Case 14: In the Mirror (2)

The old man with the gleaming face of a wax doll asked gleefully.

Krishna-san and I looked at each other, and he continued.

“Awful things – truly awful things have started happening in every corner of the world. Don't you think that the balance that had been miraculously maintained until now has begun to decline far beyond the intelligence of the average human being? No, well, anyone with a modicum of knowledge could have seen this coming, but at long last, our foolish leaders have finally begun to realize and begun to panic.”

Right now, we were in an area of villas deep in Okutama.

It was the home of the aforementioned ‘Old man who became unable leave his mansion’. And the person before us was the old man in question.

Even though it was spring, it was still cold here. The cold air seeped in through the windows, as if the vestiges of winter had missed their chance to return and hung lazily over the house. Perhaps that was the reason why the fireplace of the living room of about 33 square meters in size still had a fire lit in it.

The old man who was sitting deep in a rocking chair in front of it was watching me and Krishna-san, who were sitting on the leather sofa, with great interest.

“Communication is important in order to get along well with others, but to achieve smooth communication, the same level of intellect is required. In short, it means that the smarter person has to match the stupid one in order for the conversation to take place. However, do you think that countries with high moral standards can conduct diplomacy with uncivilized nations on equal terms? Do you think there is a future of the world like that where the wise can get along with the fools? That will only give birth to stagnation. There is no progress in that. It’s impossible in the world of wild animals, where the weak are inevitably abandoned. Ethics, morality, morals—in the world of today, we say wonderful things, like ‘Let’s protect the weak’, or ‘Let’s create a world that’s good for the weak’. However, morals that go too far will threaten to turn the weak into the strong. Everyone pulls the legs of the exceedingly superior individual and drags them down to the ground and beats him with a stick. Isn’t that the rotten state the world finds itself in today?”

I was listening quietly—

I thought this might have been the ‘abuse’ Krishna-san spoke of.

“—Now then, it’s been a long time, Kurimoto-kun.”

--*Cough*, the old man’s wrinkled face contorted. Apparently, he laughed.

“It has been a long time since my last visit.”

Krishna-san too bowed her bobbed head down.

“I visited you in your home in Tokyo many times, but I wasn’t aware that you had moved here, my apologies.”

“It’s fine. I’m sure the people in the house must have been troubled about how to explain it. Ah…I heard that you closed down ‘Ikaigabuchi’.”

“Yes, I went too far and forgot my place.”

“…Is that so? I thought you had the right goal, and I don’t think there was anyone better qualified to do what you set out to do.”

“No…it’s truly shameful to abandon my goal with your contribution over many years—but I thought it was impossible for me to go any further.”

“…Hmm.”

The old man stopped moving like a broken doll, and then added, “Well, please relax and take your time.”

“No, actually, I can’t relax that much.”

Thereupon, she stopped speaking, and spoke again after having made up her mind.

“To tell you the truth, there's another reason I've come here today besides the matter of Ikaigabuchi’s closure. I've been asked by your family to get you out of this house.”

“I see.”

The old man looked at Krishna-san in amusement and gave a large nod.

“That’s why I gave that talk at the beginning.”

“…Eh?”

“The story where the weak being discarded in the world was ideal. In short, I, who am old, and sick, is to put it in clear terms, a weak creature, and it is right that I should be abandoned. I believe that it comes from animals originally. In the past, there used to be stories about mountains where old people were abandoned. Among wild animals, there are those with the nature of hiding themselves when they feel their death is near. I am merely imitating that; it seems my will to be left alone was not recognized.”

…This guy.

For the first time, I realized that this old man, who was like a withered tree, was not an ordinary old man. Ryouichi Mamiya had realized the reason we were here since the start – that’s why, he started off with that bewildering story.

“However.”

Krishna-san straightened her posture and spoke.

“From the conversation we’ve had up until now, I can say that you have intelligence, and judgement. I believe that long as a person is human and has intelligence and reason, they are human. And I believe people as people have a guarantee to a dignified life.”

“This is dignified. Staying shut in here, and dying quietly alone is the only thing dignified left for me.”

