Editing A Simple Survey:Volume1 End2 (section)

===Part 4===

Their university had no professor named Tanaka.

In that case, who was that supposed professor?

And what had that survey been? What had been taken from them?

That was what they were looking into, but…

“So what exactly are we going to investigate while I skip class?” asked Anzai. “That Tanaka-san is not from our university, right? We aren’t going to find anything wandering around in the university.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Hotaru, easily denying his comment. “I may not know what the point of that survey was, but I have a guess as to where he got the short films used in it. They were likely filmed by the university’s film studies club.”

“Do you have any proof of that?”

“I recognized some of the locations in the short films. I think they were shot on campus here. Most likely, whoever this was claiming to be a professor named Tanaka casually requested that the film studies club produce the short films.”

“…So he was on campus for more than just the short time last night?”

“Creepy, isn’t it? It makes him sound like a Youkai or something.”

Following Hotaru, Anzai arrived at the film studies club room. (Was club room the right term? Anzai was not part of any club, so he was not sure.)

“Naturally, it’s locked.”

“You can get a mold by pouring rubber adhesive into the keyhole. Getting it out can be tricky, though.”

“…''You'' seem like a Youkai to me.”

Hotaru used a slightly uneven key made of what was likely tin rather than iron or aluminum, and the door easily unlocked.

As they entered, Anzai asked a question.

“So what is in here that you want?”

“I don’t know what is in here, but there is something I am hoping is.”

“?”

“Those short films. I am curious about a few things. I would like to watch them again to check.”

After a bit of searching, they easily found what they were looking for. It was a USB drive with “For the Survey” written on the sticker meant for the owner’s name.

“Huh? Wasn’t it on a giant film reel when he showed it in the auditorium?”

“They probably edited it digitally and then burned it back onto film. The film studies club can be oddly picky about that kind of thing. This is a 20,000 yen high capacity USB drive and the films needed the entire thing to themselves.  Video certainly does eat up space.”

“That can be changed using compression, but I suppose this is the film studies club after all. Even though the human eye can’t tell the difference, people like that still refuse to use any kind of video compression.”

Anzai wondered what Hotaru wanted to check about the short films.

She stuck the USB drive into a slot on her smartphone and played the video on the small screen.

Anzai wondered how long it would take, but Hotaru nodded after only 3 minutes.

“Aha, I was right. Look, here, here, and here.”

“Is there a ghost in the video?”

“Even better.” Hotaru paused the video. “Are you familiar with the term ‘gray fiction’?”

“…You mean like alien movies?”

“That isn’t entirely wrong.”

She responded to his joke with a serious expression.

Anzai was feeling a bit over his head, but Hotaru expressionlessly continued.

“It refers to a fiction story that cannot be labeled as nonfiction due to various circumstances. You sometimes hear about this issue due to political reasons, but it was used recently in a film that showed a UFO research facility and a horror film with the motif of a vengeful spirit of a Heian period noble.”

“What about it?”

“These short films are the same.” Despite how ridiculous what she was saying was, her expression was perfectly composed. “Gray fiction works leave small signs that the general viewer will overlook. Those signs can be seen in these short films. It is possible these things just so happened to get caught in the frame, but in all likelihood it was no accident.”

“Eh? Wait…do you mean this ''white-haired girl'' at the edge of the frame?”

“No, not that.”

(But then who is this girl?)

Anzai still had questions, but Hotaru was not about to let the conversation head in that direction.

“My conclusion is that all of the short films shown were gray fiction.”

“…You mean they were actually nonfiction?”

“Yes.”

“But weren’t there fairies and ninja in those!? Wasn’t one story about slicing apart a troll in an RPG-style Middle Ages-esque fantasy world that never existed in history!?”

“Don’t ask me. I don’t know how it is possible either.” Hotaru sighed. “But it seems like the short films do not show the entirety of some strange world. It feels more like just one room or one section from that world. Perhaps there is some room in some building or some underground dome where those things are happening. Or perhaps there is no mysterious world and there is merely some room somewhere on earth that just looks like some mysterious world.”

(That’s ridiculous…)

If you were told that a hero and demon king existed somewhere on the earth, would you believe it?

And a computer virus that spoke like a human seemed in a way more fantastical than even the hero or demon king.

“But what is the definition of nonfiction?” asked Anzai.

“Hm?”

“Nostradamus’ The Prophecies is considered nonfiction. In other words, nonfiction does not mean the contents are true. It just means the author wrote it ''thinking'' it was true. In that case…”

“The professor was just insane?”

“Thinking about it that way puts me a lot more at ease.”

“Perhaps,” admitted Hotaru. But then, “Or perhaps there is a single common rule behind all of this that has convinced the professor that he has actually seen these things.”

“…You mean like hypnotism?”

“How cliché. At least go so far as to say he made short films showing what he has witnessed in his time chasing after a certain large plot.”

Anzai had no response.

For one thing, the signs of it being gray fiction may have been something the supposed professor had put in there as a prank.

But what meaning was there in doing that?

“In the end, what did that professor want to do? What meaning was there in having those filmed? In fact, what was the purpose of the survey itself?”

“Who knows.” Hotaru said noncommittally before adding another cryptic remark. “But I get the feeling there is a connection.”

“?”

“I feel there is a connection between the strange events told of in those short films and how that professor snuck into the university, carried out that survey, and then disappeared. And if there is a connection, we may become indirectly wrapped up in some strange events that began with those short films.”

“…I don’t like the sound of that.”

“No. But if those short films really are gray fiction, that professor may have come to the proper conclusion.”

“What do you mean?”

“People who loudly insist they were abducted by a UFO are a type of ‘strange’ different from the UFOs themselves. Absurdities, you could call them. Or if there was a specialist who you could ask questions to like a customer service line but only about demons, that specialist would be an absurdity of a different sort from demons.” Hotaru paused for a second. “In other words, those who work to analyze mysterious things will by dyed by the thing they are facing and become a type of absurdity themselves. With the experience it would take to put together that survey based on gray fiction, that mysterious professor has likely been completely changed into an absurdity. …Whoever he might have originally been.”

“…”

After hearing all that, Anzai finally realized something.

The survey was not the most dangerous thing.

Neither was the professor.

The most dangerous thing was before his very eyes.

“H-hey, where are the people from the film studies club? If you wanted to learn about these short films, wouldn’t it have been best to ask them first? They were the ones who actually had the cameras rolling before these mysterious things.”

“This would have been a lot easier if that was possible.”

She did not give any specifics.

However, Anzai sensed some kind of ominous end in her ambiguous statement.

They could not check with those people.

They could not speak with those people.

They had no idea where those people were.

Yes.

It was the same as with the professor.

“Your theory was that the professor went crazy while analyzing these mysterious things, right? Let’s set aside whether it’s due to something physical or something mental, though.”

“Yes, it is just a theory. But that is what it is like with grimoires and magic circles, isn’t it? They merely display the workings of the world in text or diagram form.”

“Well, if the change can happen just by analyzing these things…”

Anzai pointed.

He pointed at the most dangerous thing.

He pointed at the USB drive in Hotaru’s hand that contained the short film footage.

“…Isn’t just having that thing around dangerous?”

“Yes. Compared to the survey, the professor, the people from the film studies club, viewing each individual short film, or gray fiction itself…”

Hotaru smiled.

As she was usually expressionless, it was a surprisingly big smile.

“…Don’t you think this USB drive has the absurd in a much, much more condensed form? It is like a magic wand that allows you to level up without end simply by waving it around.”

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