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Mutsuko said their home alarm system had been tripped, so the three of them raced back to the house.
They passed through the gate into the yard, and saw their mother Tamako leisurely tending to the garden.
“Sis, I don’t see anything...” Yuichi began.
Mutsuko silently pointed to the side of the gate.
A humanoid creature made of logs was standing there.
It was a wooden man, a life-sized puppet that Mutsuko had created after watching an old kung-fu movie.
It looked a bit silly, but it was unbelievably strong, and it had even pounded Ibaraki when he had tried peeping on the girls at the bath during their summer training camp.
Their mother Tamako had been very strict about not wanting it in the garden, but Mutsuko had still put it up the day before, saying that it would scare cats away.
Mutsuko then pointed to the ground below the wooden man.
It was standing on something that had sunken into the soft earth of the flower bed. Yuichi squinted and saw that it was Subaru, the man who had tried to come on to Yoriko. He must have tried to attack the house while no one was home, and this was the result.
“Why’s it got him pinned down like that?” Yuichi asked.
“It’s in capture mode,” said Mutsuko. “It’s holding him down so he can’t escape.”
Yuichi decided not to ask what other modes it had. They couldn’t be anything good.
“Did Mom not even notice?” he whispered after a pause.
“Looks like it, yeah...”
“What sort of programming does it even run on? Isn’t it a little dangerous?” he whispered.
“It’s got a bleeding-edge facial recognition system installed, so don’t worry,” Mutsuko said quietly. “It won’t attack the family.”
“What if it wasn’t someone suspicious, but just a regular visitor?”
“Oops.”
“Don’t ‘oops’ that!”
“I-It’ll be fine,” Mutsuko whispered. “It can make fuzzy judgments about malice through things like heart rate and body heat...”
“Look, no more wooden men, okay?” Yuichi hissed back.
The two of them kept on whispering to each other. Tamako didn’t seem to realize that the wooden man had moved at all, so they wanted to make sure she kept on not noticing it.
Yuichi ran up to Tamako to try to distract her. “We’re back, Mom. Um, I heard a strange noise. Did anything strange happen?”
“Oh, welcome home.” Tamako tilted her head in an almost girlish manner. “‘Anything strange’?”
“Did anyone, you know... come by?” he asked.
“Actually, I thought I might have had a feline visitor, but I looked and there was no one there. I must have just imagined it.”
“A cat, huh? Yeah. It probably was a cat. If you say so, Mom.”
While Yuichi was drawing Tamako’s attention, Mutsuko returned the wooden man to its usual spot. But if they dug up the person buried beneath, it would probably be noticed.
“Oh? Mutsi, Yori, you’re both with him? I don’t know where you’ve been, but I wish you would call if you were going to be out late.”
“Ah, um, sorry,” Mutsuko said. “I’ll call in the future.”
“And I really don’t think that wooden doll looks good in the garden,” said their mother. “I know Mutsi meant well, but I wish you would take it down.”
She wasn’t angry, but Yuichi found it impossible to argue when she looked at her like that. Mutsuko was the same way, and so walked up to stand beside him with an apologetic expression.
Just as they were feeling at a loss as to what to do next, Yoriko approached. “Mom, I’m hungry. Is breakfast finished yet?”
“Oh! I haven’t even started on breakfast yet! Really, it’s because you didn’t tell me you were coming home! I’ll make it right away.”
Yoriko’s question seemed to have turned Tamako’s attention completely to the subject of breakfast.
“I’ll help, Mom. Let’s get going.” Yoriko took Tamako’s hand and pulled her along. Tamako giggled in delight and let herself be pulled. She must have thought Yoriko was very hungry.
Tamako and Yoriko entered the house. Mutsuko followed right after, calculatingly.
“Uh... so what, do I have to clean up everything by myself?” Yuichi let out a sigh.
He pulled the buried Subaru out of the flower bed. Thanks to the softness of the ground there, he didn’t seem to be particularly hurt, but all he could do was stare out into space. It must have been a tremendous shock to the system.
