Asi Hell

Capítulo 29

"This is outrageous, it's too much, this isn't relief at all."

"Yes, it counts."

I squeezed out that sentence in an attempt to keep up with the conversation, only to have it simply dismissed by Kyogoku-do.

"If only there were a happiness meter, like a thermometer, that could definitively measure the value of happiness. Unfortunately, there isn't such a thing. So-called happiness is an extremely subjective feeling, and its nature is infinitely varied. No third party can know whether a person is happy or not. Some people can only find joy when their position becomes unfavorable, while others have to do things repeatedly, even if they know they are foolish, to gain a sense of security. For example, alcoholism is a good example."

"But alcohol poisoning is really bad."

"From a social or health perspective, it is indeed not good. But if we're going to talk about it that way, smoking is also bad for your health. Besides, happiness doesn't necessarily arise from one's relationship with society; if we delve too deeply into that, we'll have to get into brain physiology. But faith is different from medicine; it has very few physical harms, so it's alright, isn't it?"

"But this medium is too ruthless, he's gone too far in ripping people off. Even if it doesn't warrant reporting him, shouldn't he at least offer his followers some appropriate advice?"

"Now—even if a third party were to come forward and expose the deceitful methods of the God of the Hako, it would only cause chaos among the believers, because they would have lost their only support in their unfortunate lives. Unless the believers spontaneously criticize from the bottom of their hearts, or an insider reports it, or the believers realize that they cannot be saved, thus creating a situation where the leader opposes the believers, a third party should not easily intervene."

"So you're saying we should just let it go?"

“Sekiguchi, listen to what you have to say. It seems that Toriguchi didn’t report Mihako-no-Kami for the reason you think, right?”

"Yes, that's correct."

Bird Mouth said.

It seems I really can't keep up with their conversation.

“I have a general understanding of the structure of the Mikoto God, but there are still some parts I would like to ask about in detail. But let’s talk about them later. Toriguchi, this master of the novel world is always eager to know the conclusion. Saying too many side details will only cause trouble. Just tell me the conclusion first.”

Upon hearing Kyogoku-do's request, Toriguchi considered it for a moment without blinking, before finally speaking slowly: "I learned about the existence of Mikoto-no-Kami a little before that, when I got lost in that strange Hakodate with Sekiguchi-sensei. So, it must have been around August 20th. No, that day happened to be the day of the accident at Odakyu Railway (the famous private railway company 'Odawara Kyuko Railway,' often shortened to Odakyu; its official name is now Odakyu) in Shimokitazawa, so it was—"

"The 22nd."

Kyogoku-do remembers most of what happened.

"Yes, yes, it was on the 22nd. A man named Kiyono called the editorial department. I remember his voice was very deep and muffled. He immediately said he wanted to sell us information. As you all know, our magazine is a scumbag magazine that specializes in crime. We often have the opportunity to come into contact with these kinds of suspicious guys, so we naturally welcome insider information. When we asked him what he wanted to sell, it turned out he wanted to sell us a list, saying it was a list related to celebrity scandals. This is a bit different from the scope of our reporting. We were going to consider it, but then we thought that we knew a magazine that specializes in scandals, so if we didn't need it, we could just sell it to them."

"So you bought it?"

"After discussing it with Senoo, considering that we haven't had any topics lately, and Sekiguchi-sensei must know very well that our magazine has been lacking topics, we decided to buy it. As soon as we contacted Kiyono, he came to our door immediately. His face was puffy, and he looked weird. But he was different from the one we usually saw. Now that I think about it, he must be either a believer of Mihako-no-Kami or a family member of a believer."

"Mihako no Kami? What kind of register is that?"

"Hey, don't rush. You're such a restless person. Bird Mouth wants to explain things one by one in order, so just listen quietly. If you rush to hear the conclusion first, you won't understand what you could understand before. The order is very important."

Kyogoku-do stopped me from being impatient.

“Alright, to be honest, this is indeed the register of Mihako-no-kami’s followers. It contains the followers’ addresses, names and personal information, as well as the number of donations and the amounts made in June and July. I think Kiyono probably stole it from Mihako-no-kami and added it later based on the facts.”

