Chapter 028
SOMETHING PAINFUL CAME up from the back of her throat.
It didn’t matter how thoroughly one cleaned one’s body, it was filled with germs. It was filthy.
Shizue brought her hand up to her mouth.
She started heaving, her stomach convulsing.
Kunugi was taken aback as well. He didn’t have the words. It felt like a practical joke. A joke that had gone too far. But it wasn’t a joke.
Little girls were being kidnapped and killed for their organs to be eaten.
On top of which the people behind it were in the police force.
It was absurd. Even the worst broadcast channels would never broadcast this kind of story. Not even a hundred years ago would such a ridiculous story ever be written.
There was no way this could be real.
But…
The man in charge, Ishida, apprised them, candidly.
His stomach turned. The fluids in his stomach coursed the wrong way.
He couldn’t breathe.
He didn’t want to share the air this man breathed.
“My great-grandfather, Yutaro Suzuki…not even I know the full extent of his influence on the world today.”
Kunugi didn’t want to know any of this. He didn’t want to hear Ishida’s voice.
“He started with nothing and built himself up. I’m sure there are two sides to his story. But as a result, the core systems of this country have been hugely influenced by him. My great-grandfather’s power went beyond just nation-building.”
“That’s why he’s allowed to eat human beings?” Kunugi’s parched voice finally put an end to Ishida’s talking. “Important people get to eat humans?”
“As I said before, we have to do everything in our power to keep him alive and happy.”
“I can’t see why. You’re deluded. I don’t even believe he’s really alive.”
“But of course he is. Though he’s withdrawn himself from politics and the like.”
“What do you mean, politics?”
“Oh, various things. But staying registered was not good for keeping him alive.”
“You idiot!” Kunugi was stammering. He had nothing to add. Not even Shizue could think of an appropriate response to the unreal things coming out of Ishida’s mouth. There was no vocabulary for it.
“He’s in great health,” Ishida said. “He loves watching old historical films. His mind works perfectly and he still remembers everything. His vision hasn’t deteriorated, and he hasn’t lost the power of speech. Unfortunately his muscles have atrophied, so he is bedridden.”
“Of course he is,” Kunugi said. “Life expectancy has gone up, and so has the population of seniors, but it’s only one small percentage of them that are actually healthy. Ninety percent of them have learned to live again after overcoming some kind of disease. A 115-year-old man walking around would have to be some kind of monster. I take that back, he is a monster.”
“Take that back,” Ishida said. “Did you hear this, Miss Fuwa? He just used discriminatory terminology. Right? There’s nothing to indicate he is infirm, but just because he’s old, he’s discriminating against my great-grandfather. Isn’t it a person’s right to be whatever age he can, to eat what he wants? Those things shouldn’t affect our judgment of an individual’s character. To call him a monster is outrageous.”
“The kind of person who kills humans in order to eat them doesn’t deserve that right,” Kunugi yelled.
“That’s a problematic statement.”
“Damn right it is. It’s derogatory, yes. I don’t care. It’s my own private opinion. Are you going to sue me or something? Oh but wait, none of your surveillance equipment is working. I can say whatever I want and there won’t be any proof of it.”
Ishida shot him a cold look.
Kunugi rubbed his bad arm.
“There’s no record of you attacking me either. There’s no data, so it’s like none of this happened.”
“Didn’t I already mention I create the data?”
“Gah!” Kunugi yelled. “Didn’t I tell you I’m stupid? I’ve been trying to understand this unusual situation for a while now, and I still don’t get it.”
Ishida turned just his face toward Kunugi.
“I mean because your great-grandfather’s firm produces synthetic meat, right? It’s just like the real thing. But is that just no match for the real thing either? Are you putting one over on everyone because our tastes have deteriorated?”
“SVC’s food products have been widely acclaimed the world over. Humanity’s past food culture couldn’t sustain itself. No company could keep providing the raw ingredients of cuisine forever. Various industries agreed on this point and made a joint statement. Even you should know that.”
“It’s because I know it that I’m asking, why this?”
“Why what?”
