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Chapitre 59

"Because, this has already become my case."

Kiba stood up.

Yangzi silently looked up at him.

"I hope I haven't made you feel uncomfortable by asking so many in-depth questions. As you can see, I'm naturally a bit of a roughneck."

What a pretentious excuse.

"if,"

Kiba avoided Yoko's gaze.

"If only you had intervened sooner..."

"Sorry to bother you."

"If it's you..."

"I will come again."

If it were you—

Kiba turned away before he heard the end.

I don't know if Yangzi has finished speaking.

It's too early to open the box.

Kiba thought.

Interview Notes / About the Ghost Holding a Box

●I heard there's a ghost of a young man in a tuxedo. He carries a box and walks very fast. Anyone who sees him will get sick. Horino, a student in Class 3, saw him and took sick leave the next day.

Eighth Prince? Ten years old? Male

●It was a male ghost with hair oil on. I heard he died on his way to a wedding ceremony, carefully carrying a suitcase.

Eighth Prince? Thirteen years old? Female

●A ghost with glowing hands and face appeared, dressed in black, as if it had just returned from a funeral. It carried a small coffin containing the corpse of a dwarf.

Tian Wu, eleven years old, male

●The white-handed monster arrived here with a box, appearing in the area opposite the traffic signal.

Tian Wu, nine years old, male

●It was a male ghost dressed in mourning clothes. I heard he had no facial features, but a friend who witnessed it said he did. He was carefully carrying a box. I haven't seen it myself, but I heard he went to the temple area. I heard five people have seen it. He seemed to walk very slowly, but no matter how hard you try, you can't catch up with him.

Chofu? Eleven years old? Male

● A man in a tuxedo was carrying a box. His face was like a doll's, and I found his actions strange.

Showa-cho, 15-year-old girl

●The black-clad ghost walks around carrying a box, and the families he spyes on will fall ill. The box he's carrying is full of bacteria.

Showa-cho? Ten-year-old boy?

●A strange man appeared at the funeral. He's a ghost. If no one notices, nothing will happen; but if someone does notice, someone else will die soon. The ghost was carrying a box, so it was easy to spot. Therefore, it's best not to look around during a funeral.

Near Tama Reien? Sixteen-year-old male?

●A man in formal attire wanders through a cemetery. He buries a box in a grave he likes, and then the entire family of the grave owner falls ill.

Near Tama Spirit Garden? Fourteen-year-old girl?

●The man with glowing wrists, dressed in mourning clothes, is holding a box dug out of a graveyard; he is a ghost.

Near Tama Reien? 15-year-old girl?

●The faceless monster chases people while carrying a box; if you are caught by him, you will die three years later.

Near Luhua Park? Ten-year-old boy

●There's a foreign ghost dressed in black. Because of the language barrier, there's no way to exorcise it, and chanting scriptures is ineffective. The box it's carrying contains bones.

Near Luhua Park? Twelve-year-old girl?

●A white-handed animal crawls on the road; if you chase it, it will run into a box. It is kept by the owner of the box.

Tian Wu, ten years old, male

●A vengeful spirit carrying a box puts a living arm inside. Whenever it encounters someone, it releases the arm from the box and chases them to the ends of the earth. A boy from a neighboring town was chased into a toilet, and the next day, his hand was found trapped between the toilet wall and the fence, unable to move, and he was dead. Therefore, it is said that if an arm is not returned to the box that day, it will die.

Tian Wu, eleven years old, male

●Recently, a ghost dressed in a formal suit carrying a box has been appearing. It moves very quickly even though its feet don't seem to move. Several people have seen it.

Registered household? Thirteen years old? Male

●A monster that escaped from the Hakodate outside town comes to eat corpses in town... It tears the corpses into pieces and puts them in a box as lunchboxes. I heard that if we don't catch it soon, something terrible will happen.

Registered household? 15 years old? Male

When I visited, Kyogoku-do was holding his head and staring at the low table.

Mrs. Kyogoku said that Kiba has been behaving this way ever since he left the day before yesterday.

