The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village:Volume7 Chapter 6

Status: Incomplete

7/14 parts completed

   

Chapter 6: Jinnai Shinobu@Aburatori – 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 where 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.

“——————!!!???”

“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 – well, your ancestors – 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 of 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☆”

“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☆Bayashi 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?

In the Gap Between Timelines 2

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