Chapter 6

Moriya Foods’ employees and the facility staff were successfully freed from the brainwashing and returned to their normal lives. It was happily ever after for everyone. But of course, that wasn’t what happened. The commotion became a hot story and was widely reported on. After both Rumi and I had reported it as third-party witnesses, we quickly fled the scene. Apparently, the strange towerlike object had collapsed, causing not only injuries but deaths. On top of that, in the surrounding gloomy and overgrown bamboo grove, they found an esoteric collection of things. For instance— “They must have been people,” Rumi suddenly said to me. “What?” I said, my voice cracking. Rumi threw her magazine onto the desk. Written on the cover in large yellow letters was the headline BRAINWASHING FROM A TO Z: THE YOUTHS WHO WASTED THEIR LIVES ON THE SPIRITUAL. She sat down on the couch. “I’m talking about the ‘deer,’” Rumi said. I paused, not comprehending. She took a sip of her coffee before going on. “I’m talking about the ritual Shimamoto participated in. On the sixth day of his part-time job, he said they had him dissect frogs. Something about that story was odd to me. There were people from the Deer, Bird, Rabbit, Fish, and Frog rooms. Presumably, they were all made to dissect the animals of their respective rooms. According to Shimamoto, he saw in his periphery a person dissecting large numbers of rabbits—he was able to identify the carcasses as those of rabbits, but he said the person two away was dissecting ‘some large animal.’ Why?” I gave the question some thought and started to feel sick. I hadn’t been there, but I could picture the scene in my head. I thought about the magazine Rumi had read: ANOTHER VICTIM GONE MISSING! A MYSTERIOUS, LUCRATIVE PART-TIME JOB? THE ORGAN BLACK MARKET EDITION. Countless animal carcasses. A room splattered with blood and viscera. Among them, the corpses of— “I don’t like the picture you’re hinting at…,” I said in a strangled voice. Rumi laughed. “It’s just a guess. A hypothesis. But it could be correct.” That was right. There was no guarantee that it wasn’t. In the woods surrounding the facility overgrown with various trees, they found traces of a number of people. Jan, the person who had commanded the terrible deeds to be done, was most likely gone. The devotees who had carried out his orders had no memories. The responsibility naturally fell on the owner of the land, Hidemitsu Moriya. However, like the other followers, he had lost his memory, too. Two weeks after the incident, Mr. Moriya took blanket responsibility and stepped down from his position. Even after his resignation, the investigation into him would no doubt continue. It made my heart hurt to think about it. We had let the mastermind go. We hadn’t told the police the complete truth. Rumi might have made the final decision, but I was an accomplice, too. “You look concerned,” Rumi said, as if she had read my mind. “I won’t tell you not to worry, but…even if we told the truth, no one would have believed us.” True enough. There were people who would believe the idea of religious brainwashing, but what Jan had done was different from normal manipulation. Usually, the perpetrator cuts their victim off from the outside world, makes them believe they have no one to rely on, and controls them with bouts of violence. It happens over a long period of time. However, Jan was different. All it took was hearing a few of his whispered words—no, merely setting eyes on him was enough to turn his victim into a doll that would do as he said. Who would believe a normal human possessed such a power? Hypothetically, suppose I told the police, “A nineteen-year-old boy named Haruki Kashiwagi rounded up social outcasts and performed religious rituals. The rituals are suspected to have included illegal acts like murder. Everyone in Moriya Foods, from the executives to the employees, was brainwashed. All Hidemitsu Moriya did was provide a location. He doesn’t know anything.” The police would treat my testimonial as the ramblings of a madman, and after cutting out half the details at random, they would conclude that Moriya Foods was a front for a religious group. If that happened, innocent people would end up heavily punished. In that case, spinning the incident as gruesome murders perpetrated by a collective of youths with nowhere to go resulted in fewer sacrificial lambs, even if it was a lie. He was just a victim, but— I looked at the picture of an emaciated Hidemitsu Moriya on my phone and felt miserable. “What do you think they’re doing now?” I asked, changing the topic to drive the image of Mr. Moriya’s face from my head. A letter came from Emi Shimamoto a few days ago. It contained only what was probably her current address, written tinily in beautiful handwriting that suited her. “Who knows. I bet they’re living a surprisingly normal life,” Rumi said. She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I was a little taken aback. “When you say normal…?” I ventured. “Oh, is that unacceptable? I understand how you feel. He denied it, but he probably wanted to be Jesus Christ and save everyone. However, that is an overly childish fantasy. He caused trouble for many people. Looking at it objectively, he was a regular criminal, and criminals don’t deserve forgiveness, right?” “That’s not what I meant.” I sat down across from her. “I was only wondering whether it was okay to leave a person who had such strong powers alone. I don’t know what you did, but…at the time, he just looked like he was sleeping. Now that he’s woken up, don’t you think he’ll do it all again?” “Don’t worry.” Rumi socked me on the left side of my chest. “He’s inside me.” “What do you mean?” “I opened the door, took him in, and closed it again.” “That doesn’t explain anything…” She ignored me completely and bit