The young man certainly appeared quite the marine sports aficionado. Muscular, tanned a golden brown even in winter, Kitahara worked here part-time and had seen the merpeople about a week before the magazine had gone on sale.
“There were already a lot of rumors going around by then. I saw them on the south side, just their heads bobbing on the water. It was pretty dark, so when I first saw them I thought they were drifting buoys or something.”
There had been five or six of these buoy-like shapes.
“Their eyes were glittering like cat’s eyes. It gave me such a fright! I screamed, and my friends and I hurried back to port.”
“Did they look like this?” Ayako showed Kitahara the picture from the magazine, and he nodded.
“Yeah. This is the photograph, right? The photographer got it perfectly. It was exactly like this. Except their heads were a bit...”
“The shape of their heads was different?”
“These look almost bald, right? The ones I saw had just a bit of hair. They looked like how samurai-san wore them in the old days...”
“Samurai-san?”
“You know, the type you always see on warriors fleeing the battlefield. Long loose disheveled hair hanging down their faces on both sides. It was like that. But just a little of it.”
At ‘warriors fleeing the battlefield,’ Ayako and Takaya simultaneously turned to exchange a look.
“The ferry crewmen also say they see them a lot around there.” added the senior employee from earlier.
“Ferry?”
“Yeah. The one that runs between Benten Bridge
and Chigo Pool every fifteen minutes or so. It’s a shortcut to the grotto—pretty popular with the tourists. Those sailors see ’em a lot, so you should probably talk to them.”
Takaya and Ayako immediately decided to follow his advice.
They retraced their steps from the yacht harbor and made their way to the Benten Bridge ferry boarding area.
But despite the clear weather, there was a sign indicating that the service was suspended for the day.
“Because the grotto is closed,” explained an elderly sailor performing boat maintenance. “There was a cave-in yesterday. We don’t get many customers if the grotto isn’t open—plus it’s the off-season, so business is suspended for the time being.”
Takaya and Ayako recalled the newspaper article from that morning. The sailor continued as he carefully wiped the guest seating handrail with a dustcloth, “You’re here for the merpeople? Yeah, they make an appearance every so often. They burble up like huge bubbles before submerging again. When they come out we’ll make an announcement on the speakers: On your right you can see merpeople emerging. It surprises the guests, but then they’re quite happy.”
“Do they really appear that often?”
“I’m delighted to think we’re able to offer such a great specialty attraction, but now our grotto is closed. It’s really the heart of our operations. Can’t be helped, there’s been talk we’ll change our course for merpeople-watching. Honestly, it’d probably be more profitable,” the sailor laughed. “Eh, I’m not that worried; only a part of the grotto’s collapsed, so they’re saying it’ll be declared off-limits while the rest will be reopened in no time... But just when the addition to our attractions is pulling in the tourists, an essential part of our island is...”
“An essential part of the island is...?”
“Oh, just... Recently the souvenir shops and eateries that’ve been here since forever have all started to close up shop and leave the island.”
Takaya and Ayako frowned doubtfully.
“What happened?”
“Well...I commute, so I don’t know much about it, but I’ve heard the so-called Tourism Rejuvenation Project is forcefully evicting people.”
"They’re evicting people? Why?
“Well. I’m not too clear on the essentials, but the people who live here are in a tight spot. The eight views of Kanazawa were turned into an amusement park, right? Eight Views Island Sea or something. Rumor has it they want to do something like that with E Island, too...” The sailor’s expression was obviously disgruntled. “What a stupid idea. E Island is wonderful because it is what it is. It’s unsophisticated, it has a little of that old-time charm to it. If it’s turned into a recreational area, Benten-sama will be angry. She might be a gentle goddess who grants good fortune and happiness, but did you know she’s quite terrifying when angered? After all, in the old days Lord Minamoto no Yoritomo prayed for the Eight-Armed Benzaiten-sama of E Island Shrine to descend to exorcise the Oushuu Fujiwara Clan.”
“Really...”
“If you do terrible things, the gods will curse you. Don’t you think so?”
“Right...” Ayako nodded, but the sailor seemed unmollified by her prevarication.
“I heard there’s a councilor who’s opposed, but that’s only natural. They really taking the people for fools, aren’t they? What is the government coming to these days?”
“Um...is it possible to go to the grotto today?”
“You can’t go in, but you can go as far as the entrance. You can gather crabs and shellfish on the seashore, and a lot of people fish there as well. You can probably see merpeople on the other side of the island as well. If you’re visiting the shrine, go have a look.”
