p> “...Madoka?”

My grinding nerves were released.

The person who had unnaturally walked down the stairs form the elevated highway was...

“Yes, it’s your good friend the beautiful and celebrated Madoka-chan. Anyway, Shinobu-kun, where are we?”

As Madoka looked around, I noticed blades of grass and seeds were stuck to her sailor uniform in places. It did not look as if she was bruised or bleeding.

That much was fine. However...

“Where have you been up until now? You haven’t seen any of the others, have you?”

“I don’t know. Once we left the tunnel, I was suddenly thrown out into the fog. It was terrible. I was on the highway. There are better ways I could have been thrown out, you know? I noticed what had happened and quickly ran over to the shoulder, but if I had been a little slower, who knows what could have happened.”

She had ended up in the middle of the highway.

My situation had been pretty bad, but Madoka’s hadn’t exactly been great either.

When I thought about it, the situation was almost unthinkable. People had disappeared from a tour bus driving along the highway.

How fast was that bus going anyway?

“So did the same thing happen to our other classmates?”

“I don’t know. But I have not heard any brakes screeching, cars crashing, or ambulance sirens, so I may have been the only one tossed right into the middle of the road,” said Madoka emptily as if it did not matter in the slightest to her.

It may have been too much to ask her to care about the others when she was so isolated from them.

“Oh, right. Madoka, can you use your cell phone?”

“No. Nothing works. I also tried using the emergency phone up on the highway, but I couldn’t reach anyone. I don’t know what happened, but the cord may have been cut since it did not even seem to be ringing on the other end.”

“The emergency phone...was broken?”

Those were supposed to be constantly maintained for emergencies like this. I occasionally heard on the news that overpasses, sewers, and other infrastructure was wearing down with age. This may have been the same.

I did not know what had happened to the tour bus, but it seemed most of Madoka’s luggage had left in the bus as well. All she had in hand was the animal-shaped chocolate she had been eating on the bus.

Oh, the animal chocolates Madoka still needs are the panda and the penguin.

I could only remember that useless piece of information.

“At any rate, heading up is unlikely to help much. I had a few cars fly by me through the fog, so you can be sure of that.”

“You’re kidding... So we have to make our way through this thick forest?” I muttered blankly.

But then a sudden idea came to me.

Is Madoka telling the truth? Or rather, is this Madoka who so conveniently appeared here really just a Kitsune or Tanuki? Or is this the real Kotemitsu Madoka?

If she was actually a transformation of whoever had sent me into this forest, she might be lying to keep me from heading up to the highway and using an emergency phone.

“Not being able to use the phone really hurts our situation. Same with the GPS.”

“I know what you mean. I haven’t been able to check the stock prices for 15 minutes now. Not being able to do what you always do is so irritating.”

“You could at least change that to checking a fortune-telling site or something cute like that, Madoka-san.”

“This makes me want to start with the meaningless conspiracy theories. Having every option to use a phone taken from us makes me think there is some reason behind it.”

“...Come to think of it, are you really okay with your money? Timing is everything in day trading, right?”

“Well, yes. In a world where every ten thousandth of a second counts, this is not okay at all. But I left it all in the hands of a Tokyo market advisor while I am on this trip. If he makes more than the target amount, he gets to keep it all as a bonus, but if he makes less, he has to pay it all back. That’s the contract we made. Nothing that happens will hurt me any.”

I had tried to ask her a leading question, but the answer I got was so complicated I had no idea if it was accurate or not.

Then again, someone who could supernaturally transform into her could likely act perfectly like her as well.

Madoka(?) cast an annoyed glance across the Japanese jungle filled with underbrush.

“What should we do now? And remember, heading back to the highway is out of the question.”

The way she continued to stress that point bothered me a bit, but it was not too unnatural since she had seen firsthand how dangerous it was.

“But walking randomly through the forest is dangerous, too. We don’t know the land and it might be filled with pit vipers and hornets.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

“According to the Love King, Four Mountains Junction has an exit. It was rumored to have been built for a large semiconductor factory. In that case, we should be safe if we can reach either the tollgate or the factory. They should have a phone we can use there.”

I was worried about our other classmates as well, but we had no map, we did not know which direction was which, and we did not know what kind of creatures lurked in this forest. With unknown after unknown, it was too dangerous to randomly search the forest. It would be best to inform someone what had happened so professionals could search for them as quickly as possible.

