Tokyo Mystery Writers

Chapter 75 The Truth Behind the Mysterious Death of an Infant

Uyama Hideomi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

Looking at the soundly sleeping Maishiro Kyosuke beside him, I really couldn't understand what was going on in Maishiro Kyosuke's brain? How could he write such a terrifying and horrifying scene!

But surely the story won't end there?

Why was Makirou inside Gengzi's stomach? How did the corpse enter Gengzi's body?

What exactly does "forgiveness" mean in the context of the story?

What exactly did Kikuno Kuonji and Naito do to make Ryoko hold a grudge against them?

What's the story behind Ryoko's sudden outburst? Is it related to the mysterious deaths of the three infants?

With questions in mind, Uyama Hideomi opened the few remaining sheets of paper...

I (Tatsumi Sekiguchi) had a terrible dream. I can't remember what it was about, but I felt like I was about to die.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw Kiba and Atsuko taking care of me as I lay in bed.

It turns out I slept soundly from last night until 11 a.m. the next day.

I tried desperately to recall everything that happened last night, and then I remembered that after Mu Lang emerged from the ruptured abdomen, medical staff and police quickly brought the scene under control.

Naito and the director of Kuonji Hospital were arrested by the police, and Kōji was carried onto a stretcher by medical staff.

I only saw Kyogoku-do, who looked like the Grim Reaper, glance at me and say:

"Sekiguchi, is this the ending you wanted? Are you satisfied now?"

I tried to find Ryoko in the chaotic crowd, but instead I saw Ryoko smiling.

-

Kiba sighed as he looked at me, who was still stunned.

"All the people involved have fallen into a state of mental instability, which has left our police still confused about the situation."

"But since there is a body at the scene, we cannot act hastily."

"We just don't know whether this is a murder or a body disposal case... No, since it's in a room, it shouldn't be considered abandonment."

Kiba looked at me and pressed me for details about what happened last night.

But when I said that, I saw Makirou's body burst out of Genji's stomach like a fetus, and Kiba was looking at me with a strange look, as if I were a mental patient.

I don't understand, I really don't know how to tell Kiba about this unbelievable thing.

Because I truly, unmistakably saw Gengzi's belly split open, and then Mulang appeared before my eyes like a fetus!

Kiba and Atsuko think I'm crazy, because this kind of thing is completely impossible, right?

No matter how big Gengzi's belly is, it can't possibly fit an adult man!

However, my words did make Kiba feel that something was amiss.

Because Mu Lang's body was indeed almost as fresh as if he had just been born, and he should have turned into bones long ago, given that Mu Lang had been missing for eighteen months.

Filled with questions, we all gathered at the used bookstore, wanting to ask Kyogoku-do, the only witness besides myself, what happened last night.

Kyogoku-do and Enokizu laughed uncontrollably when I told them that Makirou was born from a thorn.

Enokizu went even further, stating that Makirou's body had actually been in this room all along.

However, the older sister Ryoko, the younger sister Kyoko, and the Sekiguchi Tatsumi all selectively ignored Makirou's corpse!

When Enokizu entered the room that day, he saw Makirou's body lying on the floor with a fruit knife stuck in his body. That's why he asked me to call the police and let them handle the matter.

When I heard Enokizu's words, I found them somewhat laughable. How could that be?

Even if I'm crazy, I'm not blind. How could I not see such a big corpse?

Enokizu looked at me and shook her head:

"This kind of thing really does happen. When I left, Xiao Dun called me several times, but I didn't hear him. However, I could hear the cicadas and the wind. Since I couldn't close my ears, I couldn't hear them. So, it's also possible to have your eyes open but not see the body!"

I looked at Kyogoku-do with confusion, wanting him to tell me that it was fake.

But Kyogoku-do told me that such things rarely happen, but they do exist.

The world we see with our eyes is actually a world processed by our brains. The brain filters out unnecessary images to allow us to process information more quickly.

For example, people can see their own noses, but because the nose blocks part of the field of vision, the brain usually chooses to ignore the nose, making it invisible.

