Phenomeno:Case 00: Chapter 5

Case 00 – Chapter 5: A Person Who Is Nothing

The old man continued down the mountain road, taking A and M with him, who had changed into jeans, pants, and matching cardigans. The clouds in the sky slowly moved, and the sun had begun to shine, but the road was still dark because of the overgrown shrubbery.

A and M’s faces were pale, as they dizzily walked on.

The old man tried to hide the terrible spectacle downstairs by covering their eyes with both hands as they left the mansion, but it was impossible for him to accomplish that completely. Leaving aside the mother in the storage room, they immediately ended up noticing the father hanging from the center of the living room.

Seeing her father's figure, A screamed out loud; M was merely in shock. Unable to do anything, I merely hung my head down. The old man forcefully carried the two out of the mansion. Still, he had trouble with A who was screaming frantically; With his left hand he forcibly pulled M, and with his right hand, he at last managed to carry A on his shoulder. With a dizzy gait like that of a doll, M merely followed.

The old man's car was at the end of a side street around three-hundred meters below the mansion. By the time they arrived there, A had gotten quiet, but it was as if she had fallen unconscious with her eyes still open, or as if the thin line of her consciousness had been cut off. I merely watched her from inside the stuffed frog that M continued to strongly hold on to.

The old man opened the car door, made the two sit in the back seat, and sat down in the driver's seat himself.

He then moved to grab a cigarette from the dashboard, before stopping his hand with the click of his tongue. He might have hesitated to smoke in an enclosed space with children present.

“...I'm not sure how I should go about explaining it--but listen carefully.”

The old man began to explain as he gazed at the two sisters in the rearview mirror.

“You already saw it, so I'll just say it. Take it in. Your papa and mama... have passed on to the next world. It was not by choice. In short, they were killed. If you were to ask who did it, it was something called ‘Yoishi’. And ‘Yoishi’ is not a living person.”

Having spoken that far, the old man scratched his stiff gray hair.

“You might be thinking, ‘What is this old man saying?’ but -- ahh, the younger sister will understand. It's the thing that was inside Kii-chan. That thing moves from person to person. And, it destroys the people it possesses and the people around them. The incidents that have been occurring in your town were probably the work of ‘Yoishi’. And right now, it's inside your pet dog.”

“...In Leo?”

Thereupon, M finally asked in reply, and the old man nodded bitterly.

“That's right, it's that dog Leo. Leo isn't the Leo from before anymore. From now on. If that dog appears before you again, you must not approach it. If you see him, tell me immediately.”

It was not possible to understand or accept such things after they were explained in rapid succession. Tears gradually began to flow from A and M's eyes once more.

(--Ah…I’m powerless…)

Inside the stuffed frog, all I could do was blame myself as such.

I knew this was going to happen more than two weeks in advance. I knew it would happen, and yet I could do nothing. I wanted to protect this family somehow, but all I could do was let this day come. Right now, I had no idea what to say to the sisters with the reality in front of me. The words I could offer would be too little to the sisters who ended up seeing that gruesome spectacle. I didn't entirely know what was happening, and I didn't know what would happen from now on. And what's more, neither my hands, nor my words, would reach anyone. All I could do was snuggle close up to A and M.

However, it was the same for the old man who was alive in this world—

“For the time being, let's go to a nearby police station.”

The old man eventually moved his eyes away from the sisters to turn and face forward once more, and he turned the car’s ignition key.

And, as the engine was about to sputter and turn on -- “Ah”.

Hearing that voice, I too, looked beyond the windshield.

In front of the car was a familiar, tall and slender man.

--S, Sako?

Sako Takito stood still there, dressed spiffily in a black hakama over white clothes along with tall wooden clogs. His long black hair seemed to shine wet with luster as it was combed down. His face, which had always seemed pale and in poor health, looked to be even paler than usual.

“Yo.”

Sako spoke, causing the old man to push his face out of the window and yell.

“Don’t act so casually! Where the hell have you been?”

“To many different places.”

“What do you mean different places? Anyway, just get in! Let's get away from here. ‘That thing’ is in the dog right now. And it's still around here somewhere.”

“It's about that actually.”

Sako spoke after giving a brief glance to the thicket in his surroundings.

“Don't you find it a little strange?”

“What did you say?”

The old man, who probably didn't hear him over the noise of the car, turned off the engine for the time being and angrily got out. I, too, came out of the frog after taking a glance at the sisters who were still in a daze. I approached Sako together with the old man.

“What did you say just now?”

“I said, aren’t we acting a little too conveniently for ‘Yoishi’?”

“What do you mean? It’s inside the dog. Besides that--”

Thereupon, the old man looked back at the car once before lowering his voice.

“The mother is in pieces. The father is hanging by the neck. I thought for a minute that it might have been one of the sisters, but that wasn't it. I peeked in the house through the window every morning, but a while ago, that dog was just staring at the father hanging from the ceiling, and it looked back and sneered. After that it deliberately went to the storage room and sneered again. Where in the world can you find a sneering dog?”

“However, even if you were to say that it was inside the dog -- then it wouldn’t explain the entirety of the horror that unfolded in that mansion.”

Sako spoke with his hands in his pockets as he declared dispassionately.

“All ‘Yoishi’ can do is to possess. The only thing it can use is the body it possesses. Based on the size of a dog, it can't use large tools that a human can. It couldn't have dismembered the mother, much less hung an adult male from a beam with the body of a Yorkshire terrier.”

“Then, what does it all mean?”

“There is only one answer. ‘Yoishi’ is not present inside the dog.”

Astonished by those words-- the old man looked back in the direction of the car once more. As he stared at the sisters with their heads hung down in the back seat, he asked Sako.

“Are you saying that it's inside one of the two sisters?”

“No-- we still have three humans who are possible here. Me, you, and the guardian spirit that is probably here.”

….Eh…?

“And there is one more thing that is a matter of concern. Why, exactly, is Yoishi doing something like this? The Tengu incident in S-town, the headless incident in K-town. Looking back at the circumstances of those two incidents, Niizawa-san was hung from a height of around four meters above the ground in S-town. Nagami-san from K-town had his head chopped off with enough force to launch it far beyond the window. Don't you think they were experiments conducted for the sake of the present? Weren't they a little too elaborate to merely be done ’just for fun’?”

“…”

“To us humans, this series of murders were extremely brutal occurrences of sadness and gloom-- however that is, to the very end, a psychological phenomenon of the human world; Shouldn’t we look at it from its perspective, that of a ghost with some unknown objective? That’s what I believe. Until we grasp that, we cannot deal with what is to happen from here on.”

“…Then, what are you saying we should do?”

“For now, let’s return to that mansion.”

“What did you say?”

“There's something I'm curious about. I want to try doing at least one thing that is beyond its expectations.”

The old man glared motionlessly at Sako’s pale face, before eventually spitting once and returning to the car.

He then opened the back seat and informed the sisters, “He's alright.”

“That man is a priest; He solves various things for me, so just wait here.”

A and M both looked back at the old man in a daze, but their faces were hopeless. And more so than M, A looked at the old man with a clinging gaze as she grabbed the sleeve of his worn-out suit. He gently wrapped his hand around hers, and hugged them both with both hands as he talked to them.

