/p>

“Heh. You were probably the one that did it,” said Yamada. “I know about the head jailer’s ‘preferences’. Once he has his eye on you, it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman. This was a good opportunity for you. In a situation like this, anyone could do it without getting arrested.”

“Don’t mock me! I made sure to stay out of any of that!!” protested Sakai. “And speaking of that, what about you!?”

“Shut the hell up! If I say that’s the truth, then that’s the truth! Did you think we were gonna take a vote? If I break the knees of everyone who’s suspicious, they won’t be able to move!! In that case...!!”

Oh, is Yamada-kun going to give this a real effort?

But the situation suddenly changed.

“Shut! Up!!”

The shy female jailer named Kurumaya Nozomi suddenly stabbed Yamada’s head with a blade.

The action took place beyond the thick fog, so the details were not entirely clear. However, she had likely grabbed one of the shards of the car window and swung it down at Yamada’s head. As Kurumaya Nozomi swung down her clenched fist, something glittered below it.

She swung it down.

Again and again and again.

It was as if she were using some strange stamp.

“Shut up! You’ve done nothing but talk and talk and talk and talk! You’re probably working with that woman to kill us all!! You knew how she was going to escape, so you set up a bomb there!!”

“Gyah!!”

Yamada held his head with both hands, but did not yet collapse. It was not like he was being stabbed with a military knife. But even if he had not yet collapsed, there was probably no saving him. He had been stabbed quite a bit.

She must have had a lot of anger built up from her everyday life because Kurumaya-chan continued swinging the glass shard down toward Yamada as if she was digging up dirt with a garden spade.

“And!! And!! I’ve never liked you! That annoying voice sounds just like that fucking dog that bit my arm when I was a kid!!”

“Wait, Kurumaya-san!?”

“Shut up!!”

I heard something slice through the air. She had likely swung the shard to keep Sakai Haruka back when the fellow woman tried to approach.

And then...

“Okay, that’s enough,” announced the male jailer named Tanishita Hajime in a decisive tone.

He was answered with a shout of anger from Kurumaya who had likely had the expression of some kind of monster at this point.

“Ah!?”

“No one move. I am with the police. I came here undercover as a jailer to investigate the corporate prison running behind the semiconductor factory. ...And by the way, this is no toy.”

Silence fell as the atmosphere froze over.

I could guess that “this” was something one did not often see in Japan.

The effect it brought lasted only a few seconds.

Another voice cut in.

“You’re the one that needs to quiet down, you terrible actor,” spat out a female voice.

It likely belonged to Gogan Sakura, the prisoner in her fifties.

“You’re an industrial spy from Pallax Precision Machinery, aren’t you? Your name is Hayama Jouji. You tried to steal the plans for the semiconductor printing equipment, but were shocked to find yourself sent to work as a jailer here. You were wondering whether this was a simple reassignment or if your cover had been blown and they were preparing to imprison you here. You had to have been scared.”

“Wh-wh-who the hell are you!? What are you talking about!?”

“You’re not going to scare me by waving around a model gun. And it doesn’t look like you’ve modified it to shoot real bullets either. A real gun looks like this. Get it now, boy?”

Hm.

There are a lot of interesting people here.

“Thank you for going along with this PSIA undercover investigation. But this is my limit. I was hoping to get a reading on the general intentions of the entire Kuroyama Electronics Group instead of just this out-of-control corporate prison, but I have no choice now that someone has died.”

“Y-you’re kidding...” said Kurumaya Nozomi in a trembling voice. She had killed someone right in front of a police officer, it was only natural she wanted to deny it. “Th-they said on a drama I watched that the Japanese police aren’t allowed to perform undercover investigations! And if they do it’s an independent investigative department with a different jurisdiction than the normal police like the Narcotics Control Department!!”

“Officially, yes. But a lot of the PSIA’s work does not leave any official records. I’ve gotten this old while eating food earned from undercover investigations. Shouldn’t you assume your ideas about all this were wrong?”

“But...” At this point, the other female prisoner, the high school aged Suzukawa Izumi, spoke up for the first time. “If you’re a police officer who leaves no records behind, that means you can have as many illegal side businesses as you like, doesn’t it? You leave no trace of anything behind, after all. Are you really an ally of justice here to expose the evils of this corporate prison? Or do you have some other objective more in line with your own desires?”

...Hm.

