“December 2nd,” Watanabe answered.
Feng Bujue followed up. “The first part of the recording happened on November 24th, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Then, when did the second part of the recording occur?” Feng Bujue asked.
Watanabe did not answer instantly. He needed some time to think. Officer Tachibana, who was more familiar with the case, picked up the thread of conversation from behind. “Fukui was shot on November 26th. That afternoon, he ordered all the maids in his manor to leave, and the reason was… for him to meet your wife, Haruko Sato, without any witness.”
He paused slightly when he said this, probably thinking of a better way to phrase this particular event. “Personally, I do believe that b*stard, Fukui, deserved what he got, but to obtain the murder weapon, you dragged my innocent men into the mess, and for that, I will never give you any leeway in this investigation.”
At this point, Watanabe added, “Fukui’s body was not found until the afternoon of the next day. Since it was a death caused by gunfire, the investigation went very carefully. And that day, Hirata-san went to work at his company like usual. He acted very calmly like nothing was out of the ordinary. His wife, Haruko Sato, did not show up for work, and the third part of the recording happened that night.”
“Then,” Feng Bujue said, “the disappearance of Officer Yamada should have happened between November 24th after Hirata left the company and the morning of November 26th, right?”
“He went out on a patrol on his bicycle on the night of the 25th and no one had seen him since,” Officer Tachibana replied.
“Was the bicycle discovered?” Feng Bujue asked.
“Stop trying to change the subject! I’m asking, where have you hidden the man‽” Tachibana roared.
“So, based on your reaction, the bicycle was never found…” Feng Bujue hummed to himself. “Hmm… So that’s it.”
“Do you need some punching to get the words out?” Tachibana tossed the cigarette that he was holding to the ground and charged forward once more.
Feng Bujue ignored the man and continued with his own hypothesis. “Based on my knowledge, the public safety in Japan is one of the best in the world. The ratio of law enforcement to the public is well above the required ratio. Only captains and inspectors are armed with a gun in a big city. But since we’re talking about a small town, I believe… from daily patrolling to serious criminal cases, everything that is related to public safety is handled by the same group of personnel, so… it is not that surprising that Yamada would become a target.
“Here’s what I think. Assuming Hirata’s plan was to grab Yamada’s gun, he had two options. The first was to steal, and the second was to mug.
“Stealing requires technique, and he would be stealing from a police officer. If he failed, he would definitely be sent into prison, and his intention of murdering Fukui would be exposed. Of course, Hirata would not have cared about the consequences, but that was for the sake of murdering Fukui. Before he completed his goal, he would not allow any holes in his plan. So… the chance of mugging would be higher than stealing. Of course, the crime conducted would be bigger, but then again, that crime would not have been bigger than murdering another person.
“Since he decided on mugging, there was no requirement on his technique. He only needed a quiet night, a location where people rarely ventured, and then he could assault the defenseless Yamada from behind and take the gun away from the unconscious officer. But if that was the case, Yamada would not have gone missing. At most, he would have been found lying unconscious by the side of the road.
“But the fact of the matter is that Yamada has gone missing. This proves that some kind of accident occurred during Hirata’s attempt to mug Yamada, or he originally only intended to knock Officer Yamada out, but he was unable to gauge his strength and accidentally killed the poor officer…”
“You b*stard!” Tachibana was for real this time. He lunged forward to grab Feng Bujue’s collar. “You have finally admitted to the truth, haven’t you‽ Speak! Where is Yamada’s body‽”
Feng Bujue continued his extrapolation calmly. “I have no idea. I am merely making up the hypotheses based on the clues that you have told me… Ergh…”
At this point, he suffered a heavy punch to his stomach. His Life Points plummeted right down to thirty percent, and he was inflicted with the status of Paralysis.
“Officer Tachibana!” Watanabe quickly rushed forward to pull the uncle back. “Please do not apply physical punishment on the suspect!”
“Suspect? This b*stard has killed at least two people already!” Tachibana yelled.
“Officer Tachibana, that is enough,” Watanabe said in a placating tone.
