Volume 3, ?: Welcome to Zenmetsu Village(4/13)
The mystery freak had a curious look on her face.
“I’ve heard of bayside industrial complexes having the final train stop head to their factory. Only those with employee IDs can get through the ticket gate.”
“Yes, but did you see the name of the factory?”
“Kuroyama Electronics Group – Four Mountains Precision Semiconductor Factory.”
We exchanged a glance
The mystery freak did not look all that surprised, so she had probably known from the beginning. She had likely discovered it while investigating the legend of Zenmetsu Village. I did not know if the legend surrounding that abandoned village was true, but just because I was a police officer did not mean I would search through the database for information on cases unrelated to the ones I was working on.
“The incident Hasebe Michio was suspected in was at the home of Kuroyama Electronics Group’s president, right?”
“Now then, now then. Is this a coincidence or is there a reason behind it?”
I decided to drive over toward the factory in question. The horrible fog was bad enough and then nothing besides the asphalt road was maintained. The entire area was covered by a thick forest. This was nothing simple like a hedge. It was a complete wall of greenery. It was so thick I felt forcing my way through it would leave my entire body scraped up. This sight told me just how much human interference there was in what we commonly thought of as “nature”.
You often heard the phrase “humans are a part of earth’s nature”, but that did not mean humans were kind to the earth and it did not mean nature would unconditionally accept us. To a naked human with no fangs or fur, untouched nature was actually a difficult environment to live in.
“Is this the factory?”
“It’s just a wall, so it’s hard to say.”
Due to the fog, no structure was visible without approaching quite close. A giant wall over five meters tall suddenly appeared alongside the road as we drove along. It was primarily made of thick concrete and the very top had barbed wire installed. Needless to say, it had cameras and sensors as well.
The wall seemed to continue forever.
In all seriousness, we continued for over a kilometer and saw no sign of a gate.
“Is this a military facility or something...?”
“It looks like a prison,” I said in annoyance
This semiconductor factory supported the technology of Intellectual Villages and received support of its own from the government.
I can understand being more sensitive than average about having your tech leak out, but is it really necessary to take it this far?
As we continued on even longer, we finally came across what looked like a gate. The road in front of it spread out like a bus roundabout, so it was likely the materials shipment entrance rather than the front entrance.
This entrance was not a gate with a bar that lowered across it like at a coin-operated parking lot.
It had a giant double-door gate with metal bars and a row of electrically-operated spikes was located on the ground. Even if a giant truck crashed into it at full speed, I doubted it would break.
“...”
A man in workwear sat in the reception box that was as small as a storage shed. He was watching us expressionlessly.
I continued on at low speed and passed by the gate.
“...There really is nothing. Attacking a police box and stealing a police car would be easier than stealing a car from here.”
“But what does that mean?” The mystery freak tilted her head in the passenger seat. “The prisoner transport vehicle was toppled over on the highway and Hasebe Michio had disappeared. But this is no place to steal a car.”
“Whoever caused him to disappear might have had another scenario in mind.”
“Possibly, but isn’t the entire premise a bit odd?” The mystery freak raised her index finger. “Let’s say someone wants Hasebe Michio gone and they have been carefully putting together a plan for this day. If they had thought this through so carefully, would they really attack here? If they attacked somewhere other than Four Mountains Junction – a normal road off the highway perhaps – they would have had more options.”
It was not logical.
That meant it was not the work of a professional.
But what did that mean?
The most likely unprofessional possibility was...
“Are you saying the police did not intend to attack here if they intended to attack at all? So was it Hasebe Michio who initiated the escape?”
“Hasebe might have intentionally stopped the prisoner transport vehicle or it might have started with a true accident, but the possibility is there.”
“But why? If he did nothing, the odds were really good his request for a retrial would have gone through and he would have been found not guilty. Escaping here will send him back to prison where the death penalty awaits.”
“I don’t know.” The mystery freak sighed. “What if the police really did intend to eliminate him and he realized it? If he thought he was going to be killed if he did nothing, he might try to escape from the police.”
There were ways of getting down from the highway without passing through the tollgate.
Some of the pillars supporting the highway had staircases installed. They were used for high-speed bus rest stops and emergency evacuation. If he climbed down one of them, he could hide on the surface without anyone realizing it.
