Chapter 9

Mairu gave her a big thumbs-up and said, “Good idea, right? Kuru and I will help, too!” Then she turned that thumbs-up toward Kuon and added, “And you can go and ask Aocchi’s gang for help!” Kuon was the one most surprised by this. “Wha—? Hey—I have to help, too? And get Kuronuma involved and everything?” “Nobody’s forcing you. But you know what? You’re not really the kind of person who says, ‘Hey, amateurs like us should stay out of trouble and leave this to the police,’ or, ‘Why should I bother?’ are you?” The implicit message in her tone and look was clear: I know you love sticking your head into trouble like this. That was, at the very least, part of Kuon’s personality. He smiled back at the girl who was his senior at both school and dojo, cheek twitching, and simply shook his head. “I’m amazed you can be so confident about that, given we’ve only met a few times,” he said. “My brother’s really good at that sort of thing. Must be in our blood,” Mairu said, cackling. She tried to reassure Akane by saying, “Look, it’ll be fine. I’m sure she’s just acting out and running away, and we’ll find her safe and sound.” “But…” Akane was still worried. “Now, now, you can worry that you’re placing a burden on us later!” Mairu said. “Me and these boys are doing what we want because we want to, and we know there’s a possibility it might lead to danger. You have to recognize that sometimes older folks are simply going to do something nice for you, Akane!” Kuon interjected, “Well, I’m not doing it of my own free will…” Mairu leered back at him. “So you’re not getting involved? I’ll just ask Aocchi myself, then.” “…No, I’ll do it. Might as well see this thing through,” he grumbled reluctantly. Akane considered these statements some more and seemed to arrive at a resolution. A newfound look of commitment entered her eyes, and she bowed. “Thank you very much… I appreciate your help!” she said, clenching the rod she was holding. “But…if it starts looking dangerous, please stop right away. The last thing I want is for any of you to be in danger…” Kuon shrugged his shoulders and teased, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, if anyone here is likely to be in danger, it’s the youngest of us all, isn’t that right?” “Kuon, I wouldn’t underestimate Akane if I were you. She might only be starting middle school, but she’s a rising star in the Rakuei Jodo Dojo!” “For real?! Wow…okay, then the person here who needs to be the most careful is Yahiro,” he decided, slapping Yahiro on the back. “Uh, y-yeah, I’ll be careful.” The other boy smiled, feeling conflicted. He tried to change the subject by asking Akane, “So, uh…anyway, what’s the name of this girl who went missing?” She took a deep breath, let it out, and stated, “Tatsugami. Her name is Ai Tatsugami.” “Huh?” Tatsugami. That had a familiar sound to it. Yahiro started wondering if it was just a common name around the Ikebukuro area, but he quickly came to a more logical conclusion. She was related to the Tatsugami girl that he knew. And Yahiro wasn’t the only one arriving at that thought. Kuon inclined his head slightly and said, “Isn’t there…a Tatsugami in our class, too? Are they related?” Yahiro couldn’t say for certain. “Well…they might be, but we can’t be sure yet.” The missing girl named Tatsugami was a huge fan of the Headless Rider. It would be ridiculous to assume they had no connection. Yahiro felt his classmate’s warning rise to the surface of his mind. “Don’t dig too deeply into the Headless Rider.” He was getting dragged into something. That much, Yahiro the coward was certain of. But there was no way to stop at this point. Struggling against the cloud of anxiety storming in his chest, the timid boy decided that he would continue onward. After that, Yahiro observed Kuon performing his gym training, took a pamphlet, and went home. Kuon and Akane left when they were done, too, which left just Mairu behind, waiting for her sister to arrive in the waiting room. “I gotta tell Kuru about this. Starting tomorrow, we’re going on a manhunt with the Secret Society of Hot-Blooded Cold-Blooded Ikebukuro Detectives’ Secret Society. Whoops, I said ‘secret society’ twice. Oh, well, it doesn’t matter.” She was sitting in a chair in the waiting room, kicking her legs and passing the time by coming up with names for the impromptu group, feeling excited about the whole thing, when a voice from the hallway called out, “Hey, Mairu.” “Oh! Instructor Mikage! Good evening!” It was Mikage Sharaku. She was the daughter of Rakuei Gym’s president, an instructor with a distinctly athletic appearance. Mairu had known her since joining the gym, and they often spoke to each other not as teacher and student but like friends