Pathway to Japanese Literature

1

Despite April being nearly upon them, the cold remained severe.
As night deepened and chills began racking their bodies, Homura Soroku had his guest temporarily halt her account while he went to fetch firewood from the backyard.

Before long, he returned to this mountain villa-style parlor carrying an armful of firewood.
When he opened the iron lid of the fireplace that hadn’t been used for some time and thrust in the poker, a sour-like smell wafted out.
He snapped the firewood into pieces with sharp cracks and inserted them inside, then opened a desk drawer, grabbed old film he pulled out, placed it between the firewood, thrust it into the furnace, and dropped a lit matchstick into it.
The fire spread to the film, blazed up vigorously, and soon the firewood crackled as it transformed into flames.

“Well, it will be dark soon.
...Now then, please continue your story.”

Having said that, Detective Homura offered a polite bow to the beautiful young lady guest.

The maiden—whose slender crossed legs revealed a fleeting glimpse of a maroon dress’s short skirt beneath her mouse-gray overcoat—opened the handbag on her lap, withdrew an opened letter from a mouse-gray envelope, and extended it toward Homura.

“This is the one.
“Please take out the letter inside and read it.”

The voice of this maiden with sorrowful brows rang clear, like the chiming of a bell.

Homura nodded, took the envelope, quietly pulled out the letter paper from within, and laid it flat upon his office desk.
A brief message scrawled in crude pencil strokes—incongruous against the expensive, unlined white stationery—lay before them...

――Though I wish to shield your noble heart―pure as the Moon Princess―from worldly corruption, this too is fate’s decree, inevitable.
If after one week’s time I have not appeared before you, I beg you forget me for all eternity.
Never seek my path.
Never trust Yomogi Tazuko; never draw near her.
Farewell...

March 25th.
From Tagawa Isamu.

Dear Harube Kazuko,

“I see…”

Homura sank into deep thought, while Harube Kazuko, still silent, stared intently at him as though determined not to miss even the faintest flicker of emotion crossing his face. For a time, the moments passed emptily.
The only sound that reached them was the clattering flow of flames beginning to roar within the chimney.

After a moment, Homura raised his face and looked at the beautiful guest’s countenance.
Their gazes collided.
However, both gazes were frozen like ice.
Under normal circumstances, both of their cheeks would have flushed crimson.

“Today is March 27th, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Though once the clock chimes next, it will be the 28th... If we count one week from this letter’s date—adding seven days to the 25th—that brings us to April 1st. Hahaha—if you’ll pardon my saying so, Miss Harube—could Mr. Tagawa be playing an April Fools’ trick on you?”

“No, that is not the case.”

As she spoke, her small shoe tapped sharply against the floor. Eyes large and filled with serious light.

“Understood. I will do everything in my power to locate your Mr. Tagawa. With four days still remaining, I intend to resolve this matter within that timeframe.”

“Please, I ask that you do so.”
“And I also wish to accompany you, Mr. Homura, and take part in the investigation.”
“Otherwise, I will go mad from anxiety and loneliness. Now, Mr. Homura—you will take me with you, won’t you?”

As Kazuko appeared on the verge of collapsing before Homura, Homura hurriedly grabbed the firewood and stood up.
And scattering sparks, he broke and placed it into the fireplace.

“But you see, Miss Harube,”

Homura furrowed his brows.

“To speak my premonition honestly, I believe an ominous shadow looms over this disappearance case of Mr. Tagawa.”
“Since you are intelligent, I believe you have already perceived that as well, but…”

Harube Kazuko was an intelligent woman indeed—so much so that she did not wait for the week mentioned in Mr. Tagawa’s farewell letter to pass but rushed to Homura immediately upon receiving this letter.

“That’s correct. Though I couldn’t fathom why, when I read that letter, I felt as though the very ground beneath my feet was crumbling away. I’d experienced that sort of dreadful sensation once or twice before. It was the exact hour when my father fell in battle. I was standing at Shinmitsuke Station then… but no—this has nothing to do with the case, so let’s leave it. In any event, something terrible must have befallen Mr. Tagawa.”

Homura nodded while placing the kettle on the hot iron plate atop the fireplace.

“Mr. Homura, starting tonight, I shall serve as your assistant.”
“Even if it’s an inconvenience, I shall stay here.”

“It would be better if you did not stay here.”
“Otherwise, for you who are awaiting marriage—”

“No, Mr. Homura.”
“I don’t mind such things, and I’ll be perfectly fine.”
“But rather than that, Mr. Homura—you said you believe an ominous shadow looms over this case. Could you explain that?”

“This is rather troublesome.”

Homura sat back down in his chair as before. “...When I spoke of an ominous shadow, it relates to the woman named Yomogi Tazuko mentioned in Mr. Tagawa’s letter.”
“Four years ago, in the Japanese Alps, my friend Viscount Kogami Kōki was swept deep into a valley by an avalanche and went missing.”
“The rescue team rushed to the scene, but the ravine was too deep for them to do anything—they concluded it was the viscount’s misfortune and retreated in vain. But when disaster struck him, his companion had been none other than that Yomogi Tazuko.”

“Goodness!”
“So you’ve known Ms. Tazuko for four whole years already?”

“To be precise, I had known the girl called Tazuko since three years before that.”
“However, I believe Tazuko does not know who I am.”
“That’s because Tazuko had been working as something like a waitress at the café Viscount Kogami operated.”
“I often passed through the entrance of that pleasant café, but I only learned much later that this shop was one Viscount Kogami operated.”
“After all, while it might be different today, in those days it would have caused a major scandal if it became known that a viscount was operating a café.”

“Oh—”

“At that time, I wasn’t particularly paying attention to Tazuko, but it was from the viscount’s accident that I began to focus clearly on Yomogi Tazuko. To put it plainly, under a secret request from the Ikeue Marquis family—the viscount’s main lineage—I covertly investigated her without Tazuko’s knowledge. I stayed behind the scenes throughout and assigned several distinguished female detectives to handle Tazuko directly. The crux was to determine, as commissioned by the Ikeue Marquis family, whether Yomogi Tazuko had pushed Viscount Kogami into that snowy mountain avalanche.”

“Good heavens, what a terrible story this is!”

Harube tightly hugged her own shoulders and shuddered.

“But as a result, it was determined that such suspicions were unnecessary.”
“It was the unanimous conclusion of the female detectives.”
“Therefore, I reported this matter to the Ikeue Marquis family.”
“And so that matter was settled.”
“However, I was surprised when I suddenly caught sight of Ms. Yomogi Tazuko this year.”
“It was the Big Four cabaret. Actually, Mr. Tagawa was the one who took me there at that time.”

“I’m the same.”

“Huh? What do you mean by ‘the same’?”

“The first time I was introduced to Ms. Tazuko was at the Big Four.”
“Just as I thought—it was Tagawa who took me there.”

“Ah, I see.”
“So this is quite a tangled web of fate we have here.”

Homura took out a pipe from his pocket.

“And what was Mr. Tagawa’s attitude toward Tazuko? How did it appear in your eyes—truthfully…”

Homura had posed a question that might have been painful for her to hear, but Harube casually fielded it,

“Tagawa respected Ms. Tazuko as if she were an ambassador’s daughter.”
“Also, Ms. Tazuko appeared very refined.”
“I did not think in the slightest that there was any such abominable relationship between them,” she stated gracefully.

