Part One
Collecting Spirit Electricity
Marking with a Bookmark
Mukai stepped away from the café and checked his device.
The location markers for nearby spirits were blinking.
There are a lot of them.
I wonder how many of these are dispatch spirits?
I also have to find their destinations…
After Takada finished his mission, the Dispatch Section had been vacant for the first year after Mukai took office.
Though it’s functioning now, right after Mukai joined the investigation room he was assigned to special-room work, so his membership in the Dispatch Section existed only in name.
That’s why the number of spirits grew.
Now the Dispatch Section was back to normal and Mukai had returned to being an investigator.
While he was thinking that, Adachi arrived.
“I came to help.”
“Oh, perfect timing. It’s reassuring to have someone who can actually work.”
“The chief just told me to help Mukai, that’s all.” Adachi looked down as he said it.
Mukai liked that Adachi couldn’t be straightforward.
“For now I’ll give you this plate. If you find anyone wanting dispatch, could you hear them out?” Mukai said, handing over a plate.
“Where are you going?” Adachi asked, looking at the plate.
“I just met a big-name dispatch spirit over there. When I checked, it turns out they’d dealt with a certain author in the past, so I want to look into that a bit.”
“…”
“They’ve been dispatched more than ten times. You’d want them revived soon, right?”
“Got it. I’ll go re-check yesterday’s accident site.”
“Thanks. I’ll join you as fast as I can.”
As they talked, Makino suddenly ran out from the side of the road.
“That makes twenty bodies.”
“That’s nowhere near enough. Didn’t the chief tell you to collect a hundred?”
“Shut up! Then you help a little too.”
“I’m in the Environment Section. Besides, this pay-per-performance thing is good money for Makino, isn’t it?”
Makino panted and bent forward to catch his breath. Beside him, a man in a casual two-piece suit stood coolly.
“Oh? Makino and… Sakuma? That’s an unusual pair.”
“You two are a pair today too?” Sakuma had come out from a narrow alley and seemed bothered by dirt on his suit, lightly brushing at it as he spoke.
“Same to you. Hahaha.” Mukai laughed.
“I’m heading home for today. I don’t have any talismans left.”
“I still have some talismans. I took them in.” Sakuma said.
“Mukai! Help meeee!” Makino complained and tried to run off, but Sakuma grabbed him and tossed him into a back alley.
“Waaaah!”
What on earth had happened to make things come to this?
“Um, what are you two doing?” Mukai asked.
“We’re gathering because we’re short on spirit electricity.”
“Oh, I see.” Mukai nodded, understanding.
The underworld’s electricity is supplemented by spirits.
Spirits removed—like malicious spirits—are wrapped in underworld talismans and flare up and vanish. But that’s not total annihilation; they are then sent to the underworld, where the Environment Section processes them as electrical power.
Because malevolent spirits, psychopaths, earth-bound spirits, and the like release strong energy, simply eliminating them would be wasteful; from an ecological standpoint the Environment Section was established. The underworld’s power depends on those malevolent spirits.
“They say in the old days people didn’t complain even when it was dim, but now everyone’s noisy. A lot of spirit electricity goes to the Underworld King’s room and the break room, so of course it becomes short. The salon’s lights are flickering too and we’ve had complaints that it’s depressing. Also, the big screen in our break room—there are so many installed; they should just remove them…”
“No way!!”
“Eh!?” Mukai and Sakuma both looked at Adachi.
“Ah… well, um…” Adachi began to hesitate, and Makino, out of breath, returned and said, “He’s an anime otaku.”
That’s right. The first time Mukai met Adachi, Adachi and Makino fought over who would monopolize the TV. Remembering that explained why the number of monitors had increased.
“Adachi has anime he likes. I want to watch baseball. Tadokoro and Saki also look forward to their weekly drama.” Makino said.
“You haven’t even paid the subscription fees?” Sakuma asked.
“We’re protecting you from malicious spirits, you know. This is only fair. That makes forty. We just need to remove sixty more.”
“Well, you’ll meet the quota. Also, if you secure a hundred spirits for the Evil-Spirit Orb, its effect will vanish, so get fired up and do your best.” Sakuma advised.
Evil-Spirit Orb, huh…
No wonder the spirits were clustered in this backstreet. The Evil-Spirit Orb—called the “evil-spirit trap” by the Removal Section—is a small crystal that attracts malevolent spirits. It contains something like a magnetic force that draws malevolent and earth-bound spirits to whoever carries it. They gather in one place and a barrier is formed, so time in that spot seems to stop. Barriers don’t affect things from the underworld, so Mukai and Adachi had just walked in normally.
Sakuma said to the panting Makino, “Kurata used to take out a thousand in a day and received a letter of appreciation from the Underworld King.”
“You idiot… The northern branch land is wider than here. Besides, Kurata is an aikido master who uses weird techniques.”
“Then why don’t you ask Kurata to teach you, Makino?”
“Shut up! Hey, Adachi, help a little. This is a battle to protect our paradise.”
“…” Adachi glanced at Mukai.
“All right. But don’t forget to help with dispatches, too.”
“Okay. This way next.” Makino took the remaining underworld talismans from Sakuma and, taking Adachi with him, disappeared into another alley.
Sakuma had been assigned this year. He’d been killed in a mistaken identity case in front of the station. A woman, driven to rage by a disagreement, chased her lover to the station and attacked and killed Sakuma from behind because he happened to be similarly dressed and built as the lover. He said he found himself standing at the Sanzu River. His remaining life span was fifty-six years. He had died at thirty-five, so he and Mukai would be spending a long time together in the underworld.
“So Sakuma is like a supervisor?” Mukai asked.
“Basically. Makino slacks off a lot when he comes over here, so they assigned someone to watch him. Important jobs come with supervision.”
“He’s young; you can’t help it, I guess.”
“Well, we’ll cut him some slack, but if the complaints continue we’ll have to rope him in and make him work.” Sakuma smiled.
“Do your best, Mukai. The salon’s overflowing.”
“I have no reply for that.” Mukai bowed his head and Sakuma laughed.
“You don’t really think that, do you?”
“No, no, I do feel bad. I’ve got work to do after this too.”
“Then I’ll watch the two youngsters for you—go on, off you go.”
“All right, I’ll take you up on that.” Mukai left Sakuma to it and departed.
