Phenomeno:Case 15

Case 15: The Disturbing Mansion: Part Two

Everything in this world is like a ghost story. It is full of stories with no known sources or anything. Looking at an incident from the other side shows a different aspect. Each person involved has their own story. And yet we condemn them only from a certain point of view.

It’s foolish to do so, but I dare ask—

Are you gods?

That happened three days ago.

I ran into Takako Takamura in front of the main university gate, and she handed me a piece of paper with those incomprehensible words written on it. “What the hell is this?” I asked her, and she cocked her head in reply, “Who knows?”

Incidentally, this girl named Takako Takamura, who stood with her hair was dancing in the wind and her tall body leaning to one side, was the half-sister of ‘Ayana Takamura’, a Koumei institute student who had mysteriously disappeared several years prior.

A super-extreme denpa(net slang referring to those who repeat occult-like words and actions without regard for their surroundings) who tried to incarnate with malicious intent by spreading taboo words all over the school. To me who knew about her in detail, Takako Takamura who had been called a ‘vessel’ by her half-sister and who bore a life-like resemblance to her despite only sharing half their blood, was a little creepy.

『It was there beside my pillow when I woke up this morning.』

『Huh?』

『I was the one who probably doth write it.』

『Doth write it?』

『And, they were probably the words doth by my sister.』

『Did…your way of speaking become abnormal?』

I asked her that, and in response, Takako Takamura distorted her well-shaped facial features into a grin.

『I’ve recently become addicted to classic literature. In summary, I think my sister is warning you of danger.』

『Danger?』

『I think something bad will happen to you from now on.』

『W…wait a second.』

『You’ll be forced to make the final choice very soon, and on top of that, you’ll be buried alive in the mountains.』

◯

--The final choice? Buried alive?

At the time I thought, are you kidding me? She went ahead and said something creepy again, but I let it slide.

Now that I think of it, Takako Takamura’s words turned out to be completely true.

That’s right, now--- I was in complete darkness, unable to move my arms or legs.

“…………..Ptch……..Hey, are you alive?”

I chocked out the dust I had inhaled and called out, and a familiar voice rang out beyond the darkness.

“….What…is this place? Hell? Kokytos….?”

“Ahhh, you’re alive. Thank goodness. ….Ummm, this isn’t hell, we’re in the mountains. We got buried in a lot of collapsed timber--”

I spoke that far, when an intense pain ran down my right leg.

It was in the area around my right knee. And, ahead of that--- I couldn’t feel anything. I couldn’t even tell if I still had legs given that I couldn’t move my body. Even though my head already understood it, but my right leg was continuing to send signals of throbbing pain, as if to say, “It’s an emergency”. It hurt, and it was dark, I suddenly felt scared and was on the verge of panicking.

However, I took a deep breath and told myself, “Calm down”.

…How long, have we been here since then? In the darkness, I gently turned the watch on my left arm in the direction of my face while trying not to hurt my hand on the broken wood. Similarly, I slowly moved my right arm, and somehow managed to turn on the light of my watch.

Monday, 16 April 2012, 19:17.

…Ah, it’ll be almost a full day soon. Had I been in this condition for almost twenty-four hours? The moment I realized this, I remembered how intensely parched my throat was. A stinging pain stuck to the back of my throat. Water, water….isn’t there water somewhere?

“….I can’t move my body.”

At that moment, I heard her voice beyond the darkness.

“Yeah…my leg is trapped, and I can’t move either.”

“Why did something like this happen?”

“Why? --- You don’t remember anything?”

“I remember… coming here with you.”

“Can you stop being so informal. It’s like we’re married.”

I couldn't help but laugh as we ended up doing the usual back and forth with no regard for the location.

And, laughing calmed my heart down a little. I was able to ask, “You’re not injured, are you?”

“Probably not.”

“That’s good.”

-- I was about to say that my legs were in a bit of bad shape, but I stopped myself. There was no use in saying it, and she might get a little worried.

“Well, there’s nothing to do but wait. I’m sure help will come soon.”

“…When?”

“…How should I know? It’ll be here soon.”

“………..”

“………..”

But, I was at a loss for words when I realized that help would not come anytime soon.

My surroundings fell dead silent.

Without even the cries of mountain birds, it felt as if the world had ended.

“It’s emotionally taxing if it stays like this.”

I spoke, trying to rouse my dark, crushing heart.

“Let’s do something else…right, don’t you have some riddles in mind?”

After a moment's silence, she spoke.

“If it’s interesting stories you want to hear, then.”

“Oh, sure.”

I answered simply, when suddenly, I shuddered.

The things she thought of as ‘interesting’ were a little different than what one would ordinarily think of as interesting.

“….Never mind! It’s fine, don’t tell me. I can’t even run away if I listen to a scary story in this situation.”

I said that, but she had already begun to slowly narrate in a whisper.

“Why did ‘Gandame’ smile, I wonder?”

“Hey, stop it.”

“Being smiled at means you die— the lineage of mountain goddess ghost stories is found all over Japan, but why is smiling linked with death I wonder?”

“I told you! We’re in the middle of the mountain where that ‘Gandame’ is said to appear, so stop it. If a smiling woman with cloudy eyes appears in the darkness, I can’t run away even if I wanted to!”

I retorted sharply, and she fell silent.

My surroundings returned to dark silence once more, and somewhere beyond the dark mountains, I heard a crunching sound.

Was It an animal—or a monster from the mountain?

I didn’t know, but either one was fine, as long as it could me forget the pain in my right leg. As if to shake off the stinging pain, I thought back. Everything that led us here. Everything that led us to this point, to the dark abyss we passed through.

That’s right—that day, Friday the 13th of April.

I was in a hurry.

I had regained recognition of Yoishi Mitsurugi once more, and was told by Krishna-san.

『If you’ve decided to walk together with Yoishi, then go and meet Takita-san.』

I had no idea what was going on, but as soon as I finished my lectures, I ran out of the university. However, I ran into Takako Takamura at the front fate, and was given a strange message or prophecy, but I made light of it and ran off to the station.

It was all to uncover the truth behind the darkness that enveloped the girl known as Yoishi Mitsurugi.

◯

“Hey, Sako! Come out!”

The door to Sako Takita’s antique store ‘Kouroudou’(Bone Tower Shrine) in Sotokanda, Tokyo, was locked.

I peeked in through a gap in the dark curtains behind the frosted glass, but as usual, objects I didn’t really understand were all crammed in a line. A headless Buddhist statue, a mummified Kappa, and a hanging scroll covered in what appeared to be blood stains. Beyond those suspicious items that he considered merchandise, I raised my voice towards the inner parlor.

“Hey, Sako! Are you asleep?!”

I wonder how long I kept knocking on the door and calling out to him like that.

“Excuse me.”

Suddenly, I was called out to from behind and looked back to see a short old woman dressed in a kimono that was a light cherry color with a slight grayish tinge.

Although her back was rounded to a large degree, she was a small and cute old woman. Come to think if it, my deceased grandma was short as well. As I recalled those kinds of things, I bowed down to greet the old woman who looked up at me with an elegant face.

“Ah, sorry for being so noisy.”

In response, the old woman gave me a friendly grin and asked, “Do you have some business with the owner of that shop?”

“Yes, do you know him?”

“That nice man who’s always wearing an indigo dyed kimono.”

“It’s doubtful whether he’s nice or not, but he is indeed always wearing a navy-blue kimono.”

“We’re always gossiping about whether he is still single.”

Saying that, the old woman giggled like a maiden.

“Um, that’s fine….but, do you know where he is now? I have some urgent business with him.”

“Isn’t it the 13th today?”

“…Yes?”

“That person goes to Myoujin-san on the 13th of each month.”

“Myoujin-san?”

“It’s Kanda Inari Gongen-sama.”

“…Ah.”

Come to think of it, Sako’s day job was being the head priest of a shrine in Aomori— I think it was called ‘so-and-so Inari Shrine’.

“Myoujin-san is just ahead up the stairs from there.”

“Thank you so much.”

After thanking her, I broke into a run.

I climbed the long, narrow stairs, slipped through a narrow alley, and soon saw several red nobori.

There were souvenir shops lined on the path to the shrine, and even though it was a weekday afternoon, there were still quite a few people. As a country boy who loved festivals, I ended up getting excited just by visiting these kinds of places.

I read the stone monument in a touristy mood, Kanda Myoujin was a shrine dedicate to Daikoku, the god of wealth, Ebisu the god of fishing and commerce, and ‘Taira No Masakado’, who was popular among us occult maniacs because of certain reasons.

“Hmmm.”

I looked up at the main shrine once more.

I had passed it once or twice before, but to tell the truth, it was my first time stepping foot inside.

“…Wait, no, no, I don't have time for this.”

Right away, I searched around the area for Sako. However, there was no sign of the man in the navy-blue kimono anywhere around the main shrine, or in any tea house or souvenir store. Having no choice, I went around the main shrine to look around the subordinate shrines. As I walked along, stepping on the gravel under the sunlight that filtered through the trees, I found that there were various subordinate shrines at the back of the main shrine. I was happy to see that each shrine was neatly swept with bamboo brooms, and was being properly looked after. It made me sad just seeing small shrines in disrepair—when, I spotted a familiar man in a kimono in front of one of the small shrines.

“—Sako?”

I called out to him, but Sako Takita remained seated directly on the ground in a daze with his back turned towards me.

I quietly approached his side and peeked at him from the front. And— noticed something. There were several empty sake bottles near his knees.

“Of all the…are you drunk?”

“…Hngh.”

Sako turned around at last, and greeted me, ‘Yoo’.

His complexion, which was normally pale, had a slight red tinge to it.

“Yo? really?”

“Haha…umm, you are—of course I remember. Ehhh, your name, it was that.”

“It’s Nagito Yamada. Come on, get up. You’ll get reported if you drink in a place like this.”

“…Erm, it’s alright, the chief priest here is an acquaintance.”

Sako Takita looked like a complete bum as he foolishly laughed. I tried to make him stand up, but his legs were unsteady having drunk so much, and on top of that he had no desire to stand up himself, so things didn’t go the way I wanted. Suddenly feeling foolish, I let go of his arm around mine.

He sloppily toppled on the gravel with his arms and legs outstretched.

“….Oooh. How cruel, what are you doing?”

“I just remembered what you did and let my anger take care of the rest. You had the nerve to make Yoishi imperceptible to me, didn’t you?”

I returned to the point of discussion.

“It’s already been undone. That’s why you came to me, right?”

Sako chuckled and started to laugh.

“I told her that it was merely a stopgap solution. You were out of control back then to the point where even Kurimoto-kun couldn’t handle. Please don’t hold it against her.”

“Yeah yeah, Krishna-san already gave me a rough rundown on what happened. That I was delirious and went berserk at the hospital. That was my fault--- but, there was no reason to make me unable to see her, was there? Or rather, why did I do that when I saw Yoishi…? Do you know why?”

In response, Sako fell silent.

He continued to look at midair in a daze with the occasional *hiccup*.

I continued to wait for him, but there was no sign that Sako would start talking, so I looked around to make sure no one was around. —and I, too, sat cross-legged on the spot.

“In the first place, this subordinate shrine is the home of some deity, isn't it? Why are you drinking at a place like this?”

“…Hm.”

Sako slowly looked up towards the shrine right in front of him, and grinned broadly.

“Today is the monthly anniversary of her death.”

“Anniversary? Whose?”

“My mother's.”

“..... Eh?”

Thereafter, I looked at the signpost next to the entrance of the supplementary shrine. On it was inscribed, ‘Ukanomitama (god of rice), and Suehiroinari (god of harvests, wealth, fertility) as well.

“My mother you see, was kind, courteous, and beautiful. Well, I can’t deny that I might be glorifying her because of her early passing. But, you understand, right? A mother who is the personification of affection is clearly different from a father. A unique existence to all children that shared her flesh and blood.”

“Well, yeah.”

I nodded, and Sako stayed silent for a while.

After staring vacantly at empty space as if chasing something invisible—

“My mother, she killed herself you see.”

“………….”

“Well, that’s what the world thinks.”

“…What the world thinks?”

“Right. She was thought to have severed her own life, but in reality… she was murdered.”

After that, Sako laughed: heh, heh, heh—he then picked up one of the sake bottles that had been lying around and brought it to his mouth. But it seemed its contents were already empty, so he carelessly threw it away.

“You know, you’re not supposed to say those kinds of things even if you’re drunk.”

“…Drunk? Yes, I might be drunk, but I only speak the truth.”

Then Sako gazed at me in a stance where he used his knees to support his arms,

“It happened before my very eyes—And, I could do nothing at all. There was no point in asking people about it, and there was no point in talking about it. It’s not something people should know about, and it’s definitely not a story that should be readily known by an ordinary person. But still, all stories are connected. In the end, it feels like all karma bounces from one place to the next. Now then—will you hear that kind of story?”

Suddenly—

The words that have been said countless times in countless situations came back to me.

A story that should not be heard. A story people should not know.

If you found out, you would become involved and entangled in them—a story woven with Kotodama.

If it had been me up until now, I might have shaken my head and said, “I’ll pass.”

However—

“That karma or whatever, is it connected to her—to Yoishi Mitsurugi?”

I asked.

“If it’s a story that has some power to clear away the darkness inside her….then let me hear it.”

I said that, and the smallest—the truly faintest of smiles appeared on Sako’s face.

And then, he looked at me with an expression I had never seen before, an expression most transparent, and pure.

“It happened…back when I was still in high school.”

“I saw a monster—in broad daylight.”

◯

Monsters—now then, what is a monster?

Do they spit fire? Do they devour humans? Do they possess supernatural powers which ordinary humans can’t fight against? Well, those kinds of definitions vary from person to person, but there’s one thing that can be said with certainty. Once you encounter them, you can't escape their influence for the rest of your life —that exactly is what I believe monsters are.

With that meaning in mind, what I encountered could be called a monster.

It happened on a day when the sun was still high in the sky, and yet the moon’s pale light also loomed. Thinking back on it now, bad things have usually happened on days like that. Well although, I can only speak of my own life. On that day, I quickly left after my high school classes had ended, just like any other day. I was never the type of person to get along with my classmates, nor was I the type to rejoice in the springtime of youth by engaging in sweaty club activities. High school life to me was really nothing more than just a means to kill time. In other words, I was a gloomy high school student, the type that would go to a coffee shop after leaving school in violation of school regulations, and would set up camp at a seat in the back to read Chekhov, Ango and so on. I’ll explain later, but I had circumstances which made me not want to return home right away. What you might find laughable is that I had been given an unconditional command to return home as late as possible.

So, that day as well, I headed to the cafe named ‘Windmill’ with a book in my hand which I had almost finished reading -- but on that day alone, there was a noisy customer who had taken up camp at the seat at the back where I always sat. I, on the other hand, was the type who was unable to concentrate on books unless my surroundings were quiet. So, having no choice, I headed to the park.

Ahh, that’s right—my house at the time was not in Aomori where I currently reside. I was originally born in Kobe, moved to Kyoto afterward, and was living in Fukuoka at the time. The reason why was because my father was involved in the trading business, but it wasn’t a good thing for a child to move around so often in their childhood. Even now, I believe that was the reason I became shy and had problems making friends--- but I digress. Anyway, I lived in the east of Fukuoka. Well, you might know of it being an occult lover and all, but it was famous for the Jizo statue where the Kappas are sealed.

There was a vast, lush green place known as the T-park.

I headed there, but it wasn’t even 4 PM yet. There were a lot of mothers with their children. No matter how many times I looked around, I couldn’t find an empty bench anywhere. I walked all the way to the back of the park and found an empty bench at last, where I sat down, but I had lost all motivation to read, probably because it had taken me so long to get there. For a while, I merely sat there in a daze.

Before I knew it, I was biting my nails.

Well, I guess you could call it a psychological state you often see in high schoolers in puberty. I was strangely irritated. Perhaps it was because the plans I had made for the day didn’t go well, or perhaps it was the peaceful, warm scenery which made it appear as if time had stopped— I continued to sit on the old bench, and continued to chew my nails without changing places.

It was at that moment.

A toddler shakily walked toward me.

A boy—probably, I think it was a boy. I don’t remember exactly. An innocent-looking toddler approached me with some kind of toy in hand. He was a friendly child. He already trusted completely in someone like me. I, who was a stranger from who knows where, a high schooler with dark eyes and with a book like ‘Discourse on decadence’ in hand. He had a friendly grin on his face as he offered me the toy. I ignored that and merely looked around in dismay. I wondered where the mother went, taking her eyes off a child this young. However, there was no sign of a mother-like figure close by. That child sidled up to me alone. He held out his precious favorite toy to me, with a “Yes”. For a moment, I wondered if I was even pitied by such a young child, but that wasn’t the case. In all likelihood, the child was living a life filled with love. That must be why he didn’t even think of the possibility that some humans can be evil.

When I realized that, something like a thin mist rose somewhere in my heart.

--What would happen if a dark malice were unleashed upon this pure being?

I was surprised at myself for thinking something like that. I didn't think I was capable of such sadistic thoughts. And, it was an irresistibly bewitching idea. There was a defenseless creature in front of me; There was no one around. It was just me, him and the toy. For the time being, I picked up the toy the boy had placed at my feet and put it in my pocket. Eventually, that child came to pick up the toy that he had placed at my feet and stopped moving. He started looking around, behind my legs, as if searching for the toy, then looked up at me. I merely grinned at him. The child continued to search for the toy after that, but I couldn’t help but feel an irresistible rush of pleasure rising up my spine. I was getting an almost nauseating pleasure from the anxiety that was enveloping his tiny back.

What kind of face would he make if I were to pluck the toy’s head and throw it away? The plastic doll of some transforming hero. Would he start crying? What would happen if this pure creature were to be showered with malice?

As he had his back turned to me, I secretly took out the toy. I dangled it towards his back. He was anxiously digging up the sandpits close by. As if he thought he might have buried it somewhere. I put my hand on the doll’s neck. I put a little power and tried to twist its neck, when—

I finally noticed that gaze.

With a start, I looked diagonally to my right, to see a woman with a kind expression. She was sitting on a bench covered by ivy in the shade, staring at me and the child. In an instant, I understood that she was the mother of the child.

Sweat slowly formed on my hands, and I removed my hand from the doll’s neck.

--What was it? How long had she been there? Did this woman see everything I had done?

My heart was pounding violently, as if it was about to burst from my mouth.

Eventually, I called out “Boy”, in a shaky voice and handed the toy back to him. The boy’s face immediately lit up, and he took the toy in hand. And at the same time, he spotted his mother, and happily ran towards her. The mother slightly bowed to me and left, holding hands with the child.

