Chapter 146 - Name and Reality 69 {97 Alone} (232–233 Instructions from Motohashi Across Time 1)
The moment he finished reading to the end, Takeshita was surprised by Motohashi's words, which were more direct than he had expected. While keeping his eyes on the letter, he reflexively spoke to Kuboyama.
"Kuboyama-san, this... This Tatsukawa is Takigawa of that Aoi group, isn't it?"
"That's gotta be it. I can't think of anyone else!"
Kuboyama spoke in a somewhat exasperated tone.
Takeshita himself had considered it highly likely that Motohashi would reveal some important information regarding the murder of Sada Minoru. But to think he would declare he would "make him pay for his crimes" regarding Boss Takigawa, the head of the Aoi-ikka, who Motohashi should have been indebted to since his youth... In reality, it had a considerable impact. If he was going to mention Takigawa so clearly—someone whose involvement in Sada Minoru's murder was considered even harder to prove than Ooshima's—it meant there was a possibility that even more specific facts or evidence were waiting.
In the letters addressed to Nishida and Takeshita, he gave hints about the investigation contrary to the surface text, and to Kuboyama, whom he trusted, he disguised it as a request and old stories while asking for cooperation in that investigation. Did the strength of his desire for revenge against Takigawa, who was thought to have requested the series of murders from Motohashi, combined with his self-preservation as a yakuza who feared being criticized even after death for "selling out his father," lead him to create such a troublesome method?
"Kuboyama-san, this means he's betraying Takigawa, doesn't it?"
While saying so, he stared at the man in front of him.
"Yeah. I was also truly surprised when I received this from the monk and read it... Aniki was quite sharp, but he also had a violent side at times. He was involved in the smuggling of firearms (T/N: chaka) and was used to handling them, and he certainly did big bad things like being involved in the smuggling of drugs (T/N: shabu), but he wasn't the type of yakuza to do the killing (T/N: barashi) himself. That meant there was some unavoidable reason (T/N: wake), which even I, who wasn't directly involved in the case, understood well at the point Aniki was arrested."
When he said that, Kuboyama wore a bitter expression, perhaps remembering those days.
"Aniki was expelled... though the reality was that he took responsibility himself, but the reason (T/N: wake) Aniki left the group was because of a subordinate's misconduct; I heard that directly from Aniki after the expulsion. After that, once Aniki was caught for the serial killings, even I could predict to some extent that some kind of 'showing loyalty' to Takigawa was related to that. Aniki's code clearly means that. That there was a request from Takigawa. And that he decided to denounce Takigawa for that matter."
Saying that much, Kuboyama took out a cigarette and lit it.
"However, it turns out now that I had met Aniki many times even during the crimes, but Aniki, who didn't say anything at all at the time, went out of his way to tell me this after he was sentenced to death; I thought this must be something of great weight... Something must have happened, a change in circumstances or state of mind in prison."
As he spoke, he exhaled smoke strongly and put it back in his mouth, but immediately took it out to resume the story.
"So, I thought there must be some hint in the letters sent to you guys, and before sending them, I tried to decipher them myself somehow, but I didn't understand it at all. At least, it was clear from this letter that you would ask something about 'Kuroda-han,' so I knew that sentences suggesting that were probably hidden... However, I remember being stunned because the characters were lined up too neatly. If it were an exchange between peers, it would be absolutely impossible! The possibility of the prison guards or the police (T/N: pori) realizing 'there's something' would become high. But that's Aniki for you. I couldn't read it no matter what I did. But you guys must have known about Tadano, that is, Kuroda-han, because you deciphered it."
This series of stories from Kuboyama was very interesting content for Takeshita. First, according to the story of the veteran Organized Crime Department detective from the Osaka Prefectural Police he heard in '95, the so-called method of deciphering in a horizontal direction was said to be a "special method that was only used among (group) executives for quite important matters," but it was certain that Kuboyama, who was not even executive class during his time as a member, understood it normally.
And the "obvious neat horizontal alignment" was, from Kuboyama's perspective, so impossible it was "stunning." In other words, it meant it was "too easy to understand and dangerous for conveying hidden intentions." Because of that, Takeshita felt he finally understood the reason why Motohashi chose "JAYWALK" instead of "CROSS" in the "choice of title" Shiino sent to Motohashi.
