Pathway to Japanese Literature

A Voice in the Darkness

The long-standing standoff between Phantom Crime Lord Utou Tenku and Detective Fukuro Nekoneko persisted for quite some time. This contest remained unresolved as autumn passed and winter arrived. However, here Detective Fukuro Nekoneko achieved a single feat. Or rather, it might be more accurate to say he seized upon good fortune. To explain: three nights prior, there had been a silent confrontation within Toranomon Park’s grounds. That night, Nekoneko got thoroughly drunk and happened to pass by that area, but his body refused to obey him, so he decided to kill some time there and stumbled into that park. Before reaching the pavilion, his strength gave out entirely; he thudded down onto his backside and ended up right there in the shadows of a fatsia plant cluster near the entrance he had just stumbled through.

There, his body finally settled completely, and he fell fast asleep—or so he thought, for his dream was shattered instantly. Unidentifiable figures—two groups split left and right glaring at each other mere paces away close enough to leap across in about ten steps. They exchanged fierce threats while keeping their voices low wary of their surroundings. Whenever their voices rose and their words sparked fragments of phrases would leap sporadically into Detective Fukoro Nekoneko’s drunken ears… A magnificent hydrargillite mine has been discovered.

“The location of this so-called Otafukuyama is secret.” “You’re the only one who knows.” “Outrageous!” “Kanayama Gensuke was killed—the man who discovered Otafukuyama’s treasure and excavated the sample ore…” “You’re the one who killed him.” “Lies.” “Bullshit!” “Now that I know you’re part of Utou’s inner circle, this discussion ends here.” “You’d do well to watch your tongue.” “Sasayama Onijirou—you’re nothing but a villainous coward.” “We’ll split the profits fifty-fifty.” “No.” “He’ll lay everything before your boss and take it straight to his own.”

“Hold on now.” “You’ve got that secret map you snatched from Gensuke.” “Tear it in half right now and hand it over here.” Oh no—they’d marked me as one of the villains. “Then I’ll take it out now and tear it... Just wait a moment, please.”

As for what happened next, Detective Fukuro Nekoneko remembers it relatively clearly.

As for what happened next—a fierce brawl suddenly erupted nearby. Shouts of abuse. Screams. Roars. The sound of blows. The sound of something being thrown repeatedly. Then came scrambling footsteps. Footsteps growing distant.……

Detective Fukuro Nekoneko made repeated efforts to stand up from the shadows of the fatsia plant cluster. But in the end, it proved futile. His waist felt heavy, and he couldn’t muster any strength. Before long, something about the size of a desk came flying and struck him down. He grew subdued. Eventually, he came to.

He felt intense pain throughout his body. Even slightly raising his hand hurt, and even slightly moving his leg hurt. The area around his lower back stung. But to his delight, this time he managed to stand upright on both legs. However, his back remained hunched over. But this stemmed from his natural stoop; it wasn't something that had developed tonight. He tried to extricate himself from the troublesome fatsia thicket he'd been tangled in and stumbled. His foot caught on something heavy with a dull thud. When he looked down, a briefcase lay at his feet.

He picked it up, carried it under the streetlight, and inspected it thoroughly. Though his eyes were now clear of alcohol's haze, the briefcase remained completely unfamiliar. He turned back to return it to where he found it, but after taking five or six steps, he changed course.

He tucked the briefcase under his arm, passed through the darkness of the park’s grove, and emerged onto the outer street.

Then he safely returned to his office. When he opened the door and entered the entranceway—through the cipher lock manipulation method known only to him, granting access to this tightly secured interior—the loyal old housemaid Seki-san awoke and came to greet him. It was a little past 2 a.m. As there was no particular business, he had Seki-san withdraw to her bedroom, then found his own bed and burrowed into it.

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 the ground where the brawl had occurred, they began searching intently for something. They searched for about an hour before the three of them huddled together, tilting their heads in puzzlement, and left the park with grim expressions still etched on their faces.

That night, the briefcase Fukuro Nekoneko had picked up belonged to Utou Tenku's brother-in-law Ikari Kenji. Inside were several documents of vital confidentiality to Utou that greatly pleased Detective Fukuro Nekoneko the following morning. He extracted only those documents from the briefcase and stored them in the wall safe embedded in his study—the vault he trusted most. As for the briefcase itself, he placed it inside the glass cabinet and locked it. He resolved to maintain a complete facade of ignorance toward Utou. Yet one could surmise those on the opposing side were surely nursing deep concerns.

