Don't forget to read the first part, or the previous post if you haven't!
In the last part, we witnessed an unusual car crash, with only a single talisman as its culprit. After that, we listened to a lecture by Junya's brother, and now, we'll meet the man himself. Let's begin, shall we?
"Why, I'm honored to meet your older brother, sir. I, Souichirou Kogure, am somewhat nervous!"
"You shouldn't get your hopes up too high, Mr. Kogure. My brother is quite the oddball."
??? - "Who's the oddball, Junya?"
"Brother!"
"Long time no see, Junya. What's up? Aren't you working today?"
"Yeah. I'm here for a case, kind of."
"...Is that so? Well, let's go to my office." We followed his prompt and began to move to his office.
"That reminds me, brother, we met with Ms. Hitomi today too."
"...Was she doing well?"
"Yeah. I used to think she was coldhearted, but she's very passionate about her work and gave me a lot of advice."
"...I see."
I was told that Ms. Hitomi and my brother were friends from college.
{Suimei Kirisaki} is a bachelor living by himself. Like Ms. Hitomi, he is 29 years old. [...That was sudden. But then, how is he Junya's brother-in-law?]
He spends most of his time in his professor's office, rarely returning to his apartment.
I was still in elementary school when my brother, who is seven years older than me, came to our house.
[Okay. So, what they meant by 'brother-in-law' is 'adopted brother'. Considering the literal meaning of the original term was 'brother by social obligation', that could be one of its translations.]
At the time, my older brother was in the third grade of middle school. His parents died unexpectedly, and he was taken in by my family.
My father told me that he and my brother's biological father were old acquaintances. He didn't tell me much about why, but he said he knew him from work.
He wasn't adopted after he came to our house, so he isn't actually my adopted brother. Legally, he is a stranger.
I just call him "brother" because he has been like a brother to me since I was a child. He also dotes on me as a younger brother.
He fundamentally doesn't trust other people, probably because he wandered around from one relative to another until he came to our house.
Ms. Hitomi and I are one of the few people Suimei Kirisaki opens his heart to.
The densely packed bookshelves. The desk overflowing with documents.
My brother's office truly is a scholarly room.
"It's very different from when I was here last year. It's still filled with stacks of books, but they're much more organized."
"Y-yeah... that's because of a student I started teaching this year. What can I say, they're a pain to deal with."
Why would he consider the student who cleans his office for him to be troublesome? My brother really is a weirdo.
"Well, make yourself comfortable." My brother pulled a cigarette out of the breast pocket of his worn shirt and began to puff tobacco with a sour expression on his face.
'If smoking is so unsavory for you, why don't you quit?' I always think that whenever I see my brother smoking.
"By the way, Junya. Who's that chunky guy?" My brother said without any reservations.
It seems that he finally noticed Mr. Kogure's presence, even though he had been with us since a while ago.
Pop. Said "chunky guy" introduced himself with a smile as best as he could, although you could see a vein in his forehead.
"I am Sergeant Souichirou Kogure of the Inui Police Department, and I am investigating the case together with my senior. Sir!"
My brother acknowledges this, and after exhaling some tobacco smoke, answers curtly, "I'm Kirisaki". Then, looking dull, he yawns once.
Pop pop. Mr. Kogure doesn't seem to deal well with this kind of person. I think my brother noticed this as well and is poking fun at him on purpose.
This man named Suimei Kirisaki is always looking for an object of interest. And today, it appears that poor Mr. Kogure became his victim.
I didn't know what would happen if I left things as they were any longer, so I decided to forcefully cut to the chase.
"Brother, I need you to look at this."
"...Is it Mr. Kokkuri?"
"Yep."
"What does this have to do with the case?"
"...We're still not sure."
I didn't miss the twinkle in my brother's eye. That was good. He seemed to be interested.
And to prove it, my brother began to talk eloquently about Mr. Kokkuri.
"Mr. Kokkuri became popular in Japan in the early Meiji period, and was based on "table-turning", a form of psychic fortune-telling that arrived here at the time of our civilization's opening to the West."
"Table turning is a Western séance technique which even (Arthur) Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, once immersed himself into."
"The most popular theory of its origin at the moment is that it was spread by an American sailor who drifted ashore at the Shimoda Harbor in 1884, but, well, that's not really important."
"When table-turning was introduced to Japan, it was simplified from a large round table to a crude tray, then to a sheet of paper, and transformed into a quick and easy pastime for the masses."
"The philosopher Enryou Inoue, who was concerned about the people's easy belief in the bizarre, played an active role in the Mr. Kokkuri boom that took place during the Meiji era."