Shiino was not a "professional" and had only practiced after hearing about the method, so perhaps he had made the alignment too easy to understand. And Motohashi, seeing that, likely felt there was a danger of the contents being known to the outside with "CROSS," which simply deciphers horizontally, and had no choice but to choose the diagonal crossing of "JAYWALK."
The interpretation would be that Motohashi chose the one that was harder to be found out because, normally, he wanted to avoid a text that seemed to force a confession being found out by the "outside." In other words, if thought of straight, it would be because at that point, he had no desire for revenge against Takigawa.
However, considering Motohashi, who set out for revenge with a five-year wait from his death sentence in '97, there was even a slight possibility that he had intentionally "let him run." Since Shiino, who had suddenly come for a visit around August '95, might not have made an overt request for cooperation in front of the accompanying prison guard, but had suddenly cut in with a coded message saying "now is the timing for confession" after the death penalty was finalized, it was also hard to think that he hadn't even suggested anything beforehand.
Then, though not specific, with a brain of Motohashi's level, it was highly likely that after the death sentence was finalized, he had sensed from the opponent's attitude that there was a possibility he would be made to cooperate.
Of course, it seemed even possible, though unlikely, that he had the idea of getting revenge on Takigawa, who was the cause of him being in "this kind of state," from much earlier than that. If that were the case, making Shiino take the "hard to understand" method could have been a move of feigned obedience for the sake of flipping everything at the end.
However, even Takeshita felt it was becoming too complex and stopped thinking about it for a moment. When Motohashi's intellect was factored in, the options expanded too much. At the same time, there was no meaning in selecting or discarding a specific theory now, nor was there a merit in reading Motohashi's intent that far. He also thought there probably wasn't enough material to logically deduce it from now.
Thus, Takeshita returned the story to the point where Motohashi chose the "diagonal crossing" and switched to reasoning from there. He also had a secret desire to avoid getting stuck in a situation that was becoming incomprehensible, but this was no time to be ashamed of that.
Motohashi's judgment in having Shiino take a hard-to-understand method was ultimately deciphered by the combined efforts of Takeshita and the Engaru Station detective. However, Motohashi probably used the fact that it was found out to his advantage. In other words, only the letters addressed to Nishida and Takeshita had their horizontal alignment straightened to make them easier to understand; that's what it must have been.
It seemed merely complex and intended to unnecessarily trouble one's head, but in fact, in the coded messages premised on kind and logical reading, he could infer the traces of Motohashi's struggle between the ease of understanding for Takeshita and the others and the difficulty of understanding for other people he didn't want to know.
If the reason for his insolent attitude of testing Nishida and Takeshita in the autumn of '95 was more than just mocking the police, but also to test the caliber of the detectives who had come from the Hokkaido Police (T/N: outside), then it wasn't just due to his original personality, but what was the reality?
According to Nishida's story, when Takeshita confronted Motohashi with the fact that he had read the code from Shiino during the interrogation at Engaru Station, he seemed to rejoice for a moment. Takeshita had been so desperate to pursue the Motohashi in front of him that he hadn't noticed, but if that were true, as Nishida said the other day, could it be that it was a reaction due to the response that "this method can be used on these guys"?
And the fact that he "confessed" in a very roundabout way that he was made to confess for the sake of a setup, likening it to a Sherlock Holmes work, was seen at the time as a hidden expression of anger: "my death was used and involved in an unnecessary setup, and as a result, I ended up being suspected even more." At the same time, he also thought that because he couldn't reveal the truth as a yakuza, it became a very roundabout expression that one wouldn't understand without thinking carefully.
However, now that it had come to this, it might have been a "down payment" for the purpose of requesting cooperation from Nishida and Takeshita seven years later, in order to bring that anger to light "later." Or perhaps it had the meaning of maintaining the two's morale and motivation for the investigation. The more he thought about it, the more Takeshita felt an inner irritation at being troubled by the talent and phantom of the dead Motohashi.
In addition, as far as he could see from the code in the letter to Kuboyama, regarding the "true intent," it seemed that as Nishida had said, as long as at least one of the recipients of the letters, Nishida or Takeshita, didn't ask about Tadano, Kuboyama had no intention of answering.
Kuboyama's tight-lipped nature had already been proven in the case of the attempted murder he committed as instructed, and it was also mentioned in the letter from Motohashi to Kuboyama. Probably, no matter what kind of detective pulled him in for a different case and interrogated him, as per Nishida's reading, nothing would have come out.
