CH 58

Method to Leave is Unknown

Rosary clumsily moved Harukara’s hand and shook mine.

“Negotiations are established with this. I’ll be in your care!”

I answered with the best possible smile.

After all, Rosary is probably feeling insecure; she most likely ‘lived’ in isolation for an extremely long time. My mentality should be to be properly polite in dealing with her until the end.

“T-th…. Th-thanks….”

Rosary said her thanks while embarrassed.

“My house has a lot of rooms so even if you’re a ghost, you should be able to properly live there. I haven’t notified everyone else there yet but since everyone’s kind, I’m sure we’ll manage it one way or another.”

――And, for some reason, Beelzebub deeply sighed as if she gave up.

“Good grief…. Azusa, you’re really a con-artist…. You’re even harder to handle because you’re doing it unconsciously.”

“Huh? I don’t really understand but…you’re amazed?”

“Even if it seems that way, I am praising you in my own way. Even so, seems Azusa’s strongest power isn’t her cheat-like abilities but probably that instead.”

“…I don’t feel that I have that ability though….”

“That’s why it’s scary. You can see the gaps of someone like a cunning person, but you’re not actually calculating whatsoever.”

What? I didn’t properly understand that…but in any case, according to Beelzebub’s words it seems I’m doing whatever it is unconsciously. So…there’s no way I would actually understand it.

“U-um…… Azusa-san, was it……? Can I call you, Ane-san……?” [1]

“Well, I do appear like I’m older I guess. Sure. Call me whatever you want.”

“I will follow Ane-san for the rest of my life! I’ll even put my body on the line to protect Ane-san!”

“Protect me? …Aren’t you already dead?”

I only accepted it as a joke, but――

“No! I can do that if I borrow a body like this!”

Rosalie said while getting psyched up.

She made it seem like Harukara died, but whatever….

And so I brought Rosay, who was still inside Harukara, with me and returned to the residence. Harukara couldn’t fly so Beelzebub called on Leica. It was decided that she would ride on the back of that dragon. In addition, after Beelzebub called Leica, she said she was sleepy…and took a nap on the spot.

“Ah. I am the ghost Rosary. Leica aneki, please take care of me!”

“…Having that said with Harukara’s face makes me feel uncomfortable…. Well the expression in the eyes are different so….”

“I’m only borrowing her body for now. Once we’ve arrived at your residence, I’ll leave her from there.”

Before long, we returned to the residence. Leica’s ability to fly us all really saved us the trouble.

Farufa and Sharusha have yet to sleep, so they too greeted Rosary.

“I’ll be in your care! Nee-san’s daughters!”

“Yea, please take care of me okay!”

“This is the first time meeting an existence called a ghost. How intriguing.”

My two daughters aren’t afraid of the ghost whatsoever. Rather, Farufa and Sharusha are accumulations of the souls of slimes so…their existences might be something akin to ghosts. Both ghosts (yuu-rei) and spirits (sei-rei) both have “souls” (rei) after all. [2]

“I also want to see Rosary’s face~. Come out~.”

“I want to confirm her appearance with my eyes.”

“Alright! Well then, I’ll show you my own form- mmm?!”

Rosary’s――rather, Harukara’s――complexion became awfully pale.

“Hey…Rosay? Did something happen? I’m getting a ‘not so good’ feeling from your face.”

“Nee-san…. I possessed her but…. How…do I get out?”

It was a very great fundamental problem.

“Eh? You can’t do it easily like opening and closing a door…?”

“N-no. At any rate…I haven’t possessed anyone before…. It’s good that I’ve entered, but I don’t know how to get out?”

…Is it like those octopus traps where they can enter easily but cannot leave? [3]

…It would’ve been a funny story, but it’s not.

“If…if it’s left like this, wouldn’t it become something pretty bad?”

If Rosay continued to possess Harukara, Harukara’ll probably get mad. She also has plans for tomorrow after all.

I went to go wake up that Beelzebub who had slept on the dot.

“U~mu…. What is it…? I just fell asleep you know….”

“I’d like for Rosary to leave Harukara’s body, but what should I do?”

Perhaps if it’s Beelzebub, I guessed that she would know how to deal with that.

“Umu…what? …You meant she can’t just instantly leave?”

Uwa?! That was my idea too!

“Come! Come! Let’s think together!”

“Stop pulling me! It hurts! It hurts!”

Anyways I brought Beelzebub to Rosasy, who was still stuck in Harukara.

“I can’t leave…. It’s like I’m trapped completely in a box….”

“…It might be because their compatibility is too good. I’ve never heard before of a story where someone possessing can’t get out of someone….”

“Hey, will Harukara’s health affected badly from this…?”

“If a different soul from the body stays inside the body for a whole day, then yes it will be bad. At the worst, the body will die.”

That’s extremely bad!

We soon called for a family council at the table immediately.

“Well… apparently, the time limit to get Rosay out of Harukara’s body is 20 hours so…. I’d like for everyone to share their wisdom and come up with a solution. Let’s work together to get through this.

Rosary became even paler than before. The thought of her possibly killing Harukara might be the cause.

“I-I… I don’t want to do something that would kill someone I’m indebted to. If th-that’s going to happen, th-then I’ll just hang myself once more!”

“Don’t do that! If you do that, you’ll REALLY be killing Harukara and not yourself!”

I pacified Rosary.

This seems like we’re going to be up all night thinking about this….

Footnotes:

1. Ane-san: older sister. It’s gangster-like though, usually used in gangs and yakuza when referring to someone who has a higher position that you. Her calling Azusa that is supposed to emphasize the point that her speech pattern isn’t really like polite person, but more like a delinquent.

2. Did you get it with the sound explanation I had in parentheses. They both have the 霊 character in both words.

ED: You’d probably be wondering why Rosary’s addressed as a Yurei while the two sisters are Seirei when both are spirits. It’s a long discussion so I’ll give you the TL:DR version. Yurei are your [proper ghosts], those that are the apparitions of people or things [once alive]. Seirei are [proper spirits] that are a part of nature and the natural phenomenon. These are so-called [holy spirits] and whatnot. It still sounds confusing but the proper discussion would be really REALLY lengthy and more confusing than this.

3. Octopus pot fishing can be explained with the following picture or google the words “蛸壺漁” on Google Images to get a better idea of what it looks like.

http://www.ryoushi.jp/gyogyou/engan/images/09_takotubo.jpg

ED: Takotsubo is those clay jars that people drop into the ocean. Octopii just LOVE to crawl into tight spaces for protection, and this method takes advantage of that. Just leave the trap down there for a few days, and once you pull it out, you get a free octopus inside. Oh, and Azusa is wrong with this analogy: the octopus inside CAN get out of that trap; they just don’t choose to.

Incidentally it’s also the proper name of the “Broken Heart Syndrome”; Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy. YES, having a broken heart IS a thing. More on that here (graphic content): http://nazr.in/1167