This chapter is updated by wuxiaworld.eu\nPart 19 (3rd person)
\nHachikawa Tomoe was sitting in the passenger seat of a 4-door domestic luxury car.
\nToujou Miyabi sat in the driverâs seat.
\nHe was someone claiming to be her father.
\nâI have learned that Tsumada Mio-chan has been spotted in the area you just told me about, Tomoe.â
\nââŚâ
\nâShe is most likely relying on her grandparents. A girl with no financial foundation will ultimately rely on her relatives rather than some stranger trying to pick her up on the street. Since she was not with her parents, her grandparents or other relatives seem likely,â said Toujou as he merged onto a major road.
\nâWouldnât her relatives have been the first place the police checked?â
\nâShe is not a suspect of any crime. If her family covers for her, there is nothing we can do. We can only write up a report saying they said she was not there. And even if we had done a search of her grandparentsâ home, I doubt we would have found Tsumada Mio-chan there.â
\nâWhat do you mean?â
\nâHer grandparents own quite a lot of land. They own several mountains. And according to a neighbor, they built small huts all over their land during the 0-yen lifestyle boom that was big on TV shows for a while. I cannot search private land without a warrant and I would have a hard time finding her hideout in all those mountains even if I did.â
\nâAnd so you relied on me?â
\nâYou said you had seen some photos, right?
\nââŚYes. Mio said she had gone on a bit of an adventure while over at her grandfatherâs house over summer break.â
\nâDo you know where it is?â
\nâGenerally. She drew out a map while bragging about it. But the map was not to scale or anything.â
\nâThat is fine. As long as you can tell me which way to turn, that is enough.â
\nHachikawa Tomoe secretly glanced over at the man holding the steering wheel.
\nHe was focused on driving, so she could only see the side of his face.
\nââŚYouâre finally acting like a father.â
\nâI have not done anything yet. When we reach the mountain, I will make sure to find Tsumada Mio-chan.â
\nThe man calling himself Toujou Miyabi secretly gave a slight smile.
\nHachikawa Tomoe did not know the meaning of that smile.
\nHoweverâŚ
\nâGrrâŚâ
\nShe thought she heard what sounded like a large dog growling.
\nAnd it did not seem to be coming from outside.
\nIt seemed to come from within the car.
\nIt sounded as if something in the backseat directly behind her was growling so closely she should have been able to feel its breath on her.
\nPart 20
\nIn one corner of Kudansh*taâs lines of tidy office buildings, a room in a short and worn-down multi-tenant building functioned as one of the mystery freakâs bases.
\nI could almost see the mystery freak proudly puffing out her chest as she had bragged about how she could easily live there with the convenient store and laundromat on the first floor as well as the leisure spa only a 100 meter walk away.
\nHoweverâŚ
\nâIt would be really depressing to live hereâŚâ
\nThe area around all four walls was filled with piles of files on unresolved cases. That was all that was in the room. There was a table in the center of the room, but it did not even have a chair to go with it.
\nA balled up sleeping bag had been left below the table, so it looked like about the worst possible place to try to get some sleep.
\nThe room had no refrigerator or sink, much less an actual kitchen, but for some reason it did have a storage area below the floor. I opened it up and found a few bags the size of toolboxes.
\nI pulled them out and looked through them. They were all divided into sets for different tasks. For example, one held a laptop and a few USB memory sticks, one contained several types of reagents, and one was filled with bankbooks and cards.
\nI grabbed the bag containing the set that looked useful for forensics. I returned the others to the storage space under the floor.
\nI left the building, tossed the bag into the luggage area below the scooterâs seat, and headed for Toujou Miyabiâs residence.
\nThe mystery freak had apparently previously learned the dead Toujou Miyabiâs address from Tomoe-chan.
\nThe mystery freak had said the following over the phone:
\nâItâs in Ichigaya. Itâs actually quite a nice house, but its size may have emphasized the loneliness after his family left.â
\nIf the current Toujou was using that same house, something might remain there. He would have at least eliminated any information the real Toujou Miyabi had found, but the current Toujouâs scent might still remain there.
\nI drove the scooter to my destination.
\nThe value of land anywhere within the Yamanote Line was incredibly high and high-rise buildings were used to make efficient use of the limited spaceâŚor so I thought. It turned out there were exceptions. It was no match for an old house in an Intellectual Village, but it must have taken a lot of effort to build a house of this size in the city.
\nâDetective, how are you going to get inside?â asked the mystery freak over the phone.
\nâI donât have many options.â
\nâIf you break a window, youâll probably set off an alarm.â
\nâIâm not going to go that far.â
\nFor one, I doubted any obvious evidence would remain inside the building. Any traces of the Toujou Miyabi who was buried in the mountains would have been eliminated by the Toujou who had taken on his face.
\nâDo you think Toujou Miyabi was suddenly attacked one day?â I asked.
\nâItâs hard to say.â
\nâIf he began to catch a glimpse of the person behind all this while he was investigating the whereabouts of Tsumada Mio, I do not think he would leave the data he had collected where it would be easily found. He would hide it in some difficult-to-find place. âŚBut still somewhere nearby.â
\nI stopped the scooter in front of the house and climbed over the wall and into the yard. At this point I was illegally trespassing, but I could not guarantee Hachikawa Tomoe-chanâs survival if I did not find any hint to Toujouâs whereabouts.
\nNow then.
\nIf I was a police detective, where would I hide data other than in the archives room?
\nDepending on the scope of the enemy, there could be a risk of having your entire house burned down.
\nWhich meantâŚ
\nâHe needed a way to ensure it could not be destroyed even if the house was burned to the ground.â
\nI opened the bag I had borrowed from the mystery freak and pulled out the forensics kit. It could gather data from fingerprints, hairs, and bloodstains.
\nForcing my way into the locked house would be a last resort. First, I would slowly investigate around the outside of the house while focusing on the yard.
\nIf my thinking was correct, he would not have used anything wooden that would burn away in a fire. Concrete seemed more likely.
\nâBingo.â
\nAs I used a special device to spray a chemical, one spot gave off a pale light.
