Chapter 5

…Naturally, it wasn’t that she wished to be dressed in this fashion. In fact, she would have loved to run screaming from the place that very second. But duty called. She bowed her head, an awkward smile rising to her face. “…I am Kuruelle. This is my friend, Jasmine.” She motioned toward a doll with her hair in sumptuous ringlets. The faces of those assembled in the lounge immediately lit up. “Goodness! Are you the Kuruelle, the doll designer from overseas?!” “What? The Kuruelle who has one hundred and three thousand dolls in her home?!” “…The Kuruelle visited by the police after she kept going to the station and demanding they issue resident IDs for the dolls?” The other girls raised their voices in excitement, and Kurumi forced a smile onto her face. “Y-yes. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you…” She recalled the events of the past week leading up to this moment, and her cheeks twitched. “It haaappeeened!” The office door flung open one afternoon, and a girl charged in with magnificent ringlets and a gorgeous dress. Her outfit practically screamed “little rich girl.” Her name was Matsurika Sukarabe. She was Kurumi’s classmate and the daughter of a prestigious family. She was also Kurumi’s so-called patron and founder of the Tokisaki Detective Agency, whether Kurumi—the Tokisaki in question—liked it or not. “Please keep your voice down. You’ll disturb the neighbors,” Kurumi said, rolling her eyes, as she slipped a bookmark into her book. “Whoopsy! I do beg your pardon! How dreadful of me!” Matsurika cried as she snapped into a staged pose. Her volume was unchanged. Kurumi sighed in exasperation. “…So? Something happened?” “We have a case,” Matsurika shrieked. “A case! There’s been an Artifact crime!” “…!” Kurumi’s shoulders shot up. Artifacts: the tools with mysterious powers once produced by magicians. Matsurika, the descendant of those magicians, had been the keeper of a number of them until a few months earlier, when they were stolen. Matsurika had then set Kurumi up as a detective to get the Artifacts back and to prevent those tools from being used in impossible crimes beyond the scope of conventional wisdom. “What sort of case exactly?” “Are you aware of the recent succession of people falling into mysterious comas?” Matsurika answered a question with a question. “Comas…?” Kurumi frowned. “Indeed.” Matsurika nodded. “It seems they’re being handled as unrelated incidents because they’ve all occurred in different regions. But through my own means, I’ve discovered a commonality among the victims.” “What kind of ‘means’?” Kurumi asked suspiciously. “A lady never tells!” Matsurika replied with an exaggerated wink. Kurumi felt sweat beading on her forehead as she urged the girl to continue. “And what is this commonality, then?” “They were all members of an online salon,” Matsurika said immediately. “Online salon?” “Yes. Doll House, a forum for doll aficionados.” “Hmm. Dolls, you say?” A strange look rose upon Kurumi’s face. Matsurika’s eyes widened with deep interest. “Do you perhaps also enjoy dolls, Kurumi?” “…Not at all,” Kurumi replied, averting her gaze. Had she spoken honestly, she would have admitted that she had a phase, but Matsurika would no doubt be annoying about it, so Kurumi opted to keep it to herself. “All right, then.” Matsurika let it slide. “At any rate, I thought this salon was suspicious, so I quickly registered as a member and began to gather information.” “You leap into action almost reflexively, huh?” Kurumi noted wryly. “Flattery will get you nowhere!” Matsurika puffed her chest out as her cheeks colored. While Kurumi hadn’t intended that as a compliment, Matsurika seemed pleased, so she didn’t bother to correct her. “So what did you learn?” “I’m glad you asked! It appears they occasionally hold small-scale meetings in real life where the salon host, Venus, shows off ‘living dolls’ to the participants.” “Living…dolls?” Kurumi frowned and stroked her chin. “Yes.” Matsurika nodded. “I haven’t seen them myself, but they apparently move all on their own. Almost as though they were actually alive.” “…” Kurumi fell silent, her thoughts racing. It was preposterous. Common sense would dictate this was an exaggeration on the part of the host or that the dolls were some kind of automatons. But… “You have an idea as to what it might be, then?” she asked, finally. “I do,” Matsurika said firmly. “The Artifact Galatea. It transfers a human soul into a doll.” “Galatea…,” Kurumi repeated the name, as if rolling it around in her mouth. In Greek mythology, Galatea was the name of the wife of Pygmalion, the king of Cyprus. An excellent sculptor, Pygmalion fell in love with the statue of a maiden he sculpted. Upon hearing this, an amused goddess gave it life. So the Artifact name made some sense. The magician who dubbed it this must have been quite the romantic. “In other words, the coma victims had their souls transferred to dolls,” she said slowly. “Is that your thinking?” “Yes,” Matsurika assented. “And that this is the true nature of these living dolls.” “I see…” After thinking on it for a moment, Kurumi nodded subtly. “There might indeed be value in investigating these comas.” “Don’t you think?” Matsurika’s face lit up with joy. “I expected you would say that, Kurumi! Let us dive straight into the investigation!” “Mm-hmm. First, however, we must pinpoint the location of the administrator—” “The next offline meeting is next week!” Matsurika declared quickly. “I secured an invitation, so you can investigate undercover!” “…What?” Kurumi’s eyes widened. “Please wait just a moment. I am going undercover?” “Well, of course! This is your chance to show off your skills as a detective! Oh! Your handle is ‘Kuruelle’! It exquisitely fuses you and the nuance of an angel while also sounding a bit like the word ‘cruel.’ I quite like it!” Her voice was free of malice as she explained. She even seemed proud. “…” Kurumi let out a heavy sigh. Given that the handle Matsurika made was a play on Kurumi’s name, she had no doubt intended to make Kurumi go undercover right from the start. That said, however, this wasn’t the first time Matsurika had taken the stranger of paths forward, and an undercover investigation would in fact be effective. She sighed again in resignation. “…All right, then. What specific form does this Artifact Galatea take? What are the procedures and conditions for the transfer of a soul to a doll?” “I haven’t the faintest clue!” Matsurika cried. Kurumi’s eyes widened. “…What?” “Just because they were stored in my home does not mean I have encyclopedic knowledge of each Artifact! The inventory register only listed the names and powers!” “…In other words, Matsurika,” Kurumi said, clenching her jaw. “You’re telling me to go undercover—alone—to attend this meeting and find an Artifact, the appearance and activation method of which are unknown, all without being noticed by the host?” “That appears to be the long and short of it, yes!” Matsurika responded excitedly. Kurumi held her head in her hands for a moment before beckoning the other girl toward her. “Matsurika, come here for a second.” “What is it?” “Please take this pencil. Hold it so that it passes above and below alternating fingers.” “You mean, like this?” “Hmph!” Kurumi slammed her hand down on Matsurika’s. “Auuuaaagh! Ow! That huuurt!” “…I do find myself somewhat unsettled.” Kurumi sighed to herself in a private room of the building that clearly took inspiration from European architecture. This was the venue for the gathering of doll aficionados. After the brief introductions and some chitchat, they had a break before supper, so Kurumi returned to the room she’d been assigned. Yes. The in-person meeting of the Doll House online forum was much more involved than what Kurumi had envisioned. The venue stood alone in a forest quite some distance from town, and the event was slated to last three days and two nights. It was more akin to a short trip or a training camp than a casual offline meetup. The isolated venue and the lengthy stay should have been ideal for Kurumi—it gave her plenty of time to find the Artifact—but she still felt off, a feeling perhaps enhanced by the generally creepy atmosphere of the building. She lifted her head and scanned the room. “…” A mirror hanging on the wall caught her eye. Without a word, she stood before it and stared at her reflection. Her outfit was an over-the-top thing that Matsurika had put together. Matsurika had said she’d gone all out on quirks and a gripping backstory to secure an invitation to the meeting, but even so, Kurumi couldn’t help but feel that this was simply too much. “That outfit suits you so well, Kurumi!” came a familiar voice from behind, and she whirled around. But there was no one there. Just an adorable doll sitting neatly on the chair. “I was indeed not mistaken about your affinity for this. The other guests seem to have accepted you as one of their own,” the doll continued. The way it spoke so fluently, it was almost like one of the living dolls Kurumi was there to investigate. But her doll, Jasmine, was no such supernatural creature. A camera and communicator had been installed inside of it, allowing Kurumi to speak with Matsurika, who was supporting her from the outside. Although with the clothes it was wearing and the way its hair was styled, Jasmine strongly resembled Matsurika, making it seem like the girl really had been turned into a doll to an unsettling degree. “Quiet,” Kurumi snapped. “It will be quite the bother if the other guests overhear you.” “My apologies! I’ll be careful from now on!” She was still speaking too loudly. Kurumi sighed. “But it is strange, hmm?” she said. “What is?” “The host, Venus, wasn’t there to greet us.” Kurumi put a hand to her chin as she recalled the conversation earlier in the lounge. Indeed. It had only been the four participants in the offline meetup, plus the steward who had been charged with their care; the key player, the event’s host, had been nowhere to be seen. “Now that you mention it… Perhaps her arrival was delayed?” “I hope that’s the case…” Kurumi picked Jasmine up. “At any rate, we do have this precious free time. Shall we have a look around? There might be some clues about the Artifact—” Kurumi stopped abruptly and spun with a gasp. “…? Is something the matter? You have no need for concern. I will refrain from speaking outside of the room.” “No, it’s not that. I felt eyes on me just now,” she said, craning her neck. She was facing a blank wall without so much as a window or a door, much less any sign of a person. “There’s nothing there. Could you have imagined it?” “…Maybe so.” Perhaps she was a little on edge. She shook her head slightly to shift gears, then left the room with Jasmine. The venue for the Doll House meetup was two stories tall. A large staircase directly ahead of the front door led up to the second floor, with a hallway stretching out to either side. On the right, as seen from the entrance, were the dining hall and lounge, and the guest bedrooms were on the left. “Mm-hmm.” Kurumi did a lap around the hallways on the first floor, turning Jasmine’s head this way and that as she went. The doll’s eyes