Chapter 197: Yūmi Island (Part 3)
Chapter 197: Yūmi Island (Part 3)
Yūmi Island indeed had a beach.
Compared to other resort destinations, this beach was quite simple—it was just a shallow stretch and lacked any beautiful scenery. It could only be described as unremarkable.
Next to the beach, however, were the blue waters, which held a strong appeal for the young men and women who had come to the island.
The radio had said the weather wouldn’t be very good these days, but after stepping outside, they found the sky was relatively clear. Long clouds drifted across the blue sky, above a vast, hazy sea.
The students from Ryozan University were playing beach volleyball on the sand. The girls were either wearing bikinis or combinations of tank tops, shorts, and sun hats.
The rules seemed to be based on a best-of-three system.
Carefree laughter and playful shouts lingered on the beach. Most youths of this age had just escaped from heavy academic pressures. With no supervision from parents or elders, they threw themselves into fun without holding back.
“Aren’t you going to join in the fun, Ham-senpai?”
Ato Shiho, sitting under the beach umbrella, whispered the question.
“Ah…”
Yuki Ham, sitting nearby, had just taken a sip of his drink. The citrus flavor pleasantly eased his fatigue.
He only snapped out of it when she suddenly spoke to him.
“No, I’m just tagging along. Someone my age doesn’t really fit in with you all…”
He couldn’t help it. Even though they were all considered young people these days, Yuki always felt a big generation gap with his younger juniors.
It was like the divide between a first-year high school senior and a third-year junior high student. Even though the age difference wasn’t huge, their values, way of thinking, behavior habits, and even the popular things they liked were completely different.
“Eh! Not at all! I think it’s all thanks to Ham-senpai always looking out for us. You’re really reliable.”
Ato Shiho hadn’t gone into the water or played beach volleyball. She sat on a blanket under the umbrella, having taken off her T-shirt and shorts. Underneath, she wore a black athletic top and shorts that looked like underwear.
Her tall, well-trained figure even made Yuki Ham unintentionally stare, but he politely averted his gaze.
“It’s nothing special! I’m just trying my best as an assistant.”
Yuki Ham could only give a slight smile.
Just then, the two sitting on the beach heard a scream.
He and Ato Shiho stood up at the same time and rushed toward the direction the sound came from.
“Senpai, what happened?”
The others still playing on the beach also noticed this, but Yuki Ham and Ato Shiho had no time to pay them any mind. They ran at full speed toward the source of the scream.
“H-Help!”
From the bushes near the beach, a man stumbled out in a panic. His face was full of alarm, and his eyes showed clear fear.
He tripped over his own feet and fell clumsily to the ground.
“It’s Azasa!”
Ato Shiho naturally recognized him—he was a classmate from their department. He and a female student named Kanno were a couple.
He and his girlfriend Kanno had apparently gone off to play somewhere near the beach. Yuki had earlier wondered where the two had disappeared to, and now it turned out the one who had screamed was him.
“Azasa, what happened?”
Yuki Ham rushed over and helped him up.
Even so, he was still extremely frightened and pale-faced.
“Wait, Azasa, where’s Kanno right now?”
Ato Shiho noticed something else—where was Azasa’s girlfriend Kanno? She was nowhere to be seen.
Those two were usually inseparable, sticking together no matter what they did. Seeing only Azasa now, she naturally wondered why Kanno wasn’t with him.
“She—she’s still back there. Damn it, I forgot to bring her back!”
Azasa trembled as he spoke. Only when mentioning his girlfriend did he seem to snap back to his senses.
“We saw a fallen corpse over there, under the cape. But then suddenly, the corpse stood up, as if it wanted to attack me and Kanno.”
“What corpse?”
Yuki Ham couldn’t make sense of it. He frowned and said quietly, “Let’s not talk about that now. Let’s go find her first…”
He exchanged a look with Ato Shiho beside him, then helped Azasa up a small sand dune. Soon, they saw a woman limping toward them.
“It’s Kanno!”
Ato Shiho shouted excitedly, “Kanno, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Kanno’s face was almost as pale as Azasa’s. She let out a faint sigh. “But I think I twisted my ankle earlier.”
After saying this, she shot a fierce glare at her boyfriend Azasa.
“You had the nerve to come back…”
“Kanno, I…”
Azasa started to speak but stopped. Only now did he realize how terribly he had acted, abandoning his girlfriend and running away alone.
“Alright, let’s not talk about that now. Let me check your leg.”
Hearing that Kanno was injured, Yuki Ham frowned.
If something went wrong, he, as the assistant, would inevitably be held responsible.
“It’s just a minor sprain. It’s nothing serious!”
Fortunately, Kanno hadn’t suffered any severe injury. She just needed a couple of days of rest, and she would be fine.
