Volume 9, 4: Be Dyed in [email protected]???(2/6)
“That’s because you go around killing all of them.”
“Anyway.”
“Yes.”
“Can that young lady really pretend to not notice when her beloved Onii-chan is in danger?”
——And lastly, back in the Jinnai home.
“Okay! We already have a Yuki Onna, a Nekomata, a Furutsubaki (Small), an Aburatori, and an Aoandon here.”
“Um, master? Aren’t you forgetting the Keseran-Pasaran and Azukiarai?”
“Heh heh. I’m glad to see you forgot about the big Furutsubaki. That’s what she gets for stealing my snacks!”
“And can you really just shove a demon like the Succubus and a witch like Marguerite into the occult category?”
“Not a problem. From the moment we make a contract with a demon, our souls are shut out of heaven but we become a being who can bring about supposedly impossible phenomena in this life.”
“But I want nothing to do with Tselika after all the torment she put me through. Come to think of it, what do we do about her? You should be able to contact her if you send a postcard to a coven in the catacombs.”
“No!! Please don’t do that!! I never want to see that Archdemon again!!”
There was little a single boy could do, but the path he had walked thus far had given him a definite answer.
He had done everything he could.
He felt definite progress each time.
But then..
“Eek!?”
He heard someone gasp.
There was “something” there that was gentle and yet stole away the entire advantage they seemed to have built up. It brought unease, fear, and a sense of danger. That invisible “something” spread through them all and seemed to reach the Youkai before a human like Shinobu. The five members of Tanuki☆Bayashi lay on their backs to play dead while the Umbrella and Lantern folded up and flattened their bodies of oiled paper.
The strange sense seemed to be arriving from the main entrance down the hall.
When Jinnai Shinobu gulped and hesitantly looked that way, he saw a familiar face there.
It was a girl of about ten with a purple kimono and black hair in a bob cut.
“Hafuri..?”
“Pardon my sudden visit, but surely you did not think Hyakki Yakou would fail to notice such a largescale movement.”
The Furutsubaki (Large) and Usuhiki Warashi clung to the boy’s waist.
They did not know much about the situation, so Hyakki Yakou may have looked like an organization that treated the disobedient with the attitude of the Yamato Imperial Court: kill them or force them to obey.
Shinobu exhaled, toyed with his hair, and patted the head of the white-haired Usuhiki Warashi clinging to his waist.
“I really didn’t want to get your help this time.”
“Yes, I understand your concern. If our predictions are correct, you are working to build up a strategy or Package to interfere with the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. If Hyakki Yakou knew your methods, the risk of us including an unwanted backdoor would rise considerably. Before even worrying about the destiny of the world, you likely wanted to avoid having a third party mess with your lover.”
The Yuki Onna belatedly ran to the front entrance.
She covered her mouth with her kimono’s sleeve, but a dangerous light filled her eyes.
“You have guts interfering at this delicate stage. We all have our own complicated reasons to try to save the Zashiki Warashi, so if you do anything that would dull our resolve, I am prepared to take actio-..”
“What is with this short girl?”
“Mgyuh!?”
An exasperated-looking Hafuri pushed up on the Yuki Onna’s small nose with her index finger.
“Jinnai Shinobu, if you do intend to use this group, there is one thing you must consider first. Take command with a solid policy in mind. Even if you do intend it that way, the actions of any member of your organization can be taken as the intentions of the group as a whole.”
The Yuki Onna struggled and flailed her arms around, but Hafuri continued pushing on her nose and teasing her for nearly ten seconds before finally releasing her. The small jewels in her hair near the ears clacked together and produced a refreshing sound. The Yuki Onna collapsed exhausted to the floor and the nearby Tsuchigumo and Nurikabe trembled.
“H-hey, she’s one of the representative examples of a deadly Youkai, isn’t she? She’s something like the king of street fighting in the late-night back alleys, so how frightening does Hyakki Yakou have to be to defeat her so easily!? That girl must be like the gym teacher that patrols at night!!”
“I am a Nurikabe. Shinobu-chan, who is this girl? She’s giving off a scary aura, but she won’t bite, will she?”
Shinobu glanced back at the frightened Youkai hiding behind him and Hafuri breathed out through her nose.
She seemed to be used to this.
But at the same time, there was some envy in her eyes as she looked at Jinnai Shinobu..no, at that entire lineup.
