AT-4 Hyakumonogatari

Mifune-san!

How are you doing with that task I gave you?

Our Diet Member has finally approved the separation of the Kinseki Group from the Kinsekikai.

As long as you now accept the role of chairman, the Kinseki Group and the Kinsekikai can go their separate ways.

Then why don't we hold the succession ceremony during tomorrow's fireworks festival? What do you think?

Tessai's views have not changed. Now, he even has Hoshiguma on his side, is one day really enough time for us to...?

Yes.

I saw your brow twitch. I know what you're thinking. You know I don't joke about things like this, yet you still don't believe me. Basically, you think that...

I shouldn't have forced you to forge a letter in the Old Man's name, and that calling Hoshiguma back here did nothing but cause trouble for everyone... is that it?

......

Twenty years ago... Hoshiguma... and that shield of hers... spilled quite a bit of blood. After all, it was the last thing the Old Man forged... Mio, have you ever been to his home?

Yes, many years ago.

What is his house full of?

Televisions.

That's right, televisions.

The Old Man might be stubborn, but his instincts are still sharp, some of the time.

He knew that if the Kinsekikai continued their unending torrent of bloodshed, we were bound to be destroyed sooner or later. So he set his sights on Originium crystalline components.

He quickly converted his metalworking shop into a workshop for crystalline components, and it was an instant success. After that, the Old Man no longer had time to forge the legendary weapons he loved most.

Just as his crystal business was really taking off, the Old Man suddenly acquired the materials, and techniques, to forge shields from a fallen noble house of the Mitsumoto faction.

They say that he spent nearly half of the Group's liquid assets to acquire them.

That shield, the last shield the old man ever forged, the shield he had spent so many assets to acquire... do you ever think it might have had some special significance to the Kinsekikai?

The transition to a new leader.

Even you knew that... but the Old Man just let the matter sit there. He kept putting it off and putting it off, all the way until the Southern Court was about to hold the first meeting of its Diet.

You young ones grew up with the Diet, but back in my day, no one even knew what it was.

We thought the Diet was going to revamp the bureaucracy as soon as they took office, but it took them a few years to get around to it.

Back then, all we'd heard was that the members of the Diet were to be chosen from among the commoners. The entire Southern Court was in an uproar, and then that poor fool, Koretou, emerged.

The candidate?

Yes. He had a whole heap of political views, but his core aim was to drive us, the Kinsekikai, out of Kajimachi.

He roused a bunch of useless rabble and had them shouting and yelling outside Kajimachi all day and night. It made it impossible for us to do business.

The Old Man, no... not just him, the whole Kinsekikai didn't take Koretou seriously at first, but every day, he recruited more and more troublemakers.

So... you decided to get rid of him.

Yes, and you know the rest of the story, of course. After Koretou died, the Kinsekikai learned what real public fury looks like.

That was also when I learned that to the Four Great Clans, the members of the Diet are nothing but stage props...

But to us... they're people who can decide our fate with a single word.

With all due respect, you could just come out and say it: if Chairman Tessai refuses to yield, you'll need Hannya at the succession ceremony.

I say, sometimes you really do sound just like him.

Of course, Tessai lording it over me is one thing. Hearing it from someone as steadfast and frank as you is another thing entirely.

In truth, once the Kinseki Group splits from the Kinsekikai, I obviously can't stay on as chairman. Is there anyone else, besides you, who can take my place?

......

The day I step into politics and build a power base of my own, you and your Kinsekikai won't be forgotten.

For now, Momoka is still our top priority.

She knows too much, and she's in cahoots with that information broker.

She even leapt out a window just to keep Sanoguchi's broken blade on her. Don't you understand what that means?

Mifune-san——

You were too kind-hearted to kill her, and you were willing to admit that to me. That's good. I can promise you this much: we can reconsider our plan to infect her with Oripathy.

First, however, you must bring her to me.

That broken blade she's carrying.... we must recover its guard, no matter the cost.

Secondly, there's no way she can continue her career as an entertainer. From now on, she'll have to remain firmly under our control.

Are you okay with that?

You are most magnanimous.

No. When you bring her here, she should be the one thanking you.

You must understand, the kami was the one who wanted to play games with you. As a kannushi, I could only stand and watch—I couldn't interfere. Please forgive me, Hoshiguma-san.

Well, you sure were happy to watch, weren't you?

Was I?

I think so.

Wholeheartedly serving the kami is bound to lift one's mood. I imagine you felt it too just now, Hoshiguma-san—and you, Momoka-san.

