There was nothing left to say after that.
Rohan Kishibe knew he might have forgotten something important, and that he could not use Heaven's Door on himself. Inori Yuzuriha, who had stolen his Stand and read through his memories the day before, must have picked up some thread of it in the process. He could think of no other explanation for how she could possibly know any of this.
After a brief discussion, Rohan no longer had any inclination to sleep. This concerned his past—it was no longer a matter of mere manga research. He changed into fresh clothes and followed Inori out the door, departing along the route she had prepared in advance.
…
…
It was a weekday morning, and the streets were nearly empty.
"Look here, Sensei Rohan."
Inori's pale, slender finger came to rest on the map, then pointed at the close-up neighborhood map posted by the roadside.
"Notice anything off?"
"…Did you get that map of yours from a bundled magazine giveaway?"
"No." Inori frowned. "Your manner of speaking is genuinely infuriating. Are you suggesting the neighborhood map is fake too?"
Rohan went silent under Inori's retort. He'd noticed the discrepancy as well. As a recluse who rarely went out, he'd developed the habit of carefully studying any neighborhood map he came across in Morioh. It would have been a coincidence for the map in Inori's hand to be wrong, sure. But not for two simultaneous coincidences to occur.
Because right in front of them was an alley that hadn't been marked on either map.
On the maps, Arisu Noodle Shop, Kisaragi Drugstore, and Okumori Convenience Store were three buildings standing flush against one another. In the actual street, however, an alley that shouldn't have existed sat squeezed between the drugstore and the convenience store.
It was the sort of development that ought to have inspired creeping dread in any supernatural manga, but the look on Rohan's face shifted instead toward growing excitement. He knew, then, that this trip wouldn't be wasted.
"Let's go, Sensei Rohan."
Inori said it flatly, then walked across the street on her own, heading for Ghost Girl's Alley.
"Hey!"
Rohan called out, but the girl kept walking as if she hadn't heard him.
"What an utterly self-centered woman. Tch."
There was no reason to back out at this point. Rohan had to grit his teeth and follow.
"You really think you have any standing to say that, Sensei Rohan? Using your Stand on an ordinary girl in broad daylight?"
Inori had heard him perfectly well. She let out a quiet laugh and turned to skewer him without mercy.
"Hmph." Rohan caught up, indignant. "And that, exactly, is why I have no interest in spending time with someone even more selfish than I am. Understand?"
Then, as if remembering something else, he added:
"You're not an ordinary girl, either."
By then they had stepped into the alley. Around one bend, a few neighboring residences appeared in front of them. Further along sat a red postbox, and on the ground, a puddle of unidentifiable, foul-smelling filth.
"This many homes… not a single one of them on the map? Could it really be a supernatural phenomenon…"
Rohan was talking to himself.
"Does this place jog any memories at all, Sensei Rohan?"
"I told you. I was four years old at the time."
The two kept up the back-and-forth, but inside, both of them were running on entirely different tracks. Rohan had begun to recover scattered fragments of memory—nightmares he'd long dismissed as nonsense. Inori, meanwhile, could hardly wait to meet the lovely ghost girl in person.
They continued along the alley, but a single turn brought them straight back to the postbox they'd just passed.
"Wait, what—what's going on?"
Rohan's stomach dropped. He sped up, overtook Inori, and ran another loop ahead of her.
—The same place again… they couldn't find their way out!
"Looks like we're trapped, Sensei Rohan."
Inori observed with no urgency at all.
"Are you two lost?"
As expected, a voice called out. Inori turned to find a young woman with pink hair standing at the entrance of a residence marked Sugimoto. She wore an old-fashioned but eye-catching pink sundress and red strapped sandals, with a beige Alice band holding back her short hair to expose her pretty forehead.
"Let me show you the way. People get lost around here all the time… It can't really be helped, after all. Every alley looks the same."
She walked toward them warmly, intending to help these two unfortunate young people who'd wandered into her alley.
—A Stand user?
"Heaven's Door!"
Rohan, judging the abrupt appearance of this girl in such an eerie setting to be a likely incoming threat, opted to strike first. Heaven's Door—the small boy in the cap—materialized at once, its hand brushing the girl's face. Pages flipped open across her cheeks, and her body simultaneously crumpled to the ground, briefly knocked unconscious.
"What are you getting so worked up for?"
Inori pressed a hand to her forehead, exasperated.
"She's likely the Stand user trapping us in here," Rohan explained, then added with a note of contempt, "Surely you don't actually believe in ghosts? This must be a Stand user's trick."
"You're panicking? With me right here?" Inori shot back unsparingly. "Could you not at least confirm before attacking?"
Rohan stopped answering. He walked over, crouched beside the girl, lifted her upper body onto his lap, and used his hand to flip through the pages on her face and start reading.
"…? She isn't a Stand user?"
"Eh~ taking advantage of an ordinary girl again. Truly on-brand for you, Mr. Pervert Manga Artist."
Inori seized the opening for an immediate, razor-sharp jab. Rohan glared at her, but couldn't muster a real rebuttal.
"Her name is Reimi Sugimoto. Sixteen years old. Lives at Morioh, Kotodai 3-12… No boyfriend. Measurements 82/57/84…"
"There's a mole on her left nipple. First period at age eleven…"
"Hey!"
Inori's brow knit. She raised one foot and kicked the pervert manga artist in the back, cutting off the meticulous recitation mid-flow.
"You're really that invested in girls' private puberty details, huh? You're not actually drawing ero-manga, are you, Eromanga Sensei?"
"That hurt! You violent woman!" The unexpected kick from behind nearly sent Rohan toppling forward. "Wasn't I just checking her for anything suspicious?"
"You think the police are going to buy that line?"
"What's this… eh? It—it's gone?"
In his haste, Rohan had jostled the pages on her face out of order, skipping forward several pages. What he found was unbelievable—the entries beyond age sixteen were a complete blank.
A chill went through him. He hurriedly flipped back to the last page with writing on it, and very nearly cried out. There, at the very end of that page, sat a single horrifying line:
—Died in 1985.
"H-holy—! She, she's a dead person! No, she's a ghost!"
"Don't panic. It's roughly what I expected." Inori patted his shoulder to steady him. "Deactivate Heaven's Door. Let's talk to her."
"Are you joking? Let's get out of here, fast! That's an actual ghost!"
Heaven's Door was incapable of being wrong. This Reimi Sugimoto had been dead for fifteen years, and yet, by some method, had remained tethered to this place. That had to be the very reason Ghost Girl's Alley existed at all.
"What's so scary about a ghost? I've killed gods before."
Inori thought of the Grave Keeper of divine consciousness she had once carved apart, and her face twisted in unconcealed disdain.
"Deactivate Heaven's Door, or I'll do it for you."
"…I knew nothing good would come of going anywhere with you!"
Rohan grumbled bitterly, but he had no choice—he obediently followed Inori's instructions, dismissing Heaven's Door, but not before scribbling onto Reimi's pages: Forget everything that just happened. Then he scrambled backward and hid behind Inori, holding his breath, waiting on edge.
—Rohan Kishibe really is a coward.
Inori silently mocked him.
"Would you two like me to show you the way out?"
"Hello, Miss Reimi Sugimoto." Inori arranged a friendly smile and greeted her. "I'm a detective. I came to investigate the murder case from fifteen years ago."