Chapter Two - Part Two
Kamo was looking at a window on the second floor, on the right side.
As if in response to his voice, a girl appeared at the open window. She was a cute young girl with sharp, distinct features and bobbed hair. He couldn't make out her face in detail due to the black lattice on the window.
Kamo had been aware of the girl's presence since the first time he'd looked up at the building... though she'd hid as soon as their eyes met.
From the moment he'd seen the look of astonishment on her face, Kamo had begun to believe he really was a time traveler, as the girl looked exactly like the one he'd seen in the documents from his research on the Ryuuzen family. She was also the reason he'd accepted Hora's story so easily.
“It looks like she's been listening to everything we said.”
“Quite the cute little eavesdropper we've picked up... This is unexpected.”
Hearing Hora call her cute, Kamo realized that he was still being watched. Maybe the hourglass pendant had some trick to it. Eventually, the girl asked him something in a quavering voice that seemed to fade away even as it spoke.
“Were you... jaunting? You teleported here, right?”
Kamo was confused by her words.
“She appears to be talking about the Jaunte effect.”
Kamo frowned. Hora's “explanation” had explained precisely nothing.
“What?”
“It's a kind of supernatural power originating in the works of Alfred Bester. In the story, human beings can teleport as a matter of course.”
“Actually, I just read The Stars My Destination.”
“Was it the original, or a Japanese translation?”
“I see... that white slab must be a radio from the future.”
The girl seemed to have calmed down completely. She stared at Kamo's phone with a serious expression on her face. It seemed she hadn't even considered the possibility that Kamo was just using ventriloquism to talk with himself. It must have been the naivete and imagination unique to children that let her accept him without a care, regardless of whether he was teleporting or bantering with an articulate slab.
Kamo looked up at the mystery girl and cleared his throat.
“Sorry to interrupt your excitement, but I'm going to leave before the others find me.”
“Oh, that's fine then. Everyone except me is gathered in the dining room discussing things. Ah, my uncles are out, though. But they won't be back any time soon... Please, wait there for a moment.”
The girl slammed her window shut and disappeared into the room.
Kamo stood there, unsure whether or not he should run away, until the girl ran up to him, out of breath. She was dressed in a sleeveless one piece dress with a checkered brown pattern, appeared to be about middle school aged, and still had a youthful face. She looked to be about 150 cm tall.
“Is what you said true? That there will be a landslide and the Ryuuzen family will be under a curse?”
Kamo couldn't answer her. Now that he saw her up close, the girl's face looked a bit like Rena's. Her eyes were swollen and red from crying. Seeing her like that, he was at a loss for words.
Hora answered on his behalf.
“Can you tell me your name? ...Mine is Meister Hora. His is Kamo Touma.”
The girl had no response to Hora's name. Of course, Kamo realized she lived in a time before Momo was written. There was no way she could have known the story.
“Me? My name is Ryuuzen Ayaka.”
Kamo knew the name. Not only because she was the twin sister of Rena's grandmother, Fumino, but because she had played an important role in the Deadly Tragedy of Shino... This girl was the one who'd recorded the tragedy.
The reason future generations knew what had happened to the Ryuuzen clan in the villa was because she had recorded the incident in her diary.
The fact that the diary was discovered in the first place was almost a miracle.
After the Deadly Tragedy of Shino, the villa and its surrounding grounds were buried in earth and mud. The only thing that was left was a shrine called Kojin Shrine. The diary was found buried in the ground not far from the shrine, alongside the body of the girl.
That was what had already happened in the future Kamo hailed from. And that same fate must have been what awaited the girl in front of him.
“Hora, what are you doing? This girl's eyes were swollen with tears when she saw us and she hasn't asked a thing about her family being targeted by a murderer... What day did you bring me here?”
“August 22nd, 1960. I don't know the exact time.”
Seeing Ayaka nod, Kamo grit his teeth.
“Then it's too late. The first victims should have been found the night of the 21st.”
Ayaka, teary eyed and stammering, took over.
“That's right. Father and Mr. Koki are already...”
“That's strange. According to the archives, the first incident should have taken place at midnight on August 23rd.”
Hearing Hora give such a matter of fact reply, Kamo stared back at his phone.
“Is that all you have to say for yourself?”
“Even if you ask me that... I am surprised by your memory, Kamo. You so clearly remember things you researched many years ago. Is there anything else?”
“Don't screw with me! If you hadn't messed up the date of our arrival, we could have saved this girl's father!”
“Perhaps we could have. However, the murder case is still ongoing. You should still have enough time to crack the case.”
