Chapter 9 - Oni Ga Warau

1

A hospital in the middle of the night was not high on the list of places Shun wanted to visit. Especially not with unseasonable snow setting in.

Panting, he made his way toward the ICU. He’d been running for so long now that every part of his body was screaming.

“...Anna?”

The lobby was whisper-quiet and devoid of people. Whitish-blue light flickered from a fluorescent bulb overhead as if a filament were wonky. Shun had run all the way to the hospital, but he wasn’t exactly fast getting there. His lack of daily exercise worked against him in that regard. Had he taken so long that Anna had already left?

Shun’s shoulders slumped, and he wiped the sweat from his brow.

He’d figured that Anna, who was always kind to everyone, would be better suited to talking to Saya rather than someone like him, who was shy and always stumbling over his words. But he didn’t have any time to waste; if Anna wasn’t there, he’d have to do it on his own. Shun steeled himself and headed for the palliative care ward.

He’d called the hospital in advance. At first they’d refused him because it was late enough that it was well outside of normal visiting hours, but he’d made up a story on the spot about being Saya’s grandson who was set to go overseas in the morning. He’d told them he absolutely had to see her tonight. Surprisingly, it had worked. Perhaps slipping in that he was a friend of Takuro’s helped. Takuro’s father was, after all, a generous donor to the hospital.

Shun’s hurried footsteps carried him to the palliative care ward. He took the elevator to the third floor where Saya was staying. He checked in at the nurse’s station, and a sleepy-eyed nurse informed him that she was in the room at the end of the hall.

“Um, excuse me.”

Just as Shun turned to go, the nurse at the station stopped him in a soft voice.

“I think your grandma is still awake, but she’s often out of sorts lately. I’m not sure you’ll be able to have a proper conversation, so please keep that in mind. I’m sorry,” she said, a troubled look on her face.

She probably expected Shun to be upset to find his grandmother in such a state.

“I understand.”

Feeling a little guilty about the grandson lie, he thanked her and took his leave. It was already past 10:00 P.M. He couldn’t make too much noise, so he tried his best to walk quietly as he hurried down the hall. It was lined with identical doors on either side, almost like the Jailhouse. The thought unnerved him, and he began worrying the monster might jump out from any one of those stark white doors. His palms dampened with cold sweat, but he eventually made it to the end of the hall.

“...Hello?”

He nervously pulled the sliding door to the side and peered inside the room. The light was still on.

“Sorry for intruding so late at night...”

Shun parted the curtain and approached the figure lying on the bed.

“Good evening, Ms. Saya.”

There slept a graceful-looking woman. According to the policeman, she was in her eighties, but she certainly didn’t look it. She had hardly any wrinkles, and could have easily passed for a 60-year-old.

Shun had no intention of forcefully waking her. He took a seat in the simple chair next to the bed, intending to wait until she came around on her own. But when he looked at her closely, he realized her breathing was labored. Was she okay? She looked rather pale...

That’s when Shun saw that her left arm, which was sticking out from under the sheets, was dangling limply at the bedside. Red liquid dripped from her fingertips.

...What?

Shun stood up and pulled back the covers to see if she was okay. Blood stained her pajamas and sheets, radiating out from her torso.

“Ms. Saya! Wake up!”

Shun shook her shoulders, and her eyelids slowly opened.

“What in the world happened?” he asked Saya as he pressed the button by her pillow to call the nurse.

“...How nostalgic.”

Saya’s cloudy eyes, possibly cataract-ridden, turned toward Shun as her lips moved slightly.

“Young man, will you listen to an old lady’s tale? I had such a nostalgic visitor today.” Her voice was hoarse, but unfaltering. “It’s been so long since we last saw each other. I never thought they’d still be alive.”

Who is she talking about?

“Is something the matter?” came the voice of the nurse Shun had just met from the speaker installed at the side of the bed.

“It’s bad! My grandma, she—”

The nurse must have picked up the gist of things from his panicked tone.

“I’ll be right there,” she simply said and ended the call.

“Grandma, it’s okay. The nurse will be here soon.”

“Huh? You don’t know about them? I see... I suppose that’s only natural. It was such a long time ago, after all.”

The elderly woman continued to talk as if she hadn’t heard a word he’d said.

“They appeared so suddenly. They seemed oh-so troubled, so the master let them live in the mansion while we moved overseas.”

She continued to wax nostalgic as she looked up at the ceiling.

“I told him he didn’t have to be so generous, but the master insisted they could only survive there.”

“Where? Are you talking about the Jailhouse—the Western-style mansion across from the chemical plant?”

“To think I’d see them again...”

“I’m looking for the spare key to that house. Do you know where it is?”

“I always wondered what became of them. I’m so glad. They’re doing well.”