were equipped with miniature cameras. Matsurika might notice something Kurumi overlooked, and even if she didn’t, there was no harm in taking video of everything. From an outsider’s perspective, she no doubt looked like an overly enthusiastic doll lover showing her doll the world around her. Equipping the doll with cameras and a radio had no doubt been a whim on Matsurika’s part, but it had turned out to be a surprisingly sensible decision. “That appears to be the whole of the first floor. So then—” She was about to set foot on the stairs when a voice called out from behind her. “Miss Kuruelle.” “…!” A heartbeat later, she remembered that was her pseudonym and hurriedly turned toward the voice. “Oh, yes, I am Kuruelle. What is it?” Standing there was the house steward, Yoriko. “The second floor houses the mistress’s private rooms.” Her voice was smooth. “I would kindly ask you to refrain from going upstairs.” “Goodness! Please do excuse me,” Kurumi replied with a bright smile. “It is a magnificent house. To think that I would have the opportunity to speak with like-minded ladies in such a place! I simply can’t thank Venus enough.” “I’m pleased to hear that,” Yoriko replied, smiling herself. “I have no doubt my mistress will also be delighted by your words.” “And when will Venus be joining us?” Kurumi asked casually. “I am told she will be arriving tomorrow afternoon.” “Oh dear. Oh my.” Kurumi furrowed her brow. “So she isn’t able to come today, then?” “I do apologize.” Yoriko bowed neatly. “She had urgent business to attend to.” “Is that right? Well, I’m looking forward to meeting her. Tell me, what is she like?” “Well…” A troubled look rose on Yoriko’s face. “Goodness!” Kurumi raised a concerned eyebrow. “Is something the matter?” “The truth is,” the steward said slowly, “I haven’t actually met my mistress in person. When I interviewed for this position, it was with the chief steward, and all my subsequent instructions have been through someone else or e-mail.” “…What?” Kurumi narrowed her eyes with deep interest. “Well, well… She is quite the shy one, hmm?” “That very well may be,” Yoriko said with a pained smile. “Ah, yes, dinner is scheduled for six o’clock. After getting dressed, please make your way to the dining hall. Together with the little lady there, of course.” She flashed a smile at Jasmine. Kurumi smiled in return as she bowed. “I do appreciate your consideration. Well then, we will see you at dinner.” “Until then,” Yoriko said and left. Kurumi waited until she was out of sight and sighed. “A mistress whose face not even the steward has seen. This is growing more and more…questionable.” “…It is? The host will be there tomorrow afternoon, though, yes?” came a curious voice from Jasmine. Kurumi narrowed her eyes. “I just hope nothing happens before then.” Six o’clock. When Kurumi arrived at the dining hall with Jasmine, three of the others were already there—Grimm, Meimei, and the steward, Yoriko. The dolls sat upon smaller chairs, likely for children, set next to Grimm and Meimei. Even doll seating had been taken into careful consideration. This was, after all, a meeting of doll super-enthusiasts. Kurumi got Jasmine settled on a vacant chair before sitting down herself in the seat beside it. “I do apologize for the wait. My darling girl wanted to explore the mansion.” She gestured toward Jasmine, and Grimm and Meimei smiled gently. “Hee-hee! So little Jasmine’s a curious one, then?” “Shall we all take a walk around together after dinner?” Under normal circumstances, Kurumi’s explanation would’ve raised eyebrows, but perhaps because these girls shared the same passion, no one suspected a thing. While the assembled guests were quite eccentric, Kurumi found them strangely comforting to be around. “Now we’re only waiting for Sasaki,” Grimm remarked as though she’d suddenly noticed that herself. “She is quite late, though. Maybe something’s wrong?” Now that she mentioned it, the seat across from Kurumi was in fact still empty. “Indeed,” Yoriko said. “Shall I go call her?” In the next instant, they heard a muffled cry from far off. “Ungh. Aaah…!” Kurumi and the other women looked at each other with sudden concern. “…?! What was that?!” “It couldn’t have been Sasaki?!” “Something must have happened to her!” They stood up as one, marched out of the dining hall with their dolls, and headed straight for Sasaki’s room. “Sasaki? Are you all right?” Kurumi called as she twisted the doorknob. It wouldn’t open. Perhaps it was locked? She began to bang on the door. “Sasaki!” “Miss Kuruelle! Here!” Arriving a fraction of a second later, Yoriko held out a key. Apparently, this was the house’s master key. Kurumi took it from her, quickly put it into the lock, and turned it. She opened the door, and her eyes flew open. “Wha—?!” Her shock was to be expected. After all, there lay Sasaki on the floor in the center of the room, lifeless. “Sasaki!” Kurumi hurried over to her and cradled her in her arms. She was breathing but unconscious. Her hair was a mess, tears stained her cheeks, and her body was covered in marks that looked as though she’d been forcibly pinned down. It was almost as if she’d been in a physical altercation with someone mere seconds earlier. “Why, she’s…” Kurumi gasped. “What on earth happened…?” Grimm said anxiously as she peered at Sasaki with Meimei. “Is she unconscious?” Meimei asked, her face tight with worry. “My apologies,” Kurumi said before slapping Sasaki’s cheek. “Sasaki, please wake up. Sasaki.” But Sasaki didn’t so much as stir, much less regain consciousness. It would be no exaggeration to say