Chapter 2: The Living Locked Room Library

“I must ask Ms. Mitsumura to remain in this room for the next three days.”

Mitsumura was disqualified from the game and forced to spend three days in a room in the mansion as a penalty. As the rules said, she was “imprisoned”, but it was a fairly spacious room, about 10 tatami mats, and clean as a five star hotel.

Mitsumura was escorted to the room by Ms. Hitsujiko. Somehow, I wound up following along. Mitsumura sat down on a bed with pure white sheets, survey the interior of the room, and nodded with a hum.

“So, I'll be confined to this room for three days.”

“No, you can come and go as you please. The door to this room can be unlocked from the inside,” Ms. Hitsujiko said. “But... It would be helpful to us if you could avoid going out as much as possible.”

It was a pretty lax imprisonment.

“Also, there is a surveillance camera observing the front of the door, so you will be seen if you leave the room.”

“So if there some kind of penalty if I leave?”

“Well, no...”

“Hmm, well, I suppose that's fine.”

Mitsumura seemed disappointed by how lax the rules were, then flopped back on the bed. Her long, glossy black hair cascaded over the edge.

“See you later, Kuzushiro. We'll meet again once I escape from this prison.” Mitsumura waved at me without getting up. “Avenge me. I fervently pray that you make that Chiyori Kurokawa cry.”

I couldn't suppress a bitter smile.

“You really think I can?”

“No.”

“I didn't think so.”

“Ufufu. But I have high hopes for you. That's why I'll be rooting for you from behind the scenes. And while you're working hard, I'll be reading this copy of 'Murder in the Silver Age of Locked Rooms' I impulse bought earlier.”

Mitsumura said that and took out a paperback book from her travel bag. I looked at the cover.

“'Murder in the Silver Age of Locked Rooms: The House of Storms and the Six Tricks'? Never heard of it.” I tilted my head to the side. “Is it any good?”

“In its own way,” Mitsumura said. “But there are aspects of it I don't like. For example, the heroine's personality is just insufferable. I don't much like this girl.”

“Hmm, a heroine with a bad personality?”

Personally, I thought that was pretty relatable.

After parting ways with Mitsumura, Ms. Hitsujiko and I returned to the “crime scene” of the previous round. Then, the host, Shitsugi, told everyone “Now, before we disband, we will hold the lottery to decide who will play the role of tomorrow's culprit.” At his words, Poirotzaka raised an eyebrow.

“We'll not be holding the lottery on the morrow?”

“For the second round and on, we will draw the lots the day before,” Otomigawara said. “That way, the culprit can spend the whole night carefully planning their trick, right?”

Indeed, if you spent the night strolling around the mansion, it was likely you could come up with at least one trick.

Perhaps everyone thought the same thing, as there were no further objections. Just like last time, everyone chose an envelope with serious looks on their faces and examined its contents. In the midst of all that tension, one participant suddenly burst into laughter.

“Ahahahahaha, this is finally getting interesting!”

Otozaki announced that in a high-pitched voice, and everyone turned to look at him, with cold gazes that said “What's wrong with you?” and “Is this guy okay?”

Otozaki looked lonely when nobody said anything. I had no choice but to speak.

“Um... Mr. Otozaki, what is it?”

“Are you curious, Kuzushiro?”

Not really. 

“No, I – Yes! Yes, I'm very curious!”

“Well, that's completely understandable.”

Otozaki showed me the paper in the envelope he'd chosen.

And I was quite surprised.

The lot that Otozaki showed me had the word “culprit” written on it. In other words, he would be the culprit of the second round.

I spoke flusteredly.

“Is it really okay to just tell us that you're the culprit?”

“I don't mind. And there's no rule against it, is there?”

“Yes, as you say, it's no trouble at all,” Otomigawara said cheerily. “After all, the point of this game is the tricks. However, once the 'incident' takes place, I expect everyone will start watching the culprit Mr. Otozaki very carefully, so there will be a disadvantage.”

“It doesn't matter. I'll give you all that much as a handicap,” Otozaki declared with utmost confidence. “Well, I hope you're looking forward to it. Tomorrow morning, I will show you all a perfect locked room trick. I can already see it. You'll all bow down before my mystery.”

Afterwards, we decided to head to the mansion's dining room for an early dinner. As soon as I sat at the same table as Yozuki, Ms. Hitsujiko, who was serving as our waiter, immediately brought out the food.

“For hors d'oeuvres, beef carpaccio poêler ~Brought on the winds of the French Revolution~”

We'd suddenly been presented with a mysterious dish. To begin with, I was pretty sure “carpaccio poêler” was an oxymoron.

“It looks delicious, though.” Yozuki picked up her fork and knife and took a bite right away. Then here eyes went wide.

“What the heck? This is great!”

“Really?”

“Try it. It's so good, your mouth will start the French Revolution.”

“The French Revolution in my mouth?”

So my tongue would revolt against the taste?

I took a hesitant bite. Then my eyes widened.

“What the heck? This is great, isn't it?”

It was like the French Revolution in my mouth. The storming of the Bastille was being recreated on my tongue. The word “beef” had been stricken from my new dictionary. Except it hadn't, because I could eat this beef carpaccio for three hours a day.

As I sat there, mentally playing Solitary Gourmet, Ms. Hitsujiko burst out laughing.

“I'm glad you like it.”

I felt somewhat embarrassed. But Yozuki didn't ever have that problem, being as she was someone who both knew no shame and constantly did shameful things. As I sat there with my face turning red, Yozuki happily struck up a conversation with Ms. Hitsujiko.

“Who made this dish?”

“My Lady's personal chef, Leticia Breakfast.”

“Leticia Breakfast,” Yozuki said, unusually unnerved. “That is, uh, certainly the name of a chef. She sounds like she'd be good at making... breakfast.”

“Yes, as her name would suggest, Ms. Breakfast specializes in morning dishes. Among them, her omelettes and eggs Benedict are exquisite.”

“Eggs Benedict! The best, most fashionable meal in the U.S.A.” Yozuki said, impressed. Then she looked at me, happy as a clam. “I'm looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.”

I nodded and said “Sure,” as I brought another piece of carpaccio to my mouth. Then, as small talk, I asked Ms. Hitsujiko something that had been on my mind for a while now.

“So, are the four of you the only ones who normally live on this island? Ms. Otomigawara, you, Mr. Shitsugi, and this Ms. Breakfast?”

Ms. Hitsujiko shook her head.

“No, Lady Otomigawara's personal physician also lives here, so there are five of us in total.”

“Oh, so there's a doctor, too.”

“Yes, a young woman.”

I guess I just hadn't seen her yet. But since I'd be spending a few more days on the island, I might have a chance to meet her later.

As I thought about that again, I brought dinner to my mouth again. At that moment, I felt someone watching me. When I looked in their direction, my eyes met a toy rabbit displayed in the dining room. There were seven toy rabbits in tuxedos and three in dresses. They all stared intently at me with perfectly circular eyes.

I groaned.

That made me really uncomfortable.

After dinner, Shitsugi guided Yozuki and I to the cottages where we'd be staying the night. We'd arrived on Wire Mesh Island just before the beginning of the Locked Room Trick Game, so we hadn't actually had time to visit it yet. As the sun set, we walked down the asphalt road, slowly being dyed red by the setting sun, travel bags at our sides.

After about ten minutes, we arrived at an orthodox wooden cottage.

“This will be Ms. Yozuki's cottage.”

Shitsugi said that and took out two key cards from his pocket. One of them would be the spare key, then. He handed them to Yozuki.

“These are the key cards to your room.”

“Eh, this cottage has key cards,” Yozuki said. I took a look at the card reader on the door to the cottage.

The reader appeared to be of the type that read the card when you inserted it into the slot, rather than the type that read the card on contact like a train IC card. In other words, you had to insert the card into the slot to unlock the door, and pull it out when you were done. It was the sort often used in hotel rooms. However, these cards looked a bit thick for that. They were about as thick as two credit cards stacked on top of each other. Would that make them 2 mm each? It was unusual for cards for this sort of insertion type lock to be 2 mm thick.

Both key cards had stickers with the number 3 printed on them. When I looked over, I saw a plate with a 3 on the door as well. It was probably the cottage's room number.

Yozuki took a key card in her hand and inserted it into the reader. There was a deep and the door unlocked.

“Well, Kasumi, I'll see you tomorrow.”

She pulled the card from the reader and disappeared into the room with a wave of her hand.

“Now, allow me to guide you to your cottage as well, Mr. Kuzushiro.”

Shitsugi said so and walked me to my cottage. It was about a minute's walk from Yozuki's, and had an identical design. It took the same sorts of keys, too, and just like before, Shitsugi took two key cards from his pocket and handed them to me.

“Here are the keys to your cottage.”

I immediately inserted a key card into the card reader on the door. Huh? I bent my head over. Even though I'd inserted my key card, for some reason the reader wasn't responding. I tried turning the doorknob, but the door was still locked. I thought I just hadn't inserted the card far enough, but even when I inserted it until the end hit the back of the reader, the result was the same.

“That's strange,” Shitsugi said with a confused expression. “May I see it for a moment?” he said, taking my key card in his hand. He stared at it and muttered “Ah, I see. This key card is scratched.”

The key card was a rectangle measuring 8 cm by 5 cm, and it was solid white except for a 1 cm by 5 cm section of pitch black at one end.

