Vol 1 Chapter 1 (2/2)

After that I place the money envelope for the annual room rental fee on the table deferentially and push the envelope to the owner of rental apartment.

“Done,” the owner collects without checking anything inside the envelope at all and additionally, throws it around there with a thump noise.

“Eh!” I’m astonished with her stupid action and then the lady apartment owner then stands up.

“Right then, I’ll take you to have a look at your room, follow me,” In s.h.i.+ki-san’s hand is still carrying a beer can that has been leftover. She takes me to the rented room.

We have reached the two-storey apartment which is right next to the owner’s room. The s.h.i.+awase dormitory has in total of 6 rooms and each floor has 3 rooms. The room that I’ll be staying, starting from today, is the room in the center of the second floor. The room number is 202.

Once I walked up the staircase and reached at the front of my room, s.h.i.+ki-san then picks the key out from her plump b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

“Here you go,”

Why did she have to pick the key from there? I’m wondering while receiving the key that’s still warm due to the heat from s.h.i.+ki-san’s body.

“You may use it whenever you like,”

Use what? This key? What does she mean by using it whenever you like?

I decide that I’ll go consider about bring this key for using thoroughly later.

But right now I still need to use it in a usual way first. I insert the key deeply through the keyhole and turn. The door becomes unlocked with a sound and then I open the door.

“You may take a look around the room, I’ll be waiting outside around here for a while.”

s.h.i.+ki-san leans against the handrail and tells me. I tilt my neck curiously with that speech. But once I opened the door, I’ve found a hall with shoes being placed in front of the entry at a size of half of a mat. If I walk further, then I can see a kitchen. On the right hand side, is a was.h.i.+ng sink and around there is a was.h.i.+ng machine. On the left hand side, there is a toilet door. Deeper ahead is a room’s door that is the main area that I have to live my life at that location particularly from now on. And at that time, I feel something strange suddenly.

“Hmm? It seems I can hear the sound from TV right?”

First I heard like there were somebody chattering from inside the room… maybe my ears were distorted by myself.

With curiosity, I take off my shoes at the entrance of the hall and walk past the kitchen and turn the doork.n.o.b to open the door.

“Eh?”

“Eh?”

I make an eye contact with a girl who’s sitting down and eating custard.

3

That young girl who’s wearing a one piece dress, once she sees me, she stood still and then suddenly have an astonished face.

We are staring at each other like that.

She seems to be a bit astonished. The custard that’s on top of the spoon seems to be very bouncy, same with her lips. Her eyes are rounded with long hair that looks pretty soft being tied up with a cutely designed bow. There’s a strangely designed rounded necklace on her neck at the size of her forehand. But the prominent point of that girl is her slim body until it’s able to see through her one piece dress that she’s wearing, so I know that she has a decent body shape. Right here she’s a pretty girl that if there’s a hundred people and we remove some people with strange personality traits for about five people and leave the remaining ninety-five people standing, they’ll say the same word as ‘so cute’ for sure.

“…I’m sorry, I entered the wrong room,”

I close the door and put on my shoes at the hallway and leave the room with locking the door using a key before going to breathe in deeply.

Breathe in, hbb, breathe out, fuu, breathe in, hbb, and breathe out, fuu.

Alright! It’s discreetly cold. I’m standing frozen in front of the room and look up above the door once again. There’s a sign written the room number 202 where the number is in an exact serial order. Not wrong for sure, this room will become a mansion of mine from now on certainly. In that case, that girl inside the room just a while ago… wait? It seems I’ve seen that girl somewhere before…

“It’s the girl in that photograph!”

The girl who was sitting and eating custard inside the room just a while ago was the same girl in the example room picture that the housing broker company gave to me for sure.

And how did she come and stay here? Why? Hey, wait! How’s that possible? How could that cute model come to stay inside my room? I must have seen it wrongly for sure. It’s because that young girl in that photograph is very cute until the imagery haunts me inside my head for sure. Yes, it’s must be like that for sure, but if it’s like that then there’s something quite curious as well. The fact that our brains deceive ourselves like this means that do I have the intention to make a fool out of myself already? With the human spirit since the very beginning… why did I choose to sail the philosophical s.h.i.+p through the sea then? Calm down, Juugo!

