Phenomeno:Case 11

Case 11: The Melancholy of the Planet

…Ugh, why am I doing something like this?

I don't think I say that every time, but I still end up saying it. I keep saying: ‘Why in the world am I doing such a stupid thing again?’

It was midnight. Or at least I thought it was. That was because the world had looked dark for a long time through the old lattice door I was peeking out of. When I came here, the sun was still shining in the shrine. I didn’t usually wear a wristwatch, so I couldn't tell what time it was. I could probably tell if I checked my phone, but as I recall, Sako Takita told me with a smirk, "You probably shouldn't use that". When I recall his pale blank face, I felt anger rising from the pit of my stomach. Didn't that bastard saying, "You shouldn't use that", mean that I actually should use it. That's how much faith I had in that priest-cum-antique dealer, I finally flicked out my phone from my pocket, and turned it on. The strong light pierced my eyes which were adjusted to the dark; I rubbed my eyes and checked the time.

November 16th, 10:07 pm. Ugh…

It can't be. It was still only 10 pm?

I thought it would have been around 2 or 3 AM by now -- there was still plenty of time until dawn. Feeling fed up, I lied down. The old floorboards creaked, and the smell of old wood pricked at my nose.

I was in an isolated building that was detached from one of the old shrines situated on the outskirts of Okutama. I was lying all alone in that moldy, narrow space surrounded by shimenawa.

Well, to be precise, I wasn't alone.

I reached out my hand, and touched it.

The rough, black object less than a meter in diameter was an earthenware pot.

And I was supposed to spend the whole night with it.

That's right -- it was my job to stay with the earthenware pot until morning, and to answer the questions it would ask at some point.

"Huh? An earthenware pot asking questions?"

You might doubt something like that, and I found it strange as well. Or rather, it was a creepy story. Because according to Sako, on this day, the 16th of December, this earthenware pot is supposed to speak for the first time in 250 years.

It happened just past noon today. I was standing in front of a small wooden house in Kanda. The tilted plank at the entrance to the store had the words Kouroudou(Bone Tower Shrine) elegantly carved into it. Apparently, this was the Tokyo residence -- and antique shop -- of Sako Takita: Krishna-san's mentor on spirit-related matters and originally the chief priest of a venerable old shrine in Aomori.

“Oi, Sako. I’m here.”

When I opened the old, poorly-fitted sliding door, I smelled a moldy odor from within. The dark interior of the store was crammed with incomprehensible objects. A Buddha statue with one arm, a hanging scroll smeared with an unknown substance, a rusted box that seemed to have been dragged out of the ocean, those sorts of things. Having recently seen a similar scene in the room next to my apartment, I grimaced and called out, “Are you here?”. But there was no response, so I had no choice but to move ahead while avoiding the stares of the cryptic antiques. As I moved further back to the interior of the shop, I heard a voice muttering something from the floor above the shop.

“…Something like this is troubling to begin with -- It won’t make much money, takes a lot of effort, and in the unlikely event that it succeeds, you get nothing out of it.”

When I peeked in, I saw a man dressed in a blue kinagashi, whose appearance was like that of a handsome actor, but who was definitely removed from the world; He tilted his head in contemplation as he kneaded something.

“…Well then, what to do now?”

“Oi, Sako.”

I raised my voice a little, and he finally looked towards me.

“….Ah, it’s you. Ummm, What was your name again…. Ah, right, right, Yamamura-kun.”

“It’s Yamada. Nagito Yamada.”

“Eh? Did you change your name?”

“Why the hell would I change it?! What’s the point of that?!”

“Is that so? Well, alright then. So, do you have something you need? I’m a little busy right now.”

“Busy?! You’re the one who called me here!”

“Eh?”

“Don’t go ‘eh-ing’ at me! Have you gone senile? You rang me out of the blue while I was in the middle of my supplementary macro-economics class! You told me you had a job for me and to come straight away!”

Of course, I cut off the call at first. Not only was I in the middle of a lecture, but there was also the fact that I had nothing but bad experiences when associating with Sako Takita. However, he kept calling, telling me it was an urgent job, and that it would be a big problem if I refused. Not for him, but rather, for the world, so to speak.

“So, what’s this job that puts the world in trouble if I say no?”

When I asked him that, Sako placed his hand on the something large in front of him with a snap.

“It’s about this. I want you to keep an eye on this at a certain place for about a day.

“What is this jar?”

“It’s not a jar. It’s an earthenware pot of Tokoname ware. There’s not a strict difference between a jar and an earthenware pot, but an earthenware pot is said to be one that can’t be carried around.”

“No need to explain. More importantly, I don’t know what you mean by keeping an eye on it… but is it something like that? Is there something inside?”

Sako stroked his thin beard and replied, “No.”

“Well, if you say there’s something inside, then there is, and if you say nothing is inside, then nothing is.”

“Stop talking in circles and tell me what’s inside! If it’s a ghost or a yōkai or something creepy, you can forget it.”

“Ah, it’s nothing like that. Sako narrowed his eyes in amusement. “The earth is inside it.”

“—Huh?”

“The earth you see, the earth. Third planet from the sun. Our home world.”

According to Sako, this earthenware pot came from the storehouse of an old family in Chiba, and judging from the document enclosed with it, it was apparently an ‘earth simulator’ created in the Edo period.

