Editing Kara no Kyoukai:Chapter05 07

'''/7 Spiral Paradox'''<br>

When I opened my eyes the next morning, it was getting past nine.<br>

I am totally late.<br>

When I arrived at the office holding a bundle too heavy to be called luggage, Touko-san and Shiki were waiting for me.<br>

"Sorry I'm late."<br>

Only after I leaned the [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|shinai]] bag-shaped bundle against the wall did I sigh in relief.<br>

Breathing hard like I just ran a marathon, I calm my breathing.<br>

The bundle isn't even one meter long, but is heavy as if it were made of steel, so that while it didn't seem like a very bulky bundle when I left my house, my arm had gone numb after walking a hundred meters.<br>

While I limbered up the muscles in both my arms, Shiki came plodding over.<br>

"Oi. Hey Shiki, nice weather today."<br>

"Yeah, they say it will be fine for a while."<br>

Unusually, Shiki is wearing a white kimono as if she is going out somewhere today. When put together with the red leather jacket on the sofa, it seems like there will be a clean and clear contrast between the white and the red. Normally she doesn't like obi with patterns on them, but today she's sporting an obi with a leaf-like pattern across it. Looking closer, even her kimono's sleeves have three or so red leaves scattered across the ends.<br>

"Mikiya, whose business is that?"<br>

Pointing with a white finger, Shiki asks me a question.<br>

Her finger is pointed at the object leaning against the wall.<br>

"Ahh, Akitaka-san sent that. Shiki, you went out yesterday, didn't you? When I dropped by after work, you weren't there, and Akitaka-san was waiting for you in front of the door. It had been a while since I saw him and I talked with him for an hour or so, but it didn't feel like you would be coming back anytime soon so we parted ways. At the time, he entrusted me with this. He said that it may be a [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|Kanesada]], but since there's no maker's mark he couldn't be sure of its origins."<br>

"When you say Kanesada, do you mean the Kanesada with a [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|Kuji]] in it?"<br>

Showing a rare bright face, Shiki lifts the bundle leaning against the wall. Holding the package that was heavy even for me with just one hand, Shiki began to loosen the string that held the bag shut.<br>

Like a banana being peeled, whoosh, and the cloth gets stripped away. What was presently revealed was a long, thin metal plate. No, rather than saying it was metal, it felt more like rusty iron or copper. Only the cloth from the top of the bundle had been taken off, so only a tenth of the object could be seen, but it's definite that the thing is something like a stick.<br>

The iron inside the shinai bag is wrapped in another layer of pure cotton-like cloth. The iron is in the form of a plate that looks like someone took a ruler and made it about two times bigger, and has two small holes drilled into it. There are some kanji carved into the worn surface. ... Curious.<br>

"Man, Akitaka, bringing out something like this ... ."<br>

Shiki speaks as if she's troubled, but her eyes can't stop smiling. For some reason I couldn't express, it was depressing to see Shiki, who didn't even smile at any day-to-day things, suddenly start snickering as she held that unidentifiable metal plate.<br>

"Shiki, what is that?"<br>

Shiki was acting too strange, so I asked her about it.<br>

When I did, Shiki spun around to face me and gave me a huge grin.<br>

"Want to see? This is the kind of sword you can't typically see these days."<br>

Shiki, who happily started to bring the contents of the shinai bag out. Touko-san, who had been watching silently until now, stopped her.<br>

"Shiki, I see that is a ancient blade you have there. You can't take out something like a five hundred-year-old sword in here. What will you do if the ward gets cut apart?"<br>

Hearing that, Shiki freezes.<br>

Touko-san says it's a sword, but is that blunt metal plate that looks like an enlarged iron ruler that couldn't cut anything really a sword ... ?<br>

"On top of that, there's even a Kuji on it. Is it 'May those who preside over all warriors be my vanguard" '''(TN: I don't think this is an accurate translation but it's the best I could do from what I had)'''? I'm sorry, but my wards can't stand up to a famous five hundred-year-old sword. If you take that out here, all the things in the lower floors will come tumbling down."<br>