Was that event just a delusion or not? The proving method is actually very simple, isn’t it?

“Just only entering that room once more then I shall know the truth,”

Therefore, I have to insert the key into the hole once more with my hands that are soaked with sweat from the excitement. I apply force once again, grab the doork.n.o.b and open it, leave my shoes off at the entrance, and walk through the kitchen and open the room door immediately.

“Hahaha,”

There’s a girl with a cute smile on her face watching TV with laughter and amus.e.m.e.nt right there for sure. This time I close the room door once again without even putting on my shoes that I took off right in front of me. I walk out of the room and meet s.h.i.+ki-san right away.

“What does this even mean!”

The apartment owner looks toward me who’s yelling while she’s relaxing with the wind form the sea and drinking beer at the same time. Then she giggles.

“Well, no matter how many times I see this it’s always funny right. Everyone who came to this room at first must have a reaction like this for almost all people.”

“Can you please stop giggling and answer me! Who’s that girl! And how the h.e.l.l did she get into my room!”

“Which girl? Which person? There’s n.o.body in that room at all,”

“Until now please do not lie!”

“Then let’s go prove it together,”

s.h.i.+ki-san, who’s full of confidence, pushes me out of the way and walk to room 202 in a courage way. It makes me feel nervous like I have never expected before.

Eh? Or it seems that there’s actually n.o.body here? No, but I saw she was still here a while ago… or is this a pattern that if we enter the room right now then there would be n.o.body?

s.h.i.+ki-san abandons me, who’s swallowing my throat hard, and walks past the kitchen. She’s right in front of the room already and holds the doork.n.o.b without any hesitation.

Creak

“Hahaha,”

There must be a girl who’s holding her stomach laughing right there for sure.

“She’s truly right there, did you see?”

Even if I have just thought like that for sure but s.h.i.+ki-san invades the room without any reactions at all before stopping in the middle of the room.

Eh? What’s that kind of reaction? Or is this something that only I could see.

“Ahahaha,”

Then s.h.i.+ki-san watches TV and starts laughing immediately.

“I did not intend to come stand here watching TV and then laugh!”

“d.a.m.n it, isn’t this TV program supposed to be funny?”

“I know right? I also like this TV program too,”

Both of them glare at each other and burst into laughter at the same time.

“You guys do know each other! And you guys also look very close to each other as well!”

s.h.i.+ki-san laughs for a while then turns to face me together with saying that “there’s n.o.body seem to be here at all you see?”

“Are you blind! Isn’t there a straight-haired girl in front of you?”

s.h.i.+ki-san squints her eyes and laughs at me who pointed to the young girl who uses a plastic spoon to pick up custard into her own mouth with full of power until her cheeks become chubby.

She repeats herself once more.

“That’s why I’ve said that there are no humans living here.”

The chilling fear is crawling at the back of me until I get gooseb.u.mps. The outside temperature may haven’t change but my body temperature must have dropped to only 5 degrees Celsius for sure.

“If in that case, that girl is?” I point my shaking finger to that girl.

“Oh, it’s this girl, it’s a spirit of a girl who got murdered in this room 10 years ago,” s.h.i.+ki-san answers with a serious facial expression.

“Hey, did you reveal it this fast!” The spiritual girl (alias) raises her voice with dissatisfaction.

“Well you have received the rental fee already, then there’s nothing to care about anymore,”

Until now, I’ve finally realized.

The unusual cheap rental room for only 5,000 yen per month reminds me of when the house broker agency asked me that any apartment would do right. Moreover, there are strange requirements such as having to pay for the rental fee one year in advance or in other words that is,

“I got deceived!”

“I did not at all! How rude was that.”

“I never knew before there’s a ghost in this room,”

“You’re saying too obviously, the fact that there’s a refrigerator, a computer, a TV, a was.h.i.+ng machine and various other things, they are set up in this room for you as well.”

So you mean that those other things you can say in other words that there’s one set of housewares and a spirit in the room as well.

“What kind of vague word is this?”

“Done,”

“What do you mean by done, this is clearly bringing me into a trap on purpose,”

“Alright,”

“You admitted yourself very easily right, apartment owner!”

