Chapter 031
IN THE END.
There was no conclusion to the tale of Hazuki and the other girls.
Actually, there is no need for fairy-tale conclusions in the real world.
Everything just went along as usual without any more understanding, and at the end of the day, nothing changed.
Yuko Yabe, Asumi Aikawa, Ryu Kawabata, and Yuji Nakamura, plus all the others who lost their lives, were almost thought of as people who’d always been dead when you read about them on monitors.
They were branded victims.
The myth-making of the lives of the victims was extremely compact and easy to understand. For example the Yuko in the monitor was completely different from the Yuko that had once been alive and breathing.
It didn’t matter how many times Hazuki watched her surveillance video of Yuko, she could no longer recall the soft sensation or scent of her that day they carried her to Ayumi’s house.
The Area 119 SVC Memorial Building was one day attacked by terrorists from some-ism, and since it took place on a non-workday, fortunately the casualties were limited.
With all that blood, and all those explosions and that many deaths,
How dare they call it limited, Hazuki thought.
Hazuki was received warmly by her father.
He did not ask any questions but said, “I was worried. I don’t ever want to worry like that again.”
He scolded her lightly.
Hazuki never found out what happened to Ayumi. Had no way of finding out.
They were each interviewed by different people and afterward escorted home. She didn’t know what happened with Mio or Rey Mao either.
In her interview Hazuki described everything she saw and heard, and didn’t think to lie or make up anything about Ayumi or Mio. Hinako and Ritsuko had no reason to hide anything either.
They should have been punished accordingly.
However.
After the three-month summer break, Mio and Ayumi were present at the communication sessions. Hinako and Ritsuko too. No one said anything. Like nothing had changed from before. So there was nothing to ask.
Because it was all the same.
Hazuki had never talked to Mio before, and hadn’t even known who Hinako and Ritsuko were. Ayumi…
She eventually also went forward and didn’t stand out.
Ayumi was always looking outside during the sessions.
Afterward, Hazuki went to their spot alone.
She folded her knees and sat down.
The vaporous ambitionless cityscape.
Buildings that looked like flash drives.
Hills that went on forever.
I was there, she thought.
I went over those hills.
But it was probably from a different angle. She knew that.
“Miss Makino,” a voice called.
Hazuki turned her face up and saw Shizue Fuwa standing by the handrail of the stairs.
“Miss…Fuwa.”
“Hello,” said Shizue and sat next to Hazuki.
Hazuki remembered that Miss Fuwa was not at the day’s session. A substitute counselor had come and said nothing important. Hazuki hadn’t listened to any of it, so she didn’t know what the substitute had said.
“Miss Fuwa…”
“I’m on break,” she answered before Hazuki could finish her question.
“I’m taking a short vacation. Sorry.”
“Um…”
“No one was punished. It was like nothing had happened.”
“Nothing?”
“It just makes you want to give up on humanity, doesn’t it?” Shizue said with a laugh.
Was this the kind of person she was?
Miss Fuwa?
Hazuki looked at her.
“According to the records, that man on the top floor was already dead. He was kept alive with those machines. The master of that body was the machine. Biologically speaking too, he was dead. So he couldn’t be killed. Even if he were, he wasn’t.”
“How about the others?”
“Terrorism.”
“And the serial killings?”
“It’s a huge maze. Some of those people…I mean the Kawabata and Nakamura cases were even broadcast on the public channel. But the person who killed those two and Yabe aren’t to be found anywhere.”
“But Ayumi confessed to it.”
“It’s a tremendous nuisance for the truth to be revealed. The man on the top floor of that building was a very important figure. The criminal had said that when he died, the whole world would turn upside down.”
“Criminal?”
“His name was Ishida,” Fuwa said. “But you know, it was just his delusion. That man was certainly important. He had the money and the power to run this country. But he died, and it’s not like the world fell apart. Nothing changed. You know that, right?”
“Yeah. Nothing changed.”
“Of course it didn’t. Humans aren’t that extraordinary. We’re small. The more humans tell themselves they are giant, the more I feel like I’m losing sight of myself. Humans are only as big as a human can be.”
“Ayumi said something similar.”
“Miss Kono…” Shizue said, looking far away.
“What’s going to happen to Ayumi?”
“Probably nothing.”
“But.”
“It was a lie. The police determined that she must be a pathological liar. That’s what they said in their data. I guess that really makes her a wolf girl,” said Shizue.
Hazuki didn’t know what that meant.
“It’s not very satisfying, is it, Miss Makino?”
“Not…not necessarily,” Hazuki said.
“Yes it is,” Shizue said. “Good, bad, weak, strong, holy, evil. The stories created around polar opposites are easiest to understand. But nothing’s that simple. I don’t think. I mean I don’t know,” Shizue said. She leaned on her side.
“Then there are those people who can murder people and then take a nap,” she said.
“Huh?”
A hand came out of the grass and waved.
“That was legitimate self-defense. He had a gun.”
“Who was the one with the gigantic gun, Tsuzuki?” Shizue said.
“M-Mio?”
Mio popped her dried-grass-covered head up from the lawn.
Ayumi was not there.
There was no scent of a beast.
“I wonder where she’s going to go,” Shizue said, looking high up into the sky.
“It must be hard. She can’t even repent for her crimes.”
Hazuki didn’t know.
She looked up at the sky.
The moon was not visible in the daytime.
But it wasn’t like it was gone.
Hazuki was here.
Mio was here.
Ayumi was nowhere.
It was in the past now.
There once was a beast called the wolf.
But.
The wolf went extinct.
That’s what they said.
NATSUHIKO KYOGOKU: Born in Otaru, Hokkaido. Studied at Kuwasawa Design School. After working at advertising agencies, he established his own design studio. He still works as art director, designer, and bookbinder for various projects. He is also an expert in yokai (Japanese folklore of monsters and ghosts). His novel, The Summer of the Ubume, was published in English in 2009.
1996 | Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Moryo no Hako
(Grave of Goblins)
1997 | Izumi Kyoka Award for Warau Iuemon
(Laughing Iuemon)
2003 | Yamamoto Shugoro Prize for Nozoki Koheiji
(Inquisitive Koheiji)
2004 | Naoki Prize for Nochi no kosetsu Hyakumonogatari
(Going Around a Hundred Stories, the sequel)