Behind the Mirror

5. A Family Interlude

Written on 4/13/17 (Camp NaNoWriMo, April 2017 edition).
Written on 6/3/17 (Summer Season, June 2017 edition).
~11,000 words (novelette).

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Jan. 4 | Fri.

No one spoke after I produced the coin from my left pants pocket. In that moment, I distinctly felt the motions of an invisible hand urging me into the unknown. This feeling rendered me vaguely aware of the next step for Hiroshi Yara. For that reason, I hesitated to look him in the eyes.

And yet, he seemed to pick up on my hesitation, getting up from the couch and eyeing me with the grim resignation of a man approaching the end of his career. He said, "That's it, then. Looks like I'll be sitting out the rest of this investigation from now on."

"What'll you do, Mr. Yara?" I said.

"Well, I'll notify my boss on the recovery of that coin you got, and then I'll take a vacation and try to forget about this mess. I'll have to answer the board for Issho's interference in SSA operations at some point, though; God knows what'll happen after that." He sighed, looking irresolute and worried; something heavy weighed on his mind. He said, looking around at everyone in the room, "Alan, Mr. Trent, Jay, I have to tell you all something important, but secrecy is paramount. Don't tell anyone outside this house about this."

At this, Westerfield, my dad and I nodded; then I said, "Wait, what about my mom?"

"It's too risky to let her know, because she works at a morning show. The less she knows about this, the better. I'm not saying that she'll go public with this information, but her connections might make her a liability to this case; I'd rather not take any chances."

When his gaze fell on his daughter, I didn't have to guess what was on his mind. Issho's face lost all color, and her hands bunched around the seat cushions of the couch. "I won't tell, okay?" Silence. "You're still pissed off at me, aren't you?"

"More than you know. I guarantee you'll be grounded for a year after this is over, and that's putting it lightly." He turned to me, my father and Westerfield and said, "And finding that coin is only half the battle, Jay."

"Okay . . . What's the other half?"

"We already have Emiko Fujitaka in our custody," he said, "and those other missing girls in Japan don't exist."

All was silent. Of all the bombshells tonight, this was the biggest. His statement left me speechless, and looking around the living room found Issho and my dad equally so; Westerfield alone showed no signs of emotion other than grim resolve. Then I looked at my mom. She had speculated a few times on the whereabouts of these missing girls on the morning News Watch since the Asagaya Massacre, and after Issho arrived at my house, my mom was up to her eyeballs in intrusive speculations when her dick of a coanchor dragged my involvement into it on TV. So I thought it just as well that she not know about this; she has enough on her mind as it is.

"Wait a minute," my dad said, "if you already have one of the missing girls with you, then why does everyone on the news still think she's missing?"

"That's what we're trying to find out, Mr. Trent."

"Wait, Dad, how did you find Emiko?" Issho said.

"We didn't. She found us. Specifically, she found my apartment six months after her disappearance, where I found her unconscious at my door after work. That's why you couldn't visit me, Issho. We currently have her in a medical facility in an undisclosed location. We've been trying get her to remember what happened to her, maybe shed some light on why everybody's wondering about the whereabouts of six nonexistent girls. It's been slow, but tonight's exceptional stunt with that manga points to an as-yet unknown culprit. I wish I could say that was all, but there's more to it than that."