01x02 - What the Guardian Serpent Heard

[bunniefuu]

Those are pretty, huh? Are youhere visiting your cousin again?

You seem to haveexcellent timing, don't you?

Was it throughdeduction or did your

Yokai friends tellyou I was here?

I have an appointment for my eye

and leg today.What a coincidence.

Hey, guys. It's me. Isaac.

Can't do.

After that last incident,the Ayakashi won't

stop talking about youand what you did that day.

He must be a yokaiof unrivaled power.

I bet he's goingto cook us up and eat

every one of us to the last one.

So I helped you out.And that's the thanks I get.

Well, it's yourpower that scares them.

Your left arm. Are you sure?It's totally fine now.

Wait, you're actuallyworried about me? Well,

I'm the onewho got you involved.

See. It's fine. Ever since I ate

the flesh of a mermaidat the age of ,

my body repairs itself no matterhow badly it gets hurt.

You know, it said those that eat

mermaid will become immortaland gain eternal youth.

But I'm happy to say that youdefinitely don't look .

About that. I think itmight be because the other

yokai whose flesh I atealong with the mermaids

is nullifying someof the effects.

Well, what was the other one?

I have to get going.I'll be late for visiting hours.

Curro.

I actually hada favor to ask you.

Tonight I am headingoff to go and see

a giant serpentwho is the guardian

spirit of the mountainsin the next prefecture. Over.

Would you come with me?A giant serpent? Yes.

About ten days ago, one of itsservants came to visit me.

It said,The Guardian is so troubled

by something that it can'teven sleep at night.

So this is a job for the goddessof wisdom to the specters.

You're going to putyourself in danger again.

I mean, you don't even haveany special powers. How rude.

I have a veryspecial power that allows

me to interact with the ayakashiand even touch ghosts.

But that's it.Am I right? You can't fly.

You don't have super strength ortalismans to create supernaturalphenomena.

You don't have any physicalor spell like powers.

What if you runinto another violent,

aggressive monster likewe did the other day?

At least my arm can regrow.

If you're so worried about me,you should just come along.

And if you wereto help them out,

despite how muchthe Yokai fear you,

I'm sure it'll make negotiationsand mediations go smoother.

I can't tonight. Huh?I want to enjoy

the pork miso soup I madelast night. So go by yourself.

Honestly,why is he like that? Who

lets a poordefenseless girl go off

into the mountains on herown in the middle

of the night?I'm terribly sorry..

It's so late, my lady. Oh, look,

the swamp's nowcoming into view.

I know you've traveleda great distance

to come and seeme as I had requested.

For which I humbly thank you.My lady.

Oh, of course. That is my duty.

After all, There's no needto thank me for doing my job.

And besides, the people hereonce worshiped you as a watergod.

It's only naturalthat I come to see

you if you ever needed me.

It's been quite a longtime since the humans

worshipped me as a water god.

The small shrine haslong been forgotten,

and no one offers me anythingfor it to rain anymore.

Though even whenthey did pray to me,

I never had the ability tocontrol the weather to beginwith.

Considering me a god waspresumptuous. It's no wonderI've been forgotten.

The human world developsso quickly that there

are many things I don'tunderstand. That is why I sentone of

my servants to summon you forth,

my lady, so I could borrow some

of your great wisdom. So. Well,

I apologize that I cannot bemore hospitable here in thesemountains.

But please do notbe angry with me.

Oh, no, It's totally fine ifI seem to be in a bad mood.

It isn't because of you.It's due

to something personal. Somethingpersonal you say, right?

I have a moody boyfriendnamed Kuro Sakuragawa.

I asked him to comewith me here tonight,

but he declined,saying he'd rather stay

home and eat pork miso soup.

So you had one of your yokai.Track me down.

It's absolutely imperativethat you look at this.

You actually madepork miso soup.

Don't go barging intopeople's homes. Wait.

You're going into the mountainsdressed like that?

You noticed Kuro?I knew you would.

