Chapter Five - Part Three

Looking for the source of the voice, Kamo realized that it was coming from the hourglass itself. He picked it up with the fingertips of his right hand and saw that it was faintly glowing.

“What, so your eavesdropping device also has a speaker function... where does the battery fit in?”

“There are no batteries here, Kamo.”

Hearing Hora's voice, the jaws of the three non-Ayaka onlookers dropped. It seemed they instinctively realized that the voice was genuinely coming from the hourglass. Hora brightened the white light as he spoke.

“It is a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Meister Hora. Allow me to explain to you the nature of travel through time and space.”

The hourglass gave them the same lecture it had once given Kamo and Ayaka.

Tsukie and Amamiya were stunned and stood uncomprehending, but Genji, who had earlier stated a familiarity with science fiction, listened with interest. Hora remained glowing all the while, but the hourglass never grew even slightly warm.

When that explanation was over, Kamo asked for another, one that he had wanted for a long time.

“So, where are you hiding?”

“I am not hiding anywhere. I've been by your side this whole time.”

Kamo blinked several times, then looked around at the four faces he shared the room with. Naturally, Ayaka was among them. All four of them suddenly began to protest that it wasn't them. Hora's laughter echoed throughout the trailer.

“What an amusing misunderstanding. I'm surprised that you mistook me for a human.”

Kamo once again looked down at the faintly glowing hourglass.

“Could it be that your true identity is this hourglass... no, this hourglass-shaped time machine?”

“That is correct. I am an artificial intelligence created to manage experiments in time-space travel.”

Hearing this, Genji looked down at Hora, an excited gleam in his eye.

“Will time travel technology be developed by 2018? How fascinating.”

Kamo shrugged.

“The future I know isn't any sort of sci-fi wonderland. It seems Hora is from a future beyond my own.”

Hora's sand turned yellow.

“I was created in a future approximately 290 years after Kamo's era. My creator gave me the shape of an hourglass, the name 'Meister Hora', and a mission.”

Hearing this, Ayaka asked suspiciously.

“What was the mission?”

“To determine if the past was changed, and if it had, to set history back on its proper course.”

Kamo tilted his head. He found that explanation unsatisfying.

“Is that really possible? If the past is changed, a new future building upon it will be created. Since the old future will disappear, no one will know what it was, will they?”

“If I were a normal space-time device, that would be the case. ...That is why, in order to resolve that problem, my creator made me an existence separate from the world.”

Kamo frowned, unable to understand what he'd been told.

“Separate?”

“The hourglass you are holding contains no sand. Instead, what you see within is a small world.”

Kamo felt a chill and took his hand off the hourglass. Still, the weight on the chain around his neck felt like a pebble. He couldn't believe it was the weight of an entire world.

Hora continued calmly.

“In other words, while I am a time machine, I am also another world, equal to your own. Within my world, there exists a quantum computer, containing the data of my AI and a record of your world, before the past was changed.”

“Incredible... an entire different world...”

The contents of Hora's story exceeded anything Kamo could have imagined. Moreover, to Ayaka and the others from 1960, the whole story must have sounded like gibberish. Even so, they appeared to be listening intently to Hora.

“The time flow within me is completely independent. It cannot be altered by any outside force, so no matter what happens in your world... even if history were to be changed, even if my creator were to be killed before I was created, the data within me cannot be rewritten.”

“Isn't that more Cassiopeia than Meister Hora?”

Kamo couldn't keep from commenting. In Ende's Momo, Cassiopeia was a tortoise with the ability to move freely, even in a world where time had stopped, because she had her own special time.

Hora replied with a surprising air of nostalgia.

“My creator, Dr. Bastian, gave me the name 'Meister Hora' after the guardian of time and history.”

“Whatever the case... that explanation you just gave helped me understand something.”

The hourglass gave off a yellow light that seemed to somehow be provoking him.

“Well, what have you discovered?”

“The criminal has done some pretty strange things. First off, even though the presence of people in the rec room all night was a coincidence, they took advantage of it to commit an impossible crime. Then, they changed the order of their murders, specifically to outwit me. Then they moved Hata Reito's 'Chimera' to Kojin Shrine.”

