Pathway to Japanese Literature

When Reiko, who had been unable to sleep, heard the Bombon clock chiming once or twice somewhere in the distance, she quietly rose from her bed.

Gazing up at the yellow crescent moon of a spring night caught in the attic window, wearing nothing but a single washed-out flannel nightgown with a narrow sash tied around her waist, she slipped out from the paper-thin bedding laid out in a corner of the third-floor storage room.
Through darkness so thick she couldn't have told if someone pinched her nose, barefoot and groping blindly, she descended the narrow ladder-like stairs to the second-floor salon.

...while recalling the wording of the express letter she had sent during daytime yesterday to Mr. Tetsugorou Nakabayashi—Reiko's university student tutor who had ceased visiting lately...

Mr. Nakabayashi,
Please come quickly to help Reiko.

Ever since my current Mother came last December and you stopped coming to my house, Reiko has done nothing but cry.
Nothing but terrifying and tragic things—exactly like those Western detective novels you used to tell me about, Mr. Nakabayashi—are swirling throughout Reiko's house.

Ever since Father—who had been weakening from cocaine addiction since last year—suddenly decided two or three days ago to depart for Shinshu to study birds, such terrifying and tragic things have rapidly multiplied around me.
However, I haven't had time to write out all the details.

It seemed a thief was going to break into Reiko's house. Then he appeared ready to kill Mother. By any means I wanted to help Mother, but I was terrified—utterly terrified—and couldn't bring myself to do anything of the sort.

That morning on my way to school, a scruffy-looking tramp had entrusted me with a letter. He claimed to serve as Athena for some woman named Yumiko Netaka living at Father's address. "Give this to your mother without anyone noticing," he'd snarled, fixing me with a terrifying glare. "If you mess this up... your own mother'll kill you."

Our Mother isn't someone called Yumiko Netaka. Since she's called Tatsuko Oosawa, I was at a loss about what to do—while fidgeting with the letter during break time, before I knew it the glue at the bottom of the envelope came undone and the contents slipped out. And though I knew it was wrong—so worried was I—that Reiko ended up reading the contents of that letter.

Reiko was shocked. And then during the twelve o'clock break time, I hurriedly wrote this letter. I will borrow money from a friend and send this by express mail.

The letter I received from that homeless man contained terrifying, terrifying things—exactly like the detective true stories I'd heard from you, Mr. Nakabayashi.
It was a letter that Reiko's current Mother's long-ago husband—who had escaped from a prison in Hokkaido—was sending to Mother after a long time.

Mr. Nakabayashi,
I... What should I do?
Please, please come immediately.
Please tell Reiko what to do.
Respectfully,

March 22nd From Oosawa Reiko

To Mr. Nakabayashi's residence

The ladder steps groaned twice... Reiko snapped back to herself and stopped short, but upon reaching the salon, her footsteps were swallowed by the luxurious Chinese rug spread across the floor, letting out a sigh of relief.
She looked up once more at the yellow crescent moon clinging to the lower edge of the French window directly across from her, then hurried down the wide staircase lined with white mats, tilting her small frame and bowl-cut bangs (reminiscent of a kappa's hairstyle) as she went.

Within the vast old Western-style mansion of Baron Oosawa, the spring night hung in hushed stillness, while downstairs in the entrance hall, the great clock's pendulum swung with ponderous strokes, its sound slicing through the silence with crystalline sharpness.

Reiko strained to see the clock's hands, but the closer she crept, the more her small stature defeated her; resolutely twisting the switch beside the timepiece, she caught a fleeting glimpse of long and short arrows pointing to 2:10 on the white face before extinguishing the light again.
At that moment from the second-floor staircase came the fluttering hem of a gaudy Persian-patterned nightgown and pale, sinuous bare toes that had been stealing downward—now scrambling back upward in retreat. But Reiko, absorbed by the clock's mechanism, noticed nothing.
When she reached once more the small service door midway along the courtyard corridor—still navigating by touch—she pressed her kappa-cut bangs against the peephole at the low door's center and stared out at the bluish-white moonlit night beyond.
There she froze completely.

