I'm Not Here to Make Good Friends. I Have a Problem to Solve."_ "It's true I can't stop thinking about what you said about my sister." "What did I say?" "Never mind. You were right." "If you say so." "You remember, when I met her here at work and you told me about her, that was the day she died, before she even came inside the office?" "A fine day." "You remember what I said to you?" "Sure. You asked me what's with that scar on your face." "Yes. And you told me that your sister had gotten into a fight with a woman who was wearing a necklace with a rooster on it, right?" "Yeah. We always got along real well, before that day I mentioned." "Yeah, and that woman wore the necklace for the entire eight months of your sister's pregnancy, right?" "No," said Maki. "Actually, that day we had our fight happened the week before she got the necklace. On the last day of that week." "Sure. Right." "Yeah, and I remember the woman in question. But she didn't wear a necklace." "You sure? She really had one on." "Yeah, because we almost fought that day too. That's what I'm talking about." "Huh. Well, I guess I must be mistaken." "If she didn't have a necklace, how would that make her wear a necklace right before she got killed?" "Huh." "So anyway, you were here when I first met her. She was in the corner of the waiting room in a wheelchair with that big hole in her head, and you just looked at me and then away. I was hoping that you'd say something. But you didn't, which kind of annoyed me." "Just looking at you made me lose my breath." "I wanted you to say, _Man, what a pretty girl_ , or _Hey, what a great guy_. But you didn't." "I see. Well, that just goes to show you how much of a bad person I really am, doesn't it?" "If you like. I don't care." "I'm sorry. I didn't say any of those things to you just because I didn't like you, or even thought you were ugly. You can stop judging me. I'm an old man. Besides, what did you want me to say? That you looked like a nice girl who had gotten beaten by life? That you were fine as a young lady but had since been brought low by a misfortune beyond your control? It's not like I was some old man who lived with his two grandchildren, either, seeing as how I'm older than you, not younger. There are many kinds of women. As far as I'm concerned, you're fine. I wouldn't turn my nose up at you or anything." "Thanks. I understand what you mean, but what if I had been your daughter or something? Wouldn't I have been good enough, though not perfect, to be your friend?" "Sure. But you aren't. And you weren't going to be either, if it hadn't been for that thing that happened to her." "My sister was such a good person. How could someone do that to her?" "I guess you never know. We'll just have to hope the killer died peacefully in his cell." "Maybe they can't send him to the electric chair because they don't have any electricity." "Maybe. Though maybe they do. We can try and find out." "We?" "Sure. I'd like to try." "And after that?" "After that? I don't know. Maybe that's enough." "Not really, though, is it?" "Of course not. Still, we can try. One day I'll get my answers, one way or another." "Yeah, me too. I'll try anything." "Well, I have a feeling it's not going to be easy, but at least we can try." "And what if it's as hard as it is to get to see an owl?" "Yes, that will probably be hard, so there's probably no point in trying." "I guess not. Though I wonder if you're right. I mean, don't you think it's possible that this will help us somehow? I mean, like me. After that thing that happened to my sister, I became a different person." "Yeah, but you were a different person even before that happened to you. If it's the same person, it's only to the degree that someone else—your sister—was also the same person before that happened to her." "It's good to be a different person, isn't it?" "It's best to be yourself. Though I guess there are some things you can change about yourself. But most of the important things you're born with. I don't like to say this, but I think people who are very different from others are usually weird, or crazy." "I think you might be right." "And I really hate people who are born ugly, because it makes them hate everything and everyone around them. Like my sister. She couldn't stand her looks and so her only outlet was me, and so she came to like me, and then it became a kind of love, and she told me about it herself. But she hated herself so much that she had the urge to change herself into something I could like her for. And then she did. That was really the day she changed from one person into another. But in fact it was the day she left home." "Where is home?" "I mean it was the day she left her room, not the house." "My sister had a room?" "She did. It was her own little room all to herself." "I wish I could have seen her." "You will. One day. Anyway, why didn't you ever try to find her? And how did you get to find me?" "Because I couldn't think of a reason not to, I guess. But before you get the wrong idea, I didn't mean just about finding her, but about talking with you. You really are a bad man." "If you call me a bad man once, I'll call you one twice. Then I'll beat the hell out of you." "I didn't really want to call you a bad man. But I knew it was the truth, and I didn't want to deceive you." "There are all kinds of deceptions." "All kinds?" "Yes. Some big, some small." "I wonder." "Anyway, let's talk about what I wanted to ask you. Did you ever hear from the person in charge of the electric chair?" "Yeah. I heard from him." "You heard from him?" "It sounds like a bad expression to use, but I guess you could say that. He made it clear what he was going to do with me, so I took it upon myself to do it. That's why I came to the prison. After that, they let me inside the prison." "You went to the prison?" "Sure. Why not? They didn't say I couldn't go there." "Because you're not a prisoner." "What?" "You see, even though I'm sure you don't realize it, most people who are behind bars think like I do. They think of prison as something they're forbidden to leave. The same way a prisoner thinks of the prison where he works. But if you're on the inside of the prison, and you make friends with someone outside, that friend becomes part of the wall. Then if someone with bad intentions happens to come along and tries to break in, he can't. The fact that the man they call the Devil is still in that prison makes it a safer place, so much that it's called Hell. And I didn't come to the prison to find an outlet for my feelings of hostility. I thought I could use my experiences to help you, since you've had no use for me. But I guess you have to wait till you're dead to become immortal." "I don't really like what you're saying." "Well, I'm glad I helped you. I guess I'm not as good as you think. And anyway, I wanted to do something for you, so that's why I came here. If it had been me, I would have come right away." "I know. But that's the difference between us." "What are you talking about?" "If it's too much trouble, I can wait for another day." "And when will that be?" "Maybe when this business is over." "What business?" "That girl in the wheelchair." "Oh, you're talking about her." "Yes, that was it." "What are you so worried about, then?" "Well, I know it isn