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sparklyjojos · 6 years ago

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Let’s Read & Suffer: Tsukumojuku by Maijō Ōtarō [part 22]

Today`s recap: In which Inugami Yasha attempts to explain the case of the Cross House, people switch places with Jesus Christ a lot, and Tsukumojuku has a headache. [tw: brief eye horror]

STORY 7 PART 2

Tsukumojuku couldn't understand, and he cursed God. He cursed God for killing Tsutomu. In wrath, in grief, in despair, he pulled out his eyes, threw them on the ground, and crushed them under his shoe. Now he didn’t have to see that anymore, anything, ever again...

But he could still see everything. (Why? Why could he still see...?)

“Gajobun?”

He turned around. His dear Seshiru and Serika were standing there, both grown up, now a beautiful man and a woman. Glittering, almost. Dazzling. They were already pretty as kids, but now it was as if all that was beautiful that once hid deep inside them was now visible outside.

And Tsutomu--- with Tsutomu's head busted open like this, face in an unrecognizable shape, Tsukumojuku couldn't know if he had grown up to be beautiful, too...

“So you really are alive?” Seshiru said. “He knew that you were, and solved the case. ...Let’s go.”

- - -

In the mountains behind Himago-tani, even further than the small hut where Junko's body had once been found, there's a part where cars can't go any further. Going up the mountain way from there, you'd find yourself at the feet of a transmission tower. If you then entered the northern forest, and climbed a small hill, you'd arrive at a giant cross-shaped house with “CROSS HOUSE” written over the entrance.

The southern end of the vertical bar of the “cross” was near a cliff, from which you could see the dense cedar forest beneath. Walking inside the house put you in a winding hall surrounding 24 rooms. The hall and the rooms were made of worn out wood. Apparently, somebody had been secretly here, managed to climb the mountain unnoticed and maintain the house. The mysterious carer tidied the place up, changed the mattresses, even cleaned the bathrooms.

Each of the 24 rooms contained a bed, a bookcase, a desk set, and a closet. The bathrooms and the dining room were in another, smaller building northwest of the Cross House.

At the northern end of the cross, there was a small chapel, with fourteen pews in two rows, a pulpit for sermons and an altar. Behind the altar there was a cross, but without a figure of Christ.

- - -

On 9th September, around 11 AM, Kato Takashi had come to check on the state of the Cross House, as some guests were living there for the previous two weeks -- members of a video production group from Shibuya, the Angel Bunnies. Abe Atsushi, who was one of them, had asked Mr. Takashi if they could do some filming there. Their movie was based on the original work of Ayatsuji Yukito [an actual Kodansha writer] called The Cross House Murders [十字館の殺人 -- a pun on Ayatsuji’s real novel's title, The Decagon House Murders, 十角館の殺人. ]

When Mr. Takashi came to the Cross House that day, he found the dead body of “Tsukumojuku” in the hall in front of the chapel’s open door. Surrounding the corpse were seven candles, their flames illuminating his naked body and the arrow in his chest.

- - -

When everyone from the Cross House gathered in the chapel, Seshiru [who’s going by Inugami Yasha, as the twins are still wanted for murder] said, “As a last thing in this investigation, I'd like once more to review everyone’s alibi for the time of the murder, 11 AM.” He drew a map of the Cross House on the whiteboard, numbered the rooms 1-24 clockwise and wrote down all their alibi.

1: Hongou Takeshi – sleeping.

2: Tanaka Masatsugu – checking the script. A few times went out to knock on his neighbour Hongou's door to try and consult some parts with him, but it seems Hongou was sleeping all this time. Moved only between their rooms.

3: Kumono Takuya – working on their Internet page.

4: Yoshida Yukino – woke up around 10:30, changed clothes, at 10:45 went out of the room, then through the eastern entrance and walked around the chapel to reach the big washroom, met Mizoroki there, at about 11:00 went back to her room the same way.

5: Hoshino Masato – sleeping.

6: Aoyama Gen – sleeping.

7: Mizoroki Fumie – like 4's Yoshida, went to the washroom and then returned the same way.

8: Kajiwara Ayako – sleeping.

9: Nomura Rie – sleeping.

