Chapter 202 - Name and Reality 125 {153 Solo} (363-364: The Letter from Sada Minoru)
Dear Sir,
To Mr. Aida Izumi,
I expect you may be surprised by this sudden letter, and I apologize for my rudeness.
I believe you likely remember, but I am Sada Minoru, the elderly man from Sapporo who spoke with you about your name and your father's name at your shop during the Obon festival last month.
Thank you for your help on that occasion.
Originally, I thought it would be appropriate to visit you directly and explain, but at the moment, my schedule is crowded with work issues, and it is quite difficult for me to intrude upon your time for a long period. Therefore, I decided to contact you first in the form of a letter.
Furthermore, in addition to it being a rather complicated story to explain over the phone, I apologize again for this format due to the necessity of handing over the enclosed items.
I intend to visit you again in the not-too-distant future to explain properly, so I ask for your understanding on that point as well.
Also, the copy of the other letter enclosed besides this letter is an explanation of the circumstances under which the enclosed deed—that is, the item corresponding to a contract—was written.
That deed was for a person named Senzaki Taishirou to guarantee the distribution of gold dust left to the laborers who worked under him, and it was created with my brother, Sada Toru, as a witness. The copy of the other letter was also left by my brother.
If you look at the old deed with the blood seal, I believe you will be able to believe that my story is true.
Leaving that deed and the letter for you to read separately, I will explain immediately.
Seeing up to here, Nishida and Yoshimura almost simultaneously understood why Sada, who had deceived Isaka by deliberately making a fake deed, had brought the Hojo brothers' real deed as far as Kitami. This was because they could infer that he had brought it to Kitami in order to present it to Boss immediately after the results of the dinner in Kitami came out.
Sada thought that if he had the Hojo brothers' real deed, he could make Boss believe this story, which, to put it grandly, was absurd, to some extent. And they also almost perceived the fact that it was currently missing and the meaning of Kitagawa keeping it in Kitami. However, since it was necessary to confirm clearly,
"Was the deed written here not inside?"
Nishida confirmed. Boss's reply to that was,
"Yeah, it wasn't in there,"
which was the expected answer.
Sada probably forgot to put the deed in the envelope by mistake. They reasoned that because of that, on the early morning of September 26, the day he was murdered, he ended up changing his reserved seat ticket for the limited express "Ootori"—which he was originally supposed to take to return directly to Sapporo—at Kitami Station to go as far as Engaru. Even for a busy person, if he forgot an important piece of evidence and was on the premise of wanting to convey the "results" of the dinner as soon as possible, it wouldn't be so strange to choose the option of bringing it and handing it directly to Boss, even if it meant losing a few hours on the way.
And the "results" that Nishida was thinking of, according to the content of former Prefectural Assembly Member Matsushima talking about the situation at the dinner on the tape left by Kitamura, was that he had told Isaka Daikichi to properly handle the gold dust that Mende's orphan should have received, since Mende's orphan—that is, Boss—had been found.
However, ironically, immediately after that, Sada fell into Isaka Daikichi's conspiracy and ended up being killed by Motohashi and the others in the mountains of Ikutahara. However, on the premise of wanting to convey the results quickly, if it became a matter of "the gold dust still remains," even in a busy situation with cash flow problems, that situation itself was surely opening up with the guarantee of assistance from Isaka. It wouldn't be so strange if he was impatient to spend more time to dig out the gold dust and give it to Boss immediately.
(Letter continued)
First, your father, Mr. Mende Shigeyoshi, worked as a laborer under that Mr. Senzaki. It is recorded in my brother's letter that he was murdered in the early summer of Shouwa 16 by the companions he worked with and was buried in the mountains of Ikutahara.
And just before that, the employer, Mr. Senzaki, had died of illness. According to his will, the gold dust was supposed to go to Mr. Mende as well, but because of the misfortune that befell Mr. Mende, it seems the talk became about giving it to his child.
