All rights reserved to Tsubako and Comico.
To read the original novel:
This is NOT an official English translation.
Translated by Sayuri (Flower Moon Translations)
(T/N After re-reading back the previous chapters, I realize there was a mistranslation on Chapter 9. I described Kitano’s hands as if having an octopus but I just realized ‘tako’ was another way of saying calluses… not octopus xD. I thought it was weird to describe a hand like that so I knew there was a mistranslation somewhere. I only realized after searching up the term. So sorry about that!
If perhaps, while you’re reading the chapters, you find weird and hard to understand sentences, you can inform me and I’ll check if there’s any mistranslation there.)
Chapter 11: The Method to Skillfully Kill Him -6- (Amano’s Chastisement)
* * *
At the rooftop of the apartment that Kishino Machiko had lived in, a 3-meter fence was installed.
A guy stood in front of that fence and put down a single flower. At the area where Kishino Machiko had jumped off, supposedly.
The guy squatted down and for a while put his hands together.
“Hm? A flower offering, huh. What a troublesome thing to do for a killer.”
Turning around in surprise, the guy saw Amano standing at the entrance of the rooftop. He bowed in greeting before explaining, “Because we’re from the same department, after all.”
“What a waste… such a beautiful flower for such an ugly woman.”
The guy scowled at Amano.
“Stop that. Don’t say things like that about someone who killed herself.”
“Killed herself? Kishino didn’t commit suicide.”
Amano slowly pointed at the guy.
“It was you who pushed her from that spot and killed her, isn’t that right?”
The guy expressionlessly stared at Amano.
“What are you talking about? Kishino had committed suicide.”
“That’s incorrect. What are you talking about? It’s a murder, don’t you know?”
Amano showed grandiose gestures. It was a seemingly smug and triumphant gesture. It was a gesture to make the other person feel discomfort.
“The night you killed Hasegawa, you cleverly forced Kishino outside the fence. If it was me, I’d probably say something along the lines of, ‘Kill yourself so that you can attract Hasegawa. Doing something with that degree, he will come to understand your love,’ or something like that.”
While Amano frivolously laughed, he continued his words.
“Then, after luring Kishino outside the fence, you pushed her off. You call this suicide? That’s wrong, isn’t it? It’s murder! You threw her at the ground, looked down on Kishino, whose brain had spilled out, with satisfaction. You then returned back inside the fence to leave a fake suicide note.”
Amano pointed at the place where the guy had put flowers.
“Did you put the suicide letter there? ‘I will be together with Hasegawa in the next life,’ was a clever expression. I can’t help but laugh.”
Amano slapped his knees as he laughed before thrusting his finger in the direction of the guy and shouted.
“You had murdered Hasegawa as well! The Hasegawa and Kishino that you killed may meet in the next life because they were both killed by the same person, after all. Don’t you agree?”
The guy had been silently staring at Amano but letting out a sigh he spoke.
“Can you please stop that? Treating someone like a murderer.”
As if he couldn’t hear what the guy had said, Amano increased the volume in his voice.
“On that day, you had waited inside Hasegawa’s room and waited for him to return. You must have known where he hid his duplicate key. You were in the same department as him, after all. It wasn’t strange for you to be close to him. Greeting Hasegawa as he returned, you looked for a chance before bashing Hasegawa’s head!”
“Are you saying I killed Hasegawkun with a guitar?”
“That’s wrong, am I right? The murder weapon had been prepared by you beforehand. If it was me and I wanted to beat someone to death, I would have prepared an extendable baton. The guitar was no more than a prop to emphasize the murder having a relation to Kishino.”
While he laughed out loud, he pointed towards the guy.
“You took out that weapon and used it to strike Hasegawa’s head! One blow! Two blows! Three blows! Four blows! And then only after delivering the fifth blow, you were satisfied. After that, you took out the guitar from the guitar case, swung it down and destroyed it against Hasegawa’s head. Completely making it look like the guitar was the murder weapon.”
Amano continued to raise his voice as if he went mad.
