Dogra Magra (33/47)

by Hisashi Yumeno

Dr. Masaki, lighting his dying cigar, plunged both hands into his pockets and began puffing away. After a while, he repositioned the cigar in his mouth and slowly sat back down amidst the swirling smoke.

"Well, actually, I believe this matter will eventually come to light in society. You'll see it in the newspapers; it might even be in yesterday's evening edition or this morning's paper. In fact, a major incident occurred yesterday at that madman's liberation therapy facility. That is to say, the fuse of the bomb, which I had planted among the mental patients at that facility using applied psychophysics to further my psycho-genetic experiments centered on this incident, continued to burn slowly, and at noon yesterday—almost simultaneously with the firing of the noon gun on October 19th, Taisho 15—it exploded spectacularly."

"In reality, once you reveal the trick, it's nothing. The fuse was simply rigged to a single hoe, but because it utilized applied psychophysics, there was no smoke and no visible fire. Ordinary people couldn't have imagined such a device existed. From any angle, it looked like nothing more than a normal hoe. However, the outcome, to be honest, was so explosive that I could even say it over-exploded, resulting in a tragedy that surprised even me. Feeling responsible, I immediately reported to the president's office and offered my resignation... but upon reflection, it seems this is the time to conclude my experiment. All announcements regarding my research up to this point are being held by Wakabayashi... In fact, I hadn't thought Wakabayashi was such a devious fellow until then. I thought Wakabayashi would somehow handle it. Thinking it was too much trouble, I decided to resign as a person too, so I returned to my lodging for a while and tidied up. Then, after having a drink in the bustling area of Higashi-Nakasu and feeling quite good, I returned here to organize some documents... and was surprised again. Just a moment ago, the light was on in patient room number six, which had been vacant until I left here."

“Thinking it was strange, I asked the janitor who was on his way home what was happening, and he told me that Professor Wakabayashi had brought a woman from somewhere and had just admitted her to the hospital, asking the on-duty doctor. Moreover, I was told that the woman was incredibly beautiful, unlike anyone I had ever seen.”

At that moment, even I couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. This had become complicated. From the looks of it, Kyotaro Wakabayashi was not someone to be trifled with. His value as a forensic scientist was considerable, or rather, he might be an even greater villain. Firstly, he was completely feigning innocence in front of me, but it was clear at a glance that he was a psychiatrist who could rival me if I wasn't careful, and he was extremely skilled at exploiting the weaknesses of human emotion.

As I wrote in this will, I never understood, from then until today, what Kyotaro Wakabayashi's purpose was in using the authority of the dean at the time of this incident to turn his girl into a living ghost and seize her into his hands. However, now it's clear. He is waiting for the moment you recover your true nature to a certain extent, then he will secretly introduce you to that girl, and from the three angles of lust, logic, and reason, he will force you to acknowledge yourself as Go Ichiro. And he is trying to make you believe that I am your sworn enemy, and to make you officially declare that fact. He is trying to expose to society the truth of the incident, distorted as he wishes. Furthermore, it has become clear to me that he is planning to present your declaration as the first example of his life's work, "Psychoscientific Crimes and Their Evidence."

So I thought. Very well. If that is your thinking, then I have my own. Wakabayashi's research into psychoscientific crime is originally built upon the principles of my original theory of psychogenetics, so it would be no trouble at all to stir things up. If I were to resolutely burn all the manuscripts of my psychoscientific research presentations here, and then leave behind a half-joking will outlining their contents, he, Wakabayashi, would be forced to incorporate this will into his writings, or his research presentation would lose its coherence. However, whether he would actually be able to publish my will... and if he did publish it, how he would use trickery to do so, would be a very interesting spectacle. Depending on the circumstances, my will might very well become an unprecedentedly nasty parting gift.

Thinking this, I suddenly felt happy. I rushed to this room, burned all the documents, and began writing this will. When dawn broke, and you showed signs of awakening, Wakabayashi, who had been eagerly waiting and preparing, immediately rushed over and promptly introduced you to his beautiful girl. However, this was a complete failure. Although, the other party recognized you as her beloved older brother, so it was half successful, but you yourself, the crucial part, did not recognize that beautiful girl as your cousin or fiancée or anything at all, so now it seems they are changing tactics and bringing you to this room.

