Box of Demons

Chapter 83

“I can tell that at a glance. If it’s just standing there doing nothing, a watchdog is more useful. It’s a real waste of people’s hard-earned money.”

"But isn't that your opportunity?"

Even knowing it wouldn't work, Kiba still threatened him.

"No matter how many wooden figures there are, the result is the same; no matter how many useless people come, it's still useless. The number of people doesn't matter at all. Only after the incident did we realize that there were far too many gaps in the time when no one was watching. Those guys had far too many opportunities to take advantage of us."

"What are you trying to achieve by boasting to me about the incompetence of your organization?"

"snort."

Kiba sat on one of the lower boxes.

“I remember you showed the officers Kanako’s existence three days before she disappeared. I didn’t know at first, but later I heard that Kanako had undergone major surgery. After that, she refused to meet with anyone, and no one was able to see her. You actually prohibited people from meeting with her just in case, right? Oh well, even if you didn’t prohibit it, probably no one would want to go inside anyway.”

"I didn't realize you could speak so indirectly. Just say what you want to say, okay?"

"I mean, you must have done something inside that you're afraid someone will see."

"Why?"

"As long as entry into the room is prohibited, the police will have no way of knowing when or how Kanako disappeared. You're the only one who could see inside, and you're the one who discovered Kanako's disappearance. Therefore, the moment Kanako disappeared must have been between the initial examination and the next. Everything was part of your plan. No matter the circumstances, you just needed to choose the moment between examinations when the police were most negligent as the time to carry out the kidnapping. Once the discovery time was set, the kidnapping time was decided by the police—was that your original plan? You decided in advance when Kanako disappeared, and then you appeared precisely on time to carry out the plan. Only—you didn't know that we had just witnessed Kanako before that—"

Mimasaka's expression remained unchanged.

"—Because an unplanned visitor saw Kanako shortly before the kidnapping was discovered, the time available for the kidnapping was reduced to an extremely short period. Only a few minutes passed between confirming her presence and confirming her disappearance. Things were beyond expectation; Kanako's kidnapping became, under common sense, absolutely impossible. Kanako didn't seem like she was kidnapped—she seemed to have vanished—"

"this--"

Mimasaka spoke powerfully in his metallic low voice:

"What's the point? You've confirmed its existence, and I've confirmed its non-existence. The gap between the two is very small—isn't that all you're trying to say? To suspect my involvement with this is a rather absurd leap of reasoning. Besides, even if someone did devise this plan and put it into practice, I don't think an accident of this magnitude is a fatal flaw."

"Is that so? Trying to disguise a crime as impossible usually fails. Even if you devise such a plan, it's pointless. Kidnapping is a possible crime, but disappearing is—impossible."

"You may seem rough on the surface, but you're actually quite logical at heart. However, the difference between disappearance and kidnapping is merely a matter of language; it's a matter of perception. Vanishing like smoke right before your eyes is another matter entirely, but even if it only lasts for a few minutes, as long as the observer's view was obstructed, one should realistically consider that some kind of treatment was carried out during that time. To use words like 'disappearance,' which are physically impossible, instead of thinking this way is nothing more than escapism."

Mimasaka straightened her back as if to intimidate Kiba.

"Has anyone ever measured how many hours or minutes a crime, according to so-called common sense, takes? Repeated experiments, enough to take an average, to observe how much a crime deviates from the average time, and how low the probability is—at least the person in charge of a crime investigation should think and speak with this kind of scientific spirit, right? Nobody in this day and age will accept criticism based on impressions, you understand, Kiba."

"Who cares about all that?"

Mimasaka seemed a little surprised.

"I wasn't planning on listening to your speech. That's not what I wanted to say. Regardless of the circumstances, Kanako definitely underwent some kind of treatment in a very short time; of course I know that. I don't believe in logic, nor do I believe in miracles. Whether it's logical or not, someone definitely did it. As for whether it's unbelievable or reasonable, like you said, it's a matter of the subjective perception of those who know about it. But—"

Kiba, barely managing to look Mimasaka in the eyes, said:

"--The method is another matter entirely. No one can benefit from deliberately fabricating an impossible crime! I can understand using petty tricks like trying to frame someone or creating an alibi, but only detective novelists would happily design crimes like locked-room murders or disappearances that resemble horror stories. These impossible crimes usually arise by chance when petty tricks fail; they are failed crimes. Therefore, you need to reconstruct the situation before the failure to find the murderer. In this case, if you succeed, you will have a perfect alibi."

"You're so stupid. Even so—even if the crime fails, don't I still have a perfect alibi?"

"That's why I say it's a failure."

—That's right, it was a huge failure.

"Your plan failed, and even suspects other than you were ruled out. Everyone present—no, including outsiders—has an alibi. The space for outsiders to infiltrate was eliminated, which is why the magic trick became a miracle."

"I see. But you seem to be convinced that I am the culprit?"

"That's right."

"Based on what?"

"No."

"ha!"

The wrinkles between Mimasaka's eyebrows had deepened a bit.

"The one who attracted visitors outside the plan and disrupted the entire plan was Yoko, so she couldn't be the culprit. The police officers and lowly clerks like Ishii are not worth mentioning. The only one who could commit the crime is you, who can freely come and go from Kanako's side. You can make her disappear whenever you want, or let people find out whenever you want."

"To be precise, I was not the one who discovered it."

"Susaki is dead."

"Are you trying to say I killed him?!"

Mimasaka spoke with emotion for the first time.

“Susaki was the person who understood my research the most, and also my only successor. After losing him—do you know how sad I am every day! There's no one else I can entrust my affairs to! I'll never have the chance to meet someone as talented as Susaki again, do you know how desperate that is! Why did I have to do something like this?”

