４．Ｓａｔｕｒｄａｙ　Ｍａｒｃｈ　９，　２０１９

"When was it, last August? Silva-san and we went to take a video. There was a single house deep in the mountains. Silva-san was on a roll, saying, 'If you stay here, you can shoot the ghosts of the suicides.' So, after we went to town to buy some stuff, we stayed at the house. Then it was about 8 o'clock at night, I think."

〈Shaggy〉 continued without changing color, while all four of them did not make a single sound.
"We found Silva-san dead in his room."

The room fell silent as if time had stopped. Only Maruta, however, resisted the flow and forced his body to move. He thought as he pulled his bag from the floor. That was too broad a description, but it's a good start.
"Are you sure," Maruta held up the handout. "The house is the hut shown in this picture?"
The piece of paper was, of course, a photograph of the house before it burned down, which Maruta had shown to Kira a week earlier. It worked a mysterious effect similar to a magnetic force, attracting the three people who had taken up positions on the sofa with great aplomb.

〈Shaggy〉 excitedly exclaimeing, "This is it!", plucked the photo from Maruta's hand. 〈Kirvy〉, peering at the piece of paper beside him, said in a clownish tone, "Oh my God, I remember that day. I'm starting to creep." 〈Number 4〉, standing on the other side, was glued to the picture as were the two others, but did not give any particular comment.

Maruta gave the three of them a good look at the photo, then asked again.
"I'm pretty sure that it's the house where the incident occurred."
"Yeah," 〈Shaggy〉 handed the piece of paper back to Maruta.

"Do you know," said Maruta. "Who took this picture?"
When asked, the three saying, "Not me", looked at each other.
Maruta wanted to pile on top of that and ask, "Do you have any proof that you didn't take it?" But he had to prioritize the relationship of trust with them, so he didn't go that far.

When the discussion of the photo was over, the three members of 〈Tokyo Spread〉 sat down again on the sofa. Maruta also sat down in his former chair.
"I myself am well aware that I am doing something improper. But, to the best of my knowledge, I wanted to organize the incidents in chronological order."

"So, what?" said 〈Shaggy〉. When Maruta took a breath, being about to continue, 〈Kirvy〉 interrupted him.
"What is chronological order?"
"You, shut up for a second." 〈Shaggy〉 stopped his larger friend, and Maruta spoke up again.

"The incident happened on August 13 last year, as you mentioned earlier. According to the news report, a total of six of you and Silva-san took part in the video shooting at that time."

Maruta chose to use very soft words that would not be taken as regarding the three people there as suspects. However, he could not, by any means, perform the dexterous art of completely eliminating the 'investigative' atmosphere. He glanced at the faces of the three men and saw that they were all tight-lipped. From this, it was not possible to read any specific feelings, whether they reject Maruta's own existence or not.

"Earlier," Maruta continued. "Shaggy-san said that Silva-san told you, 'If you stay here, you can shoot the ghosts of the suicides.' Did he initiate the planning for the day of the incident in the first place?"

"Yes," said 〈Shaggy〉. "It was maybe a month before the incident. We were playing games at his house. Then we started talking about a test of courage, and Silva-san started saying, 'I know a haunted spot that's good for filming.' I think that's what prompted the video shoot that day."

"Had you ever been to the crime scene house before?" In response to Maruta's question, 〈Shaggy〉 answers shortly, "No,"
Maruta asks again.
"The house at the crime scene in Yamanashi Prefecture was owned by a man named Oku. He was a resident of that house for decades. Were you all acquainted with that person?"

This was the first time the members of 〈Tokyo Spread〉 showed their bewilderment. 〈Kirvy〉 and 〈Number 4〉 both said, "What?" in question. 〈Shaggy〉 added, as if in mild protest.
"No, it wasn't. I believe that house belonged to a friend of Silva's. Yes, absolutely yes. Before Silva-san filmed that haunted spot, he said, 'I knew a guy who had an uninhabited hut and he said he didn't want it, so I got that from him.'"
"Yeah, he said it." 〈Kirvy〉 nodded repeatedly as he said.

Maruta, with this exchange in the background, took another piece of paper out of his bag. This is the document in which the name Oku is mentioned. He slowly handed it to 〈Shaggy〉.

"It is a Certificate of All Matters, an official document related to real estate. I have obtained it myself at the Legal Affairs Bureau. Therefore, there will be no falsehood in it. According to the report, a man named Takeo Oku owned the house since 1968 and continued to live there until the day of the incident."

