Akumu no Sumu Ie – Ghost Hunt v1 prologue
The inner part of the long and straight corridor was sunken inside darkness.
Midori stood motionless on the concrete floor of the entranceway. Bright midday sunlight poured out from the dormer, and brightened the floorboards of the corridor. Despite that, the light was unable to reach beyond the long straight hallway going deep into the house. Midori's body intercepted the light as well, causing the darkness to remain in the corridor's inner part. It was because of this, that the pa.s.sageway seemed like a tunnel with an unknown destination.
It was exactly now, for some reason or the other, that the sounds suddenly ceased.
Inside the house, not even a hushed sound could be heard, and there was no indication of a human presence. An unapproachable atmosphere brimmed just as if it was nervously waiting for something.
Sounds from the outside couldn't be heard any longer.
-- It was as if n.o.body was around any longer.
(Where is mother?)
Midori felt uneasy all of a sudden.
(Where is mother?)
Why would it be so quiet? It was as if this house was completely empty. How could it be so unapproachable, dark, and lonely?
(Where?)
"What's the matter?"
There was a sudden voice from behind, causing Midori to blink rapidly.
"Hey Midori, it's still beautiful right?"
Midori turned her head around at hearing her mother's voice. Mother smiled as she locked the door from the inside of the entranceway.
"It doesn't look like a house that was built 20 years ago, right? It was just renovated, but originally it was a well-made building."
Mixed sounds came from the single door that separated the house from the outside. The light that poured in through the patterned gla.s.s of a small window was white.
"They told me the former owner rented it for a long time, and lived on his own while repairing it. Everything is uniform from the illumination to the curtain rail, and both the kitchen and the bath have been very well made."
"... ...I see," Midori said finally. Her mother Reiko opened a shoe rack and showed it somewhat proudly.
"See, he even had a shoe rack made."
"Yeah."
While Reiko, who had been standing earlier, continued to take off her shoes, Midori examined the corridor. It was dark as usual, but once Reiko switched on the light, which was shaped in the form of an egg yolk, it was made possible to examine the inner part.
"Even though he finished his renovations and had just moved in, he went away to live with a son somewhere far away, leaving this behind. -- Here's the living room."
There was a door with a gla.s.s plane on it to the right of the pa.s.sageway, Reiko opened it, laughed merrily, and showed the inside. Midori looked once more over the corridor.
Midori grew frightened for a moment. There was a shadow of a person in the inner corridor, but when she looked closely, it was her own figure, she sighed softly.
At the end of the hallway was a large full-length mirror, and before that were the stairs. On the right of the hallway were two doors and a sliding screen. On the left, there was another door and a sliding screen. The inner corridor was T-shaped and at the end of that wall was the location of this full-length mirror.
-- It was as dark as she had expected it to be. Midori frowned; they would have to go through this elongated corridor in a long and narrow house without a single source of daylight. She wondered if the darkness could get to the point where it would actually feel dreadful. An abrupt form of anxiety took over her.
Midori awkwardly attempted to laugh.
Of course, n.o.body appeared to be here because there was no one living in this house yet. Even though she had known that, she had suddenly become anxious and wanted to confirm her mother's whereabouts.
(Something is wrong.)
"-- Midori? Aren't you looking?"
Reiko stuck her head out from the living room.
"I was only looking at the corridor. -- Is that the living room?"
Midori's father had been a serious economist, if he had retired he would have bought a house in the suburbs and made savings untiringly, but he died suddenly ten years before his retirement. Her father's dream was also her mother's dream, and it was because of this that Midori had not opposed her mother's sudden desire of wanting to buy a house when the first death anniversary had pa.s.sed.
The only breadwinner of the house had died leaving behind housewife Reiko, and Midori who had been looking for employment for two years, so buying a house and the like was not to be expected. Likewise, if Midori had married before that, she would not have been able to live in her newly purchased house. It was acceptable, but she did not want her mother to worry about the rent. If they had a place to live in, even if it meant they would be barely getting by later on, they'd be able to live their daily life. It was because she kept this train of thought that she had agreed. Reiko moved about on her own and on part of Midori, who could not lessen her time at work, discovering this house because of that.