Homura showed a moved expression and nodded.

“Mr. Homura, don’t you consider Ms. Tazuko a suspect in Viscount Kogami’s murder?”

This sudden question startled Homura.
However, he calmly replied.

“I, as the person in charge, was the one who reported the female detectives’ unanimous ‘No’ conclusion to the Marquis family during that incident.”
“I trust that clarifies things for you.”
“However, it cannot be said that the view we held of Ms. Tazuko at that time still continues today.”
“We need to observe Ms. Tazuko anew here.”

“Tagawa is warning me not to trust Ms. Tazuko and not to go near her.”
“Given that, I can only conclude that Ms. Tazuko harbors malice toward us, but…”
“What do you think?”

“I believe that statement can be analyzed into roughly four possible scenarios.”
“Please give it careful consideration.”

“Four scenarios?”
“Well… how could there be four scenarios…”

“That can wait until tomorrow.”
“Please take your time to consider it.”
“Please rest for tonight.”
“I’ll go prepare a bedroom now.”

“Oh, does this mean you’re allowing me to stay?”

“Yes.”
“In return, I’ll have to sleep rather cramped in this room.”

“How unfortunate for you.”

“Tomorrow we’ll investigate Mr. Tagawa’s apartment and probe Tazuko’s connections to determine his whereabouts.”

2

A day later, on the morning of March 29th,
Homura Soroku and Harube Kazuko alighted at a station in Tochigi Prefecture and boarded a bus that was about to depart from the station square.

This area was a quiet mountain village where several not-too-high mountains overlapped one another, the whole terrain forming a gentle southeastward slope, while far in the opposite direction behind them, the Oku-Nikko mountain ranges still bore snowcaps that shone dazzling silver.

The bus kept stopping repeatedly along the way to let passengers off, then climbed the winding slope at an unexpectedly brisk speed.
Groves of red pines spread beautifully here and there, and between them glimpses of a pond’s surface appeared.

The reason the two had come to such a mountain village was based on the conclusion of the thorough investigation they had conducted the previous day. They investigated Tagawa’s boarding house, but aside from obtaining his diary, there were no materials to determine his whereabouts. The diary only contained passionate reflections about his relationship with Yomogi Tazuko that had begun about a month prior, written in his characteristic pure-hearted prose, and made no mention whatsoever of where he intended to go.

Among them, the one thing that caught Homura’s attention was the characters “Chihaya Hall.”
The diary contained: “Ms. Tazuko told me with a rapt expression that Chihaya Hall was the most sensuously beautiful architectural structure in all of Japan, and that she couldn’t help but travel once a month deep into the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture just to gaze upon it.”

Chihaya Hall!
Homura retained old memories tied to this building's name - memories that this structure had been built as an eccentric project by his old friend Viscount Kogami; that the viscount had commenced its design during high school days; that its completion demanded ten full years; that Chihaya Hall never saw public unveiling nor welcomed guests, left untouched in its finished state; and that two years later came that notorious Japanese Alps disaster where the viscount perished by plummeting into a deep ravine alongside a catastrophic avalanche.

Since then, he had neither heard any mention of Chihaya Hall nor remembered the existence of such a structure, but now it had been unearthed from the diary of the missing Tagawa Isamu. But at this time, Homura Soroku lacked the imaginative leap to connect Chihaya Hall with Tagawa Isamu. Then, shifting focus, they began investigating Yomogi Tazuko’s movements—though this too was not an attempt to link her to Chihaya Hall. Rather, since the missing Tagawa had made such emphatic entries about her in his diary up until recently, they thought that perhaps clues about Tagawa’s whereabouts might be gleaned from Tazuko’s activities.

However, when they scrutinized Tazuko’s surroundings, an unexpectedly diverse array of materials gathered.
First and foremost, it was discovered that Tazuko had left Tokyo on March 24th—the day before the date stated in Tagawa’s farewell letter—to embark on a journey.
This was confirmed from the vicinity of her residence.
Unfortunately, no one there knew her destination.
However, it was learned that she often went on trips and would typically return home after about a week.

Secondly, by thoroughly investigating cabaret connections, they uncovered something suspicious.
The second point was that over the past half year or more, about five young men who had passionately pursued Tazuko had all suddenly withdrawn from this cabaret without warning, and moreover, it was said that none of them had been seen at any other dance halls in the capital.
Moreover, at that cabaret, rumors had circulated that Tagawa Isamu would imminently vanish—and indeed it seemed this prediction had materialized, as they said he had abruptly stopped showing his face there these past few days.

“By now, Tagawa-kun must be having his fresh blood sucked dry by a terrifying spider-woman.”

As one of the musicians blurted this out, Conductor Moriyama turned pale,

“Oh, you mustn’t say such ominous things…” He waved both hands.

Thirdly, it was discovered that Yomogi Tazuko had obtained a ticket from Ueno Station to Nata Station in Tochigi Prefecture and departed on the twenty-fourth of last month.
This information had been obtained from Sukigetsu, a Japanese restaurant that Tazuko frequented, though the ticket itself had been purchased by Noge Kanekichi, a chef at that same Sukigetsu.
Tazuko had undoubtedly departed from Ueno Station on the 24th during daytime hours.
However, on that same night, Kanekichi too had taken leave and departed for his hometown of Sendai, not having returned since.
Yet among Sukigetsu’s staff, there were those whispering that Kanekichi might actually have gone to the same destination as Tazuko.

Who was Kanekichi?
He was a chef from his parents’ generation who had drifted into Sukigetsu seven or eight years prior and was now a forty-two-year-old man.
Nothing else was known about him.

In this way, Homura finally decided to follow Tazuko’s trail. Therefore, he took Harube Kazuko and got off at Nata Station—but this act of alighting at Nata Station carried another implication altogether. To reach Chihaya Hall, getting off at this station was the standard route, and they knew one should take the Kurodake-bound bus from the station square and get off at Hainuma Village.

(Tazuko must have gone to Chihaya Hall.)

Homura had interpreted this with conviction.

3

At Hainuma Village’s bus stop, those who disembarked were, besides the two of Homura and Harube, an old woman who appeared to be a local.
These three were left behind after the bus had departed.

“You folks are another group heading to Chihaya Hall, huh? You should give it up, I tell you. Take my advice.”

The old woman scrutinized Homura and Kazuko with a dubious look.

“Ah, Granny. Thank you for your kind advice. Since Chihaya Hall has such a high reputation, we came out of curiosity to see it for ourselves—but is that place truly so dangerous?”

Homura addressed the old woman with feigned familiarity.

“You shouldn’t go—don’t go. It’s a place where evil spirits dwell! Us villagers know that, so we don’t go near it easy-like—but you city folk barge right in and end up as the spirits’ prey every time!”

The old woman shrugged her shoulders fearfully.

“Has anyone actually seen someone become prey to vengeful spirits?”

“No one’s seen ’em, but everyone knows they end up as prey.”
“As proof, the station staff say there’s a huge mismatch ’tween the number of young folks who get off at the station headin’ to Chihaya Hall and those who turn back an’ board the train again.”
“They say those who turn back are just a small handful.”

“Couldn’t they be staying inside?”