“Ah wah wah wah wah wah!!” shouted the Sunekosuri over the radio. “I-is it just me or is no one here a normal person!? D-don’t tell me all of them play some role in the underground world Hyakki Yakou deals with...”

“(No, I doubt this is that convenient. A few of them live their lives in the light. But my role is to kill anyone necessary regardless of what kind of aftertaste it will leave in my mouth.)”

However, it would be problematic if this (self-proclaimed) PSIA undercover agent took control of the situation.

I could not allow the situation to calm down.

They had to be killing each other until the person behind all this made a mistake.

“Y-you’re lying. That has to be a model gun!”

“Do you think that because yours is just a toy?”

“Freeze!! This is real! So...!!”

“Then how about you prove it?”

This is my chance!!

I brought the radio closer to my lips.

“(Sunekosuri! Who is Gogan Sakura aiming her gun at!?)”

“Eh? Ehh? The Tanishita Hajime guy who might be a police officer or an industrial spy.”

“(Where is he? The thick fog makes it too hard to see from here.)”

“Wh-why do you want to know?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” I pulled out my handgun that had a suppressor equipped. “(I’ll shoot Tanishita Hajime as Gogan Sakura fires her warning shot. An amateur won’t notice the difference in caliber. With one gunshot and one wound, they will suspect Gogan Sakura who had been so well-behaved up until now. The others will fall straight into a panic when they’re betrayed by the person they thought they could trust.)”

“E-eeee!?”

It wasn’t clear whether Tanishita Hajime was guilty or not, so I decided it would be best to not make a deadly shot. As long as it caused a panic and they began trying to kill each other, it didn’t matter.

“(Sunekosuri, what is Tanishita Hajime’s precise location?)”

“Ah, ah wah, ah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah!”

“(Sunekosuri, this is a Hyakki Yakou job! You were sent to support me because the young lady trusts you. If you aren’t going to live up to that trust, just quit the organization already!)”

“T-Tanishita is...” began the Sunekosuri. Even over the radio I could tell he was about to cry. “He is to the right from your perspective. He is directly next to the burning car. That is about 10 meters away.”

“...?”

“He is standing alongside the side mirror. If you aim based on the reflected light, you should hit his upper body.”

This was no time to think.

I followed the Sunekosuri’s instructions and aimed my small, suppressor-equipped handgun with both hands.

And then I waited.

“Will a gunshot be enough to prove it? Or do you need the crushed bullet afterwards? I guess you won’t believe me until I shoot over there somewhere, will you?”

“Hey, wait...”

I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

“This is an emergency situation. Waving my gun around like this would normally require more than a written apology, but there aren’t going to be any records of this. We use these pretty lightly in our world. Make sure you remember that.”

Now!!

I focused on my trigger finger.

And...

A high-pitched gunshot rang out beyond the fog.

Silence followed.

I was hiding a short distance away, but even my ears had a sharp pain in them.

Gogan Sakura had fired a warning shot.

However...

My suppressor-equipped handgun was pointed upwards.

I had held back from firing at the last second.

“(Sunekosuriii...)” I said bitterly.

“Ee!? Wh-what is it? I have no idea what is going on...”

“(You have two options. Either I make an official report to the young lady that you gave me false information to save a suspect, or you will receive a full-body massage by me after all this is over.)”

“I will take the massage! Please, anything but telling Hafuri-sama!! Anything but having those sorrowful eyes turned in my direction!!”

You idiot.

If I had fired in the wrong place, one of them might have noticed the sound or sparks when it hit! That would have ruined everything! This is the sort of “kind noise” that gets professionals killed!!

“(But...)”

What was I to do now?

The warning shot had silenced everyone else. I would have no opportunity to fire randomly into them and it would not cause as much panic this way. For better or for worse, the center of their group mentality was now located in the undercover investigator Gogan Sakura. As their mental dependence on her grew, I would have to kill someone else to bring in more doubt before it would all come crumbling down.

Gnn! This is a huge detour!!

The undercover investigator seemed to be reestablishing communications beyond the fog.

“There is no hope for this guy...Yamada Ken was it?”

“A-ahh. I...I didn’t...I...wait...”

Kurumaya Nozomi finally began to grow nervous, but Gogan was not going to listen.

“To find the culprit more smoothly, let’s go over each of our situations one by one. We need to find why the head jailer and that female jailer died as well as what is causing the bizarre phenomenon behind it all.”

And then...

Just as I almost began seriously wondering if Gogan Sakura would solve everything for me...

Something even more abnormal came from an unexpected place.

