"This villa has a basement too?" Kisaragi Chiyo raised an eyebrow, still standing at a distance, looking quite reluctant to go near it.
Please just give him a break; he had just seen a thick layer of dust and cobwebs on the ladder, something that made him feel itchy just thinking about it.
"Calling it a basement is an exaggeration." The cat had excellent vision and could see clearly even in the dark environment.
So Matsuda Jinpei took a quick glance, surveying the situation under the stairs.
The square space appeared to be roughly the same size as the elevator, with fragments of talismans pasted inside. There was a small wooden table inside, which seemed to have held something, but it was now covered in a layer of dust.
Kisaragi, come over and take a look," Matsuda Jinpei said, waving to Kisaragi Chiyo. "Can you tell what these talismans are used for?
Kisaragi Chiyo hesitated for a moment, but curiosity eventually won out. He shuffled over, with Hara Kenji following behind him.
The three of them peered through the entrance. Kisaragi Chiyo raised his phone, using the light to look inside.
"I can't really tell." Kisaragi stared at those blurred talismans for a long while before shaking her head.
"Could it be that the first owner offered something here?" Hara Kenji whispered in Kisaragi Chiyo's ear, letting his imagination run wild.
Like an evil god or something?
It's hard to say for sure." Kisaragi Chiyo also lowered her voice to answer. "I can only say that it likely serves some kind of suppression function. Looking at the layout on the blueprint, this is probably the location of the formation eye.
Formation eye?" Hara Kenji's voice rose slightly. "Then, are we overlooking the third floor because of this so-called formation eye?
No." Kisaragi Chiyo answered very firmly this time. "It's not because of that.. rather, it's because this was destroyed, which is why the thing originally suppressed inside was able to come out.
"Escape?" Hara Kenji pointed upward.
It's probably hiding up there." Kisaragi Chiyo blinked. "But since it has been hiding on the third floor all this time, it likely has no way to leave this villa.
If it uses a house as a vessel to hunt, then it wouldn't just be limited to this one haunted mansion if it were able to move freely.
Hara Kenji imagined the scene and quickly shook his head.
Fortunately, it cannot leave this house.
"So, what are we doing now?" Matsuda Jinpei had been listening to the two of them chat for a long time, rubbing his hands in anticipation, ready to charge up to the third floor all at once to help Kisaragi Chiyo complete her job probation as soon as possible, so they could head to Hell together.
"We are going out for a bit." Kisaragi Chiyo's eyes curved into a crescent, a smile playing on her lips, as she abruptly shifted the topic to an entirely unrelated question.
Do you want to go to a cafe?
*
At the Poirot Cafe, Date Wataru looked at the three people sitting opposite him with a complex expression.
The young man in the middle had a calm gaze, he gave him a friendly smile, as if he had already grown accustomed to this crowded feeling.
"Long time no see." Date Wataru set down his coffee cup, watching Matsuda, who was currently provoking the cafe waiter, Hara Kenji, who was smiling and fanning the flames from the side.. as well as Kisaragi Chiyo, who seemed unfazed and had begun to enjoy his strawberry cake.
“Long time no see, Officer Date.” Kisaragi Chiyo swallowed the strawberry in her mouth, smiled at the policeman sitting across from her—who had been summoned out of his vacation by a single message from her—and pulled a pre-prepared dossier from her bosom, placing it on the table and pushing it toward him.
Date Wataru lowered his eyes and looked at the file folder pushed in front of him. After a moment of silence, he opened it, as expected, it contained the information he wanted.
Regarding the Church of Hope.
The information added inside was exactly the missing data within the police internal system. For Kisaragi Chiyo, who possessed extensive connections, even after being warned by Nozono Shizuka not to get involved in this matter, she continued to search for news regarding the Church of Hope, both intentionally and unintentionally.
To this end, she had even had the thick skin to harass Nozono Shizuka again to pry out some information.
Well, although Nozono Shizuka said not to worry about it, he was still somewhat vengeful.
"Kisaragi-kun, thanks for your help." After glancing casually at the files, Date Wataru stuffed them back into the folder and sealed it.
This is what you wanted.
Date Wataru sighed, handing the prepared items to Kisaragi Chiyo; it was also a file folder, containing the records of the first and second owners of that villa.
Although these should have all been classified documents, what can one do when a kind-hearted Public Security officer with high-level clearance is willing to open the back door?
