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V13 Story II – Part 09

“Vengeful spirits always have a reason to exist,” Asato said. “Grudges linger in this world because they crave an audience. It’s rare to find a specter that doesn’t want witnesses or casualties. This one’s no different. Go deep enough, and the source will reveal itself. I wonder if my method will work?”

The first and last case of Odagiri Tsutomu and Mayuzumi Asato, huh?

“The first and the last. The beginning and the end. The start and finale, all wrapped up together. If it ends in failure, well, that’d be beyond embarrassing. Even if there’s no audience. Hey, Odagiri. Did you enjoy solving cases with my sister?”

I frowned, thinking he was mocking me. Mayuzumi Asato was the one who’d dragged me into gruesome incidents, blaming me for their deaths. But his face showed no malice. He seemed to be asking out of genuine curiosity, without any real meaning or reason.

I thought about it. Did I enjoy it? No, of course not. I wasn’t heartless enough to find joy in such horrific cases. That was Mayuzumi’s pastime, not mine.

Even now, looking back, all I felt was regret. The face of the man who jumped into the sea, the tears of the girl whose hand I let go of, Higasa’s anguished scream, Akari’s smile—all of it came rushing back and faded away again. And those weren’t all. How many people had died because of me?

I opened my stiff mouth. “It wasn’t fun. Those were the worst days of my life, filled with nothing but regret. But at the same time, they were unforgettable.”

No matter what happened, I would never forget those days with Mayuzumi. Those memories would stay with me for the rest of my life.

Asato didn’t respond. Silence settled between us again. Then, sooner than I expected, he stopped. I peered past him to see what lay ahead.

A sheer cliff stood before him. The gentle slope had turned into a vertical drop. In front of us was a chasm, as if a great metropolis had crumbled into ruins. Its edges were packed with flowers, stretching out like a new land, red covering the entire field of view. There was no way in. If we jumped into that sea of petals, we would suffocate to death. Staring at the petal-covered horizon, I took a step back.

Asato turned to me, looking like he’d seen something unexpected. He twirled his dark blue parasol, lips curling in exasperation.

“What are you afraid of, Odagiri?” he said softly. “This is almost identical to the spirit world.”

And then, without a second thought, he leaped off the edge with both feet. He arced through the air like he was diving to his death.

A moment later, Asato Mayuzumi vanished into the sea of petals.

Without a sound, without rising into the air, the petals swallowed Asato, like he was a small stone sinking quietly into water, vanishing from view.

I was the only one left on the edge of the chasm. My stomach churned. Sensing my anxiety, Uka stirred within me. I couldn’t let her worry. I took a deep breath and fixed my gaze on the crimson surface below.

I desperately fought the urge to look back. To search for a familiar face in this bizarre place. But Mayuzumi wasn’t here. If this had been one of the cases she and I took on together, she would have called me over with that mix of impatience and exasperation. But this wasn’t a case for us—it was for Mayuzumi Asato and me.

Mayuzumi would not have cared at all. I could imagine her reaction; she’d scoff at me and sight in utter annoyance.

“I can’t believe it. If you don’t like the idea, just turn back. Not that there’s any way back now. I’m actually surprised. You made it all the way here without being ready. What a joke. Seriously, what is going on in that head of yours?”

I know I was the one imagining what she was going to say, but I still wanted to snap back at her remarks.

How could she talk shit about me when I was trying to rescue her? I shook my head. That reminds me, I’d forgotten something important. Relying on Mayuzumi would only get me slighted in return. It was best not to dwell on pointless thoughts. Besides, it was true—there was no turning back.

So, there was only one thing left to do: act before I thought it through. Live or die, it didn’t matter anymore.

With a sense of reckless abandon, I set the basket down, rolled my shoulders, and did some random stretches. I felt Uka moving inside me, mirroring my actions. It was kind of cute, but it made my stomach feel like it was being torn apart. I picked up the basket and leaped.

