Case 00: A World of Ash (2)

And then, I learned of that strange incident on the day of M’s schools’ end-of-term ceremony.

“Say, M-chan. Do you know about the incident that happened in the neighboring town?”

Tomorrow being the start of summer vacation, the students were making a big ruckus since the homeroom teacher had yet to arrive in the classroom, but M was sitting alone in her seat, when Kii-chan spoke to her.

“Mom didn’t really tell me much about it, but something scary happened.”

“Something scary?”

M cocked her head slightly, and Kii-chan replied in a hushed tone.

“That’s right, something really scary. I don’t know what it was. But mom was really scared.”

M’s face darkened at hearing those words, and I too, who was inside Mr. Frog affixed to her bag, felt like I had swallowed iron. Well, in my case, it was because I was anxious not knowing what to do despite the two-week deadline drawing to a close that the girl who called herself Takamura told me.

“I heard a Tengu appeared.”

Thereupon, S-chan, a girl who was on good terms with both M and Kii-chan butted into the conversation, saying something outrageous.

“My father told me. Someone was murdered by a Tengu.”

“Eh--? Being murdered means they died, right? That’s scary.” Kii-chan spoke.

But when S-chan saw M suddenly look unwell with her head cast down, S-chan hurriedly put on a cheerful face.

“Ah. But it’s going to be alright! Papa said the police are looking into it, and they'll catch the Tengu or whatever it is soon!”

“…Yeah.”

M finally opened her well-shaped eyebrows when she heard that.

I managed to take a look at the entire classroom from within the frog.

With summer vacation starting tomorrow in mind, most of the first-year elementary school students were brimming with excitement. Summer festivals, the Bon Festival dances, swimming pools, the beach, and playing in the mountains. The watermelons would be delicious, and some of them would probably play with their grandparents and cousins who they rarely met. However, looking closer, there were faces of elementary schoolers talking with serious faces here and there, and it seemed a number of kids already knew of the so-called ‘Tengu incident’. For the time being, I drew closer to those guys and tried to gather up all the gossip – but I still didn’t get a complete picture.

“I mean, even the lowest branch of the ginkgo tree at that shrine is around four meters, right?”

Suddenly, a lively boy in the back of the class, who seemed to be the leader of a group of kids, raised his voice somewhat excitedly.

“It would have had to be a big guy to have an old guy hanging upside down there.”

“But if it was four meters long, then even a bug guy couldn’t have…”

The boy who objected to his argument was smacked on the head by the leader.

“You idiot, that’s why it must have been a Tengu.”

“Where did you hear that from?”

“An uncle from the neighborhood association who always brings me rhinoceros beetles. That’s why it’s not a lie.”

I didn’t understand it well, but it seemed that an old man from the shrine had died. And moreover, in unusual circumstances.

However, the great commotion that started with the ‘Tengu theory’ ultimately jumped to the boys in the class talking about forming a ‘Tengu subjugation squad’.

…Somehow.

This sure felt nostalgic, I thought to myself. It felt like the world of children was largely decided by the opinions of influential guys with clout. Though I didn't know for sure since I had no memories.

“The boys are full of energy, aren’t they?”

Kii-chan laughed exasperatedly at their behavior.

“But why would a Tengu do a thing like that?”

“Maybe because it might have wanted to eat him later. You know, Sensei told us there was a bird who did the same thing.”

“S-chan, you mean, the murdered old man was impaled on the branches?”

As Kii-chan and S-chan returned to that kind of inappropriate conversation, M suddenly opened her mouth, “Hey, aren’t you scared?”

“…Eh?”

“Don’t you think it’s scary to talk about such things?”

Both Kii-chan and S-chan faltered in response to M's straight-faced questioning.

“It is scary. It’s scary, but how should I explain it? It’s strange, but it’s a little exciting as well.”

Kii-chan eventually answered, and M cocked her head in puzzlement.

“Umm… I know I'm not supposed to say it like that, but, well, there were a lot of TV people there, and a lot of police cars driving around, it was different from usual, it was like a festival.”

…Ahh. That was called – ummm, a spring day. One of the worldviews unique to the Japanese, The usual days were separated as ‘Ke(Ordinary)’, and the unusual as ‘Hare(Spring)’ from what I can remember. And somebody explained that the concept of ‘defilement (Kegare)’ came to be mixed in there afterwards*…

Wait a minute, how do I know that story? Was I a student majoring in folklore studies or something back when I was alive? However, it felt like I wasn’t especially knowledgeable about it, so it might have just been second-hand information from that certain someone.

“Well, since someone got killed, it really is different from a festival. But, even though it’s scary, it’s… how should I say, it ends up feeling festive. Maybe it’s because the person who was killed was someone I didn’t know.”

