A thorned branch grazed my cheek.
'How did this even happen, seriously.'
Leaping across stones made slick with layered moss, I looked back.
The dense jungle was nothing but silent, without even the sound of a small insect.
SNAP-CRACK.
A trampled rotten branch shrieked. At the same moment, something sharp shot out of the empty air.
'Is this a shooting game?'
When I forced my body into a twist and dodged it, the empty air where there had been nothing warped and the boundary closed.
Sliding into the gap of a thick root nearby to hide, I panted faintly.
Blood ran down out of my nose.
I wiped it off roughly with the back of my hand and spat out the metallic blood that had come up my throat.
'Ah......, my head.'
Clawing at the skull that had been perceiving my surroundings with the detection ability, I slowly let the sensation settle.
I felt like vomiting.
I wanted to grab the me of a few days ago, who had boldly run his mouth about solving this, by the collar.
Protagonist or whatever, I'm going to die before any of that.
'Which time is this? No......, what day is this?'
Since being eaten by the Other Side.
·
·
·
Approximately N days earlier.
It was after Sophia and I had moved elsewhere to fill out the résumé.
"A live test right away? I must have looked even prettier than I thought."
"I heard you were in an information management team. Was this not something you prepared for?"
Prepared? I had thought of coasting along in the position of an information provider, though.
Sophia laughed loudly, apparently having seen my dumbfounded expression. On my end this was not a joke but sincerity.
The work the Ability Office does divides broadly into two kinds.
One is identifying and cleaning up the problem at places where someone has been eaten by the Other Side and gone missing.
The other is preventing acts of terror committed by Other Side monsters that have burst out into reality.
Beyond that there are separate missions handed out under the pretext of leave, but that is not important now, so pass.
There was a commission that had recently come in to that Ability Office.
The disappearance case at the hotel at 11 Rushiang Street.
It was a case that had not appeared in detail in the original work, and at the same time something of a problem for my plan.
'The place where the protagonist appears is that one, of all places.'
Starting with the half-dying protagonist being found bleeding in the hotel lobby, the episodes in which he is picked up by an Ability Office member and becomes entangled with them were the main story of this boys' comic's early arc.
This period was also precisely the foothold on which the protagonist, plunged in an instant from a comfortable elite life into the abyss, accepted reality and found his own goal.
Which means the protagonist who was going to appear was a piping-hot newbie.
'I meant to snatch him up before the office did. I had no intention of solving anything.'
This had gotten awkward.
What if this disappearance case was connected to the protagonist's appearance? If I touched it, was there not a chance the protagonist would not appear at all, or would appear perfectly hale and sturdy?
I decided to pull one foot out.
"I didn't think I'd be thrown straight into the field."
"One learns by being broken. There is no such thing as separate practice."
"So you're saying I'm going to get......broken?"
"Thaaat is not it."
Sophia, who had been laughing like someone who had picked up something entertaining, looked up at the hotel with a serious face.
The wind blowing in right on cue, the flickering light of the streetlamp, the full moon risen bright, and even Sophia's sorrowful expression that looked as though it held a story.
Having staged a scene perfect for use as a panel, Sophia spoke.
"You have heard the recent rumor?"
"Ah, well, isn't it just a rumor?"
The ghost story that the Other Side was expanding and the portion encroaching into reality was growing.
It was, literally, nonsense.
Because the reason such rumors circulated was nothing more than groundwork laid for the plausibility of the protagonist's dramatic entrance.
People vanishing at irregular intervals, monsters bursting out, and so on. Ominous rumors had to be laid down first so that no one would find it strange when the protagonist suddenly dropped into this place.
It should have been nothing but a one-line setting for the author's convenience.
It isn't?
Sophia was telling me that that plausibility had actually created a case and was happening in this world.
"We judged there was a need to make certain of it before it grew worse. Would it make sense to you if I said that was also why the Captain waited for you?"
The Other Side and the accidents it causes are lying around everywhere, so why use me on that rumor of all things?
......I could not say that, so I shut my mouth.
'A disaster I called down on myself. That's right. Haaa.......'
Unable to expose that my ability was sprinkling water around, I had run a con using my knowledge of the original work, and I had tripped over my own foot.
"When you named 11 Rushiang Street, we did not even need to hesitate. If not for this, what would we use you for?"
"Thaaat's right. Of course. As if I picked that place for no reason."
"Then this conversation will go quickly."
Sophia poked at my back as I dawdled in front of the hotel.
"The hotel manager appears to be in quite a bind. I heard you intended to stay here anyway, so if you resolve it reasonably, he will not charge you for the room."
Money is not the problem, though.
"Our new hire, go and show us that you are the sort of talent who passes a practical interview in one shot."
It was pressure implying that if I could not do even this much, I would be of no help at all to the Ability Office.
What happens if that conclusion is reached?
It would probably end at Sophia's level, before I ever got subdued by the Captain.
Because Sophia's standard for the children she doted on included the condition that they be "good" children.
In the end I gave up.
"Start by telling me what you've investigated so far. I'll compare it with what I know."
Deciding to gladly offer up unpaid labor for a high-pressure live interview.
It was only a bother; if it was a disappearance related to the Other Side, there was nothing I could not do anyway.
***
Summarizing the details of "the Room 404 disappearance case at the hotel at 11 Rushiang Street," it went like this.
From about two or three months ago, people who stayed in Room 404 began to vanish.
There were six missing in all, and no commonality was found.
The disappearances came at intervals of a month at the longest and two days at the shortest, and from the first to the last, no one returned.
