Shinrei Tantei Yakumo:Volume 1

Novel Illustrations

Volume 1 covers - first edition cover

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That day, starting from dawn, thick layers of clouds hid the sun.

It was high noon, but the sky was dark and hazy, and the delivery room was surrounded by a heavy atmosphere. Iida Yoko was even more nervous than the pregnant woman on the hospital bed, because there was only her and Doctor Kinoshita in the delivery room.

Today was the first time Yoko was doing a delivery on her own. To her it was a heavy burden, but there was no one else. Today wasn’t the pregnant woman’s expected delivery date, and the experienced senior nurse-----Matsumoto had taken an early vacation for the Bon Festival*; she started her vacation yesterday. If it had been a public hospital there wouldn’t have been much harm, but they were a private hospital, so they were understaffed.

Also, this pregnant woman’s due date was supposed to be two weeks later, but because this morning her water suddenly broke, so she was immediately sent to the hospital.

Kinoshita gazed sharply at the anxious Yoko, as if telling her: Don’t let the patient see your frantic expression. He didn’t know how many times he had said to her: If a nurse is restless it will spread to the patient. Even though the naturally nervous Yoko knew this well, she still couldn’t help but show her emotions.

She nervously wiped away the pregnant woman’s sweat.

“It’s ok, just a little more, do your best.” Yoko said while trying to smile, but she knew very well that she couldn’t possibly smile.

The pregnant woman painfully wrinkled her eyebrows and clutched the armrest so tight that she was convulsing.

“AAAAAAAH HAAAAAH!” The pregnant woman let out an animal-like howl.

A nameless chill crept up Yoko’s spine. She didn’t understand what she was so afraid of.

“The head is already out, push a little more.” Kinoshita said.

But the pregnant woman didn’t seem to hear Kinoshita’s words.

“The baby’s head is already out, just push a little more.”

Yoko whispered into the pregnant woman’s ear. She felt the pregnant woman’s expression relax a bit. A little more! Just a little more, and she could be free from this suffocating room. Yoko started to relax too.

“In, out, in out, in out, in----“

Yoko put her hand on the pregnant woman’s shoulder, she made her repeat the breathing exercise over and over: she wasn’t just trying to calm the woman down; she was also trying to calm herself down.

In, out, in, out, in out, in---- the pregnant lady matched her breathing with Yoko’s.

A little more! A little more and it’ll be all over!

“Push a little more!” Yoko encouraged in a more commanding tone.

Doing what Yoko said, the pregnant woman used all her strength, her body distorted with exhaustion.

AAAAAAHHHHHH------

To Yoko’s ears that yell sounded more painful than dying.

Waaaa----

The baby’s cries permeated the delivery room.

“Wonderful.” Kinoshita said.

Yoko let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank god, you successfully had your child.”

Yoko said while wiping away the woman’s sweat. Maybe it was because of exhaustion but she didn’t answer Yoko; she just stared at the ceiling with empty eyes. Somehow she processed the thought just gave birth to a new life, and tears streamed out.

She released all of her tears. Yoko had just realized she had burst into tears too.

“How can this be, this child……” Kinoshita inadvertently blurted out.

What happened? What is the meaning of this?

“Iida, give me a light……” Yoko didn’t have time to process Kinoshita’s words; he had already given her a command. Hurriedly she wiped away her tears with her sleeve, while taking a flashlight to Kinoshita.

The usually calm and collected Kinoshita was now panicking. He roughly grabbed the flashlight out of Yoko’s hand; he shined the light onto the baby’s face.

“What’s wrong?”

Kinoshita didn’t answer Yoko. It was a successful birth, so what was wrong? Yoko peered at the baby.

“Ah---“

She shrieked, when she stumbled back she accidentally hit the cart, causing the tray on the cart to fall to the ground with the sharp sound of collision.

Yoko couldn’t believe her eyes. Was it a trick of the light? She studied the baby’s face again, but no matter how many times she looked it was still the same. It wasn’t a trick of the light; she didn’t see wrong, the baby’s eye was really…

“Doctor, this is…”

“Quiet. We can’t let the patient panic.” Kinoshita scolded Yoko in a stern voice.

“But, Doctor…”

“Iida.”

Kinoshita’s rough tone stopped her, Yoko quickly stopped talking, but it was too late.

“My baby, my baby.” The woman on the delivery platform struggled to wave her arms.

“There is nothing wrong with your baby. Please calm down.”

Yoko hurried back to the woman’s side and grabbed her hand, trying to calm her down. Yoko tried to comfort the woman in a gentle voice, but she couldn’t hide her uneasiness. The woman saw the uneasiness expression on Yoko’s face.

“My baby, my baby.”

The woman repeated it over and over like she was reciting a curse. As if the baby was resonating with his mother’s voice, he cried even harder. There was a disturbing atmosphere in the air.

“There is nothing wrong with your baby, please calm down.”

“Is my baby really safe?”

The woman’s question made Yoko’s body rigid with uneasiness, she didn’t know how to answer the question. The baby was safe and healthy, but…

“Everything’s fine, your baby’s perfectly healthy.” Kinoshita answered the woman’s question, Yoko wondered if she was hearing right.

There was no way they could let the mother see her child, But Kinoshita, holding the baby, slowly walked towards the woman’s side.

All traces of struggling left the woman’s face. In their place, there was a warm smile of seeing her child for the first time.

Yoko pulled Kinoshita away and whispered to him,

“Is this really ok?"

“We have no choice, we can’t possibly hide it forever.”

Kinoshita was right, the child’s mother would know sooner or later; even if they could hide it for now, they couldn’t hide it forever. Yoko couldn’t say anything to object.

Kinoshita handed the baby over to the mother, and she hugged him tightly. Her face was one of extreme happiness, tears of happiness streamed down her cheeks.

“Ah, my baby.”

The mother studied her child’s face for the first time.

This…… Her expression stiffened, and her face was as pale as ash, as if all the blood had been drained from it.

“No---“

The mother’s sad cries pierced through the delivery room.

The moment the baby was born he opened his left eye. The iris shone with the brilliance of raging flames: it was shining red.

• The Bon festival is a Japanese Buddhist event held on July 13th to 15th on the Lunar calendar. It is the period when people pray and honor the dead.

At the edge of the college campus, there’s a forest. The forest isn’t an unnatural sight, because mountains surround the college.

Deep within the forest, there’s a house made of concrete, why it was built in the first place, no one knows, but now it’s nothing more than an abandoned house.

Because it’s situated on the outskirts of the forest, students wouldn't even know it exists if they follow school regulations.

But there have always been rumors of ghosts haunting in the abandoned house.

There was once a student who saw a human shadow near the abandoned house; after chasing it for a while the human shadow disappeared into thin air! Another student, while passing through the abandoned house, heard painful shouting, yelling, “Help me, help me.” Other students say that the shouting wasn’t “help me”, but a malediction of evil, cursing, “I want to kill you.”

Just like that, rumors about the abandoned house became widely known.

Inside the abandoned house there’s a locked room. The iron door to the room is firmly locked: No one knows what’s inside the room, because all who went in, never came out.

1

Cool, crisp wind blew away the clouds, and the blue white moon was clearly visible in the night sky.

Tonight was a full moon.

People joked that the moon’s shadow could absorb sound, but tonight’s silence couldn’t help but make one believe in that statement.

After drinking at a bar, Miki, Kazuhiko, and Yuichi got off the last train a stop late, they pondered on what to do while waiting for the first train to come.

Then, someone brought up the widely famous campus story.

They all heard of the rumors, but no one ever actually went to confirm it.

“Let’s see if the rumors are true.”

Miki suggested. Kazuhiko and Yuichi simultaneously agreed. They crept into darkness of the campus.

Over the gate, through the dorms, they arrived at the forest.

Sweeping aside tree branches, walking on the forest trail, there was an adventurous atmosphere in the air.

The trail was harder to walk on than they thought. They were all sweating by the time they got to the abandoned house and the alcohol had gone out of their systems. Miki wasn’t as excited as she was before, and she was starting to regret her decision.

The house was a flat roofed low house, made entirely of concrete: compared to the stories about the ancient building, this just made people feel that it was an abandoned block of concrete.

Yuichi suggested that, since it was rare for them to come, they should take a commemorative photo. Using the abandoned house as the background, Kazuhiko took a picture first. The blinding white flash from the camera casted shadows on the shadowy walls.

And then, Kazuhiko and Miki stood together smiling with Yuichi taking their picture. The camera flashed again.

Kacha!

Suddenly, they heard the sound of metal colliding.

Miki jerked, her shoulders shaking.

“Did you guys hear something?”

Miki looked around. Kazuhiko and Yuichi also looked around, listening.

Rustle rustle.

They only heard the sound of tree branches swaying in the wind.

“I didn’t hear anything.” Yuichi said.

“What’s wrong? You’re the one who suggested we come here, are you getting scared?” teased Kazuhiko.

Yuichi couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Miki glared at Yuichi angrily.

To prove that Miki wasn’t scared, she led them to the entrance of the abandoned house.

“It’s locked.” Miki said while standing at the entrance, she fiddled with the rusty iron lock.

Kazuhiko tried to open the lock, but to no avail.

“Thankfully I specially prepared myself for things like this, watch and learn!”(!)

Yuichi took out a hook like metal part from his pants pocket.

“What’s that?” Kazuhiko asked.

“Like I said, watch and learn. Oh, hey Kazu, give me some light over here.”

Kazuhiko did what Yuichi asked and lit his lighter; he neared the rusty iron lock. Yuichi kneeled in front of the lock and inserted the metal part into the key hole.

“What are you doing?”

“Don’t ask just yet, you’ll understand later.”

Yuichi struggled with the iron lock for few minutes, then “Kachink”, there was a sound of grinding gears. Yuichi twisted the lock and then effortlessly pushed open the door.

“Wow, you’re awesome dude!” Kazuhiko praised, elated.

“With the right tools anyone can do that.” Yuichi boasted.

“Where’d you get a thing like that?”

“On the internet, I’ll tell you the address next time, let’s go in first.”

Kazuhiko and Yuichi entered the house first. Miki, hating to be left behind, hurried to catch up to them.

Cold wind poured into the house, stirring up the thick layer of dirt from the floor. Compared to outside, the house was much warmer, but it was so dark that they couldn’t even see their hands.

Kazuhiko lit the lighter, but the wavering flame couldn’t even let them see the room.

Suddenly a white light flashed, and Miki jumped out of fear. Yuichi couldn’t help but smirk at Miki’s frightened expression, because that light was from his camera flash.

“We should go back.” Miki said.

“What’s the matter, are you running away now?” Kazuhiko and Yuichi said simultaneously.

“But……but, I feel as if someone is watching us the moment we entered here.”

Miki tightly grasped Kazuhiko’s hand like she was hiding.

The three of them stared into the darkness, but couldn’t see a thing; darkness coated the whole room, making it impossible for them to see.

“There’s nothing there, don’t worry.”

After Kazuhiko assured Miki, he began to move alongside the walls.

“Hey, if anything happens, you have to protect me, ok?” said Miki while holding onto Kazuhiko’s hand.

“Ok, leave it to me.”

Kazuhiko patted Miki on the shoulder, answering her in a frivolous tone, and then started walking again.

They went through the front door into the room, then crossed a room that as wide as a building floor, advancing into the corridors. The corridor was barely wide enough to fit two people. The side-by-side doors had the same distance between them, and on the other side of the doors, there was a room as big as four tatamis. There was nothing else inside the rooms except for a bed.

The three of them felt the walls as they walked forward; their destination was the locked room.

They walked along the corridor all the way to the end; finally they were at their destination.

The room sent chills up their spines. It was different than other rooms: the iron door seemed heavier, and there were iron lattices on the door.

Besides a lock, there were also heavy chains, and on top of all that was a password padlock.

“There’s no way that I can unlock this one.” Yuichi said when he saw it.

“I wonder what’s inside.”

Kazuhiko went on his tip toes and tried to look through the iron lattice, but there was only darkness.

“Are you seeing anything?”

“It’s too dark, can’t see a thing.”

When Kazuhiko was about to give up…… (!)

Kacha!

In the midst of the darkness, there was something moving in the corner of the room, the place with the darkest shadows. Kazuhiko stared intently at that spot.

It was eyes!

Kazuhiko and the creature in the darkness stared at each other; in the darkness the eyes were abnormal: blood vessels showed on the eyes, and they seemed to devour everything; the eyes were full of hatred.

Kazuhiko let out a blood-curdling shriek, and when he hastened to retreat he fell on his back.

“What’s wrong, what happened?”

Kazuhiko ignored the question; a look of extreme horror came across his face. He began to speak, but his breath came out in short gasps. He couldn’t speak; a constant rasping noise rose up his throat.

With the help of Yuichi, he was finally able to stand up.

“What did you see?” Yuichi asked.

Kazuhiko turned to the door. Yuichi also turned. In the next moment, they were frozen, transfixed.

From a gap behind the iron lattice, a pale white hand reached out. That inhuman-like hand seized Miki’s shoulder.

Miki was scared to death. Kazuhiko and Yuichi were in front of her, so who was grasping her shoulder? She didn’t have the courage to turn her head and see who the hand belonged to. It was as if the blood from her body was drained; she couldn’t even scream.

Miki struggled to reach out for help. Her hands were shaking, but Yuichi and Kazuhiko were already scared stiff; they couldn’t move.

“……I’m begging you… Help me……” Miki said in a hoarse voice.

Yuichi reached out, trying to pull Miki away from the door.

Over there, in a split second------

From behind the gap, a pair of eyes that could steal a human’s soul looked at them.

“Uwa------“

Kazuhiko and Yuichi’s minds suddenly blanked out, after screaming bloody murder, they ran not even looking back.

“Wait, don’t leave me alone!”

Miki couldn’t let out the grief in her heart; no one heard her…

However, this is only the beginning of the incident.

2

Ozawa Haruka was just about to visit a senpai from the Orchestra---- a person Aizawa introduced to her, she arrived at the two-story building behind the school’s B building. In the buildings first, and second floors there are many rooms about the size of four tatamis, those are what the school loaned to students who engaged in extra-curricular activities. Her destination was the innermost room on the first floor.

“Society of Movie Research”

Haruka confirmed the nameplate before knocking, but no one answered. She added a, “good morning.” But still no one answered. Even though she knew it was impolite, she opened the door and peeked inside.

When the door opened, Haruka found herself staring at a tall slender man. A sloppy white shirt hung onto the man’s body, and his hair curled up so high that it looked as if he just woke up. And although it was recently popular for people to have a casual tousled hairstyle, this man’s hair was obviously like this because he didn’t comb his hair after waking up. Pale as snow cheeks, he was still sleepy eyed, so being glared by him like that made Haruka speechless.

“Hi……Excuse me……”

“Close the door once you'll get inside.” The man said, interrupting Haruka.

Haruka could only obey, getting inside as she closed the door.

Beside that man, there were two other men. The two were looking at their cards, not letting that man see their cards. It was a five of spades.

Haruka quickly moved from door. She was about to sit on the chair that man pointed to, but she couldn’t help but wrinkle her eyebrows. He dared to make people sit on a chair like that! On the seat there was a thick layer of dust, it was so thick that it was impossible for people to guess its original color. And even though she was wearing jeans today, to make a girl sit on a chair like that, that guy sure had nerves! Haruka stood waiting, without saying a word.

The man closed his eyes, fingers rubbing his eyebrows, as if he was thinking about something. Not long after, he opened his eyes and murmured.

“Five of spades.”

He got it right. Wow! The card the two men were holding was indeed a five of spades. Haruka couldn’t hide her surprise, but the two men let out a disgruntled murmur, and threw the card onto the desk.

“Shit! You got it right again!”

Cursing, he took out a thousand yen from his pocket, threw it onto the desk and left the room.

“Please sit, do you have something you want to tell me?”

Asked the man after yawning and putting the money in his pocket.

Haruka sat on the chair where the two men were sitting before. This chair didn’t have any dust on it, but no one could tell for sure what its original color was.

“Excuse me, are you Saitou Yakumo?”

“It’s not ‘are you’; rather, I am Saitou Yakumo.”

Haruka heard from her seminar senpai that Yakumo from the society of movie research had psychic powers, just like how he correctly guessed the card before; it had to have something to do with his psychic powers.

“And so?”

Yakumo wanted her to continue.

“The truth is, my seminar senpai introduced me here.”

“Who?”

“Aizawa-senpai.”

“I don’t know him, who is he?”

“Huh?”

Haruka felt very embarrassed, he didn’t even know the person who introduced her here. She never thought anything like this would happen.

“Never mind, who told you about here doesn’t matter. Just tell me why you need my help.”

“Yea……It’s like this, I have a friend who’s in big trouble, and I heard that Saitou-san is very knowledgeable about things like these, so I thought you could help her……” (!)

“If you summarize it that much I can’t understand what you mean. What do you mean by ‘things like this’?”

“Ah, sorry, I’ll explain it clearly this time.”

“Speaking of clearly, who are you?”

This guy is really infuriating. Haruka already had a preconceived impression of him. He always had that sleepy eyed look on his face, and he looked as if he took pride in seeing people panic.

“Oh, I’m Ozawa Haruka; I’m a second year literature major at this University.”

“Just your name is enough.”

Yakumo waved his hand, interrupting her upcoming words. Haruka’s annoyance toward him became anger.

“What’s your business with me?”

“Well, I have a friend called Miki, she went to the abandoned house from the school rumors, and she might’ve really seen a ghost.”

“What kind of ghost?”

“I don’t know the details, because I didn’t go with her. But I think Miki’s boyfriend----Kazuhiko, and a friend named Yuichi went with her.”

“They decided to go there to experience the ghost stories first hand?”

“It’s not like that. Miki’s been acting strange ever since she came back, she’s lost consciousness, and she has a persistent high fever.”

“The virus that’s been spreading around lately is very scary.”

“Let me finish what I’m saying!”

Haruka couldn’t help but raise her voice to retort at Yakumo’s mocking words, she glared straight at Yakumo with pure, unadulterated rage.

But Yakumo just sat on his seat with his sleepy eyed expression on his face. However, Haruka’s protests seemed to reach his ears, he looked slightly a bit more willing to listen; he motioned for Haruka to go on.

“……Not only is Miki always unconscious, she also keeps saying, ‘Help me!’ or ‘Get me out of here!’ The doctor diagnosed that besides her persistent high fever there’s nothing else wrong with her…… maybe there’s something wrong with her mentally. She wasn’t born here, I wanted to call her parents but I couldn’t get through to them, I don’t know what else to do, so I came to you for help.”

While explaining Haruka felt sadder and sadder at her helplessness: she wanted to help her friend, but in reality she couldn’t do a thing, she didn’t know what to do, she could only watch Miki become more and more weak. She wanted to grasp at straws to save the drowning man, but there weren’t any straws for her to grab.

“So, because you think that her current condition has something to do with the ghost she saw, you want me to investigate it?”

“Yes, I heard that Saitou-san is skilled in this area.”

Yakumo let out a deep sigh, he looked up at the ceiling, contemplating.

“……Are you going to do it?”

“The fee is 25,000 yen.”

“What? You charge money?”

“Are you my friend?”

“Not really.”

“Then are you my lover?”

“Of course not!”

“Then please pay. We are not friends nor are we lovers, so it’ll be unnatural for me to work for you without anything in return.”

Even though what Yakumo said made sense, Haruka couldn’t accept it, but under the circumstances right now, she had no choice but to agree.

“Understood, I’ll pay you, but only after you solve it.”

“Pay me 10,000 yen now, when this is over you can pay the remaining 15,000 yen.”

Haruka took 1,000 yen out of her wallet; Yakumo shook his head when he saw it.

She took out another 2,000 yen; Yakumo continued to shake his head.

“This is closer to the amount we agreed on.”

“This is all the money I have with me.”

Haruka shook her empty wallet in front of Yakumo.

“Fine, I’ll take a look into it.” Yakumo answered, pushing Haruka’s wallet out of his face.

Haruka was suspicious of Yakumo’s words. In reality, through their conversation, he never said anything to make her trust him, but she had no choice.

“If you find anything, please contact me.” Haruka wrote her phone number on a piece of paper and put it on the desk, and then stood up to leave. When she was just about to open the door……

A small mirror among the movie posters on the door caught her eye.

She was being tricked.

“Earlier, with the cards……” Haruka turned around to say, “I was almost tricked by you! You guessed that card right because you were cheating. You put a mirror on the wall, so that from you position you could easily see the reflection of the card’s number…… No wonder you wanted me to move from the door!”

Haruka’s face was red with anger, she incessantly said her deduction. Unbelievable! She was angry at herself for stupidly believing in him, no wonder her friends often laughed at her for being overly simple.

“Correct. You’re the first person to see through it.”

Yakumo was unrepentant and admitted to his own trick, he even lightly clapped his hands to show his respect.

“Bastard……return my money.”

“Why?”

“Do I even need to say why; you want to cheat my money off me! Return my money!”

Unbelievable! He actually took advantage of her vulnerability, and he almost tricked her.

“Don’t say such rude things.”

“Who’s being rude?”

“I have no intention of deceiving you, if I am unable to help you friend, I will return all of your money.”

“I can’t trust you.”

This Saitou person, there should be a limit to his brazenness.

“Besides, what can you do, I only came to you because I heard you had psychic powers, I never thought that it was only a scam.”

“Who said I said psychic powers? I never said that. But it’s just like you said, that card game before, was indeed a scam.”

“If you don’t have psychic powers, how can you help Miki?”

“Listen to what I’m going to say, it’s your choice whether or not to believe, but if you do, then I will take responsibility, if you don’t, the door’s that way.”

Yakumo pointed at the door.

“Return my money.”

Yakumo put the 3,000 yen on the desk.

“I can see things that other people cannot.” “Is this a guessing game?”

“Think what you will. What is your answer?”

“I don’t know.”

“I can see the spirits of the dead.”

“Spirits?”

“In other words, ghosts.”

“This is stupid!”

“The stupid one is you.”

Yakumo pointed at Haruka, he actually said she was stupid……

“But you said you didn’t have any psychic powers.”

“That’s right, I don’t, but I can see the spirits of the dead, that’s not supernatural, it’s a predisposition. For example, you wouldn’t say that a perfect pitch is supernatural, it’s an inborn talent, Jesus can be said to have that talent…… In short, I cannot see through objects, I also can’t use telekinesis, I was just born being able to see the spirits of the dead.”

“Can you prove what you’re saying?”

“I don’t know if you will take it as proof, but there’s a ghost in this room.”

Haruka looked around but saw nothing.

“I won’t be tricked again.”

“The ghost in this room is your elder twin sister…”

“Sister?”

“That’s right, your sister, her name is Ayaka; she died in a car accident when she was seven.”

“How do you know…” Haruka’s face stiffened out of surprise.

“I said it before, didn’t I? I can see the spirits of the dead.”

Only her closest friend knew she had a sister, so why would a stranger like him know about that accident? Haruka couldn’t understand, rather she felt it was unbelievable.

“Even now you still feel like you are responsible for your sister’s death.”

Haruka’s face paled, she felt a ringing in her ears, and her mind was so blank that she felt dizzy. The image of her sister lying on the street, bleeding instantly resurfaced.

“In order to retrieve the ball you threw, your sister ran to the street, it was then that……”

“Stop it……It wasn’t……I never thought something like that would happen……”

--No matter how loud Haruka yelled, Ayaka lay there, unmoving. It happened so suddenly, that Haruka was paralyzed; she couldn’t even scream or cry. Her hand was dyed bright red from the blood flowing out of her sister’s head: she could feel the blood on her hands, the memory of it resurfaced from her memory, she desperately tried to suppress the wound to stop the blood flowing, but it didn’t work.

She could feel Ayaka’s life force slowly seep through her hands.

“It was like this……You deliberately threw the ball far away. You could never catch the ball, but your sister caught every single one, that’s why in order to make you sister miss the ball, you deliberately threw it far.”

“Stop it!”

Haruka couldn’t suppress a cry. Her hands were shaking, her breathing was disoriented. Why? She never told anyone about that, no one should know about it! The tears flowed out on their own record.

“What do you want to do…”

Haruka said in a hoarse voice, wiping away her tears with her sleeve.

“……” Yakumo didn’t answer.

Haruka glanced at him; she was just about to leave……

“If you still don’t believe me, I have another way to prove it. Your sister’s regrets one thing, she says that she was the one who hid your mother’s ring, but instead your mother got mad at you…… the ring was taped to the top of the shoe cupboard with tape…… she wanted to tell the truth, but she couldn’t……”

Haruka didn’t turn around.

“And, you sister says that she doesn’t hate you.”

She didn’t even try to understand what Yakumo’s last words meant; she closed the door with all her strength.

Haruka sat on a bench in the courtyard, head hung down, she was thinking deeply. The autumn wind messed up her pretty short hair. A stranger revealed the single memory that haunted her even to this day effortlessly. There was a wave of unstoppable humiliation there was also another distinct feeling that wasn’t humiliation or anger, it definitely wasn’t a happy feeling, it felt as if a load had been taken off, she felt lighter, she also felt that it was unbelievable.

No matter how many times she thought about it, she was still confused. She thought that that Saitou person was just a liar, so, how does one explain the truths he said?

She took her cell phone out of her backpack, pausing for a minute, and then dialed her home number. After a few rings her mother picked up.

“What’s wrong? You hardly call home.”

“Nothing……”

“You’re still bad at lying, something happened right?”

“Mom, do you remember the ring you lost a long time ago? When my sister was still alive.”

“What’s with this so suddenly?”

“Can you check under the top of the shoe cupboard?”

“Why do you care so much about something that happened a long time ago?”

“Could you just do it?”

“Ok ok.”

After the mother feebly answered the waiting music poured out of the telephone, it was Chopin’s << Farewell Waltz>>. Ayaka could play the piano very well, while adults struggled with this piece, she could play it without any mistakes: compared to her, Haruka not only couldn’t play the piano, she had no musical talent whatsoever, no matter how hard she tried, the rhythm was always off.

She was often compared to Ayaka, not only about the piano, but also studying, athletics, Ayaka was always better than her. If the two stood together, they would always be mistaken as brother and sister, one reason might’ve been because of Haruka’s short hair, but the other reason was that, even though they were twins, they didn’t look anything alike, and so she started hating her sister’s existence.

That’s why, the accident that Yakumo spoke, was indeed because Haruka deliberately threw the ball too far for her sister to catch, but she never thought something like that would happen.

Remembering her parents in so much grief, she wondered how many times she blamed herself for stealing away a life? She also wondered if it were her who had died, would her parents feel as sad as they did? Her sister must hate her, right?

To this day she still held on to this heavy burden that she couldn’t speak to anyone about, and at the same time, she also held on to the fear that one day the secret of her sister’s death would be exposed.

However, when her secret got exposed, she felt that she could finally let go of that heavy burden, even if it was short-lived……

“Found it, the ring really was there!”

Her mother’s voice brought Haruka back to reality.

“Haruka, you did do it, didn’t you?”

“No, it wasn’t me, it was sister.”

“Huh? What are you saying?”

Haruka hung up the phone without answering her mother’s question. She didn’t even know where the ring was, only Ayaka would know, so why did he know.

3

She went back to Yakumo’s place. When she opened the door, there was a paper airplane flying through the air.

“What are you doing?”

“Shooting paper air planes.”

The plane slowly fell to Haruka’s feet.

“You should already know by looking, that I’m going to ask you why you did it.”

Haruka asked, whiling picking up the plane near her feet. The paper airplane was made out of 1000 yen.

“Just killing time, waiting until you came back.”

“……”

“Please sit.” Yakumo motioned for her to sit down.

Haruka put the paper airplane on the desk, and then sat down.

“Can I ask you something?”

Yakumo nodded.

“This is supposed to be the movie research center, so where’s everyone else?”

“There is no one else, this is my room.”

“……What do you mean?”

“The society for movie research never existed. It’s simple, I borrowed enough names from students to apply for an extra-curricular activity then submitted the application form they gave me this room. This is my hiding place.”

“Then, this place is all yours?”

“Correct.”

“You’re really horrible, you know that. You even tricked the school.”

“Ah, I’ll return the 3,000 yen to you.”

Yakumo pointed to the paper airplanes that were made from a thousand yen.

“Because your scam was seen through?”

“It’s because of that scam that you came here, wasn’t it?”

“Why do you think that.”

“Because you already found your mother’s ring.”

Haruka tentatively looked at Yakumo. He really was an enigma! Even though Yakumo’s words were strangely convincing, but in reality, weren’t his actions just to brag about his tricks?

“How do you know?”

Yakumo didn’t answer; his eyes seemed to say “Didn’t I tell you already?” But, Haruka still couldn’t understand.

“Please tell me.”

“As I said, your sister told me.”

“Liar! A liar like you who goes around saying that they can see ghosts is just a scam to trick people out of their money.”

Even though Haruka said that, she knew she didn’t hit the heart of the problem.

Silence ensued between the two, cold air came into the room from the slightly opened window. Haruka stared at Yakumo, never taking her eyes off him, she was waiting for him to answer; And Yakumo seemed to understand what Haruka was trying to do from her stare, he gently massaged his temple, as if he was carefully calculating on how to respond.

“Ok, then let’s do it like this! Let’s go together to the abandoned house in question to investigate.” “Together… as in you and me?”

“Who else? If we go together, then you’ll know that I’m not lying. If I am telling the truth, then I might be able to help you friend, if I’m lying, then you’ll be able to see through it. Just like how you saw through the mirror trick. But, I don’t care if you think it’s real or fake, truth be told, I couldn’t care less if your friend lives or dies.”

Haruka suspiciously looked at the poker faced Yakumo, Yakumo just glared back at her with his sleepy eyed expression. She thought she could tell if Yakumo was lying, but he seemed too innocent. Haruka feebly nodded her head agreed.

4

Yakumo wanted to see Miki before going to the abandoned house that’s shrouded with mysteries, so Haruka and Yakumo went to the hospital where Miki was staying.

It was a 20 minute walk from the college, and through the other exit of the station, the hospital was near the station.

“Can I ask you something?”

Yakumo didn’t answer; Haruka took it as a yes.

“Can you exorcise ghosts?”

“I can’t.”

“What?”

Haruka was at loss. Yakumo always had a confident look, how was he planning to help Miki?

“As I said before, I can only see the spirits of the dead.”

“But you said you could help my friend……”

“Maybe help, it was a hypothetical answer.”

Haruka incredibly stared at Yakumo.

“How can you be so irresponsible? You’re trying to cheat me off my money, right? What we’re doing now is completely meaningless.”

“That’s not the case.”

“Why not?”

“’Being able to see’ means we can find some clues; to understand the clues, then we can know the whole story; when we know the whole story, we will be able to eliminate the cause.”

