Pathway to Japanese Literature

Voice in the Darkness The standoff between the Phantom Thief Utou Tenku and Detective Fukuro Nekoneko had persisted for ages. This contest remained unresolved through autumn's passing into winter's arrival.

However, it was here that Detective Fukuro achieved a feat. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he had seized a stroke of luck. To explain: three nights prior, there had been a silent confrontation within Toranomon Park. Fukuro Nekoneko had been thoroughly intoxicated that night when he chanced to pass through the area, but finding his body wholly unresponsive to commands, he resolved to while away some time there—stumbling footsteps carrying him haphazardly into those very grounds. Before he could reach the pavilion, his strength deserted him entirely; with a heavy thud he collapsed onto his rear and stayed put—right behind the Fatsia leaves near where he'd first entered.

There, his body finally settled completely, and he fell into a deep sleep—or so he thought, when suddenly his slumber was shattered. Unidentifiable figures—two groups split left and right, glaring at each other just ten paces away. They kept their voices low even as they traded vicious threats. When their tones occasionally sharpened and verbal sparks flew, shards of their argument would pierce the drunken detective’s ears in jagged fragments… A magnificent molybdenite mine had been discovered.

“The location of what’s tentatively called Otafukuyama is a secret.” “You’re the only one who knows it.” “Preposterous.”

Kanayama Gensuke was murdered—the man who discovered Otafukuyama’s treasure and unearthed the specimen ore... "You’re the one who killed him." "A lie." "Nonsense." "Now that I know you're part of Utou's inner circle, I'm done talking." "You shouldn’t say such things." "Sasayama Onijirou! You’re a villain! A coward!"

“We’ll split the profits fifty-fifty.” “No.” “I’ll lay everything bare before your boss and take it up with the leader himself!” Now wait. “You have the secret map you snatched from Gensuke.” “Tear that in half right now and hand it over.” Oh no, I’ve been spotted by the bad guys. “Then I’ll take it out now and split it… Just wait a moment, please.”

Detective Fukuro remembered what happened next with relative clarity.

To explain: a massive brawl suddenly erupted right beside him. Curses. A scream. Roars. The sound of blows. The sound of something being thrown repeatedly. Then disordered footsteps. Receding footsteps.……

Detective Fukuro, behind the Fatsia leaves, made repeated efforts to stand up. But in the end, it proved futile. His hips were heavy, and no strength would come. Before long, something the size of a desk came flying and knocked him flat. He grew calm.

Eventually, he came to.

He felt intense pain throughout his body. Raising his hand even slightly hurt; moving his foot even a little hurt. The area around his waist stung. But to his delight, this time he managed to stand upright on both legs. However, his back remained hunched. But this was originally due to his hunched posture—nothing that had begun tonight. He tried to extricate himself from the Fatsia thicket that had long ensnared him and stumbled. His foot caught on something heavy and solid. When he looked, a folding briefcase lay fallen.

He picked it up, took it under the night light, and examined it. At this moment, his eyes were no longer clouded by drink, but the briefcase was utterly unfamiliar to him. He turned back to return the briefcase to its original spot, but after taking five or six steps, he changed his mind.

He clutched the briefcase under his arm, passed through the grove's darkness in the park, and emerged onto the outer street. Then he safely returned to his office.

When he opened the door and entered the entrance—through his unique method of operating the cipher lock, known only to him, he could access this strictly secured interior—the loyal housekeeper Seki-san awoke and came to greet him. It was slightly past 2 AM. Since there was no particular business, he had Granny return to her bedroom and then found his own bed to burrow into.

Fukuro Nekoneko knew nothing of this, but about thirty minutes after he left the park, three men came rushing into its grounds. And then, as if sniffing around the ground where the earlier brawl had occurred, they began searching intently for something.

They searched for about an hour before huddling together, tilting their heads in puzzlement, and leaving the park with unrelieved expressions.

