Phenomeno:Case 03
1
I was in my dreams that day, too.
It was an afternoon right smack in the middle of summer, and I could hear cicadas somewhere. It was such a hot day that I could feel sweat dripping even if I were just sitting still, and I sat on the porch of the house, staring absent-mindedly at the garden.
At some point, the girl belonging to the house had taken a seat by my side.
She wore a white shirt and a drab skirt. I couldn't figure out what era this dream chose as its setting by what she wore. Still, I thought it couldn't be too far from my time. The girl couldn't see me in this dream.
That's why we didn't so much as exchange greetings. The girl stepped down from the porch, poured water into a small tub, and then sat next to me with her feet in the tub. She looked absolutely beautiful as she sat there using a small fan to send herself a breeze. Her black hair was carefully tied behind her, and the way she always had her lips closed expressed her upright personality.
The girl and I simply sat there in silence. The bamboo trees on the other side of the white wall swayed from the wind and made rustling sounds.
This world was peaceful, as it had no other sounds.
Or it should have been--
I had a feeling, which was closer to conviction.
A sad premonition that this dream wouldn't have a happy ending.
This one large Japanese-style building that was covered in a somewhat bluish tint.
At some point, I'd started seeing the dream of this house over and over again.
There were times I'd see a continuation, and other times that it seemed like time had skipped. But being a dream, I'd eventually awaken. That's why I'd slowly begun to enjoy these dreams -- but at the same time, I'd begun to feel sad whenever I awakened. Eventually, I'd come to realize that the emotions I felt were tied to the eventual sad conclusion that this mansion faced. I often saw the blue world stained red, the girl a bloody heap on the ground.
This was clearly a lucid dream. In other words, a dream that I am cognizant is a dream even as I dream.
Normally, dreams have unique attributes that make them stand out. lucid dreams in particular usually cause you to have an omnipotent feeling because you can cause anything to happen. However, this dream always gave me a nagging feeling of lack of control.
Why?
Shouldn't I be finding out?
And then I began investigating the nooks and crannies of this house.
The house in the dream had, roughly speaking, a cast of four. At the center was the girl, who smiled at everyone like a spring breeze, and there was also an old man of around fifty, presumably the lord of this house and probably her father. Furthermore, there there were two other men, who seemed to love the girl, and who also seemed to be her cousins. I also saw servants entering and leaving every so often, but we can probably put them aside. The house had a room roughly fifty tatamis large with a large pillar going right down its center that housed the houselord, and to its side was the girl's room, and then further than that were the rooms of her cousins. There was a kitchen, a parterre, a parlor, and a room for servants. I would answer yes it I were asked if it were large, but there were also plenty of houses around this size in the countryside from which I came. It didn't strike me as particularly uncommon, and so I simply wandered about.
Windows and sliding-screen doors held no meaning to me, given that I was like a ghost in this world. I could enter anywhere I wanted to if I wished. However, the more I roamed the house the more I had this bizarre and out-of-place feeling.
There was something wrong with this house.
I began to think that. And then I felt like I'd sensed this oddity before. And when I thought about it, I realized: it was like that house. The "house that grants wishes" that I'd stayed in when I first came to Tokyo. A house for the house that had been built by a heart-broken architect. It was the same sense of misplacement that I felt then.
That would mean.
That there should be a room that could not be entered via normal means. A space that had been deliberately sealed away.
I felt some misgiving, but I decided to look for that room, anyways.
However, I would always forget about that goal whenever the dream began, and only after gazing at the various events occurring in the house (such as an amusing conversation between the girl and her cousins, the houselord having trouble with the trees in the garden, such as when there's some trouble the servants need to take care of) do I eventually remember that room. And then I would begin searching, but time would run out and I would awaken. It was almost as if once I remembered the existence of that room, the administrator of the dream would kick me out.
Of course, in the end, it's still just a dream.
Not everything needed to make absolute sense. In particular, looking at the girl's spring-like smile makes me feel like such a room doesn't really matter at all. Was it wrong to just wish for the girl's happiness? Isn't it enough to just watch over the girl's beautiful mannerisms? There was always something nagging at me from the corner of my mind, but that's what I'd begun to think.
But, when I was rudely lying down on the porch and gazing at the girl pruning the trees in the garden, I heard a familiar voice from above.
"This house is quite amusing."
I looked, and for some reason, there was Mitsurugi Yoishi.
"Everything here was built to further seal off something that had already been sealed."
She whispered, as the dark eyes on her white face glimmered.
"You-"
I pointed at Yoishi as I spoke.
"You, what are you doing in my dream?"
I opened my eyes and found myself in a car.
I was in the back of a damn small light vehicle and about to be crushed by a number of bags.
I tried to straighten myself out and was shocked to find someone's fragrant, black hair right up at my nose.
I hurriedly pushed out with my hands, and that person lazily slid back over to the other side, like a rotten corpse.
"It- it was your fault!?"
I shouted, but Mitsurugi Yoishi kept sleeping as if she were dead.
"Shut up, Nagi-kun."
"You know, Fujieda should be a short drive off the highway."
"Don't blame me, the GPS told me to go this way."
I sighed. We'd done that exchange several times already in this tiny car.
Well, all of this is because I struggled with the first-semester exams at my university, and then I forgot to buy train tickets to get back home.
That was yesterday. After I finished my exams, I was sleeping like a log to make up for my sleep deprivation. And then my cell phone rang... my sister was on the other end.
"So, we're getting ready for the festival tomorrow. When're you getting here?"
My brain cells froze for a moment, and then pulled out some latent powers without any regard for how overheated they were from my exams, like a divine revelation, it came to me...
