Chapter Seven: Main Island, Code Cracking (3)

Yuki and the others returned to the former community center, Eiko's notes in hand. Just as the back door was opened for them and they were about to step back inside, Saijou suddenly stopped.

“...If the Visitor was the one to set fire to the cemetery, then doesn't that mean it's dangerous to leave these outside?”

Hearing him, Yuki felt a chill down his spine.

A generator and some containers of gasoline were sitting by the back door. Yesterday, they had been left outside because they were intended for outdoor use, and everyone had completely forgotten about them.

Apparently, Visitors were vulnerable to fire, but as it happened, so were humans. If the Visitor was intelligent, it went without saying that it could do anything with fire that a human could, and it was clearly ruthless enough to start a gasoline fire. ...If the Visitor had stolen any gasoline, it would have been a disaster.

Yuki hurriedly checked the containers for anything unusual. Fortunately, all three containers were full, and Yuki saw nothing out of the ordinary under the lids.

“They're safe. Good thinking noticing this, Mr. Saijou.”

Hearing his report, Mikumo gave a soft hum.

“There's also the cooking fuel at the front door.”

“Ah.”

Shigaraki's face instantly changed. Mikumo continued raining down blows on his ego.

“We should probably pick that up, too. Even if it is an isolated island, you should still have been more careful storing fuel to begin with.”

Yuki had no response to that. Shigaraki recovered first and made to move the generator.

“Let's just bring this inside for now.”

He released the wheels' stoppers with his foot and started rolling it. Yuki followed behind him, carrying the three gasoline containers.

“Man, this thing is so much heavier than it looks.”

Shigaraki groaned as he struggled to get the generator over the small step of the back entrance.

“Yeah, it weighs over 50 kilograms without any fuel.”

They decided to put the generator and the gasoline in one of the small rooms. After setting the wheel stoppers, Yuki opened the window a crack and closed the shutters to prevent vaporized gasoline from accumulating in the room.

Saijou, who had accompanied them, frowned.

“Is it really okay to leave the window open? What if the Visitor gets inside?”

“I don't think we need to worry about that. I don't think a window would be enough to stop a Visitor in the first place. Glass can be broken, after all.”

Yuki answered as he removed his hands from the window frame, and Saijou's eyes bulged from their sockets.

“Wait, you mean this building isn't safe?”

“That isn't it. You remember I said earlier that this building was designed as a shelter, right?”

“Right, you said that's why both doors had bolts.”

“Actually, this building is also covered in bars. Fine bars with a crisscross pattern.”

Shigaraki walked up to the window and touched the bars, making an admiring sound.

“You're right, the gaps in the bars are only about 4 centimeters wide! According to those notes, they're too small for the Visitor to get through.”

Yuki gave a firm nod.

“As long as those bars stay on, I think it's safe to assume there's no way for the Visitor to get in through the windows.”

Next, the three of them went out the front door to collect the fuel and any cooking utensils that could be used as weapons. The only fuel Shigaraki had brought were six gas canisters, some charcoal, and the fire starter, which took up almost no space in the multipurpose area.

Once everyone was settled in the multipurpose area, Yuki and the others reported what they'd learned in the cemetery. It was just after 10:30 A.M.

First, he passed Eiko's notes around to Kikyo, Yanagawa, and Motegi while summarizing their contents.

Mikumo took a permanent marker from the toolbox and summarized the Visitor's characteristics on the back of her copy of the location materials. Beside her, Fuwawa lay on a bath towel, watching her curiously.

The following 14 characteristics of the Visitor seemed the most important for fending off attacks from the creature and identifying who it was disguised as...

• One Visitor appears in the Divine Land every 45 years.
• It cannot pass through spaces smaller than 5 cm.
• It cannot break down bolted doors.
• It mimics creatures by absorbing their skin and flesh.
• It weighs about 20 kg and cannot mimic anything smaller than a cat.
• It cannot absorb and mimic skin or flesh from a corpse.
• The time needed to mimic ranges from 2 minutes for a cat to 15 for a human.
• When mimicking, it can fake being wounded.
• If it deviates from its mimicked form, the skin and flesh used for mimicry will be lost and it will return to its original form.
• Once mimicry is undone, it can never reassume the same form.
• In addition to traditional sensory organs, the Visitor also has highly advanced internal sensory organs specialized in mimicry.
• The Visitor's needles have a range of 50 cm.
• It can inject poison through its needles, which put any animal injected into a state of suspended animation.
• Dogs can see through the Visitor's disguise and will bark at them.