“I'm sure there's a lot you don't understand. But trust me. I'll definitely come back. Lock the doors, you’ll be safe here.

“Do you have a phone?”

A and M timidly took out the PHS from their pockets.

“Alright. This is my number. If something happens, call me. I'll come running right away.”

Saying that, the old man handed over a scribbled memo, and placed his large hand on the sisters’ heads one after the other.

“Listen to me all right. The one thing I can tell you right now is, that your parents ended up going to the heavens, but they are still close and still love you. It might be a while, but you'll definitely see them again one day. And you guys have to live your life to the fullest from here on out, so that you don't have to be ashamed when that time comes.”

The old man's words moved my heart deeply as I merely stood and watched. I thought he was doing a good job, and that the old man’s broad back was quite dependable. However, at that moment, I suddenly looked in Sako’s direction – and was taken aback.

For some reason, Sako’s face looked pale.

His narrow eyes were wide open, and his eyeballs flickered as if they were chasing something that was not here.

That was as if—

He had noticed something hidden in something he had overlooked up until now, and despaired of the darkness of where that possibility could lead to.

  ◯

When the front door to the mansion was opened, the old man couldn’t help but let out a groan once more.

The living room across the corridor was already visible from there. And the father was still hanging there.

I only realized it now, but something like a puddle of body fluid had formed under his feet.

“What now?”

In response to the old man’s question, Sako proceeded to the living room without a word. He then surveyed the surroundings, and eventually shook his head.

“It already disseminated. That might have been our only hope.”

(--Do you mean to say that the father’s spirit is not here?)

I asked, but of course my question went unnoticed, the old man and Sako then proceeded to the storage room this time still wearing their shoes. I didn’t want to see it anymore, so I waited in the corridor.

“This is the mother. Can you find out anything?”

“……..”

Sako crouched on the spot, and seemed to be examining the cuts and other details.

I took deep breaths and stared at the white wall, trying my best not to recall the mother’s body I had seen this morning.

Sako eventually emerged from the storage room at a brisk pace and went upstairs.

He then opened the doors of all the bedrooms one after the other, and dashed into the sisters’ room. He then continued to glare at midair. The old detective seemed to have had enough of his bizarre behavior, and finally asked.

“…Hey, did you figure out anything?”

However, Sako didn’t answer him at all. He continued muttering something to himself.

“…However, if that’s the case then what will happen? It’s not my intention to pile hypothesis upon hypothesis – but if that’s the case, then only one line ties it together… That thread leads nowhere else…”

“Hey, Sako!”

The moment the old man placed a hand on Sako’s back from behind.

Sako slowly turned around.

His scrawny cheeks cast a shadow, but he seemed to be smiling somehow, which brought a shiver down my spine.

“What happened?”

“No, I ended up realizing it.”

“Realizing… what?”

Without answering the old man – Sako slowly swayed and slipped past us towards the outside of the room.

“…H-hey! Sako!”

The old man chased after Sako as he began to descend the stairs. I, of course, followed.

“Wait, what do you mean?”

The old man caught up to him downstairs and asked him while pulling on his sleeve, Sako turned around shakily as if he had had no weight at all.

“It means we can’t stay here anymore.”

“…Huh?”

“It means that we are all just pawns.”

For some reason… those words made my hair stand on ends. I had no idea whatsoever what Sako was trying to say, but his words seemed to touch on something that was at the heart of the matter.

“Me, you, and Mr. Guardian spirit. All of us are pawns of ‘Yoishi’.”

“That’s what I’m saying you should explain.”

“Even though I intended to proceed with the ample knowledge of Yoishi having intelligence – and I was also aware that it was a mass of malice – but until I revise my understanding of it even further, I cannot deal with it.”

“By malice… you mean having such young sisters witness such a spectacle?”

“…That’s not it.”

Sako spoke as he began to walk unsteadily.

“That was merely the surface. The reality was to force you, me, and everyone else to be an actor without realizing it.”

“I’m asking you what tha--”

“At any rate.”

Sako turned around, and spoke with an expression of seriousness I had never seen before.

“I will be leaving now.”

“…Wha--?”

“My very presence here might be its trap.”

Saying that, Sako disappeared into the sunlight like a gust of wind.

“…What is wrong with that guy?”

For a while, the old man stared dumbfounded at the front gate where Sako disappeared, but eventually clicked his tongue violently and looked around the mansion.

“A trap? What is he talking about? He had the nerve to leave me alone in a place like this.”

The old man didn’t seem to realize that I was still there as he talked to himself – but I felt the same way. A furious rage swelled up inside me; After all that talk, after all that knowledge, and after all that pompous lecturing, he just ran away from the enemy at the end of the day. That was why I stayed here. It felt as if I were declaring to someone that I was different from Sako.

“Whatever the case, I can’t just leave those two sisters alone.”

However, the old man’s words suddenly made me realize.

…That’s right. Enough of that bastard Sako for now. I think they’ll be fine and safe inside the car even if Leo comes close, but I’m certainly worried.

The old man was about to return to the sisters, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“But… just what was it that he figured out?”

--Ahh, the old man was a detective after all. It would be impossible for me to be alone in a place like this with two bodies. I would have run off straight away. Or rather, I would go call for help. However, since the chief priest known as Sako had disappeared, the old man might have instead hardened his resolve. The old man’s movements had gotten sharper. He took out a pair of white gloves, wore them on both hands and moved closer to the father’s corpse once more. After putting his palms together for a bit, he gazed at the beam, and at the surroundings. Then, as if being struck with an idea, he ran towards the storage room the mother was in. He confirmed that a step ladder was present there, and grabbed it. He returned to where the father was, set it up there, and nodded. Perhaps he thought that it could have possibly been used to hang the father. Thereafter, he once again returned to the storage room, and after placing his palms together in front of the corpse of what was once the mother, crouched down and began to investigate.

“The cut sections of the body have the same cuts. It was probably this.”

He said, picking up a saw that must have been originally present in the toolbox. Ah, why didn’t I realize it in the first place? If you looked closely, you could see what looked like a dark red piece of flesh clinging to it.

“No hiding the murder weapon, or washing it, huh?”

I somehow understood what the old man was thinking.

It added credibility to what Sako had said before he came here, 『’Yoishi’ is not present inside the dog. 』It was true that a small sized dog like a Yorkshire Terrier couldn’t put a saw in his mouth, much less drag a step ladder out to the living room.

“But the enemy – is that ‘thing’.”

The old man whispered as if warning himself, and I recalled once more.

--Ah, that's right. When he was talking to M, he spoke of a woman possessed by ‘Yoishi’ who was also easily able to dangle a child with one hand. So, if it possessed a dog, was that possible?

The old man took a phone out of his pocket.

He held it up for a while, but it must have been out of range. He clicked his tongue and put it away again.

“It’s no use, I have to call forensics for this.”

He then walked straight out of the front door. With a gloomy look on his face. he shoved his hands in his pockets as he made large strides in the direction of the gate. However, midway through, he looked back for some reason. And his eyes opened wide as if he had noticed something.

“…Ah.”

(--Eh?)

The old man started running. He ran towards the rear of the mansion.

(--W, where are you going?)

I tried to ask, but it quickly entered my field of vision as well. Between the gate and the mansion was a narrow path, overgrown with weeds. Something light brown was lying down at the base of an oak tree.

