"What's wrong with these two again? Why are they going crazy all over?"
Officer Jenny Cross pressed her fingers against her temples with a headache as she stared at the siblings, Ritchie and Rimi, who were once again behaving erratically in front of her. With an exasperated sigh, she turned to one of her colleagues beside her and asked for clarification.
Originally, this whole matter should have already been coming to an end. After all, most of the claims from these people were groundless speculation—nonsense, really. Even within the Jenny force, the general consensus was that these siblings had simply not given up on trying to pin something onto Director Edward. But because Ritchie and Rimi's situation was somewhat unusual compared to others, Jenny Cross had been dispatched specifically to take charge of the investigation and handle matters personally.
"I don't know," the fellow officer beside her answered helplessly. "Yesterday, we came over to inform them of the results of the investigation from the Hoenn side. But Rimi refused to accept the conclusion. After delivering the report, we left, telling them that if they had objections, they could file an appeal through proper channels."
Her tone was weary. Everything they had done had been strictly according to regulations, but with the siblings now acting deranged to this degree, the officers still felt that perhaps some responsibility might land on their shoulders.
The likelihood of that happening, however, was very small. In earlier times, Officer Jennys might have compromised, giving in a little for the sake of public opinion or to show leniency toward vulnerable groups. But with the advancement of the times, law enforcement had grown stricter, more standardized, and less willing to bend under pressure.
Jenny Cross frowned slightly but pressed forward. She headed toward the hospital's security department, intending to review yesterday's surveillance footage.
As for interrogating Ritchie and Rimi directly—there was little point. At present, neither of them could form a complete sentence. They babbled incoherently, spouting nonsense. Nurse Joy had been forced to sedate them with tranquilizers just to calm them down. If this kept up, the two would most likely be transferred to a psychiatric hospital.
The reason she wanted to check the surveillance instead was simple—this hospital ward was under camera monitoring.
Ordinarily, most hospitals would not install surveillance inside patient rooms. But because Ritchie and Rimi were tied up in a criminal case, for the sake of their safety, and to avoid potential complications, the siblings had been placed in a special ward that came equipped with monitoring equipment.
Upon arriving at the monitoring room and presenting her identification, Jenny Cross gained access to the recordings. But while the staff began pulling up the requested footage, Cross noticed something peculiar—the expressions on the employees' faces looked… uneasy. That subtle strangeness piqued her suspicion.
"What's wrong?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at the two hospital staff members.
One of them, a middle-aged man, hesitated. His face contorted as though he was grappling with whether to speak up. After a long pause, he clenched his jaw, as if forcing himself, and finally admitted what had been weighing on him.
"It's like this, Officer Jenny. From yesterday to today, it was me and another colleague on duty here. During our shift, we noticed the siblings acting abnormally, but—" The man's voice trembled slightly with fear. Yet words alone couldn't fully capture what terrified him. So instead, he hurriedly pulled up the relevant surveillance clip.
Jenny Cross leaned closer to watch.
The timestamp was correct. On screen, she even saw the backs of her fellow Officer Jennys leaving after they had delivered the report. At first, the footage showed Ritchie and Rimi venting angrily about something. Since the surveillance had no audio recording, their exact argument could not be heard.
"When I was on duty with my colleague last night, we noticed that their behavior started getting strange right here." The man fast-forwarded briefly, then returned the video to normal speed.
Suddenly, the footage showed Ritchie and Rimi both going berserk. Ritchie roared at the top of his lungs while Rimi abruptly summoned her Haunter. In the next second, Ritchie pointed frantically toward some unseen corner, shouting, and then ordered Haunter to attack. Oddly enough, Haunter seemed to recognize whatever it was as well—it bolted straight toward the spot.
But the moment Haunter charged forward—it vanished. Completely gone, as if erased from existence. Ritchie and Rimi then began shrieking in agony, their bodies twisting and thrashing wildly, as though invisible hands were torturing them.
"After that… my colleague reported the incident immediately, and Old Lewis from security rushed over." The man's voice now quivered with even heavier fear.
Jenny Cross remained silent, her eyes fixed on the footage. Judging from what she saw, Ritchie and Rimi appeared to be suffering from powerful hallucinations—could it be some sort of mental illness? But then… what about Haunter?
She knew for a fact that Haunter had been resting quietly inside its Poké Ball afterward. More strangely, it seemed to have lost all memory of the incident, as though suffering amnesia. That didn't add up. If this was simply a case of the siblings' mental illness, then how could their condition possibly affect Haunter as well?
Still saying nothing, Jenny Cross gestured for the staff to continue.
The man pulled up the hallway surveillance. Soon, the footage showed a middle-aged hospital guard—Old Lewis —arriving outside the siblings' ward. But as soon as he approached the door, a thick black mist gushed out from beneath it, wrapping around the guard and dragging him inside.
"Old Lewis… when he went in, it was like he saw something. He collapsed instantly!" The man's voice was shaking now.
On the footage, inside the ward, Old Lewis could be seen freezing stiff the moment he entered. A second later, his body went limp, crumpling to the ground, unconscious from sheer fright.
By the time the rest of the hospital staff rushed over, Ritchie and Rimi had already fainted and lay unresponsive. The final shots captured the medical team swarming in, checking over the siblings.
Silence fell. Everyone present wore grim faces. Jenny Cross massaged the bridge of her nose. The entire matter reeked of strangeness. At first, she suspected a Pokémon's trick. After all, such phenomena could certainly be caused by Pokémon abilities—there had been similar cases in the past. But this time… there was no trace, none at all, of any Pokémon move lingering at the scene.
The only energy residue belonged to Haunter—and that was it. The case had hit a deadlock.