Taken back by Touko-san's unusually threatening words, Shiki began packing the shinai bag away again. ...These two, I think it's true that they talked about a lot of strange and wonderful topics while I was away.<br>

"--- You are right, showing Mikiya a Japanese sword with only the blade will be boring anyway. To think that he didn't prepare a hilt. Is Akitaka getting to be an old dotard too?"<br>

Shiki mumbles absently.<br>

...Calling Akitaka-san, who had raised her since she was ten years old, an old dotard is a bit harsh. Moreover, Akitaka-san is still in his early thirties, which means his usefulness is still maturing.<br>

Reluctantly, Shiki lays the bundle on the sofa.<br>

...This is something I found out later, but in those days, a hilt didn't come attached to a sword. A Japanese sword like those you see in historic dramas already has its hilt attached, but a hiltless sword has no decorations like some cutter blade. Apparently those two holes punched into the bottom are so that you can put a hilt on. And just for your information, an ancient sword refers to swords from the middle of the Heian era to the Keichio (1596-1614) era, without doubt an important cultural fact.<br>

"Do you know, Shiki? Just by building up a history, a weapon becomes a mystical thing that can stand up to magecraft. From now on, don't bring anything like that into this building even by accident. I won't take the blame for what happens if you do."<br>

Handling a precious item that could even become a national treasure like that, Touko-san went, whew, and sighed.<br>

"By the way, Kokutou. What's the reason for you coming in late this morning?"<br>

"I apologise, it's just that investigating proved a bit difficult. Anyway I've managed to get the names and collect some general information on the residents of the Ogawa Mansion."<br>

--- That's right, I started investigating the apartment building in question last night, and when I woke up the day had already passed me by.<br>

Lately, the spread of the internet has meant that it's become possible to carry out investigations even during the night. Distinctions such as resting at night since everyone else is sleeping have disappeared. As a result, I heard the story from Daisuke-niisan, collected some random facts here and there while web surfing, sorted what I found, and before I knew it the job had expanded to the state it was currently in.<br>

"...I told you that you had until December to do it. You sure like to buy the hardships you go through, Kokutou. Well, let's hear it then."<br>

"Yes ma'am. The Ogawa Mansion is a high-class building even for a posh apartment complex like Kayamahama. It has a unique design too, so please have a look later. The construction period was from '96 to '97, with the work being done together by 3 companies. You took care of the eastern building lobbies, Touko-san. For now, I've put the names of those involved in the construction on the list. There's a detailed construction schedule attached too, so have a look."<br>

Taking out the freshly-printed resources, I spread them out on Touko-san's desk.<br>

For some reason Touko-san is blinking a lot and sitting there quiescently.<br>

"As you can see, what we are referring to as the apartment building is actually two apartment buildings right next to each other.<br>

Built in a nice half-moon shape there are two ten-story buildings facing each other. If you look at an aerial photo, it's enough to surprise you. They really are forming a circle. Originally, they built it thinking of a company dormitory, so the first and second floors are set out as recreational facilities, but they aren't currently in use. I suppose that you can't waste power on such frivolous things with the economy as bad as it is.<br>

Each building is ten stories high, with five rooms per floor. Between the east and west buildings, there are ten rooms altogether. Every room is a [[Kara_no_Kyoukai:Chapter05_Glossary_and_Notes|3LDK]] that mixes western and Japanese styles. The layout of the waterworks was somewhat complex, so in about ten years' time the lower floors might start developing some leaks. As for parking, there are forty spaces in front of the mansion, and forty spaces underground. Compared to the number of residents it's a bit lacking, but for now there's enough with just the parking space out front.<br>

When the company that originally intended to use it as a company dormitory started having trouble, there was a change of ownership. Apparently, the new owner's policies meant that the building was opened to private use. The residents entered in 1998 - in other words, this year. They said that they had advertised for three months, but only about half the apartments were filled. There were even some rumors going around that they were going to rebuild the western building in the near future. Oh, and here's a copy of the blueprints."<br>

