Yumi insists on their next move: They try to force their way down the mountain. Kazuo is forced into their group without explanation. And the march through the snow begins.
Yumi insists on their next move:
They try to force their way down the mountain.
Kazuo is forced into their group without explanation.
And the march through the snow begins.
Yumi stood firm and and started half-yelling, half-crying.
“I can't stay in a place like this with a murderer for another minute! If help isn't coming, then we have no choice but to get out of here ourselves.”
“But Miss Yumi, there's no way we can with this weather. It would be better to wait for things to improve first.”
Hoshizono's plea fell on deaf ears.
“We don't know when that will be, it could be days from now! If that happens, we'll have to stay here, watching people get killed off day after day after day! I don't want that. I don't know who will be killed next. What if they kill me?”
“I'm not excited about the idea either...”
Akane looked exasperated.
“...But how do you plan on getting out? You don't have any mountain climbing equipment.”
“The car still works, we'll just use that.”
Yumi insisted with a pout. Kazuo responded.
“That's impossible, the road is blocked by an avalanche.”
“So we can drive halfway down. Mr. Sugishita, you drive.”
“It's dangerous to use a car in this weather. The road will be slippery, and a slip in the wrong place could land us on the bottom of a cliff.”
“Okay then, we'll walk.”
“You're being unreasonable! How long did it take us to get here? 40, 50 minutes? If we walk that distance through a blizzard, we'll almost certainly die before we get there.”
“We're going to die if we stay here! Maybe the rescue team is already on their way and we'll meet them halfway down the mountain. At least that way there's a chance we could be saved.”
Hearing Yumi's desperate plea, Mikiko, who had been looking calm and peaceful thus far, looked up.
“Me neither... I don't want to die here, either...”
“Hey, come on, there's no way-”
Kazuo started with a sigh, but Yumi seized her momentum.
“Anything is better than staying here. No matter how long it takes, if we go out now, we can definitely get to the bottom before dark. A bit of cold is definitely better than being stranded up here, so let's go already.”
“Alright. I understand. Let's go.”
Hoshizono suddenly spoke up. Kazuo was stunned.
“What are you saying, sir?”
“Kazuo, she's right. We're reaching our limits, so it might be better to act while we still have strength. Besides, with Miss Yumi like this, she might do something reckless like going out on her own. If she got lost out there, it would be a big deal. Moreover, since two people have been killed now, we really do need to go out and inform the police as soon as possible.”
“Yay! At least someone's talking sense here.”
Yumi cheered and latched onto Hoshizono's arm. Hoshizono accepted it gracefully.
“Kazuo, you're coming too.”
“...Me?”
“If the ladies are coming with me, I can't very well handle them alone.”
“...Huh.”
Kazuo gave an ambiguous reply that couldn't be understood as acceptance or refusal. He had grown a bit pathetic lately.
“I'll pass, so don't invite me.”
Akane waved off the energetic youngsters.
“Of course, there's no way I could make it anywhere in a blizzard like this... Ah, girl, note.”
“Ma'am.”
Even at a time like this, Asako's magical memo pad was out in an instant. It was almost like a conditioned reflex of hers.
“Let's see... The far north, a blizzard, a snowy road, the heroine is chased, there's a crash, a firefighter saves her... No, no, this won't work. I can't get anything from this.”
Akane frowned.
“I'll stay behind, too,” said Sagashima.
“It's already been a day, so they're probably making arrangements for the rescue at the bottom as we speak. I'm sure they'll come if we just wait a little longer, so why not just stay here instead?”
Yumi and Mikiko completely ignored him.
In the end, Hoshizono and Kazuo were tasked with escorting the two college girls. Akane, Asako, and Sagashima stayed behind. Of course, Kazuo wanted to stay behind, too, but if Hoshizono insisted on going, he had no choice but to follow. No matter how much he didn't want to...
Before they set out, they needed to make sure they had strength for the journey, so Asako reheated some fried UFOs for them.
Yumi and Mikiko ate cheerfully and cheerfully began their preparations for the departure, leaving for their respective lodges to pack.
“Kazuo, there's something I'm worried about. Would you please accompany me back to Mr. Zaino's room?”
“Ah...”
Kazuo reluctantly followed Hoshizono, not knowing what was wrong.
He walked to the door to the staff room, and just when he was about to go in, Hoshizono turned and open the door opposite. It was a dark and narrow storage room. Miscellaneous clutter was packed together with no apparent order. A vacuum cleaner, a bucket, a kettle, a red jerry can, a dustpan, a broom, a coil of rope, a mop, a cantilever chair, some firewood, and a bundle of rags – and a damp smell wafting from it all.
“Sir, this is the storage room.”
“Ah, so it is.”
Hoshizono closed the door. He looked tired and a bit dazed. His actions didn't have his usual grace.
Once again, they entered the staff room. Following Hoshizono, who walked with a nonchalant look on his face, Kazuo stepped inside and immediately looked away. A murdered body was the sort of thing you wanted to avoid seeing more times than strictly necessary.
With a frown, Hoshizono walked to the back, towards the bed where Zaino's corpse was. Kazuo couldn't bring himself to follow and went to the opposite side of the room.
