“I just thought âhmph.' It must not be a big deal to kill people. Then I was scared of myself for thinking that. That's why I asked an adult about it. Just like this young woman did.
It's wrong to kill, isn't it? It's not right to kill, right?
I learned that it was wrong. No, I
knew
it was wrong. Any brat knows that. My heart aches when I see a child crying over murdered parents. When I see parents who've killed their child, I want to kill them with my bare hands. But it's like you said before. It would be wrong for me to kill even the parent who murders his child. So then what? What's the difference between me and that kid?”
“What
was
the difference between you two?”
“Nothing at all,” Kunugi said. “He was a minor. Back then, unlike today, minors were protected unconditionally, and on top of that, they got psychological assessments.
Behavioral disorder
, they decided. Certainly thinking about it now, it was a typical behavioral disorder, but at the time, I was totally unsatisfied. I guess I still am, actually.” Kunugi laughed.
“I mean if he was guilty of behavioral disorder then I was too, I thought. It's the same. I couldn't forgive him for being a murderer. I was really torn up. I was confused and frustrated. By the time I realized what was going on I was the washed-up old man you see before you today.”
He sounded defeated.
“It turned out we're no different,” he said with the same voice. “I just discovered that. It's really all about whether you can learn to abide by the laws as a matter of fact, or not. It's that simple, but it took me thirty long years to figure it out,” said the voice in the dark.
“I didn't have any adults like you around to tell me the straightforward truth. So I got to thinking. And I kept thinkingâ¦and thinkingâ¦and then became a cop. Even after I became a cop though, I didn't fully understand. Just that it was bad to kill people, but that just because someone had killed someone, the crime didn't make them a bad person. Humans are stupid, so they make mistakes easily. They won't even notice that they did. By the time they do it's too late.”
“Too late?”
“Yes. There are such things as do-overs, but when someone dies it's forever. It's too late,” the darkness said in Kunugi's voice.
This was something Shizue had been saying herself for a long time. Shizue extended her arms out on the ground. The warm earth felt cool despite its real temperature.
Like a corpse. Like her mother's dead body.
“When someone dies it's forever.” Ayumi's voice. “They don't come back.”
“Kind of like us now,” Kunugi mocked himself. “Good adults like us, stuck here now. It's stupid.”
Really stupid
, Shizue thought.
They were silent for a moment.
“What time is it, I wonder. How long have we been sitting here?”
“Probably about twenty minutes.” Ayumi seemed to have stood up.
“Miss Kono, you sure? You said you left your monitor.” When Shizue had thrown her portable terminal away Ayumi had said she didn't have hers to begin with.
“I don't carry that thing unless I'm going to the communication session. Even though you all tell me to.”
“Then how do you know how longâ”
“The position of the moon,” Ayumi said.
“The moon⦔
In the sky the moon hung large.
“The moon⦔
Of the ten thousand lux light waves emitted by the nearest fixed star, a mere 0.5 lux was feebly reflected in the earth's only satellite, which hung 384,400 kilometers from earth.
“The moon's out?” Shizue asked.
She hadn't seen the real moon in so long. Just when she was a kid. This inorganic and aimless 0.5 lux star was quiet and calm, cold like the skin of a dead body.
The clouds had obscured it.
The reflected light was almost a complete circle, like a hole in the sky. It was a weak pale blue color, but it provided plenty of light to counterpoint the outline of dull humans.
Shizue looked at the sphere of light in the sky. Kunugi probably did too.
“You can tell time by that, eh? Can you also tell where we are?” Kunugi said sarcastically. It looked like Ayumi's silhouette had just nodded.
Her head was pitch black with the quiet light of the moon behind her.
“Did you train in this kind of thing, or are you one of those stargazer types?”
“Animals always know exactly where they are.”
“Hmm?”
“They know where they are between the earth and the sky. In other words, they know exactly what they are. I didn't know what I was before. I was envious,” Ayumi said. She then waded her way through the grass ahead of them.
Shizue stood up.
All of a suddenâ¦
In the path of the pure and mysterious spotlight of the moon appeared another silhouette.
The figure's entire body, jet black, was basking in the moonlight.
“You're a man-eating being,” the pitch-black human form said, its voice thin. “A woman-eating, child-eating being⦔ It was a voice that sounded like song, like weeping.
“I beg of you, embrace the blood. Give human blood. Embrace it tonight⦔
Kunugi stood up.
The small black shadow slowly advanced toward Ayumi.
“Are you a wolf?” the shadow asked.
Wolf?
This voice. Hinako Sakura.
“Is that you, Miss Sakura?”
It was indeed Sakura, dressed in black mourning clothes.
“Wolves are extinct,” Ayumi answered.
“I beg your pardon,” Sakura said in characteristically over-polite language.
She lifted her face.
Straight black bangs.
Gray eyelids. Gray lips.
The face that floated in this moonlight was completely different from the one that tried to explain the meaning of a word like
occult
, seated uncomfortably in the counseling room chair. Her monochrome makeup didn't feel out of place here. It was probably very difficult for a girl like this to lead an existence under the power of sunlight. In this weak moonlight she seemed more alive than ever, Shizue thought. She was very pretty.
“Why did you come back?” Ayumi asked. “Didn't they escort you home?”
“I've come to warn you.”
“Warn?”
Hinako shifted her gaze from Ayumi to Shizue.
“Another girl has gone missing.”
“Huh?'
“Just as you and the police officer over there were fleeing the entrance hall a message was fielded at the center by a guardian reporting his charge missing. She's been missing since last night, and the center's director then ran to meet the head investigation officer, acting very confused.”
That's why no one came after us.
The police had no time to waste looking for the likes of Shizue and Kunugi.