A white fog prevented us from seeing even a few meters ahead and the curtain of tall underbrush as well as the rotting trees blocked our path. It was about the worst possible path to take, but the highway fortunately ran above our heads. If we followed its shadow, we could keep on track to the tollgate.

Or so we thought.

It turned out we were too na?ve.

When we actually began walking, we learned just how na?ve we were after only five minutes.

“Dammit! I could have sworn we were walking straight. Where did the highway go!?”

“...At the very least, it is no longer overhead,” said Madoka as she looked up into the sky.

The sky we could see through the gaps in the trees was white rather than blue. It was completely covered in thick fog. We had suddenly realized the shadow of the highway had disappeared from the ground. The highway had of course not moved. We had obviously strayed from the proper route.

“Shinobu-kun. I think our direction strayed bit by bit as we took the easiest path while avoiding these thick trees.”

“...Should we head back?”

Fortunately, the tall underbrush we had parted to move forward had left an obvious trail to follow back.

Or so we thought.

“Wait, wait, wait. Where are we? We keep walking, but the highway’s pillar is nowhere to be seen.”

“We’re completely lost.”

We had only followed an obvious landmark and then followed our path back.

That was all we had done, yet where we actually stood and where we had been headed was continually off by a bit.

This was chaotic nature.

It was the polar opposite of a carefully maintained Intellectual Village.

I had thought I was well acquainted with “nature”, but the threat before my eyes here taught me that the village I lived in was like a food sample made of wax.

I had often heard that staying still was better than moving around randomly when lost in the woods or a mountain. I was now certain that was correct.

But that was when you had properly informed people that you were going to climb that mountain. It only applied when someone would automatically come looking for you if a certain amount of time had passed.

We had no way of knowing when this ridiculous fog would clear up.

It was possible it was not just temporary weather. If it had to do with the terrain, it might remain for an entire season or even year round. And if the fog was related to a Youkai...

For one thing, how were you supposed to report that someone had suddenly disappeared from the highway? Who would believe that?

If only Madoka and I had disappeared and the tour bus had continued on perfectly fine, it would be up to our classmates and homeroom teacher to report it. However, they knew where we had disappeared from but not where we had disappeared to. The police and fire fighters might not believe that, and even if they did, they might not immediately guess correctly that we were in the forest of Four Mountains. In our situation, we could die of thirst after waiting just two or three days, so we could not rely on carefree optimism.

And if everyone on the bus was wandering around somewhere like us...

At any rate, we had no way of knowing if help was coming.

The situation might not improve if we carelessly lay around. It was possible we would simply dry up and die.

“Four Mountains Junction is in an area surrounded by four mountains, right? It isn’t that large an area.”

“I would say it is only a few kilometers across from one end to the other. ...Don’t tell me you’re planning to move from one end to the other.”

“If we’re lucky, we’ll run across the highway or one of the pillars supporting it. In the worst case, we’ll run into the mountain which we know has a tunnel through it. It’s a bit dangerous, but heading to the tollgate over the highway might be best.”

Given the land, that plan did not sound too difficult.

After all, the highway at Four Mountains Junction was built in a cross shape, leading to four tunnels through four mountains. If we cut randomly across the basin between the mountains, the odds were good we would run cross the highway at some point.

Madoka elegantly wiped sweat from her face with a small folded up handkerchief.

“I suppose that is our only option. A money-loving girl like me does not like forcing our way through every option until something works like this.”

“We need to find the highway before we seriously need to worry about food and water.”

“We will be trying to walk straight, but we won’t end up walking around and around in circles, will we?”

“Just because you can’t read the atmosphere is no reason to bring up that forest legend at a time like this!!”

And so we began moving.

The rotting trees covered the sky above our heads and even the shortest undergrowth was about a meter tall. Luckily, the leaves were not hard like bamboo grass, so we did not scrape ourselves as we walked through it.

“I’m soaking wet,” said Madoka.

“So am I... But with this much liquid, we shouldn’t have to worry about water. Food will still be a problem, though.”

“Have you forgotten how near the highway we are? With all the exhaust mixed in, who knows what color this water would make a litmus test turn.”

“Stop exaggerating. And you can’t exactly complain if it’s that or die of thir-...”

