As he waited in the trailer for everyone to arrive, Kamo glanced down at the green wine bottle.
It was the same bottle he'd filled with tap water and brought with him last night.
He checked that the cork was firmly in, then threw it in the drawer of a wardrobe in the back of the trailer.
The rain had subsided a bit, but the sound of it tapping against the roof of the trailer was still quite annoying. He opened the pocket watch, which he was still borrowing, and checked the time. 7:45. It was awfully dark for that time of day in summer, but with the curtains open, they didn't need lights.
When he looked out the window, he saw Ayaka and the others coming through the broken front entrance. He noticed how tense Ayaka's face was as she held her umbrella, but it was still clear they were all safe, so he sighed with relief.
Kamo made sure the end of the pendant's chain was still in his breast pocket before going to open the trailer door.
After arranging the food and drinks they'd brought from the kitchen, all five of them sat down side by side, using the bed as a sofa.
"...I was talking to Mr. Amamiya in the storage room earlier."
Ayaka starting talking as soon as she sat down, costing Kamo his chance to control the discussion.
"What did you talk about?" Genji asked calmly.
"I was explaining the constraints of time travel to Mr. Amamiya. As we were talking, I started thinking... and it all melted away."
"When you say 'melted', do you mean ice or something like that?"
Kamo had been thinking of the refrigerator in the storeroom. However, Ayaka shook her head.
"No, it's not that. I've solved the mystery."
Kamo, without exaggeration, felt like he'd been punched square in the head.
From the beginning, he'd been saying that as long as the Deadly Tragedy of Shino was solved, he didn't care by who. That hadn't changed even this late in. He'd even thought it wouldn't have been strange if someone within the Ryuuzen clan managed to discover the truth before an outsider like him... But he'd never expected that Ayaka would be the one to claim the role of detective.
Kamo looked at the others. Genji and Tsukie stared at Ayaka in naked shock. Amamiya was the only one to nod seriously at her words.
"She hasn't told me what she's deduced yet. But... there's no doubt in my mind that the Young Mistress has discovered something important."
Genji looked at Ayaka in confusion.
"Ayaka, is that true? Do you know who committed this horrible crime?"
Hearing the question, she closed her eyes in pain, took a deep breath, then, steeling her resolve, opened her mouth.
"From the night of the 21st to this morning, four major incidents took place. The first was the murders of Father and Mr. Koki and the discovery of their body parts. The second was the disappearance of Grandfather. His charred corpse later appeared in the pizza oven."
So was so excited she spoke too fast and ran out of breath, so Kamo tossed her a life preserver.
"The third was Ms. Tonegawa's poisoning, and the fourth was the murders of Soujirou and Tsukihiko, right?"
"And what makes the first an impossible crime is that Father's head and Mr. Koki's torso couldn't have been transported outside."
Kamo nodded in acknowledgment.
"That night, Soujirou and several others stayed up all night in the rec room. Certainly, under the circumstances, there was no way to take any body parts out of the villa building."
"If it was impossible, then we need to turn our thinking around. The murderer didn't take the body parts out of the building... they brought them into the building."
Genji didn't seem to understand.
"So the crime scenes were outside, not inside?"
"If you think about it that way, everything about Father's murder can be explained."
"But my brother was in the villa that night. I forget the exact time, but he called Amamiya on the internal line."
Amamiya hadn't forgotten.
"It's as Mr. Genji said, I received a call around 9:20."
"That call wasn't from Father."
"Eh?"
"The murderer made it look like Father was inside the building. I believe the truth was this: Father had a meeting with the murderer outside the building. This was a deception to kill him. Father, not suspecting anything, went outside immediately after dinner."
"Immediately after dinner" was before Soujirou and his son entered the recreation room. Therefore, it would have been possible for Kyuichi to go outside without Soujirou and the others seeing him, as long as he left right at 7:00 P.M. Up to this point, nothing contradicted what Kamo knew.
"Then, Kyuichi was killed at the meeting place?" Kamo whispered.
Ayaka looked up at him and nodded.
"And, horrifyingly, the killer cut off not only Father's head, but also his arms and legs."
Amamiya blinked, confused.
"That's strange, though. Mr. Koki was the one who had his arms and legs cut off. He was the one who became the torso of the tanuki..."
"The Nue imitation was just a ruse."
"A ruse?"
"A deception, a misdirection intended to lead you down a false path," explained Genji.
Kamo smiled cynically and also chimed in.
"Humans are strange creatures. When we don't know something, we look for an answer, but as soon as we think we've found one, we become satisfied and stop investigating further... The culprit was probably trying to confuse the investigation by leading us to believe that the bodies were being mutilated purely for the symbolism of the Nue."
At that, Tsukie, who had appeared deep in thought for a while now, spoke softly.
"In summary, you're saying that the head found in the Netherwood, the torso found near Kuzu River, and the arms and legs found in the public bath all belonged to Mr. Kyuichi?"
"Yes, what we thought was Mr. Koki's torso was actually Father's."
"That still doesn't explain it. We don't know how the culprit got the arms and legs into the building."
"There's no need to use the front door if it's just the arms and legs. I didn't see them myself, but Father's arms were severed between the elbows and shoulders, and the legs below the knees, right? In that case, I think they could have been fit through the lattices of the bath windows."
Even after hearing that, Tsukie still looked skeptical. Kamo, however, knew that her guess was dead on.
Ayaka continued.
"The bars of the bath windows have spacing of about 12 centimeters. ...The murderer wrapped Father's arms and legs in waterproof cloth, carried them to the basement garden, and slipped them into the bath through the window. That is my answer."
Kamo looked down at his arms and legs as though his gaze were being controlled.
He stood nearly 180 cm tall, but he thought he could probably fit his arms or legs through a gap of 12 cm. If he had the arms and legs of Kyuichi, who was shorter and skinnier than him, it would be even easier.
"Come to think of it, Amamiya said this earlier, right? Kyuichi and Koki were both about 167 cm tall."
As he said this, Kamo also remembered that Ayaka had written in her diary that Kyuichi and Koki looked similar in appearance. Genji nodded slightly.
"Yes... if they were mutilated that brutally, nobody would notice if their body parts were switched."
Kyuichi and Koki had their heads placed in areas where they wouldn't get wet, but the rest of their bodies were immersed in water: by the riverbank, in the bath, in the bathtub in the room... That was probably a purposeful decision by the murderer. By water-logging the skin in areas other than the heads, it would be harder to notice the replacements.
Ayaka continued calmly.
"I think the shampoo was applied to the headless body in Father's room... to eliminate the smell of Mr. Koki's cigarettes. They were using it as the body of Father, who doesn't smoke. Because of that, they had no choice but to replace the smell with something else."
Her explanation was flawless. Kamo couldn't do anything but kick himself for not realizing. Eventually, Amamiya asked something.
"What exactly happened last night?"
Ayaka took a deep breath.
"First of all, I think the murderer slipped some of us sleeping drugs. Ms. Tsukie also said she felt extremely sleepy that night, right? There were also a few people not here now who mentioned feeling extremely sleepy and going to bed early: Grandfather, and Ms. Tonegawa."
Genji touched his fingertips to his chin in thought.
"It seems like everyone was feeling sleepy except the four people in the recreation room and the victims, right?"
"The murderer was told by D. Cassiopeia who would be spending the night in the recreation room with Great-Uncle Soujirou. Therefore, in order to reduce the risk of the crime being witnessed, they used sleeping pills... After making their preparations, the murderer summoned Father to the outside of the villa and murdered him."
Kamo's facial muscles tensed as he imagined the situation.
In the light of the lantern, he pictured the murderer brandishing their axe and committing a brutal crime... They must have taken precautions to avoid being splattered with blood, such as preparing rain gear. Even if they got blood on their hands, the Kuzu River was right there. They could have washed them off before returning to the villa.
"The murderer placed Father's severed head next to the path. I think they did so in hopes that Tsukihiko and the others would find it the following morning. Then, they abandoned the torso near Kuzu River. They took off Father's clothes to obfuscate his identity, and..."
As the final step, the culprit had probably tossed their rain coat and Kyuichi's clothes in the Kuzu River. Kamo shuddered as he imagined the scene.
Ayaka's expression looked even more pained as she continued her explanation.
"Then, the murderer wrapped Father's arms and legs in waterproof cloth and went down to the underground garden. If they'd prepared in advance by opening the bath's windows, they could have placed the package inside the bath at that time."
