Those are pretty.
Are you going to visit your cousin again?
You sure have excellent timing.
Was it your usual deduction skills,
or did your yokai friends tell you I was here?
I have an appointment for my eye and leg, as well.
It was pure coincidence.
Ever since that ordeal the other day,
the ayakashi won't stop talking about you.
"He must be an unrivaled yokai.
My lady!
I bet he's gonna cook us up and eat us!"
My lady, help!
I helped you guys out, and that's the thanks I get?
Well, it's your power that scares them.
So your left arm is really okay?
What? You're actually worried about me?
I'm the one who involved you in all this.
See? It's fine.
Ever since I ate mermaid flesh at the age of eleven,
my body always repairs itself,
no matter how badly it gets hurt.
It's been said that those who consume mermaid flesh
will become immortal and gain eternal youth.
Mermaid Diagram
But I must say that you definitely don't look eleven.
Yeah... I think that's because the other yokai
whose flesh I ate along with the mermaid's is nullifying some of the effects.
What was the other one?
I have to get going.
I'll be late for visiting hours.
Kuro-san.
I actually had a request.
Tonight, I'm going to see a giant serpent
who is the guardian spirit of the mountains in the next prefecture over.
Would you come with me?
A giant serpent in the mountains?
Yes.
About ten days ago, one of its servants visited me.
It said the guardian is so troubled by something
that it can't even sleep at night.
So this is a job for the Goddess of Wisdom to the spectres.
You're going to put yourself in danger again?
You don't even have any special powers.
How rude!
I have a very special power
that allows me to talk to the ayakashi and even touch ghosts!
But that's it, right?
You don't have superhuman strength, or the ability to fly,
or talismans to create supernatural phenomena.
You don't have any physical or spell-like powers.
What if you run into another violent, aggressive monster
like the other day again?
If you're so worried about me, you should just come with me.
If you were to help out despite how much they fear you,
I'm sure it'll make negotiations and mediations go much smoother.
I can't tonight.
Huh?
I want to enjoy the pork miso soup I made last night.
So go by yourself.
Honestly!
Why is he like that?!
Who lets a poor defenseless girl go off into the mountains
on her own in the middle of the night?!
I'm terribly sorry it's so late, my lady.
Oh! The swamp is coming into view.
I humbly thank you for traveling so far to see me,
my lady.
It's no problem. That is my duty, after all.
There's no need to thank me.
You were once worshiped as a water god.
It's only natural that I come to see you if you need me.
It's been quite some time since the humans worshiped me as a water god.
The small shrine has long been forgotten,
and no one offers me anything for it to rain anymore.
Though, even when they did pray to me for rain,
I never had the ability to control the weather to begin with.
So it is presumptuous that they ever considered me a god.
It's no wonder I've been forgotten.
The human world develops so quickly that
there are many things I don't understand.
That is why I sent one of my servants to summon you, my lady,
so I could borrow some of your great wisdom.
So, well...
I do apologize that I cannot be more hospitable here in these mountains,
but please do not be angry with me.
Oh, no! It's totally fine.
If I seem to be in a bad mood, it isn't because of you.
It's due to something personal.
Something personal?
Indeed.
I have a boyfriend named Sakuragawa Kuro.
I asked him to accompany me here tonight,
but he declined, saying he'd rather stay home and eat pork miso soup.
Sakuragawa
So you had some yokai track me...
Kuro-san! Please take a look at this!
You actually did make pork miso soup?
Don't just go barging into people's homes!
Wait...
You're going into the mountains dressed like that?
Well done, Kuro-san! I knew you had good taste!
It's my spring apparel! My "I've been invited" dress!
But you were invited into the mountains...
Wait, no! You shouldn't be so forceful!
Come on. Just stay still.
Wh-What is this?
The jacket I wore when I went mountain climbing in grade school.
How did you dig this up so quickly?!
Now what are you doing?!
It's bug repellent.
What do you think you're... doing...
Here, take some pork miso soup with you.
And some rice balls, too.
Wait...
Kuro-san!
Don't do anything rash again.
So you see, even though I told him
I would be meeting a giant serpent that might like to eat humans,
he had no intention of coming.
Goodness, no! I would never dream of eating you, my lady!
Besides, humans are too hard to eat, with the clothes
and metal accessories they put on...
So you have actually eaten some before?
I can't say that I haven't...
I was rumored to be a man-eating serpent back in the day,
but humans don't particularly taste that good.
And nowadays,
it would cause far too much trouble, so I prefer to avoid that.
By the way, my lady,
if you were able to bring your soup here,
couldn't your boyfriend have brought his to eat here, too?
Er, I mean, he probably didn't have another thermos! That must be it!
We've gone off track. Let's get to the issue at hand.
You're concerned about the murdered corpse you found in your swamp, right?
