The winter of my first year in university. I was in my room, finishing up my English assignment. Back then, I still went to classes reasonably often and was trying my hardest to somehow earn my credits. With tired eyes, I traced the tiny letters in the dictionary with my finger, dodging the small paws of a kitten demanding attention, and finally finished translating the last idiom. Rubbing my weary eyes, I put my textbook away. It was already past 1:30 in the morning. Thinking I should go to sleep and letting out a yawn, my computer in the corner of the room caught my eye. That reminded me I hadn't connected to the internet in a few days. I sat down in front of the computer, turned it on, and decided to take a look at the occult forum. It was a gathering place for locals. Originally, it was meant for discussing Western occult topics like black magic, but the regulars weren't very strict about it, so people talked about pretty much anything. Right then, the topic seemed to be about haunted spots. Scrolling back through the logs to catch up on the conversation, it appeared that a guy named Itami had suddenly proposed an impromptu offline meetup. A raid meetup, so to speak. Itami was a male third-year at the Commercial University. "There's this space in the basement of that abandoned factory, and nobody knows what it's even there for." Itami had somehow gotten hold of rumors surrounding an abandoned factory located on the outskirts of the neighboring city. "Yuki-chan. Your former master wants to play." Still sitting in front of the computer, I grabbed the kitten that had come over and picked her up. She was a white female cat, and I had just gotten her from Itami's house not too long ago. A stray cat had recently started living around Itami's apartment and given birth to four kittens, so it seemed he was reaching out to anyone he knew, one by one. "Apparently, there's a blood-like stain on the floor of this huge basement, and if you go there in the middle of the night, you can see a ghost standing vaguely on top of the blood." After posting that, he added that he was going to raid the place right now and was looking for participants. Looking at the timestamp, it was over an hour ago. A few people had responded, but they were all saying it was too late for them now. Then, about thirty minutes ago, there was a post from Itami saying, "Hmm, well, me and a buddy are gonna go check it out." That was the last one. After that, someone else posted, "Just got here. Did they already leave? I wanted to go too. I don't really know the location though, so I'll wait for reports," but there was no response to that either. "Looks like your former master already went out to play." I rocked my body back and forth while talking to the kitten. Back then, the culture of updating internet message boards from mobile phones while on the go didn't exist yet, so we had no choice but to wait for the offline meetup group to return home. I was curious about how the raid on that abandoned factory turned out, but I was getting overwhelmingly sleepy, so I decided to go to sleep for the night. And that was why I remained completely unaware of the commotion that followed.
It happened the next night. As I was lounging around at home, my PHS phone rang. When I answered, it was from an occult forum buddy who went by the handle "Mikacchi." She said something interesting had happened, so I should come over. She was so high-energy that I only understood about half of what she was saying, but I decided to join in anyway. A cold wave was reportedly hitting, and it was unusually cold outside. Leaving the eager-to-play kitten behind, I bundled up as warmly as possible, left my room, hopped on my bicycle, and headed toward the destination. For a usual offline meetup, people mostly gathered at a family restaurant, an izakaya, or an apartment room belonging to a female regular who went by the handle "Colo." But that day, the meeting place was a male regular's apartment named Waki. Waki was the administrator of the occult forum. He didn't usually show up to offline meetups much, but as one of the oldest members, he held a respected presence among the regulars. Well, mostly because he was the founder of the forum, I suppose. I had only been to his room once, and he was a very quiet person. Though his vibe was completely different, I remember being surprised by how his appearance somehow resembled my Master of the Occult Path. Pedaling along dimly remembered roads under the chilly sky, I finally reached the apartment. When I knocked, I could hear people talking through the door. I went inside regardless, taking off my shoes while calling out, "Evening." "Oh, you're here, kid." Mikacchi waved at her hand. The room was warm, heated by a heater. Several people were sitting in a circle in the rather small room. Every single one of them was a familiar face. They usually held meetups at family restaurants and such, but afterwards, some of the regulars would gather at someone's house for an after-party, calling it a debriefing session or the like. Someone had secretly dubbed it the "Dark Executive Committee." Though I was still a junior, I somehow managed to get included as a member, but essentially it was just a gathering of like-minded friends. Aside from myself, there were four other people gathered today. Two women named Mikacchi and Wasada, and two men named Waki and Itami. Among them, Wasada and Waki were working adults. Huh? Speaking of Itami... I suddenly remembered yesterday's impromptu raid meetup. What had happened after that? He had said he was going with a buddy. Right then, I noticed that Itami, sitting in front of me, looked strange. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his expression felt somewhat desperate. He kept tapping his foot nervously. Even when he saw my face, he didn't ask, "How's the cat?" There was a somewhat awkward atmosphere in the air. "Um, since someone just got here, should we watch it from the beginning again?" Sawada suggested. "Yeah, let's watch, let's watch," Mikacchi agreed. "Well, is from the beginning fine?" Waki started operating the VCR in his room. Apparently, everyone had been watching a video. Everyone in the room leaned forward, fixing their eyes on the television screen. After a brief flash of static, the video began.
