Pathway to Japanese Literature

Midnight Incident

A man with black glasses and a severely hunched back was walking through the midnight townscape, dragging a long tiger-striped overcoat along the ground.

It was an unseasonably warm night, and the townscape was shrouded in fog.
As it was already late at night, no pedestrians' footsteps could be heard, and no automobiles' horns resounded.

The man with black glasses and a severely hunched back climbed unperturbed up the narrow S-shaped slope. This man was none other than the famous persistent detective Fukuro Nekoneko himself—a name known to all should he choose to announce it. He was famous for being perpetually locked in rivalry with none other than that daring master thief Karasutenku, a man notorious for his frequent eccentric exploits. And he often found himself bested by Karasutenku, their historical score standing at roughly nineteen to one. However, the great detective Fukuro Nekoneko always possessed an unflagging, unyielding power of perseverance. This was what he called "cat power," but through this very cat power, he fully intended to triumphantly achieve a second confinement of that damned thief Karasutenku behind prison bars in the near future.

Now, when Detective Fukuro Nekoneko had climbed about halfway up the S-shaped slope, he suddenly stopped, cupped his right ear, and swung his head several times from side to side.
For he had detected an unfamiliar sound.
Although it was very faint, it…

Thump, thump, thump, thump…

No matter where he went, the thump, thump of that sound never ceased.
The sharp-eared detective discerned it was a sixty-cycle sound at two decibels.
Where on earth was that sound coming from?

“Oh…!”

Fukuro Nekoneko let out an involuntary cry of surprise.
He saw something strange under the eaves.

The shop was a fruit store whose doors stood tightly shut, yet a canvas awning stretched boldly forward from the eaves to form a roof despite the absence of sunlight.
What surprised him was not this awning.

Beneath that awning lay a white straw mattress upon the paved stones.
On it rested a young gentleman swathed in an equally immaculate white blanket.
Around his neck hung a large black-wrapped object - about the size of a cinerary urn box - pressed against his chest.

“Hey, you. Are you having some hospital dream in a place like this? Or were you thrown out of the hospital…?”

“G-gah... Painful... H-help... me...”

The young gentleman on the straw mattress sought help without hearing out all of Detective Fukuro’s questions.

“V-very well, I shall help you, but what exactly is your situation? Which hospital did you come from?”

Detective Fukuro asked with his face flushed crimson.

"The hospital... I need to get to the hospital now."
"Take me there quickly!"

"That is quite reasonable."
"But what on earth are the circumstances that led you to lay out a straw mattress under these eaves, and then…"

“Murderer!”
The young gentleman let out an unexpected cry.

“Huh?!”
“I have no intention of killing you.”

“Stolen!”
“They stole it! They damn well stole my heart!”

“What? Your heart was stolen?”
“That is no ordinary matter.”
“You claim your heart was stolen, I see.”
“Hoh, your agitation is quite understandable, but I must ask you to compose yourself.”
“How could such an absurdity be tolerated?”

“Hurry up and return my heart.”
“I’ll die…”

“Ah, I see. You’ve been engrossed in reading ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ haven’t you?”
“There’s no need for concern.”
“There’s no Shylock here…”

“Ah, I’ll die… Without my heart…”

“That is contrary to the truth.”
“Let me explain. Any human being who loses their heart would die instantly, correct?”
“Yet here you are, perfectly alive.”
“Then it stands to reason that your heart hasn’t been stolen, doesn’t it? How about that?”

Detective Fukuro believed he had painstakingly explained the matter to the young gentleman. O pitiable young gentleman. You must be suffering from a rare case of neurasthenia these days, terrified by dreadful hallucinations.

However, the detective’s persuasion proved ineffective. The young gentleman pulled out a blood-stained hand from the blanket and pointed at his own chest as he shouted.

“As you can see, my heart is gone. Can’t you see it?”

At this, Detective Fukuro stared wide-eyed, hurriedly took out his flashlight, and directed its beam toward the man’s chest. He desperately swallowed his cry of shock. The bandage wrapped around the young gentleman’s left chest was sunken like a deflated rubber ball.

But suspiciously, a suton-suton sound could be heard.
It seemed identical to a heartbeat.