After they finished reading the notes, Yanagawa touched her temple in thought.

“It looks like each chapter's headin' is written in red, but there're parts at the end in red that are hard to make out... Reckon that means there's more info in a later chapter that'd let us identify the Visitor easy as pie?”

Mikumo, who was twirling a pen, gave a slight nod.

“I think that's very likely.”

Kikyo abruptly stood up.

“Come to think of it, can't we just use that dog?”

He made towards the small rooms, but soon they heard Tara barking furiously. After less than a minute, Kikyo returned, looking disheartened.

“Well, Tara could have helped us find the Visitor, if only he wasn't such a loudmouthed dumbass... Seriously, I swear I'm not the Visitor. I wonder why he's barking so much.”

Yuki shrugged.

“It can't be helped. Tara never got close to anyone except Mr. Koga, and now that his owner's dead, he's panicking.”

“He's no different than us, you know? I almost never get stomach aches, but right now I feel sick.”

Yuki felt the same.

Motegi, who was the last to receive the notes, returned them to Yuki, saying he didn't have the energy to read them. He then lay down in his tent's sleeping bag and muttered

“It would appear we are drawing close to the end of the first stage, would it not?”

Not knowing what he was talking about, everyone turned their eyes to Motegi.

Yanagawa had said that, possibly due to his wounds, Motegi was running a fever of 38 degrees Celsius... As a result, it was possible that not even he knew what he was saying.

Motegi continued.

“The end of the first stage of the Mystery of the Ambush draws near, and we have uncovered most of the special rules. All that is left now is to use them to identify the Visitor.”

Kikyo chuckled as he took out a cigarette.

“That's rich, coming from the most likely candidate!”

“No, I am not the Visitor. If only it weren't for this wound, my brain could work properly and I would identify which of you that monster is disguised as myself...”

His words drifted into silence, and a soft snore began to fill the hall. Motegi had fallen asleep. Even Kikyo looked a bit uncomfortable.

“As soon as things start looking bad, he pretends to fall asleep.”

Yanagawa spoke up, swishing the tea in her bottle.

“But isn't what the Doc said kinda true?”

Saijou nodded in agreement.

“She's right, these notes have given us a lot of information... so can't we use it to analyze what we know so far and determine who the Visitor's disguised as now?”

Mikumo, who was going through her things, made a sarcastic remark to herself.

“No matter how we analyze things, Professor Motegi is still the suspect, you know.”

Yuki didn't disagree, but he felt it was too early to declare that the absolute truth.

“...Maybe we should go over the case from the start.”

Mikumo made a face of annoyance at what she viewed as a waste of time, but she decided to speak up.

“Does anyone have any problems with the theory that the Visitor, in the form of the black cat, was the one to kill Director Unno?”

No one objected.

“In that case, there are two questions we still need to answer. One: what form did the Visitor have when it killed President Koga? And two: what form does the Visitor have now?”

Kikyo responded with another question.

“Whoever the Visitor last disguised as, can we assume it's still in that form?”

“That should be correct. Director Unno's body is still next to the pandanus tree, so the unidentified body left at the side of the road with its skin and flesh removed... must be one of the seven people here now. Shall we begin by assuming that I am the Visitor?”

Mikumo elaborated on the unpleasant thought experiment.

“If that were the case, then if I were to remove my Mikumo Echika disguise, the form of 'Mikumo Echika' would completely disappear from the island. The real Mikumo Echika would have been stripped down to the bone, and once the Visitor removes its mimicry, it can never assume that form again.”

Kikyo grinned, as though he found the discussion amusing.

“I see. So since all seven of us are gathered here in this room together... that means that the Visitor hasn't removed its first human disguise yet.”

Saijou, who had been staring at the bullet pointed list of Visitor facts, asked a question.

“Is it possible that the Visitor killed President Koga in the form of the black cat?”

Neither Mikumo nor Kikyo had an answer. Yuki spoke up, partly just to organize his own thought.

“About that... I don't think it's possible the Visitor could have killed President Koga before taking on human form.”

Kikyo sharply cut it.

