Chapter 45: Night of The Thick Fog (Part 2)
The moment Kagehara Tetsuya read the message, he knew. Tonight’s operation—no, the surveillance of the past few days—was a failure.
Only one person could have sent him a message like this, at this hour: Senpai, the one who now wore his face.
It wasn’t difficult to deduce. Senpai wasn’t stupid—far more intelligent than Hasebe Koichi, at the very least. And she wasn’t alone. She had someone to help her think things through. If Kagehara could anticipate certain moves, there was no reason she couldn’t.
He could monitor the Hasebe residence. So could she.
Staring at the smiling face, once his own, Kagehara’s lips tightened. Truth be told, that face didn’t suit her at all.
“Kagehara-kun, long time no see,” Senpai said, her hands clasped behind her back, a wide smile plastered on her face. Her posture and expression still held a distinctly feminine air. She studied him for a moment before continuing, “Your disguise is quite convincing. Even Manatsu couldn’t see through it, could she?”
“Who knows?” Kagehara replied casually, while simultaneously assessing her. He scanned her clothing, hoping to glean some clue, but all he could ascertain was that her clothes were from expensive, high-end brands. Nothing else. “You’re as cheerful and smiley as ever, Senpai.”
“Well, I’m in a good mood,” she chirped, walking towards the Hasebe mailbox. She retrieved a white box and opened it. As Kagehara had expected, it contained a letter.
With a flick of her wrist, she unfolded the letter, quickly scanning its contents. Then, she pulled out a lighter and ignited the bottom corner. Once the flames had consumed it entirely, she dropped the burning remnants onto the ground and crushed the ashes under her heel, leaving no trace.
Kagehara watched her silently as she completed this ritual. When the letter was reduced to ash, a figure concealed on the second floor of a house further back retracted their bow.
“Here, this is for you, Kagehara-kun,” she said, tossing the empty white box to him. When he caught it, she added with a smile, “Leave Hasebe Koichi to me. No need for you to trouble yourself. Oh, and thank you for the hotel arrangements.”
“We’re even,” Kagehara replied. Knowing that this encounter might be their last, he decided to ask directly, “I’m curious. What is your true objective, Senpai? Can you tell me?”
“My objective…” She tilted her head, then flashed another brilliant smile. “It’s simple. I aim to become a god.”
“Become… a god?” The seemingly absurd answer made Kagehara frown.
“Yes, a god.” She raised a hand, paused, then lowered it again.
Kagehara noticed the hesitation. What was that about? he wondered.
“In any case,” she continued, “remember the legend of Lord Mask-Taker? The sixth wish in the story involves an exchange of age as well.”
“By continually exchanging ages with those younger than oneself, even as time passes, the burden of that passage is transferred to others. For example, when I exchanged with you, I effectively became three years younger.”
“If this continues year after year, whether it’s thirty or fifty years, I’ll remain in my teens or twenties, while you, Kagehara-kun, will be quite old.”
“And as long as there are people younger than me in this world, I can remain perpetually young. Wouldn’t that be akin to becoming a god?!”
She tilted her head again, her expression utterly earnest.
Kagehara considered this. If Lord Mask-Taker’s power had no limitations, then this seemingly outlandish “deification” plan was indeed feasible.
Barring any fatal accidents, maintaining eternal youth would be simple. Current medical conundrums—cancer, AIDS, all incurable diseases—would become irrelevant. Others would ultimately pay the price.
“I see. So that’s why you have followers assisting you,” Kagehara mused, nodding. He glanced at the figure emerging from the vacant house. The figure carried a bow and wore a thick mask and a deeply pulled-down hat, obscuring their face completely. However, their build matched the description given by the hotel staff.
“Wanting eternal life is a perfectly valid reason to become her follower, isn’t it?” Contrary to expectations, the figure spoke. However, the thick mask muffled their voice, making it sound strangely dull and distorted, revealing nothing of their natural tone.
“No,” Kagehara countered, shaking his head. His tone was light yet firm. “It’s the other way around. She wants eternal life, so she chose to become your follower. Am I right, Lord Mask-Taker?”
The temperature in the street seemed to drop several degrees.
The smile vanished from Senpai’s face, replaced by a chilling coldness. She fixed Kagehara with a stare that burned with undisguised hostility.
The figure with the bow snapped their head up, only a pair of dark eyes visible. They studied Kagehara with surprise before asking, “How did you guess?”
Seeing their reactions, Kagehara knew he was correct. There was no need to conceal his reasoning. “You may not know this,” he began, “but on June 12th, Hasebe Koichi followed me.”
Senpai frowned, trying to understand. “So?”
Kagehara recounted, “At the time, I suspected Hasebe wasn’t targeting me directly, but rather trying to abduct you, Senpai. I believed then that you possessed Lord Mask-Taker’s power, or perhaps that you were Lord Mask-Taker. He was following you, attempting to kidnap you for another face exchange.”
The figure with the bow pressed, “And then?”
“Of course, Hasebe’s attempt failed. I used a few tricks of my own and almost cornered him, but someone interfered at the last moment.”
“At that time, he asked me if I was Kagehara Tetsuya or Senpai. I didn’t answer and didn’t find it particularly strange. I assumed he’d noticed something during his surveillance and, only when I cornered him, finally realized I might not be you.”
“But later, I realized something was off. Assuming Hasebe realized on June 12th that I might not be you, why didn’t he contact you on June 10th and 11th? Your phone was in my possession.”
“If you explain it as him trying to kidnap your assistant, it’s barely plausible, but still weak. Monitoring your assistant and contacting you to negotiate aren’t mutually exclusive. He had a phone. It wouldn’t have been a problem.”
“And most strangely, Hasebe isn’t known for his good temper. After ĹŚshima Masaki’s murder, he suffered the most, wearing ĹŚshima’s face. Yet, I haven’t received a single message or call from him, not even a complaint or insult.”
“He had already exchanged faces with ĹŚshima Masaki. Assuming you, Senpai, are Lord Mask-Taker, it’s incredibly strange that he didn’t contact your phone number for two days.”
“From just this, you figured it out?” Senpai’s brow furrowed. She still found it hard to believe that such a small detail could lead Kagehara to such a conclusion.
“At that point, I only had some doubts. And there was one question I couldn’t understand, which I only just figured out,” Kagehara admitted.
Senpai nodded thoughtfully. “You mean Hasebe’s motive for following you? If Hasebe knew Lord Mask-Taker wasn’t ‘Yomikawa Tsuko,’ there would be no reason for him to follow you. It would be pointless.”
“You’re as sharp as ever, Senpai,” Kagehara agreed. “So, there were things I couldn’t understand on both sides. If you were Lord Mask-Taker, Hasebe shouldn’t have failed to contact me. Conversely, he had no reason to follow me.”
“It wasn’t until just now, when I saw the clothes Hasebe was wearing, that I understood his motive for following me. He was trying to confirm if I was truly Kagehara Tetsuya. He needed a hiding place, and the place he chose was the Kagehara residence.”
“After confirming I was Kagehara Tetsuya, he decided to hide there. The police had already searched the house. It was a blind spot for everyone.”
“The most dangerous place is often the safest,” Senpai murmured in agreement.
With the motive resolved, everything fell into place.
The reason Hasebe hadn’t contacted her phone for two days was because he knew “Yomikawa Tsuko” was merely Lord Mask-Taker’s assistant. Contacting her would be useless.
His purpose in following “Yomikawa Tsuko” was based on the assumption that a face exchange might have occurred on June 9th between her and the missing Kagehara Tetsuya. Thus, to hide in the Kagehara residence, he began following “Yomikawa Tsuko” to verify
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