020
Even as wife and husband knew about their missing ‘daughter’ on ‘the second night’ from her ‘class teacher’, they did not initiate a search; even as they found out about the ‘front tooth’ in their postbox, they did not call the police. Yet it appears the rationale behind that wasn’t because of something such as ‘given she’s leaving home, she must want people to worry about her, so there’s no need to worry about her’.
It is apparently something much simpler – a fear of having their neglectful parenting exposed – that made them reluctant to let the police inside their house, to the extent that they wouldn’t even report, say, a thief breaking into their house.
Because they’ve done bugger all in terms of raising their children.
And they’re doing bugger all even if one of them got kidnapped.
Which sounds like too much to bear, but it’s quite expected; maybe the perpetrator specifically targeted kids like these – kids whose parents wouldn’t say a word if they got hurt.
So could the incendiary act of putting the front tooth in the postbox be foreshadowing a future ransom? Not that anybody has received anything like a ransom note…
‘Please, sorry, I am guilty too. Because, even though I knew what that family was like, I said nothing about them doing nothing – nothing.’
‘……’
If you say that, then I’m guilty too.
I called the police right after I saw that staircase landing without saying a word to those parents, although I could have gone it alone much earlier, when Higasa-chan was still telling me about the specifics.
To seek confirmation with relevant parties before taking action…such a textbook response may have delayed my discovery – if I called the police immediately after listening to the thing that ‘stays in this room’, then maybe the kidnapper and Benikujaku-chan would still have been on the staircase landing.
If it wasn’t for Ononoki-chan egging me on, I’d probably still not have called the police at all – a chilling thought.
‘Now, please, the family are making a giant fuss.’
Benihibari said.
They’re making a giant fuss? ‘A giant fuss’?
That’s weird, I thought that with the press not allowed to report it, they wouldn’t be all outside their front door…
‘Excuse me, it was not them, it was, the f-father of my younger sister…her birth father came knocking…’
I see, it was said that she was his daughter from a previous marriage.
So he is her actual father – then it is no surprise that he would know from the police about his birth daughter getting kidnapped.
Even though it’s only been half a day since I called the police, it seems things are moving at a quicker pace than I thought – Japan’s police really are great at their job, although when I say that, it sounds more like I’m bragging about my parents.
‘Then my father contacted me, and he said this to me, he said, “this isn’t you, is it?”’
‘……’
I’ve never thought about that – in fact, not until you’ve mentioned it.
An older sister, extremely worried about her solitary younger sister…so worried, she might grab her younger sister on the latter’s way back home from school.
Story-wise, it sounds entirely plausible.
At first glance, it sounds like it can happen – but a story like that leaves the ‘front tooth in the postbox’ foreshadowing unresolved.
If they saw the horrid sight that is the staircase landing, then it would’ve been impossible to make that kind of deduction – and yet it was the father who said all that.
If such a severe and dry deduction came from a renowned detective, then it may have been met with praise; to have come from the father, not so much…
It’s already bad news to know her younger sister got kidnapped without a shadow of a doubt, but to now know she’s being suspected by her parents…I wonder what Benihibari’s feeling.
‘No, please, it is alright, okay. That man has always been like that. But, if he is the man I know – my father, that is – then he would not hesitate in letting the police know about this too.’
Benihibari said, as she sipped her cup of black coffee, and then immediately added three sugar cubes from the sugar pot – maybe it was bitterer than she thought, or perhaps it shows she’s still not calmed down.
‘After all, this, I have thought about this before – ah, but it is not kidnapping, okay? When I started living on my own, I thought maybe, my sister…Kujaku…maybe I should take her with me to be with me.’
‘……’
Benihibari said as she twirled her long hair – from an interviewer’s perspective, that long hair doesn’t look too tidy. Then again, I’m not exactly one to talk about hairstyles, but if she’s going to a corporate interview later on, it’d be better if she tidied it up a little.
No, now I’m just sticking my nose into where it doesn’t belong.
If I say it out loud, I’m going to somehow end up cutting another woman’s hair – how many times has it been already?
‘B-but, please, I would never do such a thing as rip out Kujaku’s front tooth, please, I would never. Yes, it would be absolutely impossible. Yep, never. Besides – as Araragi-san saw, the landing…I, although I am yet to hear the details…not that the newspapers would put it to print…but, according to my father –’
Benihibari continued stutteringly…seems she’s trying her best to sound calm, but it’s obvious at this point just how flustered she is.
If this was an interview, she would’ve failed already – I heard that’s how difficult it is to find a job these days.
Presumably she started looking for work in her first year to take care of her younger sister – for her sister who lived with her in the same room, in an empty house.
This is getting heavy.