Part 24 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)

“Ugh,” groaned the mystery freak after stepping out of the rental car.

What lay before her eyes was an unmaintained forest where the rotting branches of the trees covered the sky and the tall undergrowth left the color of the ground a complete mystery. Nature here was destroying itself like a bedridden old man with bedsores.

“Are you sure we should follow the map? We aren’t going to get stranded are we?”

“The rental car refuses to run, so we can only investigate in the areas we can walk to.”

To be honest, with the almost complete lack of clues, I was beginning to doubt Hasebe Michio was even in Four Mountains.

Finding them after those snake Youkai made me incredibly uneasy, but we had a prisoner’s shoe and an old map of Four Mountains with an X marked on it. It might lead us to nothing, but it was worth trying.

“More importantly, mystery freak, are you sure you’re okay in that swimsuit-like outfit?”

“I can’t exactly take off anything else! B-but if you beg me enough, I might consider stripping further.”

“I mean the opposite, you idiot.” I pointed into the thick greenery we were about to head into. “Do you really want to walk through there with exposed skin? The small branches will scratch at your skin and who knows how many mosquitos and centipedes there are. This is no place for a nice picnic.”

“That’s what the bug spray is for!”

“How much do you think that will really help? And you have moisture all over your body from this fog.”

“Th-then what am I supposed to do?” she asked.

I pointed toward the unmoving rental car.

“The most sensible answer is for you to wait here.”

“No! I can’t send you off alone into a forest that might be filled with Youkai. You’d definitely get your butt kicked and never come back!”

Dammit! I can’t say she’s wrong!!

At the very least, it’s true there were some snake Youkai!!

I rubbed at my bangs with one hand, and half-resignedly stuck my upper body into the rental car’s driver’s seat to unlock the trunk. I checked inside the trunk, but only found a spare tire and a tool set.

Damn. No good.

I had no choice but to toss my jacket over the mystery freak’s head while she wore what basically amounted to a swimsuit.

“Cover yourself with that. It’s better than nothing.”

“U-um, wouldn’t spraying on tons of bug spray help?”

“Using too much will lead to chemical irritation. Remember: this is a chemical that sets off the bugs’ danger sense so they will keep away.”

With that said, I pulled out the largest wrench from the rental car’s tool set. I took the lead, used the tool to sweep aside the underbrush that was over a meter tall, and stomped on through.

Dammit. Making a path is such a pain. I’m obviously wasting three times the energy I would be otherwise.

The mystery freak took advantage of the human bulldozer ahead of her and simply walked through the path I had made.

“Detective, why are you trying to make me fall for you even harder?”

“Would you rather take the lead?”

“There are a lot fewer bugs than you said there would be.”

“The fewer the better.”

...But that does bother me a bit, too.

The thick and extremely grassy smell of greenery filled my lungs, but I could not sense much of an animal smell. I could not spot any animal droppings or remains. It was as if there were no living creatures besides us.

It was as if all of them had suddenly disappeared just like Hasebe Michio and the police officers from the prisoner transport vehicle.

After we walked through the forest a while, the green wall came to an end. A clear area covered in rotting dead grass spread out ahead of us. As we continued on following the map, we found a number of structures made from sharpened logs. They were likely meant to stop cars from entering the area. We passed by them and came across an area with a few run-down shacks made of plywood and galvanized sheet iron and an area with a few large thatch-roof houses with crumbling roofs.

The largest of the houses looked like it would cost between 20 and 30 million yen for the house alone. It would have cost 15 times that had it had been made with Intellectual Village brand name materials and by Intellectual Village craftsmen.

These larger houses seemed out of place with the rest of the abandoned village.

“It doesn’t look like anyone is living in them. It must have been decades since they were abandoned.”

“So this is the rumored Zenmetsu Village,” said the mystery freak as she walked up next to me. “But I see some new footprints here. Look.”

“Whose are those?”

I was suspicious. One set of footprints was large and the other small, but their shape was quite similar. They looked like ready-made leather shoes.

“Maybe it was a couple like us.”

“Okay, no more comments from you.”

The footprints continued in a different direction than the mark on the map. I was curious about both, but I decided to deal with the mark on the map first since we knew we could reach it. Hasebe had not been wearing leather shoes and I doubted he had a woman with him.

“Uuh... Not having internet access makes me even more worried. We only have this hand-drawn map to rely on,” complained the mystery freak.

“We have no choice.”

“Dammit. If only I could contact my usual information broker.”