Thanking the friendly and loquacious sailor, Takaya and Ayako left the boarding area.
Turning from Benten Bridge back toward E Island, Takaya asked Ayako, “So what do you think?”
“Hmm. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it bothers me. Let’s take a look around the island. See if anything odd’s been happening at the shrine.”
They passed through the ‘Bronze Torii’ at the head of the shrine road and began ascending the gentle hill path. Ayako’s remark about the place being ’way too quiet’ had hit the nail on the head. Of the gift shops lining both sides of the slope, two-thirds were closed. Some had signs saying, ‘Thank you for your long-time patronage.’ Even the shops that were open seemed dull and lifeless.
“It feels lonely, doesn’t it? Browsing the souvenir shops is part of the fun of being here. It’s when you smell the steamed bean-jam buns along the storefronts that you feel like, ‘Here I am on E Island!’”
A group of tourists walking nearby also appeared underwhelmed. Had all of the people here been ‘evicted’?
“Oh, I wonder what’s going on over there?”
There was a commotion in front of a restaurant up ahead involving what appeared to be several locals. They looked very angry and were raising a furious racket.
“They’re back at the shrine office!”
“Those bastards don’t know when to quit! Let’s drive ’em away! Bring the Matsuya head, too!”
“Kudou-san’s gone on ahead to keep a look out. Call everyone together and tell them to gather in front of the shrine office!”
All of them appeared to be shop owners. After some shouting, they hurriedly dispersed in all directions.
“I wonder what all the fuss is about...?”
“Are you tourists?” The employee of a souvenir shop standing in front of a store asked Takaya. It was a young woman with golden tanned skin wearing an orange apron. She was a surfer type with straight chestnut hair bleached almost blonde and pink lipstick well-suited to her coloring; she looked as if summer had arrived in that one small spot.
“Eh...ah, yes.”
“Please come in and take a look around. We have steamed buns as well.”
“...Excuse me, is it okay I ask you some questions?”
“Yes?”
“There were a lot of people shouting earlier—has something happened? They all looked angry and pretty threatening.”
“Well...” the poster girl grew somber. “The corporate bigshots who want to evict us are at E Island Shrine right now.”
“Is this regarding the rejuvenation project? The one that wants to remodel E Island?”
“Oh, you’ve heard about it? Are you from the media...?”
Ayako responded steadily, “Yes, we’re freelance.” Then she introduced the cameraless Takaya as ‘my photographer’. “We came to conduct interviews on the merpeople, but we overheard the news about the evictions.”
“Ah, I see. They came here, too. They said they’re planning to improve everything around here and pave a new shrine road. They wanted us to leave until it’s finished, then we’d become tenants of the new buildings the business organizations would build.” The shopgirl folded her arms, thin eyebrows drooping disconsolately. “They said they would lease the land, and we’d get a monthly rental fee, and tenancy would be unconditional. We’d have to commute, but they said they’d help us with new houses in the city. It’s not a bad deal, but...you can’t help but feel... I mean, the shops have been here such a long time. And also...”
“You don’t think the plan is reasonable?”
“That’s right.” She held up a finger. “Everyone’s opposed to it because we don’t want E Island to change. This island has been like this, simple and unsophisticated, since the old days. We don’t want it to become some sort of weird resort. And there’s something fishy about the plan itself.”
“Fishy...?”
“It’s more or less the Keibu-affiliated corporations that’re participating, and they seem on the up-and-up, but...”
“Keibu...”
It was a famed industrial association. The concern had gotten its start in Tokyo’s major private railways before rapidly and successfully expanding into department store operation and real estate management, etc. It owned a professional baseball team, so the association owner’s name was familiar to Takaya from the sports pages.
“But why E Island? Because it’s in Shounan?”
True, it was a great location for a recreational area to make money off young people. But wasn’t Shounan only known because of E Island’s traditional tourist attractions?
“Hmm,” Ayako pondered. “...Can I ask, when they tell you they want you to leave, are they harassing you like the old-style land sharks? Throwing stones and having gangster types show up and stuff...?”
“No, none of that. They’ve been quite polite. It’s just that some strange things have been happening,” the shopgirl said.
“Like what?”
“Everyone on the island’s been having strange dreams.”
“Dreams...?”
“I’ve had them too, and my family. When I asked, we found out that they were really similar.”
