°Oh, now it¡¯s really getting started.¡± The Aoandon seemed to be enjoying herself all alone in the woods. Annoyance filled Hyakki Yakou Leader Hafuri¡¯s voice as the false image of her as an adult stood by her side. ¡°Did you use something to drive people mad and break the bonds connecting them?¡± These enemies were white and black. The Aoandon wore the white kimono of a bride and Hafuri wore the deep black kimono of mourning. ¡°Tselika is known as an archdemon that didn¡¯t quite get a spot as one of the seven deadly sins, but that isn¡¯t because she was lacking in power.¡± The Aoandon placed her index finger on her lips as if she were revealing a special secret. She showed no concern for Hafuri or the mourning clothes dyed with a family emblem. ¡°For one thing, there was no real reason to have exactly seven deadly sins. Some important person decided it should be seven, so the number and contents were reorganized. Any concept with the threat of harming the god they place their faith in was a candidate for being a deadly sin.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Yes! That¡¯s right, that¡¯s right! Tselika is far too powerful and controls far too many negative concepts to fit into that seven-sin framework!! Suspicion, hatred, crazed love, lies, and really anything else you might want. She controls everything that corrupts otherwise upstanding people! She has free control over all of those things that cause one to betray god!!¡± No matter how powerful and solid an organization Hyakki Yakou was, its loyalty was still directed toward a person. Tselika had the power to make people reject god, so the bonds of that group were no guarantee. ¡°Do you really think something like that is enough to defeat us? Do you really think we¡¯re going to hand over the Japanese DNA Standard and sit idly by while you overwrite the definition of all the Japanese?¡± ¡°Ha ha. Young lady, what do you think you can even do?¡± A dark smile appeared on the Aoandon¡¯s face. ¡°All of your power is supplied remotely by your Top 5, isn¡¯t it? That might give you a spare adult body, accurate precognition, superhuman combat skills, and a rapidly cultivated sword, but Hyakki Yakou has broken apart. Your Top 5 are no exception, so you have lost that special power.¡± A moment later, the doll standing next to the young Hafuri crumbled with the sound of squashed mud. The Japanese sword fell with a solid sound and it had lost its dreadful shine. Like waking from a dream, the girl returned to being a mere girl. ¡°What do you want so badly?¡± Hafuri merely narrowed her eyes a little. ¡°You destroyed infrastructure across Japan, you illegally accessed the server hidden at Nagatacho Station, and you¡¯re trying to steal the Japanese DNA Standard. ¡­Your methods are over-the-top, but I can¡¯t tell what your overall objective is. What change do you want to make to the Japanese using that?¡± ¡°Ah ha ha. And if I told you I didn¡¯t want to do anything?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t give me that look. What I want is simple.¡± The Aoandon giggled with a bluish-white phosphorescence burning at the tip of her single horn. ¡°I want to give a single command: Erase the Japanese.¡± A terribly cold wind blew between the two of them. It sounded like a joke, but when the Japanese DNA Standard was combined with the paranormal powers of the Aoandon and her group, the possibility was all too real. Just as injuring a straw doll would injure a human body, that would affect every single person in the category of ¡°Japanese¡±. ¡°I was not asking ¡®how¡¯; I was asking ¡®why¡¯.¡± ¡°I am the being that exists beyond the collection of one hundred fears, so you could say I am a collection of the people¡¯s desires. What I want is what everyone wants.¡± ¡°Everyone wants¡­to erase the Japanese¡­?¡± ¡°Well, yeah. Who needs Japan?¡± The Aoandon made it sound simple. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re supposed to call it ¡®Nihon¡¯ or ¡®Nippon¡¯, but let¡¯s be honest, who needs it? And I¡¯m not talking about this from the point of view of America or China. I¡¯m saying even your fellow Japanese don¡¯t want Japan anymore¡î¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°I mean, it¡¯s rotten to the core, isn¡¯t it? It only looks nice and bright on the surface, but peel back that top layer and you¡¯re in for a surprise. Do you really think people want to keep protecting this rotten tree to the end? Do you really think they all feel that way? Japan¡¯s GDP recovered and it¡¯s second in the world now? But all that wealth goes to the Intellectual Villages and the people in the cities keep seeing their standard of living drop. You¡¯ve set up United Hive to gather all the best patents from the small town workshops so you can negotiate on equal footing with international corporations? But that means you can¡¯t do business on your own and will dry up without the cooperation of that giant corporation. You reversed the low birthrate? But now the population is up to 150 million! You¡¯ve had to set up systems for people to abandon others like those Ubasute Apartments. All you have is more people who do nothing but suck your taxes dry. Think about it rationally, and they¡¯re just a financial burden. In fact, your national debt keeps rising as time passes, but you keep making up new words to throw them into random categories that only make it look like you solved the problem. Japanese pride? Japanese technology? Services only the Japanese can provide? You¡¯re all just sitting in front of the TV getting turned on thinking about it! But what can you actually do while you¡¯re sprawled out in your living rooms? Not a damn thing, right? That¡¯s why you can¡¯t get into an Intellectual Village and are stuck in your apartments that are more like honeycombs than rabbit hutches! Even if you tried at an apprenticeship for some luxury brand, they¡¯d kick you out for being completely useless! Besides, there are tons of craftsmen and artisans outside of Japan. Their skills are world class too; you just haven¡¯t been told about them! And this gap between the idea and reality ¨C between your pride and your skill ¨C goes beyond an individual level. The Nihon on TV and the Nippon in reality keep moving further and further apart. Isn¡¯t that scary? You keep stretching that rubber band, but you will eventually pass the point of no return and it¡¯ll snap. That ¡®proud Japan¡¯ will be stripped from you and you¡¯ll be nothing but a group of incompetents who held vicarious pride in what others did. Not many people can still sit around unconcerned as they see that rubber band stretching so tight. They¡¯re all afraid. They really are. They have enough sense leftover to be afraid. So can you at least understand why they might subconsciously want a nice clean reset of it all¡î¡± Each and every piece of that explanation may have been something one could find in the cities. This may have only been a collection of all those opinions. But the actual actions and conclusion she reached simply did not follow. ¡°Is that what you¡­what your group wants? The humans working with you are Japanese too. If you complete your plan, they¡¯ll be ¡®erased¡¯ too. They know that and they still-¡­?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± nonchalantly replied the Aoandon. ¡°They all have their own desires. They might want to be with their friends, they might want to exterminate ¡®good¡¯ for being too weak and create a powerful ¡®justice¡¯ to replace it, they might just want money, or they might want a group to belong to. They have a variety of reasons.¡± ¡°Then-¡­¡± ¡°But.¡± The Aoandon drowned out Hafuri¡¯s words to continue. ¡°All of those various desires have their basis in dissatisfaction, right? That simplifies matters. The fastest method to fulfill those desires and remove that dissatisfaction is to erase all of the people who hold them. With that one simple move, all of the dissatisfaction in their hearts will be gone. Simple, right?¡± She was insane. She was completely insane. Humans and Youkai may have looked similar, but they were entirely different lifeforms. That would create a different basis of thought, but this was different yet again. Hafuri had met people who used paranormal powers that could easily slay those Youkai, but even she had been unable to peer a single millimeter inside the Aoandon¡¯s chest. The monster laughed. ¡°Are you about ready now?¡± ¡°Do you think using your archdemon to sever Hyakki Yakou¡¯s bonds is enough to defeat us?¡± ¡°Heh heh. There¡¯s no need to act tough, young lady. Tsuerika Nyorai¡¯s rank would be the same as Rahu or Mara, so she¡¯s a legit demon lord. If Tamamo or Daji would be enough to give you trouble, you don¡¯t stand a chance against this enemy.¡± But¡­ ¡°That is not what I was talking about.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°What is that in your right hand?¡± The Aoandon looked down at her hand. It was stabbed into the center of someone¡¯s chest. The person was the young woman behind the Ubasute Apartments that the Aoandon had picked up because she seemed interesting. Her name was Yamame and she had a large scar on her mouth, but she was dead now that her heart had been utterly crushed. The Aoandon had done that, but when had she done so? ¡°It may be true that this Tselika you summoned is powerful. Her power might easily exceed that of Shuten Douji or the Kurama Tengu.¡± The blue female oni remained motionless as Hafuri gave her cool-headed explanation. ¡°But can you really control her? If not, we will not be the only ones to fall in the face of this disaster.¡± Part 2 I was caught off guard. I had forgotten how to describe it. A hellish scene of mutual destruction filled the harvested rice paddies around me. This was true bloodshed and all distinctions between enemy and ally had been lost. One side seemed to be Hyakki Yakou. The other side was less recognizable, but I could see the Aoandon a ways away. ¡°You damn lantern! You¡¯re ripping off my one-eyed look!!¡± ¡°How dare you!? And Hiro-sama only needs one Obake by his side!!¡± The Lantern and Umbrella began a scuffle that sounded like two paper fans being beaten together. Seeing that change come over those two friendly Youkai was what clued me in to what was happening here. Tselika had roared, my vision had been dyed red, and something had directly set to work in my brain and heart. Was she the cause of this madness? With a man in a dark suit by her side, the bewitching archdemon narrowed her serpentine eyes and used the witch¡¯s slender fingertip to slowly beckon me over. ¡°I said you have my thanks, did I not? Do not worry, Shinobu. Come closer. I truly feel like rewarding you.¡± That was all she said, but my body ignored my will and began walking forward like I was being pulled by countless fishing hooks stabbed into my brain. With each step closer, the red in my vision grew deeper. There was no pain. In fact, my senses were vanishing, which was much more frightening. ¡°Master!!¡± ¡°Good, good. There is nothing to be afraid of. Now I have you. Hm, you try to act tough, but you have the soul of baby. Lovely, lovely.¡± The next thing I knew, Tselika had her hands on my cheeks. Instead of pressing her palms against me, she smoothly brought her fingertips in close like just those fingers were being sucked into the sides of my face. At the same time, I could tell my knees were growing weak and about to give out. But not from fear. ¡°Hmm, there is no need to be so stiff. Here, I will show you a sign of my affection.¡± In the middle of that pandemonium of mutual destruction, Tselika almost jokingly wrapped her hands around my neck and gently embraced me. She was borrowing Marguerite¡¯s body, so this stuck my face between her ample breasts. More than the warmth and softness, it was the sweet aroma that soaked deep into my brain. Something burst deep inside my nose. At first, I thought I had a runny nose or something, but I was wrong. I wiped at my nose and found a red liquid on the back of my hand. ¡°¡­You¡¯re¡­kidding.¡± I thought getting a bloody nose from porn only happened on TV. If it¡¯s actually happening, doesn¡¯t that mean some kind of circuit in my head broke!? Is my body being invaded by something that bad!? Just from this sweet aroma that smells like an extreme concentration of sugar, condensed milk, and honey!? ¡°Oh, dear. Oh, dear. It¡¯s been so long I forgot how to control myself. Please forgive me. Hm, I thought thanking you with my body would be the demonic thing to do, but it would seem that would be a little too toxic for you. Now, what should I do instead?¡± ¡°Tsuerika Nyorai.¡± The man in a dark suit cut in with a gloomy voice. He was most likely on the Aoandon¡¯s side. ¡°You can play around after fulfilling your contract. For one thing, that is an enemy of the Aoandon. If you do not intend to finish him off, then I would like to provide him his last rites myself.¡± ¡°Hm.¡± Tselika hardly seemed to care as she continued to hold my paralyzed body close. ¡°Your name is Saiki Kazu, correct?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°I was summoned via a contract with you, so I am perfectly willing to help you defeat this Hyakki Yakou group just as you desire. Keep that in mind first and foremost.¡± Her words flowed on. ¡°But that contract requested that I defeat your enemy. It said nothing about protecting you.¡± She seemed to overturn everything. ¡°So I see no reason to worry about your lives.¡± ¡°!?¡± Before Saiki Kazu could react, Tselika breathed a sweet breath from between her seductive lips. That was all she did. ¡°To be honest, you are an eyesore. Perhaps I should reheat that cooled mind of yours.¡± A great sound rang out. It was the sound of Saiki Kazu using every last ounce of strength in his left hand to restrain his right hand which attempted to point two fingers at his temple like a gun. ¡°My deadly sins cause people to betray even god, so having them betray themselves could not be simpler. For one thing, the violence and fear you wield are nothing but tools to produce but one of the emotions that lead people to betray god. You are essentially showing off your brand-new chess set without even understanding the rules, so do you really think you could outdo a master chess player such as myself?¡± ¡°Tsuerika!!¡± ¡°Oh? Are you sure you should focus on me? You are but one piece of entertainment here.¡± As if to supply an additional blow against the shouting man in a dark suit, a flamethrower-like attack blasted in from a completely different direction. All cooperation was gone, a complete free-for-all had broken out, and it had descended into a chaotic hell, but all of that chaos seemed to obey Tselika¡¯s will. Just like iron sand following a line of magnetism. Pursued by this new attacker, Saiki Kazu was forced to leave us and run off into the battlefield. This was on an entirely different level. I had run across plenty of monsters in the past, but a greater quantity or quality of the paranormal had been enough to wash them away. Just like Hyakki Yakou would do. However, Tselika was fundamentally different. Even if she was faced one million or one billion people, she could drive them all mad and lead them to destruction. Superior numbers meant nothing to this archdemon. She had to be defeated in an individual battle. But was there any individual who could even hope to defeat this kind of monster? ¡°Good, good. Shinobu, your soul is giving off a wavelength of desire. I can sense your desire to outdo me and ¨C if possible ¨C harm me.¡± ¡°¡­!!!???¡± My throat instantly went dry, but Tselika simply laughed. The demon pressed her forehead against mine like a mother checking on her child¡¯s temperature. ¡°I said ¡®good¡¯, did I not? This too is entertaining. Human desire is a truly pleasant thing and it has pulled me from a sea of boredom. Good, Shinobu. You will serve me well.¡± That was wrong. That was completely wrong, but I was on the way to boarding those rails. Even the faintest breath from this close was enough to nearly smash my thoughts to pieces. I felt like I had been thrown into an ocean of aphrodisiac, so I desperately tried to escape that feminine smell and warmth to free myself from that depravity. ¡°What happened¡­to Marguerite¡­to the Australian witch¡­?¡± ¡°Oh, oh! Leave it to my loyal servant to know where the true fun lies!! That woman you offered up to me has not gone to waste. Her vessel of flesh has helped free me as you can plainly see, but her soul has provided truly delectable and enjoyable entertainment.¡± As she spoke, Tselika pulled her forehead back from mine. From the overwhelming distance of only a few centimeters, she snapped her fingers with the look of someone revealing the present they had hidden behind their back. Immediately, pitch black scenery appeared to the side. And I don¡¯t mean that figuratively. I could only imagine space itself had been torn open. From inside, I heard a disturbing sound that resembled a quiet whistling or a chilly wind blowing through a gap in some rocks. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhahhhh¡­¡± Or so I thought at first. But before long, I realized it was a voice, not a mere sound. As soon as I realized that, my understanding was turned on its head and blown away like the worst kind of trick art. ¡°Help me, help me, help me, help me, help me!! Please, I beg you! Give me back my body! How can you keep me as a bare soul!? It¡¯s cold, dark, cramped, and scary¡­ Where even am I? What is that crawling around here!? My soul is rotting¡­ It¡¯s rotting, rotting, rotting, rotting!! It really is directly rotting!! Sob, sob. Don¡¯t you know this is even crueler than grabbing my organs with filthy, germ-ridden hands!? Please forgive me. Please just forgive me already!! When will it end? When will you finally kill me? How many days, months, or years has it been? ¡­It¡¯s been five hundred years hasn¡¯t it? No, it¡¯s probably been five thousand years, hasn¡¯t it!? Sob, sob. It¡¯s painful, pitiful, and pathetic. I can¡¯t stand to see myself begging and trying to please you in the off chance you¡¯ll forgive me if I¡¯m a good girl. And that¡¯s what I¡¯m supposed to hate that more than anything!! It¡¯s disgusting and my color is changing¡­ Hey, the color of my soul is seeping out, but what does that actually mean!? It hurts¡­ Help me, mommy!! Sob, sob. Is someone there? Are you watching me? Why won¡¯t you kill me? Don¡¯t you have a conscience? Are my questions so meaningless they amuse you? I can¡¯t stand anymore of this!! Yes, I worshiped the devil! Yes, I went to Japan for selfish reasons! Yes, I transformed the Furutsubaki! Yes, I stole the Succubus! And yes, I tried to kill an innocent high school boy! But!! Do I really deserve this!? Just kill me! Give me the death penalty or whatever else! Just stop stealing the color of my soul¡­ I don¡¯t have anything else left, so please don¡¯t take any more of that away from me!! My soul really, really will crumble away!!¡± She was not speaking Japanese, but it was not Australian English either. The voice simply permeated my mind. ¡­What the hell is this? It was true we had been lost in the moment when that Australian witch had attacked. Even if it had been part of the plan, the Succubus had stabbed me, so I hadn¡¯t had room to focus on anything else. So we had set a trap and desperately grasped at victory. It had all been so we could smile and return to our normal lives. The Zashiki Warashi and the Succubus hadn¡¯t rescued me to bring about this kind of cruelty! ¡°Phew¡­¡± Tselika let out a sweet breath from so close it caused my spine to shudder. ¡°Can you hear it, Shinobu? Thanks to this, my nights have been far from boring. And it was all thanks to you providing me with the witch named Marguerite Steinhols, so make sure you enjoy it too.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Now, then. My choice of background music is over, so let¡¯s get back to talking about your reward. Paying you back with my body would probably fry your brain, so would you accept being given the perfect front-row seat?¡± A strange sweat seemed to pour from my brain itself and my tongue had gone numb, so I couldn¡¯t speak properly. Still, I somehow managed to voice the question in my mind. All the while, I felt a vague fear that being unable to ask this would mean I was no longer human. ¡°Front¡­row¡­seat?¡± ¡°Indeed. ¡­A front-row seat to what I call the Hyakki Yakou and Aoandon Group Mutual Destruction Show!! How about that? Gets your spine tingling, doesn¡¯t it?¡± I couldn¡¯t believe it. This went beyond Marguerite. To this demon, were human blood, fear, and death no different from the events of a movie or drama? Could she line up the corpses in the same way movies advertised themselves as having cost tens of billions of yen to produce? ¡°Good. I can feel it in your wavelength of desire. You were angry seeing your hometown overrun by such overwhelming and unreasonable violence, were you not? You wanted these crass outsiders to leave, did you not? But you had no way of making it happen. Not to worry, though. I will supply you with one. Think of this reward as just one drop in the bucket of infinite thanks I owe you.¡± Looking only at the result, this may have been in line with what I had wanted. I had indeed wanted to drive these strangers from Noukotsu Village. But her method had a definitive difference from what I had wanted. I had wanted peace. I had wanted my normal life back. I had wanted to be manipulated by the Zashiki Warashi, Yuki Onna and the others, to have stupid discussions with Madoka and Nagisa at school, and to have my normal home and school in their normal places. That would have been enough for me. So why was that desire causing it all to sink into a swamp of madness and joy? I didn¡¯t need any of that icy entertainment found in seeing slaves and lions fight to death at the Colosseum or in seeing a criminal decapitated at the public square. Even if it was still a means of ¡°ending this conflict¡±, this path and my own path would never, ever coincide. Tselika was so overwhelmingly insane that I was absolutely certain of that fact. So I managed to squeeze out some meaningless words. ¡°¡­To hell¡­with that¡­¡± In truth, what could I have even done there? This monster was making fools of Hyakki Yakou as a whole. Packages were one thing, but what could a mere high school boy even do in a direct fight against any kind of Youkai, demon, or paranormal existence? Shooting them or stabbing them was useless. Imprisonment was meaningless when they had no lifespan and there was no way to execute them, so no laws could be made to punish them. What could a human do against Tselika? Meanwhile, Tselika narrowed her serpentine eyes from close range while using Marguerite¡¯s seductive body. The concrete-like gray scales that did not bother actually covering her skin wriggled so freely I started to suspect they were her true form. And she spoke. ¡°¡­Oh?¡± A moment later, a tremendous roar rang deep in my head. My senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch were all blown away. The overwhelming explosion of my senses made me think my brain had been kneaded like clay. This time, the entire world was so filled with crimson that I couldn¡¯t even see Tselika¡¯s face a few centimeters away. There was no pain. But something was so cloyingly sweet that it shot past all my limits and made me sense death. A cold sweat poured down my face as I seriously wondered when my rampaging heart was going to burst. ¡°Bfwah!? Fwah!! Gwah! Oeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± ¡°I would recommend not angering me too much, Shinobu.¡± I felt like a bundle of pathways had been severed in my head. The world around me was buried, but Tselika¡¯s voice alone remained oddly clear. This was not an issue with my ears or eardrums. She might have been messing with my brain directly. ¡°The master is rewarding her loyal servant. Refusing that reward is no different from disgracing and shaming that master¡¯s reputation. Well, it is true times have changed, so you would not have had a chance to learn such etiquette. With that in mind, I will be kind and forgive you just this once. Do you understand what that means, Shinobu?¡± ¡°Pant, pant¡­!! Kwah!?¡± With Tselika¡¯s exasperated comment, the world finally returned. I could not breathe properly and my mouth opened and closed with only groans escaping, but Tselika thoroughly wiped off my face with her fingers and palms. ¡°Oh, how pitiful. I know you must be brimming with joy, but you don¡¯t have to let it pour from your eyes and ears as well as your nose and mouth. Hee hee. Stay still and I will clean you up.¡± It sounded like a joke, but Tselika¡¯s hands were already stained red. It was my own blood and it was flowing from my mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. I could still smell the sweet aroma that was reminiscent of a melted mixture of sugar, condensed milk, and honey, but how much of that lethal concoction had I been exposed to? I could not win. The source of it all stood right in front of me and I could easily reach out and touch her. If I did not stop the intense fighting surrounding me, the bloodshed and tragedy would spread without end. This had likely left the carefully-laid plans of the Aoandon¡¯s group, so it would continue on to the final station without any hope of being stopped. I knew all that, yet I had not the slightest clue where to even begin. What could I possibly do against a monster like this!? Part 3 (3rd person) A slender young man stood in the rural scenery wearing a black butler¡¯s uniform and glasses. He held a riding crop as he faced a girl in a greenish-brown twelve-layered kimono. She covered her mouth with a fan, but that was not enough to hide the embers escaping her mouth and blowing in the wind. They were the Supernatural Trainer and the Passionate Predator. They bore the same family emblem on their tiepin and spread fan. They were both one of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Top 5, but they were currently split into individuals who were devouring each other. It began with the kimono-wearing Passionate Predator. Each time her body swayed to the left and right, the black hair behind her would wriggle like a living creature. It almost looked like a large serpent thinking about how to torment its prey. ¡°Ahh, ahh!! I can feel the throbbing¡­ Ahh, once this happens, ahh, ahh, I can¡¯t hold back, ahh!!¡± ¡°Tch. The perverted professional stalker is already writhing from her phantom pregnancy.¡± ¡°Ahh, say whatever you like!! You know perfectly well, ahh, ahh, this is how I become a precision guided weapon that can hunt down any target with 100% accuracy!!¡± The girl took in an exceptionally large breath, but she was not preparing to yell. Fire burst from her mouth like a flamethrower. In the blink of an eye, a straight line was burned through the harvested paddy field. The scattered wave of heat transformed the dirt into glass. That flame of passion slithered like a snake, branched out, and flew toward the butler like a cluster of missiles. But that target vanished in an instant. He had moved over ten meters in a single bound. The Passionate Predator continued breathing fire regardless, so the Supernatural Trainer made leap after leap to reach safety before the flames enveloped him. The kimono girl cried out at the light movements. ¡°Ahh, ahh! Is that the Hassou-Tobi!?¡± ¡°Ushiwakamaru learned the technique from the Tengu, so did you really think I would be unable to reproduce it with my mastery of training techniques?¡± ¡°Ahh, but, ahh!!¡± She breathed out the flames with more than twice the previous intensity. Failing to capture him and being ignored only caused her passion to grow. ¡°The more what I want escapes and the more I fail to reach them, the more violent my flames grow!! Just as intense passion transformed a woman¡¯s body into a giant serpent and she burned down a divinely protected temple to get at the priest who had cast her aside!!¡± In other words, if he did not flee, the flames would surround him, but the more he fled, the more the flames would grow. They would grow without end until they finally caught up and burned him to death. (Now, what should I do?) The Illness Magic and Heirloom had lost their senses too. While taking extreme evasive actions to escape the girl¡¯s flames which had grown into a small scale volcanic eruption, the Supernatural Trainer thought sarcastically to himself. (If only there was a Youkai that taught how to handle women. Why do they only ever teach serious academics and martial arts!?) Elsewhere, the other group was also devouring itself. The ten year old girl named Ranzono Sachi and the Oomukade were not up against their enemies in Hyakki Yakou. It was the Byouki User, another member of the Aoandon¡¯s group. She was a girl wearing a yellow mini-China dress, a blue cat-ears coat, and bandages on her face and leg. The character-adorned bandages and the knee sock on just one leg seemed more creepy than cute. ¡°Ah ha! Ah ha ha!! Heyyy, you came here to show off all your friends, didn¡¯t you? You wanted to make fun of me for being all alone, didn¡¯t you? Hee hee. That¡¯s fine. That just means I have to make this a night to remember. How about I have all your limbs rot off so you have to crawl around like a worm!?¡± ¡°It would seem there is no convincing her. Sachi, stay back! Her Byouki is nowhere near as lethal as my venom!!¡± The Oomukade was nervous, but he thought he was looking in the same direction as Ranzono Sachi. But he was wrong. He was completely wrong. Her eyes moved in a disturbingly jerky way as they silently viewed the Oomukade. Coloration, optical illusions, and makeup had been used to transform the girl¡¯s face beyond recognition, but the violence below the surface could not be hidden. She looked like a beast watching its prey. The white rose corsage on the side of her head swayed as unreliably as a withered flower. ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± ¡°Sachi? Sachi!! Damn, has it gotten to her too!?¡± Even as he shouted that, his thoughts led him to a different answer. (No, can I even say it isn¡¯t affecting me? Being this cautious about Sachi might be part of the illusion making me view her as an enemy.) What was true and what was false? Who was an ally and who was an enemy? He had to question even that in this world of oozing and messy chaos. And in that world, a small girl spoke. ¡°Come.¡± The ground exploded. Dirt burst into the air and several creatures climbed up to the surface: a spider measuring several meters across, a serpent easily over ten meters long, and a giant frog with horns growing from its head. None of them would be found in an encyclopedia of animals. They were true Youkai, just like the Oomukade. ¡°A Tsuchigumo, Uwabami, and Gama? Did Sachi summon them!?¡± Children and Youkai had always been compatible. There were a lot of Youkai that could only be seen by children or that only targeted children because they would the other to them. To the Oomukade, that trait seemed stronger in Ranzono Sachi than normal. But this was the first time he had seen her use it so intentionally. She had nearly become a summoner. Even if she had no power herself, she would be a serious threat if she could continue summoning nearby Youkai without end. It would be too much for a single Oomukade to handle. He had completely lost sight of the situation. And just as he realized that, an even greater impact reached him. A deluge of black Illness Magic surged in between Ranzono Sachi and the Byouki User. A large gloomy man wearing the special black combat outfit of a SWAT member stood alongside the Oomukade. ¡°You seem to have remained saner than the rest here. To be honest, it makes me wonder why you would have joined the Aoandon.¡± ¡°I have no excuse. That blue oni stole Sachi¡¯s heart, but I¡­¡± He trailed off and fell silent. He had two reasons. First, the deluge of Illness Magic had been torn apart from within and the Byouki User stood beyond it with a dark smile on her lips. Second, the seemingly composed Illness Magic User asked a certain question. ¡°Which way am I facing right now?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I am not confident I can remain on anyone¡¯s side for long. Even if I infect my own brain with Illness Magic to keep myself fighting semi-automatically.¡± With the clear sound of bells, a young blindfolded shrine maiden arrived from a different direction. The man faced those two formidable foes, the Byouki User and the Venom Clairvoyant, and he made a blunt statement. ¡°I do not know when I will betray someone, so if you want to survive, do not trust me. Think of it as using me.¡± The battle had spread beyond the surface. Six strategic stealth bombers and an airborne warning and control aircraft that should not have existed in Japan flew in the sky above Noukotsu Village. A formation of defense fighters flew with them to protect them. A commotion had broken out among them, as if someone had poked the hornet¡¯s nest. Supposedly allied military aircraft and even the humans inside the same aircraft began fighting one another. The ugly conflict was gradually accelerating. Finally, the catastrophe crossed a certain line. One of the bombers seemed to lose its balance and then flew in a straight line toward the surface. No, it had lost control and was falling. The pilots were fighting each other and had completely forgotten something as basic as righting their own aircraft, so it had essentially become a giant bomb in and of itself. Part 4 ¡°Whoops.¡± Tselika was entirely carefree, but I was anything but. A V-shaped flying wing crashed into the paddy fields with a deafening noise. It slid along, tearing into the ground for several hundred meters, and it finally exploded. Tselika stood tall all the while, but I was blasted into the air. By the time I realized landing was going to hurt, my back collided with the ground and I had trouble breathing. ¡°Bah¡­ahh!! Aghh¡­gh!!¡± My consciousness wavered, but that was not just due to the damage. An airplane had crashed inside the village. The perfectly maintained Intellectual Village scenery had been destroyed. Jet fuel and other harmful substances had been scattered across the dirt. What would happen to the village? What would happen to the Intellectual Village brand name!? ¡°Master, are you okay?¡± The Succubus whispered from nearby. She lifted me up and wrapped her arms around my neck to embrace me. The red scenery of amplified twilight that Tselika had created ¨C or perhaps that a malfunction in my brain had created ¨C was receding somewhat. The oppressive feminine aroma and the gentle warmth that threatened to drag me into eternal darkness had both been swapped out for a different sensation. ¡°Heh hah hah hah hah!! Good, good, Henrietta. Did you remove his pain by overwriting his desire with a different desire? That¡¯s much better than trying to use some scriptures filled with sickening ideals. What you did is more like watering down tequila with beer. It¡¯s so wonderfully degenerate.¡± Henrietta? Oh, is that the Succubus¡¯s real name? I could see the Succubus biting her lip nearby. I had no idea what exactly it meant for a demon to have her name revealed, especially if it was carelessly revealed by a third party. ¡°But I¡¯m jealous. Of course, that¡¯s another type of desire, so it too is pleasant. If I was as weak as you, I could have reveled in the freedom to-¡­hm?¡± Tselika frowned and her serpentine eyes looked to her feet. A small canine Youkai was rubbing up against her long, slender leg. The Youkai looked intoxicated and about ready to pass out, but it seemed to be a Sunekosuri. Wait. A Sunekosuri? If he¡¯s here¡­! ¡°(Yes, it means I¡¯m here too.)¡± A voice whispered to me from behind. Hishigami¡­Mai!? I just about turned around, but both the Succubus and Mai pinched my butt. Mai then used her index finger to write on my back. ¡°Don¡¯t turn around. She¡¯ll notice.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Tselika looked puzzled, but she did not seem to have noticed Mai¡¯s presence. At first I thought she was hidden by my body, but that couldn¡¯t possibly be. Mai did not hesitate to stand up and walk right past me. And yet¡­ ¡°It¡¯s¡­nothing. I just have a killer headache.¡± ¡°I see. It¡¯s interesting that seduction can be too powerful.¡± Nothing was hiding Mai, so it seemed Tselika simply couldn¡¯t see her. It went beyond merely hiding one¡¯s presence. What did one have to do to reach this level? Mai may have been afraid of my eyes giving away the location of what Tselika could not see for herself. Having so thoroughly erased her presence, Mai boldly but silently walked right up next to Tselika. She circled around the archdemon as if admiring a sculpture. If she could do that, she could launch whatever surprise attack she liked. That woman was a true monster. I finally started seeing some hope, but then the Succubus wrote on my back with her fingertip. ¡°We have no trump card.¡± ¡°¡­¡± You¡¯re kidding, right? She could freely approach within a centimeter of the enemy. She could freely attack her from any angle. She could stab through her eyeball, split her head open, or pierce her heart. She had whatever opportunity she wanted. But was even Mai helpless in this situation? Could that monster not harm Tselika? ¡°Shinobu, you seem to have recovered, so come closer. Marguerite¡¯s screams were nice, but my swollen soul is aching for a man¡¯s wavelength.¡± When she seductively beckoned me over, I seriously think I nearly suffered a stroke or a subarachnoid hemorrhage. I gulped, slowly freed myself from the Succubus¡¯s arms, and walked unsteadily toward Tselika. ¡°By the way.¡± That was when she giggled and asked me a question. ¡°Shinobu, you are hiding something from me, are you not?¡± ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Is it over already? Is the hope I saw vanishing, can we not hide Mai¡¯s presence, and is it all falling apart!? ¡°I can tell from your soul¡¯s wavelength that you have latched onto some kind of hope. But what exactly is it? What made you start thinking you have a chance of defeating me? Heh heh. Good, Shinobu. Just how much are you going to let me enjoy this? Keh heh heh.¡± More than suspicion or hatred, she expressed the joy of a child trying to understand a magic trick or solve a riddle. Mai had circled behind me and her finger raced across my back: ¡°We don¡¯t have time.¡± Then she added a few more words. ¡­!? I suppose if you look at it like that¡­ ¡°Oh, your soul just leapt again. Just what is stimulating your desire?¡± This isn¡¯t good. She¡¯ll find out at this rate. I had to take action before that happened. What did I need? Something to write with, Tselika¡¯s trust, and one other thing. It didn¡¯t help that our knowledge of Eastern Youkai was not much help with Western demons. Not even the Succubus knew how to defeat Tselika who was clearly at a higher level. But there was one plan that would weaken Archdemon Tselika. I could not imagine how far her deadly sin had spread. It was even possible the Youkai hiding in the thatch roof house¡¯s ice room were fighting. If so, what would happen to my unconscious family? If I didn¡¯t try to take advantage of this one-shot opportunity, it was possible I would never get my small world back. Mai had said we did not have time. I agreed, so I would do whatever I could to deal with this quickly. ¡°Shinobu, how about you tell me now? What is this hope of defeating me that you have found?¡± And so, I gave an intentionally provocative response. ¡°Try to think for yourself.¡± ¡°You do not get a second chance. I thought I already told you that.¡± That awful sweetness assaulted me again and my brain felt like it was being kneaded like clay. Part 5 My vision¡­no, all five of my sense had gone red. My inner ear didn¡¯t seem to be working, so I had no sense of front, back, left, right, up, or down. Supposedly, if someone was blindfolded, given ear plugs, placed on a soft bed, had their arms and legs covered in metal tubes, and otherwise had all stimulation dropped to a minimum, their sense of self would not last long. This red world was precisely that. Nothing even had to happen. Simply by being there, I felt like I would suffer Gestaltzerfall. ¡ª¡ªHey, Shinobu. A voice came from an unknown direction. My senses had been thoroughly worn down, so it permeated my body like a drop of water found after wandering through the desert. ¡ª¡ªAnswer me truthfully and surrender to me, and I will reward you. I will provide you with whatever reward you wish. Now, how about it? ¡°Reward me?¡± I didn¡¯t want anything like that. But if I did not cling to those words, the stimulation would vanish and I would be unable to maintain my sanity. The words escaped my lips as a purely defensive reaction. ¡ª¡ªYes. If you only build up a resistance, I will let you do with my body as you wish. My superiority will of course be maintained, but I will still give you access to my body whenever you want. A thrilling proposal, is it not? The very premise of the idea is insane. You¡¯re worse than a drug. You aren¡¯t something I can endure with enough effort or practice. I can¡¯t do it on a fundamental biological level. ¡ª¡ªHm. Then how about I use my power to let you seduce other girls? Surely there are some members of the opposite sex who are out of reach to you no matter how close they might seem. The scenery grew distorted. The red coloration was swept away and I was at school for some reason. I stood alone in the empty classroom and someone called out to me from behind. ¡°Sorry I¡¯m so late when I was the one that called you here. But I¡¯m glad you waited.¡± ¡°¡­Madoka?¡± My problem classmate pressed her index fingers together in front of her chest, blushed, and fidgeted. ¡°Um, uh, you probably had a pretty good guess what this was about when I sent that email calling you here, but this kind of thing is best said face to face, right? Ahh! I¡¯m just too nervous!! But wait! I can¡¯t give up before I¡¯ve even begun! I haven¡¯t even gotten serious yet!!¡± By this point, I could tell what this scene was. And if I surrendered to Tselika and borrowed her power, it could become reality. However¡­ ¡°Madoka, what¡¯s that?¡± ¡°Eh? What¡¯s what?¡± ¡°That around your neck.¡± ¡°What? Don¡¯t tell me there¡¯s something there? And during one of the most important scenes of my life too. Ah ha ha. It would happen now, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± She hadn¡¯t noticed the thick and villainous collar around her neck. A chain was attached to it and that chain stretched out so far into the distance that I could not tell who was holding the other end. But Madoka could not see it and happiness filled her face. Was this the true form of the glory I would gain with Tselika¡¯s power? Yes. Was a dream given to you by another (and thus could be taken away by that person at any time) really this cruel a thing? ¡°I can¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do this!! How can I accept anything in such a twisted way!?¡± ¡ª¡ªWhy can¡¯t you? I¡¯m giving you exactly what you want. The stage changed. I moved from the classroom to the schoolyard. Nagisa stood before me and she too wore a thick collar with a never-ending chain attached to it. Akechi was supposedly her current boyfriend, but he too had a collar and chain. He had a beaming smile on his face, he grabbed Nagisa¡¯s shoulders from behind, and he pushed her toward me. ¡°Nagisa was saying she likes you more. And I think she¡¯s right. So we broke up. You can have her, so be happy together, okay?¡± What is this? ¡°Eh heh heh. Yeah, it seems you¡¯re #1 to me, Shinobu-chan. I¡¯ve dated a lot of different people, but now that I think about it, I think I was always chasing after your shadow.¡± Was this what I wanted? Did I want a girl I had broken up with long ago to be returned to me like a forgotten textbook? ¡ª¡ªCan you honestly say you have no regrets at all? Part of you wants to get back together with her, right? With my power, that is entirely possible. And her violent side can of course be contained. The stage changed again. I was now at my thatch roof home. ¡°Stop¡­¡± Pain shot through my head. I was rejecting this one before it even began. The front door opened and my feet moved against my will. I stepped inside and walked down the long hallway that had several chains running down it. I didn¡¯t want to see this. It was possible this desire did exist inside me. It was possible I had felt this in some deep part of my heart. But I had known her almost from the moment I was born. If ¡°she¡± began flirting with me like a scene from silly porn video, something inside me would break. I could tell before it had even begun. The door opened. A large room appeared before my eyes. A warm, gentle, and convenient hell awaited me. They all turned their heads my way: the Furutsubaki, the Yuki Onna, and the Zashiki Warashi. They all had collars around their necks. Their own thoughts had been completely erased and they looked like they had been injected with pure happiness. They all opened their mouths at once and- ¡°Stop!!!!!¡± Shouting was enough to make me feel dizzy. I could tell just how much that simple exchange had taken from me. ¡ª¡ªOh? Do you feel guilty when it¡¯s someone you know? Then how about a celebrity far removed from your own life? Yes, why not take all seventy-eight members of Tarot Girls 22 for yourself? Hah hah! Surely you¡¯ve imagined something like that before. The next thing I knew, the stage had changed and tears were spilling from my eyes. My senses were gradually numbing over and my words of rejection were growing weaker. My mouth was horribly dry. The sense of disgust was gradually fading. The human ability to grow accustomed to anything was kicking in. ¡ª¡ªAnd there is no need to limit yourself to girls. There are as many types of desire as there are people. Would you like to achieve success as a businessman? Would you like to win a gold medal in the Olympics? Would you like to make a discovery great enough to be a household name worldwide? How about being the world¡¯s strongest? Or becoming a singer whose songs drive the world into a frenzy? Having a dream come true without using my own strength was to reject that dream. That would take away the joy of achieving it. Countless people wanted to climb Mt. Everest and not all of them would reach the peak, but building an elevator to the top would only ruin those dreams. Having one¡¯s dream come true did not necessarily lead to happiness. Tselika would grant it instantly. Being given the power to make any dream come true would make all dreams equally meaningless. Dreams were meant to be something to aspire to, but this would make them just as boring as anything else. It was like having a walkthrough thrown at you in the middle of playing an RPG that takes 100 hours to complete. Even if you ignored the book for a while, you would eventually get stuck somewhere. You would run into a problem. And once you opened that book, it was all over. Next time, it would take less to open that book. Then it would happen again and again and again and again. You would eventually consider it perfectly normal to be flipping through the pages and ultimately play the game with the book open in your lap. That game was meant to be thoroughly enjoyed for 100 hours, but you would simply be working through it while getting nothing out of it. There was no shine to a reward you knew was coming and did not have to work to obtain. My interest faded. As each temptation was shown to me, I could feel the gears of my heart coming to a stop. These were sweet, delightful, and convenient dreams, but they still bared their ferocious fangs. And those fangs pierced my heart. ¡ª¡ªDo you want a comfortable family life? Do you want a thrilling life? Do you want to be someone who knows all the secrets and mysteries no one else does? Do you want to be someone everyone praises? Do you want to be a dictator who can get away with anything? I can make any or all of them come true as long as you announce your surrender to me. ¡­ I didn¡¯t care anymore. Resisting or not would change nothing. No one could defeat Tselika. If I didn¡¯t oppose her, she would at least not harm my small world. So¡­ ¡ª¡ªOh, I know. How about I create a world of true sufficiency? With my power, I can overwrite this puny human world with a new set of values to create a golden planet where everything is fulfilled. By that point, I had even lost interest in that instant temptation. Some small thread seemed to snap inside me. I didn¡¯t want to see any more of this, so¡­ ¡°Hishigami Mai is hiding. She¡¯s trying to defeat you.¡± I spat out the words as if raising my hands in surrender. My voice was so void of warmth that it made me sick to hear it. Part 6 The original rural scenery returned and I was collapsed on the ground. I could not move my arms and legs properly. Thanks to my betrayal, Tselika¡¯s arm was lifting Hishigami Mai by the throat. ¡°Ah¡­khah¡­ghhh!!!???¡± ¡°I do have uses for female bodies, but¡­hm. You have an artificial smell to you. I was thinking I could use you as a spare for when Marguerite¡¯s body is destroyed, but that would not work.¡± After a dull sound like a swinging bat, Hishigami Mai was thrown casually to the side. She continued flying away from us while bouncing several times like a flat stone skipping on a river. Only after throwing her did Tselika click her tongue as if remembering something. ¡°Tch. It might have been fun to remove her soul and make her a ¡®roommate¡¯ for lonely Marguerite. But it would be too much effort to go get her now. My type of violence is automatically regulated to guarantee I strike fear in the target, but that does have its downsides on occasion.¡± Even that Hishigami woman had been dealt with so easily. Tselika had not seen her as a threat or been particularly interested in her. It was hopeless after all. Tselika was not a specialist in sneak attacks. It wasn¡¯t that this was the only thing she could do. Her plentiful deck contained temptation, corruption, supremacy, hostility, fear, and violence. If she chose the violence card on a whim, I would have been turned to mincemeat in an instant. ¡°More importantly, I am pleased with your admirable decision, Shinobu. I will reward you as promised. What would you like?¡± ¡°¡­¡± I remained sitting on the ground as I spoke coldly. ¡°¡­I would like to hear Marguerite¡¯s screams again.¡± ¡°Ha ha!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Your tastes are rapidly improving, Shinobu! I can tell from your soul¡¯s wavelength that this is no act. You truly want to see Marguerite again. After all those emulated desires, do you need something like that to actually feel something again?¡± She laughed and snapped her fingers. A portion of the scenery distorted, ripped apart, and revealed pitch-black darkness. Inside that seemingly endless expanse, I heard an unsettling ¡°sound¡± that reminded me of a weak whistling or wind passing through a gap between stones. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhahhhh¡­¡± It did not sound like something that could come from a human throat. It sounded like a plea asking for help and a curse asking to be killed. ¡°¡­¡± I unsteadily stood up and walked toward that dark hole to better hear that voice. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhahhhh¡­¡± I reached the fissure and placed my hand on it as if to peer inside, but it was too dark to see anything. ¡°Heh heh. Are you interested in my captive? There is a unique way to torment a soul that lacks a physical vessel, but I will teach you all about that in due time.¡± A voice of deep resentment echoed up from the depths of hell. As I listened to it, I spoke under my breath. ¡°¡­ng. ¡­w¡­¡­ed¡­, ¡­f¡­ ¡­¡­¡­.ri¡­, ¡­b¡­¡­¡­, ¡­¡­s¡­¡­ ¡­h¡­¡­¡­, ¡­..gh¡­ ¡­s¡­ ¡­¡­e¡­¡­¡± ¡°What? Wait, was that-¡­!?¡± As if some gears had ground to a halt, Tselika stopped moving. Even her serpentine eyes stopped. ¡°I¡¯ll admit you¡¯re the strongest one here and no one can hope to stand up to you. But at the same time, you needed to use Marguerite¡¯s body to gain freedom. In that case, I only have to use the same method that Australian witch did. I can use the method to summon a demon in order to summon Marguerite¡¯s soul and place it back inside your body. And like a game of musical chairs, you¡¯ll be forced out of that body!!¡± ¡°But where would you gain that secret technique!?¡± ¡°Yeah, that isn¡¯t something a mere high school boy would know. And even Hyakki Yakou doesn¡¯t know that much about Western magic. The Succubus might be from the West, but if she could use magic herself, she wouldn¡¯t have been chased into my attic by Hyakki Yakou.¡± The Succubus supported my unsteady body as I smiled and continued my explanation. ¡°But there¡¯s someone else here, isn¡¯t there? There¡¯s an Australian witch who carelessly summoned an archdemon who didn¡¯t quite qualify as one of the seven deadly sins!!¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean¡­¡± Tselika focused on that quiet whistling sound. It did not sound like a voice, but it clearly spoke. ¡°¡­necessary components change depending on the date, time, and direction, so the exact calculations were performed outside. And instead of directing the incantation outwards, I focused on this inner world as a plea to my own soul. Making an on-the-fly shift from a tattva image to an astral projection is exceedingly difficult, so I made sure¡­¡± ¡°I dropped a single note inside,¡± I told the dumbfounded archdemon. ¡°I told her I would pull her soul out of there if she helped me. This was her one and only chance, so I knew she would jump at the opportunity whether she was my on my side or not. To put it another way, the key to it all was to have you open the door to her cell once more. Since my soul¡¯s wavelength or whatever gives away if I¡¯m hiding something, it was a race against time until you found out!¡± That was why Hishigami Mai had said we had no time. And she had intentionally acted as a decoy to help me contact Marguerite as soon as possible. Yes. She was the one that had suggested I give up at some point, sell her out, and use that to gain Tselika¡¯s disgraceful trust. That had gotten her to open the door and I had then dropped the note inside. With the help of that specialist, I was standing before Tselika with that stopgap knowledge of the Western methods. ¡°For the aforementioned reasons, the veil of ignorance may become the key to the door of the unknown. I name the soul of Marguerite Steinhols as a new demon and command her to pass through the door in that vessel of flesh!¡± ¡°Ohh¡­¡± ¡°Return, Marguerite Steinhols!! Cast aside your old self and take hold of your new self. Like a snake shedding its skin, cast aside the name of Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier and fill yourself with a bright new soul!!¡± ¡°Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???¡± The gray scale-like things covering Tselika¡¯s¡­no, Marguerite¡¯s body all burst off. The obvious symbols of the horns, tail, and wings turned to pure white ashes and dissolved into the air. The serpentine eyes returned to human ones. Marguerite fell to her knees and then collapsed completely to the ground. ¡°You eyeball woman!! ¡­Oh, what was I doing?¡± ¡°You tongue man!! ¡­Huh? Why am I biting the Umbrella?¡± The fight between the Umbrella and Lantern had ended at some point. I wondered what had happened to Hyakki Yakou. However, I did not have time to see if Marguerite was breathing or to place a coat over her as she lay before me. ¡°Do you really think you¡¯ve changed the rails of destiny with that?¡± A voice reached me from directly behind. I turned around to find a blue female oni with a knife-like horn growing from her forehead. The Aoandon had just mercilessly thrust her hand out with the speed of a bullet. Time seemed to stop for me. Instead of a human like me, the Aoandon was targeting the Succubus¡¯s chest as she floated alongside me. She seemed to be trying to kill the stronger opponent first. Hishigami Mai was too far away, I still couldn¡¯t rely on Hyakki Yakou, and the Umbrella and Lantern could not fight in the first place. I was the only one that could move. I knew I had no time to think, but I did take a brief moment to do so. If either the Succubus or I could survive, which one had a better chance of victory afterwards? Whose survival gave a better chance of rescuing Madoka, Nagisa, my family, the Zashiki Warashi, the Yuki Onna, and the others in the village? Now that Archdemon Tselika was gone, who would be able to stop this conflict? With the answer in mind, I gathered my resolve and knocked the Succubus out of the way. And of course, taking her place meant taking the Aoandon¡¯s stabbing hand myself. A dull sound burst out. A burning sensation passed from the center of my chest to my back. Thank you, Tselika. You were a truly awful person, but I do thank you for one thing. I had some of your intoxication left inside me and that numbed my fear. Without that, my legs would have frozen and I could only have watched the worst case scenario play out. The Succubus watched it happen with her eyes opened wider than I had ever seen them. Ha ha. I didn¡¯t know you could look like that. You look like a small girl who just had her teddy bear taken from her. However, I had made the right decision. If the Succubus had been killed with that first strike, I would have been helpless to do anything. After all, Youkai can¡¯t be harmed by normal blades and bullets. But demons and Youkai were different. At the very least, another paranormal being could stand on the same stage and fight. So¡­ I¡¯ll restrain the Aoandon¡¯s right arm. I¡¯ll give her a handicap. So can you not ask anything more of me? And can you risk your life for my selfish desire here, Succubus? Protect them. Protect Madoka, Nagisa, dad, mom, the Yuki Onna, the Zashiki Warashi, and everyone else around me. I didn¡¯t know if my consciousness would last another ten, thirty, or sixty seconds, but it didn¡¯t matter. I moved my mouth that could only taste iron now and I used all my remaining strength to force out a yell. ¡°Succubuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuussssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!¡± I¡¯ve given my life to you. When you ask something of a demon, you¡¯re supposed to offer up your soul, right? A brief moment before the Aoandon could pull her right hand from my chest, the Succubus flapped her bat-like wings and charged toward the Aoandon with all her might. Just before my consciousness faded, a certain person¡¯s face appeared in my mind for some reason. And a few meaningless words came to the front of my mind. I¡¯m sorry, ******. It looks like this is as far as I¡¯m going to make it. Part 7 Not even I knew how it had ended. After the Aoandon swung her arm horizontally and I slipped off of it, I rolled ungracefully along the paddy field, ended up on my back, and could not move properly. My eyelids finally numbed over and I couldn¡¯t gather my thoughts. I could only vaguely wonder if it was truly over. Someone stepped on the ground. It was Hafuri who had one arm hanging limply at her side, the right half of her mourning clothes dyed red, and her family emblem torn. ¡°What happened¡­to the Aoandon¡­?¡± Asking that question was all I could manage. I may have released more blood than words. ¡°Did the¡­Succubus¡­and Hyakki¡­Yakou¡­end¡­everything?¡± But Hafuri did not answer. She simply shook her head. My throat was trembling and I no longer had the strength to speak as she looked down at me and spoke. ¡°We must rely on the power of the Hyakki Yakou Prototype Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi. There is no other way to escape this destructive conclusion.¡± What was that? Zashiki Warashi? I did not know what she was talking about, but I did not like the sound of the Zashiki Warashi part. My chest had a hole through it, but it filled with concern when it sounded like that Indoor Youkai would be dragged into all this. ¡°Her power seems to have been broken ten years ago. It was used then to save you from a Youkai known as the Aburatori.¡± Hafuri reached the core of the issue. She spoke of something not even I knew about. ¡°So you must travel to the past. However, Hyakki Yakou¡¯s time travel technology is no more than a prototype. ¡­You are the most closely related to the truth of the Ver. 39. What truly happened back then? What was the true form of that incident before the Aburatori and Ver. 39 changed it? You must find that and help reach a resolution that does not use the Ver. 39¡¯s power. If you do¡­¡± Then this strange power of the Ver. 39 would not be used in the past. Then we could use it here to escape this hopeless situation. So¡­ ¡°The Ver. 39 is incredibly powerful. When its full power is utilized, it is said a destiny entirely separate from the current one can be created and embedded. If we use that, we can turn this around no matter how perfect a checkmate the Aoandon¡¯s group achieves,¡± explained Hafuri. ¡°But a change to the past will not necessarily be a change for the better. Saying this may be meaningless as I am only asking for your help because we have no other choice, but keep this one thing in mind. ¡­This incident will most likely be unimaginably difficult to solve. This past incident was enough to decide rewriting destiny was the only solution. If you fail to find another solution, your current existence could be caught in the alteration to history and erased. ¡­After all, a failure on your part would lead to your younger self being killed at the hands of the deadly Youkai known as the Aburatori.¡± But I had no other choice. If I did nothing, the Aoandon¡¯s group would destroy this small world of mine. ¡°But please do this. Please help us protect the world.¡± I did not need to be asked twice. I would once more face the incident that had defined who I was today. In the Gap Between Timelines 1 I had no idea if the concepts of time and space applied there. My vision and every other sense were blotted out with the color black and I could not even confirm the presence of my own body, but I could still feel myself rapidly accelerating. A few pieces of information reached me as if they had been forcibly shoved into my brain. Hyakki Yakou¡¯s time travel Package uses a Youkai known as a Kudan. (The Kudan is a Youkai that can predict what will occur in the near future with 100% accuracy, but there are no records of what point in time is defined as the present. That was used to redefine the Kudan¡¯s present to a set date and thus travel to any point in time.) When traveling to the past, the traveler will not be perceived by the people in the past. (It will feel something like an out-of-body experience. While time traveling, one can pass through doors and walls and is not subject to physiological needs such as eating and sleeping. However, such things can be enjoyed as a form of entertainment or just for fun.) When traveling to the past, the traveler normally cannot touch any objects from the past. (Much like in an out-of-body experience, physical interference is difficult.) But they can interfere just once. In other words, they can touch something. (As can be seen in this and the previous condition, it is an extremely exceptional action and carries a great risk.) If, after interfering, a distortion to history as a whole is detected, the traveler will be returned to their original time. (To put it another way, history can only be changed once and the traveler cannot return unless they change something. The smallest thing can cause history to change in unexpected ways, so the traveler must be incredibly careful.) Only the traveler¡¯s safety is protected during the time travel process. (If the traveler takes an object or individual other than themselves with them, the amount of time traveled will affect that object or individual. For example, when traveling one hundred years in time, Extra Individual A will instantly experience the passage of one hundred years.) Hyakki Yakou must have placed the information in my head in advance. I didn¡¯t know the detailed theory behind it all, so I focused my mind on the destination of my acceleration. What had truly happened ten years ago with the Youkai known as the Aburatori? How was my young self involved? And could I really solve it all without using the power that the Zashiki Warashi apparently had? I couldn¡¯t imagine how I would do that, but we were all doomed if I couldn¡¯t do it. We needed the Zashiki Warahi¡¯s power to avoid that hopeless conclusion. The Aoandon had begun the destruction of Japan and I had no idea who was in control of it anymore, but it would be completed regardless. As soon as I focus my mind, the acceleration seemed to double. My soul was dragged toward a certain time and a certain place. Volume 7, 6: Jinnai [email protected] - Truth Volume 7, Chapter 6: Jinnai [email protected] - Truth Part 1 The first thing I heard was the chirping of a sparrow. Next came the light. Color quickly filled my white vision. It gained depth, the scenery was constructed, and I found myself standing in front of a thatch-roof house. ¡­Is this my home? It looked like it, but a few details were different. The branches of the trees in the yard seemed off and the tree mode Furutsubaki (small) was nowhere to be seen. In that case, that Hafuri girl must have been telling the truth. Is this really ten years ago? ¡°Nagisa, Nagisa! Ah ha ha. Again! Let¡¯s do it again!¡± ¡°Ehh? But I¡¯m tired, Shinobu-chaaan¡­¡± I heard voices from inside the house. A young girl called to a ¡°Shinobu¡±. I needed to learn what kind of connection the Aburatori and I had in the past, so sticking with my past self seemed like the best bet. I may have been sent to the past, but I only had one viewpoint and I couldn¡¯t rewind. If I carelessly missed some crucial information, this trip into the past would be meaningless. I started to reach for the front door, but¡­ ¡°I can only interfere once, huh?¡± This was apparently similar to an out-of-body experience, so I could pass through walls and doors. I tilted my head and hesitantly reached out my fingertips. They passed right through the closed door. I didn¡¯t really feel much of anything. It was so strange that I pulled my fingers out and stuck them back in a few times before slipping my entire body through. As soon as I began to question the fact that I was standing on the ground well enough, I sank down to my knees. Oh, no! Do I pass through things the instant I think about it!? Could I accidentally send myself straight to the center of the earth!? I focused on the floor and ground again and took another step. This time, nothing unusual happened. I was apparently floating instead of walking. I had to view it that way for my own safety. I did my very best not to think too hard about things like the rotation and revolution of the earth. If those questions had filled my head, who knows how far I would have been flung. More importantly, I had to check on the young Shinobu that was my past self. I walked down the unchanged hallway and heard high-pitched voices coming from the Japanese-style living room. ¡°Nagisaaa!!¡± ¡°Shinobu-chaaan!!¡± A boy and girl of about five or six raised their hands, ran in from the left and right, and slammed into each at the center. They both shouted the same thing as they did. ¡°Fusion!!¡± ??? ¡°Ah ha ha ha ha! Nagisa, again, again!¡± ¡°Ehh!? You said that was the last time!¡± I froze up in utter confusion for a moment, but then I realized that was a gag from some comedian or another. Maybe. After ten years, it was hard to remember what I had found funny about that, but that was the way of things with comedy and fashion. But more importantly¡­ ¡­There really is a small me from the past here. Shinobu was laughing in utter glee in a happi coat, but Nagisa looked pretty exhausted in her mother¡¯s homemade Red Riding Hood outfit. If this was something from an old photo album or home video that the whole family was watching, I probably would have been writhing in embarrassment, but this was somehow different. I felt separated from it by some thin barrier and it didn¡¯t feel like that was me. ¡°Ahh, now I¡¯m thirsty. Nagisa, let¡¯s go get something to drink.¡± ¡°W-wait, Shinobu-chaaan.¡± Shinobu ran toward me, passed right through my body(?), and ran off down the hallway. The small Nagisa also passed through me as she chased after him. ¡°C-c-c-cat panties! Cat panties!¡± ¡°Y-you can¡¯t, Shinobu-chan. My mom said not to sing the cat panties song.¡± ¡°Ehh? It isn¡¯t gonna curse me, so what does it matter?¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t the issue.¡± ¡°Quit complaining, Nagisa. You were just as bad with that mango song.¡± ¡°(Rumble rumble rumble) Shinobu-chan, you swore to forever seal away the mango and banana song. (Rumble rumble rumble)¡± ¡°Pii!? O-okay! I won¡¯t sing it anymore!¡± He was supposedly my past self, but I couldn¡¯t seem to predict what he would do. I chased after him and found him using both hands to pry open the refrigerator door. ¡°Ah! Shinobu-chan, the fizzy stuff is bad for you.¡± ¡°But it tastes the best.¡± It seemed today¡¯s topic was a bottle of cider. In fact, Shinobu ignored Nagisa¡¯s warning and started pouring some into a glass. ¡°What do you want, Nagisa?¡± ¡°I-I can¡¯t rummage through someone else¡¯s refrigerator.¡± ¡°You can drink something too! You have my permission!¡± ¡°Uuh¡­ Then instead of that fizzy stuff, I¡¯ll have orange juice. My mom said the ¡®hundred percent¡¯ is good for you.¡± It was weird seeing a happy time when Nagisa could say normal things instead of only ever saying ¡°I love you¡± or ¡°I¡¯ll kill you¡± while categorizing all of mankind with the labels ¡°enemy¡±, ¡°ally¡±, ¡°not interested¡±, or ¡°extreme love¡±. I felt like I should apologize to her once I returned to the present. Then again, if I brought up that stuff from middle school, there was a good possibility she would stab me right then and there. ¡°A drink isn¡¯t enough. Oh, I know. I think we have some kitty bread.¡± ¡°Uuh¡­ I feel bad eating kitty bread.¡± ¡°Hm? Don¡¯t worry, Nagisa. It¡¯s easy to eat if you do this.¡± ¡°Ahhh! Don¡¯t tear the kitty¡¯s face apart!!¡± I noticed a schedule attached to the fridge door by a magnet. It included the date a package from an online store was supposed to arrive. According to that, it was late March ten years before. ¡°Ah, Nee-chan! You want some of the fizzy stuff too?¡± ¡°Wahyah! A-a Youkai¡­ (Tremble, tremble)¡± ¡°?¡± Nee¡­-chan? There was a time when I had called my uncle ¡°Nii-chan¡±, but who was this ¡°Nee-chan¡±? Puzzled by that nickname, I looked in the same direction as the young Shinobu. There, I saw someone walking into the kitchen. A Zashiki Warashi¡­in a red yukata??? ¡°Shinobu, you can drink that carbonated stuff, but only one cup, okay? Lunch is in about an hour.¡± ¡°Ehh? But I want to drink more. Bartender, give me another!¡± ¡°Y-you can¡¯t, Shinobu-chan. You have to do what the Youkai says¡­¡± The Zashiki Warashi snatched the two liter bottle from the complaining boy¡¯s hands and screwed on the cap. ¡°You can have more at lunchtime, Shinobu.¡± ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll have to remember that.¡± ¡­Hmm. It feels weird to see her acting like a big sister. Did all of this really happen? That said, she really was a Youkai. This was ten years in the past and she looked exactly the same as the present. Comparing that to Shinobu and Nagisa made it painfully obvious she was a paranormal being. It felt wrong, like someone had cut out her picture and pasted it into an older one. Also, seeing that Good-for-Nothing Youkai caused some curiosity to rear its ugly head inside me. I could view anything in this past world. No one could see me, so I didn¡¯t have to worry about an unexpected counterattack. Does this mean I can peep all I want when that sexy Zashiki Warashi is in the bath or changing? Heh. Eh heh heh. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°What is it, Nee-chan?¡± As Shinobu tilted his head, the Zashiki Warashi gave me a truly unnatural look, so I grew as cautious as possible and slowly moved to the side. But the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s head and gaze remained perfectly locked onto me. ¡°Am I just imaging it?¡± she said. ¡°???¡± This was bad. It was very, very bad. It looked like I couldn¡¯t get too carried away. Human rules didn¡¯t seem to apply to Youkai here. Who could say when I would accidentally change history? Meanwhile, I heard the TV from the Western-style living room connected to the kitchen. ¡°Just how effective is the Hidarugami Diet!? This new diet is spreading by word of mouth over the internet, but specialists have begun to speak out about the risks.¡± Someone had apparently turned on the TV. Shinobu and the others walked into the living room, so I followed suit. ¡°It¡¯s grampa! What is that you have there? A letter?¡± ¡°Oh, Shinobu-chan¡¯s grandfather. H-hello.¡± My grandfather waved while chopping up a letter with scissors. After it was nothing but scraps, he threw it into the garbage can. ¡°Ah, you threw it away without reading it!¡± ¡°This letter didn¡¯t deserve to be read.¡± ¡°Nii-chan said email is better than letters. You¡¯ve moved onto email, haven¡¯t you!?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m not so good with those electronics. Staring at those screens makes my eyes water.¡± Some small footsteps approached. Instead of family, it was some travelling Youkai staying at the house. The one that looked like a small child was an Onbu-Obake and the large man with a red face was¡­what was it? It didn¡¯t have any horns, so it didn¡¯t seem to be an Oni. ¡°Shinobu-chan! I heard we could get a Youkai Stamp if we came here. Give me a stamp! Or a piggyback ride!¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. I happened to hear that a Youkai Stamp is an important symbol.¡± Youkai Stamp??? I tilted my head, but the young Shinobu seemed to understand. He pulled out a round stamp about five centimeters across and pressed it to the back of the Youkai¡¯s hands. ¡°Now you¡¯re my friend.¡± ¡°Wonderful! Now give me a piggyback ride!!¡± ¡°You¡¯re a Friend Youkai too.¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. So this is the Youkai Stamp that began as an app and now even has a movie¡­¡± This was apparently a magazine bonus based on a kid¡¯s TV show. Unlike most Youkai shows, no one died and the Youkai weren¡¯t defeated. They were simply captured as Friend Youkai. I didn¡¯t really remember the details, though. ¡°Mhh. Why are you wearing a happi coat, Shinobu-chan? Is there a festival coming up?¡± ¡°This proves I¡¯m a man of the Jinnai Brewery!¡± He spun around to show it off. Oh, so that¡¯s why he¡¯s wearing that. ¡°What does an Onbu-Obake do?¡± ¡°Ask people for piggyback rides! Obariyon!!¡± ¡°And a Kaki Otoko?¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. You can just think of me as a kind of Tantankororin. You¡¯re still too young for the details. ¡­Oh, it¡¯s Hayabusa!!¡± ¡°Hayabusaaa! Give me a piggyback ride!!¡± The Youkai left with some loud footsteps. I heard someone shouting ¡°Waah! Stay away from me, you perverts!¡± in the hallway, but what exactly was happening out there? Back in the living room young Nagisa was puffing out her cheeks. ¡°Mhh.¡± ¡°What is it, Nagisa?¡± ¡°Shinobu-chan! Give me a stamp too!¡± ¡°What are you talking about? This is a Youkai Stamp, so I can¡¯t stamp a human like you.¡± ¡°Mhhhhh!¡± She was really mad, but then her giant St. Bernard trotted into the living room and gave a single loud bark. She pulled a children¡¯s cellphone from the small barrel hanging below the large dog¡¯s neck. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s already this late. It¡¯s almost lunchtime, so I have to head home.¡± ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll walk you home. Nii-chan said a true man walks the girl home!¡± ¡°Zashiki Warashi, what do you think about that?¡± asked my grandfather. ¡°If he didn¡¯t try to act cool saying lame things like that, he wouldn¡¯t have a Kaki Otoko attacking him.¡± With that, Shinobu, Nagisa, and the St. Bernard made their way to the front entrance. It nearly forgot, but the Aburatori incident was supposedly going to begin soon. I had no idea when it would it would happen or how, so I had no choice but to follow them. The rural farm road was the same scenery I was used to seeing. That said, there seemed to be more Youkai than I was used to. Shinobu and Nagisa approached an intersection in the middle of the paddy fields. ¡°I am a Nurikabe.¡± ¡°Wahyah!? Sh-Sh-Shinobu-chaaan!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Nagisa. He doesn¡¯t bite.¡± A giant three-eyed dog lay in the middle of the narrow road. It was about the size of a microbus, so it completely blocked the way. ¡°Wait a little until that work van goes by.¡± ¡°A-are you sure it isn¡¯t a bad Youkai¡­?¡± ¡°I¡¯m gonna give him a Youkai Stamp.¡± ¡°When I get home, I¡¯m getting a potato and making you a Human Stamp¡­¡± Before long, a vehicle drove through the intersection and the giant three-eyed dog vanished into thin air. The Youkai seemed to be like a railroad crossing barrier. Nagisa¡¯s home was not in the middle of the paddy fields. It was at the base of the mountain on the edge of the village. I could hear cows and chickens from nearby. I was pretty sure they ran an extremely small-scale but high-quality micro-farm. I remembered hearing something about a price tag of ten thousand yen on each egg laid by their stress-free chickens. And at this point in the past, no one knew that accidentally seeing her parents at work in the meat processing facility would knock one of Nagisa¡¯s screws loose and ultimately help develop the gory techniques of one of the world¡¯s three greatest yandere. (sob) ¡°Bye, Shinobu-chan. I¡¯ll head back to play after lunch.¡± ¡°Yeah! It¡¯s a promise!¡± ¡°Go right back home. Don¡¯t take any detours, okay?¡± ¡°Okay! Leave it to me!¡± ¡°¡­I-I¡¯m worried. Maybe I should go with you.¡± That would have begun an infinite loop, so Nagisa said goodbye for the time being. Shinobu then started home alone. However¡­ ¡°What is it, Kappa!? Why are you all dried up on the road!?¡± ¡°U-uuh¡­ The plate on my head has dried up. Water¡­ Could you give me some water?¡± ¡°I only have the fizzy stuff in my water bottle.¡± ¡°Th-that¡¯s bubbly!? Obh¡­ofahhh! What is this new sensation!?¡± The Kappa got a stamp. ¡°Fwa ha ha! I am the great Tsuchigumo!! Heh heh. Don¡¯t expect me to obey you!!¡± ¡°Huh? Why are you dressed like a girl when you¡¯re a spider?¡± ¡°I am the ultimate delinquent, so I can transform into a beautiful woman!¡± ¡°How do spiders sleep? In a hammock? Make one for me!!¡± ¡°St-stop! You won¡¯t get any silk by pulling on me there!!¡± The Tsuchigumo got a stamp. ¡°Keh heh heh. I am a Nopperabou! What do you think? Scary, aren¡¯t I!?¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t supposed to call people scary for how they look.¡± ¡°Eh? Ah!? That may be true, but that¡¯s kind of the entire reason I exist!¡± ¡°Anyway, you¡¯re my friend too.¡± The Nopperabou got a stamp. D-does this kid forget what he¡¯s doing every three steps!? Every time he came across a Youkai, he would get sidetracked and he was now walking in an entirely different direction from the thatch-roof house. ¡°Ah! Come to think of it, I forget to give him a stamp! I need to go give him one!¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding, right?¡± I said. ¡°The kid¡¯s heading into the mountain, now!?¡± He was me, but it was still scary watching it. Then again, I could only physically interfere once, so I couldn¡¯t waste that chance here. I followed Shinobu along the mountain path and he came to a clearing only about thirty or forty meters up. Instead of a high-tech orchard, the flat area only had some random undergrowth, so it may have been cleared out for a small shrine. And¡­ ¡°Hey! I¡¯m here to play! I¡¯ll give you a Youkai Stamp too!!¡± I heard the wind gently blowing through the tree branches overhead. A single rundown cabin existed on that elevated clearing. And then something peeked out from behind it, as if revealing itself from its hiding spot. All of its face save the mouth was hidden behind a large conical hat with a single eye drawn on it. It wore a farmer¡¯s kimono with leggings covering the feet. Its arms and legs were so wrinkled they looked like tree branches or part of a mummy. To sum it up¡­this was the Aburatori. That worst of all deadly Youkai was second to none when it came to killing children. ¡°¡­!!!???¡± Why was he here? Hadn¡¯t he suddenly wandered into Noukotsu Village one day, caused a number of incidents, and got young Shinobu caught in the middle? The Aburatori slowly walked over. The large hat still hid his face and expression as he silently approached Shinobu. He simply appeared, simply abducted, and simply killed. He would take children away, remove their organs, stab them with skewers, and cook them over a fire. The Youkai that took children¡¯s oil like that was known as the Aburatori. However, it was not defined what he did with that oil and there was no moral behind the story. He was a simple fear without any related lesson such as ¡°return home before it gets dark¡± or ¡°do what your parents tell you¡±. He moved ever closer. He approached. From three meters, to two, and then one. ¡°What do I do?¡± I was filled with a sticky sense of revulsion that went beyond simple fear. Was this it? Was this the scene where I was supposed to use my one forceful interference? I had no time to hesitate. If I failed here, the Zashiki Warashi would use her Ver. 39 power (whatever that was). To preserve that power and use it for the Aoandon incident in the present, I could not afford to mess up here. I had to use my one chance as accurately as possible. ¡°What do I do!?¡± But as soon as I thought that¡­ ¡°I told you not to come here, didn¡¯t I?¡± He clearly spoke with his face still hidden behind the large hat. The voice was not at all like the rampaging monster I knew that simply devoured children¡¯s organs. ¡°I am an incredibly scary Youkai that will eventually harm you.¡± It was a male voice with deep intelligence behind it. It was practically dripping with feelings of anguish and conflict. ¡°That isn¡¯t true.¡± And¡­ ¡°Don¡¯t worry! I can get along with any Youkai, no matter how deadly! I¡¯m here to give you a stamp and you were worried for me. That means we¡¯re already friends. So neither of us has to worry!!¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Hold out your hand, Aburatori.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Just do it! I¡¯ll give you a Youkai Stamp!¡± Shinobu forcibly took the confused Aburatori¡¯s hand and pressed the toy-like stamp against the back of his hand. ¡°Now you¡¯re a Friend Youkai.¡± Shinobu gave a beaming smile. And then my past self clearly said the following in Noukotsu Village ten years ago: ¡°So don¡¯t say those sad things anymore. We¡¯re the best of friends now!!¡± Part 2 Huh? I thought. What did I just see? Is this really what happened in the actual version of the past? Part 3 Nothing else happened and Shinobu played with Nagisa at the thatch-roof house without interacting any more with the Aburatori. A variety of Youkai made their way into the house without permission, but I couldn¡¯t see anything else that looked related to the past incident. ¡°I know what you mean! Jello is cool because it¡¯s see-through!¡± ¡°No, Shinobu-chan. Jello is cute because it jiggles.¡± The two children argued over their snack, but once they ran out of things to talk about there, they moved onto the names written on their bags. ¡°Look, Nagisa. I can write my name in kanji.¡± ¡°I-I can do that too. We¡¯re starting school this spring, so hiragana would be embarrassing.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a heart under a blade! Stab!! But Nee-chan¡¯s is hard. It¡¯s got a whole bunch of diagonal lines. How¡¯d you get such an annoying name?¡± ¡°Shinobu, that was the name your parents had prepared in case you were born a girl. They didn¡¯t need it anymore, so I borrowed it.¡± Evening fell, Nagisa left, and Shinobu started getting a little excited. ¡°Nee-chan, Nee-chan!!¡± ¡°What is it, Shinobu?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t get my toy box closed. All the toys fit in there before, so why won¡¯t they now? This must be some kind of evil magic! There¡¯s nothing I can do!¡± ¡°Shinobu. Let¡¯s try thinking through this together, one step at a time.¡± They began putting rubber balls, toy cars, and other toys inside the limited space of the toy box like a simple puzzle game. She was still pretty helpful at this point. How¡¯d she get so lazy by the present? Once the work was done, it was apparently time for dinner. When his plate was set in front of him, Shinobu gave a lopsided frown and spoke to his mother. ¡°Adults don¡¯t play fair.¡± ¡°Eh!? Wh-where did that come from?¡± ¡°Everyone but me gets to eat oysters. And you all act like it¡¯s the best part.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ But they say it¡¯s dangerous to feed raw oysters to small children.¡± ¡°Adults always say that! I get that I can¡¯t drink the gold fizzy stuff, but why can¡¯t I have coffee or tea either? You put it all off limits, calling it an ¡®adult flavor¡¯!¡± ¡°You can¡¯t have any, Shinobu. Caffeine is the last thing you need.¡± ¡°Mhhh¡­ Nee-chaaan!!¡± Shinobu swung his arms and legs around to summon the Zashiki Warashi who sighed when she heard what was going on. ¡°Yes, the adults don¡¯t play fair at all. Now, how about you come with me and eat some fried oysters?¡± ¡°Ah, no fair! You¡¯re just going to steal Shinobu from me without even waiting for an explanation!?¡± ¡°But I want one of those slippery ones. Slippery!!¡± Shinobu kept complaining, but he seemed happy enough once his stomach was full. He lay on the floor patting his stomach and spoke up. ¡°Today, I¡¯ll take a bath with mom.¡± ¡°Oh, my. Well, I don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°And with dad.¡± ¡°Veh!?¡± ¡°What was that for? Do you not want to take a bath with dad?¡± ¡°W-well, I don¡¯t have a problem taking a bath with my husband, but I¡¯m not sure I want you in there with us. I would have to find a way to banish all of my worldly thoughts¡­¡± For some reason, Shinobu looked incredibly shocked. ¡°I was the problem!? Do you hate me, mom!?¡± ¡°What!? N-no, that isn¡¯t it at all, Shinobu! That isn¡¯t what I meant!!¡± ¡°No excuses! I¡¯m taking a bath with grampa today!! You have to wait until tomorrow!¡± ¡°Hmm? That¡¯s fine, but grampa likes his baths hot.¡± ¡°And gramma can join us.¡± ¡°Vfweh!?¡± He suffered another shock. ¡°Th-then I¡¯ll have to take my bath with Nee-chan!!¡± ¡°Honestly, why are you adults making such a fuss over a simple bath?¡± ¡°And Nii-chan can join us.¡± ¡°Not a chance.¡± The third shock finally brought Shinobu to tears, so he ran from the Western-style living room and into the Japanese-style living room where the Youkai were gathered. ¡°Wahhhhh!! Kyuubi! Kuzunoha!! Everyone¡¯s so mean! They¡¯re all taking baths together without me!!¡± ¡°Ho ho ho. What a troublesome child. Now, how about you try grabbing my nine tails?¡± ¡°You wild fox, stop spoiling other people¡¯s children. As the Kuzunoha, I will harden my heart and thoroughly teach him some manners!¡± The boy and two animals made their way to the bath. That Kyuubi isn¡¯t related to the Japanese Killing Stone, is it? Well, I think they were originally Chinese and were a sign of good luck. But doesn¡¯t Kuzunoha refer to an individual? Could that be the Kuzunoha? After throwing open the changing room¡¯s door and just before shutting it, teary Shinobu let out a shout. ¡°We all have to get along!!¡± Despite all that, I could see no sign of any sort of bloody incident. The problem was that I did not know what month, day, hour, and minute the danger would arrive. Of course, I doubted a year or two would pass with nothing happening. Once the clock reached eleven at night, all the lights were turned out, and the family had all gone to sleep, a certain fact became much more obvious. Simply put¡­ ¡°I have nothing to do¡­¡± The time travel method was similar to an out-of-body experience, so I could slip through walls and doors without being seen and I didn¡¯t need to worry about biological issues. In other words, I wasn¡¯t sleepy. That may have sounded convenient as I only had one point of view and couldn¡¯t rewind, but when nothing was happening, I got pretty bored. I slipped through the door to Shinobu¡¯s room a few times to check on him, but he was fast asleep with a giant fox curled up on either side of him. ¡°Mumble, mumble¡­ Fluffy tails¡­¡± ¡°Keh heh heh! ¡­I-I will never¡­forget this humiliation¡­¡± I doubted I was going to find any important information watching this. ¡°I guess I should go back over what information I have.¡± That was really all I could do. Then again, I wasn¡¯t exactly overwhelmed by a bunch of information I had to sort through. The Aburatori had apparently not suddenly appeared in this version of the past. He was living in a rundown mountain cabin doing something. And I knew the Aburatori. He had not tried to kill me no questions asked and had even warned me away. But at the same time, he was aware how dangerous and deadly he was. That led me to the conclusion that he did not want to kill any children. Although I had yet to check inside that cabin. It was possible he was keeping me away because there was something ¡°evil¡± in there he didn¡¯t want me to see. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± I doubted Shinobu was going to do anything here. Leaving his side and heading out into the mountains wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea. After all, I couldn¡¯t predict when or where the incident would occur. I would have an easier time later if I gathered what information I could now while the danger was still low. And that sped things up. Maybe I was bored and starving for some stimulation or maybe I felt safe in this out-of-body experience state, but I felt no reluctance to head out into the dark mountains late at night where I knew the Aburatori was waiting. I left the thatch-roof house and followed the farm roads. Intellectual Villages were dark at night. Most crops used photosynthesis, so they were influenced by light and it was not good to shine unnecessary light on them. There were streetlights with the same sensors as automatic doors to ensure the safety of pedestrians, so the lights came on only where people and cars were passing by. However, they didn¡¯t react to me in my current state. The inky darkness of the village was broken by the carpet of countless stars and the moonlight that pierced through the shadows. Once I reached the mountain, a bit of a damp chill came over me. I walked to the elevated clearing from before. With no wind, I couldn¡¯t even hear the rustling of the branches. Late March was too early for the insects to wake up, so I couldn¡¯t hear any of them either. The silence was almost painful. And that may have been why I heard the whispering voices so clearly. ¡°Are you sure this will work?¡± ¡°Nine years. My calculations say nine years will fulfill all the conditions. That will liberate you.¡± ¡°But that boy saw me. I want to be more certain.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a Kaeshigami, remember? You¡¯ll be fine. You restrained yourself this long, and you only have a week until the limit. You can make it that long.¡± ¡­What? What are they talking about??? The hoarse elderly voice was likely the Aburatori, but who was the young man? ¡°That boy¡± probably meant young Shinobu, but I couldn¡¯t figure out the rest. Nine years, liberate, restrain, limit, certain¡­and Kaeshigami. I didn¡¯t know what they were doing here, but it didn¡¯t sound peaceful. And just as I was thinking that, a young female voice spoke behind me. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s going on here? We have a visitor.¡± My heart jumped more at all the gazes focusing my way than at the loud voice. The other two were focusing on the comment made by that young female speaker. That meant they were aware of my presence. ¡°Hm? Where¡¯s this visitor, Ohatsu-san?¡± ¡°Here. I¡¯m rubbing up against them right now.¡± ¡°Yeah, but we can¡¯t see anything there¡­¡± I slowly looked down. A small dog was rubbing its cheek up against my right shin. The Sune¡­kosuri? It looked similar, but this wasn¡¯t the one that worked with Hishigami Mai. It spoke like a woman, it had a scarf around its neck, and it had a ribbon on its right ear. The young man who had been speaking with the Aburatori then spoke in a seemingly random direction. ¡°Shikimi-saaan!! Can you see anything?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask me.¡± Surprisingly, this new voice came from directly overhead. A girl in a kimono sat on one of the branches forming the tunnel of trees. She had a thick shimenawa around her waist instead of an obi, her long hair was a colorless white, and she was pretty yet eerie. The way she wore her hair up made it look like a strange flower, she had a surprisingly large chest, and her bare feet were dangling down, so I could see her soft-looking toes and the bottom of her feet. Her slender and lovely appearance was belied by tough mannerisms and how her arms stuck out from the collar instead of using the sleeves. ¡°My specialty is war, so I don¡¯t like spending a bunch of time gathering intelligence or setting everything up just right.¡± ¡°Ha ha. And how do you expect me to do something that the founder of the Hishigami line can¡¯t?¡± The founder of the Hishigami line. Shikimi. I had no idea what was going on, but I could feel unpleasant sweat pouring from my entire body. I wasn¡¯t entirely sure I could actually sweat in my nearly out-of-body experience state, though. ¡°You need to stop looking down and rejoicing when you find someone who can¡¯t do something. It¡¯s pathetic. You¡¯re going to be a father soon, so you need to fix that self-indulgent side of yours.¡± ¡°Ohatsu-san, is the visitor still there?¡± ¡°Yes. It seems Youkai can tell ¡®somehow or other¡¯. Sensitivity and accuracy seems to depend on the specific species, though.¡± ¡°I see.¡± The young man seemed to be enjoying this situation. A moment later, I could have sworn the moonlight got stronger. Or maybe the clouds had cleared out. And¡­ This man in a dress suit was surrounded by a bizarre group: the Aburatori, Hishigami Shikimi, and a Sunekosuri named Ohatsu. But rather than the kind of clothing the nouveau riche would wear just once to a special occasion, this man seemed perfectly at home in his dress suit, as if he had stepped out of an old painting. The term ¡°old nobility¡± naturally came to mind. His sleek black hair was tied off at his waist and an old-fashioned monocle adorned his handsome face. At first I thought it was the monocle¡¯s doing, but his eyes really were different colors. Also, he was accurately looking me right in the eye. He claimed he couldn¡¯t see me, but his gaze seemed to stab directly into my mind. ¡°Nice to meet you, visitor.¡± My heartrate increased and I felt like my throat was growing dry. In my out-of-body experience, no one from the past could harm me, but I felt like that assumption had been overturned and I had been thrown into the lion¡¯s cage. And without any concern for how I was feeling, he spoke. ¡°My name is Majina, spelled with the character for ¡®curse¡¯. Oh, and I don¡¯t mind if you use my first name. For a variety of reasons, my family name is treated like an heirloom sword.¡± As if dropping an even larger bomb than the Aburatori¡¯s name, he pointed his thumb toward the family crest on his dress suit¡¯s chest. ¡°Simply put, I am the leader of Hyakki Yakou. I don¡¯t know the exact method, but since you¡¯re relying on something like that, I can assume you¡¯ve taken at least a step into our narrow field. In that case, I assume you¡¯ve heard that name before.¡± Part 4 Early in the morning on my second day in the past, young Shinobu was throwing a fit in the entranceway. ¡°No!!¡± ¡°Come on, Shinobu. Even Ubu wants you to let him go. They came here to spend the night on their journey, so they can¡¯t move on if you hold onto him.¡± Despite the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s gentle attempt to persuade him, Shinobu shook his head with the Youkai in his arms. As for that Youkai¡­ Is it just me or is that spider more than two meters long? ¡°That isn¡¯t true! Ubu¡¯s still a baby!! All he can say is ¡®ogyaah¡¯ and ¡®baboo¡¯!!¡± ¡°Well, he is an aggregation of stillbirths and infanticides.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t throw a baby out!¡± ¡°But I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s lived for centuries, just like me. Come on, Shinobu. Let go.¡± ¡°Uuh¡­ Smooch!!¡± Ah!? I-I¡¯d always assumed my first kiss was with my parents or a relative, but¡­it was¡­with a bug!? Shinobu of course showed no sign of noticing my shock and tearfully pulled out his Youkai Stamp. ¡°Listen, Ubu. We¡¯re friends now. If you have any trouble, come see me. I¡¯ll always be waiting!¡± Some other sad exchanges like that followed and time passed. While young Shinobu and Nagisa were playing in the large yard, another visitor showed up. ¡°Haaayaaabuuusaa-kuuun.¡± A sexy high school girl with a kanzashi in her long black hair wore Noukotsu High School¡¯s winter uniform even though it was spring. Who is that? I know she must be a friend of my uncle¡¯s, but still¡­ Incidentally, that uncle looked annoyed as he opened the door. ¡°What is it, beautiful student council president? Why the childish entrance?¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. I couldn¡¯t help myself after seeing Shinobu-kun and Nagisa-chan playing in the yard. I¡¯m jealous. I want to play badminton with them! Hey, hey. Could you go ask them too, Hayabusa-kun?¡± But¡­ ¡°This stranger is scary.¡± ¡°Stra-¡­!?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Shinobu-chan¡¯s uncle. H-hello.¡± ¡°Unc-¡­!!!???¡± Both of them were left in shock. The student council president even had tears in her eyes. ¡°Wh-what do you mean I¡¯m a stranger? Remember when we played in the river and I held your hands to teach you the flutter kick? Or at the festival when we walked hand-in-hand in our yukatas? Or at the athletics festival when we won first prize in the borrowing race together!? I was supposed to find something I could die happy if I had, so I chose you and ran to the finish line with you under my arm!!¡± ¡°Hmm???¡± ¡°You¡¯ve forgotten! You¡¯ve completely forgotten, haven¡¯t you!? Heh. But I¡¯m not petty enough to get hung up on the past. I just have to deepen our friendship starting today!!¡± ¡­I¡¯m sorry, beautiful girl, but in ten years, I still won¡¯t know who you are. And I can¡¯t even imagine how chaotic a scene it was for the school¡¯s beautiful student council president to race across the schoolyard in bloomers with a five or six year old boy under her arm. The two high school students gradually held up their rackets and they began a doubles match with the president on Shinobu¡¯s team and my uncle on Nagisa¡¯s team. ¡°This person is too beautiful. I can¡¯t get close.¡± ¡°Wh-what am I supposed to do about that? But if it means getting along with you, I¡¯m willing to eat a ton of cakes and get super fat!!¡± ¡°President.¡± The high school students must have mostly wanted to help out the kids because they leisurely kept the rally going while chatting with each other. ¡°By the way, Hayabusa-kun, that problem from before has gone up a rank. I still have no proof, though. It¡¯s more of an atmosphere or a thorny nuance.¡± ¡°Yeah, I know what the underlings are up to, so I¡¯ll hunt them down before long. But you need to make sure your GPS and alarm are working.¡± ¡°It must be tough for you too. But, well, it may just come with the territory for the Jinnai Brewery.¡± ¡°This is honestly no laughing matter. Of course, I haven¡¯t lived a clean enough life to be surprised when some shiners show up.¡± ??? I wasn¡¯t the only one tilting my head in confusion at that. Shinobu and Nagisa also looked puzzled as they smashed the shuttlecock back and forth with some help from the high school students. ¡°What¡¯s a shiner?¡± ¡°Shinobu-chan, it¡¯s a type of sushi. I think the shiny silver fish are called that.¡± ¡°Then are we having sushi today? I can¡¯t wait!!¡± But when Shinobu saw the pasta with meat sauce served for lunch, a completely dead look came over his eyes. ¡°¡­I can¡¯t accept this.¡± ¡°Eh!? You don¡¯t like my cooking anymore!?¡± My mom was left all alone in shock, but Shinobu¡¯s attention turned to the flat screen TV as he covered his mouth in the red of tomato. The sports segment of the news was on, but in late March, there was nothing much happening in soccer or baseball. It was more about introducing some upcoming events. ¡°Look, Shinobu. The sake we made is on TV. It¡¯s being used to commemorate their victory.¡± ¡°That bottle the sumo wrestler is holding?¡± ¡°Something from the Jinnai Brewery is the standard way of celebrating the spring competition. That bottle those baseball players are breaking in front of the camera is also ours. There¡¯s even a rumored jinx saying teams that don¡¯t end their spring training camp with something Jinnai will do terribly next season.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ You¡¯re amazing, grampa.¡± Shinobu pointlessly spun around the fork he wasn¡¯t entirely sure how to use. I could tell how hard it must be to get your kid to follow the family business. The special small happi coat he wore was probably meant to instill a sense of being a part of the industry (although it probably also had a lot to do with my doting parents.) He was an only child, so it would be a problem if he suddenly decided he wanted to be a rock star. Once he had finished lunch and wiped off his mouth with a tissue, Shinobu began playing with the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°Nee-chan, look at me!¡± ¡°What is it, Shinobu?¡± ¡°Look at me!¡± Shinobu was wiggling around on his back, but when the Zashiki Warashi approached, he grabbed onto her leg. No¡­? ¡°I get in trouble if I climb the trees.¡± ¡°Well, it is dangerous and it can harm the older trees.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯ll climb you. Nee-chan climbing!¡± He began his after-lunch exercise. But by afternoon, Nagisa was back with her St. Bernard. ¡°Sh-Shinobu-chan, I brought my What¡¯s-This Wand.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a What¡¯s-This Wand?¡± ¡°My dad bought it for me. If you don¡¯t know what something¡¯s for, you wave the wand in front of it and it tells you. Wh-what¡¯s this!?¡± Is that a type of electronic dictionary? Nagisa held out the toy with a CCD camera and image recognition system installed and she pointed it toward her St. Bernard. After an electronic sound effect, it spoke in an artificial female voice. ¡°Guard dog of hell, two melons, hooray.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± With the same look as someone faced with a ridiculous machine translation, Shinobu and Nagisa left the What¡¯s-This Wand on top of the shoe shelf in the entranceway. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s play with your dog! Do you want to use the ball or the flying disc?¡± ¡°Shinobu-chan. He¡¯s saying to throw both.¡± The St. Bernard barked and wagged its tail in full readiness. As I watched the dog race across the large yard, I happened to see the Zashiki Warashi circling around the veranda to the back yard. ¡°?¡± I was supposed to be pursuing the truth of the past, so nothing was as irritating as scenes of complete normalcy. In order to gather whatever information I could, I followed the Zashiki Warashi. And I found a sudden bombshell. Majina of Hyakki Yakou was leaning against the house¡¯s outer wall with his arms crossed. ¡°¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª!!!???¡± ¡°Why are you here?¡± ¡°For a follow-up visit.¡± Majina replied to the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s stiff voice in an indifferent voice of his own while tracing his finger along the edge of his monocle. ¡°Don¡¯t look so threatening. You really are worried about the Ver. 39 contained inside your body, aren¡¯t you? You escaped long ago when it was still incomplete and unfinished and it hasn¡¯t had any maintenance done in the century or more since. It could break at any time and no one knows what will happen when it does. Personally, it would frighten me more than a strange shape on the X-ray scan.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like you can do anything about it these days.¡± ¡°True enough. The Ver. 39 is a black box to us as well. We cannot reproduce it or create a new one. But that is exactly why I want you to rest easy. Hyakki Yakou cannot steal the technology even if we forcibly abducted you. As such, we have no reason to. Having nothing to gain is the proof of peace. Now, let us shake hands in the theme park!¡± He jokingly held out his hand for a handshake, but the Zashiki Warashi did not comply. Her displeased look remained as he waved his hand at her. ¡°You don¡¯t believe me?¡± ¡°Why should I after what you ¨C well, your ancestors ¨C did to me?¡± ¡°Fair enough.¡± Majina let out an exasperated sigh. He pointed his thumb at the family crest on his chest which was modeled after some kind of animal. ¡°This points to the Youkai that are completely removed from any ecosystem while also pointing to the frightening human imagination. Combine the two and you have Hyakki Yakou. It¡¯s said that Hyakki Yakou has fallen quite a bit over the past hundred years, but that isn¡¯t accurate. It would be better to say we were insane until one hundred years ago. My generation is attempting to return us to our original form, but I do wonder how that will turn out. Whether in politics, the military, or the chair of the company president, power is a devilish thing. Once it falls within your grasp, it will drag you down without end.¡± Their conversation was cut off there. The front yard had grown much noisier. I peeked around and saw¡­something wearing a worn-out kimono. The small figure looked both like a child and like an old person as it hung its head at the end of the yard. ¡°Sh-Shinobu-chan, this Youkai is called an Akaname.¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t he come into the house? This fizzy stuff is great! Drink some!!¡± The Akaname wasn¡¯t a deadly Youkai. It was completely harmless. However, it would lick up the limescale from the bath, so it was not well-liked in a beverage-making family. Intellectual Village brands got their value from an image of high quality, so anything that would give an unclean impression was the same as adding poison to the bottle. ¡°This is unavoidable. My traits and your family are incompatible.¡± ¡°Nn¡­¡± Shinobu tilted his head. ¡°Then how about you play with me outside? Don¡¯t worry. I can get along with any Youkai!¡± The Akaname was pulled into their group in no time at all. And it did not end there. ¡°Sh-Shinobu-chaaan! Th-th-th-this is a God of Poverty!¡± ¡°C¡¯mon over here.¡± ¡°Shinobu-chan, what is this giant caterpillar thing? Eh? Kodoku???¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what that is, but let¡¯s play together.¡± As the shrill voices of playing children reached him, the man calling himself the leader of Hyakki Yakou gently narrowed his eyes. ¡°When I hear the word exorcism, I picture someone borrowing the power of a god or buddha to unilaterally blast the evil spirit with a smug look on his face, but this is completely different.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°The essence of what he¡¯s doing is removing and dispersing spirits. Were they calling him Shinobu-kun? In that way, he is demonstrating the ideal form of what we do. ¡­Even if we send the most virtuous priest on a rampage or send out a famous warrior with a spiritual sword in hand, there are some paranormal beings we simply cannot do anything about. But with Youkai that are immune to even the greatest violence, there are many stories of them leaving when approached in good faith. Gods of Poverty make all people equally poor, but if you fearlessly accept them in and show them proper respect, the stories say they will give you great riches. The Kodoku is the same I believe. They wield the most powerful curse which no charm or barrier can defend against, and once affected, the victim¡¯s entire clan will be destroyed. But a man who tried to sacrifice himself for his family by swallowing the insect supposedly ended up living a long life with no ill effects.¡± The man honestly sounded envious. ¡°I wonder how many people who can pull that off still exist in our narrow field today.¡± He almost seemed ashamed of his own lack of virtue. ¡°We acquire all the power we desire, but in exchange for increasing the rank of our soul, we forget how to respect the paranormal. We are all distorted individuals who can only conquer our fears by becoming a greater monster than the monsters themselves. ¡­And because we fear being devoured by the insects on the ground once we lose speed, we build ourselves up more and more, creating a negative snowball effect. Truly a vicious circle. To be honest, we have too much power. We have enough to wipe out the human race several times over. I would like to change the direction of our field before that power spills out or the ever-expanding balloon bursts.¡± This seemed to connect the normal scenery of the past and the bloody Hyakki Yakou I had seen in the present. What have I been doing without even realizing it? If the world really was that simple, could that messy conclusion have been avoided even when faced by such a violent Youkai? ¡°Is that what you¡¯re doing in this village?¡± ¡°That is a test case. The Aburatori started it on his own, but since he was about to fail, we decided to lend a helping hand. This is a useful test for us as well. It will provide a concrete outline to our formless ideal. It¡¯s the perfect presentation for the more destructive among us.¡± What? What is he talking about? Since it had to do with the Aburatori, it probably had some effect on the main incident here, but the Zashiki Warashi showed no real intent to stop him. No matter how good-for-nothing she might be, I wanted to believe she would act differently if the plan involved killing small children. ¡°Do you really think you can pull off the Kaeshigami?¡± ¡°It truly is just an ideal at the moment. But while it was on a completely different level, there is the example of Fujiwara no Michizane. Instead of starting with a Tatarigami born of human hatred, this Kaeshigami will begin with an evil Youkai. It would be perfect if we could gain more stability by downsizing that method.¡± The group in the front yard must have decided playing with the dog and the ball would be difficult with so many people, so they shifted to playing house. As they sat in a circle and spoke together, Shinobu swung his arms around and gave a shout. ¡°I need to call Nee-chan too! This would be way more fun with her! Nee-chaaaan!!¡± Majina shrugged while still leaning against the outer wall. The Zashiki Warashi stuck her index finger against his nose to silently tell him not to show himself. Then she walked out from behind the house and toward Shinobu, Nagisa, and the others. Shinobu was the first to speak. ¡°Since you¡¯re our newest family member, you¡¯re the baby, Nee-chan.¡± ¡°Vweh!?¡± ¡°Shinobu-chan. I don¡¯t think that suits this Youkai.¡± ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be a game if we act like normal! It¡¯s fun because we do something different!!¡± ¡°Sh-Shinobu-chan. Umm, I was already worried when you made the dog the father, so¡­¡± Hm? So how¡¯s she going to handle this one? The Hyakki Yakou leader and I both focused on the front yard. Now, Zashiki Warashi, how are you going to answer that six-year-old¡¯s request!? ¡°Gyah! Gyahh!! Gyahhh!!!! Baboo. I want milk, papa. Baboo, baboo.¡± She¡­ ¡°She did iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!! That Youkai with a 98 cm bust just went into full baby mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooode!!¡± ¡°Well, a Zashiki Warashi is a collective spirit of the babies killed during famines, so maybe this is what she¡¯s always wanted to do.¡± I felt like some strange beams were shooting from my eyes. And while Shinobu was innocently holding a toy baby bottle to the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s mouth, Nagisa looked horrified. The scene before my eyes had short-circuited some wiring deep in my head, so I hadn¡¯t noticed at first. But¡­ ¡°¡­!? You¡­know I¡¯m here!?¡± The previous night, he had needed the (female) Sunekosuri to tell him I was there, but now Majina was giving me an amused look with his back against the wall. ¡°One night is plenty of time to put together a technique, visitor. I would recommend not confusing me with your everyday Package maker.¡± Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no! Oh, no!! How much would this affect history? While I did have to alter history at some point to resolve the true Aburatori incident without using the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s Ver. 39, how much influence would this small conversation have? What was going to happen now? ¡°Do not worry. History has some elasticity to it. Or maybe you could call it an acceptable margin of error. If the smallest phenomenon would alter the whole like the butterfly effect, then the world could easily collapse just from having you standing there. Right?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°In other words, as long as you make no extreme contact with anything, the flow of history will not change. Having me speak to you will not change anything. The controller is in your hands and you will not spread changes uncontrollably. Yes, this was a well-thought-out structure that took safety into consideration. I can¡¯t quite understand why it has the same scent as us, though.¡± My words could reach someone now and this man stood closer than anyone to the truth of the past concerning the Aburatori. ¡°If only the Aburatori could join that circle as well,¡± said Majina as he viewed the chaotic game of house including a God of Poverty and a Kodoku bug. ¡°Unfortunately, he is the type who brings death simply from meeting him, just like the Shichinin Misaki or the Killing Stone. Some preparations are needed for the first step to remove that wickedness. That is, to make it so he no longer brings death simply from meeting him.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Make it so he no longer brings death simply from meeting him? You mean make a deadly Youkai not deadly? ¡°It isn¡¯t that rare an idea. Some Youkai are old gods that were brought down to that level. There are also foxes and tanuki that gained divinity from their popularity with the people. And if you look to a higher level, there is even a vengeful spirit that tried to destroy Kyoto but was raised to the level of a heavenly god. However, reproducing it with human techniques instead of relying on a miracle is another issue altogether.¡± That was the Kaeshigami. It was the phenomenon in which a feared being was transformed into a god. They became a being that was both feared and respected. ¡°If the Kaeshigami is completed, that deadly Youkai will be able to fully switch off his trait of indiscriminate killing. Or he can switch it on of his own will to gain power greater than that of a mere Youkai. Of course, it would be less about providing an allover power boost and more about using more detailed control to reduce the energy loss.¡± It was true that anything was fine if it would defang that monster. However, I couldn¡¯t see why Hyakki Yakou would hold back and use such a roundabout method on the worst of the deadly Youkai. He was clearly different from a Yuki Onna or Nekomata. He only thought about killing children, he had built a time travel Package, and he had even absorbed the Zashiki Warashi to obtain even greater power. He was a monster among monsters. But¡­ ¡°The name Aburatori might fill you with negative emotions.¡± A probing tone entered Majina¡¯s voice. ¡°But you might have seen things differently if you were more like Shinobu-kun over there.¡± Part 5 By evening, I concluded Shinobu wasn¡¯t going to do anything else even if I continued watching him, so I left the thatch-roof house and made my way to the Aburatori¡¯s mountain clearing. ¡°The Comfort Association is known as the Japanese branch of one of the top four networks, and the police are on alert due to rumors that they are holding a large event in the near future. The rumors say they will be reorganizing and¡­¡± The ground was covered in underbrush, the trees created a canopy overhead, and the dark rundown cabin sat in front of me. Hishigami Shikimi may have been watching a 1seg TV somewhere, but I couldn¡¯t tell where even after turning in a full circle. Also, two Youkai faced each other in front of the rotting cabin. One was Ohatsu, the female Sunekosuri working with Majina, and the other was the Aburatori with his large conical hat hiding his face. They were speaking to each other. ¡°If the unexpected happens, take care of things afterwards.¡± ¡°The unexpected isn¡¯t going to happen. After all, our boss is working on this.¡± ¡°But I saw him. I saw Jinnai Shinobu. No one was supposed to come here.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. You¡¯ve resisted killing any children for nearly nine years now.¡± ¡°That was only because I didn¡¯t see any. Viewing my target has resurrected the hunger inside me. At this rate, there is a chance I will break the seal and attack. So¡­¡± ¡°You have less than a week to go. Even if the seal cracks little by little, you will still become a Kaeshigami as long as it doesn¡¯t reach its limit before then. You won¡¯t have to kill anyone anymore. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± What was this about? The Aburatori seemed afraid of killing children¡­of killing my past self. ¡°For one thing, you aren¡¯t at fault here.¡± ¡°That excuse doesn¡¯t hold water.¡± ¡°The Aburatori is based in the fear of a child suddenly vanishing¡­and the dark desire and curiosity that makes people want to talk about such things as if they actually happened. They make a show of being afraid on the surface, but the human heart can¡¯t help but tell those stories. Monsters are frightening, but if that monster really did exist, it might get rid of those troublesome children. They might not have to kill them in the bath or bathroom as soon as they are born. You were given form by the thoughts of those sickening parents who have no issue with abusing or abandoning their children. You were born from that desire, so you yourself aren¡¯t at fault.¡± ¡°I said that excuse doesn¡¯t hold water!!¡± The Aburatori¡¯s shout was followed by silence. I could only hear the ominous sound of the rustling leaves. ¡°I understand¡­¡± He spoke in a barely audible voice. ¡°I hate it, and hate it, and hate it¡­but in the end, I do understand the feelings of the parents who made me like this. I understand how unpleasant children are, I understand how nice it would be if they would just disappear, and I understand how wonderful it would be if someone else would do it for you! It doesn¡¯t matter which came first. I was made to be like this. Without me to receive those feelings, the parents of the later generations might not have felt them at all. It¡¯s a chicken or the egg issue¡­ At this point, my very existence might be creating evil feelings within people and then drawing them out!¡± ¡°¡­¡± That was the system that had been built. It was the role he had been given. He was a murderer to be despised by everyone. No excuses were permitted and no thought was given to his circumstances. He was there to receive the evil feelings of those who were not even aware of those feelings inside themselves. That was all he was meant to be. ¡°So please don¡¯t believe anything I tell you. Please don¡¯t believe my soul. It doesn¡¯t matter what I say. The instant you deem it impossible, kill me. I don¡¯t want to play this role anymore. I don¡¯t want to become a being that simply completes a system with no thoughts of my own. I don¡¯t want to be a monster that brutally slaughters those small children without batting an eye.¡± This scene completely reversed my image of the Aburatori. At first, I thought maybe I had stepped into a twisted parallel world. But in that case¡­ ¡­What was the Aburatori I saw before? How did such a conflicted deadly Youkai end up as such a crazed monster? ¡°There¡¯s nothing to worry about.¡± ¡°How can you be so sure? Not even I trust myself.¡± ¡°Because.¡± The female Sunekosuri narrowed her eyes a little. ¡°Someone has come here for you.¡± The Aburatori followed her gaze and turned to face me. No, his eyes passed right through me. He was looking behind me. I turned around too and saw a small form there. It was Shinobu. It was myself as I apparently came here ten years ago. ¡°Wha-¡­?¡± The Aburatori was dumbfounded, but Shinobu smiled as he ran through the underbrush. He approached with no caution whatsoever. ¡°Big news! Big news!¡± He swung his arms around. ¡°We¡¯re having Salisbury steak for dinner tonight! Mom¡¯s finally going all out! I have to tell everyone!! Big news! Big news!¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Mom¡¯s Salisbury steak is amazing. She puts a fried egg on top!¡± It was a silly bit of breaking news, but it sounded like he meant it as a secret for only his friends. That meant he was including that worst of the deadly Youkai in that group. For a while, the Aburatori seemed unable to move. The Youkai silently clenched his teeth as Shinobu shifted gears. ¡°Come to think of it, I haven¡¯t given you a stamp yet.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me,¡± said the female Sunekosuri. ¡°Keep that lonely old man company.¡± ¡°We can all hang out together! Now you¡¯re a Friend Youkai too!!¡± This was a conversation from an impossibly distant world. That bloody Youkai would never have dreamed of reaching that world from the moment he had been born into this world. ¡°Do you understand, Ohatsu?¡± The Aburatori finally spoke almost under his breath. His voice seemed on the verge of vanishing. ¡°Even now, I cannot stop myself from categorizing the life before my eyes as a target. In the end, I can only do what everyone wants from me. I know that the more perfectly I fulfill the legend of the Aburatori, the more easily those dark desire will be thrown onto me, and yet¡­!!¡± Confliction. Agony. Despair. That which is bright does not always save. That which is kind does not always heal. Sometimes, it becomes a cruel mirror that reflects one¡¯s own ugliness. As she accepted that pain, the female Sunekosuri let out a slow sigh. But was the Aburatori truly ugly? Weren¡¯t the human adults who made him like that simply forcing this onto him so they wouldn¡¯t be at fault? Shinobu tilted his head curiously while only seventy centimeters away from certain death. ¡°Hm? What are you talking about? A game?¡± This was the backbone of the story. But what kind of awful ending lay in wait? What ending was so bad that it required that Zashiki Warashi to get involved, release the power of the Ver. 39, and distort history itself? Part 6 I followed Shinobu down the narrow farm roads back to the thatch-roof house. We got back just in time to see my uncle leaving. ¡°What are you doing, Nii-chan? Heading out?¡± ¡°Yeah. You don¡¯t leave the house, Shinobu. It¡¯s scary outside once it gets dark.¡± ¡°Hm? But we¡¯re having Salisbury steak today! We need to all eat it together!¡± As my uncle walked toward the storage shed a short distance from the house, I could hear a metallic jangling. Shinobu tilted his head and my mom ran out to the front door. ¡°Ahhh! Wait, Shinobu, where did Hayabusa-kun go!? He hasn¡¯t left the garage yet, has he!?¡± ¡°He said he¡¯s heading out. He¡¯s playing at night. He really is an adult.¡± ¡°S-someone stop him! Before he finally kills someone!!¡± With an obvious engine sound effect, a large electric scooter left the storage shed. ¡°?¡± Night was beginning, so Shinobu would be staying at home. That meant he was unlikely to have any contact with the Aburatori. The odds were good following him around would only be a waste of time. With that in mind, I turned right back around and hopped onto the back seat of my uncle¡¯s bike. I technically wasn¡¯t touching the floor or ground when I walked, but as soon as I thought of myself as ¡°riding¡± the scooter, I stuck to it. My uncle smoothly operated the bike and raced down the dark farm road. I could hear a conversation coming from the cell phone stuck in the holder near the handlebars. One side was the female upperclassman who had played badminton during the day, but the other was a gloomy-sounding male voice. Who is that? ¡°Since you were after someone connected to Jinnai, I assumed someone like Shinobu-kun was in trouble, but I certainly didn¡¯t expect the danger to reach me.¡± ¡°Sh-shut up. I went with the most surefire method. That kid¡¯s surrounded by Youkai, so the older Hayabusa is the easier target, right? A-and with a hostage, I have even less to worry about.¡± ¡°Are you sure that was all? I bet you wanted to capture the school¡¯s beautiful student council president so you could have your own reward. You were probably planning to avoid mentioning the hostage when you hand Hayabusa-kun over to the adults. That way you could do whatever you wanted to my body. Peh heh heh.¡± ¡°Shut up!! You just have to keep that mouth shut and do what I say!!¡± I had never seen my uncle give off such a powerful aura of anger. He operated the cellphone to bring up a GPS map. At that point, I finally realized what the metallic jangling was. There were thick chains wrapped around his waist and held in place by a padlock. Meanwhile, the remote conversation continued. ¡°When it comes to guard dogs, Nagisa-chan¡¯s St. Bernard is pretty cute.¡± ¡°Wh-what are you talking about?¡± ¡°But did you know that her parents had the dog put through the training of a police dog and a war dog so it will tear out the throat of any suspicious person who gets close? A cheap jackknife isn¡¯t going to be much use against that.¡± My uncle did something with the bike¡¯s controls. The headlights vanished and the engine sound effect stopped. The mass of metal raced along at over sixty kph without producing any light or noise. ¡°But what I have is more of a hunting dog than a guard dog. Heh heh. I guess it would be a little sad to call him a mad dog.¡± ¡°Wh-what? Dog??? Are you saying there¡¯s a dog hiding around here!?¡± ¡°He¡¯s already here. And my dog is a lot fiercer than a St. Bernard. Unfortunately for you.¡± It happened immediately afterwards. Without hitting the brakes at all, my uncle hit someone standing in the middle of the farm road. ¡°B-bhbfh!? Bahbh!! Egbhgahh!?¡± The person flew into the dry paddy field and groaned from the ground, unable to get up. My uncle turned the electric scooter around and his upperclassman cheerfully waved at him in the darkness. ¡°Yahoo, Hayabusa-kun. Can I leave the rest to you?¡± ¡°Yes, you can. Sorry about the trouble.¡± ¡°So you arrive five minutes after I call you and don¡¯t hesitate to hit the guy at full speed? I can really feel the love¡î¡± ¡°If you get too carried away, I¡¯ll force you on a thrill ride along the zig-zagging mountain pass.¡± My uncle stepped off the bike and onto the narrow farm road. He then looked down at the gloomy boy who had been knocked into the paddy a level below. He still couldn¡¯t get up, so he shouted up at my uncle while foaming at the mouth. ¡°I¡­I can¡¯t¡­I can¡¯t believe you!! You tried to kill me!! You did!! Ha¡­ha ha. You know what¡¯s going to happen when I call the police here, don¡¯t you!?¡± ¡°Hm? Why the hell are you still alive?¡± He did not try to intimidate the boy and he did not shout angrily at him. That casual nuance seemed to overpower the boy more than anything else. He was overpowered by the difference in experience. Then the upperclassman gave a warning from the side. ¡°Hey, hey. You can think it as much as you want, but try not to actually say anything about trying to kill him. This might not qualify as justified self-defense. Not that there¡¯s a lawyer here.¡± ¡°J-just-justified self-defense!? B-by hitting s-someone with a bike!?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± said my uncle as if it didn¡¯t particularly matter. And not that the laws didn¡¯t matter. That the boy¡¯s life didn¡¯t matter. ¡°Justified self-defense doesn¡¯t just apply to yourself. If you use a weapon that happened to be nearby and cause less damage than would have been caused otherwise, it cancels everything out. So as long as I did less damage than a knife to the vitals, it isn¡¯t a problem. But what about you? You¡¯re the one that went out of your way to prepare a knife and put together this kidnapping plot.¡± ¡°Ee¡­ee!!¡± ¡°You really are stupid.¡± The beautiful student council president seemed to spit the words out from a position of absolute superiority. ¡°How did you end up a pawn for a large criminal organization?¡± ¡°It was probably that Hidarugami Diet.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t answer for him. It¡¯s more fun to hear it from him.¡± ¡°You sure are cruel¡­ He doesn¡¯t even have the skill to put together a Package. He only created a website to trick people into paying him, so isn¡¯t this enough punishment?¡± ¡°But unfortunately, that weight loss drug was actually a code word for you-know-what. The large criminal organization must have thought he was breaking into their market. Not that I¡¯m about to feel sorry for someone who tricked people out of their money.¡± ¡°They probably told him they¡¯d let him off the hook if he did some work for them. Jinnai sake is used all over: to commemorate big sumo victories, to commemorate pro baseball victories, and even as an offering at the Ise Shrine. But it isn¡¯t uncommon for people in the criminal underworld to want some. Like for a large criminal organization¡¯s rituals.¡± So that¡¯s it. After pouring their soul into that sake, my grandpa and dad weren¡¯t going to send it somewhere like that. After all, they would even temporarily refuse to do business with a bar that allowed its patrons to drive drunk. Even so, there were some who would still want some Jinnai sake. And in the Aburatori¡¯s forest, I had heard some news about a big event being held by a group called the Comfort Association. So¡­ ¡°I guess that means this guy was the source of those old-fashioned threatening letters reaching my home.¡± ¡°Maybe. Hayabusa-kun, how about we hand him over to the cops and let the professionals handle the rest?¡± I recalled the letter my grandpa had chopped up with scissors. It must have asked them to hand over some Jinnai sake if they didn¡¯t want any harm to come to their family. ¡°Well, given how they work, there¡¯s a good chance they¡¯ll chop this guy off like a lizard¡¯s tail and blame it all on him.¡± The student council president¡¯s words gave the boy a clear view of his fate. That attacker, who most likely attended the same high school as the other two, squeezed out the very last of his strength and jumped to his feet. ¡°Hee¡­hee hee!! Hee hee¡­hee! Hee hee hee!!¡± ¡°What, you want more? Just how sad a guy are you?¡± ¡°My knife? Where¡¯d my knife go? Dammit, it¡¯s too dark to see!!¡± ¡°And as long as we know you have a knife prepared, it means you¡¯re armed, even if you don¡¯t have it in hand at the moment. That means this qualifies as justified self-defense. Unfortunately for you.¡± A jangling came from my uncle. ¡°And did you know this, skinny boy? A giant machete or Japanese sword would be in violation of the Swords and Firearms Control Law. A wooden sword or metal pipe would be borderline. There¡¯s precedent for nunchucks found at an inspection violating the Minor Offenses Act.¡± The sound came from the thick, thick chain held in place around his waist by a padlock. He wrapped one end around his fist and smiled as he continued speaking. ¡°But there¡¯s no law against wrapping chains around yourself as a fashion statement. And yet swinging them around makes for a more frightening weapon than a metal bat. Strange, isn¡¯t it?¡± Yeah, this is hopeless. My uncle was too used to this. Whether the boy had his knife or not, his fate was sealed. Part 7 My uncle was the day¡¯s MVP, but after taking the beautiful student council president home on his big electric scooter and then driving back home, my dad and grandpa beat him up and threw him in the shed. The series of events progressed so smoothly that I could tell it happened all the time. Just how often was my uncle getting into fights? After locking the thick door, my dad and grandpa began speaking to each other. ¡°Apparently, Atou¡¯s daughter wasn¡¯t hurt. ¡­He did a pretty good job.¡± ¡°Hey, we can discuss the rest over some drinks. Nothing makes sake taste better than these stories, so it¡¯d be a shame to let it go to waste.¡± ¡­This is the problem. After returning to the house, I found the Zashiki Warashi and some other Youkai sitting in a circle in the parlor. The others seemed to be a Nurarihyon and a Kasha. ¡°Come to think of it, I showed up in the latest entry of that Youkai summoning RPG series.¡± ¡°Oh, dear. So you had your big debut, Kasha-san?¡± ¡°Was that sarcasm? You Zashiki Warashi are just like the Yuki Onna! You always get chosen! You even got to be the exposition character for the Youkai Stamp movie!!¡± Everyone worked to calm down the angry Nurarihyon. ¡°I don¡¯t like how they illustrated me as a cat surrounded by fire. I know I¡¯m lucky to show up at all, but still.¡± ¡°Well, the outline of a Youkai changes from generation to generation. I started as a relative of the Umibouzu, but the next thing I knew, I was the leader of all Youkai.¡± ¡°It sure is trouble when cultures combine or when you¡¯re mixed with or identified with another Youkai. I could accept it if it made me divine like the Dakini-Ten, though.¡± I heard the sound of an electric guitar coming in from outside the room. I initially wondered if it was my uncle in delinquent mode, but he was still locked in the shed. When I peeked out, it really wasn¡¯t him. Five tanuki held musical instruments in front of young Shinobu in the Buddhist altar room. ¡°Yaaaaay! Thanks for showing up to today¡¯s Tanuki¡îBayashi concerrrrrrrrrrrrrtttttttttttttttttt!¡± ¡°Gramma goes to sleep at nine, so only until then.¡± I had no idea how a tanuki¡¯s paws could hold the pick or press down on the strings, but they played well enough. I thought quietly to myself as I listened. ¡°I guess that¡¯s going to be it for today¡­¡± Even after the Jinnai house quieted down, the outside world was of course still on the move. If I visited the Aburatori¡¯s forest, it was possible I would get some new information on the Aburatori. But¡­ He didn¡¯t seem like much of a threat at the moment while working with Hyakki Yakou. Was he really at the center of this incident? I couldn¡¯t afford to miss the crucial moment if something else happened to be at the center. Today, I hadn¡¯t noticed that my uncle and Atou-san(?) had gotten involved in some other incident. I wanted to avoid overlooking something like that again. Where would I start the following day? Between Shinobu, the Zashiki Warashi, the Jinnai house, the Aburatori, and Hyakki Yakou, what was I supposed to focus on? The lack of any obvious malice or benefits did not mean I could rest easy. I knew that a large incident was guaranteed to tear down this temporary peace. ¡°I¡¯m getting sleepy¡­¡± ¡°Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh? But we were just getting warmed uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to sleep right here¡­¡± ¡°(Twannnnggg!!) Ky-kyah! Don¡¯t hug me out of the blue!¡± ¡°Leader¡­¡± ¡°Our hard-rock leader¡­¡± ¡°A-ahem. You can¡¯t Shinobu-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! You haven¡¯t brushed your teeth yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! Honestlyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!¡± The tanuki picked up Shinobu¡¯s limp form and ran toward the bathroom. A new commotion began in there. Shinobu was supposed to have been brushing his teeth, but he had grabbed some toys instead. ¡°This is the proof you¡¯re a man!¡± ¡°Shinobu-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!? Why are you drawing on a thief mustache with a black peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!?¡± ¡°Nn! Grampa, dad, and Nii-chan all shave, so now I can too!¡± He was moving around what seemed to be soap made to look like a T-shaped shaver. The commotion only grew when he drew thief mustaches on the tanuki that were already covered in fur. It was a heartwarming scene that looked like something from a children¡¯s book. But I knew the moment of doom was approaching. What exactly was going to happen here? Part 8 It was early morning on the third day since I had traveled to the past. In the Buddhist altar room, Shinobu was forcing a dandy look while holding a nearly square piece of seaweed in front of a bucket of sushi rice. The Zashiki Warashi sat across the tea table from him. ¡°Hand-rolled sushi is great. It¡¯s fun making it myself.¡± ¡°You really do like things like this, Shinobu.¡± ¡°Natto is fun too. I love how mixing it feels.¡± ¡°Ugh¡­ I-I¡¯ll pass on that one.¡± Shinobu and the Zashiki Warashi got down to wrapping the sushi. ¡°There¡¯s gotta be cheese. There¡¯s gotta be avocado. There¡¯s gotta be fish sausage.¡± ¡°Why does your hand-rolled sushi always come out so very American, Shinobu?¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll give this special one to you, Nee-chan. Say ¡®ah¡¯.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± That breakfast of half-fun and half-eating came to an end. It was still morning, but Nagisa apparently wasn¡¯t coming over today. Shinobu trotted over to where the Zashiki Warashi was lazing around so as not to get in the way of the cleaning. ¡°Are you free, Nee-chan? Or are you busy?¡± ¡°What is it, Shinobu?¡± ¡°Oh, too bad. You look busy.¡± ¡°Really, what is it!? Don¡¯t leave me behind!!¡± The Zashiki Warashi clung to him and they collapsed into a ball. Shinobu was holding a thick picture book¡­no, it was some kind of kid¡¯s textbook. He sat on her lap and they read through the book together. ¡°The dog says¡­woof woof!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Now, Shinobu, what about the car?¡± ¡°Vroom vroom.¡± ¡°Correct. Next¡­how about soba?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Shinobu turned his head to look at her long black hair. ¡°I know! Soba goes rustle rustle!¡± ¡°Wrong. It goes slippery slippery.¡± ¡°Ehhh? That doesn¡¯t sound right. Ice is what goes slippery slippery!¡± My grampa called for Shinobu, so he hopped up from the sexy Youkai¡¯s lap and raced out of the Japanese-style living room. As the Zashiki Warashi closed the book and set it aside, my mom spoke to her while using a cyclone vacuum cleaner. ¡°He calls us grampa, gramma, dad, mom, Nii-chan, and Nee-chan.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°To be honest, I wanted him to call me mama or mommy.¡± She pouted her lips. ¡°But he was influenced by everyone around him, so the next thing I knew, he was calling me mom. And they all spoil him so much, so the next thing I know, I¡¯m the one that has to stop him as the nagging mother! I want to spoil him too! Besides, I¡¯m the one that went through so much pain giving birth to him!!¡± ¡°My condolences. That¡¯s all I can say. ¡­Ow, ow, ow! Where do you think you¡¯re sucking at me with that vacuum cleaner nozzle!? What do you mean I sounded like it didn¡¯t have anything to do with me? It really didn¡¯t have anything to do with-¡­ow, ow, ow, ow!!¡± The loud sound of the vacuum cleaner continued as my mom began some pretty extreme sexual harassment against that Youkai, but then she tilted her head. ¡°What did my father-in-law want with Shinobu? I doubt he wants him to help in the brewery.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good question. I have nothing better to do, so I¡¯ll go collect Shinobu.¡± I followed the two of them from the Japanese-style living room and down the hallway to the Western-style one. ¡°I just wish Shinobu was a little more polite. I¡¯d love to have a cute little child like Nagisa-chan. You know what I mean? You do, don¡¯t you!?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Go talk to your husband about that one.¡± As expected, my grampa was playing with Shinobu during a break in his work. However¡­ ¡°Ah ha ha!! Poop, penis, poop, penis, poop!!¡± ¡°Wah ha ha ha ha!!¡± ¡°Ah.¡± I averted my gaze from that hopeless scene and looked to the women in the doorway. My mom and the Zashiki Warashi had an utterly dead look in their eyes. ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???¡± I let out a scream, but before I could will my grampa to run away, the women grabbed his arms, shoulders, and head. Those demons from hell had deep shadows falling over their faces, but their eyes alone shined brightly. ¡°Father, we need to talk.¡± ¡°I think someone needs to teach you that there is a limit to everything.¡± ¡°D-don¡¯t be silly!! Dirty words are the standard for kids his age! Right? Right!? You know what I mean, don¡¯t you!?¡± He franticly tried to escape, but the two women walked down the long, long hallway and vanished. I¡¯ve heard of a secret prison cell as one of the Seven Mysteries of the Jinnai House, but surely that isn¡¯t true. It¡¯s only a story to scare the children, right? That was when my small gramma showed up. ¡°Oh, dear. What are you doing here, Shinobu?¡± ¡°Grampa was taken away.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Poop.¡± ¡°¡­I understand completely now. Take that damn old man to the third door!!¡± All emotion vanished from her face and then she too disappeared. What is the third door? Would I be happier not knowing? Shinobu had nothing to do now that everyone had left, so he began chatting with some Youkai who showed up. ¡°The word Oni is a mixture of the original Chinese word ¡®gui¡¯ meaning devil and the Japanese word ¡®on¡¯ meaning hidden. It originally referred to all spiritual beings, but due to the influence of Noh and Kabuki, we ended up being muscular, with a punch perm, horns, and a tiger stripe loincloth! They forced that image onto us and now they tell the oni to leave because we¡¯re scary!! How is that fair!? Hmph!¡± ¡°Hm? What do you mean they tell the oni to leave?¡± ¡°Oh? Does your home only ask the good fortune to come in? Wonderful, wonderful.¡± The doorbell rang. I poked my head out into the hallway and saw my uncle answering the door. The visitor was¡­Nagisa maybe? ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Shinobu-chan¡¯s uncle. G-good morning!¡± ¡°(Stab) Unc-¡­!?¡± ¡°Thanks to your advice, uncle, I don¡¯t lose to Shinobu-chan in races anymore! Thanks, uncle!!¡± ¡°(Stab stab) Unc-¡­ O-oh¡­is that so? You¡¯re here for Shinobu, aren¡¯t you? Wait just a second. Heyyy!¡± The repetition of the word uncle caused all the more psychological damage when combined with that innocent smile, but my high school aged uncle managed to shout for Shinobu. Based on their previous behavior patterns, Shinobu and Nagisa were most likely going to play in the large yard. And I wasn¡¯t going to get much information while they were having fun. Shinobu had started seeing Nagisa home every time though, and he stopped by a lot of places on his way back. That of course included the Aburatori¡¯s forest. ¡°It might not be a bad idea to make a visit there.¡± I had been thinking all night. If I was seeing the truth behind the Aburatori incident, then there were only two major possibilities. One: The Kaeshigami ritual to make the Aburatori harmless ends in failure. Two: Someone was lying. Perhaps Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Kaeshigami ritual would not actually make the Aburatori harmless or perhaps the Aburatori was not as cooperative as he was letting on. ¡°¡­¡± Was one of those Hyakki Yakou members lying or not? Figuring that out would help a lot. I would be able to decide how to face the situation. Of course, I was only a high school student and I couldn¡¯t read their minds from the subtle movements of their eyes or trembling of their lips like some kind of professional profiler, but if I observed them during some especially emotional moment, I might notice something a little off. I doubted they would make any kind of mistake while working together as Hyakki Yakou. Everything there would be within their expectations and would have settled together like gelatin. If there was any irregular element, it was the presence of young Shinobu. Him speaking with and influencing the Aburatori had to be unexpected, even if just slightly. That solidified situation would melt and shift like liquid. In that case, it had to be when Shinobu contacted the Aburatori or Hyakki Yakou. Or around that time. Before and after Shinobu showed up. Before and after Shinobu left. It wouldn¡¯t hurt to look out for any changes in their actions or behavior then. With that in mind, I needed to get to work. I left the thatch-roof house and walked down the narrow farm road running between the paddy fields. I passed what looked like a fiber-optic workman¡¯s van and a flying Ittan-Momen as I made my way to the mountain. That Youkai stood in front of the cabin today as well. He may have been able to leave while the Kaeshigami project was ongoing because I seemed to find him there whenever I showed up. It was a strange feeling since the Aburatori was supposed to be elusive and impossible to catch. ¡°Hello, visitor. Why are you here so early?¡± ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???¡± Someone suddenly spoke to me from behind in a perfectly casual voice. I quickly turned around and found Majina, the young man with a monocle and dress suit who claimed to be the leader of Hyakki Yakou. He was smiling. The Sunekosuri (female) named Ohatsu rubbed up against his shin with an exasperated sigh and Hishigami Shikimi sat in a tree branch with her pale white hair tied back like a giant flower. It had been hard to tell in the darkness the night before last, but her kimono had Hyakki Yakou¡¯s symbol on it. She also had something like a musical instrument around her neck. The Aburatori was one thing, but where were these three spending the nights? They felt like they didn¡¯t live actual lives. Or rather, like they appeared from the mist and vanished into the mist. ¡°What does he think he¡¯s doing? While we can¡¯t match the technique used, the one using it clearly has no idea what he¡¯s doing. It¡¯s like handing an idiot a cellphone.¡± ¡°Now, now, Ohatsu-san. I like this kind of thing. It¡¯s been so long since I¡¯ve been able to speak with someone without having to try to read their hand and watch out for murderous intent.¡± ¡°You do know you¡¯re about to be a father, don¡¯t you? You need to support a family, so get rid of that pathetic smile and be a little more cautious.¡± ¡°A¡­father?¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if Majina could hear me or not, but he bashfully scratched at his cheek. ¡°My wife is near the end of her pregnancy. To be honest, she could give birth at any time now. I¡¯m really not ready for it, though.¡± ¡°What an awful husband. His wife is suffering and here is out on a business trip.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t understand how scary the maternity ward is for a man, Ohatsu-san! All I can do is wait on the bench, so what am I even supposed to do!? Oh, no. Just thinking about is making my skin crawl¡­!¡± ¡°Honestly, the woman¡¯s position there is ten or even a hundred times worse. Don¡¯t start crying when all you¡¯re doing is watch, you pathetic man.¡± ¡°I have a hard time believing you know anything about that, Shikimi-san.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? As the founder of the Hishigami line, I used to have an impressive body. It¡¯s just that my eternal youth technique is a little too effective and I shrink on a daily basis.¡± This conversation did not suit the name Hyakki Yakou in the slightest. My expression just about softened, but then it hit me. I knew how this would turn out. In the ¡°present¡±, Hafuri was the leader of Hyakki Yakou. If a girl of about ten had been forced up to that position, what did that mean for her father here? They believed in blood, so if someone was forced up to a higher position, it could only mean one thing. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Hm? What is it? You look like you¡¯re at a funeral.¡± ¡°He¡¯s probably shocked by how pathetic you¡¯re acting,¡± said Ohatsu. ¡°Who would ever believe you¡¯re the leader of the great Hyakki Yakou?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t blame him,¡± added Hishigami Shikimi. ¡°The gap in expectations surprised me when I first met him as well.¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s wrong for people to have that frightening image of us to begin with. Maybe we should change our name to Kanai Anzen or Mubyou Sokusai.¡±1 ¡°Everyone would assume we went soft the instant you had a kid, so don¡¯t you dare.¡± It was almost certain that this leader of Hyakki Yakou and his wife were going to die. I didn¡¯t know how they would die, but if it was anything too dangerous, I couldn¡¯t assume Ohatsu and Hishigami Shikimi wouldn¡¯t be in danger too. Abandoning them because it was ¡°their destiny¡± would have been the right thing to do. Looking at it positively and being glad that the baby inside the wife¡¯s belly would survive would have been the right thing to do. But there was a possibility here. A single statement from me could change something. Was it truly ¡°right¡± to stay silent and watch them walk down that dead-end of a path? We were selfishly interfering with history in order to defeat the Aoandon and protect Japan¡¯s future, so I could not afford to change anyone else¡¯s history. But who had decided that was the ¡°right¡± thing to do? I didn¡¯t know what was ¡°right¡±. Most likely, no one knew. But. But!! ¡°Hyakki Yakou believes in blood. My generation will eventually come to an end and the child in my wife¡¯s belly will take over.¡± Majina seemed to be staring into the distance as he spoke. He seemed to believe he would be able to hand the baton over to Hafuri once she was fully grown. ¡°So I want to search out all the distortions and problems in Hyakki Yakou before that happens. I don¡¯t want it to be some bloody organization. I want to be able to hand down a warm organization that can coexist with the paranormal without needing to bind it using fear and violence.¡± This was not a name on a document. Nor was it someone from the past who had already died, been burned to ashes, and been buried below a gravestone. Once I looked at it that way, I couldn¡¯t resist. I forced out the voice that I was unsure he could even hear. ¡°In that case¡­you can¡¯t keep doing things the way you are.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°In the world I know, the name Majina is nowhere to be found. The leader of Hyakki Yakou is a girl of about ten named Hafuri.¡± ¡°¡­I see.¡± He displayed no obvious killer intent, but neither did he seem frightened or confused. This young man named Majina simply gave a sad smile. A single word I spoke must have told him I wasn¡¯t joking. The name ¡°Hafuri¡± had to only exist in his head at this point. Hishigami Shikimi spoke fiercely down from the tree. ¡°See? Didn¡¯t we tell you there was an assassination plot in the works?¡± ¡°Honestly, when you take naivety this far, it almost becomes an art form. It took a visitor from the future before you actually accepted your death is coming.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Even as the other two spoke noisily around him, Majina remained silent for a while. Even if they were hostile to him and even if they were clearly after his life, he may still have seen the people plotting against him as being ¡°one of his own¡±. Finally, he spoke as if to shake it all off. ¡°Thank you.¡± I had no idea how to respond. I couldn¡¯t even decide if I had really done the ¡°right¡± thing or not. ¡°But you didn¡¯t come all this way just to tell me that, did you? Why did you come here?¡± Most likely, this prophecy of the fall of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leaders was beyond unexpected for them, but Majina, Ohatsu, and Hishigami Shikimi did not seem particularly shaken. Neither did the Aburatori. Did that mean they really were a single group and none of them was deceiving any of the others? And¡­ ¡°¡­?¡± ¡°What is it?¡± As I looked around in confusion, Majina spoke to me in a puzzled voice. I could not touch or use things, so I couldn¡¯t use a cellphone. It was very inconvenient. And so I didn¡¯t know what time it was. I thought a fair amount of time had passed since I had arrived here. Nagisa would return home for lunch and Shinobu would head out at the same time, but what had happened today? Had he not visited this place for once? Things were leaving the normal routine. Even if it was a minor difference, it still filled my chest with unease. Yes. I had only one point of view and I couldn¡¯t rewind. Had I missed some decisive moment? ¡°Sorry.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Sorry! I have to go check on something!! We can talk more later! Bye!¡± My impatience grew to worry, my worry grew to fear, and my fear grew to panic. Did I even have a body here? Did I really need to move my legs? I didn¡¯t know, but I still ran as fast as my legs would carry me. I didn¡¯t see Shinobu on the way back, so I ran straight back to the thatch-roof house. As soon as I approached, a ripple-like omen reached me. A few Youkai were gathered in the large yard and chatting. One was a Hitotsume-Kozou, one was a Dorotabou, and one was a Yagyou-san. ¡°Mh. There seems to be a commotion inside.¡± ¡°I wonder where Shinobu-chan went¡­¡± ¡°Hmm. I was hoping to beg for some lunch, but it looks like today might not be the best day.¡± It grew and grew and grew. The pressure inside me grew past the limit. To reduce the overwhelmingly bad feeling as much as possible, I tried to gather as much information as I could. I didn¡¯t bother opening the front door. I stuck my head right through. Inside, my pale-faced mom was speaking into the house¡¯s cordless phone receiver. The growing pressure inside me burst. ¡°Yes, yes, yes! As I already told you, we¡¯ve been receiving threatening letters for a while now. Yes, and today we received a photograph of Shinobu sent from an unknown address. It asked for a bottle of Jinnai Amaterasu Dedication sake to be sent through a specified method. ¡­What are we supposed to do? We¡­ahhh!!¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­I screwed up. That was what I honestly thought. I had misread the heart of the entire incident. It hadn¡¯t had anything to do with the Zashiki Warashi, the Jinnai house, the Aburatori, or Hyakki Yakou. And I had definitely seen hints of it. The Jinnai Brewery made Japan¡¯s¡­no, the world¡¯s highest quality Japanese sake that large criminal organizations needed for their ceremonies. And I knew they were willing to kidnap family members to get it. They had kidnapped Shinobu. And hadn¡¯t the attacker the day before said he had meant to target Shinobu but had shifted to Hayabusa because of all the Youkai? Shinobu had been a target from the beginning. But I couldn¡¯t make a mistake here. I was here to see the truth of the ¡°Aburatori Incident¡±. That meant anything else was only the trigger. And a trigger like this did make some sense. At the very least, the Aburatori was not someone who randomly hurt people. I didn¡¯t know what caused it to fail, but he was still stable at this point. It hadn¡¯t seemed right to think of him as the villain here. But what if this trigger were pulled? The Aburatori had even asked those experts to kill him if the alternative was him killing another child, what if he learned that the child he had tried to protect at the cost of his own life had just been kidnapped? He held the cruelest killing techniques in his hands, so what if he thought to use them to their fullest to counterattack and rescue Shinobu? He would do it. It did not matter if it meant the failure of the Kaeshigami that had required the miraculous combination of resisting for nearly nine years and gaining the cooperation of Hyakki Yakou. It did not matter if that could lead to a hopeless future in which he was eliminated by Hyakki Yakou as the most dangerous of deadly Youkai. He had been prepared to give up his life in the first place. He had no reason to hesitate here. ¡°¡­What?¡± But¡­ But that meant¡­!! ¡°No one was deceiving anyone. Nothing failed. Was he¡­was the Aburatori really just a normal Youkai who wanted to rid himself of his murderous trait!?¡± I didn¡¯t know what was ¡°right¡±, but I couldn¡¯t just throw away any chance we might have by letting things continue like this. I turned right around and ran out of the thatch-roof house. The Youkai hiding on the farm road, in the dry paddy fields, and in the waterways were whispering to each other. ¡°I am a Nurikabe. Has anyone seen Shinobu-chan?¡± ¡°He was kidnapped. The human world is so scary. Even us Tengu have stopped spiriting people away.¡± ¡°Those damn villains. If I only knew where they were hiding, I¡¯d give them a taste of the hammer of justice.¡± If they were talking about it, the information had to have spread quite a bit. It was only a matter of time before it reached the Aburatori in the mountains. When I ran to that elevated clearing, I found someone unexpected there: Nagisa with her large St. Bernard. She was shouting more at the Aburatori who stood in front of the rotting cabin than she was at Majina or Hishigami Shikimi. ¡°P-please save Shinobu-chan!! We need your help!!¡± ¡°¡­¡± She handed him a photo of young Shinobu that had likely been printed on a home printer. ¡°Even my dog¡¯s nose can¡¯t find him. I asked the other Youkai, but they said they don¡¯t know where he is! S-so you¡¯re the only one left. I don¡¯t care who; I just want as many people searching for Shinobu-chan as I can get! So you help too! To save Shinobu-chan!!¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°I-I know an Aburatori is a scary Youkai. I know you mix up everything in our stomachs and eat it¡­¡± Nagisa lay down on the underbrush covering the ground and spread her arms. She squeezed her eyes shut and continued shouting. ¡°But then¡­you can eat everything in my stomach! I¡¯ll do anything if you¡¯ll help us save Shinobu-chan! So please save him!!¡± Her argument didn¡¯t really make sense. There was no guarantee that Shinobu could be saved with the Aburatori¡¯s help and you could hardly expect a Youkai that eats kid¡¯s organs to keep his promise after giving him your own organs. But this must have been the conclusion that her childish mind reached through a variety of strange connections. He was a symbol of madness and death. He stood in the place closest to vivid reds and blacks. He stood at the entrance to all of the world¡¯s darkness. That may have been what the Aburatori looked like to Nagisa. She may have thought anyone who had fallen into the darkness had to obey the will of this gatekeeper, so she may have thought he would save Shinobu¡¯s life from that dark abyss if she gave her own life to this Youkai. ¡°I see¡­¡± This worst of the deadly Youkai picked up on that. Rather than focusing on the actions themselves, he understood the human feelings that led to those actions. ¡°Then I will take one thing from your body.¡± I thought I heard a trigger being pulled. ¡°I only need to take your tears. You must promise me that you will stop crying if I bring this Shinobu back.¡± I felt like everything had returned to the proper rails. This seemed to be snowballing toward the worst possible ending. Everything they had built up was coming tumbling down and failing. I knew that, but I still felt like this was ¡°right¡±. Or to put it more simply, I thought he looked cool. ¡°Can you promise me that?¡± ¡°Eh? Um¡­yes. But is that all you want? I mean¡­¡± ¡°I could not ask for anything more.¡± I heard the sound of scraping metal. The next thing I knew, he had a few dozen skewers spread out in his hands like fans. ¡°Thank you. I may not have been able to bring this to its conclusion, but I do appreciate the help you gave.¡± Ohatsu the Sunekosuri (female) let out a heavy sigh. ¡°¡­Are you really going?¡± ¡°I have no real reason not to.¡± It was a short answer and this time Hishigami Shikimi, the giant flower in the tree, laughed and spoke. ¡°Oh? Even though it means wasting your efforts of the past nine years? No matter the reason, the seal will be easily broken once you recall the flavor of killing.¡± ¡°An optimum answer that requires letting a six-year-old boy die scares me even more. I can only call that properly insane.¡± Again, it was a short answer. Finally, Hyakki Yakou Leader Majina spoke. ¡°I might not look it, but I am fairly upset about this. I could use Hyakki Yakou¡¯s power to hunt them down. You do not necessarily have to use your power.¡± ¡°You will ¡®eventually¡¯ find them and defeat them ¡®somewhere¡¯. But will you make it in time for Jinnai Shinobu? I am a monster among monsters. I understand all too well how my fellow child-killers and kidnappers think. The best method of arriving in time is for me to use¡­no, to recall my skills.¡± Majina fell silent. Finally, he brought a hand to his forehead while leaning against a nearby tree to clear the way for the Youkai. Anguish seeped out from behind his monocle and he tore at his bangs as he forced out a low voice. ¡°¡­That¡¯s too bad.¡± ¡°Once I recall the taste of blood, I leave the rest to you. The Kaeshigami will completely fail and there will be no other way of saving me. So please use the essence of Hyakki Yakou to kill me. Before I lay my hands on anyone.¡± ¡°Aburatori.¡± ¡°Also¡­¡± With his face hidden behind his large hat, the Youkai formed a ferocious grin. He was saying farewell to this world without a single complaint. ¡°You said you are fairly upset about this. Well, I am downright livid.¡± I heard a buzzing sound much like a monitor powering on. Old charms appeared all over his body. They appeared on his hat, his clothes, and his skin. All of those charms formed some kind of seal, but a bluish-white phosphorescence burned through them and destroyed them. He had broken free of his limiter. He was at full power once more. He simply appeared, simply abducted, and simply killed. He was an empty husk of a legend that lacked the traditions of fear. When he used his power, he broke through the three-dimensional restrictions and vanished in an instant. The hunter was finally on the move. Part 9 Just before the Aburatori vanished, I grabbed his shoulder. I hadn¡¯t had a real goal in mind. I simply felt like I needed to see all of this for myself. Thanks to that, I successfully hitched a ride with him. It may have been similar to teleportation. First, the Aburatori appeared at a completely normal farm road. ¡°What would I do? While it is cutting edge, this is essentially an insular village society. Unlike a metropolis, there are no crowds of unfamiliar people walking around. A suspicious person wandering around and searching for someone to abduct would stand out too much. Then what method would they choose? Tire tracks¡­?¡± Next, he appeared at an intersection and looked around. ¡°Scouting out the terrain, learning the target¡¯s routine, going over the actual method of kidnapping, and a practice run. They would need to stay in the Intellectual Village for quite a while, but I doubt they would use a lodging facility like an inn. So maybe a large vehicle that doubles as transportation and lodging. What vehicle would be able to drive around the village irregularly without rousing suspicions?¡± Then he stood in front of a vending machine. ¡°The Intellectual Village is meant to look remote, so they generally use online shopping. But it wouldn¡¯t be a deliveryman. In rural areas, they only arrive at set times, so a truck driving around irregularly would stand out. ¡­Then an electronics worker? An internet provider truck that performs maintenance and inspections on fiber-optic and high-speed wireless lines does not have a set route. No one would suspect them if they drove back and forth a lot. This old vending machine has been used a lot. It isn¡¯t often you see one with soba and udon. It would have been a convenient source of food without anyone noticing. He wasn¡¯t so much a hound as he was a precision guided missile. As the Aburatori grew ever closer to the answer, I could feel an ominous, heavy, sticky, and deadly aura coming from his entire body. Something he had worked so hard to build up was being definitively corrupted. And¡­ ¡°Found them.¡± It had not even taken ten¡­no, five minutes. Not even the adults and paranormal Youkai had been able to find this kidnapper. With young Shinobu inside, an electric truck was driving around at irregular intervals to make sure no one suspected it. It was disguised as an ISP truck and the windows to the back were covered in metal plates. A torrent of murderous intent had been radiating from the Aburatori, but as soon as he located that target, a clear directionality came over it. That dark emotion became an invisible spear and accurately pierced through the van. It had likely been over before it even began. Before the Aburatori actually made his attack, the soldiers of a large criminal organization after the top quality Jinnai sake were bound like a frog being glared at by a snake. But even so, the Aburatori kicked the van from the side. The front half of the metal vehicle instantly tore open like a box of candy and shot out into the paddy field. That violence was so impressive it almost felt refreshing. The flow of time briefly seemed to stop. The Aburatori silently glared into the van. ¡°Wha-¡­?¡± said someone in the back seat. There were three assassins left and one of them had a hand on Shinobu¡¯s shoulder. But before the flow of time could return, the Aburatori¡¯s hands moved in a flash. A total of over one hundred metal skewers were released from his hands and filled the cramped van. The storm of steel covered every inch of the van except for the space taken up by Shinobu¡¯s small body. It all happened too quickly for any screams or shouts to tear through the world. The Aburatori rushed into the van, grabbed Shinobu¡¯s collar, kicked open the van¡¯s back door, and burst out like a shell. ¡°Wah, wah!?¡± Shinobu did not seem nervous as he was lowered onto the farm road. He did not appear to have been crying either, so it was possible he hadn¡¯t even been aware he had been kidnapped. ¡°Wait here.¡± That was all the Aburatori said before approaching the van (Part B) that had finally come to a stop after rolling along. ¡°U-uuh¡­¡± A single man groaned as he crawled out, but the Aburatori grabbed his collar and lifted him with one arm. He then slammed the man¡¯s back against the ceiling of the van that lay on its side. ¡°Ubh! Cough, cough!! Gahh!!¡± ¡°Lend me your phone. I wish to speak with your boss.¡± ¡°Pant, pant. D-do you really think I¡¯ll let you do that?¡± ¡°So you will remain loyal to the end? How old-fashioned of you.¡± That monster dragged his enemy behind the van where Shinobu could not see and spoke with quiet smile poking out from below his large hat. ¡°By the way, do you know what it is my skewer is stabbing into? Do you know what this flabby dark red thing is?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ah¡­ahhh¡­¡± ¡°My specialty is children, but I still wouldn¡¯t recommend upsetting me too much, youngster.¡± ¡°Aaaaahhh!? Wh-what¡­what organ is that!?¡± Removing it had not killed him. So was it his appendix, a kidney, or a piece of the highly regenerative liver? Whatever the case, seeing it in front of your eyes was probably enough to piss yourself. ¡°I understand not wanting to lose a finger, but you should look after your insides as well.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ahh¡­ahhhhh!?¡± ¡°Now, let¡¯s try this once more: Lend me your phone. I wish to speak with your boss. ¡­Surely you aren¡¯t going to be foolish enough to say you don¡¯t know how many organs you hold inside you. If that¡¯s the case, I don¡¯t mind removing them one at a time to educate you.¡± ¡°O-okay! Okay!!¡± The Aburatori pulled a cellphone from the soldier¡¯s pocket, opened the address book and called one of the numbers there. His first words were blunt. ¡°Your men have failed.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Wash your hands of this before the wound grows even worse. I am a Youkai and a deadly one at that. I have no concept of lifespan. ¡­I am watching you at all times, forever. If you try to take revenge, I will immediately bring twice the damage to you.¡± ¡°Did you think you could threaten the Comfort Association just because you don¡¯t die? We eat violence and fear for breakfast. Just like a sushi chef can¡¯t afford to lose to an amateur in cooking skill, we cannot afford to withdraw in our own field of expertise.¡± ¡°Is that so? To be honest, I have no interest in the quantity and quality of your paranormal experts. But can you truly trust in the power of someone else in your organization if it is your own child¡¯s life on the line?¡± ¡°You¡­¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you? I am a Youkai and a deadly one at that. If you need a further hint, I am the cruelest of the cruel in the field of kidnapping and child-killing. You can hide your child overseas or on the other side of Mars if you want; I will still find them and kill them. I know some tricks to slip past the condition preventing Youkai from leaving this country. This is no different from you targeting a child to threaten Jinnai.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°No matter how many children you make, legitimate or otherwise, and no matter how many children you adopt, I will kill every last one of them. People often say they will curse someone to the very last generation of their family line, but I will make your generation the end of your line. ¡­Now, what will you do? Will I be removing your entire clan¡¯s organs or will you wash your hands of this so your family can survive? Choose whichever path you like. Nothing in this world could be more frightening than being haunted by an Aburatori.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t think you¡¯ll ever get a moment¡¯s rest, you damn Youkai.¡± ¡°I suppose you would have to threaten me here, but that establishes our contract. ¡­Let me reiterate: I am always watching you. If you approach Jinnai in any way, shape, or form, I will apply my punishment. It will not be you but your adorable children who die. It only takes one mistake. Keep that in mind and live on in fear.¡± The Aburatori did not bother hanging up. He threw the phone to the ground and coldly crushed it below his heel. ¡°Ah¡­ahh¡­¡± That sequence of violence had been so vivid that I had been entranced. It was perfect. Even after producing the perfect result, he stood still in the cold wind. His body wobbled. I immediately heard a bizarre noise. It was like cracks running through a plastic board. The chorus of cracking continued without end and a definite but invisible change came over the Aburatori. Once he recalled the flavor of blood, he could not go back. Just as expected, the fall had come. ¡°Ahh¡­¡± As he wobbled on his feet, he accidentally moved from behind the sliced van. He entered Shinobu¡¯s field of vision. Shinobu did not understand what was going on. Not a single bit of it. So when he saw the Aburatori sweating profusely and trying to bear with the pain, he ran over. ¡°What is it? Are you okay? Do you have a stomachache!?¡± Immediately, I felt like the Aburatori¡¯s pulse reached my ears. An unpleasant sound continued as the Aburatori¡¯s teeth chattered. But this was not due to the fear of Shinobu possibly having seen the aftermath of his brutality. He was desperately trying to hold back. He was holding back his functionality as the Aburatori. He was holding back that system built to kill children. He had recalled the flavor of blood and he was using his intellect and reason to desperately restrain the urge to devour his proper target. But that must not have lasted long. ¡°¡­!!!!!!¡± A great sound burst out. The next thing I knew, the Aburatori was gone. Left all alone, Shinobu looked worried and the sounds of police sirens belatedly approached. The Aburatori had finally been released. He simply appeared, simply abducted, and simply killed. He was the worst of the deadly Youkai who did nothing more than that. Part 10 ¡°Oh, Tengu. Have you heard about?¡± ¡°Just some rumors. But just hearing the name makes me feel sick. He definitely brings down the overall definition of. It¡¯s not often you see a version that¡¯s so specialized in killing and nothing else.¡± ¡°He¡¯s shown up.¡± ¡°This is gonna be rough. A lot of are going to die again.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s not like we can do anything about it. He exists as a that¡¯s been cut free of the simple hierarchy of power.¡± ¡°The Aburatori, hm?¡± Part 11 Since he was six years old, Shinobu wasn¡¯t brought to the police station in the neighboring town. Instead, the police came to the thatch-roof house. Meanwhile, the growing group of Youkai out front was going nuts. An Aburatori had shown up. Lots of children were going to die again. If you didn¡¯t know the circumstances, that was how it would look. The Aburatori was trying to escape that situation and had saved Shinobu even though it meant throwing away his one and only chance, but no one else knew about that. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re okay, Shinobu? You don¡¯t hurt anywhere?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine. I just need to drink some of the fizzy stuff.¡± Shinobu waved at my mom and seemed more interested in the rumors about the Aburatori than he did in what had happened to him. It was past evening by the time the police left, but they hadn¡¯t been able to ask much out of concern for Shinobu. And¡­ ¡°Rumor has it Hyakki Yakou is going to act.¡± ¡°Then I guess we don¡¯t have to worry. They scare me, but I doubt they would fail to kill the Youkai in their crosshairs. This should all settle down if they kill the Aburatori.¡± ¡°Really, we just need to make sure we aren¡¯t caught in the crossfire.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true. I¡¯d rather not get killed by the punishment meant for the Aburatori.¡± Shinobu gave a troubled frown. He tugged at my grampa¡¯s clothes and asked a question. ¡°Grampa, what¡¯s the Aburatori?¡± ¡°Hm? Nothing you need to know about.¡± For once, the old man bluntly cut off all conversation, so Shinbou asked my gramma instead. ¡°Gramma, tell me about the Aburatori.¡± ¡°That is an extremely scary Youkai. Word has it one has been seen around here recently. You need to stay away from it.¡± ¡°¡­¡± He looked up at the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata. The sexy Youkai simply shook her head with a grim look on her face. However, this was the end of it. The Kaeshigami plan was the only way for the Aburatori to walk down the proper path, but it had utterly failed. He was about to go on a rampage, so Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Majina and Hishigami Shikimi would destroy him as he had asked. Nothing would remain, just as they had arranged in advance. Out of concern for Shinobu¡¯s future, that Youkai had saved him and would vanish without ever telling anyone the truth. ¡­Except that couldn¡¯t be what happened. This was still just the trigger. I already knew the worst possible ending was coming. When Shinobu returned to his room that day, the adults and Youkai left him alone. He had been abducted by soldiers of a large criminal organization to influence the adults, so none of them knew what was right or how to approach the situation. However, that completely backfired. Shinobu wasn¡¯t the type to hole up in his room when he was in a state of shock. Of all things, he pulled a backpack from the closet and began filling it with a map, a flashlight, and other tools. He looked like he was about to head out. He was going to leave this safe home after everything that had happened to him. Just like a child creating a secret base, nothing he packed seemed particularly useful. It looked like he was packing up everything he could find, from crayons to snacks. And one of those items was a piece of construction paper. It was covered in scribbles from crayons and colored pencils, but it probably had great meaning to Shinobu. There were humanoid figures drawn there. There were animal-like figures drawn there. What had long been seen as a product of a runaway imagination was drawn there. The one with black hair and red clothing may have been the Zashiki Warashi. Something was colored over with circles of black crayon, but I had no idea what it was. The countless figures formed a circle and something was sloppily written above their heads: We¡¯re All Friends. That was all. But no matter how silly and useless that was, young Shinobu may have seen it as indispensable when his life was on the line. And my current self was no different. I had solved quite a few Package-related incidents and I had run across some extraordinary monsters in the process. With the Aburatori and the Aoandon, they had far surpassed the realm of what humans could handle. But even so, wasn¡¯t this something I couldn¡¯t afford to forget? ¡°I can¡¯t stop to figure this out.¡± He packed up all sorts of things that probably wouldn¡¯t be of much use. ¡°I can¡¯t sit here crying.¡± He forcibly fastened the backpack¡¯s snap. ¡°I have to save my Friend Youkai.¡± He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand just once. He faced forward and spoke aloud, as if to fight back against everything that was saying such cruel things. ¡°The Aburatori is all alone now, so it¡¯s my turn to save him.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± Why? How could it have turned out like this? I thought. I could take a pretty good guess what was going to happen now. Before Hyakki Yakou could slay the rampaging Aburatori, restless Shinobu would run across that worst of the deadly Youkai. Something would happen there and the Zashiki Warashi would use her Ver. 39. That was how this was going to turn out. But while the Aburatori had been foolish, he had done nothing wrong. While Hyakki Yakou had been cruel to let him go, that decision had been kind. While Shinobu knew nothing of what was happening, his decision was wiser than anyone else¡¯s. Yet like it all was being swallowed up by some great pit of doom, each act of good will or kindness was leading to the expected worst possible ending. Who had been in the wrong? Couldn¡¯t it have all ended with the defeat of the large criminal organization? Couldn¡¯t that have been the nice happy ending? ¡°Nn.¡± Shinobu put on the overfilled backpack and snuck out of his room. A small child tiptoeing around would normally have been noticed right away, but he happened to slip past everyone¡¯s field of vision. It was almost like fate was giving him a helping hand. It could only follow him. I could only watch as that awful conclusion approached. Young Shinobu ran through the orange-dyed paddy fields. He innocently believed he could save the Aburatori. I knew everything had failed, but I still wished that miracle could actually happen. But it wouldn¡¯t. That kind conclusion could never, ever happen. After all, the ending was already decided. I was only peeking at the predetermined past. This was not the present where countless options danced before my eyes or the future where everything was an unclear mass of chaos. This was the past where everything followed just the one path. So we reached that mountain clearing filled with underbrush. The canopy of tree branches and the dark, rotting cabin came into view. And there, young Shinobu saw it He saw the Aburatori whose entire body was torn to pieces and whose breathing was so shallow it seemed on the verge of stopping. His blood was closer to black than red. Unable to stand, he had collapsed to the ground and had his back against the cabin¡¯s wall. He looked like a broken doll. Shinobu could no longer form words. He released a scream that only amounted to sound and ran straight toward the Aburatori. ¡°Oops.¡± I heard Hishigami Shikimi¡¯s voice from the trees and looked up to see the giant flower of her white hair. She was no longer empty-handed. Her hands were stuck into her kimono¡¯s pockets and she was clearly holding something. ¡°What should we do, Majina!? My specialty is war, so I can¡¯t aim quite so accurately!!¡± ¡°My, my. This isn¡¯t good. Hold off for the time being, Shikimi-san.¡± I saw a black whirlwind and then Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader was standing in the center of the underbrush. Like a pet-lover, he held Ohatsu the (female) Sunekosuri in his arms. The small canine Youkai had a scarf around her neck and a ribbon on her right ear. What? Did that black whirlwind just gather together!? Did it turn into that (female) Sunekosuri!? ¡°Now, let me pass that question right along. ¡­Aburatori, what do you intend to do?¡± It was unclear just how much life that Youkai had remaining, but he seemed to hesitate for just a moment. ¡°I made up my mind from the beginning. I told you to take care of this, Hyakki Yakou!!¡± ¡°You can¡¯t!!¡± Shinobu¡¯s shout interrupted, but it was not directed at the Aburatori. He turned his back on that worst of the deadly Youkai and spread his arms to protect his friend from Majina and Hishigami Shikimi. ¡°Don¡¯t be mean to the Aburatori!! If you¡¯re going to hurt him, then you have to get through me first!!¡± An obvious click of the tongue came from the trees. Monocled Majina spoke bitterly while holding the (female) Sunekosuri. But he spoke to the Youkai behind Shinobu, not to the young boy himself. ¡°Let me ask again: what do you wish to do?¡± ¡°!?¡± ¡°The optimal answer is not always the best answer. I don¡¯t mind if you ask for something other than death despite knowing that would be wrong.¡± ¡°How could I possibly ask for that?¡± spat out the Youkai while exhaling weakly below his large hat. ¡°Even now, I am taking aim to tear into this boy¡¯s back!! How can I let this continue!? How can I let this evil remain!? Kill me, Hyakki Yakou. Kill meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!¡± Most likely, they had all been living on the very edge. They had all been worried about someone else, put themselves second, and tried to protect something. And in this extreme situation, Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader accepted someone¡¯s wishes. ¡°¡­What are you going to do?¡± ¡°Fine, then. If that is what he truly wishes, then I will take on the thankless role.¡± He may have wanted to hear a different answer. As wrong as it would have been, he may have wanted to hear the Youkai say he wanted to live and to be happy. But that opportunity had been lost. So Majina gently placed his index finger on Ohatsu¡¯s forehead. That was all it took for the small canine Youkai to turn into deep darkness. With a deafening noise, the man¡¯s body began to vanish into the scenery once more. But just before he did, another great noise reached my ears. It was the sound of a Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata kicking Majina¡¯s torso with all her might. The blow may have been on the level of a full-speed collision from a car. After the shockwave-like noise, the young man¡¯s body flew into the forest. He broke through two or three fairly thick trees and the line of destruction finally came to a stop at a large tree trunk further in. But that was not the end of the motion. I heard a rustling sound. The darkness vanished, the small dog reappeared, and Majina stood at the center of the destruction as if nothing had happened. ¡°What is the meaning of this?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not here for you,¡± spat out the Zashiki Warashi. She paid no heed to the Hyakki Yakou leader who was walking toward her. She was focused on a single point with a branch cutter resting on her shoulder, perhaps to take the place of a machete. ¡°What do you want to do, Shinobu?¡± ¡°Nn.¡± ¡°What the adults want doesn¡¯t matter. You don¡¯t have to think about the rules between humans and Youkai. What do you want to do right here and now?¡± There may not have been a ¡°right¡± answer. It may have been that no one could come up with anything like that. But Shinobu answered without a moment¡¯s hesitation. ¡°I¡¯ll save my friend.¡± ¡°I see.¡± With a thin smile, the Zashiki Warashi spun around the branch cutter resting on her shoulder. She forcefully struck the ground with the bottom to threaten everyone around her. ¡°If you know that, then go do it. ¡­You¡¯re a boy, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Okay! Let¡¯s go, Aburatori!! Come with me!!¡± Shinobu grabbed the hand of the Aburatori who looked on the verge of collapse. The two of them ran off into the woods. Finally, the Zashiki Warashi faced Majina. She held out the blade to form a barrier against anyone who would pursue those two. ¡°Now, now. To be honest, I¡¯m thankful,¡± said Hyakki Yakou Leader Majina in a somehow sad tone. ¡°After all, this conclusion is far too empty. It may be the optimal answer based on pre-established harmony, but there isn¡¯t any salvation to it. It might be inappropriate to say this turn of events excites me, but that¡¯s honestly how I feel.¡± Majina pressed his finger against the forehead of the small canine Youkai he held in his arm. I had a feeling I understood this. The Sunekosuri was a Youkai that rubbed its cheek against travelers¡¯ legs. That alone sounded harmless and adorable, but it was based on the fear something hiding in the underbrush when walking at night. Majina had said his name was spelled with the character for ¡°curse¡± and that was highly appropriate. A Youkai was a physical manifestation of certain thoughts or feelings, but he could break them down into their original phenomena and mysteries and use them like that. This went far beyond a Package that took dozens or hundreds of people to take advantage of just a portion of a Youkai¡¯s traits. He alone was breaking down, analyzing, reconstructing, and reusing the entire blueprint or diagram of a Youkai¡­and he was doing it all perfectly. Even the most harmless and adorable Youkai had its base ideology extracted, weaponized, and remade into a tool of war. This was the man who ruled at the top of Hyakki Yakou. Even if he acted like nothing special, I should have known that wouldn¡¯t be the case! ¡°But there is more to this than that. I am not so irresponsible that I would leave the conclusion in someone else¡¯s hands. I am the leader of Japan¡¯s greatest occult organization. Or will you twist the destiny of our confrontation with the power of the Ver. 39?¡± ¡°Sorry, but neither of us is the star here. As side characters, how about we keep our dance to the corner of the stage so we don¡¯t get in the way?¡± ¡°I have to ask. Shinobu-kun is one thing, but why are you personally so intent on saving the Aburatori? You know what will happen in a direct confrontation here, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°To be honest, that doesn¡¯t matter.¡± The branch cutter whistled through the wind like a spear. ¡°But Shinobu decided to walk with even the worst of the deadly Youkai, so I¡¯ll believe in him. I¡¯ll believe in the boy who immediately made the decision you could only dream of making.¡± I was confronted with two different choices. The first was of course pursuing Shinobu and the Aburatori. That was the heart of this incident and leaving them alone together was far too dangerous. Even if he didn¡¯t want to, the Aburatori might kill Shinobu. The second was to stay here and watch the Zashiki Warashi and Hyakki Yakou¡¯s fight to the death. Shinobu and the Aburatori were a problem, but the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s strange Ver. 39 power was another crucial point. Resolving this before she used it and thus saving it for use against the Aoandon¡¯s group in the ¡°present¡± was the most important part of this. ¡°Which one¡­¡± I looked all around. I had only one point of view and I couldn¡¯t rewind. ¡°Which one am I supposed to choose!?¡± Part 12 I ran with all my might through the eerily rustling forest. I had ultimately chosen Shinobu and the Aburatori. The conclusion was approaching fast. I no longer thought there was some further truth or malice hidden here. I knew that, but I still felt uneasy. If I made a single mistake and overlooked the decisive moment, this would all be for nothing. I found them right away. ¡°This way! This way! I don¡¯t really know why, but this way!!¡± ¡°Wait¡­ Please wait!¡± As Shinobu ran through the underbrush, the Aburatori gently pulled his hand from the boy¡¯s grasp and forced out the words as if coughing up blood. Without noticing the danger, Shinobu ran over to him. ¡°What is it? Do your injuries hurt!? D-don¡¯t worry. I brought some bandaids for this!!¡± ¡°No, not that¡­¡± The Aburatori continued speaking while his teeth chattered. He looked disturbingly close to stabbing his prey with the skewers and pulling out the boy¡¯s organs. ¡°You need to run away¡­ You need to leave this place at once!!¡± ¡°No! I can¡¯t leave you, Aburatori. You¡¯re coming with me!!¡± ¡°That is not what I am talking about!!¡± Shinobu¡¯s small shoulders shook when the Youkai shouted back at him. The Aburatori trembled at the fact that he had hurt the boy, but he could not afford to be kind anymore. He sent more filthy words out toward Shinobu. ¡°I¡­I¡¯m saying that¡­I will end up killing you! Why can¡¯t you understand something so simple!? I am not your friend. You are nothing but a convenient prey to me!! I will derive perverse pleasure from pulling out your organs, skewering them, cooking them, and removing the oil!! That is the kind of repulsive monster I am!!¡± ¡°No, you aren¡¯t.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m telling you to run. Run from this worst of the deadly Youkai!! I simply appear, simply abduct, and simply kill! That is all I can do!!¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t who you are! The policemen told me I was taken away by bad guys and someone saved me! So I know you aren¡¯t a bad guy!!¡± ¡°Hurry¡­hurry¡­run away¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care what anyone says. I don¡¯t care what you say.¡± ¡°Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!¡± ¡°You¡¯re my friend!! That will never change!!!!!¡± He couldn¡¯t resist any longer. I heard the sound of the Aburatori¡¯s back teeth cracking in his mouth and then countless metal skewers appeared in his hands. Once they were released, Shinobu would be completely helpless. But that never happened. A white shadow suddenly dropped down from above. Hishigami Shikimi used the three-pronged vajra she held to knock down the skewers like a bolt of lightning. How exactly had she done it? I was watching the entire time, but my understanding couldn¡¯t keep up. A three-pronged vajra was a weapon used by Buddhist monks¡­or was it called a Buddhist instrument? Basically, it had sharp spikes on either end and you held it in your fist at the center. The only usable portions stuck out from the ends by her thumb and little finger, so how had she knocked down dozens of metal skewers with just that? She let down her long white hair, let the kimono fall from her shoulders, and revealed the undershirt below. The scent of incense filled the area. Shikimi sounded exasperated with her own actions. ¡°Honestly, you¡¯re really making me act out of character here. To think a Hishigami woman would act to protect someone!!¡± ¡°Hishigami¡­Shikimi!?¡± said the Aburatori. ¡°Yes. Just to be clear, I¡¯m not here to kill you. I¡¯m well, well aware this isn¡¯t something a battle-obsessed war specialist should be saying, but I too am sick of that sort of thing!!¡± As the threat of tension vanished, the Aburatori launched dozens if not over a hundred skewers. However, Hishigami Shikimi used (what looked like) a single swing of her arm to deflect them all on her three-pronged vajra. Not a single one made it to Shinobu behind her. ¡°This is no time to be holding back, Hishigami! Kill me!!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t help it. If I went all out, I could easily destroy this entire village¡­not to mention this kid.¡± She grinned. ¡°More importantly, I too am only a side character. I may not be used to fighting a defensive battle, but I only have to buy some time for her to arrive and persuade her foolish master.¡± ¡°What¡­?¡± ¡°She¡¯s coming. Prepare yourself.¡± As soon as the white-haired girl said that, a single figure ran between the countless trees and out from a thicket. The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata charged toward the Aburatori with the branch cutter at the ready. The Aburatori already had his hands full with Hishigami Shikimi, so this completely surpassed the limits of his processing power. He was unable to deal with the Zashiki Warashi as she charged in from the side, so she easily collided with him. They rolled along the ground together, moving away from Shinobu. They slid down the mountain slope. ¡°Why must you all ignore my wishes!?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like it, but there is one way of saving you! I just have to join forces with them!!¡± shouted the Zashiki Warashi at close range. ¡°You are a Youkai that kills children and you were born into this world because the humans wanted you to do that and only that. No stabilizing method, restraints, or paranormal technique can stop you from killing children! No matter what!¡± ¡°That!! That is why I am telling you to kill me!! Before I lay a hand on that boy!!¡± ¡°But have you forgotten? Just as you¡¯re a symbol of the perpetrator, I¡¯m a symbol of the victim!¡± They shouted at each other from point black range. ¡°The Zashiki Warashi is a collection of the children killed during famines. You could say I¡¯m a concentrated symbol of the deaths of children. We are the perpetrator and victim. If the two of us are paranormally linked much like a Package, you can artificially and symbolically feel the deaths of children without end. Just like inflating a medical balloon in the stomach can make one forget their hunger, you will never feel the urge to kill!!¡± ¡°¡­!!¡± With that single hope in mind, the Aburatori¡¯s head seemed to be reeling on the ground. But¡­ ¡°How exactly will you create that link? And do you have time!? Even if it is just a Package, you have no idea how long it will take to assemble from the ground up!!¡± ¡°Normally, yes. But have you forgotten about the extreme exception to that rule?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean¡­¡± ¡°Majina, leader of Hyakki Yakou. He can instantly break down any Youkai to their base phenomena and mysteries. He should be able to assemble a simple Package in a matter of seconds.¡± Once she said that, the Aburatori came to a complete stop. That worst of the deadly Youkai spoke as if slowly exhaling. ¡°You mean¡­I don¡¯t need to be killed?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°I can rid myself of that deadly trait without being killed?¡± ¡°Technically, you won¡¯t lose the trait. It will be caught in a harmless infinite loop.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to kill anyone and no one needs to kill you,¡± said the Zashiki Warashi while gently loosening her grip as she pinned to the ground. ¡°You can remain Shinobu¡¯s friend. Just like all the other Youkai.¡± The Aburatori remained silent for a while. His mind may have gone completely blank. ¡°Nee-chan¡­¡± said a quiet voice. Everything was finally settling down, so the Zashiki Warashi breathed a sigh of relief and slowly turned her head. She looked to Shinobu and gently narrowed her eyes. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Shinobu. You don¡¯t need to worry about anything. I¡¯ll settle everything for you.¡± This was the end. It was the ultimate happy end where no one had to die. But was it really? Wasn¡¯t I supposed to be seeing a failed incident in the past? The fall began with a very, very small sound. ¡°Ah.¡± The Zashiki Warashi had forgotten. She had logically convinced the Aburatori, so she had completely forgotten. His killing techniques worked on a level beyond his own will. The instant she turned toward Shinobu while pinning the deadly Youkai to the ground, his arm moved against his own will. A single skewer stabbed into the center of her body, as if tearing through her ample chest. That deadly weapon would tear out one¡¯s organs, skewer them, cook them over a fire, and remove the oil. ¡°Ahh¡­¡± She looked surprised and her upper body slid to the side. She crumpled weakly to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???¡± ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???¡± Shinobu¡¯s scream and my own overlapped perfectly. The Zashiki Warashi was not a normal human. She was a collection of the children killed during famines and the like, so it was possible a skewer meant to kill a single child would not kill her. It was possible this would not entirely destroy her. But young Shinobu did not understand Youkai or Packages, so he didn¡¯t understand that. I heard him crying. He was not trying to suppress it. He opened his mouth wide and his young voice wailed like a siren. That shrill cry lingered in one¡¯s head and was likely the last thing anyone there wanted to hear. It sounded like an expression of unbearable despair. I felt as if I had finally arrived at the end of this incident. Young Shinobu, my past self, felt despair. But not over the fear of what would happen to him. And not from the shock of seeing the Zashiki Warashi harmed. If that was enough to fill him with despair, this would have already happened when he was kidnapped by the large criminal organization. That was not what this was. He was not the type to cry for himself. He believed in the Youkai Stamp. He believed all Youkai were his friends. That sloppy writing on the construction paper had said it: We¡¯re All Friends. Until that very moment, he had not viewed any human or Youkai as higher or lower, superior or inferior to another. But this created a definitive dividing line. There was now a split between enemy and ally. He found himself wanting to save the Zashiki Warashi even if it meant abandoning the Aburatori. He found himself mentally abandoning the Aburatori, a Youkai with a personality of his own. That despair was the true damage of this incident. So¡­ Part 13 A quiet voice could be heard somewhere in the twilit mountains. ¡°He¡¯s crying¡­¡± The number of voices grew like the leaves rustling in the wind. They gained enough intensity to shake the earth, as if the entire mountain were roaring. ¡°He¡¯s crying¡­¡± Except this was not limited to the mountain. It covered the paddy fields, the farm roads, the thatch-roof house, and the orange sky. Just as a single cigarette butt could spark a vast forest fire, the entire landscape was filled with the explosive deluge of voices. Did anyone there understand that every one of those voices belonged to an enraged Youkai? ¡°Shinobu-chan is crying!!!!!!!¡± ¡°Hold on,¡± muttered Hishigami Shikimi with her white hair spread out and her kimono hanging down. ¡°You¡¯ve gotta be kidding. ¡­This is more than just a hundred or a thousand. Is this kid outdoing the phenomenon of Hyakki Yakou with just his crying voice!?¡± It sounded like a tremor in the earth. Even an amateur like me could tell it was a passionate mob that had completely lost sight of its rationality. Were all of those Youkai going to respond to Shinobu¡¯s cry by baring their fangs against the source? What would happen to the Aburatori then? ¡°¡­I get it now.¡± I hadn¡¯t reached the depths of the despair just yet. This was still only the entrance. Young Shinobu had abandoned the Aburatori to save the Zashiki Warashi. And when he cried out, all of his friends had shown up. He had given all of them the Youkai Stamp, making them his Friend Youkai. They were all going to bite, rip, and tear the Aburatori to pieces. I recalled that construction paper. Humans and Youkai had formed a smiling circle with ¡°We¡¯re All Friends¡± written at the top. This gruesome conclusion was the exact opposite. There was no way six-year-old Shinobu could bear to see this. It wasn¡¯t an issue of his body. His heart would surely break. His heart would be torn to pieces and destroyed if he saw that. ¡°¡­Ah¡­kh¡­¡± The collapsed Zashiki Warashi¡¯s upper body moved a little. The Aburatori¡¯s attack may have damaged her bodily structure, but she was still trying to protect Shinobu who was about to be destroyed. This had to be what she used her Ver. 39 to alter. She used that single-use cheat code to protect his dream and to protect his heart. Some bizarre static ran through my mind. Dual images appeared before my eyes. A voice from sometime in the past filled my mind. ¡°¡­Make¡­me¡­¡± The voice was forced out through a throat that had been torn to shreds. It sounded like the Aburatori¡¯s, but it contained a wet sound, like he was coughing up blood. Even after all that, he must not have died. His arms and legs had been torn off, his nose and ears had been ripped away, his eyes had been crushed, his teeth and tongue had been pulled out, his organs had been dragged out, his spine and pelvis had been removed, his body had been pumped full of venom and dissolved with acid, his nerves had been scorched with flames, his blood had been boiled, and his body was scattered everywhere, yet his soul had not been freed. ¡°Make me¡­a villain¡­¡± That was his earnest desire. ¡°Whether I am good or evil, I will still kill the same number of children. My moral alignment has no bearing on the actions I take. No matter what future awaits me, I will kill the exact same number. Nothing can add to or subtract from that number, so it makes no difference. I at least want to retrieve Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s heart. I want him to think I deserved death. Then the guilt will not crush the child. He will be able to return to his normal life with a smile on his face¡­¡± Was that why? Was that why I had felt such a discrepancy between the cruel Aburatori I had seen in the ¡°present¡± and the conflicted one I had seen in the ¡°past¡±? This was the true ending. Nothing more was hidden. I had seen the whole of that awful ending. That left me with no more reason to hold back. If I was going to change history and save everyone for a happy ending, I had to do it here! With the sound of bursting fireworks, the sense of watching everything through a thin panel of glass vanished. This time, I truly felt as if I had taken a step into the past. ¡°Stand up.¡± I immediately grabbed the confused Aburatori¡¯s arm and forcibly pulled upwards. ¡°Stand up!! If you want to live!!¡± There was no time. I chose the one remaining option available to me. It could cause a time paradox, but I didn¡¯t care. I directly faced myself from ten years ago. ¡°Hey, can you hear me? Hey, you brat!!¡± ¡°Eh? What?¡± ¡°Listen. I¡¯ll fix everything here, but next time, don¡¯t you dare give up on someone you¡¯ve decided is your friend. Got that?¡± I didn¡¯t have time to wait for an answer. I could feel the low rumbling approaching. It felt like the sign of a coming natural disaster, but it wasn¡¯t. A sea of Youkai was charging toward us, filling the entire surface of the earth. They were giving into their anger to tear apart the Aburatori that had caused Shinobu to cry. I couldn¡¯t let them do that. I couldn¡¯t let the Aburatori be killed, I couldn¡¯t let Shinobu¡¯s heart be destroyed, I couldn¡¯t let the Ver. 39 be used, and I couldn¡¯t let Shinobu¡¯s friends dirty their hands. So with the Aburatori¡¯s hand in my grasp, I jumped down the mountain slope¡­no, I jumped off the cliff. Even if it seemed different now, I was still in something of an out-of-body experience. My physical specs were clearly beyond those of a mere high school boy. I landed partway down the jagged slope and continued down at full speed, like I was skiing. The sea of madness changed direction and continued toward us. ¡°What¡­what are you doing!? I cannot escape those Youkai no matter what I do. I don¡¯t know who you are, but you are only going to get yourself caught in the frenzy!!¡± ¡°Oh, is that so!? By the way, my name is Jinnai Shinobu! Nice to meet you!!¡± ¡°Wha-¡­eh? Jinnai¡­Shinobu?¡± ¡°Do you have a better idea of what¡¯s happening now? I¡¯m here from the present! No, I guess from your perspective I¡¯m from the future!! You might not be able to escape no matter where you run, but their venomous fangs can¡¯t reach you if you cross the barrier of time!! If you don¡¯t die, my past self won¡¯t fall into despair. I don¡¯t have time to explain the details, but that will solve everything!!¡± ¡°No¡­no!! You can¡¯t do that. If you throw me into an environment without the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s traits and Majina¡¯s skills, I will become an evil that continues its indiscriminate slaughter of children. I have already recalled the flavor of blood! I can¡¯t stop myself!! So please leave me here!!¡± ¡°To hell with that!!¡± I jumped from rock to rock sticking out of the slope to continue downward. I felt like a snowboarder being pursued by an avalanche. If I slowed down, that torrent of death would swallow me up. Was this still not enough? Once I changed history, I was supposed to be automatically returned to the present! ¡°I¡¯ve been watching everything you did! I know you don¡¯t actually see any value in death!! So I don¡¯t want to hear you bitching now!! I¡¯m sick of that!!¡± ¡°Arguing from a position of emotion is easy, but if you release me in your era, you will undoubtedly regret it. Can you really bear the burden of hundreds and thousands of children¡¯s deaths!?¡± ¡°What I¡¯m saying is that I won¡¯t let you kill anyone!!¡± ¡°How exactly will you do that!?¡± ¡°The Kaeshigami that Hyakki Yakou was talking about!!¡± We shouted back and forth while sliding down the slope. ¡°If you can keep from killing anyone for nine years, you lose your killing trait and become a Kaeshigami, right? Just like the vengeful spirit that nearly destroyed Kyoto was worshiped as a god, you can become a harmless Youkai!!¡± ¡°I told you I¡¯d recalled the flavor of blood, didn¡¯t I!? I¡¯ve already broken free of my limiter. I can¡¯t hold back for even a day!!¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to hold back.¡± ¡°What¡­!?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you I¡¯m from the future? But unfortunately, my time travel technique only works on just the one person. If I try to carry anyone or anything back with me, they or it won¡¯t be protected from the flow of time. Simply put, they¡¯ll directly experience the amount of time I¡¯m traveling through. You get what I¡¯m saying now, don¡¯t you? If I jump ten years into the future while holding onto you, you¡¯ll be forced to experience ten years¡¯ worth of time in an instant! So!! You don¡¯t have to hold back!!¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s true you might be a Youkai created from people¡¯s desire for a monster that would get rid of their eyesores of children,¡± I said while pursued by the avalanche of death and carnage. ¡°But doesn¡¯t that also mean you¡¯re absorbing the anger and hatred of those foolish parents?¡± ¡°¡­?¡± ¡°You were created by gathering up all of those negative emotions. So if you weren¡¯t here, where would those feelings be directed? Wouldn¡¯t they be sent toward those parents¡¯ children in the form of abuse?¡± In other words¡­ ¡°If you could evolve into something that could endlessly absorb parents¡¯ hatred yet control it without going on a rampage of your own, wouldn¡¯t that make you a guardian deity of children? You¡¯d just be absorbing parents¡¯ desire to abuse their children. You¡¯d be calming those feelings before the abuse actually happened.¡± A Kaeshigami was something feared by everyone but revered as necessary by everyone. ¡°In my time, there¡¯s a monster called the Aoandon.¡± I recalled the essence of that ultimate enemy. ¡°She¡¯s a Youkai artificially created from an intentionally twisted version of the Hyakumonogatari. We were unwittingly a part of that plan by being made to kill each other in a place called Zenmetsu Village. Ha ha. Now that I think about it, she¡¯s kind of like our child. I didn¡¯t realize it until I saw that construction paper ten years in the past here.¡± I couldn¡¯t laugh at anyone. Not even at those selfish adults whose negative thoughts had formed the Aburatori. ¡°So.¡± I would redo it all here. I would take it all back. I would save him and work with him! ¡°Could you lend me a hand? It would take a great power to defeat the Aoandon, but it would take an even greater power to save her. Please help me save my child. And to do that, please become a Kaeshigami that protects the children. You¡¯re the only one I can ask, so will you do this?¡± The Aburatori reflected on my words for a while. Without worrying about the horde of Youkai approaching to take his life, the Youkai pondered the meaning of the words directed his way. And finally¡­ ¡°Very well. I have no reason to turn down your suggestion!!¡± This time, we held our hands even more tightly. Immediately afterwards, the sound of bursting fireworks surrounded us. After an especially loud noise, our bodies vanished from the past. In the Gap Between Timelines 2 Did the concepts of time and space even exist here? I didn¡¯t know the details, but I could perceive myself and the Aburatori as distinct individuals. It was strange to have ¡°time¡± to think while traveling through time, but that blessed the two of us with a chance to share our information. ¡°This Aoandon sounds like quite the unusual Youkai. To be honest, I do not think my power alone will be enough.¡± ¡°Agreed. She brings together one hundred ghost stories and can extract the individual parts to create brand new ghost stories. We can never defeat her in number of paranormal powers. A normal Youkai with just the one paranormal power wouldn¡¯t stand a chance.¡± ¡°Then¡­¡± ¡°But the Aoandon herself can¡¯t use that power to its fullest. She has someone with her for paranormal support, so she probably has something like a Package embedded inside her. If that¡¯s removed, she¡¯ll lose control of her power. Simply put, she¡¯ll return to being a normal Youkai like all the others in the Youkai encyclopedias.¡± ¡°The core embedded inside the body of a Youkai¡­of your child.¡± ¡°With a Youkai that removes children¡¯s organs, we might have a chance. Of course, we¡¯ll only have the one chance.¡± I was probably the only one that knew why the Aoandon was so crazy. It was possible not even the Aoandon herself knew. She had been born during the madness at Zenmetsu Village. Just like the Aburatori was a collection of the feelings of parents who disliked their children, the Aoandon had been born by absorbing all of the gruesome madness the people at Zenmetsu Village had caused. She had apparently been released into the outside world afterwards, but that had not changed the ¡°directionality¡± given to her by her birth. She could freely search through sea of data, but she would naturally gather only the dark and the grotesque. She had seen only the negative and hopeless aspects of this country. She had absorbed all that and transformed into something with an even more solidified existence. It was most likely my responsibility for not letting her see anything that made her not want to destroy this country. We had all been desperate to survive at Zenmetsu Village and we had repeated that hellish scenario dozens or even hundreds of times. That was a mistake on my part. A failure of a parent had created a monster. So I alone could not abandon her. I didn¡¯t have the power to save the world or to save the country. I might not even have had the power to save the village. But whether a parent saved their child wasn¡¯t determined by their power. ¡°If you traveled into the past, will we return at the exact moment the time travel was activated?¡± ¡°No, that was after everything was over. It felt like we had already used all of the methods we hadn¡¯t wanted to use. So it would be best to return a little before that. I don¡¯t know if it will work or not, but I know what moment I want to return to¡­¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°When do you think the enemy will have their guard down the most?¡± I asked back. ¡°I think it¡¯s when they¡¯ve used their greatest trump card and allowed the thread of tension to go slack. They might just be in a good enough mood to lower their guard. If we aim for that moment and break through the wall of time for a surprise attack¡­¡± ¡°We can reach the Aoandon?¡± ¡°We have to start with the first step. If we don¡¯t pull this off, the rest isn¡¯t going to work.¡± And this method would mean we could avoid using up the Ver. 39 which could only be used once. Her power was hers. It wasn¡¯t to be used for humans by humans. I wouldn¡¯t let this end just by obeying Hyakki Yakou. I wouldn¡¯t let the Zashiki Warashi be used as a tool. So I would settle this my way. I would take responsibility. I¡¯ve seen everything, Aoandon. I might only have an empty argument from emotion and it might not change my physical strength any, but I¡¯ve remembered the most important thing. So now it¡¯s your turn. Wait for me, baby. I¡¯m going to scold you, discipline you, and then save you. Notes 1. ¡ü Kanai Anzen = Household Safety. Mubyou Sokusai = Good Health. Volume 7, 7: Jinnai [email protected] War, Break Through the Center Volume 7, Chapter 7: Jinnai [email protected] War, Break Through the Center Part 1 It all came down to an instant. ¡°Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier. Appear in the form we desire to grant what we desire to the extent we desire. ¡­Appear, Tsuerika Nyorai. It is time to begin your work.¡± Yes. This was the moment when the Aoandon Group felt most victorious. They had passed the greatest turning point, the thread of tension had relaxed, they were filled with excitement despite knowing how dangerous it was, pleasure and relief exploded in their minds, and they could not help but lower their guard. When you knew it was coming, it was easy to take advantage of it. So¡­ ¡°Aoandon!!!!!¡± As if tearing through space itself, I broke through the barrier of time with the Kaeshigami by my side. I immediately rushed right up to the Aoandon. ¡°Wha-¡­?¡± I didn¡¯t wait for her voice of surprise. Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Hafuri was confronting her, but she didn¡¯t matter either. We couldn¡¯t win in an all-out fight with the Aoandon, so I attacked when her guard was down. I attacked just when she had gathered all of her cards to form an unbeatable hand. I rushed straight in like threading a needle. The Aburatori and I no longer needed words to communicate. All I did was swing my right arm horizontally and the Kaeshigami released a metal skewer with a synchronized motion. The single skewer stabbed deep into the center of the Aoandon¡¯s chest. The blue Oni¡¯s eyes opened wider than I thought possible. Time seemed to have frozen as I grabbed the skewer embedded in her chest and pulled back with all my might. With a sticky sound, a fist-sized pale blue cube came out. It was a collection of straight lines, a symbol of artificiality. It looked like a jewel, rather than an internal organ. It may not have actually physically existed. It may have been that the Aburatori¡¯s ability to remove internal organs had given physical form to something like program code intentionally written inside her. It didn¡¯t really matter. Not as long as I could take away the core that made the Aoandon special! ¡°¡­¡± My eyes met the Aoandon¡¯s from fifty centimeters away. Bluish-white phosphorescence glowed from the tip of the horn on her forehead. A moment later, a deafening sound much like clashing swords rang out. Neither the Aburatori-turned-Kaeshigami nor I could keep up physically or mentally with what had happened. A dull sensation passed through the center of my body near my spine. The Aoandon¡¯s right hand had pierced through my stomach. ¡°Boy!!¡± The Kaeshigami tried to rush in, but the Aoandon knocked him to the side with her left hand. She had erased her smile to form an entirely blank expression. ¡°Have you forgotten?¡± I coughed out the blood welling up from my throat, dyeing her cheeks red. ¡°I am that which exists beyond the one hundred gathered fears. Without Saiki Kazu and Matsukai Hiroshi¡¯s equation, I can no longer create an infinite number of derivate stories, but I still have one hundred times the power of a deadly Youkai.¡± ¡°Ha ha. Is that so?¡± She was also talkative. I somehow managed to hold my right hand out horizontally even with her arm piercing my body. I held it toward some other place, toward the greatest evil that Saiki Kazu had summoned somewhere in this rural landscape. ¡°¡­ng. ¡­w¡­¡­ed¡­, ¡­f¡­ ¡­¡­¡­.ri¡­, ¡­b¡­¡­¡­, ¡­¡­s¡­¡­ ¡­h¡­¡­¡­, ¡­..gh¡­ ¡­s¡­ ¡­¡­e¡­¡­¡± I already know how to defeat you. That archdemon severed the bonds between people, destroyed those connections, and prevented any kind of cooperation. Without that, the battle between Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon¡¯s group would not grow quite so hellish. ¡°For the aforementioned reasons, the veil of ignorance may become the key to the door of the unknown. I name the soul of Marguerite Steinhols as a new demon and command her to pass through the door in that vessel of flesh!¡± I was the only one that knew any of that, so I had to do something about it. Listen, Tselika. I may have had to cheat and jump back in time a little. But an enemy I¡¯ve already defeated once is hardly going to be a real threat! You small fry!! ¡°Return, Marguerite Steinhols!! Cast aside your old self and take hold of your new self. Like a snake shedding its skin, cast aside the name of Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier and fill yourself with a bright new soul!!¡± A gust of wind blew through a distant area. Tselika herself probably had no idea what had happened. In this timeline, not even fifteen seconds had passed since her appearance, so she might have just thought the summoning had failed. But the Aoandon would have noticed since she was right in front of me. That had been no coincidence and no accident. She had drawn her cards from the deck and prepared the most powerful hand, but it had been stolen from her by a kid on the verge of death. ¡°What did you dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!?¡± I ignored her. Was that so much of a shock that you¡¯ve forgotten what you need to do, Aoandon? Your priority should be getting this thing back. A smile formed on my bloody lips as I grabbed the pale cube I had removed with the Aburatori¡¯s skewer. Then I stuck it in my mouth, chewed, and swallowed. ¡°You¡­ How do you keep doing this!?¡± My vision seemed to shatter. The program code built for a Youkai must not have agreed with the human body. All of my senses vanished in bluish-white sparks as if a high-voltage current had bene sent straight down my spine. ¡°You idiot! That¡¯s based on my traits! You won¡¯t gain my powers if you swallow it!!¡± ¡°Maybe¡­not¡­¡± I wouldn¡¯t have still been standing if the Aoandon¡¯s arm hadn¡¯t been stabbed through my stomach. I had lost the ability to know what was happening to my body. ¡°But I took it from you¡­both Archdemon Tselika and the secret behind your irregularity. And now that you¡¯re nothing more than an amazing Youkai, do you and your companions really have the strength left to take on Hyakki Yakou and their Top 5?¡± ¡°¡­¡± The Aoandon immediately replied with an incredibly simple action. My sparking senses rapidly returned. They were all focused on a feeling of extreme pain. The Aoandon had bitten at my throat. This was nothing as kind as sucking my blood. She began biting and chewing through both flesh and bone. Yes, I had a feeling you¡¯d do this. She had no way of knowing what change would come over the program code while it was inside my body, so it made sense that she would try to retrieve it before the damage could progress any further. But¡­ ¡°You were created from the completion of one hundred ghost stories¡­¡± Have you still not realized what¡¯s right in front of you? I said an enemy I¡¯ve already defeated once is hardly going to be a real threat¡­but that doesn¡¯t just apply to Tselika. ¡°Then what about 110? Or how about 120? As the number leaves that perfect framework of 100, the golden ratio holding your body together will crumble.¡± ¡°Eh¡­?¡± The Aoandon looked like her thoughts had ground to a halt. Yes, those were the same words I had said on the empty tour bus running through the blue birth canal at the end of the Zenmetsu Village incident. When she removed her mouth from my throat, she seemed to catch on. Her mouth was covered in something dark red. In her haste to retrieve the stolen program code, she had left the ¡°data port¡± open and let in the foreign object known as Jinnai Shinobu. ¡°¡­Ah¡­gh. Ahhh¡­¡± ¡°Take it,¡± I said with a thin smile. ¡°Extract the data in the flesh and blood you¡¯ve eaten and commit it to memory. ¡­I didn¡¯t have time to check through the detailed conditions and logic behind it, but if I¡¯m right, my memories should be implanted inside your head.¡± ¡°Gh¡­¡± ¡°My data will be treated as a foreign object inside you and I¡¯ve been through countless incidents involving Youkai. I¡¯ve got plenty of ¡®ghost stories¡¯ stored in there. You were created from precisely one hundred stories, so can you really endure having that number changed?¡± ¡°Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± A moment later, she lashed out in anger. Her small mouth opened as wide as possible and bit through flabby things that I¡¯m hesitant to describe. Strangely, it seemed I could no longer feel pain. It was too late to turn back. She could not stop the bug in her code, so she focused on retrieving the program code as initially planned. She was betting on the possibility that such a slight malfunction could be suppressed by that great power. ¡°Why¡­?¡± asked the entirely red-stained Oni as she curled up and worked at chewing. ¡°Why would you go this far!? All you¡¯re trying to do is defeat me, so why would you choose to be eaten alive!?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± For some reason, she had left my face untouched. I somehow managed to move my sluggish lips and force out the words. ¡°Because if you eat me, you¡¯ll take my data inside you¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± A wet dripping sound continued for a while. The Aoandon had briefly stopped chewing. ¡°That¡¯s my point.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°What is this!? Am I taking in corrupted data!? How¡­how could you possibly produce these kinds of feelings in such an extreme environment!?¡± Oh, I get it now. She only experienced the one timeline without traveling through time, so this answer looked a little sudden to her. ¡°¡­This was an impossible situation from the beginning.¡± ¡°What?¡± I had traveled through time and returned, so there were now two Jinnai Shinobus here. One had lived through the single timeline and the other had returned via time travel. I didn¡¯t know if I was a physical being or just a soul at the moment, but I knew this was a dangerous situation. There had to only be one Jinnai Shinobu. But that aside¡­ ¡°I can¡¯t kill you.¡± I had seen something in that room in the past. I had seen that sloppy drawing on construction paper. Humans and Youkai were all holding hands and smiling with the message ¡°We¡¯re All Friends¡± at the top. I was never supposed to have forgotten that. Once I looked at it from that viewpoint, it hadn¡¯t been hard to see the truth of the Aoandon. I knew what this most powerful of enemies really was. ¡°After all, you¡¯re like my child, born from that Zenmetsu Village project.¡± ¡°¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡± ¡°I only ever showed you this sort of thing, so it¡¯s my responsibility that you turned out this way. It was all the fear, despair, and carnage I showed you in Zenmetsu Village that turned you into an incomprehensible monster. ¡­So I¡¯m not supposed to punch you. I¡¯m supposed to rub your head and teach you that there¡¯s more to life than this.¡± Just one of the Aoandon¡¯s cheeks twitched to a disturbing extent. ¡°¡­This was my conclusion.¡± ¡°Was it?¡± ¡°This was the optimal answer I derived!! It was not¡­ It had nothing to do with your influence!!¡± ¡°You¡¯re only a baby, so don¡¯t get so full of yourself.¡± I had been wrong to raise that baby in that dark red room of blood and gore. I had been wrong to throw her out into the world without teaching her about common kindness and other basic things. So I would correct my mistakes. I would use the first and only chance I had here! ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve lived a life worthy of praise.¡± Yes, me. Will you be able to smile? I promised you on that day long ago that I could get along with any Youkai. ¡°But if you look through that data you took from me, can¡¯t you find just one thing? Just one thing that makes you rethink destroying this country, this village, and this family?¡± ¡°You will die.¡± ¡°Yes, most likely. If I wasn¡¯t willing to go that far, my feelings never would have reached you.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll lose your place in the world you¡¯ve tried so hard to protect! You understand that, don¡¯t you!?¡± ¡°God, what a pain. Just take a look at the data already.¡± I would die here. I had broken through the barrier of time to find this truth, but it was looking like I wouldn¡¯t be able to pass it on to the other Jinnai Shinobu. But if it came to that¡­ You tell that ignorant Jinnai Shinobu, Aoandon. This is your father¡¯s final request. Surely my only daughter can do this much for me. This too was communicated through the data. Aoandon, you are ¡°listening¡±, aren¡¯t you? I don¡¯t think I have the strength left to move my mouth¡­so can I only¡­leave the rest¡­to luck¡­? Part 2 ¡°Bwah!¡± I held my mouth on a farm road near a dry paddy field. ¡°Uwehh!! Cough, cough!! Cough! Cough, cough!!¡± My internal organs crawled and convulsed as if they had all malfunctioned at once. An intense shock ran through the center of my heart as if someone had pressed a gun to my chest and pulled the trigger. I felt like my skin was being tugged at. I shuddered at an intense feeling that something was out of place. It felt like someone else¡¯s damage was pouring into my body or like I was being chopped to pieces by mistake. Was this oozing pain in my skin or my organs? Taking a trip to the hospital once this was over seemed like a good idea. ¡°Master! What¡¯s the matter!?¡± The micro-bikini Succubus sounded confused. ¡°Is it due to that archdemon? It looked like the summoning failed, but did the miasma of the exorcism reach you?¡± ¡°No, it isn¡¯t that,¡± I groaned while placing my thumb in my mouth. I didn¡¯t know why, but I knew I had to do that. I used my canine tooth to bite into my thumb. The flavor of rusty iron oozed out onto my tongue. I sensed death while also receiving a torrent of data I shouldn¡¯t have known. ¡°Tselika¡¯s summoning succeeded,¡± I said while holding my reeling head. These were not my memories. At the very least, they weren¡¯t inside my own head. It seemed to be using some kind of external storage. The data that should have been erased when Jinnai Shinobu died had been unable to disperse because another Jinnai Shinobu was still alive. Unable to remain in this world or continue on to the next world, it had wandered through this space. It was almost like a ghost and I was simply accessing it through the flavor of blood. But it didn¡¯t matter what it was as long as I could use it as a weapon. Whether it was external data or corrupted data floating to the surface, it told me the correct answer even if it did not feel real to me. ¡°More importantly, where¡¯s the Aburatori? He turned into a Kaeshigami after traveling through time, so I doubt he would¡¯ve been killed that easily.¡± ¡°Master¡­?¡± The Succubus was clearly confused, but I didn¡¯t have time to explain. What was going on? I used the flavor of my thumb¡¯s blood to access the data. If this version of me could grasp this data, did that meant that Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s data remained inside the Aoandon after she devoured him? Had it been moved or copied? Depending on what had happened to the files, the Aoandon could still be moving at full power. Defeating Tselika was an MVP-level accomplishment, but that alone wasn¡¯t enough. I had to drive Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon¡¯s group from the village and retrieve my normal life! ¡°¡­¡± The young man in a dark suit¡­was his name Saiki Kazu? Anyway, he had tried to summon Tselika and had in fact succeeded, but that Jinnai Shinobu had immediately defeated the archdemon. The witch named Marguerite Steinhols lay naked (Wow!) at his feet and he was glaring at me from over ten meters away. He spoke while barely moving his lips, almost like a ventriloquist. ¡°When is your soul from?¡± ¡°I¡¯m me,¡± I replied with a thin smile. ¡°I¡¯ve just cheated a little to take a small step outside the norm.¡± His power was an unknown, but he didn¡¯t seem to have given up his humanity like Hishigami Mai or the Illness Magic User had. Even if he had cut Archdemon Tselika away from himself to have her stand at his side. But once that archdemon was sealed away, he was no more than a normal human. Meanwhile, I had a paranormal Succubus on my side. That demon couldn¡¯t breathe fire or tear through a metal panel with her claws, but she was immune to purely physical attacks like a blade or a bullet. ¡°Out of the way.¡± So I grew bold. ¡°I want to know what happened to the Aoandon¡­to that baby. I don¡¯t have time to deal with you. Get lost if you know what¡¯s good for you.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Saiki Kazu silently turned his head and stared coldly into the distance. He was most likely looking to the small woods where the Aoandon and Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Hafuri were confronting each other. ¡°The equation has fallen apart. ¡­No, it may be more accurate to say the Aoandon¡¯s structure has changed. Perhaps I should say the software remains unchanged, the base OS has been forcibly updated so many times that the software is no longer compatible.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Did you change the number of stories forming her? Not bad for such a short time. This may be an abnormality created by the constant contact with Youkai in an Intellectual Village.¡± ¡°Enough talk.¡± I knew I was relying on outside help, but I would utilize this chance. I couldn¡¯t defeat both Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon¡¯s group, so I needed to attack the Aoandon¡¯s group while they were rattled. If I could quickly defeat one side, there would be no more reason to continue fighting in this village. ¡°Will you willingly let me through or will I have to punch you first? It¡¯s your choice.¡± ¡°Now, I have a question for you and your unwitting expertise.¡± Saiki Kazu slowly raised both hands and continued speaking without moving his lips. ¡°You analyze the structure of Youkai and attack their weaknesses. Or you reveal the Youkai built into a criminal Package and find a loophole. In that case¡­¡± His emotionless eyes pierced through me, the master of a (low-ranked) paranormal demon. ¡°Will that usual skill be of any use if you ran across a Youkai not found in any old tome or any database? Wouldn¡¯t that make for an interesting test?¡± Part 3 (3rd person) Darkness covered everything. The Aoandon had been thrown out into darkness too deep to distinguish one direction from another. This was not a real or physical phenomenon, but it took her a few seconds to realize the excess data taken in from Jinnai Shinobu had directed her mind inward rather than outward. Once she was aware of it, she saw countless bluish-white lines running through that darkness. It was a sea of data. It was her very essence and also the life-giving womb that had created her. There was something there which clearly did not belong. She did not know if distance meant anything here, but it appeared to be about five meters in front of her. The biological lifeform known as Jinnai Shinobu stood in the sea of data. ¡°¡­Dh¡­¡± She groaned while holding a hand to her shaking head. A mass of incomprehensible data was tormenting her sense of self. She had taken in the human data of Jinnai Shinobu as much as possible. Words could lie, but data could not. The path the boy had walked filled her mind. It could not all be summed up with some lofty ideals. He had met several Youkai, encountered filthy Packages using those Youkai, and gotten involved in countless incidents. When he had faced those incidents to resolve them, he had not always been driven by a sense of justice, ethics, or morals. Oftentimes, he simply wanted to live and for that reason doubted the friends and family around him. But the Aoandon did not understand. She understood why he would doubt those close to him. She did not understand why he was so attached to this ugly world. She felt she understood just how ugly the world was. She had been born from the incident in Zenmetsu Village. When she had searched from there, as if branching out her knowledge, she had learned just how cruel a reality this was and just how many people spread irresponsible rumors without facing that reality. It was not confined to Zenmetsu Village or that corporate prison. When she had searched for similar Package-related incidents, she had found the screams of people being similarly crushed and others taking irresponsible revenge on each other. The world was full of blood and gore, red and black. Why would he want to remain here? In the sea of data, she did not need to speak her question aloud. The Jinnai Shinobu (technically, just his data) standing before her held out his right hand. His index finger seemed to be pointing right in front of her nose. No, that was not it. He was actually pointing at something directly behind her. What was that something? Driven by that simple question, she slowly looked back over her shoulder. Something happened a moment later. ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± The next thing she knew, the sea of data had left. Her mind had shifted from inward to outward. The smell of humus tickling at her nose and the rusty iron flavor in her mouth forced physical reality back onto her. She was sitting on the ground and her eyes dropped to her bloody hands. Her fingertips were trembling. She had eaten human flesh. She had ripped open his gut, pulled out his entrails, used her white teeth to bite through them, and swallowed them. Youkai that sucked blood or ate organs were not uncommon. Most of the deadly Youkai that did not curse their victims used such methods. She had gathered the fears of one hundred ghost stories, so she too had that ability. It was not to the point that she needed to eat people to survive, but if she switched over to the proper mode, she could eat a human body without hesitation. And yet¡­ ¡°Why¡­am I trembling¡­?¡± The worst and greatest Youkai was dumbfounded. The rusty smell stabbed deep into her nose, a strange warmth was caught between her teeth, the sensation of her chewing her meal lingered in her teeth and jaw, a stickiness remained on her tongue, and some hair was caught deep in her throat. And altogether¡­ ¡°I find it¡­disgusting? I¡­I¡¯m the monster that exists beyond the one hundred fears. Why would I be feeling this human sensibility?¡± ¡°So you have lost your will to fight?¡± A metallic sound rang out. While sitting on the ground like a mere girl, the Aoandon turned toward the source of the sound and found the adult and child Hafuris glaring at her with the same family emblem on their clothing. The adult one held an eerily glittering Japanese sword. ¡°Would that be accurate?¡± ¡°What¡­are you¡­?¡± ¡°Hyakki Yakou is the greatest paranormal organization in the country¡­no, the world. As their leader, I should probably hold my tongue here, but to be honest, I do not have an accurate grasp of the situation either. That is why I am asking you.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Are you still a being that will bring harm to mankind?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t¡­joke. I don¡¯t need a reason. I¡¯m doing this because everyone wants me to. Not even Jinnai Shinobu could do anything. He didn¡¯t affect me in the slightest.¡± ¡°Yes, a mere high school boy could not do a thing,¡± bluntly admitted Hafuri. ¡°And isn¡¯t that why you¡¯re so shocked that you did not receive anything from him?¡± ¡°Wha-¡­?¡± ¡°Jinnai Shinobu may have been trying to give you some kindness. He may have been trying to stop you with that. But it did not reach you. He bet his life on it and was literally devoured, and yet he was of no use whatsoever. ¡­But you find that regrettable. He taught you the meaning of sorrow. In a way, doesn¡¯t that make this his victory?¡± The Aoandon was a deadly Youkai created from the combination of one hundred ghost stories, one hundred rumors. That made her very interested in listening to what people had to say, regardless of whether it was good or evil. Even if it was a stranger or her enemy, she was not opposed to accepting data. But she had been unable to do so. She had not received any of what he had bet his life on telling her. What if that had been the dying words of the individual she could call her father? ¡°No¡­¡± The word escaped her trembling lips. For some reason, her lips were trembling against her will. ¡°I am the being that exists beyond the one hundred fears. I would never hold that kind of normal, worthless, and pointless-¡­¡± She trailed off when she realized the truth. She could not gather any strength in her body. Some of her curses only required a glance or a thought without any actual movement, but not even they would target properly. ¡°This does not seem to be a problem with your bodily structure,¡± calmly analyzed Hafuri. ¡°It takes an unimaginable level of resolve for a human to intentionally kill another human. Of course, such feelings do not always show themselves between human and Youkai.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ah¡­¡± ¡°But what if a Youkai were given the same sensibilities as a human, even by some underhanded means? Even if you have one hundred deadly powers and even if you use them to produce unlimited possibilities, it seems your finger stops before pulling the trigger. We had only ever thought of killing, so this is a truly fascinating method for Hyakki Yakou.¡± ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± The Aoandon screamed as if to reject it all. She used explosive muscular strength unimaginable from her slender frame to instantly stand up and charge toward Hafuri like an artillery shell. Her claws could easily slice through the surrounding tree trunks and they flew toward Hafuri¡¯s neck. But¡­ ¡°I knew it.¡± Hafuri did not even blink. The Aoandon¡¯s fingertips stopped unnaturally just before reaching their target. ¡°With these new sensibilities of yours, you seem unable to kill a defenseless ten-year-old girl.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°There is no need to be afraid. In the earliest stages of education, the child copies their parents and builds up their sensibilities from that. But as they are not psychic, they cannot perfectly glean their parents¡¯ feelings. Everyone makes their own interpretations just as you did and continues forward assuming they understand.¡± Hafuri narrowed her eyes a little. ¡°Personally, I think you should reflect on the honest joy of having this perfectly normal opportunity. You had a father who was willing to go this far to get something through to you.¡± This girl called the opportunity perfectly normal, yet she had not been given the same opportunity. She had been forced to lead Hyakki Yakou at the tender age of ten. She had lost both her parents to assassins within their own organization. ¡°Don¡¯t¡­joke¡­¡± The Aoandon¡¯s sharp claws were only a few centimeters away, but they only trembled without managing to touch the girl¡¯s slender neck. ¡°I can¡¯t curse anyone, harm anyone, or kill anyone¡­ How am I supposed to maintain my existence as an Aoandon like this!?¡± ¡°Children grow up by observing their parents, but they need not be bound by those parents¡¯ lives.¡± Once again, that was something Hafuri had been unable to do. She had only been able to protect the world by following in her unseen parents¡¯ footsteps, but that was why she could speak of this ideal here. ¡°You must choose for yourself what life you will live. But of course, that is only after you have paid for everything you have done.¡± ¡°¡­¡± The Aoandon remained silent for a while. She had countless means of brutally killing this girl, but they only existed as a function or ability. She could not actually use them. Jinnai Shinobu had created these new sensibilities within her by risking his life. He had placed a bizarre safety device to lock her weapons away. ¡°You aren¡¯t going to kill me?¡± ¡°After everything you have done, it would be hard to find a convincing reason not to kill you.¡± Hafuri let out a troubled sigh. ¡°But this possibility that Jinnai Shinobu has demonstrated is promising enough to warrant taking on this difficult challenge. Simply put, it would be a shame to kill you here and lose this process of neutralizing a deadly Youkai. Of course, it is hardly a viable method if it requires having someone eaten alive, but if we can analyze it and reconstruct it in a harmless way, it could revolutionize this small field of ours.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe this,¡± muttered the Aoandon while her vision went dark. This conclusion was positioned as far from fear and despair as possible. It was bright. Had that boy handed his body over to her with this in mind? From what she could see of his data inside her, there were no traces of having calculated it out that far. But that was not the heart of the issue. Even if he hadn¡¯t calculated out every last part of it, he had known someone else would fill in the gaps. The bonds between people had brought this farther than anyone had predicted. It may have been incomplete and unfinished, but he had done everything he could to resolve this as quickly as possible and reduce the damage as much as possible. Did that mean even this series of coincidences could be attributed to Jinnai Shinobu? Like in the Straw Millionaire, this was the unseen power that joined people together. That was what he had presented for the Aoandon to process as a single system. It had only taken him a little over a minute. He had eliminated Archdemon Tselika, neutralized the Aoandon, and created enough of a power gap between Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon¡¯s group that she would have a chance to surrender. ¡­And on top of it all, he had given her a small bargaining chip to prevent her entire group from simply being slaughtered. Afterwards, he had vanished. With all that in mind, the corners of the Aoandon¡¯s lips silently twisted. ¡°No.¡± ¡°¡­?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t over yet. We still have him.¡± As soon as she said that, dense tension seemed to solidify the atmosphere, like thin threads twisting together to form a solid rope. There was something there, but it was not Archdemon Tselika and it was not the Aoandon of the one hundred fears. Hafuri could think of only one other option. (That man in the Illness Magic¡¯s report who shot down our mobile fortress. He most likely trained his own body akin to Kodoku by killing the majority of those gathered for their group.) ¡°Aoandon!! If you don¡¯t want to waste the seeds Jinnai Shinobu has sown, then stop-¡­!!¡± She started to shout, but then she stopped. She had noticed the strange expression on the Aoandon¡¯s face. It could not be classified into any of the usual emotions. It looked like someone who had secretly prepared a birthday party for herself, only to have all of those plans destroyed on the day of the party. It also looked like someone who had no one show up to celebrate her birthday, only to have her friends show up to surprise her at the very last moment. It was an utter contradiction. It looked like not even she knew how to handle the data inside her. ¡°My words aren¡¯t enough to stop him. Nothing anyone in my group says will stop him.¡± After all¡­ ¡°In a way, Saiki Kazu uses an even more twisted paranormal power than me.¡± Part 4 A black wind raged. It took me far too long to realize Saiki Kazu, that ventriloquist-like man in a dark suit, had physically ¡°moved¡±. His claws slashed through the air right in front of me and tore the chest of my jacket open. It wasn¡¯t my own power that saved me. First, the Succubus had grabbed my shoulders and leaped backwards with all her might. Second, Marguerite must have felt a debt for being freed from Tselika because she reached out a hand from the ground and did something. That was a demon and a witch. With the help of two Western paranormal beings, I only managed to avoid the attack by a few millimeters. There was more to him than just Tselika. Was he drawing on some other paranormal power? Was he drawing on the power of some Youkai? ¡°A fascinating ability.¡± Saiki Kazu emotionlessly spoke as the Succubus and I only managed to move two or three steps back. ¡°Normally, my killer intent would have kept you glued to the spot. Is this the power that neutralizes the fear and creates a bond, giving you such a great affinity with any Youkai?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°It is similar to Ranzono Sachi¡¯s ability, but it is more indiscriminate and covers a wider range. If you were able to consciously wield it, you would have individually been able to recreate the phenomenon known as Hyakki Yakou.¡± Something unpleasant spiraled through his words. I bit my thumb and tasted the blood for a specific answer. An avalanche of Youkai had responded to young Shinobu¡¯s cry and chased down the Aburatori. No one had been in the wrong, but that had been the trigger to a definite tragedy. I gained the knowledge through the external access, so I spat out my emotional answer. ¡°To hell with that.¡± ¡°I see. It may be your ability to speak back like this that leads the world¡¯s paranormal beings to take your side.¡± Acting tough was one thing, but I also had to figure out what to do. First of all, what Youkai was Saiki Kazu using? Without knowing that, I couldn¡¯t find an opening. And buying time in a head-on battle was probably going to be difficult. ¡°Would you like a hint?¡± Saiki Kazu made a shocking suggestion. The Succubus whispered in my ear while staring at the man standing entirely still with his arms gently spread. ¡°(Master.)¡± ¡°(Yeah, unless he¡¯s just bragging, he¡¯s clearly trying to confuse us. But does that mean he has some kind of identity or weakness we would notice if he didn¡¯t hide it?)¡± He did not wait for us to finish our discussion. He spoke his own words as if drawing power directly from the text. ¡°One: Saiki Kazu can move too quickly to be seen.¡± The black wind roared again. This time, the Succubus moved behind me. She passed her arms below mine and placed her fingers on my chest to hold me in place like a roller coaster¡¯s safety bar and then she flew high into the sky. ¡°Nhh!¡± ¡°Kyah!?¡± Just before we took flight, I barely managed to grab the Umbrella and Lantern. By the time I heard the Succubus¡¯s flapping wings, we were already twenty meters from the ground. Tengu, Kasha, Keizoubou-Gitsune, Kamaitachi, Yamanba, Aburatori, the Nopperabou that surprises anyone who sees it twice. Is it a fast Youkai that can get ahead of its opponent? ¡°Two: Saiki Kazu can crush his target remotely.¡± The black wind came to a stop and became the dark suited figure once more. The stopped man formed a gun with his right hand, like a child playing around, and aimed at the orange-dyed sky. In other words, at us. First, the Succubus and I were knocked to the side. Next, the region of space we had just been floating in was entirely compressed. A fist-sized glowing orange ball floated at the center. As if it had suddenly remembered gravity existed, it fell straight down. Once I realized it was the air¡¯s dust and dirt after it was compressed and heated, a chill ran down my spine. If we had been caught in that, we would have been immediately turned to mincemeat! ¡°That first impact was Marguerite¡¯s help, but I doubt she can save us every time. Not to mention that she doesn¡¯t have a contract with anyone at the moment and that man is far too skilled!!¡± ¡°I know that!!¡± Makuragaeshi, Yamanba, Inugami, Killing Stone, Tsuchigumo, Nue, Furutsubaki, Zashiki Warashi, Oshira-sama. There are plenty of Youkai that use formless curses, but that doesn¡¯t fit with the earlier high-speed movement. The only overlap is the Yamanba. ¡°Three: Saiki Kazu can predict his target¡¯s future position.¡± This time, I thought my vision had gone dark, like the power had gone out. The dark suited man made only a small movement. While standing in the dry paddy field with his gun gesture aimed upwards, he simply shook that hand a little. However, it was a decisive movement. I could tell he was accurately pursuing the Succubus and me through the orange sky. ¡°Master!!¡± ¡°Not yet! Dammit. What Youkai is he using!?¡± Kudan, Shaberi-Ishi, Zashiki Warashi, fox¡­ Oh, damn. That rules out the Yamanba!! The more hints I have, the closer I should get to his identity and weakness, but this is only confusing me further. At this rate, he¡¯s going to shoot us down before I can figure out- ¡°No, you don¡¯t need to figure out what he¡¯s using.¡± A new voice cut in. At the same time, a dull sound burst from the center of Saiki Kazu¡¯s chest. A woman¡¯s arm had forcefully pierced through his back and out the front. I only knew one person who could do that. With that woman, I could believe the idea that simply meeting her was deadly. ¡°Hishigami¡­Mai¡­?¡± ¡°I only need to know you¡¯re relying in some kind of paranormal power. I can kill all such things, so there¡¯s no need to analyze every little thing like my sister and her murder mysteries.¡± Even then, the dark suited man¡¯s expression remained unchanged. Except, that is, for the single trail of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. And¡­ ¡°Four.¡± Unbelievably, he continued speaking. His heart had been torn out, so he should have been done for as a living creature. ¡°The concept of numbers does not apply to Saiki Kazu.¡± I heard a quiet footstep. I heard more and more of them until they covered the entire area around us. Because the Succubus and I were flying through the orange sky, we noticed the bizarre scene before anyone else. It was a group of identical men in dark suits. At least one hundred copies of the unemotional man named Saiki Kazu stood across the paddy fields. ¡°What¡­is this?¡± I did not even have time to feel a chill anymore. ¡°What kind of Youkai power is he using!?¡± Part 5 (3rd person) Saiki Kazu watched Hishigami Mai racing across the dry paddy field. The woman had used Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s neutralization of fear to kill one of him and that told her he was not an insurmountable obstacle. That may have been the only reason she could continue moving without being crushed by the intense killer intent. Still, he did not view this as much of a problem. There was no concept of a ¡°center¡± to his hundred or more bodies, so their senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch were all gathered together. He was aware of all those many senses, just like an insect¡¯s brain processed the images from its compound eyes, but he could also shift his consciousness from one body to another. The sensation may have been something no human with just the one point of view could understand. The closest comparison was to call it a system rather than a living being. It may have been like sitting in a distant security room filled with monitors and switching between countless cameras to search for and follow one¡¯s target. ¡°Is that all?¡± ¡°Is that all?¡± ¡°Is that all?¡± His right hands formed guns. More than one hundred index fingers aimed at Hishigami Mai. With Mai at the center, they seemed to form a giant flower or firework. A single shot had the power of an antiaircraft gun capable of shooting down a strategic bomber ten thousand meters away, but over one hundred of them turned to explosive pressure and shot toward her from every direction. In addition to the numbers and strength, Saiki Kazu had the power to predict the future. There was not even the slightest chance he would miss. ¡°Is that all the fragile power of good has to offer, Hyakki Yakou?¡± ¡°Is that all the fragile power of good has to offer, Hyakki Yakou?¡± ¡°Is that all the fragile power of good has to offer, Hyakki Yakou?¡± ¡°Tch!! I¡¯m! A! Freelancer!!¡± Hishigami Mai dodged left and right in living, flowing lines, but her efforts were not rewarded. A portion of the scenery distorted and the very space around her was compressed. But it was not enough. She was one of the abominable Hishigami Women. One second before the direct hit, Mai¡¯s right arm plunged into the chest of a nearby Saiki Kazu and swung him around to use his body as a shield. ¡°You might be a monster that uses some strange Youkai, but I can restrain your attack using your own power. It¡¯s like the unstoppable force and the immovable object. And amusingly enough, there are more than a hundred of you standing all around here! I can grab as many of you as I want!!¡± More and more cursed shots flew her way as she yelled back at him. Before the Saiki Kazu being used as a shield could lose his basic shape and fall apart, Mai would run to the next Saiki Kazu and acquire her new shield. Then she repeated the process. Using up the shields both secured her own safety and slowly wore down the numbers of her enemy. It was nightmarish and grotesque, but it was the optimal answer that killed two birds with one stone. However¡­ ¡°I see. It would seem the same technique will not work on you forever.¡± ¡°I see. It would seem the same technique will not work on you forever.¡± ¡°I see. It would seem the same technique will not work on you forever.¡± The exact same words came from the countless mouths of the countless Saiki Kazus. It even came from the unconcerned expression of the one that was falling apart as Mai used him as a shield. ¡°Then I suppose I should move on to the next one.¡± ¡°Then I suppose I should move on to the next one.¡± ¡°Then I suppose I should move on to the next one.¡± ¡°?¡± It happened before she could put her guard up. ¡°Five: When cornered, Saiki Kazu explodes, spreading a curse.¡± ¡°Five: When cornered, Saiki Kazu explodes, spreading a curse.¡± ¡°Five: When cornered, Saiki Kazu explodes, spreading a curse.¡± ¡°Shit!!!???¡± Mai swung her right arm as hard as she could. The ¡°shield¡± slipped off of her arm and flew into a group of several Saiki Kazus like she was bowling. The slender body swelled bloodily out around the chest wound and burst like a water balloon. A red mist spread in every direction, corroding all of the bowling pins. (I can¡¯t use him as a shield anymore. I guess I¡¯ll have to reduce his numbers by inducing chains of explosions like a puzzle game. If I time the explosions right, I might be able to alter the course of his attacks. But¡­) ¡°Six.¡± ¡°Six.¡± ¡°Six.¡± ¡°Dammit! Are you really drawing out the power of a Youkai!? You aren¡¯t just making it up as you go along, are you!?¡± Those words seemed to give Mai a sudden realization. (Wait¡­) ¡°Is that it? I can¡¯t tell what Youkai you¡¯re using no matter how much I think about it. Everything you¡¯re doing looks like you¡¯re adding in whatever powers would be convenient at the moment. What you¡¯re doing is fundamentally different from all the Packages and other techniques of our small field. What you¡¯re doing is-¡­!!¡± ¡°Saiki Kazu is a symbol of impurity, so merely touching him will curse you.¡± ¡°Saiki Kazu is a symbol of impurity, so merely touching him will curse you.¡± ¡°Saiki Kazu is a symbol of impurity, so merely touching him will curse you.¡± All direct attacks were off limits. Mai clicked her tongue, pulled her suppressor-equipped handgun from her boot, and pulled the doll-shaped wooden charm from the pocket of her hot pants. She swung the wooden charm in a vertical line as if passing it through an invisible card reader and space split apart. A Shikigami shaped like a girl in a short kimono stepped out. This was the Deadly Dragon Princess. Mai had always said that using this paranormal power meant she had 100% lost. ¡°Is this all that the fragile good has to offer?¡± A single Saiki Kazu seemed to act as the representative and spoke without moving his lips. As before, he worked to corner his target. ¡°When will you demonstrate powerful justice, Hyakki Yakou?¡± Part 6 Given the situation, not even flying guaranteed our safety. In fact, the open sky made it easier for him to shoot us with his projectile weapon. However, randomly descending to the earth would only get us attacked by the countless Saiki Kazus. Where could we land? Who could we ask for help? ¡­ ¡°Succubus, land in those woods! Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader should be there!!¡± ¡°Ehhh!? They do kind of have a huge grudge against me for that Euro Security Force business, you know!?¡± She immediately complained, but she seemed to understand that staying here would only get us shot down by Saiki Kazu. She reluctantly did as I said. The Umbrella and Lantern shut their mouths and did not utter a peep after hearing the term Hyakki Yakou. I found a very strange scene there. First, there was Hafuri. I had known her as a girl of about ten in a kimono, but standing next to her was another Hafuri who had grown into quite a sexy body. A closer looked showed thin threads connecting the young Hafuri¡¯s fingers to the other one like a marionette. Then, there was the Aoandon. She was sitting on the ground like a feeble girl, but her mouth and entire kimono were colored dark red with¡­ Ugh. Is that my¡­ ¡°Wahhh! Papa!¡± ¡°Uuh! That¡¯s not something a high school boy should be hearing!!¡± ¡°What am I supposed to do¡­? Thanks to you, I can¡¯t use any of my one hundred or more paranormal powers! What am I supposed to do now!?¡± ¡°Ahhh!! Don¡¯t run up and hug me like that!! It¡¯s disgusting! Is all this sticky stuff my-¡­ahhhhh!!¡± ¡°I know exactly what I can do that you¡¯ll like the least. After all, the story of Jinnai Shinobu is one of the ghost stories I was made from!!¡± A blue light shined in her eyes as she rubbed her cheek against me. She hasn¡¯t had a change of heart at all. All that¡¯s changed is the upper limit of how much she can harm people! She still fully intends to crush me! This is like reverting a three meter man-eating tiger to a cub the size of a stuffed animal!! And while I¡¯ll admit she is something like my child created from the Zenmetsu Village incident, how does that make it my responsibility and no one else¡¯s? My uncle and the Hishigami Sisters were there too! Not to mention Madoka-san! Especially Madoka-san! I need to speak with her later! ¡°What¡­? Boy?¡± Another Youkai seemed utterly shocked. The Kaeshigami wore a farmer¡¯s outfit and most of his face was hidden by the hat with a giant eye drawn on it. ¡°What is it, Aburatori?¡± ¡°You are Jinnai Shinobu, aren¡¯t you? But you¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know the details, but you don¡¯t have to worry. I haven¡¯t forgotten about you, Kaeshigami-san.¡± ¡°O-ohhh-ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!¡± ¡°Ahhh!! What¡¯s the matter with you, old man!?¡± I already had my hands full with the red-stained baby, but now an emotional old man was clinging to me. The world had grown too psychedelic for me! ¡°Succubus, Succubus!! You embrace me too! Help!! I need some normal sexiness to average this all ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutttttttttttt!!¡± ¡°No, thank you. Helping people is just disgusting. I am a demon, you know?¡± Meanwhile, (the small) Hafuri placed a hand on her forehead and gave an exasperated sigh. ¡°Sigh¡­ Why are you even here?¡± ¡°Saiki Kazu.¡± I spoke the name while pushing away the old man and the Aoandon¡¯s face, which was covered in (my) blood and gore. ¡°This isn¡¯t going to end without doing something about him. Hishigami Mai is fighting him now, but who knows how long she can last against that monster.¡± ¡°I know. Fortunately, all of our Top 5 are still available. If I send them in, we can settle this in a quick-¡­¡± ¡°No!! If you do that, this village will be wiped from the map! You might be fine with that, but that might as well be the end of the world for me!!¡± ¡°Then what do you suggest we-¡­¡± Hafuri trailed off as a solid sound was followed by a canine Youkai flying in and embedding itself in the humus. ¡°Th-that was an impressive forkball. It really dropped right on down¡­¡± ¡°Only Hishigami Mai would do anything this crazy.¡± Hafuri crouched down and pulled the Youkai from the humus. It was the Sunekosuri that was always with Mai (and was almost constantly worried). ¡°Ah, Hafuri-sama!¡± ¡°Since you were thrown directly here, I take it you have some kind of urgent message. You can omit the formalities. What happened?¡± ¡°Th-that¡¯s right! Mai-san asked me to tell you what she figured out about Saiki Kazu! Woof, woof!!¡± ¡°Tell me.¡± After receiving Hafuri¡¯s permission, the Sunekosuri seemed to stand at attention in the girl¡¯s hand. ¡°Unlike a normal Package, Saiki Kazu does not seem to be borrowing an existing Youkai¡¯s power or traits.¡± ¡°Is he using his own stress and mentality like the Illness Magic?¡± ¡°No. He has crossed the borderline of humanity to become an inhuman paranormal being.¡± What did that mean? Had he erased every last one of his worldly thoughts to become a sage or something? Or had he used excessive pride or hatred of the human world to become a Tengu? My body tensed up when I started thinking of those stories from picture books. Wait. Don¡¯t tell me¡­! But it couldn¡¯t be!! ¡°In other words, rather than using an existing Youkai, he is creating a brand new Youkai. You could say he is using his own flesh and blood to build up a Youkai we could call email protected KAzU.¡± I could not speak another word for a while. However, the clock was still ticking. The battle between Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon¡¯s group and the battle between Hishigami Mai and Saiki Kazu were both still underway. I couldn¡¯t just ignore reality. I had to force my mind to think about this. ¡°That would explain it,¡± I somehow managed to say. ¡°That would be why I couldn¡¯t find an appropriate Youkai no matter how much I thought. Of course I couldn¡¯t. There wasn¡¯t anything to find in a Youkai encyclopedia or an occult-obsessed website. He was creating it himself!!¡± ¡°Akki Rasetsu was aiming for something similar: transforming the human body into a Youkai. But they were trying to fuse with an existing Youkai. They were never arrogant enough to try to create a brand new one.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± The Aoandon sounded indifferent. ¡°But I¡¯m a blue Oni that a Youkai illustrator in the Edo period made up to represent all the mysterious phenomena said to appear at the end of the Hyakumonogatari. There was no academic value to the claim, but that illustrator was simply too well-known. The idea spread and it became known as the truth. That illustrator also invented quite a few other Youkai. It¡¯s said over a third of his famous illustrated Youkai scrolls were his own inventions.¡± Coming up with a Youkai, creating it, and mixing it with others. The Dodomeki, the Hossumori, the Mokugyo Daruma, the Gotoku Neko, and the Aoandon. There were a surprising number of Youkai that became known because that illustrator had invented them. ¡­In more recent years, similar legends were told about an extremely famous Youkai manga author. Of course, since Youkai illustrations were often used as satire of society or the current age, no one saw any problem mixing in invented examples and it was often seen as a type of humor. But¡­ ¡°Are you saying Saiki Kazu can invent Youkai on that same level? This is more than putting a made-up Youkai in an encyclopedia. He¡¯s successfully getting everyone to accept them to the point that they have the same presence as a mountain god or sea god that¡¯s been worshipped for millennia. He can do all that artificially!?¡± If so, he was the cruelest creator. The Aoandon had used unfair powers in her direct confrontations, but she had only been creating infinite phenomena from a finite stock. This man was different. As a creator, he could create whatever he lacked whenever he needed it. There was no trick here. He was an infinite being from the beginning. The Aoandon was the ultimate system, but she had been abandoned after release. Saiki Kazu was a system receiving update files every second. Did he even have a weakness? Even if he did, wouldn¡¯t he have already patched it? ¡°Mai-san is doing everything she can to disturb him, but she is being pushed back because he can overwrite his powers and traits however he likes. She says there will be no stopping him once he crosses a certain line.¡± ¡°Does that mean we could overpower him with the Top 5 if we acted now?¡± Hafuri¡¯s words brought an unpleasant chill to my entire body. At this rate, the most powerful five and the greatest Saiki Kazu would clash at full power. What would happen to Noukotsu Village? What would happen to the village where I was born and raised, where Madoka, Nagisa, and the others were collapsed unconscious, and where the Zashiki Warashi, Yuki Onna, and other Youkai were waiting out the disaster? And even then, there was no guarantee they could defeat Saiki Kazu. What if they couldn¡¯t? What if even Hyakki Yakou wasn¡¯t enough? The Aoandon¡­no, the community that was now centered on Saiki Kazu would not stop with the destruction of this remote village. I only had to remember what had happened on that casino-covered Gold Mine Island. The CIA had been planning to escape the country lest they be caught in the destruction of Japan triggered by something this group would do. We had stopped the Aoandon, but we could not ignore Saiki Kazu who was continuing where she had left off. We had to stop him here, leaving not even a hundredth of one percent chance of that happening. ¡°¡­¡± But I knew that was being idealistic. Realistically, how were we supposed to fight him now that he had grown so inhuman? How could we tear victory from his grasp? He could create brand new Youkai and overwrite his own traits and abilities whenever and however often he wished. He might not stop even if we crushed his heart and chopped off his head. ¡°¡­Wait.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. He overwrites and fills in his traits and abilities. He drags them along and connects them. If he can do that¡­¡± I pictured a group of vainly spinning gears in my mind. At the moment, the entire system was dead because the gears were not fitting together properly. But everything I needed was already inside the box. If I could only adjust the positions of the gears so they fit in place¡­ ¡°I saw this somewhere¡­ Where? It wasn¡¯t necessarily recently. After all, I traveled ten years into the past. Remember. Flip over your box of memories. What is it this on the tip of my tongue? Where did I see it?¡± I bit my thumb and the flavor of blood allowed me to search through that external storage. That was when the image returned to the back of my mind. In the parlor, the Zashiki Warashi, Nurarihyon, and Kasha were sitting in a circle chatting. They were talking about their treatment in a summoning RPG and how the Zashiki Warashi and Yuki Onna appeared so often. And in that discussion¡­ ¡ª¡ªIt sure is trouble when cultures combine or when you¡¯re mixed with or identified with another Youkai. ¡°That¡¯s it! That¡¯s it!!¡± I shouted. ¡°Master?¡± ¡°If Saiki Kazu is a perfect and faultless Youkai, then we just have to drag him down from that throne! We just have to mix him with another Youkai to mix together their explanations!!¡± There were examples of this happening. For example, the Japanese Youkai known as the Ubume and the avian Ubume from China. Or the Dakini-Ten which was a goddess riding a jackal in India yet rode a fox in Japan since there were no jackals in Japan. There were even Youkai and divine beasts that people started mixing together because they had similar names, colors, or shapes! And I already had an idea of how to mix together those existences. I had experienced it myself, after all! ¡°Hafuri, can you use your time travel Package? The one that uses the Kudan¡¯s prophecies.¡± ¡°Wha-? How do you know about one of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s greatest secrets¡­?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter!! And don¡¯t try to tell me you can¡¯t. This is the second version of this battle. After defeating Tselika so quickly, you have to have taken far less damage this time around! If you could use it on the first go around, there¡¯s no way you can¡¯t now! Get it ready if you don¡¯t want Saiki Kazu to ruin everything!!¡± It was the same as me accessing ¡°his¡± memories from this external storage. When two of the same person existed in the same space, the effect remained even if one of them died. That Jinnai Shinobu and this Jinnai Shinobu had to have been almost the exact same existence, so the only real difference was the memories. But that was enough of a threat. It was a great irregularity involving a time paradox. Plus, it was directly linked to memories and personality. What would have happened to my mind if I hadn¡¯t been able to access it properly and it was nothing but noise? It didn¡¯t matter what was held inside the external storage. Two versions of the same person existed in the same space. One of them died and became a ghost-like external storage. It was not either version of the person that mattered. It was the invisible thread connecting them. If it was carelessly messed with, couldn¡¯t even the most powerful foe be torn apart from within? And we could reach that position with a time paradox. First, we had to use time travel to make the same individual exist twice in a single world. If we then defeated one of them, we had a chance of damaging Youkai email protected KAzU who would not budge no matter how much we attacked him from without. ¡°Hafuri, I have a question about that big¡­um, doll? Who created it and how?¡± ¡°The Illness Magic User. He combined thousands of types of fungi to create a perfect copy of a human on a physiological level.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care if it¡¯s a rush job, it only has to look right. In that case, how long would it take to make one of those?¡± ¡°I would have to ask him directly to know for sure. However, this one was originally meant as an artificial surrogate mother with my traits built in. It would have been extremely carefully made to ensure the next generation leader for Hyakki Yakou could be born without issue.¡± ¡°Meaning?¡± ¡°The Illness Magic also creates copies of himself to confuse the enemy. If that level is sufficient, I believe he can design one almost immediately.¡± Good. That meant we had the time travel and the decoy copy forcibly made to match Saiki Kazu. We only had to send the fake copy (which was technically something like a straw doll used to curse someone) into a different timeline a few seconds different from our own using the time travel Package. If we then destroyed that copy, the perfect Saiki Kazu would begin to access something. If we interfered, severed the thread between them, and filled it with noise, his mind would overload. Even if that did not defeat him, Hyakki Yakou¡¯s deadly techniques could likely defeat him while he was standing defenselessly in front of them. We could end this without creating a long, hopeless battle that was no different from negating a nuclear blast with another nuclear blast. I could clearly see the path leading back to my normal life! A moment later, I heard a deafening explosion in the distance. ¡°That was where the Illness Magic is fighting,¡± said Hafuri. The battle had not grown as chaotic as before due to the rapid elimination of Tselika¡¯s influence, but it was still an all-out war. Countless battles were underway all over the place. In other words¡­ ¡°If he is to come help us here, it seems he needs to settle his own battle first.¡± Part 7 (3rd person) The situation could easily be described as a chaotic, but if someone had been able to compare this second round to the first one, it would have looked quite organized. The Top 5 maintaining their sanity and cooperation helped more than anything else. Simply put, Hyakki Yakou had successfully followed their initial plan for the battle. The Illness Magic User wore the black special combat uniform of a SWAT member. The Venom Clairvoyant had her eyes covered with a red cloth and wielded two old German handguns. They stood back to back in the gold-dyed rural landscape. They fought on the same side as intended by the identical family crests they bore. ¡°The Aoandon¡¯s presence has vanished.¡± ¡°And Saiki Kazu¡¯s has grown instead.¡± ¡°I see no sign of their hypnotism breaking.¡± ¡°It will not break unless it is actively broken. But in this case, it was caused by the Aoandon¡¯s paranormal powers rather than the academic idea of hypnotism.¡± ¡°Meaning?¡± ¡°If they lose consciousness, it will end there. It is the same as the flames of a lamp. With nothing to reignite it, it only needs to be extinguished the one time. No matter how much fuel remains, it will never resume burning.¡± ¡°¡­¡± When he heard that, the Illness Magic User stared straight forward. He looked to the greatest foe among the enemy group before them. ¡°You¡¯re so great. You¡¯re so cool.¡± It was the Byouki User. The girl wore a short, yellow China dress, a jacket with cat ear decorations on the hood, and bandages seemingly placed randomly along her face and one leg. She used a Byouki, a variation of Kodoku. That fear was automatically mass-produced to the level required to kill her target. He had supposedly defeated this girl once already. If not for the Aoandon¡¯s interruption, he might have saved this soul. ¡°Ah ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!! Why? Why do you have everything? Like a companion to stand back to back with!? I¡­I¡¯ve fallen so very far and I¡¯ve never ¨C not once! ¨C found anything like that!!!!!!¡± Black shadows stood up as she screamed at him. Each one was a symbol of disease and pestilence. A scratch from one of their claws would cause one¡¯s entire body to foam up, rot away, and have its protein boiled from within by an intense fever. But even as hundreds and thousands of the Byouki surrounded him, the man¡¯s expression did not change in the slightest. ¡°I already gave you my answer.¡± The Illness Magic User had not been anyone special. He had simply been given a home when Hyakki Yakou had taken him in. So if this girl had been given a home and a symbol to bear, she may have been able to bring an end to her chain of despair. ¡°Ah ha ha. I didn¡¯t get it. None of it got through to me. I¡¯m dumb, after all. I never seem to catch on. Everyone loses patience with me. Ha ha. Ah ha ha. I really am hopeless. Completely hopeless¡­¡± ¡°Then I will tell you as many times as it takes for you to understand.¡± With the sound of electricity running through a neon tube, a glowing white blade grew from between his index and middle fingers. ¡°What will you do?¡± asked the Venom Clairvoyant. ¡°Request support from the bombers flying overhead?¡± ¡°Unlike before, I do not have laser guidance from Hishigami. The fuses may be removed, but who can say where in the village they will land.¡± ¡°Then what will you do? Won¡¯t you be pushed back by the infinite Byouki welling up from the surface of the earth?¡± ¡°Venom, lend me your ¡®eyes¡¯. ¡­That pitiful girl is not even worth killing, so I will settle this here so she can recover.¡± When the blindfolded shrine maiden heard his brusque words, she sighed while still back to back with him. ¡°Oh, so we¡¯re still doing this your way, Onii-chan? And how am I supposed to react when you¡¯re so attached to a girl more than twelve years younger than your sister?¡± ¡°Did you say something?¡± ¡°No, nothing.¡± ¡°Sister, I¡¯ve been thinking this for a while, but a woman past the age of twenty-five really should not be calling her brother ¡®Onii-chan¡¯.¡± ¡°So you did hear meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!¡± A short distance away, the Oomukade confronted Ranzono Sachi. ¡°Come.¡± A bell-like voice spoke a single word. That was enough for the earth of the surrounding paddy field to swell up. Youkai larger than a light vehicle burst out. They were mostly strange and grotesque animal-types such as the Tsuchigumo, Uwabami, and Gama, but that may have been due to Sachi¡¯s own special trait. (That Jinnai Shinobu boy I met in Noukotsu Village had this same ability over an extraordinarily wide range, but in exchange for being limited to animals, Sachi can consciously control it and give it some level of directionality. ¡­She seems to be summoning them. You really could call her a summoner right now.) He sounded so concerned because the Aoandon¡¯s lingering hypnotism remained even if the archdemon was gone. Endlessly summoning Youkai without any kind of sacrifice or ritual was essentially a tactical weapon itself. If a medium or shaman had known of this, it may have been enough for them to direct a curse of hatred her way. The Oomukade could not ignore this. He could not carelessly let anyone see her. He had to seal this power away and prevent anyone from using her. He wanted to prevent her life from being manipulated for someone else¡¯s benefit any further. ¡°Can you hear me, Sachi?¡± ¡°¡­¡± She did not respond. Countless Youkai surrounded her with the sounds of scraping metal claws. They lined up like shogi pieces. They were prepared to defeat their enemy, the Oomukade. Oddly muddy eyes still trapped by hypnotism turned his way. The white rose corsage on the side of her head swayed weakly. ¡°I will¡­protect my friends¡­¡± ¡°So will I, Sachi.¡± ¡°I will create a world where we can all be equal. To do that¡­to do that, I will do anything.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need some special world. The centipedes and spiders only needed to live secretly next to people¡¯s houses. No one needed to notice them. That¡¯s all there was to it.¡± The Oomukade gathered strength in his giant body. That Youkai had begun as a single insect, but legend had it he had devoured a clan of dragon gods and driven them to the verge of extinction. He was a Youkai that ate Youkai. And when he had eaten a Byouki to protect Sachi, he had begun to take on the traits of Kodoku, the technique that had countless venomous insects and ferocious beasts fight to the death. Ranzono Sachi had summoned quite a few Youkai, but he would not lose so easily in a pure competition of strength. But that itself was a problem. (My poison is too strong.) His giant maw snapped together from the left and right and a strange purple fluid dripped down. (This will do more than paralyze Sachi. It will kill her. Yet I cannot stop her through brute force either. There is nothing I can do like this.) Aware of that, he calmly moved his thoughts along. (Then I need to weaken my poison.) He would do whatever it took to save this girl. (Fortunately, Kodoku gathers all of the poison and curse into the final surviving insect or beast. ¡­To put it another way, one¡¯s poison and curse are taken away when they are eaten. Tsuchigumo, Uwabami, Gama. I¡¯m sorry, but I will be using you here. Eat my body and take away the excess poison I carry.) If he could weaken his poison, he could knock Ranzono Sachi out without killing her. If she passed out, the unnaturally summoned Youkai would return to their senses. That would solve everything. There was no guarantee the Oomukade would survive being eaten. The more he was eaten, the more power would be taken from him, so it was possible he would not have enough strength left to heal his wounds. But he did not care. Even if he misjudged his strength and got himself killed, he would still be able to save Ranzono Sachi. He only wanted to leave her with the possibility of exchanging truly warm words with the children she had met in this village instead of being drawn to that blue Oni like a bug to a bug zapper. As long as he could save his friend, he did not care what happened to him. ¡°Come, Sachi!! Your enemy is right here!!¡± ¡°¡­Go, everyone.¡± As the two of them glared at each other, they crossed a line. Just like releasing a drawn bowstring, he prepared to release the strength built up past the limit in his giant body. A clash between great weights was beginning. But in the very instant before that happened¡­ ¡°The Three Bugs¡­that is, the Upper Corpse, the Middle Corpse, and the Lower Corpse. As the night of Koshin passes, travel through the barrier of Sarutahiko and report to the Heavenly Emperor. You are bugs the size of a fingertip, yet you are foreign objects which remove the lifespan of all living things. Take the form of bullets, enter the body, and steal their strength! Three Corpses!!¡± Gunshots rang out. Normal blades and bullets did nothing to Youkai, yet bullet holes opened in the Tsuchigumo, the Uwabami, the Gama, and Ranzono Sachi¡¯s other soldiers, and their bodies froze up as if glue had been poured inside. The next thing the Oomukade knew, a blindfolded shrine maiden wielding two handguns stood next to him. The bells decoratively tied to the old German handguns belatedly produced a clear ring. And those bells contained the symbol of Hyakki Yakou. Her divinely thin coat danced with her movements. ¡°Who¡­are you?¡± The shrine maiden grabbed a clip of spare bullets and pushed it into the top of the fixed magazine. The bullet portion was not made of lead. Instead, it appeared to be a dried and balled up larva. ¡°I am the Venom Clairvoyant of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s Top 5. To be honest, I would not normally take on this odd job without Hafuri-sama¡¯s orders, but the Illness Magic asked me to help out if I could.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°And what¡¯s this? Another little girl!? And she¡¯s even younger than the Byouki one! First Hafuri-sama and now this monster summoner. Did something happen to you, Onii-chan!? (Worry, worry)¡± ¡°Hey, so what happened to the Tsuchigumo and the others?¡± ¡°Ah!? The Three Corpse bullets are meant for use against Youkai, but I can freely regulate their destructive power. That was not enough to kill them. I only put them to sleep for a bit.¡± ¡°Could you stop Sachi¡¯s rampage with those bullets?¡± ¡°The Three Corpse bugs originally hid inside the human body, stealing one¡¯s lifespan. Youkai have little concept of aging, but a normal human would be killed instantly by one of these.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯m sorry to say you are merely in the way here.¡± The Oomukade agonizingly squeezed out the words. ¡°I must stop Sachi without harming her. To do that, I must weaken the excess poison in my body, but that requires allowing her Youkai to devour me. Listen. Can you stop neutralizing the enemy Youkai? This is meaningless if they do not attack me!!¡± ¡°Oh? I wouldn¡¯t be so sure.¡± The Venom Clairvoyant immediately replied in a clear voice. The St. John''s wort clasp at her chest rustled. ¡°It is true that securing and suppressing such a young girl might be more difficult than simply killing an adult. But this was never a place for adults like us who have too much strength already. Isn¡¯t it most natural for children¡¯s problems to be resolved by children?¡± ¡°What are you¡­?¡± The Oomukade suddenly caught on. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re dragging that boy into this! And this is one of the worst battlefields this small field has to offer!!¡± ¡°The residents of Noukotsu Village have been knocked unconscious by us in Hyakki Yakou. That was to prevent the Aoandon¡¯s group from manipulating them with some sort of paranormal power. However, some humans surrounded by plenty of Youkai managed to remain conscious. That Jinnai Shinobu is a good example.¡± ¡°Are you saying that boy did too because he was surrounded by Tsukumogami? No¡­¡± ¡°This is not so simple. Jinnai Shinobu is simply that irregular a human, even if he is not aware of it. The boy in question passed out along with the others. However,¡± continued the Venom Clairvoyant. ¡°It is said that insects warn of coming danger and I gain paranormal inspiration by raising such things in my body. Those insects can produce a high affinity for anyone¡¯s body and input the data on any coming danger. On top of that, the human mind is easily shaken by danger signals. When used properly, those insects can act as the ultimate alarm clock.¡± In other words, all the proper information had been inputted into the boy¡¯s body. In other words, that boy had woken while everyone else was passed out. In other words, that boy who knew Ranzono Sachi¡¯s situation had not hesitated to run onto the battlefield. A new form appeared on that paddy field: Yonesaki Hiro. Similar to Ranzono Sachi, that boy was loved by all Tsukumogami that were based on physical objects. ¡°Ohh, my master!! It¡¯s dangerous! Why are you here!?¡± ¡°No, Umbrella. You need to prepare yourself too. It looks like it¡¯s time for Hiro-sama to prove that he¡¯s a man!!¡± The Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake met up with the boy. Those Youkai had fallen silent as soon as the term Hyakki Yakou had been mentioned, but that had changed as soon as they had caught sight of their young master¡¯s face. They had left Jinnai Shinobu and the others to run toward him. ¡°Umbrella, Lantern. I heard everything from a bug in my ear.¡± The average-looking boy in a blue sweater and beige pants spoke quietly. ¡°So help me out here. I¡¯m going to save Ranzono-san.¡± The Umbrella and Lantern were not the only Youkai with Yonesaki Hiro. A sash slithered like a snake, a stone mortar walked on short arms and legs, a giant wooden board of unclear use fluttered through the sky, and an empty suit of armor clanked as it walked. ¡°We need to help Hiro-chan.¡± ¡°Hiro-chan!¡± ¡°We have your back, so you do what it is you need to do!!¡± Altogether, they were Tsukumogami. The Yonesaki family repaired old tools and when their skill as craftsmen allowed a tool to live for one hundred years, it gained a will of its own like this. The Youkai repaid the family by swearing loyalty to every consecutive generation. Meanwhile, hypnotized Ranzono Sachi stared at these new targets with her muddy eyes. Her summoning voice left her lips. ¡°Come.¡± The rural ground was destroyed and a great variety of Youkai appeared. With Sarugami, Baku, Takebunkani, Tesso, and more, there was everything from a giant monkey that simply abducted and killed people to a swarm of mice that devoured all documents. Young gazes collided and several Youkai stepped forward on both sides. Two voices cried out in unison. ¡°Get them!!¡± ¡°Get them!!¡± A deafening sound of collision followed. The heavy furniture such as cabinets and mortars dropped down on the Sarugami that swung its powerful arms and the giant Takebunkani that was protected by its thick carapace. The animal Youkai responded by swinging their arms and legs to send the tea table and chairs flying. ¡°We will make sure Hiro-chan wins!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t bring shame to our master! Charge!!¡± ¡°Yaaa!!¡± Even when they were knocked through the air or fell to the ground, the large plates and metal pots did not stop fighting. They had originally been normal objects, but they would not break so easily now that they were Youkai. They quickly got back up and charged right back into the fray. ¡°They might be Youkai, but they¡¯re still just furniture,¡± mechanically said Ranzono Sachi. ¡°While there are a few exceptions like the mortar in the story of the Crab and the Monkey, they generally do not have the ability to kill other Youkai.¡± It had likely only been a small flame to begin with, but those negative words had been broadly interpreted from without. ¡°On the other hand, I have plenty of deadly Youkai among my friends. I can call as many of them here as I need, so I can¡¯t lose. I will create a world where my friends will be accepted as equal!!¡± And there was one Youkai that was truly deadly to Tsukumogami: the Tesso. That Youkai had begun as the grudge of a high priest. According to legend, it had eighty-four thousand mice under its command and had eaten through all of the sutras and Buddha statues in Enryaku-ji, so it was the ultimate enemy of a Tsukumogami made of wood or paper. ¡°Kyah! Kyahhh!! This swarm of mice is biting me!!¡± ¡°Keep fighting, Lantern. If this gets too dangerous, then you escape into the sky!!¡± ¡°What about you, Umbrella!?¡± ¡°Paper umbrellas have long had their paper replaced. Did you really think I would fear having my paper broken after all this time!? Let¡¯s do this, mice!!¡± The sound of chewing continued. It was the sound of the century or older Tsukumogami being eaten through. Listening to it should have put Ranzono Sachi into a victorious mood. However¡­ (¡­Huh¡­?) Her heart had been as flat as the calm sea, but a slight ripple appeared there. Or so it seemed to her. (Why am I¡­happy¡­when I¡¯m hearing¡­the screams of Youkai¡­?) That question came to mind, but it vanished before she could find an answer. That prevented her from continuing down that line of thought. A vague unpleasant lump lurked in the back of her mind, but she did not know why it was there. As a result, she focused on repeating the same action. ¡°Come, come, come, come.¡± Each time she spoke the word, even more Youkai burst from the ground. They were all monsters based on bugs or reptiles. A normal human would have difficulty looking at just one of them, but this was a great swarm. Ranzono Sachi narrowed her eyes as a part of that grotesque scene. ¡°Gyaahhh!! It hurts!!¡± ¡°Bear with it. Our masters can fix us even if we break!!¡± ¡°But it hurts! I¡¯m scared!! But¡­but I¡¯ll do what I can for Hiro-chan¡¯s sake!!¡± Those screams did not allow her to comfort herself in the cradle of thoughtlessness. These were the screams, cries, and shrieks of Youkai. They came from the furniture Tsukumogami instead of the grotesque spiders, snakes, and other animals, but they still shook Ranzono Sachi¡¯s mind bit by bit. The flat water¡¯s surface was now covered in the countless waves of a stormy sea. ¡°Stop¡­¡± She was the one causing it, but while hypnotically trapped, the thought of letting up on the attack never occurred to her. Instead, she set her sights on Yonesaki Hiro, the symbol of all those standing up against her. If he had not come here, she would not have had to attack these Youkai, so he was the cause. Her mind had been remade to think that way. ¡°Stop this!! Don¡¯t you understand? You can¡¯t defeat us like this! No matter what you do and no matter how much you struggle, you can¡¯t defeat my friends!! So leave! Stop pinning impossible hopes on them and forcing them to work needlessly!!¡± ¡°They won¡¯t lose.¡± And yet¡­ ¡°My family won¡¯t lose.¡± He answered immediately. It was a ridiculous hope. Many Tsukumogami were being harmed in the name of that hope. Realistically, most of the Tsukumogami could only tackle their enemies and barely any of them could use a paranormal power such as a curse. And their destructive ability corresponded to their original weight. The heaviest of them was the stone mortar, but not even it could crush the Sarugami or Takebunkani with a direct hit. In other words, they had not even the slightest chance of winning. The more they fought, the more they would be worn down and the greater the damage to the Tsukumogami. But then a great tremor of the earth overturned that assumption. ¡°Wha-¡­?¡± When Ranzono Sachi looked over, her eyes opened wide. A new object Youkai had appeared, but it was not a simple piece of furniture such as a cabinet or tea table. It was an entire thatch-roof house. The wooden structure had to weigh at least several dozen tons and it slowly approached like a dinosaur. Was Ranzono Sachi familiar with a Youkai known as a Mayoiga? It was heavy and thus slow, so Yonesaki Hiro¡¯s side had only needed to buy enough time for it to arrive. And a Tsukumogami¡¯s tackle was as powerful as its original weight. The stone mortar fighting on the front lines had only been around fifty kilograms. ¡°Bwoh.¡± In that case, the Mayoiga¡¯s attack would be fifty to one hundred times greater. ¡°Bwoooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!¡± It roared like an enraged bull and charged forward. After a deafening sound of impact, the giant monkey and crab monsters were thrown into the air like some kind of joke. Instead of attacking an individual enemy, it seemed to be tearing a great line through the entire enemy formation. ¡°Your friends may indeed be strong, Ranzono-san,¡± said Yonesaki Hiro, the boy who had trusted that the Tsukumogami would endure until this moment. ¡°But my family is even stronger! They won¡¯t lose to anyone!!¡± ¡°¡­!!!!!!!¡± Ranzono Sachi¡¯s already stormy heart was flipped over like a soup bowl falling victim to a mischievous cat. All of her emotions burst out and she shouted in an explosion of rage. ¡°Get them!! Everyone!!¡± ¡°Mayoiga, keep pushing forward! Jatai, Kosode-no-Te! Give me a hand!!¡± During the second collision, Yonesaki Hiro spread his arms horizontally and a Youkai made of cloth wrapped around each hand. Then something frightening happened. After an especially loud footstep, Yonesaki Hiro rushed forward and beyond even his own formation of Youkai. He was personally bringing the fight directly to Ranzono Sachi. It was the most foolish of foolish plans. In shogi, he would have been sending his king from the protection of the golds and silvers to directly attack the enemy pieces. But the surrounding Tsukumogami all moved at once without exchanging a single word. The used all their strength to hold back the animal Youkai such as the Baku and the Tesso that were making a focused attack on their greatest weakness. They continued pushing forward and, for just a few seconds, created a path as if parting the sea. They knew that was how a man would act. They knew their master would not be able to just hide at the back. They had known perfectly what Yonesaki Hiro would do. This went beyond friends or comrades. Yes, it was almost like they were family. ¡°Wha-¡­?¡± Before Sachi could summon even more Youkai, the boy moved right up to her. He held a fist in front of his face like the boxers he had seen on TV, but he was not trying to punch her. ¡°Jatai!!¡± A sash was wrapped around his fist like a bandage, but as soon as he held his hand forward, it stretched out and wrapped around Ranzono Sachi¡¯s neck. ¡°Gah¡­!? My¡­voice¡­¡± ¡°Kosode-no-Te!! Go!!¡± He swung his other hand and the cloth wrapped around it spread out. By the time Sachi realized it was a kimono, it had fallen over her head and covered her up. More than just having trouble breathing, most of her senses were now trapped in darkness. Summoning did not work if she could not utter the summoning words. Unable to aim or speak, she could not use her ability properly. (I¡­) Her carotid artery was being compressed more than her windpipe, so her mind began to flash in and out like she was caught in a judo stranglehold. But even then, her objective grew to an unnatural size inside her heart. (I will create¡­a kind world¡­for all the Youkai¡­) But in that darkness, a tiny question briefly entered her mind. What was she going to do once she made everyone equal? She had a feeling someone¡¯s smile had been there. She had a feeling someone had come at her head-on when she had been crying and shouting. She had a feeling a boy had seen the true face no one had ever accepted and called it pretty. Because those thoughts had reached her as her consciousness faded, she was not sure if the voice she heard in the darkness was real or a figment of her imagination. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Ranzono-san,¡± the voice said. ¡°I¡¯ll save you!!