Free The Gate of Sorrows by Miyuki Miyabe Page B

people came forward claiming to own it, with each denouncing the others as imposters. A civil suit ensued, and the trustee sealed the building temporarily; then, when a resolution had seemed to be in sight, the building was reopened, gutted and remodeled several times by a series of commercial tenants—a beauty salon, a bar, a restaurant—with each new business going bust almost as soon as it opened its doors. Then another hasty renovation would follow, with another grand opening and another business failure.
    Around the time Shigenori moved to Wakaba, these attempts to do business at the tea caddy building came to an end, and it stood abandoned and empty. Rumor had it that the ex-wife of the original owner had managed to capture half the rights to the building, but without the other half she couldn’t sell it. It wasn’t close to any station, and its history seemed to put potential tenants off. The building’s doors were locked, but it was empty and unwatched, and it soon became a hangout for local teenagers, who seemed to have a talent for spotting opportunities of this kind. A year earlier there had been a minor panic over a small fire that had broken out. Since then the Ida District Association and associations from neighboring districts had taken to regularly patrolling the building, though all they could do was check the outside.
    “Is there something wrong with the building?” Shigenori asked. “Did the patrol run across something?”
    “It’s not easy to explain, actually,” said Shigeru. “In fact, it’s rather odd.”
    He found the image he had been searching for and held the camera out so Shigenori could see the screen. “Take a look.”
    It was a photo of the building, but not from the ground. It had been taken at roof height, from about ten yards away. “I took this from Tae’s living room window,” Shigeru said. Tae Chigusa was the vice-chair of the Ida District Association. She was in her seventies and lived alone.
    Shigenori blinked, puzzled. “Am I supposed to see something?” Without a doubt, the image was odd, but not in a way anyone familiar with the building would’ve thought surprising. “It’s just that bizarre statue.”
    A monster out of European legend perched on the edge of the roof. It had astonished Shigenori when he saw it for the first time.
    It was a gargoyle, a demonic creature with wings sprouting from its back. The face and ears were not those a Japanese demon would’ve had. It looked more like an evil bat. Shigenori had looked it up; gargoyles were a decorative element of Gothic architecture. They usually decorated drain spouts that kept rainwater from flowing down the sides of buildings.
    The tea caddy building’s gargoyle was pure decoration. It sat almost directly above the entrance, and there were no visible rainspouts or gutters anywhere near it. If it had been a drain spout, people using the building entrance would’ve been soaked.
    Shigeru smiled like a mischievous child. If his manner of dressing belied his age, so did his youthful vigor. It was a smile that suited him perfectly.
    “It’s the statue, but can you spot the problem? It’s not quite like the one I’m used to seeing.”
    Shigenori took the camera for a closer look.
    “Tae noticed it. She can see it from her window, whether she likes it or not.”
    There it was. Shigenori nodded and kept looking at the monitor. “He’s holding something, isn’t he?”
    “Very good,” said Shigeru brightly. “Holding, or maybe shouldering it. It looks like a pole.” The long object projected backward at an angle from the right shoulder of the crouching form. It hadn’t been there before.
    “A pole, or maybe the handle of something,” Shigenori said. “How long has this been here?”
    “About a week, according to Tae. Remember the big storm?”
    Shigenori nodded. A tropical storm had hit Tokyo in the middle of December, but the rain had been cold as ice.
    “Next morning she’s brushing her teeth