Wednesday, October 16, 2019, 5:45 P.M.
For a long while, there was no response from the mainland.
Saijou stared at the transceiver, completely transfixed, but Kikyo gave an exaggerated sigh and clearly communicated that he had no intention of listening to whatever they had to say.
Eventually, Mikumo's voice came out of the transceiver.
“What is it you want me to admit?”
Surprisingly, her voice was calm. Yuki could almost see the dark, bitter smile on her face. Yuki pressed the call button.
“Ms. Mikumo, your father told you some bizarre, frightening stories about Kakuriyo Island, didn't he?”
The kitten meowed from inside his bag, but Yuki ignored it and kept talking.
“You said he was a liar, but it would appear you were wrong.”
Mikumo was silent, neither confirming nor denying it. After another period of waiting, Yuki spoke into the transceiver again.
“You don't have to tell me anything right now. But instead, please tell me how much of what I'm about to say matches your father's stories.”
With that, Yuki continued without hesitation.
“What I'm going to do now is the first step of solving 'The Mystery of the Ambush', as Professor Motegi dubbed it. ...That professor might be a pain, but what he said was true.”
“Mew, meow.”
“Because unless we deduce what sort of creature that black cat is and how it works, there's no way we'll be able to protect ourselves.”
As soon as Yuki let go of the call button, Shigaraki's voice immediately cut in.
“Hey, Mr. Ryuuzen, I've been hearing a cat meowing near you this whole time!”
Apparently, the kitten's voice had reached them on the other side of the transceiver. Yuki stroked the squirming mass through the top of his bag.
“Relax, it's a different cat. I just picked up an injured kitten.”
Yuki looked down at the skinned remains of the cat as he held down the call button.
“I found a pile of dead animals in the Divine Land. Most of them are field mice, there's gotta be almost fifty of them. Most likely, they were all killed by the black cat.”
As Yuki paused for breath, Mikumo's voice came from the transceiver.
“Could it be they were stabbed in the chest?”
It was hard to hear through the static, but it sounded like she'd been breathing hard.
“Yes, stabbed in the chest, exactly like Director Unno. What I'm curious about is one particularly gruesome carcass we found. What animal do you think it was?”
After a few seconds of silence, Mikumo replied quietly.
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Because I thought you'd know, Ms. Mikumo... Incidentally, it's a cat. A dead cat. We think it's the mother of the kitten I have with me, but it's been skinned and most of its flesh has been eaten.”
Kikyo, who'd been acting like their story wasn't worth listening to, seemed to become interested here. Before long, he was also staring seriously at the transceiver. Saijou opened his mouth as though he'd forgotten that Yuki was calling the main island.
“I don't understand. What's so interesting about that one cat?”
Once again, Yuki pressed the call button on the transceiver.
“Among all those animals, only the mother cat, which was black, was eaten. And a black cat is also the form the creature has assumed. I don't think that's a coincidence.”
Saijou let out a gasp.
“You don't mean the creature eats the things it copies before transforming into them?”
He'd left the call button pressed, so that voice must have reached the main island. Yuki nodded and continued.
“The texture of the creature's fur as the black cat was incredibly realistic. Perhaps the substances it eats are absorbed and cover its body's surface, allowing it to have such a perfect appearance... Call it a sort of mimicry.”
Saijou fell silent. Yuki turned back to the transceiver.
“So what do you think? Is my hypothesis correct, Ms. Mikumo?”
He let go of the call button and waited for the main island's response.
“I don't want to believe it, but your hypothesis exactly matches what my father told me... But if Visitors are real, then horrendous things will happen here.”
Mikumo stopped as though her voice had failed her, so Yuki took over.
“So the creature is called the Visitor, is it? To be honest, I'd underestimated its abilities. I'd assumed that no matter how good it was at mimicry, it wouldn't be able to transform into anything larger than a cat.”
Looking at the pile of animal corpses, Yuki continued his explanation.
“But when I found the carcass of the black cat, I remembered something. 45 years ago, a body was devoured the exact same way.”
That was something everyone who'd participated in the filming should have known.
It was noted in all the newspapers of the time and the issue of Unsolved Mysteries. Only Professor Sasakura, the alleged culprit of the Beast of Kakuriyo Island incident, was found in a horrible state as though the beast had eaten his flesh.
“If we assume the culprit of the incident 45 years ago was a Visitor, then it was the Visitor that attacked Professor Sasakura and ate his flesh. If the assumption that 'Visitors eat creatures in order to mimic their appearances' is correct... then wouldn't that mean that Visitors have the ability to mimic humans?”
