Chapter 9: Burning Sins

December 13, noon, Tian Yi's bookshop.

An unshaven man in a leather jacket pushed open the door and came in.

He walked straight up to the owner's desk and announced, “You're under arrest.”

Tian Yi wasn't reading that day. He simply sat there sipping coffee at his leisure, as though he had been waiting for this moment all along.

“Officer Jingniao, isn't it? It's been a while.”

Jingniao replied, “Hmph. Did you know I'd come?”

“Of course I did.” Tian Yi rested his cheek on one hand, perfectly composed.

“If you knew I was coming and didn't run, either you've resigned yourself to confessing, or you're completely insane.”

“I'm not insane. The world is.”

“Whatever you say.” Jingniao took out a pair of handcuffs and tossed them onto the desk. “Will you put these on yourself, or do I have to do it?”

“Do you have an arrest warrant?” Tian Yi remained entirely unmoved.

“Hahahaha…” Jingniao actually burst out laughing. “Someone like you is going to lecture me on legal procedure?”

Tian Yi didn't laugh. “So you do realize that what you're doing is illegal.”

Jingniao's smile vanished instantly. He drew his gun from its holster and aimed it between Tian Yi's eyes. “This is my law!”

Lounging in his chair, Tian Yi calmly applauded. “No, this isn't law. It's justice.” At last he smiled. “Law is merely a tool, written on paper to serve those in power, ready to be used, amended, or abolished at any time. But justice means far more than that.”

Jingniao's gun hand remained steady. “Then before justice blows your brains out, kindly put on the handcuffs and come face punishment under the law.”

“I haven't finished.” Tian Yi stood up.

Jingniao warily took half a step back, keeping his gun trained on Tian Yi's head as he moved.

Tian Yi walked unhurriedly toward a nearby bookshelf. “But I have to say, nothing disgusts and sickens me more than justice. It's nothing more than a human delusion.” He pointed at Jingniao. “You adhere to a set of ideas about right and wrong, good and evil, derived from a broad moral code. You hypnotize yourself with the word ‘justice,’ turn it into a faith, and make yourself believe that everything you do, every choice you make, is right.

“Put plainly, it's just a more sophisticated form of hypocrisy.”

He took four black books down from the shelf and set them on the desk, then walked to a corner of the room and crouched down to open a cupboard.

“For a lion, hunting an antelope is justice; otherwise, it and its cubs will starve. For the antelope, escaping the lion is also justice; otherwise, it will be eaten. Does justice contradict itself here? No. Both obey the same thing. Animals simply follow their survival instincts. This is the law of nature, the unseen rules that sustain this world and keep it running. They cannot be written on paper. They cannot be tampered with or defied. To dignify them with the name of ‘justice’ is an enormous insult.”

Tian Yi took an iron bucket out of the cupboard. With the books tucked under one arm and the bucket in his other hand, he headed for the shop's entrance. “If you don't mind, get the door for me.”

By now Jingniao had lowered his gun. He could see that Tian Yi had no intention of escaping.

“What exactly are you doing?” Despite the question, Jingniao pushed the door open for Tian Yi, then followed him out of the bookshop.

Outside, the sky was overcast and a bitter north wind was blowing. Wearing only a shirt and suit, Tian Yi was visibly shivering.

He set the iron bucket on the ground, took out a kerosene lighter, and set one of the books alight.

Picking up where he had left off, Tian Yi said, “Humans are the same. To any ordinary person, he alone is the protagonist of his own life. Everyone else, however much they stand out, is merely a supporting character.

“And justice becomes something very subjective. Children raised in troubled times, children raised in prosperous times, children raised in slums, the descendants of princes and nobles… Growing up in different social strata, taught different values, each will ultimately have their own idea of justice.

“Jingniao, you think what you're doing is right simply because it fits your own sense of justice.”

Jingniao snorted. “So… you're saying you're right to slaughter innocent people?”

Tian Yi tossed the half-charred book into the iron bucket at his feet. “I didn't kill them. Since I arrived in Hokkaido on December 5, I've never left the bookshop, except to come to the door to burn a few books or sign for takeout deliveries. How can you say I slaughter innocent people?”

“But you orchestrated all the crimes!”

“Did I? Then do you have any evidence to prove it? Even if those people came back from the dead, they'd tell you I never ‘instructed’ them to do anything like murder. I merely asked them to run a few trivial errands. In exchange, they could hear some interesting information from me, or read these books I have.”

Jingniao's eyes strayed involuntarily to the book in the bucket, now almost burned away. There was actually a faint purple tinge to its smoke.

“What exactly are these books?”

Tian Yi tilted his head back and looked at the sky. “These books record people's ‘sins.’” He took a deep breath and glanced sidelong at the ashes in the bucket. “The greedy, petty wretch, his corpse hung for all to see.”

Jingniao felt a jolt at those words. The sight of Matsuo's corpse flashed before his eyes.

Tian Yi tossed the second book into the bucket. This time the smoke had a touch of orange.

“The savage, brutal thug, his body hacked apart.”

His eyes bulging, Jingniao stepped forward and seized Tian Yi by the collar. “Besides Matsuo and Miura, who do those other two books belong to? Who else have you killed?! Did you kill Ikeda too?”

Smiling, Tian Yi casually tossed the third book into the bucket as well. Red smoke rose. “The slothful, lustful man, his belly slit and bowels laid bare.” He stared into Jingniao's eyes. “This book's owner is indeed named Ikeda, but it's Ikeda Takeshi, not Ikeda Nozomi.”

“You bastard…” Jingniao ground out through clenched teeth.

Tian Yi raised the last book. “This is our ‘cowardly, envious’ Ikeda-kun. Don't worry, he's still alive.” But two seconds later, Tian Yi tossed this book into the burning bucket too. “Unfortunately, he's gone mad. ‘A fate worse than death.’ So his book isn't much use anymore either. Everything after that is incomprehensible, deranged babbling. Oh, right, he went mad from the shock of seeing something when he got home last night. He hasn't gone to school today. I wonder how he's doing now…”

Jingniao let go of Tian Yi and sprinted toward the Ikeda home, swearing, “Damn it…”

Tian Yi straightened his collar and laughed wildly at Jingniao's retreating back. “Now you understand! What justice means! Hahahaha!”