7. The Star-Shaped Fortress City
Two days had passed since our meeting with the old man at the Sunami estate. That day, I went to the Ogawa Investigation Agency for my part-time job. There were no specific investigation requests; it was just filing work. A detective agency where information is everything constantly sorts through various recent incidents. Takaya General Research had that sort of thing organized quite systematically, and our Ogawa Investigation Agency—thanks to a growing number of curious part-timers working for peanuts—was trying to imitate Takaya, burying ourselves in information organization. I looked up at the familiar multi-tenant building and let out a sigh. On the day we barged into Yakumo Pharmaceuticals, I had been whisked away to the Sunami main residence without really knowing what was happening, left to watch a confrontation between the Master and the elderly Sunami Moritaka. The meeting had ended when the Master, enraged by the old man's words, simply said, "We're leaving," and stood up. I had been half-prepared to be handed over to the police, so I was surprised when they let us go so easily. The Master acted as though he had the upper hand, marching out of the mansion with heavy footsteps while hurling abuse at the butler-like man who had guided us. My heart had hammered in my chest, terrified that men in suits might kidnap us again, but I felt a wave of relief when I saw my bicycle parked just outside the grounds. They had gone out of their way to bring the very bike I'd left parked at the Yakumo Pharmaceuticals headquarters. Realizing I really might get away with this, I quickly hopped onto my bicycle. But paying no heed to my impatience, the Master stood staring up at the mansion we had just left, glaring at it endlessly. Things had been a bit awkward between the Master and me ever since. To be honest, the conversation between the old man and the Master had been completely incomprehensible to me, but the Master seemed furious that some vital secret of his had been seized by the enemy. There were so many things I wanted to ask. However, the Master clearly kept me at a distance, his attitude signaling that I shouldn't ask right now. The striking words I had heard back then continued to swirl violently inside my head. I had heard the Master would be coming in today. Apparently, Director Ogawa had found out about the Yakumo Pharmaceuticals incident. The Master was bound to catch hell for blindly walking across dangerous bridges as he pleased. That, too, was a source of depression. I climbed the stairs with a rhythmic tap-tap and stood before the door of the Ogawa Investigation Agency. "Hello." Stepping inside, Director Ogawa was nowhere to be seen. Instead, an unexpected figure sat at the Master's desk. "M-Matsuura," I groaned involuntarily, hastily adding "-san" at the end. It wasn't a mistake. Matsuura, the senior lieutenant of the Ishida-gumi yakuza syndicate, was definitely sitting right there. A black double-breasted suit, thick-rimmed glasses, and slicked-back hair—the exact look he always sported when he appeared. "Ah, pardon the intrusion." Matsuura glanced over at me briefly before dropping his gaze back to the desk. Beyond his line of sight, a map was spread out across the entire surface. "Hey, what are you... doing?" I pressed him awkwardly. I could never handle him the way the Master did. Matsuura had pulled out the map from the drawer of the Master's desk without permission. It was a map marking the occurrences involving the limbs of the black mannequin, starting with the nursery school incident. Five points were drawn on it. The northernmost vertex was near the commercial college—the site of the incident where the mannequin's head had turned up. Then, going down to the lower right, toward the southeast, there was a point just before the Kokubu River meandered. That was the nursery school where the mannequin's left hand had been recovered from the playground. Symmetrically to the west on the left side, just before the Yanagase River, was the location where the mannequin's right hand was found during the cursed sword incident. From there, to the southeast—diagonally down and to the right on the map—was the location of the gas explosion at the shopping mall the other day. This point the Master had predicted and marked down even before the incident occurred. Finally, to the west, at a symmetrically opposite position just before the Yanagase River, a point was dropped near Nijo Shrine. Nothing had happened there yet. At least, nothing we knew of. But the Master had connected these five points to draw a massive pentagram across the map. Connecting the diagonal lines yielded a pentagram, and connecting the sides revealed a pentagon. One of the diagonals spanned a massive star measuring roughly six thousand meters across. The Master had called it a giant fallen flat on its back—the shape of an unfathomably huge giant. Afterward, we learned from Miyauchi, a local history researcher, about the folklore of the *Daidarabocchi*. Long ago, a giant named Daidabo had roamed the land, but having incurred the wrath of the gods, he was struck by lightning and collapsed onto the earth. When I heard