Fumichika Nejima

**Fumichika Nejima** (根島 史周, *Nejima Fumichika*) is the man who made headlines over two decades ago as the perpetrator of the brutal killings known as the Nejima Murders.

## Background

Fumichika first began believing in miracles when he voluntarily enlisted in World War II as a teenager and was the only POW in his unit to survive. By the time the war ended and he was freed, he had learned some English and gained considerable weight from the food he was given in his captivity.

Upon returning to Japan, Fumichika found that the area in which his parents' house was located in Tokyo had been burned to the ground, and his entire family wiped out in the disaster. Starting over from nothing, he worked hard and eventually opened a small general store near the Sumida River. Though it was not a thriving business, it was enough to put food on the table.

Fumichika was inspired by the new cultural trends flooding into the city as Tokyo was rebuilt from the ashes. He was especially fond of books, and enjoyed visiting antique bookstores in Kanda to search for rare foreign books in his free time. Of all books, however, it was those on the paranormal and the occult that caught his eyes, and he was already open to the existence of such things due to his miraculous return from the war. What was initially a passing interest gradually became a deep fascination with Western black magic as he gathered more information on the subject.

Still single at 30, Fumichika tried performing a black magic ritual to summon a partner. Soon after, he met a woman who called herself Shino, though her real name remains unknown. Shino had left her hometown in the countryside where she had no family or work to support her, and somehow made it to Tokyo while earning a meager daily wage. When she met Fumichika, she was haggard and on the verge of starvation. Fumichika, who felt a connection with Shino due to the ritual, decided to take her into his home and let her live there. Both of them having lived alone for most of their lives, the two turned out to be a perfect match.

Shino gradually recovered, but still was not strong enough to work. Fumichika was by no means a skilled businessman, and their lives were far from financially secure, but Shino, who had experienced wartime Japan, was simply content to have food on the table to eat every day. The two spent their days together, poor but happy to be by each other's sides.

Several years later, Shino's condition to a severe turn for the worse. The local doctor could offer them no help and, without enough money to take Shino to a major hospital, Fumichika resorted to using black magic to heal her. However, it was no use, and she passed away at their home. Her final words were: I'm sorry I must go first. I'll leave the rest to you."

Fumichika plunged into intense despair. He drank and ate everything he could to distract himself, which caused him to rapidly gain weight. After a while, when he was finally able to walk around once more, he found himself drawn to an antique bookstore, within which he found a grimoire he had never laid eyes on before. The grimoire contained detailed instructions on how to perform a resurrection through black magic. The rite required the dismemberment and sacrifice of a young woman, but this great cost only served to convince Fumichika that this would be the spell that would finally work. He embraced the grimoire and let its depictions of black magic consume his heart more than ever before.

Fumichika then found a destitute woman in town who was on the verge of collapse, brought her to a basement warehouse, and performed a ritual sacrifice. However, it had no effect. Thinking that his own hesitation had got in the way, he was swift to perform the ritual again, but it still proved fruitless. He repeated this process four times in total. Each time, he dismembered the body into small pieces and dumbed them into the filthy Sumida River, where they were never found. While cleaning up after his fourth kill, a disappointed Fumichika noticed an emaciated baby nearby.

Could it have been... Shino?

## Etymology

* The name **Fumichika** means "history" (史) (**fumi**) and "circumference, circuit, lap, surroundings, vicinity" (周) (**chika**).
* Fumichika's surname **Nejima** means "root" (根) (**ne**) and "island" (島) (**shima**/**jima**).