６．Ｓａｔｕｒｄａｙ　Ｍａｒｃｈ　９，　２０１９

When the two men left the apartment, the sun was setting in the west. The time was 17:30. On the way, Maruta said to Kira, who was walking next to him.
"It was getting a little bit out of control."

Hearing this, Kira looked very shrugged. "Sorry, they are always like that."
"I don't mind at all. Kira-san, are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm used to be that. I thought they would do something worse to me, but not so today. I was once made to drink liquid toothpaste because I was told it was mint soda water. It's nothing compared to that."

"Kira-san, do you still have time before you leave?" Maruta asked while Kira took his bike out at the station. "Why don't you have dinner at Oshiage, even though it's a little early? The Sky Tree is its landmark, so it is easy to get to from here. If we get there, we'll find some place to eat."
It took about fifteen minutes to reach the base of the Sky Tree. The national chain of restaurants was easy to find. They walked into one of them.

Maruta thought it would not be a good idea to order curry based on what had been served so far, so he ordered a mixed grill as a safe bet. Conversely, He observed that if Kira ordered curry here, it would be a 'wonderful betrayal', but he chose a unremarkable cod roe spaghetti.

"I wanted to ask them about their relationship with Milley-san." Maruta said as he opened the package of hand towels.
"Is that the relationship between Milley and Tokyo Spread?"
"Yes. They were at Milley's offline gathering about two years ago."
"Well, they were."
"I was also going to ask them about the rapid closeness between them and Silva-san after Milley's death. But apparently that was the limit. However it was fine. Though we don't know yet which of their statements are true and which are not, it's a good first meeting."

"How was that, Maruta-san?" Kira looks at his face from the front.
"What is that?"
"Did you find the culprit?"
Maruta laughed at Kira's too candid words. "To be honest, I have no idea. Still too little information."
"They didn't even show the footage from the incident."
"That can't be helped. It would not be easy for an outsider like me to watch that. But I didn't expect to see porn videos."

The two then ate a meal that would have been considered fine enough if not for their discerning palates. For Maruta, who normally does not eat Kobe beef, even the mass-produced stuffed intestines were a luxury food. Kira sucked up the noodles served to him, making noises without hesitation. If I were a little intimate with him, Maruta thought, I could tell him "You eat like a vacuum cleaner." But then he remembered that it had only been a week since he first lured this man out, so he decided to swallow those words with meat.

Maruta thought further that there would be nothing more to be said from Kira, so he plugged the two-way earphone jack into the tablet he had taken out.
"Kira-san, do you have earphones?"
When told, Kira pulled a pair of wireless earphones from his pocket. Maruta, already wearing earphones, sees them and taps 'Share Audio' on the screen. Also moving the plates off the table, Maruta set the tablet in a position where they could easily see it.
Kira did not even ask, "What are you going to watch?" He was like a cat looking at food or something that it was not clear what it was.

Searching for 'GING Choice Kenka-Totsu', Maruta tapped one of the thumbnails that came up. When Kira, a faint smile on his face, saw this, he said, "Oh," as if he had reached an agreement.

"Hey, you." 〈GING〉 Nakata, 〈Silva〉 before he was named 'Silva', is sitting at his desk, ranting about something. When this 〈Silva〉 had not yet started his career as a video creator, he was not yet tanned. He has yet to shed the boyish atmosphere of his youth. In the background, probably in his own room, there are a number of objects that give the impression of daily life, such as a chest of drawers and hangers hanging on the wall.
A small screen at the edge shows a young woman in a similar posture to that of 〈GING〉 Nakata. Both parties are probably watching each other's reflection on the PC in real time. An exchange of words between the two began through an already connected internet call. The title of the video is '[GN's past videos] One-to-one fight with Choice.'

"Hey, you. You have nose hairs sticking out." As 〈GING〉 said openly, 〈Choice〉 on the other side of the screen pushed back with a swashbuckling response.
"Huh? No! Where did you see that before you spoke? You're an idiot, you know that?"
"Shut the fxxk up. If I tell you your nose hairs are showing, you are in fact a woman with nose hairs. Remember that, you idiot."
"What the hell is this guy talking about? You're not very smart. That's why no company is going to hire you. Start over from elementary school, you a fxxking NEET."
"If it's a loudmouth like you, even if you didn't have nose hairs, it's the same as if you did. You, with your joke of a name like Choice, expose the stupid hair from your nose on the internet like that,"
"Can you explain where you see my nose hairs? There are no nose hairs anywhere. Please explain within five seconds!"
"You're showing your nose hairs and streaming online, but what's that, pretending to be a pop star? Let me tell you, every audition you go to, they will tell you, 'You need to cut down on the nose hairs a little bit more before you come.'"
"You can't explain it within five seconds. Poor guy who can only talk about nose hairs that don't exist. There's a boy in my class who couldn't do subtraction and he didn't finish the year, but you're dumber than him."
"You, call the school principal right now. Say this over the phone, 'A so-stupid woman like me exposed the pubic hair from my nose on the Internet!' If the principal isn't there, call the assistant principal. Do this now!"