“This part contains the magnetic data,” said Shitsugi, pointing to the black part of the card. “That is to say, the sensor in the card reader reads the data recorded there to unlock the door. So if that part gets scratched, you will no longer be able to use the key card. If it was anywhere else, there would be no problem no matter how bad the scratches were. But Mr. Kuzushiro's key card is scratched on the black part.”

I looked at the black part of the key card in Shitsugi's hand. It was indeed scratched. That meant I couldn't use it.

“I apologize.” Shitsugi bowed his head deeply, even though it probably wasn't his fault. He was a serious man. “The other key card should work. Try it.”

As I was told, I inserted the other key card I'd received earlier into the receiver. I heard a deep and the door unlocked. Shitsugi touched his chest in relief.

“Thank goodness, I almost forced Mr. Kuzushiro to go camping,” Shitsugi joked. Then he said “If you need anything else, please let me know,” bowed deeply, and made his way back towards the mansion.

Shitsugi was the very picture of an ordinary man with no special features at all, but there was one thing about him that bothered me. There was a fresh mark from a ring on the ring finger of his left hand.

Had he gotten divorced recently? That's what was in my mind as I entered my cottage and closed the door. Then, I felt something strange. I looked at the door and immediately realized what it was. The thumb turn on the inside of the door was left unlocked.

Apparently, this door didn't lock automatically. I found that strange for a door with a key card, so I opened it and stepped back outside. I experimentally inserted the key card back in the reader. I heard a beep and the sound of the lock engaging. I see, I think. So you had to insert the key card not only to unlock the door, but to lock it as well.

The inside of the cottage was about 15 tatami mats in size, large enough that it seemed like a waste for a single person to stay there. Although it was only one floor, the ceiling was about 4 meters high. The windows weren't fixed and could be opened and closed, and when I opened them, the cool spring night air rushed in. It was very comfortable. The cottage was close to the sea, and I could hear the sound of the waves.

The cottage had a separate bathroom and toilet, so I took a shower, then did some light reading before going to bed. I was tired, so sleep came quickly. Then, suddenly, I bolted awake. It was still the middle of the night. When I looked outside, I saw a blue moon hanging in the clear sky over the solitary island. It was beautiful. Thinking that, I got out of bed and looked at the view through the window. Then I looked out the other window and saw a light that wasn't coming from the moon. Huh... I got curious and went outside. When I approached the light, its true identity became obvious. As I'd expected, it was Sotodomari making a bonfire.

Sotodomari, the self-proclaimed vampire who'd lived for over a thousand years, was staying outside tonight.

When Sotodomari noticed me, she happily exclaimed “Oh, good sir!”

“Whatever is the matter, walking outdoors so late at night? Are you, perhaps, a drunkard?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“It's pretty strange to light a bonfire in the middle of the night.”

“Isn't the middle of the night when one is meant to make bonfires?” Sotodomari asked. She was making sense. “Besides, it's dangerous to leave the fire out during the day. You'll be attacked by lions.”

“Are we somewhere in Africa?”

And here I thought we were on an island in Kanagawa Prefecture.

“You, my good sir, care far too much about small details,” Sotodomari said, sounding scandalized. “Well, whatever. Here, eat this.”

Sotodomari handed me a taro that had been roasting over the bonfire on a skewer. I took it and brought it to my mouth.

Then my eyes widened.

“What the heck? This is great!”

The taro roasted over an open flame was surprisingly tasty. I had no idea such culinary creativity was possible.

“The possibilities of taro are without limit,” Sotodomari said while chewing on a taro of her own. “Potatoes and sweet potatoes have traditionally held a monopoly on the root vegetable market, but I believe the taro has the potential to be the future.”

“I think yams have a pretty strong case, too.”

“Please don't say that. Yams are already the best tasting tuber. That's why I always lose the 'Best Tasting Tubers Roasted Over An Open Fire Championship' in the preliminaries. Poor me.”

“Indeed.”

It was a tragedy for the ages.

After Sotodomari finished her taro, she picked up a cob of corn and impaled it on a metal barbecue skewer. Its surface was already slightly charred from fire, and Sotodomari poured a dab of miso over it and quickly roasted it. At that moment, a mouth-watering aroma filled the air.

After swallowing saliva, I tried to speak as calmly as possible.

“That corn looks delicious.”

Sotodomari flashed me a wicked smile.

“Unfortunately, I cannot share this with you.”

“You can't?”

I shrugged my shoulders. Then, as I enviously watched Sotodomari enjoying her corn, she said “By the way,” as though she'd just remembered something.

“What is your name?”

Did I forget to tell her before? I belatedly introduced myself.

“It's Kasumi Kuzushiro. Nice to meet you.”

“Kasumi Kuzushiro...” Sotodomari's well-formed eyebrows knit together as she ate her corn. “That's quite the strange name.”

I didn't want to hear that from a girl called Emiri Sotodomari.

Sotodomari hummed. She tilted her head and spoke.

“And who is that girl who was with you? The fluffy beauty who seemed a bit hapless.”

She was probably talking about Yozuki. No, she was definitely talking about Yozuki.

“That's Yozuki Asahina.”

“I see, Yozuki Asahina. Okay, now I know all the guests on Wire Mesh Island,” said Sotodomari, shaking her twintails. “The youtuber Poirotzaka, the musician General Otozaki, the former judge Chiyori Kurokawa, the religious figure Anthony Gentleman, and the fluffy beauty Yozuki Asahina – is that all there is?”

No, there was one more person.

“Another person? Just who is it?”

“A, um, girl named Shitsuri Mitsumura.”

“Shitsuri Mitsumura – The fiend?”

Sotodomari's eyes went wide. I could guess what prompted that reaction.

“You know about her.”

“Well, she is famous in certain circles, after all,” Sotodomari said before nodding in satisfaction. “I see, that is exactly how Otomigawara would think. No matter what she says, she's a huge fan of Shitsuri Mitsumura.”

“Huh? Really?” It hadn't seemed that way.

“It's so embarrassing. She's such a pain,” Sotodomari said about her supposed friend. “She's the type of person who can't honestly tell someone she loves them.”

“Sounds like the lyrics to an idol song.”

When our conversation stopped, I looked at my watch. The time was 2:00 at night. Needless to say, that was pretty late.

So I casually brought it up.

“By the way Sotodomari, don't you need to sleep?”

Sotodomari looked deeply wounded.

“Wh-What are you saying? Have you gotten tired of talking to me?” she asked earnestly.

Even though I hadn't meant to, I'd upset her dearly.

“N-No, I didn't mean it like that.”

“No, you're lying, beyond a doubt. 'No, I didn't mean it like that', what are you even saying? Usually, this is supposed to be the part where you kindly offer me some ochazuke.”

“Man, Kyoto culture sure is great.”

“I'm not sleepy!”

With that, she picked up a taro skewer and bit into it. Then she looked up at the sky and said,

“The stars are beautiful tonight.”

When she said that, I looked up at the sky as well. It certainly was beautiful. I guess this was what you got from a solitary island. There were dense clusters of clear stars, with no pollution or streetlights. “Ah! Wonderful! Somehow, I feel like singing!”

Sotodomari excitedly ran back into her tent. She came back with a guitar case.

She held up an acoustic guitar and began her performance.

“Alright, this is Yuji Oda's OVER THE TROUBLE.”

“I wasn't expecting Yuji Oda from you.”

“By the way, OVER THE TROUBLE was originally written as the theme song to the drama 'No Money!', where Yuji Oda played the lead role.”

Sotodomari strummed her guitar. And she sang. Her voice was as clear as a starry spring sky above the lone island. I was very moved and gave an enthusiastic applause when her song finished.

Apparently, that was a bad idea.

Sotodomari cheerily announced “Alright, our next song will be...” and started singing again.

“Hold on a minute. Are you still going?”

“Of course I am. Because the stars are beautiful tonight.”

As she'd said, Sotodomari sang. She sang for two more hours. By the time her performance was finished, it was already after 4:00.”

The next morning, I woke up at 7:00. I'd been told that breakfast started at 7:30, so I had no choice. I'd stayed up until 4:00 A.M. last night, so I only got three hours of sleep. I felt awful. It was all because Sotodomari forced me to attend her late night karaoke tournament.

As I was shaking off my sleepiness and was about to head to the mansion, I saw Sotodomari making a bonfire on the sandy beach. She was humming a tune. So, this is youth... Or, since she claimed to be over 1000 years old, maybe it was more like how old people always got up early.

When I arrived at the dining room of the mansion, almost everyone on Wire Mesh Island was already there. And a strange woman was cooking an omelette in a cassette stove, like you often see at hotel breakfasts. She was a beautiful Caucasian woman with a model's figure. She appeared to be in her late 20s.

“Who's that?”

When I asked Yozuki, who had started breakfast ahead of me, she puffed out her chest.

“That's Leticia Breakfast.”

“She's real!?”

Ms. Breakfast, the woman good at making breakfast!

Breakfast (the meal) was already laid out on the table, but it seemed the omelettes were being freshly made. So I ran off to get one of my own.

“Um, may I have an omelette?”

I went and talked to her. On the table being used to prepare the omelettes, various ingredients, such as mushrooms, cheese, and bacon, were placed in small glass bowls. I guessed it was a system where we could customize our orders, also like a hotel breakfast.

I told her my order.

“I'd like lots of cheese, lots of bacon, and lots of mushrooms.”

When Ms. Breakfast heard my order, she tilted her head to the side.

“Me paenitet, non intellego Iaponica.”

She suddenly spoke in a mysterious language!