She knew Yakumo was arguing illogically, she had absolutely no sense of reality, but there was nothing else she could do, except listen to this Saitou person’s words, and work with him temporarily.

Haruka and Yakumo went to the front desk to ask where Miki was. Then they got on the elevator.

“Can I ask you a question?” Yakumo asked when the elevator door closed.

“As long as it isn’t anything rude.”

Haruka warned Yakumo, her sister was one of the reasons.

“There were three people who went to the abandoned house, what happened to the other two?”

“I think Kazuhiko and Yuichi ran away. When Yuichi got to the school gate, he realized he was alone, he was scared, but I think he went back to the forest. When he got to the forest, he found Miki unconscious on the ground…… then he carried Miki and ran away. Because Miki never woke up, he took her to the hospital, the next day he called me and I hurried to the hospital.”

“What about that Kazuhiko guy?”

“I don’t know! I can’t believe that guy is Miki’s boyfriend, he didn’t even try to save her, he left her behind at a place like that, it’s unbelievable!”

Miki’s hospital room was on the fourth flour. They knocked on the room, and then went in. There were four hospital beds in the room, but Miki was the only patient in the room.

Miki lay on the hospital bed, a rubber tube extended out of her wrist; it was attached to one of those nutritional IVs. Even though her eyes were opened, her gaze was hollow, like she couldn’t see a thing; there was no color on her face, so it was hard for people to believe that she was even alive. If it wasn’t for the noise coming out of her nose, like a balloon leaking air, she wouldn’t be any different than a corpse.

“Even though she’s like this, the doctor said that there is nothing wrong with her body, maybe it’s some psychological trauma…… but, she was perfectly fine the day before, how could someone change so drastically?”

Yakumo didn’t answer Haruka; he stood next to the hospital bed and stared at Miki. He wrinkled his eyebrows, the sleepy eyed expression changed to a bright and piercing one.

“What are you seeing?”

Yakumo still didn’t answer who.

“Who are you?” murmured Yakumo.

“……Help……Help me……Please…….I’m begging…….You……”

Miki made a moaning like noise, Yakumo pulled the blanket over her body, he leaned down, ear next to her mouth.

“……Let me…….out of here……”

Miki made another noise.

“Where are you?”

“……Can’t see…..Where is this……Let me out……”

Yakumo’s hand cupped Miki’s face, he stared at her eyes. Under Yakumo’s gaze, Miki’s pupil slightly changed.

“Where are you? Tell me.” Yakumo asked in a gentle and soft voice.

Miki didn’t answer, her faint breathing suddenly became violent, from her throat she let out “Ss------Ss-----“ noise, cold sweat constantly emitting form her forehead.

“No-----“

Miki suddenly shrieked, her body distorted with pain, and then finally, she returned to a corpse-like state, unmoving. At the same time, Yakumo was silent; he let out a deep sigh, then left the hospital room.

Haruka hurried to catch up to him. After Yakumo left the room, he leaned against the wall in the hallway, he pressed his hand to suppress the dull pain that seemed to come from his left forehead and the area around his left eye; his breathing was disoriented, his shoulders were violently rising up and down.

“Hey, are you ok?”

Haruka reached out to touch his shoulder, but Yakumo moved as if he was avoiding her hand, he suddenly stood straight, hand pressed against his forehead and eye, and began to walk.

“Will it hurt?”

Haruka put her hand on his shoulder.

“It won’t.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if you saw a doctor?”

“Shut up!” Yakumo turned his head he snarled.

Looking closely, she noticed Yakumo’s face was almost as pale as Miki’s, large amounts of cold sweat was emitting from his forehead. Wide eyed, he glared at Haruka.

“What happened? Are you ok?”

Haruka didn’t divert her eyes from his pain filled eyes.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“If you don’t tell me how will I understand?”

“You ask too many questions.”

Yakumo quickened his pace.

“I’m worried about you; you could at least tell me what’s wrong!” It was like Haruka was talking to his back.

She quickly ran to catch up to him, Yakumo walked even faster, she finally caught up to him when they reached the elevator.

“Hey, in the hospital room, what did you see?”

When they got on the elevator, Haruka asked again. Yakumo didn’t answer.

“At least tell me this. Didn’t you tell me, that if I didn’t believe you, I’ll follow you until you tell me.”

“You’ll regret it.”

Yakumo said, scratching his neck.

“Your friend’s being possessed by a female spirit. Around our age, but that was before her death…… she had shoulder length hair, and a mole right below her eye it gives people a deep impression.”

“And then?”

“Darkness, in a room filled with darkness……Narrow……the sound of dripping water……Hunger……Heavy air……Pain……Fear……Fear……Fear……”

“What does that mean?”

“It’ll save me a lot of trouble if only I knew the answer. Can’t you please use that brain of yours a little?”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m some kind of idiot!”

“Oh? You aren’t?”

The elevator arrived at the first floor, Yakumo started walking again, and Haruka started running behind him again.

The autumn dusk, projected a unique color--- bright orange, as if people were trapped in a vast expanse sky covered by the illusion of stained glass.

After Haruka and Yakumo left the hospital, they arrived at the station. There was a sea of people in front of the bus station and even though it was time period where people returned home, this situation was remarkably different.

The gate was crowded with people who couldn’t get into the platform, near the sidewalk there were ambulances, fire trucks and police cars, the screen that showed the status of the trains said “The trains have been stopped due to a man made accident”.

“Due to an accident the train has been postponed until further notice! Please leave the station because the site is being cleaned up. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”

The people at the station shouted. People who were in a hurry and those who came to join in on the fun mixed into the chaos of the crowd.

“Man made accident?”

“I think so.”

“Ah, Takaoka Sensei.”

Haruka recognized a familiar face among the crowd and started shouting.

“Takaoka Sensei?”

“Yea, didn’t you know? He’s a teacher at our school.”

Haruka said “wait for me” to Yakumo and went into the crowd. She called to Takaoka, Takaoka recognized Haruka and made a “ah ah” sound, making it hard for people to hear what he was saying.

He wore a pair of round glasses, he was skinny, yet his shoulders were broad, and because of exposure to the sun his face was tan; his hair was combed backwards, giving people the feeling that he was hard to approach, but those who talked to him will realize that he is actually very kind and modest. This difference made him popular among the female students.

“Sensei, do you know what happened?”

To Haruka’s question Takaoka paused, as if contemplating whether or not to tell the truth, finally he decided, saying in a low voice: “Ichihashi……committed suicide……”

“Ichihashi……Yuichi?”

Takaoka nodded his head solemnly.

“Why would he commit suicide?”

Fear climbed up Haruka’s spine. How could something like this happen…… the people she knew were being continuously thrown into strange events, just what is happening……

“I can’t believe it…… I never even noticed……If I had paid more attention, then this wouldn’t……”

Takaoka made a sorrowful face; he seemed to be fairly remorseful. Maybe it’s because there aren’t many teachers like him in society today, but to Haruka, she felt this was a small redemption.

“This isn’t Sensei’s fault……”

“Haruka, did you hear anything from Yuichi?”

Haruka shook her head. Even if she said it, Sensei probably wouldn’t believe it. So Haruka swallowed the words she almost said.

Just when she was in a trance, Takaoka was called away by the police.

“What happened?”

Haruka snapped out of her trance and realized that Yakumo had quietly, without herself knowing, come to her side.

“Yuichi committed suicide……”

“Yuichi, as in, one of the 3 who went to the test of courage?”

Haruka nodded weakly. Her whole body felt weak, and it was hard for her to stand upright.

“It’d be best if we found out what happened to the last person.”

“He was perfectly fine yesterday, how come he suddenly committed suicide……how come……”

Haruka knew that he voice was trembling.

“Perhaps he didn’t commit suicide.”

“What?”

Because of Yakumo’s surprising statement Haruka looked up. Yakumo’s words were like a wake up call to her.

“Although we don’t have any definitive proof, I am certain that he didn’t commit suicide.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t I say we didn’t have any definitive proof?”

“Does it have anything to do with the ghost possessing Miki?”

“No.”

“Do you have proof?”

“The ghost possessing your friend is afraid of something……but she bears no malice.”

“Afraid? Of what?”

“I don’t know. Although I don’t have any definitive proof, I am afraid that this has something to do with living people.”

“What do you mean?”

“This is what I need to investigate.”

“Where are we going next?”

“This is it for today, we’ll continue tomorrow.”

Yakumo gave instructions; he wanted Haruka to find the whereabouts of the missing Kazuhiko. Thus, the first day of their investigation came to an end.

5

After Haruka’s morning classes were over, she went to Yakumo’s hiding place as promised. Even though it was past noon, Yakumo was still the same as usual, he still had a sleepy eyed expression on his face.

Haruka did as Yakumo asked, and tried calling Kazuhiko, but it was as if he turned off his cell phone, all her calls went straight to his voicemail.

Although she asked everyone he knew, no one knew where he was, Kazuhiko was still missing……

“Let’s go over what we know.”

Yakumo said, yawning.

“Tell me in detail again about their test of courage.”

After Haruka refreshed her memory, she told Yakumo about the test of courage the three people went through. Although Yakumo found some doubtful points, she couldn’t explain, because she wasn’t there herself, she had only heard it from Yuichi, so she could only try to explain everything as best as she could. And even if they wanted to confirm their suspicions with Yuichi, they couldn’t since he was in an accident and died.

It was rare of Yakumo to not interrupt Haruka, he just sat there silently listening. And although he didn’t say a word, he seemed to have found something strange.

“Hey, what are we going to do next?”

“Let’s find out who is the ghost that is possessing your friend’s body.”

“Do you have any leads?”

“I don’t know if it counts.”

“You’re speaking ambiguously again.”

“This world is filled with uncertainties.”

Yakumo was walking toward the school’s library. When he opened the door, he noticed that the shelves were movable.

“We’re going to check here?”

“According to my intuition. The spirit possessing your friend used to be a college student here.”

“You’re not thinking of searching through these files first, are you?”

“That’s right…… they stored the student’s entire name list here, right?”

“This will take you decades to search through! Up until now how many people do you think attend this University?”

Haruka went to the deepest part of the library and sat in front of the only computer, after turning it on, the screen showed “Please enter password”. After Haruka typed in a nine-letter word, she effortlessly logged in. Yakumo silently observed her actions, his gaze wanted her to explain to him.

“Last year the school organized their files, and because there weren’t enough hands, they found a few students to help.”

“You were one of the students who helped organize the files?”

“Yup. The school won’t change their password even if 10 years have passed.”

“The security here is a joke.”

“What’s a joke here is how easily anyone can check these files!”

Haruka retorted sarcastically, two days of resentment was rolled into that comment; a rare silence overtook Yakumo. Even though he looked calm on the surface, he was probably very chaotic on the inside!

Haruka clicked on the student name file, the files it contained names, addresses, birthdates, contact numbers, what major they belonged too and so on.

“They even have pictures?”

Yakumo said looking at the screen.

“They added the pictures recently. What’s the name of the person you’re looking for?”

“YURI, I don’t know how it’s written.”

Haruka typed in “YURI” in the search box, but there were over 200 results.

“It’ll take too long if we look at it one by one, any other clues?”

“Gender is female.”

“I know.”

“She has a mole under her eye.”

“We can’t search for that.”

Yakumo was at a loss for words. Haruka racked her brains trying to find ideas, but they were all discarded. Suddenly, Yakumo snapped his finger.

“Can we check students who got expelled or is temporarily absent from college?”

“We should be able to.”

Haruka started to type again, this time there were only ten people that showed up, she clicked on each name, checking them one at a time.

“Stop.”

Yakumo said. Shinohara Yuri, literature major, in the education department, temporarily absent. She wore a pair of thick-lenses glasses, in the picture she was lowering her head, as if she was extremely concerned about other people’s stares, she gave of a nervous and anxious feeling.

“I……know her!”

Because Haruka was shocked, her voice sounded lower than usual.

“Friends?”

“No, just classmates. I never really talked to her, just saw her a few times, she suddenly stopped coming to school last month…… I think she disappeared, her parents filed a missing persons report, it was the talk in the campus for a while.”

This could no longer be considered as a mere coincidence. There must be a connection somewhere.

“I think, Takaoka Sensei should know something about it.”

Even though Haruka sounded excited, Yakumo kept silent, he put his index finger in his ear, his expression saying: “You’re really annoying!”

“Please explain it to me calmly. Also, who is Takaoka Sensei?”

“You forgot already? He’s the teacher we met at the train station yesterday. He’s Takaoka Sensei, he’s also my class’s advisor.”

“Sounds unreliable.”

“You seem to have a negative opinion about everyone.”

“Do you trust everyone you meet?”

“Besides you, yes.”

“I feel honored.”

Yakumo didn’t pay any attention to Haruka’s mockery, he took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number.

“Sore loser.”

Haruka muttered behind Yakumo’s back, but he heard it.

While listening to his phone, he glared at her.

“----Gotou-san----“

After the call went through, Yakumo started talking to the person on the other end. Even though she couldn’t hear the other person’s voice, she had a vague idea about what they were talking about, Yakumo wanted that person the look into Shinohara Yuri.

After the discussion was over he hung up.

“Who did you call?”

“A friend.”

“Can that person get information about people that disappeared?”

“If he couldn’t, then I wouldn’t have called him.”

Even so, that person, with just one call, could investigate the whereabouts of a person’s disappearance, what kind of god was his friend? When Haruka was lost in her thoughts, Yakumo opened the door and left the library. Here we go again! Even though Haruka was disgruntled, she still ran to catch up.

“Haruka.”

Haruka heard someone call her name as she walked out of the library, she turned as saw the person they were just talking about------- Takaoka Sensei was walking towards her.

“Sensei-----“

Haruka wondered if she should catch up to Yakumo, but decided to stay, and wait for Takaoka to walk to her side.

“You must be devastated.”

“Compared to me, Takaoka Sensei must be both physically and mentally more tired.“

Compared to yesterday, Takaoka looked more frail and withered, it was understandable since his student committed suicide. If he smiled at her, she wouldn’t know what to do.

“It isn’t as horrible as you think, but it definitely isn’t anything good.”

Takaoka tried to soften his expression, but it made people feel more sorrow.

“The point is, at times like this, you shouldn’t force yourself to do anything.”

“Sensei you too.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

Takaoka forced a smile and answered, then began to walk away.

“Um……Sensei!”

Haruka yelled at Takaoka’s retreating figure.

“What’s the matter?”

Takaoka stopped and turned to look at her.

“Nothing, it’s just……”

Haruka didn’t know what to say. She wanted to ask Takaoka about Yuri’s situation, but wondered if this was the right time to ask him.

“What’s wrong? If you have anything you need to say, say it.”

It was as if Takaoka knew Haruka’s feelings, he encouraged her to go on, and Haruka found herself obeying.

“Sensei, do you remember Shinohara Yuri?”

“Ah, are you talking about the student who is temporarily absent?”

“Yea, she’s disappeared.”

“So it’s like that……but, why would you suddenly ask about Shinohara.”

Takaoka asked, looking surprised, Haruka didn’t know what to say.

“I can’t tell you anything right now, but what happened to Yuichi might be connected to her…… Sensei, do you remember anything about Shinohara Yuri?”

“About her……”

Takaoka stroked his jaw, as if he was searching for clues in his memory.

“Anything is fine, like before she disappeared, did she have anyone she was close to like a lover or……”

Wanting to help Takaoka remember something about Shinohara Yuri, Haruka listed off some clues.

“Lover---“

Takaoka looked like he remembered something, his expression changed rapidly.

“Did you think of something?”

“Yes, yes, Shinohara did have a lover, I think it’s Aizawa from the grade above you?”

“Aizawa, are you talking about Aizawa senpai from the orchestra?”

“Yes, that’s him!”

Haruka was shocked speechless. Haruka knew the person Takaoka was talking about, was this a mere coincidence……

“I have some things to take off, bye.”

Haruka stood there for a few minutes, then said good bye to Takaoka, and started to run through the hallways. There was something fishy about this. If it was him, then maybe he could give them some clues. Haruka turned at the first corner.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

The sudden voice made Haruka stop and turn, it was Yakumo leaning against the wall.

“Ah!”

Haruka stumbled and almost fell on her back, thankfully she stopped in time, but she was faced with an awkward situation.

“I heard most of your conversation.”

He has sharp ears. But, it was easier if he had heard them.

“That spirit……Yuri’s boyfriend is Aizawa Testuro senpai.”

“Didn’t I tell you that I heard?”

Then at least look a little more surprised! Haruka bit back a scream.

“Aizawa Tetsuro senpai was the one who told me about you! Don’t you think that this isn’t just a coincidence?”

“I think you’ve just become a million times more weirder.”

Yakumo walked away.

6

Yakumo led Haruka to a building behind the school that looked like it was made from several houses, that was the worker’s room.

“Hello.”

Yakumo said at the door to the room, but there was no response. He opened the door and went in.

When they walked in they saw a desk and some folding chairs, there was a kitchen counter and a refrigerator inside, hanging on the wall were sickle-like tools.

“No one’s here.”

Haruka said looking around.

“Looks like it.”

Just when Haruka was about to leave, a shadow suddenly appeared through the door on the other side of the room.

“Ah------“

Haruka retreated back scared, and let out a shriek.

“You…….You……you two, what……what……why are you here?”

The one who entered the room was a male worker, his dark cheeks were flushed red because of exposure to the sun.

Haruka didn’t know his name, but she saw him a few times at school, he was always dragging his left foot, always limping.

There was a rumor that he had harassed a female student, but no one knows if it that was true or false.

“Sorry for entering without permission, we’re very sorry. We just wanted to borrow the keys to the abandoned house.”

Compared to Haruka’s uneasiness, Yakumo appeared cool and collected.

“Why would……you guys……want……to go there?”

The worker let out a high-pitched sound.

Yakumo smiled his rarely seen smile. He lied that a few days ago a friend of his went into the abandoned house to take a test of courage, he had accidently left something behind and wanted to get it back.

The worker didn’t suspect him, just showed an irritated expression.

“Please, Yamane-san.” Yakumo pleaded, bowing his head.

Haruka was surprised. So his name was Yamane? This was her first time hearing someone who knew his name.

The worker called Yamane limped to the wall where there was a chain of keys, he took a key out and handed it to Yakumo.

“You……you don’t need to……give the key back today, I’m going home.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t……don’t do something stupid……like a test of courage again!”

“So there really are ghosts?”

Yakumo teasingly pretended to be a ghost.

“No……no that’s not it, the building’s very old, next……next month it’ll be demolished……”

“So it’s like that, thanks again.”

Yakumo turned to leave, but paused when he was about to open the door, he turned back to Yamane.

“Excuse me, are there any password locks there?”

“I……don’t know, I……don’t have any business there, so I……never go there.”

Yakumo thanked him again and left the building. Haruka quickly ran after him. Just like this.

“How did you know the worker’s name?”

“It was on his uniform, where were you looking?”

So it was like that.

After the sun set, Yakumo and Haruka arrived at the abandoned house.

There was a dead silence, only the leaves rustling in the wind could be heard, under the moonlight the concrete house shone blue light.

Besides the absolutely terrifying building, Yuichi’s death made Haruka more scared. If she didn’t concentrate she wouldn’t have been able to stand straight.

Although this was for helping her two friends, she felt like this was a big trouble and was starting to regret it.

“If anything happens, you have to save me!”

Although he was an enigmatic man, he was the only person she could count on now.

“I’ll try, but I don’t make any promises.”

Yakumo answered in a serious tone.

“I shouldn’t have stupidly asked you that question.”

Her biggest mistake was probably getting to know this man called Saitou Yakumo! All of a sudden Haruka couldn’t help but suspect something.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“No, I’m not scared at all.”

Hearing Yakumo’s sharp words Haruka forced on a strong look, but her trembling voice betrayed her will.

Yakumo took out the key and put it in the keyhole, however his actions weren’t necessary, because before he turned the key, the door was already open. The two of them opened the door and went it.

They used the flashlight to see around them, but besides fallen leaves, there was nothing else.

They walked deeper into the road, their footsteps echoed through the corridor. The humidity of the hallway made them feel faint. Yakumo used his flashlight to see the small rooms, but they were all the same, every room had the same interior: inside the square rooms was a bed and a window. It might’ve used to be a dormitory.

Haruka carefully walked behind Yakumo. Suddenly, Yakumo stopped.

“Your friend stopped at the end of the corridor, where they saw a ghost in the locked room?”

“Yea, that’s what they said.”

“Because there’s a password padlock, they couldn’t go in.”

“I also heard about it, but I don’t know if it’s true……”

“This.”

Yakumo turned around and showed Haruka something he was holding.

“What’s this?”

Yakumo shone his flashlight on the thing, letting Haruka see clearly, in his hands was the password padlock that had fallen to the ground.

“There aren’t any signs of being cut, the password seems to be 7483……looks like someone opened it.”

Haruka couldn’t react, so she looked at Yakumo.

“Meaning, this locked room was opened before we came.”

Yakumo put the lock on the ground, and raised his hand towards the door. A chill crept up Haruka’s spine. According to Yuichi, there was something in the room.

“Wait.”

Haruka couldn’t help but speak out to stop Yakumo, but there was a sharp sound of metal, Yakumo had already opened the door. Haruka felt her body stiffen and retreated, but nothing happened, there was only silence in the room.

Yakumo looked around the room, the interior was the same as all the others room, besides a bed, there was nothing else. Compared to the other rooms, there was a gloomy and moist air that wafted through the room, a rotten, pungent smell choked them.

“It feels unwelcoming……”

Haruka hid behind Yakumo, observing the room.

“Unlike other rooms, this one doesn’t have a window.”

Just like Yakumo said, though the other rooms were small, there was always a window, but this room didn’t have a window.

Yakumo slowly stepped into the room. The moment he went in, it felt like the air got heavier. “Did you find something?”

Haruka also entered the room. Yakumo wordlessly observed the room, but besides the bed and walls, there was nothing else suspicious. “There’s nothing, but there should be.”

“If there is, could it save Miki?”

“I don’t know, but that is a possibility. The ghost possessing your friend is afraid of something in this room.”

Yakumo noticed something that was different than the other rooms----the beds position. The other beds in the other rooms were positioned perpendicular to the door, but this room’s bed was positioned in the corner, parallel to the entrance: and on the floor there were drag marks.

Yakumo approached the edge of the bed, and squatted down, preparing to investigate.

Just at that moment----

“Danger! Behind you!”

Haruka heard a girl’s voice, she turned and looked for the source of the voice, alarmed to see the shadow of a man holding a stick, or something similar-----it was a shovel! The shadow aimed at Haruka’s head and struck with all his strength.

She was paralyzed by fear and couldn’t move.

Bang!

Haruka heard a sound like a rock falling to the ground, her knees gave away and she fell to the floor, but she didn’t feel any pain.

Hu……Hu……Hu……: Haruka heard a groaning noise and opened her eyes.

“!”

Yakumo collapsed in front of Haruka, he tried to stand up, but his body didn’t listen to him, with difficultly he managed to get into a kneeling position, fresh blood flowed from his head.

Yakumo protected me? In the midst of chaos, Haruka only felt that fact.

“Are……are you ok?”

Haruka wanted to touch him.

“Hurry……Run!”

Yakumo hoarsely said while pressed his head. But Haruka couldn’t leave him behind.

“……Never mind me! Just run!”

Yakumo roared. Haruka due to shock stood up as a reflex.

“Go! You idiot!”

Yakumo shouted again. Haruka hesitated, but she succumbed to Yakumo’s urging and ran to the door.

But before Haruka could make it out of the room the shadow grabbed her shoulder and threw her back into the room.

The shadow slowly closed in on Haruka. It was over! This was the first time in Haruka’s life that she was face to face with death.

In that moment, an object hit the side of the shadow, two shadows started wrestling.

Bang! Bang! Numerous sounds of collision occurred. Haruka could only rigidly watch the fight unfold in front of her.

Suddenly, a shadow stood up.

“Run!”

That familiar sound……was Yakumo! He was ok!

“Duck!”

It was that girl’s voice again. Compared to Haruka who couldn’t hear the voice, Yakumo reacted instantly, he grabbed Haruka’s head and fell to the floor, a shovel swept across their heads, missing by a few inches.

Bang! Sparks flew from where the shovel hit the wall.

Yakumo grabbed the shocked Haruka’s hand and ran out the door.

“Ohohohoh!”

The Shadow flung the shovel wildly, and roared after them. Yakumo used his body to close the door. Bang! A heavy sound.

Yakumo used the chains on the floor and tied it to the door.

Kachink! Kachink!

Doing, Doing!

The person on the other side of the door tried to open the door, he seemed to continuously turn the knob and pound on the door. Suddenly, the sounds stopped. Did he quit? Just when Haruka thought that----

Bang!

A sound as clear as the sky scared Haruka so much that her shoulders started shaking, staring at it long enough she noticed that the impact to the door caused a small crack, a gloved hand suddenly shot out of the crack. Haruka felt her hand getting grabbed, and they were being pulled. She didn’t even have the strength to cry.

“Let’s go!”

A voice near her ear made Haruka focus again, the one who grabbed her hand was actually Yakumo.

Haruka let Yakumo grab her hand and run out of the exit.

Tree branches hit Haruka’s face, and arms, but she didn’t feel any pain, she just let Yakumo hold her hand and run.

7

There was silence that overtook them when they got back to the place where Yakumo lived.

They sank to the floor, finding it difficult to breath, beads of sweat emitted from their foreheads.

“Ouch……”

Yakumo exclaimed while pressing his forehead. He was hit by a shovel before, it was natural for the wound to hurt.

“Are you ok?”

Although Yakumo nodded his head to say he was ok, but his face was contorted with pain.

Haruka knelt in front of Yakumo, above his right eye there was a three-centimeter long scar that was puckering, the skin around it was also wrinkling, though the blood was slightly solidifying, there was still fresh blood that flowed from the wound, just by looking at it people could feel pain.

Haruka took out a handkerchief and pressed it to Yakumo’s wound.

“It’s ok, I’ll do it.”

Yakumo took Haruka’s handkerchief and pressed it to his wound.

At the same time, tears started streaming down Haruka’s cheeks. That’s weird? Why are there tears…… but she couldn’t control her tears. Why? Why is she crying? Haruka couldn’t figure it out.

“You were that scared?”

Yakumo gently put his hand on Haruka’s shoulder, it made her feel warm, her tightly coiled heart started loosening. So she was crying because she was scared. It was the first time in her life that she experienced such soul stirring fear. Thankfully Yakumo was there to save her, otherwise she wouldn’t even be here. Haruka nodded her head slightly, then grabbed Yakumo’s sleeve and started to bawl.

Before Haruka stopped crying Yakumo kept silent.

Haruka had never cried and lose herself in front of anyone before, after her sister’s death, she promised herself she wouldn’t cry again, but she had already cried in front of Yakumo two times. She didn’t know why, but in front of this arrogant and eccentric person, she was able to relax, she felt weird.

“Sorry……”

Haruka said, she sniffled for a while, and wiped away her tears.

“Let me see the wound.”

Haruka ignored Yakumo’s protest, she took the handkerchief and examined the wound, the blood had stopped flowing.

“Even though the blood stopped flowing, it’d be best if you went to the hospital to have it checked.”

“It’s fine.”

Yakumo gruffly replied.

“What do you mean it’s fine, you got hurt on the head, what if something happens?”

“You’re noisy, I know that already.”

Surely enough he spat out his usual, blunt, words, and just with one sentence all her good feelings towards him disappeared.

“Hey, you……”

She stopped talking, Haruka was speechless when she saw Yakumo’s left eye. Under the light his left iris shone a brilliant red.

The red was deeper than any other kind of red she had seen.

“I was born with it.”

Yakumo noticed Haruka’s gaze, his face showed irritation while he explained.

“Pretty……”

“What?”

“What a pretty eye color……”

Yakumo was dumbstruck, he didn’t know how to react, the next second he tried to suppress his laughter, then he laughed out loud, and finally he laughed so hard that he was holding his sides.

What was so funny?

“Hey, why are you laughing?”

“That was……too classic, you actually said ‘pretty’! What is wrong with you!”

“What do you mean?”

Yakumo took a deep breath and smiled.

“I thought you were going to scream, or feel disgusted, or feel pity……”

“Why would I scream? Nobody screams when they see something beautiful!”

“That’s why I said that you’re weird. A number of people have seen my red eye, their reactions were either screaming, or feel disgusted, other people even pitied me. You’re the first person to say something stupid like, ‘Pretty’ so naturally.”

So naturally say something stupid…… that’s going too far!

Yakumo took a deep breath and continued.

“My contact lens must’ve fallen out when I was hit before.”

“Contact lens?”

“That’s right, I usually wear contact lens to hide my left eye. Isn’t there a type that changes the color of the pupil?”

“But you said you were born with it……”

“That’s right, I was born with a red eye, it was also said that I was born with my left eye open…… it’s said that when my mom saw my left eye she screamed, it’s hilarious isn’t it.”

She couldn’t laugh. Even his mother felt disgusted about his existence, she couldn’t imagine how much it had hurt him.

“It seems that my left eye is the eye that can see what other people cannot.”

“What other people cannot see?”

“That’s right, just like I said before, spirits of the dead...... it took me a long time to realize that I was the only one who could see them, before I realized that, I was treated as an outcast, I mean, my left eye was red, and I kept saying strange things, no one believed that I could see ghosts.”

It was understandable, because even now Haruka still felt it hard to believe his words, but she finally understood why Yakumo’s personality was so eccentric. Up until now, no one ever saw him for who he was. All who knew to him felt fear, disgust, pity…… Even his mother…… At least, she wasn’t one of those people who knew him and pitied. Haruka made up her mind.

Though, an awkward silence overtook the two of them.

“Ouch!”

Yakumo repeatedly moaned in pain. Haruka remembered that even though Yakumo saved her she hadn’t thanked him yet.

“Um……thanks for saving me before.”

“Thank your sister.”

“Sister?”

Haruka tilted her head in confusion, not understanding what Yakumo was saying.

“Your sister warned us that we were in danger, that’s how you were saved, otherwise you’d already be bled to death in that room.”

Listening to him recount it, Haruka remembered hearing someone yell “Danger”.

“That voice, was it sister?”

“Yes, she’s always by your side protecting you.”

“Is that true?”

“It’s up to you whether or not you believe it.”

“Sister……”

If it was yesterday, she wouldn’t have believed him, but it was different now, she was starting to believe in Yakumo.

Haruka looked around, and as expected didn’t see anything, what was her sister feeling when she watched over her? What is she feeling now? What is she thinking now?

“I wish I could see……I envy you……”

Tears brimmed Haruka’s eyes again……

8

The next day, Haruka went to Yakumo’s early in the morning, the door wasn’t locked. They were almost killed yesterday, how could he be so careless! She opened the door and saw Yakumo curled in a sleeping bag, looking like a caterpillar. Haruka lightly nudged him with her foot, he opened his eyes a little, looking up at her.

