Chapter 55: The Nightmare Bell?
I couldn't reach that figure at all.
When Tsukino and Chiya turned back to their original positions and tried to approach the woman in red again, just like before, the figure vanished into thin air when they were only a few steps away from touching her.
Just as he had guessed, the woman in red disappeared from his sight and then reappeared behind him, in the same spot where they had seen her when they climbed the stairs to the second floor.
"...There's really no other way, let's go to the room and check the situation first."
Tsukino and Chiya decisively gave up on continuing to let that figure wander around the corridor.
"Hmm? Is there really no other way?" Wang Ma Xiaoji didn't seem to think so.
He followed behind Tsukino and Chiya, and Chiya could hear cheerful voices coming from behind.
"That can't be, right? Could it be that Kozuki is scared? There are exactly two of us now, so that method would be suitable, wouldn't it?"
Wang Ma Xiaoji likely meant that one of them should stand at the spot where the woman in red had disappeared, while the other person would then approach the woman in red who had reappeared on the other side to see what would happen.
This does seem feasible, but—
"What if she disappears again and then reappears in the middle? There's so much empty space in this corridor; if she doesn't want us to run into her, there's no way we'll ever see her."
However, it's probably for the best that no one can touch her now; at least the woman in red shouldn't pose any danger for the time being. So let's investigate the rooms on the second floor first; there might be clues related to the woman in red in the corridor.
"Damn it, I'm so unwilling to accept this—maybe I should just call my men right now and have them fill up the entire corridor!"
"...No, this is too conspicuous. It'll attract the police, won't it?" If it weren't for that, Tsukino and Chiya would actually be quite curious whether Ouma Kokichi, who always calls himself the leader of evil, could actually summon so many people with just one phone call.
As they were talking, they had already entered the first room.
This is a bedroom.
Like every other room they had entered in this sanya-shiki, everything here was equally dilapidated and cluttered.
Tsukino and Chiya shone their flashlights at the cabinet that was visible as soon as they entered the bedroom. He skillfully ignored the illusion of countless insects crawling on the wall behind the cabinet and carefully examined the trophies, medals, and certificates displayed inside.
“Most of them are awards related to drawing.” Wang Ma Xiaoji also deciphered the handwriting. “Let me see… First place in the elementary school group, so this really is Chishima Yu’s room. Well, that makes sense, since there are a few dolls in this room.”
Several dolls were scattered haphazardly on the bed and floor of the room. There weren't many dolls, and they were all dirty and somewhat damaged, looking rather pitiful.
After leaving the cabinet, Tsukino and Chiya continued walking forward and then saw several paintings pasted on the wall.
Judging from the still somewhat immature brushstrokes, these are undoubtedly children's works. Moreover, in terms of style, they are very similar to the paintings they pieced together on the first floor yesterday, which are now only partially complete.
The painting I pieced together yesterday was probably from when the child was younger.
The paintings on the wall were clearly better and more beautiful than the family portrait, full of spirit, and the progress was visible to the naked eye.
No wonder he's won so many awards.
However, now was not the time to admire the paintings. Tsukino and Chiya scanned the paintings one by one, and after confirming that the contents of these paintings should not provide any clues, they continued to search other parts of Chishima Yu's room.
The child's room wasn't large, so the investigation didn't take much time. And so, not long after—
Wang Ma Xiaoji exclaimed in shock: "Why doesn't this kid keep a diary?! We were told that these days, haunted house adventures rely on diaries to piece together the truth! Isn't that an unspoken rule in the industry?!"
Tsukino and Chiya: "There is no such unspoken rule."
Wang Ma Xiaoji: "Outsiders shouldn't interrupt! The existence of diaries in haunted houses is an open secret, just like the unspoken rule that you won't die if you jump off a cliff!"
Tsukino and Chiya: "So, at a time like this, you're finally not going to call me a paranormal expert anymore?"
They searched the entire child's bedroom, but found no clues related to the truth behind Chishima Yu's transformation into a monster... No, perhaps there was one.
Wang Ma Xiaoji was holding a videotape in his hand.
This videotape was found by Wang Ma Xiaoji under the bed not long ago. The purple-haired boy was saying something like, "Hmm, I always feel like there's something bad under this bed with an open space underneath," and then he bent down and peered under the bed... In a sense, it was quite daring to do something like that in a haunted house.
However, there was nothing scary under the dusty bed, only a videotape that was out of reach.
Finally, with the background noise of Ohma Kokichi saying, "I kind of miss the crowbar I finally found on the first floor yesterday," Tsukino and Chiya had to move the bed slightly to get the item.
"Does anyone still use videotapes in this day and age?"
