It was a week after the incident in the courtyard that I returned home.
We spent a few days back at the ranch in Tama. Then, two days before my return, we learned that Akihiro had been arrested, so we returned to the shack behind Mr. Harumi's mansion to await further news.
Finally, a report came out that Akihiro had confessed to the murder from 14 years ago, and accused Count Minoshima of plotting to obtain the one million yen. At last, I could return to my parents' home in peace. I no longer had to fear the Count's retribution.
Akihiro was arrested in the entertainment district in Yokohama. I don't know what he was doing there. Not that I care, but he was apparently turned over to the police when he tried to stay at an inn without paying.
From what I heard, when he was arrested he didn't have a single yen in his possession. I don't know what he did with the money.
At any rate, the treasure hunt was over, and Yuriko, Katsuyo, and I were able to spend a week unwinding.
Yuriko told me something of her past.
According to herself, for as long as she was able to remember Yuriko had been a pickpocket's assistant. She was so talented that one day she attracted the attention of a circus and ended up being sold. Apparently, the pickpocket she'd been helping wasn't a relative of hers, so she really did know nothing of her family.
Remembering the skills Yuriko had shown at the garden party, her story made sense to me, but it didn't actually solve the mysteries around that strange girl. Of course, it would have been selfish of me to demand to know everything about her after spending so little time together, so I had no choice but to accept what I'd been given.
Speaking of mysteries, how had Yuriko discovered the truth of everything that had happened? Of course, she had been looking for an answer that would clear up all the mysteries we'd been faced with: the incident in 1911, Count Minoshima's motive to adopt me, and Ryujiro's death. But Yuriko herself didn't seem to be very invested in any of them.
“I'm a debt collector, not a detective.”
And with that, all of her interest in the incidents seemed to vanish.
Just as when I'd left, with furoshiki-wrapped bundles covering Katsuyo's back, Yuriko led me through the gate of the Kabatani family mansion. It had been three months since I'd left.
I immediately noticed that the number of plants in the garden had decreased. Even the plum and persimmon trees were gone.
In order to repay his debts, Father had been forced to sell even them. It was pathetic the way the plants had clearly been taken starting from the back of the garden, where they couldn't be seen from the outside.
Yuriko stopped me from opening the front door, and instead banged on it and loudly called out:
“Hello! I'm here to return Mariko!”
Father looked about to wither away as he welcomed us into the reception room. He had aged several years in the past three months, and met my claim to have paid off our debt with skepticism.
Father looked uneasily at Yuriko, who had performed some audacious stunts on a rooftop just a week ago.
Yuriko pulled out a crumpled paper from somewhere in her unusual clothes.
“Here's your certificate back! Here you go.”
“Is this correct?”
Father smoothed the wrinkles from the document and squinted at it.
“I dunno! I still can't read it. Check for yourself.”
After carefully examining the signature and seal, Father was finally convinced.
Yuriko next tossed a package wrapped in brown paper onto the table.
“Here's the money left over after subtracting your debt to Grandpa Harumi. It's 13,541 yen and 62 sen. That'll buy you 112,846 bowls of red bean soup and still leave a little left over. That should be enough, right?”
“Um...”
Father unwrapped the paper package suspiciously, as though someone were forcing him to open a jack-in-the-box.
Inside was a stack of brand new bills, lined up neatly. Holding it in his hands, Father finally showed an expression of relief.
“There won't be any problems with where this money came from, will there? I have a vague idea of what you've done...”
“It's fiiiiiine! That's money Grandpa Harumi's paying you, Mr. Kabatani. There's nothing suspicious about it at all.”
I gave the money I'd received from Akihiro a week ago to Yuriko. I decided to have Mr. Harumi take care of managing the money. If anyone were to question how Father was suddenly able to pay off all his debts at once, we would have the excuse that Mr. Harumi had so kindly done it for us.
As Father put the money away, Yuriko grabbed me by the shoulders.