“It’s morning.”

Yakumo rubbed his eyes and slowly crawled out of his sleeping bag.

“It’s amazing how you can live in a place like this!”

Haruka found a chair and sat, waiting for Yakumo to get ready.

“I sometimes go home.”

“You have a home?”

Yakumo didn’t answered, he just went to his refrigerator, took out his tooth brush and started brushing his teeth.

“If you have a home then go back to it! What is wrong with you? Your parents will worry.”

“Worry? They won’t.”

Yakumo answered with his toothbrush dangling from his mouth, he sounded like a rebellious teenager, Haruka felt anger well up in her.

“How can you say that? There are no parents that don’t worry for their children. You should think about they’re feelings!”

Haruka’s words entered his left ear and came out his right ear, he indifferently started rinsing his mouth.

“Hey, are you listening?”

“Even if I didn’t want to I still heard it.”

Yakumo sat down while washing his face with a towel, keeping his ever so normal sleepy eyed look on.

“If you heard then answer!”

“If they cared, then they wouldn’t have tried to kill me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about my parents.”

“?”

“My left eye can see things others cannot. I don’t know if it’s because they hated it or feel disgusted by it. But one day, my mom drove me somewhere, she kept apologizing, saying ‘I’m sorry’ over and over, all the while grabbing my neck, she slowly applied more strength, I could feel my conscious fading. I was saved by a police officer who happened to passed by, my mother ran away and disappeared. I never knew my father, never had a single memory of him. In this world there are parents who love their children, and parents who don’t love their children.”

Yakumo telling his secret past was already blowing Haruka’s mind. Those stories on the news or on TV shows, she never thought had anything to do with her, she thought that stuff like that would never happen around her……

Why could he say it like it didn’t concern him? No, it was exactly the opposite. Perhaps he couldn’t accept the truth if he didn’t act like that. Yakumo, who didn’t accept people easily, is hiding a trauma deep within his heart, but he would never reveal it, because he’s just that stubborn and strong. Haruka thought of her sisters accident and suddenly had a thought.

“I’m free-loading at my uncle’s place right now, he told me to make myself at home there, but I can’t trouble him too much since he has his own family.”

After Yakumo put on his contact lenses, his iris turned black. What should I say to Yakumo? Haruka racked her brains to find the right words. She didn’t know anything about him, and yet she constantly lectured him. She bit her lip in regret.

“You don’t need to mind it.”

Yakumo said, as if knowing what Haruka was feeling.

“Sorry.” Haruka lowered her head.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Because……”

“You saw my eye and didn’t run away, that’s enough for me.”

Yakumo seemed to have blurted it out before he knew it, he looked glum, seeing his reaction Haruka couldn’t help but laugh. His chastising glared at Haruka, she abruptly stopped laughing.

“I realized something yesterday.”

Yakumo changed the topic quickly, maybe he was feeling embarrassed.

“What?”

“The person who attacked us, is without a doubt a living human being.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“This is why my eyes are convenient, my right eye can only see solid objects, while my left eye can only see the spirits of the dead.”

“So, you could see who attacked us with your right eye, but not with you left?”

“That’s right, another things that I realized was the locked room was opened.”

“But, who opened it?”

“Don’t know, but there are a lot of suspects.”

“Worker----Yamane-san?”

“There is that possibility. He knows about the abandoned house, has the keys to it, he could enter anytime he wanted.”

“Could it be related to Aizawa senpai?”

“Aizawa?”

Yakumo’s brain was still groggy.

“That person that Takaoka sensei said, he’s Yuri’s boyfriend, he’s also the one who told me to find you.”

“He’s also a suspect.”

Yakumo said staring at the ceiling, arms crossed over his chest.

“You look like you’re very suspicious of him.”

“It’s not like that, I feel like something’s not right.”

“Then I’ll go ask Aizawa senpai, and I also wanted to talk to Takaoka sensei again.”

“If you want to investigate, help yourself.”

“Are you saying you want me to go by myself?”

Then, Yakumo and Haruka arranged to meet after dusk, they decided to investigate on their own. But, Yakumo made Haruka promise him three things: Don’t go to a place where there aren’t people, when asking questions avoid the core problems, once she found out something call and tell him. This way, there wouldn’t the danger of getting attacked during daytime: after all that happened last night, Yakumo repeatedly urged her to be careful about her safety.

Haruka ran back and forth on the campus, finally she found Aizawa in the cafeteria---- he seemed to be skipping class, while he was drinking canned coffee he asked people not to tell on him. The people came and went, there wouldn’t be a problem.

“Aizawa senpai.”

Haruka greeted him and sat down across from him, Aizawa lifted his head, and smiled a smile that made him seem approachable. He was short, had a round build, like a cute stuffed animal. Haruka tried to think of Yuri and Aizawa standing side by side, but there was a feeling of imbalance.

“What’s up? Any clues?”

Haruka shook her head at Aizawa’s questions. They couldn’t even understand the current situation, which had become more chaotic, let alone find any clues.

“But it must be hard for you, that Saitou must be one crafty bastard huh?”

“Yea, about that……he doesn’t know you.”

Aizawa burst out laughing.

“Of course he doesn’t! To him, I’m just part of the scenery. I only knew him because I saw him guessing poker cards with my friend.”

That was all a scam! Haruka wanted to scream it out, but she knew she couldn’t. How could Aizawa send her just because of some trick, that was too careless!

“Then, even though if it’s hard, I hope you succeed!”

Aizawa stood up from his seat.

“Ah, could you wait a minute.”

Haruka hurriedly stopped Aizawa. She had an important question to ask Aizawa.

“What’s up?”

Aizawa sat down again.

Avoid the core problem----- Haruka remembered Yakumo’s warning, but she didn’t know how to ask otherwise, so she decided to ask right to the point.

“Aizawa senpai, do you know Shinohara Yuri?”

“Shinohara Yuri---“

The moment Aizawa heard the name, his expression twisted as if he was disgusted, his eyes looked like they saw something horrible.

His reaction wasn’t normal, Haruka continued to ask.

“I heard that Aizawa senpai was dating Shinohara……”

“We’re not dating.”

“Huh?”

Aizawa’s lip twitched.

“I don’t know who told you that, but we weren’t dating!”

“But……”

“I was rejected after I confessed to her! And what does this have to do with your situation?”

Aizawa seemed restless. Even though Haruka didn’t know what had happened between the two of them, she could guess, to Aizawa, it must’ve been a humiliating memory.

“I’m going.”

Haruka couldn’t say anything else, she just watched his back as he disappeared.

Meanwhile Yakumo was in the library moving the sliding shelves, browsing through the files-----blueprints of the student dormitories. Yakumo quickly found the document he wanted, he pulled it out off the top shelf: the file was very old, the color was yellowing, and there was a moldy smell, on it read: Completed projects, Showa thirty years.

Yakumo sat down and read the file, the file had detailed border maps and blueprints for buildings. After 10 pages Yakumo found the plans for the building.

The plan had two projects in total, one was the plans for the abandoned house, the other was for the basement of the house.

Yakumo carefully read the blueprints. Found it! On it there was a record of a pathway from the locked room to the basement.

Yakumo took out the key he borrowed from Yamane, it had three keys in total, one was for the entrance door, the second was for every small room, and the last one was the key to the basement. Only the bed in the “locked room” was in a different position, it must’ve been to hide the pathway to the basement. Maybe something horrible was hidden in there.

Yakumo tried to not attract attention as he made his way off the campus. He entered the forest. It was harder and took more time than he thought as he made his way through the forest, since it didn’t have any roads or trails, and many leaves entered his shoes. Perhaps his thinking was too naïve! As the sweat that trickled down his forehead increased, he started regretting it more. His surroundings started to darken, he had to quicken his steps.

He pushed away the branches, silently walking forward.

Haruka checked her watch, it was 3 o’ clock, there was only an hour left until she had to meet Yakumo. She sighed, she didn’t want to pressure Aizawa into answering anything, now didn’t have anything to do, she sat in the cafeteria killing time.

Yakumo must’ve found clues, right? Haruka felt frustrated that she couldn’t find out a thing.

“Haruka.”

Haruka lifted her head at the sound of her name. It was Takaoka. He had a tired expression on, probably from lack of sleep.

“Sensei, great timing I wanted to ask you something.”

This was an opportunity. Haruka had wanted to ask Takaoka about Shinohara Yuri again.

“What’s wrong?”

Takaoka sat across from Haruka.

“It’s just……yesterday about Shinohara Yuri……”

Haruka told Takaoka about Miki and her test of courage, the surprise attack at the abandoned house yesterday, and the weird things that were happening around her, Haruka didn’t know if Takaoka would believe her, but she hoped that she would get some information from him, now she could only hope, hope that Takaoka would remember something when he listened to her.

Takaoka’s left hand was supporting his forehead, as if he was solving a very difficult problem, quietly listening to Haruka. When she was done, Takaoka was still silent.

“I’m sorry, I said some weird things.”

“No, it’s ok. Besides, listening to you I remembered something.”

“Huh? Really?”

Takaoka’s response filled Haruka with hope.

“But, this isn’t the best place to talk about it, we should go somewhere else.”

Takaoka lowered his voice. Haruka agreed.

Yakumo finally made it to the abandoned house, he twisted the lock, the door was locked, but yesterday it was clearly open, he had the keys with him, which meant that another key to the abandoned house existed.

Yakumo opened the lock, and entered the room, compared to last night the room was much more brighter, but the creepy atmosphere was still the same. He walked down the corridor, arrived at the end of the corridor to the locked room. The room was also locked, and there was a password padlock on. Yakumo put in 7483, it was the right combination, he remembered the numbers from last night, when the lock was open.

The room didn’t have any windows, he needed to rely on his flashlight to see the room. Yakumo pushed the bed away, and as he thought, under the bed was a metal floorboard---- to put it correctly, it was a door. He didn’t think the door was locked and pulled it open, dust flew off and fluttered around the room.

Yakumo shined his flashlight down, but it was so dark he couldn’t see, looked like he had no choice but to go down and investigate……steeling his will, Yakumo climbed down the wooden ladder, the word made screeching noises.

Yakumo carefully climbed down the ladder, but his foot slipped and he fell into the basement. Pain distorted his face as he crashed onto the floor, but a sharp pungent smell made him momentarily forget his pain, he held his breath, hand over his nose.

Yakumo picked up his flashlight that had fallen to the floor and looked around, looking for the source of the smell, but found that on a wall there were countless dots that looked like they were black scars, he carefully edged closer to the wall, staring that the scars.

“How can something like this……” Yakumo couldn’t help but wonder out loud, shocked.

The scars on the walls were someone’s clawing marks, every mark was dotted with black and red, perhaps this someone knew they couldn’t escape but tried to anyway, continuously, repeatedly clawed at this wall, even when their fingertips bled, even when their skin pealed, they still continuously clawed at this wall.

Yakumo’s finger gently touched the scratch marks.

Suddenly, something liquid fell on Yakumo’s neck, he aimed his flashlight up, and noticed that there were two pipes on the ceiling, perhaps they were water pipes, and water was dripping out form where they joined.

The girl who was trapped, might’ve relied on this water to survive a few more days, but without those two water pipes, then maybe her suffering would’ve ended sooner. The irony was, the water that had given her hope, had actually tormented her deeply.

She wasn’t scared of something in this room, she just wanted to escape, but the problem now was who was it that imprisoned her there and why…

9

Yakumo climbed out of the basement and quickly down the corridor, and left the abandoned house. The cold air that greeted him made him feel like a survivor. He was determined that that was the place where Shinohara Yuri was imprisoned, but he didn’t have the decisive proof------ body. The body wasn’t there. Someone---- probably the person who imprisoned Yuri had moved her body. “You……You…… why are you here?”

The sound coming from behind paralyzed his thoughts for a moment. That familiar hoarse voice, possessing the keys, the person who could freely come and go in and out of the abandoned house----- worker, Yamane.

Yamane’s face was still flushed red like he was drunk, a towel hung over his neck, holding a rusting shovel.

“It’s over!”

Yakumo murmured, he started thinking of possible escape routes.

Haruka and Takaoka arrived at the fourth floor, the roof of the school building. The wind caressed their faces, they walked all the way to the waist high railing.

“Where should I start……”

Takaoka looked up to the sky that had been dyed with purple, watching the floating clouds, he murmured to himself. “Aizawa senpai said, that he and Shinohara weren’t dating.”

“That’s right.”

“What?"

“Aizawa confessed to her, but she rejected him.”

“How come you know……”

“Yuri told me.”

“Yuri…… told you?”

“That’s right. The rumor about Aizawa and Yuri dating……I was the one who made it up.”

Takaoka lifted the corners of his mouth, and let out a false smile. Haruka didn’t understand what Takaoka was saying, but she had a bad feeling about it.

“You……You…… were looking for this right.”

Yamane took out a camera from his pocket and handed it to Yakumo.

“It……it was over there.”

Yamane pointed to the woods that were about 10 meters from the abandoned house. Yakumo thanked him and took the camera, this was probably the camera that Yuichi used.

There was still some battery left. Yakumo turned it on, the camera’s scream lit up. It looked like they were at a bar, and people were drinking wildly. Yakumo quickly browsed through the pictures, after 10 or so pictures, he found a picture with the abandoned house in the background. The first one was Yuichi, the second one was Kazehiko and Miki, followed by close ups of Miki’s frightened face. In the next couple of pictures, there was always a man hiding in a rooms corner in the back ground, he looked like he was dragging something, because it was dark he couldn’t see what it was, but it was probably Yuri’s body.

“No way……”

Yakumo’s face froze in an instant, the next moment he broke out running. From behind Yamane was shouting, but he didn’t have time to listen to him.

Yakumo called Haruka as he was running, but her cellphone was off, none of the calls made it through.

Yakumo ran back to his place, but Haruka wasn’t there. On his way back he looked in the cafeteria, but she wasn’t in the cafeteria. Yakumo shouted at the empty room. If only he had noticed sooner, then he wouldn’t have let Haruka go on her own, looks like he had to look all over the school. But was there enough time? He didn’t have any other choice…….

Suddenly, Yakumo sensed there was someone behind him, turning, he noticed there was a girl standing there. It was Haruka’s sister----Ayaka.

“Are you leading me?”

“Why did you make up the rumor?”

Towards Haruka’s question, Takaoka laughed again. But this time there wasn’t any emotion, a cold laughter.

“That was my miscalculation, I never thought I would hear Shinohara Yuri’s name coming out of your mouth. It was so sudden, I wanted to change the topic……but it wouldn’t have worked.”

Haruka felt like it was hard to breath, she felt a ringing in her ears. Her instinct told her to “run”, but her feet wouldn’t move.”

“Then, Sensei and Yuri were having…….”

“That’s right, Yuri and I were having an affair.”

“Did Sensei kill her?”

Haruka wished that Takaoka’s answer wasn’t yes, but no, she hoped he would deny the thoughts that were swirling in her brain.

“It does have something to do with reality.”

While answering Takaoka grabbed Haruka’s wrist, and even though Haruka, trembling with fear, resisted with all her might, she couldn’t win against Takaoka’s strength.

Just when Haruka was going to bite Takaoka’s wrist, his fist came crashing onto Haruka’s head, Haruka instantly fell to her knees, she was in so much pain that she couldn’t even open her eyes.

“I’m very sorry, but you have to die. Quietly jumping off a roof and committing suicide, just like Ichihashi.”

Takaoka crossed the roof’s fence, then prepared to pull Haruka over the fence, Haruka’s hand were waving in the air, she desperately grasped the railing, at the that, Takaoka brought down his fist again, Haruka let go in pain, Takaoka pulled Haruka over the fence.

“It was an accident. One day, she suddenly told me she was pregnant, and that she was going to confess to my wife about everything, how could I let that happen. It was she who broke the promise, breaking the game’s rules! You think so too, right? We argued and fought. In a fit of anger I hit her, and she stopped moving …… I didn’t plan on killing her, but she broke the rules! Don’t you understand?”

“……”

“She didn’t die.”

Suddenly, a familiar voice floated to Haruka’s ears, she lifted her head, the one who came into her line of vision was Yakumo, she didn’t know how long he’d been here or when he’d came.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Takaoka seemed surprised at Yakumo’s sudden appearance, he looked at Yakumo and said, as if it didn’t concern himself at all.

“You should’ve already noticed, the traces of her desperate attempt to escape in the basement.”

Takaoka didn’t react to his words.

“After you hit her and saw that she wasn’t moving, you thought that you had killed her, panic stricken you dragged her into the basement. She was only unconscious, definitely still alive.”

“Lying like that, where’s your proof……”

“Don’t act dumb!” Yakumo furiously said. “You saw didn’t you, on the wall of the basement, countless of bloody traces of her clawing at the walls, trying to escape, dead people can’t do that.”

Takaoka’s shoulders were heaving, he was at a dead end.

“That student, Ichihashi Yuichi was also killed by you.”

“Where’s your evidence…….”

“Of course I have evidence, I should’ve noticed sooner. At the train station when you said that Yuichi had committed suicide, that was very suspicious, how were you so sure that he had committed suicide? There was no suicide note, the police dealt it as an accident, if you didn’t see him die, then you wouldn’t have been so sure that he committed suicide.”

“Why would I kill him?” Takaoka painfully retorted.

Haruka was also confused as to the reason why Takaoka had to kill Yuichi.

“You were momentarily calmed after you threw Yuri in the basement, but after you heard that the abandoned house was going to be demolished you panicked, if her body was found, all would come to light. So you snuck in during night, you wanted to move the body somewhere else, but by accident you saw three people who were doing a test of courage. You hid yourself in the shadows, trying to avoid them, but they didn’t know you were behind them, and they started taking pictures……”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Don’t act dumb, I have evidence with me.”

“Evidence?”

Yakumo took out a digital camera from his pocket.

“You wanted this, right?”

After he was done talking, Yakumo threw the camera to Takaoka, Takaoka let go off Haruka’s hand, catching the digital camera with both hands, Haruka took the opportunity and crossed the fence, running to Yakumo’s side.

Takaoka had on a “something horrible has happened” look, even though he had the evidence, he had let the hostage escape. He glared at Yakumo.

“I’m impressed that you got this far, but the evidence is in my hands, how will you prove that I’m guilty?” Takaoka was still smug, but he was also at the end of his wits.

“I forgot to mention something.”

In front of Takaoka, Yakumo took out the memory chip from the digital camera.

“The files are all here.”

Takaoka couldn’t help but laugh, as if he was laughing at his stupidity for trying to cover up his crime.

“It’s over, I already called the police.”

Takaoka’s face went pale as a sheet, everything he had built was going to disappear in a second. He managed to grab the railing and support himself. His laughter turned into weeping.

“That’ right……it’s all over……”

Takaoka said in a faint voice, when he was done, he slowly fell backwards. No sooner said than done, he disappeared right in front of their eyes----

Haruka grabbed Yakumo’s arm, and closed her eyes. The sound of Takaoka’s body hitting the ground reached the roof. Could there have been a better ending? Haruka tried to think of other solutions, but her mind was blank.

10

Yakumo and Haruka wrote down statements at the police station as witnesses.

Takaoka and a female named Yuri fell in love, the two of them made “the locked room” their rendezvous: Takaoka was only playing with Yuri, but Yuri thought it was real, this was common among affairs. After that Yuri threatened Takaoka that she would tell his wife about them, angered, Takaoka hit Yuri. Seeing the unconscious Yuri fall to the floor, Takaoka thought he had killed her, so he moved her to the basement for hiding.

But Yuri woke up, she desperately wanted to escape, but God doesn’t listen to people’s wishes, and in the end she couldn’t escape death.

Then, Takaoka heard about the abandoned house being demolished, panicking he moved the body somewhere else, and by accident he met Miki, Kazuhiko and Yuichi who were doing a test of courage. The three of them took pictures of the place, and coincidently took pictures of Takaoka dragging the body.

Takaoka demanded Yuichi to give him the camera, but Yuichi told him that he had lost it, then Takaoka pushed Yuichi off the platform, forever silencing him, at night he snuck back to the abandoned and looked for the lost camera, where he met Yakumo and Haruka.

That was a summary of what happened. Yakumo and Haruka didn’t tell them about the ghost possessing Miki, even if they did nobody would believe them.

After that they heard that Yuri’s body was buried under a tree 10 meters away from the abandoned house, that was too careless of him.

Another thing, Yuri wasn’t really pregnant, she just wanted to keep Takaoka from leaving her, and because of that misunderstanding, three lives had been lost, it truly wasn’t worth it----

“You've really done a lot this time.”

A middle aged man said after writing down the statements, he walked out of the police station with Yakumo and Haruka, his body structure was as burly as a bear's, a loose tie, wrinkled shirt, he also had the same sleepy eyed look as Yakumo, but in his case it really was because of lack of sleep.

“Gotou-san.”

Gotou looked at Haruka who was at Yakumo’s side and smiled, Haruka didn’t know how to react, she forced on a weak smile, nodded at him, and looked at Yakumo.

“Oh, so Yakumo’s already at that age, huh?”

“It’s not what you think.”

“Don’t say cold things like that, or she’ll run away from you someday.”

“You mean like your wife?”

“You really have a foul mouth.”

Gotou said speechlessly, his face stiff.

“If you have time to come and chit chat with other people, then you should go and work. If the police had thoroughly investigated in the first place then we wouldn’t have been caught in that situation.”

“You can’t say it like that, the police don’t have a lot of hands. ‘Sides young woman who disappear are a common case, even if we thoroughly investigate we would be so busy that we’d need doppelgangers.”

“To see you be so busy to the point where you need doppelgangers, would be wonderful.”

Gotou scratched his head, not really feeling it.

“All in all, good work, I’ll help you deal with the aftermath.”

Gotou patted Yakumo on the shoulder and re-enterd the police station.

“Who was that?”

Haruka waited until Gotou disappeared from her sight and asked Yakumo.

“Detective.”

“Wow, you actually have friends that are detectives.”

“Not friends, more like we know each other.”

“Know each other?”

“When my mother tried to kill me, he saved me, and after that many things happened.”

“Many things? Like looking after you and stuff?”

“No way! To me there are only two kinds of people on this earth, one kind are those who see my eye as detestable, and the other kind are people who want to use it, Mr. Gotou is considered the latter type.”

Haruka couldn’t understand the meaning behind Yakumo’s word. How could he classify those who were close to him to two kinds of people? The relationship between people should be more complicated, having a more far-reaching significance. But Haruka couldn’t explain her thoughts, she stayed silent.

“But then again, there’s this weirdo that’s an exception.”

After leaving those words, he quickly walked away.

“Hey, that ‘weirdo’ you’re talking about wouldn’t happen to be me would it?”

Haruka hurriedly ran after Yakumo.

Miki made a full recovery, but she couldn’t remember what happened after she had lost conscious in the abandoned house. Kazuhiko who had also disappeared, went to school as if nothing had happened. It’s said that he was no match for Haruka’s questioning, and fled back home scared. Haruka felt surprised, and couldn’t find it in her to stay angry.

And because of this incident the school had the media flocking around it, it had attracted a lot of commotion: news reporters even reported that the applicants for next year might be the lowest in the records, several students also thought that it would affect their careers and transferred to different colleges. But not long the commotion settled down, and no one brought it up again.

After a couple of days, Haruka visited Yakumo again. It was clearly past noon, but Yakumo still had bed head, a sleepy eyed look, like a cat who was always under the sun.

“No matter what time I come to see you, you always look like you just got out of bed.”

“That’s because you only come when I just wake up.” Yakumo answered coldly as usual.

Haruka thought his expression was funny and laughed.

“What are you doing here?”

Yakumo disapproved her laughter, his tone said “if you don’t have anything to do then go away”. Haruka bit back her laughter and took out an envelope from her bag and placed it on the table.

“What’s this?”

“The promised money. A lot has happened, and Miki has made a full recovery……”

Yakumo gave the envelope back to Haruka.

“Don’t need it.”

“Why?”

“This way I’ll be even with your sister.”

“Sorry.”

“What?”

“When we first met, I called Saitou-san a liar.”

“Don’t mind it.”

“But……”

“And don’t call me Saitou-san.”

“Then what should I call you?”

“My name.”

Haruka nodded.

“I admit that your unbelievable ability is not lying to people.”

“This calls for a celebration.”

Yakumo indifferently yawned, his movements were exactly like a cats. Haruka lowered her head and didn’t speak, after a while she lifted her head.

“I envy you.”

“Envy?”

“Because you can see my sister, even if I want to see her I can’t. I always wanted to apologize to her, I have so many things I want to say to her, but I can’t see her……”

Haruka’s voice trembled slightly. She was the one who caused her sister’s death. After the accident, she was burdened with guilt for thirteen years, it was something she could not get rid of, and thinking that she would never be able to be rid of this guild, she couldn’t help but curse herself for being so sinful.

“You don’t need to blame yourself, your sister doesn’t hate you.”

“You don’t need to comfort me, how could my sister not hate me, it’s because of me that she’s dead……”

“Then ask her yourself.”

Yakumo took off his contact lenses, his crimson red pupil looked directly at Haruka. No matter how many times she would see it, it was still that breathtakingly beautiful red, it was as if his eye was a light itself. Haruka silently looked at his iris, everything around her slowly became blank. “Sister.”

Coming back to reality, Haruka noticed that Ayaka was standing right in front of her, she still had the same appearance like before-----the year the accident happened, 7 years old……

“Sister, I’m so sorry, it’s all because of me……because I threw the ball……”

Haruka bit her lip, her voice sounded strained. Ayaka didn’t say one word, just looked at Haruka and smiled, to Haruka it was more than enough.

At this point, Haruka was already tearing up, Ayaka’s warm, gentle smile seemed to purify all her distress and sorrow. Haruka constantly wiped away the tears that were falling, and opened her eyes.

Ayaka had already disappeared, in place was the drowsy voice of Yakumo.

“Thank you……”

Yakumo stared at the ceiling as if he didn’t see a thing.

“I can’t believe I cried twice in front of you.”

“It’s three.” Yakumo held up three fingers to emphasis his point.

“Don’t be so specific, it’s not like I like crying.”

Haruka wiped away her tears with her handkerchief and stood up.

“But really, thank you, then, I guess I’ll be leaving.”

As expected Yakumo didn’t do a thing, just yawned. Haruka smiled, hand on the doorknob. Could she really part with Yakumo?

A question popped into Haruka’s mind.

“If……if I want to see my sister again, what should I do?”

Haruka asked with her back to Yakumo, Yakumo still didn’t make a sound. What was she expecting? Haruka smiled hoping to cover up what she blurted out and opened the door.

“Open the door, and come here.”

Haruka quickly turned her head, Yakumo was leaning backwards in his chair, keeping his sleepy eyed expression on.

“Huh?”

“I said, if you want to come then come, but next time I’ll charge you!”

“Then, when the time comes you have to make it cheaper for me!”

Finishing, Haruka closed the door and left the room.

The tunnel was the fastest shortcut to the residential area in the city, but locals rarely used it.

For a long time, there have been accidents there, and every year there would be at least one fatal accident.

There wasn’t any lighting in the tunnel, even during the day the tunnel was dark, and it was hard to see. Right outside of the tunnel there was a sharp turn, many accidents happened there, but the reason for these accidents may not be just because of bad sight.

Supernatural rumors about the tunnel have never stopped circulating……

A driver once said, he saw a floating bloody head outside his window, scared he escaped, but his brake suddenly failed, he almost crashed into the railing.

Other people have seen countless faces on walls of the tunnel; other taxi drivers have seen a women soaking wet sitting in their cars, and when they were about to exit the tunnel and look in the mirror, she disappeared……

1

It was a quiet night.

Haruka tried not to face the wind; she huddled in her red coat, walking hunchbacked.

Although it was a Sunday night, there wasn’t anybody at the bus station, even cars were rarely seen.

She just heard her own clear footsteps.

Miki had forced her to attend a drinking party, but when they arrived she realized it was actually a goukon. Just when she was going to scold Miki, “This isn’t what you said before”, she realized that Miki had long disappeared with a guy she had had her eye on.

Because of what happened before she broke up with Kazuhiko, she even said she would never trust a man again, looks like that ship has sailed...

The goukon was boring. If Miki didn’t have a boyfriend, then at the wine party she would’ve been as lonely as a dying rabbit, but she’s always been alone, so she wouldn’t feel too lonely. Miki says that she has “never truly fallen in love before”, this wasn’t completely unreasonable, thinking back on it she never truly dated before.

It wasn’t like she was hiding from love, Miki once said, “Then just find a guy and try dating!” But Haruka didn’t want to deliberately choose a lover by chance, she thought that love is one of those emotions that would come out naturally, not like shopping, buying an item after weighing its value and price.

Haruka sighed; a puff of white breath came out.

Suddenly she heard the sound of a car honking; because she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings she didn’t notice the car’s engine noises. Haruka walked to the sidewalk, waiting for the car to pass.

But the car slowed down and stopped in front of Haruka. Situations like this could be dangerous; the driver might be a pervert. Haruka retreated, and became extremely careful.

Then, the car window to the seat next to the driver’s seat rolled down, and the lights inside the car were turned on.

“Haruka, let me drive you home,” a man said, sticking his head out of the driver’s seat. How did he know her name? Haruka’s suspicion rose.

“What, you don’t know me? We were just together at the party.”

He was right, she already forgot about it. In her memory, he was called Tatsuya, he had a medium build, nothing special, only his hair seemed to imitate a famous soccer player’s, it was in a Mohawk, but he didn’t look like a soccer player.

“Get in.”

Tatsuya smiled wholeheartedly and patted the seat next to him.

“It’s ok, I’ll take the bus.”

Haruka shook her head in refusal, and started to walk again.

“Hey, wait up.”

Tatsuya got out of his car and ran in front of Haruka. How clingy…… Haruka almost said her thoughts out loud.

“What time is it?”

What’s up with this sudden question? Haruka didn’t understand where he was getting at, she looked at her watch.

“Ten fifty.”

“It’s a shame, the last bus already left.”

“Huh? The last bus leaves at 12:06.”

“That’s for weekdays, today’s Sunday, on holidays the last bust leaves early, it leaves at 10:48. Looks like you’ve been ‘kicked out’, but it’s a ‘save’ for me.”

She didn’t know there was something like that. Today really wasn’t going smooth for her, Haruka was starting to feel depressed.

“That’s why I told you I’ll drive you home,” Tatsuya smiled cheerfully.

Under these circumstances, Haruka could only get in his car.

Tatsuya explained endlessly to Haruka that his car was a Matsuda RX_7, a friend of his from a car factory sold it to him cheap, but to Haruka, who had no interest in cars, she didn’t understand the value of this car.

