Chapter Seven - Part Four

They heard the chaka-chaka noise from somewhere.

It was Ayaka's pocket watch. It seemed it was about to run down. Kamo took it from his pocket and opened the lid.

“It's been a bit under eleven and a half hours since we time traveled in the camping trailer, which means... D. Cassiopeia will remain powerless for about thirty more minutes.”

Amamiya looked shocked, but quickly bit it down.

“Come to think of it, the last time Ayaka wound her watch was soon after we first entered the trailer, right? That was just before I went back out and D. Cassiopeia sent you all forward in time.”

“After that, you tampered with the hands of this watch, so the time it shows now, 9:33, can't be trusted. However, we can still use the watch as a timer. After all, it was custom made to have the mainspring last exactly twelve hours.”

Amamiya lifted his bound hands a bit so he could shrug.

“So that's how you measured the twelve hours until her ability to move through space and time are restored? ...But when I moved the hands of the watch, I could have wound it. Didn't you consider that possibility?”

“This watch makes a loud noise when it's wound. If you were working the hands without anyone noticing, you couldn't have also wound the mainspring.”

As he said that, he gave the stem a twist. They all heard a familiar mechanical tinkle. The culprit gave in.

“You're right... In the end, it seems I should have been wary of the Ryuuzen clan's pocket watch after all. And you, the man from the future, you were incredible. As expected from Malice's ancestor. If anyone deserved to solve this case, it's you.”

“We don't have much time left. Can you explain the rest of the incident before D. Cassiopeia's functions are restored?”

“Alright. First off, about the fourth case... As a matter of fact, I was the one who came up with the idea of sending the camping trailer forward in time. It hit me as soon as I heard you suggest we spend the night there together. Fortunately, Tsukihiko decided to spend the night back in the villa. Well, even if he hadn't, I was planning to take advantage of his emotions to drive him away.”

A hoarse laugh rumbled from the back of his throat.

“First, I put sleeping pills in the tea to minimize Soujirou and Tsukihiko's resistance. Afterwards, I went to the trailer ahead of the rest of you to check it out. There, I took the opportunity to hide D. Cassiopeia inside the lantern.”

“Why in the lantern?”

Seeing Genji's quizzical tilt of his head, Kamo smiled ironically.

“It was a surprisingly safe hiding spot. To begin with, the source of light in there wasn't the lantern's flame, but D. Cassiopeia.”

Genji was stunned, but Amamiya nodded as it were perfectly natural.

“Yes, she can store enough energy to warp space and time, so of course she can light one room... That's why I put her inside the lantern, the only source of light in the trailer. I thought that way she'd be able to escape a search of the trailer or a body search.”

“I knew it was the lantern because I'd seen you reaching up there myself... Besides, I hit my head on the lantern once, right?”

“Come to think of it, you were so desperate to stop Genji from winding the pocket watch that you hit the back of your neck on the lantern. You kinda scared me back there.”

Kamo put a hand on his neck as he remembered that time.

“At the time, I didn't feel any heat from the lantern. In 2018, there's such a thing as LED lights that emit little heat, but in 1960 there's nothing like that. What was inside that lantern was something that shouldn't exist in this time period.”

Amamiya sighed.

“I can't believe you saw through it like that... I was planning to use Ayaka's false reasoning to stall for time, then grab you and teleport away just before the landslide.”

He looked regretfully at the glowing wine bottle before continuing to explain the fourth case.

“That night, Genji and Tsukie, who were both habitual smokers, were in the trailer. Ayaka doesn't like smoke, so I knew that, depending on how bad the rain was, there was a chance at least one of them would step outside to smoke.”

“And that's how you could bet that Genji would be the first to step out?”

“And thanks to that, I could commit the crime with peace of mind. As we'd planned ahead of time, D. Cassiopeia waited for me to step outside, then sent you all 24 hours forward in time. After the trailer had disappeared with all of you in it, I took out the axe, machete, and rifle I'd hidden inside a hollow tree in the Netherwood.”

“Then you broke down the front door and entered the building, right?”

“Yes. The sleeping pills had worked well on both Soujirou and Tsukihiko, so I was able to force my way into their rooms without any resistance.”

