Chapter 23 Section 7

That night, I went to the house of Fuyuko, whom I hadn't visited in a long time.Dongzi's hometown is in Yokosuka, and she rented this apartment in Ikebukuro. "Being targeted?" Dongzi put the pizza back on the table, making a surprised sound because I told her about the barbell. "It's like being targeted, but I don't think the other party is serious. Maybe it's a warning!" I cut off my nails and said while smoothing the front of the nails with a file. "warn?" "It means to tell me not to probe into this matter again! To be honest, I was warned last night too."

"Last night? What happened?" I told her about the word processor.Dongzi's expression seemed to have seen something extremely vicious, and he only shook his head. "Who did this kind of thing..." "I guess I already know!" I sprinkle tabasco on the pizza and pick it up with my hands.Although it is a frozen food bought at a convenience store, it tastes good. "Those who are involved in the accident! They don't want to talk about what happened when the accident happened. To them, I might be like an annoying fly!" "The doubtful point of the question is: why did they hide it to such an extent?"

Toko reached for a slice of pizza while I poured a whiskey and water. "Basically, I have already deduced a general idea. I think it should be related to the death of Takemoto!" "Let me hear your reasoning!" "We haven't reached the stage where we can tell! You need to get direct testimony first." "But didn't every one of them keep their mouths tightly shut?" "Facing the deep and cunning adults in the city, it's useless to ask more. You can only appeal to a pure heart!" "It means... are you planning to go to Yumi again?"

I nod. "However, I need some tools to make her open her heart. According to the current situation, I think no matter how many times I go to her, I will only get nothing. This girl should be a person with strong willpower!" "Tools?...It's very difficult!" After Dongzi finished speaking, she reached for the second slice of pizza, and at this moment the phone rang.The phone is next to me. "It must be the work phone!" I said, picking up the receiver. "Hello? Hello, this is Hagio's house." "Hello? I'm Sakagami." "Sakagami...is this Mr. Sakagami Toyo?"

Hearing my voice, Fuyuko put the pizza that was about to touch her mouth back on the plate again. "Yes. Excuse me, are you Ms. Hagio?" "No, I was the one who visited you with Ms. Hagio two days ago." "Ah, that reasoning writer..." "Please wait a moment." I covered the receiver and handed the phone to Dongzi. "Hello? I'm Hagio." Toko said in a serious voice, "Is it... Huh? What happened? What kind of... um... is it like this?" This time she covered the microphone, looked at me and said, "He said he has something important to tell us, and now I want to make an appointment with him, can you do it anytime?"

"sure!" Dongzi returned to the phone and said, "Anytime is fine." Big deal? ... What is it?I thought about it.The last time I saw him, he just gave teeth-gritting answers.Is this time to properly answer the question from that time? "Okay, I see. Then I'll wait for your call tomorrow." After Dongzi finished speaking, she hung up the phone.I don't know if it's an illusion, but there seems to be a little blush on her cheeks. "Have you decided on a place and time?" I asked. "He needs to confirm the schedule first, and then he will call me again tomorrow night."

"Yes!" In fact, what I thought in my heart was that if possible, it would be best to meet right now. "What's the big deal?" To my question, Toko shook her head. "He said we'll talk about it after we meet. Maybe it's about the shipwreck!" I also think it's very likely.If he needs to find us for something, that's all I can think of. "Assuming that's the case, why did he suddenly want to tell us? He clearly refused us before." "Who knows?" Dongzi shrugged and said, "Could it be that I feel the harshness of my conscience?"

"Maybe!" I munch on my cold pizza and take another sip of whiskey and water, getting excited for some reason. It's just that this isn't the time for pizza at all. We were both told about that the next day. The evening after the incident, I went to a publishing house to meet an editor named Kubo.As for the writer Yukihiko Soma—that is, Yukihiro Takemoto—after I inquired everywhere unilaterally, only Kubo said he knew.Kubo used to be a magazine manager, but now he is in charge of literature and art books. In the hall lined with simple tables and chairs, the two of us sat facing each other.There was no one else in the hall, and the TV in the corner was playing reruns of cartoons.

"He's a very interesting man! That Yukihiko Soma." Kubo said while wiping the sweat from his forehead.Just looking at the fat accumulated on his stomach makes people think that he should be really hot. "He is the kind of person who will go abroad alone and collect materials while working. He is full of energy and does not lose to others at all." "But his works don't sell very well, do they?" "That's right. That's one of his talents." Kubo shook his head. "It would be great if he could listen to me more carefully. He just doesn't have this kind of flexibility. He always brings the original manuscript directly, that's it. , the contents of his works are very boring.”

"When was the last time you met?" "Well... I haven't seen him for a long time. It must have been two years! Now he doesn't know how he is doing!" "...Haven't you heard?" I asked in surprise.He looked at me like "what?" "He passed away. He died last year in a shipwreck." "Huh..." Kubo's eyes widened and he wiped his sweat excitedly. "This kind of thing happened... I didn't know it at all!" "Actually, I came here this time because I wanted to collect information about that accident, so I inquired about Mr. Soma."

"I see, you want to write a book based on that accident?" He seemed to accept my statement without thinking too much. I'm going back to the original question. "By the way, do you know about Mr. Soma's private life?" "private life?" "To put it bluntly, it's a female relationship. Does he have a girlfriend?" "Hmm... I don't know either." Kubo's eyes were full of emotion, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he frowned, "Because he's single! Rumors say that he's promiscuous everywhere! If there's a specific person, I won't So clear..." "Has he been with so many women?" "He's very fast," Kubo said, softening the expression on his face, "because his principle seems to be 'not to look for a woman when he wants to, but to look for a woman when he can'. That's probably It is also the attitude towards life developed when living abroad!" When you can find it...? "Having said that, in this respect, he is a man with great personality. Is that so... So he died? I really don't know! Died in the sea... It's really incomprehensible..." He tilted his head several times, but because his behavior seemed so unexpected, it made me a little concerned. "You don't seem to believe it!" As soon as I finished speaking, he immediately went on to say: "It's hard to believe! He often challenges boating and sailing in various countries. He often encounters situations like this where he risked his life, and he can break through the difficulties every time. A shipwreck off the coast of Japan that killed him? I really can't believe it." When he said "it's hard to believe," the volume rose a lot. Kubo's words reminded me of what Takemoto Yukihiro's younger brother Masahiko told me.He did say the same thing - I can't imagine my brother dying in a shipwreck accident. Is what Kubo and Masahiko said true?Or was it just an accident?I have no clue. After that, the two of us chatted casually about some meaningless things. After about fifteen minutes, I stood up. "Today is really troublesome for you." "Where, where. Work hard!" We walked out of the hall side by side, but Kubo stopped suddenly on the way. "I'm going to turn off the TV." I yelled as he walked over to the TV and tried to turn it off. "Wait a moment!" Faces I'd seen before were playing on the TV screen. Under the expressionless and fierce-looking photo, "Sakagami Feng" was written.I noticed that show at the same time, it was news. "...The sub-bureau has already regarded it as a homicide and started investigating—" How could this be? ! I ignored Kubo's surprised expression beside me, and switched the channel.Other stations happened to be broadcasting the news of this incident. "After noon today, the staff of the troupe found a young man bleeding to death at the practice site of the ××× troupe. After contacting the police to investigate, it was found that the deceased was a member of the troupe and currently lives in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Feng Sakagami (24 years old). The back of the head of Sakagami was suspected to have been hit by something like a hammer. Since his wallet and other things were missing, the police suspected that the possibility of killing him was very high..." I couldn't move my feet, so I just stood in front of the TV.