Chapter 149 - Name and Reality 72 {100 Solo} (239-241: The Backgrounds of Motohashi and Hinako)
"Even so, why at this late stage, to a newspaper reporter from Hokkaido..."
He seemed to have a strong doubt, tilting his head.
"Actually, although I am a newspaper reporter now, I am a former detective of the Hokkaido Prefectural Police who had the experience of interrogating Motohashi-san back in 1995."
When Takeshita confessed, he said.
"You were a detective? And you interrogated Yukio..."
He said that and then fell silent for a while.
Takeshita dared not mind that and said.
"Motohashi-san was executed while keeping important things silent. However, it seems he didn't intend to keep silent about it forever, and now, five years after his execution, he seems to have something he wants to appeal to us. The hint for that is 'Rokkou and Hinako,' and since it was written to ask Kuroda-san about it, I visited you today."
He stated and explained the background carefully.
"If that's the case, he should have told us from his own mouth before he was executed..."
He said, but his way of saying it was less thorny than before. It seemed that the fact that Motohashi had mentioned a woman named Hinako, who was said to have already passed away, had changed Kuroda's attitude, for better or worse.
"Anyway, I am deeply grateful to you for answering my questions."
Takeshita was fully satisfied because he was able to hear the necessary information.
"And, what are you going to do now, Takeshita-han?"
Since Kuboyama asked, he said.
"I'll have you take me to Osaka as I am, and from there I'll head to Kobe."
"Does that mean you're going to that cemetery just like that?"
"That's what it comes down to..."
"Do you know the place?"
"I'll know if I look it up... Um, I'm very sorry to ask again, but if it's okay, could you tell me the location or how to get there, and the approximate location of Hinako-san's grave within the cemetery?"
After starting to say it to Kuboyama, he asked Kuroda again, and he said.
"If you're going by public transport, take a taxi from Sumiyoshi Station on the JR Kobe Line, or Okamoto Station on the Hankyu Line, and tell them the destination. It shouldn't be that far. Maybe about ten minutes... The grave's title was changed to my name... 'Kuroda Kimio,' with the help of the lawyer who was handling the defense at Yukio's request, right after Yukio was caught, so if you have them look it up at the management office of Boyo Boen, you should be able to find the location. The characters for Kimio are 'public' and 'husband.' On the gravestone, 'Shibatani Hinako' is engraved. The characters are 'shiba' as in lawn and 'tani' as in valley for Shibatani, and 'hi' as in the sun, the character for 'facing,' and 'ko' as in child for Hinako."
He told him in a low but firm voice.
"Thank you very much. Well then."
Takeshita, who took notes and bowed again, stepped toward the street. Kuboyama followed him and said.
"Since we've come this far, I'll take you to Kobe in my car! It has a car navigation system, although the accuracy isn't great."
He said that, but Takeshita tried to refuse.
"I can't possibly impose on you that much..."
Then, he was struck hard on the back.
"What are you saying now! It's Aniki's last will! It's my right and duty to see it through to the end!"
Of course, it's not that he didn't have that intention at all, but he was probably being considerate of Takeshita, who would be unfamiliar with the Kansai area.
"Then, shall I accept your kindness?"
"Yes, yes, you should do as I say!"
Takeshita decided to accept Kuboyama's kindness, and the two started walking side by side toward the street where the car was parked.
Immediately after that, Kuroda's voice came from behind.
"Wait a minute! Even if you say it's a cemetery, it's quite large. There must be hundreds to a thousand graves. Even if you ask the management office for the location, there's no way you'll find it immediately! If you do it normally, the sun will set!"
Indeed, it was as Kuroda said. Whether he could find it immediately just by knowing the location of the cemetery was another matter. Although it was quite doubtful whether it would take until sunset.
"Can't be helped. I'll go with you! I don't really know what you're going to do, but..."
The two looked at each other at the unexpected words that followed from Kuroda's mouth, but Kuroda approached and said.
"As for Hinako's grave, before Yukio was caught, one of the two of us would visit the grave every year during the spring and autumn equinoxes and on the anniversary of her death. After Yukio was caught, I did it alone. However, I haven't gone yet this autumn. So, if you're going by car, I'll guide you while I'm at it, so take me with you! No complaints, right?"
It was a very grateful offer made in a low voice, although the wording was rough if you just listened to it. Hearing that statement, Kuboyama said as if a bit shy.
"I think even the grumpy Kuroda-han will surely be satisfied with the ride of my Mercedes."
"I don't care about a Mercedes! Well, I'll get ready, so wait for about ten minutes. Besides, if I slip out of work without saying anything to my wife, I'll be scolded later."
With a little joke probably to lighten the mood, Kuroda returned to the shop, running past the two.
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The large Mercedes carrying Kuboyama, Takeshita, and Kuroda, with the driver Shinjo, headed from Kawachinagano to Sakai, stopped at a flower shop on the way to buy flowers for the grave, and further purchased incense sticks and candles at a convenience store. Furthermore, he probably intended to use them as offerings, but he purchased takoyaki, which is not suitable for an offering, at a takoyaki shop in the shopping district of Sakai, and got on the Hanshin Expressway from the Sakai IC (interchange).
