"What? Where am I?"
Kamo doubled over and gasped into his own shoulder. His limbs felt numb, probably with panic.
Just a few moments ago, he'd been in the parking lot of H. Medical Center. Yet now, in the blink of an eye, a strange view stretched out before him. It was a manicured lawn that bore no resemblance to a parking lot.
Beyond the lawn lay a forest. It wasn't the sort of exotic sight you'd expect from one of Grimm's fairy tales, but the sort that you could find anywhere in Japan. The mountain in the distance also looked familiar enough for its peak to evoke feelings of deja vu.
The sky was clear and blue, the sun was shining, and Kamo, in his jacket, was already starting to sweat. Mixed in with the rustling of the trees was an incoming call from the phone clutched in his hand.
He immediately answered and put it on speaker.
"This is near your destination."
"...Did you drug me and carry me out here?"
Kamo gripped the hourglass so hard he feared he'd crack the glass. The hourglass had lost its light and returned to a plain, unremarkable object. Even though it had just been shining so brightly, now it wasn't even slightly warm.
"I would appreciate it if you stopped making accusations. I don't need to tell you where we are, do I?"
Bewildered by Hora's provocations, Kamo looked around.
For some reason, the grass around him was littered with what appeared to be thin slices of asphalt. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. In front of him lay a fallen cherry tree branch that looked as though it had been cut by a sharp object. The fresh green leaves made it look like it had just been cut, but there weren't any cherry trees in the area.
A camping trailer was parked about eight meters away on his right. Although it had a retro design, the body looked brand new. Maybe it was a reissue.
Looking behind him, there was an opulent Western style building within ten meters of him. The walls were covered with black stones shaped like bricks, and it had a similar atmosphere to the mansion in the Kyū-Furukawa Gardens.
The moment he looked at the building, his eyes went wide in shock. He closed his mouth and looked at the building again.
"I saw a photo once of a villa that looked exactly like this. It was when I was doing preliminary research for the article about the curse of the Ryuuzen clan..."
As he stood there stammering, Hora spoke, sounding amused.
"It's as you imagine. This is the Shino villa."
Kamo suddenly let out a scream.
"Don't be ridiculous! That villa was buried in a landslide 58 years ago. This must be a different building."
"Why don't you try being a bit more flexible? This is before the landslide occurred."
Hearing his companion declare that without a hint of shame, Kamo couldn't help but laugh. It wasn't out of desperation, nor was he trying to cover up shame or anger.
"Whatever is so funny?"
"Is this what they call 'keeping a positive attitude'? ...I've been kidnapped by a lunatic and brought to a replica of the old Ryuuzen family villa. Either that or I've time traveled with the power of the Hourglass of Miracles. I don't know."
"Either way, you can't leave this place on your own. Why not listen to what I have to say?"
Kamo sighed.
"Based on what you've said so far, I'm guessing this is 1960."
"You are correct."
"And those 'special powers' you were talking about?"
"Of course, they are the power to transcend time and space. You may call it a 'miracle', if it pleases you."
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Kamo took off his jacket and looked up at the brilliant sun.
"I can only think of it as a joke, but apparently this is real."
"...You seem to have accepted it rather easily."
Hora sounded doubtful as Kamo looked down at his smartphone. The display read May 19th, 11:14 A.M.
"I was in Kanagawa Prefecture until just a moment ago. It was a mild spring day. But the climate here... it's like midsummer. It's so hot and humid that there's no way it's still May. So the normal assumption would be that I've been moved closer to the equator."
"Perhaps."
"But the mountains and forests I can see all look perfectly Japanese. If I haven't been moved through space, that can only mean I've been moved through time, right? Whether you drugged me and I've been unconscious for months or you really moved me through time... you've already done plenty of things beyond the bounds of common sense. Now that I know that, I'll just give up and accept it all. That's my decision."
Those weren't the only grounds for his conclusion, but he didn't dare explain those to Hora.
"...It seems I was right to chose you."
Kamo was taken aback by Hora's sudden claim.
"That's new. I was chosen?"
"Yes. There is no point to inviting you on a journey through time and space if you are not someone able to break the curse. If you weren't flexible enough to adapt to new situations, it would cause problems for me as well."
"I guess I just have one of those personalities," Kamo muttered. Hora continued calmly.
"Of course, that isn't the only reason I chose you. ...Kamo, even though you aren't a police official, you are skilled at investigating old cases."
In a sense, that was true.
After meeting Rena, Kamo quit his old job at the occult magazine. That was because he'd grown disgusted seeing the way people were hurt by his articles.
Afterwards, he'd accepted a new job writing a series of articles in the monthly magazine Unsolved Mysteries, whose editor-in-chief was an acquaintance of his. It was about cases of false accusation. It was completely different from anything he'd ever done before.
Kamo interviewed via mail prisoners who claimed to have been falsely convicted and reviewed their cases. Of course, as a layman, there was a limit to the information he had access to. Despite that, he continued to expose the possibility of the inmates' innocence by reexamining their cases as much as he could and coming up with clever alternative interpretations of the evidence...
The project had been well received from its first entry.
As the series continued, a lawyer for one of the accused took action, and the case was allowed a proper retrial in court. In the Japanese judicial system, that was nothing short of a miracle.
After the retrial became a hot topic online, the Unsolved Mysteries editorial department began receiving inquiries from other people who believed in the innocence of their friends and relatives, specifically naming Kamo.
However, the decision to retry the case was only made due to the enthusiasm of the lawyer in charge of the case and a heaping helping of luck. Kamo wasn't any sort of professional investigator, nor did he have any sort of special knowledge about police investigations.
"Whether I have that talent or not, how does that help Rena?"
"You still don't understand? The Deadly Tragedy of Shino is the root of the curse that has plagued the Ryuuzen clan for the past 58 years. ...The only way to break the curse of the Ryuuzen clan is to solve this case."
