Case 13: Spiritual Paths (2)

…Umm, right.

Incidentally, the person emitting this strange, high-tension voice was the aforementioned Krishna-san, aka Shiina Kurimoto.

She had a baby face and looked to be no more than a middle school student, but at the age of twenty-one, she was the president as well as the manager of one of Japan's largest occult websites. And now, the farewell party for Karasu-san had been upgraded to the regular year-end party for Ikaigabuchi, as well as a special farewell thanks from everyone because the site was being closed; Everyone had moved to the banquet hall on the second floor of a popular izakaya behind the station.

“—Hey, hey, do you drink? Are you drinking, Nagi-kun!?”

She slithered up to me on all fours on the tatami mat with her face flushed red, but she hadn’t actually drunk a drop of alcohol. In other words, Krishna-san had no disposition for alcohol at all, seeing as how she transformed into a truly spectacular drunkard just by smelling alcohol like this.

“I don’t drink. I’m still only nineteen.”

“Why arench’ya drinking! Nineteen is no different from twenty!”

“Krishna-san, you’re slurring.”

“Fudging the subject! I dun’ know nuthin about nineteen or twenty!”

“The wall that separates the two is higher than any other age…”

“The high’er the wall the bett’r the pay off! Can ya still say yer a man? Are ya a man? Doncha think a girl would swoon all ova’ the face of a boy who makes that challenge?”

“Um, no, you’re getting way off topic there…”

Thereupon—

“K-u-ri-mo-to! K-u-ri-mo-to!”

The regulars of Ikaigabuchi began chanting vigorously and perplexingly in unison. As soon as they started, Krishna-san stood up with a beaming smile on her face and started jumping up and down.

“When she’s encouraged like this, Krishna-san is really funny.”

Without a moment’s delay, Zippo-san, one of the regulars, whispered in a small voice in my ear.

“And, it’s a real feast for the eyes.”

Harley-san whispered briefly, and I looked once more to see--- Oohhh. Krishna-san’s bust that had matured much more than necessary, was bonging vigorously up and down, left and right, each time she would jump up and down.

“…Fuwoo,”

I was on the verge of a nosebleed.

“I can’t bear it.”

“It’s impossible to bear it.”

“The thing under the clothes is, how should I say…?”

“It's so vivid in my mind that I can almost dream about it.”

Not noticing the passionate sighs of the men, Krishna-san danced a rather incomprehensible dance with a folding fan in hand, given to her by someone else.

“Come to think of it, Karasu-san was the one who came up with this performance.”

At someone's words, I took another look around the group of red-faced drunks who were clustered around the tatami matted space of around 50 sqm. It was, without a doubt, the usual offline meeting of ‘Ikaigabuchi’. However, Karasu-san was not present there anymore. Even though she was nowhere to be seen, the image of her clapping to the beat and rolling around in laughter still came vividly to mind.

“That person was always a genius at stirring up the place and getting things going.”

“But, she was also a genius at spotting the person who was down and being there for them.”

“She would be the nice person that would tell them exactly what they needed to hear at the time.”

Those mixed words of sorrowful farewells, gratitude and affection filled the hall---

And I realized. Karasu-san was loved by everyone. And knowing Karasu-san, she would have loved everyone in return, and she loved this kind of ‘Ikaigabuchi’. She treasured them from the depths of her heart: the bold nature of the people who would even enjoy the depths of the world beyond despite its vast darkness.

“She might have been happy…”

I unconsciously ended up mouthing those words, and Yukihito-kun besides me, cocked his head in puzzlement, so I explained in an embarrassed manner.

“…No, umm. That bastard Sako once told me that the strongest attribute in this world is to be a true masochist. The type of attribute that goes beyond just being thickheaded, that it can turn this hopeless world into pleasure alone. I didn’t understand it at the time – but, now that I recall Karasu-san like this, I think I get it. Of course, I miss her too. I mean, I still can’t believe it, and I probably won’t be able to accept her death for many years to come. There are many things I don't understand, such as the fact that she threw away her name, or that she carried with her something so heavy she could never tell people about in detail. But, Karasu-san tried to enjoy even that, and in fact did succeed in enjoying it, somehow…I understand that completely now.”

In response, Yukihito-kun gave a small nod and then a small smile.

“She, was really quite cool.”

“Aah.”

“She was tough in some ways, but she was smart, humorous, and cute.”

“…….Hmm, Yukihito-kun, is it possible that…?”

“…Eh?”

“Is it possible that you had a crush on Karasu-san?”

“…S, sorry, but.”

A bashfulness slipped in and out of view behind the mask the honor student wore, to which I replied.

“I mean, I’m the same. Or rather, it’s the same for everyone in ‘Ikaigabuchi’.”

Reflexively, I poured some more orange juice in Yukihito-kun’s glass, and toasted it together with my glass of cola. Clink A pleasant sounding noise chimed out, and at the same time, for some reason, I thought of Akane Nanamori, who had passed away at the same time.

That child would suffer no longer, right?

Was she missed, appreciated and given a warm send off like Karasu-san?

When I was hospitalized, Akane’s parents came to visit me once, but I don’t remember their faces anymore.