“Don’t talk nonsense! How could anyone live in that death mansion—like Yawata’s Impenetrable Thicket—for half a year or a full year? First off, through all that time, they don’t show hide nor hair of themselves!”

“I see. So, what exactly is this ‘Yawata’s Impenetrable Thicket’?”

“I’ve only heard stories myself, but they say once you step inside Chihaya Hall, nothing but corridors wind around endlessly—so eerie it defies words. And forget bedrooms; you won’t find a single livable room there either.”

“So no one lives there now?”

“If demonic beings know of it, I tell you, it’s no place for decent humans to live.”

Demonic beings?
Beside them, Harube—who had been eavesdropping—jolted.

“Hey, Granny. Don’t you know about a woman who keeps coming to visit Chihaya Hall? A tall, slender one with a small face—a regular Benzaiten-like beauty…”

Homura pressed harder.

“Ah, that female painter you mean? She does come around often enough, but what a nosy creature! Too nosy by half—that’s why no man’ll take her to wife. Left to muck about with her silly pictures instead.”

“Does that female painter stay at Chihaya Hall?”

“No—she stays at Seigenji Temple.”
“Seigenji Temple’s in a tucked-away spot west of Chihaya Hall, I tell you.”

“Do they let women stay at temples?”

“Oh, it’s an abandoned temple—no head priest livin’ there, I tell you.”
“They say that female painter cooks her own meals there—bold thing for a woman to do.”

“Granny.”
“You got something from that female painter, didn’t you?”

“Wh-what nonsense!”
“Why’d we take anything from some stranger’s brat...?”

Homura chuckled softly.

“Since I’ve asked you so many questions, Granny, I’ll give you this as thanks,” said Homura, pressing a few bills into the old woman’s hand. “There there—keep it, it’s nothing…… And one more thing: on the night of the 25th or morning of the 26th, didn’t a young man arrive by train and head toward Chihaya Hall?”

“The 25th or 26th… that’d be three or four days ago, isn’t it?”
“Hmm, I haven’t heard that story…”

“He’s a large man—about five feet eight inches tall, slightly plump and built like a sumo wrestler. That person…”
“Though he does wear Western clothes.”
“His hair was grown out long, he wasn’t wearing a hat, and his complexion might’ve been a bit pale…”

“I haven’t heard about such a person…”

Unfortunately, what Homura most wanted to know could not be extracted from the old woman’s lips.

4

Homura Soroku was climbing the toe-scraping mountain path while showing consideration to Harube.

Yet while the considerate one’s breath came in labored pants, Kazuko—the one being cared for—moved as lightly as a bird skimming across the rocks.

“Mr. Homura, has Tagawa truly come here?”

“That remains unclear for now.”
“But if we can ascertain Tazuko’s activities, matters should clarify.”
“Ah—you resent how I appear fixated on Tazuko alone, don’t you?”

“Yes. But compared to Tagawa, Ms. Tazuko is far more intriguing from a detective’s perspective—there’s no helping it, you know.”

“You must be joking, Miss Harube. I am precisely acting on your request to track down Mr. Tagawa’s whereabouts—I assure you I haven’t been ensnared by that modern-day goddess’s charms.”

Harube did not respond at all.
And so, having crossed a gentle mountain pass, the view before them transformed entirely.
To the left spread a low grove of mixed trees that formed a valley swelling toward the distance, meeting the foot of a sheer cliff-like mountain. At the base of that mountain stood a Western-style mansion of bizarre shape, surrounded by imposing prison-like walls that created a jarring sight.
It was an old-fashioned castle-like structure built with vermilion bricks.
The exterior walls consisted almost entirely of curved surfaces for some inexplicable reason, with scarcely any flat planes visible.
It resembled a bundle of long sausages stood upright.
The building gave an utterly peculiar impression—as if prolonged staring would flush one’s face crimson, or sudden nausea might induce vomiting…… Their feet froze, and for a time they stood speechless, gazing at this brick mansion.
That was undoubtedly Chihaya Hall.

“Let’s try to get as close as possible.”

Homura finally said just that and turned to look at Harube.
Harube nodded.
Homura offered his arm to her.
The two of them descended the slope that threaded through the woods like lovers.

“I’ve never seen such eerie architecture before.”
“It’s so tasteless, isn’t it?”

Harube’s voice carried a slight tremble.

“It transcends Japanese sensibilities.”

“However, as a human creation, it possesses a rarely seen concentration of power.”
“A masterpiece crafted by a superhuman—no, or rather… a rough draft by a demon.”
“No—a curved structure born from the collaboration of human and demon—or rather, a beastly desire curved structure…”
“Huh? What do you mean by ‘curved structure’?”

At that moment, Homura suddenly snapped back to his senses,

“Ha ha ha.
No—it seems I was acting rather strange just now. Must be because I suddenly saw something like that.”

At the tip of the Western cane Homura had raised, there loomed the straight-hipped roof of Chihaya Hall, stretching above the grove of mixed trees.

“That was designed solely by Viscount Kogami himself.”

“Well, who can say about the entirety of it? However, Viscount Kogami was an extraordinary genius who possessed knowledge spanning countless fields—given enough time without constraints, I believe he could have completed the design entirely through his own power.”

“So—a superhuman then.”
“A superhuman—though perhaps not quite to that degree…”
“Hey, Mr. Homura.”

Harube called out in a formal tone.

“Yes.”

“I’ve been wondering for some time—is ‘Kogami’ truly Viscount Kogami’s real surname?”

“So you’re asking whether Furukami is his real surname.”
“No—that one is genuine.”
“In high school… and even before that in middle school, he was Kogami Kōki.”
“Why do you concern yourself with such a thing?”

“Because it’s such an uncommon surname.”

“Well—they’re descendants of feudal lords. Among nobility, rare surnames are common.”

“Then, what about Ms. Tazuko’s surname Yomogi?”
“Now that’s an unusual surname, isn’t it?”

“Is that so?… Though in the past, that woman wrote her surname not as Yomogi [四方木] but as Yomogi [蓬]—that is, the herb mugwort.”
“However, not long after I learned of this, she began writing it as Yomogi [四方木].”
“Ah yes, I just remembered,” Homura suddenly broke into a sly smile. “It was that Kogami who made her write it as Yomogi [四方木].”
“As for that matter—when was it?—I recall overhearing Tazuko chatting cheerfully with one of the customers by my side.”
“And there’s another story as well.”
“It seems Kogami insisted she change her given name from Tazuko to Tatsuko, but that woman stubbornly refused and continued using Tazuko—or so I’ve heard.”
“It was apparently based on the reason that ‘Tazuko’ was far more refined.”

“My, how amusing.”

The two of them laughed cheerfully in unison there.

But they were mistaken.
That this was no laughing matter would soon become clear—and gravely understood—by them both.

Moreover, they would simultaneously realize that Kazuko’s own name and her lover Tagawa’s surname had already been thrust into the spotlight upon the terrifying stage that had been prepared.

5

The grove of mixed trees finally ended, and Homura Soroku and Harube Kazuko unexpectedly emerged before the wall of Chihaya Hall.

Homura turned toward Harube.
Harube turned her gaze—which had been fixed on Chihaya Hall’s towering roof—toward Homura.
In the depths of her round eyes flashed a strong resolve.

