How long had passed? I woke up when I noticed a sudden sound.
I sat up in bed, listening closely. The bedside lamp, which I had left on, filled the room with a soft light.
It’s outside... No doubt about it. I hear something outside.
I got out of bed. I approached the window after putting on my shoes and grabbing my stuff so I was ready to move at any moment. When I pulled back the curtain, I had a perfect view down onto the circular driveway in front of the entrance. Opening the window, I was able to hear a distinct noise in the quiet of night in the Otherside. A car. The sound of a high exhaust engine, like Migiwa’s Benz. And wheels rolling over gravel. It was approaching from outside the premises.
For some reason, I recognized the sound. But from where...?
The dream.
There was a dream that I’d seen many times after we returned from the Mayoiga to the surface world. Something frightening climbing up the dark hill in front of the Mayoiga. It had assumed a different form in each dream. One of which was a large, black car. This was definitely the sound of tires on gravel, climbing the hill, that I had heard in that dream.
I looked on, unable to do anything, as the headlights came into view. Passing through the gate, the black car entered the grounds. I couldn’t tell in the dark of night, but even in the dream the inside of the car had been obscured with smoked glass.
The car drove around the circular driveway, stopping at the entrance.
Who was riding inside? I could feel the answer to that question gradually bubbling up inside of me.
Surely, it was the true master of the Mayoiga. The one that the mansion’s guests must never meet, the thing whose face they must not see.
I instinctively looked away at the sound of the door opening.
I need to get out of here, pronto, before—
I turned on my heel, then froze where I stood.
There was something on top of the bed that I’d been sleeping in not that long ago.
A human-sized lump, squirming around under the covers.
“Who’s there...?” I called out. The movement stopped.
Then, as if stretching, it started to move again. The covers fell back, revealing what was beneath them.
It was a naked Toriko. Kneeling in bed, with her hair hiding her downturned face. She gradually raised her head, revealing her face.
That face was...intense.
It was like the parts of Toriko’s face had all been scattered around, their numbers and positions randomized. Its multiple mouths opened, calling my name with Toriko’s voice.
“Sorawo.”
“Sorawo!”
“Hey, Sorawo.”
“I love you, Sorawo.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. I screamed and—
✦ ✦ ✦
“I was really scared.”
“Mm-hm, I’m sure you were.”
“I’d never seen her face like that.”
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.”
“But it was Toriko’s face. It was all messed up, but I could still recognize it, and that was scary.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to worry anymore.”
Laying there on my back, getting my head patted, I gradually calmed down. The voice that soothed my frayed nerves had a lovely ring to it, and as I listened with my eyes closed it felt as though it were sucking me in.
“I’m glad you came, Kamikoshi-san.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I’d never have expected you to rely on me like this.”
“Rely on you...”
Rely on...who?
I opened my eyes and looked up to see a smiling face with big scars on its cheeks.
“Huh?! Runa?!”
“That’s me, yes?”
Runa Urumi watched with a smile as I hastily sat up.
“Why... Huh?! What’re you doing here???”
“What am I doing here? Didn’t you come to see me, Kamikoshi-san?”
“I what...?”
Looking around, all of the walls and the ceiling were white. This was Runa’s cell all right. Based on our current positions, it looked like I had been laying in bed, resting my head in Runa’s lap.
What made me do that...? I was just confused.
“I was surprised when you just suddenly showed up out of nowhere. It’s happened before, though. What’s up with that, Kamikoshi-san? Do you always pass through my room on your way back from the blue world?”
“No, no, no, no... No way.”
“Well, that’s sure how it seems. You got startled and left in a real hurry last time, but this time you hung around, so I got all happy, thinking you’d finally come to trust me a little.”
I couldn’t tell if that smile, accentuated by her scars, was just an ordinary grin, or if she was trying to insinuate something.
“How long have I been here? I can’t remember all that well.”
“An hour or so, I guess? You came tumbling out of midair just as I was going to sleep, and I screamed.”
The wall clock said it was three o’clock. In the middle of the night.
