Chapter 42: Two Hypotheses
Kagehara Tetsuya couldn’t yet definitively say his deduction was correct, but reality would be the ultimate arbiter. In four days, when Hanako’s next wish came to fruition, the truth would be revealed.
For the moment, he put the speculation aside. Reaching for his phone on the bedside table, he stopped the recording. After changing his clothes, he sat before his computer to review the footage.
Both recordings spanned over seven hours. Even at eight times speed, it took him almost an hour to watch them.
The summary: nothing had happened.
The phone camera focused primarily on the bed and the door. The door remained unopened throughout the night. He lay in bed, covered head to toe by the blanket, revealing only the upper half of his face. The skin exchange, if it had occurred, was invisible.
The computer’s recording of the window yielded the same result. He’d deliberately left the curtains open, allowing moonlight and the dim streetlights to illuminate the view. The footage showed nothing unusual during the seven hours he’d been asleep.
“How can this be? It’s too strange.”
Kagehara was perplexed. The night Hanako’s second wish had been granted, something undeniably strange had occurred. But this time, everything was so ordinary, it felt bizarre.
Takayama, the inn clerk, had also said that on the night of June 9th, there were no unusual sounds or smells from my room.
If Takayama was telling the truth, then on the night the first wish was granted, nothing actually happened, just like last night.
The first and third times were unremarkable. Only the second time had witnessed such inexplicable events. Why?
If something unnatural were to happen only once, it would usually occur at the beginning, like the night at the hotel, marking the start.
Or perhaps at the end, on the forty-eighth night after the face exchange, signifying the conclusion.
But in the middle? It feels incredibly odd.
Kagehara furrowed his brow, thinking. Gradually, some clarity emerged, and he formulated two hypotheses.
“The first possibility: perhaps there’s a pattern. When Hanako’s first, third, fifth, and seventh wishes are granted, nothing happens. Only a certain feature of the exchanged faces is swapped.”
“But when Hanako’s second, fourth, and sixth wishes are granted, anomalies occur, and ‘that thing’ appears. The exchange of facial features still takes place, of course.”
“If this is true, then that thing must possess some mysterious power, like the ability to control its size. It can be large enough to make the wooden stairs creak, or small enough to slip through a door crack.”
“It might also emit a cloying odor that causes unconsciousness. And it has some level of intelligence, enough to open a deadbolt.”
The more he considered it, the more extraordinary it seemed. Perhaps Hanako was making her wishes to this very entity. Could it even be the true form of Lord Mask-Taker?
Unconsciously, Kagehara conjured an image of a slime-like creature, reeking of a sickly-sweet scent.
He shook his head, shifting his focus to the second hypothesis.
“The second possibility… perhaps everything that happened on the night of June 11th was an isolated incident, unrelated to the hair exchange between me and Senpai, and unrelated to Lord Mask-Taker.”
“In other words, when each of Hanako’s seven wishes is granted, it’s like last night—nothing strange happens. The strange creature doesn’t even exist.”
“The sounds, the smell, the opened deadbolt on the night of June 11th… they were caused by something else, coincidentally occurring at the same time as Hanako’s wish was fulfilled. That’s why I mistakenly connected the two.”
“Could someone be deliberately misleading me? No, the desire to investigate the wish fulfillment process is my own. No one could have known I planned to act that night.”
Both hypotheses seemed plausible.
More importantly, he could test them. He only needed to repeat tonight’s procedure four nights from now.
“Finally, some hope of unraveling the mystery of that night.” Kagehara smiled faintly, turning on another computer and starting the surveillance footage from the Hasebe residence at eight times speed.
“What’s going on? Hasn’t Hasebe Koichi made a move yet?”
“Or has he acted, but avoided my surveillance?”
There were ways to avoid surveillance, the simplest being mail. But Kagehara recalled nothing being delivered to the Hasebe residence in the past two days.
“Could he be using email? That’s unlikely.”
Email wouldn’t hold up as evidence. Anyone could forge it. If Hasebe Koichi chose this method to expose Lord Mask-Taker, the police’s first reaction would be to assume his parents were fabricating a story to exonerate him.
Could he have photographed the diary and sent the images?
That was more plausible. If the photos were clear enough, handwriting analysis could be performed, though it would be much more difficult than analyzing the original or a scan.
With this in mind, Kagehara called Hasebe’s father.
“Mr. Hasebe, this is Yomikawa Tsuko.”
Mr. Hasebe answered quickly, sounding pleasantly surprised. “Has there been any progress with Koichi?”
“There’s progress all the time. I think it would be best if your son told you the details himself later,” Kagehara said, offering a vague reassurance before continuing. “I’m calling to ask for a favor. Is this a good time?”
Mr. Hasebe, buoyed by the implication that he’d soon see his son, sounded choked with emotion. “Yes, of course. Anything I can do, please just ask.”
“Do you remember Hasebe-san’s wardrobe you showed me? I’d like you to find his blue and white denim jacket. Could you take a picture of it and email it to me?” Kagehara remembered seeing the jacket on the far right when he’d examined Koichi’s closet.
“Ah? E-email… does that require using a computer?” Mr. Hasebe sounded hesitant.
“What’s wrong? Can’t you use a computer? You can add me on LINE if you have a smartphone.”
“I… I’m afraid my phone doesn’t have that function. Would it be alright if I brought the jacket to your office? It wouldn’t take more than half an hour… no, maybe twenty minutes.”
He couldn’t use a smartphone or a computer. Kagehara realized this meant Hasebe Koichi couldn’t transmit information that way. Had he not acted yet, then?
“That won’t be necessary. Just take a look at the brand for me,” Kagehara instructed, then casually added, “By the way, have you received any letters or notes from Hasebe-san recently?”
“I’ll go upstairs and check. I haven’t received any notes. Please be assured, I remember your instructions. I’ll contact you immediately if I receive anything.”
Kagehara could hear Hasebe’s father climbing the stairs, his breath quickening, but his answers were fluent and natural, not like someone lying.
After a few more words, Kagehara hung up and muttered to himself, “I’ll keep monitoring today, but if he still doesn’t appear…”
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