Hora's shocking announcement left Kamo unable to do anything but hold his head in his hands.
"Why are you saying all this?"
"Whether you believe it or not, the members of the Ryuuzen clan will now have their lives threatened by a murderer. Of course, in the end, they will all be caught in a landslide ...But if you stop the killer and save the Ryuuzen clan, the past will be drastically changed."
"So the future will change and the curse will cease to exist. I'm not sure I quite get the logic behind that... No, I definitely don't get it."
"From here on out, everything will depend on your actions, Kamo. I suggest that you proceed with caution. Well then, I believe now is the time for me to go..."
Hora sounded like he was about to hang up. Kamo shouted at him.
"Wait, you're going to just leave me here!?"
"That was the plan. Is there a problem?"
"That's messed up. Even if you tell me 'solve the case', what am I supposed to do?"
"I've given you a chance and brought you to the correct place. Even if it was a one-way trip, I don't think you're in any position to complain."
The color drained from Kamo's face.
"...I can't go back to 2018?"
"It was an analogy. As soon as the case is solved, I can return you to your original era."
The caller reassured him, but Kamo was disinclined to believe. Eventually, he grimaced in resignation.
"In any case, it looks like there's no use in running away."
"That's correct. You have no choice but to follow me."
"It's not like I was planning to run, anyway. All I have to do is solve the Deadly Tragedy of Shino, right? If it's to save Rena, I'll do anything."
"You've made a wise decision. I wish you well, Kamo."
Despite his words, there was absolutely zero warmth in the other's voice. Kamo gave up on trying to read Hora's meaning and gave a hearty laugh.
"Oh, by the way, there is one other thing I was wondering... As a general rule in time travel stories, you can't let people from the past know that you're from the future. I'm in the same boat right now, aren't I?"
"Indeed, giving those from the past information about the future is very dangerous, as there is no way to predict how history will be rewritten."
Kamo gave a firm nod.
"So spoilers are strictly forbidden, then. I figured as much."
He looked up at the villa as he continued.
"In that case, isn't it already too late?"
*
Kamo was looking at a window on the second floor, on the right side.
As if in response to his voice, a girl appeared at the open window. She was a cute young girl with sharp, distinct features and bobbed hair. He couldn't make out her face in detail due to the black lattice on the window.
Kamo had been aware of the girl's presence since the first time he'd looked up at the building... though she'd hid as soon as their eyes met.
From the moment he'd seen the look of astonishment on her face, Kamo had begun to believe he really was a time traveler, as the girl looked exactly like the one he'd seen in the documents from his research on the Ryuuzen family. She was also the reason he'd accepted Hora's story so easily.
"It looks like she's been listening to everything we said."
"Quite the cute little eavesdropper we've picked up... This is unexpected."
Hearing Hora call her cute, Kamo realized that he was still being watched. Maybe the hourglass pendant had some trick to it. Eventually, the girl asked him something in a quavering voice that seemed to fade away even as it spoke.
"Were you... jaunting? You teleported here, right?"
Kamo was confused by her words.
"She appears to be talking about the Jaunte effect."
Kamo frowned. Hora's "explanation" had explained precisely nothing.
"What?"
"It's a kind of supernatural power originating in the works of Alfred Bester. In the story, human beings can teleport as a matter of course."
"Actually, I just read The Stars My Destination."
"Was it the original, or a Japanese translation?"
"I see... that white slab must be a radio from the future."
The girl seemed to have calmed down completely. She stared at Kamo's phone with a serious expression on her face. It seemed she hadn't even considered the possibility that Kamo was just using ventriloquism to talk with himself. It must have been the naivete and imagination unique to children that let her accept him without a care, regardless of whether he was teleporting or bantering with an articulate slab.
Kamo looked up at the mystery girl and cleared his throat.
"Sorry to interrupt your excitement, but I'm going to leave before the others find me."
"Oh, that's fine then. Everyone except me is gathered in the dining room discussing things. Ah, my uncles are out, though. But they won't be back any time soon... Please, wait there for a moment."
The girl slammed her window shut and disappeared into the room.
Kamo stood there, unsure whether or not he should run away, until the girl ran up to him, out of breath. She was dressed in a sleeveless one piece dress with a checkered brown pattern, appeared to be about middle school aged, and still had a youthful face. She looked to be about 150 cm tall.
"Is what you said true? That there will be a landslide and the Ryuuzen family will be under a curse?"
Kamo couldn't answer her. Now that he saw her up close, the girl's face looked a bit like Rena's. Her eyes were swollen and red from crying. Seeing her like that, he was at a loss for words.
Hora answered on his behalf.
"Can you tell me your name? ...Mine is Meister Hora. His is Kamo Touma."
The girl had no response to Hora's name. Of course, Kamo realized she lived in a time before Momo was written. There was no way she could have known the story.
"Me? My name is Ryuuzen Ayaka."
Kamo knew the name. Not only because she was the twin sister of Rena's grandmother, Fumino, but because she had played an important role in the Deadly Tragedy of Shino... This girl was the one who'd recorded the tragedy.
The reason future generations knew what had happened to the Ryuuzen clan in the villa was because she had recorded the incident in her diary.
The fact that the diary was discovered in the first place was almost a miracle.
After the Deadly Tragedy of Shino, the villa and its surrounding grounds were buried in earth and mud. The only thing that was left was a shrine called Kojin Shrine. The diary was found buried in the ground not far from the shrine, alongside the body of the girl.
That was what had already happened in the future Kamo hailed from. And that same fate must have been what awaited the girl in front of him.
"Hora, what are you doing? This girl's eyes were swollen with tears when she saw us and she hasn't asked a thing about her family being targeted by a murderer... What day did you bring me here?"