Detective Fukuro earnestly informed the young gentleman of this fact and drew his attention to it.

"I can hear that.
But that sound isn't coming from inside my chest.
And it's not the heartbeat I've grown used to over twenty-four hours.—Ah, the bastard who stole my heart!
Catch him and get my heart back.
Oh God—
No, even a demon—if it would just do this for me..."

And thus, the pitiable young gentleman declared in a voice brimming with unexpected vigor—a tone one would never imagine coming from someone who’d had their heart stolen.

Detective Fukuro appeared to have been plunged into the abyss of bewilderment.

However, he was a man who had long cultivated the habit of reflexively regaining his vigor the moment he hit rock bottom, so no sooner had he been struck down into the abyss than he immediately roused himself like an enraged bull.

However, at this moment, he was spurred into action by a single factor that demanded immediate resurgence—or rather, had his backside metaphorically kicked by it. To put it plainly, this was because he had realized that the perpetrator behind this bizarre heart theft was none other than that damned Karasutenku's handiwork. For Karasutenku was none other than the fierce rival who always made Detective Fukuro's blood boil.

Bullseye: The Master Criminal

“Look here – this young gentleman Mr. Ando Yoshio’s heart has been surgically excised, leaving only a cavity in its place.”

Detective Fukuro was currently explaining the situation to the prosecution authorities’ officials he had promptly summoned after reporting the incident.

“To remove a living human heart – how many besides that accursed phantom thief Karasutenku could achieve such a feat? When it comes to technical prowess, Karasutenku’s skills are truly unparalleled worldwide – no, in truth, that damned Karasutenku is utterly reprehensible!”

It was impossible to tell whether he was praising him or condemning him.

"I see. So that's why you've concluded it's Karasutenku's handiwork, Detective Nekoneko."

Inspector Abukuma of the Investigation Division offered a greeting.

"Indeed, evidence proving Karasutenku's culpability lies abundant as mountains! Can you not perceive this?"
"Can you not perceive it?"

"I'm afraid... we would still like to benefit from Detective Nekoneko's expert insight."

Contrary to his words' intended courtesy, the inspector stated bluntly.

“Are you mocking me?”
“Listen carefully.”
“First: the heart was surgically excised and removed. Second: this black square package here contains an artificial heart.”
“You hear that clatter-clatter, don’t you?”
“That clatter-clatter comes from the pump inside this box, precisely circulating this young man’s blood sixty times per minute in lieu of a heart.”

“Well, well.”

At this, the prosecutors pressed their ears to the black box and opened their mouths round in astonishment.

“You’ve come to understand now, haven’t you? Judging from both the supply of such an excellent artificial heart and the skillfulness of its installation, I can definitively assert that the culprit lies nowhere but with Karasutenku. This here constitutes the second piece of evidence!”

“Well, well.”

“Moreover, take a good look at this black cloth bundle.”
“What you see here is a dyed crow-shaped pattern.”
“Even a baby could recognize this—that this cloth bundle belongs to the phantom thief Karasutenku...”
“This is the third.”

“Well, well, we hadn’t noticed this.”

“Fourthly, while the thief stole this young gentleman Mr. Ando Yoshio’s heart, he promptly provided an artificial heart.
“In short, the thief has taken responsible action regarding protecting the victim’s life.”
“A thief with such chivalrous ethics and gentlemanly conduct—there is none other than that damned Karasutenku.”
“In his famous words—‘To maintain a sound socioeconomic system, every person without exception must pay the price for goods and the reward for work.’
‘If someone neglects that, they are not a true human being.’
‘Even if one were a pickpocket on a train, when they steal a coin purse from a passenger, they ought to stuff some chocolate or such into the victim’s pocket as compensation.’
‘Those lacking such chivalry are worse than the scum of the earth’—so it says here. While ‘scum of the earth’ may not be the most fitting term, I find its underlying intent commendable.”
“In other words, this method of stealing a heart while immediately installing an artificial one to preserve life—this is Karasutenku’s way.”

“Hmph—what a peculiar method indeed.”

“There’s nothing peculiar about it whatsoever. However base a thief may be, we are all fellow human beings—one ought to conduct oneself as Karasutenku does.—But wait! Fifthly...”