Krishna-san had certainly spoken about it, At the end of July, she was going to participate in the Ikaigabuchi offline meeting taking place in Shizuoka. Moments later I called Krishna-san and cried, please let me tag along.
And now, I'm being shaken around in this cramped car.
"That's why I tried to stop you."
Krishna-san said with an annoyed voice from the driver's seat.
"I'm not a good driver, and this car's an almost thirty-year-old can of junk. You're the one that insisted, anyways. I have so much stuff to bring to the offline meeting, so you're the ones making things worse. It's usually just fine when I'm the only one here--"
Sounded the cold voice from the driver's seat.
I looked up, and found Krishna-san glaring at me through her rear-view mirror.
"You made me miss what the GPS was saying."
Those words finally jostled my consciousness back.
The sunlight shone brightly through the car window as the car drove westward with full speed. I could see the Pacific Ocean expanding in my view, glimmering on the other side of the window.
That's right... we're in Krishna-san's old car.
And I was on my way back to Fujieda.
"This GPS is old, so it takes a really long time to get back on track once I miss the road. It's like it's punishing me for not paying attention to it."
Krishna-san, who was extremely poor with any machine other than a computer, desperately tried to adjust the GPS, but the old LCD display started to give even more inexplicable directions.
"It's because you bought such an old car."
I said with a somewhat teasing tone, and she quickly fired back.
"I was told this was a bargain, and I really liked the design, too."
"You get too empathetic over everything, Krishna-san."
"Shut up. If you're good to machines, your feelings will eventually reach them."
And then she looked back at us, at Yoishi, who slept between the luggage like a broken doll.
"It's pretty insane to try to fit both of you in there, you know."
"I agree, but you know, I'm not the one who dragged her in here."
And then, Yoishi whispered, still in a crumpled posture.
"You're the one that told me to come to Eboshi Mountain."
".....Huh?"
That moment, the car took a bounce.
For a moment it felt like my stomach was turning inside-out, but I frantically held that back. And on the side, I looked at Yoishi's face, and her usual pale face had become ashen-blue.
"Hey! You! don't puke here!"
"What?"
Krishna-san shouted back in a frantic voice, but by that time Yoishi had quickly opened the rear-seat window, stuck her head out, and vomited.
"Hey, you!!"
Astonishingly, a blue sports car that was driving right behind us zig-zagged. I think they probably managed to avoid the vomit with their nice judgement. After that, the sports car kept a large distance away from our car, Their intense glares toward us were actually hurtful.
After Yoishi finished vomiting, a little bit of drool still remained on her lips as she closed the window and went back to sleep. It couldn't be helped, I took out a crumpled handkerchief from my pocket. Don't get on a car if you have a habit of throwing up, I grumbled to myself as I wiped off her mouth.
I ended up meeting up with Mitsurugi Yoishi mysteriously early this morning. Me and Krishna-san were to meet in front of a room in the university. It was loaded with video cameras, tripods and computers. Over there, Yoishi aimlessly arrived.
"You- What are you doing here?"
Of course I asked her that question, but she didn't answer.
It was already summer vacation for the public, if we were any more late in our departure, the roads would be jammed with traffic and that would have been troublesome. For the time being I ignored the vacant Yoishi still standing there.
First, I loaded the goods into the car. The small car barely had a trunk at all, most of the front passenger seat was already occupied with Krishna-san's clothes and books related to the occult. That's why I loaded up the rear seat with cameras and other things, along with my own luggage.
I managed to cram it all in somehow and managed to make a place for myself to sit. But before I knew it, Yoishi was already sitting there. Naturally, I told her to move, but she just silently closed her eyes. No matter how many times I told her, she didn't move. Thanks to that, I ended up having to sit bending backwards in the middle of the luggage like a prawn.
As I remembered that, I nimbly took out a book out of my bag. Gazing at Yoishi, who was sitting on her knees.
"Hey, Yoishi"
I pointed at her clothes and asked, "Why did you come to school so early in the morning, while still wearing a school uniform even when it's summer vacation?"
"It wasn't early at all."
"Eh?"
"Because last night , I was in Tsukimori cemetery for a long time, that's my way back home."
"Ah... So you stayed out all night and arrived the next morning."
Or should I say, what's up with staying at Tsukimori cemetery all night and returning back the next morning.
As I thought that, I got confused and shook my head.
"Actually, it's fine. I won't ask what you were doing. It was probably some weird stuff anyway. But once we get to Fujieda, you must get in touch with your household. Don't worry your parents like that."
With Krishna-san in front of me, I said that, acting as the dignified senior.
"Where will the offline meeting for Ikagebuchi be held, I wonder?", said Yoishi while ignoring me and asked Krishna-san.
"In Shizoka city, There's interesting research being announced about Konohasakuya-hime(Cherry tree blossom princess)", answered Kirshna while driving.
"That was originally called a banana type myth in South East Asia, there are some unique Japanese descriptions that I can't accept. There have been researchers of Konohasakuya-hime in Shizoka for a long time. They are going to supplement those shortcomings by presenting a hypothesis, that's why I'm going."
Krishna-san seemed to be in an unusually good mood. Because her occult website Ikagebuchi was famous at a national level, offline meetings and searches of haunted places were being held monthly. I was only attending the meetings that were being held in Tokyo, as expected, I hadn't yet followed the forum threads of Shizoka.
"A lot of things happened and I was restraining myself on attending offline meetings, but I've had a lot of interest in Konohasakuya-hime, so I just have to attend the meeting."
"Is that so?"
