Vol 2 Chapter 61 (2/2)
While Yahiro was thinking this, the lift came to a stop at Kuon’s floor
‘Kotonami
Nozomi Kuon’
This ritten on the nameplate beside the apartment door
“His… mother, maybe?”
‘Nozomi’ was most likely a woman’s name
In that case perhaps Kuon was living with his mother
As he considered that, Yahiro pressed the doorbell
They waited for a while, but there was no response
“…Maybe no one’s home”
“Should we go back?”
Yahiro was about to agree with Himeka –
But suddenly he froze and looked towards the door
“What’s wrong?
“Someone’s there”
“Eh?”
Himeka faltered at Yahiro’s sudden statement
But Yahiro leant his face closer to the door, and spoke such that anyone inside could hear:
“Excuse me, I’m Kuon-kun’s classmate, Mizuchi”
He knocked lightly on the door, but still there was no response
“Could you have mistaken?”
“No, I heard footsteps”
Due to Yahiro’s unique brand of tinificent history that had resulted from it, he possessed senses twice as acute as most people
They had been numbed for a time due to the sheer crowdedness of Tokyo and the unfarew used to it his senses had regained their sharpness
Ar in on him from behind or from the shadows
Yahiro had detected faint sounds fro their breath’, and concentrated further
In doing so, he had heard soh the door, and realised that someone was inside
“What should we do… I’…?”
“A thief?”
“…Possibly”
In the worst case it could be the kidnapper, here to abduct Yahiro as well
Yahiro, visualising Kuon’s corpse sprawled on the floor inside, began to panic
“Should we call the landlord to open the door for us?”
”…There’s no way the landlord would open up just because we said we heard footsteps inside”
Himeka calmly stared at the doorknob for a while –
And, sighing softly, said to Yahiro expressionlessly,
“This kind should be workable”
“Kind as in?”
“Keep a lookout”
“Huh?”
—For what?
Before he could ask, Hi, and begun rattling at the lock
“Eh… Ehhh?!”
At the sight of what Hi, Yahiro’s face paled and he flustered
“Wait… Tatsugami-san?!”
“It’s open”
“But… Ehhhh?!”
Yahiro sed; he had broken out in sweat Even so, Himeka was unaffected as she put her hand on the doorknob, her face utterly placid
“…I’ the door”
“…S, sure”
Deciding to postpone his questions for now, Yahiro looked towards the door nervously In the next moment, Himeka opened the door
And –
No one was inside
“…Eh?”
Had he been mistaken?
That was Yahiro’s first thought, but his eyes caught so
“…”
More accurately, rather than wiggling, it was shi+vering behind an ornamental plant
“Um, excuse me We’re friends of Kuon-kun…”
Realising it was a wo first
“Are you Kuon’s mother?”
At that, the shi+vering figure – a wolasses – peeked out fro up at him, stuttered shakily,
“Do… Do I look that old…”
The woloomy aura stood sloith a hand on the wall to support her, and looked warily towards Yahiro and Himeka
“W, wasn’t it… locked? How is it open…”
“We jiggled the knob a bit and the door just opened It ht have been broken”
Hieous lie
Yahiro’s eyes grew round and he was staring at her, but with a cool expression she asked the bespectacled woman,
“I’m sorry if it shocked you Are you related to Kotonami-kun?”
With fearful eyes, the woman introduced herself:
“K, Kotonami Nozomi”
“I, I’m Kuon’s… older sister”
A few minutes later
Yahiro and Hi roolances, unsure what to say
But being that the other party was sitting with her legs curled to her chest while pouring the tea, neither had been able to find an opportunity to speak up
Just then, Kotona eye contact,
“You ami Himeka-chan”
“!”
Yahiro was surprised she knew his full nah he had only introduced himself as ‘Mizuchi’ Himeka asked expressionlessly,
“Why do you know our names?”
“Of course I know You’re the friends of my cute little brother”
At the sight of Nozo her eyes, Yahiro was somewhat disconcerted
But without a hitch he accepted that the capital probably had people like this too, and continued the conversation without dwelling on it
“Um, actually, Kuon-kun didn’t come to school today, so…”
“Yeah, I know”
“Eh? So he was absent for a reason, right?”
“Yeah, there’s a reason”
As she sipped at her own tea a dark smile spread over her face, and she said, happily,
“He was abducted last night”
“…?””He was abducted; kidnapped My brother Kuon”
“What…”
She said it so blandly Yahiro thought it was a joke, but he started as he ree
“T, Then, you didn’t open the door just now because you thought ere the kidnapper?”
“Not really? I’ers I don’t open the door unless it’s Kuon or a deliveryman”
“? ??”
Unable to understand what she meant, Yahiro turned to Himeka
Himeka, calm as ever, asked Nozomi quietly,
“…It doesn’t seem like you’ve contacted the police about this, hm”
“Yeah I haven’t Kuon would get in trouble, and I’d hate for the police to come into the house”
She aying back and forth, and even now she was shi+vering slightly
“Honestly, it’s already very stressful that people I’ve never ht now, you know? I feel bad about my situation, especially since you’ve come all the way down…”
Gaze hovering at some point in the air, Nozomi took out a notepad and pencil, and pushed it across the table towards them
“C, could you write your phone number here? Any one of you”
“?”
