Chapter 15 "Kozuki no Kazuya is truly remarkable..."

The distance seems a bit too close.

Tsukino and Chiya hesitated for a second, but ultimately acquiesced to this distance.

Well, what can you do? He's a sucker for good looks. A face like that, even when not making exaggerated facial expressions, makes you easily forgive his mischievous antics with a simple "cute"... Actually, his eyes are quite friendly, right? So why refuse to get close?

Not long ago, Qianye had also witnessed the strange face with countless randomly distributed eyes, noses, and mouths up close. Thinking back to that scene, and then looking at this one in front of him, it was truly an eye-opening experience.

However, what they were thinking in their hearts did not usually interfere with Tsukino and Chiya's ability to simply speak and continue the conversation.

Tsukino and Chiya said thoughtfully, "Of course, because it's really hard not to care."

"After all, many people are the type who get a sense of accomplishment from solving puzzles. Whether it's a simple riddle, a brain teaser, or even a math problem... after solving it and confirming that it's correct, they can get a pleasant sense of satisfaction."

"And you are surrounded by countless mysteries... or to put it more dramatically—Oma Shokichi is a mystery made up of countless lies, and one whose correct answer will never be revealed."

"So without realizing it, I became subconsciously curious about your actual thoughts. I wanted to figure out whether every word you said was a lie or the truth."

Throughout the entire process, Tsukino and Chiyo's expressions and tone remained unchanged, which meant that... as always, others could not discern their true feelings from their expressions and tone.

However, anyone who has spent some time with Tsukino and Chiya, or even less time at that, has probably already become accustomed to his mannerisms without even realizing it.

He's always like that, anyway. And... Tsukino Kazuya is just calmer in tone and expression, but he always answers every question, uses polite language, and unless it's an obvious joke, his words are always... reasonable and well-founded.

Under such circumstances, although outsiders could not simply see or hear Qianye's attitude, they could still easily involuntarily feel—

The black-haired boy's words were not perfunctory; he simply and calmly recounted one fact after another.

So, when you are stared at by his obsidian-like eyes that clearly reflect your own image yet seem to leave no trace in them, even though his voice and expression are always the same...

—Yet, one still feels that this person's perpetual calmness is also their perpetual reliability, their perpetual...trustworthiness.

"Oh, I see~"

There were only the three of them in the car. To facilitate conversation, Kenji Hagiwara, the owner, hadn't turned on any music. Therefore, when they all fell silent, the entire car instantly became quiet, so quiet that it seemed they would immediately notice if a pin had fallen.

Wang Ma Xiaoji's eyes crinkled into crescents, and in order to whisper something, he leaned in a little closer to her, even though they were already quite close.

After realizing each other's intentions, Tsukino and Chiya turned their heads in cooperation. He could feel an almost imperceptible breath brush past his ear, which brought a slight itch before disappearing without a trace.

Wang Ma Xiaoji sat back in his original seat.

Tsukino and Chiya lowered their eyes, their expressions unchanged.

He heard it clearly; just now, the purple-haired boy sitting next to him chuckled almost inaudibly in his ear—

"Kazuya Kozuki is quite the conman."

*******

...After that, Tsukino and Chiya played a game with Ohma Kokichi all the way, where "whoever blinks first loses".

However, they didn't stay long, as they soon arrived at their destination.

After the four finally met, Matsuda Jinpei, who had called an ambulance to take Yukimura Mio to the hospital, brought them both good news and bad news.

He had no interest in playing the game of "whether to hear the good news or the bad news first," and simply explained the current situation in a few words.

The good news is that Yukimura Mio is currently out of danger.

The bad news is that Yukimura Mio fell into a coma after being rescued, and even if she wakes up, she will likely be too weak to immediately provide them with any clues about the strange events they encountered.

However, their time is limited.

Whether it was Matsuda Jinpei, who was recently branded with a curse-like mark, or Tsukino, Chiya, and Ohma Kokichi, who had been branded with the mark more than a year ago, they all experienced a profound and heart-wrenching impact because of the mark.

That is... the very straightforward feeling of "dying very soon".

In other words, they might not live to see Yukimura Mio regain consciousness and provide any information. Perhaps death will come knocking on their door before that happens.

Therefore, they cannot relax completely just because they have found a person who is highly likely to have important information related to the supernatural. Rather than focusing on Yukimura Mio, whose awakening and normal communication are still uncertain, they must rely on themselves to find clues to resolve this crisis.

Rather than searching aimlessly, the four of them quickly reached a consensus and decided to find a quiet place where they wouldn't be disturbed and could easily communicate to confirm whether they had noticed any potentially useful clues during their recent operation.

Before that, Kenji Hagiwara first checked whether he had any extra marks on himself, unlike the other three... no, including Mio Yukimura, the four of them should have the same marks.

Fortunately, the final result was no.

"So this is the result." Ouma Kokichi put his hands behind his head. "Inspector Hagiwara, don't you feel a sense of relief and joy at escaping death?"

"Well, I have to say I'm relieved." Kenji Hagiwara smiled, then looked at Chiya with a questioning gaze. "I was actually quite surprised too. Jinpei didn't see the strange thing with his own eyes before, but he was marked when he arrived at the mansion. But I saw the strange thing's appearance, yet I didn't have that thing on me... What are the conditions for marking someone?"

"Generally speaking... based on past experience, it should be related to distance. The closer you are to a place associated with the supernatural, the easier it should be to leave a mark."

Tsukino and Chiya gently shook their heads, indicating that they weren't entirely sure themselves.

