Murder At The Rainy Mansion ~The Never Ending 100 Tales~

Chapter 43: Which one is a living person and which one is a ghost

After they finished reminiscing their high school memories, Kana tactfully left the room. Then, Shimizu finally began to tell his story.

“When we were in high school, Matsuko was suffering from mental illness. I think it got worse after she became an adult. Well, at that time I was busy with work so I didn’t meet her much. But… I have a feeling that if she wanted to die, she would die alone. That is why I have been wondering about how she ended up dying in a double suicide.”

Ayano: “I see. Then why didn’t you ask Michiko-san about this matter just now?”

Shimizu: “Michiko?”

Ayano: “Huh? You don’t know her? She is Matsuko-san’s younger sister. They have quite an age gap.”

After listening to her explanation, Shimizu seemed to recall the person. “The one at the entrance just now, that was Michiko? The last I saw her, she was an elementary school student.”

Ayano: “That was decades ago.”

Shimizu: “More importantly, that was a living person?!”

“You thought that was Matsuko-san’s ghost? You know Matsuko-san is right there, don’t you?” Ayano pointed her fingers in the direction towards the room with white sofa.

“That thing never moves, so I thought it is just an afterimage!” Shimizu exclaimed.

Ayano went out to the hallway and called out to Michiko. A while later, Michiko, who was dressed in a white kimono, came into the room. Ayano introduced Shimizu to her, saying, “This is Shimizu-san, a friend of your sister.”

“Huh? Shimizu-san? You don’t look different at… Ahem. You do look different,” Michiko said and laughed heartily. Her cheerfulness made her looked very different from Matsuko.

“Your personality is very different…” Shimizu muttered softly.

Ayano: “Maybe you have been staring fixedly at Michiko-san so she was looking at you suspiciously and that is why you misunderstood that she has a quiet demeanor like Matsuko-san.”

Michiko laughed when she heard Ayano’s explanation. They chatted about the good old days for a while and then Michiko left the room.

Shimizu: “This mansion makes thing more confusing. It is hard to tell which one is a living person and which one is a ghost. In the end, Michiko also doesn’t know anything either.”

“Maybe because Michiko-san was still in the first grade at that time. But even if you thought that she was a ghost, you should just ask her questions. Many of the residents in this Rainy Mansion can’t see ghost anyway. But they still might do things when they can’t even see the ghost,” Ayano said with a laugh.

Right at that moment, they saw Toru walking down the hallway from the dining room. Looking at Toru wandering around while holding a horse racing newspaper even after he died, Ayano couldn’t help but ask the question that had been bothering her mind. “Did Matsuko-san commit suicide to follow after Uncle Toru because she liked him very much? I wonder why a good girl always fall for a bad boy.”

Shimizu: “Maybe I should have become a bad boy when I was younger. … Why are you looking at me like that?”

Ayano was thinking that Shimizu did kind of had a bad boy personality and her thoughts might had shown on her face. It seemed the saying ‘the eyes say more than the mouth’ was true after all.

“Anyway, incidents keep happening in this mansion and I don’t even know where to start,” Shimizu said in an anger tone while taking out a cigarette box. Then he asked, “Is smoking prohibited here?”

Ayano: “Not really. Most of the elders here like to smoke. I can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke though.”

“You can just simply say no,” Shimizu said before leaving with a cigarette in his hand.