This chapter is updated by wuxiaworld.eu\nPart 15 (Jinnai Shinobu)
\nIt happened suddenly.
\nIt took me a few seconds to understand what had happened before my eyes.
\nBy the time my mind managed to comprehend the situation, the worker named Matsukai had already been knocked to the ground and had a silver fork stabbed into the side of his neck. It wasnât as dangerous a weapon as a knife or icepick, but it was clearly sticking into a very dangerous place.
\nâWh-wha-what!? What the hell are you doing!?â
\nâDonât get so excited, boy. This has nothing to do with you.â
\nIt was only then that I heard the clatter of the chair the woman had been sitting in hitting the floor. Everything from standing up from the chair to finishing the attack had been done in a single motion. She was fast. Overwhelmingly fast. Was she a cheetah or something!?
\nThe woman gave us no further attention and looked down at Matsukai-san who still had the fork stabbing into his neck.
\nâOkay, Matsukai Hiroshi Mark 2. What are you doing out here in the country? Since youâre using that name, I assume you arenât simply constructing a Package. How is Saishi Kajin related to this? In fact, are they still around?â
\nââŠâ
\nâSpeak to me. Give me some communication please. I made sure you had enough strength left to do that. If I move my wrist like Iâm twirling pasta around the fork, I can rip your nerves and artery to shreds. I am Hishigami Mai. Do you really think you can keep silent in front of me?â
\nFor some reason, Matsukai-san was smiling even while being asked those nonsensical questions. It was possible they were not nonsensical to him.
\nIn the next instant, Matsukai-sanâs body jerked like he had a high voltage electric current running through him and dark red blood flowed from his mouth.
\nâD-did you kill him!?â
\nâHe had some means of committing suicide. It wasnât the almond-smelling method, though.â
\nThe woman clicked her tongue, pulled out the deadly fork, and wrapped a nearby napkin around it. She may have been trying to take the evidence with her. I was completely dumbfounded by the entire situation and could not take my eyes off of Matsukai-san as he lay motionless on the ground.
\nCould he still be saved?
\nI saw things like CPR in dramas and movies a lot, butâŠ
\nâNo, donât even try it. I told you he had a means prepared, didnât I? If you kiss him now, youâll just end up with bloody foam coming from your mouth too.â
\nThe situation was shocking enough, but the womanâs atmosphere was even more frightening.
\nShe was used to this.
\nHer expression made it clear this was not the first time she had seen a dead body. In fact, she looked like she had created as many dead bodies as a normal person had received cardboard boxes from things bought online and plastic bags from convenience stores. She was not normal. A simple murderer would have been bad enough, but she was 2 or 3 levels beyond that.
\nMy tongue trembled.
\nAs it twisted around in my mouth, I just barely managed to get the words out.
\nâDonâtâŠmove.â
\nâWhy?â
\nI thought she was asking why she should do what I say.
\nBut I was wrong.
\nâWhy do you think you have any control here?â
\nâ!?â
\nShe understood something about the fear I was feeling. It was wrapped around me and holding me in place, but she accepted it as normal.
\nâThey say curiosity killed the cat, but a sense of justice can destroy nations. I have experienced it, so I know what I am talking about. I am not saying it is necessarily bad, but donât let it control you. That can have worse results than a kid with a handgun tucked into his pants.â
\nThe woman took a step toward me.
\nShe crushed my pathetic warning underfoot.
\nShe crossed a certain line.
\nI moved backwards like I was being magnetically repelled by her. I then turned around so I could bring the Zashiki Warashi and Madoka with me to-âŠ
\nâTh-theyâre gone!? Those twoâŠ!!â
\nThey had likely already fled the restaurant. It didnât matter. I couldnât even work up anger at the fact that they had abandoned me. Instead, I was relieved that burden had been removed from me. My legs got tangled up underneath me and I half-ran, half-tripped out of the restaurant.
\nWhen I entered the hallway, I spotted the Zashiki Warashi and Madoka standing a bit away.
\nâYou didnât run away!?â
\nâWhat are you talking about, Shinobu? Youâre the one that wouldnât respond when we called out to you.â
\nThe whole time?
\nHow long did that last? Seconds? Minutes?
\nAnd when did it start? When the fear and abnormality of that woman wrapped around me? Or from the moment I had saw that worker get stabbed?
\nWhen I thought about it like that, I realized I should probably be thankful that they waited around that long when a murderer could be coming at any moment.
\nMadoka called out to me with her face horribly pale.
\nâWh-what do we do now?â
\nâA room! You two get to one of the hotel rooms! Madoka, you stay with the Zashiki Warashi! She may not be deadly, but sheâs still a Youkai. She isnât easy to kill!!â
\nI doubted that girl in the red yukata would be any good in a fight and that nonstandard woman seemed like she could kill even a deadly Youkai without difficulty, so that hardly put my mind at ease. I couldnât come up with a plan and attack her from some gap or blind spot. The fear that woman gave me seemed to utterly destroy the very assumptions and environment required to put together a strategy.
\nFor some reason, the Zashiki Warashi puffed her chest out with pride and said, âDo not expect anything from me in a battle.â
\nâIâm not planning to fight either. I doubt I could put up any kind of a fight. I need to call the police. Either that or tell the other workers what happened. I just need to pass this off to some larger power. Sheâs locked on to us because we were the only witnesses. You need to stay holed up in a room until I can pass this off to someone else!!â
\nI heard footsteps.
\nThey were coming from the restaurant.
\nThey were not hurried footsteps. However, they were confident footsteps. They seemed to say she would catch up to us and kill us no matter what we did. Those calm footsteps seemed to tell me all our efforts would be futile.
\nâGo!!â I shouted and then ran down the hallway in the opposite direction of the Zashiki Warashi and Madoka.