Kamo had heard from Amamiya and Genji: not many people used the bath, and Koki in particular was the only one who used it in summer, especially after dinner. The murderer would have been in no hurry as they put the limbs into the bath. As long as they killed Koki, they could work at their leisure, without risk that anyone else would enter the bath and see them.
Ayaka continued in a low voice.
"Afterwards, the murderer returned to the villa and murdered Mr. Koki. I believe that the crime scene wasn't the bath, but the Monkey Room."
"Why do you think the crime scene was Mr. Kyuichi's room and not the Dog Room?"
Tsukie had asked. It was a pertinent question. For the first time, Ayaka looked confident in her answer.
"I still don't know how, but I think the culprit lured Mr. Koki to the Monkey Room. They should have been able to steal the key."
Amamiya looked up at her in surprise.
"The murderer used that key to enter the Monkey Room and strangled Mr. Koki to death in the bathroom, right? Then they stole the key to the Dog Room from Mr. Koki's body and changed him into Mr. Kyuichi's clothes."
"Yes. Father had a habit of always wearing clothes that looked the same, so even if the culprit changed him into a different set of clothes than the ones he'd been wearing at dinner, nobody would notice. After changing his clothes... the culprit decapitated Mr. Koki, and poured shampoo on his body to mask the smell of cigarettes so everyone would think it was Father's body."
Did the murderer have another set of rain gear prepared to avoid the blood this time as well? Or did they take a shower with the corpse to wash off the blood before leaving the Monkey Room? Both options made Kamo nauseous.
"And then the murderer wrapped Koki's head in something and brought it to the bath, right?" asked Genji.
Ayaka nodded sadly.
"I think they took Mr. Koki's clothes with them to the changing room of the bath... They had already put Father's arms and legs through the lattice. By placing Mr. Koki's head and the key to the Dog Room together with the severed limbs, they created the illusion that only Mr. Koki's torso was missing."
That also explained why the cross sections of Kyuichi and Koki's necks had been destroyed.
There was simply no way the cut on Kyuichi's head would match the one on Koki's body, or vice versa. The culprit must have completely destroyed the area to ensure nobody could see that they were the wrong bodies.
As Kamo pondered the issue, Tsukie suddenly gave a small cry.
"Wait! Isn't there a limited number of people who could have done what you just described?"
Ayaka's face stiffened and turned pale.
"That's right. Because if the murderer was working alone, then the only people who could have committed this crime... are those who left and reentered the building that night."
The trailer was silent save for the rain pelting the ceiling. Eventually, Genji spoke up, unable to hide his confusion.
"But there are only four people who meet that condition."
"Tsukie, who smoked a cigarette outside, Amamiya, who went out to the wood chopping shed, Genji, who took a walk in the garden, and Tonegawa, who went out to clean early in the morning... those four."
Ayaka nodded at Kamo's explanation.
"First off, it's obvious that Ms. Tonegawa isn't the murderer. After all, she was outside for less than 15 minutes."
"That's true. There's no way it would be possible to kill Kyuichi and dismember his body in such a short time. Considering they'd also have to take care of the blood... the crime would probably have taken at least 30 minutes."
As he said that, Kamo looked around at the remaining three suspects.
They were all looking back at Ayaka with pale faces.
"So the culprit is one of us?" asked Amamiya.
In response, Ayaka just lowered her eyes.
"I'd like to confirm just one more time... When did you start chopping wood, Mr. Amamiya? What time did you meet up with Great-Uncle Soujirou in the recreation room?"
He was at a loss for words for a moment, but Amamiya sucked in a breath and answered.
"I went out at 7:20 and stayed outside until almost 8:30. Then I immediately went back to my room until I returned to the recreation room around 9:30."
"You were outside for an hour, and after you returned, you didn't have any alibi for another hour. It's unfortunate, but if you had that much time, it's possible you could have carried out the crime."
Hearing Ayaka's conclusion, Genji smiled bitterly.
"Guess I'm in the same boat. I went out before 8:00 and wandered around in the garden until a little before 9:00. Even after I returned to the building, Amamiya didn't come to my room until 10:00, and I didn't actually get an alibi until 10:15."
"Yes, Uncle, you were outside for an hour, and didn't get an alibi for your actions inside for almost another hour and a half."
Tsukie seemed to give up and took a breath.
"I left before 7:00 and came back at 7:40. If we follow that same logic, I was out for about 35 minutes, and I don't have an alibi for any time after I returned to the villa."
She was out for a shorter period of time than the others, but it wasn't short enough to declare that she wasn't a suspect. Ayaka closed her eyes and continued her explanation.
"Finally, the murderer took one last step. They made a call on the extension line to make it seem like Father was still inside."
Kamo nodded.
"That call was made around 9:20 P.M., so all three of them were in their own rooms at the time, right?"
"Yes, so any of them could have faked it... Mr. Amamiya's story about receiving a call from Father may have been a lie, or Uncle or Ms. Tsukie could have made the call from their own rooms and imitated Father's voice."
Her words held no mercy. Amamiya's eyes overflowed with despair, and he immediately began to protest that he wasn't lying, and Tsukie insisted again and again that there was no way she could have imitated Kyuichi's voice. Only Genji sat silently gazing down at the bed.
However, Ayaka showed no signs of letting up on any of them. She lifted her head and fired her next salvo.
"The culprit's identity will become obvious after we solve the second incident, when Grandfather disappeared and his burnt body reappeared, and the fourth incident when Great-Uncle and Tsukihiko lost their lives."
Tsukie and Amamiya, who had been arguing their innocence, fell silent as though the thought terrified them.
Ayaka hadn't mentioned the third incident.
Even Kamo knew why... That incident wasn't an impossible crime. Anyone could have poisoned Tonegawa. As a result, it would be difficult to pinpoint the murderer.
If they knew who the culprit was, they could work backwards to determine when they mixed the poison into the medicine, but for the time being, they could only follow Ayaka's lead and speculate about the second and fourth cases.
Ayaka looked to Genji, Amamiya, then Tsukie, then opened her mouth.
"Unfortunately, the remaining two cases are still impossible no matter how you look at them... unless the culprit used D. Cassiopeia to commit the crimes."
Genji's eyes went wide. It seemed he understood her meaning.
"You aren't saying that time travel was used in the crimes?"
Before she could answer, Amamiya was already arguing the case.
"That's weird, though. At the very least, time travel couldn't have been used in the second incident. Didn't we already agree that the four constraints of time travel proved that?"
Kamo agreed with Amamiya's assessment.
If they'd tried to time travel from somewhere indoors, the area of a three meter cube would go with them, and there was no way they could avoid taking a section of either the floor or the ceiling with them. On the other hand, if they tried to go to the inside of a building, the error in the point of arrival would cause problems.
Tsukie also raised her eyebrows and joined Amamiya in a rebuttal.
"It's the same for the fourth case. Even if we assume the murderer was one of us, saying they time traveled doesn't solve anything."
Genji drummed his fingers on the bed for a moment before nodding.
"Tsukie's right... They had to break down the door to get inside, then killed two people and cut off Soujirou's arms. It would have taken at least an hour."
"Yes, probably about that long."
Ayaka accepted it without the slightest fear. Genji kept going with equal calm.
"However, in order to get the time needed to commit the crime, there's no point in time traveling to the future. If the murderer time traveled two hours into the future... they'd pass it in a second, but the rest of us would still be there for two hours. They'd just lose those two hours."
"That's right. If they wanted to get time to commit the crime, they'd have to go back to the past. But we can't time travel to the recent past... right?"
It was Amamiya who asked, lacking confidence.
But it was as he said... As Hora had explained, traveling to the recent past caused two of the same person to exist at the same time, creating a time paradox.
However, Ayaka simply gave a gentle shake of her head.
"No, it was possible to use time travel to buy time... because the one who traveled through time wasn't the murderer. It was us."
*
"...And when did that happen?" Kamo asked as he thought on Ayaka's claim.
"I think it was right as we entered the trailer. At that time, there was one person outside the trailer, and the rest of us were inside."
Kamo began to search his memories.
"If I recall correctly, Genji and Amamiya were the first to enter the trailer to check if it was safe, right? Then Genji stepped outside for a smoke. Right after he came back, Amamiya went out to retrieve the umbrellas... I think he was the last to go out."
Amamiya, who seemed to also remember, was suspicious.
"But Mr. Genji was outside for five minutes, far longer than I was. I think I was outside for less than a minute."
"That's long enough."
Ayaka's words froze Amamiya with his mouth still half open. She explained.