Wang Ma Xiaoji looked at the videotape in his hand, which Qianye had already wiped clean, and said with a troubled expression.
"Most TVs these days don't support videotape playback anymore. Although there was a TV on the first floor we went to yesterday, it obviously couldn't play videos... Besides, it's questionable whether any of the appliances in this house still work."
After all, the refrigerator in the kitchen on the first floor has stopped working, and the food inside is still rotting and smelling bad.
However, since they had finally obtained it, they naturally wanted to take good care of it. After hearing about Yashiki Kazuo's past experiences, Tsukino, Chiya, and Ohma Kokichi all believed that the things within these spirit sites must have their own value.
"The things here should be able to be taken out normally. If we can't see them here in this Sarayashiki, we can see them after we leave."
"Is that so? You still have the leeway to go out and see for yourself. Thinking about it this way, those illusions in front of you should not be too serious. At least they haven't reached the point where they indicate that your death is imminent."
"…………Oh."
After leaving Chishima Yu's bedroom, the moment they pushed open the door to the second room, even the eloquent and worldly-wise Ohma Kokichi was momentarily speechless.
Before they could even figure out what kind of room it was, their attention was drawn to "that" that made such a huge impact upon entering—
In the dim light of a flashlight, in a room with closed windows and little wind, a pair of feet dangled in the air and swayed slightly.
Moving their gaze upwards, Tsukino, Chiya, and Ohma Kokichi saw a typical office worker wearing an ordinary suit.
Further up, they saw messy hair, a head hanging low with its face obscured by hair, and a rope tightly around the neck.
*******
Do you have any thoughts?
"Huh? You're asking me? Yes, I think it's great that what's hanging around his neck is a rope instead of Kayako's hair."
"...This is not the set of Ju-on."
After recovering from their initial shock at seeing the scene, the two of them naturally took the hanged man down.
But...should we breathe a sigh of relief?
Although they didn't realize it at first due to the visual shock, Tsukino, Chiya, and Ohma Kokichi were not the type to lose their composure upon seeing someone hanged, so they quickly noticed the abnormality within seconds.
The thing hanging in the air was not human, but a doll resembling a human male. Of course, like the dolls they saw in the mansion where they encountered the ghost painter, this male doll was obviously much cruder than Aurora's.
And there wasn't a single trace of anything on her face, no wonder she had to cover it with her hair.
The dolls that once appeared in the room of that Western-style house represented the pitiful people who were cruelly murdered by Eiichiro Saiyama, who had not yet become a ghost painter, in order to copy them. So what should the hanging dolls that appeared in this Sarayashiki represent?
Is the father in the Chishima family, Chishima Hikaru?
It was just a crude doll without a face, so Tsukino, Chiya, and Ohma Kokichi naturally couldn't tell how long the doll had been swinging in the air.
However, aside from the fact that the future Chishima Hikari is suspected of committing suicide by hanging, they also gained something else.
If, when they found the videotape under the bed in the next room, they weren't sure if it would be useful in the subsequent investigation, then the situation changed when they found another videotape in the male puppet's pocket.
The second room they entered was also a bedroom.
Judging from the double bed, this is probably the bedroom belonging to the Chishima couple.
The items in this bedroom appear to be far more numerous than those in Chishima Yu's room, and although the items are worn, they are not as cluttered.
And most importantly—their room has a television.
Not the kind of television that can connect to the internet and is widely purchased and used with modern technology, but rather the kind of old television that is now rarely seen and is mainly circulated in the second-hand market for collection, with a built-in VCR.
This is simply—
"It's like it's blatantly tempting us to go see it!"
With that, Wang Ma Xiaoji turned on the television.
As he moved, the television screen lit up, but it displayed static due to a lack of signal. The black and white noise reflected on Wang Ma Xiaoji's pale face, making him look eerie.
Tsukino and Chiya knew perfectly well that the TV plug wasn't connected to any power source, yet it still lit up—though this was normal in a supernatural environment.
"I see, I'm starting to understand everything."
In the darkness, suddenly facing the light of the television, Wang Ma Xiaoji squinted slightly.
Tsukino and Chiya took out the videotape they had just found under the bed in the next room from their backpacks: "What did you understand?"
Wang Ma Xiaoji: "Turns out we didn't walk into the Ju-on movie set, but the Ring movie set!"
Wangma Xiaoji: "Hey, Tsukino Kazuha, will we die seven days after watching the videotape?"
Tsukino and Qianye: "..."
Tsukino and Chiya: "Do you really have to say this before we watch the video?"
Wang Ma Xiaoji: "Hehehe."
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Author's note: My 100-Day Battle Chronicle cartridge has finally arrived! (rubbing hands together)
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