Chapter 4 The Doppelganger in the Mirror (4) "Kunikida-sensei..."
"Mr. Kunikida, where are you going?"
Kunikida Doppo's fingers tightened slightly around the doorknob. Judging from the sound behind him, the other person was less than a meter away, their body almost touching his.
This time, he smelled that familiar bloody scent again, a smell that reminded him of a terrifying memory.
Kunikida's mind raced. He forced himself to stay calm, took a deep breath, and slowly turned around. The moment his eyes met Nakajima Atsushi's, his throat involuntarily bobbed.
This guy is definitely not Atsushi Nakajima.
Kunikida Doppo clenched his fist silently in the shadows, ensuring he could strike at any moment to buy himself a chance to escape. A normal person wouldn't be able to get behind him that quickly, and while Nakajima Atsushi's tiger transformation ability was fast, it couldn't be completely silent.
Never before have I appeared behind you so silently.
He walked very carefully, even deliberately slowing his breathing, to make sure that his movements wouldn't wake a sleeping person.
But the person in front of him, [Nakajima Atsushi]... perhaps he wasn't asleep at all, but was pretending to be asleep in bed while observing him from the shadows.
Thinking this, Kunikida Doppo became even more certain that the other person was not him.
"Weren't you asleep?" Kunikida Doppo asked, feigning confusion, his own voice trembling.
Calm down, calm down.
Kunikida Doppo warily observed Nakajima Atsushi's every move. Nakajima Atsushi did not immediately respond to Kunikida Doppo's question, but stared straight at Kunikida Doppo. The inhuman gaze made Kunikida Doppo feel a chill down his spine.
At this moment, he noticed a tiny detail: Atsushi Nakajima's breathing was unnatural. When a human breathes, his shoulders and collarbone rise and fall slightly naturally, but Atsushi Nakajima did not. He did not look like a normal living person at all; his body seemed disconnected from the rest of his body.
"Just woke up." [Atsushi Nakajima] finally spoke, his voice completely flat: "Did Mr. Kunikida discover something?"
"No, I just went out to check if anything was amiss." Kunikida Doppo suppressed his panic.
"Oh, I see." [Atsushi Nakajima] did not ask any further questions, but remained standing there motionless, showing no intention of leaving.
Kunikida Doppo was unsure of what to do. He anticipated that the other party would prevent him from leaving and then fight him. Although he didn't know if he could beat the other party, he couldn't stay here any longer.
He wanted to find the real Atsushi Nakajima and guarantee Hiroki Sakamoto's personal safety.
"Well then, I'll go out and take a look first, and I'll be back soon." As he spoke, Kunikida Doppo was about to turn the lock on the door, but his wrist was grabbed by the other person.
Atsushi Nakajima's hands were ice-cold, and his strength was terrifying. Kunikida Doppo felt like his wrists were about to be crushed by him.
“It might not be safe outside.” Atsushi Nakajima’s face moved closer, and Kunikida Doppo noticed that the other man hadn’t blinked at all.
“I’ll go with Mr. Kunikida.” Atsushi Nakajima’s eyes flickered, not with the normal, flexible movement of a living person, but suddenly turned to the edge of the whites of his eyes, then refocused on Kunikida Doppo and stared intently at him.
Kunikida Doppo: The most unsafe place is right next to you.
"No need, we still need someone to keep an eye on the surveillance. You're the most suitable person to stay here." Kunikida Doppo shook off the other person's hand, opened the door, and hurriedly ran out.
He turned around to see if the other person had followed, and saw that [Nakajima Atsushi] was still standing at the door, maintaining the same posture as before, his eyes still watching Kunikida Doppo's fleeing figure.
Noticing Kunikida Doppo's gaze, Atsushi Nakajima's lips curled into a strange smile.
not good.
Kunikida Doppo's pupils contracted sharply, and he stopped running.
Next to Kunikida Doppo's room was Sakamoto Hiroki's residence, and bodyguards arranged by the other party were patrolling near the door.
But these bodyguards were all acting strangely, and Kunikida Doppo subconsciously took a step back.
The corridor lights flickered on and off, and the bodyguards all turned to look at Kunikida Doppo, giving him a strange smile.