Feng Bujue suffered an unfair punch. The impact caused the air in his lungs to vanish, and it took him a long time before he could breathe normally again. Without even realizing it, he lost himself in the joy of drawing hypotheses and forgot where he was. This punch made him realize that he was inside a nightmare-level scenario. Even though the two before him were two NPCs that could be logically communicated with, he was in no way ’safe’. Any small mistake could cause the scenario to end prematurely. Saying the wrong word, or even saying the right word in the wrong tone, would possibly cause instant death.
“Huh… Huh…” Feng Bujue caught his breath and swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Then, he continued the thread of conversation that was interrupted earlier. “If Hirata ambushed Officer Yamada during his patrol and killed him, then… the bicycle should have been found.”
Officer Tachibana seemed to have calmed down by then. Watanabe thus let go of the man. The two of them turned to look at Feng Bujue to see what he was going to say next.
“When Hirata realized that he had accidentally killed a police officer, he would only have two choices left. First, grab the gun and leave the scene as fast as he could; second, take care of the dead body before escaping. If it was the second scenario, it would have been physically impossible for him to move both the dead body and the bicycle at the same time. At most, he would have moved the bicycle to an inconspicuous corner to hide and then gone back to the crime scene to deal with the dead body…”
At this point, he paused again to ask, “By the way, does Hirata own a car?”
“No,” Watanabe replied. “In fact, he does not even have a driver’s license.”
“Then, we can safely rule out Hirata using a car to run down Yamada and hauling both the dead body and the bicycle into the trunk to transport them away,” Feng Bujue said in a meaningful way. He paused for yet another ten seconds to arrange his thoughts. “Currently, I have three hypotheses.
“First, after Hirata assaulted Yamada, he dragged the body away to a secluded part of town and disposed of the body there. The bicycle was thus left at the roadside and was probably taken away by someone else. This third party probably did not witness the assault, and that was why they were brave enough to steal the bicycle. So, the chance of it being a homeless person is high. Perhaps they have left the small town by now, or perhaps they found out through some channel that the bicycle was involved in a criminal case and, due to fear of being implicated, tossed the bicycle into the river or deconstructed it into parts to be sold.
“Second, after Hirata assaulted Officer Yamada, the latter did not die or even fell unconscious. Furthermore, he got a clear look of Hirata’s face. Then, Hirata would have no choice. If he let Yamada go, he would be arrested in a matter of minutes. Therefore, he could only use the gun that he had stolen from Officer Yamada to take the man as his hostage. He would take the officer to a secluded place to detain… or kill him there. If that was the case, then it would be Officer Yamada himself who pushed the bicycle away under the order of Hirata, who had the gun.
“Third, after Hirata realized that he had killed the officer in an accident, he indeed grabbed the gun and ran. But after he ran, someone else came to the crime scene to deal with both the dead body and the bicycle.”
“What do you mean? You have an accomplice?” Officer Tachibana warned dangerously.
“That is merely a logical supposition. Theoretically, all these hypotheses could be true. Perhaps someone witnessed the whole thing from a far and happened to know Hirata. Therefore, after Hirata escaped, he took care of the crime scene to help cover up the crime. In the future, he could use this knowledge to blackmail Hirata for money or have Hirata use the stolen gun to help him murder someone else,” Feng Bujue replied.
“That’s enough rubbish out of you! For how long do you plan to play dumb! Quickly give us Yamada’s location!” Officer Tachibana’s patience was ground down to its bare minimum.
“Please wait a moment. I have something that still confuses me…” Feng Bujue said. “On the afternoon of November 24th, Hirata gained his motive; on the night of November 25th, he found a way to obtain the gun from Officer Yamada; on the afternoon of November 26th, he went to Fukui’s manor to catch his wife in bed with another man and shoot the man dead on the spot…”
He turned to look at Watanabe. “Since you said there was no witness, how did you know that Haruko was inside the room when Hirata broke into the room that afternoon?”
“That was based on Hirata-san’s own description and the conclusion we made from combing the crime scene,” Watanabe answered. “He said that when he opened the room door, he saw Haruko lying in bed, and a monster was in the middle of attacking Haruko. Therefore, he used the gun to kill the monster. After the fact, we asked him where he got the gun, but he said that he could not remember.”
“This means that, at the time, Haruko was still alive, right?” Feng Bujue asked.
