CHAPTER 21 #2
Teruo grabbed a folder placed underneath others. “I put them aside because I thought they weren’t helpful.”
“I just need to check a name.” Shinji said and started browsing for Kawasaki Mariko. He was starting to think he was misremembering, but then he found her.
She had received a hefty sum of money about three weeks ago from one of the shell companies that they had found before the Onmyōryō classified everything.
It couldn’t have been a coincidence that one of the shamans in charge of extractors’ seals received a payment just around the time when Takeda Fuyumi started killing.
Mariko’s payment was marked as bereavement. Someone close to Mariko passed away and the Onmyōryō was covering the cost? But the sum was huge to be just for a funeral.
And now that the Onmyōryō classified the financial information, he couldn’t find out more. He’d have to show the report to Horiuchi and he despised having to count on her for help.
“I think I found something important,” Nakagawa said. “Our victims were on a mission, looking for a wanted man.”
“Go on,” Teruo said.
“It seems the man they were searching for stole something and was trying to sell it, I think,” Nakagawa continued. “It’s redacted so I don’t know what. Perhaps they were killed in retaliation?”
Shinji opened the nonredacted file so he could understand better. Before he had a chance to read the text, Nakagawa added, “Tamura Hiroshi is the man they were looking for. It seems they were successful and arrested him.”
Shinji’s hand froze and he slowly turned toward Mr. Tamura who was quietly standing in a corner.
“Did she just say ‘Tamura’?” Keiko asked. “You were the one they were looking for?”
Confusion was followed by anger and Shinji glared at Tamura. Did he know about the victims and the criminal this entire time? Tamura slipped through the wall and disappeared.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Keiko hurried after him.
Shinji looked back at the file. It seems Tamura Hiroshi stole papers that had supernatural seals and protective wards.
But it wasn’t mentioned what those seals and wards were meant to be used for—not even in the unredacted report.
Shinji had inkling that perhaps this was related to the fact that Takeda Fuyumi had her seals undone.
And yet, Tamura Hiroshi didn’t appear among the employees who handled that.
The murder victims had been sent after Tamura Hiroshi and they successfully apprehended him according to the report. Was this the mission that Morimoto was arguing about with his team mate? There weren’t any details as to whether anything went wrong in the report.
Shinji stood. “I need to speak to the commissioner,” he lied. “You two keep looking into Tamura Hiroshi.”
He grabbed his phone, and as soon as he was out of the office, wrote Teruo a text explaining he needed to talk to Tamura.
He went all the way to the unused archive room on the first floor to be sure he wasn’t going to get interrupted. Then he pulled on the tether that linked his energy to Tamura and about a moment later Tamura drifted inside along with Keiko.
“Are you Tamura Hiroshi?” Shinji went straight to the point.
“No,” Tamura said. “I never worked for that disgusting organization. Hiroshi was my son and the woman you were searching for earlier, Mariko, is my daughter. Hiroshi was executed at the Onmyōryō’s orders.”
“Oh my god…” Keiko breathed.
“He was wrongly accused and his reiryoku was extracted when it shouldn’t have been!” Tamura suddenly burst. Ghostly mist spread and the temperature in the archive room dropped.
Shinji raised his palms, wanting to try and calm Tamura, but then remembering that doing it would affect his reiryoku, and Teruo implicitly. “Okay, let’s take a breath,” he said instead. “Start from the beginning, please. Tell me everything you know.”
Tamura walked the small length of the archive room, his feet firmly on the ground, and ghostly mist floating around him. He might have told Shinji he was ready to cross over, but he clearly wasn’t.
“My son called me,” Tamura said. “I don’t know when. Maybe a few weeks ago? It’s tough to keep track of time as a ghost. He told me he was in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” Keiko asked.
“That he’d been betrayed.” Tamura’s lips trembled. “He wouldn’t tell me more. But he sounded so scared. My son was a brave man! I never heard him so terrified…”
“Did he explain what he meant?” Shinji inquired.
