"This place is way too big! It'll take us forever to search the whole thing!" Mochi complained as she stared at the enormous expanse of the abandoned complex.
"All the more reason to start right away and stop wasting time complaining," Kotone replied without even looking at her. "If you're not capable of carrying out such a simple task, you should give up now and go back home. You're clearly not cut out to be an agent."
The words irritated her deeply.
"You'll see, brat. I'll show you how it's done."
Without adding anything else, Mochi rushed toward the entrance of the nearest building. Kotone reacted instantly and ran after her, refusing to let her take the lead.
Miyu watched the scene and let out a long sigh of resignation.
"Why do they always end up competing...?" she muttered before hurrying after them so she wouldn't be left behind.
Mochi reached the entrance first. She placed both hands against the heavy metal door and pushed with all her strength.
Grrrrr...
The rusted metal protested with an unpleasant screech before slowly opening.
"What a heavy door..."
The moment she crossed the threshold, she immediately felt a change in the atmosphere. The inside was several degrees colder than the outside.
A smell of dampness and confinement filled her nostrils.
The building had been abandoned for years.
Light barely managed to enter through a few broken windows, leaving large areas shrouded in shadow. The floor was covered with black-and-white tiles arranged in a checkerboard pattern, hidden beneath a thick layer of dust.
Near the entrance stood a row of old metal mailboxes.
Time had not been kind to them.
Several doors hung crooked from a single hinge, others had disappeared entirely, and some were so deformed that it was impossible to tell what they had originally looked like.
Mochi stood still for a few seconds, observing the place.
The atmosphere gave her a strange sense of unease.
"What are you waiting for?" Kotone's voice pulled her from her thoughts. "Don't just stand there staring at the entrance."
"I'm coming."
Mochi took a few steps forward.
She didn't want to admit it, but she was a little scared.
The building looked exactly like a haunted house.
It reminded her far too much of the horror games she used to play at home.
Dark hallways, abandoned rooms, creaking staircases, and broken windows.
Everything was the same.
A particularly unpleasant thought appeared in her mind.
What if there are ghosts?
Anomalies didn't worry her too much—she could punch those. But ghosts were a different story.
You can't punch a ghost...
Her feline ears twitched nervously.
Noticing that Mochi was still hesitating, Kotone moved forward without a second thought and took the lead.
Mochi gritted her teeth. She wasn't about to let that little girl outdo her.
She hurried after her, staying close behind while her ears constantly turned, alert for any strange sound.
As expected, the elevator no longer worked.
The doors remained shut, and a thick layer of rust covered almost the entire structure.
They had no choice but to use the stairs.
They climbed the concrete steps, avoiding contact with the railing, which was so corroded it looked as though it might crumble apart if anyone leaned on it.
When they reached the first floor, they found a long hallway.
Splintered wooden doors lined both sides like exact copies of one another.
The walls were covered in deep cracks.
In several places, the concrete coating had fallen away, exposing the steel bars inside.
The silence was absolute.
Even the wind seemed unwilling to enter that place.
Kotone studied the corridor before speaking.
"We'll have to check every apartment one by one."
"All of them?" Mochi asked.
"All of them."
Kotone nodded seriously.
"We need to go inside and inspect every room, including closets, bathrooms, and any space where something could hide. There's a possibility that the anomaly is tied to a specific room rather than the entire building. If you only look through the doorway, you might miss it."
Miyu raised a hand.
"Aren't Zashiki-warashi restricted to the territory they inhabit?"
"That's right," Kotone replied. "Zashiki-warashi are extremely rare anomalies precisely because of that restriction. Once they establish their territory, they can hardly leave it."
As she spoke, her expression grew more serious.
"That's why we need to be thorough. If we really are looking for one, we could walk right past it without realizing."
The three of them looked toward the endless row of doors stretching down the hallway.
The job had only just begun.
While they were talking, Mochi peeked inside one of the apartments.
The condition of the place was just as dreadful as the outside.
The sliding doors were destroyed, their rice paper torn into long strips, as if someone had desperately tried to force their way through them. One of the tatami mats had been lifted, exposing the rotten wood underneath. In the kitchen, a metal sink remained full of dishes that had been left there years ago, all covered in a thick layer of gray dust.
Mochi moved forward cautiously.
The silence of the place was unsettling.
When she reached the main room, she stopped abruptly, her entire body tensing.
Seated around a low table were two completely black human figures.
They had no faces, no features—just dark silhouettes.
Then both of them slowly turned their heads toward her.
"NYAAAAAAA!"
Mochi's scream echoed throughout the apartment.
Without wasting a second, she spun around and bolted into the hallway.
At that exact moment, Miyu was coming in to find out what had happened.
Thump!
The two collided head-on and ended up tumbling to the floor in a tangled heap.
"M-Miyu! Ghosts! There are ghosts in there!" Mochi exclaimed, trembling as she pointed toward the room.
Miyu blinked in confusion.
Before she could respond, Kotone let out a long sigh of exasperation.
"Ghosts don't exist."
The girl calmly walked to the doorway and looked inside.
"They're just formless anomalies."
"Formless...?" Mochi repeated, still clinging to Miyu.
"Formless anomalies are the weakest type that exists," Kotone explained in the tone of a teacher correcting a particularly slow student. "They barely possess enough power to remain manifested. They have no consciousness and usually just wander aimlessly, occasionally imitating human actions."
"They're still terrifying..."
"That's because you're a coward."
"I'm not a coward!"
"Then stop screaming every time you see a shadow."
Mochi opened her mouth to respond, but couldn't come up with a valid argument.
Because she had, in fact, screamed.
Very loudly.
The rest of the inspection continued without any major problems.
Apartment after apartment.
Room after room.
Little by little, Mochi got used to the dark figures that occasionally appeared.
Even so, every now and then she would open a door and find a shadow standing right on the other side.
Then she would let out a small scream and reflexively end up clinging to Miyu.
The worst part was that Miyu seemed to enjoy it.
"Are you scared, Mochi-senpai?" Miyu asked with a smile.
"I'm not scared!"
"Sure, sure."
"I'm serious!"
"Then you can let go of me whenever you want."
"..."
It usually took Mochi several seconds to realize she was still clinging to her.
Then she would hurriedly pull away while Miyu held back a giggle.
Eventually, they finished searching the entire building.
They found absolutely nothing.
The three of them returned outside.
The sun had sunk a little lower, and fatigue was beginning to set in.
"I guess it was too optimistic to think we'd find the anomaly in the first building," Miyu said.
"Even so, it took us almost an hour to search the whole thing," Mochi commented as she looked at the many buildings that still remained to be inspected. "Even if we pick up the pace, I don't see how we'll finish all of this before the deadline."
"We would have been much faster if you didn't get scared by every little thing," Kotone complained.
Mochi opened her mouth to respond.
Then she closed it again.
Because, unfortunately, Kotone was right.
"Grrrr..."
All she could do was growl.
"Come on, if you keep wasting time arguing, we'll never finish," Miyu interrupted as she pointed toward the next building. "Let's get moving."
And so they continued.
Building after building.
Hallway after hallway.
Apartment after apartment.
The hours passed slowly.
The scenery seemed to repeat itself over and over again.
Broken doors, shattered windows, wandering shadows, and endless silence.
Yet they did not find a single clue about the Zashiki-warashi.