She didn’t know how good this car’s functions were, she just knew that the heater was on too high, and the air freshener was stinging her nose. Besides that, there was the volume of the Japanese groups rap song that was on too high.

She wanted to throw up, and she wasn’t even in the car for more than five minutes.

“Could you please turn the volume lower?” Haruka couldn’t take anymore and asked.

“You think so too? This song is awesome!”

What awesome? He didn’t even listen to her. Imitating a soccer player’s hairstyle, listening to Japanese rap. He was even wearing an Italian suit; it made people wonder about his hobbies. He was wearing everything that was popular together, it made him look ridiculous and funny.

Haruka turned down the volume to its lowest, Tatsuya looked at her in shock, but Haruka ignored his look, she opened the window slightly and took a deep breath of the air outside.

“You suddenly disappeared; I was really worried so I went to find you.”

Tatsuya suddenly changed topics, was he hoping that she’d thank him?

“My friend already left, I felt bored.”

Haruka bluntly stated her ideas.

“Then you should’ve told me, I can really spice up the mood!”

Haruka was shocked that she didn’t know how to reply. Where in the world did he get his endless supply of self-confidence? She could almost imagine him drunk, in front of a mirror admiring himself.

“Turn left at the next street.”

Haruka gave him directions to her house.

“Left? Got it.”

Tatsuya answered and turned right.

“It’s not right turn, it’s a left, could you turn around?”

“There’s a really beautiful place not far from here, did you know?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Then you just lied to yourself, because we’re going.”

“No need.”

“It’s really pretty; you’ll fall in love with it.”

It was no use, nobody could communicate with him; he firmly believed that everyone in the universe had the same beliefs and views as him.

Talking to him was no use, after seeing the night scenery, and satisfying him, she could go home, right? Haruka gave up talking with him, and absent-mindedly looked out the window.

She suddenly remembered, she knew another self-centered man, extremely stubborn, hated troublemakers, yet he sometimes also broke rules, he was a man full of contradictions. But he was different than Tatsuya in a way she couldn’t describe, even if he was self-centered. How were they different?

It’s been a month since the incident, how is he doing now? Haruka thought of his sleepy eyed expression and laughed.

“It’s right past this tunnel.”

Hearing Tatsuya’s voice, Haruka came back to reality, looking to the front, she saw a tunnel, a sign near the entrance read, “

There weren’t any lights inside the tunnel, it was dark, like they were in a bloody mouth that was opened wide; it made them think that this tunnel was the portal to another world.

The moment they entered the tunnel, the air seemed to turn heavier. The engine roars made bone-chilling sounds.

Ah----

This really was a dreary tunnel.

Just when they were out of the tunnel, they felt as if something had passed through the car.

Tatsuya stepped on the emergency brakes.

The tires made a sharp sound.

Haruka due to the force was thrust forward and her head hit the side window. Tears of pain came out.

The car parked at the roadside out of the tunnel.

He nearly crashed into the railing of the sharp turn.

The smell of tires burning filled the car.

Haruka looked at Tatsuya who was in the driver’s seat, he was clutching the steering wheel, head lowered, breathing distorted, sweat poured down his forehead, his mouth hung open on his cowardly face, his lower jaw trembled.

“Are you ok?”

Haruka asked Tatsuya who didn’t look like himself. Tatsuya might’ve replied, his mouth was opening and closing, but no sound came out.

“Speak, what on earth happened?”

Haruka shook Tatsuya’s shoulders, he raised his head, was this how “face drained of blood” looked? Even a mannequin’s complexion looked better than his.

“...Little...little kid...”

“What? What little kid?”

“...I...hit...a little kid...suddenly...”

Tatsuya’s trembling finger pointed.

“Hit? That’s not possible, is it?”

Hit a child? After he hit the emergency brakes, she didn’t feel the car crash into anything, but she didn’t correct him, they still needed to confirm it first. Haruka opened the car door, when she was just about to get out; Tatsuya grabbed her hand, stopping her.

“Don’t go.”

“Why? We need to check out situation.”

“It wasn’t my fault, it was the child’s, the little kid...he suddenly came out...”

He desperately held on the Haruka’s hand, tears were forming.

“Right now it doesn’t matter whose fault it is, we need to call an ambulance.”

“No...if we really did someone, I won’t be able to drive anymore, I can’t go to college, I won’t be able to graduate...my parents will do something...my life will be over, please, if you don’t tell anyone……”

How could there be people like him? Only thinking about himself when there’s another person’s life involved! However, it wasn’t all that strange for a narcissist like him to think that way. All in all, she’d only be wasting her breath if she continued talking to him; she needed to save the child.

“Let go!”

Haruka shouted, pulled her hand away and ran out of the car. The sudden temperature drop made her want to curl up.

She thought that it’d be so dark she wouldn’t be able to see a thing, thankfully the headlights lit up the area, making it able to see.

Haruka gingerly walked to the front of the car, she recalled the car was going very fast, if anyone got hit by a car going that fast they’d surely hit the ground. Haruka thought of the child lying in a pool of blood, and couldn’t help but retreat.

But, there were only the tires scorch marks on the tarred road, nothing else, there weren’t any marks on the car’s bumper either.

Haruka checked the car everywhere, but there was nothing suspicious. Maybe Tatsuya saw wrong? If that was true, then this couldn’t be any better, they could just laugh at it and it’d be over.

Clatter Clatter Clatter.

There it goes again. The sound seemed to come under the car. Haruka bent over and looked underneath the car; she saw what seemed to be a child’s footsteps going the opposite direction.

Was that possible? Haruka quickly stood up, but there was no one in sight, she went to the other side of the car, there was no one. Maybe she was hallucinating because Tatsuya had said he hit a child.

Just when Haruka was about to go back to the car, she felt another person’s presence and lifted her head.

She looked at the huge, dark, half circle tunnel.

There was the back of a woman that wasn’t there a moment ago.

She could only see her back, so Haruka was only guessing that she was around thirty years old, but because she was dressed in a gray suit, it could be said that she was actually younger. The woman stood there motionless, just idly stood there, her slightly dyed brown hair swayed with the wind. What was a woman like her at this time, and this place?

“Excuse me, are you ok?”

The woman, hearing Haruka’s question, slowly turned.

She had a deep wound just above her eyebrow, fresh blood poured out, dyeing her clothes bright red.

That wasn’t it, her right hand seemed to be broken, and it was twisting in an unnatural position.

“Oh my god.”

Tatsuya didn’t hit a child, he hit this woman. Haruka ran to her side, panicked.

“Are you ok?”

The woman didn’t react to Haruka’s concerns; in fact she didn’t look like she was in pain at all. Were her sensory nerves paralyzed?

“I’ll call an ambulance right away, just sit down.”

Haruka reached out to touch the woman.

Cackle Cackle mutter mutter.

The woman’s body convulsed violently, “Ahh-----“, she let out a sound that resembled a yell.

“Kya----“

Haruka couldn’t help but cry out loud, she closed her eyes and tumbled to the floor.

What was happening now, she had no clue, and her mind was a big mess.

She only heard the sound of the wind passing through the tunnel.

She needed to check the situation. Haruka gathered up her courage and opened her eyes, she stood up.

But the woman had blended with the scenery in front of her; she had disappeared without a trace.

2

Haruka and Tatsuya visited Yakumo’s place, and told him what happened to them in the tunnel.

However, Yakumo looked less than interested when he listened to her; he was playing shogi by himself.

“This is the next step……”

Yakumo moved both sides’ pieces, all the while praising himself. Haruka didn’t understand where was the fun if you played shogi by yourself?

“Excuse me……Are you listening to me?”

“Oh, you could say that.”

“You could say that……can’t you be a little more focused?”

“You should have some humility, suddenly barging here without even warning me, sitting down and starting to tell me ghost stories.”

Yakumo’s accusations left her speechless.

“I have a general understanding of the situation, after all work is work. To put it simply, you want me to help your boyfriend.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, he is not my boyfriend.”

“Isn’t it cold to say that in front of him?”

Haruka sighed, and lowered her gaze; Tatsuya seemed to find something hilarious; he was silently laughing. After he had caught Haruka’s gaze, he whispered close to her face.

“We look like lovers!”

“No, not one bit.” Yakumo flatly denied.

“Not one bit……but didn’t you say we were lovers?”

“Really? I don’t remember.”

They were like a pair of children arguing over words that no one had said, Haruka couldn’t find the breath to stop them. Tatsuya observed Yakumo’s expression, suddenly realizing something he burst out laughing.

“I know, you like Haruka, that’s why you can’t stand that Haruka and I are on such good terms, am I right or am I right?”

Tatsuya smugly declared.

“What are you talking about?”

Tatsuya ignored Haruka’s protests and went on.

“I’m very sorry, but a blockhead like you isn’t good enough for Haruka.”

“Oh, it’s like that?” Yakumo indifferently answered.

“But then again, I hate women who act on their impulses, who are stupid, and women who behave immorally. If you like them like that, it’s ok with me, but be careful; you might get stabbed in the back.”

“What do you mean?”

He went too far! Haruka pounded the table to express her anger.

“Exactly what I said.”

Yakumo answered flatly, he was still concentrating on his shogi. Haruka’s face was flushed with anger; she was trying to suppress her anger. He really was a genius at angering people, no matter what he says it always makes someone mad.

“Then, don’t mind me.”

Tatsuya smiled satisfactorily, he picked up the “bishop” (note 2), and moved it to the corner.

“General.”

The nonchalant Yakumo creased his eyebrow.

“I’m giving you a warning.”

Yakumo put the piece that Tatsuya moved back to its original space, finger pointing at Tatsuya, his sharp gaze looking at him.

“Warning?”

“That’s right.”

“What warning?”

“You should be careful to not get women pregnant.”

“You…….what on earth are you saying!”

Tatsuya swatted away Yakumo’s hand, and stood up, looking flustered. Behind his overly self-confidence hid a cowardly personality; it was clearly visible just by looking at his face. What did Yakumo know? Haruka shot Tatsuya a cold glare.

“Haruka, don’t misunderstand, this person has problems! Hey, don’t make such absurd accusations, if you continue to talk with disrespect, I’ll kill you!”

“I’m not making absurd accusations, but I wonder if I said the name of the other person, would it make you understand?”

“Who did you hear it from?”

Tatsuya asked with a stern face. Just by his one sentence he confirmed his own actions, he confessed without being pressed into confessing. But cold sweat was also pouring down Tatsuya’s face.

“It wasn’t just one either, there was two. Looks like a zebra never changes its stripes.”

“No! They wanted to get pregnant, it wasn’t my fault!”

Tatsuya was digging his own grave, and it wasn’t shallow, he would never be able to talk his way out of this one.

“They wanted to get pregnant? What do you think you’re talking about? It’d be all right if it was a fake pregnancy, but pregnancy needs two people doesn’t it? And, no matter how small, it’s still a life that has yet to be born into this world, and yet you kill them just because of your sentence ‘they wanted it’? The Japanese law system has no way of prosecuting murderers like you, it really saddens me.”

Tatsuya opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but he couldn’t come up with a remark. Being happy, and looking for a fight in front of Yakumo, was stupid and ignorant on Tatsuya’s part. Tatsuya’s ego must’ve been deflated? But to a narcissist like him, this could be a good lesson.

He angrily left Yakumo’s room, slamming the door on his way out, was this his way of resisting?

“You’re not leaving with him?”

Yakumo turned his attention back to his shogi board, and asked.

“Even though he’s no good, but you’re almost as bad as him.”

“I feel honored hearing your praise.”

Haruka felt the sarcasm dripping from his answer.

“You’re not mad are you?” Haruka asked.

Yakumo sighed; his expression said “I can’t stand you.”

“Use your head; he likes girls like you, to tell the truth, I despise people like him. Always thinking that the world revolves around them, getting upset whenever things don’t go their way, in the end they only think about how to save themselves.”

“Was that why you lied?”

“Lied?”

“Yea, about the pregnancy thing.”

“Think what you want, it doesn’t concern me.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t concern you. Sorry for disturbing you.”

Finishing Haruka stood up to leave.

“Shouldn’t we finish the conversation earlier?” Yakumo finally lifted his head.

Later, Haruka thought she had heard wrong and went home.

But a few days later, something weird happened. A bright red handprint appeared on Tatsuya’s car’s windshield; it was like a child dipped his hand in blood and stamped it on.

Tatsuya was scared to death, he wanted to wash the handprint away, but no matter how much detergent he used, no matter how hard he scrubbed, he couldn’t wash away the handprint.

After that, he almost never drove that car again.

Haruka summed up what happened. Yakumo crossed his arms over his chest, and stared wordlessly at the ceiling.

“Are you listening?”

“Yea yea, I’m listening. But it sounds complicated.”

“Complicated?”

“That’s right, complicated, for instance……”

Yakumo suddenly sat up, finger pointed at Haruka, even though he had opened his mouth, he didn’t continue, he seemed like he was thinking about something.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s no use to trust an assumption, we need to go to the location of the accident and……”

“Investigate ourselves.” Haruka continued.

“That’s right.”

“Don’t abandon me this time.”

“Abandon you? If you’re talking about what happened last time, might I remind you that it was you who wanted to go alone, don’t mistake it.”

How talkative of him! Haruka glared at Yakumo, yet it didn’t seem to bother Yakumo at all.

“How far is it by foot?”

“What?”

Yakumo ignored her glare, and asked no one.

“I’m talking about that tunnel.”

“That’s right. Even though I know how to get there, walking would be too time consuming.”

“Do you have a car?”

“I don’t even have a driver’s license.”

“Don’t sound so proud.”

“Proud……you……”

“Do you know anyone who drives?”

“Should we ask Tatsuya?”

“I’d rather walk.”

Yakumo suddenly stood up, grabbed his black coat that was in the corner of the room and prepared to leave.

“You know someone who can help us?”

“It’s not like I can’t get a car.”

Yakumo opened the refrigerator; he paused as he got out a key, and abruptly turned his head to Haruka.

“Before we leave, promise me one thing.”

At the same time, Yakumo pointed his forefinger at Haruka.

“Promise what?”

“To simply put it, just shut that noisy mouth of yours.”

“Noisy……”

Haruka gritted her teeth so hard they were hurting; Yakumo indifferently and quickly left the room.

“Hey, wait up!”

Yakumo threw his keys to Haruka, Haruka was thrown off by his sudden action, and she lost her balance while catching the keys with both hands.

“Lock all the windows and doors.”

“Wait……”

“Don’t forget to lock your mouth too.”

How could there be people like him? How dare he talk to a woman like that…… He really was an independent, immoral, hateful guy.

“Bastard!”

Haruka couldn’t help but swear out loud, Yakumo seemed to have misunderstood her; he raised his hand and quickly left.

Left with no choice, Haruka could only lock the doors and windows and quickly run after Yakumo.

3

Haruka followed Yakumo to a temple that was about fifteen minutes away from the college by foot. Why would he come to a temple? Haruka opened her mouth to ask.

“Hey……”

“Did you forget? No questions.”

Yakumo coldly stared at Haruka. Defeated by his stare, Haruka obediently closed her mouth, was she really that noisy? Compared to her friends, she wouldn’t count as the most mature or stable person, but she wasn’t the noisiest either. And besides Yakumo didn’t give her any explanation, so it was only reasonable for her to be curious, wasn’t it? Also, it’s only natural for people to ask questions, right?

It wasn’t that she was noisy; it was Yakumo who was acting weird. Haruka told herself.

“Stand in front of the doors and don’t move.”

“You’re leaving a woman in a place like this?”

“No questions.”

Haruka examined Yakumo’s face, even a carved wooden Buddha’s face had more expressions than his; it was like he had steeled his will to not giving her an explanation. Haruka stomped in front of a pillar, crossed her arms over her chest, she made a “is this ok” face.

Yakumo felt content and quickly left. He crossed the courtyard covered with gravel and arrived at a not too big temple hall, he seemed to enter the hall to a room; the entrance hall the connected the temple hall to the inner room (note 3).

• Note 3: Originally known as “Curry”, it refers to the monastery’s kitchen or a monk’s room.

He didn’t use the intercom, he also didn’t say anything, it seemed that he had some connections to this temple, maybe that was why he wouldn’t tell her anything.

It was very cold, she didn’t feel it when she was walking, but now that she was standing alone here, she couldn’t help but feel the coldness of winter winds.

Why was she forced here to wait for him by herself?

All her thoughts of anger exploded as she waited.

“Hurry up!”

Angrily Haruka picked up a rock and threw it to the direction where Yakumo had gone.

“Ouch!”

Haruka heard a moan, a person appeared before her.

“So……sorry.”

Haruka hurriedly bowed in apology. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone at the direction where she had thrown the rock, she never thought it would actually hit someone……

“People who throw rocks at a temple will receive divine punishment.”

“I’m really sorry.”

Haruka was even more ashamed.

“It’s ok no worries, no need to be scared, it didn’t hit me. Come, lift your head.”

Under his low and modest urging, Haruka slowly lift her head. A man wearing dark blue service clothing’s (note 4) and straw shoes met her sight.

• Note 4: clothes when a monk is working.

“Ah!”

Haruka saw his face, and yelped.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

She remembered Yakumo telling her not to ask any questions; maybe it did have some reason to it.

The monk in front of Haruka had the same red left eye as Yakumo.

“Why are you here?”

“Um……its Yakumo……no, I’m waiting for a friend.”

She wasn’t doing anything wrong, there was no need for her to lie, but she couldn’t help but talk evasively.

“So it’s like that, so you’re the important girl friend? How rare.”

“Rare……Rare?”

“No……sorry. It’s Yakumo’s first time bringing a girlfriend home; I can’t help but feel happy.

Could it be……he was related to Yakumo?

“Excuse……excuse me mister, do you know Yakumo?”

Yakumo told her to not ask questions to him, but he never said anything about not asking other people. Haruka satisfied that she had found a loophole asked.

“I’m Yakumo’s father.”

“Huh?”

“To be exact, I want to be his father, but he refuses whenever I ask. I’m his mother’s little brother, in other words, I’m his uncle.”

Yakumo’s uncle smiled bitterly, and scratched his shining head.

“Let’s not stand here and talk, come on in.”

“But……”

“It’s ok, it’s ok, you can just turn a deaf ear to Yakumo’s words, besides, no matter what happens he’ll still complain nonstop anyways.”

Under Uncle’s urgings Haruka reluctantly stepped into the shrine.

Haruka entered a room, sat down at the kotatsu in the living room; Uncle used a platter to carry tea, and sat across from Haruka.

Looking at Uncle again, she noticed he and Yakumo did look alike in some places, but to pinpoint where they looked the same, would be hard to say. But if one would to insist, it would probably the shapes of their faces. But the air that they emitted was totally different from each other.

“I’m sorry; everyone went out today, so we can’t properly treat you, if only we had yokan.”

“You don’t need to go through so much trouble.”

“Standing there all by yourself, it must’ve been cold.”

“Yea, it was very cold.”

She wanted to answer “no”, but accidently said what she thought.

“How honest.” Uncle said, smiling.

When he laughed his eyes become lines, it gave people a modest feel.

“People often tell me that I’m too honest, I know I need to change……”

“Why? Honesty is very valuable; someone will even be saved by your honesty.”

“Really? Because I’ve only brought troubles to others.”

“It’s not like that, I know at least one person who was saved by your words.”

“Huh? Who?”

Haruka had no idea who Uncle was talking about when he said that a person had been “saved”.

“Are you the one who said Yakumo’s eye was beautiful?”

The first time Haruka had seen Yakumo’s red eye, she did say that, that time Yakumo had laughed at her; it was his first time hearing someone say that.

“How come you know……”

Uncle leaned forward as he answered Haruka’s question.

“Don’t tell anyone……”

“Uncle, please stop gossiping.”

Yakumo suddenly spoke, he stood at the living room doorway, and he glared accusingly at Haruka for not following his orders, but Haruka pretended she didn’t see and took a sip of her tea.

“What are you waiting for? We’re going.” Yakumo ordered.

Haruka ignored him completely. She wasn’t a dog, even if she was a dog, she wouldn’t take orders from people like him, who acted by themselves and didn’t consult others.

“Yakumo, don’t bother us, I still want to talk with your girlfriend more.”

“She’s not my girlfriend, she’s just a busybody who brings me trouble, I hope you won’t get it wrong.”

“Oh, you already have such a great relationship, you really do know how.”

“Uncle, listen to what others are saying.”

“If you continue to shoot your mouth off, and act that way, careful that your lover will be taken away.”

“If you like it then take it.”

“I don’t need you telling me, I’d do it anyway.”

Yakumo heard Haruka’s muttering clear as day, Yakumo shot her a cold stare.

“Yakumo, can’t you be nicer to her?”

Uncle’s expression said “really don’t know how to deal with you” and shook his head.

“Sorry, Uncle, lend me the car.”

“Taking your girlfriend to see the scenery?”

“Annoying!” Yakumo snapped, and left the living room.

Haruka pondered on what to do, what Yakumo said was true, she did bring trouble to him, she couldn’t not be a part of it. Haruka bowed to his Uncle, thanked him and stood up.

“He’s always been like this.”

When Haruka was about to leave the living room, his Uncle spoke in a low voice, his voice made her feel melancholy and lonely.

“Yakumo can see things that others cannot; that’s why he has shut his heart, there’s a fear that has rooted so deep inside of him that he can only choose escape, that’s why his emotions are a little warped. Even though he talks like that, he’s a good kid……ah……I know I don’t sound persuasive but……”

“I understand.”

Haruka smiled. She didn’t doubt Uncle’s feelings, but she didn’t know why at that time she had the same feelings as him.

“Your uncle’s eye……”

Haruka timidly asked as the car sped along the road, but Yakumo acted as if he didn’t hear anything, his face nonchalant, as he quietly steering the wheel. Haruka couldn’t ask any more questions, so she stared at the road.

There was no music or radio in the car, only the sound of the engines facing the wind echoed. The two of them didn’t talk, but surprisingly Haruka didn’t feel bored at all.

She absent-mindedly looked at the scenery. It was then that Yakumo had unexpectedly opened his mouth to talk.

“Uncle wasn’t born with that eye; he’s only wearing red contact lenses.”

Haruka was shocked that Yakumo answered her; she stared at Yakumo’s face.

“What, didn’t you ask that?”

Haruka didn’t answer, she and Yakumo, who had turned to face her, stared at each other, for no reason her heart started beating faster she turned away.

“Why is he wearing it?”

“He wants to feel the same pain as me. He purposely turned his eye red, receiving people’s curious glances, experiencing the same pain and loneliness as me. He’s just that kind of person.”

Even though Yakumo made it clear when he said “that kind of person”, but Yakumo should already know, what his Uncle was doing wasn’t easy. If he did know; then why? Haruka couldn’t understand Yakumo’s actions.

“If you know that he cares for you why do you still live at the college? You should consider your Uncles feelings.” Haruka said in a tough voice she never used before.

“You biggest weakness, is that you never think before you speak, judging right from wrong based on your own opinions.”

Yakumo showed no weakness when he retorted, he was like a stubborn child, and shook his head not knowing what to do.

“Think about it for a second, do you know what that place is?”

“A shrine.”

“That’s right, a shrine.”

“What does that have to do with what we’re talking about right now?”

“Did you forget? My left eye, not to my will can see the spirits of the dead……”

“Oh……”

Haruka finally understood what Yakumo was saying. He could see ghosts, if he lived in a temple, then he would have to see tens, maybe hundreds ghosts all together, living in a vortex of emotions, ghosts that held hatred, anger, sadness swirling around him, even a mentally slow person wouldn’t be able take it. To other people it was just an ordinary temple, but to Yakumo it was anything but ordinary.

“It’s too noisy for me, Uncle understands my situation.”

Haruka felt that she just had a glimpse at Yakumo’s heart. Maybe Yakumo was right, maybe she did use her opinions to determine right and wrong, but people all have their own opinions……

Haruka opened the window, and stuck her head out, the cold wind hit her face; although the winter wind was chilling, she felt comfortable and happy.

4

When they neared the tunnel, Yakumo parked the car to the side.

Near the entrance of the tunnel there was a vase with a chrysanthemum in it, what was once a fresh white chrysanthemum had now withered to a brown.

There were no people or cars in sight, it made her wonder if this tunnel really was used by people. Haruka thought it was because the last time she came here it was late, but now that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Is this it?”

Haruka nodded solemnly at Yakumo. The fear she had felt before slowly crept into her heart. Yakumo leaned into the driver’s seat; he grimly stared into the depths of the tunnel.

The tunnel itself wasn’t very long, but because there were turns and slopes inside, they couldn’t see the exit, only the darkness that seemed to spread on for forever.

It was a portal to another world.

The wind that passed through the tunnel let out a low roar, and dead leaves flew everywhere.

“Do you see anything?”

“There is something there, but I can’t see clearly from here.”

“Are you saying that we have to go inside?”

“That’s right.”

Yakumo let go of the handbrake, the car started moving as if the tunnel was sucking it in.

After the car entered the tunnel, their vision suddenly turned pitch black, the air was so heavy that her ears were ringing; the atmosphere was just like before.

Whoosh-

Suddenly, the wind’s roaring got louder.

Halfway into the tunnel the car’s engine changed sounds, the engine was wailing because there wasn’t enough horsepower to go up a slope.

“Crap……” Yakumo murmured biting his lip.

His usual sleepy eyed expression was gone; in place was the face of a wolf eying its prey. He started to sweat.

“I was too careless.”

“Huh?”

“Listen to me, do not lift your head and don’t look out the window until I say you can.”

“Why?”

“This isn’t the time for questions, get down!” Yakumo shouted.

Yakumo probably had seen something, and that something must’ve been frightening. Haruka obeyed Yakumo, hugging her head she bent over.

At the same time, Yakumo slammed the accelerator, the engine roared to life, but it didn’t feel like the car was going any faster than before.

Even though Haruka was in a fetal position and shutting her eyes, she could still feel that something was outside the window.

Wooo-

She heard sounds that were clearly not from the engine, the sound was mixed with “pitter patter, pitter, patter”, as if something was crawling up the window

What is it? Haruka wanted to look up and see what was outside the window.

“Don’t look! Get down!” Yakumo shouted soon after she thought it.

Haruka suddenly felt scared, her shoulders started to shake, and she returned to her fetal position. Then, something grazed her neck. What was it? She didn’t know.

Plop! There was something stroking her cheek. So cold, her heart froze. Woooh- - she could still hear that roaring sound. She didn’t know what was happening. Fear. Fear. Fear. Fear. Hate. Hate. Hating to extreme.

“You can lift your head now.”

Yakumo’s voice brought Haruka out of her trance, the car that was lacking energy a moment ago was now accelerating. Haruka lifted her head, the exit was just in front of them, and not far from the exit was the sharp turn, but the car showed no signs of slowing down and was speeding down the road, if they kept at that speed, they would crash when they got to the turn.

“Hang on tight!”

Yakumo shouted. Hold on to what? Before Haruka could ask, Yakumo had already stepped on the emergency brake, the tires emitted white smoke after they stopped spinning, the car spun slowly. In the end, Haruka couldn’t find anything to hold on to, her head had violently crashed into the window because of the centrifugal force, that was already the second time. Haruka saw stars.

The smell of tires burning cleared Haruka’s mind, Yakumo leaned his head back against the driver’s seat, closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.

The car spun halfway before finally stopping a few centimeters away from the railing, they faced the tunnel. In front of the railing there was a cliff, about 10 meters high. In the face of imminent peril they had managed to live.

“Tell me before you slam the emergency brakes!” Haruka complained caressing her bruising forehead.

“Why don’t you ask first next time?”

“Why can’t you apologize honestly? My head’s swelling.”

“You should be glad that you only got away with a swollen head.”

No matter what you say or ask, he always replied sarcastically.

“Was there something there?”

“Yes, there was.”

Yakumo drove the car to the sidewalk and got off, she fortunately followed him.

Yakumo walked to the front of the car and pointed to the windshield.

“!”

Haruka stared speechless, waves of chills reached her forehead.

On the windshield there was a person’s handprint, and not only one or two prints either, the handprints filled the glass leaving no unmarked space, Haruka thought she had felt something, but she didn’t expect this many……

“At first it was a male around thirty climbing onto the hood, then out of nowhere other spirits started to crowd onto the car, they wanted to keep us in the tunnel.”

“Then those handprints are……”

Haruka feebly slid to the ground. She remembered the movies she used to watch in the middle of the night, where zombies had surrounded the main character’s car.

“Many people have died in this tunnel.”

“Why is it like this……”

“It might’ve been just a car accident at first, but the spirit who died couldn’t pass on, so that spirit caused the second accident, that accident led to another spirit who couldn’t pass on, death causing another death, creating a never ending cycle.”

“Then what should we do?”

Yakumo walked to the entrance of the tunnel.

“I can’t do anything about this.”

Haruka stood up, quickly chasing after him.

“Can’t you exorcise them?”

“It’s no use; even if I did it’d be useless.”

“You said that before, what does it mean?”

To Haruka’s question, Yakumo let out a bitter smile and crossed his arms over his chest.

“I don’t agree with exorcism or cleansing, they’re crooked ways. Stuff like exorcising ghosts, chanting to drive them away, or cleansing them, it’s unbelievable to me.”

“Just like how you can see ghosts with your eye, that’s unbelievable to me.”

“You’re confusing ghosts with monsters.”

“What do you mean?”

“What are ghosts before they become spirits?”

He was asking a strange question again, but it wasn’t like she didn’t know the answer, of course it was……

“Living humans.”

“Correct. They didn’t hatch from an egg, or come from space; they were living human beings with feelings! What are spirits?”

This……

“I don’t know……”

“My opinion is this; I believe that spirits are the consciousness of the deceased, their longings. A person’s memories, and feelings are really just an electronic signal; others have said, that the structure of a human’s brain, is like a network of information being transmitted. If this is true, then the moment we lose our bodies, it doesn’t mean we lose our feelings. When an electric current loses its vessel it will still flow, when an internet connection loses its connection it will be transferred to other computers, therefore the dead’s thoughts, and emotions will wander with no place to return to. That is my theory, I cannot use science to back it up or explain it.”

“In other words, if there is no body, then there will only be emotions?”

“You could say that. Returning to exorcism, if spirits are just emotions, then what harm will it cause people if psychics are asked to exorcise and cleanse ghosts? As I have said many times before, spirits are not monsters.”

She seemed to understand the pieces to the problem. Perhaps it was just like Yakumo said, no matter living or dead, spirits were not a new species, death did not create new creatures; that was without a doubt true.

“So according to you, even if someone did ask the strongest psychic to exorcise ghosts, and sent them to Hell, then they would be ignoring the feelings of a human being, forcing them to pass on, it’ll be like assaulting someone without them having a chance to fight back, in other words, it’s barbaric.”

Even though Haruka thought that his ideas were with prejudice, she could still understand what Yakumo meant.