Konohasakuya-hime is about that, a female goddess from Mount Fuji whose had various theories about her deification. She married the grandson of the sun-goddess Hononinigi, gave birth to three children, one of those was Hoori. He would be the ancestor of the Japanese royal family, even I knew that much.
"Your family's fire festival is also perhaps, derived from that lineage." said Krishna.
"Konohasakuya-hime's, whose fidelity was suspected by Ninigi, gave birth in the midst of fire. That legend was used as a model for the often occurring fire festival everywhere... Or I wonder if it belongs to another legend altogether?”
"I don't know about the details, but the festival in our home town was originally dedicated to the mountain god. Making portable shrines, parading them downtown, and finally burning them. At that time, the electricity of the town is mostly shut off, leaving only the light of the iron basket fire. That spectacle, how should I describe it…? Beautiful, just like a dream.”
“I’m looking forward to it” Said Krishna-san while driving the car; her voice seemed to be in a happy tone.
I haven’t told my family about it yet, but in exchange for driving me back, I promised to let her stay at my house. Well, Krishna-san is polite and courteous; I don’t think she would be a problem at all, the problem lay with Yoishi.
That girl is completely unpredictable, if it was concerning her, even a chat over tea would turn into a ghost story. Especially, as my elder sister had said, this years’ fire festival is to be organized by us: the Yamada family. It would be nice if we could carry out our responsibility safely, I reflected, as I pondered over such dark thoughts.
“It’s no good.” Said Krishna all of a sudden, slamming down on the car’s GPS.
“I didn’t say anything…”
At that moment, an unpleasant thud sound was heard from the engine. Before long the car gradually slowed to a halt
“Even though we left with a full tank of gas…” mumbled Krishna in a timid tone of voice as she glanced back at us.
I looked towards Yoishi feeling she might be responsible for what happened. But Yoishi was reading a tasteless book on the medieval history of execution tools while on her knees as her eyes glimmered.
After the continuous struggle through the highway, on top of its engine stalling four times for no particular reason, the car finally reached my home. The sun had already gone down and it was evening time. We parked Krishna’s car in the field which served a dual purpose of being a place to cultivate and to store lumber. During this time, I saw the figure of my older sister in jeans and a T shirt coming out of the front door of the house.
“You’re late, Nagi-suke! What were you doing, slacki-“
As she said that, my sister fell silent silent seeing the two strangers who had stepped off the car.
“Eh, this is..?”
“Nice to meet you.” Krishna-san introduced herself while politely bowing her head. “I’m Nagi-kun’s senior at university, Kurimoto Shina. I’m always being helped by Nagi-kun with various things. “
“Oh…is that so..?”
With that introduction, my elder sister replied in a polite and courteous attitude that I hadn’t seen up until now.
“I’m his elder sister, Akatsuki. It’s a pleasure to meet you, thank you for looking after my little brother.”
After that, I pushed Yoishi -- You also introduce yourself, dumbass. Yoishi just stood there staring silently. It couldn’t be helped, I thought, as I introduced Yoishi.
“This is Yoishi, Mitsurugi Yoishi. Uhhh… “
What would be a good way to explain my relation to her?
“We belong to the same group with shared interests, right…?”
With Krishna’s impromptu commendation, my elder sister stared in amazement.
“Ehh, you’re still a high schooler, right?”
When asked that, Yoishi just silently raised one finger.
“A first year high schooler, is it?”
Yoishi nodded
Was that so? Even for me, this was my first time hearing about it.
“Even though you seem to be quiet, but you sure are very beautiful”. The candid line from my sister made Yoishi tilt her head slightly. I’m afraid any moment now, she’ll say something like, “Does that have any meaning?”
“Why! Yoishi-chan is a beauty, and Krishna san is cute as well, which one will be this guy’s wife? Or how should I put it…It’s not my place to decide, is it?”
What are you saying?? This person…
I stood dumbfounded glaring at my sister whose long and bright hair was swaying, Krishna-san decisively took a deep breath of air and spoke.
“It’s so scenic and beautiful around here, and the air is great to breathe; it’s a really good place, isn’t it?”
“Only because it’s the sticks,” laughed my sister.
“Anyway, It’s only my mother and father besides me living here, so we have a lot of rooms, please feel free to relax.” Saying that, she invited both Krishna-san and Yoishi inside.
While I was undertaking the work of carrying the luggage, I squinted at the base of the mountain, which was dyed in sunshine. At the entrance of Eboshiyama, the path to the temple already had a wooden structure constructed; a few adults could be seen working around there.
The cold wind blowing down from Fuji, and the hot wind rising up from the Pacific Ocean, entwined with the breath of the forest and blew a unique kind of wind in Fujieda. Being struck by the wind on my cheeks, I was hit with the realization… I was finally back; in my home town, where the fire festival would soon begin.
2
“Ah! Nagito!”
Welcome back, said my mother smiling fondly at me.
“Returned, have you?” remarked my father curtly while lying on his back.
Well then, I should talk about both my parents here a little bit.
After all, it was a story told to me by my dad who tended to boast about himself, but I want to tell one third of the story.
When my father was young, he was known to be an outrageous brat, if you were to put it in modern terms, a DQN (a slang term used in 2channel for someone who is extremely foolish), Yankee, or one of those delinquents who teams up with other delinquents and roams the streets. In short, he was a hooligan. I don't know what I didn't like about it when I thought about it now, but he rebelled against a lot of things.
Fights won: 75, lost: 12. His influence reached as far away as Yaizu city. The name Kanto Yamada, made those near and far tremble with fear. Those legendary tales still seems to be talked about at neighborhood association meetings: He had eliminated monstrous catfish living the Kasuga pond; he caused ill-mannered sailors who had strayed into Yaizu city from abroad to go back to their home countries with just one glare, plenty of these kinds of iffy stories typical of the countryside.
