"Are you even listening to what you're saying?"
At those words, Kazumi's expression shifted and shifted again, his brow gradually knotting tighter, and he looked at Teacher Ando with a strange, scrutinizing gaze.
What on earth was "That Leo must've been early-period Leo, the one who hadn't undergone jeep training yet, which is why he got defeated" supposed to mean?
Words like that, coming out of the mouth of an adult teacher, were nothing short of outlandish.
"Ahem, ahem, ahem!"
Teacher Ando also seemed to realize his slip of the tongue. He cleared his throat awkwardly with a few dry coughs, raised a hand to push the glasses up the bridge of his nose, and tried to mask the unnaturalness in his expression.
"I'm sorry. Before the two of you arrived, these children had been carrying on about how Ultraseven and Ultraman Leo defeated the Slit-Mouthed Woman, and I let myself get caught up in it too. I know — really, those were just people using Ultraseven and Ultraman Leo masks as disguises..."
"They were NOT disguises! That really was Ultraseven and Ultraman Leo!"
"Yeah! They came here to fight monsters! Only real Ultramen could possibly defeat a yokai like the Slit-Mouthed Woman!"
"If they weren't Ultramen, how could ordinary people have ever pulled it off!"
...
Before Teacher Ando had even finished speaking, the elementary schoolers nearby surged in all at once like a hornet's nest that had been jabbed, loudly objecting in a chorus of overlapping voices, every little face stamped with unshakable conviction.
Seeing this, the parents hurriedly pulled their own children aside, apologized to Kazumi and Teacher Ando, and then began scolding them under their breath — but how were the kids ever going to take it lying down? They started bickering right back at their own mothers and fathers.
Kogure looked at those fuming little children and couldn't help but smile, then sighed and rubbed the back of his head.
"If only it really had been a monster and not a yokai."
Compared with yokai of the curse-and-ghost-story variety, he'd much rather face off against a monster.
"But how could monsters and Ultramen possibly exist in this world?"
"...Well, even though Ultramen don't exist, as for monsters..."
Hearing Kogure's words, Kazumi's expression turned even stranger. He started to say something and then bit it back, leaving the sentence unfinished. Instead, he turned back to Teacher Ando and continued questioning him about the course of events and the details.
Teacher Ando didn't hold back a single thing either, and informed Kazumi of Teacher Sekiguchi's conjectures as well as the Slit-Mouthed Woman's own account of herself.
"The Slit-Mouthed Woman's... child?"
Kazumi's expression shifted slightly.
"How tragic!"
Kogure had already become absorbed in that pitiful story, a look of genuine sympathy showing on his face.
"To think there was a backstory like that behind the Slit-Mouthed Woman. If the social welfare system back then had been more thorough, maybe someone could've taken her in and helped her, and if that had happened, perhaps she'd never have turned into the Slit-Mouthed Woman."
He sighed again. Having heard that backstory, the fear he'd held in the depths of his heart toward the Slit-Mouthed Woman had genuinely been diluted by no small amount, replaced instead by a heavy sense of lamentation.
"What kind of foolish nonsense are you spouting? The Slit-Mouthed Woman! How on earth could she have a child!"
Kazumi couldn't help but snap at Kogure with a rebuke. The information had gone beyond his expectations, and his emotions had become a touch agitated.
"What's wrong, Senpai Kazumi?"
Kogure was stunned by the scolding and turned to look at his superior with a blank face, somewhat unable to make heads or tails of the matter.
Hold on — could it be that... Senpai Kazumi himself was the...?
A startling conjecture flashed across Kogure's mind like lightning, and without meaning to he widened his eyes, sizing Kazumi Junya up and down.
"Just count the years out and you'll see."
Kazumi paid no mind to Kogure's odd gaze and analyzed in a low voice.
"If the Slit-Mouthed Woman tracked her way to Shimokitazawa Elementary School, that means her child is at most twelve years old. But the Slit-Mouthed Woman first appeared fifteen years ago — and in that very year, she was already destroyed! How could she possibly have given birth to a child who's only twelve now!"
Kazumi said gravely.
"Twelve years old... fifteen years..."
Kogure caught on as well.
That's right! The timeline didn't fit! The woman who'd become the Slit-Mouthed Woman fifteen years ago couldn't possibly have a twelve-year-old child!
Unless she'd only given birth to the child three years after she'd become the Slit-Mouthed Woman!--
But even then, it still didn't add up. Teacher Sekiguchi, who'd had contact with the Slit-Mouthed Woman in the past, had said that the reason the Slit-Mouthed Woman feared pomade was because of pregnancy — yet the Slit-Mouthed Woman hadn't been pregnant at the time.
Even supposing Teacher Sekiguchi had guessed wrong... was it possible that some human had coupled with the Slit-Mouthed Woman after she had already become a yokai, and produced a child?
Kazumi and Kogure stared blankly at each other. For the moment, neither of them could make sense of what was really going on, either.
Meanwhile, Amamiya Rin had been driving the car at a breakneck pace the whole way, only easing off the gas when he reached the vicinity of the residential area where Fujino Terumi lived.
The residential area was excessively quiet at this hour of the night. The street lamps were spaced far apart, casting patches of dim halos and yet thicker shadows. From a distance, he could already make out the three-storey apartment building Fujino Terumi had described.
It looked rather plain. He wouldn't have guessed that Fujino Terumi, by now a major star, would live in this sort of apartment building meant for ordinary people.
Amamiya Rin parked the car some distance away at the roadside, killed the engine, sat in the driver's seat, rolled down the window, and quietly observed for a while.
He didn't head over right away. Although Tomie had guessed that the supernatural entity clinging to Fujino Terumi was a weakling.
But supernatural phenomena, when they didn't come with numerical stats, were bound to have some sort of mechanism behind them. If he rushed in heedlessly, one careless misstep, and even Tomie cells might not be enough to save him.
The building stood silent; most of the windows were dark, with only a scattered few units lit up. Fujino Terumi lived on the third floor; her window had thick curtains drawn across it, with a faint sliver of light leaking through the gap — possibly from a desk lamp.
Looking further upward, nothing had appeared beyond the balcony either. Neither in the sky above nor on the ground below was there any sign of the yokai Fujino Terumi had described as calling out to her.
On the surface, everything was normal.
[I've arrived. I'm observing the area for now and haven't spotted anything. How are things on your end?]
Amamiya Rin took out his phone and sent Fujino Terumi a text.
Very soon, Fujino Terumi replied with a text of her own.
[She's gone. It was right after I made that call to you — she'd been trying to coax me into going outside the whole time, but since I refused to come out and even hid inside my bedroom pretending not to hear, after a little while there was no more movement outside. I'm guessing she's already left. Only — I didn't dare go out to confirm it.]
[That's the right call. Whatever you do, don't take any risks.]
Glancing over the contents of the message, Amamiya Rin opted not to take it on absolute faith. After all, Fujino Terumi herself couldn't guarantee that what she knew was necessarily true.
He started up the jeep and circled the apartment building a couple of times.
He didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. It seemed to really be as Fujino Terumi had said — that yokai of unknown identity had truly departed.
Only then did Amamiya Rin get out of the car and head toward Fujino Terumi's residence.
He knocked on the door, and from inside the room came an immediate rush of hurried footsteps.
"Rin-kun?"
The footsteps stopped behind the door, and a cautious voice came from within.
Amamiya Rin answered, and only then did the door open from inside, with a pale-faced Fujino Terumi appearing before Amamiya Rin's eyes.
____
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