The Meticulous Pickpocket Detective Fukuro Nekoneko had temporarily forgotten about that briefcase connected to Utou. The reason lay in his complete absorption with researching the bizarre facts he'd overheard through alcohol-numbed ears (assuming such organs exist) within the fatsia thicket days earlier. Through this investigation, he'd verified both the authenticity of those hydrocerussite deposit claims and the death of Kanayama Gensuke - the true rights holder who'd made the discovery. He'd also confirmed Kanayama was officially recorded as having died from tainted sake at his boarding house, with no evidence establishing murder.

Sasayama Onijirou was indeed a real person. He was a thirty-year-old man belonging to Yuge-gumi who was engaged in contract work. However, it was discovered that he had not been showing his face at Yuge-gumi recently. Upon investigating Sasayama Onijirou’s lodging, it became clear that he hadn’t shown his face there at all for several days now. He seemed to be staying somewhere else. It became clear that even Yuge-gumi was concerned about this man’s whereabouts, but separately from that, it was discovered that Utou’s faction—more so than Yuge-gumi—was eager to locate Onijirou and had set various schemes in motion. While Utou Tenku himself had yet to make an appearance, it became clear from neighborhood accounts that his brother-in-law Ikari Kenji—a man of considerable skill—had come to Onijirou’s house multiple times.

Sasayama Onijirou was not only a considerable villain but also appeared to possess intellect, skill, and courage superior to others; it was certain that even during their previous encounter in Toranomon Park, he had ultimately refused to hand over half of that secret map to his opponents. At that moment, he instead launched a counterattack, thoroughly throwing the Utou Group into disarray. Even Ikari Kenji—the Utou Group’s leader that night—had his right arm torn and collapsed, prompting his panicked subordinates to hastily hoist him onto their shoulders and retreat.

Given that this was Onijirou we were dealing with, he had likely already perceived the shifting tides and vanished into hiding; yet for Fukuro Nekoneko, uncovering Onijirou's whereabouts with utmost urgency—and verifying whether the man had truly murdered Kanayama Gensuke to seize his mining rights—had kindled a blazing resolve within him. Yet despite Detective Nekoneko's exhaustive investigation, his continued failure to track Onijirou's location precisely mirrored Ikari Kenji's own predicament.

Yet a few days later, he had an unexpected stroke of luck.

As the detective, preoccupied with that case, was passing by Toranomon Park, a sponge ball suddenly flew out from within the park and struck him hard on the head. The detective staggered. At that moment, a young man rushed out from inside the park and collided heavily with the detective while making a show of retrieving the ball. “Sorry,” the young man apologized as he tried to run off, but the detective grabbed his arm and pulled him closer.

“You’re a pickpocket.” “Hand over what you stole.”

The detective shouted. The young man struggled violently. Yet Detective Fukuro—who took some pride in his physical prowess—kept his grip on the youth’s wrist. As they grappled for the billfold snatched from his inner pocket, the assailant suddenly bit down on the detective’s hand. "Agh!"

The detective released his grip. His shin was struck with a solid thud. The detective fell over. Then, with a sickening crack from a boot to his temple, the detective grew faint and staggered woozily.

Up to this point had been the detective’s brilliant defeat. But when he regained his composure, holding his chin as he stood up, something fluttered down. It was a letter with a broken seal. That was his haul. As expected of a detective, he stuffed into his pocket what any ordinary person would have dismissed with a glance, then leaped into the park. It was to catch the man from earlier. But inside the park was deathly quiet, with no one playing baseball or catch. The detective gnashed his teeth but could do nothing.

But later, when he took out and unfolded the letter with a torn seal from his pocket, this could not help but excite him. Namely, everything written on that single sheet of paper was a text composed entirely of katakana characters, and when he read through it once, it became unmistakably clear that this was indeed ciphertext.

The text was as follows.

“KURUMAKANNISENKOKUARISHINNENNOENKAIIMANAOPENKIZANNENNARITANNENBERUKUKAISENNOKETSUKAHASHIZENCHIHOUMINNOSHINNOBANSANKAINNIKANSEZUNAOMINKANNISONOSANKANWOKOWANTOKANZESHINARANIMAKEEITSONOSOSAMAJINIKUGIJIAMATONTSUMAISERINKOGORAMIWOODAIHAMORACHICHINOTOREMAKATEGIWOCHIMAMECHIIMOSHIUTOTOMIKESHITEMOAAEGEI KORIMAYOTOSUKAIRUYOREOINNUHANONAONASUWOTORETSUKOTADERESUHA”

Can I decipher it?