“I have a suggestion.” Hafuri held a finger forward as Shinobu thought. “I would like to know what the Ver. 39..no, the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi is doing. But you do not want Hyakki Yakou to know about the Package you will be using to control her. ..Thus, I will assist you as an individual, not as the leader of Hyakki Yakou. I will supply you with everything I have, but I will not take back anything I see here. How does that sound?”
“..”
“Can you not believe a young girl’s verbal promise?”
“No, I believe you. I mean, if you really wanted to kill her or capture her for experiments, she and I could have been spirited away before we left Mt. Boseki. I owe you for that. No, I guess I could say I trust you as a person thanks to that.”
Hafuri looked a little surprised even though it had been her suggestion.
And Shinobu did not notice the change in her behavior.
“But that aside, is your position really that convenient. I understand how you feel, but will those around you really allow it?”
“Who do you think I am?”
“Majina’s daughter and the leader of Hyakki Yakou. That’s my entire point.”
“And it was my entire point as well. Doesn’t it seem extremely unusual that I appeared here alone without a single bodyguard?”
The girl in a purple kimono grinned in a way very unlike her and toyed with the jewels by her ears.
“My blood is a mixture of the pure blood of a Hyakki Yakou leader and the blood of a Zashiki Warashi. That has allowed me to control destiny, even if only slightly. It was enough to slip past the hundred generals and Top 5 of Hyakki Yakou. You can ignore that solid organization for now. It is unable to function properly for some reason.”
But..
“Appeared here alone? I don’t want to hear that from a little girl who showed up at my house with her mother. And with matching hair accessories too. You must be close.”
“Eh? Huh? Ehh!? Mother!!”
Hafuri was confused at first, but she finally caught on after looking behind her. Yes, a sexy Youkai in a white yukata who had an almost ghostly lack of presence was standing right behind her.
It was Mei.
Without speaking a word, she looked Shinobu in the eye and silently nodded. She also gently rubbed her daughter’s head.
Meanwhile, Hafuri was anything but peaceful.
“How? What? Eh? But.. Weren’t you confined to Hyakki Yakou’s most strictly guarded cell!?”
“I really doubt normal logic works with them. It feels like they can directly mess with the world’s destiny. Besides, settling down and leaving when they want is just what a Zashiki Warashi does.”
“B-but still!”
“More importantly, our Yukari apparently escaped Hyakki Yakou over a century ago. I think I’ve heard that was your golden age or something, so there’s already a precedent when things would have been even harder.”
“That’s not the point!! Why did you leave your cell and come all this way, mother? More specifically, was it to contact Jinnai Shinobu!? Depending on your answer, I might have to do everything I can to stop you as your daughter!!”
Hafuri snapped at her mother, but Mei simply patted her daughter’s head some more.
But..
“This means you got into Noukotsu Village just fine, doesn’t it?”
“Y-yes.”
“Yukari didn’t call for you, but you forced your way in. And it worked..”
Could it be? wondered Shinobu.
He may have been too conceited. It may not have been his own doing that had allowed all these Youkai to conveniently gather, that had prevented coincidences that sounded like jokes from getting in the way, and that had kept the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi’s ruinous destiny from intercepting them. Hafuri and Mei may have briefly diverted Yukari’s power that Majina had analyzed as outdoing the Ver. 40’s during its brief spikes.
Shinobu had no way of seeing destiny.
He had no idea how exactly its threads were tangled together.
But could it be..?
“What will you do?”
The Nekomata had walked up to his feet at some point and she asked him that question.
Shinobu intentionally sighed.
“Well..”
After that word, he faced his inner thoughts again.
He had to remember his own catchphrase.
He muttered it below his breath: I can get along with any Youkai. You decided that already, Jinnai Shinobu.
So..
“Understood. You aren’t Hyakki Yakou’s leader right now. You’re just an individual and one of ‘us’. Is that okay?”
This time, Jinnai Shinobu had the necessary power in hand as he smiled and looked across them all.
It really was like the crude drawing on that construction paper.
Everyone had gathered at the entrance at some point.
There was no division between human and Youkai. They all smiled together as a single group.
At first, he had thought about having them all hold hands in a ring like a scene from an adolescent drama, but there were too many of them to do that now.
In other words..
“I’m counting on you, Jinnai Shinobu’s Hyakki Yakou! We don’t need to take over the world and immortality doesn’t matter!! I only want one thing: give me your help to save the girl I’ve fallen for and to keep her from becoming a villain!!”
For a brief time, that boy would be the leader of one hundred monsters.
The world did not matter to them.
The part of the world in the light of day and the part of the world hidden by shadows was no concern of theirs.
