The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village:Volume5 Side A

Status: Incomplete

8/38 parts completed

   

Jinnai Shinobu's Apocalypse — Side A — OP_code"Personal_apocalypse".

Part ? (3rd person — Day ??/?? ??:?? - ??:??)

“Lost baggage? …What? You mean, um, wait. So it was lost!? But that ‘item’ was top secret!!”

“It’s already gone, so there’s no use complaining about it. Or do you think that’s going to magically make it appear?”

“If it was that important, why didn’t you keep it with your carry-on baggage? I’m going to officially report this!!”

“I didn’t want something that dangerous on me! I know plenty of people who assumed a domestic flight was safe and came to regret it!!”

“Okay, understood. Everyone, we need to calm down. The carrier decided to transport the ‘item’ by hiding it in a civilian travel bag, but that travel bag has gone missing as lost baggage. Is that clear?”

“Can’t we track the bag?”

“If we’d attached a transmitter, the signal would have been intercepted. It would be like telling the entire world to come take it from us.”

“You mean…”

“No one knows what airport it ended up at.”

“The airline isn’t stupid. They’ll find it before long and contact the civilian student. There’s nothing we can do until that student picks up his travel bag.”

“Could someone fake their identity so we can collect the bag ourselves?”

“Do you want to stand out? That would increase the risk of revealing the ‘item’s’ existence, you know?”

“…Dammit.”

“Now you’re catching on. Unfortunately, all we can do now is pray.”

Part 2 (Day 10/03 20:30 - 21:20)

“Mn…”

I awoke to the sensation of something dripping from my mouth.

After a slight delay, I noticed the noisy hustle and bustle of movement from all directions, so I tried to remember where I was.

“Shinobu.”

Before I could determine the situation, I heard the familiar voice of a glamorous Zashiki Warashi.

“You can use me as a body pillow if you want, but try not to get drool on my yukata. Or do you want me to hit you?”

“Whoa!!!???”

I frantically jumped up from the bench and my right calf cramped unnaturally. I ended up rolling around on the hard floor and performed an equivalent of first aid by extending my knee, grabbing my toes in both hands, and pulling them forward.

Only then did I remember where I was.

Oh, that’s right.

This was the lobby of a floating domestic airport connected to an Intellectual Village named Goldmine Island. I was waiting for an employee to contact me about the whereabouts of my lost travel bag and my parents had already gone on to the inn. …Of course, I didn’t really think I was going to get my bag that day since no one could say which airport it had been sent to.

Trouble on the first day of a trip? What did I do to deserve this?

It was a weekday, but being the son of an Intellectual Village artisan gave me the excuse I needed to officially take some time off of school. It was thought that studying my father’s work would be more useful than rote learning using textbooks and a blackboard.

For that reason, this trip felt a lot like part of my dad’s work.

Of course, being with my parents restricted what I could do, but being able to skip school while everyone else was stuck their studying still felt liberating.

“I don’t think it’s coming today. At this rate, you’ll be waiting until dawn with the people spending the night in the airport to save some money.”

“I guess I’ll go tell them my cell number, then.”

“It’s not like you have anything in your bag you don’t want them to see, right?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I had my nice underwear in there.”

I exchanged my contact information with the airport worker who took the extremely American stance of keeping his back oddly straight and refusing to apologize despite admitting their error. After that, I left the floating airport with the Zashiki Warashi.

An overwhelming deluge of light seemed to sweep away the darkness of night as it filled my vision.

Everywhere I looked, I saw neon, neon, and more neon. The ideas of energy conservation and global warming were thrown out the window and everything glowed like a house that took its Christmas decorations too far. I saw playing cards, roulettes, bunny girls, rolls of cash, and bags of coins. Even without checking each of the symbols creating an overall electronic sign motif, anyone could tell what this place was.

“Welcome to Japan’s Vegas! This is the special casino district of Goldmine Island!!”

Someone called out to me after I took just three steps off the airport’s grounds.

A middle-aged driver was leaning against the side of a white limousine that was stretched out like a dachshund.

“Where do you need to go? You look like a kid, but if you’ve got a Zashiki Warashi with you, you must be pretty rich. If you’re not sure where to have some fun, how about I show you around? There’s no age limit with the publicly managed gambling of a special casino district, you know? How about a toast to the loopholes of an experimental system!?”

“Oh… I just want to get to the inn. But if I’m going to take a long vehicle, a bus is enough.”

“Do you really think you’re going to find something that cheap-looking around here? This is Japan’s Vegas. Having me carry your ass around is the cheapest option. Even helicopters and cruisers are pretty common here. And if it’s just carrying you somewhere, a limo’s not that different from a normal taxi. The first ride’s eight hundred yen and every three hundred meters adds another hundred and twenty yen. That’s a pretty fair system, don’t you think?”