Like casual strollers, the two of them walked quietly past the wall.
But they passed by the English castle-style brick wall that had collapsed in three places, feigning ignorance.
In contrast, they found both the imposing iron front gate and two rear service entrances remained undamaged and tightly shut, with patches of rust visible in places.
The main building was blocked by the wall and inner gate grove, making it impossible to glimpse inside, though within lay utter stillness.

The two of them passed right by Chihaya Hall and soon returned along the same path.
After stopping at the collapsed wall this time to inspect the footing, they stepped through the pile of bricks without hesitation and entered inside.
And then, Chihaya Hall’s main building now stood revealed before them in its undisguised form.
Tension gripped them both, rendering their bodies incapable of speech.
The main building gave a different impression up close than it had from afar.
What from a distance had appeared like a visceral organ repository reeking of foul odors now took on an air of profound calm and elegant composure as they stood close and gazed upon it.
The color of the bricks was not excessively red; rather, their surfaces appeared off-white.
It also seemed as though something like ash clung to their surfaces.
The mortar connecting brick to brick had deep cracks here and there, yet the building looked every bit an abandoned ruin.

The main entrance’s large door of this main building was a brass door with intricately carved relief patterns, but not only was it tightly shut—it also had abundant verdigris accumulated in the gaps between it and the wall. And atop the relief carvings lay a white accumulation of what appeared to be sand or ash, showing no signs that this door had been opened for years.

Homura used his gloved hand to try turning, pulling, and pushing the front door’s handle—adorned with scattered golden maple leaves—yet the door remained utterly immobile, demonstrating how difficult it would be to enter from here. Homura released his grip on the handle and turned toward Kazuko with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Kazuko nodded two or three times in clear comprehension.

Homura Soroku, thinking there must be another entrance somewhere, urged Kazuko and circled around the building.
There were indeed three doorways on the rear side, but each had heavy small iron doors shut tight to block intrusion.
Moreover, they were rusted through, telling of years without being opened.
As they continued circling the building beyond that point, they emerged before the main entrance.
This marked their full circle.
They felt as though they had taken a detour spanning three or four blocks.
It might have been because the weeds kept tangling around their feet that they felt this way...

“None of the doors show any signs of having been opened.”
“How strange...”

Homura turned toward Harube.

"But people who previously visited this Chihaya Hall must have entered inside."
"Then there should be some way to get in somewhere."

Harube appeared resolved not to turn back without entering inside.

“That logic is sound.”
“Then let’s search for that practical entrance.”
“I wonder if we could even get in through a window?”

While looking up at the windows, the two of them circled around Chihaya Hall once more.

However, strangely enough, this building had an extremely small number of windows.
This large building had only six windows.
Moreover, those windows were not placed within reach—they were positioned sparsely high up, forty or fifty feet above the ground. Furthermore, they were long vertical recessed windows that appeared more like decorative buttons adorning the building than apertures meant to admit light.

Moreover, every single one of those windows was tightly shuttered from the outside, making it seem as though neither air nor light could penetrate within.
Therefore, entering this building through those windows seemed nearly impossible.
“There’s not a single window anywhere that’s convenient for sneaking in.”

Standing in the weeds at the back of Chihaya Hall, Homura let out a voice tinged with disappointment.

"But there must be an entrance somewhere."

Harube said the same thing as before.

Then, the two of them stood rooted to the spot, remaining silent.
This was because they had no other words left to exchange between them.

But shortly after the two fell silent, Homura’s expression turned to shock, and he suddenly spoke up.

“Ah—was that my imagination?”
“I thought I heard a rumbling sound...”
“Miss Harube—didn’t you hear it just now? If not a tremor, then perhaps an engine’s growl—”

“I did hear something.”
“But I thought it was orchestral music.”

Kazuko raised her eyebrows and looked up at Homura’s face.

“Orchestral music, you say….”
“Hmm, it seems no sound can be heard anymore.”
“How strange.”

“I can’t hear it anymore either.”

“There was definitely a sound earlier.”
“What could be the reason?”

The two of them felt a chill run down their spines from the eeriness.

If only the two of them had been standing at the front of Chihaya Hall at that moment, they might have made an unexpected discovery…….
That was their misfortune.

Therefore, by the time they circled around to Chihaya Hall’s main entrance some while later, a certain event had already concluded, leaving no trace of anything unusual.
The two of them decided to leave there for the time being and exited through the collapsed section of the wall they had come from.

“Look at that,” said Homura, raising his cane and pointing to a utility pole standing beside the wall near the back entrance.

“The power lines are cleanly severed like that.”
“The electricity supply to Chihaya Hall has been cut off since the power lines were severed like that.”
“So that building’s lights aren’t working, which means it’s pitch dark inside.”
“Well, that’s right.”
“Therefore, the sound we heard earlier would be unrelated to the power company.”
“Is that something significant?”
“No, that only serves to confuse my mind.”
“Hmm, perhaps this too could be a provocation aimed at us.”

“A provocation, you say? From whom?”
“But you never once mentioned anything like that before…”

“That’s correct.”
“It was while circling around Chihaya Hall that I suddenly noticed it.”
“Miss Harube, we truly cannot afford any carelessness now.”
“Now let’s hurry and press on.”

6

Homura suddenly began to hurry ahead.

He took the road running in front of Chihaya Hall further in and surveyed Seigenji Temple mentioned by the old woman.
It was a dilapidated temple that seemed ready to reveal its monstrous form at any moment.
Braving the moldering stench that hung thick in the air, he ventured inside only to find every room’s tatami mats split at their cores and reduced to tatters—proof positive that neither cooking nor lodging could occur here.

(If Tazuko had come to this area, she must have infiltrated Chihaya Hall without exception.
There had to be some secret entrance she used for coming and going.
Very well—time for frontal assault.)

Homura’s resolve was set.
He passed in front of Chihaya Hall and led Harube further and further in the opposite direction.
About five chō southeast, there was a hill embracing a pond at its base, where pine trees grew thickly.
Homura resolutely climbed up that hill.

“This spot should work.”
“It’s going to be a test of patience from here on out.”

Harube asked again, but Homura said she would understand if she watched what he was doing for a while and began disassembling his Western-style cane.

First, he removed the handle from his Western-style cane, and as he shook the remaining rod, it transformed into a tripod stand before he knew it. Next, he split the handle of that Western-style cane vertically into two, and upon looking at it, inside were lenses in tubes and various other precision instruments packed tightly within. Homura took several tools and parts from within the split handle and attached them to the tripod stand. Now, a telescope that anyone could clearly recognize as such was completed. Homura turned the clamp to raise the telescope’s elevation angle and adjusted its focus.

“Ah, so you’re going to monitor Chihaya Hall from here.”

“That’s correct.”
“Right now, I can see clearly.”
“Let’s continue monitoring in shifts.”
“And if anyone comes and goes from Chihaya Hall, you must carefully observe their entry and exit points... Though this task is tedious work.”
“First, let’s take shifts of thirty minutes each.”
“I’ll handle the first shift, naturally.”
“Until then, you may stroll about the area or nap on the grass—do as you wish.”

How tedious this task truly was became abundantly clear to the two of them before long.
Even Homura grew bored by the second hour and went down to the pond below for a walk.
After returning, he switched watch duties with Kazuko and talked about the pond.

