Sarai Hashigami’s house was in an expensive area right near Inokashira Park.
Normally it was quiet, even though it was so close to the station, but thanks to the 256 incident, it was now filled with people walking the streets.
There were media trucks and vans parked right on the road. Wasn’t that a parking violation? Evidently the media were staking out Inokashira Park even at night. It must’ve sucked to be them, considering how cold it was.
It had been only ten days or so since Dr. Hashigami’s death, so normally the media would still be staking out his house. Maybe it was good for Sarai’s family that the 256 incident had pulled all of them away.
“Come in.” Sarai opened the gate to his house.
The Hashigami residence was a very ordinary one. There was a pine tree in the yard, and a small pond. He’d probably lived here for years. I’d been imagining something more modern and fancy, so I was a little surprised.
The outside light was on. If the light was on, that meant his family was probably home. Was it okay for me to just come over like this? Sarai didn’t seem to care, though.
Sarai opened the front door to the house, and we went inside.
There were several pairs of shoes strewn about the front entrance, and the mail and newspapers were piling up. The place didn’t seem dirty. It felt like it had only gotten messy recently.
And there was something else that bothered me.
—The house was too quiet.
It was so noisy outside, which only made the contrast more stark.
The outside light was on, but there was no sign of anyone in the house.
Maybe the rest of Sarai’s family — his mother, perhaps — had already gone to sleep. After what had happened to his dad, there was no way his family could live normally. Maybe his mom was asleep from exhaustion... maybe.
When I thought about that, the look on Dr. Hashigami’s dead face came back to me, and I quickly shook my head.
“This way.”
The professor’s study was on the second floor. I was still in the process of taking off my shoes, but Sarai had already started walking up the stairs.
He seemed kind of mad at me. Of course he would be. He’d just said I was inexplicable and upsetting. He probably hated me. But still, the person he should hate wasn’t me. It was whoever killed his dad.
It was very strange to be with Sarai, the guy from my message board. It was a miracle, actually. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see us ever being friends.
My only real friend... was Ryotasu, anyway.
As I quickly took off my shoes, I realized that Sarai was looking down at me from the staircase.
“Wh-What is it...?” I asked.
“You were just thinking that I was the type of person you don’t like, weren’t you?”
“No, um...”
“Do you know what humans do when they lie? One thing they do is always look away. And what have you been doing? You seem to be looking down towards your lower right. The other thing they do is blink less. An adult male blinks an average of twenty times a minute. That’s once every three seconds. It’s been thirty seconds since I’ve started this conversation, but surprisingly, you haven’t blinked once. The third thing is that a small film of sweat forms around the bridge of their nose. The low for today is five degrees. At this hour, it’s not that low, but it still can’t be more than around seven. That’s not a temperature where you sweat. And this house doesn’t have the heater running at all. It’s the same temperature in here as it is outside, and you’re sweating. Your body temperature’s gone up because of something I’ve said that’s causing you to panic. There’s more. Should I continue?”
“N-No, that’s okay!”
What a PITA.
What was with this guy? He kept going on and on about crap that didn’t matter. And with this huge smirk on his face, too! Did I really need to know all that stuff now? It would be a lot easier if he just said, “You don’t like super-smart jackasses like me, do you? Well, I don’t like NEET scum like you.” No, I wouldn’t want him saying that to my face. If he said it to me on Twitter or something, I could probably come up with a really good comeback. And wait, how long was he going to stand there? Just go up the stairs already. At this rate I’d be stuck in the front hall forever.
Maybe it was because I was complaining to myself like usual, but the panic I’d been feeling a moment ago had started to subside.
As I listened to Sarai’s long, boring speech, I suddenly heard a noise that bothered me.
Both Sarai and I were standing still, but I could hear the sound of a creaking floor. At the end of the first floor hallway, there was a door fitted with frosted glass. It was half-open, but the room inside was dark, and I couldn’t see what was going on inside. It was probably the living room or something.
I focused towards the spot in the darkness where I’d heard the noise — and saw a white shadow move.
“Uwah!” I screamed a little in surprise.
“Huh?” Sarai looked a little annoyed. I realized that I’d grabbed onto his arm.
“I’m... sorry. But that was...” I rubbed my eyes.
It looked like an old woman in a white kimono...
Was it Sarai’s grandmother? But if it was, why didn’t she turn the light on?
Was it... a ghost?
“Are you sure you’re the admin of KiriBasa?” Sarai sounded unsatisfied.
He must not have seen whatever it was I saw.
Okay, I would just ignore the shadow then. Yeah. People see things all the time. Yup. Later I could send Special Correspondent Ryotasu on a mission to find out what it was. Then I could write a post about whether it was a ghost or just some old woman.
I followed Sarai up the stairs.
There were three rooms on the second floor. Sarai stopped at the one near the end of the hall.
“Is this Dr. Hashigami’s study...?”
“Yup.”
The door was shut. There was no way to see what was inside. Sarai had said it had been “ransacked,” but...
“I’ll wait here. If you want to investigate, do it on your own.”
“Huh? Why? Is there a ghost in here too?!”
“A ghost? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, nothing...”
“I still haven’t processed my feelings toward my dad. My emotions get in the way no matter what I do.”
He didn’t have to always put things in such an obnoxious way.
“I-I lost my dad, too...”
“What?”
“So, um...”
I kinda understood how he felt...
“D-Don’t think... that you’re the only one who’s got it tough...”
“Ahem...”
Oh, crap. That didn’t come out right.
Sarai looked annoyed, but he didn’t say anything. He just silently opened the door to the study and nodded.
I bowed and slid past him into the room.
“...It’s cleaned up.” I was surprised.
He’d said it had been ransacked, so I was imagining something like out of a TV show, but that wasn’t the case at all.
His family must have cleaned it up. Most of the books and papers were piled neatly on the floor and tied up with string. The bookcase that covered one of the walls was mostly empty.
There was a simple study desk in the middle of the room. The desktop had been cleaned off, and now had only a lonely looking pen holder lying on top... It was very different from the desk at his lab, which had been covered in strange objects.
But if things were like this...
“There’s no way to find any clues...” What I was after was a clue to who had killed the professor. The ideal thing would be to find the keyhole for the golden tooth key. If I found a clue to the real killer, I’d be able to go tell the police that I was the first one who found the body. I wouldn’t have to fear that they’d arrest me instead.
But...
“I guess it’s not like in the detective shows, huh?” I said.
But I had to look anyway. My life was on the line, after all. I didn’t want my life to end at this age.
I started by looking at the covers of the books on the floor. They were similar to the ones in his room at the school. The occult books and physics books in particular stood out. Then there were old papers, and what looked like drafts of his Mumuu column.
I wanted to read them all, but they were tied so tightly that it would be difficult to get the string off. Maybe I should get permission from Sarai later...
I didn’t see anything besides the books. There weren’t any cardboard boxes or anything. Maybe they’d gotten rid of everything.
So the only thing left to check was the desk. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I started by trying to open the top of its three drawers— and it suddenly stuck.