\nThis was at the manhole located directly beside the hot-water heater. A single portion of the ground there was hardened with concrete and I found a bloodstain on the underside of the small manhole lid.
\nTechnically, this was the trace of something being written with blood and then washed away by water.
\nI was seeing a luminol reaction.
\nMost people have heard the term in dramas or movies. Bloodstains could not be completely erased just by washing them away. No matter how much it was washed, the stain would remain and it would stand out too much if the entire manhole cover was thrown away. A replacement lid could not be ordered from a hardware store and the manhole could not be left open. The stench would gather the attention of the entire neighborhood.
\nWhat it had written wasâŚ
\nâA 20-digit number and a string of 11 alphanumeric characters? Is this for an online data storage site?â
\nThe 20-digit number would be the ID and the 11 characters would be the password. The ID number resembled the ones used by a major company.
\nThe data storage itself could be accessed from a normal cell phone. I opened up the login page and entered the number and alphanumeric string from the luminol reaction.
\nIt worked.
\nI found a large number of reports.
\nI could view them, but a different password was needed to delete or edit the data.
\nMost of it was text and low resolution photos. It seemed Toujou Miyabi would use any break in his work to input any information into his phone and add it to the storage.
\nââŚâ
\nAs I skimmed through the text, I could see him start searching for Tsumada Mio and slowly discover the link to the SNS murders.
\nI also found a list of all reports of sightings of someone who may have been Tsumada Mio.
\nSeventy to eighty percent of that sort of information was always useless, but it seemed Toujou Miyabi had diligently pursued each and every one of them.
\nFrom what I could see, he had a very methodical personality.
\nAfter enough useless leads, people tended to grow more lax and write less detailed reports, but that was not the case here. Every single report was filled with detail.
\nWhy had he been so dedicated to his job?
\nWorking for the organization known as the police meant you had to face death. A normal person would be unable to withstand it. To face it calmly, they needed to construct a âmental detourâ.
\nFor a similar example, think of doctors.
\nThey cut open several people with blades every day. They must have grown used to doing so. But if you gave a doctor a knife and ordered him to go kill someone, he would refuse. Some of them might even vomit if they were holding a blade for the purpose of killing someone.
\nThat was their âmental detourâ.
\nThey were not hurting anyone; they were saving them. That was why they could do it.
\nThat was how humans worked.
\nFor me, it was helping the relatives of the victim and anyone else who was still alive. For the mystery freak, it was figuring out why the victim had died.
\nThat was how people were able to face things that could not be looked at directly.
\nSo what had it been for Toujou Miyabi?
\nThe answer to that was hidden in this methodical text.
\nââŚI see,â I muttered.
\nThe data stopped being updated at the end of May.
\nThat was when the SNS murders had been solved. That was when the person behind the project had moved on. That was when the Jinmensou project had begun and Toujouâs interest had turned toward Tsumada Mio and the person behind it all. That must have been when something had happened.
\nâAll of this evidence was ignored and sealed away for various reasons. Was it your doctrine to gather up every last piece of it?â
\nIf that was the case, these overly methodical reports made sense.
\nThe thick report in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Departmentâs archives room was amazing, but this was something else entirely.
\nHe had not simply investigated Tsumada Mio because his daughter had asked him to.
\nThe detective named Toujou Miyabi had been the type to head to the depths of hell so that he could hear the cries of those too deep in the darkness to be reached just by stretching out an arm.
\nâAnd this is what became of him?â
\nEven as his family had left him because he failed to hear the voices of those closest to him, he had continued to pursue the case and had stepped on a landmine he should have avoided at all costs. And as a result, his daughterâs life was now in danger from someone with the exact same face and the exact same voice.
\nCould this really be allowed to happen?
\nCould the dead be dishonored any more than this?
\nâDammitâŚâ
\nI returned the manhole cover and left Toujou Miyabiâs house.
\nIt was not like me to work for the sake of the dead like this.
\nâDammit!!â
\nI boarded the scooter, put on the helmet, and called the mystery freak.
\nâI found some data from Toujou Miyabiâs personal storage. Tsumada Mioâs grandparentsâ house is in Okutama. The police went to the grandparentâs house to question them, but Tsumada Mio was not there. However, those grandparents own a mountain. If they have a small cabin somewhere, it wouldnât be difficult to hide a single child.â
\nIt was not unlikely that grandparents would tell a lie or two to protect their granddaughter who had lost her place at school and home due to the Jinmensou. This was another âmental detourâ. Even if they could not lie to deceive the police, they might be able to lie to protect their granddaughter.
\nâWhere exactly is it?â asked the mystery freak.
\nâI donât know. But Toujou made his move because he thinks he has a chance. And he brought Hachikawa Tomoe-chan with him. To be honest, I donât see why he would need Tomoe-chan here. Which meansâŚâ
\nâTomoe knows the answer?â
\nâYouâve made your way into Hachikawa Tomoe-chanâs house as her classmate, right? Make sure you find something. Iâll be heading for Okutama.â
\nâHow are you going to catch up to them!? If he has Tomoe with him, they must be in a car. Plus, they have a large head start. No matter how fast you move, Toujou will get there first!!â
\nâTrue. But the police are searching for me, so theyâve set up checkpoints throughout the city. Heâll get through just fine because they look like father and daughter, but he needs to stop and put on a smile at each checkpoint. That should slow him down a good bit.â
\nâTomoe disappeared an hour ago.â
\nâIf he is strictly following the legal speed limit and stopping at each checkpoint, I can catch up. I just need a way of heading straight to Okutama at almost 100 kph.â
\nâThe police are on high alert. If you drive that fast on a normal road, theyâll catch you right away. And they will almost certainly have checkpoints set up on the highway.â
\nâIf I use normal roads, yes. And I canât use the highway with this scooter anyway.â
\nâThen what are you going to do? The trains have already stopped.â
\nâThe freight trains havenât. They also donât stop at the intervening stations. They head straight to the last stop at Okutama.â
\nI called up a map on the cell phone and displayed the points where overpasses crossed over the train tracks.