Howeverâ¦
“Who's missing?”
“Another fourteen-year-old girl from our class. I have never talked to her myself, though I'm sure we've met. I have no memory of her,” Hinako said. “Someone by the name of Kisugi.”
Kisugi.
At least this wasn't one of Shizue's children.
What is this? Why do I care if she's one of mine?
Even in such a confused state, Shizue couldn't help thinking that.
How could she be worried about whether this was her problem or not when she should be worried about the girl's safety? At least she should act shocked.
I'm really a coldhearted woman deep down inside
, Shizue thought.
She couldn't accept the facts.
No, it was probably just that she did not want to hear about any more people she knew getting killed. That was the truth; Shizue was sick and tired of all this.
Yet if Shizue turned her feelings around it meant she didn't care if someone she didn't know got killed. Either way one thing was certain.
Shizue was a horrible woman. She was horrified at herself.
It was like she couldn't face herself.
She was depressed.
“And then,” Hinako continued. “Half the investigators left to go to the source of the call. I was left to finish my interrogation with a remaining investigator when we were interrupted by a call from the security company. He received an area-wide alert to the patrol and director. An emergency call. I overheard what they said.”
“Did something else happen?”
Something was happening as they spoke.
“Yes. At exactly 1900 hours, something went awry at the residence of Representative Makino.”
“Makino,” Ayumi reacted.
“Then almost all the remaining investigators at the center fled to that scene, and they decided to release me, but on my way out of the center while on the promenade, my accompanying bodyguard from area patrol suddenly got an emergency notification.”
“That's what that was⦔ Kunugi looked over to Ayumi.
“And then?” Ayumi asked curtly.
“Ms. Hazuki Makino was then kidnapped by the alleged suspect of this serial killing spree, one undocumented resident.”
“What the hell?!” Kunugi bolted upright.
Shizue couldn't move.
She was one step behindâ¦again.
“But I'm sure these were all
fabricated truths
,” Hinako said.
“You're saying they lied?”
“I believe so.”
“Do you have proof or is thisâ¦a premonition?” Kunugi asked.
“I inferred it from the way the director of investigations behaved and how he reacted to all the news.”
“You mean Mr. Ishida?”
“When the notice was received, it wasn't yet known if Representative Makino's case had something to do with the serial killings. That's to say, it wasn't yet determined if his call was in fact an event,” Hinako said. “At the very least it could have been a mere security system bug, and that could be resolved by any area patrol or security system representative without involving an investigative director. However, this investigator instructed his men to be at the Makino residence and assure the daughter's safety at once,
before
the area patrol had sent him any official report on the matter.”
“That's⦔
“Normally, the area patrol would go there first, no?”
“That's true, but circumstances are circumstances. If something was reported from the home and it's known that there is a girl there the same age as a bunch of murder victims, you'd worry,” Kunugi said.
“Representative Makino has
several
homes in this area alone,” Hinako said.
“Ohâ¦that's right.”
“The fourteen-year-old girl lives alone in just one of those houses.
Even a police officer wouldn't know which house she was in just from hearing the registration number from a security company, would he?”
“No, I suppose he wouldn't.”
“Also⦔
“There's something else?”
“After this police officer told his men to go to the scene, after the investigators had left his side, he contacted someone and was given instructions himself. His personal camera was on, and he got a voice message. He said into the camera, “
It's Mao again
.”
Rey Mao. The undocumented resident.
“Then he said to do as they'd been instructed in the handbook and contact the D&S Processing Center immediately.”
“And what about that?”
“The director of investigations, he's with the police, correct?”
“Of course. He's the lieutenant chief of Division R investigations in the prefecture. What⦔
Shizue was struck by the prominence of the sinews on Kunugi's neck as he spoke.
“What about it?” he finished.
“Do the police always give instructions to the area patrol directly?”
“No. Not normally. We have different protocols for alerts.” As soon as Kunugi said this he relaxed the muscles in his neck and said, “Good point. If he told someone to notify D&S, that means Ishida was talking to an area patrol, as you suggest. In other words, the message sent to all the patrols afterward was written by Ishida himself.”
It was all made up.
A truth made of lies.
“I do not know what is transpiring in this region,” Hinako said. “All I know is that something ominous, something wicked, is about to take place. Earlier when I was passing by, I was able to see all of you. Iâ¦it was decided you could be trusted, and so I came to tell you of what has happened.”
“Decidedâ¦by whom? God?” That was how Shizue heard it, at least.
“No, I decided myself,” Hinako said.
“Thank you,” Ayumi said to her.
With the moon behind her again, Ayumi faced Shizue and Kunugi.
“Miss Fuwa. Mr. Policeman. I have to go now.”
“Goâ¦go where?”
Ayumi stretched her thin neck toward the moon.
“I hate talking to strangers.”
“Everyone does. Including me,” Kunugi said.
I don't care about anyone
.
That was what Shizue wanted to say.
“That's why I don't like this kind of thing. But I can't go back, either.”
Ayumi's gaze pierced through the moon.
It was no use.
They weren't going to be able to stop this girl.
With the full moon behind her, the girl was frighteningly brave, refined. Shizue felt a strong sense of futility in the face of that image. She had no intention of stopping this girl. She couldn't even think of a reason why she would try to stop her. Weak and baseless, Shizue had no way of intervening.
“I'll be fine,” Ayumi said. She lithely walked off, disappearing into the woods.
Hinako prayed quietly and then followed after her. The shadows seemed to waver behind them.
The tired old beat-up cop and the totally exhausted counselor looked into the darkness of the forest that had just swallowed up two little girls for quite some time after.
“What do you think?” Kunugi was the first to speak.