Yanagi Hakushū glowered at the sleeping red-haired girl occupying the seat opposite of her in the moving train.
Only one image clouded the Gothic-Lolita's mind; an image she hadn't been able to get out of her head ever since Cho, Agasa and her had witnessed the scene- that of Tsunan Hitachiin holding a crying Shun Shutsuki in his arms in the corridor to Master Kagami's office at the organization!
Of course, the red-haired girl and the doctor didn't know that there had been any witnesses.
Cho, Agasa and she had been so staggered that they hadn't known how to react and had simply gone back the way they had come.
After that, Tsunan had left on a voyage ALONE with the red-haired girl, which had caused Yanagi to be a hundred times more unnerved. Not to forget that Cho and Agasa appeared to be less hostile towards the she-devil.
The doctor and Shun Shutsuki had returned from their voyage only during the night before yesterday.
Whenever the Gothic-Lolita saw the red-haired girl, her blood would make a rapid turn in her body. She really had no idea how she was going to be able to support the latter during the whole length of their mission together.
They were headed for the City of Kurihara where activities of Noppera-bō have been reported.
Noppera-bō were faceless yōkai whose main activity was to scare humans. They usually worked together in groups.
Yanagi gritted her teeth together and clenched her fists with boiling anger as the red-haired girl stirred awake at that moment.
This girl is such a nuisance!
***
Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I took a glance out of the windowpane.
We hadn't reached Kurihara yet.
Tsunan and I had returned back to Toda during the night before yesterday.
The doctor had recuperated rapidly after Nana Yasuri's ghost had allowed us to leave the palace; he had been back to feet within a few hours.
Yokatta!
And as promised, the day which had followed our first visit to the palace, we had contacted a Shintō priest who had conducted prayers for the writer's soul and the latter had successfully passed on.
Gakkuri had seemed extremely pleased by her gifts when I had gone to bring them to her yesterday and this morning, Master Kagami had assigned me a mission involving Noppera-bō.
I took a glance at Yanagi Hakushū, who was my partner on this mission, and flinched when I saw that she was glaring at me.
'Listen to me carefully, you bloody psychopath!' she gritted out, peevishly. 'I'm going to keep watch of your every single move and if you do anything alarming, I swear to you that I'll kill you on the spot! Did you get that?!'
Folding her arms over her chest then, she stared out of the window at the defiling scenery, sulking.
I paled.
***
It was in the late afternoon that we reached the City of Kurihara and we found lodging in a ryokan.
Once we had set our luggages down in our respective rooms, we decided to get to work without delay, starting by interrogating the victims of the Noppera-bō.
But, none of the victims accepted to talk to us to relate us their encounters with the yōkai.
Since it was starting to get really late at night, we decided to continue our investigation on the following day.
***
Next day...
With the victims refusing to meet us, we had no other option that to interrogate the people around them- their family and friends.
'You know, I'm going to be very frank with you,' declared the young dark-haired woman- an office lady, colleague of one the victims' girlfriend. 'I think that Genkei Suzumiya has got what he deserved. He's an abusive person. One day, Shiori has come to work with a terrible bruise at her face. She told us that she hurt herself by accident, but all my colleagues and I were sure that it's her violent boyfriend who hit her. I'm glad that he broke up with her after the encounter.'
Taking a glance at Yanagi, I wondered what she thought of all of this.
All the accounts that we had collected so far were similar; the victims were allegedly big brutes who had been given the fright of their lives by the Noppera-bō.
But how did they find their targets?
Getting back to the ryokan, the Gothic-Lolita and I pondered over it together, examining all the information we had found.
My head snapped up at Yanagi when I heard her gasp.
She was sitting on the other side of the low table, viewing a map of the city.
'Did you find something?' I asked her, expectantly.
'No,' she replied, curtly, setting the map down and then, getting to her feet, she began to make for the door, growling, 'I need to take some fresh air! Don't you dare follow me outside!'
I stared after her, wondering why she was going this way to take some fresh air, while there was the veranda.
It was dark outside by this time and the clock showed seven o'clock.