¡± After hearing that, consciousness slipped from the girl¡¯s grasp. A cold wind blew between the two opponents: the Illness Magic User and the Byouki User. ¡°Ha ha¡î¡± The surrounding battles were gradually coming to an end. Most of them were ending in Hyakki Yakou¡¯s favor. With less of a burden on the Venom Clairvoyant, she could divert more of her resources this way. In other words, the accuracy of the ¡°eyes¡± borrowed by the Illness Magic User increased considerably. His glowing sword had been slicing through the countless Byouki shadows as they automatically appeared, but he started doing far more than that. After a great sound, his body slipped between the countless Byouki and shot like a missile toward the girl using them. He no longer had to spend time defeating them before advancing. He took the quickest route to her. It was true the Byouki would automatically calculate out the number needed to kill its target and produce the necessary amount. That meant no human or Youkai could defeat the Byouki User, but the arrangement of Byouki was not even. The calculation was for how to win by sending all of the created Byouki toward the target and cutting off their escape route, so she never would have expected the target to slip through that checkmate arrangement. However, he slipped through the gaps. By moving right up to the Byouki User, he could ignore the overwhelming numbers. It was much like using a sharp icepick-like blade to stab through the gap in the joint of a thick suit of armor and destroy the enemy¡¯s weak point in a single blow. (When it comes down to it, we both wield paranormal power.) Their gazes collided head-on. It was like a copy of a past photo. The same result occurred each time. In the trials by ordeal of an older age, it was believed that god would side with whoever was in the right. In that same way, it was plain as day who would win here. ¡°I know better than anyone how to save you. I would never make a mistake here, in this moment!!¡± A white blade roared and stabbed into the source of the black disease. That was a holy blade that sliced through one¡¯s evil heart without harming the body. Using a portion of the power of a heavenly god who had begun as a vengeful spirit that had threatened Kyoto, the Illness Magic specialist saved the girl. Part 8 The surrounding battle had come to an end. The Illness Magic User was free. There was no more need to hold back. Hyakki Yakou Leader Hafuri brought something like a small microphone to her mouth and gave her command. ¡°Illness Magic, use your power to create a copy of Saiki Kazu. The accuracy can be low. The bare minimum requirement is that it be recognizable as him.¡± I heard something like a twig being stepped on and then a large mass grew up from the ground like fast-forwarded footage of a bamboo shoot¡¯s growth. It started as a white pillar, but it began to crumble and formed detailed features. Various colors of decomposition formed the hues of the hair, skin, and clothing. I watched it transform into the ventriloquist-like man in a dark suit. ¡°Is the time travel Package ready!?¡± ¡°It is.¡± ¡°Send it five seconds into the future. If that makes the world or destiny or whatever think there are two Saiki Kazu¡¯s in the same timeline, we¡¯ve won. Once we destroy the fake doll, the residual data with no place in this world or the next will become something like external storage and begin linking to Perfect Youkai email protected KAzU. That will be filled with noise, which will give us a chance to win!!¡± I heard a sound of scattering sparks and then the fungal doll of Saiki Kazu vanished into thin air. Five seconds later, this would all be over. ¡°Succubus, Aburatori.¡± ¡°Yes, master.¡± ¡°Leave it to me, boy.¡± After an even more violent sound of sparks, Saiki Kazu¡¯s model reappeared in this world. We had no reason to wait. After a great roar, the doll was utterly smashed to pieces. Part 9 (3rd person) Saiki Kazu¡¯s heart felt a shock like a stake had been driven through it. He supposedly existed as dozens of bodies at once, but every last one of them tilted its head. As if synchronized ahead of time, the same change came over them all. And that way of thinking brought a certain idea to mind. ¡°Synchronized? It can¡¯t be¡­¡± ¡°Synchronized? It can¡¯t be¡­¡± ¡°Synchronized? It can¡¯t be¡­¡± The situation accelerated. A false silver sandstorm filled all of his senses. A headache and nausea overwhelmed all else. His sense of up or down was lost and his mind was too disturbed to even try to calm his confusion. Beyond the silver sandstorm filter, Hishigami Mai threw something toward one of his bodies while on the verge of being cornered herself. It may have been a grenade and it would not have been a real problem even if it was, so he caught it in one hand. It was a satellite phone. It was apparently already connected somewhere. The pain filling him only made him more expressionless as he brought the phone to his ear and heard a young girl¡¯s voice. ¡°Surrender. You have three seconds.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± Those words were enough for him to understand. This organization, this field, this society, and this nation had been built up to the point that they could defeat Youkai email protected KAzU. The fragile good had been eliminated and a powerful justice had been set up in its place. Once upon a time, there was a young assassin. He had been trained that way by a large criminal organization. A certain police detective had said he would rescue the young boy from that hellish world, but fate had a twisted sense of humor and he was ordered to kill that very detective. Simply destroying a great evil was meaningless. If the fragile good was not eliminated and a powerful justice was not set up in its place, the cycle of tragedy would continue. So¡­ ¡°Heh.¡± ¡°Heh.¡± ¡°Heh.¡± That man, who like a ventriloquist never moved his lips, changed his expression ever so slightly to form a smile. This was not what he had planned. He had intended to use the Japanese DNA Standard to forcibly strengthen all one hundred fifty million of them like hammering a nail into a straw doll. If that had required betraying the Aoandon in the very, very end, he would have done so. But if the result was the same, he could hardly complain about reaching it along a different path. Thus, he had no regrets. The promised three seconds passed and Hafuri spoke to someone other than Saiki Kazu. She spoke the words of death. ¡°Do it.¡± A moment later, Hishigami Mai¡¯s right arm pierced through the center of his chest. The destruction of the one equally affected every single Saiki Kazu. Just like hammering a nail into a straw doll, an identical hole appeared in all of their chests. Instead of damaging the hardware, this was more like the software damage of throwing a laptop on the floor to destroy the data inside. The damaged data spread through the network known as Youkai email protected KAzU, spreading fatal errors all the while. ¡°Any last words?¡± He did not answer Mai¡¯s question. He silently dissolved into something like silver sand which vanished into the wind. The phenomenon seemed to contain the message that someone who had abandoned their humanity was not allowed a human death. The enemy had nothing at all left to say. The Hishigami Woman decided the man had left the world satisfied. Part 10 (3rd person) At a police hospital in Tokyo, Detective Uchimaku Hayabusa groaned on a bed without any knowledge of the battle being fought over the fate of the country. He had been hospitalized after taking three bullets to the upper body in the firefight to end the incident involving Amagoi Haruka, aka PSI_ver_RAIN, the self-styled psychic middle school girl. The swimsuit girl named Hishigami Enbi sat in the bedside chair while peeling an apple with a ghastly look on her face. ¡­Just to be clear, that is not a misprint. Her face was just a little too Hannya-esque to be called joyful. ¡°Okay, your cute Enbi-chan is going to do her best to pamper her spoiled detective¡î ¡­Huh? This isn¡¯t working right¡­ Okay, okay. I¡¯ll have you saying ¡®ah¡¯ before long now. Eh heh heh. ¡­Dammit, just peel already!!¡± ¡°This is why they shouldn¡¯t give knives to idiots! It¡¯s scary!!¡± Uchimaku Hayabusa really did have tears in his eyes as he shouted back at her. After a knock at the door, a large man stepped inside. It was Sotobori Gaku, a detective in the organized crime division who specialized in large criminal organizations. ¡°Hi, Hayabusa-chan. I hear you ran into some political trouble and got yourself some medals of manliness.¡± ¡°Only you organized crime people brag about scars these days. And it¡¯s why you people scare the rest of us. I hope these gunshot wounds heal up properly¡­ I believe in modern cosmetic surgery!! Ow, ow, ow, ow!!¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, don¡¯t waste this chance! You should leave the scars!! Japan¡¯s police like to solve our cases more smartly, so a policeman with three holes in his gut is a dying breed. You should set your sights on having at least seven scars!¡± As he spoke, Sotobori set a paper bag down on the side table. ¡°Hey, Heavy Tank, what¡¯s in that bag?¡± ¡°Just a little something to make your stay more enjoyable. When you¡¯re holed up in the hospital, nothing sounds better than a greasy burger, right?¡± ¡°You idiot! I have holes in my stomach, remember!? I can¡¯t eat something like this on the first day after the surgery!!¡± ¡°That¡¯s too bad. Guess I¡¯ll have to eat it.¡± ¡°You monster!! Uuh¡­just the smell is stimulating my hunger like normal. I feel like I¡¯m staring at a full course meal through metal bars¡­¡± Sotobori ate the burger and drank a soda, but since that was not enough to drink, he had to head over to the vending machines. While he waited for the blended coffee to fill the paper cup, he heard a footstep directly behind him. He casually turned around, but then his eyes opened as wide as possible. An assassin of around ten stood there. No one had believed him when he had told the police that this was the true killer of a certain old detective. More than a decade had passed since then, so that assassin could not possibly still look like that. Sotobori knew that mentally, but something else refused to let him reject the idea. He knew for certain that this was him. ¡°¡­ared¡­¡± The boy¡¯s small lips moved ever so slightly. At first, Sotobori could not tell what he was saying and was not even sure this was something capable of producing a voice, but the voice gradually reached his ears. ¡°¡­Be prepared¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Be prepared. Youkai email protected KAzU will return once you have forgotten. That is how he assembled his own body. So always be prepared in every way you can think of. That is the one and only way of keeping Youkai email protected KAzU sealed away.¡± That was the limit. The assassin of about ten vanished like a crumbling sand sculpture. Someone who existed all across Japan, ignoring the concept of an alibi, may have just vanished all at once. A certain man simply wished to eliminate the fragile good and set up a powerful justice in its place. His story ends here. But if arrogance should ever again run rampant in this world, that monster would reappear as many times as necessary. Volume 7, 8: Jinnai [email protected], The Price of a Certain Life Volume 7, Chapter 8: Jinnai [email protected], The Price of a Certain Life Part 1 I sat on the ground in the small woods remaining in the rural landscape. Finally, everything was truly over. Noukotsu Village had been fully protected from the direct clash between Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon¡¯s group. We had made it to the end without any damage to my family, Madoka, Nagisa, or the Youkai. The Aburatori who had supposedly strayed from the proper path long ago had been pulled up to the level of a Kaeshigami, Marguerite Steinhols had been freed from Archdemon Tselika, and the Aoandon was now powerless, so it may have been a nearly perfect result. That left one major question on my mind. ¡°What¡¯s going to happen to the Aoandon now?¡± I asked from the ground. Hafuri slowly exhaled in her mourning clothes. ¡°It would be easy enough to execute her here, but the enemy needs a psychological pillar if we are to get them to surrender quickly. It is also worth analyzing the details of how this deadly Youkai was neutralized without killing her.¡± ¡°Meaning?¡± ¡°It would be best to let her live.¡± Only after hearing that did I breathe a sigh of relief. Of course, it probably wasn¡¯t that simple. There might be some motivated by revenge who would want to hold a public execution of the Aoandon. But she was the leader of an organization as huge as Hyakki Yakou and she was the owner of that family crest dyed on her chest. Having her word meant a lot. I had empathized too much with the Aoandon to send her off to be executed now. At that moment, I heard footsteps crunching the dried leaves covering the ground in the woods. I looked over, assuming it was the Illness Magic User, another Hyakki Yakou member, or Hishigami Mai, but then I gasped. But my shock had to be nothing compared to Hafuri¡¯s. After all¡­ ¡°Hi, Hafuri. It¡¯s been a while, but do you remember your dad? I¡¯m so glad we can finally see each other like this.¡± I saw a black dress suit and a slender face. The young man had different colored eyes, an old monocle over one, and waist-length black hair tied back. He held a small canine Youkai in his arm like a pet lover. Something seemed horribly off, so I bit my thumb and accessed the memories via the rusty iron flavor. ¡­Majina!? But wasn¡¯t he dead? Isn¡¯t that why Hafuri¡¯s leading Hyakki Yakou at the age of ten!? That man who looked exactly the same as in the past turned to me. ¡°Someone in the past informed me of the assassination plot, so I was able to avoid it. ¡­Yes, visitor, I escaped when it probably would have succeeded otherwise.¡± When I heard the word ¡°visitor¡±, I stopped asking if this was real or if that was really Majina. He had called me that when I had traveled into the past. ¡°Really¡­?¡± muttered Hafuri while standing in a wide-eyed daze. ¡°It¡¯s really you¡­father?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Majina smiled and patted the (female) Sunekosuri in his arm. ¡°While I escaped the assassination plot, I would have altered history had I acted out afterwards. That risked erasing the existence of the visitor who saved us via time travel, so we had to fake our deaths until the Aoandon incident had been resolved. Sorry about all the trouble this has caused you, Hafuri.¡± ¡°¡­¡± She was frozen in place like she had been left behind. I probably couldn¡¯t even imagine the thoughts filling her heart. Of course I couldn¡¯t. The father she had thought for so long was dead had suddenly shown up and said he was alive after all. She had been denied what everyone else took for granted and had resigned herself to walking a different path from her peers, but all of that had just been turned on its head. For better or for worse, her thoughts would naturally grind to a halt and her legs would naturally give way beneath her. ¡°So.¡± Majina casually continued while smiling toward Hafuri who was unable to tearfully embrace him like a scene from a cheap drama. ¡°Hafuri, you don¡¯t need to lead Hyakki Yakou anymore. I will be taking that position back from you.¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­Eh? What did¡­he just say? I thought I had misheard, but I couldn¡¯t possibly have and he continued from there. ¡°For one thing, it was out of the ordinary for you to be leading the organization at the age of ten. You were only chosen because my wife and I were assassinated and the organization believes in blood. So now that I¡¯m still alive, Hyakki Yakou should return to normal. Even when looking at this from a perspective of blood, I am the father and you are the daughter. Right?¡± ¡°What¡­are you¡­?¡± ¡°And on that note, I was listening to what you just said, but¡­sorry, I disagree with your plan to let the Aoandon live for research purposes. She has taken far too much. If she is too lightly punished, further hatred will bud elsewhere. If the victims are to forgive the perpetrator, that perpetrator must be thoroughly punished. Otherwise, this country will be filled with the flames of vengeful terrorism. This is the decision of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader. Hafuri, as my daughter, you will obey me here.¡± ¡°What the hell are you talking about!?¡± I couldn¡¯t hold back. It didn¡¯t see myself as speaking on Hafuri¡¯s behalf because she was frozen in shock. I simply obeyed the heat in the core of my mind and found myself shouting. ¡°You show up out of nowhere, break apart the organization of Hyakki Yakou, and try to take everything from your own daughter? ¡­And you call yourself human!? Without the time travel Hafuri and her organization prepared, history never would have changed in the first place!!¡± ¡°You¡¯re thinking about this all wrong.¡± Majina sighed a little. ¡°All of this originally belonged to me and it was all forced onto my daughter because of an unforeseen tragedy. To be blunt, this is too great a weight for a ten year old girl. As her father, shouldn¡¯t I be lifting that burden from her shoulders?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°And you seem to be saying she will have nothing left if Hyakki Yakou is taken from her. That doesn¡¯t seem right to me. It sounds to me like she had to throw out everything childish and work herself to the bone in order to hold the organization together. Isn¡¯t it about time she was freed from that?¡± His argument made sense. If we were talking about the royal family of some distance nation, I might have agreed. But I knew a bit of the situation here. How much effort had it taken for that small child to stand at the top of that organization? That group would not just silence a crying baby; they could easily suffocate it. I had been both placed at their mercy and saved by them. I knew it had to be her efforts that had kept Hyakki Yakou from crossing that final line into absolute chaos. Yet this man was acting like none of that had existed in the first place. He was rewriting history itself as if he were taking an eraser to the historical records! ¡°This is¡­this is so sudden. Do you really think the Illness Magic User and whoever else will accept this?¡± ¡°Hah hah hah. What would an outsider know, visitor? Hyakki Yakou believes in blood. They were obeying the daughter because Hafuri was their only option, but the entire pyramid structure will change now that the father with even stronger blood has shown up. ¡­Think of it like this: They were willing to obey a ten year old child as long as her blood was deemed legitimate. That is how powerful the bond of blood is here.¡± Was that true? Was this man telling the truth here? Would they throw out the fact that they had all fought alongside each other and the fact that she had taken on the responsibility of commanding them? Would Hyakki Yakou shift from Hafuri to Majina? No¡­ That can¡¯t be!! ¡°If¡­¡± Hafuri finally opened her mouth. She stood all alone, seemingly left behind by the flow of time, but she stared directly at the man and spoke. ¡°If you do return as the leader of Hyakki Yakou, will you execute the Aoandon?¡± ¡°Yes. I wouldn¡¯t go so far as to say I have no reason to keep her alive, but when weighing the pros and cons, killing her would be the best plan.¡± ¡°Then.¡± Hafuri¡¯s voice was trembling and her small hands squeezed at her mourning clothes. ¡°I cannot accept your presence here. You will throw Hyakki Yakou into chaos and you will cast aside the key to a new, bloodless method of stopping deadly Youkai without killing them. You will do nothing but harm here. I cannot accept someone like that inside Hyakki Yakou.¡± Those were not words one should speak to their father. They were the words meant for an enemy. I had done this. I had wanted to avoid the tragedy of a child losing her parents, but I had only made the situation worse! ¡°Hyakki Yakou does not need two leaders. This could easily lead to a largescale conflict including civilians outside our small field, much like the coup d¡¯etat in that Fuuka Village hotel. I will eliminate you before that happens.¡± How could this have happened? This should have been the reunion between a father and daughter who would never have seen each other again. This should have been a frozen girl once more acquiring the kindness and warmth that everyone else took for granted. So why? I heard laughter. Even after what Hafuri had said, Majina did not seem worried. ¡°I forgot to mention it, but I have another advantage over you in terms of blood. And this one is on an entirely different level from the superiority of parent over child.¡± ¡°What¡­?¡± ¡°This is what I mean, Hafuri. It may have been better if you had never learned this.¡± He snapped his fingers and someone stepped out from behind the tree next to him. It was a tall, sexy woman in a pure white yukata and with a head mounted display around her neck. She resembled that Good-for-Nothing Youkai, but it wasn¡¯t her. Her hair was cut to shoulder length in something like a bob cut and the left half of her face was covered by a thin veil. Hm? She looks like that Good-for-Nothing Youkai? ¡°Mother¡­?¡± muttered Hafuri. A moment later, Majina introduced the woman. ¡°Yes. I call her Mei, but it may be simpler if I give you her proper name. Isn¡¯t that right, Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi.¡± Special-Made Ver. 40. That Sexy Youkai had been the Prototype Ver. 39, so was this a later model? Had something been completed, leading them to remove the prototype qualifier? ¡°Well, I had a lot of time on my hands hiding in the shadows of history for nearly ten years. And since the Ver. 39 wasn¡¯t wasted in that incident, a sample remained in the world. I remotely retrieved data and continued my research, so creating a more stable model was not difficult.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not the point. Ver. 40? Zashiki Warashi??? But didn¡¯t Hafuri just call her ¡®mother¡¯!? Does that mean¡­!?¡± ¡°Yes, she is my wife and Hafuri¡¯s mother. ¡­That girl is half-human and half-Youkai. Although I think the only ones who knew were the doctor who delivered her and Illness Magic-kun.¡± It took me quite a while to understand what he said so readily. It took me a lot longer to grasp what that simple fact meant to the situation at hand. Yes. ¡°I said Hyakki Yakou believes in blood, didn¡¯t I?¡± Majina laughed and I heard cloth tearing. I could see a white undershirt. Hafuri¡¯s mourning clothes had torn somewhat during the repeated battles and the family crest on her chest had ominously fallen away. ¡°Until now, they had no choice but to bow down to a half-Youkai that can hardly be called pure-blooded. The blood of their proper leader ran through her veins, after all. But what do you think they will do now that their pure human leader has returned? The purity of the blood is everything. Whatever their personal feelings might be, their loyalty as an organization will turn to me. What else could they possibly do?¡± Part 2 (3rd person) Outside the woods, Hishigami Mai held her suppressor-equipped handgun in a harvested paddy field with no ears of rice remaining. (He changed history and rescued Hyakki Yakou¡¯s previous leader? What was that idiot thinking!?) Had he not even tried to imagine what would happen if he stuck two heads on a single tiger? And if a beast as great as Hyakki Yakou went on a rampage, just how much would the country be torn apart before it settled down? Even if it made sense on an emotional front, it was logically something he never should have done. But this was so dangerous that one found themselves reaching for it despite knowing how dangerous it was. It was the ultimate form of the kind noise. (In that case, the only way to get through this with as little chaos as possible is to re-kill Majina. If the tiger has only the one head, its extraordinarily large body will not go on an indiscriminate rampage.) Hishigami Mai took a small, slow breath and raised her small handgun. A handgun¡¯s range was normally 150 meters at the most. That dropped even further with a suppressor attached, but Mai aimed her weapon perfectly from over 200 meters away. She aimed a little higher than a direct-line shot while picturing a ball thrown high to gain more distance. She aimed for the head. She intended to kill him in a single shot. If Hafuri and the others disposed of the body here, no one would learn of Majina¡¯s survival. That was the scenario in Mai¡¯s head. But¡­ ¡°What a pain. The Hishigami Women have really fallen a long way.¡± She suddenly heard an experienced-sounding voice from directly behind her, so she released the Deadly Dragon Princess before even turning around. A great sound burst out and she used the slight time this bought her to jump as far away as she could. By then, the Youkai she had artificially designed was dangling from a hand on its neck and that hand had crushed even the bone. The hand belonged to a woman with long, pale hair worn up like a giant flower. The woman wore a kimono that should have been poorly suited toward high-speed combat, she was barefoot, and she wore a thick shimenawa around her waist instead of a sash. ¡°Fix it later. The Shikigami did nothing wrong. Honestly, being unable to choose your master was a real tragedy for this poor thing.¡± ¡°¡­!!!??? Hishigami¡­Shikimi!?¡± ¡°You should have realized I too might have ignored the flow of time once you found out he was alive.¡± Mai fired again and again, but Shikimi used the Deadly Dragon Princess as a shield to block all of the bullets. Mai had not expected that to work, so she used the moment her opponent was focused on the ¡°shield¡± to charge in like a bullet herself. The two Hishigami Women tossed aside the empty handgun and the irregularly twitching Shikigami and then crossed paths. That was all. Hishigami Mai¡¯s body seemed to entirely ignore its previous vector by vertically rotating twice through the air. It looked something like a metal pipe had been held out from the side of an F1 racecar to perform a full-speed lariat on her. She landed on her back and could no longer breathe on her own. ¡°Bah¡­!! Gah¡­gbh!!!???¡± ¡°Just give up. I founded the Hishigami line, so how could I possibly be inferior to the latest generation?¡± Shikimi sounded exasperated and she kept her back to Mai after crossing paths with her. Without making an additional attack on her fallen prey, that monster among monsters kept her back defenselessly turned. ¡°Besides, your Hishigami specialty isn¡¯t even Youkai.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°The human combat expert would be Enbi I suppose. Of course, she seems to be focusing on the deductive reasoning side to seal away that power to the point of being unaware of it. If she were to awaken as a Hishigami Woman, she could likely kill the likes of you in an instant. She might have trouble against a Youkai, but it¡¯s hard to imagine how she would lose a fight against a human. That is her specialty, after all.¡± She was not mocking Mai. She was simply stating the truth. ¡°So if the younger sister specializes in fighting humans, does the elder sister specialize in fighting Youkai? You probably wanted to think that, but unfortunately, that simply isn¡¯t true. After all, when it comes to a direct fight against Youkai¡­or battles in general, I¡¯m second to none. That spot is already filled.¡± Then what was Hishigami Mai? What was her specialty that had allowed her to survive as a freelancer in this small field and stand on the same level as a powerful organization like Hyakki Yakou? ¡°Your Hishigami specialty was in ¡®playing the part¡¯.¡± Hishigami Shikimi made the decisive statement. ¡°Simply put, you only specialize in bluffs and dirty tricks. You¡¯re a powerless woman who does nothing more than flirt your way through life. Did you really think you could look down on anyone?¡± A deafening sound rang out. It was the sound of Mai forcibly standing up while ignoring the medical damage and paying no heed to anatomical structure. But Shikimi did not turn around even then. She continued speaking as if to say facing an illusionary opponent in the mist would just be silly. ¡°Have you realized why you so thoroughly killed your enemies and intentionally spread so much fear? It wasn¡¯t because that was the most efficient method or because kindness is not a part of that small field.¡± Mai ignored that and charged toward the back of Shikimi¡¯s kimono. Her body was like steel and her fingers like blades. She transformed her entire body into a weapon and cast aside all thought not focused on piercing this woman¡¯s heart in a single blow. With her back still turned, Shikimi reached into her kimono¡¯s pocket and pulled out a giant three-pronged vajra. She released the giant flower of her white hair. It looked like she was undoing the ribbon on a present. She let the kimono fall from her shoulders, revealing the undershirt below, and an oppressive smell of incense filled the air. The flower had fallen away, leaving behind the Shikimi fruit. Its seeds were far more poisonous than the leaves or bark. ¡°You simply could not afford to let your enemies live because you were so weak. You were afraid of having them take revenge and you were afraid of having them band together against you, so you killed them. Even if they were far below you, you could not sleep at night unless you crushed them underfoot. How very pathetic.¡± With a clear metallic sound, the golden three-pronged vajra in Shikimi¡¯s hand began to glow. ¡°If you were truly strong, you could have been merciful to your enemies and let them live. Just like this.¡± After an unimaginably loud sound, the entire area exploded like a scene from the end of the world. Part 3 (3rd person) ¡°Yes. I only stopped by to say hello for today, so I think I¡¯ll be leaving now.¡± Majina spoke casually, as if neglecting Jinnai Shinobu and the other confused people. ¡°Out of respect for the visitor, we won¡¯t get Noukotsu Village involved in all this. Besides, Hyakki Yakou will return to me regardless.¡± He almost made it sound like Hafuri was the usurper and not him. He sounded like Hyakki Yakou was already in his hands and he only needed to decide what to do next. With Majina as the leader, the Aoandon would be killed. With Hafuri as the leader, the Aoandon would be spared. For Jinnai Shinobu, it was a very simple decision that came down to that difference. ¡°Something will soon begin,¡± announced Majina with his back turned. ¡°It will likely cause a larger wave than anything you have experienced thus far. You could say two timelines have coexisted by fooling history, but now the two are going to clash. And the one at the center of it all may not be Hafuri¡­it may just be you, visitor.¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°Have you forgotten? I have the Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi. To be blunt, that alone allows us to call checkmate on the world. The only countermeasure the world has would be the Ver. 39, and you are the human closest to her. Even if Hyakki Yakou tried to seize the Ver. 39 by force, I doubt Hafuri¡¯s group has the skill needed to activate it properly.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°So the two players who hold destiny in their hands are you and me. The very fact that we have been set opposed to each other over the Aoandon issue looks like fate setting the stage for us, if you ask me. But knowing that changes nothing. We have no choice but to clash now.¡± ¡°Are you¡­¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Are you really the Majina that visited this village ten years ago? He was talking about ridding Hyakki Yakou of its frightening image and giving up the organization¡¯s excess military might. But now you¡¯re saying that trouble has placed us as enemies. You¡¯re clearly contradicting yourself.¡± ¡°Who knows. Maybe I¡¯ve changed,¡± said Majina. He still sounded entirely carefree. ¡°It may have only been an instant for a visitor crossing between timelines, but it took ten years for us to reach this point. That¡¯s all there is to it.¡± He started to leave again, but then a small form ran past Jinnai Shinobu. It was a Sunekosuri, a Youkai that resembled a stuffed animal or a small dog. ¡°O-Ohatsu!!¡± When the Youkai shouted that name while scampering forward, the other Sunekosuri in Majina¡¯s hand slowly turned her head. ¡°Where have you been all this time!? ¡­No, does this mean you¡¯re trying to harm Hafuri-sama!?¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°Wha-¡­?¡± ¡°You understand nothing. For one thing, you didn¡¯t even know I had been serving Hyakki Yakou for a long, long, long time. That would be why you had no clue where I had gone when I vanished at the same time that assassination plot was carried out. You are not standing on the same stage as me. You were satisfied after merely trying, but you do not actually understand anything. Pursuing me is meaningless, so give up.¡± ¡°D-do you have any idea how worried you¡¯ve made Gisuke¡­the child you went through so much pain to give birth to!? You¡­you really think I¡¯m satisfied with this? You think it¡¯s meaningless? To hell with that!! What about you!? Do you think you understand everything just because you stand on the underside of the world!? You don¡¯t know the first thing about the sunny side of the world!!¡± ¡°Oh? You have guts to say that as the worthless husband who could only sleep so soundly without being hunted down by humans because of the work I was doing for Hyakki Yakou.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going to happen to the world and I¡¯m not in any position to influence that, but I do know a thing or two about family troubles. Our only son Gisuke and I are part of the Hyakki Yakou ruled by Hafuri-sama. If you¡¯re going to harm that, then I will have no choice but to oppose you!!¡± ¡°You don¡¯t even understand yourself if you¡¯re going to bring up our child here. You¡¯re the same as a foolish housewife shouting ¡®Please! I have a child!¡¯ while using that very child as a shield.¡± ¡°Ohatsu!!¡± ¡°Fine. Come if you must. If you have the guts, that is. But you never overcame the idea that a Sunekosuri is an adorable and harmless Youkai, so I doubt you can do anything to stop me.¡± The Sunekosuri prepared to argue further, but a new figure stood in front of him. It was a Zashiki Warashi in a white yukata. It was the Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40. Her veil swayed and the eyes visible on the beautiful face within were different colors. When the Sunekosuri noticed the coloration was the opposite of Majina¡¯s, he finally came to a realization. (No¡­ Did they both exchange one of their eyes!?) The sexy Youkai with a bob cut smoothly and silently held out her palm and a strange tremor ran through the Sunekosuri¡¯s entire body. He felt like a bottle of concentrated sulfuric acid had been tilted to the verge of spilling over his head. Was this the fear of being erased in an alteration to history? ¡°Enough, Mei.¡± That was all Majina said. ¡°Let¡¯s not do anything today. Noukotsu Village is an important place for us. It would be a shame to defile it with a sudden battle.¡± This time, he finally vanished into the small woods with Ohatsu the (female) Sunekosuri and the Zashiki Warashi in a white yukata. Long ago, Jinnai Shinobu saved a certain life. The price of that decision had grown into the ultimate enemy. Good acts did not always lead to good results. The next nightmare had surely already begun. Volume 7, Epilogue Volume 7, Epilogue A lot had happened. Hyakki Yakou had clashed with the Aoandon¡¯s group. Noukotsu Village ¨C the Intellectual Village where he lived with his parents, family, classmates, and the Youkai he knew ¨C was in danger of being destroyed. He had defeated Archdemon Tselika, the Aoandon had stabbed him through the chest in return, and he had been sent back in time using Hyakki Yakou¡¯s time travel Package. He had learned the truth of a ten year old incident, rescued the Aburatori as he was about to fall into the abyss, and returned to the present for a counterattack against the Aoandon. He had defeated Saiki Kazu, who was more of a monster than the Aoandon in a way, and the problem had come to an end. The appearance of Previous Hyakki Yakou Leader Majina, Ohatsu the (female) Sunekosuri, the Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi, and Hishigami Shikimi had been unexpected, but that could not be changed now that it had happened. He needed to change his line of thinking and prepare for the next battle. With Hafuri as the leader, the Aoandon would be spared. With Majina as the leader, the Aoandon would be killed. But for the time being, the fighting was over. Who could say how long Hyakki Yakou would remain in one piece, but it had left the village and the strategic stealth bombers were no longer flying overhead. Most of the Aoandon¡¯s group had surrendered to Hyakki Yakou. Some, such as the Oomukade and Ranzono Sachi, seemed to have slipped away, but they were making up for their crimes in their own ways. Regardless, no one remained to destroy Noukotsu Village. It was unclear how long the peace would last, but for at least one day, he could climb into his futon and sleep peacefully. The Succubus, Marguerite the Witch, the Aburatori-turned-Kaeshigami, and (for the time being) the Aoandon needed somewhere to go, so Jinnai Shinobu brought those paranormal beings back to the familiar thatch-roof house with him. He had thought he might never set foot in that house again, but he did so once more. He opened the door and stepped inside. The boy¡¯s body and soul were utterly worn out and he greeted the Youkai who he had been with since birth, if not even before. He did not even need to bite his thumb. He gave the greeting he knew that other boy would have wanted him to give. ¡°I¡¯m back, Nee-chan.¡± Volume 7, Afterword Volume 7, Afterword Volume 7!! This is Kamachi Kazuma. Ahh, that¡¯s a relief!! Volume 7 was a continuation of Volume 6, so what did you think? Just like Volume 6, I wrote this as a battle-focused version of the Zashiki Warashi world, but I think the past story in Chapter 6 was the best part. Did you all predict what would happen with the Aburatori? You might enjoy the altered past in Volume 4 in a different way now that you¡¯ve read Volume 7. For example, in Volume 4 Chapter 4 when the Zashiki Warashi said ¡°I¡¯m a little displeased that you¡¯re still around¡± or at the end when she cried upon remembering that Shinobu had been hostile toward the Aburatori. The meaning in those scenes may change entirely. And looking at it another way, the Volume 7 Aburatori with such a heart would still kill just as many people as in Volume 4 (regardless of whether he himself is good or evil). That incident did not happen because the Zashiki Warashi had altered history and made him into a villain. The same number of deaths would have happened even if he had remained good. That should help you understand why he agonized so much over his position. Now, he could either be someone who continues killing despite the agony it brings him or someone who enjoys the killing. Which one would really be salvation for him? He was probably truly happy that Shinobu saved him. I went with a monster baby theme for the Aoandon. She remained indifferently cheerful for such a powerful enemy, she spoke in immaturely pure terms of good and evil, and she acted like she knew what she was talking about despite having only just been born. There were hints here and there, but did you see through it and stick with her instead of pushing her away when she first appeared in Volume 3? Just like the Oomukade in Volume 6, Jinnai Shinobu also offered up his own body to settle things...but the idea of gaining someone¡¯s traits by eating them was actually touched on with the Youkai medicine in Volume 1 Chapter 3. Don¡¯t tell me you forgot all about that! I think it was a pretty gruesome scene, but it was something I couldn¡¯t afford to avoid if I was going to write about traditional Youkai and not the watered-down mascot versions. You may or may not admit you came to understand how your parents felt once you ended your rebellious phase, but the Aoandon¡¯s violence was stopped by directly imputing that information into her. Your life is your own, but your life is not necessarily the only thing that influences that life. She had that fact thrust before her eyes. ...Of course, believing that you perfectly understand your parents¡¯ feelings is another sign of immaturity, so I went a step further and had her growing up by feeling the sadness of not understanding. Just like with the Aburatori, the backbone to the Aoandon was ridding her of the aspects making her a villain, but I think you should be able to accept that quite easily if you think about how Youkai are viewed in this series. No matter how cruel the story, this series does not judge the Youkai themselves as good or evil. Also, reducing the fear of a Youkai by learning about their situations and understanding them as people(?) is not just something I made up. It¡¯s (supposedly) actually a logic used for Youkai in general. I think you should understand if you imagine it for a bit, but Youkai lose their original charm the more you learn about how they work and where they came from. To put it another way, you can investigate them, classify them by their connections to fire, water, or other elements, and try to find a way to avoid them or provide an offering to them. (Simply put, it might be similar to how the monsters of urban legends cause people to tremble with fear, but then they¡¯re ¡°ruined¡± by appearing in movies and dramas too often. ...The simplest examples in this series probably aren¡¯t the Youkai themselves. I think it would be the human pair of the Illness Magic User and the Venom Clairvoyant.) The scariest being is the formless monster that lurks in the darkness, so as its outline is gradually revealed, you can sweep away the darkness and conquer your fear. I wrote this story while wondering if this would be the Dengeki Bunko version of the process so many Youkai artists and researchers used in the past. Meanwhile, Youkai email protected KAzU was something I wanted to do in a Youkai story just as much as the Hyakumonogatari. Adding a new entry to a relatively complete Youkai encyclopedia or archive has a certain romance to it. I mixed together different types of writing in the same name in order to make it seem poorly established and corrupted as a Youkai, but did that work? Saiki Kazu left without speaking a word to his enemy, but he did appear before Sotobori Gaku at the very, very end. That is an important point when discussing his character. It means he did not view Sotobori Gaku as an ¡°enemy¡± for being a witness to the killing, but then what kind of feelings did he hold inside and why did he give his only warning to that policeman? It would be crass to explain that, so I hope you will discuss it amongst yourselves and breathe new life into Youkai email protected KAzU. In contrast to the Youkai, Archdemon Tselika was thoroughly evil and I think that is a fairly important point. ...Well, there is the academic point that even demons are the distorted forms of the gods of older religions, but I wrote her as the original definition: A being that was created for no other reason than to do evil. Tselika said that violence is only a tool to draw out fear, so unlike Magic God Othinus from Index or the White Queen from Blood Sign, she was not a powerful character that simply overpowers her opponent. Instead, I made her someone who ruins people with excessive pampering. In this series, the deadly sins are defined as the power to make one abandon their faith, so she was filled with disturbingly indulgent skills in order to go the opposite route of making people double down in the face of violence or oppression. Tselika¡¯s illusion in Volume 7 Chapter 5 should have been frightening in a different way from the happy world in New Testament Index Volume 9. At the same time, it should have helped you guess just how Perfect Shinobu had broken in Volume 5 Side A. Personally, I think someone who truly had all of their desires fulfilled would be unable to maintain their sense of self. Perhaps I should say some kind of insufficiency is needed to stimulate the motivation that supports the human heart. (Of course, it¡¯s only needed to spice things up a bit. Too much insufficiency and you would probably break.) For example, there is a craving at the foundation of writing. Of course, Tselika does more than just pamper people. She can also use extreme violence as a tool, so she leaves everything up to physical destruction when she¡¯s pissed. I was hoping to release her as an enemy you would never want to fight, so how do you think I did? In the past story, Majina talked about the Japanese exorcism ideology of removing and dispersing spirits, but I should have shown that this would not work at all on the Western demons who are dark to the core. The Western demons are not the main focus of this series about Eastern Youkai, but I love thinking about power balances like this. I also had fun writing a more realistic representation of the nosebleed from arousal clich¨¦. ...If you did get a strange nosebleed with no real external injuries, you would normally want to get a thorough examination done. The Top 5, the Succubus, Tselika, Marguerite, the Aoandon, the Aburatori, and Saiki Kazu. Volumes 6 and 7 had a lot of boss characters showing up, but pay attention because there¡¯s still some foreshadowing I haven¡¯t followed through on yet. For example, the very first volume of the series mentioned that Hyakki Yakou¡¯s previous generation had been assassinated and that there was precedent for a child between a human and a Youkai. What has changed after their ten years in hiding? What will happen when the Ver. 39 and Ver. 40 confront each other? You should focus on their actions as well. And this time, we finally had a scene of high school Shinobu referring to the Zashiki Warashi as Nee-chan. But she didn¡¯t know what had happened, so it must have been quite a shock to see him returning home with a bunch of the series¡¯ boss characters. In the Afterword of Volume 2, I said he could probably win the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s heart by calling her Nee-chan, but that he wouldn¡¯t since he was in his rebellious phase. ...Does that mean he¡¯s outgrown that phase after going through that past story and accepting the feelings of the people near him? Oh? Does that mean Shinobu and the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s story is finished and won¡¯t develop any further? If you¡¯re thinking that, then watch out. There¡¯s still a large barrier to go there. Yes. Shinobu still has to cross the hurdle of calling her Yukari. I give my thanks to my illustrator Mahaya-san and my editors Miki-san, Onodera-san, and Anan-san. There were a lot of characters in Volumes 6 and 7, so that couldn¡¯t have been easy. I suddenly had the full Top 5 show up and then had everyone in Majina¡¯s party. I am truly grateful that they allow me to be so selfish. I also give my thanks to the readers. I think telling the story of someone¡¯s past twice is getting a bit aggressive, so thank you for sticking with it. ...Unlike a normal battle-focused series, I hope you felt some tension because anything could happen in this series, but did that work like I¡¯d hoped? And I will end this here. You sit this one out, Hayabusa-kun! You showed up too much in Volume 6!! -Kamachi Kazuma Volume 8, Prologue Volume 8, Prologue You might be surprised to hear it, but the Zashiki Warashi cried pretty easily. It mostly happened when her hobbies or entertainment were taken from her. For example, when the house¡¯s internet connectivity was annihilated by a router problem or when my dad got mad and locked all the video games in the storage shed out front. However, there was one incident that had left an impression on me. I think it was back when I was in the fourth or fifth grade of elementary school. I got into a pretty serious argument with that Good-for-Nothing Youkai. No, thinking back on it, I may have just yelled at her without listening to anything she was trying to say. The fight had been started by something pretty simple: when I got back from school, my toy robot¡¯s body was broken clean in half. Based on what my mom and gramma told me, it was obvious that Zashiki Warashi had knocked it from the shelf, but she refused to admit to it. I had thrown a tantrum without listening to anything that Indoor Youkai tried to say. Of course, it had only lasted half an hour at the most. But that was when she had cried. Yes, I¡¯m talking about that sexy Youkai in her red yukata. I¡¯m talking about that ¡°Nee-chan¡± who was twice my height...well, maybe not that much, but who was at least two heads taller than me. Like a kid abandoned in an unfamiliar city, she had crumpled up her face, opened her mouth wide, rubbed the reddened corners of her eyes with the backs of her hands, and bawled. Her voice had echoed through the house to the point that a police car or fire truck siren probably would have been less of a racket. When I saw that, I began to wonder something. That Zashiki Warashi had been around since before I was born ¨C in fact, probably for centuries before I was born ¨C and yet I began to think she might not be a fully grown adult. I began to think she wanted to grow up and be seen like an adult just like the rest of us kids. So I decided not to make her cry like that again. There are different kinds of tears, but I didn¡¯t want to see this kind again. ...Of course, it did turn out that Good-for-Nothing Youkai was indeed the culprit behind the broken toy robot, but that¡¯s a different issue altogether. ¡°Ahh...¡± I sat on the ground, leaned my back against the wall, and slowly exhaled. I looked up toward the heavens. I couldn¡¯t help but smile when I saw the heavy-looking clouds dropping fluffy snow. Why had that come back to me? But remembering things like that wasn¡¯t so bad from time to time. When I filled my lungs with air, I detected the strong, festering scent of rusty iron. An awful stench resembling roasted bile was mixed in. I never wanted to look back down again. I was surrounded in every direction by a scene of hell, so there was no mental respite no matter where I looked. The walls and ground were splattered with hopeless colors of red, black, and purple. Thanks to that, I didn¡¯t have anything left in my stomach to vomit up. So give me just a bit of this. Let me indulge in my memories just a little as a reward for living long enough to reach this moment. Hey, ******. ...Really. How did the world grow so red? Volume 8, 1: Heart-Pounding Nagisa Paradise by Jinnai Shinobu Volume 8, Chapter 1: Heart-Pounding Nagisa Paradise by Jinnai Shinobu Part 1 It was November. The weekend had finally come, but I couldn¡¯t sleep in until noon today. ¡°Nnn...¡± Something seemed intensely off in my futon. I felt a smooth, squirming sensation of skin. I detected a slightly sweet aroma resembling old incense more than the chemical floral smells of the shampoos and conditioners my classmates used. As soon as I felt someone else¡¯s body heat below the blanket, my sleepy mind rapidly focused itself as I lay on my side. ¡°Wait! Not again, you Good-for-Nothing Zashiki Warashi! Why do you have to sneak into people¡¯s futons!?¡± I mean, I would love to grope her tits if I could and I¡¯d bow down to get a chance to see her naked, but there was more to it than that! I needed to prepare myself mentally!! This kind of surprise attack was bad for my heart!! I felt blood instantly gathering in my head and that surge of heat moved my hand below the blanket. I was blindly searching for her slender shoulder to throw her out, but... ¡°Ow! What the hell!?¡± I felt a sharp pain like I had touched the point of a giant pair of sewing scissors, so I quickly pulled my hand back. Then a chill ran down my spine. Eh? What? Scissors? In other words...a blade? She¡¯s definitely never brought something like that into the futon before. No...no, wait. Is this really that Zashiki Warashi? When it comes to blades, I can¡¯t help but think of that member of the world¡¯s top three yandere! Don¡¯t tell me this is that crazed childhood friend Nagisa-chan!! Please, please don¡¯t tell me she¡¯s had a relapse! ¡°Wait, wait. If the Nagisa is within twenty centimeters of me, I¡¯m dead three times over!¡± I frantically pulled back the blanket. It felt like belatedly realizing I¡¯d gone to sleep holding a hornet¡¯s nest in my arms. But I was wrong. Someone had been nestled up against me with their head right next to my chest, but it wasn¡¯t that Indoor Youkai in the red yukata or the childhood friend from hell who was rumored to know 34,000 methods of killing. ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°Nnn... Mumble, mumble... Fwah, what is it, papa?¡± ¡°Aoandon!?¡± The girl wore a white kimono and had a single knife-like horn splitting through her glossy black hair as it grew from her forehead. She looked like a lovely and pure girl (but with a decent chest), but she was actually an artificial Youkai created by absorbing one hundred ghost stories. She was also a literal evil Oni who had plotted to overthrow Japan and had nearly destroyed Hyakki Yakou, the most powerful occult organization. This made me realize the sweet aroma was not the Good-for-Nothing Youkai¡¯s scent and my body heat only shifted up a gear. I wasn¡¯t able to cool down through my usual routine! ¡°What are you doing!? Why are you here!?¡± ¡°Well, I am a collection of the questions and answers of a few people, including you. That makes us something like father and daughter. It would be too boring to just call us creator and creation, don¡¯t you think? So what¡¯s this? Are you saying a baby of only a few months isn¡¯t allowed to sleep in her parent¡¯s arms?¡± Ugh... It was true her motivation had mostly been that of a monster baby that wanted to speak of the world without knowing the first thing about the world and wanted to answer people¡¯s cries without knowing the first thing about people. And we did carry some responsibility for creating her and then abandoning her in the world at large. The Aoandon giggled while curled up on the futon with a body far too developed for a high school boy to be calling his daughter. ¡°I know exactly what I can say to keep you from pushing me away.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t directly cause any destruction due to the mental stopper inside me. Just like you would feel illogical hesitation toward crushing a spoiled kitten below your foot. But I can use my power indirectly. For example, if I were to arrange it in the form of an unforeseen accident.¡± She traced her slender index finger along my chest more like a lover than a daughter. Wait. What is this rusty iron smell I hadn¡¯t noticed before? ¡°I really couldn¡¯t help it¡î I have this knife-like horn on my head after all. When I rubbed up against you like a loving child, it happened to tear your chest to shreds, but that was a complete accident. I didn¡¯t mean anything by it.¡± ¡°Waaahh!!¡± I screamed when I looked down. Wh-what is this? I¡¯m bleeding way more than that shaving disaster when I tried to act cool using that large razor one-handed! The Aoandon laughed at my panic. She¡¯s hopeless. She might not be able to crush a kitten underfoot anymore, but that doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯ve mended our differences. She¡¯s just hiding her cruelty! It didn¡¯t go away!! Frightened by this legit deadly Youkai, I tried to move away, but I ran into someone lying on my other side. Is it the Zashiki Warashi this time!? However, the skin felt like dried branches and I detected a faint aged smell. No, wait. Don¡¯t tell me... Wait!! The newcomer then spoke behind me. ¡°Mumble, mumble... Nnn...boy...¡± ¡°Noooo!! I don¡¯t want you showing up as the punch line, old man!!!!!¡± On one side was the symbol of the calamity that arrived at the end of the Hyakumonogatari. On the other was the Aburatori, a symbol of untraditional fear who was even worse than the Aoandon when it came to his specialty of killing children. As usual, the Intellectual Village was in top form first thing in the morning. Part 2 ...Ow, ow. The Aoandon had really done a number on me that morning. My chest was a bit bloody, but it wasn¡¯t as bad as it looked. It would probably be fine without any kind of treatment, so I dragged my stinging body to the changing room/washroom to wash my face. I started by scooping up cold water in my hands and slapping my cheeks. Then I mixed in some hot water for warm water, lathered up some face cream, and rubbed it into my face with circular motions. While it was refreshing, it stung my eyelids. It may not have been a good match for my skin, but I at least had to use up the tube. After washing off the foam with the warm water, I looked up to see the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata reflected in the mirror. She was holding a first aid kit. ¡°Hm? What is it, Good-for-Nothing Youkai?¡± ¡°That¡¯s my line.¡± She sounded exasperated as she set the first aid kit down on the washing machine and opened it. ¡°Where did you get those cuts this early in the morning? Anyway, let me see them. You can¡¯t just ignore them.¡± O-okay. I ended up letting her do as she wished. It may have looked bad, but it was really only a thin layer of skin that was cut. It was no more than a cut from a razor when shaving, so I¡¯d been planning to ignore it. Was this a case where the blood concerned the others more than the injured person? ¡°Hmm.¡± The Zashiki Warashi reached a slender finger toward my chest. Inside the pajama top torn apart by the Aoandon, she traced her finger along my unharmed skin to wipe away the blood that had seeped down. ¡°It isn¡¯t very deep. Some disinfectant and a bandage should be enough.¡± ¡°Hey, Indoor Youkai, this is kind of embarrassing.¡± ¡°Quiet. I need to take off your shirt to wrap a bandage around you, so raise your hands. C¡¯mon, up with those hands.¡± She was acting like she was helping a little kid change clothes. The disinfectant stung a little, but I personally found the bandage more difficult. Specifically, it tickled! It felt like having a cheap fluffy sweater rubbing directly against my chest!! It wasn¡¯t just bittersweet!! After wrapping the bandage around my chest, the Zashiki Warashi fixed the end of the bandage in place with a small metal clip. ¡°There. All done.¡± ¡°You suddenly start acting like a big sister sometimes, you know that?¡± My casual comment elicited a twitch from the shoulders in front of me. ...Oh? ¡°What¡¯s this? Do you not like being called ¡®indoor¡¯ or ¡®good-for-nothing¡¯? Would you prefer I called you ¡®Nee-chan¡¯? How was I supposed to know if you never told me?¡± ¡°I-I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about...¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter to me what I call you. Peh heh heh. Nee-chaaan.¡± I never would have done this a month before, but I had worked out some things during the Aoandon incident. The trip to ten years in the past probably played the biggest role. The unpleasant reluctance toward this kind of thing had vanished. The Zashiki Warashi was frozen in place close enough to feel her warm breath on my chest wound and her black-haired head was trembling a little. ¡°I-I can¡¯t stand this! I know you¡¯ve been horribly tainted since back then, but I can¡¯t deny that hearing you call me Nee-chan is shaking my heart!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t act so innocent after manipulating me into doing things for you so often. And while I¡¯m fine calling you Nee-chan, don¡¯t start thinking you¡¯re my superior or anything.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°There! Right there!! That rising tone at the end there!! You¡¯re definitely looking down on me!! But I know I outrank you when it comes to human things like education, athletics, and sociability!¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± She shook her head in utter exasperation. ¡°I know the perfect way to see just who is superior to whom. Try patting my head and calling me a good girl.¡± ¡°...¡± Pat, pat. Good girl, good girl. ¡°...Huh? What¡¯s going on? I feel faint...and a little ill...¡± ¡°See? It¡¯s hopelessly out of place, isn¡¯t it? This proves I¡¯m your superior. Your very soul is rejecting the idea of looking down on me.¡± Nhh! I wasn¡¯t going to let her get the last laugh here. I would never let her quit while she was ahead(?). I would at least end this in a draw(???)!! ¡°Shinobu, how long do you plan to keep rubbing my hea-...kyah!?¡± I slid my palm down her silky hair, moving it from the top of her head to the back. I then pulled forward to hold her head in my arm, placing her forehead right on my bandaged chest. Her palms were still placed gently on my chest and she seemed oddly silent. I pressed my nose against the top of her head. Oh? This Good-for-Nothing Youkai smells pretty good. ¡°I think I like this better than rubbing your head. Hmm, but it¡¯s not as fun since it puts us on equal footing.¡± ¡°..........................................................................................................................................................................................¡± ¡°Hm? Zashiki Warashi-san? Onyah!?¡± ¡°!?¡± She must not have liked that I had noticed how she briefly froze up because her shoulders gave a large start. When she looked up at me from my arms, I played dumb. ¡°What¡¯s the matter, young lady? Having trouble hiding your surprise at how manly you¡¯re finding the boy you¡¯ve always treated like a little brother?¡± ¡°Wh-where did this dark-hearted Shinobu come from!? Where did I go wrong raising you!?¡± Probably the part where you bathed with me and slept next to me every night. It turned me into something of a gourmet. Also, mwa ha ha!! I have no idea where the line between winner and loser is anymore, but I¡¯m definitely on top here! I¡¯m king of the hill!! Or at least, you don¡¯t get to quit while you¡¯re ahead this time!! But... ¡°...No fair.¡± I heard a quiet voice that sounded like an icy wind blowing in from the depths of hell. I looked over to find the Yuki Onna poking half her head out from the changing room door and glaring at me in yandere mode. ¡°What¡¯s so great about treating wounds? I can do that too. Did you know flash freezing can stop bleeding, prevent cell death, and cut off the pain signals in the nerves? In other words, I can do it better. Now, let¡¯s try it out. Come over here and pat my head too.¡± ¡°Wait! That method sounds like it would destroy the cells in the freezing/thawing process and it¡¯s probably a really bad idea right on top of the heart like this. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ll die!! And when did that Zashiki Warashi escape my arm!? Wait! Don¡¯t leave me behind, Nee-chaaaan!!¡± After that last word, the sexy Youkai¡¯s shoulders twitched and she sighed. She was already well on her way toward slipping out the changing room¡¯s small window, but she made a change of plans and clung to my back for some reason. It was like a Nininbaori or ventriloquism show. I felt something soft squishing against my back, but it didn¡¯t seem the best time to make a joke. She then whispered in my ear as quietly as she could manage. ¡°First, grab the Yuki Onna¡¯s slender shoulders in your hands and move her to the wall.¡± ¡°?¡± I ended up doing as I was told. ¡°Eh heh heh. I can easily freeze the injury with temperatures of eighty below ze-...hyahn!?¡± ¡°Place your hand on the wall next to her head. Now look her in the eye as if leaning over her. Make your presence known and don¡¯t take no for an answer!¡± ¡°Wha-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wha-wh-wh-wh-wha-...¡± ¡°Use your other hand to gently grab her chin between your thumb and forefinger. Yes, and pull it up!¡± ¡°...!!¡± ¡°Finish it off by pressing your forehead against hers!¡± ¡°...!!!???¡± ¡°Finally, whisper this...¡± ¡°...Don¡¯t cause me too much trouble, Yuki Onna. Got that?¡± ¡°K-...¡± The Yuki Onna¡¯s eyes were spinning and her entire body looked red. ¡°Kyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun...¡± She slid down as if her hips had given out. She seemed to have passed out and her flat-chested body had melted a fair bit. Wait. Eh? What did I just do??? ¡°What was that!? I¡¯m disgusted with myself! I want to be the comedian type of popular, so this isn¡¯t who I am! Was that the Wall-Don, Floor-don, Ceiling-Don, or whatever it¡¯s called from shoujo manga!? That clich¨¦ would never work in real life! So it¡¯s even more baffling that it just worked here!¡± ¡°Heh. Clich¨¦s can be powerful if you stick with them and don¡¯t chicken out. They¡¯re clich¨¦s for a reason, after all. It¡¯s just that going for it without slamming on the brakes is incredibly hard.¡± The Zashiki Warashi poked her head out from behind me with a triumphant look on her face. Hmm. How should I put this? ¡°So is that your fantasy? Don¡¯t tell me this all-out perfect older sister type writhes around in the bath imagining she¡¯s a perfectly-proportioned starry-eyed shoujo manga girl with tons of eyelashes.¡± ¡°Bfh!? L-let¡¯s not start making ridiculous accusations, Shinobu!!¡± Part 3 The thatch-roof house had grown quite lively. The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata had always lived there, but quite a few newcomers had been added: the flat Yuki Onna, the Nekomata who had wandered on in, the Western Succubus, the Furutsubaki (Small) who had been brought here during the Australia incident, the Aoandon from Zenmetsu Village, the deadly Aburatori who had been transformed into a Kaeshigami, and Marguerite Steinhols, the witch whose soul had been imprisoned by Archdemon Tselika. My Youkai-loving mom had added even more with an Azukiarai, a Keseran-Pasaran, and the Furutsubaki (Large), so there were quite a few of them. That could of course be a problem, so... ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°And the rest of you too. Over here, everyone!¡± After eating breakfast, I gathered the house¡¯s problem children in the Buddhist altar room. A human like Marguerite was casually mixed into this occult category, but... Wait. Is that okay? Her visa has to have expired, so wouldn¡¯t she count as an illegal alien? I prayed that the great Hyakki Yakou had done something about that and then got down to business. ¡°You all know about my uncle, right? His name is Uchimaku Hayabusa and he works in Tokyo as a police detective.¡± ¡°Oh, the one who left this peaceful rural village to risk his life in the big city because he wanted to meet some youthful middle school girls? That kind of aggressive approach isn¡¯t bad.¡± I noticed one hell of a misunderstanding in there, but we would be here all day if I bothered correcting every little thing. ¡°He called to say he¡¯s coming here for a job today or tomorrow and he wants to stay here instead of at an inn. However, Youkai really seem to dislike him and I don¡¯t think he knows the house he grew up in is full of deadly Youkai. ...I know different Youkai have different traits and traditions, but don¡¯t kill my uncle. Can you promise me that?¡± The Furutsubaki duo both nodded, but they accepted so readily I had trouble believing them. I decided to hammer this one home. ¡°Repeat after me! I will not attack Shinobu¡¯s uncle.¡± ¡°I will not attack Shinobu¡¯s uncle.¡± ¡°I will not attack Shinobu¡¯s uncle.¡± ¡°I will not attack Shinobu¡¯s uncle.¡± ¡°Good! Now, I will not eat Shinobu¡¯s uncle.¡± ¡°I will not eat Shinobu¡¯s uncle... Sigh.¡± ¡°I will not eat Shinobu¡¯s uncle... Sigh.¡± ¡°I will not eat Shinobu¡¯s uncle... Sigh.¡± ¡°I¡¯m a little worried by that disappointed sigh, but this should just about-...hey, Zashiki Warashi! Why are you already putting together a rubber gun out of chopsticks and a rubber band!? And isn¡¯t that the one I designed that has enough force to crush a kiwi!? Didn¡¯t we swear to seal that one away forever!?¡± The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata remained seated in a beautiful Japanese seiza position, placed a hand on her cheek, and elegantly tilted her head. ¡°Yes, I wonder why. I have no real interest in Hayabusa¡¯s visit, but I still feel an urge inside me to prepare for an attack.¡± ¡°Now I¡¯m worried!!¡± ¡°If you¡¯re done, I¡¯ll be at the kotatsu.¡± (Nekomata) ¡°It¡¯s November. That¡¯s winter. That¡¯s my season!! Pant, pant. I sense a first snow coming earlier than usual. Shiver. Please come trample all over my virgin snow!!!!!!¡± (Yuki Onna) ¡°Ahh, my shoulders are stiff now. Okay, Marguerite, let¡¯s head back into the attic to continue our secret ritual. Mwa ha ha. Yes, a ritual between witch and demon that needs to be kept hidden!!¡± (Succubus) Marguerite had tried to get the Nekomata to chase a yukata sash, but gave up and made it into a corset. She and the others scattered in every direction, but I was afraid letting this slide would create some great turning point in my uncle¡¯s life. But unfortunately, I already had plans. ¡°Oh, honestly! Aburatori, you take care of the rest. Don¡¯t let them gang up on my uncle. You have the power of a weaker god, so you can restrain them, right!?¡± ¡°I¡¯m the guardian deity of children, you know?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t look so puzzled, old man! You don¡¯t even need any tricky logic! My uncle was a kid once! Isn¡¯t that enough!?¡± Everyone was moving noisily around, but I had to prepare to leave. An Intellectual Village was a high-tech rural area intentionally setup to create ultra-high quality brand-name crops, but that could sometimes be inconvenient. For example, shopping was entirely reliant on the internet and the train only ran five times a day. Heading to the next town over to go shopping was a major event. In all seriousness, missing the train would throw off all of your plans for the day. It was a little bit cold even for November, so I put a white jacket on over my shirt. ¡°I¡¯ll be going now. ...Dammit. How many times have I had to get a new cellphone this year alone?¡± ¡°Yes, and to think the ugly model you and probably no else uses would have trouble with the battery overheating. Hee hee.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how many times I¡¯ve had to ask this question this year alone, but are you really a Zashiki Warashi?¡± Part 4 Noukotsu Village was surrounded by mountains on all sides, but there was another town past those mountains. I believe it was called Bozen City. I normally thought of it as a delivery base for online shopping, but it was fairly well developed and quite convenient if you ignored the infrequency of the trains. Of course, it was located at the base of a mountain, so it felt more cramped than a large city built on a plain or next to a bay. Still, it felt enough like a city to someone who had grown up in a rural village. I walked past a sign saying not to smoke on the streets. The Intellectual Village had a something of a village society going on, while rumors were only temporary... Okay, okay. I¡¯ll admit it. It wasn¡¯t easy to have a love life when a single mistake could lead to rumors spreading throughout the entire village! And the timing just wasn¡¯t right for a school romance! So until the heat died down, trying to hit on some girls in this city seemed like the better bet!! Trading in this recalled phone was my main reason to be here, but they tended to hire good-looking girls at those shops!! But as if to drive a wedge into my plans, a damp voice reached me from directly behind. ¡°Eh heh heh. What are you doing here, Shinobu-chan? Are you lost?¡± ¡°...!!!???¡± What I heard was enough for me to have trouble breathing. I turned around with my mouth flapping like a goldfish¡¯s. Soft, fluffy chestnut hair, slender shoulders, and white skin. The chest was a bit of a disappointment, but I couldn¡¯t get enough of the line from her long, soft legs to her butt. She excelled at housework, she was smart, and most importantly, she was devoted to her man! ...But it was all ruined by the heavy look in her eyes. Now, who did I just describe? ¡°N-N-N-N-N-N-N-Nagisa-san!?¡± ¡°Good morning, Shinobu-chan. It¡¯s getting chilly these days, but you didn¡¯t catch cold, did you? How about I heat up your hands with my breath?¡± Nagisa smiled at me with eyes that looked even heavier than the leaden skies which seemed on the verge of snow. Instead of her school uniform, she was wearing a white cardigan over a knit dress. She wore the kind of hat that had to be pinned to the head. The cat knee socks were transparent like stockings and she had a cat tail accessory clipped to the back of her waist. Altogether, it was a kitty nurse outfit! But the Shinobu Gauge hidden in my chest didn¡¯t react at all to her coquettish look. I¡¯d heard that a guy¡¯s meter was given a full boost from his survival instincts in extreme situations, but did this mean that was an old wives tale? Still, this was odd. It was the weekend, but romance-obsessed Nagisa-chan wasn¡¯t with her boyfriend Akechi-kun. Even if they hadn¡¯t made any plans, I would have expected her to spend all day hiding below her boyfriend¡¯s floor or inside his wall. I felt like a small doubt was leading to a horrific answer. It felt like the world I knew could be turned on its head. I was afraid to learn the answer, but I would only be crushed by doubt if I didn¡¯t know. I hesitantly asked. ¡°U-um, Nagisa-san? Are you meeting Akechi somewhere?¡± She did not hesitate to answer me with a smile. ¡°We broke up.¡± ...................................................................................................................................................................................................Oh. ¡°Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???¡± ¡°Wait, Shinobu-chan... Why are you tearfully running off in a random direction? Eh heh heh. Are you playing hard to get?¡± My thoughts had just about blanked out completely, so the next thing I knew, Nagisa held my wrist in a vise-like grip. But of course, this was no time to be grimacing in pain. After all... After all, after all, after all!! I hadn¡¯t known she had broken up with Akechi. That meant one of the world¡¯s three greatest yandere was free. I hadn¡¯t known that. This was very, very, very bad. She placed all seven billion people on this planet into one of four categories: Enemy, ally, not interested, and extreme love. I¡¯d managed to get by until now with Akechi filling the ¡°extreme love¡± slot, but if she was free and that slot was open, then any guy standing in front of her could end up filling it. While it was true she was a yandere, she was most dangerous when she was free. It was like super-sweet game of deadly musical chairs with an anti-tank mine in place of a cushion and I may have just sat right on top of that mine!! ¡°Shinobu-chan...¡± She narrowed her eyes and slowly, slowly spoke to me with a sugary voice that sounded like a bottomless bog of sugar, honey, and cream. There was a...what was that thing? Oh, right. There was a paraglider circling overhead, but it looked like a vulture circling a likely target to me. ¡°After we broke up, I dated a lot of different people, but not many of them lasted even a month. None of them could compare to my first love... So I¡¯ve been thinking about some things.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not good to get too fixated on one thing and think about it over and over! It¡¯ll trigger Gestaltzerfall!!¡± ¡°I think I might have been chasing after your shadow in everyone I¡¯ve dated since...¡± ¡°You¡¯re imagining it!! In fact, you¡¯ll say that to anyone, won¡¯t you!? You¡¯ll say all of your past mistakes were necessary to meet them! Just to be clear, you can¡¯t erase your dating history by making up some grand ¡®reason¡¯ for it all!! You can¡¯t force it all into a straight path to pretend that every single one is your first love!!¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. Hey, Shinobu-chan. Do you believe in the red string of fate? I think there really might be something that connects people who are meant to be together¡î¡± Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! She¡¯s not listening to anything I say! She¡¯s locked onto me already!! M-m-m-m-m-m-m-my teeth are chattering! ¡°B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but what happened with Akechi? What went wrong!?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, I don¡¯t care, and I don¡¯t see why I should even bother remembering what someone I don¡¯t love looked like.¡± Oh, no. I suddenly pictured him chopped to pieces with a machete and boiled away in a metal drum. I couldn¡¯t rule that out. I couldn¡¯t rule out anything anymore! He could easily have been turned into something like a thick beef stew cooked for seven long hours by a French chef!! I could only pray to the god in heaven and to athletic Akechi-kun¡¯s escape skills. I made it out alive in the past, so surely you can too, Akechi! ¡°But...but what happened!? The two of you were always so lovey-dovey and flirting!¡± ¡°...Do you really want to know?¡± Her heavy eyes were accompanied by a thin smile on her lips. ¡°He was so cruel. I don¡¯t remember what he looked like or which number boyfriend he was, but he was cruel. His handkerchief stunk, he got bed hair, he was sweaty, I made it very clear I¡¯m on the left when we hold hands and he still got it wrong three times, he was more than 120 seconds late meeting me on five separate occasions, miso soup has to be made with a dried sardine stock yet I was forced to eat mud made from dried bonito and kombu and pretend I liked it, it took him more than a minute to return my emails when I only sent him 97 in a day and worked so, so hard to not send more than 100 in a day, and so on and so on.¡± ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± Nagisa¡¯s yandere illusion seemed to be wearing down my soul, so I cut her off with a scream. You haven¡¯t changed at all since back then! You¡¯re as crazy as ever, Nagisa-chaaaaaan!! Meanwhile, her eyes seemed to be spinning as she lost herself in those crazy memories. ¡°Sob, sob. Hey, Shinobu-chan. Where are you going today?¡± ¡°W-well. Ah ha ha ha ha. I have a lot of shopping to do and it¡¯s going to take a real long time, so you should probably stick to your original plans.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll stick with you. Forever.¡± Ah. I recognized this situation. If I pressed the issue, she would adorably whisper into my ear: ¡°Why won¡¯t you listen to me? Maybe there¡¯s something wrong with your ears. Not to worry, Shinobu-chan. I¡¯ll clean them out. C¡¯mon, lie down in my lap¡î¡± Then she would ever-so-thoroughly clean out my ears down to the eardrum. ¡°...Shinobu-chan.¡± She grabbed my hand, intertwined our fingers, embraced my arm, and leaned against me from the side. I sensed a gentle feminine scent, warmth, and softness. I could feel the warmth of her breath and the silkiness of her hair. But this was all her version of the pay-on-delivery scam. It was like finding an edible bird¡¯s nest or shark fin on your front step and then being forced to pay the exorbitant price after the fact! The old man smoking on a no-smoking bench and the kid going over to scold the man for smoking did not realize at all what an emergency this was. I was literally in a fight for my life here! This was the problem with beautiful girls. They just had to smile and everyone took their side!! ¡°Where are you going today?¡± ¡°The...¡± Was I crying? Or had the dial spun all the way around to smiling? I wasn¡¯t sure as I forced out the words like squeezing out fresh cream. ¡°The cellphone...store.¡± Part 5 The cellphone store took up the first floor of a multi-tenant building a bit away from the train station but still on the main road. The bright store was covered in windows and it looked more like a post office or bank lobby than an electronics store. However, the blinds were lowered, so I couldn¡¯t see anything outside. There were a lot of sofas, but that must have been because the different processes left people with a lot of time to wait around. Perhaps to advertise the carrier, a large e-book reader was prepared in the magazine stand and the TV was playing a zombie movie streaming from the internet. As I glanced through the new model pamphlets installed on the e-book reader, Nagisa spoke with her shoulder pressed up against mine. ¡°Look, Shinobu-chan. It¡¯s a Kasha-chan strap.¡± ¡°What? Kasha???¡± ¡°It¡¯s a collaboration with a local mascot. Oh, yeah. The winter festival is coming up soon, isn¡¯t it? I hope we can go together this year¡î¡± The flat-screen was introducing a strap modeled after a black cat walking on two legs as it pulled an oxcart from the Heian period. Hmm. What kind of Youkai was the Kasha again? ¡°#7: Nakisuna Okuri. I repeat, #7: Nakisuna Okuri. We are ready to serve you now, so please come to the counter.¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s finally my turn. That¡¯s me, that¡¯s me.¡± A young man with a beard stood up from the sofa. His bright orange down jacket and jeans were fine, but the knit cap and sunglasses made me wonder if someone would mistake him for a robber. It was a no-smoking lobby, but he pressed a cigarette butt into a portable ashtray modeled after that same Kasha-chan. The number was pretty low even taking into account that the store hadn¡¯t been open long. Not many people were waiting, so it probably wouldn¡¯t be long until my turn. Not that I could call this ¡°clear sailing¡± when Nagisa was free and hanging around me! ¡°#8: Jinnai Shinobu. I repeat, #8: Jinnai Shinobu. We are ready to serve you now, so please come to the counter.¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. Good luck, Shinobu-chan.¡± With that meaningless encouragement pushing me onward, I walked up to the horizontal line of counters. Standing on the other side was what I guessed was a part-timer. The short girl had short hair with her bangs held in place by a hairpin. She wore a suit-like light green jacket and tight skirt with the carrier¡¯s name printed in large letters like on a race queen. She wore the store¡¯s uniform perfectly, but she also would have looked at home in my school¡¯s hallways if she changed into a school uniform. Still, she would probably have fallen into the ¡°upperclassman¡± category. The nametag on her modest chest said she was Nozaki Haru. ¡°Um, what do you need?¡± ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know all the details, but...y¡¯know, there was an article on your website and they were talking about it on the news. The D512¡¯s battery can overheat, right? Well, I happen to have that exact model.¡± When I pulled my phone from my pocket and placed it on the counter, Nozaki-san began waving her hands back and forth. She seemed to have been given a script to follow, but she was having trouble remembering it. Hmm. So she¡¯s the small animal type. Then an icy voice reached me from behind. ¡°Shinobu-chan...?¡± O-oh, no! My careless adoration of this girl from a more heartwarming world has triggered Nagisa¡¯s sensors! This employee is going to end up buried in the mountains!! Nozaki-san apparently had poor danger senses despite being so nervous, so she didn¡¯t notice Nagisa. ¡°Um, um, thank you very much. No, I mean... Understood! Now, will a replacement battery suffice?¡± ¡°What? I thought the website said you would give me a different model of similar specs free of charge.¡± ¡°Well, um, uh, we¡¯ve changed our policy...no, I mean... We have updated our means of support for this issue. We have discovered we can provide support without replacing the entire phone. Transferring the data takes time, so this is less of a hassle for you, the customer.¡± ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t really matter to me,¡± I said without really thinking about it. ¡°Oh, but will the new battery already be charged? Or do I need to charge it up once I get home?¡± ¡°What!? Um, um... E-excuse me! Can you wait just a moment!?¡± ¡°Eh? Well, if you don¡¯t know, that¡¯s fine too.¡± ¡°K-Kamimaki-san! Excuse me, but about this customer¡¯s question!!¡± Nozaki-san almost tearfully went to get some help from a male employee moving back and forth behind the counter. D-does she just have a really strong sense of responsibility? I can¡¯t get enough of watching her, but...yeah. I should keep that a secret. This Kamimaki-san appeared to be college aged. His black hair was parted down the middle and he looked like a refreshing sort of person. I had to wonder if they hired these workers based on their looks. The male uniform didn¡¯t seem all that great, though. ¡°Nozaki-san, you shouldn¡¯t get so nervous in front of a customer. What they want from us is a sense of reassurance. While it isn¡¯t an actual product, it¡¯s still something we have to provide them. Okay?¡± ¡°O-okay. But about what this customer needs...¡± I felt someone looking over from the next booth. However, they weren¡¯t looking at me. A sexier female employee was dealing with the neighboring customer. When she looked over, her body stiffened and her hands wandered through the air. It was inappropriate, but it was kind of cute seeing the older girl with thick lipstick looking so troubled. ¡°Hey, Kamimaki-san... Oh, geez. Not again.¡± Was she having some trouble too? Being their advisor must have been tough. However, the customer was not necessarily going to wait around. The guy in a knit cap and sunglasses leaned forward with his elbow on the counter. ¡°C¡¯mon, you don¡¯t have to get so irritated. If you¡¯ve got to wait, then how about we have a quick chat, Akehara-chaaan? Is that earring a Near Elf? Do you tend to hang around the areas north of here?¡± The employee¡¯s earring covered more than just the earlobe. An extremely detailed metalwork ¡°side¡± seemed to sharpen the overall silhouette of her ear. The bearded man grinned and toyed with it. It looked like he was here for the employees too. But since he was showing off a complaint card while asking her private questions about her life, I had to wonder if he actually thought that was going to win her over. The young woman¡¯s long chestnut hair was tied back and her forced smile was a little stiff, but based on the timing, it may have had more to do with the cigarette smell coming from that Nakisuna guy¡¯s mouth and down jacket. I¡¯d heard that people sensitive to that kind of thing were really sensitive to it. Things were strained between the employees and muddy between the employees and customers. I stared into the distance while thinking about how bittersweet life could be, but the one in the most danger here was probably me since Nagisa had locked onto me! I couldn¡¯t even imagine how the situation could get any worse!! But I was readily proven wrong by what happened next. A yellow dump truck that had to weigh more than ten tons crashed into the store, breaking through both the window and the blinds. Part 6 It was more of a shockwave than a noise. A horizontal downpour of glass and a far-too-large mass of metal passed by behind me. The neat line of sofas was knocked away, they crashed into the opposite wall, and some wiring must have been broken because the lights blinked unsteadily. ¡°Whoaaaaaa!? O-ow! What the hell!?¡± The bearded man in a knit hat and sunglasses ¨C Nakisuna-san was it? ¨C shouted something, but he hadn¡¯t actually been hit by the dump truck. One of the sofas seemed to have hit him in the waist. That didn¡¯t matter, so I ignored him and looked around the messed-up store. Fortunately, I quickly spotted a familiar face. ¡°Are you okay, Shinobu-chan?¡± ¡°Are you, Nagisa? ...Or rather, was anyone hit by that?¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. Shinobu-chan was worried about me...¡± It was lucky there had been so few customers. Those customers were all focused on the front of the dump truck that had crashed into the wall. We all hesitantly looked in that direction. ...Was the driver okay? At the very least, the driver¡¯s compartment hadn¡¯t been crushed like an empty can. The employees of course hadn¡¯t been trained for something like this, so they had all frozen up. Meanwhile, I heard a creaking noise. The driver¡¯s side door slowly opened and something fell out. At first I thought it was a trash bag, but it wasn¡¯t. It was a human. It was a middle-aged man in a work uniform. Or...was he really middle-aged? Something was wrong with his hair. It was really dry and nearly white. He also had muddy eyes and all of his skin had turned red or purple. Did he have internal bleeding? Was he hurt? From what I could see, his clothes weren¡¯t stained red and his limbs weren¡¯t bent at odd angles. At first, no one moved to help him. That may have been because no one was sure if he was a culprit or a victim. But as time passed, the tense atmosphere relaxed and we gained more freedom of movement. The first one to be freed was that male customer named Nakisuna. ¡°The hell do you think you¡¯re doing!?¡± He held a hand on his back and angrily approached the driver who had slowly started standing up. ¡°Were you taught not to say you¡¯re sorry even if you kill someone? Don¡¯t even try to call yourself a victim after what you¡¯ve done. Are you even listening? You should be bowing down and begging for forgiveness!!¡± ¡°W-wait, sir!?¡± Once Nakisuna grabbed the driver¡¯s collar, the male employee named Kamimaki frantically started climbing over the counter. However, none of us could have predicted the rusty iron smell we detected a moment later. With a raw sound, the middle-aged driver bit violently into Nakisuna¡¯s wrist. ¡°Eh? Ah...?¡± At first, the man in a knit hat and sunglasses simply looked confused. The sound of someone chewing through chicken cartilage followed. The pain and fear must have risen within him as if to remind him this was real. ¡°W-wai-you-wha-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± He instinctually pulled his hand back, but was that the right decision or not? Doing so threw the middle-aged driver off balance, causing him to fall on top of Nakisuna. It looked like an embrace between old friends reunited at the airport. But a moment later, a deafening scream erupted from them. The driver bit in and tore away a huge chunk of flesh from a point closer to the neck than the shoulder. Feathers from the down jacket floated through the air, but they were dyed red. Nakisuna yelled and desperately struggled, but it was no use. He only managed to drop his wallet and Kasha-chan ashtray from his pocket. ¡°B-bfah!? Abhbhbhbh!! Bhbbhbh!! Y-y-you...you...bbbbhbhbhbhbbhbhbhbhbhbbhb!?¡± He wasn¡¯t even speaking the human language anymore. But Nakisuna wasn¡¯t the only one. Screams and shouts came from all around. Someone fell to the ground, but the others rushed toward the exit without even reaching out to help. ¡°H-help me!? Please help me!? What is going on!?¡± That voice of tears and snot came from Nozaki-san the part-timer who was shaking her pale head. Akehara-san, the older employee who had been across the counter from Nakisuna, was beating on the male employee¡¯s back, but when the man didn¡¯t do anything, she clicked her tongue, moved her slender and stocking-covered legs, and walked out front herself. Only then did my thoughts finally recover from their human camera mode. I was urged into action more because I didn¡¯t want to feel the guilt of letting the man die than because I felt the need to save him. I worked with the well-proportioned female employee in pumps to grab the middle-aged driver¡¯s arms, wrap an arm around his waist, and try to forcibly pull him off. I frowned when I felt an unpleasant stickiness, but I quickly realized that was the least of my worries. ¡°Wait...what!? He won¡¯t budge!!¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding, right? Hey, you! Get off him! I said get off him!!¡± It felt like playing tug-of-war against a forklift or power shovel. I was pulling hard enough that I thought a blood vessel in my head would burst, but he wouldn¡¯t move a millimeter. In fact, I was pulled toward him. He ignored our efforts and took a step forward. ¡°Wah!?¡± ¡°Kyah!!¡± Akehara-san and I were swung around by the driver. Our legs gave out and we were dragged along the floor. Meanwhile, the driver leaned over Nakisuna who was lying face-up on the floor. With a wet sound, the bloody smell grew stronger. Nakisuna had been so noisy before, but now he was silent. His arms and legs were trembling unnaturally, but I doubted that was under his control. Wait. Isn¡¯t this really, really bad!? This time, I grabbed his dry hair instead of his body, but it came right out. It made me shudder how easily it pulled out. ¡°Why you...!!¡± Still on the ground, I grabbed the notebook-sized e-book reader that had fallen nearby and hit the back of the driver¡¯s head as he focused on moving his mouth. I heard a loud sound, but he didn¡¯t react. I hit him again, this time with the corner instead of the flat surface, but he completely ignored me. Wh-what is with this guy!? A hit to the back of the head with the corner of a normal notebook would at least make your vision flash from the pain, and this was a harder and heavier piece of electronics! ¡°Shinobu-chan...¡± That was when I heard a girl¡¯s voice that sounded too gentle to belong in this scene. ¡°Hey, Shinobu-chan. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on, but should I help? It could be a joint effort powered by our love...just kidding.¡± ¡°If you think you can help, then do something!! What is this guy? Is he really human!? Are we sure he isn¡¯t a Youkai that just really looks human!?¡± It was possible I had overlooked the most basic concept here. The bizarre sight of a human eating human flesh may have left my mind blank. Otherwise, I never would have asked Nagisa of all people to help. She held a shovel in her hands. It looked out of place in the cellphone store, so it may have been attached to the dump truck to help transfer dirt and gravel. A moment later, I heard a dull sound. She swung the shovel like a golf club and the heavy tip severed the driver¡¯s neck. My legs seemed to have turned to rubber. She held the heavy shovel¡¯s handle and spun it around like a baton. She skillfully controlled it even when moving her hands over her head or behind her back. It reminded me of a weapon in an online game I¡¯d played. The weapon had looked like a cup on the end of a stick and had thrown a stone using centrifugal force. After building up power, it gave a roar. The scene was so outlandish that it didn¡¯t seem real. The man¡¯s previous strength vanished, so Akehara-san and I tumbled backwards like the rope had broken in a game of tug-of-war. Then I heard a high-pitched scream reminiscent of shattering glass. However, it was not in response to Nagisa decapitating someone. Nor was it in response to the headless corpse falling on us. ¡°...Ah?¡± We flipped the headless corpse off of us to see. Even with the body cut away, the head continued to bite at Nakisuna¡¯s neck. The dull chomping and chewing sounds continued and signified that the teeth were now crunching through bone instead of flesh and blood. What was this thing? Now that I thought about it, there hadn¡¯t been much blood. We hadn¡¯t been soaked by a red fountain. Finally, I heard a dull snapping sound. After biting clean though Nakisuna¡¯s flesh, the remaining head fell to the floor as if washed away by the red torrent of the living man. It rolled into a corner like a basketball, but I didn¡¯t feel like checking to see if it was still moving. ¡°Wh-what the hell is this?¡± Something right in front of my eyes had drowned out even Nagisa¡¯s abnormality. It even overshadowed the fact that Nakisuna was lying utterly motionless on the floor. ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me. What the hell happened!?¡± To distance myself from the situation, I had finally looked to the outside world beyond the completely shattered window. I was doing the same thing as the other customers who had already left. And there I saw a colorful hell of reds and blacks. To put it simply, none of those who had left were still around. To put it another way, that driver hadn¡¯t been the only abnormal monster. Put those two together and you get this: Someone was pinned down by multiple other people. I could hear a sound much like someone biting through chicken cartilage with their back teeth. Someone else was dragging around something soft while still alive. There were no screams or yells. Everyone was trying to get back inside, but the monsters grabbed at their arms or legs. It was an orgy of violence filled with muddy eyes, red and purple skin, and pale white hair. It covered the entire city. I doubted I could find a window that wasn¡¯t broken. Cars had crashed into telephone poles and traffic lights and the screaming people inside were being dragged out by countless hands. The monsters weren¡¯t all muscular macho men. The kid I had seen running around before and the old man who had been sitting on the bench were among them. Those normal people¡¯s teeth weren¡¯t exactly sharp, but that made them look all the more horrifying when bared. I had no idea if anyone was inside it anymore but a costume of the local Kasha-chan mascot was torn and lying on the side of the road. The fact that even it was being trampled underfoot made me feel like I was viewing the demise of morality. I didn¡¯t have time to think about saving anyone or figuring out what to do. It was already over, so I simply didn¡¯t have time to think. I could tell at a glance that I couldn¡¯t save anyone by running out there. And then countless eyes turned our way. The mouths and clothes of those emotionless figures were stained red. Akehara-san used both hands and leaned forward to shove aside the headless driver. Nozaki-san seemed to have been hiding somewhere until now, but she nervously showed up holding her shoes and a cloth pouch. ¡°K-Kamimaki-san, what should we do about locking the registers!?¡± ¡°What¡¯s with that old lady¡¯s pouch? ...Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s yours! And we need to lock this place up before worrying about the money! We can close the shutter to-...¡± ¡°Both of those can wait! We need to focus! This is no time to be worried about the business!!¡± The argument between the nearby employees seemed so far away. I subconsciously reached for my cellphone. Only now did the obvious idea of calling the police come to mind. But... ¡°Hey, let¡¯s get out of here.¡± My thoughts were cut off when someone grabbed my shoulder. Kamimaki-san had ditched the more polite speech of a clerk to a customer. ¡°We can call the police afterwards!! They¡¯ll rush in here and kill us while we¡¯re waiting for the police to show up! The metal shutter isn¡¯t as tough as it sounds. It¡¯ll break pretty easily if a few dozen people try to break it down. We¡¯re sitting ducks if we stay here! We need to get somewhere safe!!¡± ¡°But where would be safe!?¡± My trembling fingers operated the phone as I shouted back at the man. I dialed the simplest three-digit number, but something wasn¡¯t right. It wouldn¡¯t connect. It wasn¡¯t getting through at all! ¡°How should I know? But we¡¯re screwed if we hole up in this tiny building. Luckily, we have the dump truck here. Don¡¯t you think we¡¯d be better off escaping outside the city!?¡± I could almost feel common sense crumbling away inside my mind, but it was obvious staying here would lead to the same fate as those who had gone outside. ¡°Let¡¯s go with that. Can you drive!?¡± ¡°It¡¯s basically a giant stick shift, right? I think it¡¯s worth a try when the alternative is giving up!¡± With that comment, time seemed to start moving once more. While the dump truck was big, it couldn¡¯t hold very many people. Only three at the most. Nagisa and I would let the store employees take those spots. We would instead climb into the back of the truck, where the gravel and dirt would normally be carried. ¡°Nagisa!! That¡¯s fine with you, right? If we don¡¯t hurry up, they¡¯ll start pouring in here! So hurry up and-...!!¡± I trailed off because something rose from the floor next to me. It was Nakisuna whose neck had been eaten into down to the bone. ¡°Wha-...eh?¡± My mind went blank. He got up only a few dozen centimeters away. It was hard to tell if his hair had changed color since his hair was dyed, but his eyes were muddy and his skin had darkened. His arms grabbed at my leg like a kid throwing a tantrum. If this was the same as before, then he was holding me with the same strength as a brown bear or grizzly bear. When I recalled how Nakisuna himself had been killed, intense rejection filled the back of my mind. But that was when Nagisa¡¯s shovel gave a roar. The tip of the shovel stabbed into the seam where his neck bone was already visible. She placed her foot on the shovel and kicked him over. Then she placed her full weight on the heel pressing against the shovel. With a dull snapping sound, the head rolled away like a ball. Strength left the headless body and Nagisa shoved it away. She then spoke to me, not looking any different from normal. ¡°Hurry up, Shinobu-chan.¡± ¡°...¡± I realized just how insane, twisted, and wrong this all was. But not because of how Nagisa was acting. It was because this situation was making me glad to have her around. Part 7 (3rd person) As soon as the kotatsu was pulled out from the Jinnai house¡¯s storage shed, it had become the Nekomata¡¯s independent kingdom. However, that Nekomata was now yawning grumpily and scratching her ear with her back paw a short distance from the kotatsu. There was a simple reason: the Furutsubaki (Small) had holed up inside the kotatsu¡¯s blanket. When Shinobu¡¯s Youkai-loving mother asked what was going on, the Furutsubaki (Small) had stuck just her head out and shouted at the top of her lungs with her cheeks puffed out. ¡°She ate my pudding!! It even had ¡®Furutsubaki¡¯ written on it in permanent ink!!¡± ¡°Hmm... But Furutsubaki could refer to two different Youkai in this house.¡± ¡°She did the same thing with the cookies, the chocolate, and the snow viewing popsicle!! She has to be getting it wrong on purpose. She always eats my stuff!!¡± ¡°Then why not write Furutsubaki (Small) next time?¡± ¡°And what is that small part referring to!? My height or my chest!? That¡¯s an important distinction!!¡± Shinobu¡¯s mother was unfazed by the shrill complaints. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about the pudding. I can make you some.¡± ¡°...You can make it?¡± That must have touched at her heartstrings because Kotatsu Fortress Furutsubaki (Small) twitched in response. ¡°You can make pudding!? How!?¡± ¡°Heh heh heh. I grew up in a traditional Japanese restaurant, so I rebelled against my parents by learning how to make nothing but Western food.¡± That said, the woman had only gained that Western bias after absorbing all the skills of a well established high-class restaurant in Kyoto, so she was clearly highly skilled. And after more or less eloping to marry into the Jinnai family, she had absorbed the skills of Shinobu¡¯s grandmother as well. ¡°You can...you can make pudding?¡± The Furutsubaki (Small)¡¯s heart had had been shaken by this shocking truth, so she crawled a bit out from the kotatsu. However, she soon came back to her senses. ¡°Ah!? No, no. I¡¯m not mad because I can¡¯t eat pudding. I¡¯m mad because she stole my pudding! I won¡¯t accept anything that doesn¡¯t punish her!!¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, that doesn¡¯t really matter, does it?¡± ¡°It does! It really, really matters!!¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, c¡¯mon. Stay in that kotatsu and you¡¯ll ruin your clothes. Do you really want that hair decoration to be all wrinkled once Shinobu gets back? Your kimono will be wrinkled too.¡± ¡°...¡± The Furutsubaki (Small) finally fell silent and then crawled out from under the kotatsu. However... ¡°This doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m not angry! I¡¯m not moving from this spot until she¡¯s been punished!!¡± ¡°Yes, yes.¡± It looked like the area around the kotatsu was going to remain her territory after all. If Shinobu, the legendary Furutsubaki Meister, had been there, he could have driven her to ecstasy by listing off 100 good points about each of those two Youkai who were nearly indistinguishable, but the Nekomata was sick of it all and decided to leave the room for a while. The floorboards were too cold to curl up on the veranda in November, and there was another commotion out in the yard anyway. The Yuki Onna was hopping up and own with her hands in the air. ¡°It¡¯s here. My season is finally here!! The first snow... My virgin snow!! Heh...eh heh heh...eh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh!!¡± ¡°Seriously? That explains why it¡¯s been so cold today. Snow is such a pain when it accumulates...¡± The Nekomata was really annoyed now, but the Yuki Onna was not listening. ¡°Keh heh heh. Yes, yes. I can feel my power growing... This is what it means to be a Yuki Onna. The summer heat was robbing me of half my charm before, but look at me now, Jinnai Shinobu! This is a true Yuki Onna!!¡± ¡°She¡¯s at full power? Is she going to turn into a fully grown woman or something?¡± The Yuki Onna¡¯s small body began to glow and the glow soon grew to an explosion of light. A flash of light as bright as the sun lasted a few seconds. And afterwards... ¡°...Wait.¡± ¡°Ahh...¡± The Yuki Onna was now even younger. If Jinnai Shinobu had seen it, he probably would have covered his face with his hands. The sleeves of her kimono had also changed to create snowflake cut-outs. The Zashiki Warashi had come out after hearing the commotion, and she narrowed her eyes while giving her opinion. ¡°Which way are you trying to go?¡± ¡°Come to think of it, you had something of a chest during the summer, didn¡¯t you? Don¡¯t tell me the more power you get from the weather, the smaller you get.¡± ¡°But didn¡¯t she get smaller when the hot bathwater weakened her? She melted a little.¡± ¡°So she shrinks when it¡¯s hot and she shrinks when it¡¯s cold? I can already imagine that lustful kid holding his head in his hands.¡± The Yuki Onna¡¯s white clothing was a symbol of virginity, so it was not altogether wrong for her to grow more virginal the more her power grew. There were also stories of travelers inviting the Yuki Onna to take a hot bath, not knowing what she was, and then finding an icicle floating in the tub. In other words, she could easily grow smaller whichever direction she went. ¡°Well, if she¡¯s happy, I guess that¡¯s all that matters.¡± ¡°It looks like a kind of curse to me.¡± But as the other two Youkai were speaking... ¡°...?¡± The Zashiki Warashi¡¯s gaze jumped upwards. Part 8 It was beginning to snow a little. I heard occasional heavy clunking noises as the large dump trunk drove through the city that reeked of death. Nagisa and I were sitting in the large metal bucket on the back, so we couldn¡¯t see what was going on outside. However, that may have been for the best. I couldn¡¯t see anything in the horizontal direction, but I could see a little bit when I looked upwards. An old man on a building¡¯s rooftop was burning a banner to call for help. The banner was advertising a winter festival, so the Kasha-chan was smiling and announcing that Shouryou City, Kumotsu City, and other partner cities around the country would be celebrating too. I saw plenty of windows stained red by something on the inside. Occasionally, a window would shatter and a bunch of violent white-haired figures would pour down like a waterfall. There were even some living people who had lost all hope and jumped out on their own. And that was only a small fraction of our surroundings. If I had a clear view of everything, it might have fried some kind of wiring inside me. ¡°It¡¯s like a zombie movie...¡± I heard a voice from my cellphone. It belonged to Kamimaki-san in the driver¡¯s seat. With some of us inside the truck and some of us outside, we couldn¡¯t speak directly, so we were using our phones as transceivers. Instead of talking via a cellphone tower like normal, our phones were directly connected to each other. I think it was using the same service that wirelessly connects your phone to your printer. Yes, it was the same thing Ranzono Sachi had used during that Oomukade incident. There was an incredibly simple reason we were using them that way. Phone calls, emails, and even emergency calls to the police or firefighters weren¡¯t working. Basically, anything that used the cellphone towers. Due to all this trouble, I hadn¡¯t actually gotten a replacement phone or battery and I was a little worried about it overheating, but I had much bigger things to worry about. ¡°There are corpses everywhere. Some have been torn to pieces and others have gotten up after being eaten. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on, but it looks like the dead become one of them.¡± Zombies. Hearing that word almost made me laugh. The common sense governing this small world of mine had completely broken if I needed to use that word to plan for survival. ¡°What caused it doesn¡¯t matter,¡± I said. ¡°Someone else will look into it. Let¡¯s leave that to the police and focus on getting out of the city. Staying here would be way too dangerous.¡± ¡°Agreed. But this definitely isn¡¯t normal. I wonder if a Package related to some kind of Youkai is involved.¡± Another vibration shook the truck. I grimaced and leaned my back against the wall of the giant bucket. I suppressed the urge to vomit. It might have been a rural city, but an asphalt road would never be that bumpy. Then what was causing those vibrations? No one was worrying about the traffic lights and zombies were wandering around in search of prey, so what was it the dump truck¡¯s tires were running over? It wasn¡¯t hard to figure out. Ahh, ahh. The dead were rising, zombies were flooding the streets, and human forms were devouring human flesh. I was focusing on all of that, but was it possible we had actually killed more people than anyone else in this city? ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Shinobu-chan?¡± ¡°...Nagisa?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t look well. If you¡¯re worried about something, I might be able to help. ...Hee hee. A couple is supposed to share their troubles and their joys.¡± Nagisa was acting completely normal while embracing the bloody shovel like a stuffed animal. What had made her like this? My relationship with her had completely crumbled during middle school, but something else had more directly broken her. ¡°Don¡¯t look so depressed. You didn¡¯t do anything wrong. What? Did you want me to punch you or something?¡± Her grandfather had said that to me. Yes, that was it. She had always had a St. Bernard with her. Like the Zashiki Warashi for me, that dog had been her partner since before she had even been born. But a pet was not the same as a Youkai. Even if the delicious food of an Intellectual Village allowed them to live a longer and happier life than normal, a dog would grow old in ten or fifteen years and they could even succumb to a variety of illnesses. Their motor functions could deteriorate, their organs could grow diseased, or they could come down with dementia or Alzheimer¡¯s. That St. Bernard¡¯s final days had been especially bad. He apparently hadn¡¯t been able to distinguish his owner of over a decade from a complete stranger. He couldn¡¯t move very well, but he had bared his fangs and barked at anyone who came close. Even his family had to be careful when giving him his food or they would get bitten. That had apparently continued for quite a while. But one night, he had been unable to get up inside his cage and he had continued drooling and barking without end. Nagisa had apparently approached him then. The shriek that had followed had apparently been indelibly burned into her grandfather¡¯s ears. When Nagisa had returned, she had been covered in blood. That was the result of embracing the St. Bernard for a long, long time while he could not recognize her. She had been torn up from being bitten all over, but she had given a two word report with her expression frozen in place like ice: ¡°It¡¯s over.¡± What had that felt like? Saying that he wasn¡¯t human was no consolation. He had been with her since the moment she was born, if not earlier, and she had to have completely taken his presence for granted. Even if he could not be spoken with, he was still a member of her family. What had it felt like to watch his life declining, see him do nothing but suffer, and then take his life with her own hands in the very, very end? The rest of her family had been unable to do it, but that girl had borne all the responsibility and been broken by it. It would be a lot like me breaking that Good-for-Nothing Youkai¡¯s neck. ¡°So it wasn¡¯t your fault. It¡¯s our fault that Nagisa started pursuing ¡®eternal love¡¯ and ¡®unbreakable bonds¡¯ like they were the mantra of some kind of cult. If you stay with Nagisa now, it really would wear down your life. No one will blame you if you leave her.¡± After thinking through all that, I slowly shook my head. I was fleeing reality in favor of my thoughts. My memories of Nagisa weren¡¯t going to show me a way to survive this extreme situation. The only reason I was losing myself in those memories was to avoid facing the reality before my eyes. ¡°What do we do now?¡± I didn¡¯t want to stay in this city, so I was all for leaving. But would we really be safe then? Who ever said this disaster was limited to this one city? Besides, the Intellectual Village we lived in was only a mountain away. If this had spread there, the situation could hardly be worse. I had a phone, but I couldn¡¯t reach them. If I could only call the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s smartphone and check to see if they were okay, I could lift one weight from my heart. My thoughts were cut off again. I heard a loud sound of clashing metal. The dump truck came to a sudden stop and both Nagisa and I were shaken around in the giant bucket. We ended up in a pile together. I could feel her soft body in my arms, but I focused on shouting into my phone. ¡°What happened!?¡± ¡°Th-this is Nozaki! Um, the way is blocked by crashed cars. A whole bunch of cars were abandoned after crashing. We tried to push through them with the dump truck¡¯s power, but it isn¡¯t working very well...¡± ¡°This is awful...¡± The truck backed up and drove down a different road, but the situation gradually came into focus. ¡°Shinobu-chan, it looks like there are traffic jams on all the roads.¡± ¡°Of course there are. If a single car is stopped on the road, it stops everyone behind it.¡± ¡°Eh heh. But we¡¯ll be fine. We know each other well enough to fight in the line at an amusement park.¡± Things were awfully quiet for a traffic jam. I couldn¡¯t hear any angrily honking horns or the rumbling of engines. The stillness of death hung over everything. But that was hardly surprising. It was obvious what the zombies would do to the drivers once the cars came to a stop. The more victims there were, the more abandoned cars there were. Everyone would of course try to leave the city with this going on, so the routes out of the city had been the first to be blocked up by abandoned cars. The bridges and tunnels were probably impassable. Even the heavy dump truck could not defy the prearranged layout of the roads. We couldn¡¯t leave the roads and destroy the city as we went. I could hear the three in the driver¡¯s compartment arguing. ¡°What do we do!? Avoiding the traffic jams is fine, but aren¡¯t we just circling around and around now!?¡± ¡°But we can¡¯t just stop! There are zombies everywhere. If we stop, they¡¯ll grab onto the truck!!¡± ¡°But we don¡¯t have an unlimited supply of gas. Wh-what do we do?¡± What to do now really was the million dollar question. The more we avoided the traffic jams and abandoned cars, the farther we moved from the city¡¯s exits. But even if we tried to force our way out, not even this dump truck could keep moving while pushing aside all those cars. If we hit our limit and came to a stop, we would definitely be surrounded by zombies. But even if we drove around aimlessly, we would run out of gas and meet the same fate. ¡°Hey, Shinobu-chan. Maybe it would be best to find somewhere to hide before we run out of gas.¡± ¡°But where!? Schools and hospitals are covered in windows. If we holed up in there, the zombies could get in from just about anywhere!¡± The dump truck was actually a decent fortress since it was a moving box and a moving weapon. However, it would not last forever. The routes out of the city were blocked off. If we just drove around inside the city, we would only be waiting until we ran out of gas. I started to panic, but then I looked up into the sky. Wait... ¡°Hey, doesn¡¯t Bozen City sometimes do that...what¡¯s it called? That sport where you fly around with a giant propeller attached to a parachute-like thing! Para...um, para...what was it? Oh, damn. I thought of it not long ago.¡± ¡°Paragliding.¡± ¡°Yes, that! Paragliding! I don¡¯t know the details, though!!¡± ¡°Yes, there¡¯s something like that at the mountain peak. Was it called the Dog Square? They have a facility that raises one or two hundred pedigree dogs. I believe it doubles as a paragliding airfield.¡± ¡°Do you have to bring your own machine or can you rent them?¡± They all briefly fell silent. Yes. Even if we couldn¡¯t get out, as long as we could freely use the roads inside the city, we could drive up to the mountain peak. And if we escaped through the sky, we wouldn¡¯t have to worry about the zombies biting at us. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but it¡¯s a better bet than waiting around for us to run out of gas.¡± I heard the large tires tearing into the road and the dump truck changed direction. We were on our way to the air route. If this didn¡¯t work, our situation was going to be hopeless indeed. Part 9 The dump truck drove along a mountain road. Riding along that winding road in a giant truck was disconcerting enough, but it was also beginning to snow and we had neither tire chains nor studless tires. Leaving the city center distanced us from the bloody hell of those damn zombies, so I stood up inside the bucket and checked on the outside world from above the side. ¡°With the weather like this, we might have been screwed if we¡¯d taken half an hour longer to make up our minds,¡± said Kamimaki-san as he drove. Unlike in the Intellectual Village, this mountain was not highly maintained. I had expected nothing but dense woods, but it looked like things were different here. I could see some occasional roofs along the slope. ¡°There are houses here,¡± I commented. ¡°Why would they build them in such an inconvenient place?¡± ¡°Um, I¡¯ve heard this was actually the original Bozen City.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Or maybe I should say that, in an older age, the height of your residence was directly linked to your social status in Bozen City. The social classes were arranged from the peak to the base. The base has been developed more in recent years for transportation and the other services, but real estate, banks, and other important stores are still built on the mountain.¡± That was enough to depress me. If there were a ton of people on the mountain, then there could be zombies here too. I was thinking about that, but Nagisa seemed to be thinking about something else entirely. ¡°But in that case, why is that Dog Square place at the very peak, Shinobu-chan?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°The peak of the mountain would be the best spot, right? So I would have expected to find a castle or mansion there.¡± It was admittedly strange, but the local data on this neighboring town didn¡¯t matter right now. We needed to focus on how to survive these zombies. ¡°I¡¯d like to get to the peak before the snow really starts piling up,¡± said Kamimaki-san as the dump truck started across a metal bridge over a valley. ¡°Shinobu-chan, do you know how to fly a paraglider?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to think about it. We can only pray it¡¯s easier than riding a unicycle.¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. If we¡¯re going to do it, we should ride one together. Do they call that riding tandem? You can be below and I¡¯ll be on top. I¡¯ll be on your lap like this.¡± She seemed happy with anything as long as it involved romance. I breathed a sigh at her overall happiness, but then explosions occurred at the base of the bridge¡¯s legs. The bridge began to fall, starting from the back. In this short time, I¡¯d come to understand something. No matter how unreasonable the situation and even if you didn¡¯t know who was responsible, you still wanted to complain. ¡°Bwah!? Wh-what the hell is this!? Why would you do that!?¡± The dump truck shook violently. Someone had likely covered explosives in adhesive and dangled them down on ropes to stick them in place. Only the back of the bridge had been blown up, but the damage created differences in height along the rest of the bridge too. It was falling. It was being swallowed up by the bottom of the valley. An extra large tremor ran through the truck, so I guessed Kamimaki-san had floored it. It sounded like the engine was going to burn out and the 10+ ton mass raced along the newly sloped bridge. We just barely made it. As soon as the truck reached the opposite end of the valley, the bridge completely fell away. ¡°What do you think that was!?¡± asked Kamimaki-san. ¡°If they were targeting us, they would have placed the bomb in the middle of the road instead of on the bridge,¡± I answered. ¡°Maybe they were trying to close the castle gates so none of the zombies can get in from the city at the base of the mountain.¡± ¡°Hmm. In that case, Shinobu-chan...¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know where they came from, but the area up here might still be safe.¡± Part of that assumption was the fact that my heart couldn¡¯t bear the alternative. ¡°We can¡¯t exactly complain when we¡¯ve been running right through all the red lights with this dump truck, but it¡¯s hard to believe they¡¯re already doing this,¡± said Akehara-san. ¡°They¡¯re willing to use explosives to stay alive, and they¡¯re willing to block the route to anyone else who might need to escape. The zombies might not be all we have to worry about. If we don¡¯t do something soon, we won¡¯t be able to trust any humanoid creatures we-...¡± She trailed off because the large dump truck gently braked in the middle of the mountain road. We were just approaching a large thatch-roof house built to be buried in the greenery. I could see outside by peering over the bucket¡¯s walls, but I couldn¡¯t see straight ahead because the driver¡¯s compartment was even taller. ¡°Why did we stop?¡± I asked. ¡°There are a few metal drums lying in the way. ...They aren¡¯t more bombs, are they?¡± ¡°No, wait. Wait!! Kamimaki-san, back up now!!¡± ¡°Eh? Nozaki-san?¡± ¡°They aren¡¯t bombs! Oh, honestly. They were meant to make us stop the-...!!¡± It happened before she could finish. With the sound of splitting air, orange sparks scattered from the bucket¡¯s side wall. At first I couldn¡¯t figure out why lightning had struck so nearby, but my mind slowly caught up and sent a chill out to my body. A hunting...rifle!? ¡°If you don¡¯t want to die, then get out of there! Hand over the truck and we won¡¯t kill you!!¡± ¡°Yes! Someone finally drove by. We¡¯re saved! Now we can reach the paragliders at the peak. That thread of hope is ours!!¡± Four or five men and women came out of hiding. They may have shared a box because they all held identical cigarettes in their mouths. There was a fairly steep slope just beyond the guardrail and they had apparently been hiding at that cliff-like point waiting for a vehicle to drive by. Were they from the house right nearby? Or were they someone else entirely? ¡°You, blond boy in the back there!! You get out too. That leaves you with more of a chance than being shot and dumped on the road.¡± I raised my hands when they aimed my way using a hunting rifle with a wooden stock. I couldn¡¯t make careless eye contact and I had to keep my thoughts silently in my head. Nagisa. She was sitting next to me in the giant bucket and rubbing her cheek against my thigh. She and her knit kitty nurse outfit were completely hidden from view, so no one had noticed that extreme yandere girl was there. ¡°...¡± Her fingertips left my leg and she started to grab the shovel next to her instead. I placed a foot on the shovel¡¯s handle as an unseen sign that she should stop. Then I obeyed the ambushers¡¯ instructions and got out of the dump truck. Akehara-san, Kamimaki-san, and Nozaki-san left the driver¡¯s seat and passenger¡¯s seat at about the same time. It didn¡¯t look like the ambushers were after money because they didn¡¯t show any interest in Akehara-san¡¯s earring or Nozaki-san¡¯s cloth pouch. Strangely, the homemade weapon made by wrapping barbed wire around a metal bat seemed much more ominous than the hunting rifle. I gulped and asked a question. ¡°Why are you doing this?¡± ¡°Look in the mirror and you¡¯ll understand. The only difference is whether we tried everything we could to survive or not.¡± ¡°How much do you know about the zombies? What are they!?¡± ¡°Let me ask you this: would you tell us if our situations were reversed?¡± Black-haired Kamimaki-san forced out his voice despite the corner of his mouth convulsing a little. ¡°P-please wait. The back of the truck can probably hold a dozen people. I¡¯ll give you the key and I don¡¯t care who¡¯s in the driver¡¯s seat, but you have no real reason to leave us here!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯ve done to get this far, but did you take on even one extra survivor in that time?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°This is the same. It isn¡¯t about how many people will fit. How long will this zombie panic continue? How much food and water will we have? How many weapons and shields will we have? The more people we have, the more people will screw up and turn into zombies. And we don¡¯t even know how many paragliders there are at the peak. So what possible reason do we have for picking up more living people?¡± A reason. In this world, you had to weigh a human life against that word. Even something as basic as stopping on the red light and crossing on the green light seemed horribly distant now. ¡°There you have it. We¡¯ll leave you here, but we won¡¯t kill you. We won¡¯t do anything as sleazy as bring just the girls with us either. Not because we have a conscience left, though. Because we don¡¯t have time to get sidetracked with something like that. Oh, but you can still try to reach the peak without the truck. And if there are any paragliders left after we¡¯ve escaped, then you might be able to escape too.¡± That was when I spotted something incredibly unpleasant out of the corner of my eye: Nagisa. That girl poked her head above the bucket wall to peer out. What is she doing? Immediately, my thoughts seemed to explode into a million pieces. Oh, no. She hadn¡¯t been swinging her shovel around beheading people because they were zombies. She placed all seven billion people on this planet into one of four categories: Enemy, ally, not interested, and extreme love. The zombies had fallen into the ¡°enemy¡± category for her. Then what about these people trying to steal our dump truck...no, these people aiming weapons at Jinnai Shinobu? I could tell sweat was pouring from my body. We had hardly been in the clear before, but this would definitely step completely out of bounds. But even as I started breathing heavily, the situation had progressed far further than I could have imagined. Nagisa grinned and pointed her slender finger into the distance. A moment later, I heard a dull sound and a chunk of flesh was bitten out of the hunting rifle man¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Ah...eh?¡± His eyes opened to the limit at this sudden pain. Meanwhile, time continued to pass. I heard a wet sound. I saw white hair, muddy eyes, and purple skin. A monster with chunks of flesh missing from his side and thigh similarly chewed on someone else¡¯s flesh. It was a zombie. Five or six of them had suddenly appeared from a nearby thicket on the wall-like slope. No, there were still more. I could hear rustling from within. ...Hm? They came from the slope? ¡°Agfwah!? Wh-what? B-b-b-but the bridge was... There shouldn¡¯t be any zombies here ye-...bgweh!!¡± His voice grew distorted at the end, but not because a zombie had bitten through his windpipe. One of his own companions had used a metal bat wrapped in barbed wire to smash the bitten man¡¯s head in. ¡°We¡¯re not wasting our time with a guy we know¡¯s turning into a zombie,¡± he spat out. ¡°More importantly, we need that rifle!! We need to push them back from-...!!¡± He too trailed off. Just like in a movie or a drama, someone else had kicked away the rifle that had fallen to the road. ¡°Wha-...?¡± The bat man looked up and the cigarette fell from his open mouth. It was refreshing-looking Kamimaki-san. The trembling young man was backing up while nearly falling backwards. He was trying to get as far away as possible. But from what? From the white-haired zombies of course. Who became the next target was determined by who did and didn¡¯t move during the next few seconds. ¡°Bhah!? Gah!! You...you piece of...!!¡± Swarming purple flesh, a human form swallowed up, chewing sounds, and a single arm writhing through the air. While still trembling and moving back, Kamimaki-san repeated the same thing over and over like a magic spell. ¡°I didn¡¯t kill him, I didn¡¯t kill him!!¡± The bat man had only been thinking about getting the rifle and pushing back the zombies, so he hadn¡¯t thought about how he would escape. All that remained was a hellish scene of screams. I had no clue where they all came from, but more and more white-haired zombies jumped out toward the ambushers. Their weapons actually seemed to have worked against them. They briefly stopped to decide between fight and flight, but if they had turned tail and run without hesitation, they might have escaped without being bitten. ¡°H-hurry! We need to get out of here!! Onto the truck! Hurry!!¡± Kamimaki-san shouted to us while grabbing for the dump truck¡¯s driver¡¯s side door. I heard a solid sound. ¡°Eh?¡± And then a slight voice of surprise. Before Kamimaki-san could even open the door, a dry-haired zombie seemed to embrace him. He didn¡¯t even have time to scream before it bit into his shoulder. A powerful stench of blood scattered as his flesh was torn by familiar human teeth rather than a mechanical blade or bestial fangs. ¡°Bhah!! Bhahh!?¡± ¡°W-waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± Akehara-san with her chestnut hair tied back grabbed the barbed wire bat with her neatly manicured fingers and swung it around with all her might. The first blow knocked off the zombie¡¯s right arm, the second collided with Kamimaki-san¡¯s shoulder, and the third struck the zombie¡¯s head. With the sound of a rotten watermelon being crushed, the shape of that head greatly changed. White hair scattered around, the shape of the purple jaw crumbled, and Kamimaki-san¡¯s shoulder was finally released. The zombie continued to walk around, so she managed to drag Kamimaki-san and his reddened pale green uniform away. The dump truck was a lost cause now. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter where!! We just need to escape to somewhere, Nagisa!!¡± ¡°Hee hee. I¡¯ll go anywhere you tell me, Shinobu-chan.¡± A single form nimbly jumped down from the dump truck bucket. A few of the zombies seemed to notice her, but she was faster. I heard the shovel give a roar and then heard a number of impacts. Sometimes she intentionally shook the shovel in front of them, swept their feet out from under them when they bit at it, and swung the shovel down into the back of their head to smash it open. Sometimes she swung the shovel to smash their knees, pressed the metal tip against their neck when they collapsed, placed her heel on the shovel, and severed the neck. Nozaki-san seemed caught off guard as she held her cloth pouch in her arms. ¡°I-if she can do all that, couldn¡¯t we leave it all to her?¡± That was when I heard the sound of something thick breaking. The shovel¡¯s handle had broken near the front and flown into the distance with the metal part attached. Nagisa looked at the broken wood and threw the remaining handle aside. ¡°It came off. Looks like that¡¯s as much as I can do.¡± ¡°R-run!!¡± Part 10 It was all a complete mess. We ran with all our might while supporting Kamimaki-san whose shoulder flesh had been bitten away. The only nearby shelter was the thatch-roof house by the road. The one piece of luck was how almost all of the zombies were busy devouring the flesh of the ambushers. At any rate, we ran inside the old house with Nagisa and Akehara-san. We weren¡¯t in any state to even think about removing our shoes. We quickly locked the door from the inside, but how much would that really help? The sliding door did not seem anywhere near as reliable as an apartment door. I had a feeling it would be knocked from its rails right away even when locked. ¡°What...what are we supposed to do?¡± This was not a fortress of bricks. It had paper sliding doors, glass windows, and wooden rain shutters. Zombies aside, even I probably could have kicked my way into the house. Once the gore scattered on the road was gone, they would definitely come here, so what could we do in the meantime? ¡°Oh, my¡î¡± said Nagisa as she viewed the items hanging on the hallway walls. ¡°Look, Shinobu-chan, there¡¯s hunting gear all over the place.¡± In addition to umbrellas and straw raincoats, there were ropes and wooden frames worn on the back to help carry things. When I looked closer, I even found something like a 150 centimeter square cage. It had a large entrance and it was made to drop a guillotine. It was a bear-hunting cage. ¡°Does that mean they have hunting gear made to kill bears?¡± That hunting rifle may have come from this house. Meanwhile, Nagisa grabbed something from the wall like she was window shopping. ¡°Oh, this is cute. What do you think, Shinobu-chan? Does it suit me? Hee hee...¡± It was a cattle cleaver. As the name suggested, it was a thick blade used to cut a giant cow into individual pieces. A normal machete would only be thirty to forty centimeters long, but this was almost as long as a Japanese sword. And given the thickness of the blade, it had to weigh more than a sword. The name printed at the base was Namagusa. It was an archaic term for killing and meat-eating, making it an ironic name for a zombie killer. She had done so well with the shovel, so what would happen if she wielded that specialized cattle cleaver? The zombies weren¡¯t my only worry. I needed to keep an eye on Nagisa¡¯s actions too. ¡°More importantly, did you see a first-aid kit anywhere?¡± Sexy Akehara-san cut in while touching her earring, perhaps as a habit that helped calm her. ¡°Kamimaki-san¡¯s wound is bleeding more than I expected! We need to stop the bleeding!!¡± That gave us a task to focus on. We had no ideas on how to fortify ourselves here or to escape, so this may have been something like reading a manga you found while cleaning your room. We checked the shelves in the living room and other rooms, but didn¡¯t find anything. It was possible those ambushers had taken the first aid kit with them. We ended up compromising by grabbing a towel, some cloths, and a bundle of old Japanese paper and then laying Kamimaki-san on the floor. ¡°Pant, pant...¡± He was bleeding more than I had thought. Akehara-san had been right. I didn¡¯t know what a ¡°pallid complexion¡± specifically referred to, but this may have been it. A muddy yellow seemed to be seeping out from below his nearly white skin. His hair color didn¡¯t look right either. It was rapidly drying out and losing its color. His breathing was shallow and his eyes were wandering lazily, but he was sweating quite profusely. ¡°A-anyway...anyway, we¡¯ll stop the bleeding now! Kamimaki-san, stay strong and don¡¯t you go to sleep!!¡± Akehara-san called out to him again and again and pressed the towel and cloths against his shoulder...well, actually more like his neck. They rapidly grew red, so he might have really been in trouble. I knew how to disinfect a wound and close it up with a bandaid or bandage, but there was nothing I could do beyond that. If it needed to be sewn up, what were we supposed to do? ¡°Please...¡± Kamimaki-san spoke with sweat pouring from his brow, but he didn¡¯t seem to be feeling pain anymore. His unfocused eyes wandered aimlessly, his voice was feverishly weak, and he did not seem to be speaking to anyone in particular. ¡°I¡¯m scared. I¡¯m afraid of becoming like that and of having my heart crushed by the fear. Either way, I¡¯ll turn into a monster. So...¡± ¡°No! No!! I won¡¯t let that happen!!¡± Akehara-san continued pressing against the wound and shouted as if to hold back the blood with her voice. She was so worked up that her hair began to fray. Meanwhile, Nagisa was pouring the contents of an electric water boiler into a small teapot. She unconcernedly pointed toward the papers placed on the tatami mats. ¡°Look at this, Shinobu-chan.¡± ¡°Wh-what!? This really isn¡¯t the time...¡± ¡°But it says something interesting.¡± She was referring to one of the things we had gathered to use in place of bandages: the bundle of Japanese paper I had grabbed. The serpentine writing was hard to read, but a few points were just barely legible. ¡°It says ¡®Kasha¡¯, Shinobu-chan.¡± ¡°Kasha?¡± The first thing that came to mind was local Kasha-chan mascot I had seen on the strap, torn costume, and banner for the winter festival back in the city at the base of the mountain. But what kind of Youkai had it originally been? Hmm. ¡°?¡± I started tilting my head in thought, but then I realized something. It wasn¡¯t just the old piece of paper Nagisa was pointing at. The hanging scroll on the wall, the folding screen in a corner of the room, and the scroll in a picture frame all depicted the Kasha. What I had grabbed seemed to have originally been a traditionally-bound book, so I checked the hard paper cover. What does this say? Kasha Evil Sealing Festival, maybe? After the trouble I had reading old kanji back at Zenmetsu Village, I had studied up on it a bit. This seemed to be some kind of manual, but I couldn¡¯t actually read the contents. I looked to the hanging scroll and folding screen instead. The images were drawn in a flat style very different from the Western style of perspective. It depicted flames, wind, skeletons, a round bucket, and what looked like a black shadow dancing on the roof. It was a very disconcerting image. It reminded me of a caricature of the grim reaper spreading the plague in Europe that I had seen in my history textbook. And as I stared at it, something in the back of my mind was gradually stimulated. Wasn¡¯t it...yes, it was a Youkai that steals corpses from funerals and graves. No, it possesses the corpses and...huh? Did it control them? I can¡¯t quite remember the details, but I know it did something bad with corpses. Except I don¡¯t think just any corpse would do. Didn¡¯t it steal only the corpses of sinners? Since having a corpse stolen by the Kasha would bring shame to the family, I think they had some kind of charm that prevented it from ruining the funeral. I think it looked something like a burning cat, but did it really? ¡°But.¡± It stole corpses. It moved corpses. ¡°Could these zombies be connected to that Youkai?¡± ¡°There¡¯s one other thing,¡± said Nagisa as she poured tea into the matching teacups meant for a husband and wife. ¡°It says ¡®Mikuchi-sama¡¯ here, but it¡¯s mentioned like a place name. ...Ugh, this is second flush tea. Well, I suppose it could be worse while outside of an Intellectual Village. But you might be fine since you like your coffee black, Shinobu-chan. Eh heh heh.¡± ¡°Mikuchi-sama?¡± I didn¡¯t think that was a Youkai. I¡¯d certainly never heard of it before. I followed Nagisa¡¯s gaze to select one of the scattered pieces of Japanese paper. It seemed to be an old document written with brush and black ink. Something like underground water veins were wriggling across a cross-section of Bozen City¡¯s mountain. That looked several centuries old, but some sort of clear film had been placed over it. The newer writing on top of that looked quite modern and included the word Kasha. No, wait. What if these aren¡¯t underground water veins? What if they¡¯re hand-dug tunnels? There were still a lot of mysteries surrounding where the zombies had originally come from. I had assumed they had appeared in the city at the base and gradually made their way up the mountain from there, but they had been walking around the mountain even after the bridge had been blown up. But what if this was where they had come from? What if they came from deep within the mountain? What if the original zombies had appeared from the countless tunnels filling the mountain like an ant colony? Earlier the zombies had appeared from a thicket growing on the wall-like slope, so couldn¡¯t there have been a cave entrance hidden by that tall grass? What? What is this Mikuchi-sama? ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter.¡± My thoughts were cut off by a female voice that seemed to carry a curse. It was Akehara-san¡¯s and a few strands of her frayed hair had fallen into her mouth. ¡°There¡¯s someone! Right here!! That we might be able to help!! So none of that other stuff matters! Hurry up and help already!!¡± I heard the sliding door opening and saw Nozaki-san walk in. Akehara-san naturally snapped at her too. ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing!? You¡¯re always manipulating Kamimaki-san and being nothing but a nuisance! But when you can actually help him, all you do is wander around with that granny¡¯s pouch!? Don¡¯t you want to repay him for what he¡¯s done for you!?¡± Nozaki-san¡¯s response was slightly delayed. It was a subtle thing, like the sound cutting out of an online video for a fraction of a second, but it dangerously scorched my nerves for some reason. Afterwards, Nozaki Haru spoke with a dull light in her eyes. ¡°Oh. Are you two still alive?¡± Akehara-san¡¯s mouth flapped silently, but it did not seem to bother Nozaki-san. In fact, she pulled something from her cloth pouch and sprinkled its contents onto Akehara-san¡¯s head. Is that a Kasha-chan...ashtray? ¡°That should do it. How about you quit trying to dress up your ugliness? This suits you better, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°Bweh! Cough, cough!! What the hell are you-...!?¡± I thought Akehara-san was going to explode, but I was wrong. The great energy created by a wave of people crashed into her. The sliding screen wall behind Nozaki Haru was torn to shreds as countless red and purple hands burst through! ¡°W-w-waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± I screamed and Nagisa grabbed my hand while holding the huge cattle cleaver called Namagusa. Of course, the one caught most off guard was Akehara-san as she tried to grab at Nozaki Haru. ¡°Ah, wai-...¡± She was grabbed, grabbed, grabbed and gouged, gouged, gouged with nails, nails, nails. ¡°Bhrabgweh!? Dbah!? Ah! Why!? You...bgweah!?¡± She tried to grab Nozaki-san, but the most she managed was knocking off the hairpin in the girl¡¯s bangs. The zombies showed no mercy. Her hair, her earring, and the stockings covering her slender legs were all ruined. First, the countless hands pulled her to the ground and she vanished among all the flesh. Kamimaki-san could barely move on the tatami mats, so it was obvious what fate awaited him with so many predators here. Neither of them screamed, but that had to be because their windpipes had been torn out. Only the sounds of chewing remained. Nozaki Haru alone stood in that red and purple hell like a clownfish living symbiotically with a sea anemone. Her bangs hung down toward the thin, thin smile on her face. I must have looked like I had seen something truly unbelievable. ¡°You...called these zombies here yourself!?¡± ¡°Oh? Is that really so surprising? Akehara-san already did the same thing.¡± I had no idea what she meant as she stood there holding her cloth pouch. Unless... ¡°Think back to when Kamimaki-san was bitten. Just as he tried to open the truck¡¯s door, he stopped moving like something had caught and only then was he attacked. And these days, you can lock a vehicle¡¯s door without sticking the key in. You only have to press the button on the key.¡± ¡°You...mean...¡± ¡°Someone locked the door in the confusion. Akehara-san was messing with the headless driver¡¯s body, so she could easily have found a spare key. I doubt she expected those people with the rifle would attack us, but she probably thought it was her chance.¡± But that didn¡¯t make sense. If Akehara Ritsu had intentionally gotten Kamimaki-san bitten, why had she acted so worried about stopping the bleeding afterwards? I had a hard time believing that was all an act. ¡°Think about it the other way around.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°There were two girls and one guy. Whether in a band or as roommates, that¡¯s bound to lead to fights. And it was obvious she had feelings for him. But what if he wasn¡¯t interested? And then this incredibly exploitable zombie panic came along. What would she do if she wanted to make him hers no matter what it took?¡± ¡°............................................................................................................................................................You¡¯re...kidding, right?¡± That was her motive. That was her reason for throwing a living human to the zombies. That was why she had taken the contradictory actions of getting him bitten and then hurrying to stop the bleeding. She had wanted to create a minimally injured and stable zombie to tame. ¡°Hee hee. Come to think of it, do you remember what she said when searching for the first-aid kit, Shinobu-chan?¡± asked Love Monster Nagisa while holding the sword-like cattle cleaver. ¡°She said he was bleeding more than she expected. I wonder how much she was planning for.¡± Kh... ¡°This is insane!!¡± ¡°Yes, it is. Do you have any idea what it feels like to be stuck between people whose heads are boiling with thoughts of love and romance and to have her constantly calling me a whore or a thief from the back of the store? Kamimaki-san? Who cares about him? Akehara-san? She needed to shut up and stop trying to hide her aging looks behind makeup!! She was like an animal in heat that just won¡¯t shut up! She couldn¡¯t make sense of anything if it didn¡¯t relate to romance, like she lived in some cheap love song! She can live in that tiny world if she wants, but don¡¯t drag me into it!! There are so many more important things in life. This cloth pouch was my dead grandmother¡¯s treasure! And she mocked it day in and day out!! Who does that bitch think she is!?¡± Akehara Ritsu had been insane, but what about Nozaki Haru who had punished her? The people who had blown up the bridge or attacked the dump truck may have been the same. Their frustrations may have been building up little by little and the zombie panic had simply broken the dam in their hearts. At any rate, only one thing was filling her mind now. ¡°Your revenge is over. So what are you going to do with us?¡± ¡°Who knows.¡± She had crossed a line. The gears had broken, so she tilted her unscathed head with her bangs hanging emptily down among the zombies. ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t care about you, but these things will attack and eat you either way. I can¡¯t control them.¡± ¡°!? Th-then how did you...!?¡± ¡°Hee hee. Do you really think I¡¯d tell you?¡± After that rejection, the bloody monsters all turned toward us. Part 11 I would sometimes watch online rented movies with the Zashiki Warashi. When watching zombie ones, something always seemed strange to me, even if it was crass to point it out. The zombies of course had no intelligence. But how did they distinguish living humans from their fellow zombies? If they couldn¡¯t tell, a zombie panic wouldn¡¯t last long. If you hid for a while, the zombies would simply devour each other. The zombies, being zombies, wouldn¡¯t know how to hide, so they would be the first ones attacked while standing in the middle of the road. However, that wasn¡¯t what happened. Zombies would surround and devour a single victim, but they never began cannibalizing each other once they gathered. There had to be something. They couldn¡¯t speak, they couldn¡¯t read, and they weren¡¯t smart enough to track their prey using footprints and broken twigs. Even so, they would accurately search out people hiding behind cover or survivors lying among a pile of corpses. How did they do it? Zombies didn¡¯t actually exist. Even a perfect recreation of the ¡°true legends¡± from Haiti and Voodoo would not create the kind of zombies seen in movies. They were something else entirely. So my hypothetical could only rely on currently existing creatures. What had the Zashiki Warashi and I concluded while lying around munching on popcorn and sipping at sodas? Oh, right. I remember now. Part 12 A dull sound rang out. Just before the countless zombies attacked us like a great wave, I had kicked forward the matching teacups at my feet. They were the ones Nagisa had unconcernedly poured tea into despite the life or death situation. ¡°Hot!?