Chapter Six - Part Two

The clock on the wall read 6:41. That time matched the pocket watch he'd borrowed from Ayaka. It had been about eleven hours since Kamo had last eaten, but he had no appetite.

After checking their surroundings for safety, they sat down on the couch.

“In the end, regarding what happened at the villa... no one knows anything now.”

Kamo stared at the empty seat on the couch. It was the spot Tsukihiko had always sat, and nobody had taken it, leaving it empty.

Genji rubbed his left temple as though he had a headache as he nodded.

“I still don't understand why the culprit hates the Ryuuzen family so much... I at least want to know the truth about what happened to Reito.”

Tsukie's gaze fell to the floor. Amamiya, meanwhile, was looking at Ayaka with concern. He spoke.

“Regardless of what happened, there are people here we can definitively say had nothing to do with the events of twelve years ago. Genji wasn't in the country at the time, and Tsukie was only eight. And the Young Mistress was still just a baby, wasn't she? So does the culprit really plan on causing more incidents?”

Even Kamo couldn't predict that.

If the Deadly Tragedy of Shino was caused by the events eight years ago, then the murderer should have wanted to kill everyone involved.

But D. Cassiopeia's involvement complicated things. D. Cassiopeia wouldn't stop until she had killed every single member of the Ryuuzen family, Eugene's ancestors, and she might have incited the culprit to do the same.

Eventually, Genji gave a sad mumble.

“I'm sorry. The thing that hurts me more than anything is that we got you involved, Amamiya. If you had never gotten close to the Ryuuzen family, you could have avoided being caught up in such a horrible incident.”

“Don't say that! The time I spent with the Ryuuzen family was the happiest of my life.”

Hearing Amamiya's instant response, Genji couldn't stop himself from laughing.

“There's no need to worry about us at a time like this.”

“I'm serious. I don't know what would have happened to me without the Master's help. I'm grateful I met the Ryuuzen family.”

Ayaka nodded, her eyes damp.

“Yeah. I'm glad we met Mr. Amamiya, too.”

Kamo scratched his head. They were in danger of getting caught in a thankfulness loop.

“Sorry for interrupting such a tender moment, but... Can you all stop talking like you're saying goodbye?”

“Eh?”

He met Ayaka's nervous look with a forced smile.

“It's still too early to give up. Even if we don't know the precise motive, we can still find out who did this.”

Genji looked at the page-a-day calendar.

“The 25th is tomorrow... that's the day the landslide will occur. We don't have much time. Can we really change fate?”

The date on the calendar hadn't changed since August 23rd, but that was just because no one had changed it. It was already the 24th.

Kamo bit his lip hard, then called out to the hourglass in his pocket.

“Hey, what time will the landslide occur? There's probably a record of that in your archives.”

“According to local police records, it occurred at 11:47 A.M.”

In reality, there was a high possibility that the murderer and D. Cassiopeia would escape to the future before then. In order to prevent the curse of the Ryuuzen clan and save Rena, he couldn't allow them to escape.

Kamo kept talking.

“No matter how soon it is, we have to expose the murderer and retrieve D. Cassiopeia by the end of today. That's why-”

“If you find out what happened twelve years ago, will that help you change fate and save us all?”

It was Tsukie. All eyes spun to her, but she met none of them as she sat on the couch, facing forward. Kamo noticed how badly her voice trembled and crouched down next to her.

“...I see. You saw what happened in this villa.”

“I didn't see it. I was one of the culprits.”

That caught Kamo completely off guard.

“You were only eight years old.”

“It wouldn't have mattered if we were eight months... my Brother and I killed someone that summer.”

The shocking confession froze everyone present. Tsukie continued, a dark shadow over her face.

“Mr. Eitaro was very angry with my Brother and I. But he had a perfectly good reason. We'd thrown mud at Mr. Reito while he was making a sketch of Mt. Kuzu. We ruined the picture.”

Genji put a thoughtful hand on his chin.

“That's strange. I've never seen my father or Reito get angry over a child's prank.”

“It wasn't a prank... We'd mixed fountain pen ink with the mud. It was a malicious act done solely to ruin Mr. Reito's sketch.”

Amamiya shook a bit as he spoke.

“But that was all Mr. Tsukihiko's idea, wasn't it?”

“It was my Brother's idea, but I'm also guilty. I still threw the mud.”

“Ms. Tsukie...”

“Father hated Reito. We knew that, so we harassed him every day. It was our favorite game. We'd break his art supplies, burn his clothes, and all sorts of other things.”

They were certainly malicious acts, even for children. Eventually, Genji shook his head sadly.

“And then my father found out.”

“After being scolded by Mr. Eitaro, my Brother went into the Netherwood. He was searching for a certain red mushroom.”