They had just one goal: protecting that boy’s beloved girl from every unreasonable thing the world could throw at her.
Part 4 (Jinnai Shinobu)
What I would use was simple.
I could get it all in half a day with a few clicks on an online shopping site.
A red pen, a compass, a hand mirror, a plastic ruler, a glass cutter, a cardboard tube, thin red paper, an origami set, a drill, scissors, a utility knife, glue, masking tape, and lastly some crepe paper to make it look nice.
“A kaleidoscope?”
I did as I was told by using the ruler to mark the hand mirror and then I grabbed the glass cutter. The tool looked like a tiny version of a pizza cutter.
“It doesn’t have any cables or wireless capabilities, so can it really act as the core of a Package?”
“Anything can as long as it has the proper symbolism.”
Hafuri answered me with a composed voice.
Next, the Aoandon readily agreed.
“To put it another way, what were the cores of the Packages you’ve seen already? Weren’t the blatantly suspicious ones the exceptions?”
She had a point.
When I thought about it, I realize it had all been things like the sanatorium user agreement or a toy revolver. They didn’t have to be digital and high-tech and they didn’t have to be filled with strange occultism either.
I cut the mirror in thirds and placed them together into a triangular prism. The mirrored side was on the inside. Then I filled the gaps with glue and held them together with masking tape until the glue could dry.
“We have a USB fan, don’t we? Would that help it dry faster?”
“No, any unnatural interference will create ‘lumps’. It’s best to let it dry naturally. Just leave it be. Rushing this will only lead to mistakes.”
Hafuri simply narrowed her eyes and watched me work. She would say something if I messed up, but she generally just observed without giving any instructions. That may have been what she judged to be “helping as an individual but not as Hyakki Yakou”.
“The key to this Package is the color deception. It makes red into white and white into red. It doesn’t matter if it’s complete sophistry; we still win if we can reverse the perception of those colors. Is that much okay?”
“Well, I was the one to suggest it.”
I used the compass to draw a perfect circle on the cardboard and used the utility knife to cut along the line. I had to open a hole in the center..but I decided I didn’t need the drill for that. I used the point of the compass to directly tear through.
On the Aoandon’s instructions, I placed the thin red paper on top of that.
“A kaleidoscope has two holes. One to peer inside and one to let light in. If you place the thin red paper over the light opening, the inside of the kaleidoscope will be red.”
“I see, I see.”
I pulled some red paper from the origami set.
It required patience, but I cut it up with the scissors. They were basically square dots or chips only a few millimeters long. The math worked out to 108 of them in all.
“Place white paper inside and it will be dyed red. You’re looking at white, but you see red. That’s stage one.”
After making sure the quick-drying glue had dried, I removed the tape from the triangular prism.
Hafuri sighed quietly.
“It looks fine.”
“It does.”
I placed the mirror part inside the cardboard tube and glued it inside. The bottom was covered by the circular lid of thin red paper.
I then poured the dots and chips of origami paper inside.
“But even if they’re seeing red, someone who knows the trick will assume they’re really looking at white.”
The Aoandon grabbed the rest of the origami set and flipped the paper over.
The front side was colorful, but the back was pure white.
In other words..
“But in truth, the dots are red on one side and white on the other. That means no one knows what color the dots inside the kaleidoscope really are. The ones you think are actually white might really be red. It might be something like that cat in the box. Anyway, that completes stage two. This one kaleidoscope turns red into white and white into red.”
That just left the details.
I cut a circle in the cardboard for a large peephole. It would look more the part with glass covering that hole, but I was afraid an amateur like me would leave some small fragments behind if I tried to do that with the glass cutter. That was especially scary with something you held to your eye. Instead, I cut off a piece of the clear cellophane bag the origami set had come in. After placing that cover over the remaining upper end, I covered the side of the cardboard tube with flower-print crepe paper I thought the Zashiki Warashi would like.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime endeavor, yet it looked kind of awkward.
But maybe that was for the best.
The “We’re All Friends” construction paper was the same and I knew something had definitely been saved by that.
The Aoandon reached out and traced her finger along the outside.
“That completes the core.”
“But I can’t imagine how we’re going to link this kaleidoscope with the Zashiki Warashi. Does she just have to carry it around with her everywhere?”
“You can leave those tricky calculations to the witch. A Package isn’t something a single person can do, remember?”
“Yes, and my mother Mei and I are here to watch over things. If there is a discrepancy between the Western and Eastern methods, we can correct it for compatibility.”
“Is that how it works?” I wondered while glancing over.