The curve of his smile is almost exactly the same as that of Atsushi Nakajima.
Kunikida Doppo took out the notebook and pen he had prepared earlier. He slowly backed away, trying to escape in another direction, but [Nakajima Atsushi] stepped out of the room and blocked his way.
The stench of blood grew stronger with each step the bodyguard and [Atsushi Nakajima] took closer, becoming even more intense than before. The pungent smell nearly made Kunikida Doppo vomit.
They didn't stop, gradually approaching Kunikida Doppo. The shadows behind them were stretched long and distorted by the light, and with each flicker of the light, the shadows grew taller.
Kunikida Doppo tore a page from his notebook, picked up a pen and wrote the words "Flash Grenade" on it, then shouted: "Special Ability - Doppo the Bard!"
The bodyguard and [Atsushi Nakajima] stopped in their tracks.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Kunikida Doppo:......
[Atsushi Nakajima]: ...
bodyguard:……
Nothing happened.
Kunikida Doppo quickly realized what was happening and decisively changed his mind. He turned around and charged at Nakajima Atsushi, delivering a powerful punch to the man's face, knocking him to the ground.
Ignoring everything else, Kunikida Doppo lifted his leg and ran forward as fast as he could, then reached the corner, took the elevator, and pressed the close button hard.
Hurry, hurry, hurry!
Just as the bodyguards rushed over, the elevator doors closed at the last second.
Kunikida Doppo collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, but the screen showed numbers that could not be dialed. In his hotel room, Kunikida Doppo had tried to make calls secretly, but he couldn't get through to any of them. After trying several more times in the elevator, he finally gave up on the idea of making calls.
The time displayed on my phone is still midnight.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the real world...
Atsushi Nakajima was on the verge of tears. Kunikida Doppo had entered Sakamoto Hiroki's room and hadn't come out since. Apart from the bodyguards outside Sakamoto Hiroki's room, everyone inside had disappeared.
Atsushi Nakajima retrieved the surveillance footage from the hallway near the room entrance. The footage showed that Kunikida Doppo entered Sakamoto Hiroki's room at 9:50 and never came out again. The surveillance footage inside the room seemed to be interfered with by something, and the retrieved footage showed only static.
They seemed to have vanished into thin air from the room.
"I should have stayed with Mr. Kunikida. It's all my fault. If I hadn't been resting then... Mr. Kunikida wouldn't have disappeared without a trace," Atsushi Nakajima said, choking back tears, on the phone with Osamu Dazai.
"I understand," Dazai Osamu reassured him. "We'll be there in a bit. Keep an eye on the other room, but don't go near it yet. Let us know if anything seems amiss."
After the phone call ended, the members of the Armed Detective Agency were forced to work overtime and hurriedly gathered together.
They all received news of Kunikida Doppo's sudden disappearance. When they arrived, their expressions were very solemn. To them, Kunikida Doppo was no longer just a colleague, but also a partner and comrade-in-arms. Every face was filled with seriousness and anger.
"Disappear into thin air? I don't believe a living person can suddenly disappear." Yosano Akiko crossed her arms and frowned as she looked at Dazai Osamu.
"Was it done by someone with superpowers?"
Dazai Osamu replied, "They are not supernatural beings; we are now facing a supernatural event."
Yosano Akiko looked at Dazai Osamu's serious expression. Although she found it absurd, at a time like this, Dazai Osamu had no reason to lie.
Yosano Akiko looked at Edogawa Ranpo for confirmation, and Edogawa Ranpo did not refute Dazai's words but nodded to her.
“Supernatural events…?” She rubbed her temples. “Okay, but we don’t know anything about supernatural events.”
Naomi Tanizaki shrank back a little to her brother, a hint of fear in her voice: "Then how are we going to find Mr. Kunikida?"
Edogawa Ranpo and Dazai Osamu met eyes. Their initial reasoning was that Sakamoto Hiroki was the victim of revenge, and the suspect was his wife's younger brother, Suzuki Kyutaro. However, there were many inexplicable doubts. They never considered the possibility of a supernatural event, but they could never deduce anyone who fit all the motives. Even when they worked together, they could not find a definite suspect.
