Case 14: In the Mirror (1)

That memory slipped in and out of view at the back of my head. It was as if it had been crudely overwritten with a pen, rather than having been wiped clean by an eraser.

I believe it was a ‘person’.

I knew that person in the past. And I’m sure I met them in the hospital room.

They came to inquire about my health with flowers… but I screamed when I saw them, and lost consciousness.

Just what the hell had made me so afraid?

What was it about them that scared me to the point that I lost consciousness?

And why – did someone cross a line on my memories? And when?

That’s right… that was the starting point. Back then, who else was in the hospital room besides me? My sister flew in from Fujieda a little later…. To begin with, who was in the room when I first regained consciousness?

Krishna-san, and—

And the moment I recalled the foxlike grin on his face, everything seemed to click together.

….It was Sako.

Didn’t that rotten priest do something strange to me again?

I finally realized this in the university courtyard at the start of the new school semester--

And I immediately skipped my first period class of ‘Macroeconomics’ on the opening day. I ran out of there and hurried to the western club building.

My body was now physically fit. A scar remained on my right elbow, where the stitches and surrounding flesh had discolored, but it didn’t really hurt anymore.

I cut through the courtyard, passed through the gate of the western club building, jumped into the entrance by pushing my way through the packed bicycles, and ran up the stairs. I was headed to the third floor, to the liberal arts clubroom that was ostensibly known as the ‘Beatnik Research Society’.

And—

When I came up to the third floor, I quickly caught sight of that petite figure.

The head of the Beatnik Research Society, Shiina Kurimoto-san had closed the door to the clubroom and was about to lock it.

“Krishna-san!”

“….Hm?”

“Krishna-san! T, there’s something I want to ask!”

I rushed to her side, out of breath. Krishna-san was dressed in a spring-like outfit: a striped cut-and-sewn navy-blue spring coat, and she looked up at me about three heads below me with a puzzled expression on her face.

“What is it, Nagi-kun? What’s the hurry? I was just about to go somewhere.”

The baby face peeking behind those drooping red glasses, was as cute as always. I immediately felt relaxed and asked.

“Going somewhere? Don’t you have a lecture?”

Of course, you could say that question had the slightly ulterior motive of asking if I could go with her.

“Where are you going? You can’t possibly be going to investigate some haunted place?”

I unintentionally cracked that kind of joke, causing her to glare back at me instantly.

“’Ikaigabuchi’ has been disbanded. No more investigations, ever.”

“R…right.”

“The taxi will be here in a few minutes. If you have a question, then hurry up and ask.”

--A few minutes.

I wondered if I could explain such a vague and complicated story in just a few minutes.

I was in the middle of trying to arrange the information required to the bare minimum and arrange my tense feelings into logic, worrying about whether to tell her about the strange voice of the young girl I had heard in the abandoned house recently, but, that would be disobeying her order, even though she was drunk and sleepy back when she suddenly stood up and rebuked the tough guys of ‘Ikaigabuchi’ to stop—and as my thoughts swirled and swirled over such things,

“Oh, that’s right.”

I heard a clear voice.

“Would you like to come?”

“…Eh?”

“It’s a little far though. Let’s talk in the taxi on the way.”

“There lives ‘An old man who became unable leave his mansion’ in the place we’re headed to now.”

Right around the time the taxi exited Itsukaichikaidō into Oumekaidō, Krishna-san said that.

“Became unable? Why? Is he really fat?”

“…That’s not it. It seems the old man saw something in the village he lived in long ago. The story is related to that.”

Things had suddenly taken on an occult air, so I straightened my posture. I was, of course, very welcome to it.

“The old man’s name is Ryouichi Mamiya. He is the chairman of ‘Mamiya Motors’, a company listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange with a sixty percent share of the domestic market. He built a fortune in his lifetime, and now, he doesn’t have long to live. He built a mansion in the suburbs and has kept himself confined inside for many years. There are people who take care of him, but he never goes outside the mansion.”

“Eh, wait a minute. He doesn’t go outside? By choice?”

“I’ll explain that in detail from now on, but in short, the people surrounding him think that it’s his choice, but the old man can’t leave even if he wanted to.”

“…….”

“And the person in question is half prepared to live out his life in that mansion. It seems he's already had a will prepared-- which was also controversial. 『After I die, half of my fortune will be donated to the syndicate, and the remaining half will be equally divided among my relatives. However -- if there is a person who takes me out of the mansion while I am still alive, my entire fortune will be handed over to them.』”

“Eh…?”

