Venus in the Blind Spot, also titled Disappearing Venus or Vanishing Venus, is the fourth story featured in the collection Venus in the Blind Spot.
Plot[]
Iwata, Kurata, and Inoue live in Nanzan, a town famous for UFO sightings. The three all belong to the Nanzan UFO Research Society, which is run by Professor Shono and his daughter Mariko. When Iwata and the others arrive for a meeting of the society, Mariko is on her balcony, just at the moment a UFO appears. It vanishes just as quickly, and Mariko excitedly comes downstairs to talk to the men, but she becomes invisible and they can no longer see her.
Iwata reflects that this has been going on for some time: Mariko is visible from a distance, but disappears whenever she comes near. He, Kurata, Inoue, and a number of other men are all in love with her and joined the UFO Research Society to get close to her. Eventually, all the women in the society left, so now the group consists solely of Mariko's admirers. Her father didn't approve of this and wanted to shut the society down, but Mariko talked him out of it. Somehow, she began disappearing whenever she was in physical proximity to the men. Other people, including her father, don't have this problem and can see her normally.
At the meeting, Iwata reveals that he believes he's been abducted by aliens. Shortly after meeting Mariko, he suffered a headache and woke up in a blinding white room, only to re-surface in a park hours later with no memory of what happened. Subsequently, Mariko started disappearing before his eyes. He's since discovered a small scar on his hairline, and believes that the aliens operated on him. Iwata is devastated by his inability to see the woman he loves. All the men reveal they've had a similar experience. They begin fighting over Mariko, and her father intervenes. He disbands the society and orders the men to leave - except Sano, a new member.
Professor Shono drugs Sano and calls an accomplice, Nishimura, to help him. Shono deals with Mariko's admirers by drugging each man, then implanting a computer chip in their brains that prevents them seeing Mariko when she is within a certain distance. The chip detects Mariko from her earrings, which she wears every day in memory of her late mother. However, Nishimura points out that the plan isn't flawless and the drug Shono administers to erase the men's memories will not have an effect on everyone. Shono decides to increase the signal from Mariko's earrings so the men can't see her at all.
Sure enough, Shono's attempt to erase Sano's memory does not work, and Sano reports him to police. Upon hearing that Shono's being held for questioning, Iwata goes over to the Shono home. He finds their housekeeper murdered, and Mariko has been captured by a group of her admirers. They believe she is an alien who is deliberately tormenting them by making herself invisible. Iwata tries to help Mariko but the other men knock him unconscious. Subsequently, Mariko is found violently murdered.
All the former members of the UFO Research Society have the computer chips removed from their brains. The killers are emotionally destroyed by what they've done but, with Mariko gone, it's little comfort to Iwata. He begins to experience visions of Mariko, which he believes are caused by his mind retaining visual memories of her even though he could not identify her at the time.