Directly below that peephole, the roof of a large painted dog kennel lay visible in the moonlight.
This kennel had come about long ago when a detective investigating a burglary attempt at the Oosawa residence declared, "This is the most vulnerable spot here," prompting Reiko's father Baron Oosawa to tether a Heilongjiang-born Shepherd dog—received from his friend General Murata—within its confines.
This Shepherd dog, named Amur, was magnificently large and affectionate, showing particular attachment to Reiko and her tutor Tetsugorou Nakabayashi among all others.

However, at that moment, Reiko made no particular attempt to call Amur's name. She did nothing but intently watch the encircling darkness beneath the eaves surrounding that dog kennel. Even when half-past two struck and three o'clock struck... even as the crescent moon hid behind the western woods and the area began to darken slightly... she remained clinging intently to the windowsill. As the eastern sky began to brighten faintly, Reiko heaved a single sigh of relief, turned back down the corridor, and went out to the entrance. Muffling her footsteps, she came up to the still pitch-dark second-floor salon.

However, just as Reiko was about to place one foot on the narrow wooden ladder leading to the third-floor storage room, the magnificent Kiriko glass chandelier hanging from the salon ceiling lit up suddenly, making her instinctively shrink back with a gasp as she whirled around.
The light had come on so abruptly that she blinked rapidly, but for a while she couldn’t see anything.
Reiko turned to look back with one foot on the ladder step and became as rigid as stone.

“Oh... Mother...”

From behind the curtain leading to the bedroom in the corner of the salon, the figure of a beautiful lady gradually emerged. She was a beautiful Madam of thirty-four or thirty-five with curled bangs, wearing gaudy Persian-patterned nightwear that glowed blue across her entire body like tattoo ink, her pink-hued supple bare feet clad in extravagantly embroidered slippers. Her face remained marble-carved pale and rigid, while her two large beautiful eyes brimmed with pitch-black anger.

"What are you doing?"

The voice was low and powerful.
Small-statured and emaciated, her shabby form trembling, Reiko—whose already pallid complexion grew even paler with fear—turned to face the Madam and hung her head, her reddish-brown kappa-like bangs drooping.
Just like when she had been summoned before the principal...

“......Yes......”

“Don’t ‘yes’ me. For a child to rise in the dead of night and creep about the house... How bold... What a frightful girl you are...”

The Madam’s voice brimmed with loathing.
Reiko hunched her already narrow shoulders, fat tears plopping down as she trembled violently.

“Yes... um... um... the thief...”

“What thief... What nonsense about a thief...”

“Um... um... Lately... Amur hasn’t been eating food, so...”

A sneer floated across the Madam’s thin lips.

“Ohoho.
“You shouldn’t act so clever.
“Are you suggesting the thief has been feeding the house dog something to tame it?”

“..................”

“Answer clearly.”

“Y... Yes...”

“What do you mean ‘yes’? Our Amur isn’t some foolish dog that would take so easily to strangers. Or is this evidence that someone suspicious is targeting this house?”

“……………”

“Answer clearly.”

“Yes... Y... Yes...”

“Are you saying there is?”

“……………”

“You... why must you be so obstinate?”

As this exchange unfolded, the plump white right hand that had been concealed behind the Madam came forward.
In that hand hung a short black leather whip, limp and pliant.

The moment Reiko saw it, she went utterly limp.
On the verge of fainting, she clutched a pillar with her left hand while her right hand drew an envelope from her pocket and thrust it toward the Madam.
She hung her head low, tears streaming down...

When Madam caught a distant glimpse of the writing on that envelope, her face abruptly paled.
However, she immediately resumed an expression of feigned innocence and sneered coldly.

“Hohoho.
There’s a limit to being oversensitive, you… Well then… Let me see it.”