of very different ages. She asked Mairu, “Those boys you were talking to earlier—are they friends of yours?” “Who, Kuon and Mizuchi? They’re students at Raira. They said they just started school today.” “Hmm…were they practicing?” “Huh? Well, Kuon’s been a member of Rakuei Dojo for years. He was going to the Takadanobaba location, he said. What’s up, Mikage?! Do you think he’s oozing with potential or something?! Is he like Mr. Kisa, where he could potentially be the second coming of Traugott?!” Mairu asked excitedly. She hadn’t seen Kuon practicing for herself. But Mikage shook her head. “Kuon is the one with the green hair, right? Well, he’s practicing our style. So it was clear from a glance that he’d been one of our pupils for a while…” Then she paused, thought for a moment, and asked, “The boy who was just watching. His name was Mizuchi, you said?” “Yep… What about him? Oh, is he your type, Mikage?” “Don’t be stupid. That’s not it… I mean, has he been practicing something?” “Hmm? Has he? I didn’t ask. I would assume that Kuon would’ve brought it up if he was aware,” said Mairu, taken aback that it was Yahiro the older instructor was curious about. “What is it about him? He seemed pretty reserved to me.” “Did you look at his hands?” “His hands? Um, I guess I didn’t. What was it about Mizuchi’s hands?” Mikage considered her answer carefully, then laid down an ultimatum. “What I’m going to say to you now cannot get passed to his ears or anyone else’s. Except for Kururi, I suppose, since I’m sure you’ll tell her no matter what. That’s fine but nobody else. Can you keep it to yourself?” Mairu stopped kicking her legs and stared at her instructor’s solemn face with a smile. “Yeah. I promise.” “Thank you. I wouldn’t want him to suffer any strange rumors.” Mikage put a coin in the waiting room’s vending machine and hit the button for a sports drink with a blend of amino acids. She continued, “He was sitting all prim and proper, watching very keenly, but I just happened to catch a glimpse of his hands resting on his knees…” She picked up the canned beverage that emerged from the machine. “They were all scarred to hell.” “Scarred?” True, if you practiced karate by striking those posts wrapped with rough straw rope, it was easy to scar up your fingers. But Mairu couldn’t see why that would be such cause for concern. “You could get scars like that from having a cat and getting bitten, though,” she said. “…Yes, that’s true,” Mikage admitted. “Those were definitely teeth marks. But not cat teeth.” “Hwa?” “I only know this from personal experience…,” Mikage said. Mairu looked at the hands holding the sports drink and realized there were a number of old scars there—not the kind you picked up from regular martial arts training. “Those are human teeth marks,” she finished. “…Like someone bit him?” Mairu wondered. Mikage shook her head. “When you punch someone in the mouth and break their teeth, the jagged parts will stick into your skin sometimes.” “…” “And when you keep punching and punching and punching after they’re broken, it guarantees more wounds. It’s not a smart move because of the risk of infection. There are much easier ways to take out an opponent if you’re that much stronger than them.” Mikage envisioned the hands she had seen, the details that it had etched upon her mind. Her expressionless face hid the stew of complex emotions behind it. The conclusion was clear. “Those scars on Mizuchi’s hands… Those were put there by broken teeth.” “…You’re sure?” “And with so many…I can’t even imagine how many people’s teeth he’s broken.” Mikage took a sip of the drink. She smiled weakly and muttered to herself. “It gave me the shivers.” Takadanobaba—Kuon’s apartment “I’m home.” Kuon Kotonami’s first destination back at home was his elder sister’s room in the back. Moving boxes were stacked almost to the ceiling near the doorway. They were split into separate towers of opened and unopened things. Between the towers were glimpses of the floor, upon which were piled emptied teacups and plates, along with neatly arranged chopsticks. “Oh! You ate all your food today, Sis,” he said, picking up the dishes, but he was not actually addressing someone present in the room. “For being so regular about taking showers, you sure do hate eating food in the kitchen. I don’t understand the difference.” He took the dishes back to the sink, grumbling to himself all the while. Aside from his sister’s room, the apartment was neat and tidy, without so much as a spot of mold around the sink. Kuon fastidiously washed the dishes, then sat on the sofa in the living room and opened the laptop resting on the table there. Then he turned on the TV and used his spare hand to thumb down the screen of