Chapter 108: I Thought I’d Never See You Again (Please Subscribe)
“Caught you~”
The playful tone rang in Kamihara Shinji’s ears. It felt vaguely familiar, but the memory was too faint, slipping away instantly. He didn’t dwell on it, instead stepping back cautiously.
The “Chihaya Mashiro” he’d just strangled collapsed, her body deflating into a palm-sized doll. A doll? Kamihara froze, pulling the doll Mashiro had given him from his pocket. As he did, it swelled and expanded.
Then, it transformed into a human.
“President!” Chihaya Mashiro clung to him, her voice breaking with sobs. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
Mashiro wasn’t dead? Kamihara’s mind raced, though embarrassment crept in—Mashiro was unclothed. Sensing something off, he scrutinized her suspiciously. Was this Mashiro real or another fake?
His thoughts churned like a high-speed engine, theories flooding in. Where was the anomaly? Glancing at the sofa, he spotted the other doll—the one that had posed as Mashiro—now shrunken and stealthily crawling under it, aiming to escape. As his gaze locked onto it, the doll seemed to panic, its tiny feet scrambling before it bolted out the door, nearly tripping in its haste.
It fled? A doll as an anomaly? And it had a mind? Kamihara stood stunned. Snapping back, he pushed Mashiro onto the sofa, barking, “Get dressed.” Without waiting, he chased after the doll.
In the hallway, motion-sensor lights flicked on, but no trace of the doll remained. Unconvinced, he reached the elevator, noting it hadn’t moved, and raced down the stairs. At the building’s entrance, he found Chihaya Masato comforting Rinako on a bench. Despite his orders to leave, the couple hadn’t budged.
Seeing him, Masato tried to speak, his voice cracking with tension. Composing himself, he asked anxiously, “Kamihara-san, what happened?” He’d called him “Shinji” earlier, believing him to be Mashiro’s boyfriend, but now realized Kamihara was likely a hunter of anomalies. Having a daughter with supernatural abilities, Masato and Rinako were primed to accept such realities—otherwise, they’d have dismissed Kamihara as deranged. Yet, the possibility of Mashiro’s death was unbearable.
Kamihara, eyes clouded with doubt, ignored the question. “Uncle, did you see a doll run down here?”
“A doll?” Masato and Rinako exchanged confused glances, shaking their heads. Rinako, trembling, pressed, “Shinji… is Mashiro alive?”
The question deepened Kamihara’s uncertainty. He didn’t know if the upstairs Mashiro was human or anomaly. Choosing his words, he said, “I’m not sure, but Chihaya is still in the apartment. I’ll confirm if she’s human later.” For now, he had no time.
Turning to Masato, he asked, “Uncle, do you have the property manager’s number?”
“Yes, yes!” Masato, no fool, grasped that Kamihara’s pursuit meant the anomaly had escaped. Hearing Mashiro was home sparked hope. Rinako, wiping tears, swiftly dialed the manager, her eyes fixed on Kamihara.
“Tell them the police need to check surveillance, and to hurry,” Kamihara instructed.
“Got it.”
Minutes later, the property manager rushed over. Before he could speak, Kamihara flashed his Metropolitan Police badge. “Questions later. It’s urgent—take me to the surveillance room.”
“Y-Yes, sir.” Glancing at the badge, the manager blinked at Kamihara’s school uniform. A high school inspector? He said nothing, leading them to the surveillance room.
Kamihara reviewed footage from minutes earlier, spotting himself dashing downstairs. Rewinding a minute, no doll appeared. He checked higher floors—ninth, tenth, eleventh—nothing. Masato, desperate for his daughter’s safety, ventured, “Kamihara-san, could the doll still be in another apartment, not downstairs?”
“Possible,” Kamihara nodded. “You two stay here. I’ll take the elevator up. If a doll comes down, don’t engage—just call me.”
“We won’t do anything reckless,” Masato assured.
“Shinji, please save my daughter,” Rinako pleaded.
Kamihara hesitated, then said, “I’ll try.” Earlier, he’d have dismissed hope, certain Mashiro was dead. But clutching the Fate Coin in his pocket, he now believed the upstairs Mashiro was likely real.
“Thank you, thank you!” Rinako’s face lit up. “Go find that monster—don’t let us delay you.”
Monster? The property manager gaped, bewildered.
Kamihara said nothing, returning to the eighth floor via the stairs. He’d seen the doll flee through the apartment’s entrance, the door ajar. Yet surveillance showed no doll, only the open door. He suspected it had escaped but refused to give up. He also hoped this doll, like Matsunai-san, followed traceable paths. Matsunai, a malicious neighbor, had traveled from Kyoto to Tokyo by train, renting at Meiko Apartments with paid contracts—methodical, trackable. Little Ai teleported to contract signers or pulled them into illusions, while Small Eye scanned abusers remotely via eyeball photos. Some anomalies “walked”; others “warped.” This doll, Kamihara reasoned, was like Matsunai—why flee physically if it could teleport? Its absence from surveillance suggested it remained in Mizuho Apartments.