“Well, the intellectuals of that era mostly understood that the earth was round, but they didn't understand the principle by which it sustained and contained life. It was a time when people believed in Tsukumogami, and that there were giant catfish under the ground. Even so, they were a people who somehow understood that everything goes through cycles and that everything perishes. This was probably due to the fact that the Hoei Earthquake, the eruption of Fuji and other major tragedies of the era had just occurred. When will the foundation of this earth reach the end of its life? That's what some eccentric people were trying to find out. Having said that, a rangaku scholar by the name of ‘Kigai’, who lived in the Kanda area, created this in 1763. According to one theory, ‘Kigai’ might have been the alias ‘Fukuchi Kigai’ of ‘Hiraga Gennai’, the ‘extraordinary man’, but I guess that is questionable. Although it's not impossible, because the time period and the field of study was the same -- hmm? Too long of a story? Well, I'm almost done, so listen carefully. In short, according to this document that came with the earthenware pot, there is an earth floating in this jar that was created by 'Kigai'.”

“…A floating earth? How?”

“Who knows, I don’t understand it myself, but that’s what’s written here. It’s not yet complete, and it’s not supposed to be opened until the time is right. The time in this earthenware pot is moving 153,300,000 times faster than our time frame, and the earth inside is still growing…Ah, please don’t be shocked, I have no basis for it, of course. Well, I suppose it was a kind of alchemy for the time. From the document that was passed down, it seems to be made of various materials. But there is no scientific basis for it – Although…”

However, Sako then contorted his pale, actor-like face.

“There is one description therein that is of interest: ‘This earthenware pot will be completed five hundred years from now, but it will give its birth cry once in the hundred and tenth year, and in the two hundred and fifty-fifth year, it will ask a certain question. Please, future generations. Please answer it. Then, five hundred years from now, it will definitely be born as an earth.’ And so, I calculated that this year is the 250th year, and tonight is approximately the day it will ask that question.”

“A-are you kidding me? It really is a monster!”

“I already told you it’s nothing like that. Anyway, that's the situation, but unfortunately, I have an appointment tonight that I can't miss. That's when you popped into my head. But I know you're a little scared, and I understand your concern, so I've arranged a place for you. It's in the grounds of a historic shrine, where the enshrined deity is Yamato Takeru. I’ve created a ward there in case anything should happen. No harm will come to you.”

“You think that’s enough to make me believe you?” I shouldn’t have come, I thought, and was about to leave, when--

“I see. Then I have no choice.” Sako muttered unnaturally. “If you’re going to refuse no matter what – then maybe should I ask that girl. That black-haired, beautiful, young lady who resembles a bisque-doll. I’m sure she won’t refuse, and, well, it might get a little messy.

“…Ungh.”

“But she would surely end up opening it. That would mean all the hard work of our ancestors who have watched over it for the past two hundred and fifty years would all be for naught. It would be like breaking an egg that is about to hatch.”

“…So that’s what you meant when you said the world would be in trouble.”

I gnashed my teeth and looked back to see Sako smiling.

“How about 20,000 yen for the job? Just keep an eye on it until dawn tomorrow, and we’ll switch afterwards.”

…20,000 yen for half a day?

That much would help me greatly. I mean, since Yoishi barged into my apartment, I had to make food for the two of us, leaving me in dire financial straits. In addition, it might be my imagination, but be it about food, or shampoo, Yoishi seemed to have gotten cheeky recently. She’d says things like, "This spinach isn't boiled", "The meat we had the other day was fresh", "That shampoo smelled good", "My hair was silkier with that one", etc. Damn it, there are reasons why expensive things are expensive in this world. I wanted to tell her that if she was so picky about something, she should buy it herself, but if I told her that, she'd go right back to a life of snacks and not taking baths. “Even Elizabeth I, who was said to be a lover of cleanliness, bathed once a month,” she would say, trying to avoid the one bath in three days she was supposed to take. And with that, all my hard work up to this point would all be for naught.

But—having gone through the recent hopeless incidents with the girl selling ghost photographs and Shōko-chan, I’d almost completely lost confidence. What more could I do to keep Yoishi far away from the presence of the world beyond? I was lost in thought on that when I received the phone call from Sako. And that was probably when the idea occurred to me.

“Well, what will it be?”

As if prompted by Sako’s words, I nodded.

“Alright. I’ll take it—but, I don’t need money. I want you to tell me something instead.”

“Oh? What, exactly?”

Even here, the inner conflict inside me kept repeating: ‘No, don’t do that, but is there another way?’ But in the end, I said it out loud. The man who distorted his slender face like a white fox in front of me was undoubtedly the same as Yoishi – a dweller in the depths of the world beyond. Although I was reluctant to admit it, I had a feeling that the only one who knew what to do about Yoishi… would be this guy.

“What I want to know is if there’s a way to make Yoishi smile? I want to know if I can make her live a healthy, happy, peaceful life.”

“…Oh?”

“Tell me -- Is there even a slight possibility of her becoming healthy. Krishna-san always tells me that it’s not possible. But I can't help feeling that somehow it can be done. However, it’s not going well. Without even a hint of that, I feel like she’s stepping further and further into the darkness. Even so, I still want to see her smile. She should really be able to do that. But – I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Sako went ‘hmm’ in response, folded his arms, and carefully examined my face in an amused manner.

“You must be greatly troubled if you’re asking me.”

“…Shut up.”

As I glared at Sako, “I understand”, he eventually nodded.

“I have a bit of an idea about that. If you do this job well -- I'll look into it in the meantime.”

---

--And that’s how I got here.

I was in a shrine in the mountains, where the air was cold, and where the creepy sounds of mountain birds or whatever echoed.

Soon after that, Sako made some arrangements, and a bunch of weird people gathered around us, and I was put in a car with the earthenware pot and brought to this place. It was an old shrine with only a small altar at the back, located on a path next to the main shrine.

『Tomorrow morning, I will ring the bell here, alright?』Sako spoke as he closed the lattice door and stuck some kind of talisman on it. 『Until that time, no matter who comes or what happens, you must not peek inside the earthenware pot or leave this shrine – understood?』

And then, the people beyond the grate left.

