Kamisama no Memochou:Volume 1 Chapter 5
From the next day, my school life became very busy. As soon as school was over, I had to take care of the garden. Sayuri-sensei helped out with that too.
“Before Fujishima-kun entered the Gardening Club, I came over here to help out occasionally too.”
Holding the pot of orchid, she said emotionally.
You could just put the flowers aside in the winter season when the flowers don’t bloom, that was my thoughts before this; but now I know that if we didn’t prepare during the winter, the flowers won’t bloom the next year.
I, myself, don’t know why I’m continuing the Gardening Club activities, but I just felt that if I continued to take care of the plants that Ayaka nurtured, I might be able to know her thoughts better, albeit slightly. Those were my thoughts.
After finishing the club activities, I went through the Shuto Expressway by the river, went past the station and arrived at ‘Hanamaru’. After greeting Min-san, I went to the back of the shop.
The only person who was earlier than me that day was Hiro. He wore a coat with gold buttons sewed onto in with a pair of white jeans. I’ve never seen Hiro wearing the same clothes before, but they’ll probably be gifts from women anyways.
Hiro was sitting on the charred gas tank with a phone clamped between his shoulders and ears, and sending messages with the two phones on his hands. Its just like the acrobatics people do on the streets.
“…… Ah? Is this Mika? It’s me, yes yes, I’m Yumi’s friend, that’s right, Hiro. Nice to meet you. Hahaha, Eh? Really? Asking me out…… Hmm, mmnn, what about this Friday? Are you free?”
If other people who aren’t in the know heard him talking, they would probably just think that he’s flirting. But his words follow a common pattern, unknowingly changing the subject to the drug. “Ah, I’ve heard about it. That’s right, a pink powder…… Mnn, no, I’ve never tried it before, but I’ve heard from my friends that it’s great. Who’s the one who bought it? Mnn, mnn……” just like that.
I sat on the worn out tires, looking at Hiro, impressed. Hiro turned off the phone on his right and, hung up the phone that he was previously talking on and placed it into his pocket, then smiled at me. After that, his left hand continued it’s previous actions, writing something on a piece of paper with a pen.
“It seems like quite a lot of girls have bought it before, but they’ve bought it from their friends, so it’s hard to find the source.”
I asked, purely because of interest: “Hiro, how many girls do you know?”
“Mnnn—— I don’t know.”
Just after Hiro answered me, his phone rang again. Hiro picked up the phone, and started his strawberry-like sweet talking, he really doesn’t have any free time. While he was talking on the phone, Hiro’s left hand didn’t stop at all. The thing that was placed on the table seemed to be a map of the places nearby the station, Marui Supermarket, Balco Supermarket, Tokyu Home Centre, First Bookshop…… A red pen was used to draw another and another circle on the streets between the shop names that I’ve just seen.
“Phew!”
Hiro finally heaved a sigh, placed a row of phones on the table (there’s not only three, but also two more in his pockets). He stretched and drank a cup of coffee.
“This one is for female high schoolers, this one is for wives; this one is for attacking the ladies that I want to go out with, this one is for defending against the ladies that I don’t like that much……” Hiro explained the usage of his phones one by one. Attack? Defend?
“When compared to a gigolo, you’re more like a hustler……”
I was somewhat defeated by Hiro.
“Do you know what is the difference between a gigolo and a hustler?”
Hiro asked. I tilted my head.
“A gigolo is exclusively locked onto someone, while a hustler must be loved at the same time by three people or above. I’m still a rookie, and dare not say that I’m a hustler.”
“Ah……” What a complicated world. “So, what about a man who is loved by two people at the same time?”
“A person who goes out with two women usually gets a knife in his chest by the women, so they don’t need a name.”
“Oh, I see.” Wait, why am I agreeing??
“But after starting the investigation, it really is muddled up. It’s no small wonder that Yondaime would have trouble with this.”
Hiro turned the map over and said, filling the spaces with names of women and numbers.
“What is that?”
“The price is too cheap, they’ve bought them from people that they know, and also the price doesn’t even have a standard. This drug is too strange, it’s even so common too……”
Ah, so the numbers are prices. I have no idea about prices for drugs, so I’m not sure what they mean by cheap. There are even some zeroes on the map, does that mean that they got them for free?