My father was that kind of man, who after graduating high school, had no intention of inheriting the family’s lumber business. He spent his days lazily; drinking sake, gambling, getting into fights, with women, and acting violently. At last, it could be said that he finally drew the attention of the god from the shrine of three-god-mountain. From that day on, for causes unknown, he got a high fever and fell down, hives developed on his face, a rash on his arm and warts sprouted on his legs. So my father, who was always over-confident in his looks took a painful blow and prepared himself for a painful death. But, if he was going to die anyway, he would take forcefully take down the incarnation of the mountain god with him; my father schemed up something completely ridiculous like that, like he was going to live shamelessly and shortly anyway.
Uttering that line like a high schooler who had watched too many heroic movies, my father’s younger self grabbed some gasoline and a lighter and headed off in the direction of the three god mountain shrine. However, the shrine maiden was sweeping the temple grounds at the time, my mother: Nogi Tomoko. What’s more, my mother had only just enlisted as a part time apprentice, but still, she eloquently managed to preach to my father. You can’t have such a short temper and such, you are still young, behave yourself from now on, and such. However, the self-proclaimed number one wild boy of Fujieda prostrated himself in front of my mother, the shrine maiden who was not even dressed stylishly. He’d come prepared for death, but instead ending up proposing to her at that place. This is what is known among us in the Yamada family as, the ceremony of the angel Tomoko causing Kanto’s submission.
Or rather, no matter how dubious this overly long story might be, it seems to have been the start of the romance between my parents. Why a shrine maiden, and why angel Tomoko, I don’t want you to think too deeply about it. Anyway, it’s been 24 years since then and they’re living a happy conjugal life here in Fujieda. I mean, my father pretended to be the domineering husband, but he was just so deeply in love with my mother.
“Have you lost a little weight?”
My father and elder sister had went to the living room to make arrangements for the visitors who had come from far away, at that time my mother asked stretching my cheeks with her hand.
“You’ve had it difficult in Tokyo, haven’t you?”
“Well, various things have happened”
I almost unintentionally blurted out everything that happened with me up until then, the fearful experiences I had gone through in Tokyo; I was on the verge of spilling it all: Being chased by the countdown of death and the fear of not having any place to run away to, the spine creaking fear I felt when we took down that unbelievable giant floating matter. Well, in the first place it stemmed from me being an occult maniac, but in this short time I’ve gone through consecutive perils which seem to have worn away my lifespan. I don’t even know how many times all I wanted was return home to Fujieda.
But… “ I don’t know if you heard from sis, but uh… First, the house I rented ended up still being occupied by the previous owner; then because of some difficulties I had to go to the hospital, when I was there I ended up being examined by a completely incompetent quack.” I was bad at lying, and made up some sloppy falsifications. In the first place, saying something about being possessed by ghosts would probably not be believable. In any case, it’s not a problem now, everything is already over. Nevertheless, my mother still stared at me with a look of worry in her eyes.
“Sounds like you’ve had an awful time”.
“No, well, it’s not a big deal”. After that I sat up straight and apologized once again. “With that being said... I’m sorry mom, I was in the middle of writing letters and messages to you, but various things happened, and I ended up unable to send them. I’m fine, and I’m now back home.”
When I said that, my mother gently narrowed her eyes and laughed.
“I got that; you also brought along some friends, as well?”
"Aah… sorry, one of them is a person who helped me out, and the other is... someone who ended up getting attached to me. "
“Hah-? “
Ignoring my mother who was staring in amazement once again, I took that out of the bag. The thing I had bought from the western dress store closest to the station: A cardigan.
“I bought it quite a while ago, but it’s already summer. Well you can wear it when autumn starts and it get cold.”
“Even when you don’t have any money, is this ok?”
“I bought it from the first month of my part time job’s salary. Anyway, it was rather cheap.”
With that, my mother delightfully opened the parcel, and took out the cardigan.”
“It’s a nice color isn’t it, I’ll be sure to treasure it.”
I nodded, and at the same time wild laughter echoed in from the living room. My father and sister had probably used the pretext of entertaining guests to start pouring sake. “Well Nagito, shouldn’t you also be there?” “Aren’t you coming as well?” I inquired “I haven’t made dinner her, you need to eat a lot, don’t you?”
“Well, to be honest, I didn’t eat a lot on the way here”. I laughed while standing up, “Then, we’ll be waiting for you”.
“You’re late, Nagi-kun!”
When I opened the Fusuma(sliding door) of the living room, I found the manager of the occult site standing atop a desk making an uproar. Her face completely red, she was wearing a hyoko mask slantingly on her forehead; the mask was originally a decoration piece in the living room.
“W-what are you doing Krishna-san?” “Drinking, of course…The sake here is amazing. It’s my first time drinking pulpy sake which soaks into my stomach.”
“That’s great, Krishna-chan! Keep going like that!”
“Oh! We still have plenty of sake!”
With Krishna san like that, my elder sister and father vigorously poured more sake over flowing the cup. The big table in the living room was lined grand with sushi catered from outside. Empty bottles of my father’s treasured sake and my sister’s favorite beer were already emptied on the floor.
“Hey! Yoishi-chan, was it? You also drink some more!” Seeing my red faced sister tried to influence Yoishi, I stepped in.
“That’s unwise. She’s still a high school stu-“
“Don’t be so stuffy, Nagi-suke, I was in middle school when I started, right?”
“Right, because you are special”
“Wha- Hey! Special, you say?”
“You are exceedingly special, that’s why involving yourself with a docile girl like her is a little pitiful, it’s for the best!”
