Qi lässt sich leicht weitergeben

Kapitel 12

Atsuko looked a little tired, but she still managed a friendly smile, said "Hello," bowed respectfully, and then continued:

“I have read ‘Real Crime Records.’ The report on the ‘Light’ Club was very interesting.”

Judging from the fact that he remembered the content of the report, it shouldn't be a compliment but rather that he had actually read it. Torakuchi seemed quite surprised upon hearing this, but after a few seconds, he immediately regained his usual lazy expression and said in his usual comical tone:

"Hey, that original manuscript was mine..."

After a few seconds of pause, he continued:

"Took it out of the bag."

It seems they're planning to use humor to get to the bottom of things.

Atsuko seemed very tired. When I asked about the background of the interview, she replied:

"Hmm, it seems like we made a wasted trip."

The lakeside was beginning to darken. Taking the tram back now would likely be a hassle, and since we were going in the same direction, I invited her to ride with me. Atsuko was delighted. She exclaimed how wonderful it was when she saw the fake Datsun tram. Toriguchi said proudly:

"Look, even Ms. Atsuko is full of praise for it. The only one criticizing this car is Mr. Sekiguchi."

"You'll know once you sit down. Just wait and see."

This time, I actually took the map and sat in the front seat.

"I have a question: why would a prisoner dismember a body? It must take a lot of time. Wouldn't it be faster to just bury it somewhere?"

Bird Mouth gripped the steering wheel, which was still vibrating slightly.

They probably wanted to bury them but there was nowhere to bury them; their living location was inconvenient.

I answered casually.

"Really? -- Would anyone dismember a corpse for such a reason? I guess it's probably out of resentment. The dead are mostly guys that the criminals wouldn't tire of killing even if they were torn a thousand times."

"No. People who kill are generally not mentally sound. They lose their usual rationality when they commit crimes, and their emotions at that time probably go beyond hatred and turn into madness. Right, Atsuko?"

I was worried that Atsuko might be bored sitting alone in the back seat, so I changed the subject to her. But looking back, it didn't seem that way; she seemed quite happy, probably because she enjoyed going for drives.

"I've talked about this topic with my brother before."

"Oh? What did Kyogoku-do say?"

I'd like to hear Atsuko's brother, Kyogoku-do's opinion.

My eccentric friend possesses a wealth of knowledge completely unrelated to daily life, so she must have unusually distorted views on this kind of topic. "Just like usual," Atsuko said with a smile.

"However, it is also said that it may be a curse ritual to prevent the resurrection of the dead, or it may be an attempt to interfere with the identity investigation."

"Leaving aside the element of magic, I don't think doing this will interfere with the identity investigation, right? At most, it will cause temporary disruption. Scientific investigations are so advanced these days. Even if you lose your head, you still can't hide your identity!"

"Yes. My brother said the same thing. In future eras, an individual's identity will probably be determined solely by a portion of body tissue. Therefore, he said the decisive reason for dismemberment would be physical reasons such as inconvenience in handling the body or its excessive weight. Up to this point, I agree with the teacher's opinion, except—"

"What happened next?"

Atsuko leaned forward to sit in the front seat.

"Regarding the mental state when dissecting a corpse, the teacher just said that it's not something that can be done under normal circumstances—right?"

"Of course, right? How could that be normal?"

"Yes, that's what I think too."

Atsuko first agreed with my opinion, and then said:

"However, I think that the perpetrator's mental state when dismembering the body was probably very normal. It should be said that the perpetrator wanted to return from the abnormal state at the time of the murder to his normal life—the everyday world—which is why he dismembered the body. I think the perpetrator probably used dismembering the body to restore his originally abnormal mental state to normal."

"How is that possible? Why would the cruel act of dismembering a human corpse have the effect of restoring normal mental health? Compared to murder, isn't dismemberment more abnormal? Manslaughter is possible, but there's no such thing as manslaughter, right? If you think about it that way, dismemberment is obviously more abnormal, isn't it, Bird Mouth?"

Bird Mouth replied calmly:

"But it's difficult to clearly distinguish between normal and abnormal. For example, in a moment of impulse, someone might stab someone to death. Is that abnormal or normal?"

"That moment was unusual, you mean the situation where you lost yourself in a fit of anger, right? Anger is unusual, otherwise it's impossible to do something as worthless as murder. If we judge by gains and losses or social ethics, there's a 99% chance that he wouldn't commit murder."

