Episode 5: Atonement
15 years ago, a distraught Asako came hurrying to the elementary school when she was notified of the death of her daughter, Emily.
The Adachis were informed that the police could not determine who committed the crime from the DNA left at the scene. Then, there were the four eyewitnesses, Emily’s school friends Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuka, who had seen the man’s face. But no clues were forthcoming because they could not remember anything in the confusion that ensued.
This fact agitated a disbelieving Asako and she summoned them to her house on Emily’s birthday to demand that they “atone in ways that will satisfy” her if they could not find the man. Without any clue about the murderer, Asako lived with pent-up anger and frustration in the 15 years following Emily’s death.
One day, she obtains important information about the murderer from Yuka who had heard his voice on a recent radio programme. Aoki, the chairman of Yuai Free School … … And so, Asako starts to check the internet for information on the facility. Suspecting from her light mood that she is on to something, her husband, Toshiro, tells her to bring the matter to a close. However, Asako ignores him and heads to Yoshida City in Yamanashi prefecture where Yuai Free School is located.
Asako comes face to face with Aoki on the school grounds. She looks at him for a long moment, and turns to flee in the next instant. But Aoki pursues her into the forest. “Are you Asako?” he calls out. Asako knows Aoki by another name, Nanjo. It appears that their acquaintance goes back a long way to their university days. Asako lies badly that she came because she had heard about the free school in the news and wondered if he finally fulfilled his dream to set up one. Then why did she run away if she had come all the way here. Aoki approaches and makes a move to reach out to touch her face, but she recoils and backs away. “I just wanted to know how you’re doing now. To see your face,” she says calmly despite the riot of feelings beneath the surface. Flashing a broad smile, he invites her to stay and take a look around the school.
When they return to the school, Asako sees a woman whom Aoki introduces as his wife, Suzuka, and explains that he had married into her family. Asako cannot stop herself from staring at Suzuka.
“Doesn’t she resemble Akie a little?
I know it’s long since over and better forgotten.
I tried my very best,
but it’s not something I could forget.
You and Akie.
Many things happened back then.
But in the end,
the only thing I got is this free school.”
While Aoki excuses himself to conduct classes, Suzuka brings tea for Asako. She unexpectedly asks a surprised Asako if she resembles someone whom Asako had kept company with in university, and says with conviction that she knows something had happened to her husband back then even though he never talked about it. Asako seems to grow uneasy at those words and hastily takes her leave.
At that moment, Aoki comes running after Asako. Grabbing her hands in a forceful grip, he demands to know her objective, not buying her explanation about coming all the way out here just to see him. Is she here to reconcile with him? Or to offer her defense in Akie’s suicide? He menancingly asks as he hooks his arm around her neck.
“Even if Akie’s suicide happened as you’d planned it to,
don’t worry.
I no longer hate you.
I forgive you.
So you should forgive me too.
Asako shoves Aoki away and glares with loathing, the meaning of his words not lost on her. Although the two of them part ways, the air is charged with the promise of another meeting to settle their unfinished business.
A while later, Aoki excuses himself from dinner with his charges and drives furiously along the country road. The grim, terrifying expression on his face turns murderous when he spots Asako ahead of him. She had ended up walking along the road after missing the last bus. He guns his vehicle at her, but swerves at the last moment and crashes into a solitary hut by the roadside.
A stunned Asako walks over to the vehicle as Aoki sits inside with his forehead pressed against the steering wheel. There is blood on the window of the driver’s seat from the cut he sustained on his cheek. She tells him that she would like to kill him for what he did to Emily. But she knows that the matter will not end with such easy revenge. There is a secret that she has which no one knows, not even him for that matter. Should she say it, or should she not?
Asako looks Yuka up at the hospital to discuss the jumble of emotions she feels after meeting Aoki. She lets on that she has been acquainted with Aoki since a long time ago, and confesses that she suddenly feels at a loss because her past and present are now mixed up. A clear-headed Yuka offers her opinion of the man.
“Perhaps he didn’t choose Emily-chan by coincidence,
but had his sights on her from the start?
If that’s the case,
the four of us truly had nothing to do with it,
but were dragged in.
Even so, we have done what we ought to.
So please do your duty too.
Please kill Emily’s murderer.
The man who put the lives of the four of us off kilter.
This is your atonement, Asako-san.”
That night, Asako discovers to her surprise that her husband is aware that she had been checking up on Yuai Free School using the laptop in their study. But that is all he says of the matter, and makes no attempt to ask about her intentions. A guilt-stricken Asako bursts out the she is the one in the wrong. Toshiro tries to comfort her, but her next words come as a blow to him and he tries to block it out.
The next morning, the detectives Yabe and Muroya visit the Adachi residence to speak to Asako about the circumstances surrounding Emily’s murder, but Asako has gone out. Toshiro tells them that she should be on her way to Yuai Free School. The man in charge of the school is not only of dubious character but also knows something about the case. Toshiro is also certain that Asako is hiding something.