Saying that, I laid the next resource on the desk.<br>

Touko-san made an even more disgruntled face, and furrowed her forehead.<br>

"The mansion is divided into a western building and an eastern building, but the first floor lobby is shared. There is only one elevator as well. For a project using this much land, the construction was actually pretty shabby. They probably focused more on outside opinion than utility when they were planning the building. The elevator alone was fraught with breakdowns at the beginning. In fact, the caretaker confessed to me that they couldn't even use the elevator until May.<br>

The room count is five rooms per building; going counterclockwise from the six o'clock position, they are numbered 1, 2, and so on. The eastern building is numbered from 1 to 5. Numbers 6 to 10 are in the western building. The roof is a no-access area.<br>

The third floor residents are: Sonoda, empty room, Watanabe, empty room, Itsuki, Takemoto, empty room, Haido, empty room, Toenchi.<br>

The fourth floor residents are: empty room, empty room, Sasatani, Mochitsuki, Aratani, empty room, empty room, Tsujinomiya, Kamiyama, Enjou.<br>

The fifth floor residents are: Narushima, Tennoji, empty room, empty room, Shirazumi, Naito, Enomoto, empty room, empty room, Inugami. The sixth floor -."<br>

"Enough, I realize already. How much you go overboard when you are let off your leash, I realize it already."<br>

In the midst of going through the list, Touko-san sighs and stops me.<br>

"Here, show me the list. Since I won't be surprised even if it has the company they belong to and their former address on top of their family composition."<br>

"Okay. Reading everything is a bit hard for me as well."<br>

So I handed over the list, and when Touko-san saw it she went 'Whoa', letting out an exclamation that didn't suit her image.<br>

"Dear lord, to think you really did investigate it all. Kokutou, are you sure you don't want to try being a detective? You'd be popular, definitely."<br>

"No I wouldn't. You see, I only got information for half the residents this time, too."<br>

Yes, if I had any regrets, that was it.<br>

In the end, out of the fifty or so residents, I was only able to follow up thirty of them, which is about half that number. Other than that, I was only able to find out the names of the residents and the makeup of their families.<br>

Touko-san is wordlessly flipping through the list.<br>

When I glanced at Shiki for no reason, she had on a serious face and was lost in thought. That frowning expression she had on as though she were glaring, it was grim, but rather than being scary, it was beautiful.<br>

"Touko, pass me that list for a second."<br>

Walking over to behind Touko-san, Shiki casts her eyes upon the list.<br>

"...As I thought. Such a rare name, there wouldn't be two of them."<br>

Tch. Shiki clicks her tongue.<br>

"I'll go on ahead first. Touko, is there anything I could use as transport?"<br>

"There's a 200hp motorbike in the corner of the warehouse."<br>

"Are you telling me to ride a motorbike while wearing a kimono?"<br>

"There should be some women's clothing in the wardrobe. They're mine, so they might be a little big, but they should be better than a kimono."<br>

"Yeah," Shiki nodded. Putting on her leather jacket she picked up the Japanese sword that was packed inside the shinai bag and left the office behind her.<br>

Like some snake, the white kimono makes an inauspicious slithering noise.<br>

"--- Shiki!"<br>

... How should I say this? Feeling some indescribable uneasiness, I called after Shiki to stop her.<br>

Showing me the back of the leather jacket, Shiki just turns her face towards me. Eyes full of naive questioning, as if she had been warned about some prank she didn't remember and thought it weird.<br>

"What is it, Mikiya? Does it seem like I've lost myself to some bad thing or something?"<br>

Really, what am I supposed to say to her when she's so carefree, as if she's just popping out to do some shopping --- I couldn't figure out what I had to say.<br>

"No ...It's nothing. I'll come over tonight, so let's leave talking 'til later."<br>

"What? What a weirdo. But --- okay. Tonight, you said? If it's at that time, I should be in my room."<br>

Okay then, she said, and Shiki left, holding one hand up in farewell.

