Chapter 3 (2/2)
Tsubaki came in and shoved himself in between Ichijou and Sakurako
“Yes At its current state, it weighs about 150 kilograms”
“It’s that heavy!?”
Tsubaki purposely acted surprised in an exaggerated ht the conversation back on track
“More i me here?”
“Right, wellthe Gouram may have moved”
“It moved!?”
That was a shocking development The Gouram was an artificial lifefor the warrior Kuuga It’s revival signified the return of the current KuugaYusuke
“It was about a riculture Depart from this shed… I went to check it out, and the Gouram had indeed slipped off its pedestal But there’s been many earthquakes these past few years, so it’s possible that it could have slightly shi+fted its position bit by bit until finally losing its balance”
Ichijou nodded, agreeing with that thought process
“But I saw that ia on the internet…”
“So you saw it too…”
“Yesit was just about at the same time too…”
Sakurako brushed her hand across the Goura it, and continued on with a tinge of melancholy on her face
“Ialways assu that would disappear so was over… I then recently indirectly asked Tsubaki-san about it, and he told ans and the nervous syste for the Amadam to eventually restore itself on its own in about 10 years or so…”
“I’ honestly”
“No, it’s fine, I’lad you told me Besides, I’… He even said hiht continue to serve the purpose of battle until the day he dies…”
Ichijou, who had heard those words as well, shared Sakurako’s cos
“After he fought for the first tianohe fell into a slumber as if he had died… When he woke up and flashedhim that I wanted him to coht anyrew serious for ajust an adventure lover, I’et used to that sensation’, he said, clenching his fists… That’s whyI wanted him to just be an adventurer lover the next time we met…:
“I feel the same”
Ichijou finally spoke Matters kepttowards an undesired direction Ichijou wanted to continue believing that their reunion with that man would be under pleasant circu apart
Tsubaki left to the parking lot to bring the car over, as Ichijou and Sakurako slowly ate Ichijou pondered over just howwith Godai Seeing how long the signature ivy vines that wrapped around the Literature Departrown, the reality of how much time had passed since then hit Ichijou deeply
“I’ you about all these auous developments…”
“Nonsense It’s our job to grasp the truth out of the ure out anything else, don’t hesitate to contact me”
Continuing that fragate Tsubaki came out of the parked Fiat 500F and caer
“Well then, I’ll be off”
As if trying to outdo Ichijou’s courteous farewell, Tsubaki casually lifted one hand as he spoke
“Goodbye Sakurako-san, hopefully we’ll see each other again soon”
Then, as Tsubaki turned around elegantly and headed for his car, Sakurako stepped forith a “Wait!”
“Yes?”
Tsubaki was the first to turn around, but Sakurako’s eyes were in Ichijou’s direction
“If you happen tofor me?”
“What do you want me tell him?”
“Tell hihter now, so I can’t leave theto the research lab open like beforeand I can’t be here all night anyht”
Seeing Sakurako’s ss into her words, Ichijou could not help but feel touched
There are people waiting for you It doesn’t ive them the same sain That’s all If you’ve come back, why haven’t you shown yourself to us yet? Just what could be going on?
As Ichijou returned to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Departhts that raced across the back of his mind
“I suppose there’s still no helping it, Godai…”
Ichijou suddenly murmured those words and looked up at the sky from behind theThe blue that stretched as far as you could see The more clear and blue it was, the farther away it felt
“Ichijou-san! Where have you been?”
Upon returning to the Investigation Departed away by his wrist as Mika, without even taking the tiht hi rooations headquarters Upon the nu tables within the roo the deaths caused by the anaphylactic shock incidents
I fro with the jurisdiction in regards to thorough investigation involving the articles of the deceased With data fro closely exa all she could to find proof that connected to the cases
“I just finished organizing the reports about 2 hours ago To be honest, I really couldn’t wait any longer”
“Sorry I took so long Tsubaki had me visit Jounan University on little notice”
“Let uess, you went to see Sakurako-san?”
“Oh, so you’ve been to see her there too”
“Yes She’s done a lot forh, I haven’t seen her at all since I joined the police force”
“I see I should’ve talked to her about you too, I suppose it slipped my mind”
“It’s no proble and I was having trouble writing to her, but now I have so to write about”
“I’ to be ations in the future, so I’d recos”
“Understood”
“Well then, why don’t you tell ed me down here?”
“Oh, that’s right! We haven’t had any of this in a while, Ichijou-san!”
