Chapter 024
SHE LOOKED AT the edge of the desk.
There was nothing for her to look at.
Neither amazed nor frightened, Shizue’s gut was full of a terror about to drive her insane.
A black metal body. A metal tube sticking out from it. Facing it was Shizue, with Kunugi beside her.
She smelled high-quality leather. It was made to look exactly like the real thing, so the smell was, no doubt, just like the real thing as well. It was perhaps even real animal hide. She wanted to vomit.
She had to flee this sense of evil.
A soft voice murmured near her.
“How was your nap?”
It was an articulate voice, very serious.
“We let you stay in our finest guest suite. Only important people who’ve come from very far have stayed in that room.”
“It’d be a lot nicer if we weren’t bound and watched,” Kunugi said.
Shizue looked at her hands.
They were still bruised.
“A little room service and permission to leave would be nice too.”
“You’re staying here free of charge, so consider the loss of these luxuries…a compromise.”
Sitting in an expensive-looking chair behind the large lacquered desk was a man of weak constitution.
It was Ishida.
Standing to his side was a man wearing a surgical mask and white clothing. Next to the desk was Takasugi, who had changed into something more formal. Standing next to him was a man too thin for his great height. He wore an area patrol uniform and pointed what appeared to be a gun at Shizue.
Standing behind Shizue and Kunugi was a man with a tattooed head, looking ready to do harm.
The room felt antiseptic.
The ceiling, the walls, and the floor were all polished. There wasn’t one speck of dust.
“Well, I was polite enough to have this wait until I personally arrived.”
“Real polite. I’m sitting in this nice chair and everything. No complaints here, Lieutenant.”
“How’s it feel? Those are chairs we reserve for VIP residents, you know.”
“It doesn’t suit my ass,” Kunugi said. “Probably because my ass is caked in mud. Oh, shoot. See how I’m ruining the chair?”
“Yes, I do,” Ishida answered.
Such an awful voice.
“Not even children are this filthy anymore.”
“You’re right. But you know how old I am. I’m close to getting my pension and everything.”
“That’s all right. We’re allowed to exchange the chair in the event it gets soiled. A lot of people come through here. Children, the elderly. We can’t be worried about things getting dirty all the time.”
“Where the fuck are we?!” Kunugi yelled.
“You don’t know? I thought you grew up in this region,” Ishida said.
“Of course I don’t know. I haven’t been here in fifteen years. I don’t remember anything like this from back then.”
“That’s really no good. This is the central database center for SVC headquarters.”
“SVC? Here? When I lived here there was nothing this pretentious. It was just bronze statues and factories. It was a dead-end town.”
“Well now. The way you talk about this city I wouldn’t figure you were from here,” Ishida said, shaking his head. “It was here that my great-grandfather, Yutaro Suzuki, built the first synthetic food processing factory for SVC, which was then known as Suzuki Food Science Laboratories. This building commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of the new corporate identity, and also honors my great-grandfather. It’s a hybrid intelligent building, equipped with the same technologies as the community center.”
“Did you say the community center?”
“Yes. The first floor is designed to house a community center agency. Floors fifteen through nineteen are dedicated to the latest advanced medical research.”
“I see. It’s a high-class hospital for upper-income individuals.”
“You’re wrong. Anyone who lives in this area is allowed to use this facility for free.”
“Free, eh?” Kunugi said.
“Only those from outside the area have to pay a fee, but we seem to be prospering. The rest of the building is filled with the archives of the achievements of Yutaro Suzuki. There is a museum, a relaxation area, an amusement space, sports facilities of all kinds—even lodging. And of course, a restaurant. We have the best quality foods crafted by the people of SVC themselves. In this age of little human interaction, it’s priceless. We’re proud to be able to provide these facilities for even those coming from other areas. Though you won’t see anyone here today because we’re closed to the public,” Ishida said.
“Well thanks for coming out on your day off then,” Kunugi said.
“Oh no, early this morning, Takasugi informed me of your arrival, and I immediately came over. Area 122 of this region is in a state of panic, what with the death of Yuko Yabe, the discovery of Yuji Nakamura’s body, the disappearance of Ritsuko Kisugi, Hazuki Makino’s kidnapping, and of course, Ayumi Kono’s disappearance. The police are up to their necks. We actually had a schedule, but look how it’s gotten late already. It looks like we had you waiting ten hours.”
“That’s probably right. You are doing the job of both police lieutenant and the criminal you’re supposed to catch.”
Ishida laughed smartly through his nose.
“Whatever makes you think that?”
“Don’t give me that shit. Just do what you’re going to do. You’re famous around here. I’ve known I didn’t fit in here ever since I was a little kid.”
“I don’t remember you from childhood. Still…I find that hard to believe,” Ishida said, bored. “Kunugi, you’re a public figure, an upholder of the law. A police officer. And…”
Ishida looked over at Shizue.
