Volume 7, Chapter 6: Jinnai Shinobu@Aburatori - Truth Part 5-8

This chapter is updated by wuxiaworld.eu

Part 5

By evening, I concluded Shinobu wasn’t going to do anything else even if I continued watching him, so I left the thatch-roof house and made my way to the Aburatori’s mountain clearing.

“The Comfort Association is known as the Japanese branch of one of the top four networks, and the police are on alert due to rumors that they are holding a large event in the near future. The rumors say they will be reorganizing and…”

The ground was covered in underbrush, the trees created a canopy overhead, and the dark rundown cabin sat in front of me. Hishigami Shikimi may have been watching a 1seg TV somewhere, but I couldn’t tell where even after turning in a full circle.

Also, two Youkai faced each other in front of the rotting cabin.

One was Ohatsu, the female Sunekosuri working with Majina, and the other was the Aburatori with his large conical hat hiding his face.

They were speaking to each other.

“If the unexpected happens, take care of things afterwards.”

“The unexpected isn’t going to happen. After all, our boss is working on this.”

“But I saw him. I saw Jinnai Shinobu. No one was supposed to come here.”

“Don’t worry. You’ve resisted killing any children for nearly nine years now.”

“That was only because I didn’t see any. Viewing my target has resurrected the hunger inside me. At this rate, there is a chance I will break the seal and attack. So…”

“You have less than a week to go. Even if the seal cracks little by little, you will still become a Kaeshigami as long as it doesn’t reach its limit before then. You won’t have to kill anyone anymore. Isn’t that right?”

What was this about?

The Aburatori seemed afraid of killing children…of killing my past self.

“For one thing, you aren’t at fault here.”

“That excuse doesn’t hold water.”

“The Aburatori is based in the fear of a child suddenly vanishing…and the dark desire and curiosity that makes people want to talk about such things as if they actually happened. They make a show of being afraid on the surface, but the human heart can’t help but tell those stories. Monsters are frightening, but if that monster really did exist, it might get rid of those troublesome children. They might not have to kill them in the bath or bathroom as soon as they are born. You were given form by the thoughts of those sickening parents who have no issue with abusing or abandoning their children. You were born from that desire, so you yourself aren’t at fault.”

“I said that excuse doesn’t hold water!!”

The Aburatori’s shout was followed by silence.

I could only hear the ominous sound of the rustling leaves.

“I understand…”

He spoke in a barely audible voice.

“I hate it, and hate it, and hate it…but in the end, I do understand the feelings of the parents who made me like this. I understand how unpleasant children are, I understand how nice it would be if they would just disappear, and I understand how wonderful it would be if someone else would do it for you! It doesn’t matter which came first. I was made to be like this. Without me to receive those feelings, the parents of the later generations might not have felt them at all. It’s a chicken or the egg issue… At this point, my very existence might be creating evil feelings within people and then drawing them out!”

“…”

That was the system that had been built. It was the role he had been given.

He was a murderer to be despised by everyone.

No excuses were permitted and no thought was given to his circumstances.

He was there to receive the evil feelings of those who were not even aware of those feelings inside themselves.

That was all he was meant to be.

“So please don’t believe anything I tell you. Please don’t believe my soul. It doesn’t matter what I say. The instant you deem it impossible, kill me. I don’t want to play this role anymore. I don’t want to become a being that simply completes a system with no thoughts of my own. I don’t want to be a monster that brutally slaughters those small children without batting an eye.”

This scene completely reversed my image of the Aburatori.

At first, I thought maybe I had stepped into a twisted parallel world.

But in that case…

…What was the Aburatori I saw before? How did such a conflicted deadly Youkai end up as such a crazed monster?

“There’s nothing to worry about.”

“How can you be so sure? Not even I trust myself.”

“Because.” The female Sunekosuri narrowed her eyes a little. “Someone has come here for you.”

The Aburatori followed her gaze and turned to face me.

No, his eyes passed right through me. He was looking behind me. I turned around too and saw a small form there.

It was Shinobu.

It was myself as I apparently came here ten years ago.

“Wha-…?”

The Aburatori was dumbfounded, but Shinobu smiled as he ran through the underbrush. He approached with no caution whatsoever.

“Big news! Big news!”

He swung his arms around.

“We’re having Salisbury steak for dinner tonight! Mom’s finally going all out! I have to tell everyone!! Big news! Big news!”

“…”

“Mom’s Salisbury steak is amazing. She puts a fried egg on top!”

It was a silly bit of breaking news, but it sounded like he meant it as a secret for only his friends. That meant he was including that worst of the deadly Youkai in that group.

For a while, the Aburatori seemed unable to move.

The Youkai silently clenched his teeth as Shinobu shifted gears.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t given you a stamp yet.”

“Don’t worry about me,” said the female Sunekosuri. “Keep that lonely old man company.”

“We can all hang out together! Now you’re a Friend Youkai too!!”

This was a conversation from an impossibly distant world.

That bloody Youkai would never have dreamed of reaching that world from the moment he had been born into this world.

“Do you understand, Ohatsu?”

