There was nobody at school.
...I couldn't hear the playful voices of children... This was the first time I'd seen the school with such a lack of human presence.
Still, I quieted my breath... and looked around, not wanting to be unprepared.
It had gotten darker outside... but it was almost like my eyes could see more clearly now.
I made absolutely sure of my safety... then walked to the heavy construction machine I'd hidden the metal bat behind.
...I had a tinge of worry, a premonition... that someone had found the bat and hidden it somewhere else as a prank...
...If that happened... would I take that as an opportunity to desist?
...If... it really wasn't there, then.........
The sensation of chilled metal.
...It was still here where I left it.
...It hadn't run away.
...Satoshi hadn't run away.
...He'd waited here patiently... for me.
"...Sorry for the wait, Satoshi.
.........It's been a long time coming... You prepared for this?"
...Through the metallic touch, Satoshi grins at me in my mind.
...That's what I should be asking, you know.
I did this last year already.
You should be more worried about yourself.
"...Right on, Satoshi.
......Let's show him a bad time..."
Satoshi's bat got lighter and lighter... and fit into my hands like it was being absorbed.
...It didn't feel wrong to swing this.
...I could move it around so naturally it was like an extension of my own right arm.
......Of course it felt like that.
Satoshi and I were holding one bat together.
...Next... I would make the call... to lure the man out.
It... wasn't a bad time for it.
...My friends were doubtlessly parading happily through the stalls.
......I hadn't considered... where to make the call from.
My house and Satoko's were pretty far apart. If I called from my house, I wouldn't make it.
...Couldn't I use the school phone?
...But... as I thought, the room was locked up and I couldn't get in...
Shit...
...I'm so naive...
You should have at least... figured this part out...
I couldn't call him.
...And just for that... was today all over...?
........................
......I'm sorry...... Satoshi...
And just as I cursed my own naivete... a miracle occurred.
A bicycle came into the schoolyard.
...It was a familiar middle-aged man.
...The one from the forest service field office.
...Why? ...Wasn't today Sunday...?
Was he here to pick up something he forgot?
...Anyway... the forest officer went around back and felt around in his pocket... then unlocked the door and entered.
"............"
The best possible coincidence... and it had to be Satoshi who saved me.
The metal bat, through just my contact with it, told me this was a chance I couldn't allow to slip by.
...The sections for the forest office and the school were neatly separated.
...I felt the man head into the forest office's storehouse, which was so far in the back students weren't allowed into it.
...The door didn't match its fittings well, so it didn't close all the way... and the gap in the door opened slowly as if to lure me in.
...I took a deep breath... and went in.
I tiptoed along, silently and stealthily... and made it into the teacher's lounge.
That was the only place with a phone.
As I held my breath in the teacher's lounge... I heard the forest service officer walking back over.
...Then the back door clattered shut... and was locked.
I glanced out the window at the schoolyard... and watched as the man got on his bike like nothing had happened... and rode out the school gate.
...The school once again emptied, becoming deathly silent.
...I waited for a bit to make sure the silence was the real deal... then reached for the telephone on the principal's desk.
...I fished Satoko's house's phone number out of my pocket.
...Yes... the number in the class directory for Satoko had been the one from their house now, where she lived with her uncle.
I touched the dial with my fingers... and then thought for a moment... about what to say, exactly, when he picked up.
Despite how many times I'd gone over it in my head last night.
Now that I had my finger on the dial like this... it started to seep out of my mind like a cracked bucket leaking water.
Simple would be best.
More importantly, to say it straight, and not sound suspicious.
I counted off three heartbeats... and spun the dial.
The call sound.
......Would Satoko's uncle... pick up?
Now, of all times... the hope that he wouldn't pick up... and the feeling of doom in the knowledge that I couldn't save Satoko if he didn't... whirled around in a vortex.
"...............Hello?"
It was the voice of a grumpy man, like he had just woken up.
......He picked up...
".........Hello...?"
...Say your name so I know you're Houjou, you asshole!
...It would be terrible if I got it wrong...
...I made up my mind... I had all the initiative on my side.
......Here we go...
"This is the Shishibone Okinomiya Police Station.
Am I speaking to the Houjou residence?"
...I was changing my voice, but... did he really think I sounded like an adult?
...Would he believe... I was the police...?
"Oh... Yes.
...This is Houjou."
"We currently have your daughter, Satoko Houjou, here with us."