she looked as though her soul had left her body. “It can’t be—!” Kurumi felt a jolt at the sight, and the Artifact Galatea came to mind. “…I don’t know what’s happened, but this is definitely abnormal. Yoriko, please hurry and call an ambulance and the police.” “R-right!” Yoriko raced off in a hurry. Kurumi watched her go before she gently set Sasaki down and looked around the room. There were several issues of note. One was that the door had been locked. And what she assumed was the key was sitting on the table. There was also a window, but it slid up and down, and given that it only opened about fifteen centimeters, it seemed unlikely a person would be able to enter the room through it. In other words, until Kurumi unlocked the door, the room had been entirely closed off. That wasn’t all. There was no sign of the one thing that absolutely should have been with Sasaki. “Huh?” Grimm also seemed to notice the missing item. She furrowed her brow dubiously. “Where is little Anima…?” Indeed. The † Patricide Anima †, the doll that most certainly never left Sasaki’s side, was nowhere to be found. “…Oh my.” Kurumi arched an eyebrow. Sasaki’s face looked different. “Is this the same makeup she had on earlier?” Perhaps Kurumi simply hadn’t noticed because Sasaki had kept her face downcast, but she felt like her lipstick was brighter than it had been before. Soon enough, Yoriko returned, her face pale. “Yoriko.” Kurumi looked up at her. “What’s the matter? You look terribly flustered. Did you call—?” “Th-the phone is,” Yoriko interrupted, “disconnected.” “What?” Kurumi said, frowning. Grimm and Meimei gasped. “Wh-what do you mean?” “We were already out of cell range to start with. Do you mean the landline is also…?” They looked at each other uneasily. This was not good. Kurumi cleared her throat loudly to get their attention. “In that case, we’ll simply take her to the hospital ourselves,” she said, taking charge of the situation. “You have a car, no? Would you please drive, Yoriko?” “W-we can’t,” the steward stammered. “Why not?” The creases on Kurumi’s forehead grew deeper. “What do you mean?” “The doors out of the house… None of them will open.” Yoriko announced this devastating news in a vanishingly small voice. “…” An unnatural silence held sway over the lounge. There were four of them in the large room—Kurumi, Grimm, Meimei, and Yoriko—and yet not one moved to speak. This was only natural. They still hadn’t fully processed the situation they found themselves in. “Wh-what…on earth is going on?” Grimm finally said, breaking the silence with a hesitant voice. “Even if, for the sake of argument, we assume the landline simply happened to go out, it’s not possible for all the doors to be stuck shut, is it? …Oh! Is it some kind of prank? And Sasaki’s in on it? So she’s only pretending to be asleep?” “I checked her eye movement. This is no prank,” Kurumi told her. “She is completely unconscious.” “Ugh.” Grimm furrowed her brow. “What is going on, then?!” “I don’t know any more than you do,” Kurumi replied. “But I think we can safely assume we’ve been locked inside this mansion by someone who means us harm.” “Someone?” Grimm cried. “But who?!” “I can’t be certain,” Kurumi said. “But I would place my bets on the host, Venus.” “…!” Grimm glared at Yoriko harshly. “What exactly is the meaning of this?! This goes well beyond any sort of prank!” “D-don’t look to me for answers. I know nothing of this!” Yoriko looked distraught. She didn’t appear to be lying. “Please calm yourself, Grimm. Panicking won’t help,” Kurumi said in a quiet voice and narrowed her eyes as she thought through the situation. “Still… Where could Sasaki’s attacker have gone?” “What?” Meimei widened her eyes curiously. Kurumi put a hand to her chin as she continued. “Looking at the facts, we can say with near certainty that Sasaki was attacked. But the door to her room was locked when we arrived.” “…If the attacker was Venus, then it wouldn’t be strange for her to have a master key as the owner of the house,” Meimei noted. “Couldn’t she have simply locked the door after she left?” “But we left the dining hall the moment we heard Sasaki cry out,” Kurumi retorted. “Wouldn’t we have seen her attacker if she had left from that door?” “Mmph.” Grimm scowled and crossed her arms. Meimei’s eyebrows jumped up in sudden realization. “Wh-what if…?” “Did you come upon something?” Kurumi asked. “Oh, no. I know that it’s simply not possible, thinking about it normally, but…” “That’s fine,” Kurumi reassured her. “Please go ahead and tell us.” Meimei continued hesitantly. “The windows open up around fifteen centimeters, right? A person couldn’t get through that gap, but…maybe a doll would be able to… It’s silly, I know.” “Huh?” Grimm said, annoyed. “You’re not actually trying to say that a doll is behind this, are you? That a doll snuck in through the window, attacked Sasaki, put her in a coma, and then escaped back out the window?” “It’s just…” Meimei shrugged. “We did come here to see a living doll, didn’t we?” “…” A hush fell over the room once again. Meimei dipped her head slightly, perhaps unable to stand the silence. “I’m sorry. It’s stupid. There’s no way a doll could do this.” “No, it’s an interesting observation,” Kurumi said as she crossed her arms. Knowing of the Artifact Galatea as she did, that was the first thing she had thought of as well. “At any rate, let’s be on guard.” “…Are you serious?” Grimm stared at her in disbelief. “It’s a theory at best,” Kurumi told her. “This so-called ‘living doll’ could be a high-performance robot or something similar. There’s no