The Aburatori finally spoke almost under his breath.

His voice seemed on the verge of vanishing.

“Even now, I cannot stop myself from categorizing the life before my eyes as a target. In the end, I can only do what everyone wants from me. I know that the more perfectly I fulfill the legend of the Aburatori, the more easily those dark desire will be thrown onto me, and yet…!!”

Confliction.

Agony.

Despair.

That which is bright does not always save. That which is kind does not always heal. Sometimes, it becomes a cruel mirror that reflects one’s own ugliness. As she accepted that pain, the female Sunekosuri let out a slow sigh.

But was the Aburatori truly ugly?

Weren’t the human adults who made him like that simply forcing this onto him so they wouldn’t be at fault?

Shinobu tilted his head curiously while only seventy centimeters away from certain death.

“Hm? What are you talking about? A game?”

This was the backbone of the story.

But what kind of awful ending lay in wait?

What ending was so bad that it required that Zashiki Warashi to get involved, release the power of the Ver. 39, and distort history itself?

Part 6

I followed Shinobu down the narrow farm roads back to the thatch-roof house.

We got back just in time to see my uncle leaving.

“What are you doing, Nii-chan? Heading out?”

“Yeah. You don’t leave the house, Shinobu. It’s scary outside once it gets dark.”

“Hm? But we’re having Salisbury steak today! We need to all eat it together!”

As my uncle walked toward the storage shed a short distance from the house, I could hear a metallic jangling. Shinobu tilted his head and my mom ran out to the front door.

“Ahhh! Wait, Shinobu, where did Hayabusa-kun go!? He hasn’t left the garage yet, has he!?”

“He said he’s heading out. He’s playing at night. He really is an adult.”

“S-someone stop him! Before he finally kills someone!!”

With an obvious engine sound effect, a large electric scooter left the storage shed.

“?”

Night was beginning, so Shinobu would be staying at home. That meant he was unlikely to have any contact with the Aburatori. The odds were good following him around would only be a waste of time. With that in mind, I turned right back around and hopped onto the back seat of my uncle’s bike.

I technically wasn’t touching the floor or ground when I walked, but as soon as I thought of myself as “riding” the scooter, I stuck to it. My uncle smoothly operated the bike and raced down the dark farm road.

I could hear a conversation coming from the cell phone stuck in the holder near the handlebars.

One side was the female upperclassman who had played badminton during the day, but the other was a gloomy-sounding male voice.

Who is that?

“Since you were after someone connected to Jinnai, I assumed someone like Shinobu-kun was in trouble, but I certainly didn’t expect the danger to reach me.”

“Sh-shut up. I went with the most surefire method. That kid’s surrounded by Youkai, so the older Hayabusa is the easier target, right? A-and with a hostage, I have even less to worry about.”

“Are you sure that was all? I bet you wanted to capture the school’s beautiful student council president so you could have your own reward. You were probably planning to avoid mentioning the hostage when you hand Hayabusa-kun over to the adults. That way you could do whatever you wanted to my body. Peh heh heh.”

“Shut up!! You just have to keep that mouth shut and do what I say!!”

I had never seen my uncle give off such a powerful aura of anger.

He operated the cellphone to bring up a GPS map.

At that point, I finally realized what the metallic jangling was. There were thick chains wrapped around his waist and held in place by a padlock.

Meanwhile, the remote conversation continued.

“When it comes to guard dogs, Nagisa-chan’s St. Bernard is pretty cute.”

“Wh-what are you talking about?”

“But did you know that her parents had the dog put through the training of a police dog and a war dog so it will tear out the throat of any suspicious person who gets close? A cheap jackknife isn’t going to be much use against that.”

My uncle did something with the bike’s controls.

The headlights vanished and the engine sound effect stopped.

The mass of metal raced along at over sixty kph without producing any light or noise.

“But what I have is more of a hunting dog than a guard dog. Heh heh. I guess it would be a little sad to call him a mad dog.”

“Wh-what? Dog??? Are you saying there’s a dog hiding around here!?”

“He’s already here. And my dog is a lot fiercer than a St. Bernard. Unfortunately for you.”

It happened immediately afterwards.

Without hitting the brakes at all, my uncle hit someone standing in the middle of the farm road.

“B-bhbfh!? Bahbh!! Egbhgahh!?”

The person flew into the dry paddy field and groaned from the ground, unable to get up.

My uncle turned the electric scooter around and his upperclassman cheerfully waved at him in the darkness.

“Yahoo, Hayabusa-kun. Can I leave the rest to you?”

“Yes, you can. Sorry about the trouble.”

“So you arrive five minutes after I call you and don’t hesitate to hit the guy at full speed? I can really feel the love☆”

“If you get too carried away, I’ll force you on a thrill ride along the zig-zagging mountain pass.”

My uncle stepped off the bike and onto the narrow farm road. He then looked down at the gloomy boy who had been knocked into the paddy a level below.

He still couldn’t get up, so he shouted up at my uncle while foaming at the mouth.