\nAnd I found the perfect spot.
\nIt was right near a curve where the train would lower its speed.
\nâButâŚâ
\nIâve seen it in plenty of dramas and movies, but will I really be okay if I jump onto a freight train? It isnât going to rip off my arms and legs, is it?
\nPart 21 (3rd person)
\nâOver there. I think itâs to the left of that big tree,â said Hachikawa Tomoe while needlessly pointing.
\nThe road was so narrow a single car covered it over entirely. The mountain road was pitch black due to the lack of streetlights and a passenger car drove along it at the legal speed limit.
\nWhile holding the steering wheel, Toujou said, âThis area wasnât designated an Intellectual Village, was it?â
\nâThe village at the base of the mountain was, but Mioâs grandparents were opposed to the change. They could do nothing to change the view of the entire village, but they were able to keep their private property from being included.â
\nâDo her grandparents have a phobia of electromagnetic waves or something?â
\nâI donât know. But even if they do-âŚOh, itâs there. Once you make this turn, it should just be a direct path there.â
\nâI see,â muttered Toujou as he slowly stepped on the brake.
\nThe car came to a stop on that empty mountain road.
\nâ? Wait a second. Whatâs wrong? Did something happen?â
\nââŚâ
\nâDid an animal dart across the road up ahead? Oh, or did you blow a tire?â
\nâTomoe-chan,â muttered Toujou. He let out a heavy sigh and then smoothly reached for the side of his waist with his right hand. âYou are an interesting girl in a lot of ways. For one, you came out to this remote area with no suspicion whatsoever.â
\nâEhâŚ?â
\nFor an instant, Hachikawa Tomoe did not know what to think.
\nHer entire mind was focused directly forward.
\nShe was trying to grasp what it was that was being held out toward her.
\nIt was a shiny black hunk of metal.
\nIt was a handgun.
\nâW-wait. What are you-âŚ?â
\nâGet out,â said Toujou, cutting her off. âGet out. If you do not, I will drag you out.â
\nOverpowered by that gun barrel, Hachikawa Tomoe slowly opened the passenger-side door and stepped out of the car. She thought she was being abandoned in that dark mountain, but she was wrong. Toujou then stepped out from the driverâs seat. He pointed the large handgun at her once more.
\nââŚWhat are you doing?â
\nâI no longer need you, Tomoe-chan,â said Toujou with a thin smile. âBy the way, this is not my first time to kill. Iâm quite used to it, so please donât pointlessly try to persuade me, resist, or beg for your life. I do not have time to deal with such annoyances.â
\nââŚ!!â
\nHachikawa Tomoe had no idea what Toujou was saying, so she simply tried to run away.
\nBut she never even managed to turn around.
\nShe froze in place before she could move.
\nâGrr,â came a bestial growl.
\nSomething was only 30 cm behind her. As soon as she heard it, sweat poured from Hachikawa Tomoeâs entire body. Something huge and overwhelming was there. This was not just a large dog. This was something that could easily break through a cage at a zoo.
\nâDo not turn around,â said Toujou as he grinned and continued to aim the gun at her. âIt will probably be easiest for you if you die without learning anything.â
\nâWhyâŚ?â
\nâDo not worry. I do not need to make this look like suicide. If a body is found here with a bullet through the head, the police will probably assume you just happened to come across someone who was here to bury another corpse. The same thing happens all across Japan. No one will think I did it.â
\nSomething was directly behind Hachikawa Tomoe.
\nBut an obvious gun barrel was directly in front of her.
\nThere was nowhere to run.
\nNo one would come to save her.
\nâThis is not a.38 issued by the police. This is a.45 I acquired for myself. Even the bullets are quite cool. The bullet will blow apart half of your soft brain as soon as it hits, so you will feel no pain. So there is nothing to fear. âŚAt the very least, it is a better fate than being attacked by a canine beast while walking along a mountain path.â
\nââŚAhâŚâ
\nâFarewell, Tomoe-chan. You will probably go to heaven, so send my regards to your real father.â
\nAnd that was all.
\nHe did not hesitate.
\nHe pulled the trigger.
\nA dry gunshot rang out.
\nFlesh exploded out and the air filled with the stench of blood.
\nHachikawa Tomoe limply fell to the ground.
\nHer wide-open eyes reflected the scene before her.
\nââŚGhâŚâ
\nSomeone groaned.
\nIt was a male voice.
\nIt was the voice of the man named Toujou.
\nâGhh!! MyâŚarmâŚ! MyâŚmy arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm!!â
\nHe was trying to use his left hand to hold the wound on his right arm, but that left hand was already dyed red.
\nThis was not surprising.
\nToujouâs right arm had been blown off at the wrist. The giant black handgun was gone. It had exploded from the inside and several shards had fallen to the cracked asphalt.
\nIt was obvious what had happened.
\nThe gun had malfunctioned.
\nBut there had been no reason for that malfunction.
\nNormally, at least.
\nââŚAhh! Th-that bastard⌠It had to be him. He touched my gun in the archives room. He tampered with it!!â
\nThe bestial growl from behind Hachikawa Tomoe grew. It seemed to be reacting to Toujouâs mental turmoil.
\nâU-Uchi-Uchima-Uchimaku!!! How dare youâŚhow dare you take my haaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddddddddddddddddd!?â
\nHachikawa Tomoe thought he was going to give into his anger and have whatever was behind her attack. She thought she was going to be torn apart and eaten as if by a lion or tiger.
\nBut that did not happen.
\nAs if in response to Toujouâs shout, two gunshots rang out somewhere else on the mountain. Sweat was pouring from Toujouâs face due to the intense pain, but the gunshots seemed to bring him back to his senses.
\nHe looked at Hachikawa Tomoe and hesitated over something, but ultimately gave precedence to running away. While holding his mangled wrist, Toujou ran off into the deep darkness of the mountain.
\nHachikawa Tomoe remained motionless for a while.
\nShe could not grasp what was going on.
