Chapter 7 The Doppelganger in the Mirror (7) Hiroki Sakamoto didn't...
Hiroki Sakamoto remained completely calm. He walked to the sofa and sat down comfortably, his gun aimed as the other man moved. Sakamoto glanced at the gun barrels aimed at him, leaned back lazily, and said slowly, "But you don't have any concrete evidence, do you?"
"Are you going to hurt an innocent citizen like me?" He looked up to indicate the surveillance camera placed above him, then chuckled softly. Seeing the stern faces on everyone's faces, he blinked innocently.
Edogawa Ranpo gave him a look as if he were an idiot: "You really believe we don't know your purpose?"
"...I can't believe such a stupid method could work." He muttered in disbelief.
At first, Edogawa Ranpo and Dazai Osamu had not found a definite suspect and did not even consider the possibility that the other party was not human. But now it's different. They learned about the existence of ghost stories and other supernatural phenomena from the information that Takeichi gave them, so all the reasoning became logical.
To be fair, you could say the other party was stupid, since they knew to threaten them with surveillance; but you could also say they were clever, since they believed whatever Zhu Yi said and tricked them into coming out.
If someone says they don't know what the other person's purpose is, you actually believe them.
From the very beginning, the other party's purpose was very clear: to replace Hiroki Sakamoto.
How would you replace them? If you look at the surveillance footage, you'd probably think that the purpose of transforming into the other person's appearance is to live their life in their place, and then one day kill them and take their place.
A very typical doppelganger trope.
“Your true form can’t appear in the real world, so you need a body as a medium.” Sakamoto Hiroki’s expression was quite interesting when he heard Edogawa Ranpo’s words.
"The receptionist didn't see your true form at first, and the footage shown on the monitor was probably created by your abilities. You can influence these devices, otherwise why would the room's surveillance footage show static?"
Hiroki Sakamoto stared at Ranpo Edogawa with a dark look in his eyes, and the temperature in the room suddenly dropped several degrees, with shadows in the corners stirring restlessly.
The cat in Takeichi's arms poked its head out and hissed at Hiroki Sakamoto.
Zhu Yi shouted, "Stop him!"
Then, without anyone knowing, Hiroki Sakamoto pulled out a knife from somewhere and stabbed himself in the chest.
Dazai Osamu, who was closest to Sakamoto Hiroki, immediately grabbed the other's hand. With a "crack," the other's wrist dislocated, and the knife fell to the ground and was kicked away by Dazai Osamu. Sakamoto Hiroki roared in pain.
The bathroom mirror suddenly shattered, and Hiroki Sakamoto began to roll his eyes, veins bulging, and a hissing sound came from his throat as he scratched his face.
Seeing this, Dazai Osamu used bandages to bind the other person's hands, preventing him from harming himself.
Why save him?
There was no one in the room at the time.
It was a woman wearing a white women's suit, which was covered in mud. Her limbs were twisted unnaturally, and blood was flowing from her forehead down her jaw, past her eyebrows and down her jaw. Her blood-covered eyes were half open.
Her voice was very soft and her tone was very flat, almost without any fluctuation, which seemed extremely eerie.
The temperature in the room seemed to be dropping continuously. It wasn't just a simple feeling of cold; it was a chill that seemed to seep into your bones, leaving a cold, astringent taste stuck in your throat.
“A ghost…” Naomi Tanizaki hid behind Junichiro Tanizaki in fear. Junichiro Tanizaki was sweating profusely, but he kept comforting his little sister: “No, don’t be afraid.”
Everyone was startled by the woman's sudden appearance.
Izumi Kyoka tugged at Nakajima Atsushi's sleeve, her eyes sparkling as she looked up at the woman with curiosity.
Atsushi Nakajima's legs felt weak, but the large number of people around him made him less afraid. Feeling Kyoka Izumi's tugging, he asked in a trembling voice, "Aren't you scared?"
Izumi Kyōka shook her head.
"You are his wife," Dazai Osamu said firmly. The woman did not deny it; she looked at Dazai Osamu, tilted her head, and repeated the question: "Why did you save him?"
“He shouldn’t have died here.” Dazai Osamu lowered his eyes and finally spoke slowly.
It's ironic that the person I saved turned out to be a scumbag who could heartlessly kill the person next to him in bed, and even more so, a selfish, vicious, and hypocritical person.
But he promised someone he would be a good person, and Dazai Osamu's eyes darkened.
He cannot die here, even if the other party is a criminal; everything must be decided by the law.
Dazai Osamu had figured out how to persuade the person in front of him, to tell her that he already had evidence of the other party's crime, and that all he had to do was hand it over to the police...
The woman was even more confused: "I didn't mean to kill him."
Dazai Osamu was about to speak, but then silently closed his mouth again.
The woman's body began to swell and contract, as if countless things were undulating beneath her skin, eventually transforming into a man in a gray suit, who looked to be in his thirties or forties, with some stubble on his face.
The man's words were somewhat indistinct, as if he had something in his mouth: "I only want to take his place; that was originally my spot. But if you try to stop me, then he can only die."
A woman's voice came from the man's throat: "Promise me you won't hurt him..."
Before he could finish speaking, it felt as if something had been choked in his throat.
“But they stopped me.” The man’s voice was filled with anger.
A cold wind began to blow through the room, the lights inside started to flicker, and a piercing crackling sound of electricity emanated from them. It seemed as if several more people had appeared in the room, but it was impossible to pinpoint the source of the sound.
Laughter and crying seemed to come from both the left and the right, sometimes near, sometimes far, drifting erratically.
