"Senior. It's been a long time."

Miyahara heard a voice when He is walking down the corridor of a TV station in Tokyo toward a conference room for a work meeting.From the back. Then he heard the footsteps running up. Miyahara said, looking back. He knew that the owner of the voice was Yuji Kanzaki.

Kanzaki is a young man who works for a subcontracted video production company that works on the same subject, although it is a different company from Miyahara, and is from the same W university as Miyahara. However, the two did not meet on campus because they were at the university at different times. They got to know each other because their respective companies received orders for different parts for the same news program. It happened by chance that the final finishing of the program that Miyahara was in charge of and the first meeting of the team to which Kanzaki belongs overlapped partly due to the convenience of the program producer. It was a rare event. Therefore, the two teams, each consisting of about ten people, had to be aware of the other team.

After that, Miyahara and Kanzaki had a relationship of rubbing against each other in some TV stations, and in a short time, they realized that they were friends with each other while talking to each other, and it became a relationship to drink alcohol occasionally.

"I don't think I've seen you for about two weeks, did you work abroad again?"

While walking side by side in the corridor of the TV station, Kanzaki asked Miyahara.

"Well, that's what it is," Miyahara said. "So what about Mr. Kanzaki? Are you doing a good job?"

Miyahara said while glancing at Kanzaki's still young face, who had just graduated from college last year.

"Unlike my seniors, I'm an apprentice AD, so my only good job is not to get in the way."

Kanzaki despised his work like that, but Miyahara read the inner fulfillment in the appearance of Kanzaki's stubble growing long.

"Where did you go on your coverage trip this time? "

Kanzaki was probably about to go home. With that on hold, he threw words at Miyahara. He seemed to be walking with him to the conference room where Miyahara is heading. Was it Kanzaki's intuition for his senior video creator? He didn't take it clearly as a form, but Kanzaki responded unaware of Miyahara's slightly different restlessness.

"Did you go to East Asia again?"

"I went to India and Thailand this time."

"Then, wasn't it pretty popular?"

"If I walked with that in mind, that would be the case, but the covert coverage was inadvertently caught. We were hated by the brothel owners. But this is also a business, so we grabbed the girls and boys I wanted in another place and listened to them. It was good up to that point, but when I noticed there was a big guy behind me. I ran away with the photographer. "

Miyahara's coverage this time is a brothel exploration report in India and Thailand. Kanzaki has also overheard that from his colleagues.

"Yeah. That was a disaster. But didn't you interview as a customer?"

"No, we pretended to be customers, of course. We paid an exorbitant amount of money. We wanted to play this kind of transformation, so we asked for boys and girls like this. Perhaps there was a bugging device in the room. We ware relieved to be back without being dead. "

In India, there are open brothels in the big cities of Delhi, Mumbai or Karkota. Many of the prostitutes there were deceived by the sweet words of the mediator, "Let's get them to work in an Indian carpet factory," and were brought from a village in Nepal. There is a fenceless area on the border between Nepal and India, from which more than 5,000 Nepalese girls were trafficked annually in India. Victims were mainly under 16 years of age, including pre-menarche little girls. Naive girls and their parents received only tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yen in Japanese yen. They were sold to many prostitutes in cities such as GB Road in Delhi in India, Kamatipura in Mumbai, and Sonagachi in Kolkata. By the way, Nepalese girls are preferred in India because of their white skin, virginity, and low awareness of infectious diseases such as HIV.

"But the girls weren't the only ones in the inn."

In India, it can only be found near the border with Nepal, but throughout Asia, there are boy prostitutes throughout Cambodia, major cities in Thailand, Laos, southern Myanmar, the Philippines, and Indonesia. All children are poor and most sell themselves to support their households. "Even though they showed a mature attitude, they were all children when they laughed. That's why I saw the female photographer who accompanied me. "

Miyahara darkened his expression and told Kanzaki.

The children in the area take four or five guests a day and live on a daily allowance of about 2,000 yen in Japanese yen. But that wasn't what Kanzaki was concerned about.

"Female photographer?

In other words, is that person Ms. Sakashita?