“Miss Fuwa, you are employed by the state to protect and raise healthy children. You are the apogee of adulthood. I’m not impressed with the fact that two civil servants that ought to uphold the law have blatantly ignored it. Your actions are completely antisocial. This is reckless behavior, even for children.”
“Shut up!” Kunugi yelled. “Beating an innocent girl to death, letting a serial killer do his work, protecting him. That’s what’s criminal. You’re the one who’s antisocial.”
“You don’t understand, do you?” Ishida turned his chair out halfway and stood up. “Listen, let us say for example that we’re in a situation where if one person leaves the room, the rest of the people in the room are in a bind. And there’s only the one exit from this room.” Ishida lifted a bent finger and motioned toward the large ornamented door behind Shizue. “The only way out of here is through that door. This means that in order to get in one needs to pass through that door. It’s a rule. The law is simply a rule, just like that. I haven’t passed through that door. I know how to get out without having to. If I leave here without having to use the door, no one will know I was here in the first place. I have not broken any laws. You, however…”
Ishida slammed his hand onto the desk. “You are found at fault for trying to enter through the door, for trying to break down the door! I don’t know what exactly you did, but in other words, you broke a rule.”
“That’s just sophistry.” Shizue was tired of hearing Ishida’s voice. “This is all stupid wordplay. I have not done anything to violate the law. I certainly went outside after the police enforced curfew, but the investigation effort was marginal at that point, and the police had no basis to apprehend me as I was not even a suspect.”
“You still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“I’m the one who determines whether you are a suspect or not.”
“Pardon?”
“We’re the ones who determine whether you are a criminal or not.”
“The justice department assesses the crime, not you.”
“You’re right. I’m not the one who decides that. However, I am the one who allows the judgment to be made. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
Ishida slowly turned his face toward Shizue.
“The courts base their case on the data presented by us in order to make their judgment. Listen, Miss Fuwa, you are not the one who creates the data on yourself. We are. Your behavior patterns, your habits, your criminal past—that’s all created by us.”
“That is itself a crime,” Shizue said.
“You’re slow to understand things, aren’t you? It’s not illegal. I’m not suggesting that our judgments are made according to modern law. You are the ones disobeying the law. Did you think you’d get away with it? I can’t imagine you did.”
“I knew getting caught by the police was inevitable. I just didn’t want to be caught by you. And to think that idiot was throwing me under the bus.” Kunugi glared at Takasugi. Takasugi bowed slightly.
“He didn’t throw you anywhere. He’s one of my best men.”
“Tch,” Kunugi spit, and clasped his hands behind his head.
The man with the handgun visibly strengthened his grip. His fingers were tense.
“I’m not going to do anything. I’m a weak fighter.”
Kunugi narrowed his eyes and focused on the weapon held out by the man.
“But, Ishida. You’ve been on this whole pompous rant about how you haven’t broken any laws, but then what do you call what that man has in his hand? He’s been pointing that thing at us from the beginning. It’s too big to be a police-issue weapon, and I doubt that what comes out the end of it is a spray or resin.”
“Probably not. The weapon he’s holding certainly has lethal power. Bearing any kind of weapon like that is, as you know, strictly prohibited in this country by international decree. It’s a Z model, 2010.”
“What’s he—”
“But it’s the strangest thing. I don’t actually see it.”
“What?!” Kunugi raised his voice.
“I can’t see what I don’t see. There’s no way something like that could be carried around in this country. As far as I’m concerned he’s just extending his arm. There’s nothing in his hand. Do you see it, Takasugi?”
“I don’t see a thing,” he said.
“You bastards!” Kunugi nearly rose out of his chair.
“Oh no no no. You really shouldn’t make sudden movements like that. This man with his arm extended is very sensitive to people’s movements. He might accidentally pull the trigger.”
There was suddenly a straight red line from the end of the handgun to Kunugi’s forehead.
Laser sight.
“If he moves a finger, that light guides—”
“Something that doesn’t exist out of something else that’s not there, I get it, I get it.”
“This is what’s called an overwhelming disadvantage, Kunugi. Miss Fuwa seems more sagacious. She seems to understand the situation.”
“You’re saying that what you say isn’t there, isn’t there. What is there, is.”
Ishida clapped like a child. “Bravo. There’s the lauded child psychology specialist, daughter of Yukie Fuwa. You’re correct.”
“My mother…”
My mother has nothing to do with this.
“That was some shocker four years ago, eh? To lose someone so important to you—”
“She has nothing to do with this,” Shizue interrupted. “With you.”
She didn’t want to have to say it.
“I’ve read many of her books, Miss Fuwa. I quite respect her work.”
“Respect?”
The dead don’t return.
It’s because of your attitude.
“Oh no. You’re making a face,” Ishida said as he looked into Shizue’s eyes.
She turned away.
Who was this man?
“Did you not respect her? That’s not right, now is it? You should honor her. Yukie Fuwa was your mother, after all.”
What’s going on? What is this?
“What would you know about it?”
Just as Shizue raised herself, the beam of the laser sight moved over to her forehead.
Her breath stopped.
