The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village:Volume6 Chapter 3

Status: Incomplete

1/15 parts completed

   

Chapter 3: Turn@Hishigami Mai & Illness Magic User

Part 1 (3rd person)

Roppongi, Tokyo.

Perhaps due to the influence of TV, that land itself seemed to have a brand image. Among the many high-rise buildings there, a man used the entire top floor of a fifty-story building as his second home.

His name was Banjou Akira.

He was turning forty-five this year and he was often introduced on TV as a philanthropist. He would donate money on the level of lottery winnings to individuals or groups afflicted with various social problems or that worked to resolve those problems. It could be midsized or small corporations developing caregiving robots, a production company making ads to reduce the number of littered cigarettes, or a housewife giving out food to the homeless.

Every inch of the soundproofed walls of his home theater room was covered in newspaper and magazine clippings and printouts from online articles. They were all praising Banjou. As he smiled gently in the media’s eye, he was actually incredibly concerned about how others viewed him.

Also…

One wall reflected a bright white light. A projector displayed the personal information of murderers and kidnappers who had troubled the world in the past few years. Specifically, they were those who had used a Youkai and thus could not be judged by the law or were reduced to a lower crime that could be judged. Deadly muggings were treated as theft and abductions were treated as deceptive obstruction of business.

A few of the photographs had big red Xs over them.

A cause of death was written next to those ones: a traffic accident during transport, beaten to death in their cell, or an attack from a hornet or poisonous spider.

In the end, he had funded those kinds of actions just as much as his official donations.

Banjou Akira only ever thought about social problems.

And both officially and in secret, he would spare no expense to help anyone who was working to resolve those problems. Even if he ended up taking someone’s life, he felt not a twinge of guilt.

But his fat body tilted sideways in his leather chair. He fell right to the floor. Banjou Akira would never move again and a woman stared down at his unmoving form.

“It’s over.”

Her name was Hishigami Mai. The beautiful woman wore a tank top and hot pants and she used a large satellite cellphone to call the ten year old girl named Hafuri who led Hyakki Yakou.

The small canine Youkai at her feet, the Sunekosuri, was trembling in fear. His teeth had been chattering and he had not been able to speak a word.

“I just dealt with t Shinshou Hitsubatsu’s sponsor. His bank account will be frozen when news of his death gets out, so even if he’s set up automatic transfers, they won’t be getting any more money. I just hope this stops there work.”

“How did you do it?”

“High-quality brandy and sleeping pills. People really need to read the warnings before they use those things. Everyday life is full of dangers.”

“But that’s his second home, isn’t it? Since it’s a celebrity’s secret home, his family isn’t going to find him. Couldn’t it take over a month before he’s found?”

“That’s why I’m calling emergency services on the home phone once I finish speaking with you. I’ll have the corpse hold the receiver and never say a word on the phone. I can mess with the humidifier’s settings to throw off the estimated time of death, so it doesn’t matter that the order was backwards. His body will be found faster than a coin locker baby.”

With that comment, Mai glanced over at the home theater’s screen.

The man must have enjoyed the limelight because he had filled the screen with the photographs that acted as twisted trophies of his targets. One photo in the center was especially large.

The photo was of a ten year old genius girl named Ranzono Sachi.

She was a criminal who had constructed an Oomukade Package on her own. The Youkai-related crime and her young age had made her difficult to charge in court, so she had been a double punch for the justice-obsessed owner of the room.

And currently, she was the top target of an organization named Shinshou Hitsubatsu.

“We will monitor Shinshou Hitsubatsu’s actions,” said Hafuri.

“Sure, sure. But if this doesn’t stop them, the situation might get a little tricky. If it comes to that, maybe I’ll see if I can get his help.”

“I doubt he would help us now.”

“Don’t be so sure. I bet you could convince him right away if you gave him a teary-eyed puppy dog look.”

Mai sounded like she did not really care.

“That Illness Magic User is super easy to understand. I’m sure he’s still running full speed down the path of the fleeing soldier with that gloomy look on his face!”

Part 15

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