that story, a chill ran down my spine. It was all too neat. I couldn't believe it was a coincidence. Yet what awaited us beyond that was something utterly unbelievable, far exceeding human intellect. I had suspended my judgment. For the sake of my mental health, I had no other choice. "I'm not looking without permission. I have clearance." When Matsuura said that, I finally noticed Hattori-san sitting at the opposite desk. She had been there the entire time, but her presence was so faint I hadn't noticed her at all. "Clearance? Hattori-san, what on earth gave you the right—" As I started to get angry, Hattori-san smoothly raised her head, let out a scoff through her nose, and dropped her eyes back to the paperwork in front of her. Tracing the map with his finger, Matsuura said, "The director was out, so he's letting me wait. It seems he left word earlier that something urgent came up." Looking at the white board, Hattori-san's handwriting read: *Director's return time unknown.* "Since you were coming by, I thought I'd say hello before leaving." Matsuura stood up. Then, picking up the map, he walked over to the reception table. "Please, have a seat," Matsuura invited us, acting as if he owned the office. "Let's share some interesting stories of our own." Glowering at Matsuura, the Master sat down on the sofa opposite him. I took a seat right beside him. Hattori-san maintained a detached attitude, quietly plugging away at her work as if nothing concerned her. "Hey, what happened to that photo? Haven't you backed off yet?" "Ah, I still have that photo on hand. Researching the Sunami clan runs quite deep, you know. I'd like to save my trump card for later. More importantly, I hear you met with Chairman Sunami Moritaka." "How do you know that?" "As I said, when you research the Sunami clan, you develop various sources of information on that end as well." Matsuura replied in a carrying voice, his pale face entirely expressionless. "I've also heard about you people barging into Yakumo Pharmaceuticals and causing a ruckus. Quite reckless of you. But thanks to that, I managed to obtain information I didn't have before. All because you stirred the bushes for us." "What do you mean, 'stirred the bushes'?" "Master." I tugged at the Master's sleeve. It was better not to take too aggressive an attitude with this man. Having been beaten to a pulp and put through hell during the fallout over the photo the other day, I wanted nothing to do with these yakuza gangsters more than necessary. "Regarding the vanished Great Treason Incident, you said that the ideology by which Sunami Daigo incited the young military officers is something no one even knows anymore—that such a thing may never have truly existed. It seems to me, however, that the outlines of it are beginning to show." "What did you say?" "That subway-like structure you saw in the basement of Yakumo Pharmaceuticals. Learning about it surprised me. I happened to be researching the subway construction plans Sunami Daigo had drawn up before the war." With that, Matsuura pulled out a notebook. "The first subway in Japan was the Ginza Line, opened in 1927, the second year of Showa. Two private railways—the Tokyo Underground Railway led by Tokuji Hayakawa and the Tokyo Rapid Railway led by Keita Goto—handled the eastern and western sections of the route. The subway plans themselves had been submitted one after another since the Taisho era by Odakyu, the Mitsui zaibatsu, Eiichi Shibusawa, and others. Yet none of them were easily approved. Various motives were intertwined, including friction between Tokyo City and the Home Ministry, and interference from the military. In any case, the subway plans of this era were all meant to transport people in the continuously growing population of the capital region. The next earliest system outside the capital was Osaka's Midosuji Line in 1933, which was similarly laid in densely populated areas. Yet during this period, a subway construction plan was floated right here in City O, far removed from the capital or major metropolitan areas—and this despite a situation where the overland traffic network alone was supposedly more than sufficient. Moreover, it was a plan connecting points that could hardly be called centers of population or human traffic at the time. And who spearheaded this? None other than the Sunami zaibatsu. It seems it was centered around that very Sunami Daigo, who was pulling the strings behind the Sunami zaibatsu from the shadows while holding the post of instructor at the Army War College. The year was 1934—five years before the Great Treason Incident of 1939. Even with the Sunami family's heavy-handed pushing, the city council remained deadlocked and ultimately voted it down. They even bypassed normal channels to lobby the Home Ministry for final approval, but it was all for naught. Naturally so; anyone could see there was no need for it. However, Sunami Daigo apparently made the acquaintance of Ichizo Kobayashi, the founder of the Hankyu Toho Group, and received various pieces of advice from him. It's a move that could be interpreted as adopting the Kobayashi Ichizo method: deliberately routing tracks through underdeveloped