Chapter 114 - Name and Reality 37 {65 Solo} (150-151 Isaka Masamitsu's Monologue 2)
I apologize for accidentally posting the main story portion yesterday.
"You really looked into the whereabouts of Hojo's younger brother, didn't you?"
Whether or not he sensed Nishida's thoughts, Yoshimura confirmed this in a tone that sounded incredibly suspicious. Of course, there was nothing wrong with that, but...
"My old man used various connections a few years after the war, and even used a private investigation agency before he died, but it seems he couldn't find the whereabouts of Hojo's relatives, including the brother. I only heard about it, and I haven't gone out of my way to investigate it again myself."
Masamitsu spoke flatly, without even meeting the detectives' eyes. Watching him, Nishida dared to ask,
"This might be rude, but you didn't think very highly of your father, did you? When I had you investigated previously, I heard that you weren't truly happy about returning to Kitami or taking over the Isaka Group."
This was because, when he had looked into Isaka Masamitsu in '95, he had been convinced there was a rift between him and his father.
"Yeah... What about it?"
He answered without a hint of remorse.
"It feels inconsistent to me that you, of all people, are now respecting your father's dying wishes..."
"Inconsistent? Hmph."
Hearing Nishida's words, he let out a derisive snort.
"Even if there was a bit of a rift, it's not like you wouldn't honor the dying wishes—the feelings—of your dead father... I think that's just how blood relations are."
He said this as if exasperated.
"Besides, the rift between me and the old man, when you get down to it, involves my life itself. If I completely reject him, I end up completely rejecting myself as a result. Even if it was a reality I wanted to turn my eyes away from. That's exactly why I ultimately decided to succeed my father."
Masamitsu's subsequent statement was difficult for Nishida to understand.
"I'm sorry, but what you're saying is too abstract. I don't understand it at all."
Though it wasn't directly related to the case, Nishida had become strangely curious and wanted to probe Masamitsu's true intentions.
"Hmm, even if you ask me to explain that... I'd have to explain it starting from my half-life. Is that alright?"
The two detectives nodded silently at the confirmation... or rather, it would be more accurate to say Yoshimura followed Nishida's lead.
"I was born in Showa 24 (1949). And the old man started the Isaka Group the following year, in '50."
For a moment, Nishida was slightly bewildered that he was starting the explanation from there, but since he was the one who asked, he couldn't complain.
"When he started the Isaka Group, was the gold dust used?"
"...It seems so. The old man said so before he died."
"Sorry. Please continue."
Nishida apologized for interrupting, but he needed to firmly confirm the foundation of the sequence of events in the case. Besides, depending on the situation, it could be linked to the essence of the incident. Masamitsu didn't react to the apology but resumed his story immediately.
"In the beginning, it seems he ran a small-scale civil engineering business while scraping by as a subcontractor for JNR track maintenance. In fact, when I was little, our life at home wasn't that easy. The old man was always running around for jobs that didn't pay much, and he hardly ever came home. However, I respected his hard work in my own way, back when I was in elementary school."
Masamitsu spoke slowly, but relatively smoothly.
"In the midst of that, around the time I was about to graduate junior high, the Isaka Group finally started to get on track, albeit gradually. And, though I say so myself, I was fairly good at studying, so instead of a local high school, I was allowed to go to a top-class high school in Sapporo. I worked hard in Sapporo to meet my parents' expectations. By the time I finished high school, I was in a position to go to university—something I couldn't even imagine economically during junior high—and what's more, I was even allowed to go to a university in Tokyo. At that time, I still had a strong intention to succeed my father, so I entered the Faculty of Science and Engineering to study architecture and construction-related subjects. In a way, I was burning with hope. It's embarrassing and naive to think about now..."
Nishida didn't miss the momentary expression of regret that crossed his face, but he let him continue.
"By the time I became a university student, the Isaka Group was already a significant civil engineering company in the local area. However, at the same time, by then I had begun to understand the mechanism behind it. It was during the period of high economic growth... but you guys probably understand that well..."
Having said this much, Masamitsu paused, as if it were difficult to continue.
"In the end, collusion with politics acted as a larger engine for business expansion. To be more precise... as I'm sure you know, it was collusion with Ooshima. They unfairly wormed their way into public works projects, joined bid-rigging circles, did whatever they wanted, and started making a fortune... On top of that, and this had been going on since before then, they were in deep with the yakuza. If you tell me that's just how civil engineering is, then so be it."