“…………..”

“How was he killed? Was he hung by the neck? Was he stabbed with something sharp? Both of those seem like they would hurt.”

M took one look back with a sad expression in response, “Let’s just stop. Kii-chan,” and broke off the conversation.

“Why?”

“Somehow – I don’t think it’s right to talk about the dead.”

While inside the stuffed frog, I too, couldn't help but look behind me. It somehow felt like the murdered victim ended up drawing closer. M probably felt the same thing.

When, thereupon—

“Hello. Good morning everyone--!”

The plump middle-aged and gentle-looking female homeroom teacher entered the classroom and called out to her students, causing all the first-year students to hurriedly rush back to their seats. They stood up, a cute sounding chorus of “Good morning!” rang out, and after they finished their mannered greeting:

“A sad incident happened in the neighboring town yesterday.”

The homeroom teacher began to narrate with a solemn expression on her face.

“But the adults are doing their best. The police are very good at their job. They’ll definitely catch the bad guys soon, so let's all study hard as usual.”

In response, Ye—sss, the first graders, who were still very obedient, replied loudly all at once.

“Today is the end of the first semester, but a word of warning. During summer vacation, don’t play with your friends in any secluded areas away from people. Always go with an adult wherever you go. Moreover, I believe there will be TV people in town. They’ll be the ones with microphones and cameras. If they ask you something, tell them you don’t know anything. If we talk too much, then the adults might be late in solving the case. Answer them properly with politeness. Can you all do that?”

Another loud ‘Yeees’ rang out in the classroom once more.

“You’re all such nice children. Then, sorry to keep you waiting, I’ll be handing out all your report cards!”

The classroom immediately erupted in an uproar, but the teacher roared, ‘Be quiet’, and began to hand out the report cards in turn. Talk of the ‘Tengu Incident’ as well the ‘Subjugation Squad’ was instantly forgotten in the commotion.

Children quickly change their interests from one moment to the next, however, I couldn’t afford that luxury. Before homeroom finished, I gently slipped out of the stuffed frog affixed to M’s bag, and went to the staff room.

The staff room was situated on the same floor as M’s classroom. I slipped through the door, and sure enough, the teachers were talking to each other about the incident.

Thereupon, after gathering bits and pieces of information from walking here and there, this was the general feeling I got:

The man who died was said to be in his fifties known as Mr. Niizawa from S-town. Just how the leader of the group from M’s class had described, his body was discovered hanging from a two-hundred-year-old ginkgo tree on the grounds of an Inari shrine.

However, it seemed he wasn’t hanging upside down, but simply hung by his neck. The reason why this case had not been highlighted by the public was that it was treated as an ordinary suicide -- however, the people in the locality seemed to treat it a mysterious death. The reason being that the branch Mr. Niizawa hung from was about four meters above the ground, and the trunk of that large ginkgo tree was thick enough that even a trained person would have had great difficulty climbing it. There was no ladder nearby, and there was no knowledge of Niizawa-san being good at climbing trees, so they were creeped out, wondering how he climbed all the way up with a noose in hand, and that If he was going to kill himself, weren’t their easier ways to do so?

--I see, so that’s why they’re calling it the work of a Tengu.

I somewhat understood, but it was no doubt a creepy incident.

However, two days into summer vacation, it happened.

The next strange incident happened. That morning, something felt different from usual, and my consciousness, which had dozed off in the frog, was suddenly awakened.

The hot sunshine was already pouring in from behind the window curtains, but the clock on the wall showed that it was only 7:00 in the morning. In her room, M was sleeping peacefully in her bed, with the air conditioner set to low, and the temperature remained constant. However, I could hear the somewhat tense voices of the adults ringing out from downstairs. I slipped out of the frog, then through the doors, and descended the stairs.

There were two strangers at the front door with a grave expression on their faces deep in conversation with M’s parents.

“…Anyway, let’s keep the doors locked tight. And if there are any strangers around, let’s communicate with the rest of the neighborhood association right away. It might be better to keep kids inside for the time being.”

“But why Nagami-san…?”

“We don’t know. The patrol car is on its way here now, and many more will be here soon. One of the policemen told me that it was a murder case.”

“Um, does it have something to do with the incident in the neighboring town the other day? The random attacker or something?”

“The police will be looking into that as well. However, the fact that we don't know what happened at all after that incident is troubling.”

It seemed the two people talking to M’s parents were from the neighborhood, and judging from the nature of their conversation, it seemed that “An incident similar to the one three days ago in the neighboring town had occurred very close by.” Which meant that the ‘scary incident’ the first-year elementary school kids were making a fuss about had occurred once more. And I couldn’t help but feel that these two scary incidents were the beginning of ‘something’.