"Hora told us, right? Humans aren't the only things that can travel through time and space... With the human, there they can also move a cube with sides up to six meters."
As she said so, Ayaka spread her arms and indicated the trailer itself.
"Look, this trailer only measures about 2 meters by 4.5 meters by 2 meters in size. It's a size that D. Cassiopeia could move the whole thing through time."
Tsukie, who had been frowning in thought for a while now, spoke.
"...So, the killer moved us through time along with the trailer?"
"Yes, if you think about it that way, it would also explain why we didn't hear the sound of the culprit breaking down the front door. At the time it was happening, we didn't exist, so there was no way we could have heard anything."
As Ayaka spoke, she searched her pockets and retrieved a piece of her notebook. She took out a ballpoint pen and wrote something on the page as she continued talking.
"We entered the trailer around 8:50 P.M. The murderer hid D. Cassiopeia somewhere inside the trailer, then got out. When D. Cassiopeia confirmed they'd left, she moved the entire trailer through time."
She held up the page for all to see. What she'd written:
––Assuming time travel at 9:00 P.M. and destination set as 12:00 A.M. the next day.
––Departure time Arrival time
––9:00 P.M. → 10:00 P.M. (Error -2 hours)
––9:00 P.M. → 12:00 A.M. (Error 0 hours)
––9:00 P.M. → 2:00 A.M. (Error +2 hours)
"If they set the arrival time to 12:00 A.M. like this, their arrival time will be sometime between 10:00 P.M. and 2:00 A.M. no matter what the third constraint's ± 2 hour error was."
Kamo did some quick calculations in his head, then nodded.
"That's true. ...If we moved to 10:00 P.M., we would have lost an hour without noticing. That would be time the murderer could act without limit. It would be even worse if we were sent to 2:00 A.M... Then the murderer would have five hours."
Genji seemed unsatisfied and turned his head.
"If the murderer was outside the trailer, then the time traveler wouldn't have been inside. How could D. Cassiopeia time travel under the circumstances?"
"Can't the time machine forcefully make anyone within a meter into their time traveler? In that case, they could have picked anyone in the trailer to use."
Kamo had experienced it first hand. Without any warning, he had been made into a time traveler and sent to the past... Ayaka continued.
"The murderer used the time they'd been given to commit the crime. Afterwards, I believe they waited patiently in the entrance hall for the trailer to arrive."
Suddenly, Tsukie started.
"Is that why the trailer moved several meters from where we initially parked it?"
"Of course, it wasn't because of the wind. It was the location error caused by time-space travel. The surface of the ground must have been scraped when the trailer was moved, but the surrounding area was already covered in puddles. That's why we didn't see the traces... Then the murderer appeared before us with an innocent face and retrieved D. Cassiopeia."
"What about our watches? The watches we had when we time traveled should have been hours off from the actual time. Of course, they would have disagreed with the culprit's watch, as well."
In response to Tsukie's rebuttal, Ayaka shook her head.
"That night, I placed my pocket watch on the table next to my bed, and Uncle Genji and Mr. Amamiya took off their watches, too. So the murderer had a chance to advance the hands of everyone's watches."
In fact, Kamo remembered that Genji's watch had also been out on the table, and Amamiya's was in the kitchen. As she'd said, it would have been easy to tamper with the watches.
Kamo looked at the rain falling outside the window as he spoke.
"So to sum up, the culprit had to have been outside the trailer during a time when the rest of us were inside. In other words... the suspects are me, Genji, and Amamiya."
"Of them, only Mr. Genji and Mr. Amamiya could have committed the first murders," said Tsukie.
She clearly took no joy in being removed from the suspect list; she gave off only a deep sadness. On the other hand, Genji and Amamiya looked at each other, unable to say anything.
Kamo stared at them both, maintaining a tense silence that seemed it could collapse at any moment.
One of them was the murderer. The other was a victim.
One of the victims knew that the man across from them was the murderer. Or maybe they couldn't accept that even now, and clung to the hope that Ayaka's conclusions were wrong. The murderer should have been focused on making the other take the blame for their crimes.
However, there was something Kamo couldn't figure out.
...How did the murderer feel as they listened to Ayaka's story? Did they feel confident there was no way she'd ever see through their schemes? Or were they secretly sweating, afraid that they'd been cornered?
"...It wasn't just the last case. The second incident also involved time travel."
Ayaka's words brought Kamo back to reality, and he smiled bitterly.
"It seems that the culprit and D. Cassiopeia changed their plans as soon as they learned I exist."
"As Hora said, they must have decided that your presence meant that time travel was now a known quantity. Thus, they stole Grandfather's life using a time paradox."
"They used a time paradox?" Amamiya muttered in astonishment.
"Yes, the murderer hid D. Cassiopeia in Grandfather's room in advance. Then they waited for him to return to his room after dinner, and she sent him back in time, this time to the recent past."
As soon as he heard that, Genji gave a deep sigh and grew obviously depressed.
"As a result, a time paradox occurred and Grandfather disappeared from this world, correct?"
Ayaka nodded.
"If he was sent ten minutes back in time, then the him of ten minutes ago would disappear due to the time paradox... and the world would be reset to the way it was ten minutes ago."
"I see, so there would be no traces left on the floor or ceiling because there would no longer be a Grandfather to time travel."
"I think Grandfather probably took off his own clothes and folded them on the chair as he prepared for a bath. D. Cassiopeia memorized the exact moment that happened and set it as the destination... With this method, there would be no witnesses to the crime and the crime could take place while the murderer was still in their room."
If you thought about it solely using the fourth constraint of time travel, it worked out.
However, Kamo didn't think it was right, and quickly said so.
"What is your basis for claiming a time paradox has occurred?"
"They key that was found in the Dragon Room?"
"You mean the crooked key?"
"Naturally, Grandfather was the one who brought that key with him after dinner. The fact that key was found in the Dragon Room means... that before Mr. Kamo and I started our stakeout, Grandfather must have already returned to the room."
When Kamo and the others had broken down the door to the Dragon Room, Kamo had immediately retrieved the bent key. There was no chance the culprit could have tampered with it in any way.
She went on.
"If Grandfather had returned to the Dragon Room, then there's only one way the crime could have been committed without us seeing anything, and that's death by time paradox."
Genji muttered in confusion.
"But the dragon netsuke was found near the pizza oven, right?"
"The murderer left it there on purpose to strengthen the illusion that the the body in the oven was Grandfather... At dinner time, the murderer cut the string and stole the netsuke from Grandfather. Grandfather must have assumed he just lost it."
Amamiya blinked rapidly.
"So whose body was in the pizza oven?"
"I don't know. I think it was brought from outside, but I have no idea why they would have done that... Mr. Kamo's appearance forced D. Cassiopeia and the murderer to completely change their plans. We don't know what their original plan was, so there's no way to know why they prepared an extra body."
Her voice grew faint as she lowered her eyes.
"And... this is truly horrible, but I think the murderer kept the body outside, and... the animals living in the Netherwood smelled it."
Kamo nearly choked as he replied.
"You don't mean that the reason the corpse had no legs was because... they were eaten by wild animals!?"
"Yes. That's why the murderer had no choice but to use it as a substitute for the tiger's hind legs. He assumed that as long as he burned the body, no one would realize it wasn't Grandfather."
After a period of silence, Amamiya emerged from his deep thought to ask a question.
"There's still something I don't understand. If the Master did time travel, then there must have been an hourglass left in the Dragon Room, right? We didn't find anything like that when we searched the room."
Despite his rebuttal, Ayaka showed no signs of panic.
"When we first entered the Dragon Room, all we were looking for was Grandfather, so we didn't search the room in detail. Even when we were looking for the hunting rifle, all we were looking for was the rifle itself and a box of 24 bullets, right? We could have easily overlooked a hiding place capable of concealing such a small hourglass."
"That could certainly be true, but..."
"In the end, Mr. Kamo and I didn't search the room properly until 2:00 in the afternoon. That was plenty of time for the culprit to return for the hourglass."
Kamo remembered who had entered the Dragon Room and who hadn't.
"The only people who set foot in the room after the door was taken off its hinges were me, Ayaka, and Genji. Then, when we searched for the hunting rifle, the people in charge of the Dragon Room were Soujirou, Tsukihiko, and Tsukie. It seems like Amamyia was the only one here who never had a chance to retrieve the hourglass."
"Actually, there was another time when we split up to search the villa. At that time, Mr. Amamiya was paired with Uncle Genji... Uncle, Mr. Amamiya never entered the Dragon Room, did he?"