“Just to be sure, you are actually licensed to do this, aren’t you?”

“You want to go check the plate on the back? It’s green and everything. And don’t worry. I’m not some crooked businessman who drives you around and around the island and demands you pay me tens of thousands. What, is this your first time with this kind of thing? You’re all nervous.”

The island itself was small, so the price wouldn’t be too high if I didn’t take a bunch of detours. I had him show me a map and getting to the inn would only cost me two thousand yen.

“Fine. You win. But I only have two thousand yen in my wallet, so get me to the inn before the meter goes above that.”

“Ha ha ha. Is that your allowance or something!?”

“I can’t deny that I’m here on a trip with my parents, but this has more to do with my lost baggage. Most of my stuff was sent off to some other airport.”

The Zashiki Warashi and I climbed into the back seat of the white limousine. We found the kind of fantastical space I’d seen in movies, but I didn’t dare touch the mini-fridge. Who could say how much I would be charged just to open the door.

The middle-aged man’s voice reached us from the distant driver’s seat.

“So where to?”

“Um… An inn called the Gold Crane.”

“If you want make out or something, I can close the smoked glass divider for some privacy.”

“You can leave it open and mind your own business.”

The pure white limousine took off surprisingly roughly and slipped into the nighttime casino city. I looked out the window and the explosively bright neon was enough to see some palm trees here and there.

“Even Kyushu is far enough south to count as tropical, isn’t it?”

“The muddy goldmine mountain has changed a lot too. Nowadays, things are weighted more towards the tourists. Even the abandoned buildings from when this place was called Heavy Cruiser Island are a popular sightseeing spot.”

“Wasn’t that used as the setting for a video game?”

“A zombie one. Why are those things so popular overseas, anyway?”

Perhaps because it was a casino city, people were walking around in clothes you would never see in a normal city. There were bunny girls trying to attract customers and even derivatives that had where those bunny ears? There were also gentlemen and ladies in suits and dresses and…

“Wh-what are those? There are a bunch of female police officers in really gaudy miniskirts. They look like something from an American pinup magazine.”

“Those aren’t police officers; they’re armed guards. This is still an Intellectual Village and no one wants to give the police any more authority. But as a business, they need to give their customers what they want. …Simply put, there are a surprising number of people who want to be stepped on with black leather boots.”

The Indoor Youkai had been awfully quiet for a while. I assumed her special shyness skill had activated, but that apparently wasn’t it.

“Ahh… I don’t like how bright this place is. It’s making my head hurt.”

“But this is technically classified as an Intellectual Village.”

“How?”

“The mountain on the back side of the island has apparently been a goldmine for ages, so maybe you’ll feel better once we get there.”

Youkai naturally hated cities, but as a human, I wasn’t sure how to imagine it. It just didn’t seem real. I always pictured it as something like feeling carsick or the people who couldn’t stand the low frequency waves from wind turbines.

“Oh, right, right,” said the driver without turning around. “You should be careful.”

“About what?”

“You can bring your pretty Zashiki Warashi around with you if you want, but Youkai are forbidden in the casinos. Sneaking one in is enough for people to suspect you of cheating. After all, you could cheat all you wanted with their mysterious powers. Look.”

He pointed his thumb out the window.

I followed it and saw a security guard in a dark suit chucking what looked like stuffed animals out a casino exit and onto the sidewalk.

No, wait.

“What are those? A tanuki, a fox, and…”

“That last one’s probably a badger. Getting thrown out like that is what happens if you’re lucky. Sometimes they’re dealt with in ways I’d rather not mention.”

“Wasn’t this special casino district made to test a system that wouldn’t allow large criminal organizations a way in?”

“And? The stereotypical bad guys aren’t the only ones you have to watch out for. Not to mention that Japan’s Vegas is an experimental system, so it’s hardly perfect.”

The Zashiki Warashi groaned next to me and it seemed to be a warning that we needed to shut up because we were giving her a headache.

As we continued down a road wide enough for a mid-sized charter plane to land on, the white limousine left the casino city and began to circle around to the other side of the island.

The light quickly vanished.

We were now in a black world that looked like someone had rubbed ink over everything. I was sure there was a nice starry sky and firefly lights to see, but my eyes had adjusted to the previous dazzling light and had difficulty picking up that subtler artwork of light. There were tropical trees everywhere that generally seemed to be pineapple-like trees or looked like you could make a leaf swimsuit from them, but there were some maple and gingko trees mixed in. However, even those felt like a part of a giant mountain of black shadows.