\nI tried to make my footsteps as loud as possible to keep the womanâs focus on me rather than them.
\nAnyone. It didnât matter who. I had to let as many people as possible know what had happened. I needed to rob that woman of her control of the situation with pure numbers. If all of the hotelâs workers knew about the crime, her actions would be severely restricted. If the police arrived, she would have even more trouble.
\nThis hotel was in an Intellectual Village sightseeing spot, so it had a large number of workers for the size of the facility. As I headed for the elevator hall, I happened across a female worker who was pushing a cart to carry a room service meal somewhere.
\nHer nameplate read Matsukai.
\nMatsukai?
\nâWait, listen! The police!! Call the police right away!!â
\nâWhatâŠ?â
\nâSheâsâŠ!! Sheâs coming!! You canât stay here! You donât have time to wait for the elevator! Use the emergency stairs!!â
\nâIf you are having trouble, I may be able to help you. Is something the matter?â
\nNo! You donât understand!!
\nThe situation had gone well beyond that. It had shifted 2 gears up from that. But how was I supposed to explain how crazy this has gotten? A strange woman had attacked a worker with bestial speed and stabbed him with a fork. The worker had then committed suicide with some kind of poison. I barely believed it myself and I had seen it happen. The very best reaction I could expect was for her to head to the restaurant to see what happened.
\nAnd what would happen then?
\nThat would just add another dead body to the pile. How much time had passed since the first death? What was going on in the restaurant now? Had a waiter or chef noticed anything was wrong? If they hadâŠwhat would that woman do?
\nWould she just run away?
\nI couldnât imagine she would. I prayed it wasnât true, but that restaurant might have been turned into an ocean of blood.
\nâUm, sir?â
\nâNoâŠno.â
\nI couldnât wait for them to switch into the proper gear to deal with the situation. The police. It would be fastest to directly contact the people who made a living dealing with this kind of situation.
\nI frantically pulled out my cell phone with its broken camera lens.
\nâIt wonâtâŠconnect?â
\nI didnât receive a dial tone or even a message saying I had no signal. The only situation I knew of that would cause that was a widespread power outage caused by a lightning strike, butâŠ
\nWas this just a coincidence?
\nâDoes the hotel have a phone!?â
\nââŠWh-what!?â
\nâDoes the hotel have a landline phone!? Is there a public phone around here!?â
\nâOhâŠu-umm⊠The front desk on the first floor has-âŠ.â
\nBefore she had even finished, I turned around and ran for the emergency staircase. It was dangerous to leave that female worker alone, but I had to call the police to the hotel as quickly as possible. And even if I had stayed to protect her, I doubted I could have bought her even a few seconds of time.
\nBut it was no good.
\nWhen I arrived on the first floor, I picked up the public phoneâs receiver, but heard no dial tone. I could see nothing wrong or broken about the phone itself, so something on a larger scale was likely broken.
\nSince I could not contact them, I was forced to head directly to the police station.
\nBut I was in the dairy Intellectual Village known as Fuuka Village.
\nFor 20 to 30 kilometers around the hotel there was nothing but pastures. There was no way I could travel that distance on foot.
\nBy car then?
\nI of course had no license, but I knew an automatic was the same as a go-kart. It had an accelerator and a brake. I would be travelling down a straight and flat road with no traffic lights, so I guessed I could probably make it.
\nIt didnât matter what I had to do.
\nI would break the window and destroy the connector in the keyhole if I had to.
\nI just had to get a car and get out of there.
\nI ran out of the hotel and headed around to the back. A number of electric cars were parked there, but I could not tell if they belonged to the workers or to other guests. It didnât matter. But could I really leave the Zashiki Warashi and Madoka in the hotel? The hotel was about 3 stories tall. If I shouted, I guessed I could have them escape through the window and meet me. They could tie the curtains and use them as a rope to climb down.
\nBut thenâŠ
\nââŠWhat the hellâŠ?â
\nWhat I saw when I got closer to the parking lot left me speechless.
\nFlat tires. Every single car in the parking lot had flat tires. Every single tire on every single car had been punctured. The sight of all those flat tires pounded an exceedingly simple form of despair into my mind.
\nI canât escape?
\nIs this hotel like a desert island on land?
\nBut something did not make sense. That woman may have been a monster, but could she really have done all that on her own? When had the phones stopped working? When had every single car tire been punctured? If she had begun to isolate the hotel only after killing the worker named Matsukai in the restaurant, she would have had to carry out multiple large scale jobs in an exceedingly short time. Could she really have done it on her own?
\nâNoâŠâ
\nThat was not a major issue.
\nThere was a simple solution.
\nThat woman just needed accomplices.
\nââŠâ
\nI looked over at the great plain that was dissolving into the darkness. If I was up against multiple people or even an organization, they would not want us to contact the outside or to run away.
\nIf I just headed out blindly into the darkness of the night, would they do nothing and let me go?
\nI did not know how many people I was dealing with, but wasnât it possible they already had the entire area surrounded?
\nThat plain stretched on and on with no witnesses to be found. If they began pursuing me along there, they could take their time and make sure they killed me.
\nOf courseâŠ
\nThat entire idea could have been nothing but a delusion.
\nIt could have been nothing but the misguided fears of an amateur high school boy.
\nBut since I had nothing to base my decision on, I could not get rid of that unease. I could not head into that darkness without hesitation.
\nBut what else could I do?
\nI had no car. It was too dangerous to slowly continue on foot. But that woman was inside the hotel. The entire area seemed covered with death. How had I not noticed it before?
\nââŠSelf-defenseâŠâ
\nSince I could not call in help from outside, that was my only option. It would take time to get the workers and guests to switch gears, but our only option was to take back control of the situation with numbers!
\nBut was that even possible for a collection of amateurs? Would the group only fall into more and more of a panic the more people we gathered?
\nNo.