But...
Even if Hasebe had escaped the prisoner transport vehicle and made his way to the ground, what would he do then? He would have given the police the justification to shoot him as an escaped death-row inmate and then hidden himself in a thick forest with no witnesses.
Wouldn’t he want to quickly obtain a means of transportation and escape far away no matter how risky that might be?
“But,” began the mystery freak.
She was changing the subject.
She was switching over.
“All of our speculation is based on the assumption that Hasebe Michio is completely innocent and the police are desperate to eliminate him.”
“Wait. You can’t mean...”
“So.” She grinned. The mystery freak spoke with the grin of a demon that toyed with people’s lives. “Let’s talk about a simple possibility. What if there is some reason why a retrial would be a problem for Hasebe Michio? If he knew he could not win the retrial, isn’t it entirely possible he would have desperately used this chance to escape while being transported?”
Part 11 (Jinnai Shinobu)
The scraping continued.
That noise from the outside wall of the run-down shack approached the single exit.
In that instant, Madoka and I did not head for the door. We instead moved toward the opposite wall.
That wall had never been anything more than thin plywood with galvanized sheet iron for sturdiness and waterproofing. After decades of absorbing moisture, the wood had deteriorated and the iron was so rusted its original color had disappeared. The wall looked like it would break if we so much as touched it.
You could no longer even call it a wall.
“Ora!!” I shouted as I kicked the wall while putting my weight into the blow.
It felt more like kicking wet cardboard than wood. It more tore than broke and a large hole opened in the wall. I first let Madoka pass through before escaping the shack after her.
The previously calm scraping noise suddenly changed.
I still held the gas cylinder the size of a 500 milliliter drink bottle that I had removed from the portable stove, so I threw it back through the hole I had created.
“I hope you’re blown to smithereens!!” I shouted.
I heard a sound like grass being trod on from the other side of the small building. The attacker may have frantically jumped out of the way or gotten down on the ground.
Either way, the idiot had judged wrong.
I had thrown that cylinder in, but I had no idea how to ignite it.
It had been a bluff.
And meanwhile...
“Run, Madoka!”
“Please spare me any more trouble that can’t be resolved with money!!” shouted Madoka as I grabbed her arm and began to run.
We did not know who this enemy was, what they were armed with, or how many of them there were in all. The legend said the murders were primarily carried out with farm tools such as pitchforks and hoes, but nothing said this attacker had to remain faithful to that. It was possible they even had a hunting shotgun to use when no one was watching.
The one piece of luck was the thick fog surrounding us.
That obstacle prevented anyone from seeing more than a few meters ahead, so projectile accuracy would drop dramatically. Or so I assumed. At any rate, we needed to run as far away as we could so this enemy could not reach within “a few meters” of us. That would be better than sneaking around in search of some kind of shield.
The fog made it difficult to tell where we were or how far we had gone, but I felt as if my hearing had grown sharper in exchange for the poor visibility.
Madoka tried to look back, but I tugged on her arm to stop her.
We ran.
“Hey, Shinobu-kun. I hear footsteps following us!”
“So? That’s no reason for us to stop!!”
We passed by a few of those storage shed-like cabins and made our way outside the village. The sound of footsteps through the grass continued approaching behind us.
I was afraid the tall underbrush and rotting trees would block our path once we left the village, but fortunately only the remnants of the dead and rotten grass remained. There was nothing in our way.
Of course, that also meant there was nothing to protect us from any projectiles.
The importance of the fog only continued to grow.
If this person was armed with a shotgun or crossbow, we could be killed in one shot once the person made it close enough to see us.
“Sh-Shinobu-kun!”
“What!?”
“I...I can’t. I’m wearing leather shoes. I can’t run anymore.”
“I’m wearing leather shoes, too!!”
You’re a health fanatic who even pays attention to what water you drink, so why is your physical ability lower than average? Can you even call that being a health fanatic?
I pulled on Madoka’s arm as her feet threatened to get tangled up beneath her and half-forcibly made her continue running. Either that proved effective or our pursuer’s sense of direction was thrown off by the thick fog because the sound of footsteps behind us gradually seemed to grow quieter.
We were gaining distance.
We might be able to escape.
