<p>On April 9 this year, at noon, Yuya Hashimoto (pseudonym, teenager) woke up in the bathroom of a love hotel in Minami, Osaka. He was lying in the bathtub with his clothes on, and his body was covered with water from the shower. What am I doing here? When she moved to the bed, she saw her face reflected in the mirror around her, swollen and flattened. My face, stomach, and mouth hurt. In my fading consciousness, I called an ambulance and was taken to a police hospital. It was not until April 26 that he woke up again.</p>
<p><a href="#" data-ident_hash="5143c02a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/12/43be866b0eed33de1a0710a6a2f2667a.jpg" alt=""></a></p>
<figure id="attachment_348819" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-348819" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d36119df"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/12/80116f71302ac77d20dba69b56d3dd78.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-348819" class="wp-caption-text"> A photograph taken immediately after the incident, taken by Mr. Hashimoto when he regained consciousness. His face was splashed with sulfuric acid (upper photo), and his right thigh was burned and scaly (lower photo).</figcaption></figure>
<p> About a month later, at the end of May, the Osaka Prefectural Police arrested Kentaro Wakabayashi, then 42, and two 17-year-old boys, A and B, on suspicion of attempted murder for pouring sulfuric acid on Mr. Hashimoto and inflicting burns on him.</p>
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<p><span class="strong-in-content"> The two boys were the perpetrators. It is known that they were delinquents who gathered in the area where the symbol of Minami, the Dotonbori Glico sign, is located, known as &#8220;Gurishita,&#8221; and later received 500,000 yen in cash from Abe as a reward for their crime. After being approached by Abe to harm Mr. Hashimoto, Wakabayashi instructed A and others, who were acquainted with Mr. Hashimoto, to induce him to take sleeping pills, which put him into a coma. They are suspected of trying to kill her by pouring sulfuric acid on her face and lower abdomen.</span></p>
<p> Why did the Abe defendants use sulfuric acid? The answer lies in the relationship between Abe and Hashimoto. Ms. Hashimoto herself told FRIDAY the following story.</p>
<p><span class="strong-in-content"> Hikaru (Abe) and I were dating. We met around March of last year. I joined a bar in Umeda&#8217;s Doyama district as an employee, and the owner was Hikaru, and Wakabayashi was a regular customer. Around June of that year, Hikaru and I started dating. However, he was mentally unstable, and in mid-February of this year, he became jealous when he found out I went out with my friends, threw a tantrum, and said, &#8216;I&#8217;m breaking up with you. He threw a tantrum and said, &#8216;I&#8217;m breaking up with you, and I want you to stop working at the restaurant. I did as he said, but after that Hikaru contacted me several times asking me to get back together. I kept ignoring them.</span></p>
<p> Then the incident occurred.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" On the day of the crime: ......"></div>
<p>On the evening of April 8, Ms. Hashimoto received an invitation to play from A and joined him under the grill. At this time, A had already received instructions from Wakabayashi and others to harm Ms. Hashimoto.</p>
<p><span class="strong-in-content"> A was an employee of a concept café that Wakabayashi used to run, and he had also been seen at Hikaru&#8217;s restaurant, where they became acquainted. We had been estranged for a while, but he contacted me on SNS after a long time.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> Ms. Hashimoto was led by A to a cafe where B, the other perpetrator, worked. It was here that A and the others began to act suspiciously.</p>
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<p><span class="strong-in-content"> When I told them I wanted to leave because I had never met B and had plans for the next day, they offered me a shot glass filled with a blue liquid and said, &#8216;We won&#8217;t let you leave unless you drink this. I had no choice but to drink it all at once, and at that moment I lost consciousness.</span></p>
<p> A and B took Ms. Hashimoto to a love hotel and doused her with sulfuric acid.</p>
<p><span class="strong-in-content"> Wakabayashi had borrowed money from Hikaru to operate the cafe. So when Hikaru, who is 11 years younger than Wakabayashi, gave him instructions, he couldn&#8217;t say no.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> The burns from the sulfuric acid on his face, mouth, and lower abdomen extended to the subcutaneous tissue, and the doctor told him that he had a third-degree burn, the most severe symptom.</p>
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<p><span class="strong-in-content"> The skin grafts can only be operated on every six months, and there is no telling how long it will take to heal. I feel intense hatred for Abe.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> Abe wanted to use people to inflict lifelong scars on his former lover. Has that self-satisfied love been satisfied?</p>
<figure id="attachment_348820" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-348820" style="width: 1814px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f65855dd"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/12/9c36dc94f71ee3d9a7bfe49d95ae10ed.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-348820" class="wp-caption-text"> While working as the owner of a bar in Doyama, Umeda, defendant Abe served customers under the cast name Prince Hikaru. Photo from the bar&#8217;s X account</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_348821" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-348821" style="width: 1913px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="25efdb58"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/12/3d6978b2ebc4171514bed460a9bf9bf5.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-348821" class="wp-caption-text"> Juvenile A, the perpetrator of the crime, who did not get along well with Abe, is believed to have cooperated in the crime out of greed for money. Photo from his SNS account.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_348822" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-348822" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b0359101"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/12/c5d499fd7363b4a24624d3ab6d2cdaba.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-348822" class="wp-caption-text"> Wakabayashi ran a karaoke cafe with his family in addition to the cafe. At the time of the incident, he was working at the same restaurant as Ms. Hashimoto. Photo from his SNS account.</figcaption></figure>
<p> From the December 29, 2023 issue of FRIDAY</p>


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