Volume 2, 3: Uchimaku Hayabusa @ Shibuya Girl A(3/7)
And so at 7:30 that evening...
“Uchimaku, we’re going drinking tonight. You’re coming whether you like it or not.”
“What?”
As soon as I arrived back at work, the department chief, Mezu Gen, told me that with a stern expression. I could only stare at him in shock while still wrapped in bandages.
Needless to say, the department chief and I were not on friendly enough terms to go drinking together.
And regardless of how well we might get along, being asked to go drinking with your boss did not seem as if it would lead to a fun time.
The department chief must have had his own thoughts on the matter because the wrinkles of his usual stern expression grew threefold.
“Looking at your face while drinking is not my idea of a pleasant evening,” he said. “Chief Superintendent Mishima invited us. Refusing would affect both of our futures. If you understand, then get ready.”
“Wait!! That’s two ranks higher than superintendent! Why does someone like that have his eyes on someone unimportant like me!?”
Above a superintendent was a senior superintendent, and another step above that was the chief superintendent.
In terms of numbers, this was at a level even higher than billion or trillion. This was more like a number like googol that you could live your everyday life just fine without knowing about. That was how little in common there was between someone in a dead-end detective job like me and a senior superintendent or chief superintendent.
By the way, there were only two positions higher than chief superintendent.
“Because you did something that stood out enough for him to notice you. And don’t forget that it is thanks to you that I am caught in the middle of this.”
The department chief gave me a horrible glare as we boarded a taxi. The atmosphere in the taxi was so awkward the driver remained silent as he drove us to a residential district in Ningyocho. I had not known that high-cost area filled with office buildings had a residential district. And naturally (?) we stopped somewhere with no sign, main entrance, or parking lot. It did not even have the bare minimum of what one would expect of a bar. It looked like the sort of house you could see anywhere.
“Is this the chief superintendent’s house?”
“...That’s enough. Do not say anything more, Uchimaku.”
We entered what looked exactly like the small yard of a house, the department chief knocked on the back door, and a woman wearing a kimono answered.
“Mezu-sama, Uchimaku-sama. We were expecting you. Come in. Mishima-sama has already arrived.”
???
The woman in a kimono had a pin mic on her collar and an earphone in one ear. When she led us inside, the scenery completely changed. The building had looked like a small house from outside, but it was a small but luxurious Japanese-style bar inside. This limited space could likely rival the top floor of a resort hotel.
“...What is this place?”
“Did you think Ginza and Akasaka were as good as it gets? Only the nouveau riche get excited over that. In a world where people truly spare no expense, the bars do not have signs.”
The bar had a counter and a few tables, but it was empty except for a single customer at the counter. This was not because the place was doing poorly. Its prices were so ridiculously expensive, it could function with this alone.
That one person raised a hand.
“Hey, hey. Over here, over here. Sorry about the sudden invitation.”
He was Chief Superintendent Mishima.
A lowly detective like me would never have any chance to speak with someone like him even if we were in the same building. He was in his late thirties, but he looked like the perfect example of the bachelor living it up. He was of course older than me, but he must have looked like he had just learned to walk from the department chief’s perspective. The department chief was old-fashioned and had also always hated the elite, so there must have been a powerful force at play for him to be obeying without complaint.
Rising to chief superintendent by one’s late thirties was rare even in the elite Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. People like him tended to rise through the ranks quickly, but that alone was not enough to explain it.
That monster smiled and said, “C’mon, sit, sit. This is a bit of an odd bar that only serves cocktails with a sake base, so sorry about that. But they’re quite good if you give them a chance. It’s all on me, so drink as much as you want.”
Anyone who took up that offer in a high class bar that did not list a single price on its menu was most likely not a working member of society.
So why did the chief superintendent call us here?
But without giving any hint towards that answer, Chief Superintendent Mishima began some pointless small talk.
“Uchimaku-chan, I’ve heard you get along quite well with the middle school aged daughter of the Hishigami family.”
“Bh!?”
That’s the first thing you bring up!?
The department chief’s look grew even sterner, but the chief superintendent’s tone remained unconcerned.