And with that thought in mind, something suddenly appeared before my eyes.
It seemed to split through the white fog.
“...Eh?” said Madoka in confusion.
I also came to a stop despite the situation.
What we saw was something that should not have been there.
It was a run-down shack that looked more like a storage shed than a house.
This was the abandoned village we had supposedly just left.
It was impossible.
This should not have happened.
Madoka and I had run straight forward without worrying about the consequences. Our route might have curved slightly, but there was absolutely no way we could have made a full U-turn back to our original location.
And yet...
That village was indeed blocking our path ahead.
Zenmetsu Village.
Thirty years ago, a single serial killer had taken the lives of every single villager.
“What happened?” I said out loud. “We ran straight away from there! Why is the village right here in front of us!?”
The footsteps of our pursuer once more began growing louder through the fog behind us.
But I ignored that direct threat as the legend Madoka had mentioned replayed in the back of my mind.
Supposedly, groups using Zenmetsu Village for a test of courage would end up dragged into the incident. When they frantically fled the village, it would pursue them by circling around ahead of them and swallow them up.
Part 12 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)
With the extent that large-scale factory went to prevent information on their technology to escape, I doubted I could acquire much information on the goings on inside by chatting with the guards. The guards would have been trained in that regard.
Whether Hasebe Michio had escaped of his own volition or he had been abducted by someone, we did not have much time left.
We could not remain long in a location with little chance of acquiring any information.
But...
“Do you have any other ideas where Hasebe might have gone after disappearing on the highway? There’s nothing here but the semiconductor factory.”
Yes.
Where else could we go?
Hasebe had to be somewhere, but we had no clues to pursue him with.
“Even in this fog, a man in a neon orange prisoner uniform would stand out walking along the highway. There are also plenty of cameras and sensors installed to detect speeding and traffic jams.”
“So is he in Zenmetsu Village?” The mystery freak in the passenger seat was doing something with her smartphone that had no signal. “But even if it isn’t maintained, this entire basin area is the private property of Kuroyama Electronics Group, right? And the semiconductor factory needs clean water, so they can’t have industrial waste dumped here. Don’t you think there must be a network of cameras and sensors running throughout this desolate forest even if it doesn’t look like it?”
It was certainly a possibility.
However...
“Do you have any actual evidence?”
“This.” Enbi lightly shook her smartphone. “We suddenly lost our cell phone signal once we left the tunnel. I had thought it was due to the area being undeveloped, but if the entire area is the private property of a corporation, another possibility comes to mind.”
“...Artificial jamming?”
“That’s a large factory with 8000 people working in it. For that and for the careful management of production amounts to match the fluctuation in currency rates, a high-speed internet connection is a necessity. They can’t do their job without phones and the internet. Even if no television or radio signals had originally reached this place, they would have provided it with a proper internet environment when the factory was built. After all, this is a corporation large enough to prepare a highway just for the factory. There’s no way they would overlook just this one aspect.”
“So is this a means of keeping technical information from leaking out?”
“I don’t know if they would set up jammers over such a wide area just for that, though.”
“What is the legality of this?”
“Laws related to electro-magnetic signals can be ignored to a certain extent on private property. Company conference rooms and rooms in high class restaurants often have jammers to prevent bugging. The given reason is to ban the use of cell phones, though.”
The land contained nothing other than the factory. While tens of thousands of cars would cross the highway each day, they only crossed the junction from one tunnel to another. They would see some interference with their cell phone signal while surrounded by the mountains, but the signal would recover upon exiting the other tunnel. No one would bother investigating it too much.
The highway was even referred to as a private road. The cables for the emergency landline phones on the highway might have been cut as well.
“So the factory secretly constructed a high-speed wired connection that only they can use and have cut off all other forms of communication?”
“That’s what...I think anyway.” Enbi may have suggested the idea, but she sounded doubtful. “But don’t the delivery companies contact the distribution center by phone? There are also services that use a GPS in the package to check its status over the internet. If Kuroyama Electronics Group has cut all of that off of their own discretion, I think someone might complain.”
They had bought up the entire basin between the mountains and surrounded their factory with tall and thick walls. On top of that, we suspected they were using jammers to create electromagnetic interference and had cameras and sensors set up to search for intruders.
That gave it all an imposing atmosphere.