“By the way, Kanno, what exactly did you and Azasa see?”
Kanno rolled her eyes and sneered. “I hardly saw anything. Azasa suddenly yelled something about a corpse, which scared me so much I ran with him. Halfway through running, he pushed me aside, and that’s how I twisted my ankle.”
“No, no! Just now, near that cape, there really was a body that had fallen down!”
“What’s going on—?”
Kase Mi, Sakuma, and the short young man Masaka also ran over after hearing the scream.
“Kase Mi, please take care of Kanno for a moment.”
Yuki Ham pulled Azasa aside and said quietly, “Azasa, come with me.”
“Wait, where are we going?”
“You said there was a corpse, right? Take me to see it.”
Without waiting for a reply, Yuki Ham pulled a reluctant Azasa forward. The two arrived at the spot Azasa had mentioned.
“But… there’s nothing here!”
Ato Shiho was both scared and a little excited. She shrunk back, hiding behind Yuki Ham, and peered over his shoulder to look around.
“N-No way… Could I have been mistaken?”
Azasa plopped down onto the sand.
The spot he had pointed out was completely empty, just a stretch of gravelly ground.
“There is indeed a cliff here, but… there’s no corpse like you said.”
Yuki Ham also felt a bit relieved. He really didn’t want this island trip to turn into some murder case.
That sort of thing was only fun when it happened in movies.
In real life, it would just be annoying and could hinder Professor Horikawa’s archaeological activities.
Looking around, he also didn’t see any place where a body could be hidden.
He turned and looked at Azasa’s dejected face, giving a bitter smile. “I think you must have just seen wrong.”
————————
Shusu Yuki finally got his wish to meet Hayashizaki Ichi, the founder of the Shinzaki Tenrikyo Sect.
But the specifics of this meeting were completely beyond his expectations.
He originally thought he would have an interview with this founder of the Shinzaki Tenrikyo in a spacious meeting room.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Shusu. Due to my poor health, I can only meet with you in this manner.”
Shusu Yuki sat in a chair, facing a large tempered-glass window.
On the other side of this window, a man wearing a “gas mask” sat in a wheelchair.
Because of this, Shusu Yuki couldn’t see his face at all.
(It looked more like a breathing apparatus than a ‘gas mask.’ What the hell… Could Hayashizaki Ichi’s health really be this bad?)
No, maybe not.
From the sound of his voice, his condition didn’t seem too poor.
Yuki felt a sense of incongruity, but he held back from saying anything.
“Hello, Mr. Hayashizaki. This is our first time meeting.”
“Pleased to meet you.”
Hayashizaki Ichi, wearing the gas mask, spoke in a hoarse voice. His mouth seemed to move with effort beneath the mask.
“Actually, I’ve heard of you before, Mr. Shusu. A few years ago, you and another journalist named Maeda interviewed our rehabilitation facility in Hakone.”
His voice carried a cold tone.
Shusu Yuki was a bit surprised. But he quickly calmed down. He believed the Shinzaki Tenrikyo Sect wouldn’t do anything to him—after all, his visit to the sect was at their invitation.
“I didn’t expect you to remember that, Mr. Hayashizaki.”
“How could I forget an incident related to the sect’s development?”
Hayashizaki Ichi said plainly, “Please don’t misunderstand. Regarding what happened back then, we have always felt remorse.”
“Oh… I see.”
Yuki just sneered. He didn’t take such verbal apologies from perpetrators seriously at all.
He quickly changed the subject. “Today, I came here hoping to talk with you, Mr. Hayashizaki, as the founder of the Shinzaki Tenrikyo, about the sect’s current development status…”
“Very well.”
Hayashizaki Ichi nodded. He cleared his throat and said quietly, “After the incident a few years ago, the Shinzaki Tenrikyo has reversed its decline and is actively growing. More importantly, we have now obtained a method for deep connection with the TAR aliens. This is an epoch-making change. Through the transcendent practical actions gained by the Shinzaki Tenrikyo, Earth’s civilization is sure to advance further.”
For the next half hour or so, Hayashizaki Ichi talked about the Shinzaki Tenrikyo’s utterly absurd doctrines and the religious worldview he had fabricated.
He emphasized that the world was transitioning from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius, representing a major historical shift, and that the Shinzaki Tenrikyo Sect was the pioneer of this human transformation.
“We have found a way to open human consciousness, communicate with TAR aliens existing in Higher Dimensions, and gain higher levels of wisdom and technology…”
This lengthy conversation with Hayashizaki Ichi left Shusu Yuki feeling dizzy from the barrage of bizarre statements. Hayashizaki Ichi talked on and on before finally letting a pale-faced Shusu Yuki go.
“Let’s end today’s interview here, Mr. Shusu.”
After saying this, he wheeled himself away.