Chapter 79: So It Was Just an Auditory Hallucination After All
The bomb-watermelon was quietly placed in the refrigerator to chill, and I deliberately decided to pretend I hadn’t heard anything strange about it. If something truly was unusual about the thing, then the moment of truth would come when someone eventually sliced it open. There was no point worrying before then.
Once all the luggage had been carried inside, I guided everyone to their assigned rooms.
The villa had been built with a long, horizontal layout. Beyond the entrance was a spacious living room connected to the kitchen, while a single hallway stretched deeper into the house, with the bedrooms arranged to make the most of the sunlight.
The brighter, sun-filled side had been reserved for the bedrooms, while the darker side housed the storage rooms, bathroom, library, and other utility spaces.
There were a respectable number of rooms in the villa, but naturally, there weren’t enough guest rooms to accommodate four visitors. That meant everyone would have to make use of the family’s rooms instead.
The room assignments ended up looking like this.
Me: My room
Taketsuru: My younger brother Kei’s room
Meiko: My younger sister Aya’s room
Kuwajima: Guest Room 1
Niwashita-san: Guest Room 2
Both my father’s room and my mother’s room were technically vacant, but it wasn’t because they contained classified information or family secrets or anything dramatic like that.
It was simply that there were guest rooms available, so I figured it made more sense to use those first.
Besides, asking a young woman to stay in the bedroom of a middle-aged man felt like the sort of thing that might somehow be classified as harassment these days.
“Um… I mean, that’s fine and all, but why am I getting Aya-chan’s room? There was another guest room available, wasn’t there?”
“Aya personally gave her permission. She said, ‘If it’s Meiko, she can use my room.’ Of course… if you leave even the slightest bit of dirt behind, I imagine you’ll be subjected to a merciless little-sister inspection afterward.”
“…Does Aya-chan like me or hate me?”
Good question.
As my childhood friend, Meiko had known my family for years.
And among everyone in the family, Aya had always been the one who interacted with her the most.
The problem was that no one had ever quite figured out why Aya always gravitated toward Meiko. Even Meiko herself—whose uncanny insight into other people bordered on frightening—had never managed to decipher what Aya had really been thinking.
Still…
Maybe Aya had simply wanted a sister.
Back when we used to visit this villa as children, she had often sulked whenever the boys excluded her from our bug-catching adventures. Thinking back on it now, perhaps she had always longed for another girl close to her own age to spend time with.
And so, after all that, everyone carried their belongings into their designated rooms.
Since it was still just before noon, we agreed to take a break until lunchtime.
Apparently, today’s lunch would be a special welcome feast prepared by the caretaker and his wife.
The sea was close enough that they had connections allowing them to get exceptionally fresh seafood.
Of course, relying too heavily on the caretakers would undermine the whole premise of our “job” here—namely, managing the villa ourselves—so today’s meal was a one-time courtesy.
Starting tonight, we’d either have to cook for ourselves or head into town to eat.
“That said… there’s still a little time before lunch.”
It wasn’t quite to the point that I knew every inch of the place blindfolded, but this was still my room, even if it was technically just a vacation home.
Unpacking took almost no time at all.
I hardly owned enough personal belongings to make it a lengthy process in the first place.
The room itself was about eight tatami mats in size, furnished with a large bed, air conditioning, a monitor, a compact refrigerator, a desk, and shelving.
Compared to a hotel room, the only real differences were that there wasn’t a keycard lock and there was no attached shower room.
Unlike everyone else, I didn’t need to spend time figuring out where everything was.
Kuwajima, on the other hand…
She was probably bouncing up and down on her bed right about now.
Well, that wasn’t really my concern.
Instead, I decided it was finally time to address something that had been bothering me.
“Taketsuru. Got a minute?”
“Hm? Kirishiro? Yeah, sure.”
“I’m coming in.”
I stepped into the room next to mine.
Normally, this room belonged to my younger brother, Kei.
Unlike our house back home, there weren’t piles of personal belongings scattered everywhere. Since this room was only used during our summer visits, it remained relatively bare.
Besides the same standard furnishings as my own room, there were insect displays—the preserved trophies from all the bug-catching expeditions Kei had enjoyed here over the years.
A glance at the bookshelf revealed field guides and encyclopedias devoted to insects.
These little collections were probably fragments of my brother’s childhood memories, carefully preserved long after those summers had passed.
Taketsuru stood silently before the display cases.
He wasn’t really looking at the specimens.
His eyes were fixed on them, but his thoughts seemed to be somewhere far away, as though he were wrestling alone with something that refused to leave his mind.
“Taketsuru… you’ve got something on your mind, don’t you?”
“…You can tell?”
