5

…My head was pounding horribly.

“U-urrgh…”

My body hurt too, but my head was the worst of all—the pain seemed to tighten around it.

And… my cheek. It was weirdly… cold. Really cold. As if it had been pressed directly into ice…

“…Hwaa?!” I came to with a shock.

My cheek had in fact been pressed against something cold: a soda can.

“Finally awake, huh?” came the voice of a girl from above my head. I looked up with trepidation. “You look damn awful.”

There stood a girl of about seventeen or eighteen. She pulled away the can that had been pressed to my cheek and nodded toward me. She wore a leather jumpsuit, and judging from the motorbike by her side, I guessed she was a biker.

“…Ah, aaah…?”

Dazed and confused, I tried to take in my surroundings. It looked like the road of a shopping arcade. The sky looked dim—it seemed dusk was falling, and there was no one else but us on the road.

“H-Huh? What am I doing here?”

“You’re a mess. It’s not good to drink yourself into a stupor,” said the girl in a despondent voice.

“Drink…?”

“Why else would you be lying here on the road? Besides, your ass stinks of alcohol.”

Now that she mentioned it, there was a sweet but also cloying, rotten smell of alcohol about my body. It smelled so bad, I may as well have had my head drenched in it. But…

“A-Alcohol? …When did I drink that?”

I had no recollection. My most recent memories of what I’d been doing were hazy. I remembered meeting my kouhai Kazuo, and I think he told me about how he was getting married…?

“Here, give your mouth a rinse. It’ll wake you up.” The girl pulled open the tab and then handed the can to me. I took it with a “thanks” and a respectful nod.

“Just so you know, It’s not exactly safe around here. Stories of some poor bastards having all their stuff stolen aren’t uncommon around here. Try to be more careful from now on,” she said straight up. She had an extremely persuasive way with words.

“Yeah, I’ll be careful… Thank you.”

I took a swig of the isotonic beverage.

“So, where’d you go drinking yesterday?”

“Ah, erm… I’m afraid I don’t really remember.”

“You know anything about the explosion at that building?” She’d asked a strange question.

“What’s that, something bad happen?”

“You’re better off not knowing.” She didn’t explain any more than that. I was enticed by the mysterious air about her.

“Are you… from around these parts?”

“Nope. Just passing through,” she stated casually. But it was a strange time and place for someone to be passing through.

“Where are you from?”

“And why should I tell you that?” Her tone had turned harsh, so I hurriedly explained.

“No, no, I’m not trying to hit on you or anything… It’s just, uh…do you have any interest in phantoms? Like, ghost stories. Have you heard about anything like that? I’m a reporter, you see. I’m compiling them.”

As I spoke, it came back to me. That’s right… That’s what had happened. I’d come here using my holiday to pursue a topic I’d long cherished.

“Phatoms? Really?” She eyed me suspiciously.

“Like, for example… Ah! What was the name again? Boogiepop or something. Ever heard of them?” I’d forgotten where I’d heard the name exactly, but I was sure I’d heard it somewhere.

“………”

She responded with a long intense glare. And then…

“Pfft!” She immediately began to double over into laughter. “Ahahahaha! …You’re researching him?”

It felt like she was ridiculing me with every fibre of her being.

“Wait, him? …No, what I mean is, in the context of the legend, that is…”

“Forget about him. He’s a “shinigami” after all. Don’t come running to me if you get cursed.”

She cackled at me wickedly. I became extremely wary, seeing that her earlier kindness had all but vanished.

And then, amid my astonishment, she put on her helmet, straddled her bike, and began to rev up the engine. It seemed she was intending to leave.

“W-Wait, hold on a sec! What’s your name?”

“Me? I’m a witch. And no, I’m not kidding. Looks like you got to meet one of your spooks after all.”

With a dauntless laugh, she turned her bike around and drove away, and disappeared from my sight.

“…What was all that about?”

I rose shakily to my legs. My head was still pounding, but the worst of it was over. As I suspected, I didn’t have the groggy feeling of a hangover. And yet my body still stank, and every joint in my body seemed to be creaking at me. It didn’t make any sense. It felt like I’d been bewitched by a fox[1].

And then out of the blue…

“So basically, you’re searching for something, and these ghosts are kind of a clue to help you find whatever that is, right?”

I seemed to recall the words of a girl. I looked around, but there was no one there. Was I hearing things because my head was muddled, or had it been a fraction of my memories seeping through? …Who would have told me such a thing?

“Well, not like it matters…”

I started ambling forward on unsteady legs.

First off, looks like I need to change out of these tattered clothes and rinse off all this dirt and grime. I’ll need to find an early-morning sauna or something somewhere. Then I’ve gotta drink a damn fine cup of hot, black coffee and get my head together.

“Whew, boy…”

I wandered the bright streets in a daze, seeking out something that would make me see lucidly again.

TL Notes for ACT.2 part 5