“Mai!”
Ayako’s made a sharp sound and clapped my face.
“Mai!”
It was Ayako’s voice. I opened my eyes at once. Ayako’s face jumped into my field of vision, which had been flooded by tears.
At that time, I was screaming. I was screaming from the depths of my body. Although my throat was hoarse and I couldn’t properly make a sound, I actually wanted to scream – until I had expelled all the horror within my body.
“Mai! Pull yourself together! Mai!”
My body was twitching, convulsing. I only desperately hugged Ayako tightly. Ayako’s warm hands desperately soothed my back.
“Pull youself together. It’s only a dream, it’s all right.”
Urging me, come, I lifted my head. Someone held a glass in front of me.
“Do you want a drink?”
It was Masako’s extremely concerned face. I finally calmed down and accepted the cup. My hands were still trembling immensely; almost enough to spill all the contents of the cup.
“… yeah. Thank you.”
My voice was also shaking. Tears dropped pitter patter down.
“What in the world happened?”
“I had a frightening dream.”
Really, it was terrifying…
“The dream you had was…”
Just as Ayako was asking, someone pounded heavily on the door.
“Did someone scream here just now?”
It was Bou-san and co who had rushed over from their room.
“… I’m sorry. I had a nightmare.”
“… You said you had a nightmare… you…”
Green in the face, Bou-san knelt by the bed. Yasuhara and John also heaved a sigh of relief.
Bou-san buried his head in the blankets.
“… Don’t scare us anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
Yasuhara forced a stiff smile.
“And we thought something had happened to someone… thank god.”
John also smiled vacantly.
“That’s great.”
Bou-san suddenly lifted his head.
“You said you had a nightmare; could it be those dreams?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“How was it?”
I didn’t want to remember. Even just thinking of recalling it brought a fresh scent of blood.
“You’re a woman with a sixth sense right?”
“—I was killed in the dream.”
Everyone stared at my face.
“You said you were killed, that is…”
Ayako, who was seated next to me, looked at my face.
“There were 2 men who came. They dragged me into a strange, tiled room. There, there was a surgical bed like bed; the room was flooded with blood. They slit my throat there.”
I still clearly remembered the sensation of blood spurting out.
“I think there are also many others who died there. It was an execution ground – that place.”
When I related that, tears flooded my eyes once more.
I thought I would really die there. Really, it was terrifying.
Ayako patted my back. I couldn’t stop my tears from gushed forth.
After a bout of crying like an idiot, when I lifted my head I saw Lin-san standing at the open door. Naru wasn’t there.
Why wasn’t he there?
Why wasn’t he there at that time?
Regardless of the time, Naru would always appear in my dreams; he’d tell me all sorts of things, and would give me help. Regardless, he would smile gently at me. It should clearly have been like this; why?
… Because he’s very cold. Because he really is a cold person.
Without knowing, my imagination ran wild, and once more my tears started falling down. I hurriedly hung my head, and desperately covered my face. Now isn’t the time to cry. Everyone is worried about me.
Someone – I don’t know who – knocked my head (I think it should be Bou-san who would do something like that). Anyway I nodded first. I’m all right. I’ve already calmed down.
Suddenly the scent of red tea wafted in. Hearing the sound of cutlery clattering, I lifted my head. Someone held a teacup in front of me. I was stunned.
“You’re all right?”
A voice without inflexion. Lifting my head, Naru was holding the cup out to me. He was wearing a pair of thin, grey, pajamas. I felt it was a rare sight, and I unconsciously calmed down.
I gently accepted the cup. Yeah, I’m all right. My hands, too, had apparently stopped shaking.
“I’m sorry, everyone. Thanks.”
I took the cup and hung my head. Ayako gently patted my back.
Naru just stood by the side; then gently let out a breath. And then
“What happened?”
He asked.
After I quietly finished my piece, Yasuhara spoke in a low tone.
“Suzuki-san or Atsugi-san… perhaps they are already dead.”
“Hey hey, young man. Don’t say that so lightly.”
Bou-san glared.
“Because, hasn’t Taniyama-kun seen it? Perhaps it’s something that happened somewhere.”
Ai?
“You’re also saying… Mai and someone’s spirit synchronized; that is, she’s received a telepathic communication?”
“The professional stuff I don’t know too well. The one being killed in reality was Suzuki-san or Atsugi-san; Taniyama-kun has sensed the events that happened to Atsugi-san as though experiencing it herself; there should be this sort of possibility too. Despite saying all this, I’m not sure whether such a thing exists.”
Bou-san looked at Naru, who was seated next to Ayako on the bed, appealingly. Naru said meaningfully,
“This type of communication from spirits is not unprecedented. But does Mai have this degree of power?”
… Wu. What does that count as ~, this theory~.
“Compared to this, that room is a greater concern to me.”
Naru said while his black eyes glanced at the sky.
“I think there isn’t a room that matches the execution room. I don’t recall seeing a room with both a furnace and a closet. The existence of the so called hedgerows is also unclear. If such a room really exists; under those circumstances, the execution room has probably been completely renovated already.”
Mentioning that, I was wearing a kimono at that time…
“Regardless of how we speculate, the empty space in the floor plan is very worrisome.”
“Isn’t hacking through the walls the only way?”
I couldn’t stop myself from saying that. Bou-san let out a huge sigh.
“What are you thinking of, you madam. Who do you propose do the work of hacking through the wall?”
… Of course that’d be Lin-san and Bou-san and John and Yasuhara…
Yeah, in normal circumstances it’d probably be annoying~
Without talking about whether Ohashi-san would allow it, we do not have sufficient manpower either. If we hired people to work here, it’d be intolerable if somebody disappears again.
That’s what I thought.
“That thought isn’t bad.”
Weary, Naru said that line.
“Hey, don’t joke anymore. Are you going to have all those walls demolished?”
Accompanying Bou-san’s shout, an unsettling smile appeared on Naru’s face.
“If we can’t find the hidden entrance, this might be unavoidable. Anyway we shall begin after the night is over.”
“And the search for the missing persons?”
“They aren’t within the range of what our eyes can see. If it’s like this, they are definitely in a place where our eyes are unable to see. If the hidden room is found then the problem is naturally solved – such a possibility also exists.”
He’s right too.
Bou-san glared at me with a gimlet stare.
I’m so sorry. But, it’s because we are doing good works. Try your best.
It was 2 am when I had screamed. After that I dozed a little, and rose with the dawn. After washing up I went for breakfast. Despite saying that, I couldn’t work up an appetite even this morning. Then we gathered at the base. Lin-san was checking the equipment. Speaking of which, last night, the equipment registered no disturbance at all.
Anyway we resumed the accurate measuring of the 2 floors left over from yesterday.
“If this still doesn’t work then find out about whether we can knock holes in the walls.”
With Naru’s cruel words, we started work.
“Hey~, Mai.”
“Yeah?”
I positioned the fluid level on the ground, while turning to look at Bou-san.
“You met 2 men in your dream; do you know who they are?”
“Ah, that. Although I desperately looked at their faces, I didn’t make the least impression of their appearances. It somehow feels like it’s something that I’ve forgotten immediately after seeing it. When I looked, I knew, but I’m not clear about how they actually looked like.”
Bou-san squatted down beside me.
“Hey, I’m only saying this here.”
“Yeah.”
Because the volume of our conversation had diminished, Yasuhara and John came nearer.
“That… do you think that those 2 men are amongst the staff here?”
“Ai?!”
Bou-san placed his finger on his lips with a ‘Shh’.
“I thought, could it possibly be that the fellows here have sone something.”
Ai ai ai…
Yasuhara, who was also squatting down, leaned forward.
“Ah, isn’t this scene like those in a movie?”
“Is it?”
“They clearly know there are hidden rooms and hidden passageways but they don’t tell us; there’s this possibility too.”
“Exactly. It’s those fellows who hid the 2 people who have disappeared. If it’s like this…”
Bou-san put his hand on his head.
Yasuhara couldn’t stop nodding.
“If it’s like this then we’re all sacrifices. They told us that it’d be troubling to let the media know, and they closed us in here, then one by one they make us vanish. In the end there’s not one of us left…”
“The one called Ohashi is actually a homicidal maniac or something.”
“Perhaps this place is a secret temple for satanic worship.”
John, who was also squatting, held his head.
“Those fellows – didn’t they say that they had not encountered anything strange? They were here preparing for a very long time, right? They say nothing had happened; is it even possible?”
“Exactly. None of the staff here have disappeared before. Thinking carefully about it, none of the people directly associated with this house have vanished. But psychics, the punk who broke into this place, and the fire brigade volunteer who came forth to investigate…”
“Isn’t that so?”
I couldn’t help looking at their 2 faces.
“Hey, are you two really speaking seriously?”
“Ai?”
“No… that…”
“I think that lazing off here and talking about these pointless things won’t solve any problems.”
Bou-san’s and Yasuhara’s faces turned aside.
“Furthermore, Naru will not accept this sort of thing either. In any case we have no choice but to place fluid levels on all the floors. In the end we will have to knock down the wall, right?”
“Mai.”
“Wh~at?”
“You are really not the least bit cute.”
“That’s redundant.”
Hn.
Just at that time,
“Wait a moment.”
John wore a severe expression and gently raised his hand.
“What’s up?”
“What Yasuhara-kun said just now: none of the people associated with this family had disappeared; this line.”
“Wait, John. That was only a joke. You can’t be serious.”
John’s blue eyes gazed at me.
“But, this is a fact, isn’t it?”
“The fact you’re talking about is…”
“Mr Kaneyuki, who lived here, was fine. Mr Hiroyuki, who frequently stopped at this place, was also fine. Even the various staff members, up till today, have lived safely here.”
“Hey hey, John.”
Bou-san responded in a shocked tone. In contrast, John looked completely serious.
“The ones who vanished are all outsiders. Is this really meaningless?”
“You… could you possibly be thinking that the people here are the criminals…?”
John shook his head.
“That’s not what I mean. I’m just thinking whether there could be a connection.”
Connection…
“Atsugi-san disappeared in a very strange fashion. If it is the same as what was recorded he couldn’t have disappeared. Is this, as expected, the actions of spirits?”
“… Perhaps.”
“If that’s the case, then don’t the spirits here have the hobby of picking out sacrifices? The spirits here will not hurt anyone with an association to the Miyama family or something.”
Bou-san sank into deep thought.
“However, the staff here are, at most, servants; they don’t have any blood relation.”
“If that’s the case, perhaps the spirits here like young people.”
… Ai?
“Aren’t all the staff here older people? In contrast, aren’t all those who have vanished young persons around 20 years old?”
“… you are right.”
Bou-san nodded.
I stood up.
“I’m going to tell Naru.”
“Wait.”
Bou-san called me.
“All the members of our team are under 30. If John’s hypothesis is right, then aren’t all of us in grave danger?”
… really?
“Naru-chan is right. It’s better if one is definitely not alone.”
When the four of us returned to base, Naru, Lin-san, Ayako and Masako had returned. For some reason they wore tense expressions.
“What’s up?”
I opened my mouth to ask; Ayako turned to look at me with a solemn expression.
“Great, you guys are back. – Someone has disappeared again.”
Disappeared?! Again?!
“Who is it?!”
Bou-san asked.
“She’s called Fukuda-san.”
“How old is she?”
The significance of Bou-san’s question was perhaps only understood by the people from the Mansion Interior Exploration Team.
Ayako was also slightly stunned.
“Her exact age isn’t clear. 25, perhaps; about that old.”
“She is the girl from Minami Psychic Research right? Is she that young lady?”
“Yes…”
As expected…
Naru wore a shocked expression.
“And then?”
Bou-san told everyone what John had said; Naru sank into deep thought.
“So that’s how it is…”
Naru mumbled, and then he raised his head and turned towards Yasuhara and me.
“The two of you must never be on your own.”
… Yeah.
Then he turned towards Ayako.
“Matsuzaki-san, to what extent can I trust on you?”
“What the heck is this question of yours?”
“Now isn’t the time for arguments. Whether it is Mai or Yasuhara, right now we need the two of them. However, this place is very dangerous. To what extent can I rely on you?”
Ayako replied very resentfully.
“If it’s exorcism… you can count on me for something of this level.”
“Understood.”
Naru looked around at us.
“Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san must never act separately. Can the two of you cooperate with each other?”
“I think so…”
Ayako nodded; Masako asserted:
“If it’s Matsuzaki-san, I don’t feel comfortable.”
“What is the meaning of this?!”
Naru gently raised a hand towards Ayako, then gazed at Masako with his deep eyes.
“Hara-san. Basically I don’t trust anyone besides the members here. Reliable people are few and far between. However one puts it you are also a psychic; if this is the case then you should at least be able to protect yourself.”
“… Yeah.”
“Yasuhara-kun completely does not have any ability to protect himself. To protect him we need an extremely reliable person.”
“Yes…”
Seeing Masako nod, Naru spoke.
“Bou-san and John cannot leave Yasuhara-kun’s side. You must never let him out of your sight.”
The so called extremely reliable person, refers to the two of them…?
“Please wait a moment.”
Lin-san spoke loudly.
“Are you saying I am to protect Taniyama-san?”
“Exactly.”
“Just let me put this clearly. You aren’t even able to do exorcisms, are you?”