You haven't done good things, right? "

"Hey, there's no demise," Miyahara shook his head from side to side. "We wouldn't be working in a production that would give each other such a generous amount of time." He inadvertently revealed the internal circumstances of a small video production. "And during the work, I couldn't do it with her. Given the children over there, we suddenly withered each other, " he gave up his shoulders.

"Are you not getting married for the time being?"

"It's like a lie to have talked about that before.

I feel like I'm getting older while continuing this situation. "

"Even if seniors are fine in that situation, I think Ms. Sakashita is different."

"No, she says she'll throw me away and switch as soon as she meets her destined partner."

When he put it into words again, the hard words that Risako Sakashita gave at that time revived in Miyahara's inner ear. At that time, she laughed and confided to him what she couldn't think of as a lie because of Risako's personality. Originally, it was a relationship that started by accidentally overlapping and comforting a tired body overnight. I've never felt lonely with her, and our atmosphere was very similar, but it doesn't seem to lead to marriage on its own. Miyahara doesn't think that he loves Risako Sakashita, as ordinary lovers do.

"By the way, it wasn't directly related to this interview, but I heard strange rumors."

Miyahara changed her topic as if to dispel her vague feelings towards Risako Sakashita.

"It was a rumor about a strange organ. I heard that there is a black market for organs that does not reject any recipient. Of course, the dark organs are extremely expensive, but there are many people who want to get them. Kanzaki, have you heard of it? "

「先輩。お久しぶりです」

　宮原が仕事の打ち合わせのため都内某テレビ局の廊下を会議室に向けて歩いていると声がする。背中からだ。ついで走り寄る足音が聞こえ、

「おお、きみか！」

　背後を振り返りつつ宮原が言う。相手が神崎雄二だとわかったからだ。

　神崎は宮原と会社は違うが似たような題材を手がける下請け映像プロダクション勤務の若者で宮原と同じＷ大学の出身者だ。もっとも大学にいた時期がずれていたので二人に学内での面識はない。知り合ったのは同じ報道番組の別プログラムをそれぞれの所属会社が受注したからで、宮原が担当した番組の最後の仕上げと神崎が所属するチームの最初の打ち合わせが番組プロデューサーの都合で一部重なるという偶然によってもたらされた。それは滅多に起こらない出来事だったため、それぞれ約十名から構成される二チームは相手チームを意識せざるを得なかったというわけだ。

　宮原と神埼はその後幾つかのテレビ局内で擦れ違う縁があり、短い空き時間に何とはなしに話をしながら互いに気が合う相手だと気づき、たまに酒を飲む間柄となる。

「二週間くらいお姿を見かけなかったと思いますが、また海外取材ですか？」

　肩を並べてテレビ局の廊下を歩きつつ神埼が宮原に問いかける。

「まあ、そんなところだ」と宮原。「で、神崎くんの方はどうなの？　いい仕事をしてる？」

　昨年、大学を出たばかりの神崎のまだ幼さが残る顔をチラリと眺めつつ宮原が言う。

「ぼくは先輩と違って見習いＡＤですから、足手纏いにならないことが唯一のいい仕事ですよ」

　神崎はそんなふうに自分の仕事振りを卑下したが、宮原は神崎の無精髭が長く伸びた相貌に内面の充実を読み取っている。これまで本人が気づかず宮原や他の仲間に見せた如何にもといった頼りがいのなさが、そこはかとない自信に置き換わっている。当然のように仕事は忙しいだろうが、職場にも慣れ、また仕事自体も面白くなってきたのだろう。

「今回はどちらへ取材ですか？」

　神崎はおそらく帰宅するところだったはずだ。それを保留にして宮原に言葉を投げかける。宮原が目指す会議室まで付き合うつもりらしい。それは先輩映像作製者に対する神崎の勘だったか。形としてはっきり捉えることはなかったが、神崎は宮原のいつもと僅かに違う落ち着きのなさに自身でも気づかず反応していたのだ。

「また東アジアですか？」

「今回行ってきたのはインドとタイだよ」

「ならば、かなりモテたでしょう？」

「その気で歩けばそうなのだろうが、隠密取材がうっかりバレちまってね。売春宿のオーナーに嫌われたよ。でもまあこっちも商売だから別のところで目的の女の子や男の子たちを掴まえて話を聞き出したところまでは良かったが、気づくと後ろに大っきなのがいてさ。さすがにカメラマンと逃げたよ」

