Seasonal Opening Ceremony

“There is someone you want to kill at any cost. It does not matter

the motive behind it. For instance, it could be that person killed your

lover, or your objective is that person’s a.s.sets. Either way, you have

to kill that person no matter what. Now then, what would you do?”

The

job applicants all together were dumbfounded at the interviewer’s wild

question. They were clad in new suits without one wrinkle in them and

had their backs perfectly straight, but their mouths were wide open in

shock.

What did he say just now? Kill someone? I misheard, right? Everyone there thought that.

“If it was you, how would you kill someone?” The interviewer repeated back. It seems they did not mishear him.

How

would you kill someone, he says? I can’t think of it. I shouldn’t think

of it. If he had seriously thought of doing such an act, right now he

would not be at an interview but in prison.

Saitou eagerly forced his non-operating mind to work and thought. What is the purpose of this question? What is being asked?

Is

it to test his deliberateness or ethics? What kind of answer is the

corporation side looking for from a student? Awkwardly keeping a fake

smile on his face, he read deeply into the question desperately.

There

were only two questions the interviewers made before this. “What are

your strengths and weakness?” and “What did you strive for as a

student?” Those were the staple questions that appear in employment

interviews.

Even the students curled up in themselves in

apprehension were able to manage providing some kind of exemplary answer

for those questions they thought of ahead of time even with their voice

shaking. Just as they got a breath of relief and the tension able to

lessen the “How will you kill a person?” came up. It felt like after

proceeding from hitting back two straight b.a.l.l.s thrown from the center

to easily return by approximately a hundred kilometers a sudden,

irregular non-rotating fork ball was thrown at them.

He had read

in a how-to book for job searching that at recent interviews there have

been strange questions asked to shake up students. “If you got one

billion yen, how would you use it?”, “What seasoning do you think you

can compare to?” or “Please give us some kind of interesting story”

seems to have been said before. It was to test their tactfulness in the

moment. Saitou also made his resolve so he can be like that no matter

what questions would come up. Although he came prepared, this was quite

unexpected. Rather than shaking him isn’t this like a giant earthquake?

There

were three interviewers, and the one who asked the question was the man

sitting in the center. In comparison there were five students. Saitou

faced the interviewer from the right edge, sitting in the seat closest

to the exit. The answers will start from the farthest student on the

left side. Saitou’s turn will be last.

If Saitou had even one

unofficial offer he would reject it saying “I don’t know” and take his

leave. But having sent entry sheets to fifty companies now, that was

hopeless. The fiftieth one was the first interview he managed to get. It

is tough. He still has time before his turn. He had to find a good

answer no matter what in that time frame to give a good impression to the

interviewer.

The first student honestly answered, “It is against the law, so I cannot kill a person.”

At

that moment a strange feeling swept through the students. It was the kind

of atmosphere of relief. “Ah, that’s good.” “So there was no need to

think so deeply about it?” They concluded this question pa.s.sed to them

was a test of their ethics. After that the other three also addressed

drawn-out fastidious, argumentative words of principle that “we cannot

commit murder.”

“Even in the case if you don’t kill them, you

will be killed?” The one the interviewer questioned back to was the

student next to Saitou. His turn was coming up already.

The female

student wore a pantsuit with her long hair tied back. She nodded with full

confidence. “Yes. Even then, I cannot violate the law.”

Saitou laughed in his mind at the simplicity of it.

They are testing their ethics?

By chance, is that really the case?

Saitou

could do not consider that. Are they looking for students with distinction

in the ‘must not kill’ aspect? That cannot be it. You cannot kill

people; even elementary schoolers know at least that much. The issue is

not that. He sensed that the bored face the interviewer was making was

telling that.

“Now then, next, Saitou-kun. Please answer.”

His turn had finally come around.

Even

if he said the same thing as them that could not leave any sort of

impression on the interviewer. And so, Saitou decided to state a

different answer from them. Whatever happens, who cares.

“I have almost killed a person before.”

The halfhearted mood drifting among the students froze

within a moment. What is this guy saying? Those surprised

expressions of the students appeared in his mind.

“Oh?” The interviewer raised his voice and bent forward, intrigued. “What do you mean by that?”

“When

I was in high school I belonged to our baseball club. It was a famous

veteran school even within the Kantou region, and I was an ace pitcher.”

He said it with a bit of pride put in casually. “I even partic.i.p.ated at Kos.h.i.+en.”