Detective Muroya and his colleagues arrive at Yuai Free School just as Asako emerges with a letter that Aoki had asked Suzuka to pass to her. She tries to walk away, but he spots her and asks to see the contents of her handbag. With no way out of the situation, she is forced to comply and reluctantly takes out the letter, her purse, a knife wrapped in linen cloth … … One look at the knife is all it takes for Muroya to ask her to accompany them.
At the police station, Asako explains that the letter had once been in her possession, but she had lost it more than 15 years ago. Sometime before Emily’s murder. The letter addressed to Nanjo, is in fact the suicide note Akie left behind. It reads, “I love you forever.”
Akie was a university schoolmate and member of the same club as Asako and Aoki. They were good friends who always hanged out and did everything together until their third year in university. That was when Asako realised that Aoki liked Akie more than her. After that, she did all sorts of things to tear the two of them apart. On the surface, the three of them appeared to still be good friends. However, the sight of Akie’s tiny reactions to Aoki’s every move wrung Asako’s heart. Beside herself with jealousy, she practically snatched Aoki away and bad-mouthed Akie behind her back. As a result, Akie was driven to suicide. Just before she died, she called Asako who rushed over to her apartment and found her in a pool of blood in the bathroom.
Asako concedes that Akie could have been saved if she had immediately called for an ambulance, but she chose not to do so because she saw the suicide note which caused jealousy to rear its head again. Although she hid the note from Aoki, he was so devastated by Akie’s suicide that he became an empty shell. Asako was racked with feelings of guilt every day but could not bring herself to leave Aoki, so their relationship got bogged down. Then one day, Asako suddenly received word of an arranged marriage meeting with the son of the owner of Adachi Manufacturing. And so, she jumped at the opportunity to put her past behind her and married her present husband.
Several days later, Asako receives a letter from Aoki, telling her that he wishes to hear about the last secret she had spoken of and will be waiting for her at the old Adachi Manufacturing research facility next Sunday afternoon.
Some time before Emily was murdered, Aoki, who had been searching for a property to set up his free school, was taken to a building which Adachi Manufacturing used as a research facility by a real estate agent. Emily and her friends had happened to place items of importance to each of them in a locker inside one of the rooms in the building a week ago. On Emily’s part, she had taken a ring and letter that she knew was precious to her mother to teach her a lesson for nagging her about her studies. By some strange coincidence, the door of the locker popped open as Aoki entered the room. He took a look and found the items belonging to Asako that Emily had hidden inside – the ring he had given to Asako and Akie’s suicide note. Then he learned that the wife of the owner of Adachi Manufacturing was called Asako. In that instant, everything became clear to him.
Sunday comes. Armed with a knife, Asako enters the old, abandoned research facility. Aoki tells her how the spirit of the late Akie had led him here so that he could find the ring and her suicide note. He does not just hate Asako for what happened to Akie, but for everything she gained after her marriage – status, wealth, a happy family – whereas he had nothing. His revenge was to wrest whatever he could from Asako. That was why he murdered Emily like a man possessed even though there was no need to go to that extent. Asako accuses him of being a beast for what he had done to a mere child when he could have killed her instead. “It would have been better if I could have done so,” he admits.
Asako stares at him, standing just inches away from her. He reaches out to touch her face, but the moment he makes contact, she pushes him away and rushes over to her bag to take out her knife. It does not take much effort for Aoki to dispossess Asako of the knife and fling it to the far end of the room. She pounces on him and tries to strangle him with her hands. The two of them fall in their struggle but he rolls over so that she is pinned to the ground with her arms firmly in his grip. Asako tells him the secret. He is Emily’s biological father. She had conceived Emily after that last meeting where he had raped her. Aoki is silent for a long time. Then he lets go of Asako and moves away. But the revelation does not have the effect that she had intended for Aoki seems to feel no remorse.
“I understand why I had that feeling at that moment.
I finally understand.
That child was my daughter.
That’s why the minute I saw her face,
I felt the urge to kill her.
I even had the thought of sexually assaulting her.
That was my own self.
It’s good to know that.
I feel a little better.”
Aoki gets up and asks Asako to follow him. He has something to show her, something she wishes for but cannot get he says cryptically. They walk through the forest and emerge at a clearing near a railway track. The sound of an alarm for a railway crossing can be heard in the distance. Aoki turns to look at her and tells her that he will now fulfill her wish and put an end to her revenge. “This is my last present, Asako. Make sure you accept it.”
Aoki calmly walks onto the railway track to wait for the oncoming train as Asako watches on with an anxious look on her face. He crouches in fear, his hands coming up to protect his head as the train speeds toward where he is and plows right into him … …
Asako, who lost her daughter as a result of her own actions, also ruined the lives of Emily’s four schoolmates. How does she atone for that?
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