Takaya seemed to have caught onto a scent. Until then he’d allowed Ayako to do the talking, but now he took up the questioning.
“What kind of dreams?”
“Dreams about Yama-sama.” She lowered her voice as if she were speaking of a taboo. “Yama-sama appears to warn us. He says that he’s bought E Island, so we should all leave.”
Takaya and Ayako goggled.
“Yama bought the island?”
“Yes. Hell is too crowded, so he made this island a part of Hell. In a month the grotto’s blowing cave will open, and the dead will emerge from Hell, so we should leave now. We’re having the same dream every night now.”
Takaya’s expression was very serious as he carefully asked, “...This dream, when did it start?”
“About two weeks ago, I think. It’s creepy, right? It wouldn’t be too bad if dreams were the end of it, but now people have spotted ogres on the island, too.”
“Ogres? As in Hell’s prison guards?”
“Exactly. Scary ogres like the ones that torment people who fall to Hell in old paintings. They have great big bodies and iron clubs, and tiger-hide pants.”
Takaya’s eyes narrowed, and he pressed his fist against his mouth as he concentrated. This was certainly pretty unusual.
“There are a lot of families who left because they’re scared. That’s why you see so many closed shops in the neighborhood. Fortunately, due to the timing, the city was able to accommodate them with temporary housing. It’s like a refugee situation.”
Takaya and Ayako jolted, and they looked at one another.
“Temporary housing?”
“Yes. Until they can find new homes. The ones who’ve evacuated are no longer having the dream. They’re advising us to flee, too.”
“Yama-sama has bought E Island.”
It wasn’t as if Keibu Group’s president was King Yama. (Even if his face looked gargoyle-like in sports newspapers.)
Takaya examined the young woman’s face for a moment before asking, “You said earlier that Keibu Group’s bigshots are at E Island Shrine, right? What’s their business there?”
“They want to buy the shrine.”
“What?” Ayako yelped. “Buy E Island Shrine?”
The young woman nodded.
“I’m actually E Island Shrine’s shrine maiden.”
“What?” They stared. This high-spirited surfer girl was a shrine maiden?
“Ah! Please don’t look so shocked. The chief priest keeps telling me to do something about the way I look, but it fits Shounan, don’t you think?”
“...Th-that’s true...I mean, this is Shounan...”
“My dad’s sick right now, so I’m taking a break from the shrine to help out at our family shop,” The surfer shrine maiden said, face clouding. “My dad...is actually the neighborhood council president. But with all the ruckus recently...he’s had a bit of a nervous breakdown...”
“Nervous breakdown?”
“Yes. He sleepwalks, and he would sometimes mutter about this or that thing the King of Hell said. He’s gotten really thin. We’re making him rest, but he’s been really troubled this past month. Recently the councilor opposed to the project suddenly died, and we have no supporters left.”
She faltered. Takaya’s face was grim with suspicion, and the young woman came back to herself with a start.
“I’m sorry, I was talking about the shrine. Would you like me to take you? The chief priest has rejected their acquisition offer, but they’re insistent. If you want to ask him yourself, I can introduce you.”
Takaya and Ayako exchanged glances, ascertaining each other’s thoughts. Ayako turned to the young woman and said, “We’d appreciate it.”
A large torii stood at the terminus of the gentle shrine road. Stairs continued past it, and at the top stood a magnificent shrine with combined main hall and worship hall connected via an intermediate passageway. This was E Island Shrine’s Hetsu Shrine.
Hetsu Shrine was also called the Lower Shrine and enshrined Tagitsuhime-no-mikoto. It had been founded by Ryoushin in the 1st year of Ken’ei (1206) by decree of Minamoto no Sanetomo. The current structure had been rebuilt in the 51st year of Shouwa (1976).
To their left was the octagonal Houan Hall, where two forms of Benzaiten were enshrined: Benzaiten of the Exquisite Voice and Eight-Armed Benzaiten. The first, known as ‘Nude Benten’, had her captivating white skin bared.
According to legend, in the old days a wicked dragon lived in the seas around E Island and troubled the people there with acts of evil. A solitary island suddenly surfaced in the time of Emperor Kinmei—E Island—onto which Benzaiten descended. She punished the dragon, and from that time forth was enshrined there as one of Japan’s Three Great Benzaiten. In the Edo Era the island flourished as common people went to ‘visit Benten-sama’.
Guided by the girl from the shop—Suga Natsuo was her name—Takaya and Ayako entered Hetsu Shrine.