◆ It started with a flashlight illuminating a dark night road. The screen was shaking. It seemed to be filmed while walking. "Um, is this recording already?" Itami's voice could be heard. With another man's voice saying, "Look here," the screen moved, and Itami was shown in close-up. Only his face, illuminated by the flashlight, stood out against the darkness. "Hey, it's blinding," he said, shielding his eyes with his palm before the focus of the light shifted slightly. "Um, right now, Fujiwara and I are heading to a haunted spot. It is freakin' cold." His breath could be seen turning white at the corners of his mouth as he spoke. "To capture the decisive moment of raiding the rumors' abandoned factory's secret basement, I forced Fujiwara to tag along." Saying that, Itami started walking. The camera showed Itami's profile for a while, but soon turned forward, capturing the dark path ahead. ┗"Is that still on?" "Yeah." Only voices could be heard from off-screen. "Unfortunately, no one else is participating this time. It was too sudden, so I learned my lesson. There's only two of us, so it's kind of scary." "Wait, hey, is this even the right way?" "It's the right way. Um, we got a little lost until a little while ago, but once we get this far, it's basically a straight road, so we're probably good." The microphone picked up the sound of their footsteps—crunch, crunch, crunch... It looked like an unpaved road. Deep in the mountains, maybe? Two flashlight beams swayed, illuminating only the ground. "From a little while ago, I keep hearing the voice of some kind of turtledove? The vibe is pretty scary." After Itami's voice said that, he added, "So cooold." Sure enough, the call of a turtledove could be heard in the distance. Then the two fell silent for a while, and the screen just rustled and shook as it moved forward. Just as that scene was playing out monotonously, a phone ringtone suddenly sounded. They stopped, and the camera turned to show Itami. "Ah. Hello. It's Itami." Holding his cell phone to his ear, Itami was talking to someone. "Ah, are you the person who checked the bulletin board? Thanks, nice to meet you. I'm glad. With just the two of us, we were getting nervous. Where are you now? Eh? Ahead? No way. Seriously?" At that point, the camera turned around to show the ahead view. However, the flashlight beam revealed nothing but an empty road. "How many of you are there? Three? Eh? Two guys? Same as us. Wait, didn't you guys already get there?" Itami signaled with his hand, saying, "Let's go." The camera started moving again, shaking up and down. "Yeah, yeah. That's the abandoned factory. No doubt about it. We turned past some stone monument-like thing two or three minutes ago, but after that it's a straight line, right? How much longer until we get there?" Itami's voice could be heard against the background of the road stretching into the darkness. "W-w-wait a minute. Let's go together. Wait up." Itami let out an anxious voice. Then the camera picked up its pace. "A lid? There's a lid? Made of iron? Ah, probably that. Underneath that. I mean, we're almost there, so let's go together. No jumping the gun. Hey!" He called out loudly into the cell phone, but there seemed to be no response from the other end. "Hello, hello." Dammit. They beat us to it. Cursing, Itami stepped in front of the camera. The footage continued, following his back. Two or three minutes must have passed. The light, which had been illuminating only tree groves, reflected off an inorganic wall. It was some moss-covered building. "Which way?" Itami, moving ahead of the camera, waved his flashlight to search for the entrance. "Ah, this way, this way." He beckoned to the camera with his hand and rounded the wall. Ahead were two large horizontal sliding doors, left and right. The bottom of one door was crushed and tilted diagonally, creating a gap just large enough for a single person to slip through. "Hey. Is anyone there?" Itami called out while sticking his flashlight into the