That night, the folding briefcase Detective Fukuro had picked up belonged to Ikari Kenji, brother-in-law of Utou Tenku. Inside were several documents of utmost confidentiality to Utou that had greatly pleased Detective Fukuro the following morning. He extracted only those documents from the briefcase and stored them in the wall-embedded safe within his study—the vault he trusted above all others. As for the briefcase itself, he placed it inside the glass cabinet and locked it. He resolved to maintain a facade of complete ignorance toward Utou. Yet he presumed they must be agonizing over the loss on their end.

A meticulous pickpocket Detective Fukuro had temporarily forgotten about that briefcase related to Utou. The reason was that he had become engrossed in researching the strange facts he had overheard through what one might call "drunken eavesdropping" amidst the Fatsia thicket some days prior.

As a result, he confirmed that the story about that valuable molybdenite was genuine. He also confirmed that Kanayama Gensuke—the true rights holder who had discovered it—was dead. He was said to have died at his boarding house after drinking bad alcohol, but it had not been confirmed as a murder.

The man known as Sasayama Onijirou did indeed exist. He was a thirty-year-old man affiliated with the Yuge-gumi who handled contract work. However, it was discovered he had not shown his face at the Yuge-gumi recently. Upon investigating Sasayama Onijirou's lodgings, it became clear he had not appeared there at all for several days. He seemed to be staying elsewhere.

It had been discovered that even the Yuge-gumi were concerned about this man’s whereabouts; separately, it became clear that Utou’s faction, more so than the Yuge-gumi, were eager to locate Onijirou and had set various schemes in motion. And while their leader Utou Tenku himself had yet to make an appearance, it became known through neighbors’ accounts that his brother-in-law—the skilled man Ikari Kenji—had come to this Onijirou’s house on multiple occasions. Sasayama Onijirou was quite the villain, seemingly superior to others in intellect, skill, and courage. Even during their previous encounter at Toranomon Park, he had indeed ultimately refused to relinquish half of that secret map to his opponents. At that moment, he instead launched a counterattack and seemed to have thoroughly flustered Utou’s group. Even Ikari Kenji—who had been leading Utou’s group that night—had his right arm torn and collapsed, leaving his panicked subordinates no choice but to haul him over their shoulders and retreat.

Given Onijirou’s character, he had likely already discerned the shifting tides and gone into hiding—but for Fukuro Nekoneko, locating Onijirou’s whereabouts as swiftly as possible had become imperative, and beyond that, he burned with determination to ascertain whether Onijirou had truly murdered Kanayama Gensuke and misappropriated his mineral rights. Yet despite Detective Nekoneko’s meticulous investigation, his current inability to pinpoint Onijirou’s whereabouts mirrored Ikari Kenji’s predicament.

A few days later, he made an unexpected discovery.

It was when he—the detective—was passing by Toranomon Park with that case still weighing on his mind that a sponge ball suddenly flew out from within the park and struck him hard on the head. The detective reeled. At that moment, a young man came rushing out from within the park and—pretending to retrieve the ball—collided heavily with him. “Sorry,” said the young man as he tried to run off—but the detective seized his arm and yanked him back.

“A pickpocket, eh? “Hand over what you stole.” “Hand over what you stole,” shouted the detective. The young man thrashed about with brute strength. However, Detective Fukuro—who took some pride in his physical strength—did not release the wrist. As they struggled over retrieving the billfold from the inner pocket, the opponent suddenly bit down on the detective’s hand. “Agh!” The detective released his grip. Thwack—a blow struck his shin. The detective toppled over. Then, with a sickening crack from a boot across his jaw, his vision swam as he staggered.

Up to this point, it had been a brilliant defeat for the detective.

But when he regained his composure, holding his chin as he stood up, something fluttered down below. It was a letter with a broken seal. That was his haul. True to his detective instincts, he stuffed what an ordinary person would dismiss without a second glance into his pocket, then leaped into the park. It was to apprehend the man from earlier. But inside the park was utterly still, with no one playing baseball or catch. The detective ground his teeth but could do nothing about it.