Even if Kuroda hadn't come along, Takeshita had honestly felt that it was only human to show courtesy beforehand if he needed to search the grave, so either way, he would have had to prepare offerings himself.
However, if he thought about it carefully, he hadn't confirmed that point with Kuroda, who was also the owner of the grave, and if he hadn't come along, it might have been very rude. That said, even at this point, he was still looking for the timing to bring it up.
Since it was Sunday, the road was somewhat crowded, and the driver Shinjo seemed a bit irritated, but Kuboyama in the passenger seat was unexpectedly magnanimous, considering his appearance and previous behavior, and seemed to be in a good mood, occasionally humming. Takeshita speculated that the prospect of some improvement in his relationship with Kuroda might have influenced his mood.
In the meantime, Kuroda had begun to tell Takeshita and Kuboyama about Motohashi's old self and the woman named Shibatani Hinako, albeit bit by bit.
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Motohashi, Kuroda, Hinako, and other friends, who were in the same class for the first time in the third grade of elementary school, remained close even after their classes were separated, went to the same middle school, and often hung out together even after graduation.
Motohashi in his elementary school days was a bit rough when it came to fighting, but he never started it himself, and was basically "interesting and kind," and although he didn't study in a way that looked like studying at all, his test scores were always good, and he was apparently a quite clever boy.
He said it was his daily routine to read for only thirty minutes at the library every day before going home after school. In that time alone, he read a considerable amount and seemed to have a firm grasp of the content. Kuroda, as a boy, vaguely understood that the habit of reading books at the library was because he didn't have an environment where he could read books at home, and he apparently often accompanied Motohashi in his reading.
However, Motohashi's family had economic problems, and with family discord, it seems that he couldn't hide the "shadow" even from the eyes of Kuroda as a boy.
When they started to become close, when he came to Kuroda's house to play, he didn't want to go home even in the evening and would stay for a long time, and Kuroda's parents also initially found him a bit annoying. Regarding that point, Kuroda, who was beginning to grasp the situation, explained the circumstances to his parents, and after that, he gained their understanding, and it seems that he often ate dinner with Kuroda's family.
And for Motohashi, who couldn't even eat proper snacks, Kuroda's parents would give leftover sweet bread to their son Kuroda when they went out to play together, and directly to Motohashi himself when he came to play at the house and went home.
When he first recommended it to Motohashi, at that time, even white bread was a relatively expensive food, and sweet bread and prepared bread were even more out of reach, so the young Motohashi was apparently quite hesitant.
The young Kuroda, who sensed his feelings, recommended it with intentionally harsh words in the beginning, saying, "It's just leftover bread, so if you don't eat it, it'll just become trash! Eat it without worrying!" In response to that, the young Motohashi reportedly accepted the bread happily for the first time.
Since then, whenever Kuroda gave Motohashi bread for a snack, he would always say, "It's 'just' (Tadano) leftover bread," and the young Motohashi would say, "There's good fortune (Fuku) in leftovers!" and it seems it had become a custom for him to gratefully accept the bread Kuroda offered.
Because of that, when they were elementary school students, the young Kuroda was sometimes jokingly called "Tadano" by the young Motohashi, and in that case, they were in a relationship where they called the other "Fuku." And that was apparently something that was only understood between the two of them. Kuboyama, who was sitting with them, also seemed to have often heard about that as a "nostalgic memory" after they became adults.
The fact that "Tadano" was written throughout all the letters entrusted to Kuboyama from Motohashi was because of that. It is a nickname that is only conveyed among the three. Also, Kuboyama reminisced that Motohashi often used the phrase "There's good fortune in leftovers" even when he wasn't with Kuroda.
He must have had many things he wanted to cry about as a child, having lived a hard life since he was small and probably being mentally immature, but Kuroda said he had never seen Motohashi cry in front of him even once, and he rarely complained. He spoke with his eyes closed, saying that must have been Motohashi's pride, if nothing else.
After that, Motohashi, who also had a "rascal" side to begin with, joined a delinquent group around the second year of middle school, and began to distinguish himself remarkably by demonstrating his strength in fighting, his hidden leadership, and his clear brain. At that point, Kuroda and the others tried to pull him back somehow, but it seems it didn't go well.
Even so, since he associated with his old friends from elementary school as the "old Motohashi Yukio," Kuroda, while dissatisfied with Motohashi's subsequent excessive misconduct, ended up condoning it. Even after he finally became a yakuza, he apparently continued to associate with him while saying, "Don't show any sign of being a yakuza in front of me."
On the other hand, it was well understood by Kuroda and the others that Motohashi, for his part, tried to erase the smell of yakuza as much as possible when he met with Kuroda and other old friends. This point had already been heard in Kuboyama's testimony, but there is no doubt that their mutual compromise contributed to keeping their long-standing friendship at the limit and not destroying it.