***<br>

Around one hour after Shiki left on the motorbike she had uncharacteristically borrowed from Touko-san, Touko-san and I decided to go and check out the mansion for ourselves.<br>

Thirty minutes after leaving the city center on Touko-san's treasured mini-coupe-like Miner 1000 or something similar. Before long, we came to an immaculately maintained portside district.<br>

That place called Kayamahama was certainly wide, at any rate. Whether it was because they had land to spare or not, only a few multi-story buildings dotted the landscape, and so it brought to mind the field in a polygon game that had been popular ages ago. With a name like Bro-Ken or Dra-Ken, it was a game where four people oversaw a huge landmass.<br>

The apartment in question was really in the middle of a chaotic jungle of apartments. Surrounded by buildings that all looked the same, the circular tower was visible from miles away but took a while to get to.<br>

Whereas most of the other buildings are square tofu blocks, that round apartment building alone breaks that rule as it stands there...<br>

For a ten-story building, it's pretty high. There definitely were advantages to piling blocks on top of each other to form a circular apartment on this land. The lone path from the grounds to the apartment building is almost like the road leading to the Taj Mahal, stretching straight to the apartment's lobby.<br>

"What's this? There isn't even an underground parking lot."<br>

Muttering in the driver's seat, Touko-san parked the car on the roadside.<br>

"Well, shall we?"<br>

Lighting up another cigarette, Touko-san starts walking.<br>

Sticking close to her, I had just stepped onto the apartment grounds when a sudden dizziness struck me.<br>

It may be because the sun's stronger today. Since I was staring up at a apartment bulding that shoots up like a tower, getting briefly dizzy isn't so unreasonable.<br>

Pursuing Touko-san, who was striding off ahead of me, I entered the apartment.<br>

--- At that moment, I felt like vomiting.<br>

The walls of the apartment's lobby are united in a cream color and are spotlessly clean. Yet I felt so unnerved looking at it that I thought I would faint if I stopped clenching my teeth.<br>

No, this is already close to disgust.<br>

My insides were twisting around so much that I thought I would go crazy.<br>

Although the air outside is so cold, the air inside the apartment building is lukewarm. It's probably only due to the internal heating being set too high, but this is like I'm feeling somebody's steaming breath. The tepid atmosphere that wraps around my skin, it's somewhat --- similar to being inside a living body.<br>

"Kokutou, that's only because you're thinking of it that way."<br>

Hearing Touko-san's voice whispering by my ear barely managed to bring me out of that weird mood.<br>

Steadying my mind, I looked at my surroundings.<br>

The lobby is the one space that connects the two buildings.<br>

This apartment building looks as if someone took a circle and cut it in half before arranging the two halves to face each other. The two buildings are connected only by the space in the center, so it is not possible to go directly from the east building to the west building from the second floor or above. In other words, you must return to the central space and go across the lobby.<br>

There's no caretaker's office in the lobby.<br>

In the center of that circular space is a huge column that could be called the mansion's spine. This is the elevator that can move anywhere between the first and tenth floors, and running beside it there is a stairway. Having put walls around the elevator and stairway, it became a column. Having that kind of feeling, the column gives me a very gloomy impression.<br>

"--- This, is a very unpleasant building."<br>

"It feels like a haunted house. There's a lot of bad energy floating about which can't be hidden. But on the whole, there are quite a few buildings like this one. It's actually quite simple to make a building that drives people mad, you see. Just by changing the wall color, or the location of the stairs, you can change somebody's condition for the worse. If it's a resident who lives here every day, the effect would be much worse.<br>

Touko-san got on the elevator first.<br>

"Which floor would be good, Kokutou?"<br>

"Ah, any floor's good. ...Although if you were to ask, I would say the fourth floor."<br>

"Then let's go to the fourth floor." Touko-san said this as she slowly looked around the inside of the elevator.<br>

The elevator is of a strange design that looks like a twisted white cylinder.<br>

Of the buttons numbered from '''B''' to '''10''', I press the one marked 4.


