“No use, certainly. Hey, Takasugi.”
“What?”
“Why did you save me?” Kunugi asked, oddly.
“Because I trust you. Though you've said so yourself, I won't ever get ahead if I keep trusting you.”
The car sped up.
“Don't go over the limit.”
“It's already past three. We're almost there. Let's get there before dawn.”
“Get where, exactly?”
Takasugi wouldn't answer.
The car took a wide turn.
“How about you sleep a little. You both must be tired.”
“Sleepâ¦right. And snore it up a little?”
“What are you saying? Ms. Fuwa, seriously, can't you counsel this guy?” Takasugi said. “Who on earth does this because they want to? I'm doubting Lieutenant Ishida. He's used his position at the police department to wield the area patrol for his own use, while letting the serial killer go unapprehended.”
“You believe that?”
“What are you saying?” Takasugi said, as it turned orange outside the window.
They'd entered the tunnel. A strange sound filled the transport. Shizue hated moving vehicles.
“You think so too, right? That's why you left your house during your suspension, and why you're on the run now? You plan on denouncing Lieutenant Ishida, right?” Takasugi asked.
“The reason I left my house isn't because I doubt Lieutenant Ishida. I was suspicious, but I was just unsatisfied. You noticed?”
“Well,” Takasugi said.
Shizue couldn't hear very well.
The tunnel's structure was old, so the acoustics were off. The car window passed one warmly colored streetlamp after another.
She started to feel dazed, like she'd been drugged.
The silence continued.
It was an awful silence.
Shizue hated the soft-colored lights. Her breath became short. She wanted to open the window. The smell of the synthetic resin, the smell of mud on her shoes, the smell of sweat. It was hard for her to breathe. But if she opened the window now in this tunnel, she'd let in the dusty, dirty air.
Shizue dealt with it for approximately twenty minutes.
As soon as they'd exited the tunnel the car regained some quiet.
It was bright out.
Shizue looked at Kunugi's profile.
He was haggard. There was mud on his face. His beard was growing in, and there were dark circles under his eyes.
His bloodshot eyes glared at the driver's seat.
“Hey.”
“We're in Area 119 now,” Takasugi said. “The sun'll be up soon.”
“That's good,” Kunugi said.
“What's wrong, Boss?”
“What kind of work were you doing yesterday, Takasugi? Were you at the center?”
“Well, sure. There was a lot going on, what with Nakamura killed and then the discovery of Yuko Yabe's body.”
“You got it backwards. Yabe was discovered first.”
“Oh, right. I heard the news from a little girl yesterday. While Ms. Fuwa was conducting her own interrogation I was in a different room with another girl.”
“Hinako Sakura?” Kunugi asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Her. She had that weird way of talking. It was hard to understand what she was saying. She had nothing for us in the end. Must be tough being a counselor.” Takasugi glanced behind him.
“Did you investigate the Kisugi girl's case?”
“No, I didn't.”
“Why not?”
“What are you talking about? That's right when you cleared out of the center and created that noise. I was confused. I made up something and asked to leave. It was time for me to take a break anyway.”
“Really,” Kunugi said in a low voice. “So when the call came in about the commotion at the Makino residence, you were with Ishida, interrogating Sakura?”
“Yes. I wonder what happened with that anyhow. I wonder if they found that undocumented minor.”
“What time did you clock out?” Kunugi's tone was blatantly accusatory.
“Like I said, after the report about the Makino security breach we took Sakura home.”
“You're not saying you got to us at that point?”
“Yes, I did,” Takasugi said. “I was worried about you. At that point I clocked out and went back to area headquarters to change, then I started my electric car and came out looking for you.”
“Is that right. That's strange,” Kunugi said.
“Strange?”
“You said I told you I had suspicions about Ishida's relationship with the area patrol.”
“Yes, I did. And?”
“I've never said anything of the sort to you, ever.”
“Really?” Takasugi said, his voice a squeak.
