Chapter Seven - Part Two

“...And when did that happen?” Kamo asked as he thought on Ayaka's claim.

“I think it was right as we entered the trailer. At that time, there was one person outside the trailer, and the rest of us were inside.”

Kamo began to search his memories.

“If I recall correctly, Genji and Amamiya were the first to enter the trailer to check if it was safe, right? Then Genji stepped outside for a smoke. Right after he came back, Amamiya went out to retrieve the umbrellas... I think he was the last to go out.”

Amamiya, who seemed to also remember, was suspicious.

“But Mr. Genji was outside for five minutes, far longer than I was. I think I was outside for less than a minute.”

“That's long enough.”

Ayaka's words froze Amamiya with his mouth still half open. She explained.

“Hora told us, right? Humans aren't the only things that can travel through time and space... With the human, there they can also move a cube with sides up to six meters.”

As she said so, Ayaka spread her arms and indicated the trailer itself.

“Look, this trailer only measures about 2 meters by 4.5 meters by 2 meters in size. It's a size that D. Cassiopeia could move the whole thing through time.”

Tsukie, who had been frowning in thought for a while now, spoke.

“...So, the killer moved us through time along with the trailer?”

“Yes, if you think about it that way, it would also explain why we didn't hear the sound of the culprit breaking down the front door. At the time it was happening, we didn't exist, so there was no way we could have heard anything.”

As Ayaka spoke, she searched her pockets and retrieved a piece of her notebook. She took out a ballpoint pen and wrote something on the page as she continued talking.

“We entered the trailer around 8:50 P.M. The murderer hid D. Cassiopeia somewhere inside the trailer, then got out. When D. Cassiopeia confirmed they'd left, she moved the entire trailer through time.”

She held up the page for all to see. What she'd written:

––Assuming time travel at 9:00 P.M. and destination set as 12:00 A.M. the next day.

––Departure time    Arrival time

––9:00 P.M. → 10:00 P.M. (Error -2 hours)

––9:00 P.M. → 12:00 A.M. (Error 0 hours)

––9:00 P.M. → 2:00 A.M. (Error +2 hours)

“If they set the arrival time to 12:00 A.M. like this, their arrival time will be sometime between 10:00 P.M. and 2:00 A.M. no matter what the third constraint's ± 2 hour error was.”

Kamo did some quick calculations in his head, then nodded.

“That's true. ...If we moved to 10:00 P.M., we would have lost an hour without noticing. That would be time the murderer could act without limit. It would be even worse if we were sent to 2:00 A.M... Then the murderer would have five hours.”

Genji seemed unsatisfied and turned his head.

“If the murderer was outside the trailer, then the time traveler wouldn't have been inside. How could D. Cassiopeia time travel under the circumstances?”

“Can't the time machine forcefully make anyone within a meter into their time traveler? In that case, they could have picked anyone in the trailer to use.”

Kamo had experienced it first hand. Without any warning, he had been made into a time traveler and sent to the past... Ayaka continued.

“The murderer used the time they'd been given to commit the crime. Afterwards, I believe they waited patiently in the entrance hall for the trailer to arrive.”

Suddenly, Tsukie started.

“Is that why the trailer moved several meters from where we initially parked it?”

“Of course, it wasn't because of the wind. It was the location error caused by time-space travel. The surface of the ground must have been scraped when the trailer was moved, but the surrounding area was already covered in puddles. That's why we didn't see the traces... Then the murderer appeared before us with an innocent face and retrieved D. Cassiopeia.”

“What about our watches? The watches we had when we time traveled should have been hours off from the actual time. Of course, they would have disagreed with the culprit's watch, as well.”

In response to Tsukie's rebuttal, Ayaka shook her head.

“That night, I placed my pocket watch on the table next to my bed, and Uncle Genji and Mr. Amamiya took off their watches, too. So the murderer had a chance to advance the hands of everyone's watches.”

In fact, Kamo remembered that Genji's watch had also been out on the table, and Amamiya's was in the kitchen. As she'd said, it would have been easy to tamper with the watches.

Kamo looked at the rain falling outside the window as he spoke.

“So to sum up, the culprit had to have been outside the trailer during a time when the rest of us were inside. In other words... the suspects are me, Genji, and Amamiya.”

“Of them, only Mr. Genji and Mr. Amamiya could have committed the first murders,” said Tsukie.

She clearly took no joy in being removed from the suspect list; she gave off only a deep sadness. On the other hand, Genji and Amamiya looked at each other, unable to say anything.

Kamo stared at them both, maintaining a tense silence that seemed it could collapse at any moment.

One of them was the murderer. The other was a victim.

One of the victims knew that the man across from them was the murderer. Or maybe they couldn't accept that even now, and clung to the hope that Ayaka's conclusions were wrong. The murderer should have been focused on making the other take the blame for their crimes.

However, there was something Kamo couldn't figure out.

...How did the murderer feel as they listened to Ayaka's story? Did they feel confident there was no way she'd ever see through their schemes? Or were they secretly sweating, afraid that they'd been cornered?

