The Tenth Year of Silence —The Reason I Killed That Child— - A Break in the Rainy Season—The Blank Pages of the Blue Diary

The break in the rainy season cast long, slender bands of light across the arcade of Hamazaki Ginza Street. Yagumo Chitose walked carefully, avoiding the wet pavement, and checked that the notebook was still in the inner pocket of his blazer. The feel of leather against his fingertips. In it were recorded all the contradictions he had gathered through yesterday. (Former teacher at Motohamazaki Second Elementary School, Matsumoto. Retired now, living alone on the outskirts of the Hamazaki district.) Chitose recalled the copy of the testimony records Naoto had given him. In those records was a physically impossible contradiction: Mio's eyewitness testimony existed at three separate locations on the day of the incident, all at the same time. Someone was lying, or the testimony had been manipulated. To chase down that contradiction, the best approach was to speak directly with the people who had been at the school back then. Who had Mio last met with? And the words Saya had left behind still nagged at the corner of his mind. ("I heard she met someone before she disappeared.") Saya's voice from that day echoed again and again in the depths of his ears. Chitose passed through the arcade and entered the narrow alleys of the old town. Instantly, the smell of the sea grew stronger. Black rain stains spread like maps across the walls of the old wooden houses. On a utility pole, an old sign reading "Kirigasaki City, Hamazaki District" was fastened with rusted nails. Matsumoto's house stood at the end of the alley. A small, single-story home, with neatly tended potted plants lined up by the entrance. Bathed in the light of the rainy-season break, the hydrangea leaves glowed blue. Chitose pressed the intercom. A few seconds passed. With a click, the front door opened. The man who appeared was elderly, his white hair cropped short. He had a thin frame, wrapped in a worn-out cardigan. Deep wrinkles were carved into his face, and his eyes looked clouded. This was Matsumoto, the former teacher. "...What do you want?" Matsumoto eyed Chitose's uniform with a sharp glance. The blazer of Kirigasaki South High School. There was a faint wariness mixed into that gaze. "Nice to meet you. My name is Yagumo Chitose. I've come to ask you a few things about the case of Minazuki Mio." Chitose bowed politely. Matsumoto's expression shifted, just slightly. His brow twitched, and his mouth tightened. "...Minazuki Mio? Ah, that girl. That was ten years ago. What is there to ask about now?" "There are a few points in the police records I'd like to confirm." "Police records? Are you with the police?" "No. Just a high school student. I've been entrusted with the materials from that time by Minazuki Naoto." The moment Naoto's name left his lips, Matsumoto's expression stiffened visibly. His gaze darted behind Chitose for just an instant. "...Minazuki-san. He's still looking into that?" Matsumoto muttered in a low voice. In it was a mixture of exhaustion, resignation, and something else entirely. "It's over now. The police closed the investigation. You're young — you'd be better off not getting involved in old cases." "When you say that, it only makes me more curious." Chitose spoke in a flat tone. "Matsumoto-san. There's a testimony in the records from that time. That before Mio-san disappeared, a child saw her heading toward the old Hamaki-so." Chitose took out his notebook and opened to the relevant page. There, in meticulous handwriting, were notes copied from Naoto's investigation journal. Matsumoto's complexion changed rapidly. The color drained from his face, and his Adam's apple bobbed. "...Where did you get that?" Matsumoto's voice was hoarse. "It's in the records. That a child saw Mio-san walking toward the old Hamaki-so. But that child's testimony isn't in the official report. Why is that?" Chitose looked Matsumoto straight in the eye. His narrow, dark-brown eyes shone quietly. Matsumoto was silent for a while. He bit his lip, dropping his gaze as if wrestling with something. A wind blew through the alley. The hydrangea leaves rustled. "...I was the one who saw it." Matsumoto finally spoke. "It was exactly one week before Mio disappeared. I was her homeroom teacher, so on my way back from a home visit, I passed through the forest path near the old Hamaki-so. There's hardly ever anyone around there. But that day, I heard a child's voice." Matsumoto's eyes grew distant, as if he were reeling in a memory from ten years ago. "Mio was there, at the end of the forest path. And one other person. A middle-aged man. The two of them were talking about something. Mio was looking down. The man had his hand on Mio's shoulder." Chitose ran his pen across the notebook. "Could you see the man's face?" "No, not clearly. There was distance, and he was in the shadow of the trees. But I could tell what he was wearing. It was a fisheries cooperative work jacket. The navy one, with white lettering on the chest." "A fisheries cooperative work jacket." Chitose wrote the words down in his notebook. "Why didn't you tell the police about this?" Matsumoto shook his head with a bitter expression. "I did tell them. But I couldn't. After the incident, there was pressure from the board of education — don't say strange things. Especially about the old Hamaki-so. They told me not to mention it." "From the board of education?" "Yes. A man named Kurahashi, who was in charge of student guidance at the time, came all the way to the school. He said, with a smile, 'Teacher, that forest path story was probably just a child's mistake, wasn't it?' I still can't forget that smile." Matsumoto's shoulders trembled. "I wasn't young either. I was close to retirement. I was afraid of losing my job if I made trouble. So I kept quiet. I never thought that girl would end up like that." By the end, Matsumoto's voice had grown so quiet it was almost inaudible. Chitose quietly set down his pen. "...I see. That's strange, then." Chitose's voice