"August 22nd, 1960. I don't know the exact time."
Seeing Ayaka nod, Kamo grit his teeth.
"Then it's too late. The first victims should have been found the night of the 21st."
Ayaka, teary eyed and stammering, took over.
"That's right. Father and Mr. Koki are already..."
"That's strange. According to the archives, the first incident should have taken place at midnight on August 23rd."
Hearing Hora give such a matter of fact reply, Kamo stared back at his phone.
"Is that all you have to say for yourself?"
"Even if you ask me that... I am surprised by your memory, Kamo. You so clearly remember things you researched many years ago. Is there anything else?"
"Don't screw with me! If you hadn't messed up the date of our arrival, we could have saved this girl's father!"
"Perhaps we could have. However, the murder case is still ongoing. You should still have enough time to crack the case."
"You psychopath! You better not be the one attacking the Ryuuzen family, or when I get my hands on you–!"
Kamo rasped this out, and a low chuckle came from the speaker.
"Certainly not. I am merely a guide."
"I was just thinking... Mr. Kamo, if you time traveled again and went back to yesterday, wouldn't that make everything alright?"
Kamo looked up in surprise at Ayaka's murmur. Although her eyes were still swollen and damp, she appeared to be analyzing things more calmly than he'd expected.
Kamo spoke slowly, gathering his thoughts.
"That's true. If time travel is possible, we can go back and forth over the next few days as much as we want and find the culprit that way. Then we won't have to solve the case the old fashioned way and can even catch the culprit before they commit the crime."
On the other end of the line, Hora let out a deep sigh.
"Why are humans so arrogant and foolish? One moment you sit and marvel that a miracle has taken place, the next you demand free refills."
Ayaka blushed at his words, but Kamo laughed at them.
"Miracle's a convenient word. Unfortunately, I don't believe in them. If it could be done once, it can be done again."
Hora was silent for a moment, but then, he spoke with resignation.
"I apologize for disappointing you, but I am not all-powerful. Whether you believe me or not is your own prerogative... but after traveling through time and space, I need at least twelve hours before traveling a second time."
Ayaka, who had been chewing her lip in thought, opened her mouth again.
"Still, you will be able to time travel again. Why not wait until then and then go back to the 21st?"
"I can't do that either... It seems if we wish to avoid wasting any more time, I will need to tell the two of you about the four constraints of time travel."
"What, time travel has four drawbacks?"
Kamo said that provocatively, but Hora didn't take the bait and continued.
"The first constraint is the one I just told you, I must wait at least twelve hours between trips."
"I can only assume that's a way to stop us from time traveling. You opportunist."
"It is a purely technical issue. The amount of energy required to warp time and space is enormous, and it needs time to recharge."
"I got it, I got it, I'll try and have a little more faith in you in the future. What's the second issue?"
"The second constraint can be demonstrated well by the cherry blossom branch over there. ...Kamo, what is it I asked you to do before leaving?"
"If memory serves, you told me to find a 1.5 meter empty space and go there."
"It seems you weren't looking upward when checking that space. The fact that this tree branch traveled with us is proof of that."
Kamo picked up the fallen branch from the lawn. It was a weeping cherry tree covered in fresh green leaves. The bright green color was something you could only see in May, and it was mismatched with the midsummer weather. Like him, the branch was out of place.
Almost simultaneously, Kamo remembered the weeping cherry tree growing over the parking lot at H. Medical Center.
"Do you mean to say that anything within that one and a half meter radius of the thing to be moved will also time travel?"
"That is not strictly accurate. The smallest unit I can move through time and space is a cube with three meter sides. ...In this case, I placed the target so that the center of the base of the cube was directly beneath your shoes. As a result, the branch three meters above your head was caught in the cube and came along with you."
"So the flakes of asphalt scattered at my feet are the bit of the parking lot scraped by the bottom of the cube when I time traveled?"
"That's right. ...The third constraint regards the error that occurs in the arrival point of time travel."
"So you can't just pinpoint the area you want to go?"
"Unfortunately, time and space have an uncertain relationship."
Kamo and Ayaka shared a look, confirming only that neither of them understood. Kamo muttered in disgust.
"What the heck? I thought that, since it was from the Hourglass of Miracles, there would be some miraculous explanation for the time travel."
"Unfortunately, I was born with a mind full of logic... Time travel is, by its nature, an uncertain and probabilistic science. If you try to move to a strictly defined location, there will be more error in arrival time, and if you chose a precisely defined time, the error in location will increase."
Ayaka blinked a few times. It looked like she was struggling to follow Hora's story. On the other hand, Kamo smiled smugly.
"I remember I saw a special on quantum mechanics on the Discovery Channel. Subatomic particles have the same property."
"You mean the uncertainty principle? In the case of subatomic particles, if you try to measure their position and movement simultaneously, there will inevitably be some uncertainty in the measurement... But I must say, you truly do have a wonderful memory, to recall something you saw once on TV."
"Yeah, I can usually remember things after only seeing or hearing them once."
"So if you wanted to, you could recall the exact contents of all the material you've studied in the past? In that case, perhaps there is hope for us after all."
Kamo frowned at Hora's words, unable to tell if he was being praised or made fun of. Hora ignored his reaction and unilaterally continued.
"To explain the third constraint, allow me a question: What do you think requires the most accuracy while traveling through time and space?"
Kamo crossed his arms for a moment, then spoke.
"The world is a three-dimensional space plus time, so we can think of it as a four-dimensional spacetime. To put it simply, there are four axes: up-down, left-right, front-back, and time. If you express it in coordinates with the x, y, z, and t-axis, you should be able to indicate any point in this world."
"If the destination is on Earth, though, we need to take into account latitude, longitude, and elevation."
