Before I could confirm, Mayuzumi continued speaking.

“But since she had distorted the impossible, her body was unable to successfully return. And instead returned in pieces. Because of this, something that should’ve been over with a single death ended up turning into such a commotion. But here’s the problem, Odagiri-kun, what does the body wish to do after recovering its soul?”

She looked towards me as if urging me to complete the question. But it was honestly beyond me. I raised my hands indicating that I surrender, and Mayuzumi smiled grimly.

“Yamas.h.i.+ta Yukiko wishes to kill herself.”

“What?”

Her body wants to recover her soul just so she can kill herself?

“It’s why our client for this case wants to kill Yamas.h.i.+ta Yukiko herself. Since she was always following Yamas.h.i.+ta Yukiko around she could easily tell that her sister was starting to hate her. Then around that time her sister committed a huge mistake at her workplace. Naturally, she would also hear about the situation and that’s when she realized. This was the perfect opportunity, this was her chance to make it appear as if her sister had committed suicide out of depression.”

An image of Kazue surfaced within my mind.

A woman that appeared to be hiding something behind her gentle smile.

A woman who was hiding her true malicious personality.

“Our client had followed Yamas.h.i.+ta Yukiko and struck her on the head when she was bending down to pick up her coin. After that she dragged Yamas.h.i.+ta Yukiko to the top of this building and tossed her down, making it appear like a suicide. Our client’s plan was rather successful, you could even say it was successful beyond her expectations.”

That’s right, it normally wouldn’t have been so easy.

If all the conditions hadn’t been so perfectly aligned, it wouldn’t have been deemed a suicide.

“The matters surrounding her workplace, breaking up with her lover, an unsent will, and the critical decisive condition. Why did Yamas.h.i.+ta Yukiko come to an abandoned building complex?”

Why? She had no reasons yet she still came to this place.

“That’s because she was thinking of committing suicide here.”

A coin dropped to the ground with a loud “clink”. With a hollow expression in her eyes, Yukiko once again bent down.

“Her little sister had only quickened her death, but in the end she didn’t die. She wasn’t able to accept her own death so a distorted situation like this happened instead. Yamas.h.i.+ta Yukiko’s body had disappeared from the hospital wanting to return here. But because the soul itself doesn’t realize it already lost its physical body, the body has nothing to guide it and was unable to successfully return. So in other words, she failed.”

Mayuzumi gave a sigh and shook her head.

“By the way……this was done by “him”. He is someone who only helps those that he finds “interesting”……but no matter, it’s impossible to confirm whether he actually was here at this point. Just like you back then, remember?”

I felt breathless upon hearing her ask me that. A sharp pain ran through my stomach and I bent over to endure a sudden urge to vomit. My heart began pounding rapidly and the sound of rain surfaced within my ears.

I tried calming myself while gripping my stomach, but the hallucinating sounds of rain wouldn’t disappear. As my vision started to blur, I heard the sound of Mayuzumi’s voice.

“My mistake, just pretend I didn’t say anything, how could you ever forget.”

She made a slight hand movement. Her snow white hand waving like a sor

t of b.u.t.terfly. I slowly stood up while remaining silent. Trying to ignore the previous unsettling question not wanting her to realize my weakness.

“I wanted to ask something.”

“Please go ahead, you’re free to ask as many questions as you like. Questions are important after all. Since no matter how meaningless the question is it at least will still have some value.”

“Why wasn’t she able to successfully die? Even if she died unknowingly, I don’t think a person who wanted to commit suicide would care that much.”

Regardless of being killed or committing suicide, in the end both lead to death. But Mayuzumi shook her head with a smile.

“Well let me ask you, Odagiri-kun, would you want to pa.s.s on while you were still thirsty? If it were me I would want to pa.s.s on eating chocolate.”

My mind began automatically processing the question.

If it were me what would I do? I would want to pa.s.s on while smoking in my own shabby but cozy apartment. I don’t really care for something like chocolate though.

That aside, if I were to see a certain “someone” with their red paper umbrella beside me, I couldn’t die even if I actually wanted to die.

But in that case…

On a summer afternoon, between one or two during one of the hottest time of the day, and being thirsty to the point of having to buy a drink from a vending machine.

Putting a twenty yen coin in first and then placing in a hundred only to have it spat back out at you. And in the midst of fuming over unable to buy a refres.h.i.+ng drink and bending over to pick up the coin, your consciousness suddenly goes blank.

“Correct, in the end it’s all just because she wasn’t able to get her drink.”

For just that simple of a reason?