"Yes, my brother said so too. Ninety-nine percent of murders are caused by impulse—or they occur suddenly like an illness—"

"But there's also the possibility of premeditated murder, right? For example, for scheming, resentment, wanting money, or protecting one's status and reputation, etc. There's always a motive for murder, Ms. Atsuko. Sekiguchi-sensei is best at depicting the psychology of criminals!"

After saying this, Bird Mouth glanced at me.

"According to my brother—though I don't quite understand—he said that these kinds of motives are actually added after the fact to make things easier for others. In order for a crime to become a crime, there must be a socially agreed-upon motive or reason; it's a kind of conventional custom."

"Why? I've never heard such a stupid argument, though it's very much in Kyogoku-do's style."

In any case, a motive must come first before a crime can occur. To say that a motive was added later is a joke.

"No, anyone can have a motive, and everyone can make a plan. These elements are not special. The difference between criminals and ordinary people lies in whether they encounter an environment that allows them to carry it out—that seems to be what my brother means."

"Is he saying that anyone, regardless of who they are, would kill their target if they happened to be in a situation where they could freely kill them? That's utter nonsense."

“I don’t quite understand what he means either. But according to my brother, psychological factors such as motives, social factors such as environment, and physical factors that enable the crime should be considered separately. Crimes are created not by individuals but by society and the law.”

"Haha, indeed, there is no crime without laws, just like there can be no traffic accidents without cars."

Toriguchi answers in the same tone regardless of the topic.

I was thinking, what if I were facing someone I hated to the core, and they were defenseless, and I held a weapon powerful enough to kill them—

Would I kill him?

No, they probably won't kill him, because they would be held accountable afterward.

But what if we assume the crime will never be discovered? Or what if there were no laws in this world, and murder went unpunished—

Maybe I'll make a move.

A chill ran down my spine. This situation is unlikely to occur, so there's no need to worry. However, excluding the final condition, I can't say it's absolutely impossible; it's possible. If, at that point, I lose that final condition—social regulation—

It's quite possible they'll take action. For the criminal, motives and planning might not matter; the trigger that crosses the last line of defense could just be something trivial—wavering, misunderstanding, or excitement—the kind of everyday occurrences.

"On the other hand..."

The bird's beak interrupted my dangerous thoughts.

"No matter what, dissecting a corpse is still disgusting, and I still don't think it's something a normal person would do."

“Yes, Atsuko. Putting the motive aside for now, it’s hard to understand why you’re saying that dismembering a body is an attempt to return from abnormality to normalcy. No matter how I think about it, it seems like an abnormal behavior that would only occur when the person involved in the murder is pushed to their limit and unable to maintain normal mental activity.”

Atsuko was reflected in the rearview mirror, rubbing her hands together as she fell into thought.

She's probably thinking back to what her brother said.

"Does everyone remember the Arakawa incident? It was also reported in last month's 'Real Crime Recording' program."

The Arakawa Dismemberment Murder Case occurred in May of this year—Showa 27 (1948). A female elementary school teacher murdered her husband, a police officer, and together with her mother, dismembered his body into parts such as the head, wrists, and feet, disposing of them in the Arakawa River. It was a bizarre murder case that shocked the entire nation. The perpetrator was a working woman, and an educator at that, which greatly shocked society. Initially, rumors of the teacher conspiring with her lover circulated widely and with great seriousness, but it was later discovered that she had committed the crime with her mother.

"The method of the crime in that case was also very strange."

Bird Mouth's expression suggested he seemed to know the details. Since I was unfamiliar with the case, I asked him what was unique about the method.

Bird Mouth answered in his usual confused tone.

"First, we used a police baton—which was practically my husband's bread and butter. We tied a rope around it and secured it to the rain window. We fixed one end of the rope in place, and then, while my husband was asleep, we wrapped it around his neck and pulled hard on the other end."

Is that considered strange?

"It's really strange. If it was planned, the props used were too hasty, it felt like just grabbing whatever was around to fill the gap; but if it was impulsive, the action was too long and surprisingly thorough, so it's really weird."

"But it's alright, it's not like we can't kill people on the street without a gun."

Atsuko said in her speech:

"Indeed, the main suspect—the wife—had been disgusted with her abusive and extravagant husband from the bottom of her heart, and it could be said that she had harbored a motive all along. But it wasn't until the night of the crime, when she was clearing the table, that she suddenly wanted to carry it out. However, she didn't dare to do it then, after all, her husband was a scoundrel and a policeman by profession, and acting rashly would definitely provoke a counterattack. In addition, as an educator, she also knew very well how antisocial and unjust an act of murder was. But that night, after her husband fell asleep, that sudden thing came."