“What about this side of the map?”
“Ah, that’s the place they bought the drug. A double circle would mean that it’s suspected as the source of the drug.”
I was dumbstruck, staring at the map that was almost completely dyed red. It was not even three days after they vowed to look for Toshio, but Hiro, alone, had already gotten so much information from his five phones.
“Vice Admiral Fujishima is here! Just at the right moment.”
A voice came from behind me. When I turned my head around, Major was standing behind me while carrying an enormous backpack that looked like a small hill.
“Help me to take the backpack down, this thing is broken.” Major said. So, I went over to help me, and spent a lot of effort before we lightly placed the backpack onto the ground.
“I stayed up for two days straight to finish that!”
Major seemed quite delighted when he said that, took out small cameras from his bag and placed them on the wooden stand. The said cameras were just palm-sized black cubes with a round lens on it. There were about twenty identical cameras.
“Major really went all out!”
“I’ve actually finished making the cameras a long time ago, just that installing a verifying software took a long time. There weren’t any missions for pinpointing a certain target until now, so there wasn’t any chane to use it, hehe.”
“So how do you use these cameras?”
“You’ve come just at the right time, Vice Admiral Fujishima. Actually you look very bland, so using you for a test would be perfect.”
I just feel that Major said something rude to me in a straightforward manner. Major borrowed the socket in the kitchen, connected it to the notebook-sized computer, and arranged quite a few cameras in an arc to face my face. Then, he asked Hiro to raise one of them, looking at the computer screen while making adjustments: “Shift it down a little, that’s right, okay, it’s done.” Then Major turned to me and said:
“Walk outside and then walk back again.”
Completely befuddled, I acted in accordance with Major’s word, walked out and walked back to their side. As soon as I entered the shadows of the building, Major’s computer emitted the piercing sound of an alarm. I was startled and took a step back. Hiro was surprised until the camera on his hand nearly fell. Only Major was laughing sneakily while slapping his knees.
“Hmm, its accuracy is indeed higher if you take the photo from the front. Vice Admiral Fujishima, try to walk in with your head lowered this time.”
After that, I followed Major’s instructions, keeping my head lowered, walked horizontally, or turning my head around while walking. I did these odd actions while walking from outside to the kitchen backdoor. Every time I walked in, Major’s computer would sound the alarm. It was not until Min-san scolded: “Shut up, keep quiet! And don’t just use my socket like you own it!” that things came to an end. However, Min-san didn’t really say anything about the camera and the computer.
I finally realized after that…..
“The camera could recognize my face?”
“That’s right. If a photo is taken from a close distance from six sides, the accuracy could be that high. When I went to the research room on summer, the professor was doing an experiment on this, so I just borrowed his idea.”
“Oh, that’s interesting.” Hiro went closer to look at the camera and the monitor. This really isn’t the standard of interest. Having such superb skills, why is he still a NEET?
“You’re going to use it to search for Toshio?”
“We don’t really have that big of a budget, so we have to lock onto some places. This system really uses up a lot of power.”
“Never mind the battery, what about the information about Toshio’s face? You can’t use the system without it, right?”
“The surveillance system in Alice’s room probably has information for about a month.”
Ah, so Major was the one behind the surveillance cameras too? I just feel that things are getting to a larger and larger scale, I could only watch at the side with my mouth open like an idiot.
“Oh yeah, where’s Tetsu?”
Major placed the cameras back into his bag and asked.
“He’s probably at the police station.”
“Ah, if we have the investigation report from the police, we could pinpoint a place to set up the cameras.” Major said as if it wasn’t anything important.
“Tetsu-senpai…… have connections with the police?”
Hiro smiled wryly, is it because my surprised expression is that funny?
“Before he started boxing, he was always taken care by the police. I remember that it was the youth counselors who brought him to the boxing centre while weeping and asked them to take care of him. After he started boxing, he stopped getting into fights.”
In the end, he became a pachinko gambler right now— that was Hiro’s conclusion. I’ve never heard about Tetsu-senpai’s past, but he couldn’t just get information from the police, could he……
Right when I was thinking about that, Tetsu-senpai appeared at the ramen shop. It was about seven at night. He took out a notebook from his T-shirt, then put it in front of Major and Hiro with a thunk.