his smartphone. “And now…” The evening news program was on the TV. He put the phone to his ear. “Hi there.” “” “I know, I know. I called because I have some intel for you,” Kuon said to the person on the other end, grinning to himself. He announced his findings. “Nope, nothing crazy about the entrance ceremony. In fact, I had the craziest appearance. Lotta Goody Two-shoes at Raira Academy, it seems like.” “” “A lot of other stuff happened today, though. I found an interesting pawn.” Unlike the simpering, polite smile he wore before the class earlier today, the grin on Kuon’s face now was somehow cold. “Would you believe this? A guy who moved all the way here from Akita, just to see the Headless Rider!” “” “No, it’s true! See? That’s the kind of person we’ve been looking for, right? And he seemed pretty naive and trusting, so I’m sure we can get him to do what we want. Like, I was seriously ready to be his friend.” “” “I’m just kidding. Do I look like a guy who has friends?” said Kuon, shrugging. “His name’s Yahiro Mizuchi…and he’s got all kinds of gifts.” Kuon envisioned the face of the peon he’d found that day and narrowed his eyes until they were like a snake’s. “And because I was walking around with him, I found a number of other things I could potentially harvest.” Rakuei Gym Now that Mikage had brought up Yahiro, she turned to the topic of the other student. “By the way, what’s up with that Kuon boy? He seemed to be taking his practice pretty seriously. I bet if my brother or dad see him, they’ll yell, ‘Dye your hair black!’ Everybody’s so old-fashioned around here.” “Hmm. Well, I think it’s fun, so I’m fine with him staying green,” Mairu replied. She thought it over a bit. “I guess he’s a bad guy. The kind who uses others rather than doing stuff himself. I’m betting he’s here at this dojo so he can learn the minimum of self-defense. Just in case it’s a necessity. Oh, and I said, ‘it’s a,’ not ‘Iza.’ Although…speaking of Iza, I think this guy’s the same type of person.” “…If he’s like your brother, then he’s more of a pure scumbag than a bad guy,” murmured Mikage with a wistful look. “And what’s his connection to that Mizuchi boy, then?” “He said they were friends, but I think he’s using him. Mizuchi definitely seemed very naive. I just don’t know what he’s using him for.” “…I’m amazed that you can be so friendly with a guy you describe this way, Mairu.” After that, Mairu told Mikage about what she’d discussed with the boys. When it came to the conversation with Akane, Mikage laughed. “Ohhh, so they’ve decided to go searching for Akane’s upperclassman.” “Yeah. I hope they find her…” “Well, let’s hope those boys don’t get any funny ideas about messing with Akane. I assume they have no idea about her background,” Mikage said, placing her can into the trash. But Mairu said, “I’m sure Mizuchi doesn’t know. I’m not so sure about Kuon.” “?” “If he’s hanging around with Aocchi, I’m certain he has to know about the Awakusu-kai.” Kuon’s apartment “Yep, Akane Awakusu. The granddaughter of Dougen Awakusu, leader of the Awakusu-kai!” “” “Hilarious, right? The pampered little daughter of the Awakusu, claiming she has connections to the Headless Rider,” Kuon said to his phone partner with delight, wearing an expression he was careful never to show in Akane’s presence. “Well, when Yahiro said he’d help her find this person, I wondered what was up, but the end result should be pretty entertaining. Anyway, the girl that Akane Awakusu wants to find is named—let’s see…Ai Tatsugami…” “, ?” “Yeah, I assume they have to be related. The journalist who disappeared not long ago was an Aya Tatsugami, right?” “” Kuon nodded. “Yeah, if you could look into that, I’d appreciate it. I don’t have connections to any publishers, of course. Oh, and this might be just a coincidence…but there’s a Tatsugami in my class, too. Seems standoffish, but she’s pretty cute.” “” “No, no, nothing like that. But if she’s related, too, that’d be the jackpot. Anyway, I want to be careful about this. It could end up involving millions of yen, maybe tens of millions. If there’s any bidding competition…it’d be Kuronuma, I guess. He knows everything I’m up to, after all.” Then Kuon asked the person on the other end, “What’s up with you, then? Anything interesting happening?” “” “Uh…hang on! Who got out of prison? A big name? Dollars? Or Yellow Scarves? Huh? Blue Squares?!” Like a snake that had just spotted prey, Kuon’s eyes sparkled with excitement. But that gleam clouded over within moments. “” “Former Blue Square, now a Yellow Scarf… Horada…?” “” “Okay…So he’s finally out, huh…? Horada… The Horada…Horada, Horada…” His face went blank, and then his head inclined a bit with indecision. “…Sorry, who’s that?”