harm in being cautious, is there?” “Well…I suppose not,” Grimm agreed, still not entirely convinced. But there was nothing to be done about that. Kurumi couldn’t exactly reveal to them the existence of Galatea. And even if she did tell them the truth, she had no reason to think they would believe her. Some compromises had to be made. “What do we do now, then?” Yoriko asked, sweat beading on her forehead. “We have to find a way out of this house, obviously,” Grimm replied, her expression stern. “No arguments there.” Kurumi nodded in agreement. Grimm was quite right, and Kurumi also welcomed the chance to search the house to locate Galatea. “That said, however, it’s dangerous for us to move alone. Let’s ensure that we are moving in groups of two at a minimum.” As Kurumi spoke, Meimei raised a hand apologetically. “Umm. I know this isn’t a good time, but I have to go to the washroom. Could someone accompany me? Oh! If you’d prefer, I could do my business right here…” Meimei’s cheeks flushed, and her breathing grew heavier. It seemed she would prefer her latter suggestion. “…I’ll accompany you,” Kurumi said with a wry smile. “I know I just said we shouldn’t be alone, but the washroom window is only to allow light in, so I’m sure you’ll be all right in there. Please leave the door unlocked just in case of an emergency.” “Oh! Yes.” Meimei’s cheeks grew even redder. “This is almost exciting…” “Well then, off we go.” Kurumi turned to the other two women. “Grimm, Yoriko. Would you please collect any items that could be used as weapons?” “Y-yes.” “Understood.” Grimm and Yoriko nodded. With Jasmine in one arm, Kurumi trailed after Meimei at the far end of the hallway. “Okay,” Meimei said, turning to Kurumi. “Please wait here. I’ll be quick.” “All right,” Kurumi said. “Shall I hold on to Angelica for you?” “No, that’s okay.” Meimei shook her head. “I’m actually a little anxious. And…” “And?” “I haven’t been able to do my business lately unless I’m being watched by the scornful eyes of the young lady.” “…Is that so?” Kurumi heaved a tired sigh. The world was made up of all kinds of people. Meimei went in and closed the door, but there was no click of the lock, just as Kurumi had instructed. Nevertheless, a minute or so later… “Huh? Wh-what is this! Hngh!” …she heard a muffled cry and a crash. “…! Meimei?!” She didn’t know what had happened in the washroom, but she could tell the situation was urgent if nothing else. She grabbed the doorknob. “Wha—?!” No matter how much she pulled, however, the door refused to open. She was sure Meimei hadn’t locked it. And she very much doubted an old door like this would be equipped with a remote-controlled lock or anything of the sort. “What’s the matter, Kurumi?!” came Matsurika’s panicked voice from Jasmine. Scowling, Kurumi kept the knob turned as she threw herself at the door. It gave no resistance, as though it had never been stuck in the first place. “Guh!” Kurumi nearly fell over from her own momentum. She had no time to waste, though. She stood up straight and peered into the washroom. “Meimei…?” Like Sasaki before her, Meimei seemed to have had her soul extracted from her body and was now leaning lifelessly against the wall. “How…on earth…?” Kurumi furrowed her brow before lifting her face with a gasp. The vent in the ceiling was wide-open. “She couldn’t possibly have—” Kurumi stared in disbelief. “Through there?” As if in response, Matsurika’s voice came from Jasmine once more. “Kurumi, there’s no sign of Angelica. And there’s red lipstick on Meimei’s lips…” “…Honestly. What is going—?” Kurumi started and then drew a sharp breath at the sharp scream she heard from behind. “Eeek!” “…!” She whirled around. “Grimm.” Apparently, Grimm had heard the commotion and came running. “I do apologize. I let my guard down. Because of me, Meimei—,” Kurumi said regretfully before stopping mid-sentence. The terror in Grimm’s eyes was directed toward Kurumi herself. “Y-you didn’t actually…? Kuruelle, are you…?” “…! This wasn’t me. The door wasn’t budging.” “It’s open now, isn’t it?!” Grimm cried shrilly, pointing at the washroom door. She took a step back. “Now that I think about it, Kuruelle, you were the one to open Sasaki’s door, too! Ah… And it was you who said the door wouldn’t open in the first place! We didn’t even touch it! Was it even locked to start with?!” “Grimm!” Kurumi shouted to try and calm her. “Please relax!” “Shut up! You’re not fooling me anymore! You’re the host, aren’t you?! You’re Venus!” Grimm snapped an accusing finger out at Kurumi. She would not be placated. “…Please do remain sensible. That is beyond absurd. What proof exactly do you—?” “Just now! Your doll talked!” Grimm cried, interrupting Kurumi. Her conversation with Matsurika had been overheard. “…Er, that is—Well…” A trickle of sweat ran down her cheek. The host of the meetup, their main suspect for these attacks, Venus, had said she would show them a living doll. Then Grimm came across a speaking doll that happened to belong to Kurumi. It was no wonder she jumped to the conclusion that Kurumi was the culprit. “…It’s not what you think,” she said finally. “Suddenly not the smooth talker anymore, huh?!” Grimm glared at Kurumi. She was resolute in her conclusion. Perhaps panicked by the turn things were taking, Jasmine spoke up from where she was nestled in Kurumi’s arms. “Please listen to me! This girl is not the culprit!” “Aaah! The doll really does talk?!” Grimm shrieked and ran off down the hallway. “…Matsurika.” “…I’m sorry. I wanted to help clear your name, but…” “…I appreciate the consideration.” Kurumi sighed at