With that, she briskly closed the distance, snatched the letter, and carelessly tore open the seal.
When she spread out the contents, she began reading them toward the chandelier.

Reiko sat down flat before her as though the whip might come crashing down at any moment, covering her face with both hands.

“Hohoho.
“What’s this letter about…… What did you say…… ‘Yumiko, it’s been ages—surely you haven’t forgotten."
"'I am Kousaku Numagiri, your husband who left you fifteen years ago.' Hoh... How dreadfully old-fashioned... like something out of a period play."
“Who is this Yumiko... Hmm... Reiko...”
“You... do you know this person?...”

“..................”

“It seems this concerns someone you know.”
“To think you’d have such a letter... Let’s see... ‘I was denounced for my past misdeeds because of you—ended up swallowing fifteen years in Abashiri Prison.’”
“‘Not to mention you made off with every last bit of my fortune’... My, what a frightful creature this Yumiko must be... Wouldn’t you agree, Reiko...”

“..................”

“Hmm... ‘Even so, I never resented you."
“‘After struggling desperately to escape prison three years ago, and wearing down my life searching for you ever since—surely you can see how I’ve become someone who can’t live without you…’ Hohoho.”
"Now it’s truly sounding like cheap theater lines... ‘Still, you’ve grown into quite the villain these fifteen years."
“‘Though only three—Viscount Okada of Tokyo, Major General Amakasu of Echigo, and Baron Hayashi of Kyoto—you married one clueless moneyed aristocrat after another—military men turned tycoons—and turned them all into your signature cocaine addicts, making them die one after another in suicide-like ways."
“‘Then you gathered all those people’s inheritances by yourself and wallowed in luxury without ever getting caught…’ …How dreadful… Could such things really be done…"
“First off, cocaine isn’t sold to anyone but doctors at pharmacies…‘But no matter how cunning a poison woman you’ve become—once I appear, it’s over for you."
“‘I know everything from your real name—Netaka Yumiko—to your parents’ faces back home."
“‘Tokyo’s Okada Yukiko, Niigata’s Amakasu Hanako, Kyoto’s Hayashi Yuriko—I know all three aliases along with your current one."
“‘The police in Tokyo, Niigata, and Kyoto must still prick up their ears at those names Yukiko, Hanako, or Yuriko—something you know perfectly well.’"
“‘If I just splurge on a single one-sen-five-rin postcard with your current name—you being a poison woman through and through—must know all too well that within a week, a noose will tighten around your neck.’… My.”
“He’s threatening me, you see?”
“This man’s far more the villain here.”
“Hey…”

“..................”

“...He’s surely trying to extort money through threats, this man... ‘But rest assured—I don’t intend to interfere with your current work."
“In exchange, you must’ve already steeled yourself—from the moment you saw this letter—that you’ll absolutely obey my commands.”
“You must know all too well—terrifyingly well—just how fearsome the value of one sen and five rin can be.”
“And you must’ve already felt—if nothing else—that my eyes have been glowing around you night and day...’”

As she read this far, even Madame Tatsuko's voice began trembling strangely.
Yet Madame Tatsuko casually cleared her throat and continued reading ahead with feigned composure.

While listening intently to that voice, Reiko had before she knew it regained a glacial calm.
Within the Oosawa mansion steeped in a spring night's predawn stillness, she strained her ears thinking she heard—faintly, ever so faintly—the sound of someone creeping in, while deep within her heart quivered a barely perceptible tremor.

However, Tatsuko Oosawa—preoccupied with the letter—seemed not to notice such things, and while maintaining a composed voice, continued ostentatiously reading the letter's contents aloud for Reiko to hear.

