Occultic;Nine: Volume 1

by Chiyomaru Shikura

  When I drew them, I started to see things that weren’t there. Like where a neighborhood cat that had gone missing was. Or maybe I’d see Mom getting soaked in a sudden rainstorm.

  They were visions of the future. I was subconsciously seeing visions of things to come.

  At first, Mom would laugh when I told her. But eventually she started to hate hearing about them.

  One day, I saw a vision that was different than the others. It was a vision of Mom being hit by a car.

  I begged her not to leave the house. But she ignored me and left to go shopping, and was struck by a car right in front of me.

  Dang it. Now I was remembering it. I was remembering the times when things were their hardest.

  I was all alone then. Nobody understood me. I was different than the others. I thought I was strange.

  “My visions, and...” I gritted my teeth as the tears poured down.

  Tell me, Daddy...

  “Am I... a mistake?”

  I’d never been wrong before. I’d always been right. Everything I saw had actually happened.

  But was today the first time I’d been wrong? He might be lying, I thought. But I couldn’t prove it.

  Even if they said he only had a year to live, there was still a chance he’d live another ten years. That would just sound like an excuse, though. And it still felt like almost fifty thousand people were staring at me and laughing.

  I couldn’t see that man’s face, but thousands could see mine.

  I’m so scared.

  I could feel the hatred being directed at me, and it felt like all I could do was grab my knees and shiver, like I did when I was a child.

  —Save me, Daddy...

  There was one person who’d offered me a hand when I was little. It was my Dad.

  He’d taken photos of my drawings to save them. That’s what these cards were. I gripped the cards tight and held them to my chest.

  I opened up my eyes and I was lying in a ball in the middle of a field of flowers. Dad was standing over me, looking just like he did back then. He smiled gently, and held me tight.

  And when I tried to entrust my body to his warmth...

  That’s when Dad would always whisper the same thing in my ear.

  —Do you know why I died?

  I would jerk away, and he would keep smiling. When I tried to run away, he would chase me, with that smile on his face. Then he would finally grab my hand, and his mouth would open. He would always say the same thing.

  —Do you know, Miyuu?

  No. Don’t say it.

  —Do you know?

  Stop it!

  —It’s because of your fortune-telling!

  I came back to reality just in time to see the cards I was holding fall to the ground under the table. I pulled my hood tight over my head. I hid my face and wrapped my arms tightly around my body.

  And then I cried, softly, in a way I hadn’t since I was a child. I couldn’t even see my own terrible future.

  “Daddy...”

  site 05: MMG

  The room was deep in the back of a long, long hallway in a sub-basement, a place where even people with the right clearance rarely went.

  It lacked the disinfectant smell unique to hospitals only because the place was almost entirely isolated from the outside. The bare concrete walls would have felt appropriate in a fallout shelter.

  There was not a single window, nor a single ray of sunlight. The only light was a pale blue, and came from the tablets held by several men who were sitting in a half-circle in the center of the room.

  In the dim half-light, it seemed as if the room itself might continue off into endless darkness. Perhaps there was no furniture or other decoration in this room to help create this very illusion.

  “A prophecy in the Old Testament tells us that in the end of days, the people will be branded with the mark of the Devil, ‘666,’ and without that brand, they will be unable to survive.” Standing opposite from the men in the circle was a man in a dark crimson suit, who began to speak in a loud, haughty tone.

  All of the men in the circle were older than he was. But the man showed no signs of attempting to hide his arrogant attitude as he continued speaking. That meant he was the one in charge of this meeting.

  “Of course, this is just a myth. But in reality, from the moment a human is born, you could say they’re destined to be either one of the rulers, or one of the ruled.” One of the men, Hatoyama, a member of the Diet’s lower house and a former prime minister, interrupted him.

  “That’s quite the statement, Mr. Takasu.” There was a wry smile on his face. “Have we become some sort of dark religious cult, or perhaps a shady secret society?”