"Whaaat?
Satoko?!
What did that brat do...?!"
He fell for it...
I could tell by how tense he was that he didn't doubt my words.
"I can explain the particulars once you have arrived here.
...Would you mind coming to the station right away?"
"Right now...?
I already took a bath m'self, so I don't really want to go out like this, though..."
...What?!
You don't want to come because you already took a bath?!
"Yes, right away."
".........Right away?
...Geez, man... What the heck did Satoko do?"
"I'll explain once you're here.
...I will be waiting. Thank you for your assistance."
"Ah!
Ack!
One second!
I don't know where the police station is.
Where am I going?"
".........Uh..."
...You moron... What the hell...
...The Okinomiya Police Station?
...I... I don't know where it is either!
Aren't you from around here?!
Why don't you know that...?!
A greasy sweat came over my body.
...Eventually, just as I was about to choke, he spoke.
"Oh... Next to the fire station... right?
...That's pretty far..."
Thank goodness... he remembered on his own for me.
...I didn't care where the police station was.
So long as he left his house to get there.
"Then we will be waiting here..."
"Oh!
Wait!
Who am I asking for once I get there?!
What is your name?!"
...On top of that... he wanted to know my name?!
Just leave your goddamn house already...!
"...Maeba—Maebashi.
Excuse me..."
...That was close.
I almost thoughtlessly told him my real name.
...I managed to change the last syllable of it, but...
I put the receiver down like I was running away.
My fingers were trembling... and I was soaked with a tepid sweat.
...I wasn't just nervous about the phone call.
...With that call... everything... had finally been put into motion.
I left the school.
...It was locked before, but it was easy enough to open from the inside.
...But I couldn't lock it again after I left.
In terms of being thorough, I wanted to lock it... but I couldn't waste time going back to the teacher's lounge and looking for the key.
...I needed to rush back fast as I could and ambush him.
I zoomed back to the scene on my bike.
...If Satoko's uncle got out of town before I got there, everything would be over.
...He'd learn there was no one at the station named Maebashi... and things would get pretty messed up.
As I returned at full speed... I passed a family wearing yukatas.
...They must have been on their way to the festival.
...Many people in Hinamizawa knew my face, though I didn't know theirs.
...Even just passing by them like this... made me uneasy.
But I didn't generally come around here... so those living in the area might not have known much about me.
...That didn't matter right now.
...I needed to get back as fast as possible... to control my breathing, and to ambush the man...
I hid my bike in a thicket and picked up Satoshi's bat, which I'd just left hidden in the shade.
...And then I held my breath, waiting to see someone...
......I wondered... if he still hadn't gotten here...
Or maybe... he went right out after the phone call... and passed by here already...?
I couldn't figure out which it was... and was set upon by an indescribable impatience.
...Calm down, Keiichi Maebara...
Even if he came here already, he'd pass by here on the way back, right?
...The end result would be the same.
It wouldn't change the fact that he'd die.
...He'd probably be coming on his motorcycle.
...How would I stop him then?
......I figured it would be best not to think too hard and just hit him as he passed, or beat him out of his seat.
The path was made of pebbles.
If I hit him as hard as I could and made him lose his balance, he wouldn't be able to help falling...
......And then.
...The chorus of the higurashi stopped.
...The sound of a bike approached from far away.
I couldn't tell what sort of motorcycle it was from its sound... but I'd seen it parked before, so I'd know.
...It was getting rapidly closer.
...It was almost here.
If... he just went a little farther, he'd cross into that thicket... and appear in front of me.
...I'd take a moment to make sure it was him...
then when I had...
......when I had.....
............I'd put my plan into action.
The motorcycle appeared.
......A few easily-identifiable characteristics told me it was Satoko's uncle's bike, without a doubt...
...Was... it really him...?
Was it really Satoko's uncle...?
I wasn't making a mistake... was I...?
I looked at its characteristics again...
......Its color,
shape...
and most of all... the man's clothes...
...and face...!!
...............Those last feelings of hesitation...
I did away with them.
...Satoko... now... your Nii-nii will end it, okay?
Closer, closer... the bike came closer...
...Let's go.
...Satoshi...!
"......Yeah."
Woosh!!!
I jumped out of the thicket...!!
I used my shoulder... to basically tackle... the uncle on the bike... with all my might...!
"...Owaaahhhhhh...!!
Ack, aahhhh...!!"
