Johnny leaned forward, and looked the Twelfth Index in the eye. “Someone wanted these two girls to kill each other, Aiko. Someone who had something to gain from Ayano’s death. But there’s the rub. Ayano’s still alive, confined to the clocktower though she may be, and I don’t see anyone else who could have profited from this situation.”
“There’s something else I’d like to know,” she added. “You’ve told me everything straight so far, and I believe you. But how did you survive? From what you describe, Finch seemed to have far exceeded normal human abilities.”
Johnny leaned back, and looked out the window. Outside, the world was peaceful. Hospital workers walked the grounds, and beyond that, the occasional car headed for central Sonnerie passed by. Above it all was the clocktower. In many respects, it was the very fountainhead of all the trials and tribulations he had endured. But when he looked at it, he could not help but feel hopeful. As if he were connected to it somehow, some way.
“It was Mari,” he said finally. “At least, some version of her.”
“Version?” the doctor asked.
“She said that she was becoming. That she is, and she is not. It was the angel, Aiko. It was Sonnerie. She saved me. Threw Finch over the cliff, and into the waiting maw of the Catfish God.”
Aiko let out a gasp, then stood up and turned to the same window Johnny had been looking out of. The two were quiet for a time, lost in thoughts of recent events, but after a few moments, she turned back around and their eyes met.
“Perhaps it was her?” she said. “If Mari is somehow connected to Sonnerie, then Sonnerie herself may have orchestrated these events.”
“That’s quite a stretch,” Johnny said. “Believe that if you want, but I’m much more content with answers that lie in the hearts and actions of men. Still, there is much I have yet to look into.”
“Look into?” she blinked. “Mr. Tokisaki, you’ve fulfilled our contract to the letter, and I was more than happy to disperse the remaining twenty-five thousand into your bank account.”
“What?” Johnny asked.
“That was the deal, wasn’t it? Find out what you can in one week’s time, and report back to me.”
Johnny could not answer. His thoughts turned to Mari, and the promise he had made her. The unanswered questions, the unfulfilled leads. They were beyond count, and it pained him to leave them unresolved.
“Get some rest,” she said as she approached the door. “I’ll have my staff bring you up a hot meal, then we can start helping you get back on your feet again.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but she was gone before he could utter a single syllable.
*
His treatment proceeded smoothly over the course of the next couple days. Despite the grievous wounds he had suffered, the speed of his recovery had been miraculously quick, and several of the nurses and therapists said as much as he began moving unassisted. On the day he was to be released, he received a phone call from Gabriel Itsuka, inviting him over for lunch.
In many ways, he pitied the former principal. Though he may have reclaimed his family’s rank and honor, he was now living with the reality of a city whose faith in their leadership had been shattered. Try as he might avoid it, it was hard for Johnny to close his ears to the whispers and gossip of the hospital staff. Rumors of what had occurred in the cathedral had spread like wildfire through the town, and although Ayano’s father had shouldered the blame in exile, it was clear that the situation was far from resolved.
Aiko visited him one final time to relinquish his belongings, including his revolver and holster, as well as his two watches and an unopened pack of Camels.
“You are going to see Gabriel?” she asked after all of his items had been returned.
“Yes. I had hoped to see Mutsumi Baba and Jack before I left, but I don’t think I’ll have the time.”
“I’ll pass your gratitude along to them the next time we meet,” she said, walking him to the door. His movement was still a little stiff, and he came to a stop just before they exited.
“There’s one last thing I’d like to ask you, if you don’t mind,” he said.
“What is it?”
Johnny looked around, and tapped a finger against his pocket. “I want to know what you’re planning to do about Ayano. You can’t leave her there in the clocktower—there’s no telling what she might do.”
Tonimura looked up at him, then closed the door in front of them and folded her arms over her chest.
“You have an inquisitive mind, Mr. Tokisaki. That is why I hired you. You’re a first-rate investigator. Keen and quick to action. I know you have grown quite attached to our city, and to be quite frank, I could use a man like you in the days ahead.”
“But . . . ?” he asked as he leaned an elbow against the wall for support.
“What I tell you now, I tell you in utmost confidence, do you understand?”
Johnny nodded, and swallowed hard.
“Three nights ago, one of the men assigned to clean and repair the damage to the cathedral was found in a catatonic state outside the clocktower. We took him in and treated him, and he told us that he had seen a woman, dressed in black and armed with an oddly-shaped sword or spear, walking outside the grounds. From his description, we determined that the woman he saw was indeed Ayano Hanekawa.”
“What?” Johnny exhaled.
“There’s more,” she said. “Since then, she has been sighted on at least a dozen separate occasions. Each person reported the same thing. A weapon-wielding woman in black, fitting Ayano’s description.”
“But she didn’t kill them?” Johnny asked. “Did she say anything to them?”
“Nothing, but the way each person described her was . . . unusually reverential. They talked about her as if they were referring to a divine being, or a God. What’s more is there seems to be a sort of cult forming around the sightings. They call themselves the Chorus, and they believe that Hanekawa was wrongfully betrayed and outed by the other Indices.”