It was no use. She wasn’t responding to anything. The door to the room then burst open. A flurry of men and women dressed in white came rushing in like a blizzard.

“Move.”

After pushing Shun aside, they deftly transferred Saya to a gurney.

“What happened?”

A man who looked like a doctor inspected her abdomen before glancing at Shun. But Shun didn’t know what to say.

“I don’t know.” All he could do was shake his head.

“Take her to the ICU. Hurry!” the doctor ordered as the others placed an oxygen mask over Saya’s mouth.

“Please tell me, Grandma. Where’s the Jailhouse key?” Shun asked, running up to the gurney.

“Hey, you. Get out of the way!” A bulky man grabbed Shun’s arms and pinned them behind his back. He couldn’t move an inch.

“Grandma!” he shouted as they wheeled her out of the room.

Saya turned her head toward Shun and gave him a small smile. Her lips were faintly moving. Was she trying to tell him something? Unfortunately, he couldn’t make out the elderly woman’s last message.

2

The shaking wouldn’t stop. Hiroshi rubbed his upper arms. It had been 30 minutes since Takeshi had told them about the fireplace in the next room. They’d managed to light the firewood with the lighter they got from Takeshi, but the room was too large for it to really warm up.

“So, Takeshi, what the hell happened? Let’s get this straight,” Takuro asked, shivering as he parked himself right in front of the fireplace. “Where’d the card pieces you stole from me go?”

“...”

“We found one in the underground passage. Where’s the other?”

“...”

“You lost it, didn’t you?”

Takeshi wouldn’t answer, no matter how long they waited.

“Don’t worry about the scratch on my face. I hit you, too, so we’re even. No, I guess that’s not good enough. I’ve hit you so many times in the past that even I’ve lost count,” Takuro said jokingly. His face then soured when he still got no response. “What? You still mad? Get over it already, man. If we all work together, we can get out of this dump.”

But there was still not a word from Takeshi.

“Hey. I actually apologized. That’s a start, right? So stop being mad.”

“...That’s not it.” A hoarse whisper finally slipped from his lips. “I’m not mad or anything.”

“Then what is it?”

“I have no idea what happened, so I don’t know what to tell you.”

Hiroshi squatted down next to Takuro and took a seat. He listened to their conversation as he watched the flickering flames.

“When I opened the wardrobe, my head came rolling out. My body was cut to pieces and shoved inside. Can you explain that?”

“Maybe it was someone else’s body.”

“No, it was mine.”

Takeshi alone stood away from the fireplace. A distant look on his face, he mindlessly stroked the back of a chair.

“I was so confused when I saw my own severed head on the floor. I just wanted to be at peace. So I...” His voice was so faint that it almost disappeared in the air.

“But there was no body in the closet when we got here. Not even a drop of blood. The room was clean as a whistle. Did you dream it all in your sleep-deprived state?”

“Yeah, that must be it. I’ve gone crazy.” Takeshi stared down at his red and swelling right arm. He looked to be on the verge of tears. “What do you think this wound is?”

“You must have been attacked by the monster.”

“No. I bit myself. I was so hungry for raw meat that I... Unbelievable, right? I must be insane. I belong in an asylum!” Takeshi looked up at the ceiling as he began shouting near hysterically.

“What about your mouth?” Hiroshi, who had been quiet until now, asked.

“...Huh? My mouth?”

The sudden question caught Takeshi off guard. He looked at Hiroshi blankly.

“Where Takuro hit you in the entrance hall. Does it still hurt?”

“No, not at all. It feels totally fine.”

“You said your teeth had been knocked loose. Is that still true?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, that’s right...” Mumbling to himself, Takeshi checked his teeth with his tongue. A suspicious look crept over his face as his lips puckered.

“They’re also fine, are they not?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“It is a fact that Takuro struck you. That was no delusion. Yet now, your injuries are healed.”

Hiroshi touched upon a hypothesis. He retrieved the tablet from his uniform pocket, tapped the screen, and started up the internet browser. Going into the menu, he brought up the browser’s history. It was a surprising and long list. The sites accessed ranged from specialized astronomy articles to silly pop culture gossip articles. You could call it a wealth of variety, or just a mess. But as he scanned his eyes over the history, one repeating trend caught his eye: articles on camouflaged animals.

“I see... It’s a little hard to believe, but the pieces do line up.”

“You figure something out?” Takuro instantly asked of Hiroshi’s musings.

“No. It’s still in the realm of mere guesswork.”

“That’s fine. Just give me your guess as to what the hell’s going on here.”

Seeing the intent look in Takuro’s eyes, Hiroshi decided to reveal the hypothesis he’d just come up with.