Clearly, this was a cipher. Since it was a cipher, it must be solvable.

“Very well.” “I’ll solve it.” Detective Fukuro placed the katakana-only text—that ciphertext—on his own desk, demonstrating fierce resolve.

"Where should I even begin…" He read it twice over, then three times, repeating it four and five times aloud. As he kept rereading it, he somehow began to notice something. "The beginning part seems to string together vaguely meaningful words, but halfway through it all turns to utter nonsense."

And then he had another observation. "The first half resonates with an odd ping-ping sharpness, but that vanishes completely in the latter part."

Having done that much, he then shifted to a direct approach.

First, he counted the number of characters.

"Hmm, two hundred characters." "Exactly two hundred characters." The fact that it was precisely two hundred characters could not be considered a coincidence. There must have been some intentional design concealed within. Next came categorizing these two hundred characters. "I should determine which character appears most frequently and arrange them by order of prevalence."

As a result, the following became clear.

n took first place with twenty-nine instances. Next was I with fourteen instances. Third place went to ka with eleven instances. After that came no with eight instances, ma with nine instances, and to with seven instances—the numbers dropping sharply thereafter. There's something off about this. Even for a two-hundred-character ciphertext, this diverges wildly from standard Japanese character frequency patterns. Characters like wo, ni, wa, and ru—which should dominate statistically—are conspicuously scarce here. In stark contrast, n and ka appear with absurd frequency. But twenty-nine instances of n in two hundred characters—that's downright anomalous.

At this，Detective Fukuro let out a sigh，picked up his pencil，and began counting each character from the very first one． “This marks exactly halfway．” “The part before this：one hundred characters．” “The remaining part：another hundred．” “—Now that I’ve drawn this dividing line，there’s definitely something here．” He divided it into two sections：from Kurumakan to Kanzeshinaran，and then from Imakeeitsu to Taderesuha．

“Hmm.” “The first half and the second half are like complete strangers.—Let’s tentatively treat them as separate entities.” “Then I’ll analyze them.” First, he focused on the first half. He began tallying the frequency of characters. n (25 instances), followed by ka (9 instances), then i (5 instances), no (5 instances), with shi and na both at 4 instances... “This makes less and less sense. It completely defies Japanese character frequency statistics.—Which means this isn’t just scrambled meaningful words. Then what exactly is this? What purpose could these first hundred characters serve...”

"In any case, twenty-five instances of 'n' are far too anomalous." "The next 'ka' has nine instances." "The gap between first and second place is far too large... Twenty-five instances of 'n'." "Twenty-five... Wait—twenty-five is a quarter of a hundred." "The number of characters in the first half was a hundred." "A quarter of that is the character 'n'." "That’s it." "That’s where the key lies." "What kind of key could this be?" "This approach isn’t working—then perhaps I should try shifting direction slightly."

A hundred and twenty-five. In any case, it's a hundred. It could also be considered a hundred, twenty-five, and four. If only I could solve the relationship between these three numbers... “That’s it. Four and a hundred—this might be it. Dividing one hundred characters into ten-character segments and arranging them into ten lines results in one hundred characters. Then a square forms. "This is rather intriguing." KURUMAKANNISENKOKU ARISHINNENNOENKA IIMANAOENKIZAN NENNARITANNENBERU KUKAISENNOKETSUKAHA

SHIZENCHIHOUMINNOSHI NNNOBANSANKAIN NIKANSEZUNAOMINKA NNISONOSANKANWOKO WANTOKANZESHINARAN

As he gazed at this square arrangement of characters, he perceived that the N characters within indeed indicated some kind of code markers. They were not components forming actual words. Then what manner of code markers were these? Punctuation marks?

"In any case, I'll mark the positions containing N characters separately from the others."

