Ch.142Chapter 21. Year-End (6)

The Sasaki siblings, who seemed perhaps excessively warm-hearted, were allowed into the house with Yamashita’s permission.

Since everyone was already gathered, it seemed awkward to send Shii back alone, and equally awkward to send just one high school student away at this hour.

Fortunately, there were plenty of spare rooms in the mansion, so Sasaki wouldn’t have to sleep mixed in with us.

…Well, even if we truly didn’t sleep mixed together, if this story reached Nakahara or Hagiwara’s ears, it would cause major conflicts in various ways. But that would be Sasaki’s problem.

At least Sasaki was already familiar from the previous training camp. None of the children rejected him.

It was extremely awkward, but Sasaki still managed to engage in conversation reasonably well.

“…Brother, shall we talk privately for a moment?”

But in the end, seeing the awkward atmosphere and perhaps thinking this wasn’t right, Shii said that to Sasaki.

“Y-Yes, let’s!”

Sasaki received Shii’s relief pitch with a bright smile.

“Then, please excuse us for a moment.”

Shii politely greeted us before going out to spend time with her “brother.”

They probably had a calm conversation over tea or something.

I hope if there were any misunderstandings, they resolved them calmly.

That’s what would have happened if it had been just the two of them.

*

We all went to sleep late that night.

It didn’t feel particularly strange. I had stayed up all night doing things when I was in high school too.

…Though not for fun. Back then, PC rooms and karaoke places wouldn’t admit minors after ten, yet schools, academies, and study halls would keep students confined and make them do something resembling studying.

I think that was banned later, but I don’t remember exactly when.

In this world too, I wasn’t the type of diligent person who would go to bed right at nine in the evening.

Still, since I had to get up early, I rarely stayed up all night, though I had watched meaningless TV with Koko until almost midnight a few times.

Well, even though gathering with friends and staying up late like this mostly happened after I became an adult, today wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.

Around one in the morning, Koko started getting drowsy.

That’s when we laid out futons on the floor.

Seen from above, the futons arranged around the circular tree created a strangely peculiar sight. Though we weren’t outdoors, the tree somehow made it feel like we were camping.

After turning off the lights and unplugging the string of small bulbs connected to the tree, the room became completely dark.

“Uuu…”

I laid down Koko, who seemed reluctant to fall asleep for some reason, and pulled up the blanket to cover her.

Yes, I understand why she doesn’t want to sleep. She probably wants to see Santa.

There was a Santa prepared in advance… but is it really necessary to show her a Santa with that kind of impression? If she wants to see Santa again next year, we’d have to bring that person again.

I’d prefer a Santa with a little less distinctive personality.

“Merry Christmas.”

At my words, Koko’s eyes suddenly opened wide.

While doing the incredibly difficult task of making her eyes sparkle despite being sleepy, Koko looked up at me and smiled brightly.

“Merry Christmas…”

And soon she closed her eyes and began breathing peacefully with gentle snores.

“Merry Christmas.”

Yuka, who was watching beside me, whispered softly.

“Merry Christmas.”

I said it once more to Yuka.

And so, I celebrated my first Christmas in this world.

A Christmas that I might or might not be able to celebrate again.

*

I woke up in the middle of the night for the very mundane reason of needing to use the bathroom.

Looking up at the dark ceiling, I seriously debated whether to just hold it and go back to sleep, or to get up and go to the bathroom.

If this had been a room in a large apartment, there would have been a bathroom nearby, but unfortunately, this was a massive Japanese-style mansion.

With modernization, they probably increased the number of bathrooms—no, actually, having bathrooms inside the house at all was already an increase.

However, regardless of how many bathrooms there might be, the sheer size of the mansion made it inconvenient.

Just having to leave the room was a risk for me.

This room was already chilly outside the futon, so how cold would the corridor be, with just one wall between it and the outside? Plus, there were windows there.

After fidgeting under the blanket warmed by my body heat, I finally decided to go to the bathroom.

There aren’t that many bathrooms, are there? And now there’s a bunch of high school girls here who think they’ll die if they don’t wash up in the morning.

Plus, there’s Sasaki who was brought in because it would have been awkward to send him away.

Thinking about how crowded the bathroom would be in the morning, I figured it would be better to take care of things now, so I got up.

“Uwa…”

Koko made a sound that startled me into freezing, but it was just sleep-talking. I let out a small sigh of relief and moved slowly.

I made it to the corridor without waking anyone and shivered violently.

It’s really cold.

The claim that it’s not colder than Korea only applies when you’re properly dressed for winter. A corridor without any heater is naturally cold.

I hurried to the bathroom with quick steps. I didn’t encounter anyone in the corridor. Even the yakuza Santa hadn’t started preparations yet. Perhaps he was waiting until everyone was more soundly asleep.

Thanks to that, I was able to take care of my business without having to wait.

After washing my hands and carefully drying them on a towel, I walked out into the corridor and suddenly felt a sense of discomfort.

The same discomfort I had felt earlier when walking with Yamashita.

