One hundred ways to resist the Bandoli women

"It's not hard, after all, she is the young master and young lady of our group."

Amakusa Jusan is just as frivolous as he is portrayed to be.

"Where should we go first?"

Shengren glanced at Yuanshou.

Without the need for the bodyguard to open the car door, Katsuto and Enju sat in the back seat of the car themselves.

"To Osaka."

"Oh?"

"I have an appointment with a so-called 'Rokukenjima Witch Hunter' in Osaka to talk about this matter at noon tomorrow."

"Are you planning to go to Hokkaido first and then to Okinawa?"

Although Katsuto understood her intention, he still teased her.

"It's not that far..."

By the way, it’s almost the second day now.

So, it’s not tomorrow noon, but today noon...

Sorry, I am the challenger.

Katsuto took out his cell phone and sent a message to Yamabuki Saya saying that he had something to do and would not be home for the next two days.

"It's probably too late to buy Shinkansen tickets - please stay up all night, Amakusa."

"Hey, hey, who asked us to take this job?"

Sitting in the driver's seat, Amakusa Jusan shrugged.

As the car started, Katsuto and Amakusa Jusan started chatting word by word.

Although it may be shocking, the distance from Tokyo to Osaka is not close at all, it is 550 kilometers away.

The drive takes nearly eight hours.

Therefore, if there is no companion to chat with, the driver will be very tired.

However, even so.

About an hour after getting on the highway, Shengren fell silent.

“…Hello.”

Noticing the situation, Amakusa Jusan lowered his voice and looked behind him through the rearview mirror.

"Your relationship isn't good, right? Then what is this?"

Through the rearview mirror, I can clearly see——

The red head tied into twin ponytails with two pink hair accessories leaned on Katsuto's arm at some point.

But Shengren still let her lean on him like that, and then he moved over there quietly - to make the girl's neck more comfortable.

“Isn’t this quite trustworthy?”

"Isn't this how blood relatives should get along?"

However, this is nothing at all.

Just from negative to zero...not right.

It hasn't even reached zero yet.

"Compared to this."

Katsuto also looked towards the rearview mirror—or to be more precise, at the scene reflected in the rearview mirror.

"I'm being followed."

"Yes, two cars. One is a black limousine, and the other is an ordinary van - do you want to change the route?"

"Can you get rid of them?"

"There are several highways that can lead into Osaka from different directions... but once you get to Osaka you won't be able to hide for long."

Osaka is so close to Kyoto, where the Sumaji family headquarters is located, so they can easily find it with a simple search.

"…Let's do what we can first."

At least here, I won't be followed all the time.

But, two cars?

Are there two forces?

There is no doubt that the van belonged to the Sumaji family.

But was the person in that black limousine Kasumi Sumaji herself?

That self-righteous guy, would he really do the tracking work himself? And he even changed a car specially for that.

If not, then who is the force that this familiar-looking black luxury car belongs to?

Is he an enemy or a friend?

87

Chapter 87: Collection of books and message in a bottle.

"Oh, I can't forget this. It was in April 2014. I received a strange commission from a friend... It was said that a large number of books left by a wealthy man were put up for auction."

Time entered the next day... No, actually it was noon of the same day as the end of the previous chapter.

The location is a high-end western restaurant.

In a secluded seat deep inside the restaurant, Yuanshou and a man who had just entered old age sat face to face.

Amakusa was at the entrance of the western restaurant. He was obviously keeping watch to prevent the pursuers from the Sumaji family.

"Some of them seem to be of great value in terms of folklore, archaeology, or perhaps supernatural studies. I hope I can go to a confidential place to take a look and estimate their value."

Apparently, they were talking about eleven years ago...

No.

To be exact, it was ten years and one month ago.

Actually, although it is always said to be eleven years, the Rokukenjima incident was only a little more than ten and a half years ago.

Six months after the tragedy on Rokukenjima, should we say it was an aftermath? In short, it was something related.

As for Shengren, he sat at a table a little further away from the two men.

He listened to the conversation between the two through his mobile phone while looking at other related things.

Let’s not talk about this for now.

"It was explained that this collection of books was the stuff that escaped the disaster on Rokukenjima. It was put up for auction by the owner of the island, Ushiromiya Ewa."

The man sitting opposite Yuanshou, who seemed to be quite knowledgeable, spoke enthusiastically in a polite tone.

The food in front of him had not been touched at all, which showed how devoted and passionate he was.

He is a professor at a certain university and is well-known for his authority in Western folklore.

However, this is only the most superficial and presentable subject in his research.