—So she’s asking us to leave our contacts and go home?
—Well, we did break in, so that’s to be expected
Yahiro interpreted the situation in this way, and with a look at Himeka, he wrote his own number and passed back the notepad
“Th, thanks Drink the tea There are snacks in the fridge, so just eat, okay?”
“Er, huh?”
Yahiro, as expecting to be sent home, tilted his head in confusion
Then Nozomi practically crawled out of the room, and slipped into her own room down the corridor
“What’s happening… What should we do now?”
“Dunno…”
The tere exchanging glances when suddenly Yahiro’s phone rang
“Huh?”
Yahiro was surprised that an unknown nu, but nevertheless he picked up
And then –
‘Yaho~! Doing good? Ah~, I’m so sorry we couldn’t talk properly just now!”
Only to hear the sa room just now
‘Ah~, we can finally talk! I’et so nervous I can’t talk properly! I’m really sorry! It’s not that I don’t like you! Actually I love you! I love you both very much!’
It was the same voice; yet so spirited it was hard to think of as the same person
“Um… Nozomi-san?”
‘Yep, it’s me Ah, do you kno to switch to speaker mode? So Himeka-chan can talk too’
“Sorry, I don’t kno”
After that, with some explanation, Yahiro was able to activate this new function of his phone successfully
‘hello~? Himeka-chan, can you hear me?’
“Yes, I can”
“OK~! I can hear you too!”
Apparently by projecting the call through the speakers one could have a normal conversation Yahiro was relieved, but in the end he could only wonder whether it qualified as a normal conversation
After all: the other party was only a room away
‘I’ll introduce ain! Kotonami Nozomi! Kind of a shut-in, but I handle all the household expenses, so I’ expenses, too’
“Are you a writer, then?”
Hi that she was a shut-in with a job, but was promptly rebuffed
‘Nope, I’ like that, since I use a pen name and write articles!’
“Pen name?”
‘Yep, you can call it a handle, but since I’, maybe pen name sounds better after all!’
Then she uttered a specific name across the receiver:
‘Have you heard of… Lila Tailtooth Zaiya?’
Lila Tailtooth Zaiya
It was an odd name and it was hard to tell what country it could be fro he had seen it before
—Huh?
—I feel like I saw that name somewhere today…
Before Yahiro could place the memory, Himeka spoke up
“…the ‘IkeNEW’ adht?”
‘Bingo! You’re absolutely right!’
“Ah – ”
Yahiro exclaimed as he remembered
He re the lunch break his classmates had showed him a website that had reported on Kuon’s photo with the Headless Rider It was a blog called IkeNEW, and the administrator was Lila Tailtooth Zaiya
“Huh? What? But…”
‘Yep That whole article was a charade by us~ You won’t be able to find the original blog, since it doesn’t exist! Everyone was completely fooled, isn’t that funny?’
“? ? ?”
Questionup all over Yahiro’s head
A news article based on a fake journal?
Why would you do that?
And spread lies about the Headless Rider at the same time?
Is it really all right for a news site to lie?
In the end, who kidnapped Kuon?
Next to Yahiro, whose mind was occupied with ‘?’s, Himeka asked over the phone,
“Was it… so he would be kidnapped?”
‘…Oh? You’re very sharp’
“…”
‘What’s wrong? Tatsugami-san Do you have some idea who the kidnapper is, perhaps?’
To Nozo, Yahiro answered, for now ignoring his own doubts:
“She doesn’t”
‘Why do you say that?’
“If she kneho it was, she could have just told the police”
‘I can’t believe I just heard soe!’
Dry laughter ca if he had said so funny
‘Yahiro-kun, you’rethan I expected Who do you think kidnapped all those people?’
Nozohtfully for a while, before answering,
“Yakuza, maybe…”
‘And why do you think that?’
“Um, I don’t have any basis, exactly… I was kidnapped in the second year of middle school myself, so…”
‘…’ “…”
Both Himeka and Nozomi went silent
Both were aware by now that Yahiro was not the kind of person to joke
But as she did not knohy he would be kidnapped, Himeka was completely unable to absorb the information, and even Nozo him, was left speechless by the sheer extent of what he had said
“Back then roup and got ”
‘You really are interesting’
Then Nozomi said, under her breath:
‘I see~, so that’s why Kuon’s so interested’
“Um, so in the end, is Kuon-kun safe? You don’t seem very worried”
For all Kuon’s sister was the victim of this incident, Yahiro voiced his doubt directly And she answered, nonchalantly:
‘Well, I don’t know if he’s safe, but he has his own plans, I guess?’
‘Since, just as our princess over there said… he got himself kidnapped on purpose’
CHAPTER END