¡± Nozaki covered her face with her hands, but it didn¡¯t matter much with a liquid. It covered most of her head and she shouted more in surprise than anything. The eyes behind her hanging bangs were burning with rage. ¡°But what is that supposed to accomplish!? That won¡¯t change any-...!!¡± She trailed off. The white-haired zombies squirming around her were acting odd. They had two obvious targets in Nagisa and me, but they were clearly having trouble deciding who to attack. Did it work? ¡°Yeah, hot water wouldn¡¯t change anything. But that stuff was a little different. Although Nagisa didn¡¯t seem to like the flavor of that tannin-rich second flush tea!!¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be...¡± ¡°Smell!! I shouted to answer it all. ¡°Most animals search for food using their sense of smell!! You must have checked on it at some point. I don¡¯t know if they consider it a fellow zombie or just not of interest, but it seems they don¡¯t attack any flesh giving off the stench of decomposition!!¡± Based on the timing, it had likely been after we reached this thatch-roof house. While we had searched for the first-aid kit, Nozaki Haru had vanished. She had likely had her doubts already and then used the zombies devouring the ambushers as her first and final test. If people had been living in this home until today, then she would have easily found something rotting in the kitchen garbage. And if a rotting smell acted as the brakes, then a cigarette smell must have acted as the accelerator. The ashes she had dumped on Akehara-san¡¯s head had not just been to provoke her. It was often said babies would swallow cigarettes because of the size and shape, but one theory said it was also a reaction to the stimulant effect. In the exchange between the bat man and Kamimaki-san, the zombies had gathered around the bat man who had been smoking. Nakisuna had been the very first one attacked and he had been the only person smoking in that no-smoking lobby. It had nothing to do with distance or hostility. The zombies had been drawn by the smell and had set their priority there. They would attack anyone, but they started with the ones giving off the smell of a stimulant like tobacco. From that very first attack, the theory must have slowly solidified in Nozaki Haru¡¯s head. A closer look at the Kasha-chan ashtray showed it was the one Nakisuna had used. When Akehara-san had yelled at her before we left the shop, she had changed her shoes too. But... ¡°Between the accelerator and the brake, the brake seems to take precedence. Once that smell vanishes, what will happen to you? Conveniently, tea has a deodorizing effect. And the second flush tea Nagisa dislikes has even more tannin than usual. It could easily throw off the perfect balance you¡¯d been keeping!!¡± ¡°Ah...ah...¡± The zombies all turned toward the center of their group. They turned toward the closest target of all: Nozaki Haru. She pulled what looked like a bottle of perfume from her treasured cloth pouch, but it was too late. ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± Her short, slender body was swallowed up into the center of that crazed scene of red, purple, and muddy white. Her hands swam through the air like a drowning man grabbing at straw and the perfume bottle fell to the floor and rolled. If we could only get our hands on that!! ¡°Nagisa!!¡± A gust of wind whipped through the room. The heavy cattle cleaver named Namagusa fell to the tatami mats. It stabbed into a zombie¡¯s toes and then the bottom of the handle slammed into the zombie¡¯s jaw once it lost its balance. Zombies couldn¡¯t hold their ground well to begin with, so it somersaulted backwards and crashed into the group behind it. Yes, zombies did not cannibalize each other. Nagisa used the time this bought to raise the cattle cleaver as high as she could to use the height difference for a powerful attack, even if it mean leaving her body unguarded. The long tail swayed. I stayed low and ran through the gap in the carnage to grab the perfume bottle from the tatami mats. I turned around to find Nagisa about to be swallowed up by the zombies. Even when she decapitated them, the bodies continued walking. The head seemed to be what made the decisions, but the bodies were still in the way. And as she kicked them out of the way, some more fully-functioning zombies had rushed in. I guess not even Nagisa can push back a dozen or so zombies!! I didn¡¯t have time to worry about safety measures. I felt a squeezing in my heart, but I had to act now. ¡°Dammit!! Catch, Nagisa!!¡± I threw the perfume bottle. I could clearly feel the thread of hope leaving my fingers. I was also in the middle of the group of white-haired zombies, so I knew exactly what would happen to me without the smell solution that Nozaki Haru had found. ¡°Come and get me!! I¡¯ll kill every last one of you!!¡± I had no actual weapon. I only reached out and grabbed the electric water boiler as I yelled at them. I knew there was no saving me, but I at least wanted to reduce the number of zombies heading Nagisa¡¯s way. Ha ha. Being an ex-boyfriend is a strange thing. Our paths could never cross again. We couldn¡¯t go back to being friends. We had no more of a connection than strangers. Even if we could repeat the past, we would never try dating again. But... I would still irresponsibly want her to be happy! Time seemed to stop. Countless crazed and muddy gazes stabbed into me. Come on Come on! C¡¯mon!!!!!! Dull sounds rang out through the room. Part 13 The festering smell of blood filled the depths of my lungs. I saw reds mixed with blacks and purples. The violence seemed to encroach on the area beyond death. I blankly watched the overwhelming scene while collapsed on the floor. It had arrived so suddenly, and I called its name. ¡°Zashiki Warashi!?¡± A red storm answered me. She held a branch cutter made from an opening and closing blade attached to the end of a long stainless steel rod. It swung around like a spear as it stabbed into the chests and heads of the zombies, tore through their insides, ripped them apart, and severed the strings of those marionettes. Nagisa had been pretty impressive with the shovel and cattle cleaver, but the Zashiki Warashi took it to the next level. More importantly... ¡°...¡± One of the zombies bit at her arm, but there was no sign of blood on the Good-for-Nothing Youkai¡¯s slender arm. Physical attacks were useless against Youkai. She swung her arm around, smashing the zombie¡¯s head open against a nearby column. Dry white hair scattered everywhere. She had literally superhuman strength and an immortal body that could not be harmed. She was the natural enemy of zombies. I don¡¯t think that red storm lasted even ten minutes. That was all it took for that seemingly unbeatable swarm of zombies to collapse to the floor and stop moving. ¡°That should about do it,¡± said the Zashiki Warashi with the branch cutter resting on her shoulder. I didn¡¯t understand. ¡°How did...you get here?¡± ¡°I walked. Even if it¡¯s across the mountain, this is only the next town over.¡± ¡°Not that! How did you find out about the zombie panic? And even if you knew about that, how did you know we were in this house!?¡± ¡°Who was it that changed history to give me back my power during the Aoandon incident? With the power of the Hyakki Yakou Prototype Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi, I can easily sense my family¡¯s danger and remove that danger. I may not like it, but a Zashiki Warashi protects the good fortune of her family.¡± ¡°A-are you saying you never got involved in the past incidents because your gears as a Zashiki Warashi were broken?¡± ¡°Shinobu, is there any point in discussing an alternate timeline? Although to be honest, that way was a lot easier for me.¡± She really did sound annoyed, but I finally managed to breathe a sigh of relief. I grabbed the cloth pouch from the floor. Nozaki had called her grandmother¡¯s treasure. She had let go of it, so it had fortunately not been stained with blood. The zombies were dangerous and I wanted to get out of this city as soon as possible, but the winds were changing. I had Nagisa and her cattle cleaver (even if she was difficult to deal with) and I had the Zashiki Warashi who might as well have all the cheat codes activated. This was like being given a flamethrower and Gatling gun with infinite ammo in a zombie movie where you had done nothing but be chased the entire time. Or maybe it was more like summoning a demon from a grimoire after only having a knife and handgun to fight the swarm of zombies. It was possible we could actually keep moving forward while sweeping all the zombies out of the way. ¡°Nagisa, are you okay? You weren¡¯t hurt just now, were you?¡± In the instant I looked away from the Zashiki Warashi to speak to Nagisa, it hit me. Not even I knew why the thought came to me. But... We had no idea what turned people into zombies. We only had a vague idea that people who were bitten or killed became a zombie. This seemed to involve the Kasha, which was said to steal or move the corpses of sinners so they would vanish from their funeral or grave. I couldn¡¯t remember the exact rules, though. But what if the rules were focused on moving the dead? What if the important factor was being dead and not being bitten by the zombies? What kind of Youkai was a Zashiki Warashi again? She was a collection of the babies killed by their parents during famines and the like. In that case, she counted as being ¡°dead¡± from the beginning. What if that created a security hole that matched the conditions for being controlled by the Kasha without being bitten by a zombie? ¡°Zashiki...Warashi...?¡± I could not turn around. I could not look back. If that was the case, this could not be worse. It would be the worst of the worst case scenarios! The human zombies were more than enough of a threat, so all was lost if a zombie was made out of something that was immune to blades and bullets and could freely control human destiny in the form of good and bad fortune. There would be nothing we could do. She would become the worst and greatest monster of them all! So I begged for it to not be true. I begged that I was worrying over nothing. I seemed to be praying to god as I begged so very, very, very hard in my heart, but then a sweet-smelling breath blew into my ear. A moment later, I heard something. It sounded like the growling of a large beast. Volume 8, 2: Another Interrogation in the Cell by Uchimaku Hayabusa Volume 8, Chapter 2: Another Interrogation in the Cell by Uchimaku Hayabusa Part 1 After I climbed aboard the rental car I had reserved at the local airport and drove out below the leaden sky, it began to snow a little. The road wasn¡¯t hidden in white yet and it was more like a clear sherbet, but I still began to worry whether I would find tire chains in one of those evenly-equipped rental cars that might as well have come prepackaged. I was glad it had started with studless winter tires, but I¡¯d failed to check on the chains. ¡°Sigh... More importantly, the quick switch from cold to warm has left Santa Enbi-chan needing to use the restroom. Ahh, I¡¯m fidgeting around here.¡± ¡°Why are you even here?¡± ¡°Why? Because a certain detective decided to pick up the middle school girl he found throwing kisses on the side of the road. Oh, how aggressive¡î¡± ¡°Seeing you dressed like that in public is enough to take you into custody for your own safety!! Besides, it¡¯s snowing outside, so why are you wearing a miniskirt bikini Santa outfit!? Are you trying to get yourself killed!? Are you one of those surfer Santas in the southern hemisphere!?¡± ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon. When I make it that obvious, all of the guys who might try hitting on me decide it¡¯s a trap and won¡¯t get close. That screens out everyone dangerous, so only the good-hearted people like you would try to talk to me.¡± The Mystery Freak had zero sense of danger despite wearing a hybrid Santa hat and reindeer scarf cap that looked like extra-long droopy ears hanging from her head. If I hadn¡¯t been driving along a dangerous snowy road at 40 kph, I would have covered my face with my hands. I was eternally grateful to the Life Safety Division that dealt with things like this year-round. ¡°Don¡¯t give me that. I chose this Santa outfit for you, you know? I worked hard covering my body in an insulating gel, so how about rewarding me a little?¡± ¡°What? For me?¡± ¡°Well, when I saw the entry shining at the top of your home computer¡¯s search history...¡± ¡°Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Cough, cough! Ahem!!¡± I impulsively slammed on the brakes and the back wheels nearly slid to the side. I used the steering wheel to regain control and glared over at the demon in the passenger seat. ¡°I-impossible... I had that set to safely and securely erase all of that extra data stored who-knows-where whenever I close the browser!¡± ¡°If you thought that would erase every last trace, you really are computer illiterate, detective. Don¡¯t underestimate this age of immoral big data corporations.¡± Not that it really mattered. I was an adult, so I could enjoy some adult entertainment no matter what anyone said! But if I had to say whether this made me want to die or not, I would say it did! A good bit actually!! ¡°Anyway, the real problem is you. Surely you aren¡¯t relying on the superstition that rural areas are safer than the big cities.¡± ¡°Of course not. Whether impulsive or planned, crimes happen when people fail to let off some steam and something goes wrong in their heart. In that sense, a rural city with little entertainment and long distances between facilities is like a treasure trove of unexploded ordnance.¡± ¡°Then why were you standing on the side of the road half naked...no, three-quarters naked?¡± ¡°Because I knew you would protect me, of course.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but give a heavy sigh. ¡°You really need to be careful. Gangs of robbers that dig tunnels to bank vaults are pretty common recently. They¡¯ve been attacking mostly these rural banks.¡± ¡°And a lot of travelers have gone missing in Bozen City where we¡¯re headed?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°It¡¯s pretty amazing. When the Metropolitan Police Department¡¯s case record storage was being moved, they found a whole bunch of completely untouched and forgotten-about cases. C¡¯mon, this isn¡¯t the same as a part-time delivery boy hiding all the New Year¡¯s cards in a locker because he doesn¡¯t want to deal with delivering them all.¡± I was curious how she knew about that, but I couldn¡¯t say anything since it was internal information. Meanwhile, she continued the conversation on her own. ¡°No matter how efficient the system, it¡¯s still being run by humans. Although I do find it interesting that they were all found now. It¡¯s almost like some kind of dam burst, don¡¯t you think?¡± That was also why a Metropolitan Police Department detective, who was meant to protect Tokyo, was driving a rental car out in this rural area. My jurisdiction was the city of Tokyo, but I still had to head out to check on things if one of the city¡¯s residents was involved in something outside the prefecture. I was wearing a cardigan instead of my usual suit because I didn¡¯t want to waltz in there like I was lording it over them as a representative of the Metropolitan Police Department. It would be a problem if the tabloids got wind of the fact that we were re-investigating cases because of improperly handled paperwork. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯ll be okay, detective?¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I be?¡± ¡°These new revelations show that more than thirty people have gone missing. And it was all over a decade ago. People are generally declared missing and presumed dead at seven years. That¡¯s a pretty severe legal line, and we¡¯re only talking about the people who went missing when visiting Bozen City from Tokyo. If you checked through all the case records of all the police stations in Japan, you might find way, waaaaay more missing people.¡± She had finally moved enough away from the actual case that I could talk about it. It was possible she was keeping that distance on purpose, though. ¡°I would have no way of knowing about that. But whether it¡¯s ten people or a hundred people, if there was a crime committed, we just have to arrest the criminal and ask them about it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true, but isn¡¯t it too risky to go charging into some dark den before you know how big the enemy is?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not doing this alone.¡± ¡°Oh? Are you finally accepting my help?¡± ¡°The local police will be doing the investigation and I will only be a pipeline back to the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo, Miss Protective Custody!!¡± We continued arguing as the rental car crossed a metal bridge and entered Bozen City. I planned to stay at my family home in the neighboring Noukotsu Village, but my work came first. I would head to the local police department with my luggage still in the trunk. I would also leave that Mystery Moron with them while I was there. Or that was the plan at least. ¡°Hey, detective, look at that mall.¡± ¡°What? You mentioned having to use the restroom before. Is that it?¡± ¡°Well, that is an issue, but look.¡± She pointed out the window. ¡°Doesn¡¯t the parking lot seem odd? There¡¯s a burned-out car in it.¡± ¡°What!?¡± I quickly looked over and did indeed see it. As a rural city, the parking lot was needlessly large and a station wagon sat in one corner, burned down to only the chassis and frame. It was scorched black, so I couldn¡¯t tell what color it had originally been. I made a rapid change of plans, turned into the parking lot, and parked a short distance from the car in question. I opened the door and stepped out to find the winter wind seeming to cut into my cheeks. The Mystery Freak got out too and she groaned while turning her toes inward. The smartphone swayed from her waist in a present-style case. ¡°O-ohhhhh.... Th-the temperature difference... D-detective, can you handle this? I need to visit the little girls¡¯ room.¡± ¡°Just go.¡± Santa Enbi left and I approached the burned vehicle. There was no sign of the local police and it was not cordoned off with yellow tape. There wasn¡¯t any sign of any kind of investigation. How long had it been like this? To borrow the Mystery Freak¡¯s words, this wasn¡¯t some part-time delivery boy who didn¡¯t want to deal with delivering all the New Year¡¯s cards. I peered inside to the driver¡¯s seat to make sure no one was inside and then I pulled out my cellphone. But... ¡°No signal?¡± I muttered while staring at the symbol on the edge of the small screen. Even if we were in the mountains, this was a flat urban area. And I remembered my cellphone working just fine here when I visited for fun before moving to Tokyo. The effective area of the cellphone towers would expand, but I wouldn¡¯t think it would shrink. Regardless, I couldn¡¯t make a call. The mall would probably have some pay phones inside, so I decided to contact the local police that way. I walked through the clear sherbet snow to cut across the parking lot. That may have been why I initially mistook the source of the crunching sound below my feet. ¡°...?¡± Confused, I looked to my feet and saw sharp red and yellow plastic shards mixed in with the snow. And not just a few; there were tons. I looked further into the distance and noticed what looked like a side mirror lying on the ground. One of the parking lot¡¯s streetlight poles was dented and a car¡¯s paint was scraped across it. There were also a lot of tire tracks. What? It almost looked like all the cars in the parking lot had started moving at once while running into each other. Either that or people had fought fiercely over all of the parked cars. ¡°Detectiiive!¡± Miniskirt Bikini Santa Enbi waved at me from the mall entrance while rubbing her scarf cap for warmth. I caught glimpses of the problem before reaching her. The glass doors were all broken and the entire area had become a sea of glass shards. A sign made to look like the local Kasha-chan mascot lay on the ground in two pieces. ¡°What is all this?¡± ¡°I checked around on the way to the bathroom, but it¡¯s pretty bad inside,¡± she said while pulling a magnifying glass from the bag at her waist. I stepped inside and found no customers, workers, or anyone at all. The gentle lights and warm heater were still on, but the recorded female voice calmly repeating sales information sounded all the colder because of it. And... ¡°Shelves have been knocked over all through here.¡± ¡°There¡¯s also dark red liquid splattered around. I haven¡¯t done a detailed investigation, but unless someone used paint or chicken blood to fake it, I think we know what it is.¡± Had there been a riot here? But none of the equipment around the registers looked broken. Foodstuffs were strewn across the floor and some clearly had bites taken out of them, but it didn¡¯t look like anyone had gone for the valuable items. ¡°This isn¡¯t good. ...I thought I would only be checking some documents, so I didn¡¯t bring my handgun.¡± I only had my police badge, cellphone, memo pad, and stainless steel ballpoint pen. That wasn¡¯t going to be much help against a group of enraged rioters. I then noticed an A4 piece of copy paper taped to a shelf in the fresh foods section. It said the following: ¡°Dear, San-chan. This is your mother. I¡¯m safe. I will stop by here again at the same time tomorrow. If you¡¯re hiding somewhere, write where on here.¡± ¡°...What is this?¡± ¡°The ink is fresh and it smells like solvent. ...But since it says she¡¯ll be back tomorrow, she must assume this paper will still be here then.¡± The Mystery Freak shook the reindeer horns on her head and sniffed at the paper. However, I already knew that. And of course, a worker would normally remove something like this. Had they decided there wouldn¡¯t be any workers here to remove it? And what was that about ¡°I¡¯m safe¡± and ¡°hiding somewhere¡±? Were they in a situation where they had to hide or their safety wasn¡¯t guaranteed? ¡°Detective.¡± ¡°Anyway, we need a phone. If we can¡¯t use our cellphones, we need to find a public one.¡± I slowly walked around the large building. There were notes left here and there, but the most distinctive were in the do-it-yourself section. ¡°Using gasoline as-is is dangerous. You can stabilize it by mixing it with a metal soap, a synthetic detergent, and sand. However, the gasoline itself is highly volatile. Make sure you don¡¯t breathe any in during your work.¡± ¡°Choosing an axe or machete is fine, but a towel and whetstone is what really matters. Blood is one thing, but you¡¯ll be in trouble if the fat gets stuck on the blade. You¡¯ll definitely live longer if you learn how to maintain your blades.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Humans won¡¯t lose to the likes of them.¡± The contents grew more and more ominous. Not just the text, but the paper itself was often crumpled up or splattered with some kind of dark red stain. I could tell that the people who visited this mall and either left or read the notes were very afraid of something. But who was the real threat? If I took these notes at face value, the ¡°frightened people¡± were wandering around with Molotov cocktails, axes, and machetes. And the handwriting of the notes was all different, so it was obvious enough people to start a riot were going along with this. In our search for a pay phone, the Mystery Freak and I climbed a gently curving staircase. When I looked out the window and to the lead-colored city, I found the biggest shock of all. ¡°What...the hell?¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t look like just a fire.¡± Dark smoke was rising from the entire cityscape visible out that elevated window. We would have needed binoculars to find any details, but a lot of cars were crashed and abandoned on the roads. They didn¡¯t seem to have just slid on the snow. Instead of a single stain at one point in the city, the entire city was covered in stains. The strangest part of all was the lack of flashing red lights and loud sirens despite the great commotion. There was no sign at all of any emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire trucks, or police cars. What had happened in Bozen City? In fact, was it even functioning as a city anymore? Something was wrong when old laws against rioting were coming to mind. It had to be a joke for that to be showing itself in the modern age of Intellectual Villages. ¡°Hey, Mystery Freak. Let¡¯s head back to the car. Something¡¯s wrong. I thought we could solve this with some support from the police station, but this may be beyond that. It would be better to call for help from beyond the framework of this city. ...Dammit, what am I even thinking? Am I worried that the police station might not be safe anymore!?¡± With that, I turned back her way, but then a heavy metallic blow struck the bridge of my nose. Before I could think anything more, my mind was dragged into deep darkness. Part 2 I felt my body shaking. I felt a pain in my back and only then did I realize I was coming to. As soon as I did, my nose started aching. ¡°Did you wake up?¡± The soft voice of a teenage girl spoke from quite nearby, but it was not the Mystery Freak. I twisted my body and found my thumbs were bound behind my back. It felt like a zip tie. The Mystery Freak was lying next to me in her insane outfit, but she seemed to still be unconscious. I turned my head around from the floor and finally grasped the general situation. We seemed to be on the back of a light truck. I didn¡¯t know who was driving and a girl of about high school age was sitting in one corner of the truck bed. She had fluffy chestnut hair. The oozing gleam in her eyes did not suit her pretty face in the slightest. She wore a pink knit dress and a white cardigan with a hat held on by pins and a tail-like accessory attached to the back of her waist. It looked more like a costume than normal fashion. The strangest part of all was the long bloody cattle cleaver she held in her arms like a small child holding a precious trumpet. The name on the base seemed to be Namagusa. My eyes had naturally tried to search out any way of identifying the murder weapon. ¡°Are you...Nagisa-chan?¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. Long time no see, Shinobu-chan¡¯s uncle. First impressions are important, aren¡¯t they?¡± She readily greeted me and I might have smiled back at her had we been sitting at a caf¨¦ table. However, that only made her seem stranger here. This was Shinobu¡¯s classmate, but was this situation a part of normal life for her now? I recalled hearing some things about Nagisa-chan when I spoke to Shinobu on the phone. Something about her having changed and being one of the world¡¯s three greatest yandere. I had moved to Tokyo before they had entered middle school and I had assumed he was exaggerating, but was it true? ¡°What did you do? No...what happened?¡± ¡°Good boy. You¡¯re so clever. I assumed you would decide I caused all this and try to struggle. Maybe I didn¡¯t even need to restrain you.¡± She giggled while nestling up against the blade coated in dark red blood and hair. ¡°What we¡¯ve done is...well, protect you. Yes, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re obedient. And of course, we¡¯re not just volunteering. You¡¯ll have to give something back. We don¡¯t have time to fight amongst ourselves right now.¡± ¡°Protect us? From what?¡± The notes in the mall and the signs of people stocking up on food and weapons had told me they were afraid of something. It hadn¡¯t looked like they were gathering the weaponry they needed to attack a bank or jewelry store and steal the valuables. Defense, not offense. Protection, not invasion. Retreat, not advance. But what were the people of Bozen City so afraid of? Nagisa-chan turned her dark eyes my way and the answer to my question slipped from the corner of her lips. ¡°Zombies.¡± ............................................................................................................................................................................................. I may have been mistaken to think I was speaking with a human being who could speak human language. I clearly wasn¡¯t communicating properly with Nagisa-chan here. I mean...zombies? What was she talking about? This was complete nonsense! Part of me was relieved I hadn¡¯t been carrying my handgun. Letting Nagisa-chan steal my gun here would have been a catastrophic failure. ¡°Well, that¡¯s what we¡¯re calling them anyway, but that might not actually be what they are. I doubt they have anything to do with the original Voodoo ones and they don¡¯t seem to come from an infectious disease like the ones in movies and dramas. Shinobu-chan said they¡¯re related to a Youkai called a Kasha, though.¡± ¡°...Shinobu?¡± I still managed to pick up on at least one term I was familiar with. It was like spotting a short readable string in an otherwise corrupted file. ¡°Is Shinobu with you!? Please tell me he¡¯s okay...!!¡± I trailed off due to a deafening metallic sound. Nagisa-chan was banging the tip of her cattle cleaver against the bottom of the light truck¡¯s bed. She stared at me as she spoke. ¡°Could you not mention Shinobu-chan right now? I beg you.¡± This...isn¡¯t good. Nervous sweat poured from my body despite the cold winter air. My only weapon was a pen and my hands were bound, so angering Nagisa-chan and her large blade would be a poor decision. I wouldn¡¯t stand a chance and the damage could easily spread to the Mystery Freak too. The situation gradually dawned on me. We were in the back of a light truck, so she at least had a driver with her. That meant this madness wasn¡¯t hers alone. ¡°Oh, right. I forgot.¡± She clapped her hands together in front of her face and began casually rummaging through the bag next to her. She didn¡¯t seem to care that my heart was being squeezed by fear and anxiety. She pulled out a can of deodorant spray that used something called silver ion and she held it out toward me in one hand. My throat dried up and she sprayed it at me. ¡°Yes, don¡¯t move. Good boy. The zombies search for their prey by smell like dogs and hyenas. ...Well, just think of it as a placebo or a good luck charm.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Since they use smell, an airtight vehicle would be better than this truck bed, but we can¡¯t have everything. And the risk of being attacked while driving around is pretty low. ...If we stopped in the middle of the street, we would need to be prepared to die, though.¡± I remained silent and she moved on to spraying the deodorant over the Mystery Freak who was had yet to move. Once she was finally done with her task, she stared into the distance. ¡°The city is already filled with zombies. In fact, there¡¯s no real reason for them to be restricted to the city. If you had continued wandering around like that, you would¡¯ve been in trouble. A lot of trouble. If we hadn¡¯t saved you, you probably would¡¯ve been devoured.¡± ¡°It¡¯s dangerous inside and outside the city? Then where are you taking us?¡± ¡°Good boy. You actually think things through. ...We¡¯re on the way to a safe hideout, of course.¡± The city was a mess. Roadside trees were broken, more windows were shattered than not, and cars were on fire here and there. A torn Kasha-chan costume was scattered along the road and a banner for a winter festival was swaying weakly in the wind. But despite all that, the city was dead. There was no sign of anyone there. Lived-in homes had a different atmosphere than abandoned homes and a school had a different atmosphere during the day than at night. In the same way, the entire city felt like a hospital in the dead of night. ¡°Everyone¡¯s hiding,¡± said Nagisa-chan. ¡°Both the survivors and the zombies.¡± Our light truck left the city and started up a mountain road. Leaving human civilization only made me more nervous. It drove home that we had been abducted. We passed through an arch of dry winter trees, left the road, and entered something like a hand-dug tunnel. ¡°This seems to be a portion of Mikuchi-sama.¡± ¡°Mikuchi-sama?¡± ¡°Yes. There are caves all through the mountain like an ant colony. That¡¯s where the zombies had to have come from originally. But now that the bridge has been destroyed, they make for a convenient side road.¡± I had heard of this before. Oh, right. I remember. I had heard that name at a festival in Bozen City back when I was in school. The winter festival celebrated the Kasha while the summer festival celebrated Mikuchi-sama. But wait. Weren¡¯t the roots of that legend not exactly pleasant? The sinners were...um, what was it? Unlike a maintained tunnel, there were no lights, so the truck rattled onward with only the headlights to combat the pitch black darkness. The steep slope made it clear we were ascending the mountain. We finally left the cave and a small village buried in the trees came into view. Each of the homes was quite large and there were also a bank, a real estate building, and other out-of-place facilities. It may have been the wealthy area. It was possible there had been a system where higher up the mountain indicated a higher social status. I had only used the city for shopping and festivals when I was in school, so I didn¡¯t know too much about the local way of doing things. The light truck drove to one building in particular. ¡°The bank?¡± ¡°We considered the school or hospital, but there¡¯s nothing we could do with all those windows.¡± Nagisa-chan discussed her zombie delusion like it was a story of hardship. ¡°We jumped for joy when we checked the map and saw a geothermal power station far off the mountain road, but we got there to find it was far too small and the walls were far too thin. More importantly, it was directly connected to a Mikuchi-sama tunnel, so it was full of zombies. There was nothing we could do.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Yes. Good boy. You¡¯ve caught on, haven¡¯t you? The bank has the fewest entrances and is easily defended.¡± This was the city next to my hometown, but I had never been to its bank. However, it looked like there was a connection after all. Near the entrance was a diamond shape with the bottom missing and doubled at the top. That was the Hishigami crest. It didn¡¯t look like a megabank, so it may have been bought in order to support their funding. However, it was not exactly unharmed. The metal shutter was bent up diagonally and a portion of the wall had crumbled. It looked like a building left after a bombing in a war film. The talk of zombies was preposterous, but how had humans pulled this off? A microbus that could hold about twenty people was parked in the parking lot, but would it really run? All of the windows were broken and concerning stains were splattered here and there. From what I could see, most of the seats had their stuffing coming out and some of the tires may have blown because the entire bus was tilting diagonally. The light truck stopped in the parking lot and Nagisa-chan slowly stood up with her knife in one hand. A great pressure weighed on my stomach, but she only gently shook the Mystery Freak¡¯s shoulder. Miniskirt Bikini Santa Enbi groaned and slowly opened her eyes. ¡°Come with me. Yes. Good girl.¡± ¡°...¡± We could not disobey her. With our hands bound behind our backs, we couldn¡¯t fight back with a weapon or even run away. After all, humans used their arms to balance. Also, our opponents were Nagisa-chan with her sword-like cattle cleaver named Namagusa and the driver who had the truck. We would definitely be killed if we tried to run away on this empty mountain road. Even if she was an extreme exception in many ways, the Mystery Freak was still a civilian. I had to avoid any option that would bring her harm. The two of us got down from the truck and someone stepped out from the truck¡¯s driver and passenger seat. The driver was a man with graying hair and the passenger was a young woman. ¡°Allow me to introduce you. Meeting everyone makes you nervous, doesn¡¯t it? ...This old man is Sada Shirabe-san. He¡¯s a doctor if you can believe it. That¡¯s really helped us out.¡± The man gave a quiet snort and seemed to be a middle-aged man in his late forties...or maybe even approaching elderly. He wore a sweater, slacks, and a white coat, but he didn¡¯t seem to be the type to worry about appearances. His hair was a mix of black and gray and his sweater¡¯s collar was twisted. The bottom of his white coat and pants were splattered with mud and his glasses looked like he didn¡¯t care about anything other than the prescription being right. ¡°And this is Amou Neko-san. She¡¯s a firefighter. ...Although she¡¯s using those skills to make Molotov cocktails and to teach us how to kick down doors or escape out of high windows. Yes, good girl. Here¡¯s a caramel for staying so still.¡± The woman looked barely in her twenties. She was probably younger than me. Her fluffy hair was tied back with a hair tie and she had a healthy and well-proportioned body. But that wasn¡¯t all. She definitely had supple muscles below that layer of feminine fat. She may have chosen her clothing with mobility in mind because she wore a bright yellow sports brand track suit, but unlike Doctor Sada, she did not appear sloppy or filthy. That may have been the difference between simply not caring and putting in the bare minimum effort to be fashionable. An oil lighter hung from a thin chain around her neck and she wore a lot of shoulder bags and waist pouches, but did that have anything to do with Nagisa-chan¡¯s introduction of the woman? Anyway, there were only three here. How many more were there inside the bank? ¡°(Hey, detective. I only just woke up, so what¡¯s going on here?)¡± ¡°(I¡¯ll explain later. Just keep in mind that resisting without preparing first won¡¯t end well.)¡± ¡°H-hurry inside! I don¡¯t want to stay out here longer than I have to.¡± ¡°Well, we don¡¯t have to worry about the zombies once we get inside the barricade¡¯s ¡®puzzle ring¡¯. It¡¯s lucky they aren¡¯t very smart.¡± I couldn¡¯t tell what cost they had paid to gain this sense of peace. It was like seeing a transaction in a foreign country¡¯s currency. We entered through the metal door in the back rather than through the front. Immediately inside was a wall of trash crammed in between the benches and tables stacked up to the ceiling. There was a stairway to the second floor to the side, but Nagisa-chan and the others crouched down and crawled through a gap in the trash wall. ¡°The zombies aren¡¯t smart enough for this.¡± When I followed Nagisa-chan through, I could just about see the panties on the hips sticking out from her knit dress. ¡°Even if they see us or detect our scent, they always choose the easiest route and follow the wall. They view the barricade as a wall and make their way up the stairs to the second floor. Following the wall takes them down another staircase and then outside. They wander around and around and around without ever reaching our living space.¡± ¡°And since zombies follow the smell, we use the ducts to carry the scents of our living space to the second floor,¡± explained Sada. ¡°It seems to have originally been a countermeasure against gas weapons, so the equipment is quite powerful. Balling up a curtain and sticking it inside changed the flow of air, so the air meant to go outside now goes to the second floor. Then when they¡¯re drawn here by our smell, they end up walking around in a loop until they lose interest.¡± ¡°A-and if they do break into the first floor, we have a last resort,¡± added Amou. ¡°We can blast through the wall for an emergency escape route straight to the truck.¡± They sounded proud...but how much of that was serious? That part about blasting through the wall wasn¡¯t referencing explosives, was it? It may have been a habit to help calm her, but I was really worried by the way Amou was clicking her oil lighter¡¯s cover open and closed. We entered a large floor and the fluorescent lights were on even during the day. Some of the windows and shutters were broken, but they were covered with walls of trash and large mirrors that may have been taken from the bathrooms were set up in front of them. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what effect they would have when looking in from outside. ¡°About a third of the damage to the bank was done by us. ...Then we piled up the rubble and set up the mirrors so it looks like you can see everything inside when you peek in through the gaps. But in reality, you can¡¯t see into or get into any of our living space from outside.¡± ¡°It¡¯s more like a box of mirrors than a magic trick,¡± added Sada as he poked at the temple of his glasses. Nagisa-chan nodded. ¡°Trying to hold back the zombies is no use. Preparing a large closed room only draws their interest. That was obvious when we saw the town hall and other areas that suffered a concentrated attack. In fact, when they bite people, it seems to be a way of investigating it more than eating it. It¡¯s just like how a baby puts everything in its mouth, but they happen to have such ridiculous strength that it can kill you. It¡¯s probably the same when they chase after and bite at fleeing people. The more you resist, the more you interest them. Keep that in mind. I¡¯ll give you a caramel and call you a good boy or girl.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°So it¡¯s more effective to redirect them than to hold them back. You need to let them work off some of their curiosity. In that way, the bank¡¯s limited windows and doors let us set up a route more easily. We can let them walk freely through while never actually running across our living space. It¡¯s like creating a piece of trick art.¡± Nagisa-chan stretched with knife in hand while she stood in the center of the large space. A few things came to mind as I listened to her. ¡°(Detective.)¡± ¡°(That sounds a lot like a fishing method that takes advantage of the fish behavior. You create spiraling wall of nets because the fish will naturally move along the wall and end up trapped in the center.)¡± Apparently the zombies were just as unintelligent as fish. It was exactly the kind of idea I would expect from an Intellectual Village resident. She may have had a habit of playing in the rivers like I had. Then the doctor named Sada spoke up. ¡°Can I go now?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°M-me too... My weapons are one-use, so I need to resupply.¡± ¡°Make those Molotov cocktails for us.¡± Society was working under a bizarre set of values, the jobs were split up, and the people scattered. They opened nearby doors and entered their own spaces. The Mystery Freak and I glanced around, but Nagisa-chan tapped at the floor with her large cattle cleaver and spoke to us. ¡°You two are going in here. Go, go.¡± ¡°Where are you taking us? Are you going to keep our hands bound?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll understand soon enough.¡± She took us to a thick circular door behind the bank¡¯s counter. It truly was about a meter thick and had more than twenty fixed bolts. The Hishigami crest was carved into the center of the mass of metal. The bank...vault!? ¡°Wait. You don¡¯t have to close us in there, do you? Didn¡¯t you say you were protecting us!? But this is like a prison cell!¡± ¡°We have to. The truth is, we picked up some people around town before. We used that microbus out front.¡± ¡°What does that have to do with this!?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t tell you if you don¡¯t quiet down. I would be teaching you that works. ...They would have been safe inside the bank. The zombies can¡¯t get through the ¡®puzzle ring¡¯ that requires some intelligence, so they end up going to the second floor and leaving through the other entrance. But those people wouldn¡¯t listen and were too slow, so the zombies attacked before we could take them to safety. The rest was awful. Those of us away from the bus had to escape into the bank, but those on the bus had nowhere to run and no way to fight.¡± That was through the insane filter that Nagisa-chan used to view the world, so what had actually happened? At the very least, it looked like the bus was broken and abandoned. But how many people had been aboard? Had anyone even been aboard? ¡°So we¡¯ll protect any survivors and we¡¯ll give them food. If necessary, we¡¯ll give them weapons and fight the zombies with them. But they don¡¯t get any freedom. You should thank us for giving you a safe place to sleep. Once you learn that this is the safest place for you, I¡¯ll call you a good boy and good girl.¡± She pushed on our shoulders to throw us into a stifling closed space. The vault was surprisingly spacious. It was lit by orange lights like a tunnel and it was the size of two classrooms. Instead of a single space, it was divided into sections by metal bars. One contained cash piled up in a block, one contained gold bars similarly piled up, one contained safe deposit boxes that resembled coin lockers, and one probably contained bonds. While the entire area was spacious, each individual section was not. The smallest of them were smaller than a city hotel room. Nagisa-chan smiled thinly. ¡°I¡¯ll let you decide. Do you want to be together or separated?¡± ¡°Together,¡± immediately replied the Mystery Freak. Nagisa-chan grabbed Enbi¡¯s arm and threw her into a section with drawers along the wall. She then did the same with me. The following creaking sound seemed to pierce into my heart. I could hear the clicking of the door locking. ¡°Turn around and stick your hands out toward me. I¡¯ll cut the zip ties on your thumbs.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Good boy. Good girl. Have a caramel.¡± We could only do as we were told. Our arms were freed, but we did not feel at all liberated. We were literally behind bars. Nagisa-chan held the key and her footsteps moved away and toward the vault¡¯s exit. I had trouble breathing, but without realizing that, she slowly looked back as she made her way to the free world outside. ¡°See you two later. I said it¡¯s better to redirect the zombies, but that changes with walls this thick. You might be interested in what¡¯s going on outside, but creating some new boundaries is best for us all. Hee hee.¡± I heard a mechanical rumbling and the meter-thick circular door slowly and smoothly moved. That seal bearing the Hishigami crest was closing. The freedom I had taken for granted and the right to walk wherever I wanted to go were being taken from me. I knew that, but there was nothing I could do. It took a full thirty seconds for the door to fully close. The vault was shut. If the Mystery Freak hadn¡¯t been next to me, I¡¯m pretty sure I would have screamed. Part 3 There wasn¡¯t much we could do, but we couldn¡¯t just sit around in silence either. The Hishigami crest door had closed, but that also meant Nagisa-chan and the others weren¡¯t monitoring us anymore. The Mystery Freak and I immediately exchanged a glance inside those metal bars. We pulled our cellphone and smartphone from our pockets. Neither one had a signal of course, but they had other uses. ¡°How much have you done!?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been secretly filming everything since I woke up, so I should have everything about the inside of the bank. But I obviously have nothing from when I was asleep. Detective, what¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°I used my cellphone to record my conversation with Nagisa-chan on the light truck. You listen to that first. Let¡¯s share our information.¡± We had no idea how long we would be imprisoned. That was a frightening thought, but we had to plan for the worst and thus could not waste our phones¡¯ batteries. ¡°How much battery do you have left?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nearly full, but that won¡¯t last too long since it¡¯s a smartphone. I do have a giant rapid charger, so we shouldn¡¯t have any trouble for the time being. What about you?¡± ¡°I have a charging cable, but there¡¯s no outlet in here. There¡¯s only so long it¡¯ll last even if we¡¯re economical. We should assume we won¡¯t be able to use the phones for long and check through all the data while we can.¡± ¡°Can do, detective.¡± The Mystery Freak focused on the recorded voices coming from my cellphone. She must have been cold because she wrapped her arms around her shoulders, rubbed her legs together, and pressed the drooping ears of her scarf cap against her cheeks. I slowly exhaled, leaned back against the metal bars, and mussed up my bangs with one hand. ¡°Sorry,¡± I muttered. ¡°For what? For not telling Enbi-chan how pretty she is in her Santa costume?¡± ¡°For putting you in danger. I had little choice given the situation and I don¡¯t know how many people they have, but this is no place to bring a minor girl.¡± ¡°Are you saying you should have pleaded with the insane kidnappers to ¡®take me, but save this girl¡¯? Drawing attention to me would only put me in more danger. They might have started by holding me down and tearing my clothes off for some dark entertainment and harassment.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°There was no way of taking zero damage here. It¡¯s unfortunate, but that¡¯s reality. In that case, you chose the best option available to you. At the very least, I¡¯m safe now because you protected me while I was passed out and defenseless, right?¡± ¡°But I¡¯m a police officer.¡± ¡°That means nothing. I¡¯m mature enough to know the police are human too. You¡¯re not some macho man in full-body tights, so don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Eventually, Enbi finished listening to my recorded conversation with Nagisa-chan. She sighed and opened her mouth. ¡°She¡¯s treating us like pets.¡± ¡°You thought so too?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the method for dogs, cats, and a few other small animals. I have an e-book on it on my smartphone if you want to see.¡± ¡°No, thanks... She always praises us as a ¡®good boy¡¯ or ¡®good girl¡¯, she gives us a caramel as a special treat, and she bangs that cattle cleaver for an unpleasant noise. It¡¯s the standard division of reward and punishment. That much I get.¡± That was a problem in and of itself, but the root problem lay elsewhere. ¡°That aside, what¡¯s this about a zombie panic?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how things turned out like this.¡± At the very least, we hadn¡¯t seen any corpses getting up and we hadn¡¯t been attacked by any groups of rotting flesh. It was definitely odd for the city to be so unnaturally quiet and for not a single firetruck to be in evidence with smoke rising everywhere, but that was a different issue. Which meant... ¡°They may truly believe that there are zombies out there.¡± ¡°But we don¡¯t know if those zombies are really there nor not?¡± Yes. In fact, that was the only reasonable answer. Before assuming some strange occult technique had placed evil spirits inside corpses or that a mysterious pathogen was causing the dead to rise, it was much more natural to assume this was a case of mass hysteria causing the people of Bozen City to believe there were zombies everywhere. The city had been destroyed, but had a swarm of zombies really done that? Wasn¡¯t it easier to think that destruction was the result of crowds wielding handmade weapons against imaginary zombies? They may not have accurate recollections of the incident they had caused. ¡°But have you noticed?¡± I asked. ¡°Even if that¡¯s true, this mass hysteria had to have spread in an extremely short period of time.¡± ¡°What makes you say that?¡± ¡°The fresh foods in the mall hadn¡¯t rotted. And if an entire city was crippled by riots, the information would have gotten out. This happened too fast for that. We should probably assume only a few hours have passed.¡± ¡°What if some mysterious government agency is suppressing the information?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a ridiculous conspiracy theory, but I guess I¡¯ll give a serious rebuttal. If that were the case, how did we get inside Bozen City so easily? If they were hiding this, wouldn¡¯t they cut off the flow of people?¡± ¡°True. That¡¯s unlikely unless this was some kind of accident that surprised even the government enough that they were slow to seal everything off.¡± There were no zombies. If we could get them to realize that, they would free us from this prison. After all, they would lose their pretext for ¡°protecting¡± us. But how far would that ¡°minority view¡± get us in this city where common sense had crumbled away? ¡°There was a case like this at a so-called UFO Village in America. The villagers were terrified of an alien invasion, so when they took a liking to a traveler, they would shove them in a shelter in order to ¡®protect¡¯ them.¡± ¡°And what happened to a traveler that upset the villagers?¡± ¡°The villagers concluded the traveler was actually an alien wearing human skin. After that...well, it was case by case. Some were given public executions and others were dissected for future reference. In fact, anyone who broke the village¡¯s rules or a leader who lost in a conflict between factions would end up considered an alien.¡± It made my head hurt. If someone feared the destruction of mankind, they also believed in that destruction. They hated to have that destruction denied. They wished to be freed from those bonds, but they also wanted to be bound by them more than anyone else. With Nagisa-chan and the others fighting the zombie threat, insisting there were no zombies could be dangerous. I certainly didn¡¯t want them deciding we were zombies pretending to be human. I was also bothered by their little society they had set up. The rules of back alleys and prisons were symbols of fear, but they were rewarding when you were at the top. They may have been building up their own unique rules like that. But anyway... ¡°I¡¯ve shared my information, so let me see the footage on your smartphone now.¡± We hadn¡¯t just swapped our phones, but that was because of the batteries. Watching it together was more economical than both of us viewing it separately. I borrowed the smartphone inside a case modeled after a Santa-like present. We pressed our chilly shoulders together to watch the small screen. The footage shook a lot, but that wasn¡¯t surprising since it was filmed while hanging from the waist of her swimsuit. I felt like I would get motion sickness if I stared at it for too long, but I couldn¡¯t let that get to me. It started with us getting out of the truck and approaching the somewhat snow-covered exterior of the bank. The shutters and wall had apparently been intentionally destroyed, but it would have required explosives or heavy machinery. There was one other thing to focus on. ¡°I¡¯m interested in that destroyed microbus.¡± ¡°According to Nagisa-chan, they tried to carry survivors to the bank using it, but that ended in failure when it was attacked by zombies while trying to get the people inside the bank.¡± ¡°I wonder how many people are in their group. It didn¡¯t look like there was anyone other than those three in the bank.¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard to tell how much of what they say is true.¡± The footage entered the thick metal door out back, passed below the trash wall, and entered the bank. Nagisa-chan, Sada Shirabe the doctor, and Amou Neko the firefighter spoke inside the lobby. ¡°Can I go now?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°M-me too... My weapons are one-use, so I need to resupply.¡± ¡°Stop there.¡± The Mystery Freak reached in and stopped the video. ¡°Did you notice that, detective?¡± ¡°Sada and Amou both asked for Nagisa-chan¡¯s permission before leaving. Age-wise, she should be at the bottom since she¡¯s a minor. She can¡¯t drive either. Normally, the hierarchy would be the exact opposite.¡± ¡°That¡¯s noteworthy too, but I¡¯m talking about this.¡± While fidgeting from the cold, Enbi pointed at one corner of the screen. ¡°The video caught the door Sada left through. Amou left outside of the frame, but we might be able to see something through his. Pay careful attention. I¡¯m going to play it frame by frame.¡± In the slow and jerky movement of the video, Sada Shirabe walked toward the door in the back. What would we see there? I focused to gather as much information as possible as the door slowly opened to reveal what was inside. It was probably a private room for discussions with customers about foreign exchange deals and the like. Inside, I saw something that wasn¡¯t a table but was still rectangular and supported by legs. What was it? An examination table or a stretcher? Sada Shirabe had been introduced as a doctor, so it may have been an examining room for treating the injured. But that kind thought was shattered by what I noticed next. ¡°Detective, look...¡± ¡°...¡± Some rusted metal drums sat a short distance from the examination table. We could see two in the video. Even if it was a makeshift examining room, they wouldn¡¯t bring something that filthy inside. In other words, that was not an examining room. Then what was it? Why else would they have gathered medical equipment in that room? The answer came from the metal drums. The top had been cut away like a can of food, making it much like the baths I had seen in old dramas. First of all, the edge was stained a dark red. And second, something like a broken branch was sticking out. What is that? Wait...no. It can¡¯t be... ¡°A human...arm?¡± The Mystery Freak froze the video and zoomed in on that point. Without any image processing software, the pixels simply grew larger, so it was pixelated and blurry. Still, that was clearly not a mannequin or doll arm. It had a red and purple speckled color. It was filthy in a very organic way. It seemed to have grown discolored from within, which simply could not be reproduced with paint. ¡°Detective, I really hope this isn¡¯t true. I really do. But...¡± ¡°Just tell me.¡± ¡°What if that doctor is the type who investigates his suspicions via autopsies? Like the crazy people from the UFO Village?¡± There was nothing we could do. This was not the same as kidnappers after ransom money. A colorful tightrope walk had begun. Part 4 Whistle, whistle. Whistle, whistle. The sound of the whistling wind simply would not go away. A dry wind was blowing everywhere. It seemed to enter my ears and arrive deep inside my head. It disturbingly seemed to find its way into the wrinkles of my brain. It seemed to be gradually drying out my brain and transforming me into a helpless doll. ¡°Uuh...!?¡± ¡°Detective? Detective!? What¡¯s the matter? You¡¯re shaking.¡± ¡°What...? Dammit, the wind? Mystery Freak, is there any wind getting in here?¡± ¡°We¡¯re inside a perfectly sealed vault. There¡¯s nowhere for it to get in through. Are you really okay? C¡¯mon, take a deep breath. I know it¡¯s tough, but try to remember where we are.¡± I gradually realized what was going on. First of all, after going over everything we needed to discuss and sharing all of our information, we had been forced to fall silent. I had then drifted off to sleep and started dreaming. I was hallucinating in my sleep. No, given my current environment... ¡°Am I starting to show symptoms of prison psychosis? That isn¡¯t good.¡± Prison psychosis was a unique psychological state caused by the mental changes that occurred when unable to move for long periods of time. That could mean being physically restrained by handcuffs or other restraints, closed in a small room, or in some special cases, being constantly monitored by a GPS tracking device. There were a wide variety of symptoms: auditory and visual hallucinations, various types of delusions, limited thoughts, explosive emotions, etc. I had a decent knowledge of it in reference to investigations and detention, but this wasn¡¯t good. The most effective treatment for prison psychosis was extremely simple: releasing the physical restraints. There were even cases where someone near a complete mental breakdown would recover in just a few hours after leaving the room. The creation of workout areas in prisons had been to prevent these sorts of symptoms. But at the same time, the symptoms would only grow worse the longer you were imprisoned. Overcoming them while inside the room was incredibly hard to pull off. This was a completely different situation, but it felt something like a hopeless battle against motion sickness while still inside the moving vehicle. This means...dammit. ¡°Mystery Freak, do you have anything to use as a restraint?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°I have no idea how bad this is going to get! If I come down with delusions of persecution or I¡¯m filled with explosive emotions, I might succumb to groundless suspicion and hurt you. So tie me up before that happens. It¡¯s too late to tie me up once I¡¯ve started struggling!!¡± ¡°Detective, even if you do have prison psychosis, tying you up will only exacerbate your symptoms. I can¡¯t do that!¡± ¡°You might as well be in the same cage as a ferocious beast. Please just let me remain a police officer to the end!!¡± She slowly shook her head. I wasn¡¯t going to get any help out of her, but I couldn¡¯t let myself harm her either. I had to take precautions in case my symptoms worsened. My charging cable would be too weak, so I would have to use my cardigan and belt. I slowly exhaled. If I let my guard down, I started hearing that wind again. A while later, I sat with my back to the metal bars and my arms around my knees. I heard someone whispering behind me. Or I thought I did. I knew in my head that the Mystery Freak and I were the only ones in the vault. I really did know that, but I still found myself looking back to check. I did it again and again. I was just like someone with OCD washing their hands again and again when feeling cornered. I would tremble at how bizarre I had been acting five minutes before, but I would do the exact same thing five minutes later. I really did feel like I was about to go crazy. Or had I already gone a little bit crazy? Just like Nagisa-chan and the others who believed in the zombies. ¡°...¡± ¡°Hey, Mystery Freak?¡± I looked over and noticed something wasn¡¯t right. Enbi wasn¡¯t reacting very much. She didn¡¯t reply and she didn¡¯t blink when I waved a hand in front of her eyes. I grabbed her cold shoulders and she finally slowly looked up. When I looked into her unfocused eyes, I finally realized what this was. Prison psychosis? She has it too!? ¡°Hey, pull yourself together. What are you looking at, Mystery Freak?¡± ¡°Eh? Oh... I¡¯m fine, I¡¯m fine. I won¡¯t be a burden on you... I¡¯ll handle it on my own...¡± ¡°Out with it! Keeping it inside won¡¯t help. Delusions aren¡¯t too much of a problem while they¡¯re in short-term memory, but they can be really hard to shake once they get to your long-term memory!!¡± ¡°Heh..eh heh heh... I can hear a siren.¡± ¡°A siren?¡± ¡°It¡¯s coming from through the thick walls. Wee-ooh, wee-ooh... Yes! Yes, I know, I know!! No sound could get through those walls. But I¡¯m suffocating in here. We¡¯ll be okay, won¡¯t we? Won¡¯t we? The bank isn¡¯t on fire and we weren¡¯t left here in a giant oven, right!?¡± Both of us were heading down the same path. It was only a difference in degree. The pressure of being sealed behind that door marked with the Hishigami crest had to be something else entirely for her. ¡°Listen, Mystery Freak. Prison psychosis acts differently in different people, but what matters is how long you¡¯re closed inside. How long has it been? At the very least, they haven¡¯t brought us any food, so it can¡¯t have been a full day.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t know! There are no windows or doors, so we can¡¯t see anything outside!! Who knows if it¡¯s day or night right now!? What if he...what if those grinning people come to try to kill me again!?¡± Those words were like a slap to the face and they shook my heart too. I was dragged in like her panic was contagious. The time. Yes, we needed to know the exact time. I made a desperate attempt to keep our mental lifeboat from flipping over. ¡°Look, Mystery Freak.¡± ¡°What...?¡± ¡°It¡¯s my phone! Look at the clock. It¡¯s only been a few hours since then. It¡¯s fine. Any prison psychosis symptoms won¡¯t be all that severe yet! You¡¯re only imagining it!!¡± I had no idea how much this would help, but as she listened to me and looked at the screen, the movements of her eyes gradually grew smoother. I could tell she was beginning to look outside her world of sluggish delusion. We may have looked quite silly. This may have been a feeling that only appeared when forcibly imprisoned without knowing what would happen tomorrow...or even an hour from now. But we were truly at our limit here. I could feel my heart ¨C my soul ¨C wearing away like a clump of salt as time passed. This trick would not last forever. The phone batteries were finite. Human beings grew accustomed to stimuli, so the calming effect of viewing that digital data would fade. Once we began wondering if the number was wrong, it was all over. More importantly, prison psychosis grew worse as time went on. What would happen to us once we lost this lifeline? What would become of us once that support vanished and our hearts were crushed? We didn¡¯t have a bed or even a blanket, but I found myself irregularly drifting to sleep and waking up. I was horribly uneasy. My thoughts began to escape from reality. ¡°Detective, what are you thinking about?¡± I was having trouble distinguishing miniskirt bikini Santa Enbi from a resident of my dreams. ¡°I was remembering the time we first met.¡± ¡°Ha ha. Stop that. It¡¯s embarrassing.¡± ¡°Yes, but we were kind of imprisoned then too. At least we could walk freely through the mansion, though.¡± The name ¡°Glass House¡± came to mind. A crazy family had lived deep in the mountains. In a direct interpretation of the family rules against hiding anything from one¡¯s family, the mansion¡¯s inner walls, floors, and ceilings had all been made of transparent reinforced glass to create an insane living space with zero privacy. Lots of sinful people had gathered there like they had been pulled there by a magnet. Then a murder had occurred. After following an invisible line too solid to say it was ¡°by chance¡±, the Mystery Freak and I had arrived there in different ways and witnessed the same incident. ¡°Come to think of it, you weren¡¯t wearing a swimsuit back then.¡± ¡°Who do you think I¡¯m showing my body off for? I¡¯m ready for you to attack me, you know?¡± When I had first met her, Hishigami Enbi had truly been a grim reaper. She hadn¡¯t had twintails then, nor had she worn a cute swimsuit. Her long hair had been swept back and she had worn a pitch black coat that covered her entire body all the way up to her mouth. Pants of the same color had decorative zippers here and there, but the thighs visible through them had seemed more dangerous than dazzling. Most of all, her eyes had given off the painful light of a rusted blade. Every word she spoke to someone had drawn out the information she needed as quickly as possible, and in exchange she had lost all trust. She had been that sort of grim reaper. She had done whatever it took to solve the case. For example, she would rewrite the dying message pointing to the murderer in order to see how all of the suspects reacted. For example, she would preemptively but non-lethally attack the murderer¡¯s second target to gather everyone¡¯s attention and create an environment where the murderer could not easily act. For example, she would direct suspicion onto the person the murderer cared for most in order to pressure the murderer into confessing. Yes. She had not actually pulled out a handgun or bazooka, but she may have been a lot like Mai. ¡°That really was an awful location.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? I¡¯m still mad at you for peeping at the maid¡¯s changing like that.¡± ¡°That was the transparent Glass House, but depending on the angle, glass will reflect light back like a mirror. In other words, you could create a black box there under the right conditions. Once we realized that, the rest was simple.¡± ¡°Yeah. Most criminal tricks are like that.¡± After hearing that, I spoke to the Mystery Freak next to me. ¡°That wasn¡¯t the trick in that case.¡± I felt faint. With the unpleasant sensation of a flat spatula or wooden spoon scraping away at the bottom of my stomach, I finally managed to focus on reality again. ¡°What is it, Detective?¡± The girl in front of me was not a convenient doll who would agree to anything I said. She was a human being. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. I got over it.¡± I wiped cold sweat from my brow as I answered. How long would this continue? Could we really laugh at Nagisa-chan and the others anymore? Part 5 The series of self-made nightmares came to an abrupt end. With a heavy mechanical rumbling, the round vault door slowly opened. Just in case, we hid our phones in our pockets. It was Nagisa-chan who walked in. We were still trapped behind bars, but the difference was incredible. It felt like fresh air was flowing in through that round hole and our sticky delusions were being driven out along with the vault¡¯s stagnant air. Prison psychosis recovered as soon as one went outside. This may have been a hint of that. The pressure of the Hishigami crest had been released. ¡°Heh heh. Here¡¯s your food.¡± Nagisa-chan held a few rolls, two bagged salads, and a plastic bottle of water. She shoved them between the bars. ¡°Did you steal these from the mall?¡± ¡°Good boy. You didn¡¯t bite at my hand.¡± ¡°What would you have done if I had?¡± ¡°Hmm. It¡¯s a little sad, but the best way to restrain a fierce male is castration.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Stole them, you say? We did think about leaving money at the register at first, but pretending like that seemed so empty.¡± No one was coming back. No one would ever take the money even if they left it. No one would blame them for taking the products. The normal system of paying for products no longer existed here. At the very least, that was what she and the other rioters believed. While focusing on that line between reality and delusion, I looked to Nagisa-chan¡¯s eyes. There was nothing I could do without some more information. I wanted as much to work with as possible if we were to eventually get out of here. ¡°You...¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Nagisa-chan, I notice you aren¡¯t leaving the city.¡± After some thought, I asked a question. ¡°That mall was right next to Bozen City¡¯s border. With that truck, you should have been able to escape, so why are you staying in this mountain bank? Don¡¯t you know that the situation is only going to worsen if you hole up here?¡± ¡°Yes. Good boy. You¡¯ve been thinking about this.¡± The high school girl readily agreed. She also gave me a caramel. ¡°If we had known there were still no zombies the way you had come, we might have escaped then.¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°Who says the zombies are staying in the city? Even if it was fine before, the zombies might have taken over in the past few hours. And even if we escaped with a destination in mind, it¡¯s all over if that destination is filled with zombies. ...That¡¯s why we need to think about going somewhere we know can protect us. Do you understand?¡± ¡°Somewhere you know can protect you?¡± asked the Mystery Freak in her Santa hat. Nagisa-chan giggled. ¡°The police and firefighters probably wouldn¡¯t be any help anymore. ...For now, we¡¯re thinking about the closest JSDF or American base. The problem is how far away that is. We checked on a map and it¡¯s more than a hundred kilometers. It wouldn¡¯t even take an hour if we drove full speed there, but there¡¯s no way it would be that easy with all of this going on. Going that far while slowed down by accidents is not going to be easy.¡± I understood what she was trying to say. They needed to stockpile water, food, fuel, and weapons. They needed a ridiculous amount and they couldn¡¯t move until they had gathered it all. Fearing nonexistent zombies, they would be eternally preparing for a journey to the ends of the earth. ¡°Shinobu-chan and the others were thinking of escaping outside the city with the paragliders at the mountain peak, but unlike an airplane, those don¡¯t continue flying. We¡¯d be in trouble if we landed somewhere full of zombies, so we decided against leaving it all up to luck like that.¡± ¡°Can you really do that?¡± ¡°Do what?¡± ¡°You¡¯re free to prepare like that if you want, but will it ever end? Simply living here takes food and fuel and the water and food will go bad on its own. It¡¯s like a bucket with a hole at the bottom. You¡¯re losing supplies even as you gather them.¡± ¡°...I don¡¯t know.¡± Surprisingly, she readily agreed. ¡°I¡¯m simply choosing the most realistic path I can think of and I can¡¯t know if it was the right choice without trying... A great deluge is coming, but I might not have time to build such a large ark. Still, doing nothing and drowning is out of the question. That¡¯s how I¡¯m looking at this.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Or maybe I just want an objective to think about. ...After all, doing nothing feels like suffocating in this situation. If I¡¯m not focused on something, it feels like I¡¯m going crazy.¡± The conversation ended there. She hadn¡¯t rejected us. She had simply ended it based on her own mood. We were all breathing the same air, but we were on the inside and she was on the outside. She held all the authority here. As the high school girl began to leave, I shouted regretfully after her. ¡°Please wait! We¡¯re trapped behind these bars either way, so you don¡¯t need to close that door!¡± ¡°I do. Giving you what you want when you yell only teaches you to do it again.¡± She wasn¡¯t listening. Next, the scantily clad Mystery Freak spoke up. ¡°B-but what do we do about a bath or toilet in here? There¡¯s no intercom, so wouldn¡¯t it be better to leave it so you can come here if we yell?¡± Nagisa-chan only tilted her head a little. ¡°Come here? Why?¡± ¡°So you can let us out if we really need it...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Surely you aren¡¯t saying you won¡¯t let us out no matter what. Do you know what this place is!? It¡¯s just a box! There¡¯s no plumbing or anything!! You¡¯re a girl too! Surely you understand!¡± ¡°I gave you water. You can figure out the rest on your own. If you do a good job, I¡¯ll call you a good girl and give you a caramel.¡± She was blunt. The Mystery Freak was left flapping her mouth wordlessly and Nagisa-chan vanished through the round door. With the heavy mechanical rumbling, we were once more closed in this double prison. Part 6 Whistle, whistle. Whistle, whistle. While overwhelmed by the hallucination of whistling wind, I realized the vault¡¯s circular door was opening again. It was clearly too soon for the next meal. The Miniskirt Bikini Santa Mystery Freak was still so shocked by that last conversation that she had barely eaten anything. Our visitor this time was the firefighter named...Amou Neko I think. The young woman in a track suit approached the metal bars. ¡°We can finally speak.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°I¡¯m really not sure what to do with Nagisa-chan¡¯s caramel rewards.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°She does it to Sada-san and me too, so we understand. She says that ¡®stay¡¯, ¡®sit¡¯, and ¡®come¡¯ are the basics. It¡¯s humiliating, but we can¡¯t stand up to her.¡± Her actions had bothered me a fair bit. Even now, she was toying with the oil lighter hanging in front of her ample chest. Had she come here without telling Nagisa-chan? ¡°Hey, you two came from outside, didn¡¯t you? You weren¡¯t hiding in Bozen City like the rest of us. You¡¯re from outside.¡± Outside. Hearing that word while inside the bars almost made me laugh despite the situation. ¡°...What about it?¡± ¡°Can you tell me what it¡¯s like outside? It sounded like you didn¡¯t know about the zombies. What¡¯s it like out there? Does that mean the zombies haven¡¯t spread all that far!?¡± How was I supposed to answer this? There was of course only one true answer, but if this was like that UFO Village, then this decision could determine our fates. If I said there were zombies everywhere outside the city, we would remain imprisoned here. If I said there were no zombies outside the city, she would get angry at me for lying. Was there any other better answer? I felt the same unreasonable tension as someone being forced to sign a contract written in a strange foreign language. For one thing, how did those three share the same delusions? After some thought, I answered. ¡°I came here from Tokyo.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°I boarded my rental car at the local airport, picked her up on the road, and drove straight to Bozen City. I didn¡¯t see any zombies, but I can¡¯t tell you what things were like outside the car. I can¡¯t deny the possibility that zombies were hiding in all of the houses and stores or that we would have been attacked had we been walking through the streets.¡± ¡°I knew it.¡± Amou Neko rubbed her chin. I had no idea what it was she had ¡°known¡±, even though I knew not matching the conversation to her understanding would get us killed. There may have been an ¡°entrance¡± to sharing this delusion, but getting trapped too deeply would be a bad idea. I had to reject it in my heart and thoroughly analyze everything. ¡°If there might be zombies outside the city, we can¡¯t be optimistic. We need to prepare... Yes, that¡¯s right. Nagisa-chan¡¯s cattle cleaver only goes so far. We need the firepower to take out a dense wall of zombies...¡± I heard the clicking of the oil lighter lid opening and closing. Something like joy filled her eyes as she muttered to herself. Her eyes had started to glitter once she was told there were zombies out there. That may have seemed contradictory at first, but it wasn¡¯t. Nagisa-chan had already told us they needed an objective or they would go crazy. In Amou Neko¡¯s case, that would be securing weapons such as Molotov cocktails and flamethrowers. She was trying to obtain peace of mind by holding the firepower needed to break through a great swarm of zombies. So even if she didn¡¯t like the idea of zombies being there, she couldn¡¯t reach that peace of mind without them being there. What was the right answer and where were the landmines? Even a slight misreading here could cost us our lives. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We¡¯ll be just fine... Once I get all the firepower we need, we can reach that base a hundred kilometers away...¡± She was staring into the distance instead of at us. A certain theory occurred to me, but that wasn¡¯t what I needed to address here and now. ¡°Are you all going to be okay?¡± ¡°Okay? What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well...¡± The fingertips toying with the oil lighter came to a stop. Was that a dangerous sign? I held my palms out toward the track suit firefighter. ¡°I may not be the expert, but aren¡¯t Molotov cocktails delicate? Dropping one would be bad and any rough movement with them stuffed in your backpack could break a bottle and cover your back in gasoline. Plus, they¡¯re heavy. And even if you have a lot of them, you can only throw one at a time. They aren¡¯t a weapon you can use with one in each hand.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Preparing is fine, but wouldn¡¯t it be a good idea to lecture everyone on how to use them? Otherwise, our carelessness could burn the bank down.¡± ¡°When the time comes to it, I¡¯ll do so. You two will be fighting against the zombies too.¡± ...? She didn¡¯t say anything about anyone else. It was true we hadn¡¯t seen anyone but those three while trapped in this vault, but did that mean what I thought it might? ¡°And we need firepower for more than fighting the zombies. We also need to gather samples.¡± ¡°Samples?¡± ¡°For Sada-san.¡± I felt a grinding pain in my heart. Sada Shirabe was the doctor with that examining room. What were those rusted metal drums in that room and why was there a human arm sticking out of one? He seemed the closest to this group¡¯s crimes. ¡°He¡¯s all excited about figuring out how the zombies work, finding a weakness, and being able to fight them far more easily, but give me a break. People are getting back up after they die. Their eyes are muddy, their skin is discolored, and their hair is all dried out. That¡¯s what this place is, so we¡¯re going to have to escape outside and burn the place to the ground eventually. It¡¯s a waste of time.¡± ¡°...¡± Was this really Japan? They were all insane. They had a variety of opinions, but I couldn¡¯t keep up with any of them. ¡°I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s to make himself look important, but he always exaggerates everything he says. When treating a tiny scrape, he¡¯ll go on about infectious diseases... He probably just wants us to think we need him. So we can¡¯t rely on his reports. It makes me wonder what he¡¯s even doing.¡± After her unilateral complaints, Amou Neko left the vault after satisfying no one but herself. Just like with Nagisa-chan, I could clearly see the difference between those inside and outside the bars. Once we were alone, the Mystery Freak spoke up in her Santa hat and reindeer scarf cap after not taking part in that previous conversation. ¡°Did you notice, detective?¡± ¡°Yes. We can only make our best guess since we aren¡¯t experts,¡± I said with a gulp. ¡°But I think they might be suffering from prison psychosis too.¡± It was a ridiculous theory. The two of us were imprisoned here, so it seemed wrong to also place our captors in the category of victim. However... ¡°They aren¡¯t in this bank because they want to be here. They think this is their only option because of all the zombies everywhere. You could say they kind of are imprisoned in the bank.¡± ¡°Honestly, self-made delusions really aren¡¯t funny when you take them this far.¡± ¡°Imprisonment situations are well-known for creating special mental states in both the victim and the perpetrator. Stockholm and Lima syndromes are the most well known. Nagisa-chan and the others may be coming apart little by little as much as we are.¡± ¡°But doesn¡¯t prison psychosis recover pretty dramatically when you head outside?¡± ¡°It depends on their definition of ¡®outside¡¯. Even if they leave the bank, Bozen City is full of zombies. Outside the city is also full of zombies. Everywhere is full of zombies. If that¡¯s how they see things, it¡¯s like placing a can in a suitcase, placing the suitcase in a safe, and placing the safe in the basement. They¡¯re still trapped in a larger cage, so they don¡¯t feel freed.¡± However, this shifted the risk up yet another gear. They were already afraid of nonexistent zombies, so if they were also coming down with prison psychosis, we could less and less hope that they would make rational decisions. Part 7 The next one to arrive was Sada Shirabe, the elderly man claiming to be a doctor. As soon as he stepped inside, the smell stabbed into me. More than mere blood, it was a phlegmy smell that made me think of a cream color with a muddy green added in. Perhaps because the vault¡¯s air was so still, the slight oddity quickly ruled he entire area. Whether for him or to discipline us, he held a few caramels in his hand, but he only looked saddened by them. He stood in front of the bars and stared at us through his glasses. ¡°It would seem you have overcome the initial rite of passage. Your reactions are rational.¡± ¡°Rite of passage?¡± ¡°If the conditions had been right, you would have become a zombie by about now. Personally, I would have welcomed the opportunity to obtain more samples.¡± ¡°...¡± I recalled the metal drums and what had looked like a human arm. My tension grew, but if this was a group of rioters, this man was not the only twisted one. ¡°You can tell humans and zombies apart?¡± ¡°Mostly. There are few distinctive traits like the eyes, skin, and hair, but that is not necessarily everything. And I cannot deny the possibility of a variety that is visually indistinguishable from a human. I would prefer to have more samples in order to make a clearer definition.¡± He slowly shook his head and sighed while rubbing the temples of his glasses. ¡°It isn¡¯t easy for a variety of reasons. The zombies keep moving even if you crush their head or stab them through the heart. We have been decapitating them to make sure they cannot bite us, but it¡¯s hard to call that a fundamental solution.¡± What did the world look like in his eyes? ¡°But when they are burned such as with Amou¡¯s Molotov cocktails, autopsying the samples provides very little data. I want them as fresh as possible, but she does not know how to hold back. That¡¯s the dilemma here.¡± ¡°Does the fire kill the zombies?¡± ¡°Who can say? They stop moving because the heat destroys all of their muscles, but that doesn¡¯t mean they cease to function. While I will examine a burned zombie¡¯s skull, I¡¯m not about to stick my finger into its mouth.¡± Everything he said was insane, but I more or less understood what he was saying. There was a crazy social structure here. Nagisa-chan was their leader. I had wondered why since she was the youngest, a minor, couldn¡¯t drive, and had no special skills such as first-aid, but this seemed to be the answer. Sada wanted fresh samples, so he preferred Nagisa-chan and her cattle cleaver to Amou and her Molotov cocktails. And based on what Amou had said, those three were the only ones in the bank. From there, it was a matter of majority rule. Sada did not want Nagisa-chan to throw away her blade, so he would support her no matter what. That brought Nagisa-chan to the top regardless of what Amou thought. Of course, I didn¡¯t want to imagine what these ¡°samples¡± were in reality. In that case, they may not have been as solid a group as I had thought. Sada seemed to be in his late forties, so it couldn¡¯t be fun having to take caramels to make Nagisa-chan happy when she was closer to being his granddaughter¡¯s age than his daughter¡¯s age. And Amou¡¯s frustration had to be building up when her opinion was always ignored. It was possible something could tear them apart. However, that would be meaningless if they destroyed each other while we were still trapped behind these bars. In that case, we would meet the same fate as a bug in a cage when a child forgets to look after it. I had found the ignition switch, but we would be taken with them if I didn¡¯t use it right. ¡°Nagisa-chan said you were going to a JSDF or American base for help. I think she said the closest one is one hundred kilometers away. What do you think about that? Is it realistic?¡± ¡°It depends on the spread of the zombies and their total numbers. But our chances could change dramatically if I found a weakness in the zombies. I would have no complaints whatsoever if we could take them all out with a chemical like a gas or an acid.¡± He breathed a heavy sigh. There had been decent strength behind his words, but the basic premise seemed to have shifted when he continued. ¡°But I am against randomly leaving before we know more about them. Do you know what she¡¯s doing in between gathering weapons and food?¡± ¡°Which one? Nagisa-chan or Amou?¡± ¡°The high school girl.¡± That would be Nagisa-chan. ¡°She¡¯s placing duct tape on the road to spell out giant letters and piling up paper boxes and toilet paper to make campfires. She seems to be trying to send a message toward the sky, hoping a helicopter or something will see it. What do you think?¡± ¡°...¡± I decided it would be better not to honestly answer that it sounded like a strange ritual. ¡°She¡¯s losing focus when there could be zombies hiding anywhere and lighting large fires will draw their attention. And even if a helicopter does see the message, she can¡¯t stay there. That¡¯s no different than good, old-fashioned ding-dong dash. It looks rational at first, but there is no logic to her actions. Enough so that it seems dangerous to let her lead us around forever.¡± Nagisa-chan was rational. I started feeling faint when I heard that comment. This went beyond a foreign country¡¯s currency. I was pretty sure he was lowering the bar way too far there. ¡°But Amou is a problem too. What she¡¯s doing is the same as burning everyone away because she doesn¡¯t know what kind of pathogen she¡¯s dealing with. It¡¯s far too inefficient. And who knows if that will be enough to let her rest easy. Besides, do you know what she¡¯s doing now? Brewing alcohol.¡± ¡°Alcohol...?¡± Given my family, I frowned at that. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me she¡¯s getting drunk now of all times.¡± ¡°No, not even she is that careless. At the moment, she is acquiring gasoline around the city and weaponizing it, but she seems to understand that she will eventually reach a limit. So she is apparently trying to create fuel from potatoes and corn as an alternative.¡± It seemed reasonable enough at first, but... ¡°How long will that take to complete?¡± ¡°Who can say? I don¡¯t drink, so I don¡¯t know. But is she planning to stay here for years on end with those barrels? While I agree that leaving at random is a bad idea, our situation will only grow worse if we do that.¡± After saying what he had to say, Sada Shirabe touched the temples of his glasses and moved away from the bars. I had grasped the nuance here by this point. He was about to leave the vault. ¡°Anyway, if you two aren¡¯t turning into zombies, I will have to secure my samples elsewhere.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°And having more people to talk to is nice. Especially another man. ...To be honest, I was suffocating until now.¡± That was all. This time, Sada left the vault. He was a dangerous person. He had already autopsied several corpses (whether the people had already been dead or killed just to be autopsied was still a mystery) and he intended to continue doing it, but there was nothing I could do. It felt like the end of the world. I felt like he was transforming into something inhuman. Yes, like a senseless zombie that wandered around in search of fresh flesh. Part 8 (3rd person) When Hishigami Enbi, a girl wearing black clothes seemingly cobbled-together by decorative zippers, had first laid eyes on that detective, she had honestly wondered how he had survived this long. There were apparently people who lived their entire lives without getting caught in the middle of a single criminal incident, but that detective was not one of them. He had chosen a profession that required walking through those bloody scenes, so he should have had a greater risk than normal of losing his life. And yet... It happened inside the Glass House. The giant mansion¡¯s inner walls, floors, and ceilings were all made of transparent reinforced glass so the family could not keep secrets from each other. The luxurious residence looked like a glass case allowing a glimpse inside the structure of an ant colony, but a closed room murder had occurred on that stage with no blind spots. To solve the mystery and escape that mansion in the mountains alive, Hishigami Enbi had laid every trap she could to rattle the murderer. No, she had manipulated more than just the murderer. Sometimes with words, sometimes with information, sometimes with evidence, and sometimes with bluffs. She had thoroughly threatened, intimidated, tempted, negotiated with, cooperated with, appealed to the emotions of, lured with tears, and built up a sense of justice in everyone inside that mansion. She would have revealed the murderer¡¯s identity before long. No matter how much danger the process put anyone in and even if they were completely unaware they were running right toward the cliff, that had still been the shortest and quickest path to a resolution. But then that man had said something. That man who could have died at any time...no, that should have already died. ¡°Listen carefully, you little brat.¡± As the very last move to corner the murderer, that detective had taken the one and only action that had left Hishigami Enbi¡¯s predictions and control. ¡°We in the police don¡¯t head to the crime scene because we want to have fun solving a puzzle. We have no choice but to hunt down the criminal because it¡¯s necessary to save the person in front of our eyes. In that sense, your method earns zero points. Your answer won¡¯t protect anyone.¡± Under normal circumstances, she would likely have scoffed at the idea. If it had been an adult who continued growing old without knowing just how cruel the world was, speaking down to her would never have reached her. But that detective had been sitting on the floor with his back against a transparent wall. An arrow was stabbed into his side and a dark red liquid was seeping into his suit through the shirt. It had been a simple gamble. She had set things up so that detective would run into the murderer. It would have ended without incident had the detective sold her out to escape harm. She had built up her plan from the very, very beginning under the assumption she would be betrayed, but that detective had broken free of her spell. In the very, very end, he had chosen to trust the girl and had continued covering for her. But not because he was stupid. He had done it knowing he was being deceived. ¡°That was a meaningless action.¡± At the time, those were the only words she had been able to force out. She assumed she knew everything there was to know about him with that, but he had said more. ¡°Perhaps.¡± He gave a slight smile and sounded satisfied with the result. ¡°But that action managed to save at least one person here.¡± He reached his limit then. He had fallen to the side and collapsed on the transparent floor. He may have gone into shock due to blood loss because he had not opened his eyes afterwards. All of the Glass House¡¯s exits had been sealed, so there was no way to get him out of there. Unless, that is, one acquired the key ring the murderer had used to seal those exits. ¡°...¡± Hishigami Enbi had always faced even the most difficult case and coldly solved it, but on that day, her thoughts branched out to a completely different process for the first time in her life. She would solve this case for someone other than herself. She was intent on saving Detective Uchimaku Hayabusa who had continued believing her despite knowing it was a trap. She would repay him for feeling that way. With determination in her heart, that Hishigami Woman walked through the Glass House once more. Part 9 How much time had passed since we had been closed inside the bank vault? It felt like just a few minutes, but it also seemed like we had been left all alone for several days. I had lost all sense of time. I felt like I had been diluted away like a single drop of ink in a giant lake. It was a movement from the Mystery Freak that broke me free of that gentle decay. ¡°...?¡± At first, I thought she was cold. I thought about giving her my cardigan, but something was wrong. Her trembling wasn¡¯t stopping. In fact, it was growing at an accelerated rate. She had been holding her knees in her arms, but the next thing I knew, she had collapsed to the cold floor. She lay on her side and her entire back seemed to writhe about instead of just her arms and legs. ¡°Hey, Mystery Freak? What¡¯s going on? Dammit!!¡± Something like foam was coming from the corner of her mouth. The switchover between esophagus and trachea wasn¡¯t working properly, so the saliva and stomach acids were mixing with the air. I considered the possibility of the food from Nagisa-chan having been poisoned, but I quickly rejected it. She had barely eaten anything. There were some substances that could kill a human with just 1% of a gram and there were some slow-acting poisons, but there was no point in using a slow-acting poison when they had us imprisoned behind bars. They could easily have killed us with that cattle cleaver if they had wanted to. Which meant... ¡°Has her prison psychosis gotten so bad it¡¯s messing with her autonomic nerves!?¡± Her hips hopped unnaturally from the floor, the scarf cap danced around, and even more foam came from her mouth. Oh, no. She won¡¯t be able to breathe!! ¡°Can you hear me? Hey, can you hear me!? Spit it out!! If you don¡¯t clear your windpipe, you¡¯ll die!!¡± ¡°...¡± Her eerily wriggling throat stopped moving a little. It wasn¡¯t that she couldn¡¯t hear me. What was this? Was she just hesitant to do something so shameful in front of a guy? This wasn¡¯t the time for that! ¡°You idiot!!¡± I didn¡¯t have time to get her consent. I leaned over her writhing body and forced my right hand¡¯s index and middle finger between her tiny lips. I was trying to secure a path for her to breathe even if I had to force it open. That was when a solid pain raced through my fingers. I didn¡¯t know if she was conscious or not and the pain didn¡¯t matter. I continued moving my fingers while doing my very best to ignore the horrifying sensation that pierced the flesh and even reached the bone. I opened her mouth wide and scraped out what had built up inside. ¡°Ghahh!? Cough, cough!!¡± After a sticky sound, she started coughing. I could hear her beginning to breathe again, even if it did whistle like a broken flute. However, that did not eliminate the prison psychosis itself. She gave me an oddly relaxed smile while I was practically leaning over her. Was she really looking at me? ¡°Yes...that¡¯s right, detective. I had justified my actions by assuming that anyone would do the same thing in such an extreme situation. That¡¯s why I realized something when I saw you: people never have to lose sight of themselves if they work at it hard enough.¡± ¡°...?¡± What was she talking about? No. ¡°When¡± was this Enbi from? ¡°I rethought who I had been in the past. I changed my hairstyle, I chose cute clothes, and I thought about whether I really needed to keep an ulterior motive in everything I said. Yes, it¡¯s thanks to you that I changed from being a mystery solving device to an actual girl.¡± Her eyes seemed focused on some distant age. She had left me behind in the present as she spoke. ¡°But it was no use...¡± ¡°What was?¡± I knew she couldn¡¯t really hear me, but I asked anyway. Her ranting words apologized to someone other than me. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry, detective. In the end, I couldn¡¯t do anything as normal as solve problems for someone else. I was only pretending to and I was gradually moving further and further away from it. Maybe in the end, a Hishigami Woman is only a Hishigami Woman... We can only destroy things, not create them. We can only take people from this world, not protect them. I can see why the main branch hates us so much...¡± I don¡¯t care about that. ¡°But you treated me like a living creature.¡± The Hishigami Women don¡¯t matter. ¡°I¡¯m the worst possible Thanatos and maybe I shouldn¡¯t have been born, but that at least made me happy. It made me glad I was born. So I¡¯m grateful, detective. I¡¯m grateful, but I can¡¯t become the kind of person you think I am...¡± Your habit of inappropriately showing up at dangerous crime scenes isn¡¯t an issue. It doesn¡¯t matter in the slightest that you gather information from who-knows-where, hunt down murderers in absurd ways, and keep the smell of death as a constant companion. You¡¯ve seen it, haven¡¯t you? You¡¯ve seen that final connection to the people who were caught in unreasonable crimes and dragged into the darkness. You¡¯ve seen those desperate scratch marks. You¡¯ve probably seen them even more than a police officer like me. There were countless cases we in the police would never have been able to solve without you!! I was reminded of the rumored motto of the Hishigami family¡¯s main branch: The Hishigami Woman bring calamity. ¡°Listen carefully.¡± I started feeling dizzy. As if the panic were contagious, the world around me went mad. The whistling of the cold wind grew louder. I clenched my teeth, ignored it, and shouted at the top of my lungs. ¡°At the very least, you aren¡¯t someone who should have been killed the instant you were born because you bring calamity by the very act of breathing!! And if anyone tries to treat you that way, I¡¯ll do something about it. That¡¯s a job for the police!! Don¡¯t forget that!!¡± Getting my emotions worked up may have only made it worse. The whistling of the wind seemed to be filling my head. I felt even dizzier and I started to lose my balance. I couldn¡¯t let myself crush the Mystery Freak below me, so I too collapsed onto my side. Was this it? Was this the end? There wasn¡¯t any real threat outside and Nagisa-chan¡¯s group didn¡¯t intend to kill us, but were we going to roll on our backs and shrivel up like a bug in a cage when a child forgets to look after it? The auditory hallucination grew unbelievably loud. The sound seemed to take over all of my senses like I was being swarmed by invisible army ants. ¡°...?¡± But as I abandoned myself to the sound, I finally realized something. I pressed my ear against the cold floor and actually tried to hear the sound for once. ...You¡¯re kidding. ¡°I can hear it.¡± ¡°What...is it, detective?¡± ¡°The wind!! I can hear it below the floor. But why!?¡± I reached into my pocket, pulled out the stainless steel pen attached to the memo pad, held it in my fist, and stabbed it into the vault floor. It may have looked like I had gone completely insane, but my actions bore fruit. ¡°It¡¯s crumbling.¡± At first, I couldn¡¯t believe it myself. ¡°The floor is crumbling!! It connects to somewhere!!¡± My mind made an explosion of connections. In the rental car on the way to Bozen City, I had been the one to mention the high crime rate in rural areas and the robbers who dug tunnels to bank vaults. Was this a case of that? The whistling wind hadn¡¯t been a hallucination at all. What if it had been getting in from this hand dug tunnel that was only separated by a thin layer? ¡°Wake up, Mystery Freak.¡± ¡°Hm...?¡± ¡°There¡¯s an exit! We can get out!! So look, Mystery Freak!!¡± I had only opened a fist-sized hole, but I could feel the cold air flowing in. It was completely different from the vault¡¯s stagnant air. It held the biting chill of the outside air. Prison psychosis sometimes improved dramatically when freed from one¡¯s bonds. As the existence of this obvious exit gradually worked its way into the Miniskirt Bikini Santa Mystery Freak¡¯s mind, her eyes seemed to begin focusing on reality once more. But... I heard a heavy metallic rumbling. The round vault door was slowly, slowly opening. ¡°...!!¡± My throat dried up. Why now!? That Hishigami crest would never open when we wanted it to!! We couldn¡¯t let Nagisa-chan, Amou, and Sada find this hole. They were trying to ¡°protect¡± us, but they also feared the zombies. Who could say how angry they would be if they discovered a hole to the outside world not a part of their ¡°pathway¡± to guide the zombies like fish. But at the same time, we had a goal now. If we could get through this one conversation and they left the vault, we could dig our way out and escape right away. We had thirty seconds until the door fully opened. We didn¡¯t have time, so I removed my cardigan, placed it over the fist-sized hole, and lay the weakened Mystery Freak on it. Then the time came. ¡°We¡¯ll be having you help with our field work starting tomorrow, so I wanted to have a meeting now. Getting lost on your first outing could cost you your life.¡± ¡°You really are lucky. And what is this? It kind of stinks in here...¡± ¡°It reminds me of stomach acid. Perhaps I should inspect them.¡± To make matters worse, it was all three of them. If any one of them had some doubts and decided to investigate inside the bars, they would easily find the hole. If that happened, it was even possible they would kill us on the spot. So I would use everything at my disposal. I had to remember everything. Their group was not as solid as it seemed. And the things each one had not said could be surmised from what the others said. Even while imprisoned in this vault, I could guess at the problems facing them. There was a fatal crack from something that had happened here. If I could expose that, they would have difficulty maintaining their temporary alliance. I had to think back to that insane Glass House. The biggest key to magic tricks wasn¡¯t some grand contraption. It was misdirection. To complete our magical escape act, I needed to gather the necessary cards. With that in mind, I had to set up the rules. What did I want to do most? Solve the mystery of what had happened here? Catch the criminal who had chopped up his so-called samples? Snap these three out of their zombie delusion? It wasn¡¯t any of those. It was Hishigami Enbi. She was an exception among exceptions, but she was still a minor civilian and I had to get her out of here safely. I had to abandon all else. Arresting the criminal could wait. Their delusions could be handled by a counselor. I didn¡¯t need any weapons and I didn¡¯t need to defeat anyone. I wasn¡¯t a pacifist, but to ensure Enbi¡¯s safety, starting a big fight was not the best idea. That was why I chose a route with no deaths. Of course, I couldn¡¯t just use a random bluff. If the misdirection for my magic trip failed, my card-handling skills and trick box would be useless. They would quickly reach the secret of the hole in the floor. They wouldn¡¯t bite unless it was true. However, I couldn¡¯t just insist there were no zombies. They were basing everything on the assumption that there were zombies, so even if there were no zombies, I couldn¡¯t draw their attention unless I was pretending there were. This wasn¡¯t about the existence of zombies or lack thereof. I had to think about what had driven them to act in this world that they believed was full of zombies. And with that, I had to solve this. Nagisa-chan, Amou Neko, and Sada Shirabe¡¯s relationship had fallen apart long ago, so I only had to draw their attention to that pain. That would probably work best. I knew what I had to do. I knew what I would gain if I succeeded and I knew what I would lose if I failed. It was show time. This was a once-in-a-lifetime game with our lives on the line. Part 10 Nagisa-chan and I faced each other through the cold metal bars. Amou Neko and Sada Shirabe stood on either side of her. They clearly had the upper hand here. They did not need to open the bars and throwing a single Molotov cocktail inside would surround us in flames and smoke. They held our lives in their hands, but I still opened my mouth. ¡°Nagisa-chan.¡± ¡°What is it...?¡± ¡°If there really are zombies out there, I agree that¡¯s bad. It would be best if we all worked together to fight them. We need to be working too, not just sitting here being protected by you. But...¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Can we really wait around like this? I don¡¯t think our enemies are only on the outside.¡± I could almost feel tension freezing the air. The first one to bite was Amou Neko the firefighter. ¡°Are you saying we¡¯ll turn against Nagisa-chan and betray her? Why would we!? There¡¯s nothing in it for us. If anything, we need more people here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not talking about that,¡± I cut in. ¡°Hey, Nagisa-chan. I bet you could chop off human limbs and heads using that large cattle cleaver you have there, but since you have to get close to the zombies to use it, it probably doesn¡¯t help much when fighting a large group. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± ¡°Good boy. Have a caramel. Yes, the zombies are as strong as bears... We can get by if we use weapons to escape that advantage of theirs, but there¡¯s nothing we can do if a bunch of them grab at us and knock us down.¡± ¡°And to deal with groups like that, Amou Neko¡¯s Molotov cocktails come in handy. But of course, that leaves the zombie¡¯s corpse ¨C remains? ¨C completely burned.¡± ¡°What about it?¡± Amou sounded suspicious as she held the oil lighter hanging in front of her track suit¡¯s chest. I slowly exhaled and continued. ¡°Then who are the samples being autopsied in the examining room?¡± ¡°...¡± Sada Shirabe fell silent. I could see some slight sweat on his noticeably wrinkled skin. ¡°Based on what you¡¯ve been saying, you haven¡¯t autopsied just one zombie. You seem to have safely acquired several zombies for that, but Nagisa-chan¡¯s weapon isn¡¯t suited for large groups and the Molotov cocktails would leave them too burned to use as a sample. Then how did you get them?¡± I of course had an idea. ¡°That leads me to suspect it has to do with the reason we¡¯re being imprisoned here. You said you tried rescuing some people isolated in the city, but giving them too much freedom allowed the zombies to attack and wipe them out while transferring them from the microbus to the bank. That¡¯s why you aren¡¯t giving us any freedom. In other words, you would have had a lot of zombies there. Or should I call them possible future zombies?¡± I didn¡¯t know how long they thought it took for a bitten person to become a zombie. I also didn¡¯t know if only the dead became zombies or if even the living would if they were bitten. However, this was a likely delusion and a simple image they could easily share. Plus, Sada Shirabe had said we would have become zombies ¡°by about now¡±. ¡°Defeating a completed zombie isn¡¯t easy, but what if they¡¯re in the process of ¡®turning¡¯? For Nagisa-chan...no, for Sada Shirabe, that accident was probably an amazing opportunity. He could easily acquire more samples then he could have hoped for otherwise.¡± But what had happened in reality? Had the microbus been attacked in a conflict between human groups? Had that irrational group looked like zombies to Nagisa-chan¡¯s group? Had they decided no human could do something like that? ¡°What about it?¡± calmly asked Nagisa-chan. ¡°It¡¯s true Sada-san acquired plenty of samples and chopped them up in that room, but so what? We aren¡¯t worried about what happens to the zombies¡¯ bodies. They aren¡¯t alive and they aren¡¯t human. I see no reason for you to accuse us of wrongdoing.¡± ¡°But Sada Shirabe still hasn¡¯t found a weakness in the zombies.¡± The elderly man¡¯s shoulders shook. ¡°He¡¯s so worried that he even came to the vault to see if we had become zombies. After all, if he doesn¡¯t find anything, he loses his place here. He seems to have positioned himself below Nagisa-chan to hold Amou in check, but he doesn¡¯t want to keep sucking up to her forever.¡± So... ¡°He needs as many samples as he can get. And if he can¡¯t get any new ones, he doesn¡¯t want to use up his current stock. Just like someone who can¡¯t buy a new car will fix up their old one and use it.¡± ¡°You-...!!¡± ¡°Get to the point.¡± Sada tried to shout in anger, but Nagisa-chan cut him off. Her voice almost seemed to ooze out. ¡°The autopsied samples are taken outside and burned by Amou Neko. You don¡¯t know if the zombies can keep reviving forever, but you don¡¯t want one to get up from the examination table.¡± ¡°What...what about it?¡± Amou toyed with her oil lighter and I slowly answered. ¡°Is that really happening?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°As I said, Sada Shirabe can¡¯t afford to lose his samples. If he can¡¯t get new ones, he has to reuse old ones. In that case, does he really have as many samples as he¡¯s told you? He can still use those old cars if he fixes them up, so is he really sending them out to be scrapped?¡± ¡°Lies!!¡± shouted Sada Shirabe. ¡°If...if I were doing that, those zombies would be flooding our living space from within the bank! It would render our safe zone created by diverting their curiosity completely useless!!¡± ¡°True.¡± I held my hand out to the side. I held the Mystery Freak¡¯s smartphone and showed them the screen. ¡°But you were willing to take that risk in order to reverse this little society where you¡¯re pushed around by these young girls, weren¡¯t you?¡± It showed the examining room just as Sada Shirabe opened the door. What seemed to be a human arm was visible sticking out of a metal drum. At the very least, it did not seem to be burned black by a great heat. No matter how well-ventilated it was, doing that in the bank would fill the building with smoke, so they wouldn¡¯t have done that in the first place. ¡°At the very least, there is an unburned arm in the examining room right now.¡± I said it like I was speaking to small children. ¡°So shouldn¡¯t you go check on that? If the owner of that arm isn¡¯t being watched, who knows when it¡¯ll start moving.¡± The fear of zombies had to be the top priority for them. It was a shared fear or a group delusion. So they would act. Even if it meant doubting one of their own and even if it was only a tiny doubt, they could not rest easy until they had completely erased that doubt. I felt the flow of air changing. Good. The setup for my magic trick was complete. If their focus was directed away from the vault for five or ten minutes, we could widen the hole in the floor, slip out, and escape outside. That way I could save Enbi without anyone having to die. ¡°Good boy. You really are Shinobu-chan¡¯s uncle. And just to be sure...¡± ¡°Wait.¡± ¡°Yes, just to be sure.¡± Nagisa-chan turned toward the exit, Sada Shirabe grew nervous, and Amou Neko showed no sign of defending him as they all moved toward the exit. But just before they left... ¡°...¡± I heard a hoarse voice. The Mystery Freak¡¯s mouth was moving as she lay on the floor. ¡°Yes. Sada Shirabe wanted to obtain more samples...¡± En...bi? I didn¡¯t know what she was trying to do. Why would she stop them from leaving? ¡°If he could find a weakness in the zombies before anyone else, his position would be secure. That meant he could not leave his supply of samples up to chance...¡± Wait. But... ¡°The zombies search for their targets by smell, so they couldn¡¯t find a target inside a bus that had all its windows closed. ...Unless, that is, someone pressed the AC switch to let out the bus¡¯s air and thus its smells.¡± There¡¯s no logical reason to take this any further!! ¡°If Sada was driving the microbus like he was that light truck, then it wouldn¡¯t have been hard to press the AC switch right next to him. If he left behind that hint for the zombies and left the bus in order to open the bank¡¯s door, he could watch from safety as the survivors were attacked. That way he would have a safe and secure supply of future samples.¡± ................................................................................................................................................................................................... Nagisa-chan turned her head to look at Sada Shirabe. The amount of sweat pouring from his face was impossible to ignore now. The Hishigami Woman¡¯s box of death had been opened. ¡°I-it¡¯s not true...¡± ¡°What isn¡¯t?¡± ¡°She¡¯s making it up!! I...I didn¡¯t do that! She¡¯s just guessing! What proof does anyone have!?¡± That didn¡¯t matter. This was a tiny society supported by delusion. They had to understand that after carrying deadly weapons in front of a police officer and shamelessly announcing that they had at least chopped up human corpses without permission. Normal investigation and questioning standards weren¡¯t going to work here. No one cared how anyone treated zombies under that insane world¡¯s rules, but what about living humans? Nagisa-chan had ¡°protected¡± the Mystery Freak and me, so wouldn¡¯t that be a major taboo? In that case, how would Sada Shirabe be treated under those rules upheld by just these three people? Who would make the final judgment? Nagisa-chan tossed a caramel between the bars. ¡°I think we might just have to exile you.¡± She placed a hand on the elderly man¡¯s shoulder. He tried shouting and brushing it off, but she held on with a vicelike grip. The long cattle cleaver named Namagusa glittered in her other hand. Next, Amou Neko held the oil lighter at her chest and used the other hand to grab Sada Shirabe¡¯s arm. Held on both sides, he was practically dragged out of the vault. Nagisa-chan looked back just once. She gave us the smile one gave a kind neighbor who had pointed out a problem. ¡°Wait just a moment.¡± I heard a scream, but even that was sealed away as the round door closed with a mechanical rumbling. I blankly looked over at the Mystery Freak. ¡°Why did you go that far? We could have kept anyone from dying.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°All we needed to do was escape from here!! There was no reason to push them that far!!¡± When I yelled in her ear, Enbi sluggishly looked over at me. Don¡¯t tell me... ¡°Because...I¡¯m a Hishigami Woman, so I¡¯ll solve the mystery...no matter what it takes...¡± Prison...psychosis. Was she staring at some different time and place? Had she made her observation as a simple reaction because she didn¡¯t have it in her to think about things like right and wrong? I grabbed and shook the metal bars, but they wouldn¡¯t budge. And even if I could break them, there was no way of getting through the meter thick Hishigami crest door. We could not save Sada Shirabe. And if they came back, it would all be for nothing. What was my original goal? Could I really let her die here? ¡°...!!!!!!¡± I moved on to my next task as if to shake something off of me. I moved the Mystery Freak and my cardigan aside and began swinging my stainless steel pen down on the crumbling floor. I destroyed the outside of the hole to widen it enough for someone to pass through. The hole was pitch black. I used my cellphone¡¯s backlight and found it wasn¡¯t all that deep. I climbed down first and supported the Mystery Freak from below as she slowly followed my instructions. Perhaps because she had been showing so much skin, she felt very cold. The scent of dirt was oppressively strong and the wind carried a biting chill. Still, we had gotten out. It was hard to say our performance warranted a perfect 100, but at the very least, we had achieved our goal of escaping imprisonment. The simple act of breathing felt like it was washing away the dark stain that had soaked into the depths of my mind. The prison psychosis was gradually going away. ¡°Are we...saved?¡± ¡°We are,¡± I told her while lending her my shoulder. ¡°I see no reason to doubt it.¡± She was dragging her unpleasantly cold body along, so she leaned against me to slowly share in my body heat. Then she gave a casual comment. ¡°What should we do when we get back?¡± ¡°I want to take a hot shower and sleep for three days straight.¡± ¡°You¡¯re young, so how about something more exciting?¡± ¡°Give me an example.¡± ¡°Well, you do have your arm around a girl as cute as this. Why not think about a date at an amusement park? If that¡¯s what¡¯s waiting for me, I think I could escape Bozen City even if the entire world were destroyed.¡± ... After some thought, I answered. ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°Eh!?¡± ¡°If that¡¯s all it takes to give you the hope to overcome this hell and to give you the resolve needed to face this hell without trying to escape in your mind, then I¡¯ll gladly go on a date with you just once.¡± ¡°Y-you!! Y-y-y-y-you, I, but... I¡¯m happy, but...I-I don¡¯t think I¡¯m ready in more ways than one...!!¡± She started stammering for some reason and I couldn¡¯t see her expression while lending her my shoulder. ¡°Just to be clear, I¡¯m only talking about spending some wholesome time together on one of my days off.¡± ¡°I love you, detective!! Smooch!!!!¡± ¡°You idiot! That¡¯s already leaving wholesome far behind! Don¡¯t hug me with all your strength like that!!¡± I tore the overly energetic Mystery Freak off of me. At any rate, this was over. We could finally say goodbye to that hellish box that Nagisa-chan and the others had created. Part 11 ... ... ... Something wasn¡¯t right. I realized that after walking for quite a while through the hand-dug tunnel. Yes. For quite a while. ¡°Detective, where are we? I feel like we¡¯ve been walking for half an hour now.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask me...¡± The tunnel was not flat. It moved up and down, but it seemed to be generally sloping downwards. We were continuing further and further toward the depths of the earth where no light could reach us. I started wondering if we had taken a wrong turn somewhere, but we couldn¡¯t turn back now. It was possible we had missed a small side tunnel somewhere, but if Nagisa-chan¡¯s group had pursued us, turning back would take us right to them. Where were we? Where had we wandered? I gulped and a few pieces of information randomly connected together in my mind. Not even I knew why I had made these connections. ¡ª¡ªWe had originally come to Bozen City in pursuit of several missing person cases from over ten years ago. ¡ª¡ªNagisa-chan¡¯s group had moved between the bank in the mountain and the city at the base using a portion of the tunnels known as Mikuchi-sama. Mikuchi-sama tunnels seemed to exist all throughout the mountain like an ant colony. ¡°Detective... Did the robbers who went after that bank really dig the entire tunnel on their own? What if...¡± ¡°What if they used the Mikuchi-sama tunnel as a starting point to make their job easier?¡± ¡ª¡ªI had heard the name Mikuchi-sama at a festival back when I was in school. However, the roots of that name were not exactly pleasant. ¡°Oh...¡± I noticed a smell. It was a unique smell one would never find in an untouched abandoned house. It was a human smell that reminded me of dried sweat built up over a long period of time. I could tell it was reaching us from beyond the still darkness that my cellphone¡¯s backlight couldn¡¯t reach. It came back to me as I heard an odd noise. They were snippets of what became of that festival''s origin. ¡ª¡ªMikuchi-sama was a giant hole at the peak of the mountain that sinners were thrown into. But if the people¡¯s hearts decayed, the calamity sealed in that hole would burst out. ¡°Dammit.¡± ¡ª¡ªWhere had those missing people gone? ¡ª¡ªMore importantly, what was that moving in the darkness now? ¡°There really were zombies?¡± There was nothing we could do. Countless muddy eyes reflected the cellphone backlight as they stared at us from the darkness. Volume 8, 3: Entrance to the Gaping Abyss that Looks Up toward Heaven by Hishigami Mai Volume 8, Chapter 3: Entrance to the Gaping Abyss that Looks Up toward Heaven by Hishigami Mai Part 1 A V-shaped flying wing owned by Hyakki Yakou flew three thousand meters above Bozen City. ¡°Hmm?¡± I twisted my hips and gently spun my arms to see how I was doing. Yeah, it tugs at the skin a little. I was wearing a Yozakura Ver. 3 made by Hishigami Biochemical Industries, with some of my own custom modifications made. There are nursing suits woven with flexible tape meant to extend one¡¯s back muscles, right? This used the same tech, but it covered me from shoulders to groin with a skintight material much like bike shorts. It also had collar and apron-like parts attached to make it look kunoichi-esque. It was mostly black and beige, but it also had some purple flower petals for decoration. It also partially covered my elbows and knees. ...Oh, and as a matter of taste rather than practicality, I had torn off the sickening Hishigami crest over my right breast. It provided no defense and was even more excessively decorative than bikini armor. But in my case, it was highly effective. After all, I had modified the human body below it, so I didn¡¯t need a solid defense that could deflect external attacks. I needed some strengthening to prevent me from destroying my own joints when I went all out. Why had I arranged to have this newly made? There were two major reasons. First, this job was not about infiltration or spying, so I didn¡¯t have to pretend to be a civilian. And second... ¡°If Majina¡¯s group is involved, Hishigami Shikimi will be there.¡± Hishigami Shikimi was the founder of the Hishigami line. That woman had truly lived for more than a thousand years and yet was still active. Her anti-aging techniques were so effective that her physical body apparently grew younger as the years past. I had lost to her once and she had easily swept me aside. But unfortunately, this field didn¡¯t allow me to just say no because I was no match for her. If I didn¡¯t have a method to kill her, I had to find a new method. That was what a professional did. The small canine Youkai rubbing his cheek against my leg hesitantly spoke up. ¡°I-is Majina-sama, um, really connected to this incident?¡± ¡°Most likely. And even if he isn¡¯t, we still need to break in and resolve it as quickly as possible.¡± The people caught in Bozen City¡¯s zombie panic may have been hoping for someone ¨C anyone ¨C to show up and save them. Whether it was the police or the military, they wanted someone to bring an end to the city¡¯s insanity. But that wouldn¡¯t work and there was a simple reason why. ¡°After all, the zombie panic may have started in Bozen City, but it has spread to thirteen different cities in five regions. Once it reaches a certain point, they won¡¯t be able to seal the cities off anymore and the panic will cover all of Japan. Hyakki Yakou isn¡¯t stupid. Normally, the Top 5 would have detected this and put together a countermeasure before it progressed this far. Since they were so late, the odds are good someone with a deep knowledge of Hyakki Yakou¡¯s methods planned it out.¡± ¡°And Bozen City...is at the center of it all?¡± ¡°Everyone was slow to catch on, so the police, the JSDF, and even our field were late to react. The cup of water is already about to overflow. But if we stop things here, it¡¯ll all be over. I¡¯m sure that¡¯s accurate, but it seems too blatant. They¡¯re probably confident they can handle an infiltration by the young lady and her Hyakki Yakou.¡± When it came down to pure firepower, the current Hyakki Yakou was the greatest force in the nation. They had plenty of ways to wipe an entire city from the map and the Top 5 could each sink a continent if they went all out. But the real problem was Hishigami Shikimi. Just like me ¨C if not more than me ¨C she was the worst of the Hishigami Women. Her raison d''¨ºtre was to destroy stable organizations and societal systems, so Hyakki Yakou would be the ultimate bait. If she was caught in a giant explosion, she would undoubtedly fake her death and make a comeback. Sending in the Top 5 with their ridiculous firepower would let her manipulate them and lead them toward self-destruction. Not to mention that Hyakki Yakou was caught between father and daughter at the moment. They didn¡¯t know which one to follow, so they would definitely collapse if they tried a traditional attack. And if I could figure that out, then Hishigami Shikimi¡¯s mind had to be filled with far, farrrr more gruesome methods. ¡°Why would Majina-sama do this? What is he thinking?¡± ¡°Who knows. He hid in the shadows of history for a decade, let those idiots live while thinking they¡¯d assassinated him, and couldn¡¯t even take revenge for the attempt on his wife¡¯s life. Who knows how much that boiled his heart. He said something about taking Hyakki Yakou from the young lady, but what does that have to do with this zombie panic? I¡¯m not even sure why he started wanting Hyakki Yakou again after all this time. But...¡± ¡°But?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not some middle school girl fidgeting in unrequited love. If I want to know how he feels, I just have to find him and ask him.¡± I made it sound simple. I had to do the same thing no matter who my enemy was. If I started thinking about some special way of dealing with that special enemy, I had already been swallowed up by them. Never wavering no matter what was one form of strength. ¡°First, I¡¯ll defeat Hishigami Shikimi as a fellow Hishigami Woman.¡± My voice was nearly singing. ¡°We can send in the Top 5 once that tricky woman has been defeated. After that, normal firepower can do the talking. We¡¯ll have better odds of pushing Majina¡¯s group back with pure numbers too.¡± That said, the Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi that had appeared at the end was a complete unknown. ¡°Th-then you know where Majina-sama¡¯s group is hiding?¡± ¡°Mt. Boseki, one of the mountains bordering Bozen City. More specifically, in the network of tunnels filling that dormant volcano like a labyrinth. Aka Mikuchi-sama.¡± My preparations were complete. To make our final greeting, the Sunekosuri and I walked through the traditional Japanese-style interior of the plane to meet the young lady who led Hyakki Yakou. The scent of incense filled the room where a small girl in thick mourning clothes sat. A canine Youkai even smaller than the Sunekosuri (only about five centimeters) sat across from her. Or rather, it was chowing down on a small plate of chicken. ¡°So good!! I can¡¯t get enough of your chicken, Hafuri-sama! Munch, munch!!¡± ¡°Heh heh. The chicken isn¡¯t going to run away. And there¡¯s plenty more, so slow down and savor it.¡± The Sunekosuri¡¯s fur bristled at the sight. ¡°Waaahh!! G-Gisuke!? How can you be so rude in front of Hafuri-sama!?¡± ¡°Oh, dad. Hafuri-sama is an expert cook! Munch, munch! You¡¯ll understand if you try some! I set some aside for you here! Munch, munch!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk with your mouth full. ...And I¡¯m so sorry, Hafuri-sama! I¡¯ll have him move elsewhere, so please forgive him!!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind. I enjoy it more when he can relax.¡± ¡°Oh, Hafuri-sama, I want to rub up against you now!¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Let me move my legs over. Come here, Gisuke.¡± Hmm. She may have disliked the way all of her bodyguards would pat her head. She seemed to be letting off some steam no that she had found someone she could act like an older sister to. Hmm! She¡¯s so damn cute!! If I had the time, I¡¯d pat her head like crazy!!!! (¡ûVicious circle) The room may have seemed extremely calming, but there was actually something horribly off about it. There was a two meter or more family crest of pure gold directly behind the young lady. Normally, it would have been worth hundreds of millions of yen. But it had been sliced in two by a sword. Hyakki Yakou believed in blood. Majina was the pure-blooded father and Hafuri was the half-blooded daughter. If the two came into conflict, it was obvious who most of the organization would side with. Or it should have been. But the young lady had changed things. She had raised the paranormal sword prepared by one of the Top 5 and she had sliced that symbol of Hyakki Yakou in front of everyone. ¡°Not even I was aware of my mixed blood. I had no intention of hiding it.¡± With those words, she had turned the unbelievably sharp blade around, grabbed the tip, and held the hilt out towards the others. The slightest of tugs on the blade and she would have lost all of her fingers. ¡°If anyone does not wish to continue serving someone of impure blood, then slice me in half and store me in your household shrine. Just like this family crest. If that will maintain order in this small field and if it will prevent any further conflict with Majina¡¯s group, then I do not mind in the slightest.¡± If she had simply held up her blood or family name, she would not have been able to restrain the chaos. Hyakki Yakou would have broken apart and descended into chaos just as Majina had wanted. But that had not happened. It may have been that the battle with the Aoandon had given her the edge she needed to not simply rely on others. So the symbol worn by everyone here was now incomplete, like the crescent moon. They had sworn to bear the complete family crest only once Majina¡¯s group had been fully defeated. That said, it wasn¡¯t a perfect resolution. The many followers of the giant organization were watching carefully. If the young lady made any kind of mistake and failed to achieve results, she would be deemed unfit to lead and they would all join Majina. They would shift that way like a great avalanche. That meant she needed to brace herself now. ¡°I see you¡¯re ready to go.¡± ¡°More or less.¡± My target was the great hole known as Mikuchi-sama in the depths of Bozen City¡¯s Mt. Boseki. Breaking through the zombie-ridden city and making my way to the mountain would have been difficult, but as I¡¯d said, we were on the flying wing. Why bother with all that other stuff when I could strap on a parachute and jump straight down to the great hole on the mountain peak? It was apparently located near an unnatural dog square. ¡°Allow me to go back over our objective. We are hiring you to resolve the issue in Bozen City that has caused the zombie panic spreading to other regions as well. We also wish to eliminate Majina¡¯s group that we expect is closely related to all this. You will be the first wave and your top priority should be defeating Hishigami Shikimi.¡± ¡°Sure thing.¡± ¡°Majina claims to be the true leader of Hyakki Yakou and he intends to hijack the organization we have built. What that has to do with this zombie panic is still a mystery, but if this situation continues, it will do catastrophic damage to the nation of Japan. Please resolve this quickly, before that can happen.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do anything if you¡¯re willing to pay for it.¡± The parachute down was of course a one-way ticket. If I screwed up, they wouldn¡¯t be retrieving me. The mountain was surrounded by zombies and there were no blind spots in any direction. In fact, if the number of zombies continued growing at an accelerated rate, they would cover the entirety of Japan, so ¡°running away¡± quickly lost all meaning. Even so, I left the young lady¡¯s room and walked to the cargo room with its decompression equipment. It wasn¡¯t that I was filled with righteousness or revenge. It was simply that I risked my life on my jobs more often than not. The zombie panic may have looked like the end of the world to some, but it only looked a little more exciting than a normal day for me. ¡°...¡± The Sunekosuri had fallen silent at my feet, but he wasn¡¯t simply afraid of the zombies down below. ¡°What is it? Thinking of your estranged wife?¡± ¡°I had always assumed Ohatsu had been dragged into the darkness of this small field. That¡¯s why I charged head-first into it in order to find her when she suddenly disappeared,¡± intermittently explained the Sunekosuri. ¡°But she herself was a great darkness. She worked with Majina-sama, became the deepest portion of Hyakki Yakou, and now had a hand in this evil! My goal is no longer to rescue my wife. Even if it means sacrificing myself!!¡± ¡°Oryah.¡± I stepped lightly on the stuffed animal Youkai and he gave a cute ¡°bgyuh!!¡± cry just as he put on a serious expression. Yes, yes. That¡¯s the Sunekosuri I know. ¡°You¡¯re a harmless Youkai, so stop trying to act like the grim reaper. Making people pay for their crimes is the young lady¡¯s job. We¡¯re just her arms and legs, so we don¡¯t need to worry about it.¡± ¡°But she is my family!! That means I have to take responsibility!!¡± ¡°Do you put your personal feelings ahead of your work? The young lady hired me to swiftly end this zombie panic. To be blunt, I¡¯m not about to bring along someone dulled by personal feelings. It¡¯ll get in the way of our work.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°And on the other hand, how about I use personal feelings to motivate you? Why do you think your son Gisuke-chan has been hanging around the young lady so much?¡± ¡°Hm? Because Hafuri-sama is showing unwarranted kindness by looking after him?¡± ¡°No. Because he¡¯s stopping by every day, begging her to save his mom.¡± The young lady would have to face her own parents too. If only she would be so cutely honest, I might feel a little more motivated. Was she insistent on wearing those depressing mourning clothes because she was stubbornly insisting that the mourning period was not over until the ghosts had vanished? Then again, it was also cute how she was desperately trying to hold all that in. Now. It wasn¡¯t my job to transform that ¡°kind noise¡± into power. I always dealt with the dirty jobs. I had to dryly, digitally, and assuredly resolve this problem. Part 2 It was already pitch black outside. The pure white snow covering the ground made it difficult to tell how far away it was. Plus, the geothermal power plant on the slope stood out far more than the winding road or the mountain peak. It was small, so it may have been an experiment in the environmental energy and smart power systems that were all the rage lately. I could feel my eyes being drawn to it which would probably make me miss my target. Breaking your legs right off the bat was about as stupid as it could get, but it was a pretty common problem on battlefields. I carefully landed on the snow with the Sunekosuri in my arms. The Yozakura strengthened my joints, but it provided no defense against the cold. If not for my bodily modifications, the cold would have been unbearable. Bozen City apparently followed an old tradition of height equaling social status, but that made the peak a strange place for this strange dog square. I cut away the parachute, lowered the Sunekosuri to my feet, and asked a question. ¡°Now then, Sunekosuri. Based on Hyakki Yakou¡¯s analysis of a few zombies, this zombie panic has a lot to do with a Youkai known as the Kasha. So what is a Kasha?¡± ¡°Um, isn¡¯t it a cat Youkai surrounded by fire? I think it creates a gust of wind that blows open a coffin and steals sinners¡¯ corpses from the funeral or grave to eat their organs or something.¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s one legend, but that one only started in the Edo period. In the oldest legends, it¡¯s a burning chariot in Buddhism. It¡¯s said to be a type of Oni that carries the dead down to the depths of the earth.¡± ¡°Huh? But I kind of think there were other legends too.¡± ¡°Well, the Kasha has gotten mixed together with the Bakeneko as time has passed. Some stories say corpses begin to move when the Kasha approaches, but you can think of that as a mixture with the Bakeneko¡¯s stories. The trait is still just as effective, though.¡± Now, which image of the Kasha was Majina using? He had apparently rearranged a Sunekosuri named Ohatsu into an ¡°original darkness¡± and used her for both offense and defense, so he could easily use the image from any era. He could probably swap out the Youkai¡¯s powers and traits by the era as easily as switching a bicycle¡¯s gears. ¡°Does that mean the zombie panic comes from the sinner¡¯s corpses?¡± ¡°Well, there are a few different theories as to how the Kasha steals the corpses. Sometimes the Youkai directly carries them away and sometimes the corpses move on their own when it approaches.¡± ¡°The latter sounds exactly like a zombie.¡± ¡°But there weren¡¯t any legends about it spreading from corpse to corpse.¡± ¡°Then did he change something there?¡± ¡°Also, the Kasha doesn¡¯t control just any corpse. It has to be a sinner¡¯s corpse. ...But what is a sin? This is focused on Bozen City, Mt. Boseki, and Mikuchi-sama, so that question has to be related to the rules here. I want to investigate that.¡± ¡°What do you need for that?¡± ¡°The dog square at the peak. Those buildings seem to be guarding the Mikuchi-sama pit, so they smell fishy to me.¡± The wind seemed to cut through the dark night as we trudged through the still snow, crossed the broken fence, and approached the small cluster of one-story buildings. I saw no sign of human guards, sensors, or traps. I smashed the lock, walked in, and found a large empty space. There was no heater or lights. I thought for a bit before turning on a penlight and looking around. ¡°Was this a stable?¡± ¡°Most likely.¡± The inside was clean. There were no dog droppings or even any shed fur. It didn¡¯t even smell of animals. It was simply a large concrete structure with rows of chains and latches meant for holding animals. The Sunekosuri followed the path of the penlight and read off the name plates above the cells. ¡°Jirou, Hanako, Honoka, Hitomi, Taichi... Hmm, they sound more like cow names than dog names.¡± ¡°I know.¡± I lowered the penlight to the floor where I found some glittering silver metal. ¡°But I doubt they would put handcuffs on a cow.¡± At first, the Sunekosuri did not move in the slightest. Finally, he started to tremble and then looked around again. ¡°Wait...please wait! Then...you mean...this place was holding...¡± ¡°Yup.¡± ¡°Humans!? All of those nameplates were for humans!?¡± Now, then. Where had they gotten those humans from? Part 3 The entire dog square facility was deserted. I checked inside the residence for workers, but it was covered in dust and clearly didn¡¯t have anyone living in it. However, I did find a few interesting documents inside the rooms that had lost their owner¡¯s scent. ¡°Looks like this was officially a shrine, not a dog square. The workers were viewed as Shinto priests. The place was registered as a religious organization and even received grant money every year.¡± ¡°A shrine? What kind of god did they worship?¡± ¡°Mikuchi-sama, of course.¡± I tapped at the bundle of old Japanese paper. ¡°This mountain is actually a dormant volcano and there¡¯s a huge pit below the peak. Long ago, there was a famine and the city at the base was littered with corpses, but they apparently managed to prevent the spread of disease by throwing the corpses into the hole.¡± ¡°And they eventually started worshiping the hole as a god?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a little unclear whether the hole itself is the god or if they¡¯re worshiping the dead they threw in so they wouldn¡¯t hold a grudge. But things got weird as time passed. They apparently started throwing the badly injured, living criminals, and political enemies into the hole.¡± ¡°So anyone who disturbed society, tripped them up, got in the way, or were just too much trouble ended up in that category?¡± ¡°They were selfishly referred to as sinners.¡± That established a link to the Kasha incident. The Kasha stole sinners¡¯ corpses or made them move when it got close. That was all it originally did, but Mikuchi-sama rules branded any corpses or injured people as sinners. In other words, if you were critically wounded in a zombie attack, you would be infected with the ¡°sinner¡± label. ¡°I still don¡¯t believe it. And what about that stable? If they had a cycle built up to throw the village¡¯s rejects into the hole, they wouldn¡¯t need to capture them and raise them, would they?¡± The Sunekosuri did not seem particularly angry. He simply sounded sick of how the human mind came up with these ideas. However, it may have been a truly strange vision for the four-legged Youkai. ¡°It¡¯s not that unusual. Sunekosuri, are you familiar with the sacrificial process?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like the sound of that.¡± ¡°There are sacrificial ceremonies all across the world, but they tend to follow a few similar steps.¡± I raised my fingers with the penlight hand. ¡°The original deaths are generally coincidental. Someone collapses during a drought and then it rains, so people start to think there¡¯s a connection between the dead and the rain.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°But next time, they try to recreate it. They check to see if killing someone makes it rain. If another coincidence occurs, there¡¯s no stopping it. Once it¡¯s deemed cause and effect, they¡¯ll end up killing people as offerings on a yearly or monthly basis.¡± ¡°Are you saying that has something to do with this Mikuchi-sama?¡± ¡°This is a sacrifice too. Since they threw the corpses in to prevent the spread of disease, they could think disease will never happen if they keep throwing corpses in. It could even reach the point that they think the hole itself will spew out disease if they stop doing it. That kind of misunderstanding was pretty common in the days before knowledge of germs. Who they throw in can end up expanding because they can¡¯t find any corpses and they have to choose sinners from the living humans instead.¡± ¡°Then those people in the stable...¡± ¡°Once the sacrificial ceremony is established, the people will think they need a sacrifice, but they won¡¯t want to be chosen themselves. Since they can¡¯t ignore the ceremony, they start viewing the sacrifices as something special. They¡¯ll say the more noble the person, the more the god will be pleased. That way they can push the role onto someone other than themselves. They¡¯ll create a system that raises sacrifices cut off from the normal world. They don¡¯t have to know about them and can smoothly offer up complete strangers without feeling anything for them.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± ¡°When that desire to not be chosen continues further, they end up making dolls out of paper, wood, wheat, or corn, but it looks like Mikuchi-sama never made it that far. They raised people in the dog square and offered them up when needed. Since it came from a desire to not be chosen, they might have focused on capturing travelers.¡± After some more searching, we found something odd in the pet food processing building. It had a tiled floor, a stainless steel work table, and a bunch of spinning blades in one place (much like a sawmill¡¯s circular saw or band saw) for what may have been a mixer or disposer. It wasn¡¯t exactly pleasant imagining what had been carried by the gears and conveyer belt to be disposed of, but the problem lay beyond it. Behind a thick metal door, I found a stairway leading into the darkness underground. A thick shimenawa was hung over the top of the entrance and the stench of dirt rose from within. And to top it all off was the family crest of Hyakki Yakou...no, of the young lady¡¯s bloodline. It was thirty centimeters across and about eight centimeters thick. It was made of pure gold and hanging from the center of the shimenawa. ¡°Ohatsu,¡± muttered the Sunekosuri. ¡°Ohatsu had a hand in something like this while working with Majina-sama?¡± ¡°Who can say?¡± I neither confirmed nor denied that uncertain fact, but I did speculate based on what I had seen. ¡°But Majina¡¯s group may not have been running this facility.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°There was no human smell in that stable and the residence was covered in a fair bit of dust. The magazines and calendars sitting around didn¡¯t have dates more recent than about ten years ago. Now, what happened then?¡± ¡°Jinnai Shinobu interfered with Majina-sama¡¯s group in the past?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if it was for the Kasha, to use Mikuchi-sama, or just because they wanted a hideout. It¡¯s true they set their sights on this place, but based on the old dates, there¡¯s a possibility they took over the dog square and drove out the original owners.¡± ¡°B-but you¡¯re just guessing, right?¡± ¡°Then how about an interesting piece of information to back that up? Sunekosuri, based on the documents, this place was managed by someone named Sudou Taichi. Does that sound familiar?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure one of the nameplates in the stable said Taichi.¡± Someone had pretended to be a Shinto priest while abducting people and raising them like animals. What kind of revenge had the head of Japan¡¯s greatest occult organization taken on them? People on the underside of society loved that kind of thing, so it had probably been quite thorough. ¡°Th-then Mikuchi-sama was cleaned up once Majina-sama arrived?¡± ¡°At the very least, the sacrificial process may have advanced to the era of paper and wheat dolls instead of human sacrifices,¡± I agreed. ¡°But make no mistake. Advancing the sacrificial process means the ceremony has been refined just as much. And after ten years of that, it led to a zombie panic spreading across Japan. Cleaned up? That¡¯s exactly right. The imperfect threat was perfected into a stable weapon.¡± What lay ahead was a darkness much deeper than the dog square. If this was enough to shock him, then the rest would squeeze at his heart. Are you ready, Sunekosuri? We¡¯re about to visit a true hell. If you still wish for salvation, then you can¡¯t just cling to the truth. You need to have the guts to grab your wife¡¯s hand and pull her out of this muddy truth. Part 4 The wind roared. The giant pit seemed to continue forever. It was over twenty meters wide and I didn¡¯t want to think about how deep it was. The dirt and stone had been dug into to construct buildings and complex passageways all around the hole. Overall, it looked like a bunch of rundown shacks in a slum with wooden and bamboo scaffolding connecting them like narrow bridges. They must have had no intention of hiding it because the thousand-year-old Hyakki Yakou emblem was burned into the wood all over. Mikuchi-sama was filled with orange light. There were bare lightbulbs as well as candles and hanging lanterns. The lanterns used a wick soaked in a plate of oil rather than a candle. As we descended, we generally circled around the large hole. It felt like walking along a coil or a spring. ¡°This is where Majina-sama¡¯s group was?