“On the night of the 27th, the officers rushed to the scene following a police report. They found Haruko Sato’s body in Hirata’s room, and from the signs at the crime scene, it looked like a suicide. The predicted time of death was the afternoon of the 27th, and at the time, Hirata was at the company, working like normal,” Watanabe explained.
“In other words,” Feng Bujue summarized, “on the 26th, after Hirata killed Fukui at the latter’s manor, he took Haruko home. The next day, Hirata showed up at the company for work like usual while his wife committed suicide at home.
“I don’t think Haruko Sato loved her lover so much to commit suicide following his death, but then again, she did not call the police to ask for help… This means that her suicide was due to some psychological trauma, or perhaps it was an action that she was compelled to do due to fear or guilt toward her husband.”
“We don’t need you to repeat the things that we already know,” Tachibana groused impatiently from the side.
“What you know was basically reconstructed in the recording that you showed me,” Feng Bujue said. “And what you do not know, the location of Officer Yamada, is stored inside the memory of Hirata Shuichi, who has gone insane.”
He moved his gaze to fall on Doctor Watanabe’s face. “So, the police officer summoned Doctor Watanabe to help bring Hirata’s memory back to the surface, correct?”
“Mr. F, what can you tell us?” Watanabe asked. “What have you remembered?”
“I’m sorry, but the memory that I saw perfectly mimicked the three parts of the recording,” Feng Bujue answered. “However, the only difference was that the memories I saw were filled with monsters as described by Hirata.”
“After a human’s brain suffered a serious trauma, the memory might be affected. For example, if a person suffered from physical abuse when he was small and the memory was a great source of pain for him, more than the threshold that he could have accepted, his brain might have chosen to seal up this part of his memory. The man would have completely forgotten about this part of his childhood like it never happened.” Watanabe sighed. “Sometimes, the memory was not ’sealed’ but ’transformed’. I believe that is what happened to Hirata-san. Perhaps, in his memory, he could only recall seeing his wife being attacked by a monster, but in real life…”
“I understand all that.” Feng Bujue cut the doctor off. “I know a thing or two about that.”
He moved his fixed, stiff neck. “After a memory is ’sealed’ up, it can cause split personality disorder, but if it was merely ’transformed’, it would be diagnosed as hallucinations…”
“Stop wasting our time with this nonsense. Where the hell is Yamada? Do you know the answer to that or not‽ Can you remember‽” Officer Tachibana stood before Feng Bujue and glared at the man darkly. From the looks of things, a punching was about to follow.
Even though Feng Bujue did not want to suffer yet another unfair punch, there was nothing he could do. He could not resist even if he wanted to. His whole body was strapped into the chair, and he could only suffer the punishment. He did not attempt to use Body Enhancement Spell because, from the set-up and characterization of the two NPCs in the room, if he suddenly utilized that kind of supernatural power… before he managed to struggle loose, Watanabe would scurry back to a safe corner while Tachibana would pull out his gun without hesitation and shoot Feng Bujue through the skull. He would be dead before he knew it.
“To know Yamada’s location, I have to return…” Feng Bujue quickly uttered.
“What did you say?” Tachibana’s face glossed over with confusion.
“I have to return to that black and white world to conduct the investigation,” Feng Bujue explained.
Watanabe looked at him and said with a frown, “You mean… you wish to return to Hirata’s mental world? But how do you intend to do that? Look through the recording again?”
“No… that is no longer useful,” Feng Bujue said. “Didn’t I see the recording earlier? I only saw the normal pictures… When ’Hirata’ was forced to look at the recording earlier, I experienced his distorted memory directly in his mind. Then, I somehow arrived here. Is there any way for me to return to that state?
“And I’ll need to return to somewhere in time before the night of 25th November…”
“Very good, since you are willing to cooperate, it is time for you to speak to the doctor.” Tachibana’s tone suddenly shifted. He became so calm, so eerily calm.
Feng Bujue was baffled when he heard that.
“What?” He turned to look at Watanabe. “Haven’t I been conversing with Doctor Watanabe…”
Watanabe interrupted him. “You have already recovered the memory of the crime, realized your own mental situation, and pinpointed the memory blind spot, which was Officer Yamada. It is safe for you to go now. You don’t need us anymore.”
“Huh?” Feng Bujue could barely understand what they were saying. “Why are you suddenly saying…”
Before he finished his question, he lost his ability to speak because he reverted to the first person cinematic, and the scene before his eyes changed again.
