Chapter 11.3: Not Suicidal III


    Leaving<em>i</em>my bike at the convenience store might inconvenience Takenaka and Hirai again. I hid<em>i</em>my bike in the forest a short distance away from the store.


    After<em>i</em>that, relying on Yakumos memory, I continued walking along the path for a while and found a spot where the bushes were in disarray, where his bike must have crashed into them.


    The<em>i</em>muddy soil, weeds, and snapped branches that had been trampled by the<em>i</em>tires


    This<em>i</em>is undoubtedly the spot.


    Yeahr32vwg


    From<em>i</em>here, the world was truly pitch-ck with no streetlights. It marked the entrance to the sea of trees. Darkness abounded throughout the ce, conjuring up such a disturbing phrase as once in, the living will be ensnared by the darkness, blinded from the way out, and imprisoned for all eternity.


    To ay my fears, I turned on the shlight I had bought at the convenience store earlier.


    Such<em>i</em>a ce I couldnt bring myself to go into, even for a test of courage.


    The<em>i</em>dimension. The<em>i</em>air. They<em>i</em>were too different.


    The<em>i</em>concrete on which I was standing now was utterly foreign from the darkness on the other side. A boundary existed.


    The<em>i</em>branches swaying faintly, as if beckoning me, I wondered where in the world the wind was blowing from.


    I cleared<em>i</em>my throat.


    Are<em>i</em>you scared, Sonny?


    You<em>i</em>werent afraid to enter this ce?


    Well, thats part<em>i</em>of my job.


    I<em>i</em>dont get it


    In<em>i</em>ce of me, who was not taking the first step, Yakumo took the lead and proceeded to the inner side. As I followed him, I tried not to leave too much space between the two of us.


    Dont fret, Ill protect you.


    Even<em>i</em>though we were walking together, my footsteps were the only sound, and his words were not very trustworthy.


    Ill try to look after myself if at all possible, but dont you suddenly disappear on your own.


    Yes, yes. Trantor: MadHatter


    Without<em>i</em>any fear, he continued on his way, not even relying on the light of my shlight, and when I looked back, the ce where I had entered was gradually fading into the distance.


    A<em>i</em>sense of regret filled me as I followed Yakumos lead.


    Soon<em>i</em>we were shrouded in absolute darkness, as though the entrance were obstructed by trees. Despite not having a phobia of the dark, I naturally felt unstable when enveloped in such thick darkness. Within minutes, the warm wind and the nces I felting at me from every anglewhich may or may not have been my imaginationstarted to induce strange sensations in me.


    What<em>i</em>was I doing? Did Yakumo really wish for me to help him?


    Was<em>i</em>what Yakumo had said the truth?


    Where<em>i</em>was Yakumo trying to lead me?


    Was I possibly being deceived by this<em>i</em>guy?


    And<em>i</em>so on


    Despite<em>i</em>the absence of any means to grasp such things, my thoughts kept flowing unabatedly. The further I progressed, the more my suspicions about him began to sprout inside me, and the more I lost all sense of stability.


    What would be of me from now<em>i</em>on?


    Youre beginning to suspect me, right?


    Huh What?


    Yakumos spot-on assumption sent my heart skipping a<em>i</em>beat. He then put his arm around my head and grinned unconcernedly.


    This<em>i</em>ce is such a ce, full of a miasma that can destabilize people.


    Miasma?Not shared on aggregator sites


    Negative<em>i</em>aura that is detrimental to the human body. The density of this aura is particrly high in suicide spots and ident-prone areas, which are the root of the negative spiral. Thats why people die in droves, and because it can numb the human psyche, its extremely poisonous to the average person


    At<em>i</em>this point, Yakumo halted.


    I know youre getting more and more ridiculous about cooperating with me, a man you dont even know who I am, and who may be<em>i</em>deceiving you. After all, I dont feelfortable dragging ordinary people into this I can turn back now, and take you to the exit.


    Then<em>i</em>what about you?


    Im<em>i</em>going to search for my body alone.


    Then I will apany you.


    You sure?


    Yeah, I<em>i</em>just got a little nervous, thats all.


    I see, but dont strain yourself. I really appreciate your help, but if something should befall you, take care of yourself, okay?


    Nodding, I started<em>i</em>to move my legs again. At the look on his face, any doubts I had about him evaporated. Had I mentioned a word about wanting to go home, he would have sent me on my way to the exit of the forest.


    Yakumo<em>i</em>was speaking the truth. It was simply that I was so driven by anxiety that a strange thought struck me.


    Even<em>i</em>so


    The<em>i</em>air was poor. If I kept walking in silence, anxiety would gradually erode me.


    No matter how far I went in the never-changingndscape, only trees were in sight. And in betweenid thick darkness.


    Ah, this<em>i</em>was getting unbearable.


    You got<em>i</em>something interesting to talk about?


    <em>Anything is fine</em>, I said to him irrationally.


    Sonny, youre asking a mindless question out of the blue.


    I just want to be distracted. Tell me something that will make meugh.


    Laughing in the sea of trees isnt that too creepy?


    Shut up. I dont want to hear it from you.


    Well, you know, I guess it would be better to have a change of scenery to prevent being swallowed up. Its tooplicated with you suspecting me, so why dont we both disclose our personal information to each other first?


    Okay, fine by me.


    I concurred with Yakumos suggestion.


