Devil On My Shoulder
Chapter 2: "The Odd Behavior"
By Bill K.
The sidewalk was choked by on-lookers. In the street, cars had stopped and the passengers gawked. The people were gathered in a circle around where the incident took place. Most stared. A few had their cell phones out, calling the police or the fire department. One or two others were recording it with their cell phones so they could post it on the internet. In the center of the circle, amid broken glass and next to a bent chair, the corpse of Shiro Iyadomi, a middle manager with an insurance company housed in the very building they were in front of, lay in a pool of blood and gore, his head exploded from impact with the sidewalk. Some people murmured that he must have committed suicide by jumping from the top of the building and they weren't wrong.
To one side, Mamoru Chiba eased his wife up against a light pole. He supported her with hands on both shoulders and peered into her eyes with concern. Usagi was very upset and emotional. Her breath shuddered as tears streamed down her face and she struggled to control herself. Mamoru supported her because he wasn't certain she had the strength to support herself.
"Usako?" he asked.
"Why, Mamo-Chan?" she sobbed, looking up at him. Usagi was devastated by this, even though she hadn't known the man at all. "Why would he do that to himself?"
"I don't know, Usako," Mamoru tried to counsel her. "Something terrible must have driven him to it." Usagi just continued to cry and Mamoru looked on helplessly. He never felt so helpless in his life than during these times, in the face of her tears.
"If you need to go help him, go," Usagi gasped out through vocal cords thick with emotion. "I'll be all right."
"There's nothing anyone can do for him now, Usako," Mamoru told her gently, "except give him a decent burial."
Usagi let out a strangled wail and dived into her husband's arms. Mamoru brought her in and held her as she cried anew. By now, security personnel from the insurance building had made it outside and were cordoning off the area. The first police unit arrived and began interviewing witnesses. On-lookers began to disperse and life in Tokyo slipped back into routine for everyone except the family and friends of Shiro Iyadomi and for the people unfortunate enough to witness his demise.
"TOSHI, LOOK AT WHAT I GOT!" Minako bellowed as she entered the apartment she shared with her husband, Toshihiro, and her mentor, Artemis.
"He's still at the studio," Artemis said, laying lethargically on the back of the sofa.
"Boy, he's been putting in some long nights at the studio," Minako scowled, flipping her long blonde hair back. Then her mood instantly changed back. "Artemis, look at what I got!"
She held out her hand and showed the white cat. He raised his head, glanced at it, then replaced his head on his front paws.
"A miniature wireless headset phone," Artemis sighed. "Thrilling." Then the cat suddenly sensed a menacing presence looming over him. He looked up and found Minako glaring down from above.
"You're not impressed?" Minako asked in a hushed tone. Warning signals went off in the cat's brain.
Too late; Minako's fist crashed down on the cat's head and she ground her knuckles into it.
"OW!" roared Artemis. "ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE ANIMAL ABUSE STATUTES?"
"This is NOT," Minako emphasized, "JUST another miniature wireless headset phone. THIS is the new Universe Phone from Takamoto Telecom. It's only THE hottest electronic gadget in Japan right now!"
"I'll try to remember that when I'm icing down my bruises," muttered Artemis. "Isn't Takamoto Telecom the corporation your dad works for?"
"Sure is," Minako replied, flopping down on the sofa so she could admire her new toy. "Dad's been talking about the sales figures for weeks. It's such a hot item that Dad has had to work overtime. He's even had to miss a few Giants' games - - and they're in a pennant race!"
"Wow!" Artemis remarked, genuinely impressed. Minako's father was such a rabid baseball fan that Minako always said he'd stay in a burning building to watch his beloved Yomiyuri Giants.
"Dad says that after a slow start, sales just went through the roof," Minako continued. She had the package open and was fiddling with the miniature headset, trying to figure out how it worked without condescending to read the instructions. "It's just the shot in the arm the company needed. They were getting ready to downsize."
"It might be easier to get that to work if you read the instructions," Artemis observed.
"I know how to do it!" Minako barked. And she continued to fumble with it.
"So how is the movie doing?" Artemis changed the subject. "I think this is the first time you've been home before seven since filming started."