into a slice of roll cake. Well, I also didn’t want to pry any further. I was curious to know, but if Rumi wanted to tell me, she would eventually. That was the kind of person she was. Her silence implied that she didn’t feel like talking about it yet. In any case, Jan was no longer dangerous. His disgustingly magnificent powers were gone. For the time being, that was what I gleaned from her explanation. “All right, enough about Jan,” I said. “What about Emi?” “She’s living a normal life. That’s what I think.” Rumi swallowed some more tea and cake. An animalistic groan came from her throat. “I suppose we should check in on her once in a while. I’m worried her brother might try to do something to her, too.” I scowled in anger toward the other man and remembered what had happened a few days ago. Youta Shimamoto had paid the Sasaki Agency a visit, bringing with him a blunt weapon like a steel pipe. Rumi had sensed the danger and called the police. Thanks to her quick thinking, they managed to avoid a physical altercation, but Youta had intended to break down the door with the pipe, so the entrance to the office was a wreck. He was arrested on charges of criminal damage, unlawful entry, and attempted injury. Moreover, on top of the physical damage, there was a good chance he had spread bad rumors about their business on the web. In the last month, there had been a flood of negative comments on the review pages for the agency, and on the building’s website, we were now listed as a “public restroom,” when we used to be a “fortune teller.” We were going to sue for both the breaking and entering and the slander, but Youta was a first offender, and he was more reputable in the eyes of society than we were. He would most likely get off easy. Youta had screamed at the police who had responded to our call as they dragged him away. I had never seen an uglier expression on anyone before. More than the creepy religious group Jan had created, more than everything that had happened during the case, his face in the moment was the most terrifying of all. “You’re right,” I said to Rumi. “I wish I could help her, but…I don’t think there’s anything we can do.” “You’re a kind person. I’m sure if you were to listen quietly to her talk, that would be help enough,” she said. “Why not take that chance to persuade her to join the Pádraig Aoba Church?” “Hold on, I don’t—” “I’m joking,” she said, laughing out loud. Then her expression turned serious. “…But not completely. It’s a shame.” “What is?” I asked. “She has an extremely weak sense of self.” Rumi looked off into the distance. “It’s understandable. She’s a victim. Nonetheless…before she found a job, she was under her brother’s thumb. After she joined Moriya Foods, she did what Jan told her… Considering her personality, what do you think will happen to her now that she’s been tossed into the world all of a sudden? If you take into account her looks… There are plenty of people in the world as awful as Mr. Shimamoto and as dangerous as Jan. She’ll be the perfect target for them. Better for her to be under the control of upright people like your folks than to be caught by fiends. That’s what I really believe.” “You’re belittling her,” I said, looking at her straight on. “You were the one who told her to decide for herself. And she chose to live with Jan. She can make her own decisions. I know you’re uneasy, but it’ll be okay. I’m sure of it.” “I hope so,” she muttered. She placed her fork down on the plate. “It might be easier to understand using a parent-and-child dynamic. Take, for instance, a parent who passes on their dream of being a first-rate pianist to their child and makes their child undergo strict piano lessons—‘passing on their dream’ is a pretty way to put it—but eventually, the child will start aiming to become a top pianist themselves. “This is a parent and child we’re talking about, so it can be taken as part of the child’s education. Besides, the child might actually enjoy piano and work hard for their own sake. Once they develop a sense of self, they might abandon the path of the piano, too. Even so, if the parent forces them to continue, it will become abuse.” “Um, what are you trying to say exactly?” “The problem is that the same dynamic can occur between two adults. When a person with no will of their own meets a person they can trust, they end up doing whatever the other person says. They are two separate people, but at some point, the weak person ends up adopting their partner’s desires as their own. Even when brainwashing isn’t involved. Not to mention, at the very end, she—” The words Rumi had cut off. The words Emi had said with a joyful smile. She had seemed truly happy. However… I couldn’t sit still anymore. I grabbed my bag and stood up. “I’ll contact my dad. I don’t know if it’ll help, but I’ll call her… I’ll listen to her.” “You might as well.” Rumi seemed like she was about to say something but stopped in the middle. Her hand hung in the air momentarily before she withdrew it. “Good luck,” she whispered, forcing a smile onto her face. “Rumi…” “If you’re going to go, you should hurry up.” I nodded and dashed out the door. I was worried about Rumi, but Emi was the priority at the moment, surely. I can raise him, right? It was exactly as Rumi said. Emi had replaced her own goals with Jan’s. And according to Rumi, Emi was just as powerful as Jan. For her to raise a person—to raise Jan, that implied… Her rapturous smile popped into my head. Those two should never have met. References The Book of Christianity (New Sight Mook—Books Esoterica), 2 vols. (Gakken Plus). New Interconfessional Translation Bible (Japan Bible Society). Saito, Hideki. The Way of Izanagi—Proclamations and Rituals Expanded Edition (Houzoukan Bunko). Yonemoto, Kazuhiro. Children of Cults—Families Whose Minds Were Stolen (Bunshun Bunko).