novelVolume 5, Jinnai Shinobu's Apocalypse — Side A — OP_code"Personal_apocalypse" (2)
| ← Ch.33 | Ch.35 → |
I did not need to answer.
I simply tossed the two face-down cards toward the dealer.
Kodama Ryou showed no interest in the cards I was dealt in return.
"Then I'll take one. Just one. I actually have two I don't need, but there's no point in exchanging the other one, " said the laughing con artist."Oh, and you can't change anything with baseless accusations after the fact. Just to be clear, I will get the joker and complete my four of a kind. That will end this. No matter what anyone says, the result can't be changed after the second exchange is complete. It saddens me to think you can't use those provocations of yours anymore. Here, one card. I'll use this joker to kill you."
He slid a random card toward the dealer and another was slid back toward him.
If that was the joker, he would have an irregular four of a kind made up of three kings and the wild card.
He was exactly right.
The old lady whose pension was stolen, the granddaughter suffering from a created illness, and most importantly my own life would all be over.
However...
"..................................................................... Huh..................................................................... ?"
I heard a voice.
The con artist's suit and shoes were covered in snakeskin and he always had a thin smile on his face, but a close look showed his fingertips were trembling. That tremor travelled up his arms and infected his entire body. Finally, his chair began to rattle below him.
"Wh-wh-why?"
"Did you see something strange?"
"Why!? How could I possibly have not gotten the joker!!!???"
Only after shouting did he realize what he had said. He cautiously looked to the gallery, but that no longer mattered.
The game was set from the moment he finished his second exchange.
"It's not surprising you didn't get the joker."
I spoke casually because his life wasn't worth anything with more weight to it.
"After all, it's right here in my hand. And the system was made so it wouldn't swap out a card your opponent or a third party was looking at, right?"
"... What?"
"And without the joker, all you have is three kings."
As I spoke, I threw my fanned-out cards face-up on the table.
"I have the ace of diamonds, the joker, the ace of hearts, the king of spades, and the eight of spades. With the joker, that's three aces."
"What!!!???"
It looked like the con artist wasn't the only one surprised.
A stir ran through the gallery as well.
"In poker, the cards get stronger from two to king, but the ace beats the king, right? That makes my three of a kind better than yours. The game is over, little boy."
"No... Not that!! What kind of hand is that!?"
"C'mon. I had the joker from the very beginning and it isn't that rare to end up with two aces. I don't see anything wrong with this."
"B-but... you... but! You were going for a royal flush or straight flush of hearts. You couldn't get a hand like this after the two card exchanges!"
"Yes, how could this have happened?"
There was no real reason to answer.
I only had to point out the result.
"This is over, so pull out your black card. Pull out that magic limitless card. You need to pay me my winnings. I bet a Zashiki Warashi on top of this junmai daiginjo from Noukotsu Village's Jinnai Brewery, so I'll be taking quite a lot."
"............................................................................................................................................."
As the snakeskin guy blankly listened to me, he finally shouted a few words as if life had returned to him.
"That makes no sense."
"It's nothing compared to how much you've been winning around here."
"But... this is... but!! Everyone here saw it, right? At the very beginning, you revealed your hand!! What more proof do you need? You clearly cheated somehow!! There's no other way you could have ended up with that!"
"... Now you've said it."
I grinned.
This was probably the first time I'd smiled in front of him.
Those were exactly the words I had wanted to hear.
I snapped my fingers and made a show of checking with the gallery and dealer.
"You there, you heard what he said, didn't you?"
"Eh? What?"
"Dealer!! He said it. Check the rules. This fits the conditions perfectly!!"
Hearing that, Kodama Ryou began to tremble even more.
And he looked more surprised about the shaking than anyone.
"Wh-wha-what!? What have you done!?"
"You stepped on a landmine. Check for yourself!!"
Yes.
This casino had its own local rules:
If the joker is included in the deck, one of the players must announce it. The announcer's winnings for that hand will only be 0. 8 times normal (with the exception of five of a kind that can only be made with a joker).
If the winner forms their hand after discarding the joker, their winnings will be twice normal.
If a player is caught cheating, they will be penalized twice their bet amount. However, a simple bluff does not qualify as cheating.
Cheating is eliminated by the thorough management of the dealer, but it can also be directly pointed out by an opponent.
But if the loser accuses the winner of cheating and no cheating can be proven, the loser will be penalized one hundred times their bet amount for ruining the game and damaging the winner's reputation.
If a player does not swap out a single card, their winnings will be 1. 5 times normal.
"Whaaaaaaaat!!!???"
"You owe me one hundred times as much now. Everyone here can clearly tell I won and you lost. And now you're accusing me of cheating to try to overturn that. This is just hard to watch, you fraud. You took a step too far because you were still looking down on me even after losing."
"No, but, no!! I proved your hand made no sense! The loser can't be penalized for revealing how the winner was cheating.... Guards!! Search him!! Hurry!!"
Kodama Ryou was as out of control as a toy chimpanzee with cymbals, but I simply raised my hands.
That seemed to clue the chimpanzee in that something was wrong.
As a guard began to check me, Kodama Ryou questioned me.
"H-how? How can you stay so calm?"
"Isn't that obvious? Because unlike you, I wasn't cheating."
I grinned.
"Think back. Or have you altered your own memories? When the cards were first dealt, I did indeed reveal my hand, but all I did was tell you. You had to take my word for it. I didn't actually show you my cards."
"... Ah!!"
"You actually showed your cards, but that was probably to steal back people's focus by doing something with an even greater impact. That makes it simple, doesn't it? I didn't actually have the cards I claimed I did."
My real hand had been two threes, an ace, a joker, and some other useless card. That was actually a three of a kind with a chance for a full house, but it left me with no chance of defeating the snakeskin man and his ability to manipulate all of the hidden cards. Throwing away my two threes then had taken a lot of courage.
The real danger had been when he had sent me the king of spades. The Usuhiki Warashi Package could swap out cards and it still scares me to think what would have happened if he had swapped out the joker or an ace in place of the useless king.
He had to have gotten a card that was clearly not one of those I had announced. If he hadn't thought it was one of the cards I got during the first exchange, he might have seen through my trick.
I had barely slipped through, but I had done it and won.
Finally, the man wearing gloves with a pentagram on them shook his head.
"Nothing."
"You bastard! Check more carefully!! There has to... has to be something!!"
"There isn't. And a simple bluff doesn't count as cheating. The local rules say so."
I made that clear just to be sure. The guard had to be allowing the Usuhiki Warashi. Had the con artist made sure the man wouldn't say anything unnecessary?
I clapped my hands twice and announced Kodama Ryou's execution.
"Now, then. It's time you paid up my normal winnings times one hundred. Pull out your black card so I can take everything you've got."
Cheers exploded from the gallery like after the winning point of a soccer match.
This was the moment where one side laughed and the other crumbled.
Part 12 (3rd person — Day 10/04 03:20 - 03:33)
Meanwhile, the fox, tanuki, and badger were waiting behind the casino.
After the Zashiki Warashi had been used as a decoy (without being told), Kodama Ryou and the guards had assumed nothing more was hiding out there.
The three of them were looking at the smartphone they had borrowed from the Zashiki Warashi.
"It says to go through with it."
"W-will this really work?" worriedly asked the wet nurse tanuki.
"Hmm." The fox tilted his head."He explained this ahead of time, but I have trouble with those Western terms. Let's see, it was Fleming's..."
"Right hand. The left hand is used for the theory behind railguns."
The fox grabbed at the badger for that bit of know-it-all-ism, but the tanuki stopped them before an actual fistfight broke out.
"Whatever the theory behind it, you know what to do, right? That's all that matters."
"Yes, that makes sense. But..."
"What else is there?"
"Can we really get back at loathsome Kodama Ryou with this children's toy?"
At that point, they heard a girl giggling quietly.
"Who goes there!?"
The fox quickly turned around and saw someone running away.
It was a girl of twelve or thirteen. She wore a short mini-yukata with the shoulders slipped down like a courtesan, so her strange Japanese outfit looked something like a tube top dress with a tight skirt.
"Was that the Usuhiki Warashi? This isn't good. Is that subspecies going to report on our actions!?"