gap. Then, looking timid, he slipped his own body through the gap. Immediately, his face peeked back through, asking, "Can you get through?" "Yeah." The camera followed him through the gap. Whatever kind of factory it originally was, the inside was mostly deserted, with a few rusted steel drums and white bags with sand spilling from their tears rolling around in the corner. The moment they looked around the factory, the sound cut out. No other figures were in sight. A chilling atmosphere drifted from the screen. A single streak of moonlight descended from the corrugated tin roof with a broken section, painting a full-moon-like pattern in the center of the floor. Perhaps due to being exposed to the rain, only that part of the floor was discolored to a dirty hue. "Isn't that it?" Itami pointed the light in his hand toward the back-left corner. As they approached, a lid was visible beside a pile of building materials that were indistinguishable as wood or metal. The camera zoomed in, capturing its appearance from a high angle. It was a metal lid with a mesh-like pattern. It was a square shape, about fifty centimeters on each side. Quite large. Big enough for a person to easily pass through. Itami struck the lid with a clunk, clunk sound. "Is anyone there?" He waited for a while, but there was no response. "Can this be lifted?" When a voice called out from the camera, Itami raised his head. "The guy earlier opened it, you know. I heard a creak-creak sound through the phone. Instead of lifting it straight up like *gwoosh*, I figured maybe one edge is fixed and acts as a pivot to lift it..." The moment he said that and looked back down at the lid, he choked out a "What!" "Wait a minute!" A voice resembling a scream echoed through the building. "Why is this welded shut?!" After shaking violently, the camera moved even closer to the lid. Then it showed the boundary with the ground. There was an iron border on the concrete floor, and inside it was a heavy lid with a texture like a manhole. Normally, holes that served as grips for lifting should have been open all along the border. However, although traces of the holes remained on that lid, it had been welded all along the entire border, and the holes were completely plugged up. "What is this supposed to mean?" Swallowing hard, Itami knocked on the lid again. "Hey! Is anyone in there? Hey!" "Hey, calm down." A voice called out from the camera. Tossing his hair back and raising his face, Itami squeezed out a voice that sounded like sobbing. "They opened it and went in! That's what the guy on the phone said. He said he was going down first! There was a creak-creak, *clunk* sound, and the phone hung up! The guy from earlier is in there! Inside this!" Overwhelmed by his desperate expression, the camera pulled back for a second. He tried desperately to open the lid, but there wasn't even a foothold to apply leverage. Thud, thud. The dull sound of him hitting the lid could be heard. "Who sealed this shut?!" Realizing that Itami's raving state was abnormal, the camera was placed on the floor, and the image blurred for a moment. At the edge of the tilted screen, two figures were tangled together. "Calm down. There's no way you could weld something in just a few seconds. You're imagining things." After arguing for a bit, Itami, who finally began to calm down at the cameraman's persuasion, muttered, "Yeah, I guess." Then the camera was hoisted onto a shoulder once more, and the exploration of the abandoned factory began. However, not a single other thing resembling a lid was to be found. Of course, not a single entrance to the basement, either. Afterward, they exited through the diagonally tilted door and explored the outer grounds of the abandoned factory for a while, but in the end, they found neither a lid nor a basement entrance, nor even a trace of the pair who had supposedly been here just moments before. Turning their backs on the abandoned factory and retracing the path they had come, the video ended in silence.