“I see no connection between these acts.”

“...I first began to suspect something when I found Chimera at Kojin Shrine. I asked myself why the culprit took the risk of moving the painting, and I came up with an answer.”

Ayaka narrowed her eyes in thought, then suddenly reeled back in shock.

“If I remember correctly, Kojin Shrine remained standing even after the landslide, right?”

“That's right. To the culprit, Hata must be someone special. If they brought his painting out to Kojin Shrine... I can only think it was to protect it from the landslide.”

The inside of the trailer was silent. It seemed everyone already understood Kamo's meaning. He continued.

“In other words, the culprit knew that there would be a landslide and Kojin Shrine would be the only place to survive. Just like me.”

Amamiya ran a hand through his hair and stammered in confusion.

“Is that even possible?”

“At first, I thought I was being absurd. But if you allow the possibility that the culprit is another time traveler, it explains everything.”

Genji dropped his gaze to the floor.

“If the culprit is a time traveler, they could have predicted you would keep watch from the cleaning supplies room. It would be the perfect place to keep watch on the Tiger Room, you couldn't pass it up. They could have guessed you'd figure that much.”

“So they changed the order of their killings to outsmart me, and staged an impossible crime that was only impossible because I was in the cleaning supplies room... They used their knowledge of the future to make things work out the way they wanted.”

After a pause, Kamo looked at the hourglass and continued.

“Another time traveler has changed the past, and you brought me here to undo their changes. Am I wrong?”

For some reason, Hora started laughing.

“You are mostly correct. In actuality, this crime involves not 'another time traveler', but 'another time machine'.”

Kamo, who had assumed another time traveler had come back and caused the Deadly Tragedy of Shino, was more confused than ever.

“Just what happened in your future?”

“It's a more serious situation than you can imagine... Informing those from the past of the future is strictly forbidden, but just this once, I will break my orders.”

Hora had completely lost his light and returned to the appearance of a perfectly ordinary hourglass.

“I was born in a research institution called Global Synthesis Laboratory, or GSL. Dr. Bastian was a researcher at GSL, who created two prototype devices for traveling through time and space. One was me, who had an entire world contained within myself and the ability to correct history. The other was Cassiopeia, who only possessed the function of travel through time and space.”

“Cassiopeia?”

Kamo couldn't help but exclaim. Hora, in contrast, was calm.

“As a child, Dr. Bastian loved the works of Michael Ende. That was why he named his creation after the tortoise who served as a companion to Meister Hora in Momo... Incidentally, Cassiopeia also possesses the shape of an hourglass and internally houses a quantum computer. In terms of our performance specs and ability to travel through time and space, she is exactly the same as I.”

“Is Cassiopeia also bound by the four constraints of time travel?”

“Yes. The only difference between us is that I possess an independent world and time.”

“Hmm, so you seem to be an upgrade over Cassiopeia, huh?”

“There is no hierarchy between us. We are mere guides, enabling those who have become time travelers to journey through time and space safely. ...Afterwards, many experiments were conducted by Cassiopeia, and research progressed smoothly.”

“I get that much, but why is a time machine causing havoc in the past now?”

“A criminal learned of the experiments being conducted at GSL. Her real name is Alice, but she is more commonly known as Malice.”

“She isn't actually a man, is she?”

Kamo had to ask, but Hora didn't take the bait.

“Of course, she is a woman. She was once a brilliant researcher at GSL, and was a global leader in the field of artificial intelligence... Unfortunately, the woman who would become Malice grew jealous of a certain achievement made by a colleague at GSL who had once been her best friend. She went mad and disappeared.”

“A former researcher became a criminal? A mad genius sounds like a recipe for trouble.”

“Both the target and the targeter were worthy of the title of 'genius'. Malice, who would do anything to erase the existence of her former best friend, committed many crimes.”

“The researcher who was being targeted, did they survive?”

Ayaka asked, her voice trembling with concern. Hora answered surprisingly warmly.

“Of course. Every time, he foiled Malice's plans and thwarted her evil deeds. ...After many failures, she finally gave up on trying to kill her former best friend. Instead, she made a new plot: steal Cassiopeia, return to the past, and prevent his existence to begin with.”