As I said then, it wasn’t the chill you get when detecting a yokai. It was much shallower, a discomfort so slight that it would be hard to notice if there were any other stimuli.

The kind of shallow discomfort that I would have missed while walking down the corridor chatting with friends, or when rushing to the bathroom.

The kind of discomfort I would normally have dismissed as nothing.

I probably paid attention to it because my mind was completely relaxed.

After all, it’s Christmas. After all, it’s vacation.

I thought that as long as I was careful about the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons next year, there wouldn’t be any major issues for a while.

Well, that discomfort didn’t actually cause any major problems.

However.

Like following a thin thread that would break if pulled too hard, I slowly walked to a room.

I carefully opened the door and found no one inside.

“…”

And I recognized this room.

I went in and turned on the light.

The atmosphere was completely different from the last time I saw it. Back then, there was blood everywhere, making it look like a murder scene.

No, even in a murder case, blood wouldn’t splatter that much. At that time, the blood had been deliberately sprayed around.

Yes. This was where I had burst my blood vessels and sprayed blood while hunting for the Solitude.

The room was completely empty. I think there had been something here before, but it seems no one is staying here now.

I slowly examined the room.

The walls appeared to have been repainted. Or rather, since this is a Japanese-style mansion, maybe they took some other measures?

From the ceiling to the walls to the floor… it was certainly clean, but.

“…Ah.”

In one corner of the room, there was a small black dot.

I knelt on the floor and examined the dot closely.

It wasn’t a round circle drawn with a pen. It looked like such a circle had been partially covered with paint.

So… at first glance it looked like something started with a black pen, but it was probably red blood that had completely dried and turned black.

My blood.

The sense of discomfort became much stronger after entering the room.

I’m not sure exactly what this means.

But from the moment I noticed it, my heart began to beat strongly.

I left the room.

And I searched through the mansion. I didn’t even think about encountering anyone along the way.

What I called a “thin thread” was actually more like a spider web. I had only been following one strand of that web.

Like a spider building its web, this “spider web” had been carefully constructed throughout the mansion, at every place where I had sprayed blood.

That’s probably right. I didn’t remember all the spaces I had moved through back then, but I found traces of my blood that hadn’t been completely cleaned away in several places.

“…This is.”

The last place I arrived at was somewhere I remembered precisely.

The place where Ms. Mori had been lying sick. Where I had sprayed blood and finally burst my blood vessels.

I slowly opened the door.

There was no one inside, but the room definitely had a lived-in atmosphere. At least the furniture arrangement wasn’t much different from the last time I saw it.

“Miss?”

I heard someone calling me from behind.

Turning around, I saw a yakuza man looking at me. It wasn’t the person who had played Santa, but someone I had seen when entering here.

“Do you have some business here?”

A slightly tense voice.

He was wary of me.

Well, that makes sense. I’m visiting here as a guest. If I’m snooping around the owner’s room, it’s natural to be suspicious.

…It should have been, but—

“The blood I sprayed when I was here last time.”

“Pardon?”

I might have brought it up too abruptly, as the man didn’t immediately understand what I was saying.

“…When I fought the Solitude, blood was splattered all over this mansion, right?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“How did you deal with that blood?”

After hearing my explanation, he seemed to understand why I was looking into the room, and scratched his head as he replied.

“Since Miss Yuu is here too, we cleaned it up as quickly as possible. We repainted the walls as much as we could, and for parts that couldn’t be fixed with paint and wallpaper, we replaced them entirely, though we didn’t rebuild the house.”

So, some traces might still remain. That’s unavoidable. Even the spot I found was just a tiny dot that wouldn’t be noticeable without searching carefully.

The real issue isn’t that blood stains remain.

It’s that this blood is causing some kind of… phenomenon in this house.

Moreover, I didn’t just spill blood in this house.

I also spilled it at school, and recently on the hillside—basically, I’ve been cutting my wrist and spraying blood wherever I needed to.

“…”

I thought… Nirlas was just doing this to torment me.

Could there be some other purpose?

“…Sir.”

“Ah, yes. Is there some problem?”

“…No, not really.”

When I, who had created that situation back then, called him with a serious expression, the man also tensed up.

“Could I borrow a knife, by any chance?”

“What?”

But my follow-up question seemed to catch him off guard.

*

I took off all my clothes and entered the shower.

It’s Christmas, isn’t it? I had no intention of worrying my friends by wearing blood-stained clothes.

I went into the shower and turned on the water.

Then I knelt on the floor, positioned my wrist as close to the drain as possible, and placed the sharpened blade against it.

And I hesitated for a moment.

In a situation where some problem seems to have arisen because of blood, is it really right to spill more blood?

It didn’t take long to reach a conclusion.

I cut my wrist.

Yes. I’ve already sprayed blood everywhere in all sorts of ways. A little more blood won’t significantly change the situation.

“Are you calling to give Christmas greetings? I would have liked it if you had a gift for me.”

How shameless, when you were probably watching the whole time.

“This has nothing to do with you anyway.”

