Case 15: The Disturbing Mansion [Part Two] (7)

I shouted through the glass door as I pulled my hand out of the bathtub in the pitch-black darkness.

Then, after a few moments, the glass door opened with a clank. Yoishi Mitsurugi appeared in the bathroom stark naked….or so I thought. In the darkness, I only caught a glimpse, but naturally, I immediately averted my eyes out of courtesy.

There was no electricity in the mansion, but it was most fortunate that the water was from a well and that propane gas was still available. Right now, the bathroom was filled with warm steam. Even though there must be plenty of occult fans all over the world, we were probably the only ones to take a bath in a haunted place. As I thought to myself, ‘Isn’t it a worthy achievement to have performed a reckless act so effortlessly?’, Yoishi quietly sat down on the seat next to me, holding what looked like a towel in hand. In the pitch-darkness of the bathroom, where only the steam gently enveloped our bodies, we continued to sit in silence, naked.

“Ermm… Wash your body first.”

I desperately tried not to be conscious of Yoishi next to me, filled the tub with hot water, and rubbed a soap that was there onto the towel and lathered it.

“Look, you wash yours. It’s alright. I don’t see anything. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“……………………….”

Eventually, Yoishi placed something she was holding on the wash basin without saying a word.

“Hm…….? Wasn’t that a towel?”

I asked as I was scrubbing my body clean, but Yoishi seemed to have shaken her head without a word.

“Can I have a look at that?”

I washed the bubbles off my hand with hot water, turned off the faucet and then picked it up.

Checking it with my fingertips, I saw that it was something soft--- some kind of stuffed toy.

“Ah….this, could it be the thing you always have attached to your bag? The stuffed frog?”

“….Yes.”

“Hmmm, is it your good luck charm?”

I asked as I touched the body of the stuffed frog with my fingertips. It was quite old and frayed in places, but—that touch made me feel strangely nostalgic.

“It’s not a good luck charm.”

After a while, Yoishi whispered.

“He’s, my only friend.”

For some reason, those words made my heart ache deep in my chest.

“In the past, he used to talk.”

“In the past…? He can’t do it now?”

“He doesn’t talk anymore.”

“…………….”

In a way, such a cute line from a girl was a problem because when Yoishi said it, it instantly became occultic in nature. And moreover, since we were in an abandoned building where no one lived and people had died, I had to be careful not to let the atmosphere go into a creepy direction as much as possible, or else my spirit couldn’t handle it.

When—suddenly, I heard a splash.

I looked to see that Yoishi had already entered the bathtub.

Apparently, after only a couple of splashes of hot water on her body, she had moved there with the stuffed frog in hand.

“Did you wash yourself properly?”

“I did.”

“You didn’t. The soap is still the same as it was in front of me.”

“…..I don’t want to use that soap.”

“Why?”

“Because it's still there, just as it was that day.”

I didn't know how to retort back to those words.

I quietly looked in the direction of the bathtub, to see that Yoishi was soaked in the hot water up to her chin, playing with the stuffed frog in hand.

She hadn’t tied her long hair, so it was scary to see her hair spread out on the surface of the water.

“….I ended up doubting her.”

“…….Eh?”

“Back then, mama asked me if she could join me—and I refused.”

“What do you mean, you refused?”

I asked, but Yoishi fell silent once more.

Eventually, she carefully chose each word as she spoke.

“It was mama… but I ended up doubting that it wasn’t mama.”

Not understanding it well, I listened silently as I continued to wash my body.

“…If I had opened the door for her back then…. A lot of things might have turned out differently.”

That must have been when Yoishi was probably six or seven years old—when she came to visit this mountain retreat with her family. Does that mean that Yoishi was alone in the bath when her mother came? Does that mean that her mother died the next day?

I recalled the article that said,『The mother was found dismembered in the storage room』, and at the moment when bitterness overflowed in my chest—

I realized after all this time. I…. Ended up calling this mansion a ‘haunted place’ without consideration, but wasn’t it extremely rude to call it that, since it was a place where her family was? Once more, the words Krishna-san always told me stabbed my chest, ‘Have respect for the dead’, and I clutched my head in the darkness.

“….Regrets really are a thing, huh?”

After a while, I muttered.

“I always wonder after everything is over if I could have done a little bit more. I mean, my life is a repetition of that. I overslept, missed an important lecture and almost cried before the exam, I couldn’t properly teach the newcomer at my part time job, and he suddenly stopped coming, I ended up eating an extra-large portion of gyudon even though I don’t have money—No, what I have is nothing compared to what you are burdened with.”

--Splash As I poured hot water on my shoulders to wash away the foam, I spoke, “Sorry”.

“I’m sorry I ended up calling this house a ‘haunted place’.”

“….I don’t really mind.”

“No….but….”

Then, Yoishi merely muttered in the bathtub.

“What are grudges, exactly?”

“….Eh?”

“What do ghosts, bear a grudge against, exactly….? For example, what if you were to die a horrific death because of me? What if you still had so many things you wanted to do, but your life ended because of me? Would you too wander this world with a grudge….?”

I suddenly imagined ---myself as a ghost, just wandering this world endlessly. But at that moment, a strange loneliness swept over my chest. A world like ice, where no one could perceive me, where my words never reached anyone.

There, all I was, was confused.

I was befuddled, in agony, and wished to die quickly and properly. Even though I was already dead, I was impatient to die properly.

“……No.”

I shook my head once, turned on the shower and poured hot water on my head.

“Rather than bearing a grudge, I think I’d be troubled.”

“Troubled….?”

“I think that ghosts are probably just troubled. The moment they understand that they’re dead, they're upset because they don't know what to do, having experienced that for the first time. Ahh--- I can’t explain it well, but rather than asking questions about why they died or wanting to come back to life, they would be restless about what to do with themselves, and have no time to bear grudges against other people. ….Look, isn’t that why they draw close to you? They might be relying on you since they realize that you can see ghosts. Maybe they think you might believe in the myth that telling ghost stories attracts them.”

I excitedly talked as if I had accidentally touched on a secret—

“You—”

Yoishi coldly declared.

“Really are a fool.”

‘What the hell did you say?’, I was about to retort, when I stopped, thinking that it was inappropriate. I silently lathered up the shampoo that was there in my hands and started washing my hair feeling good.

It was my first time talking about ghosts and not being afraid. For the first time, I felt as if I understood the meaning of what Krishna-san always said, ‘Perhaps some ghosts play tricks on people, while other ghosts say, 'Come on, stop it,' and step in to intervene, yet no one ever thinks of the latter possibility’.

“Even if they're dead, ghosts aren’t different than people.”

I tried to sound as cool as I possibly could, when it happened.

As I was scrubbing my head with the shampoo, I suddenly felt a strange sensation.

As if the lathering was strangely sluggish — or rather, as if the amount of hair had strangely increased.

At that moment, I realized that there were long strands of hair dropping on both sides of my face. It was as if someone had drawn their face close to the back of my head with their long black hair, and trirf to get me to wash their hair as well.

--It must be Yoishi.

You sure had the nerve to come up with a funny idea, as I quickly reached both hands to the back of my head. I was trying to take hold of that head: Yoishi’s head, however.

“…………Eh?”

There was nothing there, and my hands were wandering in empty air.

“Get out.”

At the same time, a voice like a ringing bell echoed in the bathroom.

I looked to see Yoishi still immersed in the bathtub, gazing in my direction.

Her eyes in the darkness, were darker than darkness—

Her following words, directed towards something, made goosebumps run all over my body.

“You are already dead.”