Tomoyuki had the courage to make his point. Spreading his shoulders, he spoke in a neat selection of thoughts toward Saori Kobayashi.
"The kind of man we are talking about does not exist. For when a man has had personal experience of everything in his life and has seen all the bad and the good, he stops doing anything. He ceases to believe in human righteousness and within himself will begin to condemn human life. Such a person becomes characterless and withdrawn. Such a person's thinking changes radically, and he no longer seems human."
"Okay, but what would you call such a person?"
"I would call him a beast," the young man stated confidently, "For beasts are foreign to any instincts of morality, and such personalities no longer have anything human-like in common. These monsters can massacre humans without a thought, just as they can massacre the mindless beasts of the wild. My answer is monster."
Tomoyuki thought he would make a vivid impression on Ryou with his statement, and he would be drawn to him. He wanted to do this not because he wanted to be friends with the young man sincerely, but for revenge.
Ryou was surprised by Tomoyuki's answer and closed in, thinking that the young man's answer was correct from one point of view. Tomoyuki, on the other hand, saw in his words the rightness that revealed his inner world.
The man hummed. "A worthy answer, I should think it over before I conclude. And you, Hayashi-kun, what do you think? What's your opinion on the matter?"
Ryou lowered his eyes uncertainly, and tried to think of an answer. The young man's hands clenched into fists, for he doubted himself. The boy thought that if his answer didn't please the man, they would fail the job, so he worried.
"I don't know how to answer..."
"Hayashi-kun," Tomoyuki called out to him, concerned about the young man's condition, "Don't worry."
"I see," the man replied, and after finishing his cigarette, he tossed it into the trash. "Have you ever committed an illegal act?"
Tomoyuki shook his head in a moment, and Ryou, hearing the question, hesitated to answer.
"What by illegal things do you mean?" asked Ryou.
"For example, losing one's virginity before the age allowed between people."
"In that case, yes," the young man replied, to which Tomoyuki stared at him. It was news to him that Ryou had lost his virginity at an early age.
"I see. The same thing happened to me. They say that when one finds one's life partner, one's life begins to take on other colors and one begins to perceive more of the meaning of one's life. Hmm, what's not to go for, to gain knowledge."
"You don't know the meaning of your existence?"
"Even when there was love and responsibility in my life, I didn't feel I had a desire to live for anything in particular. At that time, I began to ponder more important things in human life."
"Kobayashi-san!" exclaimed Ryou. "You don't have to search for the meaning of life by having sex... Have you tried answering your question with other activities?"
"Not otherwise. I've tried, all sorts of things," turning to face the pond, the man fell silent. "Well, we'll continue our conversation another time. That's enough for today, you can go home."
The young men had no idea that their conversation would end there, but they also decided to put the work away, announcing that they would be sure to help Saori Kobayashi with his difficulty. Ryou had many questions about the man's identity, and he wanted to talk to him longer. Saori, on the other hand, gave his word that he would find better time to talk next time. Tomoyuki was unhappy with the man and thought he was stupid within himself. In Tomoyuki's opinion, thinking about the meaning of life was stupid.
After saying goodbye to the man, the boys walked down the same street.
"Don't take his words to heart," consoled a disgruntled Tomoyuki. "He's a strange man to dare to think about such things in his forties. I hate people who mind their own business!"
"Yeah, but..." replied Ryou, lowering his gaze. "I didn't know that the keeper's job included such activities. It's not like we're psychologists."
"He's crazy! Talking nonsense to schoolchildren, that's a real old man."
When they reached the crossroads, the boys went their separate ways. Ryou also wondered about the mystery of Saori Kobayashi. Tomoyuki did not understand why Glenn and his teacher had decided to choose this particular questionnaire for the young men. Not wanting to guess, he took his phone out of his pocket and called Glenn.
"Hello?" answered the dark-eyed young man, sitting on the couch in his room at the time, staring at the electric fireplace on the screen.
"What are you getting at?" asked Tomoyuki bluntly in a disgruntled voice. "You promised you'd help me make friends with Hayashi-kun."
"And you thought it was easy for people to achieve goals?" said Glenn with a satisfied look, squeezing the phone with his ears and shoulders. "Don't underestimate Ryou-kun's capabilities. And what's the point of picking easy questionnaires if you end up on a boring note?"
"Bastard... You really don't know what you're dealing with."