"Coming? You mean killing intent?"

"Should I call it—murderous intent? Perhaps I should say—a good opportunity."

"A good time?"

That is to say, the conditions for killing are met.

"Now that I can kill him, it doesn't matter, killing him will make things easier—thinking of this, all hatred is no longer an issue. The only issue is how to be more efficient. To complete the killing without failure. Because the most trivial problem has been solved, the social significance of the killing is lost. As for the motive—what about the everyday resentment? Since what she is thinking at this moment is that killing her husband will end everything, the motive does not exist. At this moment, she is only thinking about how to secure the baton to the window firmly, or how to tie the rope securely. In other words, the only abnormality is that moment when it arrives, and the state afterward is no different from usual."

"Haha, apart from the fact that the target is a person and the purpose of the action is to kill, the other actions, such as fixing the stick to the window or wrapping it with rope and pulling the rope, are indeed no different from what you do normally."

"But I still think this is sophistry, as expected of Kyogoku-do. Even if his mental state wasn't particularly good at the time of the crime, how does he explain the subsequent dismemberment?"

“Hmm—Mr. Torakuchi is right. It’s difficult to draw a line between these two points—but if I had to, the most abnormal moment of mental activity would probably not be during the act itself, but the instant after the act has ended. After the moment of complete retreat—that is, after the complete killing.”

"Is that so? The state after the killing is more abnormal than when the killing took place?"

"Yes—at that moment, let's call it abnormal, but surprisingly, the perpetrator can still maintain normal judgment during the crime. However, when the crime is completely over—the perpetrator realizes that they are in an extremely abnormal state, with a corpse lying next to them, and that they are the ones who committed the crime. Most people would go insane. So the perpetrator would try to correct this abnormality through actions such as regret, reflection, or confession. But there is another way, which is to just let society go. Simply put, as long as they are not discovered, that is, the perpetrator can choose to return to normal by covering up the crime. The period of greatest mental turmoil is probably from the time the murder is completed until the decision to cover up the crime is made. This period varies in length and is different for everyone; some people will make the decision immediately, while others will hesitate, and those who cannot do so will mostly be arrested."

Atsuko seemed to have completely remembered what her older brother had said.

Even his tone of voice has a bit of Kyogoku-do's style.

"I can understand that part, but even so, what's the point of dismembering a body?"

Similarly, I felt as if I were directly confronting Kyogoku-do and raising my own questions.

"Taking the Arakawa case as an example, I heard that it was the mother who suggested dismembering the body. Her reasoning was simple: it would be easier to move and less likely to be discovered. Large and heavy objects can be easily cleaned up once they are divided—this extremely commonplace judgment saved the criminal from his abnormal mental state. This self-evident opinion even overturned the criminal's value that 'murder is a serious antisocial act.' Therefore, the only important thing left was how to efficiently dismember the body, and other issues were temporarily put aside. I heard that the mother and daughter only took two hours to completely dismember their husband like a fish."

"I see. At that moment, they were only thinking about how difficult it was to cut this tendon, how the knife covered in fat needed to be heated before cutting, and so on. As for how hateful their husbands were, they probably forgot about it. Hmm, in that instant, they became experts at butchering meat."

These words are even more disgusting coming from Toriguchi Kairo's mouth.

However, Atsuko just now seemed to be possessed by Kyogoku-do; what she said didn't sound like a retelling at all.

"Back to the previous question. The so-called restoration to normalcy through dismemberment—you just said you didn't quite understand what your brother was saying, but you clearly did. And with an extra layer of digestion, it's even easier to understand than if it were said by the original person. Right, Bird Mouth?"

There was no response.

As we got engrossed in our conversation, it grew completely dark. We'd driven quite a distance; we should be reaching Nakano by now.

"Hmm, where are we now?"

Oh no, it's too late.

The dilapidated car slowly slowed down, swaying as it came to a stop by the roadside. Fortunately, there were no cars coming from behind or in the opposite direction, but there were no streetlights on the road, and only a few narrow paths resembling crisscrossing lanes could be seen nearby.

"Hey, I only trusted you to teach me because you seemed so confident—and you didn't even know the way and just kept driving?"

“But Mr. Sekiguchi himself said he would be the guide, and you took the map with you. I thought you would point out the wrong way before I felt comfortable driving.”

"ah!"