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Hoshiguma, and Momoka?

Did you need something to tide you over for now? Or do you mean to tell me you've already completed your task?

I... I don't need anything to eat... I'm pretty full. I feel like I swallowed enough wind on the way over here...

The Kinsekikai are still chasing you?

Thanks to the kami-sama's guidance, and by taking a less-traveled route, the journey back went relatively smoothly.

K-Kami-sama... you mean?!

Don't celebrate just yet. Yes, we found a kami-sama, but not the one you were looking for.

That doesn't matter. It's not a problem!

It doesn't matter?

You, you're...?

See? I told you.

No, no, no! I don't have anything here to offer you a proper welcome... but how about some oden broth to warm you—

No. Have all the oden you want!

I'm not as into the oden you make as certain others.

Kami-sama, I wonder if you—

Wonder what? You're wondering if I've seen the maneki-neko you keep talking about, right? The neko's the one you're looking for, not me.

No! Getting to meet a kami is a blessing from heaven. Why would I ever be picky?

Your eyes betray you.

Back when that neko would still talk to me, it talked to me about you, and the one it described was nothing like you here. You were just a kid then, treating it the way any kid would treat a friend.

That is why It left me?

How should I know? It remembers you, but just as one of the thousands of people it's met in its life. It would never waste its time telling me why it 'left you.'

Err...

I came to see you for other reasons.

No problem! What do you need from me? Money, or information?

Information, of course, information about the kaidan.

You think we kami are responsible for all of the kaidan in Mitsukue, but I promise you... we have basically nothing to do with any of them.

Aren't you, in fact, the Wanyuudou from the legend?

I admit that I speed my unicycle down the street every day, but what else makes you think I'm the Wanyuudou?

The old building behind the police station on Doku Street. The 'cursed elevator'.

The building only has fifteen floors, yet the elevator has a button for the sixteenth floor. That extra floor is actually 'hell'. People have disappeared there.

Sometimes the maneki-neko in the lobby, which is normally fixed to the front desk, just vanishes, only to reappear the next day. This seems to be correlated to when the sixteenth floor appears.

The phenomenon isn't limited to the old building. Many others have told me that their maneki-nekos disappear and reappear at odd times.

Speaking specifically about the old building though, every time the 'entrance to hell' thing happens, the maneki-neko disappears.

You have some pretty detailed knowledge there, but I can tell you for sure that the maneki-neko in that building has nothing to do with the 'kami' you're looking for, even if they look alike.

Where's your proof?

Why do I need proof? I'm a kami. Shouldn't I be able to discern between kami and look-a-likes?

You're just talkin'. You haven't proved anything.

Where's all the deference you had just a minute ago?

Well...

I'm not calling you out or blaming you. I like the frankness better than the whole show you were putting on before.

Besides, I've also explored that old building pretty carefully.

First, there's no hidden button. The button for the sixteenth floor is right above the button for the fifteenth floor. It's just covered by a steel plate.

Kami didn't do that, and no human could lift that steel plate.

So you're saying the button for the sixteenth floor has been there all along, just covered by a steel plate?!

A pale look comes over Moriuchi's face.

See, even you think it's silly, right?

Second, that maneki-neko can actually be pressed down. If you push hard enough, the whole thing sinks below the counter.

Did you... push it?

Yeah, I pushed it and nothing amazing happened. When the receptionist came back, he fiddled with the desk a bit, and the thing popped back up.

Then the receptionist started answering the phone, a long string of calls, and kept apologizing and stuff. That was it.

See, what we have here is a quirky receptionist, but you're saying it's a kaidan.

So that's just a weird habit of his? How can that be?

Well, what else could it be? You think he's pushing the maneki-neko below the desk because he has a grudge against that neko?

Um...

What is it, girl? Have you filmed a show in that building or something?

No. But when a variety show came to film here, one of my coworkers floated that idea, only to get an earful from the producer at our agency.

He chewed him out?

The producer went on about a bunch of stuff I barely understood, something about a 'Tekkaba' being a Kinsekikai business. I guess it's some kind of restaurant, and they didn't want a TV show hurting their business.

Tekkaba?

Tekkaba?!

Yes. What's wrong? 'Tekka' is the name of a Higashinese finbeast dish, so wouldn't 'Tekkaba' just be a restaurant that sells 'Tekka'?

'Tekkaba' is a code word for 'casino'.

So I guess 'hell' is just a Kinsekikai casino, and anyone who wanders in there by mistake is made to keep their mouth shut.

The button for the sixteenth floor has to be triggered by some kind of mechanism. It probably leads to a hidden mezzanine—or maybe even a basement.