Overlapping this exchange on the screen, comments from listeners slid sideways[*1] such as "She is a pop star with nose hairs, www," "NEET less than someone who can't subtract," and "Let's causalize the principal for having nose hairs too,". Among the numerous inflammatory statements, there is not a single one that concerns the relationship between the two and their intelligence.

Maruta stopped the video once. It was Kira who was the first to express his thoughts.
"Silva is too stupid these days."
"There is no medicine to give them, in my humble opinion."

Maruta asked Kira after taking a sip of water from his glass.
"I couldn't get the exact date. But this live internet streaming took place roughly from 2014 to the beginning of the following year, is that correct?"

Kira wore a smile that seemed nostalgic for the air of those days. "As I recall, yes. I don't know much about that guy's GING days, but I think it was around that time. That guy was about 22, so yeah, that should be right."

"If that's the case, it all makes sense." Maruta minimized the video site, followed by a browser search for 'Choice, Hashii Madoka.'
"It's an old web page," Maruta tilted the tablet toward Kira. "It has a profile of a woman named Choice who was in the video. Her real name is Madoka Hashii, born October 1997."

After waiting for Kira to finish reading through the page, Maruta spoke up again. "If this profile is correct, the person named Choice must have been a high school girl when she was doing this Internet live-streaming. And that is consistent with the content of their exchange. Since Choice-san was attending school at that time."
"Choice, I wonder what she's doing now."
"Kira-san, do you know a person named Choice?"
"Yes, this is the girl Silva used to date."
"Yes, I know."
Maruta continued, selecting from 'Related Videos' the one titled '[GN] Live Internet streaming outside with a causal partner.'

This is a simple video showing Silva, who still calls himself 'GING,' walking next to 〈Choice〉. The two, who had been sniping at each other in the previous video, seem unconcerned here, their shoulders pressed tightly together. The location seems to be a shopping district in Tokyo. Stores with no uniformity of color flowed by on either side of them at the speed at which they walked.

"Here you see a flag advertising a convenience store." At some point Maruta stopped the video. "It says 'New Life Support, Raffle Drawing Campaign' on it. This event was held at this convenience store in April 2015."
"I don't know how you can even look into something like that."
"Reasonably, Choice-san, who was a sophomore in high school at the time, and Silva-san engaged in the kind of vulgar fights we just saw on the Internet. And then, in April 2015, when she had just started her senior year of high school[*2]. By then, the two had become close enough to do a live broadcast feed together outside."

Kira, having heard that much, says with an air of admiration. "I am beginning to remember those days. It was just about a year later that I started helping the shoot videos by Silva. Well, he had already turned into a video creator by then."
"Kira-san, are you acquainted with Choice-san?"
"Yes. One time."
"Really?"

Kira replied matter-of-factly, even though he heard Maruta's answer of falsetto voice. "Yes, I think so. As I recall, Silva and Choice broke up shortly before I started helping him. When he decided to become a full-fledged video creator and moved into a cheap apartment, I helped him. At that time, some of Choice's personal belongings were left at Silva's parents' house. We delivered them to her parents' house in Saitama Prefecture in a car driven by Silva."
"How did Choice-san look like?"
"She looked fine. Well, for both of them, it was their 'last goodbye,' so they seemed to be a little sad about it."

As Maruta listened, he deftly searched 'NSFW! Choice crazy' on his tablet.
"Kira-san, may I ask you to watch this?"
The scene of 〈Choice〉 half-naked spewing curse words is shown. After watching those few dozen seconds of video, Kira deliberately held his head up.

"Choice, I'm sorry she turned out this way."
"Kira-san, have you ever seen this video?"
"No. I just watched it for the first time."

Just then, a waitress about the same age as 〈Choice〉 in the video came to collect the plates. Maruta asked after waiting for the table to be cleared.
"Do you have any idea when this video was taken?"
"I don't know. But I just don't think it was before the 'Kenka-Totsu' fight between the two of them earlier."
"Me neither."

Then, when Maruta tried to speak, Kira, perhaps sensing his concern, interjected.
"Just a hunch as a friend, but I don't think it was the breakup with Silva that caused Choice to start taking videos like this. Like I said, really, Silva and Choice parted amicably."
"Amicably."
"Yes. It didn't look like Choice was harboring a grudge there. Choice had been suffering from a mental illness since that time. So I think that's why she went crazy like this when she was dumped by another guy."
"Heh. Wow."

　Maruta heard Kira say so and did not pursue the matter any deeper. However, the more he followed the sequence of their cursing, their romantic relationship, their breakup, and 〈Choice〉's finally confused appearance in his mind, the more he began to feel that something was not adding up.




[*1]:From the 2000s to the 2010s, the Japanese online video streaming site 'Nico Nico Douga' offered a service that allowed listeners' comments to slide sideways on the screen.

[*2]:In most cases in Japan, the entrance ceremony begins in April.