"-- See, it's great, don't you think?"
Seemingly, proud, Reiko opened the sliding door. In the living room, there was plenty of light streaming in, and it didn't give a bad impression. The corner of the room had been made into a dust outlet facing a small garden.
"We could have something like flowers grow there."
Reiko's voice was happy. She had lived in an apartment for a long time, so she'd be happy to have a house with a garden.
"Seems like it. -- Is this the south?"
"Yes. The sunlight is good here. It's a bit narrow, but maintaining a s.p.a.cious garden is too much, right."
"Yeah. Perhaps this is just right."
"Here's the dining kitchen," said the cheerful Reiko opening a gla.s.s door that continued to the next room.
"Wow, it's big."
"In the past this room consisted of a j.a.panese-style living room and a kitchen that were remodelled into this dining kitchen. Could this be why the kitchen is very big?"
There was a counter, about six tatami mats long and narrow, in the inner part of the dining room. Beyond that was the kitchen. It was wide, and seemed comfortable for two women to move about and do kitchen work.
"The wet area is also very luxuriously made."
Reiko beckoned from beyond the side of the counter. She seemed completely happy, but Midori inclined her head in doubt as she looked at the wall on her right. Exactly in the place where a window should be, a mirror had been placed. Due to the mirror, the dining room looked unnecessarily wide. There weren't any other windows, which would give light.
"Hey, for what reason is there a mirror in that place?"
When Midori said it aloud, Reiko said 'aah' and stared at the mirror.
"It's a window, actually."
"Huh?" Midori said, examining the mirror. When she looked at it, she understood that it was not just a mere mirror; a window frame of aluminium sash ran around the mirror that had been inserted into the double sliding window instead of gla.s.s.
"The neighbour's wall is directly outside."
Midori opened the window, looking outside she saw that there was about 15 centimetres of isolated s.p.a.ce between the neighbour's wall.
"-- I'm shocked. Isn't this an illegal construction?"
"The house next door is absurdly built, isn't it? -- At any rate, the light won't come in, and a drainage is located below the window. They said that if you leave it open in summertime or something, the smell comes in. Because of that, it's been done that way. Doesn't it feel a bit like they're joking?"
"... ... I wonder if it's really like that."
Looking in the direction of Reiko, who was repeatedly opening and closing the cupboards, the windows of the kitchen also contained a mirror. -- In other words, it meant that it was impossible to have sunlight in the dining kitchen.
However, Reiko was not at all in a state of concern.
"What an interesting place. All of the other rooms are also like this."
"Eh?" Midori said, and looked back at Reiko's face, "All of them?"
"It was changed because three sides of the house are built to stick together, so light doesn't enter at all, and the wind also doesn't pa.s.s through."
"-- Wait a minute. All of them? So, there are no windows at all?"
"There was one in the living room, wasn't there?"
"Only that one?"
"There's also a window on the second floor facing the balcony."
Midori went to the corridor quickly.
On the right of the corridor next to the dining kitchen, there was a four and a half tatami-mat-sized j.a.panese room. A small closet was located in the place where she turned the corridor. On the left side, in the direction of the entranceway, there was a bathroom with a bath and a small storage room. When she turned left in the corridor there was a small toilet. There were no windows containing transparent gla.s.s.
On the second floor, she faced a j.a.panese room, four and a half tatami long, after climbing the stairs. There was a six tatami-sized Western-style room, and a seven tatami-sized j.a.panese-style room located inside. Apart from the dust outlet facing the balcony, there were only windows with mirrors in the three bedrooms.
The only mirrors that were actually not windows were the mirror in the bathroom and the full-length mirror. The mirror in the bathroom was attached to the washing unit; hence, it was different as expected. On the other hand, the full-length mirror was embedded into the wall, and it seemed like a window at first glance, but it rose from the floor and ended near the ceiling. Also, its edges were not made of aluminium sash like the other windows, but was constructed of plain wood.