“You’re such an idiot, dear new student, like this it’s the fault of the person who got tricked actually,”

“Eh? Isn’t there anything you’re going to argue back? So boring,” s.h.i.+ki-san looks very irksome. Certainly, I do want to argue back anyway but that phrase makes me speechless. It’s a moral phrase of my family that has been inherited from ancestors.

‘Deception is not a sin, but being deceived creates a sin.’

This quote has a hidden message behind that is when we believe in others too easily without be able to see through and realize the truth is a loss. The curiosity will make us see constantly but it’s my own fault who decided to come and stay here without even thinking of finding the truth of suspicion in detailed.

I had been preached by my father through eyes for most of the time since young which I thought that I truly know the truth of this moral teaching in detailed already. But it turns out that I stupidly fell into the trap very easily like that.

“Well… because it’s like that, whenever you want to leave, then just go ahead, no problem, but before you go please let us know first so that we can announce to others who would want to come stay here later on.”

It’s not because of being scolded by my father and I chose to move out immediately! I don’t even have any money! I yell like that in my mind. At last, I could only stand firm and calm down my temper.

Why is the side that’s wrong have to be me?

The apartment owner who’s looking drunk and ends the conversation before walking away together with a laughter that sounds like mocking me who has to be in the circ.u.mstance like this as “then, I’ll see you later.”

There’s nothing I could do but only be crestfallen and looking at s.h.i.+ki-san disappearing. Then I could perceive someone glaring to this direction so I turn back to have a look.

The spirit girl (alias) is glaring to this direction.

“By the way, would you like to have a seat, since this is your room right?”

The spirit girl (alias) who’s looking unusually chilled differing from me who has such a bad manner.

Before I sit down on the floor like what the spirit girl told me.

“There’s a pillow right there,”

I grab a frog faced-like pillow that the spirit girl suggested for me to lean on while having a look around the room with care. There’s a 40 inched LCD TV on the room’s wall. On the TV shelf there’s a HDD player including other modern game players. On the desk, there’s a flat screen computer monitor. On top of the movable drawer, there’s a keyboard and a mouse. The CPU is placed underneath and there’s an empty bookshelf right next to. Apart from that, the strange thing is the refrigerator is located at the corner of the room. Why is it here instead of being in the kitchen? The floor is covered with a light green mat which reminds me of the gra.s.s field. On top of the mat there’s a white foldable table and the bed that the spirit girl is sitting on is a 3 feet single bed.

Inside this room there’s no sign of dusts at all as if the room has been cleaned consistently.

The spirit girl (alias) smiles to me who’s examining the room.

“Hey what’s your name?”

“…Juugo Yama sir,”

“Really… my name is Nanana Ryuugajou, nice to meet you.”

“Na? Nanana?”

“Just now there’s one extra ‘na’, repeat after me ‘na na na’.”

“Is that really your real name?”

“Yes,”

“Wow that’s an awesome name,” I truly praise from my own feeling and I think that there’s something that I need to check to ensure that it is right.

“Oh, are you really a spirit sir?”

“Yes, a spirit that has been stuck here, and did not go anywhere for 10 years already,” it seems she has lived here for very long.

“Oh, previously from what s.h.i.+ki-san said that Ryuugajou-san…”

“You can call me Nanana,”

“Alright Nanana-chan, were you murdered in this room?”

“Yes, about in this way,”

Nanana-chan smiles and lies down on with her face down to demonstrate when she got murdered. She tries to act as close as possible to the real situation which I do think that it’s very real. But the fact that using herself to act a scene that she had died before is something that’s really not funny at all.

“And what was the cause of your death?”

“I got stabbed at the back for just one wound,”

Looking from the way her body was facing down and pointing to the door, it still looks like being ambushed from the back at the same time as when just entering the room for sure. If I’ve interpreted like this, the next basic question is,

“Oh I heard about this story before as well but the spirit that’s stuck here, people are able to see, the spirit itself can touch things and able to eat custard as well?”

“Umm… I’ve also never seen that kind of spirit before so I don’t know too,”

Hey, are you kidding me, haunted ghost guarding this room!

