Case 00: A World of Ash (6)

In the end, a gloomy air hung over the city, as two more days had passed since the incident. At the same time, that strange young man called Sako Takita ended up disappearing, and my thoughts without end coiled inside my head constricting my body.

There were only eight days left until Takamura’s proclaimed date of July 31. It would be great if August comes without incident and I can say to myself, “That bitch was telling a lie” – but for some reason, I didn’t think that was the case. I definitely had nothing but terrible premonitions as the day drew closer. There’s a phrase called ‘spirit sense’, and I wonder if I ended up becoming sensitive to it since I became a ghost. Anyway, I was being swept away by the cold river at night without resisting, and I couldn't get rid of the cold chill as if a bottomless waterfall lied in wait for me just ahead.

--Dammit.

Vague anxieties can be dispelled by taking action.

If I recall correctly, I think some genius shogi player said something like that. Staying inside the house, staying still inside the frog in M’s hand was comfortable but, I couldn’t do anything about this intensifying anxiety. Something might change if I took some action. And, the only person who could connect me to this world, where I couldn’t physically interact with anything, excluding the existence of Takamura who was like an inter-dimensional being, was Sako Takita right now. At any rate, shouldn’t I look for him, somehow convey this danger so that he could at least warn the family?

He could see ghosts. And he must be smart. And, that’s right. Didn’t Takamura say it as well? 『A graduate student appeared out of nowhere and settled the case like a great detective in the classics.』That was referring to Sako, wasn’t it? To put it simply, if I could somehow convey the information at my disposal, it felt something would change. No, I had to change it.

I strengthened my resolve, and flew out of the house.

In any case, I intended to search thoroughly for Sako Takita’s whereabouts to the utmost of my ability. He said he was chasing after some paranormal phenomenon. It was the reason he was in this town. Which meant that he should still be wandering around, investigating something. Perhaps he could be looking around all over town even if it took him all night or something – and as I arrived at the station, I easily found Sako there.

The pale young graduate student cum chief priest was pecking at his chocolate parfait or something, sitting on the second-floor terrace of a coffee shop that overlooked the roundabout in front of the station.

(--Hey, Sako.)

I called out to him as soon as I got there, but he merely threw a glance in my direction and ignored me. I flew into a rage and hurled all the abuse I could muster close at him, Sako looked annoyed and brought his finger to his lips.

“Shh, please be quiet. Your existence is invisible to everyone. If I answered you here, I'm going to look like a weird guy mumbling to himself.”

He whispered in a small voice as he took a peek around.

(Never mind that, I need your help. It’s an emergency!)

“You seem quite agitated, but I’m afraid it’s not my job or duty to help you.”

Sako whispered as he lovingly savored the spoonful of ice cream, chocolate and fresh cream. It might have been a time of supreme bliss for him, but I ignored all of that as I spoke. I talked about how I met the girl named Takamura, how at the end of the month – no, how in just eight days, M’s family would be assaulted in an incident that would remain unsolved even ten years into the future. How I wanted to prevent it at all costs. I asked him if he could at least call or give that family a letter to warn them.

Narrating the story non-stop without pause left me exhausted as expected. Wasn’t this asking too much of a ghost? I looked at Sako, who, whether he was listening or not, was plunging his spoon into the end of the glass bottle to dig out the ice cream with a demure expression on his face.

(Hey, do you understand what I’m saying?)

“That’s why, I’m troubled you see. I know you’re vehemently trying to communicate something, but like I told you before, you’re not a normal ghost. I can't hear you, and I can’t understand exactly what kind of problem you have. Look, that couple of girls over there see me muttering to myself and are eyeing me suspiciously, aren’t they?”

“Do I care? Look, please, the incident still hasn’t been settled. I'm sure that something more is going to happen – no, maybe the real thing is just beginning. Even if those two incidents were suicides, some guy crazy in the head must have tampered somehow and created a sense of unease, right? They did it just for the fun of it, right? Isn’t that dangerous? Isn’t it possible that guy might perpetrate something else in this town?”