  “I take offense to that.” The man in the crimson suit, who’d been called Takasu, turned towards Hatoyama. He didn’t appear to be terribly upset. “I am neither drunk on my own words, nor am I pretending to be part of the Illuminati.”

  “But isn’t Mr. Hatoyama correct, in that now’s not the time to be discussing legends and myths?” The next man to speak was a serious-looking sort in a while lab coat. Underneath the coat he wore a shirt and necktie.

  “Professor Matoba, I’m afraid the subject of my discussion is reality. I’ve taken this opportunity to make our position clear to everyone.” Takasu looked around at the other men sitting in the half-circle, as if seeking agreement. “Our position as the rulers, you see.”

  A single image suddenly appeared on all the men’s tablets. It consisted of several photographs of birds and dolphins.

  But the animals weren’t in their natural habitats. They were locked in outdoor pools or huge cages, being managed and controlled by human hands.

  “These birds and dolphins have been implanted with microchips that allow them to be controlled remotely. We’re already past the prototype stage. By applying a simple electrical signal to the parts of the brain that control neurotransmission, we can make them feel pain, joy, anger, or sorrow in a very natural manner. You’re already aware of this technology, of course.”

  The sitting men nodded silently.

  “Being controlled without realizing it is not necessarily a sad fate. And of course, it’s not always wrong to control someone. It’s possible for the rulers to give great happiness and satisfaction to the ruled. A look through the history books will show you that order has been destroyed by a handful of rioters several times. Humans are fundamentally stupid creatures, and without proper rule, their society will collapse from the inside. Strictly speaking, we’re on a slow path to destruction right now. A haphazard response to this threat is meaningless, and thus, order must be brought about by a power that goes beyond normal conceptions of such. Thus—” Takasu paused, dramatically.

  “What this world needs isn’t a hero. It’s a god.”

  The men seated in the half-circle began to whisper at the mention of such a fanciful being in a place like this. Takasu curled up his lips into a smile, as if enjoying their reaction.

  site 06: Shun Moritsuka

  Monday, February 15th

  “You ever seen this before?”

  I took out an envelope and showed it to the boy seated across from me. While the boy looked inside the envelope, I quickly glanced around the shop through my sunglasses.

  I was inside a place called Amenity Dream, a trading card shop on Kichijoji’s Sun Road. The shop was a little cramped, with several glass showcases displaying all kinds of cards in carefully organized rows.

  There were five customers in the store right now, including me. Probably fewer than usual for this time of day. All of them were kids, either in middle school or elementary school. They all seemed to know one another, and were chatting with each other in loud voices. Sometimes, one of them would even shout or scream for some reason.

  I and the young boy, who said his name was Sagami, were seated away from the others. There was a gaming area that seated up to 30, and normally you’d see at least a couple groups of people playing. Fortunately for me, it was empty
today.

  Young Sagami’s eyes went wide when he saw what was in the envelope.

  “Th-This is...”

  “Don’t tell anyone. If you do, you’ll find yourself floating in Tokyo Bay,” I warned him in a low whisper.

  The other three were pretending to look at a showcase while shooting occasional glances our way. They seemed to be quite interested in our discussion.

  “How did you get this?”

  “I’ll just say that in this world, money talks.” I chuckled a little, and young Sagami began to grit his teeth.

  “You grown-ups are all a bunch of cheaters, aren’t you?”

  “Heh. Say what you like.”

  “You’ll really give this to me?”

  “In exchange for information.”

  I took a new photo out from my coat pocket. It was a screenshot I’d taken of an internet video, showing a bespectacled man in his 20s who was looking at the camera.

  “You ever seen him before?”

  “Who is he?”

  “A few days ago, a man doing a One-Man Hide And Seek livestream disappeared during the middle of it. This is that man.”

  “Oh yeah. The one from the article on Kirikiri Basara?”

  “Oh, you read Kirikiri Basara?”