"N-no, " said the badger to allay the wet nurse tanuki's fears."I think this is the opposite. That Usuhiki Warashi... That Zashiki Warashi subspecies is a Youkai of prosperity and she's leaving the casino and thus her owner. That means only one thing for Kodama Ryou's future."
Part 13 (3rd person — Day 10/04 03:33 - 03:45)
"What are you waiting for? The guest gave you his card, didn't he?"
"Yes, but I'm trying to make the pre-transaction confirmation."
Kodama Ryou stood in a soundless world.
No, there was actually applause and a deluge of other sounds enveloping him, but it all seemed to so distant to him. His mind was in no state to comprehend the voices as voices, so it washed over him as mere noise.
It came out to several hundred million.
He was going to lose a full tenth of his total assets.
That was painful enough, but losing to an amateur high school boy was even worse.
"Heh heh... Heh heh heh heh heh heh..."
"N-no, wait, Miss Zashiki Warashi. We can talk this out! If humans and Youkai actually try to talk, they can get along! This was a necessary part of defeating that damn con artist, so- bgchah!?"
"Hey, Shinobu. Do you know what a Cobra Twist is? How about a Frankensteiner?"
"No, wait! You shouldn't do a move like that in a yuka- gyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!???"
As soon as she was released from the rope, the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata began performing harsh pro wrestling moves and the high school boy could do nothing to escape them. Yes, he was only a kid. Normally, he would never have been able to deceive a professional (con artist) like Kodama Ryou.
His actions and words had been as exaggerated as a theatrical performance.
Kodama Ryou should have looked at it all more rationally. The boy had made a larger lie to hide a smaller lie. It was the same as scattering spices along a path to trick the police dog's sense of smell.
It had been crudely done, but Kodama Ryou had taken it too lightly.
He had not followed through far enough to realize the boy had put together a plan where part of it was meant to be discovered.
And as a result...
(No. )
Once his thoughts reached that point, his Noh mask expression twisted.
(Something doesn't fit. He blatantly said he was going to ruin me. Was that extreme statement really only a bluff meant to throw me off his scent? What if it meant something else... ?)
Kodama Ryou lived for thrills.
When he had money, he had lots of it. When he had none, he had none at all. His scams, gambles, and art auctions were always an all-or-nothing affair and this was clearly during one of his "all" phases.
Even if that one hundred times penalty was added on, it would not take everything from him.
It would only rob him of a tenth of his money.
(There's something more. )
Sweat dripped down his face.
(He isn't done yet!! There has to be something more!!)
Suddenly, he heard a human voice.
"It doesn't seem to be the computer. There's been some strange noise on the line for a while now."
"If the payment is slowed, we'll lose the guests' trust. Hurry up and figure out what's causing it and take care of it."
The black card.
That special credit card had no credit limit.
They were having trouble during the confirmation phase.
There was some unknown noise on the line.
"A-ahh."
Kodama Ryou figured it out.
It all fit together.
There was a single way of robbing him of all his money regardless of how the game turned out.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"
He screamed at the top of his lungs and everyone's focus turned toward him. But that was the least of his worries. He ran over to the foolish casino worker, punched him in the face, and grabbed back his black card. He took it back.
After hearing the commotion, the guards in black ran over.
Kodama Ryou pointed at the blond high school boy being beaten up by the Zashiki Warashi who had been released from her glass fiber bonds.
"Skimming!! He... He was waiting for the moment when money was transferred using my unlimited black card. He was trying to steal my card number and PIN!!"
"..."
"That way he could take all of my money regardless of how the game ended!! The strange noise during the confirmation is the proof! C-c'mon, hurry. Arrest him!! Protect my money from-... !!!!"
After shouting and shouting, he suddenly trailed off.
No one – not the gallery, not the dealer, and not the guards – was listening to him. His words were reaching them, but they were not paying any attention to them. Some shrugged and some sighed.
And then the blond high school boy formed a gun with one hand while having his teary-eyed head pushed into one of the glamorous Zashiki Warashi's breasts by a headlock.
With a beautiful woman in one arm, he aimed the triumphant gesture at Kodama Ryou.
And he fired some powerful words.
"... Now you've said it."
"Ah."
"After everything is over, the loser has accused the winner of cheating.... Really? If you can't produce any proof, you'll get another one hundred times penalty. And two of those penalties on top of each other isn't two hundred times. One hundred times one hundred is ten thousand. You understand the situation, don't you?"
He was already losing a tenth of his total assets.
So if that was multiplied by one hundred...
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???"
Kodama Ryou had determined that the boy had used a large lie to hide a smaller lie.
That had not been entirely wrong.
However, he had underestimated the scale of what the blond high school boy was trying to take from him.
Part 14 (3rd person — Day 10/04 03:45 – 04:01)
Incidentally, the Youkai hiding behind the casino had done something quite simple.
Jinnai Shinobu had given them the following advice ahead of time:
"Look, it's right here. This is the wiring panel. It looks like they're using metal wires instead of fiber optic, which is lucky. This comes from money-obsessed Madoka, so it's gotta be right."
"Understood. If we tear these to shreds, it'll be a huge problem for the casino, right!? Then leave this to me and my wonderful claws!!"
"You foolish fox. The point is to interfere without damaging it."
He had then pulled out a children's toy.
"Have you heard of Fleming and his right and left hand rules?"
"Is he some important Westerner? Never heard of him!!"
"Don't look so proud of that. His right hand rule goes like this. Say a wire is passing through a spring. Well, when power passes through the wire, it creates a magnetic field around the wire. And it's based on this line."
"?"
"The flow of electricity and the surrounding magnetic field are connected. Sending electricity through creates a magnetic field and creating a magnetic field around the wire creates an electric current."
"What does that mean?"
"If you rub a powerful magnet up against it, you can disturb the signal running through the wire without cutting it. I'll secretly send you an email to tell you when to start. After the game is over, we'll give that con artist a lovely surprise."
"Let's do this!!"
"R-right! Leave it to a wet nurse tanuki like me!!"
"Hey, fox, are you sure this will work!?"
And thus the fox, tanuki, and badger interfered with the high-speed communications without leaving a mark on the cable and made Kodama Ryou suspect someone was skimming his black card's number and PIN.
But as stated, the nondestructive magnetic method had not left any obvious marks. And of course, the Youkai had left by the time the guards in black had come to investigate.
And when they found no evidence, who would their suspicions turn to?
The frightening ten thousand times penalty said it all.
Part 15 (Day 10/04 04:01 - 06:30)
"Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!"
It was time for a party!
I remembered I had yet to eat any dinner and it was somehow four in the morning already, so a party was the only answer.
Time! To! Eat!!
Afterwards, we all (although I was the only non-Youkai of the bunch) rented out the second story of a club until morning and clinked together small bottles of cider. The glass table was covered in fried chicken, French fries, pepperoncino, and other greasy foods you would never think to eat at four in the morning.
I was aware this seemed ridiculously out of place, but shockingly, this was the cheapest plan available on Goldmine Island. A tiny-little restaurant could actually be more expensive, so you could see how screwed-up the casino island's sense of money was. They didn't have any normal family restaurants or karaoke boxes.
"U-um, " nervously began the wet nurse tanuki."Should we really be doing this? The money we took from Kodama Ryou belonged to people he tricked across the country."
"Oh, it's fine, it's fine. We took as much as we could from his black card. We were at a table with a rate as high as four to five million, the Zashiki Warashi was added on top of that, and then came the fearsome ten thousand times penalty. That had to be far more than he'd ever stolen. The con artist is going to be in a hell of debt now. We can still pay everyone back after taking a bit off the top to pay for our trouble."
"Oh? If we have extra, shouldn't you give the victims back even more? For example, you could give them enough to pay for their sick granddaughter's surgery in another country."
The fox, tanuki, and badger fell silent for a while. They thought about what that meant and then silently lowered their heads.
"Stop that. We would have messed up somewhere without the information on the Usuhiki Warashi. And you were the ones that set up the final trick with the magnet, so we're even here! The Zashiki Warashi and I just need this dinner... or is it a midnight snack? Or breakfast? Anyway, we'll just eat as much as we want and then you all can return the stolen money to its rightful owners. So let's get eating and drinking!!"
That must have cleared away their worries because the celebration really started afterwards. Foxfire flew around, the tanuki got on the table and beat her stomach like a drum, and the badger was entirely focused on mixing a ton of toppings in a bowl to create a badger udon. We were all doing different things.
