Chapter 9: Is that a reception?
Gyi, gishii~.
Every time she stepped on the floorboards in the hallway, there was a creaking noise.
Leaving the dressing room, Houzuki headed to the kitchen, from which a foul smell was drifting.
The cause of the foul smell was the ghost of that woman, using rotten ingredients to prepare a friendly reception. It was hard to imagine that she was cooking with glee.
Every time she walked down the short corridor, a foul smell assaulted Houzuki’s nostrils.
“What is this stench……”
“You know how it will turn out if you use rotten ingredients.”
Yuiru said, laughing with genuine amusement as he followed behind Houzuki.
“Even if you mix rotten ingredients with rotten ingredients, it will only turn into some other rotten ingredients.”
“That’s true, but…”
“And there’s also some kind of feces and urine… or is this mud? It must have been scooped up from the swamps that surround this place. She’s even offering drinks, so it seems like she’s making serious preparations for a hospitality party.”
It’s fine since Yuiru can’t eat it, but as someone who will be fed in the future, it’s something she would really like to avoid.
Houzuki frowned and peered into the kitchen.
Strangely, the woman was nowhere to be seen. However, on the desk in the kitchen there was a dirty cup and something muddy and sticky on a white plate. Perhaps it was Houzuki’s food and drink?
Small flies were buzzing about the thing on the white plate. She had no desire to go near it, let alone touch it.
“Huh?”
Looking around the kitchen, she saw the Ichimatsu doll stored in a glass box, waiting right next to the white plate and dirty cup.
Its black eyes, with no readable emotion, were staring intently at Houzuki. Even though it shouldn’t have been there.
After all, the Ichimatsu doll had been left in the dressing room.
“Yuiru, did you bring it?”
“I’m right here.”
Yuiru keeps saying “How upsetting.”
It would certainly be difficult for the silver-haired, red-eyed high school boy standing behind Houzuki to bring in the Ichimatsu doll from the changing room. For Houzuki, who can not only see ghosts but also touch them, it would be difficult for him to pass by it without being noticed.
The inevitable possibility was the nasty one that the Ichimatsu doll had moved on its own. It was a possibility that she really didn’t want to consider.
Houzuki mustered up her courage and stepped into the kitchen,
Haa.
It was that breath again.
The lukewarm breath she had felt in the bathroom.
It was right next to her ear.
“Nooo!”
Houzuki instinctively covered her ears and sat down. The kitchen floor was sticky and rough to the touch.
“What’s the matter, Houzuki?”
“Fo, for some reason… I can hear a breathing.”
“Just to let you know, it wasn’t me.”
Yuiru, realizing that he would be the first to be suspected, was the first to deny it. It wasn’t that she suspected anyone or anything.
She could immediately guess who had done it.
It was the ghost of a woman sitting quietly in seiza in the room where the Ichimatsu doll had first been.
Her messy hair hangs down, completely covering her face, and she is hunched over, facing the window. Even in the sunlight streaming in through the window, her evil aura is not hidden.
She scratches at the damaged tatami mat with fingertips as thin as dead branches, and shakes her drooping head. Her attitude is as if to say to Houzuki, who just stands there, “Why aren’t you eating the reception food?”
Gari gari gari.
Garigari gari.
Gari gari gari.
Garigari garigari gari.
The sound gradually grew more intense.
Garigari garigari gari.
Garigari garigari gargari gari.
Garigari karikari garigari.
Garigari gari karikari kari gari.
The woman did not stop scratching at the tatami mat, even though the damaged tatami mat was getting further damaged and torn apart.
“It seems you’re dissatisfied with your hospitality?”
Yuiru stepped forward, approaching the woman sitting seiza in the middle of the tatami room.
On his hand, he was holding the silver knife since who knows when.
He could not wait any longer. The presence of the ghost of the Swamp House before him was synonymous with an exquisite meal being prepared before him. Yuiru’s eyes sparkled brightly, his eyes fixed on the female ghost.
Kishii~, gishii ~.
The tatami mat creaked.
The silver-haired high school boy walked up to the female ghost sitting seiza, and with a cheerful smile, grabbed her messy hair.
The woman acted as if she was in pain and resisted, waving her thin arms like dead branches wildly, but Yuiru didn’t care and placed the silver knife against the woman’s scrawny cheek.
“You’ve been taken in by the Swamp house, so are you resisting now?”
Yuiru pointed the tip of his silver knife at the Ichimatsu doll stored in a glass box in the kitchen.
“You live for that thing? You really do love it like it’s your own child.”
Grabbing her emaciated cheek, Yuiru told the woman, “Look closely.”
“It’s just a doll. It’s not your daughter or anything, just a doll forgotten in this house.”
The woman’s dry lips wriggled,
Ah, ah!!
She cried out as if to say that it wasn’t true.
“Now, now, don’t get so angry, don’t get so angry.”
Yuiru silently gripped the silver knife in his other hand and said with a big smile.
“I will soon eat that doll and send it to where you are. You can have fun playing family in my stomach.”
Next came the usual greeting before starting a meal.
“I TA DA KI MA SU.”
And with that, Yuiru plunged the silver knife into the woman’s throat.
