Asi Hell

Capítulo 11

"It'll be quick, right? We've already reached Mitaka."

Bird Mouth said.

The people I know who work on lowbrow magazines are all gloomy.

At least the few who came to solicit manuscripts all seemed gloomy and dark, as if they utterly abhorred sunlight. Only the carefree Toriguchi stood out among them. No, not just him; everyone at Akai Shobo was incredibly cheerful. Perhaps that was the publishing house's style—their openness was unimaginable given the bleak themes they constantly dealt with in their daily lives. If I had to categorize myself as light or dark, I'd be considered the darker type, but I seem to be naturally easily influenced by people like them.

It's said that Toriguchi entered the industry because he wanted to be a photographer, and now all the photos published in magazines are taken by him. Perhaps that's why he's so energetic; carrying heavy objects is nothing to him. Toriguchi has the athletic build of an athlete, and apart from his slightly close-set eyes, he's quite a handsome young man. Perhaps it's because he's young, but he doesn't care about staying up for two or three nights in a row; he's a born slacker of a magazine editor.

However, according to his superior, Mr. Senoo, Toriguchi has two fatal flaws.

The first thing is sleep. There's a saying that only food and sleep can't be hoarded, but that probably doesn't apply to this young man. He can stay up very late, but once he falls asleep, he can't wake up no matter what happens. Even if you force him out of bed, he'll immediately go back to sleep. Neither thunder nor air raid sirens can wake him; it's said that he often sleeps for a day or two at a time.

As for the other drawback—thinking about it makes me regret it.

"Bird Mouth. You know the way, right?"

"Huh? Of course I recognize it. I brought a map."

"Then take out the map, and I'll guide you."

Another drawback of Toriguchi is that he often gets lost. It's not that he has no sense of direction; he's good at recognizing places and has a good sense of distance, but for some reason, he just keeps getting lost. Once he makes a wrong turn, he keeps going down the wrong path until it's too late to correct it.

"Strange, it's Mitaka's turn again."

It seems too late. From Nakano to Lake Sagami, there's hardly any need to make several turns, so how could he possibly pass through Mitaka twice? But he doesn't seem surprised at all; no, he probably doesn't even realize he's gone the wrong way.

“Teacher Sekiguchi, when you mention Mitaka, I remembered him. I wonder if you have heard of him? Let me think, I remember he has a strange name like ‘Sealed Evil God’.”

"What is it? A new religion?"

"No, no, it's less of a religion and more like a sorcerer who exorcises demons. I've heard it's very effective and has many followers, I think it's in Mitaka. And it's not just in Tokyo, people come to worship there too. There are even politicians and other celebrities among the followers, it's really popular."

"Oh, you can even do fortune telling?"

"That's interesting."

The bird, which had been looking ahead, turned to look at me and said:

"Don't people usually drive away evil spirits and ghosts? They do it differently over there. I heard they seal them in boxes."

"A box? One of those square boxes?"

"Yes. It's that kind of box. The founder seems to be a middle-aged man dressed as a yakushi (Note: Yamabushi are practitioners in Shugendo. Shugendo is a unique Japanese religion that combines Japan's inherent mountain worship with Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, and Onmyōdō, emphasizing attainment through various practices. Yamabushi are usually dressed as a small, multi-faceted hat, wearing a kasaya, and carrying a staff.) who carries a box on his back that is said to be incredibly effective. He can accurately pinpoint the believer's troubles and then perform a ritual to seal the cause of the troubles into the box on his back."

"Haha, that sounds so fake."

"Yes, and they charge a lot of money. Wouldn't it be great to report them? Even celebrities and politicians are believers. So I'm actually quite interested. If it weren't for the dismemberment case, I would have gone to interview them by now."

"By the way, when will we get to Lake Sagami where the dismemberment case happened?!"

"Huh, how did we end up back in Mitaka? There's no way to get past this road."

This is called a ghost blocking the wall. I think it would be faster to ask the God of the Jade Basket to exorcise the demon.