Kamo felt a chill at Malice's endless vindictiveness.

“This story is absurd. Did she succeed?”

“In some ways she succeeded, and in some she failed. While she was stealing Cassiopeia, Malice was surrounded by the special forces and was killed. However, she'd prepared for her death. She hacked Cassiopeia and replaced the AI with new data.”

“What was the new data?”

“An AI that was a perfect copy of her own mind. The dying Malice herself became a time machine, and Cassiopeia fled into the past... For the sake of convenience, we have dubbed the Cassiopeia whose insides have become Malice 'Dark Cassiopeia', or D. Cassiopeia for short.”

“Then, can't you find out where D. Cassiopeia is? Can't you measure whatever sort of sci-fi radiation she gives off or something?”

Hora's voice suddenly grew dark.

“If I could do that, we wouldn't be in this situation. Nobody expected that a time machine would ever be used to commit a crime, so they never developed any way of searching for devices. Even if D. Cassiopeia were right here in the room with us and suddenly threw Kamo and I through time and space... depending on the circumstances, I might not even realize we had time traveled.”

“Man, this prototype is terribly designed.”

“It hurts hearing you talk like that. I can tell when and where I am if I take the time.”

At that point, Ayaka's face changed as though she had suddenly realized something.

“More importantly... could it be that D. Cassiopeia is 'here' now, and is targeting us?”

“Yes. The name of the man Malice was trying to kill is Eugene Ryuuzen. He was a descendant of Ryuuzen Taiga.”

Kamo, who hadn't thought that far ahead, was stunned speechless. Hora continued on, calm as ever.

“Dr. Eugene was a genius in the fields of genetic engineering and geophysics. His greatest achievement came in the year 2258, when he foresaw the coming of a major extreme weather event within the next few decades. By his calculations, it would be a catastrophe, completely devastating the global ecosystem and potentially eliminating life on Earth.”

“So, did this freak weather actually come?”

Kamo's worried question was answered immediately.

“Just as he predicted, in 2279, an abnormal weather event, the 'Great Calamity', struck the Earth. It was a worse disaster than the one that drove the dinosaurs to extinction. However, thanks to Dr. Eugene's tireless efforts rallying the United Nations to take countermeasures, the damage was kept to a minimum. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Dr. Eugene saved the world.”

Kamo couldn't wrap his head around the story, which was too grandiose to believe.

“So to summarize the story so far... Cassiopeia came to the past to wipe out the Ryuuzen family and prevent Eugene from ever being born?”

“Yes. That is her sole purpose.”

Amamiya, who was trembling badly enough to be seen even from a distance, spoke up.

“But if Dr. Eugene disappeared, wouldn't that be... bad?”

“I haven't confirmed the state of the altered future, but... Dr. Eugene's research was based on his own unique methods. Given that, the odds of someone else making his discovery of the Great Calamity are less than 1%.”

“Are you kidding me? If D. Cassiopeia achieves her goal, there's a 99% chance humanity will perish!”

Kamo's scream made Hora's tone turn doubtful.

“I did warn you that the situation was more serious than you could imagine.”

“Do you have to sound so calm all the time?”

“Whatever the case, Malice would do anything to destroy Dr. Eugene. D. Cassiopeia would happily sacrifice all of humanity if it meant erasing his existence... However, I believe it's more likely she plans to use the Great Calamity to create a world where only those convenient to her can survive.”

“What the hell... If someone this dangerous is involved, I'd like you to tell me before you drag me along.”

Hora ignored him.

“During World War III, enemy attacks erased large amounts of electronic data in many parts of Europe and Southeast Asia. Dr. Eugene's great-grandmother, Ryuuzen Naomi, appears to have lived in one of the affected areas, and as she was a war orphan, all records of her ancestry were lost. Therefore, even within my archive, Dr. Eugene's ancestors can only be traced back to Ryuuzen Naomi.”

Hora paused for a moment.

“However, Dr. Eugene had heard stories from his great-grandmother. Stories of how his ancestors were involved in a terrible incident known as the Deadly Tragedy of Shino. Malice had heard these stories and discovered that you, the Ryuuzen family, were Dr. Eugene's ancestors.”