“And what is your basis for that?”

“First off, I'm not saying that picking the lock on the door and turning the knob are two things that should be impossible to do as a cat. The Visitor can extend its needle 50 cm, and it's much more intelligent than an average cat.”

Kikyo thought about that for a moment, then nodded.

“I see. The keyhole is low enough that a cat could reach it it if stood on its hind legs, and it could turn the doorknob by jumping up and turning it with its front paws. So why do you think that it was in human form at the time of the murder?”

“Because there was a bloody human handprint on the door connecting the small room to the hall.”

Yuki took the permanent marker from Mikumo and drew a sketch of the former community center's floorplan on the back of his location material. Then he tapped the image of the door in question with the tip of the marker. Fuwawa moved her head from side to side as she followed his movements.

He smiled at her, feeling a weight lift from his shoulders, before continuing.

“The handprint in question was on the inside doorknob of the room. It appeared to have already dried by the time the body was discovered, and there was no blood on the victim, Mr. Koga's, hand... Therefore, we can safely assume that blood was left by the Visitor in human form.”

“You're jumping to conclusions. The Visitor can change form at will. Shouldn't we consider the possibility that it grew a human hand or arm without changing the rest of its form?”

Yuki answered Kikyo's objection by pointing with the marker at one of the bullet points.

• If it deviates from its mimicked form, the skin and flesh used for mimicry will be lost and it will return to its original form

“According to the notes, the Visitor doesn't have the ability to grow human hands without losing the form of the cat. Also, there were even traces of a palm print left on the knob. Considering the reproduction was that accurate, I think it's safer to assume that the Visitor was mimicking a human.”

“In that case... whose palm print was it?”

Shigaraki asked, but Yuki only lowered his eyes.

“Unfortunately, I don't know enough to say that.”

Kikyo snorted.

“Even if we can't identify the print, we should at least be able to narrow it down... As I said before, Ryuuzen, Saijou, and I can't be the Visitor, because we were all in the Divine Land when the incident happened.”

“That's right. The four people the Visitor could be disguised as are Ms. Mikumo, Ms. Yanagawa, Shigaraki, and Mr. Motegi.”

As Yuki continued, Kikyo pointed to the list with the crowbar, which he was still holding.

• The time needed to mimic ranges from 2 minutes for a cat to 15 for a human

“...From what I heard, Mikumo was acting alone for enough time, wasn't she?”

Mikumo shook her head gently.

“The only time I was ever alone was when I went to the bathroom. I don't think I'm suspicious.”

But Shigaraki sharply countered.

“No, Ms. Mikumo, the first time you went to the bathroom, it took you about fifteen minutes.”

Yanagawa didn't disagree with him. Mikumo looked confused. She must not have realized she'd taken that long.

“...I suppose it's true I didn't know how to use the portable toilets, so I had to check the instruction manual. It may have taken a bit longer than I realized.”

“What, so Mikumo did have fifteen minutes to herself after all?”

Seeing Kikyo burst into laughter, Yuki raised a question.

“But we don't know if the back door was unlocked at the time, do we? If it wasn't, the Visitor had no way of entering the building, and it couldn't have attacked Ms. Mikumo.”

Kikyo casually retorted.

“No, it's entirely possible the real Mikumo was tricked into opening the door by the Visitor. We can't say for sure she's in the clear.”

“...It seems that way.”

Seeing Mikumo look down at the floor, Yuki decided to draw attention to the others.

“Incidentally, it seems that Shigaraki was out preparing dinner for about 45 minutes, and no one can verify what happened during the two hours he spent with President Koga. And Ms. Yanagawa said she went outside to exercise... I understand your trips each took 15 minutes?”

“Yep, which means the Visitor had its chance to nab either one o' us.”

It was just like Yanagawa to be so upfront about that. Yuki felt guilty pursuing the matter further, but he pressed on.

“That night, the Visitor did three things other than the murder. It broke in through the back door, dumped the body of its victim by the side of the road after stealing their form, and searched the cemetery before setting it on fire... Ms. Yanagawa claims to have gone outside twice, and she also could have slipped out through the back door during one of her bathroom breaks. In that case, picking the lock of the back door would be a trap designed to create the false impression that the Visitor came from outside, but in any case... she had the opportunity to commit all the crimes.”