Yes. I cannot fathom why that woman came all the way
to my swamp to dispose of the body,
so I'd like to hear an explanation I can be satisfied with.
About a month ago, on April 23rd, just past 2 PM,
two hikers who were picking mountain vegetables
found a man's body here at Tsukuna Swamp.
Because he had been stabbed in the chest with a sharp knife,
they ruled his death a murder.
However, despite a few days passing since he was murdered,
and him having no cellphone or ID,
they were able to identify him immediately.
Yoshihara Hiroo
Yoshihara Hiroo, 35 years old. He worked for a large construction firm.
Eventually, a 30-year-old woman was arrested as a suspect.
Tanio Aoi.
It was me.
They got a confession from her.
While many unanswered questions remain,
they're working mostly on gathering evidence right now.
It's pretty much an open and shut case.
I assume she threw the body into the swamp to hide it,
or perhaps to delay its discovery?
Nay! It was not to hide the body!
I just happened to see her as she dumped the body...
That woman did, indeed, do something so spiteful as to throw that corpse
into this swamp whose water I drink from time to time.
But there are times when animal corpses float in it,
as well as humans who throw trash into it.
So I have the ayakashi that live in these mountains clean it regularly.
That's fine and all,
but there's still something amiss about all of this.
The woman didn't put anything on the body
to weigh it down when she threw it in.
So the corpse rose to the top and was discovered immediately.
Above all, at that moment, I heard the woman clearly say...
I really hope they find you.
Despite taking the time and effort to dispose of the corpse here,
she talked about how she wanted him to be found.
At first glance, it does seem her actions don't make sense.
Indeed! I don't understand it at all!
It must be difficult for a woman to push a wheelbarrow
with a body in it up a mountain at night.
The police had some doubts about that as well, and asked her about it.
"Why did you bother carrying this corpse to this swamp?"
And that's when the suspect, Tanio Aoi, said...
There's a huge serpent living in that swamp,
and I've heard that it eats people,
so I thought if I dumped the body there, the serpent would eat it.
It was a rather irrational confession,
so it even appeared in newspapers.
Dead Man Found in Mt. Tsukuna
I saw that confession, as well.
Tanio Aoi's family home is right at the base of this mountain.
It could be she actually believed the legends
she'd heard as a child about a man-eating serpent.
And in a desperate attempt, she brought the corpse up here...
Of course, that's not the case. She was actually trying to hide the body.
She wasn't trying to bury it or let it sink into the swamp.
She just wanted you to devour it.
Then what about what that woman said when she dumped the body?
She didn't mean it as,
"I brought it all the way here, so I hope someone will find it."
What she meant was that she hoped you would find the body.
Nay! Even if I had found the body, there was no guarantee that I'd eat it.
If the woman truly wished to dispose of the body,
she would've said, "I truly hope it eats you."
For being so huge, this guardian really gets hung up on minute details.
This brings up another question.
Why did that woman give a false confession?
This is going to take a while...
It was probably to hide the real reason she threw the corpse into the swamp.
Aye. I would like to hear an answer I can be satisfied with.
What the Guardian Serpent Heard
Let's go back over the details of this case.
You seem rather wise, but we need to make sure there aren't any discrepancies.
It all started five years ago.
Tanio Aoi had a boyfriend named Machii Yoshikazu.
But he died with a different woman,
who was his coworker, in what looked like a double suicide.
Machii worked in the accounting department of a large construction firm,
but after he died, it came to light that
he had messed with some numbers and embezzled a large sum of money.
Machii realized he wouldn't be able to hide the fact that he had
embezzled the money, so he convinced the woman to die with him.
Or, at least, that was what everyone believed.
Aoi was deeply hurt by this and returned here
to her family home at the base of Mt. Tsukuna.
She lived as a shut-in for about two years,
but she eventually found a job near home
and began to gradually get back on her feet.
And it was right around that time...
On Friday, April 21st of this year, around 7:30 PM,
Yoshihara Hiroo showed up at Tanio Aoi's house.
I want to apologize for what happened five years ago.
Yoshihara was a coworker of Machii's, so Aoi knew his name and face.
I'm the one who killed Machii, and I'm the one who embezzled the money!
Machii and that woman realized that and told me
that if I didn't confess, they'd make this public.
That's why I killed them...
Yoshihara Hiroo's plan went accordingly.
He got away with the embezzlement,
and it's said he was living a decent life afterwards.
But starting this year, he was met with a series of misfortunes.
He made a huge mistake at work.
His wife and child died in an accident.
On top of that, they found a malignant tumor in his body.
Truly a series of unfortunate events he never expected.
Yoshihara thought this was happening because of the incident five years ago,
so he visited Aoi to repent for his crimes.
He thought that if he showed remorse now, he could escape all this fateful punishment,
and that he might at least get away with his life.
I'm so sorry...
I'm so sorry!
That pretty much sums up Tanio Aoi's confession.
