“It’s going to be hard to find it without knowing more than that it’s in Kichijoji.” Sarai frowned.
“Think we might find something online?” I booted up my laptop and ran a search for “Kichijoji Kotoribako.”
But I didn’t find anything.
I tried a bunch of other methods, but none of them felt like they were going to work.
So we were stuck then...
“Um, Gamo, you said that this doujinshi predicts the future, right?”
“Hmm? Y-Yeah.”
“Then are there maybe hints in it?”
“Hints, huh...”
The Kotoribako story was about a man with a box having a threesome with two (male) Gods of Fortune.
If there were a hint in here, what would it be?
It might look like just a BL book, but it definitely had more information in it than you’d think. So there must be some kind of meaning to the two “Gods of Fortune.”
“This is the only story with a shrine...” Sarai pointed out.
He was right. The only people the main character slept with were the Gods of Fortune, and most of it was set at a shrine, with several panels dedicated to describing it.
“In other words, the Kotoribako is at a shrine?” That felt a little too obvious to me, but it made sense. If it was that powerful, the safest thing to do would be to seal it away somewhere holy.
I decided to run a search for how many shrines there were in Kichijoji.
“There are three shrines in Kichijoji, according to the map.” Tamamitsu Shrine, Musashino Hachimangu Shrine, and Yaeda Shrine. “If you extend the area to Mitaka and Nishi-Ogikubo, there’s more.”
“Wasn’t there a shrine in Inokashira Park?” Myu-Pom nodded in response to Sarai’s question.
“Benten Shrine, right? I’ve been there.”
If the shrine in Ririka Nishizono’s doujinshi was based off of one in Kichijoji, we might be able to find something in common.
“Can we pin it down?”
“Ririka Nishizono isn’t that great an artist.” Sarai sighed.
“And it doesn’t look like she traced from a picture either. The perspective is all messed up. It looks like she’s just drawing haphazardly.”
That would make ID’ing it hard.
“If the torii arch were in it, we might be able to narrow it down a little.”
“The torii?”
“There are different kinds of torii arches at shrines. I think there are about sixty variations.”
Huh? Seriously? I had no idea.
Way to go, Sarai-kyun. You’re like a walking encyclopedia.
“But... there’s no torii arch in this doujinshi.”
He was right. There were no torii arches drawn. The only scenes with the Gods of Fortune were drawn inside the shrine grounds.
“The shrine’s supposed to be pretty big, so wouldn’t it be something like Hachimanjingu?”
I checked with street view, and of the three shrines in Kichijoji, Yaeda Shrine was tiny. It was basically just an arch and a shrine building. We could eliminate that one, maybe.
That is, if Ririka Nishizono was being careful with what she drew.
There was a chance that her shrine had nothing to do with a real one. If that were the case, then we were wasting our time here.
“Are these two Gods of Fortune from the seven Gods of Fortune? If so, then doesn’t that mean it’s probably Benten Shrine? He’s one of them.” Myu-Pom’s idea was a good one, but...
“These two are supposed to be Gods of Fortune, but they don’t actually do anything blessing-y.”
Each of the seven Gods of Fortune was famous and distinct, so if you were drawing one of them, you’d add in parts of their costume or something to make them recognizable.
Ririka Nishizono’s gods weren’t anything more than normal, handsome men.
Of course, that wasn’t a problem. This was an original doujinshi. She could draw whatever she wanted.
But there was no way to tell if one of the gods, or perhaps both, were supposed to be Benzaiten. We were never told their names, for one thing.
I thought about going to the park to check, but Inokashira Park was closed down right now.
“Wait, wasn’t that place a temple, not a shrine?”
“Oh, was it?”
“I don’t think... there was an arch.”
“Which means...” I used my laptop to search the area around Kichijoji again. “Maybe we were mistaken to limit ourselves to shrines.”
There were about six temples around Kichijoji. But that didn’t mean we’d found any kind of new clue. Instead of having three places to search, we now had nine.
“...”
I realized that everyone had fallen silent.
The debate had reached an end.
This single doujinshi wasn’t going to give us any critical hints.
“I’m going to the bathroom.” I headed for the bathroom to clear my head.
The bathroom was dark and moody, like always. There were all kinds of flyers and things pasted up on the walls, and I always felt a little uneasy in there.
As I relieved myself, I looked at the flyers, until my eyes happened to stop on a small poster the size of an ordinary piece of paper.
“Make a Pilgrimage to the Seven Gods of Fortune in Kichijoji, Musashino”
“What a coincidence.” We’d been talking about the seven Gods of Fortune, and here I was staring at a poster for an event involving them.
What a coincidence. Or was it a coincidence? Maybe there was a hint here.
“Hmm?”
It was a bus tour that was held every January. The tour visited shrines and temples relating to the seven Gods of Fortune in Kichijoji.
The one in Inokashira was included in the tour as well. There was also Anyoji, Musashino Hachimangingu, and Daihozenji.
Enmeiji and Kizuki Taisha were pretty far apart. Kizuki Taisha was two stations down at Musashisakai station, and Enmeiji was in a hard-to-get-to place near Musashino University.