“Don’t kill animals. Protect the earth. There’s not enough food for everyone. I understand all that. It’s all true. If we can concoct meat or fish with vitamins and chemicals, then do it. I get it. But—”
“Yes…it’s all true. I understand what you are saying, Kunugi. In fact Yutaro Suzuki was quite instrumental in the movement for preservation of all life, right? In fact he was an honorary trustee of the International Endangered Animal Protection Foundation, and he founded the Marine Life Ecology Restoration Project.”
“In his lifetime,” Shizue said. She swallowed hard.
She didn’t know Yutaro Suzuki so much as the spearhead of the bioengineering revolution, but rather for those acts—the preservation of life. An antiquated sense of love for animals; a champion of the cause who had a profound influence on the movement.
“He was also a big part of the ban on commercial fishing and helped found the national nature preservation department.”
“Those are all my great-grandfather’s accomplishments, Miss Fuwa,” Ishida said.
“Why does a person like that eat humans?”
“That’s why he went into the business of making synthetic meats in the first place,” Ishida said.
“I don’t understand.”
“My great-grandfather fought in that ridiculous war and met a truly horrible fate. He died there. But what brought him back to life was human meat,” Ishida said.
“H-human meat?!”
“His troops had been decimated, and my great-grandfather, mortally wounded and about to die, was saved by a commissioned officer. The food that this officer gave my great-grandfather, to revive him, was human flesh.” Shizue felt nauseated again.
“He came back from the dead. However, the whole time he was recuperating he had no idea what he had eaten that day. Then one day, he learned the truth. And then astonished and disappointed, he lost all hope.”
“Of course he did. I would have gone insane. But who knows, maybe I’d be okay with it,” said the injured policeman, his voice drifting.
“He became religious. He sought mercy from various belief systems. No one would absolve him.”
Ishida let his chair fall over and walked over to the wall.
“The fact that he ate it was out of his control. He tried to pretend it didn’t happen. He hadn’t set out to do that. But he couldn’t escape it. He felt worse and worse about it.”
“Obviously,” Shizue said after taking several short breaths. “It wouldn’t be normal if he didn’t feel some guilt. Cannibalism is truly an aberration.”
“You can’t say that.” Ishida turned his chair around.
“Why not?”
“You’re a counselor. You can’t make such a generalized accusation. Listen, my great-grandfather felt guilty about eating human flesh. Continues to feel guilt about it. He thinks about it every chance he gets and can’t forget the taste,” Ishida said.
“Then…oh God…”
Ishida nodded.
“The guilt over not being able to forget the taste of human meat is different from the guilt experienced from the mere fact of eating it. The difference being that he now wants to eat it.”
He wants to eat it.
“My great-grandfather fears the self that wants to eat it. He feared he’d end up eating it. He knew that even if he really wanted to consume human flesh, it was still the one thing he could not eat. He had no choice but to kill and eat another human being. To quell his desire he had to commit this ultimate crime against humanity. That is the nature of a forbidden penchant.”
“You’re supposed to resist that kind of temptation,” Kunugi said.
“We’ve earned our careers arresting people who can’t, you know,” said Ishida.
“My great-grandfather did resist. He’s a law-abiding citizen. He resisted for a long time. Then he realized something. He could create something like it out of different ingredients. In order to satisfy his desire legally, there was only that.”
“That’s why he developed synthetic food products?”
The food Shizue had been eating for so long was born from this motive.
“When the war ended, there was something called ‘substitute foods,’ what with countries defeated in war typically descending into poverty. My great-grandfather made that the basis of his initiative. He wanted to process the game meat he could obtain and make synthetic human meat according to how he remembered it tasting. The idea to create food without killing live animals was all born in this moment. All other food materials were a by-product.
“That’s how he’s managed to live so long,” Ishida said, circling the table with his fingertip. “Eventually, Yutaro Suzuki acquired the wonderful technology and tremendous wealth that would have a huge impact on society. He left many a legacy. SVC technology has raised nutritional standards the world over. Yet despite all this, he was still unable to capture the flavor of human meat.”
“You’re saying it’s beyond technology.”