“‘I command you.”
“The code to open your house’s safe—you should know it.”
“Convert both your house and all your personal wealth into cash within two or three days.”
“Once done,”
“light a differently colored lamp—blue or red—in your bedroom.”
“I’ll come immediately.”
“Kill the dog.”
“Put the maid and this letter-carrying girl to sleep with anesthetic.”
“If there’s no anesthetic,”
“kill them after dinner.”
“I’ll handle”
“everything else.”
“No one will notice,”
“and I won’t trouble you.”
“‘Don’t worry.’…”

“..................”

“Ah. I finally understand.
“Now, Reiko.”
“This man plans to embezzle Netaka Yumiko’s assets, then kill her and flee.”
“What an utterly terrifying villain this man is… Appalling… ‘Let me remind you—you seem to have developed feelings for that young university student tutor of the girl’s.
“Because you said something indecent to that tutor while the master was away, I know full well that he stopped coming to your house.”
“That has become my greatest concern at present.”
“If you should let that tutor sway you and ruin this plan, never forget that I stand ready to tie both that tutor and you up and throw you alive into the old well in your house’s backyard.”

“Your lifelong happiness from now on lies in taking all your wealth and fleeing abroad with me.”
“Don’t forget that those preparations are already properly in place.”
“...From your former husband... Netaka Yumiko.’ Hohohohoho... Reiko!”

Before she knew it, Reiko had become completely absorbed in thoughts of other things—of Mr. Nakabayashi—and with a start, she pulled her hands away from her face.
She looked up at Madame Tatsuko’s face, beautifully smiling beneath the chandelier.

“You… had this letter delivered by someone passing by…”

Reiko nodded silently.

“What kind of person was he...”

Her mother’s face looked kinder and gentler than ever before—overflowing with such benevolence that Reiko involuntarily let out a sigh of relief.

“Um... someone who looked like a vagrant...”

“About how old was he?”

“Um... I-I’m not entirely sure, but... a scary-looking man with a thick bushy beard... maybe forty or fifty years old...”

“Hohohoho.
“My, what a foolish girl you are, Reiko… You really…”
“It’s surely because you’ve been reading nothing but magazine novels that your head’s gotten all twisted.”
“That’s why when you receive such letters, you immediately start imagining detective novel-like scenarios—staying up all night worrying and whatnot.”

“..................”

“This letter,”
“Reiko,”
“is exactly like those chain letters going around these days—just some busybody’s prank.”
“As proof, nowhere does it mention our Oosawa family name.”
“It’s written to fit any number of households.”
“If there’s a house in Tokyo’s suburbs where the husband’s often away, the wife’s a stepmother, there’s a daughter, and they keep a dog—why, such places are as common as pebbles on a beach.”
“All they need do is deliver this letter to the daughter in such a home and let her read it—enough to spark a family tragedy.”
“And if that daughter truly believes her mother’s wickedness and runs away, the prankster’s goal is achieved.”
“Lately these hobbyist troublemakers keep cropping up everywhere…… Perhaps this letter aims to trick you into leaving home just so, then whisk you away under false kindness.”
“You might’ve already fallen halfway into their trap.”
“Now Reiko… Surely not… Hohoho.”

“..................”

"If Mother hadn't been here, you might have done something terrible."
"...I'm older than you."
"I know society far better than you do."
"I'm no spineless fool who'd fall for such an idiotic threatening letter."
"Once day breaks today, I'll call the Metropolitan Police - they'll catch whoever wrote this immediately."
"Then we'll see that man's true nature."
"And it'll prove I bear no resemblance whatsoever to this 'Netaka Yumiko' creature."
"You understand... Reiko..."

Reiko blinked her eyes rapidly while nodding half-unconsciously. Even so, for some reason she suddenly felt so lonely and sad that she covered her face with both hands and began to sob quietly. Madame Tatsuko gently stroked her back.

“There’s not the slightest need for something like crying.”
“Miss Reiko.”
“You won’t go peeking into this letter’s contents or telling Mr. Nakabayashi about it… will you?”

Reiko shook her head violently from side to side. As if shuddering violently… then, having suddenly become terrified, she grew so breathless she couldn’t even produce a sob.