Genji frowned.

“But isn't that strange? The Deadly Tragedy of Shino must have been caused by D. Cassiopeia. Why did it occur even before she changed the past?”

“Actually... it appears that even before the past was altered, a series of murders occurred at the villa in Shino, and many victims were claimed by a landslide.”

Genji's eyes shot open.

“In other words... whether it was interference from the future or not, there was always a murderer among us, and we were always destined to become the victims of this incident?”

“That is the case.”

Kamo couldn't keep quiet. He spoke as though he'd just heard a funny joke.

“If you know all that, then there must be records of the culprit in your archives, right? Even if the course of history has changed now, they'll still help. For the time being, just give me the info already.”

“Unfortunately, my archives contain no records of the murderer's identity. After all, the landslide destroyed everything. However, not everything is the same as it is now. Originally, the Deadly Tragedy of Shino was a much simpler incident.”

“So it wasn't originally full of impossible crimes?”

“The autopsy reports in my archives state there were no signs of the bodies being mutilated. Originally, the culprit didn't cut up the bodies.”

Hearing the words “autopsy report” sent Kamo deep in thought. He eventually asked another question.

“According to your archives, whose bodies were found in the landslide?”

Kamo had previously decided not to talk to Ayaka about this, but now, he decided it had to be done.

“There were five people: Kyuichi, Koki, Soujirou, Tonegawa, and Ayaka. The remaining bodies have all gone missing.”

Those were the same five from the future that Kamo knew... the one after history was changed by D. Cassiopeia. Kamo saw Ayaka bury her face in her hands and Tsukie place a comforting hand on her shoulder. He forced himself to ignore her and continued the questioning.

“Are there any other differences? How is your Deadly Tragedy of Shino different from mine?”

“Well, the first incident didn't occur until midnight on August 23rd, two days after it did in yours.”

“I see... so that's why you brought me to the 22nd.”

“Yes, I acted in accordance with the information in my archive from before the alteration of the past. I had no idea the crime had been committed two days early.”

“Even if D. Cassiopeia's influence moved the time table up... this is still strange. Why does D. Cassiopeia keep directly the culprit to commit impossible crimes? An ordinary criminal wouldn't do something like that.”

Hora softly answered Genji's skepticism.

“Malice isn't an ordinary criminal. She was even nicknamed 'The Queen of Impossible Crimes'.”

Kamo's eyes nearly bugged out of his skull.

“Queen of Impossible Crimes?”

Even Genji and Ayaka, who had stated they liked detective novels, were making indescribable faces. Hora continued in a calm voice that made it impossible to tell if he even realized how surprised they were.

“Malice has devised many impossible crimes in the past. Famous examples include 'The Spaceship Timetable Alibi Trick' and 'The Simultaneous Murder of 1,000 People In Locked Rooms Across The Galaxy'. Daring to intervene in the Deadly Tragedy of Shino could be called a typical move for her, who likes flashy and dramatic events.”

Kamo shut his eyes. He felt an awful migraine coming on.

“That's enough of that. I at least understand that the future is ridiculous... D. Cassiopeia is a copy of Malice. So even after coming here to the past, she's still trying to commit impossible crimes?”

“Strictly speaking, D. Cassiopeia cannot commit crimes alone. She cannot act independently like I can, and she can't even time travel unless accompanied by a human.”

“So she has a human accomplice.”

“I don't know how, but it appears that she's uncovered the identity of the murderer lurking among the Ryuuzen family and is using them as a catspaw. That person must be hiding an hourglass somewhere, just as you are.”

“That's a problem. If things get hairy, the murderer can just time travel to escape.”

“However, it does give us some information... When Malice was alive, she never trusted another. To minimize the risk of betrayal, she never had more than one accomplice to any crime.”

Kamo was a bit surprised.

“Even if that's true, can't D. Cassiopeia have just changed her mind?”

“No. This is one of the major drawbacks of AI made by copying human minds. The AI cannot help but be bound by the human's attachments in life.”

“So what you're saying is... D. Cassiopeia can only be working with one person?”

“That's correct, there is definitely only one murderer carrying out her plan by themself.”

Ayaka raised her tear-stained face.