However, Mr. Mende's child—that is, you—apparently didn't even have a known name, let alone a location at the time. No specific name is recorded in the deed either, and it seems certain that there was no specific way to hand it over at the time.
However, even considering the circumstances of the story I heard from you, considering your age, and considering the rarity of the name Mende Shigeyoshi, it should be safe to consider that orphan to be you, Mr. Aida Izumi, yourself.
As for the gold dust you should have originally obtained, the subsequent outcome is not known from my brother's letter.
Nevertheless, as far as hearing the testimony of Mr. Hojo Masaharu, the younger brother of Mr. Hojo Masato, who was another qualified heir who subsequently visited our home and who also appears in the deed and letters, I believe it was snatched away immediately after the end of the war by Kuwano Kinya and Isaka Tasuke—who has now changed his name to Daikichi and is the president of the Isaka Group in Kitami—who also appear.
Today, I met directly with that Isaka in Kitami and told him to properly handle your inheritance portion as well, so I believe I will be able to hand over a substantial amount to you in the near future.
By an oversight, I left without confirming properly with Isaka, but I expect it likely does not remain as gold dust. Although the specific calculated amount of the gold dust is not clear, I believe it will be a substantial amount if alimony is included.
With about 1 million for the gold dust alone plus an equal amount for alimony, 2 million will probably be a solid figure.
Unfortunately, as for the whereabouts of the other person named Kuwano Kinya, I also tried to investigate, but it was impossible. I also confirmed with Isaka, but he also said it was unknown, and I haven't grasped it.
However, Isaka is a man of means, and for now, making him pay compensation should be the priority. As a possibility, the fact that the whereabouts of Kuwano can rarely be grasped is regrettable, but I consider it better than nothing, as there was an aspect of miraculously tracking down even Isaka.
Furthermore, the enclosed deed originally belonged to Mr. Hojo Masato, and his younger brother Masaharu inherited it and, due to various circumstances, I am keeping it.
Therefore, since I only sent it for explanation and proof to you, I expect I will be collecting it later. Please understand that point.
I don't think it's so easy to be convinced by this story being brought up so suddenly, but if you check the deed, you should be able to see that each of the seals is by blood seal.
In other words, I believe you will be able to judge that it is not a half-hearted thing like a fake created with a casual feeling.
Since it is a difficult story to understand, you may not have fully digested the situation, but including that point, I intend to explain in detail when I visit again.
I believe I will be able to visit again as early as the beginning of October, or by the middle of the month at the latest. I would appreciate your understanding that I will keep you waiting until then.
Sincerely,
September 25, Shouwa 62
Sada Minoru
Nishida and Yoshimura read the letter and confirmed several important points. First, as expected, Sada intended to make Isaka compensate for Boss's portion of the gold dust. And Sada had no grasp at all of the fact that Kuwano Kinya was Oshima Kaiji, let alone that his true identity was Onodera Michitoshi.
In other words, Isaka Daikichi had pulled a complete bluff on Oshima Kaiji, saying, "I revealed your true identity as Onodera to Sada," and made him join the Sada murder plan. Oshima was involved in the murder of Sada Minoru, which he didn't even need to commit, and because of that, he ended up committing the murder at Kitami Kyoritsu Hospital later—it was a truly irredeemable result.
Of course, Nishida and the others were not without doubts about Isaka telling Oshima Kaiji's true identity to Sada, but now that it had turned out like this, they could only say that once again, only emptiness remained.
Even so, what was the psychology of Isaka, who, while telling Oshima "I revealed your identity to Sada," flatly refused when asked by Sada about Kuwano's whereabouts at the dinner, saying "I don't know at all"? He might have been enjoying making fun of both sides, but in Nishida's mind, at least two thoughts floated: that the reason he maintained ignorance toward Sada was that he disliked the risk of further increasing the number of people who had an interest in Oshima, or that since he intended to "erase" him in the first place, he thought there was no point in telling him.
