Volume 1, 1: Regarding Jinnai Shinobu(4/4)
And even if I made it safely off the mountain, could I return to a safe summer break?
I know I keep saying this, but they were armed with hunting rifles.
I did not want to spend the rest of my life hiding in fear of attack and it was entirely possible they would find out where I lived and attack my home. It was clear as day what my fate would be if they charged into my house in their outdoor shoes and carrying those dangerous weapons.
I wanted to survive.
I wanted to get back to my safe everyday life.
To do that, I would need to do more than get off the mountain without the inheritance agents finding me.
“...I guess I need to see this through to the end.”
“Shinobu-kun?”
“Madoka, you said you could ask favors of the workers here but not the other residents, right?”
“Y-yes. We’re all on the same level. This is like a hotel, so there is no sense of a ‘neighborhood’. No one will even answer a knock on the door.”
“That’s fine.” I took the binder that held the simplified resident agreement from Madoka. “Could you ask a favor of the workers? I can’t pay them, but ask them if I can stay in the empty room this binder was in.”
“That could be difficult.”
“Tell them a group of thieves will attack with hunting rifles if they don’t let me.”
“I’ll do my best,” said Madoka. “But a completely empty room might be too much. It would be a bit easier to get them to allow another person to stay in my room.”
“No, your room won’t cut it. To break out of this situation, I need to dive straight into the maelstrom.”
“What?”
“Also, with the investing you do, you must have various business related tools, right? Surely you don’t do it all on the computer. I’d like to borrow one of those analog tools.”
“What specifically?”
“A seal.”
It was not late at night.
Nor had all of nature in the area died out.
The summer was chokingly hot. The trees and underbrush gave off a thick green smell. The sunbeams leaking through the gaps in the trees covering the sky were bright enough to be called healthy. The high-pitched sound of cicadas was loud enough to drown out the rustling of the wind through the branches.
The scene was perfect for a memory from a child’s picture diary.
This was the rural image that Intellectual Villages used as an attraction.
However, the situation I was in changed that world into a cruel one. That may have been how the world looked to someone heading to a cliff in order to commit suicide. I did not have the calm to spare to be moved by the scenery spreading out before me. I could only view the visuals as visual information.
I tried to concentrate and I tried to pay close attention.
However, I ended up taking in even less information than usual.
Each step I took was heavy.
I felt the invisible object known as my soul being worn down.
Even if I had had an accurate map, I would probably have gotten lost in that state of mind. And I would have no idea if the map I had was accurate or not. Should I follow that sense of danger within me? Should I ignore it because it would send me to my own destruction? Would I overlook some danger because I was too afraid of heading to my own destruction? The options circled around in my mind in an infinite loop. Before I knew it, that loop left me uncertain about any criteria on which to base a decision. It was like I had been turned into a robotic human that could not take any complex actions.
I had no idea what I was thinking.
I could not sort out my thoughts.
I could not tell if my thoughts were coming from my true feelings or if they were due to me being led astray by fear.
Ten to twenty men armed with hunting rifles lay hidden within the mountain.
Running across even one of them would put my life in danger. Fighting back against them was a dream within a dream. Even if I immediately turned around and ran, my odds of survival were probably less than 10%. In fact, I would likely just get shot while I froze up in indecision over whether to fight or run.
And even if I did survive, the inheritance agent would contact the others and have me surrounded in no time at all. If that happened, there was no saving me. Even if the mountain was a large area, there were only so many areas and routes people could easily pass through. With 10-20 people, they could cover all of those routes with some left over.
When would they come?
Where would they come from?
Even if I had had no other choice, I intensely regretted leaving the Sanatorium. I didn’t care anymore. I was fine with having those armed guards gang up on me. I just wanted to take refuge in a safe building.
Just when I was about to turn back the way I had come, the hunting rifle attack began.
A great scream rang out, destroying the peace of nature.
At that time, an inheritance agent named Hanazono felt a tremendous pressure in his stomach. He was hiding in a thicket, standing guard along the zigzagging mountain road. He held a double-barrel hunting rifle in his hands. The heat of midsummer had soaked the inside of his suit with sweat and his face looked like it had been sprayed with water. His own heavy breathing rang loud in his ears. Each and every leaf of the thicket touching his cheeks tore at his concentration. He was filled with so much fear and regret that he felt faint.
He could see the high school boy that was his target.