Echika remained silent, staring at the transceiver sitting on the folding table.
The faces of the other three people appeared to float in the light of the lantern. Koga, Shigaraki, and Yanagawa's gazes all stung her painfully. But she didn't even realize they were there.
All she could think of was the nightmare she was trapped in. ...She couldn't believe the story she'd heard from her father, which she'd thought was complete nonsense, was true.
“Why didn't you tell us something so important?”
She came to her senses when Koga grabbed her.
When Echika came to, she saw Koga's face right in front of her. She saw murderous intent behind his eyes. Koga's fingers were tightening around her neck, and she let out a choked scream.
“...Can you hear me, Ms. Mikumo?'
The transceiver broadcast Ryuuzen's voice. There was no way he could have known what was happening. He probably just wondered why she hadn't responded yet.
Unable to raise her voice even enough to ask for help, Echika felt her throat about to be crushed.
Shigaraki rushed over and tried to pull Koga off of her, but without success. Yanagawa, on the other hand, fixed things quite efficiently. She punched Koga square in the jaw as hard as she could.
Koga staggered and fell to the floor of the multipurpose area with a loud thud. He curled into a ball and screamed.
“...What the hell is wrong with you!?”
“Y'all don't get to say that after tryna kill someone.”
Yanagawa looked down at Koga with a cold glare.
Tara, perhaps sensing that his owner was in danger, began to bark... but to no effect. Koga had put Tara, excited at their return to the former community center, into his carrying bag.
Koga turned to Shigaraki, perhaps thinking he might get another lump if he talked to Yanagawa.
“I can't stay here with these lunatics! I'll be in my room! Shigaraki, when you're done with the transceiver, report everything you hear to me.”
After unilaterally declaring that, Koga left Tara behind and disappeared down the hall, cradling his right hand. Perhaps he'd also sprained his ankle when he fell, as he also limped with his left leg.
Shigaraki came up to Echika, who hadn't stopped coughing.
“Are you okay? That was horrible...”
Echika, who was crouched on the floor, gave a small nod before looking up at Yanagawa.
“I'm sorry I caused you trouble, Ms. Yanagawa...”
That was the only thing she could force through her crushed throat.
“Don't worry your pretty little head about it. No matter what happens, the guy who goes 'n strangles other people is definitely the one in the wrong. 'Sides, if'n yer out overseas and someone attacks ya, even a second's hesitation could get'cha killed, y'know? That's why I've gotten in the habit of swingin' first and thinkin' second.”
She ended with a cheery laugh. Tara, who'd been abandoned in the corner of the multipurpose area, was whimpering sadly, but eventually quieted down.
At that moment, the transceiver released the static-y sound of Ryuuzen's voice.
“Is something the matter? If you're safe, please respond.”
Echika somehow managed to get back on her shaking legs and pick up the transceiver.
“We can hear you, we were just talking amongst ourselves.”
Her voice was obviously changed, and Ryuuzen, who had been annoyingly calm thus far, turned remorseful.
“You're alright... It must have been because I was too forceful in getting you to talk. I'm sorry.”
But Echika wasn't looking for anyone's sympathy. She waited for him to finish up before hitting the button.
“I'm not sure where to begin... Certainly, I did hear about the Visitor from the Divine Land from my father.”
She released the button and caught her breath, throat still in severe pain.
“Could you tell me what he said?”
The microphone of the transceiver on the Divine Land barely picked up the mew of a kitten, but Echika ignored it and spoke into her transceiver.
“Unfortunately, my father didn't know many of the details either. I heard that only the adults of Kakuriyo Island were told the secrets of the Visitors, and my father left the island the day he graduated middle school. ...Even so, my father said that Kakuriyo Island was a special place.”
“If it's 'special', does that mean that there have always been monsters lurking on the island?”
The first person to ask was Shigaraki.
“No, it doesn't... You must know about the Thunder Festival, right, Mr. Ryuuzen?”
“Yes, I read up about it prior to the shoot. As I recall, it's a secret festival held when lightning strikes the Divine Land.”
“They used to hold Thunder Festivals every few years, but most of them were fakes. They were rehearsals, or training, for the True Thunder Festival.”
It must have been because they didn't see how this story would relate to the Visitor. Yanagawa and Shigaraki, listening at her side, as well as Ryuuzen and the rest of the Divine Land side, all seemed to wait with baited breath for her next words.
Echika continued.
“The True Thunder Festival was held every 45 years. Incidentally, the last True Thunder Festival was held in 1974. ...Do you know what that means?”