\nPart 22
\nWhen I fired those gunshots in the dark mountains of Okutama, I did not actually know exactly where Toujou and Hachikawa Tomoe-chan were. I had only entered the mountain the mystery freak had learned Tsumada Mioâs grandparents owned.
\nHowever, if my sabotage had been effective, there was a chance Tomoe-chan was still alive.
\nAnd if I let him hear those gunshots, it would tell Toujou I had come this far. He would assume I knew where he was that I was staring at him through my gunâs sight in order to keep him from killing Hachikawa Tomoe.
\nI had actually only fired randomly up into the night sky.
\nAs I ran along the mountain road toward the sound of the initial gunshot, I finally spotted an abandoned car. The road had a small bloodstain on it, grotesque pieces of flesh and fingers were scattered about, and Hachikawa Tomoe-chan was sitting on the ground.
\nâHachikawa-san!!â I ran over and grabbed her shoulders. âAre you hurt? It looks like the gun malfunctioned, but did any of the fragments hit you!?â
\nââŚâ
\nShe seemed to be conscious, but she was slow to react. She may have experienced a great mental shock. She slowly moved just her eyes to look at me.
\nâHeâŚtried to kill meâŚâ
\nâHachikawa-san?â
\nâHeâŚhe tried toâŚbut heâs my fatherâŚhe had a gunâŚand that growlingâŚm-my fatherâŚtried to k-kill meâŚ!!â
\nHachikawa Tomoe-chan still thought that Toujou was her father.
\nIt was only natural to be shocked when her âfatherâ tried to kill her.
\nButâŚ
\nâHachikawa-san, this is going to be tough to hear, but please listen.â
\nâThereâs more? What more could there be? Iâve had enough! I canât deal with anything more!!â
\nâThe real Toujou Miyabi-san was likely killed around the end of May. This man is someone else entirely.â
\nââŚEh?â
\nâYour father was not the kind of person who would kill his own daughter! He worked until the very, very end to fight against this kind of villain! Thatâs why I was able to make it here. The data your real father gathered led me here!! You do not need to think he betrayed you. Your father lived a life you can be proud of.â
\nWhich truth was better?
\nBoth being killed by oneâs father and learning your father died months ago were too much to accept.
\nBut once a case began, I focused on the living more than the dead.
\nI could not lie to a living civilian for the sake of a dead detective.
\nââŚWho is he?â
\nâI donât know,â I answered honestly. âBut whoever he is, I will arrest him. I will not let him hurt you, Tsumada Mio-san, or anyone else.â
\nShould I leave her here or take her with me?
\nI was unsure what to do, but this Toujou had clearly tried to kill her. It would be too dangerous to take her to the scene of a firefight.
\nâYou follow this road down the mountain. The mystery frea-âŚHishigami Enbi-san is heading here. You should cross paths.â
\nâBe careful,â said Tomoe-chan with a pale face. âHis gun was not his only weapon. He controlled some sort of large beast. It seemed to go nuts when he started bleeding.â
\nI was not sure what she meant, but I nodded.
\nI wondered what she was thinking as she sat on the ground there. Her expression was twisted into something that none of the standard emotions adequately described.
\nââŚPlease save Mio.â
\nâThatâs my job,â I said before running down the mountain road.
\nToujou must have been bleeding quite a bit because drips of blood could be seen along the cracked asphalt. I could not trust that trail of blood too much because it could be a trap, but it would still function as a decent guide.
\nAs I thought, I pulled out my cell phone.
\nIs this Toujou still using Toujou Miyabiâs number?
\nâHey, UchimakuâŚâ
\nâIt seems you made a huge mistake. You should hurry up and surrender. You wonât last 30 minutes with that much bleeding.â
\nâDonât underestimate me. I already had the wound bitten closed. Do you really think youâve won? I had to go to some extra effort in the archives room to make it look like a suicide, but if all I have to do is kill youâŚâ
\nThe conversation continued as I jogged along the mountain road.
\nI was not trying to trace his location.
\nI was fairly certain Toujou had lost a hand. Holding the cell phone would take up his other hand. I could tell whether he was using speaker phone from how much background noise was being picked up. In other words, as long as he was speaking on the phone, Toujou could not use his weapon. I was ensuring my safety.
\nâUchimaku, how much do you know?â
\nâEnough to know that arresting you will bring this to an end.â
\nâHa ha. Well, youâre right about that.â Toujou seemed to be laughing somewhere on the mountain. âThose idiots making that pathetic Package were causing too many problems, so I slaughtered them. That faux-intellectual insider group had gotten a bit carried away, so they had almost no military might. Houjou and Saijou tried to stop me, but Tsumada Mio is simply that valuable. If they had simply agreed to hand her over, none of this would have happened.â
\nâWhat do you hope to do with Tsumada Mio?â
\nâYou will find out when you get here and see this. Personally, I can barely wait. This is greater than I expected. I bought bone marrow from an Inugami bloodline and changed my blood type with a transplant in order to fuse with the Inugami, but this is on an entirely different level. This goes even beyond the ultimate objective of our organization.â
\nâUltimate objective? Organization?â
\nâDamn, this hurts⌠Thatâs right. Our objective is to remake the human body into that of a Youkai. I thought Houjou had beaten me to it, but it looks like Iâll be first.â
\nI heard an unpleasant sound over the phone.
\nIs he just coughing or is he actually coughing up blood? I wouldnât think that would have caused any internal bleedingâŚ
\nâHey, Uchimaku. Think back to the Jinmensou incident. That group was attaching Jinmensou to girls passing through Shibuya, but how do you think they attached the Jinmensou to their target?â
\nI had not actually cleared up that aspect of the case. For one thing, a Jinmensou was a Youkai. Unless they had a good reason, they would not appear in the city.
\nâJinmensou appear as a symbol of the lies someone has said or the sins they have committed. But those lies have a certain requirement. You could call this the starting point.â
\nâAre you saying Tsumada Mio was involved in something?â I asked.
\nâYes, exactly. You did some research on Tsumada Mio, right? What sort of impression did you get of her?â
\nâShe seemed like a sociable girl with a lot of friends before the Jinmensou appeared. Her social circle had spread even beyond her class.â
\nâDo you know that for sure?â cut in Toujou with a sneering voice.
