Several days had passed since the incident at Enmeiji. After what had happened, Myu-Pom had passed out from the shock and had to be hospitalized. I didn’t hear any details about the albino boy, or what was in his box. The papers didn’t really report it. But whatever was inside it was once human. I knew that.
I hadn’t been to Blue Moon once since then. I hadn’t been to school, either. I’d stayed in my house the whole time. I’d used the photo I’d taken of the ceiling of Dr. Hashigami’s study, stretched it out on a printer, and kept decoding the list. It took a long time, and was really boring, to decode the whole thing myself, but when I finished, I might have access to information even the police didn’t.
This was all I had left. This was all I could do.
Just like I thought, the names of the people matched the list of the ones in the 256 incident. Forty-three names had matched so far. One of them was Yuna Miyamae, the girl who’d been taken to the hospital after playing Kokkuri-san.
Only about 150 of the victims from the 256 incident had had their names released. So only a few names had matched so far. But if I kept going, eventually all the names should match.
I wasn’t sure if I should tell the police. It felt like they were acting weird. I couldn’t trust them.
I had my TV on all the time in the living room. A news program was giving an update on the 256 incident.
“—The police just released a new list of victims. This brings the total number to two hundred, but the remaining fifty-six have yet to be identified.”
Oh, perfect timing. If there were new names released, I needed to match them with my list.
“Hey.” I heard a voice from the Skysensor. “How long are you going to keep doing that busywork? Shouldn’t you leave it to someone else? It’s a job for idiots, right?” Zonko had been saying that ever since I started. She was getting really annoying.
But whenever mom came home, Zonko fell silent immediately. It seemed like she was only going to talk when it was just me and her.
“Forget that list. Worry about the key. That’s more important, right?”
“No, the key’s important, but I walked all over and didn’t find anything it matched. I don’t have a choice.”
The Kotoribako that albino boy had didn’t have a keyhole. All my memories of that day were like a nightmare.
I still hadn’t made contact with Ririka Nishizono.
I just wanted to be done going through the list.
When I did, I’d find something. Something that wasn’t a nightmare.
I knew there was no point in doing this simple busywork. Zonko had told me I was just trying to escape reality, and she was right. Just the fact that several of the names had matched was enough to justify turning it over to the police. But once I’d started, I felt like I had to continue.
There was something in this list.
If Dr. Hashigami had a list of the victims of the 256 incident a year ago, then there must be something incredible that they all had in common. Maybe he was killed to hide that. In that world line, I’d cease being a suspect.
“Whew.” I decoded another name.
It was a lot more of a hassle than you’d think to decode a name from dots. This was number seventy, finally.
Umm...
“GAMON YUTA—???”
“Here are the names of the newest victims. Tadashi Iguchi. Yoko Ishizuka. Mitsuko Edo. Toyohiko Oba. Yasumi Ogata. Shingo Kaga. Yuta Gamon—”
“Yuta Gamon—”
“Huh?” For some reason, I made a weird noise as the announcer called my name.
“Hey, Zonko! Did you hear that? I’m... I’m a victim, it says! Ahahahaha! That’s hilarious, huh? Both the code on the ceiling and the TV news called my name at the same time! Hahaha! What’s going on here—”
“Sigh...” Zonko cut me off.
And in a resigned, disappointed voice, she said—
“You found it, huh?”
----BzzzBBzzt--bzzbzzzzt----