¡± ¡°You could call it their hideout, their secret base, or their zombie laboratory.¡± There were damp spots here and there, but that may have been due to a nearby water vein or spring. In addition to the shacks and scaffolding, there was a lot of digging equipment. This ranged from handheld equipment like shovels, pickaxes, and hammers to heavy machinery like a bulldozer and a power shovel. Wooden boxes were casually stuffed full of cylinders that probably had explosives inside. They didn¡¯t seem to have many subordinates, so had Majina and Shikimi tied a headband around their forehead and dug out the cave themselves? It sounded like everyone had it rough. ¡°But when creating a secret base, how you dispose of the dirt you¡¯ve dug out is the trickiest part. They did that and lived here for ten years without the slightest whisper reaching the outside world, so they really are monsters. I can¡¯t believe it.¡± ¡°?¡± The shacks had been given more and more rooms like a reckless stack of containers. I peeked inside one and saw a tatami mat room beyond wooden bars crisscrossing horizontally and vertically. ¡°Is that a cell?¡± ¡°Hm.¡± I grabbed a voice recorder hanging on the scaffolding¡¯s bamboo railing. It was as blatant as everything else. I hit the play button with my thumb and heard Majina¡¯s voice beyond some static. ¡°Every time I see them, the relics of our supposed ¡®glory days¡¯ make me sick. But I can never regain the lost methods to develop a Zashiki Warashi without following in their footsteps.¡± I listened while walking along and came across a slightly smaller cell. Further along, I found an even smaller one. As I kept walking, I found more and more, each smaller than the last. ¡°If they stripped a Zashiki Warashi bare and had their way with her in the name of research, then they were, without a doubt, monsters. But in their own monstrous way, they would be treating the Youkai the same as us through their lust. But what they did was different. In a way, they were far more awful than mere monsters.¡± ¡°W-wait a second,¡± said the Sunekosuri with fear in his voice. ¡°What is this...!?¡± The box in front of us was large enough to hold in your arms. If I were to climb inside, I would have to squeeze inside while holding my knees in my arms. Shrinking it any further could easily break all of the bones in one¡¯s body and leave only a lump of flesh behind. But... It went further... ¡°They did not even view Youkai as beings with a body and mind of their own. They viewed them as mere phenomena that happened to speak the same language as us and act on the same thoughts as us.¡± The next box was downright tiny. Each side was at most thirty centimeters across. It would be perfect for holding a birthday present. ¡°What they did was simple. They prepared a cell to rob the Youkai of their freedom. Next, they moved them to cages that gradually restricted their ability to live their lives. They could not eat, they could not sleep, they could barely walk around, they had no way of knowing the time, and eventually it was too small to fit inside. By letting them gradually grow accustomed to each step along the way, the Youkai would lose their body and mind. They would return to being a mere phenomenon.¡± ¡°What was...inside this?¡± The Sunekosuri gulped as he asked. There was only one Zashiki Warashi that Hyakki Yakou had done anything to. The surface of the box had a number blotted out with ink and ¡°Ver. 40¡± was written next to it. ¡°But...this is...but!? How much would a humanoid Youkai have to lose their humanoid form to fit inside this thirty centimeter box!?¡± This was a museum of the truth behind the ¡°glory days¡± of Hyakki Yakou several centuries ago. Majina had recreated it using immense amounts of data and his own definite skill. But unlike a Western wax figure museum with a torture theme, this was not an accurate model meant to point out the mistakes of the past and warn the present. ¡°Yes, and what makes me sick most of all,¡± spat out the voice, ¡°is that I¡¯m so worthless that I need something like this.¡± ¡°He¡¯s even more insane than I thought,¡± I summed up while stopping the voice recorder. Leaving all the documents out in the open both here and in the dog square up above had not been carelessness. It had likely been an attempt to confess. But rather than tell someone, he had found meaning in letting it out of his heart in some way or another. It may have been a lot like the story of King Midas and the donkey¡¯s ears. ¡°Basically, he made a wax figure torture museum, made his own personal customizations, and then threw his wife, that white Zashiki Warashi, into it. And that created the Ver. 40 that surpasses the Ver. 39. Maybe it¡¯s like sitting around on a sofa made of human skin.¡± ¡°Wh-what was Majina-sama trying to do?¡± ¡°That I can¡¯t tell you yet.¡± For ten years, Majina and Mei had watched the world continue under the assumption they were dead. Who could say how much that had broken them? I couldn¡¯t tell what they wanted from the Ver. 40 or the zombie panic. I couldn¡¯t see any direct connection to his apparent goal of taking Hyakki Yakou from the young lady. Or rather... ¡°He supposedly has a Zashiki Warashi that can construct a brand new destiny from nothing rather than change the existing destiny. If he has that, then he wouldn¡¯t need to bother with all this. He could directly mess with the world to make himself Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader.¡± ¡°Th-then is the Ver. 40...um, Mei-san not complete yet?¡± ¡°Do you really think Majina would be that inept?¡± Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi was complete. He could use it at any time and he had no reason to hesitate. Nevertheless, they never used that power to put us in checkmate. Why? ¡°No, that isn¡¯t it.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Maybe he¡¯s already using it. And for something that makes his return to Hyakki Yakou a secondary concern in comparison.¡± ¡°What would-...?¡± The Sunekosuri trailed off because someone appeared from behind one of the complex shacks as if dragging their heavy bodies along. There were two of them and they had huge chunks torn out of their shoulders, sides, and thighs. ¡°Eek!?¡± The Sunekosuri shrieked, but not because these were zombies. Every zombie had been a human at first. But the identity of these two zombies was a surprise. ¡°Uchimaku Hayabusa and Hishigami Enbi...? But, eh? But...it can¡¯t be...!?¡± ¡°Did they sniff out this incident like normal but were knocked out of the running? Honestly, there¡¯s no saving them when they take it this far.¡± When their blank eyes spotted us...or rather, spotted some fresh flesh that had yet to rot, they turned their heads our way. They had torn clothing, dry white hair, and red and purple mottled skin. With their tongues hanging out and their heads lolling weakly, they barely looked like their former selves. ¡°Is this any time to remain calm!? What do we do? How do we save them!?¡± ¡°Save them? How?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll save them if I can. I¡¯m willing to be flexible when it comes to family. But I¡¯m pretty sure this is a lost cause. I may be able to restore or swap out body parts to a certain extent, but not even I can save a brain that¡¯s already rotted away.¡± ¡°Th-then what do we do?¡± ¡°There¡¯s only one thing to do.¡± I clenched and opened my hand. I focused on the idea of a beast¡¯s claws. ¡°Whoever they were originally, an enemy has appeared before my eyes. I¡¯m not going to be nonsensically sentimental and say I want to destroy my family with my own hands. I¡¯m just going to defeat them and move on.¡± ¡°...............................................................................................................................................................!?¡± And Enbi. You didn¡¯t release your Hishigami Woman side even with that going on? She was second to none when it came to human opponents. Even if it meant eventually standing before that detective as the worst possible murderer, she might have been able to save him from the zombies ¡°for the time being¡± if she had released that side of herself. Or maybe she decided she would rather die by his side. ¡°Come here, human.¡± It felt so empty. Not sad, but empty. That was how I felt about a world with nothing but sacrifice. ¡°I¡¯ll bury you with that man you loved. Maybe that will make up for the sin of killing my family.¡± She replied with a roar. Both of them charged forward in perfect unison. Based on the speed and strength, they were probably about the same as a three hundred kilogram grizzly. A normal human wouldn¡¯t have stood a chance, but I was an exception. I would decapitate one with my first strike and behead the other a moment later. As soon as I planned out that accurate course, something else happened. Suddenly, a great power struck those full-power monsters and they crumbled to the ground. No one had touched them. It was blatantly paranormal, as if a shockwave had forced them down from every direction. ¡°What a pain.¡± I heard a voice from overhead. A woman said to have overdone her anti-aging to the point of shrinking stood on the wood and bamboo scaffolding arrayed in three dimensions. She had long white hair that seemed out of place on what otherwise looked like a girl. The hair was worn up like a giant flower, she wore a colorless white kimono, and she used a shimenawa in place of a sash. Stabbed in the ground was a golden three-pronged vajra that glittered to an ominous extent. ¡°I thought I¡¯d warned you not to justify the killing that really comes from your own weakness, final generation.¡± ¡°Hishigami...Shikimi!?¡± After those words, all illumination vanished from the large underground space: the bare lightbulbs, the candles, and the hanging lanterns. Like a switch had been thrown, everything went dark. ¡°...!! I had a feeling you¡¯d do that!!¡± I relied on my memories to grab a shovel that had been leaning up against a shack¡¯s wall. I swung it around and it must have struck the three-pronged vajra she had apparently picked back up because orange sparks flew. One of the hanging lanterns must have spilled its plate of oil because a flame burst out. The flames and oil fell to the ground and then spread to the surrounding shacks and cells. My eyes met those of a young face illuminated by scarlet flames. The careless Sunekosuri was still at my feet, so I kicked him back with my heel. Hishigami Shikimi was the oldest and leading killer of Youkai. When she faced a Youkai, it was harder for her not to kill it. Shikimi¡¯s white hair spread out. The next thing I knew, she had removed the top of her kimono, revealing an undershirt and bare shoulders. The poisonous flower had become a dangerous and deadly fruit. ¡°I had a feeling you would come here, but did you really think the final generation could hope to match the founder of the Hishigami line!?¡± ¡°I had a feeling you would be waiting here. But did you really think an ancient one-trick-pony could stay at the top forever!?¡± Nothing more was necessary. This battle had been decided before it began, so the two Hishigamis obeyed the pre-established harmony and clashed. Part 5 During the final stage of the conflict between Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon¡¯s group, Hishigami Shikimi had mocked me as an expert bluffer with no other skills. I had been completely at her mercy. She had been holding back, yet I had not even lasted three minutes. However, that was not because her bones or muscles were extremely strong. ¡°Hh!!¡± In the conflagration, Shikimi twisted her hips inside the white kimono. The golden three-pronged vajra in her hand fell like lightning. No matter where I ran, I would be forced to the ground like Enbi and the detective had been. That was not what I needed to do. I twisted my own body around and used the great strength I had acquired from the technology of those sickening Hishigami Men. And it was all to swing my shovel down. I half-forcibly destroyed the ground at my feet, creating a crack between Shikimi and me. That was all I did, yet it stopped Shikimi¡¯s attack. ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°You¡¯re the Hishigami Woman that specializes in combat. None of your attack methods are going to require targeting each individual person!!¡± ¡°So what!?¡± She swung the vajra and I blocked its tip with the metal part of the shovel. Orange sparks flew. I immediately noticed something invisible covering the surface of the shovel, as if crawling up the wooden handle from the point of contact. I quickly let go and grabbed a hammer that was as long as a wooden sword. I swung it to smash the mysteriously infected shovel in midair. A bursting sound came after a short delay. ¡°Your method is a terrain effect. It¡¯s probably something like the ¡®fill¡¯ tool in image editing software. You desecrate a surface based on the points of contact to remake it into your own field. Then you can freely influence any object, phenomenon, or life form in that field. Since you¡¯re using a three-pronged vajra, I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s based on Kobo Daishi¡¯s Flying Vajra. In that story, he threw a three-pronged vajra to determine the proper site for his headquarters and it stabbed into Mt. Koya!!¡± So if there was a crack in the ground, the ¡°fill¡± would be interrupted. So if I stuck the shovel in the way before it hit me, the target of the ¡°fill¡± would change. While I had strengthened my physical body to face Youkai, she created a ¡°killing territory¡± that weakened her target. Under the right conditions, this could cover an entire city or region at once. Then she could instantly kill every single soldier standing there. Even if a 6000 shots per minute Vulcan cannon or a cruise missile were fired her way, she could shoot them down, break them apart, remake them, destroy them, or neutralize them. She specialized in taking on large groups and her firepower was so great that accurately targeting a single person was difficult. But that didn¡¯t mean she was an immortal monster with no blind spots. If I didn¡¯t mess up my response, I could avoid an instant death! ¡°You can only rest easy when you¡¯re looking down on everyone else, so I¡¯m surprised you did so much research. How humiliating was it to realize the truth is much more useful then lies?¡± I ignored her and threw the giant hammer at her. The blunt weapon rotated horizontally, but she made no move to avoid it. ¡°But have you forgotten? The Flying Vajra covers a surface based on the points of contact, but why does that have to be limited to the ground?¡± ¡°Kh.¡± ¡°And I rule over a territory, not the land itself. In other words, my rule extends to the airspace directly above that surface as well.¡± As soon as I threw the hammer, I forced myself into a leap despite my unnatural stance. I felt my entire skeleton screaming in protest, but I had more to worry about. I left my body to the custom Yozakura that seemed like a creaking mass of rubber and springs. After all, Hishigami Shikimi had slammed her vajra into the wall of a shack. A dull sound burst out as the flying hammer crashed into that wall as if it had been pulled there by a powerful magnet. It also turned to stone. If I had stayed there, the same would have happened to me. When she struck the ground, it affected the area above it. When she struck the wall, it affected the area ¡°above¡± it but in the horizontal direction...in other words, straight ahead. It was like being targeted by the invisible spotlight of an electromagnetic weapon. But what exactly was this attack based in? Earth, ground, territory? No! ¡°A certain concept exists in almost every religion around the world.¡± Shikimi slowly turned her gaze toward my airborne body. ¡°Namely, holy ground. Just like the land on which Kobo Daishi chose to build his headquarters. And what is the greatest power that ties people to the earth?¡± I kicked left and right off the burning shack walls to escape upwards like a pinball. ¡°Tch. Universal gravitation!?¡± ¡°Precisely. As the planet pulls at us, we too pull at the planet. So you will pull power of this holy ground to yourself and cause it to burst inside your body. ...No human body can escape the power of the planet itself.¡± I could only remain airborne. My knees and hips were undamaged, so I had to praise the Yozakura suit. A head-on battle was not easy. The best plan was to escape outside the range of her ¡°fill¡± and use my handgun or whatever else to snipe her from within the smoke! But then Shikimi placed a hand on her hip and stared up at me. ¡°Did you think you could reach safety by fleeing high enough above the holy ground? But have you forgotten, final generation?¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°This is the depths of the earth. It is a single space surrounded in all directions by dirt.¡± ¡°...!!???¡± The three-pronged vajra had left her hand. She had thrown it to her feet where it stabbed into the ground. An instant later, I heard a high-pitched sound and something invisible spread out in no time at all. Shikimi¡¯s territory began at her feet, continued up the nearby wall, and instantly reached the darkness overhead. It was just like choosing the wrong spot and filling up the entire image. This ridiculous universal gravity attack had me pull the planet¡¯s disaster into myself and it rushed in at me from all 360 degrees. Oh... ¡°Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!¡± I could no longer worry about appearances. I pulled a wooden charm doll from the open chest of the kunoichi suit and a line of light burst out as if slicing through space. I forcibly pulled out my Shikigami that wore a short kimono. It was the Deadly Dragon Princess. The artificial lifeform moved back-to-back with me. The instant she showed any sign of movement, countless giant cracks ran through the entire underground space. Water poured out like a dam had burst and the solid bedrock crumbled. Cracks had cut apart and broken up Shikimi¡¯s territory. Then the murderous amount of water swirled, became a great dragon, and rushed toward Shikimi. ¡°Did you mess with the water vein?¡± The founder of the Hishigami line pulled the three-pronged vajra from the ground using its decorative thread and then grabbed it in one hand. ¡°But did you really think that would be enough to kill me?¡± All sound vanished. First, the Deadly Dragon Princess¡¯s fierce deluge froze over in an instant. As soon as the water dragon entered what little remaining territory she had, all of the water molecules froze in a chain reaction. The crumbling underground space stopped moving, like instant glue had been dumped over everything. But I had other things to worry about. By the time I heard an explosion, Hishigami Shikimi was already five centimeters in front of my face with vajra in hand. By the time I realized she had used her incredible leg strength to launch herself forward, she had taken her next action. First, she kicked the Deadly Dragon Princess away. Like two balls on strings clacking together, the kinetic energy was transferred over and the Shikigami stabbed into the bedrock like a shell or a missile. I didn¡¯t have time to gasp. Shikimi spun around in midair and swung her three-pronged vajra down toward the center of my face! ¡°...!!!!!¡± I immediately pulled my handgun from my boot, but the vajra shattered it. Not only that, I was forcibly slammed into the ground directly below me. ¡°Gah...ah...!?¡± I broke through a shack wall, smashed a pile of wooden boxes, and rolled along the ground. The damage to my body and the remaining moves I had in stock were of secondary importance. Oh, no. This location is very, very bad!! ¡°That is my territory left over even after all those cracks. That is the holy ground determined by the vajra.¡± Something twisted near my spine, the contents of my head swelled up like a balloon, I felt like I was wrapped in intense heat, and I could not tell front from back, left from right, or even up from down. I frantically moved my arms and legs, but I could not stand up or even sit up. Damn. Is this what they call an unexplainable fever? It was a stereotypical form of divine punishment or curse. It was the judgment given to those who rudely violated divine land. ¡°If you wouldn¡¯t get inside, all I had to do was throw you inside myself.¡± I heard a soft sound as Hishigami Shikimi belatedly landed. She spun the three-pronged vajra like a baton and slowly walked over. Things were not looking good. The inside of my head was boiling and I was having trouble figuring out which way her voice was coming from. ¡°What are you trying to do...with all that power?¡± ¡°If you see Majina as an insane man trying to overthrow the country, you wouldn¡¯t understand. He is a normal human being. Although that is exactly why he broke.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Even after marrying his wife and having a child, the Zashiki Warashi was nothing more than a Zashiki Warashi. Mei could not escape her primary objective of bringing her family prosperity. At the same time, Majina was brought to despair by his own talent. Without him, he felt Mei never would have suggested modifying her body into the Ver. 40. Without him, he felt things would have turned out differently. But they had everything necessary to bring further prosperity. The situation pushed at his back, Mei took his hand, and he fell straight into hell. What if he had forcibly rejected it? That¡¯s simple. A Zashiki Warashi will naturally leave a family that does not desire prosperity. In other words, she would have abandoned him. Her feelings as an individual were irrelevant. It came down to her trait as a species. Majina had no other option.¡± So the Zashiki Warashi who had fallen in love with a human had thrown her own body into the compressor. She had shaken off the hands of the man who wanted to see that least of all and she had taken the shortest route to prosperity. It was a revoltingly awful form of ¡°happiness¡±. But... ¡°That explains Majina and the Ver. 40¡¯s situation.¡± I took a slow breath and shook my hazy mind. ¡°But what threat do they see coming? What threat do they think they need the Ver. 40 to face? And how does that connect to this zombie panic? I¡¯m curious about all that as well, but that isn¡¯t what I¡¯m asking. ...What do you gain by following Majina? If you just want success as a Hishigami Woman, you wouldn¡¯t need to go along with all this.¡± She did not answer my question. In my blurry vision, I thought I saw the white-haired woman form a slight smile as she looked down at me. She prepared to swing down the golden three-pronged vajra. ¡°Sweet dreams, final generation. This is the end, Hishigami Woman who only wanted success on an individual level.¡± ¡°Shut it, you old hag. Your loss was set in stone from the moment you didn¡¯t kill me the instant you had the chance.¡± ¡°?¡± This isn¡¯t one of those bluffs you say I love so much. Have you forgotten? We¡¯re surrounded by the sea of flames created from the fallen lanterns spreading to the shacks and cells. And I just destroyed a bunch of wooden boxes when you threw me to the ground. Now, what had I seen in boxes much like these on my way here? The answer is blasting explosives. A deafening roar and shockwave exploded from nearby. I could barely move and Shikimi was standing boldly above me, but we were both blown away. We were thrown through the air as if gravity had vanished. This is no longer your world. We¡¯ve left it. ¡°Damn...you!?¡± She spun around and tried to throw her vajra, but it was too late. Before she could, I grabbed at her shoulders in midair. My thumb traced along her slender collarbone and then forcibly grabbed it. It broke with a dry sound. ¡°Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± One of her arms was unusable. The vajra slipped from her hand and vanished into the pitch black abyss. We crashed into the roof of a different shack a good distance away. I couldn¡¯t breathe, but I raised two fingers on my right hand. We had escaped her territory and the mysterious fever was gone. I held her to the ground and our arms quickly crossed paths as we targeted each other¡¯s vitals. The air audibly split apart. My fingers stabbed into her throat and her finger slipped just past my temple. ¡°Gah...gh...?¡± She looked up at me with a look of surprise. Her mouth flapped like a goldfish¡¯s and she forced her voice out with her windpipe mostly crushed. ¡°You...¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°You might know...all you can do...is destroy...but did you never...wish...even once...to be useful to someone...?¡± ¡°Oh...¡± So that was the founder of the Hishigami line¡¯s desire. Had she wandered the world for a thousand years in search of nothing more than that? But... ¡°I gave up on that less than a year after being born into this world.¡± Shikimi was approaching death, but her eyes widened for just an instant. At the very, very end, she utilized her muscles rather than beg for her life. She was not trying to escape and she was not trying to get back up. She was going to kill me. She was going to kill the target before her eyes. Because she believed that would be useful to someone. Even as a Hishigami Woman, she wanted just one person in this wide world to say ¡°thank you¡±. But you know what? That¡¯s why this happened, old lady. I didn¡¯t win because I specialize in bluffing. Nor because I had prepared everything in advance. It was much simpler. The Hishigami Women summon disaster. So much so that you had to wish to be useful. ¡°That¡¯s why I won¡¯t die.¡± ¡°!?¡± ¡°And that¡¯s why you won¡¯t be useful to anyone. Not ever.¡± That was the difference between the founder and the final generation. There was no point in discussing who was right. I dug my two fingers deeper into her throat to destroy both her windpipe and the medulla oblongata sticking down into her neck. A wet sound burst out. There was a winner and a loser. Unfortunately, those were the only two categories in our world. Part 6 Hishigami Shikimi, founder of the Hishigami line, had ceased to function. The flower bore fruit and then withered away. The white hair was spread out around the small body that would never move again. I rolled off of her and onto the roof. I couldn¡¯t stop myself, so I slid right off the roof and onto the dirt ground. ¡°Kh...¡± I couldn¡¯t feel my legs. The bones had apparently been taken out when I had blown myself away with the explosives. I guess not even the Yozakura¡¯s support was enough for that. I¡¯m going to need my kit to repair myself. If I inject the medicinal liquid to set the bones and add a wooden splint on the outside, maybe I can stand. Just as I was thinking that... ¡°I can¡¯t believe we actually lost Shikimi-san here.¡± Even I felt a chill down my spine. I couldn¡¯t move my broken legs, so I forced my head up while crawling along and found a long-haired man in a monocle and the kind of suit seen in paintings from the Meiji period. He held a Sunekosuri in his arm like a pet-lover. Standing next to him was an unemotional Zashiki Warashi in a pure white yukata, with a head mounted display hanging from her neck and with half her face hidden by a veil. The monocle and veil made it hard to tell, but they both had different colored eyes. More specifically, they had both swapped an eye for a human and Youkai eyeball each. One was the Sunekosuri named Ohatsu. One was the Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi. And the last was a man with a full family crest on his chest. ¡°Majina!?¡± ¡°I hadn¡¯t been too worried since she had already lived for a thousand years, but I suppose everything eventually meets its end. Even the prosperous inevitably decay. Don¡¯t you think that is the worst Japanese saying of them all? Can¡¯t anyone reject that awful tendency?¡± This was not good. It was possible I could heal my legs with my kit, but he would never give me the chance. On his own, he could rival the current Hyakki Yakou and he also had the Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi who could create the world¡¯s destiny from nothing. If I was faced with something like that when I couldn¡¯t even stand up, there was no way I could win. Then what was I supposed to do? Try to rely on someone else? The Sunekosuri was out of the question and I had no idea what had happened to the Deadly Dragon Princess after she was blown away by Shikimi. That meant she was out of my control and I couldn¡¯t use her. Wait. Does that mean... There really is nothing I can do!? ¡°What..?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°What are you trying to do? No, what are you trying to cause? I can¡¯t figure out why you would start this zombie panic. With the Ver. 40, you should be able to directly create your utopia without going through all this troublesome work... So why aren¡¯t you using the Ver. 40. Could it be that...¡± ¡°You Hishigami Women like to stall for time by talking and to wait for an opening when the thread of tension grows slack.¡± ¡°Could it be that you aren¡¯t holding back on the Ver. 40. Could it be that you¡¯re already using it for something else? If so, what are you using it for? No, what is the true problem that you couldn¡¯t find a solution for without using the Ver. 40!?¡± ¡°Well, the Kasha Package ¨C what you¡¯re calling the zombie panic ¨C is just a way of raising the standard.¡± Raising the standard? I looked confused and Majina continued while petting Ohatsu the Sunekosuri. ¡°Needless to say, the seeds have already been sown in thirteen cities of five different regions. As time passes, the saturation point will be reached and zombies will cover the archipelago in no time. But turning 150 million people into zombies is only setting the stage.¡± He made it sound so simple. Normally, hearing about the collapse of an entire nation would be enough to feel faint, but we were looking at something beyond even that. ¡°Needless to say, humans gain a much more powerful body when they become zombies. And the effect isn¡¯t as noticeable, but as they bite people, creating second and third generations of zombies, the zombies gradually start retaining their rational mind. ...Eventually, they are no different than when they were alive.¡± He was strengthening the entire population of Japan. On top of that, he could control the core of the Kasha Package, to manage the wills of everyone who had become a zombie without even realizing it. He was raising the standard so all those harmless civilians could survive in our professional world. It almost sounded like... ¡°Are you trying to start a war?¡± ¡°If a one-on-one conflict can be called a war, then one has been ongoing for ten years now.¡± I had no idea what he meant by that, but that was as far as he went. ¡°More importantly, you should probably be more worried about what happens to you.¡± I immediately heard a raw and soft sound as something fell onto my back. It had fallen from the roof of the nearby shack. I thought for a moment, realized what it had to be, and felt sweat pouring from my body. It was Hishigami Shikimi. Her white hair was spread out and her shoulders were pushed far outside her kimono. And her dead, discolored body was moving, which could only mean one thing. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve investigated some things on the way here since I left some materials here and there. The Kasha controls the corpses of sinners when it approaches and the legend of Mikuchi-sama means any abandoned corpse or fatally wounded individual is labeled a sinner and thrown into the abyss. All in the name of preventing disease.¡± ¡°Kh...¡± ¡°So what matters is the boundary between life and death. Being directly bitten by a zombie doesn¡¯t particularly matter. Of course, when you aren¡¯t bitten by a zombie, you start out as a first generation and don¡¯t retain much of your rational mind. Oh, to be honest, there was a risk of a Zashiki Warashi becoming a zombie as they¡¯re a collection of children sacrificed during famines and the like. I was afraid that might happen here since Mei could only become the ideal Zashiki Warashi, but she¡¯s just fine. Just as you would expect of the ideal.¡± If the dead became zombies regardless of how they died, what did that mean about Hishigami Shikimi now? ¡°And Shikimi-san isn¡¯t the only one who became a zombie.¡± Two new threats appeared from behind the building. It was the man and girl zombies who had been freed of the bonds placed on them by Hishigami Shikimi¡¯s attack. They had white hair, muddy eyes, and skin covered in red and purple. The detective¡¯s cardigan and slacks were stained red and one of my sister¡¯s twintails was roughly undone. Majina stepped aside as if to clear the way for them. He smiled and spoke. ¡°Until we meet again. Although it¡¯s hard to say whether you will be alive or dead when that happens.¡± Several hands and mouths approached the living flesh that could not move. There was nothing I could do. There was nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? Volume 8, 4: Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi by ??? Volume 8, Chapter 4: Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi by???? Part 1 (3rd person) Time will now shift back by about half a day. The stage returns to the old Japanese-style house partway up Mt. Boseki in Bozen City. The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata appeared before Jinnai Shinobu and Nagisa. As an aggregation of the children who had lost their lives in infanticides during famines and the like, she had shown her new face as a zombie. Part 2 I heard a bestial growling. I slowly, slowly turned around and saw the Zashiki Warashi in her red yukata. She crushed the branch cutter in her fist, tossed it aside, and stared at me. Her hair was still a glossy black and her skin looked pure enough to repel water. The problem was her eyes. They had the same muddy look as the zombies scattered through the city. Those eyes clearly viewed me as her prey. ¡°Ah.¡± That was the limit. As soon as an instinctual tremor raced up my spine, the last bit of rationality burned away within me. ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± I screamed and broke through the sliding screen to escape. I scrambled so quickly I nearly tripped, but I desperately maintained my balance and ran through the very, very large tatami-covered hall. I heard a bursting sound directly behind me. When I looked back, there were tears in the corners of my eyes. She really was a wild animal. That red animal had lost all dignity as she ran after me on all fours. I felt as hopeless as someone who had run across a bear on a mountain trail. The Zashiki Warashi caught up in no time and stood up on her legs for free use of her arms. ¡°...!!???¡± Rather than consciously dodging, my legs gave out and I fell to the tatami mats. Nevertheless, it was effective. Something tore through the air even more intensely than a metal bat. The rectangular wooden column by the wall really did break as easily as chopsticks. ¡°...¡± Her eyes rolled in her head to view me. A single blow and it would all be over. I knew that, but I couldn¡¯t stand up!! ¡°Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± I crawled backwards while still looking the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s way. I broke through another sliding screen to enter the wood-floored hallway. I felt something metallic behind me blocking my way. The Zashiki Warashi took two or three steps toward me and swung her fist at me like an artillery shell. I did not have time to carefully analyze every little thing. I simply rolled to the side to avoid the approaching blow and live even a second longer. As soon as she missed, something collided with her. No, it captured her. It was the bear trap that had been among the hunting tools lined up in the hallway. It was basically a giant metal cage with a guillotine-style door that closed when the animal was lured inside by the bait. The heavy cage bounced around with intense clanking sounds. As soon as the movement lessened, I finally ran toward the bear trap. It was a box with 150 cm sides. I grabbed the top and grabbed the guillotine-style door. After shaking its rails a little, I used all my strength to force it down. Whether she had caught on or not, the Zashiki Warashi finally faced the door and shook it with both hands, but it did not look like she could break the trap. Thankfully it had been designed for bears rather than deer or boars. As a zombie, she could break a solid column with a running start, but she may not have been able to wield all her strength inside the cramped space of the trap. I finally let out a heavy sigh and sat on the hallway floor. You Good-for-Nothing Youkai. Aren¡¯t you supposed to be the Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi that protects your family¡¯s good fortune? You really are useless. Why are you turning into the worst zombie of them all!? When I viewed her again, it really did seem that her hair and skin had not changed like with the normal(?) zombies. Did that have to do with Youkai being immune to physical attacks? ¡°Shinobu-chan...¡± After a short delay, Kitty Nurse Nagisa walked in with her pink knit dress, white cardigan, pinned-on hat, and tail accessory. As usual, she had a thin smile on her lips and held the thick cattle cleaver named Namagusa. ¡°Are you hurt?¡± ¡°No...¡± Despite my answer, the situation was about as bad as it could get. ¡°Everyone from the cellphone shop is dead. That means we don¡¯t have any adults with us and the dump truck isn¡¯t any use anymore. Not to mention the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s like this. What are we supposed to do now?¡± ¡°About that...¡± Nagisa tossed something to me. It was a perfume bottle. Namely, the one Nozaki Haru had used for the rotting smell that kept the zombies from attacking. ¡°I know it might be hard to use someone you know, but shouldn¡¯t we test it out now that we have a zombie safely captured? It would be scary to see if the zombie bites or not when we¡¯re actually in danger. Eh heh heh. We get to work together again...¡± ¡°You¡¯re...right.¡± Even if we couldn¡¯t use the dump truck, there was nothing to be afraid of if the zombies wouldn¡¯t target us. We could freely move around on foot then. Using that troublesome Zashiki Warashi to test Nozaki Haru¡¯s perfume wasn¡¯t a bad idea. ¡°So do we use it just like normal perfume? Let¡¯s rub some in on the blood vessels of our wrists and neck.¡± ¡°Wait, ew!? It really does smell like rotting garbage! We¡¯re supposed to cover ourselves in this!?¡± ¡°Well, yes. It¡¯s supposed to make us unappetizing to the zombies.¡± The swarm of zombies was gone and we had captured the Zashiki Warashi alive. With no immediate threat, we may have grown a little lax. Out of self-interest, we were happier that we had survived than we were worried about the deaths of people we knew. As we celebrated, we rubbed in the harsh smell that stung at our eyes. ¡°Ugh... Did Nozaki really smell like this?¡± ¡°She was surrounded by the zombies already, so who knows how she smelled.¡± After our preparations were complete, we turned toward the Zashiki Warashi inside the metal cage. I just hoped she had grown a little more docile. ¡°Shinobu-chan...¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°It looks to me like she¡¯s still rattling the cage like crazy. I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯s trying to bite us.¡± ¡°Huh!? What¡¯s going on!?¡± Nozaki Haru had used this to move freely through the zombies like a clownfish among sea anemone. Nagisa and I had sprayed the perfume on ourselves, but it wasn¡¯t working. The red yukata Youkai still had a lock on us. ¡°Was it more than just the perfume?¡± ¡°You mean like it has to be mixed with something else?¡± If so, there was nothing we could do. We hadn¡¯t noticed anything else in her cloth pouch. It was possible we¡¯d find some other bottle or sheet if we checked through her gruesome remains, but that wouldn¡¯t tell us what we were supposed to mix together or at what ratio. It was unlikely to simply be 1:1. It was the same as picking up an ATM card when you didn¡¯t know the PIN. ¡°So all we did was cover ourselves in this rotting stench?¡± I threw the perfume bottle away in irritation. We finally had no ideas left. The bear trap had small wheels and handles attached to safely transport the live bear, but walking through the mountain with that heavy cage would be too dangerous. It wasn¡¯t as bad as the flat urban area, but we already knew there were zombies wandering around here as well. Things would have been a lot easier using the dump truck out front, but I didn¡¯t even have a driver¡¯s license for a motorcycle, not to mention a car. Trying to drive would be reckless enough under normal circumstances, but this was a large truck on a narrow, winding mountain road while it was snowing. The odds were pretty good that would end up with us falling right off a cliff. ¡°Shinobu-chan.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s take a short break. I want to eat while we have the chance. This is a normal house, so the contents of the fridge should be fine. Don¡¯t worry. I know how to win over my husband¡¯s stomach. Tee hee...¡± ¡°Eat? After seeing all that?¡± ¡°All what?¡± Nagisa nonchalantly made her way to the kitchen. All alone, I faced the Zashiki Warashi through the cage. The Good-for-Nothing Youkai seemed to have learned she could not damage the bear trap no matter how much she pushed or pulled, so she started gnawing at its bars. ¡°Stop it, you idiot. Honestly, how could this happen?¡± ¡°Gau.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you gau me. I¡¯ll put a collar on you and keep you as a pet.¡± Meanwhile, Nagisa returned. She held a few cans of food, bottles of water, sweet breads, and packaged ham and kamaboko. By this point, I no longer cared that I was in someone else¡¯s home. Reds and blacks covered the next room over and my clothes were covered in the stench of rotting garbage. My unease about the future weighed down on me. I was barely hungry, but I still nibbled at the edge of a ham slice. The single slice seemed to last forever. I eventually couldn¡¯t stand it anymore and threw the remaining half of the slice to the Zashiki Warashi in the cage. She sniffed curiously at the ham, tried to bite at it while on all fours, had trouble, and finally used her fingers to bring it to her mouth. However, she seemed to be playing with it more than eating it. She sucked at the ham, bit at it, and spat it out once she was bored. ¡°Looks like it isn¡¯t just meat they want.¡± ¡°Is what they¡¯re doing even ¡®eating¡¯? It may be similar to how a baby puts everything that interests them in their mouth. It¡¯s just that the zombies pull at and bite at everything so strongly. Oh, dear. I¡¯m talking with Shinobu-chan about babies...¡± Nagisa sat in the hallway with her legs to the side and elegantly ate some stolen sweet bread. She seemed to be perfectly hungry and acting entirely normal for her. After washing it down with some water from one of the bottles, she said more. ¡°Anyway, Shinobu-chan.¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± It was a casual suggestion. However, I had forgotten something important. We had just walked through a hellish world filled with zombies and this was Nagisa I was talking to. ¡°How should we dispose of that Zashiki Warashi?¡± .......................................................................................................................................................................................... I had been wrong. I had been mistaken. A chilly draft instantly blew away the gentle warmth surrounding me. Dry reality erased the warm illusion. This was no time to be relaxing. I didn¡¯t have time to be taking a break. There were still a ton of problems to deal with and Nagisa was as much a threat as the zombies!! ¡°Wait, wait! Nagisa...what are you talking about?¡± ¡°Come on.¡± She sounded perfectly casual. She faced the cage with a thin smile and an unreadable emotion in her eyes. ¡°We haven¡¯t heard anything about the zombies recovering. Why would it be any different for a Youkai?¡± ¡°...!!¡± ¡°So what are you going to do? Spend the rest of your life raising that Youkai in that cage? If you ever grew a little careless and got bitten, you could start a brand new zombie outbreak. It¡¯s true the Youkai herself suggests there¡¯s more to the spread than just biting, but it¡¯s still dangerous. ...Besides, we don¡¯t even know what the zombies eat. It looks like she won¡¯t eat ham and we don¡¯t know if humans are their food or just something else they put in their mouths out of curiosity like a baby. ...Hee hee. A baby. But what are you going to do after taking her back? Wait for her to wither away?¡± Nagisa was as carefree as someone reading down a list in their notes, but those same words were wearing down my very soul. ¡°And the bear trap itself will deteriorate. You would eventually have to transfer her to a new cage, but you might have to face a full-power zombie when you do. Can you really force her into a new cage on your own?¡± I get what you¡¯re saying. I do. I really do. But that¡¯s not it, Nagisa. This isn¡¯t about whether I understand or not! I mean...dispose of her? Take her home? Why are we even talking about this!? She¡¯s been with me since I was born...no, maybe even before I was born. She¡¯s always been with me. I felt something scratching at my chest. It was some bandages. That¡¯s right. That Good-for-Nothing actually treated my wound this morning. Is it so wrong to think that will never end!? ¡°Shinobu-chan.¡± ¡°...No.¡± ¡°Shinobu-chan.¡± ¡°No!! B-besides, not even you can kill a Youkai, right? No physical attack will work on them. So even with that huge cattle cleaver...¡± ¡°True.¡± She admitted that almost too readily. And then she said it. ¡°We also don¡¯t even know if it¡¯s possible to actually kill a zombie. We¡¯ve been chopping them up until they stop moving, but we can¡¯t prove they¡¯re really dead. And this one is based on a Youkai, so I definitely don¡¯t want to let her out of there. ...I¡¯m not taking this lightly. But if we can¡¯t kill her, we just have to find a method that doesn¡¯t require killing her.¡± ¡°What are you-...?¡± ¡°I said how to ¡®dispose of¡¯ her, didn¡¯t I? We could bury the entire cage in the dirt or pour cement over the top. If we were on the coast, we might have been able to borrow a boat and chuck her into the ocean. Even if we can¡¯t kill her, there are plenty of ways of keeping her from moving. While she¡¯s in the cage, she can¡¯t move her arms and legs and she can¡¯t bite anyone, so there¡¯s nothing she can do. Isn¡¯t that right, Shinobu-chan? And however they settle all this, I¡¯m guessing they¡¯ll make some reclaimed land somewhere for it. They¡¯ll probably officially call it a cemetery or memorial park or something.¡± ¡°...!?¡± What the hell!? What the hell are you talking about!? Reclaimed land? Calling it a cemetery? That won¡¯t solve anything. This isn¡¯t about not dirtying our hands because we¡¯re not directly killing her! The zombie won¡¯t die that way. Whether in concrete or the bottom of the ocean, the Zashiki Warashi will be buried alive there! Will it be for centuries? Millennia? How long would she have to continue suffocating!? ¡°She¡¯s different...¡± ¡°How?¡± ¡°She¡¯s the Zashiki Warashi!! We can¡¯t just decide what happens to her like that!!¡± ¡°Perhaps not.¡± Nagisa remained calm. I didn¡¯t feel like a single crack had opened in her heart. It felt like my fingers were sinking into a damp sponge. ¡°But Shinobu-chan, can you really say that when you¡¯re the one putting her in a cage? Youkai may not have any rights, but is raising her as you see fit really the right thing to do? Can you really look me in the eye and proudly tell me that?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Would you keep doing that for decades? For centuries? Would you ask your children and grandchildren to look after her? Hee hee. Shinobu-chan¡¯s children... But would that really make that Youkai happy?¡± I was certain Nagisa was right about this. I couldn¡¯t rebut anything she was saying. But that still wasn¡¯t it. We can¡¯t just decide to keep her because it¡¯s right or decide to bury her because keeping her wouldn¡¯t be right! This Good-for-Nothing Youkai is too important to decide like that!! ¡°Shinobu-chan.¡± Nagisa spoke gently and softly as if trying to get a small child to listen to her. ¡°I understand how you feel, Shinobu-chan.¡± ¡°How could...how could you possibly know how I feel!?¡± ¡°Do you remember the St. Bernard I used to have?¡± My shoulders gave a start. Just like the Zashiki Warashi and me, that had been Nagisa¡¯s partner since before she was born. And when that dog had grown old and lived a life of suffering, who was it that had taken its life? ¡°No one wants to say goodbye. We don¡¯t want to think about the end. But sometimes you have to. ...Not being able to control your own life is painful. When people are telling you they¡¯re suffering and that all life comes to an end, it¡¯s irresponsible to refuse to listen. Shinobu-chan, do you think that Youkai is happy right now? Do you really believe that?¡± Stop it. ¡°She doesn¡¯t know who she is, she¡¯s trapped in a cage, and she¡¯s baring her fangs against the person she most wanted to save, even if she always complained. ...Are you going to keep that going for decades? And if you make a mistake in caring for her and get bitten, you¡¯ll become a zombie too. If she has enough of a mind left to understand that, how much despair do you think she would feel? Hurting the people you care for the most hurts more than anything else. I know that alllll too well. Do you think she might prefer saying goodbye here and suffocating for an eternity to that?¡± Please stop it!! ¡°Shinobu-chan. ...Like I said. I understand how you feel.¡± She reached for the thick glittering blade of the cattle cleaver named Namagusa. ¡°Just because it¡¯s the most logical answer doesn¡¯t mean the human heart can bear it. So Shinobu-chan... If you insist that you can¡¯t do it, then let¡¯s think up some other way that doesn¡¯t require dirtying our own hands. Maybe create a slope that will send the cage down after some amount of time passes. And digging a hole isn¡¯t difficult. It¡¯s possible we could find some other solution years or decades later and we could dig her back up.¡± ¡°Just stop it!!!¡± I cut her off at the top of my lungs. My mind had gone entirely blank. The next thing I knew, I had grabbed something from the hallway wall. It had a wooden handle like a mop, but with a beak-like piece of dark steel on the end. It was known as a hooked rod and it was an old tool meant to clear underbrush from a path or destroy the surrounding homes to prevent the spread of a fire. And when I pointed that weapon at Nagisa, she narrowed her eyes in a horribly, horribly cold look. ¡°I see...¡± ¡°No, um, Nagi-...¡± My attempts to explain myself did not reach the girl in front of my eyes. Something gave a roar and the air split apart in a horizontal slash. It was the cattle cleaver which was as long as a Japanese sword. I raised the hooked rod, but not because I had tried to. It was more like ducking down when a ball flew toward your face. The impact reached me a moment later. I really did think my thumb had been taken out. More than just the muscle, I felt the dull pain of the bone shifting out of place. ¡°Ah...gh...!!¡± Still, I did not drop the hooked rod. My bones had not actually broken. I finally moved back, dragging my aching arm with me. She had lured me into using my dominant hand to prevent me from using it anymore. She was preparing to kill me. I moved away from her. Oddly, I ended up with my back against the bear cage holding the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°Do you understand, Shinobu-kun?¡± Nagisa opened her eyes strangely wide and let Namagusa sway loosely in her grasp. Her movements were far removed from kendo or proper sword fighting, but they were endlessly terrifying. She looked like a hopeless wall that would only get me chopped in two no matter which direction I attacked from. ¡°Do you really understand what it means to make an enemy of me here?¡± ¡°...!!!???¡± Don¡¯t let it get to you. Don¡¯t lose heart before the fight even begins. If you can¡¯t beat her with 100% of your strength, don¡¯t even think about trying to defeat her when your fear has weakened you to 50% or 60%!! You can¡¯t give in on this one. Whether she¡¯s a zombie or whatever else, I can¡¯t give up on that Zashiki Warashi!! Just because she¡¯s a Youkai and we might not be able to kill her is no reason to bury her in the dirt and leave like she¡¯s some old rotting garbage. I can¡¯t allow that. Youkai don¡¯t die and zombies are immortal, so we might be able to dig her up years or decades later? That isn¡¯t the point!! I can¡¯t bury her in the first place!!!!!! That may have been the most logical choice. It may have been a kind suggestion that took my feelings into consideration and hid the end result from me. But... ¡°We don¡¯t know yet.¡± ¡°Shinobu-chan?¡± ¡°This zombie outbreak isn¡¯t being caused by a strange curse or a mysterious pathogen. It might have to do with the Youkai known as a Kasha! If this is a Package someone set up, everyone might be freed from their zombification if we eliminate the Package!!¡± I desperately tried to push back with my voice, but Nagisa took a casual step forward. Her huge cattle cleaver swung diagonally toward me. ¡°Gwaahh!!¡± My hand stung as it held the handle. I couldn¡¯t think about defeating her. It was practically a miracle I was blocking her attacks at all. ¡°Allow me teach you some manners... This is the same as the hierarchy of dominance among animals. While family is of course important, you need to be strict with them when necessary or a lot of children will begin to see themselves at the top of a strange pyramid-shaped hierarchy.¡± No, it was possible she was intentionally toying with me. I wasn¡¯t blocking her attacks. I started to get the feeling she was targeting my hooked rod to punish me. ¡°Shinobu-chan.¡± ¡°...No.¡± ¡°Shinooobu-chaaan?¡± ¡°No! No!!¡± The pain in my hand was also part of her setup. When I flinched back, she took action. Her tail fluttered behind her and the cattle cleaver shot up. She raised it high. She was exposing her body to danger in order to pull off a shooting star of an attack with the most weight behind it. By the time I realized that, she had already swung the cattle cleaver and almost double the impact reached me. She made more and more of the same attack. I felt like my fingers were going to break before the hooked rod. No matter what I did, I was gradually pushed back. The bear trap was already right behind me. The zombie in a red yukata shook the bars. If I moved back any further, she would grab my back. She would bite me and it would all be over. Nagisa was telling me to give up before that happened. A wordless pressure was telling me to realize that was a dangerous enemy rather than a woman I had to protect. But... But!! I¡¯ll say it as many times as I have to: but!! She may be stupid, good-for-nothing, and useless. She may be the kind of person who ends up turning into the worst zombie of them all when she tries to save me. But!! She still came here to save me. If she hadn¡¯t tried to go against her character here, this wouldn¡¯t have happened. I can¡¯t punish her for trying to help. I don¡¯t want to! How can I just abandon her here!? The decapitated people might be a lost cause. The people who have been devoured and had their organs dragged out might just die even if they turn back into humans. But this Zashiki Warashi has no obvious injuries. Her eyes may be muddy, but her hair and skin are perfectly lively. If there¡¯s a way to turn the zombies back to normal, she might be able to return to her normal life as a Good-for-Nothing Youkai. Right!? I¡¯ve had enough. I¡¯ve had enough of simply giving up on all the lives around me!! ¡°P-pant! Pant, pant...!!¡± After thinking through all that, my thoughts started wandering. Oh, so that¡¯s it. I looked at Nagisa¡¯s face again. Whether consciously or subconsciously, she may have had a reason for advocating such drastic measures. ¡°If we found a way to turn the zombies back to normal...¡± ¡°What is it, Shinobu-chan? Do you want me to call you a good boy now?¡± What would that mean for everything Nagisa had done? Once I realized that, all sound seemed to vanish. The nearby deaths were filled with the same stinging warmth one felt when holding ice barehanded for extended periods of time. I had not out-and-out praised Nagisa¡¯s actions, but in our extreme situation, I had considered them acceptable. She had even saved me several times. But that was based on the assumption that the zombies could never return to being human, so killing them was the only option. What if there was some other way? What if Nagisa had been killing human lives, not zombies? What would that mean for Nagisa? It was unlikely the courts would be able to handle an unprecedented zombie outbreak. And as a minor, the law and privacy concerns might treat her favorably. But this wasn¡¯t about what other people thought. Could Nagisa herself forgive her actions? So she would prefer that the zombies did not return to normal. That was why she could not stand to see me protecting the Zashiki Warashi. This was different from killing. She held no grudge or hatred toward the Zashiki Warashi. She simply wanted to put her mind at ease by going through the motions of ¡°disposing of¡± that zombie. She wanted me to show everything was fine and that I accepted her point of view. ¡°I can¡¯t believe this...¡± ¡°?¡± My expression twisted and Nagisa slowly tilted her head. She gave me a crazed look with the giant cattle cleaver glittering in her hand. She looked like that St. Bernard waiting for further instructions. Nagisa had acted on her own to defeat the zombies, but did I have any right to criticize her when I had just sat there and let her rescue me? Couldn¡¯t you even say my inability to do anything had forced the role of killer onto her? So this was a choice between extremes. Would I choose the zombie Zashiki Warashi or the zombie-killing Nagisa? This was my first and final choice where choosing one would mean decisively forsaking the other. Why? Why wasn¡¯t there a convenient way to choose everyone? Why wasn¡¯t there a way to not hurt or abandon anyone, like I was creating a cheap harem? I raised the battered hooked rod in both hands and faced Nagisa once more. Her cattle cleaver could lop off the heads of those zombies that were as strong as bears. Depending on how I answered or how she felt, I could be chopped to pieces right here. I tightly clenched my teeth. I squeezed my eyes shut. And I chose. ¡°Sorry, Nagisa. I just can¡¯t abandon this Good-for-Nothing Youkai!!¡± I said it. They were decisive words of parting. But I couldn¡¯t. It was simply not something I could do. Call it na?ve or unrealistic, but I couldn¡¯t see myself burying her alive, leaving her to suffocate for eternity, and just forgetting about it all. I wouldn¡¯t make it back alive. If I chose that path, I wouldn¡¯t even need to hang myself or throw myself from a cliff. I knew for a fact I would simply stop breathing and die on the spot. So... Nagisa approached ever so slowly. She looked absolutely confident in her victory, like she only had to think about how to make me give up. The tip of her sword-like cattle cleaver scraped against the wood of the hallway floor. Once it hopped up, it could chop off any part of my body she wanted. I knew that, but I could not move back any further. The cage was there. I would be in range of the zombie Zashiki Warashi¡¯s hands reaching from between the bars. Moving forward or back would lead to my death. In that instant, during that scorching blank period, I still rejected the one and only path that would allow me to smile and return alive. ¡°Yes.¡± Then an oddly cheerful voice reached my ears. With that brutal cattle cleaver in hand, Nagisa took a step ¨C just one step ¨C back. She moved away from me as I stood protectively in front of the cage. It was a clear sign of parting. But even then, my childhood friend and ex-girlfriend looked at my dirty face like it was something radiant. Clear drops fell like traces of light. She spoke to me as I took the Youkai¡¯s side to the very end. ¡°That¡¯s the Shinobu-chan I fell in love with.¡± Part 3 I couldn¡¯t use the dump truck and I had parted ways with Nagisa and her giant cattle cleaver. All I had was the useless Good-for-Nothing Youkai and the bear trap that had wheels yet was as heavy as a giant rock. Its weight prevented me from carrying anything else with me, so I had left the hooked rod back in the house. And unlike Nagisa, I would only get killed if I tried to take on a zombie. Zombies could be hiding anywhere outside, but hiding in the house forever wouldn¡¯t help. Despite the danger, I took the Zashiki Warashi out in her cage. As before, our destination was the mountain peak. More accurately, the dog square up there. Finding a paraglider was our first goal. I had no idea if I could carry the Zashiki Warashi in her cage with one of those, but I had to get her out of this awful city. I wasn¡¯t thinking about anything beyond that. The Succubus and Aoandon back home might be able to figure out the details of the zombie outbreak and I could also run crying to Hyakki Yakou. The best option would be to search out the source of the outbreak in the city and escape with the Zashiki Warashi once she recovered, but the city was a large place and I didn¡¯t know if the core of the Kasha Package was even in the city. Escaping would be better than searching randomly. My life wasn¡¯t the only one at risk here, so I couldn¡¯t assume I could do everything on my own. ¡°Ha ha. This is awful. Simply awful.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but speak aloud. I may have taken a longer rest than I had thought because things were growing dark by the time I left the house. The snow had started covering the road. It was not entirely white yet, but it covered the surface like a transparent sherbet and my shoes threatened to slip if I let my guard down. Nagisa¡¯s warmth was gone from the silent mountain road. She had left quickly in order take action in her own way. Meanwhile, the Zashiki Warashi seemed entirely carefree in her cage. She was still shaking the bars of the bear trap, but it looked more like she was having fun making noise than really trying to escape. ¡°Gau.¡± ¡°Shut up. I don¡¯t know when a zombie could show up, so don¡¯t make so much noise.¡± She wasn¡¯t listening. I felt like I was pushing a giant baby carriage. Since she was rattling the cage, I tried distracting her with something else. When I put a handkerchief inside the cage, she grabbed it, tugged at it, smelled it, and finally bit the corner of the square cloth. She looked like a frustrated upper class girl. But just like with the ham, she would put anything in her mouth. I couldn¡¯t have her swallowing them, but it wouldn¡¯t hurt to have a few things on hand. I started uselessly regretting not searching for some things to use before leaving the house. For the time being, I pulled out my cellphone and typed ¡°Things she can put in her mouth¡± in the notes app. The Zashiki Warashi had been entirely focused on the handkerchief, but her eyes quickly turned to the phone. I slowly waved it back and forth and found her gaze was perfectly locked onto it. ¡°Wh-what? I¡¯m not giving you this.¡± ¡°Gau!¡± ¡°I said no! Oh, honestly. You have an even more expensive smartphone in your cleavage, you know!? Not that I want you chewing on that!!¡± ¡°Gau gau gau!!¡± ¡°Oh, shut up!¡± Speaking to her wasn¡¯t doing any good and her yukata looked like it was going to slip off if she struggled any more. I didn¡¯t want to be wheeling around a naked Youkai, so I tried to figure out another way to bring the smartphone to her attention. Um, I can¡¯t use normal phone calls or emails, but there¡¯s a way to send data directly between phones, right? Um, Ranzono Sachi was using it during the Oomukade business. It¡¯s the same way a phone connects wirelessly to a printer. And I was using it to speak with Kamimaki-san and the others in the dump truck. Right... Did it!! I tested it out by sending a blank email to the smartphone (that technically belonged to me) held in the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s cleavage. It must have been on silent because all I heard was the whirring of a small motor. And... ¡°Nyau!?¡± Her shoulders jumped in the red yukata, but... What? Are zombies really this stupid? Why isn¡¯t she noticing the smartphone!? Blank email, blank email, blank email!! ¡°Nyau! Gyah!? Nyau nyau!!¡± She jumped each time, but she showed no sign of noticing the phone. Hmm, that didn¡¯t work. But wait. I think it had different settings for emails and phone calls. I switched to making a call so it would ring. I couldn¡¯t remember what movie¡¯s theme song it was, but a dull melody played from the headphones attached to the smartphone. ¡°Gyah! Gau gau!! Gau!!¡± ¡°Wait, why are you getting all excited!?¡± When I saw her violently shaking the bars, I sent another empty email. I heard the vibration and saw her shoulders jump and her long black hair swing around as she looked around. Hm? Is it just me or is this cellphone warming up? I was gradually starting to enjoy it, but I couldn¡¯t let myself laugh at this. Maybe this was how Akehara-san felt as she tried to turn her unreachable beloved into a zombie to own him. You can¡¯t, Shinobu! You can¡¯t take a video! Don¡¯t point the phone toward the cage! Yes, it¡¯s funny. Really funny. But this is something you can¡¯t let yourself save!! Even if she comes back to her senses, she¡¯ll climb into her futon and never want to come out again!! As I was wasting time on that, I heard something. It sounded like some snow had fallen from a tree branch behind me. I looked back into the darkness and then I froze in place. A swarm of zombies was approaching. Twenty to thirty people with white hair and red and purple skin were climbing the mountain road toward us. ¡°...!?¡± They were still a fair distance away, so they may not have actually noticed us yet. But it was only a matter of time. I grabbed the bear trap¡¯s handles to increase our pace forward, but the zombies were clearly lighter and stronger. They were going to catch up. I began gasping for breath as I rushed myself. My eyes met those of the caged Zashiki Warashi. I couldn¡¯t throw her into that group, but what was I actually supposed to do? Not even Nagisa with her sword of a cattle cleaver could handle that many, so how was I supposed to deal with them? On the other hand, hiding with that giant cage was simply unrealistic. After all, that stupid Youkai was still rattling the cage! What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to do? ¡°Goddammit!!!!!¡± I shouted and began to move. I lowered the stopper on the side of the cage¡¯s wheels and jumped over the mountain road¡¯s guardrail with the cage still on the road. I hid on what was more a cliff than a slope. Footsteps soon filled the road. The zombies were approaching the bear trap I had left behind. I hadn¡¯t been able to do anything! I felt along the slope and grabbed a stone about the size of a baby¡¯s head. If any of the zombies tried to destroy the cage, it didn¡¯t matter anymore. I swore in my heart I would do whatever it took to smash their head in. I waited for that moment. The biting winter wind struck me and an unpleasant sweat coated my face. But... ¡°...?¡± The time never came. The group with muddy eyes avoided the cage in the center of the road and continued up the slope. They vanished into the darkness without so much as glancing at the defenseless Zashiki Warashi. ...Oh, I get it. Zombies didn¡¯t eat each other. They only targeted living humans. The caged Zashiki Warashi was one of them, so they would ignore her. ¡°But...¡± Could I maybe use this? Part 4 The next problem I came across was not far from the peak. The sun had completely set and true darkness had set in. The snow was even heavier than before and the road was entirely covered in white. Meanwhile, a certain facility was glowing brightly, like someone had forgotten to switch off the lights. It was a mountain gas station. ¡°Gau.¡± ¡°Shut up. Just be quiet.¡± Zombies with dry white hair were hanging around the gas station. I didn¡¯t know if they were the same ones that had passed us before, but there were a lot of them. It looked like enough for a soccer team. If I tried to break through them, I¡¯d definitely be killed. But a tractor was parked a little up the mountain road from the gas station. If its handbrake was lowered and it slid down the slope, it would take out quite a few of the zombies. If used right, it could knock them all off the cliff. Of course, this was like finding the keys were locked in the car. I wanted to deal with that red and purple group, but I couldn¡¯t reach the tractor when it was past the zombies. Not normally anyway. ¡°Okay, okay. I¡¯ve linked with the smartphone¡¯s camera.¡± I nodded as I saw the footage from the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s cleavage displayed on my cellphone. I then looked the Good-for-Nothing Youkai in the eye and made a suggestion. ¡°Listen, Zashiki Warashi. The zombies won¡¯t attack you, so climb the slope, reach the tractor, and lower the handbrake. And after that come back in the cage. Okay?¡± ¡°Gau gau!! Grrr!!¡± ¡°Yeah, I know you aren¡¯t going to listen to me. That¡¯s why I¡¯ll be sending you empty emails and calling you.¡± By switching between the vibrating and the dull melody from the headphones, I could get some entertaining reactions out of the sexy Youkai in the red yukata. It was the same as Nozaki Haru controlling the zombies with the cigarette butts and rotting smell. I had the gas and the brakes and I had a camera. I didn¡¯t have a real steering wheel, but I couldn¡¯t be picky now. ¡°Go, Zashiki Warashi! Pacific Zashi-... Pacific Good-for-... Dammit, I can¡¯t come up with one that sounds good! Well, whatever. Zashiki Robo, attack!!¡± I climbed up onto the cage, opened the guillotine-style door, and controlled the zombie Zashiki Warashi with the cellphone and smartphone. At first, my heart was nearly crushed from the fear of her ignoring my orders and attacking me, but for some reason she quickly grew obedient when I sent a bunch of empty emails to set the vibration going (between those giant tits of hers). In fact, she seemed a little afraid. Once she changed direction, I triggered the ringtone and the excited Zashiki Warashi charged toward the zombies. I probably shouldn¡¯t be thinking this, but this is pretty fun!! I really shouldn¡¯t be doing this, should I!? I watched from afar at first, but the mountain was dark at night. The light from the gas station could only do so much, so I started looking at the smartphone camera¡¯s footage on my cellphone screen. Meanwhile, I used the gas and brakes to adjust her movements. She passed the zombies and arrived at the tractor up the slope. Now for the handbrake. Reach your hand in from the side and...no, no. That¡¯s the shift lever. And that¡¯s the steering wheel. Don¡¯t get distracted by the strap attached to the key in the ignition!? Go for the handbrake!! After grabbing about everything but what I wanted, her slender hand finally managed to move the handbrake. The giant wheels began to move and the tractor started down the slope. The white-haired zombies didn¡¯t seem able to think, so they didn¡¯t even try to evade. It was almost amusing how they were all hit like bowling pins. The tractor carried all those zombies with it as it rolled past the gas station, hit the guardrail, and tumbled down the cliff. ¡°Perfect!! That was a perfect 100, you Indoor Youkai!!¡± When I called loudly to her from atop the cage, the Zashiki Warashi looked over at me as if she had just remembered there was living flesh here. She charged back with terrifying speed. I climbed down from the cage and circled to the opposite side from the guillotine-style door. She ran in a straight line like a cat crashing into a TV screen and threw herself right into the bear trap. I winced at the painful-sounding crash, climbed back on top of the cage, and manually forced down the door. That settled it. ¡°Gau gau!!¡± ¡°Hey... I know it¡¯s wrong to say this to a zombie...but are you an idiot?¡± I was a little disturbed by how I was gradually getting used to this. And... ¡°...?¡± I spotted some more shadows moving in the darkness, but these were not staggering around like the zombies. Were they survivors? Some people who had been waiting around may have been showing up now that the zombies were gone. And then I realized something important. The Zashiki Warashi was a zombie. That meant other zombies would not attack her, but what about the human beings who feared the zombies? The situation had entirely flipped around. If they saw her, it was all over. Her hair was black and her skin was youthful, but she was still obviously a zombie. ¡°Dammit. If it¡¯s not one thing, it¡¯s another!!¡± I pushed the bear trap with both hands to hurry toward the gas station. The glass was shattered and snow had gotten in, but most of the merchandise remained. I pulled out a blue tarp and threw it over the cage. Before long, some wild-looking men who must have studied survival magazines arrived at the gas station. ¡°Hey! You saved our asses there. I don¡¯t know how you did it, but it was you, right?¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°The workers at the nearby geothermal power station that provides smart power. We were caught up in all this while those of us in an outdoors group were camping. Luckily, that put us outside of civilization when the zombie outbreak started and we had our families with us.¡± The man smiled. ¡°We¡¯re all hiding on the campground with our families and waiting for rescue. It¡¯s the off-season, so there¡¯s almost no one there and barely any zombies have shown up. The problem is the lack of fire and food. Do you want to join us?¡± ¡°No, I have something I need to do.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± The middle-aged man glanced at the blue tarp. ¡°Um, what is that?¡± The metal bars shook in response. You moron!! ¡°My family. She¡¯s actually a pretty docile St. Bernard, but this zombie stuff has her all riled up. It was getting dangerous if I didn¡¯t keep her in the cage.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Some static reached my years. The man seemed to have an emergency radio hanging from his neck. ¡°I thought getting some information might help calm our nerves, but it didn¡¯t help. It¡¯s complete chaos all over the place.¡± ¡°All over the place?¡± I felt something heavy weighing on my stomach. What was this ominous feeling? ¡°Apparently the zombie outbreak is affecting ten or more cities around the country, but the news keeps saying everything¡¯s fine and there isn¡¯t any problem.¡± ¡°It...isn¡¯t just here!?¡± ¡°It was a lot tenser at first. They were saying something about reporting the truth until the instant the police stormed the studio, but as time passed, the announcements grew almost overly reassuring. It¡¯s just creeping me out. I wish this thing could record.¡± The survival man sounded annoyed. ¡°And the overseas broadcasts that occasionally get in on a crossed line or something are telling an entirely different story. They¡¯re talking about holding travelers back at the borders and sealing off the sea and air routes. They¡¯re such polar opposites that I¡¯m not sure which to believe. If only the internet would come back up.¡± How far did this commotion spread? In fact, did it ever end? I had been picturing this like a cup so full that its surface tension was barely holding on. I had thought just one drop more would send it spilling out. Then the madness and violence filling this city would spill over to the rest of the archipelago. But who ever said the surface tension was still holding on? Wasn¡¯t it possible it had broken long ago? ¡°...¡± ¡°Did I scare you? Either way, we just have to do what we can. If you ever change your mind, feel free to join us. Follow the river and you¡¯ll reach the campground.¡± ¡°Hey! This might not help much, but the zombies seem to track their prey by smell. If you find a way to cover your tracks like you¡¯re trying to escape a dog or a bear, you might have better odds of surviving.¡± ¡°Thanks. If we make it out of here alive, let¡¯s go get a drink somewh-...no, you look like you¡¯re in high school. Well, we can still get something to eat.¡± We shook hands and parted ways. I turned my back on the survivors as they searched through the gas station and I resumed my journey to the peak. ...I didn¡¯t tell them about the paragliders. I may have had an excuse. If I told them, they would have insisted on coming along. And the longer they were with me, the greater the risk of them noticing the Zashiki Warashi. Not to mention that an outsider like me would be eliminated first if it came to a fight over a limited number of paragliders. And the most obvious way of eliminating me would be to kill me. So what I did was logical and efficient. I faked a kind smile and turned my back while hiding the most important fact concerning their survival. But if they were attacked and became zombies themselves, how could I possibly take responsibility? Part 5 The Zashiki Warashi and I finally arrived at the dog square at the peak. The entire area was decorated with pure white snow. I observed the area from a distance to make sure there were no zombies and then I shined my cellphone¡¯s backlight around. There was a large fenced-off area for taking dogs for a walk and a few stables and a food processing building were packed in close together. The others may have been residential buildings. There were a lot of wooden stakes sticking up from the snow, but they may have been to tie the dogs to. However... ¡°Where are the paragliders?¡± The units with engines may have been kept inside on days like this. With panic in my hearts, I pushed the bear trap toward the buildings. You¡¯re kidding. This can¡¯t be. There were no lights on in any of the buildings and no one responded when I pounded on the doors. I peered in a few of them, but I didn¡¯t see any people or pedigree dogs. It almost looked like the place had been abandoned for a while. I also saw no sign of any paragliders. Did they not rent them out? Had hobbyists simply brought their own here because the dog square wasn¡¯t in use? If so, what was I supposed to do? If I couldn¡¯t use my plan to escape Bozen City by air, I would have to break through at the base of the mountain. Even if I could use the zombie Zashiki Warashi, breaking through that zombie-infested city simply wasn¡¯t possible! So was I supposed to just wait for help to arrive? Would I wait for a rescue team to arrive by helicopter like those people I had met at the gas station were doing? ¡°I can¡¯t...¡± After thinking about it, I shook my head. I had the zombie Zashiki Warashi with me. Whether it was the police, the firefighters, or the JSDF, no human rescue team would let me bring the Zashiki Warashi with me. Or if they did, it would be as a research sample. If she was taken from me, it was meaningless!! I couldn¡¯t escape on my own and I couldn¡¯t wait for rescue. Was this really game over? I couldn¡¯t come up with any other ideas. ¡°...¡± I wandered outside the building where I put the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s cage. With nowhere to go, I leaned back against the outer wall and slid down to sit on the snow. I looked up at the thick clouds covering the night sky and voiced my despair. ¡°Why...?¡± We had crushed quite a few zombies with the dump truck. All the cellphone shop workers had been wiped out. The Zashiki Warashi had turned into a zombie when she showed up to help and differences over how to handle her had led to a split with my childhood friend and ex-girlfriend Nagisa. I had knocked a bunch of zombies off the cliff with a tractor, deceived some innocent survivors, and finally arrived at the peak. And yet this was what I found. What do you mean there aren¡¯t any paragliders!? It was true I had no actual data and was basing my decisions on mere speculation. I was assuming there were paragliders at the peak, assuming I could escape the city on one, assuming there weren¡¯t any zombies outside the city, and most of all, assuming the zombie Zashiki Warashi could be turned back to normal. No, maybe those were more hopes than they were speculation. But I had done everything I could to make it this far. I had lost so much. So couldn¡¯t I be rewarded just a little? Could I really end up with nothing and have to start back from square one!? ¡°...¡± My mind was spinning. The simplest choice rose in the back of my mind. I could give up on the Zashiki Warashi and think about escaping Bozen City on my own. That would at the very least leave me with the option of waiting for rescue. But... ¡°I can¡¯t...¡± Why did I have to remember it now? That sexy Zashiki Warashi generally acted like a big sister, but she would start crying with surprising ease. It happened when the internet was down, when I got mad and confiscated her video games, or...that time long ago when she broke my toy robot. We got into a big argument then and she ended up crying. Thinking back, that was when we had stopped taking baths together and sleeping in the same futon. Why had that happened? In that argument, I had seen a side of her that went beyond being my ¡°Nee-chan¡±. I had seen her as an unreachable and unshakable figure, so it had been a shock that a kid¡¯s words were enough for her to bawl like that. It had been enough to destroy my image of her. That said, I wasn¡¯t disappointed or disillusioned. In fact... ¡°Oh, I get it now.¡± I finally remembered and I spoke the fact I had just realized. ¡°You¡¯re just a girl, aren¡¯t you?¡± She wasn¡¯t some formless ¡°Nee-chan¡±. She was an individual who could form any kind of relationship. She could be a friend, a best friend, or even a lover. She was the girl closest to me. It was said Zashiki Warashi were a collection of the young children killed during famines and the like. Her sexy figure might seem out of place for that, but there may have been a reason for it. Maybe she was a collection of those kids¡¯ desire to grow up and be seen as an older sister. Maybe that was why she had tried to play the part of the ideal ¡°Nee-chan¡± in front of me. But that had only been an act that would fall apart due to the smallest things. What if deep down, she was just a normal girl? After realizing that and understanding that, I had no longer been able to bathe with her or sleep in the same futon as her. ¡°Ha ha...¡± My escapist thoughts were trying to keep me from viewing the reality around me. But I felt like those thoughts had led me to an answer. I slapped both my cheeks and listened to the pleasant sound as I focused on what I had to do. I definitely couldn¡¯t abandon her now. A Zashiki Warashi wasn¡¯t a special being that could rule over everything when thrown out into the world on her own. She was nothing more than a girl who would cry and not know what to do when things got tough. If I knew that, how could I leave her in a city full of zombies? I would save her no matter what it took. If I couldn¡¯t say that, how could I call myself a man? Part 6 I couldn¡¯t expect to find a paraglider in the long-since-abandoned dog square. I would need to rethink our escape plan from the ground up, but I couldn¡¯t just mope around forever. I had come this far, so I at least had to search around the dog square to see if there was anything at all I could use. ¡°The food processing building.¡± I had no idea what was going to happen, so it was possible I would need a weapon like Nagisa had. I searched through the building with that in mind, but I only found a work bench with an attached electric tool. There was nothing small enough to carry around with me. I opened all the doors, hoping to at least find a knife or some scissors, but I found something else entirely behind one of them. When I opened some thick metal double doors, I found a long, long stairway leading underground with a shimenawa decorating the top of the entrance. I also saw the Hyakki Yakou emblem I had seen during the battle with the Aoandon. The pure gold family crest had a shimenawa hanging from the very center. ¡°What the hell is this?¡± ¡°Gau.¡± Asking the zombie Zashiki Warashi wasn¡¯t going to help. This was clearly suspicious, but I had a nagging feeling it wasn¡¯t going to lead to an escape route. Finding a cave at the mountain¡¯s peak made me think of the term Mikuchi-sama, but I had given up on doing anything on my own. If I was taken out here, what would happen to the caged Zashiki Warashi? Escaping together was my top priority. Once we reached some safe place, I could ask some big names like the Succubus or the Aoandon. I could even ask Hyakki Yakou for help. If we then found we had to go back to Bozen City to return the zombies to normal, we could do so with all the equipment we might need. I had no reason to risk my own life and the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s fate on a one-shot gamble here. With that in mind, I prepared to close the metal doors, but then I heard something rolling toward me. ¡°Hm? Hey, wait!!¡± The foundation must have sunk at some point because the floor was slanted just a bit. That meant the wheeled bear trap was rolling straight toward me! For a second, I considered trying to catch it, but I quickly realized that wasn¡¯t possible. That thing was meant to carry two or three hundred kilo bears. It had to be pretty solid and heavy. If it picked up speed it wouldn¡¯t just hit me. It would send me flying! So I quickly fled to the side. ¡°Gau!!¡± As the Zashiki Warashi held onto the bars inside the cage, I thought I saw her giving me a look of pure spite. A moment later, the cage fell down the stairs beyond the door. The crashing sounds continued for a while afterwards. ¡°Ah...¡± Once the sound completely stopped, I peered into that darkness. These were the blatantly fishy stairs leading underground below the shimenawa. I hadn¡¯t wanted to go down there, so I sounded really annoyed. ¡°But I guess I have to go down there to collect that idiot...¡± Part 7 The stairway was a lot longer than I had thought. Once I finally reached the bottom, I found the bear trap on its side and the Zashiki Warashi glaring at me with a hint of fear in her eyes. It was the look of a wild animal that could no longer trust humans after burning itself on a campfire. ¡°Gau gau!! Grrr!!!¡± ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m sorry, Zashiki Warashi. But there¡¯s no way I could have stopped that.¡± I apologized and somehow managed to right the toppled cage. Then I looked back the way we had come. Could I really climb those stairs with that cage? I was worried, but since we were down here, I decided to keep going. It was possible there was another exit. The underground space was quite large. At the center was a pit twenty meters across and too deep to see the bottom. Quite a few small shacks and bamboo passageways had been built in three dimensions around the pit. The wooden walls were branded with Hyakki Yakou¡¯s emblem. There were plenty of bare lightbulbs, candles, and lanterns, so the space was filled with a dim orange light. The stuffy scent of dirt was mixed with the scent of machine oil. There was a simple reason why. ¡°A power shovel and a bulldozer? There¡¯s even a tunnel boring machine with attached arms.¡± There was a lot of the yellow heavy machinery used for public works projects. I could tell a lot of effort had gone into making this space, but what was it for? I pushed the bear trap down the gradually descending pathway that spiraled like a giant spring. After continuing for a bit, the scenery changed entirely. The buildings and passageways had burned away. There also must have been a cave-in because the bedrock had collapsed in places. What had happened? No matter how big this place was, that would still mean a fire in a subterranean space. The smoke and lack of oxygen scared me more than the flames and heat. ¡°Gau...¡± ¡°Hm? What is it, Zashiki Warashi?¡± She was acting odd inside the cage. She was sitting motionless in a corner with her hands on the top of her black-haired head. Was she afraid of something? I doubted it was just the fire, so what had caused it? I looked over to the fire-blackened pillars, but I couldn¡¯t tell what the small building had been used for originally. Curious, I brushed my fingers across the burned materials and thought. Suddenly, what looked like a stuffed animal head poked out from behind the corner. No, it was a small canine Youkai. ¡°Hm? You¡¯re that Sunekosuri, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I never expected to see you here, Jinnai Shinobu! Oh! But this is hardly the time. Hide! You really need to hide!¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°The zombies will be here soon! Um, oh, that Zashiki Warashi also needs to-...wahh!! She¡¯s a zombie too!?¡± The canine Youkai suddenly appeared and nearly pissed himself, so I scooped him up in one hand. It didn¡¯t matter if the zombies found the Zashiki Warashi, so I left the cage there. However, the zombies tracked their prey by smell, so... ¡°Hey, I¡¯d like to base some stuff on a dog¡¯s sense of smell!¡± ¡°Who are you calling a dog!? I am a proper Youkai called a Sunekosu-...ghh!?¡± He¡¯s useless! At any rate, I ran into the remains of the burned-down shack with the Sunekosuri. I lay down on the ground and held my breath. The smell of charcoal was pretty distinctive, so I could only hope it would hide us from the zombies! I heard some wet sounds. They were several pairs of footsteps. I had no real weapon and I didn¡¯t have Nagisa¡¯s skill to knock them off balance and then sever an arm, leg, or head with a full swing. If we were found, it was all over. We¡¯d be powerlessly overwhelmed and eaten. I held my breath. My heart pounded in my head. I could not sense any warmth in the footsteps I heard. I didn¡¯t sense the atmospheric change felt when you¡¯re on an elevator alone and someone else steps on. I couldn¡¯t move my head much, but I could see the zombies walking by beyond the burned-down wall. They were... ¡°Uncle...?¡± I knew it was hardly the time, but I muttered under my breath. And it wasn¡¯t just the detective in cardigan and slacks. I also saw Hishigami Enbi in a torn-up Santa Claus themed swimsuit and Hishigami Mai who seemingly couldn¡¯t use her legs since she was dragging herself forward with her arms. I also saw someone in a white kimono with long white hair spreading out from a head that dangled loosely from her neck. I was pretty sure that was the Hishigami Shikimi woman I had seen at some point. All of them had dry white hair, muddy eyes, and red and purple skin. What had happened here? Why were they here in this creepy cave and why had they turned into zombies!? They all had to have been closer to the center of this than me, so how could this have happened!? I didn¡¯t understand anything anymore. I didn¡¯t want to believe the scene before my eyes. ¡°Jinnai-san?¡± The Sunekosuri was saying something, but I wasn¡¯t listening. I got up without thinking. I slowly moved my head toward them. If I could go to them, dispel this strange mirage, and prove this scene was a lie... As I started to stand up, the small Youkai bit the back of my hand. ¡°Jinnai Shinobu! Stop this! Are you trying to sacrifice yourself!?¡± But... I can¡¯t let this be real... ¡°Refusing to face reality will save no one. If you are defeated, what will happen to the Zashiki Warashi you brought with you!?¡± ¡°¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡± Those words finally focused my mind on reality. Fortunately, the zombies had yet to notice me, so I got back down as if I had suddenly remembered the situation. That¡¯s right. No matter how cruel the world got and no matter how overwhelming the scenes before my eyes, I had been willing to part ways with Nagisa over this. I couldn¡¯t end this by giving up and leaving the Zashiki Warashi all alone! I clenched my teeth. I could only wait for them to pass. But... ¡°Gau.¡± The shaking of the cage seemed to squeeze at my heart. You Good-for-Nothing!! Do you have something against me!? You haven¡¯t forgiven me for dropping you down those stairs, have you!? You¡¯re pretty conceited for a zombie!! My uncle and Hishigami Enbi coldly turned their heads. Their feet came to a stop. While lying on the ground, I slowly reached for some of the shockingly light wood used for the shack. It was really only charcoal now, so I was worried it would break in two the instant I hit something with it. But after listening to the sound of the cage shaking a few more times, the zombies seemed to lose interest. Their wet footsteps slowly moved away without setting foot in the burned-down shack. I stayed among the black charcoal for a while, letting time pass. I could feel my heart beating so oddly fast I was sure this was taking years off my life. ¡°Are they...gone?¡± ¡°Looks that way.¡± I hesitantly spoke and then got up from the charcoal. I poked my head out and looked around, but my uncle and the others were nowhere to be seen. ¡°What happened here?¡± ¡°I-I don¡¯t know everything either, but I think we should share what information we have.¡± Part 8 The Sunekosuri led me to one of the wooden shacks that had been built around seemingly at random. This one bore Hyakki Yakou¡¯s emblem as well. Once I pushed the bear trap inside, I saw a familiar face: the Deadly Dragon Princess. That was Hishigami Mai¡¯s Shikigami. She was lying on her back and didn¡¯t seem to have become a zombie, but she didn¡¯t look okay either. Sweat covered her unemotional face and she looked quite pale. It was like she was forcing down some pain. How had this happened? The Sunekosuri and I exchanged our stories leading up to this moment. Despite being such a small Youkai, the Sunekosuri was an official member of Hyakki Yakou, so there were parts a high schooler like me had trouble comprehending. Still, I worked at processing it in my head until I had a decent understanding. ¡°You¡¯re kidding, right? So Majina and that Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi are involved in this?¡± That was my initial reaction. ¡°They are at the deepest part of this cave. It seems Majina-sama developed the Ver. 40 here and has now moved onto causing this zombie outbreak. It seems to be in order to stop something, but we don¡¯t know what that something is. It¡¯s even possible naming himself the true leader of Hyakki Yakou to usurp the country¡¯s strongest organization is also part of his fight against whatever it is.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what it is. Creating an allied army to stop an UFO attack is meaningless if that allied army becomes a dictator that brings suffering to everyone. That just gives us two enemies threatening to destroy mankind.¡± If Majina¡¯s group had intentionally caused this zombie outbreak, stopping them was the only option. And that meant something else was important. ¡°The Kasha and Mikuchi-sama. That¡¯s probably the bottleneck here.¡± I had already discussed the Kasha with Nagisa in that house, but we hadn¡¯t known anything about Mikuchi-sama. I was fortunate to get some new information here. To prevent the spread of disease, the people without relatives who died during a famine were thrown into a large hole in the mountain. That had eventually been broadly interpreted into throwing in the injured, criminals, and the losers of conflicts between political factions. Anyone labeled a criminal was sacrificed. Instead of throwing out the corpses to prevent the spread of disease, they had to continue throwing corpses in to keep disease from coming out. By adding in the Kasha¡¯s trait to move the corpses of criminals when it approached, it did sound like you could build up the basis for this zombie outbreak. But that made it sound like dying or being fatally injured in Bozen City was the trigger to become a zombie, not being bitten by a zombie. No... ¡°This isn¡¯t limited to just Bozen City, is it?¡± ¡°No. Several cities in five regions are experiencing a similar zombie outbreak. The police, firefighters, and JSDF are trying to seal them off, but if the number of zombies grows high enough, it will reach the saturation point and they will spread across Japan.¡± ¡°And you said with each generation, the zombies retain more of their rational mind. Eventually, they won¡¯t even be aware they¡¯re zombies.¡± That ¡°generation¡± became a little unclear for the people who became a zombie after dying from something other than a zombie. ¡°Majina-sama¡¯s goal is to strengthen the entire Japanese population. He seems to want to increase their physical strength as much as possible while leaving them their rational minds.¡± How could I believe something like that? There had to be more to it. Maybe he was using the Kasha Package to manage the zombies¡¯ minds and he had a breaker that let him turn someone back into a corpse if he didn¡¯t like them. And even if you kept your mind, a zombie was still a zombie. No one would want to end up like that. That¡¯s the entire reason he had to attack all of Japan at once like this. He had known from the beginning that no one would agree to it if he simply suggested the idea. ¡°A-anyway, it all started here in Bozen City. The other cities are probably connected by some kind of network. If we destroy the Package¡¯s core here, it should resolve all of the zombie outbreaks.¡± Yes. This was what I most wanted to ask about. ¡°What does it meant to resolve it? Does it mean no more zombies will be made? Does it mean the zombies turn back into people? Or does it mean they¡¯ll turn back into corpses? ¡®Resolving¡¯ this could mean a lot of different things.¡± ¡°...¡± The Sunekosuri silently shook his head. Well, it wasn¡¯t like the great Hyakki Yakou knew everything. It was possible not even Majina himself knew since he wouldn¡¯t have planned for it being stopped. However, ignoring this would be a bad idea. Majina¡¯s group had been spotted here in Mikuchi-sama. Given the scale of the facility, this had to be the center of it all. We needed to figure out the Kasha Package prepared here. The best plan from there would be to apply that knowledge in some way to save the Zashiki Warashi and the other zombies. ¡°But a Kasha, huh?¡± That seemed like more of a minor Youkai than the Yuki Onna or Zashiki Warashi. ¡°That Youkai is said to be a cat Youkai enveloped in flames or an Oni chariot that carries criminals¡¯ souls down to the depths of hell. The legends change age to age, though.¡± ¡°Majina is skilled enough to remake the Sunekosuri named Ohatsu into pure darkness that he can use for offense or defense. If he can freely use the Kasha, he might be able to switch between the different Kasha legends like shifting gears in a car.¡± The Sunekosuri twitched a bit at my mention of ¡°Ohatsu¡±. ...? They were the same kind of Youkai, so there may have been a connection there. ¡°The hell¡¯s chariot that takes criminals¡¯ souls away is the version from an older age while the cat Youkai that steals and moves corpses is the version from a newer age. Given the zombie outbreak, this might be focused more on the newer version of the Kasha.¡± ¡°Um, in that case... Doesn¡¯t it appear at the funeral or graveyard, create a powerful wind to blow open the coffin lid, and steal the criminal¡¯s corpse?¡± ¡°The part about stealing the corpse must have been fulfilled by linking it to the Mikuchi-sama legend. That¡¯s probably our best bet at attacking this.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Majina needs to be able to control the zombie outbreak. It¡¯s just like having a way to keep yourself from being infected by your own malware or from having your own counterfeit money in your wallet. In that case, there¡¯s one thing we don¡¯t know: how is Majina controlling the Kasha?¡± ¡°Come to think of it, we have a few ideas about how the zombies were spread, but there¡¯s a lot we don¡¯t know about how they¡¯re controlled. Majina-sama is powerful, so maybe he just plans to defeat any zombies that come his way.¡± ¡°Even though his supposed objective is to strengthen the Japanese population? What good is killing the soldiers he himself strengthened? There¡¯s more to this. But is there some kind of symbol that restrains a Kasha? Y¡¯know, like how a Nurikabe vanishes when you sweep the ground with a broom, how a Yuki Onna melts in a hot bath, or how the house transformed by a tanuki Youkai reveals its true form when cigarette ashes fall on it.¡± What was it? It was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn¡¯t seem to verbalize it. And then... ¡°...of Protection.¡± The Deadly Dragon Princess spoke up from the floor. ¡°The Sword of Protection. By placing a blade next to the corpse, the later legends say the Kasha will run away without stealing it. In some regions, a Sword of Protection is placed in the coffin during the funeral or burial.¡± ¡°That¡¯s it.¡± I snapped my fingers. Those words caused a symbol to link together the legends and scenes in my mind. I wasn¡¯t a strange fortune-teller or onmyouji, so I couldn¡¯t be certain about the occult. Still, I was pretty sure I was headed in the right direction. ¡°It was Mikuchi-sama.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what¡¯s trapping the Kasha. It¡¯s a giant hole twenty meters across and who knows how deep. Hey, Sunekosuri, what do you think this symbolizes?¡± ¡°Um, the gates of hell? The Kasha is also called hell¡¯s chariot.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯re wrong. The Youkai might be at the deepest part.¡± But... ¡°But at the same time, I¡¯m betting it was intentionally also made a symbol of a coffin. We think of them as long rectangular boxes today, but that came from the West. During the Edo period, weren¡¯t coffins round buckets?¡± ¡°Ah!¡± ¡°And Mikuchi-sama isn¡¯t just a big hole. It¡¯s closely linked to death with all the people that were thrown into it over centuries. Corpses have been piling up at the bottom of the coffin. If the Kasha causes the corpses to move by approaching them, the first step would have to be diving into the coffin itself. Yes, what would work better to lure in a Kasha?¡± ¡°But...¡± The Deadly Dragon Princess moved her head a little on the ground. She looked my way. ¡°Where is the Sword of Protection?¡± ¡°Normally, it¡¯s placed next to the body ¡®ahead of time¡¯ to keep the Kasha from showing up,¡± I answered. ¡°But what if it was placed on top of the giant coffin like a lid once the Kasha went inside? The Kasha would lose its only exit, so wouldn¡¯t it be stuck at the bottom of the coffin?¡± Yes. I was pretty sure I had seen the Sword of Protection already. When it came to swords and blades, there was only one option based on what I had seen after entering Mikuchi-sama. But what next? The Kasha was trapped in the center of the mountain, but how were they letting its power leak out? And this wasn¡¯t complete chaos. They were ¡°aiming¡± the Youkai¡¯s power at thirteen cities in five regions so the zombies would spread evenly across Japan. ¡°Wait.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Sunekosuri. You said the zombie outbreak is happening in thirteen cities at once, right? Do you know the exact names?¡± ¡°Y-yes. Based on the briefing I received ahead of time, it¡¯s Bonuta City, Sange City, Mukaehi City...¡± ¡°Shourou City and Kumotsu City are on the list too, aren¡¯t they?¡± ¡°H-how did you know that?¡± ¡°When escaping in the dump truck with Nagisa and the others, I saw a burning banner. It was talking about a winter festival held in other cities around the country. That speeds this up. The zombie outbreak is occurring in the thirteen cities working with Bozen City, but what kind of energy line is connecting Mikuchi-sama to them?¡± I thought for a bit and came up with a theory, even if it was a little forced. ¡°What about geothermal power? There¡¯s apparently a geothermal power station a bit away from Bozen City¡¯s mountain road. I met some of the workers. They said something about smart power. That means they¡¯re monitoring the power production and consumption over the internet and can send the power to the optimal locations at the optimal times. Most likely, all the cities are linked by power stations or substations like that.¡± ¡°Over the internet? But aren¡¯t the phone lines and other means of communication cut off?¡± ¡°But the power is still on. That means the smart power would be too. Maybe they have their own dedicated line or maybe their information is prioritized during this kind of chaos. Y¡¯know, like how the police and firefighters can use their cellphones even during a disaster.¡± The Kasha was hiding inside the volcano, the heat energy was transformed into steam, the steam turned the turbines to create electricity, and that was carried to other cities based on the data from the internet. I didn¡¯t know how effective that really was. It might have just been an empty show of being economical to get more funding from the country and the government. But that wouldn¡¯t matter to Majina and the Ver. 40. Anything was fine as long as they had a line between the Kasha¡¯s power at the depths of the volcano and the rest of the country. ¡°That would be why the zombie outbreak spread by city. The people who died in the areas managed by the smart power were the ones turned into zombies by the Kasha and Mikuchi-sama.¡± The exact numbers and equations might be different, but I thought I had the general framework right. If I didn¡¯t, I was out of ideas. If we were to take this any further, we would need to be as smart as the person who had assembled it. Namely, Majina. That was the truly skilled man who had ruled the old Hyakki Yakou. This large-scale zombie outbreak Package was something only he could do. ¡°Th-then...¡± ¡°We can ignore the smart power for now. The Package¡¯s Achilles¡¯ heel has to be the Sword of Protection at the top or the Kasha sealed at the bottom. If we can free the Kasha, the zombie panic in Bozen city and the connected cities will end. Just like removing a toy¡¯s batteries.¡± Whichever one we went for, there was something I had to do. ¡°However we do it, we¡¯re going to be crushing Majina¡¯s grand plan here. I doubt he¡¯ll just sit idly by.¡± That old leader of Hyakki Yakou could analyze, break down, and reconstruct any Youkai to the point that he could turn a harmless Sunekosuri into the greatest of disasters. And the Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi named Mei had been thoroughly remade by him to manipulate and create destiny. Even if I could ignore Hishigami Shikimi since she had apparently become a zombie, there were two monsters left to face. ¡°Can you really take them both on at once?¡± The Sunekosuri gulped and the Deadly Dragon Princess calmly voiced the result of her analysis. ¡°Not even Hishigami Mai¡¯s strength was enough to ensure their defeat. The ideal was to defeat only the trickier Hishigami Shikimi and send in the Top 5 to force back Majina, the Ver. 40, and Ohatsu.¡± ¡°But...¡± ¡°Yes. Even that ideal was wishful thinking on the current Hyakki Yakou¡¯s part. In other words, if it did not work, they were out of ideas.¡± The Top 5 were all monsters on the same level as the Illness Magic User. We were up against something that even all five of them might not have been able to defeat. What could a simple high school boy do? The only help I had was a harmless Sunekosuri, the more than half-dead Deadly Dragon Princess, and the zombie Zashiki Warashi that I could only control with the cellphone and smartphone. To be blunt, they weren¡¯t going to be any help. I was the only one that could actually stand in harm¡¯s way here. And if anything was going to give me a fighting chance there... ¡°Majina won¡¯t be worried about a simple high school boy, right?¡± ¡°So you think you can get him to lower his guard? You think Majina-sama will do that!? Don¡¯t be ridiculous. He has made countless sacrifices to evenly spread this zombie outbreak to everyone in Japan without questioning the morality of it all. If it was necessary to fulfill his plan, he would use his full power to kill a baby. I doubt that would work on him!¡± ¡°The difference in strength here is massive. Hyakki Yakou literally refers to a hundred Oni marching through the night, but he truly has surpassed that name. Even if he did let his guard down, less than 1% of his power would still smash my body to pieces. Whether he¡¯s taking it seriously or not probably doesn¡¯t really matter with him.¡± I knew that. I knew all that. After all, he was the leader of the old Hyakki Yakou. Until the assassination, he had ruled over Japan¡¯s strongest occult organization. And because I changed history, he had faked his death instead of dying and he had the skill to hide his survival from the current Hyakki Yakou for a full decade. He was a great mountain of an enemy that made me not understand even the things that I thought I understood. The giant pit had countless excavation tools and shacks with everything from shovels and pickaxes to a tunnel boring machine and explosives, but I doubted any one of them would put a single scratch on Majina as he smiled cheerfully in the depths. No normal attempt would win this for me. If I relied on childish tricks, he would pierce me through the stomach with a smile on his face. There was nothing I could do. It was a dead end. No matter what car you chose, if you floored it toward a thick concrete wall, your car would be the one that was destroyed. ¡°But that¡¯s fine.¡± ¡°?¡± The Sunekosuri tilted his head and I looked them in the eye again. ¡°We need to defeat Majina if we¡¯re going to do something about the Kasha Package. Can you give me a hand, Sunekosuri?¡± ¡°Y-yes. With Ohatsu down there and with everything else going on, I must bring an end to Majina-sama¡¯s evil deeds.¡± ¡°Deadly Dragon Princess. I know this is asking a lot given your state, but can you help me out?¡± ¡°Yes. Hishigami Mai did not ask for my help in her final moment. I believe that was to preserve me for a future opportunity.¡± ¡°And Zashiki Warashi, I¡¯ll need something from you too.¡± She didn¡¯t reply. I only heard the shaking of the bars. Now, then. ¡°Let¡¯s get started. We only have one chance at this. This is a pretty reckless plan, but hear me out.¡± Part 9 Everything was ready. This was going to be the final battle. And not long before that clash, I had selfishly asked to be left alone with the Zashiki Warashi. The zombie outbreak was ongoing in Bozen City and the other cities, so each extra minute or second could mean the loss of another life. In that way, taking my time like this might seem profane, but this was something I had to do. ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi.¡± While sitting on the ground with my back against the wall of a shack, I looked over to the bear trap. The zombie Zashiki Warashi may not have been able to recognize me because she had been grabbing at the metal bars and even gnawing on them. She would bite me to death the instant I gave her the chance. There was no sign of who she had once been. She was a partner who had been with me since before my birth. She had that long black hair and youthful skin. She had been close enough that I hadn¡¯t had an issue with taking baths with her or sleeping in the same futon as her. But... ¡°Apparently, I love you.¡± The words spilled out. If Nagisa had heard me, she might have chopped me to pieces, but I couldn¡¯t stop. ¡°You could have just told me, you know? You could have told me the whole ¡®Nee-chan¡¯ thing was an illusion and you¡¯re really just a girl. You could have told me I could love you like normal. If you had, I¡¯m sure I would have gone for it a lot sooner. I mean, you¡¯re beautiful. Your looks are perfect, you¡¯ve got giant tits, and your hips and butt are sexy too. Why wouldn¡¯t I jump at the chance? Plus, you don¡¯t age or decline. We¡¯ve been together since before I was born, so we know everything about each other¡¯s habits and preferences and we almost seem to know what the other one¡¯s thinking. We¡¯ve already seen every last good and bad thing about each other, so we know we won¡¯t be disappointed or get bored with each other. What is there to complain about that? ...Honestly. What have I been doing all this time? I feel like an idiot for actually heading out to find a girlfriend. Why didn¡¯t I realize it until you¡¯d turned into a zombie!?¡± When surrounded by hell, I had found what it was I wanted to keep with me even if it meant abandoning all else. Only after seeing that did I finally realize it. I had realized I cared more about that Good-for-Nothing Youkai¡¯s smile than I did my own life. This wasn¡¯t based in pseudo-familial love. It came from a much more direct emotion. I could not allow anyone else to harm her no matter what. I wanted to place her above all else. I wouldn¡¯t let anyone else touch her. She was mine. Not everything that came to mind was exactly pure. In fact, more of it was impure than pure. A lot of it would make me want to die from embarrassment if I said it aloud. But I couldn¡¯t lie to myself about what I thought. When you think about it, there¡¯s only one reason a teenage boy would have such muddled feelings toward such an attractive girl. This would be why none of my other attempts at love or romance had lasted very long. This would be why Nagisa had snapped and chased after me with a machete in middle school. ¡°Hey.¡± I slowly got up from the ground. ¡°It¡¯s pretty cheap and unfair of me to make a promise with you when you¡¯re like this.¡± I faced the beast¡¯s cage and took a step toward the bars. ¡°But if we do end this zombie outbreak caused by Majina¡¯s group...¡± I stood in front of it. The trap was made to capture a bear, so the bars were spaced wide apart. The Zashiki Warashi could reach her hands out, so approaching was dangerous. Even so, I took another step. I moved into the danger zone. ¡°If the people who turned into zombies return to normal and we can return home together...¡± I placed my own palms over the hands grasping the bars. I wrapped my hands around them and gently squeezed. It was like the preparation to push a girl back onto the bed. I held her hands and brought my face in close. If she bit me, I would die. I would become a zombie. I knew the risk, but I still spoke from close up. ¡°Then can I call you Yukari? If I have that dream to look forward to, I think I can fight even the greatest monster.¡± Part 10 (3rd person) Majina was the old leader of Hyakki Yakou. No, under their bloodline rules, he was most likely still their true master. He was a young man with long hair and a monocle. The Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi he had traded an eyeball with stood alongside him and the Sunekosuri named Ohatsu was held in his arm. They all waited at the deepest part of Mikuchi-sama. Lava bubbled up. They were surrounded by intense heat and a strong smell of hydrogen sulfide. A normal person¡¯s mind would have grown muddy after only twenty minutes in that scorching hell, but he did not have a single bead of sweat on him. That was how inhuman he had become. His eyes were aimed toward unseen above rather than the nearby lava. He seemed to be waiting for someone to arrive from beyond the true darkness of that abyss. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± ¡°About what, Ohatsu-san?¡± ¡°The kid named Jinnai Shinobu is here. He has made it to the depths not even the current Hyakki Yakou¡¯s greatest force could reach. You know what that means, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Well, those who are meant to arrive will arrive when they are meant to. I have Mei with me, so I can only accept that destiny is a thing.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Also, this pleases me.¡± ¡°That the boy who walks with the Ver. 39 has taken a different path from you and the Ver. 40?¡± Ohatsu¡¯s question was followed by silence from Majina. But it was not that he could not answer. He was taking time to think on her words. ¡°In the end, I couldn¡¯t make Mei into the ideal Zashiki Warashi.¡± He smiled thinly and glanced over at the Ver. 40 that did not react in the slightest. ¡°Whether you call it her traits, instincts, or characteristics as a Zashiki Warashi, I wanted to free her from all the rules that leave her at the mercy of her family¡¯s fortune and misfortune. I simply wanted her to be with me, without being torn apart by the bonds of species. But after everything that happened, I ended up heading down the exact opposite path.¡± Mei still did not react to his words. The Zashiki Warashi in a white yukata was too perfect as a Zashiki Warashi. She had wished for that and Majina had provided the actual technique. ¡°So...¡± ¡°The way that the Ver. 39 and Jinnai Shinobu could simply smile together shined too brightly for you to bear?¡± ¡°It goes beyond just the Zashiki Warashi. I even urged on Mishima-kun when he was still green and wanted to use the police to rescue the Youkai who are neither bound by nor protected by the law. I said all sorts of idealistic things, but in the end, I was forced to rely on the organization. To me, that boy¡¯s desire to negotiate with the Youkai until they could all smile together in a circle is a path I tried but failed to achieve.¡± He slowly closed his eyes as if picturing something in his mind. Was it a vision of a young boy smiling with so many Youkai ten years before? Or was it the back of the older boy who was now working to protect a Zashiki Warashi without abandoning her, even in this extreme hell? ¡°Have you caught on yet, Jinnai Shinobu-kun? ...I controlled Japan¡¯s most powerful organization, I restored the lost Zashiki Warashi techniques, and I can bend the world¡¯s destiny to my will, but I only traveled so far in my desire to be someone like you.¡± Wanting to be something was not enough to be it. It was because he could not achieve it that he dreamed of it every single night. Majina had mastered the path of the ¡°curse¡± his name meant, but now the Sunekosuri named Ohatsu spoke to him. ¡°Don¡¯t forget.¡± ¡°Forget what?¡± ¡°It is true you weren¡¯t able to acquire everything, but there were some who followed you as you continued forward even as that path wore you down.¡± Majina smiled at those almost sulking words. Then something happened. The Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi had been as silent as a mere object, but she suddenly raised her head. ¡°I know, Mei.¡± Majina also looked back. He could see someone beyond the curtain of extremely hot steam filled with toxic hydrogen sulfide. The person did not hide anywhere, did not hold any kind of cheap weapon, and did not take refuge behind a Youkai. The boy stood there all on his own. He had chosen a reckless option that Majina never could have due to his extensive knowledge of paranormal techniques. ¡°Welcome, Shinobu-kun. But this is the end.¡± Majina spoke gently. As he did, he placed two raised fingers on Ohatsu¡¯s forehead. The high school boy with hair dyed blonde opened his mouth to respond. ¡°Th-...¡± Before he could even begin, Majina¡¯s attack burst straight through Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s chest. A Sunekosuri¡¯s existence was based in the vague fear of something lurking at one¡¯s feet while walking along a path late at night. Majina had taken Ohatsu¡¯s small canine form and returned her to that original darkness, transforming her into ¡°something that gives off a sense of death¡±. He rearranged that into something like a tornado or a giant fang and used it to stab through Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s body. This was the same technique once used on the Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi. The Youkai was stripped of their flesh, mind, personality, and dignity. They were reduced to a mere phenomenon to alter them more easily. He despised such a technique more than anything, yet he entrusted his life to it as it was the most logical and efficient option. That was Majina. That was the true master of Hyakki Yakou. It did not matter if his opponent was an amateur, a baby, or the embodiment of the ideal he had longed after for many long years. His overly clever mind would not hesitate to kill them if that was the logical and efficient thing to do. He would not let them speak and he did not need to warm up or test their strength. He would use his greatest power from the very, very beginning to exterminate his target. It was not that this was the only thing he could do. Nor was he looking down on his opponent and holding back. He had simply made the optimal choice for killing Jinnai Shinobu out of the billions or trillions of deadly techniques available to him. And that was why his target was killed instantly. There was no room for argument. Hyakki Yakou did not allow for that sort of naivet¨¦. That single attack tore a hole the size of a volleyball, taking Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s heart and one of his lungs with it. So... And yet... Jinnai Shinobu seemed to ignore his death as he ran forward like a bullet. ¡°What?¡± It was not that Majina had taken Jinnai Shinobu lightly. In fact, the man was truly unable to feel such an emotion. He would use his greatest strength to exterminate any opponent. He would logically and efficiently end their life with 100% certainty. That was why he bore the name Majina and that was why he had ruled at the top of Hyakki Yakou. Nothing had gone wrong as far as ending the boy¡¯s life was concerned. The problem had to do with what happened after ending the boy¡¯s life. If some change had slowly occurred only once some time passed after the boy¡¯s death, Majina would not have been caught off guard, but this was different. ¡°Don¡¯t...tell me...¡± ¡°Majina!! Get ready!! He¡¯s coming!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you had yourself bitten to turn yourself into a zombie!¡± Now it was Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s turn. The zombie¡¯s mouth assaulted Majina¡¯s shoulder before the man could recover. Part 11 I knew I would be killed, so I had to think about what was the best way to be killed. When it came to that, the answer was obvious. To be blunt, it was probably the worst possible option. I started to understand the final moment between Nagisa and the St. Bernard. But not how Nagisa felt as she sent the St. Bernard to his grave. I understood how the St. Bernard felt being killed at the hands of the one it cared for most. ¡°It was one hell of a kiss, Majina!!¡± An unpleasant sensation reached my jaw. The smell of rusted metal filled my mouth and I heard a fibrous tearing sound as I felt something soft being ripped from Majina¡¯s shoulder. The intense urge to vomit rose from the depths of my gut. Instead of fighting it, I turned to the side and spat the substance in my mouth to the ground. ¡°But after being bit by a zombie...no, after receiving a fatal injury or dying, there had to be a few minutes of ¡®turning into¡¯ a zombie. During that time, my physical abilities would be improved yet I keep my own thoughts. Yes, it was the same with Nakisuna. When your hair is dyed, it¡¯s hard to tell the hair is losing color. And during that time, even a mere high school boy can outdo you!! I just had to accept being killed!!¡± ¡°You let...the Zashiki Warashi bite you...?¡± ¡°If the alternative¡¯s being killed by you, of course I¡¯d choose being killed by her.¡± That was the limit. A black tornado burst out from Majina. It was nearly an explosion and my zombie strength no longer mattered. I was knocked backwards, blown through the air, and slammed into the hard bedrock with a large hole in my chest. I slowly slid down, like a piece of raw meat thrown against the wall. There was nothing more I could do. I heard an unpleasant sound flowing from the hole in my chest. Even as a zombie, I had no strength left and my mind was growing hazy. I looked down and saw red and purple stains on my hands. My thoughts were breaking down. However, I had managed to accomplish something. Still collapsed by the wall, I looked over. ¡°Gh...gh.¡± Majina had a large chunk of flesh missing from his right shoulder to his neck. His collarbone was broken, his neck¡¯s artery was torn, and a frightening amount of fresh blood was spurting out. ¡°Stop the Kasha Package, Majina.¡± I somehow managed to provide a final notification despite my inarticulate tongue. ¡°You tried to fill Japan with ¡®rational zombies¡¯, but you didn¡¯t want to become one yourself, did you? And if you die at this early stage, you¡¯ll be one of the ¡®irrational zombies¡¯. You won¡¯t be able to continue with your plans, whatever those might be.¡± He could not have had much time with that veritable fountain of blood coming from him. At most, he would have lasted a few minutes. His long hair was already growing pale. ¡°...Heh.¡± But he laughed. And as he laughed, the darkness took form. The black tornado wriggled like a living creature and took aim at me like a great cobra with head raised. ¡°Hey, Jinnai Shinobu-kun. Did you really think my goal was myself?¡± ¡°...?¡± ¡°Did you never think I might have something I prioritize above myself, just as you wished to restore that Zashiki Warashi even at the cost of your own life? We do both have a Zashiki Warashi, after all.¡± ¡°You...don¡¯t mean...¡± Before I could finish...no, before I could even begin, the pitch black serpent prepared to swallow me head-first. But before it could, a mass of steel weighing more than ten tons dropped down directly above Majina. The massive and all-purpose darkness changed directions. It easily deflected the great weight threatening to crush Majina. The darkness instead crushed what turned out to be a yellow-painted bulldozer. But Majina was more focused on the bulldozer itself than the fact it had attacked him. ¡°How could this happen...? So that¡¯s it!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. We both have something we can¡¯t compromise on. I will return that Zashiki Warashi to normal whatever it takes. I¡¯ll do anything for that Good-for-Nothing Youkai I know so well, that¡¯s been my Nee-chan for as long as I can remember, and that I¡¯ve fallen in love with! If you had ended the Kasha Package, I wouldn¡¯t have needed to go this far!!¡± I smiled. I smiled? Was I really smiling? ¡°The Kasha was sealed at the bottom of the coffin by the Sword of Protection placed directly above. And what else could stand in for a blade with Mikuchi-sama!? It would have to be the excavation equipment used to expand the cave!!¡± Of course I wouldn¡¯t approach him all on my own without a good reason. We had split up into two groups from the beginning. One held Majina¡¯s group in place to buy some time while the other moved the ten ton Sword of Protection to damage the Kasha Package. If the Zashiki Warashi remained a zombie after a set amount of time, I had instructed the group above to attack this area down below since my negotiations had clearly failed. This was basically a giant boiler and the Sword of Protection was the safety valve meant to manage the power of the steam. If we forcibly moved it, changed its position, and sent it down to the bottom of the abyss, wouldn¡¯t they lose control of the internal pressure, causing an explosion? ¡°You mean...you sacrificed your own life to become an undignified zombie, and yet...even after that, you chose the path of an expendable tool!?¡± ¡°I had no other choice. It was the only part I could play. Even as a zombie, I can¡¯t knock a bulldozer or power shovel down here.¡± That was why I left that job to a Shikigami like the Deadly Dragon Princess and the RC-mode zombie Zashiki Warashi being guided by the Sunekosuri. And instead... ¡°I had them give me the honors of getting an attack in on the guy who hurt the girl I¡¯ve fallen for! Why would I complain about that!?¡± Meanwhile, more and more pieces of heavy equipment were thrown down. They were not accurately targeting Majina or the Ver. 40. In fact, it probably would have been easier for him to intercept them if they were. But something else frightened him much more. ¡°Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± He roared. The black serpent that was Ohatsu split apart into seemingly infinite numbers and shot down the falling machinery, but he had to know that action was essentially meaningless. We were only tearing off the ultra high power boiler¡¯s safety valves and throwing them away. Whether he shot them down or not, the damage to the Kasha Package was already done by the time they were torn off. And to clinch it, a tunnel boring machine with heavy machinery arms slipped through the gaps in the nearly infinite black snakes and fell into the lava-covered depths of hell. The wind blew in a different way from before. ¡°The Sword of Protection isn¡¯t meant to close the coffin like a lid. It¡¯s supposed to sit next to the dead to drive away the Kasha.¡± The bottom of Mikuchi-sama was the crucible of death where countless dead had been thrown to ferment over centuries. The modern Sword of Protection known as excavation machinery stabbed down right next to it. ¡°The area overhead is wide open and the Sword of Protection has been stabbed into the depths of the earth. There¡¯s no way your Kasha will stay put now!!¡± I saw a flash of light. It appeared in the twenty meter wide hole at the bottom of Mikuchi-sama, but it was not an explosion of orange lava. This went well beyond that. The pure white light covered everything. Something forced down there had been freed. It was powerful, like a bowstring being released after being drawn beyond its limit. I finally learned what the Kasha was. It was said to be a cat Youkai enveloped in flames or the chariot that dragged criminals¡¯ souls to hell. But I was now certain its original form had not been on the side of evil. It had not even been a Youkai. It was the judge of human souls. It was in fact close to being a god that crushed people¡¯s sins. As soon as the great light pierced the heavens like a beam weapon, the destruction arrived. It felt something like an intense gust of wind. The Kasha used wind to blow open the lid of the coffin. The bedrock crumbled, the shacks along the side of Mikuchi-sama crumbled, and even the ground below my feet grew unsteady. Just as I felt a shaking, my footing crumbled away like a landslide and it all moved toward the boiling orange volcanic crater. ¡°...!?¡± I grabbed Majina¡¯s arm as he was nearly thrown in first. Fresh red blood flowed back out of my mouth. We were both dyed purple. ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing?¡± ¡°Releasing the Kasha destroyed the Package. The zombie outbreak is over, but there¡¯s still more I want to ask you.¡± ¡°Even if the zombies become human once more, that hole in your chest will not be healed. You too will simply remember that you should be dead.¡± ¡°Then at least let me die satisfied.¡± Majina smiled as he dangled down by one arm. ¡°What do you want to know?¡± ¡°Why did you do all this? Why did you develop the Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi, overthrow Hyakki Yakou, and try to strengthen Japan¡¯s population with this zombie outbreak? The Sunekosuri said you were afraid of something. I can only assume you¡¯re looking to something you can¡¯t defeat without forcing everyone to work together. This was all meant to fight whatever it is, but what is it!?¡± ¡°It is not an enjoyable story.¡± ¡°Tell me. This is the end for us both anyway.¡± ¡°You have already seen this greatest evil that will lead to the end of the world.¡± ...? I didn¡¯t know what he meant, so he continued. ¡°Listen, Shinobu-kun. There are many different kinds of Zashiki Warashi. Based on their origin, there are those that come from the children killed during famines and there are those that are Kappa or Badger Youkai that took on human form to live in people¡¯s houses. The most important point when it comes to that is the color of their clothing.¡± ¡°What...?¡± ¡°Normally, a Zashiki Warashi will prefer to wear a white kimono. That is a standard Zashiki Warashi that brings prosperity to its family. But that is not the only legend concerning them. There are also more disconcerting stories about them predicting a fire or about the entire family dying of food poisoning just as they leave the house.¡± A normal Zashiki Warashi would wear a white kimono. But wait. The Zashiki Warashi I knew didn¡¯t. It partially had to do with my grandma using her as a dress-up doll, but there was one color she always preferred! ¡°Yes, the red kimono. ...The Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi is an ill omen. When it leaves the family or predicts that family¡¯s destruction, it always wears red.¡± And... ¡°That Zashiki Warashi is not just any Zashiki Warashi. She is the Ver. 39. She once had her power thoroughly increased using insane ideas implemented with definite techniques, so she can go beyond manipulating the world¡¯s destiny and actually create that destiny out of nothing. So what if she was ¡®red¡¯? How far would the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi¡¯s power reach? She would not bring about the downfall of a single family. There is a chance her influence would surpass the framework of Japan and bring about the downfall of all mankind.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding...¡± I felt dizzy, but not because my death was approaching. ¡°How am I supposed to believe that!?¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°When she...when that Good-for-Nothing Youkai used her Ver. 39 in that past incident, it was only ten years ago. She¡¯s been living in that house for over a century, so the world should¡¯ve been destroyed far sooner!¡± ¡°That just shows how prosperous the Jinnai Brewery was. It was enough to force back the destructive power of the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. You can be proud of that, but it will not last forever. The end is inevitable.¡± Majina smiled with his purple-dyed face. ¡°I have the Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi. Why do you think we didn¡¯t use that power to put you in checkmate? Because we needed the full power of the Ver. 40 to oppose the ruinous destiny brought by the Ver. 39. If she had used up the Ver. 39 to stop the zombie outbreak, Mei¡¯s Ver. 40 could have contained it. But I never expected her to become a zombie herself and lose her rational mind. This was not malice on Yukari¡¯s part. We should view it as just how cruel the Ver. 39¡¯s ruinous destiny is.¡± I had assumed Majina¡¯s group had started down this strange path because my changes to the past had allowed them to escape their assassination. ¡°In theory, we should have won, but it didn¡¯t work. This power is great enough to overturn reason and drive back logic. While the Ver. 39 is unstable, that very instability allows it, for brief moments, to surpass the power of the fully stabilized Ver. 40. That is why we could not fully suppress the ruin she brings. That is why we lost.¡± But that wasn¡¯t all that happened. I had resolved that past incident so the Ver. 39, that Good-for-Nothing Youkai, didn¡¯t have to lose her power. That meant the power of the Ver. 39 remained. If her bodily structure had been destroyed and she could no longer use her power as a Zashiki Warashi, the world might have stabilized. Majina had quickly realized that fact, so he had hidden for a decade, remade his beloved Mei into the Ver. 40, and done whatever it took to resist the ruin approaching the world. It had all been to face that one threat. It had all been to protect both humans and Youkai from the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. ¡°You won and we lost. That may be due to our failure to suppress the Ver. 39¡¯s ruinous power, but the result is the same. So accept this. Accept that you have released the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. Accept the true ruin that will bring.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to die here and this is the truth I find at the very, very end!?¡± ¡°That is why I will play one last piece of mischief.¡± A small light appeared near Majina¡¯s chest. Was it was some kind of paranormal power? Since it was intentional, perhaps it was best called a paranormal technique. ¡°Our original destiny was to die and this incident was the result of us fooling history for ten years. To put it another way, correcting history to its proper form will erase the tragedy we created. It isn¡¯t actually that simple, but my technique can forcibly twist it in that direction. Of course, it will be a joint effort borrowing my wife¡¯s power.¡± ¡°Majina...?¡± ¡°You returned yourself to human with your own power and your human wounds will be healed by the historical corrections brought by my disappearance. This way you can survive to see the world of the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi.¡± ¡°Wait. But then what happens to all of you!?¡± ¡°Ohatsu-san and my wife Mei are both Youkai. They were always paranormal beings, so they have some resistance to interference from history and destiny. Shikimi-san is probably 50/50, but she was always something of a living legend and it¡¯s worth seeing if she can escape her destiny to die. The most unnatural one here is me, a ¡®mere human¡¯ who has continued to live in defiance of destiny. So once the distortion of history has concentrated at that weakest point, I will intentionally correct that distortion. That will leave me as the only sacrifice. No one else will be affected.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I¡¯m talking about!!¡± ¡°I feel bad making a comparison here, but not even Mishima-kun from the NPA stands a chance. Nor does Hafuri. Neither of them can solve this. You are the only one. I am certain that only you can stop the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi that holds the Ver. 39. Protect the world using that power that overcame even me, my shining hero.¡± The black vortex took the shape of a small canine Youkai. It was the Sunekosuri named Ohatsu. ¡°You knew this would happen from the beginning, didn¡¯t you?¡± she asked. ¡°I am not that farsighted. I truly did not predict what Shinobu-kun was after and it was entirely my own error that we failed to suppress the Ver. 39. Then again, I won¡¯t deny that I set things up so some hope would remain no matter who won.¡± Even now, the Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi said nothing. Perhaps she had been altered to the point that she couldn¡¯t. She had a thin veil covering half her face and a head-mounted display around her neck. Most importantly of all, she wore the white kimono, a symbol of normality that she could not escape. Majina glanced over at his partner who could not and was not allowed to change her expression. ¡°True to my name, I will cast a curse on you.¡± ¡°What are you-...?¡± ¡°Take care of my wife and daughter. I won¡¯t ask that you return them to a proper path in life. I only ask that you do enough to keep them smiling in the narrow field over which Hyakki Yakou rules. I know I am being selfish, but I will soon be crushed between the gears of history in order to protect your dream of walking alongside the Ver. 39. I can at least wish that you will get along with any Youkai, can¡¯t I?¡± I felt something run down my spine. I couldn¡¯t explain what exactly it was, but something invisible seemed to seep out from Majina¡¯s smile. It was entirely different from the zombie purple. It may have been what they call the shadow of death. ¡°Screw that...¡± I didn¡¯t care how irrational my argument was. Anything was fine. No matter what, I had to sweep aside that pallor spreading across Majina¡¯s face! ¡°After everything you¡¯ve done, you¡¯re just going to disappear at your own convenience!? That¡¯s just quitting while you¡¯re ahead! Don¡¯t you try to look cool by dying!! Live on and make up for what you¡¯ve done!! I¡¯m not going to allow this! I¡¯m going to drag you to somewhere you can be judged! No matter what!!¡± I finally understood this man named Majina, at least a little bit. He had not swapped an eye with Mei for some disturbing benefit or ideology. A Zashiki Warashi would remain with or leave their family depending on that family¡¯s prosperity or decline. He had wanted some kind of eternal bond and he had wanted to be a normal family, so like exchanging rings, they had exchanged a part of their bodies. He was the same as me. He was the end result of a man who had been willing to make an enemy of the world to grasp a life of happiness with the Zashiki Warashi he had fallen for. He was a living corpse that had been left behind by history. And even though I finally understood him... ¡°Oh, and one other thing. Please pass a message on to that girl. Tell her I¡¯m sorry I never had a chance to celebrate her birthday. But assure her that Mei and I never forgot her face even once. Tell her she was our greatest treasure.¡± ¡°Majinaaaaaaa!!!!!¡± ¡°Such a beautiful light.¡± At first, I had no idea what he was talking about. But... ¡°I see. So the Kasha was a chariot that carries the souls of criminals to hell.¡± The bright light that had been released to the surface once more descended into the great pit. It bared its fangs in its proper role. That beam of light swallowed up everything, tore Majina¡¯s hand from my own, and carried that man, who had committed great crimes out of love for his family, into the lava-filled depths of the earth. Once the light vanished, I was a human rather than a zombie. No trace remained of the hole in my chest and I was among the living rather than the dead. My archenemy had been eliminated. History had been corrected and the zombie outbreak was over, so it was the ultimate happy ending. And yet I still felt like an invisible hole remained somewhere in my chest. Volume 8, Epilogue Volume 8, Epilogue Wearing her Yozakura suit, Hishigami Mai climbed out of Mikuchi-sama and onto the dog square at the peak. Several large transport helicopters had landed on the late night snowy mountain. One of them contained a girl of about ten in mourning clothes and surrounded by bodyguards. ¡°Is it over?¡± asked Hafuri. ¡°I defeated Hishigami Shikimi myself, but I wasn¡¯t the one to end it.¡± Mai spat out her answer and asked a question of her own. ¡°How are things ¡®outside¡¯?¡± ¡°As previously reported, the zombie outbreak ended at exactly the same moment in every affected city around the country. There was no major damage and all the zombies and people killed by the zombies have recovered.¡± ¡°But since we have this common understanding, I¡¯m guessing we all still have our memories of the zombie outbreak.¡± ¡°Most of the normal people only have vague memories of the zombie outbreak beginning and coming to an end, so I expect some social unrest to continue for the time being. And the truth of this would be difficult to make public. We can¡¯t have Hyakki Yakou¡¯s techniques spreading like some kind of scam.¡± ¡°So does this mean a Mr. Tanaka who became a zombie will retain his memories of being killed by a Mr. Yamada who was still human? Even if there¡¯s no law to cover this, it¡¯s probably going to strain some relationships.¡± ¡°I¡¯m more worried about large-scale con artist groups or cults showing up to take advantage of the social unrest. If that happens...¡± ¡°Sure thing. If you¡¯ll pay me extra, I¡¯m more than willing to run out and do some damage control.¡± A short distance from Hishigami Mai and Hafuri, the Sunekosuri named Ohatsu looked around on top of the pure white snow. The tension of the hopeless zombie outbreak had entirely relaxed and a Hyakki Yakou without Majina filled the scene around her. That was when she realized it was truly over. An era had come to an end. ¡°Ohatsu!!¡± Another small canine Youkai ran over, but Ohatsu resolutely rejected him. ¡°Do you really think I would beg for my life?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°I am from the true Hyakki Yakou! I am a comrade of the darkness that built an entire era with Majina!! I will take whatever punishment our failure has earned me. Take me wherever you wish and chop off my head with delight!! The victors may build a new era atop my corpse!!¡± She did not try to ingratiate herself to him. She would proudly accept her punishment with no attempt to negotiate. ¡°Uuhh...¡± But when the Sunekosuri was faced with that will of steel... ¡°Uuhhhhhhhhhh!! Uuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± He squeezed his eyes shut and yet still could not prevent the clear tears from spilling out. Ohatsu gave an exasperated sigh. ¡°Is that pathetic reaction all you can manage when your spouse is prepared to accept her death?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care. I don¡¯t care about that!!¡± He shook his head and drowned her out. ¡°It¡¯s true I can¡¯t forgive what you did. You spat on Hafuri-sama, dragged countless innocent people into this, and plotted to overthrow the country. Destroying you was the obvious answer and we should probably be celebrating this conclusion.¡± But the Sunekosuri turned all of that around. ¡°But I¡¯m just so glad you¡¯re alive!! That¡¯s all I care about!!¡± Ohatsu did not say anything more. She briefly narrowed her eyes. After being separated for so long, the two Youkai moved in close just once. ¡°If only you could be that honest, young lady,¡± said Hishigami Mai. ¡°About what?¡± asked Hafuri with a frown. ¡°Ohatsu began working with Majina because she felt she needed a connection to the leader of Hyakki Yakou if she was to create a system to prevent humans from hunting down harmless and powerless Youkai. In other words, it was to protect her husband and son.¡± ¡°Hm? What does that have to do with me?¡± ¡°One question: what was Majina and Mei¡¯s goal?¡± ¡°As reported, to prevent a worldwide disaster brought about by the Hyakki Yakou Prototype Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi...no, the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi.¡± ¡°That was the means, not the goal.¡± Mai gave a simple rejection. ¡°The Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi was certainly a major problem, but they had another fear. A Zashiki Warashi is an unstable Youkai with an easily broken balance between fortune and disaster. And Majina and Mei knew of someone much more sensitive and delicate than a pure Zashiki Warashi.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean...¡± ¡°They knew of a half-human, half-Zashiki Warashi. In other words, you. Your existence is unprecedented, so no one knew if you would bring great fortune or great disaster. Would you become a Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi or would you become something even worse? That was a distinct possibility and there was only one way to fight against it: reveal every last detail of the Zashiki Warashi species, even if it meant altering his wife¡¯s body and even if it meant digging up the techniques from Hyakki Yakou¡¯s prime that they so despised. That was the only thing they could do in the hopes that they could remake you into something harmless instead of taking your life if their fears were realized.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°The Hyakki Yakou that Majina wanted was apparently an organization in which humans and Youkai could coexist. In that way, even the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi was a useful specimen and creating a happy life for a half-human, half-Youkai like you would be the ultimate judgement of their organization and a lesson to the world. So as they divulged the secrets of the white and red Zashiki Warashi, they were hoping they could approach the workings of something as truly irregular as a half-human version.¡± Hafuri fell silent for a moment, but she finally shook her head. ¡°That is all speculation. They were nothing more than a cruel system. What proof do you have that personal feelings like that were lurking below the surface?¡± ¡°Mei.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Why do you think he gave his wife such a meaningful name? That name is a sign of the resolve to ¡®wander¡¯ between the white and the red Zashiki Warashi. And all so that the three of you could live as a happy family in the end. His wife was the journey of hardship, so her name means ¡®wander¡¯. And you were the goal, so your name means ¡®celebration¡¯.¡± This time, the lonely girl named Hafuri fell truly silent. However, that did not last long either. But not because she had opened her mouth. It was because new footsteps approached on the snow. ¡°Jinnai Shinobu...