“If it’s this easy, just looking at panties isn’t enough.”
As a blogger, I needed to push things to their limits. It was something that only I could do now, after all.
For instance, maybe I could sneak into a cute girl’s house. Or maybe go to a girl’s school and see what kinds of naughty things they got up to there. Or...
“Oh!”
Come to think of it, there was an old bath just a few minutes away from here!
My body shook a little at the boldness of what I was about to do. But in a sense, it was something every man had dreamed of. Every man, right?
If this worked, my ghost liveblogging at Kirikiri Basara would get some amazing view numbers! And you know, maybe there were other people who were ghosts besides me that were in trouble? As an occult blogger, it was my job to tell them what was safe and what wasn’t. Seeing up a girl’s skirt in public had made me really bold, so I walked straight over to the bath.
The bath was in a residential area in Kichijoji. It wasn’t one of the super baths that were so popular now; it was an old, beat-up building.
It was still evening, but the sign was already up. They were open. If it hadn’t opened yet, I would’ve had to go to Mitaka or Ogikubo, so I was pretty lucky.
“Alright... This is Snake. I’m about to begin my infiltration. Bzzzt... Bzzzt.” I went in, deliberately not taking my shoes off, walked past the counter, and went into the room with the red awning marked “Ladies.”
It was my first time going into a woman’s bath, so my feet were shaking with nervousness. I tried my best to calm myself down. Nobody was going to see me. There was no need to worry about a thing. I knew that, but still I couldn’t help feeling a little afraid.
I went in quietly, even though I didn’t need to.
There was nobody there. There weren’t any girls changing. That made sense. Very few people were taking a bath at this hour, especially with so few people out on the streets of Kichijoji.
I was a little disappointed... and then I saw a flash of movement at the back. Someone was here! There was a girl here! I gulped. I thought I’d break into a grin, but I didn’t.
I felt like a spy on a secret mission. I couldn’t afford to screw up. I didn’t have time to grin. I was completely serious. Even if I was cheating and playing in god mode, I couldn’t let my guard down.
I stalked towards the door that led to the baths, but then...
The door opened! And out from the baths and into the changing room came... a wrinkly old granny.
“.........Cough.” For some reason, I felt like coughing.
This was bad. The tension was starting to evaporate, and the mood was ruined. I could feel myself beginning to reconsider this whole thing.
I closed my eyes and tried to imagine a harem of young naked girls like you always see in manga and anime.
Yes, that was what I wanted!
Sorry, old lady, but I’m not here for you! I passed by her and headed for the bath, trying my best not to look at her.
And then I opened my eyes wide. “What?”
It was empty.
There were only two customers in the whole bath, and one of them was another wrinkly grandma. She was floating in the tub and sighing like an old man.
Ugh.
What was this? Was this reality?
I almost wept tears of frustration as my eyes turned towards the other customer. “Oh...”
She had her back to me as she scrubbed herself, rubbing hard with a bubble-covered cloth. She was young. She had the body of a teenager or someone in her twenties. If nothing else, she wasn’t an old lady.
She was a little big-boned, but her body was toned and healthy. The curves of her waist and butt weren’t much different than any moe anime character. In a sense, it was artistic. Her shoulders were broad, and the muscles on her arms were thick. She looked like someone who worked out.
I was so happy that there was a young woman here. God hadn’t abandoned me.
Thank you, God. Now Kirikiri Basara will survive.
I let out a little cheer, then turned toward the girl.
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
Our eyes met.
She was pretty cute. Was she in college? She looked a little older than me. There were small bags under her eyes.
Huh? Wait, why did our eyes meet? How?
I panicked a little as her eyes went wide with surprise.
Don’t tell me... she could see me?!
“Kyaaaah!” Her scream echoed throughout the bath. “Pervert! Peeping tom!” She pointed at me and screamed.
“You can see me?! You can see me?!”
“Somebody call the police!”
No way! I thought nobody could see me! Or was she already dead, too? Wait, there wasn’t time to think about that!
I quickly ran out of the women’s bath.
“Hahh... Hahh... I can’t believe someone saw me.”
I’d run a good long while without even thinking about the direction I was heading. The next thing I knew, I was under the raised pedestrian bridge along Kichijoji Street, which ran right through Inokashira.
I panted as I wiped the pouring sweat off my forehead with my sleeve. It seemed strangely quiet. Everybody probably wanted to stay away from Inokashira. There were cars, but no pedestrians.
Man, that scared me. It was just like when I picked up the pass case. There was someone in that bathhouse who could see me and react to me.
Wait, there were only three people there. What were the odds that one of them could see me? I had the worst luck. Because of that, I’d missed my chance to see that healthy, gym-going girl’s breasts! What a shame! I guess the world wasn’t that nice of a place. I’d thought I was in god mode, but I wasn’t at all.
“Did she die in the 256 incident, too?”
Or was she somebody with a strong spirit sense, like Toko had said? Either way, I was exhausted. I didn’t have the energy to go back into that bath again. Actually, even if nobody had seen me, I probably wouldn’t have had the energy left. Going into that bath had drained a lot out of me. I’d thought about trying to at least have a little fun, but evidently that wasn’t going to happen.
“If this is a dream, let me wake up!”
If this was a dream, like Sarai said, then maybe I’d wake up soon, right? To be honest, I was feeling really lonely being ignored all the time.
“So go find out for sure, you pervert!”
Suddenly, there was a voice from the Skysensor.
It was so sudden I thought the girl had followed me from the baths, and I tried to run. I tripped and fell to the ground.
“What are you doing? You’re so dense.”
“Z-Zonko?! Is that you?!”
“You’re making too many excuses! And you’re playing around too much!”
“Zonko, why haven’t you said anything? Why didn’t you answer me?”
“There’s no law that says I have to answer you every time you say something. I’m actually really busy.”
“That’s so selfish... You just said all that important-sounding stuff and left. How could you do that to me?”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.”
“Huh? Go where?”
“You want to know if you’re alive or not, right? So the fastest way is to look at your own body, right?”
My own... body...
Sarai and Toko had said that that was our top priority.
“But... where is my body?”
“Daiseiji,” Zonko said calmly. “That’s where they’re keeping the bodies.”
That was the temple next to Inokashira, right? It was pretty big, so maybe it was a good place to keep 256 bodies...
“Your body’s there, too.”
“My body is there...”
Then I really was dead?
“Zonko, is there a chance you’re lying? And wait, how do you know this?”
“All you have to do is ask the police. There are so many unidentified bodies that the police are actually asking for information.”
I stared at the Skysensor skeptically.
“You don’t want to just stay ignorant forever, right?”
Maybe, but I wished she wouldn’t make going to see your body sound so simple. I didn’t have any other options, so in the end I would go, though.
“Why are you always so selfish? You never give me time to prepare!” I said. “...Huh? Zonko?”
The Skysensor had gone silent again.
“Oh, jeez! Damn it!”
I was so mad that I wanted to punch the Skysensor, but it was so important to me that I managed to just barely control myself.