Loups-Garous (45 page)

So don't go anywhere till it comes back.”

The dove was nothing like Hazuki.

“Don't get yourself killed,” Rey Mao said, then she disappeared into the night.

CHAPTER
020

“IT'S LIKE A
shitty action flick,” Kunugi said. “I used to watch those things as a kid. Vulgar stuff.”

Ayumi silently looked down the road. Shizue was trying to digest everything that was happening.

Without so much as sorting or organizing, abstracting or finding symbolic meaning in it, Shizue was trying to swallow what had just happened, whole.

This indescribable, complex, dirty, potent odor. It was the smell of earth, water, grass, and trees. Those things alone were already too much for Shizue. But she had learned that children needed those things.

Shizue herself was raised in an environment where such odors had been completely extracted. Shizue knew full well the negative effects that an environment without nature held for people. She had a vast amount of information on the subject. Still, there was nothing she could do about the way she'd been raised.

There was no turning back time. She'd thought seriously about what was called a “resocialization,” but Shizue was already completely developed. So she had given up on the idea.

She couldn't take it anymore.

“Maybe you should have stayed back after all,” Kunugi told Shizue. “There was nothing they would have held you for. You shouldn't be hiding in the bushes like this. You could say you escaped an abduction, no?”

“I became plenty suspicious before you were brought in.”

“Even so,” Kunugi rubbed his nose. He got dirt on himself. “Now you've made one hell of a criminal of yourself. Not a prosecutable criminal, but one that's clearly guilty. You just ran into the woods with this stupid middle-aged loser who just kidnapped a minor. Even if they didn't press charges, you'd be hard-pressed to get your job back, I'm sure.”

“Thanks for reminding me.”

That was enough.

Shizue stared at Ayumi's profile.

“I trust you,” said Ayumi. That admission made Shizue feel like her job as a counselor was done.

If she dilly-dallied any further no one would trust her.

“This is all just hearsay anyway, and there's no evidence to speak of. You're still a good counselor.”

Kunugi, tired from squatting, collapsed into a seated position on the ground. “If you were my counselor, I'd be set.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Hmph,” Kunugi let out through his nose. “It's getting darker and I'm starving. But we can't move. If I keep quiet I'll lose my nerve. They didn't see me in their surveillance cameras, right?”

“I don't think so. By the time I fled the gates, several area patrol officers had gotten to the entrance hall and possibly a few police officers. I ran as fast as I could and didn't look back, so I can't say for certain, but they're sure to have at least seen your back.”

“I saw,” Ayumi said.

“Saw? Who?” Kunugi asked.

“They were probably police. They weren't wearing uniforms and they weren't area patrols.”

“You saw all that while running in the other direction? That's something else.”

“I was pulling Ms. Fuwa's arm, so I was already facing the building.”

“Oh, right. Then why aren't they chasing us?” Kunugi asked stupidly. “Don't they think they should chase us? Or is that how futile it is for us to hide?”

“They're probably waiting for us to come out to arrest us.”

“That's definitely one way to get us, but…now we have no idea who the enemy is.” Kunugi threw his hands behind his head. “Role-playing games are so much easier to decipher.”

“You really should have stayed home with your games, you know.”

“I can play the old ones from memory, I've played them so many times. The newer ones are actually a little harder,” Kunugi said.

They saw a light go on in the distance.

Probably street lamps.

Shizue had thrown her portable while on the run and now had no idea what time it was. If they'd placed a GPS tracker on her they'd know with one search where they were. She had had no choice but to throw it away. Yet without her coordinates, she didn't know exactly where she was. How inconvenient.

They were on the west side of the green area surrounding the center; that much was certain. Yuji Nakamura had been suspected of hiding out here. Turned out he was not hiding out here after all, but now Shizue was.

It was getting darker.

Kunugi's already nebulous profile became hazier still and eventually disappeared into obscurity.

All they could hear was their own breathing.

In a room, the sound would seem strange. In their new setting it sounded natural.

“Someone's coming,” Ayumi said.

The sound pierced through.

“How do you know?”

“It's the area patrol and Hinako Sakura.”

“You can see them?”

“Yes. Two area patrols. They're holding a flashlight.”

“That's some incredible vision you have,” Kunugi said, incredulous.

Sakura.

She'd probably finished being interrogated and had now been released. They'd been questioning her this whole time. To her it probably felt like torture.

“Oh no.”

“What?”

“Sakura saw me.”

“Liar. Where is she?”

“On the main road.”

“The main road. The one leading out of the center? Don't be stupid. You couldn't see that road in broad daylight, much less in the dark of night. It's too far from here. Why do you think we hid here?”

“I don't know. She noticed me though,” Ayumi said.

“The area police have stopped.”

“Are they coming this way?”

“No. It looks like they got an emergency call. One of them is running off. The other one and Sakura are walking again.”

“Can she really see all this?” Kunugi asked Shizue.

“I'm sure there are things children see that adults cannot.”

“Because they're innocent.”

“Because they're ruthless.”

“You mean adults are nice?” Kunugi asked.

“Adult vision is fogged.”

Hmph
, Kunugi let out through his nose again.

“Miss Kono,” Shizue called Ayumi. “How's it…err…” What was Shizue supposed to say?

“I'm fine,” Ayumi said.

“Miss Fuwa.” This time Ayumi addressed Shizue. “I want to ask again, but killing people—it's wrong, right?”

“Yes. It's bad. One should absolutely never murder. It is against the law.”

“Nice and simple,” Kunugi said. “It was so much more sticky when they explained it to me back in the day.”

“What do you mean,
sticky
?”

“You know…” Kunugi leaned to one side. “We talked about morals and ethics, about being an upstanding citizen and the importance of humanity. Whether it was important.”