“It’s an unusual pond, isn’t it.”
“The water is as white as milk.”
“It contains a large amount of lime.”
“But I don’t see any other limestone areas around here. Is that pond the only limestone one?”
“I don’t think that’s possible…”

Having been told this, Harube Kazuko took an interest in the pond and went down to it.

That Harube returned to Homura’s side after about fifteen minutes, breathlessly sprinting up to him.

“I-It’s terrible! I’ve made a horrifying discovery. Could you please come with me? To the pond.”

Harube had always maintained an irritatingly composed demeanor until now, but this time she made a commotion like a young mobilized girl.

“This is a predicament. You seem to have discovered something significant, but I cannot interrupt the surveillance of Chihaya Hall for even a single second. What on earth is it... the thing you discovered?”

“It’s the fabric from the clothes that person was wearing.”

“What? What did you say?”

“It’s the lining from the clothes Tagawa always wears. It’s been finely shredded into something resembling hair clippings from scissors, and it’s floating in the pond……”

“Are you certain? You haven’t misjudged it, have you?”

“No, there’s absolutely no mistake.”
“Just to be thorough, I picked up a bamboo stick, soaked it in the pond water, and gently lifted up that finely shredded clothing lining.”
“This is it.”
“This lining woven from lapis lazuli, gardenia-yellow, and scarlet silk threads in this exact pattern—I gave it to that person. There must be no other like it.”
“Why would the lining of that person’s clothes be floating in such a pond… Oh, how terrifying…”

“I see. If that’s the case, this is critical.”

“Hey, Mr. Homura.”
“Rather than searching for Chihaya Hall’s entrance, dredging that pond should take priority!”
“If that person’s corpse were lying at the bottom of that pond…… Oh no, I can’t bear it, I can’t bear it!”

“Miss, you must calm yourself—it’s too soon to assume that…”

“But I can’t stay still any longer.”
“I’ll go down and get people to come dredge that pond.”

“Wait, Miss Harube.”
“Now is the crucial moment—I—”

Homura, who had started to speak, abruptly closed his mouth.
Every joint in his body cracked audibly.
He threw his weight against the telescope.
His large mouth worked soundlessly like a gasping fish.

“……I understand.
The entrance to Chihaya Hall...”

Homura took his eyes from the telescope and made no attempt to conceal his joy.

“Just now—look—a woman believed to be Tazuko returned from outside and entered Chihaya Hall.”
“There’s an ingenious mechanism beside the entrance.”
“She had been coming and going freely through that spot.”
“Now then—let’s hurry over to investigate.”

“Which way are we going?”
“To Chihaya Hall? Or to the pond?”

“Ah, the pond…”
“Let’s go to the pond.”

7

Homura had actually been laughing inwardly at Harube’s sentiment—her sentimental notion that the small silk fragment floating on the pond’s surface must undoubtedly be from Tagawa’s clothing lining…

Therefore, as far as he was concerned, now that he had discovered Chihaya Hall’s entrance, he wanted nothing more than to rush straight there.
However, upon seeing Harube’s strained expression, he could no longer insist on postponing the pond investigation, and Homura finally decided to examine the pond first.

“Mr. Homura.”
“Look! There are still so many floating on the water’s surface!”
“Can you see?”

Harube took the bamboo pole she had used earlier in her hand again and pointed to the water’s surface.
Sure enough, what appeared to be finely shredded cloth fragments were floating there.

(If those were truly the lining of Tagawa’s clothes—what would that imply?)

Homura, while thinking this would be an exceedingly rare occurrence, found himself unable to stop considering it.
At that moment, Harube readied the bamboo pole to collect more of the cloth fragments.

"Ah, wait a moment!"

Homura suddenly exclaimed in a loud voice.
Harube, startled, turned toward Homura.

“...Please observe carefully.”
“There.”
“Those cloth fragments you mentioned are quietly rising from the pond’s depths.”
“Look closely now.”

It unfolded exactly as Homura described.
A black, hair-like mass ascended silently through the milky water until settling on the surface.
Harube stood transfixed by horror.

“I see it.
But why would this...
...You don’t suppose Tagawa’s corpse lies beneath these waters?”
“Ah...”

Harube fervently prayed that this was not the case.

“I don’t believe that’s the case. Even if Mr. Tagawa’s corpse were in the pond, for the lining of his clothes to become so finely shredded and rise to the pond’s surface would require at least a year since his death. Moreover, this only happens when someone specifically stirs up the pond’s bottom—if undisturbed, those fabric fragments would have long matched the water’s specific gravity and wouldn’t float up. Given their buoyancy, either someone’s agitating the pond bed right now, or... or those fragments were very recently wrapped in something like flimsy newspaper and thrown in—the wrapping tore before they could fully absorb water, keeping them lighter than water. Only these two possibilities make sense.”

Harube listened to Homura’s analysis with deep emotion.

“So you’re asserting Tagawa’s corpse isn’t lying at the pond’s bottom now?”

“That’s how the logic flows.”
“There’s virtually no doubt.”
“But why those lining fragments rise from within like that—I can’t furnish an immediate explanation.”
“Still, this doesn’t conclusively determine Mr. Tagawa’s death.”
“The key to his survival or demise likely resides within Chihaya Hall itself.”
“And I believe it’s reached a most critical phase.”
“Therefore, Miss Harube—let’s suspend our pond investigation and make haste into Chihaya Hall.”
“An adventure, unquestionably.”
“Yet we now stand at a crossroads demanding nothing less.”

“Yes, I understand. Then let’s go to Chihaya Hall.”

With that, Harube resolutely declared, dropping the bamboo pole she had been holding into the grass.

8

Homura handed a small pistol to Harube.
In Homura’s hand was gripped the Western-style cane that had until moments ago served as a telescope, now reverted to its original form.

The two took a wide detour and entered the grounds by crossing the wall from the mountain side at Chihaya Hall’s very rear.
Then, keeping close to the wall, they circled around to face the entrance.
The entrance lay recessed into the building, fronted by a brick-paved outer corridor spanning about four tsubo where rain could not reach.
Standing in the far left corner and reaching upward brought contact with a decorative relief carving on the wall surface aligned with the entrance door—an autumn-leaf-viewing pleasure boat.
Through his telescope earlier, Homura had observed Tazuko stretching on tiptoes to probe this pleasure boat with her fingertips.
That was why he now attempted the same maneuver.
As he examined each head of the men and women depicted aboard the carved pleasure boat, he discovered slight looseness in the neck of an eboshi-hatted man who held a tanzaku poetry strip and laughed.
Thinking *This must be it*, he pinched the neck with his fingers and manipulated it until—suddenly—the head retracted smoothly into the wall.

“Ah, Mr. Homura!
“The wall…”

Harube clung to Homura’s arm.
When they looked, a section of the wall beside them began retracting into itself in its brick-laid state, as though removing parquetry.
In its wake, a hole about six feet high—large enough for a person to pass through—had opened.
Then, an eerie sound reverberating from within struck the ears of the two.
They realized it had a rhythm.

“Ah, it’s music. Was that what you heard this morning?”

“Ah yes. That song is one composed by Tagawa. ‘The Symphony Behind the Execution Wall’”

“Miss Kazuko, let’s go in. We’ll enter that hole.”