When she asked, Ryuuzen's voice turned confused.
“Are you planning to deliver your explanation in the form of a quiz show?”
“You asked me a question earlier.”
“No, that was just because you were withholding information...”
Echika put her hand on her throat. The more she talked, the worse the pain got, and she could taste blood. She absolutely had to deliver her story in as few words as possible.
“Do you understand or not?”
“...The Beast of Kakuriyo Island incident occurred the same year as the last True Thunder Festival, and another incident occurred 45 years later, in 2019. It seems like the Visitors target years when festivals happen.”
“It's the opposite. The True Thunder Festival is held due to the appearance of Visitors.”
“So the Visitors appear every 45 years?”
Echika took a small breath and nodded.
“Some of you might know this already, but belief in marebito – 'visitors' – is an ancient custom in many parts of Japan. Of course, 'marebito' originally referred to sacred, deified travelers from far away.”
Although the name varied from region to region and era to era, it was said that marebito were beings that brought happiness to the lands they visited.
“The creature that's appeared on this island might have the same name, but it seems to be quite a different beast.”
“Yes, Visitors bring nothing but misfortune. They appear in the Divine Land, one every 45 years, and kill and eat all the animals there. They're intelligent, but their natures are cruel and greedy, and they attack humans for fun...”
Shigaraki's voice broke as he shouted.
“The people of Kakuriyo Island must have been crazy to hold a festival to celebrate the arrival of such a monster!”
Echika shook her head at his characteristic over-honesty.
“The True Thunder Festival was not a festival of celebration. It was a ceremony in which the islanders risked their lives to exterminate a man-eating monster.”
“Then why was it called a festival?”
“I think it was to give them an excuse to keep outsiders away from Kakuriyo Island by calling it a secret festival. Otherwise, they would have been placed in danger.”
As they listened, Yanagawa and Shigaraki's faces slowly paled. But Echika couldn't do anything but continue.
“If a Visitor ever manages to escape this island, it will continue to attack humans to satisfy its bottomless hunger. That's why the islanders all risked their lives to kill every monster that arrived. ...My father told me that the Mikumo family, the island's head priests, played a central role.”
Echika hadn't believed her father, but fate apparently believed in irony. Even though she'd denied the Visitors, she'd still wound up on Kakuriyo Island at the right time to confront one.
She'd unconsciously let go of the call button. Ryuuzen's voice came from the transceiver.
“How long has it been since Visitors began coming from the Divine Land?”
“According to my father, it's been a long time, but I don't know all the details... But you understand why I didn't believe my father, don't you? I never dreamed this ridiculous chuunibyou story could be true.”
“I don't know how you feel, but I think this is good.”
“What?”
“Because now, we know that there is a way to defeat that creature... By the way, how do we defeat the creature?”
“I don't know.”
“...You... don't know?”
At a loss, Echika continued in a dying voice.
“I told you, my father left the island as soon as he graduated middle school... He didn't know the details of the True Thunder Festival. He didn't know how to spot a disguised Visitor or what they really are.”
“Oh, it's over, we're all going to die.”
Shigaraki moaned, defeated. He collapsed to the floor of the multipurpose area. Echika shook her head and continued.
“It's true that almost everything has been lost due to the incident 45 years ago. ...However, my father did know the most important thing.”
That was why her father had believed he could perform the True Thunder Festival by himself. Echika spoke clearly so the entire group could hear her.
“If a Visitor is thrown into the sea, its mimicry will be broken and it will drown.”
Shigaraki looked up at Echika with a blank expression.
“...The sea?”
“That's how they were killed in the past. Visitors can't swim.”
The sight they'd seen in the cemetery earlier in the day came to mind.
Mikumo Eiko took on the Visitor that killed all of the islanders by herself. The setting of a steep cliff directly above the sea was too beautiful to believe. How terrifying must it have been? And yet, Eiko had fought.
The thought of her grandmother, whose face she didn't even know, was enough to make Echika's throat burn until her voice gave out.
“...In the end, it seems the interpretation in Unsolved Mysteries wasn't that far off the mark. If we replace 'unknown large dog' with 'Visitor', we might begin to understand what happened between Ms. Eiko and the Visitor 45 years ago.”
Wiping the tears from her cheeks, Echika picked up the location data from next to the monitor. Both Shigaraki and Yanagawa peeked at the Unsolved Mysteries article.
Meanwhile, Ryuuzen continued his explanation.
