Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2001 | Page 11

The Works of Seicho Matsu mo to

7

Hikosuke couldn’t rid himself of the thought that one
of these days Takeji.. .would learn of his success and come af
ter him ... Someday, thanks to Takeji, all his happiness would
be taken from him. Hikosuke felt doomed. He became edgy;
his nerves were frayed; he was unable to sleep at night. (7-12)
Hikosuke hires an investigator (a freelance reporter) to keep an eye on
Takeji and report to him periodically. Initially the reports were comfort
ing. Takeji was married and had a thriving business of his own. Hikosuke
thought Takeji had no reasons to blackmail him. But some months later
the reports took an unexpected turn; Takeji had lost his business, became
a vagrant, and lived in a shack. Hikosuke panicked. He bought a knife.
Hikosuke said to himself, “One life would end, and one would be freed.”
He went to the shack at night.
“You’re Takeji Machida, right?”
Hikosuke gripped the handle of his knife.
“Uh-huh.”
The reply sounded almost like a moan in the darkness.
Aiming at the voice, Hikosuke lunged. (23)
To his surprise, the man in the shack was not Takeji. It was Ryoichi Takeoka, the
reporter he had hired. In the process of investigating Takeji for him, Ryoichi had
figured it all out.
“I was convinced you’d show up here in search of Mr. Machida.
You were scared out of your wits by him, all because of some
secret between the two of you. You might even try to kill him if