Phenomeno Read online

  case:01 The house that grants wishes

  ~flow

  1

  Hey, mother.

  If the beings called ghosts existed in this world—

  Would it ever be possible for someone to prove their existence such that no one anywhere could argue otherwise?

  I think it would be impossible, no matter how much humanity evolves. On the flip side, it also means no one anywhere could prove irrefutably that they do not exist.

  From that standpoint, to discuss whether ghosts exist or not is a complete waste of time. That's why people who can emerge victorious from such a discussion, must be people who can purely enjoy ghosts as a source of entertainment. Indeed, I fall under that group, and you could call me quite bluntly as an occult maniac.

  Mother may not know, but this is quite a niche existence in the world — to be of my age and go ghost this, UMA that; I know that people laugh at people like me. But you know, there are plenty of things in the world that are inexplicable.

  Yes—

  For example, the house I'm living in.

  This old, almost thirty-years-old building is by the side of the Tamagawa waterworks, and partly because it's located in such an odd place, has an incredibly low rent. When I came to Tokyo this spring, I looked for a cheap apartment, and found this place.

  It takes ten minutes of biking to reach a convenience store. It's surrounded by darkness and covered by a thick copse, and because there are no streetlights in the area it's completely dark at night. However, I enjoy this old building. It was built like an old mountain cottage, as the first floor was a garage and the second and third floors were a blow-out, so it was more than luxurious for a person living alone. The kitchen was as cramped as a kitchenette, but it had a living room, a Japanese-style room, a bath, and even an atelier. From what I hear, an architect had designed it as a personal workplace. I liked it at first sight. Furthermore for a place with a bath to be just 30,000 yen in Tokyo Musashino was unthinkably rare, and it even came with an oral story that could not be ignored.

  “This is a house that grants wishes.”

  So said the smiling real estate agent who introduced this place to me.

  “The architect who built this became famous, the illustrator who moved in became busy and moved closer to the city, and the young couple that was living here until last month gave birth to a baby, which led to this becoming open. You are quite lucky.”

  After hearing that, who wouldn't immediately seal the deal?

  So, I jumped at the opportunity. There was probably a feeling of superiority too, given that my colleagues at university pay over twice the rent and live in rabbit cages. In any case, I was quite pleased at how lucky a man I was with my first time living alone.

  Yet — within a month I realized how big of a mistake that was.

  I can hear sounds somewhere when I'm sleeping at night. The squeaking of something persistently attempting to open some old door. I'd assumed it was just some bad structuring somewhere, but I soon realized that it was odd that it always happened at 2AM. I tried going to the living room from my bedroom at the edge of the second floor. And the sound would stop. I thought, maybe it was coming from above, and went to the atelier on the third floor. But there was nothing that could be the source of the sound. I'd planned to eventually organize it to be cooler, but at the moment it was a bare environment with just my desk and a bookshelf. I looked around but the windows were all shut, so there was nothing to make a sound. After that I went to the toilet and the bath. However I could not find anything that could be connected to the sound. So I thought maybe I'm just hearing things and went to sleep again. But then the sound started again. Squeak, the sound of old wood groaning. I could also hear the sound of something scraping. It wasn't like a mouse or a cat. It was an eerie sound, like something trying to crawl out of somewhere dark after having been tormented for a long time.

  Eventually that sound stopped seemingly echoing throughout the house, and felt like it was seeping through the atmosphere around my ear. As a result, I began keeping the lights on throughout the house and using earplugs when sleeping. However, the problem stopped being just sound.

  It was about two weeks ago.

  I found a decisive thing.

  I found ”七” (seven) carved into the wall of the landing of the stairs with something sharp.

  I immediately checked the doors and windows around the house. But there didn't seem to have been anyone entering. I was probably terrified. It was a pretty big engraving, but I forced myself to think I had just never noticed it before. A few days later, though, I found near the bathtub ”六” (six). Something sharp had carved it into the window sill. And then a week ago, I found near the toilet ”五” (five), and even this easy-going person had to believe it.

  Something was in this house.

  And that this was some countdown.

  I immediately jumped out of the house. I couldn't live in the house anymore. I hadn't made any close friends yet at university, so I lived in karaoke boxes and net cafes for several days. I couldn't talk about this to anyone. I didn't know any monks, nor any mediums. Then I realized. Right, maybe the people from ”Ikaigabuchi” (Edge of the Netherworld) would be perfect for discussing this with! The colleagues of mine whom were also into the occult world may believe me.

  And so—

  Incidentally, they aren't suspicious people at all.

  “No, ”we” are plenty suspicious.”

  ”… Huh?”

  I recoiled at the sudden voice from above.

  When I looked up, I saw Karasu's white face, and she was waving her hand.

  “Yo, Nagi.”

  “K- Karasu. Since when were you there?”

  I checked the time on my cell phone.

  It was 10:30PM. There was still 30 minutes until the offline meeting taking place at 11.

  “Right around when you began explaining 'the house that grants wishes' to your mother.”

  ”… That's basically the start.”

