Chapter 22: The Fifth Wish

Back in the relative sanctuary of the climbing gym’s second-floor office, Yazaki Hitomi was still visibly shaken, her usual boisterousness replaced by a worried frown. “That detective… a criminal case? Tsuko-chan, what in heaven’s name is going on? Your mother’s only been away for a fortnight, how could something this serious happen so quickly?”

Yomikawa Tsuko, with an air of utter nonchalance that seemed almost alien in the face of such concern, settled onto the plush sofa, crossing her legs with a languid grace. “It’s not nearly as dramatic as it sounds, Hitomi-obasan. Truly. That’s precisely why I saw no need to trouble Mother with it. You follow the news, I presume? It pertains to that rather… unfortunate incident at the hot spring inn a short while ago.”

“You mean… that dreadful case where Ōshima and Hasebe were murdered?” Hitomi’s eyes widened.

“The very same,” Yomikawa confirmed, her tone even. “As it happens, my club members and I were conducting our group activity at that inn on the night in question. In fact, I was the one who facilitated the call to the police. Hence, my current, rather tedious, designation as a ‘witness’.”

Seeing Yomikawa’s breezy dismissal of what was clearly a horrifying event, Yazaki Hitomi’s anxiety only seemed to escalate. “Honestly, Tsuko-chan! For something of this magnitude to occur, why on earth didn’t you contact me immediately? A criminal investigation… it’s dangerous territory! You absolutely must promise me you won’t get any further entangled in this.”

“And in any case,” Yomikawa said, smoothly redirecting the conversation, “Hitomi-obasan will, of course, maintain the utmost discretion regarding this little matter, won’t you? If Mother were to find out… well, the subsequent lectures would be… interminable.”

“Eh? Not inform Yuna-san?” Yazaki Hitomi hesitated, clearly torn. “Are you certain that’s wise, dear?”

“One of our club members vanished that night,” Yomikawa explained, offering a carefully edited version of events. “The police merely wished to ask me a few routine questions regarding his disappearance. So please, Hitomi-obasan, there’s truly no cause for alarm. If I find myself in need of Mother’s… particular assistance, I am perfectly capable of informing her myself, am I not?”

Her primary objective for the evening had been a simple reconnaissance: meet Yazaki Hitomi, establish a baseline for future interactions. The unexpected encounter with Kishida Masayoshi, and Hitomi-obasan witnessing their exchange, had been an unwelcome complication, necessitating this rather tiresome expenditure of persuasive effort.

After a further barrage of reassurances, Yazaki Hitomi finally, reluctantly, agreed to Yomikawa’s request for silence. They left the climbing gym shortly thereafter. Following a surprisingly pleasant dinner – paid for by Yomikawa, as per their earlier ‘agreement’ – Hitomi-obasan, ever thoughtful, insisted on driving her home.

Nine o’clock. The villa was silent, cloaked in the deep shadows of the evening. Yomikawa, freshly showered, began the now-familiar ritual of preparing her bedroom.

Because tonight… tonight was the night of Hanako’s fifth wish.

The first four wishes, the ones that had already irrevocably altered her existence, replayed in her mind: the exchange of voices, then hair, then skin, and finally, the most profound and disturbing of all, the complete transference of bodies.

And now, the fifth. According to the tattered legend, Hanako’s fifth supplication to the dark power of the mask was this: to be restored to a state of pure, untouched virginity, identical to that of Natsuhime.

As she meticulously arranged the recording equipment, her mind, a cold, analytical engine, dissected the implications of this particular wish.

“Hanako’s desire to reclaim her virginity… it strongly implies a significant escalation in her relationship with Natsuhime’s fiancé prior to this wish. Physical intimacy, certainly. Perhaps they had even approached the precipice, the final act, only for Hanako to pull back.”

“And the reason for that hesitation? The most logical conclusion is that Hanako, in Natsuhime’s stolen body, was no longer a virgin. To prevent the fiancé from discovering this inconvenient truth, a truth that would shatter her carefully constructed illusion, she was forced to expend another precious wish.”

“The sixth wish lends further credence to this theory. Hanako wished for the ability to conceive a child of Natsuhime’s bloodline, an heir of outstanding quality. Even if she wasn’t pregnant at that precise moment, the wish itself indicates a readiness, a preparation, for imminent conception.”

“But herein lies the anomaly, the discordant note in this otherwise logical progression.”

Yomikawa Tsuko had, with a detached, clinical precision, already ascertained the current state of her borrowed body. It was, undeniably, virginal.

This meant that during the fourth wish – the cataclysmic exchange of bodies between herself and Senpai – this specific physiological characteristic had been transferred along with everything else.

“In other words, when Hanako originally seized Natsuhime’s form, Natsuhime’s virginity should have become Hanako’s. Logically, there would have been no subsequent need for Hanako to wish for its restoration. So why? Why this seemingly redundant fifth wish?”

Yomikawa Tsuko was a living testament to the power of Lord Mask-Taker, a power far more tangible, far more real, than any faded legend. When the narrative of the story clashed with the undeniable reality of her own transformed flesh, her own meticulously recorded experiences, there was no contest. Reality, however bizarre, would always take precedence.