“Is that so? But you do not have that written on your entry sheet.”

Just as the interviewer said, ‘baseball’ was not written under hobbies or special skills.

“Even

though you were an ace pitcher for a veteran school, you did not enter

baseball clubs or baseball circles at university? That’s a shame.”

“I have become unable to pitch a ball.”

“Is it an injury?”

“No.”

After letting out a quiet exhale, he continued.

“When

I pitched at Kos.h.i.+en I ended up hitting the batter in the head. He

collapsed and stopped moving. He then was carried out on a stretcher and

went to the hospital in an ambulance. The place he got hit was severe,

and he was in a critical, comatose state.”

The batter miraculously recovered afterwards, but he could not throw a bat for the spring and summer of their third year.

“At

that time I was really afraid I could have become a murderer. I was so

unbearably afraid I ended up getting the yips. Since then I couldn’t

find control and couldn’t throw towards people. I don’t even like to

play catch.”

“I see. So you quit baseball.”

“Yes. So I’m not

suited to be a murderer.” Saitou smiled in self-torment. “I don’t have

the courage or the skill for it, so in the case there is someone I want

to kill no matter what I think I’d just pay others and have them kill

them.”

It was a cheerful att.i.tude. He did not know what kind of

answer the company was looking for or what kind of students they were

looking for. Even so, he did what he could. He put out his best. He had

no regrets even if it gets rejected. That was what he thought.

Two weeks after that, a notification of an unofficial offer reached Saitou. He was delighted nearly jumping in joy.

Saitou

at this time still did not know that the answer he brought forth at the

last moment with, ‘in the case there is someone I want to kill no matter

what I’d just pay others and have them kill them,’ was in fact the

management philosophy of this company.

Top of First Inning

On a Friday night the shop was

crowded with people. This pub where small-earning salary men and

students gathered had half of the private rooms with all the seats set up

as horigotatsu and isolated with grid patterned walls in every

direction. Munakata and his group were lead into the pub. Next to them

two company employee-like men were gulping down their drinks with a hard

expression. The inside of the place was rambunctious, so he could not

hear their voices, but surely they were grumbling complaints about their

job. I understand the feeling, Munakata bowed his head in sympathy.

Once the drinks were brought over,

“At any rate, good work for this year.”

The

eldest of them, Munakata, took the lead for a toast with a hoa.r.s.e voice.

Raising the mug of his draft beer, he clanked it against each of the four

gla.s.ses gathered at the middle of the table. Three were draft beers, and

one was an oolong tea.

Was.h.i.+ng down his throat half of the drink

in one go with white bubbles caught around his mouth, “Aah, this is

good. It’s so refres.h.i.+ng.” Munakata spit out an old-man like phrase.

Actually, he was one. He was already forty years old, and wrinkles stood out around the corners of his eyes and mouth. If it were not for the

black eye-patch covering his right eye, he would look like any ordinary

middle-aged man. Regardless, for a normal middle-aged man what he wore

was first-cla.s.s. From the tucked in sleeves of his high quality stripped

suit a branded wrist.w.a.tch was peeking out.

“Munakata-san, there are still another two months for this year left.” The one sitting next to

him, s.h.i.+nohara, said as he drank his oolong tea. “Don’t you think it’s

too soon to forget the year?”

s.h.i.+nohara was still a newcomer. He

wore the same suit as Munakata, but more than a company employee he

looked like a university student who attended a coming-of-age ceremony.

Presently, he was still a university student. Paired up with Munakata

their age gap was separated enough to not appear to be parent and child.

“It’s fine. We’ll be getting so busy we won’t have time for a year-end party.”

“Ah, please call over the waiter. I would like motsunabe.”

“Listen.”

“Can

I order gizzards?” The person sitting in front of Munakata, Reiko, had asked him this time. While pulling her loosely permed, brown hair back in the

shape of a pelican’s beak with a hair clip she stared at the front of

the shop’s menu. “Blue mackerel is fine too. Is it alright if I order

it?”

“Don’t ask me.”

“But you’re treating, right?”

Munakata shut his mouth before he asked, why me.

Among the four of them, he was the eldest and their senior. That

j.a.panese tendency for elders and seniors to have to treat the ones below

was quite annoying. He swiped a hand through his gelled bangs roughly.

“Munakata.” A large, half-Russian man named Ivanov who was sitting next to Reiko said to him in a murmured whisper. “I’ll pay half.”

