Sleuthing Seisho: An Impossible Case in a Fishing Village

“I say, I say!” The detective gave a sharp jolt, causing his pipe to tumble from his lips and into the damp dirt. “How did you get out of your cell?”

The prisoner stood before him, hands clasped behind her back. Her head hung low, her hair obscuring her face. The detective offered a handkerchief, but she ignored it, letting the soil collect on the tip of her nose.

“I thought you were in that cell for the next twenty-two years.”

She looked up at him with a wan smile. “You know I wasn’t going to stay caged up like an animal. It was only a matter of time before I found a way out. I’m not so easy to keep in check as they think I am.” She turned around and shuffled along towards the edge of the cliff where he sat perched on his rock. Every stone and pebble crunched under her bare feet, sending plumes of dust rising into the air, but she seemed not to notice and kept walking until she was beside him. He could see that one arm had been broken recently and was now supported by a makeshift splint made from ripped cloth and tightly bound rope. She stared out across the ocean with unblinking eyes, breathing heavily. He could hear her ribs creak as they pressed against each other beneath sunburnt skin.

He turned away from their view of the foaming waves and faced her directly; he needed to make sure she was truly there with him this time. He'd already lost her once before when he'd fallen asleep on that rock for five hours with only his pipe and half-empty bottle of shochu for company, but now he knew that she would never break from his grasp again; not now when an entire village lay in ruins because of her and her reckless actions, not after all these years spent tracking down all those involved in what had become known as the Village Incident, not after so many sleepless nights spent putting together pieces of evidence that pointed to no conclusion other than that she had done it, not after all this time searching for an answer to why this young woman he barely knew had decided to destroy their lives – both his own and hers - and kill everyone who lived here in order to satisfy… Well, he didn't know exactly why she'd done it yet but he was determined to find out before she took another step towards that cliff edge and toppled over into the endless tide below them; determined to find out if any part of what she said had been true: That she'd done all this because she felt she loved him more than anyone else ever could or would love him; that it had been necessary for them both to end up like this – ruined - in order to be together again; that they were meant to be together forever; that everything was going according to plan or fate or whatever name you wanted to give it; determined most of all because he couldn't take looking at her any longer without knowing something about what had happened here last month – regardless if it made sense or not – without understanding whether or not any part of it was worth it or whether everything about themselves had been built on lies for so long…

He reached out and pulled her towards him with trembling arms; feeling each bone in his fingers crunch against each other just as hers must have when she broke them trying to break free from those bars. He couldn't let go of her even though he knew no good could come from clinging onto someone who might take you with them into death any moment now; despite how sickeningly sweet she smelled after weeks spent lying uncovered somewhere underground waiting for rescue; despite how soft and warm her skin felt against his cheek as he buried himself into it; despite how much he wanted everything between them to be real because then maybe some small part of what had happened here could be reversed or changed somehow… But still he didn't let go until tears began stinging at his own eyes and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't stop thinking about himself being responsible for every single one of those deaths while this young girl lay next to him unchanged except for the red marks that scarred every inch of exposed skin where villagers had tried unsuccessfully to rip off her limbs during their last moments alive…