“Tetsu, you reek of smoke.”
“It can’t be helped, the only place where the smell of cigarette is stronger than the pachinko shop is the police station. And the smell of smoke isn’t the main point. I tidied up the map a bit, so take out yours for a look.”
Major skimmed through the notes while saying: “There’s really not much progress for the police’s investigation.” Looking from the side, the notebook was scrawled full of words written with a pencil, probably Tetsu-senpai’s notes? He really did get news from the police?
The three surrounded the old wooden stand and started to talk quietly. Hiro added the information from the police onto the map full of red marks.
There’s really no room for me to take part in this anymore.
When they were having a discussion over there, I went into the ramen shop and helped to wash the dishes. Min-san didn’t ask me for help, it’s just that I just couldn’t stay at the backdoor of the kitchen anymore, so I willingly offered to help.
“— wouldn’t it be better if we handed the information to Yondaime too?”
“I don’t want to borrow the strength of his gang.”
“But progress will be faster if we share information.”
“I’ll take a copy of this over, and will go to the hotel as well. I have something to ask some of the girls directly.”
“Tetsu, so could you help me to set the surveillance cameras?”
“Okay.”
When I was eavesdropping in the kitchen, the three finished their discussion and left. The customers came in like they were taking turns to eat. In the steam of the bustling shop, I felt as if I’ve been forgotten by everyone.
Probably because of my dejected expression, Min-san patted me on the shoulders.
“…… the three…… seems very good at this.”
“Oh yes— they’ve done these kind of things from before this. Though they’re just helping Alice, I really think that they should just go to work if they can do things to this extent.”
I feel so too.
“It’s because we couldn’t do it that we became NEETs!”
Alice said jubilantly. As usual, the air conditioning in room 308 is going strong. The pajamas-clad girl was in a good mood that day, and even ate the soy sauce ramen with some noodles in it without even much grumbling.
“Most of the people in this world don’t understand NEETS. The qualities of humans are not determined by their quantity, but their direction. Although people say something like people have their own strengths, their own ambitions, and life has limitless possibilities, they are still limited by the one dimensional world during actual evaluation.”
“…… Do you mean even Min-san can’t understand?”
“Master is different, because she won’t say all those rubbish. The things that she taught us were after understanding all our fates, her innocent and true considerations. But people like Master is a minority, most people don’t really understand what ‘infinite possibilities mean. Because they couldn’t imagine what’s behind their ships, so some of them vigorously rowed against the flow. Isn’t that right? That’s because the direction that they’re going forward is directly opposite to us.”
Mnn…… That might be right……
“If I gave people like you a direction, you’ll turn out like that automatically. Tetsu, Major and Hiro might truly want to save Toshio, seeing as they’ve been partners who had been playing games of dice together. Even so, they just wanted to pretend that they’re cool, so they can’t take part actively. They were actually waiting for your help.”
I recalled the burning passion in their eyes— maybe it was all like Alice have said.
“Although I speak of this like it’s none of my business, actually I’m also a person who likes to hide my true thoughts. The only worrying thing for NEETs is only one— not knowing what to do.”
Alice put down the bowl, holding her chopsticks weakly while spacing out with lonely eyes.
“After the big flood, God used four bases to engrave his best wishes and absolute orders for all living creatures, have you heard about it? ‘You must live strong and breed to fill up the whole world.’ But— He forgot to write it on us.”
Her words sounded just like a joke, but seeing Alice smiling as if she finally saw the beaming face of the sun after floating in the sea for three days while clutching on a plank, I couldn’t laugh at all.
“…… but, you’re the same right?”
Alice said. She placed the bowl on her bent knees, gazing at me with white fumes of the hot soup swirling between us.
“Not knowing what to do, which is why you want to know something that’s useless even if you know, feeling very, very anxious, so anxious that you can’t stand it.”
The truth is as Alice have said, so I didn’t answer her.
“Why? Why is it that we can only see what we have lost?”