“Oh, I get it, well then Yoishi-chan, will it be cola, or some orange juice?”
Yoishi replied silently by pointing to the orange juice. While merely taking a sip of the poured orange juice to get a taste, she only silently looked around at the ceiling and walls of the residence.
“Hey, Krishna-san has been poured quite a few drinks already, right?” I quietly asked, sitting across from Yoishi.
“Probably”, replied Yoishi quietly.
“Aren’t you going to drink? Me and your sister aren’t bad people, we just get a little frenzied when drunk.” remarked my father red in the face shuffling towards us. In his hand was the famous local sake brew: “Kurasui”
“Go ahead Nagito! You have a drink as well!”
“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m still underage”
I tried hard to push it away from me, but as expected from a man of the mountains, he’s way more physically stronger than me. With his thick arms he forcefully grabbed my arm and didn’t let go.
“No, aren’t you around twenty years old by now?”
“Hey, at least bother remembering the age of your own son.”
Being drowned in breath smelling of liquor, we continued talking when the front door bell rang. “Gooood Evening!”
The door opened and a familiar voice echoed in the hallway.
“Oooh!”
I recognized it by the voice, the bad company from my high school days had joined in.
“It’s good those guys came” I somehow managed to get away from my father and headed to the front door to greet the guests. There, the nostalgic faces were all lined up. The eccentric square faced guy with the family surname of Marui(Round): Maru-yan. Then there was Ranbashi, He’d lost some weight and gotten taller; he was actually pretty strong in fights but usually well mannered. Finally there was the guy always making trying to look cool and only chasing women, Hirayama also known as Pei chan.
“Oh, Nagi, is it?”
“You’ve returned!”
“You haven’t changed.”
“You guys haven’t either, have you been well?”
I bumped our shoulders and arms with each of them in our unusual way of exchanging greetings; my elder sister then arrived. “The appetizers are here!” And she snatched away the food Maru-yan had brought as a gift.
“Your sister is the same as always.”
“Sorry, there are a lot of guests today so she’s frolicking about.”
“Guests?” Maru-yan asked inclining his head slightly as the manager of the occult site appeared staggeringly from the living room. Kirshna-san was now wearing the Hyottoko mask completely over her face.
“Ooh, Guests, is it? No, wait, am I the guest?”
“Hey, who is that?”
“Ah”. I took off Krishna-san’s mask and introduced her to the rest.
“She’s my senpai from university, Kurimoto-san. Various things happened, and we drove here in her car.”
“Is that so?”
Being slightly taken aback, the three bowed their heads and greeted.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Marui.”
“I’m Hirayama.”
“I’m Ranbashi.”
“Ahh, I’m Kurimoto, I’m Shina. Before I knew it, I ended up being called a scary name like Krishna.” Krishna-san replied while bowing unsteadily on her feet. After that she smiled again as she spoke to me.
“Hey Nagi-kun, I’m a little relieved. I thought you were a complete loner with no friends, but you do have some friends who have common courtesy after all.”
After that I beckoned the three in.
“Ah please come in.”
With that, Krishna-san who was acting self-importantly, disappeared into the living room once again.
“It seems to be getting pretty exciting around here” said Maru-yan happily while taking off his shoes. All I could do was shrug my shoulders.
The first one to enter the living room, Ranbashi raised his voice in surprise.
“A female high schooler. There’s a female high schooler here.”
“What did you just say?”
“It’s true. It really is a female high schooler!”
These three raising a ruckus all of a sudden, I asked exasperatedly:
“You guys have surely seen high school girls up until last year, right?”
“You idiot, all men don’t understand the preciousness of it at the time. After graduating, I’ve come to appreciate the figure of a high school girl in her uniform. I’m in agony over the fact that I didn’t enjoy the springtime of my youth to its fullest.”
“Pei-chan, it’s fine so just take a seat.”
With that, even the usually reserved Ranbashi howled:
“She’s an angel! I’ve never seen a girl as pretty as her.”
But, even with such a ruckus being raised in front of her, Yoishi was sitting with a dreary face drinking orange juice. I introduced the Yoishi to the three.
“This is Mitsurugi Yoishi, she’s a member of the same circle as me and Kurimoto back in Tokyo, well, that sort of thing.”
“Oh, Yoishi-chan, is it? Good evening.”
Immediately after Pei-chan’s greeting: “Uwaaaaa--!” Maru-yan let out a shriek.
“Dammit, I should have also gone to university in Tokyo! Hey Nagito! Can you meet beautiful girls like this in the city all over?”
“Not really all over or anything like that!”
“But you… with these two…”
“Calm down Maru-yan. I’m saying they’re just my senior and juni--.”
“Square faced and fair spoken, you sure are cute…” Krishna-san came staggering in and put her hands on my shoulder as she tried to join the conversation.
“Did you hear that Nagi-kun? A normal reaction to me is something like that. You were always making fun of me in elementary and middle school, I was always famous in my own way”
“Yeah, you were famous alright…Famous among occult maniacs all over Japan.”
“That’s cruel, it’s like you’re trying to say I’m some kind of UMA(unidentified mysterious animal). “
“I’m not trying to say that at all.”
“Hey Nagi-suke! How long are you gonna stand at the entrance? Sit down. Have a drink!” My sister yelled and dragged me to a seat in the center.
“Everyone! Here’s to Nagi’s homecoming!”
“Oh! Welcome back!”
“Cheers”.
“Hahaha”.
They all leisurely raised their drinks up in the air.