“You were super scared, and shaking, so I stroked you and kept on saying, ‘It’s okay, it’s okay,’ until you settled down. You had something scary happen to you over there, didn’t you? Involving Nishina-san.”
“What did I say...?”
“That Nishina-san’s face was scary, that she had no face, that she had a bunch of mouths; it was a whole lot of nonsense, really. Are the two of you not getting along recently?”
I got off the bed, unable to say anything. My shoes were neatly laid out at my feet. Had she taken them off for me? They were wet to the touch and dirty with mud and bits of grass. The waterproof nylon bag I had put my stuff in was sitting next to the bed. I don’t know how I escaped from the Mayoiga, but it’s impressive that I hadn’t abandoned this bag in the process.
“Hey, listen.”
“Yes?”
“Could you, um...keep what happened here a secret, maybe?”
“Why? Would it be bad for you if someone found out?”
“Uh...” As I came up short for words, Runa grinned. This time, I could tell: she was insinuating something.
“I get how it is. I won’t tell Nishina-san.”
Maybe I’d said more than I should have. “I’m gonna head home now. Sorry to barge in on you late at night like this.”
“Wha? It’s too late for that. The trains have all stopped by now, right? Why not stay over with me?”
“No, I’m good, I’m good.”
“Oh, don’t be a stranger. We could chit-chat the night away, you know?”
Shaking off Runa as she tried to keep me from going, I left the room.
Even at DS Research, where the lines between day and night were more vague, there was still no one around at this hour. My footsteps were the sole sounds echoing in the silence of the corridor.
I took the elevator down and headed outside. It was still raining. This business district was completely deserted at 3 a.m. and there was no place to kill time while I waited for morning. I walked one station to Akasaka-Mitsuke, staying alert for any mujinas that might be hunched over under the streetlights, then headed into an internet café to sleep.
By the time I woke up again, it was past the time when the first train would have departed.
I left the café, then boarded the subway, transferred to another train just before rush hour, and made it back home to Minami-Yono Station.
From there I took a bus—one that dropped me off at the stop closest to home like it was supposed to this time.
Dragging my exhausted body back to the apartment, I turned the key, opened the door, and...
“What?!”
Toriko was standing in the kitchen. I could see the side of her face; it was a proper, ordinary face.
She stood in front of the gas stove, heating up something in a frying pan. A savory smell hung in the room.
“Wh-What’re you doing here?”
Did she come because she was worried? And then started making breakfast...?
I hurriedly took my shoes off and entered the room. “You came? Why—”
Toriko looked down at the frying pan, unresponsive. She seemed mad, so I panicked.
An inexplicable guilt welled up inside me. I had just finished letting Runa Urumi, of all people, pat me while I rested my head in her lap, after all. It wasn’t something I’d wanted, and I hadn’t been happy about the situation, but I couldn’t wipe away the sense I’d done something wrong.
“Hey, Toriko. Say something, will you?”
As I approached, I sensed something was amiss: there was nothing in the frying pan on the stove. Also, I didn’t own a proper cast-iron pan like that. Mine was lighter, with a Teflon coating.
Just as I noticed, Toriko turned towards me, gripping the frying pan by the handle.
“Have you learned your lesson?!” she shouted as she bashed me in the head. My legs bucked with the impact, and down I went.
As I stared up vacantly, I saw Toriko—no, the thing wearing her shape—turn on her heel and walk out of my room. The profile of her face that I had thought looked normal was actually flat, like it was printed on, and if I’d seen it from another angle I’d have realized it instantly.
“Hey, it’s cheating for a mujina to have a face!!!” I vented my impotent rage as I crawled across the floor.
Ugh, I am so sick of this. I can’t take it anymore. It’s an issue with Toriko too. Being so easy for a monster to imitate.
I rose shakily to my feet, having totally lost it.
I was wrong to ever obey the one week time limit she gave me. I should’ve known that too. Never let the other person seize the initiative. That goes for the Otherside, and for Toriko.
If that’s how you’re gonna be—I’m coming to get you myself!!!