Asi Hell - Capítulo 16
Next, open the lid of the book on your back.
"Quickly summon the Imperial Guardian to descend upon this place and repel the demons!"
The man then knelt on one knee in front of the toilet and loudly chanted a spell in an incomprehensible foreign language.
Then he shouted again and slammed the lid of the bamboo basket shut.
Lai Zi didn't want to watch any longer, so he gently closed the paper door and crawled into bed.
He's a fraud. That man is definitely a fraud. My mother was probably tricked by Sasakawa into going to that madman's house. What good can doing these strange things every Friday night do? My mother is too stupid to think she can rely on that fraudster.
He's a complete idiot.
Lai Zi didn't want to see or hear anything, pulling the quilt tightly over herself. At the same time—she could imagine what her foolish mother and the others would say next. Perhaps that crazy man would open the paper door and come in; whatever he was, she just hoped he would go back soon.
Can a ghost breed in the emptiness of one's heart? I remember he just said that. Mother said Kanako is a ghost. So, will that man also put Raiko's Kanako into the little box on his back?
We can't let him take it.
Anyway, these weirdos can't handle Kanako.
but--
Add vegetable seeds to her.
Is Kanako still alive?
The voice I didn't want to hear reached my ears. It was my mother's voice.
"My daughter, please also subdue the evil spirits that haunt my daughter."
"Kunzhi, calm down!"
"My daughter, my daughter is a demon too. That girl—"
"Don't rush, it's important to pacify this house first. The evil spirits that were luring into this house have already been subdued and sealed away by the God of the House. Come back to worship another day, after you've changed your life."
"But...but..."
What were they saying? Lai Zi is also a demon? What exactly is a demon?
—What do you mean you won't get old? What nonsense are you spouting! People who don't get old aren't even human!
—It's either a ghost or a monster.
Monsters don't grow old. If what Mother said is true, then Raiko and Kanako might really be monsters.
If Kanako and I hadn't gone to see the lake back then, I wonder what would have happened now? And will the man carrying the suitcase come into the room later?
Contrary to expectations, no one entered Lai Zi's room. Lost in thought, Lai Zi drifted off to sleep.
The next day, the entrance hall was firmly sealed off. Not only was it extremely inconvenient in daily life, but it also made Lai Zi feel very ashamed, as if his family had run away in the middle of the night, or as if their property had been seized.
The toilet also contained a huge stove and strange boxes. And now, on the back door, the only entrance, there was a shimonogatari (a type of rope, shaped like a large hemp rope with diamond-shaped paper strips tied at intervals at the bottom, symbolizing the boundary between the sacred and the evil, commonly found around shrines or statues of gods, and hung in the entrance hall during the New Year to ward off evil and pray for good fortune).
My mother said that doing this would bring happiness—quite the opposite; she became more anxious and haggard than before, and her ugliness reached its peak. My mother hardly worked at all.
Aside from preparing three meals a day, he spends more and more time sitting still. At the slightest sound, he immediately looks around in fright. A pile of terrifying doll heads, like ghosts, sits in the corner of the room.
Seeing his mother, who was always afraid, Lai Zi's disgust reached its peak.
That's terrible.
Whether she scolds me or encourages me, makes me cry or yells at me, it doesn't matter. No, even being beaten would be much better than this situation. My mother should just die; she's despicable, stupid, and utterly ugly.
Lai Zi didn't want to see his mother like this, so he stopped leaving his room. He thought it would be nice to go for a walk, but he couldn't think of anywhere to go. During the day, the summer sun was scorching outside. And at night, his mother strictly forbade him from going out, so even if he wanted to escape, he couldn't. This near-house arrest continued for several more days.
Lai Zi decided to go to a coffee shop for a while.
I want to hear that foreign music again.
I want to read literary magazines.
Lai Zi decided to do this on August 31st, the last day of summer vacation, which happened half a month after the incident.
Entering the empty living room, he saw his mother, as always, slumped alone in the center of the room. As always, she looked at Lai Zi with her bloodshot, cloudy eyes.
"School starts tomorrow."
Lai Zi tried his best to speak in a flat, emotionless tone.
"Is that so?"
