Pathway to Japanese Literature

I. Chronicle of the Fallen Celestial Maiden

Between Hot Spring Town K and Hyōdori Island—located about a kilometer offshore from the beach—spanned a crude, half-rotted wooden bridge that snaked across the water. And in this region, people came to call it the Bridge of Sighs, a name originating from Poet Aoaki’s designation. The reason for this epithet went without saying—for on Hyōdori Island stood Tennyoen Leprosy Sanatorium, which Dr.Kanetsune Ryuuyou had established through his private funds. Those who crossed the bridge were limited entirely to souls shackled by sorrow—the afflicted or their families.

Now, on March 14th—when remnants of the previous night’s thick fog still lingered as a burnt-hued haze in the noon sky—Housui Rintarou crossed that bridge with a truly gloomy expression. Though he had painstakingly carved out this vacation—intended to provide at least four or five days of rest—the timing proved fateful: with a bizarre murder having now occurred at the facility called Lost Paradise within the compound, how could Deputy Director Dr.Mazumi, knowing his friend Housui Rintarou was staying on the opposite shore, possibly pass up such an opportunity?

Yet Housui too, while outwardly feigning reluctance, had long been privy to Director Dr. Kanetsune’s peculiar conduct and the manifold rumors surrounding Lost Paradise—a knowledge that now seethed within him like a latent fever. Now, from the very moment he met Dr. Mazumi, an air of secrecy surrounding Lost Paradise touched Housui. Dr. Mazumi, first stating that someone more suitable than himself was required, summoned Dr. Kyoumaru—the dedicated assistant at Lost Paradise—by telephone, and after doing so, uttered these unexpected words.

“If I were to tell you I’ve never once set foot in Sazangyo—the location of Lost Paradise—you’d surely find it suspicious,” “But this is an unblemished truth—in fact, apart from the two assistants Kawatake and Kyoumaru, even I had never been permitted entry.” “In short, that enclave was an absolutely inviolable secret realm forged by the Director.”

“By the way—who was killed?”

“The assistant, Dr. Kawatake. “His death has been ruled a clear homicide, but what’s peculiar is that the Director also met an extraordinarily sudden end simultaneously. “At any rate, I must beg you to leave behind an imperishable official record even for these provincial police.”

At that moment, a stocky man in his thirties entered, and Dr. Mazumi introduced him as Dr. Kyoumaru.

Kyoumaru had muddy yellow-tinged skin that looked as if swollen from edema, his appearance gloomy at first glance. However, before conducting an on-site investigation, Housui managed to hear about Lost Paradise's true nature and the three individuals' mysterious lives directly from Kyoumaru.

"It has been exactly three years this month since the Director constructed Lost Paradise’s buildings upon Sazangyo—during which time research on complete corpse wax had been conducted in secret." "In other words, preservation methods, tanning techniques, and Mr.Malpighi’s mucous network preservation method were the primary research focuses." “During that time, Kawatake and I had been lured by high salaries and were strictly forbidden from disclosing any internal matters of Lost Paradise.” "Now—putting aside the research completed this January—there is something that must be addressed first above all else here." "That is to say—over these three years—there had been another secret resident at Lost Paradise."

Then Kyoumaru took out from his pocket a bound volume of ruled paper titled "The Mad Notes of Banshou Mikie." “In any case, if you read this preface written by the Director, you will come to understand in detail just how demonic a being he was and in what gruesome form his aestheticism—warped by disease and suffering—manifested itself.” “And this was all of the life spent in Lost Paradise apart from the research on complete corpse wax.”

When he opened the cover adorned with floral arabesques and flower-devouring bird patterns, Housui's eyes were instantly drawn to the opening chapter.

——××6 September 4th: I rescued a beautiful drifting woman in her mid-twenties—blind in her left eye—from among the rocks. Through her belongings, I came to know only her registered domicile and the name Banshou Mikie; yet whether due to mental agitation, she scarcely uttered a word, all presenting signs of melancholic madness. However, through her sporadic utterances, it became clear that she was the wife of a monk in Kozukue village whose jealousy had caused her left eye to be injured—an injury that ultimately drove her to attempt drowning herself. Gradually, my heart became drawn to Mikie, and indeed, how shameful that I soon entered into cohabitation with the madwoman.

