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Air Chrysalis
has done more than a little damage to Sakigake. However,
they
are not
thinking to punish you for this. There is nothing to be gained from punishing you at
this point. They have a mission they must accomplish, and in order to do so, quiet
isolation is required.”
“So you want everyone to take a step back and forget it all happened.”
“In a word, yes.”
“Was it absolutely necessary to kidnap me in order to get this message across?”
Something akin to an expression crossed Buzzcut’s face for the first time, a
superficial emotion, located somewhere in the interstice between humor and
sympathy. “They went to the trouble of bringing you here because
they
wanted you to
understand the seriousness of the situation. They didn’t want to do anything drastic,
but if something is necessary, they don’t hesitate. They wanted you to really feel this,
viscerally. If all of you do not keep your promise, then something quite unpleasant
will occur. Do you follow me?”
“I do,” Komatsu replied.
“To tell you the truth, Mr. Komatsu, you were very fortunate. Because of all the
heavy fog you may not have noticed this, but you were just a few inches from the
edge of a cliff. It would be best if you remember this. At the moment
they
do not have
the freedom to deal with you. There are many more pressing matters at hand. And in
that sense, too, you are quite fortunate. So while this good fortune still continues …”
As he said this he turned his palms faceup, like someone checking to see if it was
raining. Komatsu waited for his next words, but there weren’t any. Now that he had
finished speaking, Buzzcut looked exhausted. He slowly rose from his chair, folded it,
and exited the cube-shaped room without so much as a glance back. The heavy door
closed, the lock clicking shut. Komatsu was left all alone.
690
“They kept me locked away in that square little room for four more days. We had
already discussed what was important. They had told me what they wanted to say and
we had come to an agreement. So I couldn’t see the point of keeping me there any
longer. That duo never appeared again, and the young man in charge of me never
uttered a word. I ate the same monotonous food, shaved with the electric razor, and
spent my time staring at the ceiling and the walls. I slept when they turned off the
lights, woke up when they switched them on. And I pondered what Buzzcut had told
me. What really struck me most was the fact that he said
we were fortunate
. Buzzcut
was right. If these guys wanted to, they could do anything they wanted. They could be
as cold-blooded as they liked. While I was locked up in there, I really came to believe
this. I think they must have kept me locked up for four more days knowing that would
be the result. They don’t miss a beat—they’re very meticulous.”
Komatsu picked up his glass and took a sip of the highball.
“They drugged me again with chloroform or whatever, and when I woke up it was
daybreak and I was lying on a bench in Jingu Gaien. It was the end of September, and
the mornings were cold. Thanks to this I actually did wind up with a cold and a fever
and I really was in bed for the next three days. But I guess I should consider myself
fortunate if that’s the worst that happened to me.”
Komatsu seemed to be finished with his story. “Did you tell this to Professor
Ebisuno?” Tengo asked.
“Yes, after I was released, and a few days after my fever broke, I went to his house
on the mountain. I told him pretty much what I told you.”
“What was his reaction?”
Komatsu drained the last drop of his highball and ordered a refill. He urged Tengo
to do the same, but Tengo shook his head.
“Professor Ebisuno had me repeat the story over and over and asked a lot of
detailed questions. I answered whatever I could. I could repeat the same story as
many times as he wished. I mean, after I last spoke with Buzzcut, I was locked up
alone for four days in that room. I had nobody to talk to, and plenty of time on my
hands. So I went over what he had told me and was able to accurately remember all
the details. Like I was a human tape recorder.”
“But the part about Fuka-Eri’s parents dying was just something they claimed
happened. Right?” Tengo asked.
“That’s right. They insisted it happened, but there’s no way to verify it. They
didn’t file a death notice. Still, considering the way Buzzcut sounded, it didn’t seem
like he was making it up. As he said, Sakigake considers people’s lives and deaths a
sacred thing. After I finished my story, Professor Ebisuno was silent for a time,
thinking it over. He really thinks about things deeply, for a long time. Without a word,
he stood up, left the room, and didn’t come back for quite a while. I think he was
trying to accept his friends’ deaths, trying to understand them as inevitable. He may
have already half expected that they were no longer of the world and had resigned
himself to that fact. Still, actually being told that two close friends have died has got
to hurt.”
Tengo remembered the bare, spartan living room, the chilly, deep silence, the
occasional sharp call of a bird outside the window. “So,” he asked, “have we actually
backed our way out of the minefield?”
691
A fresh highball was brought over. Komatsu took a sip.
“No conclusion was reached right then. Professor Ebisuno said he needed time to
think. But what other choice do we have than to do what they told us? I got things
rolling right away. At work I did everything I could and stopped them from printing
additional copies of
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