He gave a dumb shout as his bike completely lost its balance.
...Finally, it fell, the bike scattering clouds of sand, and after spinning, it stopped.
Her uncle, tossed to the ground, didn't understand what had just happened, and groaned for a few moments, crouched on the ground.
...Hah... hah... hah...!!
My breathing started to become ragged.
...No. I couldn't have this emotion.
...Some weird secretion crossed through my brain and nearly made me hallucinate...
Her uncle was groaning... Now was the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... What was I doing...?!
All the sounds in the world cut off.
My mental chaos from a moment ago withdrew like a lie... and I could feel the temperature in my head rapidly cooling down.
The tension in my muscles all went away like the strings they'd been attached to had been cut... and I let my hands dangle at my sides.
...It wasn't quite like exhaustion.
Have you calmed down now...?
Keiichi Maebara.
...Do you need to remember again... why things got to this point today...?
Scrape.
...Scrape.
I stepped over the pebbled path... taking one step, another step, then another towards Satoko's uncle.
The more I walked, the more my breathing calmed.
...The more I walked, the more I felt my body cooling, calming... chilling with frost.
......Yes.
At this moment... this guy had lost permission to live.
I had just rescinded it.
...So he mustn't stay in this world any longer.
...If he lived any longer... if Satoko's misfortune continued...
it would be my responsibility for having allowed him to live.
............I could feel the cooling substance going through my whole body, even down to my capillaries.
Her uncle was at my feet now, still on the ground like an idiot.
...I smiled coldly at how ridiculous he looked.
"...Urgh...... that hurt... *cough*...!"
That's all it took... for it to hurt?
...Satoko's heart hurt much more... and now... you're gonna feel that.
...And... with your life... I'll make up for her pain......!
I erased all unnecessary information from my mind.
I prioritized the murder of this man.
...Execute.
Execute,
execute.
Wham!!!
Utterly calmly, I delivered my first strike to the back of his head.
...I wanted to get at the most effective spot, at least during that first moment I'd have to attack him while he was at his most defenseless.
"...Ugah?!?!"
And if he was hit in the head, he'd cover his head.
...It was a defensive reaction all humans made, like machines.
He used both hands to cover his head, so he couldn't pick himself up off the heap he was in on the ground.
Like pounding a caterpillar into the dirt, I hit him over and over.
If he covered his head, I'd hit him in the side.
If he covered his body, I'd go for his head.
If he rolled over, I'd strike his feet.
His knees.
His elbows.
...I didn't care where anymore.
By just delivering one blow after another, I induced panic in him.
...I retained my overwhelming advantage, but I hadn't done nearly enough to deliver a fatal wound.
"...Eeeeeeeeeeeeee...!!!
...!!"
Her uncle skillfully pulled himself up off the ground... and started to run like a fleeing rabbit.
It wasn't a judgment he'd made after seeing my face and deciding whether to fight me.
...Right now, he was fleeing by instinct, just trying to escape from the threat that had presented itself.
A counterattack from the more physically capable uncle was what I was most concerned about.
...He may have run, but it wasn't all that unlucky.
And the odds were in my favor.
...The uncle didn't run away towards people, but off the path and into the woods.
How pleasant, that he would run in a direction where nobody else was.
...He was fleeing into strange geography, like a rat that instinctively runs into tight spots over and over.
...Yes, he was no longer human.
He was a rat.
The blood vessels in my legs expanded, and my total oxygen supply increased.
...I lowered myself to gain the most explosive velocity I could.
...Without breathing... I became a wind-like shadow...
and dashed...!!
I crossed thickets, crushed dead tree branches underfoot... and dove through the woods like a bullet...!
He ran so cowardly, arms flailing as he went...
After catching up to him, I didn't need so much as a blink of an eye to strike him again.
My senses, mind, and body were all sharpened purely to kill this man...
This was the first time... I'd felt like this.
...Well... this was the first experience I'd ever had killing someone.
...It felt natural continuing to do this for the first time.
...And that meant...
I had this much...
talent for killing.
Or perhaps the act of killing was so simple that anyone could do it.
I didn't struggle or grow tired at all chasing the clumsily fleeing uncle.
...No matter how much he ran, it was like trying to get away from his own shadow—he couldn't get away from me.
I could easily aim at his back, his shoulder, and his head even from this unnatural stance.
Each time I struck him, he wailed in pain and begged pitifully for forgiveness, but it didn't disturb my mind.