He pressed the hunting rifle’s stock against his shoulder to stop it from shaking. However, his entire body was shaking.
He was not afraid of the boy.
He was afraid of having to shoot another human being.
The inheritance agents had all gathered in order to make easy money.
However, the next thing they had known, this was the situation they were stuck in.
Murder was going too far astray.
They had clearly gone beyond the risk they had been willing to take. Whenever he had seen stories about robbers who had ended up killing their target on the news, he had wondered why those people did not use their heads. He would never have taken part in this criminal plan if he had known it would end with someone dead. He should have stuck with fraud he could pull off over the phone.
He felt like a sugoroku piece moving forward against his own will.
However, he would lose everything if he did not shoot.
Hanazono assumed their leader, Shironaka, had prepared the hunting rifles to ensure they would act. With a knife or a metal bat, they would have hesitated. The fact that they just had to move their index finger helped to distance their minds from the fact that they were stabbing through or smashing human flesh.
If that kid had not interfered they could have ended everything so well.
It might have been going too far to take his life.
However, they could hardly just let him go and enjoy his life.
Just one finger.
He just had to move his index finger.
That kid had done something worth that much.
The bullet would hit on its own. What happened after he pulled the trigger was none of his business.
If the kid died, it was his own fault.
Hanazono took one deep breath.
He brought his index finger to the hunting rifle’s trigger and stared through the sight like he had seen in movies.
He just needed some momentum.
He could ride that momentum and squeeze his index finger.
However, a gunshot did not ring out.
The stock did not strike his shoulder from the shock of firing and a lead bullet was not fired.
“?”
Had his finger not moved? Had his muscles frozen in place out of anxiety?
With those questions in mind, Hanazono looked away from the sight and at his index finger. He saw something truly strange there.
His index finger had changed to a much darker color.
The portion of the finger from the 2nd joint on crumbled like dried paper clay and fell to the ground.
“Gyah.”
Someone who had experienced misfortune while mountain climbing in the winter might have witnessed something similar.
It was severe frostbite.
“Gyah gyah gyah gyah!? Gyah gyah gyah gyah gyah gyah gyah!!”
However, Hanazono’s life was not filled with such diverse experiences.
As if his senses had finally caught up with the strange phenomenon, he swung his right arm around in intense pain. Repeated sounds of something dry cracking could be heard. Half his palm and three of his fingers came clean off and flew through the air.
(What!?)
(What is going on!?)
He heard the rustling sound of something moving in a thicket. Was one of his comrades hidden nearby targeting the high school boy in his place? Or had they come to save him? That was what Hanazono thought, but he was wrong. When the familiar face of Murokawa emerged, he was writhing in intense pain and terror. The left half of his face had changed color. It had become a reddish-purple and one of his ears was missing.
Finally, a gunshot rang out.
However, it was not aimed at the high school boy. It had been an accidental discharge. Someone had accidentally fired their rifle. Hayashida came out from within a thicket and onto the road. His right arm broke into multiple pieces and joined the ruined scrap metal on the road. Had it been the explosive force of the bullet being fired? Or had it been purely the effects of the frostbite? It was unclear which had caused him to lose his arm.
It was not just Hanazono.
The same thing was happening across the mountain.
Hanazono had fallen into a state of complete panic, but he finally noticed that the high school boy was holding a single binder.
Hanazono had seen an old police drama where a thick manga magazine had been used in place of a bulletproof vest, but it was clear the boy had not brought the binder for that purpose.
The inheritance agents recognized the binder.
It contained the altered version of the resident agreement put in the target’s room in their Package fraud that used the characteristics and conditions of the Yuki Onna.
“If you’re trying to manipulate a Youkai, you probably shouldn’t leave the core of your control out where anyone can get at it.”
The boy opened it.
He opened it to the page that should have held their rearranged conditions.
However, there were a few extra lines written in sloppy handwriting that Hanazono and the others did not recognize.
–Party C will ensure the safety of Jinnai Shinobu. In order to carry out the previous clause, Party C is obligated to use all of her power.
–Party C may attack preemptively while making use of her power. Upon confirming anyone or anything intending to attack in such a way that will have a negative effect on Jinnai Shinobu’s safety, Party C shall eliminate them. No consent is required to carry out enforcement of this clause.
And next to each piece of added text was a small red mark giving color to the otherwise black and white page of text.
A seal had been stamped in red ink.
To be more specific, it was a correction seal.