“Oh, I’m not trying to find fault. In fact, that takes talent. The Hishigami women invite disaster, after all. It seems that is actually a rule in that family. Grabbing the reins of one of them and not being thrown off is quite a feat.”
“Wait...eh? What are you saying?”
“If you don’t understand, you don’t need to. Oh, right. We have been arguing over who to choose to be the next ‘police chief for a day’. You have a youthfulness to you that is popular with middle school girls, so who do you think it should be? Who are the popular idols right now?”
“I don’t know!! I can’t keep track of the names and faces of those idol units with dozens of members!!”
“Do you think Omikuji Maidens or Fortune Telling Girls would be better?”
“I think Seman[1] Stars would be best.”
The department chief glared at me, but what was a poor public servant like me supposed to do? If I had remained silent, he still would have glared at me!
After that, Chief Superintendent Mishima insisted that I try some sake-based cocktails that had been turned into psychedelic reds and blues. Those upside down triangle cocktail glasses could hold a larger volume than I thought.
I also spotted some junmai daiginjo made by my brother behind the counter.
They were named Red Yukata and Black-Haired Beauty, so he must have been fond of that Youkai despite how much she was afraid of him. Looking as frightening as him may have worked against him in some ways.
“You aren’t looking any different.”
“Oh. This is not enough to get me drunk.”
“That isn’t what I meant. Normally, when people are brought to this sort of bar and forced to drink this kind of expensive drink, they want to make informed comments even if they can’t tell the difference from normal drinks. I used to do it myself.”
Oh, that’s what he means.
This may have been the very best the city had to offer, but I grew up in an Intellectual Village. After drinking entire cardboard boxes full of the finest Japanese sake in the country or even the world, I had lost all sense of its value.
In college, I had searched out the greatest hidden bars the city had to offer and found none of them could compare to the stuff back home, so I eventually gave up on caring about the quality of sake at all.
But sadly, it was not based on my skill, so I could not brag about it to anyone.
“Oh, right. Uchimaku-chan, I heard about your achievement in that convenience store robbery. You arrested the robber with no injuries or damage, right? It was the best conclusion for both the victim and the criminal.”
Only a child would get excited over being praised here.
As an adult, I had to be extra careful of the department chief who had remained silent for a looooooooooong time now.
“Oh, um...sorry about all that.”
“No, no. I don’t mind. The regulations regarding that are there to allow the police to do their job as efficiently as possible. If you had waited for a police officer in that jurisdiction to arrive, someone might have been stabbed inside the convenience store,” said Chief Superintendent Mishima with a big grin on his face. As an adult, I could sense something unsettling like the alcohol was sending him in a negative direction. “Uchimaku-chan, this shows that you have grown enough to instinctually sense what the purpose of a police officer is. You do not need the rules to compensate for you. That is something worth praising you for. But,” added the chief superintendent to preface some sort of negation.
“The real system of society is much more severe than what you see in police dramas. You can only ignore the rules when doing so will produce a better result than following the rules can. For example, think about this convenience store robbery. Safely arresting the robber is fine, but what if your attempt had failed and your actions led to the clerk getting stabbed? Do you think we would cover for you then?”
“...”
“We would not. Police officers are only human, so they will sometimes fail in extreme life-or-death situations. They need to be rebuked in such situations, but they also need to be protected. If they are all too afraid of making a mistake to do anything, we could not protect the law and order of this country. But certain appearances need to be upheld while protecting the people of our organization. If you follow the rules and do everything right but do not make it in time, we can protect you. But if you break the rules and act on your own initiative and that leads to someone’s death, we can do nothing to protect you. Do you understand what I mean?”
“...Yes.”
“Good. Whether you know the risks or not makes a lot of difference. I will overlook it just this once. This may sound trite, but I have great hopes for you. Especially when it comes to cases related to Youkai. Otherwise I would not have set up this opportunity to speak with you.”
I did not like the sound of having myself and Youkai linked together like that.
But as an adult, I made sure not to show it on my face.
“But you will find things more difficult in the future. The power of the police lies in the power of the organization. If you lose that power, you will be in much more danger than you realize. Keep that in mind.”
After a few hours, I was released from that drinking party that left me with a stomachache.