“We weren’t able to communicate this to technicians properly. The expressive power of language surrounding taste and fragrance is tremendously attenuated,” Ishida said, tapping his desk. “There were millions upon billions of different configurations for compound structure and homogenization of every flavor. We were slowly but surely advancing, but we categorically failed at the nuances of seasoning. It was the same with beef and pork. SVC’s synthetic meats were a lot closer to the taste of the real thing than cultivated clones. In fact it wasn’t just close, it was the real thing. SVC doesn’t make replicas. It rediscovered originals. Cultivated meat and living meat are so different. The reason other companies have failed to do what we have done isn’t just that they can’t master the manufacturing process or because the elements of their ingredients are different. It’s because the designs are too complicated and detailed. But the one thing we’ve failed at is human meat.”
“Even if it’s near identical?”
“Yes, even if it’s near identical. Obviously, cloned human meat was no good. We didn’t have any course of action. And the only person who knew the taste was my great-grandfather.”
Taste.
What a disgusting word.
“On his 110th birthday.” Ishida grinned. “I wanted to give my great-grandfather the most extravagant gift possible. And I thought of the perfect thing. For him. The real thing.”
“Don’t tell me that it was the flesh of those children in Area 32.” Shizue glared at Ishida so hard her eyes hurt.
“Very perceptive. As a matter of fact it was. The medical center was operated by SVC, after all.”
My mother.
The boy that strangled my mother.
He’s a victim of this man.
Ishida laughed expressionlessly.
“My great-grandfather being so old and everything, not just any meat was going to suffice. I couldn’t offer it to him unless I had done a thorough examination of it. Even with successful preparatory examinations, cases like Yuko Yabe, who had that undetected disease, would arise. Even cold medication can leave a taste in the flesh. I had to throw that meat away in the end. So we conducted very thorough examinations before all our abductions.”
“Why, y-you…That’s why you wanted all the data on the children.”
That was why he looked into all the children’s records.
Their thoughts. Their backgrounds. Their pasts.
“And I just handed it over to you.”
“You’re finally getting it. Yes. Medical exams now are so thorough. It was just personal information we lacked. In order to assess the health of a child we really needed that information.”
“How could you? That means…”
That meant she had abetted Ishida’s crimes.
“Why, you! You you you…” Shizue rushed over to Ishida.
She wanted more than ever to strike at him. She made a fist.
She couldn’t speak. She was furious. She was so furious.
Ishida looked up at her.
“We were still struggling. First, what part of the human had he eaten? It took us two years to figure that out. We figured out that it was an internal organ, possibly the liver, but beyond that was difficult. Over the course of a long period of time, there weren’t actually very many serial killings. When they did occasionally occur they were so intermittent. Some years there were none at all. And even if something did occur, we had to intuit the intentions of the perpetrator first and foremost. Basic police work. And we couldn’t pick just anyone from among the victims. So,” Ishida looked deeper into Shizue’s eyes.
“We had no way of discerning the quality of the product. Last year one of the employees at an affiliate company happened to be a murder victim, so we had all the details and were able to perform the medical exam immediately. However, adult meat was really no good. Comparatively, this year…
“This year was excellent.”
Shizue threw her fist down at Ishida’s face. However, Ishida blocked and responded instantly with a punch of his own to her face.
“Hmph. I didn’t figure you for a violent person. It’s really disillusioning,” Ishida spat out.
Shizue pounded the glossed floor over and over.
You’re worse than me.
I’ve always hated him. We’re similar but opposites. I’m still better than…
Better than him.
Still groveling on the floor, Shizue pulled the hair away from her face and glared at Ishida.
The screen on the desk was still scrambled.
“Are you still not reading me? Takasugi. Hey, Takasugi!”
The screen went blank and then back on again.
“Hey. Yudani. Are you there?”
Nothing.
“Lao? Lao?”
The screen kept warping, shifting shapes and blinking on and off. Finally it just glowed, and nothing more appeared. Ishida cursed under his breath and input something on the screen in the middle of the desk. A plasma screen lowered from the ceiling behind him.
“Yudani. It’s me. What’s going on?”
Suddenly, a large figure of a turtle appeared on the screen.
The turtle breathed fire and spoke in one very strange voice.