--It was Leo.

I knew it was Leo. The old man took out his gun from his waist as he ran. He held it up at about two meters away and spoke sharply.

“Don’t move.”

Those words might have been a bit comical to someone unaware of the situation. For the opponent was a small-breed dog collapsed motionless. However, I had seen Leo sneering at me this morning. I was cowering behind the old man, afraid that he could start moving at any moment, and speak ‘Yo’ in a low tone of voice.

“Hey, it’s you, isn’t it?”

The old man called out once more, keeping his sights at the collapsed dog. However, Leo didn’t even twitch. The old man slowly drew closer with his gun still drawn. He slowly crouched down, touched Leo’s neck, and turned him over. I, too, came in front of him, and looked carefully.

However, Leo – was already dead.

There was a large wound between his forelegs and back legs, and he had breathed his last.

--Did that mean that the old man’s bullets hit him back then?

I cocked my head in puzzlement, when—

“No… I’m sure I missed back then.”

The old man muttered behind me.

--Then what did it mean? Did it mean that he died of the bullets that had missed him? No, the most important thing now that Leo was dead was… what about ‘Yoishi’ that was inside? Was it alright now that Leo was dead? Or did it transfer to someone else?

“…Hmm?”

At that moment, the old man suddenly reached out his hand. He reached in and felt around Leo’s mouth with the long fur -- one of the characteristics of a Yorkshire Terrier.

“What the hell is this?”

I couldn’t look at it properly. I waited for the old man to pull out his hand and check it with his own fingertips.

“…Is this, a bond?”

(--Bond?)

Ah… If I recall correctly… M seemed to have been constantly worried about Leo’s mouth and kept wiping it.

Did that mean that someone bonded the hairs around Leo's mouth into a smiling shape? In short, the sneer I saw on Leo’s face was an illusion caused by the bond, and ‘Yoishi’ wasn’t inside Leo? It can’t be, when he ran up the stairs… he wholeheartedly wanted to see M and A?

That realization stabbed my chest coldly, and a heavy regret filled my heart.

--Ahh…if that was the case…

Then I had forever lost the only existence that ever acknowledged me with certainty. I foolishly doubted the precious existence which brought tranquility to me as a ghost, and –

(And just as Sako had said, ‘Yoishi’, was now…)

I had thought that far, when I heard a loud and dull thud from behind.

A groaning sound subsequently reached my ears, and I looked around in a hurry.

The old man's face was distorted. A cold sweat appeared on his forehead, and I had no idea what the source was of his expression—but eventually he collapsed, and a familiar smile appeared behind the sunlight.

It was…A.

Her short bob of healthy hair was illuminated in the sunlight, and she was grinning broadly.

(...Eh, why is A here? What happened to M…?)

However, I noticed it in the next moment.

A was clutching a large pair of sewing scissors in her right hand, and its pointy tips were dyed in dark red.

The collapsed old man groaned while clutching his right side. The right side of his business suit was stained black in the blink of an eye, and fresh red blood flowed from the crevice of the burly hand that held it down.

“…Y, you.”

As the old man strenuously tried to turn around, A showed her white teeth.

“Yo, it’s been a long time.”

That voice was as deep as a man’s.

“You shot me before, didn’t you?”

Saying that, A painfully kicked the old man in the stomach with the toe of her shoes. Even though it didn’t look as if she put her back into it, it was a kick sharp enough to make the old man’s body jump.

“The pain from back then was nothing compared to this.”

Saying that in a deep voice, A then held the sewing scissors inverted, and before I could yell at her to stop, she thrust them deep into the old man’s stomach. And then, as if relishing the old man’s squirming, she twisted the tip of the scissors around inside his body before taking it out. Fresh blood splattered all over and dyed A’s face red.

“And here too.”

Next, A indifferently stabbed the old man in his thigh. The tip of the scissors must have struck a bone, a thudding noise sounded and when she took it out, blood gushed out.

I watched the scene in a daze.

I was helpless, speechless, as I watched the moment of a life being cut off.

Eventually, the old man stopped moving, and A looked in my direction.

It was a natural gesture, enough to make me forget that I was an invisible existence no one could see.

--A dark colored…light.

For some reason, those words suddenly appeared in my mind… as I looked at the radiance that resided in her eyes when she fixed her gaze towards me.

“Hey, you there. Try doing something about it.”

She then contorted her lips into a sneer.

I finally realized at last, as I looked at the smile that made my knees buckle.

I heard the sound of it all clicking together: all the doubts, the questions I had left unanswered until now.

--The rumor that Kii-chan’s ghost appeared in the classroom at night. The originator of that rumor.

--Who it was that suggested this family trip.

--The shadow which I thought was the mother when I was in the bath with M.

Was it A…?

Did that mean it was inside A the whole time…?

“There’s no way you can do anything about it.”

A stared at me as if looking down on me,

“Now then, there’s only one thing left to do.”

Saying that, she happily threw the scissors down on the spot and turned her back on me.

  ◯

I was lost in my thoughts.

Or perhaps I wanted to escape into my thoughts and distance myself from reality.

I just wanted to think about what the hell was going on more slowly. I knew I had no time to think, but there was one thing I had to be clear on. As if groping around in the dark, I touched on that puzzle.

That was-- just what was ‘Yoishi’ doing all this for in the first place.

Sako spoke of it as well. That ‘it destroys simply because it’s amusing’. That might have been the case. I couldn't understand it at all, but there might be those in this world who can’t help but have that inclination. However, he also said, 『Weren't they a little too elaborate to merely be something done ’just for fun’?』

Right, just now, A – no, ‘Yoishi’ said it. 『Now then, there’s only one thing left to do.』. Didn't that mean that there was something it had been carefully building up to at this point? Didn’t that mean that it was all part of some elaborate plan? But – just what was that? For what purpose was ‘Yoishi’ doing all this?

Firstly – was the Tengu Incident. On that occasion, ‘Yoishi’ must have been inside the man named Niizawa. After making him climb up to the branches on the stepladder and hanging himself – it probably possessed Kii-chan and removed the stepladder, adding a sense of unease to the scene. And that was also for the experiment of hanging the father, as mentioned by Sako. Then what about the headless incident? That must have been in order to dismember the mother. It possessed the person named Nagami, made him behead himself, then used Kii-chan’s body to close the window. With that, a sense of unease was left at the scene of the crime. Then, why did it kill Kii-chan? If I recall correctly, the old man said, 『It was as if to see how far her body would go before it died』. Perhaps that too was an experiment, and that was as far as the experiment went. After going through those series of experiments, it must have confirmed what it could and could not do with a human body. Then – here comes the important part, why did it conduct these experiments? What was ‘Yoishi’ ultimately trying to accomplish?

‘Yoishi’ having possessed A after Kii-chan, killed the mother, dismembered her, and stored her in the toolbox as soon as it arrived here. The father was murdered when he was about to go to the police, he was hanged somewhere outside, and after M had fallen asleep, his body was hung inside the house once more. In the midst of all those actions, it tampered with Leo’s mouth, to hide the fact that it was inside A. What was the meaning in that? Dammit, I had no idea.

I had no idea, but at any rate, M was the only one left, and I was sure M had something to do with ‘the only thing left to do’, I was sure A was trying to do something with M – as I desperately worked out the thoughts in my head, when--

Suddenly, Sako’s unhealthy pale face appeared in my mind.

