Chapter 23 Peeping Over the Wall (3) Yuta Kobayashi stood there once again...
Yuta Kobayashi stood in front of his landlord's detached house once again, his hand trembling slightly above the doorbell. This time was different from the last; this time, it was despair and a desperate courage that drove him.
He could no longer endure this kind of life, and the feeling of being spied on from time to time.
Yuta Kobayashi took a deep breath. He needed money, he needed to leave that horrible room 307 immediately, even if it was just to get back part of his deposit. He was prepared for the landlord to treat him badly.
After hesitating for only a moment in front of the door, Yuta Kobayashi pressed the doorbell forcefully.
A moment later, the landlord's impatient face appeared behind the door. Seeing it was Kobayashi Yuta again, he frowned: "What, it's you again? Kobayashi-kun, didn't I make it very clear yesterday? You can fix the crack yourself..."
"Please!" Yuta Kobayashi interrupted him, his voice hoarse with urgency and fear, even tinged with a sob: "I'm not here to complain, I want to terminate my lease! Right now! The deposit... you can deduct some of the deposit, I just want to leave there immediately."
The landlord seemed startled by his agitation and instinctively wanted to reprimand him, but he stopped himself. He squinted and, using the light from the porch, carefully examined the young man in front of him.
In the dim light, Kobayashi Yuta's face was frighteningly pale, with heavy dark circles under his eyes and faint bloodshot eyes caused by lack of sleep. His pupils were unfocused yet filled with a sense of fear, and his body was trembling slightly involuntarily. It wasn't feigned grievance or anger, but rather a sign that his mind was on the verge of collapse.
Seeing this, the experienced landlord began to take it seriously; perhaps the other party really wasn't there to cause trouble.
Many years ago, during a war in Yokohama, he witnessed people who suffered from certain aftereffects after experiencing the event, and their expressions were very similar to those of Yuta Kobayashi.
The landlord's impatience gradually faded, replaced by an expression mixed with doubt and complexity. He remained silent for a few seconds, then finally believed the other party's words and asked in a low voice, "What exactly did you see in that room?"
This question seemed to have flipped a switch, and Kobayashi Yuta's defenses completely collapsed. He spoke incoherently about Miao Shuqi, in more detail than ever before, including the eye in the slit, the occasional feeling of being spied on, the scraping sound in the middle of the night, and the eerie reflection he saw in the streetlights.
His words were incoherent and hurried, and the landlord pieced together the general information from them.
“It’s in the wall, it’s been watching me. I know it sounds crazy, but I swear I’m telling the truth! I haven’t been able to live a normal life lately, I’m going to go crazy if I stay here any longer! I really am going to go crazy!” Kobayashi Yuta was almost begging the landlord, and his tears finally flowed uncontrollably.
The landlord remained silent for a long time, scrutinizing Kobayashi Yuta with his eyes.
He had encountered all sorts of tenants—some making excuses, others being unreasonable—but the fear in this young man's eyes, just as he described, sounded chilling. It didn't seem like delirium from a mental illness episode; it was more like a despair, a torment caused by something possessing him.
"Sigh." The landlord sighed, his tone becoming much more complicated. "Fine, I can return half of your deposit."
Yuta Kobayashi looked up, his eyes filled with unbelievable hope.
“But,” the landlord’s tone shifted, his expression turning serious, “Mr. Kobayashi, you don’t seem to be lying. I’ve lived in this area for so many years, and I’ve heard of things that ordinary people have never seen. Ordinary police officers and doctors probably can’t handle the problem you’re facing.”
He then turned and went into the house, rummaged through the drawers for a while, pulled out a slightly worn business card, and handed it to Yuta Kobayashi.
“Take this to them. [Armed Detective Agency] – the name sounds a bit strange, but they specialize in these kinds of… well, [tricky] and [abnormal] cases. Maybe they can help you figure out what happened.” The landlord paused, then added, “Just say I recommended them. I’ll pay their fees. Although they’re a bit… shrewd, they definitely have some real skills.”
“I don’t want strange things in my house.”
Kobayashi Yuta trembled as he accepted the business card. The white cardstock simply bore the words "Armed Detective Agency," along with an address and a phone number. Kobayashi Yuta held the card solemnly, as if it were a lifeline.
"Thank you." Kobayashi Yuta choked up, and this time, he tucked him into the deepest part of his pocket as if protecting a precious treasure.
...
Half an hour later, Yuta Kobayashi practically fled the apartment building with only a few belongings and half of his deposit returned.
It found the cheapest hotel nearby to stay in. Although the space was cramped, at least there were no eerie cracks, no omnipresent sense of being watched, and no strange scraping sounds.
The first thing he did after settling in was to use the phone at the hotel reception to dial the number on the business card.
After the call connected, he nervously repeated the landlord's name and his experience, his voice still carrying lingering fear.
The other party sounded reliable. They first comforted Kobayashi Yuta, confirmed the time, and did not question the other party's description. They simply recorded the address and situation in detail and said they would send someone to investigate as soon as possible.
The next afternoon, at the agreed time.