Yanagawa gave a bitter laugh.

“This is what I get for stayin' in shape. That's the last time I do those exercises, I tell ya what.”

Yuuki then turned to Shigaraki.

“The same goes for Shigaraki. It's possible he did something while preparing the food or allegedly spending time in President Koga's room. Also, President Koga is believed to have been alive until after 10:00 P.M., but if he did something while claiming to be going to the bathroom, he could still have committed the crime.”

The rice dish he'd prepared for dinner didn't need to be regularly stirred, so as long as he left a pot full of ingredients on the stove, it shouldn't have caused any problems if he left it unattended for some time.

Shigaraki was silent.

“Ms. Mikumo's timing is tighter, but... she did go to the restroom five times, so if she divided up the work, it's not impossible that she could have done everything... Incidentally, was anyone acting alone around the time we noticed the fire at the cemetery?”

Yuki asked, and Yanagawa answered with narrowed eyes.

“All three of us were together here in the multipurpose area at the time. Ah, but I did go out an' do my stretches 'bout 20 minutes afore then.”

Everyone agreed the other two hadn't taken any bathroom breaks at the time.

“I see. So Ms. Yanagawa could have gone to the cemetery and started the fire at the time.”

Kikyo didn't seem entirely convinced by his reasoning and gave a chuckle.

“Ah, but it's also possible that the Visitor rigged it so the fire would start on its own after a period of time.”

“...You're right. We can't say the other two are off the hook yet.”

Perhaps because no one else had anything to say about Mikumo, Yanagawa, or Shigaraki, everyone turned as one towards Motegi, who was still snoring away. Saijou spoke for the entire group.

“Professor Motegi was alone the whole time from last night until this morning. That means he could have done anything he wanted, be it murder or arson.”

Kikyo also spoke up, squinting his eyes and resting a hand on his chin.

“No matter how you look at it, Motegi's definitely the Visitor... While the three people in the old community center were acting alone, there were no guarantees that one of the other two wouldn't come in and see them. In that situation, killing Koga or messing with the cemetery would have required too much blind luck.”

Yuki realized he was right. It was true that Mikumo, Yanagawa, and Shigaraki all had enough time to commit the crimes, but they weren't in a position where they'd have been sure it was safe.

Kikyo continued.

“In contrast, only the scholar could have committed the crimes without needing luck. The Visitors apparently have a habit of pretending to be injured, which also lines up with what we see before us... Hey, how about we just grab him while he's asleep and chuck him in the ocean?”


Yuki couldn't keep the scowl off his face when he heard Kikyo laugh.

“What are you saying!? It's true that Mr. Motegi is suspicious, but as long as it's possible the culprit could be someone else, we can't say for sure that he's the Visitor. If that's the real Mr. Motegi, we'd wind up pushing an injured man into the sea to drown!”

Mikumo, Saijou, and Yanagawa all took Yuki's side, making Kikyo realize that he had no chance of winning. He shrugged his shoulders, clearly frustrated, but resigned himself to their wills.

In the end, they agreed to continue to stay on guard against Motegi.

The discussion went on for another hour.

The most important point left to discuss was whether there was any way for them to positively identify the Visitor. They knew that Visitors were weak against fire and water, but they couldn't just go around and set everyone on the island on fire. And even regarding the people other than the injured Motegi... it would be difficult to confirm their humanity using water.

On their way back from the cemetery, Yuki's group had stopped by the port to check on the ocean. They knew that the tides around Kakuriyo Island were strong, but they'd thought that maybe the tides there would be relatively calmer.

However, contrary to their expectations, the port was now surrounded by tall waves and rough seas. They were probably aftereffects of the low pressure system passing nearby. It wasn't having much impact on the island's weather, but it looked like no one would be able to go swimming until the waves calmed... Obviously, they couldn't identify the Visitor like that.

Moreover, the weather forecast they'd heard on the boat had described the low pressure system as “slow moving”, so it would probably keep affecting them for a few more days. It wasn't certain the sea would calm down before their boat home arrived.

The notes also said that when a Visitor mimicked something large, it absorbed earth and rock to adjust its weight. In other words, if the Visitor was mimicking someone, it was likely it was using earth and stone to make up for any missing weight and matching its weight to that person.

Just in case, they decided to do a quick weight check of everyone present, but... as expected, they didn't find anyone who felt abnormally light or abnormally heavy.

