“T-Then what is that...?” she whispered.
Akuto and Fujiko had wrapped towels around themselves and fled the bath. It wasn’t that big, but it was still ten times the size of an ordinary household tub. And now, half of it was giving off an eerie red steam.
“W-What is that...? Is that a real curse?” Nozomi’s voice was quavering in shock.
○
“This is human blood,” Korone said after she finished her analysis.
After they’d fled from the bath, she’d gotten permission from the owners to run a test for anything unusual, and learned two things:
First, it was human blood.
Second, the blood hadn’t come from the faucet. It had been splashed from outside the tub.
“Do you think it’s those guys who attacked the place earlier?” Akuto asked, but Korone shook her head.
“That would be difficult.”
Akuto remembered that the royal guards were currently watching the inn.
“Sheesh... Hey, let me just make sure. This isn’t your doing, right?”
“I can understand why you’d think that, but this time, it wasn’t me. Of course, I am giving Nozomi free reign.”
“Then it could’ve been her?” Akuto frowned, but Nozomi was nowhere to be seen.
In the end, everybody had taken turns using the bath in their rooms, and changed into yukatas to eat dinner. The owners had cooked them an elaborate meal, but what should have been a fun experience instead turned into a discussion of the supernatural.
“Hey... You’re sure there really wasn’t anything there?” Junko asked, worried.
“You’re just too gullible. There’s a possibility that Nozomi had a lot of human blood, after all,” Fujiko said. But there wasn’t that much energy in her voice, either.
“That’s even more scary than a ghost. But if it’s real human blood, then it must belong to somebody, right? Can’t you use mana detection to find out who?” Yoshie looked at Korone.
“My attempt failed. I can’t see a mana canceller being involved in this, however, so I’m not certain why.”
Everyone fell silent.
“I’m sorry... There was an incident in the bath once where someone’s head was split open with a rock...” the owner said, apologetically. The gloom in the dining room deepened even further.
“Um, well... Let’s just assume that it was a human, not a ghost, who was behind this. Korone and I will look for Nozomi. Everybody else, stay together in your room. We’re all fine with that, right?” Akuto proposed. Everyone nodded. Dinner finished, the owner gave one last apologetic bow, and Korone began to make tea.
Akuto chose his words carefully to try and make everyone feel better.
“Um... Guys, I’m sure it was just a prank. Yeah.”
“I hope so...” Junko said, her voice gloomy.
“It has to be. Everyone else is worried about a potential enemy. You’re the only one who’s worried about a ghost. In the modern era, we’ve solved almost all the mysteries of nature, so why would there be a ghost...”
Junko frowned as she interrupted Fujiko.
“My family’s sect is also responsible for performing the ancient rites. And part of that job means believing in mysterious powers.”
“But when you start getting mixed up between the gods, who are just a system, and those strange powers, is when things start going wrong. That’s what Akuto didn’t like, right? The God Suhara was the first one he destroyed.”
“But...!” Akuto tried to cut them off before they could argue further.
“Come on, let’s not talk about this...”
But then Yoshie interrupted too. “No, no. I have a bit of a different opinion.”
“What is it?”
“We’ve solved most of the world’s mysteries, but the problem of the soul remains unsolved. The fact that we have a soul separate from our bodies, like I was able to prove, is now certain. But we don’t know where that soul comes from. You all remember that Zero had a soul, right?”
Yoshie continued to elaborate.
“We say that Liradans develop ‘selves’ if they spend enough time with humans, right? If the soul and the self are the same thing, then that means the soul is transmissible. We may live in a far stranger world than we think we do.”
“Yes, I feel like I might be forced to admit that.” Fujiko was there to see it for herself, so there were no grounds for her to disagree.
“Which means that a soul can see another soul. Maybe it’s possible for us to see a ghost.”
But when Yoshie said that, Fujiko spoke up.
“But that’s got nothing to do with what happened here. That human blood was a real, physical object, right?”