Tamura shook his head. “Not quite. But he said that no matter what I hear about him, he’s no thief.”
That was the alleged accusation that Shinji had seen in the report: that Tamura Hiroshi stole seals, so the victims were sent to apprehend him.
“What was your son’s job?”
“He was a shaman at the Onmyōryō.” Tamura’s face constricted in disgust. “I always despised that organization, but my son saw the good in them.” Tamura spun toward Shinji. “My son didn’t steal anything!”
Shinji raised his palms. “I believe you.” He didn’t know what to believe yet. It was all so convoluted, but he needed to calm Mr. Tamura.
“Takeda Fuyumi, his girlfriend,” Tamura continued, “and my daughter Mariko fought to have him released from custody, but it was too late.” Tamura released a long, icy breath.
“Mariko came to my apartment. Devastated. Her eyes red from crying. She told me the Onmyōryō extracted Hiroshi’s reiryoku as punishment for theft.
When I found out… my heart… I couldn’t take the news.
That’s how I died.” He looked up at Shinji.
“My daughter lost her brother and father that night.”
Shinji remained quiet and let Tamura have a moment to gather himself.
His fists clenched. If Tamura’s son really was innocent, this was yet another example of horrifying injustice done by the Onmyōryō.
He glanced at Keiko who was pressing her lips tight possibly to hold herself from crying.
Shinji felt like crying too as he remembered Haruna and her unjust death.
And the grief had likely sent both Mariko and Fuyumi on a path of revenge.
“Is that why your daughter received bereavement money?” Shinji asked softly.
“More like silence money,” Tamura croaked. “They paid Mariko to stay quiet about Hiroshi’s wrong execution. She told me after I died.”
“Is Mariko the one who broke the seals to allow Takeda Fuyumi to use her powers outside the castle grounds?” Shinji asked.
“Mariko never told me what she intended to do,” Tamura said. “We didn’t speak much afterwards. I drifted away because I knew I’d be forced to go to the other side and I didn’t want to until I untangled all of this.”
“How did you end up in Shinji’s jurisdiction?” Keiko asked in a shaky voice.
“One night,” Tamura said, “I was floating close to what used to be Hiroshi’s apartment.
I saw Fuyumi. They used to alternate between their apartments, talking about getting married, and moving in together…
” Tamura let out a shuddering sigh. “For a moment, her body glowed green before it disappeared.”
“The moment the seals were undone,” Shinji realized.
“Possibly. I followed her and that night she killed the last four victims: Morimoto, the Nishino couple, and Wada.”
Keiko gasped. “You knew this entire time…!”
“I wanted to tell someone, but I didn’t know who.
I started to suspect Mariko was involved and I was afraid.
Then I saw you and Chief Inspector Hayashi at the crime scene.
I realized you were a Shinigami, so I followed you from afar, so you couldn’t sense me, until I found out what your jurisdiction was. ”
“Why?” Shinji asked. “Why not tell me what you knew? You’ve been with us for half of this investigation and you said nothing.”
“Because you’re an Onmyōryō Shinigami,” Tamura said. “Because I didn’t know I could trust you. I didn’t even know if I wanted to tell the truth. Part of me still wants to protect Mariko and Fuyumi. I don’t want to happen to them what happened to Hiroshi.”
Shinji opened his mouth, wanting to tell him that Takeda Fuyumi had already killed six people and there was nothing anyone could do once she was caught—if she was caught. But he figured Tamura already knew that.
“You don’t have to trust me,” Shinji said. “Believe me, I’m aware who I’m working for. But we are doing our best to solve the case.”
“Yes: the case of the homicides,” Tamura retorted. “No one bothered to solve my son’s case, but the people who hunted him down are getting justice. Forgive me for feeling reluctant to cooperate.”
“He’s not wrong…” Keiko muttered.
Shinji sighed, rubbing a palm over his face. “Please, tell me where Mariko is. We have to talk to her.”
Tamura stared at him, looking lost and defeated. But he gave a nod of resignation.