“But you didn't kill them right away, did you?” Kamo retorted. Amamiya nodded.

“If I showed you all bodies that had been dead for a day and a half and tried to pass them off as having only been dead for nine hours, there was a risk that someone would see through my lies. So I used a syringe to add another dose of sleeping medicine to each of them. Then, I just sat around and waited.”

Amamiya suddenly frowned sadly and shook his head.

“Unfortunately, I made a mistake. I didn't realize until about 5:00 P.M. the next day, when I went to commit the murders.”

“The beards?”

“Yes, both of them had grown more facial hair than I'd expected. I couldn't risk someone figuring out that you'd lost 24 hours based on the growth of their beards. That was why I had no choice but to shave, both the victims and myself.”

However, that maneuver had just created evidence that they had lost the 24 hours.

Still, Kamo had more questions.

“And then you killed them?”

“I made it look like Tsukihiko had hanged himself, and shot Soujirou and cut off his arms. In this case I had much more time and unlimited access to the showers, so it was much easier to deal with all the blood.”

Kamo remembered that Amamiya had been soaking wet when he returned to the trailer. Had that been from the rain, or had he just finished washing himself of human blood?

“After the crime, were you waiting somewhere for the trailer to appear?”

“We had set the destination for 9:00 P.M. on the 24th, but fate wasn't on our side, and it didn't arrive until after 10:00. Just to be safe, I'd been waiting at the front door since 7:00 P.M. If I'd had to wait any longer, I would have caught a cold.”

He gave them a friendly smile.

“According to D. Cassiopeia, in the future Mr. Kamo hails from, wireless devices with built in clocks called 'smartphones' are commonplace, right? I understand that these devices have a tendency to run out of battery, and in the unlikely event yours still worked that late, she told me she could use her power to screw with the built-in clock. That's why, when I returned to the trailer, I was more concerned about the regular watches everyone else had. Fortunately, everyone kept their watches away from themselves due to the rain, so I didn't have any trouble fixing them. Is that enough for you all?”

“To do all this, just who are you?”

Genji immediately asked the question everyone had been wondering. Amamiya bowed slightly.

“Who, me? I'm nobody, really... Hata Reito was just like his father, Ryuuzen Taiga. Before the war, he had an illegitimate child of his own... I am the son of Amamiya Suzu and Hata Reito.”

Seeing the way everyone's eyes went wide, Amamiya's mouth twisted into a mocking grin.

“I never met my father. My mother died soon after I was born, and I was raised by my father's uncle, Hiromitsu. Great-Uncle Hiromitsu hid my existence from the Ryuuzen family. I guess he was afraid that the scandal from an illegitimate child would threaten my father's position in the family. That's why, before my father disappeared in 1948, even I believed that Great-Uncle Hiromitsu was my father.”

“And what happened after Hata Reito was murdered?”

When Kamo asked that, Amamiya answered, as calm as could be.

“After he learned of my father's disappearance, Great-Uncle Hiromitsu was convinced that he'd been killed by a member of the Ryuuzen clan. Tsukie just proved that his intuition was correct, of course. Every day from then on, he never tired of spouting his hatred for the Ryuuzen at me, day after day. All he taught me was how to take revenge and kill people. He'd gone insane. After all he'd been through, I guess he stopped seeing me as anything other than a tool of revenge.”

“But that's so horrible...”

Ayaka's sympathetic look seemed only to amuse Amamiya.

“I don't think I had an unhappy life. Thanks to Great-Uncle Hiromitsu's education, I was able to devote myself fully to revenge on the Ryuuzen clan. But then, one day, I met D. Cassiopeia. She cured me of my ignorance and my painfully ordinary life.”

The light of fanaticism shone behind his eyes.

“Great-Uncle Hiromitsu only wanted to keep me under his control, so I killed him and made it look like a robbery. Thankfully, before he died, he blackmailed a friend of Taiga's and arranged for me to be taken in by the Ryuuzen family. When I learned that, I tell you I cried tears of joy. I could finally begin to take my revenge.”

