Learning so much about a person, things that no one else knew—it was fun. He was aware that stalking was a crime. He’d even been on the receiving end of it himself, so he knew just how unpleasant it could be. But once he started, he couldn’t stop. He didn’t want to stop.
Eiko had found out in the end, calling him the “lowest of the low” and “a disgusting creep.” Despite those harsh words, she had a forgiving nature. Even after the truth was exposed, she would stand and chat with Toshihiko whenever she ran into him, as if none of it had never happened.
Strangely, once they became something like real friends, Toshihiko lost all interest in her. He’d apologized for his actions and removed the surveillance devices from Eiko’s room. He never contacted her or her brother again. The two of them actually went missing at some point, but even before then, it had been years since he’d spoken to either of them. Toshihiko’s passion lay in learning everything he could about the unknown. His spirit of inquiry had just reached such an extreme that it had become a crime in the eyes of society.
After Eiko, he moved on to other targets and did the same thing. They hadn’t inspired the same level of excitement, but it had been satisfying enough. It didn’t really matter whom he stalked—it was the deed itself he found so enjoyable.
Fortunately, none of these new targets ever found him out. Maybe that was because he never got as far as invading their personal space. Instead, he would pick a random social media account and use their posts and contacts to figure out their address. From there, it was a matter of hanging around their place of work or anywhere else they might be and taking pictures of them when they weren’t looking. He’d done this so many times, he’d become pretty good at nailing down the specifics of a person based on limited information.
Given Toshihiko’s attention-grabbing appearance, he wouldn’t have been too successful as a private detective. He was confident that his observation and intel-gathering skills were on par with most pros, though. Now he could put all that experience to good use, turning the tables on his stalker by finding out her true identity.
He wasn’t sure what he would do when he found out who the woman was. She might have been the source of his pain and suffering, but she was also giving him a chance to indulge his hobby for the first time in a while. He couldn’t deny it was an exciting prospect.
According to one school of thought, stalkers were most likely to target people they knew by sight at least. Celebrities and pop stars were an obvious example, but other stalkers latched on to random people they’d only ever passed on the street. Toshihiko himself had pursued random targets later in his “career,” but he’d started with a childhood acquaintance. He’d been fairly close to the people who’d stalked him, too—coworkers, former classmates, people from the gym.
When he thought about it that way, the “former classmates” connection was the weakest. Toshihiko hadn’t contacted anyone from school or his childhood for at least five years. He’d gotten an invitation to the class reunion when he turned thirty, but he hadn’t even replied to it. It was unlikely this stalker was someone who’d randomly thought of him after all these years and had suddenly gotten obsessed with him.
He didn’t go to the gym anymore, and he barely went out socially. The only acquaintances of his who were worth mentioning were from work. If the stalker really was someone who knew him, he could narrow his pool of suspects to women he worked with. That seemed like the best place to start, beginning with the ones he was closest to and working his way out.
It was almost the end of his first class after returning to work. Toshihiko cast a glance around the classroom. None of the female students seemed suspicious to him. In fact, the only time he didn’t feel that clingy gaze on him was when he was in class. There was always a chance his students were simply playing innocent, however, so he couldn’t eliminate them just yet. After his lecture, several students asked him if he was any worse after his accident. It was then that he noticed something.
Mirei wasn’t there.
He went back to the faculty room to check the attendance records and found that she was absent today. If she was just playing hooky, that would be one thing, but she’d never missed one of Toshihiko’s classes before. He couldn’t help wondering about it. He doubted she blamed herself for the incident, but maybe she was avoiding him in case something similar happened again?
“Something troubling you?”
He turned around at the sound of a voice coming from behind him. It was Midori. She was wearing a vibrant cobalt-blue dress that complemented her slender figure.
“Uh, not exactly…”
Detective Kamemura’s rebuke echoed in the back of his mind. “You have to be careful how you act around people when you look like that. You could give them ideas.” Midori very obviously had a crush on Toshihiko. If he was honest and told her he was worried about Mirei, she might take it the wrong way and get jealous. She probably wouldn’t have quite as aggressive a stance as the stalker, but he didn’t want to risk getting a student involved in any more trouble.
He didn’t think Midori was the kind of immature person who’d fly off the handle like that. However, even people who seemed perfectly sensible, mature, and emotionally stable could do crazy, irrational things when love was involved. And she did fall into the demographic of “women he worked with.” On the other hand, his moment of hesitation was as good as admitting there was something on his mind, so he decided to come clean.
“I was wondering where Nakamura was. She was with me when I had my accident, but she wasn’t in my class today. Have you seen her?”
“Mirei Nakamura? She wasn’t in my class, either. Not that she ever took classes here very seriously to begin with. She never missed yours, though—how strange. Maybe she’s still traumatized by what she saw? I’ll see if I can find out anything.”