“Okay! Now, I'll hand Mariko back over as the collateral. Treat her carefully.”
Father did as he was told, staring at me as though I were a mannequin.
Last night, in the bath of Mr. Harumi's mansion, I was washed thoroughly from head to toe, as though I were a stray dog taken off the street. Having been living on a ranch for a while, the smell of the wild had permeated my being. That morning, I had been dressed in the kimono I'd worn when I left home three months ago, and powder had been clumsily smeared on my face.
It reminded me of the way, once, when I was still a student at the girls' academy, I had gotten soy sauce on a handkerchief I was borrowing from a friend, and when she begged me to return it, I had frantically scrubbed the stain away.
“See, just like before. No damage whatsoever. Well, her hair's a bit shorter. But it'll grow back!”
“I know that.”
“And she might be a bit less obedient than she was before, Mr. Viscount. But that isn't my fault. That just happened. Well, here you go.”
With that poignant statement, I was pushed into the chair next to Father. Seeing me with my hair cut short, Father sighed with what was either relief or resignation.
With that, the deal was done. My debt was cleared, and I'd been returned safely to my family. My strange journey was over.
“Where have you been all this time? What have you been doing? Have you been causing people trouble? If you've done anything wrong, please, tell me now.”
Father said all that as he begged me to tell him what had happened since I'd run away from Count Minoshima.
“We stayed with a friend of Yuriko's, Ms. Mitsue Asama. We worked as maids to pay her back. Nothing unbecoming.”
“Mitsue Asama? The actress!?”
Father held his head in his hands. It seemed he was remembering the Hasebe family's garden party.
“Is that why you were working as a waitress at the Dainichi Club? Mariko, please don't tell anyone about this. If rumors about all this start to spread, who knows what people will think?”
“I don't intend to start bragging about my time staying with an actress, of course. But I would ask you to remember that if I hadn't run away from the Count, I would have been married to a murderer.”
I told him about how I'd been chased by Count Minoshima's men and hidden on a ranch. Father looked so sad, I found myself exaggerating how much fun I'd had as a runaway. Although, that may have made me sound even more rebellious.
Finally, as though trying to convince himself, Father spoke.
“Well, that's okay. As long as you came back safely–”
“Well, that's only natural, since she was with me.”
Yuriko said that nonchalantly. Father was once again thrown completely out of sorts.
When we were finished, Yuriko asked for another cup of tea. Just like she had before, she sipped tea from the teacup, rummaged through the sweets on the table, and chewed on a caramel. It was as though she'd forgotten Father and I were even there.
I sat in silence, feeling as though I was finally growing accustomed to the room.
Of course, it was in my home, and I was the third daughter of Viscount Kabatani. I reminded myself that Yuriko was a debt collector I had no connection with. Our business with each other was done. After we were done with our sweets, there would be nothing left but for her to go home.
In the end, things had turned out exactly as Yuriko had said they would. Just as she'd boasted, Yuriko had singlehandedly paid off all our debts.
I remembered how, just before Count Minoshima had kidnapped me, I'd wondered what Yuriko was planning to show me of the world. I'd though that the time I spent with her would be like a visit to an amusement park.
In reality, that was the furthest thing from the truth. There in that courtyard, Yuriko had suddenly grabbed me by the neck and thrust me into the deepest pits of hell. When I'd faced off with the Count and the Hasebe family with one million yen on the line, I felt I'd glimpsed the far side of the world, the one everyone agreed was better off hidden.
Father must have been afraid that I'd catch an accidental glimpse of that side with Yuriko. That girl had been living in that alternate world I knew nothing about her whole life.
Finishing her rice crackers, Yuriko stood up.
“Thank you for the food. I'll be going now.”
“Oh, really? Thank you for all your help.”
Father called for the maid to open the door for her before she changed her mind.
As Yuriko got up to leave, I suddenly understood the loneliness that came when a circus leaves a town. It came, gave you just a glimpse of a whole other world, then left for somewhere you could never follow.