… That’s right too. Naru is purely metapsychology researcher.
“Then your position is practically identical to that of Yasuhara-kun. You need protection.”
“Lin, I’ll find a way.”
“I’m not joking. I’ll be very worried if you say it like this. Let me take care of Naru’s protection.”
After finishing that forcefully, Lin-san looked towards us.
“Takigawa-san will protect Yasuhara-kun. Taniyama-san will then depend on Brown-san.”
“It’s too much for Bou-san alone.”
“Hey hey, Naru-chan.”
“I’m not belittling you. I’m only saying that there’s the possibility that this place is dangerous to this type of level.”
“If that’s the case, then it’ll be solved if one person goes back. I’m not capable of letting Naru be alone. If something happens to you, how should I explain to the Professor?”
Professor?
“Please consider the feelings of your parents too.”
“Lin.”
“You haven’t forgotten the fact you are only a 17 year old child, have you?”
Naru glared at Lin-san solemnly.
“If you’re dissatisfied with me, you may go back.”
“Please don’t misunderstand. Of course, I can go back.”
Lin-san’s expression turned even more solemn.
“I’ll be very worried if you’ve forgotten. I did not come to look after you. I’m here to monitor you.”
… Mon, monitor?
Suddenly, Yasuhara stoodu up.
“Let me withdraw then.”
“Hey, young man.”
“There shouldn’t be any more problem if only I withdraw. I’m only the head of ‘Shibuya’, who later left everything to the investigators. If I withdraw with this explanation there shouldn’t be too much trouble.”
This is what we’ll say.
“I will go to Suwa to be Mori-san’s assistant. I personally also have some outstanding issues.”
After thinking deeply, Naru nodded his head.
Substitute Head Yasuhara left this mansion on the car with a staff member running errands in the city. The other psychics purposely loudly made cutting remarks that he was running away.
While we were made fun of by the people we met, we conducted the search for Fukuda-san. Despite our thorough searching, as expected, we couldn’t find a trace of Fukuda-san.
She said she wanted to go out for a stroll then she left the base used by Minami-san and his team. After that she never returned. Coincidentally there was a member of the staff cleaning the hall at that time; he didn’t even see her leave the hall. She only disappeared; that’s the only explanation.
Minami-san was thus in an extremely awkward situation. The other psychics derided Minami-san with, ‘haven’t you summoned you helpers’, ‘Regardless of the others, when your own assistant has disappeared, you should let us see the abilities of the Professor right?’, ‘Your other helpers should have arrived already, right?’ and the type.
We looked at this disturbance; in the end we couldn’t stand it and returned to work. We carefully completed the remaining measurements. At dusk, after we wound up the measurements, we discovered an unexpected truth.
“The structure of this house is elevated in the middle.”
Lin-san said while generating the sectional diagram of the house.
We understood that the ground of the first floor of the house sloped gently towards the center; the area around the center was about 2 meters higher than the periphery.
Bou-san tilted his head.
“Why in the world would they build this type of house?”
Exactly.
“Repeatedly renovating, hence producing things like level X?”
Naru coolly shot back.
“… If that’s the case?”
“I feel it wasn’t intentionally done like this. This type of house is definitely constructed like this for some purpose.”
“Purpose…”
John tilted his head too.
“What was this house like right at the beginning?”
Naru nodded and retrieved a printed out diagram.
“From the finish of the windows, the rooms are all built around the small structure in the middle. Extending further outwards, the rooms become gradually larger; up to this point it is clear-cut…”
Bou-san sighed a huge sigh.
“That, as expected it’s still the huge empty center portion that is suspicious. At first, there is clearly no courtyard; it’s also too strange that the ventilation is good up to the second floor. The question is where exactly is there a path to go in…”
Naru flicked at the diagram.
“If there isn’t any path to begin with?”
Ai?
“If there’s no path… if that’s the case, hey.”
“What if that piece of empty space isn’t actually a hidden room, but a sealed room?”
Ah…!
This is it, the common scenario from horror movies: the scenario where after a wall is destroyed a sealed room lies beyond it, and there’s something there. Although the empty space was too large we only considered the possibility of a hidden room; there was always the possibility that empty space was not accessible to people…
“We’ve also tried searching for a path. This is an ancient and filthy house, of course we would think that as long as we could find the path or something, we would definitely know if the people who disappeared had used it before. Dust that had been disturbed, footprint – we would depend on this type of things. – Regardless of how we search here, I don’t believe things like paths exist here. Not to say the building is added to outwards from the center; I can only believe that it was added to in order to hide something in the center.”
“… Correct.”
Bou-san finished and gazed at the ceiling.
“But, what exactly is hidden? Could it be… the execution room?”
“What it is actually like, whether something like this exists or otherwise – after we investigate the other side of the wall we will find out.”
“Are we really doing this? Knocking through the wall?”
“Of course. I’ve already obtained Ohashi-san’s understanding.”
Bou-san looked completely defeated.
Just at that time, as usual, someone knocked on the window.
“Madoka… Yasuhara-kun!”
Naru looked stunned.
As he looked on coolly, with a ‘heyo’, two people jumped in through the window.
“Good evening.”
“I’m here~”
–2 people who looked completely unconcerned.
“Really… what are you guys thinking of?”
Naru looked at Yasuhara.
That’s true too. He clearly left this place because it is dangerous, if he came back then isn’t that a complete waste of effort?
However, Yasuhara looked completely unperturbed.
“No, I’m here to report the things we investigated today.”
Mori-san grinned at Yasuhara.
“Yasuhara-kun, today was really too exciting.”
“That’s ~ right. It’s only because I was there.”
Yasuhara sniggered, pleased with himself.
“That is, first, when I went back to the city, I counted the number of chimneys.”
… Ai?
“I always felt it this was a little strange, but I couldn’t see too clearly from far, so after I met up with Mori-san I had her look at it again.”
Mori-san nodded. “Yes. I took the car all the way up a near-by mountain. Then from there I used a pair of rented binoculars and carefully counted it out. In the end there are 20.”
Lin-san checked the number of furnaces there were on the computer.
“When I was investigating I felt there should be 10 or 11 of them.”
Lin-san backed up Yasuhara’s words.
“There are 11.”
… There’s one extra chimney…
“After that, if we look closely at it again, the chimney at the center of the house is very strange. The shape is round, and it’s also coarser than the other chimneys.”
That was a valuable clue. There was indeed something in that empty space. At the very least, a chimney. The places that can hide a suddenly jutting out chimney are very limited. The empty space did not extend into the third floor. If the chimney extended up from the second floor, it should be visible from the third floor windows. But there was only one side of one direction which was windowless. If there was a chimney, it could only be in that direction.
Naru immediately checked the floor plan. There was an even larger empty space to the north of the huge empty space. It extended from the second floor. At once we confirmed that was the position of the chimney.
Mori-san appeared a little proud.
“The clever I properly took photos as evidence. They are currently getting developed, and you should be able to see them tomorrow. I had specially borrowed a long distance single lens reflex camera, isn’t that incredible?”
As she said that, Mori-san looked at Naru. Naru only replied with a cool gaze.
“Whatever~”
It was Bou-san who spoke instead.
“It’s incredible, very incredible. And then?”
Mori-san smiled and spoke.
“When I was doing all these, I let Yasuhara investigate in the city. He’s really good detective material.”
He~~
Yasuhara puffed out his chest.
“Whatever type of material needed, I have; because I am the genius Yasuhara.”
Smiling, he said,
“First, I tried going to the Miyama family. Furthermore, I also interviewed the near-by families, and tried my best to look for older people. Then, a few houses away, I found an eighty-two year-old old lady. She’s an energetic, still clear headed senior citizen. Thus I started asking her.”
Hu hu.
“The old lady was born around the time Mr Miyama Kaneyuki died. Yeah, there wasn’t much chance she knew Mar Kaneyuki, but I thought she might know something. Mr Kaneyuki was a capricious personality; when he was gentle he’d give others a little something, and appeared very warm. If he was in a bad mood he would hunt down other people and have his underlings surround them and beat them up; he was apparently this sort of person.”
… Hn~~
“Previously it was mentioned that Mr Kaneyuki was a mysophobic person; the old lady concurred. She said Mr Kaneyuki was extremely terrified of germs. And the family next door to the Miyama family wouldn’t careless take anything belonging to the Miyama family, not even a persimmon. Apparently they had tried before and was thus severely punished.”
“… So that’s the way it was.”
“This is about all I could get out of that old lady. Then, I let her introduce me to the old folk’s homes and community clubs in the city. Following that I tried going to those places. In the end, I heard various sayings, but the evaluation of Mr Kaneyuki was all bad.”
“.. He is a philanthropist, right?”
“That’s right; in any case the good works were done with all sorts of bad things on the sly, it was only a camouflage. That was what a lot of people thought.”
That’s unexpected…
“And then I found someone who claimed to be Mr Hiroyuki’s friend. It was an old lady; her husband was a friend of Mr Hiroyuki in his later days. According to her, Mr Hiroyuki hated his own father a lot. Apparently he practically never listened to his father’s words and he would get extremely angry if anyone were to speak of his father.”
… Hn~
“According to some of what I heard, Mr Kaneyuki apparently had very frail health since his youth.”
“Frail health?”
“Yeah. Because of his frail health, he was frequently bedridden etc when he was young. And his frequent travels abroad, while said to be only travels, should be actually trips abroad to see doctors about the aches and pains he had at that time.”
… He~
“When he was little others said he wouldn’t live long, and in reality he died at fifty. However, according to Mr Hiroyuki, it would have been better if Mr Kaneyuki had died earlier in his youth. He had apparently said this before.”
I asked.
“If Mr Kaneyuki were to die in his youth, then wouldn’t Mr Hiroyuki have not been born?”
“Exactly, that’s a very shocking statement.”
Mr Hiroyuki must have really hated his father a lot.
“Then, there’s also such an incident. Mr Kaneyuki had 2 menservants.”
… My heart pounded very hard. What incident was it? I had a bad feeling.
“And there’s more, in that old folk’s home there was a person who claimed his grandfather was a gardener here. He said this building was very strange. He said that when he cleaned up and walked near to the main house, he would always smell a scent like that of a graveyard. Furthermore, every time he went here the maid was always a different person. That was what he said.”
“You said the maid was always a different person…?”
I felt a wave of dizziness. I felt like there was something icy cold caressing my back.
“Ooh. And then –? … Taniyama-kun?”
Yasuhara stared at my face. Chills ran down my back; it chilled me speechless. Masako stopped Bou-san, who was about to rise. She came closer to me. She gently reached out her hand, and stacked it on my shoulder.
“This person won’t do. She is unable to save you. All the people here are unable to help you – because you are already dead.”
Masako said that, and clapped my back.
“Come, come down. Don’t be afraid, and go towards the light. If you go there, you will definitely be freed.”
When Masako was saying that, the chill suddenly vanished.
“Hara-san.”
Naru asked; Masako smiled.
“It looks like the spirit here got attached to her. It’s all right. It’s already disappeared. Although I’m not sure if it has been cleansed or otherwise… you’re better already, right?”
“Yeah, thanks…”
What was that, just now…
Masako spoke.
“It definitely approached because we were chatting. Or it might be here right from the start. It looks like the spirit of the maid we were just talking about.”
When I heard those words, I immediately smelt the smell of blood. The sensation of a knife cutting through my throat. The wet warmth of blood drenching my face. The white tiles; the blood red stains.
“… It’s those two people…”
I said. Everyone was shocked.
“It’s those two people. Last night…”
They took me to the main house. I was dragged by 3 men into the main house. In a certain room in the main house they pulled me onto a surgical bed, and cut open my throat.
“It was those two people who killed me in my dream last night.”
My tears dropped down. I dreamt about the memories of the spirit. That person was murdered with that method. It was very scary. Very painful. To me it was only a dream, but to that person, that was reality. To make such terrifying memories, such painful memories, and then get killed…!
Everyone patted my back while I couldn’t help covering my face.
“… Is that the situation?”
It was Naru’s low voice.
“Are the spirits of the ones who was killed in that fashion lingering in this house?”
Save me, I don’t want to die, was what those spirits had said. Everyone all did not know that they had all died; continually wrapped in memories of terror and fear, they lingered in this house.
That’s too much; who exactly did those hideous things? … Yeah, I knew who the culprit was. Those men were the 2 menservants. If so, there should be a culprit who ordered them to do such. The culprit could only be Mr Kaneyuki.
Unforgivable. He put on the mask of a philanthropist, but could do such hideous, such cruel, and such tragic things.
Just at that time,
All the lights in the room suddenly were extinguished.
“… What?!”
With the slowly disappearing glow of the monitors, the room turned completely dark. After a sharp ‘bang’, the room was momentarily filled with noise. Somewhere beyond this room there was an intense sound. Then, in the distance, there was someone screaming.
“Do not move!”
When Naru ordered in a sharp tone, the lights all suddenly came back on. It was like they had stopped temporarily. Simultaneously, the noise also ceased.
I didn’t even have the time to say ‘what in the world was that?’. When the lights came back on, some blood red objects jumped into our lines of sight.
“Save me”
“Save me”
“I don’t want to die”
“It hurts”
“It hurts”
“I’m terrified”
Those were the countless words written in blood on the wall.