Mika threw out an enthusiastic thuress had been made
“Be sure to look over the reports thoroughly later I’ll just explain the main points for now”
While talking, Mika sat Ichijou in front of her co him the data she obtained while she explained
“Basically, Rin Togibe is definitely involved with the cases”
“You sound pretty confident”
“Everything’s coether”
Ichijou was first shown a list of the victims They were ordered by estimated time of death: Youichi Akashi+, Shoudai Aoyaa, Ryou Minowa, Hiroki Tooyao Kusakabe, Kiyo Watarai 9 victi the icons next to the victi their rooms and related articles would be displayed
“First things first We confirmed that both Minowa and Kimura had posters and CDs in their room, correct? Then, we discovered that both Akashi+ and Aoyaibe fan club Next, we have the college students Ariga, Tooyama, and Kusakabe These 3 all lived in doret any infor them However, after the fanificant amount of merchandise was discovered
“And just like that, 7 people are confir to your conclusion”
“But it was froh”
“48-year old Furubayashi+-san and 74 year-old Watarai-san…”
“I’ve talked with Furubayashi+-san’s family multiple tiibe caorous impression to others while he worked at an eleoya as the principal I checked his cole thing that suggested any affiliation Again, I continued to ask his fa they knew, to the point where they scoldedso persistent”
“It’s i even after that”
“I decided to change my point of view To the red blue yellow pattern”
She was referring to the theory that the targets were based on Rin Togibe’s debut single
“Didn’t we agree that that was kind of reaching too hard?”
“We did, and it was perfectly natural to assume that But it turns out that that wasn’t the case at all!”
Mika then showed Ichijou a picture depicting one of Rin Togibe’s handshake conferences All the participants had na their name written on there, Rin would eventually call them up by that name for a handshake with her
“Those plates also serve as an admission permit of sorts, so they’re always collected by the end of the event If you look carefully at this i their real naating the victims”
“I see”
“The first three nahtforward ‘Aka(Red), Ao(Blue), Ki(yellow)’, right?”
Mika once again displayed the list of the victiround color of the naed to red, blue, and yellow respectively She even put effort into the small details of her presentation
“Next, is Ariga Mitsuoki-san, who apparently was often called ‘Akamitsu’ since his middle school days You would think that ‘Ari scheme, but there was actually a Mitsuteru Arita in the same class, so ‘Arimitsu’ was already taken”
While Mika continued talking, she changed the background color of Ariga Mitsuoki to red
“Next we have Minowa-san as a fan of the comedian Okada-san from ‘Masuda Okada’ As such, he would often shout out ‘Minowao!’ when surprised, leading to hi the nickna romanization”
“So the ‘Ao’ of ‘Wao’, huh?”
“Yes!”
To be able to grasp a lead using trivial information was quite the feat
“Now Tooyama-san would be yellow due to the ‘Ki’ in ‘Hiroki’, and we’ll skip Kio Kusakabe-san, and after looking into his na here”
Displayed was a travel blog written by Kusakabe
“Kusakabe-san loved transportation vehicles, including railroads and buses These past years, he was really into boats, and had his blog naed to the name of a boat that sailed to and from Shodoshi+ma’s Kusakabe Port”
Upon clicking the profile, a picture was displayed depicting a shi+p that travelled between Takamatsu and Shodoshi+ letters was…
“‘BLUELINE’”
The blog name had become ‘Blueline 45’ The ‘45’ is o’(The nao uses similar pronunciation as the numbers 4 and 5 in japanese, “shi+” and “Go” respectively) Including the ‘Ki’ from Kiyo Watarai-san,have 8 out of 9 of the victi my theorized pattern We can then assume that the 7th victim, Furubayashi+-san, must have had soht? So I ended up asking his wife about it and…”
“And everything finally fell into place?”
“No, it was to no avail His email address was a play on word on ‘Furubayashi+’ to ‘Furudanaki’, and his official school blog si’ I couldn’t find any unique names used at all…”
“!”
“I eventually ca at the naita-san ca ‘Oh, Akai(Red) Tractor, huh?’”
“Akai Tractor…!”
“Of course, I responded with ‘What are you talking about?’”
“I see now… If you were to read the characters as ‘Kobayashi+’ instead of ‘Furubayashi+’, you would get ‘Akira Kobayashi+’!”
“I knew soet it!”
Back in the 70’s, there was a famous star known as Akira Kobayashi+, as both afor an agriculture rew i if a nickname of similar sort existed
“But nothing like that caht?”
“Correct But I used that realization as a clue I abbreviated ‘Akai Tractor’ to ‘Aka Tora(first 2 characters of the japanese word for tractor)’ and used that as a keyword along with ‘Rin Togibe’ when searching on the internet”
“And did anything come up?”
“Yes! A user that went by the handle ‘Akai Tractor’ came up! He was apparently one of Rin’s most hardcore fans, and was quite concerned over the fact that she had suddenly stopped posting new blog entries After investigating the internet provider and IP address under Criminal Affairs Article 197, I discovered it was indeed Furubayashi+-san But that wasn’t the only thing I discovered”
Mika clicked the staran ie of a key
“What’s this?”
“The key to a one-rooistered in his internet provider’s contract It was found in one of his pants’ pockets, not even his family knew about its existence The apartment is about a 7-minute walk away from the second-closest station from his workplace”
The building displayed was on high ground, a place where you could enjoy the nice breeze The rooe, but because it was far from the center of the city, the rent was less than 500 For a man of his position to rent a place like this in secret, the average person would suspect that a lover would be involved But upon further exa the photos taken of the room, Ichijou felt a bit shocked The rooibe relatedthat it was a rooed on the walls carefully fraravure collections along hat appeared to be bluray video recordings A large retractable screen was installed above thethat served the purpose of displaying Rin’s charm from a projector
“Furubayashi+-san kept this room a secret from everyone It’s likely that this was the only place where he could fully express his feelings as Rin’s fan…”
“So that must be why he used an internet alias that not even his family knew about”
“After talking with his mother, I learned that he was often teased with the name ‘Akai Tractor’ around the end of his elementary school years, and it seems that he resented that”
“Looks like the Red Blue Yellow pattern has coether perfectly”
While speaking those words, Ichijou felt a slight pang of sorrow All these nicknames and online handles of the victiments of their lives To think that the siins eventually lead to their murder But as if to sever off that sentimentality, Mika continued the topic
“Do you what these things are? The things stacked in the corner of this rooht here”
“CD’s?”
