Volume 1, 1: Regarding Jinnai Shinobu(3/4)
“I’ll do that. ...Actually, are you safe there?”
“The Sanatorium is filled with the wealthy, so its security is top notch. And if things are dangerous here, you’ll be attacked before you leave.”
“Thanks for that unpleasant bit of evidence.”
I ended the call.
This was not just a group of con men that targeted old people. With the situation growing more and more dangerous, I wearily turned around and headed back along the mountain road I had just come down from.
I was heading right back into the clutches of death.
Part 9
Packages had one major problem.
“Bon bobon bon bobobobon bonsai!”
“Don’t lose interest, Zashiki Warashi!! My story isn’t over yet!!”
As she ignored me, the Zashiki Warashi hummed, adjusted the position of the ultraviolet light emitting a bluish-white light, and used a dropper to add nutrients to a clear pot filled with a watery substance. A bonsai itself did match the yukata-wearing Youkai, but the overall SF feel to it all did not match at all.
Incidentally, I have my suspicions that this hobby of hers is why my grandfather has taken such a liking to her despite her being utterly worthless.
“Well, the farther along you get, the less it seems to concern me. How about you just submit this to one of those online question sites?”
“I just can’t trust the know-it-alls that write answers to those things...”
And don’t get off topic.
Can you keep ignoring me when I bring out these puppy dog eyes?
“...Wh-what’s wrong, Shinobu? You’ve got the same look in your eyes as a snake eyeing its prey. Have your sexual urges as a teenager finally gotten the better of you?”
“Enough of this. Can we please just get back to my story?”
“Hmm. So this Package gets people to transfer ownership of their assets by using the promises of a Yuki Onna?” The Zashiki Warashi in the bright red yukata finally turned back to me after finishing with her SF bonsai. “If they’ve developed this into a Package, are these inheritance agents ultimately after you-know-what?”
“Since they’re still coming and going to and from the Sanatorium even after some suspicions, it’s entirely possible.”
“Exporting the Package...”
Yes.
A Package was a criminal plan put together by humans and constructed from the special characteristics and conditions of Youkai. Once one was established, the plan and methodology could be sold as a product. It was the same as how a method of fraud would spread throughout the country.
Naturally, society would grow distorted if these things spread.
This would go well beyond just the Sanatorium.
This was different from someone owning the one and only Uchide no Kozuchi. Packages merely used the powers of Youkai and were created by humans. As long as the person had the desire to complete one and the techniques and materials needed to construct it, anyone could create it. For better or for worse.
“It seems the inheritance agents have already ripped off some wealthy old folks. They’ve made a killing. They may be at the stage where they are planning to sell their Package to an even larger criminal organization in order to change their identities and disappear.”
During the frostbite scares, the inheritance agents had started to fail in their scam and that exposed them to a serious risk. That had likely not been part of their plan. It was possible their ultimate objective had already shifted from “make tons of money” to “escape safely”.
“If a flaw is found in their Package after they sell it, the large criminal organization could very well try to hunt them down. They might be staying at the Sanatorium despite the risk so they can continue to carefully debug it,” said the Zashiki Warashi.
“It’s also possible the large criminal organization sent them to the Sanatorium to assemble the Package in the first place...No, that’s unlikely. If it had all just been testing, they wouldn’t have had to target actual rich people.”
“Hmm. So the inheritance agents thought it was possible you had noticed the connection between the scams at the Sanatorium and the Yuki Onna, so they came to get rid of you. They wouldn’t want any interference that could alter the essentials of their Package before they complete it.”
“Precisely.”
“...This is sounding more and more dangerous. Now we have some large criminal organization involved too. From the way this sounds, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about a nighttime shootout at a wharf.”
“I know, right?”
“And a deadly Yuki Onna is involved, too. Since the marks they can’t get money from are getting frozen to death, they might be able to cause an intentional failure and use the Yuki Onna offensively. This is a combination of an organization, guns, and the supernatural. I wonder if the local police can handle this.”
“That’s why I’m consulting you, you good-for-nothing Zashiki Warashi. Honestly, why did I have to meet that Yuki Onna at the worst possible time?”
“If you have some huge battle awaiting you, there’s no place for me there. Bon bobon bobobobobon bonsai!”
“I told you not to lose interest!!”
Part 10
I used an electric bus to return to the Sanatorium.