We dumbly stared at the interior of the room.
Words written in blood in various sizes, styles and handwriting. Within just that moment in time, they were so numerous they had buried the wall.
“It hurts.”
“Save me.”
“I don’t want to die.”
“I’m terrified.”
“It hurts.”
“Urado.”
… “Urado”?
Quickly glancing at the words on the wall, I was stunned.
“Hey, Naru, this is…?”
Naru’s own gaze shifted to those 2 characters, then glanced around the room once more.
“Urado.”
“うらど (tl/n: hiragana for ‘Urado’). ”
Besides these, there were many other words written on the wall.
When we were in a daze, the sound of hasty footsteps sounded from somewhere within the house. These footsteps urged on Mori-san and Yasuhara.
“Naru, see you tomorrow.”
“Madoka, I’ve said before that this place is very dangerous, haven’t I?”
Accompanying Naru’s sharp voice, Bou-san waved his hand relaxedly.
“See you then, Ma’am.”
“Yeah *heart*.”
“Be careful when you go back.”
“Yes~.”
With their bright and cheerful replies, the two of them disappeared through the window.
Right on the backs of their departures, Ohashi-san opened the door.
“… Are you all fine?”
“What happened?”
Naru asked.
“Strange bloody words have appeared all around the house. It’s like they were written with blood…”
We hurried out of the room. The walls of the corridor was also filled with words:
Save me save me save me save me…
Urado うらど Urado うらど…
“Exactly how many spirits are there in this house?”
Ayako shrieked.
An extremely tremendous number. There are so many…
“The name ‘Urado’ appears to have a deeper meaning than what we had imagined.”
Bou-san looked at the words on the wall.
“Somehow I don’t think it is just a simple pseudonym.”
“… Yeah.”
“If only we knew the meaning of this sentence…”
That sentence. “Heard they were ?? by Urado ?? away.”
Naru spoke softly.
“Hara-san.”
“Yes?”
“Do you have confidence in summoning a spirit here?”
Everyone’s gaze was instantly focused on Masako.
Masako’s doll like face was slightly twisted.
“… I do.”
If the spirits made these laments, and if they could possess Masako’s body…If this was so we could ask the spirits directly about the meaning of the name “Urado”. Then the things that had happened here etc can also all be uncovered.
– When my thoughts reached this point my body stiffened immediately. Spirits – from this house; spirits who were murdered… To have them possess Masako’s body. If so, then wouldn’t Masako go through an experience similar to what I had experienced?
“… No.”
“Mai?”
“Masako, you can’t do this. Don’t let the spirits possess your body.”
“What’s up? You say this so suddenly.”
“Masako might have a dream similar to mine. This type of thing won’t do.”
Naru gently sighed a breath.
“Mai, Hara-san is a professional.”
“Professional or not, you can’t let someone go through this type of experience!”
“Stop making a scene.”
Naru’s cold gaze. I returned the gaze directly.
“Can you understand the feeling of being killed by someone else? Can you imagine the sensation of the moment one dies? Naru, can you understand how scary that is? I will definitely not allow Masako perform a summoning.”
I felt Naru’s eye color darken.
As I was wrinkling up my brow, Naru gently blinked. That inexplicable color had already disappeared from his eyes.
“… That can’t be helped. This is also a somewhat inaccurate method… Lin.”
“Yes.”
“Can they be summoned?”
“Let me try.”
“Lin-san!”
I couldn’t help speaking up in objection.
“You can’t do that type of thing. That’s so…”
That was so scary, so painful. An experience like that, I would not wish upon anybody.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let the spirit possess my body.”
“… But.”
“I’m only trying to summon the spirits. I’m not a medium myself, so I’m not able to let the spirit possess my body.”
“Is this so?”
“Yes.”
“But, Naru,”
Lin-san turned his expressionless face towards Naru.
“I’m not able to summon the spirits of those murdered here. The spirits I’m summoning now are…”
Lin-san’s voice was one that didn’t let one feel a hint of emotion.
“Assuming they’ve already died, the 3 people who have disappeared over here. Only them.”
“No matter. Try it.”
We chose to perform the summoning where Igarashi-sensei had performed the séance. To prepare for the summoning, Lin-san and Naru left, leaving us to set up the equipment. I set up the equipment as we had during the previous séance, while I asked Bou-san:
“How do you think Lin-san will summon the spirits?”
“Summoning spirits is separated into letting the spirit possess one’s body with ‘possession’, and summoning the spirit itself with ‘Speaking to Spirits’. Masako’s is ‘possession’.”
… he.
“Lin also said he won’t let the spirit possess his body, hence it should be ‘speaking to spirits’.”
“Can this type of thing be done?”
Bou-dan shrugged.
“Normally, it can’t be done. ‘Speaking to spirits’ is also called ‘calling back spirits from the dead’; it is considered a Chinese witchcraft method. – Lin also said he is a Chinaman.”
“… Ah.”
“Although we’ve always thought Lin is an Omnyouji, if things are like this now, then the situation is slightly different. I’m afraid Lin isn’t actually an Omnyouji, but a Taoist priest practicing Chinese curses. If that’s the case then summoning spirits should be a piece of cake for him.”
… he.
“ ‘Posession’ is also known as ‘Spirit Absorbtion’; normally, compared to ‘Spirit Absorbtion’, ‘Calling back Spirits form the dead’ is more difficult to perform. The levels of the Taoist priests are completely different.”
That is to say, compared to Masako, Lin-san is even more gifted?
“… If that’s the case, even if we don’t rely on Masako, isn’t it enough if Lin-san is around?”
What the heck. That made us worry that besides Masako no one could hear the spirits speak. In the past because of that we were led in circles too.
Bou-san tilted his head.
“You can’t say that either. With this so called ‘calling back spirits from the dead’, it’s not any old spirit who can be called back. Lin has said so too right? The only spirits he can summon are those of those three people only.”
“… If, assuming the three of them are already dead, like this.”
Because there’s the possibility they are still alive.
“Anyway, whichever way doesn’t matter. To actually call a spirit back from dead, the summoned spirits’ name, date of birth and other detailed information are required. Then, at this point we only have the information about these three people. That’s why besides those three, other spirits cannot be summoned.”
Ah, so that’s the way it is.
After a while, Lin-san returned carrying a bundle. He did not change his clothes.
“Is the cleaning done?”
“It’s done.”
Before Lin-san returned, he had instructed us to clean this room beforehand. Before we set up the equipment, we scattered salt in the room, cleaned the floor, and wiped the tabletop with a fresh rag thrice.
Lin-san nodded then opened the bundle. He undid the thin yellow cloth, and retrieved a box from within. Opening the whitewood chest, there were many boxes in it. From the largest box, Lin-san took out a golden bowl then gently placed it on the table. Following that was a gold colored tachi (tl/n: long sword); two gold colored incense pots; two candlestick holders; two candles.
I somehow felt now wasn’t the time to speak; we all silently watched these on-goings. Lin-san carefully opened a sealed whitewood box. Momentarily, from inside, overflowed a tea-leaf like scent. Lin-san placed those things into the incense pot and lit it. From the incense pot, a thin smoke rose, and the air was filled with an indescribable fragrance.
Lin-san retrieved a flat box; after raising the lid he placed it besides the bowl. From it appeared an inkwell. Lin-san retrieved a piece of paper-like paper and unfolded it, carefully tidied up the things on the table, then used the water we had prepared previously and started to slowly grind ink.
The smell of the incense filled the entire room; just as Lin-san finished grinding ink, Naru finally returned.
“Who do you want to summon?”
Lin-san asked. Naru placed his notebook on the table.
“Suzuki Naoko-san.”
Naru held what looked like Suzuki-san’s blouse in his hand. Lin-san received the blouse then carefully folded it within the bowl. Then he looked at the notebook while writing on the paper. He wrote the name, the birth date, then looked back at Naru.
“What about the date of death?”
Naru thought for a moment.
“The second day since she disappeared… approximately this time.”
Lin-san nodded, and wrote on the paper as Naru had instructed. Then he placed a completed protection seal on top of the folded blouse.
“I’m going to start.”
Lin-san placed a stick of incense in the other incense pot, lit the candles, then nodded to Naru. Naru switched off the lights in the room.
The glow from the two candles illuminated the dark interior of the room. Lin-san placed the tachi on his knees as he sat in seiza, then he gently started speaking.
An indescribable sound was produced from Lin-san’s mouth.
I could also hear the speech like sound like ‘he’. From Lin-san’s mouth came a low sound. Those sounds, in time with his breath, came forth from his mouth; that was the feeling one got from it. When he lamented it was a clear, touching sound. When he whistled it was a gentle, low pitched sound.
Lin-san slowly enunciated each sound. In this progression, the pitch changed a number of times, just like singing a song. It was high at times and low at times, strong at times and weak at times. Vibrating, reaching outwards, repeating. From his throat each sound sprung. It was an indescribable, touching sound made just of that.
I couldn’t help being enthralled by the sound. There aren’t any other such unimaginable touching sounds. I felt that I had almost attending a concert. Hence when I heard the sound of panting, I still thought that was unconsciously produced by that person – pant because of being touched by that sound.
Lin-san stopped the sound.
Once again came the sound of panting. I heard an extremely pathetic sigh.
I nervously glanced around me and realized there was a shadow on the wall directly facing Lin-san. A deep shadow cast by the weak glow of the candles. On the surface of the wall one could vaguely see the shadow of a person. This wasn’t anybody’s shadow. There wasn’t anybody in a position to cast a shadow in that location.
As I was looking around, the shadow deepened. One could tell that was a person; the shadow of a female in profile.
… Who? It couldn’t be.
Color seeped out from the shadow, gradually revealing a person. Everyone held their breaths; there wasn’t a sound to be heard in the room.
“Naru.”
Lin-san continued sitting in seiza and shouted without turning his head.
“The day’s no good. Not only can she not speak, she can’t stay that long either.”
Naru nodded. The shadow had already taken the appearance of a young girl. It was dark, it looked a little transparent; although one could definitely tell there wasn’t anything solid there, there was indeed the figure of a person, and one could tell it was the missing Suzuki-san. Suzuki-san lowered her head, faced us in profile, with her gaze fixed on her feet.
“You are Suzuki-san, right?”
Naru spoke to her. She continued staring at her feet, and nodded.
… She’s already dead…
I felt extremely unhappy. As expected, Suzuki-san had already died.
“There are others besides you in this house, right?”
Suzuki-san nodded.
“Besides us and Igarashi-sensei, and the other psychics, there are other people, right?”
Her reply was still a speechless nod.
“Whether it is them or you, you are all already dead. Do you know?”
Suzuki-san suddenly lifted her head. She looked at Naru with an unfathomable expression.
Aah, Suzuki-san did not know – that she was already dead, that the others were already dead.
“Do you know why you are dead?”
She continued to stare at Naru, then shook her head.
“Then, was there someone who did something bad to you?”
Suzuki-san nodded. Her expression turned slightly twisted.
“Who is that? Is it someone else other than us?”
She nodded with an extremely pained expression.
… As expected, the spirits in this house are the criminals…
“Do you know a person called Urado?”
Suddenly, Suzuki-san’s body exaggeratedly swayed backwards. Her face twisted. Her mouth opened as though she was saying something. Not able to make a sound, she desperately lifted her hand and grasped her throat. She lifted a hand, as though to write something in the air.
“You know, right?”
Suzuki-san nodded, then shook her head. She twisted her body, moved both hands as though swimming, just like a child throwing a tantrum, using all the action in her body to say something. She stamped hard on the floor, twisted her body. Suddenly a clear high sound rose from somewhere in the room.
I unconsciously searched the surroundings for the source of the sound. Continuous intense sounds rang. Noise. “Naru, we’re at the limit.”
As though in reply to Lin-san’s gentle voice, Suzuki-san’s shadow gradually turned thinner. Suzuki-san opened her mouth wide, as though desperately shouting something, but we couldn’t hear that sound. In place of that unheard sound, was deafening high pitched noise.
Naru didn’t even have the chance to ask a question. In a flash the color disappeared, and Suzuki-san’s figure returned to being a shadow. Even as a shadow, Suzuki-san’s body still continued to twist. Then, the shadow rapidly dissolved in the darkness and vanished. Simultaneously, the noise also stopped, then there was only silence left in the room.
Nobody spoke before Naru switched on the lights.
When the glaring light shone down, my surroundings were filled with excited voices.
Did Lin-san really summon a spirit just now? Was Suzuki-san already dead? Are there evil spirits in this house that will kidnap people? Then are the other two people already dead too? Various voices mixed together. Suddenly Naru stared hard at the wall. Everyone’s vision followed Naru’s line of sight, and the excited chattering settled down.
When was it written? On the white wall, red words were written.
“ヴラド”. (tl/n: Vurado in Katakana – Vlad)
Vlad? What is this…? Was it left behind by Suzuki-san’s spirit?
Bou-san suddenly hammered the table once.
“The so called ‘Urado’, is originally ‘Vlad’?”
I blinked.
Indeed, Urado and Vlad do sound very similar…
“What is this Vlad?”
John showed an expression of extreme dislike.
“The Vlad we are talking about is… the vampire Dracula.”
Vampire.
“Dracula?!”
I turned to look towards Naru.