10: Obata Aki – at around 10:50 woke up, knocked on the door to room 11 (Nonaka's) but there was no answer, so she returned to her room and finished changing. At around 11:00 knocked on Nonaka's door again with the same result. Then she knocked on the door of rooms 9 (Nomura) and 8 (Kajiwara), but they were also still sleeping, so she decided to go to the washrooms alone through the eastern door. Returned to her room the same way at around 11:30.

11: Nonaka Mami – sleeping.

12: Kawai Kazuhiro – sleeping.

13: Fukushima Manabu – sleeping.

14: Abe Atsushi – woke up at 10:30, took three roundtrips to knock on the door of room 16 (Iwai) to go with her to the washrooms, but because of lack of an answer gave up after the third time and went back to sleep.

15: Furutaka Masayuki – sleeping.

16: Iwai Yumi – sleeping.

17: Nakai Sayaka – morning exercise routine.

18: Kawabe Keisuke – storyboarding.

19: Higashimoto Mika – sleeping.

20: Satou Kazuhiro – surfing the net, writing an entry on the Heaven's Voice boards.

21: Taniguchi Touru – doing pushups.

22: Hanada Sawako – calling dad in Fukuoka (recording as proof).

23: Hiraki Takako – sleeping

24: Room for luggage.

- - -

Seshiru wrote down all of this, then asked if anything strange happened back then. (Tsukumojuku noticed that Seshiru didn't write down any alibi for himself.) Nobody really said anything, so Seshiru hinted, “Well, if you still don't understand, then maybe you should try... asking God.”

As he said this, Serika showed everyone a large crucifix with a Jesus figure attached to it.

“This,” Seshiru continued, “is the figure of Christ that had been made for this movie. It's really well done. And speaking of everyone's alibi... well, if you look carefully at the whiteboard, you’ll see that... nah, you know what?” he casually put the whiteboard away, “let's just stop with this. It's quite bothersome.”

Everyone was pretty confused, until they realized that while Seshiru was directing their attention away with the whiteboard, Serika had managed to replace the Christ on the crucifix with a full-size, realistic-looking doll. Pale skin, long hair, a crown of thorns, stigmata, a bleeding spear wound on the chest. The doll also happened to look exactly like one of the Angel Bunnies, Aoyama Gen.

“That figure of Christ you’ve made was only put on the cross in the chapel during the shooting. It was originally prepared as the background prop for the scene in which Mr. Aoyama would play a victim. Now, this doll here sure resembles both Mr. Aoyama and Christ a lot.” He removed the long wig from the figure. “...Although the hairstyle is quite different from God’s.”

(listening to him – to that “different from God’s” phrase – Tsukumojuku remembered for some reason: God is different, if something's different from God then it cannot be God...)

“The culprit secretly put this Aoyama doll on the cross. Then, the supervisor of the movie saw the doll, thought it was a threat, and without telling the crew summoned a great detective called Tsukumojuku to investigate the situation.”

...That other “Tsukumojuku”. Who was he? What was he doing here? Tsukumojuku didn’t know anything.

If you don't know something, think about it deeply, Yuuki had said, and--

Yuuki?...

Right. Morimoto Yuuki [森本有紀], from the Sixth Story...

His head was hurting a lot. As if that plant from Little Shop of Horrors was about to burst out of it and start singing about eating people, or something. [Yes, the narrator actually says that. What a nerd.] It really hurt. “Eating people”... Like the urban legend about Seshiru and Serika, like the man-eating Detective God... Why all this eating people stuff? What the fuck did that mean? He didn't know, he didn't understand. He had to really think about it, probably. He only got this far by thinking about things he didn't understand.

If you don't understand something, please think about it carefully, Yuuki had said. Yuuki? But why was he thinking about Yuuki...? He had no clue what was going on. There were so many things he didn't know or understand...

- - -

Seshiru continued, “And so, while the Great Detective Tsukumojuku was being given a tour around the place, nobody noticed that the Aoyama doll was replaced – this time with the culprit himself. He waited up there until Tsukumojuku came by to investigate the chapel by himself later, then shot him dead using a modern crossbow. Then he arranged the scene with the seven candles to confound the police.”

“So it was Aoyama?!” Kawabe asked.

“No. But since his doll was used, the culprit probably hoped it'd cast a suspicion on Mr. Aoyama. However, he's not the only person here who resembles Jesus Christ and thus could be mistaken for the figure – in the movie, Mr. Aoyama’s character has a fraternal twin, even... And you, Satou Kazuhiro, are the one playing him. Your alibi wouldn't hold in court, too. However… everyone here is sure you’re not the kind of person to commit murder.” Everyone nodded in agreement. “If so, then who prepared this stunt?”

