It was truly an awful thing.
An incident which, to my sadness, I cannot forget.
To live is to suffer.
Yet I shouldn't forget it.
No, I mustn't forget it.
It is for that reason that I'm writing this.
In memory of a simple tanuki.
(Wanting you to just be near, to feel your breath upon my ear)
(Wishing you would call my name, 'Cause only you can light the flame)
Constantly searching, still can't find
Ever illusive peace of mind
Sometimes it's near, but slips away
And I'm faced with another day
Of wanting you... (to feel your breath upon my ear)
...to just be near ('Cause only you can light the flame)
Of wishing you... (to feel your breath upon my ear)
...would call my name, to feel your breath upon my ear
Of wanting you...wishing you... (to feel your breath upon my ear)
Call my name, 'cause only you can light the flame
When I first met him...
I'm a tanuki.
He mumbled it, and I didn't know what to say.
I changed into a human and can't change back now.
Have you met him? The tanuki?
The tanuki? The boss picked him up from somewhere.
He's been with us for a while now.
They keep calling him a tanuki...
but the word is he's the bastard child of some nobleman.
He's a nice tanuki.
When I heard that Ogin had joined up...
with a puppeteer troupe she knew to help them...
my first thought was that their next target was one of the players.
Yes. At first, I was merely curious.
It just seems too much like a bad pun to me.
A tanuki with the Shibaemon Players!
Just what I'd expect to hear from someone writing "The 100 Stories."
Unlike the common tales of kappas and monster cats...
most people haven't heard the story of the Shibaemon Tanuki.
Aw, come on. Please?
Well, of course I know it, having a name like this.
Got teased about it all the time when I was a kid!
The troupe was called the Shibaemon Players...
named after its leader, a kind and gentle-looking man.
The same name as in the legend of the Shibaemon Tanuki...
which tells of a tanuki who loved plays, transformed into a human...
in order to see one, and was eaten by dogs as a result.
The funny thing was that this troupe also apparently had a tanuki in it.
A tanuki who'd changed into a person, just like the legend told.
I am a tanuki.
Truly, I am a tanuki who shouldn't be allowed to live.
Is it wrong to want to live?
Or, rather, life itself is certainly painful.
The tanuki's cage.
The "cage" in this case being an extravagantly-designed prison cell.
Perhaps my fleeting glimpse of him led me to sympathize with his plight.
Isn't that a little cruel?!
No need to get mad all of a sudden!
Who wouldn't get angry, seeing a man locked up like that?!
For a man who thinks up riddles, you jump to conclusions too easily.
In the end, a tanuki is a wild animal...
and wild animals need to be chained up.
But...
Who is that?!
That's the tanuki.
But he's usually pretty quiet.
You heard me howling last night?
I'm embarrassed.
Sometimes, I have no memory of the previous night.
Perhaps I turn back into a tanuki on those nights.
Play with me, Mr. Tanuki!
Master Shibaemon will scold you, Miss Tei.
He's told you to stay away from me, hasn't he?
Grandpa's rehearsing now, so it'll be all right!
Me? Yes, of course.
Those rumors that I'm the bastard son of a nobleman are true.
I see. So, the riddler wishes to hear of the tanuki's past.
They say you will be his substitute!
Yes. I came into this world as a substitute for a certain man.
The shogun recently installed has a weak heart.
The Healing Buddha said he would certainly die young.
If that happens, as you share the blood that flows within him...
and look just like him, you would have to become the new shogun.
I would become the shogun?
I accepted the life of a substitute without question.
I was never allowed to go outside and play.
Instead, I was kept inside the palace, studying the role of shogun day after day.
The one person who offered me comfort...
was the narrator of the Shibaemon Players...
who would come by once in a while to perform for us.
The Shogun has produced an heir?!
Then, what about me? What will become of me?!
How... How could you?!
The stories of tanukis who turn into people...
and of noble bastard sons are quite common.
Yeah, that's true.
But how often do the two get combined like this?
The vital point here seems to be your sympathy for him, Mr. Author.
I...?
Heh, the fact your heart goes out to others so easily...
is proof of your basic kind nature.
Some might call it naive.
Oh, enough of this!
Leaving? It's very late. Why not spend the night here?
I hear that violent men who kill for no reason are common lately.
That doesn't mean I'll run into one!
Why didn't I realize it then?
That was just his usual way of warning me.
He was telling me not to get so emotionally attached to the tanuki.
Am I lost?
I'd better stay put for a bit.
Could it be?!
No, it couldn't be. How could he get out of those chains?
Even so, I still believed that he...
That the tanuki wasn't the killer.
Oh? The tanuki last night?
He yelled for a bit, but eventually quieted down.
Anyway, I have to get down to the riverside. Can you help me?
So, the killer struck again, huh? Well, it's dangerous lately, but...
I hear we can have a really sweet time on the next street over.
You old tanuki!
Uh-huh! One time before he ran back to his home really fast!
My grandpa had a really scary look on his face when he did!
The killer is traveling with my company, you say?
Don't be absurd!
Considering you've seen the killer twice and lived...
Is that a threat?
Take it as you like.
No human is behind those killings.
No human COULD do that.
No human.
Nobody would talk.
They'd turned their eyes from the truth.
So, my only choice was to look into it myself.
I had to uncover the truth of that foggy night...
It's nearly time.
Right.
Hello there, Mataichi.
Well, I wanted to see this tanuki everyone's talking about.
You probably heard something from Ogin and came to make fun of me.
What you wish to know, Mr. Author...
is whether that young samurai is a tanuki or a human...
and if the killings are the work of the tanuki.