“By abandoning your family? Is it dignified to throw away everything in your life up until now and shut yourself in here? If that's the case, then at the risk of sounding quite presumptuous, I believe you should clearly make out your inheritance. It might be harsh to say-- but if you were to do that, then no one would complain about your actions. It seems to me that your strange will has on the contrary, created a lot of commotion around you.”

“...”

In response, the old man narrowed the countless wrinkles around his eyes, and gazed at Krishna-san.

“How much have you heard?”

“How much, you ask?”

“About my story.”

“I'll be honest with you.”

Krishna-san spoke as if accepting the old man's gaze.

“I heard that one day, you became afraid of mirrors. That's why you made this mansion with no mirrors anywhere and shut yourself in here. And soon after that you made that will -- and, that it all started with something you saw in a cave in a village long ago. I haven't heard anything besides that.”

“Do you want to hear the rest of it?”

“...”

“Will you learn the rest of it-- and solve the mystery that has plagued me for so many years?”

“I can't guarantee that I will solve it but, I'll help you as much as I can.”

“That's fine.”

The old man contorted his wrinkled face once more, sat back deeper in his chair, and slowly closed his eyes. The room fell into silence for a while after that. Birds were chirping outside the window, and the occasional crackling of firewood was all that could be heard.

“The thing…that I saw… in the darkness of the cave back then, were eyes.”

…Eh?

“They were beautiful eyes. They appeared in the darkness.”

“Sometimes the truly terrifying things are beautiful to the point where they feel out of this world.”

“It happened shortly after the war, in a certain village, was a certain man.”

The old man began to narrate in pieces, Krishna-san and I became absorbed and bent ourselves forward before we’d realized.

“The man had a good friend. A childhood friend who would accompany him whenever he went hunting or to the fields. But one day, they ended up deep in the forest in pursuit of a beast, and arrived at a certain cave. They had been told that a beast of unknown origin dwelled inside since long ago, and that they should not go near it. It was said to be powerful, fast, and had a strong stink. Some said it had red eyes. That it had learned human speech, and was said to have devoured humans at times.”

A gulp rang in my throat.

“They were both still young, burning with ambition. Furthermore, they were both rivals in love over a young girl in the village, so they entered inside as if vying for the achievement. The entrance of the cave was dark and cramped. The two had a flame alight as they ventured ahead with hunting rifles in hand. They slowly made their way through a long, long, cold space of rock and earth. Eventually, they saw something white beyond the light. It was a shimenawa. A thick and ancient shimenawa rope that blocked their progress. Next to it stood a sign that read: 『Those who continue ahead from here will have no guarantee of their life』. They looked at each other and hesitated for a moment. But in the end, they cut through the shimenawa with the nata* they had. It was a cliché at the entrance of forbidden places, but more than anything, the excitement that prey was near won out above all else. In those days, everyone was always hungry, and animals with protein were exceedingly valuable.

They must have imagined the joy of the people of the village, and consequently, the joyous face of the girl they both favored. However, as they ventured further, they soon encountered a second shimenawa blocking the path. There was indeed another sign on a post that read: 『Those who continue ahead from here will have no guarantee of their friend.』”

“—Friend?”

Thereupon, Krishna-san interjected. The old man nodded in a relaxed manner.

“That's right, friend. The two looked at each other. And then nodded to one another. The two had fought and scuffled countless times since childhood, and had a strange mutual trust in each other. An overconfident trust in the other, thinking that this guy wouldn't be done in so easily. On those grounds, they cut the shimenawa once more. They continued further ahead, and eventually, beyond the darkness, they smelled a bloody smell together with the faint sense of something breathing. The man thought that it was the prey they had come chasing. Just when he thought he was almost there, the final shimenawa appeared. What was written on there was, 『Those who continue ahead from here will have no guarantee of their name.』”

“…Name?”

This time, I was the one who unintentionally ended up repeating it. In response, the old man creased the tree-like wrinkles around the edges of his mouth.