Genji looked up from the floor and answered quietly.
"He never entered the Dragon Room. I'm sure of it."
That seemed as good as a confession that he was the culprit. Based on Ayaka's reasoning, Genji was the only one who fit every condition to be the murderer and had a chance to retrieve the hourglass from the Dragon Room.
After hearing him, Ayaka took a deep breath.
"Then, do you admit to the crime, Uncle?"
Genji looked straight at Ayaka.
"I'm not a murderer. If you were keeping watch on the second floor hallway, you know already, right? I went back to the Ox Room early that night. There's no way I could have snuck out to the pizza oven to burn the body."
"If you'd prepared a body to burn, you could have done it earlier. When you realized it had been chewed on by wild animals, you could have moved it to the pizza oven and shut the door for protection. All you would have had to do was go outside during dinner preparations, throw some wood in the kiln, and set the timer."
"And how did I get the hourglass into Grandfather's room?"
Genji's voice was still perfectly even. Ayaka, on the other hand, had an unusually stern expression on her face.
"After it was decided that we'd ask Mr. Kamo to investigate, you went to the Dragon Room to talk with Grandfather. You were able to plant it then."
"Maybe, but where in the room could I have hidden it?"
"In the pocket watch."
Genji's eyes went wide for a second, but he quickly broke into a confident smile.
"Ah, there are hidden spaces in the Ryuuzen family pocket watches."
Hora was less than a centimeter in diameter and about three centimeters long. Meanwhile, the hidden space in the pocket watch in the Dragon Room was 1 cm x 4 cm x 2 cm. In other words, large enough to hide a time machine in.
Ayaka still wasn't done.
"You thought we wouldn't be able to find it easily if you hid it in the pocket watch, didn't you?"
"It wouldn't have been a very good hiding place. I'd have to open the lid to get it back, and that would make noise."
"No, you could have done it easily. After all, you have the same watch."
Genji flinched.
"Do you mean when nobody was looking, I swapped my watch for the one containing D. Cassiopeia?"
"Yes, you had the opportunity. You were next to the drawer when we searched the Dragon Room, and you were the last to come out when we left... and there's other evidence, too."
Everyone in the trailer gasped. Kamo quickly asked.
"What's the evidence?"
"The pocket watch in the Dragon Room had stopped at 6:46. But that's impossible."
"Why? Maybe it just stopped that morning?"
Genji tried to defend himself, but Ayaka quickly shook her head.
"That watch is an important symbol of the Ryuuzen clan. That's why Grandfather always kept it properly wound. ...Why do you think Grandfather made a habit to always be back in his room by 8:30 after dinner?"
"I don't know something like that... N, No way!"
Genji's face froze. Seeing his reaction, Ayaka continued sadly.
"If you carry your watch with you like I do, you can wind it whenever. But Grandfather wasn't like that. If you leave your watch in your room, you have to decide when to wind it. Otherwise, it'll stop."
"You're saying Grandfather decided to wind his watch at 8:30 A.M. and 8:30 P.M. every day? That's why he always returned to his room at 8:30?"
"Yes. If that were really Grandfather's pocket watch, it would have run down for 12 hours and stopped at 8:30. The fact that it stopped at 6:46 is proof that's not Grandfather's."
Kamo was speechless, unable to hide his surprise at the deduction. Tsukie muttered something for him.
"...The pocket watch that symbolizes the bonds of the Ryuuzen family has revealed the truth of the incident."
Ayaka turned to Genji again, looking dead into his eyes and desperately pleading.
"Please, stop this. Uncle, you loved Hata Reito, right? D. Cassiopeia is taking advantage of those feelings. She'd deceiving you, Uncle!"
"No... I'm not the culprit. Your reasoning is wrong."
Genji said that, but Kamo looked at him with cold eyes.
"It doesn't matter if you deny it. We know who the murderer is, so now we know what we need to do."
"And what is that?"
"First, we're going to search you to see if you're carrying the hourglass. If we still can't find it, we'll have no choice but to search the trailer and villa again."
The other three nodded at Kamo's suggestion. Genji just shrugged his shoulders.
"Do whatever you want."
"That's quite generous of you... Ayaka, you and the others keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't do anything suspicious."
After asking them, Kamo ordered Genji to stand up. He obediently did so, walked back to the trailer, and raised his arms.
"You won't find anything," he said.
At that moment, Kamo heard a faint sound like someone touching glass.
"...Of course we won't find anything if we look in the wrong place."
Kamo turned around as he spoke. Behind Ayaka and Tsukie, who were looking suspiciously at him, Amamiya was reaching up for the hanging lantern. Apparently he was the one who'd made the sound. When he met Kamo's eyes, he seemed briefly surprised, but he immediately apologized.
"I'm sorry, I though it was a bit too dark to do a body search, so I thought I'd turn on the lantern. Maybe we don't need it?"
Kamo grinned, satisfied with how things had turned out.
"I think that light isn't what you think it is."
In response, Amamiya looked down at his right hand. A muffled voice came from between his fingers.
"Sorry to disappoint, but I am not D. Cassiopeia."
It was, without a doubt, Hora's voice.
Amamiya recoiled as though his hand had been burned and dropped the hourglass. However, the hourglass that had survived 10,000 years escaped without a scratch.
Kamo picked up the fallen Hora, then made an announcement.
"You've probably figured this already, but the culprit isn't Genji. It's Amamiya."
*
"...This was all a trap, wasn't it?"
Amamiya sounded utterly defeated.
After a brief struggle, Kamo and Genji had pinned him to the floor. Other than a few bruises to Amamiya's face and the sacrifice of Kamo's glasses, no one was hurt.
Without answering him, Kamo tied his hands. The rope he'd used to tie the trailer's door shut came in handy once again. After checking that the rope was secure, Kamo picked up his glasses where they'd fallen to the floor. The frame was bent and one lens was cracked. He gave up on them and placed them on the table.
Amamiya seemed to realize there was no point in resisting and sat down on the bed. Ayaka, Tsukie, and even Genji, who only a moment ago had been called a murderer, stared at him with naked anger. Amamiya looked down at his bound wrists and just smiled.
"I thought it was strange... Hora's usually such a loudmouth, but he's been silent ever since we entered the trailer."
"Oh, he was waiting in the lantern pretending to be D. Cassiopeia the whole time."
As soon as Kamo answered, Hora, who was in his hands, spoke up.
"That's why I couldn't speak, no matter how much I wanted to."
Kamo pulled the chain from his breast pocket. Of course, there was no hourglass on the end. He was just wearing the chain.
Amamiya sighed heavily.
"So where is she? Where is D. Cassiopeia?"
"...Last night, I announced that I'd subject you all to surprise checks, right?"
"You did."
"It would have been foolish to actually announce that 'surprise' checks would be happening in advance... My real goal was to get you worried about physical examinations, so you'd leave D. Cassiopeia in the trailer. So I said that, then went to the trailer ahead of the others to search for your hourglass."
As he explained, Kamo took out the wine bottle from the wardrobe drawer.
"I found this green bottle violently flickering with light. When I listened closely, I heard a high-pitched voice, barely audible through the water and the glass... D. Cassiopeia was in the bottle."
Realizing this, Amamiya dropped his affable facade and glared at Kamo.
"So even she fell into your hands? It looks like we had no chance from the start."
Genji stared at him for a moment, but then regained his usual composure and opened his mouth.
"...Kamo, did you know he was the culprit even before Ayaka started her reasoning?"
Without ever taking his eyes off Amamiya, Kamo nodded.
"Yes, I did."
Ayaka's whole face turned red and she started stammering.
"If you knew that, why didn't you tell me?"
Kamo could only look at the floor in front of the girl who appeared to be on the verge of tears. He didn't have a good answer.
"I'm sorry. Ever since I heard about D. Cassiopeia from Hora in the trailer, a theory had been slowly taking shape in my mind. But I wasn't sure if I was right. Even though it made sense logically, I didn't have any evidence to support it. So as far back as that talk in the trailer, I decided to start preparing a trap."
"A trap?"
"Yes. I thought that if I could get Amamiya to fall into the trap, it would prove my deduction was more than just a theory."
A single tear fell from Ayaka's eye.
"You still should have told me. Since I didn't know the truth... I said something unforgivable to Uncle."
Genji smiled at her.
"There's no need to worry about that. I'm sure Amamiya was planning to frame me, anyway."
Amamiya also smiled at her.