Despite the building being squeezed from three sides, she couldn't open the neighbour's window directly outside their own. The wall just barely touched the neighbour's house, so most light could not enter. Midori was shocked that the windows had been filled with mirrors.
When she ran down the stairs, Reiko just smiled at her.
"-- And? Isn't it great?"
"Great? Don't joke about it, mother. There're really no windows that have light coming in."
Reiko looked blankly at her.
"Even if there were, they would be useless."
"Do you really feel like living in this house?"
"It's cheap because the lighting is so bad. An apartment is also something like this, so it's not something to worry about in particular, right?"
"That's true, but..."
"I wonder," she said, "if that's why it was essential to change all of the gla.s.s into mirrors?"
-- It was as if they weren't allowed to see outside the window.
This sudden thought crossed Midori's mind like that.
"The price is only just that, and it can't be helped if things are more or less like this. The storage is plenty and there are many rooms. Isn't it fine?"
"... ... But we're not renting it. We can't just move houses if we don't find it pleasing after trying to live here... ..."
"It's a house for sale, so I can't be pleased with just about everything."
Midori collected her breath after being rebuked. It was certain that the house was unusually cheap. For the mother and daughter, the location was good, the amount of s.p.a.ce was fine, and a house was something that they had hoped for.
"I haven't found a house with a price this cheap. It's a bit problematic when we go shopping, but the station is close. The city centre is also near, and because of that it's convenient."
"That's true, but..." Midori muttered in resignation.
"Don't say it has to be luxurious. You don't like commuting to work that takes one or two hours, right?"
"Yeah," Midori nodded somewhat looking at Reiko's face.
"... ... Hey, isn't it too cheap?" Midori asked, despite her contradictory admission of words to her mother. Certainly, she thought that it was cheap if they could buy this house with that kind of a price. She could understand that the lighting was bad, and the reason given for it was old age of the house. In spite of that, she had a hunch that the cost was far too low. It was rare for houses to be up on sale these days, as well. The interior design, facilities and price of this place were comparatively too good to be true. "Could there still be something else here?"
"Something? What is?"
"I'm saying that could be there something else in this building that has faulty points, or other causes that they had to sell it this cheap?"
"Idiot, I told you about the circ.u.mstances of the owner, didn't I? He wanted to sell it in a big hurry in order to live with his son. If, at least, it makes some money, then it's okay, I'd say."
"But... ..."
"Fortune has been good to us. If this was doubled from now on, it wouldn't be strange."
"Right," Midori muttered, sighing on the inside. It had been many days since she had seen Reiko's lively face after her father's death, and it was difficult to argue with her because of that.
"Mother is pleased with it... ..."
"It's a treasure," Reiko continued to say with a smile on her face. "I will definitely regret it."
"Eh," Midori stared at Reiko's face.
"Oh my ... ...oh no," Reiko turned faintly red. "Oh no, I'm getting old. -- I won't regret something like that, definitely."
Midori smiled.
"Well, it's fine. It's for your sake."
Reiko showed a smile.
"Well then, let's quickly get out, while there's still nothing bad happening."
"-- Mother?"
Reiko blinked a little, and restrained her mouth in dismay.
"Oh, that's no good. -- I wanted to say that we should quickly get out and finish the formalities before you change your mind."
"Mother, are you all right? You're already becoming rather senile."
Reiko showed a grimacing face.
"For your sake, don't say awful things. I'm not at such an age yet."
Midori laughed. When Reiko laughed along, the sound of a door opening somewhere happened. A small girl's voice could be heard.
-- I'm home.
Reiko looked at Midori.
"That must be the girl of the neighbours. I wonder if she's from next door?"
"The echoes are very audible."
-- Mother, I've returned.
"Speaking of which, you almost seem like a sister-in-law who can't stop complaining."
"Yes, yes."
-- Mother, where are you?
Reiko laughed as she descended to the entranceway, and Midori followed her. When the light went off, the long corridor once again returned to darkness.
-- Mother.
-- Hey, where are you... ...?