\nI had forgotten one important factor.
\nâUncle Uchimaku is a police officer.â
\nThe power of the police was one of an organization, so I had a feeling there was only so much my uncle alone could do. But surely a police officer would be able to bring the workers and guests together into a group easier than a high school student.
\nHe just had to prevent everyone else from panicking.
\nIf we could come together as a group and get a proper grasp of the danger, that woman would not be able to fight back.
\nâŠRight?
\nPart 16 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)
\nI was only heading to the restaurant because I was hungry, but I could tell something was wrong before even setting foot inside. What was this smell that cleanly rid me of all hunger? Why, nothing other than the stench of fresh blood!!
\nAs she walked next to me, the mystery freakâs nose twitched like she had caught the scent of some soup.
\nâThis could be bad. I just hope no one we know was involved.â
\nâ!?â
\nTo my shock, Hishigami Mai exited the restaurant.
\nâOh, you two seem to be getting along well.â
\nâItâs my sister. And here I was hoping no one we know was involved.â
\nâSorry about that. By the way, did you see a high school boy pass through here? One with blond hair, a delinquent look to the eyes, and a false atmosphere of overall incompetence.â
\nââŠYou mean Shinobu?â My eyebrows twitched. âWhat the hell happened in the restaurant!? That strong a stench of blood isnât normal!!â
\nâYou can take a peek if you like, but you probably wouldnât find it too interesting since you donât care about the dead. Also, that would be straying even further from the proper path, Mr. Dead-End Police Job.â
\nââŠâ
\nâYou should probably stay out too, Enbi. This is probably on a scale you canât handle and it isnât in your area of expertise.â
\nâIs that stench of blood coming from someone we know?â
\nâNo.â
\nâOkay then. What are you going to do, detective?â
\nNeither of the two sisters meant any harm, but they were shaking the very meaning of my existence.
\nI doubted a proper police officer like me could control even the mystery freak. And if I got involved in something the older sister was involved in, I would probably end up playing the role of the pitiful victim.
\nButâŠ.
\nâI am a police officer.â
\nâThis is outside your jurisdiction and you took leave, so you have no authority here.â
\nâThat may be, but I canât just turn my back on this!!â
\nI grabbed Maiâs shoulder, pushed her out of the way, and took a step into the restaurant.
\nAndâŠ
\nI immediately regretted it.
\nWas it a few seconds? A few dozen seconds?
\nI had no idea how long I remained frozen in place.
\nTime certainly passed and I was certainly aware of my surroundings.
\nThe scene before me burned into my mind and would not leave. The incident itself was in a category that should have been more peaceful than something like arson, but it gave me a much more vivid impression. Yes, vivid. Bright. I was supposed to be someone who detested crime, but I almost felt impressed by the skill involved.
\nI should have worked up a resistance to this type of thing.
\nIt was my job to confront this type of thing.
\nI was so used to it that a corpse with severed limbs stuffed into a metal drum only made me comment on the effort that had to have gone into it.
\nYet I found this to be on a whole other level.
\nThe world a few steps in front of me was filled with a fascination that seemed to overcome reality.
\nâYou were right to stop there.â
\nMai, the person who had likely created what I was seeing, grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back. Whether due to her strength or my lack of ability to resist, she easily pulled me out of the restaurant.
\nâSomeone who knows a bit of kendo is more easily fascinated by techniques and skill than a complete amateur. You need to be careful.â
\nMeanwhile, Enbi the mystery freak displayed her usual ability to neutralize any strangeness when it came to dealing with corpses. She seemed as calm as if nothing had happened as she walked up near the much too vivid corpse, crouched down, and began making various observations.
\nShe spun a large magnifying glass around in one hand, but she never really used it to look at anything. It may have been similar to how people would fiddle with their cell phone when they had nothing else to do with their hands.
\nEnbi seemed to come to a conclusion from the complexion of the corpseâs face and the foam around its mouth.
\nâFugu. Itâs easy enough to get your hands on, but it isnât the best option for suicide. You can see he was putting up with a lot of pain by how his nails have dug into his palms. It must not have been fun to know that was hidden in your tooth.â
\nâA painful death must have doubled as the penalty for failing his mission.â
\nâHis mission, hm? âŠI donât like the sound of that. It makes it sound like a war is being fought in this peaceful country.â
\nâThatâs why I said this isnât the place for you, little sister. This isnât a simple murder.â
\nThe sistersâ conversation seemed to be coming from a long distance away.
\nAs my thoughts cut in and out intermittently, I finally opened my mouth to speak.
\nâHow wasâŠShinobu involvedâŠin this?â
\nâHe saw it.â
\nâHeâs just a kid in high school!! He shouldnât be getting involved in this kind of thing. Thereâs nothing he can do about it! Thereâs no value in eliminating him for-âŠ!!â
\nâMake no mistake. I am not looking for him in order to silence him. But it does seem he had some involvement in all of this from the beginning. His involvement did not begin with witnessing my actions here.â
\nââŠ?â
\nâIt has already begun, detective. That is why I have begun to take action. And now Jinnai Shinobu-kun is wandering in the darkness while completely oblivious to what is really going on. He needs to understand what is happening before he runs across a pitfall.â
\nâUm, what did that worker named Matsukai doâŠ?â
\nâMatsukai Hiroshi. But that isnât the name of their organization or anything.â
\nI did not particularly want to know more, but it seemed Hishigami Mai had begun a conflict with some force that Matsukai Hiroshi was a part of.
\nHer point seemed to be that, even if she had no intention of harming Shinobu, the opposing force that Matsukai Hiroshi belonged to might.
\nAnd how did Shinobu fit into it all?
\nFrom what Mai had said, it didnât seem he had simply stumbled upon the crime scene.
