Chapter 214 - Superstition 4 {4 Alone} (7 Alone Support [Yell])
Matsushige took the towel and examined it, then immediately confirmed:
"You actually received this from Mizukami-san in June of this year?"
Nishida nodded silently.
"I see... Actually, this towel is... from the time when this hotel was still operating as the Onsen Ryokan Yumoto Shochikubai. There's no mistake."
Having stated this definitively, Matsushige dropped his gaze back to the towel and began to speak in detail.
"My grandfather opened this as a ryokan in 1903, and it was turned into a hotel format when my father decided to hand over the business to me. Next year will be the 100th anniversary of its opening. Since I had been training at a hotel in Sapporo after graduating from university until just before I returned, he decided to rebuild it from the ryokan format to a hotel format before handing it over, so we rebuilt it starting in Showa 58 (1983). To be honest, since it had been a ryokan through my grandfather's and father's generations, I would have been fine with it remaining an onsen ryokan... And since it reopened as 'Hotel Shochikubai' in Showa 59, this towel was definitely distributed to hotel and bath users before Showa 58. Our phone number is now 0157-□□-1126, but back then we made the last four digits 4126 for 'yoi furo' (T/N: "good bath"). However, since '4' isn't very lucky, we changed it to 1126 for 'ii furo' (T/N: "nice bath") when we became a hotel... Mizukami-san used to come here quite a bit for bathing or hot spring cures regardless of the research society's events while he was alive, so I think it's a towel that was provided at that time. Unfortunately, he passed away before the hotel was built, but from Mizukami-san's perspective, he might have preferred the familiar onsen ryokan over the hotel format."
By the end, his tone sounded as if he were picturing Mizukami as he was in the past.
"I see, so that's how it was... In other words, he gave us a towel from his ryokan days, which he frequented before he died. This is just a guess, but this might have been a hidden self-assertion by Mizukami-san, saying, 'I've come all the way from the other world, across time.'"
Following Matsushige's testimony, Nishida presented his own interpretation.
"Yes. That might be the most fitting answer. While he was cheerful, he wasn't the eloquent type to strongly assert himself, so in a sense, it might be a method typical of Mizukami-san. However, it's very moving for us that he kept a towel of such little value for so long."
Matsushige spoke deeply as he neatly folded the towel.
"Right after we received it, even though it was such an old towel as we've just heard, it was in a condition as if it were brand new, so I think it was something Mizukami-san received while he was alive and kept unused. And by using that towel, although it didn't go as far as being direct evidence to solve the case, thanks to it, we found things that served as hints for solving the case, so I really think he was supporting us. I suppose his strong feelings stemming from his experiences manifested as encouragement for us."
Nishida felt something warm in his heart as he lightly touched the towel.
"It's likely as you say, Nishida-san. But even thinking back now, Mizukami-san was a typical sweet-tooth who wasn't very strong with alcohol, his face turning red after just a little drink. During the collection of remains, he would happily eat the onsen manjuu from the local confectionery that my father brought as a snack. He especially loved Japanese sweets with bean paste... Actually, the district where our Onneyu Onsen is located is the top producer of Shirohanamame (T/N: White Runner Bean, also known as Shirohanamame or White Kidney Bean) in Japan (Author's Note: It is indeed known as the number one production area in Japan), and the manjuu filling is white bean paste made from them. I vividly remember him saying things like, 'Ordinary Tokachi azuki bean paste is good, but the Shirohanamame paste from here is also exceptional,' while eating."
At the end, he looked back on the deceased as if Mizukami were right there.
"Even so, despite everything I've said, whenever I pass in front of that memorial for work or personal reasons, I always stop to offer a prayer whenever time permits, but Mizukami-san never appeared before me... Even though he showed his face to you two, as an old acquaintance, it's truly regrettable. I've known him since I was a child, so he could have shown his face just a little! Well, I suppose if he actually did, I would have been quite startled."
Matsushige continued with a wry smile, but Yoshimura offered his own interpretation—not as a consolation, but as his true opinion:
"Well, I wonder. Perhaps it's because Mizukami-san had nothing he needed to tell you, Matsushige-san. To put it another way, he wasn't worried about you at all?"
"Hmm, I wonder. I'd like to hope so. ...Still, I really wanted to see him one more time... At this rate, it doesn't look like I'll see him again. Once you reach your mid-fifties, you start wanting to look back on your life. Thinking things like how you wanted to see that person again, or how you should have done this or that... It's a daily life of 'regret comes too late.'"
When he finished speaking, Matsushige seemed truly sorry that he couldn't reunite with Mizukami, with whom he had a long acquaintance.
*
After chatting for a while longer, the time came, so the two thanked Matsushige and bid him farewell to return to Kitami, heading from the hotel building toward the car in the parking lot. At that moment, Nishida felt like confirming something with Yoshimura.
"Yoshimura! After Mizukami-san suddenly vanished in front of the memorial, we didn't know what had happened, so we turned our backs to head toward the onsen... do you remember a strong north wind blowing from behind? It was when we both instinctively said 'It's cold.'"
"Ah, that did happen... At that time, I felt like you wanted to say something, Section Leader."
Even though it was an event from just a short while ago, Yoshimura spoke as if it had happened a long time ago.
"Weren't you the same?"
When Nishida asked again, Yoshimura hesitated.
"Well... I just thought I didn't need to say it every single time."
