都筑 実

A man who was a key person in the serial murders of girls 18 years ago, but went missing and was never found. In childhood, he and his younger sister Emiko lived in Irumo Village and were subjected to constant abuse from their father. Minoru had the idea of wearing a paper bag with a crudely-drawn smile on it, which managed to help cheer Emiko up, and the two would thereafter play together while wearing such paper bags. When Emiko was found dead one day from drowning after they planned on running away from their father together, Minoru considered his father responsible for the death and murdered him in retaliation. Minoru attended Emiko's funeral, and placed her paper bag in her coffin. Minoru was later sentenced to juvenile detention for the murder. While serving his sentence, Minoru was observed by the detention center director as being very quiet and honest, while also often muttering to himself. He took an interest in cars and was encouraged to pursue a career in automotive repair; he took this to heart and studied to become a mechanic, easily passing his certification examination. After this, Minoru told the director that he planned on getting a car and driving his sister around in it. Knowing that Emiko was his only sister, the director found this odd and would later speculate that Minoru was trying to pretend that Emiko's death never happened. Upon his release, Minoru returned to Irumo Village. He was welcomed fondly and started helping with farm work, though the villagers noted the same behaviours the director did. Minoru later left the village. Minoru ended up in Kamematsu City, where he discovered and was drawn to Todoroki Motors. He worked there for a time, with the owner and his wife taking him in and treating him as a surrogate son. He eventually left and was gifted a car, then went on to live in a nearby apartment. Following this, his mental state began to deteriorate; he came to believe that every crying teenage girl was Emiko, and as such, would approach them with a paper bag with a smiley-face on it; if they stopped crying, he would leave them alone, otherwise, he would kill them by strangulation and leave another such bag on their corpse so that they would have "a smile that lasts forever", thus instigating the urban legend of Emio, the Smiling Man. He additionally cut his own face open, leaving a lot of blood in his apartment, so that he himself would have a permanent smile. He soon became a suspect in the girls' murders, but managed to evade the police. One of his attempted victims was Junko Kuze, though his attempt at killing her was thwarted by her brother Makoto. Minoru decided to abandon killing Junko and instead kidnapped Makoto. Makoto was rendered amnesiac from the ordeal; Minoru took advantage of this to prevent him from finding out who he was. It was not until eighteen years later that Minoru was brought to justice; in another attempt to kill Junko, who had since become a detective to find Makoto, Makoto arrived and, regaining some memories, killed Minoru in self-defense.