"In that case, the answer would be elevation. ...If the destination we arrive at is 100 meters above or below the ground, we're screwed. We'd either fall to our deaths, be buried alive, or become one with the planet, and not in a hippie kind of way."
Hora giggled at that.
"Incidentally, it's not only humans I can move through space and time. As long as it can fit in a cube of six meters, it can be moved alongside a person."
"Oh, so even a small airplane could be moved through time?"
"If there were someone on board, it could be done. But if it were to travel deep underground, that would be problematic... You are correct. Elevation is the thing requiring the most precision."
Ayaka tilted her head slightly and spoke.
"So to summarize what you just said, you have to be really precise about elevation, and in exchange, everything else becomes uncertain?"
"Yes. Latitude, longitude, and time will oscillate within a certain range from your intended destination. The degree of error is governed by probability, and it is impossible to know the outcome in advance."
"How far off can it be?"
"Latitude and longitude both possess a margin of error of ± 5 meters, and time within ± 2 hours."
Hearing that, Kamo narrowed his eyes behind his black-rimmed glasses.
"It's a pretty delicate point. Is that margin of error large or small?"
Ayaka looked back at him with a confused expression.
"It's only five meters and two hours, isn't it?"
"According to this guy, time travel isn't safe. In that case, even an error that minor can't be called 'small'."
Kamo glared at Hora through his phone, angry that he had taken the risk of shunting him through time without a warning.
The other person responded "You're right. ...When dealing with space-time travel, it is assumed that travel will take place outdoors, so as long as there is a certain amount of open space and no strong rain or snow at the destination, there will be no negative effects. However, if the target is instead an indoor space, underground, or atop another person, that is a different story. In that case, it would cause a serious problem, as fusion would occur at the cellular level, and the internal organs would-"
"That's plenty, thanks. I don't wanna hear the rest."
"The fourth and final constraint concerns time paradoxes, as well as the stability of the world."
Kamo couldn't keep himself from grinning at that.
"We're talking about time travel, so I knew paradoxes would turn up eventually. You know, like the famous one where you go back in time and kill your parents before you were born?"
"That type of paradox can be avoided simply by being careful. The real problem is the general rule that more than one of the same person cannot exist at the same time."
Ayaka began to mutter in confusion.
"What do you mean? Can we not go back in time?"
"You raise a good point. ...You may be surprised to hear, but it is much easier to travel to the future than back in time."
"I get it. If I travel to the future, that means I won't exist in the future until I arrive there, right? There won't be another me there waiting."
"On the other hand, traveling to the past is an unnatural act that reverses the flow of time. It disrupts the natural order of the world and increases the odds of time paradoxes."
Kamo looked at his phone, half in disbelief.
"You say that, but I seem to have been able to do it just fine. What's going on here?"
"We've arrived to a period before your birth, so we were able to avoid any direct time paradoxes. However, moving to the immediate past is much more dangerous."
Ayaka gulped before asking something.
"What if I were to go back to the world of three hours ago?"
"In the world of three hours ago, you, young lady, and 'the you of three hours ago' would both exist. However, the same person cannot exist more than once at the same time. It will cause a time paradox... It would be like a bug in a video game that freezes the whole system."
That explanation probably didn't help Ayaka any, but Kamo nodded his head.
"If the console is frozen, there's no way to progress. If it's a game, you can usually fix it by rebooting the system, but it doesn't work like that in the real world, does it?"
"There is no need to reboot anything. 'She' has a self-correcting function, so the paradox will be resolved on its own."
Kamo and Ayaka shared another look.
"Who's 'she'?"
"The world. I was speaking figuratively."
"That's surprising. When did you suddenly start anthropomorphizing things?"
Hora sounded somehow disappointed.
"Is it so strange to treat the world as a living thing?"
"It is, even if you don't seem to realize."
"...In any case, the world would annihilate the 'young lady of three hours ago' just before she could meet the young lady before us now. As a result, the future young lady who'd traveled through time would also disappear, and there would be no time paradox. This is how the world purifies itself."
Ayaka's lips turned blue.
"So in exchange for the world of three hours ago returning to normal, I would disappear?"
"That's correct. The world would continue to exist. Only you would be gone."
There was a moment of silence. He thought he heard someone talking, but it was so faint he couldn't be sure it wasn't just his imagination. Eventually, Kamo opened his mouth.
"Okay, so Ayaka can't go back to yesterday. But I can."
"Kamo did not exist in the world of yesterday, so going back one day into the past would not create a paradox of the type I just described... However, it would still throw the world out of balance."
"What do you mean?"
"The future is about to change dramatically as a result of your arrival here. You understand, the world has entered a state of instability. If you go back to the recent past and influence it again, the world's balance would be upset to a dangerous degree."
"Even though we'd only have changed the past twice?"
Hora seemed hesitant to answer him, but eventually, he spoke.
"I ran a simulation, taking into account all current circumstances. According to my calculations... if you went back to yesterday and tried to change the past again, the world would grow unbalanced beyond the point where it could self-correct. It could cause the entire universe to collapse."
Ayaka had tears in her eyes.
"So, does that mean there's no way to save Father?"
"Yes. I cannot risk the world for the lives of two people."
Hora's cold answer made her cover her face and cry. Seeing her frail shoulders tremble, Kamo couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
Meeting Kamo and Hora had already changed her fate, and she'd been shown a ray of hope. She thought that they, who had journeyed across time and space for her family, must have been able to save her father... But that hope was dashed to pieces and she was plunged into despair for a second time.
Seeing her like this, Kamo was faced with a grim reminder. His intervention into the fates of Ayaka and her family could easily change the future for the worse. If he failed to prevent future incidents from happening, even greater misery and despair could grow from this seed.
Still, it was too late to turn back.
Taking a small breath, Kamo began to speak.