But later, when he took out that letter with the torn seal from his pocket and unfolded it, this couldn't help but excite him. In other words, everything written on a single sheet was composed entirely of katakana; when he tried to read through it once, it became unmistakably clear that this was indeed ciphertext.

The text was as follows.

“KURUMAKANNISENKOKUARISHINNENNOENKAIIMANAOENKIZANNENNARITANNENBERUKU KAISENNOKETSUKAHASHIZENCHIHOUMINNOSHINNOBANSAINKAIINNIKANSEZUNAOMINKANNISONOSANKANWOKOWANTOKANZESHINARANIMAKEEITSU NOSOSAMAJINIKUGIJIAMATONTSUMAISERINKOGORAMIUIWODAIHAMORACHICHINOTOREMAKATEGIWOCHIMAMECHIIMOSHIUTOTOUMIKESHITEMOAE GEIKORIMAYOTOSUKAIRUUYOREOINNUUHANONAONASUWOTORETSUKOTADERESUHA”

Could it be deciphered?

Clearly, this was a cipher. Since it was a cipher, it had to be solvable.

"Very well. I'll decipher it!" Detective Fukuro placed the katakana-only passage on his desk and showed fierce resolve. "Where should I even begin..." He read it twice over, three times over, four times, five times aloud. As he reread, something vaguely caught his attention. "The beginning seems to have meaningful words, but from midway onward, it turns into complete gibberish."

Then he formed another thought.

"The first half rings jarringly crisp, yet that quality vanishes entirely in the latter part."

Having gone that far, he shifted to a straightforward approach. He began by counting the number of characters. “Ah, two hundred characters.” “Exactly two hundred characters.” The fact that it was exactly two hundred characters seemed unlikely to be a coincidence. There had to be some deliberate design concealed within. Next, he classified these two hundred characters. He determined which characters appeared most frequently and arranged them in descending order.

As a result, he discovered the following:

N (29 instances) ranked first. Next was I (14 instances). Third place went to KA (11 instances). After that came NO (8 instances), MA (9 instances), and TO (7 instances), with the numbers dropping off significantly from there.

"This is really strange. Even for a mere two-hundred-character cipher text, it deviates considerably from the statistical frequency of Japanese characters. Characters like Wo, Ni, Wa, and Ru—which ought to be fairly numerous—are unexpectedly scarce here. In contrast, characters like N and Ka appear far too frequently. The fact that N accounts for twenty-nine characters out of two hundred is far too abnormal." Detective Fukuro let out a single sigh, picked up his pencil, and began counting each character from the very first one.

“This brings us exactly to the halfway point.” “The portion before this contains one hundred characters.” “The remaining portion contains one hundred characters.” “Now that I’ve drawn this dividing line—there’s definitely something to this.”

He divided it into two sections: one starting with KURUMAKAN and ending with KANZESHINARAN, and the next starting with IMAKEEITSU and ending with TADERESUHA.

"Hmm." "The first half and second half might as well be strangers.—Let’s tentatively treat them as separate entities." "And analyze them." He started with the first half. He began tallying character frequencies. N (25 instances), followed by KA (9), then I (5), NO (5), with SHI and NA both at (4)...

This was getting increasingly absurd. It completely violated Japanese character frequency statistics—therefore, this wasn’t merely a rearrangement of broken-down meaningful words. Then what on earth was this? What role could it play—the first hundred characters… In any case, twenty-five instances of n were far too abnormal. Next came ka with nine instances. The gap between first and second place was far too large… Twenty-five instances of n. Twenty-five… Wait—twenty-five was a quarter of a hundred. The number of characters in the first half had been a hundred. A quarter of that hundred was the character n. That was it. That’s where the key lay.