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

｜●｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜

├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤

｜○｜○｜●｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜

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

├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤

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

｜○｜●｜○｜●｜○｜○｜●｜○｜●｜○｜

├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤

｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ │○│●｜○｜○｜●｜○｜●｜○｜○｜●｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ │○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜ ├─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┼─┤ ｜●｜○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜○｜●｜○｜○｜ └─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┘

He cut windows into the paper. The black circles were the N characters. "Treat those as punctuation marks." So starting from the first character and picking them up: four characters, two characters, five characters, one character, two characters, seven characters, two characters, one character... Wait—this wasn't working. Counting this way left seventy-five content characters. With twenty-five punctuation marks subtracted from a hundred characters total—that made seventy-five. ...Seventy-five didn't align... The latter hundred-character block clearly contained the ciphertext's actual message—yet that required a full hundred characters. It couldn't be seventy-five. "Then this theory about N characters being punctuation marks collapses."

Then how do I solve this? I'll return to the basics—100, 25, and 4. One hundred total characters. Twenty-five N characters—and four... four means square. Twenty-five times four makes one hundred. "When extracting the N positions—fifth character, eighth, fourteenth, sixteenth, nineteenth, twenty-seventh, thirtieth... Let's try pulling corresponding characters from the latter hundred-character block." "So fifth position: I. Eighth: SO. Fourteenth: GI. Sixteenth: A. Nineteenth: N. Twenty-seventh: GO. Thirtieth: U... String them together—I-SO-GI-A-N-GO-U." Urgent cipher"? Not bad. Let's keep going.

“32nd character (WO), 36th (MO), 38th (CHI), 45th (TE), 53rd (MO), 58th (U), 61st (SHI), 64th (A), 66th (GE), 70th (MA), 73rd (SU)—WOMOCHITEMOUSHIA GEMASU.” "If we start from the beginning, it becomes ‘With an urgent cipher, I humbly submit’—this is it." If you extract the characters corresponding to the positions of the N characters from the latter half’s text, the cipher can be solved. Alright, got it. In that case, let's continue ahead.

“With urgent cipher in hand I humbly submit—the man in question”—this amounted to twenty-five characters. The text trailed off like a dragonfly missing its tail. Where had they hidden the rest? Could this ciphertext stretch far longer? Had there been second and third stationery sheets? Yet only one sheet lay inside that envelope. "This makes no sense."

Detective Fukuro glared resentfully at the paper fragment, having hit a dead end. He felt on the verge of solving it. Yet no clues surfaced. His mind seemed to sulk faintly. What should I do? The detective groaned... then suddenly cried out. "Ah—this might be it." He pointed at the N in the black-and-white grid's final section. The hundredth character's N. "This lone 'N' sits at a square frame's corner." "The other three corners stay empty." "...Meaning this window might open properly." "Ah! Of course." "A square." "A ten-by-ten grid." "Same shape whether flipped or rotated—perfect alignment." "Excellent." "This must be it." "Let's arrange the latter hundred characters into an identical square."

imakeeitsunososama じにくぎじあまとんつ

まいせりんこごらみう

いをだいはもらちちの とれまかてぎをちまめ ちいもしうととうみけ してもあえげいこりま よとすかいるうよれお いんんうはのなおなす をとれつこたでれすは

Having done this, he overlaid the black-and-white grid—arranged in a square with the first half's characters—on top of this. At the positions with "N"—in other words, only at the black circles—he cut out holes with a knife. It formed a shape like this. ３↓ ┌─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┬─┐

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

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

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

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

｜□｜■｜■｜□｜■｜■｜■｜□｜■｜■｜ └─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┴─┘ １↑ Once this was done, the rest proved simple. Since twenty-five characters multiplied by four would make one hundred, he placed this windowed paper over the hundred-character ciphertext—first reading the twenty-five characters up to "Urgent cipher...the man in question"—then rotated the perforated sheet by ninety or one hundred eighty degrees across the ciphertext to read the remaining characters through the open windows.

First, he placed the windowed paper in the (1) orientation; next, he changed it to the (2) orientation. In other words, he rotated it ninety degrees to the left. Then, A fragment of text reading, "posing as Maeshima Senichi and accompanied by a woman named Tomiko," emerged. Next, he rotated it another ninety degrees to the left to collect characters in the (3) orientation; then rotated it again to gather letters in the (4) orientation. With this, the hundred-character cipher had properly formed into text. That is, upon reading the entire text:

"I urgently report via cipher: "The man in question has been posing under the alias Maeshima Senichi, accompanied by a woman named Tomiko, and since the day before yesterday has taken up residence in the bamboo room annex of the Tomoe Inn in Hara no Machi, where he appears to be awaiting someone's arrival.""