As Yuriko was about to leave the room, I reached out to her and called out:
“Yuriko! Next time you need help with your work, I'll help you. Will you come back for me?”
Yuriko and Father both looked back to me.
Their expressions were a stark contrast. Father was indignant, but Yuriko was laughing.
“Really? Then I'll ask for your help. It'd make my life way easier to have someone to write mysterious letters for me.”
Yuriko often spoke carelessly, but at that moment, I had no doubt she was sincere.
Yuriko mounted Katsuyo and briskly rode away.
Father seemed to have opinions about my volunteering to become a debt collector, but he swallowed his words and handed me an envelope from the shelf in the reception room.
“You've received a letter.”
“A letter? From who?”
“It's from Noriko.”
“From Sister? Ah, that's right.”
I remembered.
A few days ago, when I was still at the ranch, I'd written a letter to Noriko. I'd wanted to thank her for protecting me when I'd been taken hostage in the courtyard. Her reply had arrived.
Father had been thinking about that letter for a long time. With the mystery of the treasure solved, the fact that the Minoshima family had been harboring a murderer in exchange for money had been revealed to the public, and it was inevitable that my eldest sister, who had married into the family, would be caught up in the resultant scandal.
Father realized that the letter may have conveyed something important. But since it was addressed to me, he couldn't just open it on his own.
I opened the envelope and unfolded the letter paper within.
“There's nothing here you should worry about, Father.”
It was exactly the reply I'd expected when I wrote the letter. First she said that she was very happy I was safe, then that it was presumptive of me to worry about her. She said that the blackmail letter I'd written was so vile as to cast aspersions upon the character of the author. She said I had been reckless and irresponsible and caused trouble for many people.
It was a long, drawn out message roughly the same as the lecture she'd given me when I'd been confined in Count Minoshima's mansion. Even in writing, my eldest sister sounded deeply angry.
But I could only smile and nod in agreement with her words of encouragement.
Noriko was right. I was the kind of girl who would follow a passing street performer.
“I'd though perhaps Noriko would come back to us,” Father muttered to himself. I could tell that was what he'd hoped.
My eldest sister probably wouldn't be coming back. However much the Minoshima name may have been tarnished, she would consider it a much greater shame to divorce over something like this.
I sent a letter to the third son of the Minoshima family, whose face I couldn't even remember, congratulating him on his marriage to Noriko.
I carried the furoshiki bundles to my four-and-a-half tatami room and returned the books, kimonos, and all my other items to their proper places.
When I was finished tidying up, I had a sudden idea and went to Father's study.
“Father?”
“Yes, Mariko?”
Father was writing something.
“May I see Ayako's matchmaking photograph?”
“Ayako's?”
Father thought about it for a moment, then decided it was a trivial request. From the bookshelf, he took out a beautiful matchmaking photograph, folded in half, printed on thick paper bound with brocade thread.
“Here it is. It's the only copy remaining, so be careful.”
I returned to my four-and-a-half tatami room and spread Ayako's photograph on the writing desk.
This was the photograph that Akihiro had seen from within his prison.
Ayako, wearing a long-sleeved kimono, with her hair neatly tied up. She looked a bit different from the her in my memories. But as Akihiro had said, there was definitely a resemblance between us.
One week ago at dusk, as we drove down the mountain road in a stolen car, Akihiro had told me the truth, and I thought I'd finally come to accept Ayako's death. That it had so unexpectedly come from a man like Akihiro was absurd.
In the whisper of a woman confessing a secret, I spoke to the matchmaking photograph.
“Ayako, I've met so many new people since you left.”
I was already older than Ayako had been when she took that photograph. I was on the verge of becoming an adult.
Mitsuda Madoy does not think you are a clown, he thinks you are the entire circus. He can be found on bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/mitsudamadoyvt.bsky.social and streaming mystery games on twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/mitsudamadoy