…That guy, just what in the world did he realize?

Why was Sako so afraid, and why did he disappear in such a hurry?

『It means we can’t stay here anymore.』

『It means that we are all just pawns.』

『Because us staying here itself might be its trap.』

--What did he mean by all that? What did he mean by including not only the flesh and blood humans, but even me in this category, who was not supposed to be alive in this world?

I took a deep breath, calmed myself down-- and recalled everything that happened up until now the best I could: Before I met M, and after I met M... And from there, I drew everything in my mind I had experienced, one by one, in turn. The day when I, who was nothing more than weak electric signals, defined ‘myself’. All the memories engraved on ‘myself’ since that point. There, the me from before, in those fragments of countless memories and scenes that were unknown to me, mixed in and melted together. “The highest order and the lowest order”-- For some reason, those words of Takamura came back to me. As always, I didn't know what they meant, but they fit my current situation to a tee. The many layers of my memories were being overwritten, and the idea of "me," which was supposed to be the highest order, could no longer be constructed, and in that moment—

At the limits of my murky thoughts, she appeared.

A young girl with long black hair and white porcelain-like skin was wearing a black blazer with a black tie.

Her hair danced in the wind, and as she held out her hand as if beckoning me, she whispered somewhat happily.

“Everything, is in reverse.”

(A….a, arrrrrrrrrrrrrrghh!!)

Something inside me screamed, and in that instant, the answer suddenly hit me on the head.

With a feeling of disgust that almost made me vomit, I felt as if I understood ‘Yoishi’s’ true intentions.

No—no, I still didn’t know if that was correct. I didn’t know, but if it was – then everything fit together perfectly. At the same time, that word which had been a jewel to me, had now slowly transformed into malice itself.

I returned from the depths of my thoughts with a deep sense of futility.

In reality, I was still present in the rear garden of the mansion. And there was no time left: Everything would be over once A reached M. I didn’t know if it was right or not, but I decided to bet on it anyway. However, being nothing more than a ghost in corporeal form, could I reach M before A even if I ran? No, that was impossible. Couldn't… I deliver my message to M in some other way?

In that moment, a divine revelation came down to me.

That’s right – there’s that thing.

I clasped my hands once before the old man who had collapsed and no longer moved, and immediately slipped into his pocket. In the right pocket of the old man’s jacket – the cell phone that lay tumbled there. I tried to possess it with everything I had. Even the cell phones of this age must have had a texting function. And M had a PHS in her hand. The problem was whether there would be a signal, but I had no choice but to bet on the slim possibility.

I dissolved my existence in the air, and assimilated myself into the silver device with countless electronic components built in.

Being nothing more than weak electric signals, there was only one thing I could do as an infinitely meaningless existence in this world. That was to use the internet as an intermediary to move as a discarnate entity. If I could do it with the search terminal in the library, I should be able to do it here too.

A signal, a signal – let it be any signal, no matter how weak, just carry me away! Reaching out with both hands, my arms in my consciousness pierced through the old man’s body, slipped through the mansion, and reached up to the heavens. With my fingers stretched out as if to grab the wide-open sky, I grabbed a signal in the 800-megahertz radio band wandering the skies. I can do it! I slipped myself into the world of the internet.

What stretched out before me, was a world compressed with bit rates of zeros and ones. I was cast out in a world of countless linked extranets, then disseminated, and roughly understood the organizational information that made up the Internet.

In short, all I had to do was find a virtual server, and turn myself into the correct e-mail account. However, when I fabricated my ID, password, and stepped into the virtual private server once again, it seemed I had made some kind of mistake. The load balancer came alive, and I was forwarded to a place I didn't expect. Without knowing which way was up and which was down, I was whirled round and round in an infinite space, and then, perhaps triggered by a spam assassin, I found myself surrounded by many strange, emotionless people. I yelled, “Get out of the way”. However, they silently encircled me. They even brought out a long, sharp-looking blue dragon sword in their hands.

Of course, all of this was my subjective view.

However, that's just what the world was. The world that the brain believes in is all there is.

“Ah, bring it on then.”

Someone howled inside of me. At the same time, an intense fighting spirit swelled up inside of me. I couldn't allow my consciousness to be lost in this vast world. There was a young girl I had to save no matter what. That girl called me a ‘friend’ in this world filled with malice. I couldn't betray her, even if I’m ripped limb from limb!

I planted my foot firmly in place, and armed myself. Here, where will itself was digitized, I could produce any large weapon I wanted to in my hands. But only within the range of my absolute mass. In short, I made my right leg disappear, and transformed both of my hands into large war tridents. I brandished them with all the power I could muster, and started to smash their swords one after the other. I continue to slice off their arms, their heads, and their torsos. I yelled, and raged, and before I realized, I found myself surrounded by guys in armored black suits who covered the entire ground, but I continued to blow them away without mercy. The sky flickered. An electrical sound that sounded like thunder violently exploded. However-- this violent rampage might have impaired some system somewhere. When I looked around, my surroundings were in chaos. The sky was enveloped in a whirlpool of black clouds that began to swirl round and round. Knowing that, I extended my extremely thin left foot even as I continued to fight and blended it into the net space. I then managed to locate that information and dragged it out. It seemed there was a cold standby – in short, a mechanism that activated the standby system in the event of a failure. I decided to make use of that. It would take some time to restore as compared to a hot standby, and as my left foot continued to be connected to the Internet, I continued to beat up the spam assassins. That's right, I was stalling for time. As the chaotic world became even more chaotic and uncontrollable, I transferred my entire mass in one fell swoop. I continued to convert myself into a single e-mail, but—now, after all this time, I suddenly realized something.

The contents of the e-mail.

That's right, I hadn't thought anything about what the e-mail would say. What did I need to write in order to save M? I hectically calculated my mass and the time it would take to reach the server that had jurisdiction over M’s PHS, and realized that only twenty or so characters was all that could reach her. Wait – just twenty characters? Only that much? How would I be able to let M know of the danger with just that much? I felt gloomy, but I had no time to be depressed. My consciousness was open and time was passing infinitely slowly, but there was no time left.

For the time being, I made a sentence that would convey it with the minimum number of characters.

『Run away, your sister isn’t your sister anymore.』

No… would M believe this email sent by someone somewhere she didn’t know? Would she even open and read it?

At that moment, something intense overflowed from within me once more. Then, it changed into the next line.

『I’ll definitely protect you. Frog』

That was my limit.

My consciousness scattered to the Internet, I was swept up in the rapid flow, and my consciousness flew off.

  ◯

“…Eh?”

As the PHS in M’s hand began vibrating with a brrrrr, she looked my way with her large eyes.

With my vacant consciousness, I confirmed that I was in M’s hand right now. It seemed I had arrived at M’s PHS and lost consciousness. I mobilized my vague consciousness which was on the verge of disappearing and moved my body, dragging myself to take refuge inside the stuffed frog.

“…An e-mail? From Mr. Frog?”

Saying that, M took turns looking at her PHS and me – that is, the stuffed frog.

--Ah, it reached her…

Just knowing that was enough of a relief to make my body fall apart. I was even moved to tears. But, it wasn’t the time to break down and cry. (In short, that’s how it is. Run away from here! A who is possessed by ‘Yoishi’ will be here soon. Run away right now!)