Soon afterwards, the sun began to set, my surroundings became dark and eventually fell into complete darkness.

If I were to sleep, it would end soon, I thought, as I lay down on the bed, but the hardness of the floor made my back ache, and on top of that, the cold air seeped in from outside, not letting me sleep at all. I had no choice but to light the candle that had been arranged, and checked my surroundings once more.

It was a space around 24 sqm in size, with a draft blowing in. In the corner of the room was some simple food, a pot of hot water and a sleeping bag with a blanket. The only other things present were the earthenware pot and me.

The last signal bar on my cell phone kept blinking in and out; The antenna was almost completely out of range. Well, that was to be expected given I was in a shrine in the back of the mountains. In short, a life of complete confinement. Together with the ‘earth’ or something created in the Edo period. When confronted with such a surreal situation, anyone would ask themselves why they were doing such a thing.

However, I wasn’t that upset, perhaps because this was a holy sanctuary? Or perhaps because the earthenware pot was not filled with the dead or some cursed objects. I only felt boredom due to the slow passage of time. Even if this were daytime and I could look out of the grate, I would still be in a corner of the forest surrounded by a grove. It wasn’t like the scenery was anything special. Not to mention it was totally dark right now, and people who have experienced the forest on a night with no moon can attest to it being truly dark. A darkness so profound you can’t even see your own hands. In that darkness, you can hear the rustling of branches in the wind and the cries of wild animals here and there.

I took out my mobile phone again, because even though I had a candle, I was afraid that if I stayed idle, I would create a demon in my head anyway. I tried connecting to the internet, but the signals were too weak for a stable connection. I tried fiddling around with some apps, but stopped when I got anxious about the remaining battery. In the end, I laid out the blanket, and crawled inside the sleeping bag on top of it. As I stared at empty space, I whispered to myself, “I should have brought a book or something”. My voice faintly echoed in the draft and soon disappeared. I wanted to stimulate my eardrums with sound, be it through my own voice. Because there was no one else besides me who would speak.

That’s right – besides the sounds of the nocturnal birds and the rustling tree branches, there was nothing.

And this was the first time I had been alone for any extended period of time since Yoishi started living with me. For a sloppy individual like myself, living with someone always by your side was somewhat exhausting. Even in this strange space, I breathed a sigh of relief. I mean, I think everyone feels calm when they’re alone in the toilet. In the same way, I breathed in and out deeply as I savored my first private moment in a long time. Then, to pass the time, I thought about all sorts of things.

For example, why does an environment away from the eyes of others give people a sense of peace? Was it because they could re-examine themselves? Or was it because they can get away from the waves of overwhelming information? Or perhaps it’s because people are always conscious of other people’s gaze and are freed from them, even if they don’t realize it.

But if that was the case, how do married couples in the world get by? Was it relaxing to have someone one day suddenly intrude into your space? I asked myself that if that was the case, how was I feeling living together with Yoishi? But in Yoishi’s case, the situation was a little different. You didn’t really feel like she was there. So, when I'm dancing and forget that Yoishi was there, I’d suddenly realize that she was silently staring at me, and I’d blush, and say, "If you have something to say, just say it,” as if taking it out on her. I'm not sure if I'm dumb or if Yoishi has no presence, but at any rate, the fact that she's parasitizing in my loft in itself isn't that much of a problem. I just think it’s a problem socially speaking.

No -- perhaps Yoishi was purposefully holding her breath. Maybe she was quietly trying to keep a low profile, aware to some extent that she was a freeloader in my apartment. Come to think of it, the reason she didn’t buy any clothes or food was because she was trying not to put any of her possessions in my place? When she came to my apartment, the possessions she brought were next to nothing, it left me stunned and I asked her, “Is that all the things you have?” She just had her school uniform, a bag and a laptop. She might have brought a spare pair of socks or underwear (Or at least I hoped), but those possessions were so few for a girl her age it was hard to believe. I couldn’t bear seeing her sleep on the hard floor of the loft in the beginning and had to buy her a futon. In the first place, Yoishi was extremely patient. And even if there was something around her she was hopeful for, she would never say it out loud. She didn’t feel comfortable in this world, and she never even thought she could make it comfortable. It would have been better if I were a little more thoughtful, but I was unsure about those kinds of things. I had no idea what girls wished for.

I breathed a deep sigh.

I told Yoishi that I’d be working my part-time job today and that I wouldn’t be back until dawn, and to lock the doors tight, but—

“I wonder if she’s alright.”

It happened right then.

Suddenly, a strange smell caught my nose. Then I heard some kind of noise close by, causing me to jerk myself up. I held my breath, and focused all my attention on my ears. It wasn’t the wind. *Crunch* *crack*, it sounded like something was stepping over dead branches. Little by little, it slowly came closer to this shrine from the depths of the forest.

“…W-who is it?”

I lifted the candle stick with the candle, and peeked outside, but as expected with that level of light, it didn’t reach outside the grate. Only darkness spread out of the shrine as if it had just been painted over.

Suddenly, I blew out the candle. I realized that with the candle lit in total darkness, I’d be visible from the other side. When the candle went out, a dense darkness instantly enveloped the area. At the same time, the noise of the wind and insects which I had forgotten up until now came deafeningly close.

In the midst of that, the crackle and crunching sounds slowly drew closer.

And as it came a few steps outside of the lattice door – it stopped.

My teeth began to clatter. I was only a few meters apart from the source of the sounds.

It was without a doubt, peeking at me. And there was already a foul smell in the vicinity that was enough to make me cough. Was it a stray dog? Or a wild boar? Bear? I mean, despite it being in Tokyo, were there bears in Okutama?

No—

This was not an ordinary animal. I could feel a faint sense of consciousness. Moreover, it was something distorted, something rotten, something that resembled negative human emotions. And this nauseating smell was –

Could it be… the putrid smell of a corpse?