Alice stopped talking then. She again picked up the chopsticks, temporarily focusing on her bowl. The room was filled only with the sound of Alice slurping her noodles, chewing on onions and the sound of a large number of cooling fans.
When I stood up, took out a can of Dr. Pepper and placed it in front of Alice, she had just finished eating her last mouthful of noodles.
“You’re only clever when it comes to these things.”
Alice laughed while opening the can, while I squatted down at a corner of the bed, hugging my knees.
“I don’t have any other talents anyways, so I’ll just get cans of Dr. Pepper for you forever.”
The words that I said only to ridicule myself felt as if they would become real after I said it. That made me feel even more hurt.
“Narumi…..”
I raised my head because of Alice’s call.
` Alice was waving to me…… Eh? What is it? Does she want me to go there? Feeling suspicious, I slowly edged there while kneeling.
“Good boy.”
Alice patted my head.
“What are you……” What are you doing? I couldn’t help but take a step back.
“That’s the first time I got that reaction. Hiro was delighted,while Yondaime showed an annoyed expression but didn’t run away.”
“No…… I think it’s better if you don’t do these kind of things to guys.”
“Why?”
Asking me why, I couldn’t answer.
“Didn’t you say that you’re useless? Didn’t you even listen to what I’ve said just now? It’s so rare that I’m telling you meaningful things like people must have their own talents, humans have limitless possibilities and so on, too.”
…… Didn’t you just say that those are meaningless statements?
“But no matter what you do, the person who will praise you is not here anymore.”
Alice’s gentle voice made my whole body freeze.
On the wall beside the entrance, I slowly slid down to the floor.
“Even if you have a direction— there’s nothing at all in the direction that you’re going. The only destination is the cemetery. So at least let me touch your head as a consolation.”
Alice walked down from the bed and came closer to me. She bent down slightly her eyes at the same level of me, who’s sitting down on the floor, then again used her chilly hands to rub my hair.
There weren’t any news on the next few days.
Although I went to the ‘Hanamaru Ramen Shop’ every day after school, I didn’t do anything special. Hiro went to the hotel every day. Major claimed the gas tank in front of the stairs as his own, facing his notebook-sized computer with a vicious expression on his face, causing people to stay away from him.
I originally wanted to ask Min-san to let me give her a hand, but she seemed to have noticed my thoughts and said with a stiff expression:
“No, thanks……. You just hurry up and find a wife that’s really good at doing housework, and steer clear of the kitchen forever.”
Although her words were harsh, I couldn’t say anything to rebuke her. That’s because I created a new record that even Ayaka couldn’t achieve— breaking five bowls in just two hours. Squatting down on the wet soil, I almost wept because of my own uselessness.
Right when January was about to end, a big case occurred. I saw it on the television when I was about to go to school. The middle-aged male broadcaster suppressed his feelings with skill, and only showed about a centimeter of regret on his face while broadcasting.
“…… mass poisoning incident has occurred. On about eleven at night, six people suddenly fainted at a night club that opened until late night……”
The shop was just beside Balco Supermarket, a famous club that even I’ve heard of. Of course, the broadcaster didn’t say that the club was in any way related to the drugs.
But at about eight that night, Tetsu-senpai who didn’t appear at the ‘Hanamaru Ramen Shop’ for quite a long time came in and said casually: “The mass poisoning incident is related to Fix. Ah….. Yeah, that’s what I heard from the police.” Is it okay for the police in this area to do this? Revealing information to a nineteen year old pachinko gambler, did they tell him that just because he’s Tetsu-senpai?
“Any news from Yondaime?”
“There’s probably more people than the police working on this. As it’s a human sea attack, we’ll probably find something soon…… I gave them the information that I’ve tidied up. But the pills are already so widespread, why aren’t there any clues?”
“Erm……”
I politely interrupted. Tetsu-senpai and Major turned around to face me at the same time, making me feel somewhat nervous.
“…… if we’re using a human sea tactic, can I help out?”
Senpai cocked his head.
“How about you ask Yondaime about that? Although I think you’ll be refused.”
“Eh? Why?”
“That guy seems to hate you a lot, even though you’ve met for only two or three times.”