Bird Mouth took out a paper bag from his enormous luggage and pulled out a yellowed booklet from it.

"—Please look."

Kyogoku-do looked at the paper book with the same gaze one would use when reading ancient Chinese books.

"This writing style is indeed that of an account book, and the handwriting looks like it belongs to a woman—but we can't be sure. The messy handwriting in pencil on the notes section—that must have been written by this man named Kiyono. It seems that Kiyono is an educated but socially awkward person, and a very persistent one."

How did you know?

"It can be seen from the style of the article, the ratio of Chinese characters to foreign words, and the handwriting and writing style, but this is not important."

Torikochi followed Kyogoku-do and said:

"But Kiyono really is that kind of person. He never looks at me when he talks; he only looks at his fingertips, like this—"

Bird Mouth makes a gesture like it's playing the piano, staring at its own fingers.

"—It looks a bit disgusting, doesn't it? Putting that aside—it is indeed an account book. After all, the donations are nominally deposited, so it's necessary to record how much was received. As for the professions and nature of the believers, Kiyono added that information himself. That guy seems to have investigated the backgrounds of the other believers. So—if the handwriting is credible, something bad must happen to believers who donate very little, resulting in an increase in their donations. Kiyono emphasized that Mikoto and his group must have done something good in secret to increase the donations, but I think that was just a coincidence. No, at the time, I actually thought it was just his delusion."

Kyogoku-do continued reading what Kiyono had written without responding. Toriguchi then said:

"After looking at the list, my first thought was that it was related to scandal. The list contained about three hundred followers, with addresses spread over a wide area and occupations quite diverse. The occupations were determined by Kiyono, but several of them were familiar names. Such as a certain singer, a member of parliament, a writer, and the funniest thing was that even monks from famous temples were included. The connection between celebrities and bizarre religions has always been a recurring theme in scandals. Then I asked him how much he wanted to sell it for, and he said it didn't matter how much. If he really wanted money, he would have already sold it to the celebrities on the list, and he would definitely have gotten a good price."

"Isn't this just extortion?"

“It’s extortion, but Kiyono himself doesn’t seem to have any intention of doing so—though I’m not sure of his true motives. In short, he wants me to use this as a basis for my investigation and to write a credible report; that’s his only condition. As for the amount, he doesn’t care how much it is.”

"So how much are you contributing?"

"Ten thousand. Anyway, even if the report can't be written in the end, it can still be sold to people in the same industry who want it. Around ten thousand is still a good price to sell." Kiyono silently accepted the money, repeatedly asked us to write the report, and then left.

"What a strange person."

"I think Kiyono is, as Toriguchi speculated, a believer—no, definitely a family member or friend of a believer. What he really wants isn't money, but rather for his friends and family to stop their faith. If he were exposed by a disreputable magazine, it would likely cause considerable turmoil among believers, and that turmoil would gradually expand, eventually turning into distrust—that's probably his plan. If he were a believer himself, stealing the ledgers would indicate extreme distrust, and to get back what he lost, he probably wouldn't resort to such troublesome methods, but would directly cause a scene. And if driven to desperation, he might even consider intimidating other believers to make up for his losses. But he didn't intimidate anyone; instead, he wanted to report them. I believe that for Kiyono, seeing other believers continue to be swindled is simply unbearable."

Toriguchi expressed his agreement, saying:

“After I got the list, I did some interviews. My first thought was to meet with the believers, but I was really tired because I didn’t have an excuse to do interviews. As a result, a week passed, and then I happened to come across the dismemberment murder case.”

I also recalled that incredible experience.

"I found my right hand on the 29th, and my feet on the 30th. I dragged Mr. Sekiguchi out the door and headed to Lake Sagami in high spirits—but we came back empty-handed. You must have heard about these things, right?"

“I heard it from Atsuko. But I’m giving you a piece of advice: the strange things you’re encountering are because you went to the gate. That guy is practically invisible. Not only the police, but even the owner of my usual fast food restaurant would forget his face. Bringing this kind of scourge around will make things that used to work, so you’d better be careful in the future.”

Kyogoku-do seemed to be completely trying to make a fool of me, and Toriguchi was equally despicable, actually making a face that showed he deeply sympathized.