When they arrived at Lake Sagami, it was already dusk, well past 5 p.m. However, ropes were everywhere, indicating that the search was still ongoing.

There seemed to be relatively few people at the scene. I spotted some police officers, but it wasn't feasible to approach them directly for questioning. I walked along a weed-covered path and soon came across a small hut where a small boat was moored.

"Ah, there are a lot of people there, it must be that place."

Bird Mouth quickly overtook me.

"Hey, wait a minute, even if we go straight to the police, they won't let us through."

I jogged to catch up.

A man was squatting near the small pier. He stood up immediately when he saw us, and we both stopped reflexively, which only attracted more attention from others.

"Ah, isn't this Sekiguchi-kun! Long time no see, what brings you here!"

I thought I'd get a scolding, but it turned out to be a greeting. Birdmouth muttered to himself, "No wonder he's a teacher, he has so much influence," and laughed happily.

The man turned out to be Detective Kinoshita, whom they had met in the previous incident. Kinoshita beckoned the man who was kicking stones near the cabin to come over, and the little mustard seed doll—Detective Aoki—ran over.

"Thank you for your help last time."

"What happened? Has something happened?"

"At this point, there's no choice but to play dumb," Kinoshita replied.

"Huh? Brother Sekiguchi, haven't you heard? The dismemberment case's foot—oh right, only the evening paper reports on the foot. This morning, oh, I should say, the dismemberment case's foot was found in this area, near this hut."

Fortunately, he didn't seem to be suspected.

"So it was a dismemberment case?"

I'm going to pretend to be completely stupid.

"Didn't the teacher read the newspaper? Yesterday morning, a young woman's right wrist, about halfway up her upper arm, was found near the summit of Otsui-zan on National Route 20. The finder was a local forestry worker who found it while driving a light truck. Then this morning, here—at this small pier—her feet were found, both feet. We're exhausted. I spent the whole night helping with the crackdown on red-light districts (Note: red-light districts are areas where prostitution was allowed openly from 1946 to 1958, when Japan abolished public prostitution) and this happened this morning."

Kinoshita held a long stick out forward.

"We couldn't find anything, we only found trash."

"A foot was found here? How was it discovered?"

"The discoverer was an angler, at the bottom of the lake—actually, that's all, just on the shoreline."

"Hey, Kinoshita, how can a lake have a coastline?"

Aoki corrected him.

"The person who found it saw it at the front of the dock. He was originally about to take out a small boat when he noticed what looked like a box-like object on the bottom of the water. He thought it was a treasure chest. How stupid of him! He could have just ignored it and gone and poked at it with his fishing rod."

Aoki snatched the stick from Kinoshita and stood at the front of the dock, sticking the stick into the water.

"Like this, after poking it a few times, the lid broke, and then the contents inside—"

"It's surfaced?"

I remember Atsuko Chuzenji saying that her feet floated on the water.

"It didn't float to the surface; it was caught by fishing. I heard it was wrapped in oil paper. It's a truly terrifying treasure; I never imagined it would be a foot."

The case is already so complicated, which shows how unreliable the rumors are.

"A heavy hammer is wrapped around the box?"

"No, the box is made of sturdy iron plates, and it's about this size."

Aoki gestured with both hands, and it was about two feet eight inches (about 85 centimeters) tall.

"The box was very short, both wide and tall, practically a four-sided chimney. The feet fit perfectly inside, or rather, were stuffed inside. So of course it couldn't float; after all, the box was made of iron and very sturdy, not easily broken. Perhaps when it was thrown into the lake, the lid hit a rock on the bottom, damaging the lock, which is why it was so easily pried open—"

Then a huge commotion broke out—the young detective said. Kinoshita continued Aoki's words.

"So a large-scale search was launched, but the rest of the parts haven't been found yet. It should have been over by now, but the chief investigator here is very persistent."

"Is the chief of investigation Kiba?"

"Well, after all, the main investigation unit is the Kanagawa Prefectural Headquarters. We're just here to help. The Prefectural Headquarters requested about twenty police officers to provide support, but they've been busy with other cases lately."