Maruta began to feel disgusted with himself for continuing to talk about clerical matters. He felt as if he were a tax collector. However, he continued to maintain his boredom, reminding himself that he was not here to audition for additional members of 〈Tokyo Spread〉.

"If you all know the name and age of this 'friend of Silva', I would be very interested to know."
〈Shaggy〉 asked 〈Kirvy〉, turning to the side, "Do you know the man?" 〈Kirvy〉 then looked unreliable and said, "I don't know," to which 〈Number 4〉 responded in a similar manner.

"Okay," Maruta adds. "The person named Mr. Oku is obviously an older man. However, it is not impossible to say that Silva-san was a friend with such elderly man. In fact, Silva-san may have acquired that house from Mr. Oku without any legal process prior to the incident. If Mr. Oku gives up the house, it can certainly become 'uninhabited' at that point. In any case, let's call it good for now. Let's leave that landlord out of it for the moment."

Maruta, asking for the handout back, then tried to continue with the question.
"Then, Silva-san suggested shooting a video at a haunted place, and you all participated in it,"

Here, before any new questions could be asked, 〈Shaggy〉 began as if to emphasize his position.
"We really didn't know anything about it, but we followed Silva-san on the day of the shoot. We were informed of the location, so we took turns driving there. It was deep in the dirty mountains where we had never been before. According to Silva-san, the backyard of that house led to a wooded area where the ghosts of the suicides were coming from. When we got there, we found a 'No Trespassing' tag hanging on what really looked like a back road there."
"Yes. The moment I saw that, I got really sick." When 〈Kirvy〉 responded, the room was filled with mixed reactions to the terrifying experience. Suppressing the urge to blow a whistle to shut them up, Maruta calmly and clearly inserted his own words.

"Let's get this straight, folks. I have a lot to be taught. I just heard from you that there was a 'No Trespassing' sign in the 'backyard'."
Maruta said, taking out that 'Ground Plan' this time.
"First of all, there was a garden behind the house, and moreover, there was a path leading somewhere beyond it."
As they all nodded, seeing that 〈Shaggy〉 was about to speak again, Maruta quickly continued, not wanting to give him the chance to do so.
"Here is the 'Ground Plan'. Excuse me, Shaggy-san, but could you please write down here the back road, also the layout of the house and the exact location of the windows, as far as you can remember."

When Maruta tried to retrieve the ballpoint pen, 〈Number 4〉 took the pencil from the floor to give to 〈Shaggy〉 before he could. 〈Shaggy〉, who received the piece of paper, said to himself, "Well, I wonder what that would have looked like," but without seeming to object, he wrote the lines that Maruta wanted.

The returned handout generally satisfied Maruta. There, in addition to the other missing floor plans, the back road, and windows, the location of the 'No Trespassing' sign was also noted.

"Thank you very much. Very helpful." Once Maruta put down the piece of paper that he wanted to stare at for a few hours, he started talking again.
"Silva-san told you that the ghosts of suicides appear in the woods at the end of this back road."

"Yes," As usual, 〈Shaggy〉 is looking as if nothing is wrong with him. However, Maruta's questions are endless.

"What was beyond that 'No Trespassing' tag? Who was blocking this back road? Was it the police, the local government, or a private organization?"

"We don't know." 〈Shaggy〉 said with a snap, like swatting a fly. "To be honest, we didn't go beyond that. Because Silva-san said, 'Let's go for the test of courage at night.'"

"It looked pretty sickening even in daylight, though, beyond those woods." 〈Number 4〉's statement was met with no response from either of the two members. Instead, Maruta responds to it.
"By the way, what time did you arrive at the house?" 〈Shaggy〉 asked 〈Kirvy〉, "What time was that?" to which 〈Kirvy〉 replied, "Around 5:00, in the evening."

"Okay," Maruta, as he said this, envisioned the behavior of the participants at the crime scene on the day of the incident, based on the information he had obtained up to that point. Maruta, who went there later, also vaguely remembers the surrounding mountains. A dense, narrow roadway surrounded by poor trees. As he continued on, an unpaved driveway suddenly appeared on the side of the road. Silva and 〈Tokyo Spread〉, for a total of six drove down the road. The car carrying the men continued on to the house that would later become the murder scene. It is not clear now whether they were joking around merrily there, or whether each remained silent. They eventually saw behind it a group of trees that were unidentifiable. Maruta, accustomed to the conveniences of the city, suddenly felt a sense of resistance, as if he had seen a poisonous insect, at the thought of spending the night in such a place.