Naturally, I panicked. Then Ms. Hitsujiko, the server, ran up to me, also in a panic.

“I'm sorry, Mr. Kuzushiro, she can't speak Japanese.”

“Oh, is that it?”

“Yes, she only speaks Latin.”

“Latin!?”

I'd thought it was a mysterious language, but it was actually Latin. However...

“There are people who can only speak Latin?”

I was pretty sure Latin was a dead language.

“The truth is, she was born and raised in a village in America,” Ms. Hitsujiko said. “The people there only spoke Latin for religious reasons, so Ms. Breakfast only learned Latin.”

“And then she came to Japan.”

What happened to her at customs and immigration?

“Ah, regarding that...” Ms. Hitsujiko explained how it had happened.

Apparently, when Otomigawara went on a sightseeing trip to America, she visited that village and ate at a restaurant. She'd found the cooking so delicious that she personally headhunted the chef, Ms. Breakfast. Ms. Breakfast had originally been a gym teacher at the village school, but apparently she opened a restaurant because she wanted to make a career out of her hobby of cooking. Attracted by the exceptional pay, she came to Wire Mesh Island.

After she said that, Ms. Hitsujiko smiled kindly at me.

“What would you like in your omelette? I'll translate for you.”

I was surprised.

“Eh, Ms. Hitsujiko, you speak Latin?”

Ms. Hitsujiko smiled shyly at me.

“Yes, I actually speak four languages.”

“Wow, what languages do you speak?”

“Well, Japanese, Latin, Hungarian, and Swedish.”

It was only minor languages! Or rather, she didn't even speak English? Why did she choose to study those, of all languages?

Despite my doubts, Ms. Hitsujiko was able to order my omelette in Latin.

Thus, my order of “an omelette with lots of cheese, lots of bacon, and lots of mushrooms” was finally prepared. It was a long struggle.

I grabbed my omelette and went to my seat. Then I took a bite. I was surprised.

“As expected of a woman named 'Breakfast'...”

“What are you doing, Kasumi?”

Yozuki said that and took a drink of milk. She looked disappointed in me.

After I finished my omelette, I grabbed the rest of the meal. Breakfast was pretty simple: salad, meatloaf, and marinated eggplant, but it was all delicious. I was absorbed in keeping my chopsticks moving, but as I was eating, I suddenly noticed something strange and looked up. What I'd noticed was the display cabinet in the dining room. Yesterday, ten toy rabbits had been displayed on that shelf.

But they weren't there anymore.

Had someone taken them away? Just as I wondered that, the door to the dining room opened. The person who entered was Otomigawara. Today she was wearing a poofy dress with a long skirt, once again giving off the air of a European aristocrat's daughter.

“Did you all enjoy your meals?” she asked in that cheery voice. “Now that we've finished eating, let's start the game. I've been looking forward to it all night. What sort of locked room will we see today?”

Then, Otomigawara stopped and looked around the dining room with a suspicious look on her face.

“It appears not everyone has gathered yet.”

Hearing that, I looked around the dining room. It was true that, while most of the participants of the game were present, one person was still missing. It was Otozaki. Maybe he overslept? But we already knew that he was the one chosen by the lottery to be today's culprit. Would someone with such an important role really oversleep?

“Come to think of it,” Yozuki tilted her head, “I don't see Mr. Shitsugi either.”

Otomigawara, for whatever reason, gave a wry smile.

“Ah, Shitsugi-”

“He often oversleeps,” Ms. Hitsujiko said, taking over. She sighed and said “It can't be helped. I'll go and wake him up. I'll also check on Mr. Otozaki while I'm at it.” With that, she left the dining room. About five minutes later, she returned with a completely different expression.

She spoke with a pale, bloodless face.

“Mr. Otozaki is missing. His cottage was empty.”

“Is that so?” Otomigawara said, confused. “And what about Shitsugi? Was he still asleep?”

“No, Shitsugi...” said Ms. Hitsujiko. “He's been murdered.”

After hearing Ms. Hitsujiko's report, everyone gathered in the dining room ran to Shitsugi's cottage. However, Ms. Breakfast didn't come with us. By the time Ms. Hitsujiko returned to the dining room after finding the body, she'd already returned to the kitchen, so she didn't even notice we'd left. Since we didn't have time to wait for her, we had no choice but to leave without her.

The cottage we arrived at was a one story building that looked like a European house, with bricks on the outside. Solar panels were installed on the roof. There was a public toilet next to the cottage, also made of brick, so perhaps there was no toilet inside the building.

When we circled partway around the cottage, I saw a large, south-facing double window, the sort that opened like a set of double doors, admitting copious sunlight. Looking into the room through it, what we saw shocked us all. Inside the room, a man lay with a knife stuck in his back. No matter how hard we looked, it was clear he was really dead. This wasn't part of some sort of production for the Locked Room Trick Game.

The corpse was lying next to the wall diagonally from the window. However, the window was locked and we couldn't open it, so we reluctantly took the time to move back to the entrance, only to find that locked, too.

“Where is the key to this door?” I asked.

“Shitsugi should have it,” said Ms. Hitsujiko. “Maybe it's inside the cottage.”

“The girl's prediction is correct,” said Gentleman, walking towards us from the direction of the window. “I just looked through the window and I saw it. The key is inside the room.”

“What!? Really!?”

Poirotzaka boldly ran back towards the window, the rest of us following after.

When we looked in through the window again, we saw that the key had indeed fallen on the wooden floor. It was hard to see because it was hidden behind the corpse, but it was definitely there.

“Is there only one key to this room?” asked Chiyori Kurokawa.

“Yes, just the one,” Otomigawara shrugged. “In other words, if that key on the floor is real, than there's no way to get into the room.”

“In that case, there's nothing else we can do,” said Gentleman, rejoining the conversation. “It appears we have no choice but to break the window. Ms. Otomigawara, you don't mind, do you?”

“Of course not. Locked rooms are made to be broken.”

Otomigawara said that entirely too happily and instructed Ms. Hitsujiko.

“Hitsujiko, break it.”

Ms. Hitsujiko nodded and picked up a rock from near the cottage. The double window was locked with a crescent lock, which had been secured with duct tape to ensure it wouldn't move. Ms. Hitsujiko broke the glass next to the lock with the rock, then used her smartphone to photograph the lock to preserve the evidence. Then she stuck her hand through the hole in the glass, peeled off the duct tape, and unlocked the window. The double window opened. We all climbed through it and ran to the body. I was the first one to reach it. After me came Ms. Hitsujiko, Otomigawara, Gentleman, Poirotzaka, Yozuki, and Chiyori Kurokawa.

Just we'd seen through the window, Shitsugi was dead. I flinched when I saw the look of pain on his face. There was no doubt he'd been murdered; he'd been stabbed several times in the back. I didn't see any other injuries.

There, hidden beneath the face-down corpse, was a metal key. It was the same one we'd seen through the window earlier. When I picked it up, Ms. Hitsujiko looked at it.

“It's definitely the key to this cottage.”

“So what that means...” I grumbled.

It meant that the doors and windows were all locked, and the only key that could lock it was found inside the room. This could definitely be called a locked room murder.

“But...”

Just to be sure, I needed to confirm that this was the real key. I crossed the room and went to the door of the room (which was also the door to the cottage). When I checked the door from the inside, I was speechless. The door was locked, as I'd expected, but that wasn't all. The door also had a wooden bolt, 10 cm tall and 80 cm long, and that was also locked – that is to say, it had been slid to the right and was stopping the inward opening door from opening or closing. That way, even if the thumb turn (the part that you could turn to engage or disengage the lock without using the key) wasn't locked, the bolt would still stop you from opening the door.

“The floor is kinda wet,” said Yozuki, who had suddenly appeared next to me. “Look, there are water marks there.”

Yozuki was looking at the floor. I looked down as well, and sure enough, the floor was visibly wet. “This is...”

It's an ice trick – No matter how you look at it, it's an ice trick!

But even if it was an ice trick, I didn't see any way to lock both the thumb turn and the bolt. So what kind of trick did the culprit use? With that in mind, I first turned the thumb turn to unlock the door, then slid the bolt to the left and fully unlocked the door. The bolt was incredibly easy to move and offered almost no resistance. Afterwards, Yozuki and I went outside, closed the front door, and inserted the key in my hand into the keyhole.

When I turned the key, I heard the sound of the lock engaging. Just to be sure, I tried turning the doorknob and confirmed that the door was actually locked. In other words, the key in the room was the real deal.

I unlocked the door again and reentered the cottage. I took another look around the room.

 

The ceiling was about 4 meters high, just like in my cottage, and the floor space was about 15 tatami mats, also just like in my cottage. It was a fairly spacious room. In fact, it felt more spacious than my cottage. Why was that? I thought about it, and soon realized my answer.

For one, all the light fixtures in this room were embedded in the ceiling. The lights in my cottage hung from the ceiling like chandeliers, which made the ceiling feel lower.

The other reason why the room felt so spacious is...

There was no furniture.

For some reason, there was absolutely no furniture in this room whatsoever. Once you noticed it, it was strange that in the entire room there wasn't a single couch or bed. I confirmed the details of the scene.

First off, the shape of the room was a rectangle with a height of about 4 meters and a width of about 6 meters. To be more precise, the east and west walls of the room were about 4 meters long, and the north and south walls were about 6 meters long. The only door to enter or exit the cottage was on the west wall.

And on the south wall was the large double window. The windows were floor-to-ceiling and double sided, making for two sets of two. The windows opened outwards. Each was about 2 meters wide.

