About a Place in the Kinki Region p.32: "About a Place in the Kinki Region" 4
"We need to talk."
As we spoke over the phone, Ozawa's voice betrayed a hint of frustration.
By the time I arrived at the usual café in Jimbocho following his call, he had already found a table and sat down. As soon as I joined him, he thrust a printout across the table.
"Read it, please."
So I did.
It was an article detailing an undercover report on cult activity in ●●●●●.
Without giving me the time to read the whole article, he spoke up:
"This is your work, isn't it?"
Honestly, I was shocked.
Of course, I'm a woman.
I also took some rather involved jobs back in the day, I hardly had the luxury to be choosey when I was just starting out.
And indeed, I do remember being in the hospital around the time this article was published.
But I truthfully had no recollection of writing the article he presented to me.
I denied that I'd written it, but he simply pointed to the bottom of the paper.
There, at the end of the article, was a writing credit given to my old pen name.
"Your pen names are pretty distinct. If that's not you, who else could it be?"
I staunchly continued to deny that this was my work.
He replied, making no attempt to mask his doubt:
"Then, what? Are you trying to tell me you completely forgot you ever wrote this?"
He suddenly looked shocked.
"It can't be..."
I urged him to say what he was thinking.
"In 'The White Man' and 'Waiting', there's examples of women escaping alive. But, all of them ended up forgetting what had happened or developing memory problems similar to dementia symptoms... Is that why you forgot?"
I had no idea how to respond, and sat in silence.
"In that case, what was it that kept you safe? Why were you allowed to escape even after you got that close to the cult?"
I strained to try and come up with an explanation. Why was I allowed to live? Why didn't I end up as 'bride?' Why was I unable to 'ascend'...?
Then, a potential answer dawned on me.
The undercover report was from the year 2000.
I will never forget the year prior, the year I lost my only son in an accident.
A car accident.
Following his death, my husband and I divorced, and I quit my publishing job to work as a writer.
However, I had assumed my hospitalisation at the time was due to overexerting myself both physically and mentally. However, with this article in mind, it seemed that what happened at that facility was the true cause.
If I truly did write this report, then it makes perfect sense that I would have empathised with the follower that had lost her son, explaining why I put the interview on hold to console her.
Having come to this realisation, I explained everything to Ozawa.
I concluded that the thing luring people to the mountains must only be targeting women who haven't yet given birth.
I already had the vague assumption that it favoured younger women, but now I was sure that this entity had a clear criteria.
Ozawa paused for a while, then responded.
"I see, that's certainly possible. No, sorry, I'm sure that's the case. Please, forgive me for doubting you."
I assured him there was no need for him to apologise, and we finally ordered our drinks.
I ordered a coffee, black, and he an iced caffè latte.
Ozawa looked restless as we waited for our drinks to arrive.
When they did, he drank the entirety of his iced caffè latte in one go, and then began speaking.
"Frankly, this is scaring me."
While reading the report you wrote, something stood out to me.
This chanting the cultists were doing, it's incredibly similar to the chanting from back when that old college friend had gotten involved with a shady business group.
And yet, it stood out to me that it wasn't quite the same.
But how on earth did I notice that?
I'd only heard about it from a friend. How do I remember the whole chant accurately enough to tell?
The same goes for him. He only heard it once, and it was from several people chanting it at the same time. How was he able to memorise such a seemingly incomprehensible series of sounds?
You see, a number of my friends contacted me yesterday. They were all women.
They were telling me to stop prank calling them in the middle of the night.
They said I'd spent the whole call repeating the same kind of thing over and over.
"Let's go to the mountains. It'll be fun. So let's go. To the mountain."
I have absolutely no memory of ever making a single call like that.
However, I checked my call history, and there it was—I'd called almost every woman in my contacts list in alphabetical order.
But now, hearing your side of things, I'm realising I avoided calling any woman I know with kids.
I have to wonder if I've gone insane myself.
No matter what, I can't get my mind off of publishing this special feature.
I thought I was just on a bit of a high from getting my first major responsibility at first but then, while I was mulling over the feature mid-shower, I caught my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I was grinning.
It looked like I was having fun.
I'm terrified of that me.
What about you?
He didn't even give me a chance to answer, and kept going.
Correct. He went on to ramble off his thoughts regarding 'the thing that lures people to the mountains,' 'the red woman,' and 'Akira-kun.'
I eventually decided to interrupt him, at which point he finally stopped talking. He proceeded to take and deep breath, and 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 ●●●●●."
Of course, I had no right to try and stop him.
I wasn't safe either.
And so, he went.
He turned up dead two months later.
No, it'd be better to say they found his body two months later.
I knew he was no longer alive by that point, so I reported that my friend had taken their own life at the dam.
They indeed found him there, 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.