I trailed off at that point.

What had Madoka-san said?

She was wearing her usual summer sailor uniform that girls had enough trouble with bra straps showing through under normal conditions. And she was soaking wet now?

I needed to calmly check on this from my current position. In this thick, rotting forest, even the shortest undergrowth was about a meter tall. Madoka was wearing a skirt, so making her pass through that undergrowth first would have been unfair. I, Jinnai Shinobu-kun, had taken the extremely gentlemanly role of walking ahead and parting the undergrowth to create a simple path for her.

And that left an important question in my mind...

What color is Madoka-chan’s bra!?

The answer to that very simple question was right behind me. If I only turned around, I would find “Kotemitsu Madoka Presents: The Pink Paradise” before my eyes. The problem was that I needed a reason to turn around!

From her tone of voice, Madoka probably hasn’t noticed her unguarded state yet. This is my chance! My only chance!! I need to use my 105 IQ intellect to its fullest to think up an excuse!! If I don’t, I know I’ll regret it for the rest of my life and be plagued by nightmares every-

“Shinobu-kun? Why are you being so quiet?”

“Kyaah kyaah!! Don’t come peeking over all of a sudden, little kitten!!”

I did not even need to turn around. Madoka had circled around in front of me. I was not yet mentally prepared and my timing was thrown off. However, shutting my eyes now was what a coward pretending to be a pure boy would do. Even as my heart felt as if it would leap out of my throat, I chose the exemplary answer of opening my eyes wide with anticipation!

And Kotemitsu Madoka’s flower garden was finally revealed to me.

Her thin sailor uniform had been easily penetrated by the moisture. What this revealed was...

A plain gray sports bra.

“...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................Tch.”

“Wait, Shinobu-kun. Wait a second. Could you stop looking so disappointed and tell me what happened?”

“This is wrong. A sports bra is just wrong on you! You’re not a sports girl!! You have no reason to end up there!!”

“Eh? Oh, this? It’s just more comfortable this way. I don’t like how bra straps and wires scrape and rub.”

“That reason is terrible too!! Nothing about this is sexy!! That’s the reasoning of a middle-aged woman! If you said that was the uniform of a girls’ boxing club, you could walk right by a police box in your underwear and no one would stop you!!”

“Underwear is underwear; it’s not a swimsuit. I would be too embarrassed to do that.”

“...Then why aren’t you trying to hide your chest?”

“Oh, well, it is a sports bra, after all.”

“So you admit it! You admit a sports bra isn’t even remotely sexy!!”

There were several types of “indifferent girls”: the kiddy type, the pure white bra and panties type, the “doesn’t care at all so she actually goes for really showy sexy lingerie” type, etc. Each of them was filled with its own type of dreams.

But a sports bra that could pass for a summer shirt despite being underwear?

And because she didn’t like straps?

“No, no!! Redo! I want a redo! I imagined a bourgeois like you would definitely wear silk underwear with tons of ribbons and frills!!”

“Okay, okay. I get it, Shinobu-kun. Next time, I will wear striped panties that tie together with strings on either side. That should be filled with plenty of dreams, so calm down.”

That makes it sound like I can’t hope for anything from her panties either, but is that true?

After being consoled by Madoka who was only interested in money and organic vegetables, I managed to recover from a mental state one step away from breaking down into tears.

Madoka then casually changed the subject.

Her tone was no different from a classmate asking if we should stop by somewhere afterschool.

“By the way, Shinobu-kun. I apologize for bringing up this kind of thing again, but I know of an incident about this area that is about as pleasant as your average forest legend.”

“...Do you have to bring it up now?”

“It’s called Zenmetsu Village. I only heard about it from Enbi, so I don’t actually know if that is the official name or not.[1] Over 30 years ago, it seems an crazy mass murderer in the village slaughtered everyone who lived there!! Supposedly, the murderer used pitchforks, hoes, axes, and all sorts of other farm tools.”

“Asking you indirectly to stop wasn’t enough! A crazy mass murderer!? I don’t want to hear anything worrying right now! Please understand that!!”

I rubbed at my wet hair with one hand, but Madoka was not listening.

“Well, it’s just your stereotypical legend about an eccentric village. There are legends almost anywhere in Japan or even the world about people getting lost in the mountains or forest and running across a house or village with some strange custom.”