——However, I had a plan. To take the first step toward its realization, I commanded Kyoumaru—formerly of ophthalmology—to perform a prosthetic eye procedure on Mikie’s left eye. Thereupon during that surgery, I forced him to inject live spirochetes (syphilis bacteria) from the posterior orbital wall into the cranial cavity. Verily, what these spirochetes produced in their early stage as they eroded the cerebrum was naught but a phantasmal realm transcending reality. That is to say, I induced paralytic madness in Mikie, scheming thereby to hear those godlike delusions peculiar to its course. Indeed, Mikie’s refined education and talents cultivated in transcendent realms swiftly led her to liken herself to a celestial being, and she commenced chanting of sporting in the Chariot Garden beneath the *kārpāsī* cotton tree. The beauty of her chants—so impossible to disregard—compelled me to compile this volume without begrudging the effort, until I came to believe that even works like the *Ratnakūṭa Sūtra* or Archbishop Genshin’s *Essentials of Rebirth* could not hope to rival them.

——However, in the midst of this, something startled me—I came to know of Mikie’s pregnancy. I promptly sent her to a farmhouse in Numazu to have her give birth and then brought her back to Lost Paradise; this was in January of this year. However, during that period, there came upon Mikie’s mind and body a heartrending transformation—just as anticipated. That is to say, the spirochetes having entered her spinal cord caused motor ataxia to arise and severe pain to manifest in her lower abdomen—whereupon Mikie’s delusions became suffused with sorrow born of agony, and she came to chant of what might be called celestial decline: “garlands withered, feathered robes defiled.” In this state, she would only regress into a vegetative existence; though treatment existed, I no longer required Mikie, so the sole remaining recourse was euthanasia.

However, nature did not wait for my tentacles; it caused Mikie to develop massive ascites. Embracing an abdomen swollen to over six feet, her entire body emaciated, Mikie now resembled nothing so much as a hungry ghost from old scrolls. To behold her was to lament—where had the vestige of her former self gone?—while the cold iron chains of transience proved as ephemeral as a bubble in a dream.

——Hereupon, on March 6th, I performed a laparotomy and removed dozens of membrane sacs floating within the ascites fluid; yet due to postoperative complications, she passed into eternal rest that very day. Thus, having made Mikie live out the life of a celestial maiden and savored over a year of intoxication, I named the Sazangyo Research Institute “Lost Paradise” to memorialize the manner of her demise——

After waiting for Housui to finish reading, Dr. Kyoumaru continued. “However, upon completing the research, we also acquired two additional corpses besides Mikie’s.” “Both were inpatients at the sanatorium—one was a fifty-year-old man named Kuromatsu Juugorou with rare pinecone-shaped nodular leprosy.” “The other had what’s called Addison’s disease—a rare condition where adrenal changes turn the skin a vivid bronze color—and this was a young man named Shooji Tetsuzou.” “Therefore, three corpses have now been rendered into complete corpse wax, adorned with bizarre embellishments—what the Director termed ‘unkei saishiki.’” “Mikie was preserved with her swollen belly intact, while the other two were made to don the garments of hell guards, thereby creating what might be called a multi-faceted tableau of the Six Realms of Rebirth Illustrations.”

With that, a sneering glint flashed in Kyoumaru’s eyes.

“However, when it came to negotiating with the bereaved families regarding the legal permits and transaction costs for corpse preservation, three representatives coincidentally crossed over to the island.” “That was three days ago—on the 11th.” “So they’re still staying here, I take it.” “That’s correct. “Therefore, this case isn’t as simple as— You can’t simply say three minus two equals one here. “Of course, the negotiations didn’t proceed smoothly.” “Generally speaking, it likely stemmed from Director Kanetsune’s refusal to permit viewing of the corpses. Both Kuromatsu’s brother and Shooji’s father objected to the proposed compensation terms. But most notably, Kanako—Mikie’s sister, a Salvation Army officer who was formerly a U Library staff member—upon reading this journal, made an outrageous demand.” “It’s not money—she’s demanding to be made a member of Lost Paradise. Isn’t that strange?”

“I see… a member of Lost Paradise.”

Housui also narrowed his brow quizzically,

“She must have seen this.” With that, Kyoumaru opened the final page. The date was that of the surgery day, with "Mikie has entered eternal slumber—" written below. Then a Queen of Spades playing card was affixed; on its right shoulder was written "Coster’s First Edition Bible Secret Location," while above the figure’s design was inscribed "Mor-rand 足." “As for what’s called ‘Morrand’s foot’—it was indeed an eight-toed, so-called hyperdactylic deformity.” “But is this a cipher?”