“You psychopath! You better not be the one attacking the Ryuuzen family, or when I get my hands on you–!”
Kamo rasped this out, and a low chuckle came from the speaker.
“Certainly not. I am merely a guide.”
“I was just thinking... Mr. Kamo, if you time traveled again and went back to yesterday, wouldn't that make everything alright?”
Kamo looked up in surprise at Ayaka's murmur. Although her eyes were still swollen and damp, she appeared to be analyzing things more calmly than he'd expected.
Kamo spoke slowly, gathering his thoughts.
“That's true. If time travel is possible, we can go back and forth over the next few days as much as we want and find the culprit that way. Then we won't have to solve the case the old fashioned way and can even catch the culprit before they commit the crime.”
On the other end of the line, Hora let out a deep sigh.
“Why are humans so arrogant and foolish? One moment you sit and marvel that a miracle has taken place, the next you demand free refills.”
Ayaka blushed at his words, but Kamo laughed at them.
“Miracle's a convenient word. Unfortunately, I don't believe in them. If it could be done once, it can be done again.”
Hora was silent for a moment, but then, he spoke with resignation.
“I apologize for disappointing you, but I am not all-powerful. Whether you believe me or not is your own prerogative... but after traveling through time and space, I need at least twelve hours before traveling a second time.”
Ayaka, who had been chewing her lip in thought, opened her mouth again.
“Still, you will be able to time travel again. Why not wait until then and then go back to the 21st?”
“I can't do that either... It seems if we wish to avoid wasting any more time, I will need to tell the two of you about the four constraints of time travel.”
“What, time travel has four drawbacks?”
Kamo said that provocatively, but Hora didn't take the bait and continued.
“The first constraint is the one I just told you, I must wait at least twelve hours between trips.”
“I can only assume that's a way to stop us from time traveling. You opportunist.”
“It is a purely technical issue. The amount of energy required to warp time and space is enormous, and it needs time to recharge.”
“I got it, I got it, I'll try and have a little more faith in you in the future. What's the second issue?”
“The second constraint can be demonstrated well by the cherry blossom branch over there. ...Kamo, what is it I asked you to do before leaving?”
“If memory serves, you told me to find a 1.5 meter empty space and go there.”
“It seems you weren't looking upward when checking that space. The fact that this tree branch traveled with us is proof of that.”
Kamo picked up the fallen branch from the lawn. It was a weeping cherry tree covered in fresh green leaves. The bright green color was something you could only see in May, and it was mismatched with the midsummer weather. Like him, the branch was out of place.
Almost simultaneously, Kamo remembered the weeping cherry tree growing over the parking lot at H. Medical Center.
“Do you mean to say that anything within that one and a half meter radius of the thing to be moved will also time travel?”
“That is not strictly accurate. The smallest unit I can move through time and space is a cube with three meter sides. ...In this case, I placed the target so that the center of the base of the cube was directly beneath your shoes. As a result, the branch three meters above your head was caught in the cube and came along with you.”
“So the flakes of asphalt scattered at my feet are the bit of the parking lot scraped by the bottom of the cube when I time traveled?”
“That's right. ...The third constraint regards the error that occurs in the arrival point of time travel.”
“So you can't just pinpoint the area you want to go?”
“Unfortunately, time and space have an uncertain relationship.”
Kamo and Ayaka shared a look, confirming only that neither of them understood. Kamo muttered in disgust.
“What the heck? I thought that, since it was from the Hourglass of Miracles, there would be some miraculous explanation for the time travel.”
“Unfortunately, I was born with a mind full of logic... Time travel is, by its nature, an uncertain and probabilistic science. If you try to move to a strictly defined location, there will be more error in arrival time, and if you chose a precisely defined time, the error in location will increase.”
Ayaka blinked a few times. It looked like she was struggling to follow Hora's story. On the other hand, Kamo smiled smugly.
“I remember I saw a special on quantum mechanics on the Discovery Channel. Subatomic particles have the same property.”
“You mean the uncertainty principle? In the case of subatomic particles, if you try to measure their position and movement simultaneously, there will inevitably be some uncertainty in the measurement... But I must say, you truly do have a wonderful memory, to recall something you saw once on TV.”
“Yeah, I can usually remember things after only seeing or hearing them once.”
“So if you wanted to, you could recall the exact contents of all the material you've studied in the past? In that case, perhaps there is hope for us after all.”
Kamo frowned at Hora's words, unable to tell if he was being praised or made fun of. Hora ignored his reaction and unilaterally continued.
