Loups-Garous

by Natsuhiko Kyogoku

  “There’s nothing we can do.”

  “That’s not true.”

  Ayumi opened the door to the bedroom.

  “Get your rest first. When you get up, go to your father.”

  “What?”

  “It’s okay. He’s your father, isn’t he?”

  “Foster father,” Hazuki said.

  “Blood relation doesn’t matter. At all. At the very least, your father won’t kill you. And we can’t trust the area patrol or police right now.”

  Ayumi looked straight at Hazuki. Until recently, they hadn’t ever made eye contact.

  Hazuki stood up.

  “What are you going to do, Ayumi?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “No you’re not. Where are you going?”

  Ayumi wordlessly walked toward the doves.

  “Don’t go.”

  “Are you going to worry about me?”

  “It’s not that. I’m scared. Please don’t leave,” Hazuki said.

  She grasped Ayumi’s arm. She felt like a child.

  “Don’t go. I don’t want to be alone.”

  “I won’t. It’s okay,” Ayumi said. She led Hazuki to the bedroom and sat her down.

  “I’ll be here till you wake up. Just get some sleep.”

  “Really?”

  “I told you already, it’s not safe here either.”

  “So?”

  “I have to be on the lookout till morning,” Ayumi said.

  As she listened to these last words Hazuki slipped off her shoes and slept in the same bed Yuko Yabe had slept on.

  She stretched her arms. Her joints were aching. She stretched as far as she could, and the back of her head started to feel fuzzy.

  Ayumi left the room.

  There was a round monitor gleaming on the rooftop window. That was…

  No. It was just reflecting light.

  “Good night.” Hazuki heard a voice, and before the doors closed she had fallen into slumber.

  She dreamt that Yuko Yabe was sleeping next to her.

  In the room next door were Ayumi, Mio, Rey Mao, and…

  Herself.

  Who was she, then? wondered Hazuki in her dream.

  They’re talking about something she can’t quite hear.

  They’re eating. So they’re alive.

  Yuko was…

  Something rustled. An unfamiliar sound. Had her helper come?

  She rubbed her red eyelids and opened weary eyes to see a light coming through the ceiling window.

  That’s weird. A window in the ceiling.

  Morning.

  Hazuki opened her eyes and sat up.

  It was bright. Where am I?

  Ayumi.

  Don’t leave me alone.

  Hazuki flew to the door. Her body hurt. It was slow. It wouldn’t move. But to leave her behind? I’m here now. I’m alive. Don’t leave me.

  When she opened the door she saw Ayumi standing in front of the cage of doves.

  “Ayumi.”

  “Did I wake you?”

  It wasn’t such a tremendous amount of light, but it blinded her.

  “Have you been up this whole time?”

  “Well, ‘this whole time’ is just four hours. It’s only four.”

  “Four in the morning?”

  Ayumi was holding one of the doves.

  “What is that dove?”

  “It’s the dove Rey Mao took from here. It just came back.”

  I promise the dove will be back.

  Don’t go anywhere till then.

  “Something happened to her.”

  Ayumi said nothing and simply extended her arm.

  At her fingertips was a small object.

  It was a pink neo-ceramic stone.

  “That’s…”

  “It was tied to this dove’s foot. Yabe’s piercing.”

  The pink piercing belonging to pink Yuko.

  “Where did…I mean, where was the dove?”

  “That…” Ayumi pointed at a cloth on the table. “This was attached to its leg. A piece of natural silk fabric. Rey Mao’s. It had writing.”

  “Writing? On the cloth?”

  “Writing in blood,” Ayumi said simply.

  “Blood? I don’t understand. Blood on the cloth?”

  “She didn’t have anything else to write with. No paper. She’s used to bleeding, so she used some of her blood to write with. She wrote Area 119 SVC Memorial Building.”

  “What was this piercing doing there?”

  “Rey Mao…she went after the guys who attacked you. This is where it led her.”

  “I still don’t understand.”

  It was the piercing Yuko’d been wearing in her ear.

  It’d gotten stuck on Ayumi’s bag.

  It’d fallen in Mio’s house.

  Because of this piercing, because they’d found this small pink stone…

  “This is probably where Yuko was murdered,” Ayumi said.

  Murdered…

  Now, Hazuki finally understood. Everything.

  “Ayumi…you don’t think…”

  Ayumi released the dove inside the cage. It flapped its wings and flew to the edge of the window.

  “I guess there’s no convincing you to go back to sleep now. You should go downstairs and shower or something. When you’re ready, I’ll be leaving here. You go to your father’s. It’d be best if you contacted him from the main terminal downstairs.”

  “If I do that they’ll know I sent it from here.”

  That would cause a nuisance.

  “Don’t worry about me anymore. I’m fine.”

  Ayumi faced the door. Hazuki stepped in front of her.

  “No you’re not. What do you think you’re going to do?”

  “It’s none of your business.”

  “It is. Ayumi, are you going to that address?”

  “I am,” Ayumi said.

  “Why?”

  “You saying I shouldn’t go?”

  “Why are you going?” Hazuki asked. “It’s just dangerous. You said you hate dealing with people. That it’s not for kids. You said if it’s none of your business, not to interfere.”

