Chapter 77
Chapter 77
The God of the Pine Room, Part 1 (Investigators: Rokuhara Yunji, "Kirima Renjiro")
In the back seat of the bus bathed in morning sun, Rokuhara said.
"There was a case involving something called the God of Haircutting. A string of incidents occurred where villagers bit off their tongues and died. I thought the name came from that, but in reality, it was a curse god—if you chose someone you wanted to kill and offered hair, a mass of hair would appear in their throat and kill them. The victims probably tried to remove the hair from their mouths and bit their tongues in shock."
Sitting beside him, Uyuu furrowed his brow and spoke after a long silence.
"......Rokuhara, is that really something you need to talk about on a city bus?"
The elderly women in the front seats had been glancing back at them repeatedly with puzzled expressions.
A student sitting diagonally in front pressed headphones to his ears and pretended to listen to a small radio just as Rokuhara's story reached its climax.
"Yes, I believe not being misled by the name of a god is important in solving cases."
"That's an important lesson... but pick the right time and place."
"My apologies. I should have brought it up earlier within the special investigation division. I just hadn't had a chance to speak with you, Kirima-san."
"Yeah, sure......"
Rokuhara nodded calmly as sunlight lit up his pale face. Realizing further words were pointless, Uyuu pressed his head against the window.
What would the real Kirima Renjiro have said at a time like this? Maybe he would've silenced him with that piercing stare and towering presence. No, knowing Rokuhara, he probably wouldn't have cared either way.
He recalled the image of Ryoko, who had smiled inscrutably while facing Kirima at the countermeasure headquarters.
Rokuhara Mitsuji. Like Mihara Ryoko, he came from the village that worshipped the solitary god involved in the Territorial Divine Offenses.
Thanks to the efforts of Katagishi and Miyaki, and Rokuhara's own overstepping actions, the harmful effects of the solitary god on the village had been significantly reduced.
He was grateful for that in itself. He also understood that she was a different person from Ryoko.
Even so, every time he saw that pale profile and unreadable smile, the horrors of the past came flooding back.
The bus jolted violently and came to a stop. Uyuu struck the back of his head hard against the seat.
"Are you alright, Kirima-san?"
"No problem. It's the last stop. Let's go."
Keeping it brief, Uyuu stood up. Perhaps the bus hadn't fully stopped yet, as it shook again and he nearly fell. Uyuu let out a deep breath.
––––Kirima-san would never mess up like this. Then again, maybe even he had his clumsy moments.
Still, as long as he was borrowing his name, he didn't want to act unworthy of it. Avoiding Rokuhara's unreadable face, Uyuu quickly stepped off the bus.
The bus stop was halfway up a mountain slope, surrounded by bleak trees and crumbling asphalt.
Rokuhara looked around and suddenly said,
"There aren't any pine trees."
"What are you talking about?"
"This time's Territorial Divine Offense is said to be the God of the Pine Room."
"I see. You're right—there's not a single one."
A faint engine sound echoed along the deserted mountain road. Looking over, they saw a young man approaching, having parked a sky-blue bike loaded with cardboard boxes.
"Looks like a delivery guy. Shall we ask him some questions?"
"And how do you plan to do that?"
Before answering, Rokuhara turned on his heel and headed straight toward the deliveryman.
"Excuse me."
The deliveryman, struggling with his cargo, looked up at Rokuhara's voice and flinched slightly. He seemed startled by the all-black outfit and pale face. Uyuu anxiously watched the two.
"Is he gonna be okay......"
The deliveryman forced a smile.
"Is something wrong? You're not from around here, are you? Did you get lost or something?"
Rokuhara replied expressionlessly.
"Have you ever seen a god?"
"......Sorry, what? A god?"
"The definition of a god is a complicated issue, but we use the term for entities that are incomprehensible to humans and unexplainable by science. Have you ever witnessed one?"
As the deliveryman stepped back and tried to start his bike to flee, Uyuu stepped in.
"What the hell are you doing, Rokuhara!"
Rokuhara blinked and looked back at Uyuu.
"It's an inquiry."
"That looked exactly like some shady religious recruitment!"
Pushing aside the uncomprehending Rokuhara, Uyuu faced the deliveryman.
"Sorry about that. He's a renowned professor at a national university, but he's kind of an academic fool and out of touch with the real world. Don't mind him."
The deliveryman's expression softened slightly.
"Ah, I see... so, what did you want?"
"I'm a detective. I came to investigate after hearing about strange incidents in this village. The locals seem unwilling to talk, and we can't launch a full-scale investigation. If you know anything, could you tell me?"
"In that case, there's an old lady who often orders deliveries who mentioned something like that. You might want to check down at the base of the mountain."
"Thanks for your help."
After the deliveryman left, Uyuu glared at Rokuhara.
"Don't ever act on your own again."
"Understood. You're quite the smooth talker, Kirima-san. Even if you lose your job, you could survive as a con artist."
"That wasn't a compliment."
He didn't say, That's what I used to be.
After finishing most of the interviews with villagers at the foot of the mountain, Uyuu sat at a rest area on the village outskirts, holding his head.
"What the hell is going on......"
Rokuhara sat in the chair beside him.
"The testimonies are all over the place."
"Yeah, we've got nothing from this."
Uyuu opened a notebook compiling all the testimonies.
It was a snake, a snake! Just the width of it was as tall as me—it was that thick. When it rained, I tried to shoo away a frog that had gotten under the eaves... I hate frogs too, but that massive snake was on another level.
It was a spider. In summer, bugs infest the shed out back, so I went to clean it, and there was an enormous spider covering the entire wall.
It wasn't some monster. That was my dad who vanished. He was just standing at the front door. I thought, after all this time, how dare he show up—but when I looked closer, he hadn't changed at all since he disappeared. It's been ten years. My stepdad was scared stiff. My real dad wasn't great either, but you can't beat a ghost.
Rokuhara peeked at the notebook from the side.
"It seems it can take human form. There's no consistency in the time, date, or weather conditions either."
"Get closer—no, back off. Maybe it changes form based on the witness, or..."
"What if it takes the form of what the person fears most?"
"That's a good theory. Still, something doesn't sit right. Where's the pine, anyway?"
Just as Uyuu closed the notebook, a bell rang behind him.
It sounded like a passerby had dropped a netsuke bell—an ordinary noise. But no one was around.
The moment he turned around, a flood of bell sounds pierced his eardrums and swelled in his mind.
Uyuu instinctively stood up. Jingle, jingle—the bells rang. An unpleasant sound echoed too, like mocking laughter imitating a crying voice.
Uyuu reflexively covered his ears. He knew this sound.
A bridge at midnight, countless holes in the embankment, that nightmarish, ominous form.
––––No way. It can't be. That thing should have been erased.
Was Rokuhara still beside him? The image of Kirima slashed in the stomach by sharp claws and bleeding came back to him. The summer twenty years ago spilled out from his mind.
––––The God of Abundant Fruit.