Under what circumstances does one person develop malice toward another?
Is it in the case of being hurt?
No. It may also be after being helped.
"Malice" is one of Keigo Higagaga's long works in the Series of Kyoichiro Kaga, along with "White Night", "The Dedication of Suspect X", and "Relief Grocery Store", and is called the four masterpieces of Keigo Higashino.
Some people even say that after reading "Malice", you can really know Keigo Higashino.
Because in this work, Higashino Keigo not only skillfully uses his own good twisting techniques, but also exposes layer after layer of truth with the reader. And as a socialist speculative novelist, he used this story to profoundly expose human nature.
Boundless malice is bottomless, like an abyss, which makes people shudder.
Best-selling author Kunihiko Hidaka is dead.
The night before moving to Canada. He was strangled with a telephone line after being knocked unconscious with a paperweight.
The police judged that it was an acquaintance who committed the crime.
Because Hidaka had packed most of the family's belongings and sent them to Canada, there was now almost nothing in the house except the necessary tools for Hidaka's work. Therefore, the possibility of strangers burglary and robbery is ruled out.
After the investigation, there were two suspects. Both men had visited Nichikaka on the day he was killed.
One is Miyako Fujio. She came to negotiate with Kunihiko Hidaka.
Miyako Fujio's older brother Masaya Fujio was a junior high school classmate of Kunihiko Hidaka. Hidaka wrote a novel based on Masaya Fujio, and the writing style was so realistic that almost everyone who knew Masaya Fujio could guess the prototype after reading the novel.
Because of the realistic approach, the novel is very straightforward to write a lot of bad stories about Masaya Fujio. For example, when he was in middle school, he bullied his classmates, and he was stabbed to death by a prostitute with a knife.
Miyako Fujio was dissatisfied with these depictions, so she came to negotiate with Kunihiko Hidaka, hoping that he would revise the novel. But the two eventually broke up.
The other is Noguchi Osamu. He is a good friend of Kunihiko Hidaka and a classmate of The Junior High School. He was also introduced by Hidaka Kunihiko and got a job as a children's book writer. For this reason, Noguchi regarded Kunihiko Hidaka as his benefactor.
Today, he came to say goodbye because he knew that Hidaka Kunihiko was leaving Japan tomorrow.
When he got home, he received a call from Kunihiko Hidaka, agreeing to meet again at eight o'clock in the evening.
But when they meet again, Nichitaka Kunihiko has become a corpse.
During the investigation, the police found that both had sufficient alibi, but Noguchi's description of the scene was flawed.
Following the flaws, the police successfully cracked The method of Noguchi's manufacture of alibi, and also found evidence that Noguchi was the murderer of Hidaka Kunihiko.
Seeing the evidence, Noguchi did not hesitate to admit his murder, but remained silent about the motive for the killing.
Why did Noguchi kill what he called his "benefactor"?
In order to find out the motive for the killing, the police searched Noguchi's residence and found two sets of very striking evidence.
One group is: a women's apron, a necklace, a travel application form for two people, and a photo of a woman. But over the years, Noguchi has been single in the eyes of outsiders.
The other group consisted of several notebooks and drafts by Noguchi. There are several drafts of novels in it that are very similar to the contents of novels that Hidaka has published.
Through visits and investigations, it was learned that the woman in the photo was actually Hidaka Hatsumi, the former wife of Hidaka Kunihiko. Five years ago, Hidaka Hatsumi died in a traffic accident.
Hidaka Hatsumi's identity is discovered, and Noguchi finally confesses his reasons for killing to the police. He presented his killing to the police in confession.
Noguchi says he's fallen in love with Hatsumi since he first met hatsumi at Hidaka's house. Later, as the number of times he went to Hidaka's house increased, so did his opportunities to contact Hatsumi.
Once he fell ill with a fever, Hatsumi came to his house to take care of him. He was happy that time, because he realized that they were in love.
It's just that as time goes on, his love for Hatsumi grows deeper and deeper, and he even begins to be jealous of Hidaka Kunihiko, so jealous that he wants to kill him. So, he planned a murder despite Hatsumi's prevention.
The result, of course, was a failure. Even more tragically, he also left evidence of his attempted killing in the hands of Nichikami Kunihiko.
In retaliation, Hidaka Kunihiko Akira Masamune revised two of Noguchi's works and published them as his own. Later, he also used the evidence in his hand to force Noguchi to become his own shadow writer.
At first, Noguchi firmly disagreed. However, after Hatsumi's unexpected death, he gave up the struggle and began to work with Kunihiko Hidaka, and the cooperation was pleasant.
Before they said well, the novel that Hidaka Kunihiko is currently serializing is the last work that Noguchi has written for him as a shadow writer. After the series ends, Nichitaka Kunihiko returns the evidence of Noguchi's murder to him.
On the day of the murder, Noguchi went to deliver the final serial content to Hidaka Kunihiko, and by the way, he took back his own novel draft and evidence.
However, Hidaka Kunihiko did not really intend to let him go, and in anger, Noguchi Osamu set out to kill people.
Although this confession book looks logical and self-consistent at first glance, after careful consideration, you will find many contradictions.