“That’s quite enough.”

“Now, you all must not be allowed to overlook this crucial evidence.
Fifthly, I must draw your attention to the fact that this young man—though lying beneath eaves—has been laid upon a straw mattress and wrapped snugly in five blankets to prevent him from catching cold.”
“This was not prepared by this young man.”
“This too is that damned Karasutenku’s responsible action.”
“Had it been an ordinary thief, they would have extracted this young man’s heart and discarded the remaining body into a ditch as is—but when it comes to that Karasutenku—no, that damned Karasutenku—he laid down a straw mattress, wrapped the victim’s body in five pure wool blankets, and abandoned him there.”
“No one but Karasutenku would do such a thing.”
“Sixthly…”

“Hold it.”
“That’s enough.”
“We’ve mostly confirmed it’s Karasutenku’s handiwork as—”

“Sixthly…”

“No—rather than that, let us immediately move this victim to the hospital.”
“If we leave him in such a place for too long and end up letting him catch a cold or die, it would become our responsibility.”
“Should that occur, we would be inferior to Karasutenku. —Let us conduct the case interrogation after hospitalizing Mr. Ando.”

Inspector Abukuma said this and signaled to his subordinates with a glance.

The Love Affair Incident

The prosecution team’s large-scale operations began.

While an intensive manhunt was launched for the phantom thief Karasutenku’s whereabouts, an imposing police cordon was established.

Furthermore, on the night of the incident, a detailed investigation was conducted into the victim Ando Yoshio’s movements, and a rigorous examination was carried out regarding any matters that might have had even the slightest connection to the case that night.

However, Karasutenku’s whereabouts remained unknown, and nothing could be ascertained regarding where Ando’s heart was or what had become of it.
And thus, the case finally began to take on the semblance of a labyrinthine mystery.

What had the hunchbacked famed detective Nekoneko been doing?

He was detained at the prosecution authorities’ facility for four or five days under some suspicion that he might be the main culprit in the heart theft incident, given that he had been both the first person to approach Ando after his heart was stolen and the first to discover the abandoned victim.

Yet he showed no particular indignation over this, explaining the same matters however many times required, and calmly endured those days.
And when the suspicions were finally cleared and he regained his freedom, he immediately had to face a siege by newspaper reporters.

“Were you detained under suspicion of being the heart thief?”

“That is not the case. The authorities kept me there to protect me from the thief Karasutenku.”

“Then does this mean the situation has changed to where you no longer need protection from Karasutenku?”

“Rather than the situation having changed, it’s because the authorities recognized that given my capabilities, there’s no risk of suffering harm from the likes of Karasutenku.”

“Are you going to duel Karasutenku one-on-one now?”

“Since I’ve been dueling him one-on-one all along, of course I’ll continue doing so.”

“Do you know where Karasutenku is?”

“Ah, I know very well.”

“The authorities say they don’t know Karasutenku’s whereabouts. Aren’t you going to tell the authorities?”

“I need not speak about matters I haven’t been asked. The authorities, for their part, must have their own considerations and face to maintain.”

“Do you really think Karasutenku stole Ando’s heart?”

“Yes.”
“I do think so.”

“Then, what purpose do you think Karasutenku had for stealing Ando’s heart?”

“A romantic entanglement has taken root, I perceive.”

“Pfft,” snorted the newspaper reporter, “A love affair incident, you claim?”
“But Karasutenku’s a man, isn’t he?”
“What’s the sense in a man filching another man’s heart?”
“And really—people prattle about ‘stealing hearts’ or ‘claiming hearts as their own,’ but what good comes from swiping an actual bloody organ?”

The reporters scattered away laughing.

After they left, Detective Fukuro hunched his back even more and let out a big sneeze. Then he sniffled with the back of his hand, adjusted the large frames of his black glasses, clasped his hands behind his back, and strolled off.

Having skillfully shaken off six reporters who had been surreptitiously tailing him in the subway, Fukuro Nekoneko suddenly visited Ando Yoshio’s sickbed.