    To be honest, I felt ufortable disclosing my actions to a man I only knew by name, but at this point, I wouldnt care what it was as long as it would distract me from this fear. Stepping on the muddy soil from the previous days rain and listening to the sound of a single persons footsteps, I and the semi-ghostly man engaged in a bizarre identity reveal contest.


    Then, your name.


    HakamadaI wont say anything further than that.


    W-What I gave you my full name, so isnt it unfair to hide yours from me?


    I hate what I hate. If there are five things I hate in this world, my name is one of them.


    How unusual to hate something so much.


    Yeah, I hate it.


    Hmm, I see. Your age.


    25.


    Heh, thats what I figured. Im 20, though.


    Heh. Just as I expected.


    You dont look like a student to me.


    Yeah. I dropped out of junior high school.


    What!?


    I thought he wasnt like that, but he was a real delinquent.


    Dropping out of junior high school was too much. What made him do that?


    Various things arose, and I ran away from home until I was 17.


    Thats a spectacr runaway.


    When I returned, I was close to being killed, but I was lucky I wasnt disowned, ahaha.


    The fact that you couldugh it off was remarkable. This guy apparently had a rather stormy life.


    My educational background, which included graduation from a prefectural high school on my resume, seemed so normal.


    You graduated from high school and now youre a freeter?


    Do I look like a manager?


    No. Oh, are you one of those job-hunting losers?


    You big idiot, I am not. Well I was on track to attend university until the summer of my senior year of high school but one day I just didnt care anymore.


    Although I didnt have a specific aim in mind, I recognized that a solid academic foundation would be beneficial in the future, so I still intended to continue on to university. My grades werent that awful, and if I had kept going, I would have finished university and had a different life rather than being a poor freeter.


    Being a freeter is not something to be proud of in the eyes of the world huh


    I never considered saving up and striving to be something in the future.


    No, thats not true. Working is better than doing nothing at all.


    Youre probably the same as me, arent you?


    Me? Im paying the bill for the life I ruined. Right now, Im training at a local ramen shop.


    Surprisingly, he was working diligently.


    Wait


    You, please dont tell me your job is toe all the way down here to deliver food


    No, not at all.


    Then why did you bother toe all the way down here?


    Thats my night job. As I told you before, I specialize in exterminating evil spirits.


    The guy turned around and his eyes seemed to glow with lights.


    Exterminating evil spirits?


    Speaking of which, this guy said the same thing a while back about how he was going to exorcise evil spirits


    I didnt feel like I should poke into it too much, so I let it slide perfectly but


    The word evil spirit exterminator means exorcising spirits. I may look like this, but Im a professional evil spirit exterminator who is called a professional at eliminating haunted spots. During the day, I work at a ramen shop.


    What the hell is that?e12dqwc


    My night job is to clean up haunted ces, suicide spots, and spiritual paths to prevent them from bing haunted ces. I drive away evil spirits and help lost souls attain Buddhahood as well.


    ording to him, while working on the front side of the world during the day, at night he operated a motorcycle from ce to ce as a side job to drive away the spirits that wandered in the world.


    And Yakumos nighttime identity, which he could not reveal to the public, was what he called an evil spirit exterminator.


    In short, an evil spirit exterminator was a person who exorcised and purified demons.


    Simply put, their main job was to guide spirits who had be trapped in an insidious atmosphere to their proper destination.


    Though I had never heard of this name before, I heard that apparently throughout Japan besides Yakumo, many other people with simr titles were active in this field, utilizing their own abilities.


    Hirais mother, Ayame, was a well-known medium in Hokkaido, and Yakumo was in the same category.


    Well, its like a minor version of the psychics on TV or something, like the indies on CDs, right?


    Thats an understandable analogy, but I dont get it.


    Well, its an underworld profession that the general public is unaware of.


    Somehow


    It was a fishy story.


    What are you talking about? Spirits are everywhere, and there are those who have to clean them up!


    When there was a mess, there was bound to be someone to clean it up, right? It sounded like that.


    Do you voluntarily enter such a ce? Isnt it risky to do that


    Well, if I miscalcte my strength, I could get struck back, but this path is quite long, so I dont mind that.


    The reason for his bloody condition yesterday was somewhat understandable.


    That fresh wound under the chin, I wondered if that was the same case.


    Specters, can they attack physically?


    Specters are not really physical, but they can move things and do things with extreme force, and if you get hit by one, you will end up like I was yesterday.


    Why would you go to such bloody lengths to put yourself in jeopardy?


    Normally, even if I had such an ability, I would certainly not be willing to do such a thing.


    No<em>i</em>matter how many lives I may have, I had a feeling that it would not be enough. And yet, this guy carried wounds all over his body that<em>i</em>didnt seem to go away regardless of the passage of time.


    Even<em>i</em>now, he was dying, and yet he stepped into such<em>i</em>a ce by himself Why was that


    Yesterday, had he turned back when he came to the<em>i</em>convenience store, this would not have taken ce.


    Despite<em>i</em>this, was there a solid reason why he was willing to put himself in danger to<em>i</em>continue his<em>i</em>work to deal with those evil spirits?


    Of course there<em>i</em>is.


    When<em>i</em>I asked him that, Yakumo gave me a small snicker and said to me lightly and seriously as if it was a matter<em>i</em>of course.


    Im going to<em>i</em>eradicate the crowds that flock to haunted ces.


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