Chapter 47 Is someone outside the door?

Perhaps because they had just mentioned "Ju-on" not long ago, when they heard what sounded like a child's voice, Tsukino and Chiya's first thought was that it was Toshio Saeki.

But if it really is that child... then they should have heard a cat meowing instead of counting.

Tsukino and Chiya shook their heads slightly, trying to dispel the strange associations in their minds. They remained silent, neither wanting any other sound to drown out the faint counting.

"...four...five...six..."

The child, seemingly deliberately delaying the counting process, counted very slowly. Sometimes, the two of them had to wait quite a while before they could hear the faint sound of the next number being uttered.

However, they don't necessarily have to wait slowly to gradually find the source of the sound.

“That’s just like what’s said in ghost stories.” Oma Kokichi’s voice was a little softer than usual. “It really is Sarayashiki—the counting sound coming from the well in the middle of the night.”

Tsukino and Chiya let out a soft whisper as a response.

The courtyard of the house wasn't very large, and the presence of a well was quite conspicuous. So, Tsukino, Chiya, and Ohma Kokichi noticed the well in the courtyard after walking only a few steps following the sound.

"...seven...eight..."

The sound was indeed coming from here.

"……Nine."

After confirming that the sound was coming from the well, the two of them fell silent again, as if by unspoken agreement. After all, according to the legends of Sarayashiki, things would change after Okiku counted to "nine".

A deathly silence.

Even though only a few seconds had passed after the count of "nine," the atmosphere of impending doom made time seem to drag on endlessly. Knowing that something bad might happen, the anticipation before it did was even more oppressive.

Then--

"Ten...eleven...twelve..."

The being that made the sound from the bottom of the well was clearly unaware of and indifferent to the feelings of the two people by the well. After a brief silence, it continued counting from "nine" on and off, as if it might keep counting until dawn.

What happened to the promise that after counting to nine, you would scream and cry hysterically and then start over?

It's true that you have to see it for yourself to know the actual situation. You can't believe everything you hear in ghost stories... Although, in that haunted house adventure story, the group of students ran away before they even heard the number after the number nine.

Tsukino and Chiya exchanged a glance with Ohma Kokichi.

The next second, Wang Ma Xiaoji rubbed against the edge of the well and peered into the dark well water under the moonlight: "Hey, Xiao Yueye, what do you think will happen if I throw a stone in?"

Tsukino and Chiya both looked at the well water, hesitated for a few seconds, and then replied, "Actually, I'm curious too... but let's do it later."

If throwing stones suddenly attracts something extraordinary when there are no clues at the moment, the subsequent operations may become troublesome.

But now...

"Should we wait here and see when they stop counting the things inside, or should we go inside the room first?"

"Oh dear, it seems like splitting up isn't an option?"

"After all, something doesn't feel right here... so I'd be a little scared if I were to act alone."

Tsukino and Chiya read the word "fear" in a monotone voice, making it less believable due to their expressions and tone.

"So let's go together."

*******

Ultimately, they decided to explore the indoor areas first.

The yard was overgrown with weeds, and it was clear that no one had taken care of it for a while.

To avoid attracting the attention of the police and causing unnecessary trouble, Tsukino, Chiya, and Ouma Kokichi shared only one flashlight and stood by the well in the messy courtyard.

At first, they planned to stay by the well for a while to see what was going on.

However, the counting speed was too slow, and even after passing "nine," they didn't stop but just kept counting. This inevitably made them think, "Are we just waiting in vain?" In comparison, it was better to go and see other places first.

The front door was locked because the owners weren't home. However, the locked door wasn't much of an obstacle for the two of them.

Because he was so familiar with the process that even arguing about "Hey, you're making me do hard labor again?" or "Didn't you say you'd charge me last time?" was pointless and he was too lazy to say anything more, he simply stepped forward and started picking the lock.

Meanwhile, Tsukino and Chiya took the opportunity to try to observe the situation inside through the window.

No, it really is pitch black... I can't see anything at all, I can only vaguely make out the outlines of the objects inside.

Just as Tsukino and Chiya were about to look away, they suddenly saw something seem to move inside, and then it flashed by.

"...!"

What was that? Although I couldn't see clearly, its shape didn't look human at all. Could it be some kind of animal?

“There seems to be something in here.” Tsukino and Chiya said, recalling the fleeting scene that had just flashed before their eyes.

