TFJB 33

Chapter 33

“Ricky. It’s been a while.”

The neighbors stopped mid-greeting when they saw Ricky. Since Ricky knew exactly why, he laughed awkwardly and hurriedly made an excuse.

“No, it’s not like I wanted this or anything—it’s just that Lira… Lira suddenly said she wanted to play puppy.”

I poked the soul, who was walking along with a leash around their neck.

“Come on, play along. Ricky’s in trouble because of you.”

“…Tch.”

The soul clenched their teeth before opening their mouth.

“Grrrr… woof, woof!”

At the sound of the dog impression, the neighbor Ricky had been talking to burst out laughing.

“Well, kids that age are completely unpredictable. I guess it’s tough coming back after so long and having mischievous younger siblings.”

“It’s always like this. Oh—looks like Lira wants to go that way. We’ll be off now!”

Ricky waved goodbye to the neighbor.

We hurried toward the place Bobby and Deep had found, keeping the soul tightly bound in case it tried to run away like before.

“Here.”

Ricky pointed to a secluded corner of a narrow alley.

“How did you end up in a place this out of the way?”

It didn’t look like somewhere a four-year-old would wander into happily.

“I called her.”

“You mean you lured Lira here, Spirit?”

“No. I called Anna. But Anna didn’t come—this kid came instead and said she’d help me.”

“Help you?”

That was new.

“So you’re saying Lira gave you her body of her own free will?”

“…Hmph.”

The soul just snorted, offering no reply.

Ricky flared up.

“That’s impossible, you liar! Get out of my sister’s body right now!”

I grabbed the agitated Ricky to calm him down.

“Easy, Ricky. Getting angry won’t help. What matters is getting Lira back—shouldn’t we start by granting this thing’s wish?”

If a soul couldn’t move on to the afterlife, didn’t that mean it still had strong lingering regrets?

Judging by the keyword ‘unfulfilled wish’ attached to the rabbit doll, maybe—just like in old folktales—fulfilling a ghost’s regret would free it from this world.

‘Once we find Anna, hopefully it’ll disappear from Lira’s body somehow.’

Clearing my thoughts, I asked something that had been bothering me.

“If you were attached to the doll, you shouldn’t have been able to move… How did you get here? Were you just staying in this spot?”

“That… I don’t know. When I called people, they’d carry me and move me around… and the last place I ended up was here.”

“Hm.”

I thought quietly.

‘The rabbit doll had the keyword ‘goes to its owner,’ so the spirit must’ve been manipulating people to search for its owner—Anna.’

And if this was the final destination, there was only one conclusion.

“Ricky. We need to find out if there’s a girl named Anna living nearby.”

We asked around with Bobby, Deep, and Ricky, but there wasn’t a single girl named Anna in the neighborhood.

“Did we get the wrong direction?”

“No! That girl—she has to be here! She’s supposed to still be here—she’s not supposed to leave!”

The soul anxiously chewed at its lips. Ricky snapped at it.

“Don’t chew on my sister’s lips! You’ll ruin them!”

“I don’t care! It’s my body right now!”

“You little—want to die?!”

“I’m already dead. What are you going to do about it?”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying!”

The two started bickering, losing focus.

Meanwhile, after some thought, I took off my necklace and held it in my hand, letting the pendant swing like a pendulum.

‘Please show me where Anna—the central figure of this incident—is.’

Since the underground prison incident, I’d tested it several times in my room without a single successful amplification.

‘Five percent chance… come on, trigger, trigger…!’

When I opened my tightly shut eyes, a welcome message flashed before me.

「Probability Hit!」

“It worked…!”

At the same time, the pendant—which had been swaying side to side—suddenly floated in the air and pointed in a specific direction.

“Everyone, follow this!”

Clutching my pounding heart, I ran toward where the necklace indicated.

We arrived in front of an old shop tucked deep within an alley.

Ricky muttered, dumbfounded.

“How did you even find a place like this? Ash, you’re amazing. I honestly apologize for thinking you were a scammer more than once.”

A small standing sign in front of the shop clearly displayed its name.

〈Anna’s Soup Shop〉

We cautiously stepped inside.

Ding—

The shop was too small to seat even ten people, but it had a warm, cozy atmosphere.

“Hello?”

“Is anyone here?”

A middle-aged woman with a bright expression greeted us warmly.