Then what can we do next, what can we do, really? Wait a second, but in this circ.u.mstance, Nanana-chan who’s standing and claiming that she herself is a ghost guarding the room but she’s still just a young girl looking extremely cute, isn’t it?

No matter what cases, I need to investigate the genuine person of her first.

“Oh… may I grab your hand please?”

“Umm, yes,” she reaches out her hand obeying my begging very easily together with a smile on her face.

I could hardly believe with my eyes but I still have to try again. This time I slowly reach out my hand to touch and then my hand and Nanana-chan’s hand are overlapped. It is an image that is far beyond the truth.

The fact that I see Nanana-chan’s finger appearing from my hand clearly like this doesn’t make feel great that much. I pull away my hand immediately.

“How’s it, are you satisfied now?” She’s asking as if she could read my mind.

“If in that case then please keep me in mind once again,” Nanana-chan smiles and then reaches out her hand to grab my hand together with shaking. It’s such a tender hand of a young girl. But it’s so cold even if I’m actually the person who started touching but unable to touch like this. But why it seems like if the other side is the person who touches then it’s touchable. It seems like there are many other limitations but this is enough to confirm that…

She’s actually a literal. It is a real spirit for sure. Nanana-chan who sees me is stunned like that then starts to smile and giggle.

“Hence, after Juugo has examined that I’m actually a spirit, then I would like to start a fighting contest right now,”

After that the spirit girl becomes suddenly speechless.

“…Eh? Contest? Fighting? Why do I have to?”

“So that we can decide who’s going to be the owner of this room,”

The status of not being a normal human, it may probably make her mind abnormal as well.

“I don’t even understand at all!”

“Since the person who rented this room is Juugo right? But the person who came to stay here first is me. Therefore, let’s decide clearly since at the start that who’s going to be the person who stays here better alright.”

“Wait, it’s strange about this thinking! Strange… eh? This is actually strange too? I express my confusion.

“There’s no meaning for thinking complicatedly like that. At last the person who’s weaker in this room must lose to somebody who’s stronger anyway.”

“Wait, you live in ‘that world’ already instead,” I argued.

“Wow, it’s seems pretty enjoyable,” She applauds. It seems she’s feeling enjoyable already.

“Alright, I think no matter which side must have something to explain or oppose. But the fact that I have greater experience in terms of a human living with a ghost in this room, if we do not compromise since the beginning, finally, there must be somebody doing things as he or she have wished. In contrast, the other person must be the side who has to tolerate. Therefore, the person who should serve as the room owner position is really important, am I right?”

This is such an extraordinary idea but if it’s possible to not fight for being the owner, just sitting down and talk peacefully is also able to solve the problem as well.

“Oh… can’t Nanana-chan able to leave this room at all?”

“To leave or go anywhere is not possible in whatever cases. I am a spirit that gets stuck here.”

Oh I see.

“Oh… and don’t you reborn to your next life?”

“It’s not because I don’t want to go, and don’t know when I’m here, it’s because I’m unable to reborn so I have to stay here.”

“Oh I see, then how will you able to reborn?”

Nanana-chan smiles together with saying that “when we can find the murderer and kill it with my hands,”

Hey, why do you have to say something that sounds c.u.mbersome again, you spiritual ghost.

But in fact, it seems that this spirit is confined here and unable to go anywhere. It may be due to its wrath and agony that have yet to be banished. That may probably be the cause that makes the spirit unable to reborn again.

“Hence, I’ll help you do something but first let’s stop arguing with each other for now,”

Nanana-chan sighs to me who’s trying to compromise in a peaceful way.

“I told you already that it’s irrelevant, try imagine it, I also live my life normally in this room such as eating custards, watching TV and playing games.”

“Even if you’re a spirit?”

“Yes, even if I’m a spirit but I live my life that way in this room and there’s Juugo who’s a new dweller coming to stay, and now what’s going to happen?”

“Whoa… two persons coming to stay in the same room, which means… we’re living together as a couple!”

“I don’t mean about a s.e.xual relations.h.i.+p like that,”

Nanana-chan interrupts me who’s cheeks are redden.

“Then what is it instead?”