Homura swept Harube into his left arm and leaped through the wall opening. When he quickly scanned their surroundings, they found themselves in a cavernous room with a high ceiling and curved walls... A sharp snap echoed as darkness engulfed the chamber. Behind them, the wall opening had sealed shut.

Harube sank her teeth into Homura with all her strength.
Harube realized that Homura’s fingertips had tightened with force.

The eerie melody from behind the execution wall’s surface leapt through the dark space like monstrous bats.
—And then, the two realized that the room was illuminated by a faint, pale peach light.
Their eyes had adjusted to the darkness.

“Where could it be… the one playing that music…”

Harube lowered her voice and spoke to Homura.

“It seems to be coming from the depths of the earth.”
“Don’t you feel it? The vibrations crawling up from the soles of your feet.”

“Wh-what…”

Harube, startled, wrapped both arms around Homura’s midsection.
Her legs trembled.

“Strange.”
“It grows ever stranger.”

Homura’s voice withered into that of a different person.

“Wh-what… What’s strange…”

“As you saw outside the wall earlier, the electricity supply to this building has been cut off.”
“Yet as you can see, it’s illuminated by a pale reddish light, and an electric gramophone is playing…”

“That isn’t being performed inside this mansion, you know.”

For Harube, that possibility weighed heavier on her mind.
Could Tagawa have been imprisoned here and be directing that musical performance?

“Strange.”
“This building contains heating equipment warming the rooms.”
“Not one chimney visible—naturally no smoke rising either.”
“...Could it be electric heating then?”
“But in that case, the power lines have been cut.”
“How in the world are they obtaining this energy?”

Homura poured all his energy into pursuing these energy sources.

“I don’t know. We’ll search the other rooms.”

At last, Homura spat out. Then he took Harube’s hand and began walking through the room. There were no doors anywhere. From one corner of the room stretched only a corridor extending forward.

Inevitably, there was no path but to proceed down that corridor.
Homura, once again gathering Harube in his arms, advanced into the corridor.
The corridor measured about six feet in width.
The walls consisted of thickly stacked red bricks identical to those seen before.
A knock revealed their composition instantly.
Nothing distinguished this space.
The ceiling soared alarmingly high—at least twenty feet.
Though darkness obscured details, brickwork seemed to continue upward.
What technique could have fastened bricks at such heights?

The corridor wound in places and was long.
After turning two or three such corners, Homura suddenly stopped his feet and whispered to Harube.

“Miss Kazuko. It seems this isn’t an ordinary corridor—it appears to be a labyrinth.”

“When you say labyrinth…”

“The old woman we rode with on the bus this morning mentioned it, didn’t she? Chihaya Hall has Yawata’s Impenetrable Thicket inside, you know. That Yawata’s Impenetrable Thicket is this labyrinth. Wait. I almost remembered something…”

With that, Homura sank into thought for a while in the dim light, but soon mustered his energy and began to speak.

“In the past, Viscount Furukami used to immerse himself in labyrinth research.”
“He mainly scoured Western books to collect labyrinth blueprints from around the world, and when the number reached a hundred, he delightedly showed them to us.”
“……Therefore, it’s no surprise that there’s a labyrinth within Chihaya Hall.”
“But what I urgently want to know is what kind of labyrinth he designed.”
“Now then, let’s proceed.”

“Yes.”

“Ah, please wait a moment.”
“When navigating a labyrinth, there are established strategies.”
“I’d like to ask you to handle this.”
“Miss Harube.”
“Your left hand should be free.”
“With that left hand, hold this chalk and keep drawing a line on the left wall as we proceed.”
“The absolute rule you must follow is to never let the chalk leave the wall.”
“Do you understand?”

With that, Homura took out a piece of chalk from the depths of his pocket and handed it over.
It was what’s known as green luminous chalk.

“Why must I do such a thing?”

“To avoid losing our way in the labyrinth.”
“Many who neglected these preparations have wandered into its depths and starved.”

“Oh! To think of starving…”

“Minds breaking are commonplace here.”
“Come—we must advance.”
“Should we return to any chalk-marked passage, alert me at once.”

9

The labyrinth was excruciatingly long.

When they finally returned to where they had started and checked the watch, one hour and five minutes had passed.

Homura decided to take a short rest there.
He took out chocolate and biscuits from his coat pocket and placed them into Harube’s hands.
Then he suggested she drink some whiskey from a small flask.

“There didn’t seem to be anything unusual.”

Harube said while unwrapping a fresh chocolate.

“Well, we can’t conclude that yet.”
“We’ve only safely completed one full traversal of the labyrinth following established principles.”
“Next we must circle through again and locate the Hell Island this maze mansion has prepared.”

“What did you say? Did you say ‘Hell Island’?”

“I did.”
“Hell Island.”
“In some parts of the labyrinth, what’s called an ‘island’ has been prepared.”
“Once you wander into this island, there’s no escaping it.”

“I can’t quite grasp the meaning, though...”

“An island, you see... No matter how endlessly you circle around it, you can’t get out.”
“That’s right—it’s an island after all.”
“If one realizes it’s an island, the path opens there.”
“Because crossing to the opposite wall gives a chance to leave this island and return to the main path.”
“But those who never realize this keep circling forever until they either go mad or perish.”

“Mr. Homura, do you expect such islands exist in Chihaya Hall?”

“I think there are.”
“Viscount Furukami had an abnormal interest in labyrinth islands, you see.”

“What will happen if we find the island?”
“Come to think of it, we didn’t find Ms. Tazuko’s figure, and we didn’t see the room where she rests either, did we?”

“That’s precisely it.”
“If we can locate the island, I believe there will be some clue there to resolve your doubts.”

“Where is Tagawa?”
“Or rather—perhaps I should say the place where Tagawa’s corpse lies…”

“First, the labyrinth’s island.”
“If we identify the island, we’ll ascertain Tazuko’s location.”
“Once we meet Tazuko, we’ll determine Mr. Tagawa’s whereabouts—that’s how I believe this sequence will unfold.”

“It’s as if you’re saying gears are beginning to turn one by one.”

“But right now, I can’t consider any other path.”
“If the connection were severed during that time, there would be a fearsome island in our investigation—no, such a thing couldn’t exist.”
“The connection will surely hold.”

And before long, the two entered the same labyrinth once more.
This time, they did not use chalk.
The faintly glowing traces of luminous chalk that Harube had applied when they passed through earlier continued to emit their fluorescence.
To Harube, it seemed somehow poignantly endearing, and unwittingly became the impetus that stirred her courage.

Homura’s expectations were not betrayed.
Advancing while observing walls with fluorescent streaks on both sides, they had walked what seemed like three or four blocks when, upon crossing a three-way intersection, they discovered that the right-hand wall lacked any streaks.
That was undoubtedly the island.

Homura urged Harube forward, crossed over to the island's edge, and continued advancing while tracing the wall with the tip of his Western-style cane held in his right hand.

Then the wall bent sharply like a key's handle, twisting repeatedly.
Homura shuddered at a terrible premonition.
Bringing his mouth close to Harube's ear, he informed her they were approaching a place where she would need to ready her pistol in her right hand.

She did exactly as instructed.

Then, when they turned a corner, the sound of that familiar music suddenly grew louder.
This passage, unlike those before it, grew much brighter.
Instead of whispering words of caution to Harube, Homura lightly tapped her shoulder as a signal to be on guard.