“Hohoho.
“You’re so spineless.
“It’s because you’re being far too sensitive… you know.
“Miss Reiko… Is that… satisfactory?
“Even if this letter were entirely true and I were Netaka Yumiko—that dreadful poison woman—you needn’t worry in the slightest.
“My family register remains properly ordered—there’s no question I’m your rightful mother.
“I’m no viscountess to tremble at such petty extortion.
“Tch.
“How absurd.
“Truly…”

The edge of Madame Tatsuko’s words carried a vulgar, venomous tone unbefitting a noblewoman. Reiko too, with both hands still pressed to her face, started in surprise to such an extent; however, Tatsuko immediately softened her words and once more stroked Reiko’s back.

“Come now, Reiko. Dawn will break soon. Please go to sleep now. Since tomorrow is Sunday, sleep in properly—when you wake up, go play at your dear Mr. Nakabayashi’s place… Hmm?… Then have him come teach you again—make sure you ask him yourself. Hmm? Hmm?… Come along now. Go to sleep looking forward to that. You’ll catch cold in just a nightgown. Come along. There’s nothing left for you to worry about anymore…”

Reiko, seemingly bound by her mother’s unexpectedly kind attitude—a kindness beyond measure—continued to sob quietly, but amidst this, with great effort, she managed to stand up.
Wiping her tears,

“Good night.”

As she spoke these words and lifted her face, Madame Tatsuko appeared to have already retreated into her bedroom—only the entryway curtain remained faintly trembling in her wake.

Overcome by sudden sorrow once more, Reiko switched off the salon light and began climbing toward the third floor, feeling her way up the groaning stairs through hands and feet alike.

Then several minutes, perhaps tens of minutes later—just as she had barely dozed off in her third-floor bed—a soul-chilling noise suddenly rose from the second floor below, causing Reiko’s eyes to snap open. Suppressing her drowsiness, she descended the narrow ladder-like stairs in the already pale light of approaching dawn and ran through the curtains into her mother’s bedroom. Her heart thundered with Could it be...? while worrying about Mother...

However, the moment Reiko was about to step into the bedroom, she halted in her tracks.
When she caught a glimpse of the scene inside the bedroom, she clamped her teeth onto the entrance pillar and began trembling violently.

Madame Tatsuko, who until moments ago had been full of life, lay sprawled on her back in her gaudy nightclothes, dragged down from her bed onto the floor with limbs splayed and hair disheveled. In her left chest was plunged a single bloodied dagger still in its white sheath. From beneath the corpse’s back oozed thick black blood that soaked into the floral pattern of the expensive Russian carpet—flowing and seeping in turn as it spread like a giant flower petal.

There was no one else there besides her.

Reiko was already gasping for breath, her vision swimming.
With every single strand of her hair standing on end and her entire body threatening to clatter noisily—steadfastly enduring this—Reiko confirmed that the gruesome corpse was indeed her mother Tatsuko, then involuntarily leapt up with a start.

“Mother…!”

Reiko screamed as she ran over, clung to the blood-covered chest, and collapsed in a burst of tears….

...she thought, but in that moment of hesitation and swift action, Reiko was firmly restrained from taking another step toward the corpse by someone seizing her from behind.

Having realized this, Reiko felt as though all the blood in her body had frozen solid in an instant.
Still held fast, she once again turned as rigid as stone, curling her limbs inward.
At that moment, the person who had restrained her from behind spoke.
It was a quiet, gentle voice.

“Miss Reiko.”
“You mustn’t touch the corpse.”
“The police will be here any moment now...”

“Ah... Mr. Nakabayashi...”

As she cried out, Reiko whirled around in Mr. Nakabayashi’s loosened arms and buried her face in his uniformed chest.
She clung tightly and burst into tears.

