Don't forget to read the first or the previous part if you haven't!
???day ??:??
Home Apartment
As I let my thoughts wander in the dark clouds, my eyelids seemed to close tightly.
I hear a cell phone ring. That's strange. I thought I turned it off before lying down...
"Hello?" I answered the phone with my head still half-asleep.
"You must be Lieutenant Kazami." It was a man's voice. I searched my memory, but I'd never heard this voice before.
"What you have before you is a very delicate case."
"It's not something the First Investigative Section can handle. That's why we turned our attention to you and Detective Kogure."
"You two are the ones closest to the core of this case..."
"Unfortunately, you are caught in the shackles of common sense, unable to take the first step forward..."
"You still can't believe in the existence of the curse, can you?" Am I still dreaming? How does this man know about the case?
"You can't handle this case on your own. So I've decided to bring in some help."
"Just who are you?" I asked, barely able to think straight.
"Me, you ask? Let's just say I'm from a 'certain organization' that's been paying attention to you."
"It's not good to pretend to be something you're not. Believe what you see with your own eyes. That's the quickest path to reaching the truth..."
[Disconnected call sound]
"...Huh? Hello?" He hung up. What was that all about?
[Image begins blinking before turning black]
I tried to think, but before I knew it, sleep took me back to the dream world...
Tuesday 7:55 AM
Home Apartment
The rising sun irritated my eyelids. I ended up waking 15 minutes before my alarm clock.
Somehow, I didn't feel like I had slept at all. I checked my cell phone on my bedside table.
When I looked at the incoming call history, there was one at exactly 3:00 AM. The caller was listed as "Not Available".
That late-night phone call wasn't a dream after all.
A 'not available' call means it came from overseas. I don't think anyone from overseas would make such an elaborate phone call, though...
And so, I entered the fifth day of the investigation with an uncertain feeling.
After finishing the deskwork in the morning, I met up with Mr. Kogure to investigate the school once more.
Tuesday 2:55 PM
Hanamine Private High School
When I arrived at Hanamine High School, Mr. Kogure was waiting for me with a complicated look on his face. I wondered if he was still reeling from yesterday's shocking incident.
"Yo, Junya."
"Huh, Brother?"
I've discovered the reason why Mr. Kogure was in a bad mood. Him, Suimei Kirisaki.
Mr. Kogure seems to have a hard time with my brother's type, though he puts up with it on my behalf.
On the contrary, he seems to like Mr. Kogure very much. As a {plaything} to toy with, that is.
"Sir, what's the meaning of this?"
"I don't know what's going on either..."
"Oy oy, what, even you? You didn't actually hear anything?"
"Y-yeah..."
"Yesterday, I got a call from someone who seemed to be from the police department. They asked me to come over and help with your investigation... Is this some kind of mistake...?"
My brother sighs disappointedly. It seems he hoped to get involved in an interesting case.
I was surprised at the appearance of my brother, but thinking calmly about it, I guess it could be considered an opportunity, right?
The folklorist Suimei Kirisaki. He has extensive knowledge of the occult, especially of witchcraft and spirits, from both the East and West.
I stopped him as he was about to leave, looking bored.
"Hold on, brother! Can I formally ask you to help with the investigation? The truth is, we really are stuck."
"Sir, are you sure?"
"We can't afford to be complacent at this point. We need the opinion of an expert."
"Hello. I've been expecting you, Detective." Shintaro Nagamine, the principal of Hanamine Private High School, accepted us with a completely different attitude than he had yesterday.
"Yesterday was a tough day, wasn't it? I just received a call from Ms. Kamiyama's parents, and they said she was discharged from the hospital without incident."
The principal only knew that Kamiyama had fallen ill. What would the school do if they knew about her transformation?
"So, this is the expert who'll collaborate with the investigation, correct?"
...Eh? How did the principal know that someone was coming to help with the investigation? Even we just found out.
"How unexpected. I thought they would be someone much older..."
The principal, oblivious to my surprise, expressed a carefree impression.
"You already knew about our investigation collaboration?" "Yes, of course. Civilian experts would be accompanying you, and he asked me to give you his regards."
"Give me his regards... Who told you that?"
"Yesterday, after you left, there was another detective."
"He was a young detective who looked a little frivolous. He showed me his police ID and a current warrant, so there's no doubt about it."
Who in the world is he? There should be no detective in the First Investigative Division willing to help us.
Mr. Kogure seemed to feel the same way, only shaking his head when his eyes met mine.
Someone is moving around without me knowing. Is he doing it out of kindness, or...
"Do you know the detective's name?" "That would be... I can't seem to recall it. I'm quite sure I heard it though... My apologies."