They contacted Suzuki Kyutaro.
“Although I really want to kill him with my own hands, I have never had the chance.” Suzuki Kyutaro gritted his teeth: “That man is despicable and vicious, and also very cautious.”
“Three months ago, my sister accidentally discovered that he had falsely reported the amount of work done and embezzled 500 million yuan in kickbacks. Haha~ Even at this point, my foolish sister still wanted to cover up the truth for him. She contacted a lawyer for advice, and that man accidentally saw the chat history between my sister and the lawyer. He thought that my sister was going to expose his behavior, so he became very wary.”
"To prevent the news from leaking out, just as the project's payment deadline was approaching, he secretly sent someone to loosen a key screw in the brake system under the pretext that the company had urgent documents that his sister needed to deliver," Suzuki Kyutaro said angrily.
"It was raining the day he delivered the documents... He even planned that out! The roads were slippery on a rainy night, and that's how my sister accidentally fell off the cliff."
"He used his sister's insurance money to cover up the accounts, which was probably premeditated. But I don't have direct evidence. After my sister died, he destroyed all the evidence. You must be wondering how I know this, right? This is all what the man's secretary told me. He had received favors from my sister before. After my sister died, the secretary also died, by suicide by hanging. The lawyer he consulted also died, by jumping off a building. Are all these things really such coincidences?"
"And from his secretary, I learned that he embezzled public funds, framed colleagues, and even staged an accident to kill a competitor in order to get to his current position. He's always been doing charity work, and everyone thinks he's a kind person." He sarcastically added, "Who knows, I might die in an accident someday too."
“I’ve been thinking that one day I’ll let him experience what it’s like to die an accident, but he’s always surrounded by bodyguards, so I can’t get close to him.”
As Edogawa Ranpo deduced, the other party did have a motive to kill, but had not yet taken action. However, there were no other clues. This left the self-proclaimed world's greatest detective in a state of confusion for the first time without any hesitation.
The same applies to Dazai Osamu. After eliminating all possible truths, the remaining answer, however absurd, is the only answer.
"Have you encountered something strange?" On their way back, Dazai Osamu and Edogawa Ranpo met a young man who approached them and stopped them.
"How did you know?" Dazai Osamu looked at the young man in front of him with great interest.
“I can smell it.” The young man who called himself Zhu Yi pointed to his nose: “You guys smell like rotten dead rats and rotten eggs. You must have been in contact with that being.”
Zhu Yi smiled and handed the other party a business card: "I am from the Strange Tales Consulting Agency. We specialize in consulting on these kinds of issues and occasionally help resolve these incidents."
Dazai Osamu took the business card, curiously flipped it over, and noticed that it had an officially recognized mark on it.
Dazai Osamu raised an eyebrow. When did this agency appear in Yokohama?
"Officially certified, please rest assured, I am definitely not a scammer," Zhu Yi said sincerely.
"What he said is all true." Edogawa Ranpo looked at Takeichi with curiosity, as if he had opened the door to a new world: "The being you mentioned—"
Zhu Yi smiled gently and said softly, "Pay first."
Without hesitation, Edogawa Ranpo took out his money and handed it to the other party. The president had given him quite a bit of money to buy desserts. As for the desserts? He would just have to beg the president to buy them for him later.
"Ghost stories refer to strange, terrifying, and mysterious phenomena and events. You've all heard ghost stories, right? That's what ghost stories are."
"The formation of ghost stories comes from human resentment, subconsciousness, obsession... in short, all kinds of negative things. Another reason is that when a ghost story spreads enough, the thoughts will entwine like threads and weave into a physical form."
"Ghost stories generally don't appear in the real world because they live in the 'inner world.' Only when a rift appears between the 'inner world' and the real world will some ghost stories accidentally wander out of the 'inner world.'"
Zhu Yi silently put the money into his pocket and continued, "Ghost stories usually find the strong intentions such as resentment, obsession, and regret that were present at the time of their creation. Then they keep pestering the other party until they achieve their goal."
"Therefore, some supernatural events may be caused by ghost stories, which is why there are reports of paranormal events that cannot be explained by science."
A note from the author:
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It has been fixed, but not significantly.
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