Brrrrrr---------------------------------rrmmm.<br>


There was a moving noise of an unnaturalness that overwhelmed everything else.<br>

We are definitely going up, but it feels like my body is falling towards the floor.<br>

Finally the elevator doors opened.<br>

The fourth floor lobby is a circle too. When we come out of the elevator, the corridor leading to the east building is in front of our eyes. The mansion entrance faced south, so it means that there is a corridor in the 6 o'clock direction.<br>

This corridor goes all the way to the outside, so that when you get to the wall on the other end, it turns around in a 3 o'clock direction and goes around the wall of the west building. As expected, the doorways to all the rooms are on the outer side.<br>

"Let's see, we're on the fourth floor right now, so that would be number 401. Then it goes to number 405, before we come to a dead end. How do we get to the west building?"<br>

"You have to go around the back of the elevator. The southern corridor you see when you get out of the elevator leads to the east building, and the northern corridor, which is behind the elevator, is connected to the west building. This mansion really is divided into two."<br>

"They sure built it strangely. If they connected the outer sides, it wouldn't be like that."<br>

"That wouldn't be as fitting. They built this so poshly, so they had to at least divide black and white properly. Anyway, Kokutou. Did you have something to do on the fourth floor? Are you going to visit that place where the family was dead or something?"<br>

When Touko-san said that, I jumped in surprise.<br>

Touko-san's voice echoes through the cream-colored lobby.<br>

The light shines off the well-polished floor of the lobby, making me think that it's nighttime.<br>

Yes, why hadn't I realized?<br>

...Since we got to this apartment building, we haven't met one person. No, never mind meeting people --- there isn't even the sense that there are people living here.<br>

"Boss, where did you hear that story?"<br>

"From a detective I keep owing debts to. You're talking about that story where the thief went to rob an empty house and found the whole family dead, aren't you? I didn't hear the apartment number or name of the family, but I thought that if it was you, you would have investigated those."<br>

Ah, she's right. My phone call to Daisuke-niisan last night was too confirm that too.<br>

"What should we do? Do you want to check it, Kokutou?"<br>

"I was planning to, but now..."<br>

To be honest I'm scared. Until I got here, I was thinking that it was an interesting but not very special story, but seeing this place made me realize that it was real. Just being here is making me tremble. Embarrassingly, visiting the house of the family involved was a scary thought even during the daytime.<br>

"Let's go. I want to use the elevator by myself. That's right, let's meet upstairs. Come up those stairs over there. It may be a spiraling stairway, but it might be a good idea to close your eyes."<br>

Then, saying that, Touko-san got on the elevator again and went to the upper floors.<br>

The lamp shows the elevator's climb to the tenth floor.<br>

--- While I was staring blankly at that, I realized only then that I was now alone.<br>

In the lobby, there is only me.<br>

A world where only your own breathing can be heard.<br>

A secret chamber where you can't tell if it is day or night.<br>

A heavy and stuffy oppressiveness, as if the whole room is one big vacuum pack.<br>

I never knew... That a mansion could be such a gloomy dimension, cut off from the outside world.<br>

"Damn, she would never come down to me would she? That Touko-san."<br>

By talking to myself, I tried to regain my vitality, but it had the opposite effect.<br>

The echoes of my voice return to me, coming to my ears as the voice of another.<br>

...Even a cemetery at night wouldn't be a scary as this place.<br>

Whatever. As long as I am in the lobby, the pressure of being in a hidden room looms over me. Steeling my mind, I went towards the corridor that leads to the east building.<br>

Coming outside, there wasn't such a heavy feeling to the atmosphere as in the lobby. The view in the corridor that went around the outside was actually quite boring. Everywhere you looked, it was just more of the same apartment building.<br>

Looking at that from the corner of my eye, I walked towards the dead end. Walking to the end of the east building, I arrived at the number 5 residence on the fourth floor.<br>