“...It wasn't just the last case. The second incident also involved time travel.”

Ayaka's words brought Kamo back to reality, and he smiled bitterly.

“It seems that the culprit and D. Cassiopeia changed their plans as soon as they learned I exist.”

“As Hora said, they must have decided that your presence meant that time travel was now a known quantity. Thus, they stole Grandfather's life using a time paradox.”

“They used a time paradox?” Amamiya muttered in astonishment.

“Yes, the murderer hid D. Cassiopeia in Grandfather's room in advance. Then they waited for him to return to his room after dinner, and she sent him back in time, this time to the recent past.”

As soon as he heard that, Genji gave a deep sigh and grew obviously depressed.

“As a result, a time paradox occurred and Grandfather disappeared from this world, correct?”

Ayaka nodded.

“If he was sent ten minutes back in time, then the him of ten minutes ago would disappear due to the time paradox... and the world would be reset to the way it was ten minutes ago.”

“I see, so there would be no traces left on the floor or ceiling because there would no longer be a Grandfather to time travel.”

“I think Grandfather probably took off his own clothes and folded them on the chair as he prepared for a bath. D. Cassiopeia memorized the exact moment that happened and set it as the destination... With this method, there would be no witnesses to the crime and the crime could take place while the murderer was still in their room.”

If you thought about it solely using the fourth constraint of time travel, it worked out.

However, Kamo didn't think it was right, and quickly said so.

“What is your basis for claiming a time paradox has occurred?”

“They key that was found in the Dragon Room?”

“You mean the crooked key?”

“Naturally, Grandfather was the one who brought that key with him after dinner. The fact that key was found in the Dragon Room means... that before Mr. Kamo and I started our stakeout, Grandfather must have already returned to the room.”

When Kamo and the others had broken down the door to the Dragon Room, Kamo had immediately retrieved the bent key. There was no chance the culprit could have tampered with it in any way.

She went on.

“If Grandfather had returned to the Dragon Room, then there's only one way the crime could have been committed without us seeing anything, and that's death by time paradox.”

Genji muttered in confusion.

“But the dragon netsuke was found near the pizza oven, right?”

“The murderer left it there on purpose to strengthen the illusion that the the body in the oven was Grandfather... At dinner time, the murderer cut the string and stole the netsuke from Grandfather. Grandfather must have assumed he just lost it.”

Amamiya blinked rapidly.

“So whose body was in the pizza oven?”

“I don't know. I think it was brought from outside, but I have no idea why they would have done that... Mr. Kamo's appearance forced D. Cassiopeia and the murderer to completely change their plans. We don't know what their original plan was, so there's no way to know why they prepared an extra body.”

Her voice grew faint as she lowered her eyes.

“And... this is truly horrible, but I think the murderer kept the body outside, and... the animals living in the Netherwood smelled it.”

Kamo nearly choked as he replied.

“You don't mean that the reason the corpse had no legs was because... they were eaten by wild animals!?”

“Yes. That's why the murderer had no choice but to use it as a substitute for the tiger's hind legs. He assumed that as long as he burned the body, no one would realize it wasn't Grandfather.”

After a period of silence, Amamiya emerged from his deep thought to ask a question.

“There's still something I don't understand. If the Master did time travel, then there must have been an hourglass left in the Dragon Room, right? We didn't find anything like that when we searched the room.”

Despite his rebuttal, Ayaka showed no signs of panic.

“When we first entered the Dragon Room, all we were looking for was Grandfather, so we didn't search the room in detail. Even when we were looking for the hunting rifle, all we were looking for was the rifle itself and a box of 24 bullets, right? We could have easily overlooked a hiding place capable of concealing such a small hourglass.”

“That could certainly be true, but...”

“In the end, Mr. Kamo and I didn't search the room properly until 2:00 in the afternoon. That was plenty of time for the culprit to return for the hourglass.”

Kamo remembered who had entered the Dragon Room and who hadn't.

“The only people who set foot in the room after the door was taken off its hinges were me, Ayaka, and Genji. Then, when we searched for the hunting rifle, the people in charge of the Dragon Room were Soujirou, Tsukihiko, and Tsukie. It seems like Amamyia was the only one here who never had a chance to retrieve the hourglass.”

“Actually, there was another time when we split up to search the villa. At that time, Mr. Amamiya was paired with Uncle Genji... Uncle, Mr. Amamiya never entered the Dragon Room, did he?”

Genji looked up from the floor and answered quietly.

“He never entered the Dragon Room. I'm sure of it.”

That seemed as good as a confession that he was the culprit. Based on Ayaka's reasoning, Genji was the only one who fit every condition to be the murderer and had a chance to retrieve the hourglass from the Dragon Room.

After hearing him, Ayaka took a deep breath.

“Then, do you admit to the crime, Uncle?”

Genji looked straight at Ayaka.