Hearing those words, the object he'd seen near the Kuzu River flashed through Kamo's mind. A red mushroom shaped like a finger.

“Don't tell me... Kaentake?”

The words came out involuntarily. Tsukie looked up as though she'd been struck. However, her expression quickly relaxed into one of understanding, and she gave a small nod.

“I see, so you also saw it in the Netherwood.”

“Oh, it was growing near the site where the torso was found.”

Genji could stand them talking so cryptically and spoke up.

“So, why are these mushrooms important?”

“They're one of the most dangerous poison mushrooms in Japan. Symptoms of poisoning include not only gastrointestinal symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea, but also kidney damage and skin sores, if I recall.”

Kamo's answer drained the blood from Genji and Ayaka's faces. Those were the exact same symptoms that Eitaro had suffered when he died.

“But it wasn't until much later that it became public knowledge that they were poison. Did you already know that it was poison even back then?”

“Our nanny knew about it, although our mushroom encyclopedia only said that it had 'unknown toxicity'. We knew it was dangerous to even touch it...”

Hora spoke up from within Kamo's pocket.

“I just checked the archive. The Edo era plant encyclopedia “Honzo Zufu” contains a description of kaentake as a toxic specimen. Even if they weren't widely known, deaths from kaentake poisoning have been occurring for as long as the mushroom has existed, right? So it isn't surprising that some people knew of the danger.”

As if remembering what had happened back then, Tsukie covered her face with her hands. Her fingertips shook terribly.

“My Brother mixed those mushrooms into his food, knowing that they were poisonous, and I watched him do it... We are the ones who killed Mr. Eitaro.”

If the death was caused by kaentake poisoning, it couldn't be helped that the doctor wasn't able to determine a cause of death. At the time, toxicity was a highly inexact science. As a result, the two children had managed to commit the perfect crime.

Genji's face changed as he heard the truth of his father's death, but he calmed himself before he fully grew angry. He looked down and spoke in a weak voice.

“You were only eight and nine years old. I don't think you understood just how horrible the consequences of your actions would be. ...It wasn't murder. It was just an accident.”

Tsukie was shaking her head.

“No. What we did was unforgivable.”

“That isn't true.”

It was Amamiya. He kept going as Tsukie looked at him, stunned silent.

“I know. You've always been afraid of your older brother, Mr. Tsukihiko. I'd guess there were times he hit you when I wasn't looking, right?”

Kamo had also noticed the fear in her eyes around Tsukihiko several times and suspected violence.

Amamiya kept talking as tears welled in Tsukie's eyes.

“Mr. Tsukihiko was so scary, you just couldn't take it. That's why you had no choice but to follow him in order to protect yourself. I understand.”

“Still... I could have easily stopped my Brother. I didn't, and it's all my fault.”

By the time she finished, the expression had once again disappeared from her face. Perhaps sensing an unbreakable stubbornness in her voice, Amamiya closed his mouth.

After a while, Tsukie spoke again.

“Mr. Eitaro passed away the evening after we poisoned him. Brother made me promise not to say anything... but I was terrified that someone would realize what we'd done anyway.”

Kamo had a hunch that Tsukihiko had threatened his sister into silence. A frightened eight year old girl, she'd had no choice but to obey. She continued speaking.

“Late that night, my Brother heard that the adults had gathered in the dining room, so he took me to eavesdrop. The three people there were Father, Aunt Shoko, and Mr. Koki. They suspected Mr. Eitaro's death was a murder.”

Kamo took a deep breath and asked:

“Then the discussion went off in the wrong direction, and they came to the conclusion that Hata Reito must have been the culprit, right?”

Tsukie nodded slightly.

“I think Father and Aunt Shoko had been planning to take things in that direction from the beginning... Eventually, they said they would question the suspect directly and went to the Rabbit Room.”

Reito had probably left them in the room after being asked, never suspecting they would suspect him of a murder.

“My Brother was very happy with how things had turned out. He didn't want to miss out, so he took me to the wood chopping shed. There's a gap in the wall where we could see what was going on inside without being seen.”

“And what did you see?”

“The adults had decided from the beginning that Mr. Reito was the culprit. Of course, Mr. Reito denied it, but nobody listened to him. The questioning just grew rougher and rougher, and eventually, in a fit of rage, Mr. Koki punched him.”

It sounded more like a lynching than an interrogation.

“No matter how much violence he was subjected to, Mr. Reito maintained his innocence. He never fought back. Eventually, a kick made him lose balance, and he fell down and hit his head on the edge of the table. I still can't get the image out of my head... the way, when he touched the back of his head, his hand came back such a bright red...”

“And that injury was Reito's cause of death?”

Tsukie forced her answer through gritted teeth.