I'm more interested in why It broke into my house in middle of the night.

What do you mean? You talk like I'm some kind of dangerous fiend. Wouldn't you think it was strange if someone was cleaning out junk from a cursed house, and then went to sleep in said haunted house?

Just because it's a haunted house? There are so many killings in Mitsukue, and Kajimachi is hardly a peaceful place. So why did you have to go snooping around my home in particular?

Because of the kaidan stories.

Are you or are you not involved with those kaidan stories? Tell me.

'Simply appearing at the same time that a few strange events occur' and 'being the one who spawned the haunted house and the kaidan stories' are two very different things, alright?

If I could spawn kaidan stories all by myself, what would I be doing riding a unicycle all over the place?

So basically, you were just tagging along for fun, but people mistook you for the kaidan from the legend?

Not bad. You're pretty sharp.

I'm telling you, being a kami is a job that depends entirely on the whims of fate.

This Kizuna Jinja is about bringing people together. Most of you spend your whole lives dealing with other people, and there's probably nothing more important than the bonds you form, don't you think?

When times are stable, people pray for their existing bonds to last. When times are turbulent, they pray for these bonds to carry them through—or for new ones to form.

But over the past decade or so, fewer and fewer people have come here. These days, on our best days, we only get a dozen or so visitors.

Is this true, Kannushi-sama?

It's exaggerating a bit, but we indeed have been getting far fewer visitors the past few years.

Some kami are lazy. The fewer visitors they get, the happier they are. I'm not like that. If it's always this slow, I'm going to die of boredom, you know?

Speaking of lazy.

What?

There's a lazy one right at your feet.

Hey, show yourself, you're the shrine's star, no?

......

Here's the reason our shrine is known for forging bonds. Whenever he feels someone has been having good luck in love or relationships, it'll show itself.

But if it thinks you haven't had much luck with relationships lately, or that you're about to have a run of terrible luck, it'll flat-out refuse to show itself.

I've said all of that, and yet it still doesn't want to appear before you. It sounds like you're in for some bad luck.

......

Your actions will determine your future. You don't have to take Its words at face value, Hoshiguma-san.

Why are you speaking against your own kami?

Basically, when people get bored, they tend to pursue random aims. Kami are no different.

Right after you disappeared, the kaidan tales started to spread through Mitsukue. There's nothing wrong with chasing a few kaidan to pass the time, is there?

Why the silent treatment? Do you fear your imminent misfortune?

Not really. I just didn't expect that a kami would chase after something so fleeting and unreal.

Why you little!

Regardless, you are not the kami Moriuchi is looking for.

Of course not.

But, might I trouble you to come travel with us? Talk is cheap. If you could just chat with him the way you're chatting with me and Momoka for a bit...

Kannushi-sama, help! This Oni wants to steal away your beloved kami!

These past few years, Moriuchi has given me many gifts, including a never-ending supply of oden.

Hmph.

Forget it. I'm a softy, after all. I'll go with you.

Hoshiguma, have you finished your chat with the priest?

We're almost finished. Where is Kichisei?

She left already. She had to go back and mind the store.

Is this girl coming with us?

Yes, Momoka is coming too. She knows all the kaidan stories. That should be enough to convince you to tag along, yeah?

I already told you I was going. I didn't need more convincing, so why does it matter that she's coming with?

Little girl, I've seen so many of your TV shows. Have you been afflicted with some kind of curse?

H-How should I know?!

I'm actually afraid of kaidan. I just want a quiet life, without all the weird stuff.

You're not the least bit curious about them?

I just want to advance my entertainment career.

The kaidan stuff helped me broaden my audience, but I don't really feel... that's the best way to do it.

Entertainers should rely on their own talent to bring people joy. That's how it should be done.

There aren't too many people who still think like you do. Interesting.

By the way, I wanted to ask you something! Last night, some really scary stuff happened in my house!

Out of nowhere, my TV started controlling itself; it showed clips of me singing, cut together with those blaring emergency alerts.

Then at the end, I have no idea why, but it played a really... scary video.

Tsk tsk tsk! What was the video about? Some cryptid? A bloody murder scene?

None of those things. It was... a video of Mio-san. And soon after the video ended, she actually did show up at my place...

Wasn't that just your TV on the fritz? That's not the kind of kaidan I'm looking for.

It's not?

You've been studying these kaidan. Don't you think they're actually just humans messing around?

You really don't get it, do you? If the ghost stories were all just human mischief, would I even be investigating them in the first place?

Each of these kaidan defy any conceivable explanation.