--- Nine days ago. The robber that snuck into this house discovered several corpses and fled.<br>

When the terrified thief went to report the finding to the police, he was even more shocked to come face to face with the family going about their daily routine when he returned.<br>

Had the thief seen some kind of hallucination? Or was there some kind of mistake?<br>

It would have been fine to stop there, but by dredging up all that remained of the enthusiasm that had brought me this far, I rang the doorbell.<br>

Ding-dong, came the clear tone.<br>

A little later --- making a creaking noise, the apartment doorway opened outwards.<br>

The darkness inside the room spilled out.<br>

Something came out of there.<br>

First, a person's arm.<br>

Then, a head.<br>

"Eh, this is Enjou, but... Who are you?"<br>

Opening the door, that's what the rough-faced teenage boy said to me, as if he were annoyed.<br>

***<br>

--- In the end, that story was just another stupid wild tale.<br>

There wasn't much wrong with the Enjou family of the number 5 residence who were supposed to have been involved in the incident.<br>

When I came back to the lobby, the elevator was still up on the tenth floor. Pressing the button would make it come down, but inside that thing is Touko-san. It goes without saying that she would disparage me for being too scared to use the stairs.<br>

With no other options, I directed my feet towards the nearby stairway.<br>

The lobby is still full of heavy air, but the normal state of the Enjou family had given me back some confidence.<br>

I started climbing the dark staircase lit only by a spinning red light located somewhere I couldn't see.<br>

The stairs turn in right angles, winding around the elevator shaft like some snake as they stretch up and up. As Touko-san had said, it was a spiraling stairway. Every time you reached a floor, there was a small hole in the stairwell so that you could go out into the lobby.<br>

... That cream-colored wall which the red light was shining on, I thought it looked like the stairway of some medieval castle. Something about the red light made me think of a flickering torch. The light was dim, and it couldn't reach to the end of the stairs, so every time I went up one step it made me a little more melancholy.<br>

The end of the twisting stairs. Fighting the scary illusion that there was something crouching on the far wall, I climbed all the stairs, and ended up on the fifth floor lobby. ...Or would it be more accurate to say that I escaped?<br>

The fifth floor lobby is laid out in the same manner as the fourth floor lobby. It's an apartment building, so like a department store it's expected that there will be no great differences between floors. Even with that said, though, this place is so similar that it's scary.<br>

"So you came. Let's go down, then."<br>

Touko-san was waiting for me in the lobby.<br>

I followed her, who got onto the elevator without another word.<br>

When we got into the elevator, Touko-san stood in front of the panel with all the buttons corresponding to each floor, and spoke without turning.<br>

"Kokuto, look down at the floor. It's a quiz."<br>

"Eh? All I have to do is look down?"<br>

The elevator doors shut. Again there is a loud mechanical noise.<br>

The time taken to go down would not have been more than three seconds. Inside the vast airtight enclosure called an apartment, the smallest airtight container stops.<br>

"Now, here's the question. What floor is this?"<br>

Only then did I lift my head. The elevator is open and I can see the lobby. On the wall that looked identical to the one just before, there is a small plastic plate with the number 5 on it embedded in the wall.<br>

"Uh ...We are still on the fifth floor."<br>

But... the elevator had definitely moved. In that case, the one that was wrong was me.<br>

After thinking about it for a moment, I came to the obvious conclusion.<br>

"In that case, it was the sixth floor we were on just before, wasn't it?"<br>

"Correct. Kokutou intended to go up one floor, but ended up coming up two. It's a stairway design that makes it easy to make such mistakes, but, well that's how it is.<br>

But you know, these things called apartments are strange, aren't they? The fact that the only way you can tell the floor you live on is those small numbers on the lobby walls. The higher up you live, the more your senses get dulled within the elevator. If you were to work on the elevator switch so that all the floor numbers were changed, someone who wasn't used to it wouldn't be able to tell if they were on the fourth floor or the fifth. When I have the opportunity, it might be nice to experiment in a nearby apartment building. Would midnight be best? I feel happy all of a sudden."<br>