It was a somewhat dismissive self-deprecation, but behind it, Nishida felt he was strongly asserting that his current position was far removed from his original ideals.
"You might laugh, but I used to be the type of person with a fairly strong sense of justice. However, since my student days, I began to be severely tormented by the self-contradiction that my life and most of my dreams were built on such 'injustice.' I even spent some time in the student movements that were popular back then, but considering my own position, the extreme contradiction also caused me suffering, and I just faded out of it."
After speaking this much in one breath, Masamitsu licked his lips, perhaps feeling dry. Nishida checked on Yoshimura, who seemed to be listening with an unexpectedly serious expression. He had worried Yoshimura might be irritated by idle talk, but for now, he was following the flow Nishida had created.
"I went on to graduate school, obtained my architect's license as my parents wished, and somehow finished. After that, without any struggle and somewhat aimlessly, I joined the major general contractor Daikoku (Construction). I had a decent academic background, but my father's connections were quite effective in getting the job. I suppose I should have found a job on my own without relying on connections at all, but everything became a hassle and I just did as I was told... This also resulted in me worrying later on. It was the contradiction between the meager conscience I had and the fact that my father's corruption supported my affluent lifestyle. Because of this, I became quite nihilistic afterward—a cynical person who looked at things from a skewed perspective, someone even I disliked... While questioning my environment, I was irritated by myself for being content with that 'treatment,' and I feel I became half-heartedly self-destructive... Even after becoming a working adult, especially after getting married, buying a house, or when my children were born, there was a lot of financial support from my parents. My weakness outweighed my desire to refuse it, and it was a period where I felt a strong sense of wretchedness... I did my work properly, but I probably didn't deal with people at the company sincerely, and in fact, I think I was disliked by those around me. Well, it's also true that I stopped caring about even that."
Masamitsu bit his lip with a questioning tone at the end and paused. It seemed he was well aware of the things his colleagues, superiors, and subordinates had told Nishida and Yoshimura when they went to interview people at Daikoku Construction in the fall of '95. Since he wasn't stupid, Nishida could somewhat understand the feeling of turning sour between the environment that supported him and his ideals, now that he had heard this much.
"It was a story of continuing in a state of limbo for many years, with the hazy feeling that I was destined to succeed my father one day, and a sense of distance between myself and my father or the company—which provided me with an economically sufficient life while simultaneously causing me mental suffering—that I could never quite grasp. Fortunately, being in Honshu, far away from Kitami which was the cause of it all, was probably the reason I was able to hold on by a thread. While blessed economically, I tried not to think too deeply and managed to get by by continuing my work and family life... Though I say so myself, I had a wife of decent caliber and a happy home with two children, and I used the outward armor of having a certain amount of money to somehow maintain my mental balance. However, in the autumn of '92, I received a call from my father that completely changed my life and state of mind."
Saying this, Masamitsu looked steadily at Nishida and Yoshimura once before lowering his gaze.
"That would be when your father confessed to you that he was being blackmailed, right?"
Nishida, who had been listening in silence until now, asked without a moment's delay, peering up at the downward-looking Masamitsu as if seizing the opportunity. Hearing this, Masamitsu was surprised and asked a question in return.
"I was asked this the other day too and was inwardly shocked, but how did you know? I haven't told this story to anyone!?"
"I didn't hear it from anyone. Since seven years ago in '95, I've been steadily conducting interviews at Daikoku Construction where you were, and with those around you. And if you look at the changes in your life and the events that occurred in chronological order, I naturally arrived at that conclusion."
In contrast to Masamitsu, Nishida answered calmly.
"Seven years ago, in '95... I remember being questioned by the police voluntarily around autumn, but to think you went all the way to Tokyo to conduct interviews back then... The police are quite persistent."
Masamitsu wore a complex expression, unclear whether he was angry or impressed by Nishida's statement.
"Even so, now that I've talked this much, I might as well give up and talk... I guess I fell right into your trap. My company is finished anyway..."
He spoke in a way that suggested he had made up his mind. Hearing this, both Nishida and Yoshimura instinctively braced themselves.
"If you're willing, would you tell us everything honestly?"
Nishida spoke persuasively, unlike right after he had faced Isaka, so as not to let the other man change his mind. However, at this moment, Nishida also realized for the first time that Masamitsu must have known from the start that if he told his own story, it would lead to this development. His true resolve had already been made at the stage when he decided to talk about the reason he tried to take over the company. That must have been it.