"There's just one thing that bothered me about him."
"What would that be?"
"The warrant that the detective was carrying..."
"It was dated four days ago."
Four days ago was the day Kaori Itou's body was found. So that detective must have anticipated that we would be stuck in our investigation four days earlier and thoughtfully obtained a warrant for us.
I mean, what the hell? This feels just like being bewitched by a fox.
"{Precognition}, huh..." My brother mumbled in a tone that made it hard to tell whether he was serious or joking.
We were left with a big question, but we couldn't stand still. With the principal present, we set out to investigate the school.
Now, where do we investigate?
>Investigate the Fox Mound.
>Investigate the library.
We're going full spirit time, and considering that Hitomi isn't here, I think we need to go to the mound to get that scroll this time.
>Investigate the Fox Mound.
We decided to start by investigating the fox mound where Misa Sakita's spirit rests.
The back of the school building was empty. The silence was unsettling.
"We've told the students that entry is prohibited due to the lightning strike yesterday."
The Fox Mound came into view. The scars left by the lightning bolt are still fresh.
"Is that the Fox Mound, Junya?" Brother's eyes were shining as if he was entranced. It must be the researcher's blood running in his veins.
To help with my brother's investigation, I supplemented him with the rumors regarding the Fox Mound.
"Is that so? For this school to have such rumors..."
"Listen, Junya. It's very dangerous for a rumor to grow to a huge size over time while the facts remain unaccepted as facts."
"Rumors beget rumors, and speculation begets speculation. The rumors that develop in this way become a psychological burden that weighs on the parties involved, as well as on other people."
"What may start out a small complaint or prejudice can turn into a legitimate "curse"... This school had the perfect soil to cultivate such a curse."
"Hmm. Of all these tall trees, lighting chose to strike this small mound... How curious..."
Brother looked at the mound with interest, then began to try everything he could think of: stroking it, tapping it, smelling it.
Although many would treat him as an oddball, his insight is of great use in a case like this, where common sense does not prevail.
"Hum. It doesn't seem to contain any minerals that could trigger a lightning strike."
Without paying attention to the dumbfounded people around him, he began to crawl all over the area around the Fox Mound as if hunting for something.
"Um... Brother, what are you searching for?" I couldn't help but ask on behalf of everyone.
"Found it!" In answer to my question, Brother shouted with delight.
"Here. Look at this, Junya."
"Remember how I took a talisman from you yesterday? I was wondering if we were going to find more today."
So, I guess Brother was right on the money. However, this crucial talisman was burnt in the center, making it impossible to read all of it.
...Well, even if it wasn't burnt, it probably wouldn't be readable either way.
[I'm sorry for what you're about to read]
" 'Supposing you were to fall under the curse of a wraith, fox spirit, pestilence god, malediction, vengeful spirit, demon, evil god, or even of a pestilence dragon traveler god, promptly becoming a monk for porpuses of dispersing and extinguishing...' It's all burned off from here."
My brother's mouth spins out a string of incomprehensible words.
" '...grant me your protection, cut apart my many fiendish foes, the destroyers of life, and their deadly armies, may the meridian king's power dispel all their enmity.' " [This part was harder than the last one, please consider both completely incomprehensible]
"See, Junya. This is a sutra for exterminating foxes."
"Fox extermination...!?"
"Principal, this mound seems to be of considerable age. Do you know anything about it? For example, any folktales or folklore...?"
"...Yes. There are some, but..." The principal's answer was very evasive.
"This is a matter of our school's reputation, so please let this remain between us, alright?"
"We were actually going to tear down this mound a long time ago, but then some things have happened..."
"The story I will tell is hearsay... But, it was told to me by my grandfather, who in turn heard it from his grandfather..."
"This mound is said to date back to the Genpei era. In those times, a girl favored by a powerful man was executed for fox possession."
"Barbaric acts similar to what was known in the West as the {witch trials} were being carried out here in Japan."
"In those days, there were still numerous prejudices, so perhaps even the slightest eccentricity could have been confused with fox possession."
"However, the girl ended up being murdered by a group of men after being cruelly persecuted."
"Some said that the girl had killed many people before her death, but that was a long-standing rumor, so there was no telling if it had been distorted along the way."
"It wasn't even certain whether the girl was really possessed by a fox. However, it's a fact that this Fox Mound still remains as a way to appease the girl's spirit..."
"Hmmm... I didn't know this mound had such a history."
"Hey, Brother. You talked about fox possession before... right?" I asked, remembering having heard these same words.
"That's right... Since ancient times, there have been many folk tales and ghost stories about foxes in our country. For better or worse, foxes have had a considerable influence on our ancestors."