Ten days from now, M’s family would be attacked in a mysterious incident that would remain unsolved ten years in the future. I was assailed with an inescapable sense of dread as if it was finally happening.

Unable to sit still, I passed through the four of them and went outside. Under the blistering sun that was sure to get even hotter from now on, I searched for the house of that ‘Nagami-san’. However, before I even thought of ‘searching’, I could see that the town was in an uproar after just a short walk. A dozen or so meters ahead of me, a single patrol car stood parked silently with only its red-light blinking, and next to it was a normal passenger car that seemed to have been an unmarked police car. Even though it was still early in the morning, there were countless onlookers swarming the surroundings, taking photos of the uniformed police officers at the entrance with their cell phones in one hand. The house at the center of all this commotion probably belonged to the so-called ‘Nagami-san’.

I slipped past the crowds of onlookers and entered the house. Yellow tape had already been plastered in front of the entrance, and the interior was hectic with several uniformed police officers going up and down the stairs. The incident seemed to have occurred upstairs. I continued to slip through the officers and stepped onto the stairs.

On the second floor, there was a middle-aged guy who looked like a plain clothes detective. He was dressed in a creased navy-blue suit, his stiff hair was streaked with gray, and he had a bitter expression on his face, as if he had just eaten an astringent persimmon. I peeked into the room the old guy was looking at. And, standing next to the old guy, I ended up making a face like him.

In the Japanese style room about 10 sqm in size, the man probably known as ‘Nagami-san’ lay collapsed.

I wondered what kind of person he was, but even after looking at him, I had no idea. Because his head was cleanly missing from the neck up. He had a knife gripped with both hands, and was covered in a pool of his own blood, well it’s obvious to say, but he was dead. Judging from the condition of the corpse, it was as if he had died by chopping his own head off. But – was such a thing even possible? At the center of the neck there was the bone after all, and midway through there would be massive blood loss leading to a loss of consciousness, that would surely make it impossible. I looked around the tatami-mat room, but the head was nowhere to be found. And that's when I suddenly realized.

--Ah, so that’s why it was being called a ‘murder case’.

Did that mean that there was someone who took only the head out of the house.

Perhaps it was because my emotions did not really undulate, but even seeing a dead body in front of my eyes did not upset me. Still a bitterness rose up from the bottom of my stomach. Perhaps a feeling of resignation at an extremely common occurrence, of the taboo of the human world since time immemorial, of “man killing his fellow man.”

“Oi, the forensics still haven’t arrived?”

One of the uniformed police officers replied with a frown in response to the old man’s inquiry.

“Tatsuke-san, aren’t you out of your jurisdiction?”

“Isn’t it alright? Just let me take a little look.”

A faint smile appeared unconcealed on one of the officers who was looking at the old man.

It seemed this old man was a police officer, but seemed to be a little frivolous in nature.

“Oh dear, this tatami has become quite useless now, hasn’t it?”

The moment the plain clothes officer called Tatsuke muttered that…

《We found the head!》

The report simultaneously came in through the radios of the cops present.

“Where is it?”

《It’s in the garden. On the branch of a persimmon tree in the garden--》

“A tree in the garden?”

I stuck close to the galloping old man as he ran out the room. We both jumped down the stairs, exited the front door into the garden and looked around. There were two police officers there, and their faces were pale as they pointed somewhere to Inspector Tatsuke after he arrived. The old man and I looked up almost simultaneously in the direction their fingertips were pointing.

There, among the leaves of the thick and overgrown elliptically shaped persimmon tree, was Nagami-san. He was looking down at us with a radiant smile on his face.

A sense of nausea bubbled up inside my body. It was a distorted pale smile drained of blood I couldn’t forget even if I wanted to. It was an artificial smile, as if pins were used to keep all the facial muscles in place, and the fact that only the head was present gave it an eerie appearance, as if a persimmon fruit was smiling.

“Tsk…”

As soon as the old man clicked his tongue, I staggered out of the house premises. The atmosphere was already too heavy, and I was at my limit. I really felt at home inside that stuffed frog.

Outside, there were even more rubbernecks than before. It was exactly what I expected: more rubbernecks calling for more rubbernecks. The people in the back must not have known what was going on. And it was only a matter of time before this would all be on television, and I sighed, despite being a rubberneck myself.

In the meantime, more and more patrol cars arrived to assist, and a wagon car loaded with what seemed to be forensics people in navy-blue suits; the site finally started to become noisy. I returned to M’s house, as if to change places.