  Ayumi looked up at Hazuki with sad eyes.

  “I have a responsibility to undertake.”

  “Responsibility?”

  “Because it’s wrong.” Ayumi hesitated. “To kill people.”

  “But you’re not a superhero do-gooder, remember?”

  “Right. I am no superhero. But I’m not going to let Rey Mao continue to be put in these screwed-up situations. She didn’t do anything wrong. Now hurry up and shower so I can leave.” Ayumi took out her ID card and handed it to Hazuki.

  “If we go in there together the main terminal will identify two people, but if you go in with my card the sensor won’t know who it is. I didn’t lock it and there’s no security PIN code. Just use the card and leave it by the door or something.”

  “No!” Hazuki stood up and blocked the entrance.

  “Move, Makino.”

  “N-no. I don’t like being alone.”

  “Like I said, contact your dad from the terminal downstairs.”

  “I don’t want to!” Hazuki was throwing a tantrum. “What if I can’t get ahold of my dad? And if I did, I don’t know if he’ll be able to come home. He’s always traveling. It’ll take time for us to meet. And by then my dad’s sure to contact the police. He won’t think that the police or area patrol are untrustworthy, that they might be killers. He’s not a child. He couldn’t possibly believe something that fantastic. He’ll just laugh at everything I say.”

  Ayumi looked at Hazuki, amazed.

  She was probably surprised. Hazuki surprised even herself. Hazuki had never yelled at anyone before. Never stood up for anything. She wasn’t going to let up now.

  If I don’t do this, Ayumi will leave. And then she will die.

  “Anyway, go shower. You’re dirty.”

  “Stay here. Till I come back. Promise me you’ll s
tay, or I—”

  “I get it,” Ayumi said. Hazuki looked into her eyes. She was trying to stare out the truth.

  She wasn’t lying.

  Hazuki didn’t have any reason to believe it, but she did. But she didn’t really know. No, it wasn’t just that Hazuki didn’t know, but she had to believe Ayumi wouldn’t leave her behind.

  “I’ll be quick. Just wait.”

  Hazuki hurriedly put on her shoes and ran out to the rooftop.

  It was white, red, bright.

  There were clouds. It was bright. Shining.

  It was enormous.

  The sky was so big her eyes spun and threw her off a little. She went past the side of the house and through the foyer. She ran the card, opened the door, and went into the unfamiliar house. She wanted to take a shower, this was true, but she became anxious.

  She scanned the room.

  For now she would pass the monitor and go to the bathroom.

  She looked at the monitor on her way back.

  A turtle icon.

  There was a message from Mio when she clicked on the icon, just as Ayumi had said.

  I have to tell her.

  I have to tell Mio, at all costs.

  YABE’S PIERCING FOUND AT 119--SVC MEMORIAL BUILDING RECORDING CENTER. CAT FOUND IT.

  --HAZUKI

  Just as she depressed the last key the window closed.

  Dad. To think I was going to contact you.

  But maybe I should.

  She hesitated a moment.

  Ayumi had said she wouldn’t mind, but Hazuki knew a message sent from this terminal would cause Ayumi problems later. But she knew they couldn’t do anything alone. Honestly, calling her foster father in might help. At the very least, to protect Ayumi.

  She went into communication mode on the monitor. And just as she did…

  “What’s happening?”

  Access denied? No.

  The screen looked funny. Hazuki immediately quit the communication program.

  This is not right. Is it broken?

  Oh no.

  Hazuki cut the electricity and force-quit the monitor.

  Shit.

  Hazuki flew off the chair and out through the foyer, grabbing her shoes and running out the door, leaving it open as she ran to the back of the house.

  “Ayumi! Ayumi!”

  She hurried up the spiral staircase. The way it wound up she felt like she was climbing to heaven. The sound of her kicking up the stairs was loud, and then there was Ayumi in front of her. Practically running into her, Hazuki came to a dead stop.

  “What’s wrong?” Ayumi asked. She was holding a backpack and had a waist pack snapped around her hips.

  She was even wearing boots.

  “It’s not working. The communication line.”

  “Locked?”

  “Probably.”

  “You can’t gain access?”

  “It looks like I can, but when I tried, suddenly…”

  “I see. Let’s go.”

  “Together?”

  “Yes, together. You’ll be safer that way.”

  Ayumi stood at the topmost step of the staircase and looked straight out as far as she could. In the direction she was staring the first time Hazuki came here.

  “We’re going to take that traffic route.”

  “What? You mean the overhead speedway?”

  Where Yuko was attacked. The road above it.

  “Are we even allowed to walk on that?”

  “It’s for freight drivers only, but there’s a tunnel that runs underneath the entire length of it, and it connects to the commercial zone of the next section at one point. No one’s allowed on it from six in the morning to six at night. It’s the fastest way to 119. We’d get there by evening.” Ayumi peered at Hazuki.

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  “I can walk it.”

  “Let’s go.”

  I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die crying, in a dark lonely place.

  I don’t want to die anymore.

  “Another kid’s been kidnapped. Ms. Fuwa might be arrested too. I don’t know if Cat or Mio are still alive. You and I are in danger too. You still want to go?”