When Housui tilted his head slightly and asked, Dr. Mazumi nodded, but from beneath—

“But what about the Coster’s First Edition Bible?” he retorted. “If it actually existed, that’d be a disaster.” “That would indeed be a historic discovery.” Housui acted as though he didn’t believe it from the outset, “The world’s first printed Bible is the 1452 Gutenberg Bible, but records remain that in the same year, a man named Coster from Haarlem, Holland, also invented a printing press and created a typeset Bible.” “However, while not a single copy of this one survives today, I’ll have you know the Gutenberg Bible is said to be worth six hundred thousand pounds.” “Therefore, if this were actually true, one could hardly help declaring it truly astonishing.”

After saying that, he turned to Kyoumaru and

“Now then, let me hear the circumstances under which the incident was discovered.” “Was it the Director or Dr. Kawatake who was found first?” “The Director was first.”

With that, Kyoumaru took out a slip of paper on which he had drawn a floor plan and handed it to Housui, then—

“The Director was a tuberculosis patient in an advanced stage, so on windless nights he slept with the windows open.” “Therefore—around eight o’clock this morning—a grotesque figure came into view through the open window.” “However, when I went to inform Kawatake about this, his door wouldn’t open no matter how hard I pushed or knocked.” “After waiting over an hour—since he still hadn’t emerged—I reluctantly joined two other men to break down the door.” “There lay Kawatake—stabbed through the heart from behind, collapsed face down.” “Regarding the rooms’ conditions—the Director’s had only its courtyard window open, while all other doors and windows remained locked.” “But Kawatake’s room was completely sealed.” “Now, the autopsy findings—while Kawatake’s case leaves no room for debate—the Director’s can only be considered an acute fatal illness pending detailed examination.” “Moreover, the time of death is peculiar.” “The Director’s is estimated between 2:00 and 3:00 AM, but Kawatake’s 10:00 AM examination could only confirm he died within two hours prior.” “Meaning—while we were making a commotion—the culprit worked covertly without raising a sound.”

With that, Kyoumaru formed a sly smile and lowered his voice.

“However, Mr.Housui, there’s an incident here we must not overlook.” “You see—just before discovering the Director’s death—we found Banshou Kanako collapsed beneath the corpse wax chamber window.” “Of course we immediately carried her into the room and revived her, but with no time to tend to her further, it wasn’t until around eleven that I finally went to check.” “When I did, she was completely composed as usual—already up from the bed without anyone noticing.”

"So regarding Kawatake’s death, Kanako lacks a clear alibi—is that what you’re implying?" Housui shot a piercing glance at the other man’s face and, “Then let’s have you show me to the scene.”

II. Secret of the Six Realms of Rebirth Illustrations

Lost Paradise—built atop a rock reef filled in to form an area roughly three *cho* square adjoining Hyōdori Island—was entirely concealed by the surrounding lush trees. Between it and the mainland lay a drawbridge, and it was said that its operation was kept secret from all except the director and his two assistants.

The entirety of Lost Paradise lay arranged on the central flatland according to the diagram above—all four buildings being white-painted wooden single-story structures whose exteriors were utterly indistinguishable from ordinary hospital wards.

Housui first began examining the footprints around the area, but on the soil dampened by last night’s thick fog, the only ones present were those left by Kyoumaru at the time of discovery. In the end, he gained nothing from them.

However, upon entering Dr. Kanetsune’s room and looking through the window at the building on the opposite shore, he noticed that Kyoumaru’s laboratory—visible diagonally—also had its windows wide open.

The windows in Dr. Kanetsune’s room—the two on the corridor side were simple glass windows with their latches fastened, but the three on the courtyard side were left wide open. The door was at the left end of the corridor side, while on that same side’s right corner stood a bed, upon which Dr. Kanetsune lay supine in sleepwear, his limbs slightly exposed.

He appeared to be around fifty-four or fifty—had it not been for the Briand-style beard, he would have had quite imposing features—but seeing his half-open-mouthed deathly countenance, it could only be described as peaceful slumber. The room had no furnishings out of place; nowhere showed signs of disturbance, let alone any fingerprints or evidence of criminal activity—there was a complete absence of such proof. Not only were there no external injuries on the corpse, but even signs indicative of death by poisoning had not been left. Moreover, the time of death was evident simply from the wristwatch—its crystal shattered beneath the back of his right hand where it had been thrown onto the side table—the hands frozen at exactly two o'clock.