...Well, to tell the truth, at this time I was also a little disturbed. The frightening one is the man named Wakabayashi Kyotaro. He had seen through my inner thoughts a long time ago. He had long predicted that sooner or later I would finish this dangerous, runaway-style liberation therapy experiment, and that I would disappear as soon as I presented the results to the academic world.

Furthermore, he had even seen through my plan to use my niece's Hama bride murder case as a mere experimental subject for myself, making it appear to anyone later as if it were not a criminal case, and then reporting it to academia. So he put all his effort into it, proceeding with lightning speed. He cleverly set a trap to corner me and make me speechless before I could even go into hiding.

...He must have realized the moment he entered the main building's entrance this morning that I had been here since last night. I realized that he intended to bring you here to corner me with some kind of scheme... and I thought, "Not so fast, that trick won't work on me." To surprise him, I left the will and the remaining burnt documents as they were, and disappeared with the whiskey bottle. Of course, I didn't jump out the window, nor did I slip out through the door over there. I disappeared without anyone noticing, without taking a single step out of this room... If I say that, it sounds like some kind of psychic science trick, but it's not like that. The trick is this large fireplace.

This large furnace was designed so that if this experiment failed, or if my research was about to be stolen by others, all the manuscripts could be burned here. In some cases, I myself intended to use this large furnace to disappear into thin air, like a ghost, while confusing the world... Look... If you remove this iron lid, the inside is so spacious, and gas is designed to喷出 from the electric heating device covering the bottom. It's nothing more than about two hundred large Bunsen burners arranged in a row. If you place a living thing on top of this, open the gas cock, and turn on the electricity switch, gas will first shoot out and suffocate it. Soon, the electric heater will get hot, and once it ignites the gas with a bang, even the bones will be reduced to ashes in less than an hour. If you stack stones and tiles on top of that, they will all become incandescent and emit intense radiant heat. Look, nearly four bookshelves full of Western paper manuscripts, which are said to be harder to burn than flesh, how about that? They've been reduced to just this much white ash. If I were to turn into smoke again, all the university's principles would be returned to the original air. Hahahaha. ...The moment I heard you and Wakabayashi coming up those stairs, I escaped into this with a bottle of whiskey, spread newspapers over these ashes, sat comfortably cross-legged, ready to turn into smoke at any moment, and listened intently while puffing on a cigar.

...However, he is truly remarkable. A world-renowned forensic pathologist. Not only was he unfazed by my disappearance, but he immediately seized the opportunity to start leading you into a delusion. ...His mind works in two or three layers, like Prince Shotoku. So, while telling you various things about me and Professor Saitō, he quickly examined the contents of this will and found that, although there were some inconvenient parts, it was mostly safe since the conclusion wasn't written. Furthermore, he realized that if he made you read it, it would be far more convenient than explaining it himself to make you believe you were Go Ichirō. So, he deliberately pushed it onto you and then quietly disappeared while you were engrossed in reading it. It seems he's testing what action I will take in response to this.

...At that point, I became even more amused. ...Alright... if that's the case, I'll go one step further and counter his challenge in reverse. So, I quietly emerged from the fireplace and sat down in this chair, waiting for you to finish reading that will... Ha-ha... How about that? Right now, you and I are confronting each other under the plan of the world-renowned forensic pathologist, Mr. Wakabayashi Kyōtarō. Who you are, what your name is, and how you are connected to this incident by cause and effect, leading you to be seated in that chair right now... these things have not yet been clearly determined, either theoretically or practically.

...Therefore, if, as Wakabayashi predicted, you awaken from your amnesia as Go Ichiro, a young man from Hamano Beach, and identify me as the monstrous figure active behind the scenes of that incident—a heartless, cruel, and wicked magician of psychical science—then this confrontation will be my defeat. However, conversely, if you absolutely cannot recall your past memories as Go Ichiro, then, to put it simply, it will be my victory. The fact that you are an unnamed young man who developed a type of self-consciousness disorder called 'amnesia,' were admitted to Kyushu University's psychiatry department, and were suddenly dragged into this incident by Wakabayashi from a third-party perspective, will be revealed. This will ruin Wakabayashi's plan. You are standing on that precarious edge of the sumo ring. How about it? Isn't it interesting? It's a thrilling and profound battle of wits between an unparalleled forensic scientist of all time and an unprecedented psychical scientist. Moreover, whether Go Ichiro, who is to decide the outcome of this match, is you yourself, as I said, has not yet been determined. It's like, 'Hakkoyoi, still in the ring, still in the ring!' Hah hah hah..."

