Epi.12-EX: Hirai’s Abandoned House Exploration Log

One day, Sayuri and Shinobu were exploring the first floor of the abandoned house as they always did.

Whenever Sayuri occasionally said things like, “Ah, something moved,” or “We just heard a voice, right?”, Shinobu would let out a small scream, clutch at Sayuri’s clothes, and tremble.

For the most part, it was the same calm exploration as usual, but suddenly Sayuri shouted loudly, “Aah!” and pointed straight ahead.
Startled by the sudden loud voice, Shinobu covered her ears and crouched down, but when she heard Sayuri shout, “Waaah—it’s Hirai!”, she turned her eyes in that direction.

There stood a familiar, suspicious-looking video streamer, with a smartphone mounted on a tripod, apparently going on about something or other.

Calling out, “Hirai—!”, Sayuri floated lightly right up in front of him.
Seeing that, Shinobu chased after her, saying, “That’s not okay, Sayuri-chan. You have to call him ‘Hirai-san.’”

By the time Shinobu caught up, Sayuri had planted herself in front of the camera, cheerfully greeting it with, “Everyone—! It’s Sayuri!”
Since Hirai couldn’t see or hear her, the filming continued as if nothing had happened.

“Sayuri-chan, you’re going to get in the way.”
Shinobu cautioned her from behind, but Sayuri didn’t move away from in front of the camera.

Hirai transformed the tripod into selfie-stick mode, gripping the handle with the camera pointed in the direction he was about to go.
Grinning to himself, he pumped himself up with a “All right, let’s go!” and started moving down the first-floor hallway.
Each time he moved forward, Sayuri drifted back as well.
And that situation—where most of the screen was filled with Sayuri’s face—continued.

After that state went on for a while, Shinobu let out a trembling voice.
“Sayuri-chan… could it be that we’re going around the same place?”

“Huh? Was that so?”
Sayuri, completely absorbed in the camera, hadn’t noticed a thing.

As Sayuri was facing Shinobu, Hirai transformed the handle back into a tripod, fixed the smartphone in place, and turned his back to them.
Then, after steadying his breathing, he turned around and struck an exaggerated pose.“Hmph. So you’ve shifted the direction, huh.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”
Sayuri muttered in surprise.

Hirai stepped back slightly—
“And then, this—this is the work of an evil ‘spirit.’ It’s been darting around for a while now, but if it’s going to interfere, I won’t allow it!”
He spoke proudly, striking exaggerated motions.
With a deliberately forced laugh, he said, “So you think hiding like that will work?” then changed the camera angle and pointed at a single spot, shouting, “There!”

What lay ahead was a wall.

The two ghosts couldn’t help but let out a small, confused, “Huh?”

Hirai pressed his hand flat against the wall—
“You should consider it unlucky that you ran into me,” he said quietly, steadying his breathing—

“Perish!”

After shouting, he turned back toward the camera with a satisfied look, flashed a toothy smile, and raised his thumb.
“With that, everything’s fine now.”

“What do you mean!?”
Sayuri couldn’t help but cry out, but of course, it didn’t reach him.

Hirai gripped the selfie stick and started walking again.
Sayuri floated lightly in front of the camera, talking at him however she pleased with things like, “Hey, hey, what did you do?” but Hirai kept moving forward while explaining in cryptic words, saying, “Spatial lift—”.

Shinobu, whose fear had completely faded, followed along while watching the scene with an amused look.

And when they turned the corner of the hallway, they arrived at the familiar open space of the second floor.
“Huh? Why? Is Hirai actually amazing?”
When Sayuri raised her voice in surprise—
“Of course, it’s my power!”
He struck a confident pose, pointing both the camera and his raised thumb toward himself.

Miraculously, the conversation had worked—
at least, if you cut out only this single scene.

So as not to get in the way of Hirai, who was lining up incomprehensible technical jargon and explaining it to the camera in the entrance hall, Sayuri and Shinobu appeared in the frame behind him.

As Hirai opened the door and walked away, Sayuri waved her hand widely and called out, “See you again!” while Shinobu gave a small bow and said, “Thank you for your hard work.”

“Hey… when did we end up going to the second floor?”
Sayuri muttered.
“Let’s not think about it… it’s scary…”
Her fingers were firmly clutching Sayuri’s clothes.