“Thank you, I’m back” I also raised my glass; the party became a mess immediately after that. My father began dancing; my sister started singing. In the corner Krishna-san started telling an impromptu ghost story. Pei-chan, who hated scary stories tried to escape, but Ranbashi, wearing a straight face, kept him tied down. My mother kept focusing on the dinner intently, and tried to make sure we didn’t run out of drinks. I didn’t even drink a drop of sake, but after a long time I got drunk on the atmosphere of my home, I watched over the scene with a feeling of lightness wearing a slight grin.
At that moment, I suddenly realized…Yoishi had vanished before I knew it.
“Damn, where did she go?” I looked around restlessly and…
“Oi, Nagi.”
Maru-yan came crawling towards me.
“Where’s the bath?”
“Huh? You wanna take a bath?”
“I’m hopeless”.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was knocked down by Kurimoto-san’s breasts.”
“Huh?”
“She’s gonna use the bath, right? I’m gonna confirm the location of the bathroom beforehand for that. There has to be a window somewhere.” Maru-yan spoke with a sleepy look in his eyes.
“You… were forced to drink some alcohol, weren’t you?”
“I drank…no, I didn’t drink...”
“Which one is it?”
“I don’t know but, I haven’t had such a fun night in a long time. Maybe I’m drunk on the night? No, I’m drunk on Kurimoto-san’s breasts and Yoishi-chan’s beauty.” “Ah-- Where did that Yoishi go?” I asked diverting from the topic. Maru-yan pointed unsteadily towards the outside.
“She just left. Is it the bathroom? Is it??”
…No way. I don’t think she would go take a bath voluntarily like that. Pushing away the clinging Maru-yan from me, I opened the sliding door and went out to the corridor. I followed the path of the veranda out into the garden to find Yoishi standing out there alone.
“Yo, what are you doing in a place like this?” I called out to her back, but she continued staring at the base of the mountain. I put on sandals heading out in the garden and stood next to Yoishi.
“It’s because it’s the sticks, that’s why there’s so many stars.” But Yoishi, without answering, pointed straight ahead. It was the way to the three gods’ mountain shrine.
“What is… that light?”
“Aah, that’s the iron basket fire for the festival, they’re going to try and keep it lit until the day of the festival.”
“It’s moving.”
“Huh?” I too, strained my eyes around halfway up Eboshiyama at the glimmering light. Now that you say it, I do feel like it is moving.
“What could it be then? Could they be switching the iron basket fire?”
“Hmmm…”
I looked at Yoishi, in the moon’s pale blue light reflected on her cheeks; she looked even paler and transparent than usual. At this late hour, what was she doing here? A strange feeling came over me. I...I felt like some other color of paint had spilled into my own palette. No, that wasn’t to say it was an unpleasant feeling, but…
“My household…is quite noisy, isn’t it?”
“That’s right”, she replied without hesitation while continuing to look up at the base of the mountain, then quietly whispered. “But, this is where your precious roots lie.”
That night, I was in that blue world again. In that old and large Japanese style house, roaming about in that dream. However, for some reason Yoishi was with me from the start, it apparently seemed to be a continuation of the dream I had recently.
“Well, why are you here again?” I asked, and Yoishi replied with a shine in her eyes.
“To find the entrance to the closed room.” Like that, she began arbitrarily walking briskly towards the back of the residence.
“Oi, Wait, Damn it.” It can’t be helped, I chased after her; midway through, I ran into the daughter of the house and her clingy cousins who were following her around. They walked alongside the daughter, as if keeping each other in check while talking to her. Even someone like me, who was ignorant about love affairs, knew a passionate battle was unfolding between the cousins around the daughter. Nevertheless, it seemed that they still couldn’t see us. The daughter passed through without exchanging glances with me, the two cousins continued to gaze at the daughter as they left. Yoishi didn’t try avoiding the daughter and the cousins as they passed right through her. As expected, it seemed Yoishi too, was an invisible spirit in this world.
Why am I’m thinking such carefree thoughts? Wait a minute. I was originally looking searching this residence for a happy ending to this dream. I had ended up searching for the true face of the lurking omen that was present. And more so when I’m with her, doesn’t this ominous premonition accelerate quickly? My wild imagination was spurring me towards eerie events unfolding. And then wouldn’t Yoishi’s eyes glitter, with me ending up teary eyed like always?
--It’s not funny.
Panicking, I put my hand on the shoulders of the advancing Yoishi.
“Hey, wait. You go back, this is my dream. Don’t just barge in here with your shining eyes like you own the place.”
But Yoishi replied without stopping.
“My appearance in your dream, it’s not my fault.”
“….Oof”
“This is no more than a dream you willingly dreamed, with me in it.”
it was a fair argument to make, It was hopeless to try and refute that,
“Then I’ll say it: I’m hoping to lead this dream to a happy conclusion. Which is why I’m begging you, just don’t say creepy things, ok? Don’t start saying things like ‘It’s strange’ or anything like that again, ok?”
However, even within a dream, Yoishi was still Yoishi.
“Say, have you heard the story of a dream you can’t wake up from?”
In that usual manner of hers, once more her dark eyes began to shine, and doing as she pleased, began to tell a story.
“Once you start watching a repeating dream. The occurrence of the dream increases in frequency gradually, before long you end up not being able to return from the dream world, that kind of ghost story. Or when you wake up from a dream, you hear the sound of a dripping wet mop from somewhere feeling someone’s presence approaching you; or how about the manifestation in reality of something you saw in a dream; there are various patterns, but in the end, the dream encroaches on reality resulting in death is the common thread.
“H-Hey, Don’t mess with me. Are you saying this dream is that?”
“I don’t know, but there’s one thing I’m curious about.”
With that lowered whisper, a detestable premonition set in and I put myself on guard.