◆ After Waki pressed the stop button on the VCR, there was a moment of silence. It was as if it were a continuation of the video. Mikacchi let out a bright voice to shake off the heavy air. "And so, that concludes the tale of Itami-kun's misunderstanding." Her tone of voice sounded entirely out of place. "If that's the case, where did that phone call come from?!" Itami raised an irritated voice. "Well, like I said, it was a prank. Someone just called you randomly from somewhere else." "But when I asked where he was right now, he said he was in front of the diagonally tilted door. And he said that after going inside, there was a lid-like thing in the back left." Itami ranted with a frightened expression. "When we actually got there, wasn't it the exact same?" "Um. Well, that's..." Waki smoothly connected with a calm tone right where Mikacchi stammered. "Maybe someone had been there before." "Yeah, yeah. That. Someone who had been there before made a prank call." "Why would anyone do something like that?" "Isn't it fun to scare people?" Mikacchi smiled with her mouth shaped like a half-moon right in front of Itami's face. "Don't laugh!" The moment Itami raised his voice, Wasada immediately stepped in to stop him. "Now, now, don't fight in someone else's house... By the way, the person who made that call—do you really not know them?" Itami said he didn't know the other person's name. "The other person said 'Nice to meet you,' so I just assumed." Still, it was a voice he had never heard before. Saying that, he dropped his gaze to the cell phone in his hand. "Hey, let me see that person's number." Saying that, Mikacchi leaned in close, and Itami showed her the screen displaying the incoming call number. "090-9733-... Hmm, I don't know it either." I peered over too, but it was indeed a number I had never seen before. At the-very least, it didn't seem to be any of the forum regulars. "It didn't go through even when you redialed, right?" Asked by Mikacchi, Itami pressed the buttons on his cell phone. He held it to his ear and waited for a while, but then shook his head, turning it toward us and saying, "Look." *...The subscriber you have dialed is either out of service area or has their phone turned off, and cannot be reached.* That message was playing in an electronic voice. "And so, about the access logs, which is an administrator's privilege..." Waki muttered. "Oh yeah, I was just about to ask about that!" Smiling wryly at Mikacchi's innocent words, Waki continued. "I think I've explained this many times before, but the access logs don't tell you who specifically is looking at the bulletin board. At best, you can only find out things like the ISP, the OS type, and what browser they're using." "Really? Isn't personal information leaking all over the place?" "Well, if they're connecting from a company or a government office, you might occasionally find out their exact name." "But aren't there IP addresses? You can tell from those too, right?" Wasada chimed in from the side, and Waki scratched his head. "Um. I'll spare you the detailed explanation, but basically you get a new IP address each time, so even the same person changes every day. That said, to some extent you can narrow it down to 'maybe this person.' But even then, that's only if it's a regular you know in real life who visits often. If it's a first-timer, I think even the police wouldn't be able to figure out who or where they are." "At this rate, this is gonna be a police matter!" Itami said that in a desperate voice. "They might be trapped in the basement, you know." Yeah. Itami was scratching his head again. "But come on, you saw that lid, didn't you? It was completely welded shut. There's no way that was done yesterday or today. Obviously, it's been like that for a long time. If so, there's no way anyone could get inside." "Well, that's true, but!" "It's late at night, so please keep it down a bit." Wasada gave a sensible reprimand. At that moment, the sound of a knock echoed on the front door. Following that, the sound of the door opening and a voice saying, "Evening. Sorry I'm late." It was a female regular who went by the handle "Kyosuke." The moment she stepped into the room, Mikacchi yelled, "Kyosukeee!" and tried to pounce on her. Kyosuke gracefully dodged it with the minimal movement characteristic of a martial artist, and said in a flat tone, "So, what happened?" It was strange how just the presence of this person filled the room with an indescribable sense of relief. Since Kyosuke had arrived, we ended up watching the video from the beginning again. It was my second time, but this time I got a front-row seat for the close-up scene of the lid, which I hadn't been able to examine very closely the first time around. That was when I noticed something. The lid was indeed welded along the edge, and the holes were completely plugged up, but something seemed to be visible right along that edge. "Um, could you pause it right here?" Waki pressed the pause button for us. Then, around the left edge of the frozen screen, there was something like a black line. It extended from the edge of the lid's round border outward. Copper wire? I thought that for a second, but what was illuminated by the flashlight's beam looked unusually thin, softly curved, and splitting into multiple strands. "It's hair..." When I muttered that out loud involuntarily, I heard Itami's stifled scream. "Eh. What do you mean, hair?" Mikacchi lunged forward, practically clinging to the television screen. "This? Is it really?" When told that, I started to lose my confidence. "This is bad. Seriously bad." Itami
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