Box of Demons

Chapter 64

Bird-mouth answered with a smug look on his face.

“That’s right—this is the Ishigami Soul-Suppressing Ritual. Ishigami Shrine is a shrine managed by the Mononobe clan, also known as Mononobe Shinto. It should be pronounced as ‘hihumiyo’, ‘imunaya’, or ‘kotomochirorane’. But what’s troublesome is that the ‘Old Chronicles’ does not indicate the pronunciation. Therefore, over the long years, many people have come up with various ways to pronounce it.”

"Without permission?"

“That’s right, without permission. They filled the simple words one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten with the words that conformed to their own theories. Countless Shinto (note) and Tendai monks have interpreted the ‘Old Tales’ and discovered the mystery in it. The Mikoto deity reads it as ‘so te na te i ri sa ni ta chi su ii me ko ro shi te’.”

Note: A form of Shintoism interpreted from the perspective of the Shingon school of Buddhism. It belongs to the trend of syncretism between Shinto and Buddhism.

"So that part that was supposed to be reciting something was actually counting numbers?"

"That's right. Moreover, the priests of the Ise Grand Shrine in the Middle Ages used this method of reading 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 in their prayers."

"Ah, that's why!"

Ise finally appeared.

"Therefore, even if one possesses the 'Chronicles of Past Events,' without knowledge of the prayers offered at the Ise Grand Shrine, it's impossible to create this prayer. Furthermore—"

Kyogoku-do retrieved the notebook.

"Another thing is the name 'shinpi'. 'Shinpi' is usually written as the mystery of the gods' secrets, but I think it should be written as the profound mystery of the deep secrets. If that's the case, it should be related to the mountain religion in the deep mountains of Tsukiage. No, that should be it."

"Why?"

"According to the magazine's explanation, Kubo grew up not so much in Chikugawa, but more directly in the upper reaches of the Sai River—right?"

"Straightforward what?"

"Upstream from the Sai River, where Kubo grew up, there's a mountain called Mount Kyuubi. It happens to be located on the northeast corner of Mount Hidehiko, which appears in the story. At about eight-tenths of the mountain's height, there's a shrine dedicated to ancestral spirits, a rare shrine specifically for worshipping ancestral spirits. Mount Kyuubi was founded by a peculiar ascetic named Mengjue Mabusen. The spirits he defeated are worshipped in the shrine. The shrine regularly holds a rare event called the 'Spirit Festival.' I don't know if it's still held now, but I'm certain it was still happening until the early Meiji era. It's a festival for spirits held in the lunar calendar, and a particularly strange part of it is a ritual called 'Thousand-Day Pilgrimage'—"

They started talking about strange and unfamiliar topics that I'd never even heard of before. I didn't know what they were about, and since interrupting would only make me understand less, I obediently listened this time.

Kyogoku-do, with a serious expression, said:

"—The sacred body enshrined in this temple of ghosts and gods is actually a box."

"A box? Another box?"

Bird Mouth seemed to find it unbearable to say.

I understand his feelings very well, and it's that box again.

"Moreover, the box was tightly sealed, and inside was a pot, in which the demons defeated by the Demon God were sealed. When the ritual was performed, the seal was broken, and the priest from the previous year used a secret method to transmit the seal to the priest from the following year. The released demons were captured again after the demon-walking ritual and sealed back into the box. And this box that seals the demons is called the 'Deep Secret Box'."

"Ha! I really don't know about this kind of ceremony. No, I've never even heard of it."

Torikochi was deeply impressed, as was Aoki. I, too, was speechless. Anyone familiar with this shrine or its religious practices would likely immediately associate the two upon hearing the name Mihako-no-Kami. However, to my knowledge, apart from Kyogoku-do, no one else knew about these things.

Kyogoku-do continued:

"Moreover, this box is also written as the '筥' in '上竹下吕' (Uesuke Takashiro).

"Is it the same character as Mikoto-no-Kami?"