“Of course it is.”

“Right. Of course. My feelings as a concerned citizen, improving the human condition—humanism, is it? Obviously I learned all that. I know it, but
hmmm
, I don't know how to explain this. When I was young, those words were all somehow meaningless. No, I mean I knew a lifetime's worth of sadness and pain and fear. I got mad at the really flagrant criminals. I'd get unreasonably frustrated, enraged. You know, social order. I used to believe in social order so much more than now. But then, I sort of…”

“You weren't satisfied with it,” Shizue suggested.

“Kind of…” Kunugi answered. “Even I don't understand why I'm not satisfied. I just knew this was not the way a police officer should feel.”

“These emotions and humanist theories are not why we must not kill. Those are only the reasons why we
created laws
against killing humans. Confusing one for the other has led to our discordance, no?”

“Hmm?” Kunugi made a strange sound. “The reason why the laws were created?”

“Isn't that so? When a friend or relative is killed you become sad, angry, hurt. That's only natural. Therefore it is universally understood that any violent attack on one's right to live of healthy mind and body is a bad thing. That's why laws forbid the murder of humans.”

“That's probably true, but doesn't it amount to the same thing?”

“No, it doesn't,” Shizue said.

“How's it different?”

“Well, let me put it to you this way. If no one was sad about the death of a particular person; if no one felt anger or vengeance or hurt from the death of someone who would have caused more suffering to others alive than dead—is it okay to kill
that
person?”

“N-no. I mean, of course not,” Kunugi said, sounding defeated. “No one should ever be murdered.”

“In that case, all those complex feelings and ethics and teachings don't constitute reasons for forbidding the murder of humans. Even if you are sad, upset, or for that matter happy, you cannot kill. The law is blind. It doesn't matter who you are.”

“Ah,” Kunugi said smartly. “That's why you insist on saying that murder is wrong simply because the law says so. Morals and ethics in and of themselves can't explain the reasons behind the law. Of course, it's axiomatic that laws are created on the basis of morals and ethics, and if you can't believe that, you will most certainly be confused, but I just don't think the same way about the question of whether committing a crime is ever justified. As it stands, the thinking is that morality is attained as a result of abiding by the law
and
that it also leads to our emotionally comprehending the meaning of good, right?”

“You mean why one shouldn't doubt the law.”

“No. Doubting the law and disobeying the law are different. If you believe a law should not be abided by, you should do everything in your power to change it. There's no rule that because the law is bad it should be disobeyed. That's an infringement of the rules. You can't get along that way. Even breaking a bad law is a punishable crime.”

“But changing the law is difficult,” Shizue said.

“That's something only lawmakers say. It's humans who've created the laws, and if they follow the right procedures it's humans who will change the laws. However, so long as the majority keeps acknowledging the law, it will not change. Even if the laws are not correct. Even if the law looks wrong to everyone. But of course, no one's going to abolish laws against murder.”

But.

“But a long time ago in this country, vengeance killings were forgivable. Even in this century, murder was publicly sanctioned. The death penalty, I mean. Those laws were eventually changed by people, right?”

“I see,” Kunugi said.

Now they couldn't see anything.

There wasn't enough light for their eyes to even adapt to the dark.

“When I was about the age of this young girl here, murder was popular,” Kunugi said.

“Popular?”

“By that I don't mean that it was a free-for-all of everyone killing each other. But kids my age were committing these crimes one after the other. I don't know if they thought killing someone would improve their own lives, or if they were thinking at all. Well…I had nothing to do with it. Kids knew the consequences of things like that, I'm sure. It's only the idiots that ignored the consequences. But…”

It felt like Kunugi had stood up.

“When I was in elementary school…That is, back when there was such a thing as elementary school, that would be about when I was about seven to twelve, kids were grouped and separated into classes to learn things with other kids the same age.”

“I had that when I was growing up as well,” Shizue said. “Obviously it's been banned since, but elementary schools existed until pretty recently.”

“Is that right? Well, it was elementary school, then junior high school, and throughout that whole time I had this one friend. A boy. He was serious and didn't like to play outside, so we got along. That kid came over to my house one day and asked a favor of me.”

“Favor?”

“Yeah. He asked me to record an emission on what you kids call an on-air entertainment channel now. Back then we still used magnetic tapes. Anyway, it was not uncommon back then, so I agreed. I taped this thing and brought it to his house the next day. But when I got to his house, there was a tarp stretched around it,” Kunugi said.

“What is a
tarp
?” Ayumi asked.

“A blue sheet. I thought maybe they were renovating the house. But then it turned out to be the police.”

“Police…what was going on?”

“It was a crime scene. There had been a murder,” Kunugi said nonchalantly. “He'd killed a girl from the neighborhood, and his parents found out. He then killed his parents and siblings.”

“That's—”

Kunugi started laughing. “That fucker beat the girl with a stone and then went home covered in blood. He was scolded right in front of the house. I guess that was when he decided he would kill his entire family. He knew that the only time his whole family would be in the same place was when his favorite show was airing. Obviously he wouldn't be able to watch it, so he asked me to record it for him. What do you think about that?” Kunugi said. “When he came over with the blank tape, he'd already killed the girl. While I was watching his show, he was stabbing his mother in the throat with a kitchen knife. I didn't know what to do.” Kunugi seemed to lean to one side again.

“I got angry. Even sad. But I didn't know what I was sad or angry about. He was totally normal. He didn't cry, yell, scream, or act frightened. So I didn't think to bother asking him to confide in me or to tell me anything. He didn't look like he was thinking about anything at all.”

“That's…” Shizue couldn't find the right words.