Koji Suzuki - Edge

“Was it something I did?” she sobbed. Her first thought was that somehow, she was to blame.

Toshiya rolled over on the carpet, rubbing his jaw with an expression of incomprehension. His white briefs were bunched at his knees along with his track pants, and his erect penis peeked out, still half-shrouded in foreskin. But it was visibly withering, like a separate organism cut off from its main body. Toshiya began to weep. Of course Saeko was upset, but Toshiya, too, was overcome with tremendous regret.

“I’m sorry, sensei …” he choked, coughing and burying his face in his hands. Pathetically, his need to hide his face was greater than that of hiding his groin. Saeko’s intense rebuttal had shattered his naïve, self-serving delusions.

Toshiya’s good-for-nothing teenage friends had probably filled his head with garbage about how women responded well to men who took forceful action. With no experience of the opposite sex, he had based his warped ideas of how women functioned solely on the misguided theories of his equally ignorant pals. Or perhaps they had ridiculed him for being a virgin and he felt unable to back down. Teenagers’ most outrageous actions were usually motivated by the need to impress their peers.

Already a young adult, Saeko was out of touch with the unbalanced emotional state of adolescence. She still saw Toshiya as the sixth grader he’d been when they’d first met. She had never imagined that the maturing Toshiya harbored romantic feelings for her. Surely there had been indications, but her persisting image of Toshiya as a child had prevented her from recognizing them. If only she had, she might have been able to avert the crisis at an earlier stage without driving Toshiya to utter humiliation.

Even though both of them could have made better choices, it didn’t change the fact that their sibling-like relationship had been completely destroyed. Even after Toshiya’s apology, the mood between them remained strained.

If Saeko knew how Toshiya had overcome his humiliation and used it as a fodder for growth, perhaps she could rebuild her relationship with him. Toshiya was no taller than he had been in high school, and his weight hadn’t changed much either. Even at the age of twenty-nine, his skin was still as smooth as a child’s. His sex appeal was still nil — it was possible that he remained a virgin even now.

Without meaning to, Saeko found herself comparing Toshiya to her ex-husband. Unlike Toshiya, her ex had actually been something of a ladies’ man, but Saeko’s relationship with both of them had not ended well. Having recently analyzed the root cause of her marriage’s failure, whether or not a damaged relationship could ever be repaired loomed large in her mind once again.

“How’s your dissertation coming, Toshiya?” Saeko inquired, shaking away the lingering image in her mind.

“It’s coming along.”

Saeko had heard from Kitazawa that Toshiya had completed his graduate coursework at the same university. He was working at the detective agency while he wrote his dissertation. He hoped to land a post at the university, but there were a number of other post-docs as well, and competition was steep even for non-tenure-track positions. Meanwhile, as a specialist in information theory, his skills were in high demand at Man Search. There’s no information my boy can’t find , Kitazawa boasted.

“Speaking of which, there’s something I wanted to ask you,” Saeko said. “What’s the connection between information theory and black holes?”

Both were major themes in Saeko’s father’s postcard. He’d jotted those notes in 1994, and science had advanced quite a bit over the last eighteen years. Though schooled in both science and philosophy, Saeko’s absence from the halls of academia had left her behind the times.

“What brought that on?” Toshiya widened his eyes dramatically, using exaggerated surprise to conceal his delight that Saeko would consult him about his field of expertise.

“Well, I’m working on a science-related article at the moment, and I was just wondering …” Saeko replied evasively.

“Is that so? Black holes and information theory? That’s easy! They have a lot to do with each other!” Toshiya tapped his head with his finger and made thinking sounds. “Hmm … Hmm … Please excuse me for a moment.”

He ducked out of the room. After about ten minutes, he returned with a document in English, printed in full color.

“Here, read this. It’s an article that appeared in Scientific American last year, by the renowned physicist Jack Thorne. It specifically addresses the relationship between information theory and black holes.”

Accepting the article, Saeko was unable to conceal her amazement at Toshiya’s ability to instantly produce the exact information she was looking for.

Kitazawa had been observing the exchange. “That looks like some complicated material there, little lady.” He squinted at the article.

Right now, Saeko needed help from both father and son. She needed Kitazawa’s support for her missing persons search and Toshiya’s assistance in deciphering the meaning behind her father’s message. Clearly, she stood a much better chance at success if she had help. Toshiya was the perfect person to provide objective analysis of Saeko’s approach — something she desperately needed.

It was a pleasure to witness a former pupil’s progress, even if solely in academic terms. No doubt her father would have liked to see the same in her, Saeko mused.

Saeko made her way down the corridor of Car 5 of the Super Azusa express train for Matsumoto, checking once more the number on her ticket and scanning the rows for her business-class seat. There it was — but Saeko froze when she recognized the face of the elderly woman in the seat next to hers. Immediately, she began to regret not having ridden with the caravan of vehicles that had departed Tokyo the night before.

Originally, Saeko had been scheduled to ride out with the crew. But due to a looming deadline, she’d arranged to delay her departure by a day, pulling an all-nighter and rushing to catch the express train this morning. The assistant director, Sakai, had purchased her a reserved seat and handed her the ticket on the platform. But Saeko had never been warned that she was to be seated next to Shigeko Torii, the famous psychic.

She’s tiny …

That was Saeko’s first impression. Saeko was an average-sized woman, but she was still a whole head taller than Shigeko Torii. The woman was so petite that a business-class ticket seemed almost pointless; no doubt she would have been perfectly comfortable in an ordinary seat. Also, Saeko seemed to remember Shigeko Torii being younger, but in person her face was puckered with deep wrinkles, her hair was white with thin patches here and there, and the skin underneath was mottled with dark blotches. She looked about eighty years old.

“Excuse me.” Saeko bowed politely as she sat down.

“I’m Shigeko Torii,” the old woman responded, twisting her upper body to face Saeko. Assistant Director Sakai must have informed her that they would be sitting together.

“Pleased to meet you. My name is Kuriyama. I’m a reporter.”

Saeko retrieved a business card from her bag and passed it to Shigeko Torii. The old woman accepted it politely with both hands, like a child being presented with an award certificate. She stared at the card for almost a full minute, even though it was printed only with Saeko’s name and contact details without so much as a job title.

Shigeko Torii’s hands trembled as she held the card, but Saeko wasn’t sure why. On the one hand, the elderly woman looked like an alcoholic experiencing DTs. Then again, it could have been some sort of minor nervous disorder. Not just her fingertips, but her jaw trembled slightly as well. On television the psychic seemed much more bold; in person she was so tiny and unsure.