was flat. But his eyes shone sharper than usual. "Why would the board of education need to suppress the eyewitness testimony of a single teacher? I want to know the reason." Chitose wrote in his notebook. "Matsumoto testimony: One week before disappearance, Mio with a man in fisheries cooperative work jacket near old Hamaki-so. Pressure from board of education." The words asserted themselves quietly on the page. Matsumoto looked at Chitose with an utterly exhausted face. "You're still young. Why are you so obsessed with a case from the past?" Chitose paused for a moment before answering. "I just can't stand not knowing the reason." The words spilled naturally from the depths of Chitose's own heart. The reason his father vanished. A home with no photographs. A past his mother would not speak of. Chitose's life had always been accompanied by "blanks without reason." The blank in Mio's case was not someone else's problem to him either. Matsumoto started to say something, then stopped. Instead, he let out a deep sigh. "...Be careful. There are things in that case that are better left untouched." With only that, Matsumoto slowly closed the front door. Click. Chitose stood gazing at the closed door for a while. (Fisheries cooperative work jacket. Old Hamaki-so. Pressure from the board of education.) (What do these fragments mean?) Chitose closed his notebook and began walking down the alley. The light of the rainy-season break shone on his black hair. The fast-food restaurant in front of Hamazaki Station was filled with afternoon light. Chitose sat by the window and took a sip of water from his paper cup. (Kobayashi. A girl who was in the same class as Mio. She goes to a different high school now.) He had sent a short message to the contact information Saya had given him. "I'd like to ask you a few things about Minazuki Mio." The reply came surprisingly quickly. "Sure. In front of Hamazaki Station." He arrived ten minutes before the appointed time. Each time the door opened, Chitose looked up. Eventually, a girl entered the restaurant. A brown bob, a small frame. She didn't resemble the photos of Mio in Chitose's memory. But there was something in her eyes that reminded him of her. "Yagumo-kun?" The girl stood before Chitose and tilted her head slightly. "Yes. Thank you for coming all this way." Chitose stood and gave a slight bow. "No, thank you. I was actually surprised when you said you wanted to talk about Mio." Kobayashi sat down across from Chitose. "Is coffee all right? Would you like to order something?" "Oh, then, orange juice." Chitose ordered a coffee and an orange juice at the counter. While they waited for the drinks, Kobayashi gazed out the window. Every so often, she glanced at Chitose. In her gaze was a mixture of curiosity and a slight wariness. "Um, why are you looking into Mio's case? Are you a relative?" "No. Just a high school student. Minazuki Naoto asked me to." "Naoto-san asked you... I see. So Naoto-san still hasn't given up." Kobayashi's face grew a little sad. "Do you still remember Mio?" Chitose asked quietly. Kobayashi was silent for a while. The orange juice arrived, and she toyed with the straw between her fingers. "I've never forgotten. We were in the same class, and our seats were close. Mio was cheerful, a girl who laughed a lot. But a little before she disappeared, she was a bit off." "Off, how?" "Yeah. How should I put it — she was somewhere else. Even during class, she'd just stare out the window. Sometimes when I called out to her, her reaction was slow." Kobayashi spun out her words slowly, as if tracing back through her memories of that time. "There's talk that Mio-san may have seen something." Chitose said quietly. Kobayashi's hand moved away from the straw. "...Seen something, or rather..." Kobayashi looked down. Her bangs fell over her face, hiding her expression. "Actually. Three days before she disappeared, Mio told me something. Only me." Chitose leaned forward. "What did she tell you?" Kobayashi wrapped both hands around her coffee cup. Her fingertips were trembling slightly. "She said, 'I saw something amazing. But I was told not to tell anyone. If I do, Papa will be in trouble.'" Kobayashi's voice was faint. "Mio was shaking when she told me. I still remember it. Her hands were so cold. It was summer, but they were cold as ice. When I asked her what was wrong, she just shook her head and wouldn't say anything." "Papa will be in trouble." Chitose repeated the words in his mind. Mio's adoptive parent was Naoto. (Is "Papa" Naoto-san? Or someone else?) "Did Mio-san say what she saw?" At Chitose's question, Kobayashi shook her head. "She didn't say. She never said, right to the end. But she was so scared. There's no doubt that what she saw wasn't normal." Kobayashi's eyes were moist with tears. "I should have listened more seriously back then. Mio was so frightened, and I just said, 'It'll be fine,' and left it at that. The next day, Mio was absent from school, and after that... I never saw her again." Kobayashi's tears traced down her cheeks. Chitose said nothing and waited for her words. "Sorry. Crying out of nowhere like that." Kobayashi wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "No. Thank you for telling me." Chitose said quietly. "Your testimony is very important to me. Mio-san saw something three days before she disappeared and couldn't tell anyone. That 'something' is very likely the key to this case." Chitose opened his notebook and ran his pen across it. "Kobayashi testimony: Three days before disappearance, saw something. Was terrified, said 'Papa will be in trouble.'" (Matsumoto's testimony and Kobayashi's testimony. Both point in the same direction.) (Mio saw something before she disappeared. And that "something" was something that would trouble Mio's "Papa.") Deep in Chitose's chest, something began to move — quietly, but s

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Episode 3

Name: The Tenth Year of Silence —The Reason I Killed That Child—
Author: Novelia

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