Volume 5, PACKAGE_Console_System_Ver.010.56.(2/7)
“Hyakki Yakou does not condone revenge.”
“That’s why a freelance agent like me does the dirty work. Do you get what our different roles are now?”
“I...”
“You will not be going with me. If someone in as important a position as you walked the back alleys on your own, it would throw everything out of balance. I’ll leave your protection to those official members sending all sorts of murderous stares our way from behind the pillars, okay?”
The Sunekosuri must have sensed something dangerous because he tried to sneak away, but I snatched him up and stood from the bench.
“Well, I’ll be doing what I can while assuming what Jinnai Shinobu said is correct.”
She must not have fully woken yet because the young lady was still leaning against Jinnai Shinobu.
“Do you know where Sid Clouds is?” she asked.
“One of the moored cruise ships.”
“Based on what?”
“Mostly based on my knowledge of his taste and methods, but fine. To explain it logically, he can’t sleep without a bed, can’t use chopsticks, won’t eat raw fish, doesn’t call something a meal unless it has more than 250g of red meat, and doesn’t like sharing open air baths with others. That means there’s no way he would be using one of Goldmine Island’s Japanese-style inns.”
“Do you have any more tactical reasons?”
“The cruise ship has a heliport he can use. He can bring all sorts of tools to the island while ignoring harbor and airport security, so it’s convenient for building multiple Packages like the Kechibi and Ubume ones.”
That meant I had to sneak onto that cruise ship.
Now, what method should I use?
Part 5 (Uchimaku Hayabusa — Day 10/03 20:45 - 21:05)
Cosplay is my hobby, so don’t worry☆
“Hey, detectiiive, why do I have to walk around with this sign?”
“Because you’re scaring all the businesses around you a lot more than you think. They’ve put in a lot of hard work, so don’t ruin it all for a joke!!”
“Okay, I get it. If it’s that big a deal, I’ll take it off right here.”
“Try that and I really will handcuff you.”
A drink can cost more than a thousand yen on this crazy casino island, but there were apparently areas with cheaper prices if you looked.
We arrived at one such area while walking around looking at the red or yellow maple and gingko trees mixed in with the pineapple-like tropical trees lining the roads.
“It’s called Harbor Alley,” simply explained Bunny Enbi.
Instead of restaurants on a normal street, each small shop was located on cruisers or boats packing the harbor. They felt something like food carts with a roof and walls.
“The casino city is generally made so only the winners can enjoy it, but it would be a problem if the losers went on a rampage. That’s why they intentionally added in these areas for them to let off some steam. The service here prevents incidents before they happen, so it’s a way of protecting the peace that the police can’t do.”
“The best option is an inn using the ultra-high quality brands of an Intellectual Village, the second best option is a luxury cruise ship, but the worst option is life on a cruiser? Honestly, this island really is crazy.”
I was clearly fed up with it all.
“Ohh? Detective, are you nervous?”
“I just don’t want any more unnecessary work.”
The boats didn’t seem to be made of metal. They were more like plastic or an extremely hard polyurethane. Basically, it was something like a life preserver, but harder and cheaper.
Making the boat entirely out of plastic probably gave them a lot more freedom than pressing metal, cutting it apart, and assembling the pieces.
We eventually chose a random cruiser restaurant from among those plastic boats. Only after sitting at the table in the cabin did I realize it was a Chinese restaurant.
“Why doesn’t this Chinese restaurant have normal ramen?”
“Detective, you’ve never travelled overseas, have you? Most of what the Japanese think of as ‘Chinese food’ has been customized for us. There is no miso ramen in China. Got it?”
I ordered the salmon and cabbage fried rice (half size) because it was cheapest and Enbi started with the appetizers by ordering the century egg, bird’s nest soup, shark fin soup, abalone in cream, seafood ankake okoge...and at that point I confiscated her menu.
“Are you trying to eat yourself to death?”
“I’ll only eat a bite of each and give the rest to you. I have a guy with me, so I have to enjoy myself! And what better way than with a bunch of indirect kisses!!”
The Mystery Freak pouted her lips and complained, but I still opened the menu to the main dish page and held it out to her. Finally, she reluctantly chose just the dandan noodles.
There was no reason for us to wait for the food.
“So what all is going on here? What’s this Urashima Incident?”
“The horror stories about Goldmine Island are a pretty hot topic right now☆”
Enbi took a gulp of chilled water from her glass, set it on the table, and for some reason tried to swap it with my glass, so I slapped the back of her hand.
Undeterred, she continued speaking.
