I’d never see that smile again...
But he’d handed the baton to me like this.
“I’ll tell you the two things I’m investigating that I’m sure about. The first is Ririka Nishizono and this manga that she wrote. The other is FM-KCZ, a mini-FM radio station in Kichijoji. Well, that one I’m about to investigate. There’s also the Hachifukushin Circle. Those guys are suspicious, too. Anyway, if I find something else out, I’ll make a note in my memories. Bye.”
The screen went blank. The memory replay ended.
— Performance complete.
I opened my eyes. I looked down at the card Moritsuka had left me.
He’d left me two, no, three hints.
“FM radio...” I whispered one of the last words he’d said. “What’s that?” I asked the detectives.
“You seriously don’t know?” Kozaki was astonished.
“I’m sorry. I’ve only lived in Japan for a year.”
“Kids these days don’t listen to the radio, huh? Well, I guess I only listen to it in the car, though.”
“What’s FM?”
“I think it’s the type of frequency or something... What’s this about a radio?”
“FM-KCZ in Kichijoji. Ever heard of a mini-FM radio station with that name?”
“Nope. Never.”
The two of them glanced at each other and thought. It seemed they really didn’t remember.
I took out my phone from my pocket and ran a search online. The first hit was for a homepage with an old design. It wasn’t a homepage for FM-KCZ itself, it was a list of mini-FM radio stations all across eastern Japan. One of those stations was FM-KCZ.
According to the page, it was privately run by one person, and the station broadcasted news about events in Kichijoji and introductions to local stores. However, it said, the station had been dormant for years. The reason was written on the page.
The host and operator passed away, so the broadcasts stopped.
Death. Again. But what did an FM radio station that stopped broadcasting years ago have to do with anything?
I explained what I’d found about FM-KCZ to Kozaki and Shinoyama and told them that Moritsuka had been researching it. But the two of them just looked suspicious.
“We don’t have any men to spare right now.” They’d said it before I could ask. I’d have to look into it myself.
I picked up my other clue, the manga, again. At the back of the book, Ririka Nishizono was listed as the author, and under her name was an email address and the name of the publishing company.
“It seems someone named Ririka Nishizono is the author of this book.” I glanced at the detectives. From the way they were frowning, it seemed... unlikely that they’d look into it.
It was hard to call this cooperative. They’d just said they needed all the help they could get, but it seemed they had no intention of helping me.
Feeling that this was a little unfair, I opened my phone and called Oliver. He picked up on the first ring.
“Learn anything?”
“I want you to look into someone for me. Ririka Nishizono. She’s using a free email address, it looks like.”
“Who is she?”
“Someone Moritsuka was looking into.”
“Give me the address.”
“Alright.”
I read him the email address off the last page of the manga. It was a commonly used free email service, but if he tracked it, he might be able to find a phone number.
“Wait five minutes,” he said, then hung up without waiting for my answer.
My heart started beating a little faster. It was probably because I’d used my psychometry twice in such a short time.
“May I sit?” I asked, pointing to a chair.
“S-Sure. You don’t look so good. You okay?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m just a little tired.” I sat down on the chair. I sighed a little and used my fingers to wipe the sweat off my forehead. “I’m sorry, can you at least look up the address for FM-KCZ? I’ll do the rest of the work myself.”
“I don’t know if we can use resources on something that’s not connected to the case...”
They were still hesitant. Fine, then.
I touched both of their hands at once.
“H-Hey, what are you doing?”
It seemed that even a big, tough policeman blushed when he was touched by a high school girl. But I wasn’t trying to seduce them.
— Begin the performance.
I’d start with a vision of Shinoyama. Important incidents in his life flashed by on the screen. I chose a few of the most obvious. Then I did the same thing for Kozaki.
“Kozaki, you went to a batting center on Sunday two weeks ago, didn’t you? While you were there, you hurt your right hand. Does it still hurt? You think you may have fractured it. I think you should go to a hospital.”
“What?!”
“And Shinoyama, you should make up with your wife as soon as possible, okay? This is your third big fight this year, right? Also, you had thirteen cigarettes yesterday, didn’t you? You were warned during your last physical that you were smoking too much, so you’d been limiting yourself to ten a day. But yesterday, after what happened with Moritsuka, you smoked three more than usual. Am I wrong?”
“H-How did you know...”
I needed both of them to understand that my psychometry worked, and I needed them to tell the rest of the station that Asuna Kizaki was the real thing.
“This is an official request for help from the FBI. Local information is most easily found by local police. So I want your help.”
“...R-Right.”
Shinoyama and Kozaki left the room, both looking confused.
Once they were gone, I took a minute to catch my breath and let my heart rate calm down. If just a few attempts at psychometry in a row were doing this to me, I was going to have a bad time soon. Using my powers was definitely shortening my lifespan, but if I didn’t use them now, I wouldn’t be able to find what Moritsuka was researching.
A call came in on my phone. The caller was unidentified, but it was probably Oliver.
“Yes, this is Kizaki.”
“Ririka Nishizono. A student at Seimei University. I’ll email you her address, phone, and social networking accounts. The rest of the information will take some time.”
“Thank you.”
“Until last month, she was using her email at least once a day, but for the past several days there’s no record that she logged in.”
“I see.” I was curious, but since neither of us could do anything but make guesses right now, I didn’t ask.
I decided to ask for something else instead. “Please look into a group called the Hachifukushin Circle as well.”
“Something else Moritsuka was looking into?”
“Yes.”
“Understood. I’ll call you as soon as I’ve got something,” he said, and then he hung up.
A moment later, an email came with Ririka Nishizono’s phone number in it. I called. The phone rang, but there was no sign of her picking up. If she hadn’t been using her email for several days, she was probably out of contact. If I wanted to be optimistic, it was possible she was on a trip overseas. Students were out of class this time of year.
I hung up the phone. The conference room was as quiet as a tomb. I had nothing to do now until the detectives got back. To be honest, I hadn’t expected to get this much information at the start of my investigation. I’d thought things would be harder. It was safe to say that this was thanks to Moritsuka.
Did he leave that message for me assuming that the FBI would send a psychometer, because he was worried about whether he’d survive? Was something that dangerous hidden within the case he was researching?
I read back through Ririka Nishizono’s doujin manga. It was awkward looking at the detailed depictions of men embracing one another.
“......Ugh.” Each new page introduced me to a world I’d never seen before. I was starting to feel dizzy.
I didn’t have a problem with homosexuality, as long as both people involved were happy. But how much demand was there in Japan for pictures of men having sex like this? Who was the target market, anyway? Men? Women? I had no idea. Where did Moritsuka find this book, anyway?
“Huh?” Suddenly, my eyes landed on one of the panels.
It was the second story in a collection of five stories. There was a box there that the manga identified as the “Kotoribako.” Unlike the characters in the manga, this drawing was detailed, as if the artist had been looking at it while she drew it.
At first I thought there was a pattern drawn on the surface of the box, but then I saw that all the lines in the pattern ran from side to side, as if the whole box was made from tiny little pieces of wood.
“A box...”
It reminded me of what Shinoyama had just told me about the murder at Enmeiji temple.
This was what Moritsuka had said in his memories about the box:
“You could say it’s like... Yes. Like a book of prophecy.”
“A book of prophecy...”
The title on the cover read The Bottom of the Deep Water. When I thought about what that meant, a chill ran up my spine.
Moritsuka had died in Inokashira Park in the middle of the night. He’d died at the bottom of deep water. And not alone, but with 255 other people.
It was like the book was foretelling that...
I gulped and slammed the manga shut.