“Are you saying it’s so common it actually has no credibility? Are you saying we should just laugh it off as nonsense?”

“The story has plenty of embellishments. Some say the murderer is still alive, some say his descendants are wandering around here, and others say a murder group decided this was holy ground to them and so they live in a psychedelic commune here. I hear there are even rumors that the entire village wanders around Four Mountains. Supposedly, the victims desperately tried to flee the village, but the deserted houses circled around to cut off their escape.”

After hearing that much, even I was not all that worried.

The overall impression was too scattered and mismatched.

It was unclear whether it was supposed to be a Youkai using its monstrous power to cause some supernatural phenomenon or if it was a human murderer going on a rampage with the tools around him.

There were of course incidents in which humans used Youkai powers, but those Youkai Packages had to be broadly and finely prepared with a group of dozens if not hundreds of people. They were used for bank robberies, scams involving large sums of money, and insurance fraud murders. In those cases, everyone involved had an obvious common desire. The story of Zenmetsu Village did not seem the same.

“It sounds like a story people in the city made up despite not knowing how Youkai and Packages work.”

“Yes. But they are not trying to insult rural areas. The cities have plenty of their own rumors about eccentric groups, be they underground organization or online communities. No matter where you go in Japan, everyone loves hearing stories about eccentric people.”

...Madoka, I don’t think you’re in any position to call other people eccentric.

This may have been an excellent example of why it was commonly said to look at others for an example of what to do and what not to do.

“But on the other hand...” began Madoka.

She trailed off when the area before us suddenly opened up.

The quality of the soil must have changed because the tall undergrowth that had blocked our way before had dried up and died off. The damp trees were still there, but the disappearance of the obstructing underbrush changed what we could see by quite a bit.

And something was visible up ahead.

They were rocks the size of rectangular 18-liter cans...or should I call them stones? They were more black than gray and standing up on end. Unlike bricks, the surface was rough. They were likely made by hand.

At first glance, they were reminiscent of gravestones. Or perhaps handmade trophies.

And...

A quick estimate told me there were over 50 of them. They were lined up so neatly it made me think someone obsessive had arranged them.

“What...are those?”

I could feel my throat drying up despite the fog that seemed to moisten my body just by standing in it.

Zenmetsu Village.

Rumor had it a crazy mass murderer in the village had slaughtered all the other villagers. This plot of awkward gravestones gave concrete color to that otherwise blank information.

Madoka’s mouth flapped open and closed a number of times after she had trailed off earlier, but she finally continued while sounding apologetic.

“...Since Enbi always shows up at the scenes of strange murders and she was talking so excitedly about this, perhaps we should assume it has a bit more credibility than some nonsense story.”

Part 8 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)

Once we left the tunnel, we were surrounded by a ridiculous amount of fog.

I instinctually let off the gas a bit. After I checked the dropping value on the speedometer, I refocused my eyes on the distance.

For some reason, Enbi was rejoicing in the passenger seat.

She looked like a kid when school was cancelled due to a typhoon.

“Hyah! You can’t see more than a few meters ahead.”

“Yes, that’s right. Dammit. If it’s this bad, I wouldn’t be surprised if they blocked off the road until it clears.”

I started to reach for the switch to the fog lamps, but they were not made to see through fog during the day. They were meant to inform oncoming traffic of your presence. I doubted they would be of much help on a highway with both directions completely cut off from each other.

The mystery freak went out of her way to point toward the shoulder of the road.

“A few police cars are stopped there.”

“I can tell that from their lights.”

“And a prisoner transport vehicle.”

“!?”

I instinctually turned my head to check behind me, but quickly remembered that could get me killed on the highway. I checked the rearview mirror, but it had all disappeared into the fog.

Instead of slamming on the breaks, I gradually decelerated and pulled over onto the shoulder.

I parked the rental car there.

“Should you really stop here?”

“I’ll turn on the hazard lights and set up the reflector.”

“You have the same authority as a normal person right now. Won’t you get in trouble for parking alongside the highway for no good reason?”

“If you can tell when you aren’t supposed to do something, why don’t you think about your own actions more often?”

I opened the door and stepped out onto the asphalt. I removed a triangular reflector from the trunk and set it up on the road. The mystery freak and I then walked back the way we had come.