“The objective wasn’t to mask the murder weapon with the guitar. It was necessary for you to leave a circumstantial evidence in the suicide letter that you wrote that would certainly make Kishino look like the killer. Because of the suicide letter, you created beforehand, you purposely used the guitar to beat Hasegawa up.”
While Amano giggled, he thrusted a finger towards the guy.
“Then changing your blood-stained clothes, you called Kishino, then killed her while making it look like a suicide!”
The guy got affected by Amano’s intensity even at a distance. Amano showed an ogre-like expression before letting loose madness from his whole body.
“The sight of Kishino falling must have been void of any beauty, don’t you think! If I’m the genius asshole, then that girl’s the most extremely ugliest woman! An ugly face that makes you throw up, an odor that can make your nose get clogged, and not a single ounce of cleanliness.”
The guy’s face reddened as he tightly fisted his hands. As Amano observed that guy’s state, he waved a gesture, feeling satisfied.
“Last night, I went to her parent’s home but the same discomforting odor was wafting around. It was a fitting filth of a house that the ugly woman was brought up in. Ah, Darwin is right. The theory of evaluation is right. The ugly woman’s household is riddled with ugliness.”
“Stop it, please stop.”
“A protruding jaw, a skin full of freckles! Applying dirty make-up on her bulging cheekbones. Even now that I think about it, it was gross. The fact that I accepted a request from her at the same table it makes me feel like disinfecting my whole body.”
“Stop it… I SAID STOP IT!”
The guy shouted and leaped towards Amano.
“DON’T SAY ANY MORE INSULTS ABOUT HER!”
He punched a fist towards Amano.
With natural agility, Amano avoided the punch and put some distance between him and the guy.
“That’s right. That’s it. Only you would react like that.”
As Amano let out a fearless laugh, he picked up the flower offering that the guy had placed.
“The first time I met you, I purposely spoke badly about Kishino. Everyone had indifferent responses but only yours was different. You shook in anger with your whole being and faced me with evident animosity. Also…”
Amano raised his left hand high then flung the flower offerings away.
“The fingers on your left hand were tough. It seemed as if you frequently played guitar or something.”
The guy looked at his own left hand. A lot of calluses had appeared on his fingers. It was due to the guitar practice.
“The deciding factor was your alibi. The time of the crime and the time when Kishino jumped off. The one that didn’t have an alibi for either of the times was only you. You also had plenty of time to construct the fake suicide letter. Do you understand? I had suspected you since the beginning.”
Amano called out the guy’s name.
“KITANO!”
A second year of the English Literature Department, while Kitano took a big intake of breath, he carefully watched Amano.
“It’s not only that.”
Amano took out one piece of copy from inside his white lab coat. It was some sort of picture. With a sound of crinkling paper, he showed it to Kitano. Overcame with surprise, Kitano stared at the paper, became pale, and groaned out in agony.
“Why…… Why do you have that?”
“My father operates a large gynecology department. Kishino had gone for abortion in one of our clinics.”
While Amano looked at the picture with a seemingly detestable grin. It was an ultrasound scan of a fetus that had not even reached three months.
“You actually loved Kishino, didn’t you?”
Kitano stood still.
“You were in love with Kishino Machiko. Within the delusions and lies, there was only one that was true. It was the delusions about you that were the truth. Hey, isn’t that right? Shall I tell you how did I realize that?”
Kitano didn’t reply anything, instead, he tightly gripped his hands into a fist.
“It might be because of my old man’s nature of his business, I have a sensor that can make me distinguish whether a woman is a virgin or a woman with sexual experience. When I first met Kishino, I was convinced that she wasn’t a virgin.”
He tapped his forehead as if showing off of his prideful sensor.
“That’s why when she told me that she had aborted her child, I believed her without any difficulty. That’s why I thought her relationship with Hasegawa was something true. It was a single truth hidden among lies. That was the true form of the uncomfortable feeling that I had been feeling all this time.”
Amano continued to talk towards the stiffening Kitano.
“I don’t really have any interest in whatever happened between the two of you. In the end, Kishino aborted the baby she had with you then easily switched over to Hasegawa. You couldn’t regain back Kishino’s heart. Then, going mad, your love turned to hatred and you attacked the both of them! Isn’t that right?!”