Ando, having raised his upper body on the north-facing sickbed, was vigorously crushing peanut shells with his fingers and noisily chewing the peanuts.
His complexion was remarkably good.
Around his sickbed, five or six nurses gathered.

After having those women excuse themselves, Detective Fukuro sat facing Ando.

“Detective, I just can’t take it anymore.”

“I can well imagine.”

“Has my heart been found?”

“Not yet.”

“Still not?”
“This is so frustrating… If it isn’t found—has Mr. Karasutenku been located?”

“I have not yet paid him a visit.”

“Do you know where he is?”

“Probably… However, only to me.”

“If you meet Mr. Karasutenku, please plead with him on my behalf. Tell him I’ll pay any amount of money to have my original heart restored as it was before.”

“I shall at least convey your request.”

“Anyway, with this artificial heart dangling from my neck, I can’t even show my face in front of that girl looking like this.”

“Yes—regarding that ‘that girl’ I’ve come to inquire about—what might the young lady’s name be?”

“It’s Imafuku Nishie.”

Ando wrote the characters on the bed with his finger.

“Miss Imafuku Nishie, then.”
“Very well.”
“I shall make an effort.”

“Detective.”
“I’m begging you.”
“Please resolve this matter as soon as possible so I can appear before that girl without her disliking me.”

“You do speak most timidly, if I may say.”

“I was born timid, you see.”
“So even after dating that girl for a full year, I still can’t even express my own intentions.”

“Could it be that your passion is insufficient?”

“That’s not true.”
“I know my passion has reached well past the boiling point.”

“In any case, I shall contact you again later.”

Detective Fukuro left the hospital, shaking his head.

Utterly unexpected.

Then Detective Fukuro suddenly became busy.

He had to hurriedly take care of each and every matter that concerned him.

He first conducted a character investigation on Ando Yoshio.
He visited everyone from the landlady of Ando’s apartment to his friends, his workplace superiors and subordinates, and then the waiters, head waiter, and women at the depository of the Rosary Club he had joined.

As a result, he came to understand Ando Yoshio’s character.
He was a model gentle youth, extremely strict in both financial matters and relationships with women, with not a single scandal to his name.
If one were to point out a flaw, he—Ando—was excessively timid, like a sheltered daughter from the Tokugawa period, barely able to speak in public. Worse still, when facing women, even if his counterpart were an eighty-year-old prune-faced granny, he would blush crimson from cheeks to earlobes in bashfulness.

(Hmm.
That was rather perplexing.)

And Detective Fukuro cocked his head quizzically.
The reason was that he had recalled the recent scene of Ando gathering five or six young nurses around his own sickbed and fooling around with them, giggling playfully.
Moreover, while Ando verbally lamented his own timidity, during this recent period he had a healthy complexion, spoke clearly and articulately, and appeared quite spirited.

There was a discrepancy somewhere.
Or perhaps all the witnesses were lying in unison.
However, it is difficult for them all to lie in unison.
The detective, tilting his head again, moved to his second course of action.

This was near the mansion of Miss Imafuku Nishie—Ando Yoshio’s secret love interest whose heart had been stolen.

When making inquiries in the neighborhood, he learned that this Miss Imafuku was said to be an extremely timid young lady—so timid that it seemed miraculous she had managed to survive even temporarily in this turbulent world.

At that exact moment, a sleek coupe automobile arrived at the gate of the Imafuku residence.
The one who alighted was a man of exceptional build—a face slightly too long but attractive in its dusky luster, cheeks freshly shaven gleaming bluish.
Pomade-lathered long hair, rimless glasses with pale purple lenses, a slender upturned mustache beneath the nose.
Clad in a red and white striped tie and a sporty light green checkered overcoat, his figure as he leisurely passed through the gate was that of a splendidly handsome gentleman—so striking one might gaze in admiration even if not a woman.

“That’s the gentleman.”
“The first time he began openly associating with Miss Imafuku was…”

The tobacco shop mistress whispered to Detective Fukuro.

The detective groaned.

After a short while, the gentleman from earlier emerged from within the gate, accompanied by a slender-faced beauty wrapped in a squirrel fur overcoat.

“Look! Here comes the young lady.”
“That gentleman has been coming to pick her up for six days as of today.”
“What a considerate gentleman!”