“I have a job to do. I sympathize with you, but I can’t help you.”

Finally realizing how loud his voice had become, Sako lowered his voice, but – no, wait a minute, that’s it, I leapt.

(Who is the ‘ghost’ you’re looking for?)

I asked, and perhaps sensing the mood of my question, Sako took a deep sigh and spoke.

“The name of the ‘thing’ I’m chasing after is inconsequential at this point. The name has changed over the ages, and the earliest accounts of it can be traced back to the Nara period.”*

--N, nara period?

“It keeps changing the person it possesses, a troublesome spirit that spreads misfortune wherever it goes.”

Thereupon, Sako looked longingly at the glass of chocolate parfait he had just finished eating, took a cigarette out of his pocket and lighted it. I looked at the relaxed Sako blowing tobacco smoke around, and spoke irritably:

(Then why are you slurping Chocolate parfait in a place like this when you’re searching for something dangerous like that? Can you afford to sit around and take a smoke?)

In response, Sako unexpectedly whispered a question at me.

“Have you heard of the illness known as antisocial personality order?”

…What?

“To put it simply, it’s the mental disposition of irrepressibly experiencing joy in destroying the peace. It is said to be a central nervous system dysfunction found in many criminals who are commonly referred to as serial killers, but not all of it is understood yet. Not everyone with antisocial personality disorder will commit crimes, and they are not aware of their malicious intent in the first place. The destruction of order is as natural as eating a meal to them. The norms of good and bad are completely alien to them. They follow their curiosity – they destroy their surroundings, simply because it’s amusing.”

Something nasty crawled down my back upon hearing those words.

“But you know, it would still be better if that disease were to afflict a flesh and blood human. Because you can flee from them, or restrain them. But what if it was a ghost? What if it were an existence invisible to the human eye? Wouldn’t that be a modern-day curse god?”

Hearing those words – the vague anxiety in my head finally took shape.

The twisted smile of that girl in the black dress was, right now, clearly drawn in my head.

『Because it’s fun, after all.』

Her lips twisted into a sneer, Takamura’s tomboyish looks spread across my retinas.

That’s right – our sense of values was fundamentally different. They were out of sync. That's what made me shudder at the time. Could it be that… Takamura is the ghost Sako is searching for? If Sako’s story were to be believed, could Takamura have been changing the person she possessed and spread misfortune wherever she went? No – no, wait. If that were the case, doesn’t that mean that Takamura deliberately warned me of her actions in advance? Is that why she told me to wriggle? To squirm? Ah, but somehow it feels like she’s capable of anything. And also, didn’t she say that crazy line at the end? 『Show me a fightback so magnificent that I fall in love with you.』

(Hey, Sako!)

I yelled. (You need to move right now! I know who it is, so do something quick about it! I’ll haunt you until you help me. And if something happens to M’s family, I’ll curse you until you die!) I shouted as I waved my arms and legs in the air, but of course, it didn’t reach Sako. However, it seemed my panicked mood got through to him.

(…Hmmm?)

Sako rose from his chair, and looked in my direction.

“It seems you know something, and you have a strange obsession with that family. In short, you mean to say there’s some sort of connection between the family and the ghost I’m searching for?”

I vigorously nodded my head.

“Hmm…alright, understood. I have no other leads to go on either way. It’ll be my first experience trying to do something by teaming up with a ghost, but well, it might be interesting. Communication will be a bit of a problem, though.”

I looked up to Sako’s tall figure as he spoke those words – and felt a relief deep enough to make me collapse to my knees.

Without any clues, I still didn’t know what to do in the face of this inexplicable danger – but, even still, I was able to gain one ally for the time being, and a hope began to sprout within me, that if things went well, I might be able to save M and her family.

However—

I should have paid more attention to the words Sako had spoken earlier.

In the Nagami household, Sako picked up the invisible thing resembling Nagami-san’s head and spoke.

『And yet – he said, "a child”.』

It happened early morning on the following day.

At school, M’s best friend, Kii-chan… was discovered at the bottom of the pool.