"Great," Minako replied as she continued to fiddle with the phone. "I'm doing some of my best acting, Artemis." She stopped and grinned. "Although kissing Hitaro Tsuko isn't the hardest acting job I've ever had to sell."
"Um," Artemis scowled, "you might not want to be so loose with comments like that, Minako."
"Why?" Minako looked at him curiously.
Artemis sighed. "I don't think Toshihiro would like hearing that."
"He read the script, Artemis. He knows Hitaro and I play torrid lovers."
"And he approved because he knew it would be a good career move for you," Artemis continued. "But that doesn't mean he's comfortable with it. And you joking about it like that won't help."
"Think?" Minako asked blankly.
"He might even see it as rubbing his nose in it. Toshihiro tries, but he's got a possessive streak when it comes to you and stuff like this makes it harder for him to keep his jealousy under control."
"Yeah, I see what you mean, Buddy," Minako replied, chastened. "Maybe I need to do something special for him." Minako thought a moment. "I know! I could cook something for him!"
"Wow, it would be quicker just to shoot him," muttered Artemis.
And with his innate feline reflexes, Artemis danced out of the way before Minako's fist could connect with his skull again.
Mamoru reluctantly went to answer the door. He was curious as to who might be at the door so late in the evening. He and his wife didn't entertain much and any gathering of friends was usually held in a restaurant or public place rather than at their apartment. Even with their recent move into more spacious accommodations, the habit died hard.
And Mamoru didn't really feel like dealing with anyone that evening. Usagi was still upset by what they'd both witnessed earlier that evening. He was upset by it as well, but as usual he sublimated his feelings in order to tend to his wife. Both Luna and he had done everything they could to console Usagi. But he knew that death had a deep effect on Usagi and witnessing something as violent as a man jump to his death wasn't something the sensitive woman would get over quickly. He would just have to ride it out and keep her head above water until she could swim through the oceans of life on her own again.
"Rei?" he exclaimed, finding Rei Hino at the door.
"I'm sorry for coming so late in the evening, Mamoru," Rei said soberly. Her emotions were downcast. "It's just - - I felt her. What happened?"
"A man committed suicide down in the office district," Mamoru told her, ushering the priest in. "It happened right in front of us."
"No wonder," Rei whispered, emotion choking off much of her voice. Without a second thought to Mamoru, the priest swept into the kitchen.
Usagi was there, wiping her red eyes with a tissue. Luna was on the table, her face right up next to Usagi's, whispering encouragement to the woman. Usagi looked up and saw Rei. Her eyes were bubbling over with tears, red fissures surrounding the deep blue. She wanted to say something, but didn't trust her voice. Luna looked up and Rei could see the gratitude in the cat's face. Instantly Rei was in a chair next to her friend.
"Oh, Rei, it was horrible," whimpered Usagi. She collapsed against her friend. "That poor man."
"I know," Rei cooed, gathering Usagi in. "It's terrible what some people are driven to do to themselves."
"Why?" Usagi asked desperately. "Why would he do something like that? Didn't he realize what he'll be missing? Didn't he know how much he'd lose?"
"He couldn't have" Rei told her softly, gently, like a mother comforting a child. "He wouldn't have done it otherwise."
Usagi nodded her head and continued to cry. Rei kept Usagi nestled to her body. As she rocked her friend, she looked up at Mamoru and silently mouthed a request for some tea. Mamoru nodded and went to brew it.
Minutes passed into an hour. Mamoru and Luna adjourned to the living room to let Rei work her magic on Usagi's soul. The time passed slowly for them both.
"I understand from news reports," Luna commented just to break the silence, "that unusual behavior such as this is up in Tokyo."
"Are you seeing a conspiracy?" Mamoru asked grimly. Hearing something that might mean Usagi would have to go into action as Sailor Moon once more was never welcome news for him.
"Artemis and I have looked into it," Luna admitted. "We haven't found anything so far." The black cat considered her next words. "Perhaps it's just an unusual coincidence."
"I hope," Mamoru replied. "I know I'm being selfish, but I find myself wishing more and more that Sailor Moon is never, ever needed again. I just want her to write and draw and burn dinner three nights a week and be my wife - - and be happy. Is that so much to ask?"
"Philosophers might think so," Luna responded. "But then, philosophers don't know her as we do. They might change their tune if they did."