"And then, well, I missed it that day, and the shock of the dismemberment case made it seem insignificant, and I completely forgot about it afterward. Then, as you know, the bodies seemed to be discovered endlessly. I wanted to write a report about it, and I tried so hard I almost broke, but I just couldn't write it well. On a side note, Mr. Chuzenji, are you clear about the ins and outs of this series of dismemberment murders in Musashino?"

"You should know what was published in the newspaper."

Faced with the abrupt question, Kyogoku-do answered without wavering.

"Hey, wait a minute. Torikochi, isn't the dismemberment case irrelevant to the purpose of this visit? Aren't we talking about Mihako-no-Kami right now? Isn't this getting a bit off-topic?"

"The problem is that we haven't gone off-topic; it's the same issue."

Torikochi remained calm. Kyogoku-do also seemed unfazed. Why were the Mikoto Shrine and the dismemberment case linked? I couldn't understand.

"I'm sorry, Kyogoku-do, I don't know much about the dismemberment case. If it's related, could you briefly explain it? It's too much of a struggle for me to keep up with your conversation."

I finally admit defeat. I forced myself to get this far, but not understanding the most important part will cause indigestion.

Kyogoku-do glanced at me with a disdainful look and said:

"What? I'm not a crime expert. I told you to read the newspapers regularly, but you wouldn't listen to my advice. Fine, it'll do you a good job of gathering intelligence while you're at it. I'll turn a blind eye this time."

He seemed unwilling to give up without making a few sarcastic remarks.

"The beginning—as Toriguchi said—was the discovery of the right hand on August 29th. It was found on the Kanagawa Prefecture side of the summit of Mount Otarumi in the Koshu Kaido. The discoverer was an old man who lived near Lake Sagami and worked in a timber business. He felt he had run over something while driving and discovered it."

I don't know about this part.

"Next is Lake Sagami, where you went. The following morning, August 30th, several local anglers caught the lower half of both thighs. It belonged to the same person as the right hand that was caught the day before yesterday. At this point, there was only one victim in total. By the way, the victim's left hand has not yet been found."

I don't know either.

However—Kyogoku-do did not mention that the feet were put in the box before being thrown into the water.

He probably doesn't know either.

"Nothing happened for the next six days. On the seventh day, September 6th, another right foot was found in Hachioji. At this point, the two incidents were not yet considered to be the same murder case, since the police stations in charge of the investigations were different. This one was a joint investigation by the Hachioji Police Station and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, while the previous one was handled by the Kanagawa Headquarters. Based on your experience, the Kanagawa Headquarters should have requested assistance from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, perhaps due to a shortage of manpower. However, the next day, the left foot, believed to be from the same person as the one on September 7th, was found in Chobu, and the right hand was found in Noborito, making things more complicated. Three days later, on September 10th, two left hands were found simultaneously in Showa-cho."

"Two on the left hand alone?"

"That's right. Originally, it was thought that these were the left hands of the first and second victims who were not found at the time—but according to the news on the 11th, based on blood type and other identification, these were the hands of the second and third victims. At this time, the newspapers boldly reported that 'there were three victims,' and this incident was later called the Musashino Serial Dismemberment Murder Case."

The report I read was this one; I saw it while reading the morning paper on September 11th.

"The subsequent developments are too complicated to go into detail. On the 13th, the third person's right hand was found on the return trip. On the 14th, the same person's right foot was found in Roka Park. On the 16th, another right hand was found in Tanashiro. At this point, the number of victims had increased to four. On the 19th, the fourth person's left hand was found in Yanagisawa—near Tanashiro. Then yesterday, the 21st, the left foot was found in Tama Reien, and at the same time, the right foot was found in Tanashiro. It wasn't mentioned that it was the fifth person, so it should be the third person's left foot and the fourth person's right foot."

"Why do you always remember things so clearly? I just listened and counted on my fingers to barely make it right. If you said there were four victims and six left hands were found, I probably wouldn't have noticed the mistake."

This guy always remembers these trivial things.

"Guankou, that's just a problem with your memory. Anyone who has read the newspaper would remember such a small thing."

