Sorry for the late update! I fell ill for a bit, we’re back now!!!
Chapter 26
“There’s no way he’d just go off somewhere on his own. He wouldn’t leave me behind and go off by himself!”
Kamiya placed her hand on my shoulder as I became distraught.
“Please calm down. Do you have any idea where he might be?”
Hearing this, I paused to think.
If he were to go anywhere, it would be the campsite on the other side of the mountain pass. Perhaps he went there to take a bath?
“If you go a bit further, there’s a campsite on the mountain. It’s the weekend, so I think there might be people there. That’s where I last saw Shinji-kun today. So, maybe…”
I hope that’s the case.
If we still can’t find him…… I don’t know what else to do.
“At this late hour?”
Kamiya frowned.
“Maybe he was thirsty and looking for a vending machine. He might have chosen a time when no one would be around. He’s a robber, after all.”
“…… Well, that’s true, I suppose.”
Kamiya let out a sigh.
“Alright. Let’s go check it out for now.”
“Thank you!”
“But.”
She sharpened her tone and continued.
“If he’s not there, we’ll expand the search area and conduct a thorough search.”
If that happens, Yasuhara-san will probably return to the investigation. It’s only a matter of time before Shinji-kun makes contact with Yasuhara-san… it’s a vicious cycle.
Please, please let him be at the campsite. That’s all I can hope for.
When I got into Kamiya-san’s car, I asked a question to try and distract myself from my restlessness.
“Kamiya-san, why did you decide to become a police officer?”
I suppose it’s a rewarding job. But the police force still has a strong image of being male-dominated, and misogyny is still quite persistent in Japan—and you feel it very frequently, especially in the workplace. In a male-dominated workplace like the police force, no matter how good a boss Yasuhara-san is, it’s impossible not to feel it.
“Why, you ask…?”
“Oh, maybe your parents are police officers?”
It would be weird to call it a family tradition, but it’s not uncommon to look up to your parents and be inspired by them, right?
“That’s wrong. My parents are business owners. I became a police officer because of the influence of foreign TV dramas.”
“Eh?”
Surprisingly, it was a rather superficial reason.
“I used to watch dramas where male and female partners work together, bickering but still fulfilling their duties to solve cases, and I looked up to them. It doesn’t really work out like that in real life, but even so, I’m still doing better than most.”
“Is that so?”
“All the women from my graduating class left. I’m the only one who became a detective, at least. Do you know what percentage of police officers in Japan are women?
“No.”
I’d never even thought about such things.
“Seven percent.”
“…… That’s pretty low.”
“It’s a dangerous job, and it requires physical strength. Men and women just have different body structures, so women are at a disadvantage.”
“Kamiya-san, you’re amazing.”
I didn’t mean it as flattery—I genuinely believed it. I think it’s a job that requires not only physical strength but also mental fortitude.
“I don’t know if I’m that impressive, but… oh, that sign over there?”
Seeing the sign illuminated by the searchlight, Kamiya spoke.
“Yes, right there.”
Unlike during the day, the campsite on top of the mountain was pitch black and eerily quiet. Only the sound of Kamiya’s car engine echoed through the area.
In the foreground stood the main building, which resembled a log cabin and also operated as a shop during the day. The facility was fully equipped with rental baths and shower rooms. There was a covered balcony in front of the shop where you could have a barbecue. It seemed like a casual spot to just enjoy a barbecue.
But at its core, it was a campground. The spacious parking lot was lined with RVs and large vans, and beyond them, on the expansive lawn, several tents were visible.
“Something seems off….”
I thought the campsite would be quiet and silent, but there were lights shining through here and there and it seemed like people were moving around.
“I wonder what’s going on?”
Kamiya seemed to have noticed something was wrong too.
She parked the car in the parking lot. There is a motorcycle parking lot nearby, and there—
“Ah, Kamiya-san! It’s this motorcycle! Looks like Shinji-kun is here after all.”
A Kawasaki Ninja.
Then I saw a figure approaching me, holding a flashlight.
“Hey, who are you guys? What are you doing out at this hour?”
He was bearded, wore glasses and a bandana, and was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He perfectly embodied the image of a mountain man.
“We came looking for someone. But, um, did something happen?”
In the distance, I could hear someone calling someone’s name.
“Yeah, one of the bikers who was camping here went missing.”
“Huh?”
“Missing?”
Kamiya and I exclaimed at the same time.
“So, you mean, uh, the guy who rode up on that Ninja…”
“Hm? Ah, you’re with that guy. Sorry for holding him up. He said he needed to head right back, but I ended up getting him drunk. I told him to wait until he sobered up, but now he’s gotten caught up in this mess. He’s here, though. He’s helping with the search right now.”
Hearing the bearded man’s explanation, I breathed a sigh of relief.
“So, who’s missing, exactly?”
Kamiya asked. It sounded a bit like an interrogation.
“There was a bit of a scuffle between two bikers. It was actually about that guy’s bike.”
“Huh? That motorcycle?”
“It was in the afternoon, I think. He asked if I could take a shower, so he parked his bike there and went to the lodge to take a shower and do some shopping. Then a bunch of bikers spotted the Ninja and got all excited, and your guy joined in and was chatting with them like they were all friends.”
“Oh, really.”
So Shinji knows enough about motorcycles to talk to bikers?
“Before long, they started taking turns test-riding the Ninja. But then the bike just stopped working right in the middle of it.”
“Huh?”
“That guy got really flustered, too. Oh, but they fixed it right away.”
“I see.”
“But I did give him a little bit of alcohol while he was waiting. Just a tiny bit, though. And that guy, he was so strict—he said, ‘I won’t drive until the alcohol wears off’. “
He chuckled to himself, as if recalling the moment.
“While all this was going on, a few bikers started arguing over something trivial. They’d been drinking, so I guess it couldn’t be helped.”
“What do you mean by ‘trivial’?”
When Kamiya asked,
“One of them started saying to the last person who rode the bike, ‘It broke down because you were riding it badly’. Something like that—totally trivial.”
Are they elementary school kids or something?
“One thing led to another, and it turned into a scuffle, then he just wandered off somewhere. The guy who picked a fight went after him to apologize. I figured they’d both come back eventually, but no matter how long I waited, they never returned. Their stuff’s still here, and the bike’s here too. They shouldn’t have gone that far.”
“That’s… a bit worrying.”
“It’d be a problem if they got into a fight or something and got hurt, right? They might just be passed out somewhere, but since they still hadn’t come back even after dark, we all started looking for them.”
“What about the police?”
I flinched at the word “police” that Kamiya uttered.
“We were all saying that it’s a bit much to go to such lengths just because a drunk guy went missing for a bit, but if he’s still not found by morning, then we might have to call them in for a search.”
I see, so that’s how it is.
“Masa-san, what’s wrong? Ah!”
The one running toward us was Shinji.
“Shinji-kun!”
“Natsumi! Sorry! …… Um, so, this is Kamiya…-san?”
Oh right, this is the first time they’ve met.
“I’ve heard about the situation. You still haven’t found him?”
“No. We searched the area, but we figured it was too dangerous to rely only on a flashlight, so we called it off and came back.”
“That’s true—with it being this dark, there’s a real risk of getting lost ourselves.”
“But, one way or another, dawn will break soon.”
Shinji gazes at the eastern sky.
The sky leading into dawn….