It's a spring line. My.I've been invited. Dress.

But you were invited to a swampin the mountains. Wait. No.

You shouldn't be so forceful.What is this?

The jacket I wore when I wentmountain climbing in gradeschool.

How did you dig thisup so quickly? Oh, no.

What are you doing?It's some bug repellent.

What the heck..Do you think you're.

Here's some porkmiso soup to take

with you and rice balls to.

Wait. Claro.Don't do anything rash again.

So you see, even though I told

him I would be meetingwith a giant

serpent that mightlike to dine on

humans, he refused to join me.

Goodness, no. I would neverdream of eating you, my lady.

Besides,humans are far too hard to eat

with the clothes and metalaccessories that they put on.

So you have actually eatensome humans before?

I can't say I haven't.I was rumored

to be a man eatingserpent back in the day,

but humans don'treally taste that good,

and nowadays it would causefar too much trouble,

which I would prefer to avoid.By the way, my lady,

if you were ableto bring your soup here,

couldn't your boyfriend havebrought his to eat here as well?

Uh,

I mean, he probably didn'thave another thermos.

That must be it, I'm sure.

We've gone off track downto the issue at hand.

You're concerned aboutthe m*rder*d corpse you

found in your swamp recently,aren't you?

Yes.I cannot fathom why that woman

came all the way to my swampto dispose of the body.

So I'd liketo hear an explanation

that I can be satisfied with.

About a month ago,on April rd, just past p.m.,

two hikers who wereout picking mountain

vegetables found a man's bodyfloating here at Sukuna Swamp

because he'd been stabbedin the chest with a sharp Kn*fe.

They ruled it a m*rder.However, despite

having a few days passingsince he was m*rder*d

and him havingno cell phone or ID

on his person,they identified him immediately.

Hiro Yoshihara, years old. Heworked for a large constructionfirm.

Eventually,a year old woman was

arrested as a suspect.Our taneo.

I admit it was me.They got a confession from her.

While many unansweredquestions remain. They're mostly

working on gatheringevidence right now.

That means it'spretty much an open

and shut casefor the time being.

I assume she threwthe body into the swamp

to hide it or to perhapsstall its eventual discovery.

Nay,it was not to hide the body.

I just happened to seeher as she dumped it in.

It.

That woman didindeed do something

so spiteful asto throw that corpse

into the swamp whosewaters I drink from.

But there are times whenanimal corpses float in it,

as well as humanswho throw trash into it.

So I have the ayakashi that live

in these mountains,clean the swamp regularly,

which is fine and all,but something

is still amissabout all of this.

The woman didn't putanything on the body

to weigh it downwhen she threw it in,

so the corpse rose to the topand was discovered quickly.

Above all, at that moment, Iclearly heard the woman saythis.

I hope with all myheart that they find you.

Despite taking the time andeffort to dispose of the corpsehere,

she talked about how shewanted his body to be found.

At first glance,it seems like her

actions don't reallymake much sense at

all. Yes. I don't understand it.

It must be difficult for a woman

to push a wheelbarrowwith a body

in it up a mountain at night.

The police doubted that part,so they asked her about it.

Why did youbother carting his dead

body all the wayup there to that swamp?

And that's when the suspecttold them..

There's a huge serpentthat's living in that swamp.

And I've heard that sometimesit eats people.

I thought if I dumped the body

there, the serpent would eat it.

It was a rather irrationalconfession. So it even appearedin newspapers?

Yes, I, too,saw that confession.

Anyway, Tanios family home isright at the base of thismountain.

It could be sheactually believed the legend

she heard as a child about a maneating serpent in the swamp.

And in a desperate attempt,she brought

the corpse all the wayup here to get rid of it.

Of course, that's not the case.She

actually brought the body uphere with the intention ofhiding it.

She wasn't tryingto bury it or let

it sink down into the swamp.

She wanted to giveit to you to devour it.

Well,then what about what that woman

said when she dumped the body?

