1

The ringing of the doorbell happened in the evening, close to four o"clock. Hirota who had appointed himself as the caretaker picked up the intercom in a haste. Without rushing around the trio of Shibuya Psychic Research seemed have been snooping inside the house until just before noon, and was taking a nap by the time Hirota woke up.

When he picked up the intercom, a woman"s voice answered, "It"s Sasakura."

The Sasakura household lived right next to Midori"s house. Hirota had already caught sight of Mrs Kazumi many times.

"-- Yes."

The door facing the entrance way opened. Kazumi opened her eyes.

"Oh my."

"Weren"t you Hirota-san? -- Where"s the lady of this house?"

"My aunt is currently out for groceries. ... ...Is there something you need?"

When it came to Kazumi, Hirota didn"t have much of a good impression of her. One cause was Reiko being oversensitive to the Sasakura household to the point that she"d be on the lookout. Another cause was that Hirota himself had met Kazumi for the first time a couple of days ago and it was dreadfully uncomfortable to be questioned by her to the point of interference.

"Well then, perhaps I will wait for her," Kazumi said and grabbed the door Hirota had pushed open, and opened it further. Hirota stopped her in a confusion.

"... ...This bothers me."

"Oh my, how come?"

Seemingly displeased, Kazumi looked up at Hirota. Though firm, she was a woman of short height.

"I can listen to what you have to say to her."

"She will be back soon right?"

"It might take some time though."

"If that"s so," Kazumi said as she looked at Hirota with upturned eyes. "Then I"ll still wait inside. Aren"t you hungry? If you like I"ll make something simple out from the things I"ll borrow in the kitchen so you can keep up until dinner."

"No thanks."

With a disgusted feeling he looked down at Kazumi.

Her way of speaking seemed as if she was a close friend of Midori and Reiko, but that the a.s.sociation between the two and the Sasakura household doesn"t go any further than pa.s.sing notices was something that Hirota already knew.

After looking let down, Kazumi caught sight of a camera standing in the nook of the entrance way.

"-- That, what is it?"

"It"s a camera that was left in our custody."

"Oh, you have guests?"

Kazumi tried to peer inside the house from the s.p.a.ce between Hirota and the door. Hirota felt like yelling that she should cut it out, but he could barely endure it. That"s because he thought it was inexcusable if he worsened the personal relations of the Agawa household.

"Yes. Currently we have a visitors inside."

"Yesterday quite a lot of people went in and out right? What kind of people are they? Relatives?"

Hirota took a deep breath and endured the feeling of wanting to raise his voice at her.

"They are my friends."

"They"re staying over? Until when?"

"I don"t know."

"Somehow they carried in a lot of luggage, it must have been tough to carry it up."

I wonder if she isn"t truly observing us, Hirota thought.

"-- At any rate, me and my friends had to do it," Hirota said, but when he tried closing the door Kazumi captured his hand.

"-- Wait. Who are those people, really? They"re not friends, right? There were children of around senior high school age after all."

Kazumi"s eyes didn"t stop peering at Hirota"s eyes.

-- This woman, somehow there was something strange about her.

He didn"t think that the inhabitant of a neighbouring house would show interest to such an extent.

"The friends of senior high school age, um... ... are my juniors at a club. A lot of mechanical applications break down inside this house, so I had the come to take a look. Yeah, I was part of the electrician"s club."

If there had been such a club, -- there hadn"t been one at Hirota"s school -- that was something he knew little about, but at least he gave a suitable reply at any rate.

"After this, we will be making a lot of noise again."

"I see," Kazumi said and released Hirota"s arm.

Hirota realized that he himself had been perspiring cold sweat. Perhaps it was due to not being used to telling lies, or whether it was the bad feeling Kazumi"s improper curiosity gave off.

Kazumi was still peering inside the house. Though she had an interest in how many other people there were in this house, he wondered if she would normally do it like this.

"-- Well then."

"Are you truly Midori"s cousin?"

Hirota stopped closing the door with a startle.

"Why have you suddenly started to make this a lodging? Isn"t there some kind of purpose behind this?"

"-- What"s with this talk?"

"Isn"t it like that?"

"Could we please call it a day?"

Once again Kazumi took hold of Hirota"s arm. Her palm"s temperature felt lukewarm throughout his shirt.

"Aren"t you actually a bodyguard? Isn"t there something happening at this house? Did you know that a person committed suicide at this place back in the day?"

"Could you please cut it out."

"The person who lived here before left because of that. It made them feel bad. -- Aren"t you actually here for such a reason? Just before this, I heard that from the boy who came to ask. Isn"t that your friend?"

Wasn"t what gave off a bad feeling to the previous inhabitant not the house itself, but could it possibly have been the neighbours? Hirota thought while taking in the glance from the woman"s persistent glance.

"Hey, why are you hiding it? Is there something bad going on?"

When Hirota thought "please forgive me", he unexpectedly heard a quiet voice coming from the back.

"Hirota-san, what"s wrong? Why are you still here?"

When he turned, he saw Naru standing in the entrance.

A grateful Hirota relied on Naru for this. He shook and untangled himself from Kazumi"s hand and pushed her shoulder lightly.

"That will be all for now, excuse me."

He shook off Kazumi"s hand who tried to stop him and closed the door. Without a moments delay he locked the door and unintentionally gave a sigh of relief.
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