About a Place in the Kinki Region p.28: "About a Place in the Kinki Region" 4
The last time I met with Ozawa was at the usual café in Jimbocho.
We sat down and ordered drinks. Once they arrived, he started to speak as he stirred syrup into his iced caffè latte.
"I want you to hear me out on what I've been mulling over recently."
I agreed to listen, and this is what he had to say:
We both came to the same conclusion that the thing that lures people to the mountains is obsessed with women. From reading 'The Truth Behind the School Trip Mass Hysteria Incident' and 'A New UMA Has Been Discovered! The White Man!' we can see that it never actually leaves the mountain, but it does somehow influence men to bring women there from outside. It's hard to say whether the men it controls are dead or alive, though...
I'd had this suspicion for a while now, but it seems clear that the reason it's doing this is to make women, particularly on the younger side, into its 'brides.' But I don't think it means bride in the same way we use the word.
It might be that it's trying to get men to 'offer up their brides.' It could also be making the women themselves, these brides, offer up their 'body' to it by leaping to their deaths.
And that would be why the dam has become infamous for suicides.
Looking at it from that perspective, that might mean they never found the young girl in 'True Story! New Information About the Missing Girl from Nara Prefecture!' because her body's sunk somewhere at the bottom of the dam.
But, it does seem possible to avoid becoming a bride by offering up a doll as a substitute. We can see that in 'Cheating'. At the same time, we have situations where women are able to escape without any kind of substitute—like in 'The White Man' and 'Waiting'.
Next, we have mentions of both 'Masshiro-san' and 'Mashiro-sama' being well-known at the elementary school. This was probably the result of the children from the apartment complex making up games and stories about the thing that lures people to the mountains. Since it's apparently a huge white humanoid, the names, which mean 'pure-white' and 'white,' make sense. There's also that element of offering up a substitute like we can see in 'Cheating'.
After he finished going over his thoughts, Ozawa paused for a moment. Then, he said:
"We're almost there. I can feel it. There's still plenty of details we're still in the dark about, but I'm sure it'll all make sense soon. It's going to make for an excellent feature."
With that momentum behind him, he continued,
"At this point, I think it'd be a good idea for me to pay a visit to ●●●●●."
That was how my last conversation with Ozawa ended.
Of course, I tried to stop him from going.
And yet, he still went.
He turned up dead two months later.
They found his body in ●●●●●.
I'm very sorry for lying to you all.
So concludes 'About a Place in the Kinki Region'.
Translation Notes 25-34
The translation notes are organised by part. Please be careful of spoiling yourself by reading ahead.
This is an amateur translation of the web novel 近畿地方のある場所について as posted to kakuyomu.jp by the author 背筋. The web novel is freely accessible to the public, and this translation has no relation to any other adaptions. I claim no rights or ownership of the content presented.