--There was no way a mother would take her eyes off her young child.

I chided myself for my foolishness after all that time, but it was already too late.

It felt as if the daytime moon was smirking down at me, and I quickly left that park.

I was embarrassed that the mother had seen through me. It was most fortunate that I managed to notice her at the last moment and hadn’t plucked the doll's head off. Even though it was a provincial city, there was more regional unity there than in a place like Tokyo. I was patting myself on the chest, thinking that if I had done that, I might not be able to live in this city anymore.

However, as I left the park, I realized my heart continued to throb violently.

Yes— I was still excited.

I was excited at the thought of trampling that which was pure.

It was as if I had become something other than myself—no, as if the real me that kept itself hidden in my heart somewhere had revealed itself. It was also a sense of freedom at being my true self. The irritating feeling I had just thirty minutes ago was no longer there.

I wonder if that was the reason why.

Even though it was not yet time to go back home—I ended up getting ready to return home.

Now then, why didn’t I return home straight away after school?

It’s about time I explained that. What? It’s not something big. In short, it was because my mother's lover was at home. He was ostensibly the man my mother was learning to paint from. I told you my father was involved in the trading business, so he was often away from home. Sometimes he didn’t come home for weeks. And when he did come home, he would do so late at night. When my father was home, my mother was very diligent and devoted to him. She bathed him, cooked for him, and listened to his stories with a round of laughter. To an outsider, she must have looked like the ideal, wise housewife. And that's what I always thought too.

However, it was around the time I entered middle school. My mother said that she wanted to learn how to draw. My father agreed. My mother had a small interest in oil painting in her student days, and my father might have felt guilty for being away from home so often. And so, the one who eventually came was that man. I was able to hate him with just one glance. He must have been five or so years younger than my mother, but —ah, I just can't remember his face no matter what. I don't know why, but he always looked like he was wearing a fox's face. Not literally a fox’s face, but truly a fox mask. It didn't look like that to the people around me including my mother, probably because my strong rejection against that man made me feel that way. The fox masked man was polite, eloquent and graceful in his speech, and he often gave me gifts. But to me, it looked like a red tongue peeking out of a mouth with the corners of his mouth slit from ear to ear. My mother and the man were silently painting in her room. And before long I was told, “Play outside on the day sensei comes”, And I was made to realize that I was not allowed to stay at home.

That must have been like ink that dropped on the surface of water that was my family. When that man started coming in and out of my house, my family was stained with an indelible stain. My father not being home became the norm, and I too had come to think that I shouldn’t stay at home—and above all, the man started visiting my house not just once a week, but with one thing or another, he started visiting every day.

Every day.

In the afternoon.

A man who was not a member of our family would definitely be there.

I thought my family had been taken over by something suspicious.

My father died soon afterward.

He returned to Japan after going to Guangzhou for work and was on his way home when we lost contact with him, and he was found at Matsuyama harbor, Shikoku. It seems he was found floating in the sea by a couple on a date. Why did he go to Matsuyama from Fukuoka? Was it an accident, a suicide, or did he get involved in some trouble? We had no idea. The police visited my mother almost every day, but it appeared they eventually stopped investigating it as a murder case. That was because the body of another woman was found on the harbor. That woman was an office worker in my father's company. It seemed she had been going out with my father. The police tried to conclude the case by saying it was a double suicide spurred on by a lovers talk.

However, I can say it with almost complete certainty.

That my father was murdered.

And the culprit was that fox masked man.

After that, for the next three years of high school—a strange situation developed in which I, lived together with my mother and that fox masked man.

I stopped coming home.

I only returned home to sleep and spent the rest of the day killing time outside.

However, on that day—

On the day I felt delight in aiming malice towards a child.

I decided to return home after a long time while the sun was still high up in the sky.

I unlocked the door, entered inside, declared that I was home, and entered the tatami room.

The scene I saw there would perhaps never be erased from my memory for as long as I live.

On the tatami mats was my mother, naked and bound. The rope painfully bit into her flesh, but my mother sobbed with joy. Next to her was the fox masked man. He merely sat there quietly on his knees, staring motionlessly at my mother.

The man slowly turned towards me, who stood dumbfounded at the entrance of the tatami room.

The white, fox masked man with the corners of his mouth slit from ear to ear, sneered to me.

How long—

Just how long did I stand there, motionless?

How much time did it take for me to realize what was happening in the tatami room?

Before I realized, I was sneering as well.

And, I realized at last.

The man was ‘malice’. He was the ‘malice’ inside me.

I don’t recall the specifics of what happened after that.

All I remember is that I staggered out of the house, and continued around wandering the city—and when I came to, I was in Hakata station.

There, I bought a train ticket to the furthest place possible.

When I reached Aomori station, what I saw on the news was that my house had burned down completely, and that the corpse of a naked woman had been discovered inside. I didn’t even think about had happened. I had become numb to all emotions. I didn't know why I was in Aomori. Nor did I know what I should do from here. I was overwhelmed by the scenery of Tohoku that I was seeing for the first time, and collapsed in front of the station.

When I came to, I found myself riding in the car of a strange gray-haired man. The old man merely called himself the ‘Chief priest’. I had run out of money and had not eaten anything, so he said to me.

『You’re possessed by a terrible ghost.』

『It’s a very powerful ghost, and you might not be able to do anything about it yourself.』

『You may run out of strength midway through and die, but if left alone, you’ll die anyway.』

『I’m sure your stomach must be empty, but it would be better if you didn’t eat anything. Let’s begin right away.』

After that, I was taken to a shrine somewhere deep in the mountains, and made to change into a white kimono. I don’t know how much time passed after that. I was abandoned in a room that was like a dungeon, and was subjected to ritual prayer every day. There was nothing left for me to vomit, yet the intense feeling of wanting to throw up welled up inside me over and over again. Ahh-- Thinking back on it now, I had never been in so much pain. I would fall backwards and repeatedly slam my body against the hard floor. Having not even been given enough food for excrement, I realized at the depths of what little consciousness that remained that I was going to die. I felt the end of my life was right at hand. At that moment, I felt something leave my thin, frayed consciousness. It cried out loud in a high, frustrated whine, and disappeared as if it melted away.

『It’s over.』

At last, I heard the old man's voice near me.

I saw a light beyond my hazy vision.

Tears spilled from my eyes seeing the beauty of the grass and trees illuminated by the sun.

『You’re saved. However, you won't be able to lead a normal life from now on.』

The old man spoke as I greedily devoured the rice gruel I was eating after several days.

『If you don't retighten your body that an oversized ghost passed through every day, you'll quickly end up becoming an abode for countless ghosts.』

The old man didn't have to tell me that, I knew that it was just a short distance away.

I knew that it would quietly continue to stare at me from somewhere—until I died.

『Abandon everything, and spend the rest of your life here.』

That place was called ‘Okitachi Inari Shrine’—

I would later find out that it was a shrine that guarded one of the veins of this island country, that defended against the northern demon gate.

After that, I became a disciple of that old man, and began to study Shintoism. It was a little different, however, and in no way what you would generally define as ‘modern Shintoism’, it was a severe unrelenting study. Well, that's a long story, so I’ll spare you the details, but I was forced to abandon my name, my family name, my past, and completed my training to completely become ‘nothing’ all at once. I had to rearrange and fix the air ducts in my spine, and recompose all of my cells properly. I assimilated all of my thoughts with nature, and abandoned myself. I repeated that every day, every hour, every minute. I continued to adjust it as I ate, as I slept. I might have told you once before, but—if you’re not a great masochist, then it would have been a maddening day-to-day existence.

My master must not have thought I would be able to bear it all. Somewhere along the way, he probably concluded that I would run off some day and self-destruct by becoming a nest for the ghosts that would penetrate me through my turbulent air ducts. However, I somehow managed to hold my ground. I endured it all.

Say, you.

Why… do you think that was?

A few years after that, I asked my master.

About why ‘that’ had happened.

By ‘that’, I had meant ‘that thing’ which had destroyed me and my family, and I tried asking about it indifferently.

『No one really knows.』

My master answered.

『It was called ‘Nine tails’ in Nara period literature, and in the Edo period, it was referred to as the ‘everlasting night stone’—however, in all likelihood, it must have been present inside humans of every era. Yes, it is something that continues to move from person to person.』

『Is that so?』

I kept an expression as if I wasn't interested anymore, but I engraved that name deep at the back of my mind.

With a soft smile, I grit my teeth so hard they might have bled, and recalled my mother’s face from that day.

It possesses people.

It amplifies people’s negative emotions and manipulates them from the inside without them even knowing.

It makes people believe that people don’t deserve to exist, it makes them destroy their surroundings, and themselves.

The first one in my family who it possessed was me.

My once warm family, had before I realized, turned into a reflection of what I considered to be the worst possible family.

As it made me believe that I was killing time outside, it toyed with my mother as it pleased on a daily basis.

It casually made my father realize this abnormal relationship, destroyed his heart, and drove him to his death.

--Unforgivable, unforgivable.

I could not forgive the wandering ghost known as the ‘everlasting night stone’, but above all, I could not forgive myself.

However, my own punishment would be held off until the very end.

Before that, I had to annihilate it. For that reason, I—

Would be as brave as Amitabha Tathagata, who stayed at the left of Amitabha Tathagata.

Would be as wise as Gabrielle, who stayed at the left of God’s throne.

And—I would transform into the sword that cut down demons, like Futsunushi, who stayed at the left of Okuninushi.

That’s right, I decided to become a demon that would devour demons.

That was why I erased all emotions, and was able to endure everything.

With the deity Futsunushi, enshrined at Okitachi Inari Shrine as my guardian deity, I received the surname of my master.

And that is how from that day forth… Nagito Yamada-kun, I took the name of Sako Takita.

◯

“….Perhaps because of that you see. I feel as if my face is getting thinner like a fox each year.”

After his long, long, story had finished—

Sako Takita gave a thin smile as if something possessing him had fallen off.

“I feel as if my long journey will finally come to an end when I’m able to make it feel the concept of death.”

I had no idea how to answer, and had my head cast down there as if I were merely seeing a dream.

The reason why Sako became Sako—the monster that possessed people moving from person to person.

Amplifying the negative emotions in people, wasn’t that the crazy system Ayana Takamura tried to create through the taboo words?

However, that meant that such a thing already existed in this world?

The Nine tails in the Nara period and the everlasting night stone in the Edo period—Wait, ‘Everlasting night stone’?

“…Hey, Sako.”

I raised my head in a daze and asked.

“How do you write the words for ‘Everlasting night stone’?”

In response, Sako twisted the edges of his mouth into a smile.

“Oh, you noticed, did you…?”

In an instant, it looked as if the mouth of that pale, bloodless face, was slit from ear to ear.

“Right, it’s written as ‘Everlasting night stone’(常夜石). I found it at last recently. The place it currently lurks—or rather, the person.”

“…Hey, it can’t be.”

“That’s right—In Yoishi Mitsurugi-kun.”

“The monster I’m chasing appears as a dark glow in her eyes when she faces the paranormal, and at times she tries to remove by vomiting.”

“Ah….”

“The ‘everlasting night stone’ possesses person to person and destroys their surroundings. In all likelihood, that has continued for a thousand years and is probably as natural to it as eating something. But you see, for the past few decades, it has been observed to follow a certain rule. The ‘everlasting night stone’, which used to possess and destroy at random, has often come to stay in one person. My master and I often wondered and researched into what that meant. And we arrived at one possibility. Yes--- it had the audacity as a monster, to try and incarnate itself. It shamelessly began to desire a flesh and blood body. And that too, an exceedingly beautiful body with a spiritual disposition. Thereupon, about ten years ago—it fell in love at first sight with a young girl.”

“You…”

I asked as if to spit out something bitter.

“How long have you known about it? Did you know it from the moment you appeared before us?”

“Not at all.”

Sako gave a thin smile. “The first time I met you—was in that cramped apartment. You were in a deep sleep and wouldn't wake up. Yoishi-kun called Kurimoto-kun, and Kurimoto-kun called me for help. When I came to visit, I saw that the thread of your soul was at its limits, at the point of being cut off. Its whereabouts were deep in the depths of your psyche-- yes, the source of your fear, the dream mansion. I used clairvoyance to see that you were in the living room of the mansion. You were afraid of the fusuma in the living room, and moreover, that your mother was inside. To tell you the truth, I gave up right away because I thought it was impossible. To begin with, it was impossible for a stranger to solve an incident in the deepest recesses of the mind which involved the mother, who shared flesh and blood. But that time, she said it. By she I mean Yoishi Mitsurugi-kun, whose name I did not know at the time, she spoke with a strange glimmer in her eyes, 『Let me go inside this person』.”

“……..”

“I suddenly felt as if I had met this girl somewhere before. But well, as you know, I’m quite terrible at remembering people. ‘Oh fine’, I asked as I rubbed my chin. 『What do you mean by inside?』In response the girl spoke, 『Let me synchronize with him. You should be able to do it』. Her face really made me believe that she was acting out of puberty--and in some way enjoying herself—but this is what was truly the case you see: she seemed genuinely worried that you were danger. It was true that I, as a medium could act as a catalyst that could match the brain waves of a sleeping person with those of a person who was awake. And it was exactly how the girl said it would be: to return a person lost at the depths a dream required someone to synchronize with them and pull them out. But well, I did warn her how dangerous it would be. 『Is it all right? The possibility that you might not return is fairly high』. She merely nodded her head with a strong resolve. There was barely any hesitancy in that, and because the situation urgently demanded it, I had no choice but to accept. And then-- after I had sent her inside you, I suddenly felt a terrible sweat run down my back. I performed the ritual even as I was perplexed as to the reason why that was, but at long last I realized. It was the eyes of the young girl I had seen just now. The eyes of the beautiful high school girl who had asked to synchronize with another person's dream-- Or rather, it was something dark that flickered in its depths. I was aghast, it couldn't be. Could it be that right now, I was facing the arch nemesis for whom I had searched for many long years? The blood in my body froze over as I realized this. I immediately thought I would seal it right there and then. Even Kurimoto-kun wouldn't realize if I did it then. Because I had already made the seals that sent Yoishi-kun into you. I could kill it right there in the vessel that you were. It would have been unfair to you, but I would use your consciousness to make it able to feel the concept of ‘death’. Although it would kill you as well. My fingers were already about to make a move at that time. But-- but you see.”

“…But?”

“At that moment, I suddenly ended up seeing it you see. I saw her– I saw Yoishi-kun’s hand enveloping yours as if connected.”

………………………………..

“I changed my mind at the very last moment. I couldn't for the life of me believe that the way those hands were connected was a manifestation of malice. And, a different thought emerged. Could it be that the ‘nine tails’, the ‘everlasting night stone’, did not yet have complete control over this young girl? That because of some reason, it had not completely consumed her heart. –No, was such a thing even possible? The ‘everlasting night stone’ I had known of was an existence that was the complete antithesis of the word ‘fool’. It is terrifyingly intelligent; all of its actions are calculated and borne purely from malice. I hesitated as to whether this act too might merely be an insurance policy to stop me. As long as I held naïve notions, I would never be able to win against it. If I were to let this once in a lifetime chance slip away, I might have a chance to seal it ever again--I hesitated, and hesitated.....”

Thereupon, Sako looked at me.

“As I hesitated, you eventually ended waking up.”

“……..Ah.”

“And you who awoke called her Yoishi. Ahh, it was true after all, and darkness took over my vision. I was about to faint on the spot, realizing how foolish I was. But this time, it was Yoishi-kun who did not open her eyes. And what did you say to me, who was blaming myself to death? 『Return me to that dream』. I was astounded, and at the same time, extremely agitated. You might not believe it, but I do get agitated. And you see, I suddenly felt somewhat relieved.”

“….Relieved?”

“Well, please think about it. If she truly was the ‘everlasting night stone’, would she have tried to save a total stranger from a dream from which she could not return? Would she try and end her life, after having lived for what might potentially be thousands of years? And, her actions were connected to your following actions. They had now given birth to a fool who was willing to die to save others. Such a thing is not at all in accordance with the principles governing the ‘everlasting night stone’s’ conduct.”

“…………………”

“Later on, I did a thorough investigation of Yoishi Mitsurugi-kun’s background, and of all things, realized that I had already met her ten years and eight months in the past.”

Sako’s face contorted in an unusually somber manner.

“And it was only then…that I finally remembered that I happened to be present there when she became ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’.”

“Ten years and eight months ago….? Did something happen to her back then?”

When—

I heard footsteps treading on gravel behind me, and when I turned around, I saw a group of three old women who looked like tourists; They looked suspiciously at the both of us with the bottles of sake we had at our feet in the middle of the day in the subordinate shrine. I bowed lightly and said, “We’ll be going back soon, so please ignore us.”

After that, I turned to face Sako once more.

And I asked him.

“Say—isn’t Yoishi Mitsurugi her real name? Why did she lose the emotion of ’fear’?”

“What will you do after learning that? There are things in this world people shouldn’t know.”

Those words—

They made me recall the face of my deceased grandmother once more. I was often told the very same words by my grandmother. My grandmother would always be kind to me no matter what kind of mischief I pulled, but would speak those words alone with a face so grim it would frighten me when I was little.

However, I apologized to my grandmother’s phantom—and shook it off as hard as I could.

“I’ll be the one to decide if it’s a story I shouldn’t know.”

“……………….”

“It's not up to you or anyone else to decide that. She and I are war comrades. I’ve decided that I’ll save her. Her life is already more important to me than mine.”

In response—

“….Hoho.”

Sako unexpectedly raised a dry laugh.

“….Ahaha---is that right, hahahaha… So that’s how it is, huh….? War comrades…. War comrades. With that, the last mystery is finally solved.”

He was laughing, but his face looked like it was crying to me.

“Hey, Sako.”

“No, my apologies--- but now that the mystery is solved, it’s not my place to tell you.”

“….What the hell?”

“I was obliged to talk about my own story, but from here on out, it’s her story. And if she is your war comrade— then you should hear it from her own mouth.”

Sako had a satisfied grin on his face, when—

A *brrrrrr* sounded from the back pocket of my jeans, my phone was vibrating.

“Ah, sorry.”

I answered the phone, it was from Yukihito Kurimoto-kun.

“Yo, Yukihito-kun. I’m kind of in the middle of something right--”

《Nagito-san, are you with nee-san right now?》

“…Krishna-san? No…”

《I got a call from my mother…. Just now, she found a note in nee-san’s room that said, 『I’m sorry』. She thought nee-san might have left home early this morning, but she might have been missing since last night….》

“Missing, you say…?”

