Epilogue: Coda to Rororo (2)

“That thing was an imitation.”

My relief didn’t even last a single day.

I was behind the library, and the speaker of those words was Yoishi Mitsurugi.

After leaving the club room, I suddenly remembered the pitiable memorial monument buried deep in the thick shrubbery, I put a sickle for weeding and work gloves in a bucket and headed to the memorial behind the library, where I found Yoishi already there. The weeds around the monument had been mostly pulled out, I thought to myself how admirable she was, and began helping her with the remaining weeds. That’s when I told her the whole story of what had just transpired with Sako, to which she had simply replied in that way.

“An imitation? What do you mean?”

“The real ‘Rororo’ is something else.”

Her whisper made shivers run down my spine, and gave me goosebumps.

“…No, wait a minute. Isn’t it all over?”

“If she were that easy to deal with, then it would be no problem at all.”

With no change in her expression, Yoishi continued pulling out the weeds and placing them in the plastic bag.

She then stood up, took out a bottle of mineral water from her school bag, poured water on the monument, and clasped her hands together.

Panicked, I stood up straight away and clasped my hands together at the same time.

And after praying with all my heart that he may rest in peace – I asked her, once more.

“Then, what do you mean when you say that the real ‘Rororo’ is something else?”

Yoishi -- looks at me with a blank expression on her face, and questions me in reverse.

“Do you… really want to know?”

…Oh God.

Isn’t this the same pattern as always?

But this time, I really thought about it a lot. I was painfully reminded that I had my limits. That’s why, I shook my head so vigorously that it made a sound. No, I didn’t want to know.

However, Yoishi looked away from me, took a deep breath, and spoke in a whisper:

“No, this time, it might be better for you to know.”

She started walking by herself after saying such a tantalizing thing.

“H-hey, wait. What do you mean?”

“This was probably – a complete defeat for us.”

After heading out of the main gate, Yoishi said that.

“Defeat? Why? The clock tower is going to be renovated, and the school building as well. There are no more books in the library with taboo words. The underground space will remain closed. So why?”

Asked that question, Yoishi shifted her pale face slightly in my direction.

She placed her hand on her well-shaped chin and pondered for a while, before she finally began to speak quietly:

“I thought about it last night. That moment, you ended up looking back, and yet, why were we still able to leave the underground space?”

“You mean about that? About it being forbidden to look?”

“That’s right. And I realized that Ayana Takamura had not lost a single chess piece.”

Yoishi’s face looked pale, and also tinged with a blood color of excitement.

“After all, even if the taboo words were removed from the library, she still had her sister by blood, Takako Takamura as a vessel. And above all else, she had acquired two catalysts: you and I.”

“Ha--? Why am I a catalyst--?”

As I said that, I remembered.

That’s right, in the Rororo incident, didn’t Sako say he used me as a catalyst? But – just wait a second. What the hell even is a catalyst? I didn't hear anything about it. I don't remember being anything like that.

Yoishi clicked her tongue at me as if telling me: ‘I've told you many times, over and over again’, and declares:

“Whether they are living or deceased, you end up empathizing with anyone and anything. And that is the most convenient thing for a ghost.”

“…”

“For example – in the clock tower, in the cat mystery, and in the library late at night. Do you remember what you experienced in all those events? Does that fear still pulse inside you?”

“That's because… I mean it just happened recently.”

I nodded while trying to suppress the shivers I was feeling, when Yoishi thrust her index finger at me.

“For her, that’s ‘Rororo’.”

“—Huh?”

“The role the books she created with taboo words was, in short, a supernatural device that unconsciously embeds fear in people's hearts and lets their negative emotions run loose. But that could have been done with any ghost story that destabilizes people's minds. In other words, the fears we have experienced, the fears we may experience, and the fears of all those who know of our experiences -- Ayana Takamura has decided to make all of them into reading material.”

All of a sudden, I thought I heard Ayana Takamura’s voice in the wind. It was as if someone had touched me with a hand that had no body heat -- I felt a gaze which chilled me to the bone. The thing that was once Ayana Takamura was still there, deep underground in this institute. Something that could see ghosts, was an accomplished user of taboo words, and something that was joined together with an innumerable amount of malice. Was that thing going to continue to gaze at us from here on?

“W-why us? No, why do I have to go through that?”

“Perhaps because they thought that the most efficient way to ingest fear from this school was to watch us up close. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here in one piece. You would have been swallowed up by the darkness spreading behind me.”

“…Oh-Oo-Ooi, what should we do? Can't we read scary stories anymore? Can't we go to haunted places anymore?”

I asked her in a tearful voice, yet Yoishi coldly shook her head in the negative.

“No, we will read them, and we will continue to explore the paranormal.”

“…Huh?”

“After all, you chose to stand by my side at that time.”

I felt the tips of my toes grow cold at that low whisper.

“From now on, Ayana Takamura will continue to turn our fears into reading material. She will consume that and grow. And she will wait… wait for the day our hearts become so thin and worn out, that they connect to the world beyond. “

“—Y-Yoishi.”

