５．Ｓｕｎｄａｙ　Ｍａｒｃｈ　３１，　２０１９

"I'll tell you everything now." 〈Captain〉, who had been silent, opened his mouth. Looking at him, Maruta saw that both of his eyes were bright red and swollen. "We mentioned that we are Silva's high school juniors, but actually we are not."
Maruta did not say that he knew, but let him continue his story.
"Me, Kirvy, and Shaggy are from Okinawa and went to the same high school. The three of us, older than the other two, came to Tokyo together in April 2017, fresh out of high school. The reason is the same as we discussed before. We did so in order to apprentice ourselves to Silva-san and become famous video-creators. At that time, of course, we had no money, so we had to look for work to make our livings. I found a job at a metalworking factory, Shaggy at a real estate company, and Kirvy at a transportation company. In my factory, I am allowed to have my own hair color, and also allowed to have second job. But at the other two companies, they were prohibited. When we discussed this with Silva-san, he advised us, 'To hide your real names for a while, pretend that you are juniors in my high school. Then, when you become famous, you can quit the companies and tell your fans the truth.' So when we went out, we were careful as much as possible not to be identified as Tokyo Spread. It's also why we were sneaking around in our car parked in the restaurant parking lot on the day of the incident. You, Maruta-san even knew this stuff. Indeed, at that time we took two cars to go shopping. All of this was instructed by Silva-san in advance. The three of us were told to go to the restaurant and Mont Blanc to take the other car to the convenience store. When I asked him why, he said, 'Mont Blanc knows the geography of the area, so the three of you should wait in the parking lot to meet up with Mont Blanc after just buying lunch boxes.' Since Silva-san was our senior, we blindly followed his lead without asking further questions. According to that record, which you have now read, Mont Blanc must have infused it into him without our knowledge. It's no use thinking about it anymore, though."

"I see," Maruta said. Seeing 〈Captain〉 about to choke up, Maruta took it upon himself to speak. "While waiting, you and Shaggy-san were in the back seat of the car having been driven by Kirvy-san. Then, the two of you pulled your heads down in a hurry because you were about to be seen by a high school boy."

"Correct." 〈Captain〉 was red up to his nose. "This may sound cheeky, but I think Shaggy and I inevitably stand out. I'm the leader, and Shaggy often does outlandish things in our videos, so I wouldn't go so far as to say we're popular, but inevitably we both get a lot of attention. So we try to refuse as many photo shoots as possible, especially for the two of us outside."

When Maruta silently shook his head, 〈Captain〉 said more.
"Just this time last year, we opened our own channel to finally start working as video-creators in earnest. By then, Silva-san helped us to post our videos online. Shortly thereafter, Number 4 and Mont Blanc joined us. We were looking for someone to edit, so we brought in Number 4, one year younger than us, from Okinawa. Mont Blanc said then that he was from Tokyo. We didn't know the guy, but he was nice enough to bring us some 'Mont Blanc' cakes as a gift, so we decided to add him to our group. We never expected that he approached us with the intention of killing Silva-san."

"So the nickname 'Mont Blanc' came from the cakes he brought as a souvenir."
Maruta said, to which 〈Number 4〉 replied.
"Yes. I came in fourth, so I'm number 4, and Kirvy comes from 'Curvy'. It's simple, isn't it?"

Maruta did not laugh when he heard it. The air didn't let him.
Perhaps because of the mention of 〈Mont Blanc〉, all eyes were drawn to his corpse.
"He was such a nice guy." 〈Kirvy〉's eyes were faintly moistened.

"That guy," 〈Captain〉's voice began to tremble as well. "I think he suffered a lot after the incident. He started going to the hospital because he has been sick more often since that incident. I was chaperoning him to and from."
〈Number 4〉 also said. "He must have seen Silva's death up close after he lost the will to kill. His mental state must have been at its limit because of the threatening treatment he received from the dark web guys. He was the only one who didn't get paid. I receive a monthly living allowance from 〈Captain〉, but he had refused it. I'm sure he used the money he collected from dark web to pay for his living expenses. Since he had used it up, he would have been forced to take out the 〈Captain〉's watch."

〈Number 4〉 also used cryptocurrency for payment sometime ago. I'm sure 〈Mont Blanc〉 must have influenced him to do so, Maruta thought, and then heard 〈Captain〉's tearful voice.

"I don't care about that stuff anymore. Fed up with everything. I've been earning from video ads more than before, so I matched my savings with it and bought that, but I don't regret it. I am not inclined to spare it now."

"Why," 〈Shaggy〉 was clearly in tears. "How the hell did we get into this mess?"
When the others saw 〈Shaggy〉 started to cry, their words stopped at once.
"I looked up to Silva-san and really wanted to be like him, so that's why I came to Tokyo. That's really just it. So why is this happening to us?"

The tears of the other members flowed naturally. Kira was also crying.
At this time, any word in the world seemed trite.

Tokyo Spread is not to blame. If you tell them what happened, I am sure you can convince the public.
Maruta thought that, but could not say so. No one can comfort them now with flippant words.

Tears were a wonder. Their wailing also invited that of Maruta.
Hurt were only the pure and easily misunderstood. The tears that flowed as a result soaked into Maruta's heart without resistance.