Mr. Nakabayashi cradled the weeping Reiko effortlessly in his powerful arms and brought her to the salon.
He sat down on the Rococo-style sofa and stroked her head as if comforting a child.
When he looked over Reiko’s emaciated limbs wrapped in a threadbare flannel nightgown, tears welled up in his masculine eyes with long lashes.
Brushing back his sweat-drenched hair into clumps, he spoke soothingly as one would to an infant.

“You poor thing… I’ve put you through so much, Miss Reiko…”

Reiko clung to Mr. Nakabayashi’s shoulder and burst into even more violent sobs.

“Miss Reiko… From the moment your current mother first came to this house, I had discerned that this woman was a dangerous person… someone who would not be good for you. So I stopped coming to this house and kept an unwavering eye on that woman’s every move. I had wanted to confess to you sooner, Miss Reiko, but you—while wonderfully clever—are also extremely honest. I feared that if my suspicions of that woman were to reach her through you and make her cautious, so I deliberately remained silent and pretended not to notice her tormenting you. You must have endured such hardship too. But it was hard for me too. I’m truly, truly sorry.”

“No, no.”
“Mr. Nakabayashi.”
“Feelings of resentment toward you… I… I…”

“Now, now, please calm down and listen. When I saw how you still thought of that woman as your real mother—loving and respecting her with all your heart—how deeply impressed I was… and then how terribly worried I became… you know. Miss Reiko. You understand, don’t you… my feelings…”

“Yes. Yes. I… I’ve only been relying on you…”

“That’s not all. How I agonized when noticing Baron Oosawa—whose lectures I attended nearly daily—growing paler by the day… After all, he’s an ornithologist renowned worldwide. For he was an esteemed figure one might call Japan’s national treasure—someone who absolutely must continue living forever and ever... So mustering my resolve, I went to meet Baron Oosawa at the university one day and inquired directly. Through this, it became crystal clear to me that he was being gradually poisoned by that woman while remaining completely unaware of it himself. Baron Oosawa contracted a nasal cold one evening last autumn because his futon was too thin. So when his nose became completely blocked and he considered taking time off from teaching due to the discomfort, that woman suggested spraying a cocaine solution into his nostrils. The moment she did this, his nasal passages cleared instantly and his mind sharpened. Delighted, the Baron put the sprayer in his pocket and went to the university. And since then, even when he wasn’t suffering from a cold, he came to have his nostrils sprayed repeatedly with her concoction of cocaine and adrenaline to clear his head—until he finally developed a genuine cocaine addiction. And there’s no doubt that woman kept steadily increasing the cocaine dosage. And thus she must have steadily weakened Baron Oosawa’s heart. That woman currently has a Western doctor in Yokohama as her lover, you see. She must be freely obtaining smuggled cocaine from there. And in the end, she must have intended to use something even stronger—like potassium cyanide or such—in the spray’s medication to make it appear he had died from cocaine addiction. The woman was truly terrifying. That... huh. You see, Miss Reiko?”

Reiko opened her eyes wide—wide as she looked up at Mr. Nakabayashi’s face—unable to even exhale.
While looking down at her face, Mr. Nakabayashi smiled gently.

“However, wicked deeds cannot simply be done.
Ever since then, while tracking that woman’s movements day after day, I noticed a tramp-like man shadowing her trail just as I was.
And then—just four or five days ago—
When that tramp got drunk at a certain bar… I overheard him muttering, ‘I’ll be rolling in riches soon…’ and I was struck with alarm.
Because I thought matters were growing truly perilous… I immediately confessed everything to Baron Oosawa and had him leave the house.
Even though his heart had already grown quite frail, I compelled him to depart despite the strain.”

Reiko, who had been listening entranced with everything forgotten, suddenly snapped back to reality and nodded earnestly. Amazed and impressed by Mr. Nakabayashi's profound, profound kindness and wisdom, she looked up at the resolute gleam in his eyes beneath his disheveled hair.