“The Visitor which appeared 45 years ago killed Professor Sasakura and mimicked his appearance. Then it attacked the eleven islanders and two of their dogs. When Ms. Eiko realized what was happening, she destroyed the radios and boat engines. Of course, that was to prevent the Visitor from escaping the island. ...She used her hunting rifle to hunt down the Visitor, but she ran out of bullets. After a fierce struggle, Ms. Eiko succeeded in pushing the Visitor off the cliff into the sea.”
Saijou's voice interrupted him.
“That unexplained gouging in the soil of the cliff must have been the monster struggling as it was pushed into the sea.”
“But during the battle, Ms. Eiko was stabbed in the chest by the Visitor's final attack. That was a fatal wound, and Ms. Eiko must have fallen into the sea afterwards.”
It was eerily close to the story Echika had heard from her father.
She didn't know whether it was deduction or delusion... but either way, it was only at that moment that she began to fear Ryuuzen.
It began to grow dark around them, so Yuki and company decided to return to the beach. It was after 6:00 P.M.
When they arrived at the top of the rocky shore where the waves broke, Yuki briefly explained into the transceiver the events leading up to the discovery of the black cat's corpse. Then he finished with them.
“The tracks of the black cat-Visitor were headed towards the Divine Land, so it's probably a safe bet that it's here with us. The three of us can protect each other if we work together... The problem is Mr. Motegi, who's still acting alone.”
“Nothin' we can do but hope he's safe.”
That was Yanagawa's voice. After she finished her explanation, Mikumo almost completely stopped talking.
Saijou took out a cigarette as he looked out over the sea, sinking into the evening darkness. The brand was Six Stars, same as Kikyo's. After lighting it with a lighter, he spoke anxiously.
“What are we going to do?”
Yuki pondered for a moment, then lifted the transceiver so Mikumo and the others could hear.
“For now, Ms. Yanagawa and the others should avoid leaving the former community center. The Visitor should be confined here in the Divine Land, but there's no need to take unnecessary risks.”
“What 'bout you, Ryuuzen?”
“We'll wait for the gravel path to reappear so we can cross back to the main island, and while we're here... we'll trap the Visitor in the Divine Land.”
“W-Whuzzat now?”
“We'll cross over to the main island, then we'll keep a watch over the gravel path. The black cat might be wary and not leave the Divine Land, but that's okay. ...If we stay until the tide rises and the gravel path is submerged again, the Visitor won't be able to leave the Divine Land.”
“I getcha, since the Visitor ain't one fer swimmin'. It can't travel 'tween the islands durin' high tide.”
Someone snatched some of the filming materials from the pocket of Yuki's bag. The kitten inside must have felt the movement, because its panicked voice began to fill the air.
Not caring about the glare Yuki shot him, Kikyo turned the pages and began to check the tide chart.
| Date | Gravel Path Appears | Low Tide | Gravel Path Disappears |
| 10/16/19 | 01:56 PM | 03:26 PM | 04:56 PM |
| 10/17/19 | 02:16 AM | 03:46 AM | 05:16 AM |
| 02:33 PM | 04:03 PM | 05:33 PM | |
| 10/18/19 | 02:59 AM | 04:20 AM | 05:59 AM |
| 03:08 PM | 04:38 PM | 06:08 PM |
“The next low tide is at 3:46 A.M.”
Yuki told Yanagawa to double check his findings, then resumed his explanation.
“We were lucky the Visitor crossed over to the Divine Land. All we need to do is monitor the gravel path before and after low tide and turn the Visitor away if it tries to cross.”
After a while, Mikumo's voice was audible for the first time in a long while.
“In the worst case scenario, there's the possibility the Visitor could impersonate Professor Motegi and try to cross to the main island. ...If that happens, can you really turn him away?”
When she voiced the possibility, Yuki choked on his words.
He remembered that they had no way of telling the difference between the real Motegi and the Visitor.
Visitors will drown if thrown in the sea, Mikumo had said... but that also applied to people who couldn't swim. What's more, the currents around the island were fast. The area near the port should have been relatively safe, but anywhere else, even Yuki, who was a fairly competent swimmer, may have drowned.
Not only that, but the area around the gravel path had a particularly dangerous, fast flowing current. It would be difficult for them to ask Motegi to dive into the sea there just to prove his innocence.
Suddenly, Kikyo snatched the transceiver from him and spoke with no expression at all.
“I don't care if it's the Visitor or the scholar, if they show their face here again, I'll drown them and throw their body to the sea myself, so don't worry.”
That sounded too good to be true, but Yuki took the transceiver back from Kikyo without a word.