When people can't figure out the cause of something, guys like Moriuchi just go and pin the blame on us kami.

And if even a kami can't figure out what's going on, well, that just means there's someone or something stronger, more mysterious, and way more thrilling than me pulling the strings behind the scenes.

But you're the one riding the unicycle.

Ahem... That doesn't matter. Don't try to change the subject!

So you mean you're also chasing kami? You're chasing the 'kami above the kami'?

Exactly!

Kichisei?

You swapped terminal numbers with Kichisei?

Yes. The agency doesn't usually let me interact with my fans. And she's such a big one.

Hello? Kichisei?

What?

What?!

That's not true! I didn't mean it—that's not what I meant!

Right! I never once said I was running!

Yes. Uhuh.

You can't talk now...? You think you're being followed?!

Okay. Well then I'll...

Oh? The shrine too?

Right. I'll tell everyone right away. Be careful!

Someone spread word that you're running away?

Kichisei said it was spreading all over the forums. It didn't seem like some random rumor, more like something Kinseki Channel deliberately leaked…

What's up with Kichisei then?

A Kinsekikai guy was tailing her. She also said the area around the shrine might not be safe, she saw people sneaking around when she stepped out through the shrine gate.

The next time you see Kichisei, please thank her for me.

You really don't need to be too worried. Whether or not the yakuza are running around Mitsukue, even if they dare invade the shrine, they're just causing themselves trouble.

If you need to take shelter within the shrine grounds, you can head inside. I'll handle everything else. If you'd rather leave, I'll show you the way out. Take the side path.

I think we'd better leave. The longer we stay here, the more men they can deploy around here to get us.

Momoka, you're gonna have to ride the scooter.

Okay! I've been riding all night. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it!

Then we'll be going, Kannushi-sama.

If I go with you, are those yakuza going to chase me too?

We'll try our hardest not to attract any attention—

Then I'll be the one providing cover?

By 'cover,' you mean—

You're going to help us draw away the yakuza, right?

That's pretty much the idea. Playing those slow-witted yakuza fools every now and then, well, it's not as thrilling as chasing kaidan, but it does pass the time.

I'll make a break through the front gate first to distract the dumb yakuza goons. You all slip out the back and we'll rendezvous at that moron's yatai.

It seems like that kami really cares about you.

Haha...

But now's not the time for sentimentality. You two come over here. I'll show you the way.

This path is pretty well-hidden...

Yes, but that's not to say that no one will find it. Get out of here as quickly as you can.

Thank you for your help and generosity.

Don't mention it—

There's something moving over this way! Come on! Bring your camera over here! I think there's someone here!

This area is still part of the shrine grounds. Are you sure it's okay for us to barge in here?

What matters more: Mifune-san's orders, or some dumb shrine rules? Get over here!

You don't need to start throwing hands like a street thug! You just need a mic and a camera, and you're set. Can you think of an easier gig?! Get over here!

......

Kannushi-sama, wh—what do we do now?!

You two, please wait here for a moment.

You're going to go fight them?

Just the usual routine, clearing away a bit of lingering evil

Woah! That's some wind! Why is all the equipment flying all over the place?!

Kannushi-sama...? Are you actually an Arts master?

Just a few little tricks, is all. Nothing spectacular.

Now's your chance. Get going!

Hoshiguma, and Momoka?

Did you need something to tide you over for now? Or do you mean to tell me you've already completed your task?

I... I don't need anything to eat... I'm pretty full. I feel like I swallowed enough wind on the way over here...

The Kinsekikai are still chasing you?

Thanks to the kami-sama's guidance, and by taking a less-traveled route, the journey back went relatively smoothly.

K-Kami-sama... you mean?!

Don't celebrate just yet. Yes, we found a kami-sama, but not the one you were looking for.

That doesn't matter. It's not a problem!

It doesn't matter?

You, you're...?

See? I told you.

No, no, no! I don't have anything here to offer you a proper welcome... but how about some oden broth to warm you—

No. Have all the oden you want!

I'm not as into the oden you make as certain others.

Kami-sama, I wonder if you—

Wonder what? You're wondering if I've seen the maneki-neko you keep talking about, right? The neko's the one you're looking for, not me.

No! Getting to meet a kami is a blessing from heaven. Why would I ever be picky?

Your eyes betray you.

Back when that neko would still talk to me, it talked to me about you, and the one it described was nothing like you here. You were just a kid then, treating it the way any kid would treat a friend.

That is why It left me?

How should I know? It remembers you, but just as one of the thousands of people it's met in its life. It would never waste its time telling me why it 'left you.'

