In a haze of scattered thoughts, Victor Wang saw a patrol of the Tenryou Commission coming from afar. Instinctively, he slipped into an empty alley to hide.
"Ritou, Konda Village, Inazuma City, Musoujin Gorge, the sea west of Konda Village, Tatarasuna…Kasano brothers, Shinnosuke brothers, Konda Soushi, Kotaro, Hanachirusato, Seto Eri, Furuya Makoto, Kuroda…Robin, Hungry Ghost, Cursed Blade…"
One by one, he whispered names of places, people, or codenames, until it ended in a sigh: 'So strange…'
["Hmm?! What's strange about it? Didn't Master just uncover a clue?"]
"What clue? It's still all a fog."
["Musoujin Gorge! Seto Eri must have gone missing while gathering materials there!"]
"Are you sure? If Seto Eri went to Musoujin Gorge, why did her neighbor lose their memory?"
["Tch! Maybe… maybe the 'Hungry Ghost' captured Seto Eri and read from her memory that she kept a diary. Then, when he destroyed the diary, the neighbor saw it!"]
"If the 'Hungry Ghost' could read from her memory that she kept a diary, why wouldn't he also read from Kuroda in the Yae Publishing House?"
The patrol passed. At the mouth of the alley, the left road led toward the upper district and the home of another missing person, Furuya Makoto. The right road led to the lower district, away from Inazuma City.
After a brief hesitation, Victor Wang chose the right path, returning to the Dragon Maple Crossing Inn.
The enemy had the ability to manipulate memory. To prevent himself from forgetting things like Seto Eri, writing them down was the safest option.
Thus, those names filled his page.
Little Wen, restless, flitted out to observe, then suddenly declared: ["I've got it! Musoujin Gorge is a fake location! Because the Kasano brothers' trail to the western sea of Konda was found by a dog sniffing it out, while Seto Eri's trip to Musoujin Gorge was only told by Kuroda. The 'Hungry Ghost' can manipulate memory, but he can't manipulate the scent left behind by missing people!"]
"Not correct."
["Why not?!"]
"When Kotaro encounters strangers, he always barks—he's too noticeable. Even if the 'Hungry Ghost' didn't expect us to track people with a dog, once Kotaro barked, he'd have realized it."
["…That makes sense!"] Little Wen tilted her body, really nodding. ["So, the 'Hungry Ghost' discovered the dog but didn't harm it…Oh! Because he knew that killing one dog would only lead to more being used, so instead of touching the dog, he diverted the Kasano family's trail in the wrong direction! Damn it, I almost fell for it! So, both the Kasano brothers' and Seto Eri's trails are fake? Meaning… we've got no clues at all…"]
Victor Wang held his head, thinking for a long time before countering: "We can't be sure what's true or false. Both might be fake, both might be real, or maybe only one is real."
["Hah! Two different trails pointing in opposite directions—that's just to make Master scramble in circles, exhausted. It raises the difficulty and buys the 'Hungry Ghost' more time for evil. What's wrong with that reasoning? "]
"Ritou, Konda Village, Inazuma City, Musoujin Gorge, the sea west of Konda Village, Tatarasuna…" Instead of answering, Victor Wang circled the line of addresses on the page again and again, muttering it aloud.
Think, think, think…
Go through the enemy's exposed details again from start to finish…
"The 'Hungry Ghost' can manipulate memory, but within a limited range. "
"He makes people disappear bit by bit, a few at a time. Even collapsing the North Wing's communications took a long span. Maybe the 'Hungry Ghost' is just one person—at most, no more than ten. "
"When he first sent out three messages, why didn't he mix lies in immediately to mislead us? Perhaps he had only just gotten the organization's code and was testing it…"
"But the third message was useless. At the time, the disappearances weren't public knowledge, so it wasn't meant to incite panic. It looked more like bragging after confirming success… or a preview of his upcoming moves? "
"The 'Hungry Ghost' may take pride in his power and actions. He's a show-off, amused by himself. "
"He destroyed Seto Eri's notebook because paper is more rigid than memory or a dog's nose. Once written down, it can't be altered, only destroyed—even if he could imitate her handwriting. He's meticulous. "
"Summary: the 'Hungry Ghost' is an individual or a group smaller than ten, able to manipulate memory within a range, arrogant about it, unafraid of flaunting his existence, yet careful when acting."
["Master, that's brilliant! But… but what use is it, even if you deduced all that?"]
"We need to switch perspectives. Little Wen, this time it's your role."
["Hah!"]
Victor Wang folded the sheet, hiding a part of his notes. "Now, you are the 'Hungry Ghost.' With the ability to manipulate memory in a limited range, if you had to dispose of the Kasano brothers and Seto Eri, what would be the most secure method?"
["A secure method… Secure means… you're scattered across places; I can't make all of you forget. So, you'll find out sooner or later if the Kasano brothers go missing. No point in playing tricks. I'd erase them from Konda Village's collective memory, then dump all their belongings into the vast sea—so all of it becomes untraceable!"]
["There's a saying, 'The more you do, the more you expose yourself.' Even cover-up actions are no exception. Better to act like they never existed—then no matter how you investigate, it's blank."]
