Loups-Garous (58 page)

“Mr. Takasugi?”

“Yes?”

It was just as he turned his head.

Takasugi disappeared from before Hazuki's eyes.

The door closed.

“What the?”

Rey Mao pushed Hazuki away.

She slammed her hands against the door.

Of course it wasn't going to open.

No door was going to open without an ID card.

“Ayumi! Ayumi!” Rey Mao yelled as she banged on the door.

“Hazuki, what just happened? What happened to Ayumi?”

“I didn't see anything. Just heard their voices.”

“What did you hear them say?” Rey Mao said and grabbed Hazuki by the shoulders just as the door reopened.

Standing at the open door with her back to them was Ayumi.

She stepped into the room, and the door closed.

“Ayumi! What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? What about that patrolman?”

“He's over there.”

“There?”

Rey Mao looked to the door.

It was closed.

She couldn't see anything.

Rey Mao kicked the door.

“Shit! We're trapped in here. What the hell were you thinking, Ayumi? He's a police officer. If we get stuck here there's no getting out. You guys might be all right, but what about me?”

“This is obviously a trap,” Ayumi said at the door, her back still to Rey Mao.

“Trap?”

“That officer, Mr. Takasugi. He already knows all about us.”

“He knows…all about us? But…”

He looked so normal.

One could say that Hazuki and the girls were clearly conducting themselves in an unusual manner. Anyone from the police who hadn't any idea what was going on would come into this situation and behave exactly like Takasugi.

“No,” Rey Mao's face soured. “He's prefectural police. There's no way he wouldn't have known about me.”

“But what if it were someone who just looked like you?”

“Huh?”

“That man said it would be a hassle to assign trackers to us without terminals. No girl walks around without a monitor these days. If they did, it would have to be because they are unregistered or just ran from home without their monitor because they were being attacked or something. Like us.”

“But it wasn't like we told him we didn't have monitors. That's only
if
.”

“When I asked him for the time, he pulled out his monitor without any questions. He didn't think anything about it. Normally if someone wanted to know the time they'd look at their own monitor. No one asks other people what time it is. If they did you'd ask them why they didn't have their own monitor. He told me the time because he knew I didn't have one.”

“Then…” Rey Mao narrowed her eyes. “You walked into the trap on purpose?”

“I couldn't do anything unless I got inside. Besides, we're safer in here than outside.”

Rey Mao and Hazuki called her out. “Ayumi?!”

“Watch out for Makino,” Ayumi said.

“Watch out? What are you saying?”

“She thinks we're friends but we're not.”

“Ayumi,” said Mao.

“Just stop it.” Ayumi sighed with her back to them.

Hazuki was at a loss for words and just stared at the white nape of Ayumi's neck.

“You can be her friend, Rey Mao. You're strong and can look after Hazuki.”

“What the hell are you going to do?”

“I don't know,” Ayumi said. “But I can't stay here. I can't get saved with you.”

“Can't…Why can't you? I don't understand what you're saying.”

Ayumi stared at the door without answering.

“Ayumi. You aren't possibly thinking of taking on all the bad guys alone or anything stupid like that, are you? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You think you're a superhero now?”

“No,” Ayumi said. “I don't know who the bad guys are. I don't know what's supposed to be right or wrong. I don't believe in anything and have nothing to protect. I've never felt the need to defend anything.”

“Then what is it? What the fuck are you going to do?” Rey Mao yelled.

“Ayumi, are you planning on rescuing the kid who got arrested?”

“Is there someone else in here I don't know about?” Rey Mao asked.

“Kisugi. It also sounds like Mio's been apprehended as well.”

Are they all right?

“Mio? That idiot.” Rey Mao sat in a chair. “She's always been weird.”

Ayumi looked back and glanced at the girls, but said nothing.

“Ayumi, you talk about rescuing them, but we're about to be imprisoned. You know how many of them are outside. Who knows how many are inside? This is a war. It was hard enough just to hide from them. If someone really is being held captive here, of course you'll want to rescue them, but don't think
you
are the one to do it. Not alone.”