However, she was rather surprised that Yakumo considered spirits as humans, she always thought that he was eccentric, a person who didn’t even want to understand living people. She remembered Yakumo’s Uncles words, “his emotions are a little warped.” Haruka suddenly found it funny and laughed out loud.

“What’s so funny?”

Yakumo raised his eyebrows not understanding. Haruka hastily stopped laughing, and changed the topic.

“Then, when Miki……”

“I was just analyzing the reason for the spirit’s suffering, and then explaining it to the dead’s spirit. To put it simply, I was persuading them.”

No wonder, Haruka seemed to understand, looking back on it, it was true, Yakumo hadn’t said anything directly to Miki, he was just investigating the cause of death for the spirit that had possessed Miki, eliminating what she was afraid of, and because of that Miki was saved.

“You said you saw a woman in front of the tunnel before, correct?” Yakumo suddenly asked.

“Yea.”

“Was she around twenty five, wearing a grey suit and have long hair?”

“Yea, you see her?”

The memory of the night was fresh in Haruka’s mind.

Fresh blood streamed down her forehead, yet she was just standing there apathetically.

“She’s standing in front of us.”

At that time, that woman was trying to tell her something, Haruka didn’t know what, but Yakumo might know.

Yakumo started walking, looking down from the railing. What was down there? Haruka also looked down.

The steep cliff had weeds on its surface, looking closer, they noticed a large pile of refrigerators, televisions, bicycles and other large garbage stacked up on top of each other below the forest, it wasn’t easily seen from the road, so people turned it into a junkyard.

“What’s down there……”

Yakumo said as he went over the railing, he carefully grabbed tree branches and slid down the cliff.

Their surroundings began to dim; the tunnel’s opened its bloody mouth, releasing an unusual aura, it made Haruka think that she was being swallowed by the tunnel.

Yakumo’s shadow gradually disappeared from Haruka’s sight; she didn’t want to be all by herself at a place like this. Haruka went over the railing, and quickly followed Yakumo.

She was too naive; the cliff was steeper than she thought it would be. After a few steps she lost her balance, she started to roll down the slope, tree branches continuously whacked her hands and feet, and even though it hurt, she couldn’t stop. If she knew sooner she would’ve stayed above obediently, but it was too late for regrets now.

When Haruka rolled to the bottom of the slope, her knee slammed into the ground with a tremendous force, due to her rolling forward so fast, that her feet was numb. She had a flashback to when she was small, she also fell this hard once when she was playing hide and seek, at that time she felt so much pain that she almost cried. Haruka forced back her tears and lifted her head; Yakumo was standing in front of her holding his hand out.

“Didn’t I tell you to wait for me?”

“You didn’t say anything!”

Pain caused her voice to sound rough. Haruka sat down on a rock nearby, and examined her hurt knee, her frayed jeans made it easier to see her knee—a layer of skin was peeled off and blood was oozing out.

“Ow……”

Her face twisted with pain. Yakumo kneeled in front of Haruka and wiped her knee with a handkerchief.

“Press on it to stop the blood.”

She didn’t even say “thank you”.

“You ran here without saying a word, you better explain yourself!”

Instead she was full of complaints. Yakumo wordlessly stood up and pointed to the ground a few meters away.

Haruka looked to where he was pointing to, in an instant, she held her breath.

There was a woman wearing a grey suit lying face down. There was no mistaking it, it was her. It was clear that she had stopped for breathing a long time, the blood that flowed from her forehead had turned black, it stuck to her lifeless skin; her cloudy eyes stared to the sky, as if she was looking at something.

“It seems like there was an accident on that road.” Yakumo said.

How long was she disposed there? She must’ve hoped that someone would find her that was why she appeared there. If only Haruka could hear what she had said clearly like Yakumo could, then she would’ve found her sooner……I’m sorry. Haruka closed her eyes, thinking in her heart.

5

Haruka arrived at Yakumo’s apartment, after the events that had happened they met Detective Gotou at the tunnel. With a tough and stocky build and a vicious gaze, it made people think he was a vicious wrestler.

Yakumo said to her, “there’s a lead about the woman we found a few days ago, if you’re interested come over.” But he already had a guest, she figured she’d come back another time and was about to close the door.

“Just in time, I was just starting to explain the situation, come on in.”

Yakumo gestured to a seat for her to sit on, Gotou helped her bring the chair over, she couldn’t refuse now they’d done that. Haruka reluctantly sat next to Gotou, she didn’t know why but having a detective sitting next to her made her feel uneasy.

“You met Gotou-san before, correct?”

Haruka nodded.

“Hey, Yakumo, introduce your girlfriend to me, I don’t even know her name!”

Yakumo looked troubled as he scratched his back.

“Ozawa.”

“Hey hey, is that it? Shouldn’t you say something else?”

“You can ask her yourself later.”

“What, how cold. Hey, Ms. Ozawa, what’s your name?”

Gotou suddenly turned to Haruka, he was smiling from ear to ear, his smile filled his whole face, but because of the bags under his eyes and his messy stubble that was too striking, it instead made people feel afraid.

“Didn’t I tell you to ask later?”

Yakumo scolded Gotou. “Stingy,” Gotou murmured.

Haruka didn’t understand the intense relationship between Gotou and Yakumo. Gotou seemed to be over 40, a 20 year difference with Yakumo; and even though Yakumo used honorifics, he didn’t seem to mean it, their conversation made her feel like they were two friends chatting.

“Everyone’s here, start explaining.” Yakumo pressed him to start.

So it was like that. Haruka now understood why Yakumo had told her to come at a specific time; it was so she could listen to Gotou’s full explanation.

“Ah, you’re right, I almost forgot about it.”

“I can’t believe it, why did you come here? Are all detectives this lax?”

Gotou was indifferent to Yakumo’s cynicism; he took out a notebook from his wrinkled suit, cleared his throat and started to explain.

“The cause of death was an injury to the brain.”

“Was it a homicide?”

“No, according to the autopsy, there were burnt car parts and a headlight found in her body, from that we can easily figure out that she was in a hit and run.”

Haruka felt overwhelmed, what Gotou was telling them now, wasn’t it a police report? Can detectives give information like that to civilians?

“Ex……excuse me, but is it ok if you tell us this?” Haruka couldn’t help but ask.

Yakumo and Gotou looked at her at the same time. She hadn’t intended to ask a strange question, but she still felt a bit uneasy. After silence had ensued, Gotou continued explaining as if nothing had happened.

“Also, the victim’s bag, wallet and other identification have all been stolen.”

“Someone’s intentionally hiding her identity.”

“That’s right, and the murderer naively thought that he could escape the police’s eye, we figured out her identity through her dental records. The victim is a female that lives nearby; let’s pretend she is A-san. A few days ago, a witness saw her leave the company, after that her whereabouts are unknown; her parents filed a missing persons report, so we asked her parents to come and identify the body. Even though they are currently bewildered, they still want to say thanks to the person who found their daughter’s body.”

“And the murderer?”

“Ah, because of the car fragments we found, we figured out what kind of car it was. The murderers and A-san live in the same area; they’re two high-schoolers, on a whim the murderers decided to drive even though he had no license, hitting the victim. They argued that they sped because the tunnel’s ghosts were chasing them, they didn’t turn soon enough at the turn and hit her…… Even though I believe them, the current Japan law does not acknowledge the existence of ghosts, they can’t reduce their sentence; it’s a shame.”

“They killed a human; their crime cannot be forgiven or excused.”

“How harsh.”

Gotou loosened his already loose tie, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.

“I think you should already know……”

“I know, you forbid smoking, but I didn’t light it, I’m only putting it in my mouth.” Gotou said, but his hand was clenching the lighter tightly.

“Let’s put aside the two teenagers for the time being, the bigger problem are their parents. Those two teens must’ve contacted their parents after what happened, and then their parents……”

“Destroyed the evidence and the body.” Yakumo said with a look of disgust.

“Absolutely correct. They took the victim’s wallet and bag and pushed the body down the cliff.”

Thinking about their acts of resentment made Haruka’s stomach knot, the sick feeling made her nauseous.

Bodies weren’t garbage; they actually disregarded a human life, throwing it away like garbage. How far would a person go for self-protection, how many cruel acts were they willing to do……

“And that’s what happened, it’s basically the same as what Yakumo thought.”

Once Gotou was finished, he closed his notebook with a “Bang”.

The same as what Yakumo thought? Did that mean that Yakumo had already seen through this chain of events? Haruka’s mind was in chaos, she couldn’t understand the truth. She started to wonder if Yakumo not only could see the spirits of dead, but also see the future.”

“Oh, there’s something I forgot to say, the parents also asked some garage to clean the bloodstained vehicle, now it looks like it is new.”

“They knew that the car was involved in an accident yet they still fixed it.”

“It’s just like that; the police are now looking for the garage.”

Haruka still couldn’t understand one thing.

“Then what about what happened to Tatsuya?”

“Word of advice, don’t go near the tunnel if you don’t want to die.”

Even though he said that, Haruka still felt that the whole thing was wrong somehow, she couldn’t feel relieved.

Tatsuya was driving his car that hadn’t been driven for a long time, going uphill to the college he noticed someone. He honked his car, a pair of sleepy eyes turned around---- it was Saito Yakumo. Earlier he had made himself lose his cool in front of Haruka, to be honest, Yakumo was always hanging around Haruka, and he was in the way, looks like Tatsuya just had to make it clear to him. Tatsuya rolled down the window near the driver’s seat and approached Yakumo.

“Thanks for helping me before! I heard from Haruka and followed your advice about not getting close to that tunnel.”

Yakumo kept walking, acting as if he hadn’t seen him.

“Wait up; I’m seriously trying to thank you here!”

Tatsuya drove at the same slow pace as Yakumo.

“I didn’t do anything for you to thank me.” Yakumo answered staring straight.

Tatsuya felt it again, this guy was really annoying. Just looking into his eyes made him feel uneasy, it was as if he could see right into his soul.

“Don’t talk like that, if anything happens again I’ll be in your care.”

“Then you’d better hope for the best because there is no next time.”

Tatsuya was speechless.

“Is it because you don’t want to help your rival?”

“Are you talking to me?”

“Who else would I be talking to besides you?”

“Then you’re talking to the wrong person. You and her; you guys can do whatever you want, I don’t care and I won’t get in your way. The only reason I’m cold to you is because your actions defy my philosophy, don’t come up with guesses of your own.”

Tatsuya tried to suppress the rage in his heart.

“Don’t go back on your words, because I’m going to meet with Haruka now, so no hard feelings, you really don’t mind, right?”

“Whatever makes you happy……”

Yakumo stopped halfway, his eyebrows furrowed, and he stared at Tatsuya’s cars back seat.

“That kid in your car……Who is it?”

“What”

Tatsuya was ignorant to what Yakumo had meant, he turned to look at the back seats, and they were obviously empty. Then, he suddenly remembered what happened at Yakumo’s place.

“Bastard! Are you going to bring up that infant spirit thing again?”

Tatsuya didn’t know how Yakumo had known, but he’d actually go as far as to spread it around, he couldn’t help but feel anger.

“It’s not about the infant spirit; that kid……could it be……”

“Enough! Did you actually think I’d stand here and let you make a fool out of me? Go to hell!”

After Tatsuya had spat that out, he stepped on the gas pedal and drove away. Yakumo’s silhouette got smaller and smaller. That bastard! He dared to stare at the direction he was driving in!

Haruka stood in front of the train station waiting for Miki, to tell the truth, she didn’t care if Miki was going to introduce her new boyfriend to her or not, it was definitely the guy from the goukon. It wasn’t a picking competition. What did it matter if she was going out with someone else’s boyfriend? Once Miki was in love, it was like she’s a different person, Haruka couldn’t help but sigh.

A beeping noise made Haruka lift her head, a car stopped in front of her. This car was…… no; the color wasn’t the same, his car was grey, but this car was bright crimson.

“Hi.”

Haruka prayed in her heart that she was wrong, the very moment Tatsuya stuck his head out of the window; Haruka started having a headache. After what happened, Tatsuya kept pestering her, he repeatedly calling her, and then talked non-stop about himself, she found it annoying and simply didn’t pick up her phone when he called.

“What are you doing?”

“Waiting for a friend.”

“Oh, what a coincidence, I was ordered to pick up the princess waiting for her friend.”

Haruka felt that things were going downhill fast; she should’ve refused Miki’s invitation. Thinking back on it, if Miki’s new boyfriend was the guy she met at the goukon then it’d only be natural if Tatsuya knew Miki’s new boyfriend too.

“Hop on in, everyone’s waiting for us.”

The thought of getting into that car made Haruka absolutely terrified, but it was already impossible to refuse; she reluctantly got into the car.

He was aware that Yakumo would have an expression that lacked interest but Gotou still dialed his number. Yakumo picked up on the third ring, for Yakumo that was a miracle speed.

“What’s wrong?” Yakumo asked straight to the point.

“We’ve had a follow-up development on that case; we already found the garage that repaired the car……”

“And then?” Yakumo urged him to continue on,

Looks like it really was raining cats and dogs, Gotou continued.

“The manager used to be in the city’s mob, after his father died he inherited the family business, but his reputation is pretty bad among the neighbors. Whatever car that gets sent to him, there’d always be a problem someplace else besides the original problem.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Just hoping that you would come over and ID, the child, even if you can’t get an exact ID on him, just tell us his facial features.”

Even though Gotou had little hope he still asked Yakumo, because if Yakumo could see the spirits of the dead, then he might also know the identity of the dead.

“Mr. Gotou, can I see the pictures of the body?”

Yakumo’s answer surprised him.

“Are you doing it for real?”

Gotou was overjoyed, and he wanted to keep that state of mind. He quickly set up a time and place to meet Yakumo and hung up.

6

Hip hop music still streamed from the car radio.

“How do you like the new color?”

Haruka didn’t have the heart to answer, she absentmindedly replied, “yea.”

“In the end I couldn’t get the red handprint off, so I just painted the whole car red, looks pretty good if I may say so myself.”

“Really……where are you going?” Haruka asked Tatsuya who was driving.

According to the original plan, he was supposed to drive to Miki’s place, but he was clearly going in the wrong direction. He drove them away from the streets and up a mountain road. She had a bad feeling about this.

“Well, I thought we’d go see the night scenery we didn’t see before.”

Of course.

“Miki’s waiting for us; I don’t want to see any scenery.”

She felt like she was in a replay of the same situation before.

“Don’t worry, Miki knows, she was the one who created this opportunity for us.”

In other words Miki also knew about this, and she was the only one who hadn’t known. After this was over she was going to protest to Miki, these kinds of things made her very unhappy.

“The place that we’re going, don’t we need to get through the tunnel to get there?”

“Relax, relax, there’s another road we can take.”

How come the people she hung out with were always the self-centered ones? Haruka’s shoulders drooped, and started to pity herself.

Gotou waited for Yakumo, parking his soon to be 10 years old Corolla in front of the school gate, it was his treasured car that he had never washed. Yakumo entered the car shortly after he had parked it, was he waiting for him in this cold weather? He hoped there wouldn’t be an earthquake…….

“Let me see the photo.” Yakumo said straight to the point.

Gotou turned on the car light, took out an envelope from the front seat cabinet and handed it to him, Yakumo took the envelope from him, and started to examine each picture. Any other person wouldn’t have been able to bear the sight of the photos, but Yakumo intently concentrated on them. It seems that Yakumo’s ability made him accustomed to the horrors of a corpse, at his age, blood, flesh, bones, and rotting flesh have already become a daily sight to him……

“Did you figure something out?

“My premonitions are always accurate when it comes to bad things like this.”

Even though Yakumo smiled when he answered, his eyes showed no trace of smile. Then, Yakumo’s face became blank.

“Then, you got it spot on?”

“It seems that my predictions are about to come true.”

Yakumo muttered. He took out his cell phone and dialed a number.

Haruka took out her vibrating cell phone.

“Where are you?”

“Huh?”

It was Yakumo, why did he suddenly call her?

“In a car.”

“Is it that Tatsuya guy’s car?”

“Yea……”

“Get off right now.”

Yakumo’s unexpected remark shocked Haruka.

“Get off…… what’s going on?”

“If you don’t want to die then get off the car right now.”

What? What was that supposed to mean? Even though being with Tatsuya was torture, she wasn’t at the point where she wanted to die.

Just when Haruka was about to get lost in her train of thoughts, Tatsuya snatched the phone out of her hands. What was he going to do? Tatsuya started talking to Yakumo when Haruka started to panic.

“This isn’t what we agreed on. Whatever Haruka and I do is none of your concern, isn’t that right?”

Using that kind of sharp tone with Yakumo was like asking for a painful remark.

“Shut up! It has nothing to do with you!”

Just as she thought, Haruka didn’t know what Yakumo had said to Tatsuya to make him so angry, but he did deserve it, who told him to forcibly interrupt their conversation.

“I’ll do whatever I want!”

Tatsuya shouted and hung up the phone, he didn’t want to give the phone back to Haruka so he threw it onto the dashboard. How could he be so rude? He actually stole her phone, interrupted her phone call and then hung up without her permission! Haruka was flabbergasted. A heavy atmosphere surrounded the car making it hard for Haruka to call Yakumo. Forget it; he’ll just call again anyways.

Yakumo tried to call Haruka’s phone again, but it didn’t go through, the power was cut off.

“Hey, Yakumo, what on earth is going on?”

Gotou asked, not understanding Yakumo’s actions. Yakumo gave the pictures back to Gotou.

“I saw the child in the picture.”

“You could see it? That kid’s face was beyond recognition……”

“It was unclear, but I know who he is by his gender, physique, and appearance.”

So it was like that, it dawned on Gotou. Yakumo was not searching for the person’s identity; he was confirming if that was the person he saw. Even so……

“Where did you see the person?”

“Today. He was sitting in the backseat of a car…… that was probably the car that ran over him.”

Gotou rolled down the window and lit his cigarette. Looks like they were close.

“If you want to smoke then go outside.”

“Hey, this is my car! You don’t have the right to tell me what to do. Anyway will that kid cause any problems?”

“I’m afraid so…… He has already caused trouble before, I didn’t notice it until recently, but thinking back on it, I was so focused on the tunnel that I didn’t notice, the two situations are connected.”

Yakumo pursed his lips in regret. He was going to cause another accident somewhere…… and truth be told, he wanted to stop it, but it was impossible. They could prevent it if they tracked the car down, but they had no legitimate excuse to do so, the police would never believe that a ghost would cause an accident.

“The victim is your friend?”

“No. I wouldn’t be friends with a person like that even if you begged me to.”

“That’s why you’re so generous……”

“It’s just……”

“Just…… what?”

Gotou asked but he already knew the answer.

“Is that girl on the car?”

“Yes.”

No wonder. Gotou dumped the file onto the back seat, and sunk into the driver’s seat.

“You provided me with very useful information.”

Yakumo said as he opened the car door.

“Hey, Yakumo, what are you doing?”

“Even though we aren’t family or friends, I can’t just leave her like that.”

“Can you find someone to help?”

“I’m going to look right now.”

As stubborn as always, it was obvious he wouldn’t be able to find anyone. Why couldn’t he just ask him for help? Always bringing problems for others.

“Hey, Yakumo.”

Yakumo turned around.

“You owe me.”

Yakumo looked confused.

“Just get in the car, I’ll take you, we don’t have any time to waste right? So hurry up.”

“Thanks.” Yakumo nodded at Gotou as thanks.

“Don’t thank me; it’s almost as disgusting as when my wife says ‘I love you’.”

“She said that to you before?”

“Shut up!”

Really, still making sarcastic remarks at a time like this. Gotou’s face twisted.

“Hang on tight!”

Gotou slammed on the accelerator, the car suddenly lurched forward, going with the momentum he turned the steering wheel, the car spun a 180; Yakumo was thrown away by the force, his head crashed into the window.

“If you’re going to make a turn like that tell me first.”

“You should’ve asked first.”

Gotou let out a triumphant laugh. Yakumo caressed his hurting forehead and out of Gotou’s sight.

“Do you often drive like that?”

“Only when there’s an emergency.”

Gotou turned on the siren, and drove faster, ignoring the red lights, the car flew down the streets. Cars were beeping behind them, but Gotou ignored them all.

“It’s a red light.”

“When there’s a police siren, they’ll move away.”

“What a troublesome detective.”

“If you keep complaining, then I’ll drive at the slowest speed possible.”

Gotou said that but he drove even faster, the files that were piled on the front seat tumbled around in the car like an avalanche.

“I will never drive with you again.”

Yakumo didn’t call again. “If you don’t want to die”…… What did he mean? What Yakumo had said seemed to have made Tatsuya upset, he didn’t try to talk to Haruka again, even though it was an escape for Haruka, she couldn’t help but worry about his unusual behavior.

Haruka looked out the window lost in thought, the feeling of uneasiness increased. Tatsuya said that he wouldn’t take the tunnel route; that he was taking another route, but somehow the scenery outside the window felt the same as before. What was going on?

“Tatsuya.”

He didn’t respond. What happened? Haruka peered at Tatsuya’s face.

“Take a left next.”

Gotou followed Yakumo’s instructions and turned the steering wheel, the tires made an extremely exaggerated screeching noise.

“Hey, Yakumo, this wouldn’t be the road to……”

“Correct.”

“Are we going to that spirit tunnel?”

“That’s right; the kid’s destination is probably the tunnel.”

“How do you know?”

“The dead, those who have also died in accident, are calling them.”

“The accidents that happened there are strange. Don’t tell anyone else this, but they also appeared in the crime scene photos.”

Gotou lit a cigarette as he continued, Yakumo rolled down a window with a look of disgust on his face.

“The photos of the car were supposed to have the tunnel as the background, instead there were faces of people, and not only one or two, if you looked at it from afar, the tunnel would be packed with faces of people, and all of them were looking straight and at the same place, it made me shudder. To be honest, when I saw that picture, I thought that it wouldn’t be weird if one or two accidents happened there.”

Yakumo silently listened to Gotou talk.

“Yakumo, can I ask you something?”

“As long as it isn’t anything boring.”

“I always thought it was amazing, how you can see the dead, I mean it’s not like ordinary people can’t see them, some people can see them sometimes, and some people don’t see them. Even though the photo has ghosts in them, the photographer didn’t see them, why’s that? What is the difference?”

Yakumo contemplated for a moment, Gotou forgot to shake the soot of the cigarette as he waited for Yakumo’s answer.

“It’s probably……”

Yakumo said to himself.

“It varies under different conditions.”

“Conditions?”

“Yes, for example, if a soul holds strong feelings, then it may cause some changes. Or it might depend on the person’s thoughts and awareness. When telling ghost stories, won’t they talk about a ghost being raised? Apart from this, their circumstances might also influence them, like temperature, humidity, and the strength of the light……and so on, anything is possible, but to be honest, I don’t know the answer. If I knew why, then maybe my eye can be cured.”

“Really, what a boring subject.”

Gotou let out a bitter smile, and apologized.

“Don’t worry, I’d prefer it if you take note of the soot though.”

“I told you before, this is my car.”

Gotou put out his cigarette, took out a new one and lit it.

7

All the blood had left Tatsuya’s face, and his lips trembled uncontrollably. What was going on? If this continued they would be at the tunnel.

“Tatsuya, won’t we be at the tunnel if you continue to drive down this road?”

“……I……I don’t know……”

Tatsuya said he didn’t know, but he showed no signs of turning back, and not only that, he even accelerated; even though they were getting closer to the sharp turn, he didn’t even slow down, danger!

The tires made a sharp screeching as they passed the turn, they almost hit the railing. Driving like this made one wonder when their soul would go to heaven.

“Tatsuya!”

Haruka’s tone sounded frightened, she stared at Tatsuya, beads of cold sweat gushed down his forehead, his eyes were bloodshot, and he held the steering wheel as if his life depended on it.

“Did you hear it?”

Haruka asked again, Tatsuya still didn’t answer, it looked like he was trying to say something; he kept glancing at the rear view mirror. Haruka franticly looked at the rear view mirror, and discovered the presence of a youth. The youth’s eyes were narrow, with rosy cheeks; he smiled as he looked at the two. Haruka whipped her head to look back, but there was no one in the back seat, she looked at the mirror again, the youth was still sitting in the back seat, but he wasn’t there whenever she looked back. Haruka felt confused.

“What on earth is going on?”

The youth who only existed in the mirror……

“……brakes……the brakes aren’t working……” Tatsuya let out a choked sob.

Haruka was shocked speechless after she heard that.

“Ah ah---- it has nothing to do with me, it’s not my fault. Save me, I’m begging you, save me!”

Tatsuya suddenly started to shout, and tears started flowing, in his current condition he wouldn’t be able to drive, Haruka could only pray, but who should she pray to……

Haruka shut her eyes in despair, but she heard police sirens, she looked over, and saw a police car flashing warning lights driving side by side with them. A man leaned out from the co-driver’s seat. He seemed to be shouting something. It was a familiar face.

“We found them, but what next? If cars come from the other side, we’ll become pancakes.” Gotou anxiously said to Yakumo.

“Firstly, we need to assess the situation……”

“How do we do that? By yelling at them? They can’t hear us!”

Yakumo suddenly remembered something, he took out his cell phone, leaned out, he showed his cell phone to Haruka.

“Turn it on! Turn it on!”

Yakumo shouted in his loudest voice, Gotou slammed on the emergency brakes. Yakumo nearly fell out of the car, Gotou grabbed Yakumo’s belt, steadying Yakumo. Gotou turned the steering wheel left, following behind Haruka; he dodged the cars that were coming from the other side.

“Sorry.”

Yakumo took a deep breath and steadied his breathing. Over the high winds, with the overlapping sounds of the car engine, he didn’t know if his voice would reach Haruka, he could only trust her.

There was a youth sitting in the back seat of Haruka friend’s car, he sat close to the window and looked at himself, a lovely smile was on his face. Perhaps, to him this was just a game.

Haruka heard Yakumo’s voice, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying to her, also, why did Yakumo catch up to them? But she didn’t have time to ponder on that question, what mattered now was how she was going to figure out what Yakumo was trying to tell her…… He took out his cell phone and started to shout. That’s right, the phone! Haruka grabbed her phone that was discarded on the dashboard, it was shut off, Tatsuya even went as far as to shut her phone off. Haruka quickly turned it on, the phone immediately started to ring.

“Hey.”

“Are you ok? If I’m becoming the third wheel to your date I’ll leave immediately.”

It was Yakumo, and even in times like these, he still made people grind their teeth in anger, he really was an annoying guy. But this hateful guy with his hateful mouth was the only hope of living now.

“If you have time to make snappy remarks then how about you save us!”

“If you want to live then restrain your noisy mouth, and tell me the current situation.”

If she survived this, she’d definitely rant to Yakumo about her hatred towards him. Haruka took a deep breath to suppress her anger, and tried to make her voice sound calm.

“The brakes……the brakes suddenly failed.”

“Can you turn the steering wheel?”

“Tatsuya, can you turn the steering wheel?”

Haruka muffled the receiver on the phone, and asked Tatsuya. Tatsuya made a noise, he nodded as he wept.

“The steering wheel’s ok.”

“Is it an automatic car?”

“Yes.”

“Is there an accelerator?”

“No, but the car keeps accelerating.”

“Hand brakes?”

“Tatsuya, hand brakes?”

Haruka asked Tatsuya again, he opened and closed his mouth, making it hard for her to understand what he was saying.

“Speak clearly! The hand brakes!” Haruka shouted.

“I don’t know, I haven’t tried it yet……” Tatsuya finally answered.

“The brakes are useless, we can use the steering wheel, the handbrakes haven’t been used yet, it’s an automatic car, and it doesn’t have an accelerator.”

Yakumo quickly explained to Gotou the main points, and asked for help, Gotou wrinkled his eyebrows.

“Shoot……it’s an automatic car……”

“Do you have an idea? We’re almost at the tunnel.”

“Wait, I’m thinking.”

Gotou took out a pack of cigarettes, once he saw that it was empty, he threw it aside.

“It’s dangerous, but we don’t have any other choice.”

Gotou took the cell phone from Yakumo after he finished.

“Sorry, can you give the phone to the driver?”

“You need to listen carefully to what I’m going to say next.”

Gotou, not wanting to alarm the other side, explained as calmly as he could.

“Once you see my signal, put the shift gear to the lowest, then turn slightly to the left, let the car hit the guardrail, then don’t let go of the steering wheel, and maintain the state of friction between the car and the guardrail, understand?”

After a while he heard Tatsuya’s faint response.

“Then pull up the hand brake, and turn off the engine.”

Tatsuya answered after a while. And even though it was disturbing, he could only obey.

Gotou took a deep breath and let it out, calculating the time.

“Ready? It’s starting and…… now!”

After Tatsuya followed Gotou’s instructions, the car slowed down a little, and gradually got closer to the guardrail.

“Ah----“

A loud cry came from the other side of the phone; the car started speeding up again.

“This isn’t good, any other ideas?”

Yakumo yelled; Gotou cursed, and threw the cell phone; it hit the windshield and bounced off as several parts. Gotou dropped his head onto the steering wheel.

“Yakumo, you owe me big time for this!”

Finishing, Gotou slammed onto the accelerator, and drove side by side with the RX-7.

“Hang on tight!”

He didn’t even finish talking as he slammed his car into Haruka’s car, letting out a sound of metal crashing, Gotou’s car bounced back due to the impact, and made a large ‘s’ on the road. Gotou steadied the car and slammed again.

This impact made the RX-7 stop at the guardrail, sharp shrill sounds of tires rubbing were mixed with yellow sparks that were flying out.

Not long the sparks and the ear piercing sound of metal were gone; the two cars in front of the tunnel emitted white smoke and stopped.

“Next time, when you plan on crashing into a car, tell me first!” Yakumo complained as he pressed on his left shoulder.

“Who told you not to ask?”

After he finished talking, Gotou let out a hearty laughter.

8

Yakumo and Gotou got out off the car to check on Haruka and Tatsuya, Tatsuya was light headed and disoriented but was still conscious; A trail of blood dripped down Haruka’s forehead, but other than that she was all right.

Gotou and Yakumo pulled Tatsuya and Haruka out of the car respectively.

Haruka staggered a bit, but could stand on her own.

“Hey, you ok?”

Yakumo patted Haruka’s shoulder; her blurry sight slowly became clearer. She knew it was Yakumo’s crimson red eye that was gazing at her face.

“Eh……” Haruka answered as she pressed her aching forehead.

Although the pain wasn’t too severe, her conscious was still fuzzy.

“It’s good that you’re ok.”

“Can’t you use a more decent way?” Haruka asked Yakumo.

“Is there a problem?” Gotou immediately interrupted them.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean it like that……” Haruka quickly lowered her head and apologized to Gotou, the sides of Yakumo’s mouth twitched into a smile.

