4

* * * * *

Miyashita and I had finally made it to our original goal, the place where Kigawa Tosuke once lived. We’d taken a cab, but the driver made sure to tell us in his gruff voice that there was nothing around there. When we arrived, we realized what he’d meant by that.

The buildings were all abandoned. The ones that weren’t scheduled for demolition had placards in front of them, fruitlessly asking to inquire with so-and-so real estate agency. The majority were likely failed properties with no hope of being sold, seized from their former owners by the tax office, banks, moneylenders... Rows upon rows of empty, tenantless buildings.

“It’s a real-life ghost town.” We examined our surroundings, slightly dazed. The distant cawing of crows added to the eeriness, even though it was smack dab in the city center…

“Okay, if he lives here, he really needs to change his name to ‘Spook,’ or ‘Spooky,’ or something,” Miyashita said in awe. I’d also been thinking something along those lines. “Makes me wonder if this place still gets electricity and all that stuff.”

The multitenant building that was Kigawa Tosuke’s former residence had half of its windows smashed in.

“I was hoping to ask for permission, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone around at all, let alone a caretaker…”

“Come on. No one’s gonna care if we come in here. The place doesn’t even have a fence.”

“Very true. Let’s go inside, then.” We proceeded into an interior carpeted in dust; it seemed like no one had been in there for months. As we feared, nothing was working. The elevator was long dead, so we were forced to take the stairs.

“This is going to be a hike…”

The staircase was long. I looked to Miyashita. I was used to running around with a heavy camera, so it wasn’t much of a physical burden on me, but I feared that she might not have the same amount of stamina. However, despite her large sports bag, she was bounding nimbly up the stairs. I wondered if she practiced some kind of sport.

“You play tennis or basketball or something?”

“Nah. I’m not doing anything like that. I did do some track-and-field in middle school though,” she breathed out an exhausted sigh. “It’s been a long time though, so I’m kinda pooped,” She said, grinning. It seemed she wasn’t ready to give in just yet. I smiled back, and the two of us looked at each other and burst into laughter.

When we’d finally reached our goal, the 7th floor, we gave ourselves, for no real reason, a big thumbs up.

“Well, that was an achievement!”

“You can say that again.”

This floor had a grimy look to it, but, to our surprise, there were a number of cardboard boxes still full, labelled with things like “Chocolate Chip” and “Vanilla Essence”. The unused goods had been stored away, still preserved.

“What’s with all this? They just left it here?”

“Looks like it… Did no one think to come back here and clean up after Tosuke went missing…?”

If someone had, these boxes would have been disposed of by now. As I took a look around, Miyashita went up to the entrance and reached for the door.

“…Eeek!” Her cry shocked me in turn, and I ran over to see what the fuss was about.

“What’s wrong?!”

“T-The lock..”

I looked down, and in her hands was the doorknob. It had come clean off the lock, down to the base of the mechanism. The bar meant for the lock had been twisted and was still attached to it.

“It…it just came off…” She hurled the knob away as if it were something harmful.

“Was it broken…?”

I put my hand to the door and gave it a push. Since the lock had been destroyed, it slowly opened inward, as expected. We went inside.

It was a modest place for the CEO of a company. For one, the kitchen occupied almost the entire area, with little room left over for living space. The place where he must have slept was a cheap, pipe bed. A mattress and blanket lay upon it, but they were both the sort of thing you might find in a trash heap.

There was nothing of particular interest. Some suspected he might have some special hobbies, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

Fridges were lined up one after another. I tried opening one and was immediately assaulted by an odd, sickly-sweet smell.

“…Yeugh.” I winced on reflex, as the ice cream inside had melted and had turned a strange shade. It hadn’t yet spoiled on account of it being sealed, but it was nothing you’d dare attempt to eat. It was as if a mad scientist had met an untimely death and left a mountain of lab apparatus and chemicals.

“No, not as if… That really is the case here, isn’t it?” I closed the fridge door, with no desire to examine any of the others. They likely contained all sorts of miraculous flavors that Kigawa Tosuke had toiled to create, brimming with appeal, it was like a mound of summer grass… “the place where noble soldiers one time dreamed a dream…[2]” I sighed.

The next moment, I realized that Miyashita was nowhere to be seen.

I panicked. “Heeey!” I called, but was met with silence. “What’s wrong?! Did something happen?!”

I ran around the floor looking for Miyashita, but there was no sign of her.

How could this have happened? What should I do?

A creeping dread grew within me. Bowls and steel plates that I’d kicked away with my feet clanged violently.

“Where are you?! Can you hear me?!” My voice rose to a scream.

And then, from somewhere not so far away, I heard a feeble, lonely, and yet strangely cheerful melody. It was the sound of someone whistling.

“…What are you so worried about?” came a hushed voice from behind.