“I…I can’t…I can’t believe you!! You tried to kill me!! You did!! Ha…ha ha. You know what’s going to happen when I call the police here, don’t you!?”

“Hm? Why the hell are you still alive?”

He did not try to intimidate the boy and he did not shout angrily at him. That casual nuance seemed to overpower the boy more than anything else. He was overpowered by the difference in experience.

Then the upperclassman gave a warning from the side.

“Hey, hey. You can think it as much as you want, but try not to actually say anything about trying to kill him. This might not qualify as justified self-defense. Not that there’s a lawyer here.”

“J-just-justified self-defense!? B-by hitting s-someone with a bike!?”

“Yeah,” said my uncle as if it didn’t particularly matter.

And not that the laws didn’t matter. That the boy’s life didn’t matter.

“Justified self-defense doesn’t just apply to yourself. If you use a weapon that happened to be nearby and cause less damage than would have been caused otherwise, it cancels everything out. So as long as I did less damage than a knife to the vitals, it isn’t a problem. But what about you? You’re the one that went out of your way to prepare a knife and put together this kidnapping plot.”

“Ee…ee!!”

“You really are stupid.”

The beautiful student council president seemed to spit the words out from a position of absolute superiority.

“How did you end up a pawn for a large criminal organization?”

“It was probably that Hidarugami Diet.”

“Don’t answer for him. It’s more fun to hear it from him.”

“You sure are cruel… He doesn’t even have the skill to put together a Package. He only created a website to trick people into paying him, so isn’t this enough punishment?”

“But unfortunately, that weight loss drug was actually a code word for you-know-what. The large criminal organization must have thought he was breaking into their market. Not that I’m about to feel sorry for someone who tricked people out of their money.”

“They probably told him they’d let him off the hook if he did some work for them. Jinnai sake is used all over: to commemorate big sumo victories, to commemorate pro baseball victories, and even as an offering at the Ise Shrine. But it isn’t uncommon for people in the criminal underworld to want some. Like for a large criminal organization’s rituals.”

So that’s it.

After pouring their soul into that sake, my grandpa and dad weren’t going to send it somewhere like that. After all, they would even temporarily refuse to do business with a bar that allowed its patrons to drive drunk. Even so, there were some who would still want some Jinnai sake.

And in the Aburatori’s forest, I had heard some news about a big event being held by a group called the Comfort Association.

So…

“I guess that means this guy was the source of those old-fashioned threatening letters reaching my home.”

“Maybe. Hayabusa-kun, how about we hand him over to the cops and let the professionals handle the rest?”

I recalled the letter my grandpa had chopped up with scissors.

It must have asked them to hand over some Jinnai sake if they didn’t want any harm to come to their family.

“Well, given how they work, there’s a good chance they’ll chop this guy off like a lizard’s tail and blame it all on him.”

The student council president’s words gave the boy a clear view of his fate.

That attacker, who most likely attended the same high school as the other two, squeezed out the very last of his strength and jumped to his feet.

“Hee…hee hee!! Hee hee…hee! Hee hee hee!!”

“What, you want more? Just how sad a guy are you?”

“My knife? Where’d my knife go? Dammit, it’s too dark to see!!”

“And as long as we know you have a knife prepared, it means you’re armed, even if you don’t have it in hand at the moment. That means this qualifies as justified self-defense. Unfortunately for you.”

A jangling came from my uncle.

“And did you know this, skinny boy? A giant machete or Japanese sword would be in violation of the Swords and Firearms Control Law. A wooden sword or metal pipe would be borderline. There’s precedent for nunchucks found at an inspection violating the Minor Offenses Act.”

The sound came from the thick, thick chain held in place around his waist by a padlock.

He wrapped one end around his fist and smiled as he continued speaking.

“But there’s no law against wrapping chains around yourself as a fashion statement. And yet swinging them around makes for a more frightening weapon than a metal bat. Strange, isn’t it?”

Yeah, this is hopeless.

My uncle was too used to this. Whether the boy had his knife or not, his fate was sealed.

Part 7

My uncle was the day’s MVP, but after taking the beautiful student council president home on his big electric scooter and then driving back home, my dad and grandpa beat him up and threw him in the shed. The series of events progressed so smoothly that I could tell it happened all the time. Just how often was my uncle getting into fights?

After locking the thick door, my dad and grandpa began speaking to each other.

“Apparently, Atou’s daughter wasn’t hurt. …He did a pretty good job.”

“Hey, we can discuss the rest over some drinks. Nothing makes sake taste better than these stories, so it’d be a shame to let it go to waste.”

…This is the problem.

After returning to the house, I found the Zashiki Warashi and some other Youkai sitting in a circle in the parlor. The others seemed to be a Nurarihyon and a Kasha.

“Come to think of it, I showed up in the latest entry of that Youkai summoning RPG series.”

“Oh, dear. So you had your big debut, Kasha-san?”

“Was that sarcasm? You Zashiki Warashi are just like the Yuki Onna! You always get chosen! You even got to be the exposition character for the Youkai Stamp movie!!”

Everyone worked to calm down the angry Nurarihyon.