\nâCan I ask you one thing?â
\nâThatâs up to you to decide.â
\nâDoes this have to do with Youkai?â
\nâA Package would be my little sisterâs territory,â said Hishigami Mai simply. âIf it requires my involvement, it is guaranteed to be something more than that.â
\nAs if it was nothing, she broke down one of the mental pillars supporting me. I could not imagine what kind of world that woman lived in. Even Packages using Youkai often proved difficult for the modern Japanese police to handle. We could neither kill nor arrest a deadly Youkai. The most we could manage was arresting the human criminals using those Youkai. What kind of a world did she live in and with what kinds of things did she fight?
\nThat abnormal mystery freak was more used to this kind of situation than me and had no problem being around that corpse. She jotted something down using the memo function of her smartphone that had a leather memo pad cover.
\nWhile doing so, she asked her sister, âWhat are you going to do?â
\nâNaturally, I am going to do something about this situation. First, I need to check on the scale of this incident. Iâm interested how they handled the real hotel workers. Did they forge a resume so Matsukai Hiroshi alone could infiltrate the hotel or have all of the workers been switched out with fakes? âŠWell, I get the feeling it will be the more severe answer.â
\nâWhat should we do?â
\nâThink for yourself. To be blunt, the risk does not change much either way. The violence we are going to see here is not something you can protect yourself from with nothing but the lock on your hotel room door, but you might get caught in the crossfire if you stick with me.â
\nâThen Iâll stay with you. What about you, detective?â
\nâEh? AhâŠ?â
\nâDonât worry about honor or convenience. There is no absolutely safe place. Decide for yourself what to do with your life,â said Enbi.
\nI could feel sweat pouring from my body.
\nThe Japanese police could not even handle a standard Package. Yet these sisters were setting foot in territory well beyond that. What could a single police officer without the support of the rest of the police hope to do in a situation like that? It would be too naĂŻve to assume I could shine a light on the darkness. My tiny point of light would just be swallowed up by the darkness.
\nButâŠ
\nâShinobu is out there. Odds are good he will end up heading deeper into this before we do. I canât back down until I find him. It doesnât matter if I can act as a police officer or not.â
\nFor some reason, Mai began to grin when she heard that.
\nâOh, so thatâs the power of the state.â
\nâIf you were saying that for a girl rather than your nephew, you could make a decent protagonist.â
\nâI donât need to be one. Iâm fine with being a police detective stuck in a dead end job, so letâs get the story moving. Where are we headed?â
\nâFollow me,â said Mai.
\nWe followed her through the hotel. As we did, I noticed something odd. There was no noise. The hotel was covered in silence. It was even quieter than hotels normally were. It was complete and utter silence. I felt like we were walking through an old abandoned building. Humans created a certain level of noise simply by being in the area. That noise was missing.
\nâWith Matsukai Hiroshiâs cover blown, the others may have decided there is no point in continuing their act.â
\nâSo all the workers are working with that Matsukai guy?â
\nâYes, but those workers probably arenât the actual hotel staff.â
\nWe arrived at the front desk on the first floor. No one was there. However, Mai and Enbi were looking at something else. It was the large diagram of the hotel set up behind the front desk.
\nâIf this was all set up from the beginning and they took some large-scale preparations, where do you think they would hide the unneeded hotel workers?â said Mai.
\nâThey might have already taken the bodies elsewhere,â pointed out Enbi.
\nâItâs entirely possible, but even that would not get rid of every trace. They had no reason to get rid of everything. If they were going to go around erasing every trace including fingerprints and bloodstains, it would be simpler to quickly build an entirely new hotel. And that would make sure they didnât miss anything.â
\nâThe boiler room.â
\nâWhat?â
\nMai frowned and Enbi explained further.
\nâThere were probably somewhere between 50 and 100 workers, right? If they were going to carry the bodies out, it would be difficult to do so as is. Not only is there the simple size issue, but if they got pulled over for a random drunk driving check, that would be the end for them. It would be safer to transport the bodies after changing their form. If you get pulled over for speeding or drunk driving, they arenât going to check the composition of the ash in a bag of fertilizer.â
\nâEven in this large plain, they couldnât exactly have burned them outdoors. I suppose it would be safest if they could get the needed firepower indoors.â
\nâItâs possible they filled a bathtub with powerful acid, but transporting that dangerous liquid here would be a risk in and of itself. Also, you canât just dump the entire body in there like in movies. If you try to dissolve too much at once, the chemical reaction grows too violent and the acid scatters everywhere and it creates a lot of smoke. It would be way too much of a pain to chop that many people up and dissolve them bit by bit. I say burning them to ashes would have been their safest method.â
\nSafest. It made me shudder to imagine it, but this was a world where that kind of thing was normal. I couldnât allow myself to be swallowed up by it. I had to preserve my sense of myself. I had stepped into this territory of my own will.
\nThe diagram had the entrance to the boiler room labeled with the warning color meaning it was off limits. It looked like we had to head down a staircase to the basement. We headed for that staff-only area and approached that staircase.
\nThe entrance to the staircase was sealed with a thick door.
\nMai opened the metal door and thenâŠ
\nâUncle!!â
\nI heard someone shout. I frantically turned around and spotted Shinobu running around a corner of the hallway. He seemed unharmed. But before I could breathe a sigh of relief, the situation took a strange turn. Shinobu glared at Mai as he approached.
\nâGet away from her!! Donât even think about trying to arrest her. The way she killed that guy wasnât normal at all!!â
\nâAhâŠâ
\nNot good.
\nShinobu was mistaken about something. But it was not whether Mai was good or bad that he was mistaken about. It was that he had any chance of stopping Mai even if he made clever enough decisions.
\nIn the end, Shinobu grabbed a fire extinguisher.
\nI could not blame him for trying to defend himself, but it only made the situation worse.
\nIt was unclear if Shinobu actually had it in him to attack her.