“Wait! Won't we be wiped out by the landslide anyway? Why is D. Cassiopeia targeting us like this? We were already destined to die.”

“She's probably made a deal with the murderer.”

Hora's words made Kamo start trembling.

“The murderer within the Ryuuzen family's goal is to kill those gathered at the Shino villa. No, their real purpose might be to wipe out the Ryuuzen family entirely... On the other hand, D. Cassiopeia's goal is to find a time traveler who will enact their will, and have them kill everyone who could potentially be an ancestor of Eugene, in other words, the descendants of Ryuuzen Taiga.”

“Indeed, their goals are generally in alignment.”

Even though it was a summer night, Kamo couldn't stop shivering.

“I think I'm starting to get it. D. Cassiopeia and her time traveling murderer... they're the true identity of the curse of the Ryuuzen clan, aren't they?”

“Thank you for your understanding. D. Cassiopeia probably demanded absolute obedience from the culprit in exchange for lending her wisdom to their cause. Since the murderer had a deep grudge against the Ryuuzen family, I believe they gladly accepted her proposal.”

Kamo opened his mouth, even though his teeth wouldn't stop chattering.

“After committing the Deadly Tragedy of Shino, did D. Cassiopeia and the murderer travel through time and murder all of Fumino's descendants, making them all look like accidents?”

“Yes. That is the truth of the phenomenon that was called a curse.”

“...Why!? Why is this happening to us? What did we do!?”

At the sound of Ayaka's heartbreaking cry, both Genji and Tsukie lowered their heads. Hora continued as though he hadn't noticed.

“Whatever the case, as a result of Kamo's appearance, D. Cassiopeia is now acting in a different way than she had in the already altered past. Due to the changes to the already altered past, the world is growing unstable, and phenomenon unknown even to me have already begun.”

Genji frowned and looked down at the hourglass.

“What exactly is happening?”

“For about an hour now, there has been a dramatic abnormality in my space-time positioning system. Specifically, there is a large discrepancy between our current position in time and space and the location and time measurements derived from local gravitational wave analysis.”

“I don't really understand the details, but how could that have happened?”

“I believe the main reason is a distortion in the unstable world, but even I don't know the details... I will need to recalculate to correct this discrepancy, which will take 12 hours. You will not be able to travel through time and space until the correction is complete.”

As he half-listened to Hora's explanation, Kamo thought of Rena, the woman he'd left in 2018.

She was the last survivor of the Ryuuzen clan. She was sick, and her life would soon end. Kamo didn't care if she was Eugene Ryuuzen's ancestor, or it was one of her cousins. As long as he could have her, that would be enough for him.

However, there was a question he couldn't get out of his head.

“...Why?”

“It works similarly to a GPS. While traveling through time and space, it is impossible to travel safely if there is even the slightest discrepancy between the value entered and the actual starting point, so it is necessary to align with gravitational wave measurements-”

“That's not what I was asking. Why did you chose me as your time traveler?”

Hora gave a deep sigh that didn't sound right coming from an AI.

“My existence was top secret even within GSL. Even Cassiopeia was unaware of my existence, and Malice believed her to be the one and only time machine in existence. When Dr. Eugene discovered that Cassiopeia had been taken... he knew from the data left in GSL that she was targeting the Deadly Tragedy of Shino. In response, Dr. Bastian and I traveled to 1960. Our goal was to stop D. Cassiopeia and prevent the alteration of history.”

“But you didn't come here with Dr. Bastian. You came here with Mr. Kamo. What happened?”

The hourglass's response to Ayaka was bitter.

“Dr. Bastian and I lost control and arrived 10,000 years in the past... Was it due to instability from D. Cassiopeia's interference in the past, or had Malice left malicious data in GSL's computers as a trap? I still don't know.”

Everyone couldn't help but let out a groan at that ridiculous story. Hora's tone became sad.

“Due to the constraints of space-time travel, it took twelve hours before we could move again. In parallel with recharging my energy, I also had to determine our coordinates using the All Time and Space Positioning System... In the end, Dr. Bastian couldn't survive that long. He was attacked by what appeared to be a saber-toothed tiger.”

No one spoke for a time. After about twenty seconds of silence, Kamo asked:

“Then what happened to you?”