“I'm not a murderer. If you were keeping watch on the second floor hallway, you know already, right? I went back to the Ox Room early that night. There's no way I could have snuck out to the pizza oven to burn the body.”

“If you'd prepared a body to burn, you could have done it earlier. When you realized it had been chewed on by wild animals, you could have moved it to the pizza oven and shut the door for protection. All you would have had to do was go outside during dinner preparations, throw some wood in the kiln, and set the timer.”

“And how did I get the hourglass into Grandfather's room?”

Genji's voice was still perfectly even. Ayaka, on the other hand, had an unusually stern expression on her face.

“After it was decided that we'd ask Mr. Kamo to investigate, you went to the Dragon Room to talk with Grandfather. You were able to plant it then.”

“Maybe, but where in the room could I have hidden it?”

“In the pocket watch.”

Genji's eyes went wide for a second, but he quickly broke into a confident smile.

“Ah, there are hidden spaces in the Ryuuzen family pocket watches.”

Hora was less than a centimeter in diameter and about three centimeters long. Meanwhile, the hidden space in the pocket watch in the Dragon Room was 1 cm x 4 cm x 2 cm. In other words, large enough to hide a time machine in.

Ayaka still wasn't done.

“You thought we wouldn't be able to find it easily if you hid it in the pocket watch, didn't you?”

“It wouldn't have been a very good hiding place. I'd have to open the lid to get it back, and that would make noise.”

“No, you could have done it easily. After all, you have the same watch.”

Genji flinched.

“Do you mean when nobody was looking, I swapped my watch for the one containing D. Cassiopeia?”

“Yes, you had the opportunity. You were next to the drawer when we searched the Dragon Room, and you were the last to come out when we left... and there's other evidence, too.”

Everyone in the trailer gasped. Kamo quickly asked.

“What's the evidence?”

“The pocket watch in the Dragon Room had stopped at 6:46. But that's impossible.”

“Why? Maybe it just stopped that morning?”

Genji tried to defend himself, but Ayaka quickly shook her head.

“That watch is an important symbol of the Ryuuzen clan. That's why Grandfather always kept it properly wound. ...Why do you think Grandfather made a habit to always be back in his room by 8:30 after dinner?”

“I don't know something like that... N, No way!”

Genji's face froze. Seeing his reaction, Ayaka continued sadly.

“If you carry your watch with you like I do, you can wind it whenever. But Grandfather wasn't like that. If you leave your watch in your room, you have to decide when to wind it. Otherwise, it'll stop.”

“You're saying Grandfather decided to wind his watch at 8:30 A.M. and 8:30 P.M. every day? That's why he always returned to his room at 8:30?”

“Yes. If that were really Grandfather's pocket watch, it would have run down for 12 hours and stopped at 8:30. The fact that it stopped at 6:46 is proof that's not Grandfather's.”

Kamo was speechless, unable to hide his surprise at the deduction. Tsukie muttered something for him.

“...The pocket watch that symbolizes the bonds of the Ryuuzen family has revealed the truth of the incident.”

Ayaka turned to Genji again, looking dead into his eyes and desperately pleading.

“Please, stop this. Uncle, you loved Hata Reito, right? D. Cassiopeia is taking advantage of those feelings. She'd deceiving you, Uncle!”

“No... I'm not the culprit. Your reasoning is wrong.”

Genji said that, but Kamo looked at him with cold eyes.

“It doesn't matter if you deny it. We know who the murderer is, so now we know what we need to do.”

“And what is that?”

“First, we're going to search you to see if you're carrying the hourglass. If we still can't find it, we'll have no choice but to search the trailer and villa again.”

The other three nodded at Kamo's suggestion. Genji just shrugged his shoulders.

“Do whatever you want.”

“That's quite generous of you... Ayaka, you and the others keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't do anything suspicious.”

After asking them, Kamo ordered Genji to stand up. He obediently did so, walked back to the trailer, and raised his arms.

“You won't find anything,” he said.

At that moment, Kamo heard a faint sound like someone touching glass.

“...Of course we won't find anything if we look in the wrong place.”

Kamo turned around as he spoke. Behind Ayaka and Tsukie, who were looking suspiciously at him, Amamiya was reaching up for the hanging lantern. Apparently he was the one who'd made the sound. When he met Kamo's eyes, he seemed briefly surprised, but he immediately apologized.

“I'm sorry, I though it was a bit too dark to do a body search, so I thought I'd turn on the lantern. Maybe we don't need it?”

Kamo grinned, satisfied with how things had turned out.

“I think that light isn't what you think it is.”

In response, Amamiya looked down at his right hand. A muffled voice came from between his fingers.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I am not D. Cassiopeia.”

It was, without a doubt, Hora's voice.

Amamiya recoiled as though his hand had been burned and dropped the hourglass. However, the hourglass that had survived 10,000 years escaped without a scratch.

Kamo picked up the fallen Hora, then made an announcement.

“You've probably figured this already, but the culprit isn't Genji. It's Amamiya.”

 

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