I spun around. There, from behind the partitioning screen that separated the kitchen from the living space, a shadow stretched into view. It was a person.

Relief flooded through me.

“So that’s where you’ve been…” I said, starting to advance. My foot stepped on something. Looking closely, it was the Spalding bag that she’d been carrying around up until now, but whatever was inside was gone, and the bag flattened.

“…?” As I grew wary, again came the voice.

“Why are you in such a state of panic simply because I left your sight for a moment? I’m sure you know the answer very well.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“‘Chasing ghosts’, is it? …Perhaps the reason for your confusion lies in your desire to do just that. Under normal circumstances, a “terminal” would exhibit plain and simple behavior, but oddly enough, part of you held a conviction so pure that one would never suspect it of being camouflage. So that’s why…”

The voice was indifferent, like a machine operating automatically without a trace of emotion.

“…I don’t really understand what you’re saying right now.” Again, I was aware of a stirring in my heart like before. The voice continued.

“If I speak his ‘name,’ the program hidden within you will activate, but before that let me explain one thing. He is dead.”

“…?!”

“He fell in the battle against the Imaginator. I can say this for certain because I confirmed the body personally. So, that makes you a kite with its strings cut, carried by the wind. The source that manipulated you, that forced you to investigate the effects of Kigawa Tosuke’s experiments, no longer exists. You have been aimlessly wandering around asking girls about ‘ghosts’ and Kigawa Tosuke’s ice cream and compiling your report for nothing. Because the one above is no longer here. Do you see, The Seeker?”

“…”

“I actually thought that you were investigating something else, but you had exhibited no particular reaction to that name. That’s when I had a hunch that Kigawa Tosuke was the one. And, well…I imagine “he” abandoned his own mission partway through. Why? Because he fought me. At that point, you had been practically abandoned. Forgotten…”

The voice spoke his name.

“…by Spooky Electric.”

* * * * *

That instant, Nonomura Haruto’s body launched itself at the partition like a loaded spring, shattering the synthetic planks with inhuman speed and power.

“Gi…!”

He raised his head, but there was no intelligence left in his expression. The behavioral patterns in his brain had been overwritten by a brainwashing-type synthetic human, one of which contained the following command: “If anything should interfere with your judgment, lure them to the designated area.” This isolated derelict building was that very spot. But, although he’d brought someone there, his “boss” who’d normally dispose of them had not come, and so he had been reduced to thinking no thoughts beyond his designated role, to behave as a “defense mechanism” that would simply attack any targets who uttered certain keywords.

“Gigigi!”

The noises that came from his throat were not his voice—they were merely sounds. His body movement had surpassed its limits, causing his respiratory organs to creak.

There was a clank from the other side. Once more he sprang, and the shadowy figure nimbly dodged his strike, landing on gracefully on the floor.

“…As promised, I will tell you, Nonomura-san.”

The shadow was more like a pipe than a person, a strange silhouette wrapped in a cloak. On its head sat a large, brimless hat.

“Gi!”

He was not listening. The words hadn’t reached his ears. But the figure spoke on, dodging his attacks all the while.

“…My name is Boogiepop. They tell of me in idle rumors. And in those rumors, it is said that I am an assassin…”

Nonomura launched a kick, but the figure evaded like a leaf in the wind. In his relentless pursuit, Nonomura knocked over a stack of tanks, and their contents splashed out, covering his head in fruit juice. They had long since fermented, but he paid no heed to the hideously acrid smell.

“Gigiii…!”

He turned again to the figure. It was standing on a leg of the upturned table, swaying on a single point like a yajirobe[3] balancing toy.

“…A shinigami[4], they call me. The legend goes that when a person begins their inevitable decline, Boogiepop appears before them at the most beautiful moment of their life and kills them, before they can become any uglier.[5]”

Nonomura-san was being well and truly toyed with, but it didn’t bother him in the slightest. He simply continued to lash out.

“…Are the rumors true, you ask? I couldn’t say. But I will say this, Nonomura-san…”

Boogiepop’s expression then was something strange and asymmetrical. One couldn’t tell whether it was mocking, or simply indifferent.

“Your efforts were not in vain. Because ‘ghosts’ do indeed exist.”

Immediately after Boogiepop had said this, there was the click of a switch.

* * * * *

Since the very beginning, there had been an explosive compound rigged throughout the building so that it would collapse and dispose of Kigawa Tosuke whenever was deemed necessary. With a loud yet muffled rumble came a tremendous explosion, and the building began to fall in on itself, as if its very framework had been torn out.

A dust cloud rose up, billowing to an immense height like a towering giant. All around, the earth reverberated, shaking the ghost town to its core. Yet the town was devoid of anyone to witness it.

TL Notes for ACT.2 part 4