“That’s right. You can make it with mana, but you still need chemical elements and human DNA to do it. We can assume that the blood came from someone. But what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think Junko is wrong. And isn’t it a little cute when she gets scared? Don’t you think?”
Yoshie winked at Akuto.
“Oh, um... maybe,” Akuto mumbled.
“Oh...” Junko blushed.
Fujiko, however, demurred.
“She is not cute!”
○
“Alright, let’s go.” Akuto said as he left the room with Korone. The girls who were left behind were terrified. Well, Junko was, at least.
“T-They’ll be okay, right?” Junko was clinging to Yoshie. She must not have realized what she was doing, because when Yoshie patted her head, she jumped.
“Ooh, you really are cute, Junko. There, there.”
“H-Hey, stop it...”
“You’re the one who grabbed on to me, though!”
Yoshie stroked Junko under the chin like a cat. Junko was too scared to move, and all she could do was complain that it tickled.
“Stop it! Hey, stop!”
“Hehehe... I think you need to be tickled!”
Junko was almost in tears, but Yoshie was just having fun. Keena joined in too, when she saw them. “I want to play too!” she yelled as she wrapped her arms around Keena and began to pat her down.
“S-Stop it... That really tickles!” Junko squirmed, and the three of them fell over. All of them were wearing yukata, which were beginning to roll up and reveal more than they wanted to show.
Fujiko chuckled and told them to stop.
“That’s enough, girls. Hattori’s calmed down, it looks like.”
“Huh?” Junko looked at Fujiko.
“Aww, when you say it like that, it makes it sound like I did it deliberately!” Yoshie chuckled too.
“I thought we were doing it because it was fun,” Keena said, her arms still wrapped around Junko. And then...
Creak...
Creak...
There was a low, heavy sound.
“Huh...?” Everyone froze and looked up at the ceiling. The boards above them were creaking.
Creak...
Creak...
It sounded like something heavy was hanging in the next room.
“A hanged man in the next room...” Junko grabbed on to Yoshie again. And this time, Yoshie didn’t seem to feel like messing with her.
“That sound is real, right? So...”
“It’s faster to assume someone’s playing a trick!” Fujiko turned and ran out of the room, the hem of her yukata flailing up behind her. She ran a short distance down the hallway, before pressing her back up against the wall and cautiously peering into the next room. And then, for an instant, she froze.
There was a woman in the room, looking away from her, with long black hair. There was something that looked like a white rope around her neck, and her legs were floating off the ground. Her whole body was floating left and right, like a pendulum, as the boards above her creaked.
“You’re not scaring anyone!” Fujiko said, completely unafraid, as she fired a mana ball at the hanging woman. She limited the power of her strike, to avoid damaging the room. Fujiko was more interested in finding out wh
o this was. There was a small explosion of light, blinding her for a moment.
“I know I hit her...”
But the blow didn’t seem to have the impact she expected.
“...There was something here, right?” Keena, who’d followed from the other room, said as she peeked over Fujiko’s shoulder.
“I saw it too. It looked like a hanging corpse, I guess.” Yoshie walked up to them as well. She was holding Junko tight to her chest.
“S-Stop it... Are you sure you saw them?”
“I was... but they disappeared.”
Fujiko shook her head.
After the explosion was over, the room was quiet. The only sound was the sound of the clock, ticking like nothing had happened.
“T-Then that... was a real ghost...” Junko said, scared.
“You shouldn’t say something’s real just because you can’t prove it wasn’t. Look, there’s any number of ways in an out of this room.” Fujiko pointed up at the ceiling. The tiles were loose, and any could be easily removed. It was probably easy to escape up to the attic.
“We should probably just stay in our room until Akuto gets back,” Fujiko said. But when they got back, they just sat there in silence.
“S-Somebody say something...” Junko said with a shaking voice.