Because they were friends with such a strong bond, he couldn't imagine that the young Motohashi would later kill many strangers, and when he learned that it was a fact, he received a great shock, and it seems that it had led to Kuroda's stubborn attitude from the confession to the present day.
At the same time, Takeshita felt like he understood the reason for Motohashi's obsession with trying to give the name "Kanpo Group" to the yakuza group he would have in the near future, a name that wouldn't suit it at all, from these episodes.
As for Hinako, her real name was "Shibatani Hinako," as already conveyed, and she apparently attended the same elementary and middle school from a children's home in Kawachinagano.
Hinako was said to have been abandoned shortly after birth in the precincts of Takemikumari Shrine in Chihayaakasaka Village, the only "village" in Osaka Prefecture adjacent to Kawachinagano, the birthplace of Kusunoki Masashige and where his castle was located (Author's note: Takemikumari Shrine is a shrine rebuilt by Kusunoki Masashige, who ruled this area).
With the surname of the discoverer and the naming by the Shinto priest of the shrine, such a name was given and a family register was created (Author's note: For abandoned children, a new independent family register is created by the administration. In addition, even if the child had already died, the form of death after creating a family register once is taken), and after that, she was reportedly entrusted to a children's home in Kawachinagano. Takeshita, who had felt a bit of a sense of incongruity hearing that an individual's name was engraved on the gravestone instead of "The Grave of the [X] Family," understood the reason well after hearing that.
She wasn't particularly beautiful, but she was a bright girl with a charm and good nature that didn't make one feel her background, and Kuroda said she was quite popular among the boys. After graduating from middle school, she had no choice but to be independent, so she got a job at a sewing factory and often played around from Saturday midnight to Sunday with Motohashi, Kuroda, and others who had gone to high school. Originally, she had wanted to go to high school as well, but she seemed to be a laid-back and relaxed type, and she apparently judged that it would be difficult to balance working at a sewing factory and attending a part-time high school.
Incidentally, the reason why Motohashi, who was poor and a bad seed, was able to go to a middle-to-upper-tier public high school was not only because his grades were good despite not studying at all, but also because his homeroom teacher at the time thought it was a waste of Motohashi's brain and bowed his head to other teachers and the principal, as well as arranging for him to receive a scholarship.
Regardless of his academic ability, his internal records due to misconduct and economic problems were somehow cleared thanks to his mentor. It was said that Motohashi had a strong feeling of apology toward that mentor even after he eventually dropped out and became a yakuza.
Kuroda was not a delinquent, but he bought a motorcycle and rode it around from high school, and he confessed with a laugh that he also had some "rascal" parts to the extent that he didn't stray from the path of humanity. As for Motohashi, although he wasn't caught, he even borrowed a car from a yakuza he was already involved with and rode it around without a license, so it seems he was already showing "glimpses" of his later self even then.
And the place where everyone often went to play at that time was Mount Rokkou in Kobe, and he said the beauty of the night view of Kobe seen from the top at night is still a good memory of those days. Hinako also apparently liked that night view of Kobe very much.
After that, Motohashi dropped out of high school and ran up the path of the yakuza. His friends were quite opposed to it, but Motohashi was in a state where he couldn't back down. Incidentally, Hinako didn't directly oppose Motohashi's entry into the yakuza, but she seemed to believe in Motohashi, telling Kuroda and other friends, "The day will come when he'll quit on his own."
After graduating from high school safely, Kuroda went to an old-established bakery in Kobe for training in order to take over his family's bakery. While Hinako continued to work at the sewing factory, in the summer of 1970 (Showa 45), when the three of them turned 21, a sudden tragedy struck.
Late at night, on her way home from the factory after working overtime, Hinako was hit by a car driven by a drunk man and became a person who would never return. When Kuroda, who heard the news, hurriedly returned to Kawachinagano from Kobe where he was training, Motohashi had arrived first and was staring blankly at Hinako's body, which had been placed in the hospital because there was no one to take her in.
Probably while enduring tears, he was reportedly talking to the body covered with a white cloth in a low voice as if suppressing his emotions, saying,
"What on earth were you born for..."
Kuroda, who saw that, was also shocked himself, but he couldn't even talk to Motohashi for a while because of his depression, and he said he spent about thirty minutes in the hospital waiting room.
Until then, Motohashi had been fine with driving without a license and even drunk driving, but after that, he went to a driving school to get a license formally, and Kuroda said in a flat tone that he had never seen him drunk driving after getting his license properly. He said that going to the Osaka Expo (Author's note: held at the current Expo '70 Commemorative Park in Suita City, Osaka Prefecture from March to September 1970. The official name is the Japan World Exposition) with his old friends was his last memory with Hinako.
Regarding that, Kuboyama also said.
"I wasn't Aniki's direct subordinate, so I wasn't always by his side, but it's true that Aniki often told his subordinates who were driving his car, 'You must never drive recklessly!'"
Hearing that, Kuroda muttered.
"Being scrupulous in such strange places is just like him."