Friday, October 18, 2019, 5:10 P.M.
As the boat rocked beneath his feet, Yuki gazed blankly at the horizon. The sea breeze wasn't very strong today, and the cloudy sky was making the water's surface reflect a dull color.
He heard a small “mew” and looked down to see Fuwawa, wrapped in a towel, looking up at him.
Cats aren't supposed to be good swimmers, but luckily for them, Fuwawa was wild. When Yuki arrived at the point where the Visitor had sank, Fuwawa was barely managing to keep her head above water with a doggy paddle.
It was a bit annoying that her first impulse was to climb onto his face, though. As Yuki treaded water, holding the kitten up with his right hand and being tossed about by the waves, a life preserver fell over him.
...It was the captain of the boat.
He climbed back aboard and rinsed himself off with a water bottle, but he still felt salt clinging to his hair. Fuwawa was also carefully washed with water and wiped, but she still felt dirty and wouldn't stop grooming herself.
“I suppose it'll be... an hour? About an hour until we arrive at T. Port.”
Mikumo stood next to him, dressed in a windbreaker and jeans. Yuki was wearing a T-shirt and jeans he'd borrowed from the captain.
“I'm sure the police will have plenty of questions when we get back.”
They'd told the captain that Saijou had committed suicide by jumping into the water. Yanagawa and Yuki had both tried to save him, but were too late, and Yuki, who'd jumped after him, wasn't able to even find his body... For the time being, the captain appeared to believe them.
Yuki looked at the cabin and gave an ironic smile.
“That aside, we're falling into the same pattern as last time, aren't we?”
On the floor of the cabin, three people were sprawled out on towels. Motegi was sleeping soundly, exhausted from dealing with his wound, but Yanagawa and Shigaraki were once again suffering from seasickness. They lay there groaning with their eyes tightly shut.
Mikumo also gave a laugh.
“I suppose that anti-seasickness medicine doesn't actually work.”
The captain had warned them to stay away from the railing on deck, and they were happy to oblige. The captain was constantly on the phone with the port, the police, and the hospital. He looked extremely busy.
After watching him for a while, Yuki turned to Mikumo.
“Actually... there are still a few things about this incident that bother me.”
Mikumo didn't stop watching the seagulls flying in the sky.
“And what would those be?”
“Ms. Mikumo... You intentionally allowed the Visitor to kill Mr. Koga and Producer Kikyo, didn't you?
Echika froze in place.
Ryuuzen, standing at her side, didn't appear the least bit threatening. He was just waiting for her to reply... Which made Echika even more confused as to what he wanted from her.
“What makes you say that?”
When Echika managed, with effort, to force out her reply, Ryuuzen replied matter-of-factly.
“I first began to suspect something the night Mr. Koga was killed. The bolt on the back door was unlocked. Were you the one to do that, Ms. Mikumo?”
“What a terrible thing to ask.”
“I noticed when I unbolted the door myself, but that bolt is extremely heavy and hard to move. I think Mr. Koga, who had two injured fingers and a swollen ankle, would have a hard time doing it himself.”
“Then perhaps it was Ms. Yanagawa or Shigaraki.”
That should have been entirely possible, but for some reason Ryuuzen ignored her and continued talking.
“When you were explaining the gate that once blocked the gravel path across the sea, Ms. Mikumo, you said it 'was bolted shut with a steel bolt'... That's unusually specific. Most people would have just said it 'was locked'. At that time, you already knew that Visitor can't open doors with bolts, didn't you?”
Echika smiled, not confirming or denying it.
“It's possible my father might have mentioned something like that. I don't remember.”
That was a lie. As a child, she'd been so afraid of Visitors that she'd asked her father to install a bolt on the door to her room... Of course, that was because she knew a bolt would be enough to stop a Visitor from entering.
“This is just an assumption I made. Feel free to write it off as my paranoia.”
With that preamble, Ryuuzen continued his story.
“Suppose, Ms. Mikumo, that you did know that Visitors can't open bolted doors. In that case... one would suspect that the reason you unbolted the back door is because you wanted the Visitor to come in. In addition, one might also suspect you specifically wanted it to attack Mr. Koga, who was alone in a small room.”
Echika frowned.
“That isn't possible, is it? At the time, I still believed the black cat had escaped to the Divine Land.”
“Oh, I don't know about that. At that point, you were the only one who knew that Visitors have the ability to imitate humans and are actually highly intelligent. You might have considered the possibility that it feinted and was actually still on the island.”
She didn't deny Ryuuzen's claim, though she did avoid his eyes. Instead, she asked him another question.
“Are you accusing me of working with the Visitors?”