regions to develop the areas along the line." At that point, the Master cut in. "Hold on. You're saying the subway project hit a dead end?" "Correct. The subways of City O have never been built, down to the present day." "Then what in the world did we see?" "...Here is where the story gets even murkier. Among the materials submitted to the city council, one was treated as strictly confidential. While official records like meeting minutes do not survive, there were personal memoranda left behind by councilmen of the era. I managed to acquire them more or less by chance. They were quite staggering." Matsuura spoke in a deliberately theatrical manner. When I first met him, he was a man who forced his belief in simple conversation onto others, but now he seemed to be enjoying taking his time over this discussion. This yakuza thoroughly enjoyed trading jabs with the Master. "The subway plan, it is said, was part of a project to relocate the capital." "A capital relocation project? To this City O?" "Indeed. Sunami Daigo apparently foresaw—even during this period before the Marco Polo Bridge Incident—that Japan would eventually enter into an all-out war not only with China, but with America and Britain as well. He even considered the possibility that it would end in a crushing defeat leading to the crisis of national dissolution. He argued that City O should be immediately redeveloped as a receptacle to ensure a smooth transfer of the capital's functions away from Tokyo, which would be trampled by enemy forces and rendered impossible to rebuild." "That's absurd." "Yes, it's absurd. That's why the plan ignored the demographics and the flow of people and goods at the time. In some scenarios, it involved driving all the residents out of City O entirely before constructing a new capital. Naturally, a plan like this had no chance of passing. It was crushed, and a dejected Sunami Daigo returned to focusing solely on his duties as an instructor at the military academy." Matsuura brought his palm down with a sharp slap on the map spread across the table. "The five points dropped onto this map," he said, looking into our faces, "coincide with the five starting points of Sunami Daigo's subway construction plan." "What?" Surprised, I looked back down at the map. "Sunami Daigo intended to lay out a subway network connecting these five locations along diagonal lines—forming precisely the shape of the pentagram drawn right here." "No way." The Master pressed a hand over his mouth. "The headquarters building of Yakumo Pharmaceuticals sits right at the intersection of the diagonals forming the two legs of the pentagram on this map. In human terms, it's right at the crotch. And in the basement there, we found the remains of a subway. Learning that surprised me as well. Could it be that the Sunami family went ahead and laid down a subway on their own accord, either before receiving approval or after being rejected? Just how far does it extend? It is truly fascinating. Surely they couldn't have laid out every single planned route completely, but even if it's only a partial network, the fact that they hollowed out the underground of this city without the citizens ever knowing is nothing short of astonishing." I, too, was left speechless. Could something like this actually be true? If I'd heard it as mere gossip, I would have scoffed at it. But the Master and I had actually witnessed that subterranean space with our own eyes. "Those Sunami bastards are out of their minds," the Master muttered, a sentiment clearly fueled by our recent encounter with the old man's son, Sunami Moritaka. "Isn't this what they call the *Groove of Madness*?" The Master uttered the phrase Teacher Tozai had taught him. *Makes sense,* I thought. "Still... did you hear that sound? That eerie sound that used to echo in the evening until recently?" "You mean the apocalyptic sound?" "There's a theory that the sound is caused by air currents echoing through underground cavities." "No way." "Well, just how massive of a cavity would be required to produce a sound like that across such a wide area of the city?" Flipping through his notebook as if to steer the conversation back on track, Matsuura continued. "It appears that the pentagram shape of this subway project is related to the theory of star-shaped fortress cities. It's easy to understand if you think of Goryokaku in Hakodate. Castles with such star shapes are said to be based on fortification theories developed in Europe, particularly in Italy and the Netherlands. The principle relies on artillery tactics where pentagonal fortresses are built, with artillery batteries placed at each of their vertices to coordinate and rain fire in all directions. These five locations were supposedly connected by underground tunnels, allowing materials and people to move fluidly. There's even a theory that Tokyo itself forms this star-shaped fortress layout centering around the Imperial Palace—that the stations of Tokyo, Akihabara, Iidabashi, Yotsuya, and Toranomon form its vertices. It's a dubious theory at best. However, here in City O, the Sunami zaibatsu actually brought a gigantic fortress to life using five points on the map as