I closed my eyes and leaned back against the wall alone, with the glass in one hand. I ignored the tumult around me and was on the verge of recalling something else that was important— when I suddenly opened my eyes. I looked around the tumultuous drunken crowd in the banquet hall once more.

In the corner of the tatami room that was around 50 sqm in space, where everyone was merry and making a ruckus— was a vacant seat.

“Say, that chair…”

I asked Yukihito-kun. “Is someone late?”

In response, ‘Eh’, Yukihito-kun looked at me and after that, “A…ah, ummm that’s right.” He nodded.

Something didn’t feel right with the way he vaguely answered that question—

“But, it’s that you see—”

A carefree and inarticulate voice was raised up from somewhere.

“It’s quite boring if we all keep repeating that Karasu-san was beautiful, funny, and wanted to get married and so forth.”

The party soon switched to everyone offering their dedications to Karasu-san. I looked to see that the petite, bob haired occult site manager, who had been dancing and jumping up and down just now, had rolled over and fallen asleep next to me.

“Won’t it be better for someone to tell a ghost story as a farewell?”

“That sounds good.”

“Well then, allow me.”

“No, no, let me do it.”

What was wrong with these people? I was appalled, but it couldn’t be helped since this was the basic nature of the ‘Ikaigabuchi’ offline meetings that Karasu-san loved so much.

“Ah, speaking of ghost stories.”

The gentleman who butted in at that point went by the handle name of ‘Professor’, he was rumored to be a professor at a certain private university.

“The story, ‘The Overlapping house’ that was on ‘Ikaigabuchi’ a while ago was interesting.”

“Ah, it really was. I mean, six overlapping is a lot.”

…Overlapping? Six?

I cocked my head in puzzlement. I hadn’t checked the ‘Ikaigabuchi’ forums recently, so I didn’t know what they were talking about.

“Sorry, what’s this story about? What do you mean by six?”

“Umm, you know about spiritual paths, right? There was a place where six of them overlapped.”

--Spiritual paths.

If I remember correctly, I had heard of them from Krishna-san once before. Firstly, you look up the location of old temples(apparently cemeteries, graves and memorial towers were also included) on old maps, and then connect the temples to each other with a line. The points where the temple lines overlapped were called ‘Kegarechi’*, and points where ‘Kegarechi’ overlapped on to ‘Kegarechi’ were said to be ‘spiritual paths’. The reason for this is that spirits who are sure they had to go to their graves after they died wander between houses and gravesites.

“A little while ago, Kaiko-san* got a hold of the old maps of this area.”

Suu-san spoke with a red face.

“So, to pass the time, he tried to connect temples, small shrines, and the ruins of all kinds of memorial towers with a line. By doing that, he found a dangerous place where six lines overlapped with each other. When he checked it out, he found that it was an empty house again. He didn’t know how it came to be empty, but when he indirectly asked the people in the neighborhood, strange stories kept coming up. Stories of a woman peeping through a gap in the shoji on the second floor when no one was supposed to be living there, or hearing someone’s laughter in the middle of the night, or a sharp metallic sound ringing out at times, and so on.”

A shiver suddenly ran through my back.

“That is probably close to the stationery shop at the back of city hall.”

“Ahh, is it the shop which always has its shutters closed?”

“Was it a stationery shop before?”

Those kinds of conversations took place with Suu-san at the center, and I interrupted.

“How do you know about it?”

“Hey, hey, don’t be looking down on liquor stores, Nagi-kun. A liquor store with a large delivery network is familiar with the map of the city and the family structures, and rumors keep coming in even if you don’t like ‘em. If you wanna ask for directions on a trip, you ask a taxi first, and a liquor store second.”

“But.”

Thereupon Harley-san cut in the conversation.

“When the thread was blowing up with discussions about the nature of the sound and the laughter – the entire thread ended up disappearing.”

“Disappearing? Why is that?”

“Why, you ask…it’s obvious.”

Harley-san motioned his chin right next to me. At that moment, a happy-looking Krishna-san had rolled over in her sleep, and ended up using my knee as a pillow.

…Ah, I see.

That meant that after a long time, an S ranked haunted place had appeared.

In short, it meant that it was ‘the worst kind of place people shouldn’t be involved in’ on the occult website ‘Ikaigabuchi’, and the manager of ‘Ikaigabuchi’ couldn’t allow such dangerous information to spread unabated, and had the authority to suddenly delete the thread itself.

“Well, we even identified the place. Our shenanigans might have gone too far.”

Harley-san spoke after gulping down the gin rock in his hand.

“But, Nagi-kun. Actually…”

Suu-san chuckled as he lowered his voice.

“There's been talk of people volunteering to go there next Saturday late at night. You're welcome to—”

When—suddenly.

“…Ah, don’t…”

Shameless thoughts were triggered in my imagination somehow thanks to Krishna-san’s sleepy voice. She suddenly got up, and whether she had grasped the situation or not, she sharply rebuked her surroundings in a loud cute voice.

“...I said it already! You must not! I told you, didn’t I!?”

Although she had a sleepy expression on with traces of drool on her face, she was still indeed the president of ‘Ikaigabuchi’.

The red-faced drunkards who were present straightened themselves, and bowed down in unison, “We’re sorry”.