horror fairy tale

By: Jun Shuiyou

At [-]:[-] in the morning, the corridor of the villa of the Rubu family

Yukimura's coat was casually draped over his shoulders, and he and Liu walked side by side in the deep corridor without saying a word.

The human mind is really a wonderful thing.

When you repeatedly hypnotize yourself that you must wake up at a certain point before falling asleep, then at that moment, there is no need for an alarm clock, and everything will be so natural.

The two walked to the door of the room near the end. Liu raised his hand and knocked three times, and then knocked again after about two seconds, as if to give the inside a time to confirm that the code was correct, and stopped for a while before turning gently Push the doorknob and go in.

In the spacious single bedroom, more than half of the Lihai Tennis Club was crowded.Just after closing the door, Liu who was silent all the way finally opened his mouth and said, "Yukimura, something happened to Tezuka too."

"What?" Yukimura trembled when he heard this, and the water that Yagyu had just handed to him suddenly poured out half a glass.Before waking up, Yukimura had been in a deep sleep and didn't notice the movement around him.

"It seems that he was frightened, and there is nothing serious." Liu continued, "When we heard the screams and arrived, Tezuka fell unconscious in the ruins of the annex building, with a circle of pinch marks on his neck, but... Liu paused and stroked his neck with his hand, "The imprint of the bluish-purple finger is obviously small, like the size of a woman or a child, but neither of them has such great strength. At the same time, Tezuka There are also faint references to the words 'court doll' and 'girl'. Now that Sanada has moved to Tezuka's dormitory, there shouldn't be any problem."

"That's it." Yukimura rubbed the rim of the cup with his fingers. Within a day, Echizen, Shinobuzu, and Tezuka were attacked one after another, Mr. Butler even died, and something behind this was getting closer and closer.

"Also, we did get a lot of news tonight." Liu handed over another small cup, but the mouth of the cup was sealed with a layer of plastic wrap.

=====

45:[-] a.m. Atobe bedroom

Atobe, who returned to his bedroom from Tezuka's room, tossed and turned on the bed for a long time without falling asleep, so he simply got up, put on his nightgown and left the room.

As the owners of the Atobe family, the consular butler and Atobe naturally have fixed rooms in this villa, not only on the third floor of the villa, but also not far away.

Atobe knocked on the door of the consular housekeeper, and soon the door was opened, the room was brightly lit, and the middle-aged man who came to open the door was as strict and meticulous as an old-school British gentleman.Atobe could still see the half glass of red wine on the sofa table in the room reflecting the seductive luster under the light. It seemed that the consular butler also had a sleepless night.

"King Wu." Atobe Sata nodded slightly, as if he was not surprised by Atobe's arrival, he turned slightly to signal Atobe to enter, and then closed the door again.

"Uncle!" Atobe had already lost his usual composure, and couldn't calm down even after taking two deep breaths, "I can guess what you are thinking, but now, with successive attacks, we are like a group of people waiting to be slaughtered." The lamb is helpless. The honor of the Atobe family is not maintained only by concealment and suppression. Uncle, I beg you..."

=====

[-]:[-] a.m. Nioh's bedroom

Yukimura woke up from the illusion, and wanted to look at the cup in his hand in shock, only to find that there was nothing in his hand, the cup had been taken away by Liu and sealed again. "This is..." Yukimura still didn't come back to his senses, only the faint fragrance in the air was gradually spreading.

"As you can see, hallucinogens." Liu calmly took out his notebook and began to scribble on it, "How do you feel?"

"The whole world seemed to be covered in whiteness, and suddenly the colorful colors exploded." Yukimura calmed down quickly, and frowned as he said, "No, Fuji and I experienced me once, and the formed The hallucination is different from this one, that time almost constructed a complete scene beyond cognition, and there is also a tendency to induce..."

Listening to Yukimura's description, Liu nodded and analyzed: "LSD is colorless and tasteless and can be taken orally. It can put people in a happy state of paralysis, rich imagination, and more colorful perception. This medicine is different from LSD. Let's call it LSD-α for the time being. The solid is small light yellow crystal particles, which emit a unique fragrance when dissolved in water. When this fragrance reaches a certain concentration, it will cause people to have the illusion similar to what you felt before. I have tried several times With a certain concentration, it can be concluded that it is almost impossible for LSD-α alone to achieve the effect you and Fuji met, so the murderer must have other means.” Liu said and put down his notebook, “Between LSD-α The amount of acquisition and the lessons learned from Echizen, and no further experiments were carried out.”

Yukimura took a sip of the tea in the cup, he didn't know whether he was calming down or digesting Liu's data, and asked after a while, "Where did you find it?"