Saying those things, Touko-san shut the elevator doors.<br>

Before I knew it, we were on the first floor, and we came out into the lobby.<br>

"I know. Shall we go over to the east building for a minute? No matter which building you're in, the first floor should have a lobby, right?"<br>

"Yes. The place is set out so that it connects directly to the second floor facilities. Kinda like a lobby in some decent size hotel. ...Eh? Touko-san, weren't you the one who designed the east building's lobby?"<br>

Was I? Touko-san replies vaguely as she walks away.<br>

The first floor lobby could be regarded as the circle's center.<br>

Stretching out from this center like some thin line are the east and west corridors, which lead to each building's first floor lobby. You could almost say that the lobbies of each building are close to lounges.<br>

We shortly arrived at the east building lobby.<br>

In that quite wide space was an empty plaza. The place was open to the second floor, so a long staircase stretches straight up to the second floor balcony.<br>

Should I say it felt like the lounge of one of those Western villas that you often see in movies? In the middle of the semicircle lounge is a clumsy staircase. The surroundings are just more of the cream-colored walls, and the floor is made up of marble-like stone.<br>

"If you were to put a mechanism in, let's see, would it be about here? Just in case, let's make an escape route, shall we?"<br>

And Touko-san went to her knees on the stone floor, then began sweeping the floor with her hands like some academic looking for fossils.<br>

"--- Uh. What the heck are you doing, boss?"<br>

"A precautionary measure. But you know, didn't you realise when you used the stairs? There were signs of movement, weren't there?"<br>

"?"<br>

The stairs, move...?<br>

To say that the stairs inside that box-like structure move... means that the entire central column moves as well.<br>

That kind of idiotic thing, how-<br>

"It's not the column. Just the stairs. Didn't you see, on the corner of the walls? There were scrape marks. Ah, was that it? You were too scared to think of looking at something like that."<br>

Patting the floor with her hands, Touko-san says that without even turning around.<br>

... My thoughts truly hadn't stretched that far. No, since the stairway was so dark that the light couldn't reach the ends, could I say that I didn't have the leisure to think of it?<br>

"... But it's impossible to move the stairs. Moving that column, isn't it the same as demolishing this mansion?"<br>

"That's why I said it was just the stairs. A rocket pencil, to describe it otherwise."<br>

"Rocket pencil? What's that?"<br>

Twitch, Touko-san's hand freezes in mid-motion.<br>

And she hurried to her feet.<br>

"You don't know? Those pencils that have ten or so leads in one case. Small missile-like things are stacked inside like pistol rounds. They are layered in rows inside the pencil, and when one lead gets worn away, you take out the missile and push the end of the pencil in. Then a new missile comes out, and you can keep writing without going to the bother of sharpening your pencil. ...Would they still be selling them? Image-wise, they're like ???."<br>

I can't understand what Touko-san says.<br>

The rocket pencil she talks about isn't something I know of, but that expression of hers comparing this to a ??? touched me. So, does that mean they are pushing up the stairs alone from below?<br>

"Are you saying they lifted up the spiral stairway from below? Like a piston?"<br>

"That's right. They would have left about half a floor's worth of room from the start. At the same time, as they started being able to use the elevator, they pushed it up from below. Not in order to increase the amount per floor, but in order to skew the exits of the spiral. By doing so, you reverse north and south."<br>

Now, let's go home, Touko-san says, and starts walking again.<br>

Returning to the central lobby, the boss who was leaving this circular mansion muttered something as if she really couldn't understand.<br>

"...Does he really not know about rocket pencils? They were quite a fad when I was student, those."<br>

***<br>

The last decoration of the day: a red parking violation sticker stuck on the windshield of the car that had been parked on the curb.<br>

The road in front of the mansion was wide, but there was almost no traffic. On top of that, the only car parked there was Touko-san's, so it must have stood out.<br>