¡± The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata was with him. She was the Hyakki Yakou Prototype Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi...no, the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. ¡°You didn¡¯t think about trying to escape us?¡± ¡°I thought about it countless times, but I couldn¡¯t imagine how I wouldn¡¯t just get caught in the end.¡± He gave a weary sigh before continuing. His face twisted as he looked to Hafuri...no, to the girl in mourning clothes. ¡°Plus, Majina asked me to do something at the very end. He asked me to look after his wife and daughter. I couldn¡¯t just turn my back on that.¡± ¡°...¡± He had said ¡°at the very end¡±. That man had been Hafuri¡¯s greatest enemy and her father. Even without a detailed explanation, the ten year old girl concluded that she would never see him again. The blond high school boy continued while bowing his head. ¡°...Sorry.¡± ¡°There is nothing for you to apologize for. Ending the nationwide zombie outbreak and returning alive is more than enough.¡± ¡°Right, right,¡± casually cut in Hishigami Mai. ¡°And it isn¡¯t like Jinnai Shinobu didn¡¯t manage anything. We may not have made it in time for Majina, but Hafuri¡¯s mother just barely made it.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°A Zashiki Warashi sticks with its family. With Majina gone, there was a chance the Ver. 40 would just vanish. ...But it didn¡¯t happen that way. Youkai seem to naturally take a liking to Jinnai Shinobu and that trait must have kept her from wandering off. That¡¯s what gave us the chance we needed to reconnect her to you.¡± Hafuri looked back in the direction Mai pointed with her thumb. Standing in the pure white snow was an even purer white Youkai. She was the ideal form of the Zashiki Warashi. She would simply protect whoever was set as her master. The sexy Youkai could do nothing more than that, but this still meant the girl was no longer alone. ¡°...¡± Their gazes met. Hishigami Mai placed a hand on Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s shoulder and they left along with the Ver. 39. They left the mother and daughter alone. Just before they left, Mai had a thought (We never did find Hishigami Shikimi.) The current Hyakki Yakou was still searching through Mikuchi-sama and Bozen City, but Mai doubted they would find her. That woman was the founder of the Hishigami line. She specialized in destruction and she was feared more than anyone, but she had clung to this world for a thousand years in the simple desire to just once be useful to someone and receive their thanks. Mai could only assume the woman would continue travelling from darkness to darkness as she always had. The suspect was dead. Serial murders based in old traditions and modeled after ceremonial sacrifice had occurred at the dog square on the peak. Traces had been found of the missing people having been restrained and imprisoned. Further investigation was required. Just as Uchimaku Hayabusa finished using his laptop to write up and send a report, a young man slowly approached from the distance. Hayabusa closed the laptop and stood up. ¡°Sorry about asking to meet you so late.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. I would have been bored stuck in the guest room. Plus I doubt they will send out any more planes in this snow. If you would like, I can make a call and have a room opened for you in a Hishigami-owned hotel. I will be doing the same for myself, so I would only be doing it for you while I was at it.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ll just sleep here and wait for morning. I¡¯m used to saving money like that.¡± ¡°I see.¡± The man in Japanese clothing laughed and narrowed his eyes. His named was Hishigami Kyou. He was one of the primary managers of the Hishigami Group, Japan¡¯s greatest general trading company. He was also a member of the Hishigami Men and was third in line to the main Hishigami family. He was not someone one would expect to see in a local airport lobby so late at night when flight after flight was canceled. Even if he had been waiting in the luxurious guest room that normal people could not use and usually did not even know existed. If this man wished for it, he could have every last airport employee working like crazy to clear the entire runway of snow and send out a charter plane with the Hishigami crest on the tail. ¡°I heard what you said, so I honestly just wanted to speak with you.¡± ¡°I am honored.¡± ¡°No need to be so formal. You are a government worker, so you put food on the table using the taxes removed from normal economic activity. You do not rely on the economic world, right? Paying taxes is a duty, not a right.¡± Kyou spoke simply. ¡°You are working with...yes, I believe it was Enbi. The Hishigami Woman that specializes in other humans. If her talents were to blossom, she could erase a full fourth of the earth¡¯s population. There are some that wish to let that potential blossom in order to resolve global warming or the energy crisis, but you have done an excellent job of restraining her. Perhaps I should avoid saying this as a member of the main Hishigami family, but I respect you as an individual.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You did not make an appointment because you happened to be in the area, right? What is it you wanted to discuss with a man you have never met? If it is something reasonable, I will answer in kind.¡± ¡°Okay, then.¡± Uchimaku Hayabusa shrugged his shoulders just once and slowly inhaled. ¡°Hishigami Kyou-san. This might not be something a police officer should say.¡± ¡°What is it? Are you reaching your limit as far as handling Enbi is concerned? If so, I can provide some reasonable assistance in naturally removing her from you.¡± ¡°No, it isn¡¯t that.¡± The detective sounded like he was raising the white flag. ¡°I want to punch you right in the face. That¡¯s what this is about, you son of a bitch.¡± Hishigami Kyou looked taken aback. A moment later, a solid sound rang out and the man in Japanese clothing was thrown to the floor. Uchimaku Hayabusa grimaced as he looked down at the man. It almost looked like his own glass skeleton had shattered from the blow¡¯s reactionary force. He had just done something that rejected his entire lifestyle as a policeman. He understood that, but he continued onward. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Why what?¡± ¡°You have so much! So very much!! You receive so much fortune that it¡¯s overflowing!! So why don¡¯t you give any of that to Enbi and the others!?¡± ¡°Do you know nothing of the Hishigami-...¡± ¡°Oh, I know,¡± cut in Hayabusa. ¡°I know all about your rules concerning the Hishigami Men and Hishigami Women! And I know there¡¯s some truth to it even if there¡¯s no real proof. Enbi ¨C and Mai and Shikimi too ¨C live in a world that brings tragedy, not comedy.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°It¡¯s true they¡¯re monsters.¡± Uchimaku Hayabusa clenched his teeth and forced out his voice. ¡°But you¡¯re the ones that made them into monsters!! If you had reached out to them even a little and had shown them at least the kindness of holding and comforting a newborn baby, they wouldn¡¯t have turned out like that!! Can the Hishigami Men really look down on the Hishigami Women? You unilaterally harm them, yet they continue forward in that frightening darkness! Is rejecting someone just because they¡¯re a little creepy your idea of ¡®reasonable¡¯!?¡± That was all he managed to say. Several dull sounds filled the lobby. However, they were not the sounds of Uchimaku Hayabusa¡¯s fists raining down on Hishigami Kyou. Instead, they were the sounds of dull impacts reaching the detective¡¯s cardigan-wearing torso. The great sounds were almost explosive in and of themselves. ¡°Gh...¡± Uchimaku Hayabusa did not know what had happened. It was not from his stomach and not from his lungs either, but he felt some unknown substance flowing backwards through his body. ¡°Bh...¡± The impacts caused several organs to convulse and wriggle and all strength left his legs and waist. He collapsed to the floor. As Hishigami Kyou slowly stood back up, several young woman wearing special suits that covered all of their joints surrounded him. Those soldiers seemed to have appeared out of thin air and their fists had struck him like curving laser beams. The lines of light were colored red, blue, and yellow. They were dressed in the same kunoichi-esque outfit as Hishigami Mai. The protectors on their right arms bore the Hishigami crest and what may have been their individual name. ¡°Wha-...? Are they...Hishigami...Women...?¡± ¡°Of course not. I would never make such an unreasonable choice.¡± Hishigami Kyou brought a hand up to check on his swelling cheek, but his expression remained entirely calm. ¡°However, they have had a portion of those traits artificially implanted in them. They are not Hishigami Women, but they can do the same things. The level of their abilities has of course deteriorated somewhat, but they will not leave my control. Their hair and eye color may look strange, but that is probably due to the Youkai medicine they¡¯re using. I¡¯m not entirely sure why their hair grew white on top of that, though. This is the furthest limit of what we can consider ¡®reasonable¡¯.¡± ¡°...¡± Hayabusa tried to say something, but he could not gather his thoughts. He simply raised his unfocused eyes from the floor and Hishigami Kyou calmly asked him a question. ¡°So what did you want to do with the Hishigami Women?¡± The man sounded puzzled. In that instant, Hayabusa¡¯s thoughts focused in on a single point and he used his clear mind to respond. ¡°I want them to be happy. No, I want to make them happy...¡± He was unsure if his lips or throat would even move, but he used them to squeeze out the words. ¡°I want to give that girl a normal life...where she doesn¡¯t need to fear anything, doesn¡¯t need to act tough, and doesn¡¯t need to hurt anything. I don¡¯t want her to restrain herself so much. I want her to live happily as she grows more and more. It is my duty to fight all of you who are trying to rob her of that normal life...¡± That was the limit. His consciousness vanished like a thin thread had snapped. For a while, the man who controlled it all squeezed his eyes shut as if savoring the flavor of some coffee. ¡°Kyou-sama.¡± ¡°What is it, Zei?¡± ¡°Why did you take the first punch yourself? If you had given us freedom to move a little earlier, you would not have needed to bear that pain.¡± ¡°Well...¡± Hishigami Kyou opened his eyes again and smiled with enjoyment on his lips. He gave a glance to Zei, Akane, and Ran, the three peerless weapons standing around him. ¡°It is true we only act in a reasonable fashion. If the world is heading in a cruel direction, we must be dyed in those same colors. That is what the Hishigami Men are. Our hatred of the Hishigami Women is nothing more than a reflection of that tendency of the world.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°But this is interesting. If a youth like him would support the reasonable side of this country...no, of the world, perhaps even we could live a life of joy and pleasure. He embodies a form of ¡®reasonable¡¯ that grows angry for the likes of Enbi and Mai and who would stand up for the entirety of Hishigami.¡± The woman named Zei did not protest. The young man in Japanese clothing slowly sighed while beautiful women surrounded him like faithful dogs. ¡°Treat him with care. Ensure that he finds a reasonable and pleasant morning when he wakes up.¡± ¡°Understood. What about the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department?¡± ¡°Of course we aren¡¯t going to contact them. Why would I nip this wonderful form of reasonable in the bud for no good reason? And settling incidents like these out of court is still a perfectly reasonable choice.¡± ¡°Then that is how we will handle this.¡± ¡°I do wonder if he has realized that it is my duty to make a certain person happy and to fight all those who would get in the way. And if one viewed that conversation through the reasonable lens of normal society, you cannot help but misinterpret it as him asking our family to give him the girl¡¯s hand in marriage.¡± ¡°If I might say so, are you enjoying this because he does not understand the gravity of what he is doing?¡± ¡°Ha ha! That is quite a unique opinion for someone with such love for all things reasonable!!¡± The train only ran five times a day. Jinnai Shinobu and the Zashiki Warashi caught the last train of that hopeless schedule and sat in the train seats with their shoulders together. If Majina had been telling the truth about the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi, then there was no guarantee the two of them would be freed. It was even possible they would have been buried as enemies of society, but that had not happened. Hafuri may have inherited Majina¡¯s desire for human and Youkai to coexist and that may have slowly changed the organization of Hyakki Yakou. ¡°I can¡¯t believe this...¡± ¡°Believe what?¡± ¡°That you remember everything that happened when you were a zombie. Sure, it was an extreme situation, but I said a little too much and now I kind of want to die...¡± ¡°Yes, yes. I do recall you throwing someone in a cage, dragging her around outside like a part of a freak show, having her eat a handkerchief and half-eaten ham, remote controlling her with a cellphone and smartphone, and even sending her tumbling down some stairs while still in the cage. Right, Shinobu?¡± ¡°Hold it right there, Zashiki Warashi! This is about train etiquette! You can¡¯t perform a pile driver inside a shaking train car!!¡± Shinobu put up a desperate resistance when he nearly fell victim to a wrestling technique, but the Zashiki Warashi was not being serious. She only pouted her lips and spoke as they returned to their seats. ¡°But, Shinobu. Now that I think about it, your logic doesn¡¯t really hold up.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°It may be true that the whole ¡®Onee-chan¡¯ thing was an illusion of what I wanted to be. It may be true I¡¯m really just a normal girl and an immature soul that stands on equal footing with you.¡± As she spoke, she gently took the boy¡¯s hand. ¡°But that just means I can fall in love like a normal girl. I don¡¯t think it means that love is limited to you.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be silly. Do you think all the world¡¯s romance is reliant on some red string or on destiny? Nine times out of ten, actual love is the result of the mood or the atmosphere giving one last push in the right direction. In other words, say what you like, but whoever calls dibs first is the winner. And who could possibly get there before me?¡± ¡°Your heart really has grown pitch black. I feel like I need to wash it clean.¡± ¡°You¡¯re just too pure.¡± Jinnai Shinobu sounded exasperated, but he still squeezed her hand back and smiled. ¡°But don¡¯t ask about the tenth time out of ten, Yukari.¡± If the story of the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi was true, the world would end before long. A true disaster would arrive that made the battle with the Aoandon¡¯s group and Majina¡¯s zombie outbreak look like nothing. A hopeless future was coming to burn the world to the ground. An inevitable fight awaited these two after that. But for the time being, they could remain happy lovers. Volume 8, Afterword Volume 8, Afterword That was Volume 8. This is Kamachi Kazuma. Volume 8. Volume 8, huh? This series has gotten pretty long, hasn¡¯t it? But why is it that I feel like I¡¯ve done about twice that much work? While that sinks in, I¡¯ll announce this volume¡¯s theme. It was love!! The most obvious examples were related to Shinobu, but I mixed in some other romances outside of that. Romance is not necessarily a pretty and happy thing. In one chapter, it was a motive for murder. In another chapter, it forced a choice between selecting one girl and abandoning the other. I decided to put in as much love as I could, both the pure and the impure. I set up a large framework to reconfirm Shinobu¡¯s feelings for the Zashiki Warashi, but I omitted any major explanation on her feelings for him because I felt that went without saying at this stage. Unlike the heroines in my other series, I didn¡¯t have to include the ¡°meeting¡± and ¡°growing¡± stages of their relationship, so it¡¯s a bit of an exception even in my novels. The story began in checkmate, so it was over the instant they realized their feelings for each other. And even though I made bittersweet love as the theme, for some reason the entire story was about a zombie hell. That was a very Intellectual Village style of twist. Personally, I think the true heart of a zombie story can be found in two points: ¡°Where did the zombies come from?¡± ¡°How can they overcome the zombie outbreak?¡± And during that process, it might be important to build up some excitement as you wonder what you would do and where you would go in that situation. Unlike a normal action movie, you place yourself in the same hopeless situation as the protagonist and feel like you can move around relatively freely in that world. What did all of you think? And that¡¯s why I tried a zombie story since Intellectual Village allowed for it. I hope you enjoyed it. About Chapter 1. This chapter was used to explain the basic rules of this world¡¯s zombie outbreak. Would you move on foot for some freedom despite the danger or would you use the solid dump truck that could get stopped and leave you trapped? Which means of transportation would you choose? I set the zombies¡¯ strength at the level of a grizzly bear. I thought comparing it to a real animal would make it easier to understand, but I also feared it would make the monsters less frightening. However, I decided it would still work since having ten or a hundred grizzly-level monsters charging at you would be enough of a nightmare. And Nagisa is a quite a monster herself to fight against those grizzlies with just a shovel. The villain¡¯s motive was powerful love. I discussed how the zombies tell friend from foe and how they pursue their prey so accurately and I took advantage of those facts. About Chapter 2. I had some time pass to set the chapter in Bozen City after the zombie outbreak had spread some. I tried to make a story that made you question if the zombies even existed and if humans were maybe the real threat. I made the twisted version of Nagisa as a character centered on an extremely simplified version of human relationships. While Shinobu is constantly pursued as her yandere target, Hayabusa and Enbi were placed in a different classification and could more easily see who she was. If you reread Chapter 2 after reading Chapter 4¡¯s parting with Shinobu, you might get a different impression now that you know why Nagisa is doing what she does. Also, Nagisa reveals that the zombies are chewing anything that draws their attention rather than eating the living. By the way, the original incident with the St. Bernard was not the only reason that Nagisa broke. It was also because she learned that Shinobu¡¯s feelings were shifting to the Zashiki Warashi (even if he wasn¡¯t aware of it) back in middle school. He can¡¯t exactly complain if she stabs him, can he? About Chapter 3. I decided a superhuman like Mai wouldn¡¯t be that interesting fighting a bunch of zombies, so I had her take a parachute shortcut right to the center and focused on her battle with Hishigami Shikimi, another Hishigami Woman. That changed the setting from the city to the pit and shifted the tone from Western zombie horror to Japanese-style horror (things like bloody rituals). And since it was a Mai story, I took the dog square, a symbol of hope and escape in Chapter 1, and revealed the horrific tradition behind it to completely turn its value on its head. The first three chapters all had hopeless endings, but in accordance with the rule that using the Deadly Dragon Princess means she has 100% lost, the most awful defeat awaited her. About Chapter 4. This chapter made use of all the rules set up in Chapters 1-3. For example, capturing the zombie Zashiki Warashi in the bear trap, controlling her with the cellphone and smartphone, and switching between using her with the zombies or Shinobu with the humans. I think I did a good job of giving off the sense I mentioned of ¡°I¡¯d do this if it was me!¡±, but that is for all of you to judge. It was almost entirely from Shinobu¡¯s POV, but I did include Uchimaku Hayabusa, Hishigami Enbi, and Hishigami Mai as zombies for an all-star appearance. Since Shinobu had himself bitten on purpose at the end, all of the main characters except for the Sunekosuri fell prey to the zombies. ...In that way, maybe the Sunekosuri has the most amazing survival ability? Maybe he isn¡¯t an official member of Hyakki Yakou for nothing. With the battle against Majina, I felt it would be wrong for a high school boy like Shinobu to fight some long battle, so I had him instantly killed before he could even speak the first word. Attacking before your opponent can say anything is taboo in a battle series, but I went with it since it¡¯s hard to say this series is really a battle series. (I¡¯d have trouble telling you what kind of series it is, though.) This chapter of course had Shinobu and Yukari risking their lives for their love, but it had the same with Majina and Mei. You might enjoy imagining what love means to each of them and what value those two who lived with a Zashiki Warashi place on it. I give my thanks to my illustrator Mahaya-san and my editors Miki-san, Onodera-san, and Anan-san. The heart of this volume may have been the before and after of the main characters. This might have been even more trouble than a simple costume change, so I¡¯m thankful they stuck with me. I also give my thanks to the readers. It was all about love and all about zombies. I fused together those polar opposites, but I feel like the person that moves your heart at the very, very end in those extreme situations might really be what that¡¯s all about. What did you think? And I will end this here. The Kasha had a casual appearance in Volume 7 too. -Kamachi Kazuma Volume 9, Prologue Volume 9, Prologue This doesn¡¯t have to be difficult. You only have to remember this one thing. She in the red yukata is mankind¡¯s enemy. The Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi will bring ruin to all with her mere presence. Absolutely and undoubtedly. Volume 9, 1: Fill with [email protected] Shinobu Volume 9, Chapter 1: Fill with [email protected] Shinobu Part 1 (3rd person) The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata remembered. As she dreamily dozed off, she pulled out the kind memories stored in the tidy drawers of her mind. There was white snow outside. But even if they were trapped at home by the bad weather, young Shinobu was not even remotely displeased. ¡°It¡¯s cold, it¡¯s cold. I can¡¯t let go of your hand just yet, Nee-chan.¡± ¡°That¡¯s odd. You feel warmer to me, Shinobu.¡± ¡°Sigh. Setsubun really was a lot of fun, wasn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Yes, it was.¡± ¡°But why did so many Oni show up? They were really packed in.¡± ¡°Well, while the rest of the country is telling the Oni to leave, we were only welcoming the fortune. They probably thought this was a nice shelter.¡± They continued their discussion while watching the heavy blizzard out the window, but then Shinobu¡¯s mother walked up with a barely-hidden smile. ¡°Heh heh heh. But the festivities have only just begun. Shiiinobuuu, are you familiar with February¡¯s main event: Valentine¡¯s!?¡± ¡°Hm? I¡¯ve heard of that¡­ Nagisa was getting really impatient about it.¡± Shinobu tilted his little head and groaned in thought. ¡°Oh, right! That¡¯s the day when Nee-chan gives me chocolate!!¡± ¡°Eh? But I¡¯m not very good at cooki-¡­¡± ¡°Nee-chan gives me chocolate!!¡± He repeated himself to cut her off. He also looked up at her with sparkling eyes. ¡°I get snacks without having to do any chores! What a great day. How presumptuous.¡± ¡°No, um¡­¡± ¡°I wonder what kind of chocolate Nee-chan will give me. White chocolate? Strawberry chocolate?¡± ¡°Um¡­¡± That Zashiki Warashi, who could not even make her rice balls triangular, grew flustered for once, but young Shinobu finally noticed. The light of hope faded from his eyes and a disappointed look took its place. ¡°Are you¡­too busy?¡± ¡°Th-that isn¡¯t it¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to do it. Don¡¯t worry about me. Besides, making chocolate has to be some kind of advanced magic. You don¡¯t have to force yourself. Normal is best.¡± Shinobu waved goodbye and started to leave. ¡°¡­¡± He had said some admirable things, but he was clearly crestfallen and the heavy aura was evident even from a distance. ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± ¡°Oh, honestly!!¡± Soon, the Zashiki Warashi was in the kitchen mixing the sweet-smelling contents of a bowl. Shinobu¡¯s mother, who was making some Western-style sweets, laughed in her apron. ¡°You may not have planned for this and you might complain, but you still take a stab at making the chocolate. That¡¯s the best thing about you.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t some moving story. When he takes it that far, it might as well be a form of violence. I clearly just gave into Shinobu¡¯s threat!!¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t like it, then why not just buy some chocolate for him? They sell French and Belgian chocolate online.¡± ¡°Try doing that and I guarantee you his shoulders will droop as he gives you a disappointed smile!!¡± ¡°Oh, be careful while melting that. Go too far and the oil will separate and solidify on its own. Children can be cruel, especially when it comes to flavor. It¡¯s like some kind of spinal reflex. If they don¡¯t like even the smallest thing, they won¡¯t hesitate to call it yucky!¡± ¡°And without thinking about where people¡¯s talents lie!¡± ¡°They think adults are perfect at that age. And if you¡¯re planning to go the homemade route, you need to do it right to make a nice memory out of this.¡± Part 2 ¡°¡­Nn¡­¡± It was an unbelievably warm morning for December. I rubbed my eyes inside the futon and finally realized why. There was someone else under the covers with me. I smelled a sweet scent like old incense, felt a soft sensation, and sensed the gentle warmth of body heat. Before, I might have yelled at her and kicked her out, but things had changed. ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi. It¡¯s getting pretty late in the morning. You need to get up too.¡± ¡°¡­¡± I stuck my hand under the blanket and shook her shoulder, but she did not respond. However, she wasn¡¯t actually asleep. She looked limp at first, but there was some slight muscular resistance. She was feigning sleep, but what had she taken issue with? ¡°Zashiki Warashi! Hey, you Good-for-Nothing! ¡­What, do you not like what I¡¯m calling you?¡± I tried calling out to her a few times and pinched her stomach. I decided to change tactics and quietly whispered to her. ¡°Nee-chan, wake up already.¡± She fidgeted a little, but that didn¡¯t seem to be it either. I pinched her more gently than before. Hmm, but what¡¯s left? ¡­I guess only that. It embarrassed me since I still wasn¡¯t used to it, but the lump under the blanket was excitedly waiting for it. I cleared my throat and turned the dial in my mind up to max. Special Attack¡îLovey Dovey Mode: On!! ¡°C¡¯mon, Yukari. Wake up. I want to see your face when I say good morning.¡± Only then did a sullen look pop out from below the blanket. That good-for-nothing and sexy Zashiki Warashi wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me. She rubbed her cheek against my chest while I thought back on the recent ¡°change¡±. Yes. We were a couple now. Part 3 Everyone must have been busy because the Zashiki Warashi and I were the only ones at home. We ate breakfast together with a mosquito net covering the kitchen table. Breakfast was a fried egg and a salad, so it had likely been made by my mom who loved Western food. I poured milk into two cups and stuck two pieces of bread in the toaster. I didn¡¯t feel like just waiting around for a few minutes, so I moved to the neighboring living room and switched on the TV. ¡° ¡± ¡°Nothing good on the news today either.¡± ¡°Is there even anything cheerful going on these days?¡± Meanwhile, the toast finished. The Zashiki Warashi and I left the TV on as we returned to the kitchen and pulled out the hot toast. I put butter on mine and placed the fried egg on top, while the Zashiki Warashi spread a chocolate paste on hers. Then we both began eating. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to make yourself sick eating that much chocolate first thing in the morning?¡± ¡°I think I was dreaming about chocolate. I don¡¯t remember the details, though.¡± We continued our breakfast with the news playing in the background. ¡°Zashiki Warashi, make sure you eat your celery.¡± ¡°Ugh¡­¡± ¡°Yukari.¡± ¡°Then feed it to me.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°No one¡¯s watching. Right?¡± I didn¡¯t really like it, but even as a couple, the Zashiki Warashi hadn¡¯t lost her habit of taking the superior position. Whenever something worked against her, she would reverse our positions, even if it had to be by force. To me, it looked like a self-destruction strategy. And thus, I ended up placing the thinly sliced celery on top of the Indoor Youkai¡¯s charming tongue. Once we finished eating, I captured the lazy Zashiki Warashi and made her help me clean up. After that, we lined up side by side to brush our teeth and wash our faces. I felt a stinging in my eyelid, so I may have still had some detergent on my fingers. ¡°C¡¯mon, Shinobu. Don¡¯t rub your eye like that.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°Your Onee-chan will dry it off with a handkerchief.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t get to call yourself that when I have to swallow my embarrassment and call you Yukari!!¡± Meanwhile, we moved from the washroom to the living room. I stepped on something along the way and realized it was the morning paper. I glanced down and read the headline. ¡° ?¡± It was even dryer than the TV news and didn¡¯t catch the interest of a high school boy like me. It wasn¡¯t good material for conversation either. We didn¡¯t have anything to do now that breakfast was over, so we lazed around. I was wearing a hoodie with the front open, a shirt, and some rough pants, so I¡¯d gotten lazy with my clothing. It was only when we were alone together, but she let me rest my head in her lap pretty often. ¡°Shinobu, should I clean out your ears while I¡¯m at it?¡¯ ¡°You did that yesterday, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I want to do it as many times as I can.¡± I had no real reason to say no, so I let her. I was repeatedly attacked by the temptation to go back to sleep, so I continued speaking with the Zashiki Warashi while dozing off. ¡°Come to think of it, Nee-chan. I¡¯d like to take a bath with you.¡± ¡°!?¡± ¡°Hey, wait! What was that scraping!? It didn¡¯t hurt, but that scares me even more!!¡± ¡°Th-that was your own fault. Where did that come from all of a sudden?¡± ¡°Well, Love Master Jinnai Shinobu feels like he¡¯s done just about everything, but he still hasn¡¯t taken a bath with his girlfriend.¡± ¡°Shinobu¡¯s first¡­ N-no! You can¡¯t trick me!! Besides, we took baths together all the time when you were little!!¡± ¡°With. His. Girlfriend.¡± ¡°Uuuhhhhh!!¡± The hermit crab of her heart seemed to have withdrawn. I would need to be a little cleverer, but that could wait until next time. ¡°Didn¡¯t you want to ask me something?¡± I asked. ¡°I can¡¯t seem to beat the event battle in this zombie FPS. Medic! Mediiiiic!!¡± ¡°Why are you always alone even with online games? Is it because you never leave the house?¡± ¡°I-it¡¯s called being a proud solo player. I¡¯ll tear your heart to shreds if you keep that up.¡± ¡°What kind of idiot plays a major event battle on their own? Do you want to get killed?¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m asking for some help from a plain and inconspicuous medic. Will you do it or not?¡± She already had tears in her eyes. In most online games, the healer was an important role that was in high demand. The high firepower characters were really only any use in the offline campaigns. ¡°Fine I guess. When does the next event battle begin?¡± ¡°Eleven in the morning.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah. Didn¡¯t some PTA get angry because late night event battles turned kids into sleep-deprived zombies? But anyone logging in at this time has to be outside the norm as well.¡± ¡°Okay, Shinobu. All done. ¡­Hoo.¡± ¡°Gyawah!! Don¡¯t blow in my ear! It makes me shudder!!¡± ¡°Time for the other one. Roll over and let me see it, Shinobu.¡± I ended up lazing around even more. No Youkai-related incidents or Packages turned up, but they were fulfilling days. I had everything I wanted. It felt silly to ask for anything more. Part 4 (???) Nekomata: ¡°Oh? Are you sure you¡¯re fine with that?¡± Part 5 The promised time arrived. If we really wanted to take on the event battle in the best possible environment, we would have been holed up in our respective rooms in front of our computers, but it felt stupid to speak over headsets inside the same house. It would slow things down a little, but I was lying in the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s room and logged into the game console using my ID. The Zashiki Warashi was using a full-spec tower desktop she had put together herself for gaming. You could get decent benchmarks out of a laptop bought for a few tens of thousands of yen off of a late-night shopping show, so not many people did that these days. ¡°Y¡¯know¡­if you¡¯ve got this expensive computer in your room, why are you always swiping my laptop and smartphone?¡± ¡°When I just want to surf the web in the living room or on the porch, something mobile is a lot nicer.¡± With a glance back at the Zashiki Warashi messing with her 3D goggles, I clicked the icon for the zombie FPS already installed on the machine. An update file screen appeared, so I waited for it to finish. Meanwhile, a banner ad appeared at the bottom of the screen. ¡° !!¡± ¡°I always have to wonder if anyone¡¯s really stupid enough to click on those things.¡± ¡°But without ads, the service wouldn¡¯t be free.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s a necessary evil.¡± ¡°I think there was a way of paying for an ad free version. How much was the monthly fee again?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a necessary evil!!¡± The Zashiki Warashi moved her flat screen monitor from the tea table to the floor. With the gamepad in one hand, I enjoyed the online game while shoulder-to-shoulder with her. The zombie FPS was essentially a game where the human player shot all the zombie CPUs. However, the player could become a zombie under the right conditions and you could throw raw meat onto the field to lure a bunch of zombies into the enemy camp. ¡°No matter how much money they spend on the polygon models, they just aren¡¯t scary after you¡¯ve seen the real deal. It makes you want to complain how unrealistic these zombies are.¡± ¡°Kh!¡± ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi-san! Hey, you worthless Nee-chan that came to rescue us, automatically turned into a zombie even though she wasn¡¯t bitten, and ended up causing all sorts of trouble!! Gau gau gau!¡± ¡°W-we settled that already, didn¡¯t we!? We had that day-long purification ceremony where I was punished by adding ¡®nyan¡¯ to everything I said and called you ¡®master¡¯!!¡± My cute girlfriend blushed and grew quite flustered. Of course, I wouldn¡¯t joke about it if it had really traumatized her. By the way, the latest trend in the zombie FPS was to ignore the zombie hunt and begin firefights between the humans while those walking landmines wandered around. Oh, and there was a popular video of someone ignoring all the rules and doing everything they could to protect a little girl zombie. ¡°This is one hell of an event. I mean, a thirty meter Titan zombie? The original Titans were monstrous enough. This is supposed to be a modern warfare game, but we¡¯ve traveled back to the age of Greek mythology.¡± ¡°Online and social games like to fall back on legends when they run out of ideas.¡± ¡°This has done a lot of collaborations with other franchises lately, hasn¡¯t it?¡± We were firing like crazy on the screen. Shooting the giant didn¡¯t actually do any damage. That only exhausted it. Once it ran low on stamina, it would gasp for breath and veins would bulge out all over its body. Those were what you had to attack. In other words, the trick was to efficiently attack during that limited opportunity. ¡°Ahh, ahh! Why!? I run out of ammo at the worst possible time, the veins go back in, and his stamina recovers! C¡¯mon, Shinobu! Ammo! Ammo!!¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to yell. I¡¯ll give you the ammo I picked up here and there either way. And do you really need those 3D goggles!? If you¡¯re just after a decent score, the flat screen has got to be more efficient. You¡¯ve been shaking your head around and it¡¯s getting in the way!!¡± ¡°It isn¡¯t a game if you aren¡¯t enjoying it!!¡± ¡°Try to make that sound profound all you want, but you¡¯re the one that came crying to me because you couldn¡¯t beat this event. Besides, why are you using bullets like they expect you to? Do you love the management staff or something?¡± ¡°?¡± She looked confused and rested her head on my shoulder. Don¡¯t try to seduce me into telling you, you evil woman! Of course that¡¯s gonna make my heart pound!! ¡°There¡¯s a chainsaw and circular saw for breaking locks, right? Those do a ton of accumulated damage every second. I think it¡¯s even more than the Gatling gun. Get close to that slow Titan¡¯s leg with that and I bet it¡¯ll be gasping for breath and showing its veins in about ten seconds. The normal soldiers with guns would headshot you before you got close, but this thing¡¯s wielding a giant club and it should be easy to distract since it makes a counterattack when you face it and fire on it.¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± ¡°But a medic is pretty good with any support weapon that isn¡¯t a gun. They might lose to a specialized combat engineer when it comes to a crowbar or duct tape, but I think they have an A rank with the circular saw.¡± ¡°Shinobu!! Kyah! I love you!!¡± And thus began the nightmarish scene of the fighting medic standing on the front line wielding a circular saw against a giant. The Zashiki Warashi, as the proper soldier, fell back and focused her rifle fire on the veins as they bulged out. This was only a game, but it felt like we were defeating a tank with a bamboo spear. But wasn¡¯t this supposed to be a realistic military game supervised by a former Green Beret sergeant? ¡°Oh, ohh, ohhhhh!! I¡¯ve never seen this screen before!! That odious Titan is collapsing!!¡± ¡°Celebrate if you want, but don¡¯t get crushed by the falling body. Knowing this development staff, they¡¯ll definitely count that as a hit and say you died even after making it this far.¡± ¡°And the special reward is a Santa costume and ten million stars! Kyahaa!!¡± ¡°Hey!! Aren¡¯t you gonna share some of that!?¡± I shouted back at her as the safe and reassuring results screen finally appeared. Of course, I wasn¡¯t leaving completely empty-handed since the rejoicing Zashiki Warashi was hugging me and rubbing her cheek up against me! I had joked about the advantages you got by being beautiful, but I felt like this was providing numerical proof of that. Part 6 (???) Yuki Onna: ¡°Don¡¯t you think this is awful?¡± Succubus: ¡°What is?¡± Yuki Onna: ¡°That Jinnai Shinobu and that slovenly Youkai ended up dating all of a sudden. She made full use of the unfair advantage she has from knowing him since before he was born and then it was a zombie outbreak that clinched it!? Does that mean I would be in her place if I had been there instead!?¡± Aoandon: ¡°Hmm. With you, I think there wouldn¡¯t have been any trouble and you would have easily slaughtered all the zombies to get him home. That wouldn¡¯t have been all that memorable.¡± Yuki Onna: ¡°Ggffh! Curse my high specs¡­¡± Aburatori: ¡°Well, she did apparently go to save him on her own, turned into a zombie on her own, and had him save her on her own. ¡­If that was all a plot to get him to fall in love, I don¡¯t think I could ever trust another woman.¡± Succubus: ¡°I think the real difference is the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s sexy body versus your flat body.¡± Yuki Onna: ¡°M-my white clothes are a symbol of virginity, so once I lose that, my body and attributes will change. In other words, once Jinnai Shinobu violates my virgin snow, I will become a plump adult Youkai!¡± Aoandon: ¡°Yes, but that first step is hopeless. You¡¯ve locked the keys inside the car of your life.¡± Yuki Onna: ¡°Ghh!?¡± Nekomata: ¡°So are you just going to give up? Are you going to let that pair of giant breasts have him?¡± Yuki Onna: ¡°I never said that. There is no law forbidding polygamy for Youkai. I just have to exemplify a type of charm she lacks. That means I have a chance to receive some of his love on the side. Welcome, Jinnai Shinobu. You will now veer off the proper newlywed course and onto the inescapable course of love and hate!!¡± Marguerite: ¡°Are you really okay with that? I guess most anything looks happy if you set the hurdles of life low enough.¡± Aoandon: ¡°Mwa ha ha!! But if Jinnai Shinobu gets married, then I automatically come with him as something like a daughter!! Heh heh heh. A high school boy with a daughter.¡± Yuki Onna: ¡°Shut up, daughter. I am not at all interested in what they call an oyakodon! We can set up a rotation if you want, but don¡¯t you dare climb into the same futon!!¡± Nekomata: ¡°You¡¯re fine with a rotation?¡± Furutsubaki (Small): ¡°Sigh. Marriage is the standard way for a Youkai to repay a debt, but we¡¯re never going to reach an agreement when everyone else is so stupid and keeps lowering the bar¡­¡± Part 7 My shoulders gave a small jump when I overhead that conversation as I rolled up the HD cable connecting the game console to the TV. I honestly blurted out the thought in my head. ¡°What kind of epoch-making idea is that!? Polygamy is okay¡­? Then, then! Can I have the Zashiki Warashi as my Youkai wife and Madoka or Nagisa as my human wi- owww!!!???¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°I was- I was just kidding!! Don¡¯t give me that sulking look! Did the double-punch of unfaithfulness and calling you ¡®Zashiki Warashi¡¯ put you in this bad moo- gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!?¡± You know how you want to tease your girlfriend when she gets jealous? Well, I certainly didn¡¯t expect to get a strange wrestling move as a counterattack! A-agh! My diaphragm! I can¡¯t breathe!!¡± ¡°Y-Yuka¡­cough¡­Yukari-hyan!! Pant, pant! Please just hear me out!!¡± ¡°What is it? A death poem? Then go ahead.¡± ¡°Just so you know, straddling me like that in your kimono probably isn¡¯t a good idea!! I can kind of see everything! You don¡¯t wear panties, remember!?¡± ¡°¡­!!!???¡± ¡°Eh heh. For such a sexy body, it¡¯s amazing how perfectly hairless you are down- gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± I was beaten up just a little bit. After working up a sweat, the Zashiki Warashi swept her hair back with the composure of the victor. ¡°Honestly, you have no idea how to treat a lady, Shinobu.¡± She then folded a cushion in two and used it as a pillow. She was lying on her side and she beckoned me over with a seductive fingertip. ¡°Come on over here. Your Onee-chan will teach you.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Um. Uh. I know she has a self-destructive habit of trying to act superior when she¡¯s feeling cornered, but¡­ ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear that from a centuries-old virgin. I mean, who was it that started crying last night as soon as I turned out the lights and leaned over you?¡± ¡°Gh!?¡± ¡°And just so you know, that crying started when I¡¯d only grabbed your shoulder and pushed you back onto the futon!! I hadn¡¯t even taken off your clothes!! Hell, I hadn¡¯t even given you a goodnight kiss!! What about that was worth crying over!?¡± ¡°I-I was scared¡­ I¡¯m not used to seeing that animalistic look in your eyes.¡± She hesitantly looked away while sweating nervously, but this was an important issue for me. For a teenage boy, it was a life-or-death issue! It was more important than the entire planet!! ¡°And why have you been keeping everything off limits even though we¡¯re a couple now!? You¡¯ve got that sexy body and I can¡¯t even kiss you!? Is this some kind of torture!? Am I that guy in Greek mythology or whatever who¡¯s submerged up to the neck but can¡¯t drink a single drop!?¡± ¡°Shinobu.¡± She cleared her throat to try to calm herself down. I could tell she was trying to regain control and argue her way out of this, but I wasn¡¯t going to give in that easily! You couldn¡¯t underestimate Jinnai Shinobu, the boy with surprisingly decent grades who was known as the Intellectual Yakuza, was elected class rep, and had been forced to handle Madoka!! ¡°Besides, isn¡¯t it unnatural for humans and Youkai to do that kind of thing? I mean, we might look similar, but we¡¯re completely different lifeforms.¡± ¡°But Hafuri is half-human and half-Zashiki Warashi.¡± ¡°Kh! Even the best system is fragile when there¡¯s a counterexample!!¡± ¡°And if old stories are fine, there¡¯s one about a Yuki Onna doing it with a double-digit number of mountain men, absorbing a lifetime¡¯s worth of energy, and giving birth to ten children with her beloved human husband.¡± ¡°Just how energetic is that marriage-obsessed Youkai!?¡± ¡°So let¡¯s do it!! If you don¡¯t think we can have a kid, then we just have to keep doing it until you do!! Majina left the future to me and was erased by the alteration to history, so I¡¯ve decided to carry out his final wish (Sparkle). So let¡¯s do it!!¡± I seriously moved in toward my girlfriend who was striking a seductive pose. We¡¯d already established that, nine times out of ten, love was the result of the mood or the atmosphere, right? She could be selfish, but she could also give in surprisingly easily. We¡¯d even started dating when I pretty much said ¡°Eh? Weren¡¯t we already a couple?¡±, so this would work! I could do this! I could!! But once I leaned over her and grabbed her slender shoulders, her leg shot up. She kept the leg bent and placed the sole of her foot against my solar plexus. She then used the momentum of a roll to throw me with her leg. I flipped 180 degrees in midair and landed on the tatami mats like a swinging door. I had just enough time to recognize it as a type of tomoe-nage before I crashed to the floor. ¡°Gbhah!? Cough, cough! Ah¡­ahh!!¡± ¡°Sorry, Shinobu. I know you tried to make it hard to say no by acting cool and mentioning that final wish, but I just can¡¯t. Now continue doing your impression of a seal.¡± ¡°You¡­you do understand you¡¯re supposed to be my girlfriend, right?¡± ¡°Shinobu, there¡¯s more to being a couple than physical contact.¡± ¡°But there¡¯s something wrong when there¡¯s none of that!!¡± ¡°What!? You can still stand up after that!?¡± ¡°It would seem you can¡¯t contain your surprise, but don¡¯t underestimate youth. That¡¯s the thing about puberty! If a girl in a miniskirt tells you she¡¯ll take off her panties in front of you, you¡¯ll gain the passion needed to stop a giant meteor!!¡± ¡°Shinobu, I think you have a twisted idea of youth.¡± Our late-night ¡°wrestling¡± was transforming into a real martial arts match, but I was up against a Youkai here. When I raised a bizarre war cry and charged at her, she grabbed me and swung me around with a single arm before launching me horizontally. ¡°I-I¡¯m not done yet! You haven¡¯t broken my arms or legs! I can still stand!!¡± ¡°You can still go zombie mode without a Kasha? Then I suppose I should give you your last rites.¡± She shook her head in annoyance and reached into her ample cleavage. She pulled out (my) smartphone, displayed an image, and held the screen out toward me. ¡°Shinobu, look at this crayon drawing. Special Attack¡îWe¡¯re All Friends!!¡± ¡°Gyaaaaah!! Wh-what!? Where did you find that drawing!? And why did you take a photo to save it for all eternity!?¡± ¡°Sigh. Why did you draw the leaves green and the sun red? It is cute, though.¡± ¡°Please stop¡­ Don¡¯t distract me with heartwarming memories now! Ahh, the Jinnai Shinobu gauge inside me¡­is shrinking¡­ Nooooo!!¡± I hung my head from the physical and mental attacks. W-we may have started dating, but does she still have complete control of me? Are you okay with that, Jinnai Shinobu!? ¡°U-uuuh. I guess physical attacks are useless. A high school boy is no match for her.¡± ¡°Heh. What did you think you could do against a Zashiki Warashi who can freely manipulate even the world¡¯s destiny?¡± ¡°No fair!! You¡¯re bringing up the still-unexplained Ver. 39 power for this!? That¡¯s Hyakki Yakou¡¯s secret weapon. Don¡¯t even think about using it against an amateur high school boy!!¡± ¡°I-it was self-defense. It doesn¡¯t count.¡± This was clearly an impossible no-win scenario, but passion was boiling in my gut with nowhere to escape. I couldn¡¯t stand it anymore, so I started hitting the tatami mats while curled up on the floor. ¡°No fair!! No fair!! I¡¯m dating what might as well be the epitome of beauty, so why can¡¯t I have any kind of fun with her!? Wahhhhhhhhhh!!¡± The Zashiki Warashi grew confused at my unexpected reaction. ¡°Sh-Shinobu? C¡¯mon, it isn¡¯t worth crying over, is it?¡± ¡°It is!! Even boys are allowed to cry sometimes!!¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been through a war between Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon and you survived that hellish zombie outbreak, so what in the world is going on inside you now?¡± ¡°The perfection created by the bizarre triple seven of beautiful, sexy, and virgin is within reach, but I can¡¯t do anything with her!!¡± The Zashiki Warashi grew even more flustered. Her mature-looking face blushed like a child¡¯s. ¡°A-ahem. Shinobu, try not to shout personal information concerning virginity so loudly. ¡­But I see you do admit that I am beautiful.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t date you otherwise!!¡± ¡°I¡¯m a little irked by how quickly you said that, but I¡¯m also a little ashamed that it makes me happy¡­¡± ¡°If you have even the slightest pity for this pathetic boy with tears and snot covering his face, then open your body to me, Yukari-san!!¡± ¡°(Angry)¡î You know, Shinobu? Do you really think anyone would be stupid enough to give up their virginity out of pity?¡± ¡°Then at least use your hand! And while you¡¯re at it, use your long hair too!!¡± ¡°Shinobu, I don¡¯t quite follow. Use my hand for what?¡± ¡°Eh? Well you take this like this, and¡­¡± ¡°¡­!? Don¡¯t pull that from your pants with that puzzled look on your face!!¡± Part 8 I decided to calm down for the time being. I was inside the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s room, napping in her futon. I was lazily wearing the same clothes whether I was asleep or awake, so I may have quit the courtship dance now that I had a girlfriend. The sexy Youkai climbed under the covers with me as if it were completely normal. Sleeping in the same bed mode: on¡î ¡°Hey, Zashiki Warashi. Where exactly is your line between yes and no?¡± ¡°Th-this is a Youkai trait of mine. So this is fine! At the very least, it¡¯s a tradition that I¡¯ve followed for over three hundred years!!¡± ¡°Ehh!? Then what was that earlier!? You¡¯re touching me! You¡¯ve got all sorts of body parts touching me now! If this level of contact is okay, then let¡¯s go a little further!! Can I touch you? Those things are just gonna go to waste, so can¡¯t I touch them!?¡± ¡°Shinobu. Squirm any more than this and I intend to drive my knee right into your balls.¡± Her cold voice sounded serious, so my balls shriveled up a little. You¡¯re kidding, right? The passion is leaving me!? You have got to be kidding! M-my adolescence is willing to give in to oppression!? C¡¯mon, Jinnai Shinobu! Don¡¯t let this get to you!! Meanwhile, the Zashiki Warashi was acting like a cat curled up on the porch. This was the most relaxing position for her, but that was why she didn¡¯t want my unnecessary ideas getting in the way. ¡°Ahh, this reminds me of old times¡­¡± ¡°You make that sound like there¡¯s a problem with who I am now.¡± ¡°Reflect on your actions before saying that. Yes, you were so pure back then. What happened to the Shinobu that climbed into his ¡®Nee-chan¡¯s¡¯ futon because he was afraid the lightning would steal his belly button?¡± ¡°D-don¡¯t be silly! I had no choice but to do that because that ¡®Nee-chan¡¯ was so afraid! I was being heroic!!¡± ¡°I knew you¡¯d never come over unless I set it up that way. You were clearly about to cry but trying to act tough, so I put together that plan. And call me Yukari.¡± Talking about the past only caused my passion to wither away even more. Was she intentionally creating a mood that prevented a certain part of me from making a major comeback!? The napping Zashiki Warashi pulled out (my) smartphone from between those breasts she was tormenting me with and she began swiping her index finger across the screen. ¡°Checking through the online news from bed is such bliss.¡± ¡°It¡¯s easy to forget you¡¯re an Edo-period Youkai when you say things like that.¡± If I complained now, she would crush my balls, so I called it quits for the time being. I was waiting for my next opportunity, though!! With no outlet for certain feelings, I lay face down with the Zashiki Warashi as we pressed our cheeks together and looked down at the smartphone screen. ¡° ?¡± ¡°Not much interesting news.¡± ¡°At times like this, you just have to visit a cat picture site.¡± We amused ourselves looking at a cat stretched out on its back in front of a stove or a cat sticking its head inside a cat food box. Our Nekomata could be even more thoughtful than a human like me, so she didn¡¯t show off this defenseless side much. She was technically a deadly Youkai, so I was afraid of what would happen if she got high on catnip. ¡­The Nekomata, huh? I casually pondered that Youkai¡¯s name. At the same time, a Youkai slipped in through the slightly opened sliding screen. The Nekomata walked over to the intimate couple (with one of them boiling over on the inside) and gave us a scornful look. Then she spoke. ¡°So how long are you going to keep up this farce?¡± Part 9 ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Part 10 I slowly narrowed my eyes while lying next to the Zashiki Warashi. ¡°What is it, Shinobu?¡± The Zashiki Warashi only looked confused. No, I was pretty sure she really did understand. I thought back over the news I had seen here and there during the day: the TV, the newspaper, the banner ad, and the online news. I thought back over all of those articles I had seen. ¡°Due to the global panic caused by the chaos surrounding the world¡¯s government bonds, the American dollar, the European euro, the Chinese yuan, and other currencies are continuing to crash. The rise in value of the relatively stable Japanese yen continues to accelerate, so rates for the yen are shooting up.¡± When had this started? Oh, right. It had already begun by the time I somehow managed to end the zombie outbreak in neighboring Bozen City, returned to the thatch-roof house with the Zashiki Warashi, and started dating her. There were two types of Zashiki Warashi. The type that preferred wearing a white kimono brought fortune and the type that preferred wearing a red kimono brought ruin. And my ¡°Nee-chan¡± ¨C that is, Yukari ¨C had the insane power known as the Ver. 39. That overwhelming power to bring ruin was too much for even the Ver. 40 to restrain with her ability to manipulate the destiny of the entire world. The dollar and the euro were crashing, but it was far worse than that. How had this happened and what was happening? Apparently not even Madoka understood it. All I can explain are the actual phenomena. It all began with something known as government bonds. I don¡¯t actually know that much about it, but government bonds are apparently something like a special bank account. People place their money inside it by buying government bonds and the gathered money is used to keep the government operational. The money people deposit there gains interest at a set rate. From what I can tell, you get more interest than in a normal bank, but you can¡¯t take the money out as easily. The government asks you to buy the bonds and uses the interest as an incentive. Basically, when the government takes on debt like that, it¡¯s called a government bond. But the value of these government bonds is apparently determined by some extremely complex calculations. A stable country with lots of assets and resilience provides little interest for their bonds and a country that could undergo an economic collapse at any time and really wants to gather money will provide huge interest for their bonds. Of course, if they actually go under, you lose both the interest and the money you gave them, so I don¡¯t think many people want to buy bonds from that kind of country. Ultimately, countries prefer to have valuable bonds with low interest but high stability. People feel comfortable buying up their bonds, so the government can easily grow quite rich. The value of government bonds is not just a problem for that one country. It also influences friction with the neighboring countries. The calculations are difficult for amateurs, so there are specialized rating agencies that provide a simple rating for people, such as AAA or Default. The problem is that the major credit rating agencies (e.g. Globe & Ingot or Gold Web) tend to be in America. Ever since those credit rating agencies were established, America has never fallen below the AAA rating at the very top. Even after the fall of the Big 4 and the IT bubble bursting, they never dropped down even once. After all, if the value of their own country dropped, the credit rating agencies themselves would lose money. And recently, a few countries that America found inconvenient had their ratings drop. I have no idea how much of this is only rumors and it might all have been mere coincidence, but everyone who saw it had the same thought: Can we really trust American credit rating agencies like Globe & Ingot and Gold Web? Shouldn¡¯t we make our own, more trustworthy investigative agency? That much was natural enough. But the problem came when several new credit rating agencies popped up around the world and began releasing completely contradictory ratings. Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, the Middle East, Oceania, etc. This did not cleanly break the world up into economic blocs. It wasn¡¯t that organized. Everything was mixed up like a marble pattern. The value of 100 yen was only meaningful if everyone agreed that was 100 yen. If what Person A thought was 100 yen was just 10 yen to Person B and 1000 yen to Person C, they could not settle things at the register. An argument would break out over something as simple as buying a rice ball. That was the current situation. The American credit rating agencies like Globe & Ingot insisted that America had a AAA rating, the European Triple Roses said the same about the European nations, and the Chinese Pengjia Gongsi¡­did they even use the alphabet? Regardless, they wanted to give China the highest rating. Meanwhile, they liked to give enemy countries or countries they disliked the lowest rating of Default. Simply put, the value of every country¡¯s bonds was thrown into a black box. One list said it was AAA, but another said it was Default. With several if not dozens of contradictory lists, no one knew what was accurate. If layer after layer of colored cellophane was placed over the scenery, no one could say what color it had been originally. It was like carefully going through all the data and then having even more paperwork thrown at you, until it was all diluted by the sea of data. To us, government bonds were something like a bank account that earned a different sort of interest, but they were really another name for national debt. When their value could not be determined, it directly affected the trust in the yen or dollars that country used. The world economy was going to grind to a halt. Or should I say the central driving force had already stopped and it was only coasting on momentum now? ¡°Will the government begin printing new money? Could there be a one million yen note?¡± But there were apparently some exceptions. The world¡¯s bonds and currencies had died because of the contradictory reports from the different credit rating agencies. With some saying ¡°The dollar is the best!¡± and some saying ¡°The dollar is trash!!¡±, no one knew who to trust or how to deal in that currency. But there was another possibility. There were countries that had not been the target of any of the credit rating agencies and thus every agency gave similar ratings for them. Those countries had been mocked as no real threat, but that lack of caution meant they were not highly rated by anyone yet not considered in default either. So despite all the colored cellophane covering the map, there were air pockets were not even a single layer of cellophane had fallen. There was no chaos there. But in all things, the value of scarcity was important. Humans liked to put a price tag on everything. Even safety and stability could be a special weapon if there was little enough of it. Costa Rica, Iceland, the Solomon Islands, etc. Those countries had been left behind by the prideful center of the international economy, but that was exactly what had allowed them to remain as the few untouched regions. Those untouched countries had constructed their own network and dealt safely in bonds. They had kept their data in motion. Why? Because it was magic. Despite the global panic, the value of their bonds remained unchanged and they made secret dealings within a field that outsiders could not touch. That ended up looking so very desirable to the people who could only watch. It was just like an online auction or an affiliate advertising program. They worked everyone up as much as they could and tormented them as much as they could. They intentionally placed strict purchase limitations on their bonds so foreigners from outside their network could not touch them. That created a restricted holy ground which allowed the value to skyrocket. It was just like a smiling young lady in a prestigious girl¡¯s school. And after the value of their ¡°invisible product¡± had risen and risen and risen as far as it would go, what would happen if they finally sold it ¡°outside¡±? It was the simplest form of alchemy in the world. It was a magic trick. The seller enjoyed a return of one hundred or even one thousand times their initial investment and, once they calmed down, the buyer was disappointed with the surprisingly ¡°normal¡± bonds they held. Their own country¡¯s currency was treated like trash and they had sold off their jewels and cruisers and whatever else to obtain this last thread of hope, but they could only grieve when they discovered it was not worth what they had paid. Only those who had begun the process profited. It was as simple as attaching a false report of authenticity to a UFO video and then selling it. And once they had a taste, they could not stop. People could make all the accusations they wanted on online message boards and rating sites, but no individual opinion could stop the magic at this point. Even if someone did post the truth, no one believed it. It was just like the yen and the dollar which were relatively stable despite actually being buried in debt. That was just how much people trusted the prestigious girls school that was the closed network. Intellectual Village vegetables may have been the same thing. The brand was more important than the actual product. It was enough to stamp out any complaints or dissatisfaction. Thus, people around the world continued seeking that network. They wanted to use it more than they wanted to destroy or equalize it. They wanted to join the seller side of that magic trick to infinitely raise the price of bonds. Government bonds were national debt, so there were purchase limitations and fail safes. Simply put, if foreigners monopolized the bonds, they could influence national policy, so bonds were made so the country¡¯s own citizens had priority in buying them. That meant only the countries in the network should have been able to make free use of that magic trick. But everyone still wanted to find a loophole that allowed them to be one of the sellers. Now, a question: what country did the world¡¯s seven billion people think they had the best shot at slipping inside of? The answer was Japan. That strange country had a fair amount of money and made decent contributions to society, yet it had still been underestimated. In other words, people wanted inside that network which could infinitely raise the value of government bonds like a pure prestigious girls school, and Japan looked like the back entrance with the weakest security. That carefree country was obsessed with the ultra high-quality brand-name Intellectual Village vegetables, but they did not track what happened to the fruit seeds they exported. The rest of the world was annoyed that, with textbook English and some knowledge of the internet, the average middle school girl could carry around a brand-name bag and shop around for a summer home, but they still wanted to take advantage of that carefree national character. It could be borrowing someone¡¯s identity, a false marriage, or anything else. They wanted to use that lax country¡¯s lax system to gain Japanese citizenship and slip inside the much more strictly managed network. They wanted to make as much money as they could before their trick was discovered and then they would run off with their newfound riches. It apparently isn¡¯t actually that simple in reality, though. The blessings of that network and getting inside it were simply that important. It was an issue of dreams, just like all the young people who move to the big city despite knowing the risks. It was a bond rush. It was an insider dream. People like Madoka may have actually calmly taken a step back from all that. She had said something about growing sick of the ridiculous commotion and searching out liquid commodities that did not fluctuate as much as gold or platinum. Whatever the case, things had gotten crazy. I¡¯d heard that satellite photos of the earth showed the city lights noticeably spreading only at those various air pockets. Everyone who took part in the alchemy had gone crazy, from elementary school kids to the presidents of investment companies. In the city, people apparently waved stacks of cash around to hail a taxi and it wasn¡¯t uncommon for people to burn their money for light. Health-oriented convenience stores were spreading around the world while exclusively selling Intellectual Village vegetables. And yet that meant the prices were at thirty thousand yen for a bunch of grapes. That was why I wasn¡¯t seeing anything of my parents or my grandparents who had supposedly retired. The Jinnai Brewery had primarily been served at classy restaurants in Gion or Askasaka, given as gifts at international summits, or provided as an offering at the Ise Shrine, but we¡¯d been thrown into complete chaos with orders coming in from convenience stores, online stores, and discount stores. The consumption had risen to abnormal levels. In this age, everyone could buy Japan¡¯s finest sake as easily as a can of beer or a carton of juice. ¡°Our surefire money management technique is to take advantage of the rising yen by buying up the American dollar!!¡± But the network had been built on the sacrifice of something else. What was with the multiple credit rating agencies? Why were the lists of ratings so contradictory? I didn¡¯t know as much about money and economics as Madoka, but was that really possible? I mean, you could probably give a bit of an edge to your own country and its allies, but would you really rate it the opposite of the truth? Could you? And I¡¯m not asking if you could punch the numbers into a mysterious calculator and get that answer. I¡¯m asking if a list of nonsense numbers could really mess the world up like this. A hole had opened somewhere in the giant bucket that was the world and that had created this unnatural situation. We were in one of the air pockets and thus benefitting from it, but not even we understood it. We knew what was happening, but we did not know what the root cause was. How was this any different from riding a plane that was leaking fuel? Who could rest easy just because it was still airborne for the time being? We didn¡¯t even know if the plane had been sent from our side of the ocean or the other side of the ocean. I felt that Japan and the rest of the air pockets that created the network were being manipulated, but what would the other people think when they saw all those celebrating people while their own bank accounts were rendered worthless and the company they had served for many long years broke off contact with them? Gigantic conglomerates were dropping like flies and the international online shopping companies that had ruled the world¡¯s goods distribution were on life support. What had become of the Big 4 goes without saying. Major corporations with a proud history of traditions dating back over a century were bought up on a whim by startups run by middle or high schoolers. Even the defense industry was no exception despite its support by government and civilians alike. The people left standing in front of the ATM in stunned disbelief were seeing blizzards of money on TV. They had no idea how it worked, but they continued gaining more and more money with their ¡°magic trick¡± and irresponsibly carried around so much money their wallets were going to burst. The world was slowly headed toward disaster. Her arrival brought fortune and her departure brought ruin. That Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata lay happily next to me as my girlfriend. But she still held the power of the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. ¡°Will the IMF really respond to a conspiracy theory? After the unnatural rise of the yen during the ratings chaos, the Western nations are worried that Japanese investors were involved in the crash of the American dollar and the European euro. Are the joint military exercises in the Pacific and the South China Sea really a naval blockade meant to intimidate Japan?¡± That was what had happened. Japan had long since been sealed off by sea and by air. There was more than one way to take advantage of the network. As I already explained, they could gain citizenship in a country with more lax management and profit from within the network. But there was another way. Governments could force conspiracy theories onto the network as a means of redirecting their own citizen¡¯s anger toward them. Japan was only 38% self-sufficient in food. Even if we began consuming all of the Intellectual Village vegetables domestically instead of using them to obtain foreign currency, that figure would only rise by at most 10%. Japan¡¯s population had risen to 150 million and various countries were applying intimidating pressure to starve out that increased population and fix this abnormal situation. Japan had not been behind the rise of so many credit rating agencies, but we were the world¡¯s villain, we were the air pocket, we were the network. Just the month before, hadn¡¯t we been looked down on as a country that could not stand on the world¡¯s center stage no matter how much money we had? And they thought we had put together this grand conspiracy? The reckless creation of credit rating agencies once the other countries could not trust the American ones like Globe & Ingot or Gold Web had been something all of them began on their own. The various air pockets that had arisen had only been a result of that. And Japan had just been one of those. We had been the convenient member of the network that everyone had looked down on as too lax. We were like the color white at the center of a sheet displaying the three primary colors. We were the unnatural hole of light in the middle. When people heard some experts claiming this should not have happened based on how it had all started, they had begun to think there was more to this and that had led to the threats and intimidation. This made them feel better. If it had happened naturally, there was no way to fix it. It would be their own fault and they could not calm everyone¡¯s anger. That was why they had wanted a villain. They had wanted the dream of revealing an invisible system and returning everything to normal. But there was nothing they could do. Japan was only one part of the network and the network as a whole had had nothing to do with the initial cause. They may have taken advantage of the situation partway through, but it was the entire population of seven billion that had hit the economy¡¯s stop button. The value of the bonds had risen on its own and someone tempted by all that money had come up with the magic trick. That had led to the entire network growing rich and Japan had just so happened to be one of those nations. In truth, the winners didn¡¯t care what it was that had caused the simultaneous rise of so many credit rating agencies which had thrown the world economy into chaos. They were not going to stop just because someone told them to. For one thing, they did not know what they should stop doing or even what was happening. Or at least, that was the case for 149,999,999 of them. As her boyfriend, I was the sole exception. No one knew which country would lose it and attack first. It was entirely possible a ballistic missile would fly in and blow away the capital. But no one knew how to solve the problem. Erasing the Japanese Archipelago from the map would not erase the problem. Nevertheless, they continued treating us like the source of all their problems and only placed more pressure on us. And the daily partying only escalated as if everyone was trying their best to not face that strange fear head on. There wasn¡¯t much else they could do, but that champagne tower of partying only brought even gloomier looks to the eyes of the other countries. Definite ruin would eventually arrive from somewhere. But whoever pulled the trigger, the black box created by the credit rating agency chaos would remain. After all, Youkai were immune to physical damage. She would not die even if nuclear missiles poured down like rain. In fact, the contaminated land would only make it harder to find her, so an age of unending starvation and thirst would begin and seven billion people¡¯s lives would come to an end. This was what Majina, former leader of Hyakki Yakou, had most feared. The Zashiki Warashi was out of control, the economy was in tatters, and the world would shrivel up and die. The Zashiki Warashi in the red yukata with her Ver. 39 power was enough of a monster to cause trouble on this level while just sitting there. I swear to you that she had no intent to destroy mankind. In fact, she wasn¡¯t even aware she was actively harming people. But¡­ That was exactly why there was no persuading her to stop despite being the original ¡°unnatural cause¡±. Since she didn¡¯t even know she was doing it, she could not consciously switch it off. Even if I explained it to her, she would probably tilt her head in confusion. If some secret government organization or Hyakki Yakou realized what was going on, they might send in a large attack unit. But not even that would work. Majina had calculated it all out and realized that wouldn¡¯t work. That was why he had started his plan to turn the 150 million people of Japan into zombies, use the boosted power of the citizens to restrain the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi, and finish her off with Mei¡¯s stable Ver. 40 power. There was no other way of restraining the Zashiki Warashi by force. No matter what anyone tried to use ¨C even a ton of NBC weapons ¨C physical attacks were meaningless. Even if they tried to use the occult, some almost amusing coincidences would occur and devilish miracles would coincide to neutralize it all. That was the Ver. 39. That ruler of destiny was more unstable than Majina¡¯s completed Ver. 40, but that gave her the instantaneous maximum power needed to win. She was a messenger of ruin that would reign supreme and remain unharmed even in a battle against seven billion people. ¡°¡­¡± But Majina had said something else. I had driven him back even though he was protected by the Ver. 40, so he had told me to watch as the world came to an end. And he had suggested I might have a power different from his. I was the closest person to the world¡¯s ruin. I was her boyfriend. Did that mean I alone had some power that might stop the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi? I looked down at the smartphone screen again. I did not even need to check a news site. Every blog and banner ad was talking about the same thing. Every link led to word of the coming ruin. ¡°¡­Yukari.¡± ¡°What is it, Shinobu?¡± Her voice sounded like a tolerant older sister and like an ignorant little girl. I placed an arm around her head and gently stroked the back of her head while I whispered into her ear. ¡°I will protect you. No matter what happens, I will always be on your side.¡± I made that obvious announcement as I read the text on the smartphone. It said the following: ¡°Is the world¡¯s worst plan about to begin? ¡°All five standing member-nations have voted to censure the network made up of Japan and the six other air pockets. Experts say the result of this vote is extremely likely to influence all member-nations. If the vote in a regular session has the same result, it is possible the corresponding nations will be forcibly ejected from the UN in a truly unprecedented case. ¡°A forcible ejection from the UN means the erasure of all promises made in any war treaty exchanged using the UN. ¡°As the UN itself was meant to monitor and apply pressure to Japan, Germany, and Italy as the losers of World War Two, military commentators say this possible ejection will be especially meaningful and dangerous to Japan. ¡°If all war treaties based on the UN are abandoned, there is even a fear that those countries can be attacked without a declaration of war, strategic weapons such as nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons can be used against them with reckless abandon, their POWs can be tortured or slaughtered, and their public and private property can be seized via military intervention. Simply put, there is a possibility that all war crimes will become allowable. ¡°It depends on which country you ask, but some say they have already entered the coordinates for six of Japan¡¯s major cities. If those foreign safety measures are removed, there is even a possibility of ballistic missiles immediately firing from the nuclear submarines blockading the ocean. ¡°The military is a massive source of employment and the weapons and ammunition they use can create a large amount of consumption. Some countries might be searching for a war not to defeat an enemy but to kick-start their own economy. Looking at it that way brings on a whole new kind of fear.¡± I hadn¡¯t even needed the impatient Nekomata to tell me anything. Global ruin was already at seven billion people¡¯s throats, so this was no time to be averting my gaze. This time between lovers had been something like creating fleeting memories as a farewell ritual. I held the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s head close as I brought my finger to the screen and operated the smartphone. I closed the browser filled with strange news, started up a photo album app, and focused on a picture I had seen not long before. It was a drawing from when I was young. It was drawn in crayon on construction paper. The sun was red and the leaves were green. The perspective and colors were a complete mess. There were humanoid figures drawn there. The one with red clothes and black hair was probably the Zashiki Warashi. Other figures looked more like animals. I had thought this was just a product of my imagination, but it really had happened. Some of them were scribbled out with black crayon and some I had no clue what they had originally been. They formed a circle with smiles on their faces and some messy writing was positioned above their heads: We¡¯re All Friends. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± I only had to say that once. My recharging period was complete and naptime was over. I recalled what I had to do. Now, then. Let¡¯s get the final battle started. Shared Memory 1 There were a few things that the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata found truly surprising from the bottom of her heart. For example, an event from the past. When Shinobu had been only as tall as her waist, he had once come home with bruises not just on his face, hands, or feet, but across his entire body. ¡°I won¡¯t apologize,¡± he had said while clenching his teeth and squeezing the shoulder straps of his black backpack. ¡°I won¡¯t apologize to Miyano!!¡± He had seemed to have gotten into a fight with a classmate. The standard course was for his father to come out, drop his fist on the boy¡¯s head, show him pictures from the deep sea fish encyclopedia, and throw him in the dark shed, but this time Shinobu had refused to give in. When his father had raised his fist, he had bitten the man¡¯s arm. No matter how much the man had swung him around, the light of anger had not left Shinobu¡¯s eyes. Shinobu¡¯s mother had realized the normal methods were not going to work this time, so she had patiently gotten the whole story out of him and he had finally explained. ¡°I can¡¯t forgive Miyano for what he said.¡± ¡°What was that?¡± ¡°That Nee-chan isn¡¯t really part of my family since she¡¯s a Youkai! That¡¯s what he said!! I can¡¯t forgive him even if he was joking!!¡± ¡°Oh.¡± The Zashiki Warashi and Shinobu¡¯s mother had exchanged bitter looks. It had been well known within Noukotsu Village that a beautiful Zashiki Warashi lived in the Jinnai house. And with the exception of Shinobu and his childhood friend Nagisa, she had refused to show herself in front of the brats that made a fuss about seeing her out of pure curiosity. The rest had been the standard fare. Shinobu had seen nothing wrong with talking about how she would take baths with him and sleep in his futon, so the other boy must have been jealous. It was a variant on how young boys would sometimes tease the girl they liked. ¡°I won¡¯t forgive anyone who insults Nee-chan! I¡¯ll protect her!!¡± They understood the situation now, but they could not ignore the fact that he had raised a hand against his classmate. His grandfather had ultimately grabbed him by the collar and chucked him into the shed out front. The boy normally flailed around and made a fuss, but this time he had only puffed out his cheeks and accepted his punishment without speaking a word. After locking the shed, his father had smiled bitterly at the boy¡¯s behavior. He had waved his hand around a little and looked down at the bite mark on his arm. ¡°That snot-nosed brat has got some fight in him now.¡± ¡°Of course he does. He¡¯s your son and my grandson.¡± Halfway through the night, as young Shinobu had leaned against the dusty shed¡¯s wall with nothing to do, he had heard something moving. He had looked over and seen his overall small grandmother¡¯s face poke out. ¡°Shinobu, Shinobu.¡± ¡°Oh, gramma! ¡­Hm? How did you get in here?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve learned a lot of secrets in my long life. But more importantly, you must be hungry. I made you some rice balls.¡± ¡°Sigh. Living a long life must be convenient. Nee-chan got in here sometime too!¡± ¡°Oh?¡± His grandmother had looked down and seen the sleeping Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata curled up like a cat at the boy¡¯s feet. He had stroked a hand through her long black hair. ¡°She was playing with me earlier, but she must have gotten tired.¡± ¡°Is that so? Then try not to wake her, Shinobu.¡± His grandmother had smiled as she objectively analyzed the situation. It had looked like the Youkai had snuck inside to comfort Shinobu, but it had probably been the exact opposite. Shinobu had gotten into a fight over her, so she had been worried that she had become a burden to him. She had likely come to ask him about it, realized there was nothing to worry about, and then relaxed in relief. Simply put, she had the thought processes of a young girl despite having lived for centuries. ¡°Shinobu, you like salmon rice balls, don¡¯t you? There are plenty of them, so eat up.¡± ¡°Huh? But should I really be eating rice balls when I¡¯m being punished?¡± ¡°That male reasoning doesn¡¯t matter. I think it would be much more shameful if you didn¡¯t feel any anger when someone made fun of someone who lives with you.¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± ¡°But make no mistake. Your anger may have been right, but that doesn¡¯t make up for hitting your friend. I used to be known as Wild Kaguya of the Inland Sea, but that was because I got that part wrong. Everyone feels pain if you hit them and that¡¯s true for human and Youkai alike. It doesn¡¯t matter if the wound is large or small. That doesn¡¯t relieve the pain and fear they feel.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Young Shinobu had given a troubled look with the triangular rice ball in both hands. After some silence, he had lifted the rice ball to his mouth and spoken. ¡°I¡¯ll go apologize to Miyano tomorrow morning.¡± ¡°Yes. You do that.¡± His grandmother had rubbed his head and he had bitten into the rice ball with a huge smile on his face. Then he had spoken to her again. ¡°But I wasn¡¯t wrong. Nee-chan really is part of our family!¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Gramma?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Shinobu, but I¡¯d sworn I wouldn¡¯t lie to you. I just don¡¯t like the idea of ¡®kind lies¡¯.¡± It may have been the apologetic tone to her voice that had stabbed so sharply into his young heart. Rather than a glistening knife forcefully stabbing into him, it may have felt more like a plastic straw pressed against the center of his chest until it pierced through. His face had visibly clouded over, but his grandmother had continued with a smile. ¡°Shinobu? Do you think the two of us are family?¡± ¡°What are you talking about? Of course we are!¡± ¡°I see. Thank you. But the thing is, I wasn¡¯t part of the Jinnai family when I was born. Do you remember your aunt¡¯s house in Setouchi? That¡¯s where you had so much fun after seeing the ocean for the first time. The truth is, that was where I was born.¡± ¡°Hm? Hmm???¡± ¡°Ha ha ha. In other words, even if you aren¡¯t family to begin with, there¡¯s a way to become family.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that? How do you do it?¡± She had rubbed his head and answered his innocent question. ¡°It¡¯s simple. If you and the Zashiki Warashi get married, no one can say you aren¡¯t family.¡± After eating so many rice balls, Shinobu had been overcome by sleepiness too. His well-prepared grandmother had held out a bottle of water and his tooth brush, so he had brushed his teeth, wrapped his arms around the Zashiki Warashi who had gone to sleep ahead of time in accordance with her ¡°usual habit¡±, and drifted off to sleep. Finally, after Shinobu had set sail for the world of dreams and his grandmother had left the shed, the Zashiki Warashi in the red yukata had lifted her eyelids just a little. She had gently wrapped her arms around young Shinobu and breathed a quiet sigh as she thought back on the previous conversation. Finally, she had spoken a few words. ¡°Honestly. You didn¡¯t need to tell him that.¡± Volume 9, 2: Colorless [email protected] Hayabusa Volume 9, Chapter 2: Colorless [email protected] Hayabusa Part 1 I, Uchimaku Hayabusa, was on a mission to take responsibility for my own words. Namely, I was visiting a giant amusement park that made use of the ¡°Tokyo¡± image despite actually existing a little bit outside the city. ¡°Ah ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha!! Hey, detective, where should we go next, what should we ride next, what should we do next!? Oh, the swing-by coaster¡¯s congestion level is at green! We can ride right away if we go now, detective!!¡± The park was brightly illuminated for night and I was sitting exhausted on a bench, but I felt a tug on the side of my coat. The tug came from a twintailed middle school girl who was also shoving a smartphone into my face to show me the official park map app. As for her outfit¡­I couldn¡¯t even call this one a swimsuit. She had a red ribbon about as thick as two fingers wrapped around her body. On top of that, she wore a wafer-style checked ribbon tie, a whipped cream white coat, and a chocolate brown miniskirt. With the shortcake-like hat pretty much hanging on the side of her head, the overall concept seemed to be a wedding cake. She also had something like a sword hanging at her waist, but it may have been an LED light modeled after a wedding¡¯s candle lighting. To be blunt, it was insane in more ways than one. ¡°We¡¯ve already ridden the coaster twelve times today¡­ We¡¯ve been here since morning, so we¡¯ve gone on all the rides about three times now. The young women running the rides recognize us now.¡± ¡°Huh? Why are you all limp, detective?¡± ¡°What happened to the girl who got out of breath just running up some stairs? It isn¡¯t normal to outdo a professional police detective in a competition of stamina.¡± Was this a relative of that medically baseless claim that snacks went in a different stomach? ¡­Now, why were we here? It was a lingering effect of the zombie outbreak from the month before. I had carelessly said I would go on an amusement park date with her if we escaped that hell. ¡°Fine then. I guess I need to start acting more soothing to help you with your exhaustion. It isn¡¯t long until the night illumination parade, so is there anything we can use to kill some time?¡± ¡°You¡¯re still not done riding things!?¡± ¡°Shut up. I have your word on this. Oh, the Ferris wheel is open! This is our chance, detective! C¡¯mon, get up and run!!¡± And thus I was dragged through the park by the Mystery Freak. There were still a few people in line for the Ferris wheel, but it did feel like a miracle given how congested the amusement park was. If you bought a fairly expensive free pass, you could enter through a special gate and skip the line onto the Ferris wheel, but it had become entirely meaningless now that everyone had one of those priority passes. I bought a drink from the part-time girl who approached the line and we waited our turn. I didn¡¯t know if it was the standard price in amusement parks or if it was due to the recent bourgeois boom, but a single paper cup was ridiculously expensive. Enbi also handed several bills to the girl. Just a month before, that sight would have been truly shocking. ¡°How can you buy ice cream in December? And while I¡¯m at it, there has to be something wrong with you to wear that swimsuit¡­no, that red ribbon with only a miniskirt and coat colored like chocolate or whipped cream on top.¡± ¡°Tsk, tsk, tsk. Make sure you call it a rice milk gelato. This is brand-name rice, you know?¡± Rice milk, huh? A diet of avoiding carbonated drinks to lose weight had been popular recently, but it had completely died out. There was a simple reason for that: everyone retained their memories of the zombie outbreak. People had bitten other people and devoured their flesh and blood. I had been a part of it, but my police lifestyle had given me the resistance needed to overcome that kind of gloomy experience. The Mystery Freak was the same, but the majority of people were not. Those who had actually become zombies were of course scarred by the experience, but it had apparently caused quite a commotion even among the people who had only heard about it. Even with the strange financial situation recently, the meat industry had lost a ton of money. Some people had stopped eating meat altogether and others could not even stand cheese or butter. Of course, sticking to complete vegetarianism would be incredibly difficult, so I expected the consumption of meat to recover after a bit. ¡°Personally, I can¡¯t believe you would drink hot coffee, detective.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°This is an amusement park during the on-season, so don¡¯t you think the pay bathrooms are going to be the busiest part of the park? Don¡¯t blame me when drinking that comes back to bite you.¡± Before long, it was our turn. The young woman in charge guided us into the open door of the gondola. As soon as the door closed and locked, Enbi grinned at me from the opposite seat. ¡°Now then, detective.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s enjoy the scenery.¡± ¡°Now, now! We¡¯re inside a locked room together! No one can stop this long ride for the next twenty five minutes!! You know what that means, don¡¯t you? Your heart had better be pounding, dammit!!¡± ¡°Stop it, you moron! When it comes to you and locked rooms, I¡¯m more afraid of someone ending up dead!!¡± A struggle ensued. I managed to hold off the approaching love monster for a while. I was afraid some kind of safety feature would kick in and stop the Ferris wheel, but it must not have been that fragile. ¡°Detective.¡± At some point, Enbi had ended up sitting next to me instead of across from me. ¡°You asked before why I would buy ice cream in December. To be honest, it wasn¡¯t easy eating that in this weather.¡± ¡°See? I was right.¡± ¡°But I had a good reason to choose something vanilla flavored.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°I mean, if I set up the perfect mood, shut my eyes, and gently puckered my lips, wouldn¡¯t it be awful if it ended up tasting like my hamburger¡¯s barbecue sauce? It would seem too real and wake us up from the dream!! That¡¯s why I made sure that this middle school girl¡¯s lips have a vanilla scent. So what do you have to say about that ideal, detective?¡± ¡°Hold on.¡± ¡°So hurry up and grab my shoulders and kiss me! I¡¯m perfectly okay with you going in to find out what my tongue tastes like too!! And I think coffee-flavored lips fits your image perfectly! Kyah¡î I can¡¯t hold back any longer, so let¡¯s create a coffee float flavor together! If you aren¡¯t going to make the move, then I¡¯ll have to! Muchuu!!¡± ¡°What happened to the qualifier that this had to remain wholesome!?¡± Enbi was using both hands to mimic an octopus, so I grabbed her face with both hands and just barely managed to push her away. Nothing untoward had happened, but a man and a girl were covered in sweat and gasping for breath inside a small room. But even if someone misinterpreted the situation, there was no danger of a uniformed police officer running in with a monstrous look on his face and a baton in one hand. A distant look filled my eyes. This was why I had been able to spend an entire workday at an amusement park with the Mystery Freak despite all my pay cuts and the fact that I had no time off left. The news kept saying Japan had entered an unprecedented (and eerily unexplainable) period of massive consumption and gluttony, but the real story was nowhere near as happy. When it came down to it, public servants were just employees. They wouldn¡¯t work without getting paid. Since Globe & Ingot, Triple Roses, and all those other credit rating agencies were causing unpredictable daily fluctuations in the value of the Japanese yen, the government could not judge anything¡¯s value properly and could not calculate out any kind of budget. Since they didn¡¯t know the value of a single yen, they could not even find the answer to 1 + 1. In all seriousness, if they decided one week that a project needed one hundred million yen, the necessary amount could grow to fifty or even one hundred times as much using the value of the yen a week later. Whatever the cause, an organization could not function if the accountants raised the white flag and failed to come up with a budget. Not enough was of course a problem, but too much created suspicions of slush funds or mismanagement. It might be hard to understand for those of us who live in the world of the yen and use the yen for everything, but major corporations that work hard at exporting and importing and government bureaucrats who focus on the foreign exchange market were about ready to faint. And if those at the top could not act, then the local offices would never get the stamp of approval when they requested a budget. You could say Japan¡¯s administrative and executive agencies had all shut their doors and gone on vacation. It was a strange situation where no one could do anything despite all the money they were making. The general public had not been told, but the police were no exception. In other words, I had not taken time off. I had gone into the office, but the police department had been locked up and I couldn¡¯t get in. Some of the uniformed officers in the police boxes were voluntarily going on patrols, but how long would that last? Without getting paid, they couldn¡¯t eat and they would be forced to spend some of their time finding another source of money. Plus, public servants were barred from having a second job, so they would be forced to choose between one and the other. No one could stick with the idealistic answer forever. ¡°There.¡± Enbi must not have liked that I was lost in thought because she moved from her spot next to me. That is, she placed her small butt on my lap and leaned all her weight back on me. ¡°What are you doing, Mystery Freak?¡± ¡°What¡¯s wrong with this? Isn¡¯t it all so pretty! It was nice when we rode it during the day, but it¡¯s completely different at night!! It¡¯s like a carpet of stars.¡± Enbi used me as her chair and kicked her legs around. Her words drew my eye out the window. The view of the night had to be quite different from what we would have seen just a week before. Everything was unnecessarily bright as if to show off all the money that was filling every nook and cranny of the city. Bonds only earned interest every six months or every year, but there must have been some magic trick to earning a fortune must faster than that. It was December, so a lot of houses were decorated like they were Christmas trees themselves. Who could say how much that kind of thing actually cost, but no one batted an eye at loans that would take decades to pay back. Money was flying around like a blizzard and everyone just wanted to enjoy the present. But didn¡¯t that make it all feel somehow ominous? This unnatural state of affluence would not continue forever. It was just like a scene in a comedy film where someone walks off a cliff while blindfolded. Everyone was walking out over empty air at the moment. This would not last forever. If they continued thoughtlessly floating up there, every last light in this nightscape would crash down to the bottom of the cliff. ¡°Oh, look over there, detective. Looks like they¡¯re already preparing for the night illumination parade. That¡¯s a little ahead of schedule.¡± ¡°How long until ¡®today¡¯ ends, dammit?¡± ¡°Ah ha ha! Don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t worry. I made sure to reserve us a room at the park hotel. We can go right to bed after the parade¡¯s over. Tomorrow should be fun too. In fact, tonight should be lots of fun¡î¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­What did you just say?¡± I nearly choked. It was true the amusement park had a luxury hotel run by the same brand. I could see it from the Ferris wheel. Its wall had become a giant screen, presumably using projection mapping to work around the uneven surface. But that wasn¡¯t the issue. I gave the Mystery Freak a look that said ¡°you understand, don¡¯t you?¡± and she twisted around on my lap to look at me and nod. ¡°Eh? Oh, c¡¯mon. Don¡¯t look so worried. It¡¯ll all be fine. I of course reserved a single room with a double bed.¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t what I meant! And a double bed only makes it worse!! And how did a middle school girl reserve a room like that!? That hotel is dangerous!!¡± ¡°Everyone holds the power of money thanks to the unprecedented bond magic. The hotel is receiving so many requests they can¡¯t do a detailed check on each and every one.¡± That was probably why no one had taken issue with a man in a suit and coat walking around an amusement park with a middle school girl in a swimsuit¡­no, with a ribbon wrapped around her body and a coat and miniskirt that didn¡¯t do much to help. The police and the rest of the government had shut their doors, so I could only pray there weren¡¯t any actual moral hazards popping up. ¡°Regardless, that isn¡¯t happening! You never said anything about a hotel and I only promised to go on a single amusement park date with you if we escaped that zombie outbreak. Just one! That doesn¡¯t give you a second day!!¡± ¡°Eh? But doesn¡¯t it count as just the once as long as we don¡¯t leave the park?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re planning to confine me here and live in the hotel!¡± ¡°Hm? Wait¡­ That¡¯s not a bad idea.¡± ¡°Oh, no. Now I¡¯m giving you ideas? But anyway, we can¡¯t do that!!¡± ¡°But detective, won¡¯t you be in trouble without the hotel?¡± ¡°Why? The last train hasn¡¯t left yet.¡± ¡°But.¡± The twintail girl raised a finger while relaxing on my lap. ¡°Do you have the money needed to ride the train?¡± Huh? Don¡¯t tell me! ¡°It¡¯s gone, dammit! My wallet is gone! Mystery Freak, when did you take it!?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about. Grin, grin. Not a single clue. Smirk, smirk.¡± ¡°I bought that hot coffee just before boarding the Ferris wheel, so it had to be after that. It must have been after we got in here. But where is it? And when did you take it?¡± ¡°See? Without any change or your IC card, there¡¯s nothing you can do. Even if we¡¯re just a little out of Tokyo, it¡¯ll be tough getting back to your apartment in Ochanomizu on foot. Right, right?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Oh, or¡­¡± She smiled. While sitting on my lap, the Mystery Freak lifted her head to look back at me. She looked me in the eye with her head upside-down to mine and tried to provoke me. ¡°Do you have the courage to feel up my body to find your lost wallet in this ribbon, coat, or miniskirt?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe you!!¡± ¡°Wahyah!? I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d actually stick your hand in there! Now my heart¡¯s pounding! Ah ha ha! That tickles! Nya ha ha ha ha!!¡± I would rather not describe this in much detail, but it was necessary for my search. Let¡¯s just say I somehow managed to get my wallet back after a hard struggle. And it frightens me that she would hide it there of all places¡­ ¡°Tch. I thought I could get you to pay for the answer with a kiss. I certainly didn¡¯t expect for you to go the brute force route right off the bat. Detective, when you play room escape games, are you the kind of person that ignores the code in the hint and just goes through every option on the dial?¡± She pouted her lips, but she still seemed to be enjoying herself. As she sat in my lap and had me hold her in my arms from behind, she suddenly spoke up. ¡°To be honest, I didn¡¯t think it would turn out like this.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve gotta say I¡¯m pretty surprised to find myself on an amusement park date with a middle school girl.¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, I didn¡¯t mean that.¡± She cutely kicked her legs. ¡°I wasn¡¯t actually serious.¡± A strange silence fell over the Ferris wheel. That had been a decisive statement, even if it was something I had already known. ¡°Oh, but I wasn¡¯t deceiving you or anything. Hishigami Enbi really did love Uchimaku Hayabusa. But it was just like a preschooler saying he¡¯s going to marry his teacher. I didn¡¯t think it could ever actually happen. No matter how serious I was, I thought you¡¯d just humor me and rub my head and that would be the end of it. It¡¯s like having your feelings of love dismissed as fake as soon as you confess, but you still don¡¯t want to lie to the person you love and you don¡¯t really mind. That was all it was. No, that was all it should have been.¡± ¡°Wait, why did you just correct yourself?¡± ¡°But why is it? Since I knew it would never work out, I used you as practice and sent my best shots your way, but then everything seemed to change. That wall began to wobble. I mean, c¡¯mon. If you do that, I¡¯ll start to get serious. Once you tell me I can actually knock over the wall, I¡¯m gonna tackle it with everything I¡¯ve got, break it down, and keep going!! To think we¡¯d go from a zombie outbreak to an amusement park date! I can¡¯t believe this! Oh, I can¡¯t stop blushing!!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure I get this, but why do I feel like you¡¯re going to ignore the rules and send in a marriage registration form for us? Also it has not changed! Everything has not changed! This is only a ceremony to purify myself after letting my careless feelings and the mood get the better of me during those extreme circumstances!!¡± The Mystery Freak leaned back against me. That seemed to be her way of telling me to pipe down. ¡°It has changed,¡± she said. ¡°What has? And where?¡± ¡°The Glass House. That awful case where we first met. Compare us to back then and we¡¯ve changed more than 3.5 billion years of evolution.¡± ¡°¡­¡± For an instant, I thought Enbi¡¯s reflection in the window had changed to that girl who had felt like a worn-down rusty blade. I shook my head to clear away the sentimental hallucination and spoke to the girl on my lap. ¡°That¡¯s not fair.¡± ¡°This is a struggle between a girl and a guy. When the guy I¡¯ve fallen for is on the verge of wavering, I¡¯m gonna use whatever I can.¡± She giggled and pressed her head against me so I could smell her hair. ¡°Do you remember all that properly? How about we have a bit of a review?¡± ¡°You sound like a woman on her anniversary grilling her husband about where they went on their first date.¡± ¡°Bwefh!! N-now you¡¯re the one getting ahead of yourself here!!¡± She choked a little, but then began her questioning while kicking her feet. ¡°The Glass House was an eerie mansion built on a privately-owned mountain not too far from the city. Now, what was that mansion¡¯s most notable feature?¡± ¡°All the inner walls, floors, ceilings, and doors were made of transparent reinforced glass. That insane space of zero privacy was a physical representation of the family¡¯s insistence that there were no secrets between family. So what was their occupation?¡± It had turned into a quiz tournament for some reason. The Mystery Freak readily answered as if it had happened just yesterday. ¡°Fortune telling with a specialization in major clients such as politicians and corporation executives. That¡¯s why they were so picky about the truth and secrets. Okay, detective, how many people ultimately died in that case?¡± ¡°Three. One was the planned locked room murder, one was an irregular death of someone who had found some evidence, and the third was disguised as a suicide to frame them. Mystery Freak, who was the murderer?¡± ¡°The family¡¯s young wife. And the murder weapon?¡± ¡°A crossbow. But the bolt was sometimes fired from the crossbow and sometimes held and stabbed into the victim. Let¡¯s see¡­ Who was the butler with the seemingly meaningful bandages over his face?¡± ¡°A normal butler whose wound had long since healed but mistakenly believed everyone was treating him nicely because of it. How many shower scenes were there with the maid?¡± ¡°Six. ¡­No, one was the young wife and one was that girl in the wheelchair, so I guess only four.¡± ¡°Why do you remember that so accurately!?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that the point of this quiz!?¡± We took a short break. Afterwards, the Mystery Freak continued for us. ¡°Pant, pant. So what was the trick behind the first murder? All the walls were transparent, so everyone should have been able to see it happen.¡± ¡°The position of the furniture in each room. Each one was only a lamp or dresser, but altogether they created a perfect wall. By placing a piece of that wall in each room between the living room and the murder room, she hid the scene behind a special blind. Now, what was the young wife¡¯s motive?¡± ¡°She was a second wife and did not fit into the family very well. As fortune tellers, the family was vehemently opposed to secrets and tried to bring everyone together like that. Now, now. The real question: how did your Enbi-chan solve it all?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± I looked up at the ceiling with the Mystery Freak on my lap. This had happened after the murderer had shot me in the side with the crossbow. ¡°You were so pissed you destroyed the entire Glass House. The young wife was caught in a shower of glass and was nearly killed, scarily enough.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s when my love was born! Oh, I really can¡¯t stop blushing! Ah!!¡± Her small butt rose up from my lap. Something that left me unsure where to look appeared right in front of my face, but the Mystery Freak did not seem to mind. In fact, it might have been on purpose. At any rate, she was looking out the window. ¡°There¡¯s an orange-glowing carriage in the night illumination parade they¡¯re getting ready¡­ It looks like we¡¯re getting that rare float that¡¯s rumored to only appear once every ten times! If two people take a photo together with that in the background, they¡¯re supposed to fall in love!!¡± ¡°If they¡¯re in a position to be taking a photo together at an amusement park at night, aren¡¯t they probably already in love?¡± ¡°Eh heh. So you admit it? You just confessed to your crime, detective!!¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t phrase it like that, you idiot!!¡± Enbi plopped her butt back down onto its usual spot. She sat in my lap and kicked her feet around while speaking shrilly about what she saw out the window. I thought to myself as I gently reached around her from behind as if playing the role of her seatbelt. This country looked happy at first glance, but it was actually¡­no, the entire world was actually in a dangerous situation. The Mystery Freak had to have noticed that. She wasn¡¯t stupid enough to be utterly oblivious. She had simply chosen to enjoy herself up until the very end. That was the choice of a dreaming girl. But she had to know the truth. This would not last long. This crazy situation where no one knew why they were so happy could not last. It was like a passenger plane continuing to fly without the pilot. No matter how comfortable it was, you couldn¡¯t just enjoy it forever. Once the weather worsened and you hit some turbulence or once the warning light next to the fuel meter came on, it was all over. After the Ferris wheel finished is twenty five minute circuit, we returned to the surface. ¡°What should we do? Stick up a ¡®we¡¯re busy¡¯ sign and enjoy another circuit?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s an option.¡± With that said, I lowered her small body from my lap. She looked dissatisfied, but I opened the door from within. I found a familiar face there. His suit and coat were similar to mine, but he was fundamentally different. That rich black-haired bachelor made me wonder just how one acquired that kind of style. It was Chief Superintendent Mishima. ¡°Hi, Uchimaku-kun. If you still have some sense of societal duty left inside you, could we maybe talk about work?¡± Our living dream was over. Now, it¡¯s time for that mental exercise you love so much, Mystery Freak. Let¡¯s try thinking about global ruin. Part 2 Countless LED lightbulbs decorated the rollercoaster rails and Ferris wheel frame, the people waved penlights and glow sticks, and projection mapping displayed dancing fairies and eyepatch-wearing witches on the entire outer walls of the luxury hotel and haunted mansion. Within those symbols of an age of gluttony and great consumption, we spoke at one of the park¡¯s outside restaurants. It was me, the Mystery Freak, and Chief Superintendent Mishima. Also, Mishima-san had invited a woman I didn¡¯t know. She had semi-long black hair and looked about college aged. I had no room to talk when I was walking around with a middle school girl on a weekday night, but I could not imagine how Mishima-san, in his late thirties, knew this woman. With her intellectual glasses and chic tablet, she would have looked like a secretary if only she was a little older. However, that impression was ruined by her blue clothing which looked like something a marching band would wear. The leggings and miniskirt looked horribly out of place. It was Christmas and this was an amusement park, so I had to wonder if they were having some kind of costume campaign. Mishima-san introduced her. ¡°This is Kotemitsu Seika-san. She is apparently the main family¡¯s #1 troubleshooter. By the way, Uchimaku-kun, how much do you know about the main Kotemitsu family?¡± ¡°Kotemitsu¡­?¡± I wasn¡¯t sure what he meant. I could only think of one Kotemitsu I knew. ¡°I think that high school girl with my nephew Shinobu back in Zenmetsu Village had that family name.¡± ¡°She¡¯s the joker.¡± Seika-san(?) cut in with a calm look on her face. She really did not suit that active marching band outfit. ¡°It is true that Kotemitsu has been a major name in the financial world since the old zaibatsu days, but our goal is not to amass a personal fortune. We serve the country by continually intervening in the ever-changing financial, exchange, and bond markets to keep the brand-name of the Japanese yen at a high level. That is the true desire of the Kotemitsu family. ¡­But that girl has escaped the bonds of our family and seeks a personal fortune. Losing control of the #4 is an embarrassment to us all.¡± ¡°Now, now, Seika-san. That¡¯s enough about Madoka-chan. We have a bigger problem.¡± Mishima-san gently stopped her and Seika-san cleared her throat. Then she faced me again. ¡°Due to the contradictory lists from multiple credit rating agencies, no one knows what the world¡¯s bonds are worth, but Japan is one of the few air pockets that have escaped that fate. That has supposedly allowed us to preserve our high value and construct the so-called network, but that is all a complete lie.¡± She stuck her tongue out like a child. ¡°Normally, the Japanese bonds and currency would have been swallowed up by that black box as well. And their value would have fallen to the level of scrap paper.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I was confused and Seika-san was the one to answer. ¡°One: Japan has plenty of liquid materials beyond the bonds and exchange market, so it can persist for a while even if the yen itself were to crash. For example, the Intellectual Village ultra-high quality brand-name vegetables and handicrafts made by living national treasures. Two: the main Kotemitsu family has used methods I must not repeat to maintain the value of the Japanese yen. Although most of those are little more than financial magic tricks that work like anesthetic to distribute the pain more evenly. And three: ¡®the truly powerful¡¯ are afraid of losing their fortunes, so they are defending the air pockets anyway they can to create a temporary location for their assets. Those are the three pillars supporting this unnatural situation.¡± It sounded complicated, but it wasn¡¯t that bad. You just had to reduce it down to the main point. ¡°Hey, one of those pillars is much thicker than the others, isn¡¯t it?¡± asked the Mystery Freak. ¡°Yes. The third one is far more important. For one thing, Japan¡­and all of the air pockets have maintained their value because none of the many foreign credit rating agencies happened to view them as important and they were rated neither high nor low. They received similar ratings from enough of the agencies to avoid the chaos. ¡­However, that is odd.¡± ¡°Oh, I get it. The other nations are blockading us by sea and claiming it¡¯s a joint military exercise. They think this situation has to be manmade, so they¡¯re telling Japan to deal with it because we look like the easiest target of the network nations. But if they want to reduce Japan¡¯s value, it should be easy. The foreign credit rating agencies just have to change the rating of our bonds.¡± ¡°And that means someone¡¯s interfering with that.¡± Mishima-san shrugged. ¡°Those powerful people have entrusted their fortunes to Japanese bonds and the yen¡­no, they¡¯ve divided it up between all the network¡¯s air pockets. But they¡¯re foreigners. They just want to protect their fortunes, so they have no real reason to care about the country of Japan. After all, it¡¯s just one air pocket and they don¡¯t have all their fortune there. If the credit rating agencies bring this to a stop on some kind of a whim, then this nation will break through the thin ice and fall into the icy depths below. They would lose some money then, but only a little. They would only lose one piece of the many they¡¯ve spread around. It wouldn¡¯t be enough to hang themselves over.¡± ¡°Are there hints that that¡¯s happening?¡± ¡°If not, they wouldn¡¯t be blocking off the sea routes with their supposed joint military exercise,¡± smoothly replied Kotemitsu Seika-san. ¡°If they just wanted to preserve their hidden assets, they wouldn¡¯t do that. They¡¯re having trouble restraining the anger of the people in their own countries. And if they do too much to protect just the one hidden safe, they risk being burnt at the stake by the people who have had their safes continually taken away. I don¡¯t know which way the scales will tip. The switch could be thrown at any time. They care about their money, but it isn¡¯t known if they¡¯re willing to sacrifice their positions in their own countries or their lives for it. Especially when we¡¯re only talking about a secret stash of money, not their entire fortune.¡± Mishima-san continued from there. ¡°And Uchimaku-kun, you¡¯ve caught wind of the ominous atmosphere around here, haven¡¯t you? The government offices and administrative agencies have shut their doors because they can¡¯t distribute their budgets? And only the Ministry of Defense and JSDF are still running on volunteers for fear of riots? Utter nonsense. That just means the Ministry of Defense is running the entire government right now, doesn¡¯t it? That just means they¡¯re finding a way around using the taboo term ¡®martial law¡¯, doesn¡¯t it? The Ministry of Defense is on edge with that coalition force¡¯s naval blockade and who knows what kind of ultra vires actions they¡¯re going to justify using that. You¡¯re here because you¡¯d figured that out, right? You wanted to move a bit away from Tokyo but stay close enough that you could run back if need be. You wanted to be a bit outside the chain of command so you could ignore any suspicious orders you got from the metropolitan police department, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°¡­¡± The atmosphere was horribly strained. If what Mishima-san was saying and what was swirling through my mind was accurate, this had gone beyond a mere ¡°incident¡± and become a ¡°disaster¡±. A single powerless police detective could do nothing about this. It would hardly be surprising if the term ¡°civil war¡± came up when discussing a solution. But after saying all that, Mishima-san easily changed the subject. ¡°But despite all that, let¡¯s set it aside. The real problem is something else.¡± ¡°Wha-¡­ehh!?¡± ¡°Ah hah hah! I guess you would be surprised. But the JSDF isn¡¯t going to do anything rash. They¡¯re professionals, so they understand. If they do go on a rampage and enter into a real battle, Japan will dry up in no time at all. Even if they gather up all the fuel and ammunition reserves in the country, Japan can¡¯t even wage war for three months on its own. Or rather, we were made that way to defang us. Everything the Ministry of Defense is doing is a bluff. It¡¯s an obvious painkiller meant to keep true social unrest from running rampant.¡± Then what was the real problem? What were they trying to avoid looking at by creating this tense mood bordering on martial law? ¡°This is the other problem.¡± Seika-san held her tablet out over the table. It displayed some cheerful news about the constant days and nights of merrymaking. ¡°Will the natural convenience stores finally expand to the entire nation? As the Japanese people grow ever more health-conscious, luxury stores stocking Intellectual Village products will now be opening nationwide. The major convenience store chain Next Store Holdings has made it official. The ultra-high quality brand-name vegetables previously found at luxury restaurants and seen as a means of gathering foreign currency will now be much closer to home.¡± The article sounded like a bad joke. I couldn¡¯t understand how anyone could look at it with a smile. ¡°A bunch of grapes costs thirty thousand yen and junmai daiginjo can go for several million. ¡­This means there are more and more people with the kind of money to buy those things at a convenience store.¡± ¡°But wait a second. This means¡­!¡± ¡°Yes. This elated period of mass consumption is but a dream. It will eventually burst and vanish. It doesn¡¯t matter if Japan bursts or if another air pocket does and the crash spreads across the network. Either way, it will end eventually. We should be working to reduce the damage when that happens, but they¡¯re heading in the exact opposite direction. They¡¯ve crossed the final line and utterly lost their financial senses. If these natural convenience stores really do open up across the country and everyone starts buying ingredients that cost millions of yen, the coming crash will shake the nation far more than the bursting of any previous bubble. The country really will collapse and be unable to recover.¡± It was like getting a great crowd to cross a metal bridge and telling them it was safe and sturdy while you actually pulled out the girders supporting it. They of course did not care what happened to the people walking above. I heard some crazed shouts and saw a camera flash a short distance away. A group that looked college aged was throwing a ton of paper money overhead and posing in front of a smartphone on a selfie stick. They were likely making material for a blog or video site. They didn¡¯t care that the wind was blowing the money away. Nor did the people watching them in annoyance. The money danced through the air like cherry blossom petals at night while illuminated by the bright light of the projection mapping. ¡°They didn¡¯t actually earn most of that money. It came from the magic trick of making repeated deals between the network nations¡¯ bonds to increase their rarity and then selling them ¡®outside¡¯ in personal transactions. In other words, it¡¯s all for show. That¡¯s the scariest thing of all. They think they can make the same amount next year, so they buy everything they want, go into debt, and take out loans, all while thinking they¡¯ll be just fine. ¡­Sorry, but once the dream bursts, only the debt will remain. A bunch of grapes costs thirty thousand yen and a small carton of sake to take home costs a million yen. Once they get used to that, I don¡¯t even want to imagine what they¡¯ll think of as splurging or what kind of prior investments they¡¯ll make.¡± ¡°And conveniently, the Next Store Holdings that¡¯s opening those natural convenience stores looks like a domestic group at first, but they¡¯ve invited in so many foreign executives that the top management is filled with foreign thinking. You could call it a foreign-owned domestic company.¡± ¡°You mean foreigners are destroying our financial senses to defeat the country without firing a single shell?¡± The Mystery Freak frowned and Mishima-san shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not so sure. It is true the truly powerful are involved in this, but I don¡¯t know what they¡¯re after. They might be trying to destroy the financial senses of the Japanese people to harm us, but they also might just be trying to make money off of the Japanese era of overconsumption. ¡­But either way, this country is doomed if we don¡¯t do anything.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s that dangerous, why not prevent the stores from opening?¡± ¡°On what authority? Their products aren¡¯t dangerous and the prices are ¡®appropriate¡¯ since they¡¯re products of Intellectual Villages. There¡¯s no real problem there. This isn¡¯t a dictatorship that imprisons people for dangerous ideologies. Preventing over two hundred stores from opening over a formless conspiracy theory would be a rebellion against capitalism. Most importantly, all the administrative agencies are closed, remember? The district courts aren¡¯t functioning.¡± I thought that might be what the Ministry of Defense was reacting to, but was it not? The hidden side of the hidden side was the non-hidden side Did the NPA and the metropolitan police department really just not have the funding they needed to keep going? If so, that was bad in and of itself! ¡°But Uchimaku-kun, that isn¡¯t the biggest problem,¡± said Mishima-san. ¡°The naval blockade and the natural convenience stores are only side issues. Why did this happen in the first place? Multiple credit rating agencies appeared and created contradictory lists. Why did all of mankind suddenly decide to commit mass suicide? The world looks so bright, but it¡¯s fallen into bottomless poverty. Everyone has their issues with this situation and they could just throw out the confusing lists and refuse to trust them, but even though we all want to reject the coming destruction of the world, we can¡¯t stop focusing on it, like it was written in a book of prophecy. What caused this unnatural mental state? If we don¡¯t do something about that, we can¡¯t fundamentally solve this.¡± I understood that. But what did that have to do with us? There was no conspiracy of the Ministry of Defense. We couldn¡¯t stop the natural convenience stores from opening nationwide. Then what did he hope I could do as a single man in a suit without even an office to go into? How much did Mishima-san and Seika-san know? ¡°You don¡¯t understand a thing, do you? Honestly, and you call yourself the #1 troubleshooter?¡± Suddenly, a girl cut in with utter scorn in her voice. Enbi turned toward it and spoke up in slight surprise. ¡°Oh, if it isn¡¯t Madoka.¡± ¡°And if it isn¡¯t Enbi.¡± It was the high school girl I had seen at Zenmetsu Village. She wore a white dress so thin I would have been able to see her body¡¯s silhouette if she was lit from behind and she wore a thick coat over that. ¡°What brings you here? It isn¡¯t often that you return to the big city and all its exhaust. It was just the other day that you came crying to me over the phone, saying a hole had opened in your chest and, by the time you realized it was your first love, it was already over.¡± ¡°Oh, um, we can discuss that later. Also, the royal suite in the hotel here is my personal room. Instead of renting it out for years at a time, they gave me a room as an unofficial way of welcoming me as a major shareholder. ¡­Anyway, knowing Shinobu-kun, there has to be something beyond his happy ending. I doubt he can overcome the obstacle of unfaithfulness, so that means I still have a chance. Mutter mutter¡­¡± Seika-san had remained calm and collected this entire time, but a murderous aura surrounded her now. ¡°You useless joker¡­¡± ¡°Yes, yes. You stay quiet in your corner there, you convenient ace of hearts. Who would ever be afraid of someone who can only do what they¡¯re told, even if it¡¯s done perfectly? I guess the #1 who had her hands full seeing how that old mainframe lady would react couldn¡¯t help but envy the out-of-control #4 who left the main family to live on her own. Right?¡± ¡°Me? Envy you?¡± ¡°Ohh? Was I wrong? Then are you still bothered that my personal financial techniques made short work of all the main family¡¯s attack servers so you had to turn tail and flee from our financial battle? Unless you want to file for bankruptcy, then get lost, semi-pro.¡± Madoka(¡­-chan?) laughed mockingly at Seika-san in her cheerful marching band outfit and then she continued speaking. ¡°When investing, you always preferred to have your opponent mess up than to take the fight to them. I¡¯m guessing that bigshot from the police is taking the leading role here. And he¡¯s investigated every single idea he could think of, found no hole in the bottom of the bucket, tilted his head, and finally, in the very end, decided to rely on Enbi and the detective there.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not really sure what to say,¡± said Mishima-san. ¡°After all, there was that incident in the northern Fuuka Village. Enbi, that detective, and I all saw it there. That incident involved a mysterious organization known a Hyakki Yakou and a special Zashiki Warashi they highly prized. And wasn¡¯t the other group behind it the riot police? That means you would have heard about the result there and you would have realized this is the only possibility left.¡± The Zashiki Warashi. A Youkai of fortune and destruction. And this one in particular had clearly been modified by Hyakki Yakou. Could it be? But¡­no¡­could it¡­!? ¡°Madoka-chan.¡± Mishima-san asked a searching question. He had a gentle look in his eyes, but those eyes could easily pierce through the girl if he saw anything dangerous. ¡°Are you saying you have some useful information in your position outside of Kotemitsu?¡± ¡°No. Unlike that obedient woman, I¡¯m honest.¡± Madoka-chan ignored the sound of clenching teeth and smoothly continued. ¡°But I did hear one thing from Shinobu-kun. That lady-killer has the nerve to give me a look of 100% pure trust despite going off and having all sorts of lovey-dovey fun.¡± ¡°What exactly did he say?¡± It was a simple question. The answer was also simple. ¡°He said he¡¯s the closest person to the black box. And he asked that any outsiders don¡¯t get involved.¡± Shared Memory 2 She was fairly sure it had happened when Shinobu was around ten. On that day, the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata had noticed a change in young Shinobu¡¯s behavior after he returned from school and played with her in the Buddhist altar room. Technically, she did not actually know when the change had happened. But on that day, she had intentionally taken a certain action and had received the reaction she had been expecting. To clear away her worries, she had asked a question as they played a foreign trading card game (it was popular due to the cool artwork but no one in his class had the courage to put together a deck of only girl cards.) ¡°Shinobu.¡± ¡°What is it, Nee-chan?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been wondering. Why are you refusing to look me in the eye?¡± His shoulders had jumped. He had looked down at his fanned-out cards and tried to sound calm as he answered her. ¡°I¡¯m not.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°I said I¡¯m not.¡± ¡°Mhhh???¡± She had peered at him from below to look him in the eye by force, but his gaze had escaped to the side. She had circled around in pursuit, but he had escaped in the opposite direction. After the process had repeated a few times, he must have run out of places to escape to because he had looked to the ceiling and collapsed onto his back. When she had rested his head on her lap and looked down from above to finally look him in the eye, he had given up and opened his mouth. ¡°It isn¡¯t that I don¡¯t like you.¡± ¡°I can tell that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just, um, nnn¡­ Looking you in the eye is¡­e-embarrassing!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± ¡°Heat gathers in my head and I blush and I can¡¯t think. I don¡¯t get it myself, but it isn¡¯t normal. The only way to calm down is to shut you out of my mind!!¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°But why is it? Even when you¡¯re not there, like when I¡¯m writing about you for an essay at school, I blush. Once it starts, I can¡¯t stop it, so it¡¯s kind of a problem.¡± ¡°Shiiinobuuu.¡± His mother had called for him, so he had gotten up from the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s lap. He had set down the cards (which were treated as educational tools at school because the explanatory text was in English) and had gone to help his mother. But left all alone, the Zashiki Warashi had been overwhelmed by the feeling that she had done something horrible. To sum it up¡­ Huh? Ten-year-old Shinobu is viewing me as a woman? Afterwards, she had waved her hands around and gestured wildly while asking a human for help. ¡°Um, so I¡¯m thinking I might have opened a lid in Shinobu¡¯s heart that I shouldn¡¯t have. Is this okay? Depending on what happens, I might need to commit seppuku. No, in a woman¡¯s case, stabbing the blade into my throat would be the proper method!!¡± But Shinobu¡¯s mother had been carefree. ¡°I think this is a natural response.¡± ¡°Natural!?¡± ¡°According to psychology, the very first member of the opposite sex a boy will be interested in is his own mother. I think it¡¯s called an Oedipus Complex. But they soon realize that¡¯s ethically wrong, so it stops. That leads to the second step. The boy creates an image of the ideal woman based on his image of his mother. But that doesn¡¯t mean he¡¯ll search out someone just like me. It can be someone like his mother or someone who has something his mother doesn¡¯t. It only starts at his mother, so it can branch out from there in countless ways.¡± She had added on the unnecessary trivia that ¡°Screwing up that second step is what leads to a real mother complex.¡± ¡°Based on Shinobu¡¯s behavior, I think he¡¯s following the ¡®older¡¯ side of me but going for someone who has what I lack. So it has to be a member of the opposite sex other than his mother who is nearby, older than him, and who he interacts with a lot. ¡­Now, let me ask you something. Who best fits those conditions?¡± ¡°Uuh¡­¡± She had understood once it was explained logically to her. But on another level entirely, she had poked her index fingers together in front of her chest. ¡°Uuhhhhhhhhh!!¡± ¡°Ah ha ha! Did you think Shinobu was messenger of god, utterly devoid of impurity? This is just how boys are. Even preschoolers will readily say they¡¯re going to marry their teachers. So Shinobu didn¡¯t turn out like this because you did something wrong. You don¡¯t need to worry about it or feel remotely responsible. There¡¯s an animalistic side to all boys from the moment they¡¯re born. It¡¯s just that he¡¯s something of a round stuffed animal monster right now. Gao.¡± The Zashiki Warashi had flailed around and been unable to speak due to the various pressures bearing down on her, so Shinobu¡¯s mother had realized what she had to say. ¡°Eh? You want to know how to speak with him now? I wouldn¡¯t know that. That¡¯s between you and him. I may be his mother, but I¡¯m not about to become a monster that even knows what image he has inside his heart. He might continue pursuing you and he might turn elsewhere after creating a second and third image of the ideal woman. That¡¯s up to him. Whether you want him to change or stay like this, you just have to behave accordingly. Although as his mother, I¡¯m kind of excited and asking him to find a better woman than you seems like a fairly cruel quest.¡± ¡°¡­!?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t want me to just abandon you? But you would prefer it if Shinobu liked you, right? And when it¡¯s a preschooler with his teacher or a middle schooler with his tutor, they¡¯ll generally keep watching for a while and have their feelings cool down once they notice the difference in age. But you can cheat there.¡± What did that mean? Was there more to this? The Zashiki Warashi had started to tremble and Shinobu¡¯s mother had shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m pretty jealous of the fact that you don¡¯t age. If Shinobu grows up and even outgrows you, then the age difference won¡¯t stop him anymore. What do you think about that? I think that would remove all of the excuses you have in mind right now.¡± Volume 9, 3: Colorful [email protected] Mai Volume 9, Chapter 3: Colorful [email protected] Mai Part 1 As all of Japan celebrated with mass consumption, Pretty Mai-chan casually drank some coffee while secretly carrying a handgun inside a regional airport lounge. Since it was winter, I wore a jacket over my tank top and pants, but the heat was on too high and I actually felt too warm. I was killing time until my usual client, Hyakki Yakou, arrived in their mobile fortress, but then my satellite phone received a call. I grimaced as soon as I saw the number. For a few seconds, I wondered if I should answer it or ignore it, but then, to my chagrin, I realized the caller would notice the hesitation behind those few seconds. I answered it and someone I truly wanted to curse began speaking. ¡°Hi, Mai. It¡¯s your Onii-chan. Do you know which Onii-chan this is?¡± ¡°Kyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooou Oniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!¡± ¡°Zei or Akane can take a curse for me, but please stop calling me Onii-tan at your age! It¡¯s unreasonable! Ah, I¡¯m really getting goose bumps!!¡± ¡°So what do you want?¡± ¡°How cold. That isn¡¯t how reasonable siblings should speak to each other. Didn¡¯t I just give you that Yozakura Ver. 3? Have you already forgotten what you owe me for that?¡± ¡°Family shouldn¡¯t be talking about what they owe each other either.¡± ¡°My apologies. I was being unreasonable. I feel a bit like dying, but I suppose that isn¡¯t reasonable either. Hee hee.¡± ¡­Huh? What is with that kimono-wearing reasonable-obsessed man? Despite what he says, it sounds like he¡¯s started enjoying being a half step removed from being reasonable. Did something happen? ¡­No, it couldn¡¯t be. This is one of the Hishigami Men I¡¯m talking about. ¡°Now, I¡¯d like to get down to business, Mai. Could you do your Onii-chan a favor?¡± ¡°That depends on what it is. If it¡¯s to kill you, I¡¯ll even do it for free.¡± I casually gave my usual sort of response, but the response I received was extremely unreasonable and nothing like his usual self. ¡°Yes. I give up, Mai. To be honest, I¡¯m sick of it all. Could the Hishigami Women turn the Hishigami Group into a pile of rubble before it goes through any more disturbing transformations?¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ The Hishigami Men referred to a passive gathering. The Hishigami Women referred to an active parting. Neither of them was good or evil. In times of chaos, the Hishigami Men would rise up and build a massive organization. In times of decadence, the Hishigami Women would rise up and destroy the rotten organization. They were like the Eros and Thanatos for the entire human race. The Hishigami Women brought disaster. ¡°I see¡­¡± I muttered into the satellite phone. I leaned back in the lounge sofa, looked up at the tall, tall ceiling, and continued. ¡°So it¡¯s already reached that point, has it?¡± ¡°Everything must fall eventually. Although we¡¯re past decadence. You could say we¡¯re over-ripe or even rotting. I¡¯ve given this a lot of thought. There are a few ways of rebuilding a failing corporation, but it¡¯s much harder to restrain a corporation that has grown without end.¡± ¡°Ohh, I see. Old Shikimi sure forced some annoying stuff onto us. What was that about being the founder of the Hishigami line? Is that anything to be proud of?¡± ¡°She didn¡¯t do anything wrong. An influential person said the moon was the only unattainable thing in a time of peace, but they actually wanted the obvious ¡®power¡¯ of a satellite. We are the artificial bloodline that was created as a result. That was the sin of someone who wanted to control the age and control reasonableness, so blaming Shikimi-san alone would be cruel, no matter how reasonable it looks.¡± ¡°Maybe I should summon that noble bastard and place their soul in some Shikigami or another so I can kick their ass.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to bother with anything so unreasonable. They must be cursing in heaven after the Apollo program beat them to it.¡± Kyou then changed the subject. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get back on topic. We intend to obey reasonableness to the end and there¡¯s nothing we can do if that reasonableness itself is unpleasant. I had hoped that Detective Uchimaku could do something, but it seems the flow of time was too fast for him. So Mai, could you please carry out your primary job? I want you to end my life before the reasonableness I know has left my understanding. Euthanasia is such a reasonable word, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°By the way, why me?¡± ¡°I thought you were the best fit.¡± Hishigami Kyou nonchalantly answered me. ¡°There are quite a few Hishigami Women out there. ¡°Arawa who destroys birth. ¡°Shitsu who destroys education. ¡°Yuu who destroys systems. ¡°Yume who destroys ethics. ¡°Raku who destroys health. ¡°Kuji who destroys trust. ¡°Rou who destroys finances. ¡°Arata who destroys tradition. ¡°Taga who destroys faith. ¡°Ama who destroys hope. ¡°And many more. ¡°But this case is best suited for you, Mai. You might be even better than Shikimi-san or Enbi here.¡± ¡°And you know what my Hishigami role is?¡± ¡°You are Mai who destroys truth. That¡¯s perfect for this. ¡­And scarily enough, you can seem even more bizarre than Shikimi, depending on how one looks at you.¡± I see. Is the ability to look at me like that a sign of being ¡°productive¡±? Well, I guess he¡¯s still a Hishigami Man no matter what might happen. ¡°How about it, Mai? Will you take on this job to help your Onii-chan save face? The Hishigami Group is starting to leave our control. It¡¯s disturbing, it keeps growing and won¡¯t die, and I don¡¯t even want to imagine being a part of that. Just talking about it here feels like it¡¯s going to give me nightmares. Ending it at the height of glory is the ultimate luxury. Stepping down from the stage is a choice only the victor can do. So please, Mai. Will you save my reasonable dignity?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± I laughed and adjusted my grip on the satellite phone. ¡°The great and fearsome Mai-chan will give the most perfect ending to her beloved Onii-tan. You will feel despair, fill with darkness, and lose all trust in the world, but if that¡¯s okay with you.¡± I heard a sigh from the phone. It was a sigh of death filled with a hint of expectation. But what was he thinking? Ending it at the height of glory? I¡¯m a Hishigami Woman, you know? I¡¯m not Old Shikimi, so did he really think I would choose to make someone happy in the way they expected me to? ¡°The best method of destroying the Hishigami Group is to do nothing. Watch as it rots and crumbles from within and suffer from necrosis while a means of painless death sits right before your eyes, Hishigami Man.¡± Kyou started to say something, but I ignored him and hung up. I tapped the floor with my boot that had a gun hidden in the heel. Then I took a sip of coffee. Stop relying on others, rich boy. Or if you must, pray for a miracle and hope Youkai email protected KAzU will be drawn to this age of arrogance. Part 2 During the battle with the Aoandon, Hyakki Yakou had bought a new mobile base from Hishigami Aerospace Industries on short notice and it had already been dyed deeply in their colors. It looked just like the Imperial Court in Kyoto or a noble¡¯s mansion, so it was easy to forget you were five thousand meters in the air. It was a manmade structure, but it must have been comfortable for the nature-loving Youkai because they were lying around here and there without issue. ¡°Mom.¡± Among them were a mother and child of the harmless and adorable canine Youkai known as Sunekosuri. ¡°Lie down here and I¡¯ll groom you, mom.¡± ¡°What is this, Gisuke? Unlike human babies, four-legged animals begin growing independent from the moment they stand up on their own a few hours after birth. Honestly, that husband is so useless. Did he not even teach you that?¡± ¡°Dad isn¡¯t useless. He kept his promise! He promised he would find you inside even the deepest darkness so we could live as a family of three again. He kept his promise between men.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°So he¡¯s amazing. I can only groom you because of him! He¡¯s my hero!¡± ¡°Stop that, Gisuke. It tickles.¡± The head of that Sunekosuri family was watching their exchange from a short distance away¡­that is, at my feet. His eyes were growing damp as he entered ¡°dad mode¡±, so I teased him with the toe of my boot. ¡°Sorry, but you can enjoy your family once we finish our job. You¡¯re still a part of Hyakki Yakou, so you¡¯re my point of contact and an official agent more than you are a father right now.¡± ¡°I know that.¡± We silently left that warm scene of the two Sunekosuri. There were other unfamiliar Youkai and occult practitioners around. The Byouki User was apparently always clinging to the Illness Magic guy and I believe the Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi was inside a special Japanese-style cell. ¡°So how dangerous is that, um, Ver. 39¡­the Zashiki Warashi in the red yukata? Uh, from what I¡¯ve seen, I can¡¯t imagine she¡¯s dangerous.¡± ¡°That¡¯s part of what we need to discuss with the young lady.¡± As we spoke, we spotted something. The young lady always stayed in the large hall that Hyakki Yakou called the Tenshukaku, but a sexy shrine maiden was currently crouched down in front of the sliding screen and peeking inside. It seemed to be the Venom Clairvoyant, one of the Top 5. ¡°Wh-what is she doing?¡± ¡°A blindfolded shrine maiden is peeping. I feel like we¡¯ve wandered into some kind of gag space.¡± Part 3 (3rd person) ¡°Illness Magic.¡± Hafuri, a girl in a purple kimono who was the leader of Hyakki Yakou, spoke in a dignified tone. The Illness Magic User, one of the Top 5 which was Hyakki Yakou¡¯s greatest fighting force, had his head bowed so low that his forehead touched the floor. He wore a SWAT-like black combat outfit with plenty of curse charms held in the holsters. He sealed his own stress inside them and built it up to the level of Illness Magic, but his large muscular body was prostrated before the girl as he listened to her speak. ¡°Sorry for calling you on such short notice, but I decided I wanted you to hear about this first.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± This had to be something important if she had called for one of the Top 5 who were known as her right-hand men. Plus, she had told everyone else, even her aides, to leave. The world below was apparently full of chaos after the international financial stagnation and crashes caused by the multiple credit rating agencies. People were using the network for a lucrative magic trick, a coalition force had set up a naval blockade, the Ministry of Defense was taking ominous actions, and a plan was underway to destroy the people¡¯s financial senses using the foreign-funded natural convenience stores that were disguised as a domestic project. Any solution would be far from peaceful. But wherever she might send him, the Illness Magic User was prepared to live up to her expectations. He was confident his heart would remain steady no matter what command she gave him. If this girl told him to die, he would die. Hafuri then got to the main point. ¡°I only noticed this recently. Although maybe it isn¡¯t worth making a big deal out of¡­¡± ¡°What¡­?¡± He guessed this was a metaphor for some kind of crucial plan. But her next statement proved otherwise. ¡°Illness Magic, I seem to have gotten my first perio-¡­¡± ¡°Cough!!!!¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­??? ¡°Illness Magic?¡± ¡°Cough, cough. Oh, excuse me. My apologies, Hafuri-sama. I am delighted you would ask for my assistance.¡± ¡°I have not just sat idly by. I did everything I could to look into it. It seems the tradition is to cook red rice. There also seem to be a few different varieties of menstrual products, but I am having trouble making a decision on my own. Illness Magic, I want your help. Which should I choose? A pa-¡­¡± ¡°Cough, cough!! Ueh, cough!!!