spr | The House in Which Nightmares Dwell 5.2

"-- Who was that?" Naru asked Hirota who scurried back into the living room.

Until a while ago he was sure he had been on the sofa, but -- Lin appeared to have been napping --, he had seemingly been awake for some time.

The curtains were closed. Hirota confirmed that and nodded lightly. That was because he didn't want to feel like Kazumi was peering from the garden inside the house.

"The wife of Sasakura. The neighbours on the right."

Hirota sat down on the carpet in the living room.

"Honestly, you saved me."

"It seems she is a vital person with extreme curiosity."

Hirota looked at Naru.

"Since when were you listening?"

"Roughly, from the beginning. I woke up at the sound of the doorbell."

"I don't admire your eavesdropping."

"I was merely gathering intelligence. Thanks to that you got saved, right?"

Hirota grimaced.

"What kind of person is she, an acquaintance?"

"She appears to be called Sasakura Kazumi. Together with her husband and a son, they're a three person household. Her husband is a teacher at a public middle school and her son is currently a senior high school student. -- I've heard that much from Midori-san."

"She seems to be extremely curious about the inside of the house."

"That seems to be the case. My aunt seems to dislikes it quite a bit."

"Is that 'my aunt' something you call middle aged women in general? Or what you call your parents' sisters?"

"-- That is... ... of course."

"Did you think your own pet theory that you called, a person who hides something must be hiding a crime?"

"That's what that woman said."

"Didn't you think that Midori-san calling you Hirota-san wasn't very much like what one would call a cousin?"

Seeing the wicked smile surfacing on that handsome face, disappointed Hirota.

"So you realized."

"That's because Hirota-san doesn't seem to be quite skilled at lying."

"You truly have a bad personality."

"You're a fast learner. -- May I ask you the reason why you're pretending to be her cousin?"

"We were introduced to each other by Nakai. I said that I would be her bodyguard because it seemed hopeless. It would be indecent in front of others so I ended up playing the cousin."

Because he wasn't a person who lied by nature, he felt relieved to talk about his own thoughts.

Naru lightly smiled.

"-- Well, I'll give you that."

"... ...Hey."

"I suppose you can see that much without a reason."

Hirota glared at Naru. He turned and smiled.

"... ...By the way, tea please."

"-- You're telling me?"

"Of course. Didn't I tell you that I treat my workmen roughly?"

Hirota choked up unintentionally.

"... ...Understood."

While Hirota made tea in the kitchen, Naru scrutinized the mirror -- window in the dining room.

No light came in so it wasn't significant, but he opened the curtain that Midori suspended above the mirror. She said that leaving it closed stifled her.

"-- Even if you became a narcissus, I wouldn't have known," Hirota said astonished, and placed the teacup on the table.

"Just as I was hoping for," Naru lightly said and settled at the table.

"... ...Why a mirror... ..."

His voice whispered.

"It's because of that bad lighting, right?

"Even then the need to make it into a mirror cannot be found anywhere. No matter how bad the lighting is, wouldn't have become something made of glass?"

"Would they have the intention to conceal the defects? Because directly outside the window there's the neighbours' wall."

"I understand if this house was leased, but the previous owners had the intention of living here themselves and reconstructed it. If that's the case, to do such a thing is all the more... ..."

Unexpectedly, Hirota himself tried to think about these things. Certainly by doing that, he felt that no matter how bad the lighting was, even if what could could be seen from the window was the neighbours' wall, making it into a mirror wouldn't have made it any better. -- At the very least, if it were up to Hirota, he wouldn't even have thought of making it into a mirror or something like that.

"... ...It's as if he didn't want to see outside the window... ..."

Hirota raised his face at Naru's voice. Somehow hid voice had become steep.

"You're not going to try to tell me that it's something stupid like it's because there's a ghost or something."

"... ...But I didn't get to say anything like that?"

Hirota grimaced.

"The previous owner has a reason for wanting to shut the window... ..."

"It's fine if we ask the previous owner right."

"If we could do that."

Hirota frowned.

"-- We can't?"

"The real estate agent said that they didn't know their new address. They didn't leave behind their contact address."

"... ...What the?"

"The real estate agent who sold this place, while this house was on loan, intermediated the whole time. I'm certain they have a long association. Nevertheless, even if they sent out moving postcards and left a message ever since, there has been no communication at all from the owner."

"Isn't that because they knew that this house was a trouble? Knowing this would become a trouble later on, they didn't leave notice of their address."

"That is also a possibility."

Hm, Hirota thought. He thought about it a little, but other than that he couldn't guess the circumstances of the owner leaving no contact address.

"-- That reminds me," Hirota suddenly remembered. "How was the result of last night's suggestion experiment?"

"It didn't move."

"That means, -- Um, RSPK? Wasn't it that?"

"It appears to be something different."

Hirota showed a light smile.

"Is there a possibility that you failed your suggestion?"

"Not at all."

To be told so quickly, exhausted Hirota somewhat.

"You really are a person who has great confidence in himself."

"I'm modest when it comes to the facts."

When Hirota became even more exhausted, a harsh bumpy noise occurred. Hirota surveyed his surroundings. It was a steady knocking sound that came from somewhere. He thought he heard it from the direction of the window behind Naru's back.

When Hirota rose up without thinking, Naru stopped him with his fingertip. While remaining in place, he suppressed his breathing for a while.

Steadily, it became clear that the interval of the knocking continued only a little.

Hirota stood up. Naru couldn't stop him anymore.

Hirota opened the window with the mirror. He removed the lock of the latch and in that short space he opened the window, and thought that if it were glass he would have seen the one who tapped it.

In the small range outside the window, the neighbouring wall stood in the way. The space between the neighbouring house and theirs wasn't something that a person could enter of course, and yet there wasn't even a shape of an animal. The window of the neighbour's house a little further away was closed as well. He tried to look up, but the window on the second floor too was closed.

"Was someone there?"

Hearing it from the back, Hirota replied with a no. With an annoyed feeling he closed the window.

Back to Chapter 5.1 | Forward to Chapter 5.3

Notes
- Hirota refers to Reiko as oba-san (aunt/ma'am), which can refer to any middle-aged woman or someone else's mother/aunt. In other words, he makes it seem like Reiko and he aren't actually relatives.
- Hirota calls Midori 'Midori-san' and she calls him by surname in addition to the -san. It is very strange for cousins to call each other in such a manner. Their language use is too polite and doesn't collide with the intimate relations normal relatives would have.