Turning the corner, he ascended to the second floor and walked straight along the corridor directly opposite the staircase, until—Chiba Shigetarou stopped in front of a plain paper sliding door.
This was his bedroom.
He opened the door and entered his own bedroom; Chiba Shigetarou dashed to a storage cabinet in the corner of the room, opened the bottom drawer, and with extreme familiarity, moved aside the items stored inside. At the very bottom, he uncovered a small booklet, its pages worn from frequent flipping.
Chiba Shigetarou flipped through the booklet with a somewhat reckless speed, the rapidly turning pages producing a "whirl" sound.
On the pages being turned were written names, one after another.
Kawai Shirōbei, Nishijima Koutarou, Tanaka Yin Cang, Yamawaki Sunataro…
Among these names, only a very small portion were "safe and sound."
The vast majority of names had a large cross drawn over them.