“It began with a single phone call between some stupid rich couple. The girlfriend had a new cruiser she wanted to show off, but the boyfriend didn’t like being outdone. He secretly bought an even more luxurious boat to surprise the girlfriend. He asked the girlfriend where she was on her boat and planned to show up on his new boat to surprise her.”
“I see.”
“But when he went to where she said she was, neither of them could see the other’s boat. And that was even when they were speaking on the phone at the time. The boyfriend thought it was a bad joke at first, but it gradually started to creep him out.”
“Oh, the dandan noodles were hers. I had the fried rice. Yes, thank you.”
“In the end, they exchanged data between their phones’ GPSs and their navigation devices, so they knew neither of them was lying. Nevertheless, they couldn’t seem to find each other despite supposedly looking at the same area. Eventually, their phone batteries died and they never did find each other. ...Now, was one of them simply lying in some clever way or is there some ‘demonic sea’ around Goldmine Island that briefly sent them into the past or future yet still let those lovers talk over the phone? It’s up to the beautiful middle school girl and the sexy detective to reveal the truth!! That’s what’s going on here. ...Are you even listening, detective? Stop focusing so much on your fried rice!!”
Munch, munch, munch, munch, munch.
Damn, this is good! I shouldn’t have cheaped out with the half size. This cruiser restaurant needs to come to Tokyo Bay!!
“There are other similar stories here and there, too. Like a helicopter camera crew trying to get a shot of a yacht for a TV show, but never being able to find the yacht. Or a boat of people coming to cheer on a macho man trying for a long-distance swimming record, but they not finding the man despite his course being a straight line. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”
“What is all that? Did you find it on some message board? All of it? Are you sure some freelance writer didn’t make it all up for fun?”
“Let’s investigate it with that possibility in mind.”
“I thought you loved murder cases. It isn’t like you to get so excited about a trick or chasing down a criminal. And is this even a criminal incident? Are you sure those aren’t just accidents?”
“My Enbi-chan sensor is beeping like crazy.”
After trying to show off, she took a bite of her red dandan noodles. The middle school girl immediately turned her head to the side and choked quite spectacularly.
“And what part of those doubtful rumors does your sensor think is suspicious?”
“Cough, cough!! W-well, you see...”
She pulled a handkerchief from the slight cleavage of her bunny suit, covered her mouth, and replied with tears in her eyes.
“All three freelance writers who covered these rumors died suspicious deaths.”
There was no sound.
Rather than feeling the atmosphere freeze over, I felt like all of my senses vanished. All information was taken from me and the world became flat and flavorless.
But Enbi continued as if she were only getting started.
“Specifically, it was freelance writer Hashiba Tooru, occult site administrator Ishida Megumi, and infamous self-proclaimed screenwriter Mouri Yajiri. They all focused on gathering rumors from the internet to write their works or articles.”
“What were these suspicious deaths?”
“They’re probably registered separately in the police database. Hashiba took an eight-story dive from a parking deck after the auto-brake system of his new car malfunctioned, Ishida’s cellphone battery exploded when she had it up to her ear, and Mouri’s hot water heater broke, quickly transforming his bathroom into a gas chamber. In all three cases, it was treated as an accident due to improper contact inside the electronics.”
“They certainly do sound like they could have been unfortunate accidents.”
“But what if there was a system that let someone intentionally cause electronic circuits and semiconductors to lose contact?”
I placed my Chinese spoon on the edge of my plate.
At first glance, it looked like trivial rumors spread on the internet, but the people who had dug a little deeper kept ending up dead.
“Hm? What is it, detective?”
“...Nothing.”
She knew she fit those criteria since she was in the process of gathering information on it, didn’t she?
She blinked her perfectly proportioned eyes and continued.
“Also, the online stories themselves are strange. As far as I can tell, the story is just about the ‘demonic sea’ that prevents two people from meeting each other. That’s all.”
“And?”
“Of course it doesn’t end with that. What happens afterwards? This is a big casino island, remember? The people working here are going to seem sketchy no matter how seriously they take their work. Stories of people disappearing on trips worry people enough, so what if a lover disappeared on this island of money and desire? It would cause a commotion far greater than from female customers vanishing from boutique dressing rooms. When someone disappears at sea, you normally report it to the lifesavers or the fire department, right? But I can’t find any data on that kind of thing in the official records I can reach.”
“Could it all be nothing but rumors and nothing actually happened?”
I grabbed the Chinese spoon again and brought some fried rice to my mouth, but it tasted nothing like it had before. It felt like eating 3D polygons.