"It involves both residential houses and children."

Wang Ma Xiaoji easily picked the lock and pushed open the door.

"Could what Kozuki saw just now have been a black cat? Waaah... If that's the case, will we run into Kayako climbing down the stairs later? Speaking of which, Kozuki checked the house owner's information before, right? Is that person married? Does he have children? Does he have any pets?"

Tsukino and Chiya didn't believe that Ohma Kokichi, who knew about the haunted house Sarayashiki before them, hadn't checked the owner's information.

However, since Wang Ma Xiaoji had asked this question, he told him what he knew: "The homeowner is single and doesn't have any pets."

“I see, so…” Wang Ma Xiaoji turned on the flashlight he had brought and went inside. “It’s very likely that it’s the same situation as before. This time we should have found the right place.”

This time, they didn't test the indoor lights. They didn't want to attract the police by suddenly turning on the lights. So, they stuck to using flashlights as usual.

To prevent passersby from noticing anything amiss, Tsukino and Chiya closed the door after following them inside.

After stepping out of the foyer, you enter the living room.

Perhaps because the homeowner is now living overseas and the house has been uninhabited for a long time, there are very few things in the living room, and it looks very tidy, except that there is a little too much dust.

Tsukino and Chiya both turned on their flashlights.

Upon entering the unfamiliar space, he did not rush to explore, but instead used his flashlight to illuminate the surroundings and observe the environment.

Television, tables, chairs, sofas... all the furniture and appliances you can see are the most common ones. There are no miscellaneous items or decorations, which makes the place seem less like a place for everyday life.

So next—

Just as Tsukino and Chiya were about to set off to investigate the living room more thoroughly, they suddenly heard a voice coming from behind them.

Wangma Xiaoji, who was originally standing not far in front of Qianye, turned around upon hearing the sound.

Just now, someone rang the doorbell at the gate that had just been closed, the buzzing sound particularly abrupt in the darkness.

Someone's visiting at this hour? Doesn't the person know this house has been vacant for a long time? Police? Someone who's heard the rumors and's here to test their courage? Just a Kamen Rider passing by? Or...?

As if worried that the people inside wouldn't hear it, the doorbell rang again. Hearing this buzzing sound, Tsukino and Chiya, who were closest to the door, tiptoed back to the door.

He didn't say anything, but first looked through the peephole at the door.

Without any lights, it was pitch black outside.

Perhaps they thought no one was home, because the doorbell finally stopped ringing several times.

But then, an unfamiliar female voice suddenly came from outside the door: "Excuse me... excuse me, is anyone inside?"

The voice sounded quite young, like that of a teenage girl.

Then came another short silence, as if waiting for a reply. But soon, the "person" outside the door seemed unable to bear the silence any longer and spoke up again, asking, "Mrs. Chishima? Are you home? Is anyone home?"

"..."

She was met with silence.

At that moment, Ouma Kokichi also arrived at the door. Tsukino and Chiya stepped aside slightly to make way for him, and the purple-haired boy looked through the peephole.

"...Looks like there's no one here." After waiting for a long time without a response, the "person" outside the door seemed to have finally given up and muttered to himself, "Then I'll come back another time."

No, it seems she wasn't just talking to herself.

The next second, the two people inside heard her seemingly talking to someone else, asking for their opinion: "Sakura? Should we go back? There's no one home, and we don't even know when the Chishima family will be back. Waiting here like this is just stupid!"

"Sakura isn't stupid!" Then, a child's voice, which had never been heard before, rang out, "But, but, today is Yu's birthday! Aya saw Yu go home after school. If he went out to play, he should have come to play with Aya!"

"You know it's Xiaoyou's birthday today," the woman sighed. "That child was probably taken out to play by her parents. Okay, shall we go home? Just leave the presents at the door; you wrote your name on them properly, didn't you?"

"Okay... Sister, do you think Xiaoyou will like this?"

"Of course! Xiaoyou will be so happy when she sees it! Because Sakura chose it with her own heart, right? The child will feel your affection."

"..."

It quieted down.

Tsukino and Chiya waited for a while, but no more sounds came from outside the door.

"Did you see anything?" Tsukino and Chiya asked Ohma Kokichi, who had been staring intently at the cat's eyes for a long time without giving up.

“This? Of course, I…” Wang Ma Xiaoji stroked his chin with a serious expression, “I didn’t see anything.”

Okay, that's all for now.