"So it was cardiac arrest after all, I suppose." From behind Housui, who was manipulating the corpse, Kyoumaru called out. “Air embolism would involve intense agony, and since there are no signs of drooling or neurological deviation, it doesn’t seem to be cerebral hemorrhage either…” “Moreover, in such a ventilated room, toxic gas wouldn’t serve any purpose.”

“That’s right.” “Well, if that’s how it is, that’d be a real help indeed.” For some reason, Housui had hinted at a contrary view, but now he began examining the area around the corpse.

The bundle of keys lay completely under the pillow, and according to Kyoumaru, the shape of the keys differed for each individual room. However, he immediately stepped away from the bed and fixed his gaze on the nearby floor.

In that entire area, four or five flattened, dried bladder-shaped objects lay scattered; however, these small sacs—each about an inch long—came into sudden focus due to Dr. Kyoumaru’s explanation. "Actually, I too have had my doubts. "These are the membrane sacs that were extracted along with Mikie’s ascites fluid. "At the time, around thirty were extracted and are now stored in the glass trays of the corpse wax chamber. However, some of the membranes are remarkably tough."

“I see.”

Housui nodded, but "It's truly an eerie story that foreign objects from the abdominal cavity are scattered about in such a place." "But you only think that way because you're taking this as a hallmark of a crime." “If it were part of the murder weapon…” "Oh dear, if you’re going to bring up murder theories—my room is right in front, you see." “However, even if these membrane sacs were filled with toxic gas—before being thrown such a distance—first of all—these thin membranes wouldn’t remain intact.” “Then this time, it would mean there are no footprints in the courtyard.”

To Kyoumaru’s sneering face, Housui cast a sarcastic smile.

“No, I don’t need footprints or anything like that.” “Generally speaking, these membrane sacs were thrown from a direction opposite the courtyard, you see.”

Pointing to each of the membrane sacs, “Don’t you notice that connecting all of these here forms a semicircle centered on the corpse?” “This radial pattern seems significant.” “Given that the latches are fastened on the rear glass windows, doesn’t this configuration suggest some inexplicable force acted upon the Doctor?” “At any rate, this situation clearly isn’t a natural death.” “And whether murder or suicide, the secret of the Doctor’s death lies within this pattern.”

Thus, leaving Dr. Kanetsune’s room with the cause of death still unknown, they immediately shifted their investigation to Dr. Kawatake’s quarters.

The room was located within the same building, separated by one small chamber in between, but all its windows were locked, with only the shattered door left open. The room’s perimeter was nearly filled with experimental equipment. In its center lay Dr.Kawatake, wearing a dressing gown over his sleepwear, lying face down in a spread-eagle position with his feet toward the door. And behind him, precisely at the heart area, a single dagger was embedded so deeply that the hilt seemed nearly buried—yet blood had pooled only around the wound, with not a single droplet in the surrounding vicinity. To make matters worse, the only phenomenon that caught the eye in the room was a single chair lying overturned at the corpse’s feet.

Moreover, the dagger was also Kawatake’s property, and it appeared the perpetrator had used gloves, as no fingerprints remained on the hilt. Thus, all circumstances—from the apparent instantaneous death to every other detail—bore a striking resemblance to those in the Doctor’s room, with no signs of a struggle nor any traces of the perpetrator leaping about to be found anywhere. However, seeing that the door key lay in the pocket of the sleepwear, even Housui could not suppress a feeling akin to bewilderment at the criminal’s technique—this miraculous and mysterious intrusion into a sealed room.

When the cuckoo clock on the wall to the right of the corpse began to chime, Housui examined even the experimental gas valve beside it. This marked his final act; having seemingly completed all investigations, he let out an uncharacteristic sigh and spoke. “This is utterly impossible to make sense of. Internal bleeding occurred, and since there was little blood that flowed externally, even the position where he was stabbed remains unclear.” “However,” Kyoumaru interjected with suggestive emphasis, “after killing the Doctor around two o’clock and then waiting until daybreak to murder Kawatake around eight—where on earth was the culprit hiding during that time, I wonder?”

Kyoumaru hinted suggestively, but Housui merely furrowed his brows in displeasure at the words and did not respond.