\nSh*t, his injuries should be slowing him down. Have I still not caught up to him?
\nâYou only know that because of the notepad in her room. The one with all the photo stickers on it. But doesnât it seem odd for it to still be there?â
\nâYou donât meanâŚâ
\nâShe took her schoolbag and tablet computer with her when she disappeared, so why did she leave behind that notepad with all its photo stickers? That should have been the symbol of her status. Why was it still there?â
\nâIt was fakedâŚ?â
\nI felt like the ground was lurching beneath my feet.
\nBut when I thought about it, it was not all that difficult a thing to do. Photo stickers could be found plastered all over the city. Even an amateur could retrieve some and reattach them somewhere else.
\nBut why would she do it?
\nPerhaps she had not wanted to worry her family or her neighbor from another school, Hachikawa Tomoe-chan.
\nIn that caseâŚ
\nâSome Jinmensou are said to spew toxins from their mouths. Those covered in the toxin will gain a face as ugly as the Jinmensou,â said Toujou. âA certain rumor has spread through Shibuya. It says Tsumada Mio, a poor girl with no friends, has been gathering photo stickers. In order to save this isolated girl, people are to claim to be Tsumada Mioâs friend if asked. Well, it seems even the real Toujou was fooled by this and assumed she was popular. âŚThat is a lie and a sin. Whenever she was lied about, Tsumada Mioâs Jinmensou spewed toxins that afflicted the bodies of the liars and caused the ugly faces to multiply.â
\nâHow could this happenâŚ?â
\nThe original masterminds behind the Jinmensou had wanted to use them to threaten the children of corporate executives and shareholders, so they had likely approached the children who met the Jinmensouâs requirements and asked them that question. They may have pretended to be a teacher or from a private investigation company.
\nTheir responses may indeed have been lies.
\nBut were those lies really worth calling sins?
\nâThen why did the original Jinmensou appear on Tsumada Mio?â I asked. âShe may have lied about having a lot of friends, but she was still in the city. I doubt a rural-loving Youkai would attach to her there.â
\nâI donât know, but something about the Jinmensouâs nature was likely twisted in the Package. For example, what if a Jinmensou they acquired somewhere was attached to Tsumada Mioâs umbilical cord where it was stored in a corner of her grandparentsâ rural house? Even if she was in a distant place, that would still qualify as the Jinmensou afflicting her body.â
\nAnd then that single Jinmensou patient had led to an explosive outbreak centered on Shibuya.
\nIf that was the caseâŚ
\nâSo youâre after the special case at the source of the infection?â
\nâIâm glad you finally understand. The fusion of a human and a Jinmensou might lead to something not human if taken to the next level. And it does not require fine-tuning for each individual human. As long as Tsumada Mio exists as the core, it will spread without end. This will greatly shorten the work and examination needed in the past methods such as transplanting bone marrow from an Inugami bloodline.â
\nâDo you really think Iâll let you do this?â
\nâAnd I will not let you stop me. Donât think you will get off as easily as just losing a hand.â
\nThe call suddenly ended.
\nAt the same time, I spotted a wooden cabin through the gaps in the cedar trees. It was a small cabin, but it still looked larger than my apartment. It had a small water wheel that may have been used to generate power.
\nIn the end, I had been unable to catch up to him partway there.
\nBut Toujouâs goal was to capture Tsumada Mio, not kill her. I doubted he would harm her right away.
\nI pulled out my.38 caliber revolver and slowly approached the cabin.
\nThe cabinâs lights did not appear to be on.
\nThe trail of blood headed straight to the front door, so Toujou was likely already inside.
\nI pressed up against the wall next to the door and touched the doorknob.
\nAnd I turned it.
\nAfter making sure it was not locked, I kicked open the door.
\nThe attack came immediately afterwards.
\nI suffered a fatal wound and was knocked to the floor.
\nPart 23
\nIt seemed it had only been intended as a playful attack.
\nNevertheless, I was knocked across the cabin as if I had been struck by a large truck. I could not breathe. I coughed up a great bit of blood. I tried to bring my hands to my mouth, but they only twitched slightly and would not move.
\nâCough!? Cough cough!!â
\nâDidnât I tell you, Uchimaku?â Toujouâs voice filled the darkness of the cabin. âSimply killing you is no problem for me. They are known as Inugami[2], but they are actually more like a formless curse. It does not matter if you dodge to the right or to the left, or if you charge forward all at once or cautiously approach. If I tell it to do it, it will do it. That is all there is to it.â
\nâGrr,â came the growling of a large beast.
\nWhat is going on?
\nIs there a lion or a tiger hiding in this darkness? Or is Toujou making that growling noise?
\nI had no way to know which it was.
\nWait a second.
\nToujou and this beast are here, but where is Tsumada Mio?
\nI could not sense her presence.
\nWas that third party really in the small cabin?
\nâNo, I did not expect this either,â said Toujou.
\nI could hear someone feeling along the wall. However, I did not know where my handgun had gone after I dropped it. And even if I did know, I still could not move my body after that impact.
\nFinally, I heard a clicking noise.
\nIt was the sound of a plastic switch being flipped.
\nAt the same time, bright light filled the world and blinded me. It took me several seconds to realize this was nothing more than a fluorescent light.
\nNow that the cabin was illuminated, I could see it truly had nothing but a blanket. Not only did it have no items of entertainment such as books or a game system, but it had no refrigerator, washing machine, or anything else needed to live oneâs life. That made sense for an emergency cabin in the mountains, but I could not see how a teenage girl could have lived here for months.
\nAnd in the center of the cabin was some dense mass.
\nââŚPant⌠YouâreâŚkidding meâŚâ
\nâItâs pretty horrible,â muttered Toujou with a thin smile on his face as he stood against the wall sweating and holding his injured arm. âIâve heard of a man who survived for a month after his car was buried in snow. It seems the low temperature brought on a state similar to hibernation. âŚBut this goes beyond that. How do you think itâs possible for a human to survive for four months without eating or drinking anything?â
\nThis mass was sitting in the seiza position.