I shouted out loud, but as M continued to speak, my vision went dark.

“…This email. It’s mostly gibberish.”

M smiled, as she showed me the screen of the PHS.

…Ah. Therein was a mail filled with mostly unintelligible characters like 口 or ▲, and the end was barely legible, “◆itely protect you. Frog”.

“…itely? Aah, definitely? you’ll definitely protect me? ...Thank you.”

M had a kind smile on her face that was enough to make me want to cry – but, I was merely in a state of panic.

There really was no use in hastily hacking the internet system. With this, nothing had reached her. Even though I risked my life rushing around in the electronic world, no vital information reached M at all.

(That’s not it, that’s not it, M. I wasn’t trying to cheer you up…no, I did want to cheer you up, but that wasn’t it… I just, I just wanted you to live.)

I felt so disappointed, so pitiful, and the tears continued to drop down.

(Anyway… You need to run away from here right now! M!)

I shouted with all the strength I could muster, when it happened.

Knock, knock – the sound of the window being knocked.

I feebly turned around, to see A’s face outside the car. She had an ecstatic smile on her face, as if fitting the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle after many years of hard work, but in M’s eyes they must have been merely reflected as the kind smile of her older sister.

“…Onee-chan!”

M raised her voice in happiness, and ended up unlocking the door.

“See, I told you I would come back, didn’t I?”

“But… suddenly saying you would go grab something you forgot is…”

“That’s true. I’m sorry.”

Smiling, A sat down in the back seat. Thereupon, she must have noticed the blood smeared on her elder sister’s clothes; M placed her hand over her mouth in shock.

“Onee-chan, what happened…?”

“Yeah…this is that detective’s blood.”

“Detective…? T, that old man? Why? Did the old man hurt you?”

“Listen carefully, M.”

A said that, and placed her hand on M’s cheeks. She traced her fingers on her soft cheeks as if enjoying it.

“That man was the culprit.”

“…Eh?”

“That detective – no, I don’t know if he was really a detective or not. But, that man killed papa and mama – and he blamed Leo for it, and he was going to kill us, too.”

“…But…then, what about that person? What about the priest?”

“Ah… he ran away. I don’t know why he did though.”

Saying that, A fumbled around her pockets. I was on guard as she seemed to be looking for something, but then A took her hand out of her pocket, and looked around the car here and there.

“Didn’t that man smoke? He looked like he did though.”

Saying that, she leaned forward to the front seat. She opened the dashboard around the side lever, under the steering wheel, and on the passenger seat, and found a crumpled box of cigarettes inside; she raised her voice happily, “Found it.”

“…O, onee-chan.”

She put a cigarette in her mouth, lit it with the hundred yen lighter she took out together with the box and exhaled a tobacco puff; Feeling good, she then sat back down in the rear seat.

“…*cough*…Onee-chan, you smoke cigarettes?”

“I do--. They’re so good, it’s so relaxing, but above all, they make you happier when you’re already happy. You can really savor and digest your happiness.”

The interior of the car was instantly filled with white smoke, as if it was transforming into a perverse opium den.

“By the way.”

A crossed her legs, and with the finger she held the cigarette in, pointed towards me— the stuffed frog in M’s hand.

“Are you still good friends? I mean you're always muttering to that stuffed toy when you're alone, aren't you? Do you still talk to it?”

“…Y, yeah…*cough*…just now, he sent me an email.”

“An email? From the frog?”

Saying that, she snatched the PHS from M’s hands. Fiddled on it with her fingers, and displayed the email I had sent. And then, with a sigh of relief, she let out a chuckle.

“What, it’s mostly gibberish.”

“…Y, yeah. But, it’s the first email Mr. Frog sent me.”

“Heh. He sure worked hard for it.”

A’s cold words were definitely aimed at me.

“M, you really trust that frog, don’t you?”

“…*Cough* I do.”

“You trusted papa, and mama as well.”

“……….”

“Leo too – and you trusted that man who said he was a detective, didn’t you? Then, what about me?”

Without knowing what her elder sister was trying to say, M was simply bewildered as A pointed to herself.

“Of course – of course I do, I love you so much.”

“Ahaha. That’s your foundation, isn’t it? The precious foundation on which the heart depends. But you know what?”

“It’s all, completely, wrong.”

“Papa and mama you see, didn’t actually want to give birth to you. Didn't you ever think it was strange that you and I are nine years apart in age? Did you never think it was strange that we don't look alike at all?”

--Hey…hold on a moment…

“After all, it’s because—”

“You were a child born from rape.”

I didn’t know… if the meaning of that got through to M, who was still only in her first year of elementary school. However, she must have understood that she was being told something truly repulsive. The blood had now drained from M's complexion.

“It seems to have happened on an overseas business trip to America. When papa was away from home, mama was assaulted by men. By white brats who seemed to have a thing for Asians. That’s when mama got pregnant. In short, half of the blood inside you is white. That's why you look so pale, like your veins are visible.”

With those words—

I recalled the voice of who-knows-what that echoed in my head last night.

『…hat’s why, I was against it…you’re saying that now…?』

『…hat’s why, you should have aborted it…I didn't want to get pregnant either…』

Were those… Were those the deepest screams of the mother and father’s hearts who had lost their bodies…?

“It seems they were quite troubled about whether or not to give birth to you.”

A dropped the elongated cigarette ash in place, and sneered.

“Papa was against it. Mama was troubled as well. Mama’s family were Protestant Christians you see. They were against abortion. The days and months quickly went by while they were troubled, and it became too late to get an abortion. Eventually, papa and mama were determined to raise the child as their own, but even then, it wasn't a positive birth. Somewhere along the way, papa and mama hoped for the possibility of a miscarriage. Because they didn't know if they could love you after you were born. Because you were the product of an incident they wanted to forget, one that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. However -- you were born safe and sound. You let out an innocent cry, not knowing anything. But as you grew up, that blood stood out. Your face looked awfully less and less like an Asian after all.”

“………”

“I wonder how complicated papa and mama must have felt whenever they praised you telling you what a cute child you were. It wasn't just them, I was in elementary school at the time, but I somehow knew what had happened. Papa continued to blame himself for why he wasn't home at that time, and mama continued to curse herself for opening the door back then. Around the time I entered middle school, I understood all of it. Ohh, I realized that this child was my sister, but not my proper sister. That's why, you're my younger sister, but not my real younger sister. You're not even my family.”

…Stop it… just, stop already…

“Right – you know what you are? You are merely a crystallization of malice, merely living together in a conflict between worldliness, hypocrisy and egotism.”

In that moment—

I heard the noise of something breaking.

Before I realized, I stood in the way to protect M with enough force to blow away the exterior of the stuffed frog. I stood directly in front of A, and at the same time, I put everything in my fist as I punched her square in the face. I thought it was obvious that my fist wouldn’t touch anything physically, and not reach A, no, ‘Yoishi’s’ face – but…

Did it appear as if because my fist sunk into the target’s face, A’s face looked strangely distorted.

“…Hssp.”

A groaned.

“Did you get mad? Ah? Did I make you mad?”

Yes, it was the moment A sneered at me.

“--You’re not onee-chan.”