“What’s so funny! In the end it’s all your fault Yakumo.”

“Hey hey, don’t push the blame on someone else, wasn’t it all your fault? I’m the one who suffered here; I even lost my contact lenses.”

“What the hell! Can’t you say something caring for once?”

Why couldn’t she say a simple “thank you” to Yakumo? Haruka brooded over this feeling that she couldn’t put in words, but she didn’t have a clue.

Whoosh---- the cold wind whistled.

Yakumo suddenly looked over to the tunnel, and walked towards it, he seemed to have seen something. Haruka followed his gaze, but couldn’t see anything.

“Don’t! You can’t go there!”

Yakumo started to shout without warning; he picked up his pace and started to run.

“Don’t go! Once you go you can’t come back!”

Yakumo ran with all his strength, but he stopped halfway and kneeled on the tarred road, he didn’t move for a long time.

Only the cold wind reminded them that time hadn’t stopped. They didn’t know how much time had passed……

“Why…….why can’t you understand……”

Yakumo murmured eventually as he stood up little by little.

“Yakumo.”

Yakumo slowly turned his head after he heard Gotou’s voice. His expression made Haruka shudder, his dark crimson eye burned with anger, it was completely different from his usual washed out, expressionless expression, his face seemed to freeze.

“You…….that kid was still alive.”

Yakumo walked towards Tatsuya slowly and steadily, Tatsuya seeing Yakumo’s glistening red eye in the darkness started letting out hoarse wails.

“Yakumo, what’s going on?”

“Yakumo?”

Yakumo didn’t answer Gotou’s question, he ignored Haruka calling to him, he walked straight to Tatsuya and stopped right in front of him.

“The boy you guys hit with your car, he was still breathing then, he was still alive, you were the ones who killed him. You guys thought, he can’t be saved, why not just let him die, so you guys used a hammer to hit him over and over and over.”

Yakumo blew up and started to talk non-stop, Tatsuya, intimidated by Yakumo’s anger, retreated.

“Who decided it? Why did you kill the child in order to hide the accident? Do you know what that means?”

“No……it wasn’t me, I was just sitting next to the driver’s seat……”

Tatsuya kept retreating under the pressure of Yakumo’s interrogation, but Yakumo left him to room to escape, he grabbed his shirt collar, and hit his nose with his head, his nose and upper lip started to bleed, making him limp to the ground.

“Yakumo, you mean that this guy…...”

“That’s right! In order to hide the trouble they caused, they buried the child alive, that child was still breathing, he still had consciousness!

“That isn’t disposing a body, it’s absolutely murder!”

“Be, be quiet, shut up! Where’s the proof? You don’t have evidence. This guy has serious problems with his head, who’ll believe what he has to say.”

“I believe him.” Gotou said, looking down on Tatsuya.

“You don’t have any proof, this’ll never be recognized!”

Tatsuya’s face twisted with pain, he started to shout randomly.

“You listen up, that child is wandering now; did you know that? He’s wandering without ever stopping, how about I kill you right here, let you have a taste of what that’s like?”

Yakumo grabbed Tatsuya’s hair, forcing him to stand up; Tatsuya’s efforts to bluff his way out had reached its limit. Yakumo lifted his tightly clenched fist.

“Stop!”

Gotou grabbed Yakumo’s shoulder to stop him.

“Yakumo, you don’t need to do this, I’ll be the one responsible for putting him in jail, so be patient now; you have other stuff to do.”

Yakumo and Gotou stared at each other, none of them moved.

“Yakumo!” He yelled his name out loud.

Yakumo finally lowered his fist.

“Gotou-san, you need to find evidence.”

“You don’t need to tell me to do that.”

Finishing, Gotou forced the resisting Tatsuya into the back seat.

“Hey, it’s time to go back.”

Yakumo didn’t respond to Gotou’s calling, he stood there motionless, he looked at the dark tunnel that seemed to be a portal to another world with a deprived gaze; Haruka gazed at his back. Gotou looked at the two, giving up he sighed.

“I’ll pick you guys up later.”

Gotou turned the car around, and with Tatsuya he went back.

“The mystery has been solved, the child surely also……” Haruka said to Yakumo’s back.

What was Yakumo feeling now? Was he angry? Or was he sad? Haruka didn’t know.

“Sometimes I feel distressed.”

“Distressed?”

“I told you before, that I can’t exorcist ghosts.”

“Yes.”

“Although I say that they’re crooked methods, but in reality I feel distressed that I can’t exorcize ghosts. That I can only watch helplessly; not able to do a thing.”

Haruka slowly walked to Yakumo, and stood beside him. She wanted to know, what Yakumo saw that made him say those words to her. And even though she didn’t have a red eye, she felt that just by standing next to him, at the same place with him, then maybe they would be able to see the same things.

“It’s because they’re visible, that the world considers them different, but I can only see them, I can’t do anything, so, why can I see them……”

At least, I was saved by you---- because of your red eye, I was able to finally get rid of the shadow of my sisters accident that had been haunting me for thirteen years; and not only that, you saved my twice. Haruka wanted to tell him that, but she couldn’t open her mouth to say it.

Haruka stood next to Yakumo, looking at the darkness in the tunnel.

Under Gotou’s investigation, Tatsuya was charged with murder. If he hadn’t tried to run, then it would’ve been considered an accident, but their wrong decision at that time caused the misfortune of many people.

According to the investigation later, the boy’s parents also died in traffic accidents at that tunnel. Thinking that the boy was returned to his parents’ side, relieved their hearts a little, but it couldn’t change that fact that he was murdered.

9

Haruka struggled to pedal up the ramp to the tunnel; the basket on the bicycle was filled with white chrysanthemums that she bought from the flower shop in front of the station.

This was a surprising amount of exercise for her even though it was winter. She was sweating when she finally reached the tunnel.

“You rode a bike here?”

Haruka lifted her head, and noticed that someone was standing in front of the tunnel, it was Yakumo’s uncle; she greeted him as she walked towards him.

Near the tunnel’s road there was a vase, filled with beautiful white chrysanthemums, a bundle of incense, the smoke from the incense curled up.

“Did uncle bring this?”

He shook his head to Haruka’s question.

“It was Yakumo.”

Haruka sat on the floor, and stared at the white chrysanthemums. She didn’t expect Yakumo to do such a thing.

“I got a call from Yakumo. He told me about the tunnel, there are many souls that can’t pass on, he wanted me to think of a way to help them.”

The monk forced a smile and continued.

“With that said, I cannot see their souls like he can, so I can’t really help……”

“Yakumo……he said that he was distressed.”

“Distressed?”

“Yes, he said that he was distressed because he can only see their souls but he can’t do anything about it.”

The monk suddenly laughed, nodding his head he said, “Really, is that so.”

“Is there something wrong?”

The monk cleared his throat, he stopped smiling and said.

“In the past, Yakumo hated the fact that he could see their souls, why was he the only one who could see them? When he was in high school, he tried to use a knife to blind himself, if he couldn’t see spirits, then others wouldn’t be afraid of him then he wouldn’t have suffered.”

If she was in the same situation as him, then she probably would’ve come up with the same idea as Yakumo. Haruka tried to imagine Yakumo’s feelings, if Yakumo knew he would probably unhappily tell her to stop making absurd conclusions about other’s feelings……

“It’s an amazing progress that he feels distressed that he can see them but can’t help them.”

“Progress? I don’t see any of that.”

Hearing that, the monk silently laughed again.

“The person who named Yakumo was me.”

The monk said after sitting down next Haruka.

“Multi layered clouds are called ‘Yakumo’. The moment I saw that child’s red eye, I thought that this child would have many trials waiting for him ahead, just like the multi layered clouds that block the sun.”

“So that’s why he was named ‘Yakumo’.”

“Yes, this name contains all the hope and prayers that he will overcome countless difficulties. Yakumo still has a long life ahead of him; he will break through the clouds.”

“Yakumo……” Haruka muttered the name again.

Haruka put the flowers she bought in the vase; she put her hands together in prayer and closed her eyes. She suddenly remembered, what did Yakumo say to the boy when he came here?

“Although it might cause you inconvenience, I hope you will take care of Yakumo from now on.”

“Yes.” Haruka answered, smiling.

She stood up, said thanks to the monk and left.

Haruka casually looked up to the sky, the clear cloudless blue winter sky expanded on for forever. She suddenly had a thought--- one day; she hoped that Yakumo would be like this sky!

The so called ‘premonition’ is real. No matter who is it, when someone close to them dies, they will feel a sign.

The signs are different for each person, some people feel a faint indescribable feeling, many others have seen a firefly dancing in the north winter weather, or they have a dream and see how the other person dies.

Among those, there have also been people who’ve seen someone who was supposed to be far away, appear right in front of them, and after they say “thank you” or “good bye”, they disappear without a trace.

Those are the messages that the dead convey to the living as their final goodbye--- this is what most people think, but is it only that?

Others have said that those are the dead warning the living of a danger that is about to come, or the dead that’ have died an unnatural coming back to tell the living the name of their killer.

These ominous signs sometimes contain a greater meaning, and that is the dead using their last strength before their death to leave a final message.

The messages are not something to be overlooked……

1

It was a sleepless night for Haruka.

After class she had work, once she got home she finished a report that was due the next day, and when she finally decided to sleep it was two in the morning, the whole day had made her exhausted. Ideally, she would’ve already have been in dream land, but she couldn’t go to sleep. She opened her eyes slightly, glancing at the clock, it was already 3; that meant that she was tossing and turning in her bed for about an hour.

To this day, sleepless nights weren’t something new for her, but that was when she thought of her sister’s death, when the guilt was eating her. After meeting Yakumo, she felt that her sister was beside her, and could finally sleep. So the current situation was rare for her.

Suddenly, Haruka felt a strange presence in her room and opened her eyes, to see her dark room. She looked around, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. It must’ve been an illusion, how could someone be here?

When she was about to close her eyes, she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. Haruka sat up as a reflex, her heart started beating faster, cold sweat started to appear, she looked uneasily at the corner of the room where the being was.

“……Shiori?”

The person was her friend from high school---Shiori.

“What happened? Why are you here at this hour? If you wanted to come you could’ve just called.”

Shiori was indifferent to Haruka’s words; she just looked at Haruka with a blank face.

“Did I forget to lock the door?”

Haruka said while looking for the light switch.

“……Run……Away……”

Shiori’s voice was weak and horse, she looked different from her normal self.

“Are you ok?”

“……Please……Run……Away……”

“Run away……run away from what?”

“Run……Run away.”

She was confused by Shiori’s words. Haruka got out off her bed, wanting to walk closer to Shiori.

At that moment, a black red liquid trickled down Shiori’s forehead. Drip, drip, drip.

Her blood was gushing down like a broken water tank.

The fresh blood not only dyed Shiori’s face and sweater crimson red, it also turned the carpet at her feet black.

“Shiori!”

Haruka finally managed to speak, she ran over to Shiori who was lying on the floor.

Just when Haruka was about to touch Shiori, flames lit up and swallowed her body. Haruka flinched back. Why was there fire? She had no time to think about it. Haruka calmed herself down and stood up, but not only was there no fire; Shiori had disappeared without a trace.

Haruka turned on the lights, there was actually no sight of Shiori. Was she hallucinating? It felt too real to be a hallucination. Then what was it? It was no use to just think about it.

Haruka picked up her phone on the table and dialed Shiori’s number. She heard “The number you have dialed does bit exist” from the other side of the phone. She probably was in such a hurry she dialed someone else’s phone number. She dialed again, but it was still the same. Shiori never told her she had changed her phone number, the situation felt wrong, maybe something happened to Shiori. Haruka felt uneasy and alarmed.

Shiori’s apartment was only five minutes from her place. It was best if she went over to see what was up then just thinking about it. Haruka put on a jacket over her pajamas, and dashed out of the room with her slippers on.

Once outside, Haruka cursed herself for being so hasty, the biting wind was seeping into her coat; on her feet were a pair of slippers, she was losing the feeling in her ankles.

She wanted to go back and wear a sweater, but she stood dumbly in front of the door. The door had an automatic lock.

She left her keys inside her house.

The glum Haruka felt she had nowhere else to go, yet thinking about it, Shiori’s place was close by.

She’ll just have to endure it for a bit! After she walked to Shiori’s place, she’ll explain the situation to Shiori, Shiori’ll definitely let out her distinctive “Hahaha” laugh, and then make a cup of cocoa.

Shiori’s cocoa was hugely different than the cocoa sold in the supermarkets, she had a secret recipe, but she never told Haruka.

Haruka felt rejuvenated, she walked down the hallway and entered the elevator. The elevator’s light flickered, and at this hour it made people get goose bumps.

The elevator doors opened at the first floor.

Haruka nearly screamed when she saw someone already standing there, she stuck close to the elevator walls, the man wore his baseball hat low, he had on jeans and a fleece.

The man didn’t seem to notice Haruka as he entered the elevator. Haruka stuck out her hand to stop the elevator from closing; she got out as the doors opened again.

Haruka and Shiori went to the same high school; they even went to the same college, the two of them often hung out.

Compared to hanging out outside, they spent more of their time at one of their homes reading, watching TV, and just relaxing, but lately their chances to hang out lessened.

At the end of the year last year, Shiori lost her parents to a fire; she dropped out of school right after. Haruka thought she’d go back to her hometown, but instead she decided to work at a department store, that was why she still lived in the same place. Haruka was jumping for joy when she found out that they could still hang out together, but in reality, a college student’s life and a person who has entered society’s life are completely different, and because of that the two started to drift apart. The last time she met Shiori was about two months ago, she was, to some degree, looked forward to talking about her encounter with Yakumo, as well as the incidents that took place around the two.

Haruka passed two street corners, walked up a hill, and finally arrived at the apartment; Shiori’s room was in the farthest corner of the second floor. She looked up, there was no light in Shiori’s room, but that was expected! Haruka thought to herself as she climbed up the steel stairs, standing in front of the room 204, the room in the farthest corner.

She pushed the doorbell, there was no movement, she pushed again, pressing her ear against the door, but there was still no movement. At times like these she shouldn’t repeatedly press the doorbell, yell loudly, or pound on the door.

“Shiori.”

Haruka pressed her face to the door, and knocked. Please, get up, Haruka prayed in her heart, but the door still didn’t open.

What to do…… Haruka leaned on the door and looked up; the sky was already showing the light blue hints of daybreak, it made people feel like they were floating in the water.

“The person who lived there moved.” A sudden voice made Haruka jump in surprise. The other person was wearing the uniform for a newspaper delivery service. The person shot Haruka a curious glance, but it was understandable.

“Sorry, sorry you said they moved……”

Haruka couldn’t believe what she was hearing, she asked the other person.

“Yea, about a week ago!

“What? Are you sure that’s true?”

“Why would I lie?”

The person had a point.

“Do you know where she moved to?”

“That I don’t know. I was hoping that she’d still order our newspapers after she moved so I asked her a lot of questions, but she didn’t tell me anything.”

Was Shiori really gone?

“You’ll get a cold wearing those clothes.”

The young person left with that and returned to delivering newspapers.

Haruka could only stand there with no idea what to do next.

2

Looking at the rising sun, Gotou squinted his eyes and lit a cigarette.

He thought of the burnt and collapsed house, there were hardly any remains of the walls, ceilings and some pillars also collapsed. The firemen had packed up their equipment. They were exhausted. A randomly parked car had blocked them on their way here, making them late to the scene.

The body wrapped in black tarpaulin was moved out.

"Shit!"

Gotou cursed out loud, the police investigation on this case was basically in a passive state, but there was no helping it, the criminal's actions were beyond their imagination; not only that, the criminal sent their testimony to the police, he or she was destroying himself or herself by adding fuel to the fire.

This incident really made them unhappy. Gotou threw the cigarette butt away.

"Do you want to cause another fire?" A shrill voice asked.

A man with a small physique, wearing a white robe, stood beside Gotou. His eyes, nose and mouth were all gathered in the center of his square face.

"So it was you, Mr. Hara," Gotou said with a look of disinterest.

"Were you thrown off?"

"Hehehe," Hata's shoulders shook as he smiled. This old man made people feel uncomfortable, even Rat man (note 1) looked more pleasing than him.

• Note 1: Rat man is a direct translation, he's a character from the manga "GeGeGe no Kitaro", he's a rodent like monster.

"Ha-ha, completely thrown off."

"But it is good this way if it's like this then the case is closed."

"What do you mean case closed? Mr. Hata, this is no time to socialize. Shouldn't you be doing an autopsy?"

"Then I'd need the body's anatomy, bodies that are burnt to crisp bear no results. Blood types are the same, rings are the same, even the accessories have been confirmed; it's extremely boring."

The old man was abnormal, the effort he'd put into his job differed according to the body condition. The more damaged the corpse the more energetic he'd get, with the exception of burnt bodies. If the police let the victim's family know who was doing the autopsy, the families would probably faint.

"Sure enough, the best corpses are those that are still raw."

Hata's casual comment made Gotou shiver; Hata laughed "Hehehe" again. Why were the people around him all cynical... ... he was really sick of it.

"That's right, Gotou, could I meet that young man who can see ghosts next time?"

How did Hata know about Yakumo? Gotou's surprise disappeared when he remembered that he had mentioned Yakumo to Hata.

"Scientifically speaking, I'm very interested in him."

"In your dreams!" Gotou flatly refused.

Scientifically speaking interested? Come on! It was clearly for his own perverted desire.

If he let Hata see Yakumo, then there would be no guarantee that Hata wouldn't dissect Yakumo alive.

"Stop this nonsense and get back to work!"

Gotou waved him off as if he was chasing off wild dogs, then took out another cigarette and lit it.

"Gotou-san, can I take up a moment of your time?"

Who was it this time? The person who was walking towards Gotou was a recent newcomer to the force. Gotou forgot his name; no, Gotou hadn't bothered to remember in the beginning.

"What?"

"There's something you should see."

The newcomer handed Gotou a photograph. This...... Gotou didn't hide his look of surprise.

Haruka opened her eyes, she had unconsciously fallen asleep on the table, her vision was still blurry but she saw someone in front of her.

"Why are you here?"

A sarcastic tone. Ah, was it Yakumo? Haruka rubbed her eyes and lifted her head, her vision slowly becoming clearer. Yakumo crossed his arms over his chest; he stood with a look of displeasure.

"Good morning."

Haruka greeted him; Yakumo wordlessly sat in a chair across from her. She looked at the clock at the corner of the room; it wasn't even six, looks like she hadn't even gotten fifteen minutes of sleep.

"Please explain what you're doing here." Yakumo said as he ran a hand through his messy hair, he looked unhappy.

She couldn't blame him, if a person had come into her room unexpectedly, she'd probably be angry too. Haruka began explaining to Yakumo about Shiori.

She was brooding about what had happened to Shiori, but it was all unclear to her. She thought, perhaps Yakumo could help her, so at this ungodly hour she arrived at Yakumo's place.

Haruka knocked and called but there was no response, she had turned the doorknob as a last resort and the door had opened effortlessly. Yakumo was curled up inside a sleeping bag in the corner; even in his sleep he still looked unhappy. She decided to sit down and wait for him to wake up, but......

The first thing Yakumo asked after he heard her explanation was, "so, as long as the door is unlocked, you'll just go into that person's room?"

"You're too careless! Locks are on doors so people can lock their doors, don't you know that?"

"I don't need to hear this from the fool who got locked out of her own apartment because she forgot her keys"

Yakumo had left Haruka with no chance of winning. Yakumo yawned, turned his back to Haruka and started to take off his shirt.

"Hey, wait, what are you doing?"

Haruka hurriedly turned around.

"What am I doing, of course I'm changing clothes."

Unbelievable! How could he be so uncaring for others and do whatever he wanted?

"Changing clothes in front of women, what on earth are you thinking?"

Haruka said what was on her heart.

"Let me make this clear, this is my house, I can do whatever I want, you're the one who snuck into a man's house without permission, don't speak so confidently."

Haruka should've known better than to use common sense to reason with Yakumo, it wouldn't work on him.

Haruka tried hard to not look, but in a situation like this the more she thought about it the more her heart sped up.

"Is Yakumo here?"

A familiar hoarse voice brought Haruka out of her train of thoughts, the door suddenly opened and there was Gotou.

He dumbfoundedly looked at Haruka who was inside the room; it was like watching the world end right in front of him: then he saw Yakumo who was in the middle of changing clothes, the cigarette that was dangling in his mouth dropped to the ground.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Ack, wait, its...... it's not what you think......"

Haruka tried to explain but she couldn't find the right words and started to splutter, worsening the situation.

"It's ok; I'll just come back later.

Gotou awkwardly closed his eyes, making it look like he was winking at her, then he closed the door going to who knows where. He had horrible timing, know she wouldn't be able to explain herself even if she jumped into the Yellow River. If it were her in Gotou's position just now, she would've also misinterpreted the situation and any explanation would've sounded like an excuse.

"Arguing so early in the morning really makes me annoyed." Yakumo said in annoyance.

She looked back, Yakumo had already finished changing. He scratched his messy hand, if dandruff were to fall off, then he would’ve been the reincarnation of Kindaichi Kosuke (*).

“What are we going to do? He left without hearing me explain.”

“Is it awkward?”

“That’s not the problem here!”

“You don’t need to care about it that much, don’t people do that most of the time? A person sees someone doing something and they indulge their brains with silly ideas even though that someone didn’t do anything. No matter what you do you will be subject to people’s conjectures.”

“In that case……”

He’s not wrong……she thought, but she still could not accept it like that.

“You don’t need to be so panicked, that old man’s actions are not hard to predict.”

Yakumo said and walked towards the wall across from the door, there was a window on the wall and he opened it.

And there was Gotou, leaned against the window to spy into the room. He looked at them, surprise.

“I was found out?”

“Just realized? You’re already old, so please don’t act like a little child anymore. Your behavior is the reason why your wife left you again.”

“What is the meaning of ‘again’? Listen good Yakumo, once a women leaves she’ll never come back, and it’ll be too late when you finally start to regret about it afterwards.”

“Ah, your wife still hasn’t come back yet. Also…… it seems that you’ve been reflecting a little.”

Gotou gritted his teeth in upset.

“This cute girl is right in front of you and yet you’re still acting so calm, I don't want to be dragged down by a spineless person.”

Gotou huffed and sniffled. It was because he was like this that made him seem childish.

“I haven’t done anything to her has nothing to do with spinelessness, it’s about a person’s preference, in other words, it’s about my tastes.”

Talking so straightforwardly and frank in front of to the party involved…… Haruka couldn’t even muster up the strength to protest.

“If you have time to stand around there and talk nonsense, how about coming in, weren’t you looking for me?”

“Oh yea, that’s right, I almost forgot.” Gotou said as if he had just declared the end of a joke; he exaggeratedly nodded his head and walked towards the front door.

Haruka felt embarrassed about meeting face to face with Gotou, she told Yakumo that she would come later and then left.

“Isn’t it rare for her to come here, it feels like I’ve messed up your meeting.” Gotou scratched his side and said.

In reality, he didn’t want what they were about to discuss be heard by Haruka, because last time there was conclusive evidence, and this time there was only Gotou’s own theories. It had something to do with pride. Therefore, he wouldn’t tell his bosses or his subordinates this.

“One less noisy mouth, this to me is something worth celebrating.” Yakumo said in his unchanged cynicism.

Gotou smiled bitterly, think to himself that Yakumo was just being hypocritical.

Even if his feelings for Haruka had not reached the level of love, it was at the level where he overall trusted her. He didn’t know how much Yakumo valued Haruka, but he knew that it was far more than how Yakumo valued his surrounding people.

But, if he told Yakumo his thoughts, he would’ve denied them vehemently. No, maybe Yakumo himself had not realized this yet.

“What are you laughing about? It’s disturbing.”

“What does disturbing mean?”

Yakumo turned a blind eye to Gotou’s dissatisfaction.

“Then, what is the awfully busy policeman who has come so early in the morning to meet me want?”

Yakumo seemed to have spoken respectfully but did not take the other seriously.

“It may be morning for you, but I stayed up all night so it’s still night for me!”

“Your psychological time difference is insignificant, right?”

“Yea, yea, it is.”

Gotou, in fact had been angered, but he took everything Yakumo said to heart, then his stomach would be pierced, and even if his stomach didn’t perforate there wouldn’t be that much of a difference. He chose to go on.

“I have something I want to show you.

“Is it a ghost photograph?”

“Yes, you really are quick.”

“You have never showed me anything else,” Yakumo stated plainly.

“I don’t remember showing you anything else either.”

Gotou said while he placed the mahogany envelope in his hands on the table, and took some photos out.

He put a photo on the desk. In the picture there was a burnt house, the picture seemed to have been taken right after the fire was put out; there was smoke coming from the unburnt pillars.

Then he showed the second picture, in the picture there was a burnt body facing upwards, both arms were reaching for the sky, as if they were struggling with the pain.

He placed another photo on the desk, it was a woman in her forties, the picture seemed to have been taken at a wedding; she was wearing a beautiful purple dress and smiling.

“This woman is the burnt body?”

“Correct.”

Then, he put another photo on the desk; it was the same as the burnt home before. But in the photo there was a shadow of a woman wearing a white dress standing in front of the house.

“This is……”

Gotou smiled proudly when he heard Yakumo cry out in alarm.

“So you noticed, it’s just as you’re thinking, when this photo was taken, there was nobody in sight.”

“Under normal circumstances, a person would think that the women would be the burnt body that you showed me, but seeing that as you specially brought them here for me to see, things perhaps aren’t as simple as they seem.”

“As expected of Yakumo, sharp as always. I really wish you were one of my men.”

“Not a chance in hell.”

“Do you hate the police so much?”

“I hope you don’t misunderstand, the one I hate is you.”

No one could match with his ridiculing skills.

Gotou took out another photo and put it on the table, it was a picture of a man nearing his forties, even though he had sharp features, he still looked bloated.

“Does this person have an internal organ disease?”

“Correct once again, congratulations, you can win an all expense paid trip to Hawaii.”

“You should stop gloating for someone who has not traveled outside of Kanto."

Gotou disregarded Yakumo, and deliberately let Yakumo hear him talk to himself.

“His name is Kenichi Katou, he died of a heart failure a month ago, but because the cause of death was doubtful we dug a little deeper, after some investigating we discovered that he was being fed small amounts poison over time.”

“You actually investigated to that point.”

“That’s because in our bureau, there's a relentless perverted old man who investigates these kinds of matters……anyway, if we find out who poisoned him we find the murderer.”

“It’s his relative.”

“That’s right. Kenichi Katou was a wealthy millionaire, even though he himself was only running a small real estate company, his father was a landlord. He also had a brother who spent his days idly. So according to the father’s will, the inheritance was all passed down to Kenichi.”

“You suspect it’s the brother?”

“He is the most suspicious, but he lives out of town. The two also hardly ever met, so he’s been ruled out. Then there’s only one suspect left……”

“His wife. Be that as it may, but his wife’s been burnt to crisp.”

Gotou could not help but applaud.

“That’s right. Just as you said, the police kept an eye on his wife—Emiko, when we had enough evidence to arrest her, she sent a letter to the police. The content of the letter in general was that she could not live with the guilt and decided to commit suicide……, when we rushed to the scene her house had already been surrounded by a sea of fire.”

“The suicide note was written by her?”

“Yea, we had a writing analysis done, she wrote it.”

“Well isn’t that ok? Case closed.”

Gotou let out a breath.

“If it was like that, then I wouldn’t have come all the way here to look for you now wouldn’t I?”

“I guess you had nothing else better to do.”

Bastard!

“What I’m going to say next is just my theory; I don’t have any evidence to support it. I think that she’s not the type to commit suicide, seeing the way she murdered her husband, Kenichi, we can say that her method was flawless, and if it weren’t for the perverted doctor at our bureau we probably would’ve never known that she killed her husband. For money, she harbored murderous intents towards her husband for many years, stubborn and audacious, would a person like that commit suicide because of guilt? It’s unbelievable!”

Gotou talked on and on and in his excitement he slapped the desktop; Yakumo pinched his eyebrows seemingly in deep thought.

“Then, what do you think really happened?”

“I think Junichi is very suspicious. Emiko kills his brother, and then he kills Emiko, the inheritance would be all his.”

“If so, then investigate that Junichi.”

Gotou moaned, and tilted his head a furious look on his face.

“We did! But that person has an alibi, he was at the police station for illegal parking, and because o f his illegal parking the fire trucks weren’t able to get to the scene on time, there are too many suspicious things!”

How rhetorical! Gotou thought, but continued to explain

“I think that this ghost photo is the key to solving this case.”

“I see. I understand what you mean now, but there’s not enough information, and it’s too theoretical that I don’t know where to start. I have no way of promising you but I will look into it.”

“Really?”

Gotou originally thought that he would be declined; he had not expected Yakumo to agree. He stood up in surprise.

“However, this’ll cancel out the favor from before.”

As he thought so, Gotou understood Yakumo’s attitude. He beat him to the punch. He originally planned to use the favor as leverage if Yakumo declined him. What a meticulous guy.

Haruka made an appointment with Yakumo to go home first then come back later. She then left Yakumo’s place.

Gotou seemed as if he did not want her to listen to their conversation, but was too embarrassed to say it out loud. She didn’t want to keep standing there looking so disheveled and besides she wanted to think to herself for a while.

Haruka asked the supervisor the open the door for her, once inside she heard her phone ring, she thanked the supervisor and rushed to her room. The phone that was ringing wasn’t her cell phone, but her rarely used telephone.

“Hello?”

Haruka picked up the receiver, there was a silence on the other hand and then there the phone beeped; the other person had hung up. Was this a telephone prank? How immature!

After Haruka had taken a shower and changed her clothes she wanted to go straight to Yakumo’s but didn’t want to meet Gotou again. Haruka looked out of her window and began to stare off into space.

She wanted to sort out what had happened last night, but couldn’t figure out anything, she didn’t know which part of last night was real or just a dream.

The curtains began to float. Weird, she didn’t remember opening the windows. Haruka stood up and walked towards the window.

“……Shiori?”

Separated by the lace curtain, Shiori stood on the other side of the window. Haruka quickly brushed the curtains aside, opened the window and walked out to the balcony, but no matter how hard she looked she couldn’t see Shiori, where did Shiori go? Haruka looked down from the balcony, but still couldn’t see anything.

Moreover, Haruka’s single person apartment was on the fourth floor, no person could’ve been outside the window. Was that a hallucination…… Haruka’s confusion doubled.

• Kindaichi Kosuke is a detective, medium build, messy hair always wearing wrinkled Japanese traditional clothing. It’s a habit of his to scratch his head making dandruff fly whenever he was thinking. He is Kindaichi Hajime’s grandfather. (In simpler terms he’s the legendary grandfather of the main character from Kindaichi shounen no Jikenbo. Matsujun was in the 3 series acting as Kindaichi.)

