“Sup. I’m Yokota.” The final witness was a college student living on his own. “My room’s, like, a total mess. Okay if we talk here in the front hall?” He glanced pointedly over his shoulder at the cluttered hallway leading into apartment 301.
The first two witnesses found their apartments too traumatizing to stay in and had been put up in a hotel for the time being. Yokota, however, was still in his apartment, so Himeno and Aki had decided to visit him there.
“Guy showed up yesterday. Gotta tell ya, I was freaked out. I open the door and bam! He tries to shoot me with an arrow or something! It’s like, who does that?” He waved his hands in front of his face, conveying exaggerated shock.
According to his story, he’d been watching television when the doorbell rang. He’d answered the door to find a man in a black hood standing outside. He couldn’t see the man’s eyes, but in his mouth was a row of cruel fangs.
“You say they sent a notice around? Naw, never seen it. I heard about some kind of trouble downstairs, but I didn’t give it much thought. I just opened the door. Guess that’s why there’s a peephole, huh?” He tousled his hair, which was cut and bleached in a trendy campus style. “When he shot at me, I thought for sure I was dead. But I woke up just fine about fifteen minutes later. Thought for a sec maybe I was in Heaven, but nah, I was still in this dump. Nah, I wasn’t hurt. Guess the arrow missed me. I must’ve passed out from fear. Pretty sad, huh? Anyway, the guy didn’t steal anything. I’m lucky his aim sucks.”
The events were still fresh in Yokota’s mind, and he could readily recount them in detail. As he was talking, a phone on the table in the hallway rang, and he excused himself to answer it.
“Yo. Yeah. I’m talkin’ to a couple of peeps from Public Safety. Nah, I didn’t do nothing. I’m the victim! What, really? No shit?” His eyes went wide.
“Something the matter?” Himeno asked.
“Uh, nothing. Just something I gotta deal with. You guys got everything you need?” Yokota hurriedly hung up the phone and shut the door.
With the last interview over, Himeno and Aki returned to the administrative office.
“May I ask if you’ve learned anything?” the superintendent said hesitantly.
Himeno drained her cup of tea in one swig. “All I can say is, we’ll manage. We’re pros at this.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. But we’ll need your help with something.”
“Of course, of course. Just say the word.”
“Let us stay in one of the apartments tomorrow evening.”
“Tomorrow evening? Of course, I’ll arrange it. Which apartment would you like?”
Himeno set her cup gently back on the desk. “401.”
The old man, fearing another incident, asked Himeno and Aki to stay that night too, to provide surveillance and security. They decided to make camp in the office.
The office comprised an entrance room with a reception window and the break room where they’d conducted two of their three interviews. Aki sat in the reception area, on alert, while Himeno sat down to a takeout feast in the break room.
“Come on, Aki,” she called. “Have a bite.”
“Can’t. I’m keeping watch.”
The office was just inside the entrance to the old apartment complex, so it was easy to keep track of anyone who came or went. Aki was scanning the area relentlessly, knowing the fiend might appear without warning, when a spoon laden with fried rice popped into view.
“Eat! I didn’t order the best fried rice in town for you to let it go cold. Go on, say ahhh!” Himeno hovered over him, the spoon in one hand and a steaming takeout container in the other.
“I can feed myself,” Aki said sullenly. Clearly, going hungry wasn’t going to be an option.
He took the spoon and tried a bite of the rice. It came from the ramen place Himeno had pointed out while they were driving, and it was as tasty as she’d claimed. The rice fell apart in his mouth, releasing a shock of black pepper and a rich aroma of sesame oil. Perfect accents.
“And this is their alleged main attraction, the soy ramen.” With a grin, Himeno proffered a bowl.
Aki paused. He remembered what she’d said—that the fried rice was delicious, but the ramen was terrible. Cautiously, he took a single mouthful.
“Urgh!” He almost choked and spat the noodles back out. It was worse than he could have imagined. What were they using for stock? Ditch water?
Himeno laughed. “Awful, right? They call it Swamp Ramen. Supposedly it’s because it’s so rich and thick, but the truth is it tastes like a swamp!”
“If you knew it was bad, why did you order it?” Aki asked, exasperated.
Himeno encouraged him. “You have to taste the horror for yourself. Here, there’s plenty more!”
Aki frowned at his cackling senior. “Enough. We’ve got work to do. We don’t have time to stuff our faces.”
“Hm? Sure we do. Humans can’t fight on an empty stomach. A pro knows to fill up when they have the chance.”
“Fine,” Aki admitted. “Maybe you’re right about the food. But what’s that you’re holding up now?”
After placing the delivery order, Himeno had gone out on a beer run. Immediately, before the food had even arrived, she cracked open the first beer. There were already five empty cans lined up on the desk. Number six was in her right hand, preparing to join them.
“This is a drink called beer,” Himeno informed him.
“You’re mocking me.”
“Oh, relax,” Himeno laughed. “You need food to fight, and you need beer to party.”
“Need I remind you this isn’t a party?”Aki admonished. “We’re here to exterminate a fiend.”
“You’re so serious, Aki. The serious ones always die young.”
“I don’t plan to go down that easy.”
Himeno was quiet for a moment. Then Aki heard beer number six hiss as she opened it. She flopped down into the office chair. “It’s fine. We’re only staying here tonight because the old guy begged us to. The real work starts tomorrow.”
“What do you mean?” Aki asked.
“I mean this will all be settled, but not tonight. Think of this as Fiend Hunt Eve.” She shoved fried rice into her mouth and raised her beer to toast an invisible companion.
Aki frowned, put off by her flippant behavior. How could she possibly know the fiend wouldn’t show up that night? It could be prowling at that very moment. Or did she already have the whole case figured out?
She brushed off his questions with a wave of her arms. “Where’s the fiend? No idea!”