Their pace became extremely slow.
Homura concentrated all his energy forward.
He realized that a relatively bright light was coming from the front left side.
There seemed to be a corner turning left around that area.
However, the right side was simply a wall continuing straight ahead.
The brightness had a whitish quality reminiscent of fallen snow.

(Once we reach that point, something will surely be there.)

Homura gripped the handle of his cane tightly and advanced, poised to extend it at any moment.

Finally, they reached that corner.

“Gah!”

At the corner, as Homura turned his gaze to the left, he inadvertently let out a cry of astonishment.
For there lay a sight so bizarre it defied all imagination.

What first seized their attention was the narrow alleyway cutting leftward from the corner—ending at a wall roughly ten shaku ahead—its width measuring a mere three shaku, half that of the previous passageways.

It was the bizarre composition of the alley’s flanking walls.
The walls on both sides were glass-paneled from about eyebrow height down to the floor, within which large goldfish swam leisurely, swaying their tail fins.
Moreover, those goldfish were all unusually speckled with white and purple.

Moreover, on the right wall alone, the area above the goldfish tank was deeply recessed to form a long, narrow shelf-like structure, within which was embedded a well-polished propeller-like object. However, it did not appear to be a propeller; while it had a central shaft, the parts corresponding to blades did not form the undulating curves characteristic of a propeller, instead extending straight and flat. Magnetic needles often have components shaped like this, but of course this one was extremely large, measuring six or seven shaku in length.

(What in the world is this…?)

Homura could not immediately discern the true nature of this bizarre object.
This contraption—a sibling to the propeller—remained motionless within its narrow shelf recess, showing no indication of activation.

Yet more oddities awaited.
The alley terminated at a wall where the path diverged left and right, though what arrested attention was the barrier straight ahead—a surface painted violent red.
No brickwork showed through.
The wall seemed to have been first plastered over its brick substrate before receiving this crimson coating.

Another strange thing was that upon closer inspection, the crimson wall directly ahead had become a door. Its frame had been outlined with white paint partitioning it off, and a handle was attached. And on that door—for reasons unknown—the characters “Toro” were written large in white paint.

The goldfish tanks lining both walls, the propeller-like metal object concealed within the right wall’s recesses, the scarlet barrier at the far end, and this door branded “Toro”! And only this alleyway glowed under a pallid, unearthly light!

(What in the world is going on here?)

Even Homura stood dumbfounded, for a time forgetting even Harube and everything else, rooted like a statue.

10

“Mr. Homura, there seems to be something in the back.”
“Let’s go in further.”

At Harube’s voice, Homura snapped back to his senses.
“Ah! Danger—wait!”
“What?!”
“You mustn’t enter recklessly.
This must be Chihaya Hall’s greatest mystery.”
“The greatest mystery of Chihaya Hall?”

"What a bizarre array of objects lined up here!"

Homura had intended to speak in as low a voice as possible, but it nevertheless rang out quite loudly.

"It’s beautiful."
"Though I wouldn’t call the taste good—"

"It’s bizarre. It’s grotesque."

"You must be referring to those goldfish, the ones with white and purple speckles... Gah! Mr. Homura, what’s wrong?"

"What do you mean?
"Is something wrong with me?"

“Oh, what’s happened to you? Mr. Homura, your lips have no color.”
“They’re purple!”
“Are you feeling unwell?”

Homura looked at Harube’s face at that moment and opened his eyes wide in shock.

“Miss Kazuko, your lips are purple too.”

“Oh my!”
“My lips too…”

Harube attempted to cry out but, in a panic, covered her own mouth with her left hand.

"But I've already figured it out.
"There’s no need to worry.
"This is due to the light.
"The pale light illuminating this place comes from a mercury lamp.
"It emits almost entirely violet wavelengths, with yellow and red wavelengths nearly absent—so even red objects appear purple or blackish."

"Oh my, why would they use such a disagreeable light here?"

“There it is—one of the mysteries…”

Homura sighed.

“What is that ‘Toro’ door visible ahead?”
What good was Homura Soroku if he couldn’t even solve this many mysteries?
It was the “Ro”-labeled door.
“Ro… It’s Ro.”
“What does *Ro* mean?”
That was it—if there was a door labeled *Ro*, there must be one labeled *I*.
“Then *Ha* should exist too… *I*, *Ro*, and *Ha*… Ha ha ha! I was a fool.”
“What a slow-witted man I am! Ha ha ha!”

“M-Mr. Homura. What’s happened to you?”

At Harube’s voice, Homura stopped his self-deprecation and,

“Miss Kazuko, I’ve solved the mystery.
“It’s a mystery that’s utterly child’s play.”

“Why… that…”

“Because I’m such a blockhead, it’s only now that I’ve realized.”
“Do you follow?”
“This is Chihaya Hall, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Chihaya furu Kamuyo mo kikazu Tatsutagawa—you know this.”
“It’s a famous poem from the Ogura Anthology of One Hundred Poets.”
“Doesn’t the lower verse mention ‘crimson’ and ‘water-crossing’?”
“The *karakurenai* refers to that bright red wall painted at the far end ahead.”
“The ‘water-crossing’ refers to this aquarium.”
“If one proceeds through the space between the left and right goldfish tanks, that constitutes the water-crossing.”
“The final *to ha* is none other than *Door Ha*.”
“Since we’re facing *Toro* here, there should be a *To Ha* right beside it.”
“Opening that *To Ha* door—that answers all the mysteries assembled here.”
“Let’s go—to where the *To Ha* must lie further back.”
“And then undoubtedly, there will be a passage leading to a secret chamber.”

Homura dismissed the mystery.

“That’s a beautiful answer indeed. So it was right to head further in after all, wasn’t it?”

Harube whirled around and attempted to rush further in.
Homura let out a sharp cry and pulled her back.

“Wait! There’s a deadly trap here.”
“It’s this mercury lamp’s light.”
“Miss Kazuko! If you charge down this passageway right now, your head will go flying—this whole area will be drenched in crimson!”

“My goodness, what a dreadful thing to say!”

“Look at this.”

Homura stepped three paces forward, thrust his cane diagonally ahead, then gradually pushed it deeper into the corridor.
With a metallic clang, about six inches of the steel cane’s tip was cleanly severed, flew through the air, struck the wall, and clattered to the floor.
Harube gasped but couldn’t grasp what had occurred.

Then Homura pulled back his cane and pointed at something akin to a propeller-like device lurking in the right-hand wall,

“This is the real menace.
“It pretends to lie dormant here, but in reality, it’s spinning around that axis like a propeller with tremendous force.”
“That it remains invisible to us and appears perfectly still is due to the mercury lamp’s trickery.”
“This mercury lamp likely ignites for just one-thousandth of a second and remains extinguished for the next one-thousandth of a second.”
“And only during that one-thousandth of a second when it ignites does it illuminate this area and reveal that murderous rotating blade—that propeller-like device—the murderous rotating blade.”
“At that precise moment, the rotating blade is always positioned exactly there.”
“In other words, the mercury lamp flashes briefly precisely when the rotating blade retracts into the wall as you see.”
“Thus the rotating blade appears stationary there.”
“Fundamentally, because the human eye retains afterimages for a relatively long duration, any light flickering more than twenty-four times per second isn’t perceived as flickering but as continuously lit.”
“Therefore, even with a light flickering a thousand times per second like this, we sense no flicker at all.”
“Miss Harube.”
“The blades of that murderous rotating device remain invisible to our eyes, yet they’re whirling through the entire path you see before you.”
“That’s why, as you witnessed moments ago, the cane’s tip was cleanly severed like this.”
“As you can see, the cut surface is immaculate.”
“With this mechanism, a vulnerable human neck would be cleanly severed in one stroke.”