Enbi, on the other hand, recklessly attempted to eat the red dandan noodles again and started choking for her trouble.
“Ugh. It’s so spicy it’s stinging my nose. ...Well, that would be the most boring ending, but I do think it’s possible. But what if the ‘demonic sea’ and the island at its center had a system to suppress any complaints or objections? That would require the same kind of infrastructure needed to make female customers vanish from boutique dressing rooms without word getting out. And just as you would expect, several people investigating the truth of the rumors have ended up dead. ...With all this lined up, wouldn’t it be weird not to find this topic interesting?”
There’s no hope for her when this actually makes her grin.
I thought while soaking the rice-covered Chinese spoon in the (small) chicken soup that had come with my fried rice.
“Some of that does bother me, but my policy hasn’t changed. I work for the Tokyo Municipal Police Department, so there’s nothing I can do on a small Kyushu island.”
“Oh? While the rumors happened here, the freelance writers who actually died were allll from Tokyo. And they died in Tokyo, too. Now, whose jurisdiction would that fall under?”
“Son of a bitch!!”
I swore without thinking, but there was no stopping Enbi once she was grinning like this.
She repeatedly blew on the red noodles that she couldn’t seem to conquer.
“And after coming this far, you can’t exactly say it has nothing to do with you.”
“After coming this far? All I’ve done is hear the rumors.”
“No, no, no, no, no. A few of the cruisers and yachts that vanished in the ‘demonic sea’ left this very harbor. They were right here in Harbor Alley. That means you’ve already set foot in one of the related areas. Do you understand?”
The minor in need of protection seemed to be having trouble eating her dandan noodles, so I kindly helped by shoving them into her mouth.
Part 6 (Jinnai Shinobu — Day 10/03 20:55 - 21:04)
I took off running while Hishigami Mai and Hafuri were whispering to each other (but they probably let me escape).
I found the Zashiki Warashi elegantly enjoying some milk tea at an airport café, so I grabbed the back of her neck.
“You traitor! You filthy traitor!!”
“Stop it, Shinobu. If you keep doing these embarrassing things in public, people might think we know each other. That would be a huge loss for me.”
“You can run if you want, but at least clue me in!! Why would you escape on your own!? You left me all alone in the middle of Hyakki Yakou! That’s scarier than going to a hot spring and finding tattoos everywhere you look!! Do you have any idea the kind of fear I was feeling!?”
“You’re a human, so you’re fine. It’s the Youkai like me that have to worry about that organization.”
The Indoor Youkai turned her face to the side to show off a melancholic look in profile, but I asked about something that was bothering me.
“By the way, how were you planning to pay for this? Youkai can’t take part in economic activity and a single drink costs a thousand yen on this casino island.”
“Smartphones sure are convenient. You can hold one up to the register to pay for things.”
“And whose smartphone did you use!?”
“Mine, registered under your name.”
..............................................................................................................................Looks like I need to give her a serious talking to.
Ahem.
“Then I’ll be taking back what you ‘borrowed’ once we get home. Oh, but don’t bother saying you have no money. I can just take a few of the video games from your shelf and sell them. You’ll be fine as long as I leave just one FPS game, right? I’ll take care of the rest.”
“No! Even you know it takes a monster to mess with someone’s collection, don’t you!? I need them all! I can’t lose even one of them!! You can’t do thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttttttt!”
“Don’t cling to me with tears and snot all over your face!! Everyone’s watching and it’s embarrassing!!”
I used both hands to peel away the Zashiki Warashi who was clinging to me without worrying what it did to the collar and hem of her kimono.
Of course, my lost baggage left me with almost nothing in my wallet, so I was forced to pay with the smartphone regardless.
“The milk tea is three thousand yen and the table charge brings it up to four thousand five hundred?”
“I so want to throw this Good-for-Nothing Youkai in the kitchen to wash dishes...”
With an electronic jingle, I paid for the tea at a price that would normally buy an entire can of tea leaves and then left the café with the Zashiki Warashi.
“Shinobu, what did you do to bring Hyakki Yakou here?”
“I don’t really know either, but it seems I was caught in the middle of an Amanojaku Package.”
“I see Youkai love you as much as ever.”
“But it seems the contents of a delusional story I had a program automatically create are going to be real. It sounds like we need to stop it before that happens.”
The Zashiki Warashi immediately began covering her chest with her hands.
“What...are you doing?”
“Your delusions...will become real? I-I can see it now!! School uniforms will be school swimsuits with bunny ears and every girl as far as the eye can see will have been impregnated!!”
“It was made by a shameless machine! It’s not my fault!!”