As they went in circles trying to find some way of identifying the Visitor, Mikumo finally spoke up.

“Unless we decide to start cutting off people's fingers and checking their cross sections, we don't have any way to tell a human from a Visitor, do we?”

Her voice was one that had lost all hope. Yuki was shocked, and even Saijou gave a rare show of disapproval.

“You shouldn't say things like that, even as a joke.”

Hearing his response, Mikumo seemed to realize for the first time just what she'd said. She blushed and lowered her gaze. Even Kikyo, who usually enjoyed seeing people being uncomfortable, looked unhappy. He spoke with a sour expression.

“Let's just forget all this... There's no point continuing. Shall we break for tonight?” 

Before they'd realized, noon had passed.

Yuki and the others hadn't slept since yesterday, and were dealing with the emotional strain of being attacked by an unknown being. And now, to make matters worse... they'd learned that the Visitor had almost certainly infiltrated their group.

There was no way they could let their guards down for even a second. Every one of them had had their nerves worn down to their limit.

If Yuki hadn't come to the island holding the goal of “revenge”, he would never have been able to hold the resolve he had. He may well have become the type of troublesome figure who panicked and fled at the first sign of danger.

...But even now, Yuki had no intention of giving up on his revenge.

Kikyo, his final target, whined that he only had seven cigarettes left. He was mumbling to himself between bites of dried bonito flakes.

But if Yuki were to resume his original plan, it could easily create new problems.

If he was caught attacking Kikyo, it was likely everyone would jump to the conclusion that Yuki was the Visitor. If they let their guards down after capturing him, they would find themselves doing exactly as the real Visitor wanted.

So... he had to kill Kikyo, make it look like the Visitor's doing, and then identify the real Visitor before their ride home arrived. That was all there was to it.

Yuki stroked Fuwawa's neck as the thought these horrible thoughts.

“Hey, worry about Tara, too.”

When he turned towards the voice, Saijou was standing there, holding the dog carrier in one hand.

Apparently he'd brought Tara from his room. In his other hand, he held a leash he'd taken from Koga's bags.

Tara was barking furiously, but Saijou wore a calm expression as he peered through his black mesh.

“It looks like he hasn't been able to relieve himself since yesterday.”

“I wonder if he's sick.”

“He could just be well trained. I'll try taking him out.”

“Then I'll go with you.”

Yuki decided to leave Fuwawa in the multipurpose area for the time being. Tara hadn't stopped barking the whole time, so he figured it would be unnecessarily stressful to take them out together.

Yuki held Tara's carrying bag, and he and Saijou worked together to put on the leash. Tara was on the large side for a Pomeranian, but he still weighed about the same as an adult cat. While Yuki had some difficulty with him, Saijou, who had experience with dogs, was able to handle him skillfully.

They put Tara down on the ground outside the former community center, where he immediately flew into a frenzy and began biting at Saijou's pants. Apparently there wouldn't be any walkies today.

Yuki and Saijou couldn't keep from laughing.

“Well, we'll just put him back in the carrier. Maybe that'll calm him down.”

After making sure the door had been bolted behind them, the two of them made their way down the road towards the village. It was about 1:30.

They could have gone to the port, but Yuki was still looking for clues to the Visitor's identity. So his feet automatically made their way in the direction where they'd found the skinned body.

As they walked along, Tara's noise a constant presence, they came to the area where they'd found the body early that morning. Saijou, who had taken advantage of their walk to start smoking, didn't seem to notice, but Yuki detected a faint burning smell.

“That's strange, we're pretty far from the cemetery.”

First, he checked the bloody body lying at the side of the road, but found nothing changed. It was exactly as it had been after Kikyo rolled it over to check the other side, and its head was exactly where they'd left it.

After checking there, Yuki left the road and made his way towards the pandanus tree.

“Hey, where are you going?”

Yuki heard Saijou call after him, but Yuki walked the fifty meters without explaining himself.

The bush by the pandanus tree had been burned.

In the middle of the bush lay a charred body, its neck and limbs torn to pieces. Dense traces of smoke still drifted all around, and as Yuki walked into the area, the ash that had settled on the ground rose back into the air.

A moment later, he heard Saijou's footsteps crushing fallen leaves behind him. He still held the carrier in one hand as he let out a scream.

