Ch.208Epilogue. Training Camp (2)

So I had packed two swimsuits for the summer camp.

I’d accumulated quite a few clothes from shopping trips with Kagami and Koko. My closet was already filled with outfits for every season.

If I needed more space, I could use another room. The thought of having an entire room as a dressing room made me feel wealthy, but I always found it a bit funny how old the house itself looked from the outside.

“What about the Kurosawa house? It seemed reasonably clean when I saw it last time.”

I had visited once after my funeral. Kagami seemed to go there regularly for work, so it was probably kept in decent order.

Of course, Nirlas, the deity they once served, was now reduced to just a name. Kagami didn’t seem to mind much.

“Would you like to live there?”

“No, not really.”

I only thought of it because we were talking about a ‘courage test.’

It has a gloomy atmosphere. Though I wasn’t planning to say that to Kagami.

“It does have a gloomy atmosphere, doesn’t it~”

“…”

I’d been trying to be considerate by holding back my thoughts, but now that she’d said it herself, I had nothing to add.

“Well, that can’t be helped. Many gloomy things really did happen there.”

Kagami gazed into the distance.

One good thing about this house is that the windows face south. Since we’re in a residential area with no tall buildings nearby, we get plenty of sunlight.

Though it makes summers a bit hot.

Kagami stared out the window for a moment, then closed her eyes and nodded.

“Would you like to visit? Living there might be too much, but spending a day looking around might not be a bad idea.”

“Huh?”

“Both Kotone and Koko are Kurosawas. The last Kurosawas.”

“…”

Come to think of it, that’s right. We’re both ‘Kurosawas.’

Like in most countries, children in Japan typically take their father’s surname. It’s not impossible to take the mother’s surname—Japan has son-in-law adoption and cases where daughters inherit family names.

Or when there’s no father at all.

“I’m not asking you to inherit the family and take over the place. I just feel like I haven’t told you anything yet.”

Kagami looked at me with a very serious expression.

I thought for a moment, then looked at Koko.

“Woo?”

Koko tilted her head.

She doesn’t seem to have an opinion on whether going is good or bad.

“Just to check, where was Koko born?”

“Here,” Kagami said.

“How else could I have sealed her?”

“Then let’s go.”

Since Koko didn’t seem bothered by the place, I agreed.

“Alright.”

Whenever we talked about traveling together, Kagami would get excited. Even though we always slept in the same house, she seemed to really enjoy staying somewhere else together.

But when talking about visiting that house, she didn’t seem as excited.

She didn’t look particularly sad or hesitant either.

Maybe she was hiding her emotions.

“Shall we go this weekend? Do you have any plans?”

I shook my head. Koko followed suit and shook hers too.

Seeing us, Kagami nodded.

*

I had just mentioned it casually, not expecting it to actually happen.

Kagami behaved differently than when we usually went out together.

She didn’t try to leave early in the morning by car, nor did she hum excitedly while preparing for the trip.

We go to school on Saturdays too.

Our apartment isn’t far from the “family home.” Distance-wise, it might even be closer than our school, which is in Minato ward right by the sea.

But going home after school and then to the house would create a huge triangle between Tokyo and Saitama, so Kagami said she’d meet us at the station when school ended.

True to her word, she greeted us at the station after school.

She was carrying a cage at her feet and had a small bag on her shoulder. She must have brought Kuro with her.

“Ah.”

Yuka, surprised to see Kagami, turned to look at us.

“…Hello.”

She greeted Kagami somewhat awkwardly.

“Hello.”

There was almost no resentment left in Kagami’s voice when greeting Yuka.

She still seemed a bit uncomfortable, but since Yuka had stayed in the same room with us last time she visited, I don’t think she truly dislikes her.

Though there are reasons why she can’t completely approve of her either.

“Are you going somewhere today?”

Yuka asked cautiously.

“Yeah, just visiting our family home for a bit.”

I nodded.

Ironically, while Yuka had quit exorcism work, I was heading to a place related to it.

To be honest, I have no intention of taking over that work. In the distant future, if Kagami leaves and only Koko and I remain…

Should we continue the work? Or find a successor to hand it over to?

Well, I don’t need to worry about that now. It’s too far in the future. Still, I need some basic knowledge to make those decisions someday.

Yuka’s expression became complicated at my answer.

“I’m not going there to take over the work,” I clarified.

“I just still have things I want to know.”

Yuka nodded at my response.

“Woo?”

Koko, listening to our conversation, tilted her head.

Well, she has no interest in these matters.

I’ll be the one mainly gathering information. Though Koko has a good memory, so she might help.

“I see. Alright.”

Yuka nodded, respecting my choice.

“See you next week.”

I waved, and Yuka waved back.

Usually, Yuka waits with us until our train arrives, but today she left right away, probably because Kagami was there.

“It’s still such a strange coincidence when I think about it,” Kagami said.

“What’s strange?”

“That the person who first saw and helped Kotone was from the Yuuki family.”

Ah, I see.

While they weren’t openly hostile, their approaches were fundamentally incompatible.

“…You don’t need to think about it that way.”

Sensing Kagami was thinking about something else, I said this.

“It probably wasn’t a place with good memories for Mom.”

“…”

It’s understandable she didn’t come to the apartment. People naturally avoid places with bad memories.

When I was very young, I was once chased by a stray dog while walking down an alley.

I only saw that white dog barking and chasing me once, but for a while, I couldn’t even enter that alley.

If just being chased by a dog was that frightening, I can’t even imagine how damaged Kagami’s psyche must have been after experiencing much worse things repeatedly.

It’s remarkable that she appears so normal now.