The silence was deafening.

“Mr. Furutaka.” Seshiru turned to him.

Mr. Furutaka just grinned at him.

“Everyone, you may notice that Mr. Furutaka resembles both Mr. Aoyama and Jesus Christ a little. He'd need both of their inanimate counterparts that morning. The Aoyama doll to put on the cross, and the Christ figure to put in bed and pretend it’s him, asleep. Since it's pretty dark in the rooms, nobody would notice the difference. Here,” Seshiru showed everybody two polaroids, “are photos I've taken of this Christ figure when I found it hidden under Mr Furutaka's bed. As you can see, whoever would glance inside the room wouldn't notice it at this angle.” Two more photos. “And here's the doll of Mr. Aoyama, found under the bed of Mr. Aoyama himself. Same situation.”

“Wait, wait!” Mr. Aoyama shouted, “I didn't know that was there!”

“Of course you didn't. Mr. Furutaka put it under your bed while you were asleep. Whether he'd put it under yours or Satou's bed, it didn't really matter, either one would be suspected when the doll was found. He couldn’t hide it back in his own room -- the morning when Tsukumojuku was killed, Abe Atsushi made a few round trips to Mrs. Iwai's room, which involves passing by Mr. Furutaka's door, so he’d be noticed. The time before somebody noticed the body was running out, so in panic he hid the doll under Mr. Aoyama’s bed. Then in confusion over the murder he sneaked back to his room and quickly put the Christ figure under his bed. And that's how I had the chance to find Jesus.”

Furutaka kept on smiling.

“But here's the question, Mr. Furutaka. When you used this,” Seshiru showed everyone a modern crossbow, “whose heart did you pierce with the arrow? Because that wasn't Tsukumojuku. Tsukumojuku's sitting right there, perfectly alive.” He pointed at him. “Then who is the victim, Mr. Furutaka?”

“I don't have a damn clue, you idiot,” Furutaka answered, “'cause it wasn't me who killed the dude.”

“Then why was the Christ figure found in your room?”

“That's the only thing you have on me, huh? Then I'm gonna tell ya this had nothing to do with it. That ass cloth the figure has, remove it.”

Seshiru was confused but did so, and discovered there was a cylindrical hole drilled in the figure.

“See that?” Mr. Furutaka grinned. “That's where I put my--”

While everyone was shouting in outrage, Furutaka fled the scene, a few men chasing after him. Seshiru was just standing there stunned.

(Seshiru, you oaf. You were always an idiot. You still are one.)

“Seshiru,” Tsukumojuku quietly called his real name to get his attention.

In the Fourth Story, there was an imposter Christ, Seiryoin, and that event had to be a prediction about the progress of the current case. In the Fourth Story also, the Detective God called Tsukumojuku a Beast... and now it seemed like it was correct. To kill “God”, he'd now speak the words “God” wanted...

He looked pointedly at the ceiling in the middle of the chapel, and said, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” [Revelation 6] He stood up and approached Seshiru. “Seshiru... we were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of our fellow servants, our brothers and sisters, were killed just as we had been.”

The Fifth Seal had been opened. Finally, he understood everything.

Everything had meaning.

- - -

IMPRESSIONS

I’m not sure how much of Seshiru and Serika’s new “beauty” is there because of them growing up into better people (or whatever is it that is implied here?), and how much of it is just the result of Tsukumojuku looking at them through rose-tinted glasses caused by emotions after losing Tsutomu.

The “everything has meaning” ( (全てに意味がある) phrase Tsukumojuku uses here, and that’ll get used a few times more in this book, is the very same phrase that Japanese Jorge frequently uses in Jorge Joestar.

The Arrow Cross House in Jorge Joestar also happens to have 24 rooms, if we don’t count the four little hallways, or the study (=Cube House).

“My head hurt as if that plant from Little shop of Horrors was about to burst out of it and start singing about eating people” is not a phrase I expected to read, but one I whole-heartedly welcome.

>>>>NEXT PART>>>>

#sparkly reads tsukumojuku #long post #maijo and jdc stuff #unfortunately the illustrations are of worse quality than in the book since I had to work around the ebook reader screencap block

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