“I don’t understand, Aiko. You have to let me stay. I have to know—”
“No,” she interrupted. “Though I would welcome your abilities, I have no doubt in my mind that Ayano would come for you.”
“Then let her come. I can protect myself,” he insisted.
“And could you protect the people around you? If even one citizen was to be hurt or even killed because of your presence here, the blame would fall on me. On all the Indices for keeping an outsider within the city at a time like this. Please, Mr. Tokisaki. For the sake of Sonnerie, you must leave. Forget what you have seen here, and let us handle Ayano.”
There was a quiet desperation in her voice that he had not heard before. A profound fear of the unknown, and what lurked behind the thin veil of reality that separated Sonnerie from the monster that Ayano had become. But behind that fear was also resolution, and he knew at once that no argument he could give would avail him.
“Very well,” he conceded. “But if things go sideways, you know where to find me.”
“I do,” she smiled. “Now, come along. Gabriel’s driver is waiting for you downstairs. Try not to think too much about what we’ve discussed, Mr. Tokisaki. Enjoy your last day in Sonnerie, and thank you. Thank you for everything.”
Johnny gave a few quick nods and extended his hand to hers, but said no more. She walked him to the elevator, then followed him to the lobby, where they parted ways as he stepped outside into the late-morning sun. Ahead of him was the clocktower, which chimed eleven bells as he proceeded forward to the last leg of his journey: the home of Gabriel Itsuka in The Crown.
Thirty-Fourth Movement
Clocktower
The drive to Gabriel’s house was surprisingly brief. His abode was on the northwest edge of The Crown, less than a mile from the hospital itself. Itsuka’s driver was a portly, familiar fellow who must have had some knowledge
of who Johnny was, as he was filled with nothing but gratitude for everything he had done for the Itsuka family.
The house, as was expected for the home of an Index, was grossly large. Even after exiting the car, it was another fifty feet before he reached the front doors—a tall order for his still-enervated legs. Gabriel was waiting for him there, wearing a sharp three-piece suit and a sleek pair of black Italian shoes.
“It’s good to see you up and walking,” Gabriel said, embracing Johnny as if he were an old friend.
“I could say the same for you. I take it you didn’t have much trouble after that night?” Johnny asked.
“Fortunately, no. There were a few sleepless nights, to be sure. Especially after you got captured. But let’s forget about all that, I’m sure the good doctor already gave you a thorough interrogation!” Gabriel bellowed out a laugh, and began leading him inside the mansion.
“You seem awfully chipper, given the circumstances,” Johnny said as they entered the main hall. Unlike the Shimotsuki residence, which had seemed dusty and forgotten, everything about Gabriel’s manor seemed sleek and brand new, as if the entire home had just been built and decorated yesterday. Marble floors, elaborate Persian rugs, and a giant antique grandfather clock that stretched from the second floor of the foyer to the ceiling.
“Shouldn’t I be?” Gabriel asked as they made their way to an impressive game room with a three-seat bar at the end of it. “Ninomiya’s tyranny is over. There will be no more nonsense about movements or immortality. No more midnight abductions. No more gods or kings, only us. Only man.”
He led Johnny to the bar and helped him take a seat at the counter. “Drink?” Gabriel asked, pouring two glasses of scotch. It was a fiery label, and Johnny was barely able to keep himself from coughing it back up once it had gone down.
“Good lord,” Johnny said. “Are you trying to poison me?”
“Ha!” Gabriel clapped his hands together as he laughed. “My father was always a scotch man. I’ve got bottles upon bottles of the stuff downstairs. Remind me to pick you one up before you go.”
Johnny pushed the glass away and leaned forward on the counter. “What’s it like?” he asked.
“What’s what like?” Gabriel asked back, passing him a glass of ice water.
“Being an Index. Leaving your role as the school principal. It must be quite a change.”
“Hmm.” Gabriel tapped on the countertop a few times before answering. “A fair question, but to be honest with you, I hadn’t given it much thought yet. The death of two Indices, followed by the exile of another, has left some of my peers rudderless. You didn’t hear this from me, but I have to say, it really isn’t so different from being a school principal.”
“Without the cramped office, at least.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me of it. That office, that entire school in a sense, was a cage Hanekawa built especially for me. To remind me that I would forever be left out of my father’s legacy. I hated every moment I spent there. Especially having to deal with that creep, Finch.”
Johnny took a brief sip of water, keeping it in his mouth for a moment before swallowing it down. “I take it you’ve heard about his rather distasteful night time hobbies?” he asked.
“He was an addict and a lecher,” Gabriel said. “I knew about his visits to The Buckle, though I never imagined he would be seeing his own students there. Still, I guess it’s no surprise.”
“What do you mean?” Johnny asked
“I told you how he had been brought in by Ayano’s father, right? He started here as her private tutor when she was still a freshman, but even back then, there were rumors about them. She would bring him along everywhere she went, like a new pet, or a toy to show off to her peers. It got to the point where Isshin couldn’t overlook it anymore, so he dropped his problem in my lap, and he became one of our English teachers.”