An inside door was installed on the north wall opposite the window. It had a peephole with iron bars fitted at about eye level, and when I looked through, I saw a small, square room, about 2 meters by 2 meters. There was no one inside the small room. The door was locked and I couldn't open it, so I set my smart phone to start recording video and stuck it through the bars, recording any areas that may have been blind spots, such as the space near the door and the ceiling.

No one was visible. So, the possibility that the culprit had been hiding in this small room waiting for us to leave so they could escape had been eliminated.

I looked away from the small room. I saw Ms. Hitsujiko standing a bit away from me. She was looking at Shitsugi's corpse from a distance, and her eyes were full of tears. When she noticed me staring at him, she hurriedly wiped her tears and spoke to me as though making excuses.

“Shitsugi is my husband,” she said, then immediately smiled bitterly. “To be precise, he's my ex-husband. We divorced just the other day.”

So that was it. I remembered the ring mark on Shitsugi's left ring finger. I had no idea that Ms. Hitsujiko was his ex-wife.

I didn't know what to say, so I just said “I'm sorry for your loss.” Then Ms. Hitsujiko shook her head and replied “No, please don't worry about it.”

“I'm actually really happy.”

Huh? What? So confused my head seemed to grow lighter, I said

“Are you happy that Mr. Shitsugi is dead?”

She shook her head again and said “No, that's not it.”

“I'm incredibly sad that he's dead, but I'm even more happy.”

“I don't really understand what you're saying.”

“You don't understand? What's not to understand?”

Ms. Hitsujiko suddenly let out a shriek of delight. When I staggered backwards in surprise, Ms. Hitsujiko stared at me with wide, manic eyes and said “Look around you!”

“This room is a locked room!” Her voice was full of rapturous joy. “The man I love was killed in a locked room... Is there any greater joy in the world?”

Her words were finally starting to make sense. Maybe, she was...

“Perhaps you are...”

Gentleman, dressed in his priestly garments, approached her with a gentle smile on his lips.

“...By any chance, are you one of the faithful?”

“Yes, Father, I am a loyal servant!”

Ms. Hitsujiko loosened the tie of her butler uniform and undid the top button of her shirt. Then, thrusting her hand into her chest, she pulled out a silver crucifix. However, it wasn't an ordinary crucifix. The figure being crucified on the cross wasn't Christ, but a fleshless skeleton.

It was a model of the emblem of the religious organization Tower of Dawn.

The religion that worshiped locked rooms.

If I were to explain their doctrine in simple terms, the more people die in locked rooms, the more happiness was brought to the people left behind.

“Ms. Hitsujiko, it is a sad thing to lose someone so close to you,” Gentleman, one of the Five Archbishops, top executives of Tower of Dawn, said. “However, to die in a locked room is a cause for celebration – and those conflicting emotions cause confusion. But that is fine. We each of us contain multitudes, and with that comes many different feelings. It is okay to be happy even as you are sad. I am sure such feelings will bring about salvation.”

“Yes, I'll do my best!” Ms. Hitsujiko burst into tears while grinning ear to ear, perfectly embodying the archbishop's words. “I'm so sad, but I'm also happy!”

My head was starting to hurt.

I walked unsteadily, trying to distance myself from the deeply abnormal duo. Poirotzaka and Chiyori Kurokawa were nearby, so I decided to join them for now. They were both standing near the corpse by the north wall. As I approached, Chiyori Kurokawa noticed me and started talking.

“How was the key?” asked Chiyori Kurokawa.

“The key?”

“The key to the cottage that you picked up.”

I went “Ah” and showed them the key I'd had in my hand the whole time.

“When I put it in the keyhole to check, it was the real key. That means this is a perfect locked room.”

“Well, that was what I expected. I didn't need to bother checking for myself.”

She said that nonchalantly, and I got a bit annoyed. She didn't have to put it like that...

“By the way, how are things over here?”

I asked Chiyori Kurokawa, who appeared to be examining the corpse. “Ah,” she said, “I found something interesting, too.” She turned her attention to Poirotzaka, who was crouching next to the corpse.

Poirotzaka snorted in derision and said “I have no intention of cooperating with the rest of you in this investigation,” then he looked at what had been placed next to the corpse. He picked it up and showed it to me.

“This was found in the pocket of the cadaver's jacket.”

Hearing that, I looked at “it” in his hand.

“That's...”

“One of the toys from the dining hall,” Poirotzaka said, stealing my line.

It was indeed one of the toy rabbits that had gone missing from the dining room between yesterday and today. It was dressed in a tuxedo. And stuck in its back was a thin, miniature knife, with a blade of only 5 cm.

The figure overlapped with Shitsugi's corpse in front of me.

“Patterned killings... is that it?”

I murmured to myself. The toy's appearance seemed to be recreating Shitsugi's death. There was something else strange about it. There were words engraved in pure, glittering gold on the miniature knife in the rabbit's back.

“'The Living Locked Room Library'...”

I read out the engraved characters. What was that supposed to mean? “Locked Room Library” made it sound like a library that contained nothing but locked room mystery novels.

When I said that to Poirotzaka, he flatly shot me down, saying “That's not it.” Then, he frowned and spoke again.

“The Living Locked Room Library refers to a famous locked room agent. They're so good that they're comparable to the Locked Room User. No, if it's purely a question of ability, the Living Locked Room Library is even better.”

A locked room agent was an assassin who specialized in locked room murders. And the Locked Room User was Japan's most prolific locked room murderer, said to be the worst of them all. They were on the level of the Locked Room User – or maybe even surpassing them. Just from that explanation, I understood how dangerous this “Living Locked Room Library” was.

But that name...

“That's a terrible name.”

“I agree,” said Poirotzaka. “But it is the most appropriate title. The Living Locked Room Library understands every locked room trick in existence, including 'those not yet discovered'. For such a monstrous opponent, don't you think that's the most appropriate name to describe them?”

When Poirotzaka talked about the Living Locked Room Library, he seemed to become extremely passionate. It was clear he had strong feelings about the killer.

So I asked.

“You know a lot about the Living Locked Room Library, don't you?”

“That's...” Poirotzaka paused for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was strained. “I was once in charge of one of their cases.”

“You were in charge of a case?” 

“I was a constable until two years ago. My last job was as an inspector of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Division 0, that section more commonly known as the 'Locked Room Division'.”

That made my eyes go wide. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Locked Room Division was the front line of Japanese locked room investigations. I had no idea that Poirotzaka had such an illustrious career.

“Well, 'tis no great matter,” Poirotzaka said to himself. “Even though I was called an inspector of the locked room division, in truth I was nothing more than a tool of the locked room detectives. Currently, all the fame that comes from investigating locked room murders goes to the locked room detectives, and the authorities are but mere stagehands, conducting interviews and gathering evidence. I got fed up with the status quo, so I quit. I chose to dub myself Kosuke Poirotzaka and live the life of a traveling internet minstrel.”

The long-awaited explanation of the career change. There was a lot I wanted to ask, but none of it was relevant right now, so I held back. What was important now was the possibility that this murder may have been the work of the locked room agent, the Living Locked Room Library.

“But I thought I heard a rumor,” Chiyori Kurokawa said. “Didn't the Living Locked Room Library retire? If I recall correctly, they haven't been active for about a year now.”

“Ah, I've heard – er, rather, such whisperings have reached my own ears, as well,” Poirotzaka said, reapplying his pompous persona. “However, this miniature knife stuck in the toy rabbit is much like the sort of thing the Living Locked Room Library was fond of. However, I cannot guarantee its authenticity.”

I see, so there's still a possibility it's a copycat criminal. The knife stuck in the toy was intricate and clearly made to order, but it's not like that assassin had a monopoly on ordering kitschy toys.

While we were talking, I suddenly noticed a figure through the window. When I turned towards it, I saw the model-like Caucasian woman who was good at making breakfast.

What was she doing there? Wondering that, I approached. And I couldn't help but be shocked.

Ms. Breakfast was holding a toy rabbit in a tuxedo. A miniature knife was stuck in its chest, and the knife had an engraving.

“The Living Locked Room Library.”

I reflexively looked back at Poirotzaka. In his hand was the toy rabbit with the knife in its back he'd found earlier. In other words, the toy in Ms. Breakfast's hand was different from the one from the pocket of Shitsugi's corpse.

In other words, that toy was...

“Ms. Breakfast!” I shouted as I ran outside through the double window. I grabbed her by the shoulders and said “Where did you find that doll?”

Ms. Breakfast looked at me in confusion. With a trembling voice, she said

“Hem, quid accident?”

That was right, she only spoke Latin! While I was wondering what to do, Ms. Hitsujiko noticed what was going on and followed me out the window. I couldn't help but shake with nerves at her appearance, but the expression on her face was calm, as though the demon possessing her had been banished. Apparently she'd calmed down and gone back to normal.

After clearing her throat, Ms. Hitsujiko spoke with Ms. Breakfast in Latin. After finishing their talk, Ms. Hitsujiko told me the details.

“Ms. Breakfast says she found this toy placed in front of a certain room in the mansion.”

The rest of the people in the cottage heard that and gathered around. I looked over them and realized from there expressions that we were all thinking the same thing.

No one had seen Otozaki since that morning.

Otomigawara spoke as though representing the group.

“Would you please show us to the room, Ms. Breakfast?”

We followed Ms. Breakfast from the cottage to the mansion. As she'd said, a toy rabbit had fallen in front of one of the doors.