The mother replied in a completely indifferent tone; this was a typical mother-daughter conversation where communication was impossible.
"I want to buy notebooks and pencils, give me the money."
Lai Zi said. After a silence that was both brief and too long, the mother replied:
"Hmm, that makes sense. Wait a minute."
Without saying another word, he staggered to his feet and left through the back door.
What a woman!
About thirty minutes later, Lai Zi waited in the empty house, in the same squatting position her mother had been in. Then Mao realized how spacious the house actually was. Though not lonely, it was unsettling. The doll's gaze felt like needles piercing her, so Lai Zi picked up a cloth and covered the head of the disgusting doll piled in the corner, which seemed to be covered in a layer of dust.
I don't know where the money came from, but my mother returned with a small amount. Perhaps it came from a pawnshop, or maybe she got an advance; in any case, there's no cash left in the house that my mother can use freely.
They left everything to that strange man carrying the box.
"Lai Zi, take these—")
Lai Zi snatched the money from his mother's hand and ran away through the back door. He could almost hear his mother's sorrowful cries of protest coming from behind, but Lai Zi was no longer concerned with her feelings. Where the money came from was of no importance.
Outside, the sky was clear and the weather was hot; the long-awaited sunlight was dazzling. Kanako once said that all things exposed to sunlight would hasten their death, and she was probably right.
Upon arriving at the bookstore, which magazine does Kanako usually read? In any case, she first bought two magazines with "Released Today" and "Highly Rated and Available Now" stickers.
I pretended to be an adult and went into the coffee shop, ordering black tea as usual.
The music playing in the store was the same one I was used to.
Lai Zi sipped his black tea and casually flipped through a magazine. After half a month, he finally felt like a human being again. Only in moments like these could Lai Zi truly be considered human. What did it matter what kind of demons or monsters they were?
Ah, how I miss it.
I used to do these things a lot in my past life.
Or is this a premonition that I will do these things in my next life?
The missing parts were filled one by one, how fulfilling and satisfying!
But then her emotions suddenly reversed.
Behind the happiness lay unease, anxiety, and a sense of despair.
Unable to calm down.
This won't do. I have to go see Kanako first. I need to confirm whether she's alive or dead.
But I don't know.
My gaze followed only the lead type, and then the foreign music entered my ears.
Only the surface remains the same as always.
That's when I finally understood.
—Yes, I see.
Kusumoto Yoriko gradually came to this view.
At that time, Kanako's back.
Use all your strength—
"She was pushed down from behind."
Could you please say it again?
It's unbelievable; I wonder if I've misheard.
"Kanako was pushed down by that man!"
"man?"
"It was a man. He used all his strength, very rudely."
Is this true?
"It was pushed down with a thud. That's so wrong, really too much."
"Uh-huh."
Inspector Fukumoto was puzzled.
The girl in front of me started to cry.
It would be incredibly embarrassing to be misunderstood as someone who had made her cry. So, he took Lai Zi to a corner of the police station where pedestrians couldn't see him. Regardless of the content of his testimony, the girl in front of him suddenly said a lot of things, but then started crying sadly because of what he had said. Fukumoto, who had little life experience, didn't know how to handle the situation.
"Little Lai Zi. I didn't call you that wrong, did I? Was everything you just said true? When did you remember that?"
"I...I wasn't lying!"
"I didn't say you were lying. But it's been half a month already, how come it's only now..."
"But...but it's true! Kanako really was with a man..."
What kind of man is he?
"It was too dark to see his face clearly. He was wearing black clothes and moved very quickly."
"Uh-huh."
Fukumoto covered his mouth.
If this is true, it would be incredible.
Having been a police officer for just over a year, Fukumoto had never encountered a decent case. But if the girl's testimony were believed, this was undoubtedly a murder—attempted.
But the victim is now—
The victim now appears to be involved in another incident. It is said that the case is under the jurisdiction of the Kanagawa National Police Headquarters.
That night, or rather, early morning, after taking her to that strange hospital—or rather, research institute—in any case, that bizarre building, Fukumoto heard nothing more about Yuzuki Kanako's condition. What incident the girl had been involved in was no longer within Fukumoto's jurisdiction.
It was past noon when I returned to the police station that day.