As soon as I realized that, sweat slowly began dripping my back.

At the same time, my body stiffened as I recalled countless creepy images I had seen on occult sites that should never come to mind. My throat became parched as I felt something pale and discolored staring at me from right across the grating.

『Never enter the mountains at night.』

I suddenly recalled the words of my late grandmother.

『Gods roam the mountain at night. You must not look at them; If you do, you will end up blind.』

Grandmother, who was always kind to me, always repeated that with a scary look on her face.

Well, of course I thought it was superstition. I thought that my family's respect for the mountains and the nature of the lumber business gave birth to such superstition. But now, alone and secluded in the mountains on a moonless night, faced with something unfathomable, things like science and common sense were easily swept away.

--Should I try and light the candle?

Such a desire arose inside me. The thing I was afraid of might simply be a plastic bag of trash that flew in from the wind. That might be why it smelled like that. I was about to move my hand, thinking that If I lit the candle, and held it up towards it, everything would be fine.

…Yes. That’s what Krishna-san always said. Ninety-nine percent of the paranormal in this world are lies, delusions, and misunderstandings. In short, ninety-nine percent of the fear that now occupied my consciousness was my misunderstanding. I mustered my courage and reached my hand for the matchbox. My fingers trembled and I ended up breaking a few matchsticks, but I managed to light the candle once more. And then held up the light to the grate. The flickering flame illuminated the other side of the grating–

However, there was nothing there.

Before I knew it, the unpleasant odor had dissipated as if scattered by the wind.

As I let out a deep breath, my cell phone, which was still in my back pocket, began to vibrate and I jumped up. I rushed to take it out and found it was my university classmate, Kanta Moriyama, who belonged to the newspaper club.

〈Yo Yamida. I’ve been trying to call you for so long. Are you working now or what? 〉

“Ooh, Moriyama, is it?”

I was thankful to the point of tears to hear Moriyama’s easygoing and cheerful voice right now. I gripped my phone with both hands as if clinging to it.

“Well, my job is umm… but more importantly, I’m glad you called.”

Moriyama was a guy who was a clear-cut, eloquent speaker whose appearance was like that of an actor from the golden period of cinema in the early Showa period. However, he was a bit of a celebrity in the western club building due to his Michael Jackson impersonations and his bad habit of making dad jokes that were unbefitting of a teenager, and which caused him great disrepute among the female students.

〈Huh…? It seems like the connection is bad. I can’t hear you properly.〉

“Ah, sorry about that. Umm, what happened? Is there something you wanted?”

〈Oh yeah. Your second foreign language was Spanish, right?〉

“Yeah.”

〈Please, if you have a notebook, lend it to me!〉

“………….”

The fear inside me was instantly erased thanks to his real life problems.

I nodded and said yes in response.

〈Ohh!! Thanks man! You’re a lifesaver! You’ll bring it tomorrow, right? I’m counting on you!〉

Moriyama was about to cut the line; I panicked and drew out the conversation for a little longer.

“Aah…. Wait a minute. Is there anything else you wanted?”

〈Anything else? Um, not really.〉

“No, well, I’m sure there’s something. Umm… Like is there a girl you like?”

〈*Eeek* Don’t ask me that out of the blue, it’s embarrassing!〉

I could vividly imagine Moriyama writhing and twisting his body on the other end of the phone as he shouted in a crazy voice,

〈There’s no one right now. I mean, those who do are lucky, aren’t they? I have an overflowing feeling of wanting to fall in love, but there are no girls around me to accept that feeling. And it’s painful when you see the world being painted in Christmas colors. Well then... 〉

“…Oooh, wait a minute.”

Moriyama and I weren’t close enough to have long conversations on the phone, but it was a different story right now. I was stuck here alone with the creepy earthenware pot in the middle of the dark until morning. If possible, I wanted him to stay on the phone with me until then.

〈Huh? You want to talk more? I guess it can’t be helped. So should I come over there right now? 〉

“No, I’m outside right now. In Okutama.”

〈Okutama?〉

Moriyama, who was also a struggling student, was about to hang up the phone, saying, “Are you kidding me? I don’t wanna make long-distance phone calls,” but I somehow managed to calm him down and pleaded with him to give me five more minutes.

〈What are you doing in Okutama in the first place? What’s your job there?〉

Having no other choice, I explained it to him. The fact that I was with an earthenware pot from the Edo period in a shrine that was like a hut detached from an old temple. And the fact that I had to watch over the earthenware pot until tomorrow morning.

〈Watching over an earthenware pot? Why are you doing something weird again?〉

“…No, this thing is supposed to talk sometime today or tomorrow.”

〈Talk? Uhyahyahyahya!〉

Being laughed at in a high-pitched voice, I again felt embarrassed at the ridiculousness of what I was doing.

〈Come to think of it, you were pretty knowledgeable about ghosts and yōkai, right? Did you read some strange book again? There’s no way an earthenware pot will talk.〉

“I-I don’t believe in it myself; I’m simply doing it for the money.”

〈Hmm.〉

After making some amused grunts, Moriyama said, ‘All right.’

〈Try and open it for now.〉

“…What?”

〈The lid of that earthenware pot. If you see what’s inside, you’ll know whether or not you’re being made a fool.〉

…He was right. I then nervously stretched out my hand and touched the rough surface of the earthenware pot. Sako had said it was from the Edo period, and it did seem old. The lid of the earthenware pot was closed shut with some kind of iron, but it looked worn with cracks in various places. If one were to thrust something sharp in it, it would somehow break.

〈In the first place, how could someone from the Edo period build something like an earth simulator? I’m sure there’s something else inside.〉

“Something else?”