What kind of key could this be? I can't quite get a grip on this.—In that case, I'll try shifting my approach slightly.

One hundred and twenty-five. In any case, it's a hundred. It could also be expressed as 100, 25, and 4.

"If only I could solve the relationship between these three numbers..."

“That’s it.” Four and a hundred—this might be it. If you split the hundred characters into ten-character segments and arrange them into ten lines, you get one hundred. Then a square forms. "This is fascinating!" _KURUMAKANNISENKOKU_ _ARISHINNENNOENKA_ _IIMANAOENKIZAN_ _NENNARITANNENBERU_ _KUKAISENNOKETSUKAHA_

_SHIZENCHIHOUMINNOSHI_ _NNOBANSANKAIN_ _NIKANSEZUNAOMINKA_ _NNISONOSANKANWOKO_

_WANTOKANZESHINARAN_

Observing this square arrangement of characters, he realized the ン characters within it indeed signaled a cipher key. They were not forming words.

Then what kind of cipher key was that?

Punctuation marks?

“Anyway—let’s mark every spot where these n characters appear and distinguish them from the rest.”

┌─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┐ │○│●｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ ｜●｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜

├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ ｜○｜○｜●｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ ｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤

｜●｜○｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜●｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤

｜○｜●｜○｜●｜○｜○｜●｜○｜●｜○｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤

｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜

├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ │○│●｜○｜○｜●｜○｜●｜○｜○｜●｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤

│○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ ｜●｜○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜ └─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┘ He cut windows into the paper.

The black circles marked the ン characters. He would treat those as punctuation marks. Starting from the first character and picking them up in sequences of four, two, five, one, two, seven, two... This approach wasn't working. Proceeding with this calculation yielded seventy-five content characters. Twenty-five punctuation markers meant subtracting from one hundred left seventy-five. Seventy-five characters made no sense when paired with another hundred-character ciphertext section supposedly containing actual content. It couldn't be seventy-five. This method of interpreting ン as punctuation had failed.

Then how was he to decipher it?

He returned to the original numbers once more: one hundred, twenty-five, and four. One hundred was the total character count. Twenty-five marked the n characters; four... four meant the square. Twenty-five multiplied by four equaled one hundred. "When collecting positions containing n," he thought, "they become the 5th, 8th, 14th, 16th, 19th, 27th, 30th characters..." As a test, he tried extracting characters corresponding to those numbers from the latter hundred characters.

Then, the fifth character (イ), eighth (ソ), fourteenth (ギ), sixteenth (ア), nineteenth (ン), twenty-seventh (ゴ), thirtieth (ウ)... When I gathered them in this order—イソギアンゴウ, イソギアンゴウ—it read “urgent cipher.” Not bad at all. I’d try collecting further ahead.

“32nd character (ヲ), 36th (モ), 38th (チ), 45th (テ), 53rd (モ), 58th (ウ), 61st (シ), 64th (ア), 66th (ゲ), 70th (マ), 73rd (ス)—WOMOCHITEMOUSHIA GEMASU.” Starting from the beginning, it becomes "With urgent cipher in hand, I humbly report"—this is it.

If he extracted from among the latter half's characters those corresponding to where ン appeared—the cipher could be decrypted. "Alright—got it."

Then I'll keep going with the rest.

"'With urgent cipher in hand I humbly report: The man in question—' That made twenty-five characters." "Just this left the text as abrupt as a dragonfly missing its tail." "Where could the rest be concealed?" "Mightn't there be more ciphertext continuing beyond?" "Shouldn't there have been second and third stationery sheets?" Yet what lay inside had been but one sheet alone. "I'm stymied."

Detective Fukuro reached an impasse and glared resentfully at the scrap of paper.

I felt I was on the verge of solving it. Yet no clues revealed themselves. His brain seemed to sulk like a petulant child. "What should I do?" Detective Fukuro groaned... when suddenly he cried out. "Ah—this must be it!"

