I mean…
Even though I look like this, I’m quite a conscientious person.
It’s just that I had a job, and I was someone who lived while keeping my conscience in check.
But now, because of the lies I’ve piled up about these two people, my heart was pounding like crazy.
If you think about it, Kagami wasn’t really that great of a person.
She acted polite enough in front of me, and she had never done anything that could directly harm me.
But somewhere far away, she might be scamming unknown people out of their money, hanging out in bars, or getting into all sorts of trouble with the Yakuza. At least in front of me, she maintained a decent facade.
So, I couldn’t just ignore my conscience about Kagami’s reaction.
I opened my mouth, trying to somehow sort out the situation, and then I shut it again. After a brief moment, I finally managed to organize what I wanted to say and let it out.
“W-why are you here?”
“……”
Kagami stared at me for about three seconds.
Her eyes were still slightly trembling, but her expression was solid and rigid.
She seemed a little angry, but the bigger feeling was one of astonishment.
“Where did you get that kid…?”
Kagami’s voice was not the polished act I had seen before. At least, it was nothing like the sinister performance she had shown me. No, I didn’t even sense the usual composure from her.
“…W-well, she was in the apartment.”
“……”
Kagami’s eyes widened.
Kagami was on the taller side for a woman. She was probably almost 170 cm tall, right? She was even taller than Yuuki, who was quite big.
Naturally, standing opposite me like this, she looked down at me.
When someone like that gazes at me with a stiff face, it’s a bit… scary.
Should I have contacted her first?
The reason I didn’t was that I thought it wouldn’t be good to let Kagami know about Koko’s identity.
It’s certainly clear that she was created from that cult, and I also knew that she had been chopped up and stored in the refrigerator.
“Why did you have to do that?”
No, that’s not what I meant.
No, thinking about it, this was also the cult’s fault.
If I had properly wrapped up the nose from the start and stored it correctly, I wouldn’t have had any reason to create Koko’s body like this.
And if the apartment hadn’t looked a bit haunted, I would have just lived there!
“That thing?”
It seemed Kagami didn’t even need to pretend in front of Yuuki.
“Did you call Koko that ‘thing’ just now?”
Well, since she had acted so convincingly at that moment, it was only natural that Kagami would be a bit overly responsive to every word she said.
“How could you say that about your own daughter?”
Yuuki seemed profoundly shocked, so much so that he abandoned all formalities in his speech.
U-uh… Yuuki, I’m sorry.
When I first saw Koko, I thought the same ‘thing’. Honestly, she had almost no elements that made her seem like a person. It was just a nose.
…Although I thought she was still a person at least to some degree.
“Koko?”
The expression on Kagami’s face, which had a brief emotional line, crumbled again.
My face turned a little red.
“Yeah, whatever you called her, she’s Koko now.”
“Koko!”
Kagami, with her mouth agape, stared at Koko, who was hiding behind Yuuki.
For reference, Koko was curled up tightly behind Yuuki. It was probably Koko’s reaction that caused Yuuki to move so vehemently.
However, if we were to nitpick, this was more Kagami’s fault. After all, it was Kagami who had chopped Koko into pieces and stored her in the refrigerator.
“You gave her a name?”
Kagami looked at me and then back to Koko behind Yuuki. Then she quickly turned her face back to mine.
She had the expression of someone who really couldn’t comprehend the situation.
…Well, I guess I would feel the same way.
Koko, who appeared to be a chaotic mass of limbs and a head, was now fully mimicking a human. At least, outwardly, it seemed non-problematic.
Honestly, if I hadn’t mentioned that I found her in the apartment, Kagami probably wouldn’t have recognized Koko at all.
Even though she was looking flustered, I could almost see her brain spinning at high speed. Was Kagami’s mental state currently half-overclocked?
“What did you do to Koko, huh?”
Yuuki didn’t even turn to Kagami in his response.
“What did you do to make Koko cling so desperately to cat food?”
Uhh…
Sorry. It was actually because I fed her that in the beginning.
And I guess cat food would be fine for humans too. It’s just that, how should I put it, it might look as if a person’s dignity has dropped to the ground.
Plus, isn’t cat food pretty expensive? I’d bet it’s a lot pricier than the bean sprouts I often eat!
“…Hmph.”
Kagami snorted.
It seemed her resolve had been made.
With a very cold expression, Kagami pulled out her phone, as if to erase Yuuki’s words.
Zing.
My phone vibrated.
Should I check it right away? That would make it too obvious that Kagami sent an email.
“So?”
Kagami said, turning her back to me.
“If I’m using what I made, what wrong could there be?”
“…What.”
The mere words from Kagami caused Yuuki’s face to pale.