“To explain the third constraint, allow me a question: What do you think requires the most accuracy while traveling through time and space?”
Kamo crossed his arms for a moment, then spoke.
“The world is a three-dimensional space plus time, so we can think of it as a four-dimensional spacetime. To put it simply, there are four axes: up-down, left-right, front-back, and time. If you express it in coordinates with the x, y, z, and t-axis, you should be able to indicate any point in this world.”
“If the destination is on Earth, though, we need to take into account latitude, longitude, and elevation.”
“In that case, the answer would be elevation. ...If the destination we arrive at is 100 meters above or below the ground, we're screwed. We'd either fall to our deaths, be buried alive, or become one with the planet, and not in a hippie kind of way.”
Hora giggled at that.
“Incidentally, it's not only humans I can move through space and time. As long as it can fit in a cube of six meters, it can be moved alongside a person.”
“Oh, so even a small airplane could be moved through time?”
“If there were someone on board, it could be done. But if it were to travel deep underground, that would be problematic... You are correct. Elevation is the thing requiring the most precision.”
Ayaka tilted her head slightly and spoke.
“So to summarize what you just said, you have to be really precise about elevation, and in exchange, everything else becomes uncertain?”
“Yes. Latitude, longitude, and time will oscillate within a certain range from your intended destination. The degree of error is governed by probability, and it is impossible to know the outcome in advance.”
“How far off can it be?”
“Latitude and longitude both possess a margin of error of ± 5 meters, and time within ± 2 hours.”
Hearing that, Kamo narrowed his eyes behind his black-rimmed glasses.
“It's a pretty delicate point. Is that margin of error large or small?”
Ayaka looked back at him with a confused expression.
“It's only five meters and two hours, isn't it?”
“According to this guy, time travel isn't safe. In that case, even an error that minor can't be called 'small'.”
Kamo glared at Hora through his phone, angry that he had taken the risk of shunting him through time without a warning.
The other person responded “You're right. ...When dealing with space-time travel, it is assumed that travel will take place outdoors, so as long as there is a certain amount of open space and no strong rain or snow at the destination, there will be no negative effects. However, if the target is instead an indoor space, underground, or atop another person, that is a different story. In that case, it would cause a serious problem, as fusion would occur at the cellular level, and the internal organs would-”
“That's plenty, thanks. I don't wanna hear the rest.”
“The fourth and final constraint concerns time paradoxes, as well as the stability of the world.”
Kamo couldn't keep himself from grinning at that.
“We're talking about time travel, so I knew paradoxes would turn up eventually. You know, like the famous one where you go back in time and kill your parents before you were born?”
“That type of paradox can be avoided simply by being careful. The real problem is the general rule that more than one of the same person cannot exist at the same time.”
Ayaka began to mutter in confusion.
“What do you mean? Can we not go back in time?”
“You raise a good point. ...You may be surprised to hear, but it is much easier to travel to the future than back in time.”
“I get it. If I travel to the future, that means I won't exist in the future until I arrive there, right? There won't be another me there waiting.”
“On the other hand, traveling to the past is an unnatural act that reverses the flow of time. It disrupts the natural order of the world and increases the odds of time paradoxes.”
Kamo looked at his phone, half in disbelief.
“You say that, but I seem to have been able to do it just fine. What's going on here?”
“We've arrived to a period before your birth, so we were able to avoid any direct time paradoxes. However, moving to the immediate past is much more dangerous.”
Ayaka gulped before asking something.
“What if I were to go back to the world of three hours ago?”
“In the world of three hours ago, you, young lady, and 'the you of three hours ago' would both exist. However, the same person cannot exist more than once at the same time. It will cause a time paradox... It would be like a bug in a video game that freezes the whole system.”
That explanation probably didn't help Ayaka any, but Kamo nodded his head.
“If the console is frozen, there's no way to progress. If it's a game, you can usually fix it by rebooting the system, but it doesn't work like that in the real world, does it?”
“There is no need to reboot anything. 'She' has a self-correcting function, so the paradox will be resolved on its own.”
Kamo and Ayaka shared another look.
“Who's 'she'?”
“The world. I was speaking figuratively.”
“That's surprising. When did you suddenly start anthropomorphizing things?”
Hora sounded somehow disappointed.
“Is it so strange to treat the world as a living thing?”
“It is, even if you don't seem to realize.”
“...In any case, the world would annihilate the 'young lady of three hours ago' just before she could meet the young lady before us now. As a result, the future young lady who'd traveled through time would also disappear, and there would be no time paradox. This is how the world purifies itself.”