“Forget it. I'll see if I can come up with something better by next low tide. Let me know if you come up with anything on your side.”
With that, communication with the main island was, for the time, ended.
The transceiver's battery was running low after getting so much use, but fortunately, the transceiver had a USB charging port. The mobile battery Saijou had been carrying was enough to prolong its life.
It had gotten dark, so Yuki took out his flashlight. It was the type that could also function as a lantern, so he set it up on a rock and the three of them gathered around it.
Kikyo took out a cigarette, lit it with a lighter, and took a drag. He'd been smoking nonstop since their arrival at the Divine Land. He was going through cigarettes even faster than usual.
“So what's the plan? Did you bring anything to eat or drink?”
“Not much, I'm afraid.”
As Yuki rummaged through the plastic bag, the kitten, perhaps feeling that he'd sat down, poked its head out of the bag and looked up at him.
“I've got one bottle of mineral water and one bottle of barley tea. The barley tea's half finished, though. And five nutritionally-balanced meal bars.”
There was also some outdoor use bug spray and some insect repellent incense. The reason he'd come so prepared was in case anything went wrong during his revenge plan, but... there was no need to tell them that.
Saijou also removed his backpack and unloaded its contents.
“I have a bit of coffee left over and three chocolates.”
Kikyo raised his eyebrows.
“Well, aren't you two prepared. I wonder if we even need anything else.”
He had no bag, and he looked annoyed as he searched his pockets, but eventually, he did pull out three small bags.
“Oh, my dried bonito flakes!”
Yuki's eyes widened at the declaration, making Kikyo yell at him.
“I just put the leftovers in my pocket so I'd have a snack on hand before I went to bed. ...You don't need them, do you?”
Somehow, they were eventually able to convince Kikyo to hand them over, and Yuki successfully traded two nutrition bars for two bags of dried bonito flakes. Of course, they were for the kitten. Strictly speaking, they had a poor balance of minerals and weren't very good for cats, but it was an emergency.
He took the kitten out of the bag and gave it some bonito flakes softened with barley tea, which the kitten ate with gusto.
It looked like it hadn't eaten in days.
Saijou, who had been chomping on a nutrition bar, looked over, and the kitten threateningly raised the hairs on its back. Saijou's face filled with confusion.
“It already hates me... You decided what to name your cat yet, Ryuuzen?”
Yuki nodded as he tossed one of the chocolates into his mouth.
“It's Fuwawa.”
Kikyo nearly burst out laughing, spraying mineral water everywhere.
“What sort of name is that!?”
“I knew someone once who had a cat. Her cat's name was Mei, and she always said that if she got a second cat, she'd name it Fuwawa... Is it not good?”
With that, Yuki smiled at the man who'd sent Naoko to her death. Kikyo spat his response without making eye contact.
“Do whatever you want. It's a wild cat, so it's bound to have fleas and diseases. The vet will charge you a fortune when you get back to Tokyo.”
No one spoke again until after their small dinner.
Fuwawa, the kitten, gave a small mew and willing dove back into Yuki's bag. It seemed she'd grown fond of it. Shortly afterwards, the small sound of her sleeping began to emanate from the bag.
Without anyone proposing the idea, all three of them sat with their backs to the sea, facing the virgin woods. If the Visitor attacked, it would be from that direction.
It was so deeply dark they couldn't see a meter into the trees. Every now and then, the wind would rustle the leaves, and they couldn't help but tense up, wondering if they'd soon see the black cat's shining eyes... or Motegi. W
hen it was after 7:30, a nearly full moon appeared above them.
The moon gave off enough light for them to see their surroundings without use of the flashlight, but the forest was still an impenetrable black.
As if he couldn't stand the silence, Kikyo tossed a twig away and began talking.
“If you think about it, isn't it a bit suspicious that that old hag was able to fight the Visitor 45 years ago? Could she really have defeated it?”
“First of all, don't call other peoples' grandmothers 'old hag'... Second, considering the circumstances, I have no doubt that the Visitor was defeated.”
In response, Saijou, who had been swatting away insects around him, asked
“Why's that?”
“It was in Unsolved Mysteries. Kakuriyo Island was an islander where visitors – lowercase 'v' – were rare. The reason why Mr. Sotani came to the island the day after the incident was because Ms. Eiko asked him to. I think it's safe to assume that no boats came to the island before the Eirianmaru that brought Mr. Sotani there after the incident.”
Kikyo chuckled.
“Again with the quibbles. Though I suppose I don't disagree.”