The men in suits were busy preparing their scam inside and they looked shocked to see me. However, the armed guards directly hired by the wealthy occupants of the Sanatorium would act if the men pulled out a hunting rifle there. They trembled, but they were unable to do anything to me as I passed by them.
“Madoka.”
“Hey, there.”
I met up with my classmate once more in that waiting room that had strict security that was not visible at first glance.
“You mentioned divulging the details of the Package using the Yuki Onna, but what exactly are you going to investigate? Just so you know, it will be difficult to ask anyone here questions. The Sanatorium is like a hotel for the eccentric and wealthy, so no one speaks with their neighbors. My word only has any sway over the workers here, so don’t count on me being able to do anything.”
“I don’t think I’ll need that.” I shook my hand in the air. “The main gist of this Package has to do with promises. If you tell anyone she spared you, she’ll kill you, but she also disguises herself as a woman and comes to marry you. They use that double setup to get people to transfer their assets over.”
The marriage in this context did not refer to a legal state that required a marriage registration. It was a verbal promise of marriage that acted as the Yuki Onna’s trigger to attack. In other words, it was not the marriage itself that was important. It was the promise of marriage. For that reason, the marriage that seemed at the center of it all could be replaced with something else.
“It sounds ideal, doesn’t it? After setting up a defensive line by preventing the person from telling anyone about the group of con artists, they close in with their ridiculous deal. And if you refuse, you receive a penalty. By cleverly altering the characteristics and conditions of a Yuki Onna, they can create a model case of massive fraud that will never come to light.”
“But wouldn’t that lead to a lot of people dying?” I frowned. “If they just tell people they will have complete control over their assets and insist there is nothing fishy about it, anyone who agreed would have to be quite an idiot. Anyone with half a brain would find it suspicious. And it seems the inheritance agents did fail initially.”
“But if you refuse to promise, you get killed, right? Then...”
“Then you would expect some people to have refused and died. Some people would not believe that a Yuki Onna was really involved.”
“Ah,” said Madoka suddenly.
She must have realized something.
“The frostbite scares,” I said. “Most likely, they originally either used the Yuki Onna directly or the agents brought the deal directly to the old people. And they failed. The old people very nearly died from the penalty. It seems they managed to avoid any deaths by messing with the characteristics and conditions of the Yuki Onna to a certain extent, but it was still too powerful.”
“And so the inheritance agents gave up on that method.”
“They began to use a method of getting people to make the promise that would not raise any questions. If you don’t feel any hesitation to make the promise, the old people need not die due to the penalty. That initial entrance is the problem. After the marks are caught in the Yuki Onna’s promise, the agents are free to do as they please.”
“Is there a way to do that?” Madoka seemed skeptical. “The inheritance agents clearly aren’t all that skilled at talking people into things. Even with the Yuki Onna involved, they managed to screw this up during those frostbite scares. No matter how much help a poor talker gets, they’re never going to be perfect.”
“True. That’s why they don’t do it through talk. The targets don’t even know they’ve made the promise.”
“...?”
“I saw this method in a Package I ran across before.” I paused for a second. “You can make someone promise something by hiding it amid the user agreement for free software. No one reads it, but you can’t use the software unless you agree. The promise is hidden in the long text.”
“You don’t mean...”
“You have one here, right?” I looked around. “The Sanatorium must have a resident agreement. Do you remember looking through it? If they added a clause in it to have people make a promise with some strange Youkai, it would be too convenient for these people.”
Apparently, the original resident agreement was kept at the Sanatorium’s front desk. Madoka may have had no influence with the other residents, but she had enough pull with the workers to allow me to look through that telephone book-like resident agreement.
–While Party A is using the facilities managed by Party B, Party A is obligated to always disclose and explain any objects brought within the facilities.
–While Party A is using the facilities managed by Party B, Party B will do its best to care for Party A’s possessions. However, this is an endeavor, not an obligation. As such, any loss of or damage to Part A’s possessions while using the facilities managed by Party B do not produce any liability for Party B whatsoever.
–While Party A is using the facilities managed by Party B, Party A is obligated to treat appropriately the equipment and fixtures managed by Party B. If Party A is negligent in this obligation and Party B’s equipment or fixtures experience damage, Party A must compensate for the entire cost of repairs or replacement.
“...Why are legal agreements and contracts always written with such stiff language?”