“I’ll ignore that for now since we’re in the middle of a crisis, but I’m going to keep it in the back of my mind for later.”

I looked down at the map and the mystery freak grabbed onto my shirt with one hand.

“It looks like there’s something around here. A few lines are drawn in.”

“Do you think they represent roads?”

“I don’t know. They don’t travel from the center of the village and outwards, so they might be something else.”

“Like ravines?”

The fog was too thick to see even a few meters ahead. I wanted to avoid making an accidental misstep, so I decided to continue on with caution.

“Where’s the mark on the map?”

“Not far ahead... Oh, is that it?”

The mystery freak pointed toward a vague shadow in the fog.

But...

“It looks like a shrine.”

“You might want to call it a former shrine.”

There was a building, but it had been reduced to nothing but a pile of rubble. Amid the large amount of broken wooden material, pieces that had been scorched black as if in a fire were common. The destruction could not have been natural. This looked like the aftermath of a group swept away by violence rather than the work of a single person. The way the shimenawa and...nusa did you call them? Anyway, that paper folded in zigzags. The way they were blowing in the wind was a bit depressing.

I can tell a shrine was destroyed here, but what does it mean?

There was a mark here on the map in Hasebe’s boot, so there has to be some kind of meaning.

The mystery freak tilted her head.

“Did Hasebe destroy it?”

“If so, why would he mark down its location to remember it?”

“So the shrine was already destroyed.”

“But what does the mark mean?”

“Maybe he had something convenient hidden in the rubble.”

We exchanged a glance.

We moved the rubble as much as we could and finally discovered a clear plastic bag.

It contained some old bundles of money and a rusted blade.

“This looks suspicious.”

“There’s three million yen here,” I muttered. “Huh? But wait. Doesn’t that mean this wasn’t the first time Hasebe Michio has been in Four Mountains?”

That belated thought came to me.

And in the next moment, something heavy struck the back of my head after a full swing.

“Bh...gh...!?”

Pain instantaneously exploded in my head before vanishing as the sense exceeded its limits. Instead, the pain from my neck bending so suddenly stabbed into my mind.

I had been attacked from behind.

By the time I realized that, my vision had been greatly shaken and I had fallen to the side.

Who?

As I lay collapsed on the ground, I desperately tried to focus my shaking vision. My gaze landed on a man of about fifty. He wore a jumpsuit. However, it was a bright neon orange and the back had a prison identification number printed in large letters, so it was not something one saw every day.

It was a prison uniform.

There was only one possible identity for this man swinging up a branch as thick as a human arm.

“Hasebe!?”

The wrench I had used to brush aside the undergrowth had fallen from my grasp during that attack. I kicked at Hasebe Michio’s leg while lying on the ground. He lost his balance but still managed to swing down his blunt weapon. His aim was off, so he only tore up the ground right next to my face.

“Dch!!” groaned Hasebe.

Standing it up and knocking it down once more must have been too troublesome because he placed the thick branch horizontally across my neck and pressed his weight down on it. I frantically grabbed at the thick branch as well, but I was still at a disadvantage. I heard a creaking sound as that branch as thick as an arm crushed my Adam’s apple.

“...Wait. Why...are you...doing this...!?”

I moved my mouth, seeking air.

And then I spotted something that left me in shock.

It was even further above than Hasebe Michio who was leaning down on me. There I saw the mystery freak’s face which had become completely expressionless. She held the large wrench I had dropped.

Not good.

Not good! Not good!!

Mystery freak, why are you unhesitatingly coming forward to split Hasebe’s head open!?

“Damn...it...!!”

I tried to cry out, but had difficulty producing a voice. I tried to escape from beneath Hasebe, but it did not work well with his weight pressing down on me. I still managed to move bit by bit as if sliding along the ground.

And then gravity seemed to suddenly disappear.

I felt as if I were sliding backwards down a playground slide.

...Didn’t the mystery freak mention some lines on the map that might be ravines!?

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

I rolled down to the bottom of the ravine along with Hasebe.

Instead of falling from a vertical wall, it felt more like sliding down a steep slope for three or four meters.

Rather than ground made of earth, a cold, highly-transparent river waited at the bottom.

With a loud splash, I sank into the water headfirst.

Seeking oxygen, I sought the surface almost on instinct alone.

“Buhahh!!”

My head broke the surface. I greedily sucked in oxygen. The river was only about a meter deep and three meters wide.

Hasebe was...

