The Death of Naoko
It was on the night of December 13th, 2018 he received the news that Tsuzuki Naoko had passed away.
Yuki was living in the Kansai region at the time, working at a patent office in Osaka, but the next day, he called out of work and took the first bullet train to be at her side.
After graduating from K.O. University, Naoko had been living alone in an apartment in Tokyo and working at J. Production, but now, she was lying in bed at her parents' house in Koto Ward, Tokyo. She looked like she was sleeping.
Ryuzo, Naoko's father, looked haggard. Yuki thought he saw a light shining in his eyes, but Ryuzo immediately lowered his gaze and explained in a heavy, exhausted voice.
The previous Sunday, Ryuzo had called his daughter on her smartphone.
He didn't get an answer, but at the time, he'd assumed she was busy and thought nothing of it. But the next day, the police called, saying his daughter had been in a traffic accident.
There must have been some mistake... Thinking that, Ryuzo had gone to the morgue. And there, he had been confronted by reality.
The police explained to him that on Saturday, Naoko had gone to a mountain village in Yamanashi Prefecture for work, and she'd gotten into a traffic accident on her way home. Her tiny subcompact hadn't been able to make a turn on a steep road and had gone over a cliff...
Because it had happened in the middle of the night on an empty road, it had taken over a day until her body was discovered.
“If only I'd realized when I called her on Sunday...”
Ryuzo continued in a sorrowful voice.
The autopsy found no signs of foul play, and Naoko's body had been returned to Ryuzo yesterday evening. He said he was busy preparing for the wake and the funeral.
“The truth is, I haven't told my wife yet.”
Naoko's mother was in the hospital with terminal pancreatic cancer. Just thinking of the day when she'd have to be told everything brought tears to Yuki's eyes.
He sat down next to Naoko, who was in a deep sleep from which she would never awaken.
It had been almost six days since her death, but perhaps because it was winter and the body had been kept in the morgue for so long... although there were a few injuries on her face, Naoko, lying there with her eyes closed, looked exactly the way she had in high school. Her expression was calm.
Yuki and Naoko had attended the same elementary, middle, and high schools. Until they entered university, they had seen each other nearly every day.
Perhaps because they were both children, or perhaps just because of their personalities, their relationship had never developed into a romance. However, the term “best friends” didn't suit them; it may have been more appropriate to call them “bad friends”, or perhaps “bad influences”... They had met by doodling in their textbook, and they'd grown close by skipping class together.
Yuki and Naoko both loved the sea, so they often went to play in the seaside park.
In the spring of fourth grade, they'd found a kitten. Its mother was nowhere to be found, so when they found it still alone in the park the next day, Naoko picked it up and took it home.
The gray female cat, named Mei, proved to be just as eccentric as her owner.
Although she usually hated leaving the house, as soon as Naoko went out, she would beg to be taken with her, even trying to climb into the basket of her bicycle. She appeared to understand that if she got into that basket, she could go to the park by the sea. Perhaps she viewed that park like her hometown.
Ever since, Mei had accompanied them whenever they went to the park. The local fishermen all loved her, and she would purr with delight after eating their tributes of fish.
A familiar purring sound came from behind. Yuki turned around to see a gray cat lying on a cat bed. She was skinny and her fur was unkempt, but her emerald eyes, looking like a proud lady's, were unmistakably those of Mei.
Yuki had hardly seen Naoko since entering university. So it had been seven years since he'd last seen Mei. But... it seemed she still remembered him.
When he reached out his hand, she rubbed her cheek against it. She was very weak.
Ryuzo told him that Mei had barely eaten since Naoko died. She was an old cat with weakened kidneys, so she might have been nearing the end of her life. But Yuki couldn't help but think that she was trying to go after her owner.
As he gently stroked the back of Mei's neck, Yuki noticed that Ryuzo was looking at him, the strong light in his eyes shining once more.
Yuki let go of Mei and asked.
“Is something wrong?”
“I got a letter from her... I don't know whether or not I should be sharing it with you, Yuki.”
Because he had been so close to Naoko, Ryuzo had gotten into the habit of casually referring to Yuki by his first name, just like she had.
At that moment, the LINE messages he had exchanged with Naoko flashed through Yuki's mind. They had gotten excited about a movie set for release that winter and made plans to see it together. It would have been their first meeting in a long time. That was only two weeks ago.
Heat rose in Yuki's chest, and he blurted out the truth he shouldn't have said in front of her father.
“I can't believe Naoko's gone. I know it was an unavoidable accident, but still-”
“It wasn't an accident.”
Ryuzo spoke so confidently that Yuki was rendered speechless.
Ryuzo picked up an envelope off the desk and handed it to him. It was plain brown and unmarked.
“What is this?”
“Something she left behind. It arrived this morning.”
“Today?”
Naoko had died six days ago, so perhaps it was something she'd mailed just before her death, and it had arrived late due to some incident in the post.
As if he'd read his mind, Ryuzo answered him.
“It seems she'd left this with someone. It was apparently mailed after her death.”
Yuki's hand, which had been reaching for the envelope, froze.
For some reason, the envelope gave off a terrifying aura. Perhaps somewhere inside, he knew that if he opened it, he would no longer be the same person he was now.
After a few seconds hesitation, he took the envelope. Inside was a letter, folded in three. The letter paper within was densely covered in Naoko's familiar handwriting.
As Yuki read the letter, he had an illusion that the world was shaking... that it was falling apart. But he couldn't stop reading.
“Have you gone to the police?”
When he asked that in a hoarse voice, Ryuzo's mouth turned up in a bitter grin.
“Of course I did. I went to the police as soon as I read this letter. But the police didn't take it seriously. They said that, since there was no crime, there was no need for them to investigate.”
That seemed to Yuki like an absurd conclusion.
“No...”
“On top of that, they say she was having mental health issues due to work stress. Apparently, the company'd been recommending she see a psychiatrist for a long time now.”
“So what's written here is just a delusion?”
The moment Ryuzo heard the word “delusion”, he burst into hysterical laughter.
“And there you have it. No matter what I said, they wouldn't listen. They just recommended that I see a counselor and promised they'd 'take care of' Naoko's letter. I was so angry, I stormed out and went straight home.”
Yuki handed the letter back to Ryuzo, who took it as though it were made of glass. Yuki thought for a while, then said:
“Even if we can't rely on the police... there is a way we can confirm the contents of this letter. My father went to college with someone from JTV, so if we go through him, we can gather information without the three people mentioned in the letter knowing.”
Ryuzo was so happy that he nearly jumped for joy.
Yuki promised to contact him if he found out anything, and after discussing whether there was anything he could do to help with the wake and funeral, he decided to leave.
As he opened the door, Mei let out a mournful sounding cry.
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