The day before yesterday, I was keeping vigil at a friend's house. My wife went to help with the arrangements, and when she returned, she happened to run into the lumberyard, which was about to leave. Since then, I haven't heard my husband speak a word.

"He left early yesterday morning and didn't come back until evening. But he was still the same when he got back. As a result, the only person I could talk to was the cat. I almost forgot how to speak human language."

After the lady finished speaking, she gave a wry smile.

So, it's quite unusual for Kyogoku-do to take the initiative to go out and investigate yesterday?

"So when I heard from you yesterday that many guests would be coming today, I felt like I had been saved. Just now, a gentleman named Aoki called and said he would be coming later as well."

"Aoki? Detective Aoki?"

The lady said she didn't know.

As the lady said, my friend was completely silent and motionless. I was, after all, a guest, but he didn't even greet me when he saw me sitting next to him; it was really too much. Having no other choice, I started observing the things around him.

The documents and materials provided by Attorney Masuoka were neatly piled on the tatami mats. Next to them lay the complete twelve volumes of the "Illustrated Night Parade of One Hundred Demons" series. Behind them, numerous Chinese classics and ancient texts of unknown origin were neatly arranged according to their page size. Beside him were mountains of books and notebooks. Surprisingly, Kyogoku-do rarely took notes, so what he had written down was quite intriguing. Furthermore, a large pile of magazines could be seen opposite him. The space around him was filled with books. The bookstore and study were one thing, but now even the living room had been taken over.

Kyogoku-do suddenly turned to look at me.

"What are you looking at? It's disgusting."

I felt nauseous, which gave me quite a fright.

"You made people wait so long, how can you say something like that right away? What are you thinking about so intently?"

"Um."

Kyogoku-do gave a brief reply and turned to look at the courtyard.

"Speaking of which..."

He pulled a stack of magazines from the pile of books that I couldn't see clearly and placed them on the table.

The bag on top is a paper bag that I brought over the day before yesterday.

“I saw you left this here, clearly intending to show it to me, so I read it.”

It's Kubo's layout.

"Ah, I brought that over because I wanted you to see it. It would be best if you read it. So, what are your thoughts after reading it?"

"There's a big problem."

His reply was curt. What does that mean?

"We'll talk about that later. Also, there was a letter addressed to you that I accidentally read. I only realized it was a private message halfway through reading it, but it was too late."

"A letter? Oh, from Koizumi, right?"

"That's right, I've seen it."

"Well, it's okay, anyway, I didn't write anything shameful."

"It doesn't matter to you, but it matters a lot to me. As a result, I started to care about the publication order of your works, and I ended up reading through all those gloomy personal novels you wrote."

Kyogoku-do pointed to the magazines on the table.

It turned out to be an outdated issue of "Modern Literature and Art".

"All of them? When did you see them? Aren't you very busy?"

“Last night. I read the letter the day before yesterday, but I suddenly remembered it again after receiving the report from the timber yard yesterday.”

"You remembered me because of the old man's phone call? And why was that?"

"That's not important. Anyway, are you still worried about the order?"

To be honest, I've already forgotten.

I've been so busy following events these past few days that I've completely forgotten about the publication of the standalone book. To be precise, I haven't completely forgotten, but it's been tucked away in a corner of my head, far from my consciousness.

However, I couldn't be honest about it, so I could only vaguely say that I hadn't decided yet.

"Since that's the case, I'll just share some insights that came to me while I was thinking about this event—"

Kyogoku-do pulled a piece of paper from under the pile of magazines and handed it to me.

"What's this--?"

I took a look.

The piece of paper contained a list of my works.

"If it's helpful, use it as a reference."

Kyogoku-do pretended to be nonchalant. Although I never had a chance to discuss it with him in the end, my thoughtful friend still took the initiative to consider the publication order for me.

The overview is divided into two sections.

The above paragraph appears to be arranged according to the order in which it was published in "Modern Literature and Art".

May 30, 1945 (Showa 25) <Mocking the Teacher>

September 30, 1945 (Showa 25) <The Horse of Ideology>

Portrait of E.B.H., January 30, 1947