Apparently, Yoshihara had also contacted Machii's younger brother,
asking if they could meet up soon
regarding what had happened five years ago.
Machii's brother was busy at the time, so he couldn't talk to him in detail.
That probably prompted Yoshihara to go see Aoi first.
As the investigation went on,
the embezzlement and supposed double suicide came back to light,
and they also learned that the person connected to the prior case, Tanio Aoi,
lived at the base of the mountain where the corpse was found,
and made the connection.
Yoshihara-san was about my size, and his body had wasted away due to his illness,
so it wasn't much trouble to get him up the mountain.
The next day, Saturday the 22nd,
no one came to the swamp,
possibly because it rained that day,
so the body wasn't discovered until two days later, on the 23rd.
I figured the serpent wouldn't want to eat his wallet and cellphone,
so I removed them.
I burned his employee ID back at my house,
and I threw the knife into the swamp with the body.
But...
It didn't eat him.
The police have been coming to this swamp quite often during the day recently.
It would seem they are looking for that knife.
I'm sure they'd have a hard time finding it here.
So, did the suspect throw anything in along with the corpse?
Hm, I'm not certain...
Sadly, the information I can get is limited,
so I'll have to use my imagination to fill in some holes...
But I still believe the suspect dumped the body into the swamp
for a very simple reason.
A simple reason?
Yes.
In most cases like this, it's to protect the real killer.
Yoshihara Hiroo had contacted Tanio Aoi beforehand,
saying he'd like to come see her.
He was connected to a very dark part of her past.
Do you think she'd agree to see him alone?
That is a good point, but...
No one would suspect anything if she had someone
with her when Yoshihara came over.
Oh, I know. I think Machii's younger brother would be a perfect example.
Yoshihara told Machii's brother on the phone that
he had also contacted Machii's former girlfriend.
He might have had a bad feeling about that and contacted Aoi.
After learning the truth of his brother's death, he impulsively killed him.
But he still had a future.
On the other hand, Aoi had been living as a shut-in and had very little to lose.
That's why she decided she would protect him.
After sending the real killer away,
she decided to dump the corpse at the swamp in the mountains.
There are three reasons for this.
First, to let the swamp water wash off any traces of
the true killer that may have ended up on the corpse.
Second, to give the true killer an alibi.
But then why did the woman say, "I really hope they find you"?
This is why the third reason exists.
Tanio Aoi tried to get rid of any trace of the true killer at her house.
If she carefully cleaned every inch of her house, that could be possible.
But what about outside the house?
There's no telling what traces could've been left behind.
And that's why Aoi threw the corpse into your swamp!
What do you mean?
What else? She wanted it to rain!
You were known as a water god and
received prayers for rain in the past, didn't you?
If it poured, tire tracks and anything he might've accidentally dropped
would get washed away.
A moment, please...
I was regarded as a water god a very long time ago.
Besides, dropping a body into the swamp as an offering is unheard of!
And did they honestly think they'd be blessed with rain
by throwing in the corpse of a filthy middle-aged man?
If they wanted to give me an offering,
it should've been a beautiful, living girl!
Give me a girl as a sacrifice!
Er, Guardian?
There are usually two types of rain rituals.
First is to pray to a water god and have them grant your wish.
That'd be the orthodox method.
But there is also the opposite method of making the water god angry
so that they go on a rampage and make it rain.
Oh, I do believe I've heard that somewhere before.
And it appears that you were indeed enraged.
Goodness me... And it actually did rain the next day.
So, this explains why you heard her say what she did.
Tanio Aoi wanted you to find the corpse and go berserk.
That's why she let "I really hope they find you" slip out without thinking.
Nay! That explanation is still lacking!
In that case, wouldn't she have said, "I really hope it actually does pour,"
or, "I really hope the giant serpent gets mad"?
Of course!
If somebody visited from outside by car, someone would've witnessed it.
The police would be investigating that, too,
to see if there might've been another killer or accomplices.
Y-You seem to deny your own claims rather readily...
That's why the only suspect is Tanio Aoi.
Most of what she confessed to the police is true.
I think the only thing that's different is
the reason she dumped the corpse into this swamp.
Kuro-san!
So that is my lady's boyfriend... How terrifying...
Who said I was your boyfriend?
So you came after all.
At least correct him! Tell him I'm not your boyfriend!
We can have our lovers' quarrel later.
Right now, we have to resolve any lingering questions he has.
P-Precisely, my lady.
And how are you planning to do that?
I wish you would've come out sooner if you were listening this whole time.
My lady!
So what is the real reason the suspect threw the corpse into this swamp?
To Be Continued
Preview
A wave of incidents involving a phantom killer threatens Makurazaka City.
The culprit is a faceless woman wearing a red dress.
Are the incidents really caused by Steel Lady Nanase,
the ghost of a former idol?
Next time, "The Rumors of the Steel Lady."