3

When Haruka went to Yakumo’s place again it was already past noon.

She had put on makeup and dressed up before she came, but her mind was in chaos the whole morning.

Ever since she saw Shiori stand outside her window she constantly racked her brain for a sensible explanation, but no matter how hard she tried, her thoughts always scattered and crashed midway, it only managed to increase her restlessness and impatience.

“I’m not a detective! Coming here one after the other…..”

Yakumo did not try to hide his displeasure and complained, while using an alcohol lamp and beaker to heat water. It seemed like Gotou had brought him a troublesome problem. Haruka sincerely believed that if Yakumo changed professions to become a psychic detective or something of the sort then he could make contributions to society. But he would probably strongly deny the idea……

When Haruka was deep in thought a tea cup was placed in front of her, it was green tea.

“Huh? This wouldn’t be the water you just heated with the beaker, would it?”

“No need for suspicions, it is. I borrowed the beaker from the lab. Compared to taking it and using it for weird chemical tests, it’s probably happier with me taking and using it.”

“That’s not the problem here…..drinking this is bad for your stomach……”

“Stop grumbling and just drink it and see. Oh, and the seasoning is hydrochloric acid.”

No way was she going to drink that!

“So, what did you come here for?”

Yakumo urged her to explain why she had come, but Haruka was confused, she couldn’t think of an efficient way to explain and decided to tell Yakumo what had happened chronologically.

Yakumo crossed his arms and leaned with his head back on the chair. He stared at the ceiling and listened. To a passing person Yakumo looked like he was furious, but this was the way Yakumo listened carefully.

“Compared to Gotou-san your account is much more coherent.”

Yakumo sat up.

“That uncle wanted to dramatize the topic, so he switched around the order of things, just listening to him made my head ache.”

Haruka wasn’t there when Gotou talked to Yakumo, but it must’ve been a disaster.

“So, what did you find out?”

“We can’t discuss the two problems as one. Explaining it clearly also does not mean that the truth will come to light.”

He was right.

“But, what happened to you can be sorted out to a certain degree of a possibility.”

“A possibility?”

“That’s right, there are two possibilities. If you were to answer unbiasedly then you would’ve also come up with the same conclusion, but this time you’re clouded by your personal opinion, that’s why you unconsciously cross out these two possibilities.”

“Is that so……”

She did not understand what Yakumo was getting to.

“Let’s test this. The first possibility. What you’ve seen were all hallucinations.”

“That’s impossible, I saw her with my own eyes.” Haruka stubbornly insisted.

“See, you immediately denied it.”

Crap! Haruka thought. Just like Yakumo said; if Haruka was a third party and had listened to her story then she would’ve pointed out the same possibility. So this was Yakumo’s intention, she finally understood.

“’What you’ve seen was all been a hallucination, yet your friend, because of some unknown reason, moved and left without a goodbye……”

“Shiori would never do something like that!”

“Let me finish!” Yakumo persuaded.

“It’s because you’re like this that you eliminate the possibilities and can’t think of a reason why. In fact, she could’ve, for some reason hastily moved and was planning on contacting you after she settled in; and after you listen to her explanation you might think ‘ah, so it was like that huh.’ And then laugh it off.”

What he said made sense. Haruka’s shoulders slightly relaxed, she didn’t know how Yakumo had thought of that, but she was glad that she listened to what Yakumo had said.

“Then what’s the other possibility?”

Haruka’s question evidently made Yakumo heavy-hearted.

“If possible, before the situation becomes clearer, I don’t want to tell you……”

“But it's still a possibility!”

“Correct, so I hope you’ll take it only as a possibility.”

Haruka nodded. “Ok!” Yakumo heavily sighed before he opened his mouth to talk.

“Suppose, that what you saw wasn’t a hallucination…….”

I don’t want to listen! A voice said in Haruka’s brain, maybe it was herself—another side of her. But her thoughts did not reach Yakumo, and he continued.

“Then I’m afraid your friend isn’t on this earth anymore, she appeared in front of you as a ghost……”

Haruka felt like she was falling from a building, she heard a ringing noise that drowned out Yakumo’s words. Shiori appearing as a ghost, already dead? Shiori’s dead? She couldn’t accept it! Absolutely would not accept it! She did not want to acknowledge this possibility. Were there ghosts of the living? A living ghost…

“There are such things like ‘astral bodies’ that exist right? Those are spirits of a living person, aren’t they?”

Haruka gripped the table for support. Yakumo was surprised by Haruka’s sudden movement, but nonetheless he answered Haruka’s question.

“It’s not impossible, I’ve said it before, if a ghost is the manifestation of a human’s emotions, then we can’t rule out the possibility that it can still move out of the body before the person has died. What you’ve said about astral bodies or out of body experiences have been heard from time to time. The third possibility……”

Once Yakumo finished, he pinched his eyebrows and muttered to himself about something. Haruka could not hear what he was saying so she could only quietly wait for Yakumo to conclude his thoughts.

“Although this is possibility that’s based on an intuitive conjecture, it isn’t entirely irrelevant, we can only bet on this possibility……”

Hope flickered inside Haruka’s heart. She would meet Shiori, she must meet Shiori.

4

Haruka suggested the two of them investigate together. Yakumo refused to do so but in the end he couldn’t win over Haruka’s insistence.

Yakumo and Haruka first went to the real estate company of Shiori’s apartment. Haruka recalled that she and Shiori found this place together when they first came to Tokyo. It was a small company in front of the bus stop, on the shopping street in a business building.

Yakumo stopped midway at a shop to buy a biscuit box, not only was the packaging detailed, there was also a tag attached. Of course Haruka was the one who paid for it; Yakumo claimed that it was something necessary to buy.

There was a table for the customers, a counter and two desks facing each other in the store. It made one feel the extreme smallness and narrowness of the store. When Haruka and Yakumo came into the store they didn’t even hear a “welcome”, and it wasn’t because the workers were busy but because the workers were ignoring them. How rude!

“Ehem---- Excuse me.”

Yakumo leaned over the counter and called. Only then did a bald, stout male walk out slowly and deliberately to greet them.

“I’m sorry, I’m Shiori’s brother; she lives at Hinoki apartment complex, apartment 204. My sister forgot to bring something……I’m really sorry, but could I borrow the keys to her apartment?”

Yakumo used his courteous tone to fill the sky with lies, the bald man didn’t even bother to confirm it; he just took the key from the key holder and gave it to Yakumo. In the meantime, the man didn’t even say one word, what a lax company.

“Ah, that’s right, did my sister stop by to say hello?”

The bald man still didn’t speak, just shook his head - no.

“As I thought, I already told her to say thanks to the real estate company that has been looking out for her. She gives me headaches when she’s like that.”

Yakumo continued to talk endlessly. His realistic acting made Haruka, who was standing behind him inexplicably admire him.

“Oh, I’m sorry I took so much of her time. Here, this is for everyone.”

Yakumo proceeded to give the biscuit box to the bald man. In that moment, the man’s expression immediately and obviously softened.

“To tell the truth, we’re also very troubled. She suddenly called us asking us to terminate the contract, she also said that she’d be turning in her key in two days…… we also made a mistake, we forgot to ask her where we should return her deposit to…….”

“I’m really sorry……” Yakumo said as he continued his act as the fearful and worried older brother.

“Then I’ll fill out those necessary forms right now, could you please give me the contract?”

“Ah, sure.”

The bald man muttered “where did I put it” before he pulled out the contract from beneath a mountain of files and gave it to Yakumo.

Yakumo carefully read the contract; Haruka stood behind him and caught a glimpse of the content. There was also a page about the application stapled on, in the moving column of the application Shiori wrote the address of her old home in Nagano.

Shiori’s old house in Nagano was already destroyed by a fire, where could she possibly be? Haruka felt a sense of foreboding.

“……I’ll ask Shiori to come here the next time I see her. Then she can properly fill out where to return her deposit.”

“I’m really sorry.”

The bald man took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“Besides that, did my sister cause any problems for you?”

The bald man thought for a while and then quickly approached Yakumo’s side.

“I don’t know if I should tell something like this to you since you’re her brother, but there’s been a man coming in and out of your sister’s house. After all, she is a young nubile girl, so I didn’t say anything……”

Shiori had a boyfriend? She had never heard about this before. Shiori had broken up with her boyfriend a year ago and has been single ever since then, and besides, even if she didn’t ask Shiori about her love life Shiori would tell her.

“Afterwards, something terrifying happened! She and another women got into a huge argument in front of the apartment, they even began fighting, the neighbors were complaining about it over and over again……I think that could by why she moved……”

“Liar!” Haruka accidently blurted out, the bald man glared at her.

“Ah, thank you very much, I will return the key by tomorrow.”

Yakumo quickly thanked him before he pulled Haruka by the hand and out of the store.

The bald man’s description about Shiori was completely different than the Shiori Haruka remembered. Shiori wasn’t the type to be jealous or fight over a man, and not only emotion wise, she never saw her fly into rage or get vexed. Every time the two fought it was Shiori who always apologized first, sometimes to Haruka’s chagrin, because she always felt like she was being treated like a child, they even fought about that once. Still, Shiori had actually argued with a person to the point of fighting…

What happened to Shiori?

It was a two-story building, the railings had already rusted, and the wall’s paint had turned into different shades of filth.

And the thought that Shiori wasn’t there made the stains on the wall seem filthier.

“There’s probably nothing left behind,” Yakumo muttered.

Haruka nodded. Even if there was nothing left behind she had to see for herself because if she didn’t she refused to accept the fact that Shiori was gone.

When they opened the door they were greeted by pleasant fragrance, it came from Shiori’s room. From where they were standing they couldn’t see it clearly so Haruka pushed Yakumo aside and entered the room.

But the room was empty except for the fragrance. There was no furniture; there wasn’t even a moving box. The room was spotless; it looked ready for a new person to move in.

Yakumo walked to the center of the room and looked around carefully.

“Hey, did that Shiori girl smoke?”

Haruka shook her head; she had never seen Shiori smoke.

“Why are you asking?”

“Look at the walls closely.”

After looking carefully Haruka saw it, there were yellow circular stains on the wall; at first glance it would seem that there was nothing wrong except the only places that retained the original whiteness were the places that used to have furniture and pictures on the walls.

The Shiori she didn’t know revealed herself before her eyes. Haruka suddenly felt powerless and fell to the floor. The floorboard’s coldness was bone chilling, Yakumo moved to the bathroom.

“Can you come over here for a second?”

Haruka stood up after she heard him speak and leaned forward to look at the bathroom. Yakumo handed her a picture, Shiori was in the picture, and she was smiling serenely. Her smile was different from the smile she gave Haruka.

Haruka would imagine so, beside Shiori stood a man with a deep stare, near his forties.

“Is that Shiori?”

“Yeah……where did you find this?”

“It was on the mirror……a weird place for a picture.”

“Why? Did she forget about putting it up there?”

“I don’t think so, how could she miss one picture when the rest of her room is spotless? Furthermore, if she did put this picture on the bathroom mirror then it would’ve gotten wet because of the steam.”

What he said was indeed true. Not only was the picture dry, it didn’t even have traces of ever being wet. Shiori was a meticulous person; she wrote in her diary every day, never missing a single day, it was difficult to imagine that she would forget this one picture.

“If she left this behind on purpose then she was hoping that someone would see it.”

“Who?”

“Maybe you.”

Yet, Haruka couldn’t figure out the meaning behind the picture.

“Is she missing her right pinky?”

“Yeah, she lost it in an accident that happened when she was little……I’m don’t know the details……well, she said that she doesn’t really care about it, but I think she really minds it. No matter how much pain she’s in, Shiori never complains to others, always carrying everything by herself, and I always find out afterwards.”

That’s right, Shiori was always like that; she never showed her true feelings.

“Why didn’t Shiori tell me she had a lover?”

“Because it was an affair.”

“Huh? How do you know?”

“The man in the picture is wearing a ring.”

Haruka looked at the picture again, and just like Yakumo said, there was a silver ring on the man’s left ring finger.

“Taking a picture with another girl while wearing his wedding ring, I question this man’s confidence.”

Yakumo didn’t have any right to talk about anyone else. He wasn’t much better off himself. But……

“Why didn’t she tell me about the affair?”

“If you knew, wouldn’t you have opposed of it?”

“I wouldn’t……”

The words had just left her mouth when Haruka remembered something. A long time ago, when she had heard that Shiori’s boyfriend was cheating on Shiori, she went to his house and demanded him to apologize.

“Nobody wants their lover to be rejected by their close ones.”

“What do you mean? Are you saying that it’s my fault? Are you saying that because I’m difficult and stubborn, that’s why Shiori never breathed a word about it to me?”

“What? Well, it’s good to know you’re aware of it.”

Even in times like these, Yakumo was still ruthless when he ridiculed someone.

After that, Yakumo had to investigate the case that Gotou had asked him to look into. After he instructed Haruka to return the keys to the real estate company he ran out of sight.

Gotou’s phone woke him up.

He remembered driving back to the police department……and then he seemed to have fallen asleep while he held the steering wheel, well who taught him to work around the clock without sleeping……

“Hello……”

Gotou didn’t check to see who had called. He had just woken up from his sleep and was not very happy when he answered his phone.

“Who is it? Oh, it’s Yakumo……”

Gotou rubbed his eyes, yawned and lit a cigarette.

“Really? What do you mean ‘who is it?’” Yakumo’s voice transmitted over from the other end of the phone, the sleepiness in his voice wasn’t much better than Gotou’s.

“Then……is there something wrong?”

“It’s about the case you asked me to look into, I have reliable information, but you don’t seem very interested about it, so I’ll hang up now.”

Gotou woke up immediately and jumped up from his seat.

“How’d you do it? What do you know?”

Gotou bombarded Yakumo with questions but it seemed that his voice didn’t reach Yakumo’s ears.

“That bastard! He actually hung up……”

Gotou clicked his tongue. What was that brat thinking? What did he take him as? Gotou immediately dialed Yakumo’s number, but no matter how many times he called, Yakumo wouldn’t answer his phone. Yakumo actually took pride in seeing him panic! Yakumo’s personality really was as bad as his wife who had left.

A full five minutes had passed when Yakumo finally answered up his phone.

“Yakumo, I’m really sorry about before, I’m reflecting on it, really.”

“Do you always apologize to your wife like this?”

Well! Gotou didn’t know what to say. If Yakumo was right in front of him he would’ve really wanted to beat him up, but in reality, even if Yakumo was right in front of him, requesting him to do something, he couldn’t hit Yakumo. He could only smile bitterly before getting down to business.

“What do you know?”

“Before I tell you I want you to help me find a person.”

“Who?”

“It’s a friend of hers.”

“Her……are you talking about Haruka?”

“Correct, her friends name is Shiori Itou……”

“Hey hey, slow down a second. Even if you’re the one requesting it, I can’t help you find a person, do you understand?”

What on earth was he thinking? Even if the situation was reversed, wasn’t he asking too much from him?

“Don’t be so quick to anger, listen to my explanation. Even if I don’t ask you to do this, you’ll still want to know what happened to her.”

Was Yakumo hypnotizing him?

“Is she a stunning beauty?” Gotou jokingly asked, but Yakumo turned a deaf ear to him.

“That Shiori girl terminated her lease on her apartment a few days ago; there was something interesting in her house.”

“What?”

“A picture with her lover.”

“That’s not unusual.”

“What if the person in the picture with her was Kenichi Katou. Are you still uninterested?”

“What did you say? She was Kenichi Katou’s mistress?”

Gotou excitedly hit the steering wheel, it let out an ear piercing honk, and it scared Gotou himself.

“Although I can’t say for sure, but I’m fairly certain that it’s not entirely unrelated to your case.”

It was like what Yakumo had said, after the man was murdered, his mistress’s whereabouts became unknown, this wasn’t a coincidence, there must be something connecting the two to each other.

“I’ll meet you in two hours.”

Gotou screamed before he hung up, and then he ran out of his car.

Once Haruka got home her doorbell began to ring. Who was it? Haruka looked through her peephole, once she saw that it was a postman standing outside she opened her door.

“Excuse me; you have a letter, could you please sign here?”

The postman handed her a letter with a return address, even though there was no name on the letter Haruka knew from first glance that the handwriting was Shiori’s. In her excitement she grabbed the letter from the postman’s hands.

“Excuse me, could you please sign.”

The postman prodded. Haruka snapped out of her reverie, she took the letter with her when she went to grab a pen, after she had signed and sent the postman away she closed her door.

Haruka’s hands shook as she tore open the envelope; she took out the five page letter and skimmed its contents. To Haruka……the far too angular letters for a girl were Shiori’s writings, Haruka had often teased her handwriting for being too boyish. It really was a letter written by Shiori, this was wonderful. Haruka’s heart surged.

Haruka remembered one of Yakumo’s theories, that Shiori, for some reason, had moved and didn’t have time to tell anyone, and once she had listened to Shiori explain why, she would think “Oh, I see” in relief.

Haruka returned to her room, sat down on her bed and began to read the letter.

The letter started with “I’m sorry.”

5

True to his word Gotou visited Yakumo’s place exactly two hours later.

“Gotou-san arriving on time is as rare as winning the lottery.”

Gotou was greeted by Yakumo’s straight to the point cynicism; if Yakumo didn’t ridicule or mock someone for a whole day would that means that he wouldn’t speak?

Gotou thought in his weariness while he sat down on a chair.

“Did you find any clues?”

“Easier said than done, in two hours, the best I could do was this much; the police’s capabilities aren’t limitless.”

“You were the one who said two hours.”

“Ok----ok----it’s all my fault.”

Gotou flung the envelope he brought with him onto the table.

Yakumo took out the files inside the envelope and began to read it.

“First of all, right now we only know her name, address, and her work place, but she quit a few days ago. She handed in her resignation by mail, I don’t know who, but it’s either the section chief or the department head who’s furious.”

Gotou remembered what had happened before and clicked his tongue unhappily.

“Also, what the hell did those guys take the police as?”

“Thank you for showing your abilities on a daily basis in order to protect the safety of the general public.”

Yakumo waved his hands to stop what Gotou was going to say and motioned him to continue explaining. Gotou cleared his throat embarrassedly and continued.

“A year ago, both of her parents died in a fire, her only living relative left was her grandma but her grandma has dementia and entered a nursing home. Both of her parent’s insurance money is enough for her grandma to spend the rest of her days in the nursing home. The grandmother doesn’t even remember her own granddaughter. The girl’s old house was also sold…….”

At that point, Gotou stopped and frowned.

“What?”

“I was just wondering why she didn’t go back to her old house after her parents died and then I remembered she has nowhere to go……”

“It seems that you can empathize with people a little more now.”

“You, out of all people, most definitely do not have the right to say that to me!”

Gotou said through gritted teeth.

“Anyway, since she has nowhere else to return to, where could she have gone?”

“A person with no place to return to can only go to one place……,” said Yakumo, his eyes displayed endless grief.

Then, where is the place that Yakumo can return to?

Gotou couldn’t help but wonder. Wasn’t Yakumo also a person with no place to return to?

“I wanted to check with the moving industry but I didn’t get anywhere with that.”

“Nowhere?”

“All her furniture and the like have been sold, she asked a dealer to get rid all of her other stuff, and on the same day she terminated her cell phone contract. It looks like she’s not planning on going anywhere or it could be like what you said……”

She wanted to die. A helpless women, after tragically losing her beloved, she had no reason to live anymore…… does one need a reason to be alive? Maybe it was her fatigue that caused her to not think clearly.

“In short, we have no idea where she is right now……Ah! I almost forgot, there’s another lead we got from the real estate company, and it’s very reliable. She doesn’t have any brothers or sisters but today there was a person who claimed her brother and borrowed the keys to her apartment, very suspicious, isn’t it? The police are now trying to identify him from a fingerprint.”

Yakumo raised his thumb to Gotou’s eye level.

“Huh? What?”

“Here.”

“What?”

“For the fingerprint on the key, here.”

“Huh?”

“I said, the person who pretended to be her brother and borrowed the key was me, so here’s my fingerprint.”

“Bastard! You should’ve told me that first! We’re already looking into it!”

“You should’ve asked. In short, please think of a good reason to cover this up.”

Gotou dejectedly collapsed, crestfallen. Not only was that the only lead they had, it also increased his workload. That demonic plague! Gotou cursed Yakumo over and over in his mind.

“But on the bright side, in the short period of two hours you were actually able to investigate this much.”

“Even though it’s a thousand times better than being praised by the head, it’s still not something I want to hear you say!”

Gotou pointed to Yakumo and shouted, venting out his anger and depression.

“In any case, I think that this Shiori girl is very suspicious, no offense to Haruka but she committed a crime. Disappearing after killing Emiko, its revenge for her deceased lover. It’s pretty reasonable, isn’t it?”

“Not at all,” Yakumo said, arms crossed over his chest.

“Why not?” Gotou stared at Yakumo.

“Wasn’t there a suicide note?”

“You don’t understand, for things like a suicide note or a will the perp could’ve taken a knife, or something of the like, and threaten her to write it.”

Gotou said and pretended to attack someone from behind.

“Will the handwriting still match if the person was being threatened to write it? Also, being forced to write a will means that she already knew that she was going to be murdered, if she knew that someone was going to save her then it wouldn’t be questionable, however this isn’t a suspense mystery drama playing two hours every day.”

He had a point. Gotou once again became crestfallen.

“Your initial theory is probably the most plausible.”

“Maybe……”

“I won’t be able to rest until this is solved. In this kind of desperate situation let’s go back to the crime scene……”

“Do you want to go?”

Gotou soon began to lift his spirits up.

After Haruka finished reading Shiori’s letter her mind was in a complete blank.

The contents of the letter were completely unbelievable, it was clearly Shiori’s handwriting, yet the writing was as if it was someone else.

The letter started with “I’m sorry”, firstly it explained the situation of Shiori’s lover, it was just like what Yakumo had predicted; they were having an affair. They met at a bar, and had talked with each other, because he was having fights with his wife he said that their home wasn’t his to return to anymore, this struck a chord with Shiori who also had no place else to return to. As a result they both treated the other as their own sanctuary.

Not long after, Shiori had gotten pregnant, he had decided to divorce his wife, at that time, he died, the cause of death was a heart failure. The blow of his death caused Shiori to have a miscarriage.

Yet Shiori could not believe it, she skeptically went to ask his wife, but the wife found her first, she told Shiori not to say a word and gave her a million yen in cash in return for Shiori’s silence.

At that moment, Shiori understood, she was the one who killed him……

Afterwards, she and his wife had a huge fight in front of the apartment.

From that moment on, Shiori began to loathe her, and began to harbor a murderous intent towards her. She had killed the one she loved, and she thought she could still give Shiori hush money and pretend that everything was all fine? Shiori couldn’t forgive her, and besides, Shiori herself had nothing else to lose.

As a result, Shiori decided to commit suicide after killing her.

Finally, the letter ended with three words, “I am sorry”---

And until now, about keeping Haruka in the dark about the matter was because she became a murderer and it would cause Haruka, her friend, trouble, in addition to her decision to commit suicide.

Selfish, she really was too selfish, actually bearing all of this by herself! Haruka would not let Shiori commit suicide. But she didn’t even know where Shiori was, how was she going to save Shiori……

That’s it! There was one person who might be able to save Shiori.

Haruka picked up her phone.

6

Gotou looked out of the driver’s seat window. Thick clouds drifted slowly overhead and began to cast the sky a layer of haze.

“Looks like it’s going to rain soon,” he said to Yakumo who sat on the co-driver’s seat.

However Yakumo did not seem to hear him, he was in deep thought. Gotou couldn’t guess what Yakumo was thinking about so he asked.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?”

“Nothing.”

Yakumo scrunched his face in annoyance. Yawn! Gotou speechlessly clicked his tongue.

At that moment a phone rang, but it wasn’t Gotou’s cell phone. Yakumo took his phone out of his pocket and answered it.

“Hello……”

Yakumo looked surprised. Although it wasn’t clear, but he could clearly hear a women’s voice on the other end, and she sounded anxious and panicked. Was it Haruka?

“First, please calm down; I can’t understand what you’re saying.” Yakumo seemed to not be able to take it anymore and said in a forceful voice.

“……so afterwards you received a letter……I got it…….and then……”

What a close call! Gotou only paid attention to Yakumo’s call, but ignored the traffic signs, Gotou stepped on the emergency brakes, he originally expected Yakumo to scoff at him, but Yakumo was focused on the conversation and didn’t say anything.

“I understand now……it was like that huh……so that’s what happened……”

Their conversation felt anxiously slow, but Yakumo seemed to have found out something from the panicked Haruka.

“I’ll call you later, wait for me.” Having said that Yakumo hung up.

“What happened? What were you talking about?”

“We were saying that even you have times when you’re right.”

Yakumo was just serious, but immediately reverted back to his old self.

“Stop joking around and tell me!”

“It was sent to her house.”

“Haruka’s?”

“Yes, that Shiori girl sent a letter to her house, the letter said that she was going to kill Emiko and then commit suicide……”

“What did you say? That’s insane! We need to stop that Shiori girl right now!”

“You say you want to stop her, but where are you going to find her?”

“Well, there are a lot of places……”

He was right; a lonely girl who didn’t even tell her closest friend, looking for her would be as hard as reaching for the sky.

“Besides, if she was bent on committing suicide then looking at the timeline she’d already be dead, because she’s already achieved her goal, if she had any other goals then, at the time, those would’ve been another matter. In other words, if she’s not dead now, then she doesn’t intend to die.”

“Having said that, no one can say that human emotions are like chemical reactions, only having one specific result.”

“That’s a difference in opinions.”

“But, if it’s like that then this case would end. We don’t need to go back to the crime scene again do we?”

Gotou prepared to turn the car around but was stopped by Yakumo.

“No, we still need to go, there’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“What’s been bothering you?”

“……”

After that Yakumo remained silent, perhaps he was using his unique method of thinking to organize the case. Even though Gotou had no other choice he still decided to go with Yakumo to the end.

Haruka hung up the phone however she still was not able to relax. Yakumo said that he would call her later, but later would be too late. During this time, Shiori might have already taken her life. The pain of losing her parents, her lover and their child may have taken away her purpose for life, but does she need a purpose to live? Maybe Haruka couldn’t imagine her sadness, but the lone death of Haruka’s sister had made her confused and bewildered, painfully living through the past years, maybe she wasn’t in the position to talk about others.

But even so, she still wanted Shiori to live, even if the path awaiting Shiori was harsh and difficult.

Haruka couldn’t continue to stay in her room and leisurely think about it, she needed to quickly find Shiori. Haruka stuffed the letter into her jacket pocked and left the room.

7

When Yakumo and Gotou arrived at the crime scene, it began to drizzle, the December rain was piercingly cold.

“I hope it doesn’t snow……” Gotou looked at the sky and mumbled.

Yakumo slowly walked into the burned building, even though he had entered the room, the ceiling and walls were almost completely burned, making it hard to call it a “home”; on the floor was scattered glass that had changed shape from the heat.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” Yakumo suddenly stopped, and said Gotou who was at his side.

“What?”

“After that Shiori girl killed Emiko, why did she send a will in Emiko’s name to the police?”

“That, well, of course it was to distract the police.”

“Was it really to do that?”

“What do you mean?”

“If it was to conceal her crime, then wouldn’t it mean that she wanted to live?”

“You’re not wrong.”

“Then, why did that Shiori girl write that letter to her? She was also planning on committing suicide……”

Yakumo wasn’t wrong. His heart began to clamor. A person planning on committing suicide would not need to make a murder look like suicide, it was then that he felt everything coming to light, but not completely, they seemed to have missed something.

It began to rain harder, the rain that had turned black because of the burnt coal trickled beside their feet; their visible breathing almost covered their vision.

Yakumo kneeled on one knee in front of the painted white outline of the victim’s body, eyes fixed on something.

“Can you see something?”

Yakumo didn’t answer Gotou. Did he not hear him? Or did he just not want to answer? Despite the fact that Gotou could not see anything, Yakumo probably saw something, looks like he could only wait. Gotou wanted to light a cigarette but couldn’t because of the humidity.

“Why are you here……” Yakumo murmured.

Raindrops hitting the ground were the only sound that echoed in the air. Gotou quietly waited.

“So it was like that……you were here from the start. If it was like that then…… she……”

Thunder crashing could be heard from afar.

“How can there be such a thing……if it was like that then……”

“Hey, Yakumo, what happened?”

“Gotou san, there’s something I want to confirm with the coroner, immediately.”

“The coroner? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t ask, hurry!” Yakumo bellowed.

Gotou had never seen Yakumo this worked up. It was a pressing matter. Gotou immediately called Hata.

“What?” Hata leisurely asked after the phone had ringed.

“There’s something I want you to confirm.”

“What is it?”

“Hey, Yakumo! What did you want to confirm?”

Yakumo didn’t answer Gotou; instead he grabbed the phone from Gotou’s hand.

“Before the body was burned did she have a right pinky?”

Yakumo clenched the phone in silence, looks like he was right, but Gotou didn’t not understand, why did that matter?

After Yakumo had hung up he quickly dialed another number.

She hadn’t thought much of it, but it started to rain harder.

Although she had rushed out of her home to find Shiori, could she really find Shiori like this? She had only succeeded in getting herself soaked and wandering on the streets.

The ringing of her phone mixed with the rain, it was an unknown number. Could it be? Haruka thought to herself, and picked up the phone.

“Are you ok? Where are you?”

It was Yakumo’s voice. What did he mean by “are you ok?”

“Where are you?”

Yakumo asked the uncertain Haruka again, he sounded exceptionally anxious.

“I’m……looking for Shiori……”

“Listen, go home, and don’t go out until I get there.”

“Why, I’m looking for Shiori……”

“She’s already dead!”

Unwanted rage stung deeply in her ears, she suddenly felt dizzy. Shiori was already dead……sure enough……surprisingly, the thought had already occurred to her. Her nose burned, her eyes felt hot, she couldn’t tell if it was rain on her face or her tears.

“If possible pick the most crowded route home.”

Crowded……Haruka looked around, she was at the hill on the way to Shiori’s, there was no one around, after all it was pouring…… She heard the sounds of a car engine; it was a van, slowly passing by Haruka. All of a sudden, the car doors opened, a quick hand grabbed Haruka from behind and into the van.

“Wa……”

Her cries were cut off by a pair of hands that covered her mouth.

“Hello? Answer me! Hello! Shit!”

With a roar Yakumo threw the phone on the ground, the case almost split into two, a few parts popped out.

“……Hey, that’s my phone……”

However Yakumo did not hear him, he picked up the remains of the cell phone. Ah, the phone was beyond the point of repair.

“Yakumo, listen, calm down, what on earth happened?”

Gotou grabbed his wrist to calm him down.

“Our theory was wrong!”