Meanwhile, the Zashiki Warashi had stopped groaning like someone with a hangover and looked a lot more alert.

“I feel a lot better now.”

“Oh, is that so? I’m amazed the overall atmosphere can change so much on the same island. There isn’t a single streetlight around here. And what are those lined up over there? Abandoned buildings?”

“They’re probably the housing complexes and theatres from when this place was called Heavy Cruiser Island. If the driver is to be believed, they’re a valuable sightseeing resource that brings in people from all over Japan who are obsessed with old buildings.”

It may have been a part of his job because the middle-aged man answered any of our questions.

The buildings looked on the verge of collapse, but he said they were thoroughly reinforced with some kind of plastic so people could safely view them. At the same time, quite a few sensors and personnel had been installed or hired to make sure drunks didn’t try to spray paint graffiti on them.

“I don’t see how those could be on the same level as the casinos.”

“Obsessed people are guaranteed repeat customers and they’ll pay any amount for what they love, so don’t take it lightly.”

“I just can’t imagine it. And I know there’s a rule banning hotels in the casino district and putting them all on the other side of the island, but was that meant to make everything less concentrated on the casino side?”

Not counting the floating airport or harbor block, Goldmine Island only had a perimeter of five kilometers. The mountain was in the center and the coastal area was generally divided between the casino city and the mining city where the residents lived. The airport was on the casino side and the harbor was on the mining side. The abandoned buildings we mentioned before surrounded the mountain near its base.

“Here we are, sir. The Gold Crane, right?”

“Wow. This place is huge. Was it really handmade by craftsmen?”

“If the effort that went into this surprises you, you should learn more about the castles around Japan. On Goldmine Island, inns are the first-class place to stay, moored luxury cruise liners are second-class, and rented cruisers are third-class. You should thank your parents. This is gonna be a once-in-a-lifetime memory.”

Part 3 (Day 10/03 21:20 - 24:45)

I entered the inn, but there were no retro arcade games or ping pong tables.

I heard light footsteps rushing about and faint children’s laughter, but it wasn’t clear where any of it was coming from.

I was pretty certain the sounds did not come from anything human.

The hostess who greeted us looked a little surprised when she saw the Indoor Youkai.

“These are all Zashiki Warashi, aren’t they? They’re doing well for themselves. …It sounds like they might even have dozens of them living here.”

“These are Usuhiki Warashi, Kura Bokko, or Notabariko. They’re all subspecies of the Zashiki Warashi, but they aren’t on the same level as a legit Zashiki Warashi like me.”

“Hm?”

“The Zashiki Warashi is a well-known Youkai, so a lot of similar Youkai are lumped together in the same category. There may have only been one original version, but now they can be anything from a collection of babies killed during a famine to transformed Kappa or badgers who started living in the house.”

“I can’t help but see you as the odd or irregular version.”

The hostess led us down a long wood-floored hallway and to our room. Out of some strange sense of etiquette, the hostess mechanically reached for the sliding door, but I stopped her with a hand and threw the door open myself.

A hellish scene appeared before my eyes.

“Ah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah hyah!! The worrrrrld is spiiiiiinning…”

“…”

My usual silent dad remained silent as my drunk mom spun him around and around and around. Nuts and dried squid were scattered on the table, the tatami mats, and everywhere else. Completely empty sake bottles had been left all over the place. I noticed the names Red Yukata and Black-Haired Beauty on the labels, so it seemed they were going through the junmai daiginjo they had brought themselves.

My mom kept her arms wrapped around my dad’s neck and her flushed face swayed back and forth.

“Nn… Oh, Shinobu? They already took dinner away, so you’ll have to go without.”

“Geh!?”

“Unlike a hotel, they bring you the food at a set time in Japanese inns. If you aren’t there, you miss out. Huh? Where are you going?”

“I can’t fill my stomach with the nuts and dried squid on the floor, so I have to go find something else to eat. …They’ll at least have a convenience store around here, right?”

“Don’t ask meee. I do think they had a shop near the entrance, though. A single rice ball was 2500 yen. And that’s a plain one. If you want a dried plum inside, the price more than doubles. That’s a tourist area for you.”

“Are you sure Intellectual Villages haven’t just suffered severe inflation?”

With that said, I left the room again. I thought I noticed my silent father give me a look begging me to save him, but I had enough filial piety to not get in their way.

“Why are you still with me, Good-for-Nothing Youkai?”

“You’re going to the casinos, aren’t you?”

I gave a large start.

“M-Miss Zashiki Warashi? How did you ever reach that conclusion?”