As if to escape the eerie gaze that pours down from far up above in the sky –

I ask in a trembling voice. Even though I already knew the answer, I couldn’t help but ask it out loud:

“How can you look so calm… when we’ve ended up in such a shitstorm?

Yoishi was about to walk away – when she looked back. She answered back as usual, as if nothing were wrong, in words I’d known all too well:

“Because, I feel no fear. There’s nothing she can take from me. Rather, it’s you who needs to be careful.”

Seeing those dark eyes gleaming with joy—

I got teary-eyed, as expected.

I thought Yoishi’s pale face resembled a monster that suddenly appearing in broad daylight.

Passing the main gate of the university, Yoishi went out to Itsukaichi Kaidō, and from there she went deeper and deeper into the residential area.

I followed her with a feeling of complete dread. Or rather, I didn’t even want to follow her, but my house was this way, so there was nothing I could do.

I once again think of Yoishi’s slender back that walks in front of me, as if she were carrying an invisible dead old woman.

--She, Ayana Takamura, and that bastard Sako, they’re all twisted in some way. The place where I stand is absolutely different from them. I'm not prepared to laugh and talk about that kind situation.

All of a sudden, the fear I felt from that time came gushing back.

In the underground space where that strange darkness reigned, when I ran away holding Yoishi’s hand.

There were definitely two people behind me. I can sort of understand it now – it was probably Yoishi and the consciousness of Ayana Takamura mixed in together with Yoishi, right? I thought I had luckily only pulled up Yoishi from there – but, was that really Yoishi? Is the person here right now, really Yoishi Mitsurugi?

I tried asking Yoishi who continued to walk by herself in front of me.

“Say, Yoishi. Did you finally figure out what it is to be a friend?”

Yoishi stopped dead in her tracks.

For a few seconds, she remained frozen –

She turned around and stared at me somewhat embarrassed.

“You spent such a long time thinking while lost in that tedious maze, right? Did you figure out what it means to be someone’s friend?”

I tried to repeat my question again, but—

“…”

She turned away from me and increased her pace, walking even faster.

“H…hey, Yoishi.”

However—

I was convinced with the flicker of confusion in her eyes.

There was no doubt about it, it was Yoishi alright.

It was Yoishi Mitsurugi, the girl who spouted words like a denpa, who was lonely, and who felt no fear.

‘Having excessive self-esteem, and being self-centered. No remorse, no feelings of guilt, apathetic, and no empathy. They are talkative and friendly at first glance, but they cannot take responsibility for their actions, and lie to an abnormal extent.’

That definition clearly applied to Sako and Ayana Takamura, and, if you ask me, was not something that applied to Yoishi at all. In the first place, Yoishi’s not friendly in the least. Not at first glance, or any other glance. And no matter the place or occasion, regardless of whether the atmosphere would be ruined or not, she speaks only the truth, and cannot tell a lie. That's why she gets into all kinds of trouble. And that's why – she was having so much trouble with a simple word like ‘friend’.

“I’m sorry. It’s alright. I’m sure you’ll understand the meaning of friend soon—"

I was midway through my speech trying hard not to laugh out loud, when I realized.

For some reason, I was near my apartment building.

“That’s why, it’s just for the time being, so…”

Yoishi abruptly turned to look back and spoke.

“I thought I’d start by getting to know you a little better.”

“…Huh?”

“Let’s split the rent and utilities 50-50.”

“…Wha?”

--W-wa…wait a second.

Without even giving me the time to say that out loud, Yoishi declared that as she stepped inside the hallway to my apartment. I had a bad feeling about this, so I hurried in after her.

I entered inside to see Karasu-san, who seemed to be there just to drop off some luggage.

“Oh! Yoishi-chan, long time no see.”

She called out to Yoishi, who ignored her without saying a word and continued towards the front of my room where she casually put her hand on the door handle. But the door was locked of course, and she couldn’t enter. Did I imagine hearing a small click of the tongue?

“H-hey, wait, wait, wait, Yoishi!”

I finally shouted out loud, pushing aside Karasu-san dressed in her black camisole and stole, and ran up to Yoishi.

“What the hell do you mean when you said to split the rent and utilities 50-50?!”

I asked, and for some reason Karasu-san answered instead of Yoishi with the same irresponsible, full-blown grin on her face.

“Well -- That’s how it usually is when it comes to living together.”

…L…Living together?

L-Living together means that, right? The thing hated most by parents in this world, where a man and a woman live under the same roof before getting married, the representation of an illicit sexual relationship. I mean, why? Why is this happening? I have no idea! It doesn't make any sense! Seriously, someone come here and explain it to me right now!

My heartful cry roared out into the world -- and at the same time, my brain vividly drew my father's astonished face, my sister's face bursting into laughter, and Krishna-san's fainting figure once more.

In the present, Yoishi just stood at my front door as she looked back.

Holding her school bag with both hands in front of her Koumei school skirt, she slicked her long black hair down, as if to hide her slightly stiffened face.

And then—

She spoke those words, which were absolutely wrong in their place of use, situation and everything else:

“I’m not much good at anything, so please take care of me.”