["As for Seto Eri—in Inazuma City, too many people. The Raiden Shogun and the Tenryou Commission are here. I can't alter memories one by one. So, the smaller the range, the better. Just destroy any items in her house that might reveal me."]
["If the neighbor never saw me, altering or not altering their memory doesn't matter. But since I took Seto Eri's diary, I must also alter Yae Publishing House's staff—otherwise it's meaningless!"]
["From this view, the 'Hungry Ghost' acted differently in Konda Village than I would, but similarly in Inazuma City. So, Konda's trail is fake. Kuroda's words are also fake."]
"The 'Hungry Ghost' may have never touched Konda Village at all."]
["Eh?!"]
"…Let's continue."
Unfolding the paper fully, Victor Wang added: "Now, Little Wen, keep playing the 'Hungry Ghost,' but with these traits: confident, arrogant, meticulous yet clever, delights in others' confusion and fear, doesn't mind standing out, balances secure with entertaining, and tends toward the latter. How would you handle the Kasano brothers and Seto Eri then?"
["Let me think! No good… just imagining it makes me excited! If I could control people's memories, I'd be invincible! I'd make everyone treat me like their best friend—I could do anything! "]
"That's only your fantasy, but I'll note it. If you truly lived like that forever, your world would be dull. No challenges, no surprises—like playing a game with cheat codes. It couldn't last."
["Ah! Don't say that!"]
"That's why you'd develop a taste for interesting things. You'd stop using your power casually. Which fits my guess about the 'Hungry Ghost's' personality. Now stay focused—don't drift."
["Then in Konda Village, I'd scatter false trails everywhere, trapping you like an ant in a maze!"]
["In Inazuma City, I'd do the same—predict your path of investigation, then make people point east, west, contradicting one another. Whether they all forget or all misremember doesn't matter—the effect is the same, but way more fun!"]
["And, and—I'd watch you suffer in confusion, laughing in secret!"]
["Ugh!"] Realizing her slip, Little Wen rushed to explain: ["I was just roleplaying the 'Hungry Ghost'… not that I want to see Master upset…"]
"You're right. The 'Hungry Ghost' may very well be watching me."
"Ah?! Who?!"
Victor Wang closed his eyes, taking two deep breaths. Faces flashed in his mind.
Hanachirusato, Aoi, and Kuroda—characters who appeared in the game. He could safely rule them out by cheating. Which left only Konda Soushi, the one he'd met that same day.
"In Konda Village, I made a mistake. I only questioned the Kasano brothers' neighbors and Konda Soushi. The neighbors said the house was lived in by the 'Shinnosuke brothers,' who left last year to work and never returned. But Konda Soushi said he didn't remember who lived there."
["That kid is suspicious!"]
"No… it's also possible that one was a young boy living in the south end of the village, while the other two were older—young men or adults working in the west. The age gap meant the boy didn't know them. I should have asked Konda Soushi's grandfather if he knew the Kasano brothers, instead of assuming their memories were all altered."
Little Wen muttered hopelessly: ["Even if you asked, so what…? It could still be altered memories… The Kasano neighbors had relevant memories, while Soushi didn't. Seto Eri's neighbor had none, yet Kuroda—far away—just happened to have some…"]
"You're right. The 'Hungry Ghost's' power is terrifying. If he had targeted anyone besides North Wing, with its scattered membership, he could've committed the perfect crime. In obsessing over which memories are real or fake, I've already stepped into his trap—or worse, onto the stage he prepared, a clown for his amusement."
["Master… don't give up! You're the best!"]
"Heh, I'm not quitting. Do you remember what that shrine maiden said? She claimed, 'On Konda Village's land, nothing unusual has happened.'"
["But she might have had her memory altered too?!"]
"I never said I fully trust her. But her words directly conflicted with another's."
On the page, after the first three lines of names and codenames, Victor Wang wrote a fourth.
Windwheel Maru.
["The boy who brought the intel is suspicious! How could it be…?"]
"Don't you think Ritou, Konda Village, Inazuma City, and Tatarasuna—all four places—are just meant to send me running ragged? If the information was false from the start, that's the hardest path, the most entertaining for him. It buys the 'Hungry Ghost' time, and gives him the finest clown show.
"But truth can only be one. Inazuma's official birth records and registries from decades ago cannot be altered, cannot lie. By confirming whether the names there say Kasano or Shinnosuke, I can expose whether Windwheel Maru or Hanachirusato is real."
"Either I break the case right there, or nothing changes. At least it won't get worse. And… I trust Hanachirusato more."
["Ehh! So that shrine maiden's name was Hanachirusato? Master, when did you ask her that, without me?"]
"…Not important."
The analysis filled a sheet. Victor Wang copied it twice more, hiding one in his Dragon Tooth Sword Armor, another in his cloak pocket, the last in his shoe. These couldn't be hidden too well—if his memory was altered, and he forgot where he hid them, it'd be ridiculous.
After preparing, Victor Wang decided to check Furuya Makoto's home.
"If I were the 'Hungry Ghost,' I'd be proud of my memory-manipulation power. So, let's assume he really is watching me… But if he can see me, then I can see him too. If I keep investigating, maybe I'll catch a clue from beyond his smokescreen."