"I know this is a bad time, but I want you to listen to me. It's a fact that someone is targeting the lives of the Ryuuzen family. They're going to keep targeting you all, and then, on the 25th, a landslide will occur, and everyone will die. And after that, the curse of the Ryuuzen clan will claim many more lives."
Ayaka didn't look up and continued to cry. Kamo wanted to stop talking about things like this and tell her something more comforting. But he forced himself to continue.
"You might think that, since we're from the future, we already know who the killer is. But this case is destined to end with the culprit still unknown... Unless we act to change the future."
Eventually, slowly, she looked up at him.
"Mr. Kamo... did you come here to save us?"
Her tear-stained eyes stared straight at him, making Kamo flinch.
"I guess that's how it's going to be. But I'm warning you, I'm not the sort of person you think I am."
Ayaka stared at Kamo. He chose his words carefully to answer her silent question.
"I don't know how I arrived here in the past, and I don't have any plan to help you. On the contrary, I don't know if I even have the ability to... No, I probably don't."
Suddenly, Hora cut in with a sarcastic jab.
"Well this is surprising, Kamo is acting humble."
Kamo ignored him and continued.
"But I can't be afraid. I have to save my wife, Rena."
"Your wife?"
"The truth is, you have a twin sister. The two of you were separated when you were just babies."
Ayaka's eyes shot open. Kamo kept talking.
"I don't know why, but your sister, Fumino, was sent to live with another family, so she's destined to be spared from the tragedy to happen here. And Rena is her granddaughter, who is suffering from the curse of the Ryuuzen clan. ...According to Hora, the only way to help her is to solve this case. I don't know how much help I'll be, but I promise, I will protect you and your family the best I can. I promise, so... please, will you help me stop any more incidents from happening?"
Ayaka balled her hands into tiny fists and looked into Kamo's eyes. This time, he didn't look away. After about ten seconds of silence, Ayaka nodded.
"I understand. I want to help my family, and everyone else, too."
Hora chose that moment to interrupt again.
"Are you sure about this? Mr. Kamo is a suspicious man who appeared in Shino unexpectedly. Isn't it normal to make him your first suspect in the murder?"
"Just whose side are you on!?"
Even as he yelled at Hora, Kamo felt a strong resignation. He figured the only reason the girl could believe him was because the thought hadn't crossed her mind. Despite that, Ayaka looked up at him.
"I saw Mr. Kamo move instantly, so I don't doubt he's from the future."
On the other side of the smartphone, Hora kept going.
"That's even more suspicious. How can you be sure that he didn't use his abilities to commit the crime?"
"Because Mr. Kamo doesn't look like he's lying."
"You'd be a fool to merely trust your instincts, little lady."
"I don't think so. ...When I first heard that Father had been murdered, I thought that the murderer could be one of us, from the Ryuuzen clan. Even now, in the back of my head, I still suspect them."
Kamo was shocked. That wasn't something a middle school girl should be thinking.
"Do you have any reason for thinking that?"
Ayaka shook her head as though in a frenzy.
"I don't have any specific reason, I just can't help but think it... Since it's like that, I thought I had to make a decision before it's too late."
"What are you saying?"
She instantly had an answer to Hora's cold question.
"Either I have to lock Mr. Kamo up as a suspect, or I trust him and we work together to prevent further incidents... And I've decided to trust you, Mr. Kamo."
A small laugh came from the phone.
"If you're that determined, then fine... You appear to have picked up quite the ally, Kamo."
Hora said that, but Kamo was more curious about what Hora's aim was in questioning her. Just as he opened his mouth to ask, he heard the sound of a window opening above them. Kamo slipped his phone into his pocket and looked up at the building to see a man in the room where Ayaka had just been.
"Ayaka! Where are you?"
The young man brought his face to the window grate as he called out. When he noticed Kamo and Ayaka, he gave a start. Ayaka, who was looking up at the second floor, murmured softly.
"...It's Uncle Genji. What do we do?"
Her uncle looked to be about five years younger than Kamo. He was probably in his late twenties. He looked relieved to see Ayaka, but his voice soon took on a harsh edge, no doubt because he'd found her with a stranger.
"I told you not to leave your room. Ayaka, get away from that man and come back inside."
"But-"
Perhaps seeing she was in no mood to listen to him, the young man spun on his heel and went back into the room. Kamo gave a bitter smile.
"I thought the others were all talking in the dining room."
Even as he said that, Kamo searched his memories and recalled that among those involved in the Deadly Tragedy of Shino was one Ryuuzen Genji.
Ayaka seemed surprised to have seen her uncle appear in her room, and she took out a pocket watch. It was silver with an abstract image of a dragon engraved on it.
"It's only twelve? Uncle went out to call the police, but it should have taken him some time to get to the nearest police station and explain everything. Why did he come back so early? Oh, if only I'd locked my room, he wouldn't have realized I was gone."
Almost unconsciously, she began to wind the watch. The hand-wound clock made a lively whir.
"I think I know why Genji came back. ...It's because the killer destroyed Shino Bridge in order to trap the Ryuuzen Family in Shino. At least, that's how it was recorded in the future I came from."
Hearing his words, the girl's eyes went wide with fear. Soon, they heard a door open somewhere nearby and a slender man approached them.
Kamo had seen his face in a Ryuuzen clan group photo. His eyes and nose were well defined, but he didn't look a thing like Ayaka. He looked like a perfectly ordinary Japanese man.
He was dressed in a gray polo shirt and dark jeans, and his messy hair was carelessly slicked back. He wouldn't have looked out of place back in 2018.
Genji appeared to have run all the way there. He was out of breath even as he began to speak.
"Ayaka, are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Because this person is..."
Genji stared at the person next to his niece and looked him up and down from head to toe. Yet, for some reason, Kamo felt Genji was looking down on him. Perhaps Genji was a young man who was used to looking down on others.