"So.." Date Wataru glanced again at Kisaragi Chiyo, who was calmly drinking her coffee after receiving the materials.
He couldn't help but offer a warning, unable to suppress his concern: "Your dog is about to get into a fight with the waiter."
-----------------------
Author's Note: Thank you for the support, my little angels. Mwah 030
Chapter 132
Matsuda Jinpei was skilled in kickboxing, unfortunately, so was Furuya Rei. Add to that Hara Kenji, who loved to watch the spectacle and would occasionally throw fuel on the fire.
They were just one step away from a total explosion.
The tension between Matsuda Jinpei and Furuya Rei grew thicker by the second, their gazes clashing with enough intensity to spark actual electricity. If one hadn't been holding a tray of desserts and drinks, the other hadn't had his collar gripped tightly by Kisaragi Chiyo, the two of them might have started an impromptu boxing match right then and there.
It was truly fortunate that Furuya Rei had hung up the "closed" sign at Poirot Cafe after Kisaragi Chiyo and the others arrived. Otherwise, this scene would have inevitably attracted a crowd of curious onlookers.
"Please, enjoy." Furuya Rei placed a slice of banana chocolate cake in front of Matsuda Jinpei, the blond man's tone carrying a hint of deliberate, teasing emphasis.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Matsuda Jinpei stared at the chocolate cake in front of him, his brow twitching.
Oh?" Furuya Rei tilted his head, a look of innocence appearing in his drooping, purplish-gray eyes. "Does the guest not like our new limited edition?
“What a picky customer.” The blond waiter blinked, shaking his head with a helpless sigh. He looked down at Matsuda Jinpei, his gaze as if he were looking at some unreasonable brat.
Beside them, Hara Kenji was almost doubled over with laughter, one hand clutching his stomach, his beautiful dark purple eyes curving into two narrow crescents.
"Little Jinpei's expression has become quite terrifying." Hara Kenji leaned close to Kisaragi Chiyo and whispered in her ear.
Then, in the next second, the calm-looking young man sitting in the middle fed him a bite of strawberry cake with a fork.
“You should talk less,” Kisaragi Chiyo said, picking up another large strawberry and stuffing it into Hara Kenji's mouth.
The Evil Spirit, whose mouth was stuffed with dessert, finally fell silent. He leaned against the young man's side, eating the strawberry cake being hand-fed to him, his entire being radiating pink bubbles of satisfaction and happiness.
Date Wataru: ".."
But..
Date Wataru's hands trembled slightly as he picked up the coffee. He lowered his head and took a large, hurried gulp; the bitterness of the coffee confirmed that what he had just seen was not a hallucination.
Setting everything else aside, he had previously been wondering why his contemporary friend had become someone's dog, only to discover today that this was the manner in which he had become a dog.
Then tell me, look me in the eyes and tell me that the reason you became a Bernese Mountain Dog is definitely due to some reason you can't speak of, rather than because this is some kind of foreplay between you and your little sweetheart Kisaragi Chiyo?
It definitely isn't, right..
Thinking of this, the smile on Date Wataru's face faltered.
Since parting ways at the station that day, he had read many manga and novels about being reincarnated as a small animal through his girlfriend's recommendations. If even Oda Nobunaga could be reincarnated as a Shiba Inu, it was only natural that his peer would become a cat or a dog, wasn't it?
A year ago, he had convinced himself to quickly accept his shattered worldview and his peer becoming a Hell Assistant Official. A year later, he had also successfully and gracefully come to terms with the fact that his peer had been reincarnated as a cat or a dog.
But now, after seeing Kisaragi Chiyo very fairly feed a piece of cake to Hara Kenji, then naturally feed a bite to Matsuda Jinpei, who was currently trading provocations with Furuya Rei.. Date Wataru lowered his head again and tactically took a large gulp of coffee.
Wait.. so it wasn't just a lingering romance between Hara Kenji and Kisaragi Chiyo, but a burning, complicated entanglement between three people!
Too intense, too explosive! By the way, is bigamy a crime in Hell?
Date Wataru, his worldview completely shattered, thought in a daze, wondering if Matsuda Jinpei's behavior, as a new-era Hell Assistant Official, could even be considered breaking the law.
However, if we are to discuss who exactly is breaking the law, we should first clear up the matter of the order in which they arrived.