When I checked the door, it was, obviously, locked. And this door had no keyhole. It seemed the door could only be locked or unlocked from the inside.

In that case, the only way in was to break the window, just like with Shitsugi's cottage–

“No, there are no windows in this room,” said Otomigawara. “So we can't get in by breaking one.”

“In that case, our only option is to shatter the barricade itself.”

Poirotzaka murmured to himself. The door was made of wood that didn't look all that strong. It would probably break in a few hits. So I agreed with Poirotzaka and said “Let's break it down.”

Poirotzaka and I took up position in front of the door and rammed it in sync. After a few blows, the area where the deadbolt connected broke and the inward opening door swung open. I immediately checked the inside of the door and saw that the thumb turn was in the locked position. It didn't look like anything had been blocking the door but the lock.

Having confirmed that, I looked into the room.

It was a small room, only about three tatami mats in size, with a staircase leading down to the basement. So, this room was mainly just the entrance to the basement.

We descended the stairs to the basement, with Ms. Hitsujiko, who knew where she was going, leading the way. After descending about two stories, we arrived in a clean basement with white wallpaper.

In the center of the room lay the musician, General Otozaki. He was lying on his back with a knife stuck in his chest, just like the rabbit that Ms. Breakfast had found. It was obvious to everyone that he was dead.

“Mr. Otozaki...”

We approached him to check his pulse. He was, indeed, dead. No matter how we looked at it, it was murder – in other words, two people had been killed in one night.

“Were these two murders committed by the same person?” Gentleman asked, to which Poirotzaka replied “There can be no doubt.”

As he said that, he compared the toy rabbit found at the scene of Shitsugi's murder and the one Ms. Breakfast had found, depicting the circumstances of Otozaki's murder.

“The knives stuck in the two rabbits are in all ways identical. Even the engravings of the words 'The Living Locked Room Library' are perfectly alike. Therefore, there can be no doubt that these two blades were the work of the same craftsman. And if two identical knives made by the same craftsman were found at the two crime scenes, it is certain that the two crimes have the same perpetrator.”

He was right. That was the only possible conclusion. I snuck looks at the others around me.

Right now, there were eight people in the basement: me, Yozuki, Chiyori Kurokawa, Poirotzaka, the old Gentleman, Otomigawara, Ms. Hitsujiko, and Ms. Breakfast. Was one of them the culprit, and by extension, the Living Locked Room Library? Or was the Living Locked Room Library someone we didn't know, a third party who'd snuck onto the island and killed Shitsugi and Otozaki? And if that were the case, what was their purpose? Were they still planning to kill anyone else?

And there was something else that demanded our attention.

This room was in the basement, so naturally, there were no windows of any kind, nor were their any doors to other rooms. Therefore, the only way in or out was the stairs we'd just come down, and the door to the room with those stairs was locked from the inside.

“In other words, this basement is a hermetically sealed chamber, just like the cottage where Shitsugi was killed.”

So said Poirotzaka. Everyone stiffened at those words, but in the back of my mind, I was aware that I was calmer than I should have been.

Two locked room murders happening in one night?

That wasn't so unusual – in fact, it was a common occurrence in this day and age.

“At any rate, we should alert the authorities.”

That's what Poirotzaka said, and Ms. Hitsujiko nodded. We climbed the stairs back above ground, Ms. Hitsujiko once again in the lead. When we arrived at the top of the stairs, I stopped in front of the door responsible for making this a locked room murder. Yozuki turned to me and asked “What's wrong, Kasumi?”

“It can't be...” I said, staring at the door. The inward opening door had two hinges, the standard flat hinges, and both had traces of liquid on them.

I tilted my head.

“Did they use an ice trick here as well?”

At the scene of Shitsugi's murder earlier, there were water marks near the door. I'd interpreted them as evidence that an ice trick was used. So did that mean one was used here, too? If that was the case, I was curious why, unlike in Shitsugi's case, only the hinges were wet.

Then I got a sudden hunch.

“Maybe they used some kind of trick to remove the door.”

That was among the most classic of locked room tricks.

First, remove the screws securing the hinges and remove the door itself. Then, after turning the thumb turn to set the deadbolt out, carefully fit the door back into the frame and reattach the hinges to secure the door back in place. If it was a trick like that–

“That's impossible,” someone denied my theory. When I turned around, it was Chiyori Kurokawa. I hadn't even realized she was there. Had she noticed Yozuki and I had stopped in front of the door and come back for us?

Chiyori Kurokawa pointed at the hinges on the door.

“This door is the type where the hinge screws are hidden when it's closed. So the trick Kasumi just mentioned can't be used.”

I nodded and checked the hinges again. Indeed, the screws were on the side of the door and the side of the door frame. When the door was closed, the screw holes were hidden between the door and the frame, making it impossible to tighten screws. So, as Chiyori Kurokawa said, the hinge trick was no longer possible.

“Come to think of it, Mitsumura also said something like that before.” I remembered having been on the receiving end of a similar lecture from her before.

Chiyori Kurokawa said “I see,” with a somewhat displeased look on her face.

“That does sound like something she'd say.”

I'd thought this before, but it seemed like Chiyori Kurokawa had some amount of hostility towards Mitsumura. It seemed that there were some grudges left between judge and defendant.

As I stood thinking things like that, Chiyori Kurokawa rummaged through her pocket and pulled out a Swiss army knife. She drew the Phillips head screwdriver and used it to remove one screw from the hinge.

“The screws appear to be affixed properly,” said Chiyori Kurokawa.

I nodded.

If even one screw was in place, it would be impossible to use any trick involving removing the door. That meant there was no need to check if the remaining screws were properly fastened.

When we returned to the mansion's drawing room with Chiyori Kurokawa, everyone already there looked troubled. When I asked why, Ms. Hitsujiko frowned.

“We can't get through on the phone.”

“Huh? That's...”

“Yes,” Ms. Hitsujiko nodded at me. “It's likely the phone line is down-”

“Or it's been cut,” said Otomigawara, looking inappropriately happy. “How troublesome... This is now a complete closed circle.”

Her words froze me in place. It was true that, without the telephone, there was no way to contact the outside world. After all, this was a solitary island in the middle of the sea, so of course we got no cell phone coverage.

“...When will the ship come to pick us up?” I asked without thinking.

“It won't, any time soon,” Otomigawara declared confidently. “The ship isn't scheduled to return until the end of the Locked Room Trick Game. That game was scheduled to last five days – and today is only the second. In other words, we still have three days left before we can leave the island.”

“Surely there must be some form of delivery for supplies?” Poirot asked, crossing his arms.

“There is one shipment of food per week. The last one came the day before yesterday, so the next one will be here in five days.”

Oh no. The culprit had managed to establish a closed circle.

The hands of the clock were loud enough to echo. We were trapped in a situation straight out of a mystery novel, stranded on a solitary island in the distant sea, cut off from the outside world.

By the way, Mitsumura, who had been “imprisoned”, was safe. When Ms. Hitsujiko brought her breakfast that morning, she was perfectly healthy. I didn't think she'd be killed, but it was nice to have confirmation.

“If the authorities aren't available,” said Poirotzaka, “It means we have no other option than to investigate ourselves. Fortunately, I, the former detective, am here. Regretfully, a former Tokyo District Court judge is here as well.” 

Chiyori Kurokawa nodded at him.

“Yes, it won't be a problem if you just leave it to me.”

“You are being quite arrogant.”

“Really? Well, I suppose so,” Chiyori Kurokawa said with cool eyes. “But it's true. I will solve this case. There's no need for the police or the ship to pick us up. The rest of you can just sip your tea and relax.”

She was being quite aggressive. But I didn't think she was overconfident. She'd managed to outsmart Mitsumura on the first day of the Locked Room Trick Game – that would have only been possible if she had outstanding deductive ability.

However, there was also the possibility that Chiyori Kurokawa herself was the culprit, so we had to be careful. Of course, there was also the possibility that Poirotzaka, who also wanted to investigate, was the culprit. There were plenty of mystery novels where it turned out that one of the investigators was the culprit.

While I was lost in thought, Chiyori Kurokawa looked around at the group and asked “By the way, is there anyone here who can perform an autopsy?”

“I want to know Shitsugi and Otozaki's estimated times of death.”

When they heard that, Otomigawara and Ms. Hitsujiko exchanged a look.

“If you like,” Otomigawara raised her hand a bit, “my doctor is here.”

“Your doctor?” asked Chiyori Kurokawa.

“Yes, I do live on this island, after all,” Otomigawara said. “Her name is Iori Yamazaki.”

“I-sha (doctor) Iori,” said Yozuki. “Come to think of it, Ms. Hitsujiko mentioned earlier that there was a young female doctor on the island.”

“Yes, that's correct,” Otomigawara nodded. Then she turned to Ms. Hitsujiko and said “Hitsujiko, please bring Dr. Iori over. Let's ask her to perform the autopsies.”

Ms. Hitsujiko nodded. Then she walked off towards the entrance of the mansion.

I sat waiting in the drawing room for Ms. Hitsujiko to return, and about ten minutes later, she brought a small woman in a white coat. She stood about 150 cm tall and had a baby face – she looked like a middle school student. She was cute, but she wore large glasses with thick black rims that covered it up.

“This is Dr. Iori Yamazaki.”

Otomigawara introduced her to the group. Iori said “Yes, yes, I'm Iori Yamazaki,” then, her face pale, she asked.

“I-Is it true? Did people really die?”

“Of course it is,” said Otomigawara. “They died, or more specifically, they were murdered. Moreover, one of the victims was Shitsugi.”

