Shun Cup Relay Novel [B] -> Chiaki-san's [Development] -> PJ-san's [Twist]... and the [Conclusion] She in the Sea
A story we all connect: "Shun Cup Relay Novel"
Details at the end. First, let's weave the story.
◎Beginning [B]
Author: PJ-san
The wind blows through, and the sun beats down on my skin.
They say it's going to be a scorching summer this year.
I felt like going to the sea.
The sparkling ocean and the large, white cumulonimbus clouds floating on the horizon.
Summer is coming.
A summer I will never forget for the rest of my life.
◎Development
Author: Chiaki-san
Why the sea?
Why did I go alone instead of with the usual group?
And then, I met her.
At night, I walked along the beach as if drawn to it.
I could see only her upper body in the sea.
“I have to help her.”
I thought that instantly and ran into the sea.
◎Twist
Author: PJ-san
I grabbed her shoulder from behind as she stared out at the open sea. It was surprisingly thin. Even when I touched her, she didn't flinch at all.
“Hey! Are you okay?!”
She didn't react to my voice at all.
In the eerie night sea, seeing that, I thought, 'Perhaps she isn't human.'
She turned around. The face I saw dimly in the darkness seemed to have no emotion. I felt a little afraid.
Her face was deathly pale and so thin her cheeks were sunken. Her red eyes, which looked glazed like someone drunk, were very large. I thought she would surely be a beauty if she gained a little weight.
She started walking with a splash, passing right through my body toward the beach.
Passing through my body?
What does that mean?
Was she really a ghost or something?
I couldn't understand the situation and just stood there in the sea.
“Hey, what are you doing?” I heard a man's voice calling from the beach.
It was a voice I didn't know. Squinting, I saw a man I didn't recognize waving at me under the moonlight.
Who is that? As I wondered,
the woman who had been walking in front of me waved back and said, “I'll be right back.”
“Huh?”
I let out a voice involuntarily. She didn't seem to notice my voice at all.
What does it mean that the man can see her?
That was when I first noticed that I couldn't feel the sensation of water on my feet.
◎Conclusion: She in the Sea
Author: Chiyo Ohashi
I hurriedly looked at my own hands. Both hands were there.
When I looked up, the woman who had passed through my body glanced back at me. A smile was floating on her face.
It wasn't a very pleasant expression.
She immediately turned forward again and walked through the sea toward the man on the beach.
I followed her in silence.
Even walking in the sea, I felt no resistance from the waves, and I was able to walk briskly just as if I were walking on land.
When we reached the beach, the man who had been waiting grabbed the woman's wrist roughly and started getting angry.
“What are you doing out at this hour! It's dangerous, isn't it?”
The woman just looked back at the man in silence. There was no expression on her face.
I was standing right behind the woman, but the man didn't seem to be able to see me.
Even though I had walked through the sea, my clothes were not wet at all.
The man started pulling the woman by the hand while grumbling, so I followed after them.
I felt it would be bad if I lost sight of this woman.
The woman and the man came out onto the coastal road, turned into a back alley, and entered a room in an old apartment building.
I couldn't very well go in with them, so I stopped in front of the apartment.
I was at a loss.
I didn't know what I should do from here.
I stood there for a while, but there was no sign of the two of them coming out of the room.
I knew where the woman was for now. I decided to return to my own home for the time being.
My house is not that far from here either.
I didn't meet anyone on the way, so I didn't know what state I was in.
However, even when I passed under a streetlight, I cast no shadow.
It was hopeless.
When I returned home, I couldn't get inside. I couldn't touch the doorknob.
When I reached for the doorknob, my movements became slower and slower, and I could never open the door.
I gave up on going home.
"Excuse me, you there?"
As I was crouching in front of my house, I heard a voice.
When I looked up, a man in a strange outfit consisting of a hat and a yukata was standing there, peering down at me.
I stood up in surprise.
"M-me?"