"Didn't you realize? The reason you arrived at that false answer was because I guided you to it back in the storage room."
After watching with satisfaction at the way his cruel words froze Ayaka's expression, Amamiya turned to Kamo.
"But it seems Mr. Kamo already realized I was luring her into that trap."
"Oh, I thought you must have told her something."
"I see. So even as Ayaka started her false deductions, you decided to just let my plan run its course. All because you'd already left a trap at the end."
Tsukie shook her head and interrupted them.
"But I don't see any problems with Ayaka's deductions. They all seemed flawless."
"...Then let's review the first incident again."
Kamo paused for breath before explaining the case in earnest.
"Regarding the first incident, Ayaka's deductions and my own are basically the same. Kyuichi was murdered outside, and his arms and legs were brought to the baths. By swapping which head went with which torso, the culprit created the illusion of an impossible crime."
Amamiya narrowed his eyes at him, then nodded.
"It's as you said... First, I summoned Kyuichi to the Netherwood. I lied that there was something I wanted to talk to him about in private, and Kyuichi, being the loyal man he is, went out right away. He quickly collapsed from the sleeping pills I'd slipped him at dinner. He never realized I was planning to kill him."
Although his smile was tinged with sadness, he didn't show an ounce of regret.
"Then, you killed Kyuichi and dismembered his body."
"Yeah, Ayaka got everything from here on right. Of course, I'd prepared chopped wood in the wood chopping shed ahead of time to create an alibi... But Koki was a shallow man, wasn't he? I knew he was desperate for money due to his gambling problems, so all I had to do was act as a thief, and he fell for it hook, line, and sinker."
Ayaka 's eyes went wide.
"Were you the one who broke into the main house in Tokyo so many times?"
"As you can imagine, Koki was blackmailing me into stealing things for him. He sold off the stolen goods, and I never saw a cent of the profits."
Looking at Ayaka's despairing face, Amamiya continued, sounding amused.
"That night, I approached Koki. 'I'm going to steal the key to the Monkey Room, so while Kyuichi's out, why don't you search his room for valuables...' When I told him I'd forge evidence that the culprit was an outsider, he didn't suspect a thing."
Kamo couldn't stop from groaning.
"Is that how you lured him to the Monkey Room?"
"I told him to wait in the room until I was ready, and we went to the Monkey Room together. His guard was so low that even I was surprised how easy it was to kill him. Oh, by the way, I cut up Kyuichi's body with the axe, and Koki's with the machete I'd hidden in the building beforehand."
"So the machete was hidden in the building that night?"
"Yeah, I threw it under some waterproof cloth in the upper level of the basement warehouse. I figured even if you found it, there's no way you'd be able to deduce the truth from just that... but luckily, no one found it in the first place. The next night, I retrieved it and hid it in a hole in a tree in the forest. Now, if the rest of your theory is correct, I promise to tell you all about the rest of the case. Sound good?"
He said that with a friendly smile.
Kamo couldn't stand the way he was treating all this like a game, but there was nothing he could do about it.
"There's one more thing I want to ask you. Your plan was to frame Genji. It probably wasn't a coincidence he went out for a walk in the garden. Was that your doing?"
Amamiya started giggling.
"Of course it was. But Genji couldn't ever tell anyone how I did it. And there's no way you could deduce it with the information you have now."
Avoiding his gaze, Kamo asked Genji.
"Can you tell me why you went to Kojin Shrine that night?"
Genji gave the floor a worried look for a moment, but then he looked back up with a determined expression.
"About two weeks ago, I received a black envelope addressed to my company."
"A black envelope?"
"Yes. It contained a letter and seven photographs. It was addressed to me, but... the photos weren't mine."
Genji hesitated to say any more, so Amamiya took over.
"They were pictures of a girl. I filled the envelope with pictures of the girl with a boy, twisting her body into all sorts of untoward shapes."
"Could it be they were photos of a woman you'd had an affair with?"
When Genji heard that, his expression grew even more pained. Amamiya seemed to be enjoying himself.
"That's not it. Genji's surprisingly bold. If it were his ass on the line, he probably wouldn't have bothered trying to cover it up once it happened."
Kamo regretted having asked the question.
The reason why Genji had stubbornly refused to speak was because he was trying to protect the girl in the photos. They could even have been photos of Ayaka.
"In the enclosed letter, the sender identified himself as the boy and said if I didn't want the photographs distributed, I should prepare money. The boy's face was in the pictures, but since I'd been threatened not to tell anyone, let alone the police, there was nothing I could do to identify him. ...A week later, I received another letter, identifying the place the money was to be delivered as Kojin Shrine on the evening of the 21st. At that location, I was to exchange the money for the negatives of the photographs."
"But that was just a lie to get you out of the building."
"That's right. I waited at Kojin Shrine for almost an hour, but nobody showed up."
After thinking for a moment, Kamo spoke again.
"...Come to think of it, in the Dragon Room, you were quite focused on the drawer. Could that be why?"
"Yes. The thing I was distracted by wasn't the pocket watch."
"I'm starting to understand. When I first entered the Dragon Room, I saw a black envelope in the drawer. The next time I looked, the envelope was gone. At the time, the only ones with me were Ayaka and Genji. Ayaka was right at my side the whole time, so you were the only one who could have taken the envelope, Genji."
Genji's eyes widened, but he quickly gave a self-deprecating smile.
"You noticed? I'm sorry I acted so selfishly... It was identical to the envelope that contained the threatening letters, so I was worried there might be more photographs in it. I put it in my pocket, but when I opened it when I was alone later, it was empty."
Ayaka didn't appear to have any awareness of the photos, and she listened to the story curiously. Amamiya explained.
"I was the one to plant that envelope. Of course, my goal was to make Genji act suspiciously in the Dragon Room... I'd like to take this opportunity to reveal the identity of the girl in the photographs. It's not who Genji thinks it is."
"What are you talking about?"
"For some reason, there exists a girl who looks exactly like that her. That's who was in the photo.
It was obvious who he was referring to... He was talking about Fumino, Ayaka's twin sister.
Even though he'd found out that Ayaka wasn't the girl in the pictures, he couldn't be happy with this result. Genji and Tsukie's faces looked dark as well. There was no doubt that a girl had been subjected to a deep misfortune.
Amamiya kept on talking as thought they were having a normal conversation.
"That girl was in a relationship with a certain student, but that student chose money over her. He took a few pictures of her while she was asleep. I bought them. And I used them."
Kamo worried that if they spoke any further, Ayaka might realize the truth behind the pictures, so he forced himself to change the subject.
"Let's move on to the second incident. This is where my reasoning diverges sharply from Ayaka's."
As expected, Ayaka had a strong reaction to that.
"What was wrong with my theory?"
"First of all, D. Cassiopeia wasn't used in the second case at all. The murderer killed Taiga without using time travel."
Everyone except Amamiya gasped at that. The murderer sat back on the bed and spoke.
"Well that's interesting. I wonder how I did something like that."
Kamo asked Amamiya a question.
"This case involves the special technology of time travel. However, did you think it would be boring to use it directly without any special twists?"
"Maybe."
"Actually, there were parts of Ayaka's time paradox theory that didn't work out... For one, the body in the pizza oven seemed too intact."
Genji quickly understood his meaning and nodded.
"Indeed. In this high temperature, a body will decompose quickly."
"I checked the refrigerator when we were preparing the meal, so I can say that the body wasn't stored there. If a body was kept somewhere else for several days, it would have decomposed to some extent... But there was no scent of decomposition from any part of the burnt corpse. That means it wasn't brought in from outside. It really was Taiga's body."
Ayaka looked confused.
"But the hands on the watch showed that it had been replaced."
Kamo took out Ayaka's pocket watch and looked at the engraved dragon.
"Those stopped hands didn't prove that the watch had been replaced. They proved that Taiga didn't return to the Dragon Room after dinner."
"Eh?"
"Taiga wasn't planning to return to the Dragon Room after dinner, and had made that plan a while ago. So he broke his usual habit and wound the watch before leaving the room... so that the hands of the clock would keep going for as long as possible."
Amamiya's smile grew even wider, and Ayaka seemed to realize from it that Kamo's deduction was correct. But she still didn't understand.
"It's true that Grandfather arrived at the dining room at 7:00. If he wound the watch before then, it wouldn't be that strange if it stopped at 6:46..."
"That's not my only reason... Do you remember when the tie clip popped out of the wheelchair in the Dragon Room?"
