My friend died.
Death was a strange concept for the kids around.
If they were still in high school or middle school, they might have seen a relative’s funeral. If their great-grandparents were alive, they would have probably attended a funeral in their childhood and might have even seen a corpse up close.
It’s possible they followed their parents to attend a distant relative’s funeral. Perhaps one of their parents, or even both, had passed away.
Even so, that didn’t mean they felt familiar with it.
Especially not with a friend’s death.
In a country at war or a politically unstable place, where law enforcement is shaky or where getting even one meal a day is a struggle, the death or disappearance of peers wouldn’t feel too far from their reality.
But Japan was not like that. Especially for kids who had never experienced poverty.
“…….”
Yamashita Yu was one of those kids.
His gaze was turned towards the window. The weather wasn’t particularly cold yet, but that didn’t mean he wanted to go outside.
He had just been grilled by government officials last night. He had lost track of how many times he answered “I don’t know.” Therefore, he had no desire to go out and run into more officials right now.
Yesterday, Koko had vanished with Kotoné. It’s not like they just ran away. Of course, it was impressive that she could jump away carrying someone her size and weight, but what Yu saw yesterday was nothing short of her “disappearing.”
The officials couldn’t follow their trail. They seemed to want to track the bloodstains, but that wasn’t going so well.
And those people were now shoveling the dirt from the Yamashita estate’s yard into zipper bags.
The dirt stuck to the tip of the shovel was dark. It had soaked up a lot of the blood Kurozawa Kotoné had shed yesterday.
Kurozawa Kotoné.
Yu had seen that scene yesterday too. She had been stabbed, collapsed sideways, and then ceased to move right there.
It was a sight he had never been able to imagine. Even though he had seen it with his own eyes, whenever he tried to recall that moment while squinting, his memory became oddly hazy.
Ah, yes, he remembered.
There was that woman who was Kotoné’s mother, Kagami, who had been kneeling beside her.
She had straightened the corpse that was sprawled haphazardly and closed her eyes, and that sight was strangely sorrowful.
Yes. It was strange.
That woman had acted as if she didn’t want Kurozawa Kotoné. Hadn’t she seen her getting hit in the head? But whatever change of heart might have occurred in her was unfathomable; the sight of her laying the corpse straight down looked like a mother lost and unsure of what to do after losing her daughter.
Kurozawa’s face looked peaceful.
As if she were about to sleep.
Is dying really like that?
Yu shook his head.
He couldn’t fathom Kurozawa dying. So abruptly? Without leaving behind any words?
Death was, how should he say it…
It didn’t seem right.
Moreover, Yu had seen Kurozawa become blood-soaked and then stand up perfectly fine. Back in the bathroom that day, Kurozawa’s neck had definitely twisted in a odd direction after she slipped. The next moment she had gotten back up as if it were nothing.
It wasn’t just because he had seen that scene, but for various reasons, Yu still couldn’t fully accept that Kurozawa was truly dead.
“……Yu.”
He heard his father’s voice.
“Dad.”
Yu replied calmly.
Perhaps worried by his calm tone, his father let out a deep breath.
His gaze was also turned outside. Beyond the window, people wrapped in protective suits were mechanically digging as if this place had been contaminated by something.
“Can we talk for a moment?”
His father said.
Yu nodded.
After all, no one was suddenly going to pop out and organize the chaotic situation while they were staring at it.
Kurozawa’s mother was still in the temporary interrogation room set up at this estate. It would probably take a while before she came out to share a proper story.
As his father turned around and started walking, Yu followed behind.
“How’s Miho?”
“She’s fine. She’s in a hotel quite far from here.”
That was a relief.
Her room had become a complete mess anyway. From what he heard, everything had begun there. If she had been there at that time, she might have struggled to preserve her life.
Yu’s father, Yohei, seemed to have moved Miho to safety out of concern.
Still, did Yu have a reason to stay here?
The two walked in silence for a while before stepping into a room.
The mansion had many rooms. Naturally, quite a few of them were unused. The room they entered was one of those places. It had been cleaned thoroughly and was perfectly ready in case any guests showed up out of the blue, but typically, nobody would venture in unless it was someone cleaning.
His father laid out two cushions on the floor.
Then seated himself on one while looking up at Yu. Yu took a seat and faced his father silently.
“First of all, I want to apologize for how things turned out.”
His father bowed his head.
Yu seemed taken aback by this behavior. In his memories, his father wasn’t the type to apologize to her.
While he wasn’t a perfect dad, Yu thought of him as decent enough. The fact that he wasn’t the type to bow and apologize was probably related to his identity as a Yakuza or maybe just his pride.
“What happened? What is this about?”
Yu asked, and his father raised his head.
“……I don’t know where to begin.”
“Start from the beginning.”
At his father’s words, Yu decisively replied.
“Tell me from the start.”
“…….”
His father briefly fell silent before he nodded heavily.
“We should begin with your mother.”