\nEither way, Mai did not hesitate. When someone who may or may not be an enemy approached you like that, it was obvious how you should deal with the situation.
\nIn the next instant, something happened.
\nDue to my police training, I knew a bit of judo and kendo, but I could not keep up with what happened. This was partially due to the pure speed with which the actions were taken, but the types of actions were also well beyond what I expected.
\nAndâŠ
\nâWhoops.â
\nThat was the first thing Mai said. Her voice sounded completely relaxed. She spoke when she looked in the direction she had thrown Shinobu. I looked over as wellâŠand then I shouted out.
\nHe flew through the door leading to the boiler room.
\nMy nephewâs body fell down the staircase and into the darkness.
\nPart 17 (Jinnai Shinobu)
\nâGh!?
\nGah!Geh!?Gweh!â
\nMy head spun. I could not tell up from down. I could see a cold, concrete wall in my dim vision. Where was I? A flickering fluorescent light illuminated a wide area filled with pipes and a steel-box-like device about the size of a small storage room. At first glance, I couldnât figure out what it was for, but the pipes had analog meters on them. The paint was peeling and I saw rust in places, so the area looked quite different from the rest of the hotel. It looked like something from an old factory or prison.
\nI had fallen down the stairs.
\nBy the time I realized that, I also realized my hand on the floor was touching something sticky.
\nAt first I thought my head had split open, but it wasnât blood on my fingers.
\nIt was something black and oil-like.
\nâWhatâŠis this placeâŠ?â
\nI glanced around despite my hazy vision, but then heard footsteps.
\nThey were coming from above.
\nWas someone coming down the staircase?
\nâGhâŠGhhhh!!â
\nI frantically tried to move away from the stairs, but I felt intense pain the instant I tried to use my muscles. None of my bones seemed broken, but I needed time before I could move. I did not think the pain would go away anytime soon, but I wanted time to get used to it.
\nWhile I lay almost unmoving on the floor, a voice spoke from up the stairs.
\nâOkay, I really didnât expect for that to happen. Sorry about that. But I need to make sure weâre safe before I check your injuries. Just stay there for now.â
\nWhat are you talking about? Check my injuries? Safe? Youâre the one that caused all this.
\nI wanted to say that out loud, but I could not get the words out because a pain throbbed in my head at irregular intervals. Meanwhile, the woman made it down the stairs. The instant her feet touched the cold floor, I felt a chill run down my spine and pain exploded within me, but the woman unexpectedly walked right around me. It looked no different from someone walking around a puddle along the road.
\nâSo this is the boiler room. Wow, this is horrible. We donât exactly need to check for a luminol reaction.â
\nBoiler? No, wait. Luminol? Isnât that what you use to check for bloodstains? You just need to rub it with a cloth to get a reaction.
\nThe woman headed further into the darkness that the half-functioning fluorescent light could not completely do away with.
\nâThis must be the inspection opening for maintenance. Itâs a decent size. You could probably fit a human inside. Oh, thereâs even some hair left over.â
\nI decided to not worry about my questions and to focus on moving...but first I needed to grow accustomed to the pain. I wasnât sure what was going on, but I could tell this was a much too dangerous place to be. That woman herself was dangerous, but her words were filled with a dangerous atmosphere. Who was the real enemy here? Was it someone other than that woman? Or was that woman involved in it all?
\nI tried to move.
\nâŠAnd it worked.
\nEither the emergency situation had dulled my senses or my mind was simply growing duller overall. Either way, the sharp pain that had been stabbing into my head changed into something more feverish. The fact that my bodyâs SOS signals were dulling was not exactly a good thing, but I could hardly be picky at the moment. I pressed my hands against the floor and lifted my upper body up into a kneeling position.
\nI then moved toward the staircase.
\nI didnât care what it took. It was too dangerous to stay where I was. I headed for the staircase.
\nâOw.â
\nI placed a hand against the wall and stood the rest of the way up. I turned around, but that woman seemed to still be checking things out deeper within the boiler room. I headed up the staircase on shaky legs. I moved slowly. I made sure to make as little noise as possible. It may have been safer to crawl up the stairs on all fours. That was how much my vision was shaking.
\nThe woman did not pursue me.
\nHad she still not noticed me or was she letting me go?
\nI couldnât tell. My mind was not clear enough to determine her intentions and possibly use them against her. I didnât care if it was the bed in my hotel room or the futon in my home. I just wanted to get back up to ground level and find somewhere to sleep.
\nI then arrived at the 1st floor.
\nBut I realized something was wrong.
\nââŠWhatâŠ?â
\nIt was quiet. Too quiet. This was the silence of a room after a TV showing a variety program filled with high-pitched laughter was suddenly switched off. That silence made me realize again that I was the only one in the room. Silence, silence, silence. Something was missing. Something important was missing. The hotel was wrapped in an unnatural silence that could not be achieved simply by holding your breath and staying still.
\nWait.
\nWhere had they gone?
\nâAll of the hotel workers were replaced. They have all disappeared now that we found out. That is why everything feels so unnaturally silent.â
\nAll of a sudden, the woman was standing next to me.
\nI had no idea when she had come up the stairs.
\nBut that was not the most pressing issue on my mind.
\nAnother issue was more important than how that woman had gotten within a meter of me.
\nâWhere are they?â
\nâWho?â
\nâMy uncle and that girl were here before! Iâm asking you where they are!â
\nâThey probably went to find a first aid kit after seeing what happened to you.â
\nSomething wasnât adding up. I couldnât figure out if she was playing dumb or not. But it didnât matter. I ran away from the woman and down the hotel hallway.
\nI had to find them first.
\nThey had to be around here somewhere!
\nAn unrealistic possibility floated up in the back of my mind: What if they had simply disappeared as if swallowed up by the silence and I could not find them no matter what I did?