“What exactly is going on? Isn’t Urado Mr Kaneyuki’s pseudonym? Was Mr Kaneyuki a vampire? Are the spirits here those of people who died when their blood was drained?”
Naru spoke, as though very annoyed.
“The story of the popularly know Dracula originates from the novel called “(Vampire) Dracula”. Do you know this?”
“… I don’t know.”
Naru sighed openly.
“ ‘Dracula’, published in 1897, is a horror novel written by Bram Stoker. A strange man by the name of Count Dracula arrives in London. He is actually a vampire – it is a story like that. This novel has been adapted into operas, movies etc, and gave birth to the domain of ‘Vampire Culture’ in literature. Do you understand up to this point?”
“… Yeah.”
“In actual fact, Count Dracula was modeled after a real person. It was a person who was really named Dracula. The Count Dracula in the novel was born in Transylvania. Transylvania has historically been the territory of Hungary, and is currently part of Romania.”
“This Transylvania you talk about, is it a real place that exists?”
I had assumed it was a fictional location…
“Of course. Dracula was a Duke from Transylvania’s neighboring area of Wallachia. His name was Vlad. He was known as Vlad III, and commonly called ‘Vlad the Impaler’.”
“Impaler?”
Naru nodded.
“At that time Europe was frequently invaded by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Because the area of Wallachia is very near to Turkey, that area was the frontline of the battle. Furthermore, even if the king of Wallachia was overthrown, that did not stop the power struggle. Vlad was an extremely mysophobic duke, he hated being known as idle; he is well known to be ruthless, especially towards his enemies. Enemies who were captured by him were mostly executed by impalement with a spear, hence his name.”
Ge ge ge.
“This Vlad’s father was Vald II, known as ‘Vlad Dracul’. ‘Dracul’ in Romania has the meaning of devil; he was commonly known as ‘Vlad the Devil’.”
The father was a devil, the son an impaler?
“Originally this name is inaccurate. ‘Dracul’ means devil as well as ‘dragon’. In 1431, Vlad II was given the name of ‘Dracul’ by the Holy Roman Emperor. Because this was a conferred title, of course he was not called ‘Devil’. I think he should have been called ‘Dracul the Dragon Duke’ to be accurate.”
Indeed, a devil and a dragon are totally different…
“In Romanian, ‘Son of the Dragon’ and ‘Son of the Devil’ is ‘Dracula’. Hence, as a result of being Dracul’s child, Vlad was also known as ‘Dracula’. That is to say, it means ‘the Son of the Dragon Duke’. Due to Vlad’s blood drenched achievements, he was commonly known as ‘the Devil’s Spawn’, but that is actually not accurate.”
“… Hn~.”
“After Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ was published, ‘Dracula’ became a synonym for vampire. Although Vlad III was notorious for his period of cruelty in Europe, he was long forgotten when Stoker’s novel was published. Bram Stoker caused him to become the center of attention once more. Then, right now, the notorious name of Dracula is reverberating through the world.”
“So that’s how it is.”
So there was also such a piece of history that I did not even know of.
“In the Wallachia area, there still remains ‘Legends of Dracula’ today. In those legends, Vlad was a savior who protected Hungary from the Germans and the Turks. Despite his actual cruelty towards his enemies, he was still the hero who defended Hungary. I don’t approve of lumping things together; taking into account the situation in Europe at that time, I think saying that isn’t wrong either.”
… Hn~.
A sarcastic smile appeared on Naru’s face.
“There’s a famous story connected to Vlad. There was a rich merchant who moved all his wealth on a carriage and passed by the capital of Wallachia. When he arrived at the capital, the rich merchant entered the castle and asked Vlad to protect his wealth. To him, Vlad said, that there wasn’t such a necessity. Then he ordered the rich merchant to leave his fortune wherever he liked then to leave. With no options, the rich merchant could only leave all his wealth in the public square before leaving.”
Eeeh. Vlad’s orders were not to be questioned.
“Then at dawn the second day, the rich merchant went to inspect his carriage, he realized not a cent of his wealth had been taken. Because Vlad was a very mysophobic duke, his own citizens were also not allowed to lie or steal or be lazy. People who did so were all impaled with no exception; hence nobody would steal a thing from the merchant.”
“… So that was the way it was. He really was a great person.”
Naru shrugged.
“Whether this was actually great or something else is interpreted differently by different people. … Anyway, he was really very similar to Vlad, Kaneyuki was.”
Bou-san tilted his head.
“Vlad was the savior of Hungary. If we put it like this, then did Kaneyuki also wanted to call himself a savior?”
Naru’s snow white fingers leaved through the materials Mori-san had brought.
“Around 1900, Kaneyuki had toured Europe. At that time the book ‘Dracula’ had long been published. I think, it is more likely that because of the meaning ‘Son of the Devil’, he called himself ‘Vlad’. – Furthermore, “
“Furthermore?”
“Mai has mentioned it before, right? There was a bathtub placed in the bathroom, and there was blood remaining in the bathtub.”
… Yeah.
“Frequently discussed together with Vlad was a person called Bathory Elizabeth. In the western style, the surname is placed behind, so she should be Elizabeth Bathory. She is known as the ‘Blood Countess’.”
“She… is a woman?”
“That’s right. Elizabeth was a Countess who lived in 15th century Hungary. She did not have any clear connection with Vlad, but a lot of people speculate whether the two of them are related by blood.”
“Hn…”
“Elizabeth was afraid her beauty would fade. With young girls as sacrifices, she believed that if she bathed in the blood of young girls she would be able to preserve her own beauty. She killed young females, placed the blood she harvested from them into a bathtub, and then soaked her body inside. Up until one of her sacrifices escaped and exposed her crimes, this had gone on for about 10 years.”
“… with, with this…?”
Naru nodded.
“It is similar to the dream Mai had. Elizabeth and Vlad were confused; Vlad was also commonly said to have bathed in his executed enemy’s fresh blood. What if Kaneyuki had heard of these things?”
No one replied to Naru’s words. Naru smiled once more.
“Elizabeth was not formally convicted and punished; instead, the bathroom door was sealed, and all the walls and windows were sealed from the outside. In the end she died inside that prison – don’t you think there are subtle signs here?”
A sealed prison. Sealed spaces.
“However… Kaneyuki...”
Kaneyuki died of an illness, Mori-san had said before.
“Of course, I too don’t believe that Kaneyuki was closed inside that space. If that was so, such a large space wouldn’t have been necessary. However, I only think there is a clue here – a very obvious clue.”
… Indeed it was like this.
“ The pronunciation of ‘Vlad’ is even more similar to that of ‘Blad’. For some reason Kaneyuki wanted to use the name Vlad as a pseudonym, but couldn’t find a suitable kanji. Then he chose the two characters ‘Ura do’… I’m afraid this is the truth.”
… Yeah.
“Following that he was the same as the meaning of the name, and killed a lot of servants here. The spirits of the victims continue to haunt this mansion.”
Bou-san gently snapped his fingers.
“I’ve got it. That ‘Heard the were ?? by Urado. ?? away’.”
“Ai?”
When asked like this in response, Bou-san let out a bitter smile.
“It is ‘Heard they were killed by Urado’. ‘Those who came to this place have all died. Heard they were killed by Urado. Run away.’ How about that?”
A warning. The person who lived in that hidden room wanted to leave a message for the next person to arrive at this mansion; told them to run away.
I tilted my head.
“Hey, I understand that… then who did that overcoat belong to?”
“Whose was it…?”
“Because anyhow they wouldn’t let a maid live in that sort of place right? Furthermore wasn’t that overcoat a uniform of the Facility attached to the Hospital? To whom did that overcoat belong to? Was it really a maids’?”
Everyone looked at each other in dismay.
“Could it be…”
Bou-san spoke softly.
“Could it be… that fellow… also took the people from the facility…?”
Urado had his eye on the people inside the facility. He took that person here; without being discovered by the ignorant servants, he closed that person inside the hidden room. Then…
That’s too much. This type of thing is really too much. Mr Kaneyuki was practically inhuman. He really was the ‘Spawn of the Devil’.
I stopped short. Could it be that Mr Hiroyuki knew what his own father did in this place?
When I said that, Naru nodded.
“That’s very likely. Hence he sealed this place. To prevent discovery by outsiders he buried all of it in the depths of this ever-expanding building…”
Mr Hiroyuki had also said before, “There are spirits escaping; it is to prevent them from escaping that I’m renovating.”
If the question was whether Mr Hiroyuki knew of what happened here, that sentence makes one feel that the answer is definitely affirmative. I think Mr Hiroyuki must have been terrified: about his own father, about the grudges of those killed by his own father.
Naru’s expression was one of deep thought.
“The ones who have disappeared are all young people…”
He said that softly with gravity.
“Why Mr Kaneyuki would do such a thing, I understand now.”
Ai?
“Kaneyuki was frail and sickly; I think he must have hated his own body. Blood was thought to be the source of a human’s vitality. Just like what Elizabeth believed, depending of that vitality, one’s own beauty can be maintained, Kaneyuki also believed that relying on young people’s vitality would keep his own health.”
… Yeah.
“But in actual fact he definitely wouldn’t be considered to have lived long. He must have felt regretful. Not only did he kill people to extend his own life, but in the end it still was not maintained very long.”
… Indeed that was the case.
“I’m afraid the spirits of those who were killed by that fellow are not related to the disappearances. Suzuki-san is dead. If we say the killer is the spirit living in this mansion, then that evil spirit could only be Urado.”
A chill ran down my back.
“Urado is still here… still in this mansion. He is still in this house thirsting for a sacrifice.”
When we returned to base it was 4am in the morning. Just like that the meeting continued up till the next morning; when the sun rose we started work.
“First start at the location where there is definitely a chimney.”
Naru announced. The few of us set out towards the location in question. Everyone split the burden and carried the heavy equipment.
Lin-san carried the radar as though it was a treasure. This was equipment used in the poltergeist case (tl/n: novels 1 and 2) to test for the power of suggestion. Give a certain person a hint that something associated with them – for example, a vase – would move, then seal the vase in a room. If that vase really moves, the real identity of the poltergeist is that unfathomable power of humans. To create a completely sealed room, we were unable to pull an extension or something out of the room. Hence we used radar to detect monitor the activity of the vase through the wall, and inside the room we recorded it with a wireless camera. That radar looks like it is to be used for a special purpose this time. That is, to figure out the thickness of the wall. If we had a better radar, apparently we could even find out what it is like beyond the wall.
We examined all the walls facing that empty space.
“The refractive index of this wall should be the lowest.”
Lin-san pointed at the floor plan. ‘Radar’ produces electromagnetic waves, and then receives the reflected electromagnetic waves. If the refractive index of the electromagnetic waves is low, it means that this wall is easily broken. The body of the wall is very thin, or even if it is thick, it is very weak.
We hurried to the site and used the tools borrowed from Ohashi-san to knock down the wall. More easily than imagined, we made a hole in the wall. I couldn’t see any light on the other side of the wall. To see what it was like inside, the hole was expanded; it gradually turned into a huge job, the hole measured approximately 30 cm in diameter. I stuck the head of the infrared camera into that hole. The image taken by the camera appeared on the monitor.
Bathed in infrared light not visible to the human eye, the inside of the hole was clearly shown. Inside was a haphazard room of about 8 tatami’s size. There was a huge item directly facing us.
“… That, what is it?”
Naru sank into thought.
“It looks like either an incinerator or a stove or something similar…”
Indeed, the look of the room was like that of the surroundings of the school incinerator; was what I felt recently.
“Let’s go in to take a look.”
Naru announced. Then we made another hole in the wall. This time, we drummed up enough energy, and made a hole large enough for a person to pass through.
Beams from our torch lights crisscrossed in the room filled with dust. The shadow of the incinerator appeared in front of us. The walls were built in the shape of a huge box; right in the middle directly facing us were two rusted metal lids; it should be the ceramic chimney continually extending towards the ceiling.
Masako, Ayako and I remained outside; the other 4 entered that room.
“Are you alright?”
We asked them. Bou-san said.
“… Aah. The floor is made of stone. It is really solid.”
… No, that wasn’t what I was talking about.
“It’s very smelly.”
Indeed, the room was filled with an intense rotting smell.
“There’s a door.”
Naru said softly and faced the left side of the room. Looking over we could see a slanted door illuminated by the torchlight. We could see bricks piled on the other side of the half open door. When Naru pulled the door, the entire door fell down. On the other side of the door was a completed wall.
While the wall had a window, the other side of the window was also walled up. It was a secret room completely sealed by bricks.
Bou-san eyed a wooden boxes lined up along the wall. He knelt down, and picked up the things inside the box.
“… It’s mouldy.”
Just as Bou-san studied the next box…
“… Waah!”
John let out a lament-like sound.
“What’s up?!”
At that time John had opened the lid of the furnace. Naru and Bou-san ran over. They shone their torches into the furnace from beside John, who was rooted to the ground over there.
“Hey, what happened?”
Naru continued to look at that place without moving.
“It’s best to contact the police.”
After he said that, he stood up and walked out of the room in our direction.
… Police?!
“… Hey, I said, what happened?”
I grabbed Naru, who had walked out of the hole, and asked. Naru used a very calm voice and said.
“There’s a body inside.”
