It had only been a few days since I encountered a mujina that had taken the form of Toriko and wandered into the Otherside while riding a bus that ran near my house. Perhaps, fortunately, I’d arrived in a spot I knew: the bus stop on the mountain road that was below the Mayoiga. Considering it was the dangerous night time of the Otherside, I’d fled into this mansion without even thinking about it.
At that point, the Mayoiga had still been intact, but there had been no one there. I didn’t even find a trace of Todate or Hana. Left with no other option, I’d decided to shelter here for the night, borrowing a room on the second floor where I’d lain down to sleep, but...
Although I had somehow made it back to the surface world, I still didn’t know if Todate and Hana were all right. I’d been too busy with my own problems at the time to think about it, but their well-being had been weighing on me ever since. That being the case, once things had settled down after everything that happened between me and Toriko, I’d talked to her about it.
When I told her I was worried about the two of them, and suggested we go and check in on them, Toriko instantly agreed, just like I’d thought she would, though when we’d first met the pair, she’d been too shy to really talk with them. That was one respect in which Toriko never changed. She was a woman who could worry wholeheartedly for people she’d only met once.
“You’ve changed, Sorawo,” she said. I was kind of happy to hear it.
“You think?”
“Before, you didn’t seem to care what happened to other people.”
I wasn’t going to deny it. Even now, there was still a part of me that was like that, but I didn’t feel like I could abandon people so easily anymore. Not Kozakura, not Akari, and not even Runa Urumi. We’d only met Todate and Hana once, and while they were friendly, I’d never got the sense that they were interested in us. Yet not only was I not ready to abandon them, I was actively worried. Why?
“I’ve been telling you all along. You’re a kind girl, Sorawo.”
“Am I, though...?”
I had to tilt my head to the side at this. Toriko worried about others because of a kindness that came from deep inside her heart, but I couldn’t help but feel it was different with me. If what was making me act in this way was also “kindness,” like Toriko said it was, then my kindness felt like it had been added to me later, a sort of “external kindness.”
Regardless, we set out once our gear was ready. We traveled from the DS Research parking lot, through the Round Hole, to the Farm in Hannou, then took one of the gates there to the Otherside. The AP-1’s engine echoed across the silent plains, and we took the same mountain ridge road as before, parking the AP-1 at the bus stop, then climbing the stone steps to the wall that surrounded the Mayoiga. The glimpses of the building we caught on the other side of that wall showed it was in bad shape, so we already had the sense something was wrong. We circled around to the front, a feeling of unease building in our chests, and as we peered through the gate, we saw the Mayoiga had fallen into ruin.
The flooring was covered in dust; it creaked under every step. During our first visit, it had been so clean we’d hesitated to enter with our shoes on. There were gaping holes and places where the tatami mats had rotted and fallen through the floor. It was so bad I’d have assumed it was abandoned and left exposed to the elements for years.
“And it used to be so pretty,” Toriko murmured sadly as she looked at the kitchen.
The dust that had blown in through the distant back entrance lay in a thick layer that stretched all the way to the sink. The cupboards lay on their side, as though they’d fallen over in an earthquake, and shards of fine china that had been thrown from them lay scattered across the floor. Even the lid of the oven was covered in rust. Were those dried leaves that lay in a pile against the wall the herbs that had once hung from the ceiling?
“It wasn’t like this when you came here alone, right?”
“Not at all... It was empty then, but the building was fine.”
“I wonder what happened.”
I could only shake my head in response.
We climbed the stairs, moving cautiously to avoid our feet breaking through any of them. The second floor was in just as bad shape as the first had been, and no one responded when we called out.
The wonderful tiled bathroom with its retro-style sink, the hall that connected to the first floor... It had all fallen to ruin, a shadow of its former self. Because I had seen it back then, a feeling of sadness won out over any sense of alarm. In the large walk-in closet where we had once played dress up, the floor was covered with ragged clothes and there was nowhere for us to stand.
As we were checking a row of guest rooms, Toriko, who was taking the lead, stopped still in front of one of the doors.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Look,” Toriko said without looking away from the door. She held her AK so she was ready to shoot from the hip. Standing beside her to look inside, I saw the messy bed. On top of the wrinkled sheets, the blanket was curled into a ball. Like there was someone—or something—cowering underneath it.
“Todate-san? Hana?” I called out, but the lump in the bed didn’t move. We watched for some time, but there was no sign of breathing. Toriko and I exchanged glances. We were probably thinking the same thing.
We stepped into the room. No response. I bent down, grabbed one corner of the blanket which was hanging down onto the floor, and then, steeling myself, I gave it a hard tug.
The thing under the blanket was revealed. I had half expected we’d find Todate, or Hana, or perhaps both of them, dead. But we didn’t.
There was a lustrous mass on the messy sheets. It was translucent and flesh-colored, with veins of gold running through it. Maybe if you were to crush a figure of a woman with golden locks that was made using translucent clay, it would look like this.
“What is this...?” Toriko said, bewildered.
Taking another look around the room, it finally sunk in. The position of the bed, the little bedside table, and the open window. I recognized them.
“This...is the room I stayed in last time I was here.”
“Wait, then what does that make this?” Toriko asked, pointing to the lump on the bed.
“It’s...what used to be a fake Toriko, I think.”
The thing I had seen that night. A mujina, taking the form of Toriko. It had appeared from under the covers, and my memory cut out at that point. I could try to remember, but I got nothing more than fuzzy images. It had unmistakably been Toriko’s face, but...it had been like it was boiling.
“Urkh...!” I covered my mouth, and looked away, resisting the urge to throw up.
“You okay?”
“Sorry, was having a flashback there.”
I took a deep breath, then turned to face her again. After giving a nod to a worried Toriko to let her know I was fine, I looked down at the bed.
“This is that mujina?” she asked.
“Probably.”
“You think...it’s dead?”
Toriko prodded it gently with the barrel of her AK. There was a hard clink as it touched it.
“This thing...wasn’t even alive to begin with, huh?”
The mujina didn’t so much as budge. I hesitantly reached out with my hand, poking it with the tip of my finger. Even through my glove, I could feel how hard it was.
“It’s glass,” I concluded.
“So a glass figure was left where the mujina used to be, then?”
“Either that, or...it changed, maybe. Transformed?”
As I cocked my head to the side, Toriko looked up as if she’d had a realization. “We’ve seen something like this before.”
“Huh? Where?”
“The first time we took the AP-1 for a long drive. Don’t you remember?”