“I’m sorry,” Ishida said. “That stuff doesn’t matter anyway. Now where were we?”
Ishida turned on a heel and sank into the chair again, laced his fingers, and rested his chin on them.
“What shall we do?”
His cold stare darted from Shizue to Kunugi. “It’s quite easy to punish two troubled individuals. We can make them criminals, or kill them. No, not just kill, but completely eradicate the records of your existence. It wouldn’t be very difficult. Still, I hate to create unnecessary deaths.”
“Unnecessary deaths?”
“Unnecessary, sure. Your death would have no productive outcome.”
“Productive outcome?”
Ishida turned back.
“What say we bargain?”
“Bargain?” Kunugi said.
“It’s not a bad idea, I don’t think.”
“Hey hey, I don’t think there’s anything about this situation that’s not bad. I’m not stupid.”
“No, it’s not bad. Listen. Right now according to our records, your crimes are minor, Kunugi. In other words if we processed and released you now you’d get off with a slap on the wrist. I mean, you’ll probably have to be dismissed from the force, but there won’t necessarily be a need for police action. Depending on the circumstance you might even go unpunished. But in about twenty-four hours you will be considered a kidnapper and murderer and prosecuted as such.”
“Who are you saying I’m going to kill?”
“First, Ayumi Kono. It’s been established that she ran off with you and Miss Fuwa. Then—”
“Wait,” Shizue said. “You don’t have her, do you?”
They got even her.
“Please don’t worry about her right now,” Ishida said. “That Kono is an amazing child. She was seen with Hinako Sakura on the grounds of the Makino residence, but we haven’t been able to seize her just yet. It’s just a matter of time though. I have the entirety of the D&S Security corporation on my side, after all.” Ishida laughed. “This is information that just can’t be parsed by idiots. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to effectively use the data internally, but I have been able to use it personally.”
“Kono has nothing to do with this. Nothing!”
“That too is something I determine.”
“What’s wrong with you?! Who do you think you are?”
“He’s the great-grandson of Yutaro Suzuki,” Takasugi said. Ishida cocked his head and laughed again.
“Unfortunately, after punishing Miss Fuwa, Kunugi will kill the child to unload his burden. And after chasing him for a while, let’s see, for three days, shall we say? In three days, Miss Fuwa’s body will be discovered. She will have been violated. It will be an unusual sex crime. And demographically speaking, only a man of Kunugi’s generation would carry out a sexually violent murder. Probably the result of an inferior education,” Ishida said.
“We all know that in your youth, child porn and other obscene materials flourished the world over. Adults would flaunt arcane words like ‘immorality’ but were still sex-obsessed buffoons. Then they’d shamelessly brag about it. It was clearly a mental disorder. Even prostitution or acts resembling prostitution were silently condoned. The phenomenon of sex enthralled all of society. It was a truly foolish time.”
“I think on that one point alone we are in agreement,” Shizue said. “Social delusions regarding sex reached their peak between the end of the last century and the beginning of this one. It was, as you state, a foolish time. But you can’t say it’s scientific to declare an entire generation of people as categorically problematic. You yourself are of the same age group as Kunugi, for example.”
“You’re right. We’re only three years apart. However, I have nothing to do with this. I won’t commit police crimes.”
“Won’t? You mean you will and cover it up.”
“Cover it up?”
“Yeah. Make it look like someone else did it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve lumped your own murders in with the serial killing case.
You’ve already tried to frame the undocumented girl for Kawabata and Nakamura’s deaths.”
“I haven’t killed anyone,” Ishida said. “I’ve done nothing. I’m a lieutenant, the chief of Investigative Unit R at prefectural police headquarters. Why would I commit such a heinous crime? Please don’t say things like that. Also, it’s strange to say that random murders are being assigned to the serial killer. It’s a serial killer, so of course the killings are going to be random. There’s no cover-up here.”
“Sure,” Kunugi said and shook his head over and over. “Yeah, I get it. Shit. You don’t want to get your hands dirty. I’m sure you even have an alibi. You have a place and a person to verify your whereabouts. You’re in the clear. I’m going to puke.” Kunugi shook without moving. Like a restless child. There was an irritating, useless, endless anger boiling up from inside him that he couldn’t chase down. Shizue knew the feeling all too well. “Shit, I’m so pissed off I’m going to go crazy. Hey, if you’re going to kill me, do it now.”
Ishida smiled and effortlessly shook his head. “You really are stupid.”
“I know. That’s why I’m here.”
“I told you I’m willing to bargain. You could be the next generation. Miss Fuwa, you could go unprosecuted. Return to work, even. Kunugi, well, you will probably be dismissed from the force, but we can take care of you anyway. What about a post at the area patrol in your hometown? I can put you under consideration for a section chief position.”
“What the hell would we have to do for you to be offering such a deal? What the fuck do you want us to do?” Kunugi was yelling now.
“It’s simple. You admit to doing the things we suspect you of. Miss Fuwa can claim she was forced to do what she did by you. You are the culprit. She is the victim. What do you think?”