As he said this, the severed tip of the cane Homura showed was cleanly cut at a slant, as if polished.
Harube’s face turned deathly pale.
Had Homura not immediately reached out and stopped her then, the floor of the path before her would surely have been dyed crimson.

“Come along, follow me.”

“Huh? You’re going further in?”
“Are you going to throw away your life?”

“Oh, there’s no danger if you crawl under here.”
“Doesn’t the Chihayafuru poem suggest ‘water-crossing’ here?”
“In other words, if you crouch down and pass through there, you’ll be moving between the water tanks, which is why it’s safe.”
“Earlier, I still hadn’t noticed that point.”

Following Homura’s lead, Harube too managed to safely pass beneath the terrifying rotating blades to the other side.
Coming up against the karakurenai wall and looking left, they found—exactly as anticipated—a door labeled “To Ha” positioned alongside “Toro”.

Without hesitation, Homura stood before "To Ha". He placed his hand on the door handle and pulled. The door opened easily with a creak. There was a dog-sized hole, and through it, a spacious room could be seen inside.

“It’s in here.”

“No—this won’t do either. The room’s lighting uses the same mercury lamps as before.”

Indeed, it was that eerie whitish light from the mercury lamps.

Homura took up his cane again and gently inserted it through the dog-sized hole into the interior.

Snap! Once again there was resistance, and the cane’s tip went flying.

“An elaborate beheading mechanism.”
“That was close!”

Homura clutched his neck and shuddered.

It was good that they had narrowly escaped death once more, but despite their hard-won momentum, they still couldn’t locate the entrance to any safe room within the mansion.
Was there still some mystery they hadn’t fully unraveled?

Homura recited the Chihayafuru poem aloud.

“Chihayaburu, kami-yo mo kikazu, Tatsuta-gawa, karakurenai ni mizu kuguru to wa…”

He couldn’t make sense of it.
Was there a riddle hidden in the upper verse?

“That poem—it’s the one composed by Ariwara no Narihira Ason, isn’t it?”

Before Harube’s words had fully faded, the wall immediately to their left abruptly began sliding sideways like a panel door with a smooth hiss.
Beyond it, a corridor stretched open where stairs leading upward came into view.
The lights here were ordinary electric lamps.

“This is it.
“This is the final pathway we had been searching for.”
“Let’s go in, Miss Harube.”

Homura firmly wedged his shortened cane into the threshold of the now-open sliding door.
This was to ensure that the secret sliding door would not close again.

A pistol was now gripped in Homura’s hand.

The two proceeded up the stairs without a trace of hesitation.
The decor was entirely aristocratic in style.
That this was the residential quarters could no longer be doubted.

After ascending the stairs, they advanced resolutely across the thick carpet deeper into the interior and emerged before a heavy purple curtain.

The instant they sensed a human presence beyond the curtain,

“Mr. Noge, have you returned?”

A woman’s voice sounded.

At that voice, Homura’s heart leapt.

(That’s Tazuko’s voice!)

Homura promptly replied.

“Hey, runnin’ late here...”

“It can’t be helped. I’m the one getting scolded in your place.”
“Hurry up and apologize.”

“Right away.—Now please raise your hands.”

With that, Homura aimed his pistol and abruptly entered from beside the curtain—yet he nearly fainted on the spot.

The bizarre spectacle before them!
No—a spectacle of unparalleled horror!

There was a large bed spread with pure white silk.
There sat an emaciated man with a death-god-like face, his upper body raised.
And beside him clung a strikingly beautiful woman—undoubtedly Tazuko—but who was this ghastly, death-god-like invalid?

It was not Tagawa Isamu.

Did they not see Homura’s pistol? The man and woman remained composed.
The woman poured crimson wine, red as blood, from a large silver container into the champagne glass held by the man.

The man raised the cup to eye level, held it up to the light, and smirked slyly.
The cup approached purple lips.
Gulp, gulp—after finishing his drink with relish, the death-god-like man released the cup from his lips, whereupon the woman beside him extended her pale bare arm to receive it.
A click of the tongue that even the death-god-like man found unbearable—suddenly, he raised his withered voice in a shout.

“Hey… Homura Soroku…”

At that voice, Homura shuddered violently.

“...Did you come in time for my deathbed? But a pistol… How uncouth…”

“Oh… So it’s Kogami Kōki.”

“So… you’ve only just realized now? Heh heh heh heh.”

“You were still alive?”

“…The pieces have fallen into place as designed. Woman called Kazu… come this way…”

“Don’t go in!”

Homura shouted toward the curtain.

“Heh heh heh.
“Homura Soroku, what nonsense are you spouting?
“Ah... It’s time.
“A welcome to hell… A lone vampire vanishes.
“Farewell…”

“You!”

Kogami Kōki, who had been alive, suddenly pitched forward, and Tazuko, colliding with him, sobbed violently.

Homura unconsciously put away his pistol into his pocket and pressed his hands together in prayer toward his old friend’s remains.

Thus, the vampire Kogami Kōki, who had sucked the blood of seven young men, truly vanished from this world.
Thus, this story has come to an end, but Yomogi Tazuko was neither a femme fatale nor anything of the sort—for Kogami, she had been a chaste and loyal concubine.

It was later discovered that Kogami, having once tasted the pleasure of bloodsucking, had ultimately transformed into an accursed vampire.
However, realizing the peril of maintaining his vampiric existence as it was, he thoroughly consulted with Tazuko and staged a mountaineering accident in the Alps to erase his name from official records.
Thereafter, under Tazuko's guidance, he lured seven young men into this Chihaya Hall, severed their lives with those murderous rotating blades, extracted their fresh blood, and supplied it for daily use.
The final victim was not Tagawa; Tagawa had been shackled in the mansion's basement and kept alive.
Being an intelligent man by nature, he had solved Chihaya Hall's mysteries and escaped the second danger zone, but lacking knowledge of the final riddle's codeword—"Ariwara no Narihira Ason"—he found himself unable to enter the inner area and was discovered wandering in confusion by Noge, who then chained him underground (Noge had served the Kogami family for generations as their chef).

There was a hydroelectric power plant underground. What was astonishing about this hydro power was that Chihaya Hall’s underground had formed a limestone cave utilizing that groundwater. He had torn off the lining of his own clothing and discarded it into that drainage channel, pinning his hopes on the slim chance of rescue—but that drainage channel opened into the aforementioned pool.

While Homura and Harube stood dumbfounded before Kogami’s death, Tazuko ran downstairs and threw herself upon those murderous rotating blades to atone for the crimes she had committed, albeit for her lover’s sake.

For those who wish to glimpse further into Kogami’s childishly elaborate puzzle games, it may prove an amusing diversion to pick out the surnames or given names of this story’s characters from the upper verse of that poem by Narihira.