\nThis mass was wearing a long-sleeved sailor uniform.
\nI had once heard about the process of Sokushinbutsu from my old man back home. That was not actually a ghost story, but it had still scared me more than any other story I had ever heard.
\nA sealed room would be dug into the ground and a Buddhist monk would enter it. All the exits would be completely sealed, he would be given no food or oxygen, and he would simply continue praying until he was mummified. This was different from being forcibly buried alive or killed. They dried themselves up of their own free will. They cut off all the animalistic instincts that were natural for humans and took a certain path to its extreme.
\nThisâŚ
\nThis was a lot like that.
\nBut this was not an overly light corpse that looked like dried up twigs. All of the skin had become a bluish black, but the body still contained moisture and its surface was writhing slightly.
\nâSheâsâŚaliveâŚ?â
\nâSeems that way. Iâve never heard of a Jinmensou attaching itself to a corpse. And that means Tsumada Mio is still alive even in this state. Her body has been remade so that she can remain alive.â True admiration could be heard in Toujouâs voice. âHowever, it does not seem that movement is based on her own will. That is just the Jinmensou covering every inch of her body moving around as they please.â
\nThose words sent a definite chill down my spine.
\nIt canât beâŚ.
\nIt canât be!!
\nâAre you saying all of that bluish-black stuff is made up of Jinmensou!?â
\nYouâre kidding.
\nThat canât be true.
\nThatâs too horrible to be true!!
\nThose girls had felt they would never be accepted with even one of those tumors that were a few centimeters across. And now Tsumada Mio was completely covered in them. To cover her entire body, it had to be more than just a dozen or two.
\nIn my confusion, I pointlessly searched for some way of denying the truth before my eyes.
\nâBut a Jinmensou is a tumor that looks like a large bug bite. They donât turn that color!!â
\nâI donât know why theyâre like this. Maybe they were always like this and maybe this is a result of the Package. If my umbilical cord theory is correct, they might have made their way in through her stomach. At any rate, it seems the tumors may have moved inside her instead of staying on the surface. Once they filled her up, they caused a great change to the flow of her blood. This discoloration may be similar to a type of internal bleeding.â
\nBut why were there so many Jinmensou?
\nThe girl from the convenience store robbery had only had one.
\nâI had thought Tsumada Mioâs Jinmensou would simply spew toxins to assault the girls in Shibuya, but it seems each time those girls lied, a new Jinmensou would also be appear on Tsumada Mio as a sort of feedback. Itâs like sheâs bearing the burden of all the lies of the city. I wonder how many Jinmensou she even has attached. I doubt 100 or even 1000 would be enough to account for this. Ha ha!!â
\nââŚâ
\nI glared at Toujou from where I lay collapsed on the ground.
\nâWhat are you going to do with her?â I asked.
\nâTake her home with me, of course. Like I said, Iâll be the first. No one else in the organization has a specimen that has left humanity behind as much as this. I thought I could never catch up to Houjou, but with her, I might be able to surpass him. Not to mention Saijou and Nanjou.â[3]
\nMy handgun was lying quite nearby.
\nIf I could only muster up some strength, I could grab it right away.
\nâStop that.â Toujou shook his head. âSurely you know a bullet will do nothing here. I was testing you before. I only had the Inugami lightly charge at you. If I snap my fingers and order it to bite you, youâre done for. Your upper body will have to say goodbye to your lower body.â
\nâAre youâŚsomeone like Hishigami Mai?â
\nâHishigami?â Toujou frowned slightly before continuing. âOh, yes. I had her right arm bitten off during a personal job a long time ago. I remember because her body had an interesting composition. But she altered her body while remaining human. That is too far removed from our principles.â
\nThat went well beyond my expectations.
\nBoth the fact that he had torn off that monster womanâs arm and that she had recovered from it with no scar were well outside my ideas of how the world worked.
\nâNow then, can we get this over with already? I will be taking Tsumada Mio with me. You will remain here. Okay?â
\nââŚDonât you need to kill me?â
\nâI intended to, but that would be too boring. Since you gained your freedom after the situation I left you in, I can only assume you escaped the interrogation room. I wonder what the police will decide happened when they find you at the site of Tsumada Mioâs disappearance? That sounds a lot funnier than just killing you.â
\nâYour blood is all over this place.â
\nâThat doesnât matter. It isnât enough to identify me. I have no more use for the Toujou Miyabi identity. I just need to alter the electronic medical records on the cloud to make sure these bloodstains canât be traced back to me. I will return to the world I came from. The likes of you can never reach that world.â
\nAs he spoke, Toujou approached the bluish black Tsumada Mio sitting seiza-style in the center of the cabin. I tried to move my fingers.
\nOkayâŚI can just barely move them. I should be able to stand!!
\nThat was when I heard the same bestial growling as before.
\nI was only a few meters from my handgun. However, that growl was an obvious threat keeping me from advancing those few meters.
\nToujou picked up the unmoving Tsumada Mio and carried her over his shoulder.
\nMy mind was filled with nothing but the distance between my fingertips and the handgun, but I could not avoid having a few words leak from my mouth.
\nâWait, ToujouâŚâ
\nâStop it. The time to beg for your life has long since passed. Iâve already lost a hand, remember?â
\nâLeave Tsumada Mio here. She isnât something you can just use like this!â
\nâHa ha hahh.â It seemed Toujou could not help but laugh. âCâmon, Uchimaku. I had no real reason to explain everything to you like I did. I could have put on some act. And yet here I am speaking with you. Why do you think that is? I understand all too well how valuable information is, so why would I do that?â
\nââŚWhatâŚ?â
\nâTsumada Mio has become a symbol of judging people for their lies, so it is best not to lie in front of her, Uchimaku. I donât know if you thought it was the etiquette of adulthood or something, but it may have been a mistake to say something so idealistic in front of her. âŚA fatal mistake.â
\nAlmost at the exact moment Toujou finished speaking, pain exploded in my right thigh and left wrist.