The mistress sighed, and the detective let out his second groan.

The coupe left behind a pale purple gasoline exhaust, and the man and woman on board vanished from view.

The detective finally returned to himself and began to panic.

"That bastard of a gentleman's wearing such a youthful getup, but no matter what anyone says, he's undoubtedly Karasutenku. Now I've found the three vertices of triangle ABC."
"Alright. In that case, I have my own methods too."

Now that the relationship between Ando Yoshio—who had received a confession—and Imafuku Nishie, as well as the current relationship between Imafuku Nishie and Karasutenku, had become clear, it naturally followed that another relationship—between Karasutenku and Ando Yoshio—would come to mind.
And the severity of this third relationship was determined by the other two relationships.
Detective Fukuro, who had concluded that uncovering the truth of this love triangle was the proper path to solving the case, nimbly mounted his concealed noiseless motorcycle and launched a grand pursuit aimed at the coupe from earlier.

Being the remarkably keen-nosed Fukuro Nekoneko, upon reaching each intersection he would twitch his nose, sniff out the direction from which Miss Imafuku’s lingering scent drifted, and then dash headlong in that direction. And approximately fifteen minutes later, he arrived at the entrance of the Rosary Club.

Subsequently, he slipped into the club, where he obtained ample evidence—confirming two facts: that the lavishly dressed gentleman clinging to Miss Imafuku without leaving her side for even a minute was indeed Karasutenku in disguise.

There, the detective left the club and entered a public telephone booth.
The person he had called was none other than Ando Yoshio, who was hospitalized.

“It is you, I see.
As I promised, I will report the findings that have come to light since then—but you mustn’t be shocked, for it’s bad for your heart.”

“I’m terribly sorry about that.”
“What do you mean by ‘mustn’t be shocked’…”

Ando’s voice was composed.
The detective thought he would soon astonish him.
He might immediately have a convulsion—but fortunately, since he was in a hospital room—emergency care would be readily available—and finally set about making his report.

Upon receiving the report, Ando shouted in a voice like a whip crack.

“Ah, I see.”
“I know that bastard.”
“I thought he was a nasty bastard, but is he taking advantage of my hospitalization to court that girl?”
“That bastard’s outrageous—he’s called Tsukio Kanzō, that lanky bastard…”

“Hoh, Tsukio Kanzō?”

Detective Fukuro had carelessly forgotten to investigate Karasutenku’s love alias.
He’d forgotten.
I am Karasutenku, my dear young lady—then winning your affection would prove difficult.

“No good—you don’t even know my rival’s name.”
“But that’s not really important.”
“What I can’t stand is that Tsukio Kanzō bastard.”
“Very well, I’ve made up my mind.”
“I’m going to the club right now to crush Tsukio Kanzō and reclaim Miss Imafuku.”
“Well then, later…”

“Huh? Wait—”
“Hello?”
“Hello…?”

The detective shouted into the receiver as if biting into it, but Ando’s reply never came.

One Point Reclaimed

A pink storm suddenly erupted at the Rosary Club, and next, it was picked up by newspapers and graphic magazines to be reported in grand fashion.
Headlines declared: “Heart Theft Man’s Love Clash,” “Phantom Thief Karasutenku Joins Modern Quadrilateral Romance Battle,” and “Heartless Man’s Crowning Glory of Love.”

Even these sharp-nosed reporters failed to realize that the thief Karasutenku and the romantic contender Tsukio Kanzō were one and the same, making their breathless coverage of a "four-way love battle" utterly laughable to Detective Fukuro.

Within four or five days of this incident, Ando Yoshio—now known as the man who had his heart stolen by Karasutenku yet still lived—shot to social fame. Then, just as he had boldly declared, he splendidly outmaneuvered Tsukio Kanzō and won Miss Imafuku’s love, further elevating his renown.
What was expected next was when the couple’s wedding date would be set.

Faced with this speedy and unexpected reality, Detective Fukuro Nekoneko wore a thoroughly dumbfounded expression, but given that today—with Ando Yoshio, whose heart had been stolen, having become instantly famous for that very theft and even gaining his long-awaited love—Ando must have been wholly satisfied, he believed that his services toward Ando had therefore ceased.
As a result, he had distanced himself from Ando’s turbulent affairs.

