Ch.148Chapter 23. Blood (2)

The standard for what is “normal” varies from person to person.

Most people live thinking they are normal, and therefore judge anything that deviates from their standard as abnormal.

But my current situation is too far removed from such “normalcy” to even compare.

No matter how subjective standards may be, there’s usually some kind of average, isn’t there? I’m excessively far from that average.

That’s why I didn’t feel anything strange for quite a while after entering the morgue in this high school girl’s body. I’ve already seen corpses several times. Honestly, considering the condition of the corpses I’ve seen before, the ones I’m looking at now are in relatively intact condition.

Corpses with cleanly slit wrists, who died from blood loss. The wounds on their wrists are even neater than the wounds that get carved into my wrists. My wounds are always gouged out and forcibly torn open.

“……”

If anything bothered me, it was the people beside the corpses rather than the corpses themselves.

Those people wearing white coats appeared to be working in forensic medicine.

That itself wasn’t particularly concerning, but somehow all their gazes were fixed on me. And on Koko who was following me.

Only then did I realize that I probably looked too young to be in a place like this.

This is… refreshing. I’ve been aware that my situation is abnormal since the moment I came to this world, but I’ve become increasingly desensitized because the people around me accepted the situation too easily.

Do those people know about my identity? About how I fight? Even if they do know, they’d probably still have that same awkward atmosphere. If there’s a monster in front of you that could stab you to death in an instant, I’d have to forgive them for looking uncomfortable.

“There are no signs of resistance,” Miura said.

“Then, isn’t it not murder?” I asked.

“None of them were alone. Even killing someone who doesn’t resist is still murder.”

“…So you’re saying they just sat there until someone came and slit their wrists, and were killed that way?”

When I frowned and said that, Miura nodded.

“Does that… actually happen?”

My previous life’s profession was also quite close to death. I’ve even witnessed what could be called murder scenes.

But that doesn’t mean I’ve only seen such places.

Miura seemed to contemplate my question for a moment.

Did he find my question strange?

“In 1978, there was an incident where members of a religious group abroad died en masse. Most were suicides, but there were also circumstances of murder, and most of those murdered were young children.”

“……”

“And there was a similar incident in 1987. That’s just counting mass suicides; if we include smaller incidents, there are many more examples. So this case… while the phenomenon is unusual, we don’t consider it impossible.”

Miura looked down at the corpse with a gloomy expression.

It was a young woman. She seemed older than me, probably an adult. Her face was ordinary, and her hair came down to about the nape of her neck.

There were no special wounds on other parts of her body.

“There are several ways to bypass instinctive fear. Although the results aren’t clear yet, there’s a possibility they took drugs.”

I had to agree with that.

Well, I’m the same in a way. Every time I fight, I slit my wrists without much hesitation.

And the amount of blood I’ve shed would have been enough to kill me several times over.

I looked down at the corpse again.

“Can you… tell anything?”

Perhaps sensing something in my expression, Miura asked somewhat cautiously.

I shook my head.

After thinking for a moment, I said, “Kagami would probably be able to tell better.”

“I see.”

Miura nodded slowly at my words.

“Will you cooperate?”

“…If necessary.”

I don’t think Kagami is that stubborn. And the Congregation isn’t always hostile to the government either. If that were the case, he would have been very displeased with my cooperation with Yuka and would have tried to stop it somehow.

As for the Cathedral… well, that place hates me because of their doctrine anyway.

“Alright,” Miura said.

“So what should I… do now? Can I go back to my daily life?”

In response to my question, Miura shook his head again.

“There were instructions to ‘protect’ you. We don’t know what might happen.”

“……”

I see.

So that’s how it is.

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t think it’s your fault, sir.”

Miura has a daughter.

And that daughter is also my friend. For whatever reason, it would be too painful if she got hurt.

A civil servant position is basically something you enter by choice. And for a normal—’regular’ civil servant position, you’d naturally be free to quit.

But for a ‘non-regular’ position, things might be different.

For example, someone who knows facts that the rest of the normal people shouldn’t know.

In light novels like this, the government is typically portrayed as stubborn, rigid, and even stupid.

People who stick to their own ways of doing things and end up causing massive problems.

Perhaps such things were happening behind the scenes in the original Hyakki Yakou as well.

Though I don’t know the character Kotone Kurosawa.

“…Sir. Actually, there’s something I haven’t told you.”

“Go ahead.”

“About Kudan’s prophecy last time. I actually lied.”

Miura stared at me.

I stared back at Miura.

“Woo…?”

Koko tilted her head as if asking what I meant.

“Didn’t you say a major disaster would occur in Japan within a few years? That was just something I made up. The prophecy I heard wasn’t that.”

“Would you tell me why you lied then?”

“…Because I couldn’t trust the higher-ups.”

Actually, saying they have rigid minds might be correct for groups, but it might be a bit wrong for individuals.

Civil service exams… I’m not sure how it works in Japan, but they probably have tests or something like that here too. Naturally, people in high positions must be basically intelligent.

