“I’m afraid that I can’t share any information about my clients.”
“Aww, come on. Tell me. I’ll keep it off the record.”
“I refuse. Is that all?”
“Hmm... I suppose there’s one more thing, while I’m here. Ria Minase.”
“Yes.”
He caught me off guard. He’d used my real name, and I’d answered.
I groaned to myself. He’d used my real name deliberately. But why? Did he just want me to know that he’d done his research on me? But if so, what was the point of telling me that?
“Have you ever heard of ‘Kodoku’?”
“No.”
“Put simply, it’s a type of spell where you seal a pot filled with all kinds of insects and make them kill each other until only the strongest remains,” he explained.
“I’ve never heard of it. My agency only deals in Western magics.”
“So you know that the Kodoku is Eastern magic. Aww, and you just told me you didn’t know, too.”
He’d caught me off guard again.
An emotional girl was a poor match for my logical and gentle older brother. I resolved to do better as I lowered my eyes.
“I pride myself on being well-informed on Western magic, so I assumed that if I didn’t know it, it must be something else.”
“I see. And so you thought it must be Eastern magic.”
“No. I thought it might be from the mainland as well.”
“Ahh, yeah. That’s possible too, isn’t it? You’ve sure got me there.” He was clearly doing this on purpose.
“You certainly know a lot about magic.”
“Nah, in the world of 2D culture, it’s well-known.”
I still had no idea what he was actually here for.
It felt I was being slowly strangled by an invisible thread. There was no need for me to feel pain. There was no reason for me to feel guilty. So why...
Why did it feel like I was being slowly pushed into a corner?
It was like a “curse.”
Stay calm. Stay calm. If I let him scare me, I was just doing what he wanted. I needed to deal with this properly, like a black magic agent.
“So what does this Kodoku have to do with the box that was found at the temple? Don’t tell me that the person who was found dead inside was a victim of it.”
“No, it doesn’t feel like they killed people to try to make a Kodoku. The body showed no signs of life. It seemed to have been torn apart after death. But there’s one thing I’m curious about. Supposedly, if you use the last surviving insect of a Kodoku as the vessel for your spell, it vastly enhances the spell’s power. By sacrificing the disgusting creature that fought all the other insects in the pot, ate their corpses, and slurped up their urine and feces, you can make your magic more than twice as strong.”
“That’s very interesting,” I said, not interested at all.
“Whoa. You don’t sound interested at all.” Moritsuka shrugged. Did he look surprised because he expected me to act more interested? What a ridiculous joke.
“My black magic does not use corpses.”
“That’s right. You use hair, don’t you? It didn’t say that on your web page, though.”
“If you ever make an official request for a job, I’ll tell you then.”
“Hmm... Unfortunately, there’s no one I want to kill right now.”
“Then please leave.” I was finally able to say it.
Any more would simply be a waste of time and a source of stress. No matter what he said now, I wanted him to know that I had no intention of listening.
“Oh... Can I ask one last question, then?”
“No. Please leave.”
Moritsuka ignored me. Beneath the light of the exposed bulb, the young detective’s cap cast a shadow on his face, making his expression hard to read.
“Do you think it’s a crime to kill someone with black magic?”
Who was he talking about? Did he think I’d been responsible for the Enmeiji murder?
He was so wrong that I almost laughed. “All I do is pray. I don’t do the deed myself. The deed is done by the hand of the devil, who is the lord of evil.”
“Hmm, so I could probably string you and this imaginary devil up as co-conspirators.”
Imaginary... devil?
“If you’d like to try, go ahead.”
It would only end with him being laughed at.
“By the way,” he said. I realized that the deliberately cheerful tone was gone from Moritsuka’s voice. “How did you know Chizu Kawamoto was at Enmeiji?”
“The devil told me. He said there was strong karma gathered there.”
“Where did you meet this imaginary devil? Is he someone you can trust?”
“I believe I asked you to leave.”
“Now, now... This is really my last question,” he said. He pushed up the brim of his cap and leaned forward, close enough that I could feel his breath.
And then...
...he whispered in my ear.