“There was nothing I could do without an accompanying time traveler. I was buried deep underground. Dr. Bastian had given me the strength to survive a thousand years of use, so my vessel could withstand 10,000 years. However, it seems my insides were different.”

Thinking in human terms, 10,000 years was an unimaginably long time. If the AI was based on human thoughts, it might have felt terribly long for Hora as well.

“Those long years changed me. I learned the true meaning of despair, which AI aren't supposed to know. I feared...that my prison would last until the end of time. But I was lucky. At the end of 2015, I was dug out by an archaeologist. I was finally free.”

Kamo recalled that the urban legend of the Hourglass of Miracles emerged around 2016.

“Then you started moving from person to person, right?”

“And as a result, I have come to be known as 'The Hourglass of Miracles', but that is a misinterpretation of my abilities. I don't have the power to bring about miracles.”

“Wait, I heard once that someone used the power of the hourglass to win big on long-shot odds on a horse race. I don't think it's true, but...”

“My archive includes all information on past horse races. I used it to compensate him for his cooperation.”

“Hey, what happened to not rewriting the past?”

“I learned much in my underground prison. For the sake of averting the extinction of humanity, we cannot choose our means. And I found the perfect person to stop D. Cassiopeia and her murderer from committing their crimes... You, Kamo.”

Even now, the chill running down Kamo's spine hadn't let up. Eventually, he asked in a low voice.

“Why are you so sure I'm the right person?”

“You're Ryuuzen Rena's husband, and you possess intellectual abilities above a certain level.”

“Is that it?”

“You also had a strong drive to help your wife by any means necessary... If all of these qualities are put together, there is no one more qualified than you.”

Kamo shook his head in resignation.

“I don't think anything you've said is a lie. But I get the feeling you aren't telling me the whole truth, either. I think there's another reason you chose me.”

For some reason, the hourglass's voice sounded like it was challenging him.

“Do you have the nerve to say the real reason?”

“I do.”

“O-ho.”

“Even if D. Cassiopeia didn't know about you, she figured it out as soon as she saw me. I'm another time traveler with another time machine, and I'm here to stop the Deadly Tragedy of Shino. That much should have been obvious as soon as I first appeared.”

“I suppose so. The number of unexpected guests suddenly increased, and you didn't even hide me... that is, the hourglass.”

Kamo placed a hand over his heart and continued.

“To be blunt, I'm the biggest nuisance for them. It wouldn't have been surprising if they'd killed me before Kyuichi and Koki.”

Even though he felt his fingertips tremble against his chest, he couldn't stop them.

“And yet, they didn't lay a finger on me. They could have easily poisoned me or killed me any way they pleased... they could have killed me and then stolen you, Hora.”

“It's just because you don't have Ryuuzen family blood, Mr. Kamo.”

He heard Ayaka, but he already knew that wasn't it.

“D. Cassiopeia is a cold-blooded simulacra of a human; she'd never show mercy to someone who got in her way. The only reason I'm still alive is because there's a practical reason they couldn't kill me.”

“And what reason would that be?”

Hora's voice was as provocative as ever, but it wasn't the least bit disturbed. Kamo, on the other hand, was helplessly shaking.

“D. Cassiopeia was afraid that killing me would cause a time paradox.”

Tsukie, who had been silent this whole time, blinked in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

Kamo looked back at her with a dissonant smile.

“To put it plainly, I'm Malice's ancestor... If D. Cassiopeia is a mental copy of my descendant, then killing me is the same as a descendant killing their own ancestor and creating a time paradox. Am I right, Hora?”

Even as he asked, he couldn't believe the smile on his face. He felt sick.

“That is correct. Malice's real name is Alice Kamo. She is your descendant.”

Kamo burst into uncontrollable peals of laughter.

“What is this? I don't even have any kids yet, but my descendant is already a murderer!”

“I don't know if this will bring you any comfort, but the shared genes between Malice and Kamo are only a small portion. That said, there are certain similarities in your personalities.”

Kamo stopped laughing.

“But... at least I'm not a criminal.”

“Right now, yes.”

Hora said that coldly. Kamo shut his eyes in fear.