“I don’t like how they illustrated me as a cat surrounded by fire. I know I’m lucky to show up at all, but still.”

“Well, the outline of a Youkai changes from generation to generation. I started as a relative of the Umibouzu, but the next thing I knew, I was the leader of all Youkai.”

“It sure is trouble when cultures combine or when you’re mixed with or identified with another Youkai. I could accept it if it made me divine like the Dakini-Ten, though.”

I heard the sound of an electric guitar coming in from outside the room.

I initially wondered if it was my uncle in delinquent mode, but he was still locked in the shed. When I peeked out, it really wasn’t him. Five tanuki held musical instruments in front of young Shinobu in the Buddhist altar room.

“Yaaaaay! Thanks for showing up to today’s Tanuki☆Bayashi concerrrrrrrrrrrrrtttttttttttttttttt!”

“Gramma goes to sleep at nine, so only until then.”

I had no idea how a tanuki’s paws could hold the pick or press down on the strings, but they played well enough. I thought quietly to myself as I listened.

“I guess that’s going to be it for today…”

Even after the Jinnai house quieted down, the outside world was of course still on the move. If I visited the Aburatori’s forest, it was possible I would get some new information on the Aburatori.

But…

He didn’t seem like much of a threat at the moment while working with Hyakki Yakou. Was he really at the center of this incident? I couldn’t afford to miss the crucial moment if something else happened to be at the center.

Today, I hadn’t noticed that my uncle and Atou-san(?) had gotten involved in some other incident. I wanted to avoid overlooking something like that again.

Where would I start the following day? Between Shinobu, the Zashiki Warashi, the Jinnai house, the Aburatori, and Hyakki Yakou, what was I supposed to focus on? The lack of any obvious malice or benefits did not mean I could rest easy. I knew that a large incident was guaranteed to tear down this temporary peace.

“I’m getting sleepy…”

“Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh? But we were just getting warmed uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!”

“I’m going to sleep right here…”

“(Twannnnggg!!) Ky-kyah! Don’t hug me out of the blue!”

“Leader…”

“Our hard-rock leader…”

“A-ahem. You can’t Shinobu-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! You haven’t brushed your teeth yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! Honestlyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”

The tanuki picked up Shinobu’s limp form and ran toward the bathroom.

A new commotion began in there. Shinobu was supposed to have been brushing his teeth, but he had grabbed some toys instead.

“This is the proof you’re a man!”

“Shinobu-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!? Why are you drawing on a thief mustache with a black peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!?”

“Nn! Grampa, dad, and Nii-chan all shave, so now I can too!”

He was moving around what seemed to be soap made to look like a T-shaped shaver. The commotion only grew when he drew thief mustaches on the tanuki that were already covered in fur.

It was a heartwarming scene that looked like something from a children’s book.

But I knew the moment of doom was approaching.

What exactly was going to happen here?

Part 8

It was early morning on the third day since I had traveled to the past.

In the Buddhist altar room, Shinobu was forcing a dandy look while holding a nearly square piece of seaweed in front of a bucket of sushi rice. The Zashiki Warashi sat across the tea table from him.

“Hand-rolled sushi is great. It’s fun making it myself.”

“You really do like things like this, Shinobu.”

“Natto is fun too. I love how mixing it feels.”

“Ugh… I-I’ll pass on that one.”

Shinobu and the Zashiki Warashi got down to wrapping the sushi.

“There’s gotta be cheese. There’s gotta be avocado. There’s gotta be fish sausage.”

“Why does your hand-rolled sushi always come out so very American, Shinobu?”

“Then I’ll give this special one to you, Nee-chan. Say ‘ah’.”

“Ah.”

That breakfast of half-fun and half-eating came to an end.

It was still morning, but Nagisa apparently wasn’t coming over today. Shinobu trotted over to where the Zashiki Warashi was lazing around so as not to get in the way of the cleaning.

“Are you free, Nee-chan? Or are you busy?”

“What is it, Shinobu?”

“Oh, too bad. You look busy.”

“Really, what is it!? Don’t leave me behind!!”

The Zashiki Warashi clung to him and they collapsed into a ball. Shinobu was holding a thick picture book…no, it was some kind of kid’s textbook.

He sat on her lap and they read through the book together.

“The dog says…woof woof!”

“That’s right. Now, Shinobu, what about the car?”

“Vroom vroom.”

“Correct. Next…how about soba?”

“Hmm?”

Shinobu turned his head to look at her long black hair.

“I know! Soba goes rustle rustle!”

“Wrong. It goes slippery slippery.”

“Ehhh? That doesn’t sound right. Ice is what goes slippery slippery!”

My grampa called for Shinobu, so he hopped up from the sexy Youkai’s lap and raced out of the Japanese-style living room.

As the Zashiki Warashi closed the book and set it aside, my mom spoke to her while using a cyclone vacuum cleaner.

“He calls us grampa, gramma, dad, mom, Nii-chan, and Nee-chan.”

“?”