The splendid building to the right of the main shrine was the shrine office. Protesting shopkeepers had already gathered at its entrance.
Takaya et. al. made a wide circle around Houan Hall and waited for the people from Keibu to come out. They didn’t have to wait long. After about ten minutes or so, a group of business suits exited the shrine office.
There were seven of them. Three appeared to be secretaries-cum-bodyguards. At their center was a man of mature age and excellent build who appeared to be the representative. The thin-faced middle-aged man he was conversing with looked like a secretary. Behind them came a stocky man of similar age wearing glasses and one more—a young man around thirty, with an unruffled air around him, wearing a black coat. One of their junior staff, probably.
The chanting of the protesters started:
“You’re not crossing the island!”
“Get out! Don’t show your faces around here again!”
The shopkeepers jeered in a mass. Ignoring them completely, the representative exchanged farewells with the chief priest.
“I think that’s Keibu Real Estate’s CEO.”
“CEO? Isn’t that—”
“Yes, the younger brother of Keibu Group’s president.”
Him? Takaya and Ayako stared at the man in question: Tatsumi Yoshitsugu, who was said to be the right-hand man of Keibu Group’s president, his older brother Kuniichi. He was currently the managing director of Keibu Real Estate, an affiliate company under the group umbrella, which he was said to run single-handedly.
But for such a person to make an appearance here...
Natsuo lowered her voice. “You see the two men behind him? I know them because they came to our shop. The middle-aged one is Yashiro-san; the younger is Kaizaki-san.”
“They’re from Keibu Real Estate?”
“Yes. I forget what their positions are, though. Yashiro-san is head of one of their departments. Kaizaki-san is pretty high up—he’s actually distantly related to the CEO. He’s pretty handsome, don’t you think?”
“What did they want when they came to your house?”
“To talk about the eviction. They’ve been around to see everybody. They didn’t leave such a bad impression. They were polite and seemed in good faith—but if I say that, people get angry.”
“Do they?”
“Yes. ...But don’t you think he looks like he’d be good in bed?”
Takaya and Ayako nodded, then goggled. ‘Huh!?’"
If he was a distant relative, he didn’t give off those privileged scion vibes. Rather, with his clever face framed by thin-rimmed glasses, he looked like a young industrialist. Though his almond-shaped eyes gave an impression of a nervous temperament, his bearing was flawless.
The bodyguards held back the shouting shop owners as they pressed close. Within their circle, Yashiro shielded the CEO while they walked toward the stairs. At that moment—
Next to the CEO, Kaizaki turned his gaze their way.
“Oh crap. Le-let’s go...Kagetora!”
As a startled Ayako hurried Takaya toward the escalator terminal in the back—
They suddenly heard a scream from the shrine office.
“What!”
They turned in surprise to see the people gathered around CEO Tatsumi sink to the ground as if their legs had given out.
“Kyaaaah!” Natsuo screamed next to them.
“Wh-what’s wrong?! Suga-san—!”
“There’s an—there’s an ogre over there!”
(Ogre...!)
Natsuo threw herself on Takaya and repeatedly pointed to the shrine office. All the shop owners’ faces were also twisted with fear.
“O...ogre! There an ogre, aaaah!”
“Eeeek, ogre!”
Came the screams from every mouth. But Takaya and Ayako saw nothing. There was no ogre anywhere.
“Where is it? Suga-san, what...?”
“There’s a red ogre with horns right there! It’s swinging its iron club!”
“S-stop! Please stop! Waaaah!”
The shop owners screamed and scurried about in their hurry to escape. There appeared to be a great ogre standing somewhere in front of CEO Tatsumi.
(They...)
The suspicious tenor of Takaya’s thoughts was not unfounded, for the Keibu people displayed no surprise at this display. Did they know about the ogre? Yashiro was saying something to the CEO. Tatsumi nodded and, accompanied by secretaries and bodyguards, descended the stairs. Yashiro and Kaizaki remained. They exchanged a few words, glanced at the shop owners, and calmly walked down the stairs as well.
The red ogre seemed to have disappeared.
“Kagetora...”
Takaya followed the men with a fierce gaze.
Takaya and Ayako never saw the ogre.
Natsuo was anemic from shock, and after the ruckus they took her home.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to show you around after all... And you came such a long way, too...”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ayako reassured her after exchanging glances with Takaya. “If anything else strange happens, can you contact us? We may be able to help.”