“I can tell just by looking at you. I’m your best friend, after all.”
“Heh… right. Guess you are.”
Taketsuru had been acting strange ever since we were in the car on the way here.
Normally, he’d be the very first person to jump on anything I said with a sarcastic retort.
Instead, he’d been unusually quiet long before we even arrived at the villa.
He still answered when spoken to, and he’d helped with all the work without complaint.
But every so often, his expression would drift away again, as if some persistent thought kept dragging his attention elsewhere.
Naturally, it made me wonder if something was troubling him.
That said…
After everything that had happened in Fushijishi Village, I’d assumed he’d managed to blow off most of the stress he’d been carrying.
As far as I knew, there wasn’t anything pressing enough to weigh this heavily on him.
So if Taketsuru was this troubled…
Only one possibility came to mind.
“Taketsuru. I don’t know exactly what’s bothering you. But as your best friend, there’s one piece of advice I can give.”
“Kirishiro… wait. Don’t tell me, you too—”
“If you’re trying to become even closer with Niwashita-san, just tell me what time you’d like, and I’ll gladly leave the house so the two of you can have it entirely to yourselves. If you’d rather know some secluded places nearby where you could spend time alone together, I can recommend a few. Though if you plan on doing anything in the bathroom or the backyard, I’d appreciate it if you’d refrain—”
“That’s not what I’m worried about!!”
“…It’s not?”
I had genuinely thought I was being considerate toward my best friend.
Instead, he rejected my thoughtful suggestion with remarkable force.
I’d been certain he was agonizing over how to deepen his relationship with Niwashita-san during this perfectly ordinary summer vacation.
Well…
Perhaps they’d already reached that stage.
Even as his best friend, there were limits to how much of his private life I knew—
──────
Taketsuru Yuu
Virginity: 18 years and 9 months
──────
…Well, I supposed it was admirable that he intended to wait until he was old enough to take full responsibility.
As for me…
This summer, my policy was simple.
See nothing.
Hear nothing.
Get involved in nothing.
“So if it isn’t about your… special friendship with Niwashita-san, then what are you worried about? You can tell your best friend.”
“The way you keep emphasizing ‘best friend’ after that conversation is… really something. But… yeah. I guess saying ‘it’s nothing’ at this point would feel kind of dishonest.”
“If you absolutely insist on keeping it secret, that’s fine too.”
“…Really?”
“I’ll simply investigate it myself.”
“…Yeah, I figured you weren’t gonna leave it alone.”
Naturally not.
That’s simply what an utterly ordinary university student does.
If your best friend insists nothing is wrong while clearly carrying a burden, then you throw yourself into the matter no matter the cost until you’ve solved it.
Those were the only two options available to Taketsuru.
Either he confessed voluntarily…
Or I uncovered the truth myself.
Taketsuru let out a long, troubled groan, rubbing at his forehead as though trying to organize thoughts that refused to cooperate.
Eventually, he inhaled deeply.
His expression hardened with resolve.
Then he finally spoke.
“…Actually… the closer we got to this villa, the more I started hearing a voice inside my head… It was like someone was calling out directly to me… begging me… ‘Help me…'”
“That’s auditory hallucination.”
“…So it is hallucination.”
I reached my conclusion immediately.
Considering I’d been suffering from auditory hallucinations myself ever since yesterday, perhaps the fact that my best friend was experiencing them too paradoxically meant auditory hallucinations were perfectly normal.
“Don’t you think it’s about time you stopped running from reality? It takes courage to admit the truth.”
The hallucination muttered something again.
Probably the equivalent of Mara appearing before the Buddha during his meditation.
I had no intention of letting hallucinations shake my resolve.
So, Taketsuru…
Let’s ignore them together.
That was the conclusion I very much wanted to reach.
Unfortunately, the expression on Taketsuru’s face grew even more strained.
“The thing is… right after I accepted it was probably just a hallucination, it started saying more specific stuff. Like… ‘O mighty one blessed with power… please hear my plea. Please… rid this land of the monsters that dwell here…'”
“Hallucinations do that sometimes. Trust me, I’m something of an expert. If you can find any embarrassing secret or leverage against yours, I’d recommend negotiating back by telling it to shut up.”
“Unfortunately… I don’t have anything like that… Sigh…“
“…That’s unfortunate.”
Well then.
First there was the bomb-watermelon discovered in the melon patch.
Now there were mysterious voices echoing inside Taketsuru’s head.
Really…
Meiko had been right all along.
Even if I made no effort whatsoever to trigger any events myself, summer kept throwing them at me one after another.
Could it be…
That this was proof I was finally becoming what I’d always claimed to be—
A perfectly ordinary university student, the kind you could find absolutely anywhere?