vertices, attempting to connect them all with subways. And right at the center of the fortress..." The spot Matsuura pointed to was the dead center of the pentagram. It was the very place we had been dragged to just two days ago. "Hey, if they were relocating the capital, wouldn't that spot have to be the dwelling of the Emperor? Fortresses exist to protect what's inside them. Are you saying they were trying to present the Sunami residence as the Imperial Palace?" "Subsequent history speaks for itself, wouldn't you say?" The Master and I both gasped. That's right. The Great Treason Incident. Following the failure of the subway project, Sunami Daigo incited young military officers who had been his students at the Army War College in an attempt to assassinate the Emperor. A wave of cold sweat broke out all over my skin. This was far more insane than I had ever imagined. It was not a tale a mere college student should have any business getting tangled up in. I wanted nothing more than to run away from this place right now. "There is a term called *Tobi-Shinmei*," Matsuura said. "The sacred body of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu supposedly flew from the Ise Grand Shrine to various regions, leading to the successive creation of Shinmei shrines all over Japan. Even if Ise Grand Shrine never approved of Amaterasu leaving, people all over the country independently made that claim. After the war, when the Emperor issued his Declaration of Humanity, there were those who argued that the power of the divine bloodline descending from Amaterasu—which had been passed down through successive imperial generations—was severed right then and there. They claimed that the true essence of Amaterasu slipped out of the Emperor who had declared himself human and lodged within *them*. Therefore, *they* were the legitimate emperor. It's an absurd story, but when it comes to Sunami Daigo's actions, it's no laughing matter." "Are you saying they tried to become the receptacle for the powers of Amaterasu and the deities of Amatsukami, which have continued since the Age of the Gods... through assassination?" Even the Master had drained the color straight from his face. "Well then," Matsuura said, standing up. "I'll be taking my leave. Actually, I came here to commission an investigation, but if I ask you instead of going over the director's head, you probably won't give me a straight yes. I think I'll come back another time." "What kind of job?" "Oh, something concerning a strange drug currently making the rounds among young people." Matsuura seemed to have no intention of explaining further. As he walked toward the door, he glanced back over his shoulder. "Oh, that's right. You said this spring—do you remember? When I tried to get involved with the Sunami family over those photos, you told me, *'Go get eaten alive by a monster.'*" "Yeah, I said it." "Aren't you treading on its tail yourself by now?" "See you later." With those words, Matsuura left. The Master glared endlessly at the door where Matsuura had vanished. Stunned by Matsuura's parting words to no small degree, I stood frozen beside him, unable to say, "It'll be fine," or "I'll protect you." "Go get eaten alive by a monster, huh?" When the Master abruptly muttered those words back to himself, he hurriedly began pulling the contents out of his rucksack. "What's wrong?" "That parting shot—I said it in a place where he wasn't even around! On the way back from Tamura's hideout!" "Ah." Now that he mentioned it, that was true. Without us realizing it, Matsuura had slipped money into the rucksack, and the Master had muttered that in anger. In the middle of a night road. Only I and the Master himself had heard it. So why did Matsuura know? "Is this it?" The Master emptied everything out of the rucksack and turned the lining inside out. Near the bottom, a piece of tape the exact same color as the fabric had been stuck on. When the Master peeled it off, a small, dark, board-like device was attached to the back of the tape. "What is that?" "A wiretap. And probably a GPS tracking transmitter set as well." "A wiretap? From back then?" "We were tailed from Tamura's hideout by one of the yakuza who was there. They must have recorded the conversation picked up by the bug." "What about the tracker?" "Didn't it happen before? Where Matsuura knew where we were." "Huh? Ah... When we ran into Detective Fuwa at the coffee shop..." During the incident tracking the archer, Matsuura had suddenly appeared while we were exchanging information with Detective Fuwa at a coffee shop. That certainly had been strange. Had the Master been walking around carrying a tracker without even knowing it? "Guess the battery's dead, naturally." Examining the board-like device, the Master dropped it onto the floor and crushed it underfoot. The device broke apart, scattering pieces of plastic. "They taped something like this to the bottom of a loaded rucksack. It's completely different from slipping money in right before our eyes without us noticing. There's no magician alive who could pull that off at that moment. It must have been stuck on beforehand." The Master...
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