Err...

I came to see you for other reasons.

No problem! What do you need from me? Money, or information?

Information, of course, information about the kaidan.

You think we kami are responsible for all of the kaidan in Mitsukue, but I promise you... we have basically nothing to do with any of them.

Aren't you, in fact, the Wanyuudou from the legend?

I admit that I speed my unicycle down the street every day, but what else makes you think I'm the Wanyuudou?

The old building behind the police station on Doku Street. The 'cursed elevator'.

The building only has fifteen floors, yet the elevator has a button for the sixteenth floor. That extra floor is actually 'hell'. People have disappeared there.

Sometimes the maneki-neko in the lobby, which is normally fixed to the front desk, just vanishes, only to reappear the next day. This seems to be correlated to when the sixteenth floor appears.

The phenomenon isn't limited to the old building. Many others have told me that their maneki-nekos disappear and reappear at odd times.

Speaking specifically about the old building though, every time the 'entrance to hell' thing happens, the maneki-neko disappears.

You have some pretty detailed knowledge there, but I can tell you for sure that the maneki-neko in that building has nothing to do with the 'kami' you're looking for, even if they look alike.

Where's your proof?

Why do I need proof? I'm a kami. Shouldn't I be able to discern between kami and look-a-likes?

You're just talkin'. You haven't proved anything.

Where's all the deference you had just a minute ago?

Well...

I'm not calling you out or blaming you. I like the frankness better than the whole show you were putting on before.

Besides, I've also explored that old building pretty carefully.

First, there's no hidden button. The button for the sixteenth floor is right above the button for the fifteenth floor. It's just covered by a steel plate.

Kami didn't do that, and no human could lift that steel plate.

So you're saying the button for the sixteenth floor has been there all along, just covered by a steel plate?!

See, even you think it's silly, right?

Second, that maneki-neko can actually be pressed down. If you push hard enough, the whole thing sinks below the counter.

Did you... push it?

Yeah, I pushed it and nothing amazing happened. When the receptionist came back, he fiddled with the desk a bit, and the thing popped back up.

Then the receptionist started answering the phone, a long string of calls, and kept apologizing and stuff. That was it.

See, what we have here is a quirky receptionist, but you're saying it's a kaidan.

So that's just a weird habit of his? How can that be?

Well, what else could it be? You think he's pushing the maneki-neko below the desk because he has a grudge against that neko?

Um...

What is it, girl? Have you filmed a show in that building or something?

No. But when a variety show came to film here, one of my coworkers floated that idea, only to get an earful from the producer at our agency.

He chewed him out?

The producer went on about a bunch of stuff I barely understood, something about a 'Tekkaba' being a Kinsekikai business. I guess it's some kind of restaurant, and they didn't want a TV show hurting their business.

Tekkaba?

Tekkaba?!

Yes. What's wrong? 'Tekka' is the name of a Higashinese finbeast dish, so wouldn't 'Tekkaba' just be a restaurant that sells 'Tekka'?

'Tekkaba' is a code word for 'casino'.

So I guess 'hell' is just a Kinsekikai casino, and anyone who wanders in there by mistake is made to keep their mouth shut.

The button for the sixteenth floor has to be triggered by some kind of mechanism. It probably leads to a hidden mezzanine—or maybe even a basement.

That maneki-neko is probably some kind of signaling device. Press it, and it sends a message. That's why after our dear kami-sama pressed it, the receptionist apologized to them.

That must just be a coincidence...

After all these years... some kaidan tales have been debunked, but there are still so many no one can explain! The sixteenth-floor 'hell' thing must just be a coincidence!

There's also the 'last remaining Fukui-ke diner.' I remember the kami mentioning to me that It liked that place, back when I still kept in touch with It.

After the restaurant was torn down a couple of years ago, people would sometimes say they caught the scent of fried food drifting through the area. Other people even claimed they could sometimes see the diner still standing on the empty lot. Only they could never get close to it.

That lot has been empty ever since the restaurant was torn down.

I remember that place. I wanted to go try it, back when it was still around, but the owner wouldn't let me in, and I ended up going somewhere else. The restaurant closed not long after the TV show aired.

For the next few days after that, rumors were flying that I cursed the restaurant's owner. People would say 'the Kaidan Queen is at it again' or 'the spiteful woman took her revenge,' stuff like that...

The Kinsekikai are the ones who tore it down.

Obviously I know that! But we're talking about what happened after it got torn down. Momoka, didn't you and your film crew visit the lot after that?