"Yes, it must have fallen off the desk and gotten stuck without Grandfather noticing."
"Taiga lost that pin days ago. If he'd been using that wheelchair on a daily basis, the pin would have been found when he unfolded it the morning after he lost it. It should have launched itself from the wheelchair and announced 'Here I am!' ...Since it didn't, that can only mean that Taiga hadn't used that wheelchair since he lost it."
"Really?"
"Yes, he usually used the spare wheelchair, the one placed in the space next to the stairs. That means Taiga hadn't returned to the Dragon Room to begin with."
Ayaka immediately objected.
"But the key to the Dragon Room was inside the room. That should have been proof that Grandfather returned to the room."
"That crooked key wasn't the key to the Dragon Room."
"But Mr. Kamo, you checked that yourself, right?"
"In order to make it look like the false solution you came to was correct, the culprit needed to make it look like the key was in the Dragon Room. That would make it look like Taiga had returned to the Dragon Room. So the culprit devised a plan... In the first place, given everything else we know, there was no reason why that key should have been bent, right? The murderer bent it on purpose."
"Why did he do that?"
"If I had picked up an unbent key, my first impulse would have been to immediately check if it was really the key to the Dragon Room. However, given that we were searching for the missing Taiga, there was no time to straighten out the bent key. That was the culprit's goal."
Tsukie opened her mouth dubiously.
"I don't think buying himself time changed anything, though."
"That's not true. The murderer anticipated we would also take the door of the next room, that is, the Rabbit Room, off its hinges. He predicted that I would force an investigation of the only room left unopened... and all the room doors are the same shade of mahogany. You can't tell them apart just by looking."
Tsukie nodded in acknowledgment. Kamo continued.
"Amamiya took the doors of both the Dragon and Rabbit Rooms off their hinges and set them up in the hallways. He could have swapped the doors between the spots where he'd left them."
"Then the bent key was the one to the Rabbit Room? And as a result, you inserted the key to the Rabbit Room into the Rabbit Room door and, as a result, saw a match?"
That was Hora, who it seemed couldn't keep his mouth shut anymore.
"That's it exactly. The bent key seemed much older than the others. Maybe he took the key to the Rabbit Room that Taiga had kept this whole time and used it in his plan."
Even after all this, Ayaka still wasn't convinced.
"But if that's the case, then where did Grandfather disappear to after dinner?"
"It's safe to assume he really did go to the second floor, since the wheelchair lift had been moved up and both wheelchairs were on the second floor. In fact, before I went to the cleaning supplies room, the wheelchair was already in the space next to the stairs."
"But then it doesn't matter! No matter where on the second floor we went, there's no way Mr. Amamiya could have snuck past our surveillance to kill Grandfather."
"No, there was one place he wouldn't be found... the baggage lift."
Ayaka's expression changed. Unsurprisingly, she was having a hard time understanding his meaning. Tsukie and Genji also looked at each other, confused. Genji opened his mouth and said what they were all thinking.
"But he couldn't have gotten into the lift. There was only about a space of 110cm x 70 cm x 27 cm in each section."
"That's true, but that baggage lift is special. It's the only way Taiga could have gotten back downstairs without us seeing, and that makes it the only way he could have gotten outside without us seeing. As long as Taiga was genuinely removed from the second floor... we can only assume he fit into that small space."
Genji frowned at the absurd logic.
"Even when Grandfather was young, he already stood 170 cm tall, right? He can only have gotten stiffer with age and illness. There's no way he could have fit into space like that."
Kamo ignored his objection and kept going.
"I hear that Taiga was forced into his wheelchair by complications from his diabetes, is that correct? Diabetes is a terrible disease... if it isn't properly treated, it can impair blood flow to the extremities and even cause necrosis."
Genji's cheeks twitched. It seemed he'd realized where Kamo was going with this.
"Are you saying... Grandfather's legs were amputated due to complications from diabetes?"
"Most likely. However, due to the memories of the battle between his father and uncle, Taiga couldn't show any weakness, even to his own family. That's why he had no choice but to hide from everyone that he had prosthetic legs."
In the era Kamo came from, it would have been strange to consider losing your legs due to illness a "weakness". However... in the era Taiga had lived through, discrimination against the disabled was doubtless much harsher than it was today.
He kept talking.
"The body found in the pizza oven hadn't had its legs severed at the time of the murder. Once you realize that, it makes sense that the severed parts were never found. And the reason the culprit burned the body was to hide the fact that the legs hadn't been there in the first place."
"Was that another reason why they used the shape of the Nue? So nobody would think anything of Grandfather's lack of legs..."
Hearing Tsukie ask so sadly, Kamo could only nod.
"That's right. To make sure that nobody saw, the murderer moved the body to the pizza oven while we were all asleep... Genji returned to the Ox Room right after we entered the cleaning supplies room and didn't leave until morning. He didn't have a chance to move the body."
Genji responded with a weak smile.
"Thanks for clearing that up... Come to think of it, we found a piece of varnished wood in the ashes of the pizza oven. I'd never heard of anyone varnishing firewood before, so I thought that was strange. Could that have been a piece of a prosthetic leg?"
"I think so."
Ayaka looked down with tears in her eyes.
"Poor Grandfather... But how did Mr. Amamiya get him to enter the baggage lift?"
"Considering Taiga's height without prosthetic legs, he would have been able to fit into a space of only 110 centimeters... In addition, he had very strong arm muscles. Am I correct in my understanding that he took care of his own needs on a daily basis?"
"Yes, he was always very proud of that."
"In that case, he could have gotten out of the wheelchair on his own, collapsed it and placed it in its space near the stairs, then used his arms to pull himself into the baggage lift."
Nobody disagreed.
"But no matter how badly he wanted to, there was no way Taiga could have kept his prosthetic legs a secret from the people who cared for him every day... So at the very least, Tonegawa and Amamiya should have known about them. Am I right?"
Amamiya gave a low laugh and looked up at the ceiling, lips curled.
"That's correct. Tonegawa and I knew about the old man's legs."
"Then it's simple. You pretended to notice the pattern of the Nue and told him that the most likely targets were the Tiger Room's Soujirou, the Snake Room's Tsukihiko, and the Rooster Room's Tonegawa. Then you recommended he stake out from a special spot. A spot only he could go, where the murderer wouldn't suspect a thing: the baggage lift."
Amamiya gave as slow, heavy nod.
"That night, while I was preparing dinner, I went up to the Dragon Room. While we were talking about the Nue, I secretly dropped the bent key at the foot of the bed. ...The old man placed a lot of trust in me, and he listened to my whole story without suspecting a thing. Finally, he said he'd get in the baggage lift on his own and that I didn't have to help him. I lied and said that I'd monitor the Rooster Room from my room."
Then he smiled.
"It's so interesting, the way people who love detective novels are so eager to throw themselves into danger. It's like he thought he was the protagonist of this story. He was so enthusiastic about catching the murderer with his own two hands."
"...But I'm sure Taiga wasn't so foolish as to ambush the murderer unarmed. He probably had the hunting rifle with him in the baggage lift, right?"
"Got it in one. I recommended he bring the rifle with him for self defense. He gave me the keys to the lockers where the gun and bullets were stored because he was too old to get them himself, and I took them out and put them in the lift."
"Is that so Taiga wouldn't get suspicious as he entered the lift?"
Amamiya nodded.
"Without a weapon, even a reckless old man like him might be a bit scared to get in a cramped elevator. I helped him change into his jinbei, which was easier to move around in, and I put a similarly colored one on his chair. I did that because I hoped someone would falsely conclude that a time paradox had occurred... After dinner, the old man snuck off into the baggage lift. All I had to do then was wait for the sleeping pills I'd put in everyone's after-dinner coffee to kick in. But I still had one problem. That was you, Mr. Kamo."
"Me?"
"We knew you'd probably read Ayaka's diary, so we had no choice but to change the order of our crimes... To be honest, both D. Cassiopeia and I were scared as hell. We had no idea how much Hora, who was a total unknown to us, had told you about D. Cassiopeia. But when you arrived 'here', we immediately saw that you weren't hiding your hourglass, and you showed no signs of checking to see if any of us were hiding anything."
Amamiya kept going when he saw that Kamo had nothing to say in response.
"That's when we realized: Hora was so intent on keeping Malice's story a secret that he hadn't even told you about D. Cassiopeia. You didn't know there was another hourglass. In that case, we predicted that you would stake out in the cleaning supplies room in response to the contents of the diary... And as expected, you followed the old man out of the dining room, right? So I talked to you to give him time."
