Chapter 910 - 910: Mom's Curiosity

After reminding Kotomi to go to bed early, Akina Izumi hung up the phone.

When she returned to the living room, Kaneyoshi Izumi, who was sitting on the sofa watching television, asked,

"When is Kotomi coming back? It's almost dinnertime already. Even if she's staying at a friend's house, isn't this a little late?"

"Kotomi said she's staying at the Yuigahamas' place tonight."

After saying that, Akina Izumi repeated the explanation Kotomi had just given her over the phone.

Kaneyoshi Izumi did not seem particularly surprised after hearing it. Instead, he jokingly said,

"Has Kotomi started enjoying the feeling of being a teacher? Hahaha."

"Being a teacher isn't easy at all. University professors might have it a little better, but kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and high school teachers all have to get up early and work late. Anyway, if she ever says she wants to become a teacher, I'll definitely be the first one to object," Akina Izumi said somewhat disapprovingly.

"Don't worry. Kotomi will never become a teacher," Kaneyoshi Izumi said confidently as he took off his black-framed glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"Why?" Akina Izumi asked in confusion. "Did little Kotomi tell you before what she wants to do when she grows up?"

"The last time she told me what kind of career she wanted was back in middle school. She'd just finished watching a mystery drama where the protagonist was a forensic pathologist, and afterward she excitedly told me, 'Dad, I want to become a forensic pathologist!'

Then, to test her courage, she picked up her phone, opened the browser, typed in 'bloating corpse,' and hit search.

You can imagine what happened next. The moment she saw the images that came up, her face turned completely pale. That night, she barely had any appetite because of those pictures and only managed to eat five bowls of rice.

After that, she never mentioned wanting to become a forensic pathologist again."

Kaneyoshi Izumi said this with a soft laugh.

"Now that you mention it, I remember there really was one day when little Kotomi ate unusually little at dinner while she was in middle school. So that was because she searched for pictures of bloated corpses. That child really was reckless back then."

Akina Izumi sighed helplessly, then could not resist laughing.

"Speaking of bloated corpses, didn't we also recklessly search for that in the browser back when we were in high school?"

"To be precise, you dragged me into searching for it. I had no intention of looking it up myself," Kaneyoshi Izumi corrected her, adding a complaint for good measure.

Back when Akina Izumi and Kaneyoshi Izumi were students, one of the posts most commonly passed around among classmates was titled [Things You Must Never Search for in a Browser]. If you searched the terms listed in the post, what appeared was usually bizarre, disturbing imagery that was extremely effective at ruining one's appetite.

Back in high school, Akina Izumi had not yet changed her surname, and her name was still Akina Hishinaga.

When she first saw the post, even though its title explicitly said never to search for those things, she still became intensely curious about every term listed inside.

However, she did not dare search for them alone.

At the time, Akina Hishinaga and Kaneyoshi Izumi had already become student librarians. The work itself was easy. Every day after school, they only needed to sit behind the library counter and process checkouts and returns whenever a student or teacher came to borrow or return a book.

However, high school students rarely enjoyed going to the library to read, much less borrowing books. As a result, most of a student librarian's daily routine consisted of sitting in the library reading books, playing on their phones, and quietly passing the hour and a half after school.

Before leaving, they would simply clean the library a little and make sure all the doors and windows were locked.

At first, the work was not too bad, but after enough time passed, being a student librarian gradually became rather boring.

That day was a Friday. As the dismissal bell rang, most students picked up their schoolbags and left campus to enjoy the weekend after a full week of classes.

Kaneyoshi Izumi and Akina Hishinaga, however, still had to remain in the library for another hour and a half because they were student librarians.

Normally, from Monday through Thursday, hardly any students came to the library to read. On a Friday afternoon, there were even fewer.

The moderately sized library contained only Kaneyoshi Izumi and Akina Hishinaga. It was so quiet that even the ticking of the clock on the wall could be heard clearly.

Akina Hishinaga munched on Pocky chocolate biscuits while holding her phone and reading the post titled [Things You Must Never Search for in a Browser].

She had come across the post while eating dinner the night before and had become extremely curious about the things listed in it. She wanted to know what exactly would appear if she typed those bolded terms into the browser and hit search.