"I understand... Then it can't be helped. I'll speak honestly... Let's see. That call was ten years ago now... It must have been the end of September '92."
With his gaze dropped to the desk in front of him, Masamitsu's reminiscence finally began.
"My old man called me in Tokyo, which was rare. It wasn't his usual powerful, somewhat arrogant voice. A little before that, I'd heard from my mother that his physical condition and behavior were strange, but I wasn't that worried. However, it seems his condition was worse than I thought. And then the old man abruptly started telling a terrifying story. In short... he had a man who blackmailed him about his past killed by a man brought in through Ooshima's connections, but it seemed there was someone else who knew that fact, and he was being blackmailed by that person and even had money demanded of him... I was naturally aware that the old man was committing all sorts of work-related injustices like bid-rigging and bribery, but I never imagined he had gone as far as murder, so I was deeply shocked..."
Perhaps remembering his state of mind at the time vividly, he became choked up, but he continued as if pulling himself together.
"I asked him over and over if it was true, and in a thin voice unlike his usual self, he admitted it was a fact. At the beginning of the blackmail, he was made to believe that the man he thought he'd killed—as you say, it was Sada Minoru—was alive. He was incredibly shocked by that, and it seemed to put a sudden strain on his heart. However, that new blackmailer eventually began to reveal that his true intention was money. Sada Minoru was certainly dead, but the fact that someone knew the truth of that time and was blackmailing him remained unshakable, so combined with 'other things,' it seems the old man's mental fatigue just kept piling up. I had no choice, so I advised him at the time to pay the money as the person demanded."
At this time, Nishida listened without stopping the flow of the story for now, but he would come to know the meaning of "other things" when he questioned him in detail later.
In any case, both Nishida and Yoshimura reconfirmed that Masamitsu, who had begun this testimony, had finally resolved to break with Ooshima. Since he had clearly stated Ooshima's involvement in the murder of Sada Minoru...
And hearing this, Nishida noted that regarding the initiative to murder Sada Minoru, Isaka Daikichi had not asserted that he himself had taken the lead even when speaking to his son. Of course, the possibility that he didn't want to look bad in front of his son couldn't be denied, but from this phrasing, it didn't sound like Isaka Daikichi had led it. On top of that,
"When did you decide to take over the company? I heard you were quite wild around that time?"
He questioned. Normally, the important thing was the 'past misdeeds' Daikichi had committed, so he could have focused on that all at once, but before that, Nishida was strangely driven by a desire to know Masamitsu's psychology at the time. If one were to say it was mere curiosity sparked by his interest in Masamitsu's half-life gained from their conversation so far, that might be true.
"Wild? That's quite specific... I see, you probably heard it from Sumi?"
Nishida had indeed heard the story from Sumi, a junior at Daikoku Construction who was from the same hometown as Isaka, but even though time had passed, he remained silent to avoid admitting it.
"If you won't answer, that's fine... It's not like I resent Sumi... Yes. I was certainly wild. However, my thinking gradually changed. By around the beginning of the year, a specific decision or rather a resolve to succeed the company must have been born... By the way, do you detectives know the writer Nagai Kafuu?"
Since the conversation had suddenly taken a strange turn, both Nishida and Yoshimura looked suspicious, wondering if they were being mocked, but they had enough knowledge from the literary history they'd done in high school Japanese class to know he was a famous writer, so,
"Yeah. I've never read his works, but I know the name,"
Nishida answered, feigning composure.
"I see. It's fine if you know him... He's a representative writer of the Aesthetic School, alongside Tanizaki Junichirou. To be honest, I haven't really read him properly either, so I can't act all high and mighty, but he's a writer famous for a certain anecdote. Nagai's father was a bureaucrat, and while he himself had some physical weaknesses, he had received a sufficient higher education and was supposed to be quite liberal and anti-authority for his time. However, faced with suppression by the state (T/N: the so-called High Treason Incident), he felt the wretchedness of his own silence. And because he felt that wretchedness so deeply, he resolved to distance himself entirely from anything political or ostensibly noble, and reached the conclusion that he had no choice but to thoroughly live a vulgar life of debauchery. That was probably a resignation, but also a resolve in a paradoxical sense. Setting aside whether that's right or not, it's a way of life that's hard to understand at first glance, but if you think about it carefully, isn't it one you can be convinced by?"
To the two detectives, it seemed Masamitsu was telling himself this rather than asking them.