“Mai!”
Ayako’s made a sharp sound and clapped my face.
“Mai!”
It was Ayako’s voice. I opened my eyes at once. Ayako’s face jumped into my field of vision, which had been flooded by tears.
At that time, I was screaming. I was screaming from the depths of my body. Although my throat was hoarse and I couldn’t properly make a sound, I actually wanted to scream – until I had expelled all the horror within my body.
“Mai! Pull yourself together! Mai!”
My body was twitching, convulsing. I only desperately hugged Ayako tightly. Ayako’s warm hands desperately soothed my back.
“Pull youself together. It’s only a dream, it’s all right.”
Urging me, come, I lifted my head. Someone held a glass in front of me.
“Do you want a drink?”
It was Masako’s extremely concerned face. I finally calmed down and accepted the cup. My hands were still trembling immensely; almost enough to spill all the contents of the cup.
“… yeah. Thank you.”
My voice was also shaking. Tears dropped pitter patter down.
“What in the world happened?”
“I had a frightening dream.”
Really, it was terrifying…
“The dream you had was…”
Just as Ayako was asking, someone pounded heavily on the door.
“Did someone scream here just now?”
It was Bou-san and co who had rushed over from their room.
“… I’m sorry. I had a nightmare.”
“… You said you had a nightmare… you…”
Green in the face, Bou-san knelt by the bed. Yasuhara and John also heaved a sigh of relief.
Bou-san buried his head in the blankets.
“… Don’t scare us anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
Yasuhara forced a stiff smile.
“And we thought something had happened to someone… thank god.”
John also smiled vacantly.
“That’s great.”
Bou-san suddenly lifted his head.
“You said you had a nightmare; could it be those dreams?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“How was it?”
I didn’t want to remember. Even just thinking of recalling it brought a fresh scent of blood.
“You’re a woman with a sixth sense right?”
“—I was killed in the dream.”
Everyone stared at my face.
“You said you were killed, that is…”
Ayako, who was seated next to me, looked at my face.
“There were 2 men who came. They dragged me into a strange, tiled room. There, there was a surgical bed like bed; the room was flooded with blood. They slit my throat there.”
I still clearly remembered the sensation of blood spurting out.
“I think there are also many others who died there. It was an execution ground – that place.”
When I related that, tears flooded my eyes once more.
I thought I would really die there. Really, it was terrifying.
Ayako patted my back. I couldn’t stop my tears from gushed forth.
After a bout of crying like an idiot, when I lifted my head I saw Lin-san standing at the open door. Naru wasn’t there.
Why wasn’t he there?
Why wasn’t he there at that time?
Regardless of the time, Naru would always appear in my dreams; he’d tell me all sorts of things, and would give me help. Regardless, he would smile gently at me. It should clearly have been like this; why?
… Because he’s very cold. Because he really is a cold person.
Without knowing, my imagination ran wild, and once more my tears started falling down. I hurriedly hung my head, and desperately covered my face. Now isn’t the time to cry. Everyone is worried about me.
Someone – I don’t know who – knocked my head (I think it should be Bou-san who would do something like that). Anyway I nodded first. I’m all right. I’ve already calmed down.
Suddenly the scent of red tea wafted in. Hearing the sound of cutlery clattering, I lifted my head. Someone held a teacup in front of me. I was stunned.
“You’re all right?”
A voice without inflexion. Lifting my head, Naru was holding the cup out to me. He was wearing a pair of thin, grey, pajamas. I felt it was a rare sight, and I unconsciously calmed down.
I gently accepted the cup. Yeah, I’m all right. My hands, too, had apparently stopped shaking.
“I’m sorry, everyone. Thanks.”
I took the cup and hung my head. Ayako gently patted my back.
Naru just stood by the side; then gently let out a breath. And then
“What happened?”
He asked.
After I quietly finished my piece, Yasuhara spoke in a low tone.
“Suzuki-san or Atsugi-san… perhaps they are already dead.”
“Hey hey, young man. Don’t say that so lightly.”
Bou-san glared.
“Because, hasn’t Taniyama-kun seen it? Perhaps it’s something that happened somewhere.”
Ai?
“You’re also saying… Mai and someone’s spirit synchronized; that is, she’s received a telepathic communication?”
“The professional stuff I don’t know too well. The one being killed in reality was Suzuki-san or Atsugi-san; Taniyama-kun has sensed the events that happened to Atsugi-san as though experiencing it herself; there should be this sort of possibility too. Despite saying all this, I’m not sure whether such a thing exists.”
Bou-san looked at Naru, who was seated next to Ayako on the bed, appealingly. Naru said meaningfully,
“This type of communication from spirits is not unprecedented. But does Mai have this degree of power?”
… Wu. What does that count as ~, this theory~.
“Compared to this, that room is a greater concern to me.”
Naru said while his black eyes glanced at the sky.
“I think there isn’t a room that matches the execution room. I don’t recall seeing a room with both a furnace and a closet. The existence of the so called hedgerows is also unclear. If such a room really exists; under those circumstances, the execution room has probably been completely renovated already.”
Mentioning that, I was wearing a kimono at that time…
“Regardless of how we speculate, the empty space in the floor plan is very worrisome.”
“Isn’t hacking through the walls the only way?”
I couldn’t stop myself from saying that. Bou-san let out a huge sigh.
“What are you thinking of, you madam. Who do you propose do the work of hacking through the wall?”
… Of course that’d be Lin-san and Bou-san and John and Yasuhara…
Yeah, in normal circumstances it’d probably be annoying~
Without talking about whether Ohashi-san would allow it, we do not have sufficient manpower either. If we hired people to work here, it’d be intolerable if somebody disappears again.
That’s what I thought.
“That thought isn’t bad.”
Weary, Naru said that line.
“Hey, don’t joke anymore. Are you going to have all those walls demolished?”
Accompanying Bou-san’s shout, an unsettling smile appeared on Naru’s face.
“If we can’t find the hidden entrance, this might be unavoidable. Anyway we shall begin after the night is over.”
“And the search for the missing persons?”
“They aren’t within the range of what our eyes can see. If it’s like this, they are definitely in a place where our eyes are unable to see. If the hidden room is found then the problem is naturally solved – such a possibility also exists.”
He’s right too.
Bou-san glared at me with a gimlet stare.
I’m so sorry. But, it’s because we are doing good works. Try your best.
It was 2 am when I had screamed. After that I dozed a little, and rose with the dawn. After washing up I went for breakfast. Despite saying that, I couldn’t work up an appetite even this morning. Then we gathered at the base. Lin-san was checking the equipment. Speaking of which, last night, the equipment registered no disturbance at all.
Anyway we resumed the accurate measuring of the 2 floors left over from yesterday.
“If this still doesn’t work then find out about whether we can knock holes in the walls.”
With Naru’s cruel words, we started work.
“Hey~, Mai.”
“Yeah?”
I positioned the fluid level on the ground, while turning to look at Bou-san.
“You met 2 men in your dream; do you know who they are?”
“Ah, that. Although I desperately looked at their faces, I didn’t make the least impression of their appearances. It somehow feels like it’s something that I’ve forgotten immediately after seeing it. When I looked, I knew, but I’m not clear about how they actually looked like.”
Bou-san squatted down beside me.
“Hey, I’m only saying this here.”
“Yeah.”
Because the volume of our conversation had diminished, Yasuhara and John came nearer.
“That… do you think that those 2 men are amongst the staff here?”
“Ai?!”
Bou-san placed his finger on his lips with a ‘Shh’.
“I thought, could it possibly be that the fellows here have sone something.”
Ai ai ai…
Yasuhara, who was also squatting down, leaned forward.
“Ah, isn’t this scene like those in a movie?”
“Is it?”
“They clearly know there are hidden rooms and hidden passageways but they don’t tell us; there’s this possibility too.”
“Exactly. It’s those fellows who hid the 2 people who have disappeared. If it’s like this…”
Bou-san put his hand on his head.
Yasuhara couldn’t stop nodding.
“If it’s like this then we’re all sacrifices. They told us that it’d be troubling to let the media know, and they closed us in here, then one by one they make us vanish. In the end there’s not one of us left…”
“The one called Ohashi is actually a homicidal maniac or something.”
“Perhaps this place is a secret temple for satanic worship.”
John, who was also squatting, held his head.
“Those fellows – didn’t they say that they had not encountered anything strange? They were here preparing for a very long time, right? They say nothing had happened; is it even possible?”
“Exactly. None of the staff here have disappeared before. Thinking carefully about it, none of the people directly associated with this house have vanished. But psychics, the punk who broke into this place, and the fire brigade volunteer who came forth to investigate…”
“Isn’t that so?”
I couldn’t help looking at their 2 faces.
“Hey, are you two really speaking seriously?”
“Ai?”
“No… that…”
“I think that lazing off here and talking about these pointless things won’t solve any problems.”
Bou-san’s and Yasuhara’s faces turned aside.
“Furthermore, Naru will not accept this sort of thing either. In any case we have no choice but to place fluid levels on all the floors. In the end we will have to knock down the wall, right?”
“Mai.”
“Wh~at?”
“You are really not the least bit cute.”
“That’s redundant.”
Hn.
Just at that time,
“Wait a moment.”
John wore a severe expression and gently raised his hand.
“What’s up?”
“What Yasuhara-kun said just now: none of the people associated with this family had disappeared; this line.”
“Wait, John. That was only a joke. You can’t be serious.”
John’s blue eyes gazed at me.
“But, this is a fact, isn’t it?”
“The fact you’re talking about is…”
“Mr Kaneyuki, who lived here, was fine. Mr Hiroyuki, who frequently stopped at this place, was also fine. Even the various staff members, up till today, have lived safely here.”
“Hey hey, John.”
Bou-san responded in a shocked tone. In contrast, John looked completely serious.
“The ones who vanished are all outsiders. Is this really meaningless?”
“You… could you possibly be thinking that the people here are the criminals…?”
John shook his head.
“That’s not what I mean. I’m just thinking whether there could be a connection.”
Connection…
“Atsugi-san disappeared in a very strange fashion. If it is the same as what was recorded he couldn’t have disappeared. Is this, as expected, the actions of spirits?”
“… Perhaps.”
“If that’s the case, then don’t the spirits here have the hobby of picking out sacrifices? The spirits here will not hurt anyone with an association to the Miyama family or something.”
Bou-san sank into deep thought.
“However, the staff here are, at most, servants; they don’t have any blood relation.”
“If that’s the case, perhaps the spirits here like young people.”
… Ai?
“Aren’t all the staff here older people? In contrast, aren’t all those who have vanished young persons around 20 years old?”
“… you are right.”
Bou-san nodded.
I stood up.
“I’m going to tell Naru.”
“Wait.”
Bou-san called me.
“All the members of our team are under 30. If John’s hypothesis is right, then aren’t all of us in grave danger?”
… really?
“Naru-chan is right. It’s better if one is definitely not alone.”
When the four of us returned to base, Naru, Lin-san, Ayako and Masako had returned. For some reason they wore tense expressions.
“What’s up?”
I opened my mouth to ask; Ayako turned to look at me with a solemn expression.
“Great, you guys are back. – Someone has disappeared again.”
Disappeared?! Again?!
“Who is it?!”
Bou-san asked.
“She’s called Fukuda-san.”
“How old is she?”
The significance of Bou-san’s question was perhaps only understood by the people from the Mansion Interior Exploration Team.
Ayako was also slightly stunned.
“Her exact age isn’t clear. 25, perhaps; about that old.”
“She is the girl from Minami Psychic Research right? Is she that young lady?”
“Yes…”
As expected…
Naru wore a shocked expression.
“And then?”
Bou-san told everyone what John had said; Naru sank into deep thought.
“So that’s how it is…”
Naru mumbled, and then he raised his head and turned towards Yasuhara and me.
“The two of you must never be on your own.”
… Yeah.
Then he turned towards Ayako.
“Matsuzaki-san, to what extent can I trust on you?”
“What the heck is this question of yours?”
“Now isn’t the time for arguments. Whether it is Mai or Yasuhara, right now we need the two of them. However, this place is very dangerous. To what extent can I rely on you?”
Ayako replied very resentfully.
“If it’s exorcism… you can count on me for something of this level.”
“Understood.”
Naru looked around at us.
“Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san must never act separately. Can the two of you cooperate with each other?”
“I think so…”
Ayako nodded; Masako asserted:
“If it’s Matsuzaki-san, I don’t feel comfortable.”
“What is the meaning of this?!”
Naru gently raised a hand towards Ayako, then gazed at Masako with his deep eyes.
“Hara-san. Basically I don’t trust anyone besides the members here. Reliable people are few and far between. However one puts it you are also a psychic; if this is the case then you should at least be able to protect yourself.”
“… Yeah.”
“Yasuhara-kun completely does not have any ability to protect himself. To protect him we need an extremely reliable person.”
“Yes…”
Seeing Masako nod, Naru spoke.
“Bou-san and John cannot leave Yasuhara-kun’s side. You must never let him out of your sight.”
The so called extremely reliable person, refers to the two of them…?
“Please wait a moment.”
Lin-san spoke loudly.
“Are you saying I am to protect Taniyama-san?”
“Exactly.”
“Just let me put this clearly. You aren’t even able to do exorcisms, are you?”