“Even as he crawled forward, Mr. Reito kept pleading that he hadn't done anything wrong. I think he didn't even care about his life, as long as he could convince someone he was innocent... Eventually, in front of the adults, who looked down in horror, Mr. Reito stopped moving.”

Even Ayaka and Amamiya were in tears over how tragic her story was. Still, Tsukie wasn't done.

“Father and Aunt Shoko started talking about dumping the body in a swamp deep in the Netherwood. Before I knew it, I passed out, and when I woke up, my Brother was carrying me to my room.”

Tsukie's voice grew muffled as she covered her face with her hands again.

“The next day, my Brother eavesdropped on the adults again. As a result, we learned that Father had summoned Mr. Kyuichi and his wife and Ms. Tonegawa for a secret meeting. Later, Father revealed the secret of Mr. Reito's birth to them, claiming that Mr. Reito had confessed to Mr. Eitaro's poisoning and disappeared.”

That must have been a severe shock to Kyuichi. That Reito, who had been raised as his brother, had killed his father was already unbearable, but then he'd learned the deep secret of his birth on top of that.

Genji's voice became a growl as he could no longer hold back.

“...He really lied so shamelessly?”

“That's the sort of man Father was. However, my Brother found it amusing. He told me that when he grew up, he would use it to threaten Father... Mr. Kyuichi believed the lie and agreed with the others that they shouldn't tell Grandfather what they'd 'learned'.”

“Eitaro and Reito were both Taiga's biological sons. They must have thought the story of one of them killing the other was too terrible.”

Tsukie answered Kamo with a small nod.

“Mr. and Mrs. Kyuichi both promised not to talk, and they made Ms. Tonegawa promise, too... By sharing the false secret, Father dragged them into a relationship of complicity.”

Kamo thought he finally understood why everyone had reacted so unnaturally when Genji asked about Reito's disappearance.

Soujirou, Shouko, and Koki kept silent to cover up their crimes, and Kyuichi, his wife, and Tonegawa had kept silent to protect a false secret. And Taiga probably avoided Genji's questions because he was afraid that the secret of Reito's birth would be revealed.

Tsukie took her hands off her face, revealing just how much she'd cried, and screamed.

“There! I've told you everything! If it's revenge you want, I'm all that's left! Do you hear me!? Then get it over with and come kill me!”

It was a heartbreaking message, not only for Kamo and his allies, but for the murderer lurking about. Amamiya placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Please don't talk like that. Nothing that happened is your fault.”

“But-”

Kamo put a hand on his stubbly chin and nodded.

“There's no need to convince Tsukie of that now. We just need to solve the case before the murderer makes their next move.”

“...You say that, but is that even possible?”

Genji's voice was doubtful and resigned.

“Of course it is. If the murderer follows the rules they've set themselves thus far, we have until later this evening until the next incident. That's plenty of time.”

Kamo wasn't nearly as confident as he sounded, but he had to act like this to convince the others.

Amamiya and Tsukie nodded at him, but Genji and Ayaka seemed less convinced. Kamo stood up from the couch and spoke again.

“Okay, for now, let's head back to the camping trailer.”

“Why?” asked Ayaka.

It was a valid question. Kamo quickly said something.

“If you're inside the building, you never know when the culprit might attack, right? In that case, the trailer, where we can monitor the only entrance, is much safer.”

Nobody appeared to disagree, so Kamo continued.

“We've got a long road ahead until nightfall. We might not be able to go back inside after this... First, I'd like to ask Ayaka and Tsukie to take out food and drinks from the storage room. Is that alright?”

Ayaka and Tsukie exchanged a look, then nodded. Kamo turned to Amamiya.

“Amamiya, I want you to search the warehouse for things we'll need after the landslide... for example, something we can use as bedding, or shelter from the rain.”

“Got it.”

“Genji, can you guard the area around the storage room and warehouse in case the culprit attacks? I admit, it's a dangerous job.”

“And what will you be doing, Kamo?”

Genji looked at Kamo suspiciously, and Kamo couldn't help but smile.

“In order to make everything go smoothly, I'll act as a scout.”

“A scout?”

“There's a possibility that the killer is waiting in ambush near the trailer. I'll go back ahead and check if there's anything out of the ordinary. When you're ready, let's all meet up.”

Kamo said his peace and immediately left for the entrance hall.

Unconsciously, he checked the knife in his pants pocket, making him realize for the first time just now nervous he was. He was convinced that his decision to “head out to the camping trailer” was right, but a single mistake on his part from now on could result in him letting the culprit and D. Cassiopeia escape.

We can't let there be any more casualties, so we've just gotta do what we've gotta do...

Kamo kept repeating to himself as he exited the building.

 

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