[Note: More updates tonight!]
(End of Chapter)
Chapter 109: Figurines? Burn Them All
Kamihara Shinji first returned to apartment 8003, the Chihaya residence, conducting a quick search. Finding no doll, he moved to 8002 and rang the bell.
“Who’s there?” a woman’s voice called.
“Police.”
The door opened, and Kamihara presented his badge without preamble. “Hand over every doll or figurine in your home. All of them.”
“Dolls?” The young woman, striking but dressed casually like a housewife, froze. Noticing Kamihara’s face, she instinctively smoothed her clothes, then gave up, resigned to her unkempt state. Wary, she squinted. “Are you really police? That badge isn’t fake, is it?”
“We received a tip that a timed bomb was hidden in a doll in Mizuho Apartments,” Kamihara said gravely. “I was closest, so I arrived first. The Metropolitan Police are en route.”
“Okay, okay!” Bomb mention panicked her.
He’d lied about the tip but not the police. He’d contacted the Metropolitan Police, knowing a solo search would let the doll slip away. Even now, he feared it had. He didn’t care if the Special Division learned of this later. Once he contained the anomaly, he’d share its rules if questioned. Whether it reappeared or the division found it was irrelevant—he could use contained anomalies to target evildoers elsewhere, as with Your Turn. After containing Your Turn, he’d used its rules to ensnare scum, alerting the Special Division. Whether they still investigated Your Turn mattered little; it was gone.
His goal was a time advantage. As a Ghost Club monitor, discovering and investigating anomalies was a boon to the Special Division. If they found it first, a club monitor offering help would raise suspicion. Joining the division was out—he was an anomaly creator. If assigned to investigate his own creations, submitting their rules or fighting himself was unthinkable. With Ghost Calls forcing the division to use pigeon post, communication lagged, giving him time to pursue this doll anomaly.
“You can collect them yourself,” the woman said, nervous post-bomb mention. “I’m… heading downstairs.”
“Fine.” Kamihara didn’t stop her.
Using the same ruse, he cleared the other apartments on the floor. Soon, the Metropolitan Police called. He ordered them to search every room in Mizuho Apartments, collecting all dolls and figurines.
“What about figurines?” an officer asked.
“Figurines?” Kamihara paused, then nodded. “Take them all.”
“Yes, sir!”
The police moved swiftly, amassing manpower. Within half an hour, they’d gathered all dolls, figurines, and anime figures from the building. Kamihara piled them on the eighth floor and turned to the lead officer. “Lend me a lighter.”
Taking it, he dismissed the officers. “Wait downstairs. Watch for any moving dolls.”
The lead officer hesitated, whispering, “Lord Ghost, is there an anomaly among these? Your life is valuable—let another officer test it.”
Kamihara considered this. Though unsure how anomalies were classified, he pegged this doll as a roaming type, like Matsunai-san. Its human-mimicking nature meant losing it could delay recapture indefinitely. If he triggered a lethal rule, he’d awaken post-death, but the anomaly might vanish. Sacrificing an officer while he stayed alert could secure containment, saving others.
“Alright,” he agreed. The lead officer left an elderly policeman behind.
Kamihara pointed at the pile. “Light it.”
The officer ignited the heap of dolls, figurines, and figures. A foul stench filled the air. Kamihara chose this spot to prevent the doll from escaping if it came alive and to ensure he didn’t miss it by leaving. He suspected the anomaly wasn’t among the pile but hid elsewhere in the building. Burning here, with surveillance monitored, kept his options open. It felt like a battle of wits with a non-sentient doll, yet its emotive behavior puzzled him—he had a theory.
Black smoke drew residents’ attention, mistaking it for a fire. Police presence reassured them. Kamihara held his breath, eyes locked on the burning pile, using spiritual vision for precision. The elderly officer’s eyes watered from smoke; Kamihara’s stung, but he persisted. Soon, the pile was ash. No anomalies emerged.
Unbeknownst to Kamihara, as he began burning, the red-kimonoed doll emerged from a shadowy corner, reentering the Chihaya apartment. It clumsily climbed out a window, inching down the building’s exterior. At the third floor, it slipped, falling with a splat. Shaking itself, it rose, limped to the wall, and fled.
At the apartment’s entrance, it spotted a high school boy in a uniform, staring at the eighth floor’s smoke. With all eyes on the building, no one noticed the doll scale a wall, leap, and slip into the boy’s backpack through a gap. The boy glanced at his bag, puzzled, sensing movement. A trick of the mind, he thought.
As the smoke cleared and firefighters stood ready, the crowd dispersed. The high school boy vanished into the throng, unaware of his stowaway.
(End of Chapter)
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