The Youkai were moving all about through the thatch-roof house.
“Heave-ho, heave-ho!”
“Sigh. This is more heavy labor than I was expecting..”
“We have to make adjustments all over and we have to get it done before nightfall! Even if we got permission to head out, our master will worry if we’re out too late!!”
I asked the Aoandon a question while watching the Umbrella and Lantern’s mouths moving.
“What are they doing? Aren’t they just renovating the house!?”
“We’ll do all the detailed calculations, so don’t worry about it.”
“A Zashiki Warashi settles down in a house, so they have a strong connection to the house. Making adjustments to that house is the easiest way of altering her bodily structure. I know it isn’t exactly a happy memory, but do you remember what happened in that Fuuka Village hotel? The hotel’s blueprints were used to interfere with the Zashiki Warashi then too.”
“Of course, we’re choosing areas that don’t move much so you humans won’t mess with this when you make your own renovations.”
I heard a commotion from the ceiling, but this did not sound like more renovations.
“Oh, honestly!! The attic is my territory! You don’t have anywhere else to stay? I don’t care! Go sleep in a tree or below the floor!!”
I called out to her before an actual fight broke out.
“Succubus, we have around a hundred Youkai in here now, so be a little flexible. Everyone’s making compromises.”
“Oh, that’s just mean!! You’re my master, so I can’t save face if you say that! And there’s no stopping them all now!!”
I saw a bunch of stuffed animal-like Youkai rushing up the stairs. From the look of things, they would be fighting over food too.
“So how long is this going to take? We’re generally welcome to Youkai visitors, but I think my dad will get suspicious if a hundred of them stick around for too long.”
“It won’t take that long. Although the trick will be to have the Akaname and Shichinin Misaki work while hiding from the humans.”
With that comment, the Aoandon spread a map out on the tea table. Hafuri filled it in with pink highlighter while checking on something. It was a map of my house and she seemed to be marking the areas where the work was complete. It was at about a third. She drew in what looked like wiring, but I wasn’t sure what that meant.
“Shinobu.”
The Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata slipped past all the working Youkai to approach me. She had to have no idea what was going on. In fact, she didn’t even know what her very existence was doing to the world. Her perception was shifted out of place. She looked around skeptically before looking straight at me.
“What is all this? I’ve never seen so many different Youkai in here. This is technically my territory, but there’s clearly some other Zashiki Warashi here.”
“What’s with you, Yukari? Are you jealous having all these Youkai around? Come to think of it, there are a lot of pretty good looking ones like the Nure Onna, Jorougumo, and Kosode-no-Te.”
“..”
“Eh? Seriously? That’s seriously why you’re upset? Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!! Don’t scratch me! Don’t scratch me all over! Are you like a pet cat that gets upset as soon as it has kittens!?”
We started playing around like that, but I could tell Hafuri and the Aoandon were slowly narrowing their eyes.
That’s right.
At this point, nothing was meaningless. We were trying to build a Package that would restrain the ruinous power of the Ver. 39. That power could bend the entire world’s destiny, so it could easily detect something like this. And for better or for worse, it would use destiny to crush our efforts. The rails switched over too seamlessly to notice and we were thrown into the labyrinth. We were not even allowed to choose to fight or not. We were simply diverted from the main track of destiny and all our efforts were ruined.
Even the Zashiki Warashi’s own will may have been irrelevant.
The ruinous power may have been manipulating her as well.
And if what the Aburatori and Aoandon said was accurate, then Noukotsu Village was surrounded by an invisible labyrinth and anyone who would get in the Ver. 39’s way (whether they meant harm or not) would be unable to approach. Even so, the hundred Youkai of my Hyakki Yakou had gathered here.
That of course had likely been helped by my special trait to gather Youkai as well as Hafuri and Mei’s ability to bend destiny as white Zashiki Warashi.
But if that was enough to utterly defeat the Ver. 39, then we wouldn’t need to build such a major Package and Majina wouldn’t have had to make himself a great criminal by causing a zombie outbreak.
In other words, all of this was insignificant.
The source of all fortune and misfortune was the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi.
As the Ver. 39, she was obstructing us as the Ver. 39, but as a Zashiki Warashi, she was trying to welcome my guests.
Something was diverging inside her as well.
I could not ignore that power.
If that divergence continued, I could not even guess what would happen. She might become a puppet of the Ver. 39 or her body might split in two.
“Don’t worry.”
I swallowed everything inside my chest.
I then embraced my girlfriend, gently rubbed her head, and softly repeated myself.