"But Miss Reiko."
"You needn't worry about your father."
"The story about Baron Oosawa having gone to Shinshu was a lie."
"The Baron entered Tokyo University Hospital and is receiving treatment for cocaine addiction."
"He'll surely regain his health and return before long."

"Oh my... Truly..."

Reiko instinctively clung to Mr. Nakabayashi's shoulder.
Scalding tears of gratitude began spilling onto his collar.

Mr. Nakabayashi’s voice grew hoarse.

“It’s true, I tell you—it’s true. Because I accompanied him and had him admitted. And since I’ve already explained everything, you need not worry. At that time, Baron Oosawa—who had come to understand everything—grasped my hand and implored me again and again to look after Reiko, so I was being extremely vigilant when that unexpected letter arrived yesterday. That wicked woman took advantage of your father's absence to steal the money all by herself and flee—but another male villain noticed this scheme and intervened to seize both the money and the woman herself... It seems he was prepared to pay any dreadful sacrifice necessary for this purpose. Since it became clear they intended to act without a moment’s delay, I immediately sneaked into this house and lay in wait for whatever might occur. Unaware of this, that man must have taken advantage of your father’s absence to sneak in and attempt to blackmail that woman. Holding a dagger, he trod stealthily and crept step by step down to the base of these stairs—just at that moment, the exchange between that woman and Miss Reiko began in this salon. And then that woman began reading that letter.”

Reiko recalled the terrifying moment and shrank her body anew.

“That woman’s boldness in that moment… How she remained utterly composed while reading such a dreadful letter—instantly deceiving you, Miss Reiko, attempting to lure me out through trickery—the sheer monstrous cunning of it… I shuddered as I listened from behind that tramp-like man.”

After trailing off like that, Mr. Nakabayashi let out a shuddering sigh of relief.
Reiko too began trembling violently as if her teeth would chatter, but clinging to Mr. Nakabayashi's arm, she barely managed to suppress it.

"But had that woman not read that letter then—had she not even mocked its contents—she might have avoided being killed."
"As the proverb goes, 'Had the pheasant not cried, it wouldn't have been shot'—she brought upon herself the fate of having her life taken."
"While reading that letter, she was ridiculing her former husband."
"She mocked and cast aside this escaped convict who resented her—this former husband—attempting to carry out some clever scheme alone and escape."
"'If I'm not careful, she might report me to the police again...'—he must have realized this and flown into a rage."
"When you went up to the third floor, Miss Reiko, he soon stole into her bedroom—before one could grasp his intent—and stabbed her to death in one breath."
"In short, he believed he was delivering divine punishment."
"So I immediately approached him from behind—struck a vital point—bound him tight with the electric kotatsu's cord—secured him to the leg of the specimen room's large desk next door—and locked it from outside."
"That desk held glass taxidermy tools and bottles of deadly poisons piled mountain-high—even should he regain consciousness, he couldn't budge an inch... Not one speck of dust at the murder scene has been disturbed—once the police arrive and investigate, every truth will come to light."
"The sole regret is that letter appears burned away—but since I've committed its contents clearly to memory, we're secure."
"You remember it too, don't you, Miss Reiko?"

Reiko, her lips drained of color, looked up at Mr. Nakabayashi’s face and nodded.

Mr. Nakabayashi also deepened his smile and nodded.

“Then everything is truly safe… Would you mind taking another look at that tramp-like man’s face before the police arrive? To confirm whether it’s indeed the same man who gave you the letter yesterday afternoon…”

However, Reiko did not nod.
Suddenly… she remembered something unbearably worrying, and slipping smoothly out of Mr. Nakabayashi’s arm, went running down the stairs in one breath.
As she emerged onto the stone steps leading down to the garden without even pausing to properly open the corridor’s sliding door, she was struck square by sunlight that had just then broken free from the grove across the way.
At the same moment, a large black figure leaped at Reiko head-on and lapped eagerly at her tear-streaked face.

“Oh.”
“Amur!”
“You’ve managed to stay safe after all.”