“Oh... Mr. Shitsugi.”

“I know, it's so sad, isn't it?”

Otomigawara said, not sounding at all sad. I'd felt this for a while now, but Otomigawara really lacked a fundamental sense of ethics. Well, most of the people on the island were like that. The only decent people here were probably Dr. Iori, Chiyori Kurokawa, Poirotzaka, and, of course, myself.

“Well, first I'll show you to the room where Mr. Otozaki's corpse is.”
Otomigawara told that to Iori and then practically skipped away. Iori panicked and said “Please, wait a moment.” Otomigawara tilted her head to the side.

“What's the matter?”

“...I need to go throw up a little.”

After saying that, Dr. Iori ran towards the entrance. After a moment, I heard the sound of distant vomiting.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting.”

Eventually, Dr. Iori returned, face white as porcelain. She turned to Otomigawara with empty eyes and said “Where is the body?”

“This way.”

With Otomigawara in the lead, we moved to the basement where Otozaki's corpse had been discovered. Otomigawara entered the room and pointed to Otozaki, still lying on the floor. “There he is.” Dr. Iori let out a high-pitched shriek.

“H-H-He's dead!”

Well, yes. He was a corpse.

“So, that's why we'd like you to perform an autopsy, Dr. Iori.”

When Otomigawara said that, Iori looked shocked by the prospect and said “Me? Perform an autopsy?”

“Yes, you can, can't you?” Otomigawara said mercilessly. “You are a doctor.”

Dr. Iori groaned. She looked like someone had attacked her. She said “Well, I am a doctor,” then immediately started making excuses.

“But, I haven't studied autopsies since I was in college.”

“I see, so you even studied them in university.” Otomigawara nodded, a foreboding smile crawling up her face. “I'm quite relived. I mean, Dr. Iori, you're only 29, aren't you? You were still in university quite recently. Or have you already forgotten? If that were the case, it would be bad. I don't think I can have a personal physician with such a spotty memory.”

Hearing her, Dr. Iori turned pale again. Then, she said “I'll do my best with all my heart!” and began Otozaki's autopsy with tears in her eyes.

I watched Dr. Iori with suspicion, wondering if it would really be okay to leave things to a doctor like her, but contrary to my expectations, her technique was good. Apparently, she was an excellent doctor. She was indeed worthy of being an Otomigawara's personal physician.

Suddenly, Gentleman spoke up.

“Would anyone mind if I assisted with the autopsy?”

Hearing those words, Poirotzaka furrowed his brow in suspicion.

“Oh? You can do autopsies?”

“Merely at an amateur level,” the old Gentleman said with a laugh. “I have some level of knowledge. I think I can at least judge whether Dr. Iori's autopsy is accurate.”

We all looked at each other. Certainly, Gentleman's argument was valid. In order to accurately estimate the time of death, it was best to have as many people working on the autopsy as possible.

“I don't mind at all, thank you.”

In the end, Otomigawara agreed and Gentleman was allowed to assist with the autopsy. His autopsy skills were even better than Dr. Iori's. Apparently, his being at an “amateur level” was just humility. Since Tower of Dawn was a religion that worshiped the scenes of murders, I assumed Gentleman had seen many horrific sights in the past.

After Otozaki's autopsy was complete, we moved to Shitsugi's cottage where the other corpse was. Dr. Iori and Gentleman worked there as well, and eventually, Dr. Iori reported their results.

“The estimated times of d-death for both victims were between 2:00 and 4:00 A.M. last night. Judging from the state of rigor and livor mortis, I believe that is correct.”

Hearing those words, everyone nodded. Poirotzaka looked around at the group and asked the obvious question.

“Does anyone have an alibi for that time?”

“That's extremely late at night. There's no way anyone would have an alibi...” I got that far before remembering something extremely important.

Come to think of it, I had an alibi. 

When I told everyone that, they all looked surprised.

“Eh, Kasumi? Why?” Yozuki looked confused. “Why do you have an alibi for that late at night? Isn't that unusual?”

Indeed, it was rather unusual.

But I definitely had it. Even though it was that late at night, I had a perfect alibi.

Because at that time, I...

“I was with Sotodomari.”

Yesterday, I woke up in the middle of the night and went outside, drawn by the light of the bonfire visible through the window. I then met up with Sotodomari camping on the beach, and due to circumstances, I was forced to accompany her to karaoke. That lasted from 2:00 to 4:00 A.M.

Unexpectedly, that window perfectly overlapped the time of death for both victims, and my alibi was established.

“I see, then Sotodomari's alibi will be established alongside your own in one fell swoop,” Poirotzaka said. “By the way, who is Sotodomari?”

Ah. So they'd never met.

Last night, when I'd spoken to Sotodomari, she'd known that Poirotzaka was on the island, so I'd wondered if the two of them had met. But I guess Sotodomari had just heard about the guests from Otomigawara in advance.

Otomigawara saw the problem and explain Sotodomari to the others.

“Emiri Sotodomari is a friend of mine. She came to visit the island over Golden Week. So, let's go ask her about it. We need to find out if Mr. Kuzushiro is telling the truth.”

“What were you doing between 2:00 and 4:00 last night?”

When we all went out to see Sotodomari and asked her that, she thought for a moment and tilted her head to the side. And then...

“That's pretty late, so I was probably asleep.”

Oh no.

“Sotodomari!” I said in a panic. After a moment's confusion, she brightened up and said “Ah, come to think of it!” as though she'd just remembered.

“I think I was playing with Kuzushiro at that time!”

Thus, my alibi was confirmed. But Poirotzaka seemed to only become more suspicious.

“Is this not the result of a leading interrogation? Or perhaps the both of you are merely conspiring to deceive us?”

“No, no!” I said hurriedly. “We just sang songs together.”

“I wanted to look at the stars,” said Sotodomari.

“Hmm, how romantic,” Yozuki said. “I didn't know you were out doing Jump romantic comedy bits behind my back.”

I didn't even know Jump did romantic comedies.

Anyway, now that I had an alibi, I could be removed from the suspect list. In other words, the culprit was definitely one of the remaining people on the island...

“Unless they're an outsider.”

That's what I said. Hearing those words, everyone's eyes naturally turned the same way. The island was surrounded by a 30 meter high fence.

“Wire Mesh Island,” Otomigawara began, “is an island surrounded by wire mesh. The only way in or out is through the gate at the dock.”

“The gate” probably being the gap we'd gone through when we arrived on the island. In other words, that was the only way onto the island.

And that gate...

“There is a surveillance camera set up,” Ms. Hitsujiko said. “So by checking the camera footage, we can confirm whether this crime was committed by an outsider.”

We went back to the mansion to check the camera footage. One room in the building looked like a manager's room, and it seemed we could check the surveillance camera footage there.

Ms. Hitsujiko pulled up the recorded footage on the computer. The camera at the main gate had been running non-stop since the island had been owned by Richard Moore, and apparently, every bit of footage it had ever recorded had been saved. Therefore, everyone who'd ever entered or exited through the main gate was recorded, and using the latest in video analysis software, it was possible to find any part of the footage in an instant.

Ms. Hitsujiko typed the search conditions into the video analysis software. The search conditions were “a person who entered the island through the main gate in the fence” and “a person who did not leave the island through the main gate in the fence”. With those conditions, anyone other than us who entered the island through the main gate and remained hiding on the island would be found. In other words, any third parties would be exposed immediately.

But the results showed that the only people who fit the conditions were us.

In addition, the locked room murder case known as the Decapitation Chamber of Wire Mesh Island had occurred, summoning the police to this island on two separate occasions. Both times, they'd conducted thorough searches of the island for suspicious figures. They'd confirmed that there was no one else there. So if someone had been lurking on the island before the surveillance camera was installed, or even before Richard Moore became the owner of the island, they definitely would have been found by the police search. Taking all that into account, it was hard to imagine there was anyone here other than us.

“It seems the possibility of an outside culprit has disappeared,” Gentleman said. “It would be difficult to get over that 30 meter fence.”

“Yes, and the fence also has a motion sensor,” Otomigawara announced proudly. “So if someone tried to climb it, an alarm would go off. So it's impossible the culprit climbed over the fence.”

“Hmm, but I feel like there's still some way to get past...” Yozuki said. Then, with a sudden idea, she clapped her hands and said “I've got it!”

She spoke like a true detective.

“That island next to Wire Mesh Island – Crescent Island? There was a hill there, and that mansion was on top, right? If you took off with a hang glider from the roof of that mansion, you could get on the island by going right over the fence!”

Her absurd reasoning took everyone aback, but I thought it wasn't impossible.

I remembered what I'd seen of Crescent Island yesterday afternoon.

There was a small hill on Crescent Island, and the mansion that stood there was higher than the fence surrounding Wire Mesh Island. Therefore, if you flew a hang glider from there, it would be possible to penetrate the security of Wire Mesh Island. The distance between the two islands was only about 500 meters, so it probably wouldn't even be difficult. You could also escape the same way by taking off from the Tower of Heaven near the mansion on Wire Mesh Island. The Tower of Heaven was the only building on the island taller than the fence. In other words, by using a hang glider, it would be possible for an outside culprit to infiltrate Wire Mesh Island, kill Shitsugi and Otozaki, and escape.

It was a far-fetched story, no doubt, but I didn't see any real flaws in it.