“No. The Visitors probably didn't even realize you were stringing them along. They thought they'd decided to attack Mr. Koga on their own... In other words, no human served as accomplice to the Visitors. The Visitors were made accomplices to a human.”
“I don't think it's possible to manipulate the Visitors that well.”
“True, the odds of the Visitor actually entering the former community center were only 50/50. But once it was inside, you could have easily predicted what it would do.”
“How could I have done that?”
“It would have been too risky for the Visitor to target Ms. Mikumo's group, who stuck close together almost all the time. After all, what if one of you screamed, and the other two came running? You probably waited until Shigaraki returned from Mr. Koga's room, then removed the bolt from the back door. Also, it was your idea to move a portable toilet to the waiting room, wasn't it? That made it even more difficult for the Visitor to attack anyone... except Mr. Koga, who was sleeping by himself. So, the Visitor was able to attack him safely.”
Echika shook her head slightly.
“Even with all that in mind, that plan still would have placed myself, Ms. Yanagawa, and Shigaraki in danger.”
“Yes, I never would have done it in your position. But you did.”
The two stared at each other for a moment. Eventually, Echika looked back down at the deck.
“So what do you claim I did when Producer Kikyo was murdered?”
“...I think Producer Kikyo brought it upon himself.”
Echika felt a shock through her body. Ryuuzen had seen through everything she'd done, she was certain. All the strength left her body. And Ryuuzen kept going.
“You realized it much sooner than I did... that the Visitor could have mimicked Mr. Koga and Director Unno's bodies.”
“And what if I did?”
“First, you pretended to give up and said 'Unless we decide to start cutting off people's fingers and checking their cross sections, we don't have any way to tell a human from a Visitor, do we?' Those words were deliberately chosen to provoke Producer Kikyo, who was a sadist of the highest order.”
As he said that, Ryuuzen took out the yellow and blue medicine cases labeled “stomach medicine” and “sleeping pills”.
“I still don't understand why Producer Kikyo stole my medicine.”
“It was to give us sleeping pills... The coffee Producer Kikyo gave us that day was spiked with sleeping pills. No wonder it tasted so bad.”
Ryuuzen gave the blue case of “sleeping pills” a shake, showing how empty it was.
“That isn't possible. We all drank that coffee, but it didn't make us sleepy.”
Ryuuzen answered with a smile.
“That was the trap you set for Producer Kikyo. Hmm, maybe I should have tried it myself...”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah, ignore me, I'm rambling... It's only natural nobody got sleepy. After all, we were drugged with stomach medicine. By the time you showed us these cases, the yellow 'stomach medicine' case held sleeping pills, and the blue 'sleeping pills' held stomach medicine.”
Even though she knew that Ryuuzen had already seen the truth, Echika kept playing along.
“You mean that, because I switched their contents, Producer Kikyo put the stomach medicine in the coffee he wanted to drug with sleeping pills, then?”
“Meanwhile, Producer Kikyo had been complaining of stomach problems ever since the start of the incident. So you predicted he would steal both medicine cases. Your prediction came true, and Producer Kikyo holed up in the small room and took the 'stomach medicine' in the yellow case. Which, of course, held sleeping pills.”
The smile hadn't left Ryuuzen's face.
“Thinking back, when Producer Kikyo dropped the wine bottle in the restroom, it must have been because of the sleeping pills, right? He was in a daze and didn't even realize what he was doing... In the end, the reason the Visitor's drugged Six Stars didn't get used was because the sleeping pill trap you'd set went off first.”
Echika had been surprised to hear the Visitor's confession. To think that she and the Visitor had each separately drugged Kikyo with sleeping pills. No matter what happened, he was destined to fall asleep.
She crossed her arms and asked another question.
“There's still something that doesn't make sense. Why did Producer Kikyo think it was a good idea to drug us and be alone in a small room?”
“Because he wanted to check whether we were human or Visitor... As you'd suggested, he wanted to cut off our fingers and check their cross sections. Producer Kikyo was a sick man who enjoyed hurting people and animals, and there was a butcher's knife in his tent.”
Echika shook her head, body trembling slightly.
“No one would ever do such a thing. First off, we don't even know if sleeping pills work on Visitors.”
“If they didn't, then Producer Kikyo would be able to identify the Visitor as the one person who didn't fall asleep.”
“But if the Visitor saw everyone else fall asleep, it would pretend to be affected by the drug to keep from being exposed. Then it could catch Producer Kikyo by surprise.”
“Even if it did, I'm sure Producer Kikyo was confident he'd win... He'd been looking forward to getting to fight the Visitor from the moment he learned of its existence. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say 'he wanted to hit the Visitor'.”
Echika was well aware of Kikyo's sadistic tendencies. Still, she attempted one final resistance.