“Thi- this……”
“No matter how Yondaime sees you, you can’t take part because you’re a high schooler. Although they are yakuzas, they’re actually quite decent. Those who are schooling can’t join them, their enemies would be enemies forever.”
I see, it’s because I’m not even a NEET. Facing me, who was looking downcast, Tetsu-senpai showed a mystified expression.
“What is it? Just having another person to help wouldn’t improve things, and you’re the customer, so you don’t have to do anything and just wait for the results.”
It’s not that problem. Then what’s the difference with this and letting Alice handle all of it, and just be in charge of getting Dr. Pepper? There’s no difference asking for help from anyone, but I must depend on myself to find out the reason for Ayaka’s suicide. I could only tell myself repeatedly that I must find out the truth by myself, using the reason of doing something to help out Ayaka so that the emptiness in my heart could be filled.
Even though I knew that it couldn’t be filled.
It’s impossible to fill it, because Ayaka would not smile or speak to me anymore. Because I’m not doing anything by Ayaka’s request, she didn’t say anything— didn’t say anything to me, and tried to commit suicide.
To her, our friendship is just to this extent, huh?
Now, it is already too late.
The ringtone of ‘Colorado Bulldog’ rang as usual, stirring me from my indecisive emotions. Tetsu-senpai and Hiro stood up, but the only phone that was ringing was Major’s.
‘It’s me, did you bring the recorder today?’
Recorder?
“Yes, but what do you want to do with it?”
After that, Alice and Major had a conversation on the phone for awhile. After they hung up, Major looked at us and said:
“It seems that they’ve found the person who stabbed people in Yondaime’s shop. He was caught while drinking in a shop, and caused some trouble by taking out a knife.”
I was taken aback and stood up. Now that we’ve found one of the drug dealers, we can start to take action.
Tetsu-senpai said: “Is that guy an idiot? At least get it clear that he’s on the turf of Hirasaka-gumi.”
“And he went into the shop when Tetsu and Hiro was doing investigations there, is this what they call finding something through sheer luck after looking for it for a long time (Z: It’s actually an idiom, can’t find any other substitutes)?”
“So what did Alice say?”
“She wanted to hear the contents of the interrogation, so she asked me to record it.”
“Oh, that’s why she asked you if you have a recorder on you. But Yondaime probably started to beat him up, right?”
“I heard that Yondaime isn’t there yet, so she wanted me to hurry there.”
“If you don’t hurry, the guy would be get beaten up into a pulp. Yondaime is merciless towards people who make a move on his partners.”
My back felt cold after hearing Tetsu-senpai’s words.
“I walked here today, because I came here directly from Akihabara…”
“Narumi, you rode a bike here, right? Take me there.”
Eh?
“You want to help Yondaime, right? It’s probably okay if you just tell him.”
“But……”
“Stop that nonsense and go! You’re not alright staying here anyways, are you?”
Indeed, that is so. Why is Tetsu-senpai so clear about my thoughts? Or is my crestfallen expression that easy to read?
“Let’s go! Vice Admiral Fujishima, ride like the wind!”
Major started to hit my bottom with his bag energetically.
Club Haploid Heart was located at a basement of a small building at the Snack Street behind Tokyu Shopping Mall. Yellow neon signs were hung on the cramped stairway leading to the basement, and the name of the shop was written in English cursive. I found a sticker with a swallowtail butterfly emblem on it stuck onto the lower right corner of the signboard. It seems that the shop was a franchising store. Is this shop really operated by Hirasaka-gumi? I always thought that Hirasaka-gumi was just a fake yakuza gang that was formed from NEETs, this is really getting more and more confusing. To be honest, I thought that Hirasaka-gumi was a motorbike gang until last month.
“Are you going to wait outside?”
“Well, I’m here anyways, there’s no reason for me to just wait outside.”
As it’s my first time entering a club, I was quite nervous. Two young men squatting down at the corner, playing games on their phones, turned around to stare at Major and I, as though they were looking at ostriches that escaped from the zoo.
Walking to the end of the stairway, we opened the massive doors, seeing the walls and floor of the short passageway that were painted gold A counter was at the left, while there’s a door deeper in the room. The room looked just like a pressurized cabin in sci-fi movies. The high-pitched part of a dance song could be heard in here.