My angry shouting caught the attention of airport security, so we meaninglessly fled. We decided to hold a quick strategy meeting on our way to the building’s exit.
“But Singer Song Liar? Can a story made by a machine really encroach on the outside world?”
“Hyakki Yakou is the leader in that kind of thing and they said so.”
“Personally, I’d rather think we can’t believe it because Hyakki Yakou said it.”
“Then let’s test it out.”
We left the airport and found the taxi roundabout in front of us.
My right temple throbbed.
I snapped my fingers.
“Let’s use the white limousine taxi closest to us.”
“What are you going to do?”
I approached the middle-aged driver leaning against the side of the vehicle and I whispered so only the Zashiki Warashi could hear.
“(The first thing he says will be, “Welcome to Japan’s Vegas! This is the special casino district of Goldmine Island!!”)
“?”
The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata frowned.
“Welcome to Japan’s Vegas! This is the special casino district of Goldmine Island!!”
The Indoor Youkai then looked back and forth between the driver and me.
It felt like cold fingertips were running along my spine.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised too.
But I could say even more if Singer Song Liar’s story was true. I just had to follow the text automatically created by the songwriting software.
“The license plate is ‘NAGASAKI X0X IS 37-XX’, the first ride is eight hundred yen, it’s one hundred twenty yen per three hundred meters after that, the driver’s seat and the back seats can be separated by smoked glass so lovers can make out in privacy, there are fifteen seats inside, and there’s a mini-fridge. The mini-fridge wasn’t opened, so I don’t know what’s inside it, though.”
“What’s this, what’s this? Are you using me for a magic trick? You’re gonna have to pay a fee for my consent, dammit.”
The driver sounded confused, but the Zashiki Warashi ignored him to check on the license plate below the bumper and to peer inside the black window.
But I was already convinced.
“The temperature is twenty-eight degrees and there are two crows flying in the night sky.”
I looked up.
“Five fireworks will go off with three seconds in between: red, red, yellow, blue, green.”
The drum-like blasts reverberated in my gut.
“The newspaper headline reads ‘Value of Aquaculture Eels Finally Outperforms Natural Ones’.”
It was now clear I could accurately predict even the text on the scraps of paper blowing in the wind.
There was no freedom of choice. This was not an open world.
It was like a linear RPG.
I was painfully aware of being on some great rails.
If I took it easy without thinking about this, we would be carried to that conclusion I had already seen.
The sense of danger had finally been properly installed.
“Let’s get going, Zashiki Warashi.”
“Get going where?” asked the Indoor Youkai.
“In the Singer Song Liar story, I rode that limousine taxi to the inn and then walked back to the casino city.”
I had to be careful.
Each and every decision could influence this one shot at reality.
“So let’s try something different this time. At the very least, we can’t follow these rails to the end.”
Part 7 (Hishigami Mai — Day 10/03 21:10 - 21:20)
“That’s the luxury cruise liner Yakata-II, constructed by Nagasaki Sakimori Heavy Industries, owned by Seven Oceans Sightseeing Corporation, registered with Panama, holds 1700, maximum displacement of 80,000 tons, and powered by three diesel turbines and a towing kite.”
After parting ways with the young lady, the Sunekosuri and I observed the enemy.
Most likely to divide up their interests, the airport was in the casino city and the port was by the inns.
That made it easy to observe. Unlike the casino and all its bright lights, there was a lot of darkness here. There were also plenty of small hills or mountains that had not been fully developed, so it was perfect for the likes of me to lie on the ground with binoculars in hand.
I hid among the pineapple-like tropical trees and checked on the port through the gaps in the few remaining maple and gingko trees. It was probably meant as a way to expand the port, but the floating portions made it even easier to observe. Those flat areas were perfect for peering down on from above.
The Sunekosuri scratched his ears with his back leg.
“What is a towing kite?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. It’s a giant kite attached to the bow with a wire to pull the ship with the power of the wind. It’s only a secondary means of propulsion, but German tankers have already adopted it as a way of cutting down on carbon dioxide emissions.”
“B-but...”
I didn’t know how this dark night looked to Youkai eyes, but the canine Youkai was nervously glancing around.
“How are you going to sneak into somewhere so strictly guarded? You have to do that first if you want to reach...Sid Clouds, was it? But can you?”
“Wait, wait. ...Okay, there we go,” I said while looking at a thin LCD panel.
There was no easy way to hack into the systems used by Sid and the CIA, but the cruise ship belonged to a civilian sightseeing company. Their defenses were full of holes.
