Chapter 80: Volume 3 - CH 4.2

The carriage slowed down, heading in some unknown direction. Hooves echoed softly on the street.

Baffled, Kazuya calmed the girl down. “Why were you in that crate?” he asked. “Where do you usually stay? I went to get help, but when I came back, you were gone.”

“I-I’m scared,” the girl mumbled, cradling her head, shaking it. She was breathing heavily. “I’m scared! Scared!”

She looked up and reached for Kazuya’s cheek. Her hand was so cold and moist that he let out a yelp. Too cold for a living being. The air inside the carriage was getting colder as well. Just one touch seemed to chill his very core.

“What’s your name?” Kazuya managed.

“Name… Yours?”

“It’s Kujou. Kazuya Kujou. And you are?”

“I’m…”

The girl started spinning her head round and round. It was spinning so fast that Kazuya thought the centrifugal force would send her head flying off into the distance. Her sandy-colored hair flew up in the cold air. Kazuya distanced himself from the girl.

Eventually, the girl calmed down, and a hint of a smile appeared on her face.

“I’m Anastasia.”

“Anastasia?”

She nodded with a smile. An adorable motion unbefitting of the current situation. She brought her face close to Kazuya’s cheek. Her skin was as cold and dry as ice.

Anastasia’s cheek touched Kazuya’s. “I was… going to… be sacrificed to demons,” she said in broken French. Smiling, she crumpled to her seat.

Kazuya helped her up. Every part of her scraggly body was cold, and his fingers felt numb.

Maybe she doesn’t understand? Kazuya wondered. What’s this about demons?

He managed to bring her upright. Anastasia was shivering, her eyes closed, but slowly she opened them and peered into Kazuya’s face.

“I was in Jeantan.”

“That’s right. You were in a crate at the end of the corridor.”

“We were locked up.”

“What?!”

“With other girls. In a secret room in Jeantan. It’s huge. It was locked, so we couldn’t escape. There was an eagle with two heads.”

“An eagle? What?”

“The room had a window, where I could see the royal palace of Saubreme. The palace looked pretty. So sparkly. But it was scary, so I ran away. People came, so I hid in the crate.”

Kazuya didn’t know what to say. The words of the strange old lady in front of Jeantan flashed through his mind.

“My daughter and I were tourists. We both entered that department store, but she never came out!”

Avril’s story about people disappearing in a department store. The peculiar street urchin’s account of customers who went into Jeantan but never came out. And the frequent disappearances in Saubreme as a whole—those who vanished into the dark.

Although confused by Anastasia’s statements, Kazuya put on a serious expression, and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You were locked up, yeah? Are there others still inside? If so, we have to report it to the police. The inspector wouldn’t believe me earlier, but if I bring you with me.”

“The demons prevent escape.” Anastasia’s cloudy, purple eyes widened, and she ruffled her dried, sandy-colored hair. “Demons come and perform a ritual. They lock us up for the ritual.”

“I know you can’t speak French well, but I need you to explain it clearly.”

“Demonic rituals! Demons! Demonic rituals!”

Anastasia’s hands balled into fists and she pounded on Kazuya’s chest repeatedly.

“What do you mean?!”

“I don’t know. Strange rituals. We are sacrifices. Demons surround us and recite weird incantation. They raise their hands like this.” She raised her hands and waved them around. Tears streamed down her grimy, pale cheeks. “Demons only talk to demons. They stare at us. One by one, we disappear and never see them again. The demons kill them. Only the cold coffin containing the bodies of those who have disappeared return.”

Kazuya was perplexed. He was starting to think that this case was more than he could handle.

First things first. I gotta take her to the station for her protection.

Kazuya opened the small window that led to the driver’s seat. He asked to be taken to Sauville’s police station.

The carriage gradually slowed down and stopped at a corner of the street where the station was located. The two disembarked. After paying the fare, Kazuya helped Anastasia walk to the station.

“It’s all right now,” he assured. “We’re at the police station. Calm down, and tell them what happened.”

“O-Okay…” Anastasia nodded. She blinked, and tears formed in her cloudy, purple eyes.

Meanwhile…

Inspector Grevil de Blois was in Sauville Police Headquarters’ conference room, surrounded by detectives.

Inspector Blois, cradling his pointy head, stared at the lists in front of him. On his lap was an expensive porcelain doll, wobbling with his restless foot-tapping.

A list of artworks that disappeared from Sauville’s royal treasury during the height of the Great War, a list of treasures left by the Romanov dynasty in Russia and stolen goods smuggled from the colonies, a list of brokers, and a list of collectors who buy stolen goods with gold coins.

The detectives watched Inspector Blois with bated breath. They were eager to hear the famed inspector’s deduction, but the man himself was more interested in the conversation going on in the conference room next door.

In the next room, Mr. Signore was discussing the secret Zoroastrian congregation spreading in England, murders committed by worshippers of the Indian evil goddess Kali, and the growing number of African witchcraft enthusiasts in France.