She didn't mean it. Like Ibrought it all the way up here,

so I hope someone will find it.

It was reallyquite the opposite.

What she meantwas that she hoped

she would find the bodyfirst and deal with it for her.

Nay,even if I had found the body,

there was no guaranteethat I'd eat it.

If the woman really wishedto dispose of the body,

she would have saidsomething along the lines

of I truly hope it eats you..

For being so huge. This guardiangets hung up on little details.

This brings upanother question Why did

that woman give the policea false confession?

Oh, man,this is going to take a while.

Well, in all likelihood,to conceal the real

reason she dumped the body here,I.

I would like to hear an answerI can be satisfied with.

Let's go backover the details of this case.

Despite your wisdom, we need tomake sure there aren't anydiscrepancies.

It all started five years ago.

Our tanino had a boyfriend.It was

a serious relationship with ayoung man named Yoshikazu Maki.

But he d*ed in the armsof a different

woman who was his co-worker inwhat looked like a doublesuicide.

Maki worked in the accountingdepartment of a largeconstruction firm,

but after he d*ed,it came to light

that he'd messedwith some numbers and

embezzled a large sum of money.

Maki realized he wouldn'tbe able to hide

the fact that hehad embezzled the money.

So he convinced the womanto die with him.

Or at least that waswhat everyone believed.

Aoi was deeply hurtby this and came

back to her family homeat the base of Mount Sukuna.

She lived as a shutin for about two years,

but she eventuallyfound a job near

home and began to graduallyget back on her feet again.

And it wasright around that time,

April st of this year,a Friday night, .

Hiro Yoshihara showed upat his house.

I'm sorry for whatI did five years ago.

Yoshihara wasa co-worker of McKee's, so

I knew his name and face.

I embezzled the money, and I'mthe one who k*lled matchy

matchy. And that womanrealized what I had done.

They said they'd makeit public unless

I confessed.That's why I k*lled them.

Hiro Yoshihara's plan wentaccordingly. He got away withthe embezzlement,

and it said that he was livinga decent life afterwards.

But starting this year, he wasmet with a series ofmisfortunes.

He made a mistake at workthat cost millions.

An accident k*lled hiswife and child.

On top of that,they found a malignant

tumor growing in his body.A series of unfortunate events.

Yoshihara thought thiswas happening because of what

he had done five years prior.

So he visited Aoi in themountains to repent for hiscrimes.

He thought if he showedremorse now,

he could escape his fatefulpunishment and that he might

at least get away with his life.

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. And that pretty

much sums upour Tanios confession.

Apparently, Yoshihara had alsocontacted McKee's youngerbrother beforehand,

asking if they couldmeet up soon

regarding what had happenedfive years ago.

McKee's brother wasat work at the time,

so he couldn't talkto him in detail.

That probably promptedYoshihara to go see our first.

As the investigation went on,the embezzlement

and supposed double suicidecame back to light.

They also learned that Otani,who was connected to the case,

lived at the baseof the mountain

where the corpse was foundand made the connection.

Yoshihara was about mysize and his

body had already wastedaway due to his illness,

so it wasn't that much troubleto get him up the mountain.

The next day, Saturday, thend, no one came to the swamp,

possibly becauseit rained that day.

So the body wasn't discovereduntil two days later on therd.

I figured the serpentwouldn't want to eat

the man's walletor his cell phone,

so I decided to remove them.Then I b*rned his ID at home

and I threw the knifeinto the swamp with the body.

But. It did not eat the corpse.

The police have been comingto the swamp

quite often during the day,ever since it happened.

It would seem they are lookingfor the Kn*fe that k*lled him.

I'm sure they'dhave a tough time

finding it hereabout the suspect.

Did she throwanything in the swamp?

I mean, aside from the body?I'm not certain.

Sadly, the information I canget is limited,

so I'll just haveto use my imagination

to fill in someof the blank spots.

But I still believethe suspect dumped

the body into the swampfor a very simple reason.