It was as if they had carefully cut out their own independent territory.
But at the same time...
“If they have a surveillance network like that, the factory’s guard room might have data concerning Hasebe Michio. If he didn’t go to the factory, he must either be on the highway or in the forest.”
“But I doubt they would agree to cooperate. Having security on your personal property is perfectly legal, but it still isn’t something they want to reveal if they don’t have to. Unlike the West, Japan is sensitive to cameras and a surveillance culture. Also...”
The mystery freak trailed off.
This bothered me.
It bothered me a lot.
After all, that girl was constantly surrounded by death. Hearing her trail off gave me the unpleasant feeling that this was something that knowledge or ignorance of would affect my continued survival.
“What is it, mystery freak?”
“Well...” The mystery freak sighed. “If my guesses here are right, doesn’t that mean this is a small independent territory created by Kuroyama Electronics Group? There are 8000 workers at the factory and even the people working for the highway insist it’s a private road. ...And Hasebe Michio was given the death penalty for attacking the house of Kuroyama Electronics Group’s president.”
“Wait a second. You don’t mean...?”
“We had the Hasebe theory and the police theory, but now another theory has shown itself, detective.”
A close look at Enbi’s smile showed it was a bit stiff.
She may have been interested in people’s deaths, but she of course did not want to be directly involved in it herself.
“What if someone from the Kuroyama Electronics Group took action to take revenge for their leader? What if someone could not allow this prisoner to be found innocent in a retrial? Why did Hasebe disappear in this area that is both difficult to escape from and difficult to camouflage an escape in? Because this is Kuroyama’s independent territory. Because this is the area along his transportation route that Kuroyama had the most power in. What if that is the answer?”
The story suddenly grew a lot more suspicious.
In the truly worst case, it was possible all 8000 people working in the factory were the criminals behind it. No, it went beyond that. Four Mountains Junction was a private road owned by Kuroyama Electronics Group. If they closed the road, it would not only affect the highway workers but also slow the distribution of goods throughout the country. I could not even guess how far the effects would spread.
There were plenty of ways around this junction: sea, air, rail, and normal roads. However, the time and cost of taking those routes could not be underestimated. There was a good reason the highways were the country’s primary distribution route. In the economic world, there was always a reason an alternate path was not taken.
In other words, this “private road” was a free pass that used the Japanese economy as a shield.
This went well beyond a conspiracy by the higher ups and old members of the regional police.
It was possible help in large or in small had been taken from people across Japan and possibly even foreign corporations in order to eliminate a single man.
“Wait, wait, wait. This reminds me of Zashou Island. Are you saying common sense itself is being distorted here?”
“This land has 8000 soldiers and a thick forest with no one watching,” muttered the mystery freak in shock. “Whether they are judging the criminal who killed their president or torturing him for information about the murder, doesn’t the Kuroyama Electronics Group theory seem the most dangerous and yet most likely option?”
We had no proof that the corporation had abducted Hasebe Michio.
Even if any existed, it would likely be eliminated as soon as possible.
But nothing could be worse than forcibly investigating Kuroyama Electronics Group and finding nothing. Not only did I not have a warrant, but I had no authority as a police officer because this was not within my jurisdiction. If I climbed the wall and snuck into the factory, I would be guilty of illegal entry. I could even be used as grounds for forcing through the Advanced Technology Disclosure Prevention Bill that had been in the news lately. That would bring permanent shame on me as a police officer who supposedly protected the public order.
On top of that, this was a small independent territory of a single corporation.
If an executive was in a bad mood, it was possible the police would never be called and I would be buried in the forest at the hands of those 8000 soldiers. Four Mountains had a powerful enough foundation to continue on with their peaceful lives even after doing that.
They were extremely suspicious, but they were too big to carelessly try anything against them.
“Now then, now then.” Enbi the mystery freak asked a question from the passenger seat. “What should we do now, detective?”
Part 13 (Jinnai Shinobu)
We had run across a mystery person in the remains of Zenmetsu Village, run as quickly as we could from the village, and then found the village waiting for us up ahead.
What were we to make of this situation?
“Shinobu-kun, we can’t stay still! The footsteps are getting closer!!”
“Dammit!!”