"It's in the storage room of the annex building." Yagyu covered the quilt for Nioh who was curled up on the bed and fell asleep at some point, then turned to Yukimura and pushed his glasses. When we got inside, there was some movement at that time—we later found out that something happened to Tezuka, which also attracted the maid sent by the consular housekeeper to guard the entrance of the annex building. I rummaged around in it. Judging from the traces in the storage room, it should have been frequently used in the near future, but the inside seemed to have been cleaned up, but it was in a hurry, and there were several places that looked like it was taken away. There was a sense of disobedience, and no important information was left behind. In the end, I found some light yellow powder in a small corner of the cupboard, and brought it back to Liu for analysis."

"Cleaned up... in a hurry..." Yukimura tapped the table with his index finger lightly, "The only ones who can do this should be the unknown murderer, the first person who found it, Ono-san, and the consular butler who sealed the scene last... …three people, or two…”

"There is more." Liu handed the black leather notebook that he had been holding in his hand to Yukimura, and at the same time motioned him to read it, "I still have some information that I hope you can read..."

======

Consular Housekeeper's Bedroom at [-] AM

Atobe Sata stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked out. The night before dawn was the deepest and most unknown.

Atobe just stood there and looked at his back.

"Jingwu, you are outstanding." Atobe Sata, who spoke after a long silence, did not look back, "I don't know as much as you think. I have told you the previous story, and the following... You have to know that when everyone is young, young people are always full of curiosity and courage to explore, and I am the same."

Atobe Satsuki sighed and continued: "My father and mother passed away shortly after I was born. At the same time, everything about Adaro was obliterated by the scandal of the Atobe family. Many people think that the former housekeeper Adaro did not leave any photos or even traces. In fact, this is just a trick of the Atobe family. My mother is a very gentle and kind person. She traveled across the ocean and came here. She likes Japanese culture very much. She likes to wear kimonos with clogs and floral umbrellas. Don’t be surprised, Keigo "The consular steward turned around and shook his head slightly, with a rare gentle expression on his face, "Nothing can become a permanent secret. I have been investigating for a long time, and I come to this island almost every few years. Stayed for a while. I learned a lot, but also lost... the love of my life."

Atobe pursed his lips. He knew that this elder had never been married, but he didn't know the reason just like the elders of the Atobe family.

"But that story is not important, Jingwu, I think what you want to know is here." Atobe Sata walked slowly to the desk, opened the top drawer, and took out a notebook with a brown paper cover Handed over to Atobe, the edge of the notebook has turned yellow, and the paper has an irresistible sense of age, "This is a diary of my mother that I found by accident later, and there is a mention of a 'from the ocean'. The mother behind "Friends" even named her "Lucy" directly, and from the description, I guess it is a mermaid."

Atobe took the notebook and flipped through it quickly. The handwriting on it was beautiful and clear, basically written in English.

'I'm so happy to have a job on this island and to stop being adrift. '

'Today I saw my friend from the ocean again and everything is going well. '

'I started to try to teach Lucy characters, so that we can communicate better, English of course, I didn't learn Japanese well myself. '

'I showed Lucy "Nordic Fairy Tale", it was not real at all, Lucy is so kind and beautiful, how could she do such a thing, we tore up the ending of [Mermaid Chapter] together and threw it into the sea. '

'I met Kyousuke, what a handsome man, I described my mood to Lucy, and she laughed at me. '

'Kyosuke likes me too!There is nothing more wonderful than this! '

"Kyosuke is sick, but I...but I..."

'I begged Lucy to save Kyousuke, she has more means than me. '

'She didn't say yes... she didn't say yes...'

"No, it can't go on like this, Kyousuke will die, really... will die..."

'For our children, for us to be together...'

"A fairy tale says that a mermaid heart can cure all diseases, Lucy..."

'...I who betrayed friendship for love...'

'Lucy begged me...Kyosuke...'

'The soul is immortal...a new body...'

'Seven sacrifices...resurrection...I can't...'

The diary came to an abrupt end here, and the handwriting became more and more scribbled and messy, and there were traces of being smeared by water stains. Atobe could barely guess the meaning of some phrases.

"Read it?" The consular steward sank into the sofa, looking old and tired, "At the end, it said seven sacrificial resurrections. I didn't understand what it meant at first, but now combined with a series of things, the seventh... I'm afraid There is something that can't wait. If everything can't be avoided, I just hope...that's not you."

=====

[-]:[-] a.m. Nioh's bedroom

Yukimura finished flipping through the notebook that Liu handed over, his face was full of thought, "This is..."

"Before you told us that there might be a problem with Maid Ono, Nioh and Yagyu went to the basement of the annex building, and Sanada and I went to Maid Ono's bedroom. I rummaged around inside, and she really kept important things in her eyelids I saw the habit below—the complete version of "Nordic Fairy Tales". But I didn't take it away for fear of being discovered, but tried my best to memorize the words and rewrote it silently."

Yukimura nodded: "It seems that our initial guess is correct, [Mermaid Chapter] is not complete. The final ending describes that if the mermaid's body dies unnaturally, the soul will not die. The little mermaid walked in, holding the prince's hand, and whispered in her ear, 'You are the seventh'."

