Chapter 11

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“This case involves a kaii called the Fusuma.”

As soon as Shouma arrived at the office, Tendou started to explain the situation to him.

“Fusuma?”

“The Fusuma is a kaii that mostly flies in the sky and suddenly drops to the people’s face, covering their mouths and eyes. It’s name comes from a term that originally specified a type of quilt, which was used to cover one’s body or simply rest on it, before the futon gained its popularity.”

“It’s something similar to the Ittan-momen [1], right. Wasn’t that also one of those with a cloth-like form that suffocates humans?”

“You seem to know this very well.” remarked Tendou with awe in his voice.

“When I was little I saw that creature in an anime. In the anime though, it was like an ally and a warrior of justice, fighting alongside the main character. One could sit on top of it and be able to grab one’s opponent while the creature coiled around them…”

Shouma talked about the nationwide known, famous anime [2], which had the one eyeball yokai, Medama-Oyaji [3], as one of its characters.

Despite the praise, this was the extent of Shouma’s knowledge of the kaii. It was also when Tendou told him about the Fusuma that he first learned about it.

“It seems the Ittan-momen is a kaii that is some kind of relative to the Fusuma. Depending on which part of the country we are in, the Fusuma have other names too, like Nobosuma or Tobikura [4].”

“Is this kaii relatively scary?”

“Who knows. It’s not like it’s a safe kaii, especially if we look at the damage it’s already made. But the Fusuma I know of wasn’t the type that attacked people this often.”

Tendou took out the aforementioned Collected Records. He said he was going to collect the kaii in that book, but he hadn’t told Shouma exactly how.

How could Shouma, a real amateur, even help with anything?

“So, what am I supposed to do?”

“That’s a given, isn’t it?” smiled Tendou cheerfully. “You’re gonna be a decoy.”

—

“A decoy, huh…”

Shouma was in the park near the shopping street where Kochou had previously been attacked.

According to Tendou, it is very likely that the base and the ’hunting range’ of the Fusuma covered this area.

Two out of the four victims he interviewed said that the assault happened in the park close to the shopping street, in addition, Tomami also stated that she was attacked on her way home after finishing her shopping at a supermarket nearby. Perhaps the supermarket Inomata was referring to was the same place which Tomami visited.

On the screen of Shouma’s smartphone the digital clock showed 17:55.

According to Tendou, the kaii mostly prefer the time around sunset and twilight and that the best time to spot them in mid-May is the hour between 18:00 and 19:00.

It was also consistent with the testimonies of Inomata and Kayama. Not to mention, Kochou also testified that he heard something just before he fainted, which must have been the sound of the clock tower in the park striking eighteen o’clock.

As he was waiting in the park alone, Shouma’s phone suddenly began quivering. It was an incoming call.

When he took a look at his phone he saw an unknown number appearing on the display. However, Shouma could only think of one person who would call him at this time.

“I’ll be watching over you from a distance, since if I’m there the Fusuma might not show up. Good luck!” It could have been no other than the man who, with a rather enthusiastic manner, bid farewell to him with the precedent remark.

As soon as Shouma picked up the phone Tendou’s happy voice struck into his earlobe.

“Shouma, has the Fusuma showed itself?”

“Not yet, though…how do you know my number? I don’t remember giving my number to you, Tendou-san.”

“It’s all right, don’t worry. I don’t remember you telling me anything either.”

“…When did you scrounge it?”

“Scrounging is a disgraceful thing. Your phone fell out of your bag, so I just unlocked it for a second to check what was inside it.”

“Don’t call it ’fell out of the bag’ when you just took it out from the bag by yourself!”

Tendou’s laugh could be heard from the other side of the phone. What was wrong with this guy?

At that moment the bell rang, as a means to signal eighteen o’clock. However, even though there was an actual bell which was able to ring, only a bell-like sound could be heard from the speakers.

Shouma called out to Tendou on the phone.

“It’s eighteen o’clock though”

“Hmm. The victims talked about eighteen o’clock because it was almost a fortnight ago when they were attacked. The current time of sunset is now just before nineteen o’clock, so we might have to wait a bit longer.”

“Oh, I see”

It was a strange feeling, waiting to be attacked. Shouma felt fidgety and restless.

“Don’t worry. The way you are now, it will definitely attack you, Shouma.”

“And how does that reassure me?”

Shouma had removed his amulet on Tendou’s instructions. So just as before, he had small kaii’s on his head and shoulders. No matter how much Shouma tried to shake them off, they kept coming back on, so he had given up on getting rid of them and just let the kaii sit there. Tendou said that the reason the kaii didn’t gather into a big mass like they did when Shouma saw them in the building was because there was still a kind of residue left on Shouma from the protection charm he wore until now.

(I’m the ’bait’ right?…)

Tendou stated before that he was “the kind of person who is hated by the kaii“. Although, he also said that he had still collected some of them. This meant that somehow he was still capable of managing the kaii on his own if he was confronted with them.

In other words, what he wanted Shouma to do was to act as bait to lure the kaii closer.

Just a few minutes after hanging up the phone with Tendou, the thing came out of nowhere. Shouma’s vision suddenly turned black and something stuck to his face.

It relentlessly covered his mouth and nose.

“Ugh!”

As the thing tightly stuck to his face Shouma began to panic.

(This is bad!)

He made desperate efforts to tear the thing off from himself, but there was no sign of it coming off at all. On the contrary, his attacker wrapped itself around his head even more.

It didn’t matter how many nails Shouma put in it, the thing didn’t even falter.

(It’s only a piece of cloth…)

Shouma pulled out a utility knife from his pocket which he kept with himself in advance.

He didn’t feel comfortable holding the blade up to his face but he thought anything would be better than suffocating, so he set up the knife to split off his attacker. But unfortunately the blade of the knife broke off. It felt as if he had stuck the utility knife through steel.

(Oh, shit…)

Shouma couldn’t breathe. His consciousness was gradually fading away.

—–

Translator’s Notes:

[1] 一反木綿 The name literally means ’one tan of cotton’, it’s a white, cloth like yokai which could be seen flying through the skies at night time. It often attacks people and kills its prey while strangling them.

[2] The author makes a reference here to Gegege no Kitarou made by Shigeru Mizuki.

[3] Literally an eyeball with a tiny body. (example)

[4] 野衾 and 飛倉 although these two are the same creature, they have different appearances depending on the sources. Nobusuma (example) mostly resembles the Japanese flying squirrels while the Tobikura (example) has the appearance of a bat. Both of them like to jump onto the face of travelers in the forest, viciously attacking them.

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