The problem is that when such people gather, they combine with existing traditions, rules, and regulations, and become as rigid as if they’ve been hardened with a setting agent.

When you settle within the rules and only look out for yourself, that’s what happens.

…Well, if they realize they need to keep their minds flexible to survive, that should work.

“So, are you saying you’ll tell us the real prophecy now?”

“Yes.”

That’s right. I don’t know what kind of life Kotone Kurosawa lived in the original story.

Perhaps she shed much more blood than I do now, and maybe she suffered much more before dying. Unless I go back to my original world and read that novel again, I won’t know. So I probably never will.

But the Kotone Kurosawa of this world, me, is different.

I’m not that miserable. I have friends, people who care for me, and my life has been relatively satisfying.

Thanks to the people around me, I’ve been able to understand what normal is, even in this world.

So, even in this situation, I want to help somehow. I want to protect their normalcy, their daily lives.

“Many people will die soon.”

The people around us, whom I was seeing for the first time today, looked at each other.

They didn’t murmur or shout.

They just seemed perplexed by what I was saying.

“Yokai will pour out. To the extent that they can no longer be hidden from people.”

The area that would suffer the most damage was, of course, around the protagonist’s school.

…Did it mention students dying? I don’t remember that clearly.

Besides, I don’t know why such things happened there specifically. I dropped out before that plot point was resolved.

More precisely, I just kept forgetting to buy and read the new volumes.

“……”

Miura looked at me silently.

Was he trying to gauge whether I was lying or not?

“I see.”

And soon, he nodded and said that.

His expression didn’t convey any strong emotion. Perhaps he didn’t fully believe me.

“I’ll make sure to pass that information along. For now, would you wait?”

My only response to Miura’s words was to nod.

*

The room provided by the higher-ups was cleaner and nicer than I expected.

More precisely, it was just a hotel. A hotel somewhere in Tokyo. I haven’t wandered all over Tokyo, so I don’t know exactly where this area is.

“…I need to go to work.”

“Woo?”

When I muttered to myself, Koko immediately responded. Of course, while her response was immediate, her expression and attitude were somewhat gloomy. No matter how nice the room is, being confined inside isn’t a particularly pleasant experience.

Outside the door were big men standing guard. Different from the Yamashitakai yakuza uncles, they had a much more professional aura.

That’s not to say the Yamashitakai uncles looked weak, but, well, there’s that kind of atmosphere, you know? The atmosphere of someone who’s dipped their hands in one or two people versus those who do it professionally for money is different.

…No, that’s not right. Normal people wouldn’t face either type openly.

I felt a bit sad that I unconsciously thought of such things as normal.

“Kotone, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

I’m just a bit worried.

I haven’t contacted the boss yet. Same with Shii. I left Kuro at home, and my phone was taken away.

On the way to this hotel, I had the unpleasant experience of having a black cloth put over my face. The explanation I heard while they were covering my head was “It’s for safety, please cooperate,” but somehow I felt that safety wasn’t for Koko and me.

The reason Koko didn’t resist during that process was probably because I just quietly went along with it.

Since they didn’t tie me up or handcuff me, I just followed along for now.

“…Do I not look okay?”

“Yes.”

Koko nodded in response to my question.

“Kotone, you were smiling all the time until a few days ago.”

“……”

I guess she means it’s completely the opposite now.

I wanted to force a smile, but I didn’t think I could.

“It’ll be okay.”

In the end, that was the ambiguous answer I chose.

I had to believe that. I didn’t want to die yet. I… still had quite a lot I wanted to do.

We had just welcomed a new year.

“Kotone…”

Koko’s face fell.

Koko came and sat beside me.

We sat side by side for a while without saying anything.

*

The door opened about ten minutes later.

First, there was a knock. Quite a polite knock.

But the door opened before I could answer. There was no reason for me to be undressed since there weren’t even any clothes to change into, but still, it seemed a bit careless.

“Would you please come with me?”

Again, it was a very polite tone, but the hidden meaning was simply “Follow me.”

For a very brief moment, I thought about saying, “What if I don’t want to follow you?”

Hiss.

A sound like an angry cat came from beside me.

…Hearing Koko’s sound, I quickly changed my mind. No matter how professionally trained and strong the man might be, he wouldn’t be able to defeat Koko when she’s angry to the tips of her hair.

I’ll have to see blood soon enough; I don’t want to see it in the hotel too. I also didn’t want Koko to kill someone.

“It’s okay, Koko.”

By the way, how long has it been since Koko made such a sound?

When she first learned to hiss, she didn’t even know it was an expression of anger and just imitated it.

Now both Kuro and Koko have changed a lot. Kuro, far from being vigilant, spends his days sprawled out at home, and Koko… Koko has become a much kinder child than when I first met her.

I stood up, and Koko followed suit.

We followed the two men.

We walked through a rather luxurious corridor and took a large elevator up to a higher floor. This time they didn’t cover my face, so I could easily see which floor we were going to.

The building was about 20 stories high. We had been on the 15th floor. Well, judging by the view outside the window, it seemed about right.