Checking the CCTV installed in the corridor showed that the likely window for the disappearances was between midnight and four in the morning.
Ultimately the hotel judged it an Other Side case and commissioned the Ability Office.
"......Where have I seen something similar?"
It had not happened at this hotel, but I remembered reading about a case with a similar pattern somewhere in the original work.
A large number of disappearances at a specific location.......
"This feels off."
Having sent Sophia back and stepped into the hotel alone, I halted at the sight of the dim, narrow lobby.
Dark wallpaper, a wooden floor that seemed to run backward through the eras, hazy light, and at the end of it a plainly placed desk.
The mood resembled that of a horror game a guy on my old team used to recommend as fun.
I took one deep breath and walked down the corridor.
Thud, thud.
The sound of my shoes rang heavily through the space.
Only after passing through the oppressive corridor did the desk where check-in was possible come clearly into view. I understood that the manager lived on site and took charge of the overall building management as well, yet no one was at the desk now.
Neglecting his duties after placing a commission, no less.
"And he collects a salary doing this."
I sat in the small single chair in front of it, waited for the manager, and organized my thoughts.
Other Side disappearance rumors for the sake of plausibility.
The disappearances in Room 404.
The protagonist found covered in blood.
The hotel returned to normal.
'Ah, so Room 404 and the protagonist were a set after all.'
In that case, had the case gone unsolved in the original work?
If the office took the commission and still failed, that meant it was that difficult.
Haa......, my chest tightened.
"Who is there?"
Just then a middle-aged man with a hat pulled low came over from inside and spoke. With annoyance stuck all over his expression, there was far more will to drive me out than to welcome me.
"Are you the manager?"
"I am, but? If you mean to stay, look elsewhere. This place......, as you can see it is a mess, and there is no elevator. I do not recommend it."
Oh, there was no signboard either. This is a manager with truly no intention of taking guests. Look at him, only now coming out after being in the staff lounge the whole time.
The manager shuffled over and sat in the creaking chair behind the desk. Only then did our eye levels match.
I smiled a pale smile and spoke.
"You placed a commission, didn't you."
CLATTER!
The manager startled to his feet, knocking into the old display case behind him, and a few items fell onto the carpet on the floor.
"A-are you from the Ability Office?"
I looked up at the abruptly courteous manager and tugged up the corner of my mouth.
The manager acted that way because the Ability Office held the effective controlling stake in this Rushiang Street. In a good way or a bad way.
"Please be at ease. It's a bit much for me."
"Er, w-well, I, that is, i-is it all right?"
Just what sort of image had the Captain built, to make the manager tremble like this and look back over his own life?
I wanted to emulate it a little.
"I'm still new, so I don't know much."
"Ah! That is why I did not recognize your face."
I smiled a pale smile and looked up at the manager as he broke into a cold sweat. Belatedly realizing his slip, the manager keeps rolling his eyes and reading my mood.
'At this rate he looks ready to tell me to stay for free rather than just waive the room fee, Sophia.'
A good idea came to me, so I asked the manager.
"The place with the problem is Room 404, right?"
"It is. It has been no small headache."
"And earlier you said there were no rooms."
"Well, it is not that there are none......."
"Then it can't be helped. I'll have to stay in Room 404."
"Hmm? That room? Are you serious?"
I was serious.
The protagonist is tied up in it, so who would I hand that room over to?
"In exchange, about the room fee....... I haven't received my salary yet."
"Well, for an Ability Office employee, room and board is naturally a part we provide, so that is no problem......."
"Ah, so it was naturally provided?"
Sophia, are you a con artist?
Shamelessly offering to knock the room fee down?
Taking that hit, I swallowed a hollow laugh and shook my head.
"Room 404 sounds very good to me."
"Even so, how could I......."
The manager kept hesitating, his conscience apparently pricking at him.
I had no choice but to frighten him a little.
"If this isn't resolved, it will spread to the whole hotel. Do you want to be eaten by the Other Side?"
"N-no, that is....... Hoo, do as you please."
The manager, pale as death, kept glancing at the telephone at the corner of the desk, but fortunately he never contacted the office.
Only after a simple check-in and writing out the pledge he wanted was I shown to Room 404.
***
Waking from sleep, I registered that nothing much had changed from before I fell asleep.
It was not deep sleep, but I seemed to have slept a fairly long time, and yet the time the clock on the wall pointed to was still midnight.
"So it's like this."
Room 404 was more spacious than I expected.
Especially puzzling when you consider this hotel's habit of chopping its rooms into small pieces.
Being the room at the very end of the corridor, it seemed to make use of the leftover scrap space in the corner.
Using the building's corner to put in a large window and induce a sense of openness must have had the same intent.
"Is it a mirror, or is it ink?"
When I pushed the white curtain aside, a scene spread out that was pitch-black all over, with nothing visible.
The manager's boast that the night view was worth seeing crossed my mind.
"Haa....... Let's just work."
Thanks to the sleep, the accumulated fatigue had eased, too.
I got up, walked to the entryway without hesitation, and flung the door open.
I had thought it would be a world all black like outside the window, but this went one step further.
A blue sea spread out in front of the door.
"Hahaha......."
I obediently shut the door and opened it again.
This time a precipice that looked several hundred meters deep spread out beneath my feet.
A fierce wind even blew in and thoroughly tore through the room.
I obediently shut the door and swept back my tangled hair.
"Wow, how fascinating."
It was not fascinating in the slightest.