“That's right. From the relatives’ point of view, that is intolerable. If they wait until he died, they would receive a portion of the half, but if someone were to take the old man out of the mansion, their inheritance would become zero. Since that day, the relatives began to visit the old man. Everyone would invite him to a beautiful summer retreat, or they would invite him to come and see expensive art pieces they went to the trouble of borrowing from abroad. Among them was a fool who pretended to have caught a giraffe by having a deer go through orthopedic surgery, and got sued by animal rights activists.”

“…Hah.”

“Well, it's understandable, because when real estate and bonds are included, his total assets are said to easily exceed 700 billion.”

“So, why are you headed over there, Krishna-san?”

“Well, you see Mamiya-san has always endorsed the goal behind ‘Ikaigabuchi’. He kept donating money to me all these years. I was also asked by his family if ‘I could do something’ – so I thought I might be useful somehow.”

“Does that mean you'll bring that old man outside?”

“No, I'm just going to talk to him. Returning to the main point, it seems the reason the old man said something like that was because it stemmed from something he saw in the village a long time ago. The client said that if that were to be settled, then he would cancel that strange will, -- but well, I wonder if that's really true. At any rate, I thought it was the least I could do for everything he’s done for me.”

“I see.”

There are people in the world who are troubled by bizarre things -- but on the other hand, one doubt remained in my head.

“But, why did you bring me along?””

“…Eh?”

“I mean, you're always saying that I'm not allowed, that I'm absolutely not allowed to involve myself with the occult! You stop me a bit unreasonably, so I just thought it was strange.”

Krishna-san muttered slightly in response, “That’s true”, and then hung her head down, trying to arrange all her thoughts in that small brow of hers.

“Right… I’ve always stopped you from involving yourself with the occult.”

“Yes.”

“I thought it wasn’t good for you to be in contact with the people who were close to the occult…but actually, I’ve been in two minds about that recently.”

“In two minds? About what?

“No matter how much I tried to stop you, you would always end up barging into the occult. For a long time, I thought that was because of your simple and foolish nature, and I thought you were wrong, but—could it be your only…”

“My only?”

“…No, nothing.”

Thereupon, Krishna-san held her tongue and looked at the flowing scenery outside, “I still haven't figured it out.”

I, too, became lost in my thoughts. Come to think of it, how many times have we had the same conversation? A paranormal event occurs. I get excited. Krishna-san stops me. However, in the end, my curiosity wins out, and I barge into dangerous territory, and end up in tears-- It felt like that kind of thing had repeated all year long.

Wait—huh?

Thereupon I felt like a piece was missing.

The thing that had been crossed in my mind, appeared vaguely once more.

“Recently—I’ve been seeing a lot of articles on racial conflicts on international news websites.”

Suddenly, Krishna-san spoke of something I didn’t understand at all.

“Racial conflicts?”

“There are countless races living in this world, all with their own values, religions and cultures. The Middle East conflict, Cyprus, Kurds, Somalia, Chechnya, Afghanistan – Looking around Asia, it’s full of problems. And the end result is a cycle of abuse, leading to conflict. People instinctually fear those who are different from themselves. There are still only a few people who can accept different races and cultures universally. It is human nature to fear and defend oneself -- but when it goes too far, it may lead to persecution of those who are different..”

“...”

“Say, Nagi-kun. Why do you think wars happen?”

Thereupon, Krishna-san looked in my direction.

“Do they happen for territory? Are they economic activities resulting from the complexly intertwined interests of major powers? No, isn’t the real reason they happen, and the impetus behind them, a needless fear? And, in turn, didn’t that come from the abuse against those with different values. No matter how much we may think we are enlightened, we are still subjective creatures. Conversely, without subjectivity, it would be difficult to sustain life, and it is only with the assurance of escaping to a safe zone that we can be considerate of others. Words like maturity or moral standards only come about when people have enough food and clothing.

When natural disasters that turn heaven and earth upside down occur, or when the myth of safety is shattered, how many people must have hurt others without any grounds simply on their emotions? Isn't the history of human conflict a history of abuse towards others?”

Having spoken that far in a single breath, Krishna-san took a short break, and hung her head down once more as if embarrassed of herself for raising her voice.

“That’s why-- when people start abusing others on a global scale, I always get anxious. It’s as if something terrible has quietly started somewhere... I end up feeling that the world is headed in an awful direction.”

“Um... How is that related to what we’re talking about here?

I asked, ‘Ah’, Krishna-san strangely got flustered and blushed.

“... I think I've reached a dead end in the way I do things.”

“…Eh?”

“I've been trying to keep you safe, to stop you from involving yourself in the occult this far… but that might have actually been the wrong thing to do. I think I ended up bringing you along because I’ve begun to doubt myself about that recently.”