“You mean I’m going to be convicted of stalking her?”
“Precisely. Then at least we won’t convict you of murder.”
“And Kono? You’d also protect Ayumi Kono?” Shizue asked.
If this protects Ayumi…
Ishida shook his head again.
“I can’t do that. That girl, Miss Kono, along with Miss Hazuki Makino and Mio Tsuzuki, will have to die. Speaking of which, Takasugi!”
“Sir, it’s possible Ayumi Kono communicated some information to Hinako Sakura while she was at the community center.”
“Then yes, I guess we’ll have to kill her too,” Ishida said.
“Are you not right in the head? You said a second ago that you don’t like useless murders. What are you going to accomplish killing all these little girls?” Kunugi yelled as he stomped his foot.
“I said I don’t like producing useless corpses. Those children would die for a great cause. Ayumi Kono is…”
Ishida put his hand on a touch-screen on his desk.
A digital screen appeared, upon which information on the child they were discussing popped up. The display furiously scrolled through reams of characters and images for Ayumi’s data, and then eventually an image of her face appeared on the screen.
“Interesting. She’s a triple A. And Makino…”
What was he saying?
“Hmph, she’s an A-minus.”
“That won’t be a problem,” said the man in white.
“Her base strength is inferior, but her organs are disease-free, and she is fed on D&S-produced food products prepared by a domestic with a premium contract, so there won’t be any problems with her nutritional balance. As long as it’s nothing like the last time, I think it might even be better.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Ishida said, and he started another search.
Mio Tsuzuki’s image appeared.
“She’s a B.”
“Ooh, we must get her,” said the man in white.
Get?
“Hinako Sakura is, well, she looks like she’s unhealthy but she’s a double A. Wow, Miss Fuwa. All your children are so healthy!”
They were looking at the data from the childrens’ medical exams.
These men…
“What are you doing?” Shizue was overpowered by an indescribable rage.
“W-what on earth are you doing?”
Ishida didn’t answer, but simply laughed.
“What’s so funny? What are you doing?”
“Miss Fuwa. You’re not in a position to be asking questions. I was the one asking you questions. Now, Kunugi, what are you going to do?”
“I’m sorry, but I’m stupid, like you said. I’m so stupid I don’t understand the position you’re putting me in. What was it again? I’m supposed to choose between being a convicted murderer or pervert?”
“Yes. That’s an astute way of putting it,” Ishida said with a smirk. “So what’s it going to be?”
“Don’t kid yourself.”
Kunugi looked at Shizue.
“Call me whatever you want. A pervert, an aberrant. But don’t think I’m going to be part of any scheme that requires killing children,” Kunugi said.
He leapt at Ishida.
However.
He was quickly stopped from behind by the large tattooed man and slammed into the desk, where he was immobilized. Shizue was toppled over in the process, chair and all.
As she started to stand up the laser was once again directed at her forehead.
Kunugi’s arms were pulled up behind him, his face pressed onto the surface of the desk. He hollered, “You assholes! How dare you act so cavalier about killing children!”
“Kunugi!” Ishida looked down at Kunugi’s squirming face as if it were filthy, his look full of disgust. “Yes, yes. We’ve seen your data, Kunugi. You were friends with a convicted killer. That bizarre murder of the perpetrator’s entire family. That took place a long time ago, in Area 119 even. I seem to recall reading somewhere that you defended him. It’s in the domestic violence archives.”
“I have never protected a criminal. All murder is criminal. A great crime.”
“However, I do remember saying something about how we shouldn’t hold a murderer in contempt at some point in the past. You’re recorded as having defended the killer.”
“A crime is a crime. A human life is a human life,” Kunugi said. “I never said that murder was excusable, much less the murders of one child after another.”
“But, Kunugi, I never kill anyone without a good reason.”
“W-what did you say?”
The muscles on the arms of the large man bulged.
Kunugi howled.
“That hold looks painful,” Ishida said scornfully. “You just can’t mind your manners, can you? You deserve to rot with those senseless perverts. The ones that murder without reason.”
Kunugi struggled. “You saying it’s okay to kill people if you have a motive?”
“What on earth is he saying?” Ishida said, incredulously. “And you call yourself a cop. Motives? What is a motive? Are you talking about an overwhelming urge? A loss of sanity? Baseless excuses? I can’t forgive anyone who would take a human life in such meaningless circumstances.”
“Then what noble cause can you come up with for justifying murder?”
“I don’t have a noble cause. That’s just more antiquated talk.”
“I’m old. I was born in the twentieth century, just like you.”
“Choose your words more carefully, Boss,” Takasugi said.
Kunugi started to yell at Takasugi but it turned into a shriek halfway through as his arms were twisted even further behind his back.
“No one uses the term ‘noble cause’ anymore, Mr. Kunugi. The country is no more than an extension of the individual. Our generation knows that better than anyone. The foolish masses chose nationalism as a noble cause because it was easiest to understand. But it’s ineffective. Ideals and morals and laws are no longer a function of national unity and protection. Their function is only to give the illusion of safety to a society.”
