Chapter 7: Signs of a Person Residing
Peering into the swamp house through the gap in the poorly fitted door, she saw only a tattered Ichimatsu doll stored in a glass box.
The six-tatami room was in a terrible state, and the tatami mats were damaged. Perhaps due to leaks, the tatami mats were rotten in places, and the ceiling had holes in places.
The Ichimatsu doll stored in a glass box was left abandoned in the center of the swamp house, not placed on a pedestal. Its empty black eyes, with no readable emotion, stared fixedly at Houzuki, and there was an air that it should not be touched easily.
Yuiru also peered into the inside of the swamp house and said,
“What the, there is only an Ichimatsu doll.”
With that, the silver-haired, red-eyed high school boy stepped into the swamp house in his dirty shoes.
He walked around on the damaged tatami mats, searching the house for anything else.
It seemed that part of the wall of the room where the Ichimatsu doll was was acting as a partition and could be moved. He slid the wall open to reveal the kitchen, which was also in a pitiful state of disrepair.
The stove was scorched, and a blackened frying pan had been left there. There was a bucket of rotten water in the sink, with used dishes floating in it. There were signs that someone had been living there.
“Is there anything else?”
“Hey, Yuiru.”
Yuiru heads deeper into the swamp house in search of prey, while Houzuki is left behind in a room where the Ichimatsu doll has been abandoned.
This Ichimatsu doll is creepy. It is stored in a glass box, but it looks as if it will roam around the swamp house without a care.
Strangely, Houzuki is unable to take his eyes off the Ichimatsu doll, and stands there staring at the glass box left abandoned in the six-tatami Japanese-style room, as if trying not to miss a single move of the doll.
Then, Towako, who is the last to step into the swamp house, tugs on the hem of Houzuki’s clothes as he remains motionless, staring at the Ichimatsu doll.
“Houzuki-chan, what’s wrong?”
“Huh, oh.”
Houzuki returned to herself after being called by Towako.
“Sorry, Towako. It’s nothing.”
“Let’s not take the Ichimatsu doll home, okay?”
Towako glanced at the encased Ichimatsu doll and says,
“It’s really creepy.”
“You’re right…… I feel sorry for the doll though.”
The doll is just there, innocently enough.
Houzuki forced her eyes away from the Ichimatsu doll and chased after Yuiru, who headed towards the back of the swamp house.
As she stepped into the kitchen, a strange stench she had never noticed before hit her nose. The smell of many different types of rotten food mixed together. Houzuki couldn’t help but pinch her nose.
Could there have been food in a house like this? There was also a refrigerator with the electricity cut out, and what appeared to be a microwave. There were signs that people had once lived here.
“It stinks…”
“It really is a nasty smell.”
Towako also frowned and pinched her nose.
Yuiru seemed to leave the kitchen and head off somewhere. A bouncy voice said something like, “Wow, that’s amazing!!” from the back of the swamp house.
As Houzuki and Towako were unable to move because of the foul stench in the kitchen, Yuiru made the effort to come back into the foul-smelling kitchen. Then, his glittering red eyes sparkled as he said.
“Houzuki, Houzuki. Come over here!!”
“What is it, Yuiru? This kitchen stinks so much I can’t go any further in.”
“The stench doesn’t matter. There’s something interesting up ahead!!”
Yuiru said excitedly, so Houzuki had no choice but to step into the foul-smelling kitchen and head towards the back of the swamp house. Towako followed Houzuki, complaining that it stinks.
Beyond the kitchen was a narrow corridor, beyond which appeared to be the toilet and bathroom. The toilet was covered in mold, and the toilet paper that was installed was covered in dust and yellowed. It looked like it was impossible to use properly.
Yuiru pointed towards the bathroom.
Opening the glass door, beyond was the changing room. An old sink caught her eye, and the upper half of Houzuki’s body was reflected in the foggy mirror.
The faucet was foggy, and the sink was swarming with bugs. It was so dirty that no one wanted to go near it.
“This way, Houzuki.”
Houzuki was about to respond to Yuiru calling from the bathroom through the partition but,
Gyi, gyii~.
Houzuki heard footsteps from behind her.
She turned around with a snap, and just in time she saw someone heading towards the kitchen. She thought she saw messy black hair and the hem of a white dress.
If she listened carefully, he could hear someone’s footsteps.
Gyi, gyii~.
Totatota, tota.
Tota, totatota.
Gyi~, gyi~.
Perhaps they were going back and forth between the tatami room and the kitchen. The footsteps changed.
Houzuki was curious about what was going on in the kitchen, but right now Yuiru’s circumstances took priority.
She needed to get him to eat the woman that appeared in the swamp house. Without him by her side, nothing would happen.
“What’s wrong, Yuiru?”
“Look at this.”
He opened the frosted glass sliding door and found an old-fashioned bathtub boiler right in front of him.
Something was floating in the discolored water.
Its original shape was gone, but it looked like a human. Its arms were hanging loosely over the top of the bathtub, and its skin had rotted so that its face was hard to make out. It was melted into a sludgy mess, and it was creepy.
Is it even appropriate to call it a corpse? Could it be someone who died in this bathroom?
“If you look closely, doesn’t this body look like a woman?”
The high school boy with silver hair and red eyes asked with a grin.
It certainly did look like a woman’s corpse if you looked closely.
But why would there be a woman’s corpse in a place like this? Houzuki couldn’t imagine it.
Haa.
At that moment, a warm breath blew close to Houzuki’s ear.