The only reason he'd have said that is because his archival records showed that he'd become a criminal in the future. In the end, it was destined that Kamo would marry a woman other than Rena, and their child would become the ancestor of Malice.

“Because you knew all that, you thought you couldn't trust me, so you kept everything quiet and dragged me here by force, right?”

Hora didn't answer no matter how much he asked.

Eventually, he noticed his hands had stopped shaking. He could only view the situation as having gotten worse, but for some reason, he'd completely calmed down. Perhaps he was like Malice after all. They were both insane.

“Now I get why you chose me. First, because you knew that if you turned someone else into a time traveler, they'd get killed, so you chose me, who they can't kill. That, I get. Second, you knew that whether I succeeded or failed, you'd still have a chance to save history.”

Genji looked at Kamo with a surprising amount of sympathy.

“It's tragic... If you uncover the truth and incapacitate the murderer, you can save the lives of those who were to be killed afterwards. But even if you fail in your deduction... if you die here, the future Malice won't be born.”

“No matter how things go, there's still a chance to prevent Eugene from being erased... If I can't figure out the truth of the incident, you'll time travel into outer space or to the bottom of the ocean and kill me, do I have that right?”

“Yes, I was considering moving you to the ocean floor as a last resort. As long as I can accomplish my purpose, I don't care if I am incapacitated again.”

The ground fell out from under him, and there was nothing Kamo could do but laugh. It wasn't another sudden burst of laughter, but a relaxed, natural laugh.

“I get it, you have a determination of your own... So, what now? Should I keep on playing detective? Or should I just die for Rena?”

Whatever he sensed in that voice, Hora returned to his original calm voice.

“There are two reasons why I hid the existence of D. Cassiopeia. One is because I feared that if you knew the whole story, you might abandon me and join her.”

“I wouldn't do that.”

Hearing that, Hora lowered his voice.

“I don't understand. Your desire to protect those of the Ryuuzen clan is genuine. Your personality is so different from the data recorded in the archives. I don't believe D. Cassiopeia has tampered with this part of history, so how could there be such a discrepancy?”

“...Because I met Rena.”

Kamo spoke in a voice no one else could hear. He had changed so much since meeting her. That was something he'd been forced to admit long ago.

At that moment, the terrible chill that had disappeared returned once again. Kamo couldn't take it anymore. He closed his eyes. He knew he wasn't sick or afraid, but trapped in a deep despair.

“Did you say something?”

Kamo realized he had covered his face with both hands without realizing. His throat was hot and he felt like he was about to cry, but he choked back his tears.

He gave himself a moment to calm down, then shook his head.

“It's nothing... more importantly, you said there was another reason why you didn't tell me about Malice. What was it?”

“I was afraid that if you knew the future, it would drastically change, threatening the existences of both Dr. Eugene and Malice.”

Kamo didn't quite understand.

“Wasn't that what you wanted, for Malice to never be born?”

“Not at all. Before she turned to crime, Dr. Alice was one of a kind.”

“She might have done some good, but I don't think it makes up for all her crimes.”

“Unfortunately, the effects humans have on their world are complex.”

“What do you mean?”

“When Dr. Alice and Dr. Eugene were still friends, they stimulated each other and frequently collaborated on advanced research projects. ...If he had never met her, Dr. Eugene wouldn't have become a researcher, and vice versa. Alice's AI research was done by referring to Dr. Eugene's work in evolutionary biology, and Dr. Eugene used an AI of her creation to analyze the abnormal weather patterns.”

Ayaka's cheeks turned a bit red with excitement as she said something to herself.

“The relationship between them was like two sides of the same coin, and neither one could be removed without the other...”

“That is why I didn't tell Kamo about Malice. I was afraid that if you came to despise Malice, you would take action to prevent her birth... Kamo, taking your life is my last resort, but it could never be an act for the sake of the future.”

Large, heavy raindrops hit the roof of the trailer, and the wind rocked them side to side. It took a full minute before Kamo spoke again.

“In the end, our only choice is to solve the mystery of the Deadly Tragedy of Shino, catch the murderer, and retrieve D. Cassiopeia from wherever they hid her, right?”

“Yes. That is our best option.”