“It’s that I don’t want to change my rhythm of life at all. I want to do anything whenever I want.”

“I see,”

“Therefore, what will you do if you have to stay in this room like that,”

I just want to live normally but having to be disturbed by the spirit.

“Oh I see, I understand now,”

I’ve finally understood the thing that Nanana-chan is trying to tell me.

That thing is in this room, who will have a higher position, lower position, who will be able to do whatever he or she wants and who must be the person having to tolerate.

“Imagine if you win, I will disappear and stay quietly, and will appear to do anything I want only when Juugo isn’t in this room,”

“You are able to disappear,”

“Because I’m a spirit,”

Once she said like that, Nanana-chan then actually disappears.

“Something like this,”

Not even a second, she appears and stood right at the back of me.

“Now I get it!”

It’s not because it’s too quick until it’s invisible, but Nanana-chan can actually teleport from one place to another. This time she walks normally back to behind me.

“There you go, but for me, I’m a person who hates being patient so much. Even if I’ve become a spirit already, my behavior still doesn’t change so I don’t want to do anything like what I’ve said previously.”

“I think there’s no problem at all, if we stay together closely, isn’t that great?”

“Although you’ve said like this at the beginning, later on you’ll definitely feel annoyed,”

“That’s right?”

“Yes like this,”

“The fact that teenagers dream of having a crush on girls makes me think that there’s full of happiness when being together,”

“That kind of stuff why don’t you go live with the person whom you actually like. Right now I’m just a spirit, therefore, please do not be angry with me,”

From this speech it seems that she doesn’t seem to compromise at all.

“But if Juugo wins, then I’ll do whatever you want. If you tell me not to disappear then I won’t. If you want me to play as your lover, then I’ll act as your lover in a scene.”

“Then bring it on!!” It makes me change my mind to fight harmlessly. My enthusiasm is more active than a hundred percent which right now is at the level that I’m able to kill the last boss within one sword. Nanana-chan smiles once sees me standing up and punching the air showing my fitness.

“From what I’ve expected, this young boy is a piece of cake,”

Nanana-chan quickly place down the plain custard cup and put away the foldable table including clearing the s.p.a.ce that is used for housewares. She transforms a squared eight-mat sized room into a fighting arena.

“Aya,” I’m in the prepared mode ready to fight with Nanana-chan.

“The people who know the true self of me mostly would all run away but Juugo doesn’t look shocked at all right?”

“No actually, I do, quite a lot, why do I have to voyage to the southern island for starting a fight between two different species. I’ve never thought of fighting against a guarding room ghost at all.”

“But after you knew the truth of who I am actually, then you still choose to talk to me face-to-face right? I disappeared for you to see already and you still haven’t freaked out or started running away yet. There you go, you’re awesome.”

How’s it like that.

“Yes, I may probably have a greater resistance force than a normal person, bring it on!”

“A resistance force? Against a spirit?”

“It’s not like that, the resistance force that I mean is being a bit shocked without freaking out, argh! Argh!”

“Hmm,”

Even if I’ve been seen with full of curiosity but too shy to tell the truth directly.

“Who are you Juugo and where are you from?”

“I just started Grade 11, after this will be a skill level for newbies that just moved to this island,”

“Eh, you are able to?”

“How am I able” to do it!” I oppose but take the joke. After I look up to the ceiling and try calling out but for sure there’s nothing appearing out at all.

“Hey, Nanana-chan, I will try to maintain my watchfulness but I’m starting to feel tired, starting to pant, unable to breathe properly.”

“Oh I’m really sorry, then let the battle right now, the basic rule is fighting with using mixture of martial arts. The person who makes the opponent have to say ‘I give up’ will be the winner,”

“Argh, let’s begin!”

Although there may be no bell ringing as a starting signal, Nanana-chan then beckons to challenge the duel. I immediately attack.

It’s not because I’m boasting but I’m not a kind of person who threatens young girls even if she’s already dead.

Hence, so I intend to beat her tenderly by twisting the bone segment until she can no longer hold it and gives up by herself. But I’ve just forgotten about the basic thing.

Bang!

“Argh,”

That is the fact that I’m unable to touch Nanana-chan who’s a spirit.

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