Thus concluded the message. “Ah—so ‘the man in question’ refers to Sasayama Onijirou.” Fukuro Nekoneko intuited.

The fact that today’s pickpocketing wasn’t mere petty theft became evident from the meticulous method he had employed. He considered whether it was Utou’s gang or Sasayama’s faction, but based on this ciphertext, this had to be information sent from Utou’s subordinate to headquarters or Ikari Kenji. “I see. Now that I’ve obtained this ciphertext, it’s standard procedure for me to make an urgent trip to Hara no Machi.” He abruptly drove off in the automobile.

Interactions Worth Documenting

The subordinates of Utou who had been stationed outside sent reports to headquarters each time.

“Fukuro Nekoneko rushed out by automobile in a panic.” “He went shopping at Ueno Hirokoji.” “He purchased a travel bag, bought groceries, and acquired a deck of playing cards.” “At Ueno Station, he obtained a second-class ticket to Hara no Machi.” “He visited the station-front bookstore.” “He procured a poetry collection by Sato Hachiro and a travel guide.”

“At the station-front café, he had one black tea and one annmitsu.” “He left a ten-yen tip.”

“Detective Fukuro returned home at 3:00 PM.” “When peering through the window, he was preparing for his trip.”

“Upon investigation, the ticket purchased by Detective Fukuro is for the 10:00 PM express train departing from Ueno bound for Aomori.” “It is currently 9:17 PM.” Fukuro Nekoneko appeared before the entrance, loaded the travel bag and blanket into the automobile, placed a single boy in the passenger seat, was seen off by the housekeeper, and drove off in the automobile himself. “The direction appears to be Ueno.” Fukuro Nekoneko—in a bowler hat and long brown overcoat, hunched and wearing brown-tinted glasses—boarded Track 4’s No. 96 train with a black travel bag and gray blanket. The train departed at 10:01 PM. Fukuro Nekoneko was reading a book while briskly nibbling on an apple.

“At precisely 10:10 PM, the boy drove Nekoneko’s automobile back to the Fukuro residence.” The housekeeper came out. The automobile was put into the garage and locked. The boy received a box of chocolates and three apples from the housekeeper and left happily.

"The light in the housekeeper’s room went out, and all the mansion’s windows became completely dark." "Only the streetlights and gate lights remain lit."

The reports streamed in to Utou Tenku’s location like comb teeth being drawn through.

After some time, a report came in from Omiya Station informing them that Detective Fukuro had fallen asleep wrapped in a blanket on his seat.

“Very well.” “Damned cat detective—lured by the ciphertext, he’s finally been driven out to Fukushima Prefecture.” “Now then, it’s about time we got down to work.”

Utou set his cup down, heaved himself up ponderously, and signaled to Ikari Kenji and the other subordinates.

It was the clan’s mobilization.

Inside the automobile, Ikari Kenji spoke to Utou Tenku. “It appears Fukuro Nekoneko has successfully deciphered the ciphertext.” “Seeing he bought a ticket to Hara no Machi Station means he cracked the ciphertext. Makes sense—being in the detective trade, he’d manage that much.” “The ciphertext’s creator Suda was worried whether Detective Fukuro could decipher it.” “Nekoneko’s a notch above Suda.”

“But I doubt Fukuro Nekoneko ever imagined his own nest would be ransacked while he’s away on this trip.” “Judging by how he boarded the train and went clattering out of Tokyo, it seems he hasn’t noticed.” “He’ll be in for a shock later.” “After all that trouble to obtain Utou’s important documents—what a shame if they vanished while he was gone.” “But if this goes smoothly… That safe of Fukuro Nekoneko’s is notoriously secure—famous among professionals.”

Utou looked uncharacteristically worried and listless. However, when the automobile came to a stop near the Fukuro residence and they briskly disembarked, Utou carried himself with the dashing demeanor of a leader so formidable even demons would shrink away. “The personnel entering inside will be five members: myself, Ikari, plus Hyouta, Sharon, and Hachiman.” “The remaining members—scatter outside according to plan and keep a vigilant watch without fail.”

The subordinates appointed to enter inside grinned smugly, their faces brimming with triumph.

They split into two groups and entered through the front and back. Before Utou's eyes, locks might as well have not existed.

“We’ve bound the housekeeper and stuffed her into the closet. There’s no one else here.”

“I see. Then break into the vault room.”

In Fukuro Nekoneko’s study lay the secret safe. Removing the magnificent wall hanging revealed the safe door beneath it. However, it proved quite difficult to open.