"When people suddenly started acting strange, they would call it 'fox possession', convinced that it was something unexplainable."
"Today, medical science has advanced to the point where many phenomena can be explained, but in the old days, people believed that fox possession was the work of a monstrous apparition."
His explanation sounded like he was denying the animal spirit theory. "Well then, what do you believe was the cause behind fox possession?"
"It might be easy and foolish to attribute such strange phenomenon to the work of a specter, but I do believe there must be some truth in it because of how widely this explanation circulated."
"I feel like a part of this truth is a factor in this case. There is 'something' in the environment surrounding this fox mound that drives people insane..."
"Y-you're not saying that the {vengeful spirit} of that girl who died in the past is driving the students to suicide one after another, right...!?"
Mr. Kogure asks a question without trying to hide his trembling voice.
"CORRECT!"
[This text disappeared as soon as it was done being written]
"...Is what I would have said had I been absolutely sure. But, if that were the case, this place would have been cursed a long time ago."
"It seems rather unnatural for these strange happenings to happen only recently, and so suddenly. Unless, that is, some sort of trigger awakened the curse..."
A trigger that awakened the curse... "Hey, Brother. Do you think Mr. Kokkuri could have been this trigger?"
"I see, Mr. Kokkuri, huh? Certainly, since it's a type of séance. It wouldn't be shocking if it evoked the spirits lying dormant in the land."
"The question is whose spirit descended, and for what purpose did it drive those girls to suicide..."
As soon as I thought he had started muttering to himself, he lit up a cigarette. "Maybe this is a deeper-rooted case than I had imagined..."
The setting sun shines red on the school building. This color reminded me of the suicide victims' blood that disappeared into thin air.
"......please come forth. Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please come forth..."
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please come forth..."
...Where did that come from? The voices of female students playing Mr. Kokkuri echo through the empty school building.
Although they weren't shouting loudly, their immoral and surreptitious words still reached our ears.
"Despite the school rules forbidding Mr. Kokkuri..."
No amount of school rules can hold back boys and girls at an impressionable age.
What matters more now is who's playing Mr. Kokkuri.
"...now, quickly draw blood..."
"...b-but even Narumi and Kaori..."
"...Those girls died because they refused to go through the ritual."
The girls' whispers overlapped with each other. The volume was getting louder and louder, indicating that we were getting closer to the place we wanted to reach.
And then, we arrived at the classroom where the voices were coming from.
We thought we should wait and see what would happen, but the principal, upset with the school rules being violated, didn't allow us to do so.
The culprit was quickly found. Three girls in the classroom. Two of them were familiar faces. There was no one else in the room besides those three.
Yuka Kamiyama.
And Mari Horikawa.
The last person was a girl I'd never seen before.
"All of you! Mr. Kokkuri is prohibited by the school rules!" The principal gave a stern warning.
"...So?"
"W-what's with that attitude!?" The principal flinched at Kamiyama's irreverent demeanor.
I heard that Kamiyama was discharged from the hospital, but for her to already be attending school...
At any rate, at this moment, I can't see any abnormalities like those from yesterday...
"Detectives... you're still investigating the case?" It was Mari Horikawa who asked, seemingly without much interest.
Horikawa knows that something's wrong with Kamiyama. Still, the fact that she's playing Mr. Kokkuri together with Kamiyama makes me question her sanity.
"D-detective...? These guys, they're policemen...?" The unknown girl backs away with a frightened look on her face.
"What's your name?"
"K-{Keiko Yamano}..." She replied in a voice that sounded as if she was about to cry.
She's an athletic-looking girl with a short haircut, but at this moment, her body's trembling, and her eyes aren't focused. What is she so scared of?
(This is the girl who was trying to burn the Ouija board back then.) Mr. Kogure quietly whispered to me.
He nodded with a confident look on his face. We had only seen her once from afar, so how could he remember her that well?
However, the girl who was trying to burn the Ouija board on the day Kaori Itou died certainly had a short cut, too.
It's not just the hair. The probability of them being the same person is quite high, considering she's playing Mr. Kokkuri despite it being forbidden to do so here.
"Well, Keiko. Next is your turn. Hurry up and continue the ritual."
They're actually planning on resuming playing Mr. Kokkuri in these circumstances? The principal became too angry to speak.
"Mr. Kokkuri is very angry. If we don't perform the {blood ritual} soon, someone else will die."
"Wait a minute!" That's a remark I can't let slide.
BLOOD RITUAL?
"We made a deal with Mr. Kokkuri. If it granted our {wish}, we would give it our blood."
