Chapter 6: What’s in the sea at night?
“I see, so you heard my voice through the plywood.”
They all gathered in the guest room where Houzuki was staying, and Yuiru put his face close to the plywood.
Instead of trying to remove or examine the plywood, he aimed his head directly at it and plunged forward. There was no painful collision sound between his head and the plywood, only his head passing through to the other side.
Towako, finding the situation amusing, imitated Yuiru and plunged headfirst into the plywood. As a ghost, she too had her head go through the plywood just like Yuiru.
“Wow, this is amazing.”
Yuiru muttered in admiration.
“There are countless scratches on the plywood. Someone must have scratched here.”
After pulling his head back from the plywood board, Yuiru commented,
“But this is strange. We’re on the ninth floor here; a normal human wouldn’t typically exist at this height. The scratch marks aren’t likely from a bird’s beak; they’re definitely the work of something non-human.”
It is a monster that appears in the sea at night.
Observing how it imitated Yuiru’s voice, it seemed determined to clear away the plywood board. “Open this up,” it has insisted, so perhaps the plywood is an obstacle to it.
In any case, they have an evil spirit that eats evil spirits. Even if it comes out, it will just become prey for Yuiru.
“Hey, hey.”
All of a sudden, Towako calls out to them with her head still stuck outside of the plywood.
“There’s something in the night sea.”
“Towako, what did you see?”
When Houzuki asked, Towako prefaced her answer with “I’m not really sure.”
“It was like something wiggling.”
“Wiggling.”
“You must have heard of it before, a white and wiggly creature.”
It was a scary story often seen on the internet, where someone had supposedly lost their mind after seeing something white and squiggly in a rice field.
Could it be that a similar entity had appeared, prompting the need to block the window with plywood?
Yuiru negates Towako’s words, saying, “It’s not that.”
“It1 has a head. Wiggly’s2 whole body is completely white, it also moves unlike a human. The one from before had human-like joints, so it’s probably just dancing poorly.” (TN: 1- the window ghost, 2- they’re naming the ghost Towako described based on its movement.)
“Yuiru, you also know about Wiggly?”
“I use your cellphone to look up scary stories that sound delicious every night. Ehen*.” (TN: This is probably the sound he makes while sticking out his chest proudly.)
“It’s not something to be proud of. My battery’s been draining pretty quickly recently, so you’ve been doing something like that.”
Houzuki glares at Yuiru. She never imagined that her ghost of a roommate was doing something like that.
In exchange for keeping scary books at home, let’s forbid him form using my phone. I don’t want to end up having to buy a new one just because the battery wears out someday.
Yuiru casually glanced northeast and said,
“My judgment tells me that what appears to be a human-like figure is fiercely dancing on the night beach. You’ll see if you check it out.”
☆
Zaza, zaza~n.
Zaza, zazaza~n.
The sound of waves crashes on her ears.
Zazaza~, zaza~n.
Zaza, zaza~n.
In stark contrast to the daytime, the sea at night is incredibly quiet.
For a start, the hotel itself is quiet too. I wonder if the guests staying here are fast asleep already.
No, are there really any guests in that hotel? All of the windows in the rooms facing the sea are blocked off with plywood, and it’s impossible to tell if the lights are even on. If there are guests in those rooms, they’re probably scratching their heads as to why the view would be ruined by plywood.
Houzuki, who had disobeyed the hotel’s orders and visited the sea at night,
“Wow……”
She unconsciously exclaimed.
The white wiggling thing that Yuiru described were not dancing vigorously on the white sandy beach.
They were countless white arms extending from the sea at night. They pounded the surface of the water, spraying droplets, almost as if they were beckoning Houzuki and others who visited the night sea.
Pasha~n, pashan.
Zaza~n, zaza, zaza~n.
Pasha~n, pashan.
Amidst the sound of the waves, countless arms swayed gently, beckoning Houzuki and the others.
“What… is that?”
When Houzuki involuntarily muttered, Yuiru,
“Can’t you hear it?”
asked.
“Listen closely. Besides the sounds of the waves and splashing water, there are other sounds.”
“?”
As instructed, Houzuki strained her ears.
Although she could still hear the sounds of waves and lapping water, mixed in with it was what sounded like a voice.
The sound was generally low, and the words were indistinct. Still, upon listening closely, the words became clearer.
Let’s go back.
Let’s go back.
Let’s go back.
The repulsive voice was inviting Houzuki and her companions, “Let’s go back.”
Hiih”
“If you were an ordinary guest, you would have been lured and gone back to the sea.”
Yuiru speaks in a tone that’s genuinely happy,
“There, take a look, Houzuki.”
“At what?”
“The idiot will soon show its face.”
She understood what he meant the next moment.
” ――――Ah”
“――――?”
Voices of people could be heard from somewhere.
Startled, Houzuki turned towards the resort hotel.
All the windows of the rooms facing the sea were boarded up with plywood, except for one room where the plywood had just been removed, apparently destroyed with tools.
Peeking out from there were young people slightly older than Houzuki, joyfully laughing as they gazed out at the vast expanse of the sea.
“They’ve come back.”
Came a voice, accompanied by breath that smelled of the sea.
Zabari. (TN: splash)
Something crawls out from the sea.
It’s countless human arms trampling the white sandy beach. None of the arms have any color of life, and arms of various sizes grip the sand.
It’s like a giant spider. At the center of something resembling a creepy spider with countless human arms growing out of it, a wet woman’s face is embedded.
The spider with the woman’s face embedded showed no signs of fatigue towards Houzuki and the others and raised a voice of joy as it looked up at the young people who had opened the window at the resort hotel.
“They’ve come back.”