“Welcome! So many little guests today! Our menu is just today’s soup with bread on the side—shall I bring one for each of you?”

“Yes, please.”

We sat quietly at a table, looking around.

Ricky whispered cautiously.

“Do you think the doll’s owner is her daughter?”

“Hm? Do I look like I have a daughter?”

“Ah! You startled me!”

“Oh my, sorry about that.”

Smiling gently, the owner set soup bowls down in front of us.

“That’s right. I have a son and a daughter. Both take after me—very cute.”

As she continued bragging about her kids, I subtly steered the conversation.

“Then is the ‘Anna’ in ‘Anna’s Soup Shop’ your daughter’s name?”

The owner chuckled.

“Oh, the shop name? No, that’s not my daughter. My name is Anna, so I named it Anna’s Soup Shop. Haha—was that too straightforward?”

“I—I see…”

I glanced at the spirit. When our eyes met, it shook its head.

‘No. Anna is a girl. Not an old woman like her.’

Had the necklace given me the wrong information?

‘But my ability has never lied before.’

While I was flustered, things suddenly escalated. The enraged spirit bared its teeth at Anna like a beast.

“…Grrr.”

“Oh my? Did I do something wrong?”

“Grrrr! Raaah—!”

Not this again!

‘It’s going to bite her!’

Without thinking, I pulled the rabbit doll from my bag and shook it.

“Lira! You said you wanted to play with the doll, right? If you want to play, you can’t act like that! You have to behave!”

It was an unspoken threat: act like a normal four-year-old, unless you want the rabbit to get hurt.

“…Tch.”

The spirit ground its teeth.

“Cute face, but you’ve got quite the temper.”

Anna found the spirit adorable—after all, Lira did look cute.

“She’s actually pretty hard to handle.”

“Oh my. Compared to my kids at that age, being able to calm her with just a doll is so innocent and precious. I had a time like that too… I cherished the rabbit doll my parents made for me more than anything.”

Anna’s gaze, which had been pointing at the rabbit doll in my hand, suddenly froze.

“…That.”

She stared at the doll with trembling eyes.

After struggling to speak for a moment, she finally forced out the words.

“That doll… where did you get it?”

“This doll? Why? Do you recognize it?”

Could the rabbit doll’s owner, “Anna,” really be this Anna?

As I watched her carefully, she staggered back, collapsed into a chair, and murmured:

“…That’s my doll. The only thing my late mother ever made for me.”

The moment she finished speaking, a sharp shout rang out.

“No! It’s not you!”

It was the spirit.

It hurled the spoon it was holding to the ground.

“Don’t lie! That doll isn’t yours! You’re not Anna! You’re not the Anna I’m looking for!”

“There should be small embroidery inside the rabbit’s ear—my name, ‘Anna.’”

As soon as she said it, I flipped over the rabbit’s long ear.

[Anna]

Just as she said, the name was embroidered there. No one but the owner could know something that specific.

‘Then the real owner of the rabbit doll the spirit was searching for… really is Anna here?’

There was no reason for her to lie just to get an old doll.

But—

“The Anna I’m looking for is a little girl! Not an old woman like you!”

The spirit pointed at Anna, eyes blazing. Ricky had to restrain it before it lunged.

“But the doll truly is mine. I even remember its mismatched eyes.”

“Lies! Stop spouting nonsense!”

“Child, calm down.”

“You’re not Anna! You’re not!”

I grabbed the spirit’s shaking shoulders.

“Get a grip! You’re way too worked up!”

“H—hnng!”

“The ‘little girl Anna’ you remember—how many years ago was that? Let’s start there.”

“Th—that’s…!”

The spirit trembled but couldn’t answer.

“You don’t even remember that, do you?”

That settled it.

The “Anna” in the spirit’s memory might not be from the recent past.

“Maybe a lot of time has passed since the day you remember. And if so, Anna wouldn’t look the same anymore… she might look like the Anna sitting over there.”

The spirit murmured blankly.

“That much time has passed? That can’t be… it shouldn’t be…”

A deep sadness seemed to seep from its voice.

“Could you explain what’s going on?” Anna asked gently, having quickly composed herself.

“That doll seems important to this child too—but it’s far too precious to me.”

At her words, the spirit—who had been hanging its head—suddenly looked up and asked:

“How old are you?”

“Forty-three.”