Yuichi pulled Subaru to his feet and dusted him off, then guided him off of the lawn. Subaru followed obediently.
“Um... leave Yori alone from now on, okay?” Yuichi said. “What you went through is ‘easy mode.’ If you try to come after us again, it’ll get worse.”
Subaru nodded obediently, but Yuichi felt uneasy. He was clearly just reacting instinctively. The boy’s mind appeared blank.
Still, the horrible treatment he had suffered would probably linger somewhere in his memory. Hoping that would be the case, at least, Yuichi sent Subaru on his way.
“So.... am I supposed to straighten up the garden all by myself?” Yuichi asked, gazing in bemusement at the human-shaped hole in the flower bed.
Chapter 7: Second Week of November: Spirit
“Yuichi Sakaki, you are possessed,” a girl announced.
The person who said that to him was his classmate, Reiko Takasugi. She had never really talked to him before, so it mainly had Yuichi feeling confused. He had just been about to enter the classroom on his way back from a bathroom break between classes. For some reason, there was a crowd of girls in front of the classroom, as if they had been waiting for Yuichi.
“Huh? I don’t think I was doing anything out of line...” Yuichi said, gazing at Reiko in disbelief.
She was a rather plain-looking girl with short hair. He couldn’t remember much about her personality, since they weren’t in their seats. He had no idea what was going on.
It was baffling to have something so strange said to him so abruptly, and he didn’t recognize the four girls standing behind Reiko, either. The sight of a whole five girls staring right at him was extremely unsettling, too.
“She doesn’t mean ‘possessed’ as in being somebody’s property,” said one of the girls standing behind Reiko. “She means that you’re possessed by a spirit.”
Is this the start of another annoying damned incident? Yuichi concentrated and looked over the girls’ heads.
Reiko Takasugi’s label read “Liar.” Behind her were “Four-Eyes,” “Fujoshi,” “Medium,” “High School Student,” and “Spirit.”
Everyone except for Reiko and “Fujoshi” Misa Akagi must have been from other classes, since Yuichi didn’t recognize them at all.
Hmm? Suddenly, Yuichi realized: there were five people standing in front of him, but there were six labels.
The label “Spirit” wasn’t attached to anybody. It was just a word, hanging there in midair.
“Um, what’s going on here?” Yuichi asked, wondering if it was actually Reiko who was possessed.
“Yuichi Sakaki,” the girl intoned. “There is an evil spirit behind you. It’s fighting your guardian spirit. Your guardian spirit is holding out for now, but it’s not looking good. You’ll need some help.”
Yuichi turned around. There was nothing behind him, and no label there, either.
“I don’t... see anything.”
“You idiot. Obviously normal people can’t see them. Only people who have a sixth sense, like Reiko, can,” the “Medium” girl said in exasperated tones. She was the one who had spoken for Reiko before, too.
“Um, so can you see it?” Yuichi asked.
“Uh, I told you? Normal people can’t see them?” the girl responded in an even more patronizing tone.
He had no idea if “Medium” counted as a normal person or not, but it sounded like she c
ouldn’t see the ghost.
“Okay, so I have an invisible spirit or something behind me,” he said. “I’m pretty clueless about this kind of thing, so what happens if my guardian spirit loses?”
“You die,” Reiko said simply.
“I die?” he repeated, startled. It was in poor taste, even for a joke.
“If you don’t want to die, meet me on the roof after class,” Reiko said, then marched into the classroom as if the conversation was over.
Misa Akagi followed her, and the others gave Yuichi a piteous glance before returning to their own classes.
“Sheesh, what a pain in the neck...” If she’d just been a self-professed oracle, Yuichi could have just brushed the incident off. But he was worried about the labels that Soul Reader had revealed.
In the end, despite finding it all a huge pain in the neck, Yuichi decided to join them on the roof.
He headed there immediately after class ended, carrying his large school bag so he could go right to club after it was done.