“Yeah, it’s a little too gloomy in here... Not that I’m feeling cheerful myself, exactly.” Yoshie crossed her arms.
“If somebody is attacking us, then it’s safest to stay here until they try attacking this room. We need to make sure we’ve got an escape route, but this place is so old that if we have to, we can break a window and jump out of it. Until then, let’s just have some tea and relax,” Fujiko said calmly.
“Then we’re safer if it really was a ghost, huh?” Keena said innocently.
Junko shook her head violently. “No! Absolutely not!”
“No, I vote for ‘ghost’ too. If this is an assassination plot on Keena, it’s a little beyond our ability to deal with. Or rather, I don’t want to take responsibility for dealing with it.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t going to come out and say it, but you’re right. But whether our enemy is physical or spiritual, we’re in a really weird place. Mana doesn’t work like it’s supposed to here. Most of the time when you hear about places like this, it’s just rumors, but some people call them ‘mystery zones.’ They’re places where gravity works funny, or things happen that make people go insane.”
“That’s not important right now. We need to talk about what we’ll do if there’s trouble. We’ll have to run and keep Keena safe. If something happens, we leave the mystery zone. That should be our priority.”
Both Fujiko and Yoshie were starting to take the situation seriously.
“B-But they’re not going to put a curse on us, are they?” Junko was still clinging to Yoshie.
“If they do, it’s not like there’s anything we can do about it. Which means there’s no sense in worrying.”
“It would be so much fun if it were a ghost, though!” Keena said.
“Hey, ghosts disappear, and make weird sounds, and threaten people, right?”
“Those are things you do too,” Fujiko said with a sigh.
“Aww, come on!” Keena pouted. “Don’t talk about me like I’m a ghost... Oops.” Keena leaned forward to complain, but when she did, she knocked her now-empty teacup off the table.
“...Oops! I dropped it!” Keena reached out for the fallen teacup. A pale white hand came out from under the table, picked up the cup, and handed it to her.
“Oh, thanks.”
She put it back on the table. “So anyway...” she continued.
Everyone froze. They all looked down at their hands.
And then, as Junko began to scream, they all raced out of the room.
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
○
“It’s difficult to detect, but the sound and vibrations indicate that there are multiple people in the house,” Korone said. She and Akuto were searching the inn. They hadn’t found Nozomi yet.
“That’s impossible though, right?”
“The only people here are Nozomi, her parents, and one Liradan servant. Nobody else. Her parents were at the front desk, and the Liradan was in the garden.”
“We’re supposed to get a report if somebody comes from the outside, right?”
“Yes. But I can’t contact the guards. The mana here is unstable. That said, if there was any danger, the royal guard would come to warn us directly.”
“That’s weird, too. What’s going on here?” Akuto looked down at the box in his hand, which held the royal seal. He’d brought it up from the basement, but right now it was nothing more than a box with an antique in it.
“We’ve searched every place Nozomi could be. Except this one. The sealed room.” Korone pointed in front of her. Akuto put a hand on the door.
It wasn’t locked.
“...It doesn’t seem very sealed to me.”
“The knights did a search of this place in secret, and they didn’t mention any sealed rooms, either.”
“Then if we don’t find Nozomi here, let’s go back to the girls’ room.” Akuto went inside.
The room appeared to be a storeroom, with shelves on both walls. The shelves were lined with antiques, none of which seemed to be interesting except a single large pot in the back. There was a chance that if they looked at each one, they might find something surprising, but it didn’t seem likely.
“So this is that pot she was talking about?” Akuto headed towards the back.
The pot was as tall as a child, and was painted white with complicated blue patterns. Akuto looked inside, and gasped. Nozomi was in it.
“What are you doing here?”
“Aaah! It’s here! Don’t hurt me! Please, don’t hurt me!” Nozomi was screaming.
“You’re fine, just calm down...” But just as he said that, there was a distant explosion. It was the one caused by Fujiko’s mana ball, but of course, Akuto had no way of knowing that.
