Yamanashi Prefecture, Mount Fuji.
Southeast of Lake Shoji, one of the Fuji Five Lakes, lay a vast, crescent-shaped primeval forest called the Aokigahara Sea of Trees, Japan's famous suicide destination.
It was dawn, with the sky neither quite light nor quite dark. The trees of the Aokigahara Sea of Trees swayed in the shadows, their eerie silhouettes especially chilling.
"Awooo!"
The cry of some unknown animal sent a shiver through the two men digging a hole with shovels, and they exchanged a glance.
"Why does that sound like a wolf?" one of them asked uneasily.
"You idiot, wolves went extinct in Japan ages ago. It was probably a stray dog or something."
Beside the large pit sat a middle-aged man in a crisp shirt and dress trousers. He had short, dyed blond hair and a ring of black facial hair around his mouth. His expression was cold, and a sharp gleam flashed in his eyes as he opened and closed them.
"It's almost light. Don't stop! Dig deeper. If animals dig it up, we'll have trouble."
"Brother Kubo, it might be trouble somewhere else, but this is the suicide forest. Nobody cares about another body or two," one of the men digging said with a laugh.
"I'm not discussing this with you! That's an order!"
The bearded man called Brother Kubo swept his gaze over them and spoke coldly.
The two men in the pit hastily shut their mouths, rolled up their sleeves, and dug hard, sweating buckets.
Judging by their exposed black tattoos, they were clearly no decent men, but Yakuza scum.
"Brother Kubo, we're done."
"No, it's not deep enough. Keep digging!"
The two Yakuza could only pull long faces and keep digging down.
Soon, they had dug a pit two meters square and over a meter deep.