The man revealed a cruel and eerie smile, staring maliciously at the crowd, and raised his hand.
"Fire," Ango Sakaguchi said coldly.
The special agents raised their guns and fired at the man. The bullets pierced his body and he fell to the ground. Bright red blood exploded on the floor-to-ceiling window, creating red flowers. The bloodstains spread across the entire glass and the room at lightning speed. In the blink of an eye, the room was shrouded in a dark red, unidentified substance.
The view outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was obstructed, and the room door was entangled and closed by an unidentified object.
The lights overhead suddenly went out, and the unexpected scene made everyone afraid to make a move.
As Zhu Yi watched the ghost story value rise on the system panel, a slight smile crept onto his lips in the darkness where no one was watching.
A cat's meow broke the eerie atmosphere.
The lights above their heads suddenly came on again, and the room was enveloped by an unidentified red object. In addition to the woman and man they had seen before, there were other things that appeared out of nowhere.
A young man was also floating in the air, his body stiff and hanging there. He had his head down, so his face was not visible. There was a deep purplish-black mark on his neck, and his cervical spine was inexplicably long. He was hanging straight in mid-air like that.
And on the floor, there was a bloody, mangled human figure, whose face was no longer recognizable. Its limbs were twisted into a pretzel-like arc, broken bones pierced through the flesh, and a large chunk of its head was missing, oozing red and white stuff, which fell off little by little as it writhed.
In an instant, they opened their eyes again, and everything around them returned to normal. Strangely, there were fragments of mirror scattered around everyone's feet.
"Is this... over?" Atsushi Nakajima asked tremblingly.
Zhu nodded. "They probably won't come out again."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"We were just pulled into the mirror?" Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's voice trembled, as if he had seen something terrifying for a moment.
"I think I heard the sound of glass breaking coming from the bathroom." Akiko Yosano looked around. "Is anyone hurt?"
The members of the Armed Detective Agency shook their heads frantically, while Atsushi Nakajima silently pointed to Hiroki Sakamoto on the sofa.
Yosano Akiko strode towards Sakamoto Hiroki and checked his breathing: "He just passed out."
Yosano Akiko lowered her hand from checking for breath, a hint of regret on her face: "To be honest, I really wanted to study that thing that was wriggling on the ground just now. But there simply wasn't enough time."
The members of the Armed Detective Agency wore expressions of horror.
The black cat handed a bright red shard of mirror to Zhu Yi, who squatted down to take the shard and patted the cat's head.
Suddenly, a white-eyed eye appeared in the fragment. Its eyeball spun wildly before finally freezing, staring intently at Zhu Yi as he gradually disappeared, as if it had all been an illusion.
Zhu Yi took out the key from his pocket and swiped it in the air. Then he raised his hand and threw the mirror shards into the air. The surrounding environment distorted for a moment, as if the mirror shards were being sucked into some kind of force.
[The ghost story has been successfully retrieved.]
[Matchings for the Ghost Story of the Doppelganger in the Mirror: Suzuki Ooyuki (a complex mix of love and hate for her husband, 30% match), Nii Harada (who rose to power after being framed by Sakamoto Hiroki, possessing extreme hatred and a strong obsession, 40% match), Sato Takeru (who advised Sakamoto Hiroki to turn himself in, only to be assassinated by him, leaving behind an obsession of hatred, 20% match), Yamada Taro (an innocent lawyer caught in the crossfire, dying under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind an obsession, 10% match)]
Ango Sakaguchi approached Takeichi, curious about Takeichi's ability to open the "Inner World".
Of course, it's not entirely true that there is no other world. In any case, this world doesn't exist. Zhu Yi just borrowed elements from the ghost story world to fabricate stories and cover up the loopholes in his lies.
"What is the Otherworld like?"
Takeichi glanced at Sakaguchi Ango and shrugged, saying, "I'll probably only find out after I'm dead."
You're trying to trick me into revealing information again. You're really dedicated. I wonder if your boss will give you a raise if you're this dedicated.
Zhu Yi thought to himself that this wasn't the first time the other party had tried to trick him into revealing information.
"What is the 'Other World'?" Dazai Osamu leaned closer, and Takeichi immediately flashed a bright smile: "You have to pay first to get a consultation~"
"Oh no, my wallet floated away when it got wet. Can I pay you back for now?"
"No way." Zhu Yi's face immediately fell, adopting an attitude that he wouldn't get anything for free without paying.
“Hey—Ango.” Dazai Osamu turned to look at Sakaguchi Ango. “Let’s grab a drink sometime.”
Ango Sakaguchi: You're trying to extract information, aren't you?
But Ango Sakaguchi couldn't refuse the request. His expression was complicated, but more than that, it was one of deep helplessness: "Okay."
Takeichi glanced at Sakaguchi Ango, then at Dazai Osamu.
What a strange atmosphere.
*
Yosano Akiko made a call for an ambulance, and the request was completed once Sakamoto Hiroki was in the ambulance.
No one knew what Hiroki Sakamoto saw in the mirror. After waking up in the hospital, he called the police, crying and saying he wanted to turn himself in. In the end, all his crimes were exposed, causing quite a stir in Yokohama.
But a few months later, perhaps because Hiroki Sakamoto regretted going to prison, some people heard that he had used his connections to get his death sentence commuted to a suspended death sentence and then to a fixed-term imprisonment. After being released from prison, he went to get plastic surgery, but the surgery failed and he died on the operating table. Of course, that's another story.
A note from the author:
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