The Six of the Seven Deadly Sins

If she had not secretly taken her service pistol home, perhaps none of this would have happened.

"That bastard, what the hell are you talking about? Light was covered in injuries left by that scumbag. If it had been me, I would have put a bullet in him."

"Maybe she only took the gun home to scare the man. Who could have guessed he had already given up on life?"

"She should have called the police. But maybe, precisely because she was a police officer herself, she hesitated."

Igarashi Chiba walked expressionlessly through the whispering crowd of coworkers. Every connection he had ever had with Kitada Hikari had taken place where no one could see, so naturally no one knew about the relationship between him and her.

From the beginning to the end, Igarashi Chiba's only target was Miyazawa Kokoro. The sole sacrifice offered to the enraged demon god Samael was Miyazawa Kokoro alone, because among the Seven Deadly Sins there was no demon god whose dominion was endurance or cowardice. Thus Kitada Hikari's soul was able, at her funeral, to enter the cycle of rebirth worshiped in Japan.

Igarashi Chiba bore witness to the final stretch of her journey through the world of the living. Some handled her corpse, some sorted through the private writings she had left behind, some speculated about the reason for her death, some looked down on the parents who held her funeral, those who loved her no longer dared to speak her name, those who did not love her mocked her past, and she lay there in silence, able to do nothing at all.

Before death, it seemed, human beings who were already vile became even harder to look at. Yet Igarashi Chiba did nothing. He was only an observer, a cultist of the Flesh Church.

"Shut up! Do you think there is not enough work already? The police headquarters even sent someone this morning to ask about last week's theft case in our precinct." Fuyama Hayato strode into the office and barked at the people chatting away. Having just replaced Kitada Hikari as section chief, he was more than willing to display his authority in a moment like this.

"The matter of Chief Kitada is over. Please stop talking about it and do your work." Fuyama Hayato was very satisfied to see the office fall silent. The taste of power left him invigorated.

After he left, conversation rose again in the police station office, though this time the topic was the current section chief.

"What was that about? The guy only got promoted to section chief and he is already acting like the police superintendent."

"Just last week he was drinking with me at the izakaya. This week he is already turning his face away and pretending not to know me."

"What a bastard. He does not care at all about the friendship of former colleagues."

No one noticed that Igarashi Chiba, who had been idly flipping through a book at his desk, suddenly closed it.

Shiinan Koji stood outside the police station, gazing through the black brim of his cap toward the clouded streaks on the horizon.

He stopped to smoke a cigarette. The smoke made him choke at first, but soon he forced himself to grow used to the smell of tobacco, which helped sharpen his focus, because the stage ahead would be unlike any before.

"What? Valued at one hundred million?" Fuyama Hayato froze, then cried out in shock.

"Please, you must help me recover this pendant." Shiinan Koji was no longer the stammering boy he had once been. He lied smoothly and familiarly; in this, humanity always seemed to be born knowing the art.

Fuyama Hayato took the appraisal certificate Shiinan Koji handed over and, after checking it over and over, finally confirmed that the young man before him was not joking.

"With a case of this value, we will have to report it to police headquarters..."

But before Fuyama Hayato could finish, Shiinan Koji interrupted him.

"This is exactly why I came here. Once headquarters learns that this pendant is missing, they will certainly send people out in great numbers to search for it. This is a pendant worth one hundred million. There are too many people who would be tempted by it. How could I possibly recover it again myself?"

Fuyama Hayato frowned, somewhat hesitant. "But our precinct does not have many people. I am afraid it will be difficult to help you recover it."

"It is all right. I trust you very much. You were the ones who helped me recover my wallet last time. If you can help me find this pendant, I will thank you personally."

Something stirred faintly in Fuyama Hayato's heart. A young man who could possess jewelry of such value must surely be the heir of some great family. For a person like that, a note of thanks would not be as simple as receiving a banner of praise.

By the time Shiinan Koji had traced out the likely route of loss and left the police station, it was already noon. The man in a white coat, so out of place among everyone around him, was smiling and waving at him.

"See? Easy, wasn't it?" Igarashi Chiba's voice was gentle.

"What are you really trying to accomplish by doing all this, by interrupting things like this?" Shiinan Koji knew his question had no answer, yet he still could not help asking.

"You will know." The smile on Igarashi Chiba's face remained as indifferent as ever. He repeated once more, "You will know."

Fuyama Hayato searched for an entire day, eating nothing but a few instant rice balls for lunch and dinner.

"Even if it really was lost by the roadside, it would have already been taken home by someone as a pretty fake, wouldn't it? Only the sons of rich families would do something like strolling down the street while playing with jewelry worth one hundred million. Looks like it cannot be found. Better go home and rest early." Thinking this, Fuyama Hayato boarded the train home. He did feel some disappointment, but only the kind one feels when a lottery ticket fails to win.

Maybe that fellow had left the pendant on the train. Come to think of it, what sort of car would a rich person like that even ride in? Just as Fuyama Hayato was letting his thoughts wander, he suddenly saw something glittering on a hanging strap, as though bound there as decoration.