“No, that isn't possible,” Ms. Hitsujiko said. Then she looked back at the computer she'd used to check the security footage earlier. “There are security cameras set up at ten meter intervals on top of the fence surrounding the islands. The cameras all point straight upwards and record anything that passes over the fence.”

So, the entire sky above the fence was being constantly monitored by cameras.

...What the heck!?

“Is this a fortress or something?”

Otomigawara grinned.

“No, it's just a hobby. A hobby of Richard Moore, the mystery writer who once owned this island.”

Indeed, with the number of security cameras installed on the fence, Wire Mesh Island was a perfect closed circle. It must have been expensive to maintain, though. To turn a solitary island into a closed circle just for fun, this was truly an embodiment of the playful spirit of a great mystery writer.

“However, there is a possibility that the cameras on the fence did capture something. In that case, it would be possible that a hang glider was used, as in Ms. Yozuki's theory.”

Ms. Hitsujiko quickly checked the camera footage. Nothing was found. The hang glider theory had been denied.

“By the way, there's something else I'd like to confirm,” Chiyori Kurokawa said. “What is it?” replied Ms. Hitsujiko. “The room where Shitsuri Mitsumura is being held under house arrest.”

“I overheard earlier, there is a surveillance camera set up in front of that room, correct? So if we check that footage, we should be able to see if she went in or out of the room during the night.”

I see, I think. In other words, we can confirm whether or not Mitsumura has an alibi for the time of the crime.

“Alright, I'll check.” Ms. Hitsujiko nodded and used the computer. And she immediately shook her head and said “Ms. Mitsumura is never shown leaving the room. So, Ms. Mitsumura was still inside her room the entire time of the crime.”

“Couldn't see have gone in and out through the window?”

“The windows in that room are fixed; they don't open.”

“Is that so?”

For some reason, Chiyori Kurokawa looked annoyed. She clicked her tongue.

“It would have been so funny if she was the culprit.”

I really didn't want to hear something like that from a former judge.

Taking into account everything we'd just learned, Wire Mesh Island was a perfect closed circle, and the odds that there was a third party culprit out there were zero.

Therefore, the culprit was among us. The guests invited to Wire Mesh Island, the host, Otomigawara, and her servants.

“That actually helps us to narrow things down,” said Poirotzaka. “The suspects are already exposed to our vision. All we must do now is identify them and disassemble their locked room.”

Chiyori Kurokawa nodded at him.

“Oh, it's simple alright,” she said smoothly, stretching her arms above her head. “I'll start investigating, then. Ah, that's right...”

For some reason, Chiyori Kurokawa turned her attention to me.

“Well... please help me any way you can.”

I couldn't help but point at my own face.

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Chiyori Kurokawa stroked her short hair.

“That's a difficult question.”

It was?

“Maybe you can, or maybe you can't.”

Well which one was it?

“The truth is, I just want to be like a great detective, parading around a crime scene with my Watson at my side,” Chiyori Kurokawa said. “You have a perfect Watson face. From the moment I first saw you, I thought you were a once in a decade talent.”

I'm a once in a decade talent? First off, was there really such a thing as a good or bad Watson?

However, I appreciated the suggestion. The truth was, I already wanted to join the investigation. For whatever reason, I needed to be involved with locked rooms and learn all I could about them.

That's why I agreed to Chiyori Kurokawa's suggestion.

“Then the negotiations are complete...”

She smiled at me.

“Then I suppose I'll go do some investigation on my own,” Poirotzaka said, taking out his pipe, lighting it with a match, and inhaling a huge plume of smoke. Releasing it into the air, he said “As expected, a genuine homicide is better. I was a step behind in the Locked Room Trick Game, but I will show you all the true nature of a case. For the first time in quite a while, my little grey cells are being tested.”

The old Gentleman, too, declared “I'd like to investigate on my own, as well.”

“I have my own theories about the locked room. However, a locked room that can be so easily broken is useless as a sacred object of the Tower of Dawn. If the locked room can be broken by one such as I, it isn't worth it in the first place.”

He grinned at us.

“I'd like to see if this locked room is truly suitable for our eyes.”

As soon as she heard those words, Ms. Hitsujiko said “Please let me help!” It seemed her switch had been flipped back to “cuckoo”.

Thus, the three investigations of the three separate parties began.

Chiyori Kurokawa and I went first to the mansion's basement where Otozaki was killed. There, we double checked the situation at the scene.

First, to get to the crime scene, you had to go through the door in the hallway of the mansion. The door had been locked when the body was discovered. Thus, that door was the focal point of the locked room. The door had no keyhole, so it could only be locked or unlocked from the inside.

When you opened the door, there were stairs down to the basement right in front of you. When you descended them, you arrived at the crime scene.

Otozaki's corpse was still in the room. The first thing Chiyori Kurokawa and I decided to do was move the body to the mansion's wine cellar. We should have tried to preserve the scene until the police arrived, but that wasn't an option. The earliest the police would be there was three days from now, and if we left the body lying there for three days, it would definitely be damaged anyway.

After searching for Otomigawara and informing her of our plan, Chiyori Kurokawa and I brought the body to the wine cellar. When we returned to the scene, Chiyori Kurokawa stopped in front of the hallway door to the basement and looked at it, muttering to herself.

“As I thought, the hinge is the most important thing.”

I nodded at her.

“So, you also think it was a trick with the hinge, Kurokawa?”

“Ms. Chiyori.”

“Huh?”

“Call me Ms. Chiyori.”

For some reason, she corrected her own name. When I looked at her dubiously, Chiyori Kurokawa coughed a bit and said “I like being called by my first name, and I also like being called 'Ms.' I am a lawyer, after all, so you don't mind calling me that, right? Or, rather, please call me that. Otherwise I'll get very upset.”

She said a whole lot along those lines. Well, I guess it's fine.

“So, do you think the hinges were used in the locked room trick, Ms. Chiyori?”

When I asked again, Chiyori Kurokawa – er, Ms. Chiyori – nodded and went “Mm-hm.”

“But we've already ruled out a hinge trick, haven't we?”

When the door was closed, the screws affixing the hinges were hidden, so they couldn't have been reapplied. Ms. Chiyori herself had said as much earlier. She'd also confirmed that the screws on the hinges were properly tightened. She'd even pulled out a Swiss army knife to check.

In other words, no hinge trick was used – that should have been the conclusion.

“But the hinges of the door were wet, weren't they?” Ms. Chiyori asked. “If that's not evidence of a trick, then why would the culprit have bothered wetting the hinges?”

“Mm-hm, that's true.”

Indeed, as I, Ms. Chiyori, and Yozuki had all confirmed earlier, the hinge was indeed wet with water. At the very least, it was difficult to believe that the culprit had done that for no reason. So, why did the culprit wet the hinge?

That's when I had a thought.

“Is that really water?”

When I said that, Ms. Chiyori tilted her head.

What do you mean?”

“For example, what if, instead of water, it's some sort of medicine. Or maybe alcohol.”

“It's probably not alcohol.”

Ms. Chiyori said that and brought her nose close to the hinge. She took a sniff, and her face changed.

“I see,” she said with a grin. “I made the right choice appointing you as Watson. 'Is that really water' indeed...”

When I heard her words, my thoughts all stopped. Could it be that she'd already...

“Do you know what trick the culprit used?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “A trick like this... What I don't understand are people who can't see it.”

The shocking development stunned me for several seconds. The locked room mystery had been solved already? No matter how you looked at it, that was too fast.

The overwhelming speed of her deductions reminded me of Mitsumura during a serial locked room murder case that had occurred in Saitama last year.

Was this woman named Chiyori Kurokawa comparable in ability to Shitsuri Mitsumura?

Ignoring my thoughts, Ms. Chiyori spoke happily.

“So, shall we move on to the next room?”

We went to the cottage where Shitsugi had been sleeping, and where he'd been murdered.

There were two ways to exit the cottage. Either they went through the front door, or they went out through the double window. But the door was both locked and bolted from the inside. The only key to the door was found inside the room, and the window's crescent lock was secured with duct tape and couldn't be moved. Whether it was the window or the door, there was no way for the culprit to escape.

Shitsugi's corpse was lying against the northern wall of the room. To be more precise, he was pretty close to the northwestern corner of the room.

“Why is he over there?” I asked. “Did the culprit put him there?”

“Or did he just swing by?”

“Swing by?”

When I asked that without thinking, Ms. Chiyori shrugged slightly.

“It's just a possibility. It's too far-fetched.”

Ms. Chiyori pulled out a roll of white adhesive tape from her pocket. She stuck it to the floor and made an outline of the body.

“Alright, we can take Shitsugi's body to the wine cellar now.”

I see. Since we were moving the corpse, she drew that white line around it so we wouldn't lost track of where it had been.

I helped Ms. Chiyori carry the body down to the wine cellar. Afterwards, when we returned to the scene, Ms. Chiyori started wandering around the room. Eventually, she stopped and looked deep in thought.

“What's the matter?” I asked.

“I don't think there's a toilet in this cottage.”

So she had to go to the bathroom? That was why she was wandering around.

I put on my most gentlemanly voice and said:

“There's a toilet right outside.”

For some reason, Ms. Chiyori looked at me with disdain. Eventually, she sighed and said something shocking.

“Kasumi, you aren't very popular, are you?”

I flinched. This woman had a sharp tongue.

She sighed again.

“I don't need to go to the bathroom. Seriously? I was curious why there wasn't a toilet inside the cottage.”

“I don't think it's that strange. It's not uncommon for cottages like these to have outdoor toilets.”