The department chief had remained completely silent the entire time, but he spat out a comment as soon as we left the bar.
“That is not someone you want paying such close attention to you.”
“...I know that all too well. If I was drawing a picture diary, today would probably be filled in completely black.”
“I doubt a monster of that level would care about a simple detective. This may be a disaster brought on by that Hishigami girl, but be careful. Appearing ‘useful’ to the people at the top is not always a good thing.”
Part 12
When I went into work the next day, I entered the archives room to view the files I had been unable to view the day before. The area was crowded with steel racks which were all filled with thick clear file folders of case records. A lot of them were unsolved, so the mystery freak might have drooled if she saw this collection.
Most of the data was searchable by computer, but some records were abbreviated or changed slightly in format or presentation in the process of digitization. The best method was to check the computer first and then check the physical reports for the details. I had not written all of the reports for this case.
The May SNS murders.
The case had not been called that from the beginning. For one thing, it had not been a murder case initially.
We simply had some strange suicides with no apparent motive.
As they were investigated, it turned out all of the people had used a certain major SNS service. The incident had produced five “suicides” in a single month and had spread to many different areas through the wide range of people’s online connections.
As you might imagine, it had been a complete pain in the ass dealing with different police stations fighting over whose jurisdiction it fell under. Fortunately, it had not spread overseas.
The victims had ranged from elementary school age to high school age. At the time, they had been judged isolated suicides due to people “flaming” the opinions the kids posted online. They had gathered attention as proof of how modern society was lowering the age at which children committed suicide.
Ultimately, digging into the suspicious aspects turned up a group at a prestigious private university and four people were arrested. Once that happened, the talk shows began covering it as a demonic murder spree by candidates for the upper levels of elite corporations.
The mystery freak had told me to go over that case once more.
But not much about it was still suspicious. We already knew how they had disguised the murders as jumping suicides and how they had used other victims’ accounts to contact them.
The only thing left was...
“The motive.”
When questioned, the four arrested had given nothing but ridiculous statements. Some people said they were trying to get a psychiatric examination to lessen their punishment and other people said they were following the disturbing logic of twisted elites. But those four had found a stable and successful means of killing people and no one had found a clear answer as to why.
Was it related to this Jinmensou case?
To be honest, I was doubtful.
But when I compared to the documents on the Kaguya Beauty Clinic and the SNS murders, I did find some odd information.
“...A few names show up in both.”
Some students had been involved in both cases.
But the SNS used had been a popular one, so the number of related individuals was quite large.
It was not too surprising to find a few of those had also used Kaguya Beauty Clinic. And yet...
The SNS and the Jinmensou.
As I puzzled over the two cases, my cell phone rang.
It was from the mystery freak.
“Hah hah hah. Have you arrived at the truth yet, detective?”
“I feel like an idiot for worrying when I realized you were near the scene of the attack.”
“H-huh? You mean I could have grabbed at your heart by pretending to have been attacked?”
It won’t work if you just pretend.
Not that I want you to actually get attacked for that reason.
“You’re hiding something about Hachikawa Tomoe, aren’t you? If something happens because of that, I will officially blame you.”
“This involves her privacy, so I wanted her permission. But whatever. Let’s meet for a chat. Detective, you were attacked despite my warning. You clearly need all the help you can get, so I’ll lend you a hand.”
“You said the SNS murders and this Jinmensou case are linked, right? I’ve found a few common names between the two, but...”
“I’ll tell you about that as well. Just compare the two cases. Don’t the structures seem similar?”
“?”
“The SNS murders killed people while making it look like they committed suicide over the flaming on their page. The Jinmensou case uses a giant tumor to isolate the target from their school life. ...Do you see the common theme?”
“...Ostracism.”
“That’s right. Isolation from an organization or group. Detective, you thought the masterminds of the SNS murders were those four elite candidates from that prestigious private university, but it may have gone deeper than that.”
“...”
And now the person controlling it from the shadows was using someone else for this new case. Was that why the Jinmensou case showed hints of being similar to the SNS murders?
“If that is true, this is a big deal.”