“I didn't say I think I can do anything about it.”

“What?”

“It's not like I don't want to rescue them.”

“Ayumi,” Hazuki said and reached out to touch her. Ayumi backed away.

“You have it all wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“I, I can't be with you. I have no intention of being friends with you two.”

“Why not?”

“I'm a
murderer
.”

Ayumi kept looking forward and raised a hand.

In her hand was a knife.

From the knife dripped red blood.

“What? What did you just say? What did you just say, Ayumi?”

Hazuki looked at the floor. At her feet, it was red.

“I am the killer.”

Ayumi turned around.

She was red from the neck up.

“I'm the one who killed Ryu Kawabata and Yuji Nakamura. Just now I killed the cop too.”

“Idiot!” Rey Mao said. She rushed to the door.

It wouldn't open. She turned around.

Ayumi was holding the knife up by her face.

“A-Ayumi. Hey…”

“You might die if you stay with me.”

Rey Mao's eyes widened, and she looked past Ayumi.

“Hazuki…”

Hazuki didn't understand what Ayumi was trying to say. “What
is
she saying?”

“That night. After I was attacked and blacked out, you killed that boy?”

“Yes. Afterward, I killed Kawabata.”

“You're lying.”

“I'm not. I spilled a lot of blood that day. I washed and I washed but the beastly smell wouldn't go away.”

I smell like a beast
.

“Then that day…Ayumi, you…”

That day, at that hour, Ayumi was…

“I'll be all right. I'm the killer. Just don't get me wrong. I didn't do it to protect Yabe or anything like you did. I didn't kill Kawabata to punish him either.”

“They attacked you first, right? They had it in for you? Because you were a witness? Right? It was self-defense,” Rey Mao said. “You had no choice.”

“That's not what happened.” Ayumi lowered her knife. “Kawabata noticed me and started to run away.”

“R-run away?”

“Nakamura actually ran off. I had no intention of following him. I was just going to go home. But Kawabata tripped and fell. Then he said to me, ‘You saw it, didn't you? Listen. Don't tell anyone. If you do, you'll be the one arrested,' Kawabata said. Thinking about it now, he probably already knew someone in the police force. Even if they killed Yabe, they couldn't be tied to the murder without a witness. That's how he spoke.”

“They had a collaborator in the police?”

“I…killed Kawabata and decapitated him.”

“Why? Why?!” Rey Mao screamed.

“I don't know either. I was scared, that much is certain. But it wasn't to protect myself. I had a clear motive to kill. I knew that if I took him on he'd die. Even a child would have seen that. But at the moment, I could think of nothing else.”

“Nothing else?”

“I couldn't think of anything other than killing him.”

Rey Mao gulped loudly and stepped back.

“It was the same with Nakamura,” Ayumi said. “The night Yabe went to Makino's house, you followed the area patrol after they'd taken Yabe. It was then. I didn't lose the trail of Yabe and her patrols. It wasn't that I couldn't keep up. It just happened that I ran into Nakamura.”

“Nakamura was there?”

“Yes,” Ayumi said.

“The police were probably sheltering him. Mao…”

Rey Mao didn't respond.

“He's probably the one who ratted you out to the police. He would have told them about me too, but he didn't know I existed. You stood out because you're already an undocumented resident. I had no distinguishing characteristics. I was fine.”

“As soon as they secured Yabe, the police insider probably informed Nakamura. On the other hand, they could have sent an area patrol car to the people who attacked Makino and apprehended Yabe. If she ended up in police custody, they couldn't kill her. I don't know why but whoever sent those guys wanted Nakamura to attack Yabe. Nakamura was scared when he saw me. He turned pale and ran. I chased him.”

“Were you planning on killing him?” Rey Mao asked quietly. “Did you chase him down so you could kill him?
Answer me, Ayumi!”

Rey Mao was crying.

Hazuki was tearless.

“No. I wanted to hear his story. I didn't think of killing him. But he was…”

Ayumi looked down at her blood-covered knife.