　宮原が今回手がけた取材はインドとタイの売春窟探報だ。そこまでは神埼も仕事仲間から漏れ聞いている。

「ふうん。それは災難でしたね。でもお客として取材をしなかったんですか？」

「いや、もちろん客を装ったさ。法外な金を払ってね。こういう変態プレイをしたいから、こんな感じの男や女の子供たちを誂えてくれと頼んだよ。……たぶん部屋に盗聴器が仕掛けてあったんだろう。死体にならずに帰って来られてホッとしているよ」

　インドでは大都市のデリーやムンバイあるいはカルコタに公然と売春窟が存在する。そこで春をひさぐ娼婦の中には『インドの絨毯工場で働けるようにしてあげよう』という斡旋人の甘い言葉に騙され、ネパールの村から連れて来られた少女も多い。ネパールとインドの国境には無柵の地域があり、そこから年間五千人以上のネパール人少女がインド国内に人身売買されている。被害者の年齢は主に十六歳以下だが、中には初潮以前の幼女も含まれる。世間知らずの少女やその親たちは日本円にしてわずか数万から十数万円の金を受け取り、インドならばデリーのＧＢロード、ムンバイではカマティプラ、コルカタならばソナガチといった都市に軒を並べた娼婦館に売られていく。ちなみにネパール人少女がインドで好まれる理由は、肌の白さ、処女性、それにＨＩＶなどの感染症に対する認識の低さだという。

「もっとも宿にいたのは少女たちばかりではなかったがね」

　インドではネパールとの国境辺りでしか見受けられないが、アジア全体では、カンボジア全土、タイの主要都市、ラオス、南部ミャンマー、フィリピン、インドネシアに子供の男娼が存在する。子供たちはみな貧困で、ほとんどが家計を支えるために身を売っている。

「大人びた態度は見せても、笑うとすっかり子供なんだな。だから同行したカメラマンの彼女とも顔を見合わせてね」

　宮原が表情を暗くして神崎に語る。

　その地にいる子供たちは一日当たり四、五人の客を取り、日本円で二千円くらいの日当を受けて生活する。だが神崎が反応したのは、その内容ではない。

「彼女ですか？　……ってことは坂下女史？　まさかお二人でいい思いをして来たんじゃないでしょうね」

「おいおい、滅相もない」と宮原が首を大きく左右に振る。「互いに、そんな悠長な時間を取れるプロダクション勤務でもないだろう」と思わず弱小映像プロダクションの内部事情を吐露してしまう。「それに取材の間はさすがに彼女ともできなかったよ。あそこにいた子供たちのことを考えると二人して急に萎えてしまってね」と肩を竦める。

「当分、結婚はなしですか？」

「以前そんな話をしたことがあったのがまるで嘘みたいだな。なんだか、このままずるずると歳を取っていくような気がするよ」

「先輩は良くても坂下さんの方はそうもいかないんじゃないですか？」

「いやいや、赤い糸の相手に出遭ったらすぐにおれを捨て、乗り換えるって言ってるよ」

　改めてそう言葉にすると宮原の内耳にあのとき坂下理紗子が放った硬い言葉が甦る。笑ってはいたが、理紗子の性格からして嘘とは思えない事情を打ち明けられたときのことだ。元々、偶然が重なり疲れた身体を一晩慰め合って始まった関係だ。彼女と一緒にいて疎ましい思いをしたことは一度もないし、また空気感も良く似ていたが、それだけで結婚に行き着くものでもないらしい。世間一般の恋人たちが愛するように自分が坂下理紗子を愛しているとは宮原にはとても思えないのだ。

「そういえば、今度の取材とは直接関係ないんだが、妙な噂を耳にしてね」

　坂下理紗子に対する己の曖昧な気持ちを払拭するかのように宮原が話題を変える。

「奇妙な臓器の噂なんだ。どんな受給者（レシピエント）とも拒絶反応を起こさない臓器の闇市場があるというんだな。もちろんその闇臓器はもの凄く高価なんだが、入手希望者は後を絶たないという。神崎くん、聞いたことある？」