  I complained, as I grumpily placed my stationery back my bag.

  “Sorry, sorry. But you know, peeping is like our trait, you know?”

  Said Karasu as she smiled cutely.

  This was a family restaurant near Itsukai Ichikai road.

  We were going to have an emergency offline meeting here with the members of an occult site I frequent. And of course, Karasu wasn't her real name. It was a handle that she used online. Just as I, Yamada Nagito, go by the name “Nagi”, she went by “Karasu.” This was the third time we'd met, but I still didn't know her real name. However, she was a veteran on the “Ikaigabuchi” site, and thus a big senior to me, who'd only begun looking at the site this spring.

  Her appearance was as usual. A purplish velvet dress that reached her ankles, and below that was just a black camisole, or rather, her chest was completely bare. Her breasts looked like they would jump out at any time, which made looking at her awkward — however, this was her uniform of sorts.

  “You're quite early, did you close shop early today?”

  I asked.

  “Pretty much. Fortunetellers don't have much to do when there are no customers.”

  She took off the stole she was wearing and sat down across from me.

  “But you know, to put it frankly.”

  She played with the skull-shaped accessory shining at her breast as she looked at me.

  “Your house probably has nothing to it.”

  “What?”

  “What was it — umm, right, schema.”

  “Schema?”

  “Some word used in cognitive science. If you keep thinking you're scared, then you start seeing faces in the ceiling, that sort of thing. Because you were hearing squeaking every day, you began seeing numbers from the scratche
s that always were in your house.”

  ”… S- seriously?”

  “Seriously seriously. I mean, you came to Tokyo alone from super rural-ness in Shizuoka, and this is the first time you're living alone, right? And then you're living in an old, wooden house alone, so it's not too surprising. I used to live in a house that groaned and squeaked a lot, so I know how you feel. It's like the sound of saran wrapping so it's pretty discomforting.”

  So she said, as she raised her hand to order beer from the waitress.

  Well, wait then. If this was just me being a wuss, then what should I say to the occult veterans that were coming to the offline meeting? Would I get banned from the wonderful site for being an airhead in just one night?

  “Ahh, don't worry about it.”

  She laughed.

  “We're a bunch of folk that love meeting and trading shady stories.”

  “But, it shouldn't be that simple? There were about ten people coming to this meeting.”

  And then Karasu said huh? and looked at me.

  “You hadn't looked?”

  “At what?”

  “This meeting, I think over thirty people are showing up.”

  … What?

  I hurried accessed the “Ikaigabuchi” offline meeting board through my cell phone.

  And then opening the “The house that grants wishes / investigation thread” and was taken aback.

  “You're right. Why'd the number suddenly rocket? Are that many people interested in the 'house that grants wishes?'”

  “Unfortunately, not at all. See, even the regulars 'Suu' and 'Zippo' are coming to the meeting, right? They wouldn't move for some mere horror tale.”

  … Some horror tale.

  She laughed at the expression I made as she plucked the phone from my hand and then played with it. And then she turned the screen to me.

  “This. The fourth poster, going by the name 'Yoishi.' I think this many people are showing up because this one announced their participation.”

  “Who is 'Yoishi'?”

  “No idea.”

  Said Karasu with a grin as she pulled out a cigarette. She lit the cigarette using a worn, slender lighter, and after blowing out a puff of smoke, quietly whispered.

  “Those that meet Yoishi die seven days later.”

  “What?”

  “There's more. Yoishi isn't a living person. Offline meetings that Yoishi attends end in terror. What else was there?”

  “W- What is that?”

  “Something like an urban legend that started being whispered around 'Ikaigabuchi.' Yet no one's actually met Yoishi. No one knows if Yoishi is some old man, or even what gender they are. However, everyone who attends a meeting that Yoishi goes to remains silent. The entire thread disappears. The participants stop going to 'Ikaigabuchi', or—”

  “Or?”

  “They die.”

  Her low whisper felt like ice-cold water splashing down the back of my neck. On the other side, Karasu happily received her glimmering cup of beer, and exclaimed,

  “Guah, delicious!”

  With a lackadaisical tone.

  “But those… are just rumors, right?”

  I asked, and she laughed, that's right.

  “So basically, even if 'the house that grants wishes' is a miss, there's the hope of 'Yoishi', so everyone's gathering for fun. So you don't have to fret about it any.”

  She said, but I still felt mixed emotions.

  Until now, until today, I was trembling with fear alone, unable to go home. And then I suggested today's offline meeting in the hopes of getting the opinions of the veterans of “Ikaigabuchi.” Having the story blown off immediately as my misunderstanding wasn't sufficient to quell my fears.

  “However — if Yoishi has gotten interested, might 'the house that grants wishes' be real?”

  “Who knows-. I'm just interested in seeing how Yoishi-kun's appearance changes a horror story that doesn't interest me into something more eerie.”

  … Doesn't interest.

  “If it still bothers you, 'Ikaigabuchi' has a page for investigating haunted areas. You can request an investigation. Although I still think you'll just end up being laughed at.”