“Erm... But...um...”
“Especially if it’s something to do with Yama-sama. If you see Yama-sama, for example, or anything else. We...um...know somebody who’s a medium, who might be able to drive the ogres away.”
“Okay,” Natsuo agreed doubtfully, and Ayako gave her the number for their current hotel. Takaya and Ayako said goodbye to Natsuo and decided to look around the island.
Normally they could‘ve taken the sight-seeing escalator called ’esca’ from Nakatsu Shrine to the botanical gardens at the summit, but it had stopped operating three days ago.
Performing a spirit-sensing as they climbed, Takaya and Ayako took a breather when they reached the plaza at the top.
The Western-style outdoor restaurant next to the botanical gardens was also closed. Munching on snacks from the confectionery vending machine next to the esca drop-off point, Ayako continued to puzzle over what they’d found.
“It’s weird, isn’t it? If it’s a tsukumogami or youkai, we should be able to see it.”
They hadn’t sensed anything like an ogre during their hike.
“They’re the only ones who can see it,” Takaya answered as he drank a canned coffee. “...It’s possible they’ve had a suggestion implanted.”
“Suggestion?”
Nodding, Takaya extracted a coin-like object from his jacket pocket. Ayako picked it up between her thumb and forefinger.
“What is it?”
Like a 5-yen coin, it had a hole in the middle. A character was engraved on its black surface, but it was so worn that she couldn’t make it out...
“Is this Sanskrit?”
“It was dropped right where the ogre stood. I picked up another one of these things in front of Nakatsu Shrine.”
He placed another one on Ayako’s hand. It was etched with the same pattern.
“What is it?”
“Some kind of charm, I’m guessing. There’s an ‘energy’ coming out of the hole like fragrance from an incense stick—can you feel it?”
“?”
Ayako placed a coin on the palm of her hand and held a finger over the hole.
“Yeah... It’s exuding some kind of interesting ‘energy’, like mosquito repellent.”
“It’s probably acting as a projector.”
“Projector?”
“Yeah. The ‘energy’ coming out of this thing is showing an ogre to those people.”
“This ‘energy’? But we don’t see anything.”
“Right, it’s not working on us. Only the people who’ve been given a particular suggestion are responding to the ‘energy’. These things are probably scattered around the island so that every time the locals go to those places, the suggestion gets triggered, and they see the ogre.”
“So it’s not a real ogre but an illusion? But who would’ve placed the suggestion? Why?”
Takaya was silent. He had a pretty good guess. “...Those guys from Keibu, they weren’t surprised when the locals started panicking.”
“So they’re the instigators...?”
“...They may not be the instigators, but I’m certain they know about the illusion.” Takaya wrapped his hand around the can of coffee and glared in the direction of the observation deck. “The fact that they went door-to-door is suspicious. That’s probably when they planted the suggestions. Those dreams about Yama, too. ...They stink of mass hypnotism.”
“Why would they do something like this?” Ayako tilted her head in incomprehension as she crammed more snacks into her mouth. “To drive away the residents? They’re awfully prepared, aren’t they? They’re even accommodating people in temporary housing like they’re operating some kind of evacuation center. Are they coercing them? Or is it more that they’re trying to get them to leave as quickly as possible?”
“It’s also weird that they want to buy all the component shrines of E Island Shrine.” Takaya lifted the can to his mouth with his hand still wrapped around it. “The resort development story doesn’t track. I mean, it’s a bit late in the game, isn’t it? The economic climate isn’t exactly auspicious.”
“That’s true. It seems like they just want to own the entirety of E Island...”
But why...?
As he fell into a contemplative silence, a white cat appeared out of nowhere and capered between Takaya’s feet. It was wearing a collar, so it must be someone’s pet. Stroking its head, Takaya said, “‘The grotto’s blowing cave will open, and the dead will emerge from Hell’—that’s what Suga-san said, right?”
“Yeah...”
“We know about the rock slide incident from yesterday that closed the grotto. It might be related.”
“Should we go check it out?”
“Yeah,” Takaya answered, standing. “There’s probably some connection to the merpeople case, too. We should go take a look.”
“All right,” Ayako answered, tossing a last piece into her mouth. The cat looked up hungrily, and Ayako crouched down and rubbed its head.
“You’d better take care not to get eaten by an ogre, okay?”
They started walking away. Left on its own, the cat squinted after them as they headed for Okutsu Shrine.