Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume 6 Chapter 1 (section)

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Akifumi-san helped me carry the large amount of equipment to the base.

“Put the equipment in the center of the shop. Bou-san and Matsuzaki-san, go to Hazuki-chan. For the time being, prepare talismans to ensure her safety.”

Yeah, yeah. Carry the camera and connect the video. To the thermography and the vibrometer and the infrared radar and all the rest of the measuring instruments.

“Somehow, you don’t seem very much like spiritualists.”

Akifumi-san said while he carried equipment into the empty room.

“Yes. Please call us ghost hunters. Excuse me, could you please grab the cable with the yellow tape on it?”

“So, you also handle this kind of machinery, Taniyama-san? —Um, cable?”

“It’s a cord. —Somehow I have a simple connection. The majority of it is still gibberish to me.”

“I feel even a simple connection is incredible. I’m not very good with machinery.”

“Not very good?”

“When I touch machines too much they seem to break. When face to face with machinery, I’m the type that gets nervous.”

Ah, I see.

“Aki...”

fumi-san, I started to say and quickly covered my mouth.

“I don’t mind going by Akifumi.”

He gave me a smile, but still, to call a man by his given name after being acquainted for such a short time is a little...

“I’m— I’m sorry. All the family members are ‘Yoshimi-san’, it was unintentional...”

“Please, don’t worry about it. Because even without the large number of people, it’s confusing.”

“Then excuse me, Akifumi-san. You said you’re twenty years old, are you a college student?”

“Yes. I go to the University of Tokyo.”

“Oh, so that means you don’t usually live here, right?”

“That’s right. But I try to come back to visit as much as possible during holidays.”

“Do you help in the shop still?”

Akifumi-san smiled and shook his head.

“My grandmother gets lonely. Since the family members are too busy with the shop.”

“Eeeh. Do all the people of the house work in the shop?”

“That’s right. But my youngest elder brother is a government worker.”

“Youngest elder brother— does that mean you have two or more brothers?”

“Two brothers and two sisters. I’m the youngest of five siblings.”

“Five… that’s a lot of people.”

Akifumi-san gave a somewhat mixed smile.

“If you die a lot, you have to have a lot of people or your house will become extinct.”

“Hmm... and along with your parents and grandmother?”

“Plus, my oldest brother and sister have children with their spouses. Three children in all. My brother has two children, and my sister has one child. Hazuki is the youngest child of my brother.”

<p>&#42;shock*</p>

“That— that many people all live here?”

“Except me.”

I looked at my hands and counted on my fingers.

“Thirteen people in all? That’s impressive.”

Akifumi-san gave a pained smile.

“Nevertheless, if eight people die, not even half will remain.”

I thought this to be an unpleasant story. This was a cursed house where a large number of the family die. As such, a lot of damage is caused. And so as to not become extinct, the house produces a lot of children. It may be because I have no house or family, but that feels very wrong. It’s as though the children are tools to keep the house going. The parents will of course love the children, but I wonder what percentage of the love will be love for the human being.

Akifumi-san bowed his head a little.

“...I’m sorry. It’s a dark conversation.”

“No, it’s— it’s I who should say so.”

“Taniyama-san, what about your family?”

“Oh. I’m on my own.”

Akifumi-san looked surprised.

“...I’m sorry, that was inexcusable. I spoke callously.”

“No way! It’s natural to ask if you don’t know.”

Despite this, everyone apologizes.

“But…”

Everyone gets stuck with this topic.

“Please, don't trouble yourself. There’s a lot to a person, and that means there’s also a lot to me.”

“Indeed… ”

“Besides, if I had parents, they wouldn’t let me have this unusual part-time job. Then I wouldn’t have been able to come to such a luxurious restaurant and—.”

“...is that so?”

“That’s right. It’s easier like this. Especially, when I think my friends would quarrel with my family, among other things. No, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I think it’s good to have dead parents.”

“Perhaps that’s true.”

“Hmmm. Of course, it’s also lonely.”

Akifumi-san smiled.

“Add me and Taniyama-san and divide by two and the number is exactly right.”

“...seven people? Even so, according to social norms, that’s a little bit more.”

“Well, that’s true. My house really does have a lot of people.”

Akifumi-san said this as if just realizing it.

“Umm, this is something strange, but—”

“What is it?”

“How do you eat your meals?”

With thirteen people, I wondered if they all ate side by side in a row.

“Well, we usually eat together.”

I was impressed by what Akifumi-san said.

“Is that unusual?”

“Since your home is a restaurant, the people helping in the shop eat at unusual hours in the shop, right?”

“Oh, it’s also that sort of house.”

Ah. The world is vast.

“It’s a little disappointing. I wanted to see where thirteen people sit in a row.”

When I said this, Akifumi-san made a slightly mystified expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“My mother had said you would eat with all of us tonight.”

Wow. Perhaps it will be a feast ♡

“...I wonder how we’re going to eat.”

Hmm.

“It’s a total of eighteen people.”

“That... that isn’t a meal, that’s a banquet now.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

Akifumi-san and I thought pensively for a moment.