“Yuuki. Yuuki. If you think about it, you come from quite a famous family, right? Weren’t you also having some fun while living together with my daughter?”
“That’s… what.”
Ah.
“Isn’t it that since you’re so close, you’d know what kind of body my daughter has? Recently, didn’t she seem to be doing some part-time job? Last time, she even went to a Yakuza house, didn’t she?”
My mouth dropped open.
No, I thought Kagami would know, but—
What matters right now isn’t that!
If you’re going to say something, say it till the end! Otherwise, Yuuki would be totally misunderstanding!
I cautiously looked over at Yuuki.
Yuuki was staring at me with the most round eyes I had ever seen.
“That’s not it!”
I shouted without realizing it.
No, what do you mean ‘that’? What the heck are you talking about, huh?!
There’s a saying that ‘a strong denial is a strong affirmation.’ Of course, most of it is nonsense. It’s just a load of rubbish meant to corner someone who’s denying a fact.
However, when confessing to a crime, it might look at it a bit differently.
An innocent person usually says, “I didn’t do it!” However, a person who is guilty tends to half-confess by saying, “Bring the evidence that I did it!”
My response was a bit like that. At the very least, it contained the implication that I had been there.
Yuuki’s face turned pale.
“Kurosawa…”
“…Hold on. No, really.”
I reached out my hand and said that, then looked at Kagami.
Kagami was staring at me directly.
I could feel the sweat forming between my hair. Well, in this hot weather, having rushed home made it unavoidable, but somehow this sweat felt mixed with embarrassment.
Is she angry?
Is she doing this on purpose?
Were they exposing what I had been hiding from her since that information was immensely important to her?
Ah.
I get it.
Kagami’s reason for being here.
Even if she didn’t grasp the situation precisely before hearing the story.
Perhaps some events were unfolding outside my knowledge. Kagami’s sister, the wife of Yamashita, was moving around.
Considering Kagami’s position within the cult, her sister’s position must have been absolutely significant.
“…”
I closed my mouth.
“Kurosawa?”
“…”
What should I do now?
Should I send someone away from this spot?
Koko has to stay in the room for now—
Yuuki was someone who came to my house out of concern for me. But I couldn’t be so heartless as to say something like “You should head home first” at this late hour.
Kagami must have come to talk about something incredibly important, but isn’t this the sort of conversation that should be held right away?
After a brief moment of consideration, I reached a conclusion.
Kagami didn’t exactly know everything yet, but she seemed to have a decent grasp of Yuuki.
Yuuki might just love his family so much. At this point, if I told them to leave, he most definitely wouldn’t agree to it. Especially not after overhearing Kagami’s revelations!
I took a deep breath and exhaled.
“…Yuuki, just give me a moment. I’ll finish this conversation and we can continue afterward.”
“But—”
“…Even though it’s a relationship like this.”
I said to Yuuki with a slightly calming voice.
“Even in this relationship, we’re mother and daughter.”
“…”
Yuuki closed his mouth.
He looked between me and Kagami a few times. Of course, his expression was still one of disbelief, but for the time being, at least, he nodded his head.
“…If you don’t return in 30 minutes, I’ll call the police.”
“What a determined kid.”
Kagami mocked Yuuki thoroughly.
“Even if the police come looking for us, I don’t know if they’ll deliver this child to you.”
Kagami was still being introduced as my mother.
Kagami walked out, leaving Yuuki who was glaring hard at her and closed the door.
“Follow me.”
Kagami casually said that to me and I flinched a bit.
But the sound insulation of this house was not great. If I started using polite speech in front of Yuuki, it would completely ruin the concept.
And this is just my guess, but I really felt like she meant that line with a bit of sincerity.
*
There aren’t many places to have a conversation at this time of night.
For a secret conversation, it’s better if the surroundings are somewhat noisy; but the residential area at night wasn’t all that noisy.
I could faintly hear the sounds of TVs from here and there, someone drunkenly humming a song from afar, and occasionally the sound of traffic passing by. But they were all too distant to mask our conversations.
In the end, we ended up at a nearby family restaurant. Since it was open 24 hours, even if there were no people around, the music was already playing, so if we spoke softly, our voices would easily get drowned out.
No one would hear even if we talked about curses and youkai here.
The two of us ordered a cup of coffee each and sat across from one another.
Yuuki had given me 30 minutes, and it took about 10 minutes to get here.
“Shall I go first? Or…?”
It seemed that I had regained a lot of composure after being alone with Kagami, as she asked in a fairly calm voice.
“…You should go first.”
“Understood.”
Kagami nodded and said.
“It seems your sister noticed that you dealt with solitude.”
As expected.
I let out a deep sigh.
“But why now?”
“To say ‘now’ seems a bit off.”