"You are a crazy young man. You might be better at deceiving people than us."
"Eh heh heh. It all began when I climbed the maple tree behind the house and transformed into the moon because the wife of the house was sad that it was raining on the fifteenth night."
"There's a historical play based off of us three, you know? But the director was clueless and changed the badger to a dog because he thought a badger was too confusing."
After at most five minutes, we would find ourselves unable to settle down and would raise our bottles of cider again.
"Well, I don't really get any of this, but cheers!!"
We repeated the process twenty or thirty times.
There were no problems.
We had taken all the money from Kodama Ryou, the old woman who had collapsed from worry and the sick granddaughter would have what they needed to recover, and all of the victims around the country were guaranteed all of their money back. That money had been left with an accountant Madoka knew. I didn't know the details of gift taxes and whatever else, so I could only leave that up to a specialist. And I could trust someone a friend introduced more than I could someone completely unknown.
So if there was nothing else, this would all end with the happiest ending possible.
Yes.
If there was nothing else.
Part 16 (Day 10/04 06:30 - 06:58)
".......................................................................................................................................... Ahh."
"Shinobu."
Only once the glamorous Zashiki Warashi called out to me did I realize I was resting on the glass table.
It seemed I had fallen asleep for a bit.
We had had a hell of a party, but I hadn't had any alcohol. When I thought about it, I realized I hadn't slept since the airplane ride the day before. I had forgotten thanks to the extreme tension of the poker match against Kodama Ryou, but the weariness may have rushed back as soon as that tension vanished.
The three animal Youkai were asleep on the sofa or the floor and the Zashiki Warashi pulled the smartphone from her cleavage and checked he time.
"If we don't get back to the inn soon, we might miss breakfast."
"My dad would probably get mad if I missed two meals in a row. But, ugh. Will I even have room for breakfast if we head back now?"
Sleeping a bit may have actually made things worse because I felt an oozing sense of tingling acid rising from my stomach. This was the problem with eating so much greasy food.
I slowly got up and called out to the other Youkai.
"Hey, fox, tanuki, badger. It's time to wake up. We rented the place until morning, so if we stay any longer, they'll charge us extra."
"Mh? Did I fall asleep?"
The three of them got up while rubbing their eyes and then left the club's VIP room with the Zashiki Warashi and me. There were still quite a few people on the normal dance floor. They didn't look like the type to play video games, but they seemed pretty interested in cellphone avatars. They were all discussing the VR Casino City's friend registration, costume trading, or virtual land sales.
Palm trees grew alongside the wide roads on this island, but the air was nice and chilly this early in the morning.
With the intense morning sunlight replacing the decorative casino lights, a sleepy atmosphere finally began to set in. Shiny, polished luxury sports cars drove by every now and then, but the drivers' clothing didn't match the cars. They were probably from a valet service and the actual owner was taking a limousine back to their inn with a young, drunk woman.
"I was expecting nothing but Italian and German cars on a casino island, but there's a surprising number of Japanese ones."
"That's because Japan has some of the top brands for hybrids and electric cars. Teihin's complete carbon frame car had a rush of preorders despite costing two or three hundred million yen."
"Why do you know so much about this? You downloaded a stupidly expensive racing game app in my name or something, didn't you?"
The three animal Youkai intended to leave Goldmine Island and return to Shikoku. They hadn't come as tourists, so now that Kodama Ryou had been dealt with, they wanted to get back to their owner as soon as possible.
The three of them waved their short arms (or front legs?) as they left and the Zashiki Warashi and I started for the inn on the opposite side of Goldmine Island's mountain.
"Shinobu, I'm not sure we'll make it back in time for breakfast if we walk."
"I got enough from those three to take a taxi, so we can hail a limousine if we see one."
I had thought we would find one if we waited by the major road, but all of the limousines already had customers. It seemed we had hit the rush taking people back to the inns.
The Indoor Youkai gave a disappointed sigh as the limousines drove back and forth and my cellphone suddenly began to ring from my pocket.
I pulled it out and checked the screen, but I didn't recognize the number.
"I apologize for calling so early in the morning. This is Okazaki from National Flight Airline's Lost Baggage Management Center. Is this Mr. Jinnai Shinobu?"
"Oh, yes, it is."
"I have a report concerning the baggage you lost while taking Flight 5511 yesterday. I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but your travel bag has been safely located and we would appreciate it if you could pick it up at our airport counter at your soonest convenience."
"Eh? Oh, my bag? You found it!?"
"It has already been transported to the airport, so you can pick it up immediately if you wish. Just to be certain, we will need to confirm your identity at the counter, so please bring some form of ID with you."
Some form of ID?
What would work? I don't have a motorcycle license and I didn't bring my passport since we weren't leaving the country.
"Um, would my student ID work?"
"Ah ha ha. I would need to be a little more official than that. For example, a driver's license or insurance card."
An insurance card, huh?
Does my mom have mine?
As I wondered that, I saw an electrical car moving slowly along the road.
I casually glanced over at the slow black Japanese sports car from the sidewalk.
But then my eyebrows rose.
There was no one in the driver's seat.
And before I could wonder why, the sports car seemed to swell out from within as it exploded from quite nearby.
Part 17 (Day 10/04 06:58 - 07:10)
My consciousness briefly but undeniably blanked out.
By the time I realized I had spent those few seconds in the air, I had flown two or three meters and landed on the sidewalk.
"G-gbh!? Ggah!!"
After a short delay, I heard the high-pitched sound of windows shattering on the stores lining the street.
I tried to check on the situation, but my vision kept shaking and wouldn't settle down. My arms and legs were trembling, so I couldn't get up either.
What?
What the hell is going on!?
My mind was unsteady and my senses were ruled by the strange stench of the rising smoke. It was different from gasoline. I also sensed distant screams and something like camera flashes.
And despite it all, the Zashiki Warashi in a red yukata was standing there no different from normal.
"I can't say I'm surprised that you instinctually tried to use me as a shield, Shinobu."
"Well, you're standing there triumphantly after a close-range explosion, so I'd say I made the right decision."
Even after more than ten seconds had passed, I still couldn't stand up.
I somehow managed to shake my head and got my eyes to focus.
I could tell someone was approaching us from beyond the black smoke.
Fire... fighters?
That's what I assumed since the men wore shiny silver fire-resistant suits, but a powerful tug soon reached my arm.
"Wh-what are you doing, Zashiki Warashi?"
"How long has it been since the explosion?" she asked casually."It can't have been more than a minute. Even for a small island, this was too fast. But this gives them the perfect opportunity to hide their identities while taking away the victim."
"Wait a second. You mean... ?"
"There's no time for questions."
Looking truly annoyed, the Zashiki Warashi grabbed me under each arm and started dragging me away. The supposed firefighters' shoulders twitched and they began racing toward us more quickly.
The Zashiki Warashi finally placed me over her shoulder like a sack of rice and ran into an alley-like gap between two buildings.
After turning a few corners, she crouched down behind a large metal dumpster.
Footsteps rushed away in the wrong direction.
I still couldn't move very well, but I just barely managed to move my mouth.
"Wh-what is going on?"
"I don't know. Any idea who might want to attack you?"
"Kodama Ryou? Although I'm pretty sure I could take care of him myself."
"I doubt that fallen warrior has any forces leftover."
"What about the casino? He had bribed a few of the guards in black, right? Y'know, the ones with enough of a spiritual sense to detect occult cheating."
"Oh, the perverts who put that turtle shell bondage on me. I remember that verrrrry well."
"Cough, cough!"
"But the special casino district keeps out large criminal organizations, remember?"
"Dangerous people don't have to come from outside. The casinos have a ton of money and they'll gather military might to protect it. And as their influence grows, they'll end up no different from some kind of mafia."
"Even if the casinos can be dangerous, they didn't lose anything this time. You played directly against Kodama Ryou, so they have no reason to get back that money."
"Perhaps not." I slowly sighed."Then let's think about this differently. We won a direct game against Kodama Ryou and took well over ten billion yen from him. What if someone who saw that decided they could swipe that money from the amateur who took it?"
For one thing, it was a miracle I was still alive after a car bomb went off so close by. What if that hadn't been meant to kill me? What if they were actually trying to abduct me to get my bank account number? Explaining it with malice seemed to make more sense than by calling it a coincidence or a miracle.