"Do you know Ayaka?"
His voice was calm, but there was a devil-may-care look in his eyes that said "Depending on your answer, I may have to kick your ass". It was a perfectly natural response to seeing his niece with a suspicious man.
As Kamo stood, trying to think of a way out of the situation, Ayaka suddenly spoke up.
"This man is Kamo Touma. He's a famous private detective from Tokyo."
She said this completely seriously, but her words made Kamo choke.
"A detective?" Genji muttered incredulously.
He looked at Kamo, who hadn't stopped coughing, then at Ayaka, who was too good at lying for her age. Then, he asked a question.
"And what are you doing at our villa, Mr. Detective?"
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice cut in.
"...You can explain the rest inside."
A gentleman appeared from around the corner of the building. Even though it was midsummer, he was dressed in a perfectly tailored beige suit. He was in his mid-fifties and stood over 170 cm tall. His mustache was well-groomed and streaked with white.
However, what surprised Kamo most was the item in the gentleman's hands: a hunting rifle. Genji also looked surprised.
"What happened, Soujirou? You even brought a hunting rifle."
"I heard you running out in a hurry, so I brought it just to be safe. There is a murderer roaming around, after all."
The look on the man's face clearly communicated that he'd already decided the murderer was Kamo.
*
As soon as he stepped into the dining room, Kamo was assailed with suspicious stares.
The room was built in a purely Western style, with white as the base color. It was about 20 tatami mats (~32.4 sq. meters) in size, but as is common in old buildings, the ceiling was low, so it felt very confined. The building seemed quite old, but its interior was still new. It must have been renovated recently.
In the center of the room was a large antique table surrounded by twelve chairs. All of the chairs were of a high enough quality that Kamo had expected to go his whole life without seeing anything like them. Looking at the room's furnishings, it seemed the Ryuuzen lived a completely Westernized life. A large old wall clock displayed 12:12.
In the room were eight men and women.
Seated at the very front of the left side of the table was Ayaka. She looked around, unable to hide her nervousness. Genji sat next to her, arms crossed.
Next to them was the gentleman called Soujirou. He still hadn't put down the hunting rifle, perhaps as an intimidation tactic... However, it did seem that he'd unloaded the gun before entering the building. It would be dangerous if it went off, after all.
Sitting at the head of the table was an old man in a wheelchair wearing a white open collar shirt.
He was definitely over eighty and was wearing a dark red lap blanket. His shoulder muscles bulged against his clothes, and he had sharper eyes than anyone else in the room.
Kamo could guess that was Ryuuzen Taiga, head of the Ryuuzen clan. In her diary, Ayaka had called him "Grandfather", but he was actually her great-grandfather. Compared to the old black and white photograph he had seen, the real man was so vibrant that he looked like a different person...
Standing diagonally behind the old man, giving Kamo a downcast look, was a servant of the Ryuuzen family. She was dressed in an old-fashioned black and white maid uniform.
Kamo stared at her intently, remembering that Taiga only had one regular servant, Tonegawa Tsugumi... Her name had appeared many times in Ayaka's diary.
She was beautiful, but she wore heavy makeup. She was about 40. Above all, he was amazed how stylish she was. Even though she wasn't young anymore, the waistband of her apron was tied high in a way that gave her a perfect silhouette.
Slowly, Taiga opened his mouth and spoke in a hoarse voice.
"Mr. Kamo. Could you please explain to me why you have come to Shino?"
Before he could answer, Ayaka had already started speaking.
"Grandfather... I'm the one who invited him to the villa."
The room fell silent. Taiga looked at her with confusion.
"And why did you do that?"
Seeing the defiant look in Ayaka's eyes, Kamo felt a foreboding chill.
"Mr. Kamo is a great detective who has solved countless difficult cases. The Metropolitan Police Department regularly asks for his assistance, and he's even been awarded a medal for his efforts."
Hearing Ayaka keep piling on new details to his character made Kamo want to smash a window and run away.
Needless to say, great detectives were a thing that only existed in fiction. Whether the year was 2018 or 1960, that fact would never change.
"A great detective, huh..."
The speaker was one of the three young people on the right side of the table.
He and the girl next to him looked so similar it was obvious at a glance they were siblings. They were both about 20, and had beautiful faces comparable to Ayaka's. Kamo recalled their names were Ryuuzen Tsukihiko and Tsukie. They were both Taiga's grandchildren.
The older brother, Tsukihiko, had cool, narrow eyes and looked like the type who was popular with women. However, his thin lips were set hard with an inner coldness. He was dressed the most casually of everyone. He was wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt with the collar turned up. A pair of sunglasses poked out of his breast pocket.
Tsukie, who was looking down at the table with large, wet eyes, was a stunning beauty. She wore a sleeveless blouse the color of fresh grass.
Tsukihiko looked at Kamo like a snake eyeing a small bird. He had clearly seen through Ayaka's lie. Kamo braced himself, but the next words came from an unexpected direction.
"...You say he's famous, but I'm afraid I've never heard of a detective like that."
It was Genji. Ayaka responded without a moment's pause.
"Uncle, you're usually abroad, so you aren't familiar with domestic affairs."
"That might be true. But why did you invite a great detective to our villa?"
Ayaka's cheeks flushed with excitement as she continued to make excuses.
"Because today is August 22nd, Grandfather's birthday. I secretly invited Mr. Kamo here as a surprise. ...Grandfather is a big fan of detective fiction, isn't he?"
Perhaps overwhelmed by his great-granddaughter's force of personality, Taiga let his dignity fall away and smiled awkwardly.
"I can't deny that."