"However, not everyone who has been to places associated with the supernatural will have a mark on them. For example, I heard from someone who had been marked before that an idol and a fortune teller were invited to film a program at a haunted location and ended up being marked. But other staff members who were also there did not have any marks. So I think it might indeed be related to luck."

"I see. Looks like I've had pretty good luck this time." Kenji Hagiwara said, looking somewhat relaxed... although the others all knew that this was just on the surface.

The reality related to death is already quite heavy, so to put on a solemn expression at this time... well, forget it, emotions are very contagious.

"Anyway, now that we've confirmed Hagi is alright, let's talk about the clues we obtained this time. Or... what are your thoughts on that strange thing?"

Matsuda Jinpei's gaze swept over the two high school students. Unlike Hagiwara Kenji, who hadn't ventured inside the mansion, these two high school students might have discovered something.

“I went upstairs to two rooms—one was a storage room and the other was a bathroom, and they didn’t seem like anything special. Then I heard Tsukino making noise over there…and then, you’ll see.”

Matsuda gestured with his eyes, asking: What about you?

"Is it my turn? Excuse me, officer, I checked the study and found no one there, so I went downstairs to pick the lock. I've been curious for a long time about whether the locked doors in horror movies can actually be pried open! Today I finally got a chance to put it into practice!"

Wang Ma Xiaoji seemed particularly excited when he talked about it.

"I can't believe it actually works! I suggest that anyone worried about becoming the protagonist of a horror movie should learn how to pick locks!"

Matsuda Jinpei said "Oh," and then said, "It seems we haven't found anything."

Wang Ma Xiaoji complained, "What?! Isn't it an important discovery that doors in horror movies can be pried open? This is what they call learning by doing! Besides, important things are always saved for last. Officer Matsuda should know that too, right?"

Matsuda Jinpei quipped, "A horror movie character who leaves the most important thing until the very end will get a lot of flak from the audience."

“That’s true~ But it’s not really something that’s been kept secret all along, since Kazuya Kozuki knows about it.” Kokichi Ohma shrugged. “It’s just that we were in a rush to save that unfortunate landlady, so we didn’t talk about it for the time being… You know, that kind of ghost story that’s been going around lately.”

Kenji Hagiwara quickly realized something: "Could it be... that Ohma-kun wants to tell the story of that 'ghost painter'?"

"Huh? You guys know? That makes things easier, because I'm too lazy to repeat myself."

Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji were indeed aware of the ghost story circulating recently. After all, this ghost story stemmed from a series of recent disappearances, and they were both paying attention to the case.

However, as members of the security department, they were not involved in the investigation of this case and were not very aware of the current progress of the case.

But that's not the point right now. The real point is that the two of them had indeed heard the ghost story known simply as "The Ghost Painter." However, before the incident with the mark, neither of them had taken the ghost story to heart... It would have been strange if they had believed it back then, wouldn't it?

Now they have to re-examine the contents of this ghost story carefully—after all, the story does overlap to some extent with the strange occurrences they have witnessed.

For example, its bizarre face with its various cartoonish features, its resentment towards criticism, and its obsession with praise.

...Perhaps that's why Weird was constantly provoked by Wang Ma Xiaoji behind the car, and so he kept chasing after it and refused to leave.

There's bound to be some difference between the ghost stories told by "ghost painters" and the actual strange occurrences they witnessed. The specific details of these stories may have been altered and rewritten countless times during oral transmission alone. Ghost stories are not the same as reality... but they can certainly serve as a reference.

For example... investigating the cartoonist whose style is said to be very similar to the corpse paintings in ghost stories might be a good idea.

That cartoonist's name is...

"I've also made some new discoveries," Tsukino and Chiya said immediately after Wangma Xiaoji finished telling them about his findings. "You should still remember that spear, right?"

Matsuda Jinpei had already heard about the hallucination from the other three, but the memory of that horrifying scene still made him frown unconsciously: "Yes, I remember. Was there anything wrong with that hallucination?"

"To be precise, it's not the illusion that's the problem, but the spear," Tsukino and Chiya patiently explained. "Due to time constraints, I didn't go into too much detail about the strange phenomena before. But actually, illusions caused by strange phenomena are generally related to the strange phenomena themselves, for example..."

As a former Indian and now an expert residing in Kujokan, I once encountered such a strange case—a high school girl who died by committing seppuku with scissors, and whose resentment and obsession transformed her into a monster after death. As a monster, her appearance is related to scissors, and the weapon she uses to attack is also scissors. She also has the ability to conjure scissors from illusions to pierce people's bodies.

"...That's about it." Tsukino and Chiya briefly recounted the incident. "However, I can't figure out why a strange phenomenon that's likely related to the manga would be associated with a spear. Could it be that it..." died from a spear?

Tsukino and Chiya hadn't finished speaking.

Just a moment ago, a sense of foreboding flashed through Tsukino and Chiya's minds... closer than imminent, clearer than the initial feeling that their deaths were approaching.

In that instant, accompanied by a sudden, unbearable stinging and burning sensation, a fact suddenly became clear to him—

If the matter is not resolved quickly, then when the night ends and dawn breaks, I will face death.

A note from the author:

----------------------

In the novel *Death Mark*, there's a character named Yashiki who always resolves strange incidents just before his death. [cat emoji]

Because there's a time limit, we need to speedrun. What high school student's weekend routine is speedrunning weird dungeons?! x

By the way, let me explain the timeline. In the Death Mark series, the current timeline is after Death Mark and Death Gnawing, and before NG [covering face and peeking] (It's okay if you haven't seen them, because the main text doesn't involve the plot of Death Mark, NG, and Death Gnawing. There will be introductions when the characters appear [heart])