The detective pointed at the ン at the end of the black-and-white chart. It was the hundredth character’s ン. “This is the only corner of the square frame with an ン character.” “The other three corners have no ン.” “……Then perhaps this window had been cleverly opened.” “……Ah, that’s it.” “It’s a square.” “A perfect square—divided into crosses.” “Whether turned sideways or upside down—since it shares the same shape and size—it aligns perfectly.” “Good.” “This must be it.” “I’ll arrange the latter hundred characters into a square in the same way.”

Ima kee itsu no sosama jinikugijiamatontsu maiserinkogoramiu iwodaihamorachichino toremakategiwochimame

chiimoshuutoumike shitemo aegeikorima YOTOSUKAIRUUYOREO

Innu wa noaonasu WOTORETSUKOTADERESUHA

Having done this, he layered the black-and-white chart—with the first half’s characters arranged in a square—on top of this. He pierced holes with a knife only at the positions marked with ン—in other words, the black circles—in advance. It took the form laid out here. 3↓

┌─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┐ │■│□｜■｜□｜■｜■｜■｜■｜■｜■｜

├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ ｜□｜■｜■｜■｜■｜■｜□｜■｜■｜■｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ ｜■｜■｜□｜■｜□｜■｜■｜■｜■｜■｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ ｜■｜■｜■｜□｜■｜■｜■｜■｜□｜■｜

├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤

｜□｜■｜■｜■｜■｜□｜■｜■｜■｜□｜ ４├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤２ →｜■｜□｜■｜□｜■｜■｜□｜■｜□｜■｜← ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ ｜■｜■｜■｜■｜■｜■｜■｜□｜■｜■｜

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1↑

Once this was done, the rest came easily. Since multiplying twenty-five characters by four gave a hundred characters, he placed this perforated paper over the cipher text's grid—first reading the initial twenty-five characters up to “urgent cipher...the man in question”—then rotated the sheet ninety or a hundred eighty degrees over the cipher and read the letters visible through the holes each time. That was all it took.

First, he placed the perforated paper in orientation (1), then changed it to orientation (2). In other words, he rotated it ninety degrees to the left. Then, "A fragment of text reading 'using the alias Maeshima Sen’ichi and accompanied by a woman named Tomiko' emerged."

Next, he rotated it another ninety degrees to the left into orientation (3) to gather characters, then rotated it again into orientation (4) to collect them. With this, the hundred-character cipher transformed into legible text. In other words, when reading the full text:

“I humbly report by means of the urgent cipher. “The man in question is using the alias Maeshima Sen’ichi and, accompanied by a woman named Tomiko, has been staying in the bamboo room annex of the Tomoe Inn in Hara-no-Machi since the day before yesterday, apparently waiting for someone.” Thus it read.

“Ah, so ‘the man in question’ refers to Sasayama Onijirou.”

Detective Fukuro intuited. That today's pickpocket hadn't been an ordinary thief could be inferred from the meticulous methods that fellow had employed. He considered whether it was Utou's gang or Sasayama's faction behind it, but judging from this cipher text, this was undoubtedly intelligence sent by Utou's subordinate to headquarters—or to Ikari Kenji.

“I see. Now that I’ve obtained this cipher text, it’s standard procedure for me to make an urgent trip to Hara-no-Machi.” He hurriedly drove out in his car.

A Noteworthy Exchange

The subordinates from Utou’s group who had been stationed outside sent reports to headquarters each time.

“Fukuro Nekoneko hurriedly departed by automobile.”

“He purchased items at Ueno Hirokoji.” “He bought a travel briefcase，groceries，and playing cards.” “At Ueno Station，he purchased a second-class ticket to Hara-no-Machi.”