This glaring discrepancy between the legend and her current state led to two possible, and equally unsettling, conclusions.

The first conclusion : Hanako’s fifth wish, as recorded in the popular version of the tale, was a fabrication. A lie. Its true nature, its actual purpose, remained hidden.

The second conclusion : The story, in this particular detail, was accurate. But its accuracy implied some intervening, unrecorded event in Hanako’s tragic past. Perhaps, after the fourth wish, after she had successfully stolen Natsuhime’s life, Hanako, in that new form, had been… violated. Assaulted by some unknown party. And to erase that trauma, to conceal that defilement from Natsuhime’s unsuspecting fiancé, she had been forced to make this desperate fifth wish. A horrifying, yet plausible, explanation.

“But,” Yomikawa’s thoughts turned colder, sharper, “when one considers this fifth wish in conjunction with the deliberately obscured seventh wish, the entire narrative landscape shifts, becomes infinitely more complex, more treacherous.”

“The Chief Priest, Natsuhime’s father… he actively concealed the nature of Hanako’s seventh and final wish. Why? Does this deliberate omission imply that his own actions, in the true, unvarnished history of these events, were not as righteous, not as… honorable… as the legend portrays?”

In the popular tale, the Chief Priest was the hero, the avenging father. He, with his keen intuition, sensed the unnatural discord surrounding his daughter, unmasked the servant Hanako’s insidious plot, and ultimately exacted vengeance for Natsuhime’s stolen life.

But what if one were to view events from a different, more cynical, angle?

If Hanako, inhabiting Natsuhime’s body, had indeed been assaulted, forcing her to use a wish to restore her purity… who, then, was the assailant?

Certainly not Natsuhime’s fiancé; his discovery of her non-virginal state was the very thing Hanako sought to prevent.

And it was unlikely to have been a mere servant. In their eyes, Hanako was Natsuhime, the young mistress of the household. Would any servant dare such a transgression against their master’s daughter? Highly improbable.

Which left… one deeply unsettling possibility. The Chief Priest himself.

“A monster who defiled his own flesh and blood? Perhaps. But not necessarily in the way one might assume. What if the Chief Priest had already uncovered the truth of the exchange? What if he knew that the creature wearing his daughter’s face was, in fact, an imposter? In such a scenario, faced with this usurper, this cuckoo in his nest… perhaps his moral restraints, his paternal inhibitions, simply… dissolved.”

Of course, this was merely one potential extrapolation, born from the second hypothesis.

If the first hypothesis held true – that the fifth wish itself was a fabrication – then the entire scenario shifted once more.

“If the fifth wish had nothing to do with restoring virginity, if its true nature, like that of the seventh wish, was deliberately concealed… then the ‘pure virgin’ element is merely a narrative smokescreen. A clever bit of misdirection designed to make the story more palatable, more… believable.”

“And if that is the case, then the entire theory of the Chief Priest assaulting Hanako-as-Natsuhime becomes baseless conjecture.”

“However,” Yomikawa’s eyes narrowed, “even under that scenario, the Chief Priest does not necessarily emerge as a figure of unimpeachable virtue. Regardless of his motives, if the wishes were indeed altered, if the true story was deliberately obscured… who else but the Chief Priest, the keeper of the shrine, the master of rituals, could have possessed the power, the knowledge, to do so?”

After methodically dissecting both possibilities, a thought settled in Yomikawa’s mind. This accursed story… it grows more convoluted, more treacherous, with each passing revelation. But no matter. I will uncover all seven of Hanako’s wishes. And when I possess the final piece, the seventh wish… then, perhaps, all these tangled threads will finally unravel, and the true will be revealed.

“For now,” she concluded, her gaze sweeping over the array of recording devices, “we observe. We gather data.”

“If the story is indeed flawed, if the true fifth wish was something else entirely, then my body will undergo some new, unexpected transformation tonight. And I will detect it. The subsequent deductions will flow from there.”

“If, however, the story is accurate in this detail… then when I awaken tomorrow, my body should remain unchanged. Which, in itself, would be a form of confirmation: Hanako, in Natsuhime’s stolen form, was indeed assaulted by some unknown party.”

When her preparations were completed, she noted the time. Ten o’clock. Yomikawa Tsuko calmly swallowed a single sleeping pill, followed by two sustained-release ibuprofen capsules – a pragmatic precaution against any… discomfort… the night might bring. She lay down on the bed, her mind surprisingly serene, and within minutes, succumbed to a deep, dreamless sleep.

Outside, the night was a suffocating blanket of silence. The stars, the moon, all were devoured by a thick, impenetrable layer of storm clouds.

Then, in the deepest, darkest hours before dawn, the sky tore open. A deafening crack of thunder, followed by a torrential downpour, a furious wind that lashed the city, rattling windows, howling like a banshee.

And in her bed, Yomikawa Tsuko stirred, a deep frown creasing her brow. Her fair cheeks, usually so cold and composed, seemed to radiate an almost unnatural, incongruous softness in the dim, storm-tossed room. She might have been dreaming. Or perhaps, something else entirely was beginning to unfold.