“The browser history of the tablet indicates someone has repeatedly accessed articles and information on animals that have camouflage.”

“Who would do that?”

“The access dates are clustered around this morning. It couldn’t have been any of us.”

“Then... my dad?”

“No. If your father knew about this tablet, he would have used the video call app to communicate with Shun. But we know that never happened. Therefore, it wasn’t the work of anyone who wandered into this mansion.”

“Then who are you saying did it?”

“The monsters that attacked us,” Hiroshi boldly declared as he pushed up his glasses.

“The monsters? Don’t be stupid.” Takuro guffawed. “There’s no way those things could operate a tablet.”

“As I suggested before, they are evolving at a rate much faster than we can imagine.”

Hiroshi continued, but the other two boys just stood there gawking at him.

“Let me warn you again that this is just a hypothesis. But it is possible that the monster has the unique ability to instantly analyze the DNA of anything it eats and then transform into a complete copy of it.”

“I must be stupid. I’m not understanding a thing you’re saying.”

Hiroshi decided to knock the wind out of Takuro’s unfailing skepticism.

“...Mika was killed by the monster.”

He started by admitting the truth he’d been hiding. And as he’d imagined, that one sentence produced an instant and profound change in Takuro’s expression.

“What the hell did you just—”

“I am sorry, but it is the truth.”

He could feel Takuro’s eyes piercing him like daggers.

“...Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because she came back to life as if nothing had happened right after the fact. But now after hearing Takeshi’s story, I believe I have some idea as to what happened. Mika really was killed by the monster. Unfortunately, she no longer exists in this world.”

“What are you talking about? You just said Mika came back to life, right? You saw it with your own eyes.” Takuro’s expression was growing sharper by the second.

“Yes. Her limbs were ripped off—a lethal injury. But the next time I encountered her, she was fine. In one piece, at least. There was something strange about her. At first she was talking normally, but then she said she felt sick and collapsed. Soon after, she turned into the blue monster and attacked me.”

“Mika turned into the monster? That’s not funny, man.”

“Of course not. I don’t joke,” Hiroshi answered flatly, then elaborated on the point he found curious. “I should clarify something. Mika did not transform into the monster. It would be more accurate to say that the monster, after transforming into Mika, returned to its original form.”

“Who cares about the order?” Takuro said, his tone intensifying. “I gotta say I’m shocked. I never expected to hear such BS from you.”

He folded his arms and snorted. It was clear he didn’t believe Hiroshi in the slightest.

“I mean, what would even be the point of turning into Mika? Are you trying to say it put on a disguise in order to trick us?”

“I wonder if the monster always had the ability to freely undergo metamorphosis.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Blue grasshoppers and butterflies the likes of which I have never seen before inhabit the property around the mansion. You also mentioned that the last time you came here, you saw cockroaches with eyes on their backs. I believe these are all results of the monsters morphing their bodies.”

“But what need is there for that?”

“To survive.”

The wood deep in the fireplace popped loudly, as if in reaction to Hiroshi’s words.

“In their original forms, the monsters stand out far too much. And I imagine it is not easy for them to prepare food for themselves. As such, they have morphed into many different forms in search of the path to survival.”

“...”

“They learned of other species that use camouflage via the tablet, and accordingly concocted the idea of morphing into the humans they hunt. That way they could move about freely without suspicion.”

“Hiroshi, you must be exhausted,” Takuro said as he removed his jacket, perhaps finally warmed up. “Morphing monsters ain’t even popular among kindergarteners these days. It would’ve been all over the news ages ago if there were creatures that could freely change their appearances. But I’ve never heard of anything like that. In other words, your hypothesis doesn’t hold any water.”

No, that’s the wrong way to think about it. They’ve gone under the radar for so long because they can change their appearance freely.

But stressing the point further wouldn’t make Takuro believe him. Hiroshi knew that, and he didn’t blame him. If their positions were reversed and it were himself hearing all of this, he would also brush it off as ridiculous.

“Hey.” Takeshi suddenly spoke up after being silent for so long. “I’m dumb, so this is all over my head, but are you saying that I’ve become the monster, too?”

“No. I was just suggesting the possibility,” Hiroshi replied calmly.

“I figured that’s what you were saying. I was killed while hiding in the closet, and the me right here is the monster in disguise, right? Hahaha! No way. It’s not possible. It’s just not possible.”

He wanted to burst out laughing, honestly. He wanted to sling a light insult like, “What’re you talking about, you brainiac?” Just like he always would. But his expression was strained. His back was hunched, and he was shivering like a frightened mouse.

Indeed, Takeshi must have realized it on some level, as well. That he was no longer truly himself.