As a practical matter, the political situation at the time, setting aside the fact that it didn't allow Oshima to confirm with Sada whether he grasped the "facts," what did Isaka think about the risk of Oshima directly confirming with Sada whether he "knew the true identity"? Naturally, if he understood even the political situation, there was no such worry. However, Nishida adopted the theory that more than that, Isaka had completely read that it was unexpectedly difficult for Oshima to confirm with Sada.
Regarding this, Oshima himself had said in his confession, "It's a considerably difficult story as to what and how far the other person knows, and how to probe into it." If the other person didn't know at all, if you said something unnecessary for confirmation, it could lead to you yourself telling your weakness to the other person. Also, it is considerably difficult to probe Sada's level of awareness while hinting without touching directly. Even if a weakness isn't directly exposed, it's quite possible to be perceived as having something to hide.
Besides, even if Oshima had suspected Isaka's lie by contacting Sada, since Isaka also had the final means of actually spilling it to Sada, he might have recognized it as not a great blow. After all, for Oshima, in a sense, he might have been "checkmated." However, it was also true that he had to confirm the truth rather than being immersed in such reasoning or the sentiment of emptiness.
"When this letter came, what did Boss think about this content? Did you believe it?"
When Yoshimura cut in,
"I was considerably surprised. The story that my father had already been killed before the war was one thing, but the inheritance of gold dust and how the succession was... I couldn't believe it readily... And more than anything, the deed that was said to be the evidence in the letter wasn't in there, so there was no way to believe it, right?"
He was told. That opinion was something that could only be said to be exactly as it was, and since the real deed of the Hojo brothers, which should have guaranteed the credibility of the content that Sada himself had written in the letter, was not inside, it was considerably impossible to tell him to trust Sada's story as it was.
"There was Sada's address on the back of the envelope, and this matches the one at Sada's house, but didn't you do something like send a letter to confirm the facts?"
When Nishida confirmed further,
"Nishida-san. There's nothing as miserable as going out of your way to bite at a story that looks like a lie, is there? Sure, the thought 'maybe' wasn't absent. But you know, if I went out of my way to confirm and it was a lie after all, there'd be nothing as pathetic as that, right? So, I thought I'd wait until the middle of October when Sada said he'd come again, and if he didn't come then, I'd decide it was a lie after all."
He answered.
Certainly, even fraud victims, ashamed of being deceived, often do not report to the police and just cry themselves to sleep. The reason is exactly what Boss just stated: there is a recognition that making public the fact that one was deceived becomes a further layer of shame on top of being deceived.
"Since Sada was killed by Motohashi and the others on the morning after he sent the letter to Boss, there's no way he could have come to see you..."
"At that time, I didn't know such a thing had happened, so when he didn't show up even around November, I got worked up thinking I was about to be deceived... So I was thinking of tearing up the letter and everything, but then I just happened to lose track of where I put it. It's a story of leaving it like that for several years."
Boss cut in on Yoshimura's monologue-like line.
"Just now there was a story about leaving it for several years, but I'm thinking that the reason it became necessary to remember it again was that four years later, at the end of Heisei 3 (1991), you saw a poster asking for Sada's whereabouts that was probably posted at Engaru Station, or a flyer that was being distributed with it. How about it?"
"Exactly, Nishida-san! I happened to stop by the station, and a poster with a familiar face was posted on the wall, and there were flyers on the desk below it. It was exactly Sada's face, and when I looked at the flyer, it said he went missing in Kitami at the end of September four years ago. That's when I started to think for the first time that the content of that letter was true and that Sada might have been finished off. As it turns out now, it means even Oshima was involved in that."
As this testimony from Boss showed, after all, the posting of posters and distribution of flyers (foreshadowing later) performed by Sada's family in Engaru and Ikutahara in December 1991 had become the trigger for the case to start moving.
Foreshadowing later
Revised Edition: Light and Shadow 7 (Toward the end)
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n5921df/28/