“You don’t seem too upset about missing dinner, so you must have something else in mind. You’re excited that you have an excuse to head out at night without rousing their suspicion. And what kind of entertainment do they have out here that you wouldn’t want your parents to know about?”

“Fine, fine. I won’t complain as long as you keep your mouth shut. But paranormal Youkai aren’t allowed in the casinos and they’ll definitely be on the lookout for a fortune-bringing Zashiki Warashi. What’s so fun about waiting outside the building?”

“What are you talking about? Seeing your bewildered expression when you lose every last yen is all the entertainment I need.”

“Just to be sure, you are a Zashiki Warashi, right?”

“Zashiki Warashi aren’t as harmless as children’s books make us out to be.” The Indoor Youkai shrugged. “But how much do you have in your wallet? And your card’s credit limit isn’t very high. I’m not sure you have enough for even one pull at the slots.”

“I’ve already looked into it. They have a beginner’s luck system that gives first-time guests thirty thousand yen in chips for free. The only condition is that you have to use all of the chips before leaving the casino. If you lose, you break even. If you win, the winnings go right into your wallet.”

“So they give you a taste of gambling so you’ll get addicted to it later?”

“Either way, we’ll be leaving this island in two or three days. You can’t just do this anywhere like with pachinko or horseracing, so I couldn’t become an addict if I tried.”

I took a peek in the inn’s shop just to check, but I immediately grimaced and left. The canned drinks found in vending machines everywhere cost more than a thousand yen each, so this wasn’t just the modern rural system where the luxurious ingredients drove up the price. The product was in no way worth what they were charging.

“What are we going to do about dinner?”

“If I win, we can have a luxurious meal with a bunny girl on the side. If I lose, we’ll have to drink my tears. Do you feel like rooting for me now?”

A wooden sign set up near the inn’s main entrance said, “Partnered with VR Casino City – Heavy Cruiser Island. Feel free to join us by PC, cellphone, or smartphone. –Goldmine Island Casino Promotion Committee”

“Didn’t that taxi driver mention Heavy Cruiser Island?”

“Just like with Edo and Yamataikoku, it’s a symbol of the ‘good old days’ people long for.”

“But a virtual casino? What’s so fun about playing what’s really just a video game after coming all the way to a real casino island?”

“It seems you can buy points that can be used on the island. The units are Gears. They work with a monstrous point card system that over forty million people use and are accepted at major drugstores, video rental stores, and online stores, so you could easily call it a virtual currency.”

“Wait a second, you good-for-nothing.”

“But the app apparently gives out your location and it won’t let you play if you aren’t inside the island’s special casino district, so it’s still pretty frustrating.”

“Why do you know so much about this? Don’t tell me you’ve been gambling with my smartphone!”

No matter how much I questioned her, she only casually averted her gaze.

Dammit, I have to eventually get back that phone nestled between those giant breasts!

At any rate, we left the inn.

The sticky ink-like darkness of the rural night covered everything and I sighed as I looked around.

“Now for the first problem.”

“It looks like our only option is to walk to the casino district on the other side of the island. You can’t hire a taxi with that beginner’s luck system of yours, can you?”

“…”

Worried, I looked down at my cellphone.

When I saw the “28°” reading, I felt an unpleasant sweat pouring down my body.

Part 4 (Day 10/03 23:10 - 23:25)

It took wayyyy to long.

I had noticed it was surprisingly cool when I arrived on the island, but that had apparently been due to the breeze on that low-humidity night. As soon as I saw the digital temperature reading, I felt like the normal heat of the night suddenly returned.

And then I had to take a hellish marathon through that heat.

I was soaked with sweat and all the heat built up inside me almost made me want to die right then and there.

There was no way this could lead to my vision of dancing in gold coins as the king of the casino with a cocktail glass in one hand.

“This might be your punishment for trying to show off.”

“P-pant pant!! I-I didn’t do anything wrong!!”

It felt like midnight was fast approaching, but things were actually only just beginning in the casino city. The rush of fancy cars and women in gorgeous dresses showed no sign of stopping. I saw fireworks here and there, but it was apparently still too early for that to qualify as a late-night nuisance.

I frantically caught my breath and heard some suppressed giggling. I turned around to look and saw a small girl of about twelve or thirteen peering at me from between two buildings.

“What is that?”

“A Youkai, I think. Probably an Usuhiki Warashi, a version of a Zashiki Warashi like me.”

The girl had long hair and not only did she wear a short mini-yukata, but she let it slip far from her shoulders like a courtesan. It looked something like a tube-top style dress.

“Isn’t it sad, glamorous Indoor Youkai? She looks a lot more like an actual Zashiki Warashi than you.”

“Like I said, she’s only an Usuhiki Warashi. Don’t underestimate the real deal.”