“You don’t really believe in devils, do you?”
I was struck dumb.
In the tiny, gloomy room, with no light at all from the outside, Moritsuka laughed as if he could read my mind. But the eyes that were staring at me weren’t smiling at all.
“Ria Minase. You loved your brother, didn’t you? It’s nice to have a sibling. I always wanted a cute little sister who would look up to me.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Slowly, a cold sensation began to creep upwards from my toes. I shivered and looked away from him.
Don’t touch me! I wanted to scream.
In fact, his hands were still in his coat pockets, and there was no way he could touch me.
I was trapped in the spider web of his words, and suddenly I found myself unable to move a muscle. That’s how it felt.
“Your relationship, Minase, with this imaginary devil, seems like the exact opposite of the ones I’m familiar with from black magic. Like you’re the servant, and the devil is the master?”
I simply stared at him.
“So here’s what I’m trying to say: Isn’t this what you were always looking for? A master who could take the place of your brother? And that’s how you’re keeping yourself stable... or rather, content.”
Like a snake, the coldness that had been rising up from my toes coiled itself around my neck. I almost screamed.
“What you wanted wasn’t knowledge of black magic, or loyal familiars who would carry out your will. It was someone who would make you certain that you were really there, that you existed, when sometimes it didn’t feel like you did. Am I wrong?”
I found myself unable to react.
“You wanted something like your brother, someone who would accept you unconditionally when you were depressed. Wouldn’t you have been happy with anything that fit those conditions? A man, or even a devil—”
“LEAVE!” I pushed Moritsuka as hard as I could.
“Whoa! You scared me!” Moritsuka fell backwards and landed on the ground.
I started throwing things, antique candlestick holders and pen stands, at him. But they didn’t hit him. Instead, they crashed against the walls and floor with a crash.
“What are you doing?! You’re interfering with the duties of a public servant!”
“Leave! Leave!” I was so angry I was panting. How long had it been since I’d raised my voice like this? The only thing I wanted to do was curse the detective in front of me until he was dead. “Get out of here! Now!”
Moritsuka shrugged a little and stood up. He brushed the dust off his coat.
“I’m sorry. Looks like I pushed a little too hard. I won’t prosecute you for attacking me, so please forgive me for being rude. Goodbye,” he said, and then he waved as he left the shop. As I listened to the sound of his shoes going down the stairs, I grabbed Peter, the familiar nearest to me.
The devil didn’t appear in my shop that day. Neither did a single customer. So I didn’t know how long I spent there, shivering.
It wasn’t something I wanted to remember. I bit my lip and shook the memories from my mind.
At some point, a huge list of names had begun to appear on the screen. It was a list of the 256 victims of the Inokashira incident.
How much meaning was there in each of those names? What difference was there between these names and the ones written by my clients?
As I thought about it...
Suddenly, amidst the list of names...
I saw it.
“Ria Minase.”
“Oh...” Even though I called myself Aria Kurenaino now, my real name wasn’t something I could easily forget, and I recognized it instantly on the screen.
It was the name I’d thrown away. The name of my brother’s little sister. It was a name that I wasn’t worthy of, now that I’d made a pact with a devil.
I chuckled a little and looked up at the ceiling of my living room, where a useless, elaborate chandelier hung.
“I’d thought maybe that was the case.”
I didn’t feel like trying to convince myself that it wasn’t true. Really, it felt like it made sense. The despair was actually kind of refreshing.
“I can’t believe my wish came true like this...”
I’d wanted to die. If I died, I thought I could see my brother again. I’d waited so long for the day to come.
But now that I was actually dead, I still hadn’t seen my brother. The person I’d most wanted to see in the afterlife was nowhere to be found.
“Oh... How maddeningly enticing, and how maddeningly cruel...” I covered my face with both hands. This must be hell, not heaven. It was the perfect place for a girl who’d clung to a devil for help.
What was my brother thinking when he looked down on me from heaven? It felt like I was even farther from my brother than when I’d been clinging to life.
〈You have no right to that yet.〉
I remembered what the devil had told me about dying when we’d first met.