But now it seems necessary to tell everything I saw to my yearmate…because she doesn’t seem to dare do anything, after hearing that biased information from her father.
Much as I promised Ononoki-chan to not involve myself in this case any further, I’m sure this is still safe, right? – was how I convinced myself. I’m not saving someone after they asked for help; this is the most I’m going to do.
I sincerely hope this doesn’t turn into a life-or-death choice again…then again, it’s only normal, as a human being – so;
‘What I say stays between you and me.’
I started, with that sentence.
I of course cannot mention anything about the Tiny Oddity Trio, but I tried relaying to her in as much detail as I can about what I went through, from Higasa-chan talking to me about this, to the restlessness, to the search for the missing small girl, to what I saw on the emergency staircase landing in the parkade.
But, having basically said the same things as I did in the police station last night, now that I’m telling this more objectively, I do wonder what I was thinking – it’s a miracle they didn’t arrest me on the spot, and I’m not even joking.
‘So I see…well then, please excuse me for the embarrassing embarrassment.’
Benihibari lowered her head in regret as I finished – no, this isn’t something for you to apologise.
You’re really making yourself look like the kidnapper here.
Or could she have meant the Beniguchi family when she said ‘embarrassment’? I made sure to keep Agent Ononoki’s breaking and entering a secret – then again, that wasn’t the only bit that could be called embarrassing.
‘So…well, if even a first witness as suspicious as I am didn’t get nicked, I don’t think you’ll get arrested either, Benihibari, no matter what your father says.’
‘Benihibari?’
Whoops.
I’ve let it slip.
‘Sorry, sorry…bad habit of mine to come up with nicknames for people I first meet.’
The bad habit was actually Higasa-chan’s, but I’ll have to take this for her.
‘So that is what that is so…in primary school, people called me Benishouga [紅生姜, lit. “red ginger”] in primary school.’
‘Benishouga?’
‘Oh!’
Benishouga…no, Benihibari covered her mouth.
Looks like she accidentally blurted out an old nickname she didn’t quite like…and speaking of which, I don’t think Benihibari’s a good nickname either.
But ‘Benikujaku-chan’ really has taken root.
‘Benikujaku-chan…if my sister heard it, she would be really happy to hear you call her that.’
‘…If you say that…’
Higasa-chan’d be really happy too.
‘She must be alive’ or ‘she will be fine’ – these I couldn’t bring my heart to say, to console, having witnessed that staircase landing.
It must be tragically rough for her too, right – getting snatched on her way back home from school, imprisoned in an emergency stairwell, stripped bare of her clothes and robbed of her teeth?
Even an immortal vampire would flinch upon being inflicted with such pain – not to mention how she wasn’t in a happy situation to begin with.
An empty house. Neglect.
A neglected child – a neglected life.
Two sisters.
‘Please, Araragi-san, what do you think, please?’
‘Eh? – what do you mean?’
The last thing I wanted was for her to ask something like if I think her sister’s alive, but that’s not what Benihibari asked.
‘Did you not go across the next town just to look for a small girl you have never even seen…whom you have only ever heard of, did you? On the other hand, there are parents who, even when their child does not come home – or even if they think they are lost – would take no action. What do you think of a world which is like that?’
The world, huh.
What do I think of this world?
A world like this – honestly, the moment I saw the staircase landing, I felt like the world had betrayed me.
I wouldn’t say I live in a woolly world of peace, prosperity and amity – I have gone through my share of hell and nightmares – but even so, there’s a part of me who still believes in this world.
I feel like I’m living in a comfort zone – people dying, getting hurt, getting bloodied, these are all things I’m still whisking away, as if they’re not part of this world.
Yes.
I’ve severed oddities from the world I’m living in – even though if there’s one thing I’ve felt, it’s how close I am to the world of oddities.
Closer than a wall’s width, closer than a paper’s width.
Is that what I meant when I said I ‘want to see a greater world’? No, that’s not it.
There’s Hanekawa’s incident, and then there’s Sodachi’s incident. Both of which, at their core, had nothing to do with oddities…didn’t Oshino ceaselessly remind me not to blame everything on oddities?
So stop pretending that the world is wonderful, or that this was the first time that realisation hit since finishing high school.
That’s the real embarrassment.
‘……’
…That reminds me, back when Oshino took over the problems with Hanekawa’s family, if I had to say it, I don’t think he took Hanekawa’s side, but rather took the side that neglected, and later even physically abused Hanekawa – her parents’ side.
It was for that reason that high school me was left with the impression that all adults are the same…but that centrist could have been trying to tell me that, for unqualified parents, simply telling them they’re unqualified solves nothing.
Not that I’m close to doing that.
The most I’ve done was ask for the parents’ names.
‘I am very sorry, that was a weird question, do you not shall think?’