I unconsciously shifted my phone to the other ear, when I heard Sako clicking his tongue, “Tsk”.

As I looked at Sako with one eye, I talked to Yukihito-kun who was unusually perturbed.

“Listen to me, first of all you need to calm down. Take a deep breath, and then try and remember if Krishna-san was acting strange somehow.”

《Come to think of it.》

Yukihito-kun spoke after taking a deep breath.

《After she went to help sort out Karasu-san’s belongings last night, Nee-san looked unwell.》

“Karasu-san’s belongings?”

For the time being, I told Yukihito-kun, “We’ll also try and look for her”, and hung up the phone, when Sako muttered.

“It might have been my mistake.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve forgotten to adjust her spine for a while now.”

“You…said that before as well, but is Krishna-san’s spine really that bad?”

“It’s not bad body structure-wise. But, I’ll say it once more, the spine is the air duct. Once an oversized ghost passes through it, the spine will end up becoming wobbly and distorted.”

His words made me shudder.

“An oversized…Ah, by the ghost that passed through, you mean….Hey, could it be?”

That’s right, Sako nodded.

“I don’t know what kind of shape Ayana Takamura appeared to you in, but to me, she’s so large that I can feel her presence everywhere. Figuratively speaking, she now blends into the entirety of this large blue sky.”

“….S-sky?”

“Anyway, since then, Kurimoto-kun’s body has ended up becoming a body that accepts all kinds of ghosts. It was my responsibility to close that at regular intervals.”

“Then—then, let’s go look for her right away.”

I stood up, when Sako shook his head, “No.”

“The one you’re in a race against time for is not Kurimoto-kun.”

He then took out a paper from his pocket, quickly jotted down something on it, and handed it to me together with an old key.

“I’ll take care of Kurimoto-kun. Please complete Yoishi-kun’s story.”

“W, what is this?”

“It’s the address and key of a certain ‘mansion’, one that is currently being managed by the government--- it might turn out to be a key to hell.”

Sako spoke not with his usual jesting tone, but rather, with a serious expression.

“At that address, there is a building that was once called ‘The Hanging Mansion’.”

“H, hanging mansion?”

“It is now a ruin in the mountains where no one lives or approaches anymore. And it is there that ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’ was born.”

A gulp rang out from my throat.

Sako put his hand on my shoulder, and rubbed it with the bony hand whose weight I did not feel.

“Listen to me carefully. Nagito Yamada-kun. The more excellent a soul is, the more troubled it is.”

Sako’s kind tone of voice was so warm that it felt as if it didn’t belong to the Sako I had known up until now.

And, it made me feel as if an elder brother I had parted ways with had unexpectedly appeared before my eyes.

“You will be compelled to make a choice in that mansion. With two precious things in front of you, you will be forced to make an exceedingly bitter choice.”

“…………..”

“But what will make that choice is your soul, and no matter what conclusion it might bring about—”

Having spoken that far, Sako made the perfunctory smile he always made and said, “Well, it’s fine.”

“Oi—”

“It’s fine, Nagito Yamada-kun. After all, being troubled is a privilege of the young.”

◯

“Where are you headed?”

On the bus, an elderly grandfather with a bamboo basket on his back asked us.

I looked to my side, to see Yoishi fiddling with her phone without saying anything, so having no choice, I answered him.

“Ummm… we’re going to a friend’s house for a bit.”

“Ooh, is that right?”

The elderly gentleman nodded with a good-natured expression, as if he were about to puff a cigarette, and sat down in the seat next to us.

The bus rattled and swayed as it leisurely moved along the mountain road with several passengers on board. I somehow looked outside the window, and saw that the houses were steadily becoming sparser, and all that lay beyond them were magnificent undulating mountains.

And at my feet was a large rucksack I had borrowed from a friend in the mountaineering club. I didn’t know if we would easily be able to find accommodation, so I borrowed as much camping gear as I could cram into the rucksack and brought it along.

The address Sako had written, K city. Y-Prefecture—

Yoishi and I were on our way there, having switched trains, and rode the only bus that came only once every hour.

The sun would soon be setting in the area. The mountain ridges were dyed in a golden colored light. The scenery alone was quite beautiful and nostalgic, but when I thought about the building we were headed towards, my buoyant mood continued to sink.

“Something terrible inhabits these mountains.”

The old grandad from earlier blurted out.

“You can't look them in the eye because if you do, you'll end up dead.”

It must have been a legend you’d often find passed down in rural areas.

“Um, what is it called?”

I asked, and the grandad replied, “…It’s called,” before falling into silence for a while.

“It’s called… No, it’s better if you don’t know. Because you might end up summoning it if you know it.”

In response, Yoishi suddenly opened her mouth.

“Are you talking about 『Gandame』or 『Yousen boy』?”

“Y, young lady, you shouldn’t. Don’t say the names.”

The grandad hurriedly warned Yoishi, but as for me, I wanted to rebuke him, ‘Grandpa, you're wrong.’

You must not tell her the things ‘she shouldn’t do’. And as expected, Yoishi’s eyes glittered,

“…Gandame, Yousen boy, Gandame, Yousen boy.” She began to repeat it.

‘Eek’, as the grandad recoiled backwards, I bonked her on the head.

“…..My apologies, she’s, a little strange.”

I apologized profusely, and gazed at Yoishi who had fallen silent in discontent—

I let out a sigh in my heart by myself at the troubles that were to come.

I say troubles, but I wasn’t sure if I completely understood the details of those troubles.

Krishna-san’s sudden disappearance—I was unbearably worried about that, but I had left it to Sako who said he would meet up with Yukihito-kun and deal with it. Apparently, according to Sako, heading to this address together with Yoishi had priority above all else. Well, I had a feeling I could leave it to him since Sako seemed to act properly when it came to Krishna-san, but—the biggest problem of all was the weight of his words: 『Please complete Yoishi-kun’s story』.

The problem was whether I could really do something like that.

I came this far trying countless times to do something about the darkness ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’ carried. Despite being repeatedly told by Krishna-san that it was impossible, I recklessly stepped foot into the abyss of the world beyond, and each time, I would retreat with tears in my eyes. And what could I do now that I came here with no trump card? What could I possibly do by brazenly going to the ‘place Yoishi Mitsurugi was born’? Sako also told me that 『The one you’re in a race against time for is not Kurimoto-kun』, but I had no idea why there was a race against time at all. However, it was also true that after hearing the story of ‘Sako Takita’, my image of him had ended up changing quite dramatically, and for once I had a feeling that it would be better to believe him.

That’s why after I parted ways with Sako at Kanda Myoujin, I gathered the camping gear and headed to the library for the time being.

Fear comes from ignorance. Those were Krishna-san’s words, but there was nothing scarier than going to a place called ‘hell’ without knowing anything. I looked up any articles I could get my hands on in the library corresponding to the incidents in ‘K city, Y-Prefecture’ and ‘Hanging mansion’. And then, I finally called Yoishi, but—

“Hey, Yoishi.”

“……..What?”

“I told you we were going to Y prefecture, didn’t I?”

“Right.”

“I told you we probably won’t return for a few days so come prepared, didn’t I?”

“I remember you saying that.”

“So, why are you here empty-handed in your school uniform?”

Around two hours ago, I arrived at the station we were supposed to meet up at, and was exasperated.

I didn’t expect her to bring a rucksack like me, but I thought she would at least bring a small bag. But it was as usual with ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’, she hadn’t changed even the slightest.

Wearing a black blazer, black tie, black skirt. Navy blue socks, and black leather shoes.

Yoishi Mitsurugi stood there in her dazzling Koumei high school uniform. She didn’t look as if she had brought a change of clothes, or even a toothbrush or a towel. With only her mobile phone in hand, she had the same unfriendly, or rather blank expression with her excessively well-proportioned beauty looking at me, and her long black hair danced in the wind.

“Don’t you think you’re travelling a little too light?”

“It’s not a problem.”

“Well…that might be the case but…”

Come to think of it, I was beginning to like an idiot for bringing such a large backpack.

“Leaving that aside, where are we headed in Y prefecture?”

She suddenly asked, “Eh?” I was at a loss for words.

“You only said we were going to Y prefecture.”

“….Ah, ahhh….ermmm.”

No, I had to say it sooner or later, and she might figure it out along the way, but it was still difficult to say face to face, that the place we were headed towards was the birthplace of Yoishi Mitsurugi.

“I mean, really. I don't think it's right to accept an invitation to stay overnight without asking what kind of place you're going to. That’s no good for a girl before marriage.”

I pretended not to notice that I was the one who invited her,

“Didn’t I become your property?”

Yoishi retorted, and this time I was absolutely speechless.

And, I recalled once more.

The thing that happened recently—in short, when I ended up telling Yoishi’s father in front of her, ‘Give Yoishi to me’.

Somehow even Krishna-san was flushed bright red in her nose and said something like, ‘You two have my blessing. I’ll pray for your happiness’, but was that taken as a proposal or something? No, Krishna-san was weak to sake and that kind of talk to the extreme, but did Yoishi end up interpreting it as such?

As she looked at me with her large black eyes, my cheeks suddenly became hot.

My perception of ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’ had been sealed away by Sako, and that was removed by Yoishi herself through regression hypnosis—and now that I took a long hard look at her once more, I saw that she was truly beautiful. Her pale translucent skin was unnatural for someone of Japanese descent with nary a single blemish, and her face was lined with fairy like features. Her eyes were a little dark, but on the contrary, they promoted her seducing harmony, and I think her appearance made any passerby look back at her.

That kind of girl—a possession? No, would she be my fiancée as per societal norms?

Ahh, but her father did indeed say…’Do as you like’.

Which meant that in short, he approved….?!

When I remembered that, my cheeks abruptly became flush hot, and a fluffy feeling rose up at the pit of my stomach.

I coughed once exaggeratedly and looked away.

And then I was startled.

Before I’d realized, the old grandad sitting in the seat next to me had vanished.

Or rather, it was only me, Yoishi and the driver on the bus.

“What happened to that grandad?”

“…Who knows?”

“When did they all get off? It didn’t feel like the bus had stopped.”

In response Yoishi muttered somewhat enjoyably.

“Perhaps—the elderly man might have been Gandame.”

A cold shiver ran round my back all at once in response to that cold, piercing whisper.

Immediately, it felt as if I was completely in a dream, having been in the hustle and bustle of the city merely a few hours ago, and was now, travelling left and right on a dark mountain road at dusk.

“…..We didn’t miss our stop, did we? Did you listen to the announcements carefully?”

Anxious, I took out the piece of paper in my pocket, and as I was confirming the address,

“That place.”

Yoishi merely muttered, having peeked at the piece of paper.

“Are we going to that place?”

I was speechless for a moment—before I made up my mind and nodded.

“…Ahh, that’s right. We’re headed to this place now.”

“………………..”

“…Is it a problem?”

Yoishi closed her phone, and fell into silence for a while as she looked at the darkness beyond the window.

“I’m sorry I brought you along without telling you—but, I thought it was time to settle things.”

I carefully chose my words as I spoke.

In response—

“It’s fine, but--”

As she continued to gaze out of the window, Yoishi spoke in a whisper.

“It’s just, I thought I would go there a little later.”

“What do you mean?”

“That mansion is the last place I ever intended to visit in my life.”

“………………….”

“If I don't feel fear there... it's impossible for me to feel fear again.”

Her words gave me strange goosebumps all over my body.

….Which meant that, what?

That the mansion we were headed to now, was something at a level far above just bringing me to tears as had been the case up until now?

“How did you find out about that place?”

“Ummm….I heard about it from Sako.”

“….Is that so?”

“….Um…was…”

I gulped once, and dared to ask.

“Did you know Sako?”

In response, Yoishi slowly turned towards me, and looked at me inquisitively.

“He said he met you a long time ago.”

“………………..”

Something at the back of Yoishi’s eyes flickered, as if she were trying to remember something.

Something she didn’t want to remember. Something she shouldn’t remember. Fragments of dark, sedimented memories appeared and disappeared beyond her eyes, and she eventually gave a small nod.

“………….Ahh……that person……”

However, Yoishi said nothing more from there. And I too, couldn’t ask any further.

Just what happened to you ten years and eight months ago—Why did you take on the name of ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’? That’s not your real name, is it? Asking that simple question was unbearably heavy.

“I don’t know why we’re going to that mansion, and what you’re trying to do.”

Yoishi eventually murmured in a whisper.

“But that is without a doubt the worst place for me.”

“………..”

“There’s no guarantee that I will be myself. I might not be able to help you if something happens to you. Are you still alright with that?”

Ahhh, I know already.

…..I couldn’t say it being the weak coward that I was, but I still nodded with all the courage I could muster.

“Going around haunted places is just like life….at your own responsibility, right?”

At that moment—

I noticed that the bus driver had been gazing at us all this time through the back mirror.

The dark area around his eyes seemed to be contorted in a sneer.

And, I felt as if I shouldn’t make eye contact even if it was through the back mirror.

I didn’t know about 『Gandame』, or 『Yousen boy』, but—

I thought that we were already in the world beyond.

◯

The mansion, illuminated by the pocket light, was already in a state of decay.

After getting off the bus, we climbed up the dark mountain road for a long time, and the mansion we reached at last was the very definition of a haunted house.

The mansion merely loomed jet black beyond the white fence.

We were silent for a while, standing still with lights in one hand in front of the iron gate.

“…Shall we go?”

I called out to Yoishi, who unusually didn’t try to enter, and I pushed the creaking gate open.

The large garden was already rampant with weeds, with nary a place to plant my feet. I raised my legs in exaggerated movements as I continued, until I eventually arrived close to the front door of the mansion. However, the door was boarded shut to deter anyone from entering. I shone my light to see a sign that read, 『Unauthorized entry is forbidden』. There were many large spiders and spiderwebs that hung all over, something you would never see in the city.

I moved a little further away and aimed my light here and there. Beyond the window on the second floor was a curtain drawn halfway that looked eerily like someone’s head would peek out if I continued looking. Ivy ran along the wall of the mansion extending all the way up to the roof.

“….This mansion is way beyond what I expected.”

I said so, but there was no reply.

I turned around, to see that Yoishi was silently staring at a section in the garden.

I approached and stood next to her, and aimed my light in the direction of Yoishi’s gaze. What lay there was an old camping grill. It was already rusted and fallen over. A small camping chair was also lying there. They might have been used for barbecuing here once in the past. I crouched down to shine my light at them, and found several firework cinders on the ground as well. These symbols of a peaceful summer holiday were saddening to see in the garden of a decayed mansion.

“…Are you alright?”

Seeing her shoulders slowly move up and down, I called out to her.

Yoishi nodded without a word, but she indeed did not have her usual vigor when she faced the occult.

“It’s probably a little late to enter this mansion right now. Let’s pitch our tent here, shall we?”

I raised my voice as cheerfully as I could, and lowered the rucksack on my back.

“I have a friend in university named Yamaoka. He’s in the mountaineering club, extremely fit despite his small size, and he has a great sense of humor to boot. He let me borrow a lot of stuff. A tent for three. Two sleeping bags. I brought a lot of food as well, and even a burner. Let’s grill something for dinner, shall we? Ahh, or maybe you’d like me to make some coffee?”

“If it’s a bedroom you need then there’s one inside.”

“….Eh?”

“On the second floor, there’s a room that is safe to use.”

“No…the inside is, um, it’s quite dangerous right? This isn’t the usual haunted spot investigation. It’s better that we go in when it’s bright.”

I said that, but Yoishi had already set off for the front door, used her foot as a pivot and audaciously began to remove the planks that had been hammered into place. She removed the planks one-by-one, causing cracking and scraping noises to echo loudly in the mountain that was deathly silent at night.

“It’s not a problem if we put a tent out here though.”

With her back towards me, Yoishi spoke as she removed the planks.

“There’s a dead person in that garden as well.”

“……….Eh?”

“If that’s alright with you, then you can set up camp there.”

“……Say that from the start.”

Having no choice, I helped her.

The planks had rotted considerably, probably from the many years of wind and rain, and were removed fairly easily.

“The key?”

“A, ahh, here.”

I took the key Sako gave to me out of my pocket and handed it over to Yoishi.

Yoishi stared at the key for a while—before slowly placing it into the keyhole. A pleasant click rang out, and the lock was opened. As the creaking door slowly opened, I felt something rustling beyond the darkness—and I closed my eyes in an instant. After taking a single deep breath, I slowly opened my eyes.

A thick, incredibly heavy darkness leaked out from behind the half open door.

But, Yoishi remained there, standing still as a rock. Her back, which would never hesitate to step forth into any darkness, wasn’t there. All that was there was the back of a young high school girl, who was unable to take one step ahead in the face of overwhelming darkness.

“Could it be—that you’re…scared?”

“……..I don’t know.”

Yoishi answered silently.

“I don’t know if this is what it means to be afraid. But, my feet are…”

I looked to see that Yoishi’s feet in her black leather shoes were quivering slightly.

I went back to pick up my rucksack, put it on my back and silently gripped Yoishi’s hand. The moment I gripped her soft and cold hand---Ahh, I realized.

The reason why I came all the way out here. And, what needed to be done here.

Wasn’t that, to confront the past together with Yoishi—And, to hear her true name from her own mouth?

Krishna-san had said it before. 『Names are what bind the entirety of living things to the world』.

That’s right. There was only one thing for the disciples of the witch to do. That was to research the real names of all events and creatures in the world and their history, and once you take back your ‘true name’, the worn ‘W’ should disappear.

Alright, I said to myself, and put strength into my stomach—

“…Let’s go. Alright?”

I asked, and Yoishi gave a small nod without a word.

For the first time since I’d gone with her through numerous paranormal events—I took the lead.

With a dull thud, I threw the door open.

I was greeted with the smell of dust assailing my nostrils, and a damp atmosphere that coiled around my body. With my right hand gripping Yoishi’s hand, I illuminated the mansion with the light in my left hand, and slowly took a step forward.

In front of the wide entrance hallway was a corridor, and it was dark to the point where my mini light could barely illuminate it. Nevertheless, I could see that the stairs to the second floor were on my right-hand side, and the spacious living room lay beyond the door to my left-hand side. At any rate, I felt countless presences everywhere, and I asked as I tried to keep my eyes focused on my feet.

“Where is the bedroom you said we could use?”

“Upstairs, at the back.”

“…Got it.”

I tried not to look anywhere, as I barged inside while still wearing my shoes, which was, sorry to say, always the case with haunted spots.