“We can worry about her later. We need to hurry back,” Akuto said to Korone as he turned to leave. But Nozomi grabbed on to his arm.
“Oh, good! You’re human! Don’t go! T-There’s a ghost! A real ghost! I need you to save me! It’s scary! So scary!”
“H-Hey, let me go. You heard that explosion, right!”
“That’s why I need you! There’s a monster! A real monster!” Nozomi was screaming and crying. Akuto glanced at Korone. She put her hands to her ears for a second, and shook her head.
“I hear the girls. They’re talking normally. It appears they’re fine.”
“Hmm...? Don’t tell me they blew something up while they were playing around...”
“From the conversation, it appears they saw something.”
“A ghost or a monster, then...?”
Akuto looked at Nozomi. She was crying and grabbing on to him.
“It’s real! I saw a hairy monster! Oh, I’m so sorry! I was lying about everything! But everything I said was true! You might not believe me, but there’s a monster!”
Nozomi wasn’t making any sense, but it was clear that she’d seen something she hadn’t expected. Akuto wasn’t sure what to do.
“Hmm... Well, it’s clear something’s going on here. For now, let’s get her out of here. We’ve got the seal, so we can call the guard and...” Akuto lifted Nozomi out of the pot and helped her to her feet, then left the room and looked around. The room was at the end of an L-shaped hallway. When he looked at the corner, Akuto felt his blood run cold for a moment.
There were two kids standing at the end of the hallway, with short cropped hair and faded kimonos. The two kimonos were identical, except for their differing colors, and the identical hairstyles and identical faces made it clear that they were twins. They were silently standing there, looking at him.
A moment later, Akuto recovered from his shock and readied for a fight. However... the twins seemed to float around the corner and disappea
r.
“What was that?” He turned to ask Korone, but then he saw the girls running towards him, screaming.
“Uwaaah! Help me, Akuto! It’s going to kill me!” Junko jumped into his arms.
“C-Calm down! Nobody’s going to kill you!” Akuto held her shoulders and tried to calm her.
“She’s too scared to think. And right when we need to plan, too.” Fujiko said, as she pressed herself up against Akuto, though in a less obvious manner.
“Hey, Ackie, it feels weird in here! Like something’s crawling on my skin!” Keena grabbed his arm. Keena was acting different from usual, which didn’t make him feel any better, but before he could answer, Yoshie jumped on his back.
“Oh, sorry... I just felt like joining in.”
“S-Stop that... A-Anyway, calm down everybody. I get it. If we can see them, we can deal with them. Don’t worry.” Akuto said to all of them.
“All of them” referred to the girls clinging to his body. Junko was grabbing on to him from the front. Fujiko his right arm, and Keena his left. Yoshie was on his back, and Nozomi and Korone had each grabbed on to a leg.
“I get the feeling that Korone’s just doing it as a joke, but... Come on, everyone. Get off. Look, there’s nothing there...” Akuto said as he pointed at the hallway. But...
Something was there.
It was a tall woman. Her hair was so long it almost touched the floor. Her bangs drooped over her face, completely concealing it. She was thin, and wearing a plain-looking dress. What was strange, however, was the way she moved. Her limbs were bent strangely at the joints, and she was walking on the ground like a crab or a spider.
And what was even stranger was the way her abdomen was slithering like a snake as she moved. Her shoulder bones, ribs, and pelvis seemed to slide independently to the left and right with each step she took. And she was coming towards them.
Akuto froze in shock, and the others turned to look at what he was seeing. And then, they saw it too.
“Uwaah!”
This was enough for even Fujiko and Yoshie to scream. Only Korone was unimpressed. Junko, especially, was panicking.
“Noo! It’s going to curse us and kill us! That’s a legendary spirit! My grandma told me about it! It’s the manifestation of a curse, and it’ll kill you if it touches you!”
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 10 Page 11
