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

Chapter 37: Daydreaming

Meanwhile, Tanimoto walked around the mansion to gather information about the residents’ alibi during Hisami’s estimated time of death which was between 2am and 4am two days earlier. He felt a bit helpless looking at the crowd of people inside the mansion which was more than usual because of the wake and funeral.

I also need to investigate about Shun-sensei’s case. Argh, we really lack manpower, Tanimoto complained inwardly.

He met Shun’s living spirit and asked about his alibi for Hisami’s murder case.

Shun: “Of course I don’t have an alibi for that time frame. More importantly Tanimoto-san, didn’t you sleep here in this mansion that night?”

Yeah… I was here that night. On the day they solved Yamamura Tatsuo’s murder case, Shimizu had told Tanimoto to stay for the night. He remembered that he was unable to sleep and was really scared when he went to the toilet that night.

Shun: “It was early morning, I’m sure everyone would answer that they were sleeping if you ask for their alibi.”

Not really. There is one person who has a concrete alibi. But… I don’t think I can tell Shun-sensei about that thing, Tanimoto thought to himself.

“Did something happen?” Shun asked.

Tanimoto was taken aback by his keen eyesight. “No- nothing,” he said and tried to pretend to be calm.

* * *

Ayano had been busy all day long because of Shun’s incident. She even went to the hospital for him even though she knew his spirit was at the mansion. Feeling tired, she dozed off in her room.

Suddenly, she felt someone leaning on top of her head and was taking a peek at her from above.

… Who is it?

Ayano braced herself and opened her heavy eyelids. She saw a woman staring at her from above. Although the woman’s eyes were sunken in, she had an eye-catching beautiful face. Ayano felt the face looked familiar.

“Hisami-san.” The moment she inadvertently called out the name, her hair was grabbed by Hisami all of a sudden. Then she was dragged out of the room towards the stairs. When the staircase ghost tried to stop them, Hisami shouted “Get out of my way!”

A string of thumping sound could be heard as Ayano’s head and body hit the steps. However, she could feel Hisami’s sadness despite the evil look on her face, so she decided to play along and let Hisami continue to drag her.

Anyway, this is only a dream.

Ayano was sure about it because it was still daytime in the real world but the hallway where she was dragged along was surrounded by darkness. Once she realized it was a dream, her head and back didn’t hurt.

She crossed her arms over her chest because it was getting in the way when she was dragged by the hair. If other ghosts could see her, they would surely comment how she looked so arrogant despite her situation.

“It didn’t do me any good. So useless,” Hisami grumbled to herself while pulling Ayano. “It was useless. I shouldn’t make a wish upon the shichinin bishaku.”

Ayano was not sure whether she should interrupt her but she couldn’t help but asked, “Shichinin bishaku?”

Surprisingly, Hisami answered her question. “You didn’t know? That pond that looked like a swamp can make your wish comes true. Well, there is no telling what part of the wish would come true though.”

Ayano felt weird having a conversation while being dragged by the hair but she couldn’t resist the urge to ask more out of curiosity. “Hisami-san. What did you wish to the shichinin bishaku?”

Hisami: “I wished to be together with the person I love. I was young and thoughtless back then.”

Ayano: “Was it Uncle Toru?”

Hisami: “I don’t know why I made a wish for a man like him.”

Ayano: “But you like him, don’t you?”

Hisami: “I said it before… I was young and thoughtless.”

Hisami stopped talking and dragged Ayano quietly.