“It’s so you’ll miss what it means while skimming through it. Look, how is this fair? If a resident’s wallet is lost, the institution isn’t responsible, but if something in here is damaged, the resident has to pay for it.”
“But I don’t see any sign of anything related to the Yuki Onna.”
The part saying “any loss of or damage to Party A’s possessions while using the facilities managed by Party B do not produce any liability for Party B whatsoever” was certainly unfair, but it lacked something that would be needed for the Yuki Onna to take the target’s assets.
“Did we misread it?”
“No...” I thought for a bit. “Even if they rewrote the entire original here at the front desk, that would cause everyone in the Sanatorium to fall under the Yuki Onna scam. And that includes you, Madoka. However, I haven’t heard anything about them making that much money.”
“So you’re saying the Sanatorium resident agreement theory was a dead end?”
“They have to have resident agreements other than this one. This place is a “sanatorium” in name only. It’s actually a hotel for strange, eccentric people.”
Yes.
At the time of the frostbite scares, the inheritance agents had changed their methods rather than continuing on. They must not have wanted the panic to spread any further than it had to. Even if it would make a lot of money, the possibility of drawing suspicion from the police would grow if they dragged the entire Sanatorium into it. As such, success had not seemed likely. It was almost as if the group of con artists had recoiled from the possibility that, if worse came to worst, everyone in the Sanatorium could have ended up frozen to death.
That was why the inheritance agents had worked to contain any damages that they might create.
Their promises would be ones that only affected their specific target.
They would use a resident agreement that they could narrow down to affect only one person.
“Do the rooms here contain a booklet that introduces the Sanatorium to newcomers? Instructions on using room service or the internet might be included in it. If a file like that exists, it probably includes a copy of the resident agreement.”
“Come to think of it...”
“Also, that simplified resident agreement doesn’t need to be signed or stamped with your seal. Usually, you automatically agree to its conditions just by entering the room.”
When I entered Madoka’s room, there was indeed a thick binder on a small table. As expected, the introduction to the Sanatorium included a simplified version of the resident agreement.
“If all rooms have one of these binders, they could switch out the binder in the room of their target.”
“We can’t check other resident’s rooms though.”
“Are there any rooms left empty after an unnatural departure? If you tell anyone you were spared, she kills you. Afterwards, she disguises herself as a woman and comes to marry you. Even with the Yuki Onna’s double setup, nothing is stopping people from leaving without telling anyone anything.”
“I might be able to get permission from a worker to check an empty room.”
Madoka asked a passing female worker who unlocked an empty room for us. (I had to wonder just how much pull my classmate held in that place.) We then stepped inside.
“It’s possible we were trapped in a labyrinth of promises the instant we set foot in this room. We need to be careful.”
“I will, but this is a Yuki Onna, right? I am a woman myself, after all.”
“The attack trigger just uses the word marriage, but it seems to actually be rather vague, don’t you think?”
“Perhaps. But the resident agreement in the room only applies to the person that signed a lease for the room with the facility’s owner, so it has nothing to do with us.”
I hoped she was right, but it was possible the group of con artists had changed the contents up quite a bit. It was entirely possible common knowledge did not apply.
I reached for the binder and checked within.
The text designed to make you want to go to sleep continued identically to the one at the front desk for a bit, but I started to notice some things that seemed out of place.
Since the font was identical, it was hard to tell, but there were some clauses added in that I had not seen in the one at the front desk.
“This mentions a Party C in addition to the Party A and Party B.”
“Is that the Yuki Onna?”
“It might be the inheritance agents.”
The text was already written so as to make it hard to understand, but the fraud group had added further trickery on top of that. The text almost seemed to get all mixed up in my head, but I somehow managed grasp the meaning.
–While Party A is using the facilities managed by Party B, Party A must always respect Party A’s relationship with Party C.
–Party C views the relationship with Party A as being revised to one of transferring all financial assets.
–Party A’s losses shall be social losses and Party C must carry out all punishments through financial actions.
–As Party C cannot legally enter into a financial contract, the aforementioned financial actions shall be carried out by the inheritance agents in her place.
“Here we go. I guess the term ‘relationship’ takes the place of marriage. It is true that the order of inheritance for assets changes when two people get married, but...”
“This part about losses probably changes the Yuki Onna’s penalty of death to one of social death through losing all of one’s money.”
