Shinrei Tantei Yakumo:Volume 3Prologue

It was a quiet night--.

Ozawa Keiko was rushing her car.

Turning and twisting, surrounded by many trees on both sides, without any outside light, it was a pitch-dark woodland path.

It was the shortest route to go home by, but it always had that kind of abominable feeling that made it seem impassable.

However, today was different. By all means, she had a reason to return early.

Keiko casually placed her hand on her abdomen. Right now, she can't feel it swelling yet, but certainly a new life is dwelling inside of this abdomen.

Tasting that joy for the first time, it had a more uplifting sensation than she imagined it would.

Surely, her husband Kazuhiro will cry.

Keiko suddenly pointed her glance ahead, the trees on the road’s edge swayed ‘rustle, rustle;’ a black shadow jumped out onto the road.

A person…

Keiko reflexively stepped on the brake.

With an ear-tearing brake’s sound, with the white fumes rising above, the car came to a sudden stop.

There must have been a reaction as there wasn’t any impact of colliding with something.

--Surely, they’re all right.

Said Keiko to herself and with shivering hands opened the door and got out of the car. In the nook of the headlights’ light she saw that something had collapsed.

About five meters ahead of the car a woman with long hair was lying face-down collapsed.

“Are you all right?”

Keiko in haste rushed over to that woman.

“Please get hold of yourself.”

Keiko embracing-like held the face-down lying woman in her arms to help her up.

Pure white skin. Straight bridge of nose. It was an astonishingly beautiful woman.

The skirt she wore had a torn hem and her shirt was covered with mud too.

Not only that. The woman wasn’t wearing any shoes. Mud was sticking to her bare feet, and there were scratches here and there.

She ran down the mountain trail, barefooted?

Why…

“Are you all right?”

Keiko, while feeling doubt too, asked the woman one more time.

The woman, while raising her voice to groan “Uh,” painfully twisted her body.

She’s alive.

“Please get hold of yourself. I’ll take you to the hospital right away.”

As if reacting to Keiko’s voice, the woman slowly opened her eyes. They were beautiful, but as if they didn’t feel life. Doll-like eyes.

“……Help me……that guy, is coming……”

The woman moved her lips.

--That guy?

“What happened?”

The woman gaped open both her eyes; the expression on her face warping, she clung to Keiko who had asked the question.

“He is……”

The woman, clasping her nails, answered in cracking voice.

“He?”

“I have to get away... I have to get away... I have to get away……”

The woman, as if being frightened by something, her body shivering from fear, repeated the same words many times over and over.

“Calm down. Please calm down.”

Keiko, putting power into it, embraced the woman tightly.

“I have to get away…… He is……”

The woman said that much, then suddenly lost consciousness.

Swoosh.

Reacting to the trees’ swaying sound, Keiko looked forward.

The car’s headlights were illuminating one man standing on the road.

Wearing black suit; and in spite of being on mountain in the middle of the night, he put on thick-colored sunglasses.

Keiko had goose bumps on her whole body.

This woman perhaps escaped from this man. She didn’t think it but felt instinctively.

It’s dangerous. I have to get away.

Even though she thought that, Keiko, as if held entwined under the man’s glance, couldn’t even move abound.

Sweat oozed from her forehead.

--A human’s soul’s true nature is darkness.

As the man was saying that in a low tone, the edges of his mouth lifting, he had laughed.

--That woman’s child will prove it.

While the man was saying that, he slowly took off the sunglasses.

Both his eyes, like blazing flame, were shining with bright red.

٭ ٭ ٭

It was an evening with boiling-like heat--.

She was walking down the road leading to her apartment.

Because of the heat and humidity, the sweat was gradually oozing down her back. She wanted to get home fast and have a shower. Spontaneously, her pace sped up.

A lukewarm wind had blown.

She, almost arriving to the courtyard of the apartment, suddenly halted.

--Hey. Why.

Mingled with the wind, similar to a whisper, she heard someone’s voice.

Where?

She was searching for the owner of the voice, her eyes drifting about.

“Ah.”

She unintentionally let out her voice. On the seven-storey apartment building’s rooftop was a person’s shadow.

It was dark, so she couldn’t conclude clearly that that figure was certainly a man.

Why, at that sort of place— she was thinking and at the same time that shadow was falling down.

She was so surprised, she couldn’t even scream.

A dark mass that the person’s shadow has became, pulled down by the gravity, let out a dull sound that of a “thud” as it crashed onto the asphalt surface.

A pace-shaking vibration has changed its shape to fear, devouring her body.

The one who fell down was a long-haired woman.

The limbs were bended to unnatural directions, the head sank into the asphalt, and a lot of blood was pouring out of there.

It was obvious that the woman was no longer alive.

--Why…….

Standing there dumbfounded, a voice reached her ears.

A low, growling-like voice.

She sensed freezing-like coldness. She had a bad premonition.

--Why……am I…….

The voice continued.

“No.”

She stopped breathing and backed off.

She realized who the owner of the voice she heard was.

The collapsed woman’s twisted limbs started moving.

The woman that should have fallen down from the apartment’s rooftop, just like a newborn foal, with a clumsy movement, slowly stood up.

“That’s right!”

That kind of thing is unbelievable. She shook her head, desperately trying to deny the scene before her eyes, but the reality before her eyes didn’t disappear.

The woman that has stood up, loosely dangling her arms, dragging her feet “zuru, zuru,” with a unnatural movement like a zombie, started walking towards the apartment’s entrance.

--Why, why, why……

The woman was muttering the same word in a repetition.

Before long, that woman disappeared by the apartment’s entrance.

The girl’s knees shivering greatly, she fell on her bottom with a “thump” right there. Released from the fear she didn’t even imagine, large tears fell from her eyes.

Her head becoming blank, she was only puzzled as what’s good to do from now on.

How much time has passed?

--Why……

Again, a voice reached her ears.

--It can’t be.

She looked up to the apartment.

There was a person’s shadow on the rooftop.

And then.

That woman fell off again.

A splash of blood wet her cheek.

--Why……

That woman, once more, opening her mouth, slowly stood up.

The girl, blood-stained, met that woman’s eyes.

Just like a hole leading to hell, thoroughly dark pupils.

--Hey. Why can’t I die?

Said that woman while spitting out blood from her mouth.

“No!!!”

The girl’s shriek pierced the summer’s evening.