That mark was used to indicate that changes to a contract were made with the acknowledgment of the one agreeing to the contract.
“Gah...”
They had been taken out because they tried to shoot.
Everyone who had tried to shoot had been taken out.
The additional clauses were almost too easy to understand. And their meaning was simply overwhelming. Even if they had gathered dozens or even hundreds of people, their entire force would have been neutralized just by targeting that high school boy.
(He took control of the Package we assembled!?)
And then winter arrived.
The Youkai that symbolized the severity of nature and the rejection of the intense cold appeared amid the green of nature.
The gates of hell opened.
The high school boy tapped his own shoulder with the spine of the binder and spoke out to the men in the area.
“This is the deadly being you prepared. I’m sure you’re well aware just how dangerous she is. I’d rather not have anyone hurt more than necessary.”
“What are you doing, you idiots! Hanazono, Hayashida!! This is what we prepared the safety for!!” The voice of their leader, Shironaka, came from the cell phone Hanazono had dropped. “The cicadas!! I’ll bring out the insect cage! If we can get that monster out of here, we can silence that kid!!”
Shironaka charged out from a thicket.
In one hand, he held the type of small insect cage children used. Normally, using that as a weapon would seem like nothing more than a bad joke. However, in the situation Hanazono and the others had assembled, it was a protective charm with almost absolute effects.
And yet...
“Gh?”
It froze over.
The insect cage frosted over in white and cracked. Next, the cicadas inside and Shironaka’s hand holding the insect cage were wrapped in the frost.
Severe frostbite changed the color of his skin, the consistency of his flesh slowly twisted, and then the location of his fingernails clearly moved out of place.
The intense pain made Shironaka try to clench his fingers, but his fingers broke off in the next instant.
“Byah byah!? Th-they came off!! What!? They came off! They’re gone!?”
Shironaka seemed more frightened of the absurdity of that situation that should never have happened than bothered by the pain. The high school boy then opened the binder to another page.
On that page, it read:
–P?a?r?t?y? ?C? ?d?i?s?l?i?k?e?s? ?t?h?e? ?s?u?m?m?e?r?,? ?s?o? ?s?h?e? ?h?a?t?e?s? ?c?i?c?a?d?a?s? ?w?h?i?c?h? ?a?r?e? ?a? ?s?y?m?b?o?l? ?o?f? ?t?h?e? ?a?f?o?r?e?m?e?n?t?i?o?n?e?d? ?s?e?a?s?o?n?.
It had been removed.
The sole safety Hanazono and the others had prepared was gone.
Now they had no way to stop the Yuki Onna.
No one could stop her!!
“Of course I changed what you had put in there. If I had used the alterations you had made as is, I would have had all my assets taken. Before reassembling it how I wanted it, I made sure to get rid of the clauses I didn’t need. Why wouldn’t I?”
The high school boy closed the binder, tapped it against his shoulder again, and smiled.
“Now then. Will she have to deal with all of you, or will you give up on your own? I’ll leave that decision to you.”
Part 13
The Zashiki Warashi frowned.
“Oh? The point of view of that flashback scene changed partway through. Was that some kind of bug?”
“It’s not a bug. After those attempted murderers put their hands in the air and surrendered, I gathered some information from them.”
“Well, it sounds like that was all wrapped up nicely. It seems to me that there isn’t anything left you need to discuss with me.”
“There is, you idiot. In fact, the most dangerous thing of all is still out there. The Yuki Onna.”
“Is that simplified resident agreement still in effect? So are you going to live the rest of your life with that Yuki Onna auto-guard on?”
“I made sure to add a part saying the effects of the altered clauses go out of effect in three hours after the change, so that’s not a problem. But the thing is...” I scratched at my head. “It seems that Yuki Onna sees me as a target by default without needing that resident agreement’s conditions. That’s why she asked me to marry her at the bus stop in an attempt to kill me. If I don’t deal with that quickly, I could end up trapped by all her questions.”
“It must be tough being a popular guy.”
“The Yuki Onna’s marriage promise is clearly just a means of killing the target more quickly. And the double preparation shortens the process even further. Asking someone to marry her is like a magic spell to her.”
“Oh? So you’re saying Youkai can’t have human feelings of love?”
“Well, you aren’t human.”
At that point, my overall small granny knocked at the door. She had been checking to see if the burglar had stolen anything, but the size of the household made that take some time. I had a feeling she had stopped to make some ohagi at some point, but it still would have taken some time.