Kitano couldn’t respond at all. He just tightened his fists and glowered at the picture of the ultrasound scan.
Amano looked towards the picture and gazed at the shape that hasn’t even developed into a human yet.
“After hearing from the clinic, while it was plainly obvious, the observer was listed as your name. Well then, who will this baby resemble? Is it you? Or the ugly woman? …Ah, right.”
Amano tore the picture off into pieces before throwing it up into the sky.
“THE BABY’S ALREADY DEAD! AAAAAAHAHAHA!!!”
“Y-you!”
Kitano took out an edged tool from his chest pocket. Losing control of himself, he faced Amano.
“If you insult us any more than this, you’ll really be getting it from me.”
Kitano held the weapon poised with both his hands. If he charged ahead, he would deeply stab the person. Looking at the situation, Amano found it amusing and laughed.
“Hey hey, have you even stabbed a person before? A guy who’s never stabbed a person in his life using an edged tool like that isn’t scary at all.”
“Don’t underestimate me. It’ll be easy to kill someone like you!”
“I guess so. You’ve already killed 2 people. Killing a third, the number would increase just a little, huh.”
Kitano slowly closed the distance between him and Amano. He aimed the knife, 15-cm in length, towards Amano. As if he was joking around, Amano spread both his hands.
“Will you continue to add to your crimes even more than now? Just stop it, won’t you? I’ve already found the line that links between you and Kishino. You have a motive. If I explain the evidence to the police, the police will arrest you for being the real murderer of the ugly woman.”
Kitano didn’t respond to this, instead, he slowly closened the gap between him and Amano.
“You’ve already reached your limit. There’s no way to escape. Just give up and surrender yourself. That’s the least you can do to atone for your crime.”
At hearing the word “atone”, Kitano’s face instantly looked as if he lost control of himself.
“……I won’t do what you want me to do.”
He tightly gripped his weapon.
“You’ve insulted Machiko. If I kill you, there won’t be anyone who knows the relationship between Machiko and me. It’ll all be okay if I kill you.”
“……Is that so. If it’s like that then it can’t be helped.”
As he cackled on, Amano once again showed a grandiose gesture.
“Kitano. Do you know the details of the abortion? It was done with great pain. Shall the top student of the medical department explain it to you? The method of how yours and Kishino’s child was killed?”
Kitano’s faced distorted in pain.
“Don’t.”
“You must want to know your child’s final moments, don’t you? Which gruesome method of abortion was carried out in the operation? If you witness it first hand, you won’t forget to use contraception the next time for sure. First off, they use this surgical instrument called the Cusco’s speculum. Using the strength of a lever, they wrench open the ugly woman’s vagina to its limit.”
“STOP IT. PLEASE JUST STOP!”
“After opening up the vagina of the ugly woman you loved, the doctor will take into his hands a number of surgical instruments. Just so he can kill the child brought forth from the love that existed between the two of you. The doctor looks into the ugly woman’s vagina to change a life filled with warmth into a cold lump of flush. Imagine it well, Kitano! A doctor that looks like me killing off your child!”
“I SAID STOOOOOOOOOP IIIIT!”
Kitano rushed towards Amano and stabbed him. Because Amano had slightly shifted his body, the edged tool got pierced into the right side of his chest.
“Oof.”
Amano grabbed the right side of his chest looking in pain before falling onto his back. The edged weapon was still in Kitano’s hands. Bending over the fallen Amano, he aimed the weapon above Amano’s throat.
“Humph.”
Before he got stabbed in the throat, Amano seized Kitano’s wrist and twisted it towards the right. Using the wrist as a fulcrum, Amano switched his position with Kitano’s. Amano forcibly held Kitano’s wrist against his shoulder making Kitano release his grip over the edged tool in pain.
“That’s why I’ve said it before, didn’t I? I’m not afraid of an edged tool that belongs to a guy that hasn’t stabbed a person before.”
“How? I definitely stabbed you.”
“I’m wearing a knife-proof shirt. Though it can’t absorb the impact. It hurts quite enough. I probably broke a rib-bone.”
While Amano pinned down Kitano, he called out for Ryouta.