"You don't know who Ryou-kun is. I don't know what you're up to, but I'm not going to let you hurt anyone."
"I have enough of my own opinions to decide what to do. Your motives are unclear, they are illogical."
"Well, Tomoyuki-kun, you can always trust me."
"Hell no!" exclaimed Tomoyuki angrily. "I'll get along with Hayashi-kun without your silly jokes."
"Getting Ryou-kun's trust isn't easy, you know. This guy is between two flames right now. Do the questionnaire — make a friend. How is that not help?" Glenn grinned, with a cheerful tone.
Tomoyuki hastily ended the call. The conversation with the young man had gotten on his nerves, and he judged Glenn internally for another minute.
"Turn in the questionnaire — I'll get along with Ryou," Tomoyuki muttered quietly. "But also his personality will change, and he will become more open, which means he will stop being a hypocrite. If we fail the questionnaire, the same thing will happen, only in the opposite progression for Ryou's stupid psyche, and the result will be the same. Either way, Ryou will walk away with heavy psychological pressure. Damn… I won't let him know the easy pain for his hypocrisy!"
***
At night, Ryou couldn't sleep because of what he thought about Saori's words. He got out of bed, took a sheet with him, and sat down in the kitchen, by a window the size of an entire wall. Huddled up, the boy wrapped himself in a blanket and stared silently at the night sky, enthroned by millions of bright stars. The sky was covered in a dark, calm color. Pointing his hand toward one of the glowing stars, Ryou felt as if he wanted to be drawn to the sky, where he would be much more carefree.
'What would I call a man who knows all human cares and colors? A god? A hero? A villain?'
The next Saturday afternoon, Ryou decided to seek the opinions of others. He texted Yumiko and asked her how she would respond. It didn't take long for a reply message from the girl to arrive. Following tradition, Yumiko greeted first in a respectful way, which made the guy not understand why you should even greet people if you see them every school day.
"Sage."
Yumiko in her own style, Ryou thought, but he couldn't disagree with the girl's opinion. It was strange to him that there could be oodles of correct answers, and at one point Ryou wondered if the riddle had a correct answer at all. Casting his thoughts aside, the young man followed up by asking Glenn about the riddle.
"No one."
Once again, Ryou could not argue with his friend's answer. Glenn's opinion he could understand, for to some extent a man who knows everything becomes a blank in a creature's body. Especially if such a person becomes frustrated with existence and stops doing anything in life.
At last the boy decided to get an opinion from Akiko, and surprisingly for him the answer from the girl came in seconds.
"Monster."
Realizing that asking people's opinions was pointless, particularly because all the answers were correct, Ryou lied down on the couch and pondered his personal answer.
Soon he received a call from Masumi asking how the questionnaire was going, to which Ryou briefly managed to lay out the situation that had occurred.
"I see," the teacher replied kindly. "That's what circumstances are like for a social aid worker. Sometimes you get all kinds of weirdos. You don't get mad at them, that's your job."
"I... I think I'm gonna get along with him."
"That's right."
"By the way, about the riddle... Purely skeptical, how would you answer him?"
Before answering briefly, Masumi paused. On the other side of the tube, she painted her charmingly wide lips with red lipstick.
"A man."
***
Two young men, at Saori Kobayashi's invitation, came to his house in broad of daylight. The house was in one of the outermost lands near the central district and was located in a quiet and comfortable street. The two-story apartment building was a dozen single-room houses of the same type, in which the tenants lived separately. The building was similar to a dormitory, but it was not.
Entering the humble Kobayashi house, the man silently introduced the young men inside. The quiet place, where life seemed to stand still, instantly made Ryou shudder, for this was the first time he had felt this kind of aloofness.
"Have a seat," Kobayashi said in his low and expressionless voice, whereupon the young men sat kneeling on the floor near the middle low table. Saori served his guests coffee, brewing it from the coffee machine, and poured himself one cup as well. "From birth I couldn't hurt a single creature, not even a cockroach. I was a fool."
The man sat down with the boys near the table and set a cup of coffee on it. The young men waited with a hard stare for Saori to continue.
"I was afraid of hurting someone's soul, and I thought my worldview was right until I killed a man with my own hands."
The young men froze in shock at what the man said. Looking up at the boys, Saori Kobayashi darkened. It seemed to them that this story had changed the man's life forever and turned him in a very different, despicable direction. The man's eyes darkened.
"I killed a man without a shred of regret."