“S-so what? Explain that in small words to this stupid old man.”
Ishida disdained Kunugi’s appearance—the squirming in the grip of the large man, the strained face.
“Poverty, stupidity…crimes wrought by lack of attention should be eradicated. Of course we can say that eradicating poverty and stupidity isn’t just for the benefit of the country but for the overall good of humanity. People pillage because they’re not of means, they don’t have enough space so they invade other people’s places, they have different beliefs so they start wars, they fight because they’ve been defeated for so long in the past. They steal because they’re poor, they kill because they fight, they take revenge because they hold a grudge. It’s all the same. In the past, some of the most unforgivable crimes were allowed under the auspices of nationalism. This ideological sophistry perpetuated by the masses is precisely what we used to call a noble cause. This kind of thing no longer exists.”
“And so what?”
“Killing people is never right. That’s why countries fight wars. The death penalty was outlawed. No one objects to that. And now it’s illegal to kill animals. At least in this country. Right?”
“This was also one of Suzuki Senior’s achievements,” Takasugi said.
“Yes, Kunugi, I’m not killing people. Those girls are going to die anyway. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
“What do you mean there’s nothing you can do about it?” Kunugi tried hard to face Ishida while twisting in the grip of the large man. “Like you said, most motives for murder are meaningless. But that doesn’t mean the poor or uneducated are more likely to kill. I actually understand that people kill for no reason. Of course, it’s unforgivable. It’s absolutely unforgivable. Still, I understand. Pathological murder is just some phrase someone made up. It’s unrelated.”
“Hmm,” Ishida said like an idiot. “And?”
“And I don’t get you. I don’t get even a molecule of a hair on your nose. I don’t understand what kind of person uses stature and resources to create an organization, a safe place, to commit serial murder for who knows what purpose. And I don’t want to know.”
“Organization?”
“What else would you call it?” Kunugi yelled.
“Unfortunately, though in my position I do handle data accumulation in a specific industry, I don’t have my own organization. I am a member of the police organization, but—”
“You’ve created your own organization. Don’t pretend you haven’t.”
“Well, well, well. I do in fact collect data and maneuver the police force and other organizations. I help the courts make judgments, sure, but these are just things I do to maintain civil order. I’m not trying to make the police organization my own.”
“You’re puppeteering them. What about him? I’m talking about you, Takasugi.”
The large man twisted Kunugi’s arm even harder. Kunugi made an awful yelping sound.
“He is my underling and confidant. I didn’t force him to cooperate with me.”
“I’m a believer, sir,” Takasugi said with a serious face.
Kunugi kicked his legs ineffectually.
“I can’t look at this anymore. Arvil. Could you remove that disgusting face from my desk now? I don’t want my floor dirtied either, but…Mr. Yudani, would you mind so much disinfecting that area?” Ishida said without so much as looking at Kunugi. The large man threw Kunugi to the floor and planted a foot on his chest. The man in white clothes wiped the desk with some moist towelettes.
“Oh by the way, this is Mr. Yudani. He’s been responsible for the Suzuki household kitchen for over thirty years and is a special chef at our home. The one with his foot on your back right now is Arvil. He’s French. He works only for me. I pay him quite well, so you can imagine how loyally he obeys my orders. The one holding that unsettling object is Lao, and he’s an undocumented resident from China. He’s got an interesting collection of guns. I made this family. These people are not the kind of people you think they are.”
“It’s nothing like in the old fictions, Boss. No low-class criminal gang. Gangs don’t exist anymore, do they? It was a different time,” Takasugi said to Kunugi. Then he approached Shizue, offering a hand. “Here, Miss Fuwa.”
Shizue took that hand and stood up.
She couldn’t believe how normally she was behaving.
She tasted blood.
In the midst of falling over along with her chair she must have cut her mouth. She felt the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.
It was that taste of humanity that she hated so.
It smelled so human.
Shizue stood right in front of Ishida, her feet wide apart.
“Why, you look so brave, Miss Fuwa. Not like your friend here, cringing and wincing. Your kind of people are a necessity, working with kids and all, I suppose. It’s too bad. It’s really too bad.”
Takasugi approached her. She gave him a look filled with contempt.
“This Kunugi character. He embodies what you hate most in a man— filth. As you’ve just heard yourself, he’s denying my wonderful offer. Actually, you will meet an unnecessary death in three days as well if you find my offer disagreeable. So, what do you think? Can’t you convince your friend here?”
“U-unfortunately, no. I am in complete agreement with the filthy man pinned to the ground,” Shizue said.
“Well. That’s a surprise,” Ishida said. “Here I’d let myself believe that you and I were made of the same cloth.”
“If you think you can compare yourself to me, I’d be better off committing double suicide with this filthy middle-aged man.”
Shizue swept her hair back. She didn’t usually ever touch her hair.
She thought she saw Kunugi smile from the floor.