“Ryouta! Did you properly catch it?”
Ryouta poked his head out from his hiding place. In his hands was a video camera.
“Perfectly! It was the climax scene, you know.”
“With this, you have committed a crime of attempted murder. Just give up already. It’s all over for you.”
Hearing Amano’s words, Kitano’s strength drained from his body. While shedding tears, he muttered, ‘Damn it’, under his breath.
“Ryouta, call the police.”
“Alright.”
Ryouta took out his smartphone and started making a call. While Amano continued to pin down Kitano, he started addressing him.
“You had planned to follow Kishino and die, didn’t you?”
Kitano said nothing in reply. He just continued mumbling, ‘Damn it’, under his breath.
“In the suicide letter, you wrote down ‘Meet him in the next life’. That was a hope that you wished for your own self, am I right?”
“……Shut up. What do you know?”
“I don’t really have any desire to understand your thoughts. What I’m saying is that you should atone for the crime of killing people. Guys who use suicide as a means to escape are the worst piece of scum.”
Ryouta finished reporting to the police and came back. He looked down towards Kitano without a single trace of pity.
Amano let out a light sigh, and with a scowl looked up towards Ryouta.
“Switch places with me. It seems like I broke a rib bone.”
“Eh, don’t push yourself then.”
Changing places with Amano, Ryouta pinned down Kitano’s body to the ground. Perhaps it was because he gave up trying to resist or he didn’t have any more energy to resist, Kitano just lay face-down crying.
While he looked down towards Kitano, Amano lit up a cigarette. Bearing the pain in his chest, he took a puff of smoke and breathed it out.
“……Someone like you, to an asshole, what do you know……”
Kitano howled. Agitatedly, he looked up towards Amano and glared at him.
“She… you insulted Machiko… I hate guys like you the most…”
“Insult? Wasn’t it you who killed the ugly woman?”
“Don’t call her ugly! Who the hell do you think you are?!”
He struggled his hands and legs once again but Ryouta firmly held him to the ground. Having been restrained, he couldn’t run away.
Kitano’s face flushed with red as he yelled.
“MACHIKO’S FACE, BODY, AND HER WHOLE BEING; WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES YOU SO BOTHERED? WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT MACHIKO?! IF YOU SAY THAT HER FACE IS UGLY, WHAT’S SO UGLY ABOUT IT?!”
Amano looked at Kitano with cold eyes. Frantically, Ryouta opened his mouth.
“Kitano-kun. That’s a misunderstanding. Yuuji is…”
“Don’t.”
With a cold voice, he cut off Ryouta’s words. Grabbing hold of his chest, he approached Kitano and with a devil’s voice whispered to him.
“YOU’RE TOO F*CKING NOISY, THE PIECE OF SCUM WHO KILLED THE UGLY WOMAN.”
Kitano’s face was wrapped in anger. Blood rushed to his head, he couldn’t even speak out.
“I don’t really care if you die, you know. Do you know where scums like you end up dying? But you know, for being the ugly woman’s killer, you put on quite the ugly set of clothes for suicide.”
Amano’s face also gets shrouded in anger.
“Stop f*cking around. Whether it’s a dead person or a person who gets left behind, you won’t be able to come to an understanding. More than anyone else, the ugly one here is you. Even if God forgives you, I won’t ever forgive you. There’s no pardon for killing people, after all.”
He blew out the cigarette smoke on Kitano’s face. With a distorted face, he turned his back away from Kitano. It seemed Kitano’s matter was of no importance to him anymore. Slowly, he walked towards the rooftop fence.
“Damn it… that asshole…!”
While Kitano continued to shed tears, he glared at Amano’s back. Ryouta kindly observed the scene in front of him
“Kitano-kun, Yuuji isn’t the kind of guy you think he is.”
Ryouta continued his words for Amano’s sake.
“Yuuji believed in Kishino. He believed in Kishino’s words. That’s how he came to find you.”
From a distance, the sound of sirens could be heard.
It felt like the sound of chimes ringing when the curtain falls after the final act as the case closes.
* * *
* * *
A few days passed since the case. On the second floor terrace of the school’s cafeteria, Amano and Ryouta’s figure could be seen.