“And they use the fact that Youkai can’t even sign a cell phone contract to transfer all the money over to the inheritance agents.”
To summarize:
The resident using the room containing the modified binder would automatically become married to the Yuki Onna. The target’s assets would become jointly owned by the target and the Yuki Onna. This essentially meant she had taken all of the target’s money.
Also, if the target refused or tried to discuss it with someone else, they would receive a financial punishment severe enough to give them a social “death”.
Either way, a large amount of money was given to the Yuki Onna. However, the Yuki Onna could not open a bank account, so the inheritance agents would take control of the inheritance in her place.
In the end, the fraud group would have all the money.
Just with the presence of the binder, the promise was made, so the Yuki Onna’s power could be used without her actually being there.
I wondered if the Yuki Onna even understood what the current version of the Package was.
“Oh? So the target loses his inheritance whether this succeeds or fails? Then there might be some people who decide to sacrifice themselves in order to reveal what is going on.”
“The penalty is merely said to be financial, it doesn’t specify an amount. If it succeeds, the target will have all their assets taken, but if it fails and they are punished, they might end up with a severe debt.”
If the financial punishment was severe enough to lead to the black market loans of a large criminal organization, that would fit the description of a social death.
That was a situation more frightening to humans than freezing to death on a winter mountain.
“Well, that pretty much settles it.”
“But do we have any real proof that Party C refers to the Yuki Onna?”
“I think so.”
I pointed toward one piece of text in the thick binder.
It read:
–Party C dislikes the summer, so she hates cicadas which are a symbol of the aforementioned season.
Part 11
“Hm? I need to set something to record. They’re showing the Chronograph of Hell late tonight, and I don’t want to miss it.”
“Do it in your own room!! I’m recording a foreign drama, so don’t hog the tuner!!”
“...Well, it sounds like you found out how the Yuki Onna’s Package worked. At this rate, it doesn’t seem like you need me at all.”
“Do you actually want to help despite all the complaining you do...?”
This one may be a pain in the ass, but does the Zashiki Warashi race as a whole want to help out their households? In that case, is her mind tsun but her instincts are dere?
Despite those hopeful thoughts of mine...
“No, I want to know why you’ve forced me to listen to all this. I could have used this time to get my character from Level 7 to Level 8.”
“I had a feeling that was it, you indoor Youkai. If you don’t listen to me, I’ll send all the game systems to Madoka’s place so you can’t play with them, dammit.”
She clung to me and looked like she was about to cry.
That Youkai needed entertainment as much as she did water or oxygen.
“But those inheritance agents were trying to export their Package to a large criminal organization in order to get help in escaping, right? Would they really leave you alone while you were trying to uncover their methods?”
“That’s the thing.” I leaned forward. “That was the biggest problem in the end.”
“It’s ironic how greedy humans can be much more frightening than Youkai.”
“In both Rokubu Goroshi and Yonaki Ishi, the villain is a human drowning in greed. In fact, Youkai and the supernatural only really come into play in order to give an ending to the story of some horrible person.”
“If karma worked as well as it does in old stories, the world would be a much nicer place,” said the Zashiki Warashi uninterestedly. “So I take it the inheritance agents finally took action.”
“Yes, they did.”
A chill ran down my spine.
I knew being frightened would not change the situation, but feelings had a way of not being controlled by reason.
The most obvious example of something that gave people such irrational fear was Youkai like the Zashiki Warashi or the Yuki Onna.
I was faced with human greed that would even use that fear to make a profit.
“I was in a pinch. I was in a real pinch.”
“It’s a shame that high schoolers these days have such a limited vocabulary.”
Part 12
I had a very bad feeling about something.
The feeling had no specific basis and I could hardly put together a countermeasure from a simple premonition, so that statement was relatively meaningless. However, it was something like being carried towards an incinerator on a slowly moving conveyer belt. The fact that you were not going to be killed immediately made the whole thing feel all the more uncomfortable.
When we left the empty room after checking the binder, Madoka frowned and gave voice to the reason behind my unease.
“...The inheritance agents are gone.”
“Seriously?”
The situation was advancing.
Just like with cancer, it was too late by the time the pain came to the surface.
A young female worker was jogging down the passageway toward us.
“Kotemitsu-san, Kotemitsu-san.”
“Hey. What is it?”
Kotemitsu Madoka looked toward the female worker when her family name was called.