The stairs creaked as I climbed them one-by-one. I aimed my light up to see that the second floor looked even darker. The light formed a ceiling shadow of the handrail that moved, which felt extremely unsettling.

“The back of the second floor—that way, huh?”

As soon as I reached the top of the stairs, I saw that there were doors on each side of the second-floor corridor, and a door in the back. I quickened my steps as if I would be in a safe zone once I reached there, and pulled Yoishi with me towards that door. There, I opened it in a single breath.

Inside was a simple guest room with two beds, a small table, and a closet installed on the wall. I breathed out a sigh of relief, pulled Yoishi inside, and closed the door.

“It sure is a nice room.”

As I said that, I tried to twiddle with the switch on the wall, but as expected there didn’t seem to be any electricity, and it remained completely dark.

“Ah, come to think of it.”

I suddenly remembered and took out a portable lantern from my rucksack. I clumsily fiddled it with my shaky hands. As taught by Yamaoka from the mountaineering club, I thrust a rechargeable lighter in the hole and ignited it. Soon, a warm flame flared up and eventually grew, dimly illuminating the interior of the room.

“……….Ohh.”

“………….”

Yoishi and I, merely gazed at that light in a daze.

I had thought countless times that light was truly grand —but this was the first time I had been moved to the point of tears. Yamaoka insisted it when I borrowed the camping equipment, 『Camping is a completely different experience without it』, and forcibly crammed it in the rucksack over my objections….but, If I safely make it back, I have to express my profound thanks. If I didn’t have this, then the strange intimidating air that enveloped this mansion might have continued to weaken my spirit.

“This sure is good. It’s somehow really encouraging.”

“…Yeah.”

Yoishi sat on the bed, and unusually agreed with me.

I looked at her for some reason—and after that, I looked at the other bed.

I just now realized that it was only me and Yoishi here; We had sneaked in at night in an uninhabited house commonly known as the 『Hanging mansion』.

“Ermm.”

I cleared my throat once and asked.

“Is it a problem If I use any of the other rooms?”

Yoishi slightly cocked her head to the side.

“You know, it’s problematic for the two of us to sleep in the same room. Just now you said that this room was not a problem, but what about the other rooms….or to be more precise, what exactly is the problem with them?”

“It’s fine if you don’t mind, but.”

Yoishi answered dispassionately.

“The people who used the other two rooms are dead.”

“……………..”

...... I can't do it. I absolutely cannot do it.

In addition, this place was incomparably heavier and darker than all the haunted places we had visited so far. I nodded silently and sat down on the vacant bed after wiping away the dust on it. From there, we were both silent for a while. She had lied down with her back towards me, and I was clearly getting an aura from her that a conversation was impossible.

It was still just a little past 8 pm.

It was a time when you’d normally be awake and doing activities, but the mountains at night were a different story altogether. When the moon hid behind the clouds, there was no light anywhere besides this lantern. Everything was painted pitch black, and it made you believe that you were in a completely different world, a world where human rules no longer applied.

It was just the two of us alone in the ruins of a building that was deathly silent— not an unusual situation for us, and yet, there was a strange atmosphere in the room. Perhaps because Yoishi was not her usual self.

Her eyes always glimmered in the face of the paranormal.

The more grotesque the situation trended towards, the stronger that dark light would shine.

But, right now, I—

I knew that the dark colored light at the back of her eyes was the thing I had to face. That knowledge made me feel as if there was someone else here besides the two of us, one more opponent, of an unknown nature.

But I had come mentally prepared with that in mind.

Determined, I calmly opened my rucksack. I took out copies of old newspaper and magazine articles I had obtained from the library before coming here, and spread them out under the light of the lantern.

It was commonly known as, 『The Hanging Mansion Family Massacre Case』. The major newspapers referred to it as 『K Lakeside Mountain Retreat Murder Case』, but the former was how it was referred to by the weekly magazines. And the source of that name came from the fact that the head of a household was found hanged in this mansion.

It happened around eleven years ago--- in short, it occurred on the 31st of July 2001.

I continued to read in sequence from a newspaper article to a weekly magazine article.

『Yesterday, inside a certain building in a mountain forest in K city, Y prefecture, the bodies of an active duty police officer and a Tokyo family that was staying at the house for a short period of time were discovered. The Y prefectural police have set up an investigation headquarters and have begun an investigation into the possibility of it being a crime or an accident. The connection between the family and the police officer is uncertain, but there is a possibility that the family was involved in some kind of trouble. According to the police statement, the bodies of the father and mother were discovered inside, and the body of the police officer and the family pet were discovered outside the building. The bodies of the eldest and younger daughter were discovered in the nearby K lake.』

『The father was discovered hanging by his neck in the living room.』『The mother was found dismembered in the storage room.』『The head patrol officer from the Metropolitan Police department was discovered stabbed to death in the garden.』『Next to the head patrol officer was the body of a dog which is believed to be the family pet.』『Around 1 kilometer below at K Lakeshore, the body of the elder sister was discovered. With lacerations at the base of her throat.』『The body of the second daughter was also discovered at the same location. She drowned to death.』

As I continued to read, my feelings became heavier and heavier.

According to one expert's theory in a weekly magazine, this incident was a family suicide carried out by the father: he killed the mother, the officer, the dog, and when the sisters ran away, he followed them and killed them at the lake, and then returned to the mansion where he killed himself. I see, it more or less made sense. However, there were still mysteries that remained, such as why a police officer belonging to the Metropolitan Police department happened to be present in a mountain retreat at Y prefecture? And why did the father decide to commit a family suicide?

Above all, what I was most concerned about was how Yoishi and Sako were involved in this incident.

If it were eleven years ago, Yoishi would have been six or seven years old.

I could deduce that she must have been the elder or the younger sister, but—before, umm, I think it was in the Koumei Institute’s ‘Clock Tower Incident’? It felt as if she had talked about her elder sister. Which meant, that Yoishi must have been the younger daughter.

Having racked my brains on it thus far--I read through one of the articles once more, and found a mention of ‘serious condition’ with regards to the status of the younger daughter. I also found an article that said, ‘She was transported to the hospital unconscious’ and, ‘The younger daughter in serious condition also passed away’. In short, the life and death status of the younger daughter was not mentioned clearly. There was no news of her whereabouts thereafter, as if she had dissolved into the darkness of this world. However, whether the culprit was her father or an outsider, the fact that the younger daughter survived, meant that she had gone through extreme hell--She had witnessed the entirety of what occurred in this mansion from beginning to end, and was probably aware of the identity of the true culprit.

And, thereupon,

I suddenly felt a strange tug at my heart.

It was as if I had overlooked an important path hidden by the vegetation in the dark forest.

I rearranged the scattered articles I had copied in order of date published. And then, I remembered what I felt when I was copying the articles in the library.

Yes—around two weeks after the incident, the number of reports on the incident dropped dramatically. After a month had passed, the verified reports were nowhere to be found. It is true that a wonder lasts but nine days, and even if the Japanese people had a capricious nature-- but this was such a sensational incident. And on top of that, it was still unresolved to the present day. Wasn't it forgotten about a bit too quickly?

It was as if... they were trying to pretend it never have happened.

“... Press restrictions, huh?”

As I recall, if an incident fulfilled certain criteria, then in accordance with press agreements, the media may refrain from reporting it.

But I heard that it was only limited to kidnapping cases, or anything relating to the imperial household or political issues—

---No.

No…that wasn’t all it was limited to.

I recalled an article I had read on an occult website. If I recalled correctly, there was an incident in which police rushed to the scene of the crime where a mother had been murdered, they found her infant daughter sitting there in a state of insanity and muttered, ‘A demon appeared from the wall’. There was much debate as to the true identity of the ‘demon’, but news reporting of that incident suddenly ceased all at once.

There were a lot of occultic theories on the internet surrounding people who lived in the vicinity of the scene of the crime, but one day, the thread was locked with a message from someone believed to be an insider.

It was, ‘The culprit was the daughter’, ‘Because she is an infant, press restrictions would be imposed.’

Something cold began to rise beneath my feet.

I slowly turned my head towards Yoishi who was lying on her side on the bed.

It can’t be—

The first time I met Yoishi--- Yes, back in the ‘Wish-fulfilling House’.

When I introduced myself, she merely said, 『I’m Yoishi』. I asked her, 『Isn't that a handle?』, and she denied it, saying,『My surname is Mitsurugi. Not that it matters』. Back then, I wondered if she was fine with revealing her real name on the internet, but—was it because it wasn’t her real name?

Come to think of it, I found out that the Noh-faced man who called himself Yoishi’s father belonged to the ‘Cabinet Information Research Office’. That meant it could influence the media to a greater or lesser extent— and not just that, it was also possible for it to take custody of a girl whose whereabouts were unknown….? No, what reason would someone in a government organization have for adopting the younger daughter?

Sako had been chasing the ‘everlasting night stone’ which was written in kanji as 「常夜石」. And he said that it was something that, 『Amplifies people’s negative emotions, and manipulates them from the inside without them even knowing』, and that 『It makes people believe that people don’t deserve to exist, it makes them destroy their surroundings, and themselves』.

If ‘Mitsurugi’ was that man’s surname, but then, why did her first name become ‘Yoishi’…..?

Before I’d realized it, my legs had started shaking. Right now, I thought the black-haired girl sleeping in the bed next to me was someone truly terrifying, and I felt fear to the point where my blood was being drained.

---It can’t be, the true culprit from ten years ago was…..

“………..That’s right.”

At that moment, I jumped up with a start when Yoishi whispered as if she had read my heart. Yoishi slowly got up, moved to the edge of the bed and sat there. And, she gazed for a while at the countless photocopies of articles scattered near my hands—

Eventually, she moved her pale face towards me. I trembled at the appearance of the dark light in her large eyes.

“……Hey, are you scared?”

“……….”

“Are you…. Scared of me right now?”

I couldn’t answer instantly—

But eventually, Ahh, I managed to squeeze a voice from my stinging, parched throat.

“………I’m scared. Of course I’m scared. To be honest, if we’d just met, I think I would have run away.”

“…………..”

“But….it’s strange ---right now, I don’t care anymore.”

I forcefully put on a smile on my face.

Then, for some reason, I felt the back of my heart quietening into silence.

“If you are a survivor of this incident….and, if you’ve now taken the name of ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’, as someone who really does have another name. Then I don’t see anything wrong with that. I can’t see ghosts. I want to believe that they’re there, but to be honest I still can’t say for sure that they’re there. Even after witnessing countless paranormal things, I still can’t tell at all. But, what I truly believe is that there are souls. Warm souls, terrifying souls……. There must be countless souls in this world. They might dwell in buildings, in paintings, in music---they might be the strength of people’s thoughts, but I feel their presence and I believe in their existence. And, the shape of your soul-- which I can feel, which has gone through so much pain and suffering, I believe that it’s beautiful despite everything. And I love that shape.”

“…………………….”

Yoishi remained frozen in place, as she continued to gaze at my face---

And her beautifully shaped lips were about to say, ‘You--’, when they stopped.

“…………You?”

“You….you truly are a fool.”

Yoishi’s voice had a tinge of embarrassment in it, when--

……….*Plop*………..

That sound echoed.

It sounded like water dripping somewhere.

That sound, which seemed as if it was right next to my ears, made me shudder for some reason.

“Is there… a water leak somewhere?”

I somehow managed to say that, and Yoishi shook her head.

“….It’s calling me.”

“…Eh?”

“It’s in the bathroom.”

Declaring that, something flickered beyond Yoishi’s eyes that was illuminated by the lantern. Dark colored eyes and something I arbitrarily named was wriggling. And, that itself was the moment ‘Yoishi’ turned into the ‘everlasting night stone’.

「Say, don’t you want to go and take a look?」

Yoishi would probably whisper that from here.

And that was where the other world would begin. With a jerk, the world would flip upside down, and what would appear there would be a world you shouldn’t see. The ground beneath my feet would tremble, creating a floating sensation as if I had lost everything. But, I would not be able to fight against it. It would be unbearably scary, but I would end up heading there as if being dragged by Yoishi---

And.

However, Yoishi didn’t say anything no matter how much time passed.

Even though there was terror right next to her, she remained motionless as she continued to listen closely to the sound of water.

“…Yoishi?”

“This place is the reason why-- I hate baths.”

“…………”

“I… ended up making a mistake here I could never take back.”

“….What, happened here?”

I asked her, but Yoishi remained silent and did not answer. Her face was contorted in pain, and she merely hung her head down.

If I continued to gaze at that face, an unbearable sadness would sweep over me as well, and before I’d realized, I stood up and said, “Okay”. I drew closer to Yoishi and sniffed at her neck.

Yup, she stinks.

“Shall we take it, together?”

“………Eh………..?”

“The bath. If you know that this place is the cause, then that’s even more of a reason.”

“I, I refuse.”

“Shut up, just come. You haven’t taken a bath since you left my home, right?”

I was fully aware that I was saying something outrageous, but I was desperate when I decided to confront her.

I pulled Yoishi’s hand and made her stand, and spoke as if to conceal my embarrassment.

“I’ll wash your head. And this time—we’ll overcome it all.”

◯

“It’s boiling over, nice hot water!”

I shouted through the glass door as I pulled my hand out of the bathtub in the pitch-black darkness.

Then, after a few moments, the glass door opened with a clank. Yoishi Mitsurugi appeared in the bathroom stark naked….or so I thought. In the darkness, I only caught a glimpse, but naturally, I immediately averted my eyes out of courtesy.

There was no electricity in the mansion, but it was most fortunate that the water was from a well and that propane gas was still available. Right now, the bathroom was filled with warm steam. Even though there must be plenty of occult fans all over the world, we were probably the only ones to take a bath in a haunted place. As I thought to myself, ‘Isn’t it a worthy achievement to have performed a reckless act so effortlessly?’, Yoishi quietly sat down on the seat next to me, holding what looked like a towel in hand. In the pitch-darkness of the bathroom, where only the steam gently enveloped our bodies, we continued to sit in silence, naked.

“Ermm… Wash your body first.”

I desperately tried not to be conscious of Yoishi next to me, filled the tub with hot water, and rubbed a soap that was there onto the towel and lathered it.

“Look, you wash yours. It’s alright. I don’t see anything. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“……………………….”

Eventually, Yoishi placed something she was holding on the wash basin without saying a word.

“Hm…….? Wasn’t that a towel?”

I asked as I was scrubbing my body clean, but Yoishi seemed to have shaken her head without a word.

“Can I have a look at that?”

I washed the bubbles off my hand with hot water, turned off the faucet and then picked it up.

Checking it with my fingertips, I saw that it was something soft--- some kind of stuffed toy.

“Ah….this, could it be the thing you always have attached to your bag? The stuffed frog?”

“….Yes.”

“Hmmm, is it your good luck charm?”

I asked as I touched the body of the stuffed frog with my fingertips. It was quite old and frayed in places, but—that touch made me feel strangely nostalgic.

“It’s not a good luck charm.”

After a while, Yoishi whispered.

“He’s, my only friend.”

For some reason, those words made my heart ache deep in my chest.

“In the past, he used to talk.”

“In the past…? He can’t do it now?”

“He doesn’t talk anymore.”

“…………….”

In a way, such a cute line from a girl was a problem because when Yoishi said it, it instantly became occultic in nature. And moreover, since we were in an abandoned building where no one lived and people had died, I had to be careful not to let the atmosphere go into a creepy direction as much as possible, or else my spirit couldn’t handle it.

When—suddenly, I heard a splash.

I looked to see that Yoishi had already entered the bathtub.

Apparently, after only a couple of splashes of hot water on her body, she had moved there with the stuffed frog in hand.

“Did you wash yourself properly?”

“I did.”

“You didn’t. The soap is still the same as it was in front of me.”

“…..I don’t want to use that soap.”

“Why?”

“Because it's still there, just as it was that day.”

I didn't know how to retort back to those words.

I quietly looked in the direction of the bathtub, to see that Yoishi was soaked in the hot water up to her chin, playing with the stuffed frog in hand.

She hadn’t tied her long hair, so it was scary to see her hair spread out on the surface of the water.

“….I ended up doubting her.”

“…….Eh?”

“Back then, mama asked me if she could join me—and I refused.”

“What do you mean, you refused?”

I asked, but Yoishi fell silent once more.

Eventually, she carefully chose each word as she spoke.

“It was mama… but I ended up doubting that it wasn’t mama.”

Not understanding it well, I listened silently as I continued to wash my body.

“…If I had opened the door for her back then…. A lot of things might have turned out differently.”

That must have been when Yoishi was probably six or seven years old—when she came to visit this mountain retreat with her family. Does that mean that Yoishi was alone in the bath when her mother came? Does that mean that her mother died the next day?

I recalled the article that said,『The mother was found dismembered in the storage room』, and at the moment when bitterness overflowed in my chest—

I realized after all this time. I…. Ended up calling this mansion a ‘haunted place’ without consideration, but wasn’t it extremely rude to call it that, since it was a place where her family was? Once more, the words Krishna-san always told me stabbed my chest, ‘Have respect for the dead’, and I clutched my head in the darkness.

“….Regrets really are a thing, huh?”

After a while, I muttered.

“I always wonder after everything is over if I could have done a little bit more. I mean, my life is a repetition of that. I overslept, missed an important lecture and almost cried before the exam, I couldn’t properly teach the newcomer at my part time job, and he suddenly stopped coming, I ended up eating an extra-large portion of gyudon even though I don’t have money—No, what I have is nothing compared to what you are burdened with.”

--*Splash* As I poured hot water on my shoulders to wash away the foam, I spoke, “Sorry”.

“I’m sorry I ended up calling this house a ‘haunted place’.”

“….I don’t really mind.”

“No….but….”

Then, Yoishi merely muttered in the bathtub.

“What are grudges, exactly?”

“….Eh?”

“What do ghosts, bear a grudge against, exactly….? For example, what if you were to die a horrific death because of me? What if you still had so many things you wanted to do, but your life ended because of me? Would you too wander this world with a grudge….?”

I suddenly imagined ---myself as a ghost, just wandering this world endlessly. But at that moment, a strange loneliness swept over my chest. A world like ice, where no one could perceive me, where my words never reached anyone.

There, all I was, was confused.

I was befuddled, in agony, and wished to die quickly and properly. Even though I was already dead, I was impatient to die properly.

“……No.”

I shook my head once, turned on the shower and poured hot water on my head.

“Rather than bearing a grudge, I think I’d be troubled.”

“Troubled….?”