Yakumo said while taking Gotou’s hand off his wrist.

“Wrong?”

“Yes, wrong. The one who died in the fire wasn’t Emiko Katou, it was Shiori!”

“What, what are you saying?”

“Emiko’s still alive! Perhaps Emiko and Shiori’s figure and blood type were the same, so she used her as a substitute. I just confirmed it with the coroner; Shiori lost her right pinky in an accident.”

“The burnt body didn’t have a right pinky?”

“It didn’t. She deliberately sent the will to the police, and after she killed Shiori, she poured gasoline onto the body, and burned it along with the house. The brother, Junichi purposely parked illegally to delay the fire trucks; it was all so the body would be burned beyond identification! He parked his car on the road and then went to the police station so he would have an alibi. This way, all the inheritance would be the brother’s.”

Afterwards the two would split the inheritance……the already deceased wouldn’t be able to track them, hence they would get away unpunished, and live a luxurious life. A chill went up Gotou’s spine, doing such loathsome things made him sick to the stomach, they were no better than cockroaches!

However they still managed to outmaneuver them. Even if science continued to progress, the police didn’t have the money, time, and manpower to conduct DNA tests on every case; even if they collected enough evidence, everything would already be over. This was a major blind spot, which was why she had purposely sent the will to the police.

“This is bad! We need to find out where Emiko is.”

“It’s too late.”

“Too late?”

“Before Shiori died she sent a letter to her.”

“The letter that was mentioned before?”

“That’s right, however Emiko also knows about it.”

“How?”

“It was the diary. Shiori had the habit of daily writing in her diary and that diary is currently in the hands of Emiko.”

“!”

He knew why Yakumo was raging. In their plan there was only one miscalculation, and that was the letter Shiori had left.

“Then where’s Haruka? I’ll send some people over.”

“Someone hung up her phone after I heard her scream!” Yakumo weakly said.

This cold blooded creature was also capable of worrying about someone like a normal person? It was a real eye-opener. But nothing would take away his feelings, no matter what happened, he would always give Yakumo a helping hand. Motivation spurred Gotou on.

“Stop dilly-dallying and let’s go!”

Gotou rushed to his car, it was too early to give up.

Haruka was pushed onto the car’s backseat, she felt a cold blade on her throat, if she made on little move, the knife would cut her throat. Haruka had seen the man that was holding the knife before, on the day she had dreamed about Shiori, they met in front of the apartment, perhaps he had waited for an opportunity to kill her since then, yet what was his motive?

There was a woman in the driver’s seat, but Haruka couldn’t see her face. Her hair, slightly curled, gave off a full feeling. The smell of perfume filled the car.

“Where are you taking me?”

Haruka focused completely on her trembling throat, and asked, yet the two did not answer.

“Why were you looking for me? Who are you two?”

Cold sweat dripped down.

The car stopped at a red light, the woman in the driver’s seat immediately turned around and smiled, revealing stained yellow teeth from smoking.

“You’re right, I haven’t introduced myself yet! Haruka.”

“How do you know my name?”

“I heard from your friend, Shiori was it?”

“You know Shiori?”

Haruka barely leaned forward before the man beside her grabbed her hair and forced her back.

“Muttering this and that, you’re annoying me to death kid!” The man said while he twitched one cheek like a rat.

Looking closely, he resembled Shiori’s boyfriend but not quite. Although they had similar facial features, they had completely different demeanors. The man before her seemed cowardly.

“Me, I’m called Emiko Katou and he’s Junichi Katou.” The woman in the driver’s seat said.

Haruka instantly felt her blood being drained. She was Emiko Katou……Shiori should’ve already killed her……and yet she was alive and in front of her, that meant……

“Seems like you know everything.”

“……”

“That’s right; logically speaking I should be dead.

“No need to be afraid, I won’t do anything to you.”

Emiko stroked Haruka’s hair, Haruka felt a chill, and she couldn’t feel any trust behind Emiko’s words. If she truly wasn’t planning on doing anything to her then she wouldn’t have told Haruka her name

“We’re, looking for a letter. Do you have the letter?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

So this was their purpose. How did they know about the letter?

“Don’t lie!”

Emiko said and slapped her, Haruka wasn’t fast enough and was hit, her cheek burned with pain.

“There’s no use hiding it, it’s written clearly in this diary, she would only tell the truth to you, that’s why she sent you a letter……”

Emiko threw the diary to Haruka; Haruka didn’t say anything and hugged the diary tightly. She knew now. Shiori was killed by them as a substitute……a wave of grief rushed to Haruka.

“Tell me, where is the letter?”

“……”

“Although it’s very rude, we’ve already searched your room.”

“……”

Even if I die I won’t tell you. I will never forgive you people.

Emiko slapped her again; Haruka fell back on purpose, and pretended to groan painfully.

Sharp noises came from behind, the traffic light had turned green, and Emiko wordlessly started the car.

Haruka stealthily took the letter out of her pocked and stuffed it under the car seat, this way she could buy some time. However what could she do in that time? Maybe someone would come and rescue her. But who? She could only hope for one person--- the guy who did things his own way at his own pace.

Although they were in the car, where should they go next? They were as useless as headless flies. Where should they look for Haruka? Damn! What should they do? Gotou was silent.

“Gotou san, you mentioned before that Kenichi Katou’s parents left him some land, correct?”

“Yea, that’s right, but what does that matter?”

“Where’s the land?”

What was he thinking at a time like this? Gotou looked at Yakumo’s profile, he was serious.

“The burnt building was part of it, some of it is in Shizuoka and Nagano, there’s another piece of the land in town; I think it’s an apartment building.”

“They’re there,” Yakumo asserted firmly.

“Are you sure?”

Although Gotou had doubts, there was no other way; he stepped on the pedal, raising dirt before speeding away.

“They have to get that letter no matter what, so they’ll find a place with no people to interrogate the letter’s whereabouts.”

“So it’s like that……”

If he was wrong, then it would all be too late, even if they were able to bring Emiko to justice, they wouldn’t be able to change the fact that the number of bodies increased. Now, however, he could only put his trust in Yakumo’s deduction, perhaps Yakumo was more anxious than he was.

“I’m speeding up! Hold on!”

Gotou turned on the police siren and stomped on the gas pedal.

Emiko Katou drove the van into a construction site, the building was almost complete, only the interior was left to finish.

The car drove through two buildings and arrived at the entrance of the basement. Following the slope down into the basement, they then turned left and drove to the end. The only light was from the headlights of the van.

Junichi pulled Haruka out of the car; she lost her balance and fell face first to the ground, clutching the diary. Her lips were slightly cracked, and her face distorted in pain, but before she could take a breath Junichi once again pulled her to her feet by her hair.

“I can stand up by myself, let me go!” Haruka yelled and waved away Junichi’s hand.

Emiko operated a switch like control on the wall, the sound of an electric motor grating against metal was heard; the door seemed to be closed. Haruka’s face was bruised; her spark of hope had quickly blown out, by doing that, the parking lot turned into a confined space.

Haruka knew that she was trapped in, she closed her eyes. She didn’t want to! The person who killed her friend was right in front of her yet she couldn’t do a thing……

No, if she was killed, at least Yakumo would be able to find the truth; that was her only salvation. If she died, then would that insensitive, indifferent, eccentric and arrogant person feel sad? Haruka suddenly thought.

“I hope we make it in time……” Gotou muttered, he was sweating out of anxiety.

“Please make it in time.”

“Hey hey, it’s easy for you to say.”

“Even you think it’s difficult?”

This guy, not knowing when to be quiet even at a time like this.

“Easy as pie.”

Gotou hadn’t once stepped on the brake, he roughly honked and started passing cars.

Cars close to the sidewalk braked, honked and cursed at Gotou’s reckless driving, but Gotou didn’t listen. This was not the time to care about the little things, being late by a minute or a second could lead to incomparable consequences.

It was an urgent situation. As long as Haruka didn’t give them the letter then all could be saved. Don’t give up, I’m on my way with Yakumo, so you have to hold out! Gotou sent the message that couldn’t be sent in his heart as support.

Clang!

There was a severe impact followed by a loud noise.

The car rushed onto the sidewalk, knocked down three bicycles and then hit a telephone pole.

There were cracks all over the windshield. Damn! It just had to be at this time. Gotou thought in displeasure. His forehead felt sticky, he reached to touch it; his hand was stained with blood. He looked over to Yakumo.

“Are you all right?”

“Fortunately……” Yakumo pressed his shoulder and answered.

Gotou looked back, a black car was parked on the street, the car’s bumper was crushed but it was only a small collision, the only ones that were injured were Yakumo and himself.

Gotou tried to start the engine, but it wouldn’t fire, he tried again, it still didn’t start. Shoot! Please, please start!

Junichi took off Haruka’s jacked and searched its pockets, Emiko stood behind Haruka, and without restrain she put her hands into the pocket of Haruka’s pants and clothes, Haruka could only endure the humiliation.

“There’s nothing here.”

Junichi said while he threw her jacket aside, Emiko also seemed to have given up and walked in front of Haruka, pulling out a knife.

“Just tell me, where is the letter?”

It would be lie to say that Haruka wasn’t scared, but she wouldn’t yield, this was the only thing she could do now. Haruka stared straight at Emiko.

“You don’t think that you can get out of this unscathed do you? Let me tell you something, in reality, even the protagonist die.”

“I know that, but even if I told you, you don’t intend to let me go.”

After a second, Emiko punched her, the strength of the punch was stronger than the slap, Haruka saw stars, and she backed into the car and fell to the ground on her butt, the smell of blood spread in her mouth.

“Just tell me! I don’t have time to do this with you!” Emiko shouted, disheveled.

How satisfying! No matter how fierce they were, they were still feeling uneasy, if they had no way of knowing the whereabouts of Shiori’s letter, then they could only restlessly think about their demise.

That’s right! Maybe she could use their anxiety in her favor…… but even if they were panic stricken, she had no chance of winning against two people. She needed to think of a way to reduce the number of people on the other side, and if possible leave only Emiko.

“If I tell you where the letter is, will you really let me go?”

Emiko looked shocked, but the expression immediately changed into a dirty smile.

“Of course, miss.”

Liar. Haruka thought.

“The letter’s in my room.”

“Stop lying, we’ve already looked through your room.”

“Did you do it thoroughly? Did you also check the refrigerator?”

An idea had hit Haruka and she had told a huge lie. She wasn’t Yakumo, how could she put everything into the refrigerator. Junichi looked up, thinking.

“Ah!”

Junichi speechlessly ran to the car, Emiko threw him the car keys. Success! It looked as if they hadn’t looked in the refrigerator. Junichi opened the door, tires screeching, and left. There was only Emiko and her left.

“If you’re lying, I won’t let you go.”

How would she not let her go? Haruka stood up, back still against the car; she looked straight at Emiko and smiled. Emiko expression stiffened.

“Why did you kill Shiori? Because she took your husband?”

“You’re wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“Yes, wrong.”

Emiko proudly looked down at Haruka, sneered, put a cigarette into her mouth, lit it and puffed smoke at Haruka.

“This was all carefully planned. Killing my husband and making it look like he died of an illness, deliberately letting the police figure out that it was a murder, and letting your friend discover that I was the one who killed my husband……”

“You were planning on killing Shiori from the start.”

“That’s right! The plan wouldn’t have succeeded without your friend; no, I should say that the appearance of your friend made me think of this plan. We have the same figure and blood type, plus the fact that both of her parents were dead, she has no one to rely on, making her the perfect double for me, don’t you think so?”

“Not at all! Shiori wasn’t born to become your double! She had her own life! And you destroyed it!” Haruka shouted with all her might.

She would never forgive the women in front of her! It was the first time in her life that Haruka wanted to kill someone.

“Stop pretending to be a know-it-all!”

Emiko punched Haruka, but Haruka stood her ground.

“If your friend hadn’t had an affair with my husband then she wouldn’t have been caught up in this, it’s her own fault. She was too committed to their forbidden romance, and in the end burned herself while playing with fire!”

Emiko laughed out loud.

“In reality, it’s because your husband was taken away from you that you’re bitter.”

“Sassy little girl! You’re of no use anymore; go to hell!”

Emiko pressed the knife onto Haruka’s throat, she felt a chill.

It was already too late.

Haruka closed her eyes.

The end of life came so easily.

In short, after she died she’d go to Yakumo.

Yakumo would find her.

Even so, he would use that same bleary eyed expression and say something sarcastic like “why are you here”……

“Don’t give up……”

A voice said beside Haruka’s ear, it was Shiori’s.

Haruka opened her eyes, hope shined before her eyes.

She used all her strength to push Emiko aside, Emiko staggered back and fell to the ground on her butt; she looked in disbelief for a moment before getting up and rushing towards Haruka. “You’ve made a fatal mistake.”

Haruka pointed at Emiko, she stopped.

“A fatal mistake?”

“Yes, a fatal mistake. Besides you two, there are other people who also know about the existence of the letter, moreover they have already figured out the truth.”

“Stop trying to scare me!”

Emiko shouted, but her eyes were insecure, and wavering. She had detected the change in Haruka’s demeanor; it was already too late to figure out what happened.

“If you think I’m lying then turn around.”

Hearing that, Emiko slowly turned around like a rusty robot and was dumbfounded.

Yakumo and Gotou were standing behind her.

“Emiko Katou, you have a lot of explaining to do,” Gotou said, face covered in mysterious blood, while holding his police badge.

Emiko opened her mouth to talk, but only closed it, not forming a sentence.

“Ah, also, we accidently ran into Junichi at the entrance, he’s already under arrest.”

Emiko stood transfixed, naturally, because their plan had been a complete failure, she had no way of escaping. Gotou put a hand on Emiko’s shoulder, but in that moment --- Emiko suddenly spun to face Haruka, charging at her with the knife, Gotou tried to stop her but was one step too late, Emiko dodged his arm and sprang at Haruka.

All this played out in slow motion in front of Haruka.

Fear made her unable to move.

Yakumo seemed to have said something.

You’ll be stabbed!

The thought flashed through Haruka’s mind, suddenly someone stood in front of her.

Emiko fell forward before she could reach Haruka, the knife fell out of her hands; Gotou crouched over her to immobilize her.

“Are you ok?”

Yakumo rushed to Haruka’s side, Haruka just stared ahead blankly.

“Shiori……Shiori saved me.”

Haruka sank to the floor.

“Aah, that’s right, she saved you.”

“Thank you,” Haruka said to air.

“Can you see her?”

Yakumo asked. Haruka shook her head.

“I can’t see her, but I can feel it, Shiori’s here right now……”

Haruka hugged Shiori’s journal to her chest, the journal had the faint scent of cinnamon.

“So it was that, I understand, I understand now.”

Haruka chuckled, she knew Shiori’s secret ingredient for making cocoa; the secret ingredient was cinnamon.

“Many people have saved you…… maybe it’s because they want you to do something,” Yakumo said thoughtfully, Haruka nodded slightly.

Looking at Yakumo’s face, the suppressed and mixed emotions in Haruka’s heart washed over her, she bit her lower lip but couldn’t suppress the flood of tears.

Haruka clung to Yakumo and burst into tears.

8

After being interrogated, Emiko had confessed to everything. According to DNA tests, the burnt body was indeed Shiori's, Emiko and Junichi were prosecuted for the murders of two people, even though they didn’t know how many years they would spend in jail, it was going to be hard for them to escape life imprisonment.

Gotou was about to recount what happened next, however Yakumo looked disinterested.

“I can’t believe this, I came all the way to tell you about this and yet, you just look uninterested.”

“It’s no use telling me to be excited about this right now, I’ve did everything I could do. And about the truth, even if I didn’t listen to the police reports I know what happened; besides, the information Shiori’s ghost gave us was the key to the case, the police probably covered that up. The report’s slightly different from the truth, isn’t it?”

“Ok, ok, ok, I got it!”

Gotou feebly waved his hands; he was the one who didn’t know anything at first so he wanted to explain it to him.

“What I want to know is what's your punishment.”

It was a nuisance of a topic, even though Gotou had cracked the case, he didn’t receive any praise, because when he was chasing the criminal, he had unexpectedly hit a car and left the scene.

“All in all, before my punishment is handed to me, I have to stay at home and reflect on my actions, I may also be fired.”

“Misfortune never comes singly.”

He had actually said it like what happened had nothing to with him! Although Gotou wanted to tell Yakumo, “You’re also partly responsible!” He didn’t, at least they rescued Haruka; it was a fortunate turnout considering his misfortunes.

“But it’s not all bad.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your wife probably came back, right?”

Gotou’s eyes widened.

“How did you know?”

“Hata-san told me.”

“How do you know Hata-san……”

Gotou stopped halfway through, he had a general idea of what might’ve happened, that old man wanted to satisfy his desires by any means necessary.

"However, it’s rare for your wife to come home, if you lose your job, she’ll probably leave again.”

“Don’t worry about that, besides I have a plan.”

“It probably isn’t a very good plan.”

“I’ve made up my mind! I want to open a detective agency.”

“Then please work hard.”

Yakumo yawned loudly.

“I’ve been thinking; if I were to open a detective agency, then I’ll need to hire an excellent assistant.”

Gotou smiled warmly at Yakumo.

“Please don’t look at me like that, it’s nauseating.”

“Think about it?”

“No chance in hell.”

Humph! Gotou snorted.

“You have something else to tell me, don’t you?”

Yakumo crossed his hands over his chest, and looked at the ceiling. His exceptional human perception shocked Gotou; he had already seen though him. To tell the truth, he was still wondering if he should tell Yakumo or not, he couldn’t predict what Yakumo’s reaction would be, from his point of view, he honestly didn’t want Yakumo to know, but even if he hid it from him now, one day Yakumo would still have to face it. Gotou steeled himself and told Yakumo.

“As a matter of fact, when the police were interrogating Emiko, she said something strange.”

“Strange?”

“Yes, she said that the one who plotted this wasn’t her.”

“Was it Junichi?”

“It wasn’t him…… a man went to Emiko’s place one day, he seemed to have known her plan to kill her husband and helped her to plan it.”

“……”

“She remembers asking him his address, occupation and name, but she can’t recall it now, if it was a lie to get an acquittal it’s too vague, but she doesn’t remember the man, even if we believed her we can’t do anything.”

“And yet, your think that……”

“Yes, I think there’s a possibility that she was hypnotized or of the sort, and a part of her memory has been removed, and the only thing she remembers about that man troubles me.”

“What is it? Stop dragging it and tell me.”

“That man was said to have crimson red eyes……”

Yakumo just quietly listened.

“……That man actually tricked……” Yakumo said after a period of silence.

Sure enough! Yakumo’s one sentence confirmed Gotou’s uneasy thoughts.

He wanted to believe it was just a one-time occurrence, but he could only pray that it wasn’t the start of a chain of horrifying incidents.

Haruka visited Yakumo two days after Shiori’s memorial service and funeral, it had been a long time since she’d last worn a skirt and high heels, it made her feel uncomfortable.

“Are you feeling better?”

Haruka nodded at Yakumo’s inquiry. Yakumo dropped his shoulders with a sigh.

“About that……I felt that……”

“What?”

“……No, it’s nothing.”

“Why are you hesitating, if you have something to say then say it!”

Yakumo crossed his arms over his chest, thought for a while and said.

“A person who normally chatters about, but then suddenly stops talking, is going to harm their body.”

“What are you saying? Don’t talk about people as if they’re noisy footsteps.”

“Isn’t it true?”

Haruka was once again silenced by Yakumo’s language, but she felt slightly saved. After the incident she seldom left her house, she didn’t eat, she just repeatedly read Shiori’s diary, crying for days, but now she felt herself gradually become calmer.

“Shiori’s saying ‘thank you’.”

“Can you see her?”

Haruka leaned and asked Yakumo. Yakumo nodded without a word.

“I’m the one who should be thanking you. And I’m sorry.”

Haruka slowly looked around the silent room, and said quietly.

“Can Shiori hear me?”

“Yes, and, Shiori has something to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“Although I’m not sure what she’ talking about, she's saying ‘he’s unexpectedly a good man.’ Also, she says you get emotional during critical times, she wants you to be more honest……”

Haruka couldn’t help but chuckle, Yakumo tilted his head quizzically.

“Help me tell her to mind her own business.”

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing, absolutely nothing.”

Not bothering to ask her anymore, he sighed. Anyhow it was probably about some trivial matters. Haruka looked at his expression and laughed out loud.

“I’ve always been thinking, if I was able accept different opinions, and not be prejudiced about affairs, then maybe Shiori would’ve told me sooner…… I regret it. I feel that I’m narrow-minded.”

“What about it?”

“What do you mean?”

“If you were a sensible and mature adult, then Shiori wouldn’t have confessed to you now would she?”

Haruka thought hard about the meaning of Yakumo’s words, but she still was unable to comprehend any of it. Yakumo looked at the frowning Haruka, shrugged and said.

“Human interaction is complicated.”

“Your explanation is still confusing.”

“……In short, you’re fine the way you are now.”

“Stop calling me ‘you’.”

“If now, what should I call you?”

“Calling me by my name would be fine.”

“I refuse!” Yakumo rudely replied.

He drank his tea; Haruka looked at her watch, confirmed the time and stood up.

“I have to go.”

Nevertheless Yakumo didn’t say a word, he yawned like a cat. Did he not say “goodbye” or something along the lines of “See you next time”? But then again, if he did say something like that, it would’ve made her uncomfortable.

“Even if there’s nothing next time, can I still come over?”

Yakumo was silent. Haruka desolately put her hand on the handle.

“Do me a favor; don’t bring anymore trouble next time you come.”

Haruka looked back; Yakumo remained sleepy eyed as he drank his tea.

“You don’t need to tell me that. I know how to make the most delicious cocoa known to man-kind; I’ll make it for you next time.”

Haruka opened the door and left Yakumo’s room.

However, what Haruka didn’t expect was that what happened next would make her break her promise with Yakumo.

-End of Volume 1-

It was about a certain afternoon, after about a week had passed since the tunnel incident--.

Stopping by the library to finish a report, I caught a glimpse of that guy’s figure.

Stirring up his bed hair, with sleepy eyes behind which was sarcastic Saitou Yakumo.

With an unusually serious expression, he was looking at the back covers of the books that were on the bookshelf one by one.

I, for some reason didn’t call out to him immediately, but while standing upright looking like an idiot, was staring at Yakumo’s figure intently.

Unexpectedly meeting someone, I was nervous more than it was necessary.

Illuminated by the orange-colored light of the dusk that was drawing near, that graceful profile was looking more than conspicuous.

Even though he’d be cool if he was silent.

“Is something the matter?”

Yakumo said with his eyes fixed on the bookshelf as they were.

Thinking that he had noticed that I was there, my body becoming hot as if it had caught on fire, I dropped my glance down to my feet.

“N-Nothing…… I thought I’ll finish my report.”

“I see.”

Even while that short answer, Yakumo didn’t turn his eyes away from the bookshelf.

“What are you doing?”

“Searching.”

“What are you searching for?”

“If there is someone who’s searching for clothes in a library, I want you to introduce him to me.”

Why, can’t he use other speaking style than that? I’d say he’s not honest or something.

But, through the two cases I came to understand. My body won’t take it, being this much angry with Yakumo. To elude it is the best.

“What’s the book’s title?”

Even though I didn’t have the intention to say anything odd, with wrinkles gathering on his forehead, Yakumo looked my way with a doubtful expression.

“What will you do if you know?”

“I’ll help you.”

“Why?”

What ‘why’--.

“Rather than one person, two people searching for it is faster, right?”

While folding his arms, Yakumo was silent.

He probably thinks that there isn’t anyone that would do something for the sake of another person unconditionally. That is such a sad thing.

“Gankutsuou.”*

• The Count of Monte Cristo – a novel by Alexander Dumas. Gankutsuou is the Japanese translation of the title. There is even an anime version of it.

Yakumo that was silent for a little while, before long opened his mouth to murmur.

“Gankutsuou?”

“That’s right. Alexander Dumas.”

“Gankutsuou by Dumas, is it.”

While thinking it over, I walked over to the side of the library’s entrance where the computer terminal was.

“Where are you going?”

While complaining, Yakumo came to meet me halfway.

I thought about it before in the previous incidents that Yakumo, although he has good head, because of living in a clubroom, he has a terribly analogue spot.

“In this era, you can check where the book is placed on the computer terminal.”

I told that to Yakumo, my words filled only with sarcasm.

Yakumo, snorting with nose “Hm,” plainly turned his face away. This time he didn’t talk back. Serves you right.

At the computer terminal’s touch panel I looked up ‘Gankutsuou’ and immediately the target was found.

I didn’t know because I haven’t read it, but it was in the library up to seventh volume. It’s quite an epic.

“Uhm…… Because it’s in the foreign paperback books corner, it should be the shelf D-1.”

“Wrong.”

Yakumo cut in without a moments delay.

“Eh?”

“The one I’m searching for is the hard-cover one.”

“To read it, either one is fine.”

“Not good. If it’s not the hardcover one, it’s not good.”

“Why?”

“No matter what.”

I didn’t understand the reason to be particular about it to that extent at all. Perhaps, the translation in the hard-cover publication differs, is it such a thing maybe?

My friend too, there are people who enjoy discovering such differences.

Let me see. Hard-cover edition is-

Once again I turned my glance to the list displayed on the monitor.

“Found it. Errr… Ah, it’s in the custody of the storehouse.”

Our university’s library is not so spacious. The old books that couldn’t fit in were periodically transferred to storehouse; picking out only the necessary ones was a formality.

“No wonder I couldn’t find it.”

Yakumo blunted out, while stirring up his hair.

After that, we borrowed the key from the library’s librarian teacher, and together with Yakumo I headed to the storehouse in the basement.

In the space of about forty yards of undressed concrete, book-packed cardboard boxes were piled up in simplicity.

I turned my eyes to one of the cardboard boxes; only a date was written in the magic ink maker.

Perhaps, it’s the date when it was transferred to the storehouse from the library.

“From the data, it had been transferred here two years ago on the 10th March.”

“10th March.”

Yakumo, shortly answering, started to work on confirming the dates one-by-one staring from the cardboard box by his hand.

At any rate--.

“It’s a great amount.”

The cardboard boxes were piled up to such height that you had to look up.

It’ll take a very great extent of time just to confirm the dates. Besides, we don’t know how many of the cardboard boxes that have the same date are there.

To look for one copy of a book from among that is enough work to cause our bones to break.

“Is really the paperback one not enough?”

“Annoying. I didn’t say a word that you have to help me.”

Yakumo said in a tone of a blunt refusal.

I wonder why he can’t use another speaking style than that.

While bearing my stomach, leaving behind my bag on the work rack close-by, together with Yakumo I started to work on confirming the dates on the cardboard boxes.

“Why did you suddenly want to read that book?”

Right after I had checked the first cardboard box, I tried asking Yakumo.

Because he went this far to search for it, there must be some special reason.

“I have no intention to read it.”

“Eh?”

At Yakumo’s words, unintentionally my hands came to a halt.

“What?”

“Why are you searching for a book you won’t read?”

“If you have time to spare for chattering, move those hands.”

“Yes, yes. I got it.”

“One ‘yes’ is enough.”

Even though a while ago you said ‘I didn’t say a word that you have to help me.’

After that, without almost exchanging any words, our monotone work in search of ‘Gankutsuou,’ continued with opening the cardboard boxes with the date 10th March written on it.

“This is it.”

After about an hour of work, Yakumo raised his voice while standing up.

Yakumo, putting the book on the work rack, wiped the sweat from his forehead and begun flipping through the book’s pages.

Between the very last pages a white envelope was caught in.

“Found it.”

Yakumo said as he relaxed his shoulders with a whiff.

“Did you perhaps search for this?”

“Right. It’s this.”

In a matter-of-fact manner, Yakumo took the envelope in his hands and briskly walked away.

“In that case, say it first.”

I was complaining, while catching up from behind in haste.

“You didn’t ask.”

This again. Moreover--.

“I asked properly.”

“Don’t take everything so seriously. And also, I leave the key to you.”

Yakumo, saying that, quickly left the storehouse. Without even thanking for the help.

Nevertheless, the key--.

“Duh! What’s with that!”

I’ll absolutely make him apologize. After turning off the electricity and locking up, in a big hurry I chased after Yakumo.

Running up the stairs, in addition of getting out of the school building, I was finally able to catch up with Yakumo before the maple tree in the courtyard.

“Why are you so selfish? I lent you a hand so explain it to me!”

I shouted facing Yakumo’s back.

Yakumo stopped walking, after he shook his head from side to side from disappointment, he finally started to explain.

“A certain student that attended this university wrote a letter addressed to her parents’ home. The woman put it in her bag with this book she borrowed from school and left her home.”

“And the envelope had been caught inside the book.”

“That’s right.”

But--.

“Why did you do that, Yakumo?”

“I was asked by that woman.”

“Really.”

Telling that to myself, it had become a somewhat dispirited reply.

Yakumo, this uncooperative person, that was drawing a line between him and other people, was purposely making an effort to search; it must be a close female friend--.

At the same time as I was thinking of that, I felt a pain inside my chest.

What am I worrying about. It’s not strange at all that there can be a woman he’s going out with.

In the first place, it’s not a reason for me to worry about it.

“And secondly. She has one more request,” said Yakumo while he yawned hugely.

“W-What?”

“To put this letter in the post box.”

While saying that, Yakumo held out the envelope.

“Eh, me?”

“Yeah.”

“Isn’t it better if the person herself sent it?”

“Can’t.”

“Why?”

“The woman, after she ran away from home, jumped in front of a car and died.”

At Yakumo’s words my body shook from a big shock.

I see. Yakumo was requested by that woman who died. That she wishes to search for a letter she wasn’t able to send to her parents--.

“Hey. Isn’t it better to explain the circumstances to the parents?”

Like that, I let out of my mouth what was I thinking of.

“That’s unnecessary.”

“But if we suddenly sent it like that, they might think it’s a prank.”

“If they’re the parents, they’ll realize it’s not a prank when they see the handwriting.”

“But…”

“With this, she’ll stop haunting me.”

Said that Yakumo while he turned around.

It was a desire said to oneself; I felt as if my chest was tightening and I immediately realized that that had been wrong.

Yakumo’s glance was turned to the tree’s branches that have lost all their leaves.

Surely, Yakumo is looking where there is someone.

I too was staring at the same place. Only for a second, I thought I’d seen a woman’s figure lowering her head deeply.

But it was probably only a hallucination.

“Dear me.”

Yakumo thus murmured, yawned hugely as if from boredom and while scratching in his bed-ridden hair he walked away in a leisurely manner.

Yakumo is sarcastic, not honest at all, but no matter what is said, if he sees a troubled person he just can’t leave them alone.

As I thought that, somehow my heart danced.

“Hey. I helped you. You should at least thank me.”

I ran to catch up with Yakumo.