“However, Kozuki and…” Ohma Kokichi took a few steps back, finally no longer staring at the empty peephole, “You just said the landlord is single, right?”

“Thirty years old, single, no pets, moved overseas for work.” Tsukino and Chiya were more detailed this time. “And the surname isn’t Chishima. We saw the name on the doorplate when we passed by the yard just now, it was ‘Fujiwara’.”

“Eh—” Wang Ma Xiaoji’s voice carried a hint of interest, “But judging from the conversation just now, those two… should be sisters. They are very familiar with the Chishima family, so it’s obvious that this isn’t their first visit. They shouldn’t have gone to the wrong place.”

"So, this is indeed related to... that doll."

Tsukino and Chiya agreed, saying, "That's what I think too."

After experiencing two previous instances where the timelines of the strange deaths did not match reality, Tsukino and Chiya gradually became more familiar with Ohma Kokichi.

The doll-like monster, who calls herself Aurora, possesses an ability similar to "gathering future resentment into the present to create monsters."

So although they can't be sure of the specifics of this Sarayashiki yet, if nothing unexpected happens, the ghost of Sarayashiki may have died at some point in the future, but has appeared now under Aurora's influence.

Perhaps this currently vacant house they are in will be sold to the Chishima family they just heard about in the future.

Tsukino and Chiya remembered the sound of a child counting that they had heard from the well.

The child named "Sakura" that I overheard outside the door was clearly a girl, and Yu...

No, to be more accurate, it should be called "Chishima Yu".

Could he be the true form of the ghost of Sarayashiki?

Tsukino and Chiya, flashlights in hand, crouched down and opened the coffee table drawer to examine its contents. Meanwhile, Ouma Kokichi looked at a cabinet on the other side of the living room to see if anything useful was on it.

It was at this time that...

"Meow--"

Suddenly, a very sharp and piercing cat meow came from somewhere inside the house.

Tsukino and Chiya instinctively looked in the direction the sound came from, but didn't notice anything unusual: "A cat?"

Could the fleeting movement he saw through the window earlier have been a cat running around?

"There really are cats!" Wang Ma Xiaoji looked a little surprised. "Are we really on the set of 'Ju-on' now?"

"That's it, we're all doomed! It's practically unsolvable in the game's lore!" His surprise quickly turned to excitement, but he kept saying things like, "Oh no, we're doomed," and "What should we do? Let me think..."

"Ah, right!" Wang Ma Xiaoji happily concluded, "In 'Ju-on,' various sounds are often used to attract the characters' actions, right? So if we do the opposite, we should be safer, right? Therefore, we absolutely must not go to the room next to the first-floor bathroom that the cat ran to earlier!"

Tsukino and Chiya selectively listened to Kichi's words: "The room next to the bathroom? Did you see the cat?"

Wangma Xiaoji: "Hmm, that's right. But it's a white cat, not a black one, so it's quite conspicuous. And it doesn't look scary at all, just an ordinary cat... Huh? Is Kozuki Kazuya going to that room on her own? She's just like those movie characters who know there's danger or something wrong but still go to check it out~!"

Tsukino and Chiya: "Thanks for the reminder, Ohma."

Did the white cat... run into the room next to the bathroom?

That's the storage room.

The door to the room was ajar, leaving a gap large enough for a nimble cat to pass through, and also enough for a person to judge the room's purpose by looking at the cabinet next to the door, which was filled with various items.

Tsukino and Chiya stood in front of the door, but he did not immediately push the door open. Instead, he first glanced at Ohma Kokichi, who had come to the door with him.

The purple-haired boy tilted his head in confusion: "Hmm? What's wrong? Are you scared, Tsukino? I'm not really scared. Because someone said before that they wouldn't let me die, so of course I'm going to take advantage of not being able to die and do whatever I want! Strange... who said that again?"

...Did he still remember that he was there?

Although, that statement was indeed not an empty boast.

Because there were two doors next to the bathroom, Tsukino and Chiya decided to double-check with Ohma before going in to confirm if the cat had entered this room: "Um, who is it?...I'm opening the door."

The wooden door, once pushed open, creaked as if it had been in disrepair for many years.

The air inside is so stuffy.

Tsukino and Chiya subconsciously raised their hands to try to brush away the dust they had kicked up, while simultaneously looking around the storage room.

The storage room wasn't very large; you could see everything inside just by standing at the door.

