Shakuren closed his eyes, pressed his palms together, and it was impossible to tell whether he was praying or repenting.
"Yes. I never intended to hurt her. I simply felt indignant on Denkyu's behalf after she had abandoned him so heartlessly. When I heard her say that, I brought out the photo albums of the young monks who had trained at the temple from childhood to adulthood. Besides Denkyu, I had taken in two other children over the years. They looked and behaved completely differently from Denkyu. If the female benefactor had truly paid attention to Denkyu, there was no way she would fail to recognize him. Yet she truly did not."
Shakuren turned his head and looked at the wall behind him.
The four rooms of the annex interlocked like the blades of a windmill. On the other side of that wall was Denkyu, currently standing with the other detectives and racking his brains.
"And when she broke down crying because she could not recognize him, she never noticed that the one who had brought the album over, who did not know why she was crying but had kept comforting her, was her biological son. They met, yet still did not know one another. I truly could not understand the female benefactor's thoughts, so I did not tell her the truth. But Denkyu had always longed for his mother. He dreamed of having a complete family, or at least relatives who loved him. Now that she had come looking for him, I had no reason to hide it from Denkyu."
Hoshikawa Teru tilted his head slightly, studying the complicated, regretful expression on Shakuren's face without speaking.
His own family relationships were equally incomplete. His father regarded him as a disgrace and a stain, never even looking him in the