“To be honest, I wanted him to call me mama or mommy.” She pouted her lips. “But he was influenced by everyone around him, so the next thing I knew, he was calling me mom. And they all spoil him so much, so the next thing I know, I’m the one that has to stop him as the nagging mother! I want to spoil him too! Besides, I’m the one that went through so much pain giving birth to him!!”

“My condolences. That’s all I can say. …Ow, ow, ow! Where do you think you’re sucking at me with that vacuum cleaner nozzle!? What do you mean I sounded like it didn’t have anything to do with me? It really didn’t have anything to do with-…ow, ow, ow, ow!!”

The loud sound of the vacuum cleaner continued as my mom began some pretty extreme sexual harassment against that Youkai, but then she tilted her head.

“What did my father-in-law want with Shinobu? I doubt he wants him to help in the brewery.”

“That’s a good question. I have nothing better to do, so I’ll go collect Shinobu.”

I followed the two of them from the Japanese-style living room and down the hallway to the Western-style one.

“I just wish Shinobu was a little more polite. I’d love to have a cute little child like Nagisa-chan. You know what I mean? You do, don’t you!?”

“Yes, yes. Go talk to your husband about that one.”

As expected, my grampa was playing with Shinobu during a break in his work.

However…

“Ah ha ha!! Poop, penis, poop, penis, poop!!”

“Wah ha ha ha ha!!”

“Ah.”

I averted my gaze from that hopeless scene and looked to the women in the doorway.

My mom and the Zashiki Warashi had an utterly dead look in their eyes.

“Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

I let out a scream, but before I could will my grampa to run away, the women grabbed his arms, shoulders, and head.

Those demons from hell had deep shadows falling over their faces, but their eyes alone shined brightly.

“Father, we need to talk.”

“I think someone needs to teach you that there is a limit to everything.”

“D-don’t be silly!! Dirty words are the standard for kids his age! Right? Right!? You know what I mean, don’t you!?”

He franticly tried to escape, but the two women walked down the long, long hallway and vanished.

I’ve heard of a secret prison cell as one of the Seven Mysteries of the Jinnai House, but surely that isn’t true. It’s only a story to scare the children, right?

That was when my small gramma showed up.

“Oh, dear. What are you doing here, Shinobu?”

“Grampa was taken away.”

“?”

“Poop.”

“…I understand completely now. Take that damn old man to the third door!!”

All emotion vanished from her face and then she too disappeared.

What is the third door? Would I be happier not knowing?

Shinobu had nothing to do now that everyone had left, so he began chatting with some Youkai who showed up.

“The word Oni is a mixture of the original Chinese word ‘gui’ meaning devil and the Japanese word ‘on’ meaning hidden. It originally referred to all spiritual beings, but due to the influence of Noh and Kabuki, we ended up being muscular, with a punch perm, horns, and a tiger stripe loincloth! They forced that image onto us and now they tell the oni to leave because we’re scary!! How is that fair!? Hmph!”

“Hm? What do you mean they tell the oni to leave?”

“Oh? Does your home only ask the good fortune to come in? Wonderful, wonderful.”

The doorbell rang.

I poked my head out into the hallway and saw my uncle answering the door.

The visitor was…Nagisa maybe?

“Oh, it’s Shinobu-chan’s uncle. G-good morning!”

“(Stab) Unc-…!?”

“Thanks to your advice, uncle, I don’t lose to Shinobu-chan in races anymore! Thanks, uncle!!”

“(Stab stab) Unc-… O-oh…is that so? You’re here for Shinobu, aren’t you? Wait just a second. Heyyy!”

The repetition of the word uncle caused all the more psychological damage when combined with that innocent smile, but my high school aged uncle managed to shout for Shinobu.

Based on their previous behavior patterns, Shinobu and Nagisa were most likely going to play in the large yard. And I wasn’t going to get much information while they were having fun.

Shinobu had started seeing Nagisa home every time though, and he stopped by a lot of places on his way back. That of course included the Aburatori’s forest.

“It might not be a bad idea to make a visit there.”

I had been thinking all night.

If I was seeing the truth behind the Aburatori incident, then there were only two major possibilities.

One: The Kaeshigami ritual to make the Aburatori harmless ends in failure.

Two: Someone was lying.

Perhaps Hyakki Yakou’s Kaeshigami ritual would not actually make the Aburatori harmless or perhaps the Aburatori was not as cooperative as he was letting on.

“…”

Was one of those Hyakki Yakou members lying or not? Figuring that out would help a lot. I would be able to decide how to face the situation. Of course, I was only a high school student and I couldn’t read their minds from the subtle movements of their eyes or trembling of their lips like some kind of professional profiler, but if I observed them during some especially emotional moment, I might notice something a little off.

I doubted they would make any kind of mistake while working together as Hyakki Yakou. Everything there would be within their expectations and would have settled together like gelatin.

If there was any irregular element, it was the presence of young Shinobu.

Him speaking with and influencing the Aburatori had to be unexpected, even if just slightly. That solidified situation would melt and shift like liquid.

In that case, it had to be when Shinobu contacted the Aburatori or Hyakki Yakou.

Or around that time.