After a while Rei led a sheepish Usagi into the room. Mamoru was up off the sofa and over to her in a shot.
"Treat her gently for the next few days," Rei told him. "She's still kind of fragile."
"I'll be OK," Usagi said. Everyone could tell she was still kind of down. "Thank you for being patient with me, Mamo-Chan." She slid her arms around his torso and hugged him.
"Just paying back everything you do for me," he said and squeezed her to him. Usagi clung to him for as long as she could, then reluctantly parted from him to turn to Rei.
"I'm sorry for getting you down here," she said to the priest, "although I still don't know how you knew."
"Just part of being your friend," Rei said. She leaned in and kissed Usagi on the cheek. "Now if you need anything, even if it's just to talk, you call me. I've got a phone again." Usagi giggled in spite of her mood.
"Did you break down and buy one of those new Universe Phones?" Mamoru asked.
"Don't be absurd," Rei scowled. "I got the cheapest, simplest table model the store had. You know I don't have to be trendy and hip and have the latest gadget some advertising campaign tells me I have to have." She glanced slyly at Usagi. "That's more Minako's speed anyway." Usagi smirked.
"Goodness," Luna sniffed. "Rei's actually rejoined the twentieth century. And only nine years into the twenty-first."
A day after Usagi's terrible evening, a car sped through the evening streets of Tokyo, headed for a residence tucked into the blocks and rows of suburban Japan. At the wheel was Toshihiro Manabe. He was driving his wife, Minako, from the studio to her parents' home for a dinner date, only because Minako was still under suspension and couldn't drive herself.
Silently he endured the trepidation he felt. It wasn't that Toshihiro disliked Minako's parents. He liked her father well enough, even though they didn't have anything in common other than their fondness for Minako. But Minako's mother could be a headache. The woman was not shy about expressing her opinions and didn't spare anyone from her judgment, not even Minako or her father. Her criticism of Minako in the past often erupted into arguments and Toshihiro disliked arguments. It reminded him too much of his own childhood and his own parents.
"Can't you go any faster?" Minako asked.
"Not and stay under the speed limit," Toshihiro responded.
"Speed limits are for wimps," smirked Minako.
"Yes, I remember how well the judge liked hearing that when you got your last suspension," quipped Toshihiro. Minako wanted to look mad at him, but the irony soon broke her down. "How was filming?"
"It went pretty well," Minako shrugged. "If it wasn't for being in makeup for two hours each way, it would be great. Two hours in the morning and two hours at the end of the day. You'd think I was doing a monster movie instead of a period flick."
"Is that why you were late getting out?"
"Yeah. That and the rain. We had to do interior shots because of the weather."
"Bedroom shots?" Toshihiro asked. Minako glanced at him sideways.
"A few," she admitted. "I thought of you the entire time."
"You need to put a little more feeling into your delivery of that line," Toshihiro joked half-heartedly. Then he slumped slightly "I'm trying, Minako."
"I know you are, Toshi," Minako replied, touching his hand.
Arriving at the Aino residence, Toshihiro parked the car. He took out an umbrella and together they made their way through the rain up to the front porch. The buzzer was greeted moments later by Minako's father, Daichi Aino. He seemed to sag even more than they remembered. Managing a tired smile that pushed his thick, black frame glasses up, he ushered them in.
"Hi, Minako-honey," he beamed, almost seeming energetic. "You look lovelier every time I see you."
"Well, I just came out of makeup," Minako quipped. She kissed her father on top of the head, since she was a good six inches taller than he was now. "I'm finally here, Mom! Sorry for being late! Things ran long at the studio!"
"Toshihiro," Daichi nodded, shaking the man's hand. "You're doing a good job keeping her happy. I know what a struggle it can be sometimes."
"I do my best," Toshihiro replied.
"You're fine, Minako!" they heard her mother, Kimiko, call out from the kitchen. Then she peeked out, her brown hair still immaculately gathered behind her and her face only just beginning to show signs that she was approaching fifty. "YOUR FATHER was late getting home from work - - AGAIN - - so dinner hasn't been waiting at all." The woman came out and hugged her daughter. "I loved the last season of your television show, dear. I always said you had a great actress inside of you."