“If the Visitor had survived, the radio on the island would have already been destroyed by Ms. Eiko... so it would have waited at the port for a ship to pass by. Even if Mr. Sotani's boat had arrived, do you think the Visitor would have called the police on itself using the onboard radio? No, it would have threatened Mr. Sotani, still in the guise of Professor Sasakura, and made him take the Eirianmaru back to the Kyushu mainland.”
Saijou seemed to get it.
“Ryuuzen's right. As soon as it got access to a boat, the Visitor would have made escape its first priority.”
But Kikyo narrowed his eyes and disagreed.
“I'm not convinced. It's possible that Sotani called the police before the Visitor got to him. In that case, the Sotani who returned to Kyushu with the police might have actually been the Visitor.”
It was a shrewd observation, but Yuki shook his head.
“That isn't likely either.”
“What? How can you deny that so easily?”
“Even if Mr. Sotani had made the report, there would have been no need for the Visitor to wait for the police to arrive, right? Instead, it should have threatened Mr. Sotani and fled to the mainland on his boat... In short, Mr. Sotani's action of 'waiting for the police to arrive' is the best evidence that he wasn't the Visitor.”
The moon rose higher into the sky as their conversation continued, but there was still a long time until the next high tide. Yuki wasn't tired, probably because his nerves were too on edge.
Occasionally, he looked to Kikyo, and every time, he thought the same thing.
...Why can't I just push him into the sea?
No matter how you looked at it, for Yuki to protect the target of his revenge was absurd. If he killed Kikyo here, Saijou would definitely see him, but Yuki was getting to the point where he didn't care, as long as he could accomplish revenge with his own two hands.
Still, he couldn't act, because he knew exactly what would happen if he did.
First, Saijou would panic at the sight of Yuki committing murder. There was nothing he could say that would stop Saijou from trying to escape from him. Saijou and Yuki would both be helpless if the Visitor struck while they were divided like that.
Thus, everyone in the Divine Land would be annihilated, and the Visitor would take on the form of either Yuki or Saijou. The Visitor would use its new form to attack the main island and kill the four people there. Then, it would take the boat that came to pick them up and escape the island.
Yuki shook his head. He couldn't allow himself to be responsible for such a horrible future, even if it was for his revenge. ...For the time being, he had no choice but to abandon the plan.
The virgin forest remained silent.
Kikyo had been so determined to kill the Visitor, but he'd already gotten bored and started kicking the stone monument by the forest. Yuki got fed up and started admonishing him.
“Don't take out your frustrations on that.”
“Blame whoever put this thing here in the first place. It's probably a statue of whatever god these people worshiped. Some Divine Land!”
Seeing him kick even harder, Saijou spoke weakly.
“It's not a statue, it's a monument. There's a poem engraved on it.”
Yuki was taken aback and picked up the flashlight. He shone the light on the monument, and Kikyo stopped moving, glaring at him with one leg still in the air.
“What now?”
“I might be overthinking things, but... that monument might be a code.”
The three of them looked at the waka poem, visible in the light. It read:
“The four ostracized golden beetles. In their hearts dwell the truth.”
After reciting it aloud several times, Yuki nodded.
“I knew it... The 'golden beetles' reminded me of Poe's The Gold-Bug.”
Saijou was puzzled.
“I think I read that in English class in college. It was a short story involving a code?”
“Yes, it was. It was a short story about a search for Captain Kidd's treasure based on a piece of parchment found by chance. It's famous as an early pioneer in the use of ciphers in mystery stories.”
Suddenly, Kikyo erupted into a belly laugh.
“Oh, I remember, and there were rumors that Kidd's treasure lies on Kakuriyo Island, too. Don't tell me that if we solve this code, we'll find the hidden treasure?”
“...Even if we find the treasure, we're still being targeted by the Visitor, you know.”
Even Saijou was being a downer. Yuki's shoulders slumped in disappointment.
“The islanders wouldn't have written a treasure code in a place like this. Think about it... there are several identical stone monuments in prominent places around the island. I think this message is intended for outsiders.”
“You mean it's for us?”
Kikyo, who had finally stopped laughing, looked down at the stone monument. Yuki thought for a moment, then called the mainland on the transceiver. Soon, a response came in Mikumo's voice.
“Did something happen?”
“We might have discovered something. The waka poem found in various places around the island might be ciphers.”
“You mean the ones that go 'The four ostracized golden beetles. In their hearts dwell the truth'? ...They're strange poems, so I memorized them.”
Yuki was surprised by her memory, but he mentioned Poe's The Gold-Bug and told her his theory that the poem might be a message for them.
