“Had I not been a doctor, I probably would have been shocked senseless. But I knew of cases such as this from photos in medical texts. Testicular feminization syndrome. It’s an extremely rare syndrome. I never thought I’d see one outside of a textbook—much less in a situation such as that. Testicular feminization is a type of male pseudohermaphroditism. Externally the person seems completely female, having breasts and a vagina, but usually not a uterus. Chromosomally the person is XY, however—male. And for some reason people with this condition are all beautiful.
“Sadako was still staring at me. I was probably the first person outside her family to discover the secret of her body. Needless to say, she had been a virgin up until a few minutes previously. It had been a necessary trial if she were to go on living as a woman. I was trying to rationalize my actions. Then, suddenly, words flew into my head.
“I’ll kill you.
“As I reeled from the strength of will behind the words, I instantaneously intuited that her telepathic message was no lie. There was no room within it for even a sliver of doubt; my body accepted it as a certainty. She’d kill me, if I didn’t kill her first. My body’s instinct for self-preservation gave me an order. I climbed back on top of her, placed both hands on her slender neck, and pressed with my full weight. To my surprise, there was less resistance this time. She narrowed her eyes with pleasure and relaxed her body, almost as if she wanted to die.
“I didn’t wait to see if she’d stopped breathing. I picked her body up and went to the well. I think my actions were still beyond my will at this point. In other words, I didn’t pick her up intending to drop her into the well, but rather, the moment I picked her up, the round black mouth of the well caught my eye, and put it in my mind to do it. Everything felt as if it was working out perfectly for me. Or, rather, I felt as if I was being moved by a will beyond my own. I had a general idea of what was going to happen next. I could hear a voice in the back of my head saying this was all a dream.
“The well was dark, and from where I stood at the top I couldn’t see the bottom very clearly. From the smell of soil wafting up, it seemed that there was a shallow accumulation of water at the bottom. I let go. Sadako’s body slid down the side of the well into the earth, hitting the bottom with a splash. I stared into the well until my eyes got used to the dark, but I still couldn’t see her curled up down there. Even so, I couldn’t shake my uneasiness. I flung rocks and dirt into the well, trying to hide her body forever. I threw in armfuls of dirt and five or six fist-sized rocks before I just couldn’t do any more. The rocks hit her body, making a dull thud at the bottom of the well and stimulating my imagination. When I thought of that sickly beautiful body being broken by those stones, I couldn’t go through with it. I know that doesn’t make any sense. On the one hand I desired the destruction of her body, but on the other hand I didn’t want her body to be marred.”
When Nagao had finished speaking, Asakawa handed him the map of South Hakone Pacific Land.
“Where on this map would that well be?” Asakawa asked, urgently. It took Nagao a few moments to understand what he was being shown, but after he was told that what had once been the sanatorium was now a restaurant, he seemed to regain his orientation.
“I think it was right about here,” he said, pointing to a place on the map.
“No doubt about it. That’s where Villa Log Cabin is,” Asakawa said, rising. “Let’s go!”
But Ryuji was calm. “Don’t go rushing off just yet. We still have some things we need to ask this old fart. Now, this syndrome you mention …”
“Testicular feminization syndrome.”
“Can a woman with this bear children?” Nagao shook his head. “No, she can’t.”
“One other thing. When you raped Sadako Yamamura, you had already contracted smallpox, right?”
Nagao nodded.
“In which case, the last person in Japan to be infected with smallpox was Sadako Yamamura, no?”
It was certain that just before her death, Sadako Yamamura’s body had been invaded by the smallpox virus. But she had died immediately afterward. If its host perishes, a virus can’t go on living. Nagao didn’t know how to answer and looked down, avoiding Ryuji’s gaze. He gave only a vague reply.
“Hey! What are you doing? We’ve got to get going!” Asakawa was in the doorway, urging Ryuji to hurry.
“Shit. Hope you’re happy,” said Ryuji, flicking the tip of the doctor’s nose with his index finger before following Asakawa.
He couldn’t explain it logically, but from his experience reading novels and watching trashy TV shows, he felt like he had a good idea of the kind of plot device called for now, based on the way the story had unfolded. There was a certain tempo to the unfolding. They hadn’t been searching for Sadako’s hiding place, but in the blink of an eye they’d stumbled upon the tragedy that had befallen her and the spot where she was buried. So when Ryuji told him to “stop in front of a large hardware store,” Asakawa was relieved: he’s thinking the same thing I am. Asakawa still couldn’t imagine what a horrible task this would be. Unless it had been completely buried, finding the old well in the vicinity of Villa Log Cabin shouldn’t be too difficult. And once they found it, it should be easy to bring up Sadako’s remains. It all sounded pretty simple—and he wanted to think it would be. It was one in the afternoon; the midday sun reflected brilliantly from the hilly streets in this hot-spring resort town. The brightness, and the neighborhood’s laid-back weekday mood, clouded his imagination. It didn’t occur to him that even if it were only four or five meters deep, the bottom of a well was bound to be an entirely different world from the well-lit ground above.
Nishizaki Hardware. Asakawa saw the sign and braked. There were stepladders and lawn mowers lined up in front of the store. They should be able to get everything they needed here.
“I’ll let you do the shopping,” Asakawa said, running to a nearby phone booth. He paused before entering it to take a phone card from his wallet.
“Hey, we don’t have time to waste on phone calls.” But Asakawa wasn’t listening. Grumbling, Ryuji went into the store and grabbed rope, a bucket, a shovel, a pulley block, and a high-powered flashlight.
Asakawa was desperate. This might be his last chance to hear their voices. He knew full well how little time he had to waste. He only had nine hours left until his deadline. He slipped his card into the phone and dialed the number of his wife’s parents’ house in Ashikaga. His father-in-law answered.
“Hello, it’s Asakawa. Could you call Shizu and Yoko to the phone?” He knew he was being rude, skipping the customary exchange of pleasantries. But he didn’t have time to worry about his father-in-law’s feelings. The man started to say something, but then seemed to sense the urgency of the situation, and immediately summoned his daughter and granddaughter. Asakawa was extremely glad his mother-in-law hadn’t been the one to answer. He’d never have got a word in edgewise then.
“Hello?”
“Shizu, is that you?” Hearing her voice, he missed her already.
“Where are you?”
“Atami. How’s everything there?”
“Oh, about the same. Yoko’s having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.”
“Is she there?” He could hear her voice. No words, just sounds as she struggled to climb up on her mother’s lap to get to her father.
“Yoko, it’s Daddy.” Shizu put the receiver