Chapter 6 The Doppelganger in the Mirror (6) [Atsushi Nakajima]...
After Nakajima Atsushi lay motionless on the ground, Kunikida Doppo observed for a while. He slowly backed away, warily watching his surroundings. Then, holding his phone, he moved step by step toward Sakamoto Hiroki's room by the faint light of his footsteps. He moved lightly, the soles of his shoes scraping the floor, making a soft sound in the deathly silent corridor.
Kunikida Doppo stopped at Sakamoto Hiroki's door. He frowned and put his hand to his chest, because he suddenly felt a sudden, inexplicable panic. A strong sense of unease screamed in his mind like an alarm.
Instinct compelled Kunikida Doppo to look in the direction of Nakajima Atsushi with his phone, to double-check if the other party posed a threat. In the dim light of the screen, Kunikida Doppo discovered that Nakajima Atsushi's body had vanished without a trace.
Kunikida Doppo's breathing faltered for a moment. He no longer had time to think about why he had disappeared; he needed to leave immediately.
Kunikida Doppo gripped the doorknob, took a deep breath, and opened Sakamoto Hiroki's room. It was pitch black inside, and he had no idea what was going on inside.
He couldn't guarantee what would happen next; a bad feeling grew stronger, as if he had angered some unknown entity.
Should I go in? Or should I hurry up and finish this? Kunikida Doppo hesitated at the door for a moment before finally stepping into the room.
The moment he stepped inside, the door slammed shut with a loud bang, startling Kunikida Doppo. The sound was deafening. He tried to open the door but couldn't budge it; it was as if something heavy was piled up at the entrance.
Kunikida Doppo guessed correctly. Outside the door were people with twisted limbs and bodies, piled up into a human mound. No matter how much Kunikida Doppo rammed into them, he couldn't move them an inch.
Inside the room, Kunikida Doppo gave up on opening the door, as that would only delay him. He began searching the room.
Time passed slowly, and Kunikida Doppo searched the room but found nothing useful, and also discovered that Sakamoto Hiroki himself was nowhere to be found.
Just as Kunikida Doppo reached the bathroom door and was about to open it, his sixth sense kicked in again.
Danger, danger, danger!
Kunikida Doppo suppressed his unease, took a deep breath, and finally opened it.
How could this be...?
Kunikida Doppo's hand holding the phone trembled slightly. The light from the phone screen made it difficult for him to see his surroundings clearly, but even so, he could still recognize those faces.
How could it be them?
Hearing Kunikida Doppo open the door, the people in the bathroom stirred, their hunched figures moving slowly and awkwardly toward him, a dozen pairs of eyes fixed on him.
"Why didn't you save me..." A person with white foam and blood at the corner of their mouth gradually approached.
"It hurts so much...it hurts so much." Another figure moved forward a few steps. Kunikida Doppo could even smell the lingering poison. He took a step back, wanting to leave the bathroom, but found that the door had been locked at some point.
"If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have been killed by the poison gas," the person with half a sunken face and no whites in their eyes cried out.
"...Why didn't you save us? You were clearly capable of doing so. Why, why did you leave? We're in so much pain."
Their faces showed the horrific sight of people dying from inhaling poison gas. Kunikida Doppo seemed to be pulled back to the scene where they were found in the serial disappearance case, where 11 kidnapped hostages died after inhaling poison gas in a confined environment because of their own stubbornness.
The sounds of weeping lingered in his ears.
"Help me! Help me! I don't want to die!"
"Help me!"
"Didn't you come to rescue us?! Why are you running away?!"
"Help me..."
Kunikida Doppo's pupils contracted and then dilated slightly. His body felt as if it were being controlled and he couldn't move at all. Then, a pair of cold hands covered his mouth and nose, and a rotting, sticky face was pressed against his side.
"Help me..." The voice whispered in my ear, yet it carried a chilling coldness.
His strength was gradually draining away, and his consciousness was becoming increasingly blurred. He tried to open his mouth to shout but could not make a sound. He could only feel the hands covering him tightening their grip. Poisonous gas and the smell of decay filled his nose, and his vision grew darker and darker. His lungs were burning.
"Help me."
The phone eventually fell onto the tiled floor. The screen lit up briefly, reflecting the feet that were circling around it, but that faint light was eventually swallowed up by the darkness.
A meow broke the silence.
When Kunikida Doppo woke up, he saw Nakajima Atsushi's worried gaze. When Nakajima Atsushi saw Kunikida Doppo wake up, he was happy and wanted to say something, but then he saw Kunikida Doppo trying to punch him. Fortunately, he reacted quickly enough and dodged it.
"Mr. Kunikida! It's me, Atsushi Nakajima! It really is Atsushi Nakajima!"
Kunikida Doppo stopped attacking. He looked around and saw the concerned looks on the faces of the Armed Detective Agency members. He immediately calmed down, reached out to help Nakajima Atsushi up from the ground, straightened his disheveled collar, and patted him on the shoulder.
"Dunjun".
