Hanabi

Chapter 10: Decision

INFO:

Konbini – convenience store.

Fukushuu – “復習” means “revenge”.

Shinkansen – Japanese high speed trains. There’s a line connecting Tokyo to Osaka, and also one connecting Tokyo to Kyoto. Both these lines in the fastest type take close to 2 and half hours of travel, and the ~not so amazingly fast but still really fast~ type takes almost 3 hours.

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Tomomi waited nervously for an answer from the young man in front of her, and he looked quite confused. Haruna and Tomomi had practically dragged Ethan out of the shop right after he got there with his backpack from college still wrapped on his shoulders, and were now sitting with him in a cafe.

His eyes scaned the papers the girls had shown him, the missing persons' posters, Kamiya Hideo's file and the students list being among those. They had asked him if anything unusual happened around the shop or Kamiya's house before the yuurei appeared, and when he looked puzzled Haruna just shoved those papers in front of him on the table.

- Where did you get all of this? - he asked, eyeing the two girls.

- It doesn't matter. - Haruna said, holding her hands together over the table - Please tell us what you know.

- Well... this is indeed Kamiya-san's son, Hideo. - Ethan started, despite being still visibly suspicious of them - He's always in the house like a zombie.

- Doesn't he have a job or something? - Tomomi asked, and Ethan shook his head.

- No, since I started working for Kamiya-san four months ago, he's always home and looking dirty and strange. I always thought he's depressed or something. Are you really thinking that those ghosts have something to do with him?

- Well, yuurei don't just appear out of nowhere, Ethan-san. - Haruna explained, taking a deep breath - They're always connected to the reasons or cirumstances of their deaths. So, or they go around haunting who killed them, or they haunt the place where they died, or they haunt the area where their bodies were disposed of. Normally, yuurei are really old when I find them, meaning they died years or decades ago, like another one me and Tomo had to deal with these days. That one had died in the house where other people moved to, and they started having problems. But the ones in the shop disappeared two months ago.

- Haruna-san, I understand what you're telling me but, with all due respect, you're not a police officer...

- That doesn't mean I'll let a murderer walk away. We'll make the police find him. Either our guy is Kamiya-san, or Hideo. Or you, but I wouldn't bet my money on that.

Tomomi wanted to hide somewhere. She couldn't believe Haruna just said that to the guy. Ethan looked bothered at first, but he eventually just let out a heavy sigh.

- Ok, you asked me if I saw something unusual. - he started, placing his hands over the papers - I see unusual things everyday. Hideo is a weird guy and he snaps easily, I don't really talk to him that much. When he shows up in the shop I try to ignore him. So I really don't know how to help you.

- Why doesn't he work at the shop? - Tomomi asked, thinking about that for the first time. It was weird that Kamiya would hire a stranger as a shopkeeper when his own son was jobless.

- Because he's trouble, Kamiya-san doesn't trust him. I just said he snaps easily, can you imagine someone like that selling antiques to old ladies who go there and spend two hours looking around?