\nBut that nightmarish possibility did not come true.
\nUnfortunately, what I did find was much, much worse.
\nPart 18 (Jinnai Shinobu)
\nTime seemed to be torn into pieces. Or maybe it was my memories. Either way, the timeline of events was in complete disarray. When I tried to remember it later, it seemed all mixed up. Every individual scene was burned vividly into my mind, but I could not reconstruct the order in which I saw them.
\nThe scenes were more than just images.
\nAn oppressive stench of blood hanging in the air. A burnt taste mixed in with the air when I breathed. A noise that hurt my ears. A sticky, melting feeling. It was all in the past, but whenever it periodically came back to me, I was inundated by layer after layer of sensations.
\nIt all felt crazy.
\nThe middle-school-aged girl who had been with my uncle was in the restaurant kitchen. No, she was collapsed within it. Collapsed on top of the gas stovetop. I could hear a noise that sounded like Chinese food being prepared. Her cute face was burnt black beyond recognition, the slender lines of her body had been fused with her clothing, and almost everything else about her was just horribly wrong as well. Only her right arm hanging down had escaped the flames. Their relative normalcy made the rest of her seem that much more horrible.
\nWho had done that to her?
\nI had no time to think.
\nKotemitsu Madoka was hanging within the hotel lobby. She was hanging down from the ceiling like a chandelier. I could hear a creaking noise as she swayed back and forth at the perfect height to hide a triangular-shaped diagram on the back wall of the lobby. At first, I thought she had been hanged, so I wondered if it was possible to save her. But I was wrong. She was hanging from a thick hook meant to catch Pacific bluefin tuna weighing over 200 kilograms. It was hooked into her upper jaw just as it was designed to. I could not see where the tip of the hook went, but it was obvious not enough room was left in her head for its proper contents. Her eyes. Both eyeballs were bulging out to an unbelievable degree. It looked like they were being pushed out from inside. Her face had been destroyed. It was much too tragic a fate for a teenage girl.
\nHad that woman done this?
\nBut was it even possible? It was much too complex. She had been too far away. At the very least, that girl with my uncle had been alive when that woman had knocked me down the stairs. She had come down the stairs after me almost immediately afterwards.
\nI headed off to search for that woman. Perhaps I was trying to find the truth. Perhaps I was trying to run away from the reality of those corpses. I didnât care. That woman had to have more information than I did. She had to. Whether she was the cause of all this or not, she had to know more than a high school student like me.
\nI had to find her and get her to tell me what she knew.
\nThat was my plan.
\nWhen I returned to the entrance to the boiler room, the door was half open for some reason. I peered inside and saw that woman collapsed halfway down the stairs. She was lying on her back. She had no head. It did not look like her head had been severed with a sharp blade. The wound looked odd. It made me imagine someone trying to pull off the head of a toy doll, failing, and being forced to twist the neck around until it finally gave way. When I saw her arms and legs continuing to spasm, I felt a bit relieved because I mistakenly thought she might still be alive. But then it hit me.
\nHow could she be alive if she has no head?
\nHow could she be alive with all that blood gushing from the wound?
\nWhen I realized her limbs were merely writhing around on their own due to the rapid blood loss, I finally accepted that she was dead. I accepted it. ButâŠwhat did that mean?
\nWasnât that woman supposed to hold the truth of the situation?
\nWasnât she supposed to either be the source of it all or at the very least be the closest person I knew to the core of it all?
\nEither way, she was the least normal of the people I knew.
\nHowever, she was not the very top.
\nâŠWhat can I hope to do?
\nThat fundamental question came to mind. It didnât matter if I knew the truth or not. If I knew a typhoon was about to hit landfall, could I do anything to change its path? I was nothing but a high school student. There was nothing I could do but hang up a Teru Teru Bouzu. It was possible someone with real authority might be able to send out a bomber to disseminate special chemicals into the air to physically change the atmospheric pressure, but that was nothing but a fantasy for someone like me. It was just a story. It had nothing to do with the reality I had to face. I wasnât in a position to even know if there was anything that could be done, much less whether a specific method was possible.
\nOnly those in pursuit needed to know the truth.
\nAnd I did not stand in that position.
\nI could not hope to do anything with the information. And any information I did get was less likely to give me a detailed view of the situation than it was to narrow my field of vision and keep me from being able to keep track of the entire situation.
\nIt was possible the best term for my position was âvictimâ.
\nBy the time I found my uncle, all my senses had numbed over. He was in one of the guest rooms. I had no idea if it had been his room or not. Both of his legs had been severed, and his neck was awkwardly caught on a broken window frame. He had been slowly and gradually strangled to death. A normal hanging provided a quick death from pressure on the carotid artery and the destruction of the cervical vertebrae, but he had not been so lucky. His had been a painful death. He would have been able to ensure a slight passage for breath by supporting his body on the ends of his severed legs which would have earned him 10 to 15 minutes of painful strugglingâŠbut I had lost the calm needed to figure even that much out.
\nMy mind was beginning to break down.
\nI could feel it happening.
\nThe number of murders and bodies alone should have left some kind of hint, but I could figure nothing out. Even if there was some clue to be found, that was a job for a detective. The lack of any source of information was so sudden that I could not even begin to think about looking for any further hint.
\nWhat had happened to the other guests?
\nWhat had happened to the other workers?
\nI was not calm enough to think through all of those questions. My breathing grew erratic. My mind was not functioning properly.
\nUtter annihilation. Complete slaughter. How much time has passed since the incident in the restaurant? Iâve lived for about a decade and a half. If pitfalls of this magnitude exist in life, how did I manage to live as long as I have?
\nâŠWait.
\nâSomethingâs sticking in the back of my mind. âŠWhat is it?â
\nWhere had I felt that feeling before? I sensed something odd about the string of words that had passed through my head.