‘No…I think you’re serious.’
The really weird thing would be ‘do you not shall think’, but I’m someone who has never been to any networking events, let alone written a CV; in front of a job-hunter at her wit’s end, I don’t have anything to say.
It could prove useful, even.
‘Do you not shall think’.
‘I think all I can say is “this world is bigger than you think”. Anything can happen. Just because you’ve graduated from high school doesn’t mean your life is over.’
‘…Just because I’ve graduated from high school, huh, is that it, huh.’
The intention behind such positivistic words was to cheer this older sister up a little, having been framed by her father, but Benihibari seemed stuck in deep thought – don’t tell me she’s now thinking what happens after graduating from university.
Or perhaps she’s thinking about her younger sister, whose graduation from primary school has been thrown into uncertainty, let alone from high school – saying ‘your life is over’ was insensitive of me.
Before I could apologise, Benihibari raised her head back up, and said,
‘Thank you very much verily, Araragi-san. I have learnt a lot from you I have.’
Is she about to finish? Then again, I’ve given her all I can give.
‘Uh, the invoice –’
‘It’s okay, I’ll take care of it. I didn’t help you with anything in the end, so at the very least, I should help you with this.’
It’s my parents’ hard-earned cash, but I’m making it sound like she owes me…some golden child I really am.
‘I’m grateful for your gratuitousness.’
She accepted without hesitation, as she let out another ‘thank you very much verily’, stepping on what I imagine are equally uncomfortable pumps, quickly walking away from the cafeteria, as I thought to myself, ‘Hm?’
It wasn’t that she didn’t ask me if I think her younger sister was alive; if anything, I’m grateful she didn’t ask that…but isn’t it strange that she opened with as serious a question as ‘what do you make of the world’?
Having went ahead and played detective myself, I’m very happy she didn’t suspect me one bit…though the reason why she asked that was because we mentioned those neglectful parents.
What do you think of a world with parents like this?
…If I were to answer without pretending to be positive, the model answer would probably be ‘nothing much’, but if that was the question posed, then maybe ‘parents’ should have been ‘kidnappers’ instead.
Of course I think lowly of parents who neglect their children, but if you suggest the kidnapper who snatched a year five schoolgirl and ripped out all her teeth was a better person than the Beniguchi parents, then that I cannot agree with.
Dismissing the differences between ‘long-term violence’ and ‘short-term violence’ with ‘they’re all violence’ would be most careless – but why would Benihibari talk with the faux-detective poser that is me about her own parents?
Shouldn’t she have asked what I thought of the world, with such criminals –?
– Well then, please excuse me for the embarrassing embarrassment.
You’re really making yourself look like the kidnapper here.
‘……’
No, no, it can’t be, it can’t be.
Please, it mustn’t be, please.
It makes far more sense for her to be so scared of the kidnapper that she didn’t dare mention it – avoiding mentioning the kidnapper because she was the kidnapper just sounds forced.
I don’t even think I’m qualified to pass judgement on those parents now; to suspect the older sister who specifically dropped by because she’s worried about her younger sister, what the hell am I thinking?
Am I playing detective again?
…However, assuming she came by not to hear more about the case, but to find out how things are by approaching the first witness, then I don’t see how that would be unusual.
If I answered her questions incorrectly, would I, the witness, have been disposed of by Benihibari…? Or perhaps I’d be abducted somewhere. Seen too many suspense dramas, haven’t I? I don’t watch them a lot, but I guess I do get drawn in sometimes.
‘If it wasn’t for me overlooking a crucial piece of evidence in the staircase landing – or, whilst searching for Benikujaku-chan – I would’ve had my teeth pulled out’…thoughts like that aren’t just fantasy, it’s paranoia.
Wasn’t I just thinking how an older sister this concerned about her younger sister could never have torn out the latter’s teeth herself?
Why can’t I just sympathise with her?
I’m such an ass.
I should’ve at least asked her which department she’s in…wanting to allay what I can only describe as a minor suspicion, I was about to run after her, but I didn’t.
I’m sure if I asked – although I haven’t the slightest idea how – that she would give me a reassuring answer; and in the smallest chance that I don’t, I’ve already decided that I’ll leave matters in the hands of the law.
This is a firm decision.
Even just then, I’ve already walked into the grey area of a promise…having already done an objectively dubious search-and-rescue mission, I should stay away from making rash decisions; for my parents who believe in me, and for Gaen-san who protected me.
And even in that one-in-ten-thousand chance of Beniguchi Hibari kidnapping Beniguchi Kujaku, even if she was an inhumane, psychopathic criminal, the one who wields the right to punish her isn’t me.
In the end, it’s just someone getting killed by someone else.
The world’s not going to stop turning.
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