Everything Becomes F: The Perfect Insider
Chapter Five Silver Hope
I wasn't able to show you
even half of what you wanted to see, was I?
It's all right.
I can go again whenever I want.
It must be fun to be able to fly a plane.
You could go somewhere no one else is.
Do you want to go somewhere you'd be alone?
I do.
Deep in the mountains or an isolated island...
Be self-sufficient, make yourself a home with only a knife.
Fishing, gathering plants...
The ultimate freedom.
Why don't you do it?
Because there are things that hold me back.
I can't abandon everything.
You, yourself, are right here.
So you won't lose everything.
But in other words...
Perhaps I'm scared.
I'm just a normal man—
That doesn't matter!
I'm sorry.
No, it was my fault.
Did you cry?
When it happened, I'm certain there was someone next to you.
There wasn't anyone...
Then I shall change my question.
You lost your parents, did you not?
Do you remember that day?
What were you wearing?
Purple...
Nishinosono-kun, can I come in?
Yes.
Want some coffee?
Is it a little too hot for you?
Why is coffee always too hot?
It isn't always too hot.
That's just how it seems to you.
I know that!
Did you have a bad dream?
Mornings like this feel like a shampoo hat.
I don't think that's true.
Is my voice weird?
No? It's husky and quite attractive.
You're being nice today, aren't you?
Do you know the difference between kindness and love?
Each word has a different number of letters.
What was your dream like?
It was a dream about that night.
That night?
The night my parents died.
Dr. Magata asked me,
"Do you remember that day?"
"Did you cry?"
"When it happened, I'm certain there was someone next to you."
But I was alone.
I was always alone...
That's enough. Thanks for telling me.
Sensei, why do people live?
I've answered that question many times.
You shouldn't be
someone who can't stand on their own at times like this.
You should rest a little longer.
What am I doing?
I'm the one who's confused.
Saikawa-sensei?
Good morning.
This is the director's wife.
I'm Shindo Yumiko.
Hello.
Um, would you like to try these?
I made too many.
Cookies?
Yes. Do you not like sweets?
No, I do.
Nishinosono-kun, there are cookies out here!
You like them, right?
How are you feeling?
Oh, I'm fine now!
I don't know what to say about what happened yesterday.
Don't worry about it.
Talking to everyone like this keeps my mind off it.
I see.
What do you suppose Miki-san will do now?
It seems she's planning to return to America.
Oh, that's right.
Supposedly, Miki-san's bag is still in the helicopter.
Yamane-san, could you take a look later?
It has a present for Shiki-san.
All right. I'll look later.
Um... Could you tell me about Dr. Magata?
About Shiki-san?
Yes.
Well, hmm...
She was a lovely young lady.
Though she'd get upset if you told her that.
Of course, she was extremely bright.
But to me, she was just my cute little niece.
Why did she kill her parents?
Nishinosono-kun.
Sensei, please...
I don't know why.
Fifteen years ago, your husband was at the scene of the murders, wasn't he?
That's enough.
It's fine.
Yes. He was.
When she went inside,
Shiki-san's father, Sachiro-san...
His wife was already lying on the floor.
Shiki-san was covered in blood and holding a knife.
He was grabbing her hand from behind...
Yes, that's right. I remember now.
You remember what?
He screamed.
Who did?
Sachiro-san.
As he fell to the ground, he screamed, "I won't let you do this!"
What did he mean?
Let her do what?
That's enough, Nishinosono-kun.
It isn't.
And then what happened to Dr. Magata?
When she heard those words,
she screamed like she was possessed...
And then,
she started to laugh.
Kurimoto Kishio.
Sasaki Suma.
Oh, you know about them?
The other is Magata Michiru, yes?
Yes, they're all Dr. Magata's...
Yes.
She would always pretend to be those three.
At first, it was only Kurimoto Kishio-san.
Who was Kishio-san?
Her brother.
She had a brother?
Yes.
Oh, please try these.
Thank you.
The two were twins, supposedly.
But I heard that he died right after their birth.
Then, the other two?
Evidently, Sasaki Suma was based on Morikawa Suma,
her maid when she was in America.
Where is this Suma-san now?
She died in an accident.
The shock was sufficient
to make Shiki-san stop working in America and return here.
And then she started to imitate them?
It went far beyond the level of "imitation."
She created their internal personalities.
It was like they were real people.
The inside of Shiki-san's head
may have been too big for just one personality.
And who is Magata Michiru-san?
A doll.
A doll?
The name of the doll she brought here,
when she came to this lab.
Where is it now?
It was covered in blood, so we threw it out.
I'm sorry for asking all this...
No, it's fine.
Thank you.
Nishinosono-kun?
They're really good.
I ate too much.
They were really good.
But why did she make so many cookies?
I'm sure there's no reason.
She just wanted to do something.
I understand.
What will you do for breakfast?
Oh, I'm fine.
I had those cookies.
I'd like something.
You're still going to eat?
Leave me alone.
It's nice to be young.
Shimada Ayako Open?
That's the first good news I've had in a while.
"This is Shimada.
Shimada Ayako
I'd totally forgotten, but Dr. Magata had a meeting
with a writer from a women's magazine tomorrow.
The writer is coming to the lab.
In other words, a ship will be coming tomorrow."
That's great news, huh?
I'm so relieved.
Only a little, though.
Will toast be okay?
You like bread, right?
Bread
Huh?
Um, what do you have to do
to open that aluminum door on Dr. Magata's side?
That's under Deborah's control.
Only authorized personnel can open it from this side.
It can also be opened from her side,
but only she has the ability to do so.
Like the other doors, you put your hand up to it...
