Vampire and His Pleasant Companions: Volume 6 - Part 2

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In the end, the nighttime tsuchinoko hunt was canceled just before it began. As Al waited nervously in front of the inn, battling his fear, Shimizu came running up to him.

“Al-san! Sorry!”

He was out of breath.

“They’re changing the reporter Kousuke, so now the script needs tweaking too. We’ve got a meeting starting now. No idea when it’ll end. And you said you go to bed early, so… looks like the tsuchinoko hunt’s off for tonight.”

He’d wanted Shimizu to find the body—but deep down, Al was relieved. He’d been so scared.

“Is okay. Don’t worry.”

“Sorry, really. I really wanted to go,” Shimizu said with a groan.

“Tomorrow morning… we go?”

“Yeah, that works. Daylight will make it easier to see things anyway.”

They agreed to head out at six in the morning, and Shimizu disappeared back into the inn. Al pulled out his phone, wondering if Nukariya had read his last message yet.

“Oh? Enjoying the evening air?”

It was Nonoshita, returning from outside in her work clothes. She greeted him with a smile.

“I stop walk… no night walk.”

“Well, there’s not much to see around here anyway. Except maybe the stars.”

“Night… is scary.”

Nonoshita laughed out loud. “Oh, come on. There’s nothing scary out here. There aren’t even any people.”

Nonoshita had the warm, chatty feel of a countryside auntie, and she was easy to talk to. Since Al himself had grown up in rural Nebraska, this kind of cheerfulness felt familiar to him. It calmed his heart to talk with people like that.

“You live… here long time?”

“I was born and raised right here in Yontate Village.”

“You know… Yonekura Kaito?”

Nonoshita’s soft expression tensed slightly, and she let out a quiet breath. Al noticed the change—subtle, but strange. Then she asked, “You know Kaito?”

“Friend of… a friend.”

“Well then, you’re basically a stranger.”

“What kind… person Yonekura?”

Al knew if he kept pressing, she might start asking questions of her own—but he couldn’t stop himself. He wanted to know. Nonoshita put a hand to her cheek and looked down, off to the side.

“Kaito was a pitiful boy.”

“Pitiful…?”

“He was abandoned by his parents, and lived alone with his grandmother. That woman was strict—always going on about discipline. She’d skip dinner as punishment all the time. My mom once saw him crying in the yard from hunger and snuck him a rice ball. She said she couldn’t stand to see him like that.”

So after leaving the facility, being taken in by his grandmother… maybe Yonekura hadn’t found happiness. But even so, did that have anything to do with killing Ishimoto? With framing Akira?

“Kaito endured a lot. He had a kind heart. Even after going off to college and leaving the village, he still came back regularly to visit his grandmother. But that grandmother of his… she went missing.”

Al’s chest gave a thump—his heart, which shouldn’t even beat, stirred violently.

“Missing…?”

“Yeah. The year Kaito started college, she began to show signs of senility. He’d come home during breaks and complain—‘Grandma forgot if she ate,’ or ‘She got my name wrong.’ But with the rest of us, she was still lucid, so we figured it was just the early stages of dementia. My mom and I talked about it. Then that winter, Kaito came back home and reported to the local station: ‘Grandma went out shopping and never came back.’ The whole village went out looking, but we never found her. That was the last anyone saw her.”

A flash of the skull beneath the house appeared in Al’s mind. If that had been Kaito’s grandmother… of course they wouldn’t have found her. No one would ever guess someone was buried under the floor.

“These villages are getting older. It’s not rare for an elderly person with dementia to just… vanish. Sometimes they’re found years later, deep in the mountains. Kaito’s grandma was still healthy and walked fine before she disappeared, so…”

Yonekura lied. He’d lied at the facility, framed Akira, made him a murderer. Maybe—maybe he’d even spread the rumor about his grandmother’s dementia himself. Faked her disappearance. A chill ran down Al’s spine.

“Sorry to bring up such a gloomy story.”

“Don’t… worry.”

With that, Nonoshita said “Well then,” and headed back into the building, toward the front desk. Al wandered off from the entrance.

The heat of the day had faded, and the air was a little cool. He walked out into the open yard—once a school field, no doubt. He headed to a swing set in the corner, sat down, and slowly pushed himself back and forth, creak… creak… while gazing up at the sky.

It was full of stars. Beautiful.

It reminded him of nights in Nebraska. Back then, he used to hate being stuck in the countryside. But now, he felt nothing but nostalgia.

He wanted to look up at the sky like this with Akira. Just relax. Enjoy a lazy vacation.

But to make that happen, he had to get Akira out of that tiny cage first.

Suddenly, a chirping electronic sound rang out—his phone was receiving a message. It was Nukariya.

So the signal did reach out here.

After his bath, Al had gone looking for a place with reception and finally found one, sending a message through social media to Nukariya—but it had gone unread for quite a while.

After making sure no one was around, Al answered the call. Upon hearing about the skeletal remains under the floor, Nukariya exhaled sharply and said, [I saw the photo. Honestly, I was shocked.]

[Akira’s still the prime suspect, but it sounds like the investigation HQ is beginning to suspect that Yonekura Kaito might have been an accomplice. After the incident, Yonekura quit the care facility, moved out of where he’d been living, and disappeared. They’ve lost track of him, and it sounds like the team on-site is in a panic. The higher-ups are just plain useless.]

If a skeleton were to be found in his grandmother’s house under these circumstances, suspicion toward Yonekura would only grow stronger.

[I already knew from your reports that Kaito Yonekura was dangerous—but if he actually laid hands on a blood relative, we’re talking about a truly serious case. I’ll contact the local precinct myself and report the remains found in his grandmother’s house. I’ll say it came in as an anonymous tip.]

If Nukariya was going to handle it, then there was no more need to worry. Al had been planning to maneuver Shimizu into finding the remains for him, but that no longer seemed necessary.

[What worries me now is where Yonekura is. If he’s responsible for the body in that photo, then this would be his second victim. That level of ruthlessness is terrifying. The house might be a ruin now, but it’s still a place he knows well. There’s a chance he could return. Be careful. Especially you, Al. He’s already seen your face.]

After the call ended, Al looked up at the night sky again. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if Yonekura might be looking at the same stars.

From what he’d heard, Yonekura had a sad childhood. But what happened in the past was beyond Al’s control now.

He just wanted Yonekura to be caught quickly. To confess. To apologize. If the discovery of the skeleton helped strengthen the suspicion in Ishimoto’s murder case, even a little, maybe the investigation would finally move forward. And maybe Akira would be released soon. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Please, please, God… Al sent the wish up to the twinkling stars.

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