“He stopped by the bookstore in front of the station. He bought Satō Hachirō’s poetry collection and a travel guide.” “At a café in front of the station, he had one black tea and one anmitsu. He placed a ten-yen tip.” “Detective Fukuro returned home at three in the afternoon. Peering through the window, he was preparing for his journey.” “Upon investigation, the ticket purchased by Detective Fukuro was for the 10:00 PM express departing from Ueno bound for Aomori.”

“The current time is 9:17 PM.” Fukuro Nekoneko appeared at the entrance, loaded a travel briefcase and blanket into the car, seated a boy in the passenger seat, was seen off by Granny, and drove off himself. “The direction appears to be toward Ueno.”

Fukuro Nekoneko—wearing a Homburg hat, a long brown overcoat, hunched posture, and brown-tinted glasses—boarded the Train 96 at Platform 4 with a black travel briefcase and a gray blanket. The train departed at 10:01 PM. “Fukuro Nekoneko is reading a book while frequently biting into an apple.”

“At exactly 10:10 PM, the boy drove Nekoneko’s car back to the Fukuro Residence.” Granny awoke and came out. He put the car in the garage and locked it. The boy received a box of chocolates and three apples from Granny and left happily.

“The light in Granny’s room went out too, and every window in the mansion had gone dark.” “Only the streetlights and gate lights are shining.” The reports gathered at Utou Tenku’s location like the teeth of a comb.

After some time, a report came from Omiya Station informing them that Detective Fukuro was wrapped in a blanket and fast asleep in his seat.

“Very well. “That Nekoneko bastard took the cipher bait and was finally driven out to Fukushima Prefecture!” “Now then—time we got down to business.”

Utou set down his cup, lumbered to his feet, and signaled to Ikari Kenji and the rest of his subordinates.

It was the clan’s deployment.

In the car, Ikari Kenji addressed Utou Tenku.

“That Fukuro Nekoneko seems to have properly deciphered the cipher text.” “Seeing he bought a ticket to Hara-no-Machi Station means he must’ve cracked the code—right? Given his line of work, he oughta manage that much.” “Suda—the one who cooked up that cipher—was sweating whether Detective Fukuro had the chops to solve it.” “Nekoneko’s a cut above Suda.” “But I’ll bet that detective never dreamed we’d ransack his nest while he’s off playing traveler.”

“Seeing him board the train and clackety-clack his way out of Tokyo, he didn’t seem to have noticed a thing.” “He’ll be shocked later.” “After all the trouble of obtaining Utou’s important documents, they’d be gone while he was away.” “But if things go smoothly… Fukuro Nekoneko’s safe is notoriously secure among professionals.”

Utou looked uncharacteristically worried and listless. However, when the car stopped near the Fukuro Residence and he swiftly alighted, he cut a dashing figure—a leader so formidable even demons would flee. “The team going inside will be me, Ikari, plus Hyouta, Sharon, and Hachiman—five members in total,” he said. “The rest of you—scatter outside according to plan and keep watch without letting your guard down.” The subordinates nominated to enter grinned smugly, their faces brimming with pride.

They split into two groups and entered from the front and rear. Before Utou’s eyes, locks were as good as nonexistent.

“We tied up Granny and stuffed her in the closet. There’s nobody else here.”

“I see.” “Then move into the safe room.”

In Fukuro Nekoneko's study was the secret safe. When they removed the splendid wall hanging, the safe's door came into view beneath it.

However, this stubbornly refused to open. Utou ordered the three safecracking experts—Hyouta, Sharon, and Hachiman—to take on the task.

But even these master craftsmen found themselves powerless as one hour passed, then two. “Should we blow it up?”

Ikari Kenji was growing impatient. “I hate crude methods like that. We’ll remove the lock and open it properly—no shortcuts.” Utou stubbornly persisted in his characteristic way.

Three hours, three and a half... Fatigue began to show on the faces of the three experts. “Not done yet?”

Ikari, unable to bear it any longer, spoke up.

“Aniki, can’t you just stay quiet?”