What he really studied throughout his life was the supernatural and demonology, which included occultism, Western magic, alchemy, etc.

Well, the problem is coming.

Why did Yuanshou want to find out the truth of eleven years ago, but find this kind of Emm...

Mystic?

"First, what I learned from examining the collection of books is that Ushiromiya Ewa has no knowledge of folklore, and that the original owner of this collection of books, Ushiromiya Kinzo, is undoubtedly one of the top five demonology authorities in Japan."

In April 2014, a major antique dealer in Tokyo acquired a large number of ancient books that were estimated to be of high historical value.

This batch of books was entrusted by Ushiromiya Ewa to be auctioned and was deposited with an antique dealer.

At that time, public opinion already believed that Ushiromiya Ewa, as the only survivor, inherited the Ushiromiya family's headship and took all the property for herself.

However, only half a year had passed since the accident, and the death or disappearance had not yet been established.

Therefore, Huiyu may not even be able to receive the death insurance compensation for her family and is very poor financially.

At that time, it seemed that she would sell anything that was valuable.

The books stored in the Kuyutori Temple, where she had escaped the disaster, became one of them.

Then, this batch of ancient books, which were later called the "Ushiromiya Collection", frightened the authorities invited by the antique dealers for appraisal.

This is because, in the [Ushiromiya Collection], there are actually many extremely important documents that have never been discovered despite being known to exist for thousands of years.

For example, there are not a few unpublished manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci.

For example, various books on mysticism.

Apparently, Katsuto's biological father, Ushiromiya Kinzo, was also one of these gossipers.

Although it is not clear how he collected those ancient books together, he must have spent his huge fortune buying them from wealthy people who had the same interest.

In order to understand what happened eleven years ago and to understand Ushiromiya Kinzo himself, it is necessary to contact an expert in this field.

"Since this incident, Rokukenjima and the Ushiromiya Collection have become names that we will never forget."

...For us.

This "we" probably refers to colleagues in the occult world who share the same interests as Ushiromiya Kinzo.

Through this incident, the name Rokukenjima has acquired important significance in the world of supernatural studies.

Although the accident on Rokukenjima was widely reported by the media, it did not reach the international level.

However, as the news of the discovery of the book collection spread throughout the world, the impression of Rokukenjima was changed from a small island in the Izu Islands to a magical island mixed with puzzles, questions, mystery and weirdness.

This means that before Eiha spread Kinzo's collection of books to the public, Rokukenjima was just an unknown island that would not remain in anyone's memory...

However, after the Ushiromiya collection of books became famous throughout the world, Rokukenjima suddenly gained a mysterious impression.

"Then, what happened was the message in the bottle incident."

It turned that island, an unknown island in the Izu Islands, into a magical island.

The mysterious witch, Beatrice's island.

A message in a bottle is a form of communication in which a letter is sealed in an empty bottle and thrown into the sea to be delivered to an unspecified person.

Although it is famous for sending an SOS signal from an uninhabited island, it is also widely recognized as a time-lapse suicide note that confesses the truth after one's death, influenced by famous overseas mystery novels.

The Rokukenjima bottle message incident belongs to the latter category.

Briefly introduce the message in a bottle.

Two wine bottles found by fishermen on a nearby island were filled with several large notes signed by Ushiromiya Maria, but they were definitely not written by the nine-year-old girl. They recorded the day before and the day of the accident like a diary.

The contents of the letter are the [Witch Legend Serial Murder Case] and the [Mystery of the Golden Witch Beatrice].

In the mysterious diary, it is written that the Ushiromiya family, who were trapped on the island due to a typhoon, were involved in a witch's resurrection ritual and were killed one after another in a magical way.

Then, at the end, the Golden Witch was resurrected, and everything was swallowed up by the Golden City... It was written as if this was the entire picture at that time.

What is strange is that although the technique is magical, the letter gives a very detailed description of the situation on the island at that time.

Former servants who had worked for the Ushiromiya family testified that "there is no doubt that it was written by someone familiar with the matter."

But the most important thing is that there are indeed two messages in the bottle.

Both messages in bottles recorded the period from the day before the accident to the day of the accident like a diary, but the specific contents were completely different.

It was as if one was real and the other was fake. Or maybe both were fake.

Only the beginning and the end are consistent.

At the beginning, a family of 18 was trapped on an island due to a typhoon. Then at the end, everyone died, the golden witch was resurrected, and everything was swallowed up by the golden city.

Oh, and one more thing—that's the witch's inscription.

Both diaries describe a series of murders based on the witch's inscription, but the order and method of death of the victims, as well as the "story of two days" are all different.