When our eyes met, the Usuhiki Warashi let out a quick shriek and ran back into the alley. It looked less like she was afraid of the delinquent boy looking at her and more like she was teasing me.

Either way, it was no concern of mine.

“Shinobu, which casino are you going to use?”

“Any one that has a sign out front welcoming beginner’s luck people. I think that covers about half of them, though.”

As we spoke, a nearby casino door opened and a man dressed like a bartender seemed to chuck a few stuffed animals out onto the road. The softly bouncing creatures seemed to be a tanuki, a fox, and a badger. And they were not stuffed; they were real animals.

Isn’t this the group we saw out the taxi window earlier?

“You dumbasses!! How many times do we have to tell you!? No Youkai allowed! Go eat some soba and get to sleep, you morons!!”

“Shut up! We already told you we wouldn’t use our paranormal powers. We were playing cards fair and square. You’re just using this as an excuse because you started to lose!!”

The fox swung his hands (or front paws?) around as he protested, but the bartender man spat on the ground and returned to the casino.

The tanuki groaned while lying face up.

“Uuh… Th-this really is too much to ask for a wet nurse like me. How are we supposed to wing back the money that corrupt con artist stole?”

The badger got up so fast it looked like steam was going to come from his head. Oh, and while people often think badgers are the same as tanuki, they’re actually completely different animals.

“What!? Tanuki! Are you thinking of backing out after we finally managed to track down Kodama Ryou!? Then what will happen to the old lady and her granddaughter? Those two are in the hospital and need money for treatment. We have to get that lost money back!!”

Ohh…

I instinctually averted my gaze.

“Hey, Zashiki Warashi. I really don’t want to get involved in this.”

“But all three of them are looking this way. Being naturally loved by Youkai isn’t always fun, you know?”

Part 5 (Day 10/03 23:30 - 23:50)

We received a simple explanation on the street.

The three of them were apparently Youkai from Shikoku.

The fox was a gardener, the tanuki was a wet nurse, and the badger was a bodyguard and they had served a human family for generation after generation.

Youkai like this had a huge difference between the good and bad versions. There were gruesome stories about the bad ones killing an old lady who lived alone, taking over her life, and eating the rest of the villagers one by one.

City scholars claimed these stories had their roots in fears of “outsiders from the mountains”. Unlike in modern times, there had been no way to check fingerprints or DNA in the past. And with lax management of the family register, it had not been all that difficult to take the place of an elderly person who lived some distance from a village.

But how would that theory explain the animals walking on two legs in front of me?

“Our master belongs to a family with a long history, but they didn’t want to join the Intellectual Village system and ended up taken in by the advance of rural cities instead.”

“Oh, I think I see where this is going.”

“As you seem to have guessed, they failed to keep up with the changing times. Some might even say the family fell into ruin. They still live in the countryside, but their life is not that much different from a normal office worker.”

“But our loyalty hasn’t changed! You can’t judge someone’s worth based on the size of their savings!”

You really shouldn’t be saying that in a casino city.

They clearly had money troubles.

“So what’s this about a corrupt con artist?” asked the Zashiki Warashi with a shrug. “Not that I’ve ever heard of an honest con artist.”

“Kodama Ryou. He’s the old lady’s hated enemy! He used all sorts of underhanded methods and lies to make us think we could get the money we needed!!”

“What exactly was it?”

“A 100% guaranteed investment opportunity.”

A felt faint for a moment.

Are you seriously telling me it was the kind of scam people make over the phone?

“Laugh if you want,” muttered the wet nurse tanuki while puffing out her cheeks and stomach. “But the granddaughter had suddenly come down with a disease. And it’s a dangerous one that can’t be treated in Japan. The old lady’s pension wasn’t enough to pay for the travel and the surgery and then that man showed up with a smile on his face. What’s wrong with taking a chance when you’re desperate?”

I couldn’t help but give a heavy sigh.

The glamorous Zashiki Warashi crossed her arms in a way that pushed up her breasts and glanced over at me.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“How should I know? I’m only in high school and I’m not an expert when it comes to money.”

It was true I was human. The only others here were a fox, tanuki, badger, and Zashiki Warashi. As Youkai, none of them could enter the casino. I might have been able to confront this con artist named Kodama Ryou. But then what? What was an amateur student supposed to do against a professional trickster?

There was nothing I could do on my own.

Letting my emotions get the better of me would only end with me being taken for everything I was worth.

“But…”

I cut in there.

As the stuffed animal-like Youkai focused on me, I pulled out my cellphone.

“I have a classmate who’s ridiculously good with money. I’ll get some advice from her first.”