“Did the Visitor do this?”

First, Yuki gently touched the burned ground. The only sound to pierce the silence was the gentle rustle of fallen ash.

“It's almost cold. The fire must have gone out a while ago.”

A few meters away from the bush sat an abandoned transceiver, having served its purpose. Saijou grimaced at the sight.

“That transceiver should have been left beneath the bush yesterday. If it's been moved...”

“So the Visitor did use that transceiver to eavesdrop on our conversation after all.” 

Yuki decided to retrieve the transceiver just to be sure.

He then picked up a nearby branch and checked the corpse's arm. It had shriveled to the point that it resembled a mummy's, and was completely charred from end to end.

“Hmm. The Visitor burned it extremely thoroughly.”

Saijou, who didn't have the courage to approach the corpse, put down the carrier and stood next to the pandanus tree, covering his mouth.

“But if it's in such a terrible state, there's no way to be sure it's really Director Unno's body.”

He was right. There were good odds that what they were looking at wasn't Director Unno.

Yuki thoroughly examined the corpse's head and torso, but he couldn't find anything they could use to identify the body. Ever last inch of the body had been burned black.

He fell deep into thought and began talking to himself.

“We saw Director Unno's body around six in the morning. It was after that the Visitor set this fire and dismembered the body...”

“It's after noon now, so that means it's been about six hours and thirty minutes.”

Yuki nodded, taking a look at his watch.

“During that time, almost nobody who had been in the former community center went outside. The only exception is when we went to the cemetery, but we were all together the whole time, so nobody had a chance to set this fire.”

“That means the only person who had a chance to start the fire and damage the corpse was... Professor Motegi.”

It had been approximately 7:00 when Motegi reunited with Yuki and the others. That gave him time to burn the body.

“For the time being... that appears to be the only possibility.”

Suddenly, the Pomeranian let out a growl that was different from normal. Yuki and Saijou stopped and turned to each other.

“Does he sense the Visitor?”

Saijou immediately crouched down and opened the door of the carrier. Tara barked and jumped out, disappearing into the shade of the pandanus tree.

Holding his leash, Saijou peered behind the tree and spoke in an exhausted voice.

“No... he just had to pee.”

Just as he'd said, Tara returned after about ten seconds, looking refreshed, and immediately resumed growling at Yuki and Saijou.

Afterwards, Saijou tried putting Tara back into the carrier bag, but he ran away and refused to enter. Apparently he wanted his freedom.

Yuki gave a strained smile.

“He's been in that bag the whole time. Maybe we should give him a bit more freedom.”

“Yeah, guess we'll take him on that walk after all.”

Tara became a bit more obedient after that, but he continued to bark at everyone he saw. On their way back to the former community center, he took turns barking at Yuki and Saijou... and as soon as they returned to the multipurpose area, he barked at everyone there.

They struggled to hear Yuki and Saijou's report about the burned body. Yuki kept in mind that the Visitor should have been somewhere in the room, but everyone's reaction seemed natural.

However, the kitten was the one under the most stress. Fuwawa growled and postured so violently that Saijou forced her and Tara to opposite ends of the multipurpose area. Then, although he nearly got bitten for his efforts, he managed to chase Tara back into his carrier.

The carrier was as well-furnished as a house, so Tara reluctantly faced the wall and curled up.

Perhaps it was only because Tara's view was blocked, but silence finally reigned in the former community center.

And so, Motegi, the man at the center of everyone's thoughts, was placed under even stricter surveillance than before. It was also decided that if he did anything even slightly suspicious, they would immediately declare him the Visitor and deal with him by any means necessary.

That had mostly been Kikyo's suggestion, but this time, nobody opposed him. Under the circumstances... it was concluded that Motegi was the only one who could have started the fire.

But strangely, nobody looked relieved.

Yuki knew exactly why. This wasn't the first time the Visitor had completely outwitted them. So the fact that they'd been able to identify Motegi as the only possible suspect just made everyone more anxious.

Just as before, when they'd been so confident that the Visitor had “escaped to the Divine Land”... perhaps this time as well, it had made them lower their guards by tricking them into believing that Motegi was the Visitor, and even now, it was plotting its next crime.

The monster had an eerie quality that made everyone suspect so.

Previous Chapter                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Next Chapter