Kamo realized. While Amamiya's circumstances were something to be pitied, the man himself didn't deserve it. Hata Hiromitsu had created a monster, and that monster had stolen his life.

Unable to take it anymore, Kamo looked at the wine bottle next to him.

“In the end... Amamiya may also be a victim of D. Cassiopeia. Though I don't know if she did this to him, or if he his personality was just twisted to begin with.”

Amamiya suddenly let out a loud laugh.

“You say that, but you're the one who's a victim here, Mr. Kamo. You were forced to time travel against your will, given spoilers about a future you never wanted to know... and even now, you still haven't realized that you've been lied to.”

Kamo frowned.

“What are you saying?”

“Kamo, I haven't lied to you!”

Hora was emitting an angry red light. Amamiya looked at the wine bottle.

“Why don't you take the opportunity to hear from her directly?”

Kamo picked up the green bottle and, slowly, pulled out the cork. When he turned the bottle upside down over the kitchen sink, the hourglass fell out with the water and rolled in the basin.

“...Have you finally decided to listen to me?”

What came from the second faintly glowing hourglass was a womanly voice higher in pitch than Hora's. Kamo immediately asked the question.

“Tell me, D. Cassiopeia. What do you mean, I'm being lied to?”

“Put her back in the bottle now!”

Although Kamo heard Hora's screams, he didn't follow his instructions. D. Cassiopeia let out an evil chuckle.

“Do you believe that if you return to the year 2018, a future where you and Rena live happily ever after is what awaits you? Hora must have led you to believe that. But it is a lie.”

“Don't listen to her!”

“Silence, Meister Hora. ...If you think about it, you'll understand. You and Rena were brought together by the curse of the Ryuuzen clan. If that is the case, then wouldn't undoing the curse also erase your destined encounter? Is it really okay to change your future to one without Rena?”

Ayaka gasped. Kamo knew that everything the evil hourglass was saying was right. So he smiled vaguely and said:

“...I knew that from the beginning.”

Hora had once told him “Your personality is so different from the data recorded in the archives.” He realized that was the effect Rena had had on him, and at the same time, he was overcome by a feeling of hopelessness.

From the beginning, Kamo had believed it had been a miracle that he had been able to marry her. His intuition had been correct. They were destined to meet only in the distorted world created by D. Cassiopeia's meddling.

Amamiya was the first to express how Kamo's response made him feel. He looked at Kamo as though he were an alien. D. Cassiopeia also spoke in a disturbed voice.

“If you knew that much... then why are you acting against me?”

“Because you're a criminal who seeks to ruin the future and a murderer.”

“But I am not your enemy.”

“No, no, no, no, you just can't kill me because I'm Malice's ancestor.”

“Why don't you understand!? Unlike that inflexible Hora, I can rewrite the future to be whatever you want! You can live with Rena as you wish, and when she gets sick, I can send you to the year 2050! She can receive medical care that doesn't exist in your era!”

Kamo shook his head.

“That isn't necessary. I understand autoimmune disorders like that can be triggered by stress. If the curse of the Ryuuzen clan disappears... the torment that has ruined her mind and body all these years will be erased. Her stress will be gone. So she won't develop interstitial pneumonia in the first place.”

“But you won't be by her side.”

“That's fine. As long as she has her health... She doesn't need me. She can find her own happiness.”

Having made his peace, Kamo looked down at Hora in his breast pocket.

“You told me before that time machines are weak to fire.”

“Yes. There is a weakness in the structure of the time machines that was deliberately installed in the event it became necessary to dispose of us... That is heat. If you put us in a fire, you will be able to erase all data, including the AI.”

Kamo picked up D. Cassiopeia as she continued to rant about something or other and threw her in the ceramic ashtray on the kitchen counter. Ignoring the screams of both Amamiya and the hourglass, he checked the pocket watch.

“It's 9:55. We don't have much time until D. Cassiopeia regains the ability to time travel. Does anybody have a lighter or some matches?”

Genji and Amamyia both offered sources of flame, so Kamo took them. Then he tore a small piece off of a white towel and gently wrapped D. Cassiopeia in it. It all took less than three minutes.

He dropped a lit match in the ashtray.

 

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