… That’s right too. Naru is purely metapsychology researcher.
“Then your position is practically identical to that of Yasuhara-kun. You need protection.”
“Lin, I’ll find a way.”
“I’m not joking. I’ll be very worried if you say it like this. Let me take care of Naru’s protection.”
After finishing that forcefully, Lin-san looked towards us.
“Takigawa-san will protect Yasuhara-kun. Taniyama-san will then depend on Brown-san.”
“It’s too much for Bou-san alone.”
“Hey hey, Naru-chan.”
“I’m not belittling you. I’m only saying that there’s the possibility that this place is dangerous to this type of level.”
“If that’s the case, then it’ll be solved if one person goes back. I’m not capable of letting Naru be alone. If something happens to you, how should I explain to the Professor?”
Professor?
“Please consider the feelings of your parents too.”
“Lin.”
“You haven’t forgotten the fact you are only a 17 year old child, have you?”
Naru glared at Lin-san solemnly.
“If you’re dissatisfied with me, you may go back.”
“Please don’t misunderstand. Of course, I can go back.”
Lin-san’s expression turned even more solemn.
“I’ll be very worried if you’ve forgotten. I did not come to look after you. I’m here to monitor you.”
… Mon, monitor?
Suddenly, Yasuhara stoodu up.
“Let me withdraw then.”
“Hey, young man.”
“There shouldn’t be any more problem if only I withdraw. I’m only the head of ‘Shibuya’, who later left everything to the investigators. If I withdraw with this explanation there shouldn’t be too much trouble.”
This is what we’ll say.
“I will go to Suwa to be Mori-san’s assistant. I personally also have some outstanding issues.”
After thinking deeply, Naru nodded his head.
Substitute Head Yasuhara left this mansion on the car with a staff member running errands in the city. The other psychics purposely loudly made cutting remarks that he was running away.
While we were made fun of by the people we met, we conducted the search for Fukuda-san. Despite our thorough searching, as expected, we couldn’t find a trace of Fukuda-san.
She said she wanted to go out for a stroll then she left the base used by Minami-san and his team. After that she never returned. Coincidentally there was a member of the staff cleaning the hall at that time; he didn’t even see her leave the hall. She only disappeared; that’s the only explanation.
Minami-san was thus in an extremely awkward situation. The other psychics derided Minami-san with, ‘haven’t you summoned you helpers’, ‘Regardless of the others, when your own assistant has disappeared, you should let us see the abilities of the Professor right?’, ‘Your other helpers should have arrived already, right?’ and the type.
We looked at this disturbance; in the end we couldn’t stand it and returned to work. We carefully completed the remaining measurements. At dusk, after we wound up the measurements, we discovered an unexpected truth.
“The structure of this house is elevated in the middle.”
Lin-san said while generating the sectional diagram of the house.
We understood that the ground of the first floor of the house sloped gently towards the center; the area around the center was about 2 meters higher than the periphery.
Bou-san tilted his head.
“Why in the world would they build this type of house?”
Exactly.
“Repeatedly renovating, hence producing things like level X?”
Naru coolly shot back.
“… If that’s the case?”
“I feel it wasn’t intentionally done like this. This type of house is definitely constructed like this for some purpose.”
“Purpose…”
John tilted his head too.
“What was this house like right at the beginning?”
Naru nodded and retrieved a printed out diagram.
“From the finish of the windows, the rooms are all built around the small structure in the middle. Extending further outwards, the rooms become gradually larger; up to this point it is clear-cut…”
Bou-san sighed a huge sigh.
“That, as expected it’s still the huge empty center portion that is suspicious. At first, there is clearly no courtyard; it’s also too strange that the ventilation is good up to the second floor. The question is where exactly is there a path to go in…”
Naru flicked at the diagram.
“If there isn’t any path to begin with?”
Ai?
“If there’s no path… if that’s the case, hey.”
“What if that piece of empty space isn’t actually a hidden room, but a sealed room?”
Ah…!
This is it, the common scenario from horror movies: the scenario where after a wall is destroyed a sealed room lies beyond it, and there’s something there. Although the empty space was too large we only considered the possibility of a hidden room; there was always the possibility that empty space was not accessible to people…
“We’ve also tried searching for a path. This is an ancient and filthy house, of course we would think that as long as we could find the path or something, we would definitely know if the people who disappeared had used it before. Dust that had been disturbed, footprint – we would depend on this type of things. – Regardless of how we search here, I don’t believe things like paths exist here. Not to say the building is added to outwards from the center; I can only believe that it was added to in order to hide something in the center.”
“… Correct.”
Bou-san finished and gazed at the ceiling.
“But, what exactly is hidden? Could it be… the execution room?”
“What it is actually like, whether something like this exists or otherwise – after we investigate the other side of the wall we will find out.”
“Are we really doing this? Knocking through the wall?”
“Of course. I’ve already obtained Ohashi-san’s understanding.”
Bou-san looked completely defeated.
Just at that time, as usual, someone knocked on the window.
“Madoka… Yasuhara-kun!”
Naru looked stunned.
As he looked on coolly, with a ‘heyo’, two people jumped in through the window.
“Good evening.”
“I’m here~”
–2 people who looked completely unconcerned.
“Really… what are you guys thinking of?”
Naru looked at Yasuhara.
That’s true too. He clearly left this place because it is dangerous, if he came back then isn’t that a complete waste of effort?
However, Yasuhara looked completely unperturbed.
“No, I’m here to report the things we investigated today.”
Mori-san grinned at Yasuhara.
“Yasuhara-kun, today was really too exciting.”
“That’s ~ right. It’s only because I was there.”
Yasuhara sniggered, pleased with himself.
“That is, first, when I went back to the city, I counted the number of chimneys.”
… Ai?
“I always felt it this was a little strange, but I couldn’t see too clearly from far, so after I met up with Mori-san I had her look at it again.”
Mori-san nodded. “Yes. I took the car all the way up a near-by mountain. Then from there I used a pair of rented binoculars and carefully counted it out. In the end there are 20.”
Lin-san checked the number of furnaces there were on the computer.
“When I was investigating I felt there should be 10 or 11 of them.”
Lin-san backed up Yasuhara’s words.
“There are 11.”
… There’s one extra chimney…
“After that, if we look closely at it again, the chimney at the center of the house is very strange. The shape is round, and it’s also coarser than the other chimneys.”
That was a valuable clue. There was indeed something in that empty space. At the very least, a chimney. The places that can hide a suddenly jutting out chimney are very limited. The empty space did not extend into the third floor. If the chimney extended up from the second floor, it should be visible from the third floor windows. But there was only one side of one direction which was windowless. If there was a chimney, it could only be in that direction.
Naru immediately checked the floor plan. There was an even larger empty space to the north of the huge empty space. It extended from the second floor. At once we confirmed that was the position of the chimney.
Mori-san appeared a little proud.
“The clever I properly took photos as evidence. They are currently getting developed, and you should be able to see them tomorrow. I had specially borrowed a long distance single lens reflex camera, isn’t that incredible?”
As she said that, Mori-san looked at Naru. Naru only replied with a cool gaze.
“Whatever~”
It was Bou-san who spoke instead.
“It’s incredible, very incredible. And then?”
Mori-san smiled and spoke.
“When I was doing all these, I let Yasuhara investigate in the city. He’s really good detective material.”
He~~
Yasuhara puffed out his chest.
“Whatever type of material needed, I have; because I am the genius Yasuhara.”
Smiling, he said,
“First, I tried going to the Miyama family. Furthermore, I also interviewed the near-by families, and tried my best to look for older people. Then, a few houses away, I found an eighty-two year-old old lady. She’s an energetic, still clear headed senior citizen. Thus I started asking her.”
Hu hu.
“The old lady was born around the time Mr Miyama Kaneyuki died. Yeah, there wasn’t much chance she knew Mar Kaneyuki, but I thought she might know something. Mr Kaneyuki was a capricious personality; when he was gentle he’d give others a little something, and appeared very warm. If he was in a bad mood he would hunt down other people and have his underlings surround them and beat them up; he was apparently this sort of person.”
… Hn~~
“Previously it was mentioned that Mr Kaneyuki was a mysophobic person; the old lady concurred. She said Mr Kaneyuki was extremely terrified of germs. And the family next door to the Miyama family wouldn’t careless take anything belonging to the Miyama family, not even a persimmon. Apparently they had tried before and was thus severely punished.”
“… So that’s the way it was.”
“This is about all I could get out of that old lady. Then, I let her introduce me to the old folk’s homes and community clubs in the city. Following that I tried going to those places. In the end, I heard various sayings, but the evaluation of Mr Kaneyuki was all bad.”
“.. He is a philanthropist, right?”
“That’s right; in any case the good works were done with all sorts of bad things on the sly, it was only a camouflage. That was what a lot of people thought.”
That’s unexpected…
“And then I found someone who claimed to be Mr Hiroyuki’s friend. It was an old lady; her husband was a friend of Mr Hiroyuki in his later days. According to her, Mr Hiroyuki hated his own father a lot. Apparently he practically never listened to his father’s words and he would get extremely angry if anyone were to speak of his father.”
… Hn~
“According to some of what I heard, Mr Kaneyuki apparently had very frail health since his youth.”
“Frail health?”
“Yeah. Because of his frail health, he was frequently bedridden etc when he was young. And his frequent travels abroad, while said to be only travels, should be actually trips abroad to see doctors about the aches and pains he had at that time.”
… He~
“When he was little others said he wouldn’t live long, and in reality he died at fifty. However, according to Mr Hiroyuki, it would have been better if Mr Kaneyuki had died earlier in his youth. He had apparently said this before.”
I asked.
“If Mr Kaneyuki were to die in his youth, then wouldn’t Mr Hiroyuki have not been born?”
“Exactly, that’s a very shocking statement.”
Mr Hiroyuki must have really hated his father a lot.
“Then, there’s also such an incident. Mr Kaneyuki had 2 menservants.”
… My heart pounded very hard. What incident was it? I had a bad feeling.
“And there’s more, in that old folk’s home there was a person who claimed his grandfather was a gardener here. He said this building was very strange. He said that when he cleaned up and walked near to the main house, he would always smell a scent like that of a graveyard. Furthermore, every time he went here the maid was always a different person. That was what he said.”
“You said the maid was always a different person…?”
I felt a wave of dizziness. I felt like there was something icy cold caressing my back.
“Ooh. And then –? … Taniyama-kun?”
Yasuhara stared at my face. Chills ran down my back; it chilled me speechless. Masako stopped Bou-san, who was about to rise. She came closer to me. She gently reached out her hand, and stacked it on my shoulder.
“This person won’t do. She is unable to save you. All the people here are unable to help you – because you are already dead.”
Masako said that, and clapped my back.
“Come, come down. Don’t be afraid, and go towards the light. If you go there, you will definitely be freed.”
When Masako was saying that, the chill suddenly vanished.
“Hara-san.”
Naru asked; Masako smiled.
“It looks like the spirit here got attached to her. It’s all right. It’s already disappeared. Although I’m not sure if it has been cleansed or otherwise… you’re better already, right?”
“Yeah, thanks…”
What was that, just now…
Masako spoke.
“It definitely approached because we were chatting. Or it might be here right from the start. It looks like the spirit of the maid we were just talking about.”
When I heard those words, I immediately smelt the smell of blood. The sensation of a knife cutting through my throat. The wet warmth of blood drenching my face. The white tiles; the blood red stains.
“… It’s those two people…”
I said. Everyone was shocked.
“It’s those two people. Last night…”
They took me to the main house. I was dragged by 3 men into the main house. In a certain room in the main house they pulled me onto a surgical bed, and cut open my throat.
“It was those two people who killed me in my dream last night.”
My tears dropped down. I dreamt about the memories of the spirit. That person was murdered with that method. It was very scary. Very painful. To me it was only a dream, but to that person, that was reality. To make such terrifying memories, such painful memories, and then get killed…!
Everyone patted my back while I couldn’t help covering my face.
“… Is that the situation?”
It was Naru’s low voice.
“Are the spirits of the ones who was killed in that fashion lingering in this house?”
Save me, I don’t want to die, was what those spirits had said. Everyone all did not know that they had all died; continually wrapped in memories of terror and fear, they lingered in this house.
That’s too much; who exactly did those hideous things? … Yeah, I knew who the culprit was. Those men were the 2 menservants. If so, there should be a culprit who ordered them to do such. The culprit could only be Mr Kaneyuki.
Unforgivable. He put on the mask of a philanthropist, but could do such hideous, such cruel, and such tragic things.
Just at that time,
All the lights in the room suddenly were extinguished.
“… What?!”
With the slowly disappearing glow of the monitors, the room turned completely dark. After a sharp ‘bang’, the room was momentarily filled with noise. Somewhere beyond this room there was an intense sound. Then, in the distance, there was someone screaming.
“Do not move!”
When Naru ordered in a sharp tone, the lights all suddenly came back on. It was like they had stopped temporarily. Simultaneously, the noise also ceased.
I didn’t even have the time to say ‘what in the world was that?’. When the lights came back on, some blood red objects jumped into our lines of sight.
“Save me”
“Save me”
“I don’t want to die”
“It hurts”
“It hurts”
“I’m terrified”
Those were the countless words written in blood on the wall.