...I was neither excited nor plagued by hesitation like before.
...I felt sharp... I felt like a carnivore.
...Of course, so did the uncle, who was trying to run away because he didn't want to die.
...He didn't want to be eaten... like a herbivore running with all its might, trying to get away.
...Despite all the attacks, despite all the hits, he kept on fleeing without even staggering.
...And despite the bad footing in the forest, he impressively never tripped over anything.
...But there was no need to admire that fact.
...It was simply proof that he was no more than an animal.
If he was chased, he would run.
If he was going to be killed, he would run.
He bared his fangs at the weak, but couldn't oppose the strong whatsoever.
......He was lowly, vulgar...
a diminutive animal.
Such a puny little creature... had harmed Satoko.
...Scar after scar to her body and mind—deep wounds that might not ever go away as long as she lived.
"...Hel...
......ee...
...eee!!"
...Ooohhhhhhhhhhhh...
"Wooaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"
My cold and calm emotions suddenly turned into bestial ones.
...My personality changed... into something specialized for murder... purely to devour the diminutive animal before me.
"...Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...!!"
The uncle gave a puny little shriek, covered his head, and ran, ran, ran...!
I'm impressed by how much you can run...!
Fine, run as much as you like.
I will be your death.
I will choose the moment at my leisure.
Your legs will hurt, your lungs will feel about to burst, your head will hurt from lack of oxygen...
If you feel the pain has become worse than death, then by all means, stop any time.
Without turning back, suffocating on his terror of the approaching death... he just ran shamefully onward.
...He ran, but was chased, his head bashed with the metal bat, sweat and drool flying everywhere, blood clinging to him.
From his mouth came the sounds of coarse, irregular breathing and high-pitched screaming that verged on crying.
...And pleas for forgiveness to someone—I didn't know who.
Each and every second was a second of atonement that I granted him.
...Now, run, run run, run run run run run run run run run run run!!
Then fall, and moan, and die!!
Where did you even crawl out of, anyway?
...You were never here before.
If you were never here, you never should have showed up.
If you never showed up, our lives would still be fun and enjoyable.
We would have gone to today's festival, waited for each other, and gone to the shrine, laughing.
We would have been playing amongst the stalls right about now.
We'd be browsing the strange food stalls you only saw at festivals, trying to get prizes from goldfish-scooping, ring-throwing, or target practice.
...Mion would surely make it into a competition, and we, as a club, would have a grand time.
And... everyone would have been cheering for Rika-chan's dedication dance... and everyone would say how fun it was... and it would give us energy for days to come.
Fun, enjoyable, and funny... warm times spent with friends.
And that... would... have happened... but it didn't... and now it was all smashed to pieces!!
There was no doubt that would be what the world was like if you never showed up!
You were the obstacle,
the mistake,
the heresy in that world.
But I would correct that mistake now.
I would erase you and make it so this last week never happened.
Tonight was the Watanagashi Festival.
The holy night, where taking just one life was permitted in the name of Oyashiro-sama's curse.
Ahh... It looked like the higurashi stopped crying at some point.
When the higurashi cried.
...Everything would end.
...
And
the
h
i
g
u
r
a
s
h
i
si
le
nc
ed.
...Lowly one.
The hour of atonement is at an end.
The higurashi have stopped their crying, thus it is the end.
...The end, the end, the end—end!!
You don't have to run away anymore.
Die, with those dirty brains of yours smashed everywhere!!
Guooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Lightning and thunder struck like an explosion.
...It was so loud it shook the ground, and I smelled gunpowder.
The response I got this time was clearly different from the one before.
...The metal bat... crunched into the crown of his head... It was like the top of his head had caved in—the bat felt like it was biting him.
It had been the final, killing attack that visited him... when I didn't overlook the opening he left as his knees gave out under him.
...I remained alert for a few moments... then thud... thud... he planted both knees in the ground...
and then... fell forwards, burying his head in the ground.
"...Hah...hah...hah!
Hah...!
...Hah...!!"
I'd been holding back my ragged breathing... but now it all came out of me like a dam bursting.
...My head was dizzy... and light... and unable to maintain my balance, I leaned against a nearby tree...
The uncle... didn't try and guard his head any longer.
...After a disgusting sort of spasm... he stopped moving.
...Did I get him...? ...Did I get him... for sure...?