A tanuki in human form would split his victim...
in half vertically in order to devour their liver.
Ah, wait, but you knew that already, didn't you?
Still, it's a well-constructed story he's spun.
Assuming he's human...
IF he's human?
Someone's coming.
SHIBA--
Gone! I lost him!
Tei?!
Master Samurai, wait! MASTER SAMURAI!
Master Samurai, calm yourself!
Up we go! That was close!
Nagamimi!
Mr. Author, I hate to say this, but...
No, I didn't want to listen.
Shibaemon and the rest of his players all knew the truth.
The young samurai was the serial killer.
Knowing that, they still unchained him and set him loose!
What was once a young man who dreamed of a future in their troupe...
has now simply become a bother.
And as a bonus, someone investigating the killings showed up as well.
What, am I the "bonus"?
They let him loose because they knew...
you'd be coming to check things out today.
Well, you turned out to be good bait in the end, Mr. Author.
He's crying?
One who murdered innocent people. Who murdered little Tei!
Do you wish to know? The truth about what he is?
Even if he was the one behind it...
how do I tell Shibaemon that Tei's been killed?!
Tei?!
You're as slow as ever, I see.
Ogin?!
What is the puppeteer's specialty?
At that moment, I realized it.
Mataichi and the others had come to kill the tanuki from the very start.
I see. You've done a fine piece of investigation.
It was a while back, when we were hunting a wild tanuki.
He was ruining our tools and materials right and left.
What we found in the trap was a young samurai, on the run.
Yes, I'd heard about it.
How the shogun had finally produced an heir.
With the dream of his replacing the shogun now ended...
so, too, ended the dream of our modest troupe...
of becoming royal performers.
Can you blame me for feeling like I'd been tricked by a tanuki?
I couldn't leave him to his fate. He'd come to us for help, after all.
But if the authorities found out, the troupe would be broken up.
We might have even been killed for helping him!
That's why we raised him as a tanuki.
A simple tanuki.
What should we have done, you may ask?
With this poor madman, who lived a cursed existence?!
And so...you let him loose?
All I did was let a tanuki out into the countryside.
If he'd lost his human heart, then perhaps he really was a beast.
If you didn't think of it that way...
It's Tei. We came as soon as we could...
but we couldn't save her.
It can't be!
A tanuki who kills people for no reason must be put to death.
Put to death.
Let me... Let me do it, please!
You? You couldn't do it.
He's not a man. He's a tanuki, right?
That's right. You have to become a real tanuki.
Lady Hachisuka is apparently a huge fan of the theater.
The serial killer panic seems to be keeping the customers away for now.
If we get a powerful backer...
we might get back some of the status we used to have.
Oh, yes, that's right.
Let's watch from here!
You'll go with Mother, won't you?
M-Mother!
Yes, the samurai there poisoned his own mother to save his life!
If we have no role to play anymore, we have no reason to live.
You'll come with me, won't you?
Yes, Mother.
The poison was in my sake cup, but not in my mother's cup!
Why?! Did the shogun say he'd spare you if you killed me?!
I thought we were to both die together.
If... If only... I hadn't given birth... to you!
Mr. Tanuki? What's wrong, huh?
I thought...you were dead. That I'd killed you!
That's right. You killed me.
You cut me in half.
Tei!
TEI!
I killed her! I killed her!
I had to kill, or they'd have killed me, so...!
So, I did it over and over and over and over!
Is that why you keep killing? Slicing them in two?
TEI!
No! Don't run away! I won't kill you!
I...won't...kill you!
Damn you, Tanuki! SHOW YOUR TRUE FORM!
Stop it! I'm...
A tanuki! Isn't that what you said?!
What do you think of your true form, Mr. Tanuki?
I'm not a tanuki!
You are a tanuki!
That's why you murder people! Why you eat their livers!
If you commit your crimes as a tanuki, then you must die as a tanuki!
As we travel down the path of life, we are confronted by choices.
Step off the path of righteousness and you become trapped in the depths of sin.
Evil and ambition scatter in the darkness...
leaving behind dubious rumors to fly in public.
I thought Mother was going to kill me. But I'm still alive!
I thought if I could kill Mother, then she could kill me this time!
Is that why you kept killing people?
Is it wrong to live as something you're not?
No, except that you're already dead.
Your body may still be alive, but your soul...
If you wish to die, you should take your own life.
But you didn't kill yourself before killing others.
THAT is your sin!
Impossible! He really was a tanuki?!
Tei!
Tei was killed long ago.
It was a curse of a tanuki.
TEI!
Is it really wrong to live your life as something you're not?
Enough, already!
If you understand that...
Exactly!
I'll never forget him... the tanuki I killed.
While the pain and heartbreak are still fresh...
I'll write the story down.
I'm a tanuki.
In memory of a simple tanuki.
To the next world, we commit Thee.
Wind chimes whisper soft and sweet
Though there's not a hint of a breeze
Moonlight dancing on the garden walk
As it gently drifts through the trees
Romance takes flight on this perfect night
While all of the world lays sleeping
Find us here as we feel the moment of love
Draw near
Dream, sleep, with your hand in mine
Underneath a blanket of stars
Song birds singing in a distant glade
As we share the warmth of the dawn
Evil and ambition scatter in the darkness...
leaving behind dubious rumors to fly in public.
If you head west in Kyoto, you reach a ruthless place...
where you find Genba Sasayama, who lost his wife.
With no place to go, a feeling leads to a woman's corpse.
Next time, on Natsuhiko Kyogoku's "Requiem From the Darkness:"
Katabira Crossroads.
To the next world, we commit Thee!