Moving up to where she was sitting, I studied the map.
For a whole hour, I didn't find any clue, until the realization came in a blinding flash.
All the victims of the Noppera-bō worked in different enterprises, but they all followed the same itinerary to return back home from work!
If the Noppera-bō were somewhere, it was definitely in the said-area.
Suddenly, my body felt extremely heavy and I yawned, feeling extremely tired.
I was falling asleep.
***
Alarm bells went off in my head the moment I opened my eyes.
I remained very still where I was lying on the wooden floor, my heart palpitating.
I didn't know where I was!
The room resembled that of a ryokan.
Sitting up in a jolt, I was further alarmed as I realized that I couldn't remember how I got here.
Worst, I couldn't remember who I am!
I couldn't remember my own name!
Panicked, I sprung to my feet and ran out of the room into the corridor and then into the entrance hall, discovering that I was indeed in a ryokan.
But where exactly?
Who am I? What's my name?
Why can't I remember anything?!
Dashing out of the building, I read the name of the ryokan on the board but it didn't strike any chord in me.
My brain was going at a thousand miles per second as I wound my way through the streets, desperately trying to remember something about this place, something about myself, something about my past.
I was making my way down a desert road when, unexpectedly, I came across of a child who was sitting in a ball on the side of the road, with her back turned towards me, holding her face in her hands and weeping.
She couldn't be older than eight.
Forgetting my panic for a brief moment, I wondered what a kid of her age was doing outside, all alone, this late.
'What are you doing here, little girl?' I asked, softly, approaching her. 'Are you lost?'
She didn't reply and simply continued to sob.
As I put my hand down onto her shoulder, she turned her head around to look at me and I blenched away, screaming in terror as I realized that she has no face; her head was a blank orb with no mouth, no nose, no eyes or features of any kind!
Something happened to me in that instant; I collapsed on the ground, finding myself unable to speak, move or even keep my eyes open, while I remained fully conscious.
I broke into hysterical panic.
Why-Why can't I move? What's happening to me?!
Every passing second drew me closer to an indescribable distress but finally, against all expectations, I recovered my voluntary muscles tone.
Sitting bolt upright, I looked around of myself, searching frantically for the little girl with no face.
But the road was desert.
What kind of creature was that? Did I hallucinate?
My head felt like it was going to explode.
Picking myself up, I continued my way down the road, uncertainly.
As I came across of a yatai, I paused down, thinking about asking the vendor about the name of the town or city in which we were; with the hope that it didn't appear too strange.
'Excuse me,' I called at the vendor, hesitantly; he was standing with his back turned into my direction, busy cooking.
There were no clients at the yatai.
He turned around to face me and I was horror-struck when I saw that he has no face just like the little girl earlier!
Letting out a startled yelp, I stumbled backward and fell on my behind before, I scrambled back to my feet and picked a sprint, utterly terrified.
In my frenzy, I bumped into a young woman head-on a small distance away from the yatai.
'Is there something wrong, miss?' she demanded, anxiously. 'You look extremely frightened!'
'The- The vendor of the yatai over there!' I stammered. 'He- He has no face!'
'How? Like this?' she asked with a malicious grin, and my heart jumped to my throat as she wiped her face away with her hand.
Screaming my lungs out, I took to my heels again and ran into a police officer.
'What is it, miss?' he demanded, as he seized me by my shoulders, talking a look behind me, alarmed.
'He- She- That woman- she wiped away her face!'
'Oh, you mean, like this?!' he said, wiping his face away with his hand too just like the woman before, causing my heart to skip a beat.
'No!' I cried, slapping his hands off me and rushing away.
As I spurted onto the main road, suddenly, came the sound of a blaring horn.
My head snapped on my right on the spot, my legs freezing.
The only thing that I saw was the blinding flashlight of the upcoming vehicle and then, nothing.
***
My eyes opened to a glaring white light.
The extreme brightness blinded me temporarily.
My mind was in such a state of confusion and haziness that it took me a whole minute to realize where I was.
I was laid in a hard, uneven bed with rails and there were several medical equipments around me in the room.
I was in a hospital.