Part 6 (Day 10/04 00:00 - 00:20)

“I see what’s going on here, Shinobu-kun. If you see nothing wrong with calling me at this hour, I think you should go get yourself officially diagnosed with a Madoka-chan addiction.”

“You don’t sound like I woke you up, so I’m glad to see we’re both living equally unhealthy lifestyles.”

“Hm? I hear a lot of music in the background. Where are you right now?”

Eccentric beauty Kotemitsu Madoka’s question led me to glance at my surroundings.

Unlike the ridiculous deluge of light outside, the casino itself was moderately filled with soft lighting and music. The volume was a little high, but that may have been to hide the sounds of the roulettes and slot machines. With the red carpet, chic wooden pillars, and decorative green mats on the tables, it was a colorful place.

Despite being a tourist area, the men and women in suits and dresses were not crammed inside like the beach during summer. Leisurely comfort seemed to be the standard here.

I looked down from the second floor to view the poker tables on the first floor.

It covered his expensive suit, belt, and shoes, so it seemed this con artist really liked snakeskin. I just hoped his cocktail glass wasn’t filled with pit viper sake.

“You care a lot about money, Madoka-chan, so have you heard of a Kodama Ryou?”

“Oh…”

“Sounds like you have.”

“He’s a pretty big annoyance in the world of investment. For him, the stock market is a form of gambling, not a business. He buys or sells them with sums measured in the hundreds of millions just to enjoy the thrill. You can’t predict what he’s going to do, so a lot of people have had their stock certificates suddenly turned to scrap paper thanks to him.”

“What is he trying to do?”

“Weren’t you listening? He enjoys the thrill. Do you know his hobby? Art auctions. But after pouring ridiculous amounts of money into a painting or sculpture, he almost immediately donates it to a random museum. The act of acquiring it is what he enjoys. Nothing could be more troublesome.”

“So where does he get his money? If he’s doing that kind of thing all the time, even your average rich kid would run out pretty quickly.”

“Since you bothered to contact me, I assume you already know. He tricks people for fun and then uses the money he gets to enjoy that thrill he loves. And once his wallet is empty again, he starts looking for a new mark. …I said he donates the paintings and sculptures he gets to museums, remember? Thanks to that, every government feels like they owe him. The carefree government officials think of him as a necessary evil, so you can’t expect a proper investigation when he’s involved.”

“What’s this thrill nonsense? He’s made sure he’ll be safe no matter what.”

“But his techniques are stupidly simple. I doubt it, but your family didn’t fall for that, did they?”

“No, just some acquaintances. An old woman in Shikoku fell for it when she was trying to find the money to save her sick granddaughter. Do you think that story’s true?”

“There’s too little information, so I can’t say. But Kodama Ryou has scammed about two thousand people around the country and that’s only the ones I can confirm. Whether that particular story is true or not, he’s probably done something similar. That sick granddaughter sounds like exactly the kind of thing he would use.”

“What?”

“Why do you think everyone falls for it when his speaking skills are no better than an ape’s? I don’t know how, but he always shows up right when a family member has been in a traffic accident or had their house burn down. He targets people when they aren’t thinking straight. My guess is whatever put them in that state was his doing, too. …Could this granddaughter’s disease be reproduced by ingesting some kind of harmful substance?”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I looked back down over the railing and at the first floor poker table.

The lady killer decked out in snakeskin was getting drunk on expensive drink while toying with the cards he was dealt.

As he smiled in the light, I could not see a single stain on him. There was not even a drop of the blood he sucked from his victims.

“Um, Shinobu-kun. If you really do need money, I can help you out. I can get about two billion moving with a single phone call to my accountant.”

“How much of a debt do you want a classmate to owe you? Now you’re just scaring me. And that would be too boring. It wouldn’t feel like actually winning.”

“?”

Yes. For example, winning a ton of money against a computer program in the Heavy Cruiser Island VR casino city using a cellphone or smartphone wouldn’t help cheer me up.

“It has to be from that bastard.”

I extended the thumb and forefinger of my empty hand to make a handgun gesture.

And I thrust it directly toward the face of that snake man who was enjoying his time surrounded by beautiful women.

“I won’t be satisfied unless I take back everything he’s taken and add some interest on top for good measure.”

Part 7 (Day 10/04 00:35 - 01:15)

I got my chip worth thirty thousand yen with the beginner’s luck system and sat at a poker table. It seemed the tables were divided into a few different categories based on how much you could bet at once and I was only allowed at the cheapest table on the far edge of the room.

But even there, I lost almost everything.

The female dealer gave me a sympathetic look as I left the table and then exited the casino.