“Kakuriyo Island was regularly attacked by Visitors. I think the islanders must have realized the risk of the worst case scenario, of them all being wiped out. ...Didn't your father ever tell you anything?”
“Yes, he did say that my grandmother must have left information on the Visitors somewhere. My grandmother was the sort of woman who never did anything without careful preparation.”
“In that case, this poem may have been written by Ms. Eiko.”
“But when my father went back to Kakuriyo Island to collect his belongings, he said he couldn't find anything that looked like documents. It seems there were hardly any papers on the island to begin with. After all, the details of the True Thunder Festival were passed down orally.”
“I think the real reason he couldn't find the documents is because they were hidden outside the Mikumo family home... Also, if you want to leave a message that will persist for 45 years, a stone monument isn't a bad way to do it. It's a recording method resistant to both water and fire.”
Kikyo snarled in an unthreatening way.
“What you're proposing is too strange. If they wanted someone from outside the island to read it, they wouldn't have made it a code at all. They'd have just written the location of the stash in plain Japanese.”
That was also a valid objection, but Yuki once again shook his head.
“What if they knew that humans wouldn't be the only ones to read this?”
The moment he heard that, Kikyo's complexion paled.
“...The Visitor?”
“The Visitor!”
Mikumo responded almost simultaneously over the transceiver.
“Yes. If the Visitor were to find the material first and destroy it, there would be no way to get it back. That's why they had to encode the location so the Visitor wouldn't find it.”
Saijou, who had been staring intently at the monument, looked up at Yuki.
“If the 'golden beetles' part is a hint that this is a code, then there being four of them, being ostracized, and having truth in their hearts is the location of the material... Ryuuzen, do you already know where it was hidden?”
Yuki was surprised to see Saijou read his mind. In fact, he had been contemplating whether he should reveal his thoughts.
“One possibility has occurred to me that could be where the materials are hidden... but I'm not sure if I'm right, and I don't want to give anyone false hope.”
“Are you deliberately trying to raise your death flag?”
Hearing Mikumo say that over the transceiver, Yuki couldn't stop himself from laughing.
“Looks like Mr. Motegi's words got to you all. Its true that, in a mystery novel, someone who said something like that would definitely get killed.”
Kikyo grinned with a amusement.
“If you value your life, you'd better hurry up and spill it.”
“I understand... I think the cemetery is suspicious. But if I give any more details, someone currently in the former community center might sneak off and look for them alone, won't they?”
A hearty laugh came from the transceiver.
“Don't worry. No one here would do anything that stupid.”
Unfortunately... Yuki didn't trust that. Ever since the incident, one person after another had ignored his suggestions.
Koga had gone out of control, and let the Visitor escape. Motegi and Kikyo had both ignored his warnings not to act on their own. Even Saijou, well-intentioned as he was, ignored his instructions to stay at the former community center.
Good intentions were honestly more troublesome. Koga probably didn't have any of those, but that still left Mikumo, Yanagawa, and Shigaraki as people who might go off on their own.
“I guess... I'll tell you the answer to the code after trapping the Visitor in the Divine Land. Let's look for the documents together after we return to the former community center tomorrow.”
With that, Yuki ended their communication.
“What the heck? That's real annoyin'... Was Ryuuzen always such a tool?”
Hearing Yanagawa talking to herself, Echika nodded with a laugh.
“I guess that's just the kind of man he is.”
The two of them were sitting in front of a magenta tent.
Before them was an LED lantern, though with the world outside shrouded in darkness, it wasn't enough to illuminate the entire multipurpose area.
Yanagawa's tone turned mischievous as she poured hot coffee into paper cups.
“Did you and Ryuuzen know each other before this, Mikumo? Y'all seem to get along like a cow an' her cud.”
Echika frowned. She was surprised someone could make such a misinterpretation.
“No, this is our first meeting... and I don't think we're compatible at all.”
Before them were two empty paper plates and a large pot.
When they returned to the former community center, they found the contents of the Dutch oven had spoiled, so Shigaraki had made chicken rice with generous portions of root vegetables in the pot. It was apparently a simple recipe made using canned yakitori.
Yanagawa had eaten several portions, but Echika just had no appetite.
“Jus' coffee's pretty boring, ain't it?”
Saying that, Yanagawa pulled out a pocket-sized bottle of whiskey and poured it into the paper cup.
“Want some, Ms. Mikumo? It's Scotch...”
“I don't like alcohol.”
Taking a sip of her spiked coffee, Yanagawa suddenly let out a deep sigh.