“I think that ghosts are probably just troubled. The moment they understand that they’re dead, they're upset because they don't know what to do, having experienced that for the first time. Ahh--- I can’t explain it well, but rather than asking questions about why they died or wanting to come back to life, they would be restless about what to do with themselves, and have no time to bear grudges against other people. ….Look, isn’t that why they draw close to you? They might be relying on you since they realize that you can see ghosts. Maybe they think you might believe in the myth that telling ghost stories attracts them.”

I excitedly talked as if I had accidentally touched on a secret—

“You—”

Yoishi coldly declared.

“Really are a fool.”

‘What the hell did you say?’, I was about to retort, when I stopped, thinking that it was inappropriate. I silently lathered up the shampoo that was there in my hands and started washing my hair feeling good.

It was my first time talking about ghosts and not being afraid. For the first time, I felt as if I understood the meaning of what Krishna-san always said, ‘Perhaps some ghosts play tricks on people, while other ghosts say, 'Come on, stop it,' and step in to intervene, yet no one ever thinks of the latter possibility’.

“Even if they're dead, ghosts aren’t different than people.”

I tried to sound as cool as I possibly could, when it happened.

As I was scrubbing my head with the shampoo, I suddenly felt a strange sensation.

As if the lathering was strangely sluggish — or rather, as if the amount of hair had strangely increased.

At that moment, I realized that there were long strands of hair dropping on both sides of my face. It was as if someone had drawn their face close to the back of my head with their long black hair, and trirf to get me to wash their hair as well.

--It must be Yoishi.

You sure had the nerve to come up with a funny idea, as I quickly reached both hands to the back of my head. I was trying to take hold of that head: Yoishi’s head, however.

“…………Eh?”

There was nothing there, and my hands were wandering in empty air.

“Get out.”

At the same time, a voice like a ringing bell echoed in the bathroom.

I looked to see Yoishi still immersed in the bathtub, gazing in my direction.

Her eyes in the darkness, were darker than darkness—

Her following words, directed towards something, made goosebumps run all over my body.

“You are already dead.”

◯

I'll never speak sagely of ghosts before her ever again.

I firmly made up my mind to do as I chanted the nembutsu all night--And it was the following day.

Before I'd realized, I was sound asleep in the bed and woke up to find myself in heavenly sunshine. The chirping of the birds reverberated around me, and the branches of lush green trees peeked through the window.

Did I come to some hotel resort somewhere? I couldn’t judge the situation right away and really thought that was the case, but--

No..... No, that wasn't it.

This was the mountain retreat where a mysterious massacre occurred eleven years ago.

With a start I raised my head, and saw that Yoishi was already awake and sitting on top of her bed, fiddling with her phone.

“...Ah... Good morning.”

When I greeted her, she fleetingly glanced my way with her large eyes,

“My phone has a connection.”

She spoke.

“Well, that's what it’s supposed to do.”

“There was no connection eleven years ago.”

She stood up and pointed her phone here and there.

“Is there a problem if you have a connection?”

“……………………….”

However, without answering, Yoishi put her phone away in her pocket, and turned her white face at me.

“What are we going to do from now on?”

“Well….”

No, I had no concrete ideas in mind.

I was under the impression that just coming here would be enough to settle something. I was told by Sako that I had to complete ‘Yoishi’s story’, and I thought that must have been ‘to hear Yoishi’s true name from her own mouth’. But— after thinking about it long and hard, that doesn't really need to be in this place, does it?

Which means….huh?

Why did Sako tell me about this place?

I raised my head, looked at the mansion walls, and thought of the room that was supposed to exist beyond it. After that, I pictured downstairs which was filled with far more creepiness than the second floor.

….Could it be?

Did it mean that there was something in this mansion that could finish this case?

“Let’s go.”

I declared, and Yoishi tilted her head slightly.

“We have to search this mansion.”

Yoishi asked, ‘For what?’, and in response:

“Something important.”

Without pause, I opened the door to the room.

All that was there on the other side of the creaking door was a corridor---but it wasn’t as dark as last night.

It was already bright with the light of the sun pouring in.

The stairs creaked as Yoishi and I descended to the ground floor. It was a building with many windows, and the warm sunshine poured in through all of them. It had lost the appearance of a haunted house and was now just an old mansion. Even so, the building still felt like a ruin, full of spider webs and dust-- but, as I thought that, I spotted something on the corridor floor. It was a yellow police tape. Apparently, it had been placed in front of the door leading to the living room.

Something bitter instantly rose up inside me, as I realized that this was a murder scene, and that the victims were Yoishi’s relatives.

“Are you alright?”

I turned around and asked, and Yoishi nodded, looking paler than usual.

The living room was spacious. It was at the very least, around 32 square meters in size.

It had leather covered sofas, a fireplace, withered houseplants, and torn wallpaper.

But—

I thought once more. I didn’t know why it was, but I didn’t feel as if this was my first time in this mansion. Come to think of it, I felt that when I first looked up at this mansion from the garden last night. As if someone had said to me, “Welcome back”. I recalled that feeling now once more and shuddered.

No--- I shook my head. No matter how much I turned the drawers of my memory upside down, I had never come to this mansion before. I only felt like I had been here before because this was a typical resort construction, and they all had a similar layout.

I continued to convince myself in that way, as I scooped off the piled-up dust on the sofa with my hands.

On the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room were three cups, and the tea or whatever that had been inside had already dried up and turned light brown. The family must have been enjoying their time here together. They had no idea that a conclusion far terrible than they could have imagined awaited them….

I became strangely sentimental, maybe because I thought that it was Yoishi’s family.

I was a weakling from the start, but I thought I had endurance with regards to the dead after their funeral had been completed. Once you die, there’s no coming back. No matter how much I grieved and moaned, I could not overturn that rule of life. That’s why, I didn’t mourn more than necessary. After all, I too would die one day. At that time, I would meet them again. And, in order to have lots to talk about when I meet them again in that world, I would live a fruitful life, that’s how I thought of it. That might have been the psychological coping mechanism I learned after the bitter separation from my mother.

But---

Something about this mansion was different.

I ended up thinking that maybe there was still something I could do about it.

Even though everyone was already dead….. and were no longer a part of this world, the vividness of the family pressed at me, a family that was not my own, but one that I could not think of as a stranger’s.

Are…they still here?

Are Yoishi’s mother, father, sister, and the policeman, still here in this mansion--?

I end up feeling like…. they entrusted me with something important that was left undone.

“….Huh?”

As I thought such things, I noticed that Yoishi was staring at something.

It was a small space above the hearth.

“What’s wrong?”

I called out to her and stood next to her---where I noticed.

It was a single photograph. A brown wooden photo frame had collapsed, and a discolored photograph lay beside it.

My heart beat out loud seeing the figures of the people in the picture.

“…..This……”

“My… family.’

“Is it alright…. if I take a look?”

“It’s fine, but—”

Yoishi added in a tone of voice that lacked emotion.

“It’s not really something pleasant.”

Hearing those words, I gulped.

Why hadn’t the police taken this picture away, even though they must have investigated the scene countless times? Come to think of it, why were all the cups I saw earlier still here? Suddenly, all sorts of questions crossed my mind, but in the end, I picked up that photograph.

It was a family photograph taken in the garden. The father, the mother, the elder sister, the younger sister, and the family dog—everyone was looking at the camera, and probably smiling in the polaroid picture. However, the moment I saw it, an intense chill ran down my back, causing me to almost let go of it.

For some reason….in that photograph of the father, the mother, the elder sister, and the dog—their faces were discolored white and stretched out in the air as if twisted by an invisible force so strong that they were about to disappear. Among them, only the young girl was smiling kindly. She looked this way with her beautiful white face, and her pretty, long black hair that swayed slightly in the wind.

“……U…..umm, you sure were cute.”

“You don’t have to force yourself.”

“No, really….”

“It becomes this type of photograph when that takes your life.”

“By t…that…could you possibly mean?”

…The ‘everlasting night stone’ that Sako mentioned?

The moment I was about to mention that name, Yoishi put her finger on my lips to stop me.

“It would be better not to say that name.”

I shuddered involuntarily.

“Because it’s everywhere at all times.”

“S…say, why…why did you take the name of Yoishi? If that name itself was ominous, and if you were aware of that, then why---?”

Without answering, Yoishi silently took the photograph from my hand and carefully placed it back in its original place.

“The police abandoned it.”

“Abandoned?”

“This photograph is as you can see. But, it wasn’t abandoned because of an exposure error. This entire mansion was abandoned, and the investigation itself was abandoned.”

“W, why?”

“Because the state unofficially recognized that long ago.”

Yoishi’s cold words left me aghast.

“It exists in every age, appears at whim, and consumes humans—stealing their lives. That’s why it has been recognized as a natural disaster that possesses this country, like typhoons and earthquakes.”

“No…that’s—if it were a natural disaster, then why did you need to take that name?”

“Because—”

Yoishi stood stock still like a broken doll, and whispered.

“Because I’m the cause of all this.”

“……….What?”

“Because I was an unwanted child that was never wished for.”

“….There’s no way that’s true? There’s no way a child is unloved by their parents.”

“Thinking straightforwardly like that is a trait of yours, but—then, why does infanticide not cease in this world? What about the abuse that increases even now? And, what if… it was an unwanted pregnancy?”

………………………..

“What if….it was a life born from the violation of the mother by a complete stranger?”

“….Hey…it can’t be….”

“If that were the case, I would erase myself.”

Yoishi’s large eyes harbored a pale blue flame as she spoke.

“That’s why my face is white. Because of foreign blood. I didn’t resemble anyone in my family. I was--”

“Cursed before I was even born.”

“That’s exactly why I was chosen by that.”

I….could not utter even a single word.

But from somewhere in the mansion that was as silent as death—something echoed as a substitute.

A biological, disgusting, whipping sound.

“….It has begun.”

“…….Eh?”

“It’s already begun.”

Yoishi looked me in the eyes, and spoke in a whisper.

“It’s going to be hell from now on.”

“….What?”

“If you want to go back, this is your last chance.”

“……………”

“You’re free to do whatever you wish, but from here on, I’m not sure that I will continue to be myself. To run away from here, to forget everything, and to live a cheerful life would be without a doubt the right thing to do.”

Yoishi spoke that much forlornly, and turned away from me.

With a mechanical gait in her step, she walked straight out of the living room.

“W…. wait a minute!”

I was a step behind, and ran after her.

I caught up to Yoishi who was proceeding in the corridor, and grabbed her hand.

“I’m going as well.”

I declared, and Yoishi looked at me with lonely eyes.

I nodded strongly, and Yoishi silently looked down, and spoke.

“I’ll be relying on you from now on.”

“……Eh?”

“I know that’s completely unforgivable, but I can’t help but rely on you.”

“No……”

I spoke flustered.

“I don’t mind if you rely on me, you know? Well, although, I might be quite unreliable, but…”

In response, Yoishi bit her lips in irritation---

“Please, forgive me.”

She whispered that.

I stopped moving, not knowing what she meant—when Yoishi looked up at me and gazed at me. That white, unworldly, beautiful face declared as if melting into the darkness of this world.

“No matter what happens, no matter what you see… stay as you are. Stay as Nagito Yamada. Continue to stay that way--- that might be our only chance to win at the very last moment.”

It was an expression Yoishi Mitsurugi had shown me for the first time.

The girl who had never asked me for a single favor up until now, who had gleefully moved forward no matter what paranormal events she faced, the young girl who was acted coolly like a grand witch from antiquity even when faced with reality that would make you want to avert your eyes, showed me for the first time--- a sorrowful expression.

Please, forgive me.

She declared once more in a hoarse voice, and abruptly turned heel with a knock of her leather shoes.

After that, she didn’t look back, as she continued into the darkness.

I fell behind for a moment—before following her.

The mansion corridor which had not been ventilated for a long time, creaked strangely, perhaps due to the humidity.

It wouldn’t be strange if the floors collapsed at any given moment, and that instability was the same sensation I had whenever my legs froze from the sign of the world beyond.

The very back of the corridor.

The closer I got to the inconspicuous wooden door, the louder the whipping sound became.

“T...this sound.”

I was about to ask what it was, but I couldn’t say the words. Being the weakling that I was, my legs had already begun to tremble, and the root of my teeth didn’t connect.

Yoishi made it that far without hesitation, placed her hand on the sliding door, and with a single breath, threw it open.

It was a storage room around 10 sqm in size.

There was a mop, a place for a large vacuum cleaner, a toolbox, an unused chair and such.

And, in the center, I saw a familiar childish face.

“—K…”

I was at a loss for words.

“…..Kri…shna-san?”

◯

A petite figure was crouching in a dark corner of the room, devouring something.

Her short hair was messy, as if she hadn’t returned home for many days—and her blue spring dress was torn in places and dirty with mud, as if she had tumbled down a mountain.

“Umm….Krishna-san….is that you….?”

In response, the girl looked in my direction, still clutching something with her hands.

She sneered in a satisfied smile with her white, cloudy eyes. I shuddered at the sight of the thing that protruded from her lips. From those cute lips which were always preaching to me with sermons of love, now protruded a large, wriggling centipede. She bit it off with those white teeth of hers, and chewed it crunchingly.

As I watched, unable to say anything —Krishna-san slowly stood up.

She then brought her hands, still covered with the remains of centipedes and other small animals, to her large breasts and grasped them violently. She then rubbed them vigorously. It made me feel a sense of unease, as if a different personality was using Krishna-san’s arms to toy with her body. But, there was no eroticism in it. It was merely revolting; I felt disgust as if something precious was being defiled. it reminded me of a coven of witches – a sabbath that I had once seen illustrated in a book. That vulgar behavior was in no way the behavior of the Krishna-san I knew. She was so cute in all her actions that even when she had to be strict, she still lacked a sense of tension.

“What are you trying to do by moving to that person?”

Yoishi spoke coldly as she fixed her gaze on Krishna-san.

“Your place is inside me, isn’t it?”

With those words, I realized with a start.

“….Hey, it can’t be….?”

‘That’s right’, Yoishi gave a small nod.

“That person is Shiina Kurimoto, but it’s not her personality right now. The one who stands there is the one destroyed everyone precious to me: my best friend, my mother, my father, my elder sister, Leo, the detective-- The one who stands there… is the ‘Everlasting night stone’.”

Together with her words… I saw it.

Right now, in Krishna-san’s eyes, a dark light glimmered that was like the bewitching glimmer in Yoishi’s eyes in the face of the paranormal. Exposed to that dark light, countless scenes revived and connected in my mind. The countless mysteries, paranormal phenomenon which defied explanation that I had witnessed so far. Yoishi’s eyes would begin to glitter before them. But when she saw malice in the truth, Yoishi would always vomit. She would vomit in pain, as if trying to wipe away something inside her.

Was that---

Because this thing was inside her?

Was it because this thing was wriggling in delight inside Yoishi?

The sneering laughter that sounded like a man echoed in the dimly lit storage room and corridor.

The bobbed haired, baby face, the cheeks that would be described as adorable by a hundred out of a hundred people, Krishna-san contorted those cheeks—

And made a smile that was both broken and complacent.

“It crossed over from continental Asia in the past, was called ‘Nine tails’ at times, and ‘Everlasting night stone’ at times…. It moves freely from people to people, a natural disaster of this country that destroyed countless people all over, a hidden natural disaster—the purest ‘malice’ in this world.”

Yoishi’s words coldly reverberated in the room—

The earth shook. No, my torso was shaking in the face of being overwhelmingly powerless, and my knees were already shaking to the point of collapse.

Krishna-san….no, Shiina Kurimoto-san was the most reliable person for me since I moved to Tokyo alone. Her words were harsh at times, but even they were filled with love, because she was worried about me from the bottom of her heart, and she was the person who was the furthest away from the word ‘corrupted’. She was my holy mother, just making eye contact with her was enough to relax me and give me fluffy feelings at the pit of my stomach. No matter how close I came to breaking down, this person alone would always stand firmly on the ground, support me, and return me to myself. Now, there were no traces of that to be found anywhere. In its stead was malice bare to see, and it was as if just seeing her lurching figure was enough to distort the world.

「I’ll be right back. After I’ve enjoyed this one.」

As if declaring that, Krishna-san took the rat carcass she still held in her left hand, and plunged it headfirst into her mouth.

“S--”

Stop it. I was about to shout, when—

“Yo, there you are.”

I heard an aloof voice behind me.

After a few seconds—I turned around dumbfounded, to see the thin figure of Sako Takita.

Sako slipped past me who couldn’t even move, and affectionately called out to Krishna-san.

“Kurimoto-kun, you shouldn’t eat something like that. You’ll end up getting diarrhea.”

He was not dressed in his usual blue kinagashi. On his head he wore an eboshi. His long hair, which was always unkempt had been neatly slicked back, and he was formally dressed in a black hakama and tall wooden clogs—but his appearance conversely made me feel the urgency of the situation.

“Now, let’s go back, shall we? This is no place for you.”

In response, the ‘everlasting night stone’ inside Krishna-san vibrated its throat. I couldn’t clearly make out what it was saying—but it was clearly a sneering voice that rejected, disdained, and ridiculed Sako’s suggestion.

“….Hm.”

However, it seemed it had gotten through to Sako. He nodded several times and spoke.

“……..Ah, you shouldn't. Don't make a young woman use such indecent language. She is still a popular girl you see. You mustn’t make light of Krishna fans all over the country…Eh? Mmhmm, you say you’re not a fan? You’re saying everyone uses the occult as a pretext to see Kurimoto-kun’s body, and that they must be stripping her naked in their head?”

Sako spoke as if he were a proxy of a beast, and then turned my way.

“Are you like that?”

“………..Eh?”

“Well, you can’t clearly deny it as a man—but that’s not quite right.”

Sako turned to face the front once more.

“Hey, listen up, will you? Those large, large attractive breasts of Kurimoto-kun are comforting, you see. They are a symbol of her love that gently envelop everything. It's true that large breasts on a petite body can give off an unbalanced appeal, but what all men of this world instinctually crave is, the motherly love she exudes. Don’t be mistaken, not everyone in this world is a dark, malicious and perverse insect like you.”

As Sako declared that, the ‘everlasting night stone’ vibrated the back of her throat once more, but—

Sako ignored it on purpose, and quietly turned to Yoishi this time.

“Now then—let me say it once more.”

For some reason he made sure to straighten his back and politely sent those words to Yoishi.

“You did well to survive.”

Yoishi gazed back at Sako’s face without a word.

Was it my imagination, or did it feel as if her eyes were gently narrowed.

“I apologize for not being aware of your existence sooner --- Well, it is as you can see. Please forgive me.”

To Sako who bowed down, Yoishi merely muttered, “I don’t really mind.”