"He educated the public that Mr. Kokkuri was a physiological phenomenon caused by automatic muscular motion and had nothing to do with spiritual phenomena, and this helped to put an end to that commotion."
"The word "kokkuri" was thought to be related to the Great Deity Inari [The god of harvests who has foxes as its messengers] due to the phonetic use of the kanji for fox, dog and tanuki, however, the word truthfully had a very short history as it was created in the Meiji period, making it be regarded as unrelated to Inari."
"In China, there existed a similar form of divination based on muscle movement called "Furan" from the time of the Six Dynasties, but for some reason, this form of divination did not make its way to Japan."
"Mr. Kokkuri, Mr. Angel, Mr. Cupid, Mr. Orikiri, Mr. Bunshin..." ["bunshin" here can mean "alter ego" or "part of the self"]
"There are many different names for it, but they all can be explained by automatic muscle movements due to {autosuggestion}. This is the prevailing theory."
Since he went out of his way to add that it's the prevailing theory, that must be my brother's opinion too.
"Is it possible for someone to die due to Mr. Kokkuri?" My brother looked at me with a slightly surprised face.
However, he soon muttered to himself, as if satisfied, "I see. You were assigned to the First Investigative Division, weren't you?"
My department mainly handles murder cases. My brother must have been reminded of this.
"...Listen, Junya, there are many things in this world that cannot be explained by science alone."
"As westernization progressed, Japanese people eliminated old traditions and customs and rode the wave of rapid economic growth, believing that science was absolute."
"But there are still invisible forces in the Japanese spirit that are far removed from science, such as curses, hauntings, and grudges, that remain as objects of fear."
"Even if Mr. Kokkuri's real nature is a kind of hypnosis brought about by self-suggestion, it can only happen because we fear and believe it."
"So it wouldn't surprise me if Mr. Kokkuri caused effects that science couldn't explain."
"Because the human mind itself cannot be explained by science..."
After hearing my brother's answer, I presented the two pieces of paper to him. Maybe he could give me some clues.
The first one we found in the library and borrowed.
The second was the piece of paper stuck to the driver's seat of the empty car that attacked Yuka Kamiyama.
Since there was no way I could secretly borrow it in that situation, this is just a copy of what I saw.
"This is a charm to ward off foxes." My brother mumbled as he fiddled with his chin with his right hand.
"The first is to prevent a fox or {fox possessed} from entering the room, and is placed on all sides of the room to serve as a ward."
"Fox possessed...?"
"Well, let's just say it's someone possessed by a fox spirit."
"A person possessed by a fox... you say?"
"Look at the writing on the talisman: Four dogs are surrounding a fox. This is meant to contain it."
"And the nine lines of the cage are meant to represent the nine-character charm used to ward off evil, thereby conquering the demonic..."
"What about the second one?"
Sorry brother, but if we don't get to the point and move on, we'll be stuck here until the next morning.
"...The second one seems to be a talisman to ward off fox possession. Where did you find it?" I explained about the mysterious accident that had occurred this morning.
"I see. Originally, you were meant to write it down with deep red on top of a plate, then fill it with water fetched early in the morning and drink it..."
"After that, you would pray with purifying words to scare away the fox, but to do it with the driver's seat is an ingenious method. Fascinating, truly fascinating."
I don't want him to be too amused, but no one can stop him once he gets like this. Like a child who has been given a wonderful toy, he is fascinated by the talisman with sparkling eyes.
Anyway, I found out that the two talismans were related to "fox possession". That was all I needed to know.
"Thanks, brother." With his eyes glued to the talisman, my brother waved me off.
"Mr. Kokkuri and fox possession, huh..."
"D-don't tell me, sir... Do you seriously believe that Mr. Kokkuri is haunted or cursed?"
Mr. Kogure's voice was trembling. I can understand that feeling. What is this unexplainable sense of uneasiness?
The serial suicides. The blood removed by somebody unknown.
Mr. Kokkuri. Fox possession.
If we don't get the information straightened out once and for all at this point, it is going to get more and more confusing. Besides, we still have to decide on the future direction of our investigation.
The question is, what do we believe in? Will we rely on reliable science and common sense, or will we fearfully pursue this inexplicable reality?
You could say this is a fork in the road of destiny. This decision will greatly change the path we will take in the future---
Future Direction of the Investigation
To begin with, is this case really a suicide?
>Considering everything, the likelihood is high.
>It may not be suicide.
Let's end here. This was hell to translate in a small amount of time, however, it was very interesting as well. I'll spoil something real quick: I'll first go towards the "realist" route, after all, we don't want the crazy to run out too fast, do we? Also, if you're wondering why this was released one day early, it's because I might not have the time to post tomorrow.
Either way, see you next time!
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