“Having already been threatened with their lives and their friend, would something like ‘name’ threaten them at this stage? The two enthusiastically cut through the shimenawa. Thinking about it now, the two being there together was the sin. If it had only been one of them, they might have returned to the village at the first shimenawa. No, they might have returned right from the entrance of the cave. The two continued further, relying indeed on their mutual trust and stubbornness.”

“......”

“The darkness -- thickened.”

The old man's voice seemed low, and even hoarser.

“No matter where he aimed the light from his torch, it was a strange darkness that seemed to coil around him, making him unable to see what lay ahead. Eventually the man realized that the earth was slanting down. Could this be the slope that led to the land of the dead? Wasn’t the land of the dead further ahead of here? Before he realized, the man's knees were shaking. He asked himself over and over if he could still go back. However, at that moment, someone's voice reached his ears. The man looked at his friend, who was supposed to be walking next to him. He couldn't see him clearly in the darkness, but he didn't seem to be talking to him or looking at him.

The man wondered if he was imagining things, but as he continued, someone’s whispers did indeed reach his ears. The man tried to listen carefully to the voice. The voice spoke: 『You two have entered a place that you were not supposed to enter. You disregarded three warnings and stepped in. Therefore, I will take your life, your friend, and your name.』 It was the next moment that the man almost shouted out involuntarily. He saw eyes in the darkness. Clear, beautiful eyes were floating in the air. The man was drawn to those eyes – when suddenly, something violently covered him from behind. He ended up dropping the torch to the ground, and screamed out loud. A foul stench filled his surroundings. He did not know if it was the beast they had chased, or an ancient mountain god rumored from long ago-- But driven by terror, the man recklessly thrust the nata in his hand at the foul stench in the darkness.…”

Thereupon the old man stopped speaking, and in exchange the sound of my throat gulping rang out. Eventually Krishna-san asked him.

“So, what happened then?”

“…I don't know.”

“You don't know?”

“The smell of the beast, the smell of blood--when the man came to, he was collapsed at the entrance of the cave. The dried blood of something stuck to his face, his clothes, and the hunting rifle and nata he should have held were nowhere to be found. In their stead-- he was holding someone else's arm that was already drained of blood. A left arm.”

…Eek.

As I was flinching, I heard Krishna-san’s small throat gulp.

“I don't know who that arm belonged to. The man seemed to have come to his senses a few days after he left that cave. The arm was already in the process of decomposing, and in the end, his friend never returned. The man, who had broken out in a high fever, was somehow rescued by the villagers who had come to search for him, and he was exercised at the village temple. A funeral was held for the friend and the arm, whose owner was unknown, was buried. Time passed by, and with the death of his friend who was his rival in love, the man married the girl in due course. He took over the family and worked hard to forget the nightmare of that day. He survived the chaos of the post-war years, and before he realized, he had grown old, and amassed a considerable fortune -- until one day, he began to dream. Something was moving beyond the darkness that extended in all directions. Something without one arm shakes its head, searching for something. And when it notices the man’s presence, it comes toward him with great speed.”

“…”

“Was that his friend…or the thing that spoke to him in the back of the cave …. The man would always wake up drenched in sweat… and, only one sentence would always remain echoing in his ear.”

“In the mirror.”

“…Mirror.”

--Was that where the mirror came in?

“Yes, that’s why the man became afraid to look in the mirror. He had not seen his own reflection for decades. He even became afraid of seeing his own reflection in the window and such. At any rate, he built a mansion without mirrors and shut himself inside.”

I unconsciously looked around the room. I indeed saw no sign of anything that resembled a mirror in this room, or in any of the corridors I passed through when I came here. Looking carefully, I understood, but, the windows were also tightly bound with lace curtains so that they couldn’t be opened.

“Now then Kurimoto-kun, what do you think? Did you figure out what the thing inside the mirror is?”

“—No.”

Krishna-san bit her lip.

“Unfortunately, I still haven't.”

“…As expected. Well, it’s fine. To begin with, I would be troubled if I were to be given the answer so simply.”

The old man smiled again like a wrinkled tree.

“There are many guest rooms in this mansion. Please take your time.”

After saying that, he quietly closed his eyes as if drifting to sleep.