"Of course!" After being stunned for a few seconds, Conan nodded vigorously. If he couldn't even guess such a simple question, it would be a great disgrace to being a detective.
"Give me a hint." Kisaragi Chiyo casually pulled a fountain pen from her pocket; the black pen was decorated with a pattern of gold and red, two colors intertwined to form a mallow flower design.
It was a fountain pen featuring maki-e craftsmanship.
A limited edition batch from a certain company's latest release was reportedly bought out by a large publishing house, which then gave them away as gifts to young rising star authors who had debuted and won awards in recent years.
If he remembered correctly, Conan's eyes were fixed intently on that fountain pen.
Hagi，。
It was the name of that fountain pen.
"Are you a novelist, big brother?" Conan asked, his eyes sparkling as he held his parfait and looked at the other man.
"You guessed right." Kisaragi Chiyo stood up and picked up the cake that had been neatly placed into a takeout box by the blond waiter.
A long-handled black umbrella was pulled from the rack, with the tinkling sound of a wind chime, the cafe's glass door was pushed open, the rain outside still falling incessantly.
Because it was the rainy season, this was an unavoidable nuisance.
"Is that big brother a mystery writer?" Conan thought of the man's records regarding the crime scene, before the young man could leave, he asked one last question.
"No, I am a supernatural novelist." The raven-haired young man turned back, cast a brief glance at him with his misty-gray eyes, then stepped into the blurring rain with his umbrella.
Soon, that tall figure vanished completely into the curtain of rain.
Author's Note:
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Hehe, the story has officially begun! For now, I'm focusing on building up the collection count, so I've tentatively set the update schedule to two thousand words per day at 9:00 PM (｀ ）
Thanks to all the little angels for adding this to your collections, mwah 030
Chapter 2
Kisaragi Chiyo did not like rainy days.
Because going out at this time meant that mud splashes and water marks from walking would stain his pants and ankles.
He didn't like that feeling.
But there was no helping it; after all, he had specifically chosen to visit the city of Tokyo during the rainy season.
After walking for about half an hour, Kisaragi Chiyo stopped in front of a tall building.
It was a building that had long been abandoned, its slightly mottled exterior walls covered in plenty of green ivy and nameless climbing vines.
Stubborn weeds stretched out from the cracks in the stones, unfolding their bodies to welcome the bath of life.
Taking a few steps forward, his shoes stepped cautiously on the fuzzy green moss, which was spread out like a green carpet at the entrance to welcome guests, making a faint crunching sound.
Besides that, scattered across the ground were scraps of food wrappers and old, faded yellow caution tape with black lettering that read "No Trespassing."
This abandoned building was Kisaragi Chiyo's destination for this trip.
*
He stopped at the doorway and tilted his head up slightly, as droplets of rain fell in lines from the heavy, iron-gray clouds, with a few occasionally landing on his face.
He wondered just how many impurities from the air those few raindrops had picked up on their way down; thinking of that, Kisaragi Chiyo frowned slightly in discomfort.
He pulled a handkerchief from his wide haori sleeve to wipe the raindrops from his face, giving up on continuing to ponder the meaningless question of just how tall this abandoned building actually was.
He crumpled the used handkerchief in his hand, only folding his umbrella after stepping through the half-open gates.
*
Just as he had said before, he was a supernatural novelist.
Therefore, sometimes in order to find inspiration for his writing, he would often deliberately search for clues related to rural folklore or urban legends and go to experience them firsthand.
After all, the atmosphere and feeling experienced solely through others' descriptions on the internet are far from as intense as witnessing it in person on-site.
As expected, the building's elevator was out of service. It made sense; based on the information he had found, this building had been abandoned for nearly seven years, so it was only logical that the water and electricity would be cut off.
Kisaragi Chiyo did not act in a hurry. He set his dripping umbrella against the wall, as he held the packaged cake in one hand while struggling to take his laptop out of his black briefcase with the other, he suddenly felt that he had miscalculated.
Perhaps he should have come at a different time.
This thought flashed through Kisaragi Chiyo's mind.
He couldn't be blamed for it after all; before preparing to come to Tokyo, he had already checked the weather forecast in advance. It was clearly supposed to be three consecutive sunny days, yet for some reason, heavy rain began to fall just as he stepped off the train.
Even this umbrella in his hand was something he had bought on impulse from a convenience store near the station.
It cost as much as three times the price of a normal umbrella!
This was simply adding insult to injury for his already tight finances, so finishing a new manuscript as soon as possible had become an urgent matter.
*
Kisaragi Chiyo took out her notebook and flipped to the page with yellow sticky notes attached to it, which recorded the urban legends related to this abandoned building.