Before and after Shinobu showed up. Before and after Shinobu left. It wouldn’t hurt to look out for any changes in their actions or behavior then.

With that in mind, I needed to get to work.

I left the thatch-roof house and walked down the narrow farm road running between the paddy fields. I passed what looked like a fiber-optic workman’s van and a flying Ittan-Momen as I made my way to the mountain.

That Youkai stood in front of the cabin today as well.

He may have been able to leave while the Kaeshigami project was ongoing because I seemed to find him there whenever I showed up.

It was a strange feeling since the Aburatori was supposed to be elusive and impossible to catch.

“Hello, visitor. Why are you here so early?”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

Someone suddenly spoke to me from behind in a perfectly casual voice.

I quickly turned around and found Majina, the young man with a monocle and dress suit who claimed to be the leader of Hyakki Yakou. He was smiling.

The Sunekosuri (female) named Ohatsu rubbed up against his shin with an exasperated sigh and Hishigami Shikimi sat in a tree branch with her pale white hair tied back like a giant flower. It had been hard to tell in the darkness the night before last, but her kimono had Hyakki Yakou’s symbol on it. She also had something like a musical instrument around her neck.

The Aburatori was one thing, but where were these three spending the nights? They felt like they didn’t live actual lives. Or rather, like they appeared from the mist and vanished into the mist.

“What does he think he’s doing? While we can’t match the technique used, the one using it clearly has no idea what he’s doing. It’s like handing an idiot a cellphone.”

“Now, now, Ohatsu-san. I like this kind of thing. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to speak with someone without having to try to read their hand and watch out for murderous intent.”

“You do know you’re about to be a father, don’t you? You need to support a family, so get rid of that pathetic smile and be a little more cautious.”

“A…father?”

I wasn’t sure if Majina could hear me or not, but he bashfully scratched at his cheek.

“My wife is near the end of her pregnancy. To be honest, she could give birth at any time now. I’m really not ready for it, though.”

“What an awful husband. His wife is suffering and here is out on a business trip.”

“You don’t understand how scary the maternity ward is for a man, Ohatsu-san! All I can do is wait on the bench, so what am I even supposed to do!? Oh, no. Just thinking about is making my skin crawl…!”

“Honestly, the woman’s position there is ten or even a hundred times worse. Don’t start crying when all you’re doing is watch, you pathetic man.”

“I have a hard time believing you know anything about that, Shikimi-san.”

“What are you talking about? As the founder of the Hishigami line, I used to have an impressive body. It’s just that my eternal youth technique is a little too effective and I shrink on a daily basis.”

This conversation did not suit the name Hyakki Yakou in the slightest. My expression just about softened, but then it hit me.

I knew how this would turn out.

In the “present”, Hafuri was the leader of Hyakki Yakou.

If a girl of about ten had been forced up to that position, what did that mean for her father here?

They believed in blood, so if someone was forced up to a higher position, it could only mean one thing.

“…”

“Hm? What is it? You look like you’re at a funeral.”

“He’s probably shocked by how pathetic you’re acting,” said Ohatsu. “Who would ever believe you’re the leader of the great Hyakki Yakou?”

“I don’t blame him,” added Hishigami Shikimi. “The gap in expectations surprised me when I first met him as well.”

“I think it’s wrong for people to have that frightening image of us to begin with. Maybe we should change our name to Kanai Anzen or Mubyou Sokusai.”1

“Everyone would assume we went soft the instant you had a kid, so don’t you dare.”

It was almost certain that this leader of Hyakki Yakou and his wife were going to die.

I didn’t know how they would die, but if it was anything too dangerous, I couldn’t assume Ohatsu and Hishigami Shikimi wouldn’t be in danger too.

Abandoning them because it was “their destiny” would have been the right thing to do.

Looking at it positively and being glad that the baby inside the wife’s belly would survive would have been the right thing to do.

But there was a possibility here.

A single statement from me could change something. Was it truly “right” to stay silent and watch them walk down that dead-end of a path?

We were selfishly interfering with history in order to defeat the Aoandon and protect Japan’s future, so I could not afford to change anyone else’s history. But who had decided that was the “right” thing to do?

I didn’t know what was “right”.

Most likely, no one knew.

But.

But!!

“Hyakki Yakou believes in blood. My generation will eventually come to an end and the child in my wife’s belly will take over.”

Majina seemed to be staring into the distance as he spoke.

He seemed to believe he would be able to hand the baton over to Hafuri once she was fully grown.

“So I want to search out all the distortions and problems in Hyakki Yakou before that happens. I don’t want it to be some bloody organization. I want to be able to hand down a warm organization that can coexist with the paranormal without needing to bind it using fear and violence.”

This was not a name on a document.

Nor was it someone from the past who had already died, been burned to ashes, and been buried below a gravestone.

Once I looked at it that way, I couldn’t resist.

I forced out the voice that I was unsure he could even hear.

“In that case…you can’t keep doing things the way you are.”

“?”

“In the world I know, the name Majina is nowhere to be found. The leader of Hyakki Yakou is a girl of about ten named Hafuri.”

“…I see.”