Thinking of this, Date Wataru couldn't help but look up at the three people sitting across from him. Matsuda Jinpei, Kisaragi Chiyo, Furuya Rei, who was standing, were chatting about something, while Hara Kenji, sitting in the inner seat, was taking small bites of a freshly baked lemon tart that had been given to him.
As if having sensed Date Wataru's gaze, Hara Kenji looked up. Half of his pale, handsome face was hidden in the shadows, with a bit of cream clinging to his thin, pale lips, his lips parted slightly as his crimson tongue swept across them.
His dark purple eyes were like murky whirlpools, carrying a cold, damp, heavy sensation.
Date Wataru simply could not associate this Hara Kenji with that cute Bernese Mountain Dog from the station back then.
"What's wrong?" The young man with wavy hair, who had been chatting, seemed to sense something. He turned his head in confusion, first looking at Date Wataru, then glancing at the well-behaved Hara Kenji.
"It's nothing." Hara Kenji smiled, giving Date Wataru an extremely friendly smile. It was just like how he had been back in the police academy, as if the Hara Kenji Date Wataru had just seen was merely a hallucination.
Death ultimately left indelible marks upon them.
*
After saying goodbye to the two men, Kisaragi Chiyo took the file folder and headed home on the bus with the cats and dogs.
The bus does not go directly to the villa entrance, so after getting off, they still had to walk a bit further.
By the time they returned to the villa, it was already afternoon. The area where the fireplace had been smashed remained uncleared; the first thing Hara Kenji did upon returning was release his tentacles to begin cleaning up.
Kisaragi Chiyo had once been curious about how many tentacles Hara Kenji could manifest at most; on the very day he asked that question, he received a Sea Anemone.
"Generally speaking, there is no upper limit," the Sea Anemone spoke. Kisaragi Chiyo could not see the other's face at all; everywhere she looked, there were nothing but writhing, churning, pure white translucent tentacles.
But it's very exhausting," Sea Anemone said with a troubled tone. "The tentacles are my avatars; controlling so many at once consumes a lot of brain cells.
Just as Kisaragi Chiyo was about to complain about where an Evil Spirit like you would even get brain cells, she suddenly discovered that the tentacles surging all around her were simultaneously and in perfect coordination closing in on her, surrounding her.
“Although more tentacles aren't necessarily better..” Hara Kenji lowered his eyes, his clothes neat, as he stood to the side watching intently. In the middle of the cluster of tentacles was Kisaragi Chiyo, who was so surrounded that she could no longer speak a single complete sentence, only managing to let out blurred, broken syllables.
But sometimes it's still quite convenient, isn't it?
..
Kisaragi Chiyo snatched up the file bag and slapped away a tentacle wrapped around his calf. Ignoring Hara Kenji's aggrieved, puppy-dog eyes, he opened the file bag without any expression.
There were two sets of documents in total, separated and then bound together in chronological order.
Kisaragi Chiyo flipped through them casually; although they were all photocopies, the crime scene photos in them were at least in color.
Kisaragi Chiyo's primary interest was not the police investigation results regarding these two cases; what he wanted to find was the commonality between the two villa owners.
He first pulled up the files on the first villa owner, which showed that he was a tycoon who had made his fortune in pharmaceuticals. The tycoon's original university major was the completely unrelated field of theology, but after falling in love with the daughter of a pharmaceutical company, he eventually joined the company through his father-in-law's patronage.
His life thereafter was even more extraordinary; he married the heiress and took over the pharmaceutical company, which was even on the verge of bankruptcy due to the impact of the economic bubble, only to miraculously make a miraculous recovery.
But it was a pity that this wealthy man and the daughter of the pharmaceutical company were in love for forty years. The two of them originally had a child, but the child fell seriously ill and died shortly after the company was on the brink of bankruptcy.
After that, the two were never able to have a second child, so the pharmaceutical company ultimately fell into the hands of an heir chosen by the wealthy man from among his distant relatives.
The story seems to have nothing wrong with it from this point on, but what is intriguing are the three points specifically marked in the records.
First, this distant relative is actually the billionaire's illegitimate child.
Second, the medical records for the child who died of a serious illness were falsified; the true cause of death was something else entirely.
Third, before marrying the heiress, the wealthy man had a child with his ex-girlfriend, but that child died at birth.