"Your colleague… has he woken up yet?" Cross finally asked. From her perspective, the key to unraveling this mystery likely lay with Old Lewis. Whatever he had seen that terrified him so deeply—it was no simple hallucination. This was beyond mental illness; it was becoming a bizarre case that demanded serious attention.
"…Old Lewis woke up around midnight," the man replied after wetting his lips. "Then he quit his job."
Jenny Cross nodded faintly, then turned to leave. She needed to question him directly.
Once she was gone, the middle-aged staffer slumped tiredly into his chair and rubbed his face with both hands. There was one thing he had not mentioned—something he could hardly explain even to himself.
When escorting Old Lewis out of the hospital that night, he had caught a glimpse of a pale white shadow darting past the man's feet. Because he often watched surveillance, his eyesight was sharp. And he could swear—that shadow looked just like a small boy.
What unsettled him even more was Old Lewis's resolute departure. This man, already advanced in years, had always been reluctant to leave his post. With his age, finding another job outside the hospital would be difficult. But this time, no matter what, Old Lewis insisted on resigning—he would not stay even a single day longer.
"This job… it can't be done anymore." The man inhaled deeply, lit a cigarette, and stared at the glowing red dot. Even just sitting in front of the monitors filled him with dread. Those cursed images of black fog kept flashing back in his mind, leaving him chilled to the bone.
Meanwhile, unaware of his resignation plans, Jenny Cross was reviewing Old Lewis's personal file. Although he had quit, he was still living at home in the city, which made things easier.
Soon, Cross led her team to Old Lewis's residence.
"This house… it gives me the creeps," one of the Officer Jennys muttered, rubbing her arms. The others nodded in agreement, shivering.
Cross frowned in puzzlement. She wasn't the type to pay attention to popular culture, being entirely devoted to work.
"Captain, this is the house design from Director Edward's new film, The Grudge. A lot of people are scared to live in houses like this now," one officer quickly explained upon seeing her confusion.
Cross gave the house another glance. Personally, she felt nothing unusual about it. Still, she pressed the doorbell.
After a while, Old Lewis emerged. His complexion was ghastly pale, as though recovering from a serious illness. Yet, upon seeing the officers, he was willing to cooperate.
"When I… when I entered that ward, I saw a woman glaring at me. Her eyes… her eyes were terrifying. After that, I remember nothing." His voice trembled with lingering fear.
Cross fell silent again. This was spiraling further into absurdity. At this rate, it was beginning to sound like something out of a ghost story.
"Was the woman you saw like this?" another officer produced a photo of Kayako from the film. Old Lewis looked at it, hesitated briefly, then shook his head. The Officer Jennys breathed a collective sigh of relief. At least it wasn't that Kayako.
What they didn't know, however, was that Old Lewis had in fact seen the real Kayako—far more grotesque and horrifying than the one portrayed by actress. Naturally, he could not recognize her.
"How do we solve this?" Cross muttered to herself back in her office, rubbing her temples again. She was supposed to be one of the elite—an ace among the Jenny force, known for resolving countless unsolvable cases. Yet this time, she felt completely stuck.
It was too clean. Clean to the point that everything could be dismissed as nothing more than delusions—a mental breakdown, hallucinations, nothing real. But Ye knew in her gut—there was a problem here. A very big problem.
Haunter charged forward but never touched anything—simply vanished, sucked back into its Poké Ball, and afterward lost its memory entirely.
Video tampering?
No—the tech department confirmed it. The footage is authentic, no edits.
Old Lewis's testimony: a terrifying woman, the strange black fog. Yet no trace of Pokémon energy, no suspicious anomalies.
Cross racked her brain. In many cases, reasoning out who benefitted most from the victim's death would point toward the perpetrator. But here, her deductions went nowhere.
The siblings' social ties were complicated, yes, but ultimately their deaths would not benefit anyone in particular. If anything, her investigation had turned up the reverse—Ritchie and Rimi had taken out a large accident insurance policy on their elderly father. If their father were to die, they would profit greatly.
That flipped the roles: the supposed victims could also be suspects. Something about it all felt wrong.
"The Grudge… the house… is there some connection here?" Cross mused aloud, staring at the bulletin board filled with case notes. After a moment's thought, she decided she had to question Edward directly. Even if he didn't have the means himself, he had plenty of contacts who could have acted on his behalf.
Cross bore him no prejudice, but this situation was extraordinary. She refused to conclude the case with a bland statement like "Unable to investigate further; victims suffered suspected psychotic episode." If it had truly been mental illness, so be it—but this clearly wasn't. She was determined to uncover the truth.
"Officer Jenny Cross? Hello, I'm Edward Stone."
The director greeted her politely, curiosity flickering in his eyes. He had come to attend the film festival—yet unexpectedly found himself facing a police officer investigating Ritchie and Rimi's bizarre condition.
Cross wasted no time. She questioned him directly, while Edward, though mildly impatient, patiently gave his answers. When she finished, his expression grew oddly thoughtful.
He hadn't anticipated that the torment he subjected Ritchie and Rimi to would leak out beyond them. Still, if Old Lewis was merely frightened but otherwise unharmed, then it shouldn't be a serious problem. Likely, the man had only been shaken by residual grudges clinging to Kayako.
There was no real danger—unless Kayako's power had grown so great that it could pierce through the boundary between two worlds. But in Edward's estimation, the probability of that was vanishingly small.
"So, you came to me because you suspect I'm involved in this matter?" Edward asked with a faint smile, gazing at the officer.
Cross said nothing for a long while. Finally, she shook her head and answered evenly.
"No. I simply feel this matter isn't so simple, and I want to get to the bottom of it."
A qualified Officer Jenny could never convict someone on suspicion alone.
"This I truly don't know," Edward replied gently. "At the moment, I'm preoccupied with the film festival and preparations for my next project."
(End of Chapter)