“Why? If he wanted to get rid of him, it was fully in his power to kick the man out of Sonnerie for good,” Johnny remarked as he took another gulp of water.
“You’re asking the wrong guy, though if I had to venture a guess, it’d be that he could never say no to Ayano. She was spoiled rotten, doubly so after her mother passed away.”
“A shame I couldn’t get to her before she sealed herself inside the clocktower,” Johnny said.
His long hours of recovery had afforded him much time for reflection, and he had done so, sometimes out of frustration, and sometimes out of obsession. Could he have run faster? Could he have left Nakahara’s side sooner? Could he have taken aim at her at the first opportunity? But at the end of each question was a simple answer. A bullet had not been enough to stop her in the hospital, and it wouldn’t have been enough to stop her there either. She was beyond his reach, no matter how he struggled to catch up.
“That’s not your fault,” Gabriel reassured. “Honestly, it’s a miracle you even made it out of there alive, let alone kill Zachary Finch. Sonnerie owes you a debt, Johnny, one we may never be able to repay.”
Johnny shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “How many people died during the course of my investigation. Dr. Tonimura? Nakahara? Yama and the other men in the cathedral? Hell, even you put yourself in significant danger by deciding to help me escape capture.”
“Those deaths were inevitable. Just as Mari’s was. They were the result of men who had drunk deep from a poisoned well. It was only a matter of time before the scales tipped out of their favor.”
Johnny scratched an itch above his lip, but gave no answer. There was a tone of complete certainty in Gabriel’s voice, the same tone he had heard the night he had nursed Johnny’s hand back to health. A deep conviction, utter and absolute.
Gabriel circled the counter and slapped a hand on Johnny’s shoulder. “Come on,” he said. “Lunch is waiting for us in the dining room. I hope you’re hungry!”
*
They took seats opposite each other at an extravagant dining table. Lobster tails covered with garlic cream, seared scallops in spinach-green butter sauce, and large slices of bluefin tuna were just a small selection of the feast that had been laid out before them. Gabriel’s chef introduced each dish before gingerly pouring them each a glass of chardonnay and exiting the dining room.
There was no shortage of conversation to be had as they ate, though Gabriel did the lion’s share of the talking. A plan to renovate the school and install a computer lab. The long work of cleaning and repairing the cathedral. Johnny listened as intently as he could, but after a half an hour, he found himself fidgeting in his chair, unable to relax.
“Something in the food not agreeing with you?” Gabriel asked after noticing Johnny’s apparent discomfort.
“I’ve been dining on nothing but hospital meals for the past few days. I think the sudden intake of real food has stirred my stomach a bit,” Johnny said. It wasn’t a complete lie, but something had been bothering him since he had arrived, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“You can’t even call what they serve at that dreadful place proper food,” Gabriel said, pointing down the hall to Johnny’s right. “The bathroom is down that hall, fourth door on the left.”
Johnny set his napkin down and gave him a brief nod of apology. “Thank you,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
Though he was in no rush, he made his way quickly down the corridor, finding the bathroom to be exactly where Gabriel had said. He shut and locked the door behind him and proceeded directly to the sink, where he let a long stream of cool water run before splashing his face and looking into the mirror.
“You’re getting old,” he said to himself as he observed how healing scars dipped in and out of wrinkles in his forehead. Although of mixed heritage, his face had always been decidedly more Japanese than American. The only real giveaway had been his hazel-colored eyes. The slightest tint of green among the brown.
He sta
red at himself for a while until he was satisfied that the Johnny Tokisaki in the mirror was still the man he knew. The man who had made the promise to Mari was there. The man who in a few short hours would be back in Los Angeles as if none of this had ever happened.
The frustration turned bitter in his stomach, but before he let it get the better of him, he turned off the tap and brought himself to a pair of hand towels hanging from the wall.
Just like everything else in the home, they seemed brand new and immaculately clean. Snow-white towels of Turkish cotton, with the golden Itsuka “I” monogrammed into the fabric.
Johnny stared at the monogram for a long moment after drying his face, a dreadful truth settling upon him. His body froze, and his heart turned to ash inside his chest. In his last moments, Zachary Finch had been telling the truth. The knife he had given Ayano was his own. The man who had armed Mari, the man who had manipulated these girls into their mutual destruction, was the man living in this house.
The new Fifth Index, Gabriel Itsuka.
He let go of the towel and returned to the mirror. The second knife belonged here. The second knife that Mutsumi Baba now kept in her care had come from here. The golden inscription, no roman numeral, but a letter.
Instinctively, Johnny unholstered the revolver at his side and opened the cylinder. The doctor had been kind enough to leave the last bullet inside, and he carefully snapped it back into position before returning it. He took one last look at himself in the mirror, then steeled his heart for the confrontation to come.
He stretched his neck out, letting it pop a few times before opening the bathroom door and making his way back to his host.
“Feeling better?” Gabriel asked as he returned to the dining room.
“Much better,” Johnny said as he took his seat. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the fresh pack of cigarettes he had been given at the hospital, and began to tear at the plastic.
“Want one?” he asked Gabriel, who shook his head.
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