“Generally speaking, we don’t use this word. It means a round box made of bamboo for holding hats. Unless there’s a special reason, it’s not usually used to refer to a square box. So I think that someone who hasn’t heard of the Ghost Temple of Mount Bodhi wouldn’t take the name Mikoto. Plus—the appearance of the Mikoto of the Ghost Temple is exactly the same as that of Dr. Fukurai’s Clairvoyant Appraisal Group.”

Yes, exactly the same.

The tightly sealed box contained a pot. Seal within the pot was a demon, and the other...

—It is a demon.

“However, Bei has never left Mitaka, so it’s impossible for him to have heard of the divine bodies and affairs of the shrines deep in the mountains of Kyushu. Therefore, I believe that someone must have taught him these things.”

"So, Mr. Chuzenji, that's why you asked—did Terada Hei have any relatives in Ise and Chikugami?"

Bird Mouth lowered his head in admiration.

"Well, but Kubo alone is enough. So even though there's no evidence, I believe that Kubo is undoubtedly the mastermind behind the creation of Mikoto."

Kyogoku-do then looked at Aoki, as if to indicate that it was his turn next.

"Next, this is new information that I only learned today—"

Aoki seemed a little confused; he wasn't used to Kyogoku-do's style yet.

"—I heard from the Sekiguchi area that Kubo Shun-kun apparently has a habit of wearing gloves."

"Huh!"

Aoki's surprise exceeded what was necessary.

"W-Is that man named Kubo wearing gloves?"

That's right, he is—the glove man.

For some reason, even though I knew this fact a long time ago, I unconsciously avoided thinking about it.

"I'm not sure, but he seems to wear gloves quite often. Remember, Aoki, you were investigating the man with the gloves, right?"

"Yes. It is said that Yoshimi Kakizaki and Toshie Ozawa, the candidates for the dismemberment case, were with the man in gloves before they disappeared. In addition, Yoriko Kusumoto also testified that the man who pushed Kanako Yuzuki was wearing gloves, and Yoko Yuzuki also said that she witnessed the man in gloves near the scene of Kanako's kidnapping. There are not many men wearing gloves in this season, so it is hard to believe that it was someone else."

Aoki seemed very excited.

"Hmph, that's not necessarily true—"

Kyogoku-do wore an incomprehensible smile.

"—In short, we absolutely cannot overlook the testimony that two of the three missing girls were with the man in the gloves. Furthermore, the young man who freely came and went from Mikoto's early days like family, and the regular customer who ordered a large number of custom-made wooden boxes, were also wearing gloves, right?"

"That's supposedly the case."

Aoki looked at the bird-mouthed bird, who was eager to answer, with a bit of annoyance.

"So even though we only have gloves as a clue, we can't ignore it. Besides, a man wearing gloves was also spotted near Nanamoto Yoriko the day before yesterday."

——Jungong Kubo.

My friend in front of me said that this man was the perpetrator of the serial dismemberment murders. Of course, Kyogoku-do said that from the beginning, but I'm only now beginning to understand what that means.

If this is true,

If that's the case, I...

I essentially stumbled into the incident on the same day I also met the perpetrator.

Doesn't that mean that when the editor-in-chief, Yamazaki, introduced my work to me at the reception desk of Xitanshe, his hands were already stained with blood? And yet this man concealed his bloodied hands with pure white gloves, pretending nothing was wrong and launching a scathing attack on my work.

I remember Kubo gazing at Kanako's photo from his seat in the coffee shop.

"—So—the person Raiko is going to see is—Kubo, isn't he?"

So, after that, Kusumoto Yoriko went to that shop to meet him.

"Yesterday, I heard from Uncle Kiba that Nanamoto Yoriko has been going to and from coffee shops a lot lately. And according to two of her classmates, Yoriko's coffee shop habit is entirely influenced by Yuzuki Kanako. And the coffee shop Kanako frequents is the one near the factory—the 'Shinsekai' you guys went to. Even disregarding that, the only coffee shop nearby is—"

This one. And—Brother Xia, you said you saw Kubo behind Lai Zi, right?

"I did say that."

"Therefore, it's highly likely that the two have already had contact. That girl is in danger."