“We’ve changed tastes, have we? Still, can’t say it isn’t a change for the worse. But aren’t you happy, Kunugi?” Ishida said, looking down at him. “It’s been what, fifteen years since someone of the opposite sex liked you?”
Takasugi laughed, satisfied.
“Mr. Ishida.” Calling out his name disgusted her. “Y-you. You all are crazy.”
“Is that so? There’s no data to support that. At least not technically.”
Takasugi, while laughing, extended his hand to Shizue.
Shizue recoiled. She didn’t want to be touched by any of them. It was worse than germs. “If you’re going to kill me, please do it now. Please shoot me now with that gun.”
“We can’t do that. Listen, the data is all going to be rewritten. If there is a dead body, that’s physical evidence. We can file an investigative report, but we can’t really write it with a dead body around, and an autopsy would be unavoidable. It’s all just such a hassle. We’d prefer you died exactly the way we say you’re going to.”
“Besides, Kunugi’s not holding the gun yet,” Ishida added with a laugh. “You know, they were still handing out guns to cops when Kunugi joined the force. But I’m sure he never fired the one they gave him. Your body can be tidied up completely without equipment, but it’s impossible to make all traces of a human being completely disappear. It won’t add up.”
Ishida stood up and made clicking sounds with his shoes, walking toward Shizue.
“If he’s going to do it, he’s going to strangle her.”
“Strangle…”
“Just like your mother.”
“Stop it.”
Her mother’s throat. The marks left by the fingers.
The broken pieces of a human image on a screen.
Shizue screamed at the top of her lungs.
Mother.
Mother, you.
Mother, you idiot!
“Don’t worry, we won’t kill you right now. In three days.”
No, no, no, no.
Shizue shook her head violently, sending her hair thrashing about her face. It was the same color as her mother’s hair.
“It’s hard for me to watch you acting so deranged. I was wrong about you, Miss Fuwa. Takasugi.”
Takasugi grabbed her by the shoulders.
Just then.
The image on the screen on the desk suddenly changed.
“Hmm? What’s this?”
“There seems to be an intruder,” Yudani said.
“Intruder? From where?”
“From the rear gate. We’re getting an image shortly.”
“Ooh,” Ishida raised his voice, almost chirpily. “Look here. Could it be? This girl. It’s Hazuki Makino.”
“Makino…”
Hazuki.
Shizue fell apart.
She was bisected. Into one self that wanted badly to escape this room, and the other self still a counselor.
“Hazuki Makino…”
Why?
“That was lucky, wasn’t it?” Takasugi said.
“If Ms. Makino was being harbored by undocumented residents through the help of Mao, she probably realized she would get in real trouble. Yuko Yabe was the same way. They’re coming forward on their own. It all works out so well.”
“Lieutenant Ishida’s so virtuous,” Takasugi whispered to Shizue.
Don’t kid yourself.
Shizue whipped herself away from Takasugi’s side and walked over to the desk, where she looked at the screen from behind.
It was an inverse image of Hazuki Makino, who seemed from the angle to be floating.
“Makino…”
I don’t want to see any more children murdered.
Those were her mother’s words.
Those stupid, naïve words.
“Run! Don’t come here, Hazuki!” Shizue screamed.
Not like Hazuki would hear her or anything.
“She can’t hear you,” Ishida said.
She knew that.
Shizue turned her head.
“I won’t let you kill another child. I won’t let you lay one finger on my children.”
“Your children? Well, well, well, I’m surprised to hear such an old-fashioned sentiment from you. Weren’t counselors the ones that banned the teacher-student, priest-parishioner dynamic once and for all?”
“That has nothing to do with it. Nothing at all. I know that child. She’s my child. Don’t kill her. That child…that child can’t be killed. I can’t watch that happen!” Shizue shouted.
“I don’t want to hear this!” Ishida said. “It’s no use listening to this illogical nonsense. It’s unconstructive noise. Take this deranged woman and that idiotic man to…ah yes, to the microbe room. There is no need to soil this VIP room any further with them.”
Shizue felt a strong hand on her neck and hands.
She was pulled away from the desk. It hurt.
The inverse screen image of Hazuki Makino grew more distant.
No. This couldn’t be.
Don’t kill her.
“Don’t kill…”
The large ornamented door opened and Shizue and Kunugi were dragged into the hall.
Everything was clean. This floor was probably sterilized.
They heard the sound of an alarm and the doors at the end of the hall opened. There was yet another set of doors past it. When Takasugi put his hand up against the panel, the door slid up. They pushed Kunugi through the doorway. Next, Shizue was dragged in. They no longer had the strength to resist.
They were thrown out.
The door shut.
Through the reinforced glass door they saw Takasugi’s face. Yet another door closed, and finally they could no longer see anything.
Shizue crept toward the door and felt around.
Even exhausted of all energy, what disgusted her still disgusted her.
A feeling, close to anger, even frustration, which belonged nowhere, burned in her stomach.
She pounded on the door.
There was almost no sound.