“Tonight, the Yakata-II is holding a dinner show with a female singer, a gathering of National Police Agency members and local politicians, and a seasonal stage musical. ...None of them have been canceled due to unforeseen trouble, so the ship won’t be completely closed off. They’re even accepting guests from the island, so it looks like I won’t have to swim through the dark sea with an oxygen tank and suction cups.”
“Eh? Eh!? It’s that easy!?”
“All I need is a showy dress, a color copy of a fake ticket, and a bit of acting. Okay, let’s go.”
No one else was watching and I didn’t care if the Sunekosuri saw, so I pulled a dress from my bag, stripped naked in the darkness, and finished changing.
I walked down the hill holding the Sunekosuri and hailed a taxi. From there, it was a straight shot to the floating port connected to the island. The taxi was an unnecessary expense, but it would have stood out too much if I arrived at the luxury cruise ship on foot.
The giant ship was moored alongside the land and a young man was checking a list of names and people’s tickets at the bottom of the gangway for normal guests.
“(Th-they’re going to notice!! It may be dark, but they’re going to find something wrong with that quick color copy. Besides, your name isn’t on their list!)”
“(Don’t worry. The ticket is just for him to see, not to give to him.)”
“(?)”
I ended my conversation with the Sunekosuri and smiled toward the young worker.
“Excuse me, but I need to check your ticket before you board.”
“Yes, yes. Um, I believe it was this- ah!!”
I pulled the color copy from my cleavage and intentionally let go of it just before handing it to the young man. The wind carried the counterfeit ticket away and I gave an adorable scream.
“Ah...ah...aaaaahhhhhhhhh!!”
“N-no, that’s fine. I can check the computer, so we won’t turn you away. So please calm down.”
“Um, uh...”
I fidgeted.
“The reservation wasn’t made under my name, so I don’t think you’ll find it if you search my name.”
“Oh, um, and what name is it under?”
“(His.)”
I leaned in so my wonderful breasts were at the perfect point on the verge of touching him and I whispered to him from close enough that he could feel my breath on his ear.
Of course, I had never met the middle-aged man I pointed at. I could guess what kind of person he was based on his posture and gait, though.
“(He wanted to enjoy himself in the nicest bed he could during his business trip, so he called me out without telling his wife. If you turn me away here, he might just go on a rampage like a wild animal.)”
“Eek!? Y-you mean, um, well, you’re his mistre-...”
“(We would prefer it if you didn’t use that term.)”
I continued my whispered slander.
“(After all, he’s with the police. In fact, he’s with the National Police Agency at the top of all the police in Japan. Even if it isn’t illegal, it would be a professional ethics problem if it got out.)”
“Ah, ah, ah.”
“(So. It would be a lot of help if you let me through without bothering to search the list. Even if you haven’t done anything wrong, it probably wouldn’t be fun to live your life under the eye of the head of the police.)”
“G-go right on in! If you know the police, I’m sure you won’t cause any problems!”
The young man quickly moved out of my way.
Even if the CIA were using it as a mobile base and even if Sid Clouds was using it for his own purposes, the ship itself was innocent and the people working there had no ill will. That was exactly why it was good camouflage, but the security was still full of holes.
But...
“Um, then why are you carrying a Youkai? Even if it looks like a small dog.”
The Sunekosuri clearly gave a start in my arms, but it did not matter.
Once I had started with a bluff, seeing it through to the end was the only option.
“(Oh, are you curious about that man’s ‘proclivities’? I wonder what he would do if he thought you were trying to find material to stir up a scandal. Do people do that on the internet and SNSs these days? Well, everyone has a way of getting information out, so he can’t let his guard down even with an amateur.)”
“I-I didn’t ask anything!! Please just hurry past!!”
“(Make sure to keep this a secret.)”
I waved a hand, boldly walked up the gangway, and boarded the cruise ship.
The Sunekosuri yelled a challenge at me while being squeezed into my breasts.
“What do you mean ‘proclivities’!? Just how were you thinking of using me? That’s disgusting!!”
“Oh, you want to go through it, step by step? How about I demonstrate while we’re at it?”
A lot of idiots judged people by their family, appearance, aura, or brand, but I used their posture and gait. It was suspicious for a nurse to walk around with their sensitive medical equipment clattering around and, if a police officer pressed your door’s intercom while slouching and mumbling, you should check their ID before undoing the door’s chain lock.
Similarly, people with holes in the knees of their pants, leaves in their hair, or other slight issues with their clothing were often accepted without issue as long as the person inside acted naturally.
When infiltrating enemy territory, you had to act like the people there.
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