He displayed no obvious killer intent, but neither did he seem frightened or confused.

This young man named Majina simply gave a sad smile.

A single word I spoke must have told him I wasn’t joking.

The name “Hafuri” had to only exist in his head at this point.

Hishigami Shikimi spoke fiercely down from the tree.

“See? Didn’t we tell you there was an assassination plot in the works?”

“Honestly, when you take naivety this far, it almost becomes an art form. It took a visitor from the future before you actually accepted your death is coming.”

“…”

Even as the other two spoke noisily around him, Majina remained silent for a while.

Even if they were hostile to him and even if they were clearly after his life, he may still have seen the people plotting against him as being “one of his own”.

Finally, he spoke as if to shake it all off.

“Thank you.”

I had no idea how to respond.

I couldn’t even decide if I had really done the “right” thing or not.

“But you didn’t come all this way just to tell me that, did you? Why did you come here?”

Most likely, this prophecy of the fall of Hyakki Yakou’s leaders was beyond unexpected for them, but Majina, Ohatsu, and Hishigami Shikimi did not seem particularly shaken. Neither did the Aburatori.

Did that mean they really were a single group and none of them was deceiving any of the others?

And…

“…?”

“What is it?”

As I looked around in confusion, Majina spoke to me in a puzzled voice.

I could not touch or use things, so I couldn’t use a cellphone. It was very inconvenient.

And so I didn’t know what time it was.

I thought a fair amount of time had passed since I had arrived here. Nagisa would return home for lunch and Shinobu would head out at the same time, but what had happened today? Had he not visited this place for once?

Things were leaving the normal routine.

Even if it was a minor difference, it still filled my chest with unease.

Yes.

I had only one point of view and I couldn’t rewind.

Had I missed some decisive moment?

“Sorry.”

“?”

“Sorry! I have to go check on something!! We can talk more later! Bye!”

My impatience grew to worry, my worry grew to fear, and my fear grew to panic.

Did I even have a body here? Did I really need to move my legs? I didn’t know, but I still ran as fast as my legs would carry me.

I didn’t see Shinobu on the way back, so I ran straight back to the thatch-roof house.

As soon as I approached, a ripple-like omen reached me.

A few Youkai were gathered in the large yard and chatting.

One was a Hitotsume-Kozou, one was a Dorotabou, and one was a Yagyou-san.

“Mh. There seems to be a commotion inside.”

“I wonder where Shinobu-chan went…”

“Hmm. I was hoping to beg for some lunch, but it looks like today might not be the best day.”

It grew and grew and grew.

The pressure inside me grew past the limit. To reduce the overwhelmingly bad feeling as much as possible, I tried to gather as much information as I could. I didn’t bother opening the front door. I stuck my head right through.

Inside, my pale-faced mom was speaking into the house’s cordless phone receiver.

The growing pressure inside me burst.

“Yes, yes, yes! As I already told you, we’ve been receiving threatening letters for a while now. Yes, and today we received a photograph of Shinobu sent from an unknown address. It asked for a bottle of Jinnai Amaterasu Dedication sake to be sent through a specified method. …What are we supposed to do? We…ahhh!!”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………I screwed up.

That was what I honestly thought.

I had misread the heart of the entire incident. It hadn’t had anything to do with the Zashiki Warashi, the Jinnai house, the Aburatori, or Hyakki Yakou. And I had definitely seen hints of it.

The Jinnai Brewery made Japan’s…no, the world’s highest quality Japanese sake that large criminal organizations needed for their ceremonies. And I knew they were willing to kidnap family members to get it.

They had kidnapped Shinobu.

And hadn’t the attacker the day before said he had meant to target Shinobu but had shifted to Hayabusa because of all the Youkai? Shinobu had been a target from the beginning.

But I couldn’t make a mistake here. I was here to see the truth of the “Aburatori Incident”. That meant anything else was only the trigger.

And a trigger like this did make some sense.

At the very least, the Aburatori was not someone who randomly hurt people. I didn’t know what caused it to fail, but he was still stable at this point. It hadn’t seemed right to think of him as the villain here.

But what if this trigger were pulled?

The Aburatori had even asked those experts to kill him if the alternative was him killing another child, what if he learned that the child he had tried to protect at the cost of his own life had just been kidnapped? He held the cruelest killing techniques in his hands, so what if he thought to use them to their fullest to counterattack and rescue Shinobu?

He would do it.

It did not matter if it meant the failure of the Kaeshigami that had required the miraculous combination of resisting for nearly nine years and gaining the cooperation of Hyakki Yakou.

It did not matter if that could lead to a hopeless future in which he was eliminated by Hyakki Yakou as the most dangerous of deadly Youkai.

He had been prepared to give up his life in the first place.

He had no reason to hesitate here.

“…What?”

But…

But that meant…!!

“No one was deceiving anyone. Nothing failed. Was he…was the Aburatori really just a normal Youkai who wanted to rid himself of his murderous trait!?”

I didn’t know what was “right”, but I couldn’t just throw away any chance we might have by letting things continue like this.

I turned right around and ran out of the thatch-roof house.