Next, they proceeded to interrogate the three island visitors. The two men, like Kyoumaru, claimed they had not left their rooms after retiring last night and only learned of the commotion this morning. Kuromatsu Kujushichirou—the brother of a leprosy patient—merely requested an increase in the corpse procurement fee. However, Shooji Yasunori, father of an Addison’s disease patient and himself a pharmacist by trade, spoke with a tone that suggested he harbored strong suspicions about the unnaturally early death dictated by the illness’s nature.

Yet when it came to the final witness, Banshou Kanako, an uncanny account spilled forth from her lips—her hand pressed to her chest as though lost in recollection—explicitly pointing to the existence of a fifth figure who left neither shadow nor trace.

“All I wanted was just one glimpse of my sister.” “Last night around one o’clock, I made my way through that terrible thick fog to beneath the window of the corpse wax chamber.” “And somehow, I managed to make just the armored window’s crossbar horizontal, but all I could see were sac-like objects floating in what appeared to be a glass tray—they only became visible when reflected in the light of a struck match.” “However, at that moment, I sensed someone’s presence in that room.”

“Don’t be absurd. Who else could there be besides the three corpse wax figures? That room absolutely can’t be opened by anyone other than the Director.”

When Dr. Kyoumaru uttered in a harsh voice, Kanako retorted strongly, “Otherwise, that would mean my sister and the other two were still alive.” “Actually, I did see something strange.”

With vivid terror coloring her face, Kanako began to speak. “At that moment, a clock struck two somewhere, and I struck the last remaining match I had.” “Then suddenly—as if something were churning within—the glass tray blazed with pure white light, making sac-like objects undulate in rising and sinking motions.” “This lasted but a second or two before shock and fatigue overwhelmed me into unconsciousness.” “It was absolutely not a hallucination.” “I must implore you to believe this truth.”

The two men instinctively exchanged shuddering glances, but Kyoumaru muttered as though unable to believe it. "If the membrane sacs inside had ruptured, decay gas dispersion might cause movement," he said dismissively. "But that light alone defies comprehension." "There's undoubtedly someone else lurking here besides us—that bastard must be the culprit." Then he fixed his gaze on Kanako's vulpine features, sharp as a blade.

Thus, the interrogation came to an end. However, Kanako did not let slip even a single word regarding the Coster Bible, and for his part, Housui made no attempt to pursue her alibi.

However, Housui seemed to have conceived something. Leaving Kyoumaru behind, he was absent from the room for about two hours. When he returned, he finally resolved to conduct the final investigation in the corpse wax chamber.

The corpse wax chamber was located to the right of the building where the incident occurred, its windows uniquely fitted with armored shutters. Within the double doors lay embedded a stained glass depiction of Indra, Lord of Trayastrimsa Heaven—his hand thrust downward in perpetual command of "Begone, Fallen Celestial Maiden" toward the mortal realm below. When he stood before the door, a peculiar stench seeped forth—that noxious odor of rotting egg whites compelled him to press a cloth fragment against his nostrils. Yet within awaited a spectacle no living soul had likely ever witnessed before, an utterly phantasmagoric scene now unfolding.

Rather than macabre, when faced with such a convergence of myriad grotesqueries, emotions like terror or revulsion had already been transcended—it might be more apt to describe it as a single, densely ornamented mythological tableau.

On the right side of the door stood two underworld jailers, their forms rendered in the hues of ancient mineral pigments—vermilion, ultramarine, ocher, and malachite—applied with a masterful pigment fixation technique.

To the right stood a bronze demon of an Addison’s disease patient, draped in malachite-green unlined robes, its countenance bearing a somewhat sorrowful expression; while to the left loomed a grotesque figure of nodular leprosy clad in crimson garments—its pinecone-shaped scabs so mineralized they resembled cast metal, the lesions piled like mountain ranges to seal both eyes and mouth. Moreover, this colossus—tall enough to pierce the clouds—spread its Vajra warrior-like limbs in rigid tension, mouth twisted in a grimace as it glared half into empty space.

And crouching between those two was the naked form of Banshou Mikie, her hair parted down the center and tied into an ornamental bun. Her ribcage’s flesh sunken, limbs withered to a translucent amber color—the imbecilic beauty cradled a drum-taut belly over two feet in diameter, now throbbing faintly.

However, Housui cast but a glance at it and immediately walked over to the stand between the corpse wax and the window. On top of it lay a large glass tray containing ascitic fluid from Mikie’s abdomen and membrane sacs, within which floated about twenty squishy objects resembling soft-shelled turtle eggs in the brownish, murky liquid. They determined that the foul odor was also emanating from the putrid ascitic fluid.