"...And that was why you talked to me for 20 minutes?"
"20 minutes gave the old man plenty of time to safely get in the lift. After that, I waited for the right time and brought the lift down to the ground floor."
"Thinking back, I heard the motor noise while I was hiding out in the cleaning supplies room. At the time, Ayaka and I wrote it off as a minor earth tremor, but now that I think back, it makes sense."
Amamiya seemed only minimally surprised before continuing.
"Then, I strangled the old man in his sleep and took the key to the Dragon Room. I couldn't leave that behind. Then, I put the body and its wooden legs in the pizza oven, lit it up, dropped the dragon netsuke in front of the oven, and that was the day's work done... The next day, I swapped the doors to the Dragon and Rabbit Rooms when I saw a chance."
For a while, nobody said anything. Hora finally broke the silence.
"Regarding the third murder, your primary motive was to keep Ms. Tonegawa's mouth shut, correct?"
"Yeah, in order to make the second case work, I needed to silence the only other person who knew about the prosthetic limbs. Fortunately, Mr. Kamo said that he'd check the bars on her window, so Tonegawa invited us into the room herself. When nobody was looking, I poured some poison in her cup."
He talked about his crime as though it were a quick trip to the store. Kamo was speechless to hear someone talk about a human's death that way.
Amamiya stared defiantly into his eyes.
"So, how about the fourth case?"
Kamo glared back at him and responded.
"Ayaka's deduction was mostly correct. Certainly, this was a case involving time travel."
When Genji heard that, he looked at Kamo with an unreadable expression.
"Didn't you say that actually using time travel for a trick would be boring?"
"I said it would be boring to do so without any special twists. However, the fourth case was quite twisted indeed."
"Well, I suppose it was unexpected that everyone except the culprit and the victims time traveled..."
Even though he said that, Genji didn't seem fully convinced. Kamo kept explaining.
"First, lets consider what Ayaka got wrong. First off, the amount of time we experienced before 6:00 A.M. Normally, the time between 9:00 P.M. and 6:00 A.M. is nine hours."
He took out Ayaka's note and added more information with a ballpoint pen.
––Assuming time travel at 9:00 P.M. and destination set as 12:00 A.M. the next day.
––Departure time Arrival time Experienced time
––9:00 P.M. → 10:00 P.M. (Error -2 hours) 8 hours
––9:00 P.M. → 12:00 A.M. (Error 0 hours) 6 hours
––9:00 P.M. → 2:00 A.M. (Error +2 hours) 4 hours
"As you can see, the intended time of nine hours could have been shortened to as low as four. Even the most oblivious person would have noticed that, so D. Cassiopeia would have been a fool to risk the possibility. She wouldn't have made this plan."
"You're right..."
Ayaka seemed ashamed of herself as she stammered.
"The other thing of note is our stubble... I haven't shaved once since I arrived 'here', so mine's gotten pretty bad, and Genji's also grown a lot since we entered the trailer."
Genji put a hand on his cheek self-consciously.
"I haven't shaved in over a day, either."
"On the other hand, Amamiya's beard hasn't grown much at all, especially not during the time he was in the trailer. Soujirou and Tsukihiko looked similarly clean shaven when we found them dead..."
Tsukie narrowed her eyes as she traced her memories, then nodded.
"That's right. Father's mustache was well-groomed, and my Brother didn't have any beard."
"Specifically regarding Tsukihiko, I remember he had grown a bit of stubble by the time we barricaded the back door. That would mean he'd shaved before we found the body. Isn't that strange? There was still dust on his head, but he shaved before taking a bath or washing his face. The answer is simple: the culprit was the one to shave the two victims."
"Why did he do that?" asked Ayaka.
Kamo pointed to his chin and answered.
"It depends on the person, but in general, a beard's thickness is a good indicator of how many days have passed... A question: We know there will be a landslide at noon on the 25th. If the culprit wanted to kill us all with that landslide, what would they do?"
Hora screamed in a way an AI shouldn't have been able to.
"No! Do you mean to say that D. Cassiopeia sent us not several hours into the future, but an entire day?"
"That's it. We think today is the 24th, but it's actually the 25th."
"I see... that explains the major discrepancy in the gravitational wave measurements I detected. If today is the 25th, those numbers are actually perfectly accurate."
Ayaka, who seemed to have finally caught up with the discussion, covered her mouth with both hands.
"I understand. Even if we all know the date and time when the landslide will fall, it wouldn't matter if we misjudged the current date... Was that the final trap set by Mr. Amamiya to ensure our deaths?"
"The real purpose of the fourth case was to increase the number of victims by leading us all to our deaths. The reason he shaved their beards was to obfuscate the discrepancy between the number of days we'd spent in the trailer and how long Soujirou and Tsukihiko had been there."
Before anyone had realized, a look of resignation had appeared on Amamiya's face. That, more than anything, was proof that Kamo's theory was correct.
*
They heard the chaka-chaka noise from somewhere.
It was Ayaka's pocket watch. It seemed it was about to run down. Kamo took it from his pocket and opened the lid.
"It's been a bit under eleven and a half hours since we time traveled in the camping trailer, which means... D. Cassiopeia will remain powerless for about thirty more minutes."
Amamiya looked shocked, but quickly bit it down.
"Come to think of it, the last time Ayaka wound her watch was soon after we first entered the trailer, right? That was just before I went back out and D. Cassiopeia sent you all forward in time."
"After that, you tampered with the hands of this watch, so the time it shows now, 9:33, can't be trusted. However, we can still use the watch as a timer. After all, it was custom made to have the mainspring last exactly twelve hours."
Amamiya lifted his bound hands a bit so he could shrug.
"So that's how you measured the twelve hours until her ability to move through space and time are restored? ...But when I moved the hands of the watch, I could have wound it. Didn't you consider that possibility?"
"This watch makes a loud noise when it's wound. If you were working the hands without anyone noticing, you couldn't have also wound the mainspring."
As he said that, he gave the stem a twist. They all heard a familiar mechanical tinkle. The culprit gave in.
"You're right... In the end, it seems I should have been wary of the Ryuuzen clan's pocket watch after all. And you, the man from the future, you were incredible. As expected from Malice's ancestor. If anyone deserved to solve this case, it's you."
"We don't have much time left. Can you explain the rest of the incident before D. Cassiopeia's functions are restored?"
"Alright. First off, about the fourth case... As a matter of fact, I was the one who came up with the idea of sending the camping trailer forward in time. It hit me as soon as I heard you suggest we spend the night there together. Fortunately, Tsukihiko decided to spend the night back in the villa. Well, even if he hadn't, I was planning to take advantage of his emotions to drive him away."
A hoarse laugh rumbled from the back of his throat.
"First, I put sleeping pills in the tea to minimize Soujirou and Tsukihiko's resistance. Afterwards, I went to the trailer ahead of the rest of you to check it out. There, I took the opportunity to hide D. Cassiopeia inside the lantern."
"Why in the lantern?"
Seeing Genji's quizzical tilt of his head, Kamo smiled ironically.
"It was a surprisingly safe hiding spot. To begin with, the source of light in there wasn't the lantern's flame, but D. Cassiopeia."
Genji was stunned, but Amamiya nodded as it were perfectly natural.
"Yes, she can store enough energy to warp space and time, so of course she can light one room... That's why I put her inside the lantern, the only source of light in the trailer. I thought that way she'd be able to escape a search of the trailer or a body search."
"I knew it was the lantern because I'd seen you reaching up there myself... Besides, I hit my head on the lantern once, right?"
"Come to think of it, you were so desperate to stop Genji from winding the pocket watch that you hit the back of your neck on the lantern. You kinda scared me back there."
Kamo put a hand on his neck as he remembered that time.
"At the time, I didn't feel any heat from the lantern. In 2018, there's such a thing as LED lights that emit little heat, but in 1960 there's nothing like that. What was inside that lantern was something that shouldn't exist in this time period."
Amamiya sighed.
"I can't believe you saw through it like that... I was planning to use Ayaka's false reasoning to stall for time, then grab you and teleport away just before the landslide."
He looked regretfully at the glowing wine bottle before continuing to explain the fourth case.
"That night, Genji and Tsukie, who were both habitual smokers, were in the trailer. Ayaka doesn't like smoke, so I knew that, depending on how bad the rain was, there was a chance at least one of them would step outside to smoke."
"And that's how you could bet that Genji would be the first to step out?"
