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“No, I’m afraid I must admit we were never very close. Yes, I knew her growing up, but we largely worked in different areas. Even when we worked together as executives, we hardly saw one another. I had an impression of her as someone pretending to be very old, whereas she seemed to see me as someone pretending to be very young. We largely loathed and respected one another for this very reason. It’s hard to see how both could be true at the same time, but they were.”
“I couldn’t tell you so much as her favorite flower or her favorite color. She was a very private person. So I’m afraid that I won’t be much help on this case. I would defer the position of lead detective here to Ranpo-san. He will likely have much better luck than I.”
“It is a pity that Kouyou-kun decided to desert us so suddenly.”
“Why yes, I would call her a deserter. Her absence was certainly not by my leave. Other words that come to mind would be ‘traitor’ or ‘turncoat’. She is not the first executive to have gone down this dangerous route within the past few years, but I do hope that the others will not gain any further ideas.”
“As I stated in the Mori Corporation press release, the stress of the position may very well have led to her leaving. To prevent such further incidents, I have installed a series of highly trained massage and talking therapists at all levels of the company to encourage better health and internal regulation of the company's employees. We are moving into a modern Japan, and losing our highest ranked members to such tragedies as desertion or suicide is unacceptable in our modern era. For too long have we treated our beloved employees as simply workers; we must also consider them as people.”
“Yes, if caught, she will be made an example of. I daresay having to kiss her decapitated head on a platter should be enough to make my remaining executives think twice.”
“No, I wouldn’t do the same for Dazai-kun. He still has use for me and may very well prove a useful alley or bargaining chip once more. I have no further need for Kouyou-kun now that she has professed no further need for me. She was once my queen, but I am afraid she has walked this chessboard in reverse and shrunk to no more than a pawn on the far end."
“I don’t wish to speak any more on the subject.”
“That is correct, gentlemen. I was responsible for her upbringing and training once she arrived in the Mafia. I have never had any children, but if I had, I could not think of anyone more deserving the title of ‘beloved daughter’ than her.”
“No, I do not know where she has gone, for I see her in this room still.”
“Just behind you. Do you not see the little child cowering in that corner? She has never left.”
“I taught her to take her first life. Indeed, I made her take her first life. If she refused, I said I would snap all the bones in her tiny little arms. Do not be afraid, gentlemen. She is more frightened of you than you are of her. Even if she leaves her corner, do not be afraid to throw her back into it. She cannot leave.”
“Yes, she haunts me still. That golden demon of hers is no more than the specter of the little child with her quaking footsteps and trembling arms. She must watch her own back.”
“Or else I might end her where she stands.”
“No, I did not murder her. The Boss says she deserted the Port Mafia. I have every reason to distrust him, and therefore I will trust in his words, for the good of the organization. If I find my beloved daughter, I will kill her and bring the Boss her head.”
“Yes, I know where she is. She is in the corner of this very room. That little demon follows me everywhere I go.”
“And I kill her, again and again.”
“But yet she still stands up and fights me again.”
“I am very proud of her, you know. Now please leave an old man to his cigarettes and memories.”
“I don’t want to talk about her.”
“I understand, but I still don’t want to talk about her.”
“You must have heard everything already. You have a list of her kill counts and potential enemies. If she was kidnapped, it’s none of my business.”
“If she even did run away, I don’t know where she could have gone.”
“Yes, I lived with her.”
“I think she loved me.”
“I know that wasn’t the question. But I don’t know if I ever loved her. I think she loved me, and perhaps that’s the same thing.”
“Because she thought I was a mirror.”
“No, an ugly wooden mirror. Neither of us have ever been worth much.”
“Because we were so beautiful. We were both so beautiful, but we spent such a long time on our hair, clothing, and makeup, that we must have both been nothing underneath. When I took my clothes off for my bath, I became transparent. And she became a ghost, because I think she was a mirror too.”
“So maybe she faded away. Maybe she didn’t want to be beautiful anymore.”
“Maybe she didn’t want to be Ane-san anymore.”
“We had a bonsai tree she spent hours trimming and wiring into place. I used to spend my own hours just looking at it. I sometimes dreamed that I could shrink down teeny-tiny and climb its trunk. I thought it would be a perfect playground.”
“Because if she went anywhere, that’s where she went.”
“Yes. She became so teeny-tiny no one could ever see her again. That’s what happens when you aren’t beautiful anymore.”
“You’re welcome. Didn’t you promise me a crepe for this?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say I knew her pretty well.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m gonna cooperate for you, though.”
“Huh? What’re you bringing up that shithead for? Damn you detective sons of bitches. Listen, I don’t know where she went either, okay?”
“I’m not drunk. Not yet.”
“Yeah, I could tell you about her all day long, but what do you even want to know? She was the best goddamned person I’ve ever met.”
“Because she was my Ane-san. Look- it wouldn’t mean anything to you. But she knew what the hell I was-”
“I said ‘what’, and I meant ‘what’, okay? Are you gonna let me talk, jackass?”
“That’s what I thought. She knew what the hell I was and didn’t give a crap. I was just some punk to her. And then she beat that punk-ass shit out of me and whooped my ass. She told me I better shape up and present myself the way I wanted to be seen at all times. She was damn right about that. She knew better than anyone else.”
“Probably the closest I’ve ever come to loving someone.”
“Yeah, we knew everything about each other. She loved gardening, you know? Always grew flowers- she loved all of them, in all colors. She had this bonsai tree too for a while, but she destroyed it before she left.”
“Yeah, she hacked apart the wires on it with her sword and then left it. I felt bad for the thing and took it back to my place. I put it in some good soil, and it’s growing like a beast. I actually had to plant it outside after a few days because it kept on getting bigger. It’s taller than me now. You can practically hear it reaching for the sun.”
“Uh huh. I was around when she left.”
“Nah, I just stopped by her office to drop off some paperwork. She said she was leaving.”
“Yeah, just like that. Real casual. ‘I’m leaving.’”
“Of course I asked her where she was going, who do you take me for? She didn’t say. She just said I was twenty-two now, so it was my job to take care of everything else.”
“And so I said that I didn’t know how to take care of everything else yet. I felt like a kid. It’s stupid, but I felt like I was ten years old or something, just standing there.”
“Yeah. The sun was setting, and her back was to me, so I couldn’t see her face. She looked little, though. Man, it’s really stupid, but she couldn’t have been more than fourteen years old. I realized that despite what she looked like, she was a little punk all along too. And she said, ‘I was your age when you decided I was old enough to take care of everything. Now it’s your turn to figure it out.’”
“And she vanished. Just like that. I’ll never see her again.”
“You’re stupid, aren’t you? She’s gone. You can’t find her.”
“I can tell you don’t believe me. Whatever. Take my fingerprints, go through my stuff, yadda yadda, I know the drill. I’ll show you her bonsai tree. It’s probably taller than the building now. If you get right up against the trunk and listen closely, you can hear her laughing.”