However, when she saw the warning, [Cowards, people currently eating, and people with low psychological tolerance are forbidden from searching], she felt both nervous and tempted to look.

Sometimes, that was exactly how things worked. Without a warning like [Cowards are forbidden from searching], she might not have been particularly interested in what the post described.

Yet for some reason, people who made frightening posts always loved adding lines like that. They looked like warnings, but in reality, they only made people even more curious to search.

When Akina Hishinaga first came across the post the previous night, she had not searched anything because she was still eating. Even the words in the post alone gave her an eerie sense of foreboding.

But she had been so curious that she had even struggled to sleep that night.

During school that day, both her math and Japanese classes in the morning had started with exams, so her attention had temporarily shifted away from the post titled [Things You Must Never Search for in a Browser].

Now that the exams were over and she was sitting idly in the library with nothing to do but kill time, Akina Hishinaga once again started thinking about the "things you must never search for" described in that post.

She took out her phone, copied the first forbidden search term, and opened her browser. However, she hesitated over whether she should paste the copied text into the search bar and hit search.

After hesitating for a long time, Akina Hishinaga still could not make up her mind. Then she turned to look at Kaneyoshi Izumi sitting beside her.

At that moment, Kaneyoshi Izumi was reading Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Poke, poke~

Akina Hishinaga reached out and poked Kaneyoshi Izumi's cheek with her finger.

Kaneyoshi Izumi temporarily pulled his attention away from Edgar Allan Poe's world of mystery and looked at Akina Hishinaga in confusion.

"What's wrong?"

"Hehe, want to duel? If you win, I'll grant you one wish. If I win, you grant me one wish."

As Akina Hishinaga spoke, she pulled out her Yu-Gi-Oh! deck.

The moment he heard Akina Hishinaga wanted to play Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kaneyoshi Izumi hurriedly shook his head.

"I didn't bring my deck today, and I don't want to duel."

The mention of dueling immediately reminded Kaneyoshi Izumi of a Yu-Gi-Oh! match he had played with Akina Hishinaga a few days earlier. Before they began, Akina Hishinaga had said the exact same thing:

'If you win, I'll grant you one wish. If I win, you grant me one wish.'

Before entering high school, Akina Hishinaga had not even known what Yu-Gi-Oh! was. It was only later, under Kaneyoshi Izumi's guidance, that she gradually learned how to play.

Seeing how eager Akina Hishinaga was, Kaneyoshi Izumi had simply nodded and agreed.

At the time, Kaneyoshi Izumi had been using a Labrynth deck.

Akina Hishinaga had been using a Sky Striker deck.

Labrynth versus Sky Striker was not an especially favorable matchup for Akina Hishinaga. If she wanted to win, the best approach was probably to stop Lady Labrynth from continuously generating resources.

For Kaneyoshi Izumi, protecting Lady Labrynth was essentially equivalent to victory.

Logically speaking, Kaneyoshi Izumi should have won that duel with ease. However, midway through the match, he got impatient and made a mistake, which ultimately caused him to lose to Akina Hishinaga.

After winning the duel, the wish Akina Hishinaga asked Kaneyoshi Izumi to fulfill was—

Watch The Wicked Ghost with me.

A bet was a bet. Kaneyoshi Izumi could only nod and agree to watch The Wicked Ghost with Akina Hishinaga.

And so, for the rest of their time in the library, Kaneyoshi Izumi and Akina Hishinaga sat together and watched the entire movie on a phone.

Kaneyoshi Izumi normally enjoyed horror and mystery works, so although The Wicked Ghost occasionally startled him with frightening imagery and eerie music, he could still tolerate it and did not find it especially terrifying.

Akina Hishinaga, who had been the one to suggest watching The Wicked Ghost, was the one who ended up thoroughly frightened. Her pretty face turned pale, and she covered her eyes with both hands.

Even after the movie ended, she still did not dare lower them.

At the very beginning, she had even confidently told Kaneyoshi Izumi,

"Kaneyoshi, if you get scared, you can hide in my arms!"

Yet not long after saying that, Akina Hishinaga was startled by the opening scenes of The Wicked Ghost.

By the time they reached the middle of the movie, Akina Hishinaga had both hands covering her eyes. Occasionally, curiosity would get the better of her, and she would slightly spread her fingers to peek at the phone screen through the gaps.