“That doesn't explain why Producer Kikyo locked himself in his room. If that was his plan, he wouldn't have watched over us using cameras. Surely he would have stayed in the multipurpose area and watched us fall asleep?”
“I had my doubts about that, too. But... I think I can explain it.”
Strangely, this is what made Ryuuzen look anxious. He looked like he had to make up his mind to continue.
“The truth is, Kikyo is a criminal. He once drugged two women with sleeping pills. That day, one of the women took longer to be affected by the drugs than the other. She resisted violently, and she got herself badly hurt... This time, Kikyo drugged six people with sleeping pills. He knew from prior experience that he'd have to take into account the fact that different people take different amounts of time for drugs to take effect. At the same time, he was also afraid that, as the one to prepare the coffee, we'd realize he was the culprit and attack him.”
“You mean he was afraid someone would realize what was happening and lash out before the medicine took effect, so he went to the small room because it was easier to fortify?”
By now, Echika was allowing herself to smile coldly. Ryuuzen kept going, still wearing a strange look on his face.
“If we accept that logic, it would be possible to predict that Kikyo would lock himself in his room. However, that wouldn't be possible unless you knew about Kikyo's past crimes. I don't expect this to be true, but... Ms. Mikumo, did you ever meet a woman named Tsuzuki Naoko?”
The name surprised Echika more than the exposure of her crimes.
“How do you know that name?”
When he managed to answer her, Ryuuzen's expression looked a bit relieved.
“So that's how it was. You and Naoko both graduated from K.O. University, and you're close in age, so I just thought... Before Naoko died, she wrote a letter and entrusted it to a senior from university she trusted. She asked her to mail that letter if anything ever happened to her. That senior was you, wasn't it Ms. Mikumo?”
Echika couldn't breathe. She didn't understand what was happening.
“How do you know about that letter?”
“If you read Naoko's letter, it makes sense that you knew about Kikyo's crimes... At the end of that letter, she mentioned the name 'Yuki', didn't she? That was me. Naoko was my best friend since we were children. Her father showed me that letter.”
When she heard the sadness in Ryuuzen's voice, Naoko collapsed on the spot.
“I'd known something was wrong with Naoko for a while already. So when I heard that she'd died in an accident, I realized something must have happened. I broke my promise... and looked at the letter she'd entrusted to me.”
“And that's how you learned about those three's crimes?”
“Yes. I mailed the latter as Naoko had wished, but only a few days later, her father died in a mysterious fire. I thought I had no choice but to take revenge.”
Echika no longer had any intention of hiding anything. The truth poured out of her without end.
“I was the one who suggested those three men come to film on Kakuriyo Island. I told them the island was a tropical paradise to lure Kikyo and Koga along. There, I planned to take revenge on all three of them.”
“But the Visitor arrived at the same time.”
Echika nodded, face hard.
“It's true that I didn't believe my father's stories. So... I had no idea I'd be putting the rest of you who had nothing to do with my revenge in danger.”
Ryuuzen suddenly gave a bitter smile.
“Oh, I wouldn't say I have nothing to do with your revenge. The truth is... I was also planning to take revenge on those three on Kakuriyo Island. I'm extremely sorry, but I'm the one who broke the satellite phone.”
“Eh?”
Ryuuzen put on a mischievous face.
“It seems like we're pretty alike, Ms. Mikumo. But I was determined to achieve my revenge with my own two hands, so I prioritized defeating the Visitor so they wouldn't interfere with my plans.”
“I see, that's why you were trying to protect Kikyo from the Visitor. You didn't want it to get there first, then?”
“That's it. In any case, it looks like I'm just not suited to being an avenger.”
“You were forced to play detective instead.”
“I guess that role suited me better, in the end... Incidentally, you changed plans and decided to use the Visitor instead?”
“Yes. I was surprised when the Visitor killed Unno, but I realized early on that it was planning to mimic his form. That's why I baited it into attacking Koga.”
Ryuuzen had no choice but to deduce how the Visitor worked on his own, but she'd had the information left by her father. You could say that she was in a better position than Ryuuzen from the beginning.
“And Kikyo... I was hoping that if I tricked him into giving us 'sleeping pills', he'd hide in the small room to avoid anyone resisting. That prediction turned out to be true, but at the time, I was convinced that the Visitor was disguised as Koga's body. That's why I suggested Tara keep watch over the hallway.”
“You thought that would stop the Visitor from escaping from the room afterwards, right?”
“Yes. The Visitor would have no choice but to attack Kikyo, and I thought I could ensure everyone else would be safe. ...The next morning, after I'd confirmed Kikyo's death, there was one more thing I had to do.”
“That being to burn down the former community center with the Visitor still inside?”
Hearing how sad Ryuuzen sounded, Echika closed her eyes as she nodded.
