Tokyo Exorcism Diary

The pale moonlight streamed gently through the window, casting a soft glow over the dimly lit bedroom.

The bed in Asahina Kaoru’s room wasn’t small—one and a half meters wide, spacious enough for two slender girls to sleep side by side without crowding each other.

Hoshino Rin, lying on the inside near the window, opened her eyes slightly and glanced at Kaoru, who was sitting up against the headboard, scrolling through her phone.

“Kaoru… it’s really late. Aren’t you going to sleep?”

Kaoru didn’t look at her. Her voice was soft. “I’m picking out a new TV. Otherwise, I won’t have a good excuse when Mom comes back.”

“I see…” Rin murmured, then fell quiet again.
Since those people from the special unit left, she and Kaoru hadn’t really talked much.

Kaoru hadn’t asked, and Rin didn’t know what to say.

But looking at her now—aside from the slight pallor in her face—Kaoru seemed otherwise okay. Rin thought, She must be scared… after what happened tonight, how could she not be?

In the end, she couldn’t keep quiet.
“Kaoru, about tonight—”

“Rin-chan, those things… we’re probably not supposed to talk about them with normal people, right?” Kaoru interrupted softly, still scrolling. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have made me sign that agreement…”

Then she finally turned her head to look at Rin. She smiled gently, her eyes glistening.

“Rin-chan… you know, I used to be really envious of you. No—jealous, actually. The chances I had to fight so hard for, you didn’t even have to lift a finger—people would just bring them to you. The things I poured endless effort and sweat into… all you had to do was say a word, and everyone would scramble to put them at your feet.”

“I worked harder than anyone else… but people always surrounded you. I kept telling myself, ‘This world just isn’t fair, don’t be jealous of her.’ But whenever I saw the rest of us struggling with everything we had for something, while you could just watch from the side and still have it all… I couldn’t help it.”

“I told you in the car earlier that I fell for your brother at first sight… but that wasn’t true. At least, not really. What I did want, was for your brother to fall for me. Not because I liked him, but because I thought—if that happened, maybe I’d finally have something that you have.”

“But… but…” Kaoru wiped the tears running down her pale cheeks. “This world is so incredibly unfair.”

“I’m sorry, Rin-chan. I know I’m a really dark person. Nothing like the Kaoru you see in the team… or on screen… I’m sorry…”

Rin stared at her in a daze, bathed in moonlight and wiping her tears.
She hadn’t expected it at all—that this was how Kaoru saw her. Her so-called good friend.

She felt… disoriented. Shocked. And… kind of heartbroken.

After a long pause, Rin let out a sigh and sat up too, her waist-length, silky black hair tumbling down around her shoulders.

“It’s okay, Kaoru. No one in this world is perfect. Everyone has a darker side, dark thoughts too—we all do. Even as idols, what the audience sees on stage and on screen is just what the agency wants them to see. Have you ever seen any of our teammates be exactly the same off-stage as they are on it?”

“The fact that you’re willing to open up and show me the part of you you least want others to see… that’s already really brave. As long as thoughts are just thoughts, and they never become actions, then no matter how dark they are, no one has the right to call you a bad person, right?”

After saying that, Rin noticed Kaoru was still crying, so—on impulse—she added quickly:
“Then I’ll tell you one of my secrets too. Something I absolutely, positively can’t let anyone else know!”

She leaned in close to Kaoru’s ear and whispered something.

Just as expected, Kaoru’s expression froze. She stopped crying, blinking wide-eyed at Rin, who now sat with flushed cheeks and her head down, not daring to meet her gaze.

Then suddenly, Kaoru burst out laughing through her tears.

“Actually… I kind of already suspected that.”

“Ehh?!” Now it was Rin’s turn to look stunned. She stared at Kaoru in disbelief. “No way! Was I that obvious?!”

Kaoru wiped away the last of her tears, smiled, and gently shook her head.

“Don’t worry. I don’t think anyone else noticed. Just me.”

Rin let out a huge sigh of relief, then put on a mock-angry face and “threatened”:

“That’s my biggest secret, you know! If you tell anyone, I’ll tell them about ‘dark Kaoru’!”

With that, she dove back under the covers, her face bright red.

Kaoru felt her nose sting again, tears threatening to fall once more. She lowered her head, whispering,

“Thank you, Rin-chan…”

Hearing that from inside the blanket, Rin quietly let out a long breath… and finally closed her eyes in peace.

…

Hoshino Gen slowly opened his eyes.

The washitsu-style room was already bright—not from the lights, but because morning had come.

“Oh, finally awake? Took you long enough. Come wash up and have breakfast.”

He heard the voice as soon as he stirred, and looking over, sure enough, there sat Shinichi and Yusuke at a low table with food laid out.

Shinichi gestured with his chin. “Toiletries are on the windowsill. Yusuke just picked them up from the self-serve convenience store. It’s safe. Go ahead and use them.”

Hoshino Gen rubbed his temples—they were throbbing—and staggered to his feet.
“Did anything else happen last night after I passed out?”

Shinichi shrugged.

“Nothing major. Just that girl, Ryouko—she wouldn’t wake up no matter what, so a few of her friends came by, demanding to know what happened. Since it happened after she came into our room, they figured it had to be our fault.”

“I sent them off, but then they started making a fuss—saying they’d call the cops or an ambulance. Problem was, they couldn’t get a single call through. Oh, that’s right—past midnight last night, there was no more signal. Also, hey—check the window.”

Hoshino Gen turned around—and instantly noticed something was wrong.

Fog. A thick, suffocating fog blanketed the world outside.
Visibility was frighteningly low—barely five meters, if that.

“That fog’s just like yesterday’s rain. It’ll really mess with our ability to investigate anything.”