  Kirikiri Basara, or KiriBasa for short, was an aggregator site for occult news stories. The site was popular among certain devoted fans of the genre.

  I leaned in toward young Sagami. “That makes this quick, then. Strangely enough, the media isn’t covering this matter at all. The only people online who are talking about it are at KiriBasa. This means someone’s putting pressure on someone else. My guess is that the missing man has acquired some form of top-secret information.”

  “He didn’t die from a curse because he was playing One-Man Hide And Seek?”

  “No, he’s not dead.”

  “How do you know?”

  “How do I know, you ask?” I shrugged my shoulders in an exaggerated manner. “Because...”

  I stood up and yanked off my sunglasses. “Because Myu said so!”

  After hearing the name of my Ultra-Super Information Source, the whole shop went silent for several seconds. Everyone, not just young Sagami, was looking at me in surprise.

  “Who’s that? One of the new Vanguard characters?”

  “It is not! I mean, sure, I think Vanguard definitely needs more female characters. But Myu isn’t from the Vanguard anime. There’s nothing in that little brain of yours but Vanguard, is there? You’re going to be in your last year of middle school next year, right? Will be you be able to handle your exams?”

  “Then who is it?”

  “Wait, you’re telling me you really don’t know who Myu is?” I was so shocked that I had no choice but to pound my fists on the table. “You didn’t see her Nicco-Nico stream yesterday?! How? Who? Get with the times, kid! The whole internet’s starting to talk about this new teenage fortune-teller! She’s going to go big for sure! How the hell can you not know who she is?! That’s pathetic! Well, anyway, Myu answered my question! She said the missing man is still alive! I’m the only person smart enough to ask her a question like that, you see! Well, it’s like, when you’ve been watching her stream from the very beginning like I have, you can tell what sort of questions she wants you to ask. But anyway, she’s incredibly accurate! She’s the real deal! And since she said so, it has to be true! That’s an absolute law! So the man isn’t dead! He’s still alive!”

  “M-Morizuka, can you not pick fights with the little kids in my store?” The timid-looking owner said.

  Oh, damn. I accidentally got serious at a middle school kid! The other customers were looking at me in shock. I tried my best to laugh if off. I bowed to the owner once, too.

  “Sorry about that. Sagami here just said something so stupid, I was genuinely surprised. Tee hee! ☆” And then I stuck my tongue out, so I could be cute in an anime sort of way.

  Neither the owner nor young Sagami laughed.

  “But I will say this, though. My name isn’t Morizuka. It’s Moritsuka. Shun Moritsuka! Get it right already.”

  “Oh, sorry. Just try and keep it down.” He didn’t need to tell me. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

  I’m twenty-six years old, and a detective with the Musashino police, after all. I’m not just some kid.

  “So can I have this Revenger, Raging Form Dragon, then?” Young Sagami waved the envelope I’d given him. Inside was an extremely rare card for the Vanguard collectible card game, called “Revenger, Raging Form Dragon.”

  “Huh?! What are you talking about, Sagami? I told you. It’s in exchange for information. You didn’t know anything about my question, did you? So you can’t have it. Come on, give it back. Do you know how much I spent to get that thing?”

  Between you and me, it was 5,000 yen. I paid 5,000 yen for a single card. And I had to go through a dozen trading card shops all over Tokyo to find it. No way in hell was I giving it to some middle school brat for nothing.

  “Morizuka, you suck,” young Sagami whined, despite the fact that I was his elder.

  “Come on! How many times do I have to tell you? Are you sure you’re in middle school? It’s Moritsuka, not Morizuka! Now give me back my card!” I yanked it out of his hand.

  Young Sagami pursed his lips into a pout. I wanted to do the same thing!

  “Sagami, you shouldn’t get so cocky just because you beat me in our last 11 Vanguard duels. Once you’re done with middle school, you’re not allowed to be proud of your Vanguard skills anymore.”

  “Aw, come on. Give it to me, Morizuka.”