Y-Yes, but... when we went there, I didn't see any restaurant. I smelled some fried food, but that was it.

Anyone can easily make a place smell like fried food. Take the kaidan out of it, and this thing boils down to the Kinsekikai wanting to force the Fuku family out of business, right?

First they planted the idea that something spooky might be going on here. Then they tore the place down. Finally, they sent Momoka over there for one last visit.

But...but...the Ao-Oni! The Haunted House!

Moriuchi-san, are you really going to stand here and talk to me about that?

No offense, but if you didn't cause the deaths that happened in that house, then it could still have been the work of a kami!

Even this kami-sama only started chasing kaidan after the Haunted House rumor took off, right?

That is true.

Momoka, didn't you just recently film a TV show at the Haunted House?

Ahh... ahaha... yes, but it wasn't a ghost who scared me, it was Hoshiguma. I tried to pick something off the floor to hit her with, and—

Momoka?

No, no, no, no...

Hoshiguma, this is just a broken blade, right? Mifune-san wouldn't kill me over this thing, right?

Broken blade?

I picked it up at your place the day we filmed the show. Then, last night, when my TV went haywire in the middle of the night, I thought I heard Mifune-san say it was because I picked up this blade…

Look at this blade guard. This is from the Sanoguchis' heirloom blade, isn't it? Sanoguchi used to love showing it off.

Sanoguchi? The second victim in the Haunted House, the one who used his family blade to kill his wife and then take his own life?

But more than one police officer told me that blade has been locked up in the evidence room. How could it be sitting in your family's old house?

Mifune-san must want that blade, and so he gave the police some false evidence, right?

Then why isn't this blade in his collection? Why would it end up in my house, and broken in two?

Besides, when a gangster goes mad and kills himself, the yakuza practically welcome the cops to investigate, just to watch them come up empty and leave in frustration. There's no reason for them to forge evidence.

Unless Sanoguchi didn't kill himself. Unless Kinbee...

...Murdered him.

You're joking, right?

Those kaidan tales… the ones that scared me half to death… how could they not be real?

The agency might be shameless, but there's no way that all these years, they've been fabricating… all… sorts… of…

And... Sanoguchi... his death was suspicious... but the others...

......

So all those businesses that closed after I visited them...

Those livestreams where I did as I was told, and weird things kept happening where people got hurt...

Those eerie noises, the ghosts, the fleeting shadows... Were they… all fake?

Even the Ao-Oni and the Haunted House, the legends I believed so completely, the ones that scared me out of my wits these past few days, the starting point of all the tales in Mitsukue… were they all… fake?

Momoka Hanyuu, the singer wrapped up in kaidan tales, my agency never even cared about my career?

To them, I've been nothing more than a... cover for the Kinsekikai?

That can't be right. Can it, Moriuchi-san?

......

Moriuchi-san...?

It's an ambush! Get behind me!

Kami-sama, check on Moriuchi. Was he poisoned or struck by something?

There's a burn mark on his neck, and this thing here fell on the floor.

Isn't this a flash drive you use to move data between terminals?

I've seen people throwing these things at electronic equipment to disable it, but lately, they've been throwing them at people instead. Why?

Ninja?!

Don't try to resist.

Who sent you?

That's not important. Come with me.

There's no way Mifune-san sent you. Right?

That's the first time I've heard anyone ask that question.

Please tell me! The kaidan tales are all true! My career isn't being used as a cover for Mifune... errr... Kinbee!

Wuh?!

You hid yourself well, but you're not quick enough on the draw.

Keeping up with the times, huh? A flash drive with a high-voltage charge. Works on both people and machines?

You can't leave well enough alone!

Gah!

Momoka!

You're the last one standing. You either come with me, quietly, or you end up on the floor like them.

Overestimating your own abilities is never a good thing.

Enough talk. Have at you!

She's trying to run while carrying the other two on her back. Stop her!

A hook?!

H-Hoshiguma...

You came to pretty quickly.

My neck really hurts...

Looks like some scorch marks. I think you got zapped. Rinse it and cover it, and it shouldn't leave a scar.

There might be more attackers coming in from Kajimachi. Do you have somewhere we can lie low for a bit?

My place, but I bet Kinbee's already sent guys over there...

Doesn't matter. We'll hide in plain sight. They won't expect us to go there. And if someone is there, we'll just go somewhere else.

Perfect. That way, I can bring Hasuke along too…

Hasuke?

Never mind, I'll explain later. The longer we stall, the more goons will show up. Which way to your place? Let's go.

Kami-sami, you—

...Are already gone.