I fought back my exhausted urge to fall over where I stood... and drew towards him carefully, bat still at the ready...
...It was possible he was faking it and trying to wait it out.
...Should I check for a pulse...?
I realized right away, though, how unnecessary that would be.
...If I thought he might be faking it... then I would just have to... keep pummeling him until I was satisfied.
I fought back my ragged breathing again.
...And then I swung my bat far above...
and brought it down.
Clunk.
...His body leaped like a bow, but he didn't try and cover his head.
Then, once again... I aimed for his head... and swung!!
His reaction was the same this time.
After spending a few moments making his head into mochi... the hits gradually started to feel different, and it started to spray a filthy, dark red liquid everywhere.
...That was enough...
It was definite now.
......I had absolutely...
killed him.
There was no sense of accomplishment, nor one of regret.
I didn't feel anger towards Satoko's uncle, nor pity towards Satoko herself.
...Instead, right now... I was feeling like my heart had been stolen by the downpour (it had begun to rain at some point) and how comfortable it felt...
The rainwater drenched my body and dripped down to the ground.
...The excitement within me faded... as the rain washed away the grime.
...In exchange, my shoes... were so wet they made splashing sounds.
And despite abusing Satoshi's bat like that... it wasn't bent very much.
There were a few dents in it—probably from hitting the man—but nothing that would make it seem different from before.
Instead... it had been stained... with black, with red, with mud and blood.
...But that itself would be evidence.
...The one piece of evidence needed to prove that my delusions hadn't just been daydreams, and that I'd ended Satoko's uncle for all eternity.
............All right, Keiichi.
...Calm your mind.
...The time for passion is over.
...Now is the time to be cold as ice.
...I needed to bury the body.
...But... where was I?
I'd simply followed the man as far as he ran into the darkness.
...I couldn't take a guess as to how far we'd run.
...It was already pitch black around us... and the only light I had to go on was the very faint lights on the road a little further down.
...It was so dark out.
...I hadn't noticed the darkness until just now.
My vision was so good I could see the man's ugly hairline—I could have counted the pores in his head.
...It was only now that I realized how much crazy strength I had mustered at that moment.
...I went over to the street light.
...I looked up and down the road... desperately trying to figure out where I was.
"..................This is......"
...Oh, no.
This was the one road connecting Hinamizawa to the town.
...We were... unbelievably far away from Satoko's house.
...Had the two of us really run so far a distance...?
My surprise at that... was accompanied by knowledge of the miraculous fact that despite running so far and making so much noise, we hadn't come across anybody at all.
...There was a long way... between here and the ambush location where I'd dug the hole.
...There was no way I could carry the body that far.
Wait... Aside from that...
...The bike the man took here was still lying in the middle of that path.
...That would be an issue.
...The police could tell whose motorcycle it was by looking at its license plate.
And they wouldn't just leave it at that...
Thankfully... the corpse was in a dark forest.
...In terms of urgency, dealing with the bike would come first.
...And... I wanted to get the shovel back from where I'd left it next to the hole.
I shouldn't drag the body there.
...I would have to deal with it right here.
...Fortunately, the ground was like mud from the downpour, and was more sludgy here than where I was before.
...I might be able to dig a grave quickly here.
...Of course, my bicycle was still over where I'd left it, too.
It still... wasn't over.
Homicide... had only been half of my goal.
...The other half would be just as important as the first.
...I would completely hide the body, not allowing a "beginning" to happen.
...I would erase the man like he'd never existed... and regain the peaceful times we had before.
I bent my head backwards...... and calmed my mind even further...
The big water droplets struck my brow mercilessly.
...They were actually quite comfortable... and for a while I let my desire have its way.
After confirming that I was sharp again... I started running through the rain.
The motorcycle was in the grass at the roadside.
Considering how it looked—pelted with rain and covered in mud—it actually seemed like it had been lying there for a very long time.
The plan was to drop the motorcycle into the swamp.
...The swamp was a bit of a walk from here.
"......Ngh......... urgh...!"
I lifted the bike up.
...I didn't think it would be so heavy...
I was a little surprised.
But once I had it upright, it was fairly easy to roll it along.
...Still, pushing this thing all the way to the swamp... was really not something I wanted to do.
...I could no longer ignore my exhaustion... and it warned me numerous times of how far away the swamp was.
......This motorcycle... I wonder if I could ride it well enough.