People returning from the colonies were secretly introducing foreign cultures in their home country.

In Sauville, police were currently investigating reports about Satanic rituals.

Whie Inspector Blois listened to the horrifying conversation, smoking his pipe, a knock came at the door. Everyone raised their head.

A young detective whispered something. Inspector Blois frowned and stood up.

“What in the world is this about, Kujou?” Inspector Blois entered a small room where Kazuya was waiting. “I told you to stop… wasting… my time…” His eyes widened when he saw the emaciated girl slumped next to the boy.

“Who is that?” the inspector asked.

“Please listen to what she has to say.”

“I’m asking you who she is.”

“Her name is Anastasia, the girl I found inside the crate in Jeantan. She escaped on her own after that.”

“Not Jeantan again. I told you I have no time for that.”

“She says…” The door opened, and Mr. Signore appeared. Kazuya continued. “She says there are others like her locked inside. If I recall correctly, there have been many disappearances in Saubreme. Those who vanished into the dark. You said that the the city’s darkness swallowed them, and I think I know where its mouth is. Jeantan.”

“That’s enough!” the nspector snapped.

“Grevil,” Mr. Signore interrupted. “How about listening to what she has to say?”

Kazuya looked at the inspector. Fiddling with his doll, he nodded reluctantly.

Kazuya urged Anastasia to speak. Her purple, jewel-like eyes widened, and she began talking in broken French.

Anastasia was an immigrant from Russia. The daughter of a wealthy noble family, she was forced to flee her country during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Her father died in Russia, followed by her mother in Western Europe, where they fled. She came to Sauville alone. She supposedly had distant relatives here, but since she could barely speak French, she had difficulty seeing them.

“It was night, and I was standing on the street. I found myself in front of Jeantan. There was a mannequin in a beautiful dress in the display window. I thought it was beautiful. So beautiful that I almost cried. Then a young sales staff came out and said, ‘Come and try it on’. But I hesitated. You go to a department store to buy things. You need money, and I didn’t have any. Then the staff laughed and said, ‘You can just try it on in the fitting room. It’s free.’ I should have realized that something was off. But I wandered in, picked up the beautiful dress, and entered the fitting room. When the door closed, the mirror opened. The mirror was also a door. I was dragged into the mirror, blindfolded, and taken to another room. When I came to, I found many others like me, crying. And then we…” Her voice trembled. “…we couldn’t leave any more. We were trapped in the looking glass.”

Kazuya’s breath caught at the words “fitting room”. Both the old woman and Avril mentioned the same thing.

“There’s something about the fitting rooms in Jeantan,” Kazuya muttered. “And there’s a place in the building where they’re hiding the missing people. I don’t know why they’re doing this, though.”

Anastasia stood up. She took a deep breath, shook her head, and screamed.

“Demons. Many disappeared, devoured by the demons. There are demons in Jeantan performing demonic rituals!”

Tears streamed down her face as she started sobbing. Inspector Blois stared at Anastasia with a dubious look on his face. Mr. Signore, on the other hand, looked serious.

“After the ritual, the girl with us disappeared and never came back until later that night… in a coffin. Her whole body was covered in bandages. I called her name, but she wouldn’t answer. I touched her, and she felt cold. She was already dead. Just moments earlier, we were cheering each other up. What did the demons do to her? Why? Why did they take us? So I ran away. I escaped from that room. And then…” She took one deep breath and fell unconscious.

Mr. Signore rushed out into the hallway and told a young detective to call a doctor.

Inspector Blois frowned. “I’m going back to the art case. Kujou, you stay here and think about what you did.”

“What? Why? Why do you siblings keep telling me to think about what I did? No way. I did nothing that warrants reflection. Where are you going?”

“Working on the case assigned to me. There’s clearly something wrong with this girl. Are you sure it wasn’t just all in her head? There’s no evidence to prove her claims. Anyway, this is the last time I’m humoring you. Besides, reflection is a sign of growth.”

“Look who’s talking!”

Ignoring the boy, Inspector Blois exited the room. Kazuya followed him to a conference room full of detectives.

“Those who vanished into the darkness disappeared somewhere in Saubreme,” Kazuya said. “It must be in Jeantan. Girls and children that entered and never came out.”

Inspector Blois turned around. “But can you prove that these women actually disappeared in Jeantan?”

Kazuya stood frozen. All eyes were on him, eyes that said he would not be able to do it.

“I can,” he declared.

A stir ran among the detectives. Kazuya himself was surprised at what he said.

“I’ll bring a kid I know. In the meantime, Inspector, I need you to gather photos of the missing people in Saubreme. And make sure you mix in photos of irrelevant people. I’ll be right back!”

Kazuya dashed out of the conference room, down the corridor, and out of the station.

“K-Kujou?” Inspector Blois mumbled in confusion.