“Listen, Takasugi. I'm not like you. I'm an average cop. I'm not smart. I'm just realizing that you're not telling me something about last night. To be honest, what you're saying I said didn't come from me.
You got it from your investigation of Hinako Sakura.”
“Is that right?”
“Youâ¦you were following her.”
“W-why would you say that? Iâ”
“How did you hear about us?”
“You're talking crazy. What are you saying? I told you, I passed by and heard you two arguing, then found you. Boss, you were talking about Ishida's relationship to the area patrol. I overheard that and probably thought you'd said it to me before.”
“I was talking in a low voice at that point. There's no way you could have heard all that from the promenade.”
That was rightâ¦Shizue didn't come out of the brush until after Kunugi had expressed his doubts about Ishida.
“Is that right?” Takasugi replied. “I must have just mixed up the details.”
“There's no way you just arrived when you did. So how do you know that Representative Makino's home was broken into by the undocumented minor?”
“I heard that in the briefing.”
“That information wasn't yet available at the time of the briefing. The area patrol didn't get that information until after Hinako Sakura was processed. It would take time for that information to get processed, so the investigative unit wouldn't have heard anything until even after that. You were already out by then, right?”
Takasugi wouldn't answer.
“How do you know what Ishida communicated via memo? Huh, Takasugi?” Kunugi yelled. He reached forward to grab the back of the driver's seat.
“I know!”
“What?”
Kunugi poised to attack.
Shizue, suddenly.
Awakened. This man.
This man wasâ¦
“You tricked us, Takasugi!” Kunugi yelled and climbed toward the driver's seat.
Snap.
A blue light ignited.
Kunugi dodged Takasugi.
It was a stun gun.
“Hey, now. I'm driving!”
Kunugi jutted his arm out. The sound, again.
“Agh!” Kunugi howled. He curled back into the rear seat.
“You're scaring me. Now be a good passenger and sit quietly like the counselor!”
Shizue wasn't being well behaved; she was simply shocked. The black fear in her head boiled to a tumult.
“Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up. You're one of Ishida's goons!”
“Why, you⦔
Kunugi grabbed at the driver's seat again and started shaking it.
“Whoa there. That's dangerous, Boss,” Takasugi said.
“You fucker! Why are you doing this?”
“I told youâthere are believers, even in the police department.”
“Stop the car. Stop it now!” Kunugi went for his door, practically yanking the handle off. Simultaneously the car swerved hard, sending Kunugi toppling over Shizue.
“Shit.” Kunugi kicked at the door.
“It's no use, Boss. You can't open it from inside. Besides, we're almost there,” Takasugi said as he twisted his neck, sending an ominous look back at them.
The sunlight pierced through the windshield.
Before them was a large building. But in the glare of the sun they couldn't see it.
Where were they?
The car slowed, then poured down a slope into an underground garage.
“I told you. No one gets away with contradicting us.” Takasugi laughed, joyfully.
HER CHEEKS WERE
throbbing.
To think mere sunlight could do something like that. She didn't know it got so warm in the afternoon. It wasn't just that it was bright out.
Hazuki marched one foot after the other. She walked the endless freight overpass, empty and macabre, one foot after the other, repeatedly. The bridge looked clumsily constructed, and even though it was suspended in the air, the ground was hard and the whole thing was just ugly. The crack-ridden surface resembled an aging animal's skin.
She looked out as far as she could.
The bridge continued to the vanishing point.
She'd never seen anything like this before. Hazuki learned for the first time in her life that the world was so big, that space had so much depth. The world up close was full of cracks, but viewed from afar the road was flat, even smooth, and the background was all beautiful, even lines.
Her view became distorted.
“It's the vapors,” Ayumi said.
“You mean the snake?” Hazuki asked.
“No,” Ayumi took a gulp from her water pack. “The sun's beating down on us with no obstructions. The temperature of the road steadily increases. The heated surface warms the air above it. That's the haze.”