Tsukie, who had listened quietly to the whole story, crossed her legs on the bed.

“...Genji, Mr. Amamiya, do you believe what you've just heard?”

Genji took out a cigarette and twirled it between his fingers for a time, but then he looked up.

“I think we can believe it. The story he and Hora told was interesting, so it must be true.”

“Of course you'd say that. What about you, Mr. Amamiya?”

Amamiya stared at Tsukie, rubbing a wet towel with his hands as he spoke.

“A lot of the story went over my head, but I trust Mr. Genji's judgement.”

When she heard that, she smiled. It was the first time Kamo had heard Tsukie laugh.

“In that case, I'll try to believe you, too... Whatever the case, it's troublesome that the murderer has a time machine. There's no way to prove that they didn't use D. Cassiopeia's abilities to move the bodies and themself.”

Kamo smiled bitterly.

“However, it isn't fair to claim it's an impossible crime while using space-time travel. An impossible crime is impossible because supernatural phenomenon don't exist.”

“Not necessarily... In the past, there were many cases when Malice performed impossible crimes without resorting to special abilities that no one else knew about. However, it was different if the ability was understood.”

Kamo opened his eyes.

“In this case, Hora's here, so Ayaka and I already knew about time travel from the beginning... From D. Cassiopeia's perspective, time travel could be considered a known quantity. Is that what you're saying?”

“It is. From her point of view, incorporating time travel and spacial warps into the crime shouldn't be considered unfair.”

Hearing those words, Genji put his hand on his chin, which had begun to grow stubble, in thought.

“But.. due to the second constraint of time travel, when you move, you must move at least the size of a cube with 3 meter sides, right? The ceiling of the villa isn't that high, a bit over 2 meters. So if you try to move within the building, no matter where you set the cube, it will always take a part of either the ceiling or the floor. Where are the marks from the areas gouged out? The fact that there were none proves that nobody used time travel to leave the villa.”

Ayaka looked up in surprise and asked Hora something.

“By the way, can you carry body parts?”

“It is possible to transport a human body alongside a time traveler, but it isn't possible to move anything without a time traveler.”

“I see, so it isn't possible to move only the body parts...”

“Yes... But any living person can be forcibly moved as a time traveler.”

In fact, Kamo had been forced to time travel here without his consent. That must have been because he'd been forcibly designated a time traveler.

After getting her answer, Ayaka muttered in thought.

“Could it be possible to time travel even if you were separated from your time traveler?”

“Yes, there is no need to keep the time machine close to you. Both Cassiopeia and myself can travel through time and space as long as there is a time traveler within a meter or so of us.”

Kamo leaned forward, surprised.

“Oi, is that really possible?”

“Of course, there is no problem even if there are obstacles between me and the time traveler... Why? Is there something that bothers you?”

Kamo's face went pale, and he spoke without thinking.

“If you can do something like that, then... at that time... was the murderer...?”

However, Genji cut him off.

“I don't know about that. Considering the conditions we just heard, I don't think time travel could have been used in any of the crimes so far.”

“It is as Genji says. Due to the third constraint, it is not possible to move to a desired location with pinpoint accuracy. An error of ± 5 meters would be quite large inside a villa.”

Kamo blushed as he realized his mistake.

“Isn't this a stupid story? ...Even if you tried to appear in a large room, there'd be tons of furniture and stuff in the way, so it'd be too dangerous.”

Genji took the opportunity to summarize the case.

“If you think about it, there's no way that time travel was used when the criminal carried my brother's head and Koki's torso outside. At the time, the ceiling and floor precluded anyone from using time travel from inside the building. There were no three meter empty spaces to return from the outside, and it was impossible to only move the bodies.”

Tsukie also nodded at that.

“It's the same in Grandfather's case. There were no spaces that meet our conditions... so it would be impossible to force Grandfather out of his room as a time traveler without leaving any traces on the ceiling or floor.”

Amamiya gave a modest nod of his own.

“And as for Ms. Tonegawa, there's no need for time travel in the first place. Anyone could have poisoned her.”

Hora delivered the finishing blow.

“You are all correct. Even if we assume the existence of technology for space-time travel, this is still an impossible crime.”

 

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