〈Who knows – It could be a corpse or something.〉

He let out a strange chuckle as he said that – but it’s no joke.

--Open it.

Suddenly, I felt a voice from somewhere, and a shiver went down my back.

“…No.”

I shook my head.

“No way. I can’t open it.”

〈Why? Aren’t you talking to me because you’re afraid of that earthenware pot? You’re afraid because you’re not sure of what’s inside. It’s like you’re having a silent staring contest with a stranger until sunrise.〉

…That’s right. The more I looked at it, the more this earthenware pot seemed to look like it was around the size of a person. It felt like something was crouched inside, clutching its knees. Come to think of it, Moriyama was right, didn’t I read something similar before – that earthenware pots were originally made to hold corpses?

〈Try opening it and see for yourself. It’ll be a weight off your shoulders. Come on, come on.〉

Urged on by his cheerful voice, I timidly took out my apartment key from my jean pocket, when somewhere inside of my head, something rang out. A tiny, tiny warning sound for an uncomfortable feeling I had almost missed.

“…Say, Moriyama.”

〈What is it?〉

“How… do you know this is an earth simulator?”

〈…….…〉

“…I…didn’t tell you that, did I?”

〈…….…〉

I took a gulp, and asked the silent caller on the other end of the line.

“Who…are you…?”

The moment I asked the question, the call was cut off.

For a while I was stunned, as I stared at my mobile phone. The signal indicator on the LCD showed no signal. I closed my phone, and plucked at my hair. Was that really a call from Moriyama just now? No – Did I really even get a call in the first place? I was too afraid to check my call log. If Moriyama’s name wasn’t displayed there, I had a feeling I couldn’t stay in this place a moment longer. And that would mean I had backed off from this job.

As I was scratching my hair and thinking about it, my phone rang again.

With a start, I looked at the LCD screen to see ‘Shiina Kurimoto’ displayed on it. I felt the tension leave my body all at once, and I rushed to press the answer button.

“K-Krishna-san?”

〈--Nagi-kun, is that you? Oh, thank goodness, I managed to get through at last! Are you in Okutama right now?〉

“…Huh, h-how do you…?”

〈Takita-san told me about it…Damn it! Why did you take on such a part-time job again?! What kind of a thoughtless idiot are you?!〉

“…I, I’m sorry.”

She kept fervently cursing at me, and I couldn't help but apologize, but...

“…Em, Uhh, what does it all mean?”

〈You usually hate Takita-san so much, and yet you were oblivious this time. Listen carefully. That’s not anything like an Earth simulator, the contents are empty.〉

“…Huh?”

〈It’s probably a burial urn from the Kamakura period – in short, a coffin. It's just that it's been dedicated for so long to someone who was supposed to go in it, that it has a tendency to try and somehow make the living people around it enter inside.〉

“…Whaaaaat?”

〈It seems he hired you because he wanted to confirm if it was an item worth selling, He wanted to test its effectiveness by isolating it alone for one night with a living person.〉

“…T,T, That bastard!” I tightly gripped my phone reflexively, “In short, I’ve been taken for a ride again?”

‘It seems so’, came the deep sigh of Krishna-san from the other end of the line.

〈Listen up, I’m gonna tell you how to deactivate it right now. What makes the earthenware pot a magical object is the paper strapped across the lid and the pot. All you need to do is peel it off.〉

“…Paper?”

I drew the light of the candle close to the earthenware pot once more.

I see, the lid was indeed joined to the jar with solder, and there was an old, tattered piece of paper stuck on top of it. I felt I could easily scrape it off with my apartment key without too much trouble.

〈Yes, as long as that paper is there, that earthenware pot will have the nature of ‘confining something within it’. All you have to do is to peel it off. Do you have anything sharp nearby?〉

“I have my apartment key.”

〈Good, use that to open it.〉

I took the key backhanded and drew close to the earthenware pot, when I suddenly realized.

It was the call from something that claimed to be Moriyama. He, too, relentlessly urged me to open the lid of the earthenware pot. Feeling horrified, I looked up. I felt there was still something in the darkness beyond the grating, watching me.

“…Krishna-san.”

〈What?〉

“About Yoishi, did you come with up any good ideas?”

〈…Yoishi?〉

“Yes. Didn’t you tell me you’d try and come up with something?”

〈Why does it matter now? Hurry up and remove that pa--〉

“It does matter. It’s actually the reason I took this job.”

〈That’s-- I’ll tell you that after you’ve taken off that piece of paper--〉

“No, Tell me now.”

〈………….〉

A lukewarm wind blew at my feet.

The sounds of the tree branches being rustled about by the night wind outside of the shrine.

The call from Moriyama just now. And the call from Krishna-san right now. It made me recall something. A famous ghost story I had once heard somewhere – Ah, that’s it. This is…

“This is – Kibitsu’s iron pot, isn’t it?”

At that moment, the call was abruptly cut off once more.

I don’t know if that was because the signal was cut off, or because there was no call from Moriyama or Krishna-san in the first place. I didn’t even try to check. If it was really them, then they’d try and call again – and if it wasn’t them… Establishing that as a reality would shake the foundation of my heart. The paranormal is scary because of its vagueness, but in this situation, it would be best to keep it vague until morning.

I moved the candle to my feet, and covered the blanket up to my head.

I breathe. Just slow, regular, repeated breaths.

And I recalled the Okayama ghost story narrated by my grandfather when I was a child: ‘Kibitsu’s iron pot’. I couldn’t help but feel that that ghost story and the situation I was in right now were quite similar. If that was the case, then all I should do was wait until morning. Even if there was something in this earthenware pot, the only thing I should do was to be still as long as I was here. I believed that even if that were the real Moriyama and Krishna-san, it was not a relationship that could be broken by their dishonesty. Right now, all I needed to do to breathe. And to just do my best to wait for time to pass.