I don't think so.

"Toriguchi, what I just said was mostly correct, wasn't it?"

"It's incredibly impressive, so complete, truly amazing. I have nothing to add, except that because the heads and bodies haven't been found yet, the identities of the four victims remain unconfirmed. In reality, this is the point of contact with the Mikoto God."

"oh?"

Kyogoku-do, unusually, responded, first signaling to Toriguchi to stop, and then calling for his wife to come in.

The lady seemed to be waiting outside for the conversation to come to an end before bringing in tea, but the conversation just wouldn't stop and she was getting worried.

My throat was parched, so I quickly finished the tea.

While his wife was in the living room, Toriguchi appeared extremely nervous, but as soon as she left, he immediately returned to his usual demeanor and continued speaking:

"The Kanagawa headquarters initially limited the search area for the victim's identity to the vicinity of Lake Sagami. But they couldn't find anyone who matched the criteria. Then they expanded the search to the entire Kanagawa Prefecture, which was really foolish. Maybe it was Saitama Prefecture? Or maybe Tokyo, or perhaps a girl from Kagoshima was kidnapped by a man from Aomori Prefecture and killed somewhere in between."

Perhaps it was the tea that soothed his throat, or perhaps he had gotten used to the atmosphere, but the young editor began to unleash his comedic talent.

"But the second one happened in Tokyo, so the police were frustrated and felt that this couldn't go on, so they had to expand the search to the entire Kanto region. However, finding the victims was more difficult than finding the perpetrator. There's usually only one perpetrator, but there were four victims. As for the criteria that match the victims, it seems like there are some key conditions, but they're actually quite vague. First, the victims are all female, that's for sure. Then there's their age, all four of them are between twelve and twenty-four or twenty-five years old. But that's not very precise, they could be only ten years old, or they could be twenty-six. The most important thing is the estimated date of death, which is usually determined by the condition of the body and the contents of the stomach, but none of the four bodies had stomachs, and it's impossible to make a clear determination from rigor mortis and the degree of decomposition. It's really difficult to determine these things just by looking at the hands and feet, because freezing them with ice can fool people for two or three days."

No wonder the search has hit a bottleneck.

"However, one thing is certain: the earliest victim must have disappeared before August 29th. Similarly, the second must have disappeared before September 6th, the third before September 10th, and the fourth before September 16th. Surprisingly, quite a few missing girls were found using this condition. It's not impossible for four people to be kidnapped at the same time, locked up, and then dismembered and murdered one by one in sequence, but it always feels like an unsound approach. The police first divided the search into four periods: before August 29th, from August 29th to September 6th, from September 6th to September 10th, and from September 10th to September 16th. This eliminated many candidates who did not meet the criteria."

"I see."

"Then we thoroughly investigated these potential victims, narrowing down each candidate to about twelve or thirteen. After showing photos of their hands and feet to the victims' families—though it was only the hands and feet, making it difficult for the families to confirm, it was still a very effective search method—the second and fourth suspects were almost certain. It's clear the Japanese police are quite capable. However—the problem is that these selected girls have almost nothing in common. There are no similarities in their residences or family backgrounds, and of course, they've never met each other; there's absolutely no connection. But I seriously doubt whether there really is absolutely nothing—?"

"Toriguchi, when did you become so knowledgeable about inside police information? These things—"

I only remembered when you asked me.

—At most, they are patrol officers in uniform.

There are a lot of guys coming in and out of the police station.

—The information is completely open.

"So you're saying there's an inside man within the police force, that you've been harboring spies."

"Don't put it so harshly, it's just that there are acquaintances inside."

Toriko scratched his head, and Kyogoku continued speaking with barely a breath:

"But now that we've almost confirmed the identity, wouldn't it be wiser to withdraw our view that it's a series of murders?"

What do you mean? — I asked.

"What I mean is, we could revise the investigation strategy and treat this incident as a simultaneous multiple dismemberment murders. Even if there are as many as four perpetrators, hasn't the police considered that these incidents might be completely unrelated, or that the first incident triggered the subsequent one, or that the later perpetrators deliberately imitated the same method to frame the first one?"

"Oh dear, they beat me to it!"