“…I only just realized it yesterday.”

“Oh?”

“I was told by that person.”

She pointed at me, ‘Hoho’, Sako happily swung his shoulders.

….I didn’t know what was going on. But from the way Sako was acting so relaxed—did that mean that we and Krishna-san were alright now? Yoishi said something about how it was going to be hell from now on….Does that mean it will be averted?

“Yoishi Mitsurugi-kun.”

Sako then put a friendly smile on his face and declared.

“Please allow me to declare this in advance. In the unlikely event that you become the ‘everlasting night stone’—I will kill you here.”

…………Huh?

“You may or may not have already realized, but I managed to cling to this uninteresting world and lived thus far to dispose of this trash known as the ‘everlasting night stone’. I will make it regret it so much that it curses itself for appearing in this world and for its continuing meddling with human beings —and I will tear it to pieces.”

“….I know.”

“—H, hey, hey ,hey, wait a second!”

I unconsciously butted in their conversation, when Sako simply stopped me from interrupting with his hand, and spoke.

“Now, now, please calm down, this was a talk of the worst-case scenario. There will be no casualties if we can deal with it now.”

At that moment---a piercing, sneering laughter reverberated, as if pounding the mansion. I looked to see Krishna-san…no, what was now the ‘everlasting night stone’ bending its petite body with tears in its eyes as it laughed.

“Something, is strange.”

Saying that coldly, Sako held up the three-pronged Gokosho in his hand—and made several signs in midair. Krishna-san instantly stopped laughing as she coughed and collapsed while still bent backwards. The way she fell didn’t look safe at all, and I was reflexively about to rush over, but—

“Next, I will tear you to pieces.”

Sako cleanly cut the Kuji with his fingertips, and began to speak words I had never heard before.

It must have been a sort of ritual prayer I had no knowledge of—

The clear, resonant Kotodama that flowed from his mouth made Krishna-san’s petite body arch backwards in a bind.

“This mansion is closed by a barrier on all four sides. I will first remove the original fox soul of the ‘everlasting night stone’. Furthermore, I will get rid of the countless deep-seated grudges that have combined--- and finally separate them, leaving only the personality situated at the highest order.”

Sako dispassionately explained after finishing his ritual prayer, and began to draw some kind of pattern at Krishna-san’s feet with unrefined salt.

However—the guffawing, sneering laughter continued.

Krishna-san, having collapsed on the ground, still had a painful smile contorted as the tears streamed down her face. It was if she were witnessing something truly foolish—as if there was a mistake in front of her eyes which only she had realized—she merely convulsed with laughter as she pointed at Sako.

“It must be painful.”

Sako on the other hand, showed pity.

“But there's not the slightest chance I'd want to help you.”

At that moment, Krishna-san’s eyes distorted more fiendishly than I had never seen before.

As if in reply— Sako’s pale face muttered in a whisper that horrified me as I watched.

“—You, devoured my mother.”

“………………”

“And you devoured my father. However, failing to devour me was a lethal mistake on your part.”

“Kokoko.”

The ‘everlasting night stone’ let out a strange, trembling voice.

It appeared as if it were somewhat perplexed.

It looked perplexed as if it had devoured so much it couldn't remember ---And , I saw Sako’s eyebrows furrow slightly in response. It was the first time I saw the emotion of anger emanate from Sako.

As soon as the pattern was finished, Krishna-san’s body crumpled even further into the ground as if it was crushed by gravity. This time, she indeed sounded as if she was in pain. But—even though it might have been the ‘everlasting night stone’ inside, it still appeared as Krishna-san. I couldn't stand it any longer, and at some point, I slowly drew closer, when—

“You’ll get devoured.”

Sako’s words stopped my movements with a jerk.

Sako swept his hakama as he sat in the seiza position, and with his eyes half-closed, began a sonorous ritual prayer once more.

It was as if to tighten the air to make invisible signs, and rearrange the sounds of the world as if to make a hidden rhyme.

It made Krishna-san’s collapsed body writhe in pain and bounce up and down as if it were billowing.

--Amazing.

I didn’t quite know what was happening, but it was overwhelming, I thought.

--Just a little more… with just a little bit more, would things really turn out alright?

My heart began to throb with anticipation, even though I knew I shouldn’t feel safe just yet.

But—at that moment.

I suddenly noticed Yoishi, who had been silent all this time.

Yoishi’s cold gaze, her unresponsiveness after having coexisted together with the ‘everlasting night stone’ in her body since that incident eleven years ago, made me feel a terrible premonition. I then recalled Sako’s words.

….Huh…just now, Sako said that this building was inside a barrier. Could it be that the so-called ‘everlasting night stone’ that was now possessing Krishna-san, would after being severed from her, simply return to Yoishi once more who was inside the barrier? Or was the pattern Sako drew just now at Krishna-san’s feet a new, different barrier altogether?

“Well, you see.”

As he continued making the signs with his fingers, Sako answered with his back still turned toward me, as if he had sensed my concern.

“In the unlikely chance the ‘everlasting night stone’ that detaches from Kurimoto-kun breaks this barrier and possesses you, I will kill you. If it possesses Yoishi-kun, I will kill her. If I fail to sever it, I will kill Kurimoto-kun. I would be deemed a murderer according to this country, but that is of no concern to me. The only way to teach it the concept of ‘death’ is to let it experience it while it is bound to some kind of body. Having said that, you all might be a bit reluctant—well do forgive me for that.”

….H, hey, you can’t be serious.

“But—you see. Don’t you think it strange?”

As I was dismayed, Sako declared to me amused.

“Why do you believe Yoishi-kun didn’t die even though eleven years have passed since that incident?”

“…………..Eh?”

“Why do you believe she used illogical methods to save you at times?”

“…………”

“That is because—”

Sako’s mouth twisted into a happy smile, and he spoke.

“The ‘everlasting night stone’ failed in its incarnation long ago.”

“……………………….”

“Eleven years ago, in this mansion, under a devilish plan, the heart of a child it believed it had completely destroyed was protected by a certain accident.”

“…….Accident? What do you mean accident?”

But without answering my question, Sako continued to speak.

“Call it an accident, inevitability, or you could even call it a miracle--- at any rate, it set up several atrocities to crush the young girl’s heart and create a hollow vessel, but it failed. But—this gives birth to a question. There was no need at all for Yoishi Mitsurugi-kun to be the only body the ‘everlasting night stone’ incarnated itself in.”

“………Eh?”

“There are probably a great many beautiful boys and girls in this world who have had a sorrowful upbringing, who excel at a spiritual disposition. The ‘everlasting night stone’ is pure malice boiled down to its essence, and its actions are always shaped by calculated malice, and if it failed once, it would spread malice elsewhere once more. Its behavioral pattern is, if anything, almost refreshing. Despite that, on this occasion, it possessed ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’ for eleven long years. Why do you think that is?”

I looked at Yoishi.

I looked at her pale, extremely well proportioned, calm face once more.

“That is because she dared to take the name of 『Yoishi』herself.”

“…………Ah.”

“’Names’ in this world hold the meaning of ‘place’. Despite failing to incarnate, the reason it clung to Yoishi was because she christened herself as 『Yoishi』, and stitched it into her own body to prevent it from escaping anywhere.”

Why did Yoishi need to use that name?

When I asked her that just a while ago—Yoishi answered that it was because she was the cause of all this. Because she was a life born from the violation of her mother by a complete stranger, and that was exactly why she was cursed before she was even born.

But…that wasn’t the only reason.

“It is true that it is far safer for everyone to know where the everlasting night stone is than not to know where it is.”

Sako spoke sadly.

“The young girl who willingly became the den for the ‘everlasting night stone’ was under the custody of the state for that very reason. She was implanted with a GPS tracker in her body, and was kept under surveillance twenty four hours a day: not allowed to die, and placed in a condition where she couldn’t have been said to be alive either.”

I recalled the face of that tall Noh-faced man.

Since I first met him, he kept referring to Yoishi as ‘that’— was that what he meant?

Did he only see her as a box of calamity that could not be opened?

“Y…you’ve gotta be kidding me….”

I looked at Yoishi in response to Sako’s words, who was listening with a vacant expression, and I shouted out loud unable to bear it anymore.

“That…that’s, absolutely wrong!”

“It’s not wrong. Everything has fallen into place in a very rational way, and a state of equilibrium has finally been achieved.”

“No… that’s completely wrong….what about her being left in a state of uncertainty where she’s nether dead or alive? Did a bunch of adults who should have known better not think of Yoishi’s feelings at all?”

“And by thinking---what would they achieve?”

At that moment, Yoishi’s whisper reached my ears.

“Could anyone do anything? No, there’s nothing that could be done. That’s why I decided not to feel anything. What I saw, the words I was exposed to, my changing environment — I decided to accept none of it, and just let it wash over me.”

“…That’s…”

I recalled her slender back, she walked alone as if she carried a heavy burden all by herself.

I recalled the way she lived her life, her head hung down with a stooped back, as she tried not to make eye contact with anyone.

I recalled the way she stood still in the depths of eternal darkness all by herself, as her eyes coldly gazed at the paranormal of this world.

“At that time, at that age, under those circumstances--”

Sako spoke as he looked at Yoishi, narrowing his narrow eyes even further.

“It was a terrifyingly excellent decision to make. It would have been impossible for me to do the same. How painful must that have been?”

Suddenly, I realized Yoishi was gripping something tightly.

It was the stuffed frog Yoishi treasured as if it were a good luck charm.

Sako too, looked down towards the stuffed animal, and suddenly smiled. Then, for some reason, he looked at me, and this time, put on a smile of a wicked disposition.

“Well, thanks to several accidents—the life of a man who disgracefully ran away has also been rewarded.”

It was the moment he declared that.

--*Snap* *Crack*, I heard the sound of something splitting open here and there in the mansion.

I looked up, and it soon turned into a sound like a sharp, cracking sound of a dead tree snapping off—

And it felt, as if it changed to a high-pitched laugh.

As I thought about the thing I heard just now, and the meaning behind it, I shifted my gaze back at Sako in a daze.

……..Eh?

I saw scarlet at the center of Sako’s pale face. Before I realized, a streak of blood was trickling down Sako’s tall nose. Sako must have also noticed it, as he wiped the nosebleed with a vacant expression. However, the nosebleed that was trickling from Sako’s right nostril had now begun to trickle from his left nostril as well. The gooey blood started trickled down.

“….Hey, Sako….”

No, it wasn’t just through both nostrils. From his ears, his mouth, his eyes….at some point, blood had begun to drip through the holes in his hair follicles to the point where his entire hair was black and wet. Blood gushed from every orifice of his body without stopping, wetting his whole skin.

“Ah….”

Sako’s fingers were trembling and unable to form seals. Ony mere words of delirium were emitted from his lips that were poor in complexion.

“…..H…Hey, Sako………!”

I supported Sako’s body, which was on the verge of collapse. Sako’s body, which was violently shaking and about to fall, felt as light as air. And his white clothes were dyed deep red as if they had been crimson from the start.

“……..H, hey Sako! Stay with me!!”

“….Hu…..”

Those faint words that escaped Sako’s lips reached my ears.

“…….Humans…… can ne…ver…..win…..”

What the hell are you saying….?

I was about to say that, but that grumble did not become my voice.

Sako gazed at me, and a faint smile appeared on his pale face, as he continued to speak with the utmost effort.

“…They just… do… lose...... Don’t...... even think...of winning….”

Are you complaining now of all times?

His abrupt proclamation of defeat made the pit of my stomach churn.

However, it was not so much that I was disgusted with him – but rather, it a feeling of regret for Sako who had hunted down the ‘everlasting night stone’ to this point. And, at the same time, I didn’t know what the meaning of simply spouting such words here. Did he already assess victory or defeat? Or was there some other meaning behind them?

“Hey, Sako!!”

Without knowing what to do, I foolishly kept screaming at Sako.

“…There’s… no chance you will win …. Who, or what…. Are you going to win against…?”

Sako tried to scratch at midair with no strength in his fingers.

I realized that his fingertips were aimed at Yoishi—

And, the moment I noticed Yoishi Mitsurugi coldly fixated at Sako who was lying there covered in blood – Sako coughed a spurt of blood from his mouth, and his strength quietly disappeared in my arms.

“……..There’s no way—right?”

I looked at Sako’s face, who was stock still with his eyes slightly open—

And then, I turned to Yoishi.

“…..Y, Yoishi, do something! What should we do about Sako?”

She silently glimpsed at Sako’s immobile body,

“You can’t incarnate in me by destroying this person.”

Yoishi spun her words towards midair.

“Showing me people dying… doesn’t make me feel anything anymore.”

In response, the mansion creaked once more. *Crrrreeeak*

That strange sound—made Yoishi’s eyes slightly widen.

As if she had realized something, she suddenly turned to look in my direction.

• Crrrreeeak**Crrrreeeak**Crrrreeeak**Crrrreeeak*

The old mansion was creaking.

• Crrrreeeak**Crrrreeeak**Crrrreeeak**Crrrreeeeeeaaaaaaaeak**Crrrreaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeeak*

The timber was chafing together, and it sounded like someone’s sneering laughter.

That’s right--- right now, someone was sneering somewhere.

In a loud shrill laugh, as if everything was going according to plan.

And I-- was merely standing in a daze in a world that was rapidly changing.

No, Sako’s words repeatedly swirled in my head, and I kept thinking about their meaning in a daze.

『The ‘everlasting night stone’ I had known of was an existence that was the complete antithesis of the word ‘fool’.』

『It is terrifyingly intelligent; all of its actions are calculated and borne purely from malice.』

『Its actions are always shaped by calculated malice.』

『If it failed once, it would spread malice elsewhere once more.』

…..Say.

If---that’s right, it was a question of ‘if’.

The fact that I met Yoishi Mitsurugi one year ago in that family restaurant.

The fact that I alone coincidentally happened to run into ‘Yoishi’ by accident after the ‘Ikaigabuchi’ offline meeting.

If, that wasn’t an accident….what would happen?

No, what if everything began long before that, the day I lost my mother? What if Yoishi becoming involved in the resolution, and even how Krishna-san linked it by saying, ‘From its start, it never had any malice’, was not an accident….?

Having met Yoishi, and feeling a debt of gratitude towards her—

Didn’t I end up feeling romance for ghosts? I became attracted to the scenery of the world beyond, and began to excitedly venture into the spirt world, and jumped into the flames of darkness with glee, like a moth that knows that it is not a place a living person can deal with, but jumps into the flames and gets burned. And, before I’d realized, that continued to chip away at the thread of my spirit, gradually thinning my connection to this world and leading me straight to hell. Meeting Krishna-san, meeting Sako, and even meeting Takamura--- What if all those encounters were calculated by someone else, and they transformed the unknown realm of the occult into something fascinating one step before I rejected it? And what if it that was something that foolishly made me think that I could, or rather, that I had to save the young girl known as Yoishi Mitsurugi?

In the world that was being painted pitch black—I pictured her lonely face.

『Next time, if we meet again-- I’ll become your friend.』

『if you intend to associate with this person any longer, I won’t show you mercy.』

『That person probably won’t betray me to a fearsome degree.』

Eleven years ago, the ‘everlasting night stone’ failed to destroy Yoishi’s heart, Sako said that it had been stitched to Yoishi because she took the name of ‘Yoishi’ herself. But that wasn’t it--- not at all.

Wasn’t the ‘everlasting night stone’ patiently waiting for someone to appear for eleven years?

Could the occult loving university student: Nagito Yamada, possibly be—

An existence created only for the girl whose heart failed to be crushed, to grow in her the heart to ‘Trust people’ once more?

……..A………………

“ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

I realized that thundering scream was my own.

Someone who Yoishi trusted.

Someone who Yoishi acknowledged as a ‘friend’.

Then, one after the other, it would sow the seeds that would lead to that someone and Yoishi deepening their connection, and when they mutually acknowledged each other as ‘war comrades’, it would destroy that someone.

Possessing Krishna-san, destroying Sako—was it all to destroy Nagito Yamada into smithereens in front of Yoishi? After she barely escaped being crushed eleven years ago, it planned to crush the faintest hope budding in her heart in the most ruthless way imaginable – and would finally be able to incarnate Yoishi’s body at long last?

A fear pierced through my entire being, as if I faced the thing that killed me in a past life—and I, pissed myself disgracefully.

“……Hey…. scared?”

At that moment—

A familiar voice like a ringing bell reached my ears.

--Everything… is in reverse.

Next to me, the young girl who had lost her emotions sneered.

With long black hair that gently waved, a monster was there with a pale face and dark colored eyes.

The scenery I once saw,

The ghost stories I had once read.

Among them must have been illusions in my mind created by fear.

Before I realized, there was a staircase behind me. On the landing of the staircase was a middle-aged man in a gray, worn suit, staring at me with a hollow expression. Under the bed was a woman with a white face, and a bluish-white hand that sprouted from the dark mud wall. An old woman with clouded white eyes was leaning against my back, and countless white faces floated in the sky. Sinister words scrawled in an old book pointed to a graveyard that spread out all over, while a corpse that stood on the sea was connected to a pair of high heels placed behind a guard rail left by a woman laughing in the mountains. A broken doll turns into a wriggling thing at the water’s edge, the wheelchair of an abandoned hospital squeaks and squeals as it swirls and disappears into the sky, and the shiny thing in the tornado is an alien vehicle.

You don’t know what I’m talking about? Well neither do I. I was merely describing what I saw with my eyes, as my brain felt it. Aa—Ahh, that’s right. My mind must have been on the verge of breaking down. My head must have exceeded its allowed tolerance of fear. Up until now, Krishna-san solved most things for me. More dangerous things were somehow managed by Sako. And Yoishi vaguely dealt with things I didn’t quite understand. But, those were all events on a rail laid by an ancient entity acting through malice, and I was, according to expectation, according to plan, completely afraid, and with my collapse, Yoishi too would collapse, auspiciously allowing Yoishi to transform into the ‘everlasting night stone’. The cackling and sneering black haired young girl next to me was that.

Which meant that, everything was already---

Over---

--When.

….No.

….Wait a minute…..

If Yoishi was already broken, and ended up turning into the ‘everlasting night stone’….then... What of me who was thinking right now? Did being broken mean only this much? Were these the last few normal thoughts that remined in my illogical self-consciousness? I didn’t know, but what were these thoughts that I was still thinking and feeling anyway?

Those vague doubts—

Changed the scenery in an instant.

They continued to clear away the darkness, and slowly returned my vision back to the original world.