We dumbly stared at the interior of the room.
Words written in blood in various sizes, styles and handwriting. Within just that moment in time, they were so numerous they had buried the wall.
“It hurts.”
“Save me.”
“I don’t want to die.”
“I’m terrified.”
“It hurts.”
“Urado.”
… “Urado”?
Quickly glancing at the words on the wall, I was stunned.
“Hey, Naru, this is…?”
Naru’s own gaze shifted to those 2 characters, then glanced around the room once more.
“Urado.”
“うらど (tl/n: hiragana for ‘Urado’). ”
Besides these, there were many other words written on the wall.
When we were in a daze, the sound of hasty footsteps sounded from somewhere within the house. These footsteps urged on Mori-san and Yasuhara.
“Naru, see you tomorrow.”
“Madoka, I’ve said before that this place is very dangerous, haven’t I?”
Accompanying Naru’s sharp voice, Bou-san waved his hand relaxedly.
“See you then, Ma’am.”
“Yeah *heart*.”
“Be careful when you go back.”
“Yes~.”
With their bright and cheerful replies, the two of them disappeared through the window.
Right on the backs of their departures, Ohashi-san opened the door.
“… Are you all fine?”
“What happened?”
Naru asked.
“Strange bloody words have appeared all around the house. It’s like they were written with blood…”
We hurried out of the room. The walls of the corridor was also filled with words:
Save me save me save me save me…
Urado うらど Urado うらど…
“Exactly how many spirits are there in this house?”
Ayako shrieked.
An extremely tremendous number. There are so many…
“The name ‘Urado’ appears to have a deeper meaning than what we had imagined.”
Bou-san looked at the words on the wall.
“Somehow I don’t think it is just a simple pseudonym.”
“… Yeah.”
“If only we knew the meaning of this sentence…”
That sentence. “Heard they were ?? by Urado ?? away.”
Naru spoke softly.
“Hara-san.”
“Yes?”
“Do you have confidence in summoning a spirit here?”
Everyone’s gaze was instantly focused on Masako.
Masako’s doll like face was slightly twisted.
“… I do.”
If the spirits made these laments, and if they could possess Masako’s body…If this was so we could ask the spirits directly about the meaning of the name “Urado”. Then the things that had happened here etc can also all be uncovered.
– When my thoughts reached this point my body stiffened immediately. Spirits – from this house; spirits who were murdered… To have them possess Masako’s body. If so, then wouldn’t Masako go through an experience similar to what I had experienced?
“… No.”
“Mai?”
“Masako, you can’t do this. Don’t let the spirits possess your body.”
“What’s up? You say this so suddenly.”
“Masako might have a dream similar to mine. This type of thing won’t do.”
Naru gently sighed a breath.
“Mai, Hara-san is a professional.”
“Professional or not, you can’t let someone go through this type of experience!”
“Stop making a scene.”
Naru’s cold gaze. I returned the gaze directly.
“Can you understand the feeling of being killed by someone else? Can you imagine the sensation of the moment one dies? Naru, can you understand how scary that is? I will definitely not allow Masako perform a summoning.”
I felt Naru’s eye color darken.
As I was wrinkling up my brow, Naru gently blinked. That inexplicable color had already disappeared from his eyes.
“… That can’t be helped. This is also a somewhat inaccurate method… Lin.”
“Yes.”
“Can they be summoned?”
“Let me try.”
“Lin-san!”
I couldn’t help speaking up in objection.
“You can’t do that type of thing. That’s so…”
That was so scary, so painful. An experience like that, I would not wish upon anybody.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let the spirit possess my body.”
“… But.”
“I’m only trying to summon the spirits. I’m not a medium myself, so I’m not able to let the spirit possess my body.”
“Is this so?”
“Yes.”
“But, Naru,”
Lin-san turned his expressionless face towards Naru.
“I’m not able to summon the spirits of those murdered here. The spirits I’m summoning now are…”
Lin-san’s voice was one that didn’t let one feel a hint of emotion.
“Assuming they’ve already died, the 3 people who have disappeared over here. Only them.”
“No matter. Try it.”
We chose to perform the summoning where Igarashi-sensei had performed the séance. To prepare for the summoning, Lin-san and Naru left, leaving us to set up the equipment. I set up the equipment as we had during the previous séance, while I asked Bou-san:
“How do you think Lin-san will summon the spirits?”
“Summoning spirits is separated into letting the spirit possess one’s body with ‘possession’, and summoning the spirit itself with ‘Speaking to Spirits’. Masako’s is ‘possession’.”
… he.
“Lin also said he won’t let the spirit possess his body, hence it should be ‘speaking to spirits’.”
“Can this type of thing be done?”
Bou-dan shrugged.
“Normally, it can’t be done. ‘Speaking to spirits’ is also called ‘calling back spirits from the dead’; it is considered a Chinese witchcraft method. – Lin also said he is a Chinaman.”
“… Ah.”
“Although we’ve always thought Lin is an Omnyouji, if things are like this now, then the situation is slightly different. I’m afraid Lin isn’t actually an Omnyouji, but a Taoist priest practicing Chinese curses. If that’s the case then summoning spirits should be a piece of cake for him.”
… he.
“ ‘Posession’ is also known as ‘Spirit Absorbtion’; normally, compared to ‘Spirit Absorbtion’, ‘Calling back Spirits form the dead’ is more difficult to perform. The levels of the Taoist priests are completely different.”
That is to say, compared to Masako, Lin-san is even more gifted?
“… If that’s the case, even if we don’t rely on Masako, isn’t it enough if Lin-san is around?”
What the heck. That made us worry that besides Masako no one could hear the spirits speak. In the past because of that we were led in circles too.
Bou-san tilted his head.
“You can’t say that either. With this so called ‘calling back spirits from the dead’, it’s not any old spirit who can be called back. Lin has said so too right? The only spirits he can summon are those of those three people only.”
“… If, assuming the three of them are already dead, like this.”
Because there’s the possibility they are still alive.
“Anyway, whichever way doesn’t matter. To actually call a spirit back from dead, the summoned spirits’ name, date of birth and other detailed information are required. Then, at this point we only have the information about these three people. That’s why besides those three, other spirits cannot be summoned.”
Ah, so that’s the way it is.
After a while, Lin-san returned carrying a bundle. He did not change his clothes.
“Is the cleaning done?”
“It’s done.”
Before Lin-san returned, he had instructed us to clean this room beforehand. Before we set up the equipment, we scattered salt in the room, cleaned the floor, and wiped the tabletop with a fresh rag thrice.
Lin-san nodded then opened the bundle. He undid the thin yellow cloth, and retrieved a box from within. Opening the whitewood chest, there were many boxes in it. From the largest box, Lin-san took out a golden bowl then gently placed it on the table. Following that was a gold colored tachi (tl/n: long sword); two gold colored incense pots; two candlestick holders; two candles.
I somehow felt now wasn’t the time to speak; we all silently watched these on-goings. Lin-san carefully opened a sealed whitewood box. Momentarily, from inside, overflowed a tea-leaf like scent. Lin-san placed those things into the incense pot and lit it. From the incense pot, a thin smoke rose, and the air was filled with an indescribable fragrance.
Lin-san retrieved a flat box; after raising the lid he placed it besides the bowl. From it appeared an inkwell. Lin-san retrieved a piece of paper-like paper and unfolded it, carefully tidied up the things on the table, then used the water we had prepared previously and started to slowly grind ink.
The smell of the incense filled the entire room; just as Lin-san finished grinding ink, Naru finally returned.
“Who do you want to summon?”
Lin-san asked. Naru placed his notebook on the table.
“Suzuki Naoko-san.”
Naru held what looked like Suzuki-san’s blouse in his hand. Lin-san received the blouse then carefully folded it within the bowl. Then he looked at the notebook while writing on the paper. He wrote the name, the birth date, then looked back at Naru.
“What about the date of death?”
Naru thought for a moment.
“The second day since she disappeared… approximately this time.”
Lin-san nodded, and wrote on the paper as Naru had instructed. Then he placed a completed protection seal on top of the folded blouse.
“I’m going to start.”
Lin-san placed a stick of incense in the other incense pot, lit the candles, then nodded to Naru. Naru switched off the lights in the room.
The glow from the two candles illuminated the dark interior of the room. Lin-san placed the tachi on his knees as he sat in seiza, then he gently started speaking.
An indescribable sound was produced from Lin-san’s mouth.
I could also hear the speech like sound like ‘he’. From Lin-san’s mouth came a low sound. Those sounds, in time with his breath, came forth from his mouth; that was the feeling one got from it. When he lamented it was a clear, touching sound. When he whistled it was a gentle, low pitched sound.
Lin-san slowly enunciated each sound. In this progression, the pitch changed a number of times, just like singing a song. It was high at times and low at times, strong at times and weak at times. Vibrating, reaching outwards, repeating. From his throat each sound sprung. It was an indescribable, touching sound made just of that.
I couldn’t help being enthralled by the sound. There aren’t any other such unimaginable touching sounds. I felt that I had almost attending a concert. Hence when I heard the sound of panting, I still thought that was unconsciously produced by that person – pant because of being touched by that sound.
Lin-san stopped the sound.
Once again came the sound of panting. I heard an extremely pathetic sigh.
I nervously glanced around me and realized there was a shadow on the wall directly facing Lin-san. A deep shadow cast by the weak glow of the candles. On the surface of the wall one could vaguely see the shadow of a person. This wasn’t anybody’s shadow. There wasn’t anybody in a position to cast a shadow in that location.
As I was looking around, the shadow deepened. One could tell that was a person; the shadow of a female in profile.
… Who? It couldn’t be.
Color seeped out from the shadow, gradually revealing a person. Everyone held their breaths; there wasn’t a sound to be heard in the room.
“Naru.”
Lin-san continued sitting in seiza and shouted without turning his head.
“The day’s no good. Not only can she not speak, she can’t stay that long either.”
Naru nodded. The shadow had already taken the appearance of a young girl. It was dark, it looked a little transparent; although one could definitely tell there wasn’t anything solid there, there was indeed the figure of a person, and one could tell it was the missing Suzuki-san. Suzuki-san lowered her head, faced us in profile, with her gaze fixed on her feet.
“You are Suzuki-san, right?”
Naru spoke to her. She continued staring at her feet, and nodded.
… She’s already dead…
I felt extremely unhappy. As expected, Suzuki-san had already died.
“There are others besides you in this house, right?”
Suzuki-san nodded.
“Besides us and Igarashi-sensei, and the other psychics, there are other people, right?”
Her reply was still a speechless nod.
“Whether it is them or you, you are all already dead. Do you know?”
Suzuki-san suddenly lifted her head. She looked at Naru with an unfathomable expression.
Aah, Suzuki-san did not know – that she was already dead, that the others were already dead.
“Do you know why you are dead?”
She continued to stare at Naru, then shook her head.
“Then, was there someone who did something bad to you?”
Suzuki-san nodded. Her expression turned slightly twisted.
“Who is that? Is it someone else other than us?”
She nodded with an extremely pained expression.
… As expected, the spirits in this house are the criminals…
“Do you know a person called Urado?”
Suddenly, Suzuki-san’s body exaggeratedly swayed backwards. Her face twisted. Her mouth opened as though she was saying something. Not able to make a sound, she desperately lifted her hand and grasped her throat. She lifted a hand, as though to write something in the air.
“You know, right?”
Suzuki-san nodded, then shook her head. She twisted her body, moved both hands as though swimming, just like a child throwing a tantrum, using all the action in her body to say something. She stamped hard on the floor, twisted her body. Suddenly a clear high sound rose from somewhere in the room.
I unconsciously searched the surroundings for the source of the sound. Continuous intense sounds rang. Noise. “Naru, we’re at the limit.”
As though in reply to Lin-san’s gentle voice, Suzuki-san’s shadow gradually turned thinner. Suzuki-san opened her mouth wide, as though desperately shouting something, but we couldn’t hear that sound. In place of that unheard sound, was deafening high pitched noise.
Naru didn’t even have the chance to ask a question. In a flash the color disappeared, and Suzuki-san’s figure returned to being a shadow. Even as a shadow, Suzuki-san’s body still continued to twist. Then, the shadow rapidly dissolved in the darkness and vanished. Simultaneously, the noise also stopped, then there was only silence left in the room.
Nobody spoke before Naru switched on the lights.
When the glaring light shone down, my surroundings were filled with excited voices.
Did Lin-san really summon a spirit just now? Was Suzuki-san already dead? Are there evil spirits in this house that will kidnap people? Then are the other two people already dead too? Various voices mixed together. Suddenly Naru stared hard at the wall. Everyone’s vision followed Naru’s line of sight, and the excited chattering settled down.
When was it written? On the white wall, red words were written.
“ヴラド”. (tl/n: Vurado in Katakana – Vlad)
Vlad? What is this…? Was it left behind by Suzuki-san’s spirit?
Bou-san suddenly hammered the table once.
“The so called ‘Urado’, is originally ‘Vlad’?”
I blinked.
Indeed, Urado and Vlad do sound very similar…
“What is this Vlad?”
John showed an expression of extreme dislike.
“The Vlad we are talking about is… the vampire Dracula.”
Vampire.
“Dracula?!”
I turned to look towards Naru.
