Psychic Detective Yakumo / Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

Volume 8 - The Vanished Spirit

File 01: Suspicion

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Life is a momentary phase
The end of life is a momentary phase
- Dougen

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1

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'Stop!'

Saitou Yakumo woke up to his own yell.

His body was covered in sweat as he lay on the wooden floor.

- A dream?

After realising that, Yakumo slowly sat up.

He didn't remember the contents of his dream, but he was left with a smouldering impression in his chest that it had been incredibly unpleasant

That's how dreams are -

His vision was blurry, as if he were surrounded by fog.

The back of his neck hurt like it had been squeezed tightly.

- Did I hit it on something?

Then, his surroundings became clear. He had thought he was in the university's Movie Research Circle room, where he usually slept, but it seemed he was wrong.

It was dim -

There were candleholders in the four corners of the room, with the small lights of the candles flickering. The room was about twenty tatami in size.

At first glance, it looked like a temple, but rocks dripping with water jutted out of the ceiling and the wall in the back and the narrow pillar in the middle of the room supported the limestone ceiling, which looked like it might collapse at any moment.

This was probably built out of some limestone cave.

- Why am I here?

Yakumo was trying to search through his memories, but the pain in the back of his neck stopped him. He let out a groan and closed his eyes.

His forehead was covered with a cold sweat.

He was taking deep breaths to try to calm down when an offensive smell suddenly assaulted him.

Yakumo knew what that smell was immediately.

Blood -

'This is...'

Yakumo leant back without thinking.

There was an aging fifty-year old man collapsed there in priest's robes.

His eyes were wide. A purple tongue hung from his half-open mouth.

He had dug his fingernails into the floorboards, probably because he had frantically struggled to get away.

There were stab wounds all over the man's body.

The large amount of blood that had come out of his wounds spread around the man, as if to draw his figure.

It was clear to anyone that Yakumo was already dead.

Yakumo knew this man.

His name was Seidou. The chief priest at the temple.

'What is this...' murmured Yakumo, covering his face with his hands. Then, he suddenly felt something strange.

He felt something sticky on his palms.

- It can't be.

Yakumo held his hands up in front of his eyes.

They were a deep red -