“It already is a big deal. You can’t say you don’t know what happened to you. At any rate, we can discuss this further when we meet. This is something that needs to be discussed in person.”
Part 13
That evening, I met up with the mystery freak in an unpopular café in Ochanomizu.
“You’re late.”
“Oh, am I?”
I walked over to the mystery freak’s table in the back and sat down. As always, she had chosen a café with ridiculously long-named items on the menu, but this time I pointed at something random and ordered it.
“Let’s cut to the chase. How exactly is the solved SNS murders case linked to the current Jinmensou case?”
“Let’s start with the hidden side of the SNS murders.”
The mystery freak pulled out a smartphone with a leather cover that made it look like a memo pad.
She placed it on the table and said, “On the surface, the victim’s page was flamed to make their murder look like a suicide. But you know that of course.”
“Wait, wait. On the surface?”
“Evidence has turned up that the flaming itself was intentionally created by a different group. In other words, the criminals did not want to target the people who were flamed. They attacked those people because someone else flamed them.”
“...So they had some other purpose?”
“Question: what do the five victims of the SNS murders have in common?”
“Their ages and locations were all different.”
“They were students from elementary school age to high school age.” The mystery freak called up a few documents on her smartphone. “The four from the prestigious private university did the actual crime, a few others handled the flaming, and some leader controlled it all. Now, were these murders based on an abnormal motive that normal people cannot understand? If so, would the other members of the organization have been able to understand the motive either?”
Most serial killers worked alone because abnormal motives could not be shared.
There were different categories of murderers, but different people would not get along and cooperate in abnormal murders just because they fit the same category.
Which meant...
“Is this not an issue of individual ideology? Did the entire group gain something from this? ...Like money maybe?”
Desire for money was the most obvious common factor between people. Unlike with serial killings, it was easy to see several people working together to rob a bank.
However...
“All of the victims were minors. I doubt they had much money and they had no life insurance. What did the entire group gain from killing those five?”
“I came up short there too. No matter how much I researched the victims, I could not find anything.” Enbi displayed a new document on her smartphone. “Which is why we need to think about this differently. What the criminals gained came from someone other than the victims.”
“...What?”
“Look at this. You should get it right away.”
Enbi pointed at the smartphone in the middle of the table and I looked down at it.
The screen was small so the smaller text was difficult to read, but I was able to read large headline right away.
Child Board Meeting Plan.
“.........................................................................................................................................................................................................”
As I read the details, I could feel my mind growing blank.
...What is this?
“The Child Board Meeting. To put it simply, it’s a plan to influence the children of the management and stockholders of large corporations. Those powerful adults cannot be influenced by external pressure. But what about their children? Someone who knows how to use the internet has control of the ‘general consensus’ on the SNS. They can ostracize a specific target by thoroughly flaming them. By creating an environment that harms their children, they can indirectly influence and control the adults in the corporations. That is the Child Board Meeting.”
“But can’t the parents just keep their kids away from the SNS once the problems begin?”
“Those information tools are already a part of school life, detective. Information is just as necessary to them as water and oxygen. If they do not take part, they will be isolated. If they do not reply, they will be ostracized. And no matter how powerful their parents may be, their power is of no use in the closed environment of a school. But if they know their precious child is being ostracized in that ‘holy ground’ where adults have no influence, what options are left to them?”
I see.
One was a case of using the information services making up another side of school life to freely isolate a chosen target. The other used the physical effects of a Jinmensou to alter the social standing of the target. Looking at it that way, they were very similar at the core.
“But isn’t that banned under deceptive obstruction of business laws?”
“Maybe. But even with rules punishing obvious violence and bullying in schools, limited actions carried out within the range of groups of friends may not be stopped. That is why parents and teachers tell kids to choose their friends carefully. Seeing something directly is one thing, but distant whispers of people abetting in a crime is unlikely to lead to legal restrictions.”
“But that isn’t a system for murdering the children. In fact, they would want it to spread below the surface without causing too much trouble.”
“The SNS plan did not work well. They may have influenced a few people, but a few children chose to oppose them without bothering their parents with it. They were of course ostracized as a result. Both on the SNS and at their actual school. I suspect some of those children approached the truth in their desperate resistance. And the criminal group needed to quickly eliminate those clever children.”