Does the god from Christianity exist in this world too? I don’t think so. In a Lovecraftian universe, having such an omnipotent being on humanity’s side would dilute the horror.

“How disappointing.”

But Nirlas’s voice didn’t sound particularly disappointed.

“I have something to ask you.”

“I wonder what you would do for me if I answer.”

“…What do you want?”

“Well.”

Nirlas paused to think before answering.

“I don’t particularly want anything right now. No matter how you act in this situation, the story won’t flow in a particularly entertaining direction.”

Nirlas knows me.

If he sets conditions that cross a line, I won’t move. I’d rather remain ignorant.

And for Nirlas, directly controlling my body isn’t fun either.

A cheat key is most enjoyable when used at just the right moment, and only to the extent needed.

“So, you’re saying you won’t answer my question?”

“It depends on the question. Whether it’s a question I can answer or not.”

So if it’s a question that falls into the realm of bargaining, there won’t be an answer, but if it’s an insignificant question, he might just tell me.

“…Then, I’ll ask.”

Nirlas at least keeps his promises. That might someday turn into a situation where he can say “I didn’t lie,” but at least it hasn’t happened so far.

“Last time when we fought in this mansion, I spilled a lot of blood. When I came today, I felt a sense of discomfort at every place where that blood was. What does this mean?”

“Hmm? Don’t you know?”

Nirlas let out a laugh.

“I wonder if you remember what you heard when I first spoke to you.”

“…You said this body is your avatar.”

“Wouldn’t the blood you spilled also be part of that avatar?”

“…”

“Just as the being you call Koko isn’t limited to the part that resembles you, haven’t you considered that your body might also be different from ordinary humans? A body with recovery abilities impossible for humans, recovering from wounds that would certainly kill a human?”

I momentarily forgot what to say.

That… well.

…I did know.

But knowing something intellectually and truly being conscious of it are separate issues.

It’s like how I don’t consciously think about Koko’s original form not being human-like.

“That body of yours was created to be dedicated to me from the beginning, so it’s natural that it’s different from humans, isn’t it?”

When I didn’t say anything, Nirlas smiled.

I couldn’t see it, but I could feel that Nirlas was doing so.

“I wonder if that’s all you wanted to ask.”

“…Yes. That’s all.”

“Don’t worry about the wound on your wrist.”

As I answered, Nirlas said as if taunting me.

“It will disappear before long. By the time you leave the bathroom, no one will notice.”

And leaving only an invisible smile behind, Nirlas disappeared.

Time began to flow again, and my wrist throbbed.

The deep cut made by the knife began to shrink instantly, just as Nirlas had said.

The red blood slowly diluted in the shower water and flowed down the drain.

At first it was red, then gradually faded, until finally nothing remained.

A part of my body.

Like fragmented pieces of Koko.

How much blood have I spilled on this land?

Could it be that my existence has already expanded far beyond Koko’s?

I spent a long time lost in such thoughts.

*

Well, it’s water under the bridge anyway.

In fact, I’ll have to continue spilling blood in the future. If I dwell on it too much, it will become increasingly difficult to do so.

Besides, this is the first time I’ve felt this kind of discomfort. I often spilled blood in my own home, but I never felt much discomfort there.

So, there probably won’t be any major issues. Perhaps turning the blood into “Solitude” created some kind of effect.

…I should talk to Kagami about this later.

After cleaning my body thoroughly and getting dressed, I left the shower.

First, I returned the cleaned fish knife to the man and went out into the corridor.

I was tired.

The body recovers, but mental fatigue doesn’t recover easily.

Plus, I had woken up in the middle of sleep. The aftermath of that brought a wave of fatigue all at once.

Among the children sleeping in the same room, there are very conscientious ones like Yuka and Mako. Such children might sleep in on days off, but at least in my experience, Yuka has never slept late when she’s with me.

If I don’t go to sleep now, tomorrow will be quite tiring.

Thinking this, I quickened my pace—

“…”

“…”

I ran right into a large man dressed in red in the corridor.

If Yamashita hadn’t introduced this man to me earlier, I would have thought he was a burglar.

The large pouch on his back must be full of presents.

“Ho… ho ho ho ho.”

Naturally, he wasn’t imitating a woman’s laugh, but Santa Claus’s laugh.

Perhaps he had done this many times when his daughter was young, as it was quite an excellent laugh.

What should I say?

Um… I should probably go in first, right?

“…Could you come in after about 5 minutes?”

“Ho ho ho ho.”

Taking his laughter as an answer, I went inside.

And not long after I got under the blanket and closed my eyes—

Creak.

The door opened again.

It was the sound of someone trying to open it as slowly as possible to avoid being detected—

“Uwa?”

“…!”

At Koko’s sound, I instinctively sat up and looked toward Koko’s spot.

Koko’s eyes were open.

Her eyes sparkled in the light coming through the door crack.

“Santa!”

“Ho… ho ho ho.”

Our yakuza Santa hadn’t anticipated this either, and froze in place with one foot raised, like a thief caught sneaking in.

…Well, what now.

Looking at me won’t help, I think.