There was a window there. When he opened the curtains, the blizzard raged outside. There wasn't much snowfall, but the wind was incredibly strong. The trees on the mountain were leaning so far they looked about to snap in two, and most of the snow piled on their branches had long since been blown away. Kazuo rested his forehead on the glass of the window that didn't open. He was going to go out into that. No matter how he looked at it, it was suicide.
“Kazuo, take a look at this.”
Hoshizono suddenly called out to him. Kazuo looked back, wondering what was next.
“What is it? I don't want to see what's over there...”
“It's fine, come over and look.”
Reluctantly, Kazuo approached Hoshizono, who was paying no attention to his feelings. Of course, he kept averting his eyes.
“Here, look closely at these pants.”
Hoshizono was standing behind the bed.
“They're slacks, worn without a belt... I wonder if Mr. Zaino even wore these to begin with.”
Kazuo's gaze finally began to shift. As expected, Zaino's body hadn't moved since he'd last scene it. The thin fabric of the pants ran around his neck and ended tied to the bed frame.
“Yes, he definitely was.”
Kazuo tried his best to avoid meeting eyes with the body as he answered.
“I see. Since he wasn't wearing a belt, the culprit twisted his pants and used them, as I thought.”
“Is that what you were worried about?”
“Yes. I was curious why the culprit did something so complicated. This isn't a lodge, so there wasn't a rope on hand, so it would have been most convenient to use the victim's belt. But he wasn't wearing one, so they had no choice but to do this. Where is Mr. Zaino's luggage?”
“Over there.”
Kazuo pointed to the steel desk on the other side of the room. A bag that looked like Zaino's was between the desk lamp and the cardboard box. Hoshizono quickly walked over and opened it.
“Are we really doing this again?”
“I told you, I'm prepared to justify my actions.”
Hoshizono looked inside.
“There doesn't seem to be anything of note... A change of clothes, toiletries, bathing supplies, and... stomach medicine, is it? And what's this book...? 'Earthen Bones', the debauched life and times of Akindo Naniwa... It seems he had rather unique tastes in literature.”
“What are you looking at?”
“Ah, no, I'm just looking for anything that could be a clue. But... as usual, there doesn't appear to be anything here.”
Then, Hoshizono turned his attention to the hanger on the nearby wall. Zaino's black leather coat and spare pants hung there. The pants looked to be the ones Zaino had been wearing yesterday when he drove his car into the avalanche, and they still bore the mud stains. They were also the type to be worn without a belt.
Hoshizono went through the pockets of both the coat and the pants, but didn't find much. Just a few daily necessities. It was interesting that his pocket tissues bore an advertisement for a certain seedy shop in Shibuya, but Kazuo guessed he'd probably just been given one on the street and immediately shoved it in his pocket.
“It seems the Goddess of Clues has turned her back on us,” Hoshizono said with a frown.
“I don't know if that's a real deity, but I guess our culprit's pretty careful.”
“It appears so. In that case, this is the only thing we can rely on,” said Hoshizono with a poke at his forehead. His movements weren't as strange as usual, but Kazuo could sense he was deeply troubled.
After they left the staff room, Hoshizono went back to his lodge to get ready. Kazuo went back to the mattress room for the same reason. Though even if you call it “getting ready”, all he did was throw on as many layers as he could fit. If he'd known something like this would happen, he'd have packed more proper winter clothes, but he couldn't help that he hadn't expected something like this when he packed.
Just as he was leaving the mattress room, padded with clothes, Asako showed up. Her lips were tense with concern.
“Are you leaving now?”
“Yeah, I guess. It's about time.”
“Please be careful.”
“Don't worry about me. We'll come back with the police in tow. You be careful, too... Heh. You're making me feel like an airman about to go off to war, you know?”
When Kazuo showed her his smile, Asako finally responded with one in kind, showing her white teeth and holding out a hand. In it, she held a wad of wool, the same shade of white as her teeth.
“What's that?”
“A hat. You don't have one, do you, Mr. Sugishita?”
“But what if it stretches? I have a pretty big head.”
“It's fine, please, take it.”
He couldn't refuse with Asako looking at him like that, so he took it. He took the opportunity to try it on.
“It suits you.”
Asako's small eyes relaxed.
“Thank you. I'll be sure to return it when I get back.”
“Right.”
Asako's thoughtfulness had touched his heart.
When they went back into the hall, they heard Yumi making more noise.
“But if I leave it here, there might be trouble getting it later!”
It seemed they were struggling to convince her not to take all her bags with her. Hoshizono had a bitter expression on his face.
Yumi and her unwilling companions gathered in the parlor, looking nothing like a group prepared to brave a mountain in the middle of a blizzard. Yumi was wearing her white knee-length down parka, Hoshizono had a long gray coat, and Mikiko was wearing fur and boots. They looked like they were about to perform in Roppongi or Akasaka.
Hoshizono, Kazuo, and even Asako combined their efforts to, eventually, convince Yumi to leave her bags behind. Would that girl be okay in the future?
Asako and Sagashima saw them off. Akane didn't even show her face, probably thinking the whole thing was ridiculous.
“Please be careful. If you think you won't make it, turn back at once.”
Sagashima looked worried.
“We'll be fine.”
Yumi, by contrast, was as casual as though she were just popping off to the corner store.
“Then let's go,” said Hoshizono.
Kazuo's eyes were glued to Asako's worried face.
As soon as he opened the door, wind and snow hit him with force.
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