That explained why there was a bus tour. It would be really hard to visit all six spots on your own.
“Hmm? Six? Even though there’s seven gods?” Did I count wrong?
After I finished and flushed, I leaned forward to take a closer look at the pamphlet.
I followed the stops on the tour in order.
“Inokashira Benzaiten. Musashino Hachimangu, Anyoji, Daihozenji, Enmeiji, Kizuki Taisha... Huh? There really are only six.” Why was there one missing?
I looked even closer, and quickly found the answer.
Each temple, or shrine, had one god in it. Musashino Hachimangu was where Daikokuten was, and Ebisu could be found at Kizuki Taisha. But Enmeiji was a coincidence. There were two Gods of Fortune there: Bishamonten and Juroten...
“Is this...” All the hair on my body stood on end. “Two Gods of Fortune?!”
Wait... was that it? I ripped down the poster and ran from the bathroom.
“Guys! Look! Look at this!” I showed them all the poster.
A wave of surprise went through them as I told them about the two Gods of Fortune at Enmeiji.
“It makes sense... but is this the answer...?”
“The Kotoribako is at Enmeiji...?”
“It’s worth going, isn’t it?”
“But, but!” Ryotasu looked a little scared.
“Isn’t it dangerous? The Kotoribako is bad, right?”
“If we just go look, it should be fine—”
“Oh my. How brave.” And then I heard the quiet, but clear, voice of a woman.
I turned towards the voice in shock.
At some point, an astonishingly beautiful girl in a long black coat, with long, lush hair, had opened the door and come into the cafe.
It was a sudden visitor. Of course, we hadn’t reserved Blue Moon or anything, so it wasn’t strange for anybody else to show up.
This girl had an aura about her that made her hard to approach, and she gave each of us a free
zing-cold glance.
As all of us stood there in shock, Ryotasu spun around and pointed to the girl.
“It’s the witch! ☆”
The witch...?
“Aria Kurenaino...” Myu-Pom whispered. It was only then that I realized who she was.
Wait, Aria Kurenaino?!
“U-Uwah! She’s come to curse us!” I hid behind Ryotasu’s back, quickly. “I knew it! I found the truth hidden in Ririka Nishizono’s doujinshi, and her co-conspirator Aria Kurenaino has come to kill me with her curse! It’s so obvious now! Sarai, she’s a black-magic agent! Her job is to kill people with curses!”
“Calm down, Gamon!” Sarai yelled at me, annoyed.
“There’s no such things as curses!”
“But—”
“I don’t know who Ririka Nishizono is, but...” Aria whispered calmly.
Of course, I had no way of knowing if that were true or not.
“I’m very interested in what I just heard you say.”
“What you heard us say? But when? You just got here.”
“More precisely, it was relayed to me. It was my partner who heard the story—” And then Aria licked her lips a little, and narrowed her eyes.
“A devil.”
I shivered.
I imagined that when she said that, the temperature in the room dropped a little.
Everyone took a step back from her, as if they were feeling an invisible pressure.
Was she... serious? Did she have a real devil serving her? And this devil had heard everything we’d said? Between her words and the fact that she was dressed in all black, I normally would’ve written her off as some delusional goth girl.
But not now.
The way she moved and acted made it seem like everything she was saying was real.
It felt like she was telling the truth. It was like her magic had put a charm spell on me. Or maybe her voice just had the power to brainwash?
Aria looked each of us slowly in turn: me, Sarai, then Ryotasu, and then Myu-Pom.
“Hmph. How stupid.” Sarai was the first to speak. “Black magic? And a devil? So you’re bringing your dark fantasy crap into real life, and trying to make a living on it? Disgusting. And now you’re telling me you got a message from your devil? Listen, you’re still young. Try to limit your jokes to that cosplay fashion sense of yours.”
“...” Aria was looking down, silently.
Sarai... that’s just what I’d expect of you. You’re so strong. But if you get cursed... don’t blame me.
“Listen, if you can speak with a devil, call him here, would you? I’d love to see him, and to ask him some questions about Greek mythology—”
“Bang! Shattee!!”
“Hyahh!”
“Kyah!”
Sarai suddenly fell silent, and all of us screamed, as something burst—
It was the light bulbs inside the cafe. Two light bulbs... had exploded! What was going on...?
“T-That’s not a bad magic trick. I’ve seen that done on TV, but still, it’s impressive that you can do it with no preparation—” Sarai was trying his best to hang in there.
“Shhh.” Aria softly moved her index finger to her lips and ordered him to fall silent.
Silence returned to the room. The only sound was the soft crackling of electricity.
When Sarai took a small step back, Aria glanced upwards at the ceiling and smiled a little, and then began to whisper.
This devil... was seriously a devil.
And then she snorted, upset, and turned to me.
“Perhaps this is your punishment for trying to test black magic... no, to test me.”
My punishment?! For trying to test her?! Was she talking about how I’d had the girls pretend to want to get back at me for cheating?! I knew it! She was going to kill me! She was going to make my head explode! Like those light bulbs!
