Chapter 8: Home Again

That day, there was something I realized after talking with Hanako-san.

I learned that Hanako-san doesn’t appear only in the toilet of that school building, but in other toilets as well. Apparently, she can be summoned in places where spiritual energy has accumulated.

According to a recent story, she laughed and said that she had been summoned in the toilet of a haunted spot.

That being the case, I found myself needing to search for a toilet where spiritual energy had built up, but I had absolutely no idea how to go about it.

In desperation, all I could do was post about it on social media.

However, it turned out that trying was worth it, and a message arrived almost immediately. To summarize what it said, it was: “Ghosts can see spiritual energy, so it’s easy to tell.”

I was taken aback by how suspicious it sounded—about as shady as it could get—but when I checked the profile, it made sense: it was from a paranormal streamer. Just in case, I watched a few of her videos.

In them, a girl was floating softly in midair, and strange things that were clearly not human were being captured on camera. I honestly found myself impressed by how advanced modern video technology is, but the girl’s oddly lighthearted attitude as she insisted it was “the real thing” made me feel I couldn’t trust it.

Even so, since there were no other leads, I decided to rely on her. Besides, if it turned out to be some shady solicitation, I fully intended to run away immediately.

To start with the outcome, we never actually met in person.

Still, she showed me a method that seemed likely to solve the problem, and she helped me. What’s more, it was on unbelievably generous terms.

That condition was—“If you’re satisfied, come appear on my stream.”

That much would be no trouble at all. Whether I’d be satisfied or not would depend entirely on how I felt, after all.

As for the method that actually mattered, she said she would look at the properties I wanted to move into and check whether spiritual energy had accumulated in the room.

My intention had been to search for a toilet where I could summon Hanako-san, but according to her, “Wouldn’t it be better to move into a room that has a toilet where you can summon Hanako-san?”

In other words, if a room had spiritual energy built up in it, then the toilet would be included as well—that was her way of thinking. When it was put that way, I found myself thinking, “That makes sense.”

I hadn’t made a clear decision yet, but I had been considering moving, so I decided to go along with her method. That’s why I made a list of properties on several real estate websites and sent it to her.

When I saw that a reply had already arrived by the next evening, I wondered if she had just decided by flipping a coin. Setting that aside, I didn’t think it would be possible to visit every place from yesterday to today, so I sent a message asking what she had done, and the reply came back immediately: “I actually went to the properties and had a ghost girl take a look.”

I thought she was the kind of person I really didn’t want to get close to, so I firmly resolved to cut ties once this matter was over—at least, at the time. But now, the room where I live together with my housemate is one that was chosen from among those options.

It was an old six-story apartment building, forty years old. The room on the third floor—Room 303—was mine. I knocked three times on the door with a magnetic sheet bearing a women’s restroom symbol stuck to it, and called out, “Hana­ko-saa­n.”

With a clatter, the door opened, and a bob-haired girl peeked out from inside. “Welcome back, Nana-chan.” “I’m home, Hanako-san.”

I went into the room and showed her the cake I’d bought. At the sight of the stylish cake—something she was seeing for the first time—Hanako-san’s eyes lit up, and words like “Amazing” and “So pretty” spilled from her lips. As I filmed a scene that was even more than I had hoped to see, I thought to myself.

I don’t know whether that person really had a genuine ghost, or if it was just a coincidence.

But—I guess I’ll have to accept the offer to go on the stream.