I had the same initial idea.
They needed her right hand to open that door?
The killer used her severed right hand to open the door?
The killer still has her hand and is wandering around the building?
I can't say it's impossible,
but I don't think that's the case anymore.
Come to think of it,
we need to take her body back to her room.
Have you figured out the case yet, Sensei?
No, I haven't been trying.
You're never honest with me.
But there is something I've been wondering about.
What is it?
How did the killer get in,
and how did they get out?
Getting through the lab's security system is impossible.
Then what if they were in that room before the security cameras were installed?
For fifteen years?
Those logical leaps are characteristic of the way you think.
But right now, I'm more interested in what happened fifteen years ago.
So it seems.
A doll did it.
Was she talking about Michiru?
I don't know.
But I have no idea what it means for a doll to kill a person.
A "doll" may mean a human body.
She meant a human body?
Yes. A body, as a vessel for a soul.
She told you that she alone was seven, right?
Yes, and that seven was the only lonely number.
That's it.
What does that mean?
There were multiple personalities within her.
But she was alone, and the others weren't.
Why?
Because she was the only one with a body.
Then she, herself, was the doll?
All the other personalities were dead people.
Why was that the case?
I don't know.
Perhaps she was overtaken by death.
But Michiru is the only one that wasn't dead.
Was there a Michiru who wasn't a doll?
And the words that Dr. Magata's father said before he fell...
"I won't let you do this."
Was he talking about being stabbed with a knife?
Or had he been arguing with Dr. Magata?
But would that have been enough to kill him over?
It isn't impossible, depending on the situation.
What situation could there be?
For example, this is only a hypothesis,
but Magata Shiki may have been
unable to forgive anyone who would trespass on her own freedoms.
Freedoms?
Yes.
A person capable of anything
must experience great pain
when they're told not to do something.
"I won't let you do this,"
is what someone who thinks they're in a position of authority says.
Well, he was her father.
But he was talking to Magata Shiki.
I can't imagine
she would let anyone interfere with her actions, even her parents.
Even if that's true,
there must've been a way to obtain freedom without killing anyone.
Such as?
Escaping.
Running away from home.
I see.
I think about that a lot, too.
I want to be released from those god-awful meetings,
and become free.
Sometimes, I want to just quit the university.
You've been thinking that, Sensei?
It's only an example.
I haven't actually made the choice to quit.
Why?
To put it simply, I'm tied down.
If you want to quit, then quit!
Yes...
You're right.
You should just quit and work on whatever research you like.
There's no need for someone with your talent
to waste time on faculty meetings.
If it were me...
If it were you?
I could give you that environment.
Nishinosono-kun, that wouldn't be right.
What wouldn't?
That would only be another chain.
A chain?
You think I'd tie you down?
No, the opposite.
It would tie you down.
I don't care if you tie me down.
Even if you don't care, I do.
Why would you say something so sad?
It's the same with Dr. Magata.
I think it's love that causes parents to restrict their children's freedom.
Some disagree.
Then, to escape those constraints,
you think it's okay to kill people?
That's quite a leap.
Don't try and change the subject!
Nishinosono-kun,
my opinion isn't what's important here.
The important question is what Dr. Magata was thinking.
Does it matter? She killed her parents.
No matter how much she valued her freedom,
that means there was something lacking in her as a person!
No, we're the ones lacking something.
Because there's something lacking in us,
we think about things like "human nature."
We make rules like "love" and "ethics."
We follow them, to compensate for something within us that's lacking.
So you're saying that love and ethics are just worthless rules?
I'm not saying that.
I'm saying that our morals and hers are different.
And she's the one who's right.
I don't know if she's right or not, but...
No one is as pure as Magata Shiki.
Pure?
To me, she seems selfish and overcomplicated!
"Selfish and overcomplicated" is humanity's natural state.
I don't think any of us, as children, had only a single personality.
We constantly contradicted ourselves,
and thought in a more diverse way than we do now.
But as we grow,
we try to unify into one personality without contradictions,
to go along with our one body.
And so, in the end, everyone is tied down by their bodies.
Don't you find that terribly restrictive?
I've never felt restricted.
I do, constantly.
But unlike everyone else,
Dr. Magata didn't unify her personalities.
She maintained several independent personalities.
I think that is a purer state of humanity.
You could say that people like Dr. Magata
are the most human of us all.
That's what you like about her. Isn't it, Sensei?
I'm not talking about whether I like her or not.
I'm glad she's gone.
Nishinosono-kun, I think that's rude to the doctor.
You don't know anything, Sensei.
I wouldn't kill my parents, no matter what happened!
You and Dr. Magata are different people.
There's no need to think the same things.
No one can feel things the same way as another does, anyway.
No matter how close they may be.
So...
So what?
From now on, you should decide what you're going to do yourself.
I'm going back to the camp.
Do what you want. I don't care what you do!
I won't say that.
If all this didn't matter,
I wouldn't have come here.
Even if I did have the chance to meet Dr. Magata.
A knife?
Yes.
What will you use it for? Making something?
No.
I want to go look for herbs at the campground or cut open fish.
Oh, then...
Maybe this?
I'll take it.
Magata Labs Complete!
I can't believe you have a building without windows.
Can you really live here?
Shall I at least put up some curtains?
At least you could tell yourself there are windows.
Well...
Congratulations on your move.
Oh, you're early.
Congratulations, Shiki.
Thank you, Uncle.
It's going to be a fun party today.
Help me, dear.
Right, right.
Happy birthday, Uncle.
Thank you.
I have a present for you.
What could it be?
A tool to free oneself.
Free...
I realized what she meant,
and I felt my body shake
with terror and joy.