length. This was not the time for dejection, however. She had to clear up this misunderstanding as soon as possible, and beyond that, it was far too dangerous to leave Grimm on her own right now. Grimm had fled to the room assigned to her, so Kurumi quickly ran over and knocked on the door. “Grimm, please listen to me,” she cried, pleading her case. “I am not responsible for this.” But no matter how long she waited with bated breath, she heard no reply. “She can’t actually be…” Kurumi had a sudden, terrible premonition and reached out to grab the doorknob tightly. The door was apparently unlocked. It opened readily. And just as she’d dreaded, there, in the center of the room… “Grimm…,” she murmured. Like Meimei and Sasaki before her, Grimm was on the floor, unconscious. “This is just…,” Matsurika said through Jasmine, her voice pained. “Now Grimm, too…” Kurumi turned on her heel and ran down the hallway without bothering to examine Grimm. The reason was simple. There was something else she needed to check on first. “Kurumi, where are you going?!” Matsurika cried. “I don’t see Yoriko anywhere!” Indeed. She’d left Yoriko with Grimm in the counseling office, and now she was nowhere to be found. Could Yoriko be the mastermind behind all of this? Or… “…!” Returning to the lounge, Kurumi looked around and gasped. Yoriko’s unconscious body was slumped over in the small storage room at the back of the lounge. Her body was limp, her lips painted the same red as the other girls. Kurumi could only infer what had happened, but most likely, Grimm and Yoriko had done as she asked and gone to look for anything that could be used as a weapon. When they heard the cry from the washroom, Grimm ran off to investigate by herself, and once Yoriko was alone, she was attacked. Kurumi grimaced at the gruesome scene. “What on earth is going on here…?” “I can’t believe everyone besides you is in a coma,” Matsurika said solemnly. Then she gasped. “Wait! Kurumi, it wasn’t actually you, right?” “You’ve been with me this entire time,” Kurumi said, rolling her eyes. “Oh! That is true, huh?” “…” Kurumi sank into thought. It was all but confirmed that the host, Venus, was in possession of the Artifact. But Kurumi had absolutely no idea where this Venus was or how she had attacked Sasaki and the others. “Er, Kurumi?” Matsurika said hesitantly. Kurumi let out a short sigh before responding, “…What is it?” “Perhaps you should put them into their beds? They might catch a cold lying on the floor, and Meimei and Yoriko seem to be uncomfortable positioned as they are…” “…I apologize, but I don’t have the time to—,” Kurumi started, and then her eyebrows jumped up. Looking back, she noticed a single commonality in all four attacks. “They all happened in a small area…?” Yes. The locations were different—Sasaki and Grimm in their own rooms, Meimei in the washroom, and Yoriko in the closet—but they had all been targeted the moment they were alone in an isolated space. In other words, not one girl had been attacked when alone in the larger rooms or the hallway. “There must be a reason—!” Kurumi stopped abruptly. She heard tiny footsteps from the hallway. “…! Who’s there?!” She whirled around, sharpening her gaze. The other participants and the house steward were all comatose. Unless one of them had woken up, these footsteps were definitely not a welcome sound to Kurumi’s ears. “Wha—?!” But even after bracing herself for the worst, she still couldn’t stop the cry of surprise from slipping out. That was to be expected. She was, after all, looking at several dolls walking on their own two legs. “Living…dolls…?” Kurumi murmured, a shiver of fear running up her spine. “—, —” “…, …, —” “—, …” The beautiful dolls were fitted in gorgeous outfits and were struggling to speak, but no sound came out of their mouths as they slowly closed in on Kurumi. There was no other way to describe the sight—these were living dolls. She couldn’t get an accurate head count, but there were at least ten. Looking closer, she saw the missing Snow White, † Patricide Anima †, and Angelica among them. “What on earth…?” She frowned slightly. She then realized the dolls weren’t attempting to attack her directly; they were instead threatening her to herd her to a different location. “So it is the Artifact! Did they also come after Grimm and the others?!” Matsurika cried, bewildered. Even through a camera lens, the sight of numerous dolls closing in no doubt made for a fairly frightening sight. “Well, I don’t know about that!” Rather than run from the dolls, Kurumi picked up a vase of flowers near the wall and threw it at them. It shattered at their feet with a loud crash, sending flower petals and drops of water everywhere. “…!” “—,—!” Perhaps the dolls hadn’t expected Kurumi to fight back. They ran away in a stunned panic until the lounge was at last silent once more. “Oh my?” Kurumi raised her eyebrows in surprise as she noticed a candlestick by the door. It was probably the one Yoriko had been carrying. Naturally, if it had been just the candlestick on the floor, she wouldn’t have paid it any mind. This candlestick, however, was moving its handle like an arm as it tried desperately to get out of the lounge. It looked like it had been left behind by the dolls. “Wh-what is that…?” Matsurika said through the doll. “…” Kurumi walked over to it, wary and on guard, and picked up the candlestick. “…!” The candlestick squirmed and flailed in her hand… It was incredibly disturbing. But Kurumi nevertheless examined the object carefully and narrowed her eyes at a certain discovery. “Well, hello…” “A…lipstick