I felt like a lot of log cabins were built like that. That was just my preconception. But then I realized something. Come to think of it, the cottage I was staying in had an indoor toilet.

“The same goes for my cottage,” Ms. Chiyori said. “And there's something else I'm concerned about. This cottage doesn't even have running water.”

I reflexively went “What?” Just as Ms. Chiyori had earlier, I wandered around the room. As she'd said, there wasn't a single source of running water in the entire room. And the cottage didn't have a kitchen, so it probably didn't receive gas, either.

I looked up at the ceiling. There were lights embedded in the ceiling, and they worked properly.

“It looks like it has electricity,” I said.

“It's probably solar power. There were panels on the roof of the cottage, if I recall correctly.”

“Were there?”

Honestly, I didn't remember. I felt like I'd seen them, but I also felt like I hadn't.

So we stepped outside to check. Just as Ms. Chiyori remembered, there were solar panels installed on the roof. It seemed that was where the room got its electricity. But there was something else she was curious about. Ms. Chiyori began to circle the cottage as though searching for something. Then she tilted her head to one side.

“What's this?”

Metal decorations were attached to the four corners of the cottage's roof. They looked like the corners of the portable shrines at festivals... No, they looked more like the tips of freshly whisked cream. For some reason, there were tips of whisked metal on the four corners of the roof.

“That's a pretty unique style,” I said. “When I look at it, it makes me want cake. Or something else with lots of fresh cream.”

Ms. Chiyori gave me an answer.

“Alright... Then let's go eat.”

“Huh?”

“What's the matter? It was your idea, Kasumi. That's why I said let's go out.”

Such an unexpected reaction was disconcerting.

“Um, is this some sort of joke?”

“No, I'm serious,” Ms. Chiyori said. She looked like she was serious. “I'm actually really hungry. So I'm going back to the mansion. I want strawberry shortcake and an Earl Grey, no sugar.”

When we went to the mansion's kitchen, we found Ms. Breakfast preparing lunch. Come to think of it, I hadn't eaten lunch yet. I looked at my watch and saw it was just before 11:00. Even though I was exhausted from everything that had happened since this morning, it hadn't actually been that long.

Ms. Chiyori approached Ms. Breakfast as she prepared lunch.

“Volo manducare crustulam.”

I wasn't sure, but it sounded like Latin. Did Ms. Chiyori speak Latin?

Ms. Breakfast replied, also in Latin.

“Quale libi est?”

“Volo manducare fragum shortcake.”

“Nulla fragum shortcake.”

I had no idea what they were talking about, but the conversation continued along those lines for a while. Eventually, a settlement was reached, and Ms. Breakfast brought out two Mont Blanc from a large refrigerator. Ms. Chiyori put them on two plates and handed me one.

Afterwards, Ms. Chiyori boiled some water in a pot and began preparing tea. Apparently, she'd only take it if she did it herself. I spoke to her as I ate my Mont Blanc.

“I didn't know you spoke Latin, Ms. Chiyori.”

“I studied it when I was in college,” she said. “My second language was Latin.”

“Why something like that?”

“It was just because I was young. Or rather, because I was a chuunibyou. I thought it would be cool to be able to speak Latin. It's of no use to me. That was the first time I've ever used it in my life.”

“By the way, what exactly did you two just talk about?”

“Oh, it was like this... First, I said 'I'd like to have some cake,' and Breakfast replied 'Okay, what kind of cake would you like?' Then I said 'I'd like strawberry shortcake.' 'We don't have any strawberry shortcake,' she replied. 'Okay, then I'd like some cheesecake.' 'We don't have any cheesecake either.' 'Well in that case, what do you have?' 'Mont Blanc or canelé.' 'Alright then, I'll have Mont Blanc.'”

It was a pointless conversation! Was it really okay for the first time in her life Latin was useful to be like that?

Ms. Chiyori mumbled around the Mont Blanc in her mouth. After she finished eating, she poured tea from the teapot into her cup and drank it straightaway.

“Now, next...” Ms. Chiyori said.

I finished my tea as well.

“Where to next?”

“To the garage,” she announced. “There must be one on this island, but unfortunately, I don't know where it is. So we'll have to find Hitsujiko first.”

When we went back to the basement where Otozaki had been murdered, looking for Ms. Hitsujiko, we found her suspiciously dancing about, with the old Gentleman watching. “Ah, hello there,” Gentleman said once he'd noticed us. “Can we help you with something?”

Was there something a man like this could do for us... I wasn't sure.

“Um, what exactly are you doing?” I couldn't keep myself from asking.

“This is one of the rituals passed down Tower of Dawn through the ages,” Gentleman said sagely. “Through dance, we express our gratitude to Evaharden, God of Locked Rooms.”

Was there really a god like that?

Ms. Chiyori and I were both confused. However, Ms. Chiyori quickly recovered and asked Ms. Hitsujiko to show us to the garage. Ms. Hitsujiko looked a bit upset and said “I'd like to keep helping Father Gentleman...” but in the end, she agreed to show us there.

We were taken to an enormous garage that looked more like an airplane hangar. There were many cars lined up there. Sports cars, classic cars, and even construction vehicles.

“That is a lot of cars,” I said.

“This was originally part of the collection of Richard Moore, the owner of the island,” Ms. Hitsujiko explained. “It seems the island's subsequent owners have been allowed to keep it. That's why Lady Otomigawara's car is not here. There is no need for a car on this island to begin with.”

It was true that, even though the roads were paved with asphalt, the island wasn't big enough that you'd need a car. However, seeing a famous mystery novelist's cars, I was intrigued and wandered around the garage. Then I saw a strange car. No, it was less of a car and more of a piece of heavy machinery.

At first glance, it looked like a truck, but instead of a cargo trailer or a flatbed, it had a strange, thick steel pole the shape of a log attached to it. The steel pillar extended forward from the top of the cabin, making it look like a mini-car with a pencil tied to the roof. Or maybe, if viewed from above, it would look like a beetle.

“What's this?”

When I asked her that, Ms. Hitsujiko replied “Oh, this is The Battering Ram,” as though it were obvious.

I'd never heard of a car like that.

“What? The Battering Ram?”

When I asked, Ms. Hitsujiko looked at me and said “Eh? You don't know?” No, of course I didn't. This thing was suspicious as hell.

“Well, let me explain then,” Ms. Hitsujiko said, using the voice you use when explaining things to stupid children. Which was upsetting.

“You know what a battering ram is, right? The thing they use to break down castle gates in fantasy anime and historical dramas about the Sengoku Era. The Battering Ram is a truck with a battering ram. In other words, we're going to use this truck to destroy a castle's gate.”

I imagined it in my mind. The truck driving at 100 kilometers per hour, ramming the castle gate with the battering ram. Certainly, if that were the case, most gates would be reduced to splinters. Did that mean it was some sort of military vehicle? I had no idea such a cool weapon actually existed!

“No, it isn't a real vehicle.”

“It isn't?”

Well, there went another of my dreams.

“It was originally made by a foreign car manufacturer as an April Fool's joke. It seems only a few were ever made, and Richard Moore bought one as a gag. From what I heard, it cost him tens of millions of yen.”

“Tens of millions of yen.”

I didn't get these rich people. Or is it because they have so much money that they can spend it with no thought whatsoever?

Sighing, I looked around the garage again. I caught sight of Ms. Chiyori standing a bit away from us. She was looking up at another vehicle parked in the garage: a large truck-mounted crane.

As Ms. Hitsujiko and I approached, Ms. Chiyori turned to Ms. Hitsujiko.

“How many tons is this crane?”

“Um, if I recall...” Ms. Hitsujiko stopped to search her memory. “I believe it's a 60 ton crane.”

“I see, 60 tons. That's incredible.”

“Yes, and it's a high-performance vehicle, too. It was made in Germany, after all.”

For some reason, they were getting very excited about things I didn't understand. So I asked.

“Um, what do you mean, 60 tons? Is that the weight of the truck?”

Ms. Chiyori explained.

“Ah, a 60 ton crane is a crane that can lift 60 tons. It has nothing to do with the weight of the vehicle.”

I see, so it was a crane that could lift 60 tons. But why were they so concerned with that crane?

Ignoring my doubts, Ms. Chiyori put a hand on her chin and thought for a while. Then, she asked Ms. Hitsujiko a question.

“Where are the keys to the vehicles in this garage kept?”

Ms. Hitsujiko pointed to one of the walls of the garage.

“All the keys are kept over there.”

There was a key rack on the wall where she'd pointed, and a large number of keys were hanging there. Ms. Chiyori looked astonished. “You've awfully careless,” she said.

Ms. Hitsujiko replied “We're on a private island, it's not like we have to worry about having our cars stolen.”

It was true that it was difficult for any thieves to break in, and even if they did, it would be even harder to get the car off the island. So there was really no reason to worry about theft.

Ms. Chiyori nodded. “Hmm... I understand.”

“Certainly, on a solitary island like this, managing keys would just be a hassle.”

“No, that's not it.”

Ms. Chiyori shook her head.

“That's not what I was talking about. I'm saying I know the locked room trick used to kill Shitsugi.”

Ms. Hitsujiko and I both recoiled in shock. She continued with an even more astonishing announcement.

“And that's not all I've realized.”

Apparently, being a former Tokyo District Court judge meant she could think far ahead of someone like me.

Chiyori Kurokawa, who insisted I call her Ms. Chiyori, said:

“To be honest, I already know who the culprit is. In other words, I've already figured out the identity of the Living Locked Room Library.”

 

 

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