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| “ | I told Haruto to go outside and play, and that boy just turned and stuck out his tongue at me. Showing that kind of attitude to a parent? It's unacceptable. If we don't teach him the proper way to behave now, it'll go poorly for him in the future. | „ |
| ~ Miura about his domestic violence |
Yoshiharu Miura is the secondary antagonist of Strange Pictures, the debut novel by Japanese author and YouTuber Uketsu. Miura is the husband of Naomi Konno and the father of their son Haruto; Naomi kills Miura when she refuses to enable his abuse of Haruto, a crime she got away with for decades.
Biography[]
Miura was an art student who was previously tutored in school by top student Nobuo Toyokawa, struggling to gain admission and pay for his tuition. He was one of many art students frequenting the cafe Naomi worked in, and they started a relationship. Miura and Toyokawa would constantly compete for Naomi's affections, but when Miura wanted to move back to his hometown to get a teaching position at the high school, Naomi moved with him. They married and had a son, Haruto, who was socially awkward and primarily interacted with Naomi. Miura was furious, shouting at him constantly to interact with people and show manners, and when Haruto once stuck his tongue out at Miura, it was first time Miura hit him. Naomi, in spite of killing her own violent mother when Naomi was a child, which no one knew about, kept herself in denial out of the fear of the damages to the family if Miura's domestic violence was challenged. This was also indicative of how Miura was at his job and in his social life. He would regularly shout at and degrade his students, which meant his after-school art club was often small. As Miura would do to Haruto, he'd pester and force people into participating in activities he wanted, whether in full or with "compromises". Toyokawa eventually got a part-time job as a special instructor at the school, as he lost his office job due to being a problematic employee, and Toyokawa always resented Miura for switching the roles of pupil and instructor. Naomi was eventually done with Miura and contemplated divorce, but as she had a juvie record, she feared losing Haruto, so she once again resorted to murder to protect her family. Knowing Miura was hiking up a mountain trail, Naomi waited until he was camping at the peak, then tied him up in a sleeping bag, force-fed him his favorite bento meal, and bludgoened and stabbed him to death. She stole evidence that would reveal the circumstances in which Miura was killed, including the sleeping bag and other food, as Naomi wanted to leave undigested food in Miura's intact stomach, yet disfigure his remains, to throw off the conclusion of the time Miura died and protect her own alibi. Miura realized this, so he drew the view from the mountain peak on the back of a receipt from memory, hoping the assumption Miura didn't draw it when he was killed would reinforce Naomi's alibi and ensure she'd be Haruto's sole guardian, which Miura conceded to as he died. The setup worked, and Naomi got away with the crime for decades, but only in part because Toyokawa, having also wanted to kill Miura but seen Naomi do it, raped Naomi as he wanted as the ultimatum for his silence. When journalist Shunsuke Iwata, a former student of Miura, returned to investigate on his own, Naomi killed him the same way, then killed Toyokawa with an overdose and staged his death as a suicide, complete with a note, to frame him for the murders. The truth was revealed when Shunsuke's colleague Isamu Kumai investigated as well and realized Naomi was the murderer. He worked with a friend in the police to get Naomi arrested so her crimes could be investigated in full.