Just like how Karasu-san had told me—

As I breathed regularly and repeatedly, my heart became quiet and still.

I secretly took a glance at the old earthenware pot standing beside me. Then I thought of the thing that lay inside. Even if its contents were empty, or had an earth, or a monster – didn’t all of those possibilities begin to materialize once I perceived of them as such? Right, it was just like the so-called ‘Schrödinger cat’, it only exists once it’s observed. I was merely afraid of the fears I had created myself. That was what the paranormal was all about.

『Are you feeling scared right now?』

Thereupon, I suddenly recalled the words Yoishi would always say.

“…Aah, I’m scared.”

I muttered as I smiled in a self-tortured way.

『Say, how does it feel to be scared?』

When the Yoishi in my imagination continued to ask me that, I thought to myself.

Come to think of it – I had been trying to answer that question with the ‘fear’ I was feeling, but… that wasn’t it, was it? I think what Yoishi was really trying to ask me was not the nature of the fear I was feeling – but the process of actually getting there.

• Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing*

Thereupon, my phone rang out for the third time.

I took a deep breath, and pressed the answer button.

“…Hello?”

〈Where are you right now?〉

It was… Yoishi Mitsurugi.

No – it was something that spoke in Yoishi’s voice. I wasn’t confident anymore about who was calling me from the other end of the line. Maybe that’s what Sako was referring to when he smirked and told me not to use the phone. Because ‘something’ might try and tempt me.

However--

“…I’m in Okutama. I told you I had a job.”

I answered in a somewhat hoarse tone of voice.

Yoishi was silent, but eventually asked pensively.

〈Who is next to you?〉

--Who? Not ‘what’?

I thought it strange for a moment, but then I laughed. Yoishi was sharp on such things. She could see through to the truth more so than anyone in this world.

“Who do you think it is?”

〈It’s… not a person.〉

“That’s right. It’s an earthenware pot. I don’t know what’s inside, but I’ve been told not to open it.”

When I answered her as if beating her to the punch, Yoishi fell silent; I kept silent as well.

Would she tell me to open it as well? But if so, what would I make of it? The real Yoishi would open it right from the very start. If it was said that a monster was inside, she would definitely do it, and if it was said that you would be cursed if you opened it or that the world would be destroyed, she would happily do it without hesitation. That was the default mode of Yoishi Mitsurugi. That’s why, even if she told me to open it, there would be nothing strange about it. With that much, I couldn’t ascertain whether or not the real Yoishi was on the other end of this call.

〈That would be for the best.〉

--Huh?

〈You shouldn't open it.〉

Suddenly hearing words I didn’t expect, I asked back:

“I thought you’d tell me to open it…that’s weird.”

〈I don't know, but – that thing isn’t bad.〉

“…I see.”

For some strange reason, a strange sense of relief enveloped me and my body relaxed.

“Somehow – that’s the best thing I’ve heard since I’ve got here.”

From that point on, neither of us said a word, as silence reigned between us.

She was probably sitting alone on the permanently spread-out futon in the loft of my apartment. Plastic bottles and snack bags were probably lying scattered around her pillow. And some lurid image might have been displayed on her laptop screen. She might have been bored, her long eyelashes downcast as she fiddled with her long toenails, and her overly refined facial features being unmanageable for her as she had her head cast down.

“It seems there is an earth inside this thing.”

I finally broke the silence.

“It’s said to have been made by some weirdo like you in the Edo period. But it won’t be completed for a long time, 250 years from now, apparently.”

〈…Hmm.〉

“But it seems it will talk today. And It's my job to answer it.”

〈What will it say?〉

“Who knows. If it was me, I’d be like, ‘I’m hungry’, or something.”

When I said that, was it my imagination, or did I hear her let out a giggle?

“…Huh? Did you—laugh just now?”

〈…No.〉

“Is that so? You know it’s okay if you did laugh, right?”

〈I didn’t laugh.〉

Saying that, Yoishi said bye, and cut off the phone.

She hung up as if to say she had no more business with me, now that she had confirmed I was safe. I wanted to talk to her for a little while longer, but I guess it couldn’t be helped. I was already used to her cold behavior.

I breathed a sigh, and put away my phone. I then moved a little closer to the earthenware pot, and stuck my ear against its cold exterior. I thought I heard the roar of the sea from somewhere far away.

With my head close to it, I recalled the time I confined myself in the closet when I was a kid. Without even knowing the basics of biology, I was devotedly trying to warm an egg from the fridge. I placed it in a soft bag inside the closet, and spent countless hours warming the egg. By doing that, a cute chick would poke out its head one day, acknowledge me as its parent and become attached to me, being the first one to make eye contact with it. And then, I would call it something cute like Hiyoukichi and take care of it. Hiyoukichi would follow me everywhere, and I would put it in my backpack and take it to school. It might help me catch crayfish at the river. It might even wake me up in the morning with a peck of its beak. Hiyoukichi was supposed to be smart and pampered. I recalled grinning like that as I warmed the unfertilized egg.

I wonder if that was why—

This old earthenware pot that felt cold to my forehead felt like an egg.

And for some reason, I felt that what lay inside of it was not a chick – but Yoishi, clutching her knees. With her long black hair waving in lukewarm amniotic fluid, Yoishi Mitsurugi seemed lonely as she floated naked. Maybe it was because, she too, was surrounded by a thick membrane that rejected everything outside her. Right, until I observed it, I was free to imagine whatever was inside. It was much better to imagine that the unsociable Yoishi was inside, as she clutched her knees.

‘What's so funny?’ she would ask inside the pale, blue light of the amniotic fluid.

‘What do you mean ‘funny’? I asked in return.

‘Because you’re smiling at me,’ she’d say.