“Please don’t kill her…don’t kill her,” Shizue said, crying.
“I’m sorry,” Kunugi said to her back. “Nothing good happens to people who stick by me.”
Shizue listened to the enfeebled voice behind her, but she did not want to turn around.
“My ex-wife said I was like a child. I’m beginning to think she was right. I’m about to turn fifty. And I’m still not going to be an adult. I wondered about why this was. And realized…”
Shizue turned around.
Kunugi was collapsed in the corner, his shoulders heaving with each breath.
Half his face was blackened and swollen. She thought he must have internal bleeding. His left hand was facing an unnatural direction, so it must also be broken, Shizue decided.
“I never had a proper childhood. That’s why I can’t have a proper adulthood. Kids have to be kids. I have all these issues because I never got to live out my childhood. That’s why somewhere inside me I’m always thinking that I want to be a kid, that I want to do childhood right. Or I’ll never become an adult. I’m an adult who longs to be a child. Things might have been different if I’d had my own children, but I suppose a child can’t raise children.” Kunugi lowered his face. It sounded like he was laughing.
“Kunugi…”
He looked up.
He must be in so much pain.
“Are you okay?” Shizue corrected herself and sat upright.
“You can’t really have thought of committing suicide with a dirty middle-aged man like me. I’m filthy and thoughtless.”
“Kunugi.”
“It’s all right. My ex-wife always said the same thing. I know it. I’m sorry I brought you into this.”
“I chose to be here.”
“But if you’d never met me, you might have been able to save your children.”
“I don’t know about that.”
She didn’t think so.
In reality, Shizue was powerless.
Shizue wasn’t able to do anything. Someone who couldn’t even save herself couldn’t save others. Reason alone couldn’t change the world. It just made her hate herself.
Previously, if Kunugi hadn’t been around, she wouldn’t have noticed.
“I’m a terrible woman.”
“That’s not true,” Kunugi said to soothe her. “I mean, I don’t think you are. To be honest, that last thing you said, about how Ishida isn’t moral, really made the most sense. In your words. It made so much sense to me,” Kunugi said.
She didn’t want to see any more children being murdered.
I hate it. I don’t want to see any more children murdered.
Mother.
“Those were my mother’s words.”
The last thing she heard her say.
At the time, this was how Shizue responded.
“The dead don’t return, Mother.”
“Ishida was suggesting,” Kunugi tried in vain to start a thought, “that your mother was famous, but I’ve never heard of her. You know, poorly educated and all.”
“My mother was, as he mentioned, a famous child psychologist and doctor. She had an ideological dispute with my father, who was a sociologist and feminist, and divorced him. I went to live with my father. This wasn’t court-ordered but my own choice. I didn’t like the way my mother talked when I was a child.”
A despicable woman. That was what she thought of her.
Shizue had liked her father.
“My father was refined and rational. But still a man of the twentieth century.”
“My generation, then.”
“I suppose,” Shizue answered. “I eventually grew up to be offended by my father’s ideals. Half-purposely, I developed a communication handicap. And the person who ended up saving me was the mother I loathed. I left my father’s side and filed with the courts to return to my mother. Though really it was just a lot of paperwork.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Kunugi said, sarcastic.
“I wasn’t dependent on my mother or anything. She may have saved me, but I didn’t start liking her because of it. Her human interaction skills notwithstanding, she achieved a lot in her life. In that sense I respected her.”
“And she passed away?” Kunugi asked.
“Yes. One of her sixteen-year-old subjects with a behavioral disorder. He killed her. He strangled her.”
He strangled Shizue’s mother for her own sake.
“This young man…he killed six people while under my mother’s care.”
“During treatment?”
“Yes. He was arrested and then they uncovered murder after murder— as his physician she was held accountable.”
“Oh,” Kunugi raised his voice. “That happened in Area 312, didn’t it? A bunch of teens were killed, four or five years ago.”
“That’s right. My mother insisted on his innocence. The teen definitely had a behavioral issue and had committed violent acts. He was still in treatment, so he wasn’t completely recovered yet. Behavioral disabilities are not easily cured. However, everyone asked my mother why she didn’t recommend such a dangerous person be locked up. She kept insisting there wasn’t sufficient evidence.”
And then her mother, Yukie Fuwa, was destroyed.
“Mother, my mother, died along with the convicted teenager during a psychological assessment.”
“Died together? Wait. I remember hearing that this boy lashed out during the psychiatric assessment, killed his psychiatrist, then committed suicide. Was that not true?”
“No.”
He didn’t kill her.
“He didn’t kill her. She made him kill her.”
“I don’t understand.”
“By insisting on defending this young man, my mother lost her confidence in the world. She said she would go insane if she found out he was guilty. She would go insane if she learned that she was responsible for any of the children’s murders.”
They would have died because of me.
Were they right? Tell me. Was I wrong?
Weakling.
“I hated this weak image of my mother. I couldn’t forgive it. If she’d had any conviction she’d have pushed through. I told her coldly. That’s what you’re supposed to do as an academic, I said to her.”