"At that time... even though such a strong north wind blew from behind and I instinctively spoke out, it didn't feel cold at all. On the contrary, it was a mysterious north wind that felt like it was slowly warming me up. That's why I felt a strong sense of incongruity."
Nishida confessed.
"What! Isn't that exactly the same as me! That's right! I thought it was strange too, but since you said 'It's cold,' Section Leader, I thought I was just mistaken."
To Yoshimura, whose tension suddenly rose upon hearing the story, Nishida replied with a laugh:
"No, no, you were the same, weren't you?"
"Well, that's true, but considering how cold the wind had been until then, you just say it out of reflex."
Yoshimura seemed happy as usual.
"That's fine, but... after hearing the story from Matsushige-san just now, I finally understood. That wind wasn't just a north wind. It was a support [yell] blown by Mizukami-san, pushing us forward... And seven years ago in winter, when Ootomo-san and Kurano-san told us there was no need for investigation support for the shooting incident, and I nearly hit Mizukami-san on the way back to Engaru, I can understand now why he said 'You guys are cops, aren't you?' and why the wind and snow suddenly grew stronger after that. Furthermore, the sudden storm in June might have also been... You 'accidentally' noticed from the booklet that Onodera Michitoshi was at the site of the naval mine accident, but..."
Nishida laid out his reasoning.
"I see... Well, I don't know how much of it was Mizukami-san's doing, but it feels like that now. That agile movement when I nearly hit him, which didn't seem like an old man's, was probably because he wanted to complain to us 'Get it together' right before he was hit. And at the very least, I think today's wind can't be understood in any way other than your interpretation, Section Leader."
Yoshimura also nodded deeply.
"But if that's the case... when we went back to the Boss's house, the 'Jinsei Gekijo' that played on the radio might also have been..."
Nishida suddenly had a flashback to how 'Jinsei Gekijo' had played on the radio due to someone's request, which prompted Yoshimura to persuade Nishida to turn back to Engaru. However...
"No, surely that's going too far, Section Leader? Whether I react to it or not is up to me. In the first place, can a ghost make a request to a broadcasting station at such perfect timing?"
Yoshimura started to dismiss it with a wry smile. But he immediately tilted his head.
"But since a ghost was playing a radio-cassette player, it might not be impossible... If he even read that I would take that kind of action, that's actually quite frustrating."
He let out a light click of his tongue.
"At this point, I don't know if it was just a coincidence or not. However, if it wasn't a coincidence, it means he read not only Yoshimura's actions but also that I would be persuaded by Yoshimura and change my mind."
Nishida was also half-doubting even as he said it, but he didn't think the possibility was entirely zero. That said, there was no way to verify it, and since they didn't know who made the request, it was useless to say anything now.
"But I wonder what kind of reaction Takeshita-san would have if we told him what happened after we parted at the Remote Grave Marker today... I can't imagine that man, who is like a lump of logic, believing a ghost story."
Yoshimura grinned as he imagined Takeshita's reaction. However...
"But Takeshita-san also visited the memorial when he was paired with Kousaka-san, and I remember Kitamura-san saying on the day he died, while we were doing karaoke, that Takeshita-san had met an old man with 'Jinsei Gekijo' there. So he must have actually met Mizukami-san seven years ago."
"Eh? That happened...? Even so, why did that come up then? My memory of that day is quite fuzzy because of the shocking events that followed."
In fact, Nishida had been so shocked by Kitamura's death that he had even forgotten to write in the investigation diary he usually kept.
"Now that you mention it, was it...? It just so happened that Section Chief Sawai sang 'Jinsei Gekijo' at karaoke, so I asked you, Section Leader, 'That's the song the old man was playing at the Jomon Tunnel memorial, right?' and Takeshita-san, who was listening in, just told us during the karaoke that he had met him. Anyway, Takeshita-san seems like he'd have a lot to say, so maybe I should keep quiet, regardless of what you do, Section Leader?"
After explaining the circumstances, the subordinate sought his superior's judgment.
"But I wonder? If we talk to him seriously, wouldn't he at least say 'Well, I'll believe you' in the end? Regardless of how much he actually believes it."
Nishida stated his own thoughts. And...
"I didn't notice when I was working with him seven years ago, but I have a feeling now that his logical nature and inflexibility aren't his true self, but rather stem from his own strong determination that 'it must be so'... Even if he has emotions, his strong will that he must be cold toward what he must protect is simply hiding them."
He analyzed the personality of his former subordinate, something he had come to feel precisely because they were apart.
"I see... Yes, that might unexpectedly be the case... He's thoroughly logical, but as you say, Section Leader, he's certainly not a person without emotion. Even so, he's the troublesome type who uses roundabout expressions."
Yoshimura agreed for the most part while giving a wry smile at the end, but it was a conversation held precisely because they had no way of knowing that Takeshita had also had a similar experience just before, after their parting at the Remote Grave Marker. And as the conversation came to a temporary end, a genuine, dry, strong north wind blew across the two of them in the parking lot, where there was nothing to block it.
However, at this time, perhaps because they had warmed themselves to the core by soaking in the onsen, that north wind did not cool their bodies at all. No, to be precise, it should be said that it was because a different factor was heating them from within their bodies and from the bottom of their hearts.
And on the following day, the 26th, a full-fledged winter—much later than usual—finally arrived in this mountainous part of the eastern Hokkaido countryside, and Ikutahara and Rubeshibe were covered in nearly 20 centimeters of snowfall.