...Once I got it going, it would be basically the same as a bicycle.
...Wouldn't it get me to the swamp quickly?
A plan suggested by my exhaustion... The anxiety at getting on a motorcycle for the first time withdrew.
I turned the key... and then you just kicked this pedal, right?
......Yeah!
...Yeah!!
Vrrrrrrrr...mm!!
It's on!
And then... I gripped the handlebars... first the right, then the left...
"...U-Uwaahhhh!!"
Maybe I twisted them too much—the bike lurched and did a wheelie like an angry horse.
...I lost it for a second... but it was just a problem of how much torque to apply.
...Let's try that again.
...This time, slowly... gently......
...That time it went well.
It was strange to be on a two-wheeled vehicle that would go even if I didn't pedal... Very odd, but I got used to it quickly.
...Mion once told me you could get a scooter license within a day, and she was clearly right.
...This was pretty easy.
I needed to throw the metal bat into the swamp, too.
...But I didn't know how I would pack the bat onto the motorcycle.
...Without much other choice, I stuffed it into the back of my shirt, feeling like a ninja carrying a katana.
...If I put the tip down the seat of my pants and hunched over, it wouldn't fall out.
I got back on the bike and, this time, got going without any difficulty.
I carefully pressed the button labeled "light" and a rather strong light came on, illuminating the way forward.
...I probably really shouldn't have turned it on... but I didn't have any way of seeing at this point, and had zero confidence I could ride through this darkness.
As the rain came down on me... I maintained a precarious balance and inched my way towards the swamp.
Along the way, I ran across a few people who seemed to be returning from the festival.
But none of them had any interest in me—they were either all soaked through with the rain and hurrying on their ways home, or had their umbrellas low and their heads down.
Yesterday I might have been wary of even these passersby... but right now it didn't seem to be much cause for concern.
...In fact, it would probably be less suspicious to be riding out in the open like this instead of sneaking around.
......More and more, though, I started to think of that idea as naive, brought on by my exhausted state.
I climbed a steep hill.
...On a bike, the hill would have put me out of breath, but I just had to accelerate a little bit to climb the entire thing—motorcycles sure are convenient.
For a moment, its lights illuminated a sign before I passed by it.
"Onigafuchi Swamp / Good children do not play around here!"
Still... it wasn't like the way to the swamp was cordoned off by a metal fence or anything.
...Parents and teachers would get mad at you if they found out you were playing at the swamp, but some of the bad kids in my class apparently snuck out here sometimes to see the giant crayfish in the place.
...They'd talked before about... how they'd go to the candy shop and buy some pickled squid, then just tie it to a fishing line and throw it, and all the crayfish would come running.
Once I got up to the bank... there was a tiny ritual shrine and traditional ropes on one of the trees.
...And... as it swallowed the downpour whole... the blackened swamp had waited for me.
If I slammed on the accelerator from the cliff-like stop I was on now... the thing would fly straight into the middle of the swamp.
...I had to be careful not to fall in with it.
...If I drowned and disappeared... man, what a stupid ghost story that would be.
On the night of Watanagashi, Satoko's uncle's corpse was found in a thicket by the road leading to town, and Keiichi Maebara went missing.
People would whisper that I'd been demoned away.
...The fifth year's curse would be a half-baked one.
I got off the bike... and twisted the accelerator as hard as I could.
I let go just when it seemed like it would drag me forward.
...The bike shot off the cliff... and was swallowed down into the swamp, leaving a far fainter splash than I'd imagined.
Its surface was being pummeled by the downpour... and the muddy, filthy water was flowing into it.
...I couldn't even make out the motorbike I'd just thrown in there.
...It was pretty heavy, after all.
...It would be quickly... engulfed by the soft mud at the bottom of the swamp.
...And it would be pulled deeper and deeper... until it reached Hell itself.
I felt no reluctance whatsoever in throwing the man's motorbike down to the land of the demons... but I did have a tinge of regret about Satoshi's bat.
I washed the bat with muddy water, and the gore sticking to it came off easily.
...I had sort of shared today's events with Satoshi... so I wanted to give it a quiet place to stay.
...That's how I felt.
I started to feel more like returning it to the locker from before... so it could continue to keep watch over Satoko.
.....................
"...Satoshi.
......I...
probably, well...
misunderstood you."
......Satoshi listened quietly, without nodding.
I am absolutely convinced now.
...You were the one... who beat your aunt to death last year and saved Satoko.
