Monogatari Series - Volume 26 - Chapter 2.04

004

She’d said something about how she didn’t need to test me anymore, but this felt like nothing else but another test—even though I was a shut-in, why did I, Sengoku Nadeko, have to repeatedly overcome conditions and examinations coming at me from all sides?

As for the apartment in question, it appeared as if the resident had just recently moved out—indeed, after going inside, the interior was that of a decent apartment, just as Gaen-san had said.

Rather than contemporary art, it was more like a designer apartment… Apparently, this particular room was one of the more luxurious ones, but after chewing on the words that Gaen-san had told me before we entered, this empty room evoked a different flavor.

Because, in this room.

Three consecutive residents had hanged themselves.

Aha, it really was up to me as to whether I could use this as manga research. If I got scared here and ran away, I wouldn’t be able to do any research at all, and I wouldn’t kill two birds with one stone.

With that stone, I’d just be making a few ripples in the water, and that would be it—so I had to show my resolve here.

In order to make a living, I’d chosen a second job, and it took place in the world of ghost stories—naturally, I would have to confront some scary situations.

But it was still the trial period, and this was on the moderate end of things. Even though I’d said that they’d hanged themselves, no one had actually died yet.

Gaen-san was quite the considerate person—with that in mind, I looked up at the high ceiling. It was from there that a chandelier dangled, and it was supposedly from that chandelier that those three people had dangled.

Fortunately, each of them was discovered by a family member or roommate, thus ending without incident… The key point was that these three cases occurred consecutively.

First off, from Household A, Alfa-san had been hanged. Then, from Household B which had moved in next, Bravo-san had been hanged. And from Household C which had moved in after that, Charlie-san had been hanged. That was how things had proceeded, and as of now, the room was currently vacant.

Every household ended up moving out immediately after one of their members was found hanged—as if trying to run far, far away from something.

Hmm.

It was possible that there was somebody who was hanging them.

Also, even if it wasn’t a famous suicide site, it was still possible for one to coincidentally follow another… But three-in-a-row was certainly strange.

It was strange, and it was bizarre.

Plus, even if nobody had died yet, that wasn’t guaranteed for the “next time”… It had actually been a pretty close call for the third person. Apparently, he’d gone into cardiac arrest at one point…

“The place is on the verge of becoming stigmatized property. The owner was so troubled by his residents accomplishing failed suicides one after another that he decided to ask a specialist for help.”

Accomplishing failed suicides was a weird way of phrasing things… But the fact that the residents had attempted to hang themselves one after another surely had to be an oddity phenomenon.

A cursed room.

It felt beyond my capabilities… I’d barely set foot into the world of specialists, so I felt that it was too early for me to deal with work involving people’s lives, and I even told that to Gaen-san. I had no intention of exposing others to undeserved dangers for the sake of my own dreams.

“How sensible of you, Nadekko. It’s a good thing to be able to feel remorse—but I’m not someone that forces unreasonable things on my friends.”

You’re the one that forced the seat of a god onto me, though… No, no, I shouldn’t say that. There was no way that that was Gaen-san’s preferred outcome.

Gaen-san continued.

“I’m asking this of you, Nadekko, because I believe this case fits you perfectly. I’ve taken into account the fact that you’re a minor and a beginner—it may seem like an inappropriate request, but there’s an appropriate reason for it.”

Being slow on the uptake, all I could do was stare in puzzlement, but after hearing her specific reasoning, I was convinced.

As mentioned earlier, Alfa-san, Bravo-san, and Charlie-san had hanged themselves from the chandelier… Though they had no relation to each other beyond the apartment they lived in, there was one thing they had in common.

If one were to hang oneself using a rope, towel, or power cord, then even if their life was just barely saved, markings would still be left imprinted around their neck—but those markings.

They were bruises that looked like scales.

As if they’d been constricted by a snake.