¡± ¡°¡­-pon? ¡­Oh? What is the matter, Illness Magic!? If you¡¯re having trouble controlling your stress, I can have some incense prepared!!¡± Hafuri spoke worriedly to the Illness Magic User who had coughed up some blood. He trembled in his prostrated position for a while, but he was confused and his mind was filled with question marks. Finally, he hesitantly raised an objection toward his leader. ¡°Um¡­¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Why would you ask me about this¡­?¡± ¡°You are something like my family doctor, aren¡¯t you? No one is more knowledgeable of my body¡¯s structure. I thought about asking the Mamedanuki who copies my appearance as my body double, but I thought you would be best since your knowledge includes the inside of my body.¡± There was no hesitation in her voice and no hint of embarrassment or shyness, so it was obvious she really was just asking for his advice. She truly trusted him. From her point of view, this was the same as asking a familiar doctor for help after coming down with a cold. But despite his appearance and skill, the Illness Magic User was a sensible person. And annoyingly enough, he had something of a samurai spirit. He worked his mind at full power as he placed three fingers of each hand on the floor in a beautiful Japanese prostration. (Ehh? It¡¯s true I needed to know the details of her body to create her surrogate mother, so I could draw up a diagram with my eyes closed. But I don¡¯t have a medical license, so wouldn¡¯t anything I did just be ¡°playing doctor¡± with her and thus completely over the line as a human being?) Unbearable pressure weighed on his stomach. Even if this was a direct order, he was feeling a bit like committing seppuku. To be clear, he had a na?ve heart that built up stress exceedingly easily. ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Illness Magic?¡± ¡°N-nothing. But in that case, wouldn¡¯t it be better to ask my sister¡­yes, the Venom Clairvoyant?¡± ¡°Um, about that. I tried to ask, but it seems she does not use any kind of menstrual products. I think she called it menstrual blood control. It has to do with the way she walks and the way she tenses the muscles in her groin, but it sounded far too difficult for me.¡± ¡°Then why not ask the Passionate Predator?¡± ¡°She specializes in phantom pregnancies, so I can¡¯t rely on her. I assume she lives a life without any real menstrual cycle. ¡­Hey, Illness Magic? As you can see, you¡¯re the only one I can rely on. Can you please help me?¡± A bright smile appeared on Hafuri¡¯s face. A death pallor appeared on the Illness Magic¡¯s. ¡°¡­¡± (What do I do!? I¡¯ve built up too much trust!! No, there has to be some other way. Seppuku would be the easy way out, but Hafuri-sama¡¯s sadness would remain! What about the Byouki User? ¡­No, I suppose not. She came from the Aondon¡¯s group, so she¡¯s an outsider. She will prove her trustworthiness with her future loyalty and valor, but she still needs to be kept away from our leader. Allowing her to meet one-on-one with Hafuri-sama so soon could breed discord within the other powerful members who consider themselves regents and chief advisors. But then what do I do!?) ¡°Oh!! Right. Why not ask Mei-sama in her cell!?¡± ¡°You fool!! How could I talk about this with my own mother!! I¡¯d be too embarrassed!!¡± He could not figure out her standards for embarrassment and he nearly said as much, but he truly was a samurai living in the modern era. Bringing shame to his master with a tsukkomi was out of the question. He remained prostrated and hesitantly worked at resolving the situation as if defusing a landmine. ¡°But¡­but Hafuri-sama. I unfortunately have lived a life that has given me little to no knowledge about that sort of feminine product¡­¡± ¡°Illness Magic.¡± She cut him off. She gave off a majestic air of authority that felt like the cold and mysterious pattern on a drawn sword blade. ¡°Are you saying you intend to disobey the orders of me, Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader?¡± ¡°No!! No!! I would never think of it, Hafuri-sama!!¡± He lowered his head even more and scraped his forehead against the floor until the friction seemed it would start a fire. That serious human being was utterly worried about where destiny was leading him. Forward, back, left, or right? Where was he supposed to go now!? One sliding screen away, the Venom Clairvoyant was trembling. The little sister had seen it all!! ¡°What¡­what happened to you, Onii-chan!? Ah! Come to think of it, when I was little, I messed up controlling the insects inside me and had him remove them. Don¡¯t tell me that knocked a screw loose and eventually led to him having no trouble playing history¡¯s greatest game of doctor here!? What do I do!? This is all my fault!!¡± The sexy blindfolded shrine maiden¡¯s state would have been amusing if not for the fact that she was one of the Top 5, each of whom was rumored to be able to destroy a continent. None of the stuffed animal-like Youkai dared say anything. That was why the Mamedanuki, acting as a representative for those stuffed animals, dragged in the Supernatural Trainer. That slender man in glasses and a butler uniform rubbed a finger against his temple and finally called out to her. ¡°Hey, what the hell do you think you¡¯re doing there? Have some restraint and quit sending out so much killer intent and scaring everyone around you.¡± ¡°Ah!?¡± ¡°Besides, Hafuri-sama personally had everyone leave her. I don¡¯t really care what¡¯s going on in there, but don¡¯t blame me if she starts having her doubts about you and exiles you to some remote area.¡± ¡°N-no, that¡¯s not what, um, this is, Supernatural!!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s right or wrong here, but when Hafuri-sama tells us to stay away, we stay away. That¡¯s pretty standard, isn¡¯t it? Plus, each of us is just one finger on her hand. Know your place. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s gotten you so worked up, but did you think a single fingertip could outdo the head?¡± ¡°¡­¡± She had no argument against that. For one thing, she had no way of knowing what Hafuri really wanted. For some reason ¨C for some reason!! ¨C she did have a feeling something awful was going to happen beyond that sliding screen, but that was only from her point of view. A single command from Hafuri could decide the fate of the nation, so the girl might not understand how someone could let their thoughts break down and stop strategizing, even over something minor. After all, even the small things could indirectly influence the history of the world for her. The Venom Clairvoyant had no choice but to accept this. She was incredibly reluctant, but she slowly stood up from her crouched position in order to leave. That was when she heard a creaking metal sound. That quiet noise seemed to grab the blindfolded shrine maiden with an invisible hand and turn her head in that direction. There, she found another of the Top 5. It was the Heirloom Transcender. The elderly man sat in a wheelchair with a worn out canopy and he looked up at her face. The old man in Japanese clothing did not speak a single word. But he did nod just once. And the look in his eyes eloquently told her to do as she wished. (Old Heirloom!!) The Venom Clairvoyant teared up behind her blindfold, but she had something more important to focus on. She had something to do now that someone had given her that push forward. Two old German handguns flew from the sleeves of her shrine maiden outfit. ¡°Ah, wait a second!! We¡¯re inside the palace!!¡± The Supernatural Trainer quickly tried to stop her, but she was not listening. As if guided by a voice from heaven, the Venom Clairvoyant kicked down the sliding screen and stepped inside. ¡°Curse you, Onii-chan!! Don¡¯t you know that¡¯s a crime!!!??¡± Part 4 A few of the other Top 5 had leaped around to restrain the crazed blindfolded shrine maiden (for some reason the old Heirloom man had nodded calmly without doing anything to help, so he had probably been nodding off to sleep), and the woman was now cooling her head inside a cell. For some reason, the young lady holed up in the back for a while afterwards. She seemed to be discussing something with a few of the female Youkai in the organization: a Tengu woman, a Futakuchi-Onna, and a Hinoenma. I also got to see the rare sight of that Illness Magic guy desperately begging those Youkai for help. ¡°Sorry about the wait.¡± The young lady looked refreshed when she reappeared. She seemed oddly calm for so soon after a rampage by the Top 5. She quickly got down to business. ¡°This is probably related to the Venom Clairvoyant too¡­but it seems it will take a while longer before she will listen. What on earth got into her? It might be that one of the insects that literally has ¡®gotten into her¡¯ is causing issues, but¡­¡± The Sunekosuri trembled at my feet. A direct battle between the Top 5 must have been quite scary. That was hardly surprising when a bit of slapstick from them could sink an entire continent. How could anyone watch that in mild amusement? ¡°M-maybe it¡¯s a control issue? I don¡¯t understand how anyone could actually raise insects like that. Tremble tremble.¡± ¡°Oh, but speaking of that blindfolded shrine maiden¡­¡± ¡°We have the help of my mother¡­of the Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi, but the analysis suggests she lacks the output needed to resist the destiny of doom.¡± That really wasn¡¯t good. Everyone seemed to call the old Hyakki Yakou the strongest, and this was the best they could do now. No matter where you went, even the greatest would decay. ¡°Well, if everything was always smooth sailing with the occult, I guess your ancestors wouldn¡¯t have been defeated at Dan-no-Ura.¡± ¡°?¡± Globe & Ingot, Triple Roses, and the world¡¯s other credit rating agencies had started putting out completely contradictory lists and the value of national bonds was collapsing around the world. Was everyone just spinning their wheels? Had they created a black box? Whatever you wanted to call it, the effects had spread. The American dollar and the European euro had of course been affected. The Chinese yuan, the Brazilian real, the Indian rupee, the Russian ruble, and the South African rand of the so-called five developing countries were no exception. The Korean won, the Hong Kong dollar, the Australian dollar, and pretty much everything else had been taken out too. I think even electronic money and virtual currencies were hit. The only survivors were those in the network. Those were the air pockets that had been left open because everyone had forgotten about them or looked down on them. And for better or for worse, Japan was one of those. That was the overall outline of the issue. But that was strange at a fundamental level. The rise of Safe Banking, Triple Roses, Pengjia Gongsi, and the other credit rating agencies made sense. But there¡¯s no way they would have put out such contradictory rating lists. Those ratings weren¡¯t something the agency just decided on. Just like the weather forecast, the experts were calculating them. It would take a lot of work and time, but an amateur could find the answer if they tried. If you put out a completely nonsensical list, the amateur investors would see through it and it would all be over. Yet that hadn¡¯t happened. Everyone seemed to believe this prophecy of doom even though everyone wanted to deny it. So the core of the problem was not money, bonds, or data. It was the movement of people¡¯s hearts. And we had predicted the source of the problem quite early on. It was a Youkai of fortune. It was the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi that brought ruin. And this one in particular had been given the power to freely manipulate the world¡¯s destiny by Hyakki Yakou. The Sunekosuri rubbed against my feet. ¡°The Ver. 39 is at the center of this, isn¡¯t she?¡± ¡°Yes. And because the Ver. 40 was made to stably alter destiny with almost no risk, her power is always even and she supposedly cannot match the upper limits of the Ver. 39¡¯s harshly fluctuating power.¡± ¡°Yes, Majina¡¯s solution was to strengthen the population by turning all 150 million of them into zombies. While the entire population was restraining the Red, he wanted to use the Ver. 40¡¯s stable power to alter destiny. Even that genius among geniuses couldn¡¯t come up with a better answer, so we should assume it¡¯s nearly impossible to solve this with no sacrifices.¡± ¡°You readily mention sacrifices, but are you saying it would be possible if we allowed for them?¡± The young lady¡¯s question caused the Sunekosuri to tremble even more violently. ¡°I don¡¯t really know.¡± As a professional, it would be insincere if I was too quick to say it was impossible. ¡°The Red is inside Noukotsu Village, so the area around it has likely become an invisible labyrinth. If anyone tries to approach with intent to harm her, the destiny of the world itself will get in their way. And even if they don¡¯t intend to harm her, if they¡¯re being used by someone else, the same thing will happen. Frankly, it¡¯s strange that Majina was able to get that close to her.¡± In fact, was it possible the blindfolded shrine maiden had gone nuts because the destiny was working in the Red¡¯s favor? Given the situation, even those seemingly ridiculous things were no laughing matter. The problem was not the comedy space itself. That Venom Clairvoyant could directly view the future and destiny, yet she had been manipulated so thoroughly. She was the top specialist who had the greatest odds of seeing through the Ver. 39¡¯s power, so she had been taken out first and foremost. And the rails of destiny had switched over entirely seamlessly. No one knew when we had wandered onto this path. If the bomb squad with a mine detector had stepped on a landmine, what were the rest of us supposed to do? I also needed to keep an eye on the movements of anyone who had approached the heart of this, such as my sister Enbi, anyone related to Kotemitsu, and the Ver. 40 in her cell. If they were doing anything out of the ordinary, I could assume they were already under destiny¡¯s influence. There was a chance they were being manipulated by a labyrinth of inescapable comedy space. So to challenge the Ver. 39, you first had to be accepted by her so you could approach. For better or for worse, a variety of coincidences would occur, even the most thorough of preparations would easily crumble, and you would be forced to give up before you realized it. Happiness was a frightening thing. People could be promoted and transferred to some remote area because human beings could not fight happiness. And the Zashiki Warashi could manipulate that to alter things to her satisfaction. And it didn¡¯t matter if she was aware of it or not. To stand on the same field as her, you would need a powerful bond on the level of knowing her since before your birth and you would need to be able to sniff out her every habit. But that probably wasn¡¯t our role. It was a high school boy in Noukotsu Village who held the key. Sadly enough. The young lady was thinking about all this too. ¡°I doubt that unstable Ver. 39 can intercept us quite that accurately¡­¡± ¡°You understand, don¡¯t you? If the Red creates this worst case scenario and then falls apart, no one knows what will happen afterwards. It¡¯s like having a nuclear sub sneak up into our front yard and then have a meltdown before firing its ballistic missile.¡± ¡°So there will still be damage, but we won¡¯t be able to predict what it will be?¡± asked the Sunekosuri. I sighed. ¡°It¡¯s a nuisance either way.¡± ¡°Is it possible that the rupture of destiny will cause space-time to collapse?¡± ¡°Ask the Venom woman to deal with those apocalyptic simulations. But to put it another way, the entire world is currently under the Ver. 39¡¯s influence. It¡¯s just like this mobile base. If all the engines started spewing flames, how much chance would we have of landing safely?¡± Yes, we couldn¡¯t just defeat the source of the problem. This wasn¡¯t that simple. Even if the visible problem was financial, we couldn¡¯t take it lightly. The Zashiki Warashi had the power to control destiny, so our opponent here was the world¡¯s destiny. Not of Japan, or of Asia, or of Earth, or of the Solar System, or of the Milky Way. Of the entire giant framework called ¡°the world¡±. This may have even gone beyond the level of the creator gods. Was this really something that humans could handle? A decline always awaited the prosperous. That was the scope on which the fangs and claws of destiny worked. How many beings could oppose that entire irreversible stream? This world even had plenty of gods who had been entirely forgotten. ¡°You are not a part of Hyakki Yakou and sometimes have a more flexible mindset because of it, so I have one question for you.¡± ¡°Ask away.¡± ¡°What can we do?¡± That question held great meaning. I shrugged and gave a simple answer. ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t look like there are any obstacles you need to remove. I thought some idiot would show up to attack Hyakki Yakou since you were weakened by the Aoandon¡¯s group and because they could use Majina¡¯s zombie outbreak as a justification, but there¡¯s no sign of it.¡± ¡°For better or for worse, that would be thanks to the Aoandon. She searched out all of the people who ¡®wanted a change¡¯ around the country. In other words, she gathered together all of the dangerous elements and allowed us to defeat them all at once. Those who refused her invitation or that she decided were not worth inviting probably don¡¯t have it in them to bare their fangs against Hyakki Yakou now.¡± ¡°In that case, our only opponent is the Red herself.¡± ¡°That brings us back to the previous problem. There is an invisible forest around Noukotsu Village that will lead anyone astray. That nearly impossible labyrinth will block our way by seamlessly manipulating the entire world¡¯s destiny. What can we do about that?¡± Hmm. It isn¡¯t like a professional to admit this. But when faced with this direct threat, it isn¡¯t like me to avoid the issue in the name of pride or honor. I guess I have to say it. ¡°You often hear people irresponsibly saying they¡¯re rooting for a couple¡¯s love, but I honestly don¡¯t know if that¡¯s ever actually helped.¡± That¡¯s what this came down to. Scarily enough, the future of seven billion people was riding on the decision of a lovey-dovey couple. Part 5 (3rd person) After completing her meeting with Hishigami Mai, the girl in a purple kimono, Hafuri, left her seat in the great hall once more. She kept her Mamedanuki body double by her side for the bare minimum of protection as she walked down the kind of hallway found in an old house of ancient Kyoto, but she finally turned to the Mamedanuki. ¡°You stay here.¡± ¡°Young lady.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Hyakki Yakou¡¯s techniques are solid. More importantly, this is family.¡± After the battle with Majina ended and the mourning period was over, the girl had changed into a brighter colored kimono once more. The stuffed animal-like Mamedanuki sounded worried, but Hafuri smiled faintly and placed her hand on the entrance. It was more of a gate than a door. Even without a lock, its pure thickness and weight made the wooden door difficult to open. Its design was as complex as parquetry and it would strictly prevent anyone aside from Hafuri and a very few caretakers to open it. Something flowed out from the darkness beyond the slight crack that opened. That alone changed the air. The atmosphere seemed to swallow her up. Or perhaps it could be called the age itself. Even the concepts of time and distance were cut off by that deep darkness to preserve its isolation. She gathered all her strength in her small hands and the gate easily opened as if its thickness and weight were a lie. Two tearooms were contained within. The one Hafuri stepped into had wooden flooring and the other had a tatami mat floor. The two tearooms were separated by a sturdy lattice of peach wood which was known to destroy evil and the only way between the two was a small door that even a child like Hafuri would need to duck down to pass through. It was a traditional Japanese-style cell. ¡°Mother,¡± she called out. The candles in the candlesticks faintly illuminated her skin in the darkness. She did not hear the rustling of clothing or even any breathing. Nevertheless, someone was there. She had glossy black hair cut at the shoulder, much like Hafuri. She had smooth skin that was far from healthy but required far more than just the word ¡°alluring¡± to describe. Beyond the veil that thinly covered half her face, two differently-colored and unblinking eyes pierced Hafuri. The woman¡¯s white yukata was falling from her shoulders and she made no attempt to hide her ample bodylines as she sat with her legs turned to one side. She looked like a nonliving ornament or like a hallucination. The head-mounted display around her neck had a horribly modern streamlined shape that seemed to stand out within the fog. This was the Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi. This was Mei. This was the girl¡¯s mother. ¡°How have you been?¡± The sexy Youkai did not respond to Hafuri¡¯s question. The girl herself had trouble deciding what she wanted here. Imprisonment in this evil-destroying cell was a last ditch attempt to suppress the Ver. 40¡¯s power to change the world¡¯s destiny, but she did not even know if that was the right thing to do. There was no precedent for this. The Venom Clairvoyant, who could see into the gaps between every world regardless of causality and the timeline, had given her approval, but even she had no way of proving the accuracy of what she saw. It was possible even she was being guided and manipulated. Mei said nothing. She did not utter a single word, she did not stir, and it was suspect whether she was even breathing or her heart was beating. Without her caretakers, she would likely have a thin layer of dust on her hair and shoulders. It was as if her controller had been lost with the death of a certain man. And that was why Hafuri began to think she was really just speaking with herself here. ¡°We may have destroyed what you were working toward.¡± Words which would never receive a response escaped the girl¡¯s lips like the starting few drops of a downpour. ¡°And that may have brought the very world you feared.¡± Mei did not move. She was as motionless as an abandoned toy or doll. ¡°But we do not regret our choice.¡± Nevertheless, the words did not stop. That isolated cell was filled with a wordless pressure, a silent headwind, and an incredible sense of futility, but Hafuri spoke to shake off that weight of her own creation. ¡°There may be nothing we can do and we may be approaching the peak of foolishness by sitting idly by and leaving the fate of the world in the hands of an amateur high school boy, but we will remain proud that we opposed your attempt to solve this with an all-encompassing zombie outbreak. I may never have learned anything from you ¨C no, from you two ¨C directly, but I have learned one thing.¡± She calmly looked directly into those unfocused eyes. She persistently looked directly into those pupils that simply reflected the candlelight. ¡°I am a foolish and powerless half-breed,¡± clearly stated Hafuri. ¡°I lack the immortal body of a Youkai and I may lack the proper blood needed to rule as this organization¡¯s human leader.¡± She placed a hand on her flat chest. She accepted, pondered, and spoke the fact that had shaken her very existence. ¡°But that is why I will make this foolish attempt once more in the very, very end. We have passed the crossroads and there are no theoretical means left, but I will still struggle. The Hyakki Yakou that currently exists, the Hyakki Yakou that you wished for, and the Hyakki Yakou I wish to create may all be different things, but that is why I will show you the Hyakki Yakou I brought about on my own, not one that was given to me.¡± She had said all she needed to say. She had finished facing herself, rather than her mother. She had gathered her feelings. She bowed and prepared to turn her back on the evil-destroying peach lattice, but then something unbelievable happened. The Zashiki Warashi in a white yukata moved. ¡°¡­¡± It was a small thing. As Mei sat near the lattice, she slowly brought her right hand to her chest and tapped the head-mounted display with her index finger. But even that miniscule change was enough of a shock to erase all thought from Hafuri¡¯s mind. From a causality viewpoint, this was as ridiculous as the earth suddenly reversing direction in its orbit around the sun. It took her more than a minute before she finally moved her numbed tongue and spoke a new word. ¡°Moth¡­er¡­?¡± That was all. During battle, this current leader of Hyakki Yakou could meet one hundred situations with one hundred strategies and plan out her possibilities one hundred steps in advance, but that one word was all she could produce with the full use of her mind. Mei of course did not reply. She only tapped the device around her neck once more. (That thing¡­?) Hafuri reached a small hand into the cell. The gaps in the lattice were large enough that a child like her could fit her head through if she wanted to. Mei put up no resistance as Hafuri gently removed the head-mounted display and took it. She toyed with the device that retained her mother¡¯s warmth and the scent of her hair. It had no cables connected to it, but did that mean it was a standalone device or did Mei have a wireless video player in her yukata? It was hard to tell, but Hafuri finally placed the display over her eyes, fixed it in place with the multiple rubber straps, felt for the button near her temple, and pressed it. The concept of a screen did not really apply. From Hafuri¡¯s point of view, it looked like a life-sized human being was standing in the darkness in front of her. And that person was Majina, the leader of the old Hyakki Yakou. ¡°¡­!?¡± ¡°Hi, Hafuri. This is probably a bit of a shock since Mei doesn¡¯t speak much, so did I surprise you? It¡¯s your dad.¡± Her tall father had his long hair tied back. That man had swapped an eye with his wife Mei. With his anachronistic dress clothes and monocle, he seemed to have stepped out of a painting of old nobility. He was not looking at Hafuri as he spoke. This was nothing more than a recording of the past. And yet young Hafuri was unable to escape his eyes. Was that because she had yet to rid herself of her fear for this powerful enemy? Or did it come from some other emotion? ¡°If you¡¯ve come across this footage¡­or rather, if you¡¯ve managed to make physical contact with Mei who can distort the world, I should assume I¡¯m no longer with you. It¡¯s not a future I like to think about, but it¡¯s also something of a complicated feeling. Maybe this is how a father feels when he sees his daughter leaving him.¡± The past image of Majina continued speaking to his shocked daughter. ¡°Always prepare for the worst. Make sure a path to resisting the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi remains no matter how this ends. Hafuri, this may qualify as meddling since you¡¯ve already left me, but allow me to give you a parting gift as we head in different directions at this fork in the road. It is up to you whether you will actually use it or not.¡± It happened suddenly. Light entered the darkness filling her vision. It revealed a wall. It was likely somewhere in Mikuchi-sama, that pit in Mt. Boseki that had acted as the center of the zombie outbreak. The wall of a crude wooden shack was covered in so much old Japanese paper that she could not see the color of the wall behind it. The papers all contained the greatest secrets of Hyakki Yakou. Some were diagrams, some were ritual prayers, and some were patterns. But this was not just a random arrangement. The massive amount of information had a point in common. ¡°The Zashiki Warashi¡­?¡± ¡°Let me be blunt. If you use these 108 secret rituals to their fullest, you will arrive at the same zombie outbreak as I did. But you rejected that. In that case, let¡¯s cut the conditions in half. You need to use the same material I had, yet walk a different path than me. This contains a method of amplifying a Zashiki Warashi¡¯s power and a method of intentionally breaking the balance of a half-Zashiki Warashi like you. There are methods of killing Youkai and methods of using them. How you use this is up to you. Please complete a recipe that I could not think of.¡± Hafuri was still overwhelmed, but Majina winked at her as if he were enjoying himself. ¡°My only useless advice is to keep an eye on Jinnai Shinobu-kun in the Intellectual Village named Noukotsu Village. I can¡¯t imagine I would lose, but if it does happen, it wouldn¡¯t be from a clash with the greatest force of the pre-established harmony like the Top 5. It would have to be a surprise element like him. Does that ring a bell? If so, then rely on that. He can get along with any Youkai. As a half-Youkai, it¡¯s up to you who you want to rely on, but I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll help you.¡± Majina then cut himself off with a truly powerful ¡°but¡±. His next words were set up by that denial. Hafuri found herself putting up her guard as her father made a solemn prophecy. ¡°Do not take that Youkai-attracting side of him lightly. Grow careless and you too will fall victim to it. Now, I want to believe in Jinnai Shinobu-kun¡¯s conscience, but¡­no, no. I just can¡¯t carelessly place my trust in him here!!¡± ¡°¡­¡± Hafuri fell silent, but the past image of Majina did not stop. ¡°I brought Mei to meet you during the battle with the Aoandon, but she saw Shinobu-kun then too, didn¡¯t she? Oh, I¡¯m worried! I¡¯m so worried! He¡¯s apparently completely won over the red one, so I have no proof the exact same logic won¡¯t work on the white one! And a half-Zashiki Warashi like you is in danger too!! Oh, I just can¡¯t imagine I would die, but if that does happen, it would make sense that Mei would leave Hyakki Yakou. But if you¡¯re viewing this video, it means some kind of powerful anchor kept her in place. The odds are pretty good it would be Shinobu-kun¡¯s ability to attract Youkai that would keep her from wandering off and that means my death brings the serious possibility of both Mei and Hafuri falling for him. That¡¯s all the more reason I can¡¯t afford to lose!!¡± ¡°¡­¡± Hafuri felt like her mouth had become a small triangle. ¡°Hey¡­hey, Hafuri? Can I ask you something? Mei would definitely punch me if she heard this, so I can¡¯t be too open about it¡­but in ¡®that world¡¯ where I¡¯ve died, Mei isn¡¯t showing any odd signs, is she? No! I trust my wife!! But! But!! If you are seeing any hints of change, then find any time you can while dealing with the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi and use it to stop Mei!! A-ahem. Listen, Hafuri. This isn¡¯t just the vain struggles of a pathetic man who¡¯s having his wife and daughter stolen at the same time. We¡¯re talking about the Ver. 39 ¨C that is, the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi ¨C and the completed Ver. 40. Oh, and you, the half-Zashiki Warashi with unknown hidden possibilities. It would be very, very bad if all three of you fall into Shinobu-kun¡¯s hands. Far too much of the world¡¯s causality would be concentrated in a single point! To make sure he doesn¡¯t become the next Alexander the Great¡­yes, to protect the future of the mankind, you need to protect Mei!! Please!!¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± Hafuri briefly thought about forgetting everything, tearing the device from her head, and throwing it to the floor, but then a hand reached in from outside her vision. It belonged to the Hyakki Yakou Special-Made Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi. That is, to her mother. Hafuri removed the head-mounted display as if to shake off the past image of Majina that continued to cling regretfully to her and she found Mei¡¯s hand reaching out through the peach lattice. That hand was preventing her from destroying the device, but it was somehow reminiscent of a mother rubbing her child¡¯s head. Hafuri stared blankly for a moment but finally understood. (That¡¯s¡­that¡¯s right¡­ Even this may be a part of the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi¡¯s ruinous destiny.) She would have destroyed that valuable information. She would have closed that path. No grand violence was necessary. Slight coincidences would coincide and bits of bad luck would pass by at the worst possible moment. That was why this kind of message had reached Hafuri in her current mental state. It may have looked comical at first glance, but impulsively slamming the device to the floor might have meant losing the 108 secret rituals of the old Hyakki Yakou. Mei had noticed and stopped her daughter. Even as the evil-destroying peach restrained her power, she was resisting the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. That was the gap between the completed Ver. 40 and a half-Zashiki Warashi like Hafuri. It was an overwhelming difference. Even after losing her beloved, losing her very raison d''¨ºtre, and being weakened by the current Hyakki Yakou¡¯s greatest seal, she remained on the side of protection. The actual action may have been small, but not even Hafuri could imagine how many threads of fate she had needed to slip past to reach that point. That was a Zashiki Warashi. They had no fierce fangs or claws, but they could perceive and control destiny to bring great fortune. They sought no reason or reward from that fortune. ¡°¡­¡± Mei¡¯s lips parted slightly. The Ver. 40 did not even need to breathe, so this had to be to communicate her thoughts. Hafuri had not heard her voice since bringing her here. In fact, Hafuri had not heard her voice from the day she had been born. Hafuri focused on Mei¡¯s lips so she could read the words on them even without an actual voice, but Mei did produce a scratchy voice. ¡°¡­What kind of person is this Jinnai Shinobu? I¡¯m a little curious¡­¡± A distant look entered Hafuri¡¯s eyes as she realized how much she needed to brace herself. Shared Memory 3 ¡°Hey, Good-for-Nothing.¡± By about the second year of middle school, Shinobu had stopped hiding his words. Instead of the Buddhist altar room, they had been inside the room newly prepared for the Zashiki Warashi. (Needless to say, this was because that Indoor Youkai had gathered so much manga, games, and other entertainment items that they were hesitant to invite their relatives and the Buddhist priest to the memorial services.) They had been speaking while playing a dance game using a special mat controller. The controller had rows of foot buttons lined up like a certain foreign party game and multiple people were meant to step on them. This had naturally created a troublesome problem. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Those things swaying in front of my eyes are in the way. They¡¯re distracting me when we¡¯re supposed to be working together! Sometimes they nearly slap me, so do something about those rampaging 98 cm!!¡± ¡°Are you not even trying to hide your vulgar side anymore!?¡± ¡°The only thing that needs to be hidden right now are your breasts! At least do something during these harder dances. They¡¯re right there on the verge of popping out, and that¡¯s worst of all!! I can¡¯t focus!! If you¡¯re gonna do that, you might as well just pull the whole things out!!¡± Shinobu had dyed his hair blond, perhaps to copy his Uncle Hayabusa during his high school days, and the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s heart trembled as he shouted at her. Was this okay? Was this really okay? What had happened to the Jinnai Shinobu whose eyes had sparkled as he said he could get along with any Youkai!? Could she really allow a rebellious phase like this!? She was frightened by how quickly humans changed because they were bound by their lifespans. ¡°M-mwohh-mwohhhhhhh¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯ve changed.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear that from you!!¡± ¡°You used to be so considerate and caring, so how did you end up like this? You get noticeably more good-for-nothing every day and you¡¯re only getting any better at pointless skills like online gaming and trolling message boards. I mean, your entire life cycle is messed up. How many potato chips do you go through in a day? It only works because you¡¯re a Youkai. If you were a normal human, you¡¯d be one of those unbelievably fat foreigners who need to be rescued because they can¡¯t leave their room.¡± The Zashiki Warashi had only turned out that way because Shinobu had taught her about human entertainment, but he had not noticed his own influence on her. ¡°Yes, yes. But this is fine. Playing is part of a Zashiki Warashi¡¯s job.¡± ¡°That¡¯s one hell of an argument. And it¡¯s poison for me since I have to start thinking about entrance exams soon.¡± Their feet had not missed a beat even as they spoke to each other. While the Zashiki Warashi had worked hard at this every day (so she could play with Shinobu), Shinobu had simply been good at it. The game came down to how one used their feet, but he would occasionally ignore the example by using his hands, turn his back to the screen while maintaining perfect timing, or do something reminiscent of breakdancing. ¡°Oh, right. Hey, Zashiki Warashi?¡± ¡°What? I¡¯m not returning your smartwatch yet, if that¡¯s what it¡¯s about.¡± ¡°Give it back! That thing¡¯s popularity is gonna be shorter-lived than a cicada, so I need to show it off to my class while I can! Oh, but that¡¯s not what I was going to say.¡± ¡°Then what is it?¡± ¡°Well.¡± They had both looked to the screen while side by side. ¡°I¡¯ve started going out with Nagisa.¡± A beeping much like a quiz show¡¯s ¡°wrong answer¡± buzzer had played from the flat screen TV. ¡°You idiot! That was the entrance to the bonus zone! Why would you miss that!?¡± ¡°Eh? Oh, sorry, Shinobu.¡± The Zashiki Warashi had slowly gotten back on track, but her movements had lacked their previous edge. ¡°Get it together. I¡¯m helping you unlock the hidden character for your account, so we need to get over eighty thousand points. I don¡¯t want to repeat the same song again and again.¡± Shinobu had complained, but the Zashiki Warashi had not been listening. In fact, her head had been filled with question marks. She had been forcibly trying to verbalize something she had not understood. Huh? Why do I feel hurt by that? Why is there a hole in my chest? In fact, was there even something in my chest to get a hole in it? Volume 9, 4: Be Dyed in [email protected]??? Volume 9, Chapter 4: Be Dyed in [email protected]??? Part 1 (Jinnai Shinobu) Let¡¯s go back over the conditions. There are apparently two broad categories of Zashiki Warashi. The normal Zashiki Warashi that preferred to wear a white kimono protected one¡¯s assets and happiness. The dangerous Zashiki Warashi that preferred to wear a red kimono brought bankruptcy and ruin. It isn¡¯t actually known whether they are entirely different species or if the clothing they wear changes depending on certain conditions and the timing. When it comes to Zashiki Warashi, there are even theories that they settle down alone and theories that they do so as twins. Regardless, our Yukari preferred to wear a red yukata. That meant she was the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. Normally, that would only wipe out the family from food poisoning or a fire. It would never destroy a country or the world. I think Majina had said the Jinnai family only lasted more than a century with the Zashiki Warashi with us because of our great fortune and assets. We had earned more than was being taken away. We had handled that misfortune just fine. Our ancestors had been monsters in their own way. But that would not last forever. For one thing, Yukari was not just ¡°any old¡± Zashiki Warashi. She was the Hyakki Yakou Prototype Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi. She was a special Zashiki Warashi that had been given the ability to distort the world¡¯s destiny not just by Hyakki Yakou but by techniques they considered to be lost. I had no idea why the Hyakki Yakou of the time had wanted to give something as dreadful as the Ver. 39 to Yukari who had been ¡°red¡± from the beginning. She may have been the only sample they had to work with and they may have wanted to use the power of destiny for military purposes by intentionally spreading that ruinous power. That didn¡¯t matter now. That combination had led to the current unbelievable situation. The world would end if we didn¡¯t do something. The multiple credit rating agencies and the world¡¯s inability to measure the value of government bonds was one way that would happen, but it was not the only way. Unless we dealt with this at a fundamental level, fixing the global economy would solve nothing. Ruin would arrive again in some other form and it would keep happening until it worked. ¡°So what exactly are you going to do?¡± The Nekomata approached while I was looking up at the moon and thinking on the porch. ¡°You¡¯re true to your desires, so I doubt you would be satisfied with a beautifully platonic ending of waiting for the end in your lover¡¯s arms as the world falls to ruin around you. There¡¯s still a lot you want to do, so what will you do about it?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t mess with the Ver. 39.¡± I quietly answered and my voice vanished into the night air that was a little chilly in just a hoodie and shirt. ¡°Not even the current Hyakki Yakou understands it, so an amateur high school boy can¡¯t mess with it. The Ver. 40¡­Mei, was it? Anyway, things might be different if we had her body to look at, but even that wouldn¡¯t help much. Besides, Majina was enough of an expert to create the Ver. 40 from scratch and even he threw in the towel. I doubt we can do anything on that front. I expect she¡¯d either lose control of destiny or die of a ruptured organ. Both of those options are unacceptable.¡± ¡°Then you¡¯re going with the other condition?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± I moved my eyes from the moon to the Nekomata. ¡°The dangerous Zashiki Warashi prefers red. Doesn¡¯t it seem like we could figure something out about that rather than grasping at a cloud with the Ver. 39?¡± ¡°Does it? They both seem unlikely to me. Besides, what does it mean to prefer a color? If the Zashiki Warashi announces she¡¯ll start wearing a white yukata from now on, will all this chaos settle down? Does she just have to avoid red day after day? I seriously doubt it¡¯s that simple.¡± Yes. She had to switch from red to white. The issue of preference was clear, but changing it would be difficult. If a child hated carrots, it was still possible to make him eat them. You could discipline him until he would eat every last one. Or you could chop them up and mix them in with fried rice or Salisbury steak to get him to eat them without knowing it. But wouldn¡¯t it be far more difficult to actually making him like carrots? In fact, was it even possible? You often hear people say their tastes changed when they grew up, but that would be entirely up to coincidence. I didn¡¯t think it was something you could intentionally cause by human means. So if I was trying to distort that, there was only one way to describe it. ¡°Hey, Nekomata.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°I think I¡¯m about to do the worst thing in the world. This might even be something Majina avoided, so I don¡¯t care if you look down on me for it.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°But don¡¯t stop me.¡± I spoke quietly yet powerfully to the silent Nekomata. ¡°If she¡¯ll walk by my side and if there¡¯s still a way of doing everything I still want to do, then I¡¯ll do anything. I¡¯ve finally found something that makes me think my principles can come second. So don¡¯t you stop me. I¡¯ll never give up before doing this.¡± I heard a sigh that almost sounded like a laugh. The cat couldn¡¯t form facial expressions, though. ¡°Then do what you want. I haven¡¯t exactly lived a praiseworthy life, but I have no intention of regretting it.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Saying it and having someone else hear it seemed to have cleared things up for me. What I was doing here was kind of like rejecting my past actions. I had run across many different Packages, analyzed their structure, determined the weakness of the Youkai being used, and turned everything around at the last second. I had even defeated Majina, the leader of the old Hyakki Yakou, like that, but now I would be doing the opposite. That is¡­ ¡°I will create a Package.¡± I said it. I finally said it. ¡°I will personally create a Package that suppresses that dangerous trait so I can walk alongside the girl I¡¯ve fallen for.¡± The Nekomata did not curl up on the spot. She continued standing tall and looked up into my eyes. She was being courteous because this was not something to listen to while curled up. ¡°Oh? So this time your love isn¡¯t shallow enough to joke about?¡± ¡°Well, I was always this serious at the time¡­¡± ¡°But you always ran off. Whenever you sensed you couldn¡¯t deal with it any longer, you had a habit of backing out. That¡¯s how you preserved your peaceful life rather than going for something akin to a heroic double suicide. You can¡¯t deny that.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°But something was different this time. You can actually face what you want to protect, even if that means burning away your own body. I suppose you could say the eggshell has finally fallen away from the chick¡¯s tail.¡± Perhaps so. That may have been true. I had no real proof, but I had a feeling that if the world tried to kill the Zashiki Warashi to protect its peace, I would not have hesitated to become a being that could destroy the world. And this wasn¡¯t just an adolescent delusion. I really did think that might be the case. ¡°So where are you going to start? We¡¯re talking about a criminal Package here. No matter how hard you work, you can¡¯t do that on your own. You need dozens if not hundreds of people, specialized knowledge, and a Youkai to build into it. The Ver. 39 power is connected to the whole world, so you¡¯ll have to keep this quiet. You can¡¯t have someone slipping in a backdoor after all. You were already planning to get me involved, weren¡¯t you? But who else are you going to use?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious?¡± I breathed in and looked up to the moon again. ¡°I¡¯ll use everything I can.¡± Part 2 (Jinnai Shinobu) The answer had been in front of my eyes all along. It had been hanging in front of my eyes since ten years ago. ¡°This construction paper?¡± All of the Youkai except the Zashiki Warashi were gathered in the living room and I showed them the child¡¯s drawing I had dug from the back of the closet. It was the original of what I had on my smartphone. Humans and Youkai were smiling in a circle and the words ¡°We¡¯re All Friends¡± were written over their heads. But that wasn¡¯t the point. That wasn¡¯t what I wanted to take from it. ¡°Look at this, everyone.¡± I pointed at one point on the edge of the construction paper. Yes. ¡°Um, is that the sun?¡± The Succubus looked puzzled. It was just a spiraling circle drawn in red crayon, so she looked skeptical that it could really help solve this worldwide problem. But it could. It was the key to the one and only right answer. ¡°That¡¯s right. Think about it. The sun is red. I think any kid would draw it that way, but it¡¯s weird if you think about it. If you look up in the blue sky, you aren¡¯t going to see a red sun there.¡± ¡°Um¡­¡± ¡°But if you pass a kid a crayon, they¡¯ll all use red to draw the sun. Why? Because they aren¡¯t looking up at the sun to check on the color. It¡¯s based on the image in their head. It¡¯s a mass of fire, so of course they think it¡¯s red. They redraw the actual scene with their imaginary color. That¡¯s why they picture the sun as red despite what the actual scene shows.¡± Some of them seemed to be gradually catching on. Marguerite the Witch cut in while rubbing her chin with her slender fingers. ¡°Those are called memory colors, right? The concept is widely used in the field of magic. Fire is red, water is blue, wind is yellow, and earth is green. By coloring your cards and weapons accordingly, you can picture things more easily during certain rituals.¡± ¡°The Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi prefers to wear a red yukata. We can¡¯t change that part. After all, she¡¯s been doing that for centuries and it¡¯s indelibly stained her heart. Confiscating her yukata and throwing white clothes at her wouldn¡¯t change the fact that she loves red, so it wouldn¡¯t free her from the bonds of the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi.¡± ¡°So you¡¯ll use memory colors?¡± asked the Aburatori. ¡°You¡¯ll have her focus on the color in her head over the color she sees? Wait, do you mean¡­!?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I confirmed. ¡°What if the kimono she grabs, thinking its red, is actually white?¡± Everyone there gasped. It wasn¡¯t an issue of her body. We were talking about her mind, about her perception. This was the worst possible method, but it was the only way of overcoming this incident without anyone dying. ¡°We¡¯ll overturn her perception of color. We¡¯ll turn red to white and white to red.¡± If this didn¡¯t get through to them it was all over. If they said it was unrealistic, unusable, inhumane, or cruel and then rejected it, the path would close off. After all, I didn¡¯t have the skills or manpower to do this. Convincing everyone was absolutely necessary to save the Zashiki Warashi. But that was exactly why I had to tell them this. If I hid anything, I would never gain their trust, so I could only lay out everything I had and pray! I was no hero. I was saying I would be dragging them all into a criminal Package! ¡°With a Package like that, she would think she loved red while actually always choosing white! If it worked, she would unwittingly become a white Zashiki Warashi!¡± Silence followed. Had it worked? Had it? I had thought and thought until my mind boiled over to come up with this answer, but what would they think of it? It was absurd and silly, but had I built up enough trust for them to go along with it? Or would they flinch back at the thought of messing with her mind. And then¡­ ¡°Sounds good to me.¡± The Aoandon spoke up slowly without thinking too deeply about it. ¡°I honestly thought my mama would end up being that human girl named Kotemitsu, but that¡¯s your decision, papa. And I guess you could switch between a Youkai mama and a human mama. But based on what I¡¯ve heard, it makes sense. If a Zashiki Warashi¡¯s traits hinge on red or white, guiding her to choose the color of her own free will isn¡¯t a bad idea. If we were talking about a human, I could just use this.¡± She gently stroked the single horn growing from her forehead. Its phosphorescent light provided a form of hypnosis. This wasn¡¯t an issue of good or evil and she was not empathizing with me. To her, manipulating someone else to one¡¯s own end may have been a perfectly normal thing to do. It also might have helped that she herself was bound by the color blue. ¡°My thoughts on it are complex, but I can¡¯t come up with a better idea,¡± said the Furutsubaki (Small). ¡°And shooting down every idea while just sitting around won¡¯t improve the situation. The only other options are to wait for the world to fall apart or to have someone else kill the Zashiki Warashi and I flatly refuse to do either of those. In that case, I can only bet on Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s suggestion.¡± ¡°I call myself a guardian deity of children. A Zashiki Warashi is a collection of the young children killed during famines, so I don¡¯t like the sound of treating her so crudely. But if you are shorthanded, just ask.¡± Then the Aburatori gave his approval. The Nekomata used her back paw to scratch her ear while sitting on the tea table. ¡°I¡¯m more worried about the old woman than the Zashiki Warashi. She hasn¡¯t had any time to rest since this unnatural age of mass consumption started. I¡¯m willing to help if it will bring an end to that.¡± ¡°I would love to have a chance to learn about Eastern Packages rather than Western magic,¡± said Marguerite the Witch. ¡°Plus, I¡¯m nearly a refugee here, so I wouldn¡¯t want to lose this home.¡± ¡°Well, you are my current master right now,¡± said the Succubus. ¡°With our contract, I won¡¯t stop you if you¡¯re willing to risk your life on this. A demon will continue obeying as long as it continues to benefit her.¡± The Yuki Onna was the last to speak. ¡°I don¡¯t really like doing anything to help that filthy Youkai¡­¡± The deadly Youkai sighed as everyone focused on her. A diamond dust atmosphere glittered around her and she continued as if having given up. ¡°But abandoning her here would probably greatly change Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s nature. It is truly unfortunate, but I do need to keep him in the form I want him¡­¡± That settled it. If we got down to who benefitted the most from this, it would of course be the Zashiki Warashi and me, but they would stick with me regardless. Creating a criminal Package was wrong. No matter what it actually did, the simple idea of ¡°using¡± a Youkai could easily have filled them with disgust. I could only bow my head to these idiots for gong along with my selfishness. ¡°Sorry, everyone!!¡± ¡°You need to proudly thank us instead. You¡¯re going to take on the world for the girl you love, right? What about that requires curling up in shame?¡± The Aburatori quickly corrected me. When I raised my head, the Aoandon cut in. ¡°But what will you do? When it comes to knowledge and techniques, I would know a lot about Eastern stuff and Marguerite would probably know a lot about Western magic, but you¡¯ll need more than that to build a Package. You need to observe the Youkai involved, accurately grasp her legends, distort or enlarge a portion to match your objective, build in symbols with specific physical items, and spiritually link them together. That requires at least a few dozen people and at most a few hundred. Do you have anyone you can rely on?¡± ¡°Sorry, but can you draw up the plans for the Package I want? I want to start recruiting help after we have the preliminary calculations done.¡± ¡°Fine, but where are you going to find these people? Surely you don¡¯t mean the students at your school.¡± I could not help but smile at that. For the time being, I would cast aside all my principles and I could violate any taboo if it meant saving the world from this ruinous destiny and walking alongside the Zashiki Warashi once more. So I said it. ¡°How many Youkai do you think I¡¯ve dealt with in the past?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t mean¡­?¡± ¡°I do.¡± I had made up my mind. I would use everything I could. Giving up before I¡¯d even tried, abandoning her in this crisis she was entirely unaware of, and then regretting it was the one thing I couldn¡¯t do. So I would bear any sin and I would accept any punishment. I couldn¡¯t hold up the pure goal of saving the Zashiki Warashi to dull people¡¯s conscience and guilt as I dragged them into something as crazy as a criminal Package while remaining clean myself. I placed my left hand on my right shoulder and rotated my dominant arm. And I suggested something I really should not have let myself do. ¡°Youkai seem to like me, so I¡¯m gonna intentionally use that for once.¡± Part 3 (3rd person) ¡ª¡ªIt began inside Noukotsu Village. ¡°Hey, Umbrella, a letter just arrived.¡± ¡°Hm? It¡¯s for the Youkai directly rather than our master or his mother? How rare. Let¡¯s take a look.¡± ¡°Oh, my. Do you think we should call for the Mayoiga too?¡± ¡°Yes, Lantern. Let¡¯s call the new Fuguruma-Youbi as well. This is a good opportunity for her to get to know everyone.¡± ¡°The Jatai and Kosode-no-Te are saying they want in too.¡± ¡ª¡ªAn old-fashioned postcard with an attached reply card arrived at a distant seaside town. ¡°H-hey, that¡¯s a Shichinin Misaki, isn¡¯t it? Don¡¯t you die if you meet one¡­?¡± ¡°Shh! It looks like they¡¯re distracted by something¡­ Are they reading a letter? Anyway, we need to run away!! Don¡¯t give up hope! This¡¯ll work out somehow!!¡± ¡°But there¡¯s a mermaid over there. Don¡¯t you gain immortality by eating their meat!?¡± ¡°And how are you going to cook up a mermaid that¡¯s immune to physical attacks? And let me tell you something more fundamental: The people who get greedy at times like this are the ones who die! So run!!¡± ¡ª¡ªAnother postcard arrived at the even more distant land of Okinawa. A Shisa held it in his mouth while running to a familiar Kijimuna for advice. ¡°I am Shisa. That Jinnai Shinobu guy is in trouble. What should we do?¡± ¡°¡­ (sway sway)¡± The lion-like decoration and the Chinese banyan tree continued speaking like that. ¡ª¡ªA middle-aged man gave a postcard a concerned look at the tollbooth for the Four Mountains Junction where multiple highways intersected. ¡°A postcard for Zenmetsu Village? Are you serious? This thing isn¡¯t cursed, is it?¡± When he looked away for just a moment, a snake about as thick as a pinky finger grabbed the postcard in its mouth and carried it away. It was a Toubyou. They were hiding all around and quietly discussing the postcard, but the middle-aged man was oblivious. ¡°What, is that thing really cursed!? I¡¯ve got the night shift coming up, you know!?¡± ¡ª¡ªA few postcards were delivered via the special casino district of Goldmine Island. The first one was sent to the Gold Crane Inn that Jinnai Shinobu had stayed at. ¡°Oh? A postcard from a guest. How unusual. And it even comes with a gift.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ A Zashiki Warashi? Isn¡¯t that like a relative of ours?¡± ¡°It¡¯s more like they¡¯re the main family and we¡¯re the branch families.¡± They were a Notabariko, an Usuhiki Warashi, and a Kura Bokko. However, there was actually another Usuhiki Warashi on Goldmine Island. ¡°Kyah kyah¡î¡± Her mini-yukata was worn off the shoulders, so the girl seemed to be wearing a tube top dress as she ran around behind the casinos. She held an identical postcard in her hand. One of the postcards was sent from Goldmine Island to the United States via airmail. Hasukawa Yumi frowned when she saw the strange postcard that slipped through the gaps in the naval blockade. (To think he would use the world¡¯s top intelligence agency to relay a message¡­) It was being sent to the Kechibi, Ubume, and Amanojaku at the base of the Package they had used. If a Package was being made to interfere with the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi that was causing the global chaos, the CIA had a chance to add in whatever they might want. Hasukawa Yumi thought for a moment about where to send the postcard. (But unfortunately, I owe him one.) She sighed just once. She then erased a few records and sent the postcard along while making sure it would not be seen by Sid Clouds, her boss in name only. Lastly, one was transferred to Shikoku from Kyushu¡¯s Goldmine Island. ¡°Tanuki, Fox, Badger. You have a postcard.¡± When the small girl called for them, three Youkai who looked like stuffed animals rushed out. It was a commonplace ready-built house, but a span of two generations from grandchild to grandmother lived there and it even had its own gardener, nurse, and bodyguard. ¡°Ohh, it¡¯s from Jinnai Shinobu! I haven¡¯t heard that name in a while!¡± ¡°My, my. But based on what it says, we can¡¯t just rejoice about this¡­¡± ¡°Not a problem. I didn¡¯t like being indebted to him anyway, so we should actually be thankful for this chance to repay him!¡± ¡ª¡ªA postcard arrived for Ranzono Sachi at her juvenile hall. When she read the text with the small centipede that crawled in through the gaps in the bars, her friend spoke to her. ¡°Sorry, Sachi. I know you¡¯ll be lonely, but the time has come to repay that boy for what he did for us.¡± ¡°Hee hee. Even the picture books talk about your concept of repaying debts, so you don¡¯t have to be so formal. More importantly, why not bring the others? The Tsuchigumo, the Nue, the Gama, the Uwabami, the Tesso, the Takebunkani, the Sarugami, and the Baku¡­ Heh heh. They¡¯re all really nice, so I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll help out.¡± A small bird could be heard chirping, but it was nowhere to be seen. ¡°Heh heh. Yes, there was an Okuri-Suzume as well, wasn¡¯t there?¡± ¡ª¡ªMany a postcard were sent out over the country based on old memories. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s been so long since I visited the Jinnai place¡­ I never did get Shinobu-chan to carry me, so maybe I should stop by again!¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. I think it¡¯s about time I approached Shinobu-chan about ¡®that¡¯.¡± An Onbu-Obake and a Kaki Otoko were saying some dangerous things. ¡°Babuu.¡± ¡°This Ubu only ever says ¡®babuu¡¯ and ¡®ogyah¡¯, but the disobedient Tsuchigumo have a soft spot for abandoned kittens on a rainy day!!¡± An Ubu and a Tsuchigumo moved their legs along. ¡°Heh. Ever since Shinobu-chan showed me a whole new world, I¡¯ve always kept carbonated drinks in my head plate.¡± ¡°I am a Nopperabou, but I think people would actually be more surprised if I had eyes and a nose drawn on with black pen.¡± A Kappa and Nopperabou were discussing something. ¡°Ho ho ho. He¡¯s still such a spoiled child. Perhaps I, the Kyuubi, should pay him a visit.¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, you wild fox, you just want to enjoy the festivities. As the Kuzunoha, I will make sure to train him properly.¡± The Kyuubi and Kuzunoha. ¡°Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!! This is Tanuki¡îBayashiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Today, I think I¡¯ll introduce you all to a passionate fan letter we receeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeived!¡± ¡°I¡¯m more than willing to help, but I don¡¯t want him to expect too much. The Nurarihyon may be known as the leader of all Youkai, but I was originally just an Umibouzu.¡± ¡°I¡¯m an Oni! Not many homes only do the bringing fortune inside part, so I need that shelter for February 3!!¡± There were even five Tanuki, a Nurarihyon, and an Oni. ¡°Scurry scurry (Playing house with Shinobu-chan was fun.)¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. A God of Poverty like me probably should have been worshipped there originally.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what an Akaname can do, but I¡¯ll head there if he wants it.¡± A Kodoku, a God of Poverty, and an Akaname. ¡°I am a Nurikabe. I came running when I heard Shinobu-chan was in trouble.¡± ¡°I, an Ittan-Momen, am here too.¡± ¡°Then quit blocking the road! Do you want a Yagyou-san like me to kick you with my headless horse!?¡± ¡°Now, now. Infighting won¡¯t get us anywhere. How can you look a Dorotabou like me in the face and think otherwise?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t know a Dorotabou could walk on the road like normal. My single eye is quite shocked.¡± A Nurikabe, an Ittan-Momen, a Yagyou-san, a Dorotabou, and a Hitotsume-Kozou. ¡ª¡ªIn neighboring Bozen City, a postcard arrived at the supposedly abandoned dog square. ¡°It hasn¡¯t been long since that zombie outbreak, so what is it now?¡± The creeped-out part-time delivery boy had considered throwing away the postcard countless times on the way, but he had been afraid that would get him cursed. Then he saw a giant ball of light shoot up from the peak of the dormant volcano. ¡°Gyawah!! What!? Is that a UFO!!!???¡± Few people knew the original form of the Youkai known as a Kasha. ¡ª¡ªA few postcards were delivered to Shinobu¡¯s Uncle Uchimaku Hayabusa rather than the Youkai. ¡°Hm? I¡¯m supposed to deliver these to any Youkai I can think of?¡± ¡°Um, there was Zashou Island¡¯s Funa Yuurei and Nure Onna, the Jinmensou from the Tsumada Mio stuff, and¡­well, we can ignore the Aoandon from Zenmetsu village and the Aburatori from the Tarot Girls 22 stuff, but there was also the Yamanba from the Ubasute Apartments, right?¡± ¡°Come to think of it, what ever happened to Toujou Miyabi¡¯s Inugami?¡± ¡°Oh, right. And there was a Jorougumo too.¡± ¡ª¡ªAnd a few more were delivered to Hishigami Mai. ¡°What kind of paranormal power did he use to deliver these to me when no one knows my real name!? Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s gotten pretty good since I last saw him!!¡± ¡°Perhaps so. Munch, munch. This squid somen is delicious.¡± ¡°Hey, you damn Shikigami. Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve gotten so attached to him you¡¯ve started leaking my information. First the detective and now the blond? How unfaithful are you!? I shouldn¡¯t be having this much trouble controlling a Shikigami!¡± ¡°I have no idea what you are talking about. More importantly, what will you do?¡± ¡°Playing it safe would get Hyakki Yakou wrapped up in this¡­but it¡¯s interesting that these came to me rather than the young lady. Is the boy already thinking about the power balance? Or is he telling us to do this on our own?¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°I think I¡¯ll go along with it and then watch to see what happens. The only Youkai I think we could use are the Monk from Amemura-chan¡¯s family, the Inugami Gyoubu Tanuki and Osakabe-Hime from that udon shop, the Kitsunebi and Tengu connected to Shinshou Hitsubatsu, and¡­huh? There really aren¡¯t that many.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you go around killing all of them.¡± ¡°Anyway.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Can that young lady really pretend to not notice when her beloved Onii-chan is in danger?¡± ¡ª¡ªAnd lastly, back in the Jinnai home. ¡°Okay! We already have a Yuki Onna, a Nekomata, a Furutsubaki (Small), an Aburatori, and an Aoandon here.¡± ¡°Um, master? Aren¡¯t you forgetting the Keseran-Pasaran and Azukiarai?¡± ¡°Heh heh. I¡¯m glad to see you forgot about the big Furutsubaki. That¡¯s what she gets for stealing my snacks!¡± ¡°And can you really just shove a demon like the Succubus and a witch like Marguerite into the occult category?¡± ¡°Not a problem. From the moment we make a contract with a demon, our souls are shut out of heaven but we become a being who can bring about supposedly impossible phenomena in this life.¡± ¡°But I want nothing to do with Tselika after all the torment she put me through. Come to think of it, what do we do about her? You should be able to contact her if you send a postcard to a coven in the catacombs.¡± ¡°No!! Please don¡¯t do that!! I never want to see that Archdemon again!!¡± There was little a single boy could do, but the path he had walked thus far had given him a definite answer. He had done everything he could. He felt definite progress each time. But then¡­ ¡°Eek!?¡± He heard someone gasp. There was ¡°something¡± there that was gentle and yet stole away the entire advantage they seemed to have built up. It brought unease, fear, and a sense of danger. That invisible ¡°something¡± spread through them all and seemed to reach the Youkai before a human like Shinobu. The five members of Tanuki¡îBayashi lay on their backs to play dead while the Umbrella and Lantern folded up and flattened their bodies of oiled paper. The strange sense seemed to be arriving from the main entrance down the hall. When Jinnai Shinobu gulped and hesitantly looked that way, he saw a familiar face there. It was a girl of about ten with a purple kimono and black hair in a bob cut. ¡°Hafuri¡­?¡± ¡°Pardon my sudden visit, but surely you did not think Hyakki Yakou would fail to notice such a largescale movement.¡± The Furutsubaki (Large) and Usuhiki Warashi clung to the boy¡¯s waist. They did not know much about the situation, so Hyakki Yakou may have looked like an organization that treated the disobedient with the attitude of the Yamato Imperial Court: kill them or force them to obey. Shinobu exhaled, toyed with his hair, and patted the head of the white-haired Usuhiki Warashi clinging to his waist. ¡°I really didn¡¯t want to get your help this time.¡± ¡°Yes, I understand your concern. If our predictions are correct, you are working to build up a strategy or Package to interfere with the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. If Hyakki Yakou knew your methods, the risk of us including an unwanted backdoor would rise considerably. Before even worrying about the destiny of the world, you likely wanted to avoid having a third party mess with your lover.¡± The Yuki Onna belatedly ran to the front entrance. She covered her mouth with her kimono¡¯s sleeve, but a dangerous light filled her eyes. ¡°You have guts interfering at this delicate stage. We all have our own complicated reasons to try to save the Zashiki Warashi, so if you do anything that would dull our resolve, I am prepared to take actio-¡­¡± ¡°What is with this short girl?¡± ¡°Mgyuh!?¡± An exasperated-looking Hafuri pushed up on the Yuki Onna¡¯s small nose with her index finger. ¡°Jinnai Shinobu, if you do intend to use this group, there is one thing you must consider first. Take command with a solid policy in mind. Even if you do intend it that way, the actions of any member of your organization can be taken as the intentions of the group as a whole.¡± The Yuki Onna struggled and flailed her arms around, but Hafuri continued pushing on her nose and teasing her for nearly ten seconds before finally releasing her. The small jewels in her hair near the ears clacked together and produced a refreshing sound. The Yuki Onna collapsed exhausted to the floor and the nearby Tsuchigumo and Nurikabe trembled. ¡°H-hey, she¡¯s one of the representative examples of a deadly Youkai, isn¡¯t she? She¡¯s something like the king of street fighting in the late-night back alleys, so how frightening does Hyakki Yakou have to be to defeat her so easily!? That girl must be like the gym teacher that patrols at night!!¡± ¡°I am a Nurikabe. Shinobu-chan, who is this girl? She¡¯s giving off a scary aura, but she won¡¯t bite, will she?¡± Shinobu glanced back at the frightened Youkai hiding behind him and Hafuri breathed out through her nose. She seemed to be used to this. But at the same time, there was some envy in her eyes as she looked at Jinnai Shinobu¡­no, at that entire lineup. ¡°I have a suggestion.¡± Hafuri held a finger forward as Shinobu thought. ¡°I would like to know what the Ver. 39¡­no, the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi is doing. But you do not want Hyakki Yakou to know about the Package you will be using to control her. ¡­Thus, I will assist you as an individual, not as the leader of Hyakki Yakou. I will supply you with everything I have, but I will not take back anything I see here. How does that sound?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Can you not believe a young girl¡¯s verbal promise?¡± ¡°No, I believe you. I mean, if you really wanted to kill her or capture her for experiments, she and I could have been spirited away before we left Mt. Boseki. I owe you for that. No, I guess I could say I trust you as a person thanks to that.¡± Hafuri looked a little surprised even though it had been her suggestion. And Shinobu did not notice the change in her behavior. ¡°But that aside, is your position really that convenient. I understand how you feel, but will those around you really allow it?¡± ¡°Who do you think I am?¡± ¡°Majina¡¯s daughter and the leader of Hyakki Yakou. That¡¯s my entire point.¡± ¡°And it was my entire point as well. Doesn¡¯t it seem extremely unusual that I appeared here alone without a single bodyguard?¡± The girl in a purple kimono grinned in a way very unlike her and toyed with the jewels by her ears. ¡°My blood is a mixture of the pure blood of a Hyakki Yakou leader and the blood of a Zashiki Warashi. That has allowed me to control destiny, even if only slightly. It was enough to slip past the hundred generals and Top 5 of Hyakki Yakou. You can ignore that solid organization for now. It is unable to function properly for some reason.¡± But¡­ ¡°Appeared here alone? I don¡¯t want to hear that from a little girl who showed up at my house with her mother. And with matching hair accessories too. You must be close.¡± ¡°Eh? Huh? Ehh!? Mother!!¡± Hafuri was confused at first, but she finally caught on after looking behind her. Yes, a sexy Youkai in a white yukata who had an almost ghostly lack of presence was standing right behind her. It was Mei. Without speaking a word, she looked Shinobu in the eye and silently nodded. She also gently rubbed her daughter¡¯s head. Meanwhile, Hafuri was anything but peaceful. ¡°How? What? Eh? But¡­ Weren¡¯t you confined to Hyakki Yakou¡¯s most strictly guarded cell!?¡± ¡°I really doubt normal logic works with them. It feels like they can directly mess with the world¡¯s destiny. Besides, settling down and leaving when they want is just what a Zashiki Warashi does.¡± ¡°B-but still!¡± ¡°More importantly, our Yukari apparently escaped Hyakki Yakou over a century ago. I think I¡¯ve heard that was your golden age or something, so there¡¯s already a precedent when things would have been even harder.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not the point!! Why did you leave your cell and come all this way, mother? More specifically, was it to contact Jinnai Shinobu!? Depending on your answer, I might have to do everything I can to stop you as your daughter!!¡± Hafuri snapped at her mother, but Mei simply patted her daughter¡¯s head some more. But¡­ ¡°This means you got into Noukotsu Village just fine, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Y-yes.¡± ¡°Yukari didn¡¯t call for you, but you forced your way in. And it worked¡­¡± Could it be? wondered Shinobu. He may have been too conceited. It may not have been his own doing that had allowed all these Youkai to conveniently gather, that had prevented coincidences that sounded like jokes from getting in the way, and that had kept the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi¡¯s ruinous destiny from intercepting them. Hafuri and Mei may have briefly diverted Yukari¡¯s power that Majina had analyzed as outdoing the Ver. 40¡¯s during its brief spikes. Shinobu had no way of seeing destiny. He had no idea how exactly its threads were tangled together. But could it be¡­? ¡°What will you do?¡± The Nekomata had walked up to his feet at some point and she asked him that question. Shinobu intentionally sighed. ¡°Well¡­¡± After that word, he faced his inner thoughts again. He had to remember his own catchphrase. He muttered it below his breath: I can get along with any Youkai. You decided that already, Jinnai Shinobu. So¡­ ¡°Understood. You aren¡¯t Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader right now. You¡¯re just an individual and one of ¡®us¡¯. Is that okay?¡± This time, Jinnai Shinobu had the necessary power in hand as he smiled and looked across them all. It really was like the crude drawing on that construction paper. Everyone had gathered at the entrance at some point. There was no division between human and Youkai. They all smiled together as a single group. At first, he had thought about having them all hold hands in a ring like a scene from an adolescent drama, but there were too many of them to do that now. In other words¡­ ¡°I¡¯m counting on you, Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s Hyakki Yakou! We don¡¯t need to take over the world and immortality doesn¡¯t matter!! I only want one thing: give me your help to save the girl I¡¯ve fallen for and to keep her from becoming a villain!!¡± For a brief time, that boy would be the leader of one hundred monsters. The world did not matter to them. The part of the world in the light of day and the part of the world hidden by shadows was no concern of theirs. They had just one goal: protecting that boy¡¯s beloved girl from every unreasonable thing the world could throw at her. Part 4 (Jinnai Shinobu) What I would use was simple. I could get it all in half a day with a few clicks on an online shopping site. A red pen, a compass, a hand mirror, a plastic ruler, a glass cutter, a cardboard tube, thin red paper, an origami set, a drill, scissors, a utility knife, glue, masking tape, and lastly some crepe paper to make it look nice. ¡°A kaleidoscope?¡± I did as I was told by using the ruler to mark the hand mirror and then I grabbed the glass cutter. The tool looked like a tiny version of a pizza cutter. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have any cables or wireless capabilities, so can it really act as the core of a Package?¡± ¡°Anything can as long as it has the proper symbolism.¡± Hafuri answered me with a composed voice. Next, the Aoandon readily agreed. ¡°To put it another way, what were the cores of the Packages you¡¯ve seen already? Weren¡¯t the blatantly suspicious ones the exceptions?¡± She had a point. When I thought about it, I realize it had all been things like the sanatorium user agreement or a toy revolver. They didn¡¯t have to be digital and high-tech and they didn¡¯t have to be filled with strange occultism either. I cut the mirror in thirds and placed them together into a triangular prism. The mirrored side was on the inside. Then I filled the gaps with glue and held them together with masking tape until the glue could dry. ¡°We have a USB fan, don¡¯t we? Would that help it dry faster?¡± ¡°No, any unnatural interference will create ¡®lumps¡¯. It¡¯s best to let it dry naturally. Just leave it be. Rushing this will only lead to mistakes.¡± Hafuri simply narrowed her eyes and watched me work. She would say something if I messed up, but she generally just observed without giving any instructions. That may have been what she judged to be ¡°helping as an individual but not as Hyakki Yakou¡±. ¡°The key to this Package is the color deception. It makes red into white and white into red. It doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s complete sophistry; we still win if we can reverse the perception of those colors. Is that much okay?¡± ¡°Well, I was the one to suggest it.¡± I used the compass to draw a perfect circle on the cardboard and used the utility knife to cut along the line. I had to open a hole in the center¡­but I decided I didn¡¯t need the drill for that. I used the point of the compass to directly tear through. On the Aoandon¡¯s instructions, I placed the thin red paper on top of that. ¡°A kaleidoscope has two holes. One to peer inside and one to let light in. If you place the thin red paper over the light opening, the inside of the kaleidoscope will be red.¡± ¡°I see, I see.¡± I pulled some red paper from the origami set. It required patience, but I cut it up with the scissors. They were basically square dots or chips only a few millimeters long. The math worked out to 108 of them in all. ¡°Place white paper inside and it will be dyed red. You¡¯re looking at white, but you see red. That¡¯s stage one.¡± After making sure the quick-drying glue had dried, I removed the tape from the triangular prism. Hafuri sighed quietly. ¡°It looks fine.¡± ¡°It does.¡± I placed the mirror part inside the cardboard tube and glued it inside. The bottom was covered by the circular lid of thin red paper. I then poured the dots and chips of origami paper inside. ¡°But even if they¡¯re seeing red, someone who knows the trick will assume they¡¯re really looking at white.¡± The Aoandon grabbed the rest of the origami set and flipped the paper over. The front side was colorful, but the back was pure white. In other words¡­ ¡°But in truth, the dots are red on one side and white on the other. That means no one knows what color the dots inside the kaleidoscope really are. The ones you think are actually white might really be red. It might be something like that cat in the box. Anyway, that completes stage two. This one kaleidoscope turns red into white and white into red.¡± That just left the details. I cut a circle in the cardboard for a large peephole. It would look more the part with glass covering that hole, but I was afraid an amateur like me would leave some small fragments behind if I tried to do that with the glass cutter. That was especially scary with something you held to your eye. Instead, I cut off a piece of the clear cellophane bag the origami set had come in. After placing that cover over the remaining upper end, I covered the side of the cardboard tube with flower-print crepe paper I thought the Zashiki Warashi would like. This was a once-in-a-lifetime endeavor, yet it looked kind of awkward. But maybe that was for the best. The ¡°We¡¯re All Friends¡± construction paper was the same and I knew something had definitely been saved by that. The Aoandon reached out and traced her finger along the outside. ¡°That completes the core.¡± ¡°But I can¡¯t imagine how we¡¯re going to link this kaleidoscope with the Zashiki Warashi. Does she just have to carry it around with her everywhere?¡± ¡°You can leave those tricky calculations to the witch. A Package isn¡¯t something a single person can do, remember?¡± ¡°Yes, and my mother Mei and I are here to watch over things. If there is a discrepancy between the Western and Eastern methods, we can correct it for compatibility.¡± ¡°Is that how it works?¡± I wondered while glancing over. The Youkai were moving all about through the thatch-roof house. ¡°Heave-ho, heave-ho!¡± ¡°Sigh. This is more heavy labor than I was expecting¡­¡± ¡°We have to make adjustments all over and we have to get it done before nightfall! Even if we got permission to head out, our master will worry if we¡¯re out too late!!¡± I asked the Aoandon a question while watching the Umbrella and Lantern¡¯s mouths moving. ¡°What are they doing? Aren¡¯t they just renovating the house!?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll do all the detailed calculations, so don¡¯t worry about it.¡± ¡°A Zashiki Warashi settles down in a house, so they have a strong connection to the house. Making adjustments to that house is the easiest way of altering her bodily structure. I know it isn¡¯t exactly a happy memory, but do you remember what happened in that Fuuka Village hotel? The hotel¡¯s blueprints were used to interfere with the Zashiki Warashi then too.¡± ¡°Of course, we¡¯re choosing areas that don¡¯t move much so you humans won¡¯t mess with this when you make your own renovations.¡± I heard a commotion from the ceiling, but this did not sound like more renovations. ¡°Oh, honestly!! The attic is my territory! You don¡¯t have anywhere else to stay? I don¡¯t care! Go sleep in a tree or below the floor!!¡± I called out to her before an actual fight broke out. ¡°Succubus, we have around a hundred Youkai in here now, so be a little flexible. Everyone¡¯s making compromises.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s just mean!! You¡¯re my master, so I can¡¯t save face if you say that! And there¡¯s no stopping them all now!!¡± I saw a bunch of stuffed animal-like Youkai rushing up the stairs. From the look of things, they would be fighting over food too. ¡°So how long is this going to take? We¡¯re generally welcome to Youkai visitors, but I think my dad will get suspicious if a hundred of them stick around for too long.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t take that long. Although the trick will be to have the Akaname and Shichinin Misaki work while hiding from the humans.¡± With that comment, the Aoandon spread a map out on the tea table. Hafuri filled it in with pink highlighter while checking on something. It was a map of my house and she seemed to be marking the areas where the work was complete. It was at about a third. She drew in what looked like wiring, but I wasn¡¯t sure what that meant. ¡°Shinobu.¡± The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata slipped past all the working Youkai to approach me. She had to have no idea what was going on. In fact, she didn¡¯t even know what her very existence was doing to the world. Her perception was shifted out of place. She looked around skeptically before looking straight at me. ¡°What is all this? I¡¯ve never seen so many different Youkai in here. This is technically my territory, but there¡¯s clearly some other Zashiki Warashi here.¡± ¡°What¡¯s with you, Yukari? Are you jealous having all these Youkai around? Come to think of it, there are a lot of pretty good looking ones like the Nure Onna, Jorougumo, and Kosode-no-Te.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Eh? Seriously? That¡¯s seriously why you¡¯re upset? Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!! Don¡¯t scratch me! Don¡¯t scratch me all over! Are you like a pet cat that gets upset as soon as it has kittens!?¡± We started playing around like that, but I could tell Hafuri and the Aoandon were slowly narrowing their eyes. That¡¯s right. At this point, nothing was meaningless. We were trying to build a Package that would restrain the ruinous power of the Ver. 39. That power could bend the entire world¡¯s destiny, so it could easily detect something like this. And for better or for worse, it would use destiny to crush our efforts. The rails switched over too seamlessly to notice and we were thrown into the labyrinth. We were not even allowed to choose to fight or not. We were simply diverted from the main track of destiny and all our efforts were ruined. Even the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s own will may have been irrelevant. The ruinous power may have been manipulating her as well. And if what the Aburatori and Aoandon said was accurate, then Noukotsu Village was surrounded by an invisible labyrinth and anyone who would get in the Ver. 39¡¯s way (whether they meant harm or not) would be unable to approach. Even so, the hundred Youkai of my Hyakki Yakou had gathered here. That of course had likely been helped by my special trait to gather Youkai as well as Hafuri and Mei¡¯s ability to bend destiny as white Zashiki Warashi. But if that was enough to utterly defeat the Ver. 39, then we wouldn¡¯t need to build such a major Package and Majina wouldn¡¯t have had to make himself a great criminal by causing a zombie outbreak. In other words, all of this was insignificant. The source of all fortune and misfortune was the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. As the Ver. 39, she was obstructing us as the Ver. 39, but as a Zashiki Warashi, she was trying to welcome my guests. Something was diverging inside her as well. I could not ignore that power. If that divergence continued, I could not even guess what would happen. She might become a puppet of the Ver. 39 or her body might split in two. ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± I swallowed everything inside my chest. I then embraced my girlfriend, gently rubbed her head, and softly repeated myself. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to worry about. I promise you I won¡¯t let anything you care about be destroyed.¡± It did not matter if those words could not reach her within the bonds of the Ver. 39. Part 5 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) Chief Superintendent Mishima said it was urgent and called me to a large harbor region in the Tokyo subcenter. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you showed up when they could ¡®accidentally¡¯ send a missile flying this way any day now, Mystery Freak.¡± ¡°You too, detective. I don¡¯t think many civil servants would keep working once they aren¡¯t getting paid.¡± One of us was a plain man in a cheap suit and coat and the other was a showy girl decorated with ribbons wrapped around her body and a top and miniskirt made to look like whipped cream and chocolate. We exchanged a glance and both laughed as if we couldn¡¯t believe it. The world was ending. It was a little unclear if it was going to end soon or if it already had and no one had noticed, but according to the economic and investment experts, we had long since passed the point of no return. The core of it all was the Zashiki Warashi and the only one that could stop it was my nephew Shinobu. It sounded like a joke, but all my phone calls and emails mysteriously couldn¡¯t get through to him. The trains and planes were all conveniently having trouble. I considered getting a rental car, but I was stopped by the ultimate ¡°coincidence¡± of growing hesitant because I was afraid of getting into an accident on my own. There was nothing we could do. We could only wait for whatever result Shinobu and the Zashiki Warashi brought. That said, I couldn¡¯t just hole up in my room and pull the blanket over my head. After all, I was a police officer and problems both big and small were cropping up everywhere. We could not stand in the center, but Shinobu could not reach the outer edges. We each had our job. I would be lying if I said it wasn¡¯t frustrating, but finding something I could do myself was much more important and meaningful. That way I could prevent as much unnecessary damage as possible. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Right.¡± The city subcenter¡¯s coast was near Hachi TV where my old upperclassman Atou worked, but we had not arrived at a waterfront office building or luxury apartment. It was a cruise ship moored in the harbor. ¡°The Yakata-II. We haven¡¯t seen it since Goldmine Island, detective. We never got to go inside then, though.¡± ¡°Huh? But didn¡¯t something happen to that cruise ship at the end of all that¡­?¡± At any rate, the Mystery Freak and I entered the ship. Fortunately, there was no dress code. Mishima-san was enjoying some wagyu teppanyaki in the ship¡¯s three-star restaurant. Although it was more like the food area of a larger party space than it was a dedicated restaurant. ¡°Hi there, Uchimaku-kun. Over here, over here.¡± ¡°What are you doing? Didn¡¯t you say this was urgent?¡± ¡°Yes, but just like in hotels, I can¡¯t help but go get some teppanyaki. It¡¯s a lot like the urge to dive into a bed when you see one.¡± That man in his fancy suit was living it up in his bachelorhood even more than me. He was really old enough to settle down too. And he was quite energetic about the meat when even the global burger shops were having trouble after the zombie outbreak. ¡°Were you thinking something rude?¡± ¡°No, not really. Now, about this cruise ship¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, Hayabusa-kun. You might not know all the details since you weren¡¯t directly involved, but it had a hole in the bottom. It¡¯s unclear whether it was the CIA or the Hishigami Woman that did it, though.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°No need to be so nervous. Only the ballast tank was taken out, so it won¡¯t sink as long as the inspection hatch is closed. It¡¯s still careless to have 1700 lives riding on that, though.¡± Things had gone beyond that. They were intentionally hiding it. They were keeping quiet to make money, safety be damned. They really were worshiping money. ¡°Troublesome, isn¡¯t it? And we can¡¯t get after them for it when all the related agencies have closed up shop. I might be at a wagyu teppanyaki place, but I actually like the abalone steak the best. Although I¡¯m skeptical whether this is Intellectual Village meat like they claim.¡± ¡°So the magic trick using the network¡¯s bonds is producing all sorts of moral hazards, is it?¡± ¡°I have something to discuss concerning that. Kotemitsu-san was supposed to give the details, but¡­hm, how should I put it? Her fights with her sister are pretty intense. I can¡¯t exactly enjoy the company of the two beauties like this.¡± ¡°Yeah, that is what¡¯ll happen if you shove Madoka and Seika into the same trading room. It¡¯s like trying to raise a cobra and a mongoose together.¡± Enbi gave her exasperated comment while dressed in her red ribbons, whipped cream and chocolate top and miniskirt, wafer ribbon tie, and shortcake hat on the side of her head. A moment later, a door was thrown noisily open. I looked over and saw a square opening in the thick wall where there had been no sign of a door before. A woman and a girl stepped out. It was college-aged Seika of the main Kotemitsu family and Shinobu¡¯s classmate Madoka-chan. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you would start selling there!! Why would you make manual changes when the autonomous investment program can see the optimal move!? You don¡¯t gain anything besides stroking your own ego when you succeed based on your own decision!!¡± ¡°I think you rely too much on the machine. Investing is about reading the interactions of people¡¯s hearts. Even if programs wearing the skins of user accounts are running rampant these days, the thoughts of the people building their algorithms will still affect things. You don¡¯t understand the Kotemitsu style at all, Miss Error.¡± ¡°It pisses me off that you sum everything up using internet terminology! Is that in style these days? It wasn¡¯t that long ago you used chess terminology to describe the family¡¯s system!!¡± ¡°Noise that doesn¡¯t fit the file format will not even reach my ears. If you wish to speak with me, then learn the Kotemitsu format first.¡± ¡°And why are you wearing that showy marching band outfit, you flat old lady!?¡± ¡°!! Mishima tricked me by saying this was a costume party!¡± Mishima-san waved at me without looking back. ¡°Do something about this, Uchimaku-kun. You have no trouble going out for karaoke with a middle school girl, so you¡¯re my final hope here.¡± ¡°I had a very good reason for that!! I just wanted a soundproof room for-¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. The detective dragged this innocent little girl into a private room where no one could see us or hear me scream.¡± ¡°It was so we could discuss strategy, you idiot!! That case had to do with the embassy, so we had no choice but to give up on more direct methods!!¡± Seeing others behaving badly seemed to help people correct their own behavior. The Kotemitsu Sisters¡¯ argument had heated up so much, but they calmed down when they saw our commotion. Mishima-san sounded impressed as he chowed down on an abalone steak that used the large shell as a plate and was covered in a special sauce made from butter and its innards. ¡°Well done, Uchimaku-kun. You handled that so well I feel silly for wasting three hours with that. They say it¡¯s best to go to the specialists and it looks like I should just leave all the young girls to you.¡± ¡°Who the hell is secretly manipulating the rails of my destiny!?¡± I cried out while afraid of some invisible threads I felt were wrapped all around my body, but the rich bachelor wiped his mouth with a napkin and handed a black card to the waiter. He politely declined any dessert, finished paying, and guided me to the previous hidden room with a fancy coat in hand. ¡°The Yakata-II was built for the wealthy, so it has a satellite connection and card company servers linked to the casino and trading rooms. That makes it a perfect base for us.¡± ¡°But why use such a dangerous ship? There are plenty of nice rooms on the coast you could use.¡± Seika-san answered my natural question. ¡°Those are so full of the newly rich that there won¡¯t be an opening for years. It¡¯s everyone from grade schoolers to housewives and even the elderly who have too much free time and pension money. Do you know what the most popular thing to get training in is these days? It¡¯s apparently the investment business by a wide margin.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Ugh. I still only saw investing as another word for gambling, so this new era seemed absolutely insane to me. I shuddered just thinking about people who couldn¡¯t connect a computer to a printer in computer class diving into a world where they could blow a hundred million yen in a ten thousandth of a second, but that probably just meant I was too set in my ways. Then again, feeling that way was an important thing now. The hidden room was the size of two school classrooms. Two chairs sat back-to-back in the center. In all 360 degrees, the walls, ceiling, and floor were covered with flat-screen monitors supported by the kind of arms used for desk lamps. Countless numbers and graphs moved about wildly on the screens. There was data on wars, disasters, mergers, buyouts, weather forecasts, and even hamburger prices in different countries. There were clusters of windows displaying every single online news article that could even slightly affect the stock or foreign exchange market. I just felt overwhelmed. You could recognize a single ant as an insect, but once there was a thousand or ten thousand of them, they looked like a single wriggling mass or monster. This provided the same sort of pressure. ¡°Where am I even supposed to focus?¡± ¡°I think the trick is to view it all at once without focusing.¡± Madoka-chan casually answered me in her sailor uniform. She did not sound entirely confident in her answer because it was such a natural thing to her that she might as well have been explaining how to breathe or blink. ¡°So what¡¯s the problem?¡± ¡°This.¡± Mishima-san turned one of the arm-mounted flat screen monitors my way. ¡°The national natural convenience stores I mentioned before are just barely being contained. They use a new cold storage service to transport perishables without damaging them, but Madoka-chan and Seika-san targeted that by claiming it violates another company¡¯s patent. That said, it¡¯s really just buying time. The moral hazard itself is continuing to spread as data. It won¡¯t be long before this kind of thing is considered normal and a few of the people¡¯s threads have already burned away. Look.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°The people who gained a small fortune with the bonds magic trick are starting to reach elsewhere. They have nothing better to do since the natural convenience stores have stalled.¡± ¡°Um, what is this? They¡¯re buying land on the moon and mars?¡± The Mystery Freak sounded confused and Madoka-chan shrugged. ¡°If you can put a price tag on it and sell it, it doesn¡¯t matter what it is. Do you know why pure gold and platinum are so valuable? Because there are a lot of people who find that convenient. And in this case, land on the moon and mars can¡¯t fall victim to land speculation, can¡¯t jump in value due to a sudden railroad expansion, can¡¯t fall into a fight over sun exposure rights due to a high-rise building, and can¡¯t have protestors stage a sit-in. And unlike gold and diamonds, thieves can¡¯t run off with it. Once it has a price tag, there is no more stable savings box.¡± ¡°Plus, there are no international or national laws concerning the land of other astronomical bodies. Setting aside how effective it is, there¡¯s no problem with buying and selling this land as data. These days, avatars in virtual space open up shops and sell digital products for digital money. Even if you can¡¯t reach it, it might actually be a plus that there¡¯s something physical attached to the deal.¡± At this rate, they were probably going to pour a bunch of money into the candy of some nonexistent fantasy land. I was utterly exasperated and Mishima-san showed me yet another window. ¡°But once all the land on the moon and mars has been sold off, those greedy people will move onto another market. This one¡¯s growing pretty hot right now. It¡¯s also space-related.¡± ¡°The satellite debris business?¡± ¡°Detective, if you include the ones of unknown nationality, there are currently one to two thousand satellites in operation. But their average length of durability ¨C that is, their lifespan ¨C is between five and ten years. And what do you think happens to a satellite that¡¯s role has ended?¡± ¡°Well, isn¡¯t it sent into the atmosphere to burn up on reentry?¡± ¡°With the controllable ones, yes.¡± Seika-san slowly sighed. ¡°But when control is lost due to a malfunction, that can¡¯t happen. There are an estimated seven to eight thousand ¡®empty shells¡¯ orbiting the earth. Include the separated parts, separated paint fragments, and small debris, and it¡¯s rumored to be more like four to thirty million.¡± The estimated range had grown quite a bit. That must have shown how little anyone knew about it. ¡°So they¡¯ve placed price tags on the trash orbiting the earth and acting like it¡¯s as valuable as diamonds or platinum?¡± ¡°At first, but things have changed.¡± Mishima-san held out the finishing blow. It said the following: Don¡¯t let the wealth gather at the top!! Help us distribute it to everyone!! We have started this group to bring an end to the satellite debris business that unfairly manipulates the value of money using formless economic activity. With help from civilians, we have begun developing a special type of small satellite. It is loaded with explosives and it detonates near the valuable debris floating in orbit to send that debris into the atmosphere. Satellite destroying satellites, aka killer satellites, are banned, you say? That treaty was signed between nations, so it does not apply to a borderless civilian nonprofit like us. Doesn¡¯t it seem odd to all of you? Don¡¯t you think the people diligently working up a sweat at their jobs should be making money too? If the country refuses to do anything about it, then civilians like us must act in their stead. We are not asking for monetary support. It can be message boards, blogs, SNSs, or whatever else, but please explain to everyone that what we are doing is right. The support of public opinion can¡¯t be taken lightly. Your support will be our greatest strength. Hishigami General Trading Group ¡°What¡­the hell?¡± I could not help but groan. When I saw the name Hishigami, I glanced over at the Mystery Freak. The twintail girl quietly bit her lip. ¡°This is the problem with those Hishigami Men. They always go on and on about being reasonable, but as soon as what the country or the world considers reasonable becomes distorted, they raise the white flag.¡± ¡°Is this even possible? You mean it isn¡¯t someone pretending to be them!? But the Hishigami Group is an international corporation with over two hundred thousand employees! Flip through the channels during primetime and you¡¯ll see their ads pretty much everywhere!!¡± ¡°Those men will do anything if the concept of ¡®reasonable¡¯ has been distorted. Do you need to check a history textbook to know who it was that first started releasing tanks and fighters during wartime?¡± ¡°But still¡­¡± Explosives on civilian satellites? Sending them to space and detonating them? Treaties between nations didn¡¯t matter for individuals and civilians? That nonsense would never work. A rocket turned into a weapon was the very definition of a missile. If individuals and civilians used that without the military¡¯s management, others would fight back. This seemed to be on the Hishigami Group¡¯s website, but where were their headquarters located? If it was in Japan, then weren¡¯t they essentially announcing to the international community that our island nation was a dangerous place that couldn¡¯t manage its own ballistic missiles and could start firing them like crazy at any moment!? ¡°You couldn¡¯t find a greater moral hazard, could you?¡± Mishima-san sounded disgusted too. ¡°And there are two frightening aspects to this. First, the fact that the police have shut down and can¡¯t act even with this nonsense going on. And second, that a fair number of people are agreeing with this.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± What look did I have on my face? It was probably the same as the one on the Mystery Freak¡¯s face next to me. A short text SNS said the following: ¡°Frappe: What¡¯s wrong with that? I don¡¯t really have anything against them, but it¡¯s important to keep things in motion. Preventing stagnation will make everyone happy, so we need to give the economy a shot in the arm like this.¡± ¡°Round: I¡¯ve got more news! It seems Hishigami is focusing a lot on the angle of entry. That way the abandoned satellites that are nearly whole can survive reentry and reach the surface. We can get all the rare earths we want from them. Yahoo!¡± ¡°House Mouse 21: It really is a redistribution of wealth. C¡¯mon, we need even more of this. Really, having just a small part of the population gaining so much using fictional price tags was what made no sense. Now we¡¯ll have jewels raining down across the globe. What a wonderful age we live in.¡± No matter how much we scrolled, there were always more new messages. Plus, the opinions were gathering in single direction. Out of the hundreds and thousands of short posts, there was not a single real rebuttal. It felt like these were the residents of some creepy dictatorship. ¡°Amazing, isn¡¯t it? This isn¡¯t even an anonymous message board. Of course, the anonymity of those message boards only gets you so far, but still. They aren¡¯t even trying to hide their identity with proxies. I¡¯m impressed they can post this kind of thing under their own screennames.¡± Madoka-chan really did sound impressed. These kinds of posts would normally lead to suicidal levels of embarrassment, but no one seemed to care. No one was even flaming them. The moral hazards had already made it that far into the normal functioning of the world. But not even that was the core of the problem. ¡°But detective, isn¡¯t this really bad? I mean, whole satellites raining down? Wait just a second there. Satellites are designed to burn up on reentry, so they tend to have some pretty dangerous things inside. They tend to use nuclear batteries and the kind of rocket fuel that burns the skin on contact!¡± ¡°And that will be raining down across Japan¡­no, across the world¡­?¡± The Intellectual Village brand name would collapse instantly. In fact, the entire globe would be contaminated! ¡°The natural convenience stores that led to this new age must be panicking. If that ultra-valuable brand-name is destroyed, their stores lose all meaning. And it¡¯s too late to try to stop each individual one now. Plus, there¡¯s no guarantee this is the only moral hazard. At this rate, they¡¯re sure to start popping up like bamboo shoots after a rain.¡± Mishima-san looked to the screen. ¡°So let¡¯s start a war void of morals using this network that connects the world. What can we buy and sell, what can we say, and what online news can we use to bring an end to this worst case scenario? That¡¯s what I want all of you to think about.¡± Part 6 (3rd person) While the Package was being constructed, the Yuki Onna walked out into the yard, took a ladder from the shed, and placed it against the wall of the house. ¡°Eh heh heh.¡± When she heard a bewitching female laugh, a tremor ran down her spine. She could not believe it. She simply could not believe it. When the short girl fearfully turned around with a cold sweat dripping down her face, she saw a most unwelcome vision. ¡°M-Mizore!? And Hadare!?¡± She had no idea when they had arrived, but two similarly dressed Yuki Onna had locked onto her. They were old friends who had lived on the same mountain as her, but the Yuki Onna of the Jinnai household had a reason to be nervous. Mizore, who had spiral glasses and two braids, spoke up hesitantly. ¡°H-Hyou-chan, we were all worried about you when you suddenly left the mountain in the heat of midsummer. We hadn¡¯t heard anything from you since you said you were going to find a human husband, so we thought you might have ended up like a popsicle dropped on the asphalt during summer break.¡± ¡°Gulp¡­!?¡± ¡°And the seasons have finally changed, so we left to search for you. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re doing well. So Hyou-chan, did you meet a lovely person?¡± Those 100% well-intentioned words stabbed into the Yuki Onna¡¯s chest in rapid succession. It was like going to a class reunion and finding out you alone had made no progress whatsoever. (Gh-ghhh! Why did they have to show up now? ¡­Oh, is this the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi¡¯s interference that Jinnai Shinobu was talking about? Is her power shifting destiny off track? I really want to kill her right now¡­) Some steam started rising from her due to the pressure, but then the Yuki Onna named Hadare opened her mouth. She was a sexy woman with her light blue hair worn up. ¡°Heh heh heh. I told her you would be fine. I mean, you¡¯re such an unusual Yuki Onna, Hyou. You can¡¯t even make proper snow, yet you can bring down blocks of ice during the summer. Hee hee. You just don¡¯t have the elegance of the snowscape.¡± ¡°Kh. Why you¡­!!¡± ¡°So how did it go? The Yuki Onna is the standard example of a beautiful Youkai, so after wandering around down here for about half a year, surrrrrely you¡¯ve managed to snag at least one guy. Right, Hyou?¡± Hadare¡¯s confidence came from what she held in her arms. Yes, she was a Yuki Onna that came with a baby. Was it derived from the Ubume or had a similar story come about by coincidence? The white Yuki Onna was generally thought of as a symbol of virginity, but there were some that held a baby. They were a deadly Youkai that asked travelers to hold their baby and, if the traveler agreed, would crush them as the baby gradually grew heavier and heavier. Just like with the Onbu-Obake, it was a stereotypical Japanese ghost story of destroying oneself by taking on a burden. Of course, one could not make a baby on their own. Nothing could apply greater pressure on a marriage-seeking Youkai. ¡°She was just dying to show her to you, Hyou-chan. Her name is Sou-chan and it¡¯s spelled with the character for frost. Isn¡¯t she cute?¡± ¡°Sh-shut up! I did not miss her at all!! And I was really planning to turn that guy into crushed ice¡­¡± ¡°Hyou-chan, don¡¯t you think we did a wonderful thing by stopping her?¡± While plain Mizore wore spiral glasses and had a flat chest, the steam weakening effect gave her a dynamite body when she stepped inside an open-air hot spring. The hot water would make her dizzy, but since that made her harmless, beautiful, and carefree, she was ranked third or fourth on a list of Yuki Onna that skiers wanted to run across. Any old story or drama that included a silly Yuki Onna that could not seem to kill anyone and always failed was generally based on her. And as the pressure bore down on her, Yuki Onna Hyou gathered all her strength and began fighting back. ¡°Heh¡­heh heh heh. What are you talking about? Of course I¡¯m super popular. I have so many to choose from I might as well have my own harem. I was just late in reporting back to you because I was having trouble choosing from them all.¡± ¡°Ah ha ha! Of course. A Yuki Onna can capture a husband in a single ski season, so it would be pathetic if you couldn¡¯t get a single guy after freely wandering around for half a year!! By the way, my husband runs an IT startup and owns the entire top floor of a Roppongi apartment building. He¡¯s super rich from that bond trading that¡¯s popular these days!! But I¡¯m a Youkai, right? So I don¡¯t like the city air much and I¡¯ve had to reject his invitations even if it is a luxury apartment. Instead, I¡¯ve settled down in a Karuizawa mountain villa. Oh, sorry about getting sidetracked on my boring old self. So what kind of person is your man? What¡¯s his salary? I want to hear all about your luxurious and happy new life. Heh heh heh.¡± ¡°Y-y-y-y-you¡¯ll be shocked when you hear it. But, um¡­oh, right! This would be a little much for a baby, so I will restrain myself for now. I¡¯m definitely not making excuses. This is for your sake.¡± ¡°Ehh? That¡¯s amazing, Hyou-chan!¡± The spiral glasses provided dreadful supporting fire by innocently placing a hand over her mouth with that comment. The Yuki Onna was going to have to keep up the act until the end of the world now. Steam started rising from her head as she continued. ¡°H-he is incredibly bold, and¡­¡± ¡°Yes, yes?¡± ¡°He¡¯s so nice he invited me into his basement ice room when the summer heat was getting to me¡­¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°I-I can¡¯t even imagine living without him anymore¡­ah, this is too embarrassing! I¡¯m melting. My body is melting!!¡± She seemed to have reached her limit. White steam burst from the already small Yuki Onna¡¯s body as if she had used a ninja smokescreen technique. Mizore coughed and wiped off her steamed-up spiral glasses before putting them back on. Then she placed a hand over her mouth. ¡°Huh? Where¡¯d Hyou-chan go?¡± ¡°Heh heh heh. Oh ho ho ho ho!! The little girl couldn¡¯t stand it any longer, so she ran off! Lie all you want, you can always smell the desperation in a bachelorette!!¡± Hadare laughed loudly while holding the baby that symbolized a happy life while Mizore remained oblivious. They looked around to see where the other Yuki Onna had hidden and then they glanced to the open door of the shed. They peered inside without actually going in. ¡°She isn¡¯t here, Hadare-chan.¡± ¡°Honestly. This is what happens when you try to tell a blatantly made-up-¡­¡± Hadare trailed off as she recalled Hyou mentioning her man introducing her to a basement ice room when the summer heat had gotten to her. ¡°Hm? Hmm? Wait. Does that mean Hyou was dizzily collapsed on the side of the road and he took her home to his private basement for a honeymoon?¡± ¡°Hadare-chan, why are you fidgeting?¡± ¡°N-no!?¡± Hadare frantically shook her head, but it still bothered her. Was there maybe an entrance somewhere in the floor in the shed¡¯s darkness and did it maybe hide some stairs down into a basement? Her eyes were naturally drawn in that direction and then she spotted something. Some rope was sitting in the back of the shed. ¡°Wait!!¡± ¡°Eek!?¡± ¡°No, no, no. That doesn¡¯t mean¡­that doesn¡¯t mean anything. There are all sorts of ways to use rope and a shed is a perfectly normal place to store it. It doesn¡¯t mean that short girl has entered a dangerous territory not even I¡¯ve-¡­¡± She came to a stop when she saw something else. She spotted a strange silhouette in the back of the shed. Yes. It seemed to be made from several different pieces of wood. It had four legs like a table, but the top was not a flat surface. The center line rose to a point like a doghouse roof. And it was quite a point too. The overall silhouette did look something like a simplified version of an animal, just like some kind of playground equipment. Now, then. It was made of wood. The back was a pointed triangle. And it was modeled after an animal¡­specifically, a horse. What was such a device called? ¡°H-h-heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!? Is this the legendary¡­the legendary¡­ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?¡± ¡°D-don¡¯t yell, Hadare-chan! You¡¯re making your baby cry!!¡± Hearing the commotion the two Yuki Onna caused as they ran off, Shinobu¡¯s small grandmother arrived with a confused look. However, the source of the noise had already left. ¡°?¡± The shed door had been left carelessly open, so she approached to close it. Then she spotted something inside that she had not seen in a long time. ¡°Oh, we haven¡¯t used the fish drying rack in a while. I should drag that back out once the sun blesses us with its presence again.¡± Part 7 (Jinnai Shinobu) Hm? Did I just hear some screaming out in the yard? That bothered me, but I had my hands full in the hallway. Yes. The large and small Furutsubaki duo was fighting. ¡°I am far more useful to Jinnai Shinobu. I¡¯m taller, so I can reach things.¡± ¡°Why you¡­! You¡¯re only two millimeters taller!!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear anything from an inelegant and flat-chested child.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll break your trunk and eradicate your roots!!¡± They started grabbing at each other which pulled their kiminos from their bodies in a number of places, so I stopped them. I was pretty sure this was another example of interference. ¡°You be the judge! Jinnai Shinobu, you be the judge!! Which one of us has the better transformation!?¡± ¡°Mh. How exactly will he judge that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s about who¡¯s more human-like, so it¡¯s a softness competition! We¡¯ll have him feel our softness!!¡± ¡°Okay, but let¡¯s make this thorough. No spot is off limits.¡± ¡°Ah, stop that, you idiots! The look in Yukari¡¯s eyes is really scaring me!! Oh, god! She¡¯s coming this way!!¡± This had to be the Ver. 39 detecting the Package preparations and shifting destiny off track to interfere, so why was the Zashiki Warashi herself so jealous that she seemed to be growing horns!? She was being manipulated as much as anyone! I fled the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s roaring fists like a klutz who had accidentally knocked down a hornet¡¯s nest and then I spotted small Hafuri sitting on the porch in her purple kimono. The Aburatori sat next to her. They seemed to be watching the Furutsubaki duo from afar, but they had yet to actually join in. ¡°Are you not afraid of me?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, I claim to be a guardian of children,¡± said the old man who hid his expression below a bamboo hat with an eye pattern drawn on it. ¡°For the other Youkai, it seems to be an issue of how they view you¡­no, how they view the term Hyakki Yakou. Plus, I knew the man named Majina and saw what Hyakki Yakou was during his time, so to me it seems odd to fear Hyakki Yakou.¡± ¡°¡­¡± Hafuri fell silent for a moment. ¡°That man plotted to usurp Hyakki Yakou and began a national zombie outbreak to split the organization.¡± ¡°That was only to oppose the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi and protect the world you live in.¡± ¡°But¡­wait, how could you possibly know that?¡± ¡°The human heart is easily drawn to evil, but is also easily bound to good. If something grows even slightly distorted, you can readily accept yours and others¡¯ deaths. I know that all too well. I saw who Majina truly was ten years ago. They say people never truly change and I doubt he would have changed that easily. His actions must be strictly judged, but we cannot take away why he did it. Not even the gods in heaven can do that.¡± What did those words mean to Hafuri? Majina had had his reasons for his actions. Someone in Hafuri¡¯s position would be able to figure that much out, but how many people were there who would accept Majina¡¯s reasons? Hafuri and Mei¡¯s opinions were biased as they were family. And the members of Hyakki Yakou worked for Hafuri, so their acceptance would sound like nothing more than kind words for her. But the Aburatori was looking in from outside and he had accepted Majina. Maybe not his crimes or his results, but he had accepted his humanity and what had led him there. Then something moves past my feet. It was the Fox, Tanuki, and Badger. ¡°My, my. What are you doing here? It¡¯s time for tea!¡± ¡°Hm? You aren¡¯t afraid of me?¡± ¡°A lot of the others seem to be, but we realized we had already worked with you at Goldmine Island. We already know you don¡¯t bite.¡± When the Fox held his front paw out as he spoke, Hafuri thought for a moment and reached out a hand. She shook that tiny, tiny paw. The Badger shook his head vertically as a nod. ¡°And we also realized you look a lot like our master¡¯s granddaughter. We hear you¡¯re helping as an individual instead of as Hyakki Yakou, so we felt there was no reason to hold back.¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. So leave it all to a wet nurse Tanuki like me! This is heated barley tea, so it has no caffeine. It¡¯s perfect for young children.¡± ¡°I-I am not so young I need a wet nurse!¡± Hafuri blushed and raised her voice, but the Tanuki smiled and said, ¡°Oh, dear.¡± The Usuhiki Warashi joined in while shouting ¡°kyah kyah¡± and started eating the tea cakes. She too may have been used to Hafuri after Goldmine Island and Hafuri scolded her a little when she started drinking the hot barley tea from the teacup Hafuri had reached for. I also saw the Kura Bokko, Notabariko, and the other Usuhiki Warashi from the Goldmine Island inn gathered together. ¡°Wow. Being in the territory of a real Zashiki Warashi is making me nervous¡­¡± ¡°The red one and white one are both made by Hyakki Yakou. And then there¡¯s the half-human one.¡± ¡°And I feel really overshadowed with that ¡®kyah kyah¡¯ girl acting like the representative of Usuhiki Warashi.¡± The helpful Oomukade pushed on those three girls¡¯ backs and they managed to join in. The one-eyed Umbrella and Lantern must have decided Hafuri wasn¡¯t that scary even if her emotions were a little rocky because they came out after observing from behind a sliding screen. ¡°It¡¯s true she doesn¡¯t seem that different from our master.¡± ¡°Nonsense! Hiro-sama is far cuter!¡± That set a great wave in motion. The Keseran Pasaran, a white puffball said to bring good luck, floated over toward Hafuri and the Furutsubaki duo slowly inched closer. It looked like things were going to be fine. Then I heard the sound of a shifting panel overhead. I looked up to find a square of the ceiling opening up and Marguerite the Australian Witch poked her head out. ¡°Jinnai Shinobu, could you hand me that duct tape? I need it.¡± ¡°Yeah, Westerners rely on crowbars and duct tape about as much as a knife and fork, don¡¯t they?¡± I grabbed the roll from the sunken hearth and Marguerite leaned further out. In fact, she crawled out so she hung upside down with just her feet caught on the edge of the square. But¡­ ¡°What¡¯s this, Marguerite!? It looks like you have horns, wings, and a tail!¡± ¡°Oh, these?¡± ¡°And that¡¯s one hell of a micro bikini! Man, it¡¯s something else entirely when an authentic Westerner wears one!!¡± ¡°I guess you would care about that most.¡± For some reason, the witch hat didn¡¯t fall off even when she was upside down. And they must have been demonic parts because the blue fabric of the skin-tight gloves and knee socks was wriggling a little. The exasperated sounding witch traced her index finger along the underside of the micro bikini top¡¯s shoulder strap. ¡°I¡¯ve temporarily fused with the Succubus to help the ritual go more smoothly.¡± ¡°Yahoo, master!¡± said the Succubus¡¯s voice from somewhere. ¡°If you miss me, just call for me. Your dreamtime partner is right here!¡± ¡°Well, her master contract is connected to you, but we added in a bypass to trick the contract. Demons don¡¯t actually have physical bodies, but a Succubus is a rare exception. They have the power to construct their own body and we¡¯re using that to hide her in my womb by-¡­¡± ¡°Hmm. Maybe it¡¯s gravity doing it, but boobs have so much more impact when they¡¯re upside down! And other than ¡®that¡¯ and I guess ¡®that¡¯ too, there aren¡¯t many other poses that give you such a good view¡­¡± ¡°Are you even listening to me?¡± ¡°And did you say you messed with my demon contract? Succubus, this isn¡¯t like opening a hole in the bottom of the bucket of my soul, is it!?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t screw up like that, master. It¡¯s just sharing your senses a little. Oh, and your lifespan.¡± ¡°Hold up! Is there no going back on that!?¡± ¡°In some rare cases, it can fluctuate pretty wildly and end up something like a market crash.¡± ¡°Now you¡¯re really scaring me!!¡± I needed to calm myself down. And hadn¡¯t she mentioned something about my senses? ¡°Nn.¡± I tested it by touching my right ear and for some reason the upside down micro bikini woman gave a little jump. She pulled up her shoulder like something tickled and acted like she was holding something between her right shoulder and cheek. Yes, almost like someone had blown on her right ear. ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°Calm down, Jinnai Shinobu.¡± ¡°Ohhhh!? That means¡­what does that mean? What happens to Marguerite if I touch my own chest right now? I¡¯m not doing anything to anyone, so there couldn¡¯t be a problem, right? Because I¡¯m not doing anything to anyone!!¡± ¡°¡­!!!???¡± Marguerite trembled and blushed, but she squeezed her lips tightly shut to keep her voice from escaping. Now, a question. I had to calm down and think about this. Were my senses really linked with the blonde witch¡¯s? Or was a silly boy getting all worked up on his own while he groped his own chest? Which was it!? I figured the odds were 50% or greater that it was a lie. After all, this information came from a Western demon and lying was pretty much their job. And not the heartwarming and kind lies. They would heartlessly laugh at you afterwards. ¡°No,¡± said the Succubus¡¯s voice. ¡°Marguerite really is trying hard not to moan right now.¡± ¡°The entire point is that I can¡¯t trust you. Here¡¯s the tape.¡± ¡°Kh.¡± The witch must have also enjoyed putting on deceptive acts because her shoulders trembled as she hesitantly took the roll of duct tape from me. Her breaths seemed strangely heated and seductive. ¡°Pant, pant. I thought I was prepared when I heard we would be mixing Eastern and Western, but the rules of the paranormal really do run on¡­well, it would be nice to call them rhymes, but it¡¯s really more like puns.¡± ¡°Hm? Puns?¡± ¡°In Japanese, four sounds like death and nine sounds like suffering, so even adults will avoid those numbers. And Oni wear tiger striped loincloths because Oni are traditionally associated with the northeast, which is close to the direction associated with tigers. Power is more easily summoned by images simple enough for a child to understand, but you need to be careful because unintended associations can create new connections and allow the power to escape. It¡¯s like how gathering water is easy but maintaining pure water is hard.¡± ¡°That does seem to be how it works. A lot of the legends about gaining eternal youth are based on wordplay. For example, there are apparently no religious rules behind the idea that eating soba at New Year¡¯s helps you live a long life.¡± ¡°Have you seen those prayer charms for passing exams?¡± ¡°Crazy, isn¡¯t it? But don¡¯t worry. The Japanese know how silly it is. It¡¯s like a special product for an annual winter festival.¡± As we continued our chat(?), I heard a commotion from the living room. Marguerite waved and ducked back into the attic, so I went to deal with the commotion. The two red and white Zashiki Warashi were tilting their heads together in the living room. I followed their gazes. ¡°How in the world did this happen?¡± ¡°Oh, papa.¡± ¡°I am Shisa. The Yuki Onna is in trouble.¡± The Aoandon and Shisa spoke up as soon as they saw me. As for the Yuki Onna¡­ ¡°K-kyuuuuuuuuh¡­¡± Why was she stuck on her back in the gap between the floor and the short-legged stand for the 50-inch flat screen TV? I peeked on the other side which wasn¡¯t cleaned often and had a lot of dust. I could see the Yuki Onna¡¯s face and she looked about to pass out. ¡°We had to get behind the TV for the big renovation project, but she decided to climb below the TV stand because she didn¡¯t want to move it.¡± ¡°And she got stuck?¡± She must have struggled a lot on her own because her kimono had mostly come off of her lower body. While a kimono seemed to provide high defense, they didn¡¯t have to move much for them to become entirely useless. ¡°Is it just me or have you gotten bigger, Yuki Onna!? Your size is completely off!¡± ¡°U-uuh¡­ That lazy Youkai distorted destiny, so I ran into some old friends¡­ Th-that got me fired up in a bad way, so my body ended up like this. That damage was like something from a tenth or twentieth year class reunion, so a child like you wouldn¡¯t understand, Jinnai Shinobu.¡± She was a little more sexy than usual. It was possible she had gotten stuck because she wasn¡¯t used to the size of her body. ¡°What should we do, papa?¡± ¡°Um, I take it from the state of her kimono that you already tried pulling her out by the legs.¡± ¡°I am Shisa. Her stomach or hips must be caught because she would not budge.¡± ¡°It¡¯s my chest or butt!! I¡¯ll kill you, you summer Youkai!!¡± We could rescue her right away if we moved the TV stand, but I could understand why the Yuki Onna had wanted to avoid that. That proper method would be a huge pain. We would have to unhook the TV¡¯s antenna cord, the power cord, the fiber optic wire for cable, and all the wiring for the DVR and game systems. Then we would have to move the equipment out of the way. Only then could we lift the TV stand. So¡­ ¡°Let¡¯s leave rearranging the furniture as a last resort and go with the standards first. If we get her wet with detergent or something, she might slip right on out.¡± ¡°Heh. Eh heh heh. Jinnai Shinobu getting me wet!? Not bad. Yes, not bad at all! This is clearly an unnecessary detour set in place by the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi, but I don¡¯t even care!!¡± That was when the perfect Youkai, a Nure Onna, showed up. She must have been tired from the work because she was wetting down her body at the sink in the kitchen adjacent to the living room. When I explained the situation, the woman with wet hair (and see-through clothing) simply pointed to the TV stand with a troubled look. I looked back over. ¡°Eh heh heh. Eh heh heh heh heh. I-if you like you could use salad dressing or a mysterious sticky liquid that falls into the ¡®joke goods¡¯ category. Eh heh heh heh heh¡­¡± ¡°Ahh¡­ Papa, I think the TV stand is starting to freeze. The gap below is probably entirely filled with ice. Throwing water on her would just freeze her in place even more.¡± ¡°Then what are we supposed to do?¡± As I complained, I felt a tug on my sleeve. Mei, the Zashiki Warashi in a white yukata, had silently approached at some point and she handed something to me. It was a candle that had likely come from a disaster-preparedness bag. ¡°Ehh!? I kind of get using the fire element on the ice element, but isn¡¯t a candle getting a little too kinky!?¡± ¡°(Jump!?) Eh!? A candle!? (Fidget fidget)¡± The Yuki Onna struggled without knowing what was going on, but she had no way to resist while stuck there. Perhaps because she too belonged to the candle element (?), the Aoandon tilted her head with her forehead horn glowing with its bluish-white phosphorescence. ¡°Huh? You¡¯re not into that, papa? I thought for sure you¡¯d be all for a chance to enjoy the Yuki Onna¡¯s reactions.¡± ¡°Well, while I do want to sleep with as many women as possible, I can¡¯t stand seeing a girl who honestly isn¡¯t enjoying it. It¡¯s a total turn off. But if she really wants to do it, then I¡¯m prepared to do just about anything!!¡± Yukari hit me for my honesty. And she used her fist too! Aren¡¯t girls supposed to slap you!? ¡°I am Shisa. So what do we do about the Yuki Onna? I feel bad for her like this.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Hm? What is it, Jinnai Shinobu? Why are you picking me up?¡± ¡°I-it can¡¯t be¡­¡± said the Yuki Onna as she trembled on her back below the TV stand. Yes. ¡°A candle might be a bit much, but rubbing a summer Youkai against her shouldn¡¯t be as bad, right?¡± ¡°W-wait, Jinnai Shinobu!! That is a fatal combination, much like dropping a popsicle on the hot asphalt!¡± ¡°Ehh? The Shisa won¡¯t work?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. He won¡¯t work at all.¡± ¡°In that case¡­ Hey, Marguerite.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± ¡°Do something about this. Witches are pretty general-purpose, so you can handle any element right? Use some kind of fire magic.¡± ¡°How will that help!? If a candle was too much, why would you think fire itself would be fine!?¡± ¡°Ehhh? It¡¯s magic, so won¡¯t it just all gently melt away?¡± ¡°Let her roast you a little first if you think that!!¡± As she hung upside-down from the attic with her wonderful micro bikini, Marguerite thought for a bit and held out a strange item that looked like a magnet on the tip of a red-painted plastic umbrella. ¡°It¡¯s clich¨¦, but summoning a Salamander might work. I¡¯ll restrict the amount of the gathered element to keep it at the size of a chameleon.¡± ¡°Hee hee hee!! What is that licking at my calf!? That isn¡¯t a dog or a cat! That¡¯s the creepy sensation of a lizard!¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I say it was a Salamander?¡± ¡°I-isn¡¯t there¡­isn¡¯t there a better way of warming my body!? Oh, I know! You could wrap a string of Christmas lights around me like this and that to tie me up tight.¡± ¡°And how are we supposed to tie you up when you¡¯re stuck under the TV stand?¡± ¡°I-I have a hint: how do young men and women warm each other up inside mountain cabins in the winter?¡± ¡°No, thank you. If I embraced something that¡¯s fifty below zero, I¡¯d freeze to death. Ask me again once you¡¯re a little weaker.¡± ¡°No, not the toes. Why is this animal licking between my toes so thoroughly!?¡± Oh, I think it¡¯s working. It was looking like I wouldn¡¯t need to grab the Aoandon¡¯s head and use her as a candle for the Yuki Onna. I had been worried her phosphorescence wasn¡¯t really all that hot. ¡°Ah, ahh, ahhhhhh¡­ Jinnai Shinobu is attacking me with an animal. It¡¯s the animal that is tormenting me, yet Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s will is working through the animal¡­ H-how am I supposed to process these feelings? ¡­I-it¡¯s too much!!¡± As the weird orange-glowing lizard or chameleon played around with the Yuki Onna¡¯s calf and toes, the frozen TV stand gradually thawed. At the same time, the Yuki Onna shrunk. Once her usual bodylines were back, she slipped right out. We had finally rescued her. ¡°Sigh¡­ That was extremely silly, but maybe we should see it as odd that we¡¯re getting trapped by these silly things at this time of crisis. The Ver. 39¡¯s curse is frightening indeed.¡± ¡°I feel like we¡¯ve just started to blame her for everything unpleasant.¡± ¡°More importantly, papa, what do we do now?¡± ¡°?¡± I tilted my head at the Aoandon¡¯s question, so my far too well developed daughter clarified. ¡°For the big renovation project. We can¡¯t move on until we finish behind the TV.¡± ¡°¡­¡± We all turned toward the wet Yuki Onna. She was the perfect size now and she would be slippery too since she was absolutely soaked. ¡°W-w-w-w-w-wait! Please don¡¯t all push me at once! I just proved I don¡¯t fit! Ah-ahhh!! Is this more of the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi¡¯s interference!? Mgyuhhh!?¡± Part 8 (Hishigami Mai) ¡°Anyway.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± We were in a certain metropolitan area and I was a little chilly with just a jacket over my tank top and hot pants. The nature-loving Sunekosuri looked a little nauseous, so I started talking to distract him. ¡°Why are you still working for Hyakki Yakou? You found your wife Ohatsu, so you¡¯ve returned your whole family to Gisuke. I don¡¯t see any more reason to stick around.¡± ¡°I thought the same thing at first,¡± replied the Sunekosuri in my arms. ¡°But when I started collecting my things, I felt reluctant to leave. I had finished everything I went there to do and there was nothing more of value for me to do there, but I was still hesitant. That¡¯s when I realized that, while Ohatsu and Gisuke are important, that isn¡¯t all that¡¯s important.¡± ¡°Oh? So you found a new objective while working in this underground business?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure. The era is going to change and Hyakki Yakou is going to run across all sorts of dangers, so they¡¯ll want as much help as they can get. I just can¡¯t bear to turn my back on Hafuri-sama and the others and leave on my own. My family is important and they need a peaceful life, but¡­but that isn¡¯t all. I¡¯m not just an accessory to my family.¡± ¡°Those are some dangerous words.¡± ¡°I know that. If Ohatsu heard me, she¡¯d probably bite me for real. But I can¡¯t just return to the peaceful world and abandon everyone I¡¯ve fought alongside for so long. I want to remain their allies and I want to remain a part of Hyakki Yakou. I can¡¯t lie about that.¡± The stuffed animal changed the subject there. ¡°What about you, Mai-san?¡± ¡°Me? This is purely business for me. The young lady and the Ver. 40 apparently went to open a hole in Noukotsu Village, but they paid me a fair bit in advance. I¡¯m only doing as much work as they paid for.¡± ¡°Even though the Japanese yen could be utterly worthless any day now?¡± ¡°¡­¡± Oh, I see. You¡¯ve gotten some guts, Sunekosuri. I carried my partner over to a tour bus with tinted windows parked on the side of a metropolitan road and I knocked on the door. The Supplier who owned the special machine claimed it would let him survive even if an asteroid hit the earth and triggered an ice age, but now he was curled up in a corner of the giant vehicle. ¡°Mai-san, I screwed up. If I¡¯d known this was going to happen, I wouldn¡¯t have worked so hard to build something that could endure on earth. I would have built something that let me abandon the earth.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re gonna go that far, wouldn¡¯t it be faster to turn yourself into an octopus alien? I thoroughly modified my own body, so I could help you out.¡± ¡°Mai-san!!¡± ¡°Ah, don¡¯t cling to me with tears and snot all over your face! I was joking! Just joking!!¡± I did understand why the cowardly Supplier would be so afraid of the approaching extinction of mankind, though. The Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi issue was ground zero, but the derivative moral hazards were nothing to sneeze at either. The commotion in the TV news, newspapers, and online news was only the tip of the iceberg. It had reached those of us in the underground businesses too. Yes. Underground businesses dealt in money as well. It wasn¡¯t generally known (in fact, the very existence of the businesses wasn¡¯t), but the overall circulation of black money underwent changes too. That meant bubbles could form. Just like how the value of land and classic cars could skyrocket with no connection to the actual economy. ¡°So how are things going for you?¡± ¡°Probably the same as for you, Mai-san. Just looking at the requests I get makes me hate my life.¡± ¡°I figured as much. I¡¯ve been getting more and more people approaching me without using any real middleman like they have a death wish or something.¡± ¡°Eh? Eh?¡± The Sunekosuri seemed to feel left behind at my feet. But I¡¯m super nice, so I decided to help out the pretty Youkai. ¡°There have been a lot more requests to kill people. And the amount they¡¯re paying keeps going up. Of course, there¡¯s no real set price for underground jobs like theft and killing. It¡¯s a world of market value and suggested value. But those have been jumping all over the place and we¡¯ve entered an age where people buy a single burger with a stack of cash. Nothing good comes from giving idiots a ton of money!!¡± ¡°B-but aren¡¯t you an agent that gets unofficial orders from Hyakki Yakou!? And they¡¯re giving you jobs as casually as ordering a burger!?¡± ¡°Some want me to silence their nagging mama, some want me to attack a teammate so they can take the regular spot, and the list goes on. It¡¯s like the price is skyrocketing while the value of the job is tanking. But if I don¡¯t do anything, I bet some other assassin will show up to do it. After all, these jobs are far easier than attacking some strictly guarded VIP after investigating their transportation route and bodyguard arrangement. And they still pay plenty. Those other assassins are probably still cautious since these might be traps, but anyone can make a ton of money if they throw out their pride.¡± The excessively high payments were probably stopping people for the time being. People had a weakness for what they considered a fair price. For example, who would believe a 200 yen diamond was real? Before getting into the quality of the jewel, they would be blinded by the questionable price. The excessively high payments were the same. They would assume some ulterior motive and suspect something bad would happen to them when they showed up for the job. But anyway. Once the moral hazard burned through that normal suspicion, there would be no stopping it. And did those amateurs innocently making requests like some kind of king realize that a client with no backbone could more easily make money by attacking them for everything they had than by actually doing the dangerous jobs? It was possible someone was already writing up a list. ¡°But that¡¯s not the worst part.¡± ¡°Eh? Th-there¡¯s more?¡± The Sunekosuri trembled at the Supplier¡¯s deep voice. ¡°The worst part is that the biggest increase isn¡¯t in that kind of casual killing. Yes, yes. It¡¯s been a while, since these jobs were coming in. And I thought I¡¯d forgotten how the dark side of society could drag an individual¡¯s heart into such awful places.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a lot of another kind of job,¡± I nonchalantly explained. ¡°Requests from cowardly people who want to be gently killed. It¡¯s from people like politicians and presidents of major corporations. The country is still celebrating the greatest festival it will ever see, but those with real power understand that this is the end of the world. Those in control of the world have all thrown in the towel and are spending their personal fortunes on suicide. Pretty harsh, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°¡­¡± The Sunekosuri didn¡¯t seem able to ask any more questions. Or maybe he was afraid of getting any more answers. As I wondered which it was, a call reached my satellite phone. He was persistent, I¡¯ll give him that. I hit the button to reject the call. ¡°A-are you sure, Mai-san?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t worry.¡± I waved my hand dismissively. ¡°It¡¯s just a VIP of the Hishigami Group asking me to kill him. I don¡¯t have time to deal with his pathetic complaining.¡± The Sunekosuri shook violently, but it was hardly a surprise for the Supplier. ¡°Oh, so they¡¯re doing that ¡®aboveground¡¯ too?¡± ¡°I take it that means the same thing¡¯s happening ¡®underground¡¯?¡± ¡°Juunin Toiro, Meikyou Shisui, Shinshutsu Kibotsu¡­and well, all the elders from groups like that. Although they have to maintain appearances, so they send the request under a false name and through several intermediaries.¡± That was why we were visiting him. Although the Sunekosuri didn¡¯t seem aware of it. ¡°So that means¡­?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± The Supplier nodded. ¡°They¡¯ve used some tricks to hide it from the normal routes, but a few high-ranking members of Hyakki Yakou have made requests too. They feel they can (in a way) trust you, so they want you to kill them as if putting them to sleep. How long is this going to last?¡± Hmm. If people on that level have thrown in the towel, it might just last until the end of the world. Part 9 (Jinnai Shinobu) The work ended up taking two to three days. I had been worried my impatient dad and grampa would drive out all the freeloaders (or that the Ver. 39 would manipulate destiny in that way to stop us), but they somehow managed to restrain themselves. That was partially because I persuaded them, but it also had to do with help from my Youkai-loving mom and gramma. Then again, this too was probably due to the power to manipulate destiny. But not the Ver. 39¡¯s. I mean Zashiki Warashi Yukari¡¯s. The two powers were in conflict. It looked like comical Youkai getting into trouble, arguments over whether to let them stay or kick them out, and a small-scale fight to save my girlfriend, but the scales actually held the runaway credit rating agencies, the collapse of the government bond system, and a global panic covering the entire planet¡¯s population of seven billion. That was just how much power the Ver. 39 had. I couldn¡¯t let the adorable appearance of the local events fool me. I couldn¡¯t let my guard down around these exhausting events. What I had to fear most wasn¡¯t a ferocious beast¡¯s giant maw that could bite through steel and it wasn¡¯t a genius criminal with a nightmarishly clever mind. It was that I couldn¡¯t even reach the actual battleground. We were going to all this effort just to stand on that same field. We were walking on and on through the labyrinth and being pressed to give up on our own. I had to keep going until the very, very end. I had to save my girlfriend Yukari by freeing her from her bloodstained trait and from the Ver. 39¡¯s power which would bring ruin to the world. I couldn¡¯t let myself leave those rails. No matter what. So¡­ ¡°Jinnai Shinobu!¡± The Youkai may have been able to sense it better than a human like me. The Package was complete. The Aoandon called out to me from the side. Either due to her experience in Hyakki Yakou or her senses as a half-Youkai, Hafuri picked up on something and shouted a warning. ¡°Hurry up and use this!! A great fluctuation is appearing! At this rate, you¡¯ll have at most one chance at this!!¡± I glanced at what she threw toward me and saw the kaleidoscope spinning through the air. The Aoandon and Hafuri were unable to say more. Or maybe my sense of time simply vanished. I heard a sharp sound. Mei, the Zashiki Warashi in a white yukata, had started glaring intently at me in a way she never had before. She had done something. She had used the Ver. 40. But for what? I already knew she wasn¡¯t our enemy, so it must have been to protect me from something. Even if I wanted to see what it was, I couldn¡¯t even turn my head while engulfed in the field of stopped time. The kaleidoscope flew extremely slowly through the air and I sensed some new footsteps. A red form approached from the tea room. It was my beloved girlfriend. It was Yukari. But something wasn¡¯t right. The Good-for-Nothing Youkai stood just ten meters away. She hung her head a little in her red yukata, but it no longer had a flower pattern. Instead, it had human handprints. But not adult ones. The countless eerie handprints were of small children. And it wasn¡¯t just that she had changed into a new yukata. The handprints moved freely along the surface of the yukata as if tracing themselves along my girlfriend¡¯s seductive bodylines. It was like a projection mapping on a building wall. ¡°What¡­?¡± Red was the symbol of the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi, so was this the Ver. 39 running out of control? Once I realized that, the presence of the spinning kaleidoscope grew much larger in my mind. It was the first and last piece needed to seal away the Ver. 39¡¯s ruinous power. Grabbing it would reject its destiny. That was why this paranormal phenomena had started and why the Zashiki Warashi had transformed. With each millimeter the kaleidoscope approached my hand, she had to be leaving reality at a quadratic rate. The Zashiki Warashi¡¯s yukata had become a sea of handprints. Her ankle-length black hair began to move. Something danced within that hair that had the luster of polished ebony. They were bones. Specifically, human skulls. These too looked like they belonged to small children. They swam freely through that sea of fine black hair like the moon reflected in a lake at night. Sometimes a skull covered her bangs, sometimes one circled behind her with the long black hair acting as a screen, and sometimes one clung to the side of her head like it was rubbing cheeks with her. Then I recalled that the Zashiki Warashi was an aggregation of the children killed during famines and the like. She took the form of a sexy Youkai, but if someone like Majina of the old Hyakki Yakou broke her down into her original phenomenon, countless deaths would cling to her. These had not attached themselves to her. They were coming out from within her. That was why we had built the Package. That was why I was attempting to grasp that first and last chance. And the skulls swimming through her hair used a low, low voice to give me a simple but absolute command. The voice seemed to come from the headphones she always had around her neck. ¡°Die.¡± It was filled with hopeless malice. The almost childishly simplified statement was innocently sharp. That may have come from the mentality of those children killed to have one less mouth to feed. Then the distorted sense of time came to an end. My fingers finally touched the kaleidoscope. I grabbed it. ¡°Yukari.¡± I called her name, but I already knew deep down that I wouldn¡¯t get an answer. She changed again. She passed some kind of limit. She was now the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. She was something meant to invite death to the world. So I said more. ¡°I will bring you back. I will save you.¡± My senses returned. A moment later, everything vanished. Except for the Zashiki Warashi and me, the entire world became a tatami mat floor that stretched beyond the horizon. It went far beyond the concept of projection mapping. My ability to verbalize it was about at its limit. Her long black hair slithered like snakes and hid more than half her face. Small decorative jewels glared at me like twisted eyeballs. Countless handprints moved across the yukata that contained her bewitching body. The entire world had been blotted out as soon as they had dripped from the bottom of the yukata like drops of water and reached the floor. ¡°¡­!!!???