I feel very uncomfortable. What Kyogoku-do said really is just as he once said—that everything is a product of chance. A girl I just met the day before yesterday was killed by an acquaintance I just met the day before yesterday. To believe this is reality is just too hard to accept.

I'll tentatively believe that Kubo is connected to Mihako-no-Kami. But that alone isn't enough to convict him, and even if he were, the idea that the next victim would be Kusumoto Yoriko is too much of a coincidence. There are clearly too many candidates who fit the criteria; Yoriko is just one of them. It's too much of a coincidence. Kyogoku-do himself is filled with the prejudice of Kubo as the culprit and Yoriko as the victim; he's the one viewing things with an overly insightful perspective.

I asked:

"But why is she—Kusumoto Yoriko—certainly going to be the next victim? Is it just a coincidence?"

I didn't expect Kyogoku-do to answer me, but he answered immediately.

"Of course not. There's a specific order to the checkpoints."

"Order? What order?"

"So, it's about the order of the roster."

After saying this, Kyogoku-do placed the register on the table.

"The reason I was so sure that the three people the police identified were correct is because it was a conclusion I drew from this register of Mikoto gods—or more accurately, a contact book. The dismemberment case proceeded in the order listed in this register. Ultimately, for the mastermind behind it all—Kubo—the Mikoto gods were merely tools with this function—no, it should be said that they were created for this purpose from the very beginning."

"What did you say?"

I don't understand the meaning behind his words.

"Just like in Toriguchi's investigation, there are ten families in this register whose names overlap with the police's list of missing girls. Three of them, as mentioned earlier, were even removed from the list of potential victims by the police. Investigating the remaining seven reveals something interesting. Besides the three most likely candidates, the other four are all women over eighteen. And the three most likely candidates—Asano Haruko, Ozawa Toshie, and Kakizaki Yoshimi—are all around fourteen or fifteen years old. Furthermore, they disappeared in the order listed, and then—"

"Killed? So Kakizaki—and then—?"

"On this register, the family with a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl after the Kakizaki family is the Kusumoto family."

Aoki quickly picked up the roster to check. Kyogoku-do continued:

"After Kusumoto, the next one will probably be the Shinoda family. This family has a relatively large amount of money to give, so they weren't on Kiyono's prophecy list, but I think after Yoriko, it should be their turn. The amount of money given has nothing to do with the occurrence of the incident. There are only two conditions for the victims: their address can be identified in the Mihako-gami's contact book, and their age is around fourteen or fifteen. The perpetrator investigated whether there were any fourteen or fifteen-year-old girls in the household according to this list before extending his claws in order. Therefore, both the area and the family environment are a mess and there is no consistency. After all, the plan was carried out according to the Japanese syllabary."

"Hmm, I see, but..."

"This is all thanks to Toriguchi. Without this roster, it would be impossible to understand the structure of the selection of victims and the order of the crimes."

"—Wait a minute, something's not right."

Aoki, who was almost ready to agree with this statement, seemed to notice a problem. He looked at the roster.

“Asano Haruko is the second one, right? But there’s no family with a daughter ahead of Asano in this register. If the notes above are true, Asano Haruko must be the first one, otherwise your theory just now cannot stand.”

“That’s right. Haruko Asano was the first one.”

"But--"

"It should be the second one!"

"The earliest one was from Lake Sagami—"

Aside from Natsume, the three of us simultaneously voiced different protests. Kyogoku-do calmly replied:

"The hands and feet first discovered at Lake Sagami were not part of a series of dismemberment and body abandonment incidents."

"W-what did you say?"

"If we disregard the regularity mentioned earlier in the case of a series of dismemberment and body abandonment incidents, it would be impossible to discover other regularities. At the same time, considering the hands and feet found in Lake Sagami as part of a series of incidents is extremely weak in its basis. Instead, it is more integrated to consider them as other incidents."

"Kyogoku-do, but I think it's even less likely that such similar events occurred in such close proximity and were carried out by different people. Aoki, remember you said that the foot found at Lake Sagami was also kept in a box?"

"Yes."

"Should we put everything else in the box too?"