In the world shrouded in white smoke, a voice like a ringing bell echoed.

“Who are you? No, I already know. You are – the thing that was inside Kii-chan. And, the one who destroyed papa, mama, Leo—and the old detective.”

M was quiet as she firmly declared to the thing that had taken the form of her older sister.

“And, right now – you’re using a mixture of truth and lies to try and break me.”

(--That’s right. That’s right, M! Don’t believe any of it, it’s all bullshit!)

I affirmed her thoughts as I jumped up and down. With dazzling thoughts, I looked at the girl I had always wanted to protect. Right now, M’s pale cheeks were slightly flushed, her well-shaped lips were pursed together, and her large eyes were moist with tears, but even so, she was mustering all her courage in order to confront the thing that loomed before her, the thing that had taken the form of her sister.

(Hang in there, M!)

Call me a sycophant if you want. Call me an idiot if you want. Even so, right now, in the depth of M’s eyes, I felt I could see the true strength of a person who had been beaten up in every which way.

However—

A suddenly diverted her gaze. And I realized that it was concentrated in M's hands. What lay there was the PHS – and the stuffed frog. My second self, no longer a stranger, was being gripped by M’s small pale hand to the point where the shape had changed. And, I saw her fingers… slightly trembling.

“…Hmph.”

She must have realized it at the same time, A let out a strange sigh from the corner of her lips.

“Mr. Frog, Mr. Frog, is it? The one who gives you courage is that stuffed frog, is it?”

‘That’s just fine’, said A as she took a deep seat back, then took one last puff of the cigarette that was at its end, and smothered it on the back of the seat in front of her.

“I had a feeling somehow. I knew you had a propensity for noticing the unseen. You must have felt something inside that stuff frog, didn't you? You believe it's always protecting you, right? Do you know what is inside that thing?”

--Wa…wait a minute…

“Didn't you find it strange? Who was it that gave you that stuffed frog?”

--Agh… as expected, I knew that was what it was all about.

And at long last, I confirmed what ‘Yoishi’ truly wanted.

It was, M. M’s body. ‘Yoishi’ intended to become human. An innocent girl, still young, beautiful, with the ability to recognize the unseen, and if ‘Yoishi’s’ words were to be believed – an unwanted child, born from pure malice. It would crush the heart that dwelled inside, and create a person who was nothing. And to incarnate itself in her body was the wish of malice that had been simmering for years.

And, right now—

Sako’s words finally melted into meaning in my head.

『It means we can’t stay here anymore.』

『It means that we are all just pawns.』

『Because us staying here itself might be its trap.』

That meant that in short…

It was stealing away, one by one, the people surrounded by M who she had sincere trust in. It stole her best friend, Kii-chan, it stole her mother, her father, Leo, the detective who believed what she said—

And, it would steal the precious words she gave to me-- 『Friend』.

Everyone was used as pawns in order to crush M’s heart. The strange ‘sense of unease’ that had been added to the incidents surrounding M would sway her sensitive heart. It was to remove the pillars of the foundation, one by one, and it would make M, who eventually emptied out, into its own flesh. That’s why Sako disappeared. He removed himself from the role before he could gain M’s trust.

The incarnation of malice.

The formation of a vessel, devoted to itself.

…But…if that were the case--- then, she was just like…

Wasn’t M just like… a present day ‘Tamamo-no-Mae’?

“Thanks--”

Right now, the something that had taken the form of her elder sister…

No—the mass of malice that was called ‘devil’, ’witch’ and ‘nine-tails’, happily declared:

“…for looking after me all this time.”

However,

“You’re lying.”

“…That’s a lie.”

M spoke in a trembling voice.

Tears had swelled up in her eyes, as she declared to the thing that had taken the form of her older sister.

“The things you said, they might have been the truth. What you said about mama, papa, the detective, and about my birth – but, but...”

Unable to bear it any longer, large teardrops spilled over and fell.

“But, Mr. Frog was… the thing Mr. Frog was always thinking about… was that he had to die in my place…that’s all he was thinking about. That’s why I trusted him.”

…Ah….

“No matter how much I tell him he's wrong, all Mr. Frog was thinking about was that he wanted to die in my place…That’s why, I…I thought I had to keep it together… there was no one who thought that for me. That’s why, it’s not you. The person inside Mr. Frog… is definitely not you.”

In an instant…

The sound of something snapping reverberated. It sounded as if something had been torn somewhere.

I looked to see A’s long fingers pressing down on her face. She was writhing in pain, pushing down on her brows with her fingers and holding her hairline, as if she was trying to stop something from breaking through her forehead and coming out.

She was making such a strange voice, like a beast – like a machine about to break, but that sound was slowly growing louder. No, it was a mixture of high and low voices.

“…O, onee-chan?”

“…Gigigigii…”

“…Onee-chan, onee-chan? Come back…!”

“Ruuuu….M… Run awayyy.”

“Onee-chan, no! Leave Onee-chan! Yoishi, get out of her!”

M yelled, as she grabbed A’s clothes with all her strength, even as A writhed in pain.

However, in the next moment—

A snapped away her small hand, suddenly opened the back seat door and ran out. She staggered, as she started to run off somewhere with a terrifying look on her face.

“Onee-chan, wait!”

I ran as well, chasing after M who tumbled and ran out of the car.

“Don’t…come! Run…. Run away run away run away run away run away…!”

A shouted in the end as she clasped her face, and ran into the thick grove of trees.

Without faltering, M, too, jumped into the thicket of trees. I, of course, ran after her.

--Just… a little more. Was it just a little more? Could it be that, if we did something a little more…we could rip off ‘Yoishi’ from A’s body?

If so, the tragedy would stop here, it could be stopped.

However—what was it, this strange feeling?

The sun was shining in through a gap in the thick clouds, but only a thick haze lingered in the air.

As I desperately chased after M’s small back, I thought to myself once more.

Was ‘Yoishi’ really on the verge of being removed? What if it wasn’t, and this too was a part of its plan? What if this was all part of its elaborately thought-out plan?

Suppose ‘Yoishi’s’ goal is to obtain M’s body – suppose it wants to crush M’s heart and only needs the vessel of her flesh. It would now see that attempt as having failed at the very last moment. For better or for worse, M was able to escape from it after correctly recognizing that it was me inside the stuffed frog. Then – If I were ‘Yoishi’, what would I do next? The words ‘giving up’ were a thing distant and foreign to it. As long as M was alive, it would never take its eyes off her. If so, what would it do?

I cut through the trees, and the landscape opened up at once.

The lake reflecting the sunlight spread out before my eyes, and I suddenly remembered.

Lake -- water, pool.

…The last experiment ‘Yoishi’ carried out using Kii-chan at the pool late at night.

(--M, wait!)

I shouted out to her, but as expected, I couldn’t reach her.

M's small back was crying and chasing after A, who was running further ahead.

A ran towards the pier where several duck pedal boats were moored, and when she reached the edge, she looked back and shouted, “Don’t come here”. She had a strange expression on her face, as if she were looking at two different things, with her right eye and left eye being different in color.

“Don’t come here, M.”

A said it, once more.

At the sound of her voice, M stopped, out of breath. The distance between them was only a few meters.