“...I take pride in bein' a real jack-of-all-trades as a camerawoman, so I've been to plenty of crime scenes and accident scenes, both here in Japan and overseas.”
The day before her arrival in Kagoshima, Yanagawa had accompanied a young reporter to an interview and some photography at a homeless community.
“Seven homeless people've been assaulted in the past six months. Plenty of people didn't wanna talk to us, but I can tell: folks're scared.”
She added more whiskey to her drink as she continued.
“But goin' to the scene to shoot some footage and actually bein' involved ain't the same thing. I'm a powerless outsider, so all I can do is pray that the storm passes me by.”
At that moment, a silhouette appeared in the frosted glass of the door to the hallway. It was Shigaraki.
At the same time, they heard Tara moving in his carrier in the corner of the multipurpose area. However, he seemed to quickly realize that it wasn't his owner and went quiet after a single whine.
“Thank ya fer this... Must've taken ya a while.”
As Yanagawa poured coffee, she gestured to ask if he wanted some whiskey.
“Give me some. Well, I was able to treat his injuries and told him about the Visitor, but the president just started whining that he didn't want to be alone and wouldn't let me go.”
In the end, Shigaraki had to wait until Koga drank too much white wine and passed out drunk before he could sneak out of the small room.
Yanagawa spoke hesitantly.
“Speakin' of... You grabbed the first aid kit on the way over. Are the president's injuries that bad?”
“Well, he sprained his right hand and left ankle. It doesn't look like he hurt his bones, though, so he was just making a big fuss over nothing.”
Shigaraki looked exhausted, but he began to prepare the remaining rice for himself. Spending so much time with Koga had clearly drained his spirit.
Yanagawa's expression was also clouded. She was probably worried that Koga would sue her for assault once they escaped the island.
Echika thought the president seemed like the type to bribe a doctor to fabricate a medical report so he could claim more damages. However... under the circumstances, there was no way he would sue.
She placed a hand on her neck, and she could still vividly feel herself being strangled. If Yanagawa had acted a second later, her trachea could have been crushed.
Eventually, Shigaraki's eyes fell on the fabric carrier in the corner of the multipurpose area.
“If he was so afraid of being alone, he should have taken Tara with him.”
“Well, she is madder'n a wet hen...”
It wasn't hard to understand Yanagawa's view. The dog still hadn't shown the slightest sign of affection towards Echika or Yanagawa, barking and biting whenever they tried to feed him. He'd make a better guard dog than a companion.
Yanagawa then drained her paper cup in one gulp and stood up.
“Ahh, I feel 'bout ready to hit the hay. I'm gonna head out 'n get some fresh air 'n stretches in.”
Shigaraki, who had been in the process of unwrapping a disposable spoon, froze with eyes widened.
“What? You can't go outside! Just do it here in the multipurpose area, I don't mind.”
“Ya sure? I'm into exercises that are popular overseas, where ya do lots of funky poses, so it's kinda embarrassin'... It'll be fine! The Visitor shouldn't be anywhere on this here island anywho. An' I don't plan on goin' far from the door.”
“Look, just... be careful. Please.”
“Don't worry, I know a few things about handlin' myself.”
Yanagawa stepped outside, swinging a plastic umbrella at her side. It looked like she was planning to use it as a weapon in case of emergency. By the time she returned, Shigaraki had finished his meal and was drinking spiked coffee.
Echika stood up as though trading shifts with Yanagawa.
“Where is the restroom?”
“Back left of the hallway. There are two portable toilets set up for now. We also have wet wipes and toilet paper.”
According to Shigaraki, the village office was very strict about preserving the island's natural environment, so they decided to bring along their own portable toilets just in case. Echika was grateful she wouldn't have to relieve herself outside.
She stepped out into the hall and slowly made her way by the light of a flashlight. Suddenly, what sounded like a wild animal roared, and Echika screamed.
Hearing her, Yanagawa and Shigaraki came running.
“What's wrong?”
“...I'm sorry. It was just President Koga snoring.”
Even now, loud snores were coming from the room at the front right of the hall. Shigaraki couldn't take it any longer and broke into loud laughter. Echika and Yanagawa also broke and joined in. Even the snoring seemed to get progressively louder.
“It's a portable toilet... Can't we move it to the waiting room? It seems unnecessarily scary to go all the way down that dark hall in the middle of the night.”
And so, the three of them moved the yet unused portable toilet to the waiting room. This room had a door directly connecting to the multipurpose area, so they no longer had to go down the hall just to use the toilet.