Chapter 36: Sudden Seriousness

Next, after a few more pointed questions about Kimura and his friends, Ōgami Yōsuke did something unexpected. He turned to Kimura’s mother, his expression suddenly sharp. “Ma’am, would you permit us to go upstairs? It’s possible that, when confronted by strangers, Kimura-san might be… more willing to communicate.”

Kimura’s mother, her face a mask of weary desperation, hesitated for only a heartbeat before nodding. At this point, she would agree to almost anything if it meant a chance of seeing her son, of piercing the wall of silence he had built around himself.

She led the small group up the narrow staircase, coming to a stop before a closed bedroom door at the end of the hall.

“Shōta,” she pleaded, her voice soft and gentle, a stark contrast to the tension in the air. “Are you awake, dear? Some of your classmates are here. They’ve come to see you. They just want to say hello…”

But her gentle entreaties were met with an unnerving, absolute silence. It was like speaking to a tomb.

“Ma’am,” Ōgami said, his voice quiet but firm, “please, allow me to try.”

He stepped forward, positioning himself directly in front of the door. He paused for a moment, his eyes closed as if gathering his thoughts. Then, without a shred of polite preamble, his voice cut through the strained silence of the hallway, sharp and clear as a scalpel. “Kimura-san. My name is Ōgami Yōsuke, from the Folklore Research Club. I find your recent… experiences… to be a matter of profound interest. Would you be willing to open this door and discuss them with me?”

The room remained silent. Ōgami was undeterred. His voice took on a harder edge. “I have already spoken at length with Itō Takuma. I am aware of the supposed details of your various sleepwalking episodes. My next intended course of action is to request the assistance of a police officer with whom I am acquainted. I will ask him to review all available surveillance footage along your alleged routes, to ascertain if there is any visual evidence of you, at the corresponding times, wandering the city in your sleep.”

Kimura’s mother was no fool. Hearing Ōgami’s words, and recalling his earlier, probing questions, a look of dawning comprehension—and perhaps, a flicker of renewed hope—crossed her tired features.

“And while I have not yet had the opportunity to confirm this with said officer,” Ōgami pressed on, his voice a relentless, logical assault on the closed door, “I have already formulated my own hypothesis regarding the likely outcome of such a search.”

“To be perfectly blunt, Kimura-san, I believe that a significant portion of the story you related to Itō-san was a complete and utter… fabrication. Specifically, the entire narrative concerning your sleepwalking, and your being gradually, supernaturally, drawn closer and closer to some mysterious cave on Mount Karasu-Go.”

Then, Ōgami Yōsuke delivered the final, devastating blow.

“This past Friday, after school, my father and I undertook an excursion to Mount Karasu-Go. We went for the express purpose of locating the cave you so vividly described to Itō-san. And yet, despite a thorough search that lasted until nightfall… we found absolutely nothing.”

“So, Kimura-san… there was no sleepwalking, was there? There is no cave. There are, however, a few other matters I would like to discuss with you. Now, will you open this door, or not?”

This time, a voice finally erupted from within the room, raw and furious, a cornered animal’s roar. Ōgami’s words had clearly, finally, hit their intended target.

“GET OUT! All of you! You meddling, clueless busybodies! What do you know?! What do you possibly know?! You keep digging, you keep prying… Misfortune will find every last one of you! Sooner or later! NOW GET OUT!”

The other club members could only stare at each other, stunned into silence. None of them had anticipated this.

With Kimura clearly in no state to talk, there was no longer any reason to remain. Kimura’s mother, her mind now reeling from the implications of Ōgami Yōsuke’s words, seemed to have no energy left to play the host. She escorted the group to the entryway and bid them a distracted, hasty farewell.

Out on the quiet suburban street, Takada Shōji was the first to break the tense silence. “Ōgami-san, you were way too aggressive back there! Why did you have to provoke him like that? If you’d just let me handle it, I bet he would have been willing to talk to me!”

Junko, her loyalty to Ōgami now firmly established, shot Takada an annoyed look. “Oh, stop bragging, Takada-san. Yōsuke actually managed to get a response out of him, which is more than any of the rest of us could do. If you’re just going to complain, maybe wait until you have an audience that actually cares.”

Yomikawa Tsuko, her own curiosity genuinely piqued by Ōgami’s strange, almost reckless gambit, finally spoke. “Ōgami-kun, you must have had your reasons for taking such a… confrontational… approach. Are you operating under the assumption that Kimura-kun was, in fact, lying about everything?”

“Wasn’t that my original theory?” Takada immediately interjected, trying to reclaim some credit. Seeing that no one was paying him any attention, he offered a weak, sheepish grin and fell silent.