I was still standing still in the storage room, and in front of me was Krishna-san who lay collapsed, and a bloodstained Sako. And next to me was Yoishi, dumbfounded, her empty gaze wandering at midair. There was no sign of the ‘everlasting night stone’ anywhere in the dim, dark and cramped room.

“…..Yoishi.”

I reached out my wobbly hand, gripped her hand, and spoke.

“….C, can you walk?”

Yoishi looked at me in a daze, and shook her head thereafter.

“….Come on, just walk. Let’s get out of here… let’s go outside, and call for help. If we call for an ambulance, Sako might still be--”

“—It’s impossible.”

Yoishi spoke with an expression that was clear, and heartrendingly painful.

At that moment, I noticed it.

Next to Yoishi, a white haze hung over.

There were four mists there, as if they enveloped Yoishi. And in my retinas, they gradually formed some kind of shape—and stood silently as if encompassing Yoishi. I quickly understood that it was people for some reason. And, I had an intuition that I knew these people. It felt as if I had once, somewhere, watched over them as if they were my real family…but, ahh, I knew it, I’ve started to collapse again. I realized that fact somewhere in my consciousness, but I still couldn’t do anything to stop it.

That was because—

I could now see a gentlemanly gray-haired man next to Yoishi. Next to him, I saw was a cheerful woman, a tomboyish girl with a smile on her face, and a cute brown dog at her feet. As they gradually took form, my vision gradually blurred. And those words spontaneously came from my mouth.

--I’m sorry……

I felt an overwhelming regret and fell to my knees on the spot. If I had only—if I had only been a little bit smarter. If I could have done something a little better. The feeling of cursing myself for my helplessness continued to well up inside me. I wiped away the tears that overflowed, and raised my head—

“……………”

I saw what looked like a straw rope fastened around the man’s neck. Looking closely at the mother, I saw that her body was dismembered. The girl had a knife still stuck at the base of her throat, and the small dog’s stomach was split open, its entrails fallen out. Yet despite that, the four hazy figures that had taken form remained standing, as if they enveloped Yoishi.

…..Are…. they ghosts?

At last, was I-- seeing the ghosts I had once longed to see so much?

And I realized what an unbelievably sad thing they were. Ghosts were in no way a thing to be feared. They were not something terrifying. They were completely and utterly heartbreaking things. Unable to be seen, unable to speak, they are just there. And, just seeing Yoishi Mitsurugi at ease surrounded by those ghosts evoked a pain that was enough to split my heart into two.

As the tears flowed without end from my eyes--my right elbow suddenly tinged in pain. And that ache seemed to ache in and out as it grew more painful. It became an unbearable pain, and I finally realized that it was a furious rebuke. It felt as if I heard Karasu-san’s voice right by my ear.

“….Don’t….give up yet… Think…”

I wiped away my tears, and at the same time I gritted my teeth, frantically encouraged my brain.

In the boundary between reality and fiction, between this world and the world beyond, I still mobilized my full consciousness to think.

The reason I came here…The meaning of why Sako made me come here.

Wasn’t I yet to find out why that was?

Think, think. Think until your mind is scorched, me. Sako said, 『‘Names’ in this world hold the meaning of ‘place’』, and Krishna-san had said, 『To wear the W in witch, would ultimately mean to forget who you are』. Which meant that regaining one’s original name was supposed to erase the worn ‘W’—no, was it the other way around….? That’s right….When she christened herself as ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’ and bound the ‘everlasting night stone’, wasn’t she herself was bound at the same time?

Didn’t she end up defined as a dweller of this world and the world beyond?

“So that means I need to find her real name after all--”

In my cloudy consciousness, I told Yoishi, “Stay there”, and ran out.

I mustered all my remaining strength, ran through the corridor, and jumped into the living room.

It was possible—that Yoishi’s true name was written down on something in this mansion.

I went to the kitchen and turned over the cups. For example, I thought that there would be cups for each of the family members, and a young Yoishi would have her name inscribed on that—but there was nothing there. ‘All that remains is’, I turned to face the hearth. On top of it was the polaroid photograph taken of the family. It was creepy that the other family members who died had their faces warped white somehow, but I slowly drew close to that photograph.

In old family photographs, there would be stuff like dates and names of the people in the photo written on the back. That was how it was for my family. So maybe this one was the same. That must have been the reason why Sako made me come all the way here. I’m sure Yoishi’s true name is there. It had to be. I would find that, and tell it to her; She, who ended up losing her place in the boundary between this world and the world beyond. I would declare to her with all my strength that she was a dweller of this world.

I placed my hand on the photograph, suppressing my throbbing heartbeat and rushing emotions.

But, as I was about to slowly lift it up—

I suddenly felt weak.

What if it wasn’t here…..? No, no, it had to be here.

After all, if it wasn’t here… then there would be nowhere else to search in this mansion. Believe it….it, must be there.

I took a deep breath.

And the moment I flipped over the photograph.

--*Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek**Kek*… The mansion rang.

The sneering laughter of a manly voice coldly pierced me, and flooded inside me.

Reflected in my eyes, there was nothing in the back of the photograph.

I couldn’t even see a stain in the blank space that had turned yellow—

And the world dyed in darkness in an instant.

◯

Dark.

Darkness.

A dark world—no matter where you looked.

How much darkness did this world have, and how many colors of ‘black’ did it have…?

It felt as if I had seen a lot of ‘black’ in this one year.

Enough ‘black’ to stop my thoughts.

Enough ‘black’ that seemed to suck me in forever.

And, enough ‘black’ that seemingly melted my body and thoughts in it.

But the ‘black’ that now spread before my eyes was different from all of them.

To put it ostentatiously, the ‘black’ that was the primordial of this world, where nothing else existed yet—that might have been how it felt. But, there was a strange calmness and tranquility. A boundless ‘black’, as if I was in space, in what must have once had countless planets. It truly made me feel at ease. I didn't have to suffer anymore, and I didn't have to think about anything anymore—

「Did you have fun?」

Suddenly, I heard a low voice from somewhere. I didn’t know who it was, but it wasn’t fun at all, I answered.

「Isn’t hiding behind people, and tricking people so much fun?」

I was asked that once again, and I answered that it was just you.

But the truth is—from somewhere in my heart, I ended up thinking that it might have been a bit fun. If you were to trick someone with ease, if you were to continue tricking them for the rest of my life, then that might have indeed been a bit necessary. For example, say there was someone not really blessed with singing skills, yet they can’t help but sing because they love it, and you’d tell them for the fun of it, “You’re really talented”. They would be so happy and delighted, innocently believe those words and keeps on singing. People would laugh behind their back, but still that person would willingly believe it, and continue to sing willingly. They would willingly mistake people’s laughter as being happy at their singing. But here’s what I think. Is a song that continues to be willingly sung for the sake of others, even if it lacks talent, truly worthless? Does the pure feeling of love not reside in the song? Certainly, the first words may have been malicious. However, that which began as malice might be overturned by pure feelings, and might one day become the real thing?

「Then, let’s play a trick.」

The low voice spoke once more.

‘In this world, there are only those who dance and those who make others dance to their tune, and if one were to play the part of those who play the tune—if they were to learn the joy of playing the flute, then there would be no going back’, the voice spoke.

‘Ah, I see. That may be true’, I thought.

But, I---

I knew the joy of dancing, after all. I was always on the dancing side in the festivals in my hometown. I would empty my heart and match my movements with the people around me. The pleasure of synchronizing with others made me want to raise my voice in joy. When our eyes met, we would laugh at each other, and before I realized, I would be thankful for the friends I had. Under this vast, endless night sky, I would be thankful I had friends who laughed at the same things, and who were saddened at the same things. To trick such friends would surely pain my heart. I don’t think I would want to be on the side of those who play tricks, even if I were the one who was tricked.

‘Then I ask you’, the voice asked.

Do you think parents would happily give birth to a child, if they knew in advance that the child would be born handicapped? If they found out that the child was handicapped after birth, would the parents be able to love that child normally?

That was…

That was a difficult question.

Antitrypsin deficiency—I was born with that kind of body, and suffered from infantile asthma, and ended up causing a lot of trouble and worry to my parents and the people around me. Why was I alone born with such a body? When I was a child, I often wondered when I used to cry all by myself in the corner of the room. Knowing that pain, if I were asked whether I would give birth to a handicapped child… I think I would indeed hesitate to death.

In response, ‘Right?’, the voice said.

In times like that, to be completely tricked would be merciful. To abort the child, or to be told that it’s a lovely child even with the handicap. People do not act until there is a reward in front of them. They can’t even move their feet forward unless they have a feeling that there is something fun ahead. It’s mere hypocrisy to continue doing bitter things that will only continue to get worse, right? Or they’re narcissists who love themselves for trying.

Is that so….?

Was my mother like that as well….?

‘Obviously’, answers the voice.

「They really love themselves for trying. They are drunk on it. If that wasn’t the case, could she have taken care of your labored breathing be it mealtime or the middle of the night?」

….Is that so….? No…. That might have been the case.

‘Hey, tell me’, the voice said. ‘How many lives do you think are abandoned each year by those who are not ready to be parents? How many reported cases of parents killing their own children? A parent is nothing more than a title, a temporary designation. Everyone is just an animal that thinks first and foremost of their own happiness. Why should I have to raise a child I do not love? Why do I have to raise them even as they chip away against my time, my soul? Is it social responsibility? What you would call moral responsibility? Say, just what is society? Isn’t something like that nothing more than a system to reduce quarrels as much as possible? No matter how, and no matter how many lids you put on it, problems will always continue to happen. That is your history, problems happen by default. To accept that and to live, what is wrong with that? If that’s the case—wouldn’t it be smarter to be on the side that causes the problems?’

I…could understand that.

Human history is filled with problems, and even after all this time, the problems have only increased.

I know that there were as many definitions of parenthood as there were parents. And I know that there are broken parents in this world who have never even thought of the concept of parenthood. But—despite that, there is still one act that every parent definitely does for their child. That is: to give them a name filled with all their hopes and wishes, right? Isn’t that—why names are so precious?

Ahahahahahahahahahaha! The voice suddenly burst into laughter.

‘Don’t tell me you didn’t know. How many parents do you think are out there who give their children names that inspire neither hopes nor dreams? How many names do you think there are that have nothing but the malice of their parents? Hey, can you really turn a blind eye to that? You might say that it would be fine if you change your name once you become an adult? No, It’s useless. No matter how much you try to forget the name you’ve been christened with once, it will definitely be bound to you in some shape or form for the rest of your life. That is the curse of a name. You heard it too, didn’t you? She was cursed before she was born. A life born by the violation of her mother by brats abroad! She was never wanted, not in the least! Once born, the event they'd rather have forgotten takes a form that haunts them for the rest of their lives. There’s no way she would ever be wanted!’

I was-- at a loss of words in the end, with no rebuttal.

In this mansion….I thought I would try to learn her true name. I thought that if she were to at least reclaim her rightful name, the ‘W’ that coiled around her would be exorcised. But right now, to be honest….I was afraid. I was afraid to discover her true name.

If, by some chance, there was no feeling of hopes or dreams in it, and was instead a thing filled with malice, then what? What if her endless pain and torment continued the moment she took back her true name? There have been so many things done with good intentions that push people into distress. How could I say that I wasn’t making the same mistake right now? Moreover, Sako had said that she took the name of ‘Yoishi’ to bind the ‘everlasting night stone’, but….what if that wasn’t the case, and she instead took it because she actually detested her true name?

Thereupon…a thought suddenly came to mind.

Couldn’t she stay as ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’ as she had up until now?

That would mean she would still have that callous, Noh-faced father as a guardian in name only, not have a place at home where she belonged, would keep going around haunted places where her eyes would glow, would throw up at times, and would complicate complicated matters even further, but—even so, that wasn’t the worst outcome, right? I would be there, and Krishna-san too, as well as everybody in ‘Ikaigabuchi’. If she at least opened her heart properly, she could lead a fun occult life. There would be no need to remind her that she was born cursed and undesired—

At that moment, I suddenly realized.

Could it be, the thing Sako spoke of, 『You will be compelled to make a choice』…

And, the thing Takako Takamura spoke of, 『You’ll be forced to make the final choice』, it was—

About this…?

If she were to regain her true name, she would arrive in this world while still having the scent of the world beyond.

If she were to remain as Yoishi Mitsurugi, she would live in the world beyond while remaining in this world.

…What…should I do?

The world continued to grow darker. The darkness continued to silently spread out.

As if the ground beneath my feet were filled by dark colored water, I eventually came to believe that there was only one answer.

「I want… to stay with her like this forever.」

「I want to be together with Yoishi Mitsurugi.」

Right, I was about to say it out loud.

When the wound on my right elbow, throbbed with pain once more.

The pain kept repeating like a drum being beaten and became a rhythm as it throbbed and throbbed.

Definite sounds that formed words. They became a rhythm, and made me remember what Karasu-san had once said.

---Yes, deep breaths.

When I came to… I saw that Karasu-san was there, with that nostalgic smile of hers.

Her lustrous black hair dangled down to her cheeks, and she was leaning close to me crouched down, as if she were peering inside me.

--Take a dee—ep breath in, then hold. Yes, slowly let it out--- Repeat that three times.

My vision blurred with tears at those cheerful words that were out of place.

And, before long, I repeated my breathing as I was told. I breathed, and exhaled. I exhaled as much as I could, and inhaled as much as I could.

『You'd better remember.』

『Your fear most likely comes from forgetting to breathe.』

『If the fear inside you intensifies, then like now, make sure you're breathing properly.』

『No matter what kind of paranormal lies ahead of you, you’ll definitely make it through somehow.』

‘But’, I spoke. Despite that, I still don’t know if I’m supposed to find Yoishi’s true name. I end up thinking that it’s better not to find it.

—Eh? I think you already have the answer to that.

I was surprised I was somehow able to carry on a conversation with Karasu-san from my memories—

However, as if clinging to that, I added a question, “What do you mean?”

--After all, the two of us… in the world we peeked at in those hellish days. Didn’t you decide that you would bring that back with you? After having gone through so much, being unable to do anything but witness the cruel destruction of a family, there was still something you desperately brought back with you, right?

Brought back……? I did? What……?

--It should be firmly engraved on you, Nagi-kun.

--It should be engraved on your soul.

Despite that, I still didn’t know, and was in dismay, when….

Exasperated, Karasu-san’s voice echoed kindly for one last time.

---Then, I’ll do it one last time.

--*Throb*

My right elbow ached once more.

--*Throb*, *throb*, *throb*…. That throbbing continued to grow stronger.

It was as if— my adult-self was tired of searching, and my child-self pointed it out to me with a smile, and the warmth and stimulation grew.

“…Ah….ahhhhh.”

In an instant, I was struck by lightning together and a terrible sound rang inside me, with the light running through me.

Goosebumps ran through every cell in my body, an unspecialized base sequence in the genome that was called junk, awoke. As if guided by something, it synthesized in succession, and began to build that hidden meaning.

The hanging mansion that manifested in my vision.

The old and grubby living room. The dusty counter.

As I regained reality with my right eye, a different timeline of the same place was synchronized as white hazy scenery in my left eye.

Appearing hazily—as if gliding in midair, that scenery continued to flow through me.

Before I realized, I was running.

--It can’t be….it can’t be.

I ran to the front door with enough force that I almost fell down, and looked at my reflection in the full-length mirror that was there.

I rolled up my shirt, uncovered my right elbow, and—saw it through the mirror.

What I thought was an ugly scar that did not heal for a long time, was not a scar at all.

I thought it had ended up becoming a bruise, but it was not a bruise.

『Miko Hanamura』

The bruise that was inverted in the mirror—

Had been engraved on my skin, in letters.

In an instant, the scenery I had once seen somewhere with my left eye transformed into a torrent and rushed into my brain. The amount of information was so vast and extreme that it could not be processed by my brain specifications— it flowed past me from one scene to the next, with no time to recognize it. Even so, I was still able to burn several scenes in my mind. Among the endless flashes, a fatherly figure laughed as he held a baby in his arms. A motherly figure cried as she embraced a toddler. A tomboyish young girl who looked like a middle schooler laughed as she pulled the hand of a girl with black hair and fair skin. The baby, the toddler, the fair skinned young girl—I recognized all of them as 『Miko Hanamura』. Without a doubt, at every moment, 『Miko Hanamura』 was loved.

“…………….Ah.”

Before I realized, I was in the hanging mansion, but something was different.

It was not a dusty, cobwebbed ruin. It was a clean, brand new mountain retreat with the light of the sunlight shining in.

Feeling dazzled, I continued to the living room in a daze. I heard lots of laughter coming from the nearby garden. I opened the sash and stepped out to the garden—to see a family so happy they were clad in light. In front of the barbecue was a gentle looking man, a bright woman and a cheery young girl….and, Miko Hanamura who was a child. Miko had a kind, delighted smile on her face.

“—Miko.”

I called her name.

“You…were called Miko Hanamura?”

In response, the beautiful black haired young girl with fair skin looked in my direction. It felt like we met eye to eye after a long time, after a truly long time. I was so overjoyed, so relieved, that tears gradually swelled up and began to spill.

“Miko, let’s go back.”

I reached out my hand to her, and the young girl opened her eyes wide in surprise.

She slowly took one look back, looked back at me and shook her head.

“Miko, listen to me. This place—it’s not here anymore. It’s a world that doesn’t exist anymore.”

But, a young girl drew close next to Miko, and gripped her hand. For some reason, I knew that girl’s name was ‘Kii-chan’. She looked at me with a fierce expression, as if to say she wouldn’t let her precious best friend go anywhere.

Behind them, the father was smiling. The mother gently put her hand on Miko’s shoulder. The elder sister took one step ahead with her eyebrows raised as if to protect her younger sister from me. The dog at Miko’s feet growled at me.

Looking at that—

A gentle whisper escaped my lips, ‘I see.’

And, as I was tossed around mercilessly by the warm feelings that swept over, I declared.

“….I’m glad….You were really…loved after all.”

“…Yeah.”

“Miko—that’s a really nice name.”

The tears continued to spill.

“If I remember correctly... the word『Mi彌』 means the『light that shines universally』 in Buddhism.”

“…Is, that right?”

“Yeah. I know someone who knows a lot about that stuff, so there’s no doubt about it. That’s why…that’s why.”

My voice trembled with tears, but I desperately managed to squeeze it out.

“I’m sure that the person who gave you that name wished to maintain a relationship with you forever. Regardless of how you were born, they wished that connection would last for all of eternity.”

“…..Yeah.”

“…So, listen up.”

I wiped away the tears, and raised my voice as best as I could.

