After declining her offer of sending me out, I left Kazue’s house. I took a deep breath and fresh air coursed through my lungs. My throat which had long been devastated from the putrid odors felt a sense of relief wash over it. Although I really wanted to take a smoke break, let’s withhold for now.

I pretended I was leaving and began walking away. I walked towards a utility pole a short distance away from Kazue’s house. Then I suddenly reached out without any warning.

“Huh? Whoa!”

And grabbed the neck of a man pretending to be pa.s.sing by. I quickly pushed him backwards before he could resist causing him to lose his balance and twisted his wrist pinning it to his back. Although it was a rough method it suited my currently terrible mood, so he can just deal with it.

“Why were you spying on that house?”

“W-What do you mean?”

“Enough with the acting, haven’t you been spying on us since the moment I entered the house up to now?”

I originally was just taking a wild guess, but the man’s expression instantly stiffened. When I was entering Kazue’s house I had felt someone’s gaze but couldn’t find anyone, but when I left her house I was finally able to find the hidden person.

It appears he really was spying on her house. The man’s s.h.i.+rt was soaked in sweat and his thin greasy hair was also dripping with perspiration. Contrary to his old appearance, he seems to be fairly young.

“Answer, why were you spying on that house?”

“Y-You, hehe, are you that woman’s, ahah,-boyfriend?”

When I questioned him the man suddenly began laughing. Is he touched in the head or something? His breath gave off the smell of rotten eggs.

“T-T-Th-Then you are really in for it, ahaha, that woman is not normal, hehe, she killed someone before, she’s a murderer, ahahahahhaha!!”

He patted my arm with his other hand as if he were someone familiar with me and suddenly burst into a crazed laughter. Although the figure of him laughing away gave him a demented feel, the words he said were far too dangerous to disregard as mere nonsense.

Murderer.

“Murderer?”

“Hahaha, what you don’t know? Hahahaha!! Yukiko, Yukiko, that woman killed Yukiko, ahahaha-ah-ah-ha!!”

His voice became choked with a wailing laughter and he gradually started to weaken before going limp. I didn’t know who this Yukiko was, but I could still easily guess who she was. It’s probably the name of Kazue’s sister.

If she really did kill someone then there could only be one target.

But even so, I thought her sister had committed suicide of her own will by jumping off a building.

“Didn’t she……commit suicide?”

“Haha, haa-hah, Yukiko, she……Yukiko……would never……commit suicide. Yukiko didn’t kill herself, it was Kazue, she was killed by Kazue. Many times over and over, Yukiko said so herself, she said that person’s eyes were scary. She said how much she hated having to take care of that person. Yukiko always said how Kazue kept following her to the point of insanity.”

The man was grumbling away incoherently to himself, but suddenly he opened his eyes wide and began screaming while flailing about.

“It’s true! It was Kazue! Kazue killed her!Kazue s-s-she killed Yukiko!”

Killer! Killer! The man screamed away as if he were singing. But an icy-cold voice then m.u.f.fled the man’s scream.

“What’s going on, Odagiri-kun?”

I turned around and Kazue was standing there. It seems the man’s cries were loud enough for her to hear from insid

e her house. I cursed silently inside my mind. It was impossible to question him any further now. Kazue bowed her head slightly.

“Oh, it’s been a while, Sugita-kun. You even came all the way here, did something happen?”

“Kazue, you……”

Sugita began emitting a murderous intent. I quickly tightened my grip on the hand I had pinned behind his back.

“Hey, calm down.”

“Kazueeee!! It’s because of you! Because of you, Yukiko she-!”

“Enough, Sugita-kun, haven’t we already resolved that situation?”

Kazue calmly replied. But Sugita began roaring away in anger.

“You listen here! Just one day, one day I will-”

“Don’t you forget, I was the one who drop the charges against you. If you continue bothering me, I will call the police again.”

Sugita’s shoulder suddenly gave a violent shudder. His entire body went limp and then he violently brushed off my hand. It was done quite violently, but it seems he didn’t want to stay here any longer. He arched his slightly dirty back and threw a few curses before leaving.

I glanced towards Kazue. She was still smiling uncannily like usual. She had overheard our previous conversation, but it didn’t seem as if she were fazed by it.

“I’m very sorry, Odagiri-kun, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry, but I think it might be better for you to contact the police.”

“I see, thank you for your concern, but there is no need to worry. That person doesn’t have that kind of courage, he won’t be able to do anything.”

Kazue stared towards the direction Sugita left. And a silence fell. After a while it seems she noticed my questioning look, and with a small sigh she began speaking.

“That person is Tomoyuki Sugita, he use to be my sister’s lover.”

“Lover?”

“Yes, although it’s in the past.”

I suppose it could be put that way, the person was already dead so they couldn’t still be lovers. No, Yukiko was alive when she disappeared, so it isn’t impossible. But anyways it doesn’t really matter either way. What I want to know is something else.

“It seems his mind is full of delusions.”

“Delusions?”

“How should I put it…….although it’s quite sad.”

I think she already knew what I was going to say, but Kazue still had a composed expression on her face nevertheless. Just what was she hiding underneath that expression.

If anyone can tell me, please do.

“He said you killed your sister.”

An uncanny smile once again appeared on Kazue’s face.

“…….That person is free to say whatever he wants, after all-”

She then said something unexpected.

“–that person already broke up with my sister even before her suicide.”

“…….Already broke up?”

I replayed Sugita’s behavior in my mind. I was under the a.s.sumption he had begun spying on Kazue’s house after the unreasonable death of his lover. But apparently they had already broken up.

“A week before my sister tried committing suicide, she proposed they break up. When I heard this from her workplace I was also very surprised, apparently up till my sister’s suicide he had conducting very obsessive-like behavior. So I didn’t tell him that my sister had disappeared after her attempted suicide. And only told him that my sister had committed suicide and was dead. I also lied to him and said that a private funeral was held for her, but anyways it has nothing to do with him.”

She crossed her fingers and continued staring towards the direction Sugita left. A sorrowful expression appeared on her face as if she were showing sympathy towards the pitiful man. However, a far different expression was deeply imprinted in my eyes. It was at the moment before her expression turned sorrowful, a fleeting instant that I managed to catch.

A snarling and warped mocking smile.

That mocking smile she showed towards Sugita’s pitiful figure was definitely her true personality.