"I'm sorry, Grandfather, I thought you would be pleased. The father of one of my friends from school is an acquaintance of Mr. Kamo's and I asked him to arrange the meeting for me. Then, Mr. Kamo's schedule just so happened to be free, so it all just worked out."
Ayaka was talking significantly more than necessary. It was a typical reaction for someone who was lying, but Taiga and Genji both appeared to be listening to her with surprising seriousness.
After waiting for her to finish her explanation, Genji asked calmly.
"Ayaka, is everything you just said true?"
"Of course."
Her eyes were serious. Seeing that, a glint of amusement flashed across Genji's eyes for just a moment. He turned to Taiga.
"As we all know, Ayaka isn't the kind of girl who would tell malicious lies. It seems she really did just want to give Grandfather a surprise."
Taiga's eyes wavered. It seemed he was soft when it came to his great-granddaughter. But he wasn't convinced just yet.
"Perhaps, but this man may still be the murderer."
It wasn't a terrible argument, but Genji shook his head.
"I don't think that's very likely. ...The situation suggests that the murderer was inside the villa between last night and early this morning. It's impossible that someone could have broken in from outside during that time."
That was news to Ayaka, and her eyes went wide. Taiga thought for a while, then spoke again.
"I understand that. However, isn't it impossible that the body parts were taken from the building? And yet, the head and torso were in fact taken out?"
"Yes. No matter how you look at it, this situation is an impossible crime."
"Then that means the crime is equally impossible for this man as everyone else, doesn't it? If he had used a trick to remove the head and torso, he could have used a trick to enter and leave the building without being seen."
"You're right... But the same could be said about everyone else in this room."
Taiga frowned, furrowing his white eyebrows, but eventually nodded.
"You are correct."
"As you can see, there are hardly any wrinkles or stains on this gentleman's clothes, and it seems his canvas shoes have almost no mud stains. If he had been lurking outside our villa since last night and had traveled from the indoors to the forest and back after the rain, he would not look like this."
"Canvas shoes?"
Kamo involuntarily spoke out loud and looked down at his sneakers. Since you were allowed to wear your shoes in the Shino villa, he was still wearing his foreign-made sneakers.
"...However, the longer I look at him, the more unusual his attire is."
Taiga looked at Kamo seriously. Kamo's shirt and pants were average, slim fit clothes in 2018, but they didn't match anything from this era.
The pants the men of the Ryuuzen family were wearing were clearly thicker, and Soujirou's suit had a bit more of a wide fit. Even their fabrics were different... the shirt Kamo wore was made from a chemical or textile material with shape memory, something that didn't yet exist in this day and age. While everyone else was wearing leather shoes in black, brown, or white, he alone wore sneakers.
Seeing how out of place his outfit was, Kamo suddenly became depressed. Genji, who seemed to be enjoying himself, suddenly opened his mouth again.
"I know what I said earlier, but... thinking back, I do recall hearing about a detective in Tokyo by the name of Kamo."
Ayaka looked up as though she'd been smacked across the face, and Kamo almost shouted out loud.
"She may have exaggerated a bit in her explanation, but I don't think there can be any doubt that this man really is a private investigator."
The smile dancing on the corners of his mouth showed that he had seen through their lies. And yet, Genji was keeping it to himself and even defending them. He'd even lied himself, claiming that Kamo's nonexistent life in Tokyo sounded familiar...
The girl gave her uncle a grateful look, and he gave her a small nod.
Genji's lie immediately took effect, completely changing the atmosphere in the dining room. Even Taiga's attitude softened. He even smiled at Kamo.
"I hope you can forgive our earlier rudeness... I am Ryuuzen Taiga, Ayaka's great-grandfather. If I had known she was making such a reckless request, I would have done everything in my power to stop her."
"There's no need for that. You seem happy to have me."
Kamo hesitated before replying. Even as he spoke, he was turning his eyes towards Genji. ...Why had he supported this middle school girl's fraudulent story? Kamo couldn't make sense of it. In the end, that had been what saved him, but not knowing why was a bit eerie.
On the other hand, Taiga, having forgotten his wariness, let sorrow fill his eyes. He spoke in a low voice.
"It pains me having to tell you this as soon as we've met, but..."
Kamo gave a small nod.
"If you're referring to the incident that took place in this villa, Ayaka already told me about it."
Kamo had a faint hope that he'd be able to get some information on the incident. However, Tsukihiko chose that moment to interrupt.
"How did you get here? By car?"
It seemed he wouldn't let their blatant lie be accepted so easily.
"Tsukihiko, you are being rude to a guest."
Taiga chided him, but Tsukihiko didn't stop.
"We all shared our actions last night with each other. We thoroughly interrogated the alibis of even our own relatives. Why should this man be exempt? You can answer the question, can't you, Mr. Kamo?"
Kamo thought about it... He was certain that Tsukihiko was asking this question in an attempt to trap him. Did something he'd said or done contradict something that happened on August 22nd? Kamo tried to recall what he'd read in Ayaka's diary five years ago. For someone with his memory, it wasn't an impossible task.
"...No, I walked."
At that answer, Tsukihiko's face twisted, ruining his handsome visage. Seeing his reaction, Kamo's confidence grew, and he continued with a smile.
"My arrival here was a surprise; it would be too obvious if I came by car. I asked an acquaintance to drive me up to the bridge, then I walked the rest of the way."
The villa had a parking lot. Naturally, Kamo didn't have a car there. Kamo had figured out that Tsukihiko noticed that contradiction.
Tsukihiko fell silent, and the young man sitting next to him opened his mouth as though the other man wasn't there. He was the only one whose name Kamo didn't know.
"It's nearly two and a half kilometers from Shino Bridge to the villa. It must have been difficult for you, walking all that way. I wish you had confided in me earlier, Miss Ayaka... I would have been happy to pick up Mr. Kamo and help smuggle him into the villa."