“Onee-chan….please…stop…”

“Nhihi…. I’m I’m I’m….mm… so sorry so sorry…”

With her face convulsing as if collapsing, A grabbed her hair with her right hand, and pulled it with enough strength that the sound reached all the way to my ears. All the while her beastly bellowing continued, without an idea of where it was coming from. However—I saw it. Her left hand slowly struggled through the air, and groped through her pocket. And when I saw her take out a small foldable pocket knife – I ran to M and placed my hand on her back.

“Onee-chan…”

“M….I’ll…hold it… I’ll hold it, so… I’ll take it with me…. To the grave and fi-fiinish it, so…”

The tears were now streaming from A's left eye, and her right eye was glaring at us as if it would pop out at any moment. It was a look that conveyed how much of a fight was taking place inside A.

“I… strung papa up... and…. chopped mama… into pieces… and Leo…I stabbed…Le-le-leo as well…and the old detective…I saw…all of it.”

“O…onee…chan.”

“I’ll definitely…get the death penalty… I have no right to live….”

“No…no!! It wasn’t you… who did those things.”

“…No one…will believe me…!”

--No one will believe me.

Ah, that was what I felt about myself for a long time. No one would believe in my existence. No one would perceive me. I was branded as a useless thing in society, but if only that was the case, then it would be better, I was being weeded out as a harmful existence.

“...I…don’t…want that. That’s why…at least… I…want…to…be useful…somehow.”

The knife in A’s left hand clicked, and the blade glittered.

“Good…bye…M.”

“Oh…”

In the next moment—A thrust the knife into the base of her neck.

I don’t know if ‘Yoishi’ was inside A or not. However, right now, her eyes were moist with gentleness. Every time she tried to say something, fresh blood overflowed from her mouth. Her lips and neck were soon stained bright red, and as she cackled and coughed, she desperately forced a smile – and spoke:

“…I’ve…always, always…been so happy… to h-have a sist…”

Saying that much—

A’s body slowly dropped to the surface of the lake behind her.

“Onee-chan!”

M started to run; I followed her as fast as I could.

(--Stop!)

I tried stopping her, but my hands slipped through, and M jumped into the lake with her clothes still on.

(--Stop, stop, don’t do it!!)

I yelled.

(--Someone help! Please, it’s a child, someone help us! A child fell into the lake. Please, get her out!)

I yelled without thinking and leapt into the lake myself. In the next moment, countless bubbles spread in my vision, and I found myself dissolving into the dark blue world.

(--M!)

In desperation, I grabbed the white blouse in front of me. However, my hands slipped through. M’s long black hair danced about in the water. I confirmed her white profile, and realized what her eyes were staring at: A was at the end of M’s hands. She was smiling, even as the blood fluttered from her throat like a red string.

(--M, let her go! You’ll drown with her….!)

In that moment, I saw A's mouth move.

(Kill me.)

Her words reached M and I at the same time.

(Kill me, please.)

…Onee-chan….

(….Stop it…M…)

I desperately tried to grab M’s body, but found that M’s feelings were rapidly cooling. I understood that she was ready to carry with her the heavy, heavy cross that her sister had come to bear, a weight heavy enough to plant a hole in the ground with her foot.

(…St….op…)

“I’m sorry…Mr. Frog….”

At the same time as that voice echoed within me, M accepted the knife from A’s left hand with her small hand.

“….I’ve…already…”

“Forgotten what it means to be afraid….”

She muttered, took the silver-colored blade, and gently thrust it into the bottom of her sister’s neck.

  ◯

I was in the sky.

I was floating in a world of white haze.

Beneath my eyes were many people.

There were countless people on the lake pier, rescuing the sisters who had fallen into the lake.

The smaller child is safe.

That kind of voice rang out.

The older child is dead.

She has a knife in her neck.

That kind of voice also rang out.

And, I finally understood at last.

The last raucous laugh that echoed in my head, and the meaning of those words.

--Now, you’re a murderer, who killed her own sister---

At the same time as those words were spoken, I heard something being crushed.

It was a terrible sound, something I never wanted to hear again. It was the sound of a heart being crushed. It was the sound of M’s heart being crushed, and the sound of my own heart being crushed. In the end, I could do nothing. I was merely nothing.

It wasn’t about the M ‘Yoishi’ was trying to create—I myself was ‘the person who was nothing.’

No matter how much I suffered. No matter how far I ran. No matter how much I gnashed my teeth. No matter how many bitter tears I spilled. What does not move cannot be moved, and what cannot be changed cannot be changed. Not even a little girl who lived a righteous life can be saved. If that were the case, what do people exist for? Why do they suffer? Is this world a hell? Were people just dwellers in an infinite hell no matter how far you go? Was the truth of this world altogether evil? Was malice itself its true nature?

…That was just fine.

If that were the case, then there was no point in going against it.

I gave up on everything; I abandoned everything.

If being righteous meant this much pain.

If it was a world that couldn’t even accept the tears of just one young girl.

Then I had no interest in that. No regrets either. I just want to surrender myself to the permeating darkness, take all the malice in my body, and just sink like this no matter how far—

(--Giving up?)

I heard a familiar boyish voice.

(You worked quite hard, but, well, I guess you’re at that kind of point.)

(However—like I said in the beginning, this is the past. No matter how much you despair, lament, grieve and moan, you are just peeking at the data of the unchangeable past.)

(What, can’t hear me anymore…? That’s fine, well then, I’ll give you back your name--)

(Yukiko Nadare.)

The moment that name was called – an intense light poured down on me.

The name that I was supposed to abandon. That nostalgic name I had thrown away so long ago.

That’s right, I was—my name was…

Yukiko Nadare – and I currently went by the name of… ‘Karasu’.

I was a woman: beautiful, voluptuous, and made my living by fortune telling—and, huh? What did it mean?

…Oh.

That’s right—that’s right, I remembered everything. I remembered it all. I woke up this morning, had a shower, changed into a black camisole and put on a fox fur stole, I was a bit late as I left the house, so I hurriedly got into a taxi, only to get even more late because of the heavy traffic. When I arrived at the building I rented for work, I said something like ‘Keep the change’, and jumped out of the back seat, when I heard someone’s voice, “Look out!”. I didn’t know if that was the voice of the taxi driver, or that of the old man passing by, but when I turned around, I saw a young man driving a large scooter at a reckless speed weaving through traffic, and it was at the point when I turned around, when I heard the sound of my spine snap. At the same time, I flew through the air, and thought carelessly to myself – Ah, the sky is so wide, and so blue. And—why was it I wonder? I realized that someone…someone very familiar to me, flew through the skies at the same time, in a different place. As I wondered who that was, my head smashed into the concrete after two and a half rotations, and something dark red spread out before my eyes.

--Ah, that’s right.

So this was how things ended for me.

Well, I didn’t think I was going to live a long life, and it was sudden while I was still young, beautiful and in good health, so I guess you could say it's the way I wanted to die. However, wasn’t this too long for having my life flash before my eyes, and moreover, wasn’t this someone else’s life?

The light closes in on me.

My consciousness fades into white.

From somewhere, I heard a nostalgic song that I’d never heard before.

The mountains stretching out.

The noisy people on the lake shore.

It was all, someone else’s concern—That’s right, this was someone’s past.

An ambulance arrived. And for some reason, a black car arrived as well. The police officers all saluted the man who had very good posture in the dark blue suit who got out of it.