Feng Bujue felt like he was about to be made dumb by this scenario. Initially, he thought that it was a normal horror scenario, then he thought that it was a horror story with multiple main quests, and then he discovered that the three events were actually arranged in a reversed chronological order for a murder investigation that had happened in real life and were the distorted memory of a mental patient.
And then… Actually, he had no idea what was about to happen.
Tsk…
This was the sound released by a light spark. A glaring light welcomed Feng Bujue back from the temporary loss of his body. He closed one of his eyes and turned his head away from the direct glare. Two seconds later, he got used to the sudden brightness and got a clearer look at his surroundings.
Feng Bujue was wearing a striped prisoner’s outfit and seated in front of a table. His hands were handcuffed to the armrests while his ankles were strapped with chains.
On the table were some strewn paper documents and a desk lamp. Sitting across from him was a man wearing a white coat. He looked over fifty, and wrinkles crawled all over his forehead. He held a piece of paper in his hand and was drawing something on the paper with a pen. Next to his hand was a mini recorder.
This room was not as claustrophobic as the previous one. At the top of the room, there was a small window with iron bars. A shaft of moonlight fell through it into the room. A bed was placed in the corner of the room while a toilet was in the other corner. The walls were not the dull gray cement that he had expected but were painted in a gradient of soft, light colors. Feng Bujue could see the door that led out of the room. There was a small square window on the door, and this small window was not made from glass. It was filled up with the small crisscrossing of iron nets. There was a moveable board cut into the bottom part of the door. It appeared that it could only be opened from the outside. It was probably used to shove the inmate’s food in.
“Okay… Hirata, if you are ready, let’s begin this conversation,” the man in the white coat said.
Feng Bujue sighed. “I’m sorry, but I need you to answer three of my questions first.”
The white coat was silent for two seconds and regarded Feng Bujue with a frown. “What are they?”
“Who are you, where am I, and… what’s today’s date?” Feng Bujue asked.
The man took a deep breath before letting out a heavy sigh. He picked up the mini recorder next to him and pressed the record button. He spoke into the microphone. “March 9th, 2005. Patient Code 0098, Hirata Shuichi. Case Profiler, Takahata Taro.”
Taka put the recorder aside and turned to ask Feng Bujue, “Don’t you remember me?”
Feng Bujue did not answer but tried his best to use the back of his hands to touch his face. After two touches, he could confirm that his face did not grow old for fifty years when he did not realize it. Even though he was wearing an inmate’s outfit, after he opened the game menu, the apparel slots did not change. However, no matter what, in terms of appearance, he was indeed Hirata Shuichi in his forties.
“You…” Taka seemed to be a very sharp person. “Who are you? Are you Hirata? Watanabe or Tachibana? Or are you someone else?”
This question carried a truck load of information, but Feng Bujue snapped into character instantly. “I have been diagnosed with split personality disorder?”
“Yes,” Taka replied. He picked up the document on the table and sighed. “Since you were assigned here in 1991, many doctors have been involved in your treatment. Currently, we can confirm that you have three main personas. The main persona is Hirata Shuichi, and the other personas are a psychologist called Watanabe and a police officer called Tachibana. So, which one are you? Or are you none of them?”
Feng Bujue leaned back in the chair. “You can call me Mr. F.”
He studied the ceiling. “Watanabe represents Hirata’s rationality and intelligence while Tachibana represents his conscience and guilt. Hirata himself… I don’t know. I have not met him before.”
“Mr. F? Rationality? Conscience?” Taka huffed coldly. “Fine then, Mr. F. What do you represent? Your identity, occupation…”
“Me?” Feng Bujue laughed. “I am a crime novelist, and I have entered this body from a higher dimension.”
He spoke with the casualness of someone talking about the weather. “I am gradually escaping through this cage that was constructed from a battered mind. The creator is quite possibly the Hirata-san that I have not yet met, or it could have been something else. I started in the most muddled memory world, then broke through that into a subconscious world. There, I regained some important memories, and I ended up here.”
He nudged his body forward. “Now, I have serious suspicions that you, Doctor Takahata, and this cell room are not even real. Is this really part of reality or just another symbolic cage?”