The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the ceiling and the lights.
It was a medium-sized room with a tatami floor, and I was resting on top of a futon. There was nobody else in the room, but past the sliding doors I could hear people talking.
I looked at the clock. I’d been passed out for about a half hour. In a sense, it was only natural. I’d used my psychometry that many times in a short period. I’d pushed myself too hard.
I bit my lip, got up, and looked at my face in the mirror on the wall. I looked awful. I looked more like a corpse than the bodies in the coffins. But I couldn’t stay in here resting forever. I quickly brushed my messed-up hair and left the room.
“Kizaki. You’re awake?” Shinoyama was in the smoking area outside, having a cigarette. The “smoking area” was just an ashtray in the corner of the parking lot. It was so smoky that I didn’t want to go anywhere near it, but the other detectives had told me it was Shinoyama who had carried me after I’d fallen unconscious, so I’d come to look for him.
“I’m sorry for the trouble. I’m okay now.”
“Anemia?”
“Something like that.” I nodded vaguely. “More importantly, about the last body I did psychometry on... There was a boy there who looked just like the body, right?”
“What did you say?” Shinoyama looked shocked.
“A boy about my age in a duffel coat.”
“No, I don’t think there was anybody like that.”
“No, he was there. Just before I passed out.”
But Shinoyama thought for a second, and then shook his head. “I didn’t see him. If he were there, I would’ve noticed.”
Impossible...
I left the smoking area and went back into the temple. There were several police officers there, helping the families. I asked the same thing I’d asked Shinoyama. But the answer was always the same.
“Nobody but me saw that boy?”
That was impossible... There was no way. I’d seen him so clearly. I’d even heard his voice. I knew the difference between real memories and the ones I’d seen with my psychometry.
That boy was no hallucination.