‘Sorry, somehow I just broke into a smile,’ I answered.

I replied that it was funny to see her worrying about so many things with that small head of hers.

Yoishi turned away, as if feeling offended.

Her long soft hair danced in the water.

I gazed at her beautiful pale profile from the side. And then I apologized.

I spoke with a kindness I didn’t quite understand, one that would surprise even myself.

And spontaneously, I succeeded in finally asked her:

“Say, how did you lose the emotion known as fear?”

In an instant—

The pale, blue world darkened.

I heard a hollow bang, the sound of something blowing up.

The dark world began to spin, like the sky on a stormy night.

With a tremendous rumbling sound, the darkness swirled around like a black cloud.

Beyond that, I heard it.

It was Yoishi’s voice.

An extremely feeble voice.

And then, Yoishi spoke of something terribly, terribly cruel.

Yoishi narrated the tale that made me want to cover my ears, that made me want to throw up.

She spoke and spoke and spoke and spoke.

When the long, long story finally ended – a purple world materialized.

Yoishi was floating in the amniotic fluid which had turned purple. Seeing my expression, she sadly declared that that was the reason why she didn’t want to tell me. I thought about saying something. But the words wouldn’t come out. My meager vocabulary ran dry like a desert in the face of a story where halfhearted consolation was meaningless. Even so, I struggled to say something. I struggled, because staying silent would mean accepting her darkness as it was. However, no words would come out. I bore the pain that made my stomach churn, and cursed my own incompetence. That was all I could do as Yoishi gazed at me apologetically.

Inside the earthenware pot--

Inside the amniotic fluid—

The naked Yoishi quietly closed her long eyelashes, as if giving up on everything.

“Yo, Yamada-kun.”

I jumped at that voice, and saw the sunlight streaming in from the other side of the grate. It seemed I had fallen asleep leaning next to the earthenware pot at some point.

“Well done. Apparently, the earthenware pot didn’t speak at all.”

Standing like a thin shadow behind the clear light, was Sako Takita.

His breath was white. He was wearing a black cloak over his blue kinagashi, with both hands in his pockets.

“Well then, it’s over now. Please come out.”

I rubbed my eyes when I heard his words, and spoke.

“What happened to the bell?”

“…Bell?”

“You said it yourself, that you’d ring a bell.”

“Ah, I said that, didn’t I? At any rate, things like bells are unimportant.”

“Go get it.”

I said it without standing up.

“The moment the bell rings is the moment this job is over.”

At the end of those words—

Darkness suddenly enveloped the area.

Without being surprised, I merely pulled the blanket up to my neck once more.

There was no doubt about it—

Yes, this was the famous ‘Kibitsu’s iron pot’.

It was an ancient ghost story passed down in the country of Harima – presently known as Okayama. A man who married the daughter from the Kibitsu shrine, but eventually betrayed her and committed adultery. The girl knew of her husband’s infidelity, yet continued to serve him faithfully to the best of her ability. The man eventually began to loathe even that behavior of hers, and disappeared together with his mistress. That was the breaking point for the girl who continued to believe and trust in the man till the very end, and she became a vengeful spirit. The man, who encountered a series of misfortunes after that, was frightened and begged an exorcist for help, he secluded himself in a shrine for forty-two days in order to chase away the vengeful spirit, but— you could call it fate or destiny, he was killed at the end. It was because he ended up being tricked by the cheerfulness of the vengeful spirit who fooled him into thinking it was dawn, and with only one day remaining, he opened the door to the shrine by himself.

I liked listening to that story from my grandfather when I was in elementary school, and I feel like that was when I started getting interested in ghost stories. And I managed to recall this story somehow. That’s why, I thought the calls from Moriyama and Krishna-san felt familiar. There was indeed a scene where the vengeful spirit in ‘Kibitsu’s iron pot’ disguises itself as one of the man’s acquaintances.

“…You think that’s gonna work?” In my dazed consciousness, I muttered. “…I don’t know who you are, or why you’re trying to make me open this earthenware pot, but this thing has already endured 250 years on its own. It still has another 250 more years to go, but it’s still on the path to it. I don’t know where it’s headed, but step-by-step, it’s walking its path. Do you not even have the forbearance to allow it to continue its journey?”

I whispered in the jet-black darkness.

The darkness didn’t answer back.

Dawn was never coming, was it?

Was I already lost in the midst of the world beyond?

in the midst of the endless dark world—

I heard a voice from somewhere.

『○○○○○○○○......?』

…Huh?

『○○○○○○○○......?』

…Ah…

…Was that it? After thinking for 250 years… the only question you finally came up with… is that really okay? Do you really want to know that…?

『○○○○○○○○......?』

…Ah, I understand. Being here with you in the 250th year of your life must have been fate, right? I apologize for my meager words, but I will answer you with all the sincerity I can muster.

“It’s alright.”

I spoke.

“Keep going. Don’t look back. I'll watch over you. No matter what mistakes you make, no matter how hopeless you are, I will always be there watching over you. Worst case scenario, we all perish together.”

In the darkness where endless silence reigned—

I thought I heard a clanking sound from the earthenware pot.

And I went straight to sleep as if I had passed out.

---

--*Riiing* The sound of a bell rings out.

The refreshing sound of a bell chimes in my surroundings, as if to wash my soul.

“Please wake up. It’s morning.”

At the sound of that voice, I realized that my left shoulder was aching inexplicably. At some point, I laid down on the hard floor using my left arm as my pillow. At the same time, my body was cold and I sniffled.

When I woke up, I saw that the grated door was already thrown open. The chirping of birds was comforting to my ears, and I stood up, as if enticed. I staggered outside the shrine. My eyes squinted at the pouring sunlight, and I breathed the clean mountain air into my lungs as much as possible.