Dr. Masaki's booming laugh echoed through various objects in the room and reached my ears. And the words of the two doctors, without me knowing which were true and which were false, stirred up my hazy mind and then quietly vanished somewhere.

However, Dr. Masaki paid no mind to my feelings, and with one eye firmly closed again, he inhaled the cigar smoke as if it were delicious. Then, placing both hands on the armrests of his swivel chair, he slowly began to stand up.

"...Now, let's get started... It's necessary to begin the real match from here. First, I must help you regain your past memories. So that you can confirm for yourself who you are. I can't play dirty in front of Wakabayashi. ...Now, please come over here. This time, I will conduct the first experiment to help you recall your past..."

I floated up from the chair as if in a trance. Feeling an eerie sensation, as if Dr. Wakabayashi's pale eyes were watching me from somewhere, I approached the south window, led by Dr. Masaki. However, the moment I glanced out the window over Dr. Masaki's white medical coat, I gasped and stopped.

Before my eyes, the entire view of the asylum for the insane unfolded. ...In one corner, there was no doubt that Go Ichiro was standing. He was watching an old man tilling a field, his back turned towards me... He was a young man with disheveled hair, pale skin and red cheeks, dressed sloppily in a black kimono.

The moment I saw that pathetic figure in reality, I instinctively closed my eyes. I covered my face with both hands. ...Overwhelmed by such surprise, fear, and an indescribable nervous tension...

...Go Ichiro is there, isn't he? That must be Go Ichiro as described in his will. If so, then who am I, standing here...?

The moment I peered out the window, I felt as if I had escaped from myself, transformed, and was standing there. Only my remaining soul seemed to be observing the scene... such a grim and sorrowful feeling overwhelmed me.

...Perhaps what I just saw wasn't a hallucination of mine. Wasn't it a daydream...?

As thoughts raced through my mind like lightning, I was seized by an indescribable breathlessness and a strange excitement, and I slowly opened my eyes again.

However, no matter how I re-examined it, the scene of the asylum did not seem like a dream. ...The blue sky, the red brick wall, the dazzling white sand, and the black figures walking upon it...

At that moment, Dr. Masaki, who had been standing in front of me, lost in thought, suddenly turned to me and casually pointed out the window.

"...Well, do you know where this is?"

However, I couldn't answer. I merely nodded slightly. That's how much I was captivated by the unusual sight in the hall from the moment I opened my eyes.

On the white sand that covered the entire grounds, reflecting the light of the blue sky, the black shadows of the patients wandering around were almost all repeating the exact same tasks as described in the will. It was as if each individual's movements were a play practically demonstrating Dr. Masaki's principle of psychological heredity... Old Man Gisaku continued to swing his hoe, creating new ridges of sand, and young Go Ichiro stood with his back turned, intently watching the old man's hands as he worked the hoe in front of him. The older woman strutted around proudly, unaware that she had dropped her cardboard crown, and the bearded giant who had been worshipping it was exhausted and asleep with his forehead buried in the sand. The small orator pressed his fist against the brick wall and prayed, and the thin, pale girl searched around the grounds, looking for something to plant in the new ridges the old man had made. The others, too, seemed to be in different positions, but the meaning of their work was no different from the description in the will. Only the dancing mad schoolgirl, who had been singing and dancing from the beginning, seemed slightly off-track, digging a sand pit deep enough to put her arm in, right below the window where we stood, and beginning to construct a small trap using a cardboard crown and a dead pine branch. However, in any case, I found it strange that there there was no trace of when or which madman caused the great catastrophe at noon yesterday, which Dr. Masaki had spoken of. Perhaps because the dancing mad girl had stopped singing, or perhaps because we were observing through the glass window, everything was as silent as a shadow. The eeriness of it... When I counted the number of people, there were indeed ten, exactly as written in the will, neither more nor less, which made me wonder why.