"That increases the number of suspects quite a bit. The staff and gallery who were in the casino itself are of course suspect, but who knows how far the rumor has spread in the hours since."
"In the worst case, we might need to suspect every single person on Goldmine Island."
I really didn't want to think about the possibility, but the fox, tanuki, and badger weren't completely above suspicion. Any one of them could have betrayed us and we had no way of proving that the entire story about the old master and sick granddaughter was true.
Fortunately, the money itself had been left with an accountant Madoka knew, so no one could steal the money even if these mystery attackers tried to get it out of me.
However, that did not guarantee I would survive.
I was completely helpless here.
"Shinobu, what are you going to do now?"
"Is it safe to use my cellphone? At any rate, I need to call my parents and meet up with them. This could cause them trouble, too."
"We can't trust the casinos on the front side of the island or the goldmine city on the back side. If you take a limousine taxi, it could easily take you somewhere up in the mountain and walking will take you through a lot of isolated places. It's going to be dangerous no matter what you do."
"There's one way."
When would strength return to my body?
I tried my best to move my limbs, but they would only tremble a bit.
"Goldmine Island is divided between the central mountain and the coastal areas and the coast is divided between the casino city and the goldmine city that contains the inns. There are only so many routes going around the mountain and it would be easy to lie in wait there. Whether by car or on foot, we'd probably be attacked."
"And?"
"We just have to make our way through the center. That huge mountain contains a goldmine, so there has to be a labyrinth of passageways through it. If we take a shortcut through those tunnels, we might be able to slip past their ambush and reach the inn."
Mysterious footsteps moved by surprisingly nearby.
It was frightening, but staying in one place would only get us caught eventually. They had to know our general location.
"Hey, Zashiki Warashi. Do you think you can carry me through the mountain?"
"I'm really thinking about leaving you here and escaping on my own."
"I really will come back to haunt you, dammit."
As the footsteps grew more distant, the Zashiki Warashi started to move out from behind the dumpster with me over her shoulder again, but we immediately gave up.
"It's no use. They'll definitely find us.
"We need to figure something out. This spot won't be safe forever."
"Wait a second."
For some reason, she reached for the lid of the metal dumpster we were hiding behind.
Did she just grab something?
All of a sudden, the Glamorous Youkai loosened her obi and began removing her yukata.
"Wait! What are- gweh!?"
Her bright white skin stabbed into my eyes and I almost cried out, but that damn Zashiki Warashi stepped on my face to cover my mouth!
"In a casino city, a red yukata and a school uniform stand out, but these fake firefighters will be looking for that stronger impression. If we alter our hairstyles and change clothes, we can leave without even trying to hide. If they see us head-on, we'll still be in trouble, but they won't know it's us from behind."
"Mghmgh... cough! Wh-what do you mean change clothes?"
The nude Zashiki Warashi swung a few small scraps of cloth around.
"A couple must have slipped back here for some sex last night because there was an abandoned bikini here."
"Wow! Why would you want to pick up something like- bgh!?"
She must have had no choice given the situation because she put on the skimpy bikini despite normally only ever wearing the kimono.
She tied bows in the side strings and I somehow managed to speak again.
"Hey, that solves it for you, but what am I supposed to do?"
"Oh? Nothing to worry about."
For some reason, a bewitching smile appeared on her face.
"I said a couple had used this spot for sex, remember? There's a men's swimsuit here too."
"... Wait."
"Sorry, but I don't think the situation leaves you with much choice."
"Wait! Wait just a- mgh!? Don't step on my face, you idiot! That discarded swimsuit scares me! It's unsanitary!! And stop that! Quit pulling off my clothes!!"
"C'mon, Shinobu. Your big sis will help you get changed, okay?"
After a humiliating five minutes, we were ready for battle.
Instead of carrying me over her shoulder, the Zashiki Warashi supported me with that shoulder like I was simply drunk.
As soon as we slowly stood up from behind the metal dumpster, I felt several gazes stabbing into my back.
"Honey, I think you drank too much."
"I want to forget everything. Where's the booze!?"
"Shout like that and it'll all come back up. C'mon, let's get back to the inn."
Even so, we couldn't stay still and we couldn't run away either. We had to slowly make our way unsteadily forward.
Fortunately, no one demanded we stop.
The Zashiki Warashi headed behind the casinos and into the mountain forest.
While the city was filled with bright lights, it had been quickly constructed for the special casino district project and the city wasn't all that wide. If one left the main road that passed through the center, it wasn't far to reach a dense forest. The forest was mostly made up of pineapple-like tropical trees that one could use to make a leaf swimsuit, but there were a few maple and gingko trees here and there. I couldn't help but notice the spots of red or yellow amid the green.
I was still supported by the Zashiki Warashi's shoulder, but I could move my fingers enough to operate my cellphone.
"It's no use. Neither of my parents is answering."
I was concerned, but worrying about it wouldn't help.
I refocused my mind and contacted someone else.
"Madoka!"
"You need help again?"
Morning or night, this eccentric beauty was always tons of help.
Or so I thought.
"Shinobu-kun, let me ask you one thing first: what have you gotten yourself into now?"
"Eh? What? Well, as I said before, I took on the con artist named Kodama Ryou and..."
"Not that." She cut me off with an awfully, awfully cold voice."I'm sorry, Shinobu-kun, but you need to back out of this. What you've gotten yourself involved in will heavily influence my territory. This will actually affect me, so if you insist on doing anything more..."
Was this really Madoka I was speaking with?
Was it possible someone had transformed into her like that one time?
I couldn't help but suspect that given her tone of voice.
"Then I will use my money and soldiers to crush you."
She hung up.
I knew this was hardly the time, but I simply stared blankly at the phone for a while. What was going on? How had Madoka ended up as my enemy?
"Shinobu."
"R-right. I can't hope for any advice from Madoka, so we'll have to get through this on our own."
"Sigh. Was there enough money involved to turn her against you?"
"Honestly, I don't even know what kind of world she lives in."
My nervous homeroom teacher had asked me to look after her, but if someone had asked me if I had made my way deep into her mind over the past few months, I would have had to answer "no". She was someone whose thought patterns I simply couldn't read. I may have done something to anger her, but there was no point in figuring out what it was now.
"What are we going to do?"
"Head for the inn using the tunnels through the mountain. Then we can meet up with my parents."
"And after that?"
The second question silenced me as I leaned on her shoulder, but I finally answered honestly.
"Do you really think I have any idea?"
Part 18 (Day 10/04 07:20 - 07:25)
By the time we set foot in the goldmine's tunnel, feeling had returned to my arms and legs. I of course decided to remove the mystery swimsuit and put back on my school uniform, but...
"Look the other way, Zashiki Warashi!"
"I have no interest in your body, so what does it matter?"
"And stop stripping right in front of me! You're not a much-older sister that only sees me as a kid!"
"I pretty much am. How many times do you think we've bathed together?"
"... I still think you should at least hide behind the rocks over there!!"
After changing, we threw away the swimsuits and finally moved deeper into the tunnel. I just hoped it would take us all the way to the opposite side of the mountain.
We continued walking through the manmade cave that was smelled strongly of dirt.
My cellphone's backlight was our only source of light. There was a row of covered lightbulbs near the tunnel ceiling, but we couldn't find a switch and we were afraid using the electricity would reveal our location.
"This isn't good. The battery's only going to last for about an hour. After that, we'll be stuck in the dark."
"Yeah, and the smartphone is nearly dead."
"If only we could find a flashlight or materials for a torch somewhere."
It was hard to believe I had been playing poker in a dazzling casino not long before.
The miners must have set up a communications antenna because my phone just barely still had a connection, so if I had wanted to, I could have played the slots in the VR Casino City or sold my avatar's old clothes in my own virtual shop.
The manmade tunnel was fairly narrow and I could touch both walls if I stretched my arms out to either side. I was also nearly hitting my head on the ceiling. There were two small rails running along the ground which I assumed were for a mine cart. The sides of the narrow hole were only reinforced by some carelessly placed logs, so I would never have wanted to go in there normally.
"It branches off all over the place."
"They probably just dug wherever they wanted without much planning. Anyway, let's follow the track on through. That should at least avoid wandering around in circles."
An Intellectual Village was a system that achieved massive profits by turning the rural into a brand name.