“In this mansion, there is no outside.”
“…Huh?” Now that she said it, I haven’t been outside this mansion before. The story always concludes inside the mansion.
“No, wait a minute, that’s because I always wake up at that time, if I walked there, I could easily go out, right?”
Well, let’s try it out then, Yoishi opened the fusuma(sliding door) close by and headed towards the garden. Passing by the two rooms, we headed out in to the garden. Past the courtyard, In front of the entrance there was a large plaza with many cars parked. Yoishi, without stopping, continued to the front gate. Before long, we arrive at a large wooden gate standing sturdily in place, bolted with the wood of the hinoki. I was unsure if I could shift it with my power alone. But right alongside it, we found there was a smaller side entrance, so I pushed it. But, it didn’t budge in the slightest. Feeling befuddled at that moment, it soon struck me: As an existence akin to that of a ghost in this world, a door didn’t actually mean anything. I could just as easily pass through it. Thinking that, I pushed my body against the door itself, but for some reason my body was repelled. Something made me feel that a strong will that I hadn’t felt before was there.
“No way.”
I took a few steps back, and dashed toward the door crashing into it with my full force. But with a violent thud, I was repelled back and fell down. I had been drifting in this place for so long, and yet, I realized that the laws of physics applied to that door alone.
“You can’t leave this residence. Right?” Whispered Yoishi questioningly while I was still lying down on the ground.
“Why is that?”
“Ordinarily a lucid dream is said to be one established by the ego. That dream world should be actively controlled and freely manipulated by the dreamer. But in this dream, there are two things you can’t control freely…” Yoishi’s dark eyes suddenly began to be filled with life – I put myself on guard.
“That is, the closed room and yourself…”
I was half expecting that.
Yoishi spoke with an entranced expression.
“This dream probably has a hidden meaning”.
3
In the afternoon, the temperature had already reached 35 degrees. The sunlight was hitting like a hammer today. It was scorching enough that it felt like my hair would burst into flames at any point. One a day like this, I thought, it was insanity to construct the pedestal to be used in the festival, but when I put on a towel around my head and joined, everyone was lively, I also got caught up in it and ended up joining them in the hectic work.
My town -- Nango Town, was one of the smaller ones of Fujieda City; but nevertheless, whenever this festival draws near, people gush out from nowhere and before you know it, the front of three mountain god shrine ends up being overflowed with people. The job of constructing the festivals’ pedestal is always given to the young men of the city, but like my sister said, it was said to be our family’s responsibility this year. But still, in actuality it was being done by all the guys from downtown who were free at the time.
Today too, the front of the mountain shrine was crowded, in that crowd, I could see many nostalgic faces; at that time I would stop working, greet and have a deep talk with them. Everyone was wearing a smile on their faces. The old lady from the neighborhood who brought refreshments was also pleasant; being in this kind of atmosphere, it really made me realize that the festival was near.
“Yo, Nagi.”
Being greeted from behind, I turned around to see Maru’s square shaped face.
“Seems like the pedestal has begun construction, it really feels like the festival is getting pretty close, eh?”
“That’s right” Wiping off my sweat with a towel. I inquired:
“What about Ranbashi and Pei-chan?”
“They’ve got work in the afternoon; they may come in the evening.” Is that so? Come to think of it, among the lot that I used to hang out with in our high school days, only me and Maru-yan went on to higher studies. I went to a university in Tokyo; Maru-yan to a local technical school. His family owns a small restaurant; he too liked to cook so he decided to become a chef.
While recollecting such things, Maru-yan abruptly began to examine my expression.
“Are you sleeping properly? You’ve got dark circles under your eyes”
“….Aah.” To be honest, I felt like I wasn’t getting enough sleep recently. I had pulled consecutive all-nighters during my exams, after that, I was seeing the dream with the mansion every night, Furthermore, searching with Yoishi in the dream day after day. By itself, the dream is a place where I can drift around comfortably, but she just wanders here and there going “It’s strange” or “How unusual”, saying creepy things like that and making me teary eyed even within a dream. Originally, my sleep time meant for me to rest but my brain had naturally become exhausting because of this.
On the other hand, Maru-yan who had come up with some kind of misunderstanding was smiling and commented while looking off elsewhere:
“Well, I suppose when you’re living under the same roof alone with two beauties like that, you can be tormented by various delusions.”
“Ha-?”
Looking to where Maru-yan was looking, there were the two who were probably competing for the number one spot in Japan’s women occult maniac, Krishna-san and Yoishi. Krishna-san was wearing a T shirt with a piglet printed on it, wiping off the sweat while helping out with the catering preparations. Yoishi, wearing a black tie with her white blouse, wearing a school uniform in this scenic beauty of the countryside was an imbalanced sight, she wandered about aimlessly not particularly helping out.
“Will those two still be here by the festival?”
“She’s probably gonna stick around until her offline meeting ends.”
“That really makes it more fun.” Maru-yan’s facial expression loosened into a smile.
“Say, is it ok if I come again today to visit today?”
“I don’t really mind, but what’s your purpose?”
“Of course it’s Yoishi-chan and Krishna-san, right? Pei-chan might also come, Ranbashi also seems curious about Yoishi, that is…”
“Let’s talk, Maru-yan” I said sighing and putting down the lumber I was carrying. “Give it up, espcially give up on Yoishi”
“Why?”
“She’s not normal. How should I put it? When you listen to her speaking, you’ll end up shaking and crying, or like the feeling of your soul leaving your body. “
When I spoke of her like that, I remembered… -Yoishi is not a living human. -Anyone who comes in contact with Yoishi will die in seven days. -Anyone connected to Yoishi’s ghost stories meets a terrible end. That is… just like those rumors spread on the internet about Yoishi in the past, they were just made up exaggerations…those words I had refuted in the past were not much different from what I had just said. I shook my head and corrected myself:
“No, In short… she just has taste in slightly different hobbies from the norm.”