Aiko walked alongside him; Yuichi had asked her to come.
Reiko and her friends hadn’t seemed to have arrived yet, so, leaning against the fence, Yuichi explained the situation to Aiko.
“What the heck?” was Aiko’s response upon hearing the details of what had happened.
Yuichi felt exactly the same way. “It was a surprise to me, too. I’ve never even talked to Takasugi before. Do you know anything about her?”
“Not much,” Aiko said. “The girls she hangs out with apparently all went to the same middle school, so they’re good friends.” Maybe that was why she rarely interacted with her own classmates.
“Still... I’m not sure about this ‘spirit sight’ of hers...”
It wasn’t that Yuichi didn’t believe in spirits. Vampires and oni and gods existed, after all, so the existence of spirits wasn’t out of line at all. It was just her story that he was skeptical about.
He added, “It would be one thing if ‘Medium’ was saying it, but since it was ‘Liar’...”
In elementary school, you often saw children claiming they could see spirits in order to get attention, but it was rare to see someone keeping up the act well into high school.
“Are you sure it’s okay for me to be here?” Aiko asked nervously.
“She didn’t tell me to come alone, so I guess so?” Yuichi said. “And if the same five girls come again, I’d feel uncomfortable if it was just me and them...”
Reiko’s retinue acted like disciples. They were likely fully convinced about her abilities.
It was a little while before Reiko finally arrived.
As expected, her groupies filed in along behind her. The lineup was the same as before.
“What’s Noro doing here?” Reiko asked as she approached him, glaring at Aiko.
“Oh, am I in your way? We were going to walk to club afterwards,” Aiko responded curtly. She was more strong-willed than Yuichi’d thought.
“Do whatever you like,” Reiko said dismissively. “There was something I wanted to say to you, Sakaki.”
“Is it about the spirit possessing me? Because I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” Yuichi said, scratching his head.
“What?! Are you saying you don’t believe her?” one of the girls cried.
“Reiko is incredible! You don’t know how many people she’s saved through the spirits she’s exorcised!” her groupies shouted, one after another.
“W-Wait a minute! I never said I didn’t believe her!”
“Calm down. He’ll hear you out.” Aiko’s intercession calmed the groupies down a little.
“Leave him be,” Reiko ordered. “Of course Sakaki would have his doubts, hearing something like this out of the blue. I’m going to explain things now.”
Reiko’s words shut the groupies up completely. They seemed to do whatever she told them. It seemed that Reiko was their leader, a fact that seemed based entirely on Reiko’s spiritual abilities.
“I’d certainly appreciate an explanation,” said Yuichi. “It’s a pretty big shock to hear ‘you’re going to die’ out of nowhere.”
“It’s true that you will die, but that’s only if nothing changes,” she said. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix everything. Let me explain: You’re possessed by what’s known as a ga-rei. It’s a very dangerous evil spirit.”
“Um, so why did it possess me?” Yuichi was pretty mindful about his daily behavior. He couldn’t remember doing anything wicked enough to warrant possession by an evil spirit.
“It’s just a matter of bad luck,” Reiko explained. “After this spirit destroys and kills someone, it possesses new prey. This one just happened to choose you.”
“Bad luck, huh? I guess I’m not exactly the lucky type...” Yuichi certainly had plenty experience with bad luck in his chance encounters.
“The ga-rei is in the middle of devouring your guardian spirit.”
“It’s eating it right now?!”
“Ga-rei are always hungry,” she said. “It’s munching down on it as we speak.”
“I don’t even want to think about that...”
“Your guardian spirit is a fallen soldier of the Heike,” she said. “It was of low rank, so it probably won’t last long.”
A rude thing to say about the Heike, Yuichi thought.
“After it finishes eating it, then it’s your turn.”
“Huh... so, what do I do?” he asked.
“It’s simple: Just stick with me. It will eventually get sick of being in the presence of my power and leave you. S-So... we should date,” Reiko said, suddenly fidgety.