Ayaka's lips turned blue.
“So in exchange for the world of three hours ago returning to normal, I would disappear?”
“That's correct. The world would continue to exist. Only you would be gone.”
There was a moment of silence. He thought he heard someone talking, but it was so faint he couldn't be sure it wasn't just his imagination. Eventually, Kamo opened his mouth.
“Okay, so Ayaka can't go back to yesterday. But I can.”
“Kamo did not exist in the world of yesterday, so going back one day into the past would not create a paradox of the type I just described... However, it would still throw the world out of balance.”
“What do you mean?”
“The future is about to change dramatically as a result of your arrival here. You understand, the world has entered a state of instability. If you go back to the recent past and influence it again, the world's balance would be upset to a dangerous degree.”
“Even though we'd only have changed the past twice?”
Hora seemed hesitant to answer him, but eventually, he spoke.
“We ran a simulation, taking into account all current circumstances. According to our calculations... if you went back to yesterday and tried to change the past again, the world would grow unbalanced beyond the point where it could self-correct. It could cause the entire universe to collapse.”
Ayaka had tears in her eyes.
“So, does that mean there's no way to save Father?”
“Yes. I cannot risk the world for the lives of two people.”
Hora's cold answer made her cover her face and cry. Seeing her frail shoulders tremble, Kamo couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
Meeting Kamo and Hora had already changed her fate, and she'd been shown a ray of hope. She thought that they, who had journeyed across time and space for her family, must have been able to save her father... But that hope was dashed to pieces and she was plunged into despair for a second time.
Seeing her like this, Kamo was faced with a grim reminder. His intervention into the fates of Ayaka and her family could easily change the future for the worse. If he failed to prevent future incidents from happening, even greater misery and despair could grow from this seed.
Still, it was too late to turn back.
Taking a small breath, Kamo began to speak.
“I know this is a bad time, but I want you to listen to me. It's a fact that someone is targeting the lives of the Ryuuzen family. They're going to keep targeting you all, and then, on the 25th, a landslide will occur, and everyone will die. And after that, the curse of the Ryuuzen clan will claim many more lives.”
Ayaka didn't look up and continued to cry. Kamo wanted to stop talking about things like this and tell her something more comforting. But he forced himself to continue.
“You might think that, since we're from the future, we already know who the killer is. But this case is destined to end with the culprit still unknown... Unless we act to change the future.”
Eventually, slowly, she looked up at him.
“Mr. Kamo... did you come here to save us?”
Her tear-stained eyes stared straight at him, making Kamo flinch.
“I guess that's how it's going to be. But I'm warning you, I'm not the sort of person you think I am.”
Ayaka stared at Kamo. He chose his words carefully to answer her silent question.
“I don't know how I arrived here in the past, and I don't have any plan to help you. On the contrary, I don't know if I even have the ability to... No, I probably don't.”
Suddenly, Hora cut in with a sarcastic jab.
“Well this is surprising, Kamo is acting humble.”
Kamo ignored him and continued.
“But I can't be afraid. I have to save my wife, Rena.”
“Your wife?”
“The truth is, you have a twin sister. The two of you were separated when you were just babies.”
Ayaka's eyes shot open. Kamo kept talking.
“I don't know why, but your sister, Fumino, was sent to live with another family, so she's destined to be spared from the tragedy to happen here. And Rena is her granddaughter, who is suffering from the curse of the Ryuuzen clan. ...According to Hora, the only way to help her is to solve this case. I don't know how much help I'll be, but I promise, I will protect you and your family the best I can. I promise, so... please, will you help me stop any more incidents from happening?”
Ayaka balled her hands into tiny fists and looked into Kamo's eyes. This time, he didn't look away. After about ten seconds of silence, Ayaka nodded.
“I understand. I want to help my family, and everyone else, too.”
Hora chose that moment to interrupt again.
“Are you sure about this? Mr. Kamo is a suspicious man who appeared in Shino unexpectedly. Isn't it normal to make him your first suspect in the murder?”
“Just whose side are you on!?”
Even as he yelled at Hora, Kamo felt a strong resignation. He figured the only reason the girl could believe him was because the thought hadn't crossed her mind. Despite that, Ayaka looked up at him.
“I saw Mr. Kamo move instantly, so I don't doubt he's from the future.”
On the other side of the smartphone, Hora kept going.
“That's even more suspicious. How can you be sure that he didn't use his abilities to commit the crime?”
“Because Mr. Kamo doesn't look like he's lying.”
“You'd be a fool to merely trust your instincts, little lady.”