It wasn't so much a request for Ayaka as a statement of regret that he'd missed out on something interesting. In contrast to Tsukihiko next to him, this young man had a good-natured air about him. He was as thin as Tsukie and was probably also in his early twenties. He wore a navy blue polo shirt.
The fact that he'd called Ayaka "Miss" marked him as an outsider to the Ryuuzen family. However, unlike Tonegawa, he was sitting around the table with the rest of the family members. Kamo remembered that there had been a young man staying with the family, the child of a friend of Taiga's or something of that nature who'd been taken in as a middle school student. He recalled his name as "Amamiya".
Ayaka seemed to be close to the young man, as she apologized in a playful manner.
"I'm sorry, but if I told Mr. Amamiya, it might have spread to the whole family."
"Hey, I'm not that talkative."
Tsukihiko, apparently not liking that they had managed to calm the room, interrupted with another question.
"So, what time did you get here?"
Kamo judged it had been about an hour since he'd initially time traveled. The clock on the wall read 12:26, so he must have arrived about 11:30.
Kamo chose his words carefully.
"I don't know the exact time. After I told Ayaka I'd arrived, we talked for quite a while. But I'm pretty sure it was before 11:00."
There was a reason why the time he'd given was earlier than his actual arrival.
If Kamo remembered correctly, Ayaka's diary read as follows:
Genji and Soujirou left by car to call the police, but they returned to the villa less than an hour later. That was around noon.
Tsukihiko probably intended to pursue Kamo on the grounds that they hadn't passed him on the road while driving. In that case, Kamo had no choice but to claim he'd already arrived before they left.
Since he hadn't managed to get anything out of Kamo, Tsukihiko gave a simple "Hmph" and stopped talking.
"...By the way, did you notice anything unusual when you crossed Shino Bridge?"
It was Soujirou who'd asked. He had opened the break action rifle and placed it on the table in front of him. Kamo felt a surge of relief seeing him disarmed.
He remembered that Soujirou was Taiga's second son and the father of Tsukihiko and Tsukie. His face was well-groomed, but what stood out more was the nervous twitching of his eyes and mouth.
Kamo, having come from the future, already knew that the bridge had collapsed, but he decided to keep quiet.
"Nothing in particular. Why? Did something happen?"
"Someone made cuts in the rope and planks of the bridge. It's pretty likely they at least started before you crossed over."
Ayaka gasped and covered her mouth, but everyone else seemed to already know. Genji took over the explanation.
"The truth is, we noticed the phone line to the outside of the villa was down, so Soujirou and I decided to go out and call the police. I think we left around 11:00. As we approached Shino Bridge, we noticed the ropes had been damaged... but not soon enough, and our car wound up going over the edge when the bridge collapsed."
Genji said that with a nonchalant expression despite the terrible event he'd lived through. Ayaka, in contrast, had gone pale.
"Uncle, Great-Uncle... thank goodness you're both safe."
"Thank Soujirou. He's the one who noticed something was wrong and got us out of there."
Kamo mentally went over everything that had been said so far and confirmed it all matched the contents of Ayaka's diary. He then shook his head slightly and said something.
"I guess I was lucky I was walking, but if I'd been a bit less lucky, the bridge could easily have fallen while I was crossing."
When he said that horrifying thought, Taiga added something in a grave tone.
"I believe someone has endeavored to trap us here."
"In that case, I guess I'd be the prime suspect. After all, I was the last person to cross that bridge."
Kamo figured it would be better if he said it himself than if someone else pointed it out later. He braced himself for what sort of reaction he would get, but Taiga merely smiled at him.
"Don't worry. According to Soujirou and Genji, the cuts on the ropes and boards weren't fresh, but covered in mud and dirt. Isn't that right?"
Soujirou and Genji nodded.
"Due to the rain that fell until the morning of yesterday, the 21st, and the shower that fell again in the evening, the water level in the river rose considerably. If we conclude that the dirt was from the rising water hitting the bridge, then we can conclude that the work on the bridge was done before the water level fell back down... In other words, the work was done between yesterday at noon, when Soujirou and his family were able to safely drive across, and yesterday evening, when the water level subsided."
Kamo looked at Taiga with his mouth hanging open.
Perhaps it was due to his self-professed love of mystery novels, but, even though they were in a tense situation, Taiga was able to analyze the situation so calmly. Or perhaps it was only expected that a man who'd not only survived, but thrived during the war and its chaotic aftermath would have such mental strength.
Satisfied with his reaction, the old man finished with a grin.
"Therefore, just because you were the last person to cross the bridge, that doesn't make you suspicious."
"...By the way, am I correct in assuming that because the bridge collapsed, this area is now an isolated island?"
When Kamo regained enough composure to ask that, Taiga nodded with a frown.
"It is. The phone lines have been cut, so there's no way we can call for help. And we were originally planning to stay here for four days to escape the summer heat. I've already informed the people from the company that I'm not to be interrupted while I'm on vacation, so I don't think we can expect any help from outside."
I wonder if we can find a way through the forest to town."
Ayaka was the one who'd asked. Amamiya was the one who answered.
"That won't work... Even if we follow the river, we'll be blocked by cliffs, and we can't go up Mt. Kuzu because the villa doesn't have any mountaineering equipment or even a map of the mountain. The weather is likely to change again, too. It's be suicide for someone with no knowledge of mountain climbing to try passing it like this."
Ayaka didn't seem the least bit discouraged. On the contrary, she stared at her great-grandfather with clear eyes.
"Grandfather, let's ask Mr. Kamo to investigate this case."
"Mr. Kamo?"
"Yes. In all his years as a detective, there isn't a single case he's been involved in that went unsolved."
That was a bold proposal, but the one who was most surprised was Kamo, who had suddenly been declared the world's greatest detective.