“Rejoice, my thirty thousand yen chip transformed into one thousand five hundred yen. That’s thanks to getting two of a kind twice. Now I should be able to buy some dinner once I find a normal convenience store somewhere around here.”

“Shinobu, I think the dealer intentionally gave you those hands to draw you in.”

“I also figured out why the VR casino’s virtual currency is called Gears. The chip designs have a gear motif and it seems you can exchange chips between physical and virtual.”

Annoyance filled my tone as I started recalling my observations of the enemy.

“That place is pretty amazing. I’m guessing it’s to keep people from cheating by marking the cards, but they throw them all out after every hand and open the seal on a brand new deck.”

Just like normal animals, the fox, tanuki, and badger were rummaging through a trash can behind the casino.

“Look, they threw out this meat on the bone almost untouched! I can’t imagine why anyone would do this!!”

“They probably confused throwing out perfectly edible food with luxury.”

“Damn them. This is the kind of person that took the old lady’s precious pension money!?”

As they argued back and forth, they began chowing down like they were at a house party. I was just glad they looked so happy.

She must have decided they weren’t going to be any use because the Indoor Zashiki Warashi didn’t even look their way as she spoke to me.

“So what are you going to do? You have to challenge this Kodama Ryou guy to a game of poker to get back the money he stole, right? But I think you need some funds of your own to do that.”

“Yeah, it was no use. With a thirty thousand yen chip, I couldn’t even sit at the same table as him. The minimum was three million. I could blow three million on a single hand. And that could easily double or quadruple if someone raises the bet. There’s no way I can find that kind of money.”

The Zashiki Warashi glanced over at the road and the hands of the men and women slowly stepping out of black limousines.

“It doesn’t look to be like the casino guests are carrying around duralumin cases or anything.”

“I’m not going to steal it, you idiot. And they probably think carry cash is for poor people. They all pay with cards. You’ve heard of a black card, haven’t you? Those have no credit limit. The casinos all have giant servers in the back, so the VIPs always have access to the card companies. To them, it’s really only data moving back and forth.”

“And your card is?”

“You already know that. It’s just meant to make online shopping easier. Paying for my cellphone, cable TV, smartphone, computer, and online gaming is enough to almost hit the limit. I don’t have any leeway there.”

The fox walked out from behind the casino holding a bunch of French fries and began shouting as if he could not overlook what I had said.

“What!? Then what are we going to do? We’ve already hit a dead end before the game has even begun!!”

“That’s right. But anyone in an Intellectual Village casino is going to have odd tastes, so there will be plenty of people who know what things are worth. …I don’t need actual money. I just need something they’ll be even more eager to get their hands on.”

“Shinobu, you don’t mean…”

“Red Yukata and Black-Haired Beauty.”

The three animals only tilted their heads at those brand names, so I explained.

“That junmai daiginjo is worth fifty thousand yen a cup, so what if I knew where bottles of it were just lying around?”

Part 8 (Day 10/04 02:05 - 02:30)

Simply travelling between the casino and inn was exhausting.

The Zashiki Warashi and I gathered the empty bottles lying around our room in the inn and filled them with tap water. My parents were completely drunk, so it wasn’t difficult.

“W-will that really fool them?”

The wet nurse tanuki was clearly nervous when we got back, but there was really no need to worry about it.

“The bottles and labels are definitely from the Jinnai Brewery and they’ll know I really am the son of the family if they check my identity.”

“But that’s only water in there, right?”

“No one can open the bottles. The scarcity is everything with brand-name sake. You’ve essentially ruined it as soon as you open it, so they can’t carelessly appraise it or anything. No one would be delighted to eat the leftovers of someone’s fancy dinner, right? Well, this is the same. …As long as I don’t lose, no one’s going to check on the contents. And this many bottles should count for about seven million yen.”

“B-but what if they do a careful examination of the cork.”

“Don’t worry. One unique trait of the Jinnai Brewery is the lack of a decorative label over the cork. The idea is that avoids dirtying the mouth of the bottle with adhesive. The clasp over the cork is used to tell if it’s been opened or not, but you can bend that with a coin. They won’t be able to tell as long as they don’t check with a jeweler’s magnifying glass.”

The fox and badger were discussing our strategy a short distance away.

“What are we going to do?”

“Kodama Ryou is a con artist, so there’s no need for us to play fair either.”

The Zashiki Warashi tapped her shoulder with a huge sake bottle.

“But pulling this off only gets you at the same table as him. He’s managed to stay at that high-stakes table for who knows how long, so he has to be cheating somehow.”

“W-we’ve heard something about that.” The tanuki raised one paw while standing on her hind legs. “We heard it from a gentleman who lost everything to him. He claimed Kodama Ryou uses an Usuhiki Warashi and that he wouldn’t have lost if he could have found some proof. The man was pretty drunk, though.”