"Wish...?" I was curious about the nature of the girls' wish, but Horikawa continued without replying.
"In the beginning, everyone was doing it for fun... but then some of the girls got scared and didn't want to do it."
"That's why Mr. Kokkuri's enraged, it says there's not enough blood."
"The scared girls I'm talking about are---"
"Correct. You've already guessed it. Misses Narumi Hasebe and Kaori Itou." Horikawa's mouth was upturned as she replied.
"A blood ritual, huh. How very interesting. Well, may I join?"
"No." My brother's proposal was cruelly rejected.
"Hmm. There are conditions to be a participant...? I see. So, who among you first suggested playing Mr. Kokkuri?"
"It was me." Surprisingly, it was Horikawa who answered. I imagined it would be Kamiyama.
"Why Mr. Kokkuri in particular?"
"Why...? I just transferred to a new school, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to make friends..."
You don't have to play Mr. Kokkuri to make friends. Horikawa's words have a hint of untruth to them.
"Well, are you the one who suggested doing the blood ritual too?"
"That's wrong. Mr. Kokkuri revealed it to us. If we offered our blood, he would grant our wishes."
I shouted without thinking. "And you believed such a thing!? Then, the two suicide victims must've...!!"
The whereabouts of the missing blood from the victims' bodies slowly began to coincide in my mind with the blood ritual.
"They didn't die to grant our wishes, okay? They died because they refused to go through with the blood ritual."
Kamiyama's calm and indifferent as she continues to string together her words.
"Talking about offering blood, all you have to do is cut the tip of a finger and let a little drip down, you know..."
Blood is blood, even if it is just a drop. A normal person would get scared and run away.
"Those girls abandoned the blood ritual halfway through. So Mr. Kokkuri got angry and..."
Then cursed the two students to death, huh? Yuka Kamiyama, at least, seems to completely believe in the curse.
"So? Did you get your wish?" My brother asked sarcastically.
"......" Silence and a bitter expression were Kamiyama's answers to that question.
However, the fact that she could devote so much of her heart to such a ritual is a testament to her feelings toward her wish.
"H-hey, Kamiyama. I'm absolutely going to continue the ritual. I don't want to die..."
Perhaps horrified by Kamiyama's story, Keiko Yamano offered to participate in the blood ritual.
"Fine. If you're going that far, I'll figure out how the blood ritual works."
Before I knew it, my brother had seized control of the situation. The question at hand is of the field where the folklorist Suimei Kirisaki stands unrivaled. With his no-nonsense attitude, he dragged and guided Kamiyama and the others along.
"Now then, let's begin. Try to do it as you always do."
Kamiyama and Horikawa seemed to be displeased with the man's sudden appearance, but soon began chanting the incantation without either of them metaphorically saying a word.
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please come forth..."
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Kokkuri, please come forth..."
Our gazes focused on the ten-yen coin, where three index fingers gathered together.
"Mr. Kokkuri has its roots in a form of psychic divination called table-turning, which originated in the West in the 19th century."
"It was introduced to Japan during the Meiji period, and gradually was simplified and became a popular fortune-telling game that anyone could perform. That is the Mr. Kokkuri we know today."
"Now, what question shall I ask? Mr. Kokkuri, have you had free time lately?"
The ten-yen coin moves in response to my impudent-sounding brother's question. Mr. Kokkuri has manifested.
"No"
"I see. Mr. Kokkuri must be very busy. After all, his time was spent making two people commit suicide."
"When you see a ten-yen coin move like this, it seems as if it's inhabited by something spiritual, doesn't it?"
"Mr. Kokkuri, however, is merely the work of an unconscious force called muscular automatism."
"We, through self-suggestion, are subconsciously generating the answers ourselves."
"Mr. Kokkuri is a kind of hypnosis. The blood ritual, the curse, they're all just staged."
I'm shocked. I can't believe my brother would deny the occult. If Ms. Hitomi had been here, I wonder what she would have thought.
"Let me be clear. Mr. Kokkuri's bloodlust is a reflection of the psychological depths of one of you."
"In other words, that someone is the culprit of this case, the person trapped under Mr. Kokkuri's curse... the fox-possessed."
One stares directly at her. Another repeatedly steals glances. One more looked sideways with suspicion. But, everyone's eyes naturally focused on Kamiyama.
However, she moved not a single eyebrow, only smiled wryly...
Let's end here, following this scene, we get a pretty big exposition scene. For this reason, I'll save it for next time. I believe there will be 4 more posts: two for reaching this route's ending, and two more to get all other F.O.A.F files in this episode. Although, depending on the circumstances, I may be able to shorten it to just three posts...
Either way, see you next time!
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