...I always scorned you and called you a coward who ran away... but I was wrong.
To the rest of the world, some deviant was behind that incident... but I know.
...That... was something you did for her.
And then... you disappeared.
...You finally got back that peace... and lost it within days.
...So... I swear to you that I will live life to the fullest from now on—live it enough for the both of us.
I will live on as though this week, this day, never happened.
...But... I will never forget... this short time we shared together for as long as I live.
......I didn't know what expression Satoshi made as he listened...
but as someone who had protected the same girl... I felt he had smiled and given me his blessing.
...And then......
my hand moved of its own accord...
and the bat I had hesitated to throw away... left my hands...
and flew through the air.
It traveled its parabolic path... spinning all the while... and the swamp absorbed it without a sound.
...There weren't even any ripples when it hit the surface.
...That surface was tempestuous because of the downpour... and the bat was long gone.
.........For a moment, I regretted having thrown it.
But... I realized that might have been what Satoshi had wanted.
"......You're right.
...I... still can't let myself give in to emotion just yet."
I would return for my shovel, get on my bike...
dig a hole to hide the body... and bury it.
It seemed like a simple sequence of events... but I felt extremely exhausted—and I had to do it all tonight.
Satoshi left me with only the advice that I needed to finish this up soon......
then fell silent for eternity... and disappeared at the bottom of the demon's abyss......
I returned to the path I had ambushed her uncle on.
...My bike was hidden, sleeping in the brush; I stood it back up.
...My whole body felt heavy.
...But... I needed to finish by the end of the day... even if I had to whip myself to do it.
...Oh... I forgot something.
I didn't just come here for my bike.
The shovel was here too.
Not good...
I was zoning out.
...Every once in a while, if I let my guard down... my vision would almost go black.
...Pull yourself together, Keiichi Maebara.
...It's still... not over...
I went into the grove of trees... and looked for the hole in which I'd hidden the shovel.
...Unfortunately... I had hidden it deep in the forest, not wanting it to be seen... and now everything was black in the night... and I couldn't see anything anymore.
...I reawakened my fading consciousness... and realized just how big this annoyance really was.
"............Wait... You can't be serious..."
The sweat the rain washed away before... came back up to my skin.
...Deep, deep in the forest, where the street lights could never reach.
...The fact that... it would be so pitch black... had been completely uncalculated.
With this much darkness... even if I had been able to kill him right away like I'd planned... I didn't know if I still could have buried him without a problem.
...What should I do...
I simply... couldn't find the shovel... tonight.
...If I forced myself to go deep into the forest... I'd lose even my sense of direction, and might actually get lost in there.
...That might have been an exaggeration, but it was fully possible I'd trip over a tree root and sprain a muscle.
Oh, right... My house's storage room... There was another shovel there—the same fold-up kind.
...Couldn't I go back to the house, get the shovel, and give up on finding the shovel tonight...?
It's not as though... the name "Maebara" is written on the shovel.
...But... it seemed like an unusual item from an import variety store, made in another country, so.........
I didn't want to leave that shovel here.
...But... in this darkness... I couldn't do anything.
...I should give up and go back to the storage room.
...And... there was an electric lantern in there.
If I used that for light, I could look for it.
...But... it was so extremely dark. Could I light the way with just the lantern?
...The light of a lantern in this dark night.
...I couldn't discard the possibility of it drawing eyes.
...And... I doubted if I could find the shovel with the lantern's feeble light.
......Besides... I'd left the body there for a pretty long time already.
...My sense of fear, dulled through excessive exhaustion... finally reared its ugly head.
Anyway, for now... for now the most important thing was to hide the body...
A shovel being found wouldn't be a big deal... but a corpse?
If they found that... I'd share the same fate as Satoshi.
...First I'd go back to the storage room at home.
Then I'd get the lantern.
...Now that it's gotten this dark... I might still need light to dig a hole for the body too.
And I'd get the other shovel.
...And then I'd deal with the body first thing.
...Once that was done... I'd come back here... find the shovel and bring it back......
I had to... had to do at least that much... but I was so tired...
But... complaining was getting me nowhere.
...If I started getting complacent now... everything will have been for naught.
...At some point, I had sat down.
...I gritted my teeth... and endured, lifting my heavy hips.
The night was young.
...Of all the nights I'd experienced... none had ever been this long.
When would it all end?
......The night was young.