“Yes They’re all first print editions of an albuo”
“They’re all the saht?”
“I believe there were 108 of them”
“Why so ?”
“To get the ‘One Free Anything Ticket’”
“‘One Free Anything Ticket’?”
“As part of a national event, Rin had each first print edition CD co Ticket’ Not only would it allow you to shake hands with her, you’d be allowed to say whatever you want to her for one second Plus it would all take place in a ‘Maid Booth’, to e alone with her”
“Just 1 second?”
“If you talk fast enough, you could probably fit in about 8 words So like ‘I love you’ would be no problem”
“Even so…”
“That’s why the most hardcore of fans anted to fully express their love would buy numerous copies of the same CD 10 CDs would mean 10 seconds, 100 CDs would mean 100 seconds, and so on”
“What a world we live in”
“There has been so too officious Although on Rin Togibe’s official blog, she mentioned ‘One ticket per person please’ She said that even one second would be enough for her to understand their love Might as well have the tickets liht? But in response to that complaint, the record coht from those who desire them’ …Ahhh it just drives me nuts!”
“No, cal Ticket’ in the first place?”
“Oh, that’s right, I’m sorry… So far, 8 of the victi…”
“They were in contact with Rin Togibe at the handshake conference for an extended period of time…”
“Froibe’s point of view, those people were the easiest targets for her She’s apparently well known for staring into the eyes of her fans while shaking hands with them, so it’s without a doubt that she took that chance tothem”
At this point, Mika was dead set on Rin Togibe being a Grongi, the perpetrator behind the cases
“But how did the 9th person, Kiyo Watarai-san, become one of the victiht?”
“Correct I couldn’t find anything about her coibe I was at a cooya on the day of the event, so with my final shred of hope, I decided to visit Gifu early this ”
“You went to Gifu and made it back before noon!? I’m impressed you were even able to complete your report”
“I finished about 80 of it on the way back on the bullet train”
Expecting Ichijou’s surprise, Mika replied with a smile
“Above all, it was really thanks to Matsukura-san that I got this far”
“Matsukura-san?”
“Yes! The Matsukura-san that used to be the Head Chief Investigator He’s apparently noorking on ceraawa”
Ichijou knew she ita
“I remembered that Kiyo-san’s son told me that she had friends orked on cera that if Matsukura-san knew them, then he could co to themand my decision turned out to be a success! By the tiathered in one place, along with a really approachable atmosphere to boot!”
Not only was Ichijou taken aback by hearing Matsukura’s name come out from Mika’sa favor from a such a prominent senior whom she never evenher recklessness pay off so well
“On the day Kiyo-san and her friends visited the Toyko Tohen they decided to head for Oosukannon, Kiyo-san suggested an idea saying ‘Since the weather’s so nice, how about alk there?’”
“The distance between Tokyo Tower and Oosukannon is about 5 kilometers… I suppose it would have been no problem for someone alked as much as Kiyo-san”
“Upon arriving at Oosukannon, she realized she was hungry, and headed to a miso stew shop behind Banshoji She then inadvertently passed the shop, causing everyone to shout after her telling her to stop It was then that a girl with glasses cairl was Rin Togibe, who had just left the handshake conference and was having a er Kiyo-san and her friends did not know about her, it was through photos that I had them confirm she was there”
“Was there any direct contact between them?”
“Yes After Rin Togibe learned that Kiyo-san and her friends had walked all the way from Tokyo Tower to the shop, she asked to shake their hands saying ‘I want to receive soy you lovely ladies have’ Apparently her handshake with Kiyo-san lasted the longest…”
“So after hearing the na ‘yellow’ piece…(Ki is yellow in japanese) But ould she go out of her way to choose someone fro with having no connections to them whatsoever?”
“According to Kusakabe-san’s Twitter, his turn at the handshake conference was scheduled towards the end It’s possible that there weren’t any other fans at the event afterwards who had ‘Ki(Yellow)’ in their name”
“So she got Red Blue Yellow, Red Blue Yellow, and then wanted to finish up the last set?”
“It’s possible Or perhaps she found that having just 8 people didn’t feel right”
“Didn’t feel right?”
“Yes For exah school, I decided to have a goal of10 words per day Restaurants will also have ‘Meals Limited to 10’ events, but you never see ‘Li like that I believe that’s because we normally work on a decimal system, aka base 10”
“Ahso you’re saying she worked on a base 9 system!”
Ichijou recalled that the Grongi tribe used a base 9 nu system This