“Huh?” Yuichi and Aiko spoke at the same time.
“Hold it! Where did that bizarre request come from?” Aiko shouted angrily.
Was this whole thing about finding a way to ask him out? he wondered. If it was, it seemed like an underhanded way to go about it.
“It’s not bizarre!” the girl insisted. “Reiko is doing this to help him!”
“Yeah! He’ll die if this keeps up! Reiko’s selflessly offering to date him because it’s the only way!” the groupies sounded off again.
Yuichi decided the best thing to do was just to turn her down flat. It was more awkward to do it with her lackeys along, but letting things drag on wouldn’t be good for anyone involved.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m glad you want to save me, but I’d prefer to work things out on my own.”
“On your own? You’ll die!”
“If I die, that’s my business. You don’t need to go out of your way to help me,” Yuichi said simply.
“You’re saying you don’t want to date me? Is it because I’m not pretty?”
“I think that’s a little off the point...”
If forced to choose one or the other, Yuichi would probably say that Reiko was pretty, though she couldn’t compare to the girls he hung out with normally.
This is trouble...
It was looking like this had nothing to do with spirits, after all.
“Noro, are you going out with him?” Reiko demanded.
“Huh? Me? Um, not really...” Aiko stammered as she abruptly became the target of ire.
“Yeah. We’re not dating, but I have asked her out, and she’s thinking it over,” Yuichi said, deciding to roll with it.
“Huh?” Aiko asked, gaping at him.
Yuichi kept up the cover. “So I can’t go out with you. Sorry.”
It was all rather pathetic, after he had made up his mind to turn her down directly.
“I see... I understand.” Reiko must have realized it was pointless to discuss any further. She left the roof, her groupies tailing behind her.
Only the “Medium” and “Spirit” labels remained.
“Was there something else you wanted?” he asked the medium girl.
She smiled back at him confidently, as if she could see right through him. “You are going to want Reiko’s help soon enough. You’d better hope that her feelings haven’t changed by the
n.” And with that, the medium girl left.
“Sakaki! What the heck was that?!” Aiko started pressing him the minute everyone left.
“I’m sorry for dragging you into it like that,” Yuichi said. “If I’d said we were dating, it would have caused problems later, so I said that instead. See? We can avoid future trouble by just saying you turned me down later.”
“Idiot!” she shouted.
“I said I was sorry!”
“How thoughtless can a person be?!”
“Sorry. I didn’t think you’d get so mad.”
“And what’s Konishi going to think when she hears you turned her down like that?” Aiko demanded.
She was likely referring to the recent incident when Yuri Konishi had asked him out and he’d turned her down flat. It was true that he had employed a much more underhanded method this time.
“Well, she just came on so strong, it scared me... hey, Noro!” Yuichi suddenly pulled Aiko by the hand, wrapped his arms around her and jumped to the side.
“Huh?!” Aiko let out a cry of surprise. A moment later, the fence behind them shook.
“Wh-What?”
“It’s still here!”
“What is?!”
“The spirit!”
He’d thought that all the members of Reiko’s retinue had gone, but it seemed “Spirit” was back on the roof.
“You’re not just trying to change the subject, are you?!” Aiko shouted suspiciously.
“I’m not,” he said. “I think it just attacked us!”
“So what do we do?”
“I don’t know!” he cried. “I’ve never fought a spirit before!”
Fortunately, the presence didn’t seem tremendously powerful. All the previous attack had done was shake the fence a little bit.
“Let’s get out of here!” Aiko cried.
“Good idea.” Yuichi took Aiko’s hand and ran for the entrance to the roof, but the door wouldn’t open.
It hadn’t been locked when they came, and the girls who had left before them surely didn’t have the key.
Yuichi felt an unsettling presence and looked upwards.
The color of the sky had changed. The sun remained white, but the rest of the sky had gone an inky black.
“What the heck!” he shouted.
The Strongest Little Brother’s Commonplace Encounters with the Bizarre?! Page 13