Liu then said: "Seven is a very magical number, which is mentioned many times in the whole "Norse Fairy Tales", just like in "Snow White", the prince killed seven dwarves and saved Snow White, in which The word used is 'sacrifice'."

"Seven..." Yukimura closed his eyes, and the faces of Echizen, Shinobu, and Tezuka flashed in his mind one by one. Could it be that there is one person... that is hard to escape after all?

=====

45:[-] a.m. breaks up mound bedroom

Sanada sat up from the bed, staring sternly at Tezuka who seemed to be trapped in a nightmare.

Tezuka closed his eyes and seemed to be tossing around in agitation, and said in a much thinner voice than his usual: "Hiss... kill... kill... the last one..."

=====

Six o'clock in the morning is not the second bedroom

Bu Er opened his eyes, the morning sun had already filled the whole room.

It's a new day.

=====

When Yukimura returned to the bedroom, Fuji was sitting on the bay window looking out the window.

After Xingcun washed and changed his clothes, Fuji was still in a daze. "Fuji." Yukimura had no choice but to step forward, slightly bent down and stretched out his hand to shake in front of Fuji, "What are you thinking?"

Fuji just woke up and looked at Yukimura in a daze, and said after a while: "I had a dream after I came back from Tezuka yesterday. It seems that a voice told me that time is running out..." He said no Er frowned, as if wanting to recall more details, "I don't know what it means."

Yukimura sighed and raised his hand to pat Fuji on the shoulder, and briefly explained what he found at night.

Fu Er curled up his legs and rested his chin on his knees, thinking: "I don't know how far Liu has copied "Nordic Fairy Tales", if possible, I would also like to read it, I always feel... this fairy tale is not that simple. "

=====

As the time approached seven o'clock, many sleepless people came out of their rooms in twos and threes with dark circles under their eyes to go to the restaurant for breakfast.In the current situation, only when we get together can we feel the little sense of security.

At this time, the maid Ono walked quickly in the corridor, as if she was preoccupied, and when she met everyone in the tennis club, she was not as polite as usual to say hello.Everyone didn't care about such details at all, but when they met, they turned slightly sideways to get out of the way, only Jirou, who had been looking confused all the time, bumped into Ono's arms, both of them staggered two steps, and Akutagawa sat on his buttocks. on the ground.

"I'm sorry, Master Akutagawa." Ono bowed and apologized, stretched out his hand to pull Akutagawa up, and hurried away.Feng Zhe, who was walking in front, came back and asked with concern: "Senior Akutagawa?"

"It's okay, I'm sleepy..." Ci Lang raised his left hand to cover his yawn, but his lowered eyes were full of energy, and his right hand behind his back tightly clasped the small perfume bottle he had just picked up from the ground.

When everyone had almost gathered in the dining room, he looked around silently. In the huge dining room, he only saw Kawamura who was also silent in the lively youth tennis club.Oishi and Momoshiro are taking care of Echizen who is still in a coma, but Tezuka who should have appeared has not yet been seen.

"Sanada is not here either, with Sanada following, Tezuka shouldn't have any major problems." Yukimura sat down beside Fuji, and whispered in Fuji's ear as if he had guessed what Fuji was thinking.

"Yeah." Bu Er replied, casually teasing the breakfast in front of him.

"Every...all young masters...it's not good!" the maid Ando suddenly rushed to the door of the restaurant and shouted to the people inside, out of breath.

Hearing the words, Atobe slammed the table and stood up, and asked, "What's the matter." Everyone also stared at the maid with bated breath. The events of the past two days have pushed everyone's spirits to the limit, and they can no longer bear any bad things. news.

"The Consular Steward...Tezuka, he, he...Master Sanada..." Ando seemed to be getting more and more anxious and unclear.Atobe rushed to Ando impatiently and said, "Stop talking, take me there."

Ando immediately turned around and trotted to lead the way, Atobe followed closely, and the rest of the people also followed in a file.All the way up the stairs to the door of the Consul Butler's bedroom, and walking in the front of Atobu, I can see the chaos inside.

With his back to the door, Tezuka pinned the consular butler to the ground, grabbed his neck with one hand, and seemed to want to grab something with the other hand, but was held tightly by Sanada.The Consul Butler's face had already turned purple, and his hands were weakly clasping Tezuka's hand that was pinching his neck.Sanada wanted to drag Tezuka away powerlessly, but he didn't know where Tezuka got so much strength, Sanada couldn't pull him away, he couldn't separate himself just now, so he had to ask a passing maid to report to everyone .

Everyone was stunned for a moment, Huadi and Kawamura, who were the strongest, had already stepped out of the crowd, coordinating with Sanada's arms driving Tezuka from the left to the right, and barely pulled him away from the consular butler.Atobe helped the consular butler to sit up, but the consular butler was pale and couldn't say a word even after coughing several times.

Tezuka was pressed and sat in the corner, as if he had just woken up from a demonic illness, he stared at his hands in disbelief and murmured: "It was me...it was me...I killed...they ..."