And Takeshita decided to confirm a few points that concerned him with Kuboyama.
"I heard that this kind of code method using letters was only used by people like group executives, but I've heard that, very rudely speaking, you hadn't reached the executive level, Kuboyama-san. Even so, the reason you knew it was?"
"You too, well, you ask a boldly rude thing with polite words."
Saying so, Kuboyama grinned, but,
"To be precise, it's the truth that it's not easily usable by yakuza other than those with the brains to become executives. Simply reading horizontally isn't hard, but you need the intuition to decipher the hints. I also became able to read many patterns because I was taught carefully by people like Motohashi-no-aniki, but if I were told to make the letter itself, that would be incredibly tough. You have to write a text that makes sense as it is, and then create a text in the horizontal direction too," he answered. And,
"Motohashi-no-aniki would do things like general knowledge quizzes for us who didn't have an education, and if we couldn't answer, he'd laugh it off saying 'You guys are really idiots!' but in reality, he was also full of chivalry (T/N: otokogi) to take care of those guys until the end. If he hadn't been expelled, he should have been able to have his own group soon, but for it to end like this..." he spoke, looking down somewhat painfully.
"Just before he was expelled, he was saying 'I've even thought of the name for the group I'm starting newly'... And the word that came out was 'Kanpou-gumi.' It seems it was a word Aniki liked... or rather, valued as a maxim for life. When starting the group, in order to write the name on the group's sign himself, he apparently went to a calligraphy class to improve his skill. He gave me the colored paper he wrote as a test of his skill before he was caught, saying 'I've been expelled so I don't need it.' And that's what's displayed over there."
Saying so, Kuboyama pointed to the Shinto altar in the room, as expected of a former yakuza.
There, indeed, was a piece of colored paper with the words "Kanpo no Majiwari" (T/N: deep friendship) written in strong characters that, while not reaching the level of a master's hand, had character.
"I see. It was the 'Kanpo' from 'Kanpo no Majiwari,' which represents a deep friendship from childhood."
When he heard those words,
"Ho. You also have an education as expected... I heard that story just when I had finally settled down at Senda Finance, where I started working through Aniki's connections after getting out, and we were drinking together. I was told 'It's an old Chinese word. You've never heard it, right?' and when I honestly said 'I've never heard it at all,' he suddenly wrote the characters on a chopstick wrapper and lectured me... That's when I first learned the meaning and origin. 'It's not just the yakuza world; what's important for humans, in the end, is loyalty and friendship'... Well, that's fine, but as you can see from those characters, a yakuza group name with the character for abalone (T/N: 'pou' in Kanpo is written with the character for salted fish/abalone) in it is, no matter how you think about it, surely impossible, right?"
He asked Takeshita. Takeshita responded with a wry smile, neither nodding nor denying.
"So, when I said straight out, 'Aniki, this isn't a yakuza group name, it's like a sushi shop or a fishmonger, it's incredibly uncool,' he sulked, saying 'I know that well! I'm fully aware! Even so, I like this!'"
He spoke while reproducing the sulky face. And,
"But after thinking for a while, he apparently thought of a better name for me than that, and he wrote it newly next to where 'Kanpo' was written and showed it to me. However, as for what kind of characters or name it was, because I was drinking heavily at the time, the memory of the essential part has flown... It was over 15 years ago... If he had made it into a colored paper like that, it would have been good... But well, it had become a name that sounded quite like a yakuza group name, so I gave my impression like, 'This is quite a bit cooler than Kanpo, and isn't it good? It looks like a group where elite gokudo have gathered, and you'll be looked up to!' Then he said, 'This is why they say yakuza have no education or class! This is a name that's childish and doesn't have a shred of adult sense,' but seeing me rejoicing, his expression didn't look too displeased. Even so, it's a shame, what kind of name and characters they were... I remember the impression well, but I can't remember the thing itself at all. Whether it's due to age or my original lack of brains... It happens often, right? Where the face comes to mind but the essential name doesn't come out. It's the same as that! Thinking about it now, I should have kept that wrapper... It's no use saying it now, though," he said regretfully that he couldn't pull the memory back, while talking at length about the memories of those days. Of course, for Takeshita, who was in this place with a mission, it was something that truly didn't matter.