“He disappeared into the abandoned building in Section C near where Tsuzuki lived. I figured he was hiding in there. When I entered the building he screamed, ‘Don't come in here! Don't come in here!' I…”

These aren't the only killers.

Killing people is real.

There's a killer right beside me.

“Am I really that frightening?” Ayumi asked.

“Ayumi…”

“Nakamura practically looked like a small animal who'd just encountered a bloodthirsty predator. I wasn't menacing him or anything. I didn't even take out a weapon. But…yeah. He was begging for his life and I killed him.” Ayumi spoke in exactly the same way she always did. “I'm a murderer. I kill people that cross my path. I'm a man-eating wolf.”

Rey Mao crept backward and sank into a chair.

“You still want to be my friend?”

Rey Mao turned her head away.

“Yes. That's the right response, Rey Mao. Don't look at me.” Ayumi sounded sad. “You understand too, right, Hazuki?”

Hazuki just stared at Ayumi's clear eyes. She had no response.

“Ayumi, you…”

“I cast doubt upon you by not speaking up. I'm sorry about that. That's why I had to take your place. You didn't do anything wrong,” Ayumi said as she drew an ID card from her pocket.

Takasugi's ID.

“So I'm going now. I don't know what's going to happen, but I have to go.”

“Wait,” Rey Mao said, still looking down.

“You can't leave now. I don't believe you,” Rey Mao said.

“Even with this?” Ayumi held up the knife again. “I'm a murderer.”

“Ayumi.”

Hazuki stepped up to Ayumi.

“You rescued me, Ayumi.”

“I did. I did rescue you, but I'm still a murderer. It won't matter. Not all the good deeds I've performed. I still have a stink on my hands that can't be scrubbed clean,” Ayumi said, and raised her blood-drenched hands. “Look. These are the hands of a killer.”

No.

“But Nakamura and Kawabata were killers too.”

“That's no reason to kill them,” Ayumi said. “Even if they were killers, villains. Whoever kills them is already worse than the killer himself, Makino. Murder is never right. I don't know between right and wrong or the difference between truth and falsehood, but I am certain of one thing. I am not a good person.”

“That wasn't your first time, was it? Kawabata wasn't the first,” Rey Mao said. “Who was it?” Rey Mao said quietly but distinctly. “What about it, Ayumi?”

“Stop it.”

Hazuki stared at Rey Mao. “It's a lie. Ayumi's lying.”

“Hazuki, she's…I'm sorry, but she's not lying,” Rey Mao said.

Ayumi quietly started talking.

“The first time was in those hills.”

“Hills?”

“Here. It's here I stopped being human.”

“There? In those hills?”

“I used to walk along that freight road. I don't know why. When I moved to my new house I started walking on that road. I'd walk all afternoon because at night it would be trafficked with freight transporters.

I'd spend the night in the hills and walk back the next morning. Then last summer, I was attacked by a man there.”

“Attacked?”

“He happened to fall on top of me. I didn't think anyone else was there, so I was caught by surprise. That was stupid. Thinking no one would be out that far. But when I thought about it, it was only far from my home. It wouldn't be far for someone who lives in the area.”

“Then what happened?” Rey Mao asked.

“I tried to run away and he hit me. Then he kicked me. He held me at knifepoint. I was scared, so I fought back with all my might. I even screamed. I didn't know what was going on. Then, suddenly, he stopped. He apologized.”

“Apologized?”

“Yes. He got on his knees and lowered his head, said ‘I'm sorry I scared you. That was wrong. I'm sorry.' He was in his mid-forties.”

“Was he a pervert?”

“He said he was wrong in the head. Thirty years ago he'd killed a girl, and when he was found out, he killed his whole family, was arrested, taken to a hospital, and released several years later. He was examined, treated, and told he was okay.”

Killing people is wrong.

“That's what he said to me. I told him I knew plenty well that it was wrong.
I've reflected upon it, regretted it, thought many times of killing myself
. He kept talking. Kept apologizing to me over and over. I was just scared. He was…”