“I have some news that might concern your visitor.”
“Did something happen?”
“The bus that heads from here to the base of the mountain got a flat tire, so it will likely be running late.”
Geh.
So that’s how we’re doing this?
“Given the distance, you can likely make it to the base of the mountain by sunset on foot, but if you have plans, one of the workers can take you by car.”
“Wait, wait. Could you please give me a second to think about this?”
I politely cut off the female worker, grabbed Madoka’s hand, and pulled her a bit away. There, we began speaking in private.
“That had to have been the inheritance agents. They’re planning to have me ‘accidentally’ shot by a hunting rifle on my way back. That’s why they took out the bus to eliminate that hole in their plan.”
“How about you take the workers up on their offer?”
“They’d just shoot the worker too. They’ve decided to be a bit bolder in their methods. Madoka, how many inheritance agents were there coming and going to and from here?”
“Hm? I don’t remember exactly, but I think there were 10 to 20 of them.”
“Then we need to assume they might surround me while all armed with hunting rifles. The mountain road is the only path back. They can just scatter broken glass over the road to stop the car and then shoot it until it’s nothing but scrap metal.”
“...How about you call in a helicopter?”
That was a rich investor for you. She thought about things on a completely different scale.
However, I shook my head.
“If one of their hunting rifles is an actual rifle rather than a shotgun, that won’t work. That would be enough to shoot through the glass or plate of a civilian helicopter.”
Intellectual Villages had plenty of advantages, but they had their inconveniences as well.
For example, the number of police officers was exceedingly low.
There was no big district police station or anything. The village just had one small station. Also, anyone there would not answer calls during the day due to listening to music with headphones and would be asleep once the sun set. The 30,000 yen bunches of grapes were enough to make any thief’s eyes shine in delight, so the police situation was pathetic. As such, Intellectual Villages relied on hired armed security guards to keep the peace rather than the country’s policemen. (Although those armed security guards did commit crimes themselves sometimes.)
Madoka was aware of that, so she said, “Then wouldn’t it be safest to stay here in the Sanatorium? The inheritance agents have set up a trap in the mountain. Isn’t that because they do not have enough force to take on the armed guards protecting the Sanatorium?”
I appreciated her suggestion.
I really did, but...
“If nothing was done about them, I might have ended up being targeted by the Yuki Onna’s Package as well. The Sanatorium is filled with the wealthy. Everyone here has hired armed guards to protect them. If all of those guards were gathered, the inheritance agents wouldn’t be able to touch you.”
“Yeah...but I doubt that will happen.” I tilted my head to the side as I thought. “Your group might help, Madoka, but I doubt the armed guards hired by the others would go along with it. Letting me stay here would bring the risk of a criminal group attacking with hunting rifles, so they’d probably just throw me out of the Sanatorium.”
It was their job to protect their client, so they would not hesitate there.
Also, there was a difference between the number of guards hired by Madoka and the sum total of guards hired by all the others. If they came into conflict, the others would win. It was possible my only options would end up being leaving the Sanatorium on my own or having all the guards gang up on me and throw me out.
“Then what if I send a few of my guards with you?”
“Would those salarymen really go along with something outside their contract like that? And even if they agreed, they would be up against 10-20 people. If all of those are armed with hunting rifles, things would not look good for us. Even if I managed to get down the mountain thanks to them, I would rather not have it be at the cost of a few people sinking into pools of blood.”
This was not just an issue of simple justice or morality.
Once a colleague had died thanks to their client’s ridiculous request, even Madoka’s guards might gang up on me. They were not government officials or the allies of the country’s citizens. If they were thrown into an unreasonable situation, it was possible they would resort to unreasonable means.
“Then what are you going to do? When you were attacked before, you only just barely managed to escape.”
“...Yes. I’m just a loser in the end. I was thrashing about in a panicked flight from a single man armed with a hunting rifle. This is hopeless. This isn’t some light novel. I can’t wait for an opportunity and counterattack. It just won’t work. Merely surviving would be worth a Guinness World Record.”
“Don’t get that distant look in your eyes. You’re going to be attacked by 10-20 of them at once this time, right? That isn’t a situation where you can just run through the trees and escape.”
I could not stay in the Sanatorium.
If I headed out into the mountain, I would be attacked by a group of 10-20 con artists armed with hunting rifles.
I had to get safely down off-->>