"For the sake of research."

"What?"

"You'd do anything for your research, wouldn't you?"

"What's the meaning?"

Mimasaka quickly calmed down.

“I’ve been keeping watch near the incinerator behind me, going there whenever I have a spare moment. That’s how I found out. There are a lot of bones buried around there.”

"So what?"

"That shape is too strange to call it a beast. It doesn't even look like a small creature."

"It seems you are completely ignorant of zoology and anatomy. Those are monkey bones. Bones of a large ape. Used for animal experiments, they died so they were cremated and buried."

"I heard you secretly bring in wild animals, but it's not just wild animals, is it?"

"What...what do you want to say?"

"You're actually using human bodies as materials to conduct research on creating androids, aren't you?!"

"What kind of joke are you talking about? Reality isn't some fantasy novel for kids. Your scientific thinking is hopelessly low! You completely lack medical knowledge! You completely lack common sense judgment!"

Kiba was used to hearing things like what Kyogoku-do said.

"What incantation are you chanting? It won't work on me."

Kiba stood up and took a step forward, staring intently at his face.

"What exactly did you use the chia seeds for? And what did the other girls use them for?!"

"That's ridiculous! I don't understand what you're saying!"

"Wasn't you ostracized from academia because of your research on immortality? This building was a facility of the former Imperial Army. You created unkillable androids here! Using humans as experimental subjects is truly chilling. Whether it was Gacai or Raizo, they were all used in your experiments, cut into pieces and reassembled!"

Mimasaka lost his expression.

then--

He laughed.

Does this man laugh?

"Kiba, I truly admire your ignorance. I never imagined I'd be met with such delightful suspicion. Do you understand? The human body isn't a clay sculpture; it's not something you can just cut and paste."

"Ordinary people might not be able to do it."

Mimasaka's smile vanished instantly.

He looked into Kiba's eyes, and Kiba no longer avoided his gaze.

"Leaving aside living bodies, the only organ that can be transplanted from a corpse is the cornea. The technology for corneal transplantation was invented twenty years ago."

"Who said it was a corpse? If corpses were usable, there would be no need to kill living people. I've heard there are people buying and selling them. Isn't what you're using taken from living people?"

Mimasaka seemed a little flustered.

"Timber yard".

Then he resolutely began to speak:

“More than fifty years ago, a doctor named Jabray attempted xenotransplantation, transplanting organs from goats or pigs into humans, but he failed. Since then, there has been a huge barrier in human organ transplantation technology. That is the antigen-antibody reaction, or the immune system.”

Except for her jaw, Mimasaka remained completely still.

"Humans have what is called the immune system, which is the function of expelling foreign substances from the body, much like your police force. In order to maintain life, the immune system will eliminate unsuitable things; it is the police force in the human body."

Kiba shut up and let him talk.

"This immune system far surpasses any real-world police force; it's extremely disciplined, capable, and diligent, never slacking off. It effectively eliminates most foreign substances, making it an indispensable quality for survival. It's a remarkable function acquired through evolution. However,"

His eyes were like those of a reptile, revealing no change in emotion.

"For example, when transplanting an organ from another person, the transplanted part is a foreign object to the living organism and will be treated as an antigen. No matter how excellent its function is, even if it can make up for the body's own deficiencies, as long as it is a foreign organ, it will be rejected. Incompatibility will produce a rejection reaction, and even blood relatives are not much different, only slightly better than a stranger's organ. Although drugs to suppress this kind of rejection reaction are being developed, I have not heard of them being completed yet. Moreover, apart from animal experiments, with the current level of medical technology, we cannot even transplant a kidney, and even if it is successful, the patient will not live for more than a few days. To eradicate the rejection reaction, we must make adjustments at the genetic level. I—in the past—advocated for this, but no one paid attention. Now this technology has not even reached the experimental stage."

"So what? You only started experimenting because no one else could do it, right? You only did it because only you could do it, didn't you?"

Mimasaka looked at Kiba with disdain. His expression and posture remained unchanged, but Kiba perceived it that way.

As if to prove this feeling, Mimasaka said in a very disdainful tone:

"Foolish, utterly foolish! Are you really saying I'm the perpetrator of the dismemberment murder? And that I conducted experiments while the victim was still alive? Are you seriously thinking about these things?"

"Of course I'm serious."

"But I saw in the newspaper yesterday that the remaining bodies were found the day before yesterday or the day before that, and the real culprit was also identified."

Still pretending to be stupid.

Kiba pressed further with his questions.

"The man the police were treating as a criminal is dead. He was found dismembered in this area last night. I remember you went out to buy something yesterday afternoon."

"—What are you trying to say?"

"Not all the bodies have been found; one is missing. No, if you include Kanako, it's two. No, if you deduct the limbs, it's probably one and a half. That's more than enough to create one person. Just take the parts you want from five people, add the extra parts, and you'll have enough for four people."

"Foolish! This isn't a jigsaw puzzle! Anyone with a little investigation would know this is impossible. Or is it that the Japanese police's scientific capabilities are so limited that they don't even understand this? Are your forensic doctors still reading 'The New Book of Dissection' (note)?"

Note: This medical book from the Edo period was translated from a Dutch version of an anatomy book written by a German, translated by Sugita Genpaku.

"Shut up!"

Before they knew it, Kiba had arrived in front of Mimasaka.

"I saw you drive your truck in here yesterday delivering bags of cloth. What were those?"

There was no response.

Kiba reached inside the chest area of his military uniform.

"I don't think you have even a shred of remorse! All that talk about doing it for knowledge, for research, for scientific progress, for medical advancement—it's so long-winded! Cutting up someone else's girl, do you really feel happy? Are you content? Are you satisfied? Hey!"