“Did something interesting happen?” Sako asked with his hands still in his pockets.

“…Who knows.” I merely answered. I felt like it was all a dream, to the point where I couldn’t answer anything else besides that.

Hmmm, Sako smiled.

“It seems you got the answer you were looking for. Well then, shall we look forward to another 250 years?”

A sarcastic wrinkle was etched on his mouth as he looked back at the earthenware pot in the shrine. I, too, gazed at the black earthenware pot in the light of the morning sun. Even though I was with it for a single night, it felt like we had walked together for a thousand years, and I thought I’d pat it one last time before I left, when—

“Well then, please take this.”

I turned around, and Sako handed me out a piece of paper. I opened it to see some sort of URL beginning with ‘www’ written on it.

“What is this?”

“Your reward, of course.”

“No, I asked you how I would get Yoishi to…”

“And this is the answer. Or rather -- it’s something connected to the answer.”

After that, Sako told me even more incomprehensible things.

“I did a lot of research, and in all likelihood, Kurimoto-kun is probably correct.”

“…Huh?”

“I also believe it’s impossible to save Yoishi Mitsurugi-kun. However – that condition is only true, in the possibility that you are excluded. Whatever it is, it’s not words. Nor an item. Time is also a requirement. The one who abandons everything will eventually gain the most precious thing – but it is an old mythological theory.”

“Oi, I don’t understand what you mean.”

When I complained, Sako peered into my face and his cheeks contorted into a smirk.

“You know, this world is -- really, reaaaaally full of idiots, Yamada-kun.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s overflowing with garbage people who can only think of themselves, who can only think in a radius of about fifty centimeters, who live only in the present and curse everything they don't understand as trivial, boring and not worth existing.”

“A-are you talking about me??”

“…Eh? No, no, no, not at all.”

Sako chuckled as he clapped my shoulders.

“You might be a fool, but you’re not an idiot. Kurimoto-kun often asks you if you’re an idiot. That is a statement that can never be directed at a real idiot, and an idiot will usually never realize or imagine that they are an idiot to begin with. But I digress. Anyway, the only thing that can save Yoishi Mitsurugi is a person who can give up everything for the sake of others. Well, I have never seen a person who can do such a thing for a stranger. Well, that's right. If forced, I’d have to say someone like Jesus of Nazareth. Well, that's just folklore, and in any case, it's a mad story.”

When he finished talking as he pleased, Sako chuckled.

“I'll take you to the station,” he said, and with a plop, he pushed me from behind and started walking towards the entrance to the shrine.

After passing through the large Torii gate, the black wagon and men dressed in black that I had seen when I arrived were waiting for me. They deftly carried the earthenware pot back into the car and gestured me inside as well. I got in, and the wagon once again rocked along the mountain road. I thought they’d take me back to Musashino, but for some reason, I alone was dropped off at Okutama station. From what I understood, they had to take that earthenware pot somewhere from that point on.

“I think it’s better if you don’t know where that is.”

Sako gave me a creepy smile, and I complied in disgust. I was already completely exhausted anyway. I thought I’d go to sleep while on the Chuo Line and go home, but I was strangely curious about the piece of paper Sako had handed me, so I took out my mobile phone in the train and tried to access it for the time being.

I thought I wouldn’t be able to access it unless I was on a computer, but it seemed to be a website compatible with my flip phone. I managed to see it, but—

…Huh?

When I scanned through every corner of that site and understood the purpose and meaning of the page—

I ended up discovering a new darkness inside the darkness that was Yoishi Mitsurugi.

“Hey, how the hell is this a hint? That bastard.”

I was physically exhausted, but I couldn’t sleep at all with the new mystery that had appeared in front of me matched together with my anger towards Sako. In the end, I finally reached Mitaka station at last without even a wink of sleep. I staggered and dragged my heavy feet towards the station exit, going against the flow of commuters. I finished descending the stairs and made my way to the roundabout in front of the station, when I saw a familiar shadow.

“Welcome back.”

Long black hair and a black blazer uniform. It was Yoishi Mitsurugi, with a white scarf wrapped around her neck.

“A…Ah, I’m back.”

I merely answered mechanically, but I was strangely happy with the conversation. Welcome back. I’m back. What nice words.

Afterwards, we silently headed through the station roundabout in the direction of Koumei institute.

“You going to school now?”

“It’s bothersome.”

“………….”

“I really don’t feel like going, but...”

“But you’ll go, right? That’s admirable.”

Yoishi sunk into silence when I said that.

We continued to walk without exchanging a word.

But from time to time, I felt Yoishi sneaking a look at me. I somehow understood that she was trying to ask me something, and yet couldn’t. I wouldn’t speak of it until she asked me herself. That floaty, ticklish sensation in my stomach was fun for some reason.

“…What…?”

At last, Yoishi asked with a voice that was seemingly scattered by the wind.

“What did the earthenware pot…?”

“…Hm?”

“What did it ask?”

“Do you want to know?”

“…I’ll hear you out, just because.”

I tried to stop myself from bursting into laughter—

And answered her after a pause.

“It asked: Was it alright to have been born?”

Yoishi stopped in her tracks, and looked at me.

And I stopped as well.

“Surprised, right? I might have been dreaming, but it asked me that probably before dawn. That was the question it had spent 250 years refining and developing.”

Then, what did you answer?

The moment Yoishi looked at me as if to ask that question—

I realized it.

No—I had a feeling I realized it.

The reason Sako told me about that site.

And why I unexpectedly said those words to that earthenware pot.

…No, wait. I should probably think about it some more. I’m known to jump to wrong conclusions, and I was too tired to come up with the answer right now.

So, for now - I turned to Yoishi, smiled as hard as I could and said:

“What I answered -- is a secret between it and me.”

---

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