“Well, that’s fine, city girls are like that, and I wanted to get to know someone who’s a little eccentric.”
It’s like this guy doesn’t get it all. Well, I wasn’t much different back then… I didn’t believe the rumors on the net either, up until I prowled around a haunted place with her.
You’ll get cursed just by talking to her. If you meet her you die. Those kinds of rumors were spread because her speech had a strange pull. Like Kirshna san had said, her words contain things people shouldn’t know. But, I didn’t know how to explain that to Maru-yan who had no interest in the occult.
“Oh—Maru-yan” With long hair tied up like a pineapple, my elder sister appeared.
“Square faced as always”
“Oh, Thanks for the meal yesterday.”
“It’s fine, I had fun as well.” Saying that, with a whomp, my sister suddenly punched me in the gut. I buckled over instantly grasping for air.
“Say Nagi. I’ve taken a liking…”
“T-to what…?”
“Krishna-chan, she’ll make a good wife, don’t you think?” She boasted while using the broom in her hand as a cane, she’s only twenty two still a bachelorette, yet she acts like an old village hag match maker nodding to herself.
“That’s right? I’ve got to try, don’t you think?” said Maru-yan earnestly as if embarking on a new venture.
“You Idiot, A wife for Nagi here”.
“Why is that? This guy doesn’t seem to think like that”.
“Oh, is that so? Are you in the Yoishi faction then?” Staring in amazement, I waved my hands as if to say no.
“It’s really not like that with those two.”
“Don’t be shy now. I mean for a wife, it’s better for you to choose Krishna-chan. Someone like you who’s always in a daze… an older wife would be just fine. She was asking about the three mountain god to the head of the neighborhood association just now, and he was also buzzing in admiration about her -- that she was so young and so knowledgeable.”
That’s obvious. She is the manager of a huge occult website that earns tens of thousands of hits a day. According to Karasu-san, she is a person who has applied for collaborative research with professors of folklore at various universities.
“Compare that with Yoishi-chan, who’s rather eccentric”. With those words, I looked towards Yoishi, she was sitting near the shrine archway. And I was dumbfounded at what I saw. For some reason, Yoishi was digging up the base of the archway of the three mountain god shrine, with a seemingly smiling expression. “Yeah… definitely a little weird”. Muttered Maru-yan as I rushed over to Yoishi in a hurry.
Her expression of ecstasy had been brought forth by digging out something she wasn’t supposed to.
“Oi! Don’t do stuff that’ll get you cursed.” I rapped Yoishi's head as she poked around the base of the torii with a sharp stone picked up from somewhere nearby.
“Ow! That hurt”
“Sure it did, now what were you doing there?”
“This place is interesting.” Yoishi looked up towards me. Her eyes were shining brightly, I quickly regained my composure.
“That’s fine; I don’t want to hear it.” But Yoishi continued speaking without a care.
“I wonder if everyone is aware. The torii is in this direction-“
“That’s enough! Stop it already!” I screamed. Was it because I had been out in the sun for too long? Or maybe because of a lack of sleep, or perhaps because of the hidden meaning in her words. I felt unsteady of my feet, as if gastric juice was welling up inside me. Don’t say anymore unnecessary things, is what I wanted to say. Menacing me in my dreams, and scaring me in reality as well, where was I supposed to run to?
“Why? It’s an important thing” Yoishi kept crouching down looking up at me with her dark eyes.
I stood there taking a deep breath, staring at Yoishi. Her school uniform had become crumpled already. The same white blouse had become wrinkled after being worn for a few days. Her hands were dirty from messing around in the dirt; she hadn’t taken a shower so her naturally long and beautiful hair was dirty again. As everyone was merrily going about their work with a smile preparing for the ceremony, she was looking up to me with an ominous gaze as if she were a lone, corrupted entity in all of this.
“Why are you like this?” I asked feeling dizzied under the strong sunlight. “Why do you always say things like that? Isn’t everyone having fun with the festival preparations? This festival only happens once every three years. It’s a small town but everyone adjusts their schedule for this day. So I’m begging you, just read the atmosphere. I’m not asking you to help or anything, just don’t get in the way. Don’t try and ruin things at least!” Aah, I said too much. Why am I getting so angered up over a girl younger than me. Thinking like that, feeling sleepy, and the strange looks I was getting from around, I continued. I wanted to reform her character, her views, even if it was just a little. With these kinds of thoughts mixed in I spoke:
“Live more like a normal person, go to school normally, and learn how to have a normal conversation for once. From here on, you’ll be the one who’ll have problems functioning in society if you don’t.”
Yoishi looked down in silence.
“What do you mean by normal?”
“Huh?”
“In this world, is there any worth in conforming?”
The darkness in Yoishi's eyes seemed eternal. More so than time at the Hachioji hospital; more so than the night at the reservoir, the darkness was even deeper. "No- that is... There's many disagreeable people, so it's obvious, anyone who can't adapt to that will find living difficult, right?"
"Adapting? I wonder if that has any meaning" Yoishi stood up with her hands still dirty staring off somewhere. That back of hers looked slender and unreliable as always. Anyways, I was tired and irritated: of her, and her words. Tired from my exams, tired of my dreams, I had no energy to comprehend what her words meant.
“Anyway, just don’t get in the way of the festival.” I said over my shoulder as I left Yoishi and returned to the preparations for the festival.
--