\nHow much time? âŠNo, that isnât it. Restaurant? âŠNo, not that either. Oh, right. My overall impression of the situation.
\nUtter annihilation.
\nComplete slaughter.
\nThose terms were not accurate. And not simply because I had survived. Someone else had escaped. This was not utter annihilation nor was it a complete slaughter. At the very last, there was someone else I had not checked on yet.
\nYes.
\nThatâs right.
\nââŠThe Zashiki WarashiâŠ?
\nThe cracks of that odd feeling spread. Things were not adding up. It was not simply that the Zashiki Warashi was not present. For example, I could not remember the order in which the tragedies had happened. What about the blood? Had it started drying as time passed? That should tell me in what order the bodies had been made. And yet I still had no idea. Hadnât every scene been dripping with blood like something from a movie or a drama?
\nI began to head back the way I had come.
\nI wanted to check to see if what I had seen was still in the same place
\nBut thenâŠ
\nSomeone struck me roughly on the right shoulder.
\nI thought someone behind me was trying to stop me.
\nBut I was wrong.
\nâHey, are you all right?â
\nThat female voice came from directly in front of me.
\nThe voice belonged to that woman who should have been dead.
\nPart 19 (Jinnai Shinobu)
\nJust as the feeling that something was not quite right grew too powerful to ignore, I sensed something that destroyed the unnatural silence. It was a noise. The noise of a human being other than myself. That noise had returned. It was faint and the hotel as a whole was still wrapped in silence, but I could sense another living being nearby.
\nAt first, it came from directly in front of me.
\nThe woman who had stabbed Matsukai-san in the restaurant was peering at my face.
\nâW-wahh!?â
\nâWhat did you see? You werenât bewitched or something, were you?â
\nBewitched. When I heard that term that was usually seen in fairy tales, I started to question why I had not thought of that possibility before. When faced with an unrealistic phenomenon, wasnât it likely some kind of unrealistic existence was involved?
\nIn other wordsâŠ
\nA Youkai.
\nâYouâŠyouâŠâ
\nâWhat?â
\nâI thought you died in the boiler roomâŠâ
\nâSo you did see something.â
\nIt looked like the woman was about to ask me for details, but she suddenly stopped.
\nShe stopped because of another noise.
\nJust a moment before, noise had brought me calm, but this noise was unpleasant. It continued at even intervals, so it had to be something like footsteps.
\nHowever, it was completely different from any footsteps I had ever heard before.
\nIt sounded like someone crushing rotten fish underfoot.
\nSomething liquefied was slowly approaching.
\nBut from where?
\nI could hear the noise coming from beyond the slight darkness left by the dim lighting, but I could not tell what was causing it. And why was the lighting so dim? It may have been night, but a hotel hallway should have been more properly lit. What was this blindness that seemed to be oozing across the area?
\nâNot good.â
\nI never saw her pull it out, but the woman now had an automatic pistol that fit within her palm. Its small size seemed a waste with the plastic-bottle-sized suppressor attached.
\nIs thatâŠreal?
\nI had never before seen a real gun other than a hunting rifle, but I doubted she would be pulling out a toy at a time like this.
\nâThis really isnât good. It took me this long to grasp what was truly going on. âŠBy the way, do you know what this is, boy?â
\nâIâm not obsessed with guns, so I canât recognize a specific handgun.â
\nâThatâs not what I meant.â
\nIt was then that I finally noticed something.
\nDespite her calm expression, I could see sweat on her brow.
\nThat woman was sweating nervously.
\nâIf I have to rely on this, I have 80% lost already. I may be a bit biased, but I would say I am quite useful. I am at least useful enough to frequently receive jobs from Hyakki Yakou. But that doesnât mean I am invincible or that there is no one more powerful than me. There are people I would lose to.â
\nâWhat are you talking about?â
\nâI think one such dangerous person is about to appear here. This is very, very bad. This goes beyond an evil spirit. That bastard summons up illness magic like calling in an aerial bombing via GPS. I would say this is on the same level as some nobleâs grudge that can destroy an entire city. This isnât a force you use to target individualsâŠâ
\nI did not understand the entire second half of what she said. She may not have gathered her thoughts properly. This person and situation had caused that woman to fall into such great confusion. At first, I thought this was a continuation of that possible illusion of unknown origin, so I started to panic.
\nThe woman tossed me something while staring into the slight darkness.
\nA radio? A cell phone? No, this isâŠ
\nâItâs a satellite phone. They arenât very common in Japan, but surely youâve seen them in movies and foreign dramas. You can make calls without using the local cell phone towers.â
\nâAre you telling me to call the police?â
\nâI sincerely hope this is a situation small enough for them to handle. But I doubt it is.â She still did not look in my direction. â0015. That will unlock it. Then it works just like a normal cell phone. You have to enter the country code at the start, but you donât have to worry about it as long as you use one of the numbers in memory. âŠOne of the numbers is registered under the name âHyakki Yakouâ. Once you call them, all the characters involved will finally be gathered.â
\nâCharacters involvedâŠ? What do you mean!? What is happening in this hotel!? Why did you stab Matsukai-san!? What was that strange illusion I saw!? I canât tell what is real anymore!!â
\nâThe scale of this incident is much larger than just this hotel!â
\nâWha-âŠ?â
\nâJust go. If you saw what I can guess you saw, you are probably the only one who can resolve this incident. It is only you, the amateur, that can do this; not me, the expert! I donât like it, but I have to leave my life in your hands!!â
\nâWait. Wait! I donât understand. What happened to my uncle and that other girl!? What about Madoka!?â
\nâThe detective and my little sister have already fled! That is why I am in such a bind here. I havenât seen Kotemitsu Madoka. But the things you saw have probably not yet happened!!â
\nThe wet footsteps approached another step.