\nI felt the same sort of heat combined with itching and pain as with a bug bite except much, much worse.
\nI knew perfectly well what was happening to me.
\nBefore long, the itching passed along the major nerves of my body and took control of all my bodyâs senses.
\nâGaahhh!? This isâŚa JinmensouâŚ!?â
\nâJust to be clear, this wasnât me. Uchimaku, you did this to yourself. Itâs quite ironic really. You are punished for your idealistic statements made for the sake of justice and I survive unscathed for honestly saying such horrible things.â
\nThe itching was so bad I grew confused as to the size of my own body, but a question still remained in my head.
\nWhat did the Jinmensou react to just now?
\nI had come this far to save Tsumada Mio. My intentions there had not changed. So why had the Jinmensou reacted to a lie?
\nHad I lied without even realizing it?
\nOr did something qualify as a lie as long as Tsumada Mio thought it was one?
\nFor one thing, it was still unclear what basis Tsumada Mio used to determine if something was a lie.
\nIf it was simply anyone with any connection to her making any lie, everyone who had been around her would have been affected by a Jinmensou.
\nBut that had not happened.
\nFor example, her parents and her neighbor, Hachikawa Tomoe-chan.
\nNone of them had shown any sign of being affected by a Jinmensou.
\nâItâŚcanât beâŚâ
\nâWhat is it, Uchimaku? You have the look of someone who has finally solved a puzzle, but this is already over.â
\nTsumada Mio was so utterly covered in Jinmensou that not even the color of her skin was visible.
\nThe Jinmensou would spread without limit when a lie was spoken.
\nCould it have been that IâŚno, that we were mistaken about something? It was a crazy idea, but we had never actually checked or proven that it was not the case.
\nYes.
\nWere the Tsumada Mio her parents and Hachikawa Tomoe-chan had told us about and the Tsumada Mio the Shibuya girls, Toujou, and I were talking about really the same person?
\nââŚAre you really Tsumada Mio?â I muttered without thinking.
\nToujou looked puzzled and then the girl â or rather, the object in the shape of a girl â burst into tiny pieces. What looked like pieces of flesh scattered across the four walls and floor of the cabin, but that was not what they were.
\nThey were all shaped like human faces.
\nHundreds or even thousands of them had condensed into the shape of a girl.
\nThese were Jinmensou.
\nThey were the core of the lie.
\nThis was the punishment for all of those who had spoken as if they knew who Tsumada Mio was despite not knowing anything about her.
\nAs soon as the girl-shaped object blew to pieces, the itching and pain eating into my body disappeared. The Jinmensou for telling lies were gone. Completely gone.
\nâInugami!!â
\nI immediately jumped for my handgun, but Toujou managed to shout calmly despite having lost his greatest prize. My fingertips reached the.38 caliber revolver, but I did not have time to grab it and aim.
\nMy upper body was assaulted by an impact so strong it felt like an invisible dump truck had hit me. My body slammed against the wall.
\nâGhâŚgh!!â
\nI slid down to the ground and found Toujou was holding my gun. The Inugami must have retrieved it for him.
\nâWhat happened? Hey, Uchimaku. Where did Tsumada Mio go? Where did you hide her!?â
\nâHehâŚâ
\nCan you not see her?
\nIt may have been because I had finally grasped the truth and it may have been because I had finally tried to face the real Tsumada Mio.
\nEither way, I could now clearly see another girl standing right next to me.
\nâOut with it, Uchimaku. Where did Tsumada Mio go? If you donât tell me, Iâll shoot you in each limb one at a time.â
\nâHey,â I cut in with a smile. âWhy are you relying on that gun when you have that Inugami as a secret weapon? Is it because thatâs a Youkai youâre controlling? Yeah, I can see how that would be scary. Itâs a monster with a will of its own. Even if you think you have complete control, you never know when it might bare its fangs toward you.â
\nââŚWhat are you trying to say?â
\nâThis is a bad habit of yours. Have you already forgotten how you lost your other hand?â
\nWith a look of realization, Toujou frantically tried to throw the handgun away, but it was too late.
\nThe sound of a metal balloon bursting exploded out.
\nAnd Toujouâs remaining hand was blown to pieces.
\nâG-gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!â
\nA scream surged out.
\nI dug my fingers into the wall to slowly stand up.
\nâThis is the second time, Toujou. Itâs not even funny when youâre this stupid.â
\nThe method of causing the revolver to malfunction like that was not easy, though. And the fact that the Inugami did not immediately attack me afterwards meant I was right about Toujou losing his ability to control the Youkai.
\nAn Inugami resided in the blood.
\nI had always thought that was a way of expressing the more abstract concept of it sticking with a single family or bloodline, but Toujou had mentioned a bone marrow transplant. That meant the blood literally was the controller for the Inugami.
\nMaybe it was having a steady pulse, maybe it was blood pressure, and maybe it was simply the amount of blood. Whatever it was, Toujou was losing the ideal environment for controlling the Youkai that resided in his blood. Tomoe-chan had also said the Inugami had gone nuts when he started losing blood. What had sounded like him coughing up blood while we spoke over the phone may have been something similar. The Inugami was akin to a type of curse and it wielded a strange Youkai like power that would hit regardless of where you tried to evade. However, none of that mattered if he could not control it.
\nâWhatâs wrong, Toujou? Can you no longer use your Inugami?â
\nâ!!â
\nâIf you canât, what do you think is going to happen to you?â
\nI had been struck by the Inugami and felt like my body had been horribly crushed, but I was still in a better state than Toujou. He had lost both hands in gun malfunctions and had lost quite a bit of blood. And if he could not control the Inugami, there was a danger of its fangs tearing into his own body.
\nâYouâŚ?â muttered Toujou blankly. âSomeone with a supporting role like youâŚdefeated meâŚ?â
\nâThatâs right. Youâre just another criminal.â
\nWithout his gun or Youkai, he was just a normal human.
\nAnd that meant he could be fairly judged in the courtroom and thrown in jail.