“Police superintendent Mitsurugi.”

The man with the deadpan expression on his face was called that. The man, whose looks made it hard to tell if he was young or old, did not return the salute as he continued along the pier. In his stead were unfriendly looking men of good physique.

“What happened to Tatsuya?”

“We just received a call. His body was discovered at the back of that mansion.”

“The number of confirmed victims this time is four huh?”

“Yes, Katsuhiko Hanamura, his wife: Rie Hanamura, his oldest daughter: Ako Hanamura, and head patrol officer: Haruo Tatsuya.”

“How few.” Without batting an eye, the man with the expressionless face called police superintendent Mitsurugi spoke.

He then looked a short distance away from the pier, at the young girl with a blanket over her soaking wet clothes.

“Who’s that girl?”

“Miko Hanamura—she seems to be the younger daughter. Judging from the situation it is highly likely that she is the one who stabbed the eldest daughter – but, it is believed that she is possessed by ‘that thing’.”

When he heard that, the man took out a pair of black leather gloves from his pocket, put them on, and approached the girl.

The men surrounding him moved the police officers besides the young girl away, and the man crouched down in front of the young girl. He then placed his hand on her cheek, and made her face him. He then drew so close to her to the point where he might kiss her, and gazed into the depths of her eyes.

“I can’t tell.”

“For the time being, I think we should take heavy quarantine measures.”

Suddenly, a different detective brought along a man dressed in a white robe and a black hakama. It was Sako. His face was pale and bloodless, and he was unable to offer any resistance, he was like a broken doll as he was made to stand up in front of the man.

“This man was found wandering around close to the mansion.”

“—Hmph.”

The man stood up nice and tall, and faced Sako. He glared head on at the young priest, who was as pale as a dead man, and asked him.

“And you are?”

“…..”

“From the way you’re dressed I figure you’re a priest from somewhere – but, did you think you could do something about ‘that’?”

“………”

He gave a cold stare to Sako who didn't answer, and eventually declared to the police officer standing behind Sako.

“See? This guy learned it was useless as well. It's not an opponent a priest can do anything about. Just identify him and let him go.”

The officer replied with ‘Yes’, and was about to drag off Sako once more, when—

“…‘That’….is…”

The man in the black hakama silently whispered.

“There’s no such thing… as ‘that’. There’s no way it exists. You run your organizations believing in something that doesn’t exist, acting as if it exists. It’s useless. It’s a complete farce.”

“That’s right, you understand it, don’t you? There’s no such thing as ‘that’.”

The man gave a thin smile, and Sako muttered.

“…The father murdered the mother, and after dismembering her, he took his own life—the elder sister became deranged after witnessing the scene, and stabbed the detective and the dog to death, when she returned to her senses, she killed herself. Will it be fine with that?”

“…Hm.”

The man nodded once before smiling and said, ‘Let’s go with that’.

“Let’s go with that as the official explanation for the media, Mr. Priest.”

“I’m—the head priest.”

“Whatever.”

The man motioned with his chin, and Sako was dragged off like that.

“What do we do about the younger daughter?”

The man stroked his pointy jaw in response to the question from the man in the black clothes behind him. He seemed to be ruminating on something, but eventually took out a cell phone and called somewhere. After a word or two with someone, his expression changed for the first time. His handsome eyebrows furrowed, and his mouth twisted as if in defiance of something -- but eventually, he nodded. He hung up the phone, and called out to a middle-aged officer with his finger who oversaw the scene of the crime. I was amazed at how powerful this man was, because the older man was called "deputy chief" or something like that.

“The entirety of this incident will be under the jurisdiction of the Public Security Intelligence Agency.”

“…Ye…yes, however.”

“After you finish sending all the documents to us, you will dispose of them. Put a gag order on all officers.”

“U—understood sir.”

Thereafter, the man took a deep sigh, and faced the young girl once more.

He coldly ordered the six-year-old girl who was still sitting there soaking wet with a vacant expression on her face.

“Throw away the name Hanamura starting from today.”

--Ah…

“Your surname is ‘Mitsurugi’ from this day forward. You will be adopted by me as per the law.”

At that moment, feelings like a sludgy magma overflowed from within me once more.

--Ah…was that what happened…? Was that….what happened to you?

Someone was crying inside me.

Just listening to that sad voice was enough to make me collapse to my knees and weep.

“Throw away your given name as well. You have ten seconds. Anything is fine, decide.”

The girl stared back at the man in a daze, her emotions and circumstances seemingly irrelevant to him.

After clicking his tongue once, the man spoke.

“If you can’t decide, then I’ll do it for you.”

In response – the young girl, muttered in a hoarse voice.

“….ishi.”

“…What?”

“My…my name is…”

The young girl slowly raised her beautiful pale face.

Behind her long black hair, wet and flattened – under her arched eyebrows.

Her dark eyes shone with a strange light.

“My name is – Yoishi Mitsurugi.”

(--Was that what happened to you…?)

(--Was that what happened to you…?)

Someone’s sobs and screams rang up to the sky, and at the time, a torrent of light engulfed me. I was convinced that I would finally return from this hellish world to a world of tranquility. It felt like the figure of that tomboy named Takamura was close by. I felt a presence taking my hand, and taking me back to somewhere I belonged. Having regained the name that I should have discarded, I would probably not live long in the world I returned to – but it was still far better than this place. Better than this world where so many human souls had been crushed.

Thereupon, I suddenly realized.

My original reconstructed memory was stirred by those words.

"Those that meet Yoishi die seven days later."

“Yoishi isn't a living person.”

“Offline meetings Yoishi attends end in disaster.”

With the world ten years in the past in front of me about to fade as I was swallowed by the muddy stream – I cried out in desperation; I must take something back with me. I extended my hands as if to take something back with me.

I must bring back the origin of the rumor I had once heard—no, I must bring back the identity of the true enemy.

Perhaps that girl called Takamura was right. I, who was nothing more than weak radio signals in this world, could hardly bring back anything. However, if there was at least one thing – even if it were just a fragment, I wanted to take it back with me from this hellish record. If so, what would that be?

Would it be enough to say that the dark light behind the eyes of ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’ was the thing that needed to be confronted?

However—

However—

However, that wasn’t it, someone yelled. Someone inside me was shouting 'No, no, no'. And, I finally realized who that voice belonged to. The identity of the thing that had been clinging to my back all this time. I realized who the other soul was: that silly, nostalgic, and stubbornly naïve soul. With no time left, and not knowing what to take back anymore, I looked back at the very last moment, with my knees on the verge of collapse.

--Hey, you there.

--You there, who have been clinging to my back all this time.

“It’s time, to breathe again.”

…I mean, well, I’m probably a bit masculine in some ways, but using ‘onore 己’ in first person felt very much out of place. But now, I finally understood why that was. It was because you were clinging to my back. You went through a life-and-death struggle coincidentally at the same time as me and linked to my soul.

You saw everything together with me, but you still won’t be able to take any memories back to the present with you. However, if it’s you and me – if it’s the both of us, then we might be able to take a fragment of this world back with us.

I’ll—entrust that to you.

Hey, do you understand? It’s about you ya know.

You’re the one who must save that child.

Hey—'Nagito Yamada-kun’.

---

Translator's notes and references

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