\nThe noise did not sound at all human to me.
\nThe woman seemed to overreact.
\nâGo!! If you stay here, you will undoubtedly die. Not even I will last long. So use that satellite phone to its fullest! As I said before, you are probably the only one who can!!â
\nâDammitâŠâ
\nI didnât understand what was going on, but I gave in to my desire to flee from those strange footsteps. The woman stayed where she was. It wasnât normal to be able to stand up to that. Was courage really the right term for the source of her willpower?
\nThe woman remained while I ran down the hallway. I fled.
\nIf what I had seen before was an illusion, then Madoka, my uncle, and that other girl would still be alive. I decided to check their rooms. And I had to check on the Zashiki Warashi.
\nAs I ran, I thought about what that illusion could have been.
\nIn all likelihood, it had to do with a Youkai. But I could not figure out what Youkai it could have been related to. And had it really been nothing but an illusion?
\nIf so, that was fine.
\nA mental illusion that you entered at some unknown point was certainly frightening, but it was not hopeless.
\nBut there was another possibilityâŠ
\nâIf that was a vision of the future, this could hardly be worseâŠâ
\nAnd there were Youkai that could do that. For example, the Kudan. The Kudan was a dangerous Youkai with the head of a human and the body of a cow that did nothing but predict peopleâs deaths. If this was a Package using one of those, I could not ignore that illusion.
\nAnd that woman had mentioned something about illness magic that could probably kill all of us at the predicted time.
\nI could not quite figure out what advantage the illusion gave, but it had to have taken a fair amount of preparation to cause that mysterious phenomenon. They would not have set it all up for no reason. They had some objective. If I could figure out what that was, I would likely find the key to unlocking the mysteries of this incident.
\nWith that key, I could figure out who would gain the most from it.
\nAnd I could figure out what Youkai was being used.
\nââŠHuh?â
\nI realized something upon reaching the front desk of the hotel.
\nI may have figured out a one portion of the enemyâs identity.
\nI knew of a Youkai that would hint at a dangerous future.
\nI knew of a Youkai that could change how it appeared to humans.
\nPart 20 (Zashiki Warashi - Yukari)
\nDue to that strange woman going nuts in the restaurant, I still had not eaten dinner. My annoyance was growing. Madoka had not said anything for a while. She may have been worried about Shinobu, but I could not be sure because Zashiki Warashi unfortunately did not have the ability to read minds.
\nSomeone started knocking violently on the door. Was it Shinobu? He had given me the key, so he had no way to open the door. I looked through the peephole and spotted someone unexpected. It was Uchimaku Hayabusa. He had some girl I did not recognize with him. The Sunekosuri from before stood at the girlâs feet. He had called it a sad instinct, but I had a feeling his personal preferences played a part in it. At any rate, it was strange indeed for Uchimaku Hayabusa to come to me. Then again, it might have been Shinobu he was looking for.
\nI cracked the door open with the door guard still closed.
\nAs expected, Uchimaku Hayabusaâs entire body jumped in shock when he saw my face through the gap. But he did not stop there. He spoke to me like something was pushing him forward.
\nâAre you okay?â
\nâYou say that like something dangerous is going on.â
\nI had an idea what it might be.
\nAfter all, I had witnessed a man getting stabbed in the restaurant.
\nThe girl cut in.
\nâYou arrived with Madoka, right? Do you know where she is? She wasnât in her room.â
\nâSheâs in here with me.â
\nâShinobuâŠhasnât come by yet, has he?â
\nâI havenât seen him since he went off to contact the police. Since he isnât back, he must not have had much luck.â
\nâThe police?â
\nâBecause he saw a murder.â
\nâDammit, Mai. Has she still not released Shinobu?â
\nâHey,â I cut in. âYou seem quite used to this kind of odd situation.â
\nâWell, I am a police detective.â
\nâNot you. The girl next to you.â
\nâUnfortunately, I am even more used to being around corpses than the detective.â
\nThe Sunekosuri at her feet jumped in shock when he heard those easily-spoken words. He continued to rub up against her slender legs, so in a way, he did have guts.
\nSomething was bothering me, so I asked about it.
\nâSo is this incident related to Youkai?â
\nâUm, wellâŠmaybe. Just the other day, the detective and I were caught in the middle of a Package on Zashou Island that used Funa Yuurei.â
\nâWhat about the Sunekosuri?â
\nâEh!? M-me? I havenât done anything!! It was all Hishigami Mai-sanâs doing!! Itâs her fault that I had to live through that nightmare and couldnât return to HQ! And just when I think I can rest here in Fuuka Village, we run into them again!!â
\nHmmâŠ
\nAnd then you add in Shinobu, Madoka, and me.
\nI hadnât realized it at first, but their oddly casual acceptance of this strange situation was bringing me a gradual understanding of what was going on. If a normal person saw a murder, they would fall into a confused panic. It was not normal for them to even be able to put their thoughts in order. So when they were faced with something beyond that, they should have had their hands full simply trying not to be swept away by the nonsensical phenomena occurring before their eyes. And yet these people were different. Everyone gathered here had experienced some incident related to Youkai recently.
\nAnd I was a last-minute inclusion as a pet.
\nIf some third party had predicted that far, it had to be an organization with quite a powerful backbone. When I had demanded to go along, Shinobu did not even have his ticket yet. He had merely mentioned the term âticketâ. Intentionally drawing out that feeling of jealousy from within me would have been much more difficult to set up than the little tricks they had to pull regarding the hotel itself. And if they had guided every person here in a similar manner, their skill could almost be called a curse.
\nTo freely control things to that extent, the scope of this incident had to stretch farther than just this hotel. At the very least, it had to cover all of Japan.
\nButâŠ
\nWhat was this third party planning to do by gathering people who had dealt with incidents related to Youkai?