Silent Prayer In Empty

By MORI Hiroshi

On the night five years ago when Yuta, a two-year-old boy, had a fever and his mother Midori brought him to the hospital, her husband went missing. On the same night, the chief priest of a Buddhist temple nearby was murdered. The fingerprints of Midori's husband were found at the scene, and more than 100,000 yen of cash was stolen.

Since the day, Midori had led a tough life of having to endure the guilt for the crime that her husband might have committed. Then, the current chief priest, also the son of the victim, gave her the surprising information.

"Actually, I had a call from your husband. It was four years ago, I think …"

The cunning plot reveals the truth, in the emptiness of human mind.

This book was first published by Kodansha in Japan in 1997 and translated in 2015 for The BBB: Breakthrough Bandwagon Books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781312957435

Book preview

Silent Prayer In Empty

Silent Prayer In Empty

Originally written in Japanese by MORI, Hiroshi

Translated by Ryusui Seiryoin

Cover illustration by Polka D

Cover design by Tanya

This work was first published in Japan in 1997.

Japanese edition copyright © 1997 MORI, Hiroshi / Kodansha

English edition copyright © 2015 MORI, Hiroshi / The BBB: Breakthrough Bandwagon Books

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-312-95743-5

-1-

The buzz of cicadas was filling the void in a dense forest.

Rays of light were repeatedly reflected to all directions and never seemed to be attenuated. However, due to layers of branches and leaves, only little light reached the white ground on the premises. With wet air hovering low and rendering the vision murky, it was not easy to look at a wave-shaped, black-tiled roof.

So, only the premises of this Buddhist temple were always cold like a basement and were filled with captivated nostalgia.

Midori Mizuki told her son Yuta, a seven-year old boy, to play around within the close vicinity, and she walked on a little uphill stone pavement toward the back of the premises.

She did not know which denomination of Buddhism this temple belonged to. Midori had come here to play around almost every day when she was young. Right next to the temple was a nursery school that the chief priest ran and she once attended. In an annual festival held locally, street vendor’s stalls stood side by side on the road in front of the temple.

Midori married Tomonori Mizuki, her childhood friend, and moved into a ready-built, small house. It was located near this temple. It was one of the three houses, which were solitarily and abruptly built beside paddy fields, in a development project. For them, it was their own house they could afford even when they were still young. It was two- to three- minute walk from this temple to their house. After Yuta was born, it was a daily routine for her to walk to this temple with the infant in her arms.

However, she would leave this town and this temple tomorrow.

Midori noticed the