That maneki-neko is probably some kind of signaling device. Press it, and it sends a message. That's why after our dear kami-sama pressed it, the receptionist apologized to them.

Momoka lets out a sigh. It's hard to tell whether it's out of pity for Moriuchi or out of relief that there isn't a real kaidan.

The Nosy Kami scratches Its head in mild irritation. It clearly wasn't expecting the kaidan tale to end like this.

Moriuchi's face grows ever more pale, until the sweat flows down from his eyebrows.

That must just be a coincidence...

After all these years... some kaidan tales have been debunked, but there are still so many no one can explain! The sixteenth-floor 'hell' thing must just be a coincidence!

There's also the 'last remaining Fukui-ke diner.' I remember the kami mentioning to me that It liked that place, back when I still kept in touch with It.

After the restaurant was torn down a couple of years ago, people would sometimes say they caught the scent of fried food drifting through the area. Other people even claimed they could sometimes see the diner still standing on the empty lot. Only they could never get close to it.

That lot has been empty ever since the restaurant was torn down.

I remember that place. I wanted to go try it, back when it was still around, but the owner wouldn't let me in, and I ended up going somewhere else. The restaurant closed not long after the TV show aired.

For the next few days after that, rumors were flying that I cursed the restaurant's owner. People would say 'the Kaidan Queen is at it again' or 'the spiteful woman took her revenge,' stuff like that...

The Kinsekikai are the ones who tore it down.

Obviously I know that! But we're talking about what happened <i>after</i> it got torn down. Momoka, didn't you and your film crew visit the lot after that?

Y-Yes, but... when we went there, I didn't see any restaurant. I smelled some fried food, but that was it.

Anyone can easily make a place smell like fried food. Take the kaidan out of it, and this thing boils down to the Kinsekikai wanting to force the Fuku family out of business, right?

First they planted the idea that something spooky might be going on here. Then they tore the place down. Finally, they sent Momoka over there for one last visit.

But...but...the Ao-Oni! The Haunted House!

Moriuchi-san, are you really going to stand here and talk to me about that?

No offense, but if you didn't cause the deaths that happened in that house, then it could still have been the work of a kami!

Even this kami-sama only started chasing kaidan after the Haunted House rumor took off, right?

That is true.

Momoka, didn't you just recently film a TV show at the Haunted House?

Ahh... ahaha... yes, but it wasn't a ghost who scared me, it was Hoshiguma. I tried to pick something off the floor to hit her with, and—

'Don't forget—out of a house full of trash, she just had to pick up that broken blade. We searched everywhere and couldn't find it, so we had no choice but to hastily forge a fake one.'

'Even if she didn't do it intentionally, that changed everything.'

Momoka?

No, no, no, no...

Though she may be saying 'no', Momoka, hands shaking, pulls the broken blade out.

Hoshiguma, this is just a broken blade, right? Mifune-san wouldn't kill me over this thing, right?

Broken blade?

I picked it up at your place the day we filmed the show. Then, last night, when my TV went haywire in the middle of the night, I thought I heard Mifune-san say it was because I picked up this blade…

Look at this blade guard. This is from the Sanoguchis' heirloom blade, isn't it? Sanoguchi used to love showing it off.

Sanoguchi? The second victim in the Haunted House, the one who used his family blade to kill his wife and then take his own life?

But more than one police officer told me that blade has been locked up in the evidence room. How could it be sitting in your family's old house?

Mifune-san must want that blade, and so he gave the police some false evidence, right?

Then why isn't this blade in his collection? Why would it end up in my house, and broken in two?

Besides, when a gangster goes mad and kills himself, the yakuza practically welcome the cops to investigate, just to watch them come up empty and leave in frustration. There's no reason for them to forge evidence.

Unless Sanoguchi didn't kill himself. Unless Kinbee...

...Murdered him.

Momoka stands there, stunned.

She stares at Hoshiguma. The expression on Momoka's face is even more blank and stunned than Moriuchi's. It's as if she's awakening from one nightmare, only to step into another one.

You're joking, right?

Those kaidan tales… the ones that scared me half to death… how could they not be real?

The agency might be shameless, but there's no way that all these years, they've been fabricating… all… sorts… of…

And... Sanoguchi... his death was suspicious... but the others...

Her voice grows softer and softer... then stops.

She subconsciously looks to Moriuchi, who intentionally avoids making eye contact.

She suddenly realizes that she has been looking at Moriuchi because she thought he shared her pain, while he averted his gaze because he didn't want to admit the truth.

So all those businesses that closed after I visited them...

Those livestreams where I did as I was told, and weird things kept happening where people got hurt...