“Shinobu, about that burglar.”
“Did you find something missing?”
“No, the opposite. It’s very strange. We have something extra.”
“...Hah?”
“This.”
My granny handed me a single binder.
Yes.
It was the thick binder I thought I had sent back to the Sanatorium via bike courier.
“Oh, no...” I muttered.
That burglar.
He wasn’t a burglar at all!! Did some idiot from those inheritance agents manage to get away!? And now he came back in the very, very end with some pain in the ass revenge!!
The resident agreement in the binder had a dog-eared page.
A ball-point pen and a correction seal had been used to add a single clause.
–Party C shall return to the owner.
I heard a sound like a crack running through the building. It was the sound of something freezing. The local environment was changing with the coming of something horrible. A chill ran down my spine.
That was no metaphor or psychological state.
The physical temperature in the room dropped.
“...married...”
I heard a voice from behind me.
A frail girl’s voice.
“...Let’s get married...”
O-oh, shit. Oh, shit! Oh, shit!! Oh, shit!!! Oh, shit!!!!
This was a real Youkai that had easily defeated 20 men armed with hunting rifles. And the cicada weakness the inheritance agents had prepared was gone. There was no way I could defeat her now. If she sealed my escape with promise after promise both explicit and implicit, I would eventually screw up. I had no intention of becoming a character from an old story!
“Th-that’s right! Zashiki Warashi-sama!! The time has finally come for you to display your power as a true Youkai that protects her house and household...wait, she’s gone!! She’s completely disappeared!!”
The good-for-nothing Youkai in the bright red yukata had vanished into thin air at some point.
I doubted my granny would be of any help, so I had to do something myself. Luckily, I had the binder that could interfere with the Yuki Onna’s characteristics and conditions. I could use it.
–Party C shall return to the owner.
Should I draw two lines through it to erase it? No. The Yuki Onna is already here and she seemed to want to kill me from the beginning. Even if I get rid of the irregular conditions and bring her back to her original state, she’ll just come and kill me like normal.
If I was going to do something, it had to be adding something.
If I added some text identifying “the owner” as the person who brought the binder to the Jinnai household, I could change the Yuki Onna’s target. That would also eliminate the threat of having one of the inheritance agents get away, so it was two birds with one stone. I still had the correction seal I had borrowed from Madoka in my pocket. All I had to do was...!!
“A-a-a p-p-p-pen!! I need a pen! Where is one! Shit!!”
The temperature of the room dropped drastically. It wasn’t quite as cold as a refrigerator, but it was close. I could see the leaves of the Zashiki Warashi’s SF bonsai changing color where she had left it on the floor. I had no time. I frantically reached for the pen holder on my desk.
“Wah.”
My fingertips struck the cylindrical pen holder.
The pen holder tilted to the side.
“Wah.”
And all the writing implements inside scattered across the tatami mats. Just when I was about to the grab the pen I needed, they rolled out of my reach.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”
Part 14 (3rd person)
The Thirty Six Stratagems cannot compare to simply running away. Simply fleeing from problems you cannot handle was the key to a long life. And I had been telling him from the beginning that he would be out of luck if he was expecting me to have any kind of strange special powers.
Honestly, how is a mere Zashiki Warashi supposed to defeat something as deadly as that?
Does he think I’m the queen of the sitting room[2] world and I have some kind of ultimate hidden skill?
“Hey, Zashiki Warashi. Want some barley tea?”
On the porch that was over 20 meters long, an old man playing tsumeshogi invited me over. I took a cup filled with a cold drink. This old man loved board games like go and shogi, but he did not like it when they were recreated with computers. I honestly did not understand why. For tsumeshogi it was easier to have the AI take care of the opponent’s moves and it saved you the time of setting up the pieces. It seemed this old man loved things to be the same as they were in the old days. He had a hard time of it when even Youkai were hoping for modern changes.
Well, I have no intention of finding fault with someone else’s interests and tastes.
That goes for both humans and Youkai.
“She seemed to like him when they first met and then he freed her from that Package. It isn’t too surprising that she would get serious about it.”
“What are you talking about?” asked the old man.
“Hee hee hee. Love is a risky thing.”
“?”
Notes
1. ↑ Min-min is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cicada.
2. ↑ The Zashiki of Zashiki Warashi means “sitting room”.