He looked more closely, and a ridiculous feeling suddenly rose in his heart. Could that fellow have been taking the subway after all? The glittering ornament was indeed a pendant. Because of the countless diamonds set into it, no one would have mistaken it for anything real. If it were genuine, how expensive must it be? Everyone must have thought the same, which was why no one looked at it too carefully, and no one wanted to take away a pendant they took for a fake. Instead, someone had hung it on the strap as if it were a decoration.

Fuyama Hayato found himself an excuse that could not have been more perfect. He stood up and, with no change in expression, slipped the pendant into his pocket. At the same time, he marveled at his own tendency to overthink things, yet he could not help wishing that, if by some chance this pendant really were the one the young man had lost, how wonderful that would be.

When Fuyama Hayato looked at the check before him, he felt as though he must still be dreaming. But then the promotion notice issued by police headquarters made him unable to suppress his exhilaration any longer. It was real. It really had been that simple.

Shiinan Koji did not bother with the nearly fainting Fuyama Hayato anymore. After handing over the check, he took the pendant and walked out of the police station. Once he was sure no one was around, he casually tossed it into a trash can.

A man in his thirties, Fuyama Hayato could not help but marvel at how strange and unpredictable the world could be. First he had filled the vacant section chief post left by Kitada Hikari, then he had received a reward of five million for resolving the loss of a jewel worth one hundred million, and that young man had even gotten him promoted again. In just a few short weeks, Fuyama Hayato had achieved goals he had not yet managed to reach even after forty years.

His wife, who had once held a few faint criticisms of him, had become tender again, almost as she had been when they first fell in love, so gentle that Fuyama Hayato could hardly believe it. Even relatives and friends no longer called him "little cop" over drinks. From this week onward, his life seemed to be unfolding into a new chapter, and something else was quietly growing deep within him as well.

"That guy actually got promoted again? Does he have a brother who is a police superintendent at headquarters?"

"What a pain. I heard he also got a five-million reward."

Standing outside and listening to the talk inside the office, Fuyama Hayato felt exceptionally pleased. He straightened his collar and then pushed the door open and stepped in.

"What are you making such a racket for? Have you finished your work? All of you only know how to gossip behind other people's backs. If you worked as hard as I do, you would have been promoted and given a raise long ago..."

This was power. Watching the colleagues who had once looked down on him fall silent under his reprimand filled Fuyama Hayato's heart with intoxicating pleasure.

"Chief Fuyama, there is something I would like to ask of you." Two days later, Shiinan Koji came to find Fuyama Hayato again.

"Mr. Shiinan, what is it? I will certainly do my utmost. Speaking of which, I have not properly thanked you yet..."

"I would like to borrow a forensic pathologist from you."

"A forensic pathologist? Why?"

"There are some inconveniences in speaking of it, but you should know that I am not an ordinary person. In great families such as ours, whenever an elder dies, inheritance must be dealt with, and money is always filthy. Some of my cousins are not exactly good people. To be frank, I need a forensic pathologist to determine the cause of my grandmother's death."

"If you have suspicions, why not call the police?"

"It is not yet time to break all ties."

"That is somewhat difficult. After all, this is a private matter..."

"Once it is over, I will give you a reward even more generous than last time."

An hour after Shiinan Koji left, Fuyama Hayato fixed Igarashi Chiba with a harsh glare, as though if Igarashi Chiba did not do as he said he would tear him to pieces. In the end, Igarashi Chiba still nodded obediently, and Fuyama Hayato let out a long breath of relief.

Though Igarashi Chiba had nodded, he kept looking at Fuyama Hayato. That gaze was like one cast upon a corpse on an operating table, and it made Fuyama Hayato suddenly feel a chill.

"Hey, did you hear me, country bumpkin? I am sending you to do this so you can gain some experience, so do not be ungrateful. How dare you look at your senior like that? You are nothing but a country bumpkin with no backing." Fuyama Hayato was somewhat angry. In his eyes, Igarashi Chiba was nothing more than a taciturn junior.

An ignorant and foolish common man, nothing more, someone who was being toyed with in the palm of another's hand yet still managed to seem so arrogant. Human beings were all like this. Those people had all been given a chance to turn back, and regrettably not one of them grasped it. Looking at that face, Igarashi felt a surge of disgust. These fellows were like beasts driven by the darkness within, stupid and dull-witted, with no premonition whatsoever of death's approach, yet outrageously arrogant.

Igarashi suddenly smiled.

This irritated Fuyama Hayato. "What are you laughing at, bastard?"

Igarashi Chiba calmly put on a mask. "I just realized that I am arrogant too. Only, my arrogance is backed by strength."

"What are you talking about?"

His answer was the forensic room door closing. There was no scream, no struggle. Everything happened in utter silence.

This week truly was the peak of Fuyama Hayato's life. Just as a flame burns brightest at the moment before it gutters out, this week was also the end of his life.