“I’m not a monster. Go ahead and ask anything about me if you’re not certain. My birthday, blood type, favorite food, my parents’ names. I’ll answer them all correctly,” he quickly sputtered out. “I know best of all that I’m not a monster. I’m me. No one else.”

“Mika was the same way. Until she reverted to the monster, she had no doubt that she was herself. Most likely, the monster copies not only the appearance of its victims, but their consciousness, as well.”

“No. I’m not the monster.” Takeshi shook his head violently.

“Then how do you explain finding your own body in the wardrobe?”

“That was just a dream. You said you guys didn’t find it, right?”

“What if you ate it all? You could have even licked up all the blood so that there was not a trace left.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I know who I am!” Unable to contain himself anymore, Takeshi ran over to the fireplace and suddenly grabbed Hiroshi. “Say it! Say I’m not a monster!”

A vein was protruding from his temple and wriggling like a giant worm. Hiroshi, remaining calm, flicked the lighter to life and held it between him and Takeshi.

“Get that outta my face!”

Takeshi smacked the lighter out of Hiroshi’s hand and jumped back. It hit the floor spinning and stopped just at his feet.

“As I suspected. Takeshi, are you afraid of fire?”

“Wh-What are you talking about? No way.”

Takeshi picked up the lighter and pressed the belly of his thumb against the flint wheel. He froze there. His whole body shivered, and he let out a slight growl.

“Damn it! Why?! Why won’t my thumb move?”

“There was one question I could never answer about the Jailhouse monsters: why don’t they just leave the mansion? If they did, they would have access to so much more food.”

“Do you know why now?” Takuro asked.

But Hiroshi didn’t answer. Instead, he continued addressing Takeshi.

“And one other thing. Why was Takuro’s father not eaten by the monster? Do you know?”

“Wh-Why would I?”

“Considering the circumstances leads to a certain hypothesis. The attic door was left open, correct? With the phase of the moon last night, there should have been plenty of light shining into the room when Takuro’s father became trapped. I believe the monster couldn’t get anywhere near him.”

“I don’t understand. Give me a real explanation.”

“The windows of the Jailhouse are boarded and barred, shielding the interior of the mansion from all outside light. It’s quite possible that the monsters are repulsed by ultraviolet light. That would explain why they don’t—or cannot—leave. Fire also gives off a small amount of ultraviolet light. Which, I believe, would also explain your reluctance to come near the fireplace.”

“Then what about all the lights in the house? They’re fluorescent, so they should give off ultraviolet light, too!”

“I assume they use a special type of bulb that doesn’t.”

“That’s crazy!” Takeshi suddenly shouted. “You think you can just say whatever you want and I’ll sit here and take it? I’m not scared of fire one bit. Just give me a second. I’ll light one right now.”

As Takeshi bellowed at Hiroshi, he held the lighter up in front of his face. But it seemed that was all he could do. His expression grew more strained by the second.

“I... I... Ahh.... Ahhhhhhhh!”

His pitiful cry morphed into a deep, full-bodied howl. It was a perfect mirror of Mika’s transformation.

3

Takeshi scratched violently at his throat. His arm muscles were spasming oddly. Dark blue fluid oozed from his pores, coating his skin. Nasty wet, sticky noises could be heard as his body instantly swelled in size. His clothes ripped, exposing his whole body.

“Hey... Takeshi?” Takuro’s frightened voice called to him.

Takeshi’s blue body looked like only one thing now. The monster.

“No... I don’t want to become a monster...”

Takeshi turned an imploring gaze on his two classmates. His eyes were growing larger by the second.

“Help...”

His mouth split to his ears. From within, reddish-brown fangs glistened eerily. His nose grew hooked and witchy, his cheekbones sharp. His trademark blond hair fell out, scattering across the floor. No trace of Takeshi’s original form remained.

The monster’s roar shook the room. The very air vibrated as it carried that grotesque sound.

“Time to run!”

Grabbing the awestruck Takuro’s hand, Hiroshi nimbly dodged the monster’s lunging attack as he darted toward the door. Now that it was back in its own skin, it was much faster than Hiroshi had expected—far faster than the version that had chased them through the halls of the main building. He could feel it hot on their tails.

Sensing a rush of air on the nape of his neck, he reflexively bent forward. The monster’s hulking fist swiped just inches above his head and smashed into a bronze statue decorating a corner of the room. It appeared it was just as strong as it was before. And that wasn’t the end of its onslaught, either. It followed up with another punch aimed right at Hiroshi.

“Look out!”

Takuro tackled him, and they both went flying. Hiroshi slammed chest-first into the door, catching both of their weight. For a moment, it knocked the wind out of him. A terrible cracking sound came from the tablet in his uniform pocket.

“Let’s move!”

Being dragged by Takuro, Hiroshi stumbled out of the dining room as fast as he could.