Toru sat in the chair, looking at the laptop in front of him.
Several camera feeds were displayed on the screen, covering every corner of the room next door.
In the adjacent hotel room, a monk around fifty years old, dressed in traditional Thai monk robes, was sitting cross-legged on the bed in meditation.
After watching for five minutes without any movement from the monk, Toru asked Rena, "Has this monk done anything unusual over the past few days?"
Rena nodded slightly. "Boss, he has shown some strange behavior."
As she spoke, she opened a video file from the previous day.
In the footage, the Thai monk appeared to be performing some kind of ritual. He cleared everything off the hotel table, took out several bizarre small objects from his suitcase, and arranged them carefully.
Then he knelt before a strange child statue, chanting incomprehensible incantations while occasionally shaking a bell in his hand.
Toru stroked his chin, watching the ritual that looked like a cult ceremony no matter how you saw it.
"Boss, he performs similar actions every morning and evening. It looks like some kind of Southeast Asian witchcraft."
Rena spoke with slight hesitation.
"Mizunashi, when you worked for the Organization or for the CIA, did you ever encounter anything supernatural?"
"No, Boss. If I had truly encountered something supernatural, I would not have forgotten it. Do you think this monk knows some kind of magic?"
Rena frowned.
As a modern person, especially someone who handled dirty work like her, she did not believe in such things.
Toru, however, believed that certain supernatural elements might exist in this world.
Pandora's Tears, rumored to grant immortality, and the mysterious drug that shrank Haibara. No matter how you looked at them, they were bizarre.
Of course, the name Kayako alone was enough to make anyone think further.
He continued watching the footage but still could not determine the monk's true capabilities.
He wanted to storm in, capture him, and interrogate him directly. At the same time, he was wary of any possible supernatural force interfering.
Recalling the message Curacao had sent earlier, Toru made a decisive choice.
"To avoid unnecessary trouble, we will capture him directly and see what he says."
He and Rena checked their firearms, exchanged a glance, and left the room.
At the next door, Toru took out a universal key card and swiped it lightly.
The lock clicked open, and they immediately pushed the door in.
Toru entered first with his gun raised, while Rena quietly closed the door behind them.
The sound alerted the meditating monk. He opened his eyes and spoke loudly toward the entrance.
He was speaking in Thai, which Toru could not understand.
Toru stepped forward and aimed his gun directly at him.
Startled, the monk quickly raised his hands.
Seeing this reaction, Toru felt slightly relieved.
At least this monk was afraid of guns. That was good. It meant that even if he possessed supernatural abilities, they were not exaggerated to an absurd degree.
In modern society, guns still held power.
"Can you speak English, or Japanese?"
"Yes, yes, I can."
The monk answered in fluent American English.
"Good. I will ask questions, and you will answer. Do not even think about lying to me. I have undergone professional lie detection training."
"If I find out that you lied, I will put a few holes in you right now."
"Or you can gamble on whether this gun is real."
Toru's cold tone made the monk shake his head repeatedly.
With a gun pointed at him by an intruder in his hotel room, he did not dare gamble.
"Name."
"Prayut Chan-o-cha."
"Occupation."
"I am a monk in Thailand."
Before he finished speaking, Rena had already retrieved his suitcase from the corner and opened it, revealing the strange objects inside.
Toru glanced at them. "Thailand practices Theravada Buddhism. I do not recall that branch using such items."
"These are Yin amulets. They are prohibited from open sale and only circulate on the black market. They also contradict Theravada teachings."
"If you are truly a monk, why are these in your suitcase? It seems you are lying, so I will cripple one of your legs first."
Seeing Toru about to pull the trigger, the monk panicked.
"Do not shoot. I really am a registered monk, it is just..."
After hesitating, he added, "I also take on private jobs performing curses for people."
Toru felt a flicker of satisfaction. This was what he wanted to hear.
"Curse techniques? Are they real?"
He did not pretend to understand. It was better to admit ignorance than to act knowledgeable and be misled.
The monk hesitated, his eyes shifting as if considering lying.
But when he saw the black muzzle aimed at him, cold sweat covered his forehead.
"They are real, and they are not."
"What does that mean?"
"Curse techniques only work on specific people. Not everyone can be cursed."
"Be more specific."
"For example, someone in a high position naturally develops a kind of aura and will not be affected. Or someone filled with killing intent, like you, cannot be easily controlled by curse techniques."
The monk spoke nervously.
"If curse techniques could affect anyone, we curse masters would not need to work so hard to earn money."
Toru nodded slightly.
He was unsure whether the monk was guessing or truly able to sense his killing intent.
"Then who are curse techniques most effective against?"
"People whose minds are close to collapse. When their mental state is unstable, their bodies weaken as well. Folk belief says such people are easily possessed by spirits. That belief is not entirely wrong."
"You make money this way?"
"Yes."
"Explain the process."
The monk hesitated, but with the gun pressed to his forehead and Toru's cold gaze, he quickly forced a smile.
"Some wealthy men, after becoming successful, grow tired of their wives who endured hardship with them and want a divorce. But a normal divorce would cost them half their assets."
"If they have not transferred property in advance and want to get rid of their wives, they come to us."
"We instruct them to use every possible method to weaken their wives mentally, making them paranoid or unstable."
"Once their minds collapse, the curse techniques can take effect. The women will die in various ways, and we receive payment."
He paused before continuing.
"However, these evil curses damage one's Yin virtue. Using them too often brings backlash. So after gaining fame, we also accept ordinary curse requests."
"For example, cursing someone to death or making someone fall in love. Those are fake. We simply scam people."
"But because wealthy clients act as guarantors, the victims half-believe it, and that becomes our main source of income."
Toru thought to himself that these curse masters understood human nature well.
They used real techniques for powerful clients to build reputation, then relied on that reputation to defraud others.
According to the monk, although curse techniques existed, the conditions were strict. The real work was done by the clients themselves, pushing the target into mental collapse.
The curse master only delivered the final step, avoiding legal consequences.
This aligned with Toru's original judgment.
There were supernatural elements in this world, but they were not strong enough to dominate reality. Science still formed the foundation.
The so-called curse techniques succeeded largely because of the causes created by those wealthy men. The curse master merely triggered the final result.
No wonder so many mysterious wife deaths in Thailand left no evidence. These people were deeply involved.
Toru felt slightly reassured.
At least the world had not become completely beyond control.
If there truly existed techniques capable of killing anyone at will, then practicing martial arts while others cultivated immortality would be meaningless.
"Why are you monitoring the Kawamata family?"
Toru suddenly asked.
The monk froze, clearly unprepared for the question.
He could not fabricate an answer immediately and stood there stiffly.
Toru glanced at Rena.
She stepped forward, sealed the monk's mouth with tape, and then brutally snapped one of his arms.
The intense pain made him struggle violently, sweat pouring down as he let out muffled cries.
Toru pressed the gun to his forehead again. "Do not even think about lying, or I will torture you to death in the cruelest way possible."
The monk nodded frantically.
After the tape was removed, he spoke in a trembling voice.
"You also noticed something unusual about that family's daughter, did you not?"
"That girl, Kayako Kawamata, is the best medium I have ever seen in my life."
"If I can refine her into a ghost curse, I can drastically lower the conditions for using curse techniques. In that case, almost anyone could be cursed to death."
Toru narrowed his eyes.
Kayako Kawamata was indeed not simple. She was far more than just a name.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)