The dead don’t return, Mother.
“But the evidence was overwhelming, and she started to think maybe he was guilty. If they could prove definitively that he’d committed these crimes, my mother’s life as an academic and as a human being would have been over. That was the situation. My mother brought out the young man. It was her escape from reality. I received a voice message.
At my house.”
This boy…
He keeps saying he didn’t do it.
Of course I believe him.
But it’s clear he was the culprit.
His judgment is normal.
I can only determine that he’s normal.
He’s at no risk of temporary insanity.
Therefore he’s totally culpable.
“To be honest I was shocked. Yes. I was shocked before I was surprised. No normal person would let someone undergoing psychiatric evaluation go free. It’s not standard. I rebuked my mother. I told her to stop being insipid. This boy was already charged by the police, who filed with the public prosecutor, so short of any trial misconduct or aberrations in the last psychiatric assessment, her career as a psychiatrist would be over. All that would be left was a conviction by the court. ‘Those dead kids weren’t ever going to come back, so stop being stupid,’ I said. I said it over and over.
“I saw my mother crying on the other end of the monitor in the hotel. She cried that she didn’t want to see any more children die. She was going crazy. That was the first time I ever saw her cry. I didn’t like it. ‘I don’t want to see any more children murdered,’ she kept saying. I kept telling her: ‘You can cry all you want. The dead don’t return, Mother.’ ‘He’s guilty. Don’t you see?’”
It was right then that her mother fell apart.
Shizue noticed it. She also noticed that even though it made her feel bad she pretended it didn’t.
That must have been the exact moment her mother totally fell apart. It wasn’t the world that broke her. It wasn’t academe. It wasn’t the police.
It was Shizue.
Shizue’s words broke her mother.
“And so my mother asked the young man to strangle her. ‘You’re going to be convicted of murder anyway, so kill me,’ she said. He was crying as he strangled her. And then the monitor went blank. He fell to his death.”
“Then…” Kunugi widened his cloudy eyes. “You watched…”
“While she was killed, yes. On that monitor I threw in the bushes yesterday.”
The broken pieces of a human image on a screen.
“That’s…” Kunugi couldn’t finish his thought.
“This was a kind of double suicide. But the police decided the public wouldn’t appreciate the truth. A famous child psychology expert and a young man believed to be a serial killer escaped from a psychiatric assessment only to end up committing double-suicide would be too messy. So they released a report along the lines of what you were just saying. Therefore…”
“Wait.” Kunugi made a pained expression and tried to move his body. “Wait. It might be a false charge after all.”
“What are you saying? I saw with my own eyes…fingers wrapped around her throat. Tears streaming down her face.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Kunugi said. “Listen, Fuwa. Listen good. I’m finally remembering what I was trying to tell you yesterday and forgot. Look, until four years ago, Lieutenant Ishida was assigned to a prefectural post presiding over Area 312. I’m sure he was in charge of that particular case.”
“What?”
“Maybe that boy was innocent after all? Your mother could have been right. You remember what he said. Data can be rewritten. He can create all kinds of evidence. Tampering with evidence in order to maintain social order—after all, video shown on monitors is the easiest thing for people to accept. Right?”
“That can’t be…”
Somewhere, Shizue, who was bisected, suddenly became whole again.
“All six of those victims were treated in the same medical center, right?”
“Yes. Where my mother worked.”
“If I recall correctly, that hospital was run by SVC. The company that operates it is an affiliate company of SVC.”
“Then…”
My mother. The young man. Everyone, all of them…
“Shit.”
Kunugi adjusted his position on the floor. “Ouch. Dammit. He can’t get away with this. I want to kill him. Ow ow ow ow.”
No.
Shizue stood up and looked around.
It was an empty room. Not just a figure of speech. There was truly nothing in there. No windows. No objects.
No textures. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, were all bathed in a dim blue-white light.
Only the mud-and blood-caked Kunugi stood out.
“They called this the microbe booth, didn’t they?”
“Yes, they did. Because we’re both dirty.”
There was no opening in the ceiling. A purplish hue shone from flat planes of light. There were a few open holes, but all that came out of them were nozzles. They must have been for antibacterial sprays.
“There don’t seem to be anything like surveillance cameras. No sensors, instruments, or switches either.”
Just a touch screen by the door.
No card reader, even. They couldn’t know if it was PIN entry, voice recognition, fingerprint recognition, or even an iris scan.
It couldn’t be opened, in other words.
“You thinking of escaping?”
“You’re not?”
“Hmm.”
Hazuki Makino. Ayumi Kono. Mio Tsuzuki. Hinako Sakura. Ritsuko Kisugi. And Rey Mao…
At this rate everyone would end up dead. Why? What for? What were they doing right now?
There was no other outcome; those girls were going to die. It was out of their control now.
But it wasn’t out of their control. That was just silly. Damned if Shizue would let herself be killed.
“I am not going to die here!” Shizue screamed. The echoless room swallowed her voice.