“...This is a surprisingly long distance.”

“It was several dozen seconds along the highway.”

It was probably 300 to 500 meters. Due to the thick fog, there was nothing to judge the distance by. I lost track of how far I had walked, but that was my guess as to the distance. After walking for a while, a large and dense shadow appeared on the shoulder of the road. It was a police car.

“Now, detective, show me a realism-focused drama depicting the complexity of the police organization.”

“Thanks for that not even remotely funny lead-in.”

“Oh, if you want to start shooting up the place like a Showa era police drama, just tell me. I’ll provide backup.”

“By any chance are you looking forward to seeing a struggle between two adults in suits?”

Then again, I doubt we’ll be able to peacefully talk like we’re tourists.

This troublesome issue was deeply related to the higher ups and old members of the regional police and they had completely ignored the normal procedures when reinforcements had arrived from Tokyo. They had even denied me the bare minimum of sharing investigation data.

A police detective with no authority would be just as annoying as a mosquito flying around one’s ear.

As long as they kept things on a level that would not leave any official records behind, they might try to rough me up a bit.

But that made the mystery freak’s presence an issue.

If they tried to rough me up, we could likely settle it like adults, but... Well, I simply had to hope they would be above grabbing at the collar of an amateur middle school girl.

If they did do that, the situation would have passed the level where it could be “settled like adults”.

Ugh, please don’t let this turn into a serious fistfight. I’m only in a dead end job with little hope of promotion.

At any rate, I maintained a bit of a defensive stance as I approached.

“...Wait a second. There’s no one inside the police car.”

“Maybe they went over to the prisoner transport vehicle.”

“Without locking the doors and with the engine running?”

“I see your point.”

Police cars were common in dramas, but those usually had drama original paint jobs. Each police station had its different designs and actual police officers would not agree to have pictures or videos of their cars taken. If perfect copies were made, they could be used for abductions and attacks on armored cars transporting money.

It was unlikely a police officer would leave one just sitting out like this.

As we continued along the shoulder of the highway, we found several more empty police cars dotting the shoulder. Beyond them was the prisoner transport vehicle.

It was a dark blue.

A small bus had been completely covered in armor plates and the windows had been sealed with thick metal bars. That should be enough to imagine it.

However...

“Why is it on its side?”

“Don’t ask me.”

“I would also love to know why the door is open.”

“If you could know the answer before doing the detective work, we would all have it a lot easier.”

The prisoner transport vehicle had fallen onto its side such that it was completely contained within the shoulder of the highway.

It did not seem to have crashed full speed into the central divider or the accident prevention wall. It was not damaged enough for that. There were no other damaged vehicles to be seen. Glass shards and light covers were strewn across the road, but it did not seem any other vehicle had been involved.

“It looks like the driver attempted a car stunt and failed.”

“Why would they do that?”

I called out randomly but received no response. I circled out to the front and tried to peer in through the windshield, but it was filled with small cracks, making the entire thing white. I could not see inside through it.

That left only one way to find out what the situation was inside: use the door pointed up due to the vehicle falling on its side.

Fortunately, the prisoner transport vehicle had police lights on the top and they were quite large and blocky. I was able to use them as footing to forcibly climb up.

The right-hand side was pointing straight up, so the window was at my feet. It was a prisoner transport vehicle, so the cracks running through the glass were oddly similar to the windshield. The cracks had spread across the entire window, but it had not shattered apart like a normal window would have.

Does it have a special film placed across it?

“Detective, anyone in there?”

“I’m about to check.”

I moved my gaze from the window and moved toward the open door. The vehicle was essentially the same as a bus, so a tall, narrow automatic door that opened with compressed air was located near the driver’s seat.

I lay down on the side pointed up and stuck my upper body down through the door.

What I saw in my upside down vision was...

“...?”

“Detective!”

I heard the mystery freak calling for me, but I could not reply.

There was nothing.

No one was inside.

There must have been a driver, one or more police officers, and a prisoner, but not a single person remained. Helped by being flipped on its side, the completely deserted vehicle looked like a bizarre abstract painting with a theme of space or weightlessness.

I pulled my upper body out through the door.

I thought for a bit.

Was this a complete accident or did someone plan this? Did the police evacuate the prisoner from the vehicle or did the prisoner take the police with him as hostag-->>

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