For the moment, we focused on running away from the obvious threat. But was that truly the correct answer? It seemed impossible, but I was afraid we would run and run and run until we found the owner of those footsteps waiting ahead of us as if we had circled around the entire globe.
I ran as if parting the thick fog while still holding Madoka’s hand.
We passed by the tilted silhouette of the shack that had been abandoned for decades.
...?
Wait a second. Is this...?
“Shinobu-kun!!”
That sudden shout was accompanied by a shove.
I rolled along the wet dead grass. But I did not have time to cry out in protest.
As if slicing through the fog, the pointed end of a rusted farm tool stabbed out.
It was a pitchfork. It was one of those ridiculously large fork-like tools used to carry hay. The handle was meant to be held with both hands, so it was quite long. Specifically, it was about 150 centimeters long. The fork portion made it look more like a strange spear than a farm tool. It looked large enough to kill a human if it stabbed through anywhere on the torso.
Plus, the end was fully covered in rust and the tines were of different lengths because some had broken off partway.
I was certain I would get some strange infection if I was stabbed with it.
I heard some odd breathing that almost sounded like a poorly-made whistle.
The pitchfork was pulled back slowly. The outstretched spring was being contracted in preparation for the next attack.
The tip shook.
It moved from where I had been and turned toward Madoka.
“You bastard!!”
While still lying on the dead grass, I searched around with my right hand. My fingertips found something hard and I threw the rock toward the attacker.
It did not hit. I heard a solid sound as if it had struck a distant wall.
But it had expressed my hostility.
The pitchfork’s aim clearly changed. It turned toward me.
I had no intention of doing nothing as I was attacked. By that time, I had forced myself to a standing position with a rolling motion.
“Shinobu-kun! What are you doing!?”
“Shut up! You go hide!!” I shouted.
Now that I had the attacker’s attention, I turned my back. I wanted any weapon I could find, so I ran toward a nearby shack.
At first, I had thought the exact same village had circled around in front of us.
But that was not the case.
It had been difficult to tell through the thick fog, but a closer look had shown the details were completely different. Basically, a few small villages of four or five houses were located here and there. We had run straight and travelled from Village A to Village B.
Once you knew how it worked, there was nothing to be afraid of. In fact, I could even take advantage of it.
At any rate, I needed a weapon. I needed something to put me on even footing with that psycho. The attacker had to have acquired that weapon here in Zenmetsu Village. The small cabins had no room to store huge farm tools, and if they had the money or materials to build a storehouse, they would have upgraded their homes.
In that case, the tools would most likely be found leaning up against the outer walls.
“Ah! Found one!!”
A worn-down shovel was leaning up against the wall. It had half-fused with the wall that had grown dark with all the moisture it had absorbed over the years.
Just as I reached out for it, I heard footsteps approaching from behind.
I grabbed the shovel with all my strength and did not hesitate to swing it horizontally using the motion of turning around to face the attacker.
“...?”
I felt something slip off.
The triangular metal portion made to dig holes had flown right off the handle!
With a sharp whistling breath, the giant fork-like tool attacked from beyond the fog. Instead of another stabbing attack, it was swung down like someone trying to split a watermelon.
I immediately tried to block it by holding the shovel handle up horizontally, but it didn’t help.
The handle was so rotten that it was no stronger than wet cardboard, so it broke all too easily. A heavy impact came down on the top of my head.
“Bh..gbhah!?”
The strike sent me crumbling straight down to the ground. The attacker’s pitchfork rotated around. This time, the worn down tip was being stabbed straight toward my face!
But then...
A change came over the attacker who was about to stab down the pitchfork as if leaning down on it.
With a splat, something like wet seaweed fell from the dirty cabin’s roof and covered about half of the attacker’s head.
However, this was no place to find seaweed.
This seaweed-like substance was writhing around oddly even though no wind was blowing through the area.
It was a bundle of snakes.
Over ten snakes about as thick as a little finger had fallen atop the attacker’s head.
“...!!!???”
A biological sense of disgust that had nothing to do with reason ran down my spine.
But the same had to apply to the attacker.
He frantically tried to brush away the group of snakes that had fallen on his head. In his haste, he let go of the pitchfork with one hand.
His focus wavered.
The tip of the pitchfork wavered.
-->>