At that point, Housui turned to look at Kyoumaru and said. "This decay gas has a strong odor of hydrogen sulfide, doesn’t it?" "The cloth beneath the glass tray has also discolored to a pale green." "The culprit likely wanted to make it seem certain that they had collected pure gas from this source, filled the membrane sacs with it, and thereby killed the Doctor." “However, unfortunately, hydrogen sulfide is so notoriously potent as patients’ toxic effluvium that it leaves traces wherever it travels.” “Moreover, even if it were pure, encountering last night’s violent thick fog would prove disastrous.” “Before dispersion could occur, the water vapor would absorb it above all else.” “Now then—I believe I’ll dissect Kanako’s eyewitness account.”

Then, Housui stood by the window, crouched for a while as he stared intently at the glass tray, before eventually smiling faintly and straightening up. Dr. Kyoumaru, wondering at this sight, began mimicking Housui’s movements—but in his case, it only deepened his bewilderment. “I can’t understand why you’re looking so smug.” “Isn’t the mystery only deepening further?” “Since there are no ruptured membrane sacs, a plausible explanation cannot be formed in the first place.” “Moreover, the light that Kanako saw poses another problem.” “If we suppose that was emitted from beyond the courtyard through the glass window, then as you can see, the area behind the glass tray is blocked by the vermilion and malachite-green cloths worn by the two corpse wax figures—so there’s no possibility of it appearing pure white like that.” “Ultimately, it must be concluded that the mysterious light occurred around the glass tray.” “The culprit is clearly someone as elusive as fog—a figure outside our group of four.” “And yet, why would you?”

“The reason lies elsewhere.”

Housui said quietly.

“Now, this might be considered ironic,” Housui said quietly, “but it’s precisely because Kanako’s eyewitness account has been proven true. Tell me, Mr. Kyoumaru—doesn’t that timing correspond exactly with the moment of the Doctor’s death? You see, I feel I’ve discovered a medium that crystallizes something as nebulous as gas. In other words, we can apply the principle of using poison against poison.” He paused meaningfully. “It means countering mystery with mystery.”

"But I cannot put faith in dialectics for criminal investigations."

Kyoumaru rebutted. “Intuition matters most.”

“Why aren’t you pursuing Kanako?”

“Hahahaha! However, there exists a suspect even more than Kanako, I tell you.”

“What? More than Kanako?”

Kyoumaru exclaimed in surprise. “Now then, Mr. Kyoumaru—what would you do if that were you?”

Housui delivered the final blow. “Earlier, I discovered this item in the shelves of your laboratory.” “This L-shaped wooden fragment is, as you can see, a boomerang—the so-called ‘fly-and-come-back’ toy.” “And what might this spherical paper object with a hole—the one attached to it—be, I wonder?” “I’ve come to feel that I’ve mostly grasped this case.” “Now then, why don’t you all head over to the main island and allow me some quiet time to think.”

III. Exposing the Coster Bible

It was shortly after sunset when Housui appeared before the assembly where Dr. Mazumi and all concerned parties sat with bated breath. And as soon as he took his seat, he stated quietly.

“I have identified the culprit.” “And what of the Coster Bible’s whereabouts?” In the abruptly tensed atmosphere—as though wholly indifferent to the murder case—Kanako gave voice to the Coster Bible for the first time.

Her lips turned leaden, sweat traced glistening threads from her quivering temples, and in her eyes burned a base desire that clearly pursued O's magnificent procession.

“Precisely, the Coster Bible as well. Now, I shall explain in order—but first, Ms. Kanako, would you believe the very key that guided my analysis was none other than your eyes?”

Quieting the agitated assembly, Housui began to speak. “Indeed, that eyewitness account holds true.” “An uncanny white light arose, and the membrane sacs inside stirred.” “Now then—had the light source been near the glass tray, it would mean either someone was hiding in that room or we faced a supernatural specter. Yet I, resolved to trust material reality, positioned that light source far behind the glass tray.” “However, behind the glass tray stood corpse wax figures clad in vermilion and malachite-green garments—those became an obstacle.” “But paradoxically, that very obstacle cast an impossible marvel in Ms. Kanako’s eyes.” “Ms. Kanako—you do suffer from mild red-green color blindness, do you not?”

“Well! You certainly know about that…”

Before she could stop herself, Kanako let out a gasp of astonishment and stared at Housui’s face in disbelief.

