Epi.12-1: The Corridor Mirror of the Abandoned House

“So, like, I found something amazing, you know?”
During her usual stream, Yuka began talking with a smug grin.
Misaki showed only a faint reaction as she drank her sake, but Yuka continued without caring.

“So, the other day, Sayuri-chan and I were exploring this abandoned house, right?
And there was this huge mirror in the first-floor corridor.
And guess what—only me showed up in that mirror.”
Yuka giggled to herself, and Misaki suddenly grabbed her shoulder hard.

“Hey, why would you tell a scary story? I live here, you know?”
Her expression was one of such shock that it was obvious—even though her eyes were hidden behind a fox mask—as if she had seen something unbelievable.

“Wait, wait, just listen to me! That mirror, see, a supernatural being copies what’s on this side.
So even if there are two people, only one shows up.
See? That’s obvious, right?”

She insisted while looking straight into Misaki’s eyes, but it didn’t get through—
“You just said supernatural being, didn’t you? That is a scary story!”

“No, but, like, our genre is paranormal, right?”
Yuka replied, sounding confused.
A lot of the comments were in agreement as well.

“Scary stories about other places are fine, you know?
But talking about this abandoned house is different, right?
You all think so too, don’t you?”
She checked the comments, but she didn’t get any agreement—
“It’s about a place we don’t live in,”
“Didn’t you choose to live there knowing that?”

“But if you know the place, you can just not go there, right?
Isn’t it better to hear about it beforehand?”
Yuka shot back immediately.

“Well… maybe… you’re right… I guess.”
She took a drink, looking as though she had accepted it, albeit reluctantly.

“So, about how to get to that place—if you go straight to the end of the entrance hall, turn left, and then follow the path and turn right four times, it shows up sometimes.”
Yuka spoke cheerfully and flashed a smile toward Sayuri off-screen. “Right?”

“If you turn four times, wouldn’t you end up back at the entrance?
This building is square, after all.”
Misaki asked, sounding puzzled.

“That’s the thing. It shows up about once every three times.
But when we went the other way around, it didn’t show up even once.”

“…How many times did you try?”

“About a hundred times each, I guess?”

As voices of surprise and admiration rippled through the comments at the number of attempts, Sayuri’s lively voice could be heard from off-screen.
“When I went with Shinobu, Shinobu passed out.”

“Sayuri-chan! Why would you say that?”
As Shinobu hurriedly complained, Sayuri’s voice came through the stream as she laughed and said, “Sorry, sorry,” and the comments filled up with a warm, easygoing mood.

Cutting through that flow, Yuka went on with, “So then!”
“We did the ‘Start with rock!’ thing, and I threw paper right away. Then the other side threw rock, so I won.
It got really mad, like, it was banging away like crazy from the other side of the mirror, but there was no sound at all.
That’s super funny, right?”
She burst out laughing.

Comments flowed in—some sympathizing with the supernatural being, others admiring Yuka’s bold move—and Misaki muttered a single line,
“That’s really scary, you know.”

“But, like, copying is its job, right? And it got fooled by the voice.
So I told it, ‘Getting mad even though you didn’t copy properly is weird.’
And then it kept bowing and apologizing.
It was so cute.”

In contrast to Yuka, who was getting more and more excited, Misaki took a drink with a resigned look and said,
“How can you laugh at that?”
But Yuka, still smiling, started on the next story.