We went up to the 20th floor, the top.

“This way.”

“……”

And the place we got off at was, well.

I once heard a story about a “hidden floor” in a North Korean hotel. The elevator doesn’t stop at that floor, they said.

Since there are no guest rooms on that floor, there’s no need to decorate it, so it has a shabby atmosphere with all the interior materials exposed, and North Korean security agents constantly patrol inside, monitoring everyone staying at the hotel.

The place we got off at had that kind of atmosphere.

It wasn’t like in the urban legend, a space without even interior materials, as if construction was incomplete. But it looked very bleak somewhere.

Thinking about why that was, I noticed that while the floor we were staying on had corridors decorated with a relatively warm atmosphere of lighting, there was none of that here. The lighting on this floor seemed to focus solely on functionality.

I looked around as we walked under the bleak white fluorescent lights.

There were no nameplates on any of the doors.

“Here it is.”

One of the men guiding us opened the door to a room. This room also had no nameplate.

It’s impressive how they can navigate so well through a space that’s completely identical, with rooms that aren’t even distinguished.

But since the man who just opened the door and stood guard like a doorkeeper probably wouldn’t give proper answers if I asked various questions, I just entered without asking anything.

And.

“…Kagami.”

“……”

My eyes met with Kagami, who was sitting inside.

He didn’t seem to have been dragged here. Seeing that he was even dressed in a formal suit, it seemed he had come with some purpose in mind.

Kagami’s eyes widened slightly when they met mine, then he looked at Miura, who was standing in the corner of the room with a cane. Miura gave no response.

Was he trying to contact me? Unfortunately, my phone was taken away on the way to the hotel, so I couldn’t answer.

I wonder if Yuka tried to contact me too.

Since no one told me where to sit, I went and sat next to Kagami.

“…The fact that you’re here means you must know what’s going on.”

Kagami spoke quietly.

I nodded.

“……”

Kagami… had a complicated expression. It was so mixed with various emotions that I couldn’t understand exactly what emotion that expression represented.

I could only tell that one of them was “regret.”

Kagami.

Not knowing what to say, I just nodded.

After waiting for a few minutes, the door to the room opened again and a man entered.

It was someone I knew.

“Oh, you’re…”

The man who stared at me with his mouth open was the man who lived next door to me.

I hadn’t seen him lately, but he seemed much healthier than the last time I saw him. At least he didn’t look sick.

“Kurosawa-san?”

Then, looking at Kagami with even more confusion, the man finally sat down in a seat, looking around nervously.

After a few more minutes, another man entered.

No, this time it wasn’t just one person. Several men with a similar vibe to the big men who had guided me, and several people who looked about the same age as Miura.

A total of eight people.

They were dressed in various outfits. Some wore suits, while others wore what looked like police uniforms. Not the kind of uniform you see on street cops, but the kind of high-ranking police official you see on the news.

At the head of the round table, in the center, sat an elderly man with graying hair.

He didn’t particularly look stern. How should I put it, he had the kind of aura that would fit perfectly if he were introduced as a political party representative on the news.

Is this some kind of meeting?

If so, there was no one moderating it, and no one announcing the start of the meeting.

“…Miss Kurosawa.”

The old man who had been silently watching us finally spoke.

“Could you tell us about the prophecy again? In as much detail as possible.”

*

“Not answering?”

“Yes, the phone seems to be on, but…”

Shii answered the boss’s question.

“She’s not the type to not show up without saying anything.”

To be precise, there had been times when she didn’t show up without saying anything. Usually, she was in the hospital during those times.

So it wasn’t strange that both the boss and Shii were worried.

There were almost no customers now. The shop orders had closed long ago. The fact that she hadn’t come after all this time made them even more worried.

“Should we contact other people?”

“…No, there’s no need for that.”

The boss shook his head at Shii’s words.

“…Well, she’ll probably show up fine in a few days.”

As she always did.

“You can go home for today. I’ll finish up here.”

“…Thank you.”

After a brief moment of hesitation, Shii decided it was best to follow the boss’s words and expressed her gratitude. It seemed he wanted to think alone.

“Bye~”

Miki waved, and Shii bowed to her as well.

Since she had already changed clothes, Shii could leave the shop right away.

Today, she should go straight home.

Shii, who always went home after having dinner with Kotone, thought so. She would rest at home for a bit, then try contacting her senior again.

As she was leaving the building with that thought—

“Meow.”

Shii heard a familiar cat’s cry.

“Kuro?”

Kuro was sitting at the entrance of the building, waiting for Shii.

“Meow.”

For a moment she wondered if she was mistaking another cat, but it was hard to forget that distinctive cry. Besides, before Kotone kept him, Shii had been taking care of the cat.

As Shii approached, Kuro stood up.

“Ah, wait, Kuro!”

Shii followed Kuro somewhat urgently.

If he had come out and gotten lost, she needed to take him back to her senior.

…Though it was puzzling why Kuro, who should be in Saitama, was here.