by Motoro Mase, 232 pagesFujimoto lives with his decision regarding Dr. Kubo, but he is not at ease. As he turns the consequences over and over in his mind, he goes about his job and delivers two more ikigami.
One is for a young man with no fixed address, no family who actually care about him, and no prospects for lifting himself out of his sorry lot. Until he gets his ikigami. The death papers act as free passes for services at participating businesses. After all, it's the least society can do to honor the sacrifice of the chosen. That means a free bath, free clothes, free food. But what good does a lavish last meal serve someone whose stomach is contracted by lifelong poverty? If National Welfare can't help him, then who can it help?
The other ikigami goes to a former journalist's son who resents his once-brave father's capitulation to the silencing force of the powers that be. In retaliation, he has taken up the fallen standard of truth and immersed himself in the underground anti-establishment movement. When he receives his ikigami, all that bitterness and anger overflows and he strikes out at the closest target representative of the cause of all his misery....
The dénouement of this volume is as significant as the climax. Fujimoto gets more of an education in what it does and does not mean to be a "social miscreant" than he has in all the time he's been faithfully carrying out his duties. When he can't adjust his point of view on his own, the ground moves beneath his feet and forces a change in his perspective. What does he see from that new vantage point? The same world of black and white? Only time will tell.
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