A Dead Man's Tale

“First of all; whatever you do, do not eat or drink anything here,” Goh whispered. “Do not even put them in your mouth, period.”

“Because of the…” before Fukei could finish his question, however, he was already stopped.

“No, not that. Though of course that is also a thing. I’m talking about this place in general, and why everyone behaves like a lunatic.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ll return to it again later. It’s better that you have the full explanation, and I’m not the best one to deliver that right now. But for now, just remember to not eat anything, and to always smile.”

“Always smile?” Fukei asked.

“Always smile,” nodded Goh. “Smile, grin, laugh, whatever you want. But do it always. Do not stop smiling. If you stop, you’re dead. The smile is how they perceive you as a comrade.”

Fukei gulped. “... Okay, I’ll try.”

“Okay. Now stand still so I can tape you. Don’t worry, I’ll leave an escape for later, but we have to fool them first.”

After coiling a few rounds of tape around Fukei’s wrist with the latter putting them behind his back, the two returned to the group.

“Remember to smile,” Goh’s last mumble flew in the wind. In turn, Fukei took a deep breath and let out the widest grin that he could muster, so much that his face muscles were already twitching due to the strain.

“I figured I’d give him some of my candy too!” Goh, returning to his cheerful tone, announced to the group. “He’s one of us now!”

“Perfect!” Ichigo clapped his hands in glee. “Fukei, how was it?”

“Delicious!” The boy answered with a hearty laugh. “Best thing I’ve ever eaten!”

“Well, ain’t that good to hear!” Fuutarou patted Fukei’s shoulder, yet the impact was as strong as a full-blown sledgehammer. Fukei wanted to wince in pain, but the boy’s brain was working in full throttle to keep the dumb smile on his face from falling apart.

Nevertheless, there was no other option, as Fukei quietly followed the group back into the house. Unlike his first “visit”, however, this time they skipped the processing room and headed towards the old, creaky stairs.

Fukei ended up in the room at the end of the hallway, the furthest away from everyone else’s – their own way of preventing him from trying to pull anything funny.

“Well, here it is!” Ichigo patted on the old, worn-down bed in the corner, but the poor thing immediately collapsed under his fist. Yet, the young man didn’t even flinch and kept on laughing off like it was nothing. “We sleep at 8:30 and wake up at 6, be sure to remember!”

“Haha, yeah…” Fukei answered with a scratch on the head. But he didn’t need to think of another thing to say – before he knew it, everyone else had already disappeared, along with a clicking sound of the keys locking away the only door in the room.

“... Figures,” the boy sighed, tossing himself in the dusty bed. It was barely better than what he had in his house, but at this point, beggars can’t be choosers. The boy closed his eyes, hoping to at least give his weary body some rest after what was his most stressful afternoon yet.

Only to be interrupted by a light knocking on the wall behind him.

“Psst, hey, it’s me,” there was a small voice coming from the other side. “There should be a drawer next to you right? Move that a bit.”

Fukei followed the instructions. Lo and behold, on the other end was a hole – albeit a small one, barely able to fit a finger through.

“Goh, right?” Fukei asked.

“We should be safe for now,” on the other side, the boy whispered. “The others actually sleep exactly in that schedule they mentioned, and nothing could wake them up. I’ve tried before; no matter how loud I was there was no reaction.”

“Okay, so what now?”

“Look below you.”

Fukei diverted his eyes down to the floor. As he moved the drawer to reveal the peeping hole, there was another secret that was revealed – a small trap door, perfectly hidden away by the drawer as well.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door. There was a stairway that led deeper down underground, but with nothing to shine on it, the path looked more like an entrance into the abyss.

“Inside the drawer should be a flashlight,” Goh continued. Fukei opened the drawer to quickly confirm a small flashlight around the size of his palm, though covered in dust and spider webs.

With a click of the light, Fukei stepped down the staircase. It was a long, winded road, filled with the musty air of mold. And to make matters worse, the light itself kept flickering every now and then – the trip was more like a wild goose chase in the dark, with the occasional lightning strike straight from an old film.

In the end, in front of Fukei was another door. This one, unlike the others, was reinforced with steel and was twice in thickness, while completely armed with colored, bulletproof glass as well – people from the inside could observe the outside freely, while from the outside, all that they could see was a pitch-black darkness.

“You’re here,” a voice sounded from the inside. Along with it, a creaking sound, and the door was opened.

Inside was finally a well-lit room for once, complete with a blackboard, a safe, notes everywhere from the table to the floor, and even a fridge with various snacks littered all over the place. Sitting on the lone sofa in the room was Goh, who put down another pile of notes on the table and gestured towards Fukei.

“Sit down. We have a lot to cover.”

“What… is all of this? Did you collect all of this?”

“Of course not,” the boy scoffed. “What am I, a genius? All of these are from someone else. I merely inherited them.”

“Someone else… and they’ve written this much?”

“It’s their… life’s work,” Goh paused for a moment, before breathing a sigh. From the corner of his eyes was a slight red, as well as a drop of tear the boy was desperately trying to hold back.

“... Your father, I assume.”

All Fukei received was silence.

“You don’t have to…”

“No,” before he could continue, Goh shook his head. “I’m dragging you into this. I need you to know. Yes, the owner of these research notes… as well as the corpse you saw in the processing room, that was my father, Officer Kidou Shinsuke.”

“Kidou…” Fukei mumbled. It was a name that he had heard in the past, some time before all these ordeals had ever happened.

It didn’t take long for his memories to be jolted once more. “Ah! I know him! He was the same officer that…”

“Mysteriously disappeared after getting close to solving a case, yes. Your case, that is.”

“But all of these notes… How long has he been following this one?”

“Longer than I was present in this world, I can tell you that much.”

“So… what are we supposed to read from all of this? You don’t expect me to read all of this in one night, right?” Fukei asked.

“No, even I haven’t finished all of these notes,” Goh shook his head, taking out a single notebook and giving it to Fukei. “Here. This… so far, has helped me survive. Read it.”

Fukei lightly nodded and took the notebook. As he opened, the boy could feel the weight of the pen impressing on the paper – the author was writing with strong emotions throughout, that much he could conclude.

On the title of the first page were only a few words.

“The truth about Smile World.”