  “No. And if you try to take it, that’s larceny. Keep that in mind. If you don’t, I’ll arrest you on the spot. You don’t want that, do you?” I waved the “Revenger, Raging Form Dragon” card in front of his face.

  He was clearly getting mad. “I’m just a minor. They won’t charge me.”

  “Wow, you think you’re so smart, huh? Grown-ups hate kids like that, Sagami. You should cut it out.” But he appeared to have no intention of listening to my warning.

  “So, Morizuka, are we having a duel today?”

  “Nope. I’m on the clock. Man, must be nice to be in middle school! Every day is like Sunday, isn’t it? I’m so jealous. I wish I could do nothing but play Vanguard all day on a weekday.”

  “You’re such a slacker. So what are you doing here?”

  “Questioning people. That’s my job. I just asked you for information, didn’t I? Though I was wrong to try asking a kid whose only talent in life is Vanguard. Not that I expected much, of course. This is all just a game. A little game, like playing house. You understand now, don’t you Sagami? How hard it is to be a detective?”

  “So you are slacking.”

  “I am not!”

  This kid didn’t know when to shut up. Even a nice guy like me was going to run out of patience eventually.

  “So was the guy who was playing One-Man Hide And Seek a customer of ours or something?” The owner asked, confused.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “But you know, the man I respect more than anyone, Inspector Zenigata, once said this.” I closed my eyes and thought of the famous ICPO detective, who spent his life tracking down history’s greatest thief. “‘Even if you die 100 times, that’s not the point. As long as a Lupin exists, I’m obliged to pursue him.’ Well? Cool, huh? What a detective!”

  “I don’t know what that means...”

  Just then, the famous Lupin the 3rd theme song started to play from my phone.

  “Oh, sorry. This ringtone means it’s an emergency. Might be a case!” I cut them off and quickly answered the phone.

  “Agent Moritsuka?”

  “Yeah.”

  The voice on the other send of the phone sounded further away than usual. I listened carefully. “Yeah... Yeah... Okay.” When I finished, I hung up and sighed, softly.

  Young Sagami was looking at me in
shock. “Hey, Morizuka, was the person on the phone talking to you in English?”

  “Huh? Ahaha, you could tell, huh? Don’t tell anybody else, okay? Anyway, I’ve gotta get back to work. Adieu!” I smiled and waved, then left the shop.

  Amenity Dream was on the third floor of a multipurpose building. From the landing, you could look down and see people going up and down Sun Road.

  “Now, then... looks like things are more serious than I thought. I need to get the thing from that anonymous tip before something really bad happens.” I took the photo I’d shown to young Sagami out of my pocket and stared at the man’s face.

  “I guess this gets put off for a while.” I pulled my fedora down low over my head and walked down the stairs. “‘The bottom of the dark water,’ huh? I guess my next stop is Tora no Ana in Shinjuku.”

  site 07: Yuta Gamon

  Monday, February 15th

  My vision was fading in and out. I was lying face-down on the counter at Café☆Blue Moon, and trying my best not to throw up.

  In front of me was a glass half-filled with liquid. That was the cause of it all.

  “Hey, hey! Gamota! There’s no need to be so dramatic, is there?! Ryotasu said she liked it, you know?”

  “Ryotasu’s sense of taste is broken.”

  “It’s yummy! ☆” Ryotasu was grinning. How could she possibly enjoy this awful concoction?

  Master Izumin had just asked Ryotasu and I to try a new drink he’d come up with. I should’ve turned him down, but I let my curiosity get the better of me. Now, I was regretting it.

  “What’s in this stuff, anyway?”

  “Oh, you didn’t hear what I told Ryotasu? This is called Super Ultra Lucky Tea!”

  What the heck?

  “There’s this magazine called Kyam-Kyam I always read...”

  “Huh? Isn’t that a fashion magazine for girls? You read that, Master Izumin?” I tried to imagine him grinning as he read the latest issue of Kyam-Kyam. It was frightening.