mark?” Yes. There were traces of red lipstick on the bottom of the candlestick. “…Hmm.” Kurumi wiped it with a finger. In the next instant, the squirming candlestick shuddered and fell still. It had returned to normal. “—” Kurumi gasped. The Artifact Galatea. A tool to transfer a human soul into a doll. The comatose girls. The missing dolls. The traces left behind. Every bit of evidence led Kurumi to a single solution. “It can’t be.” The words slipped out of her as she whirled her head around. “Is something the matter, Kurumi?” Matsurika asked. “…Yes. It is time to solve this case,” Kurumi replied. “I understand everything now. Perhaps even the method of the crime and where the culprit is currently hiding.” “Really?” Matsurika gasped. “Where are they, then?!” “Matsurika.” Kurumi exhaled at length and set the candlestick down on the desk. “Galatea is an Artifact that has the power to transfer the soul of a human being into a doll. Is that correct?” “Y-yes, so?” “Then I have another question. What exactly is a doll?” “What…?” Matsurika replied. Her voice was coming out of the doll Jasmine, so it did look a little as though the doll was stunned when faced with the definition of its own existence. “Why… It’s an item modeled after the shape of a person… Is it not?” “Precisely.” Kurumi nodded. “But perhaps first, the item resembles something else and is then defined as being modeled after the human form. Does it need a face? Limbs? The human brain will see a face in three simple dots.” “In other words,” Matsurika said slowly, “a soul could potentially be transferred to any item, depending on the user’s perception of it… Is that it?” “That is exactly it. The host of this meetup, Venus, has been here right from the start, having transferred her own soul into a certain item.” “A certain item… What exactly?!” Kurumi slowly turned her gaze up toward the ceiling. “This house itself.” The moment Kurumi said this, the house creaked and squealed and rattled. “Eeek…!” Matsurika shrieked in terror. But Kurumi continued speaking, calm as could be. “…I did think it rather strange. I felt eyes on me, and yet there was no one there. The doors opened and closed rather conveniently… But if the culprit is the environment itself, that would explain everything.” “S-so then, the dolls earlier were…” “Most likely, victims with their souls removed,” Kurumi agreed. “Snow White and Angelica were also among them. However, I don’t know if they were seeking assistance from me or being threatened by the culprit.” As she spoke, she looked at the candlestick that had so recently been in motion. “I would guess this candlestick is Yoriko or the previous house steward. Since there was no doll at hand, her spirit was perhaps moved to a random vessel. Thanks to this, however, we can surmise that a soul may be shifted to something other than a proper doll.” “B-but how does knowing that help anything?” Matsurika shrieked. “The culprit is the mansion itself… We’re in the literal belly of the beast!” “You’re exactly right, Matsurika. Anything we can see is our enemy. We’re in quite the pinch.” “K-Kurumi…” “That is, if my only desire is to escape.” “What?” Kurumi kicked off from the floor and ran from the lounge into the hallway. “Kurumi, what are you—?!” “If Venus has possessed this mansion, then I simply have to perform an exorcism.” “Exorcism…? You mean—?!” “Precisely. If my instincts are correct, there will be a Galatea mark somewhere in the house. If I can find it—” She cut herself off and leaped into the air as the walls of the hallway rippled, trying to knock her feet out from under her. “Eeek?! Wh-what is happening?!” “Heh-heh! It seems Venus no longer cares about appearances.” Kurumi twisted her lips into a grin and raced down the hallway, the hem of her frilly skirt swinging. The floor shook, the walls swelled out, and furniture and tchotchkes went flying. It was almost like she was witnessing some kind of poltergeist phenomenon. She understood now. Subduing her victims would be a simple matter, seeing how much control she exercised over the mansion’s interior. She remembered that the scenes of the crimes had all been in the smaller rooms. Those spaces brought her victims closer to the walls and left nowhere to run, as opposed to larger rooms or hallways. “Ahyaaa?! Hooo?!” Matsurika’s shrieks rang out from the doll tucked under Kurumi’s arm. Kurumi sighed in exasperation. “Why are you screaming, Matsurika?” “How can you be so calm, Kurumi?!” “Well, I’ve been through a great deal. This is a far cry from overwriting the laws of physics or having a lethal beam fired at me.” “What are you talking abooout?!” Kurumi raced up the stairs, Matsurika’s scream trailing behind her. The wooden staircase came crumbling around her a fraction of a second too late. Kurumi threw herself forward, landing in the hallway of the second floor, and used that momentum to kick down the bedroom door. Yes. If the mark of Galatea was anywhere in this house, she felt it would likely be in the mistress’s off-limits bedroom. “Let’s see…” Kurumi narrowed her eyes. “Bingo.” On the wall on the far side of the room, she could see a red kiss mark. “That’s… Is that the same mark that was on the candlestick?” Matsurika asked. “Yes. Most likely, Galatea is an Artifact that takes the form of lipstick. I would assume you transfer the target’s soul by applying it and kissing the doll.” Without exception, the victims all had on red lipstick. This was likely how their souls were removed. “I see… In that case, we simply must wipe it away!” “And then the connection between Venus and this house