Where is Hasebe?

As soon as that thought came to mind, someone grabbed the collar of my dress shirt from behind.

I was tugged back by a powerful force and my head sank back under the cold water.

“Gbh! Gbagbhh!!”

Why is Hasebe Michio attacking me?

I had thought the odds were high his request for a retrial would go through and he would be found not guilty of murdering the president of Kuroyama Electronics Group, but it was looking like the charges might not have been false after all.

Or perhaps he had mistaken me for an assassin from the regional police or the corporation.

“Ha...sebe...!!”

I somehow got my head out of the water before it was submerged once more. This repeated a few times.

The situation looked hopeless, but I had been able to manage something during that time.

I had learned where his feet were.

I frantically moved my arm in an attempt to sweep those feet out from under him.

As if our bodies had switched places, our positions suddenly changed. Hasebe fell and his body sank into the cold water.

“Hasebe! Do you understand what you are doing!?”

I grabbed the collar of his prison jumpsuit with both hands and lifted him up.

He was gasping for breath as he dangled down from my arms, but he was smiling.

He looked nothing like a decent citizen who had been wrongly imprisoned for a crime he had not committed.

“To be honest, I had already given up,” said Hasebe as if spitting out the words. “But by some coincidence, I made my way out of the transport bus. And of all places, in Four Mountains where I had hidden some stolen money 30 years ago. I figured there was no harm in trying. Betting on a coincidence isn’t bad at all!!”

“What are you-...?”

“I don’t know if the driver suddenly disappeared or what, but the bus flipped over. The police officers who came running out of their cars also vanished. It was exhilarating. I don’t know who did this or how, but only an idiot wouldn’t take advantage of it!!”

“What are you talking about!?”

As I asked that, I suddenly lost my balance.

Hasebe’s hand was on the end of my necktie.

...Dammit! He kept talking about meaningful things to draw my attention away!!

I frantically tried to remove Hasebe’s hand, but he tugged on my tie before I could. My head sank into the water like a dog on a chain. Even worse, the water was clear enough that I could see Hasebe was stepping on my tie.

He got me...

Now I can’t get my head above water!!

“Gbh...gbhbgh!!”

I struck Hasebe’s leg with my fist and dug my fingers into his shin, but it was no good. I instead began to think about undoing my tie.

Shit, shit, shit!! The knot has soaked up so much water it’s tightened up!!

“Gbh...bghbgh...If you...splash...not...gh.”

Hasebe seemed to be announcing something in triumph above, but I could not hear it well through the water.

It seemed he had more to say.

The air in my lungs tried to force its way out of my mouth in pursuit of an exit. I grew dizzy. My fingers dug into my tie’s knot with enough force to almost break my fingernails. I tried to force it looser.

Hurry up.

Hurry up!!

“Gbah!!”

I finally escaped the bonds of my tie and broke the water’s surface in search of air.

But two hands pushed my head back down.

Hasebe’s face had an odd smile on his dripping wet face. That moisture was more than just the fog.

“Hase...agh...Hasebe!!”

“They should have left it alone. I annihilated everyone like I was supposed to. No one was left. So what does it matter if one last thing hadn’t been dealt with!? It wouldn’t have caused anyone any problems that I ran away!!”

It sounded more like he was making excuses to himself than he was talking to me.

And then it hit me. An unpleasant feeling ran down my spine.

Zenmetsu Village. That village of annihilation.

The legend concerning that empty village we had seen on the way here.

The psycho killer of the sort that delighted the mystery freak.

“Was it...you? Were you the one that killed this entire village!?”

“Shit! Shit!! Yes, it was. That was under the old system!!” replied Hasebe Michio with a mocking smile as he tried to force my head underwater. He was what you could call the “true culprit”. “Calling me a client of the Kuroyama Electronics Group sounds nice, but I was always forced into just barely scraping by. The entire run-down downtown area was a step away from starvation. Kuroyama wanted to keep a set level of disposable troops to force their inconvenient dirty work onto.”

“Kh...!!”

I grabbed the back of Hasebe’s hands as he tried to force my head down. I dug my nails deep into them.

Hasebe’s expression twisted in pain, but he maintained his position.

Dammit. I can tell my mind is falling toward pessimistic thoughts. By the time I start considering DNA tests and dying messages, it’s all over!!

“Are...cough...Are you saying...cough...you attacked the village so the company could profit!?”

Did he think he could win?

Did he think he could silence me?

As Hasebe breathed-->>

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