Then she would quickly get frightened again and squeeze her eyes shut.

By the time the movie ended, the sky outside the windows had already gone completely dark.

Only then did Kaneyoshi Izumi and Akina Hishinaga hurriedly tidy up the library, close the windows, lock the doors, and leave.

When they stepped out of the library, the entire school building was already pitch black.

Kaneyoshi Izumi used the flashlight on his phone to illuminate the way, while Akina Hishinaga clung tightly to his arm. Even after they finally left the school grounds, she still refused to let go.

Seeing how badly The Wicked Ghost had frightened Akina Hishinaga, Kaneyoshi Izumi said with concern,

"I'll walk you home. If I let you go back alone, I'm worried you'll start imagining a ghost floating out from around every corner."

"O-Okay... Thanks. Oh, and when we get to my house and you see my little sister, you absolutely cannot tell her that The Wicked Ghost scared me this badly!

I only bragged to her a few days ago that no horror movie could scare me. If Yuki finds out, she'll definitely mock me mercilessly. Then all my dignity as her big sister will be completely gone!"

"Isn't that a little exaggerated...?"

"It is not! I don't know whether Yuki has entered puberty lately or what, but she always argues with everything I say. Hmph, that brat isn't nearly as cute as she was when she was little."

Remembering how badly The Wicked Ghost had frightened Akina Hishinaga a few days earlier, Kaneyoshi Izumi glanced at the eager-looking girl who now wanted to duel and assumed she wanted to make him watch another horror movie.

He immediately refused.

Faced with Kaneyoshi Izumi's refusal, Akina Hishinaga puffed out her cheeks in displeasure and protested,

"Then let's play rock-paper-scissors. If I win, you grant me one wish. If you win, I'll grant you one wish."

"I don't want to watch another horror movie. I want to finish The Murders in the Rue Morgue today," Kaneyoshi Izumi said calmly.

"I'm not asking you to watch a horror movie with me this time!"

As Akina Hishinaga spoke, she handed her phone to Kaneyoshi Izumi so he could look at the post titled [Things You Must Never Search for in a Browser].

"What's this?"

Kaneyoshi Izumi looked at the contents of the post somewhat strangely. When he saw the bolded terms, his brows furrowed slightly.

Although he had no idea what the things described by those words actually looked like, the text alone already gave him the distinct feeling that he did not want to search for them.

"I came across this post while eating dinner last night. I originally wanted Yuki to look at it with me, but after glancing at it, she immediately said:

'Onee-chan, with how cowardly you are, you really shouldn't look at this. I don't know what these things you're not supposed to search for actually look like, but I feel like one glance would give you nightmares for days.

I don't want you looking at them now and then asking me to sleep with you tonight. The beds in both our rooms are single beds. I don't want to squeeze into one bed with you.'

Damn it! That brat actually dared to call me a coward! When she was little and there was thunder outside, she'd carry her little pillow into my room and ask me to sleep with her. Hmph! She's not cute at all now that she's grown up!"

By the end, Akina Hishinaga even smacked the table in dissatisfaction.

"I think your sister has a point. Forget everything else. Just this one, [100 Days After a Girl's Bathroom Suicide], already makes you picture something unpleasant without even searching for an image.

And right beside it, it says, [Cowards, people currently eating, and people with low psychological tolerance are forbidden from searching]. If you look it up now, are you still planning to eat dinner tonight?"

Kaneyoshi Izumi said.

"But it's exactly because it says not to search that I really want to know what kind of pictures those words actually refer to," Akina Hishinaga said, sounding both frightened and expectant.

"I remember there's a book in the library called Illustrated Guide to Corpse Decomposition. I have no idea why the school bought something like that for the library in the first place, but if you're curious, you can go look at that book first," Kaneyoshi Izumi said.

"No way! Just hearing the title sounds terrifying." Akina Hishinaga hurriedly shook her head.

"Exactly. The moment you hear the title Illustrated Guide to Corpse Decomposition, you think it sounds terrifying and don't dare read it.

Aren't the things this post says you should 'never search for in a browser' equally frightening and difficult to look at?" Kaneyoshi Izumi said by way of example.

"But I'm still really curious," Akina Hishinaga muttered quietly.

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