Karasu no Tengoku

Chapter Three: Warning…

(Hideki’d just woken up, it was about 11:30, he went downstairs and took some juice, his head ached and he was actually still tired, ’No, not migraine, not today…’, he thought as his head began to throb, it usually happened to him when he’d slept too much or too little, along with the juice he swallowed the same medication his mother used to take for migraine and decided that a shower might as well help)

(He stood under the faucet just standing there for a while, thinking that maybe the cold water would help his head, and it did, at least a bit, after rinsing his hair and body, he came out, actually the headache was almost gone, so he wasn’t that moody anymore, he decided he wasn’t actually hungry while he was dressing himself and made coffee instead, he could almost hear Kaito’s voice telling him he’ll develop an ulcer if he kept on having ONLY coffee for breakfast, but honestly, he couldn’t care less, he almost laughed at the idea, he went downstairs with his mug and sat peacefully on the garden, the results from the letter’s examination had come a week ago, but Kaito hadn’t come back from Boston just yet, so he didn’t want to start the investigation without his friend, though he’d said he’ll be back on a week, there had not even been a call from him)
“Wonder if anything happened to him…nah, Kaito, go figure…”
(He lay on the grass, and began falling asleep without even noticing…)

(Kaito’d just arrived to Narita airport and considering Hideki’s house wasn’t far from there, he decided to take the metro, still the note that he’d found on his hotel room was intact…an hour and a half later he was leaving his luggage near the entrance door and actually calling for Hideki, who didn’t answer, so he though he might be out or something, since he’d been one week late maybe his friend would have gone out, so he went to the kitchen and the door to the garden was opened, ’Now THAT’S weird…’, he went out onto the garden and found Hideki asleep, gave him a light kick on the side with the foot…kind of poking a body to see if it’s still alive…)
“Hey…what are you doing down there and asleep of all things??? Did you die??”
“Mnnnammmnmn…Kaito??”
“Really…”
(Kaito went back to the kitchen and sat on a stool waiting for the currently half-awake Hideki to drag himself inside…and yes, he crawled back to the kitchen o.o, propped himself upon the other stool across from Kaito and asked, still quite sleepy)
“When…did you get back??”
“A few hours ago…Hideki…how much caffeine do you have in your system already??”
“Can’t remember…”
(Hideki’s head came to rest upon the shelf, in the brink of sleep)
“Why are you so damn sleepy?!?!?!...I know you’re some kind of insomniac but this is ridiculous!!”
(’Yawn’. Hideki propped himself upon his elbows and said)
“Let’s see…I overslept…I woke up thanks to a goddamned migraine that I’m sure began about 9 or 10 in the morning, theeeeeeeen…I made coffee, maybe…oh no, before that I took the awfully disgusting medicine for migraine, took a shower and then came the coffee…and then, I remember I went to the garden and began thinking about…mmm….yeah, and then I suppose I fell asleep because I can’t remember a thing after that or before you kicked me back to life…soooooooo, how were your vacations, Mr. I’m-so-goddamned-good-a-detective???...”
“Suspicious…”
“Is that so??”
“Would it be wiser of me if I told you when you’re fully awake??”
“I’m neeeever fully awake…”
“Right…how could I forget that you’ve got caffeine instead of haemoglobin in your blood??”
“Ha…ha….hahahahahhaahahahahahahahaha!”
“Ok, enough of the stupid schizophrenic laughter…now, do you want to know why was it suspicious?”
“Ahá…”
”Really…”
“C’mon…tell me already…”
“A note, it appeared on the exact morning when I was coming back…and one more thing, the night previous to this, there had been a blackout in my hotel, and my hotel alone…that’s all the suspicious stuff…”
“Oh…have you read the note already??”
“I was planning to…somewhere in the middle of the ride I forgot…”
“I want to read it…”
(Kaito went back to his luggage and pulled the letter out of his coat’s pocket, when he came back to the kitchen, Hideki was snoring slightly, still propped on his elbows)
“HIDEKI!!!”
“Wha…whee…wha??? I’m awake!! I’m awake!! Oh yeah, the letter, right…”
“My…Goooood!!! Oh well, I suppose it’s YOU after all, and you being obviously YOU…mmm, what puts people to sleep normally??”
“Miiiiiilllkkk…”
“Gooood…”
(Kaito grabbed a cup from the shelf, opened the fridge, pulled out the damn milk box and poured some into the mug, but then he remembered that it had to be warm, so he put it into the microwave for about a minute and placed it in front of Hideki, poked his head saying)
“Wakeeee uuuup…”
(When he had as much of Hideki’s attention as he knew he would get in such a situation, he pushed the cup forward)
“Drink it…and you better half wake up or I’m going to kill you…”
“Alright…”
(Hideki drank the milk while reading the letter…)
“Read it out loud…”
“Hey, there’s something abnormal with this letter...”
“What is it?”
“Just look at it, it doesn’t make any sense, it’s like someone scrambled the alphabet and put it back together the wrong way…”
“Still read it…I might know if it’s a code and if I can crack it…”
“Al right…
’ Thikuf-sha:

Thitsu-sha itsu ogatet tsukuano, fteshisan wanoackutsu naiinono cteogasakusankiku, aogame thku metetesan tsuhanono tewakuoga thkuoga…’

That’s all…does it make any sense to you at all?”
“In fact…it does...I think I’ve heard that kind of phonetic somewhere…might as well look for it in a book…”
(Kaito came back from the hallway, where he’d left his suitcase with a weird kind of book, it was big and thick, and seemed old…Hideki eyed the book weirdly…)
“Do you carry that with you always?”
“Of course not idiot…”
“Then why now??”
“Because we’re involved in a supernatural affair, and this book is very, VERY special…”
“Oh really…then…can that book help you translate that weird language??”
“Yes…”
“Good!”
“It’ll just take a little…hey! Here it is! I knew I’d heard that phonetic somewhere!”
“Sooo…where was it??”
“It’s the ancient secret language of All Souls’ Maze…”
“Ancient? Secret?...”
“Exactly…actually Hideki, I was a bit surprised you didn’t recognize it…”
“Oh that’s because I’m not the expert of the family about supernatural affairs…”
“Oh…who is it then??”
“My grandfather, but he died before passing down to me all his knowledge…”
“Oh…I’m sorry…well, I’ll begin translating this, and I’ll explain later the language’s existence…”
“Ok…”
(After a few moments, Kaito closed the book…)
“Done…now, read out loud…”
“Okay…
’Thief:

This is not real, four places will converge, and the door shall open then…’

Now, that is weird…”
“Anything you can relate with the number 4??”
“Not right now…really…”
(Hideki’s head kind of fell with a thud upon the counter and he…fell asleep again…)
“Incredible…just…WONDERFUL!!”