“What exactly is going on? Isn’t Urado Mr Kaneyuki’s pseudonym? Was Mr Kaneyuki a vampire? Are the spirits here those of people who died when their blood was drained?”
Naru spoke, as though very annoyed.
“The story of the popularly know Dracula originates from the novel called “(Vampire) Dracula”. Do you know this?”
“… I don’t know.”
Naru sighed openly.
“ ‘Dracula’, published in 1897, is a horror novel written by Bram Stoker. A strange man by the name of Count Dracula arrives in London. He is actually a vampire – it is a story like that. This novel has been adapted into operas, movies etc, and gave birth to the domain of ‘Vampire Culture’ in literature. Do you understand up to this point?”
“… Yeah.”
“In actual fact, Count Dracula was modeled after a real person. It was a person who was really named Dracula. The Count Dracula in the novel was born in Transylvania. Transylvania has historically been the territory of Hungary, and is currently part of Romania.”
“This Transylvania you talk about, is it a real place that exists?”
I had assumed it was a fictional location…
“Of course. Dracula was a Duke from Transylvania’s neighboring area of Wallachia. His name was Vlad. He was known as Vlad III, and commonly called ‘Vlad the Impaler’.”
“Impaler?”
Naru nodded.
“At that time Europe was frequently invaded by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Because the area of Wallachia is very near to Turkey, that area was the frontline of the battle. Furthermore, even if the king of Wallachia was overthrown, that did not stop the power struggle. Vlad was an extremely mysophobic duke, he hated being known as idle; he is well known to be ruthless, especially towards his enemies. Enemies who were captured by him were mostly executed by impalement with a spear, hence his name.”
Ge ge ge.
“This Vlad’s father was Vald II, known as ‘Vlad Dracul’. ‘Dracul’ in Romania has the meaning of devil; he was commonly known as ‘Vlad the Devil’.”
The father was a devil, the son an impaler?
“Originally this name is inaccurate. ‘Dracul’ means devil as well as ‘dragon’. In 1431, Vlad II was given the name of ‘Dracul’ by the Holy Roman Emperor. Because this was a conferred title, of course he was not called ‘Devil’. I think he should have been called ‘Dracul the Dragon Duke’ to be accurate.”
Indeed, a devil and a dragon are totally different…
“In Romanian, ‘Son of the Dragon’ and ‘Son of the Devil’ is ‘Dracula’. Hence, as a result of being Dracul’s child, Vlad was also known as ‘Dracula’. That is to say, it means ‘the Son of the Dragon Duke’. Due to Vlad’s blood drenched achievements, he was commonly known as ‘the Devil’s Spawn’, but that is actually not accurate.”
“… Hn~.”
“After Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ was published, ‘Dracula’ became a synonym for vampire. Although Vlad III was notorious for his period of cruelty in Europe, he was long forgotten when Stoker’s novel was published. Bram Stoker caused him to become the center of attention once more. Then, right now, the notorious name of Dracula is reverberating through the world.”
“So that’s how it is.”
So there was also such a piece of history that I did not even know of.
“In the Wallachia area, there still remains ‘Legends of Dracula’ today. In those legends, Vlad was a savior who protected Hungary from the Germans and the Turks. Despite his actual cruelty towards his enemies, he was still the hero who defended Hungary. I don’t approve of lumping things together; taking into account the situation in Europe at that time, I think saying that isn’t wrong either.”
… Hn~.
A sarcastic smile appeared on Naru’s face.
“There’s a famous story connected to Vlad. There was a rich merchant who moved all his wealth on a carriage and passed by the capital of Wallachia. When he arrived at the capital, the rich merchant entered the castle and asked Vlad to protect his wealth. To him, Vlad said, that there wasn’t such a necessity. Then he ordered the rich merchant to leave his fortune wherever he liked then to leave. With no options, the rich merchant could only leave all his wealth in the public square before leaving.”
Eeeh. Vlad’s orders were not to be questioned.
“Then at dawn the second day, the rich merchant went to inspect his carriage, he realized not a cent of his wealth had been taken. Because Vlad was a very mysophobic duke, his own citizens were also not allowed to lie or steal or be lazy. People who did so were all impaled with no exception; hence nobody would steal a thing from the merchant.”
“… So that was the way it was. He really was a great person.”
Naru shrugged.
“Whether this was actually great or something else is interpreted differently by different people. … Anyway, he was really very similar to Vlad, Kaneyuki was.”
Bou-san tilted his head.
“Vlad was the savior of Hungary. If we put it like this, then did Kaneyuki also wanted to call himself a savior?”
Naru’s snow white fingers leaved through the materials Mori-san had brought.
“Around 1900, Kaneyuki had toured Europe. At that time the book ‘Dracula’ had long been published. I think, it is more likely that because of the meaning ‘Son of the Devil’, he called himself ‘Vlad’. – Furthermore, “
“Furthermore?”
“Mai has mentioned it before, right? There was a bathtub placed in the bathroom, and there was blood remaining in the bathtub.”
… Yeah.
“Frequently discussed together with Vlad was a person called Bathory Elizabeth. In the western style, the surname is placed behind, so she should be Elizabeth Bathory. She is known as the ‘Blood Countess’.”
“She… is a woman?”
“That’s right. Elizabeth was a Countess who lived in 15th century Hungary. She did not have any clear connection with Vlad, but a lot of people speculate whether the two of them are related by blood.”
“Hn…”
“Elizabeth was afraid her beauty would fade. With young girls as sacrifices, she believed that if she bathed in the blood of young girls she would be able to preserve her own beauty. She killed young females, placed the blood she harvested from them into a bathtub, and then soaked her body inside. Up until one of her sacrifices escaped and exposed her crimes, this had gone on for about 10 years.”
“… with, with this…?”
Naru nodded.
“It is similar to the dream Mai had. Elizabeth and Vlad were confused; Vlad was also commonly said to have bathed in his executed enemy’s fresh blood. What if Kaneyuki had heard of these things?”
No one replied to Naru’s words. Naru smiled once more.
“Elizabeth was not formally convicted and punished; instead, the bathroom door was sealed, and all the walls and windows were sealed from the outside. In the end she died inside that prison – don’t you think there are subtle signs here?”
A sealed prison. Sealed spaces.
“However… Kaneyuki...”
Kaneyuki died of an illness, Mori-san had said before.
“Of course, I too don’t believe that Kaneyuki was closed inside that space. If that was so, such a large space wouldn’t have been necessary. However, I only think there is a clue here – a very obvious clue.”
… Indeed it was like this.
“ The pronunciation of ‘Vlad’ is even more similar to that of ‘Blad’. For some reason Kaneyuki wanted to use the name Vlad as a pseudonym, but couldn’t find a suitable kanji. Then he chose the two characters ‘Ura do’… I’m afraid this is the truth.”
… Yeah.
“Following that he was the same as the meaning of the name, and killed a lot of servants here. The spirits of the victims continue to haunt this mansion.”
Bou-san gently snapped his fingers.
“I’ve got it. That ‘Heard the were ?? by Urado. ?? away’.”
“Ai?”
When asked like this in response, Bou-san let out a bitter smile.
“It is ‘Heard they were killed by Urado’. ‘Those who came to this place have all died. Heard they were killed by Urado. Run away.’ How about that?”
A warning. The person who lived in that hidden room wanted to leave a message for the next person to arrive at this mansion; told them to run away.
I tilted my head.
“Hey, I understand that… then who did that overcoat belong to?”
“Whose was it…?”
“Because anyhow they wouldn’t let a maid live in that sort of place right? Furthermore wasn’t that overcoat a uniform of the Facility attached to the Hospital? To whom did that overcoat belong to? Was it really a maids’?”
Everyone looked at each other in dismay.
“Could it be…”
Bou-san spoke softly.
“Could it be… that fellow… also took the people from the facility…?”
Urado had his eye on the people inside the facility. He took that person here; without being discovered by the ignorant servants, he closed that person inside the hidden room. Then…
That’s too much. This type of thing is really too much. Mr Kaneyuki was practically inhuman. He really was the ‘Spawn of the Devil’.
I stopped short. Could it be that Mr Hiroyuki knew what his own father did in this place?
When I said that, Naru nodded.
“That’s very likely. Hence he sealed this place. To prevent discovery by outsiders he buried all of it in the depths of this ever-expanding building…”
Mr Hiroyuki had also said before, “There are spirits escaping; it is to prevent them from escaping that I’m renovating.”
If the question was whether Mr Hiroyuki knew of what happened here, that sentence makes one feel that the answer is definitely affirmative. I think Mr Hiroyuki must have been terrified: about his own father, about the grudges of those killed by his own father.
Naru’s expression was one of deep thought.
“The ones who have disappeared are all young people…”
He said that softly with gravity.
“Why Mr Kaneyuki would do such a thing, I understand now.”
Ai?
“Kaneyuki was frail and sickly; I think he must have hated his own body. Blood was thought to be the source of a human’s vitality. Just like what Elizabeth believed, depending of that vitality, one’s own beauty can be maintained, Kaneyuki also believed that relying on young people’s vitality would keep his own health.”
… Yeah.
“But in actual fact he definitely wouldn’t be considered to have lived long. He must have felt regretful. Not only did he kill people to extend his own life, but in the end it still was not maintained very long.”
… Indeed that was the case.
“I’m afraid the spirits of those who were killed by that fellow are not related to the disappearances. Suzuki-san is dead. If we say the killer is the spirit living in this mansion, then that evil spirit could only be Urado.”
A chill ran down my back.
“Urado is still here… still in this mansion. He is still in this house thirsting for a sacrifice.”
When we returned to base it was 4am in the morning. Just like that the meeting continued up till the next morning; when the sun rose we started work.
“First start at the location where there is definitely a chimney.”
Naru announced. The few of us set out towards the location in question. Everyone split the burden and carried the heavy equipment.
Lin-san carried the radar as though it was a treasure. This was equipment used in the poltergeist case (tl/n: novels 1 and 2) to test for the power of suggestion. Give a certain person a hint that something associated with them – for example, a vase – would move, then seal the vase in a room. If that vase really moves, the real identity of the poltergeist is that unfathomable power of humans. To create a completely sealed room, we were unable to pull an extension or something out of the room. Hence we used radar to detect monitor the activity of the vase through the wall, and inside the room we recorded it with a wireless camera. That radar looks like it is to be used for a special purpose this time. That is, to figure out the thickness of the wall. If we had a better radar, apparently we could even find out what it is like beyond the wall.
We examined all the walls facing that empty space.
“The refractive index of this wall should be the lowest.”
Lin-san pointed at the floor plan. ‘Radar’ produces electromagnetic waves, and then receives the reflected electromagnetic waves. If the refractive index of the electromagnetic waves is low, it means that this wall is easily broken. The body of the wall is very thin, or even if it is thick, it is very weak.
We hurried to the site and used the tools borrowed from Ohashi-san to knock down the wall. More easily than imagined, we made a hole in the wall. I couldn’t see any light on the other side of the wall. To see what it was like inside, the hole was expanded; it gradually turned into a huge job, the hole measured approximately 30 cm in diameter. I stuck the head of the infrared camera into that hole. The image taken by the camera appeared on the monitor.
Bathed in infrared light not visible to the human eye, the inside of the hole was clearly shown. Inside was a haphazard room of about 8 tatami’s size. There was a huge item directly facing us.
“… That, what is it?”
Naru sank into thought.
“It looks like either an incinerator or a stove or something similar…”
Indeed, the look of the room was like that of the surroundings of the school incinerator; was what I felt recently.
“Let’s go in to take a look.”
Naru announced. Then we made another hole in the wall. This time, we drummed up enough energy, and made a hole large enough for a person to pass through.
Beams from our torch lights crisscrossed in the room filled with dust. The shadow of the incinerator appeared in front of us. The walls were built in the shape of a huge box; right in the middle directly facing us were two rusted metal lids; it should be the ceramic chimney continually extending towards the ceiling.
Masako, Ayako and I remained outside; the other 4 entered that room.
“Are you alright?”
We asked them. Bou-san said.
“… Aah. The floor is made of stone. It is really solid.”
… No, that wasn’t what I was talking about.
“It’s very smelly.”
Indeed, the room was filled with an intense rotting smell.
“There’s a door.”
Naru said softly and faced the left side of the room. Looking over we could see a slanted door illuminated by the torchlight. We could see bricks piled on the other side of the half open door. When Naru pulled the door, the entire door fell down. On the other side of the door was a completed wall.
While the wall had a window, the other side of the window was also walled up. It was a secret room completely sealed by bricks.
Bou-san eyed a wooden boxes lined up along the wall. He knelt down, and picked up the things inside the box.
“… It’s mouldy.”
Just as Bou-san studied the next box…
“… Waah!”
John let out a lament-like sound.
“What’s up?!”
At that time John had opened the lid of the furnace. Naru and Bou-san ran over. They shone their torches into the furnace from beside John, who was rooted to the ground over there.
“Hey, what happened?”
Naru continued to look at that place without moving.
“It’s best to contact the police.”
After he said that, he stood up and walked out of the room in our direction.
… Police?!
“… Hey, I said, what happened?”
I grabbed Naru, who had walked out of the hole, and asked. Naru used a very calm voice and said.
“There’s a body inside.”
