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V10 Story I – Part 02

“We didn’t know what to do. And that’s when I heard about this place. I was thinking if you could, you know, perform an exorcism or something.” She glanced up at me from under her lashes.

I didn’t know what kind of rumors she had heard, but she didn’t seem keen on hiring us. She was expecting us to solve the problem voluntarily.

I frowned. This was hardly an urgent matter, and there was no need to deal with it.

“What about getting rid of the fish tank?” I suggested. “If you want an exorcism, there are better places to go to than here. I’ll look into it and let you know if I find any leads. Honestly, we suggest not hiring us for this.”

“Don’t you get it? I’m in distress because he’s not throwing the fish tank. Besides, I’m asking you for advice, and you’re telling me to go somewhere else? Unbelievable.”

A different psychic could deal with a submerged hand. We should minimize involvement. Moreover, Mayuzumi would not find this case entertaining.

I doubt the phantom hand was involved in anything brutal. An undecaying hand was, at worst, an unconventional interior decoration.

As expected, Mayuzumi was frowning deeply. She clapped her hands once.

“I think it’s time for our guest to leave. Odagiri-kun, see her off.”

“What? Come on. Shouldn’t you care a little bit?”

The woman hit the desk and stood up. Tea spilled.

Her brows rose sharply. “Something scary is happening, and you’re just gonna ignore it? How could you?!” Rage filled her face. “I expected detectives to show more concern. Oh, I know. I’m gonna post a review of this shop on the internet.”

We had no obligation to solve the case when she didn’t even hire us. Besides, this wasn’t a shop.

I had no time to say what I had in mind.

Pressing her forehead, Mayuzumi muttered, “A severed hand.” She closed her eyes. Her red lips twisted. In a sweet yet disturbing voice, she added, “Fine. I’m making an exception. I will take the case. In return, you must never come near this office ever again.”

“What? I-I’m not technically hiring you for the case. Y-You wanna charge me for it?”

“I don’t care about your excuses. I’m saying I’ll do something about the hand. If you keep whining, I might consider taking some drastic measures. I dislike noise, you see. And I’m sure too much talking is annoying for the person themselves.”

Mayuzumi flashed a bewitching smile. She probably didn’t mean any of that. There was no way she would go to the trouble of dealing with people.

But the woman’s face froze. She seemed to have read something from Mayuzumi’s expression.

“G-Got it,” she said hastily. “I don’t really wanna come to a place like this multiple times anyway.”

“Now then, Odagiri-kun. It seems the guest is actually leaving this time. See her off.” Mayuzumi waved her hand and lay down again.

I escorted the woman outside. Wearing a frown, she took out a notepad from her bag. Her name, phone number, and address were written on it.

“I’ll talk to my friend, so please hurry. I’m too scared of the hand to go to his house. Ugh, seriously. I wonder if I can really count on you,” she mumbled as she left.

I stood there with the note. Would she not regret leaving personal information in this clearly dubious office?

Sighing, I returned to the living room. Mayuzumi was gracefully nibbling on chocolate.

The lily-shaped candy snapped and disappeared into her mouth.

“Not the kind of client we see often,” I said. “I didn’t think you would take the case. I hesitate to even call it one.”

“Yeah. I want those sort of people away from me. Besides, the boredom is just about to kill me. It seems like a worthless case at the moment, but who knows how it will turn out? I’m hoping for an outlier.”

“An outlier?”

Crack.

Mayuzumi snapped another flower. Her large eyes stared at me.

“There’s something intriguing about it. I can’t be sure if it will be entertaining, though. I hope we get to enjoy it.”

Mayuzumi’s lips curled. She looked like a cat facing its prey.

She seemed to be expecting something.

I hadn’t felt this worried in a while.

---

“Ah… welcome? Who are you again?”

Azuma Katsumi, standing in front of a small house, narrowed his eyes.

Our client’s friend, he regarded us with a puzzled expression. Clad in a shirt and a knit cardigan, he appeared remarkably thin. His bespectacled face looked young and refined. His loosely tied long hair gave him the air of a scholar who had burned the midnight oil.

I gave a slight bow and handed him my business card, which he accepted with bony hands.

“I’m Odagiri from the Mayuzumi Psychic Detective Agency. This is the chief, Mayuzumi.”