In the hotel's cramped reception area, Yuta Kobayashi met two men with unique charisma—Doppo Kunikida and Osamu Dazai.
The decision to send just the two of them was made by Edogawa Ranpo.
"You guys are more experienced in this kind of thing."
Kunikida Doppo's face stiffened: "Could it be another ghost story incident?"
This is the third time already. It's like what you fear most has come true.
There was no other way but for him to investigate together with Dazai Osamu.
Kunikida Doppo meticulously confirmed the details of the commission and presented the relevant documents.
Meanwhile, Osamu Dazai observed the oppressive atmosphere of the hotel with great interest, his gaze eventually settling on the anxious Yuta Kobayashi.
"So, it started with the eye in the crack in the wall?" Dazai Osamu asked casually. This attitude made Kobayashi Yuta begin to doubt the other party's professionalism, but remembering what the landlord had said, he nodded cooperatively and tried his best to make his description clearer.
After listening, Dazai Osamu did not immediately comment, but instead said to Kunikida Doppo, "Kunikida-kun, it seems we need to go to the crime scene and experience it for ourselves."
Kunikida Doppo suspected that Dazai Osamu did it on purpose, but he had no evidence, since it sounded very reasonable.
So, Kunikida Doppo and Kobayashi Yuta had no choice but to bite the bullet and return together to the apartment building that had haunted Kobayashi Yuta's nightmares.
When Kobayashi Yuta arrived at the door, he used the spare key given to him by the landlord to open the door to room 307. The cold, old atmosphere hit him, and Kobayashi Yuta couldn't help but shiver. He subconsciously took a step back and didn't dare to be the first to go in.
Dazai Osamu stepped into the room first without hesitation, followed closely by Kunikida Doppo.
Yuta Kobayashi followed nervously behind the two of them, observing their reactions.
Kunikida Doppo frowned as soon as he entered the room, took out his notebook and began to take notes, clearly sensing the uncomfortable atmosphere.
Dazai Osamu's reaction terrified Kobayashi Yuta even more.
The relaxed smile on Dazai Osamu's face gradually faded after he entered the room. His iris-colored eyes slowly scanned the furnishings, his gaze lingering for a moment on the slightly crooked ukiyo-e print and the cracks in the wall. His expression showed no fear, but rather a professional scrutiny... and a deep interest?
“Hmm…” Dazai Osamu uttered a soft syllable, as if pondering something: “The feeling here is indeed quite special. Isn’t it, Kunikida-kun?” He turned to look at his partner beside him.
"The temperature is abnormally low, and the way the dust in the air is still is unnatural." Kunikida Doppo adjusted his glasses, meticulously recording the objective phenomena: "But no known type of supernatural energy fluctuation has been detected so far." He glanced at Dazai Osamu, who shook his head slightly, indicating that [No Longer Human] had not been passively triggered.
This seems to confirm one fact even more.
It is not an anomaly caused by superpowers.
But that didn't mean it was safe. Dazai Osamu's intuition told him that something unusual was lurking here.
For example—[Ghost Stories].
He walked towards the cracked wall, gently brushing his hand across its surface before finally stopping at the crack. Unlike Yuta Kobayashi, he didn't bend down to look; he simply stood there quietly, as if sensing something.
Then, he suddenly turned his head and looked at the nervous and uneasy Kobayashi Yuta beside him, his tone calm but incisive.
"Mr. Kobayashi, do you usually... have a particular interest in observing others?" He subtly changed the wording.
Yuta Kobayashi's face turned deathly pale in an instant, and his heart almost stopped beating. He felt as if his dirtiest secret had been stripped bare and exposed to the light of day by the person in front of him.
"I...I didn't, you're lying!" he denied shrilly.
Dazai Osamu's gaze remained calm, even tinged with a hint of pity: "Don't be nervous. I just feel that it seems to particularly favor this [trait] of yours. Or rather..." He paused, his voice low and clear: "Is it precisely because you are always [seeing] that you are more easily [seen]?"
"A form of attraction between like-minded people?"
These words were like a final verdict, crushing Yuta Kobayashi. He staggered backward and bumped into the door frame.
Shame, fear, and the shock of being seen through intertwined, almost suffocating him.
Kunikida Doppo closed his notebook, his face extremely grave: "Dazai, you mean..."
“What I mean is,” Dazai Osamu turned around, his gaze returning to the deep, dark crack, his tone becoming serious, “what we’ve taken on might be more than just a request for ‘mental distress,’ Kunikida-kun. This Mr. Kobayashi is probably really being ‘entangled’ by something extraordinary.”
Yuko Kobayashi pursed her lips tightly. Dazai Osamu hadn't fully revealed what the other party was hiding, but that was the case for now.
Dazai Osamu put his hands in his pockets and reached out to touch the business card inside—something that Kobayashi Yuta had thrown in the trash can earlier. When he entered 307, he noticed the seven large characters "Strange Tales Consulting Agency" written on the card in the trash can.
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Author's Note: Zhu Yi: I was here first! This customer is clearly mine! qvq
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