I glared at Toriguchi. What kind of simplistic reasoning is that? Since the location is at Lake Sagami, the Kanagawa Prefectural Police should be on duty. How could a low-ranking officer like Kiba be in charge of the scene? Even a little thought would make that obvious. Toriguchi scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.

"By the way, where's Kiba? He has a short temper; I wonder if he got into a fight with the local police?"

When I mentioned Kiba Aoki, he and Kinoshita exchanged troubled glances, then gave a helpless, bitter smile.

"Kiba-senpai isn't here. He's been acting really strange lately."

"strangeness?"

"Yeah, now he's meddling in things that have absolutely nothing to do with him... handling different matters. Because it was an unauthorized action, the higher-ups are furious. I haven't seen him these past few days, and he was supposed to be here today, not Kinoshita. Everyone's angry, right?"

Kinoshita nodded.

"Completely unrelated? What event was it?"

"Yes, that's an incident under the jurisdiction of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police—ah, even Sekiguchi-san can't say that. The higher-ups ordered it to be kept secret. It's what they call a classified investigation."

Kinoshita stopped Aoki, who was about to continue speaking, and gestured with his chin towards the small boat hut, where two or three uniformed police officers and a detective in an open-front shirt were watching.

"Oh no, that deputy inspector in Kanagawa is really fierce. Sorry, I have to go."

Kinoshita nodded slightly in greeting, then, seemingly wanting to avoid the inspector's gaze, walked away in the direction we had come from. Aoki, standing on the pier, said with a peculiar expression:

"Ugh, this is so annoying. I'm going first—"

Having said that, he quickly followed behind Kinoshita. Before leaving, as if remembering something, he turned back and said:

"Oh, right, Sekiguchi-kun, that Onmyoji's sister, the magazine reporter—she's really cute—that girl went to interview people over there. She's probably still there."

The stag at Chuzenji Temple also came.

After the two left, Toriko and I had nothing to do but stare at the sunset reflected on the lake, so we prepared to go home. We didn't know what we'd come here for, and of course, there wasn't a single shop selling red bean dumplings nearby.

Just as I was getting ready to return to my car with nothing else to do, a familiar, petite woman—the one I mentioned earlier, Atsuko Chuzenji—walked towards me. Upon recognizing me, Atsuko exclaimed in surprise:

"Oh dear! What's the teacher doing here?"

"It's nothing, I came to eat red bean dumplings, right, Niao Kou?"

My words were barbed, but Bird Mouth seemed completely oblivious.

The young man stared at Atsuko and said:

"Brother Sekiguchi, who is this young lady?"

Without even glancing at me, he asked in a low voice.

"Oh, this is Ms. Atsuko Chuzenji, who works as an editor and reporter for the famous 'Kishan Monthly'."

"Xi, "Xi Tan Monthly"! Wow——"

The young man exhaled a large amount of air from his nostrils. I think it was probably an aura formed by a mixture of inferiority complex, respect, and envy. From the perspective of trashy magazines like "Real Crime Records," the difference between "Rascal Talk Monthly" and himself was like heaven and earth, completely different levels.

Furthermore, Atsuko Chuzenji was a woman, and very young. Even though she was over twenty years old, she still looked like a schoolgirl. In addition, she was very beautiful; with just a little makeup, she would become a great beauty. All the elements that made up Atsuko Chuzenji seemed to be commanding the nostrils of a bird to exhale.

I sensed Bird Mouth's state of mind and didn't introduce him with good intentions.

“Atsuko. Let me introduce you. This young man is called Toriguchi. You may not have heard of him. He is the editor of the remarkable magazine ‘Monthly Crime Records.’ I hope you can get along with him. I’ve received a lot of help from him.”

But Torikochi, without any shame, said in a normal tone:

"Ugh, even though I usually take good care of my teacher, it's embarrassing to reveal my identity to others."

There's no embarrassment at all; he's downright shameless. I don't know which part of this young man contains any element of shyness.