After I begged them for a few more minutes, they finally gave in. They disclosed the location of the “Imperial Hall” and the meeting time. “It starts at six o’clock in the evening. If you tell them you’ve come ‘on Kaneda’s sponsorship’, you’ll be allowed to enter.”

It was early evening. Having disguised ourselves in strange clothing, we quickly walked up the road toward the Imperial Hall.

My reason for infiltrating the meeting was to observe Misaki’s private life, so I could figure out her real motivations. This was the reason that I decided to disguise myself. In the beginning, Yamazaki stubbornly resisted my attempts to get him to join me, but I finally convinced him. “Infiltrating a religious organization is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you know! It’ll be interesting!” Eventually, he yielded to my half-assed argument and, in the end, happily disguised himself.

I wore the black suit I had bought when I entered college so that I would look like a prize recruit. I pulled a tulip-pink hat down low over my eyes and donned dark purple sunglasses. Even I thought I looked ridiculous.

For his part, Yamazaki wore platform shoes to make himself about four inches taller, put green contacts in his eyes—and on top of all that, bleached his hair gold. I had no idea why he even owned such an idiotic thing as platform shoes. Still, it was the perfect disguise.

Yet, I remained a bit anxious. I was afraid that our voices might expose our true identities. “What do you think, Yamazaki? There’s no way we can change our voices, is there?”

When I expressed my worry on this point, Yamazaki dragged me into the department store near the station, and we headed toward the fourth-floor toy store. At the party goods section, he picked up some helium gas. It had been popular a while ago because if you inhaled it, your voice would sound like a duck.

“Ah! You’re smart!” I thumped Yamazaki on the back.

He stuck out his thumb and grinned. He was having a great time.

In this way, we completed all our preparations and triumphantly headed toward the Imperial Hall, which was located at the edge of the shopping center near the station. People passing us—clearly a shady pair, squeaking in high “duck” voices—threw perplexed glances in our direction. Normally, we would have been intimidated by their stares; but only for today, we weren’t scared of other people. My dark glasses blocked the glances, and I had a friend in Yamazaki, who bravely walked beside me.

More than anything else, the “energy-giving drug” I had bought through the mail was working quite well. Only half a day earlier, I had been suffering from anxieties I couldn’t imagine escaping—but now, I was suffused with energy. Apparently, just a few milligrams of generic drugs could drastically change people’s emotions.