But how did I get here?
It took me another long minute before I could recall my encounter with the Noppera-bō.
Being able to put on a name of those faceless creatures made me realize then, and only then, that I have recovered my memory.
Just at that moment, somebody walked in the room; a doctor, as per the white robe he was wearing.
'I was waiting for you to wake up to apologize to you for what happened,' he declared, and a shrill ran down my spine as he wiped his face away with his hand without any warning.
Dead panicked, I activated my Godai Shakujō on the spot, ready to attack him, but as I tried to sit up, my head spun and my Godai Shakujō disactivated on its own.
I cringed away from the yōkai as far as I bed would allow.
'No, please, listen to me!' he told me- having recovered his facial features- putting his hands up in front of himself pacifically. 'Please?'
I watched him cautiously.
'Normally, we choose our victims by ourselves but your partner has promised us that she won't take any actions against us if we take you for target. Your accident wasn't in the plan; it should never have happened. The other Noppera-bō and I are going to leave town with the hope that you'll forgive us and you won't purchase us.'
I stared at him, blankly, his words not sinking in, as though, my brain refused to take in the information.
Yanagi appeared in the doorway in that instant.
Taking a glance at her, the Noppera-bō simply left without adding another word.
The Gothic-Lolita stared after him for a minute, before she turned her face to me, her expression set in a scowl.
'Well, now that you know everything, you're gonna hurry up and tell the master and Tsunan about what I did, such that I get expelled from the organization, won't you?' she muttered, with venom. 'Well, go on! Go, cry on their shoulders, complaining about me! I don't care!'
Flinging around, she ran out of sight.
I was completely frozen.
So, the Noppera-bō was telling the truth? She's behind what happened?!
Yanagi Hakushū mastered the art of spells, seals and invocations.
People didn't lose their memory just like that. She must have casted a spell on me which had caused me to lose my memory and it didn't matter if it worked only temporarily, so long as the Noppera-bō could give me a fright.
I guessed that I wasn't supposed to find out about it, but the thing was that I had been so terrified that I had ran amok and met with an accident.
I examined the state of my body.
None of my limbs were in a plaster; I didn't have the impression of having any broken bones. But every parcel of my skin was covered with bruises and my head was in a bandage; an IV in my hand.
My head was throbbing and I was bit nauseous, my eyes sensitive to light.
But above all, I felt extremely agitated and disheveled by Yanagi's prank or whatever it could be called.
A nurse came to check if I was awake after a few minutes, before she went to fetch the doctor responsible of me.
'Can I leave the hospital?' I asked the latter.
All that I desired was to get back home, even if we were in the middle of the night.
This made me realize how much I considered Toda and Tsunan's house as my home.
'It's a miracle that you came out of the accident with no broken bones. Fortunately, the van wasn't going very fast. But your head has hit the asphalt really hard in the accident. You have a concussion. I have to keep you under observation for at least a day or two.'
I opened my mouth to protest but then, thought better.
After the doctor and the nurse left, I sank into an unwilling slumber.
When I woke up, it was at daybreak.
The feeling of agitation didn't leave me and I was anxious to get back home.
Tossing off the hospital gown, I put on my kimono and grabbed my cellphone which was resting on the small table by the bed.
The cellular didn't survive through the accident and I felt terrible for it was a gift of Tsunan. The screen was broken and the phone wouldn't switch on, but thankfully, the Omamori Tsunan had given me, was still attached to it.
Taking a peek athwart of the corridor outside of my room and seeing that it was clear, I began to skulk my way towards the lift which was in the corridor across.
I was on the third floor of the building.
My body ached when I moved and my head was also in pain. I took support of the side wall to walk for I was feeling quite dizzy, my vision blurring now and then.
Arriving in front of the lift, I pressed the button on the wall, taking a wary glance up and down the corridor and at my back, watching for the hospital personnel.
Since the lift was taking its time, I decided to go for the stairs instead.
Just as I was about to move away, suddenly, the doors of the lift opened and I found myself face to face with the four persons that I expected the least to see.
I went still.
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Yatai - a small, mobile food stall