Utou ordered the three master safecrackers—Hyouta, Sharon, and Hachiman—to take on this job. But even these consummate professionals could do nothing as one hour passed, then two. "Should we blast it open?" Ikari Kenji was growing impatient. "I detest such barbaric methods." "We open it by picking the lock—absolutely no exceptions." Utou stubbornly clung to his characteristic approach.

Three hours, three and a half hours... Fatigue began to show on the three experts' faces. "Still not done?" Ikari, unable to endure any longer, spoke up.

“Boss, I can’t keep quiet any longer.”

He was scolded.

“I see. If it’s taking this long, we had no choice but to send the detective away overnight.” Ikari opened desk drawers out of sheer boredom, flipping through books one by one. When he found the briefcase he had lost days earlier in the cupboard, he stiffened—but opening it revealed none of the crucial documents inside. What was this about? So they were in the safe after all. After four hours and twenty minutes—an astonishing duration—the massive safe finally yielded at three in the morning.

“Finally, it’s open.” “The rest is for you to handle, Boss.”

The three experts had exhausted all their strength and slumped down on the spot. Taking their place, Utou and Ikari stepped forward and peered into the safe.

“Ah! There it is!” “Yeah, it was in here after all.” “Not realizing it’d be opened—what an idiot Nekoneko is.”

“Don’t move, or I’ll shoot. Anyone who likes machine gun bullets is welcome to move.” A voice bellowed.

Suddenly, from behind…

“Let’s have you raise your hands quietly.” “Now then, everyone.” “Welcome to my humble abode…” The five thieves raised both hands high and looked back over their shoulders. The hunchbacked overweight man stood holding a machine gun, large brown glasses framing his face as he smirked mockingly. “Tch! So you’re Nekoneko? You’ve really made a fool of me.”

Utou clicked his tongue in vexation. “Since you went to the trouble of sending an invitation to my humble abode, it would’ve been inexcusable to be away when you arrived.” “Did you turn back halfway?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I merely bought a ticket to Hara no Machi.”

“But Detective Fukuro definitely left through the entrance with a travel bag and blanket…” Ikari was filled with doubt. “Ah, that was my decoy gentleman—a thousand-yen-a-day expense. I’ll have the bill sent your way later.” “Hey, Detective Nekoneko. What’s your plan here? How much longer are you going to keep us holding up our hands?”

“No—it’ll be over soon. The police will arrive shortly. In five or six more minutes…”

“In five or six more minutes…” Utou’s eyes glinted sharply toward Ikari. Then, in Ikari’s upraised hand, there was a sharp *crack* of breaking glass, and fragments spilled onto the floor. “What the—” “What did you do?”

With that, Detective Fukuro aimed the gun muzzle toward Ikari. At that moment, Ikari turned pale and collapsed. Then Utou, who had been next to him, also collapsed with a thud.

“What’s…” Mid-sentence, the detective’s eyelids grew heavy, and the machine gun he had been holding thudded to the floor at his feet. Then his body rolled onto the machine gun. The three master safecrackers also collapsed with a series of thuds. Everyone was dead. No—they might just be unconscious. And all this transpired in mere seconds. What on earth had happened?

At that moment, a dozen or so men came storming in with thundering footsteps. They were all wearing gas masks as if prearranged. Then, hoisting up Utou and the five bandits, they turned on their heels and hastily exited the room.

Fukuro Nekoneko was left alone in the deathly quiet room.

At Utou’s mansion, a night banquet was held to celebrate their success. “That Fatso Detective must be quite shocked right about now.” “Heh, you probably never imagined we’d use paralyzing gas to force us all into the same sinking boat.”

Inside the glass ampoule that Ikari had crushed in his palm was odorless paralyzing gas.

“That’s the kind of ingenious strategy you’d only see from the Utou Group.” “Ah, it was nothing much.”

"He thought he'd tricked us good, but with those important documents snatched right from under him, Mr. Fukuro Nekoneko must be weeping bitter tears by now." "Detective Fukuro'll keep getting burned like this unless he bulks up his crew." "Labor costs being what they are, guess he can't afford more help." That much was true. But as for Detective Fukuro? Having already snapped photos of Utou's precious documents, he wasn't mourning nearly as hard as those snickering underlings imagined.

As for the water lead ore incident—what became of it afterward—no account was ever heard.