The value of pure gold was determined internationally, so I didn't see much point in making a brand name out of its source. Still, there were exceptions even there.
In addition to weight and percentage, it seemed some extra value could be added to a ring based on where the gold had come from. As could be seen in legends from around the world, it wasn't unusual to find the idea of "special gold" (although it tended to take the form of harmful cursed gold), so this was less about creating a new way of thinking and more about recalling an older way of thinking. If it caught on, it could easily spread around the world in no time.
Even so-called "pure" gold was technically only 99. 99... 9% pure and 100% pure gold didn't exist, so it seemed research was being done to determine the source of the gold based on a detailed examination of the remaining components.
I remembered Madoka actually sounding pretty shaken because creating different grades of gold would throw the financial markets into chaos.
Madoka...
"What is it, Shinobu?"
"Nothing. Let's just get out of here and meet up with my parents at the inn. I'm sure they have some work to do here, but safeguarding our lives comes first. If we can't trust anyone on the island, it would be best to escape outside the island."
As I spoke, we walked deeper and deeper down the tunnel.
The cellphone's backlight only dimly illuminated the area around my hand, so I couldn't even see the ground clearly. I naturally ended up keeping a hand on the wall as I walked, but the damp stone and dirt was not a pleasant sensation. My fingers sometimes felt something similar to rubber or plastic, so I looked over and saw thick cables running along the rugged stone.
I thought nothing of it at first, but then I looked back.
"What is this? Why's there a cable here?"
As I had said, the cellphone was the only source of light. The cable didn't seem connected to the tunnel's lightbulbs or fluorescent lights and I hadn't seen a fan blowing fresh air into the stale tunnel.
In that case, what was the cable powering?
Unpleasant questions floated up in the back of my mind like bubbles in a rotten swamp. The sticky bubbles slowly grew, stuck together, and filled my entire head.
I felt like this was something I could not afford to overlook.
It seemed to lead to some fatal conclusion.
Yes.
That's right.
How were we attacked after our victory in the casino? An unmanned car packed with explosives.... But who could easily bring something so dangerous into the casino city?
"This is bad, Zashiki Warashi."
"?"
"Really bad!! The bomb came from this mine!! That means we didn't escape here of our own free will. We were attacked by a blatant car bomb and then the firefighters approached so slowly. They intentionally guided us to the goldmine where there are no witnesses so they could finish us off on their own turf. In that case, this cable must be-... !!"
I never finished my explanation.
Before I could, a deafening explosion filled my vision with dirt and dust.
Part 19 (Day 10/04 07:29 - 07:50)
"... Ugh..."
I opened my eyes to find nothing but darkness.
I couldn't tell whether I had simply had my eyes closed or if I had been knocked unconscious for a long period of time.
This wasn't like the earlier car bomb. A strange sense of pressure assaulted me from every direction.
I patted across my upper body with both hands. I could move my limbs and I could breathe. As I gradually gathered information, I could feel the uneasy pressure gradually soften. At the very least, I didn't seem to have been buried alive. However, the scent of dirt was even stronger than before and it felt a little difficult to breathe, although I couldn't tell whether that was an issue of oxygen levels or my own mental state.
Light.
Where's the light? Where's my cellphone???
I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, so I felt up ahead while crawling. I quickly ran into the wall and the limited space just about made me cry. My heart was about to break, so I scolded myself and continued working. Finally, I felt some plastic.
"There it is."
My trembling fingers felt across the slight bumps to operate the buttons.
The faint backlight seemed quite bright now.
"This is awful, " I muttered without thinking.
Just a few meters ahead, the tunnel had collapsed. A wall of stone and dirt completely filled the tunnel and there was obviously no chance of digging through by hand.
Then again, when I looked the other way, I only found more dirt. The overwhelming amounts got my legs trembling. There was less than ten meters of free space left. I could not continue on or turn back and I doubted there were any ways out along the walls.
The dirt hadn't come down on my head, but this was no different from being closed in a large coffin.
I didn't know how long the air would last.
What was I supposed to do?
I was at a loss, so I meaninglessly pointed the backlight here and there. But in all three hundred and sixty degrees, I found nothing but wet dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, and a figure in a yukata.
"... !!!???"
As soon as she entered my field of vision, I thought my mind was going to explode.
She was crouched down with her back to the wall and her long hair hid her face.
For an instant, I thought she was a cursed doll, but it was actually the glamorous Zashiki Warashi.
However...
I could only hear one person breathing inside this small, sealed space. Her hair, clothing, and fingertips were stained with unpleasant dirt, but she did not so much as twitch.
She didn't look like a living being.
She seemed as unreal as an eerie shadow caught in the corner of a photograph.
It was as if...
As if...
"Hey."
I sank down to the ground and opened my mouth without thinking.
"Please stop that.... Please just stop it."
Mine was the only voice. There was no response.
It truly felt like I was the only one there. Was that figure really composed of matter? Her presence was so faint, I doubted even that.
Finally, her white fingertip moved ever so slightly as she sat with her back to the wall.
She wrote something in the dirt: try not to waste the air.
Oh, so that's why.
She technically didn't need water or food and this explained why she seemed so inanimate.
I scratched at my head, realized my hand was covered in dirt, and clicked my tongue.
"Don't worry about it. It's hopeless either way. Whether we die here or someone shows up to rescue us, we still lost. For one thing, I think this situation is exactly what they had planned."
I heard the woman in a yukata move her head a little.
She had likely tilted it to indicate confusion.
"If someone does come to save us, who do you think will show up first? Firefighters or a rescue team, right? And that's how they were dressed. After burying us alive, they'll be the ones to dig us up. They set it all up themselves, but it gives them the perfect opportunity to abduct someone while the public watches on. So we're beat. Even if we know it's coming, we can't escape it."
The mine was likely rigged with explosives at set intervals. No matter what path we had taken, they would have detonated the tunnel ahead of and behind us to trap us in a cage of dirt.
"We've lost, but at least that means they'll dig us out. So don't worry about the air, Zashiki Warashi. Discussing what's to come is more important."
At that point, a clear change entered the darkness: I heard someone exhale.
It looked like a switch had been thrown as the creepy woman returned to being a good-for-nothing indoor Youkai. Saying her heart resumed beating or breath returned to her lungs seemed to fit perfectly. And now that she was "back", the cold dirt cell gained the life and familiarity of a school classroom.
"Honestly, why do I have to get caught up in this nonsense?"
"Don't ask me."
"Just to be sure, Shinobu, they'll let me go if I hand you over, right?"
"This really might be the last time we see each other, so how about we have a nice intimate goodbye?"
But realistically, was there anything we could do?
The car bomb and the explosives set up inside the tunnel had probably come from this goldmine, so the miners were the most likely suspects.
But that was all we knew.
What would they do after digging us out? It seemed likely they wanted the billions of yen we'd taken from Kodama Ryou, but that had been left with Madoka's accountant and we couldn't withdraw a single yen of it ourselves. But would they accept that? And if not, what would they do with us?
If they took us somewhere, we would probably be bound, so was there any chance of turning this around, any way to escape, or any way to contact the authorities?
"Shinobu."
As I explained my thinking, the Zashiki Warashi cut in.
"Doesn't that seem odd, though?"
"What? How exactly is it odd?"
"Your premise is that someone heard about your win in the casino and attacked to take that money."
What was she talking about?
What other possible reason could someone have to attack?
"That may be a perfectly good reason to attack, but doesn't this seem too elaborate? Unlike blades or blunt weapons, it takes a lot of effort to handle explosives safely. Where did they get the car? What about the firefighters' special fire-resistant suits? How many hours must it have taken to place explosives at set intervals through the mine?"
"..."
"And it's only been a few hours since you won in the casino. You would have a hard time simply finding tightlipped accomplices in that time, so they couldn't have put together an actual plan yet."
Could you look at it that way?
It was true that it seemed rather intricate for a sudden and impulsive attack. After all, they couldn't have known exactly where we would run. They would have needed to seal off our other options to ensure checkmate even if we hadn't escaped into the mine.
How much preparation, manpower, and time would it have taken to accomplish all of that?
If they had just decided to attack as soon as they caught scent of the money, they would only have had to put on a mask and attack with a metal pipe in one hand.
"Wait a minute. Then who attacked us?"
