Volume 4 - CH 3.2

“…So you’re here.”

“What’s with that tone?”

Yusuke, lying on the tatami mats, looked up. He rolled over and came to a stop at my feet. Numerous ice cream wrappers were scattered on the side.

A quick count said there were at least ten of them.

“Did you eat all of this?” I asked.

“Can you blame me? There’s no AC in here,” he grumbled. “It’s so freakin’ hot. How do you even survive in this place?”

He rolled back to the stained mats, right by the window, and stopped moving. I pushed open the broken door and went inside.

A closer look revealed that the lock had been patched up with only duct tape.

Did Yusuke do this?

Before I could ask him, he raised his head.

“Odagiri-san, did you know? You eat ice cream because your brain craves something cold. But that doesn’t mean your body wants it. So if you eat it too much, you’ll get a stomach ache… Ugh…”

“Looks like you already have one.”

“Not yet. I’m good. Just a little bit…”

Yusuke lay back down on his face. His shoulder-length blonde hair was tousled. As I stepped on the tatami, I noticed a faint black stain under my feet.

The grim situation before I left replayed in my head.

“I cleaned up the vomit and the blood,” Yusuke said. “And man, was that a lot of blood. What was that about?”

Still lying on his belly, Yusuke looked up. His eyes took on a smile.

“You don’t want people to think a murder happened here, do you? If I wasn’t around, that girl would have entered.”

I looked around and touched the tatami. There were still traces left of the gruesome scene, but it looked much better.

“Th-Thanks,” I said, bewildered. “But why?”

“No reason, really. I don’t have anywhere to go, so I have a little too much time on my hands. Actually, I thought you were dead, so I came to check, but you weren’t around. So I decided to just stay.”

Yusuke waved his hands around. A closer look revealed a bat bag lying with the ice cream wrappers. Apparently Yusuke came to check up on me not long after I left the apartment.

When he left with Mayuzumi, he had a look of hatred on his face.

Why on earth did he come to visit me?

“I thought smashing the skull of a corpse would make a good offering to the dead,” Yusuke murmured, lifting his head. He gave a ferocious, toothy grin. “You don’t want to start laughing even when you’re already dead, right? I had to smash your skull, then.”

Yusuke’s face dropped back down. When the tatami was getting warm from his body heat, he rolled away again.

I didn’t know what to say. Yusuke uttered the words so seriously.

There were probably neither good or evil intentions behind them.

He just wanted to break things that might start moving so they stayed still.

Suddenly Yusuke started crawling toward a convenience store bag. He took out a cup of barley tea from inside, popped it into his mouth like a fur seal, and downed the contents in one gulp. Removing the empty bottle from his mouth, he turned his eyes to me.

“Oh, by the way, you had another visitor earlier.”

“…Another visitor?”

Who could it be? I had no idea who might visit me.

Yusuke’s face twisted into a frown of genuine displeasure. “They looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember who they were exactly. From our conversation, they sounded normal, but there was something nasty about them.”

Yusuke narrowed his eyes like a wary beast. He shook his blonde hair wildly and looked up at me.

“You should watch your back. You seem to attract problematic women, and that one was clearly bad news. Best to stay away from them.”

He let his head drop once again. I felt my head creak. My gaze went to the secondhand television in the corner. Nanami got it for 3,000 yen when she replaced the old one. At that moment, it felt like a light turned on in the cracked screen.

Frequent suicides… A summer of bizarre suicides… tssshh… state of emergency… location… rise in temperature… surge… tsshh…

The city has set up telephone consultation services… sssshhhh…

Cicada’s chirping.

“Savor the fox’s blood.”

Ssshhhhzzzzz…

“Odagiri-san? Hey, Odagiri-san! Your eyes look like they belong to a dead fish!”

Yusuke’s voice snapped me back to my senses. The sounds in my memory blended in with the chirping of the cicadas outside. What I thought was a dream quickly came back. The person sitting in my apartment was not here.

A woman with snow-white skin and bright-red lips.

What was the last thing she said?

What did I drink to stay alive?

“Ugh…”

“Yes?”

I rushed to the bathroom. After coughing violently, I threw up. No matter how many times I vomited, there was no blood in them. The child in my stomach clicked its tongue as if remembering the taste of blood. She laughed as I returned to the room.

Yusuke looked astounded.

“Where’s the woman now?” I asked.

“She just left a short while back. You shouldn’t see her. Hey, wait! Stop ignoring people!”

I bolted out of the apartment. The light of summer stung my eyes. My vision darkened for a second, but I continued running anyway. The hairs on my whole body stood on end, and a shiver ran down my spine. But I had to see this woman.

“Perhaps that will be the key.”

I wasn’t going to let the thread connecting to the fox get away.

I don’t care what happens to me.

I had to save Shirayuki at all costs.

I staggered all the way down the staircase. Right as I was about to dash onto the road, my ears caught the sound of cheerful conversation.

“Yes… Here’s tea… Hehe… Really…”

Nanami was talking to someone.

Someone whose voice I didn’t recognize.

A chill ran down my spine. I ran down the hallway to the landlord’s unit. As I grabbed the door, which was slightly ajar, and pulled it open, someone turned around. The woman standing in the doorway blinked in surprise. Her short ponytail swayed. A glitzy face with thick make-up regarded me.

Her simple suited attire was something completely new. But her face was the same.

The red that colored her lips was as bright as blood.

“Oh, my. What a surprise. It’s been a while.”

The woman smiled sweetly. Nanami, with her fingers interlaced behind her back, appeared from inside.

“Odagiri-san, do you know her? She’s looking to move here. You can come in too if you want.”

“Move here?” I muttered.

The woman’s lips curved softly, and she gave me a wink, making sure that Nanami couldn’t see it.

A blatant lie.

“You’re not fooling anyone,” I growled.

“Yes, yes. I hope you don’t mind the sudden visit. Nanami-san, can I have some barley tea? I’m thirsty.”

“Sure. Please wait a moment.”

The woman took off her shoes and entered the unit without a hint of reservation. I hurriedly followed after her. Nanami smiled and disappeared into the kitchen.

The landlord’s place on the first floor was different from the other apartments. It was much larger than my unit, and there was a living room right near the entrance. I had never gone beyond that point. I didn’t see the landlord, an old woman. She was probably inside her room.

“Whew, I’m bushed. This outfit is so hot,” the woman said as she loosened the tie around her neck.

She stretched her legs under the low table and fanned her face with her hand. I scowled at her. I recognized her plain gray suit.

When Shirayuki infiltrated the building, the people inside were uniformly dressed.

All of them wore suits of subdued colors.

“Oh, don’t give me that look.” The woman waved her hand and pointed next to her. “Why don’t you sit down? I’m not going to eat you.”

She’s got me completely on the palm of her hands. I tried to give her a piece of my mind, but I couldn’t find the right words. Glaring at her, I sat down a little away from her. She smiled and propped her chin in her hand.

She had the mocking demeanor of someone who could smell people’s fears.