The Youkai hiding on the farm road, in the dry paddy fields, and in the waterways were whispering to each other.

“I am a Nurikabe. Has anyone seen Shinobu-chan?”

“He was kidnapped. The human world is so scary. Even us Tengu have stopped spiriting people away.”

“Those damn villains. If I only knew where they were hiding, I’d give them a taste of the hammer of justice.”

If they were talking about it, the information had to have spread quite a bit. It was only a matter of time before it reached the Aburatori in the mountains.

When I ran to that elevated clearing, I found someone unexpected there: Nagisa with her large St. Bernard.

She was shouting more at the Aburatori who stood in front of the rotting cabin than she was at Majina or Hishigami Shikimi.

“P-please save Shinobu-chan!! We need your help!!”

“…”

She handed him a photo of young Shinobu that had likely been printed on a home printer.

“Even my dog’s nose can’t find him. I asked the other Youkai, but they said they don’t know where he is! S-so you’re the only one left. I don’t care who; I just want as many people searching for Shinobu-chan as I can get! So you help too! To save Shinobu-chan!!”

“…”

“I-I know an Aburatori is a scary Youkai. I know you mix up everything in our stomachs and eat it…”

Nagisa lay down on the underbrush covering the ground and spread her arms.

She squeezed her eyes shut and continued shouting.

“But then…you can eat everything in my stomach! I’ll do anything if you’ll help us save Shinobu-chan! So please save him!!”

Her argument didn’t really make sense.

There was no guarantee that Shinobu could be saved with the Aburatori’s help and you could hardly expect a Youkai that eats kid’s organs to keep his promise after giving him your own organs.

But this must have been the conclusion that her childish mind reached through a variety of strange connections.

He was a symbol of madness and death.

He stood in the place closest to vivid reds and blacks.

He stood at the entrance to all of the world’s darkness.

That may have been what the Aburatori looked like to Nagisa. She may have thought anyone who had fallen into the darkness had to obey the will of this gatekeeper, so she may have thought he would save Shinobu’s life from that dark abyss if she gave her own life to this Youkai.

“I see…”

This worst of the deadly Youkai picked up on that.

Rather than focusing on the actions themselves, he understood the human feelings that led to those actions.

“Then I will take one thing from your body.”

I thought I heard a trigger being pulled.

“I only need to take your tears. You must promise me that you will stop crying if I bring this Shinobu back.”

I felt like everything had returned to the proper rails.

This seemed to be snowballing toward the worst possible ending. Everything they had built up was coming tumbling down and failing. I knew that, but I still felt like this was “right”.

Or to put it more simply, I thought he looked cool.

“Can you promise me that?”

“Eh? Um…yes. But is that all you want? I mean…”

“I could not ask for anything more.”

I heard the sound of scraping metal.

The next thing I knew, he had a few dozen skewers spread out in his hands like fans.

“Thank you. I may not have been able to bring this to its conclusion, but I do appreciate the help you gave.”

Ohatsu the Sunekosuri (female) let out a heavy sigh.

“…Are you really going?”

“I have no real reason not to.”

It was a short answer and this time Hishigami Shikimi, the giant flower in the tree, laughed and spoke.

“Oh? Even though it means wasting your efforts of the past nine years? No matter the reason, the seal will be easily broken once you recall the flavor of killing.”

“An optimum answer that requires letting a six-year-old boy die scares me even more. I can only call that properly insane.”

Again, it was a short answer.

Finally, Hyakki Yakou Leader Majina spoke.

“I might not look it, but I am fairly upset about this. I could use Hyakki Yakou’s power to hunt them down. You do not necessarily have to use your power.”

“You will ‘eventually’ find them and defeat them ‘somewhere’. But will you make it in time for Jinnai Shinobu? I am a monster among monsters. I understand all too well how my fellow child-killers and kidnappers think. The best method of arriving in time is for me to use…no, to recall my skills.”

Majina fell silent.

Finally, he brought a hand to his forehead while leaning against a nearby tree to clear the way for the Youkai. Anguish seeped out from behind his monocle and he tore at his bangs as he forced out a low voice.

“…That’s too bad.”

“Once I recall the taste of blood, I leave the rest to you. The Kaeshigami will completely fail and there will be no other way of saving me. So please use the essence of Hyakki Yakou to kill me. Before I lay my hands on anyone.”

“Aburatori.”

“Also…”

With his face hidden behind his large hat, the Youkai formed a ferocious grin.

He was saying farewell to this world without a single complaint.

“You said you are fairly upset about this. Well, I am downright livid.”

I heard a buzzing sound much like a monitor powering on.

Old charms appeared all over his body. They appeared on his hat, his clothes, and his skin. All of those charms formed some kind of seal, but a bluish-white phosphorescence burned through them and destroyed them. He had broken free of his limiter.

He was at full power once more.

He simply appeared, simply abducted, and simply killed.

He was an empty husk of a legend that lacked the traditions of fear.

When he used his power, he broke through the three-dimensional restrictions and vanished in an instant.

The hunter was finally on the move.

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