"Do you really think I know that?"
"They at least went to the effort of burying us alive to get us to do something, but I can't think of anything else worth all that other than the casino money!"
"We probably can't even come up with a countermeasure unless we figure out what they're after. Holding a shield up in the wrong direction will just get you stabbed in the side."
I heard a dull thud and instinctually looked over. I could tell the thick wall of dirt was crumbling a little. I heard something like giant gears turning and it gradually grew louder.
"Dammit."
I instinctually looked to the Zashiki Warashi.
What if? What if they truly weren't attacking because of the casino incident? What if my very first assumption had been wrong?
Then it was possible I wasn't their target at all.
There was someone else here.
It was entirely possible they had been after the Zashiki Warashi all along!
With a dull sound, something like a metal stake covered in lots of spikes broke through.
The dirt wall was being removed, but I didn't feel the slightest happiness at being rescued and allowed out.
Hands reached in. All I saw were hands, hands, hands.
I'm sure I shouted something then, but the men in shiny fire-resistant suits didn't react in the slightest. The shields protecting their faces hid their expressions from view and they threatened me by pushing forward a rotating blade that measured over a meter long.
And the hands were reaching for someone else.
I saw the Zashiki Warashi grabbed by the many hands and forced to her feet. Youkai were much stronger than humans. While she looked slender, she could probably literally kick them around despite how outnumbered she was.
But it was obvious why she obeyed them: the blade drill pushed up against my chest!
She glanced over at me just once, but she said nothing, faced forward again, and was tugged out through the hole.
She was taken away.
She disappeared from view.
"Dammit..."
As the Zashiki Warashi was dragged on ahead, the men dressed as firefighters left the tunnel, one by one. Once only the one pressing the weapon to my chest remained, he tossed a small memo my way.
It contained eleven numbers.
It was a cellphone number.
After I was finally left alone and still covered in dirt, I made my way back the way I had come. I didn't run across anyone all the way to the bright entrance. They may have already taken the Zashiki Warashi out or they may have taken a different path through the spider web of tunnels to head to the other side of the island.
I was out of hints.
I had no idea whatsoever where the Zashiki Warashi was.
"Goddammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!"
It was a sunny day and I shouted into the clear blue sky at the top of my lungs.
There was of course no answer.
Part 20 (Day 10/04 08:00 - 08:15)
I had always thought that Youkai did nothing of value.
I had always thought she shirked her duties as a Zashiki Warashi.
But she would never have been captured if she had not tried to save my life. She should have been able to escape on her own, but she had obeyed them to let me get away.
"..."
I slapped my cheeks and focused myself.
Moping around wasn't going to help. I was the only one that knew what had happened and I was the only one who could do anything, so if I did nothing, no one could save that Zashiki Warashi.
They had given me a phone number before leaving.
They wouldn't have done that for no reason, so I dialed my cellphone with my muddy fingers.
"That was surprisingly quick."
It was a male voice... I thought.
It had clearly been mechanically altered, so I couldn't rely on how it sounded.
"I thought your panic would last a little longer or you would go crying to your parents or the police."
A strange scraping noise accompanied the voice.
Was it fingernails?
It wasn't quite the sound of biting them, so the person may have had a habit of scratching the plastic body of the phone.
"Youkai have no rights, " I explained."They can't be accused of a crime even if they kill someone, but that also means they don't benefit from any other social services. Even if they're abducted in broad daylight, the police can't do anything about it. After all, they aren't human."
And if the police couldn't do anything, talking to my parents wouldn't help either.
One's parents were reliable, but they weren't all powerful. Everyone knew that by the time they entered middle school.
"How wise of you. But it may be one of your strong points that you don't make that sound coldhearted."
"I know you didn't just want to chat. What do you want me to do?"
"I'm glad you understand. That way I won't have to explain or demonstrate that we have a method of killing Youkai."
A squeezing ache filled my chest.
If he had been standing in front of me when he said that, I might have torn out his windpipe with my teeth.
Kodama Ryou and the casino had used a special rope to bind the Zashiki Warashi. They had crushed a stone mill to powder, placed it in a furnace, and created a special glass fiber rope. It had likely been made for the Usuhiki Warashi, a subspecies, but if they used it on her...
If they created a blade or bullet out of the stone mill glass fiber...
"Our instructions are simple. Obey them and we will release the Zashiki Warashi. And simple as they are, this is something only you can do. Can we count on you?"
If this is their true objective, does that mean they aren't even after the Zashiki Warashi?
No, I need to assume something else might be underway at the same time.
"What do you want?"
"Your travel bag that ended up as lost baggage. Pick it up at the airport counter and bring it to us."
"What?"
At first, I didn't understand.
They didn't want the money I'd won at the casino or the Zashiki Warashi that had supported our Intellectual Village house for so long. Why were they so fixated on a student's luggage? They had even used explosives and firefighter suits, which weren't easy to get your hands on.
"I won't ask you again."
"Wait, wait! What do you want with that suitcase? There's nothing much in there. In fact, I think the suitcase itself might be the most valuable part. So... !!"
"We are not here to answer questions. Pick up your bag and call us again once you leave the airport."
"But I'm covered in mud!! If I head to the reception counter like this, they'll definitely be suspicious. If you want me to do this for you, then compromise at least a little!!"
"Then stop by your inn for a change of clothes."
"So you're fine with my parents stopping me after they see me like this? And how am I supposed to explain the Zashiki Warashi's absence?"
"You can buy new clothes."
"They don't sell clothes in a casino city. Or do you think they wouldn't suspect a thing if I showed up at the airport dressed as a bunny girl?"
I heard him click his tongue and the scratching on the cellphone's body continued.
After some time to think, he replied.
"There are some coin lockers in Building A at the airport. Open #0934 and take what is inside."
"A coin locker? So where do I get the key?"
"#0934 won't be locked. It will contain the key to another locker. Use that to open the other locker, which will hold a change of clothes."
"Understood."
"Now, listen. We won't give you anything more than that. If you don't pick up your bag, you will never see your Zashiki Warashi again."
"I get it!!"
I hung up and had some things to do.
The first of course was picking up my suitcase. They obviously wouldn't have gone to all this trouble to steal some kid's clothes and handheld game system, so there had to be some kind of secret. Without knowing what they were after, I couldn't figure out what their Achilles' heel was. I needed to find it, use it as a shield, and take back the Zashiki Warashi.
Secondly, someone would be putting some clothes in the airport coin locker soon. If I could capture them and get some information from them that they didn't want me to know, then I could throw a wrench in their plans.
I was prepared to use any means necessary.
Part 21 (Day 10/04 08:23 - 08:37)
I was covered in dirt and only had a bit of change.
I couldn't use a taxi like that and I didn't care what people thought about me at this point, so I ran full speed toward the floating airport connected to the island. Fortunately, Goldmine Island was small. All of the facilities were packed in enough that you could get anywhere on foot so long you didn't wear yourself out.
Or so it should have been.
"... Gh..."
My legs wobbled and tripped.
I couldn't even run properly.
I had barely had any sleep since the previous day, I had consumed tons of food and drink with no thought about the consequences, my head had been shaken by an explosive blast (even if they had been holding back), I had been buried alive, and I had undergone the mental shock of having the Zashiki Warashi taken from me before my eyes.
It had all come together at once.
But that was no excuse. The situation was already underway. If I didn't catch them putting the items in the lockers, I couldn't get a step ahead of them. If I just did what they said and followed the rails they had laid out for me, I might not get the Zashiki Warashi back.
"Uuh..."
My vision blurred.
I felt dizzy, so I leaned up against a nearby streetlight and tried to catch my breath. The sweat on my brow felt oddly cold.
I was starting to feel anemic and my weakness started snowballing out of control.
Even if I did reach the airport, what could I even do? I was only a high school boy and I was alone. Could I really spot the suspicious person in a large cloud? How many people used the coin lockers? It was possible there would be more than one enemy there and they could have been monitoring my every move. What could I do? Was there anything I could do besides obeying them?
That wasn't being logical. I was simply giving up.
I shook my head and gathered my strength to start moving again.
And as I almost collapsed forward, something soft supported my head.
It was a young woman's breasts.
"U-um, what are you doing? You look awfully pale."
"Wah!?"
I moved away so quickly I almost fell backwards, but the woman only looked confused.