“I don't think so. ...When I first heard that Father had been murdered, I thought that the murderer could be one of us, from the Ryuuzen clan. Even now, in the back of my head, I still suspect them.”
Kamo was shocked. That wasn't something a middle school girl should be thinking.
“Do you have any reason for thinking that?”
Ayaka shook her head as though in a frenzy.
“I don't have any specific reason, I just can't help but think it... Since it's like that, I thought I had to make a decision before it's too late.”
“What are you saying?”
She instantly had an answer to Hora's cold question.
“Either I have to lock Mr. Kamo up as a suspect, or I trust him and we work together to prevent further incidents... And I've decided to trust you, Mr. Kamo.”
A small laugh came from the phone.
“If you're that determined, then fine... You appear to have picked up quite the ally, Kamo.”
Hora said that, but Kamo was more curious about what Hora's aim was in questioning her. Just as he opened his mouth to ask, he heard the sound of a window opening above them. Kamo slipped his phone into his pocket and looked up at the building to see a man in the room where Ayaka had just been.
“Ayaka! Where are you?”
The young man brought his face to the window grate as he called out. When he noticed Kamo and Ayaka, he gave a start. Ayaka, who was looking up at the second floor, murmured softly.
“...It's Uncle Genji. What do we do?”
Her uncle looked to be about five years younger than Kamo. He was probably in his late twenties. He looked relieved to see Ayaka, but his voice soon took on a harsh edge, no doubt because he'd found her with a stranger.
“I told you not to leave your room. Ayaka, get away from that man and come back inside.”
“But-”
Perhaps seeing she was in no mood to listen to him, the young man spun on his heel and went back into the room. Kamo gave a bitter smile.
“I thought the others were all talking in the dining room.”
Even as he said that, Kamo searched his memories and recalled that among those involved in the Deadly Tragedy of Shino was one Ryuuzen Genji.
Ayaka seemed surprised to have seen her uncle appear in her room, and she took out a pocket watch. It was silver with an abstract image of a dragon engraved on it.
“It's only twelve? Uncle went out to call the police, but it should have taken him some time to get to the nearest police station and explain everything. Why did he come back so early? Oh, if only I'd locked my room, he wouldn't have realized I was gone.”
Almost unconsciously, she began to wind the watch. The hand-wound clock made a lively whir.
“I think I know why Genji came back. ...It's because the killer destroyed Shino Bridge in order to trap the Ryuuzen Family in Shino. At least, that's how it was recorded in the future I came from.”
Hearing his words, the girl's eyes went wide with fear. Soon, they heard a door open somewhere nearby and a slender man approached them.
Kamo had seen his face in a Ryuuzen clan group photo. His eyes and nose were well defined, but he didn't look a thing like Ayaka. He looked like a perfectly ordinary Japanese man.
He was dressed in a gray polo shirt and dark jeans, and his messy hair was carelessly slicked back. He wouldn't have looked out of place back in 2018.
Genji appeared to have run all the way there. He was out of breath even as he began to speak.
“Ayaka, are you alright?”
“I'm fine. Because this person is...”
Genji stared at the person next to his niece and looked him up and down from head to toe. Yet, for some reason, Kamo felt Genji was looking down on him. Perhaps Genji was a young man who was used to looking down on others.
“Do you know Ayaka?”
His voice was calm, but there was a devil-may-care look in his eyes that said “Depending on your answer, I may have to kick your ass”. It was a perfectly natural response to seeing his niece with a suspicious man.
As Kamo stood, trying to think of a way out of the situation, Ayaka suddenly spoke up.
“This man is Kamo Touma. He's a famous private detective from Tokyo.”
She said this completely seriously, but her words made Kamo choke.
“A detective?” Genji muttered incredulously.
He looked at Kamo, who hadn't stopped coughing, then at Ayaka, who was too good at lying for her age. Then, he asked a question.
“And what are you doing at our villa, Mr. Detective?”
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice cut in.
“...You can explain the rest inside.”
A gentleman appeared from around the corner of the building. Even though it was midsummer, he was dressed in a perfectly tailored beige suit. He was in his mid-fifties and stood over 170 cm tall. His mustache was well-groomed and streaked with white.
However, what surprised Kamo most was the item in the gentleman's hands: a hunting rifle. Genji also looked surprised.
“What happened, Soujirou? You even brought a hunting rifle.”
“I heard you running out in a hurry, so I brought it just to be safe. There is a murderer roaming around, after all.”
The look on the man's face clearly communicated that he'd already decided the murderer was Kamo.
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