With a twirl of her umbrella, Mayuzumi took out a chocolate bar from her pouch and tore it open with her mouth. She took a bite and then continued.

“Just when she was thinking of killing herself of her own will, she was knocked out and at the worst possible time too. It would be strange if she was actually able to pa.s.s on.”

So she wasn’t able to pa.s.s on for such a reason.

And is now trying to return back here to complete her own way of suicide.

“Do you understand now, why our client wants us to find her sister and kill her, and why she was able to deduce the meaning behind the organs dropping here as her sister’s intention to re-kill herself? She probably felt that her sister had managed to escape her grasp by disappearing from the hospital. Thus she wants us to her sister’s body before all the parts drop down and her sister successfully re-kills herself, so that she can end her sister’s life herself.”

So essentially she doesn’t want her sister to kill herself and wants to prevent it at all cost.

“Our client hasn’t really told us anything regarding her sister’s death, because she doesn’t want to let anyone know that she killed her own sister. She wants to pretend that her sister committed suicide, when in reality she was the one who killed her. She believes that her sister belongs to her, but didn’t want others to convict her. Even more, she feels her sister is trying to escape from her grasp thus she wants to end her sister’s life personally.”

Kazue said she wants to kill her sister.

The reason being because she loves her.

It’s quite strange when placed side by side as the two don’t really fit together at all.

“She wasn’t able to carry out her own suicide, so now she’s back to complete her own suicide.”

But Kazue wants to personally kill her.

“That’s because for the little sister her actions are the greatest betrayal, the worst possible kind of betrayal.”

This was a truly insane way of thought.

I gave a deep sigh. It’s as if a great burden had suddenly twisted itself around me. Her thought process was utterly stupid. The amount of “dedication” she had for her sister was so overly-bearing that it made me think her entire existence was a mere illusion.

Even if she killed her she still wouldn’t be able to obtain her.

It was essentially the same as throwing a useless tantrum.

Why doesn’t she just understand this?

“Ignorance is bliss, Odagiri-kun, akin to consuming too much sugar, or overdosing to hallucinate.”

So for Kazue this is a sort of happiness, but for her sister it would be a real misfortune. I stared absentmindedly at Yukiko who was picking up her coin again feeling rather tired.

“……..What do we do?”

Should we tell Kazue? Although I didn’t say this out-loud, Mayuzumi gave a direct and simple response.

“Of course.”

Then she walked forth unhesitatingly right beside Yukiko. Yukiko gave no sign of noticing Mayuzumi. Her eyes were completely clouded and reflected absolutely nothing.

But Mayuzumi suddenly reached out and s.n.a.t.c.hed something out of the lifeless Yukiko’s hand.

It was the bloodstained 100 yen coin.

With a start, Yukiko’s head slowly began turning. Her two eyes gradually focusing upon Mayuzumi. Her gaping bottomless mouth opened.

“——————Ah”

*clink

Mayuzumi flicked the coin away and the spiraling coin flew off into the distance. As if she were preforming a magic trick, she waved her fingers and a new coin appeared within her hand. Then she offered it to Yukiko.

“You can use this one.”

That was a rather abrupt way of handling things.

Yukiko gave a blank stare when Mayuzumi held out the coin. After a while, she received it and inserted the coin into the vending machine. The inserted amount displayed on the vending machine went from 20 yen to 120 yen. And the display panels lit up. Then she sluggishly pressed the b.u.t.ton for diet c.o.ke.

I had an urge to ask her if this was enough, but held my tongue at the last moment. No matter what she chose, it doesn’t make up for the amount of time wasted thus far.

With a loud metallic thud, a can dropped into the bottom. She bent down and picked up the can of diet c.o.ke.

Opening the can with a loud pop, fizzy brown color bubbles began pouring out.

Yukiko tilted the can and drenched her long-parched throat with the carbonated drink.

Immediately, she widened her eyes and————vanished.

“—–Huh?”

Mayuzumi showed no signs of surprise upon her vanis.h.i.+ng and instead looked up towards the abandoned building.  I followed suit and also looked up. This is bad…

There was something plummeting through the blue skies down towards the concrete ground. Two arms were extended as if in a welcoming embrace. Against the resisting wind, the white dress whirled around the figure like an encirclement of flying birds. But a moment before coming into contact with the ground, she raised her head.

And I realized that she was looking towards us.

A bone-shattering and flesh-splattering sound rang out. A dark thick fluid began slowly spreading out over the ground towards our feet.

Yamas.h.i.+ta Yukiko’s body had fallen down right before us.