His father slowly opened his mouth.
Yu stared at his father intently. Why was his mother relevant here?
“Your mother… Kosuzu… was a miko.”
*
“……Can you believe that?”
After finishing his tale, his father asked Yu.
Yu stared blankly at his father for a moment, then shook his head.
“Of course.”
That was as he expected.
No matter how much he thought about it, it was hard to accept that Yōkai and such really existed. Even after witnessing those events yesterday.
Accepting the fact that Kurozawa was dead was just as difficult.
But what could he do?
If this situation wasn’t a dream, Yu had no choice but to accept it.
“…….”
Yu slowly lowered his head.
And gripped the hem of his skirt tightly. Though he had changed, he still felt like something sticky was stuck to his body.
So if his father was telling the truth…
Yu’s mother was the leader of a cult that had killed several people. She might have blood on her hands as well.
That piece of information… strangely resonated with him. It was the most realistic story he had heard from yesterday to today.
Yu remembered his mother.
The person named Kosuzu was perfect. She always smiled warmly when she looked at Yu and hugged him often. She taught him the names of flowers and kindly corrected him whenever he made mistakes.
She was that kind of person.
“……I want to ask one thing.”
“Go ahead.”
“If it was my mom who tried to kill Miho…”
Yu spoke in a low voice while staring at the floor.
“Is what happened yesterday related to her?”
“We don’t know yet.”
His father answered promptly.
“Is there a possibility?”
“We’re not certain. It would be best to hear from Kagami-san.”
Kurozawa’s mother.
“Why did she do that?”
“I… don’t know.”
“…….”
Yu raised his gaze to look at his father.
There was no expression on his father’s face. Yu found that frustrating.
“You don’t know anything? You married her not knowing? Why?”
“…….”
His father once again fell silent.
“Why? Why did things end up like this?”
“…….”
After a long silence, his father finally spoke, still with his eyes closed.
“At that time, I thought it would be helpful to each other.”
Yu was at a loss for words.
“So then, what about me?”
There was a lack of strength in his voice as he asked.
“What was I born for? Did you think I would just be helpful?”
“……Yu.”
“Can’t you even tell me no?”
Yu’s voice trembled.
“That means… what about Kurozawa? How was she born?”
“…….”
“Was she also born for that reason? Was that family always like that?”
With Yu’s consecutive questions, his father seemed at a loss for words.
“What happened yesterday? Was it necessary then? If she was alive, would it have been a problem?”
“Yu.”
Yesterday’s memories resurfaced.
The pale, lifeless face had looked peaceful.
Yu realized he had never seen her make that expression. He had seen her smile before. He had seen her in pain and worry, too. But looking back, she always seemed like someone being chased by something. Even when she was just quietly sitting still, Yu had never seen her expression like that.
He thought they had become close in their own way. It couldn’t have been any other way. They had spent the night at each other’s houses.
But he didn’t know anything.
Yu had never even considered that their blood might intertwine.
Being cousins is not simply being close. But still…
…Didn’t they actually have some closeness? Even while sitting next to each other, he didn’t know anything.
Yu knew nothing about her.
They hadn’t even gotten to the point of calling each other by name.
His heart began to pound.
Yeah. After realizing that, Yu felt a bit frightened.
Now, he would never see her again. He might be able to visit her grave, but that was it. He wouldn’t get to visit that once-small but lively home of hers, nor would he be able to casually talk to her whenever he sat there, nor could he plan an unexpected Christmas event to surprise her.
He had wanted to naturally become friends over time.
“……Why was she left in that place?”
“…….”
At Yu’s words, his father couldn’t respond.
“Why did her mother just stand by when she was doing something terrible…?”
His father replied that he didn’t know.
If he didn’t know, he could have asked. After all, she was his mother’s sister.
“Yu.”
Looking up at his father, who was staring at him, he was suddenly struck.
“I’m going to ask her directly.”
“Yu, wait—”
But before his father could catch him as he stood up, Yu had already kicked the door open and dashed out.
He couldn’t comprehend this. He couldn’t accept it.
Still, he couldn’t stand the fact that he hadn’t even had the chance to properly thank her before she left.
Today, just like any other day, if it had been a normal story, he wouldn’t have been angry.
He would instead have just found it absurd, opened his mouth wide, rolled his eyes once, and shrugged his shoulders.
And maybe he would have acted a bit awkwardly towards the girl who would have shared that absurdity with him or perhaps the one who would have told him those words.
As time passed slowly, he would find it nothing more than that, going about his usual things with Mako and Harumi, looking at various things and eating.
…What to do?
Once he started to recognize this feeling, thoughts came rushing in like a tide.
What should he say to Mako and Harumi? They both cared a lot about that girl. Mako especially. After hearing about the Kurozawa situation, she had been consistently helping her.
Everything felt strange. This was a feeling he had never experienced in his life.
Yu… thought of Kurozawa as a friend.
He usually wasn’t chatty or one to go out much, so he hadn’t interacted with many people.