However, Housui continued methodically. “Now, in physiological terminology there exists what’s called a Farbtafel color chart—if you write gray letters on a tinted surface and cover them with thin cloth, those with color blindness will find the characters vanished and unreadable.” “That case fit precisely into that scenario.” “In other words, to put it simply—the light that arose from behind and entered the glass tray was passing through red and green cloths. Therefore, when viewed through that light, the brown ascites fluid would only appear gray in Ms. Kanako’s eyes.” “Therefore, the membrane sacs inside that were the same color had vanished.” “Moreover, since that was witnessed in the brief moment of a match’s flame, it created the precise illusion that the membrane sacs were floating.” “Ladies and gentlemen, in this way I was able to prove there was a glowing object behind the glass tray. Now, as for where that light source was located—it turned out to be in Dr. Kanetsune’s room, separated by several glass windows.”

And when Housui took out the boomerang and paper sphere, Kyoumaru lowered his face and began nervously biting his nails. Housui continued, “In fact, these two items were discovered in Mr.Kyoumaru’s laboratory across from the director’s room; considering the boomerang’s ability to return to the thrower’s hand, I must inevitably cast suspicion upon Mr.Kyoumaru.” “Moreover, this paper sphere with circular holes here and there is a firework shell.” “Then, if someone were to fill membrane sacs with toxic gas, insert them into the holes, use extremely low-grade saltpeter in the shell, attach it to a boomerang and launch it—wouldn’t the membrane sacs ejected by the saltpeter’s combustion at the appropriate location likely cause an instantaneous death of unknown cause?” “Of course, the shell would return to the thrower’s hand along with the boomerang—but at that moment, the sparks passed through several glass windows and were reflected in the glass tray of the corpse wax chamber.”

In that instant, gazes laden with unspoken accusations converged upon Kyoumaru. Yet even Housui's vocal inflections remained unaltered.

“However, if we take one more step and consider the boomerang’s characteristic arced flight—particularly its large return arc—it becomes clear that interpreting Dr. Kyoumaru’s room as the base point is in fact erroneous, amounting to nothing more than a superficial observation.”

Then, drawing an arc on the diagram, Housui continued his explanation. “As you can see, if launched from Dr. Kyoumaru’s laboratory—given its slightly angled position relative to the arc—it would collide with the adjacent room.” “Moreover, to prevent the gunpowder from directly igniting the flame, one must also consider the length of the fuse.” “In that case, the crime using the boomerang would reach a complete dead end—but in a sudden flash of inspiration, I thought of applying another propulsive force just as it was about to complete its return flight.”

“What? Once more...” Dr. Mazumi raised his face as if startled, but Housui coldly deflected his gaze,

“In other words, because I realized that by applying a propulsive force midway through the large arc formed when it turns back, we could launch it once more in the opposite direction.” “That propulsive force was the combustion of gunpowder.” “In that case, the base point shifts to Dr. Kawatake’s room in the same building as the director. First, by launching the boomerang into Dr. Kyoumaru’s laboratory on the opposite bank, its large returning arc enters Dr. Kanetsune’s room.” “At that moment, since the gunpowder had ignited, the recoil from expelling the membrane sacs produced a phenomenon exactly like that of a rocket.” “Therefore, the boomerang that had been given this new force retraced its path and flew back into Dr. Kyoumaru’s original laboratory, you see.”

When it came to that, one felt utterly lost in a fog, unable to discern who the culprit might be. On a phenomenological level, though one might sense the solution was near, the crucial name—the one that refused to slip easily from Housui’s lips—remained elusive.

“In short, this was an act meant to shift blame—but given that both the boomerang and fireworks have properties calculable through physical principles, this crime had a high degree of certainty. The toxic gas used was likely arsine, judging by the absence of cyanide poisoning signs in the corpse.” “But the gas would dissipate!”

Dr. Mazumi rebutted once again. "But there was something that forced it down to the floor in an instant. And if it hadn't been for that ferocious thick fog, you know."

Housui retorted sarcastically,

“By the way, are you aware of the phenomenon where fog splits into two when airflows of differing temperatures pass through it? In other words—even without name-dropping eminent scholars like Helmholtz—it was the water vapor barrier and temperature difference that prevented dissipation. Thus, last night’s thick fog provided the perfect opportunity for the culprit. But when the membrane sacs ruptured and released arsine gas, the swirling airflow generated during detonation pushed it upward, forcing it to descend in a long cord-like stream.” “And then, one end of it touched the Doctor’s nostrils.”