"Yes, you."
The man in the hat said that with an expressionless face.
"You touched a grotesque being, didn't you?"
I thought of that woman. I'm not sure if 'grotesque' is the right word, but...
"Maybe so. When I touched a creepy woman at the sea... oh, can you see me?"
"Yes, I can see you. She is a specter called an 'impersonator.' She appears from the sea, steals the existence of those she touches, and manifests herself in this world."
"Steal my existence?"
"That is correct. Your existence has been stolen. Look."
As he said this, the man in the hat reached his arm through my body. The man's arm passed right through my torso.
"As you can see, you do not exist right now."
"I knew it... But why can you see me?"
"I am a specialist in that field."
A specialist... Hearing that word, hope sprouted in my heart. Perhaps this person could do something about it. Sensing my feelings, the man in the hat said, "Follow me," and began to walk.
I followed the man in the hat.
He guided me to a small, one-story house on the other side of town.
The man in the hat said his name was Kakinuma. He said he had a grudge against "impersonators" and was hunting them down.
Kakinuma-san told me something unexpected.
"An 'impersonator' can only steal someone's existence for two or three days at most. Once time passes, you will return to normal."
Hearing that, I felt let down. I felt relieved and thanked Kakinuma-san. If he hadn't told me, I would have thought I would stay like this forever and probably would have gone insane.
"By the way..."
Kakinuma-san hesitated before continuing.
"There is one thing I would like to ask of you..."
"What is it...?"
"It is a very difficult thing to ask..."
I swallowed hard. From Kakinuma-san's tone, I sensed an unusual atmosphere.
"You will be saved even if you do nothing. However, when the 'impersonator' loses their existence again, they return to the sea, and there will be more victims... I want to put an end to this somehow."
Indeed, when I thought about others potentially having the same experience as me, I began to wonder if it was really okay for only me to return to normal.
I see. That is true. Why is the 'imposter' doing something like this?
She was originally a human woman. However, she was betrayed by the man she loved and took her own life in that sea... Since then, she has become a supernatural entity that steals people's existence and hungers for human love. She was with a man, wasn't she?
I pictured the man who had been with her. He was a rough-looking man.
What is that man?
He is just a man who happened to be nearby. The moment she steals your existence, the person closest to her is set as the 'imposter's' lover. That is her ability. After two or three days, she realizes this isn't true love, kills her partner, and returns to the sea.
I couldn't believe my ears.
She kills them?
Yes, that's right. She kills them. No evidence is left on the bodies. They are processed as natural deaths.
I was horrified. The moment I reclaim myself, that man will die.
...What should I do?
To end this, you must also be willing to take on a risk.
Kakinuma-san explained in detail what would happen if I cooperated with him.
I agonized over what Kakinuma-san told me. There wasn't much time. I had to make a decision.
He said that no one who had been offered the same proposal by Kakinuma-san had ever agreed to it.
In the end, everyone turned their backs and left.
What will I do?
What would I want to do?
And then, I made my decision.
An hour later, I stood with Kakinuma-san in front of the apartment building that the 'imposter' and the man had entered.
You're sure they went in here?
Kakinuma-san whispered. I nodded.
Kakinuma-san also nodded and stood up. Then, he kicked the apartment door open with force and shouted, 'Coming through!' in a loud voice.
No, it wasn't that he kicked it down... He passed right through the door.
Kakinuma-san and I had slipped through the door and entered the house.
The inside of the house was dark.
It was a cramped room. It looked like someone was sleeping on a futon in the Japanese-style room at the back.
A woman sat up from the futon.
The woman was naked.
Her gaunt, emaciated body looked just like a skeleton.
When the woman spotted Kakinuma-san, her expression turned demonic, and she said, "Kasuke," in a voice filled with resentment.
It was Kakinuma-san's name.
At the same time, my body felt like it was about to be blown backward.