“...And they disguised it as suicide, hm? The suicides stood out because of their ages, but they camouflaged it with the false motive of ‘flaming’ because adults would not really understand it. Even if they had tried to tell someone something important before they died, people would assume they felt so cornered due to more childish reasons.”
“This data,” the mystery freak tapped the side of her smartphone, “is based on what I found on a page separate from the SNS. I have confirmed the details with other sources. It seems it was gathered by the ostracized children as they tried to follow the movements of suspicious information.”
“It looks like those four from the prestigious private university were working for someone else. Do you know who that was?”
“No. The children were all eliminated in the SNS murders before they made it that far.” The mystery freak sighed. “But I think the Jinmensou case is being done for the same reasons. You should go back and look into the family of the girl who tried to rob that convenience store. You should find a manager of a corporation, a large shareholder, or someone else who holds power.”
We did not know how large this criminal group was, but if they were trying to slowly manipulate the financial activities of the country with simultaneous attacks on multiple large corporations, they were likely quite large.
It was possible something on the level of a large criminal organization was behind it.
“This is a tough one.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Now I see why you are so interested in the Jinmensou case despite only caring about corpses. It’s connected to the SNS, so you could say that murder case isn’t over yet.”
“You’re making me blush.”
“Why would that make you blush? And how does the rest of this fit in?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why is Hachikawa Tomoe-chan pursuing this case? She saw me beaten up right in front of her. She should know the risks all too well. Also, she seems to dislike the police and keeps mentioning some mysterious person. How does all of that fit in?”
“Oh.” The mystery freak let out a small groan. “I did not want to get into more uncertain information. This is all on Tomoe’s word alone. I have not confirmed any of it, so do not simply accept it as true.”
“?”
“Tomoe says her neighbor is being affected by a Jinmensou. The girl’s name is Tsumada Mio. She is also in middle school, but I have never met her because she goes to a different school.”
If that was true, I might be able to find something that led to the heart of this case. After all, I had not met many people directly related to the case. The high school girl from the convenience store robbery was the only other one.
But...
“We can’t speak with her. It seems she has disappeared and no one can find her.”
“...She’s gone missing?”
She had gotten involved in a crime related to the group behind the SNS murders and then went missing. The situation looked quite serious.
“That part is a bit unclear. She might have simply run away from home or she might just be hiding in her apartment. Also,” the mystery freak raised her index finger, “the timing is a bit odd.”
“The timing?”
“Tsumada Mio fell victim to the Jinmensou during April of this year. Yet the other cases we know of were recent. In fact, the SNS murders had not even come to the surface at that time.”
What is going on?
While Jinmensou were rare, they were still a type of Youkai. It was entirely possible Tsumada Mio had just so happened to develop one with no relation to this case.
Or...
“April is when the class change happens. It is possible Tsumada Mio simply made some mistake during all that and ended up holing up at home. Her worried parents could have later heard about the Jinmensou incidents and decided she was a victim of it too,” said the mystery freak.
“But this isn’t an Intellectual Village; it’s the capital of Japan. Youkai hate modern cities, so I doubt one would naturally appear here.”
“We have never actually seen Tsumada Mio. We have no way of knowing if she actually has a Jinmensou or not. She may have started wearing more clothes to cover her skin, but that could always have been due to a scratch unrelated to the Jinmensou. Right?”
“...”
I could not say she was wrong.
After all, we had too little information.
“Then let’s go check. We just need to gather enough information to say for sure.”
“?”
“If Tsumada Mio has been reported missing and it turns out she is actually holed up at home, her parents will be guilty of a false police report or falsifying public documents. ...It’s a bit of a forceful method, but I can use suspicion of that to get some information out of the family.”
“You can do that if you want, but won’t you get in trouble if it fails?”
“I’d definitely get a pay cut,” I said decisively. “But it is possible Tsumada Mio will become a victim similar to the victims of the SNS murders. If we find out she is unrelated, that is fine by me. At any rate, we need to take a step forward.”
Part 14
And it failed splendidly.
Despite showing up in the evening, Tsumada Mio’s pa-->>