Presumably for dust prevention, the back of the shelf, except for the one with only a few empty boxes at the very front, was covered by curtains. Besides that, the storage room floor was piled with various items, such as suitcases of different sizes… a stroller? And a cat carrier. And…

"What is this? A child's drawing?" The piece of paper on the ground was so conspicuous that it was hard to ignore. Wang Ma Xiaoji picked it up and turned it over to reveal the blank side.

The piece of paper was torn and crumpled. It should have been a larger, more complete piece of paper, but now it looked as if it had been deliberately torn. It was clear that the paper had been torn off haphazardly, and the person who tore it up was most likely doing it on purpose.

The flashlight beam shone on the piece of paper. Just as Wang Ma Xiaoji had said, the drawing on the paper looked like a child's.

The child's drawing skills were still immature. On the crumpled paper, all that could be made out was a lush green meadow and a little figure standing on it. Judging from the deliberately added mustache on the chin, this simple sketch of a little figure should be a man.

However, because the paper was torn, most of the man's upper face and right side of his body disappeared.

"It can't be what I think..." Wang Ma Xiaoji muttered, casually handing the tattered painting he had picked up to Tsukino and Chiya.

Tsukino and Chiya understood what he meant and put the incomplete painting into their bag: "Maybe so, I actually have that feeling of déjà vu too."

This looks like a child's drawing. Could it have originally depicted a family of three?

The stroller and cat carrier didn't seem like things a homeowner with the surname Fujiwara would own. Add to that the white cat that had attracted them earlier… it seems that under the influence of a spirit, this storage room is no longer a normal storage room.

“There seems to be something here,” Wang Ma Xiaoji said, pulling back the curtain that was blocking the shelf in one go.

Two shelves were placed side by side behind the curtain.

The first shelf, besides being empty, also contained various items for different purposes, such as fire extinguishers, first aid kits, cat food, crowbars, wrenches, etc. The other shelf, however, only had several empty boxes.

What Wang Ma Xiaoji was pointing to was something that seemed to have fallen off behind the innermost shelf.

The shelf was placed a bit too far forward, but it was still a bit difficult to reach it. Tsukino and Chiya knew it was probably useless, but they tried anyway, only to end up with their sleeves covered in dust.

It still didn't work.

The black-haired boy looked down and patted the dust off his face. "No, we can't reach it. We'd better move the shelf forward a bit. But before that, let's take all the boxes off the top first, otherwise it'll be a bit of a hassle if they fall down."

As soon as Tsukino and Chiya finished speaking, before Ohma Kokichi could say anything, the doorbell rang again.

Just like what they had heard when they first entered the house.

The two instinctively remained silent.

The first floor of this house wasn't very large, and given the already quiet environment, even though Tsukino, Chiya, and Ohma Kokito were still in the storage room, they could still hear the sounds coming from the front door.

This time, the doorbell didn't ring for long. Unlike before, the person outside seemed less patient with ringing the doorbell repeatedly and quickly called out, asking what was wrong.

"Is anyone home? Is anyone there? Mrs. Chishima? Mr. Chishima? Is anyone home?"

The opening remarks sounded familiar, but the voice was different. This time, it was still a woman's voice coming from outside the door, but it sounded more mature than the last time; it was probably the voice of an adult woman.

"I'm Chishima's teacher. Could you please open the door? Hello? This won't solve anything... Is anyone home?"

It's clear that the Chishima family has no intention of opening the door to outsiders. It's unclear whether the two instances of no one answering the doorbell were coincidences or intentional.

"...It seems no one's home." The person at the door inquired for quite some time. Finally, another slightly hoarse voice, also belonging to an adult woman, spoke up, "Uh, could it be that she really isn't home?"

“I don’t think so,” the woman who asked the question first said. “His parents might be feeling guilty. You noticed it when he was at school, didn’t you? The child wasn’t doing well, it was like…”

"But we're just teachers, we can't just barge in... And what if we go too far and the parents take it out on the children?"

"..."

"Let's head back now. We can go find Chishima next Monday to ask about the situation. Shall we go?"

"...I will come again tomorrow."

"Really? Tomorrow's the weekend. It's not impossible, but I can't come with you tomorrow. Cough cough cough, I caught a cold because of the sudden rain and temperature drop, and I already have an appointment to go to the hospital... My throat is so sore."

"..."

The sounds outside the door completely disappeared.