I heard Kyogoku-do's words and recalled the first time I entered that room. I couldn't see the floor, but I could feel the metallic gleam on it. I guess that was the fruit knife stuck in Maki's body.

I... am actually living in a hypothetical reality where corpses don't exist...

I was incredibly shocked to hear this result, and at the same time, I pressed Kyogoku-do for an explanation as to how she had been pregnant for twenty months.

Kyogoku-do's answer was very simple: imagine being pregnant.

According to the autopsy of Makirou, forensic pathologist Satoshi Murakami discovered that Makirou's body was missing reproductive organs.

Combining the rumors and all the clues, the final conclusion is...

Twelve years ago, Makirou fell in love with Kyoko and asked me to deliver a letter. However, at that time, I suffered from severe depression, which made me incredibly stupid. I didn't recognize Kyoko, so I mistakenly delivered the letter to Ryoko.

When Ryoko was young, she was drugged and abused for a long time by doctors at Kuonji Hospital using datura flowers.

This led to Ryoko's emotional breakdown. To avoid excessive mental stress, Ryoko developed a second personality. And it just so happened that I was delivering a letter to Kyouko when this personality was developed.

Since both Kyouko and Kyoko are pronounced kyouko in Japanese, and their pronunciation differs from Ryouko by only one syllable, the differences between these three names are very small when written in hiragana.

This led Ryoko to believe that Makirou's love letter to Kyoko was given to her, and thus Ryoko's second personality acquired her own unique name, Kyoko!

This is why I felt that Geko's behavior was unusually unrestrained, because that was not Geko, but Kyoko who had eaten the datura flower and become extremely confused.

After receiving a love letter from Makirou, the free-spirited Kyoko began to date him frequently, and they ended up having a relationship, which resulted in Kyoko becoming pregnant.

However, Mu Lang always thought that the person he was with was a jerk, and the pregnant woman was also a jerk.

Unfortunately, the Kuonji family has a serious genetic disease. If their child is a girl, everything will be fine, but if it is a boy, he will be anencephalic, meaning that the child will be born without a brain.

Because of the lack of a brain, the baby's eyes protrude, making him look abnormally strange, like a "frog-faced baby"!

That is, the "frog-faced baby" that Enokizu hallucinated on Ryoko!

Coincidentally, Kyoko gave birth to a boy, who was anencephalic.

However, no one in the Kuonji family seemed to believe that this was a genetic disease; they simply thought that the Kuonji family was cursed. As a result, Kuonji Kikuno followed the method passed down from her mother.

They cruelly killed the "frog-faced baby" that Kyoko gave birth to with stones!

However... Kyoko accidentally witnessed this scene.

Seeing this, Kyoko's mother, Kikuno Kuonji, did not tell her that even if the brainless child was not killed, he would not live for long.

Instead, they tied poor Kyoko to the bed, soaked the dead child in formaldehyde, and made Kyoko look at the poor child all day long, so that Kyoko would realize her indiscretion and that her child was dead!

She witnessed her child being brutally murdered by her mother.

The children, still soaked in formaldehyde, are having their souls tortured!

Kyoko's second personality collapsed once again, turning her into a beast that survives only on instinct!

In order to escape her mother's confinement, Kyoko has no choice but to become the person her mother expects her to be.

Kyoko's personality splits again, and she transforms into her mother, Kikuno Kuonji!

From then on, Ryoko constantly switched between three personalities: Ryoko, Kyoko, and "Mother".

The personality that abducted the three babies is Kyoko.

It was the "mother" who stoned the baby to death.

Three personalities share one body. When Kyoko and "Mother" control the body, Ryoko can't see it, but she can feel the abnormality coming from the body!

Caught between two personalities, Ryoko finds things strange and ultimately chooses to seek help from Enokizu and me (Tatsumi Sekiguchi)!

I hope to find redemption.

That's why I heard Ryoko say that to me in the datura flower bed.

"Please...save me."