  She laughed, as she quickly finished her beer.

  Indeed, the “Ikaigabuchi” site did routinely checked out haunted areas around the country regardless of fame.

  After investigation, haunted areas were graded on a scale of A to D, with A being called the most dangerous of spots. This rating was very unique, in that famed areas such as Masakado Kubiduka and Iwainari were given a D rank by “Ikaigabuchi” —- in other words, they were rated as the lowest level of danger. Supposedly it was because it had become an area that was “evenly split”, as humans and ghosts treated each other with respect.

  On the other hand, places given an A rank were often unknown to the common populace. Places such as crime scenes that involved murders brought forth by thick emotions such as infatuation and jealousy, isolated locales of death by seniors who maintained fanatic delusions, and so on. They say those places serve as lightning rods for souls that resented the current world, souls that had lost personalities and simply become clumps of malicious intent, far beyond saving.

  As I thought such things, Karasu had begun peering intently at my face.

  “Hey, Nagi-kun.”

  “Yes?”

  “You have the mark of a meeting.”

  “Yes?”

  “And this is— a girl.”

  … Seriously?

  My expression loosened at her words.

  “Can you tell me a little more?”

  “Hmm.”

  She began playing with the skull-shaped accessory near her breast as she continued.

  “How should I put it, it's a very dense meeting. Like two souls previously split are reuniting. But-”

  She said, seemingly looking through me and at a different world.

  “It's hard to say if meeting this girl will actually result in happiness for you.”

  “What's that?”

  “And furthermore… huh? Wait, isn't she dead?”

  ………. Hey.

  Isn't that like, being possessed?

  You've gotta be kidding me, I thought, but I also remembered that she would tell me such ominous things every time we met. Previously she'd told me I had bicycle luck and then I got hit by a mama-cycle on the way back, and then she'd told me I had gold fortune and was happy but then I stepped on a gold-colored thumbtack at home. In other words, she was very good at presenting unfortunate things in a way that you can't tell it's unfortunate, which is an important skill for a fortuneteller, I suppose.

  “You know, Karasu, if you're a fortuneteller, shouldn't you also tell people how to avoid misfortune?”

  I asked.

  “But it's up to the person whether to think of something as unfortunate.”

  She stuck out her tongue in a cute way, and then shouted to the employee passing by, “Another beer, please!”

  As I sat there watching over her in a vexed manner, the door chime sounded repeatedly, and suspicious-looking people filed in one after another. Seeing how they were coming over after noticing Karasu, I deduced they were people attending the offline meeting.

  “Yo yo Karasu, as beautiful as always.”

  “Long time no see to you too, Maru.”

  “I'm so excited.”

  “We have such karmic dispositions.”

  As such conversations continued, my seat in the back of the family restaurant slowly became surrounded by activity. Every now and then I would see a familiar face, but most I had never seen before. I'd actively been participating in offline meetings in Tokyo, and that I continued seeing new faces en masse each time made me realized how deep the world of the occult was.

  Just after eleven, the group that had gathered at the back of the family restaurant, with the odd interest, had passed thirty. Or rather, I'd picked the family restaurant figuring there'd be ten, so this was pretty big transg
ression. The looks from the waitresses passing awkward smiles at me hurt.

  “Are there more coming?”

  I quietly asked Karasu, who was engaging in friendly chat with other attendees, and she was a bit blushed as she responded, it's way too late now.

  “There are a bunch of people who show up without saying anything, so there'll probably be a few more.”

  “That's problematic.”

  “This might scare away 'Yoishi', too.”

  She commented lightly, but—

  This might really be troublesome.

  “So, which one's Yoishi?”

  As expected, not even an hour passed before the conversation blew past “the house that grants wishes.”

  The countless occult veterans crammed into the family restaurant each looked around them, frantically looking for the accursed “Yoishi.”

  “Alright, I propose introducing ourselves!”

  Said the middle-aged man going by the handle “Professor”, with his blushed face.

  Seeing empty beer mugs scattered around his table revealed how drunk this person was. And then in response, others chanted “yeah lets do it” and one by one people stood up and gave a greeting. As at least half the participants were getting quite drunk, people began feeling less like occult maniacs and more of a complete drinking party.

  “First! I'm Professor! My preferred area of occult are stories from people of post-trauma ethnicity!”

  “Second! I'm Rabbit. I love folklore about Ryoumen Sukuna-sama!”

  “Third! I'm Harley! I get excited by stuff related to OOPARTS! At the moment I'm researching Voynich Manuscripts!”

  What're they going first second third for? And why are Rabbit and Harley both jumping on the wagon?

  The occult maniacs were very playful, and so they began introducing themselves one by one. With incredibly loud volume. I alone seemed to be taking the brunt of the customers' glares from the rest of the restaurant.

  “Seventh, I'm Karasu!”

  When she energetically stood up, a round of applause arose, and in response she began socializing every which way, so I gave up. Come to think of it, it could be said that every offline meeting for “Ikaigabuchi” turns out this way, and so it's like a trait of the site.