“High schoolers are prohibited from entering the shop.”
Wearing a black wired sweater, the male supervisor that looked somewhat like a woman said to us. He directly glared at me, then shifted his gaze to Major, who was wearing a military uniform, completely failing to fit in with the night club. At that moment, I just realized that I was still wearing my school uniform as I went directly to the ramen shop after school.
“We’re not customers, Souchiro asked us to come.”
Major lied indifferently.
“Ah, Sou-san asked you to come, did he?”
“There’s a problem right now, so we—“
“And when did I ask you to come again?”
Major jumped about two meters because of the sharp voice. Turning around to look at the entrance that we’ve just came in from, Yondaime, who was wearing a crimson coat, walked towards us against the light followed by Rocky and Pole.
“Sou-san, thanks for your hard work.”
The guy(woman?) behind the counter said in a high-pitched voice. I sneaked a peek at him, and found that his whole face was red because of nervousness, and only his eyes were glittering.
“Aniki, thanks for your hard work!”
Rocky and Pole greeted me in a chorus with their heads lowered. Major stared at me with an astonished expression on his face. I, myself, don’t know how it turned out like this either!
“What are you doing here? Did Alice say something unnecessary again?”
“She just wants to know the contents of the interrogation.”
Major shrugged, and showed Yondaime the palm-sized recorder. Yondaime made a ‘tut’ sound.
“And why is the Gardening Club kid here, too?”
“Vice Admiral Fujishima is Alice’s assistant.”
“Ah— enough, I get it. It’s so troublesome.” Yondaime pushed Major and I away and said to the counter: “Sorry for troubling you, the person that I’m looking for is inside, right?”
When the door inside opened, Yondaime turned his head around and said to me:
“Gardening Club kid, at least take off your coat and your tie!”
It was like the shop was in alternate dimension. A slow song was being played on the dance floor. An eerie orange color that appeared only at dawn in the black seas surfaced in the middle of the dance floor; the strangely dressed DJ wore four different colored shirts, and was playing the six beat music that made people feel anxious. In the darkness, the crowd shook their head with the beat, jewellery and glasses glittering due to the dim reflected light.
With Yondaime in the lead, followed by Rocky, Pole, me, and lastly Major, the peculiar group walked in a line further into the shop, pushing away the other people in the crowd.
“Ah! Sou-san!”
“Sou-san, good to see you again! It’s rare that you would appear at this time.”
A row of office ladies who finished work surrounded Yondaime.
“So sorry, but I’m busy right now. I’ll come find you later.”
“Ehhhhhh—”
“It was so scary just now! A crazy fellow took a knife and went on a rampage, it was so terrifying.”
“Good thing the show didn’t just stop because of this. The DJ today is great, Sou-san should listen together!”
Rocky opened his mouth, showing his teeth to scare them away, while Major and I slipped through the gap. The suspicious gazes of the girls are really painful. After that, Yondaime had to deal with the girls who rushed over when they saw him every five meters. Finally, we reached an inconspicuous door in the shadows of the spiral staircase, and the words ‘Staff Only’ were written on it.
At the moment the door was opened, the odd sound made by a man rang in the corridors. I couldn’t tell if it was a wail of distress or his laughter. I suddenly felt a chill on my back.
Metal racks, wooden boxes, stacked round stools, the cement wall that was pasted full of faded Pepsi Cola posters, there was an ancient air to the room. The wide warehouse might be shared, because quite a few doors could be seen on our way here.
“Thanks for your hard work!”
“Thanks for your hard work!”
A few men wearing black T-shirts greeted Yondaime.
“Aniki is here too?”
Even I, who was hiding behind Rocky, was found immediately.
There was a tied up man lying on the floor at a corner of the warehouse. He wore a dark green hoodie with a slightly dirty pants; His eyes that looked like a crow searching for trash in a junkyard were wandering under his unruly hair. His skin and lips were parched, so his age couldn’t be estimated, but he should be quite young.
“He had quite a lot of the pills on him.”
One of the lackeys handed a plastic bag to Yondaime. They were pills placed into different packets. They were much redder than what I first saw, but the marking of the wings and the two letters— A.F, I still have an impression on them.