“Yuuji, you’re really a demon, huh. How could you… well, you can say such things, I guess.”
He was watching the video that he recorded on the video camera. It was the scene where Amano was cornering Kitano by provoking him so he would attack him.
“It couldn’t be helped. It was because I couldn’t find the decisive evidence that would open up a re-investigation.”
“The relationship between Kitano-kun and Kishino-san as well as the motive can be proven, can’t it? Since he’s given in concerning the real crime.”
“The police don’t really care. If Kitano stayed silent, they won’t investigate and won’t open up the case.”
“I wonder if Kitano will obediently confess? It would be good if he does.”
“Who knows.”
The terrace gets wrapped in silence.
They had no way of knowing how the police would deal with Kitano regarding two people who had no connection to each other. They couldn’t influence the police to prosecute Kitano either. If they were unskillful, the police would probably even stop treating Kitano as a killer.
That’s why Amano prepared a scene of Kitano attempting murder. From here on, the plan was to send a large amount of physical evidence as an outsider with good intentions. It would be difficult for Kitano to escape.
“I wonder if Kitano would complain of it being a trivial crime?”
“There’s no meaning in the complaints made from a piece of crap like him.”
“But you know, she did abort their child. It would be hard to bear with that, don’t you think?”
Amano shrugged his shoulders in exasperation.
“In that case, you’re saying Kishino is the one at fault, am I right? This wasn’t a joke. Kishino herself was a woman. She would inevitably change her mind. Is it normal for men in today’s society to kill a woman over her fickle-mindedness? Or do you want to say that the ugly woman had unnecessary rights over changing her own mind?”
“I, I won’t go that far…”
“Of course. Who’d care if you kill for a reason like that? If you recall the misfortune when Hasegawa was murdered by Kitano after getting dragged into his plan, you don’t quite have feelings of pity for Kitano, don’t you?”
Ryouta let out a painful sigh. It was just as Amano had said. Kitano had no reason to kill Hasegawa.
“It was a pity with Hasegawkun… If he hadn’t chosen to say, ‘Guitar’, instead but Kitano…”
“Perhaps. Well, I’ve thought about that, though.”
Ryouta bitterly looked at Amano. He felt that this genius asshole probably had no doubts since the moment he heard Kitano’s name.
“No, not only that… Yuuji, could it be that when you said before there was a suspicious student from the English Literature Department, it wasn’t just a wild speculation?”
Amano showed an evil grin.
“Well, yeah.”
“Geh! Then you purposely chose the riskier method of gathering information for yourself?”
“Maybe so.”
“Mu….”
Ryouta groaned and stared at Amano.
If he thought about it, it wasn’t only just taking up the riskier way of gathering information, Amano also acted as a decoy and got stabbed by the criminal.
I can’t really guess anything from looking at this genius asshole’s profile. He probably took consideration of me. Or perhaps, he thought he couldn’t leave the dangerous task to me. Both guesses seemed possible, Ryouta tried guessing what Amano’s inner thought was behind it all.
“Geez… I don’t hate that side of you, Yuuji.”
“What’s with you all of a sudden. You’re creeping me out.”
“Pfft. I’m just thinking it must have been difficult for the genius asshole to put his life on the line.”
Amano suspiciously looked at Ryouta but he instantaneously pointed his finger smugly and spoke his usual cool phrase.
“Well, no matter the kind of situation we fall into, if this genius asshole deals with it, everything will go well.”
Ryouta stared at Amano’s actions as he wryly smiled. He could see the sunlight filtering through the trees near the terrace seemingly blessing Amano in the light.
(The Method to Skillfully Kill Him -FIN-)
* * *
(T/N Finally this case is finished T^T. I apologize that it took longer than usual. It was harder to translate it than usual because of new unique phrases and how to rephrase some sentence in English so it wouldn’t be weird to read. I could literally translate everything from Japanese but sometimes it wouldn’t make sense so I had to review and edit it properly a few times. If there are any areas where it seems confusing to read, please tell me so I can review it back. Hopefully, the next case is easier to translate. And hopefully, my Japanese proficiency and understanding in the language improves >_<)