will be severed.” Kurumi continued. “This is the real do-or-die moment.” The mark was on the far side of the bedroom, but Kurumi now stood in a scene remarkably similar to the previous victims. The walls in this smaller room were closer together, making it easier for Kurumi to be captured. She couldn’t allow herself to be daunted by this and simply stand here in a daze, however. She took a deep breath and threw herself into the bedroom. It seemed that her attacker had been waiting for this moment—in an instant, the bedroom walls, floor, ceiling, and furnishings all went on the attack. “Ngh!” She nimbly danced up into the air to dodge, but eventually, she ran out of escape routes, and her legs got tangled up in the curtains. “Kurumi!” Matsurika cried, her voice echoing through the suddenly cramped room. Right after this, Kurumi heard a scraping voice from somewhere. “I won’t. Let anyone. Have my friends.” The house creaked, and it sounded like human speech. Kurumi flashed a bold smile, even as she struggled and twisted against her restraints. “We finally get the chance to speak, Venus,” she said. “Although to be honest, I would have preferred to meet you in person.” The voice grew louder. “I will. Make you. A friend, too.” “Oh dear, oh my.” Kurumi narrowed her eyes and grinned defiantly. “You intend to make me a doll as well? Hee-hee-hee! Then I shall give you exactly what you desire.” “What?” The voice had an edge of surprise. Kurumi ran the thumb of her right hand over her own lips—the thumb she’d used to wipe away the mark on the candlestick. “Artifact Galatea,” she said. “Please show me your power.” And then with her lips painted red, Kurumi kissed Jasmine, the doll in her arms. “—” As though falling into a sudden slumber, her consciousness was instantly swallowed up by darkness. But this was only for a moment. “Oh dear, oh my.” She took a risk, assuming the lipstick that had already been used would still be functional. That risk paid off. Now inside Jasmine’s body, Kurumi spoke boldly. “So this is what it’s like inside a doll’s body. Hee-hee-hee! Eternal youth and eternal health, hmm? This is rather appealing.” She flexed her ball joints and turned her gaze to the lipstick mark on the wall. “But this is nothing more than a fleeting dream. It’s time to wake up now.” “Eee,” a frightened voice cried, and the walls of the room shuddered. Doll Kurumi nimbly danced across the room to the far wall. “I bid you adieu, Venus. The next time we meet, let it please be in person.” Kurumi rubbed her clothes against the kiss mark and erased it. “To drive off the darkness, (OMITTED) violence!” A few days after the incident in the woods, Matsurika yanked open the door of the Tokisaki Detective Agency. As always, she was clad in a beautiful dress, and her ringlets were in top drill-bit form. In one hand, she held a silver attaché case. “Please do not omit the critical part,” Kurumi replied, rolling her eyes as she slowly turned toward Matsurika. Naturally, she was back in her own body now. She had transferred herself to Jasmine to solve the case in the mansion, but when she wiped away the lipstick mark, her soul was returned to her body. She then did a thorough search of the rest of the house and discovered a number of living dolls in the empty rooms. Just as she’d suspected, they were all Doll House members whose souls Venus had forcibly transferred. After the lipstick marks on the dolls were wiped away, the souls had returned to their original bodies, too. “Did you need something?” Kurumi asked dryly. “Right. Here.” Matsurika set the attaché case down on the table and opened it. Inside were a small, finely wrought bottle and a lipstick brush. “And this is…?” “The Artifact Galatea.” “…!” Kurumi’s eyes grew wide in surprise. “You found the culprit, then?” “Yes. We traced the paper trail back to the owner of the house,” Matsurika explained. “Her confession came surprisingly quickly after we confronted her with the evidence and interrogated her.” “Is that so? What sort of person is she exactly?” “Errr. I believe her name is Aimi Katashiro. She’s a junior high schooler.” “…Junior high?” Kurumi frowned dubiously. “She was in possession of an Artifact that disappeared from your home, no? Wouldn’t that make her a conspirator in the robbery?” “We will be doing an investigation into the particulars,” Matsurika told her. “But it apparently came into her possession thanks to a package that arrived addressed to her late grandfather.” “Mm-hmm.” Kurumi cocked her head and crossed her arms. How was this girl’s grandfather connected to the Artifact thief? And they couldn’t discount the possibility that the girl was lying to shirk responsibility. “So, this Aimi, why on earth did she do this?” “Apparently, she’s been quite sickly from a young age and hospitalized all this time,” Matsurika said. “She wanted friends, so she collected living dolls.” “…Is that right?” Kurumi sighed, a faraway look in her eyes. “I do sympathize with her situation, but that is no reason for this kind of violent crime.” She laughed self-deprecatingly. She spoke so virtuously in front of Matsurika, but she really had no right to act so high-and-mighty. “Matsurika, please tell me in which hospital this Aimi is located.” A bead of sweat rolled down Matsurika’s cheek. “I can tell you, but…since it’s possible she will be a key witness, I’d appreciate it if you would spare her life…” Kurumi arched an eyebrow. “What do you assume I am exactly?” “Hmm? What are you planning to do, then?” Matsurika asked curiously. Kurumi lowered her eyes. “I thought I might make a new friend.”