Suga nodded.
“Then, what do you know about the other victims?”
The man briefly looked at the other victims and then looked back at Suga.
“Two days later, I found the second victim asleep on the couch on the first floor. In the following days, several new victims continued to appear until there were five of us finally.”
Suga’s expression changed in surprise.
“Sorry in advance if I ask this, but you don’t seem too bothered by all this. Did something happen?”
The man looked surprised for some reason, then looked a little awkward.
“In that case, how should I put it….”
The man looked a little hesitant, making Suga even more surprised. The man continued saying.
“Honestly, I’m a little happy to be here. The kidnapper always gave nice food daily, a comfortable apartment room to sleep in, and all apartment facilities are still well-available here, like a gym, swimming pool, etc. I’m always busy with my work every day until late at night, so as long as I’m here, I finally feel like I can rest.”
Suga appeared to notice something.
“You mean while you’re here, you feel like you’re on some kind of vacation?”
This man smiled awkwardly and nodded.
“Yes, that is so...”
Suga crossed his arms with an astonished expression.
The current time is 7.00 pm. Suga was wearing a tucked-in black shirt, belt, black trousers, and black boots and was covered in a white Yokai Controller Overcoat with a black stripe pattern; he was sitting on one of the long armchairs in the guest hall of the Yokai Controller Association headquarter with Nellson who was the size of an owl in general, standing on a short table before Suga while watching him curiously. Many other Yokai Controller Association members are also doing their activities in this guest hall. Suga read his most recent investigation document, and his expression turned astonished.
“This proves that what the hyena Yokai said is true.”
Suga was reminded again flashback when he faced the hyena Yokai in the loco pilot’s room in the subway.
“I’m not an enemy. I'll talk to you again when you’ve proven that coordinate.”
Those were the last words Nishiyama, the hyena Yokai said to Suga. Flashback end.
Back at the present time. Suga is reading his investigation document while propping his cheek with his left hand on the armchair. Suga turned his attention to Nellson.
“Nellson, what do you think of this hyena Yokai?”
Nellson’s expression turned astonished.
“I can’t help but think about his actions. If it’s going to be like this, why did he kidnap those people?”
Suga nodded.
“Right. Did he just want to attract our attention or something? But if so, why did he do it? He said after we prove his point, he will meet us again to discuss something.”
Nellson’s expression turned serious.
“I don’t know what hyena Yokai is planning; you better stay alert, Suga.”
Suga’s expression turned serious, and then nodded. Nellson continued speaking.
“What should we do next?”
Suga paused for a moment to think.
“If all Nishiyama wants is to meet me to talk about something, then conducting an investigation to track him down is an act of futility. We are waiting to hear from him. Now I will check the other case that was given to me yesterday.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Nellson nodded.
Suga closed his investigation document on hyena Yokai, then opened another Investigation document. Suga looked at the cover of this document which read “Confidential,” like his investigation document on hyena Yokai. Not long after, Suga’s expression turned serious. Suga’s investigation document contains a massive missing person case from a small town called Kagohara. Suga then read an article from a newspaper inside the document:
“Date: xx month: xx years: 20xx
Massive missing persons case in Kagohara Town.
Kagohara town, Japan. It was reported that there were cases of massive missing persons totaling eleven people in just one night. Witnesses from the families of each victim said that they had seen their families the previous morning, and they left their homes to go about their usual activities. In the afternoon, they lost contact with the victims until the next day. After several days of investigations by the police, the victims are still missing.”
Suga continued reading this investigation document which included the personal biodata of the eleven missing people: four middle-aged men, three middle-aged women, three adult men in their 20s to 30s, and one adult woman in her 20s, along with related information. Suga continued to read the next pages of this document which contained logs of investigation activities from the police. Before long, several logs caught Suga’s attention:
“Date: xx month: xx years: 20xx
So shocking even for a senior investigator like me working on a case like this, eleven people disappeared in just one day. Today I interviewed the victims' families, and most of them didn’t show any strange behavior before they disappeared. Except for some of them who said that before the victim disappeared, they saw their family members who had disappeared “a long time ago” in a state of fear. I know it’s illogical to tie something like this into an investigation. However, I wanted to ignore it; I found myself in doubt. I mean, if only one person experienced something like that, I would just ignore it, but several of them also experienced it?”
Suga then read the last activity log:
“Date: xx month: xx years: 20xx
There is still no definite clue as to where these victims disappeared. Witnesses said nothing strange about the victims before they disappeared. This case will be more difficult than I thought. The investigation process will continue.”
Suga’s expression turned serious.
“No need to confirm anymore; this case must have something to do with Yokai or...”
Suga’s expression turned doubtful for some reason, and it appeared like something was bothering him. Seeing Suga, Nellson looked surprised.
“What’s wrong, Suga?”
Suga came to his senses and then looked at Nellson.
“It’s okay; it’s just that the case this time is unusual because of the missing person cases that happened together in one night.”
Nellson flew next to Suga and took part in reading the investigation documents that Suga had.
“Hmm... some victims said they saw their relatives who also disappeared before?”
Suga nodded.
“That’s right, what they saw might be the human form of an unsealed Yokai. But if that’s the case, it means that there are several Yokai because other people also experience the same thing.”
Nellson nodded. Suga continued talking.
“I’ll look for related articles here first. We’re going to the library, Nellson.”
Suga got up from his seat and walked towards the stairs at the end of the guest hall; Nellson watched him for a while, then flew after Suga.
The current time is 7:45 pm. Suga walked along a classic Japanese-style corridor with a shiny brown wooden patterned floor. Suga arrived at a tall double door made of black wood with beautiful carvings. Suga opened this door and entered a library. The library is very expansive and combines the height of two levels of the building in the middle of the second floor with a surrounding open hallway with ornately carved tall wooden cylinder columns. The center of the ceiling is made of shiny brown wooden framed convex glass with a chandelier in the middle, showing a view of the night sky and the moon, and right below it, there are rows of long tables with reading lamps and several single armchairs in the middle of the library. This room was filled with countless neatly arranged tall wooden shelves. Various books and scrolls are neatly arranged, with sliding ladders to help reach the books on the high shelves.
Suga was on one of the long reading tables in the middle of the room with the laptop provided by this expansive library. Nellson stood on the table, watching Suga curiously. Suga is looking for newspaper articles archived online by the Yokai Controller Association and accessible to its members only. Not long after, Suga’s expression changed to astonishment.
“When I searched for news articles about Kagohara town, for some reason, there were two places with the same name but different locations. One was Kagohara town, and another one was Kagohara village.”
Nellson appeared to have realized something.
“Doesn’t something like that possible?”
Suga nodded.
“Yes, but strangely both have news of a similar missing person case.”
Suga read a news article about Kagohara village that caught his eye:
“September 28, 1987
Kagohara village landslide disaster.
Kagohara village, Japan. The natural disaster occurred on September 27, estimated around 9:00 pm to 11:30 pm local time, which cut off access to the main road to Kagohara village, which has a population of hundreds of people. The landslide disaster was so severe that it took one week to reopen road access to the village. Because hills, ravines, and swamps surrounded Kagohara village, Kagohara villagers were isolated during this period. During the isolation period, villagers could only access transportation by boat via the river. Because the isolation period was not too long, the villagers did not have to go through an emergency, such as running out of food supplies. Even so, the rescue team is monitoring the situation in the village daily.”