“So it's the air that wavers?”
“The air is simply moving. What's behind it looks like it's wavering. How are your feet holding up?” Ayumi asked.
“They're fine,” Hazuki answered. Her outfit happened to do the job. Another more constricting outfit would have made this road impossible to walk.
“It being difficult to walk here and all.”
“I mean this is a freight road for transport vehicles, right?”
“It didn't used to be for freighters only, but it was never designed for people to walk on.”
“So the road was for moving people too?” Hazuki didn't understand the appeal of moving on such a fierce-looking road.
“It was a long time ago,” Ayumi said.
“It's pretty decrepit, right? The bridge would collapse in an earthquake.”
“This road? Collapse?”
“Sure. Most distribution takes place in underground tunnels now, so they'll probably tear this overpass down soon.”
“Rocks won't work,” Ayumi said. Hazuki didn't understand what she was saying. She didn't understand but wasn't about to ask why rocks wouldn't work.
The sky was blue. Brighter than a blue screen. It was crystalline, deep, strong, clear.
A large cloud floated by.
It was so big it made Hazuki dizzy.
She couldn't grasp the scale. She saw trees swaying in the green zone where the old-fashioned fencing was interrupted. Hazuki opened her eyes wide. The wider she opened them, the clearer the world was, and she felt like she could see all the details. Images not composed of pixels would stay focused no matter how closely you zoomed in.
The wind blew against her face.
The invisible air reminded Hazuki that she was here.
“Let's take a quick rest,” Ayumi said, and sat down in the middle of the road. She lifted her water pack high, turned it over, and poured the contents over her head and face.
The spray glistened in the light.
“I like this air. It makes me want to goâ¦anywhere.”
Because there was no one around.
Ayumi looked down the road.
“Anywhere⦔
Hazuki sat too.
The surface of the road was extremely hot.
“What's out there?”
“Another similar kind of city.”
“Does this road go anywhere?”
“It does,” Ayumi said. “It does, but it doesn't change. Up ahead is another city, and beyond that another city. It repeats itself. Nothing changes. The road is finite but the world endless. No beginning, no end. We are simply lights that turn on and off in this place. Just going down the road is useless,” Ayumi said. She took some junk food out of her backpack. “Let's eat. We should eat now while we can. I don't know if we'll be able to find food ahead.”
“Ahead⦔
Out where it was useless to go
.
Hazuki took a rice bowl and then some canned drinks out of the bag she was carrying. She handed one to Ayumi and chose a flavonoid drink for herself.
“Are we safe here?”
“No one thinks there will be kids here. And we don't have any personal terminals on us.”
Hazuki thought to herself again that this meant they were not the terminus of anything.
“And I doubt if there's some big machine in the sky watching us from overhead.”
“Sky⦔
Hazuki took her rice bowl and flavonoid drink and stood up, walking over to an opening in the fence. She saw a city peek through the dense wood.
It looked like a map.
Is this how birds saw the ground?
Hazuki forgot she was in such an unusual, incomprehensible, and dangerous situation. She ate her junk food and stared at the landscape. She chewed, she swallowed. It was the most satisfying meal she'd had in several days for some reason. The flavors were strange and she didn't know if it was delicious, but she felt like she'd really eaten.
The sun was bright.
“There's a deserted real shop ahead thirty minutes on foot. It's dirty but there's a bathroom. There won't be any running electricity or water.”
“You've been down this road before?”
“Yeah. I was walking on it
that day
.”
“The day Yuko was attacked?”
Ayumi nodded.
“Yeah. I went as far as I could and then the sun set. Off-hours were over and freighters started rolling along. So I edged along the side of the fencing, unnoticed, and headed back. Getting down off the overpass was almost impossible. I would have been apprehended if anyone saw me, naturally, but no one did because they were driving so fast. When I got to where we climbed up, Yuko was there. We weren't supposed to meet,” Ayumi said.