Ōgami Yōsuke’s brow was deeply furrowed, and he let out a long, heavy sigh. “Of course, I can’t be certain if Kimura-san was lying or not. What I said back there… it was mostly a bluff. A calculated risk to try and force a reaction. It’s just…”

“Just what?” Junko asked, her voice urgent, sensing a deeper meaning behind his words.

“It’s just… if he’s not lying… then our situation is actually much, much better. Because if he is… then things are about to get very complicated. And very dangerous. Compared to that possibility, what happened to Itō-san and Fujita-san… that was a minor, almost trivial, affair.” Ōgami’s expression, usually so open and inquisitive, was now incredibly, unnervingly, serious.

“Eh? It’s a good thing if he’s not lying? What in the world does that mean?”

“If he’s not lying, that means the sleepwalking, the cave, all of it, it’s real, right? How is that possibly a good situation?”

“Ōgami, you’d better start explaining, right now! You’ve completely lost me!”

It was clear that Ōgami Yōsuke was now in possession of some information the others were not. He hesitated for a moment, then said, “Let’s put it this way. If Kimura-san really is just the victim of some bizarre, supernatural sleepwalking incident, as terrifying and distressing as that is, at least no one has died. So, in that sense, it is, believe it or not, the better outcome. But if it’s the other possibility, the one that I am now beginning to seriously consider…”

He took a deep, steadying breath, his face grim. “Then what happens next… it is not something any of us should be involved in.”

Us? Yomikawa Tsuko’s eyebrow arched, a minuscule, almost imperceptible movement. She noted the particular and deliberate choice of word. Ōgami was clearly, and for the first time, excluding himself from the investigation as well. This was a rare and highly significant development. For Ōgami Yōsuke, with his almost pathological curiosity, to willingly, proactively, step back from a bizarre, unfolding mystery… before today, it would have been utterly unimaginable.

Kana, startled by the heavy, ominous atmosphere that had suddenly descended upon their small group, stammered, “Wh-what do you mean? Is it really… that serious?” It was just a school ghost story, wasn’t it? And if parts of it were lies, fabrications, shouldn’t that make it less worrying, not more? Why was Ōgami looking at them with such grim finality?

“Yōsuke-kun… what do you know?” Even Junko, seeing the unusually serious, almost haunted expression on Ōgami’s face, abandoned her usual cheerful, bubbly demeanor. Her voice became cautious, timid.

Ōgami Yōsuke nodded slowly, his gaze distant. “It’s something my father told me. I can’t go into the specifics right now. Not yet. There are still a few things I need to confirm. In any case, regarding Kimura-san’s situation… I believe I will have a definitive answer by Monday.”

At the mention of his father, a sudden, profound silence fell over Junko, Kana, and Takada. A simple, almost silly school ghost story had somehow captured the attention of a professional, respected folklore researcher. That was… deeply unsettling. This “confirming a few things” that Ōgami mentioned… it wasn’t a school club project. It was clearly work his father had assigned him. In other words, a genuine, professional investigation. Compared to their own club activities, which suddenly felt like a naive, almost dangerously childish game, this was something else entirely. A professional folklorist, an expert in these matters, believed that whatever was happening was not something for amateurs, for children, to meddle in. He undoubtedly had very good, and very dangerous reasons for that belief.

“Where are you headed next, Ōgami-kun?” Yomikawa Tsuko asked, her voice smooth and even, betraying nothing of the quiet satisfaction she felt. If Ōgami’s investigation, and his father’s intervention, could bring this whole tiresome affair to a swift conclusion, all the better. She had far too many of her own, more important plans to set in motion. As for what truly happened to Kimura… she truly couldn’t care less.

Ōgami Yōsuke began to tick off items on his fingers, a man with a sudden, urgent mission. “First, I need to go and see Officer Kishida, to request his assistance with something. Then, I need to visit Fujita-san at the hospital, talk to him about his injury in more detail. If circumstances permit, it would be ideal if I could also visit Fujita-san’s home. And finally, I need to speak with Itō-san again… Yes. That should cover all the immediate bases.”

“That’s… a very full schedule,” Junko said, hesitating, a look of longing on her face. She clearly wanted to go with him. Yomikawa guessed she was probably thinking that if she asked to tag along now, it would turn into another group activity. She was likely planning to wait until everyone else had left, then approach Ōgami privately.

Well, Yomikawa thought, a faint, almost imperceptible smile touching her lips, if that’s her plan, I might as well facilitate it. She cleared her throat, easily capturing everyone’s attention. “Since Ōgami-kun has so much to attend to, let us disband here for today. Everyone be careful on your way home. We will hear Ōgami’s full report on Monday, after school. And at that time, Ōgami-kun,” she said, her voice firm, but with a hint of a smile, “you can’t hide anything from us anymore!”