“You’re

generous.” Munakata told him keenly. His face was frightening, but his

personality was kind. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. It’s my treat.

Eat up.”

After saying that, he cursed himself a little. He was worried by saying ‘eat up’ that he might take everything off the menu;

Ivanov was huge. But fortunately the giant that was more than two meters tall

arched his back and ate small portions of appetizers. He was also

wearing a suit but with no tie. He had a crew cut of light-brown hair

with several scars on his face.

“s.h.i.+no, why are you drinking oolong tea? Drink some beer.”

Munakata pressed since he was over twenty, but s.h.i.+nohara made an apparent revolted face to his comment. “Munakata-san, that’s hara.s.sment.”

“Shut up.”

“If you’re saying that, then for Ivanov-san,” s.h.i.+nohara glared at Ivanov. “Why are you drinking beer?”

“Is it wrong?”

“Normally it’s vodka, right? Since you’re Russian, drink vodka.”

“You know, that’s racist.”

“I’m not Russian. I’m from Saitama.” It was a habit for Ivanov to speak in a murmur, unfitting for his large size.

“Now

then, let’s get into the main topic.” Around the point their ordered

meals were being brought out, Munakata began to speak. “You know there

is a mayoral election next month, right?”

“A mayoral election?” The one who asked was s.h.i.+nohara. “What’s that?”

“Ah, right. Since you just got in you wouldn’t know.”

“It’s

the election for the mayor of f.u.kuoka.” Reiko cut in. “There’s one

every four years. Our boss was first elected eight years ago. This next

one will be his third term.”

“At this time there will be a lot of occasions the boss will go out in front of the public for a.s.semblies, lectures, and speeches.”

“That seems pretty bothersome.”

“Yeah,

it is. There may be guys who have a grudge against the boss and pretend

to be a supporter aiming to take his life. During this time until the

election ends we’ll have someone to watch over the boss. Reiko and

s.h.i.+no, I’d like for you two to alternate.”

“Ehh.” s.h.i.+nohara frowned. “Right now I have testing going on, so I’ll be busy.”

“Like

I said, Ivanov and I can’t wander around near the boss.” If a large man

with scars on his face and a man with an eye-patch were near the mayor,

it would look nothing but suspicious. “We are killers. We’re not

bodyguards. Leave it to the guys in charge of the boss’s safety, while

you guys think of killing anyone making an attack on the boss. Got it?”

“Understood.” Reiko said while putting the blue mackerel

in her mouth.

s.h.i.+nohara was still dissatisfied. He muttered a complaint, “My credit is important though.”

Having

placed the portable stove in the center of the table, the motsunabe was

simmering in it in front of the four of them. Once the flame died down a

bit, the conversation continued.

“Our main job is not ensuring the safety of the boss’s well-being. It is to ensure the safety of the boss’s position.

Any raising factors in the mayoral election would cause a small scandal

to become fatal. Be watchful when around the boss and eliminate any

obstacles. Crush any convenient bad information before it gets out.”

“Like always, you mean.” s.h.i.+nohara said as he fixed his gla.s.ses.

“That’s

right. So, the first thing is this guy.” Munakata took out a picture of

a man and several doc.u.ments from his bag. “It’s the Hakata police

office’s ground. It seems he is secretly looking into the connection

between the boss and the crime syndicate.”

“How about I kill him.” Ivanov said and took them. “Can I strangle him?”

“Strangle him and have him hanged. And then there is the case with the boss’s son-”

“It

has turned into quite the season for delicious hot pot, hasn’t it.”

s.h.i.+nohara interrupts the conversation and prepares his own motsunabe.

“Listen.”

“What do we do with this dish? For the last part.”

“It’s just miso, right?” Reiko says. It is with an att.i.tude like it could not be anything but miso.

“It’s ojiya.” Ivanov objects.

Either is fine. Munakata let out a sigh. “I guess we’ll just leave work for later and eat for now.”

Translation Notes:

1. Kos.h.i.+en

甲子園

- Kos.h.i.+en stadium is where the j.a.panese National High School Baseball

Champions.h.i.+p is held. It is located in Nis.h.i.+nomiya City, in Hyogo

Prefecture.

2. Horigotatsu - A s.p.a.ce in the floor with a table covering it.

3. Motsunabe - Miso nabe made with offal and vegetables.

4. Ojiya - A rice gruel containing vegetables and fish and seasoned with miso or soy sauce.