“Oh… I see… Is that so? I’m not really interested in people’s faces, so I’m not sure if I’ve met you or not. Well, it’s the same either way. Please come in.”

“This is our first meeting actually. Thank you.”

Without listening to what I had to say, he disappeared inside, not even sparing a backward glance. Reluctantly, I followed, and Mayuzumi trailed in silence. As we passed through a dark corridor, my breath caught.

The living room burst with dense emerald green. Houseplants and fish tanks filled the space. A closer look revealed the plants to be fake, and the tanks to be devoid of fish.

A vibrant, yet hollow scene.

The room was as bright as a greenhouse. I felt hot, but in reality it was actually chilly. Jumbled senses confused my brain.

He turned around beside a palm tree. “So, what business do you have with me? Not that it matters to me, but asking means less effort.”

“Um, did Ms. Hashida Masako not tell you anything?”

I mentioned the client’s name, but he shook his head.

“Did Mako say something? Eh, whatever.”

Out of nowhere, he rolled up the sleeves of his cardigan and shirt, then submerged his arm into the fish tank. The light on the water’s surface shattered. His sudden actions were perplexing. He let his hand idle in the water, then pulled it out.

“Not paying attention is a drag, but I just forget right away. I wonder why? It’s so weird. Do you know what I was talking about?”

Water dripped from his fingertips. Pondering, he submerged his arm again. Tiny bubbles lined up on his emaciated arm, and his fingers wriggled like a deformed fish.

“Um, what?”

“Huh… oh, it’s a habit. Don’t you sometimes get that urge to dunk your arm in a fish tank?”

“…Not really.”

“What, you don’t? Wow. I’m surprised you can suppress the urge,” he said vacantly.

I did not understand a thing, but he didn’t seem to be lying. I wondered if his strange habit was related to the phantom hand appearing in the tank.

“We received a case regarding the matter of the phantom hand submerged in a fish tank,” I said.

“Oh, I see. That’s why she mentioned a detective agency, psychics, exorcists or something. Strange. Why didn’t I say no?” Azuma tilted his head again.

I thought back to the client. Even if Azuma refused, she probably wouldn’t have told us anyway.

I sighed. “If you don’t trust us, we will leave. But before we go, please allow me to ask one thing. Has the appearance of the apparition caused any harm to your mental or physical well-being, or is there a potential for such a situation?”

“Oh, I don’t really mind if you’re shady. I can’t really say which of you and Mako is suspicious, so it doesn’t really matter. You’re all the same in the sense that you come to my house uninvited. But…”

Azuma crossed his arms. He was wracking his brain hard. Several seconds later, he seemed to have reached a conclusion. Untangling his arms, he started walking.

“Well, I guess it’s fine. It’s odd to look at it alone. And it’s weird to hide the tank when you have visitors. Unnatural things are not good. At least, that’s what I think.”

“…Unnatural, you say?”

His words made me furrow my brows. Azuma approached the audio rack. Several pots were lined up on top of it, dense, overlapping leaves forming a curtain. Azuma took out a small tank from behind. Clear water swayed inside.

“You’re talking about this, yes?” he said, showing us the contents of the tank.

A pale hand was submerged at the bottom, resting quietly like some sleeping aquatic creature. It had been severed. The wound looked more beautiful than gruesome, bones, muscle fibers, and veins neatly aligned.

The dull fingers looked like another organ. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started moving like crab legs and crawled along the bottom of the water. The faded hand looked nothing but artificial.

“What a lovely hand,” Mayuzumi said sweetly. “It seems to belong to a woman. Odagiri-kun?”

“…I understand. Excuse me.”

Her eyes conveyed her orders. I put my arm inside the fish tank.

Lukewarm water enveloped my skin. It felt like putting my arm into the intestines of a living creature. I tried to touch the hand, but grasped nothing. From the outside, it seemed like my fingers were passing through the submerged hand.

“Just like the client mentioned,” Mayuzumi said. “This thing lacks a corporeal form. It took shape, but there’s no flesh. An incomplete object. It’s far from interesting.”

“Hmm, you can’t touch it either. I thought it was only me and Mako.”

Azuma nodded to himself. An odd point to focus on. When I withdrew my arm, he dipped his hand in the water.

Bony fingers sank into the hand. As expected, touching it was impossible.