The simple reason? That's right.In cases like this,

it's often doneto protect the real k*ller.

Hiro Yoshihara had contactedTaneo beforehand, saying

that he'd like to come see her.

He was from a darkpart of her past.

I doubt she'd agreeto see him alone.

That is a good point. No one

would suspect anythingif she had someone

with her whenYoshihara came over.

Oh, I know.I think Maki's younger

brother would bea perfect example.

Yoshihara told Maki'sbrother on the phone

that he had also contactedMaki's former girlfriend.

He might have had a bad feelingabout that and contacted Aoki.

After learning the truth of hisbrother's m*rder, he impulsivelykilled Yoshihara.

But he still had a future.On the other hand.

I had been living as a suddenand had very little to lose.

That's why she decidedshe would protect him.

After sending the realkiller away, she decided

to dump the corpseat the swamp in the mountains.

There are three reasonsfor this. The first

to let the swamp waterwash off any traces

of the true k*ller that mayhave ended up on the corpse.

The second to givethe true k*ller an alibi.

But then why did the woman say.I hope with all my heart that

they find you?I don't understand.

Like I said,there's a third reason

why she dumped the body here.

Tanio tried to getrid of any trace

of the true k*ller at her house.

If she carefullycleaned every inch of

her home,that could be possible.

But what aboutoutside the house?

There's no telling what tracesMaki's brother could have leftbehind.

And that's the mainreason why Aloy

chose to bringthe corpse to your swamp.

What do you mean?What else? She wished

for rain and the rain came.Oh, You are known as a water

god and received prayers forrain in the past, didn't you?

If it started pouringtire tracks and anything

else you might have accidentallydropped would just get washedaway.

A moment, please.I was regarded as a water

god a very long time ago.

Besides dropping a bodyinto the swamp

as an offering is unheard of.

And did they reallythink they'd be blessed

with rain by throwingin the corpse

of a filthy middle aged man?

If they wanted to giveme an offering,

it should have been a beautifulliving girl. Give me.

As a sacrifice. GuardianThere are usually

two types of rainrituals someone can try.

The first option is to prayto a water

god and havethem choose to grant

your wish.That's the Orthodox method.

But there is alsothe opposite method

of making the waterGod absolutely furious

so that they go on a rampageand make it rain.

Oh, I do believe I've heardthat somewhere before.

And it appears that you areindeed enraged, wouldn't yousay?

Goodness me. Now, I remember itactually did rain the next day.

So this wouldexplain why you heard

her say she wishedhe'd be found out.

Tanya wanted you to findYoshihara's corpse and gocompletely berserk.

That's why she left. I hope with

all my heart that they findyou slip out without thinking.

Nay, that explanationis still lacking in that case.

Wouldn't she have said,I really hope

it pours down or I really hope

the giant serpent findshim and becomes enraged.

Why, of course.If somebody's not involved

in any way hadbeen visiting here by car,

they would have witnessedwhat she was doing.

The police wouldinvestigate that, too, to see

if there might have beenanother k*ller or accomplices.

You seem to deny yourown claims rather readily.

That's why the onlysuspect is our Tonio.

Most of whatshe confessed to the

police aboutwhat happened is true.

I think the onlything that's different

is her reasoning for dumpingthe corpse in the swamp.

So you came. So that is mylady's boyfriend. Oh,terrifying.

I'm your boyfriend now.I'm so glad you could make it.

Why don't you tell him that I'mnot really your boyfriend?

We can have ourlover's quarrel later.

Right now,we have to resolve any

lingering questions he has.Yes, precisely, my lady.

And how are youplanning to do that?

I mean, if you were listeningthis whole time,

you should have come out sooner,my lady.

So what is the realreason the suspect

threw the corpse intomy beloved swamp?

Incidents involving a phantomkiller thr*aten the city.

And the culprit is a facelesswoman wearing a red dress.

Are the incidents reallycaused by Steel Lady Nancy?

The ghost of a former idol?Next time,

the rumors of the steel lady.