Perhaps Koko and I have become pillars of support for Kagami.

If so, that’s good.

“Well, shall we go?”

Kagami didn’t respond to my comment but took my hand and spoke.

Her other hand held Koko’s.

“Yes!”

Koko responded cheerfully to Kagami’s words.

Does it just feel like a fun outing to Koko?

That’s fortunate. Otherwise, our steps might have been heavier.

We waited for the train like that, holding hands.

*

It was an impressive mansion, even seeing it again.

Though impressive, it had a somewhat aged feel. The large gate’s wood had faded, and there were scratches on the roof tiles.

It seemed to have been maintained recently, as there wasn’t excessive dust or fallen leaves, but it still had a gloomy atmosphere. I wondered if the neighbors ever complained.

Then again, I remember hearing about that giant Buddha statue in Sendai—despite residents’ complaints, it couldn’t be easily removed because it was on private property.

This mansion would be even less of an issue.

Inside, there was no one.

“We operate on a small scale. Our followers don’t gather here to pray.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Though I plan to operate properly during New Year’s.”

Only operating during New Year’s? While it makes sense as an important day, it seems a bit suspicious.

When I looked up at Kagami, she stuck out her tongue slightly.

“Well then…”

Entering the mansion, Kagami opened the cage and released Kuro.

Kuro slinked out and looked up at us.

“Meow.”

She seemed to wonder why she’d been brought all this way.

Kuro isn’t an ordinary cat. I’m not sure how long a “normal cat” could survive alone in a house, but Kuro seems connected to “the other world,” so she’s different.

She seems smarter than other cats. She gives the impression that she could find food on her own if needed.

When we didn’t respond, she slinked deeper into the mansion, just as she had after leaving the cage.

“Will she be okay?”

“She’ll be fine. Having Kuro here actually makes things better.”

When I looked up at Kagami, she stuck out her tongue slightly again.

“Do you know why I brought Kotone and Koko here?”

“To tell us about our family, right?”

“That’s part of it, but there’s something else I really want to teach you.”

Kagami started walking, and we followed slowly behind her.

She wasn’t holding our hands now.

“As we entered the modern era, murder became increasingly difficult to commit.”

“…”

Um…

I asked to hear about the family, but this seems like it’s going to be much more uncomfortable than I expected.

“As a group serving an outer god, you can easily guess. Our family has a history stained with blood. In the distant past, human sacrifices were common.”

I see.

I had imagined something like this before hearing it, but actually hearing it… well, I don’t feel much reaction yet.

“How distant is ‘distant past’ exactly?”

“Well, probably since the ‘modern era’ began? I’m sorry, but I don’t know precisely. The stories were passed down orally, not in books. And originally, my sister was the one who received this information, not me.”

“Ah.”

“Yes. Because of that, I can’t fully recreate the rituals my sister performed by myself. In some ways, that’s fortunate.”

Kagami said this while walking, looking straight ahead.

Then she stopped in front of a room.

I don’t know the mansion’s complete layout, but I had seen the interior structure briefly during my previous visit. This was where the “altar” was located.

An empty altar.

While a “sheep” symbolized Nirlas, it actually represented followers rather than Nirlas himself.

“A thousand lambs” literally meant “countless followers.” It’s similar to how some religions refer to followers as “lambs.”

Nirlas’s original form, “Shub-Niggurath,” is sometimes depicted as a goat, not because it resembles one, but because goat skulls are often used to symbolize demons.

Originally, outer gods can’t be described through human senses… at least according to Lovecraft’s original works.

It seems similar here.

“There were people who believed killing humans was the right way to summon the god. And it actually worked. The god responded and bestowed blessings. To prevent others from harming the family members, it gave them several monsters.”

These took the form of yokai, and sometimes involved human mutations.

Occasionally, they were given in the form of “children.”

Kosuzu knew this knowledge and used it freely, exploiting her younger sister.

“So the name Kurosawa is also a pool of blood. A black pool where red blood has collected so deeply that it dried black.”

“…”

What should I say to that?

Afraid of awkwardly breaking the mood, I remained silent. Koko kept tilting her head.

“My sister, Kosuzu, actually sacrificed several people, resulting in her transformation. Even at the end, her plan seemed to be succeeding. Though she ultimately paid the price for trying to use a god.”

So the Kurosawa name remained that of a cult until relatively recently.

“Did you kill Mom too?”

But then Koko’s question came out of nowhere.

“What?”

Kagami’s eyes blinked.

“Did you kill Mom too?”

Koko asked, tilting her head.

“I…”

Kagami answered earnestly, though somewhat flustered.

“I didn’t kill her myself, but…”

“Woo?”

Koko tilted her head in the opposite direction.

“Killing people is bad.”

“Yes, it’s bad.”

“Not killing isn’t bad.”

“That’s right?”

As Koko continued speaking, Kagami showed perhaps her first truly flustered expression since becoming a “mother.”

“Then Kagami isn’t bad.”

“…”

Kagami was left speechless at those words.

She said she hadn’t directly killed anyone.

She’s probably sincere. It’s likely she never ordered anyone’s death either. Kagami barely knew how to achieve anything through killing.

She somehow knew how to save me, but I’ll hear about that later.

She did backstab people at the last moment, but… even I, who handled that situation, found it absurd how it just ended. Plenty of evidence remained that something had happened, but both the something and what it had done simply vanished.

The result of absorbing a god’s power and twisting reality.

I still don’t understand the principle at all.

So, for various reasons, I’m not sure if Kagami is “not bad,” but…

At least she didn’t become a murderer.

“…”

Unable to refute Koko’s words, Kagami looked at me.

I thought her eyes looked a bit wet.