Naoki woke up in the afternoon at Mei's house, his eye hurt terribly, and he had no strength to get up.
He rolled over onto his side, lying on the couch and grabbed his eye - the pain awakened him.
With his other eye, Naoki noticed Mei, and raised himself slightly, turning his head toward her.
- Where am I?
- At Kirika's apartment, you lost consciousness yesterday.
- Kirika?
- Yukiyo Misaki, wife of your uncle Koutarou Misaki, Kirika is her nickname.
- Never mind, where is my coat?
- Are you going to go?
Naoki wobbly stood up, covering his eye with his hand.
After a moment, he noticed his coat on the chair, and put it on.
- I'm about to go.
Mei looked at Naoki with a surprised look at his condition.
- Kirika doesn't return until the day after tomorrow, you can stay here.
- Thanks, I don't want to cause trouble.
Naoki was about to leave, however, he almost fell over.
- Are you sure?, I don't mind your presence
Mei asked coldly but with a tone of care for him.
- I can handle
Naoki muttered, walking down the stairs.
He kept walking down, until he fell down losing consciousness again.
Mei looked at him, and walked over checking his pulse and even poking him, checking to see if he was alive, when she did, she sighed and went inside her apartment, leaving Naoki lying on the floor.
Naoki woke up after a few hours, got up but the pain in his eye was still great, reached the exit and left the building - it was already dark, so the only thing that irritated his eye, which was irritated and throbbing with pain, was the light from the street lamps.
Naoki had no idea what he had done by killing Kenshin Hironiwa, according to the Yomiyama police, it was a move by the Minazuki company against the Hironiwa clan, Those affiliated with Minazuki were horrified - as they had nothing to do with the murders - they were also horrified by Furatani's suicide, which looked like one where there was a proven trace of a third party - however, the arsonist died in the hospital from her wounds, or there was a possibility that she was murdered.
However, it was both sides that feared the opposite - the Hironiwa Clan felt the impression that the Minazuki Company, was more than an average company, while the members of the Minazuki Company, after completing the information on the Hironiwa Clan, faded with fear.
Company owner - Junya Minazuki had a hunch that everything was the fault of Shinichirou Kanazawa - who, however, had been dead for about a week, with some members even leaving Japan for fear of being hunted by people affiliated with the Hironiwa Clan.
When Naoki returned home, Kaito was not there - he was at work, so Naoki simply went to his room, closing off all light access.
When Naoki returned home, Kaito was not there - he was at work, so Naoki simply went to his room, closing off all light access.
A few days later Naoki wasn't at school, and Mei decided to tell Kouichi the truth, or at least part of it, the two met in the library - where they usually stayed since winter had ruled out staying on the school's roof.
- Misaki's death was not what it officially is supposed to be.
Mei said roughly, as if she wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible.
- You mean she was the first victim of the curse, right?
Asked Kouichi being quite surprised by the sudden raising of this topic, which Mei usually did not like to bring up.
- Or at least that's what Muneyoshi-kun thinks...
- Did they know each other?
Kouichi's surprise and amazement grew
- Yes, you could say that even very well..., they went to class with each other - that's for sure.
- And why does Muneyoshi-kun think so?
- According to him, after such a short episode of leukemia, it is impossible to die. well, in a way he avoided the curse because he was poisoned two weeks before the inauguration...
- Muneyoshi-kun was poisoned ?!
Kouichi stood up because of the information he got, first the suspicions around Misaki Fujioka's death, and then the fact that one of his classmates was poisoned by someone.
Kouichi thought after a while - " Actually, I didn't ask anyone why Muneyoshi was absent from school for almost 8 months".
He realized that he probably didn't want to revisit the past, when the curse was still taking the lives of his classmates; if he asked anyone it would only result in sprinkling salt on unhealed wounds, and stuttering traumas.
- Likely.
Although Mei wanted to tell Kouichi about all of this, she knew what impact the information that she and Naoki had killed someone could have, so she intended to keep quiet about the whole Kenshin Hironiwa affair.
- A-but why? Why would someone want to kill him?
- Probably this is another thing you will learn about Yomiyama, the Muneyoshi-kun's family is not ordinary, it is a clan with a feudal past, and beyond.
- But what does that have to do with anything? After all, feudal orders and even aristocracy were abolished long ago!
- Not here, Since its foundation, this city has been ruled by a tetrarchy of four former feudal clans, Anju, Minamiyashiki, Hironiwa and until some time Muneyoshi, so the feudal power structure has been partially preserved in this city.
- But how? Are you serious?
Kouichi was completely surprised, and did not believe Mei's words, to him four families ruling a small city like Yomiyama seemed absurd.
- The Four Great Clans, do not operate in Yomiyama, at least most of their activities are concentrated in larger cities, however, they have their influence here as well, in fact they always have.
- What exactly are you talking about, Misaki-san?
Kouichi seemed slightly concerned.
- They operate similarly to the Mafia, however, it's not the Yakuza, they operate in secret, and those affiliated with the Yomiyama Group don't wear tattoos, they also try not to stand out among the crowd, they also reportedly have contacts with American and European crime syndicates.
- Kouichi frowned, Anju, Minamiyashiki, Hironiwa and Muneyoshi and their power over Yomiyama were associated to him only with the Mafia families from "The Godfather," except that these four clans did not rule a metropolis, but a small provincial town.
- In this case...
- No, Muneyoshi-kun is not involved, his family lost influence in 1977 when the Showa Day Massacre occurred, supposedly it was an attack of the curse as the person with that name was a 3-3 student that year.
- Well, yes, the curse, it can attack by various means, after all...
- Especially in the 1970s, Yomiyama was not a safe place, there were frequent assassinations, and these were deaths unrelated to the curse, although sometimes students in the 3-3 class were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kouichi reanalyzed what Mei had told him - he found it hard to believe, however he was intrigued by the fate of the Muneyoshi clan, namely the 1977 Showa Day incident.
-And do you know what exactly happened then?
- I don't know, you can ask your grandparents as long if they even want to talk about that incident.
Kouichi thought about what Mei had told him, then remembered that according to her, Ayato was about to die, so Kouichi connected the dots.
- So does this mean... that Anju-kun's death will have something to do with it?
- The Misaki family is closely related to the Anju Clan, but I don't think there will be any disputes with other clans, besides, what really connects Ayato to this clan is only the name, nothing more, so I doubt that will have anything in common with the Yomiyama Group connections.
Mei, thinking Kouichi would ask something else, waited a while then went home, Kouichi was left alone in the library thinking about recent events, putting everything together - the suicide of Detective Ohba. Ria Hironiwa's death, Shinichirou Kanazawa's death, Akito Fujioka's suicide and the recent murder of Kenshin Hironiwa.
Kouichi had doubts whether to explore the topic or stay behind, it was no longer a curse, but a threat from the mafia, which somehow made the chances of survival less, after returning home, Kouichi was still thinking about it, when he remembered that his grandparents had a couple of old newspapers, so he decided to explore the topic at his leisure, however, without going too deep so as not to endanger himself.