Atsushi Nakajima was at a loss for what to do.
"Don't show up suddenly next time." Kunikida Doppo looked weary. He didn't even know how long he had been in that godforsaken place. He was still a little shocked to see Nakajima Atsushi's face.
“Okay! But... it’s so good that Mr. Kunikida is back.” Atsushi Nakajima gave a shy smile.
Kunikida Doppo shuddered again.
The moment the other person laughed, I was reminded of that terrifying and disgusting scene.
"Another one has come out!" Junichiro Tanizaki exclaimed. Kunikida Doppo turned around and saw a black cat jump out of the bathroom mirror. Then, half of a bodyguard's body slowly emerged. The bodyguard appeared to be unconscious. Several people went forward and worked together to lift him to the ground.
Then the black cat jumped back into the mirror.
Soon, the bodyguard woke up, just like Kunikida Doppo had when he first woke up. He instinctively reacted by attacking others, but gradually relaxed after being restrained and given an explanation.
"Did I also come out of the mirror?" Kunikida Doppo asked, voicing his inner doubts.
“Yes,” Takeichi replied. Kunikida Doppo was a little unsure of the young man’s identity when he saw him. Sakaguchi Ango from the Special Ability Department was here. Could he be a member of the Special Ability Department?
Then, a business card was slipped into my hand.
"I know you have a lot of questions, but that's okay—my dear friend. I'll help you answer your questions. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Zhu Yi, and I come from the Ghost Story Consulting Agency. I specialize in consulting and resolving similar incidents. You can come to me if you have any questions or need help." Zhu Yi had a cheerful smile on his face.
"The Ghost Stories Consulting Agency?" Kunikida Doppo glanced at the business card and looked up to ask, "Aren't you from the Special Abilities Division?"
Zhu Yi's smile remained unchanged: "We've worked together for a period of time."
"What's going on with that mirror?" Atsushi Nakajima saw another person appear in the mirror and, remembering Kunikida Doppo's disappearance from the room, couldn't help but feel a lingering fear. So he couldn't help but ask what was going on.
"It's probably the power of some kind of ghost story. I guess it originally only wanted to target someone to achieve its goal, but you protected that person, making its plan difficult to carry out. So it dragged you into the illusion in the mirror. At first, it had no ill intentions towards you, it just wanted to trap you and buy time to complete its own purpose."
Takeichi looked at Kunikida Doppo, "It didn't initially intend to harm you. But within the illusion, your subconscious kept reminding you that something was wrong around you, and you broke free from the illusion multiple times. Every time you went out, it would disrupt its plans and try to stop it. Seeing this, it gradually turned its attention to you, wanting to teach you a lesson. Unexpectedly, you ended up beating it up instead, which completely enraged it." Takeichi shrugged.
"Everything in the mirror is a reflection of your inner fears. In fact, once the ghost stories have achieved their purpose, they will release you. However, your clients may not be so lucky. I don't know their purpose either."
So those terrifying things were all reflections of his own inner fears? Kunikida Doppo's lips twitched. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't suffered any real harm in the illusion, except that he had angered it by beating it up, and then it had suffocated him in the bathroom.
All the missing people in the room were brought out by 001. Their consciousness gradually returned, and the last person—Sakamoto Hiroki—graciously grasped Kunikida Doppo's hand when he woke up in the mirror.
Did you save me?
Kunikida Doppo shook his head: "It wasn't me."
"Is that so?" Hiroki Sakamoto released his grip. "Where is the person who saved me? I'm willing to offer a large sum of money as a token of my gratitude."
His tone was full of sincerity.
Dazai Osamu stared coldly at him. Kunikida Doppo took a few steps back, and then armed personnel from the Special Ability Division stepped forward and pointed their guns at him.
"What do you mean by this, gentlemen?" Hiroki Sakamoto's tone turned cold.
"You're not Sakamoto Hiroki, are you?" Edogawa Ranpo scrutinized him with his emerald green eyes.
"If I'm not Hiroki Sakamoto, then who am I?" Hiroki Sakamoto seemed to laugh in anger at Edogawa Ranpo's words, and questioned, "I have flesh and blood, I have a shadow. Who do you think I am?"
“You’re too calm.” Edogawa Ranpo’s words hit the nail on the head, and Sakamoto Hiroki’s face froze.
"The first thing you did after waking up was to thank the person who saved you. Hiroki Sakamoto is not as mentally sharp as you. People tormented by nightmares and hallucinations are not as clear-headed as you."
"Do you want to thank the person who saved you, or do you want revenge?"
Hiroki Sakamoto didn't speak, but his eyes twitched strangely, and the muscles on his face twitched slightly.
"He insists on emphasizing that he is flesh and blood, and that he has a shadow. But in the surveillance footage, the person who is impersonating Hiroki Sakamoto has no shadow—or maybe he is not even a person. That tense and stupid guy didn't notice this detail at all, and no one told him about it."
"Even Ranpo-sama doesn't need to use his brain to know that you and the other person are just as stupid."
A note from the author:
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