“What’s the matter? We can’t get started until you serve the tea. You know all I can make is the kind of dashi broth that people would only drink on a dare.”
“She’s right, you know. It made me wonder if I was being punished for losing a bet.”
Toshihiko, still with his back to them, chimed in with a casual wave of his hand. Smiling vaguely, Aoyama went and got the tea bags out of one of the drawers. Was serving tea all he was good for around here? He felt a fresh wave of insecurity, along with self-reproach for being so jealous of Toshihiko and Rumi’s closeness.
He asked Nanaka if she wanted milk. She nodded, and he selected a strong Assam blend that paired well with it. The girl took a sip and said it was yummy, that it tasted like the church. Rumi looked at the girl tenderly. She looked at Aoyama that way, too. Apparently, he was just another well-mannered child to her.
Nanaka took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was to come.
“Um, are you the ghost expert, miss?”
“I suppose I am. I’m a little embarrassed to say that about myself, though. My job is to deal with the paranormal—ghosts, monsters, even gods sometimes.”
“So you’ll believe my story, right?”
Nanaka’s hands were shaking.
“You won’t say that I’m being stupid or imagining it all, will you?”
Rumi was silent for a moment, then she returned the donut she was holding to the plate.
“I’ll be honest with you. I get cases here where people really are just imagining things. There’s a chance it’s the same with you. But I can promise I won’t belittle you in any way.”
She pointed to herself.
“People used to say I was stupid. I know how it feels. There’s no way I would subject you to the same thing.”
Nanaka smiled in relief. Slowly, haltingly at first, she told the story of how Haruko had appeared in her dreams. Unlike with other clients, Rumi didn’t interrupt to start monologuing but listened silently all the way through.
“So, uh, tonight will be the second night…”
Nanaka finally trailed off, and Rumi heaved a sigh.
“It’s a small world, as people so often say.”
“Ain’t that the truth.”
Toshihiko was now sitting on one of the arms of the sofa. It’d been hard enough looking at him from across the room. Seeing him up close gave Aoyama a pain in his chest that was worse than heartburn. Unable to bear it, he looked away so he wouldn’t seem too rude.
“Honestly, I’m pretty surprised, too.” Toshihiko took several deep breaths before continuing, “Those are all the same places I was attacked.”
His voice was shaking, perhaps from fear. He quickly took them through the events that had brought him to the agency. He’d been the victim of some highly unpleasant stalking, along with some peculiar phenomena that made him think the cause was supernatural. He had come to Rumi for advice and was told a powerful curse had been placed on him.
The places he’d experienced the strange events corresponded with the six locations from the Haruko story. All that remained was the last place: “in your house.” Nothing had happened to Toshihiko in his own home; that was the one big difference. There had been some kind of mischief done to his front door, though. If you counted that as “in” the house, it all lined up exactly.
“S-So, mister, you’re…”
“You can call me Toshihiko.”
“Toshihiko… Haruko is attacking you, too?”
He thought for a moment before answering:
“Yeah, I think she might be.”
Before Nanaka could respond, Rumi spoke up.
“Do you know why urban legends tend to spread so fast?”
She didn’t wait for an answer.
“Sometimes, they’re spread deliberately. People say tales of creatures like the Slit-Mouthed Woman and the Man-Faced Dog were just experiments to see how fast and how far a story could reach with the help of both word of mouth and the media. But another theory comes from the element of truth included in them.”
She turned around the tablet she’d been fiddling with. The screen showed a list of all the places Haruko had demanded the children search in the story of the seventh mystery.
“These are all real places. The church is probably the easiest to pin down. It’s the one run by Aoyama’s family, Pádraig Aoba. Right?”
Nanaka seemed a little overwhelmed by Rumi’s rapid-fire eloquence. She probably hadn’t understood very much after the first question Rumi had asked, but she just about grasped the gist of it, and after a while, she nodded.
“I-in my dream, Haruko told me to go to the church… Once I went past the lake, Kouki’s church really was there. It was all dark, and Kouki wasn’t around. Neither was his dad… But Haruko told me I had to look for the boy…”
Nanaka began to tremble, her eyes welling up again.
“I did my best to search everywhere I could, but he wasn’t there. Haruko said, ‘You’re useless. You’re not good for anything. You should just die.’”
“She sounds like a nasty lady. That’s no attitude to take with someone who’s doing you a favor.”
When Rumi said that, Nanaka’s expression eased a little.
“Nanaka, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Me and these two men are all grown-ups. We don’t count as someone from your school, so you can tell us about Haruko without sending her into our dreams. Even if she tries to start trouble, I’ll put a stop to it.”
She fired off some quick punches like she was shadowboxing. Nanaka smiled ever so slightly. Even Aoyama felt relieved. But then Rumi went on.
“Unfortunately, since you didn’t find the boy, that nasty lady will probably visit your dreams again tonight.”
She paused to let everyone turn their focus back to the matter at hand.
“Let’s look into whether any similar incidents occurred in this area. This is actually something of a windfall. We’ll solve both Nanaka’s and Mr. Katayama’s cases together—two birds with one stone. I’ll be looking at incident reports for the rest of the day, so could you go home for now?”
“I can help you out; I’ve got nothing going on today,” said Aoyama.
Things always seemed to go this way. Aoyama would simply watch over the situation as it unfolded, until the case was eventually resolved without him having done anything.
“Okay then, Nanaka, let’s get you home.”
The girl nodded timidly.
“So I’ll…I’ll still have to see Haruko again tonight?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“Wait a sec.”
Rumi called out to the girl before she left.
“Wear this to bed tonight… Actually, that might not be enough. Wear it all the time from now on, just in case.”
She took a beaded bracelet from her wrist and put it onto Nanaka’s arm.
“My wrist is about the width of your arm, so it should fit okay. Or I can restring it so you can wear it like a necklace if you want.”
“It’s pretty…”
Nanaka ran her finger over the colorful beads, gently caressing them.
“It is, isn’t it? My mom made it for me,” said Rumi.
“Is it okay for me to have it? It must be really important to you.”
“Oh, it is. That’s why I need you to take good care of it.”
While Nanaka was hesitating, Rumi smiled at her. It was a warm expression filled with a kind of affection that would be practically unthinkable for her normally.
“Having said all that, you still need to be careful. I’m not very good at lying, so I’ll give it to you straight: We don’t have a lot of time. According to what your classmate—Miki, was it?—told you, we have five days left at the most. I’ll do everything I can in that time, so I want you to make me a promise in return.”
She put a hand on Nanaka’s shoulder.
“If we still haven’t solved this by the sixth day, you have to tell this story to somebody else at your school. I couldn’t bear the idea of a girl like you having to suffer such a terrible fate. Please, promise me.”
She sounded so serious that it brooked no room for argument. But Nanaka cast a troubled gaze around, then looked back at Rumi with a weak smile.
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that. If you really can’t do anything, Kouki and I will just pray that I won’t go to hell after all,” replied Nanaka.
“…I see.”
The light glinted off Rumi’s glasses, making it impossible to tell what kind of look she had in her eyes.
“In that case, Aoyama will get in touch with you later.”
She removed her hand from the girl’s shoulder. Her affectionate demeanor had vanished like mist. Ushering Nanaka out, Aoyama seemed to feel eyes on him. He turned around, but both Rumi and Toshihiko were looking intently at the tablet.