“The amount that they’re selling is increasing lately.”
“It might be a stock-clearing sale.”
“Oh, oh, oh…….”
The man lying on the floor twisted his body while trying to get a hold on Yondaime’s leg. The black shirted guys kicked the man in the stomach.
Yondaime took off his coat and handed it to Pole, who was behind him. He squatted down, caught hold of the man’s unruly hair and turned the man’s face towards his own shoulders.
“You recognize this emblem, right? You’re the one who stabbed one of us, right?”
The man didn’t answer, but just foamed in the mouth. I was overwhelmed by Yondaime’s imposing aura, and could not even make a sound. I suddenly felt that the area was giving out a thoughtful air.
“How do you meet the people who made Fix? Where are they?”
There were Yondime’s low voice, and a high-pitched voice that almost buried Yondaime’s voice.
“Don’t even need to contact them, they are there, only we can see them. The top of their head is shining, have wings, can hear the song. We can hear…… and can se, only we can see.”
“Stop that nonsense!”
One of the lackeys kicked the man’s back, causing the man to cough violently, but he didn’t stop talking.
“The wings that you couldn’t see, but we can see. In the crowd, the song guides us. You can’t hear it, right? Scum like you could never hear it. Dylan, Bob Dylan’s ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ is sung, and the angels will correct us.”
Angel Fix will not look down on anyone, that’s what Toshio said. I couldn’t help but push away the broad back of one of the lackeys and ran towards the man. As soon as my face got close to him, I smelled the odor of blood that he coughed out.
“Do you know Shinozaki? It’s this person, this guy.”
I took out a copy of the wanted poster with the photos of the six people on it, showed it to him and pointed at the bottom right corner.
“Have you seen this guy?”
“Aniki, it’s dangerous to get close. Please step aside.”
The black shirted man caught hold of my collar and pulled me away. The man didn’t look at the poster or at me, but continued with his weak voice that sounded as if he squeezed them out:
“You who cannot see the angels or hear the song should just die. Kill you, I want to kill you, I’m very gentle, so I just stabbed that guy in the stomach, the blood is warm……”
Veins showed on the lackey’s forehead, and he raised his hand.
With a ‘thwack’, his hand was stopped.
“…… Sou-san!”
Yondaime slowly put down the hand of his follower.
“Undo the rope on him.”
“We don’t know what he’s going to do!”
“Stop making a fuss. This type of scum needs a trial too.”
Trial?
After the man was free, he stood up stiffly like a robot. Yondaime took out the large saber searched from the man, pulled out the scabbard and looked at the blade.
“Hey! The trials of Hirasaka-gumi have been suggested by a certain idiot following the customs of medieval Europe. They are also known as God’s Judgment; because God will let the right party win.”
The man picked up the knife that was thrown to his side like a hungry wolf preying on sheep. I nearly cried out loud.
“Aniki, please go out.”
A few black shirted men formed a wall with their back, leading Major and I out of the warehouse.
“That’s really dangerous! K- Knives…...”
“Vice Admiral Fujishima, Yondaime will definitely be okay.”
At the instant when Major murmured that, the drug addict kicked the wall and leapt to his front. It was like we could hear the sounds of the blade slicing the air. But Yondaime couldn’t be seen anymore, so we didn’t know how he moved. Yondaime stood in front of the drug addict leaping towards him, and he hit the man in the back of his head. When the man collapsed, the sound of his teeth cracking echoed in the room.
A black stain spread from the head of the collapsed man.
“…… Thanks for your hard work.”
“Thanks for your hard work.”
The members of Hirasaka-gumi solemnly bowed. Yondaime kicked over the motionless man, and blood could be seen on the man’s face.
“Gardening Club kid, get out of here. What goes on next isn’t something that a kid like you can see.”
“But……”
“Aniki, sorry for this.”
Before I could protest, two lackeys pushed me out to the corridor. At the instant when the doors were closed, I saw Major who was starting the recorder, and the eyes of Yondaime who caught hold of the man’s hair.
I was left alone in the cold corridor that was illuminated by flashing neon lights.
Wails of agony came from behind the door, and they lingered in my mind for a long, long time.
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