For example, if you are obviously a good friend, you can commit adultery with a friend's wife, and a person who forces a friend to be his own shadow writer. Is this something a good friend can do? What exactly is the relationship between them?
For example, the so-called "evidence of the killing" is actually a knife that has no blood but is stained with Noguchi's fingerprints, and a video of Noguchi repairing the wall and entering Hidaka's house. Such evidence is obviously unable to prove the murder, can Noguchi really be threatened by such evidence?
Noguchi has always said that he chose to be threatened rather than surrendered, because he did not want to involve Hatsumi. However, when a traffic accident occurred in Harami, Noguchi thought that Hatsumi had committed suicide, so he regretted not turning himself in. But after that, Noguchi still did not turn himself in, but agreed to cooperate with Hidaka Kunihiko, and the cooperation was pleasant, why?
In the end, is it worth it for Noguchi to commit a major crime in order to hide a minor crime because he can't get evidence of his attempted murder?
These contradictions made it impossible for the police to turn a blind eye, so they continued to investigate in depth.
In the course of the investigation, the police learned from Miyako Fujio that if Noguchi was the real author of the novel based on her brother, it would be difficult for her to put the character in the right seat. Because the male protagonist of the novel who is violently abused in school is more similar to Kunihiko Hidaka.
After receiving this information, the police began to study the novel and interviewed the classmates and teachers of Shu Noguchi and Kunihiko Hidaka.
During the visit, the police found an image of Kunihiko Hidaka, who was completely different from Noguchi's.
Hidaka Kunihiko is a person who is very kind to everyone and has a great sense of justice. When he was in junior high school, he was bullied by Masaya Fujio's small group, but he never gave in. Even his classmates who had bullied him still remembered what he looked like.
And he is also very happy to take care of and help his classmates. At that time, Noguchi had just transferred to another school, and he had refused to go to school because he was bullied. Nichitaka Goes to noguchi's house every day to wait for Noguchi to go to school together. When we go out together, we also take care of Noguchi like my younger brother.
Unlike Hidaka Kunihiko, Noguchi quickly succumbed to Masaya Fujio after being bullied several times, not only paying him money, but also becoming his junior subordinate, and even instigating Masaya Fujio to bully Higashi. Until Masaya Fujio was expelled from school for raping a girl.
It is said that at that time, Fujio Masaya brought a follower with the class, and the class was responsible for helping him hold down the girl. In the process, Masaya Fujio also took a lot of photos.
During the investigation, the police also found that Nichitaka had collected writing materials for published novels. If a person is copying someone else's novel, what is the need to collect writing materials?
Unless he is preparing himself for the novel he is about to write.
Things are getting clearer.
With the forged traces of the "evidence of attempted murder" and the magnetic film of Hidaka Kunihiko's storage materials being discovered one after another, Noguchi's true motives for the crime were finally revealed, and the true face of the entire case was finally fully unfolded.
Because Heiko Kunihiko wanted to write a novel based on Masaya Fujio, he had contacted his junior high school classmates at that time, especially a classmate who had a good relationship with Masaya Fujio at that time. Hidaka asked a lot about the details of Fujio Masaya's rape, but the man did not follow Fujio Masaya to rape the girl's class, so he was not very clear about the situation at that time. However, he had a picture of that year, which he gave to Hidaka Kunihiko.
This photo is the trigger that caused Hidaka to lose his life.
Yes, it was Noguchi Who followed Masaya Fujio to rape the girl. Fearing that under fujio's pursuit, Hidaka Kunihiko would expose the photo and his unbearable past would be known to the public, So Noguchi killed Hidaka Kunihiko.
But beneath this layer of motivation, there is a deeper malice.
From a young age, Kunihiko Takahiko had a backbone towards school bullying than Noguchi, and even though Noguchi encouraged Masaya Fujio to bully him, he did not remember to hate, but instead saved Noguchi when Noguchi was bullied. Therefore, Noguchi Shu is inferior in front of Hidaka Kunihiko.
In addition, compared to Shu Noguchi, who has wanted to be a writer since he was a child, Kunihiko Hidaka not only became a writer one step ahead of others, but also a best-selling author. Noguchi, on the other hand, could only rely on Nichikaka's introduction to become a children's book author. Therefore, although Noguchi hides himself as a benefactor, he is full of jealousy towards Hidaka in his heart.
To make matters worse, Noguchi also suffered from cancer.
Therefore, Noguchi Osamu planned the murder. Because he was not willing, he did not want to die with hatred like this. But for this incident, killing is not the goal, and death is not the end.
Noguchi's real purpose is to degrade Nichitaka's personality and make him condemned by the world even as a victim! Accuse him of being an evil and despicable person who copied other people's works and forced others to be his shadow writers!
Moreover, if the plan goes well, he will be able to claim the works of Nichitaka Kunihiko.
Noguchi's malice towards Hidaka Kunihiko is like a vicious beast, which makes people shudder.
What is even more chilling is that this malice is a part of human nature that is difficult to peel off.
There is such a beast in everyone's heart. Some people can control this evil beast and not let it grow and hurt people; while some people are difficult to control, so tragedy occurs.