  “I do,” Hazuki answered. Sitting here and doing nothing would be at least as dangerous. She knew if she stayed there and started crying, with her arms wrapped around her knees, she would feel like dying again.

  “All right then. Grab that water. Let’s go, quickly. They’re probably already on their way here.”

  Ayumi turned back once. One hundred thousand lux of sunlight rose from the horizon.

  There was no hope there.

  CHAPTER 022

  THE RIDE WAS by no means pleasant, and she was in a terrible mood, but compared to being pasted with wet grass and being sucked down into the mud, the backseat of Takasugi’s old-fashioned electric car was infinitely more pleasant.

  Takasugi’s rescue only reaffirmed the gravity of Kunugi’s fate.

  When Takasugi had come across Kunugi and Shizue, the area patrol had been searching the public roads adjacent to the forest. Thinking he’d try to get ahead of the patrols, he chanced getting out of his electric car and walking onto the promenade.

  There, Takasugi had noticed two children running off. With the mandatory curfew in place he’d wondered what they could be doing out and followed them. That was when he’d noticed the two adults.

  Of course, Takasugi had heard the report—its validity notwithstanding— that Shizue had been kidnapped along with one of her kids.

  “If I tried to protect the child right then, there’s no mistaking it— you would have been arrested, Boss. Anyway, you guys weren’t hard to find even in these woods, getting in each others’ faces like that,” Takasugi said.

  He was right. Neither Shizue nor Kunugi realized where they were or how loudly they’d been speaking. Or rather, it was because they realized what was going on that they’d started yelling in the first place.

  I wonder what happened to Ayumi? Shizue thought.

  Everything about her was so composed. Where had she gone? Was it the right thing to do, letting her go off like that? Shizue thought, and thought it over some more. Being with them was probably not the best thing. But to leave a helpless young girl in the night city when there was a killer on the loose; that was even dumber.

  And what about Hazuki Makino? And Mio Tsuzuki?

  Those girls…

  Shizue was unable to protect or save anybody after all was said and done.

  She couldn’t forgive the world or forgive herself. She was an incompetent counselor, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

  She got depressed. She just wanted to get into a hot bath. Her clean but astringent body soap was one of the only perfumed products she allowed herself.

  They stopped at an electric parking station.

  There were very few manual recharge electric cars out on the road anymore, so there wasn’t a soul in the lot.

  There was a pay toilet and real shop in the parking structure. Neither Shizue nor Kunugi could use their cards, so both of them used Takasugi’s. Shizue would have rather died than ever use a men’s bathroom, but she really had no choice. The real shop required Takasugi to make purchases himself also, and despite Shizue’s serious but futile objections, she had to let him buy her stockings. If it were up to her she’d buy a complete new outfit.

  She ate food she didn’t think humans could eat and drank a bottle of water that for some reason was chilled to just above freezing. Despite the strangeness of the meal, it was something in her stomach, and she finally felt like she was going back to normal. Shizue was convinced now that humans were mere animals.

  “All right then,” Takasugi said over his shoulder from the driver’s seat. “So I’ve driven us up to here, but…what do you want to do now?”

  “What do we…What can you do for us?”

  “As you can see, I am on break.”

  “You idiot! You were just taking a
break in the middle of this huge case?”

  “What are you talking about, Boss? You’re a public servant, not some has-been salaryman, you know. You can’t talk to me like that! You’ve got the times confused.”

  “You know, I’ve been yelled at for being old-fashioned for thirty friggin’ years. But you know what? What you think is natural was all set up by us. From where I stand, you’re the old-fashioned one. From now on, you gotta work harder.”

  “This is a problem.” Takasugi backed down and looked at Shizue. “Can’t you counsel this old man or something? Boss, if anyone’s not working, it’s you. I’m the one who ignored his break and decided to come rescue you. This is a clear violation of the uniform. If I get caught I get canned too! I don’t want to be demoted.”

  “That’s why I’ve been saying not to worry about me!” Kunugi started to flare up. “There’s nothing easy about this.”

  “I know that. You tell me not to worry about you but then you ask to see the data on Asumi Aikawa. You say those things. I mean your moves are my cues to understanding what’s happening in the case, but…the way you go about it.”

  “That’s it.” Kunugi stepped up. “Weren’t you saying that Lieutenant Ishida was acting weird?”

  “I did. That guy is…weird.”

  “Weird how? I always thought he seemed suspicious, but it was just the way the evidence built up. I didn’t think he himself was a weird guy.”

  “Really?” Takasugi said in a casual voice. “I see. I guess you haven’t really been in the know with the management team.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? You’re just a policeman. I’m a patrol director. Is that not good enough?”

  “It’s not that. But what I mean is that there are board meetings. There’s even data that only the uppermost levels of the police chain of command get to see. Anyway, besides responsibilities, his distaste for you was really obvious.”

  “I knew that he hated me,” Kunugi said.

  “He was hysterically damning you. Look, you published that memo about last year’s case, right? Ishida’s the one who censured it. He was at some other prefectural post before, right? He was the head of Investigative Unit R. The one who made claims on that lieutenant post? Him.”