"Sorry, I didn't realize I was talking to 'pod-Mom'," Minako smirked. Her mother gave her a peevish scowl.
"Have you been working late a lot, Daichi-Otosan?" Toshihiro asked.
"Yes, this new phone gadget his company has on the market," clucked Kimiko. "It's the latest rage among the young people with more money than they know what to spend it on. And all of those people who have to be trendy. I have no idea why a phone makes you somebody important, but apparently it does in some circles."
"Don't knock it, Mom," Minako advised her. "Those trendy people are keeping Takamoto Telecom in business. Just remember, if they've got money in their hand and they want to give it to you, they're right."
"That's precisely why this country is in the situation it's in," her mother sniffed imperiously.
"People like to feel good about themselves, ma'am," Toshihiro ventured cautiously. "If a harmless little toy like the Universe Phone lets them do that, that's a good thing."
"Speaking of which," Minako said, reaching into her purse and pulling out the new Universe Phone she'd just purchased, "lookee lookee at what I've got."
The Universe Phone was no sooner at eye level than it happened. Minako's father lunged with his right hand and snatched the phone away from his daughter.
"Dad!" gasped Minako. Everybody else was staring at him incredulously.
"DON'T USE THIS!" he snapped urgently. "Don't even touch it!"
"Daichi!" Kimiko gasped.
"I," he began, then stopped. It looked like he wanted to say more, but didn't dare.
"Dad?" Minako inquired.
"Don't use it, Minako," he repeated. "A-As a favor to me - - please." Embarrassed, he turned to his wife. "Is dinner ready yet?"
Kimiko nodded and mechanically walked into the kitchen.
"I'm sorry for spoiling things," Daichi offered. "Come on. Your mother has worked hard on this. I promise I'll be better company."
Glancing uneasily at each other, Minako and Toshihiro allowed themselves to be ushered into the dining room.
Detective Yokomura walked up to the office of Superintendent Sakurada as summoned. Yokomura was twenty-five and a fast riser in the detective bureau. But this was his first visit to Superintendent Sakurada's office and he knew he had to be on his toes. Sakurada had a good eye for detail and would know if a detective was slacking off or missing obvious indications. He paused at the door to her office and knocked. A voice ushered him in.
"What do you have on the suicides, Yokomura?" she asked point blank as he entered. She was an attractive woman even at forty, a woman with long flowing black hair and a pleasant face who dressed with a flattering and expensive fashion sense. It was easy to take her lightly from that image until you looked her in the eye and saw that ability she had to see everything, digest it and know what had happened and what was likely to happen in a particular situation.
"Nothing conclusive, Superintendent," Yokomura reluctantly admitted. "We've looked at everything and there's nothing that links all of them."
"Well, suicides in the Tokyo Metro area are up forty-seven percent in the last six months," Sakurada told him. "Obviously we're always going to have some suicides. Is there anything at all linking most of them, or just some of them - - something that would account for that kind of increase?"
"Well," Yokomura began, massaging the back of his neck, "a significant number of them seem to be either salarymen or teens. That in itself isn't unusual. Statistically, those two groups tend to account for a lot of suicides, the third group being the elderly. There just seems to be more of them than usual."
"And they don't have anything in common?"
"Other than living in Tokyo Metro," Yokomura admitted, "no."
Sakurada leaned back in her big plush chair. "Then you haven't dug deep enough, Yokomura. Something is causing this. It's too unusual a spike." Sakurada allowed herself a frustrated exhalation. "It's almost like this city is slowly going crazy. Petty crime is up. Violent crime is up. Random acts of defiance are springing up. And nobody seems to know why."
Refocusing on Yokomura, the police Superintendent fixed a steely gaze on him. "Dig deeper, Yokomura. Expand your search if you have to. Cross-check with robbery, with homicide, with other departments. Look for trends. Don't dismiss anything, no matter how silly it sounds. We can't afford to overlook anything."
Yokomura nodded crisply and was dismissed. Sitting at her desk, Sakurada eyed her phone anxiously. Was it time to ask for help? She didn't want to involve the senshi if it was something her department could solve. But she didn't want innocent people to die because she was too proud to ask for help.
Superintendent Sakurada sat at her desk and began to study the reports before her. Perhaps her answer was in the report.
Continued in Chapter 3