“So, the culprit is…?”

"Of course, it was Dr. Kawatake." "Then who killed Kawatake?" "However, Kawatake committed suicide."

Housui laughed. Ah, every circumstance had been overturned.

“Kawatake’s twisted nature, seeking to make several others bear his misfortune, devised a truly astonishing technique. That dagger had been fired from the experimental gas valve located to the side. First, Kawatake inserted the dagger’s hilt into the valve’s mouth. Then he drilled a small hole in the lead pipe between that point and the main valve and used an exhaust pump to remove the air from that section. Then he tied one end of the thread to the butterfly-shaped part of the main valve and attached the other end to the coil inside the small door of the cuckoo clock. This coil loosens every hour, and when it does, the small door opens and the pigeon moves—but of course, this mechanism must have been set up immediately before the scheduled time when the small door was due to open. Then, when the time came and the pigeon’s exit door opened, the thread was pressed and pulled taut with a twang, thereby pulling open the butterfly-shaped gas valve. And then, the ghastly force erupting within the vacuum propelled the dagger at its mouth. However, since the valve’s screw was closed, the small amount that was expelled dissipated in an instant. Moreover, the other end of the thread had been pulled free from the butterfly-shaped part at hand, and within the next hour, it had been completely drawn into the coil of the cuckoo clock, you see.”

“So, Kawatake was the culprit after all?” “Even so, what possible motive could he have had…?”

Even as Dr. Mazumi and Dr. Kyoumaru continued their silent exchange of glances whispering identical intent through their eyes, Housui never ceased his speech.

“As for the motive—it was because the entity that compelled him to kill Dr. Kanetsune revealed its extraordinary true nature. Needless to say, that entity was the Coster Bible.” “Having finally discovered its location, Kawatake plotted to steal it and murdered Dr. Kanetsune—yet strangely enough, the Coster Bible refused to let itself be taken by him.”

“Oh!”

Kanako involuntarily revealed her fanatical obsession and gripped the edge of the table tightly. “Indeed, following Kawatake’s trail, I’ve pinpointed the hidden location of the Coster Bible.” “Naturally, this required solving the Doctor’s riddle encoded in those domino plaques—though it proved surprisingly simple once approached this way.”

Housui took out tobacco for the first time and leisurely began deciphering the code. "Fundamentally, since the Morland foot has eight toes—three more than normal—I surmised this surplus number three indicated we should subtract three characters." "After considerable trial and error—omitting the three characters of 'Mondo'—we were left with 'ra' and 'ru.' When I laid the 'ra' sideways to the left, these two formed a shape precisely resembling the character 'ru' viewed from both front and back through paper." "This very configuration exists on the corpse wax chamber's door." "Might it not be the stained glass depiction of Indra?" "I further reasoned that the Queen of Spades—maintaining identical form regardless of orientation—hinted at the character for 'well' (井)." "Thus, upon investigating beneath where Indra's stained glass finger pointed, we indeed found a natural vertical crevice from which Coster’s First Edition Bible was retrieved."

With that, Housui turned to face Kanako and smiled faintly.

“However, its ownership clearly ought to be returned to you.” The moment when a rare book worth ten million yen in current value was extracted from Housui’s coat pocket was likely both a historic instant and one where awe and envy left them breathless. When they saw what had been taken out, the group let out a collective “Ah!”

To their astonishment, it was nothing more than a flat, gray object shaped like a fetus—not resembling a Bible in the slightest.

Kanako shouted, shrouded in rage. “Enough of your games!” “Come on, hurry up! The Coster Bible—”

"This is it," Housui stated. "Dr. Kanetsune likened this mummified fetus to the Coster's First Edition Bible—but the reason was simply that he had substituted a more poetic term for the paper-like fetus formed when one twin is crushed." He observed Kanako's face trembling on the verge of tears and continued quietly, "Ms. Mikie had been carrying twins. You see, with fragile twins, when one perishes, the survivor often thrives—and her case followed precisely that pattern. He metaphorically equated this sacrificial twin with Coster, who—though having invented a printing press to produce Bibles contemporaneously—was eclipsed by Gutenberg's radiant legacy." Turning to the assembled group, he concluded, "Ladies and gentlemen, what ended Dr. Kanetsune and Dr. Kawatake's lives amounted to nothing more than this solitary metaphor."