“An Usuhiki Warashi, you say?”

A troubled look filled my face.

Hadn’t I heard giggling from between two buildings and seen a Youkai that looked like a small girl?

An Usuhiki Warashi was a subspecies of Zashiki Warashi that would appear near the stone mill in old houses. Other than that trait, they were almost identical to a Zashiki Warashi. They brought wealth and fortune to the family of the house they lived in, but that house would fall into decline as soon as they left. According to the records, they would predict fires or lead to an entire clan being wiped out in a single night.

The only other major trait was the frequent non-malicious pranks. In those cases, it apparently wasn’t unusual for them to leave the home or stone mill they saw as their territory. For example, when children were playing in the house’s yard or in the schoolyard, an extra child would mysteriously appear among them. It was obvious an Usuhiki Warashi had joined in because the adults would find the number of children had increased when they counted them, but they could never figure out which one was the Usuhiki Warashi. They would also sneak into the family’s futon as they slept, flip over their pillows, pull away the blanket, or play other pranks around the bed.

The legit Good-for-Nothing Zashiki Warashi tilted her head.

“But I thought Youkai weren’t allowed in the casinos. If this Kodama con artist is using one of my subspecies, wouldn’t he be caught almost immediately?”

“Yes, but there were some suspicious-looking people among the casino security guards.”

Intellectual Villages didn’t trust the police much, so armed guards weren’t an uncommon sight. They were armed with weapons that didn’t run afoul of the Swords and Firearms Control Law. For example, a small crossbow or a blackjack made by stuffing small metal balls into a leather bag. They would use those weapons to beat up dangerous animals, crop thieves, or industrial spies.

But this was a casino city.

The guards here seemed even more heavily armed than the normal guards who surrounded eccentric beauty Madoka-chan. Some were even equipped with the kind of mechanical arm used for medical or engineering purposes that increased a human’s strength five or ten times over.

I definitely didn’t want to make an enemy of them, but some stood out even more than the others.

“They had pentagram-like marks on the backs of their gloves and they felt like a mix of a charismatic spiritual leader and a hitman.”

“Mh? That sounds like an Onmyouji to me! I know all about them. If they’re using a pentagram, they must follow the Abe style!! Maybe they’re sarcastic intellectuals who curry the favor of the Imperial Court and the nobles to live the good life!!”

The badger flailed his short arms and legs around while shouting, but…

“Hey, what do you think?” I asked the Zashiki Warashi. “Is it really likely that they have an anti-Youkai unit that specializes in the paranormal?”

“Who can say? They’re probably about the same as a girl with an affinity for the spiritual. They can probably sense that something’s wrong, but I doubt they have the power needed to directly kill a Youkai. If people like that were so easy to get your hands on, the country would have made up for the gaps in its laws by now. Not to mention that those kinds of people belong to organizations that don’t like to make public appearances.”

She was referring to the world centered on Hyakki Yakou.

Seeing people like Hishigami Mai or the Illness Magic User made it easy to forget how hard it was to kill a Youkai, but people like that were few and far between. You couldn’t just hand them some cash and have them guard your casino like a part-timer.

“But this is probably enough to catch anyone cheating. It’s always the humans who use Packages, so they can use their numbers and physical strength to put a stop to it when they sense that something’s wrong.”

“B-but Kodama Ryou is using an Usuhiki Warashi to cheat right now,” pointed out the wet nurse tanuki.

“It’s simple,” I answered with a shrug. “He’s probably bribed them.”

The three animals groaned.

“That would explain why they found us so easily when we snuck in. He must have ordered them to focus on searching for anyone who might harm him.”

I have no idea what method you used, but something tells me that was your own fault.

“Anyway, we’ll have to reveal his Usuhiki Warashi trick on our own. We can’t expect the casino to do anything about it.”

“D-do you have a plan? I really don’t think you can win by leaving it up to luck.”

“I wouldn’t even try if that’s what I was doing.” I gathered up the sake battles filled with tap water. “Zashiki Warashi, give those three the smartphone you borrowed from me. It’s necessary.”

“?”

“Also, you three won’t be going with us. There’s a lot I want you to do instead.”

I rattled off my instructions.

After telling the Zashiki Warashi what she had to do, I turned toward the fox, tanuki, and badger who had started swiping their front paws across the screen to see how it worked.

“And I will of course need your help for this.”

“We will do anything to help the old lady, but we can’t even get inside the casino.”

The badger tilted his head as he spoke, so I replied.

“Not all help has to come from inside the casino.”

Part 38

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