He was scolded.

“I see. If it’s taking this long, no wonder we had to drive the detective away on an overnight trip.”

Ikari, out of sheer boredom, opened desk drawers and picked up books one by one to leaf through them. When he found the briefcase he had lost recently in the cupboard, he jolted with tension—but upon opening it, the crucial documents were gone. What was this about? So they were in the safe after all. After an extraordinary four hours and twenty minutes, the large safe finally opened at 3 AM. “Finally! It’s open!” “We’ll leave the rest to the Boss.”

The three experts had exhausted every ounce of their strength and collapsed into crouches on the spot.

Taking their place, Utou and Ikari stepped forward and peered into the safe. “Ah! That’s it.” “Yeah, they were kept here after all. Not realizing it’d get cracked—what a fool Nekoneko is.”

“Don’t move. I’ll shoot.” “Those who enjoy machine gun bullets are welcome to move.”

He roared.

Suddenly, from behind... “Kindly raise your hands quietly.” “Now then, everyone.” “Welcome to my humble abode…” The five thieves raised both hands high and looked back. A stoop-shouldered, overweight man holding a machine gun—wearing large brown glasses—smirked mockingly at them. “Tch! You’re Nekoneko, huh? You really pulled one over on us.”

Utou clicked his tongue in vexation. “Though you kindly sent an invitation to visit my humble abode, it would be inexcusable for me to be away.”

“Did you turn back halfway?” “Not at all. I merely purchased a ticket to Hara no Machi—that’s all.” “But it’s certain that Detective Fukuro left through the entrance carrying a travel briefcase and a blanket, but...” Ikari harbored suspicions. “Ahaha, that was my stand-in gentleman. A thousand yen per day—quite the expense. I’ll send you the bill for it later.” “Hey. Mr. Nekoneko. What’s your plan here? How long are you going to keep making us hold our hands up?”

“No, it won’t be much longer.” “The police will arrive shortly.” “In five or six minutes...” “In five or six minutes...”

Utou’s eyes flashed sharply toward Ikari. Then, in Ikari’s upraised hands came a sharp crack of breaking glass, and fragments scattered across the floor. “What?” “What did you do?”

With that, Detective Fukuro directed the gun muzzle toward Ikari. At that moment, Ikari turned pale and collapsed. Then Utou, who had been standing beside him, also collapsed abruptly. “What’s…” Mid-sentence, the detective’s eyelids grew heavy, and he dropped the machine gun he was holding with a thud at his feet. Then his body rolled onto the machine gun. The three safecracking experts also collapsed one after another.

Everyone was dead. No—they might simply be unconscious. And this was a matter of a mere few seconds.

What in the world had happened?

At that moment, a dozen or so men came stampeding in with thunderous footsteps. They wore gas masks as if by prior agreement.

And carrying off Utou and the five bandits, they turned on their heels and hurriedly left the room.

Afterward, Fukuro Nekoneko alone was left behind in the serenely silent room.

At Utou’s mansion, a banquet was held to celebrate their efforts.

“That Ponsuke Detective must be quite shocked by now, don’t you think?” “Heh, you never imagined we’d pull off a forced mutual demise with poison gas—enemies sharing the same boat—did you?”

Inside the glass ampoule that Ikari had crushed in his palm lay odorless paralyzing gas. "A stratagem only Utou-gumi could execute."

“Nah, it’s nothing major.” “You thought you’d tricked us good, but we neatly snatched away the crucial documents instead. Mr. Fukuro Nekoneko must be lamenting bitterly—oh how bitterly!” “Detective Fukuro will keep getting burned like this unless he hires more hands.”

“He can’t hire people because labor costs are too high.”

That was true. However, as Detective Fukuro already held photographed copies of Utou's crucial documents, he wasn't lamenting as much as Utou's subordinates were sneering.

As for the molybdenite incident, he hadn’t heard what became of it afterward.