One day，he happened to bump into Ando Yoshio somewhere．Unusually，he wasn’t with Nishie．Instead，fourteen or fifteen newspaper reporters surrounded him．

“Congratulations，Mr．Ando．You’re looking even better than ever，” Detective Fukuro called out．

“Ah，I wanted to see you，Detective Nekoneko！”Ando shouted and threw his arms around Detective Fukuro．The artificial heart’s box thrust into Detective Fukuro’s ribs with such force it bordered on painful，not even bothering with an apology．“There’s no one as unfortunate as I am．Please do something about this，Detective Nekoneko！”

For Fukuro Nekoneko, what Ando was saying didn’t make much sense. But after some time had passed, he came to understand the circumstances of Ando’s pleading. Though he had gained love, provided material for journalism, and become wealthy, his complaint was that he would remain utterly unhappy unless he had his original heart restored.

“……After all, I can’t even take a bath like this—this artificial heart is an electric device, you see.”
“Moreover, if I marry Nishie, I can cause real trouble.”
“Please tell Mr. Karasutenku that and have him return my heart.”

“This is quite a predicament.”

And with that, Detective Fukuro replied, more troubled than ever.
What if, at this moment, Detective Fukuro had blurted out his true thoughts to Ando?

“You’ve done a clumsy thing.
“You’ve subjected the man who stole your heart to terrible hardship, you see.
“That Karasutenku fellow, brooding over his heartbreak wounds, might’ve skewered your heart like a kebab and devoured it by now out of sheer frustration.
That’s preposterous—I can’t possibly tell Ando such a thing.”

“Detective—couldn’t you do something… for the person most precious to me…”

When had she appeared? It was Imafuku Nishie who had come before him—Fukuro Nekoneko—in desperate entreaty.

“I see.
Very well—I shall make an effort.”

And so, Detective Fukuro carelessly made the promise and later groaned mightily.

A promise was a promise.
Thereupon, the detective—after straining his brain cells all night without a wink of sleep—waited for dawn and stormed into the hideout of the peerless phantom thief Karasutenku.

Karasutenku appeared thoroughly dejected, his hair and beard both wild and unkempt, his entire body resembling a ripe persimmon as he lay sprawled on the sofa, guzzling liquor all night long.
Neither startled by Fukuro Nekoneko’s arrival nor showing any curiosity, his bleary drunken gaze remained fixed as he kept pouring liquor into his mouth like a man trying to drown himself.

“Hey, Mr. Karasutenku.
“When it comes to this matter, you’ve done nothing but bungle from the very start.
“Before putting it into action, why didn’t you think it through better?
“If you had done so, you should have realized the result would run counter to your hopes.”

“……”

“Listen well—you stole the heart from your love rival’s body and made him hang that hideously ugly artificial heart on his chest.
"You must have thought that appearance wouldn’t suit Miss Imafuku’s tastes—yet when you actually did it, your calculations backfired."
“Well? You must see where this is going, don’t you?”

“……”

“By dubbing him ‘the man whose heart was stolen,’ you made your love rival instantly famous.”

“What’s more, by cutting out that rival’s weak heart and installing a powerful artificial one, you transformed him into a paragon of masculinity who promptly knocked you down to romantic failure.”

“Well? You understand now, don’t you?”

“In short, you went out of your way to engineer your own defeat.”

“You’re an absolute fool.”

“Ugh…”

“You really are a fool.”
“Your love rival has had a powerful mechanical heart installed and rejoices as if blessed by heaven, and even Miss Imafuku is delighted for some reason.”
“To cap it all off, you went out of your way to replace your love rival’s inherent weakness—his naturally weak heart—with a strong mechanical one—”

Mid-sentence, Karasutenku suddenly turned pale and bolted from the room.
One hour later, Ando’s chest had his original heart reattached.
As for the artificial heart, Karasutenku had taken it back.
Two hours later, bridegroom Yoshio and bride Nishie departed on a journey toward New York for their newlywed relocation.
After that, rumors said that the thief Karasutenku had been chasing Detective Fukuro around instead.