Those eerie noises, the ghosts, the fleeting shadows... Were they… all fake?

Even the Ao-Oni and the Haunted House, the legends I believed so completely, the ones that scared me out of my wits these past few days, the starting point of all the tales in Mitsukue… were they all… fake?

Momoka Hanyuu, the singer wrapped up in kaidan tales, my agency never even cared about my career?

To them, I've been nothing more than a... cover for the Kinsekikai?

That can't be right. Can it, Moriuchi-san?

Moriuchi-san...?

It's an ambush! Get behind me!

Momoka is still frozen in place. Hoshiguma steps forward, positioning the Hannya mask between her and the collapsed Moriuchi, shielding them both.

As if in answer to Momoka's question, the surface of the shield crackles with a flurry of tiny explosions.

Kami-sama, check on Moriuchi. Was he poisoned or struck by something?

There's a burn mark on his neck, and this thing here fell on the floor.

Isn't this a flash drive you use to move data between terminals?

I've seen people throwing these things at electronic equipment to disable it, but lately, they've been throwing them at people instead. Why?

Ninja?!

Don't try to resist.

Who sent you?

That's not important. Come with me.

There's no way Mifune-san sent you. Right?

That's the first time I've heard anyone ask that question.

Please tell me! The kaidan tales are all true! My career isn't being used as a cover for Mifune... errr... Kinbee!

The ninja replies only with a weapon, which looks somewhat like a blade but different. The blade has yet to move, but remains pointed squarely at Hoshiguma's chest.

Spies, schemers, arsonists, even assassins—people who spend their entire lives in the shadows, never daring to show their true faces in public.

Since the national wars several centuries ago, these people, who call themselves 'ninja', have moved through the hidden currents of history.

Since then, countless figures of power: daimyo, kugyou, zaibatsu magnates, clan leaders have all assembled their own shadowy organizations.

Wuh?!

You hid yourself well, but you're not quick enough on the draw.

Hoshiguma plants a foot on the flash drive she's just blocked. It gives a sharp electronic whine, then bursts apart with a loud pop.

Keeping up with the times, huh? A flash drive with a high-voltage charge. Works on both people and machines?

The two ninjas exchange a glance. One draws a short blade, the other a long sword, and together they lunge at Momoka from opposite sides.

You can't leave well enough alone!

Hannya spins in Hoshiguma's hands, a blazing circle of fury. The long sword's edge strikes it and buckles, shattering to pieces. The ninja with the dagger dives to the ground, dodging the whirling shield before it can shred limbs.

Only then does the third figure, hidden all this time in the shadows, appear—sending a cluster of flash drives silently hurtling toward Hoshiguma's unprotected head.

It's too late to call out a warning, so Momoka leaps to her feet, trying to imitate a movie scene. She swings her shoulder bag in an attempt to bat the little drives back.

Momoka takes a direct hit.

There is a faint crackling sound. She doesn't even have time to cry out before she crumples to the floor, limp as a rag, just like Moriuchi.

Gah!

Momoka!

You're the last one standing. You either come with me, quietly, or you end up on the floor like them.

Overestimating your own abilities is never a good thing.

Enough talk. Have at you!

The projectiles come from every direction, expected and otherwise, only to shatter against the whirling Hannya.

She's trying to run while carrying the other two on her back. Stop her!

Hoshiguma charges the nearest ninja head-on. The black-clad assassin slams into the shield, snapping many ribs.

She is about to break through the encirclement when her shoulder suddenly feels light. Something has yanked Moriuchi up into the air.

A hook?!

Moriuchi is still dangling in midair when Momoka is snatched up, like a doll caught in a crane machine.

Hannya slices through the rope attached to the grappling hook. Momoka drops safely into Hoshiguma's arms, while the oden yatai owner is flung by the momentum and lands in a heap in front of his own cart.

One of the ninjas seizes the oden man, leaps into the air, and vanishes among the buildings of Nita Street.

H-Hoshiguma...

You came to pretty quickly.

My neck really hurts...

Looks like some scorch marks. I think you got zapped. Rinse it and cover it, and it shouldn't leave a scar.

There might be more attackers coming in from Kajimachi. Do you have somewhere we can lie low for a bit?

My place, but I bet Kinbee's already sent guys over there...

Doesn't matter. We'll hide in plain sight. They won't expect us to go there. And if someone is there, we'll just go somewhere else.

Perfect. That way, I can bring Hasuke along too…

Hasuke?

Never mind, I'll explain later. The longer we stall, the more goons will show up. Which way to your place? Let's go.

Kami-sami, you—

...Are already gone.