“There’s nothing to worry about. I promise you I won’t let anything you care about be destroyed.”
It did not matter if those words could not reach her within the bonds of the Ver. 39.
Part 5 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)
Chief Superintendent Mishima said it was urgent and called me to a large harbor region in the Tokyo subcenter.
“I’m surprised you showed up when they could ‘accidentally’ send a missile flying this way any day now, Mystery Freak.”
“You too, detective. I don’t think many civil servants would keep working once they aren’t getting paid.”
One of us was a plain man in a cheap suit and coat and the other was a showy girl decorated with ribbons wrapped around her body and a top and miniskirt made to look like whipped cream and chocolate.
We exchanged a glance and both laughed as if we couldn’t believe it.
The world was ending.
It was a little unclear if it was going to end soon or if it already had and no one had noticed, but according to the economic and investment experts, we had long since passed the point of no return.
The core of it all was the Zashiki Warashi and the only one that could stop it was my nephew Shinobu.
It sounded like a joke, but all my phone calls and emails mysteriously couldn’t get through to him. The trains and planes were all conveniently having trouble. I considered getting a rental car, but I was stopped by the ultimate “coincidence” of growing hesitant because I was afraid of getting into an accident on my own.
There was nothing we could do.
We could only wait for whatever result Shinobu and the Zashiki Warashi brought.
That said, I couldn’t just hole up in my room and pull the blanket over my head. After all, I was a police officer and problems both big and small were cropping up everywhere.
We could not stand in the center, but Shinobu could not reach the outer edges.
We each had our job. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t frustrating, but finding something I could do myself was much more important and meaningful.
That way I could prevent as much unnecessary damage as possible.
“Let’s go.”
“Right.”
The city subcenter’s coast was near Hachi TV where my old upperclassman Atou worked, but we had not arrived at a waterfront office building or luxury apartment.
It was a cruise ship moored in the harbor.
“The Yakata-II. We haven’t seen it since Goldmine Island, detective. We never got to go inside then, though.”
“Huh? But didn’t something happen to that cruise ship at the end of all that..?”
At any rate, the Mystery Freak and I entered the ship. Fortunately, there was no dress code.
Mishima-san was enjoying some wagyu teppanyaki in the ship’s three-star restaurant. Although it was more like the food area of a larger party space than it was a dedicated restaurant.
“Hi there, Uchimaku-kun. Over here, over here.”
“What are you doing? Didn’t you say this was urgent?”
“Yes, but just like in hotels, I can’t help but go get some teppanyaki. It’s a lot like the urge to dive into a bed when you see one.”
That man in his fancy suit was living it up in his bachelorhood even more than me. He was really old enough to settle down too. And he was quite energetic about the meat when even the global burger shops were having trouble after the zombie outbreak.
“Were you thinking something rude?”
“No, not really. Now, about this cruise ship..”
“That’s right, Hayabusa-kun. You might not know all the details since you weren’t directly involved, but it had a hole in the bottom. It’s unclear whether it was the CIA or the Hishigami Woman that did it, though.”
“..”
“No need to be so nervous. Only the ballast tank was taken out, so it won’t sink as long as the inspection hatch is closed. It’s still careless to have 1700 lives riding on that, though.”
Things had gone beyond that.
They were intentionally hiding it. They were keeping quiet to make money, safety be damned.
They really were worshiping money.
“Troublesome, isn’t it? And we can’t get after them for it when all the related agencies have closed up shop. I might be at a wagyu teppanyaki place, but I actually like the abalone steak the best. Although I’m skeptical whether this is Intellectual Village meat like they claim.”
“So the magic trick using the network’s bonds is producing all sorts of moral hazards, is it?”
“I have something to discuss concerning that. Kotemitsu-san was supposed to give the details, but..hm, how should I put it? Her fights with her sister are pretty intense. I can’t exactly enjoy the company of the two beauties like this.”
“Yeah, that is what’ll happen if you shove Madoka and Seika into the same trading room. It’s like trying to raise a cobra and a mongoose together.”
Enbi gave her exasperated comment while dressed in her red ribbons, whipped cream and chocolate top and miniskirt, wafer ribbon tie, and shortcake hat on the side of her head.
A moment later, a door was thrown noisily open. I looked over and saw a square opening in the thick wall where there had been no sign of a door before. A woman and a girl stepped out.
It was college-aged Seika of the main Kotemitsu family and Shinobu’s classmate Madoka-chan.
“I can’t believe you would start selling there!! Why would you make manual changes when the autonomous investment program can see the o-->>