[#001 Hazama
The building, abandoned seven years ago due to an accident, was the site where several people lost their lives. The innocent ghosts who died here wander the building, unable to leave; whenever night falls, one can always hear the intermittent sounds of footsteps and knocking on doors.
"Is anyone home?" The hoarse voice sounded like a malfunctioning tape recorder.
Knock, knock, knock
Excuse me, is anyone home?
Knock, knock, knock
Excuse me, is anyone home?
Thud, thud, thud
[After the question was repeated three times, the knocking finally stopped.
As the heavy footsteps gradually faded and you were just beginning to breathe a sigh of relief, thinking the strange thing outside had finally left, whatever you do, do not look through the peephole or peer through the gap under the door.. because there is more than one of them.
So, no place with a crack or gap can escape their eyes.
Found you.
It was like many voices mixed together, woven into a noisy radio wave, as they gathered outside the door and spoke in unison: "Found you."
This was a message Kisaragi Chiyo found on an anonymous forum, where most of the posts were shared accounts from users regarding supernatural or paranormal events they had encountered in their lives.
The reason Kisaragi Chiyo knew about the existence of this forum was thanks to a recommendation from him.
While he was complaining about his lack of inspiration and inability to write his manuscript, the other party sent a link without a word, which triggered a fraud warning upon clicking it.
After that, he moved from his previous residence to Tokyo.
There was no particular reason; it was simply because the editor had promised to give him a relocation allowance after he arrived in Tokyo, that was all.
*
The sound of rapid footsteps echoed in the stairwell.
Although it had been abandoned for seven years, the building actually had no major issues, aside from being covered in dust, cobwebs, overgrown vegetation.
Kisaragi Chiyo tilted his head back, in the near-pitch-black environment, he saw the green emergency exit signs glowing faintly in the darkness. In the quiet hallway, nothing could be heard except for his steady breathing; there was no other sound.
Kisaragi Chiyo hesitated for a moment while clutching the small flashlight he had prepared long ago. His vision had been excellent since childhood, so even in this environment where one could only vaguely discern the outlines of objects, it posed no great difficulty for him.
..
Hmm??
As if having just realized something, Kisaragi Chiyo stopped at the corner of the stairs leading to the next floor, staring at a blurry black shadow that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the staircase. The shadow, which appeared to be in human shape, blinked its misty gray eyes slowly.
Has this existed from the very beginning?
Kisaragi Chiyo didn't think too deeply about it; his attitude was quite optimistic.
He felt that it might be someone attracted to the building by rumors, just like him, or perhaps it could be something like a plastic mannequin that the owner had carelessly abandoned in the stairwell while moving.
He had encountered many similar situations in the past, but most of the time, the end result was simply that someone was playing a prank.
Kisaragi Chiyo had no intention of heading back home because of this. Of course, he had always been a loner; even if someone was a fellow traveler attracted by the same rumors, he had no intention of stopping to converse with them.
With this attitude, Kisaragi Chiyo walked upward, leaning on his umbrella and looking straight ahead. Undried raindrops slid down the surface of the umbrella and fell to the ground, leaving behind a dark, circular water stain.
The sound of clicking footsteps echoed in the stairwell as Kisaragi Chiyo drew closer and closer to the other person.
Whether it was just his illusion, but as he drew closer to the other person, the surrounding temperature seemed to be dropping bit by bit, constantly eroding the human body's warmth.
It wasn't until the moment they brushed past each other that Kisaragi Chiyo caught a whiff of a faint, cold fragrance. That coldness had a tactile quality to it—damp and slippery, as if it wanted to desperately burrow into one's very bones the moment one drew near.
Muffled, fragmented murmurs, like voices trapped under a glass dome, colliding back and forth in isolation, yet ultimately unable to be conveyed.
It also signified that he had now officially entered the Hazama of the other world.
Kisaragi Chiyo's footsteps did not stop, even her speed did not change in the slightest; from a bystander's perspective, one would notice that.
Every step Kisaragi Chiyo took seemed as if it had been meticulously measured with a ruler.
The speed, the distance, even the silence after the landing were all exactly the same.
Author's Note:
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Thanks to all the little angels for the collections, muah everyone 0330
Chapter 3
The other party did not ask them to stay, likewise, Kisaragi Chiyo had no intention of turning back. He generally did not like to disturb those confused, ignorant, or incomplete ghosts.
Most of them were quite paranoid. Although many times they didn't truly have any intention of harming anyone, having lost their sense of good and evil as living beings, they might, driven by the obsessions they held in life, commit some kind of crazy or extreme act.
Generally, out of a desire to avoid trouble, he would turn a blind eye to everything he saw.
As one of those who can see within the crowd, the most important first lesson is to learn how to pretend that you cannot.