Chapter 20

"Ha, this guy's a bit too much of a loner, isn't he?" Chūya Nakahara scratched his lovely orange hair. "Isn't having companions a good thing?"

Mori Ougai shook his head. "Probably because it wouldn't be a good thing for his companions."

"What a rational fellow." In some ways, he was very similar to Mori. Still, Mori Ougai glanced at the people already confirmed to have ties to An Xinyi. If it were him, he would never bear to give up such useful diamonds.

"Urgh." Osamu Dazai knew Mori Ougai far too well. One look at his eyes told him what he was thinking, and he made a gagging face. "You don't deserve these diamonds, Mori. Don't get any ideas."

Mori Ougai shrugged in a show of helplessness, and Osamu Dazai's expression grew even uglier.

Yukichi Fukuzawa held Ranpo's shoulder with concern. "Are you all right, Ranpo?" He was worried about Ranpo, afraid the footage would affect him. After all, neither Fyodor nor Ayatsuji Yukito had had pleasant experiences or endings.

"I'm fine, President." Ranpo flashed a smile. "I'm the greatest detective in the world, after all."

"No difficulty can stump me. I'm different from them. I'll definitely get a happy ending."

The two men he had just dissed could only scoff.

Fyodor smiled. "Then I look forward to seeing it."

Ayatsuji Yukito said, "Heh."

"" received a new assignment: investigate a haunted high-rise.

Since its effects were limited to a single commercial building, it was classified as a class C paranormal incident. Combined with a shortage of personnel, this meant "" was the only investigator assigned.

But that was no problem, because "" was the best investigator.

Of course, even a class C paranormal incident could be dangerous. The classification only meant its effects were relatively limited.

"" remained cautious. Nothing inside the building could be seen from outside. Afraid of triggering some special rule that would cause his death, "" still entered through the main entrance.

From the outside, it looked like an ordinary high-rise. Once inside... it still looked ordinary.

Office workers came and went through the elevators, a receptionist sat primly behind the front desk, and a security guard dutifully asked "" why he had come to the building.

Everything was so ordinary, so normal.

"What is this supposed to be?" Michizo Tachihara looked bewildered. "Why did it suddenly jump to this? And what the hell is ""? Where's his name?"

"Even a memory shouldn't be this random."

"Watch carefully." Ryūrō Hirotsu knitted his brows, his gaze fixed solemnly on the screen.

"What's wrong, old man?" Michizo Tachihara respected Ryūrō Hirotsu a great deal and immediately grew serious.

"No, it's just that my instincts are telling me something's wrong." Ryūrō Hirotsu watched the scene inside the building. "It's strange." It gave him a chilling feeling.

The extraordinarily intelligent people were all watching the screen intently as well, their expressions grave.

"" felt his skin crawl.

Granted, there were cases where rumors of a haunting turned out not to involve a paranormal incident, but this was certainly not one of them.

This could only mean that this paranormal incident was far from harmless.

There was undoubtedly something wrong with this building!

"What's wrong with it?" Nobara Kugisaki felt as though she had missed a hundred episodes. "Doesn't it look perfectly normal?"

"...Something does seem a little off." After observing for a long while, Megumi Fushiguro spoke hesitantly.

"What? Where?" Yuji Itadori leaned over.

"Well, this is just a guess, but commercial buildings like this usually have lots of people coming and going, right? People entering and leaving... But aside from that investigator, has anyone else passed through the building's entrance all this time?"

At his words, everyone took a closer look and noticed that odd detail. Still, it was only a little strange, and there could be an explanation.

"The weirdness is already pretty obvious, you know." Ranpo Edogawa glanced their way. "You haven't noticed?"

Everyone on that side shook their heads, except Satoru Gojo, who had the unfair advantage of the Six Eyes.

"Then just keep watching." Ranpo Edogawa wasn't particularly interested and didn't feel like explaining.

Hey, keeping us in suspense is a crime! The Jujutsu Kaisen group wanted to string this smug bastard up, give him a beating, and force the answer out of him.

That was right. There was something wrong with this building.

A rotten smell reached his nostrils. "" looked grim. These things behaving just like ordinary people were not alive!

They had died long ago!

"What?!" Doppo Kunikida's constantly moving hand froze in the middle of taking notes. An ugly blot of ink spread across the paper beneath his fountain pen's nib. "A-are they ghosts?"

"That's right. Terrifying ghosts, Kunikida~" Osamu Dazai leaned close to his ear and spoke in a sinister tone.

"Aaaaah!!" Sometimes, that was all it took to make an adult fall apart.

"Hahahaha!" A certain heartless partner laughed at him with blatant glee.

"You bastard, Dazai!!" Doppo Kunikida flew into a rage.

Chūya Nakahara quietly looked away. What an eyesore. It always reminded him of a past he would rather not revisit. You've got it rough, Detective Agency guy.

Naturally, "" did not confront the guard head-on. He produced forged documents and said he needed to see their manager, learning that the manager was on the eighteenth floor.

"" had not come to see the manager at all. He was here to investigate and had no intention of going to the eighteenth floor.

To be safe, "" avoided the elevator entirely. After all, things could go wrong far too easily in an enclosed space. He took the stairs, but then he heard a strange sound.

"Thump. Thump. Thump."

Yes, that was the sound. It was like knocking on a door.

But this was a stairwell. Where would a door come from?

"" grew serious. He began climbing the stairs faster, and the knocking seemed to grow more urgent too. No matter how fast "" ran, it remained a fixed distance away, neither close nor far.

With no other choice, "" rushed out of the stairwell. He glanced back as he burst out, but saw no one.

"" avoided the surveillance cameras and found an empty place to hide for the moment.

"" knew he must have violated some taboo, causing the entire building to change. But he did not regret his decision. After all, riding an elevator with a crowd of things that were neither human nor ghost would have been even more dangerous.

After waiting a while, "" cautiously opened the door a crack and peered outside.

The entire building had fallen deathly silent, and the corridor was pitch-black.

The building was enclosed, leaving some rooms completely dark without electric lighting. Not a ray of sunlight could reach them from outside. "" walked cautiously along the corridor. He did not dare take out the flashlight tucked against his chest, nor did he dare try turning on the lights.

They were gone.

An entire building full of "people" had disappeared.

Realizing that he had uncovered certain truths and caused the situation to change, "" was now searching for a way out.

Yes, he needed to take a look in the surveillance room.

Commercial buildings like this had backup power, so the surveillance system might still be running.

"" crept toward the surveillance room. The thumping from earlier had disappeared, but "" kept feeling as though something was watching him from the darkness, making every hair on his body stand on end.

After finally finding the surveillance room and confirming that no one was inside, "" hurried in and locked the door.

"" switched on the monitor and pulled up footage from a few days earlier. Whatever he saw made his pupils contract slightly. Just as he had suspected, those things were no longer human!

"" intended to search through even earlier footage for other clues when a knock sounded at the door.

"Thump, thump."

"Thump, thump."

It was clearly an ordinary sound, yet it sent a chill through "".

The paranormal entity had come knocking.