“More importantly, shouldn’t you hurry?”
“Huh?”
Aria closed her eyes, and acted like she was listening to something.
And this is what she said.
“This world is filled with evil will. And all that evil will is connected to one great will—”
“Huh...?” Will? What will? Whose will?
“It seems that ‘we’ were mistaken.”
“What are you talking about? Who are you talking to?”
“It is a pure being that knows no pain, and one more cruel and merciless than even the will of a devil. The one who holds that large box is...”
“Box... do you mean Chi...?! I know you do! I’m going!” Myu-Pom ran out of the café.
What was she talking about? What was going on?
“What are you planning?!”
She sighed a little, still with a cold look on her face. “It is a young boy... at Enmeiji... who holds the box—” She glanced at Ririka Nishizono’s doujinshi, which was sitting on the table.
And told me.
“A young boy whose hair and everything else is pure white.”
“What?!”
She meant “the albino jerk”! Just like was in the doujinshi! He was the true killer! He was the one who killed Dr. Hashigami! And he was the one who set me up!
I had to hurry. I didn’t even have time to worry that this might be a trap set by Aria.
I was overcome by the impulse to capture that white-haired boy as soon as I could.
site 51: Miyuu Aikawa
I heard a hollow sound, echoing. Clack... Clack.
Master Izumin had called me a taxi to Enmeiji. When I got there I ran to the main shrine as fast as I could, hoping I’d see Chi.
And then I heard the sound.
It wasn’t a loud sound, but the temple was so quiet that it was a little scary, and the sound echoed in my ears.
“What is this sound...?” Gamo had gotten in the taxi with me. He sounded scared.
Supposedly this was where the young boy with the box was. That’s what Gamo had told me in the taxi.
I was disappointed to find out that it wasn’t Chi, but maybe the boy might know something.
I just wanted to hear what he had to say as soon as I could—
I didn’t want to think about anything else—
I didn’t want to imagine anything else—
I looked around.
It was probably because the sun had set, but I couldn’t see anybody around.
But...
I could still hear the sound.
And it wasn’t coming at regular intervals.
There was no order to the rhythm. Sometimes the interval would be shorter, and sometimes longer.
“Think it’s from over there?” Narusawa pointed to the back of the temple.
As I walked I could see the main shrine.
And there they were.
Someone was curled up on the ground beneath the eyes of the statue of Bishamonten that was right next to the shrine.
They should have been able to see us coming, but they didn’t turn to look at us at all.
They were laughing. It was a tiny laugh, like a snort.
In their hands was something square that looked like a box.
Clack. Clack.
The sound was coming from the box.
“Who are you?” I turned on the flashlight function on my phone.
And in the light, I saw...
“A white... person?”
Close-cropped, white hair, skin like snow, and a body and face that was pure white, like it had been dusted with white powder.
“H-He’s really here...” Gamo gulped. Even I could tell he was afraid.
I took a step towards the boy.
And then I felt an awful stench in my nostrils.
What was it? I felt sick.
“Myu-Pom, wait. Something’s not right about him.” Gamo grabbed my shoulder and stopped me.
I heard a voice again.
It was like someone talking to themselves, and so quiet it was hard to hear.
The white-haired boy was
chortling and whispering something.
“What’s wrong? That’s weird. This thing must be broken. It won’t shut. Hehe.” Clack...
I heard the sound again.
What was this sound?
“Hey, hey, miss.”
“...?!”
Suddenly he talked to me... at least, it felt that way. Did he call out to me? It was so sudden I was too shocked to react.
He still wasn’t looking at us.
Clack...
The sound, again.
“Looks like I screwed up making the box.”
“The... box?” Did he mean the Kotoribako?
“There’s, like, manuals and stuff online, but I didn’t really look at them. Oh well. But you don’t usually look at those, right? Only really serious people do. I’m sure eighty percent of Japanese people don’t look at the manual before they start putting something together.”
What was he talking about?
Clack...
And what was that hollow sound? I didn’t know. I was starting to panic, and I had to know what it was...
My cell phone flashlight shone on the young boy’s hands.
Was that... a box? It was about forty square centimeters in size.
The surface was really uneven. It wasn’t quite square.
It didn’t even really look like a box. It was more like he’d just piled some blocks together. And around the box were scattered lots of cards. They were trading cards. Just like the card I’d seen in the last photo Chi sent...
“Wh-Where’s the keyhole?” Gamo was looking hard at the box.
“There isn’t one...”
I finally figured out what the sound was.
The box wouldn’t hold its shape unless he was pressing on it. Especially the outside. There was a long, vertical block that hadn’t been put in very well. If he took his hand off, it couldn’t support itself, and popped out.
It was the sound of him pushing it back in.
Each time a block flew out, he’d been popping it back in with annoyance.
“I smell blood.” This smell... it was blood.
Where was it coming from? Was it the blocks? And then I realized...
The surface of the blocks was wet for some reason.
I could see what looked like hair, poking out from in between the gaps in the blocks.
Occultic;Nine Volume 2 Page 16