However, since there weren’t many people around Yu, the kids usually avoided him if they only knew about his family background.
So before Mako and Harumi casually spoke to him, he had cut off his interest in others.
Kurozawa Kotoné was an unusual girl in that sense. No, perhaps the reason she didn’t seem bothered by the Yakuza background was that she already had a more unusual past than Yu.
It felt strange.
Something that had occupied a corner of his heart seemed to disappear in an instant.
So Yu ran. As if escaping from that. Giving various excuses.
“Wait…!”
Of course, there were people standing by the door.
As Yu’s hand touched the door, the two men jumped forward and grabbed his arm.
“Let go!”
Yu shouted.
“You can’t come in here!”
“This is our house!”
The men’s responses were so absurd that Yu thrashed about. Kicking at their legs, the men tried to throw Yu to the floor—
“Can’t you let go of that hand!?”
Right. This was Yu’s “our house,” as he had said.
Although Yu wasn’t a Yakuza, his father was one. And there were always people stationed in this house.
Moreover, Yu had somewhat saved those men’s lives. At least, all the people who had survived in this mansion now owed their lives to Yu.
Many more people had swarmed in an instant compared to the two men grabbing Yu.
Even though they were all professionally trained individuals, it wasn’t easy to respond quickly against them with both hands tied.
“Young lady!”
“Yes!”
Yu, who couldn’t even thank them, got up from the ground and bolted towards the door.
It wasn’t locked. Did they not consider it necessary? Well, it was a sliding door, so the process of locking it might have seemed a bit troublesome.
Thanks to that, Yu was able to tumble into the room.
Bang!
The sound of his body hitting the floor was quite loud, but Yu stood up without even registering the pain.
And then, he shivered.
Everyone present seemed to be someone of importance. Including the nameless elderly man he had seen earlier, there were quite a few people in suits, both men and women.
Among them were Yuuki’s grandfather and father.
And Yuuki Yuka was here too.
“……”
Yu unconsciously looked at her.
She sat there with her head bowed and didn’t say a word. She just sat there quietly. Why had they brought her here?
“Miss.”
A voice called out to Yu.
When she turned to the source of the sound, she saw that Kurozawa’s mother, Kurozawa Kagami, was sitting there.
Were they holding a temporary hearing or something? No, it seemed closer to an interrogation.
Her hands were cuffed. Unlike the trial videos he had seen, her body wasn’t tied with ropes, but it didn’t look comfortable either.
In a wide semicircle, people were sitting around Kagami, who was at the center.
“……If you’re going to do this, I would have preferred you did it elsewhere instead of my home.”
That was the first thing Yu said to the people.
In reality, he didn’t have any specific thoughts. His head was too cluttered, and he felt like it wasn’t functioning properly.
So he just said what came to mind.
…Just like when he had suddenly punched someone.
“I’m sorry.”
The elderly man apologized with a face that genuinely seemed apologetic. As he frowned, Yu felt oddly reminded of other adults he had seen during his childhood.
Those from “the other faction” who used to visit this house sometimes would often make the same kind of expression.
“But it was an emergency, so please understand.”
“……There are other buildings nearby.”
“Considering what happened in here, leaving for a bit to investigate would seem problematic. We wouldn’t know what might occur.”
“……”
Yu narrowed his eyes.
No matter how he thought about it, it felt like an excuse.
Of course, he could not ascertain what truly went on behind the scenes, nor what precise reasons existed.
“So I would appreciate a little empathy.”
He turned his gaze back to Kagami.
“There’s still something you forgot about.”
Yu spoke.
“This mansion is not yours.”
“I’m aware of that, but—”
“So it doesn’t matter if you have the authority to say who can be where in this house.”
“…….”
The elderly man stared intently at Yu.
From beyond the open door, muffled groans could be heard.
Two civil servants were stuck below the men, their faces flushed crimson.
“If we were outside, there wouldn’t be much we could do, but if we’re in here, it wouldn’t be strange whatever you might do to us, would it?”
There were varying reactions.
Some snickered, while others seemed a bit uneasy. The elderly man remained passive.
“……You mentioned sealing this place due to pathogens, right? We can’t refute that since we have no proof.”
Yu slowly recalled the moment when he had blocked those monsters.
“A reverse scenario would also apply: if we had been bitten by unidentified beasts, there wouldn’t have been any evidence either.”
He recalled those sensations from that time.
The mirror reflecting the truth.
Conversely, it was also a passage leading to “the truth beyond.”
Now, very few people were laughing.
Instead, a few began glaring at Yu, while the rest showed expressions that seemed somewhat uncomfortable.
“I’m sure all of you know who my mother is.”
Yu boasted with exaggerated confidence.
Just like back when he had punched someone, he was simply acting on impulse.
…Yu was thankful that he resembled his father in that aspect, at least.
Kagami stared back at Yu quietly.
Her expression was complicated in many ways.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.