\nâYou are charged with trespassing, attempted murder, and abduction of a minor.â
\nToujou and I clashed head on at close range.
\nBut all I had to do was my normal job.
\nWhen Toujou tried to smash the side of my head with his leather shoe that clearly had a weapon hidden in it, I swept his other leg out from under him, grabbed his necktie, and slammed his back to the floor. While he was unable to breathe, I held his arms in place, but I suddenly froze when I started to pull out my handcuffs.
\nââŚWith both your hands gone, I suppose handcuffs wonât do any good.â
\nI had no choice but to handcuff his ankles together instead. At any rate, he could not use his arms, so there was little need to seal his movements.
\nâToujou, I have no idea who you really are, but youâre under arrest.â
\nSorry.
\nBut this is the kind of person Toujou Miyabi remained to the very end. This is the kind of person Hachikawa Tomoe-chan entrusted the safety of her friend to despite her complaints. This is what it is to be a police officer.
\nPart 24 (3rd person)
\nAfter receiving word that the man going by the name Toujou had been arrested, the department chief of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Departmentâs Department 1, Mezu Gen, gave some instructions over the phone. He requested the formal wanted status on Uchimaku Hayabusa be rescinded.
\nChief Superintendent Mishimaâs standard policy was âallâs well that ends wellâ, so he did not interfere. However, Mezu Gen still felt a chill run down his spine when he thought about what would have happened if Uchimaku had not succeeded.
\nUchimaku had needlessly caught the attention of someone dangerous.
\nFor once, Mezu Gen actually felt pity for one of his subordinates.
\nAnd he was still unable to determine why a monster of that level was giving so much focus to a single detective in a dead end job.
\nIt disturbed him a bit, but it was obvious no answer was forthcoming. He set that problem aside and focused on the job before him.
\nWhoever it was that had been arrested had been transported to a large police station in Hachiouji, but if it was true that the real Toujou Miyabi had been killed, this would be a job for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department or even the Public Security Bureau. It would be necessary to prepare a prisoner transport vehicle to bring him here as soon as possible.
\nSuddenly, the department chiefâs cell phone rang.
\nThe number displayed on the screen was that of a familiar subordinate.
\nHowever, he heard a completely different voice when he answered.
\nIt was a girl of about ten.
\nâThe real danger is yet to come,â she said.
\nââŚWho is this?â
\nâI am not protesting your actions. You did the right thing. But that has brought about a problem that we cannot have brought to light. Our world will not allow it. So be on your guard. Be very, very careful that your prisoner transport vehicle does not under any circumstances meet an unforeseen accident before arriving.â
\nâI see. So you are from that side of things.â
\nThe girl replied with the soft tone of someone explaining the difference between the geocentric model and the heliocentric model to someone who did not understand the structure of the world.
\nâWe exist right alongside you. There is nothing dividing us and there are no restrictions keeping anyone from moving from one side to the other. That is why I am telling you to be careful. Our world is always watching yours. And we are close enough to easily â so very easily â reach out and touch it.â
\nâSo youâre telling me not to get involved?â The department chief gave a derisive snort. âIf your side had done your job properly, this never would have happened. Is that what you want me to say?â
\nâAre you not going to say it?â
\nâI donât see it that way. The Japanese police system is not perfect. That is what creates the openings for the likes of you to play at being allies of justice. Thatâs all this is. This is nothing we should be upset about or anything you should be proud of. It never was and it never will be. Do you understand what I mean, young lady?â
\nâI see.â Her voice seemed unable to hold something back. âIf you have that much determination, we need not worry about leaving this country to you.â
\nâSo to the very end, youâre going to play the part of someone on the side of justice, is that it? And youâre going to look down on me as you do it?â
\nâWell, I hope you will stick with this game of make believe a little longer, then.â
\nâWhat are you trying to say?â
\nâAll the Jinmensou that spread from Tsumada Mio disappeared as soon as the concentrated mass of lies was destroyed by the truth of Detective Uchimaku Hayabusa discovering the real Tsumada Mio. However, one thing remains: the Inugami contained within the body of the man going by the name of Toujou Miyabi. No matter how you restrain him, he will undoubtedly break out of jail as soon as he inevitably regains control of that Youkai.â
\nââŚAre you saying you can do something about that?â
\nâIf possible, we would like to retrieve him, but I doubt you would agree to that. As your reward for resolving this case on your own, I have contacted you instead of our usual contact so that I can tell you the means of neutralizing that Inugami.â
\nââŚâ
\nâControl of his Inugami comes from the special bone marrow inserted into his spine. If you burn away that bone marrow with x-rays and transplant some new bone marrow in its place, the Inugami will leave him.â
\nâDo you know Japanese law? We cannot commit any acts of violence on a restrained suspect. Cutting open his body and exchanging bone marrow is out of the question.â
\nâBut if the suspectâs life is at risk, you have the right to perform an emergency operation at a police hospital without the suspectâs consent. âŚAnd the suspect is in a fair bit of danger with his hands missing. What if a detailed examination found another illness needing treatment? Couldnât that provide enough reason for the operation?â
\nââŚAre you asking us to clean up your mess?â
\nâI will leave the ultimate decision to you. However, only we have the fluorescent substance that will display only the Inugami bone marrow. If you do not ask for our help, this person going by the name Toujou Miyabi will eventually escape. We will take care of it if that happens, but I can make no promises as to the number of people who will lose their lives before we get there.â
\nâUnderstood.â
\nThe department chief let out a sigh.
\nThe dignity of the police was important, but he preferred to prioritize the safety of all involved.
\nAnd so he gave his answer.
\nâSend the fluorescent substance here. We will finish this.â
\nNotes
\n1. â A Seman or Seman Doman is a type of Japanese magical charm with roots in Onmyoudou.
\n2. â Inugami literally means Dog God.
\n3. â Itâs worth mentioning that the four names Toujou, Houjou, Saijou, and Nanjou are each made with the kanji for one of the four cardinal directions (Tou = East, Hou = North, Sai = West, and Nan = South) and a kanji pronounced âjouâ.