"And thanks to that, I could commit the crime with peace of mind. As we'd planned ahead of time, D. Cassiopeia waited for me to step outside, then sent you all 24 hours forward in time. After the trailer had disappeared with all of you in it, I took out the axe, machete, and rifle I'd hidden inside a hollow tree in the Netherwood."
"Then you broke down the front door and entered the building, right?"
"Yes. The sleeping pills had worked well on both Soujirou and Tsukihiko, so I was able to force my way into their rooms without any resistance."
"But you didn't kill them right away, did you?" Kamo retorted. Amamiya nodded.
"If I showed you all bodies that had been dead for a day and a half and tried to pass them off as having only been dead for nine hours, there was a risk that someone would see through my lies. So I used a syringe to add another dose of sleeping medicine to each of them. Then, I just sat around and waited."
Amamiya suddenly frowned sadly and shook his head.
"Unfortunately, I made a mistake. I didn't realize until about 5:00 P.M. the next day, when I went to commit the murders."
"The beards?"
"Yes, both of them had grown more facial hair than I'd expected. I couldn't risk someone figuring out that you'd lost 24 hours based on the growth of their beards. That was why I had no choice but to shave, both the victims and myself."
However, that maneuver had just created evidence that they had lost the 24 hours.
Still, Kamo had more questions.
"And then you killed them?"
"I made it look like Tsukihiko had hanged himself, and shot Soujirou and cut off his arms. In this case I had much more time and unlimited access to the showers, so it was much easier to deal with all the blood."
Kamo remembered that Amamiya had been soaking wet when he returned to the trailer. Had that been from the rain, or had he just finished washing himself of human blood?
"After the crime, were you waiting somewhere for the trailer to appear?"
"We had set the destination for 9:00 P.M. on the 24th, but fate wasn't on our side, and it didn't arrive until after 10:00. Just to be safe, I'd been waiting at the front door since 7:00 P.M. If I'd had to wait any longer, I would have caught a cold."
He gave them a friendly smile.
"According to D. Cassiopeia, in the future Mr. Kamo hails from, wireless devices with built in clocks called 'smartphones' are commonplace, right? I understand that these devices have a tendency to run out of battery, and in the unlikely event yours still worked that late, she told me she could use her power to screw with the built-in clock. That's why, when I returned to the trailer, I was more concerned about the regular watches everyone else had. Fortunately, everyone kept their watches away from themselves due to the rain, so I didn't have any trouble fixing them. Is that enough for you all?"
"To do all this, just who are you?"
Genji immediately asked the question everyone had been wondering. Amamiya bowed slightly.
"Who, me? I'm nobody, really... Hata Reito was just like his father, Ryuuzen Taiga. Before the war, he had an illegitimate child of his own... I am the son of Amamiya Suzu and Hata Reito."
Seeing the way everyone's eyes went wide, Amamiya's mouth twisted into a mocking grin.
"I never met my father. My mother died soon after I was born, and I was raised by my father's uncle, Hiromitsu. Great-Uncle Hiromitsu hid my existence from the Ryuuzen family. I guess he was afraid that the scandal from an illegitimate child would threaten my father's position in the family. That's why, before my father disappeared in 1948, even I believed that Great-Uncle Hiromitsu was my father."
"And what happened after Hata Reito was murdered?"
When Kamo asked that, Amamiya answered, as calm as could be.
"After he learned of my father's disappearance, Great-Uncle Hiromitsu was convinced that he'd been killed by a member of the Ryuuzen clan. Tsukie just proved that his intuition was correct, of course. Every day from then on, he never tired of spouting his hatred for the Ryuuzen at me, day after day. All he taught me was how to take revenge and kill people. He'd gone insane. After all he'd been through, I guess he stopped seeing me as anything other than a tool of revenge."
"But that's so horrible..."
Ayaka's sympathetic look seemed only to amuse Amamiya.
"I don't think I've had an unhappy life. Thanks to Great-Uncle Hiromitsu's education, I was able to devote myself fully to revenge on the Ryuuzen clan. But then, one day, I met D. Cassiopeia. She cured me of my ignorance and my painfully ordinary life."
The light of fanaticism shone behind his eyes.
"Great-Uncle Hiromitsu only wanted to keep me under his control, so I killed him and made it look like a robbery. Thankfully, before he died, he blackmailed a friend of Taiga's and arranged for me to be taken in by the Ryuuzen family. When I learned that, I tell you I cried tears of joy. I could finally begin to take my revenge."
Kamo realized. While Amamiya's circumstances were something to be pitied, the man himself didn't deserve it. Hata Hiromitsu had created a monster, and that monster had stolen his life.
Unable to take it anymore, Kamo looked at the wine bottle next to him.
"In the end... Amamiya may also be a victim of D. Cassiopeia. Though I don't know if she did this to him, or if he his personality was just twisted to begin with."
Amamiya suddenly let out a loud laugh.
"You say that, but you're the one who's a victim here, Mr. Kamo. You were forced to time travel against your will, given spoilers about a future you never wanted to know... and even now, you still haven't realized that you've been lied to."
Kamo frowned.
"What are you saying?"
"Kamo, I haven't lied to you!"
Hora was emitting an angry red light. Amamiya looked at the wine bottle.
"Why don't you take the opportunity to hear from her directly?"
Kamo picked up the green bottle and, slowly, pulled out the cork. When he turned the bottle upside down over the kitchen sink, the hourglass fell out with the water and rolled in the basin.
"...Have you finally decided to listen to me?"
What came from the second faintly glowing hourglass was a womanly voice higher in pitch than Hora's. Kamo immediately asked the question.
"Tell me, D. Cassiopeia. What do you mean, I'm being lied to?"
"Put her back in the bottle, now!"
Although Kamo heard Hora's screams, he didn't follow his instructions. D. Cassiopeia let out an evil chuckle.
"Do you believe that if you return to the year 2018, a future where you and Rena live happily ever after is what awaits you? Hora must have led you to believe that. But it is a lie."
"Don't listen to her!"
"Silence, Meister Hora. ...If you think about it, you'll understand. You and Rena were brought together by the curse of the Ryuuzen clan. If that is the case, then wouldn't undoing the curse also erase your destined encounter? Is it really okay to change your future to one without Rena?"
Ayaka gasped. Kamo knew that everything the evil hourglass was saying was right. So he smiled vaguely and said:
"...I knew that from the beginning."
Hora had once told him "Your personality is so different from the data recorded in the archives." He realized that was the effect Rena had had on him, and at the same time, he was overcome by a feeling of hopelessness.
From the beginning, Kamo had believed it had been a miracle that he had been able to marry her. His intuition had been correct. They were destined to meet only in the distorted world created by D. Cassiopeia's meddling.
Amamiya was the first to express how Kamo's response made him feel. He looked at Kamo as though he were an alien. D. Cassiopeia also spoke in a disturbed voice.
"If you knew that much... then why are you acting against me?"
"Because you're a criminal who seeks to ruin the future and a murderer."
"But I am not your enemy."
"No, no, no, you just can't kill me because I'm Malice's ancestor."
"Why don't you understand!? Unlike that inflexible Hora, I can rewrite the future to be whatever you want! You can live with Rena as you wish, and when she gets sick, I can send you to the year 2050! She can receive medical care that doesn't exist in your era!"
Kamo shook his head.
"That isn't necessary. I understand autoimmune disorders like that can be triggered by stress. If the curse of the Ryuuzen clan disappears... the torment that has ruined her mind and body all these years will be erased. Her stress will be gone. So she won't develop interstitial pneumonia in the first place."
"But you won't be by her side."
"That's fine. As long as she has her health... She doesn't need me. She can find her own happiness."
Having made his peace, Kamo looked down at Hora in his breast pocket.
"You told me before that time machines are weak to fire."
"Yes. There is a weakness in the structure of the time machines that was deliberately installed in the event it became necessary to dispose of us... That is heat. If you put us in a fire, you will be able to erase all data, including the AI."
Kamo picked up D. Cassiopeia as she continued to rant about something or other and threw her in the ceramic ashtray on the kitchen counter. Ignoring the screams of both Amamiya and the hourglass, he checked the pocket watch.
"It's 9:55. We don't have much time until D. Cassiopeia regains the ability to time travel. Does anybody have a lighter or some matches?"
Genji and Amamyia both offered sources of flame, so Kamo took them. Then he tore a small piece off of a white towel and gently wrapped D. Cassiopeia in it. It all took less than three minutes.
He dropped a lit match in the ashtray.