Kagami replied.
“Solitude operates differently depending on the person. Some might die within just a few days if they go well, but conversely, it can get better for a moment and then suddenly turn bad.”
And to torment someone, the latter would likely be better. A nasty character would torment someone by not killing them at once but by making them suffer over extended periods.
“But if you’re controlling them, shouldn’t you have known the moment they died?”
“The head was left there at the house. I imagine they thought we took some measures to prevent it. They probably didn’t have enough confidence to think they could kill them outright.”
“…Really?”
I felt a sense that Kagami wasn’t saying something.
Maybe she was the one who instructed to leave the head there and provided some advice. And Kagami probably took some measures, too. She must have used some delaying methods so that information didn’t get out to them.
“And besides, you have blood all over the place, right?”
“…”
“I don’t know the exact reason behind it, but that blood seemed to be ‘solitude,’ wasn’t it?”
“…Did you hear the story?”
Kagami nodded.
They probably heard everything, from the mess I made in the apartment to me running around stabbing and leaking blood with a knife.
And with every bit of that, people collapsed and rolled on the ground.
Someone knowledgeable about curses might make the connection quickly.
“Not only did you deal with solitude. It seems they noticed that we did something beyond that. Thanks to that, we were able to thin the crowd a bit.”
After saying that, Kagami took a sip of coffee.
“…Was there a spy?”
“Wouldn’t it be strange if there wasn’t? After all, we were originally on the same side.”
“…You don’t mean she just went off on her own, do you?”
“How great would that be?”
Kagami glanced up slightly.
For a brief moment, her gaze drifted off somewhere, but she quickly returned to her usual relaxed smile.
“I’m not someone who believes in the sanctity of marriage… but I do understand how significant that kind of bond can be. If something like that is being broken, it means something significant happened.”
“…”
I paused for a moment to weigh the situation.
Let’s see.
With Jjapgurasu around, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are JjapTulu or JjapSuto in this world. The one we believe in is the foreign entity modeled after Shub-Niggurath, so I doubt they’d dare to believe in something beneath it like Cthulhu or Hastur.
Rather, she might have been trying to believe in something stronger like Yog-Sothoth? I could understand if she resisted that saying, “Why something stronger?”
And besides, someone with feelings of inferiority towards their more competent younger sister would try to win over in some crooked way. Those kinds of characters appear in so many works.
Of course, I couldn’t say anything about her capabilities as I haven’t met Kagami’s sister.
…
Um… Well… about Yog-Sothoth.
Just recalling that name gives me a strange feeling.
Something feels off a bit.
Just by thinking of the name, I don’t even know why I feel this way.
As I was lost in that thought, Kagami spoke up again.
“So I came to warn you.”
“A warning?”
“If your sister appears and tries to persuade you, I kindly ask that you don’t fall for it, if possible.”
“…”
I stared at Kagami intensely.
“Well, now that I think about it, you’ve never fallen for my words before, right?”
Pretty well.
“However, my sister is a bit more impetuous than I am. She learned that you got involved in the investigation of the Yamashita family, so she might come at you a bit more aggressively.”
“What do you mean by aggressive?”
“I don’t think she would come knocking on your door. But she might just grab you in a van while you’re walking down the street.”
“…”
“I’m serious. No jokes. So if you have any plans to go out, make sure you return before nightfall. And it would be best to stay in places where there are many eyes around. We’ll have people watching you, but it’s safer just to be cautious.”
“…Understood. I’ll be careful.”
“Fortunately, it seems my sister has been hiding somewhat far from us for a while. Sending solitude was a very sister-like choice, but usually, she doesn’t show up near us like that, so it means she moved impulsively. Could it be that she actually loved Yamashita? ”
If she has a jealous personality, that makes a lot of sense.
If it wasn’t that deep, she wouldn’t have had any reason to pull such stunts on someone whom she didn’t know much about.
“Hiding out also means it’s hard for them to acquire information about us, but conversely, it also means it’s hard for us to obtain information about them. Please take care.”
I nodded again.
“…”
We both fell silent for a moment while drinking our coffee.
Looking at the clock, about five minutes were left from the time Yuuki initially provided.
“It’s about time for you to go. You don’t want to get involved with the police for no reason.”
It seemed Kagami had no intention of following me.
That’s fine by me.
Yuuki’s image of Kagami might get worse, but it seemed Kagami didn’t care about that.
…
Although I felt a bit bad, maybe I should try to repay her later somehow.
Thinking like that, when I looked at Kagami, she was wearing a very smug smile.
It seems she was laughing at my situation of needing to make excuses to Yuuki upon returning home.
But thanks to that expression, I felt a little of my guilt dissipate, so maybe it’s a good thing?
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