“You are in no way cursed. You’re not abhorred by anyone. Being cursed—is just being lost on the inside. So… let’s go back. This place is no longer here.”

“….But.”

Miko smiled once at Kii-chan, before letting go of her hand and took a step towards me, and spoke.

“I feel comfortable here; I think it’s the place I belong. Papa, mama, onee-chan, Kii-chan, Leo—and even Mr. Inspector is here.”

Hearing that, I looked towards the back, to see a somewhat nostalgic man with gray hair and a smile on his face.

Her father, mother, older sister, best friend and pet dog—everyone was smiling, and stood behind Miko as if protecting her. Then, I heard a click behind me. I turned around to see Sako in a gray, dull, worn-out suit, taking a picture with an old polaroid camera. He then took out the photo, and handed me the photograph that was exposed to the light.

The photograph must have been the original photograph placed atop the hearth in the real ‘hanging mansion’ earlier. However, the faces of the family had no longer disappeared. The faces that had been stretched and twisted in white in midair were now beautifully cropped, with the smiling faces in front of me.

“……..I see.”

I muttered once more.

It felt as if I had been listening to someone’s sneering laughter echo all this time—

I had even realized that it belonged to the ‘everlasting night stone’, but I thought there was nothing I could do.

I understood that Miko would be swallowed by the world beyond if this continued. But, there was nothing someone like me could do. To tear away Miko away from this warm world, was something—I couldn’t do.

And that's when it happened.

I noticed something emerging in the photograph.

The polaroid photograph still hadn’t been fully sensitized. Her father, mother, elder sister and Miko were smiling kindly, and the dog at their feet looked happy as well. But—there was something else there. On Miko’s left end, a white haze emerged, which should not have been in the picture. As if to embrace a young Miko, that white haze gradually continued exposing---and eventually, took on an impossible form.

….Ahh.

At that moment, I realized the true reason why I came here.

I realized the meaning of the vast swirl of information that came surging into my head.

I realized why Sako had called me to this mansion—and why he handed me this photograph just now.

In the picture that transcended generations—

Nagito Yamada stood there, as if protecting Miko Hanamura.

The figure that decided to stand by her side no matter what cruel reality he had to face, was as if looking in the mirror at a different me. For the first time, I felt pride at myself—it made me feel a sublime will. The answer to the question posed to me earlier in the darkness welled up in my chest as I saw my own face. An answer to the voice that said, ‘It’s mere hypocrisy to continue doing bitter things that will only continue to get worse, right?’ I lost sight of myself since I was asked that question, but--

No, there is one more impetus that drives people forward.

There was something else in this world that wasn’t just greed, reward, or narcissism.

“—I got it, Miko.”

The meaning of the scenery that swirled round and round my head, continued to dissolve. The me of eleven years ago and the me of the present dissolved and merged. I was thankful for that fate and spoke the answer that I extracted from my soul, without any doubts.

“Then, I’ll stay here as well.”

Miko looked at me again with a start.

“I will never leave you to die again. I won’t stand by and let you go through something like that again.”

“………”

“Why, you ask? Because you were the first person to call me a friend. Even when I was adrift in the sea of endless despair with nowhere to go, you gave me a place to stay.”

“………A.”

“Although my email got garbled midway through.”

“………A…aaaa…..”

“I told you, didn’t I? That I would definitely protect you.”

“Yes, I was Mr. Frog back then.”

The moment I declared those words.

The sky roared, and split apart.

Somewhere, it felt as if I heard an ear-splitting scream.

At the same time, a series of low rumbling sounds reverberated deep beneath my feet, and eventually turned into subterranean rumbling that overlapped with the beating of my heart. My teeth were rattling so hard I couldn’t breathe. And I understood that I had broken a rule established by a great, great being in a far higher dimension. This might be the end for me as well—but I was prepared for that.

Why was it….? Ah, dammit, I had tried to show off and ended up saying that, but as usual my teeth were clattering, and my legs were trembling on the verge of collapse. After all this time, I realized that I was the guy with the stinky pants who had pissed himself earlier. And, the place I stood was the ruins of a mountain retreat that was now called the hanging mansion—I was in front of the hearth, and I found that the one in front of me was the Yoishi Mitsurugi of the present---no, I knew she was Miko Hanamura.

The high school girl with porcelain-white skin, long black hair swaying in the air, and dressed in the funeral-like uniform of the Koumei Institute, was merely trembling.

In her vacant eyes, countless paranormal events were now swirling around. The hundreds, the thousands of paranormal events she had experienced in the past --- no, if you were to include the ones she had read on the internet or in books then it would be in the tens of thousands. Therein, was the horror she should have truly felt. Those emotions she had become numb to, which had been stored somewhere in her brain, were all surging into Miko’s small forehead all at once.

“…This…is the feeling of fear…..”

The irises of her eyes shook, welled up, and a trickle of tears spilled down.

“It’s disturbing… not knowing…. not being able to explain….it’s just…just….disturbing….”

I nodded.

“….I’m alive….I…am alive….”

Miko covered her face with both hands. At that moment, something she must have held back for a long, long, eternity, finally broke free.

Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, all her emotions broke free, and she cried out. Her voice was like that of a newborn, defenseless baby. I held her slender body close to me, as if to protect the pure soul that had just been born into this cruel world. I hugged her tightly, as if to show that to the pure malice that I could not see, which might have still been nearby.

“….I’m alive….I am… alive….”

“….Yes. You are truly alive. And you should keep on living step by step. Live as long as you can for the ones who have gone before you—”

And after that you can die in peace—I was about to say that.

“……..I’m scared.”

Miko whispered in my chest.

“I’m scared to go on living…the countless paranormal things are scary as well…the voice in the wall, the smiling dolls, shadows in the reflection, the person with only legs, the man in the gutter, the will -o’-the-wisp, the box in the storehouse, people disappearing in the sky—in this---in such a scary world….how did you live this far….how should I live…?”

“Hahaha.”

I couldn't help but laugh. I felt like I could finally talk with her about the real paranormal things. It felt like I could teach her that while some ghost stories circulating this world were really dangerous, they were also full of romance and mysterious charm.

When—at that moment.

I thought the ground still felt like it was shaking because I was a coward, or because I was embracing a high school girl, but…. I realized that it was neither of those things.

“H….heyy, Yoi….no, Miko!”

I yelled seeing the creaking wall swell up and down.

“It’s an earthquake! Shit, it’s a big one.”

The building slowly swayed from side to side, and eventually began to rattle and shake little by little.

“Run away, Miko! This run-down building is dangerous. I’ll get Krishna-san.”

After saying that, I pushed Miko, whose face was still soggy in tears, toward the direction of the front door, and then staggered and swayed as I ran down the corridor. At the back of the corridor, the storage room floor was covered entirely with Sako’s blood. I bowed my head once to Sako who had already passed away, “I’m sorry”, and lifted Krishna-san’s body, who lay collapsed and unconscious, and carried her on my shoulder. I then furiously rushed toward the front door. The shaking quickly grew even more violent, and I staggered and hit the wall, but still clenched my teeth as I broke through the front door and jumped outside. I slowly laid Krishna-san a little further away from the building, and gasped.

There was no one in my surroundings.

Miko, who should have left the building before me, was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey…Miko!”

I called out at the top of my voice, but there was no reply.

The shaking grew even more ferocious, and I understood that the building would completely flatten. I clicked my tongue once, left Krishna-san there and jumped back inside the building. “Miko!” As I yelled, I looked around and saw that she was in a daze in the living room.

“Hey, what are you doing! Get out of here!”

The moment I ran up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders, I realized that Miko was staring at that photograph in front of the hearth.

“The first picture… the two of us took together.”

“Well, that’s true but.”

“But…you were a ghost.”

“Shut it, let’s go, if you wanna take that photo then hurry up and do it!”

I called out to Miko who had been standing motionless in front of the photograph for who knows how long, when it happened.

A terrible *creeeeeak* rang out, and the building bent. It felt as if a giant hand grasped the building from the outside, and at the same time— a sound like a low male voice reverberated throughout the building.

--*Gigigigigigigigigigigigigi*

It was as if it were a sneering voice—as if it were a wailing voice.

Together with that detestable sound, the beams of the ceiling twisted to an absurd degree. Dust was rising and falling down like rain. There were five of them— they felt like giant fingers of something. From the depths of darkness—a malice-stained, corrupted hand reached out from the depths of this world called hell.

Give her back.

It reached straight for Miko—

“Don’t fucking mess with me.”

I howled.

“I will never let go again. She is a fragment of my soul. And, my--”

I yelled a scream that would not lose to the thunderous roar of the collapsing beams.

“My precious wife!”

In an instant—

My vision muddled white, and a sharp stinging pain ran down my shoulders. It was as if, I knew the building would collapse all at once, like in the Fafrotskies phenomenon. I instantly covered Miko’s body to protect her from the falling debris of the building. One after another, building material fell on my back, biting into my skin, and crushing my bones. In the midst of the sound that split my ears— it seemed to me as if I had been caught in the hand of the ‘everlasting night stone’.

“L-let go.”

The world continued to darken.

The faint hope was fading away.

The moment I screamed in the midst of overwhelming despair that filled my heart.

“Ayana Takamura.”

Under my arms, Miko Hanamura roared her last lines as “Yoishi Mitsurugi”.

“You’re there, aren’t you?”

At that moment, somewhere far above in the sky, something opened its eyes.

“I’ll give you the best thing you wished for.”

“’Yoishi’ called out to those eyes.

“So-- don’t ever come close to this person, ever again.”

《OK》

That must have been the last illusion I saw in my fading consciousness.

Ayana Takamura’s giant head that appeared from the void—

--*Crunch*, it ate something.

And in the world that had grown dark once more, those clear, boyish words echoed through the air.

“The fear held by the root of fear or something ---it was truly a delicious meal.”

◯

In the silent, pitch-black rubble—

After finishing the long, endless story, she might have finally remembered everything.

Yoishi Mitsurugi, or rather, Miko Hanamura muttered, “…..Right….yeah…that’s right….”

“Did you remember?”

I managed to reply with that somehow as I put up with the pain in my immobile body.

But I felt somewhat embarrassed, even though I only talked about what happened just a while ago, about what might have been the biggest occultic thing to happen in my life, I ended up talking about it all the way to when I declared her my ‘wife’. For a while, we were both silent in the darkness.

“…You, really.”

“…….Hm?”

I thought she might have been embarrassed in her own way—

“….are a fool.”

She said so in his usual tone,

“S, shut up, jerk.”

I retorted in an instant, but I felt embarrassed once more, and was unable to say anything after that.

Darkness and silence fell once more, and I noticed that the pain was slowly getting worse. I slowly wiped the sweat off my forehead while trying to hide it from Miko, and clenched my teeth to endure the pain.

Thereupon, Miko muttered something to me.

“Back then—”

“…..Eh?”

“I understood how ghosts felt. When you were delirious in the hospital room, when you had your cognition of me sealed away.”

“….A, ahh.”

“To exist there and to not be recognized—it’s an unbelievable darkness.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“….It was so dark. Pitch black darkness so awful… that it might be the most terrible darkness there is.”

“…I said I’m sorry.”

“……But.”

“……….”

“But if you hadn’t protected been in that way—you would have fallen apart. And perhaps my heart wouldn't have lasted either. In that sense…it might be something to be thankful for.”

“……….”

It was thanks to Krishna-san, and Sako. Come to think of it, Sako was…crushed underneath, huh? What about Krishna-san? I placed her a little further away from the building, but was she alright? As I thought such things, it suddenly felt like my head became misty white. I was still lying down, but I felt terribly dizzy as if had lost my sense of equilibrium.

--Damn, could this be….dehydration? Or an infection from the wounds in my legs, back or head. Dammit, the more I thought about it, the more anxious I got. In times like these, the worst thing to do would be to lose hope.

I thought that, but the only one who knew we were here was Sako, and unless Krishna-san, who was lying outside, didn’t regain consciousness safely and instantly grasp hold of the situation and call for help, then there was no hope for us. This was terrible. We finally managed to get rid of the ridiculously dangerous monster that scattered malice for so long, but our chances of survival were infinitesimally small.

“H-hey, Miko, try to smile.”

Impatient, I made that absurd request towards the other side of the darkness. And what came back to me in reply was a voice with a deep-seated reluctance, “Ehh?”

“Come on, I’m begging you.”

“Even if I were to smile in a place like this, you can't see it.”

“Well, that’s true, but—no, just try it! Smile for me. I’m scared. I'm so pathetic I can't help it, but I'm scared. If I were to be cheered up somehow…right, if I don’t see your smile, then I’m going to lose heart. Look, listen up. A smile is more precious than anything else in this world. Nothing bad happens to a person who is smiling happily. A nice smile is a present that will make everyone happy. So, please. My hopes are fading, so give me the best smile you can as a present! I’m begging you!”

In response, Miko kept silent for a while and spoke.

“………..Ah…..so that’s how it was….”

“……Eh?”

“Perhaps it was the same for ‘Gandame’.”

“…Ga, Gandame…?”

“’Gandame’ and ‘Yousen-boy’… they might have been trying to deliver us hope. Ghosts, yōkai, monsters and everything else simply existed. They simply existed—but the moment humans feared them, they might have turned into monsters.”

My impassioned speech took a strange turn, and I was about to give up.

“…..I’ll try to….smile.”

Suddenly, Miko agreed.

“…I don’t know if you’ll be happy though.”

“Ohh, really?”

“……….”

“…..Hey, did you smile already?”

“………”

“…Is it alright…if I can feel it?”

In my vague consciousness, I bumped my trembling hand against the wood here and there—and slowly reached out my hand. I reached out my arm in the direction of the voice, towards Miko’s cheeks. My fingertips touched something soft—

It happened at that moment.

Heeeeeeeey, I heard a person’s voice from somewhere.

For a moment, it was a voice so faint I thought it might have been an auditory hallucination—but, I definitely felt like I heard it.

I strained my ears,

“……Heyyyyyyyy, is anyone alive?!”

It was the voice of a man I didn’t recognize. And it was followed by the voice of a different man, “Make a voice, or even a sound! If you can make it, then do it!” I desperately twisted my head to face up, and I saw a flicker of light in between the gaps of the timber somewhere.

Ohh, my hopes skyrocketed in an instant.

“….Over here! We’re over here! We’re alive! We’re alive!!”

I desperately raised my voice, and instantly a huge amount of dust invaded my throat, and I coughed violently.

But, there were shouts of joy right near me, “Oooohh!”, “This way!”, it felt as if the sound of several footsteps drew closer.

In my fading consciousness—the roof and lumber were being moved aside one by one. The air suddenly began to move, and thick oxygen brushed against my nostrils. The light began to pour down on me, which must have been the flashlights of the rescue team. As I was illuminated by that light—I saw it. Just fifty centimeters or so away from me, I saw a face so beautiful and lovely that she felt out of this world.

Miko Hanamura was looking kindly at me with clear eyes that had lost their dark color.

“…Miko.”

The moment I spoke her name in embarrassment, the last piece of timber imprisoning us was removed. The rescue team clad in orange lifted it up with their thick arms.

“Are you alright? Are you conscious? Your wounds?”

I was asked in rapid succession, but I guess he knew right away.

“Lacerations on the left leg! This is terrible---Ah, large abrasions on the back and the arms …get a stretcher right away!”

--Hey, hey, don’t scare me now.

I mean, I'm going to cause my sister and the others to worry again, as I thought that, I spotted the adorable baby face beyond the rescue team. Her hair was a little disheveled, but the petite former occult site manager was looking my way with tears filled in her eyes.

“Ah, thanks.”

Foolish thought it might have been, that was all the greeting I could muster.

I then turned to look at Miko who was right below me. I was about to smile at her, to tell her that we had been saved, but-

Thereupon, I realized that Miko was slightly out of position from where I was. In her right hand, she clutched the stuffed frog as if to protect it, and in her left hand, she clutched that polaroid photograph. It seemed she had almost let go of them when the ceiling collapsed, but desperately shifted her body to take them back. No, I understood that much, but.

“…Hey, Miko, what is that?”

I asked, suddenly noticing a strange foreign object.

I stared at that strange object, and vaguely thought about its meaning.

It was—the sharp, pointed fragment of a broken pillar.

And, right now, it was growing like an object from Miko Hanamura’s chest.

“Hey…Miko….”

I asked her once more, when the rescue team pulled me out in a hurry, and shifted their attention to Miko.

“Wai…”

Wait a minute. Let me see her.

I wanted to say that, but my body ached all over, and no voice came out.

“CPR!! Hurry!!”

I heard that voice. Three members of the rescue party moved the timber, opened the hole even wider and pulled out Miko’s body. They then placed her in the stretcher meant for me, carried her to a level ground a short distance away, where the paramedics there began to perform CPR on her.

“It’s no good, Get the AED!”

Someone shouted that out loud, but an older paramedic stopped them.

With a somber look on his face, he gently shook his head and spoke.

“She—has already passed away.”

“…It must have been an instant death. Judging from the liver mortis that’s already set in, the time of death must have been around twenty-four hours ago….”

“….Inst….Twenty four hours….?”

I finally managed to let out a cry, and dragged my aching leg as I got up.

I dragged myself, and crawled towards Miko.

“Hey, there’s no need for that… doing something foolish like that….”

The rescue team were looking at me. The rescue team in orange rushed up to me. They didn’t know if they should help me, or stop me from walking, but I pushed back against them one after another, and reached Miko.

“What are you guys saying…. We were talking until just now. The two of us were trying our best not to lose against this darkness… We’ve been talking for the whole day, trying not to lose consciousness. Right?”

Before I’d realized, I was clutching the collar of the elder paramedic, when someone stopped me from behind.

“...Hey, I’m begging you, please…. Hurry up and help her! With that…with that machine right there! If you use that, then she’ll surely regain consciousness, right? She’ll be saved, right? If you can’t do it, then take her to a hospital right away! Hurry up, hey!!”

“Stop it, Nagi-kun!”

I turned around hearing that scream, to see that the tearful voice belonged to Krishna-san—

I realized that it was her who was desperately clinging to me to try and stop me.

“Ah…Krishna-san…After all, it’s strange, right? She…Miko was…until just now, telling me I was a fool, and she listened to me asking her to smile--”

I was about to say that.

I realized it for the first time.

Yoishi Mitsurugi—no, Miko Hanamura’s face, was curved in a faint smile.

To me, it was as if she desperately tried to remember and recreate the smile she had almost forgotten—

I screamed a voiceless scream, as I embraced her.

---

Translator's notes and references

Back to Case 14: In the Mirror

Return to Main Page

Forward to Epilogue