Yashiro Kiyoshi
“She was unable to answer her own questions. After that day, she started drinking almost every day, and then Kiriko would take her home through the dark streets alone at nights. Minori wanted to get things out of her head, but… she was just unable to. She was just unable to fight all these feelings of loneliness and loss. She knew something’s changed, but was unable to answer what. That was the main reason why her cases were rejected every single time, and why she was a matter of concern to the welfare societies. To be honest, I’ve been solving simple murder and hit-and-run cases up until now, but what I was about to encounter… was the most interesting case of my whole career.”
“Suzuki-san, are you sure that this is the house?” I whispered in the ear of a man who stood on the right side of me. He had no hairs, and he too wore a light brown overcoat on top of a black pair of pants, as I did. He even had wrinkles on his face, and he was well in his sixties. I, on the other hand, was a middle-aged fit man in my thirties.
In his heavy and cracking voice, he replied, “Yeah, seems so.”
It was nighttime, and the streetlight behind us was up. On our right side, the street was ascending up the hill. The crescent moon was a little covered with dark clouds. The lights in the rectangular house in front of us were turned on. We both stepped towards the house, which had a little greenery in the front, and had the nameplate of ‘Shiratoris’ at the wall.
DING! We rang the bell, and its voice was all over the house. We stood up in front of the house silently, staring at the door awkwardly.
The drawing room of the house was completely dark. At the left far corner of the room from the entrance, the feminine figure of a woman sitting on the ground, facing the corner, was half-visible as her lower half of the body was covered with darkness.
DING!
“No reply,” Suzuki-san commented as he moved his hands inside the pockets of his overcoat which fluttered a little.
I banged on the door. “Shiratori-san!” BANG BANG. “Shiratori-san!”
Minori sat at the same corner, in the same state. Her hands were in between her chest, like she was holding something too tightly. “What… is this feeling?” She thought as she tightened her eyelids. “Why is all of this happening to me?!”
“She was confused. She didn’t know what was happening to her, or why was it happening to her. And, to be honest, I can understand this feeling to some extent. I was told to lead the case of Minori and work alongside the welfare commission. And, I didn’t know why the Fate has given me such a case, until then…”
“It’s been three days since we’ve come here and gone back empty-handed,” I commented as I held my waist. “What are we supposed to do now?”
“Let’s… get inside.”
“What?” I replied. “T-That’s—”
“I’ll take the responsibility, Yashiro-san,” Suzuki-san replied with utmost seniority.
I looked into his determined eyes, and thought for a second as we stood there again, looking awkwardly at each other. After some seconds, I replied, “I… Okay.”
“H-Haruto…” Minori murmured as she sat down in that silent dark corner. She had her hands wide open in front of her depressed dark eyes. In between her hands, she remembered all those times she had with her son. She remembered the day when, covered with the modern equipment all around, she held her small little child in her hands… the day he crawled to her as she sat in the same corner of the room, and the kid slowly crawling and crawling. The kid then stopped, turned his head to the ground, glared at the white tiled floor a little, and then moved his right knee forward, and then trying to stand up on his feet on his own. She remembered the day she cried and cried and cried in the same brightened corner of the room, and her teenage son walked to her as he patted his naked feet on the ground, sat on her back, and then sunk his head emotionally on her back, and held his mom around her waist. “It’ll be okay soon, mom. We two are enough anyways. I don’t need a father, until… I have you…”
“Until… I have you…”
“Until… I have y—”
The door banged as it suddenly opened. Minori clenched her hands as all those visions she had suddenly popped up. A drop of tear rained down her right hand, and then another cluster of disordered drops ran down once at a time. She started to sob a little. “I… remember you, dear… e-even if no one does…”
“Even if… no one does…”
We both stood by the shoe rack, looking at the depressed figure sobbing at the left far corner of the room, connected to the entrance.
“I was told to lead the case of Minori and work alongside the welfare commission. And, I didn’t know why the Fate has given me such a case, until then…”