A closer look showed she wore a maid uniform with a miniskirt and her short hair was dyed in a mesh of black and brown. The breasts I had buried my face in were quite large. I naturally didn't know anyone on Goldmine Island, so I could only imagine she was some kind person who had called out to me because I didn't look well. Her outfit was strange, but in a city where bunny girls roamed the streets, that didn't seem to matter.
However, the woman gave me a troubled look.
"Oh, dear. It's me."
"?"
"I am the wet nurse tanuki."
Part 22 (Day 10/074 08:45 - 08:55)
Based on what the tanuki told me, it seemed the fox, tanuki, and badger had snuck into Goldmine Island by stowing away aboard a luxury cruise ship. They had intended to leave the same way, but none of the ships left until past noon and they had nothing else to do until then.
"The best method is to sneak into the cargo hold in our small animal forms and then transform into humans. They check on the cargo hold from time to time, but after checking people's tickets when they board, they don't suspect anyone onboard. They assume there is no way to slip past the gate."
There seemed to be different conditions for each one, but these three filled in the details of their transformations by walking through human civilization and blending in. They were apparently in the middle of doing that now.
"At any rate, this is great. I think luck has seriously turned my way."
"Oh, um, what?"
"Can you contact the fox and badger? I could use some help right now, so could you do something for me?"
The other two arrived before long.
The fox looked like the kind of athletic young man who would be chosen as a world cup representative and the badger looked like a cool, perfectly-proportioned prince with silky blond hair and a dark suit.
I-I know it isn't surprising Youkai all end up so attractive since they can freely take on any design they imagine, but could you please stop making visuals where I blend into the background! It's depressing!!
After I explained the details, the soccer player, the maid, and the prince began ruining their attractive aura by speaking with their usual voices.
"H-how dastardly!! If they are going to kidnap that poor Zashiki Warashi for a mere travel bag, I must punish them!!"
"Leave it to wet nurse like me. We owe you for saving our family, so I am more than willing to help."
"Fear not, boy. We were already feeling bad about leaving the island without doing anything to repay you."
Oh, c'mon!! Everything they say sounds like it's straight out of a puppet show, but I'm being overwhelmed by their sparkling good looks! I want to punch them so bad since I'd settled for the comedian route where I win girls over with my conversational skills instead of my looks!!
"So what are we supposed to do? I'm ready to tear apart those ruffians with my splendid claws!"
"No, no. The proper way to handle ruffians has always been to stuff them in a pot for dinner. Leave it all to a wet nurse like me."
"Heh heh heh. I'm starting to remember the flavor of blood that the old lady banned."
"Wait, wait, you idiots. Yeah, all three of you!! If you talk about stuffing people in a pot for dinner when you look like that, you sound like legit criminals! That's not what I was asking. Can we start by thinking of a way to rescue the Zashiki Warashi?"
The perfectly-proportioned idiots gave me looks that asked what we were supposed to do, so I suggested an impromptu plan.
"For example, what about this?"
Yes.
I was no longer alone. With four people, my options were bound to grow.
Part 23 (3rd person — Day 10/04 09:00 - 09:10)
Several men and women were hidden within the crowd of people inside Goldmine Island's floating airport.
They had wireless microphones on their sleeves and stun guns, knives, and handguns hidden in their pockets.
"Target confirmed. Just as mentioned in the 'discussion' that dirt stands out a little too much."
After seeing a blond boy in dirty clothes enter the airport's front entrance, a man spoke as he leaned against a pillar.
"There's no sign of anyone else, so he appears to be alone as planned."
After confirming that the boy disappeared into the corridor leading to Building A, the man stepped away from the pillar and slowly followed the boy while pulling a rolling suitcase behind him.
The outer wall was made of glass to allow the morning sun in, but an oddly dangerous atmosphere filled the building.
"He isn't taking any detours on the way and he doesn't seem to be contacting anyone by phone."
The blond boy was on his way to the coin lockers in Building A.
After picking up some new clothes there, he was supposed to stop by the lost baggage management counter.
Since he showed no sign of trying anything, it seemed he was too exhausted and nervous to put together a plan. The man felt this was a good sign.
"The target has arrived at Building A's coin lockers. He has picked up the clothes. He will probably stop by somewhere to change, presumably the restroom. I can only watch the exit from the outside for that."
As he spoke under his breath, the man began pursuing the blond boy again.
And then...
"Hi, there."
He suddenly heard a voice from behind.
It was the voice of the blond boy he was supposed to be monitoring.
"Wha-... !?"
He frantically turned around, but a hand grabbed his collar before he could do anything. The other hand reached toward his belt and he felt something being pulled out. His back was then slammed into the row of lockers with tremendous force.
As he gasped for breath, the man saw the familiar blond boy in front of him.
After fierce laughter, the boy spoke.
"Surprised?"
The boy held a knife and the man recognized it as the one he had carried.
The tip of the blade gently stroked the man's stomach.
"What... is... ?"
Cornered, the man looked back and forth between the boy right in front of him and the identical boy walking cluelessly away with his change of clothes.
Then the one holding his collar spoke.
"That's the wet nurse tanuki."
Part 24 (3rd person — Day 10/04 09:15 - 09:33)
Jinnai Shinobu walked down the airport corridor with his arm still around the shoulders of a man in a cheap suit. After a while, they reached a metal door. It was a janitor's supply closet and it opened from the inside after Jinnai Shinobu knocked lightly. However, it was not a person who poked their head out; it was a fox walking on its hind legs.
"Get in, " said Shinobu.
He shoved on the man's back, causing him to fall on the floor and knock over a pile of boxes filled with cleaning supplies, but the man was focused on the knife in the boy's hand.
"I won't talk."
Jinnai Shinobu and the fox ignored him, searched through his suit and checked each pocket.
They spoke to each other while ignoring their hostage.
"Here's his ID. His name is Emura Ryouichi. Looks like he's a local."
"He doesn't have much in his wallet. Should we check the suitcase, too?"
Having one's name found out created a certain type of fear.
That meant the danger could extend beyond this single incident. It opened up the possibility of revenge a year or even a decade later.
"I won't talk!! Have you forgotten that we have a hostage!?"
The two continued ignoring him.
"I recorded his voice, so check over it. You can get by as long as you memorize his speech mannerisms, right?"
"A video would have been best. Well, if I check over his build, I can guess pretty well how he carries himself when he walks."
To Emura Ryouichi, something seemed off about this conversation.
He had not been brought out of the public eye so they could take cruel revenge or to get him to tell them everything he knew.
They had other plans.
"In that case, fox, transform into him right away."
"So I transform into the enemy and pretend to have captured you to infiltrate them further? Of course, it won't be me that the organization ends up hunting down as a traitor."
Part 25 (3rd person — Day 10/04 09:33 - 09:40)
Unsurprisingly, the other members noticed what had happened.
For one thing, they had been keeping close contact with Emura Ryouichi by radio, so all of the other members heard the entire conversation.
"Satou, Suzuki! They're in Building A's equipment storage room. Take care of this before airport security catches on!!"
They were panicked, but not because they cared about Emura.
If Jinnai Shinobu shut himself up in there, they would have no way to access the lost suitcase. And if he was taken into protective custody, his luggage would be recovered by the police. Either way, the "item" hidden in the suitcase would escape their grasp again.
"What do we do about the one who took the clothes? The one they called a wet nurse tanuki."
"Leave her. I'm sure they'll ask some questions to ensure his identity in addition to checking his ID. The questions will be random, so a tanuki pretending to be him won't be able to answer them."
They would settle this before anyone noticed, so three men and women arrived in front of the metal door to check.
"Threaten him with your guns and knives. While he's focused on those, I'll zap him with my stun gun. Listen. Don't spill any blood. That could prevent him from picking up the bag."
They did not think this would be a difficult fight.
Their only worry was going too far and killing their opponent.
The three of them prepared their weapons and then kicked down the metal door.
And when they looked inside, they could not believe their eyes.
They saw two blond boys.
"Kh."
They could not immediately tell which was the real one, so they made a quick decision.
"Get both of them!!"
With that shout, a woman charged toward the Jinnai Shinobu on the right. She pressed her stun gun against his thigh and hit the switch with her thumb.
She heard a loud zap, but she did not feel the attack land.
