Murder At The Rainy Mansion ~The Never Ending 100 Tales~

Chapter 27: Human will melt in this swamp

Ayano and the others went to shichinin bishaku together with Tanimoto.

“The signal here is also bad,” Shun said while looking at his phone screen.

Tanimoto: “So, is this the famous pond that can melt human?”

“It is just a dirty pond,” Takato replied curtly.

Ayano: “The person who fell into the pond had said so himself. I guess that must be true.”

“…Wasn’t it a murder attempt? Everyone here thought that human will melt in this swamp,” Takato grumbled in a low voice.

It didn’t take them long to find the toilet bowl. It was hidden behind a few black plastics.

Takato and Tanimoto tied a rope at the end of their long handled shovel and pulled it up. The toilet bowl slowly came up to the water surface. The scene looked like when the god was asking the woodcutter if the golden ax or the silver ax was his[1].

Ayano was dumbfounded when she saw Satoshi.

Takato: “I don’t think he is aware that he was in the water.”

Perhaps because the place was in the middle of the woods or maybe because the area had strong spiritual power, they could see Satoshi directly without peeking through the little window. Satoshi was sitting on a wet toilet bowl and was still reading a book.

After they pulled him up to the ground, Satoshi noticed Ayano and greeted her with a smile. “Hi, Ayano-san.”

Takato and Tanimoto took turn carrying the soaked toilet bowl and brought it back to the Rainy Mansion.

The housekeepers hurriedly brought over some towels. Normally Ayano was insensitive towards others but this time she felt sorry for troubling Tanimoto so she took the towel to help him wipe himself. However, Tanimoto turned red and moved away avoiding her.

At that time, a voice came from behind. “Huh? Why is there a toilet bowl here?” They turned around and saw Reiko standing behind them. She was looking at the toilet bowl placed on a plastic mat at the wide hallway near the entrance.

“Reiko-san, why did you come back? You almost got me into trouble,” Ayano complained.

Reiko: “How can you say that? It has been a while since I came home.”

Ayano then explained to her about how she had brought about an argument that Reiko was a living spirit and almost got in trouble because Reiko appeared in the flesh.

Reiko laughed and said, “Sorry, it is my fault. I came back because of work. I have been worried since yesterday whether I can reach Japan without missing my flight. Maybe that is why my soul flew back before my body did.”

Meanwhile, Satoshi was sitting on the toilet bowl placed in the middle of the hallway with a smile on his face. Maybe because he was soaked in the cursed shichinin bishaku, they still could see him directly.

Satoshi: “Hmm. I think the boundary between this world and the afterlife was ambiguous at that place. There were various things at the bottom of the swamp such as spirits floating unconsciously, skeletal remains and decomposing human remains.”

After Ayano repeated his words to Tanimoto, he shouted, “Don’t say stuffs like that!”

Ayano: “By the way, Satoshi-san, did you hear Uncle Yamamura quarreling with Uncle Jiro before he died?”

Satoshi: “I’m not sure. There were always people having a fight or having a secret rendezvous over there. I never pay any attention to them and just read my book. Except for our daily conversations, my memories are quite blurry.”

“… In the end, he actually didn’t even have to steal the toilet bowl,” Takato muttered in a low voice.

[1] A reference to the folk tale, The Honest Woodcutter.