The Logmaster - Chapter 30

When the shocking scheme behind Saeki Taku’s serial murders was revealed, the atmosphere at the Joint Investigation Headquarters changed completely.

What had previously been treated as separate accidental deaths or suicides are now linked together as one heinous crime, and a new sense of tension appears on the faces of the investigators.

As expected, even Kakuta read the mood and, being a career employee, was busy preparing for the press conference with higher-ups and had no time to help Sankaku.

As the case moves towards resolution, Mikata is still left with questions in his mind, as if the final piece of the puzzle is yet to be filled in.

The man who is said to have murdered Saeki and then taken his own life.

── Yoshiyuki Iwata

His decades-long desire for revenge is understandable.

But how was he able to pinpoint Saeki’s location?

“Iwata Yoshiyuki…First of all, we need to thoroughly examine this man’s life itself.”

From the pile of investigative materials, Mikaku pulled out the reports related to Iwata, page by page, tracing them with his fingertips.

The stack of papers seemed to speak of one man’s obsession and the weight of his tragedy.

Iwata’s life was so poignant that it was like reading a passage from an old tragic novel.

When he was young, his irreplaceable fiancée, with whom he had pledged his future, was brutally raped and even killed by a beast named Saeki Taku.

The wounds in his heart never healed, even after decades had passed, and his soul continued to burn with a single dark flame: revenge against Saeki.

After his arrest, Saeki avoided the death penalty on the grounds of mental disability.

What’s more, the public and some parts of the media have even hurled cruel slander at the victim, her fiancé, and her family.

These actions likely served to rub further salt into Iwata’s wounds that have never healed.

The transcript vividly conveys how his entire life was devoted to searching for information about Saeki, and how, unable to find stable employment, he poured most of his meager income into hiring detectives and informants, and into running a personal exposé website.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that his life was barely hanging on, solely to take revenge on Saeki.

(…An incredible amount of determination. But that alone cannot explain how they were able to so easily pinpoint Saeki’s location, when he hadn’t been found for decades. It’s only natural to assume they received some kind of information from an outside source…)

Sankaku took another close look at the seizure records of the smartphone that Iwata was allegedly using.

Communication history, call records, social media interactions…are there any clues to be found in that vast amount of data?

Then, I discovered one particularly suspicious message in the inquiry form history on his website.

— The message was sent the night before Saeki was murdered.

“http://4kf7ljksh72eot3b.onion/ I have a good idea of ​​where Taku Saeki is currently. Please visit this URL. Please use Tor in your browser. The connection time is 11 pm today.”

(…Tor browser? Who on earth would contact Iwata in such an elaborate way…?)

Receiving this message was likely the direct trigger for Iwata’s final actions.

Naturally, the investigation headquarters had already completed its investigation into this message as well.

A request for disclosure of source information was made to the internet service provider immediately after the incident, and although the posted URL itself had already been deleted without a trace, the IP address from which the message had been sent was identified.

Then, the name of the person who emerged as the subscriber to that IP address in the investigation contradicted Sankaku’s expectations, but somehow made sense.

── Maki Ichinose

(…Ichinose…? Um, is that the PR manager for Argus, who was the subject of a huge social media backlash recently? It seems likely that she has some personal grudge against Saeki, who sparked the backlash, so it makes sense that she would tell Iwata where she is…)

She was originally a talented and capable public relations director who often appeared in the media and boasted a brilliant career.

However, that all changed a few weeks ago when she posted on social media that she had been nearly attacked by a homeless person in a park.

Shortly after, a video refuting the allegation, stating that the homeless man was trying to help her, was spread on the Internet, exposing her claim as a lie.

As a result, he was heavily criticized by the public, lost all social credibility, and was effectively disciplined by his company. And the “homeless man” at the center of this whole turmoil was none other than Saeki Taku.

Of course, the police had already conducted voluntary questioning of Ichinose.

According to the transcript, she admitted that she did remember sending some kind of message to Iwata’s website.

He also made no secret of the fact that he harbored a strong grudge against Saeki, whom he saw as the person who had brought him down socially, even though it was out of his league.

However, when it came to the specific content of the message he wrote in the inquiry form, his statements were vague and incomprehensible.

“I was mentally unstable at the time, I was drunk, and I don’t remember much.”

“Maybe someone tempted him.”

Considering the surrounding information about Ichinose’s PC skills and IT literacy, it is highly unlikely that she set up a Tor browser or an anonymous chat room on the dark web and guided Iwata. She should be a more analog person.

(…It’s highly possible that Ichinose was used or cleverly manipulated by someone. But who? And for what reason? Who would gain from having Saeki killed…?)

Desperately trying to keep from getting lost in a maze of thoughts, Mikaku decided to identify anyone around Ichinose who might have imparted this specialized IT knowledge to her and who had a motive to gain some kind of benefit or settle a personal grudge by leaking information about Saeki to Iwata.

A list of industry seminars hosted by her employer, Argus Inc., where she has recently spoken.

I checked the enormous list of names on the participant list, one by one, with my finger.

Then, as Triangle’s fingers continued their steady confirmation process, they suddenly stopped on a certain name. His heart pounded uncomfortably.

— Shinichi Ayumaru

His name was there, quietly but surely, in a corner of the huge list of participants, like some kind of mark.

(…It’s Ayumaru again…! Does that mean he had some connection with Ichinose as well…?)

The suspicious deaths of homeless people, the serial murders committed by Saeki, and then Iwata’s murder of Saeki.

Behind every incident, like an invisible spider’s web, the shadow of a man named Ayumaru Omiichi always lurks.

However, despite this conviction, no physical evidence or conclusive testimony has yet been found directly linking him to the crime.

Ayumaru always appears on the periphery of events, but never at the center of them.

It is as if he is a puppeteer skillfully manipulating the actors from behind the scenes, controlling others while watching from a safe, untarnished place.

(…Don’t panic. He’ll show his tail. But how can we corner him…?)

The man named Ayumaru Omiichi has an unfathomable eeriness. And the incidents he is involved in take an extremely mysterious and bizarre turn. Misumi is once again painfully aware that he is confronted with a type of malice he has never experienced before, something that is hard to grasp, like grasping at a mist.

He was deeply shaken by his frustration at the complete lack of evidence, and yet his sense of mission as a detective was to bring to light the truth that was about to be buried in the darkness.

Time just passes by, moment by moment.