Just as Kakinuma-san had predicted, the "imposter" immediately used a technique to return my existence to where it belonged.
I planted my feet firmly, just as I had been told.
For Kakinuma-san's plan to succeed, it was crucial that I didn't return first.
If she escaped into the sea, everything would come to nothing.
To keep from returning... apparently, all I could do was rely on sheer willpower...
Anyway, I would buy time here. I had to resist with all my might.
Kakinuma-san took a step, then another, toward the "imposter."
The "imposter" stood up from the futon she had been sleeping on and glared at Kakinuma-san, her hair standing on end like an agitated cat.
When Kakinuma-san reached a point where he could reach the "imposter," he gently pulled her into an embrace.
And then he said,
"Otsu... I'm sorry..."
The "imposter" let out a shriek and resisted, but it didn't seem like she was resisting in earnest.
I thought that this might actually work.
"Don't you dare call me by that name..."
"I won't ask for your forgiveness now. I just want to tell you the truth. Will you listen?"
"Listen to you?! Gaaah, let me go!"
The "imposter" thrashed about with a terrible voice, but again, it didn't seem like she was serious.
The force that had been about to blow me away no longer seemed directed at me.
Kakinuma-san looked back at me.
I understood that this was the final confirmation.
(Are you really sure about this?)
I nodded to Kakinuma-san.
"Otsu, that day, I went to turn down the marriage proposal."
The "imposter" continued to let out beast-like screams even after hearing that.
Still, Kakinuma-san continued to speak in a gentle voice.
"I intended to come back and run away with you. And yet, you..."
As he spoke, Kakinuma-san tightened his grip on her arms.
The "imposter" began to cry out loud.
The sound, echoing with wails, did not sound like a human voice at first, but it gradually grew quieter.
At the same time, the "imposter," who had looked like an ogre, gradually began to shrink.
When I realized it, Kakinuma-san was holding a woman in his arms who was withered like a dead tree, looking like a mummy.
Kakinuma-san looked back at me.
His eyes were saying... do it.
Kakinuma-san was crying.
Looking at my feet, there was a man in the futon snoring, completely unaware of this whole commotion.
He was a man who had been dragged into this simply because he happened to be the closest person when the "imposter" gained a physical form.
I thought that I didn't want this person to die in my place so that I could be saved.
Even if I survived, I would carry this with me for the rest of my life. It's impossible.
However, with the sleeping man right in front of me, I wondered for a moment if I would really sacrifice myself for this person.
No, that's not it, me...
It's not just this person. By doing what I am about to do, I will be saving the lives of many people who were destined to be sacrificed.
I am not going to die. I won't die even if I do this.
I made up my mind and dove toward Kakinuma-san and the "imposter."
When I dove in, there was a tremendous cracking sound, and I was blown away.
...
The next day. I was on a beach where the sun was shining down.
It seems it will be a scorching summer this year.
"Hey!"
A voice called out to me from over there.
It was my usual friends.
I had returned. I had returned to my daily life.
I remember Kakinuma-san's words from last night.
"The probability of success is 20 percent. If you dive into the 'impersonator' while the technique is undone, the probability that you will return to your original self... it won't disappear completely. The most likely outcome is that you will be replaced by an entirely different person. You might become another person while keeping these memories. Will you still do it?"
And I did it.
My soul slipped into that 20 percent.
I have returned to myself.
I don't know what happened to the 'impersonator'... to Otsuu-san and Kakinuma-san, but I hoped they were united in the afterlife.
I might never know for sure, but since something like that can happen, surely there must be an afterlife, right?
I looked up at the sky while waving to my friends who were calling my name.
A large cumulonimbus cloud towered there.
(The End)
This route, which had a hint of horror about it from PJ-san's twist.
I have tied it up.
Since it had come this far, I finished it off with some solid horror.
I intend for it to be a happy ending, at least.
Sorry for being slightly over the character limit.
Thank you very much!!