White smoke spread out and the boy transformed into a fox with a comical sound effect. To escape the stun gun's electrodes, the Youkai fled toward the open exit while occasionally tripping.
"Don't worry about him!!" shouted the woman."Capture the true-... !!"
She trailed off because she saw a round tanuki slipping between the arms of the men grabbing at the Jinnai Shinobu on the left.
Both of them had been wrong.
In which case, where was the real Jinnai Shinobu?
"Dammit!! Was the first one who took the clothes the real one!?"
Part 26 (Day 10/04 09:40 - 09:52)
"Now, just to be sure, can you tell me your blood type?"
"AB. Thanks."
After going through the necessary steps, I was at long last reunited with my suitcase. It was plastered with stickers of countless sizes, so there was no mistaking it.
I had been worried about my ID, but opening my cell and showing them the page displaying the monthly details was enough. They wouldn't have accepted that normally, but they were probably more flexible with lost baggage since it was their mistake.
"Now, then."
At the very least, I had avoided a scenario where I was killed as soon as I took the suitcase.
I had made it to the next phase and I still had a chance to save the Zashiki Warashi, but this didn't exactly guarantee my safety.
I had tried to throw them off my trail to a certain extent, but I didn't know how many more were inside the airport. For the time begin, I dragged the suitcase out of the airport building.
Once I entered the roundabout, I saw a familiar face.
It was the middle-aged driver of that white limousine taxi.
"Oh, what's this? You look a lot more confident than yesterday. Did you win some at the casinos? Then how about driving on out to a beach filled with girls?"
"This isn't Hawaii and I'm not about to go swimming in the ocean during October."
"Well, I don't know if it's due to rising sea levels or what, but I hear the beaches have been getting smaller recently. Still, the casino city has a fully-indoor artificial beach. It runs year round like a ski slope in a desert."
"Oh, yeah. Someone had left some swimsuits lying around."
As I spoke, I climbed into the crazy-luxurious vehicle.
"Wait just a sec, " said the driver while messing with his cellphone."I've gotta log out."
I frowned.
"Oh, are you on the VR casino? Do you play the slots when you're bored?"
"Of course not. I'd be broke in no time if I did that. The VR Casino City lets you make an avatar and buy a house or a shop. Just by putting your avatar's old clothing up for sale, you'll automatically get some virtual money."
He finally stuck the phone in his pocket and smiled as he answered.
The limousine worked for me since it gave me the space to open the suitcase and it prevented anyone from grabbing it.
"Where to today?
"Just drive me around."
"Wow, you've gotta be rich to say that. Did you really hit it big?"
While wildly setting off in the limousine taxi, the driver spoke casually to me.
"But be careful. Winning too much in a casino city isn't always a fun thing. It can also earn you a lot of resentment."'
"You mean a loser will stab me in the back?"
I kept the conversation going while pulling a small key from my wallet. It was for the suitcase.
The driver occasionally glanced back at me through the rearview mirror.
"It's not just that. The locals won't like you either."
"?"
"Wait, really? You hadn't noticed? Just to be clear, I'm not a local. I came here looking for work."
He gave a deep laugh.
"In a casino city, all the brightly-lit buildings are built by outside corporations. I hear the truly local people really lose out in the deal."
"But the inns and mine on the other side of the island make a lot of money, right? And aren't the tours of the ruins popular?"
"Are you serious? While the locals do own the mine, outsiders from big companies ended up taking the mining rights by offering to lend them younger workers to keep the burden off the older locals. They tried to turn a remote island into an Intellectual Village, but they failed to keep control from the very beginning. All of the people born and raised on Goldmine Island only get a tiny fraction of the profit."
"..."
"For a while now, the locals have been saying they suddenly couldn't mine any gold anymore. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that, though."
"Hm?"
"It seems work ships have been stopping in the harbor quite a bit and that they're always loaded with a bunch of dirt that must have come from somewhere. The island's miners claim it's illegal mining and they suspect the casinos are digging up the island without giving even the bare minimum of notification."
"But they aren't actually running across new tunnels while working, right? Even if the casinos are digging somewhere, I don't think it would change what the locals find in their usual mining spots."
"Yeah, but when you hate someone, you hate everything about them. I mentioned the beaches shrinking due to rising sea levels, remember?"
"What about it?"
"The locals are blaming the casinos for that too. They claim all the electricity the casinos use is creating a bunch of carbon dioxide and advancing global warming."
Well, yeah...
"That isn't exactly wrong..."
"Gather enough dust and you'll have a mountain, it's true. But this little island alone isn't going to affect the beaches. Unfortunately, the locals don't really care about that kind of consistency. They refuse to forgive the people running the casinos or the guests who win a ton of money there. If you don't want to get caught up in some kind of trouble, you shouldn't show off even if you do win."
So there was friction between the outside companies and the locals.
It wasn't necessarily directly related to the problem I was facing, but it couldn't hurt to know about the local power games.
And as I thought about that, I inserted the small key in the suitcase's keyhole and unlocked it.
I found my vacation funds in an envelope, a few days' worth of clothes, a handheld game system, a few games, an electric razor, my cellphone's charger, and my nice underwear. I checked through it all, but I didn't see anything someone would want badly enough to break the law. In fact, there was nothing in there I didn't recognize.
"... ?"
I packed it all up again.
Even if they were planning to slip something suspicious into someone's suitcase, would they really unlock it and throw whatever it was inside? That seemed like too much effort for getting it in and back out again.
But my suitcase didn't have any external pockets.
I locked it again and felt across its outside surface.
"Wait."
I checked more carefully. Specifically, I began peeling off the countless stickers plastered all over it.
They all ripped as I pulled them off, except for one that came off as smoothly as a brand new sticker from its backing.
And something was hidden on the underside.
To prevent it from being crushed, they had carved a perfectly-sized groove in the side of the suitcase and a device about the size of a cheap lighter had been hidden inside the groove.
It was a USB memory stick with a red, translucent body.
"Is this it?"
Instead of a label, it had a small scrap of Japanese paper attached and serpentine writing seemed to slither along the surface. The writing was so sloppy that I couldn't tell what it said, but I knew someone wanted it so badly that they were willing to use explosives and threats.
It would clearly act as a trump card.
I held up the USB memory stick and glared at it for a while, but I couldn't see what was on it with a simple cellphone. I ended up sticking it in my pocket.
That was when my cellphone rang.
I answered the call from an unfamiliar number and was immediately greeted with the following words:
"Have you forgotten we have a hostage?"
"Not at all, and that's why I felt the need for a plan. But thanks to that, I now hold what you want."
"Then I wonder what we should do. Perhaps we should sever one of the hostage's arms to prove we really can kill a Youkai."
"I think burning an electronic device would be much easier, " I said in an intentionally low voice."I don't know what this is, but it's obviously important to you. If I melt it down, you can't fix it just by cooling it in the fridge. If you don't want it to go to waste, then I'd stop looking down on me like that."
The man on the phone fell silent for a while.
The sound of a scratching fingernail continued the entire time.
It lasted a few seconds or maybe around a dozen.
Finally, he responded.
"Do as you wish."
That was all. He even hung up.
As I stared at the cell phone screen, the driver's voice reached me.
"Hey, we just entered the casino city, so where do you want to go now? Should I just take you around to the other side of the island?"
"No, let me off here, " I said."I'll pay you some extra, so take my suitcase to the Gold Crane."
I added an extra banknote as I paid and left the limousine taxi. I was in the same spot as the earlier car bombing. It was definitely dangerous, but anywhere would be dangerous on such a small island.
My mind focused on the crinkling of the old Japanese paper in my pocket.
That USB memory stick was my only lifeline.
Depending on how I used it, all of my efforts would pay off or be for nothing. It was the deciding factor.
"Now, then."
For a change of pace, I walked back behind a certain casino. The fox, tanuki, badger, and I had previously arranged to meet up here afterwards. It was the alley behind the casino where I had defeated Kodama Ryou.
By the time I got there, the fox and tanuki were already waiting.
"Where's the badger?"
"I doubt he was captured. No human can outrace us once we reach the mountains."
The normally-hesitant tanuki looked completely nonchalant as she said that, so it didn't seem to be a bluff. I couldn't sit still here and it looked like continuing on was my only option.
"What are we going to do now?" asked the fox.
"I found this."
| ← Ch. 33 | Ch. 35 → |