¡± The tatami mats were bright crimson, as if soaked with fresh blood. The heavens were pitch black, as if dyed with evil. Flames flickered atop tall candlesticks lined up at even intervals as far as the eye could see. Those flames were the only light source. Candles were commonly seen as symbols of life or a lifespan. There was also the eerie legend about a Zashiki Warashi predicting a fire before its family declined and fell into ruin. It was all so colorful and psychedelic. Everything grounded in reality had been erased from this world. But I kind of understood. I had no proof, but I felt like I understood since I¡¯d been with the Zashiki Warashi all my life. A Zashiki Warashi manipulated destiny. But they were not destiny itself. They were just the controller or the terminal. In other words, there was something deeper. You could call it the main unit or the server. We had been dragged up from the world we normally lived in and had reached a higher ¡°stage¡± where that server lurked. You could call it the hidden side of the world. Or maybe it was the source code hidden behind the browser that gave it a nice understandable visual form. It was possible I couldn¡¯t properly grasp what this place was using my five senses. It may not have actually been what I was seeing. It was just like how the ancient Greeks used a combination of animals when imagining a monster. I couldn¡¯t deny the possibility that it was just so psychedelic that the resources in my mind could only throw together some kind of montage to show me. This was probably beyond what the human mind could comprehend. What did this look like to the Zashiki Warashi who was always in contact with this? But to my eyes at least, something pulsed down the surface of the candlesticks with each flicker of the flames and then slithered along the crimson tatami mats. I could not help but understand that this was causing ¡°something¡± to happen in the world we knew. Messing with that would destroy all of the emotions of the people working so hard to live day in and day out. Then it hit me what exactly the destiny controlled by the Zashiki Warashi really was. I didn¡¯t even have to confirm it. It came down to inevitable decline. It was the idea that decline was inevitable for even the most prosperous person. That concept had worked itself deeply into the Japanese psyche over a thousand years or more. Think of Dan-no-Ura, Honnouji, or Sekigahara. Even historic figures who influenced an entire era were forced to accept their own ruin as inevitable when the powerful, powerful fangs and claws of destiny reached them. But there was nothing odd about it showing up here. I mean, that¡¯s just what a Zashiki Warashi was. They brought prosperity when they arrived at a house and they drove the house to ruin when they left. They were truly the messengers of inevitable decline. That was a concept you couldn¡¯t remove or ignore when talking about a Zashiki Warashi. There were beginnings and there were endings. There was creation and there was destruction. There was life and there was death. There was no opposite pattern. It was inevitable, so it was only a matter of sooner or later. Whatever the speed, the gears could only turn in one direction and those gears were the true essence of a Zashiki Warashi. And as I was trying to forcibly turn those gears in the opposite direction with the kaleidoscope, the Ver. 39 seemed to speak to me. It seemed to say I had successfully acquired your beloved and that was exactly why destruction must come to me. It was truly awful. The greater my success, the greater the absolute defeat that would follow. It was the extreme form and original version of the childish idea that people had a fixed amount of luck so if something good happened, something bad was sure to follow. Inevitable decline was a truly frightening sort of destiny. It was an unshakable malice and nothing could be more persuasive as every Japanese person understood it. Everyone assumed good luck would not last forever and often even wanted to see the successful suffer. The nail that sticks out gets hammered and we all fall equally. It was a subconscious aggregation of evil thoughts. It was a dark inheritance that no one had ever been able to throw out. It could be the Taira clan and the Minamoto clan. It could be Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa. Even if they had conquered Japan, that ultimate and solitary law would drag them down from the stage of history and force the end of an era onto them. In a way, it was a form of destiny that every Japanese person could picture just by closing their eyes. But. Even so. That didn¡¯t matter. I didn¡¯t care what it was. What I knew was simple but could not have been more critical. The Ver. 39 had been gently using natural shifts in destiny to interfere with us before, but it had finally decided drastic measures like this were necessary. It had brought out the handprints on her yukata and the skulls in her hair while showing off this hidden side of the world. This could not have been worse for me, but the same went for it. This dead end was also my best chance of turning this around. And turn it around I will, Ver. 39. I don¡¯t give a crap about inevitable decline. I won¡¯t let you turn this success into ruin. I¡¯ll turn this ruin into success. You could only settle in and leave and you could only give out and take away fortune on a whim, but I¡¯ll show you a new path. That said, I didn¡¯t really know what I was supposed to do with the kaleidoscope. But when I reflexively took a step toward the Zashiki Warashi, a change assaulted me. ¡°?¡± The skulls used her headphones to howl emptily at me. ¡°Die.¡± ¡°Die!¡± ¡°Fail.¡± ¡°Ah ha ha!!¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to fail.¡± ¡°Are you stupid?¡± ¡°Ee hee ha ha ha!!¡± ¡°Why are you taking this so seriously?¡± ¡°Die!¡± ¡°Give up.¡± ¡°Everyone must die!!¡± ¡°Stop.¡± ¡°Shut up.¡± ¡°You¡¯re an eyesore.¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± ¡°The way you take this so seriously is just a pain.¡± ¡°Ksh.¡± ¡°Kssshhhh!!¡± The deluge of noise lost all meaning and became a single cracked roar. It was on the move. Faint drops of light ran through the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s long glossy black hair. As soon as that light dripped to the red tatami mats, an infinitely expanding ripple instantly flowed to the horizon in every direction. That was when it happened. The way was forcefully closed. Countless translucent and glowing red sliding screens closed in from the left and right between Yukari and me. Some symbols were drawn on the surfaces, but there were too many of them to make out any individual one. I simply saw the Zashiki Warashi standing beyond that red color. It looked like less than ten meters, but the infinite number of ultra-thin screens created an absolute wall in my way. They were red. They were bloodstained. They seemed to be refusing anyone that would shake her existence, her coloration, and her essence. ¡°To hell with that¡­¡± What did those screens mean and what were they really? Why would I bother thinking about that? ¡°To hell with all of this!!¡± I gathered speed and prepared to kick through them rather than open them. Immediately, I felt my sense of time die once more. This second time, it finally occurred to me that it was much like the feeling of running out into the road and finding a tanker truck approaching you. It was a lot like having your life flash before your eyes. When I felt that and had the incomprehensible phenomenon surround me, I finally realized what those translucent red screens were. Each and every one was filled with just as much ¡°death¡± as a speeding tanker truck. An endless supply was lined up before my eyes as a barrier that I couldn¡¯t breach no matter how many lives I had. Part 10 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) We had no choice but to do it. We used the Yakata-II cruise ship¡¯s trading room to wage war with the Hishigami Group that was interfering with the satellite debris business by sending debris to the earth, including the nuclear batteries and tanks of dangerous rocket fuel. Seika-san and Madoka-chan bought up the rocket launch brokers they were trying to use while we made waves of posts on the message boards and forums people from that business used. We insisted that the Hishigami General Trading Group was doomed to fail and working with them would end badly. There were plenty of ways to send something into space these days. In addition to the rockets and shuttles managed by the government, there were projects by companies and universities that launched single-stage rockets from high-altitude airplanes or giant balloons that reached the stratosphere. Groups and organizations with the tech to leave the atmosphere were popping up like bamboo shoots after a rain. That meant buying up and crushing each and every one would no longer work. The infinitely expanding possibilities defeated our limited buying ability. We had to close off those many possibilities by informing the world that they would gain nothing by working with Hishigami. That was our only chance. And yet¡­ ¡°Warning: They¡¯re doing this to help us all, so why would you try to make them sound dangerous? Do you just want attention? Are you shilling for someone?¡± ¡°Squall: And when the killer satellites detonate to bring down the debris, won¡¯t the exploded killer satellites make new debris? It¡¯s like a perpetual motion machine! It¡¯s a never-ending lottery!!¡± ¡°Kitty Lion: If you¡¯re against this, you must be one of those people getting rich off the satellite debris. Yes, yes. Pay them no heed. Better luck next time!¡± ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡°Damn, it¡¯s no good! We¡¯re telling the truth, but they make us out to be the bad guys. How can they rejoice at a civilian project that¡¯s going to contaminate the entire world!? Do they want to see destruction that badly!?¡± ¡°You might not be that far off the mark,¡± muttered Enbi. ¡°There isn¡¯t some mastermind behind this. Hishigami is becoming something of a symbol, but they aren¡¯t directly manipulating the information. This is the overall will of the internet. They¡¯re averting their gaze from the destruction as they approach the cliff. Doesn¡¯t it look like they¡¯re enjoying the aesthetics of destruction? Just like how the ancient Greek empire had its fill of all kinds of entertainment and then decayed amid corruption and degeneracy.¡± ¡°I refuse to believe that,¡± I spat out. It may have been true Japan was enjoying the festivities. The network and the bonds magic trick had given them plenty of money, they had bought everything they wanted, and they had nothing else to spend their money on, so they were pouring money into this nonsense. But that wasn¡¯t all. In Intellectual Villages, there were plenty of farmers who created those valuable vegetables. There were also plenty of living national treasures. There were craftsmen whose metalworking could not be recreated by the precision machinery in the city and performers who continued the traditions of noh and kabuki. In fact, it didn¡¯t matter if they had special qualifications or a name everyone knew. It could just as well be the people working hard at convenience stores or gas stations. Or the daily paper boy and the delivery service for old folks with weak backs. There were plenty of people working to keep the gears of society turning without getting involved in these festivities! And you expect me to believe they were drowning in desire and wished for death? Nonsense. People were free to grow world-weary and let their hearts fester if they wanted, but I couldn¡¯t let that subsection of the rich drag everyone else down with them! This may not have been the core of the issue and it may not have mattered to Shinobu and the Zashiki Warashi, but no matter how far removed from the center this was, people were still suffering. Then how could I allow it to continue? I had to stop it here! Enbi must have liked how I had replied so quickly because she giggled next to me. And she spoke. ¡°Then let¡¯s continue our futile struggle to the very, very end.¡± Once the Mystery Freak said that, I heard a confused voice from Madoka-chan. ¡°We have some requests coming in. Um, they¡¯re from¡­PSI_ver_RAIN and Anemura Kaede???¡± ¡°Finally.¡± The twintailed demon snapped her fingers. ¡°One¡¯s an online idol whose new songs reach thirty million views within twenty four hours and the other¡¯s a regular member of the national idol group Tarot Girls 22. With them on our side, we can change the direction this is headed! We can destroy this disgusting mood of pessimism!!¡± Part 11 (Hishigami Mai) A tremendous blow hit the Supplier¡¯s modified tour bus. The entire vehicle shook. My focus shifted to the handgun hidden in the heel of my boot. The large bus weighed a dozen or so tons on its own, so it wouldn¡¯t budge from a normal vehicle collision. That meant something just as big had hit it. The Supplier had been driving it around, but now he gave a wide-eyed shout. ¡°Mai-san! A twenty ton truck is attacking! Any ideas who it might be!?¡± ¡°Oh, honestly¡­¡± I looked out the tinted windows and a call reached my satellite phone. I kept rejecting the calls, but he couldn¡¯t take a hint! ¡°Hi, Mai. It¡¯s your brother. I couldn¡¯t bear it any longer, so I came to discuss it with you directly. Could you maybe destroy the Hishigami Group we¡¯ve constructed!?¡± ¡°Kyou-chan, what happened to the reasonable-obsessed brother I knew? Not even the underground businesses crash their vehicles together like a Hollywood movie in this camera-filled city!¡± ¡°Hah hah hah. Didn¡¯t I tell you? We can only obey what people consider reasonable. Look at the city around you. This is spreading without end. We¡¯re approaching a world where this kind of dangerous driving is perfectly normal.¡± I heard screeching tires. But it did not come from our bus or Hishigami Kyou¡¯s truck. A few fancy Italian cars had drifted through the intersection right in front of us. It looked like the drivers were college aged if not younger. And based on the roar of the engines, they had clearly been tuned to pro racing standards. These were not cars that should be driving on public roads. If they lost control at that speed, the sidewalks would become a sea of blood in no time, but the crowds were cheering rather than screaming. They were starting to turn their smartphone and cellphone lenses toward the cars as they uploaded photos to their blog or gave commentary on a live broadcast. It could not have been sillier. ¡°What counts as reasonable is only going to get more sickening.¡± The voice seemed to be cursing that fact. ¡°Do you know what our company is doing now? We have no choice but to be dragged down with this god-awful moral hazard!!¡± The heavy masses crashed together and sometimes knocked down telephone poles and streetlights, but I was focused elsewhere. Specifically, the roof of the truck¡¯s trailer. The bodyguards with names like Zei and Akane wore the kunoichi-like Yozakura suits while hiding below cloaks covered in patterns that used the science of perception to divert attention away. ¡°This isn¡¯t good. They¡¯re going to board us, Supplier!!¡± ¡°So please do something about this!¡± said my brother. ¡°Isn¡¯t that your role, Mai!?¡± With those words, red Zei, blue Akane, and yellow Ran lightly jumped between the two vehicles and smashed through the reinforced glass to get inside. Youkai medicine had been used to artificially implant these monsters with Hishigami Women traits. I ignored the storm of glass shards and took a breath to prepare myself while Zei tossed aside her cloak and spoke with no expression on her face. ¡°Assist us, original.¡± ¡°Oh, shut up. Unlike you artificial ones, I have no obligation to help a rich man with his hobby.¡± ¡°That is fine.¡± I had not expected that answer. Zei jerked her chin toward the truck. ¡°Throwing our lives away for Kyou-sama would be our greatest joy. His meeting with Uchimaku Hayabusa should have planted the seeds of a pleasant change inside him. We cannot allow that sprout to be trampled, even by Kyou-sama himself.¡± ¡°¡­¡± I fell silent. As a ferocious wind entered through the broken window, the Sunekosuri ran back and forth in confusion. ¡°What do you want me to do?¡± ¡°That truck is not meant to destroy the target by crashing into it. It is a special vehicle created to carry something.¡± ¡°Hold on. You don¡¯t mean¡­!?¡± ¡°Ou.¡± Zei spoke a name. That name meant ¡°slaughter¡±. ¡°She is a failure based on the anti-human Hishigami Enbi. If she is activated here, this city of thirty million will be destroyed. Kyou-sama¡¯s rational side is just barely holding him back now, but if the reasonableness afflicting him grows any more distorted, there will be no stopping it. We want you to cut the storage pod from the truck before that happens.¡± Part 12 (Jinnai Shinobu) ¡°¡­¡± I still didn¡¯t know what the screens were. But the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s Ver. 39 power to control destiny had likely done something. It was getting in my way, keeping the kaleidoscope away, and protecting its system. It was using the law of inevitable decline to rob me of success. ¡°See?¡± ¡°You failed.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve failed.¡± ¡°No chance of success remains.¡± ¡°You will die.¡± ¡°You will fail.¡± ¡°You will lose everything.¡± ¡°You tried to act cool.¡± ¡°You tried to act important.¡± ¡°But you only embarrassed yourself.¡± ¡°So watch as you lose everything.¡± ¡°Reach for it.¡± ¡°Realize you can¡¯t reach it.¡± ¡°Die.¡± ¡°Die!¡± ¡°Die!!¡± ¡°Ksshh!!¡± The skulls displayed in the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s black hair mocked me through her headphones. They were saying I¡¯d fallen for their trap and stepped onto the rails of ruin on my own. And they did so with a childish sort of evil. But¡­ ¡°Ha ha.¡± You little brats. Do you really think you can steal my girlfriend from me? You might as well have already given me the answer. If the Ver. 39 was working this hard to keep me away, there had to be a good reason for that. I didn¡¯t know how to use the kaleidoscope. I knew nothing about occult Packages. If it hadn¡¯t done anything, I might have wandered aimlessly until I ran out of time. But it had pointed my compass in the right direction. And in the most difficult direction. Thanks for telling me I just need to get close to the Zashiki Warashi, Ver. 39!! ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± I gathered enough strength in my body to break free of the seemingly stopped time brought on by the fear of death. It felt like the very space around me was cracking. But then red filled my vision. ¡ª¡ªAnd deep within the rising fear, ¡°it¡± truly assaulted me. After a bright flash, I found myself somewhere other than the infinite expanse of tatami mats. I saw nothing but gray dust for as far as the eye could see. It was a rural scene filled with every form of contaminant imaginable. In this land of the end, simply breathing in and out and simply blinking my eyes filled me with such intense pain that I thought fire was bursting from every hole in my body. ¡°Gblgh!! Agweh!! Glgah!!!!¡± I somewhat understood. This was the Hyakki Yakou Prototype Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi. She could control not just the current destiny, but create a brand new branch of destiny. Those barriers. Each and every screen contained an image of hell. It was those images that Buddhist monks drew on screens as a simple warning of what would awaited those who were excommunicated. Those screens of light had a thickness approaching on zero and they were filled with images of failed destinies, mistaken worlds, and hells. So this was a parallel world that could have happened. It was the result of a mistaken choice on my part. For example, if I had relied on the CIA at Goldmine Island and the national suicide Package had activated, this is what would have happened to the Japanese archipelago. The pain rushed at me all at once. I coughed up blood, my blood vessels seemed to crawl below my skin, and I clenched my teeth. Even so, I moved forward. I bore the pain of an entire world and moved further forward. ¡ª¡ªAnd ¡°it¡± wasn¡¯t just the one. I saw the world after the archipelago filled with zombies according to Majina¡¯s plan. The living dead grabbed at my arms and legs, bit into my flesh with teeth that reeked of decomposition, and tore me apart. Finally, I felt the fear of having my body rot from within. I was swallowed up by that fear. But I didn¡¯t care if my arms and legs were torn away or if my organs were dragged out. I just had to move forward. I had to keep going. As I clenched my teeth and worked against the powerful headwind, I suddenly wondered what my enemy was here. I knew it wasn¡¯t the Zashiki Warashi, but it might not have been the Ver. 39 either. Countless handprints oozed out onto her yukata and skulls swam through her glossy hair. They would sometimes circle around to the back with her black hair as a screen, they would sometimes cover her bangs, and they would sometimes move the side of her face as if rubbing cheeks with her. But even they may have been a broken safety device running out of control. Inevitable decline. The hidden side of the world where forgotten destinies gathered. The fragments of the ages gathered here, from past events like Dan-no-Ura, Honnouji, and Sekighara to the ¡°what ifs¡± where mistaken choices had led to ruin for any number of reasons. The entire world was swallowed and chewed to pieces, and the fragments gathered in this graveyard. Had this awful ¡°something¡± been dragged toward us because the Ver. 39 had carelessly reached it and contacted it? In that case, this fight wasn¡¯t about good or evil. It was about putting a lid on the ruinous power pouring down on us. It was about closing the floodgates in a world of neither good nor evil. I would do it. I understood that. I understood it now. It didn¡¯t matter what I was up against. I would reach my one and only beloved Yukari no matter what!! ¡ª¡ª¡°It¡± had a seemingly infinite number of layers. In a world where I had failed to stop Archdemon Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier who did not quite qualify as one of the seven deadly sins, I was swallowed up by such great sweetness that my entire vision grew bright red and I convulsed with blood pouring from every hole in my body. ¡°Gah¡­bah!! Khah!? Cough!!¡± In a world where the Aoandon¡¯s plan had succeeded, I learned true exhaustion and weariness as I wandered endlessly through an empty rural scene where none of the Japanese remained. ¡°Ah, ahh, ahhhhhh¡­.¡± In a world where the worst of the deadly Youkai, the Aburatori, had taken control of time, space, and destiny, I nearly went mad from the psychedelic scene of organs hanging from the branches of every tree as far as the eye could see. ¡°Gyahhh!! Gyagahhh!?¡± In a world where Kawabata Megumi, the old woman who had created the Aoandon in Zenmetsu Village, had succeeded with her plan, I felt the intense pain and fear of having my body thoroughly chopped to pieces by Kusanagi which precluded all defense and evasion. ¡°Oh, kh¡­! Khah!!¡± In a world where Australian Witch Marguerite Steinhols had obtained the Succubus, I was continually afflicted by the dreadful sensation of having my soul rot thanks to Western magic. ¡°Ah, ahh¡­¡± In a world where the Akki Rasetsu agent named Saijou successfully modified the Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake, she controlled all Youkai and filled me with the despair of having my body utterly devoured. ¡°¡­¡± In a world where the coup d¡¯etat of Hyakki Yakou had succeeded, I was overcome with the tremendous heat of all my body¡¯s protein boiling as the Illness Magic User took over the Fuuka Village hotel. ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± ¡ª¡ªNo matter how far I went, ¡°it¡± never ended. Worlds created by a wrong decision were slammed into me one after another. As all the pain rushed to a single point, my body trembled so violently I thought I would bite my own tongue. I had no idea how much time had passed. I felt like I had been wandering for a hundred if not a thousand years. But the true despair did not come from the pain or the fear itself. I noticed something. Even after all that, I noticed I had only moved forward a few centimeters. ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­f¡­¡­¡­¡± How much farther did I have to go? How long would I have to do this before I could reach the Zashiki Warashi? In fact, who had even guaranteed that this would end after making it a certain distance? If the Zashiki Warashi¡­no, if the inevitable decline controlling her decided on a whim to take a step backwards, this infinite hell would grow even longer. ¡°He¡¯s given up.¡± ¡°He¡¯s given up!¡± ¡°He¡¯s given up in front of his woman.¡± ¡°Throw him out.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s throw him out.¡± ¡°He¡¯ll break.¡± ¡°He¡¯ll break now!!¡± ¡°Kee ha ha!!¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t reach anything.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t reach it.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll just die.¡± ¡°Die!¡± ¡°Give up.¡± ¡°Break already!¡± ¡°Now.¡± ¡°Now!¡± ¡°Now!!¡± The white skulls swimming through her glossy black hair looked at me and mocked me through her headphones. Countless handprints crawled along the yukata that covered her ample bodylines. Her hair slithered like snakes and covered her face as jewels glared out like twisted eyeballs. This power did not hate anyone. It was not fixated on anyone. It was inevitable decline. It simply took and simply ruined. It viewed that itself as its goal, like it was appreciating some elegant aesthetic. Could I really do something about that? Could I overcome it? I bit my lip, tasted blood in my mouth, and stared straight ahead. The Zashiki Warashi was only ten meters away, but she seemed infinitely distant and would not approach me. Could I endure this that far? Wouldn¡¯t I crumble away into something like a lump of tar? I would break. I would be destroyed. If I let go, it would all fall into ruin. The world¡¯s destiny or evil spirit that was this law of inevitable decline would only give me a momentary flash of dark joy. I knew that, but I could not stop my heart from heading in that direction. It was like a growing stomachache on the train when the next station was a long way off. It was like the rapidly growing thirst discovered the instant you stepped out of the sauna and saw the vending machine. The wall of my limit was approaching with tremendous speed. The last ten minutes I had overcome were nothing compared to the next minute I had to overcome. The strength it had taken to endure for a minute might be used up in a single second afterwards. The curve of rapid exhaustion seemed to have quadratic growth. Time itself seemed to be wearing down my fragile soul. My very self wavered. And even if I tried to rely on ¡°someone else¡±, I was trapped inside this subspace where the red tatami mats continued as far as the eye could see. The Zashiki Warashi stood before me in this alternate dimension that trapped me in dark death, symbols of ruin, and inevitable decline. Was it hopeless? What I sought was right in front of me and I held the kaleidoscope needed to overturn this, but I still lacked something needed to cover those ten meters. And I could never find whatever it was in this never-ending world of isolation! But as soon as I thought that¡­ ¡°I see.¡± I heard a voice. I heard a definite voice in this world where I should have been alone. ¡°And? I hope you aren¡¯t foolish enough to add ¡®so I might as well give up¡¯.¡± It arrived like a gust of wind that swept away the disturbing heat filling my head. Moving just a few centimeters had exhausted me to the point that I thought it would fry my brain, but now someone stood next to me. What? Me? He had a more solid build than me, he wore a lab coat over a suit, and he wore glasses that really didn¡¯t suit him. More importantly, his eyes were reminiscent of a thick swamp and he had some people standing next to him: Madoka, the Succubus and a short gray demon. Wait¡­it can¡¯t be. Are you saying he stuffed Tselika in a machine and tamed her!? But even though everything was wrong, I still reached a certain conclusion. That was me. It was Jinnai Shinobu. I had never known that name could be defined so broadly. ¡°Is that anything to be surprised by? This is the singularity where the threads of destiny gather. It¡¯s the rule-breaking land where all parallel worlds are concentrated. So what¡¯s so strange about a meeting between two people who never should have met?¡± I was dumbfounded, but then something else happened. On the other side from him, I saw another new form. It was me, Jinnai Shinobu. However, this one was half my height and looked only five or six. As soon as I noticed this alternate version of myself, I sensed a great presence behind him. I didn¡¯t have it in me to look back, but I more or less knew what was there. There had to be Jinnai Shinobus as far as the eye could see. Some might have failed in something and some might have succeeded in something. In the past or the future, they had each taken a different path than me. And altogether, we created a group of nearly infinite number to face those hellish parallel worlds. ¡°Each individual ruin is an individual death. If the combined failures of the individual named Jinnai Shinobu are the strongest barrier against this personal hostility, then we only need to negate each and every one. To put it another way, each world can only kill one of us.¡± ¡°¡­Yeah.¡± ¡°Simple, isn¡¯t it? It has to be. At least compared to the suffering of losing your beloved before your very eyes.¡± ¡°Yeah!! I know that much!! I know the Jinnai Shinobu standing here¡­the Jinnai Shinobu that made it this far has to be one hell of a lucky guy!!¡± We didn¡¯t need a cue. Our thoughts were united. ¡°So I¡¯ll go for even the cruelest of options. Lend me your strength, Jinnai Shinobu!! I¡¯ll show you the gentle conclusion of the Jinnai Shinobu who can call her Yukari!!!!!¡± Part 13 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) ¡°PSI_ver_RAIN: If you actually think about it, this doesn¡¯t really make sense, does it? A group that wants to ban speculation on debris is going to send that debris down so people can collect it. Aren¡¯t they just admitting it¡¯s valuable? Won¡¯t the speculation just heat up more the more they do that?¡± ¡°Anemura email protected: Um, and is it really safe to have satellites falling down to earth? It would have to hurt if a piece fell on you, and even if that requires the same bad luck as getting hit by lightning, that would still mean some definite victims every year. Can anyone who knows more about it tell me the details?¡± Those short posts changed everything. The stagnant water began to flow. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like a perfect solution, though,¡± said Madoka-chan in her sailor uniform. ¡°Those Hishigami people have set up a donation site. They¡¯re trying to raise as much money from supporters as they can to fund a launch as soon as possible! Even if the other companies are reluctant, this will let them buy a free pass with the power of money!¡± ¡°It¡¯s all over once they reach a certain amount of money. They¡¯ll be able to keep going no matter how much opposition there is.¡± ¡°Like we¡¯ll let them do that.¡± ¡°And how do you plan to fight them?¡± asked Mishima-san. I gave a succinct answer. ¡°Fundraising on the borderless internet is actually a gray zone. If they¡¯re suspected of illegally transferring money, they¡¯ll have trouble finding supporters. We just have to hit them with suspicion. If people think they¡¯ll be complicit in something illegal if they take part, the donations will stop. Even if the police aren¡¯t functioning, the brand-name of the guardians of the law should still be effective!¡± ¡°Detective, don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re planning to post under your real name in this freely expanding internet society. The winds may have begun to change, but stir up people¡¯s animosity and they¡¯ll dig up all the data on you they can find!!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already asked civilian middle school girls to do the same thing.¡± I smiled a little and looked to the two posts from the girls who had helped out. ¡°The adults can¡¯t get cold feet now. These people are trying to send nuclear batteries and dangerous rocket fuel tumbling down to earth, so stopping them comes first!!¡± Part 14 (Hishigami Mai) Things had gotten bad. The large bus and truck were still crashing into each other. Plus, the back of the truck contained Ou, a failure who would slaughter at least thirty million people. I needed to cut away that container to eliminate the possibility of her waking, but the problem wasn¡¯t the 80 kph car chase. It was all the eyes of Tokyo. Working for an underground organization could be tricky. So¡­ ¡°Zei, Akane, Ran. Which one of you is the most useless?¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t glare at me like that. And don¡¯t start grabbing at each other either! Okay, I¡¯ll be borrowing one of those camouflage cloaks that use the science of perception to trick the human brain and program analyses. I don¡¯t care what happens to you afterwards. You can grab at each other¡¯s hair to settle things amongst yourselves once and for all if you like. The weakest one who loses the game of musical chairs can stay here!!¡± ¡°Wait, Mai-san. A fight between women scares me even more than an asteroid! This is going to be absolute carnage!!¡± The cowardly man¡¯s cries didn¡¯t matter. I pulled the cloak over my head, picked up the Sunekosuri, and jumped out the broken window and onto the truck. ¡°U-u-um! Why did you throw me out here too!?¡± ¡°Stop it, partner. Did you think you could get out of this without playing a role?¡î¡± We stood on the joint connecting the front of the truck to the container on the back. The heavy metal connector was accompanied by a mess of cables to send signals to the rear wheel breaks and such. No, there were too many of them for just that, so they may have been related to Ou¡¯s storage tank. Anyway, I just had to remove the cut-away safety lock and pull the lever, but¡­ ¡°It¡¯s completely broken!? And there are marks from a gas burner being used!!¡± ¡°How can he say he loves being reasonable? He¡¯s completely insane.¡± If Ou awoke, thirty million people would die. That was certain. Plus, it was unknown how far the carnage would spread beyond that. And that of course meant he would die first there in the driver¡¯s seat. But anyway¡­ ¡°So what do we do, Mai-san? Oh, you have a gun hidden in the heel of your boot, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°That small caliber handgun can¡¯t break such a thick metal connector. And that¡¯s too much effort. I¡¯ll just break it with my bare hands.¡± ¡°Waaah! You¡¯re as much of a monster as ever!!¡± Although I had remade myself to deal with Youkai and not things like this, so I didn¡¯t recommend doing these things that would break my own body. Then an irritated voice reached me over the satellite phone. ¡°Mai, are you ready? I would really rather not use Ou as a bargaining chip!!¡± ¡°Shut up, you stupid brother!! Do you know how messed up things have to have gotten for me to be the straight man!? And I can hear you grinning while you say you¡¯d rather not use her, you unreasonable bastard!!¡± ¡°Yes, yes. So you still have that kind sort of reasonableness. I¡¯m jealous. Yes, so very jealous.¡± He was hopeless He was completely self-absorbed. There was no real reason to waste effort chatting with him. I grabbed the metal connector with both hands and it produced an odd creaking sound. I prepared to pull it out, but¡­oh, dear. That wasn¡¯t good at all. My shoulders and back were creaking too. I was going to have to replace all of my arteries and muscles afterwards and probably check over my entire skeleton too. For a normal person, it was like swapping out everything but the brain and heart! But my efforts weren¡¯t wasted. The joint was like a mechanical dinosaur¡¯s backbone, but it was definitely beginning to change shape. Just a bit further¡­ ¡°Hishigami Mai!!¡± Red Zei shouted to me from the bus where she was grappling with the others like her. A moment later, something ran down my spine. ¡°!?¡± As soon as I swung my head to the side, the container¡¯s thick wall was broken through from within. A wet and swollen translucent hand that almost seemed made of liquid pierced straight through the spot my face had just been in. It was not a fist or stabbing fingers. The hand simply grabbed at empty air. It was shaped like a child¡¯s small hand. But I could tell what that stinging sensation was. It was death, it was slaughter, it was Ou. If that touched me, it was all over. No defense or knowledge would help. This had nothing to do with the methods or efficiency of killing. It was death on the fundamental level of one¡¯s soul or core. The flabbily swollen arm pulled back. A pair of eerily glowing eyes pierced through me from the darkness within the hole. If the hand had been pulled back, it would be coming again. Just like an arrow fired from a drawn bowstring, the next attack was coming. How much of the original Hishigami Enbi did this reproduce? 20%? 30%? Even with the Youkai medicine, I doubted it was even half the original. And this was what she could do? Sister, just how much of a genius are you!? Sweat poured from my entire body, but I couldn¡¯t stop working now. Once the steel egg cracked open, she would be freed. At this point, she could still be contained. So¡­ ¡°Oh, ohh.¡± To be honest, Mai-chan probably didn¡¯t really need to go along with all this. Thirty million people would die? So what? Japan would be destroyed? What did I care? I could always leave Tokyo, flee Japan, and pull out a beach chair and parasol to enjoy the final paradise on the other side of the globe. A Hishigami Woman could pull off that kind of unfair method. But even so¡­ This wasn¡¯t about the Hishigami Women and it wasn¡¯t about business or the rules of our underground industry. I recalled what the Sunekosuri had said. His wife Ohatsu and son Gisuke were important, but that wasn¡¯t all. He wasn¡¯t just an accessory to his family and he had gone to Hyakki Yakou of his own free will. Yes. This must have been something that I personally wanted to do. ¡°Oh, ohh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± Part 15 (Jinnai Shinobu) All the Jinnai Shinobus moved at once. They charged toward the ¡°things¡± that were thinner than the thinnest paper and would hit you with an apocalyptic level of pain, fear, and despair when you broke through them. With each Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s sacrifice, one layer was broken and we moved forward. One after another, the parallel world barriers were breached and we continued on. Every mistake was accounted for and every wrong decision was accepted. No. That wasn¡¯t quite right. It was true that most of the Jinnai Shinobus had not made it this far. But they had had their own endings. ¡ª¡ªTo overcome the worst case scenario of Japan being sold off, one had made a contract with Archdemon Tselika, made an enemy of the world, and finally been reunited with the Zashiki Warashi who waited on that contaminated archipelago. ¡ª¡ªOne had left the small world of Japan with Madoka and spent his time engaging in financial battles with demonic investors who seemed to embody the seven deadly sins. ¡ª¡ªOne had gained the direct fighting strength of the Yuki Onna, defeated and neutralized extremely deadly Youkai like the Shuten-Douji and the Nine-Tailed Fox, and used them as Shikigami. ¡ª¡ªAfter the death of Nagisa¡¯s beloved dog had driven her insane, one had stuck with her to the end, managed to regain her sanity, and used nothing but human power to face the nationwide Youkai controller constructed by Akki Rasetsu. ¡ª¡ªOne joined forces with Marguerite and the Succubus and managed to rescue the other soul that had been hidden in her womb. ¡ª¡ªOne had stopped the Aoandon¡¯s rampage by teaching her of kindness back in Zenmetsu Village, had taken up the sword Kusanagi, and had fought alongside his ¡°daughter¡± in the battle over the three Imperial Regalia. ¡ª¡ªWhen Majina had completely stolen Hyakki Yakou away from Hafuri, one had used his Youkai-attracting trait and swore to the sobbing girl that he would create a new Hyakki Yakou that would never hurt her. ¡ª¡ªOne had built a time travel Package around the Aburatori, used it to prevent the Hyakki Yakou coup d¡¯etat in advance, and truly protected a certain family. ¡ª¡ªOne had gone the widow route, fallen for Ver. 40 Mei rather than Ver. 39 Yukari, and retrieved her heart with a device that provided salvation. ¡ª¡ªOne had successfully seduced both Mei, who did not age, and Hafuri, who had grown up, and thought he had won the legendary oyakodon¡­right up until Majina¡¯s ghost came back from the depths of hell during the Bon festival and punched him. ¡ª¡ªOne, one, one, one¡­ They may have been different from here, but that didn¡¯t mean they were failures. Those were the results of the decisions they had made, but I had mistakenly seen them as obstacles and viewed them as hells. That had pissed them all off. They were insisting that they would take care of and look after their own worlds. So I just had to look at my own world. I had to look beyond all those other worlds. I had to look to the Zashiki Warashi!! ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!¡± I ran once more with the kaleidoscope in hand. ¡°No.¡± ¡°This wasn¡¯t supposed to happen.¡± ¡°Break.¡± ¡°How can you still stand!?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Wait.¡± ¡°Stay back.¡± ¡°Stay away!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll crush you.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll crush all of you.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll crush every last possibility!¡± ¡°We don¡¯t need those bright things.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to see them.¡± ¡°Because.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t enough to save us!!¡± The children¡¯s skulls displayed in the Zashiki Warashi¡¯s black hair used the headphones to threaten us. The handprints moved about her yukata with none of their previous confidence. The twisted eyeball jewels rolled around inside the sea of hair covering her face. It was filled with impatience, anxiety, and rage. But that hostility sent out by the inevitable decline told me everything I needed to know. The end was near. I¡­we¡­Jinnai Shinobu was on the right path! The many Jinnai Shinobus caught up. They passed me by. They smiled as they moved ahead and were burned by those many ruined parallel worlds and by their true hellfire that lay beyond different decisions that, to me, looked mistaken. So the fear faded. My sense of rivalry overcame it. Even if we were all Jinnai Shinobu and even if we all wished to save the Zashiki Warashi, she was mine. I wasn¡¯t going to let any other Jinnai Shinobu touch her!! I wasn¡¯t going to let them save her in my place! Even if none of those other conclusions were any better or worse, I was the one that had chosen this and made it this far! So how could I let them take the best part? I was the only one that got to take that Good-for-Nothing Nee-chan in my arms and call her Yukari!! Let me have that much pride, you idiots!! I clenched my teeth. I raced desperately forward and reached out my hand. I broke through all the screens and all the red-dyed images of hell. I raced across the countless battlefields. And at the very last moment, I thought I felt a push on my back. I didn¡¯t have time to look back, but I had a feeling someone was smiling there. Another Jinnai Shinobu who had made a different decision and couldn¡¯t reach this point was leaving something with me. He was telling me to make my dream come true, to not let her cry, and to put the biggest smile on her face. Then that seemingly endless distance shrank to nothing. I held the Zashiki Warashi in the red yukata tightly in my arms. She was as limp as a doll. The small skulls and handprints wriggled across her. No one had told me what to do with the kaleidoscope. I didn¡¯t know how Youkai worked, I didn¡¯t know the details of the Package, and I didn¡¯t know what kind of techniques or tools supported them. But the destiny of inevitable decline had wanted to reject that salvation. The skulls in her hair, handprints on her yukata, and jewel eyeballs in her serpentine hair had most wanted to keep me from approaching her. It had put all sorts of obstacles in my way to keep me from doing that. It was like throwing a detective with brilliant deductive skills onto a battlefield with shells flying everywhere or throwing a veteran martial artist into a gag space. Having me fight out of my element had acted as a barrier. That was what the infinite parallel worlds had been. They had been nothing more than distractions to get me to lose sight of my goal. So I just had to stay focused. I just had to look to the Zashiki Warashi and seek what I wanted in the very beginning. It didn¡¯t matter if it was out of place, inappropriate, or embarrassing. That kind of self-restraint was nothing more than interference from the destiny of inevitable decline. When I was trying to continue forward like normal, the magnetism and attraction of the situation would guide me off track. I couldn¡¯t let it affect me or sweep me away. I had to stay true to myself. It didn¡¯t matter how pathetic or silly it was. This had to be the one and only correct answer in this world that was scattered with as many options as there were stars in the sky. I had to trust in myself after my decisions led me this far!! I didn¡¯t have the power to save the world, but I had managed to choose the one path that the million other Jinnai Shinobus hadn¡¯t been able to. So I needed to be proud of that! It was something I could truly be proud of!!!! Further strength entered the arms that held the Zashiki Warashi. I felt her pulse. The countless handprints didn¡¯t matter and the white skulls had fallen silent. I focused on her face as she looked unsteadily up at me. We weren¡¯t enemies. She wasn¡¯t a threat I had to defeat. I couldn¡¯t forget that. Yukari was my girlfriend. And when I was with her, I just had to do what I most wanted to do. With that alone in mind, I gently placed my lips on hers. It was like a switch had been thrown. I heard a deafening sound and the never-ending world of red tatami mats was immediately blown away. The handprints on her yukata, the skulls in her hair, the serpentine hair, the jewel eyeballs, the inevitable decline, and everything else were gone. The unpleasant noise from her headphones had grown silent too. Part 16 (Uchimaku Hayabusa) I gulped with the Mystery Freak and the others as we viewed the screens in the cruise ship¡¯s trading room. We focused on the message boards that had grown quiet, as if the previous commotion had never happened. ¡°Does this mean¡­?¡± Part 17 (Hishigami Mai) In a certain metropolitan area, I watched the container roll away after it broke through the chain link fence of an industrial complex. I wiped the sweat from my brow while clinging to the rest of the truck with the Sunekosuri. That monster was only sleeping and I doubted that would be enough to kill her, but¡­ ¡°¡­It¡¯s over for now?¡± Part 18 (Jinnai Shinobu) I kissed the Zashiki Warashi. What purpose did that serve? Perhaps it was important that the creator of the kaleidoscope made physical contact with the Zashiki Warashi it was targeting. I didn¡¯t need to know the answer. It had worked and that was all that mattered. Her full body weight leaned against me. The next thing I knew, we were inside the familiar tea room of the thatch-roof house. We were surrounded by the Umbrella, Lantern, Tanuki, Fox, and plenty of other Youkai and the Zashiki Warashi seemed embarrassed having so many creatures around her. I could feel her squirming in my arms. We were back. We had faced inevitable decline in the graveyard of the world built by the remains of the countless destroyed eras that lay beyond an endless labyrinth of ¡°what ifs¡±. But we had escaped that terminal of intersecting destinies and returned to our normal life. ¡°Shinobu, this is a little embarrassing.¡± ¡°Ha ha. Sorry, sorry.¡± ¡°And I thought something tasted rusty, but you have a cut on your lip.¡± She brought her finger to my lip and looked at what got on her finger. ¡°See? You have all this white blood on there.¡± When I heard those words, I pulled her close again and pressed her head to my chest. ¡°Sorry¡­¡± I had messed with her head. And I hadn¡¯t wanted her to see the look on my face when I accepted that fact. ¡°What is it, Shinobu?¡± That considerate question could almost be called innocent. But I was unable to answer her and simply held her tighter in my arms. Then I bit my lip again and said more in my heart. Even if it meant dirtying my hands, I just couldn¡¯t accept a future without you. Volume 9, Epilogue: After the Prophecy Volume 9, Epilogue: After the Prophecy The unnatural government bonds issue came to a complete stop and the electronic display once more gave the usual rate of 114 yen per dollar. That was bad news for the people who had made a quick fortune with careless financial techniques and magic tricks, but overall there was relatively little chaos. It sounded like a joke, but the Hishigami Group had not been broken up even after everything that had happened. Being ¡°too big to fail¡± was a frightening thing. And as the yen stabilized, the government could calculate out their budgets like normal, so the nearly shut down agencies came back to life. The hands of the clock were moving as if nothing had happened. For the most part anyway. ¡°Hey, Uchimaku-chan. Did the organization finally throw you out? There¡¯s a notification on the P-phone bulletin board.¡± ¡°Ehhh!? This is not the kind of surprise I like in the morning! And they¡¯re moving me at the end of the year instead of waiting until March? Where are they sending me!?¡± Hayabusa quickly checked with his police cellphone, but it did not look like he was being transferred to a remote region. He was being sent to a newly created office of Investigation Department 1, so it was within the same building. The Metropolitan Police Department was divided into divisions, which were divided into departments, which in turn were divided into offices. Investigation Department 1 was often treated as a single entity in dramas, but it was split into nine different offices. ¡°What is this? ...Um, the newly created tenth office will combat the many new forms of crime that crop up on a daily basis with a novel approach to-...¡± ¡°You¡¯re in trouble. You¡¯re definitely in trouble, Uchimaku-chan. This sounds complicated, but it isn¡¯t actually saying a damn thing. Who knows what kind of dirty jobs they¡¯ll be having you do.¡± He made his way to the usual floor, but everyone was acting more distant than usual. The department chief¡¯s warm look bothered him too. He gathered his things from his desk and started toward his new workplace. The new location mentioned in the notification was not just a newly partitioned-off area. It was an entirely different room down the hall. In fact, he was pretty sure it was the large conference room whose air conditioner had been broken the other day. ¡°Um, why do you feel like such an outsider? And this doorplate...is this a joke? Why does this say 0-X Office!?¡± He could already hear some voices from beyond the thin door, so some others had likely been gathered for this. He decided it would be faster to get an explanation than to worry over it all, so he skillfully knocked on the door while still holding the cardboard box of his things. Then he opened it. ¡°Sorry I¡¯m late. I¡¯m Uchimaku Hayabusa and I was transferred to this office starting-...¡± ¡°Oh, honestly! You really are late, detective!!¡± An unpleasant sound came from his feet. It was the sound of the cardboard box¡¯s contents hitting the floor after he dropped it. ¡°No!! Nooo!!! That twintailed demon has finally made it to the center of the capital¡¯s police force! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, no turning around and running off. You¡¯re a civil servant, aren¡¯t you? Then you¡¯ve gotta obey your orders.¡± She grabbed his collar and dragged him back into the isolated room. ¡°Why!? How!? You haven¡¯t passed the police exam, you aren¡¯t a civil servant, and middle schoolers aren¡¯t allowed to work! How in the world could this have happened!?¡± ¡°You hadn¡¯t heard, detective? The cyber-focused parts of the police are using civilians a lot lately. And this newly-created tenth office is specialized in Youkai Packages. It¡¯s for dangerous spirits and other eXceptions to the law, so it¡¯s the 0-X Office. Is it any surprise it¡¯ll be more specialized and unique? Youkai have an affinity with children and young minds are needed to keep up with the cruel new crimes that are evolving on a daily basis. We¡¯ve reached an age where people other than civil servants will be wandering around the Metropolitan Police Department on a regular basis. Scary, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Even so, this is way too sudden!¡± shouted Uchimaku. No one had unpacked their things, but there were a few people other than Hishigami Enbi in that room. And they were all girls who clearly were not civil servants. He first looked to a middle school girl with glasses and a braid who was wiping down a table with a rag. ¡°Hachikawa Tomoe...-san...?¡± ¡°Wh-what? Why do you look so surprised?¡± ¡°I thought you at least were still a sensible person!!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t just start crying!! And I clearly am a sensible person!!¡± As Tomoe shouted back on reflex, another black-haired girl patted her shoulder to calm her. ¡°Um...you already seem to be vanishing away, but are you...?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. It¡¯s me, Tsumada Mio.¡± The girl laughed and clasped her hands in front of her chest. ¡°But I think there¡¯s someone else you should be focusing on even more. I doubt you could see both PSI_ver_RAIN-san and Anemura-san, the Empress of the Major Arcana, even at a major concert.¡± ¡°Ahhhhh!!!!! How could any of this even be possible!?¡± They had apparently not been unprincipled enough to completely fill up the old conference room that had held seventy-eight people, but it was sounding like different people could be stopping by to play at different times. ¡°Wait, wait, wait. Why would they choose these people?¡± ¡°I know, right? I thought the police had finally prepared a love nest for the two of us at the taxpayer¡¯s expense, but they just have no tact.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not the point!! What is with this extreme moral hazard!? And the thought of being stuck in a closed room alone with you is just scary!!¡± ¡°What!? So you¡¯re saying you wanted a garden of young girls around you!? You secret harem lover!!¡± ¡°Why do you have to put it like that!?¡± Hayabusa looked about to explode, but when Enbi saw the bulging veins in his temples, she decided to show some kindness. She shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s supposed to be modern girls who have a high affinity with Youkai plus the one adult leader. Detective, you¡¯re an office chief at your age. ...Well, that¡¯ll be your title, but who knows how meaningful it really is. Tomoe and I are in charge of deductions, Tsumada Mio will handle tailing people and sneaking into places, and the idols can use their fans and the media to gather information or get an endless supply of helpers. Look closely, and you¡¯ll see this is an impressive group. Maybe this is a reward from that playful Chief Superintendent. Can you believe it? This paradise is running on the taxpayer¡¯s yen.¡± ¡°What is going on? When did the Metropolitan Police Department become a home for school clubrooms? And what in the world are we supposed to investigate with a group like this? I can¡¯t let you do anything dangerous and this will just be a space for middle school girls to hang out if everyone but me stays behind.¡± ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon, detective. Not all of us are middle school girls. Those, um, what was it? Oh, right. Those Atou and Tsugawa people will apparently be joining us later.¡± ¡°Them!? Now I know they just want to make a mockery of the police!!!!¡± ¡°And look.¡± Uchimaku Hayabusa looked in the direction Enbi indicated. The smallest girl in the room was sitting atop a desk rather than in a chair. Her white hair was done up like a giant flower and she wore a pure white kimono. ¡°You¡¯re kidding, right? Are they finally letting elementary school girls join the police if they can show off a useful talent?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be silly. She¡¯s the oldest one here. That¡¯s Hishigami Shikimi, my great great great great great great great great...how many greats is it?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask me. You just need to know that I¡¯m the founder of the Hishigami line.¡± Uchimaku was not even drinking coffee, but he still did a spit take. ¡°Cough, cough!? Ehhhh!? Hishigamiiiii!!!???¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± The giant white flower smoothly answered him and lightly waved a diagonally-cut bamboo pipe she pulled from her kimono. ¡°By the way, this is my Shikigami. Her name¡¯s Enchanting Full Moon Flower. As you can see, she¡¯s based on Kaguya-hime. Her hobby is eternal youth and her special skill is a long lifespan. As long as it doesn¡¯t conflict with my orders, use her however you like. If you¡¯re trying to win her over with food, I recommend ohagi or rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves. Nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Waaaaaaaaaah!! We¡¯ve moved beyond the fantasy of middle school girls! Now there are legit paranormal phenomena in the middle of Tokyo¡¯s police headquarters!!¡± She seemed to find fresh new enjoyment in the detective¡¯s fresh new way of being surprised. The founder of the Hishigami line had the same look of curiosity and joy as a monster who had found a youth who was honestly surprised by a Hitotsume-Kozou in this day and age. Shikimi gave a cruel and devilish smile. ¡°I was curious about your conversational ability that¡¯s keeping Enbi¡¯s murderous side in check. My goal is to be useful to someone just once. If it¡¯s to that end, please use me and my Shikigami however you want, detective.¡± The sidewalk caf¨¦ did not get many customers in December, but it was not actually all that chilly with the spot heater in the outside space. Hishigami Mai wore a jacket over her tank top and hot pants as she took a sip and winced at a drink with sugar, cream, milk, cinnamon, and a ton of other things dumped inside. ¡°Ahh, ahh. The world is as crazy as ever.¡± ¡°Now, now. Don¡¯t say that.¡± A voice answered her from another table. She sat back to back with Mishima Jun, a VIP from the NPA. He wore a custom suit and coat while reading through an English language newspaper. ¡°This was what I always wanted: an investigative agency that specializes in Youkai-related Packages. No matter how many civilian victims there were, everyone was even more afraid of government authority reaching that underground industry, but I thought this might make a good starting point.¡± ¡°Do you really think this will work?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve set up some defensive lines just in case. I learned from my previous failure and kept the number of police officers to a minimum while filling the numbers out with harmless...or seemingly harmless outside civilians. The people chosen might be a liiiiittle uncomfortable for Uchimaku-kun, though. And the office only deals in the Packages rather than directly judging the Youkai themselves. But more importantly...¡± Mishima paused there and continued after a quiet laugh. ¡°The winds have changed this time.¡± ¡°You mean the movement to apply civil law to the 592 species of Youkai that can communicate with humans and to protect their lives, assets, and dignity?¡± ¡°Ha ha. The fact that it¡¯s civil law is important. If we went straight for criminal law like murder, the deadly Youkai that kill as part of their nature wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up. It¡¯s important to keep it at civil law for now. It¡¯s the first step.¡± ¡°Well, your goal never was to kill Youkai.¡± ¡°...¡± Mishima flipped a page in his English language newspaper in an intentionally noisy fashion. ¡°If Youkai fall under the management of the law, then I thought the law would protect them. At the very least, I thought they wouldn¡¯t be hunted down to add them to a collection or make strange drugs out of them.¡± ¡°Is that where you found a connection with Majina and Mei? No, I suppose if anyone it would¡¯ve been Ohatsu.¡± ¡°But the people who just wanted to do whatever they wanted with the power of Youkai fiercely opposed the idea. Ha ha. At the time, Hyakki Yakou was divided between a moderate faction and an extermination faction, but it was the extermination faction that plotted an assassination. Strange, isn¡¯t it? They were the ones insisting we had to exterminate all the Youkai because we could not allow any more victims, yet they decided to kill someone once they were afraid of winding up on the wrong side of the law.¡± A short silence followed. After a while, Mishima asked a question. ¡°That¡¯s enough about the past. What is the current Hyakki Yakou going to do?¡± ¡°Who knows. At the very least, they haven¡¯t cursed you to death, so I think they¡¯re simply observing the situation. If the existing Youkai can be bound by the laws, they should be fine with that. And since Hyakki Yakou continues to reign even after such a fierce battle, I doubt any of the other organizations are going to oppose them on this.¡± ¡°I see,¡± muttered Mishima. ¡°So what will you do?¡± ¡°Me?¡± ¡°The environment around Youkai is changing. And in a way that doesn¡¯t require the disaster brought by the Hishigami Women. But...will you be able to give up that violence of yours now that it isn¡¯t needed?¡± ¡°Hey, boy.¡± After listening to all that, Mai gave a truly cruel smile. ¡°I don¡¯t know what kind of delusional fantasies you have in your head, but let me tell you one thing.¡± ¡°And what is that?¡± ¡°There is no such thing as a world without conflict. At the very least, not as long as at least two humans remain.¡± It was a simple answer and that woman did not hesitate to give it. ¡°Hyakki Yakou will control the underground society? Youkai-related crimes will dwindle away? So what? Sparks of conflict are scattered everywhere. The end of one problem is just the harbinger of a new problem. If Packages are no longer usable, a new type of crime will appear. If Youkai are no longer usable, people will start using demons and spirits instead. Will we be seeing Onmyouji next? Or Shikigami summoning battles? ...Let me be clear. The next age is already here. Demand for me will never die.¡± ¡°Perhaps so.¡± Mishima Jun honestly admitted it. He tossed the English language newspaper to the table as if to ignore everything up to that point. But when he turned around, there was already no one there. Hishigami Mai had set off alone to the next age. ¡°Wahhhh!¡± In a thatch-roof house of Noukotsu Village, Jinnai Shinobu heard someone crying. ¡°Wahhhh! Wahhhhhh!!¡± Confused, he made his way to the front door and found a small child crying there. The boy may have been from the same village, but he did not recognize him. When he sighed and asked what the matter was, he received the following answer: ¡°Um, um! I was told to come here to tell someone about Nee-chan¡¯s issue! I was told to go to Jinnai Shinobu for any Youkai problems!!¡± ¡°Who¡¯s been spreading that kind of troublesome rumor?¡± The most likely suspect was the elementary school couple made up of a boy loved by Tsukumogami and a girl who got along really well with animal and bug Youkai, but it was best not to suspect people without proof. And that was not the core of the issue anyway. It was starting to rain and the boy looked up at him with tears in his eyes. ¡°It¡¯s about Nee-chan. My Youkai Nee-chan.¡± ¡°What? Hold on...this sudden rain shower. Is this what they call the Fox¡¯s Wedding?¡± ¡°She isn¡¯t doing it because she wants to! I know how Tseli Nee-chan secretly cries on her own at night! She doesn¡¯t want to get married!!¡± ¡°Wait...¡± Shinobu stopped the boy. He did not like the sound of some of the boy¡¯s comments. Cries at night? Doesn¡¯t want to get married? But no. That was not it. ¡°Um, when you say ¡®Tseli¡¯ Nee-chan...¡± ¡°Tseli Nee-chan is Tseli Nee-chan. Tselika Nee-chan.¡± ¡°Vweeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???¡± A true scream echoed through the Jinnai house. Since they would likely know the most about this, he held a strategy meeting with the micro bikini Succubus and Marguerite the Witch. ¡°Wait, this doesn¡¯t make any sense!! That archdemon is getting married? She secretly cries on her own at night? Impossible! It¡¯s like something from a school play! I guarantee you she¡¯s tricking that boy so she can devour his soul with a grin of feigned innocence on her face!!¡± ¡°She has all the cards that lead someone to betray god: hostility, oppression, scorn, joy, violence, suspicion...and even kindness, justice, love, courage, and passion. She¡¯s an archdemon that¡¯s grown too large to fit in just one deadly sin, scarily enough.¡± ¡°Stop!! I won¡¯t let you say bad things about Tseli Nee-chan!!¡± Getting someone to defy an archangel or god like that while their soul grew corrupted was a favorite trick of an archdemon, but... ¡°What are you going to do?¡± asked the Aburatori who had become a Kaeshigami. ¡°Hmm.¡± Jinnai Shinobu scratched his head in annoyance. It was the look of someone who thought they had finished all their summer homework and then found a bunch they had not done on the day before the new term. ¡°It is true that there was one person we didn¡¯t save. I kept saying I can get along with any Youkai, but like this, I can¡¯t exactly say I¡¯m doing that.¡± ¡°Master! She¡¯s a demon, not a Youkai! If you approach Tselika when she¡¯s gesturing you over and spreading her legs in the middle of a gigantic spider web, you¡¯ll definitely die! No, you¡¯ll meet a fate worse than death!! How about you ask Marguerite about that!?¡± ¡°Nn.¡± Shinobu looked over as the witch began trembling from the reminder of her trauma. ¡°I don¡¯t need to go visit the demon¡¯s castle. Marguerite, you draw a magic circle over there and summon Tselika. You can do that in three minutes, right? Hurry.¡± ¡°Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! I never want to see her agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!!¡± He was unsure what to do when an adult beauty began crying in earnest, but he had to focus on something else right now. Jinnai Shinobu spoke to the boy whose name he still did not know. ¡°Let me tell you one thing first. The Succubus and Marguerite are probably right in their suspicions. Tselika isn¡¯t the type to be sobbing over a marriage. She might just be enjoying herself as she manipulates your sense of justice, but it¡¯s also possible she¡¯ll devour your soul.¡± ¡°N-no! She wouldn¡¯t!!¡± ¡°Hear me out. That isn¡¯t really what matters.¡± Jinnai Shinobu grinned and slowly continued. ¡°Hey, boy. Even with that knowledge, what do you want to do right now?¡± The boy fell silent for just a moment. Then he wiped his tears away with the back of his hand and looked up at Jinnai Shinobu. ¡°I still want to go save Tseli Nee-chan.¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t ask for a better answer.¡± The next thing he knew, they were shaking hands. To Jinnai Shinobu, this was no longer a kid he did not know. He did not look down on him or treat him as an inferior. A little hero stood before him. Even now, the era was changing. The boy who had been able to join forces with any form of the paranormal had missed just one, but it may not have been his job to save her. This was a new era and Jinnai Shinobu nodded as he saw this boy moving to the forefront of that era. ¡°Madoka, Nagisa!! Give me some help. We¡¯re about to make the impossible possible.¡± ¡°Ehhh!? I¡¯m still worrying over what kind of distance to put between us, Shinobu-kun, but you¡¯re just going to ignore that and use me? How cruel are you!?¡± ¡°Eh heh heh. Bonds come in more than one form. I¡¯ll do my best, in more ways than one.¡± The Yuki Onna was observing from behind a pillar and she cut in with her irritation at the limit. ¡°If you¡¯re going to cheat like that from the get-go, why not use someone who can fight more directly like me?¡± ¡°Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s Hyakki Yakou is on hold for the time being. And if I start using stuff like that as easily as a rock-paper-scissors hand, the convenience would make me too lazy. So, Aburatori, you¡¯re staying home too. Oh, and...Aoandon! Come here!!¡± ¡°Why!? What a pain!! Didn¡¯t you just say you aren¡¯t using deadly Youkai not ten seconds ago!?¡± ¡°You¡¯re coming along for some social studies. Didn¡¯t I tell you it¡¯s a parent¡¯s job to show his kid the beautiful side of the world that¡¯ll keep you from thinking you should destroy it?¡± ¡°Boo, boo.¡± The Aoandon pouted her lips, but she did not try to run off. Preparations were underway, but then the Nekomata made a calm comment. ¡°Are you going to ignore your wife at this important time and head off to interfere with this marriage? And from what I¡¯ve heard, this is like the cruelest marriage scam imaginable.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll head out real quick and be back before you know it. I¡¯ll make it in time somehow.¡± ¡°I was listening in, but this is that Tselika, right?¡± ¡°Yeah. But this boy says he¡¯s going to save her, so there¡¯s no helping it. Someone¡¯s finally shown up who wants to save that hopeless archdemon. He immediately made the decision I couldn¡¯t. How can I look down on that or take it lightly? How many millions of years do you think it¡¯ll take before a miracle like this happens again? The blatantly malicious marriage stuff doesn¡¯t matter. She tramples on people¡¯s hearts as easily as breathing and takes lives as naturally as keeping her heart beating. This can remove the need to directly face the cruel and evil essence of that archdemon. ...I need to take this seriously since I wasn¡¯t able to defeat her back then. Let me make up for that before this important day really gets started.¡± The boy let out something like a groan and Jinnai Shinobu pointed at him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It¡¯ll be fine.¡± He had no proof of that whatsoever. ¡°It¡¯s true I wasn¡¯t able to reach your level. I never even thought of saying anything as crazy as wanting to save Tselika. To be honest, boy, you¡¯ve got me beat. But let me say one thing: I can still be of some help. This might be the beginning of your era, but let me at least provide some reinforcement from the side.¡± These were the words of a man who had grown after overcoming and accepting many different things. ¡°After all,¡± he added with a smile. ¡°I can get along with any Youkai.¡± Now for the next item of news. The Supreme Court¡¯s Third Petty Bench has ruled that not applying a portion of civil law to the 592 species of Youkai that can communicate with humans is in violation of the constitution. This ruling will bring an end to a series of legal battles. Justice Haruoka Makoto commented that ¡°their desire to bring humans and Youkai together will now be brought to a national level and it is only natural to grant them this blessing. As a guardian of the law, I hope this ruling will act as a precedent of good that will give everyone a push in the right direction¡± and he expects this will help resolve similar problems. The focus of this ruling was on the right to life, property rights, and personality rights. It is thought this will improve the past situation where a Youkai alone could not even sign a cell phone contract. However, there are fears this will create an obligation to pay for residence taxes and utility costs. Property rights include the donation and inheritance of property, but this has led to a new movement in relation to marriage. If a human and Youkai were to have a child together, it would be appropriate for that child to receive the same inheritance rights as a legitimate child. Also, to make equal marriage between human and Youkai a possibility, the government offices around the country are accepting the appropriate paperwork while also registering the Youkai partner in the family register. This had begun new movements across the nation and the first registration for a human-Youkai marriage was submitted this very afternoon. It was submitted by the same individual who fought for this ruling, a Noukotsu Village resident named-... Volume 9, Afterword Volume 9, Afterword And with that, this is Kamachi Kazuma. Complete!! I guess this is the first time I¡¯ve written a definite end to long series. I¡¯ve worked on a few different series, but The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village didn¡¯t have a normal beginning from even the earliest stages and I think there were seriously more than ten hurdles that had to be cleared before the first volume saw the light of day. Its first physical appearance was in the magazine short story project, but I personally think there were several small miracles even before that. For example, what if the magazine project itself had not started that year? What if Mahaya-san had refused the project? What if Mayaha-san hadn¡¯t requested I do the text? What if the character roughs had never arrived and the completed illustrations had suddenly arrived just before publication? What if there hadn¡¯t been a precedent of that magazine project leading to a full novel? And all of those coincidences were out of my control. That¡¯s why it almost feels like a divine miracle that all the pieces fit together so the first volume could be released. Of those, I think the biggest one was the great impact of the original character roughs Mahaya-san sent over. You might be able to tell how much of a shock it was if I tell you that was what led me to carelessly write 400 pages of text for what was supposed to be a 2-page magazine project and that the story eventually grew into what you hold in your hands. Even after that, Mahaya-san has been the type to provide a lot of detailed character roughs, so while I¡¯m working, I end up thinking I¡¯ll be in trouble if I start thinking this extraordinary environment is normal. I always have to remind myself that I can¡¯t let myself grow too used to it. And due to that process, this series was unlike my others in that I started it without knowing how it would end. I just threw in what I wanted to see, what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to try out at the time and then used the foreshadowing that created to connect to the next volume. (For example, Volume 1 already stated that Hyakki Yakou¡¯s leader was dead and Volume 4 had the Zashiki Warashi crying because of Shinobu and the Aburatori¡¯s relationship.) I just repeated that process to create one long line, so this may have had the most experimental structure of any of my series. That¡¯s why there were multiple candidates for Jinnai Shinobu¡¯s perfect form. You might think of the A Simple Series when it comes to experiments, but in a way, Intellectual Village was even more experimental than that. So I of course didn¡¯t know what the final boss would be when I started the first volume. When I looked back over everything I had written and linked everything together, I realized it was the idea of inevitable decline. That had destroyed Hyakki Yakou¡¯s ¡°parent organization¡±, Hafuri and Majina had cursed it, and it could be seen in the predetermined ruin contained within the fortune brought when a Zashiki Warashi settles down. I¡¯ll leave it to you to decide if it fit as the theme of the series. One especially important aspect this time was the protagonist(s?). Jinnai Shinobu, Uchimaku Hayabusa, Hishigami Mai...and I can tell you now, there¡¯s actually one more. Back when I saw this as magazine short stories, I had a protagonist pair for each of the four stories I had quickly prepared, but do you know who they were? The three protagonists that came to the forefront were all intentionally given characterizations that deviated from the usual Kamachi Kazuma style of story. That¡¯s what gave me some freedom to have them do things I normally couldn¡¯t have my protagonists doing. The most obvious example is probably Mai, but it applies to Shinobu and Hayabusa too. It might be fun to think about how it applies to them. Going the standard route, playing it safe, and using a demerit system is useful if you¡¯re aiming for the top, but if you keep doing that, the land grows barren and you wander into a dead end. I remember arranging the characters and gimmicks for Intellectual Village while trying to expand my horizons as much as possible. You might be able to see that in the fact that there isn¡¯t a good word to describe the overall genre of the series. I¡¯ll let all of you decide whether ¡°occult comedy¡± really fits or not. Due to Kamijou Touma¡¯s memory loss in Index and the starter pack plus expansion pack structure of Heavy Object, I felt like I hadn¡¯t had a chance to do much in the way of flashback stories, so being able to do that in Intellectual Village may have been the best part. It was fresh and fun making connections between the characters such as Shinobu¡¯s blond hair coming from the influence of Hayabusa in his high school days. I especially liked using a time paradox to bring back Majina and the others as enemies at the end of Volume 7 even though they were supposed to be dead before Volume 1 even began. I also liked showing that good acts do not always bring about good results. This is going to get a little meta, but one more thing. In Volume 9 especially, I took advantage of my chance to write about a lovey-dovey couple after they get together, something I haven¡¯t had much of a chance to do. (As you know if you¡¯ve read it, Chapter 1 was quite comfy in a way different again from Waltraute.) It turned out Hayabusa and Enbi were only being distracted by the Ver. 39, but I still enjoyed writing about them as much as about Shinobu and Yukari. I just regret that I didn¡¯t make anyone on Mai¡¯s level who could be her lover!! On that note, I did consider having Mai show up in the Metropolitan Police Department instead of Shikimi. (Yes, they were close enough for Mai to have Hayabusa meet her in a caf¨¦ in Volume 1). Then the sisters would have been fighting over him, but since that would have overshadowed the sub-heroines, I went with the way you saw it. Just like with Perfect Shinobu, if Hayabusa had abandoned the path of a police officer for some reason and gone for another form of justice such as a private eye, a mercenary, or a bodyguard, maybe he could have had both Killer Enbi and Agent Mai for himself? But anyway, I think Mai¡¯s idea of romance would be something similar to a female praying mantis. Now, to be honest, I don¡¯t actually know that much about Youkai. Compared to Western magic, I think my pool of knowledge was quite shallow. You can see that in the fact that the first story of Volume 1 used the super popular Youkai girls of the Zashiki Warashi and the Yuki Onna. But the more I dug into the topic, the more I found. It was quite refreshing and I remember filling the story with all sorts of Youkai and their traits. Among those, my favorite was the Aoandon. When you talk about the most powerful Youkai, people tend to think of the Kurama Tengu or the Nine Tailed Fox, but the Aoandon gathers together the strange phenomena of one hundred ghost stories, conveniently appears at the end of the Hyakumonogatari, and has an artificial origin since she was invented by a famous Youkai artist. As a combination of one hundred ghost stories, I thought she could singlehandedly rival the Hyakki Yakou which is made up of one hundred different species. Plus she¡¯s a blue female Oni. Everything about her tugged at my heartstrings. Hishigami Mai used the Deadly Dragon Princess, an entirely artificial Shikigami, but I think the Aoandon transformed into something similar within me. I used the idea that Youkai exist outside the normal human frameworks by having them be paranormal beings that surpass physical phenomena while also not being clearly good or evil. I did this to help fight my usual bad habit of making characters clearly good or clearly evil (although this shouldn¡¯t be surprising since my other series are battle-focused). Lastly, Volume 9 completes the Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village and I think it suggests another perfect form for Jinnai Shinobu. The important part is that this version is not standing back to back with the Perfect Shinobu in Volume 5 Side A and they aren¡¯t opposites. I think you need to see them as facing the same direction as they walk along parallel paths that will never cross. Jinnai Shinobu intentionally used his Youkai-attracting trait, made his own Package despite hating them so much, and did everything he could to save the Zashiki Warashi. They were the ¡°same¡± boy up to there, so what was the difference between that one who reached Volume 9¡¯s ending and the Perfect Shinobu who did not? I hope you will discuss that amongst yourselves. I give my thanks to my illustrator Mahaya-san and my editors Miki-san, Onodera-san, and Anan-san. As I already said, this series was made possible by a number of small miracles from start to finish. If even one button had been pressed wrong along the way, not even the first word would have been written. I must thank them for everything they did to bring about that success. Thank you very much. And I also give my thanks to the readers. When I started Volume 1, I never thought this would be a story of Jinnai Shinobu growing up after remembering his kindness, but how did you like it? I hope you will accept their conclusions with surprise and kindness. Even now that it has ended, I hope it will remain in your hearts. There is a lot of mystery and fun quite nearby, isn¡¯t there? -Kamachi Kazuma Series complete! Thank you very much for sticking with us this far. I was told I could write an afterword, but since I don¡¯t really have anything I want to say in words, I¡¯ll just use an illustration rough that wasn¡¯t used in the volume itself for a variety of reasons. -Mahaya Bonus Part 1 Bonus Part 1 Enbi: ¡°The Glass House Case was the lovey-dovey case where the detective and I first met! It was the usual kind of case: a series of murders in a suspicious mansion deep in the mountains.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°You¡¯re the only person in the world who would call a dangerous case like that ¡®lovey-dovey¡¯. And it¡¯s been a few years since then¡­so were you wandering around a crime scene at around ten!? And I doubt that was the first time either!¡± Enbi: ¡°Eh heh. That¡¯s about when I started doing things by deduction. Even earlier, when I was five or six, I would capture the criminal by acting all harmless and then shoving people from behind to make a mess of the case.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°You really are completely insane.¡± Enbi: ¡°But you¡¯re bringing up a pretty old case here, detective.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°That¡¯s because I was checking through the document archives and found there was barely any info on this one! It says they couldn¡¯t do a proper investigation of the crime scene because you destroyed the entire mansion before the police arrived!!¡± Enbi: ¡°G-gulp! But c¡¯mon, that was a product of my heart of justice wanting to protect you.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Shut up. Anyway, we¡¯re going to think back on what happened and make some proper records out of those fragmentary memories.¡± Enbi: ¡°So that¡¯s why you brought out that digital voice recorder¡­¡± Hayabusa: ¡°We both know the answer since we were involved at the time, so it¡¯ll be hard for us to tell if our explanations are sufficient. We can have Tomoe-chan or Tsumada-san listen to the recording later and see if someone without any knowledge of the case can picture the details. C¡¯mon, let¡¯s get started.¡± Enbi: ¡°Okayyy. ¡­But if this is reliant on our testimonies, doesn¡¯t that mean we could invent some new ¡®facts¡¯ about what might have gone on between us while-¡­?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Mystery Freak.¡± Enbi: ¡°Okay, okay. I¡¯ll take this seriously!¡± Bonus Part 2 Bonus Part 2 Day 1 5 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - I drove up the mountain road. - I found Enbi after entering a tunnel on a private road. I picked her up because I thought she might have run into some trouble. - I heard a rumbling behind me. The tunnel collapsed, isolating us. - No cellphone signal. - There¡¯s a mansion on the slope of the mountain. The two of us are headed there in the hopes of finding a landline phone. Hayabusa: ¡°I glossed over it as ¡®picked her up¡¯, but as soon as I called out, a brat with eyes like rusted blades suddenly hit me on the side of the head. And with the bottom of a gigantic flashlight!¡± Enbi: ¡°O-oh, c¡¯mon. When a fragile little girl is walking along a mountain road and a strange adult calls out to her from a car, of course her self-defense instincts are going to kick in! Really, detective, you should¡¯ve just shown me your police badge right away.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And I also glossed over it, but the fact the Mystery Freak was walking on the mountain road alone is a pretty important point.¡± Enbi: ¡°What about you, detective? Were you there for work? Or just out for a drive?¡± 5-6 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - A storm blew up on the way to the mansion. - Enbi and I arrived at the mansion. - When we knocked on the gate, a mysterious butler with a bandaged face answered. - We were welcomed in and found an insane interior with every floor, wall, and ceiling except for the exterior walls and roof made from transparent reinforced glass. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - The mysterious butler (ha ha) and Enbi-chan know each other. - The detective seemed to think he could use their phone. ¡ú But the black landline phone(!) isn¡¯t working either. - The mansion¡¯s wife, Hoshimi Akua, is doing some remodeling even though the butler and the maid (sparkle sparkle) are trying to stop her. She was even moving the paulownia dresser. (¡ûShe¡¯s surprisingly strong.) Hayabusa: ¡°Y¡¯know¡­ You had a tensely sour look on your face the entire time back then, but your memos are pretty cute.¡± Enbi: ¡°Well, of course! Enbi-chan is cute from head to toe! Ah, what¡¯s that sigh for, detective!?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And that was how we were let inside the mansion.¡± Enbi: ¡°Mhh! A-anyway, that¡¯s the rumored Glass House. By the way, this is how it was introduced on the builder¡¯s website.¡± ¡°A Record of Our Office¡¯s Past Jobs (with permission from the owners, of course)¡± The Natsukawa Construction Planning Office does more than just create a living space. We will meet our customer¡¯s needs by creating custom works of spatial art that fit your personality and satisfy your heart. When seen from outside, the Glass House high in the mountains of Western Tokyo is beautiful, but might not seem like anything special. But with the exception of the roof, external walls, and ground floor, every interior wall, floor, and ceiling are made of glass. This strange design gave physical form to our customer¡¯s family rules and the building was thoroughly designed to satisfy that desire without neglecting the fundamentals. Enbi: ¡°As you can see from the fact that I was talking with the butler like normal, I had already been staying at the mansion. In other words, I wasn¡¯t lost or stranded; I was out exploring.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°There are also a few explanations of the mansion¡¯s layout, but that honestly doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Enbi: ¡°Yeah, it wasn¡¯t a case that requires knowing the layout to solve.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And the wife¡¯s remodeling will be more important later.¡± Enbi: ¡°Um, also note that the storm came after the tunnel collapse. In other words, it didn¡¯t collapse due to the storm.¡± 6-6:30 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - I was introduced to the mansion¡¯s family and guests in the living room. - Hoshimi Shuuren: 56. Male. Owner of the Glass House and a fortune teller that specializes in well-off customers. - Hoshimi Akua: 36. Female. Shuuren¡¯s wife. Technically a housewife, but the housework is left to the butler and maid. - Hoshimi Dounyuu: 27. Male. Son of the Hoshimi family and another fortune teller. - Hoshimi Kanpa: 20. Female. Daughter of the Hoshimi family and another fortune teller. Must have bad legs because she is confined to a wheelchair. - Kariba Toga: 40. Male. The Glass House¡¯s butler. Also the cook. - Matsushima Ren: 22. Female. The Glass House¡¯s maid. - Yatsui Toshi: 72. Male. Honorary President who has left active management of the Yatsui General Trading Company. - Matsushima Ryou: 17. Female. High school girl. Set to be the next head of Matsushima Construction, a major general contractor. - Hatsutomo Naru: 19. Female. College girl. Illegitimate child of the president and representative director of the Hatsutomo Shinkin Bank, a major financial institution. - Toyokawa Ryuu: 25. Male. Secretary of the president of Toyokawa Automobiles, an international car manufacturer. Enbi: ¡°There¡¯s so much there it¡¯ll make you dizzy, but you¡¯ll be fine if you remember these three things: ¡°1. There¡¯s a family of fortune tellers. ¡°2. People connected to major corporations are butting heads with them. ¡°3. The people can be divided into those from inside the mansion and those from outside.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Well, there are also some obvious oddities. Like the age of the wife versus the age of the kids, whether someone would really come out and call themselves an illegitimate child, and why a member of the main family would be a secretary.¡± 6:40 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - During the introductions, I learned Enbi¡¯s family name is Hishigami. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - A stir ran through the room when Uchimaku Hayabusa said he was a police detective. Hoshimi Dounyuu was the most obviously nervous. Enbi: ¡°This was pretty awful too. You kept calling me a brat, but you didn¡¯t even know my name.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°I¡¯ll admit it was a shock. The Hishigami Group is a giant corporation with ads running everywhere on TV. They have so many affiliated companies the list just goes on and on. Although I could see why such a big name would be gathered with the others.¡± ¡°Hishigami Group Business Concept Commercial (120-second single-sponsored ad that airs nationwide Monday¡¯s at nine)¡± Many small water caltrops join together into a single large god.1 That is the Hishigami Group which is an indispensable part of your life. Our Group¡¯s history dates back to the end of the Edo era. Our founder was the first to grasp the changes brought by the fall of the shogunate and the Meiji Restoration and began searching for a standard to be used in the coming age of interpretation. The conglomerate was broken up after the two World Wars we survived and was reborn as a group of corporations. We currently include 58 companies in 9 divisions and have more than 200,000 employees in all. The Hishigami Group is always opening new frontiers. Our novel and bold advances and our reliable and detailed care have established us in an excellent position internationally. Enbi: ¡°Keh.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon.¡± Enbi: ¡°What? Nothing good can come from a monstrous company that calls itself a god!¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And I guess I¡¯ve got to deal with that eventually.¡± Enbi: ¡°Don¡¯t bother! In fact, I get the feeling you¡¯d end up as a collector of the Hishigami Women like me and my sister or end up charging down the path of an ultra-high powered harem! I don¡¯t even want to think about a summoner detective who can call in Yume, Kuji, or Ama with his cellphone!¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Well, that can wait.¡± Enbi: ¡°Let¡¯s get back on topic with Hoshimi Dounyuu¡¯s suspicious behavior. He was obsessed with hunting, so he had a ton of crossbows in his room. They ranged from a giant one too big to pull the bowstring back since it didn¡¯t use pulleys and a pistol-style one that would fit in a camera bag. He was nervous because he thought the detective might get after him for shooting empty cans in the mountain. He was of course innocent and was worried over nothing. You could say he had an imagined crime, confusingly enough.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°So you had been walking along the mountain road to investigate that, right?¡± Enbi: ¡°I was looking for evidence of a crossbow actually being used. With a planned murder, the culprit would have practiced beforehand.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Those really are some dangerous toys, though. And to be honest, I hadn¡¯t thought this would turn into some big case. With the walls, floors, and ceilings transparent, you couldn¡¯t hide anything and you couldn¡¯t secretly plan out a murder even if you had a weapon¡­or so I thought.¡± 6:45 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Yatsui Toshi and Toyokawa Ryuu seemed mistaken about something and snapped at me. - There seems to be some kind of argument between the fortune teller family and the people connected to major corporations. - The butler Kariba Toga and the maid Matsushima Ren know nothing about the fortune telling and can¡¯t follow the conversation. - Toyokawa Ryuu keeps one hand in his pocket. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - A threatening letter had arrived for Hoshimi Shuuren. The corporation side thinks Shuuren called the detective to protect himself and they¡¯re demanding he admit to it. (Such a tense atmosphere.) Hayabusa: ¡°That¡¯s the first I¡¯ve heard of a threatening letter.¡± Enbi: ¡°Well, of course he wouldn¡¯t say anything. He¡¯s a fortune teller who specializes in politicians and major corporations. It would hurt his image if he couldn¡¯t even predict an assassin rushing at him with a knife.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°That questionable fortune telling is a problem too.¡± ¡°Special Tabloid Article on the Lawsuit Ruling¡± Over the holiday, a black luxury car secretly drove deep into the mountains of Western Tokyo. The car looked horribly out of place deep within the thick woods, but it was carrying Mr. A, a self-proclaimed ¡°expert¡± who is well-known in the financial world. When people think of fortune telling, they usually think of magazines and the morning talk shows, but what if there was a special service for VIPs? This happened on the day before the infamous mistaken speculation conflict known as the Black Minutes and the miserable result of that program sale goes without saying. What if fortune telling had been involved in that decision? It would seem modern international incidents come from outside the Restaurants. Of course, they¡¯re a problem no matter where they come from. Enbi: ¡°Basically, they created believers here and there in the political and financial worlds and controlled their clients¡¯ actions with the results of their fortune telling. That let them manipulate stock prices all they wanted, so Madoka would probably faint if she heard about it.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°What¡¯s the legality of that? Wouldn¡¯t that be insider trading or spreading rumors?¡± Enbi: ¡°The important point is they were only giving fortunes, not stock information. The country¡¯s rules say we can¡¯t interfere with people¡¯s religious or ideological beliefs.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And then the corporation group stormed in, telling them to give it a rest. That¡¯s hardly surprising since they were all working hard and then someone showed up and completely changed the GDP and international balance of payments just by muttering some mumbo jumbo over a crystal ball. We¡¯re talking about a world that can go beyond billions and reach trillions!¡± Enbi: ¡°By the way, Enbi-chan had no interest in the Group created by the Hishigami Men. I had just slipped in because I was interested in the threatening letter.¡± 6:45 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Yatsui Toshi threw an ash tray in anger, but it missed its target and flew toward Enbi. - I caught it in one hand. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Stop that! I¡¯m gonna fall in love! (But this is a date to remember! Memo memo.) Hayabusa: ¡°¡­Hold on.¡± Enbi: ¡°What?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Didn¡¯t you fall for me a little easily there!?¡± Enbi: ¡°Sh-shut up! Don¡¯t underestimate a lonely girl whose scarred heart is starving for some love! Grr, grr!!¡± Notes 1. ¡ü Hishigami literally means Walter Caltrop God. Bonus Part 3 Bonus Part 3 6:50 - 7:10 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - According to the TV, the storm won¡¯t settle down for a few days. - Until then, we will all be staying at the mansion. They apparently have a decent stockpile of food, so that won¡¯t be a problem. - Kariba Toga, the butler with the bandaged face, smiles and chats with the maid named Matsushima Ren and the daughter. He might not be a bad person. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Shuuren begins fortune telling for some entertainment. He seems to be making it up as he goes along ¡ú In other words, it doesn¡¯t have any set rules like astrology or tarot. - He¡¯s fortune telling why the detective came this deep in the mountains. (¡ûIs the old man interested in the detective?) - The detective came here because of a report of what looked like a young woman¡¯s arms and legs spotted on a mountain road after a landslide. - It turned out to be nothing: just a broken mannequin. But something bothered him, so he stayed behind on his own. - From the glances I took of the detective¡¯s face, that seems to be the legit answer. Enbi: ¡°That storm was apparently due to an explosive low-pressure system sitting over us. What they were saying on the TV was scarier than how things looked outside.¡± ¡°Special Report¡± We will be interrupting the scheduled programming for a repeat of the weather information. Currently, heavy rain warnings have been issued for northern Kanagawa, Western Tokyo, and all of Saitama. At this level, we urge you to take shelter immediately and the explosive low-pressure system in question will likely stay put for a few more days. There is a fear that seemingly solid ground will be saturated with water, so be on the lookout for landslides and collapses as you travel to your municipality¡¯s designated shelter. Taking shelter at night is incredibly dangerous as you cannot see your footing. It is possible the manhole covers will have been dislodged on flooded streets. Always carry a light with you and progress with caution. And if reaching your shelter point would be difficult for any number of reasons, head to a room on the highest floor you can while keeping away from mountain and cliff slopes. To repeat¡­ Hayabusa: ¡°But about Shuuren¡¯s fortune telling. The real fork in the road is whether you honestly believe he was using the occult or you assume he was intercepting the police radio signal.¡± Enbi: ¡°And take note that this also keeps the corporation group in check. A mountain road collapsed? And something like a corpse was spotted? Let¡¯s pay careful attention to that.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°¡­I wish we could have focused on that.¡± 7:10 ¨C 7:40 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - The bandaged butler named Kariba has started cooking dinner. - A fight broke out between Yatsui Toshi who prefers Japanese food and Matsushima Ryou who prefers Western food. - Enbi is not picky. (According to her.) - Yatsui Toshi and Matsushima Ryou fall silent. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Shuuren is going around locking up the mansion. - The Glass House¡¯s locks require a set of keys to be locked or unlocked from the inside or outside. - Dounyuu, the son, is all fidgety and can¡¯t clam down. - Matsushima Ren, the maid, takes a shower (1st time). - The detective is staring. (Grr) Enbi: ¡°¡­¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Wait. This doesn¡¯t count as peeping!¡± Enbi: ¡°Anyway, this will introduce the insane family rules that say no secrets are needed between family.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°The other important point is that Shuuren locked up, not the butler or maid. He claimed it was the head of the family¡¯s duty to protect everyone from outside threats.¡± Enbi: ¡°Also note that Dounyuu, the crossbow collector, couldn¡¯t calm down.¡± 7:40 ¨C 8:00 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Matsushima Ryou and Yatsui Toshi get into a fight over whether to play chess or shogi. They end up playing Reversi against each other. - The meal is prepared. - Enbi tried to swipe some ham, so I scolded her. At some point, I ended up in charge of her. - Hatsutomo Naru really did swipe some ham. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Ren the maid calls everyone in for dinner, but Shuuren doesn¡¯t show up. - We head out to search for him and find him dead in the entrance hall. He was killed by a crossbow bolt to the right lung. - He didn¡¯t die instantly? There are traces of him crawling a few meters after being shot in the chest. But wouldn¡¯t that open the wound further? ¡û That¡¯d have to hurt¡­ Enbi: ¡°And here it is: the first murder.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°It¡¯s sort of important that we all ¡®went out to search for¡¯ Shuuren. That would normally make sense, but this was the Glass House. And what was its special trait?¡± Enbi: ¡°Of course, the corporation group was the most suspicious with their grievances from the fortune telling, but it was hard to say the fortune teller family was completely ruled out either. We had to narrow things down some before getting started.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Yes. She caused some real trouble when I took my eyes off of her for just a second.¡± 8:00 to 8:20 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - After calming the panicked people, I made sure to preserve the scene of the crime. Everyone passes through the entrance hall, so I couldn¡¯t just seal it off forever. I started with a tentative investigation of the scene. - Shuuren was shot from directly ahead by a crossbow. Based on the length of the bolt, it probably belongs to a small pistol-sized crossbow. - There¡¯s a dying message in blood near Shuuren. - The keys Shuuren should have had are gone. That means no one can leave the mansion. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - The dying message said ¡°bow¡± in blood. - Now, what if I change that to ¡°88w¡±? Enbi: ¡°And presto!¡± Hayabusa: ¡°I can¡¯t believe you would do that! You actually rewrote the dying message!!¡± Enbi: ¡°Yeah, but do you really think the victim would leave a coded message in the last barely-conscious moments before death? And even if he did, do you really think the murderer who had shot him straight in the chest wouldn¡¯t notice?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°So that means you rewrote the fake dying message the murderer wrote?¡± Enbi: ¡°Now, let¡¯s take a picture with my smartphone and show it off! The murderer¡¯s bound to be shocked after thinking they¡¯d escaped to safety.¡± 8:20 ¨C 8:30 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - We gathered in the living room and the others started ganging up on crossbow-collecting Dounyuu. - According to Dounyuu, one of his pistol-style crossbows had gone missing before dinner. - Toyokawa Ryuu continues to keep one hand in his pants pocket. He seems to be operating a cell phone or digital voice recorder. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Let¡¯s show off the photo of the altered dying message! - The ones who reacted unnaturally were Kanpa who was accusing Dounyuu, the wife Akua who was trying to stop the fighting, and Dounyuu himself. Hayabusa: ¡°Kanpa-san looked like an elegant young lady in a wheelchair, but she very surprisingly turned out to be an incredibly active person.¡± Enbi: ¡°Yeah, when she got mad, she would grab a mop or broom handle and start hitting you with it.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°They were all trying to think it over seriously by talking about alibis and motives¡­but it was pretty much useless.¡± Enbi: ¡°When you start talking about that stuff in reality, it really just comes down to endless arguing. Give a nice logical explanation like, ¡®I was here then and that person saw me,¡¯ and that person can ruin it with an irresponsible ¡®Eh? Were you really there?¡¯ People¡¯s brains aren¡¯t hard disks, so their memories can be dragged around by impressions. The witness has no obligation to cover for them, so you can¡¯t really trust them. You don¡¯t even need a majority opinion to crush someone¡¯s claim.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°If only there was a rule that everyone would accept the truth even if it was to their disadvantage.¡± Enbi: ¡°Also, there was the crossbow.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Dounyuu¡¯s claim was just that: a claim. He could always have been lying.¡± Enbi: ¡°By the way, these are the specs of the crossbow in question. This is from a catalogue in Dounyuu¡¯s room.¡± ¡°Sainaka Hunting Industries ¨C New Fall Releases¡± Eagle 2 Product of Sainaka Hunting Industries Length: 25cm (55cm when collapsible stock and stabilizer are fully expanded) Weight: 700g (850g with our scope [sold separately]) Maximum Range: 150m Effective Range: 20m (25m when using our standard bolt) Price: Discretionary Pricing Thoughts: This is our latest pistol-style crossbow which has superb durability, light weight, and small size thanks to its ABS plastic body. Even the standard model can be used for excellent sharpshooting, but when combined with the optional synthetic fiber bolts (sold separately), the kinetic energy increases threefold to create a truly ambitious product. Hayabusa: ¡°Oh, honestly. A silent crossbow you can hide in a bag? Why do they have to sell these obviously malicious things!? How could this possibly be used for hunting!?¡± Enbi: ¡°That was almost certainly the source of the murder weapon, but we had to think of some other possibilities just in case. Like that Kanpa might have hidden a dismantled crossbow inside her wheelchair.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Either way, they would have to ¡®get rid of¡¯ Dounyuu¡¯s crossbow, so that would just be wasted effort.¡± Enbi: ¡°From a psychology perspective, preferring to use a crossbow ¨C or any kind of projectile, really ¨C is a sign of a desire to ¡®overturn a position of inferiority¡¯. It comes from the contradiction of wanting a direct confrontation (instead of hiding in the shadows like with a trap or poison) but not wanting an actual physical struggle. That¡¯s why they wanted to free themselves from the tension at a safe distance.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°That¡¯s just one example. Profiling is based on statistics. It¡¯s not magic.¡± Enbi: ¡°And the dying message seemed pretty simple to me. Who had been surprised that the message in blood hadn¡¯t pointed to the owner of the bow¡­in other words, Dounyuu? And who had reacted even though they had no reason to be surprised?¡± 8:30 ¨C 9:00 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - I informed everyone we were locked in the mansion without the keys. - There¡¯s a storm outside and the tunnel collapsed, but we still decided to check for any way out of the mansion. - The windows and doors won¡¯t open. They¡¯re made of reinforced security glass, so not even tools are enough to break them. - Just to be sure, I checked the dresser and desk drawers in all the rooms. With their consent, I patted everyone down, but I couldn¡¯t find the crossbow or keys. Enbi¡¯s Notes: - We found a digital voice recorder in Toyokawa Ryuu¡¯s pocket. - Ren, the maid, was shocked. - Akua, the wife, looked displeased. Hayabusa: ¡°The keys are one thing, but it was obvious where the crossbow was hidden. The murderer was the only one who could go in or out, so if they threw the crossbow out and locked up afterwards, no one would find it. The outside walls weren¡¯t transparent, after all.¡± Enbi: ¡°But how could those reinforced glass windows be so strong? The front door too.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°It¡¯s the same stuff the police and even the Ministry of Defense use. But how much money went into that mansion to cover every surface with it?¡± ¡°Never Publicly Released Advertisement Sent to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department¡¯s Equipment Procurement Committee¡± The Crystal Shield Ver.12 we have developed is the latest grade of bullet- and bomb-proof glass expected to be used in vehicles for the president. Based on a miniscule truss structure created from various impurities mixed into a silicon base, this greatest masterpiece possesses hardness and elasticity one would never expect from glass. No ugly wires or films are mixed in. And as it is glass-based, it will repel most any chemical. However, there are foreign export restrictions on this product, so transportation or resale to non-allied nations is strictly forbidden. Please be careful. Hayabusa: ¡°Don¡¯t forget the digital voice recorder either.¡± Enbi: ¡°Yes, keep in mind why the Glass House¡¯s walls and floors were transparent.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And while it isn¡¯t definitive, people in tense situations tend to focus on unnecessary things.¡± Enbi: ¡°That left the keys, but they weren¡¯t in any of the furniture. But where else could they have been? There was nowhere else to hide something in that glass mansion.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°The answer was simple and it would become more important later.¡± 9:00 ¨C 9:10 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - The murderer was able to freely kill with no one the wiser in the Glass House where everyone can see everything, so we needed a way to defend ourselves. - The corporation group and the Hoshimi group split up and got into a fight. - I calmed down Yatsui Toshi and Toyokawa Ryuu who tried to arm themselves with things like a kitchen knife or a hammer. I explained that close-range weapons would be meaningless against someone with a crossbow, that the murderer couldn¡¯t lie in wait for a surprise attack with the glass walls, and that it would be more effective to take apart a bed and make a shield out of the blanket and plywood. Enbi: ¡°You¡¯re a surprisingly smooth talker, detective. I was sure everyone was going to grab a weapon and create a situation where they could snap at the slightest provocation.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°No, you tried to get everyone worked up so they would do that! Even the carefree maid reached for a fruit knife! Do you have any idea how nerve-racking it was to calm them all down again!?¡± Enbi: ¡°Well, if the atmosphere got tense enough, the murderer might just have pulled out the crossbow to protect themselves. ¡­And if all the suspects were killed, that would include the murderer too.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Looks like you still haven¡¯t learned your lesson. Shall I play back what you said back then?¡± Enbi: W-wait. That isn¡¯t something you should do in front of someone!¡± Past Enbi (mimicked by Hayabusa): ¡°Hey, do you believe in the grim reaper? I see. Then life will be nothing but one lesson after another for you. Nothing is as long and dark as a starless and moonless stormy night. You will have plenty of time to learn exactly how the world works.¡± Enbi: ¡°Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Um, what was that thing you did with your arms? You crossed them and placed the fingers on your forehead, right? Hm? This isn¡¯t right. I¡¯m all tangled up¡­¡± Enbi: ¡°Ababba! Ababababa! Byabyabyabyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!! (Tremble tremble tremble twitch twitch thud!!)¡± Bonus Part 4 Bonus Part 4 9:10 ¨C 9:20 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Who would benefit from Shuuren¡¯s death? The corporation group that had their stock prices influenced by his fortune telling or the Hoshimi kids who weren¡¯t getting any work because he did it all himself? - Dounyuu didn¡¯t want all the suspicion on himself, so he started spreading gossip about the others. - Yatsui Toshi knew some cooperative work between his Yatsui General Trading Company and Matsushima Construction had led to some negligent construction, but he wanted to know which company had been in charge of that. - Matsushima Ryou wanted to know who had buried a mannequin in the road they had been working on and what it was meant to protest. - Toyokawa Ryuu wanted to settle whether an accidental death in a Toyokawa Automobiles car had been due to the car or the road. Hayabusa: ¡°This is when it got more and more confusing.¡± Enbi: ¡°Th-that was cruel¡­ But if you look over all the information, some of them stood on the side of justice and didn¡¯t have a reason worth killing someone over. If Shuuren¡¯s fortune telling had ¡®just¡¯ been about manipulating stock prices, there was no real threat of seeing someone¡¯s unspeakable secret. But were we moving away from that assumption?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And revealing all that didn¡¯t actually help Dounyuu any.¡± Enbi: ¡°Yeah, even the people he wasn¡¯t talking about would have a worse impression of him. And if the murderer was from the corporation group¡­¡± Hayabusa: ¡°They could ¡®silence him¡¯ before he said too much.¡± 9:20-9:30 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Opinions are split over whether we should stay in a single group or split up to separate rooms. - We decided we could monitor each other regardless thanks to the transparent walls, floors, and ceilings, so those who wanted to stick together are in the living room and the others went to the bedrooms. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Yatsui Toshi, Toyokawa Ryuu, and most of the others went to the bedrooms. - The detective stayed with Enbi-chan in the living room. ¡úMy heart¡¯s pounding. Enbi: ¡°This is where it differs from the standard mansion mystery. Normally you¡¯d never have both choices being essentially the same.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°But despite the open environment, the murderer killed Shuuren without anyone noticing. We couldn¡¯t let our guard down.¡± 9:30 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - It¡¯s a cold night. - I decided to give Enbi my blanket. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Eh? What¡¯s this? Did he fall in love with me??? Hayabusa: ¡°Y¡¯know¡­¡± Enbi: ¡°G-girl¡¯s sometimes have a hard time controlling themselves!!¡± Hayabusa: ¡°How starved for affection were you? We¡¯re not talking about a glass of water in the desert here.¡± Enbi: ¡°A-a-a-a-a-a-anyway, since we had nothing to do but observe each other and needed a way to keep each other awake, we decided to try a thought experiment. How could a murder happen in the Glass House where all the walls were transparent?¡± 9:35 ¨C 11:00 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - We began discussing our thought experiment. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Was the murderer really in the entrance hall? (It¡¯s possible the murderer opened the front door and fired from outside. Then they could have stolen the keys and locked us in from outside. In other words, it was a complete third party.) - Was there really a murderer at all? (It¡¯s possible Shuuren shot himself in the chest with the bolt.) Enbi: ¡°There were a few possibilities, but they were kind of a stretch. If they fired the crossbow from outside, stealing the crossbow would¡¯ve been difficult. And if Shuuren had killed himself, someone still would¡¯ve seen it.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°But it would have been difficult to sneak around in that transparent mansion.¡± Enbi: ¡°We discussed the refraction of light and the properties of glass, but we couldn¡¯t come up with an idea that really stuck out.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°We also discussed some things that weren¡¯t directly related to Shuuren¡¯s death.¡± Enbi: ¡°Stealing the crossbow or claiming it was stolen would suggest the crime was planned and they could have waited for Shuuren since he locked up along the same route every day. ¡­But in this case, a lot of it came down to coincidence.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°For example, what would have happened if the tunnel hadn¡¯t collapsed or the storm hadn¡¯t blown in?¡± Enbi: ¡°Plus, the detective and me showing up wasn¡¯t planned.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°If it was a carefully thought-out plan, they could have held off and waited for their next opportunity.¡± Enbi: ¡°But they did it anyway. In that case, they either couldn¡¯t extend the schedule¡­¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Or what looked like a coincidence had actually been planned.¡± 11:00 PM ¨C 12:00 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - We ran out of ideas for our thought experiment. - Enbi and I began chatting to fight off sleep. - We discussed our own lives. - Enbi brought up the Hishigami Women. - Enbi believes she will always be part of some case or another. But she can choose what role she plays, so she thinks taking on the deduction role will prevent her from ending up with the killing role. - I¡¯m not entirely sure how much I believe of that. Besides, even if she knows a lot about killing, if she¡¯s using her power to solve the case as quickly as possible, doesn¡¯t that just make her a good person? Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Oh, crap! I said too much! - But I guess it¡¯s fine since he said that. Hayabusa: ¡°We¡¯re talking about some pretty meaningful stuff here, aren¡¯t we?¡± Enbi: ¡°And you¡¯re a really good listener, detective. It was almost all about me!¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And the problem is how obviously ¡®dere¡¯ it made you.¡± Enbi: ¡°Oh, shut up! I¡¯d never felt those feelings before, so I didn¡¯t know how to control them!!¡± Bonus Part 5 Bonus Part 5 Day 2 12:00 ¨C 1:00 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Lights out. - Starting with the bedroom group, people are giving in and falling asleep. - Hatsutomo Naru wanted some coffee to help her stay up, so she went to borrow a grinder and siphon from the kitchen. Perhaps subconsciously, she likes to make coffee the same way as Yatsui Toshi. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Enbi-chan won¡¯t sleep! - Matsushima Ren, the maid, left the living room. Something seemed to bother her. - To keep her awake, the maid is taking a shower before it¡¯s even light out. (2nd time) - The detective feigned disinterest but still stared. (Grr) - Akua, the wife who had joined the bedroom group, complained about the noise of the shower. She says she can¡¯t sleep with that racket! Enbi: ¡°¡­¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Again? I thought we already settled this!¡± Enbi: ¡°Let¡¯s get back on topic. The main point here is the maid¡¯s shower scene. Even the all-encompassing glass fogged up from the steam.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And keeping the lights on would have been better, but they were turned off by a timer that ran on an internal clock.¡± Enbi: Yeah, that¡¯s the normal thing to think. But in that case¡­?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Pay attention to one person¡¯s behavior in particular. It looks normal enough, but this was in the middle of a murder mystery. Would you really feel that way then?¡± 1:00 ¨C 2:00 AM Enbi¡¯s Memos: - The detective fell asleep. Zzz - Enbi-chan can¡¯t believe it. Enbi: ¡°I couldn¡¯t bring myself to say it then, but you look really cute when you¡¯re asleep.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Sh-shut up. Either way, you have to sleep at some point during these long-term battles.¡± Enbi: ¡°But detective, it looks like you trusted me. A pistol-style crossbow would have a relatively weak bowstring, so even a child could have used it.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Yeah, but I¡¯d written you off as innocent pretty early on.¡± Enbi: ¡°¡­¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Anyway, we ended up taking turns getting some sleep from here.¡± 4:30 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Enbi was gone when I woke up. Hayabusa: ¡°Things had gotten pretty bad. Everything was dark and I couldn¡¯t see through the transparent walls without any lights on. I had no choice but to search for Enbi. A few others were asleep in the living room, but I avoided waking them. This was simply because I had no way of knowing if the person I asked to accompany me was the murderer or not.¡± 4:30-5:00 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - I spotted a light that looks like a flashlight, so I headed in that direction. - I found Enbi in the kitchen. - Kariba, the bandaged butler, was preparing for breakfast. He had made some hot milk for Enbi. Enbi: ¡°So to sum up, there wasn¡¯t any trouble at all!¡± Hayabusa: ¡°I can¡¯t believe you!¡± Enbi: ¡°Sorry, sorry. But I saw the butler on the way to the kitchen, so I ended up following him.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°?¡± Enbi: ¡°It didn¡¯t actually happen, but it was a possibility. If the murderer who had the crossbow and keys had wanted to kill us all, the keys were actually scarier than the crossbow. I mean, if they turned on the gas in the kitchen, started a fire, escaped on their own, and locked the front door, we¡¯d all be burned to death.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Are you serious?¡± Enbi: ¡°There are other ways of starting a fire, though. I just wanted to monitor anyone getting close to something that could start one.¡± 6:00 ¨C 6:30 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - We ate the breakfast Kariba made. - Enbi took one of the wieners next to her fried egg and placed it on my plate. - Some people are refusing to leave their rooms. Enbi¡¯s Notes: - Take that! Time to win his heart with food!! - Kanpa, the wheelchair daughter, took a shower. - Kariba, the bandaged butler, helped her out. Hayabusa: ¡°It¡¯s kind of important that Kariba was the one to help with Kanpa¡¯s shower. That means she didn¡¯t get the help of Akua, a woman in her own family.¡± Enbi: ¡°Unless there¡¯s a romantic explanation, some bitter possibilities present themselves.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Kanpa and Akua didn¡¯t get along.¡± Enbi: ¡°Since their ages were too close to be mother and daughter, it felt like the kids weren¡¯t getting along with Shuuren¡¯s younger second wife.¡± 7:00 ¨C 8:00 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - The storm is still going strong outside. The landline and cellphones still aren¡¯t working. - For a change of pace, Kanpa demonstrates her own fortune telling. - Hatsutomo Naru is just one of many false names, but her real name can¡¯t be seen yet. She¡¯s an expert at falsely representing companies and dragging their image through the mud and the Yatsui General Trading Company was one of her victims in the past. ¡­Supposedly. - The Hoshimi family supposedly increases its power to see into the past and the future by bringing the family together and not keeping any secrets from each other. - However, Kanpa has a habit of mocking the people being manipulated by the fortune telling. If it was really 100% percent accurate and all-knowing, she says she wouldn¡¯t have to live in a wheelchair and Kariba could have avoided his injury. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Ren, the maid, fell asleep again. She quickly takes a shower. (3rd time) - The detective stared as usual. (Roar!) Enbi: ¡°What are we supposed to do about this?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°If you don¡¯t like it, then quit drawing attention to the shower scenes!¡± Enbi: ¡°The morning of the second day arrived and nothing had improved. I was gradually accepting this abnormal new life.¡± 8:00 ¨C 8:10 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - To preserve the scene of the crime, I checked on Shuuren¡¯s body in the entrance hall. There was no sign of anyone messing with it. - It bothered me that Shuuren had crawled a few meters before dying. - I moved his corpse and investigated the ground floor¡¯s marble floor. I found a removable panel and discovered an entrance leading underground. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Shuuren had apparently been killed before he could ¡°lock up¡± here and the murderer apparently didn¡¯t notice the door there. In other words, the door to the basement wasn¡¯t locked. Enbi: ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be a mansion mystery without a hidden passageway! What¡¯s next? Will the mansion spin, lift up, or move horizontally!? Stay tuned!¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Oh, shut up. And it¡¯s important that the murderer overlooked the door.¡± Bonus Part 6 Bonus Part 6 8:10 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Enbi and I investigate the underground passageway. - She hasn¡¯t said anything about it, but Enbi is staying by my side like it¡¯s normal. - She¡¯s even surreptitiously grabbing my sleeve. Hayabusa: ¡°That just makes me worried about you¡­¡± Enbi: ¡°That¡¯s only because it¡¯s a bulleted list! It only looks so sudden because you can only see the final result! There¡¯s infinite space between the lines!!¡± 8:15 ¨C 8:45 AM Enbi¡¯s Memos: - The basement is made from bare concrete and metal bars, so its closed-off structure is the exact opposite of the mansion. My heart is pounding. - The passageway walls are covered with bookshelves and storage space. There¡¯s all sorts of personal information on clients and summaries of meetings. Hayabusa: ¡°Now, then. This reveals the secret behind the Hoshimi family¡¯s fortune telling.¡± Enbi: ¡°They gained the trust of clients, got some secrets from them in private meetings, and cobbled those together to look informed about the wide world and people¡¯s narrow hearts. You can never trust someone who says something is ¡®just between you and me¡¯.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°This storage would be what the corporation group wanted to find. The secret behind the mountain road collapse and mannequin may have been there too.¡± 8:45 ¨C 9:00 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - There¡¯s a Japanese-style cell in the back of the basement. It contains Osakabe-hime, a Youkai of prophecy and divine power. - According to Osakabe-hime, she can take walks outside with Shuuren¡¯s permission. But to make sure she doesn¡¯t escape, a traveler¡¯s god is placed in the tunnel while she¡¯s out. Enbi: ¡°He had some guts insisting on no secrets among family. Or maybe he was saying they should all share in the same crime.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°This might be sudden, but as you can tell from the fact that Youkai tend not to like me, Youkai do exist in this world. There¡¯s no point in doubting it. By the way, here¡¯s some data on Osakabe-hime. ¡°Modern Youkai Encyclopedia (Paid App Ver.) ¨C ¡®O¡¯ Entries¡± Osakabe-hime. Ultra rare. A woman in a twelve-layered kimono said to secretly live in Himeji Castle¡¯s tower. Famous for her prophecies and divine power. Said to actually be a fox Youkai, but this may or may not be true. Has many connections to historical figures such as giving a sword to Miyamoto Musashi as a reward for exterminating some Youkai. The master of Himeji Castle has the right to meet Osakabe-hime once a year and receive a special piece of advice. Enbi: ¡°There¡¯s a ton to that one, isn¡¯t there?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°In fact, is she even a Youkai? Aren¡¯t they just forcing that as an explanation for some unidentified divine power?¡± Enbi: ¡°But she didn¡¯t seem to have much to do with Shuuren¡¯s murder. It didn¡¯t look like she could slip through the metal bars or curse him remotely.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Really, she didn¡¯t seem that interested in the human world. If she wanted revenge, she just had to wait two hundred years and that nouveau riche family would be destroyed by inheritance taxes and whatnot.¡± Enbi: ¡°The real demon kings aren¡¯t in a rush.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°The other point was the mention of the tunnel.¡± Enbi: ¡°A traveler¡¯s god is a god that resides inside a stone vessel. They¡¯re set up at places like the borders of a village to keep disaster and disease from getting in.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Osakabe-hime claimed the Hoshimi family had placed one in the tunnel.¡± Enbi: ¡°But they hadn¡¯t. The narrow tunnel of their private road had been built so a shutter of rock could be lowered. It had looked like the tunnel had collapsed before the storm, but was that because someone had used a secret key?¡± 9:00 ¨C 9:30 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Enbi and I finished investigating the basement and returned to the first floor. - The others were gathered in the second story hallway. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - When we checked, it turned out Ren, the maid, had been attacked while in the shower. (4th time) She had apparently been shot from behind by a crossbow and hit in the shoulder. - Once again, no one saw the murderer. Enbi: ¡°The detective made a basic mistake here. He should have focused on the maid rather than the vanished murderer. If no one saw the moment of the crime, then she too had to have ¡®vanished¡¯.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°I was a little busy trying to stop the bleeding and get her conscious again. And to be honest, I wanted a target for my hatred. Walking through a glass mansion with no blind spots and attacking two people just isn¡¯t normal.¡± Enbi: ¡°But that assumption was about to fall apart.¡± 9:30 ¨C 10:00 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - I let Ren, the maid, rest in a second story bedroom. - Akua, the wife, took a shower. - Yatsui Toshi and Toyokawa Ryuu are getting belligerent. They had wanted to ask Shuuren something, but the maid had had nothing to do with it. They wanted to know why she had to be attacked. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - There doesn¡¯t seem to be a connection between Shuuren and Ren. This hired maid was isolated. Was this a planned crime? Or had it been spontaneous? Hayabusa: ¡°There was also a rather dynamic possibility that Ren had been Shuuren¡¯s mistress.¡± Enbi: ¡°Everyone could see everything in the Glass House. How would they meet in secret?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Then it had to be a spontaneous crime for some other reason.¡± Enbi: ¡°Crimes of convenience are sometimes caused by completely unrelated grudges.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Like the mountain road collapse or the mannequin? The corporation group would be one thing, but I can¡¯t imagine a maid who never left the mansion would be involved. Oh, and her family name of Matsushima is the same as the construction company, but it isn¡¯t that rare a name.¡± Enbi: ¡°Which meant¡­¡± Hayabusa: ¡°The maid may have known something about Shuuren¡¯s murder.¡± 10:00 ¨C 10:30 AM Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Enbi-chan figured out the trick. - But it isn¡¯t quite enough to identify the murderer. - Enbi-chan takes action! Hayabusa: ¡°And here you go again.¡± Enbi: ¡°Eh? Oh, c¡¯mon. It¡¯s not that big a deal. All I did was pretend to be the murderer and attack the maid. And the ¡®action¡¯ I took was nothing more than hitting her on the back of the head with a blunt object.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°I really can¡¯t believe you!!¡± Enbi: ¡°But since I couldn¡¯t identify the murderer quickly enough, the maid would definitely have been killed if I didn¡¯t take some kind of defensive measures. After all, the murderer could keep trying until they¡¯re discovered.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Well, yes¡­but as a police officer, I can¡¯t praise you for what you did!¡± Enbi: ¡°Anyway, I had to create a situation where the murderer couldn¡¯t act without standing out too much.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°In other words, Matsushima Ren had been attacked because¡­?¡± Enbi: ¡°She had figured out the trick, just like me. But then someone other than the murderer attacked the maid using the same trick. Once they knew silencing the maid wouldn¡¯t keep the information from spreading, they would know killing her would be meaningless.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Or that was your plan anyway.¡± 10:30 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Ren, the maid, was attacked and killed by the murderer. The cause of death was a crossbow bolt fired into the head. Enbi: ¡°I screwed up here. I tried to make it look like Person X had attacked the maid, but the murderer must have thought the maid faked it. They must have been pretty confident in their trick and doubted more than one person would figure it out.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°So all you did was put Matsushima Ren more squarely in the crosshairs.¡± Enbi: ¡°I sometimes wonder if there was some other way I could have done it. I know it would¡¯ve been hopeless, though.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°¡­¡± Enbi: ¡°The murderer was starting to figure out things were falling apart, so things speed up from here on.¡± 10:30 ¨C 11:00 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Dounyuu, the son, is dead. He committed suicide by grabbing a crossbow bolt and stabbing it into his own throat. - His suicide note claims Shuuren¡¯s fortune telling led to Yatsui General Trading Company and Matsushima Construction¡¯s decline in rewarding quality work and ultimately to the shoddy construction that caused the road to collapse. Enbi: ¡°Case closed.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°How was I supposed to believe that!? It was too simple!¡± Enbi: ¡°The murderer was trying to make it look like Dounyuu was the culprit, so they didn¡¯t even try to hide the trick this time. They left the stuff by the wall in place.¡± 11:00 ¨C 11:15 AM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - I discovered the trick. The room is in plain view with the glass walls, but furniture like dressers and desks is placed by the walls such that it lines up and fills a single wall when viewed from one direction. In other words, a blind spot is created. - The keys were hidden between the wall and the furniture. By placing another piece of furniture on the other side of the transparent wall, a small hiding spot appears. - By repeatedly moving the furniture around, one could create and remove these blind spots, so they could only be found at the time of the crime. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Ren, the maid, figured out the blind spot creation trick and was apparently attacked by the murderer while moving furniture to try to create a blind spot of her own. Enbi: ¡°Oh, honestly. I so wanted to call everything together to show off as I gave the answer.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Apply that kind of pressure and I promise you the murderer would have run off. They were the one with the keys, after all.¡± Enbi: ¡°I couldn¡¯t do it then, so let¡¯s do it now! Picture the ¡®three¡¯ side of a die. Those are three columns in a square, transparent room. When viewed from above, the three circles are lined up diagonally, but when viewed from the side, they would block your view as a single large panel, right?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°But if they did that, you¡¯d notice as soon as you set foot in the room. That¡¯s why the murderer placed each of the obstacles in separate rooms. Looking in each room would only show a single column, but they still covered up the whole wall when looking through all of the rooms.¡± Enbi: ¡°The maid probably figured it out when she saw the steam fogging up the wall when she took a shower. Everyone assumed you couldn¡¯t hide anything with the transparent walls, but if you overturned that, you could create a sealed room, an invisible black box.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°But anyone could move furniture. That wasn¡¯t enough to identify the murderer.¡± Enbi: ¡°Yes. That¡¯s why I had to lay a trap in the very end.¡± Bonus Part 7 Bonus Part 7 11:15 ¨C 11:30 AM Enbi¡¯s Memos: - I¡¯ve narrowed it down to a single target. Enbi: ¡°Let¡¯s go back over our information, detective. The murder weapon was a crossbow from Dounyuu¡¯s collection. I think it would have been nearly impossible for any us or the corporation group to steal one since it was our first time in the mansion. We wouldn¡¯t know there were crossbows there and, even if we had heard about it secondhand, we wouldn¡¯t be able to put together a plan to steal one.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And even if the murderer who had stolen the crossbow was from the Hoshimi side, Shuuren, the head of the family; Dounyuu, the son; and Ren, the maid, were already dead.¡± Enbi: ¡°That left Akua, the wife, or Kanpa, the daughter. But Kanpa was confined to a wheelchair and thus couldn¡¯t move the furniture to create the blind spots. Since she and Kariba, the bandaged butler, got along well enough for him to help her take a shower, you might think they were working together¡­but that would have been difficult. Or rather, if Kariba was helping the murderer, there had to have been easier methods. Like poisoning the food.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°That left just one person.¡± Enbi: ¡°Akua, the wife. She was the only one left. She had taken a shower after the maid was attacked, but she might have been afraid she¡¯d gotten blood on herself.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°I had wondered why they would attack when there were so many visitors, but it was the opposite. Without enough suspects around, she had known they would suspect her first.¡± Enbi: ¡°And if Akua was the murderer, I was pretty sure I could set up the perfect trap.¡± 11:30 AM ¨C 12:00 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Enbi told everyone about the underground cell and Osakabe-hime. - Suspicion turned toward the previously unknown Osakabe-hime. - Akua tried to defend that Youkai at the source of the fortune telling, but Kanpa mocked her. - Kanpa said Osakabe-hime didn¡¯t matter. Any bluff would work as long as they had the brand recognition of raising a monster that would tell them the future. Even if Osakabe-hime died here, they just had to get a different Youkai. She said the fact that Akua didn¡¯t understand that proved she was an outsider. - Everyone decided to go defeat Osakabe-hime. If that stopped the murders, it meant she had been the murderer. They all went to search out weapons and planned to gather in the entrance hall! Enbi¡¯s Memos: - C¡¯mon, c¡¯mon, everyone! Come with me!! Hayabusa: ¡°Not that they could have defeated the Youkai without a real Onmyouji showing up. And the Hoshimi family didn¡¯t seem like the type.¡± Enbi: ¡°It was lucky Enbi-chan doesn¡¯t specialize in Youkai, wasn¡¯t it!? But that¡¯s why I used that as bait. With this going on, the murderer would have to shift suspicion elsewhere. They would have been planning to stop after Dounyuu¡¯s ¡®suicide¡¯, but now they¡¯d have to continue.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°But why would Akua be that set on protecting Osakabe-hime? If she didn¡¯t know about the basement, she never would have seen the Youkai.¡± Enbi: ¡°There were no secrets between family and that was how they brought their family together to strengthen their power to see into the past and future. Akua hadn¡¯t fit into her new family, so learning about Osakabe-hime, their greatest secret, had to look like proof that they had accepted her. ¡­And so she couldn¡¯t let that proof be destroyed. She wanted them to accept her as part of the family by knowing all their secrets.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°How had she learned about Osakabe-hime if she¡¯d never seen the Youkai?¡± Enbi: ¡°Who knows. There may have been some information written down. Akua had operated the tunnel¡¯s traveler¡¯s god to seal us in, so something may have referenced what that was originally for.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°But wait. Then Akua¡¯s first target would be¡­¡± Enbi: ¡°Kanpa, the daughter who was so hard on her. Kanpa was also the one who said it didn¡¯t matter if they got rid of Osakabe-hime. Ironic, isn¡¯t it? She was fighting to prove she was part of the family, but she would end up with no one left.¡± 12:00 ¨C 1:00 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Enbi suggests we act separately. - Enbi seems to want some heavy furniture to place on top of the basement entrance. - The scariest possibility is if ¡°she¡± panics, abandons her plan, and tries to run off on her own. With the keys, she can lock the door from outside, trapping us all inside. - Meanwhile, ¡°she¡± has never been in the underground passageways, so she doesn¡¯t know their layout. If she thinks she can escape with Osakabe-hime that way, we can lure her into a dead-end and trap her. Enbi: ¡°Note that this is different from what I was saying before. It was supposed to be about Osakabe-hime, but here I am worrying about a human murderer with the keys.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°In other words, you were bluffing.¡± Enbi: ¡°To be honest, it¡¯s easier to put together a plan based on people doubting you than based on them trusting you. The entrance hall is a wide-open space and, even if I managed to lure them away, it would be to a long underground passageway. That would end badly for us when Akua had a crossbow. They¡¯d catch on quickly I was tricking them, but it didn¡¯t matter. If I just asked them to protect Kanpa, they might betray me, but if I got them to choose the easiest path themselves, no one would complain.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And in fact, a lot of them noticed something wasn¡¯t right and started doubting you. Yatsui Toshi and Matsushima Ryou did, I think. You were just a kid and your argument had fallen apart from the moment you started discussing whether this was a Youkai or human murderer.¡± Enbi: ¡°Um, just to be clear, that was part of my plan. The trick to the murders was placing furniture along the walls in multiple rooms to cover an entire wall when viewed together, so you could actually eliminate the risk by splitting everyone up and having Hatsutomo Naru, Toyokawa Ryuu, and everyone else watching from multiple viewpoints. Creating a strained atmosphere and getting everyone to doubt me was the easiest way of doing that.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°In other words, you intentionally lost their trust so they wouldn¡¯t listen to you. And that would naturally send them where you wanted them.¡± Enbi: ¡°Exactly. Even if we didn¡¯t make a self-destructive charge at Akua and her crossbow, we could lock her up by placing a dresser on the door after she ventured underground. That wouldn¡¯t get the keys back, but since she wouldn¡¯t have any food or water, we could wait her out.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And then¡­¡± 1:00 PM Haybusa¡¯s Notes: - None of the others showed up. - I¡¯m waiting for Akua all alone near the entrance hall. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª (The following was added after the fact.) - Akua shot me with a crossbow. - After eliminating me, Akua entered the underground passageway. Enbi: ¡°That gave me a headache. What kind of stupidly honest person sticks with it even when you know you¡¯re being tricked?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°I couldn¡¯t tell what you were doing. Akua had two rewards: Kanpa and Osakabe-hime. If you wanted to stay with the safer one, Kanpa, that was fine with me. If I went there too, it just would have made things more dangerous. And¡­¡± Enbi: ¡°And?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°You asked me to do it. Plus, it allowed me to protect someone from the murderer.¡± Enbi: ¡°¡­¡± 1:00 ¨C 1:30 PM Enbi¡¯s Memos: - I inspected the detective near the entrance hall. - His wound is deep. Removing the bolt would only make the bleeding worse. - He needs to be transported to a medical facility and soon, but the mansion¡¯s exits and the private road tunnel are sealed by Akua. - I need to take the keys from Akua ASAP. - This is my first time feeling a desire to do good for no personal gain. - This goes beyond what they call ¡°dere¡±. Hishigami Enbi has fallen in love for the very first time. Enbi: ¡°Enbi-chan¡¯s scary once a heart of justice awakens within her! Whoosh, whoosh!!¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Oh, no. She¡¯s not just mad! She¡¯s swinging some kind of blunt weapon around! You always make my head hurt because nothing ever changes the fact that you¡¯re a Hishigami Woman. Just like Mai.¡± 1:30 PM Enbi¡¯s Memos: - Akua came out of the underground passageway with Osakabe-hime. - As soon as the murderer showed up, Enbi-chan used the natural frequency of the glass to destroy the Glass House. Shards rained down on the entire entrance hall. - Akua took the brunt of it and was half-killed. - Osakabe-hime was an immortal Youkai, so she wasn¡¯t harmed. Enbi: ¡°And that¡¯s how justice won the day!¡± Hayabusa: ¡°You just glossed over it by mentioning the natural frequency, but what exactly did you do!? And I was collapsed right next to the entrance hall, but I didn¡¯t get a single scratch from that!¡± Enbi: ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon. That¡¯s a secret of course. But if it was just glass, a burner and ice water might have been enough.¡± 1:40 PM Hayabusa¡¯s Notes: - Enbi retrieved the keys. - There was a storm outside, but it wasn¡¯t powerful enough to block off the road. - The survivors left and Kariba, the butler, lent me his shoulder. Enbi¡¯s Memos: - I borrowed a hard disk from the underground storage. That allowed me to continue investigating the mannequin incident. - Also, Kariba-san, the bandaged butler, was under the mistaken impression that the wound on his face hadn¡¯t healed and he was actually quite good looking. - Enbi-chan used the keys to release the ¡°traveler¡¯s god¡± in the private tunnel. That just leaves waiting for the ambulance! Hayabusa: ¡°What was that about a hard disk? That¡¯s theft!¡± Enbi: ¡°C¡¯mon, no crass complaints right at the very end! And besides, the mansion was about to collapse and we had to evacuate, so I was really protecting the property they were about to lose.¡± Hayabusa: ¡°And who was it that destroyed the mansion in the first place¡­? I feel like I just ran across a hybrid of an arsonist and a burning building looter.¡± Enbi: ¡°But¡­huh? Didn¡¯t we come across something else while putting together this report, detective?¡± Hayabusa: ¡°Hm? What are you talking about?¡± Enbi: ¡°Right here: Yatsui Toshi, Matsushima Ryou, Hatsutomo Naru, and Toyokawa Ryuu. What about the mystery of the collapsed mountain road and mannequin? If we look through this report and connect this part to this part and that part¡­¡± Hayabusa: ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me. We just solved a case several years after the fact.¡± Enbi: ¡°So there really was an answer.¡±