In a posture far from graceful, I plummeted into the sea of flowers. The petals closed in around me, thick and suffocating. The air filled with the sweet, metallic scent of blood, as if I’d jumped into a pool of it. But then, in the next moment, it all vanished. I hit the ground hard, slamming my shoulder first. The lid of the basket bounced up along with my hair, and I used everything—my chin, hands, whatever I could—to keep it shut. If it had opened, I’d have been drenched in living entrails. That was not something I wanted. Clutching the basket desperately, I continued to fall, colliding against the vertical ground.

The ground was an odd mix of hard and soft, like a cross between grassland and rocky terrain. Finally, I reached the bottom, covered in dust and petals. I lifted my head, and just as I expected, the bottom was as vast as the hole itself. I could make out the roof tiles of a mansion in the distance. It seemed far. Slowly, I got to my feet. All around me was a sea of red—not petals, but whole flowers growing from the ground. The flowers I’d seen on the island were shaped like roses, but here, twisted by some curse, they stood upright like spider lilies.

In the midst of the thousands of red flowers stood Asato, his dark blue parasol open. He tilted it slightly, staring at the flower field with a tense expression.

Rustle.

In the direction of his gaze, a section of the flowers swayed unnaturally. Just as suddenly, it stopped. Further off, more flowers quivered, then quickly stilled. Another patch began to move.

The pattern repeated, faster and faster. Something was moving beneath the flowers at incredible speed, meandering like a serpent through the field.

Rustle, rustle, rustle.

Asato twirled his parasol. “It’s here,” he said calmly.

Rustle.

Petals flew, and something emerged before us. Heavy silence fell.

A white silhouette with limp arms stood among the flowers like a ghost.

The small figure was wrapped in a tattered white Gothic Lolita dress, and what looked like strands of a headpiece dangled from her hair, all stained with red blotches.

Smaller than before, she looked like a discarded doll. She slowly lifted her face, her murky red eyes gleaming like gemstones as they watched us. She pinched the hem of her skirt with her tiny hands.

Bending one leg, she offered an elegant bow. An excessively theatrical gesture that the fox would have admired.

We knew exactly what that doll-like figure was. She had once been Asato’s loyal hunting dog, creating white humanoids on his command. After being subdued by red arms, she’d sunk into the depths of the spirit world, where she likely wandered aimlessly. I doubted her time here had been happy. Ever since the main house was swallowed by flowers, she must have followed Asato’s traces, crawling out of the spirit world. Abandoned dogs often bear grudges.

She released her skirt and raised her face.

The demon born of Shiramine’s emotions, the white child lost in the spirit world, grinned.

Giggle.

“Run, Odagiri. And listen carefully: no matter what happens, don’t stop.”

Asato bolted, and I took off after him. I could hear the flower field rustling behind us.

I glanced back. The child chased us, swift as the wind. Keeping pace with Asato, she bent her knees in a very fluid motion and leaped, like a tiger pouncing on its prey. Her mouth stretched to a size large enough to swallow a human head whole.

I reflexively reached for Uka in my gut.

Whoosh.

Asato’s body crumbled and dissipated like mist. Only his dark blue parasol remained, falling gently among the flowers. My eyes widened when I noticed symbols etched inside the parasol, painstakingly written in cigarette ash. When did he prepare this? I almost stopped from astonishment, but Asato’s earlier words echoed in my mind.

“No matter what happens, don’t stop.”

Stumbling, I forced myself to keep moving. Asato was already far ahead. He apparently started his sprint before even warning me. It didn’t really surprise me that Mayuzumi’s stepbrother would leave me behind without a second thought. The white child picked up the parasol and cocked her head. Her mind struggled to keep up with the situation. She racked her brains for a bit, then opened her drooling mouth wide.

Crunch.

She tore into the parasol, shredding it with her teeth. Broken frames and ripped fabric vanished into the child’s maw.

She mindlessly devoured the parasol. There was no reason in those blank eyes. I realized something: the child was terribly hungry, a beast on the verge of starving to death.