Miyoko’s angry tone suddenly changed, and she began to cry. Realizing what Miyoko was trying to say, Mitsuhiro froze.
“Did someone pretend to be me and take her?”
“When I went to pick her up, her teacher said that her dad had driven over to pick her up. She said Sae called the man ‘Dad’…”
“That wasn’t me! He’s just pretending to be me!”
“What?! Don’t yell at me! Where’s Sae?!”
Miyoko was in tears. Mitsuhiro took a deep breath. He had to stay calm. Think calmly about what happened.
Hang in there.
He heard his father’s voice from deep in his chest. His knees, weak with bewilderment and anxiety, suddenly regained their strength. If Sae believed this person was her real father, then it wasn’t just some criminal. He wouldn’t even be human, strictly speaking. He was something that could make himself look like a completely different person.
Mitsuhiro knew that because he himself had been made to believe that many different people were Yoshikazu Hara. Fourteen homeless people had disappeared. Now he fully understood the gravity of what he’d done. It was terrifying to picture what was in store for him, but now wasn’t the time to think about that.
That hole was sensing his resistance.
It knew he was trying to find Yoshikazu Hara and take him back. Did it want to spread around as much ash as possible before that happened? To widen itself? To destroy the seat of the water god? And to do that, it needed something to compensate for the lost ashes. That’s why it took her.
A theory began to form in his head. It was nonsensical, but it had to be true. Someone dominated by the hole had kidnapped Sae to “compensate” for Mitsuhiro’s resistance.
“It’s the East Wing. They took Sae there.”
“What?”
“I told you about entering the ritual hall at the construction site. I’m telling you, you lose your mind when you go in there. I lost my own for a while, too. Today, I was due to question someone else the hall had taken over…but they acted before I could.”
“Wait… What? What are you talking about?”
“I’m going to the East Wing right now to get Sae back. Chief Sugawara will be there, too. I think we’ll be fine.”
“Why would the Chief be there?”
“I’ll explain later. By the way, you said the police came to your parents’ house. Did you get their business card?”
“Yes, from a Detective Kitagawa…”
“Contact him for me. Tell him that a man named Sota Araki from Tamai Construction might have kidnapped Sae.”
Miyoko fell silent. Mitsuhiro thought she’d tell him to stop talking nonsense again, but instead, he heard some fumbling around, as if she was searching for something.
“Sota Araki…from Tamai Construction. Right?”
She was writing this down. Mitsuhiro vigorously nodded, even though he couldn’t see her. “Right. Tell the detective to check on Araki’s whereabouts. We’ll work with the police to trap him so he can’t escape.”
“Is Sae all right?”
Mitsuhiro clenched his fist. Hang in there. He nodded at his father’s voice. “She’ll be okay. We’ll find her soon. Then we’ll restore our home to how it used to be so we can all live there together.”
Miyoko sobbed softly on the other end of the line. “Be careful.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll be waiting by the phone.”
“Okay. I have to go now.”
When he hung up and turned around, Yoshikazu Hara was there, a stern expression on his face. In his hand was a plastic convenience-store bag with the clothes he had taken off.
“Sota Araki’s the son of the former Tamai president?”
“Um… Yes.”
“Ahh. I thought I was the only one bein’ cursed, but it’s him, too, huh?”
Mitsuhiro nodded again. “Yeah. It happened to me, too, but I’ve come back to my senses. I think Araki’s looking to offer my daughter to the hole instead.”
“Whoa, that ain’t good. You better do somethin’, quick. Is the director here yet?”
“I’ll check.”
He returned to the street with Yoshikazu Hara, right underneath the walkway that connected two of the city hall towers. He called Araki, but as expected, he didn’t answer. Instead, Chief Sugawara called.
“This is Matsunaga.”
“I’m in front of Building Number Two. It’s a white minivan.”
Mitsuhiro glanced around until he saw a Honda luxury van with the hazard lights on and the driver-side door open. Chief Sugawara was inside, waving. He ended the call, jogged over, and got into the back seat with Yoshikazu Hara.
“My name’s Yoshikazu Hara,” he said after Mitsuhiro was done thanking the director. “I saw you once, Chief, during a morning assembly when I was workin’ in the East Wing. Sorry to get in your fancy car when I’m like this.”
“Don’t worry about it. Should we go straight there, or should we ask some questions first—”
“Let’s go now, please. My daughter’s missing, and I think Araki took her.”
“Your daughter? Why?”
“It may be ‘compensation’ for my resistance to the curse.”
Chief Sugawara’s expression instantly soured. He started the car. “I’ll try to hurry.”
Mitsuhiro tried Araki’s cell again, to no avail.
“Can you not get in touch with Araki?”
“I’m calling him, but he’s not answering.”
“Here, Mr. Matsunaga, take this.”
The director reached behind and handed him something. It was a slightly faded amulet with “Tamai” embroidered on it. Mitsuhiro reached out and took it.
“This was given to me by the previous president Tamai. I’ll let you keep it for now, Mr. Matsunaga.”