What was even stranger was that as I gazed down at the unchanging, quiet, and vivid scene, I couldn't shake the feeling that Dr. Masaki's grand psycho-scientific explosion—the catastrophe that led to his resignation—was about to begin. It wasn't something from yesterday or the day before; it was a fact about to unfold right before my eyes. No, it wasn't just the madmen in the facility. The two large red-brick chimneys standing side by side on the roof in the distance, supporting the indigo sky—the swirling black smoke that had just begun to pour from them—even the perfectly round sun shining above them seemed to be governed by some mysterious psycho-scientific principle, approaching that unprecedented, momentous event with every passing moment. An unfathomable, chilling, and solemn sensation frequently assailed the back of my neck, and I couldn't suppress the shivers running through my body. The more I thought, "That's impossible," the stronger the feeling became. Anxiously trying to suppress that mysterious and suffocating feeling, I continued to fix my gaze on the scene of the Liberation Therapy Ward. I stared at the back of Go Ichiro, who was watching the old man tilling the field, amidst an unusual pounding in my chest.

Just then, a low, whispering voice spoke close to my ear.

"What are you looking at... you..."

The tone of that voice was completely different from Dr. Masaki's usual manner. I started and turned around.

I saw that Dr. Masaki had, at some point, come to stand very close to me, holding a cigar that emitted a thin stream of smoke. However, his usual smile had vanished from his face, and his pitch-black eyes, beneath his pince-nez, were fixed intently on my profile.

I sighed deeply. Then, trying to calm myself as much as possible, I replied, "I am looking at the Liberation Therapy Ward."

"Hmph," Dr. Masaki grunted from deep in his belly, still staring into my eyes without a single blink.

"Hmm. ...And so, can you see anything... inside the Sanatorium...?"

Dr. Masaki's way of asking felt strangely peculiar, and I quietly met his gaze. "Yes... there seem to be ten madmen."

"...What... ten madmen..." Dr. Masaki said in a flustered voice, staring intently at me again with a look of surprise.

Feeling his gaze on my profile, I turned back to the Sanatorium again and began to stare at the back of Oh Il-cheol. I felt as if he might turn around at any moment and meet my eyes, and if that happened, something terrible seemed likely to occur, causing my entire body to naturally stiffen.

"Hmm..." Dr. Masaki grunted beside me, eerily clear. "Can you clearly see madmen playing in there...?"

I nodded silently. I thought it was a strange way to ask, but I didn't pay it much mind. "Hmm. And the number is still ten, you say?"

I nodded again and turned back. "Yes. Exactly ten."

"...Hmm..." Dr. Masaki grunted, appearing to be deep in thought, his dark eyeballs receding into their sockets. "Hmm. This is strange. ...This is a very interesting phenomenon..."

Muttering to himself, he slowly averted his gaze from my face and looked out the window. His face was somewhat pale, and he seemed to be lost in thought, but soon his complexion returned to its former healthy state, and he smiled, showing his white teeth, as he turned back to me. Pointing out the window, he asked in a cheerful tone:

"Well then, let me ask you one more thing: there's a young man standing in a corner of that field, watching the old man's hoe movements, isn't there?"

"Yes. There is."

"...Hmm... there is. By the way, which way is that young man facing right now?"

Dr. Masaki's questions were becoming increasingly strange, and I answered with an odd feeling. "He's standing with his back to me. So I can't see his face."

"Hmm... I probably thought so. But look. He might turn this way any moment, and when he does, you will see what kind of face that young man makes..."

The moment Dr. Masaki said this, my whole body somehow flinched and stiffened. It felt as if my heart's beating and my breathing stopped simultaneously.

At that moment, the young man Dr. Masaki was pointing at, Wu Ichiro, turned around as if he had received some kind of suggestion. Our eyes met perfectly through the glass window we were peeking through. The smile that had been on his face until then vanished, replaced by an expression of surprise, exactly like my own face I had seen in the mirror in the bathhouse this morning. His face was round, his eyes large, his chin thin... I barely had time to think before he seemed to turn back towards the old man's field, smiling cheerfully again.

Before I knew it, I had covered my face with both hands.

"...I am Go Ichiro... I am..." he cried, stumbling backward as if about to fall.

At that moment, Dr. Masaki caught me. I believe he poured a liquid into my mouth that was so intensely fragrant it made me choke, and stung my tongue like fire, but I don't clearly remember what it was. Only the words Dr. Masaki shouted near my ear at that time faintly remain in my memory.

"...Pull yourself together. Pull yourself together. And look closely at that young man's face once more. ...Come on, don't tremble so much. There's no need to be so surprised. There's nothing strange about it at all. ...Calm down, come on..."