“Even if it was for revenge, I'd allowed two people to die. I hadn't believed in my father, brought everyone else to Kakuriyo Island, and placed their lives at risk, getting Mr. Motegi seriously injured. I thought I no longer had the right to live. So... I thought I could at least atone by giving my life to burn the Visitor.”
“Ms. Mikumo...”
Ryuuzen's voice was barely audible. Mikumo opened her eyes and smiled at him.
“But you saved me, Mr. Ryuuzen.”
“Of course I did, you were about to throw your life away because of the nonsense theory I had told you. I suspected you were also aiming to get revenge on Koga and Kikyo, but I never expected you to do something like that.”
“I cannot possibly thank you enough. It's thanks to you I realized I was wrong. I was able to see that the Visitor had escaped the trap I'd set for Kikyo. And... I was able to truly defeat the Visitor.”
A meow came from the towel Ryuuzen had under his arm. Fuwawa, who they'd thought was asleep, was looking at Echika.
“Come to think of it, in the end, there were three avengers on Kakuriyo Island.”
Echika was confused.
“Three?”
“You, Ms. Mikumo, me, and Fuwawa. After all, her mother and siblings were killed by the Visitor. And it's all thanks to Fuwawa that we were able to knock the Visitor overboard.”
For someone who probably didn't understand what they were saying, Fuwawa looked awfully smug. Echika couldn't help but laugh.
Ryuuzen looked down at the two medicine cases he was holding.
“Well, shall we destroy the evidence?”
With that, he threw the remaining “sleeping pills” into the sea, followed by a shower of “stomach medicine”. Next, a yellow case went flying over the railing, followed by a blue case.
Echika looked at them with wide eyes. Then she spoke with a bit of mischief.
“That's fine, but you promise not to blackmail me about this later?”
“Relax, I'm not exactly hurting for money.”
Ryuuzen said that casually, but, strangely, without sounding sarcastic.
“I suppose you aren't.”
“But when we get back to Tokyo and things settle down, if you don't mind... I'd like to see you again.”
Echika didn't dislike the idea, but she didn't answer right away. For some reason, she was reluctant to reply too quickly. Ryuuzen was still speaking softly.
“Well, Visitors appear every 45 years, so how about then?”
Finally, Echika burst out laughing.
For a while, the two of them and their cat stood side by side, gazing out at the sea.
In the cabin, Motegi was fast asleep, while Yanagawa and Shigaraki lay next to each other groaning. The captain kept busy working in the wheelhouse.
“I was just thinking.”
“What is it?”
“Almost all of the mysteries surrounding Kakuriyo Island have been solved... I think the only thing left is the legendary treasure. If Kidd's lost gold really was on that island, don't you think that would be a dream come true?”
Echika suddenly realized that Ryuuzen was staring at her intently.
“Would you like to leave that mystery here? Or do you want to hear my theory?”
Echika didn't hesitate.
“Tell me.”
“You're awfully aggressive.”
“That's just how I am.”
“Do you remember what the Visitor said? Something like 'Humans are greedier than Visitors, we don't use up our victims' corpses'.”
“Yes, it did say that. I wonder what it meant by using up the corpses. That was never part of the Thunder Festival.”
Ryuuzen grinned at her.
“Here's your clue: a Visitor's body is made primarily out of metal. And it weighs 20 kg...”
Echika let out a small shriek before she caught herself.
“You mean, the true identity of the treasure... the raw material wasn't Kidd's hidden gold, but...?”
She was freaking out, but Ryuuzen just looked like he was enjoying himself. He didn't reply.
Before they knew it, the island had disappeared over the horizon. The ship would soon arrive at T. Port.
Born in Hyogo Prefecture, 1984. Graduated from Kyoto University as a member of its famous Mystery Club, known as a breeding ground for successful authors. In 2019, she made her debut with The Time Traveler's Hourglass, winner of the 29th annual Ayukawa Tetsuya Award. This, her second work, was selected as #1 in the 2020 SR Club Top Ten Mysteries list and #7 in the Honkaku Mystery Best 10 2022. Her other works include Delicious Death for Detectives, Amulet Hotel, and An Unsuitable Crime For a Woman.
Mitsuda Madoy would like to take this opportunity to remind you that she's not Mococo, she's Fuwawa. His Bluesky is https://bsky.app/profile/mitsudamadoyvt.bsky.social and his Twitch is https://www.twitch.tv/mitsudamadoy
cosmiicnana met a Visitor in a bar in the Large Magellanic Cloud once. It reeked of over-applied cologne and desperation. Their Bluesky is https://bsky.app/profile/cosmiicnana.bsky.social and their Twitch is https://www.twitch.tv/cosmiicnana