“Thank you very much.”
Mitsuhiro put the amulet in the breast pocket of his jacket, alongside his father’s belongings. He was afraid he might panic now that his daughter was missing, but strangely, that didn’t happen. Mitsuhiro was desperately doing everything he could to remain calm, yes, but Sugawara and Yoshikazu Hara were there to keep him company, and he felt that the items in his breast pocket were mentally supporting him. Even the cut on his left hand was helping.
Chief Sugawara drove carefully and steadily, hurrying but not rushing through the heavy rain, and drove straight for Shibuya Station.
“That smell!” Yoshikazu Hara suddenly cried out. Mitsuhiro detected it a moment later. The dry air was filled with the stench of burning flesh.
Mitsuhiro opened the window halfway to let it escape, sniffed his jacket, then turned his nose toward Yoshikazu Hara. One of them might’ve been the source.
“I definitely smell it,” Sugawara said. But when he stopped at a red light at the Miyashita Park intersection, he leaned forward and looked at the AC vents by the front seat.
“I think it’s getting stronger.”
Chief Sugawara opened the driver-side window slightly and switched the air conditioner over to straight fan mode.
Instantly, a fierce odor filled the car, and all three of them covered their mouths and coughed. Then the engine suddenly roared with a deafening noise.
Mitsuhiro instinctively removed his hands from his mouth and covered both ears from the blast. Yoshikazu Hara, meanwhile, wrapped his arms around his head, trying to cover all his orifices at once.
Amid the assault of bizarre sensations, Mitsuhiro saw Sugawara quickly put the car in park, apply the parking brake, and try to turn off the engine. But the car didn’t fall silent. The engine noise just grew louder, more deafening and intense.
“Get out of the car, both of you!”
Just as Sugawara shouted to them, unbuckling his seat belt and twisting his body out, the hood of the car suddenly flew open, spewing steam, fire, and smoke into the air.
Mitsuhiro and Yoshikazu Hara also frantically unbuckled and tried to open the doors. Just as they did, all the AC vents in the car spewed out blinding flames and intense heat. It was like being surrounded by dozens of gas burners. All three men cried out in shock, desperately trying to open the doors as the sudden heat burned their hair and clothes.
But the doors refused to open, and the automatic window switches had stopped working. The fire spread from their clothes and hair to the car seats. Mitsuhiro screamed for his life, pressing his face against the half-open window. It was pouring rain outside, but the heat inside was so intense that his whole body was in agony. The three shuddered in despair, believing they would be cremated alive inside this car…
No! Mitsuhiro’s mind showed him an image of Araki taking Sae down the stairs leading to the ritual hall. I don’t want to die like this! Not in a fire!
Then someone in front of him started shouting.
“Get back! I’m going to break the window! Get back!”
Through his heat-blurred vision, Mitsuhiro saw a crowd of people gathering, and one of them was holding something up. He didn’t know what it was, but Mitsuhiro forced himself to retreat into the burning hell and cover his head with both arms. The pain was sharp, as if countless needles were being twisted into his back and head.
His jacket and shirt ignited, and he could clearly imagine his skin burning, radiating steam. Just then, the window shattered.
Several people immediately grabbed Mitsuhiro by the arms and sides and dragged him out of the window. He felt the water on the street and the pouring rain extinguishing the flames on his body as he was brought to the sidewalk.
Now all the windows of Chief Sugawara’s car had been smashed open. A few people in the crowd had brought along emergency-escape hammers, the kind used to break car windows if your car was sinking in water. The motorists waiting at the traffic light with them must have had a few handy. If this hadn’t occurred at such a busy city intersection, their chances of survival would have been much lower.
Immediately after Mitsuhiro was pulled to safety onto the sidewalk, Yoshikazu Hara was also dragged out. The clothes on both of them were burned and torn all over, but the men themselves were both on their feet and miraculously free of serious injury.
Chief Sugawara, who had been carried out last, wasn’t so lucky. He had been sitting in the driver’s seat, with more AC vents pointing at him than in the rear. Both sleeves of his suit were charred black, and his legs from the knees down looked like they had been roasting in an oven. His burnt shoes, feet still inside, were steaming now that the rain was falling on them.
“Chief!” Mitsuhiro yelled. “I’m calling an ambulance!”
Sugawara shook his head, his face contorted in pain. “Everyone in the crowd is doing that already. Get going. I’ll handle things here.”
“But…”
“This has to be stopped immediately. We can’t let it spread any further.”
Mitsuhiro saw that Sugawara was clutching the glasses he always kept in his breast pocket, and he nodded, jaw clenched.
“Yes. Thank you. Let’s go, Mr. Hara.”
“Ahh, Chief, I’m so sorry…”
“It’s okay. Please, go.”
Mitsuhiro and Yoshikazu Hara bowed to Chief Sugawara. They didn’t bother to grab their belongings from the smoldering car as they hurried toward Shibuya Station in the pouring rain, still groaning from the pain.